Eugippius: EVGIPPI VITA SANCTI SEVERINI

Ante hoc ferme biennium, consulatu scilicet Inportuni, epistola cuiusdam laici nobilis ad quendam directa presbyterum nobis oblata est ad legendum, continens vitam Bassi monachi, qui quondam in monasterio montis, cui vocabulum est Titas, super Ariminum commoratus, post in Lucamae regione defunctus est, vir et multis et mihi notissimus. Quam epistolam cum a quibusdam describi cognoscerem, coepi mecum ipse tractare nec non et viris religiosis edicere tanta per beatum Severinum divinis effectibus celebrata non oportere celari miracula. Quae cum auctor epistolae praefatae rescisset, animo promptiore mandavit, ut aliqua sibi per me eiusdem sancti Severini mitterentur indicia, quibus instructus libellum vitae eius scriberet posterorum memoriae profuturum.

About two years before this, namely in the consulship of Inportunus, an epistle of a certain noble layman, addressed to a certain presbyter, was presented to us to read, containing the life of the monk Bassus, who once, having sojourned in the monastery of the mountain whose name is Titas, above Ariminum, afterwards died in the region of Lucama—a man most well known both to many and to me. When I learned that that epistle was being transcribed by some, I began to consider with myself, and also to enjoin upon religious men, that such miracles, celebrated through the blessed Severinus by divine effects, ought not to be concealed. When the author of the aforesaid epistle had learned these things, with readier spirit he directed that some indicia of that same Saint Severinus be sent to him through me, by which instructed he might write a little book of his life, to be of profit to the memory of posterity.

Hac ego protinus oblatione compulsus commemoratorium nonnullis referturn indiciis ex notissima nobis et cottidiana maiorum relatione composui, non sine magno maerore animi, iniustum scilicet reputans, ut te superstite laicus a nobis hoc opus efficere rogaretur, cui et modus et color operis non sine praesumptione quadam possit iniungi, ne forsitan saeculari tantum litteratura politus tali vitam sermone conscriberet, in quo multorum plurimum laboraret inscitia et res mirabiles, quae diu quadam silentii nocte latuerant, quantum ad nos attinet ignaros liberalium litterarum, obscura disertitudine non lucerent.Sed nequaquam ultra lucernae illius igniculum te velut sole splendente perquiram: tantum ne mihi peritiae tuae radios nube quadam excusationis obducas, imperitiam propriam videlicet accusando. Noli, obsecro, tam duris me verberare sermonibus, dum dicis: "Quid tibi aquas expectare de silice?" Iam utique non expecto de silice plateae saecularis, sed a te, qui spiritalibus spiritalia comparans nos de firmissima petra illo, quo profluis orationis melle, recreabis: de quo iam nectareum suavissimae promissionis gustum dirigens praecipis, ut commemoratorium vel indicia vitae saepe dicti sancti Severini transmitterem: quae donec in tuae constructionis libellum transire mereantur, nequaquam animum recensentis offendant.

Driven straightway by this proffering, I composed a commemoratorium, crammed with certain tokens, from the most well-known to us and daily relation of our elders, not without great sorrow of mind, deeming it, namely, unjust that, while you are still alive, a layman should be asked by us to effect this work—one to whom both the method and the color (style) of the work might be enjoined not without a certain presumption—lest perhaps, polished only by secular literature, he should write the life in such a discourse, in which the ignorance of many would labor exceedingly, and the wondrous things which for long had lain hidden under a certain night of silence, so far as we, ignorant of the liberal letters, are concerned, would not shine with an obscure eloquence. But by no means will I seek any further the tiny flame of that lamp, you as it were shining like the sun: only do not draw a certain cloud of excuse over the rays of your expertise for me, namely by accusing your own inexperience. Do not, I beseech you, beat me with such harsh words, when you say: "Why do you expect waters from the flint?" Now assuredly I do not expect from the flint of the secular highway, but from you, who, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, will refresh us from the most solid rock with that honey of oration with which you flow forth: from which already, sending ahead a nectarean taste of a most sweet promise, you direct and bid that I should transmit a commemoratorium or tokens of the life of the oft-mentioned Saint Severinus: which, until they may merit to pass into the little book of your construction, may in no wise offend the mind of the one recounting.

Quisquis enim. ad construendam domum architectum requirit, necessariam sollicitus materiem praeparat. Quod si molis instar parietem impolitis componat artifice tardante lapidibus, numquid aedificasse dicendus est, ubi nulla magistri structura prorsus intervenit, nulla rite subicitur fundamenti munitio?

For whoever. to construct a house requires an architect, solicitously prepares the necessary material. But if, in the likeness of a mass, he composes a wall with unpolished stones, the craftsman delaying, is he to be said to have built, where no master’s structure at all intervenes, no fortification of the foundation is duly laid?

Sic ego quoque pretiosam materiem ingenio vestro vilissima compositione vix praeparans num putari debeo conscripsisse quod cupio, ubi disciplinae liberalis nulla constructio, nullus grammatici culminis decor exsistit?

Thus I too, scarcely preparing the precious material for your ingenuity with a most paltry composition, am I to be thought to have composed what I desire, where there exists no construction of liberal discipline, no adornment of the summit of the grammatic art?

Habet plane certum fundamentum solius fidei, quo sanctum virum mirandis constat claruisse virtutibus, quod per manus linguae tuae nunc confero collocandum, de tui operis fastigio laudes Christo debitas redditurus. Illa quoque, precor, virtutum beneficia sanitatumque remedia, quae vel in itinere vel hic apud eiusdem beatissimi patris memoriam divina surit peracta virtute, digneris adnectere: quae quoniam fidelis portitor, filius vester Deogratias, optime novit, verbo commendavimus intimanda, sperantes nos baiuli nomen etiam de tui operis perfectione iugiter esse dicturos, ut Dei fidelissimus famulus tantis virtutibus opulentus, sicut ad sanctorum gloriain suis per Christi gratiam meritis evehitur, sic ad humanam memoriam tuis litteris consecretur.

It plainly has a sure foundation of faith alone, by which it is agreed that the holy man shone with wondrous virtues—this I now bring, through the hand of your tongue, to be set in place, about to render from the pinnacle of your work the praises owed to Christ. This also, I pray, deign to annex: the benefactions of virtues and the remedies of healings which either on the journey or here at the memorial of that same most blessed father were accomplished by divine virtue; since the faithful porter, your son Deogratias, knows them best, we have commended to be made known by word, hoping that we shall be saying continually the name of “bearer” also on account of the perfection of your work, so that the most faithful servant of God, opulent with such great virtues, as he is raised to the glory of the saints by his merits through the grace of Christ, so may he be consecrated to human memory by your letters.

Sane patria, de qua fuerit oriundus, fortasse necessario a nobis inquiritur, unde, sicut moris est, texendae cuiuspiam vitae sumatur exordium. De qua licet me fatear nullum evidens habere documentum, tamen quid hinc ab ineunte aetate cognoverim, non tacebo.

Truly the fatherland, from which he was sprung, is perhaps necessarily inquired by us, whence, as is the custom, the exordium for the life of someone to be woven is taken. Concerning which, although I confess that I have no evident document, nevertheless I will not be silent about what on this point I have come to know from my earliest age.

Nam cum multi igitur sacerdotes et spiritales viri nec non et laici nobiles atque religiosi, vel indigenae vel de longinquis ad eura regionibus confluentes, saepius haesitarent, inter se quaerentes, cuius nationis esset vir, quem tantis cernerent fulgere virtutibus, nec ullus ab eo penitus auderet inquirere, tandem Primenius quidam, presbyter Italiae nobilis et totius auctoritatis vir, qui ad eum confugerat tempore, quo patricius Orestes inique peremptus est, interfectores eius metuens, eo quod interfecti velut pater fuisse diceretur, post multos itaque familiaritatis adeptae dies erupit quasi pro omnibus et ita sciscitatus est dicens: "Domine sancte, de qua provincia Deus his regionibus tale lumen donare dignatus est?"

For when, therefore, many priests and spiritual men, and likewise laymen, noble and religious, whether natives or from far-off regions converging upon him, were often hesitating, asking among themselves of what nation the man was, whom they saw to shine with such great virtues, and no one at all dared to inquire of him, at length a certain Primenius, a priest of Italy, noble and a man of complete authority, who had fled for refuge to him at the time when the patricius Orestes was unjustly slain, fearing his killers, because he was said to have been as it were the father of the slain man, after many days, therefore, of familiarity acquired, burst out as if on behalf of all and thus questioned, saying: "Holy lord, from what province has God deigned to grant to these regions such a light?"

Cui vir Dei faceta primum hilaritate respondit: "Si fugitivum putas, para tibi pretium, quod pro me possis, cum. fuero requisitus, offerre." His talia serio mox subiciens: "Quid prodest -inquit- servo Dei significatio sui loci vel generis, cum potius id tacendo facilius possit evitare iactantiam, utpote sinistram, qua nesciente cupit omne opus bonum Christo donante perficere, quo mereatur dextris socius fieri et supernae patriae civis adscribi? Quam si me indignum veraciter desiderare cognoscis, quid te necesse est terrenam cognoscere, quam requiris?

To whom the man of God replied first with facetious hilarity: "If you think me a fugitive, prepare for yourself a price, which you can offer on my behalf when I shall be sought." Soon subjoining such things in earnest to these: "What profits -he says- the servant of God, the signification of his place or of his stock, since rather by keeping it silent he can more easily evade vaunting—inasmuch as it is sinister—unknown to which he desires to bring every good work to perfection by Christ granting it, whereby he may merit to be made a companion on the right and to be enrolled as a citizen of the supernal fatherland? Which, if you recognize that I, unworthy, truly desire, what need is there for you to know the earthly one which you inquire after?

Verum tamen scito, quia Deus, qui te sacerdotem fieri praestitit, ipse me quoque periclitantibus his hominibus interesse praccepit." Memoratus presbyter tali responsione conticuit, nec quisquam, ante vel postea, beatum virum super hac parte percontari praesumpsit.

“But yet know that God, who has granted you to become a priest, he himself also has commanded me to be present for these men in peril.” The aforementioned presbyter fell silent at such a response, nor did anyone, before or afterward, presume to question the blessed man on this point.

Loquela tamen ipsius manifestabat homimem omnino Latinum; quem constat prius ad quandam Orientis solitudinem fervore perfectioris vitae fuisse profectum atque inde post ad Norici Ripensis oppida, Pannoniae superiori vicina, quae premebantur crebris incursibus barbarorum, divina compulsum revelatione venisse, sicut ipse clauso sermone tamquam de alio aliquo referre solitus erat, nonnullas Orientis urbes nominans et itineris inmensi pericula se mirabiliter transisse significans. Haec igitur sola, quae retuli, quotiens de beati Severini patria sermo ortus est, etiam ipso superstite semper audivi. Indicia vero mirabilis vitae eius huic epistolae coniuncto praelatis capitulis commemoratorio recensita fient, ut rogavi, libro vestri magisterii clariora.

Nevertheless, his loquela made manifest a man entirely Latin; whom it is agreed had earlier set out to a certain solitude of the East by the fervor of a more perfect life, and thence afterward, to the towns of Riparian Noricum, neighboring Upper Pannonia, which were being pressed by frequent incursions of barbarians, compelled by a divine revelation, he had come—just as he himself, in a veiled sermo, was accustomed to relate as if about some other person, naming several cities of the East and indicating that he had marvelously passed through the perils of an immense journey. These therefore alone, which I have recounted, whenever talk arose about the patria of blessed Severinus, I always heard, even while he himself was still alive. But the tokens of his wondrous life will be made clearer, as I asked, in the book of your magisterium, having been set forth in the commemoratorium, with the prefixed capitula, joined to this epistle.

Superest, ut eius orationibus tuas sociare non desinas et indulgentiam mihi poscere non desistas.

It remains that you do not cease to join your prayers to his, and do not desist from asking indulgence for me.

Domino sancto semperque carissimo Eugippio presbytero
Paschasius diaconus

To the holy and ever most-beloved lord Eugippius, presbyter
Paschasius, deacon

Frater in Christo carissime, dum nos peritiae tuae facundia et otii felicitate perpendens amaritudines occupationesque multiplices peccatorum retractare contemnis, pudoris iacturam dilectionis contemplatione sustineo. Direxisti commemoratorium, cui nihil possit adicere facundia peritorum, et opus, quod ecclesiae possit universitas recensere, brevi reserasti compendio, dum beati Severini finitimas Pannoniorum provincias incolentis vitam moresque verius explicasti et quae per illum divina virtus est operata miracula diuturnis mansura temporibus tradidisti memoriae, posterorum nesciunt facta priorum praeterire cum saeculo, ut omnes praesentem habeant et secum quodam modo sentiant commorari, quibus eum relatio pervexerit lectionis.

Dearest brother in Christ, while, weighing us by the facundity of your expertise and the felicity of leisure, you disdain to re-tract the bitternesses and manifold occupations of sinners, I endure the jettison of modesty through the contemplation of love. You have sent a commemorative memorandum, to which the facundity of the skilled could add nothing, and you have unlocked in a brief compendium a work which the universality of the Church can review, in that you more truly explicated the life and manners of blessed Severinus, who dwelt in the neighboring provinces of the Pannonians, and you have handed over to memory the miracles which divine virtue wrought through him, to remain for long-enduring times, so that the deeds of the former do not pass away with the age from the notice of the latter, and that all may have him as present and may in some way feel that he abides with them, whomever the report of the reading has conveyed him unto.

Et ideo, quia tu haec, quae a me narranda poscebas, elocutus es simplicius, explicasti facilius, nihil adiciendum labori vestro studio nostro credidimus: siquidem aliter audita narramus, aliter experta depromimus. Facilius virtutes magistrorum a discipulis exponuntur, quae suggeruntur crebrius conversatione docentium.

And therefore, because you have expressed more simply these things which you were asking to be narrated by me, you have explained more easily, we believed nothing should be added to your labor by our industry: since indeed we narrate things heard in one way, we bring forth things experienced in another. The virtues of masters are more easily expounded by disciples, as they are more frequently suggested by the conversation of those teaching.

Divinis charismatibus inspiratus scis, bonorum mentibus excolendis quantum gesta sanctorum utilitatis impertiant, quantum fervoris attribuant, quantum puritatis infundant. De qua re apostolicae vocis auctoritas latius innotescens: "Forma, inquit, estote gregi!", et Beatus Paulus Timotheo praecipit: "Forma esto fidelibus". Unde idem apostolus iustorum catalogum summa brevitate contexens ab Abel incipiens insignium virorum pergit narrare virtutes.

Inspired by divine charismata, you know, for the cultivating of good minds, how much usefulness the deeds of the saints impart, how much fervor they attribute, how much purity they infuse. Concerning which matter the authority of the apostolic voice becoming more widely known: "Be a model," he says, "to the flock!", and Blessed Paul enjoins Timothy: "Be a model to the faithful". Whence the same Apostle, weaving the catalogue of the just with the greatest brevity, beginning from Abel, goes on to narrate the virtues of distinguished men.

Sic et ille fidelissimus Mattathias morti gloriosissimae iam propinquans filiis suis hereditario iure sanctorum exempla distribuit, quorum certaminibus admirandis celebrius excitati animas suas pro legibus sempiternis sanctitatis fervore contemnerent. Nec paterna liberos fefellit instructio; tantum enim profuerunt memoratis facta malorum, ut apertissima fide armatos principes deterrerent, castra sacrilega superarent, cultus arasque daemonicas longe lateque diruerent civicamque coronam sertis decorati perennibus splendenti patriae providerent. Unde et nos ornamentis sponsae Christi quiddam fraterno ministerio provideri gaudemus, non quod ullis, ut credo, temporibus defuerit clarior vita maiorum, sed quod domum magni regis plurimorum vexilla trophaeorum habere conveniat.

Thus also that most faithful Mattathias, now drawing near to a most glorious death, distributed to his sons, by hereditary right, the examples of the saints, that, more notably stirred by their admirable contests, they might, by the fervor of sanctity, despise their lives for the eternal laws. Nor did a father’s instruction deceive his children; for so much did the recounted deeds of the wicked profit, that with most manifest faith they deterred armed princes, overran sacrilegious camps, demolished far and wide the daemonic cult and altars, and, adorned with perennial garlands, provided a civic crown for the resplendent fatherland. Whence we too rejoice that something is provided, by fraternal ministry, for the ornaments of the Bride of Christ, not because, as I believe, at any times the more illustrious life of the elders was lacking, but because it befits the house of the great King to have the banners of very many trophies.

Non enim vera virtus excluditur numerositate virtutum, sed optatis successibus eatenus ampliatur.

For true virtue is not excluded by the numerosity of virtues, but is amplified to that extent by the desired successes.

I. Quomodo primum beatus Severinus in oppido, quod Asturis vocabatur, et saluberrima exhortatione bonorum operum, et veracissima futurorum praedicatione claruerit.

1. How the blessed Severinus first became illustrious in the town which was called Asturis, both by the most salutary exhortation of good works and by the most veracious predication of things to come.

II. De oppido, cui erat vocabulum Comagenis, per eum mirabiliter ab hostibus liberato.

2. On the town, which bore the name Comagenis, marvelously delivered from enemies through him.

III. Quod habitatoribus civitatulae Favianis diu fame laborantibus miro modo Deus eius oratione subvenerit.

3. That God, by his prayer, came to the aid of the inhabitants of the little city Favianae, long suffering from famine, in a wondrous manner.

IV. De praedonibus barbaris, qui etiam omnia arma sua cum praeda, quam extra muros Favianis diu ceperant, amiserunt, vel de instituto eius atque humilitate praecipua.

4. On the barbarian brigands, who also lost all their arms together with the booty which they had long seized outside the walls at Favianis, or on his rule and preeminent humility.

V. In quanta reverentia eum Rugorum Rex Flaccitheus habuerit vel qualiter ab insidiis inimicorum ipsius sit liberatus oraculo.

5. In how great reverence King Flaccitheus of the Rugians held him, or how he was freed from the ambushes of his enemies by an oracle.

VI. De unico filio viduae gentis praedictae Rugorum, quem per annos XII dolor excruciaverat, viri Dei oratione sanato.

6. On the only son of a widow of the aforesaid nation of the Rugii, whom pain had tormented for 12 years, healed by the prayer of the man of God.

VII. Qualiter Odovacar adulescentulus, vilissimis pellibus opertus, ab eo praenuntiatus sit regnaturus.

7. How Odovacar, a young adolescent, covered with the most wretched pelts, was foretold by him to be about to reign.

VIII. Quod Feletheus, qui et Feva, Rugorum Rex, antelati filius Flaccithei, pessimam coniugem rebaptizare catholicos metu sancti Severini vetuerit, vel quale periculum illa de parvulo filio suo Frederico quadam die,dum de quibusdam intercessionem eius contempsisset, incurrerit.

8. that Feletheus, who is also Feva, King of the Rugians, son of the aforesaid Flaccitheus, forbade his most wicked wife to re-baptize Catholics out of fear of Saint Severinus, or what danger she incurred concerning her little son Frederick on a certain day,while she had contemned his intercession in certain matters.

IX. De portitore reliquiarum sancti Gervasil et Protasii martyrum mirifica viri Dei revelatione monstrato, vel qua responsione, dum rogaretur, episcopatus declinaverit honorem.

9. On the bearer of the relics of Saint Gervasius and Protasius, martyrs, pointed out by the wondrous revelation of the man of God, or by what response, while he was being asked, he declined the honor of the episcopate.

X. De quodam ostiario uspiam egredi quidam die prohibito, mox a barbaris capto ab isdemque suppliciter restituto.

10. Concerning a certain ostiarius, prohibited to go out anywhere on a certain forbidden day, soon captured by barbarians and by those same, upon supplication, restored.

XI. De miraculo, quod in castello Cucullis factum est, ubi cereis divinitus accensis sacrilegi, qui se primitus occulerant, declarati sunt atque correcti.

11. On the miracle that was done in the castle Cucullis, where, with candles divinely lit, the sacrilegious, who had at first hidden themselves, were declared and corrected.

XII. Quemadmodurn de finibus praefati castelli locustae ieiÇunio et oratione atque elemosyms deo propitiato depulsae sint, abrasa mirabiliter segete cuiusdam pauperis increduli contemptoris.

12. How, from the borders of the aforesaid castle, locusts were driven away by fasting and prayer and alms, with God propitiated, the standing grain of a certain poor, unbelieving scoffer having been marvelously shaven off.

XIII. Quomodo cereus in manu servi Dei orantis accensus sit, dum vespertinae laudis officio ignis de more necessarius minime fuisset inventus.

13. How a candle was kindled in the hand of the servant of God praying, when for the office of vespertine lauds the fire, customarily necessary, had by no means been found.

XIV. De mirabili sanatione mulieris desperatae, quae post inmanem diutinuinque langorem ita viri Dei oratione conÇvaluit, ut ad opus agrale die tertio fortis accesserit.

14. On the wondrous healing of a woman despaired-of, who, after an immense and long-continued languor, so convalesced by the prayer of the man of God that on the third day, strong, she went to agricultural work.

XV. Quemadmodum in baiulos postes a parte fluminis ecclesiam sustentantes, quos aqua saepe superfluens transcendebat, orans Dei servus crucis signaculum securi scalpserit, quod signum numquam deinceps aqua penitus excedebat.

15. In the load-bearing posts on the river side supporting the church, which the often overflowing water used to transcend, the servant of God, praying, carved with an axe the sign of the cross, which sign the water thereafter never entirely exceeded.

XVI. De Silvino presbytero defuncto, cuius cadaver feretro impositum, celebratis nocte vigiliis, mox ad vocem vocantis aperuit oculos, rogans Dei famulum, quo vocante revixerat, ne ulterius experta requie privaretur.

16. About Silvinus the presbyter deceased, whose cadaver, placed upon a bier, after the vigils had been celebrated by night, soon at the voice of the one calling opened his eyes, beseeching the servant of God—at whose calling he had revived—that he not be further deprived of the repose he had experienced.

XVII. Quam sollicita pauperibus cura ministraverit, vel quod distributioni eius etiam Norici decimas dirigebant, quibus de more perlatis periculum his, qui dirigere distulerant, imminere praedixit. XVIII.

XVII. How solicitous a care he ministered to the poor, and that even the Norici directed tithes to his distribution; when these had been conveyed according to custom, he foretold that peril was impending for those who had deferred to send them. XVIII.

Quemadmodurn rubigo, quae messibus nocitura paruerat, per virum Dei ieiuniis et oratione depulsa sit.

How the rust-blight, which had appeared and was about to harm the harvests, was driven away through the man of God by fastings and prayer.

XIX. Quod Gibuldus, Alamannorum rex, coram servo Dei magno sit tremore concussus et reddiderit multitudinem captivorum.

19. That Gibuldus, king of the Alamanni, was shaken with great trembling before the servant of God and restored a multitude of captives.

XX. Quomodo ei militum fuerit interfectio revelata, propter quorum corpora sepelienda suos ignorantes direxit ad fluvium.

20. How the slaughter of soldiers was revealed to him, on account of whose bodies to be buried he directed his men, who were unaware, to the river.

XXI. Paulinum presbyterum, qui de longinquo ad eum venerat, revertentem ad patriam praedixit mox episcopum ordinandum.

21. Paulinus the presbyter, who had come to him from afar, he foretold would, on returning to his fatherland, soon be ordained bishop.

XXII. Quod, dum basilicae novae sanctuaria quaererentur, ultro sibi sancti Iohannis baptistae benedictionem praenuntiaverit deferendam et illi oppido cladem se absente futuram, qua in baptisterio presbyter vaniloquax interfectus est.

22. That, while the sanctuaries of the new basilica were being sought, he of his own accord foretold that the blessing of Saint John the Baptist would be conveyed to himself, and that a disaster would befall that town in his absence, in which the loquacious presbyter was slain in the baptistery.

XXIII. Qualiter sanctuaria praedicta susceperit.

23. How he received the aforesaid sanctuaries.

XXIV. De mansoribus alterius oppidi, qui spreto mandantis oraculo mox ab Herulis interfecti sunt, quia locum praemoniti relinquere noluerunt.

24. On the dwellers of another town, who, spurning the oracle of the one commanding, were soon slain by the Heruli, because, though forewarned, they were unwilling to leave the place.

XXV. Quemadmodum scriptis ad Noricum destinatis castella ieiuniis atque elemosynis praemunierit, quibus praenuntiata hostis irruptio nocere non potuit.

25. How, by letters sent to Noricum, he fortified the forts with fasts and alms, whereby the foretold irruption of the enemy could not harm.

XXVI. De leproso mundato, qui reverti ad propria, ne lepram peccati magis incurreret, evitavit.

26. On the cleansed leper, who avoided returning to his own, lest he incur the leprosy of sin all the more.

XXVII. De victoria, quam apud Batavis de Alamannis oratione sancti Severini sumpsere Romani, et quod post triumphum, qui praedicentem sequi spreverant, sint perempti.

27. On the victory which, among the Batavians, over the Alamanni, the Romans won by the oration of Saint Severinus, and that after the triumph those who had spurned to follow the one preaching were slain.

XXVIII. Quemadmodum ministrante famulo Dei pauperibus oleum crevisse provenerit.

28. How it came to pass that, as the servant of God was ministering to the poor, the oil increased.

XXIX .De his, quibus colle, vestes egenis erogandas a Norico, deferentibus ursus media hieme ducatum per nives heremi usque ad humana habitacula praebuit, quos tali duce venire solita vir Dei revelatione cognovit.

29 .On those, for whom, with the neck, garments to be distributed to the needy being carried from Noricum, a bear in the midst of winter provided a leading through the snows of the desert up to human habitations, whom the man of God by revelation knew to be coming with such a guide.

XXX. Qualiter ad civitatem Lauriacum hostes futura nocte venturos praesenserit et male securis civibus vigilare vix suaserit, quod mane probantes infidelitati veniam cum gratiarum actione poscebant.

30. How he pre-sensed that enemies would come to the city of Lauriacum on the coming night and scarcely advised the ill-secure citizens to keep watch, which, proving it in the morning, they were asking pardon for their infidelity with thanksgiving.

XXXI. Quomodo Fevae, regi Rugorum, ad Lauriacum cum exercitu venienti occurrerit et in sua fide populos susceperit, ut eos ad inferIora oppida, id est Rugis viciniora, deduceret.

31. How he met Feva, king of the Rugians, as he was coming to Lauriacum with an army, and received the peoples into his faith, so that he might lead them down to the lower towns, that is, nearer to the Rugians.

XXXII. Quemadmodum Odouacar rex aliqua a se sperari poscens Ambrosium quendam de exilio ad servi Dei litteras revocaverit et, quot annis regnaturus foret, laudatoribus eius idem Dei servus praedixerit.

32. How King Odoacer, asking that some things be expected from him, recalled a certain Ambrosius from exile at the letters of the servant of God, and how many years he was going to reign the same servant of God foretold to his praisers.

XXXIII. De filio cuiusdam ex optimatibus regis Rugorum in oppido Comagenis viri Dei oratione sanato.

33. On the son of a certain one of the nobles of the king of the Rugians, in the town of Comagenis, healed by the prayer of the man of God.

XXXIV. Qualiter elefantiosus quidam, nomine Teio, curatus sit.

34. How a certain man with elephantiasis, by name Teio, was cured.

XXXV. De Bonoso monacho, qui, dum oculorum imbecillitatem quereretur, audivit ab eo: "Ora magis, ut corde plus videas", mox mirabiliter effectum iugiter orandi promeruit.

35. On Bonosus the monk, who, while he was complaining of the weakness of his eyes, heard from him: "Pray more, that you may see more with the heart," soon he marvelously merited the effect of praying continually.

XXXVI. De tribus superbientibus monachis, quos tradidit satanae, ut eorum spiritus salvaretur, de qua re prolatis duorum patrum exemplis verissimam loco suo red.didit rationern.

36. On three pride-swollen monks, whom he handed over to Satan, that their spirit might be saved, concerning which matter, with examples of two fathers produced, he rendered the most veracious reasoning in its proper place.

XXXVII. Quemadmodum horam tribulationis Marciani et Renati monachorum suorum, quam in alia provincia positi perÇtulerunt, oratione praesentibus ceteris fratribus indicta sÃgnaverit.

37. How he signified the hour of tribulation of his monks Marcian and Renatus, which they, being set in another province, endured, by proclaiming a prayer with the other brothers present.

XXXVIII. De periculis letalis papulae, quod ante quadraginta dies Urso monacho futurum et revelatione praedixit et oratione curavit.

38. On the dangers of a lethal papule, which forty days beforehand he both predicted by revelation would befall the monk Ursus, and cured by prayer.

XXXIX. De habitaculo eiusdem beati viri, stratu quoque vel cibo pauca tenuiter indicantur.

39. On the dwelling of the same blessed man, and likewise a few things about his bedding and his food are indicated briefly.

XL. Qualiter, dum propinquare transitum suum Deo sibi revelante sensisset, regem Fevam noxiartique reginam fuerit adlocutus nec suos ex filo praemonere destiterit, generaÇlem populi migrationem propinquare praenuntians suumÇque corpusculum pariter portari praecipiens.

40. How, when he sensed that his own passage was drawing near, God revealing it to him, he addressed King Feva and the noxious queen, nor did he cease to forewarn his own from the thread, foretelling that a general migration of the people was approaching and prescribing that his own little body likewise be carried.

XLI. Quomodo etiam diem transitus sui sancto Lucillo presbytero manifestius indicarit.

41. How also he indicated more plainly the day of his passing to Saint Lucillus, presbyter.

XLII. Quemadmodum Ferderuchum, fratrem praedicti regis Fevae, contestatus sit et suos monuerit.

42. How he adjured Ferderuchus, the brother of the aforesaid king Feva, and admonished his own.

XLIII. De obitu eius vel qualibus monitis ultima suos et prolixa pius exhortatione fuerit prosecutus.

43. On his death, or with what admonitions, at the last, the pious man attended his own with a prolix exhortation.

XLIV. Qualia post discessum eius monasterio Ferderuchus intulerit qualiterve punitus sit, vel quatenus eius oraculum prospera populi fuerit migratione completum vel corpusculum eiusdem levatum, carpentoque devectum.

44. What things Ferderuchus brought upon the monastery after his departure, and in what manner he was punished; or to what extent his oracle was fulfilled by the prosperous migration of the people; or how his little body was lifted up and conveyed by a wagon.

XLV. De multorum tunc sanatione debilium, qua de singulis omissa unius tantum muti loquela refertur orando sub carro, quo adhuc erat corpusculum, reddita.

45. On the healing at that time of many infirm, in which, with the details of individuals omitted, only the speech of one mute is reported as restored by praying beneath the cart, under which the little body was still.

XLVI. De fide inlustris feminae Barbariae susceptricis et occursu Neapolitani populi, ubi cum nihllominus multi tunc a diversis fuerint sanati langoribus, trium tantum sanatio memoratur.

46. On the faith of the illustrious lady Barbaria, the patroness, and the encounter of the Neapolitan people, where, although nevertheless many at that time were healed of diverse ailments, only the healing of three is recorded.

I. Tempore, quo Attila, rex Hunnorum, defunctus est, utraque Pannonia et cetera confinia Danuvii rebus turbabantur ambiguis. Ac primum inter filios eius de optinendo regno magna sunt exorta certamina; qui, morbo dominationis inflati, materiam sui sceleris aestimarunt patris interitum.

1. At the time when Attila, king of the Huns, had died, both Pannonias and the other confines of the Danube were disturbed by ambiguous affairs. And first, among his sons great contests arose about obtaining the kingdom; who, swollen with the morbid desire of domination, judged their father’s death the material of their own crime.

Tunc itaque sanctissimus Dei famulus Severinus, de partibus Orientis adveniens in vicinia Norici Ripensis et Pannoniorum parvo, quod Asturis dicitur, oppido morabatur. Vivens iuxta evangelicam apostolicamque doctrinam, omni pietate et castitate praeditus, in confessione catholicae fidei venerabile propositum sanctis operibus adimplebat. Dum ergo talibus exercitiis roboratus palmam supernae vocationis innocue sequeretur, quadam die ad ecclesiam processit ex more.

Then therefore the most holy servant of God, Severinus, coming from the regions of the East, was dwelling in the vicinity of Riparian Noricum and of the Pannonians, in a small town which is called Asturis. Living according to the evangelical and apostolic doctrine, endowed with all piety and chastity, in the confession of the catholic faith he fulfilled his venerable purpose with holy works. While therefore, strengthened by such exercises, he innocently was following the palm of the supernal vocation, on a certain day he proceeded to the church according to custom.

Tunc presbyteris, clero vel civibus requisitis coepit tota mentis humilitate praedicere, ut hostium insidias imminentes orationibus ac ieiuniis et misericordiae fructibus inhiberent. Sed animi contumaces ac desideriis carnalibus inquinati praedicentis oracula infidelitatis suae discrimine probaverunt. Famulus autem Dei reversus ad hospitium, quo ab ecclesiae fuerat custode susceptus, diem et horam imminentis excidii prodens: "De contumaci -ait- oppido et citius perituro festinus abscedo."

Then, the presbyters, the clergy, or the citizens having been called together, he began with all humility of mind to declare that they should check the imminent ambushes of the enemies by prayers and fasts and the fruits of mercy. But spirits stubborn and stained with carnal desires proved the oracles of the preacher by the ordeal of their own unbelief. The servant of God, however, having returned to the lodging where he had been received by the custodian of the church, disclosing the day and hour of the impending ruin, said: "From the contumacious town — he said — and one that will perish more quickly, I hasten to depart."

Inde ad proximum, quod Comagenis appellabatur, oppidum declinavit. Hoc barbarorum intrinsecus consistentium, qui cum Romanis foedus inierant, custodia servabatur artissima nullique ingrediendi aut egrediendi facilis licentia praestabatur. A quibus tamen famulus Dei, cum esset ignotus, nec interrogatus est nec repulsus.

Thence he turned aside to the nearby town which was called Comagenis. This was kept under a very tight custody by barbarians settled within, who had entered a foedus with the Romans, and to no one was an easy license of entering or leaving granted. By whom, however, the servant of God, since he was unknown, was neither questioned nor repulsed.

Itaque mox ingressus ecclesiam cunctos de salute propria desperantes ieiunio et orationibus atque elemosynis hortabatur armari, proponens antiqua salutis exempla, quibus divina protectio populum suum contra opinionem omnium mirabiliter liberasset. Cumque salutem omnium in ipso discriminis articulo promittenti credere dubitarent, senex, qui dudum in Asturis tanti hospitis susceptor exstiterat, venit atque a portarum custodibus sollicita interrogatione discussus interitum sui oppidi habitu verboque monstravit, adiciens eadem die, qua quidam homo Dei praedixerat, barbarorum vastatione deletum. Quo audito solliciti responderunt: "Putas, non ipse est, qui desperatis rebus Dei nobis subsidia pollicetur?"

And so, having soon entered the church, he was exhorting all, who were despairing of their own safety, to be armed with fasting and prayers and alms, proposing ancient examples of salvation, by which divine protection had wondrously freed its people against the opinion of all. And when they hesitated to believe the one promising the safety of all at the very moment of crisis, the old man, who long ago in Asturis had been the host of so great a guest, came and, having been examined by anxious questioning by the keepers of the gates, showed the destruction of his town by his dress and by his word, adding that on the same day on which a certain man of God had foretold, it had been blotted out by the ravaging of the barbarians. On hearing this, they, anxious, replied: "Do you think it is not he himself who, when things are in despair, promises us the succors of God?"

Mox igitur, in ecclesia recognito, Dei famulo senex pedibus eius prostratus aiebat ipsius se meritis liberatum, ne cum ceteris oppidaneis subiret excidium.

Soon therefore, when the servant of God had been recognized in the church, the old man, prostrated at his feet, declared that by his merits he had been delivered, lest he undergo destruction with the other townspeople.

II. His auditis habitatores oppidi memorati incredulitati veniam postulantes monitis viri Dei sanctis operibus paruerunt ieiuniisque dediti et in ecclesia per triduum congregati errata praeterita castigabant gemitibus et lamentis. Die autem tertio, cum sacrificii vespertini sollemnitas impleretur, facto subito terraemotu ita sunt barbari intrinsecus habitantes exterriti, ut portas sibi Romanos cogerent aperire velociter. Exeuntes igitur conciti diffugerunt, aestimantes se vicinorum hostium obsidione vallatos, auctoque terrore divinitus noctis errore confusi mutuis se gladiis conciderunt.

2. Upon hearing these things, the inhabitants of the aforesaid town, asking pardon for incredulity, obeyed the admonitions of the man of God with holy works; and, devoted to fasts and gathered in the church for three days, they were chastising past errors with groans and laments. But on the third day, when the solemnity of the evening sacrifice was being fulfilled, a sudden earthquake having occurred, the barbarians dwelling within were so terrified that they forced the Romans to open the gates for them swiftly. Therefore, going out in haste, they scattered in flight, supposing themselves to be enclosed by a siege of neighboring enemies; and, the terror being increased by divine agency, confused by the night’s error, they cut one another down with mutual swords.

Tali ergo adversariis internecione consumptis divino plebs servata praesidio per sanctum virum armis didicit pugnare caelestibus.

Therefore, with the adversaries consumed by internecine slaughter, the people, preserved by divine protection through the holy man, learned to fight with celestial arms.

III. Eodem tempore civitatem nomine Favianis saeva fames oppresserat, cuius habitatores unicum sibi remedium affore crediderunt, si ex supra dicto oppido Comagenis hominem Dei religiosis precibus invitarent. Quos ille ad se venire praenoscens a domino, ut cum eis pergeret, commonetur.

III. At the same time a city by the name Favianis had been oppressed by a savage famine, whose inhabitants believed that the only remedy would be at hand for them if they should invite, with religious prayers, the man of God from the aforesaid town Comagena. He, foreknowing from the Lord that they were coming to him, is admonished to proceed with them.

Quo cum venisset, coepit civibus suadere dicens: "paenitentiae fructibus poteritis a tanta famis pernicie liberari." qui cum talibus proficerent institutis, beatissimus Severinus divina revelatione cognovit quandam viduam nomine Proculam fruges plurimas occultasse. Quam productam in medium arguit vehementer. "Cur -inquit- nobilissimis orta natalibus cupiditatis te praebes ancillam et extas avaritiae mancipium, quae est docente apostolo servitus idolorum?

When he had come there, he began to urge the citizens, saying: "By the fruits of penitence you will be able to be freed from so great a ruin of famine." And as they were making progress by such practices, the most blessed Severinus, by divine revelation, learned that a certain widow by the name Procula had concealed very many stores of grain. Her, brought forth into the midst, he vehemently arraigned. "Why -he says- born of the noblest natal origins do you present yourself a handmaid of cupidity and stand a bond-slave of avarice, which is, as the Apostle teaches, the servitude of idols?"

Ecce domino famulis suis misericorditer consulente tu, quid de male partis facias, non habebis, nisi forte frumenta dure negata in Danuvii fluenta proiciens humanitatem piscibus exhibeas, quam hominibus denegasti. Quam ob rem subveni tibi potius quam pauperibus ex his, quae adhuc te aestimas Christo esuriente servare. Quibus auditis magno mulier pavore perterrita coepit servata libenter erogare pauperibus.

Behold, as the Lord mercifully takes counsel for his servants, you will have nothing left as to what you should do with ill-gotten goods, unless perhaps by throwing into the waters of the Danube the grain stubbornly denied you should exhibit humanity to the fishes, which you denied to men. Wherefore, come to the aid of yourself rather than of the poor out of those things which you still suppose you are keeping for Christ when he is hungry. Upon hearing these things, the woman, terrified with great fear, began gladly to distribute to the poor the stores that had been kept.

Igitur non multo post rates plurimae de partibus Raetiarum mercibus onustae quam plurimis insperatae videntur in litore Danuvii, quae multis diebus crassa Aeni fluminis glacie fuerant colligatae: qua die imperio mox soluta ciborum copias fame laborantibus detulerunt. Tunc coeperunt omnes deum insperati remedii largitorem continuata devotione laudare, qui se tabe diuturnae famis interire crediderant, fatentes evidentius rates extra tempus glaciali solutas frigore servi Dei precibus advenisse.

Therefore, not long after, very many rafts from the parts of Raetia, laden with very many merchandises, were seen unexpectedly on the shore of the Danube, which for many days had been held fast by the thick ice of the river Aenus; on which day, soon released by a command, they brought stores of food to those laboring under famine. Then all began to praise God, the bestower of an unexpected remedy, with continued devotion, they who had believed themselves to be perishing with the wasting of long-continued hunger, confessing more plainly that the rafts, out of season, released from glacial cold, had arrived by the prayers of the servant of God.

IV. Per idem tempus inopinata subreptione praedones barbari, quaecumque extra muros hominum pecudumque reppererant, duxere captiva. Tunc plures e civibus ad virum Dei cum lacrimis confluentes inlatae calamitatis exitium retulerunt, simul ostendentes indicia recentium rapinarum. Ille vero Mamertinum percontatus est, tunc tribunum, qui post episcopus ordinatus est, utrum aliquos secum haberet armatos, cum quibus latrunculos sequeretur instantius.

4. At the same time, by an unexpected surreption, barbarian brigands led away as captives whatever of men and of cattle they had found outside the walls. Then many of the citizens, flocking with tears to the man of God, reported the ruin of the inflicted calamity, at the same time showing the indications of the recent rapines. He, however, questioned Mamertinus—then a tribune, who afterwards was ordained bishop—whether he had any armed men with him, with whom he might pursue the bandits more insistently.

Qui respondit: "milites quidem habeo paucissimos, sed non audeo cum tanta hostium turba confligere. Quod si tua veneratio praecipit, quamvis auxilium nobis desit armorum, credimus tamen tua nos fieri oratione victores." et Dei famulus ait: "etiam si inermes sunt tui milites, nunc ex hostibus armabuntur: nec enim numerus aut fortitudo humana requiritur, ubi propugnator deus per omnia comprobatur. Tantum in nomine domini perge velociter, perge fidenter: nam deo misericorditer praeeunte debilis quisque fortissimus apparebit: >dominus pro vobis pugnabit et vos tacebitis.

He replied: "I do indeed have very few soldiers, but I do not dare to engage with so great a throng of enemies. But if your veneration commands it, although the aid of arms is lacking to us, nevertheless we believe that by your prayer we shall be made victors." And the servant of God said: "Even if your soldiers are unarmed, now they will be armed from the enemies: for neither numbers nor human fortitude are required, where God, the defender, is in all things proven. Only, in the name of the Lord, go swiftly, go confidently: for with God mercifully going before, each weak man will appear most strong: >the Lord will fight for you and you will be silent."

< vade ergo festinus, hoc unum ante omnia servaturus, ut ad me, quos ex barbaris ceperis, perducas incolumes." exeuntes igitur in secundo miliario super rivum, qui vocatur tiguntia, praedictos latrones inveniunt: quibus in fugam repente conversis arma omnium sustulerunt, ceteros vero vinctos ad dei famulum, ut praeceperat, adduxere captivos. quos absolutos vinculis cibo potuque refectos paucis alloquitur: "ite et vestris denuntiate complicibus, ne aviditate praedandi ultra huc audeant propinquare: nam statim caelestis vindictae iudicio punientur, deo pro suis famulis dimicante, quos ita consuevit superna virtute protegere, ut tela hostium non eis inferant vulnera, sed arma potius subministrent." dimissis itaque barbaris ipse de christi miraculis gratulatur, de cuius et miseratione promittit numquam illud oppidum hostium praedas ulterius experturum: civis tantum ab opere dei nec prospera nec adversa retraherent. deinde beatus severinus in locum remotiorem secedens, qui ad vineas vocabatur, cellula parva contentus, ad praedictum oppidum remeare divina revelatione compellitur, ita ut, quamvis eum quies cellulae delectaret, dei tamen iussis obtemperans monasterium haud procul a civitate construeret, ubi plurimos sancto coepit informare proposito, factis magis quam verbis instituens animas auditorum.

< go therefore in haste, to keep this one thing before all: that you lead to me, unhurt, those whom you shall take from the barbarians." Going out then, at the second milestone, above the stream which is called Tiguntia, they find the aforesaid robbers: these being suddenly turned to flight, they took away the arms of all, and the rest, indeed, bound, they led as captives to the servant of God, as he had commanded. Whom, released from bonds and refreshed with food and drink, he addresses in a few words: "Go and announce to your accomplices, that from greed for plundering they should no longer dare to draw near hither: for straightway by the judgment of celestial vengeance they will be punished, God fighting for His servants, whom He is wont to protect by supernal virtue, so that the missiles of the enemies do not bring wounds upon them, but rather supply arms." The barbarians therefore having been dismissed, he himself rejoices over the miracles of Christ, and by His compassion he promises that that town will no further experience the booty-raids of enemies: only let the citizens not be drawn back from the work of God by things prosperous or adverse. Then the blessed Severinus, withdrawing into a more remote place, which was called At the Vineyards, content with a small cell, is compelled by divine revelation to return to the aforesaid town, such that, although the repose of the cell delighted him, yet, obeying the commands of God, he built a monastery not far from the city, where he began to inform many with a holy purpose, training the souls of the hearers more by deeds than by words.

ipse vero ad secretum habitaculum, quod burgum appellabatur ab accolis, uno a favianis distans miliario, saepius secedebat, ut hominum declinata frequentia, quae ad eum venire consueverat, oratione continua deo propius inhaereret. sed quanto solitudinem incolere cupiebat, tanto crebris revelationibus monebatur, ne praesentiam suam populis denegaret afflictis. proficiebat itaque per singulos dies eius meritum crescebatque fama virtutum, quae longe lateque discurrens caelestis in eo gratiae signa pandebat.

he himself, moreover, would often withdraw to a secret habitation, which was called the Burg by the locals, one mile distant from Favianis, so that, with the throng of people who were accustomed to come to him turned aside, he might cling more closely to God in continuous prayer. but the more he desired to inhabit solitude, by so much the more he was admonished by frequent revelations not to deny his presence to afflicted peoples. thus his merit advanced day by day, and the fame of his virtues grew, which, running far and wide, displayed in him the signs of heavenly grace.

nesciunt enim latere, quae bona sunt, cum iuxta sententiam salvatoris nec lucerna sub modio contegi nec in monte posita civitas possit abscondi. inter cetera enim magnalia, quae illi salvator indulserat, praecipuum abstinentiae munus accipiens, carnem suam plurimis subiugabat inediis, docens corpus cibis abundantioribus enutritum animae interitum protinus allaturum. calciamento nullo penitus utebatur: ita media hieme, quae in illis regionibus saeviore gelu torpescit, nudis pedibus semper ambulare contentus singulare patientiae dabat indicium.

For the things that are good do not know how to lie hidden, since, according to the saying of the Savior, neither can a lamp be covered under a bushel nor can a city set upon a mountain be concealed. Among the other great marvels which the Savior had granted to him, receiving the chief gift of abstinence, he brought his flesh into subjugation by very many fastings, teaching that a body nourished with more abundant foods would straightway bring the soul to ruin. He used no footwear whatsoever: thus, in the midst of winter, which in those regions grows numb with a more savage frost, content always to walk with bare feet, he gave a singular proof of patience.

ad cuius immanitatem frigoris comprobandam testem constat esse danuvium, ita saepe glaciali nimietate concretum, ut etiam plaustris solidum transitum subministret. qui tamen talibus per dei gratiam virtutibus sublimatus intima humilitate fatebatur dicens: "ne putetis mei meriti esse, quod cernitis: vestrae est potius salutis exemplum. cesset humana temeritas, elationis supercillum comprimatur.

to confirm the enormity of whose cold, it is agreed that the Danube is a witness, so often congealed by glacial excess that it even affords a solid crossing to wagons. yet he, exalted by such virtues through the grace of God, used to confess with inmost humility, saying: "do not think that what you behold is of my merit: it is rather an example for your salvation. let human temerity cease, let the supercilious brow of elation be checked."

vt aliquid boni possimus, eligimur, dicente apostolo: qui elegit nos ante mundi constitutionem, ut essemus sancti et immaculati in conspectu eius>. orate immo pro me, ut non ad condemnationis cumulum, sed ad iustificationis augmentum salvatoris mihi dona proficiant." haec et his similia solebat proferre cum fletibus, miro erudiens homines humilitatis exemplo, cuius virtutis fundamento munitus tanta divini muneris claritate fulgebat, ut ipsi quoque ecclesiae hostes haeretici reverentissimis eum officiis honorarent.

"that we may be able to do something good, we are chosen, as the Apostle says: who chose us before the constitution of the world, that we should be holy and immaculate in his sight>. Pray, rather, for me, that the gifts of the Savior may profit me not to the cumulus of condemnation, but to the augmentation of justification." These things and the like he was wont to bring forth with tears, wondrously instructing men by an example of humility; and fortified by the foundation of that virtue, he shone with such clarity of the divine gift that even the heretics, enemies of the Church itself, honored him with most reverential offices.

V. Rugorum siquidem rex, nomine Flaccitheus, in ipsis regni sui coepit nutare primordiis habens Gothos ex inferiore Pannonia vehementer infensos, quorum innumera multitudine terrebatur. Is ergo beatissimum Severinum in suis periculis tamquam caeleste oraculum consulebat. Ad quem, dum vehementius turbaretur, adveniens deflebat se a Gothorum principibus ad Italiam transitum postulasse, a quibus se non dubitabat, quia hoc ei denegatum fuerat, occidendum.

5. For the king of the Rugians, by name Flaccitheus, began to waver in the very beginnings of his reign, having the Goths from Lower Pannonia vehemently hostile, by whose innumerable multitude he was terrified. He therefore consulted the most blessed Severinus in his dangers as though a celestial oracle. To whom, arriving while he was being more violently troubled, he lamented that he had asked from the princes of the Goths a passage to Italy, and he did not doubt that, since this had been denied to him, he would be killed by them.

Tunc ergo a viro Dei hoc responsum praedictus accepit: "Si nos una catholica fides annecteret, magis me de vitae perpetuitate debuisti consulere: sed quia de praesenti tantum salute sollicitus, quae nobis est communis, interrogas, instruendus ausculta. Gothorum nec copia nec adversitate turbaberis, quia cito securus eis discedentibus tu desiderata prosperitate regnabis: tantum ne humilitatis meae monita praetermittas. Non te itaque pigeat pacem appetere etiam minimorum, numquam propriis virtutibus innitaris.

Then therefore from the man of God the aforesaid received this response: "If one Catholic faith were binding us together, you ought rather to have consulted me about the perpetuity of life; but since, being anxious only about present salvation, which is common to us, you ask, listen to be instructed. You will not be disturbed either by the Goths’ multitude or by their adversity, for soon—when they depart—you, secure, will reign with the prosperity you desire: only do not neglect the admonitions of my humility. Do not, therefore, be reluctant to seek peace even with the very least; never rely upon your own virtues."

"Maledictus", -inquit- Scriptura, "qui confidit in homine et ponit carnem brachium suum et a domino recedit cor eius". Disce igitur insidias cavere, non ponere: in lectulo quippe tuo pacifico fine transibis." Qui cum tali animatus oraculo laetus abscederet, perlato sibi, quod turba latronum aliquos captivasset ex Rugis, virum Dei misit protinus consulendum. Qui sanctis eum mandatis, ne praedones sequeretur, domino revelante praemonuit dicens: "Si eos secutus fueris, occideris. Cave, ne amnem transeas et insidiis, quae tibi in tribus locis paratae sunt, improvida mente succumbas: nam cito nuntius fidelis adveniet, qui te de his omnibus efficiat certiorem." Tunc duo captivorum, ab ipsis hostium sedibus fugientes, ea per ordinem retulerunt, quae beatissimus vir Christo sibi revelante praedixerat.

“Cursed,”—says Scripture—“who trusts in man and puts flesh as his arm, and from the Lord his heart withdraws.” Learn therefore to beware ambushes, not to set them: for upon your couch you will pass with a peaceful end.” And when he, animated by such an oracle, was departing joyful, a report being brought to him that a crowd of robbers had taken some from among the Rugians captive, he immediately sent to consult the man of God. Who, with holy mandates and the Lord revealing it, forewarned him not to follow the brigands, saying: “If you follow them, you will be killed. Beware lest you cross the river and, with an improvident mind, succumb to the ambushes that are prepared for you in three places; for a faithful messenger will quickly come, who will make you more certain about all these things.” Then two of the captives, fleeing from the very seats of the enemies, reported in order the things which the most blessed man, with Christ revealing it to him, had foretold.

Igitur, frustratis insidiis adversantium, Flaccitheus incrementis auctus prosperioribus vitam rebus tranquillissimis terminavit.

Therefore, with the ambushes of the adversaries frustrated, Flaccitheus, augmented by more prosperous increases, ended his life in the most tranquil circumstances.

VI. Post haec autem quidam Rugus genere per annos duodecim incredibili ossium dolore contritus omni caruerat incolumitate membrorum, cuius cruciatus intolerabilis circumquaque vicinis factus erat, ipsa diuturnitate notissimus. Itaque, nihil proficiente diversitate remedii, tandem vidua mater ad sanctum virum filium deduxit vehiculo impositum et ante ianuam monasterii proiciens desperatum continuatis fletibus reddi sibi unicum filium precabatur incolumem. Sed vir Dei sentiens a se magna deposci, fletu commotus, aiebat: "Quid opprimor opinione fallaci?

6. After these things, however, a certain Rugian by birth, for twelve years crushed by incredible pain of the bones, had lacked all soundness of his limbs, whose unbearable torment had become known to the neighbors all around, very well known by the very long duration itself. And so, with the variety of remedies accomplishing nothing, at last the widowed mother led her son to the holy man, set upon a vehicle, and, casting the despairing one before the door of the monastery, with continued weeping she prayed that her only son be restored to her safe and sound. But the man of God, sensing that great things were being demanded of him, moved to tears, kept saying: "Why am I oppressed by a fallacious opinion?

Cur aestimor posse quod nequeo? Non est virtutis meae praestare tam grandia: consilium tamen do tamquam misericordiam consecutus a deo." Tunc mandat mulieri, ut pauperibus aliquid pro suis viribus largiretur. Illa, nihil morata, vestem, quam induta fuerat, se velociter exuens egentibus dividere properabat.

“Why am I reckoned able to do what I cannot? It is not within my virtue to render things so grand; nevertheless I give counsel, as though having obtained mercy from God.” Then he orders the woman to bestow something upon the poor according to her powers. She, delaying nothing, quickly stripping off the garment which she had been wearing, hastened to divide it among the needy.

Quo audito vir Dei fervorem eius admirans iterum mandat, ut suis operiretur amictibus, dicens: "Cum filius tuus tecum, domino sanante, domum perrexerit, opere vota supplebis." Indicto igitur paucorum dierum de more ieiunio, fusis ad Deum precibus illico sanavit infirmum atque incolumem suis gressibus ambulantem remisit ad propria. Qui cum postea nundinis frequentibus interesset, stupendum miraculum cunctis videntibus exhibebat. Nonnulli enim dicebant: "Ecce ille, qui fuerat totius corporis putredine tabefactus." Aliis autem quod ipse esset omnino negantibus, grata contentio nascebatur.

Hearing this, the man of God, admiring her fervor, again commands that she be covered with her garments, saying: "When your son, with the Lord healing, has gone home with you, you will fulfill your vows by deed." Therefore, a fast of a few days having been appointed according to custom, and prayers poured out to God, he immediately healed the sick man and sent him back to his own, sound, walking on his own steps. When afterward he took part in the frequent fairs, he was exhibiting a stupendous miracle to all who saw. For some were saying: "Behold the very man who had been wasted away by the putrefaction of his whole body." But as others utterly denied that it was he himself, an agreeable contention arose.

Ex illo igitur tempore, quo est reddita sanitas desperato, universa Rugorum gens ad Dei famulum frequentans coepit gratulationis obsequium reddere et opem suis postulare langoribus. De allis etiam gentibus, ad quas tanti miraculi fama pervenerat, multi Christi militem videre cupiebant. Qua devotione, etiam ante hoc factum, quidam barbari, cum ad Italiam pergerent, promerendae benedictionis ad eum intuitu deverterunt.

From that time, when health was restored to the one despaired of, the whole nation of the Rugians, thronging to the servant of God, began to render the service of congratulation and to ask help for their ailments. From other peoples also, to whom the fame of so great a miracle had come, many wished to see the soldier of Christ. With this devotion, even before this deed, certain barbarians, as they were proceeding to Italy, turned aside to him with a view to meriting a blessing.

VII. Inter quos et Odovacar, qui postea regnavit Italiae, vilissimo tunc habitu iuvenis statura procerus advenerat. Qui dum se, ne humillimae tectum cellulae suo vertice contingeret, inclinasset, a viro Dei gloriosum se fore cognovit.

7. Among whom also Odoacer, who afterwards reigned over Italy, had arrived, a youth tall in stature, then in the most wretched attire. As he bent himself, lest he touch with his head the roof of the most humble little cell, he came to know from the man of God that he would be glorious.

Cui etiam valedicenti: "vade -inquit- ad Italiam, vade, vilissimis nunc pellibus coopertus, sed multis cito plurima largiturus."

To him also, as he was bidding farewell: "go -he says- to Italy, go, now covered with the vilest skins, but soon to lavish very many things upon many."

VIII. Feletheus quoque rex, qui et Feva appellatus, memorati filius Flaccithei, paternam secutus industriam, sanctum virum coepit pro regni sui primordiis frequentare. Hunc coniunx feralis et noxia, nomine Giso, semper a clementiae remediis retrahebat.

8. King Feletheus also, who was also called Feva, the son of the aforementioned Flaccitheus, following his father’s industry, began, at the beginnings of his reign, to frequent the holy man. His wife, baleful and noxious, by name Giso, always kept dragging him back from the remedies of clemency.

Haec ergo inter cetera iniquitatis suae contagia etiam rebaptizare quosdam est conata catholicos, sed, ob sancti reverentiam Severini non consentiente viro, a sacrilega quantocius intentione defecit. Romanos tamen duris condicionibus aggravans quosdam etiam Danuvio iubebat abduci. Nam cum quadam die in proximo a Favianis vico veniens aliquos ad se transferri Danuvio praecepisset, vilissimi scilicet ministerii servitute damnandos, dirigens ad eam vir Dei, ut eos dimitteret, postulabat.

Therefore, among the other contagions of her iniquity, she even attempted to rebaptize certain Catholics; but, on account of reverence for Saint Severin, with the man not consenting, she as quickly as possible fell away from the sacrilegious intention. Yet, aggravating the Romans with harsh conditions, she even ordered some to be led off across the Danube. For when on a certain day, coming from a village near Favianae, she had commanded that some be transferred to her by the Danube—namely, to be condemned to the servitude of the most vile service—the man of God, sending to her, was asking that she release them.

Verum illa facibus feminei furoris exaestuans mandata reportari iussit asperrima. "Ora -inquit- tibi, serve Dei, in tua cellula delitescens: liceat nobis de servis nostris ordinare, quod volumus." Haec igitur audiens homo Dei: "Confido -inquit- in Domino Iesu Christo, quia necessitate compelletur explere, quod prava voluntate despexit." Velox itaque secuta correptio prostravit animos arrogantis. Quosdam enim aurifices barbaros pro fabricandis regalibus ornamentis clauserat arta custodia.

But she, boiling over with the torches of feminine fury, ordered the most harsh mandates to be carried back. "Pray -she says- to yourself, servant of God, skulking in your little cell: let it be permitted to us to ordain concerning our own slaves whatever we wish." Hearing this, the man of God: "I trust -he says- in the Lord Jesus Christ, that she will be compelled by necessity to fulfill what she has despised by a perverse will." Accordingly, the swift correction that followed laid low the spirit of the arrogant one. For she had confined certain barbarian goldsmiths, for the fabricating of regal ornaments, under strict custody.

Ad hos filius memorati regis admodum parvulus, nomine Fredericus, eodem die, quo regina servum Dei contempserat, puerili motu concitus introivit. Tunc aurifices infantis pectori gladium posuerunt dicentes, quod, si quis ad eos absque iuramenti praesidio ingredi conaretur, parvulum regium primitus transfigentes semet ipsos postea trucidarent, quippe cum sibi nullam spem vitae promitterent, macerati diuturnis ergastulis. His auditis regina crudelis et impia, vestibus dolore conscissis, talia clamitabat: "O serve Domini Severine, sic, sic a Deo tuo inlatae vindicantur iniuriae!

To these, the son of the aforesaid king, very small, named Frederick, on the same day on which the queen had despised the servant of God, stirred by a boyish impulse, went in. Then the goldsmiths placed a sword to the child’s breast, saying that, if anyone should try to enter to them without the safeguard of an oath, they would first transfix the royal little one and afterwards butcher themselves, since they promised themselves no hope of life, worn thin by long-lasting dungeons. With these things heard, the queen, cruel and impious, her garments torn in grief, kept crying out such words: “O servant of the Lord Severinus, thus, thus are the injuries inflicted by your God avenged!”

Hanc mei contemptus ultionem effusis precibus postulasti, ut in mea viscera vindicares!" Itaque multiplici contritione ac miserabili lamentatione discurrens fatebatur se pro scelere contemptus, quod in servum Dei commiserat, plagae praesentis ultione percelli confestimque, directis equitibus, veniam petitura et Romanos, quos eodem die tulerat, pro quibus et rogantem contempserat, retransmisit et aurifices accipientes protinus sacramentum ac dimittentes infantulum pariter et ipsi dimissi sunt. His auditis reverentissimus Christi servus gratias Creatori referebat inmensas, qui ob hoc interdum differt vota poscentium, ut fide, spe et caritate crescente, dum minora petitur, maiora concedat. Id namque egit omnipotentia salvatoris, ut, dum liberos saeva mulier subicit servituti, servientes cogeretur reddere libertati.

"This vengeance for your contempt of me you demanded with outpoured prayers, that you might exact vengeance upon my very entrails!" And so, running about in manifold contrition and miserable lamentation, she confessed that for the crime of contempt which she had committed against the servant of God she was struck by the vengeance of the present blow; and immediately, dispatching horsemen, to seek pardon, she sent back the Romans whom on the same day she had carried off—on whose behalf also she had scorned the one pleading—and the goldsmiths, receiving the oath and releasing the little child, were likewise themselves released. Hearing these things, the most reverend servant of Christ rendered immense thanks to the Creator, who for this reason sometimes defers the vows of petitioners, that, with faith, hope, and charity increasing, while lesser things are asked, he may grant greater. For this indeed the omnipotence of the Savior brought to pass: that, while the savage woman subjects the free to servitude, she was compelled to restore those serving to liberty.

Quibus mirabiliter impetratis, regina statim ad servum Dei properans cum marito monstrat filium, quem fatebatur illius orationibus de mortis confinio liberatum, promittens se nequaquam ultra eius iussionibus obviare.

With these things marvelously obtained, the queen immediately, hastening to the servant of God, together with her husband shows the son, whom she confessed had been freed from the confine of death by his prayers, promising that she would by no means any further oppose his jussions.

IX. Magna quoque famulo Dei prophetiae gratia praedito in redimendis captivis erat industria. Studiosius etenim insistebat barbarorum ditione vexatos genuinae restituere libertati. Interea cuidam, cum coniuge liberisque redempto, praecepit transvadare Danuvium, ut hominem ignotum in nundinis barbarorum quaereret, quem in tantum divina revelatione didicerat, ut etiam signa staturae capillorumque colorem, vultus eius ac vestis habitum indicaret et, in qua parte nundinarum reperturus eum foret, ostenderet, addens, ut, quicquid ei reperta diceret persona, reversus sibi maturius intimaret.

9. Great also was the industry, in redeeming captives, of the servant of God endowed with the grace of prophecy. For he applied himself more studiously to restore those vexed under the dominion of the barbarians to genuine liberty. Meanwhile, to a certain man redeemed with his wife and children, he ordered to ford the Danube, that he should seek an unknown man in the barbarians’ market-fair, whom he had learned by divine revelation to such an extent that he even indicated the marks of his stature and the color of his hair, his countenance and the habit of his dress, and showed in what part of the fair he would be about to find him, adding that whatever the person found should say to him, on returning he should intimate to him with all speed.

Profectus itaque cuncta sic, ut vir Dei praedixerat, miratus invenit. Is igitur ab eodem homine, quem repperisse se mirabatur, interrogatus audivit dicentem: "Putasne, possum invenire hominem, qui me ad virum Dei, cuius ubique fama diffunditur, qua voluerit mercede, perducat? Diu est enim, quod ipsos sanctos martyres, quorum reliquias fero, suppliciter interpello, ut a tali ministerio tandem aliquando solvar indignus, quod usque huc non temeraria praesumptione, sed religiosa necessitate sustinui." Tunc nuntius hominis Dei eius se aspectibus praesentavit ................... Qui debito sanctorum Gervasil et Protasii martyrum reliquias honore suscipiens in basilica, quam in monasterio construxerat, collocavit officio sacerdotum.

Accordingly, having set out, he marveled to find everything just as the man of God had foretold. Therefore he, questioned by that same man whom he marveled to have found, heard him saying: "Do you think I can find a man who will conduct me to the man of God, whose fame is diffused everywhere, for whatever fee he may wish? For it has been a long time that I have been humbly beseeching the holy martyrs themselves, whose relics I bear, that at length I may somehow be released, unworthy as I am, from such a ministry—which up to this point I have sustained not by rash presumption, but by religious necessity." Then the messenger of the man of God presented himself to his sight ................... He, receiving the relics of the holy martyrs Gervasius and Protasius with due honor, placed them in the basilica which he had constructed in the monastery, with the office of the priests.

Quo loco martyrum congregavit sanctuaria plurimorum, quae tamen praeeunte semper revelatione promeruit, sciens adversarium saepe subrepere sub nomine sanctitatis. Episcopatus quoque honorem ut susciperet postulatus praefinita responsione conclusit, sufficere sibi dicens, quod solitudine desiderata privatus ad illam divinitus venisset provinciam, ut turbis tribulantium frequentibus interesset. Daturus nihilominus monachis formam sollicitius admonebat beatorum patrum vestigiis inhaerere, quibus sanctae conversationis adquireretur instructio, adhibendamque operam, ne is, qui parentes reliquit et saeculum, pompae saecularis illecebras retrorsum respiciendo cuperet, quas vitaverat, et ad hoc uxoris Loth exemplum terribile proponebat.

In that place he gathered the sanctuaries of very many martyrs, which, however, he obtained always with revelation going before, knowing that the Adversary often creeps in under the name of sanctity. Having been asked also to accept the honor of the episcopate, he closed the matter with a pre‑fixed reply, saying that it sufficed him that, as a private man in the solitude he desired, he had come by divine leading into that province, so that he might be present to the frequent throngs of the afflicted. Nevertheless, as one who was to give a pattern to the monks, he more earnestly admonished them to cling to the footsteps of the blessed fathers, by which instruction in holy conversation might be acquired, and to apply effort lest he who has left parents and the world should, by looking back, desire the allurements of secular pomp which he had avoided; and to this end he set forth the terrible example of Lot’s wife.

Memorabat etiam timore Domini mortificanda esse incentiva libidinum nec aliter superanda corporeae delectationis asserebat incendia, nisi fuissent per Dei gratiam lacrimarum fonte restincta.

He also used to declare that the incentives of lusts must be mortified by the fear of the Lord, and he asserted that the fires of corporeal delectation were not otherwise to be overcome, unless they had been quenched by the fountain of tears through the grace of God.

X. Quidam vero nomine Maurus basilicae monasterii fuit aedituus, quem beatus Severinus redemerat de manibus barbarorum. Huic quadam die praecepit vir Dei dicens: "Cave, ne hodie digrediaris alicubi: alioquin imminenti periculo non carebis." Hic ergo contra praeceptum tanti patris, saecularis cuiusdam hominis persuasu, meridie ad colligenda poma in secundo a Favianis miliario egressus, mox a barbaris Danuvio transvectus est cum suo persuasore captivus. In illa hora vir Dei, dum in cellula legeret, clauso repente codice: "Maurum -inquit- cito requirite." Quo nusquam reperto, ipse, quantocius Histri fluenta praetermeans, latrones properanter insequitur, quos vulgus scamaras appellabat.

10. A certain man by name Maurus was aedituus (sacristan) of the basilica of the monastery, whom blessed Severinus had redeemed from the hands of the barbarians. To him on a certain day the man of God gave a precept, saying: "Beware, do not go off anywhere today; otherwise you will not be free from the imminent peril." He, therefore, against the precept of so great a father, by the persuasion of a certain secular man, at midday went out to gather apples at the second milestone from Favianae, and was soon ferried over the Danube by barbarians as a captive together with his persuader. At that hour the man of God, while he was reading in his little cell, with the codex suddenly closed, said: "Maurus—he said—seek him quickly." When he was found nowhere, he himself, as quickly as possible, passing along the streams of the Hister (the Danube), hastily pursues the robbers, whom the common people called "scamares."

Cuius venerandam praesentiam non ferentes supplices, quos ceperant, reddiderunt captivos.

Unable to bear his venerable presence, as suppliants they returned the captives whom they had seized.

XI. Dum adhuc Norici Ripensis oppida superiora constarent et paene nullum castellum barbarorum vitaret incursus, tam celeberrima sancti Severini flagrabat opinio, ut certatim eum ad se castella singula pro suis munitionibus invitarent, credentes, quod eius praesentia nihil eis eveniret adversi. Quod non sine nutu divini muneris agebatur, ut omnes eius monitis quasi caelestibus terrerentur oraculis exemploque illius bonis operibus armarentur. In castellum quoque, cui erat Cucullis vocabulum, devotionibus accolarum vir sanctus advenerat evocatus, ubi factum grande miraculum nequeo reticere: quod tamen Marciani, post presbyteri nostrii, civis eiusdem loci, stupenda relatione cognovimus.

11. While as yet the upper towns of Riparian Noricum stood fast, and scarcely any castellum avoided the incursions of the barbarians, so most celebrated a repute of Saint Severinus was blazing, that the several castella vied to invite him to themselves for their munitiones, believing that by his presence nothing adverse would befall them. Which was done not without the nod of a divine munus, so that all were awed by his monitions as by celestial oracles, and by his example were armed for good works. Into a castellum also, whose appellation was Cucullis, the holy man had come, summoned by the devotions of the neighbors, where a great miracle took place which I cannot keep silent: which, however, we learned by the stupendous relation of Marcianus, afterward our presbyter, a citizen of that same place.

Pars plebis in quodam loco nefandis sacrificiis inhaerebat. Quo sacrilegio comperto, vir Dei multis plebem sermonibus adlocutus ieiunium triduanum per presbyteros loci persuasit indici ac per singulas domos cereos afferti praecepit, quos propria manu unusquisque parietibus affixit ecclesiae. Tunc psalterio ex more decurso ad horam sacrificii presbyteros et diacones vir Dei hortatus est tota cordis alacritate secum communem dominum deprecari, quatenus ad sacrilegos discernendos lumen suae cognitionis ostenderet.

Part of the plebs in a certain place was cleaving to unspeakable sacrifices. When this sacrilege was discovered, the man of God, having addressed the people with many sermons, persuaded that a three-day fast be proclaimed through the presbyters of the place, and he ordered candles to be brought from each and every household to the church, which each person with his own hand fastened to the walls of the church. Then, the psalter having been run through according to custom, at the hour of the sacrifice the man of God exhorted the presbyters and deacons with all cheerfulness of heart to implore together with him their common Lord, that for the discerning of the sacrilegious he would show the light of his knowledge.

Itaque cum multa largissimis fletibus cum eis fixis genibus precaretur, pars maxima cereorum, quos fideles attulerant, subito est accensa divinitus, reliqua vero eorum, qui praedictis sacrilegiis infecti fuerant volentesque latere negaverant, inaccensa permansit. Tunc ergo qui eos posuerant, divino declarati examine, protinus exclamantes secreta pectoris satisfactionibus prodiderunt et suorum testimonio cereorum manifesta confessione convicti propria sacrilegia testabantur. O clemens potentia creatoris cereos animosque flammantis!

And so, as he prayed with them, knees fixed, with very bountiful tears, the greatest part of the candles which the faithful had brought was suddenly kindled divinely, but the rest, belonging to those who had been infected by the aforesaid sacrileges and, wishing to lie hidden, had denied it, remained unlit. Then therefore those who had set them, declared by a divine examination, straightway, crying out, betrayed the secrets of their breast with satisfactions, and by the testimony of their candles, convicted by manifest confession, they bore witness to their own sacrileges. O clement potency of the Creator, inflaming candles and souls!

Accensus est ignis in cereis et refulsit in sensibus: visibilis lux naturam cerae liquabat in flammas, at invisibilis corda fatentum solvebat in lacrimas. Quis credat amplius eos, quos sacrilegus error involverat, postea claruisse bonis operibus, quam eos, quorum cerei fuerant accensi divinitus?

The fire was kindled in the candles and flashed back in the senses: the visible light was liquefying the nature of the wax into flames, but the invisible was loosening the hearts of the confessors into tears. Who would more readily believe that those whom sacrilegious error had enwrapped afterwards shone with good works, than those whose candles had been divinely kindled?

XII. Alio rursus tempore in finibus eiusdem castelli locustae, frugum consumptrices, insederant copiosae, noxiis morsibus cuncta vastantes. Tali ergo peste perculsi, mox presbyteri ceterique mansores sanctum Severinum summis precibus adierunt dicentes: "Vt tantae plagae auferatur atrocitas, orationum tuarum experta suffragia postulamus, quae magno dudum miraculo in accensis caelitus cereis multum apud Dominum valere conspeximus.

12. At another time again, within the borders of that same castle, locusts, consumers of crops, had settled in abundance, laying waste to everything with noxious bites. Therefore, smitten by such a pestilence, soon the presbyters and the other inhabitants approached Saint Severinus with the highest prayers, saying: "That the atrociousness of so great a plague be taken away, we ask for the suffrages of your prayers, proven by experience, which in the great miracle of candles kindled from heaven we have seen to avail much with the Lord recently."

"Quos ipse religiosius allocutus: "Non legistis -ait- quid auctoritas divina peccanti populo praeceperit per prophetam: "Convertimini ad me in toto corde vestro, in ieiunio et fletu", et post pauca: "Sanctificate -inquit- ieiunium, vocate coetum, congregate ecclesiam", et cetera, quae sequuntur? Explete itaque dignis operibus, quae docetis, ut malitiam facile praesentis temporis evadatis. Nullus sane ad agrum exeat!

"Whom he himself addressed more religiously: "Have you not read -he says- what the divine authority has enjoined upon the sinning people through the prophet: 'Turn back to me with your whole heart, in fasting and in weeping,' and after a few [words]: 'Sanctify' -he says- 'a fast, call an assembly, gather the church,' and the rest which follow? Therefore fulfill with worthy works the things which you teach, so that you may easily escape the malice of the present time. Let no one at all go out to the field!

Quasi locustas humana sollicitudine vetiturus, ne divina amplius indignatio provocetur!

As though about to forbid the locusts by human solicitude, lest the divine indignation be provoked further!

Nec mora, omnibus in ecclesia congregatis, unusquisque in ordine suo psallebat ex more. Omnis aetas et sexus, qui etiam voce non poterat, precem deo fletibus offerebat, elemosynae fieri non cessabant, quicquid bonorum operum praesens necessitas exigebat, sicut famulus Dei praeceperat, implebatur. Omnibus igitur huiusce modi studiis occupatis, quidam pauperrimus opus Dei coeptum deserens ad agrum propriae segetis invisendi causa, quae perparva inter aliorum sata iacebat, egressus est totoque anxius die locustarum nubem impendentem, qua potuit, exturbavit industria moxque ecclesiam communicaturus intravit, sed segetem eius exiguam, multis vicinorum circumdatam frugibus, locustarum densitas devoravit.

And without delay, with all gathered in the church, each in his own order was chanting psalms according to custom. Every age and sex, even whoever could not with the voice, was offering prayer to God with tears; alms did not cease to be made; whatever the present necessity required of good works was being fulfilled, just as the servant of God had prescribed. Therefore, with all occupied in studies of this kind, a certain very poor man, deserting the work of God that had been begun, went out for the purpose of visiting the field of his own crop, which, very small, lay among the sowings of others, and for the whole anxious day he drove off, by such exertion as he could, the impending cloud of locusts; and soon he entered the church intending to communicate, but the scanty crop of his, surrounded by the many crops of the neighbors, a dense swarm of locusts devoured.

Quibus ea nocte ab illis finibus exterminatis imperio divino probatum est, quanti valeat fidelis oratio. Mane quippe sancti operis temerator atque contemptor rursus ad agrum suum, male securus, egrediens eum locustarum pernicie funditus invenit abrasum et omnium circumquaque sationes integras. Vehementer admirans ad castellum luctuosa vociferatione revertitur, cumque id, quod acciderat, indicasset, ad huiusce modi videndum cuncti exiere miraculum, ubi quasi ad lineam regularem contumacis hominis segetem locustarum morsus ostenderant.

With them, that night, having been driven out from those borders by divine command, it was proven how much a faithful prayer avails. For in the morning the violator and despiser of the holy work, going out again to his field, recklessly secure, found it utterly scraped bare by the ruin of the locusts, while the sowings of all round about were intact. Greatly marveling, he returns to the stronghold with a mournful outcry, and when he had made known what had happened, all went out to see a miracle of this sort, where, as if along a straight rule-line, the bites of the locusts had delineated the contumacious man’s crop.

Tunc, omnium vestigiis provolutus, intercessionibus eorum delicti sui veniam fusa lamentatione poscebat. Ob quam rem monendi occasionem homo Dei reperiens docebat universos, ut omnipotenti Domino discerent oboedire, cuius imperiis obtemperant et locustae. Pauper vero praedictus flebiliter allegabat posse se mandatis oboedire de cetero, si ulla sibi spes, qua viveret, remansisset.

Then, prostrate at the footsteps of all, he begged through their intercessions for pardon of his delict, with lamentation poured forth. On account of this matter the man of God, finding an occasion for admonishing, was teaching everyone to learn to obey the omnipotent Lord, whose commands even the locusts obey. But the aforesaid poor man tearfully pleaded that he could obey the mandates henceforth, if any hope by which he might live had remained to him.

Tunc ergo vir Dei ceteros allocutus: "Iustum est -inquit- ut, qui proprio supplicio humilitatis vobis et oboedientiae dedit exemplum, liberalitate vestra anni praesentis alimenta percipiat." Collatione itaque fidelium et correptus homo pauperrimus et ditatus didicit, quantum dispendii incredulitas inferat, quantum beneficii suis cultoribus conferat divina largitio.

Then therefore the man of God, having addressed the rest: "It is just -he said- that he who by his own chastisement has given to you an example of humility and obedience should, by your liberality, receive the sustenance of the present year." By a contribution of the faithful, therefore, the very poor man, both corrected and enriched, learned how much loss incredulity brings in, and how much benefit divine largess confers upon its worshipers.

XIII. Item iuxta oppidum, quod Iuvao appellabatur, cum quadam die intrantes basilicam aestatis tempore sollemnitatem vespere reddituri ad accendenda luminaria ignem minime repperissent, flammam concussis ex more lapidibus elicere nequiverunt, in tantum alterutra ferri ac petrae conlisione tardantes, ut tempus vespertinae sollemnitatis efflueret. At vir Dei genibus humi fixis orabat attentius.

13. Likewise, near the town which was called Iuvao, when on a certain day, entering the basilica in summertime, intending to render the solemnity in the evening, they had by no means found fire for lighting the lamps, they were unable to elicit a flame by stones struck in the customary manner, delaying so much with the collision of iron and stone, one against the other, that the time of the evening solemnity ebbed away. But the man of God, with his knees fixed to the ground, prayed more attentively.

Mox igitur in conspectu trium spiritalium virorum, qui aderant tunc, cereus, quem manu idem sanctus Severinus tenebat, accensus est. Quo lucente, sacrificio vespertini temporis ex more suppleto, gratiae Deo referuntur in omnibus. Quod factum licet memoratos, qui huic interfuere miraculo, celare voluerit sicut multa magnalia, quae per illum divinis sunt effectibus celebrata, claritas tamen tantae virtutis occultari non potuit, sed ad magnam fidem ceteros excellenter accendit.

Soon therefore, in the sight of three spiritual men who were present then, the wax candle which the same holy Severinus was holding in his hand was kindled. While it was shining, the sacrifice of the evening time, according to custom, having been supplied, thanksgivings are rendered to God in all things. Although he wished the aforementioned, who had been present at this miracle, to conceal this deed—just as many great marvels which through him were celebrated by divine effects—yet the brightness of so great a virtue could not be hidden, but excellently enkindled the others to great faith.

XIV. Accidit etiam eiusdem loci quandam mulierem diuturno langore vexatam iacere seminecem, exequiis iam paratis, cuius proximi, maesto silentio, voces funereas quodam fidei clamore presserunt et ante ostium cellulae sancti viri corpus iam paene exanime deposuere languentis. Videns itaque homo Dei clausum aditum oppositione lectuli ait ad eos: "Quidnam est, quod facere voluistis?" Responderunt: "Vt oratione tua vitae reddatur exanimis." Tunc ipse lacrimabundus: "Quid -inquit- a parvo magna deposcitis?

14. It also befell that, in the same place, a certain woman, vexed by a long-continued languor, lay half-dead, the obsequies already prepared; whose next of kin, in mournful silence, suppressed the funereal voices with a certain clamor of faith, and before the door of the little cell of the holy man they laid down the body of the ailing woman, now almost exanimate. Seeing, therefore, that the entrance was shut by the interposition of the litter, the man of God said to them: "What is it that you wished to do?" They replied: "That by your prayer the lifeless one may be given back to life." Then he himself, tearful: "Why—he says—do you demand great things from a little one?"

Agnosco me prorsus indignum. Vtinam merear veniam pro meis peccatis invenire!" Et illi: "Credimus -inquiunt- quod, si oraveris, reviviscet." Tunc sanctus Severinus, fusis ilico lacrimis, in oratione prostratus est et, muliere protinus assurgente, allocutus est eos: "Nolite quicquam horum meis operibus applicare: hanc enim gratiam fidei vestrae fervor emeruit, et hoc fit in multis locis et gentibus, ut cognoscatur, quod unus sit Deus, faciens in caelo et in terra prodigia, excitans perditos in salutem et mortuos vitae restituens." Mulier vero, sanitate recepta, opus agrale die tertio iuxta morem provinciae propriis manibus coepit exercere.

I acknowledge myself utterly unworthy. Would that I might deserve to find pardon for my sins!" And they: "We believe —they say— that, if you pray, she will come back to life." Then Saint Severinus, tears immediately poured forth, was prostrated in prayer and, with the woman straightway rising up, addressed them: "Do not apply any of these things to my works: for the fervor of your faith has merited this grace, and this is done in many places and among many peoples, so that it may be known that God is one, doing prodigies in heaven and on earth, rousing the lost into salvation and restoring the dead to life." The woman, however, health having been recovered, on the third day, according to the custom of the province, began to exercise agrarian work with her own hands.

XV. Quintanis appellabatur secundarum municipium Raetiarum, super ripam Danuvii situm: huic ex alia parte parvus fluvius, cui Businca nomen est, propinquabat. Is crebra inundatione Danuvii superfluentis excrescens nonnulla castelli spatia, quia in plano fundatum fuerat, occupabat. Ecclesiam etiam loci eius mansores extra muros ex lignis habuere constructam, quae pendula extensione porrecta defixis in altum stipitibus sustentabatur et furculis, cui ad vicem soli tabularum erat levigata coniunctio, quam, quotiens ripas excessisset, aqua superfluens occupabat.

15. Quintanis was called a municipium of Raetia Secunda, situated upon the bank of the Danube: to this, on the other side, a small river, whose name is Businca, drew near. This, swelling with the frequent inundation of the overflowing Danube, would occupy several areas of the fort, because it had been founded on level ground. The inhabitants of that place also had a church built out of wood outside the walls, which, projected in a pendulous extension, was supported by posts sunk deep and by forked props, for which, in lieu of a floor, there was a smoothed conjunction of planks—a structure which the overflowing water would occupy whenever it had exceeded its banks.

Quintanensium itaque fide sanctus Severinus illuc fuerat invitatus. Vbi, cum tempore siccitatis venisset, interrogat, cur tabulata nudatis obstaculorum tegminibus apparerent. Accolae responderunt, quod frequenti fluminis alluvione, quicquid fuisset superstratum, continuo laberetur.

Thus, by the faith of the people of Quintanis, Saint Severinus had been invited thither. There, when he had come at a time of drought, he asks why the plank-works appeared with the coverings of the obstacles stripped bare. The inhabitants replied that, by the frequent alluvion of the river, whatever had been overlaid would straightway slip down.

At ipse: "Sternatur -inquit- super tabulata nunc in Christi nomine pavimentum: iam videbitis amodo fluvium caelesti iussione prohibitum." Pavimento itaque perfecto, ipse subter navi descendens accepta securi postes, facta oratione, percussit atque ad aquam fluminis venerandae crucis expresso signaculo dixit: "Non te sinit Dominus meus Iesus Christus hoc signum crucis excedere." Ex illo itaque tempore, cum ex more fluvius crevisset in cumulos ambissetque viciniam, quam solebat, ita spatiis ecclesiae erat inferius, ut numquam sancti patibuli signaculum, quod impresserat homo Dei, prorsus excederet.

But he himself: "Let a pavement be laid -he said- over the planking now in the name of Christ: now you will see henceforth the river prohibited by a heavenly injunction." Therefore, the pavement having been completed, he himself, descending beneath the nave and, an axe having been taken, struck the posts; and, a prayer having been made, with the sign of the venerable cross impressed toward the water of the river he said: "My Lord Jesus Christ does not allow you to go beyond this sign of the cross." From that time, therefore, when in its wonted way the river had swelled into heaps and had encircled the neighborhood, as it was accustomed, it was so lower than the spaces of the church that never did it at all overpass the sign of the holy cross which the man of God had imprinted.

XVI. Accidit autem, ut castelli presbyter memorati admodum venerabilis, Silvinus nomine, moreretur, et cum in ecclesia feretro posito noctem psallentes duxissent ex more pervigilem, iam clarescente diluculo rogavit vir Dei fessos presbyteros et diacones universos parumper abscedere, ut post laborem vigiliarum somno se aliquantulum recrearent. Quibus egressis homo Dei ostiarium, Maternum nomine, interrogat, utrum omnes, ut dixerat, abscessissent.

16. It happened, moreover, that the presbyter of the aforesaid little fortress, very venerable, by name Silvinus, died; and when, with the bier placed in the church, they had led, singing psalms, the customary all-night vigil, with dawn now growing bright the man of God asked the weary presbyters and all the deacons to withdraw for a little while, that after the labor of the vigils they might refresh themselves somewhat with sleep. When they had gone out, the man of God asks the doorkeeper, Maternus by name, whether all, as he had said, had withdrawn.

At illo respondente cunctos abisse: "Nequaquam -alt- sed latet hic quaedam." Tunc ianitor ecclesiae saepta secundo perlustrans nullum intra ea remansisse testatur. Verum Christi miles Domino sibi revelante: "Nescio quis -ait- hic delitescit." Tertio itaque diligentius perscrutans quandam invenit virginem consecratam locis se occultioribus abdidisse. Hanc ergo memoratus sic increpavit aedituus: "Cur istic famulo Dei posito tuam credideras potuisse latere praesentiam?" At illa: "Pietatis -inquit- amor talia me facere persuasit: videns enim cunctos foras expelli cogitavi mecum, quod servus Christi, invocata divina maiestate, praesentem mortuum suscitaret." Exeunte igitur memorata virgine homo Dei cum presbytero et diacono ianitoribusque duobus in oratione curvatus oravit fletu largissimo, ut opus solitae malestatis superna virtus ostenderet.

But when he answered that all had gone away: "By no means -alt- but a certain woman lies hidden here." Then the doorkeeper of the church, traversing the enclosures a second time, declared that no one had remained within them. But the soldier of Christ, the Lord revealing it to him: "Some unknown person -he says- is lurking here." So, searching more carefully a third time, he found that a certain consecrated virgin had concealed herself in more hidden places. Therefore the aforesaid sacristan thus rebuked her: "Why did you think that, with the servant of God placed here, your presence could lie hidden?" But she: "Love of piety -she says- persuaded me to do such things: for seeing that all were being driven outside, I thought to myself that the servant of Christ, the divine majesty invoked, would raise the dead man here present." Therefore, with the aforesaid virgin going out, the man of God, with the presbyter and the deacon and the two doorkeepers, bowed in prayer, prayed with very abundant weeping, that the heavenly power would show the work of its wonted majesty.

Tunc orationem complente presbytero, ita cadaver vir beatus alloquitur: "In nomine Domini nostri Iesu Christi, Sancte Presbyter Silvine, loquere cum fratribus tuis." At ubi oculos defunctus aperuit, vix praesentibus homo Dei tacere prae gaudio persuasit. Et denuo ad eum: "Vis -inquit- rogemus Dominum, ut te adhuc servis suis in hac vita condonare dignetur?" At ille ait: "Per Dominum te coniuro, ne hic diutius tenear et frauder quiete perpetua, in qua me esse cernebam." Statimque, reddita oratione, quievit exanimis. Hoc autem factum ita sancti Severini adiuratione celatum est, ut ante mortem eius non potuisset agnosci.

Then, the presbyter having completed the prayer, thus does the blessed man address the corpse: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Saint Presbyter Silvinus, speak with your brothers." But when the deceased opened his eyes, the man of God scarcely persuaded those present to keep silence for joy. And again to him: "Do you wish -he says- that we should ask the Lord, that he deign to grant you still to his servants in this life?" But he said: "By the Lord I adjure you, do not let me be held here any longer and be defrauded of the perpetual rest in which I perceived myself to be." And immediately, the prayer having been rendered, he rested lifeless. Moreover, this deed was so concealed by the adjuration of Saint Severinus, that before his death it could not have been recognized.

Ego tamen haec, quae retuli, Marci subdiaconi et Materni ianitoris relatione cognovi. Nam presbyter et diaconus, tanti testes miraculi, ante virum sanctum, cui iuraverant nulli se, quod viderant, prodituros, obisse noscuntur.

I, however, learned these things which I have related by the relation of Mark the subdeacon and Maternus the janitor. For the presbyter and the deacon, witnesses of so great a miracle, are known to have died before the holy man, to whom they had sworn that they would reveal to no one what they had seen.

XVII. Talibus igitur beatus Severinus per Christi gratiam muneribus opulentus captivorum etiam egenorumque tantam curam ingenita sibi pietate susceperat, ut paene omnes per universa oppida vel castella pauperes ipsius industria pascerentur: quibus tam laeta sollicitudine ministrabat, ut tunc se crederet tantummodo saturari vel abundare bonis omnibus, quando videbat egentum corpora sustentari. Et cum ipse hebdomadarum continuatis ieiunlis minime frangeretur, tamen esurie miserorum se credebat afflictum.

17. With such things, therefore, the blessed Severinus, opulent with gifts through Christ’s grace, had undertaken so great a care for captives and even for the needy, by a piety inborn to him, that nearly all the poor throughout all towns or castles were fed by his industry: he ministered to them with such joyful solicitude that he then believed himself only to be sated or to abound in all goods when he saw the bodies of the destitute sustained. And although he himself was in no wise broken by the continued fasts of weeks, nevertheless he believed himself afflicted by the hunger of the wretched.

Cuius largitionem tam plam in pauperes plurimi contemplantes, quamvis ex duro barbarorum imperio famis angustias sustinerent, devotissime frugum suarum decimas pauperibus impendebant. Quod mandatum licet cunctis ex lege notissimum, tamen quasi ex ore angeli praesentis audirent, grata devotione servabant. Frigus quoque vir Dei tantum in nuditate pauperum sentiebat, siquidem specialiter a deo perceperat, ut in frigidissima regione, mirabili abstinentia castigatus, fortis et alacer permaneret.

Very many, contemplating so manifest a largess toward the poor, although they were enduring the straits of famine under the harsh dominion of the barbarians, most devoutly expended the tithes of their crops upon the poor. Although that commandment is most well-known to all from the Law, yet they kept it with grateful devotion, as if they were hearing it from the mouth of a present angel. The man of God also felt the cold so much in the nakedness of the poor, since he had received specially from God that, in a most frigid region, disciplined by wondrous abstinence, he should remain strong and lively.

Pro decimis autem, ut diximus, dandis, quibus pauperes alerentur, Norici quoque populos missis exhortabatur epistolis. Ex qua consuetudine cum ad eum nonnullam erogandarum vestium copiam direxissent, interrogavit eos, qui venerant, si ex oppido quoque Tiburniae similis collatio mitteretur. Respondentibus etiam inde protinus affuturos, vir Dei nequaquam eos venire signavit, sed dilatam eorum oblationem praedixit barbaris offerendam.

Moreover, for the tithes, as we have said, to be given, by which the poor might be nourished, he exhorted the Norican peoples as well by epistles sent. From this consuetude, when they had dispatched to him some supply of garments to be disbursed, he asked those who had come whether from the town of Tiburnia also a similar collation would be sent. When they replied that even from there they would be present forthwith, the man of God signified that they would by no means come, but foretold that their oblation, delayed, would be offered to the barbarians.

Itaque non multo post cives Tiburniae vario cum obsidentibus Gothis certamine dimicantes vix inita foederis pactione inter cetera etiam largitionem iam in unum collatam, quam mittere famulo Dei distulerant, hostibus obtulerunt.

And so, not much later, the citizens of Tiburnia, fighting in a varied contest with the besieging Goths, with the compact of a treaty scarcely entered into, among other things also offered to the enemies the largess already collated into one, which they had deferred to send to the servant of God.

XVIII. Cives quoque ex oppido Lauriaco crebra quondam sancti Severini exhortatione commoniti frugum decimas pauperibus offerre distulerant. Quibus fame constrictis, iam maturitate messium flavescente vicina subsidia monstrabantur.

18. The citizens also from the town of Lauriaco, once admonished by the frequent exhortation of Saint Severinus, had deferred to offer the tithes of produce to the poor. When they were constrained by famine, now with the maturity of the harvests yellowing, nearby aid was being shown.

At ubi rubiginis inprovisae corruptio frugibus nocitura comparvit, mox ad ipsum convenere prostrati, poenas suae contumaciae confitentes. Miles vero Christi fessos verbis spiritalibus allevabat dicens: "Si decimas obtulissetis pauperibus, non solum aeterna mercede frueremini, verum etiam commodis possetis abundare praesentibus. Sed quia culpam confessione propria castigatis, de Domini pietate polliceor, quod rubigo praesens tam valida penitus non nocebit: tantum fides vestra ulterius non vacillet." Verum cives ad persolvendas ex illo decimas haec promissio reddidit promptiores.

But when the corruption of unforeseen rust, about to harm the crops, appeared, they soon came to him prostrate, confessing the penalties of their contumacy. But the soldier of Christ was alleviating the weary with spiritual words, saying: "If you had offered tithes to the poor, you would not only enjoy eternal reward, but you could also abound in present commodities. But since you chastise your fault by your own confession, I pledge on the Lord’s piety that the present rust, so potent, will not utterly harm: only let your faith not waver further." In truth, from that time this promise rendered the citizens more prompt to pay the tithes.

Tunc, ut solebat, hortatus est indici ieiunium: quo expleto placidus imber desperatae messis amputavit incommoda.

Then, as he was accustomed, he urged that a fast be proclaimed: when this was completed, a placid shower removed the incommodities of the despaired-of harvest.

XIX. Batavis appellatur oppidum inter utraque flumina, Aenum videlicet atque Danuvium, constitutum, ubi beatus Severinus cellulam paucis monachis solito more fundaverat, eo quod ipse illuc saepius rogatus a civibus adveniret, maxime propter Alamannorum incursus assiduos, quorum rex Gibuldus summa eum reverentia diligebat. Qui etiam quodam tempore ad eum videndum desideranter occurrit.

19. A town called Batavis is situated between the two rivers, namely the Aenus and the Danube, where the blessed Severinus, in his customary manner, had founded a little cell with a few monks, because he himself often came thither, invited by the citizens, chiefly on account of the assiduous incursions of the Alamanni, whose king Gibuldus cherished him with the highest reverence. He also at one time eagerly came to meet him to see him.

Cui sanctus obviam, ne adventu suo eandem civitatem praegravaret, egressus est, tantaque constantia regem est allocutus, ut tremere coram eo vehementius coeperit, secedensque suis exercitibus indicavit numquam se nec in re bellica nec aliqua formidine tanto fuisse tremore concussum. Cumque Dei famulo daret optionem imperandi, quae vellet, rogavit doctor piissimus, ut sibi potius praestaturus gentem suam a Romana vastatione cohiberet et captivos, quos sui tenuerant, gratanter absolveret. Tunc rex constituit, ut ex suis aliquem dirigeret ad id opus maturius exsequendum, statimque missus Amantius diaconus e vestigio regem subsequitur eiusque pro foribus excubans multis diebus non potuit nuntiari.

To meet him the holy man went out, lest by his arrival he overburden the same city, and he addressed the king with such constancy that he began to tremble more vehemently before him; and withdrawing to his armies he declared that never either in a matter of war or through any fear had he been shaken by so great a trembling. And when he gave to the servant of God the option of commanding what he wished, the most pious teacher asked that, rather to do him a kindness, he would restrain his nation from Roman devastation and graciously absolve the captives whom his men had held. Then the king determined to dispatch one of his own to carry out that task more expeditiously, and immediately the deacon Amantius, having been sent, follows the king on his very track; and keeping watch before his doors for many days he could not be announced.

Cui re, pro qua directus fuerat, non peracta, tristissimo revertenti apparuit quidam, effigiem sancti praeferens Severini, qui cum minaci compellatione perterritum sequi se iussit. Cumque pavens et concitus sequeretur, pervenit ad ianuam regis statimque dux ille praevius ex oculis mirantis evanuit. Verum regis internuntius diaconem, unde esset vel quid speraret, interrogat.

To him, with the matter for which he had been dispatched not accomplished, as he was returning most sorrowful, there appeared a certain man, bearing the effigy of Saint Severinus, who, with a menacing address, ordered the thoroughly terrified man to follow him. And when, trembling and
agitated, he followed, he came to the door of the king, and immediately that leader going before vanished from the eyes of the amazed. But the king’s intermediary asks the deacon whence he was or what he was hoping for.

Ille rem breviter insinuans, oblatis regi receptisque epistolis remeavit. Dimissus igitur revexit fere septuaginta captivos, insuper promissionem regis gratam deferens, qua spopondit se, cum diligenter provinciam peragraverit, remissurum, quantos in eadem reperturus fuisset numeros captivorum.

He, briefly insinuating the matter, with the epistles having been offered to the king and received back, returned. Therefore, having been dismissed, he carried back nearly seventy captives, moreover bearing the king’s pleasing promise, by which he pledged that, when he had diligently traversed the province, he would remit as many numbers of captives as he should find in the same.

Pro qua re postmodum sanctus Lucillus presbyter destinatus magnam miserorum copiam a captivitate revocavit.

For which reason, afterward Saint Lucillus the presbyter, having been appointed, recalled a great multitude of the miserable from captivity.

XX. Per idem tempus, quo Romanum constabat imperium, multorum milites oppidorum pro custodia limitis publicis stipendiis alebantur. Qua consuetudine desinente simul militares turmae sunt deletae cum limite, Batavino utcumque numero perdurante. Ex quo perrexerant quidam ad Italiam extremum stipendium commilitonibus allaturi, quos in itinere peremptos a barbaris nullus agnoverat.

20. At the same time, when the Roman empire stood firm, soldiers of many towns were sustained by public stipends for the custody of the limit. With that custom ceasing, at once the military squadrons were erased along with the limit, the Batavian number somehow enduring. From which some had gone on to Italy to bring the final stipend to their fellow-soldiers, whom, slain on the journey by barbarians, no one had recognized.

Quadam ergo die, dum in sua cellula sanctus legeret Severinus, subito clauso codice cum magno coepit lacrimare suspirio. Astantes iubet ad fluvium properanter excurrere, quem in illa hora humano firmabat cruore respergi, statimque nuntiatum est corpora praefatorum militum fluminis impetu ad terram fuisse delata.

Therefore on a certain day, while Saint Severinus was reading in his own cell, suddenly, the codex having been closed, he began to weep with a great suspiration. He orders those standing by to run out promptly to the river, which he affirmed was at that hour being spattered with human gore; and immediately it was announced that the bodies of the aforementioned soldiers had been borne to land by the river’s impetus.

XXI. Paulinus quidam presbyter ad sanctum Severinum, fama eius latius excurrente, pervenerat. Hic in consortio beati viri diebus aliquot remoratus, cum redire vellet, audivit ab eo: "Festina, venerabilis presbyter, quia cito dilectionem tuam, populorum desideriis, ut credimus, obluctantem, dignitas episcopatus ornabit." Moxque remeante ad patriam sermo in eo praedicentis impletus est.

21. A certain presbyter Paulinus had come to Saint Severinus, as his fame ran more widely. This man, having lingered for several days in the consortium of the blessed man, when he wished to return, heard from him: "Make haste, venerable presbyter, for soon your Love, struggling—so we believe—against the desires of the peoples, the dignity of the episcopate will adorn." And soon, as he returned to his fatherland, the word of the one preaching concerning him was fulfilled.

Nam cives Tiburniae, quae est metropolis Norici, coegerunt praedictum virum summi sacerdotii suscipere principatum.

For the citizens of Tiburnia, which is the metropolis of Noricum, compelled the aforesaid man to assume the principate of the highest priesthood.

XXII. Basilicae extra muros oppidi Batavini in loco nomine Boiotro, trans Aenum fluvium constitutae, ubi cellulam paucis monachis ipse construxerat, martyrum reliquiae quaerebantur. Ingerentibus ergo se presbyteris, ut mitterentur ad sanctuaria deferenda, haec beatus Severinus monita proferebat: "Quamvis cuncta mortalium opere constructa praetereant, haec tamen aedificia prae ceteris celerrime relinquenda sunt." Et ideo pro reliquiis sanctorum nullum laborem debere suscipere, quia ultro eis sancti Iohannis benedictio deferetur.

22. At the basilicas outside the walls of the town of Batavis, in a place named Boiotro, situated across the river Aenus, where he himself had built a little cell for a few monks, relics of martyrs were being sought. Therefore, as the presbyters were thrusting themselves forward, that they be sent to carry them to the sanctuaries, the blessed Severinus was bringing forth these admonitions: "Although all things constructed by the work of mortals pass away, yet these edifices, before the rest, must most swiftly be abandoned." And therefore for the relics of the saints no labor ought to be undertaken, because of its own accord for them the blessing of Saint John will be conveyed.

Interea beatum virum cives oppidi memorati suppliciter adierunt, ut pergens ad Febanum, Rugorum principem, mercandi eis licentiam postularet. Quibus ipse: "Tempus -inquit- huius oppidi propinquavit, ut desertum sicut cetera superiora castella, cultore destituta, remaneat. Quid ergo necesse est locis mercimonia providere, ubi ultra non poterit apparere mercator?" Respondentibus illis non se debere contemni, sed consueto sublevari regimine quidam presbyter haec, diabolico spiritu repletus, adiecit: "Perge, quaeso, sancte, perge velociter, ut tuo discessu parumper a ieiuniis et vigillis quiescamus." Quo dicto vir Dei lacrimis urguebatur ingentibus, quod in ridiculam vanitatem, cunctis audientibus, sacerdos eruperit.

Meanwhile the citizens of the aforesaid town approached the blessed man suppliantly, that, going to Febanus, prince of the Rugians, he would ask for them a license for trading. To whom he himself: "The time"—he says—"of this town has drawn near, that it may remain deserted, like the other upper forts, left without an inhabitant. What need, therefore, is there to provide merchandise for places where a merchant will no longer be able to appear?" When they answered that they ought not to be despised, but to be supported by the accustomed governance, a certain presbyter, filled with a diabolic spirit, added these things: "Go on, I beg, holy one, go on quickly, so that by your departure we may rest for a little from fasts and vigils." At this word the man of God was overwhelmed with huge tears, that the priest, in the hearing of all, had burst forth into ridiculous vanity.

Aperta namque scurrilitas latentium est testificatio delictorum. Sanctus itaque vir, cur ita fleret, interrogatus a fratribus: "Video -inquit- plagam gravissimam, nobis absentibus, huic loco protinus eventuram, et Christi sacraria, quod non sine gemitu cogor exprimere, humano sanguine redundabunt in tantum, ut etiam locus iste violandus sit." Nam in baptisterio loquebatur. Ad antiquum itaque et omnibus maius monasterium suum iuxta muros oppidi Favianis, quod centum et ultra milibus aberat, Danuvii navigatione descendit.

For open scurrility is a testimony of latent delicts. Therefore the holy man, asked by the brothers why he wept thus, said: "I see a most grievous plague, with us absent, about to befall this place forthwith; and the sanctuaries of Christ—which I am compelled to express not without a groan—will overflow with human blood to such an extent that even this place must be violated." For he was speaking in the baptistery. Therefore to his ancient monastery, greater than all, near the walls of the town at Favianis, which was a hundred and more miles distant, he went down by a voyage on the Danube.

Mox igitur eo discedente Hunumundus paucis barbaris comitatus oppidum, ut sanctus praedixerat, Batavis invasit ac, paene cunctis mansoribus in messe detentis, quadraginta viros oppidi, qui ad custodiam remanserant, interemit. Presbyterum quoque illum, qui tam sacrilega contra famulum Christi in baptisterio fuerat elocutus, ad eundem locum confugientem insequentes barbari peremerunt. Frustra enim illuc offenso Deo veritatis inimicus accessit, ubi tam impudenter excesserat.

Soon therefore, upon his departing, Hunumundus, accompanied by a few barbarians, invaded the town of Batavis, as the saint had foretold, and, with almost all the dwellers detained at the harvest, slew forty men of the town who had remained for its guard. That presbyter too, who had spoken so sacrilegiously against the servant of Christ in the baptistery, the pursuing barbarians killed as he was fleeing for refuge to that same place. For in vain did the enemy of the Truth, with God offended, approach thither, where he had so impudently transgressed.

XXIII. Igitur sanctissimus Severinus, dum in monasterio Favianis Evangelium legeret, oratione suppleta, consurgens scafam sibi iubet ilico praeparari et mirantibus ait: "Sit nomen Domini benedictum: sanctuariis beatorum martyrum nos oportet occurrere." Nec mora, transmeato Danuvio, inveniunt hominem considentem in ripa ulteriore fluminis ac multis eos precibus postulantem, ut ad servum Dei, ad quem, fama vulgante, olim venire cuperet, duceretur. Mox itaque ei Christi famulo demonstrato, suppliciter sancti Iohannis Baptistae reliquias optulit multis apud se servatas temporibus.

23. Therefore the most holy Severinus, while in the monastery at Favianis reading the Gospel, prayer having been completed, rising orders a skiff to be prepared for himself straightway, and, as they marveled, says: "Blessed be the name of the Lord: it behooves us to go meet the sanctuaries of the blessed martyrs." Nor was there delay: the Danube having been crossed, they find a man sitting on the further bank of the river and beseeching them with many prayers that he be led to the servant of God, to whom, rumor spreading, he had long desired to come. Soon therefore, the servant of Christ having been pointed out to him, he humbly offered relics of Saint John the Baptist, kept in his possession for many years.

Quas Dei servus debita veneratione suscipiens basilicam sancti Iohannis, sicut praedixerat, ultronea benedictione collata sacravit officio sacerdotum.

Which the servant of God, receiving with due veneration, consecrated the basilica of Saint John, as he had foretold, with a spontaneous benediction conferred by the office of the priests.

XXIV. Ad habitatores praeterea oppidi, quod Ioviaco, vocabatur, viginti et amplius a Batavis milibus disparatum, solita vir Dei revelatione commonitus, Moderatum nomine cantorem ecclesiae destinavit praecipiens, ut habitationem loci illius omnes sine cunctatione relinquerent: mox enim perituros fore, si contemnerent imperata. Aliis ergo de tanto praesagio dubitantibus, aliis prorsus non credentibus iterum misit Quintanensium quendam, cui et inlacrimans ait: "Perge velocius, denuntians eis: si hac ibidem nocte manserint, sine dilatione capientur." Sanctum quoque Maximianum spiritalis vitae presbyterum instantius imperat admoneri, ut saltem ipse, contemptoribus derelictis, properaret caelesti misericordia liberari: de quo sibi Dei famulus magnam dicebat inesse maestitiam, ne forte salutiferum differendo mandatum imminenti subiaceret exitio.

24. To the inhabitants moreover of the town, which was called Joviaco, separated by twenty and more miles from Batavis, warned by his accustomed revelation, the man of God dispatched Moderatus by name, the church’s cantor, instructing that all should, without hesitation, leave the habitation of that place: for soon they would perish, if they scorned the commands. Therefore, with some doubting such a great presage, others not believing at all, again he sent a certain man of the Quintanenses, to whom, even weeping, he said: "Go more swiftly, giving them notice: if they remain there this night, without delay they will be captured." He likewise more urgently orders that Saint Maximianus, presbyter of spiritual life, be admonished, that at least he himself, the despisers being left behind, should hasten to be freed by celestial mercy: about whom the servant of God said that there was great sadness within himself, lest perchance, by deferring the salutary command, he should be subjected to the impending destruction.

Praedictus itaque pergens imperata supplevit, et reliquis incredulitate nutantibus nuntius viri Dei presbytero retinenti se atque hospitalitatis gratiam praebere cupienti nullatenus adquievit. Qua nocte Heruli insperate protinus irruentes oppidumque vastantes plurimos duxere captivos, presbyterum memoratum patibulo suspendentes. Quo audito servus Dei graviter doluit praemonitos non curasse.

Accordingly the aforesaid man, setting out, fulfilled the commands; and while the rest were wavering in incredulity, the messenger of the man of God by no means acquiesced to the presbyter who was detaining him and wishing to offer the favor of hospitality. On that night the Heruli, unexpectedly rushing in at once and devastating the town, led very many away as captives, hanging the aforementioned presbyter on a gibbet. When this was heard, the servant of God grieved deeply that those forewarned had not cared to heed.

XXV. Deinde quidam de Norico, Maximus nomine, ad servum Dei frequentare solitus cum venisset et pro familiaritate, quam meruerat, in monasterio sancti viri diebus aliquot moraretur, eius informatur oraculis, patriam suam grave repente exitium subituram. Qui, acceptis litteris, ad sanctum Paulinum episcopum destinatis remeavit instantius.

25. Then a certain man from Noricum, by name Maximus, who was accustomed to frequent the servant of God, when he had come and, on account of the familiarity which he had merited, was staying for several days in the monastery of the holy man, is informed by his oracles that his fatherland is about to undergo a grievous sudden destruction. He, having received letters addressed to Saint Paulinus the bishop, returned the more urgently.

Igitur memoratus antistes litterarum tenore praestructus universa diocesis suae castella scriptis propriis vehementer admonuit, ut triduano ieiunio, quod litterae viri Dei signaverant, exitio venturae cladis occurrerent. Quibus iussa complentibus, terminato ieiunio, ecce Alamannorum copiosissima multitudo feraliter cuncta vastavit, castella vero nullum sensere periculum, quae lorica fidelis ieiunii et laudanda cordis humilitas per virum propheticum adversus hostium ferociam fidenter armaverat.

Therefore the aforesaid prelate, fortified beforehand by the tenor of the letters, vehemently admonished all the forts of his diocese by his own writings to forestall the ruin of the coming calamity by a three-day fast, which the letters of the man of God had designated. When they fulfilled the orders, with the fast concluded, behold, a most copious multitude of the Alamanni savagely laid everything waste; but the forts felt no danger at all—those which the faithful breastplate of fasting and the laudable humility of heart, through the prophetic man, had confidently armed against the enemies’ ferocity.

XXVI. Post haec leprosus quidam Mediolanensis territorii ad sanctum Severinum, fama eius invitante, perrexerat: hunc sanitatis remedia suppliciter implorantem, monachis suis indicto, ieiunio commendavit: qui continuo Dei gratia operante mundatus est. Cumque, recepta sanitate, redire suaderetur ad patriam, prostravit se pedibus sancti viri, petens, ne ulterius ad sua redire cogeretur, cupiens scilicet, ut lepram quoque peccatorum sicut carnis effugeret vitamque in eodem loco fine laudabili terminaret.

26. After these things a certain leper of the Milanese territory, invited by his fame, had gone to Saint Severinus: this man, suppliantly imploring remedies of health, he, a fast having been enjoined upon his monks, commended to fasting: who immediately, with the grace of God operating, was cleansed. And when, health recovered, he was being urged to return to his fatherland, he prostrated himself at the feet of the holy man, begging that he not be compelled any further to return to his own, desiring, to wit, that he might flee the leprosy of sins as he had of the flesh, and that he might terminate his life in the same place with a praiseworthy end.

Cuius animum religiosum vir Dei vehementer admirans paucis monachis paterna iussione praecepit, frequentatis cum eo ieiuniis, in oratione continua permanere, ut Dominus ei, quae essent opportuna, concederet. Tantis itaque remediis praemunitus intra duorum mensium spatium vitae mortalis est compedibus absolutus.

Whose religious spirit the man of God, vehemently admiring, by a paternal injunction instructed a few monks, with fasts frequently observed together with him, to remain in continual prayer, that the Lord might grant to him the things that were opportune. Thus, fortified beforehand by such great remedies, within the space of two months he was released from the shackles of mortal life.

XXVII. Eodem tempore mansores oppidi Quintanensis, creberrimis Alamannorum incursionibus iam defessi, sedes proprias relinquentes in Batavis oppidum migraverunt. Sed non latuit eosdem barbaros confugium praedictorum: qua causa plus inflammati sunt credentes, quod duorum populos oppidorum uno impetu praedarentur.

27. At the same time the residents of the town of Quintanensis, now wearied by the very frequent incursions of the Alamanni, abandoning their own seats, migrated into the town Batavis. But the refuge of the aforesaid did not escape those same barbarians: for which cause they were the more inflamed, believing that the populations of two towns would be plundered in a single onslaught.

Sed beatus Severinus orationi fortius incubans Romanos exemplis salutaribus multipliciter hortabatur, praenuntians hostes quidem praesentes Dei auxilio superandos, sed post victoriam eos, qui contemnerent eius monita, perituros. Igitur Romani omnes sancti viri praedictione firmati spe promissae victoriae adversus Alamannos instruxerunt aciem, non tam materialibus armis, quam sancti viri orationibus praemuniti. Qua congressione victis ac fugientibus Alamannis, vir Dei ita victores alloquitur: "Filii, ne vestris viribus palmam praesentis certaminis imputetis, scientes idcirco vos Dei nunc praesidio liberatos, ut hinc parvo intervallo temporis, quasi quibusdam concessis indutiis, discedatis.

But blessed Severinus, pressing more strongly upon prayer, exhorted the Romans in many ways with salutary examples, foretelling that the present enemies were to be overcome by the help of God, but that after the victory those who should despise his warnings would perish. Therefore all the Romans, strengthened by the prediction of the holy man, with the hope of the promised victory, drew up the battle line against the Alamanni, fortified not so much with material arms as with the prayers of the holy man. In which encounter, with the Alamanni defeated and fleeing, the man of God thus addresses the victors: "Sons, do not ascribe the palm of the present contest to your own forces, knowing that for this reason you have now been freed by God’s protection, that from here, after a small interval of time, as if with certain truces granted, you should withdraw.

Mecum itaque ad oppidum Lauriacum congregati descendite." Haec homo Dei plenus pietate commonuit. Sed Batavinis genitale solum relinquere dubitantibus sic adiecit: "Quamvis et illud oppidum, quo pergimus, ingruente barbarie sit quantocius relinquendum, hinc tamen nunc pariter discedamus." Talia commonentem secuti sunt plurimi, quidam vero reperti sunt contumaces, nec defuit contemptoribus gladius inimici. Quicumque enim ibidem contra hominis Dei interdicta manserunt, Thoringis irruentibus in eadem hebdomada alii quidem trucidati, alii in captivitatem deducti poenas dedere contemptui.

"Therefore, gathered together with me, go down to the town of Lauriacum." Thus the man of God, full of piety, admonished. But to the Batavians hesitating to leave their native soil he added thus: "Although even that town to which we are going, with the barbarian onrush impending, must be left as quickly as possible, yet from here for now let us depart together." Very many followed the one so admonishing, but some were found contumacious, nor was the enemy’s sword lacking for the despisers. For whoever there remained contrary to the interdicts of the man of God, with the Thuringians bursting in in the same week, some indeed were slaughtered, others led into captivity, paid the penalties for their contempt.

XXVII. Igitur post excidium oppidorum in superiore parte Danuvii omnem populum in Lauriacum oppidum transmigrantem, qui sancti Severini monitis paruerat, assiduis hortatibus praestruebat, ne in sua virtute confiderent, sed orationibus et ieiuniis atque elemosynis insistentes armis potius spiritalibus munirentur. Praeterea quadam die vir Dei cunctos pauperes in una basilica statuit congregari, oleum prout poscebat ratio largiturus: quam speciem in illis locis difficillima negotiatorum tantum deferebat evectio.

27. Therefore, after the destruction of the towns in the upper part of the Danube, he buttressed with assiduous exhortations all the people migrating into the town of Lauriacum, who had obeyed the counsels of Saint Severinus, that they should not trust in their own virtue, but, persevering in prayers and fasts and alms, should rather be fortified with spiritual arms. Moreover, on a certain day the man of God arranged that all the poor be gathered in one basilica, being about to bestow oil as reason demanded: which kind of ware, in those regions, only the very difficult conveyance of merchants used to bring in.

Igitur tamquam benedictionis accipiendae gratia maior egenorum turba confluxit: pretiosius quippe ibidem huius liquoris alimentum auxit turbam numerumque poscentium. Tunc vir beatus, oratione completa signoque crucis expresso, solitum sibi scripturae sanctae sermonem cunctis audientibus exprimens ait: "Sit nomen Domini benedictum." Tunc coepit oleum propria manu ministris implere portantibus, imitatus fidelis servus Dominum suum, qui non ministrari venerat, sed potius ministrare, sequensque vestigia Salvatoris gaudebat augeri materiem, quam officio dextrae sinistra nesciente fundebat. Completis quippe vasculis pauperum nihil minuebatur in manibus ministrantum.

Therefore, as if for the grace of receiving a benediction, a greater crowd of the destitute flowed together: for the more precious supply of this liquid in that place increased the throng and the number of petitioners. Then the blessed man, the prayer completed and the sign of the cross traced, expressing his accustomed discourse of Holy Scripture with all listening, said: "Let the name of the Lord be blessed." Then he began to pour out oil with his own hand for the attendants who were carrying, imitating the faithful servant his Lord, who had not come to be ministered unto, but rather to minister; and following the footsteps of the Savior he rejoiced that the material was being increased, which, in the office of his right hand, his left not knowing, he was pouring forth. For when the little vessels of the poor were filled, nothing was diminished in the hands of the attendants.

Tantum igitur Dei beneficium dum circumstantes tacite mirarentur, unus eorum, cui nomen erat Plentissimus, nimio stupore perterritus exclamavit: "Domine mi, crescit hic cacabus olei et in modum fontis exundat." Sic liquor ille gratissimus prodita virtute subtractus est. Statim Christi famulus exclamans ait: "Quid fecisti, frater? Obstruxisti commoda plurimorum: ignoscat tibi Dominus Iesus Christus." Sic aliquando mulier vidua debitis onerata Helisei prophetae iussis instruitur ex olei stilla, quam habebat, vasa replere quam plurima.

Therefore, while those standing around were silently marveling at so great a benefaction of God, one of them, whose name was Plentissimus, terrified by excessive stupefaction, cried out: "My lord, this cauldron of oil is increasing and overflows in the manner of a fountain." Thus that most welcome liquid, once its virtue had been laid bare, was withdrawn. At once the servant of Christ, crying out, said: "What have you done, brother? You have obstructed the advantages of very many: may the Lord Jesus Christ forgive you." So likewise once a widow, burdened with debts, is instructed at the orders of the prophet Elisha to fill very many vessels from the drop of oil that she had.

Quod cum fecisset et adhuc a filiis vasa deposceret, ubi audivit defecisse numerum vasorum, mox stetit et oleum.

When she had done this and was still demanding vessels from her sons, when she heard that the number of the vessels had failed, at once the oil also stopped.

XXIX. Per idem tempus Maximus Noricensis, cuius fecimus in superioribus mentionem, fidei calore succensus media hieme, qua regionis illius itinera gelu torpente clauduntur, ad beatum Severinum audaci temeritate vel magis, ut post claruit, intrepida devotione venire contendit, conductis plurimis comitibus, qui collo suo vestes captivis et pauperibus profuturas, quas Noricorum religiosa collatio profligaverat, baiularent. Itaque profecti ad summa Alpium cacumina pervenerunt, ubi per totam noctem nix tanta confluxit, ut eos magnae arboris protectione vallatos velut ingens fovea demersos includeret.

29. At the same time Maximus the Norican, of whom we made mention above, inflamed with the heat of faith, in midwinter, when the roads of that region are closed by frost benumbing, strove to come to the blessed Severinus with audacious temerity, or rather—as afterward became clear—with intrepid devotion, having hired very many companions, who might bear on their necks garments to be of use for captives and the poor, which the religious contribution of the Noricans had supplied. And so, having set out, they reached the highest summits of the Alps, where through the whole night so great a snow flowed together that, walled around by the protection of a great tree, it enclosed them as if sunk in a huge pit.

Et cum de vita sua penitus desperarent, nullo scilicet subveniente remedio, vidit ductor comitum per soporem quendam in effigie viri Dei stantem ac dicentem sibi: "Nolite timere, pergite quo coepistis." Hac ergo revelatione protinus animati cum coepissent fide magis quam gressibus proficisci, subito, divino nutu, ingentis formae ursus e latere veniens viam monstraturus apparuit, qui se tempore hiemis speluncis abdere consuevit. Mox cupitum reserat iter et per ducenta ferme milia non ad sinistram devians, non ad dexteram, viam demonstravit optabilem. Tanta enim eos intercapedine praecedebat, quanta recenti vestigio semitam praepararet.

And when they utterly despaired of their life, with no remedy, to be sure, coming to their aid, the leader of the companions saw in sleep a certain one standing in the effigy of the man of God and saying to him: "Do not be afraid, go on where you have begun." Therefore, straightway animated by this revelation, when they had begun to make progress more by faith than by steps, suddenly, by a divine nod, a bear of huge form, coming from the side to show the way, appeared, who in the winter season is accustomed to hide himself in caves. Forthwith he unbars the desired route, and for almost 200 miles, deviating neither to the left nor to the right, he showed an desirable way. For he was going before them by just so great an interval as, by his fresh footprint, he prepared the footpath.

Itaque progrediens bestia per heremi vastitatem viros, qui egenis deferebant solacia, non reliquit, sed usque ad habitacula hominum qua potuit humanitate perduxit et mox in unam partem officio divertit expleto, ostendens tanto ducatus officio, quid homines hominibus praestare debeant, quantum caritatis impendere, cum desperantibus iter bestia saeva monstraverit. Igitur cum servo Dei nuntiarentur, qui venerant, ait: "Sit Nomen Domini Benedictum. Ingrediantur, quibus viam, qua venirent, ursus aperuit." Quo audito illi stupore nimio mirabantur virum Dei referre id, quod in absenti provenerat.

Thus the beast, advancing through the vastness of the desert, did not abandon the men who were carrying solaces to the needy, but led them, with as much humanity as it could, all the way to the dwellings of men; and soon, its office fulfilled, it turned aside in one direction, showing by so great an office of leading what men ought to render to men, how much charity to expend, since a savage beast had shown the way to those in despair. Therefore, when those who had come were announced to the servant of God, he said: "Blessed be the Name of the Lord. Let them enter, for whom a bear opened the way by which they came." On hearing this, they marveled with exceeding astonishment that the man of God reported that which had come to pass while he was absent.

XXX. Cives item oppidi Lauriaci et superiorum transfugae castellorum ad suspecta loca, exploratoribus destinatis, hostes, quantum poterant humana sollicitudine, praecavebant. Quos servus Dei, divinitatis instinctu commonitus, praesaga mente praestruxit, ut omnem paupertatis suae sufficientiam intra muros concluderent, quatenus inimicorum feralis excursus nihil humanitatis inveniens statim fame compulsus immania crudelitatis coepta desereret.

30. Likewise the citizens of the town of Lauriacum and the refugees from the upper forts, with scouts assigned to the suspect places, took precautions against the enemies, as far as they could by human solicitude. Whom the servant of God, admonished by an instinct of divinity, fore-armed with a presaging mind, that they should enclose all the sufficiency of their poverty within the walls, so that the deadly excursion of the enemies, finding nothing of humanity, at once compelled by hunger might abandon the monstrous undertakings of cruelty.

Haec per quadriduum contestatus, advesperascente iam die, Valentem nomine monachum mittens ad sanctum Constantium eiusdem loci pontificem et ad ceteros commanentes: "Hac -inquit- nocte, dispositis per muros ex more vigiliis, districtius excubate, caventes supervenientis hostis insidias." At illi nihil adversi per exploratores sentire se penitus affirmabant. Sed Christi famulus, praemonere non desinens, dubitantibus voce magna clamabat, eadem nocte eos asserens capiendos, nisi imperiis fideliter oboedirent, saepius repetens: "Me -inquit- si mentitus fuero, lapidate." Itaque tandem aliquando muris invigilare compulsi, expleta consueti operis in noctis principio psalmodia, cum celeberrimo coepissent vigilare concursu, acervus faeni comminus positus facula baiuli nolentis accensus lumen, non incendium reddidit civitati.

Having attested these things for a four-day period, as the day was now drawing toward evening, sending a monk by the name Valens to Saint Constantius, pontiff of the same place, and to the others dwelling together: “This—he said—night, with the watches arranged along the walls according to custom, keep guard more strictly, taking heed against the ambushes of the oncoming enemy.” But they emphatically affirmed that through the scouts they perceived nothing adverse at all. Yet the servant of Christ, not ceasing to forewarn, cried out in a great voice to the doubting, asserting that that same night they would be taken, unless they obeyed the commands faithfully, often repeating: “Me—he said—if I shall have lied, stone me.” And so at length, compelled to keep watch upon the walls, the psalmody of the customary work having been completed at the beginning of the night, when they had begun to keep watch with a most thronged concourse, a heap of hay placed close at hand, ignited by the torch of an unwilling bearer, gave light, not a conflagration, to the city.

Qua occasione, vociferantibus cunctis, hostes silvarum occultati nemoribus, subito splendore clamoreque perterriti, putantes se praecognitos quieverunt ac, mane facto. circumdantes civitatem et ubique discurrentes, cum nihil victualium repperissent, direpto animalium grege cuiusdam hominis, qui servo Dei praedicente contumax sua tutare contempserat, recesserunt. Illis autem abeuntibus, cives portas egressi haud procul a muris scalas iacentes inveniunt, quas ad urbis excidium praeparantes barbari vigilantium clamore turbati nocte iactaverant.

On which occasion, with all vociferating, the enemies, hidden in the groves of the woods, suddenly terrified by the splendor and the clamor, thinking themselves pre-known, kept quiet and, with morning come. surrounding the city and running everywhere, when they had found nothing in the way of victuals, after plundering the herd of animals of a certain man who, with the servant of God foretelling, being contumacious had scorned to safeguard his own, they withdrew. But as they were going away, the citizens, having gone out of the gates, not far from the walls found ladders lying, which the barbarians, preparing for the excision of the city, disturbed by the shouting of the vigil-keepers, had thrown down in the night.

Quapropter memorati cives veniam a Christi famulo precabantur, humiliter confitentes corda sua lapidibus esse duriora, qui rebus praesentibus agnoverunt in sancto viro gratiam viguisse propheticam: isset nempe tunc plebs inoboediens universa captiva, nisi eam liberam viri Dei consueta oratio servasset, Iacobo apostolo protestante: "Multum -inquit- valet iusti oratio assidua."

Wherefore the aforementioned citizens were beseeching pardon from the servant of Christ, humbly confessing that their hearts were harder than stones, who by the present circumstances recognized that in the holy man a prophetic grace had been vigorous: for indeed then the whole disobedient populace would have gone captive, had not the customary prayer of the man of God preserved it free, James the Apostle bearing witness: "Much -he says- avails the assiduous prayer of a just man."

XXXI. Feletheus, Rugorum rex, qui et Feva, audiens cunctorum oppidorum reliquias, quae barbaricos evaserant gladios, Lauriaco se per Dei famulum contulisse, assumpto veniebat exercitu, cogitans repente detentos abducere et in oppidis sibi tributariis atque vicinis, ex quibus unum erat Favianis, quae a Rugis tantummodo dirimebantur Danuvio, collocare. Quam ob rem graviter universi turbati sanctum Severinum adiere suppliciter, ut in occursum regis egrediens eius animum mitigaret.

31. Feletheus, king of the Rugians, who is also Feva, hearing that the remnants of all the towns which had escaped the barbarian swords had betaken themselves to Lauriacum through the servant of God, came with an army he had taken up, thinking to carry off those who had been suddenly detained and to settle them in the towns tributary and neighboring to him, of which one was at Favianis, which were separated from the Rugians only by the Danube. For which reason, all greatly disturbed, they approached Saint Severinus beseechingly, that, going out to meet the king, he might soften his mind.

Cui tota nocte festinans in vicesimo ab urbe miliario matutinus occurrit. Rex ergo, adventum eius protinus expavescens, testabatur se illius fatigatione plurimum praegravatum: causas itaque repentinae occursionis inquirit. Cui servus Dei: "Pax -inquit- tibi, rex optime.

To whom, hastening all night, he met him at the twentieth milestone from the city in the morning. The king therefore, immediately taking fright at his arrival, declared that he was very much weighed down by that fatigue: he accordingly inquires the reasons for the sudden encounter. To whom the servant of God: "Peace," he says, "to you, most excellent king."

Christi legatus advenio, subditis misericordiam precaturus. Recole gratiam, divina beneficia recordare, quibus pater tuus se frequenter sensit adiutum. Nam cunctis regni sui temporibus nihil me inconsulto gerere praesumebat.

I come as Christ’s legate, to beseech mercy for the subjects. Recall grace; remember the divine benefactions, by which your father often felt himself aided. For throughout all the times of his reign he presumed to do nothing without consulting me.

Qui monitis salutaribus non resistens crebris prosperitatibus recognovit, quanti valeret oboedientis animus quantumque triumphatoribus prosit suis non tumere victoriis." Et rex: "Hunc -inquit- populum, pro quo benivolus precator accedis, non patiar Alamannorum ac Thoringorum saeva depraedatione vastari vel gladio trucidari aut in servitium redigi, cum sint nobis vicina ac tributaria oppida, in quibus debeant ordinari." Cui servus Christi constanter ita respondit: "Numquid arcu tuo vel gladio homines isti a praedonum vastatione creberrima sunt erepti et non potius Dei munere, ut tibi paulisper obsequi valeant, reservati? Nunc ergo, rex optime, consilium meum ne respuas, fidei meae hos subiectos committe, ne tanti exercitus conpulsione vastentur potius quam migrentur. Confido enim in Domino meo, quod Ipse, qui me fecit horum calamitatibus interesse, in perducendis eis idoneum faciet promissorem." His auditis, rex modestis allegationibus mitigatus, cum suo protinus remeavit exercitu.

He, not resisting salutary admonitions, by frequent prosperities recognized how much the mind of one who obeys avails, and how much it profits his triumphators not to swell with victories." And the king: "This -he said- people, for whom you approach as a benevolent praying intercessor, I will not allow to be laid waste by the savage depredation of the Alamanni and the Thuringians, nor to be butchered by the sword or reduced into servitude, since there are to us neighboring and tributary towns in which they ought to be settled." To whom the servant of Christ steadfastly thus replied: "Were these men snatched from the most frequent ravaging of plunderers by your bow or your sword, and not rather preserved by the gift of God, that they might be able for a little while to comply with you? Therefore now, most excellent king, do not spurn my counsel; commit these subjects to my faith, lest by the compulsion of so great an army they be laid waste rather than relocated. For I trust in my Lord that He Himself, who has made me take part in the calamities of these men, will make me a suitable promissor in bringing them through." These things heard, the king, softened by modest pleadings, forthwith returned with his army.

Igitur Romani, quos in sua fide sanctus Severinus susceperat, de Lauriaco discedentes, pacificis dispositionibus in oppidis ordinati, benivola cum Rugis societate vixerunt. Ipse vero, Favianis degens in antiquo suo monasterio, nec admonere populos nec praedicere futura cessabat, asserens, universos in Romani soli provinciam absque ullo libertatis incommodo migraturos.

Therefore the Romans, whom Saint Severinus had received under his trust, departing from Lauriaco, being ordered in the towns by pacific dispositions, lived in benevolent society with the Rugians. He himself, however, dwelling at Favianis in his ancient monastery, did not cease either to admonish the peoples or to foretell things to come, asserting that all would migrate into the province of Roman soil without any disadvantage to their liberty.

XXXIII. Isdem temporibus Odovacar rex sancto Severino familiares litteras dirigens, si qua speranda duceret, dabat suppliciter optionem, memor illius praesagii, quo eum quondam expresserat regnaturum. Tantis itaque sanctus eius alloquiis invitatus, Ambrosium quemdam exulantem rogat absolvi.

33. In the same times, King Odoacer, sending friendly letters to Saint Severinus, if he deemed anything to be hoped for, humbly gave the option, mindful of that presage by which he had once expressed that he would reign. Thus, invited by his so great addresses, the Saint asks that a certain Ambrosius, an exile, be absolved.

Cuius Odovacar gratulabundus paruit imperatis. Quodam etiam tempore, dum memoratum regem multi nobiles coram sancto viro humana, ut fieri solet, adulatione laudarent, interrogat, quem regem tantis praeconiis praetulissent. Respondentibus, "Odovacarem", "Odovacar -inquit- integerinter tredecim et quattuordecim" annos videlicet integri eius regni significans: et his dictis adiecit citius illos, quod ipse praedixerat, probaturos.

At whose commands Odoacer, rejoicing, obeyed. At a certain time also, while many nobles were praising the aforesaid king before the holy man with human, as is wont to happen, adulation, he asks which king they had preferred with such proclamations. When they answered, "Odoacer," "Odoacer -he says- complete between thirteen and fourteen" years, namely indicating the complete years of his reign; and, these things having been said, he added that they would the sooner verify what he himself had foretold.

XXIII. Ab oppidaneis Comagensibus, apud quos primum quondam innotuerat, beatus Severinus suppliciter rogatus advenit. Cuius comperta praesentia unus ex optimatibus Felethei regis filium suum adolescentem diuturno langore vexatum, cui iam parabat exequias, traiecto Danuvio pedibus, eius proiecit et lacrimans: "Credo -inquit- homo Dei, te filio meo velocem sanitatem divinitus impetrare." Tunc data oratione, qui semivivus allatus fuerat, statim incolumis, patre mirante, surrexit et perfecta sospitate protinus revertitur.

23. Summoned with humble entreaty by the townsmen of Comagena, among whom he had once first become known, the blessed Severinus came. On learning of his presence, one of the nobles of King Feletheus, his adolescent son long afflicted by protracted languor—for whom he was already preparing funeral rites—having crossed the Danube on foot, cast him at his feet and, weeping, said: "I believe -he said- man of God, that you will obtain for my son swift health by divine agency." Then, a prayer having been offered, he who had been brought half-alive at once rose up unharmed, to his father’s amazement, and, with health made complete, straightway returns.

XXXIV. Elefantiosus etiam quidam, Teio nomine, de longinquis regionibus sancti Severini virtutibus invitatus venit, rogans eius oratione mundari. Accepto itaque ex more praecepto iubetur Deum, totius gratiae largitorem, sine cessatione lacrimabillter exorare.

34. Also a certain man with elephantiasis, by name Teio, invited from distant regions by the virtues of Saint Severinus, came, asking to be cleansed by his prayer. Therefore, having received, according to custom, the precept, he is bidden to beseech God, the Bestower of all grace, tearfully without cessation.

Quid plura? Precibus beati viri idem leprosus divina opitulatione mundatus, dum commutat mores in melius, mutare meruit et colorem, Regis Aeterni magnalia tam suis quam plurimorum vocibus longe lateque denuntians.

What more? By the prayers of the blessed man, that same leper, cleansed by divine opitulation, while he was changing his morals for the better, also merited to change his color, proclaiming far and wide the magnalia of the Eternal King by his own voice as well as by the voices of many.

XXXV. Bonosus quoque, monachus beati Severini, barbarus genere, qui responsis eius inhaerebat, oculorum imbecillitate plurimum praegravatus, medelam sibi praestari eius oratione poscebat, aegre ferens adventicios et externos salutaris gratiae sentire praesidia sibique nullam remediorum opem aliquatenus exhiberi. Cui servus Dei: "Non tibi -inquit- expedit, fili, corporeis luminibus aciem habere perspicuam et exterioribus oculis clarum praeferre conspectum: ora magis, ut optutus vegetetur interior." Talibus igitur monitis informatus dedit operam corde magis videre, quam corpore meruitque absque ullo fastidio mirabillter in orationis effici iugitate continuus et quadraginta fere annis in monasterii excubiis perseverans eodem, quo conversus est, fidei calore transivit.

35. Bonosus also, a monk of the blessed Severinus, a barbarian by race, who clung to his responses, being very much weighed down by weakness of the eyes, was asking that healing be furnished to him by his prayer, taking it hard that newcomers and outsiders should feel the aids of saving grace while for himself no help of remedies was in any way extended. To whom the servant of God: "It is not expedient for you -he said- my son, to have a perspicuous sharpness with bodily eyes and to display a bright outlook with the exterior eyes: pray rather that the inner gaze be enlivened." Therefore, instructed by such admonitions, he gave effort to see more with the heart than with the body, and he merited, without any distaste, to be made wonderfully unremitting in the continualness of prayer, and, persevering for almost forty years in the watches of the monastery, he passed over with the same heat of faith with which he was converted.

XXXVI. In loco Boiotro, superius memorato, quosdam tres monachos sui monasterii, superbiae foeditate respersos, doctor humilis dum pro suis excessibus singulos increpatos durare in pernicie comprobasset, oravit, ut eos Dominus, in adoptionem recipiens filiorum, paterno flagello dignaretur corripere, prius ergo quam orationem effusis lacrimis terminaret, uno momento idem monachi, daemone corripiente vexati, contumaciam sui pectoris vocibus fatebantur.

36. In the place Boiotro, above-mentioned, certain three monks of his monastery, bespattered with the foulness of pride, when the humble teacher had found that, though individually rebuked for their excesses, they were persisting in perdition, he prayed that the Lord, receiving them into the adoption of sons, would deign to correct them with a paternal scourge; and before he ended the prayer with tears poured out, in a single moment those same monks, seized and tormented by a demon, were with their voices confessing the contumacy of their heart.

Absit, ut cuiquam hoc crudele videatur aut noxium, quia traditi sunt huiusmodi homines "satanae in interitum carnis", sicut docet beatus apostolus, "ut spiritus salvus sit in Dei Domini Iesu", cum beatus Ambrosius Mediolanensis episcopus servum Stiliconis, auctorem falsarum epistolarum deprehensum, dixerit oportere tradi satanae, ne talia in posterum auderet admittere: quem eodem momento, cum adhuc sermo esset in ore sacerdotis, spiritus inmundus arreptum coepit discerpere. Severus quoque Sulpicius refert ex relatione Postumiani virum quendam magnis virtutibus signisque mirabilem ad expellendam de corde suo lactantiae vanitatem, quam incurrerat, exorasse, "ut permissa in se mensibus quinque diaboli potestate similis his fleret, quos ipse curaverat." Idemque post pauca: itaque "correptus a daemone, tentus in vinculis, omnia illa, quae energumeni solent ferre, perpessus quinto demum mense curatus est, non tantum daemone, sed, quod illi erat utilius atque optatius, vanitate."

Far be it that this should seem cruel or noxious to anyone, because men of this sort have been “handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,” as the blessed apostle teaches, “that the spirit may be saved in God the Lord Jesus,” when blessed Ambrose, bishop of Mediolanum, said that Stilicho’s slave, detected as the author of false epistles, ought to be handed over to Satan, lest he should dare to admit such things hereafter: whom, at that very moment, while the word was still in the mouth of the priest, an unclean spirit, having seized him, began to tear. Sulpicius Severus also reports, on the testimony of Postumianus, that a certain man, marvelous for great virtues and signs, in order to expel from his heart the vanity of boasting which he had incurred, begged “that, the power of the devil being permitted over him for five months, he might become like those whom he himself had cured.” And the same, a little later: accordingly, “seized by a demon, held in chains, having endured all those things which energumens are wont to suffer, he was at length, in the fifth month, cured, not only of the demon, but—what for him was more useful and more to be desired—of vanity.”

Praedictos itaque monachos vir Dei Delegatos fratribus per dies quadraginta arduis abstinentiae remediis mancipavit. Quibus expletis, data super eos oratione, a potestate daemonis eruit nec solum sanitatem corporis, sed et mentis inpertiit. Quo facto et sancto viro reverentiae terror adcrevit et ceteros maior disciplinae metus optinuit.

Therefore the man of God consigned the aforesaid monks, delegated to the brethren, to the arduous remedies of abstinence for 40 days. When these were completed, with an oration (prayer) offered over them, he drew them out from the power of the demon and imparted not only health of the body, but also of the mind. This being done, both reverential terror toward the holy man increased, and a greater fear of discipline held the rest.

XXXVII. Marcianum monachum, qui postea presbyter ante nos monasterio praefuit, ad Noricum cum Renato fratre direxerat. Et cum dies tertius laberetur, ait fratribus: "Orate, carissimi, quia gravis hac hora tribulatio Marcianum comprimit et Renatum, de qua tamen Christi liberabuntur auxilio." Tunc monachi, quae ab eo dicta sunt, protinus adnotantes, illis post menses plurimos redeuntibus diem horamque periculi, qua barbaros evaserant, indicantibus, sicut signaverant, approbarunt.

37. He had sent the monk Marcian, who later, as presbyter, presided over the monastery before us, to Noricum with his brother Renatus. And as the third day was slipping by, he said to the brothers: "Pray, dearest ones, because a grave tribulation at this hour is pressing Marcian and Renatus, from which, however, they will be freed by the aid of Christ." Then the monks, immediately annotating the things that were said by him, when those men returned after very many months and indicated the day and hour of the peril at which they had escaped the barbarians, verified it just as they had marked it.

XXXVIII. Item beatissimus Severinus uni ex fratribus, nomine Urso, repente praecepit quadraginta dierum districtiore ieiunio venturae calamitati, abstinentia ciborum et lamentis, occurrere, dicens: "Imminet tibi corporale periculum, quod Dei praesidio parvi panis et aquae remediis expiabis." Quadragesimo itaque die mortifera papula in brachio ieiunantis apparuit, quam mox ad ipsum ingressus suppliciter demonstravit. Cui sanctus Dei famulus: "Noli -inquit- metuere praenuntiatum tibi ante dies quadraginta discrimen", statimque propria manu signo crucis obducto mirantibus, qui aderant, papula letalis evanuit.

38. Likewise the most blessed Severinus suddenly enjoined upon one of the brothers, by name Ursus, that by a stricter fast of forty days he should forestall the coming calamity with abstinence from foods and with laments, saying: "A bodily peril is impending for you, which by God’s safeguard you will expiate by the remedies of a little bread and water." Accordingly, on the fortieth day a deadly papule appeared on the faster’s arm, which he soon, going in to him, humbly showed. To whom the holy servant of God said: "Do not -inquit- fear the crisis foretold to you forty days before," and immediately, with his own hand having drawn over it the sign of the cross, while those present marveled, the lethal papule vanished.

Hoc unum de domesticis sanitatibus narrasse sufficiat, prolixi operis fastidia declinando. Nam saepius suorum aegritudines monachorum Christo sibi revelante praenuntians isdem, quibus praevidebat, muneribus et sanabat.

Let this one thing about domestic healings have sufficed to have been narrated, by declining the distastes of a prolix work. For more often, with Christ revealing to him, pre-announcing the sicknesses of his own monks, he also healed them by the same gifts by which he fore-saw them.

XXXIX. A discipulorum quoque suorum cellula spiritalis doctor non longius habitabat, in orationibus vel abstinentia iugiter perseverans: cum quibus tamen matutinas orationes et propriam noctis principio psalmodiam sollemniter adimplebat, reliqua vero orationum tempora in parvo complebat oratorio, quo manebat. In quibus saepe caelestibus firmatus oraculis multa futura per Dei gratiam praedicebat, multorum etiam occulta cognoscens, ut opus erat, proferebat in medium et singulis remedia, prout poscebat modus aegritudinis, providebat.

39. And the spiritual teacher did not dwell farther from the cell of his disciples, continually persevering in prayers and in abstinence: with whom, however, he solemnly fulfilled the matutinal prayers and his own psalmody at the beginning of night, but the remaining times of prayers he completed in the small oratory where he stayed. In these he often, strengthened by heavenly oracles, predicted many things to come by the grace of God; knowing also the occult things of many, as there was need, he brought them into the open, and for individuals he provided remedies, as the manner of the sickness required.

Stratus eius unum erat in oratorii pavimento cilicium. Omni tempore ipso quo vestiebatur amictu, etiam dum quiesceret, utebatur. Numquam ante solis occasum nisi certa solvit festivitate ieiunium.

His bedding was a single cilice on the pavement of the oratory. At all times he used the very cloak with which he was clothed, even while he rested. He never broke the fast before the setting of the sun, unless on a fixed festivity.

Quadragesimae vero temporibus una per hebdomadam refectione contentus aequali hilaritate vultus fulgebat. Aliena quasi propria errata deflens, quibus poterat praesidiis, temperabat.

But in the times of Lent, content with a single refection per week, his countenance shone with equal cheerfulness. Weeping over others’ errors as if his own, he tempered them with the remedies he could.

XL. Deinde post multos agones et diuturna certamina, cum se idem beatus Severinus de hoc saeculo transiturum deo revelante sensisset, memoratum Rugorum regem Fevam cum uxore eius crudelissima nomine Giso ad se venire commonuit. Quem cum salutaribus exhortatus esset affatibus, ut ita cum sibi subiectis ageret, quo se iugiter cogitaret pro statu regni sui rationem Domino redditurum, aliisque verbis intrepide monuisset, protenta manu regis pectus ostendens reginam his interrogationibus arguebat: "Hanc -inquit- animam, Giso, an aurum argentumque plus diligis?" Cumque illa maritum se diceret cunctis opibus anteferre, vir Dei sapienter adiecit: "Ergo -inquit- desine innocentes opprimere, ne illorum afflictio vestram magis dissipet potestatem: etenim mansuetudinem regiam tu saepe convellis." at illa: "Cur -inquit- nos sic accipis, serve Dei?" cui ipse: "Contestor" -ait- vos ego, humillimus iam profecturus ad Deum, ut ab iniquis actibus temperantes piis insistatis operibus. Huc usque regnum vestrum, auctore Domino, prosperatum est: iam ex hoc vos videritis." His monitis rex cum coniuge sufficienter instructi valedicentes ei profecti sunt.

40. Then, after many contests and long-enduring combats, when the same blessed Severinus, with God revealing it, had perceived that he was about to pass from this age, he admonished the aforementioned king of the Rugians, Feva, to come to him with his most cruel wife by name Giso. And when he had exhorted him with salutary speeches, that he should so deal with those subject to him that he would constantly reflect that he must render an account to the Lord for the state of his kingdom, and had fearlessly warned him with other words, with hand outstretched pointing to the king’s breast he was arraigning the queen with these interrogations: "This—he says—soul, Giso, or gold and silver, which do you love more?" And when she said that she preferred her husband to all wealth, the man of God wisely added: "Therefore—he says—cease to oppress the innocents, lest their affliction scatter your power the more; for you often tear down the royal mildness." But she: "Why—she says—do you take us thus, servant of God?" To whom he: "I adjure"—he said—"you, I, most humble, now about to set out to God, that, restraining yourselves from iniquitous deeds, you insist upon pious works. Up to this point your kingdom, with the Lord as author, has prospered: now from this point, look to it yourselves." With these admonitions the king with his consort, sufficiently instructed, bidding him farewell, set out.

Tunc sanctus non desinebat de suae migrationis vicinia suos alloqui dulcedine caritatis, quod quidem facere nec ante cessaverat. "Scitote -inquit- fratres, sicut filios Israel constat ereptos esse de terra Aegypti, ita cunctos populos terrae huius oportet ab iniusta barbarorum dominatione liberari. Etenim omnes cum suis facultatibus de his oppidis emigrantes ad Romanam provinciam absque ulla sui captivitate pervenient.

Then the holy man did not cease to address his own about the nearness of his migration, with the sweetness of charity, which indeed he had not ceased to do even before. "Know—he said—brothers, that just as the sons of Israel are known to have been rescued from the land of Egypt, so all the peoples of this land must be freed from the unjust domination of the barbarians. For indeed all, emigrating from these towns with their resources, will arrive at the Roman province without any captivity of their persons.

Sed mementote praecepti sancti Ioseph patriarchae, cuius vos ego indignus et infimus attestatione convenio: visitatione visitabit vos Deus: "tollite ossa mea hinc vobiscum." Quod non mihi, sed vobis est profuturum. Haec quippe loca nunc frequentata cultoribus in tam vastissimam solitudinem redigentur, ut hostes aestimantes auri se quippiam reperturos etiam mortuorum sepulturas effodiant." Cuius vaticinii veritatem eventus rerum praesentium comprobavit. Levari vero suum corpusculum pater sanctissimus pietatis providus argumento praecepit, ut, dum generalis populi transmigratio provenisset, indivisa fratrum, quos adquisierat, congregatio proficiscens optentu memoriae eius in uno societatis sanctae vinculo permaneret.

But remember the precept of holy Joseph the patriarch, by whose attestation I, unworthy and most lowly, adjure you: with visitation God will visit you: "take my bones from here with you." Which will be to the profit not of me, but of you. For these places, now frequented by cultivators, will be reduced into so vast a solitude that enemies, supposing that they will find some gold, will even dig up the sepultures of the dead." The outcome of present affairs has verified the truth of this prophecy. Indeed the most holy father, provident in piety, ordered that his little body be lifted by a provident plan of piety, so that, when the general transmigration of the people had come to pass, the undivided congregation of the brothers whom he had acquired, setting out, under the shelter of his memory might remain in one bond of holy fellowship.

XLI. Diem etiam, quo transiturus esset idem beatissimus Severinus e corpore, ante duos seu amplius annos hac significatione monstravit. Epiphaniorum die, cum sanctus se Lucillus presbyter abbatis sui, sancti Valentini, Raetiarum quondam episcopi, diem depositionis annua sollemnitate in crastinum celebraturum sollicitus intimasset, idem famulus Dei ita respondit: "Si beatus Valentinus haec tibi celebranda sollemnia delegavit, ego quoque tibi in eodem die vigiliarum mearum studia observanda migraturus e corpore derelinquo." Ille, his sermonibus tremefactus, cum se magis, utpote homo decrepitus, enixius commendaret quasi primitus transiturus, adiecit: "Hoc erit, sancte presbyter, quod audisti, nec Domini constitutum humana voluntate praeteriet."

41. He also showed the day on which that same most blessed Severinus was going to pass from the body, two years or more beforehand, by this signification. On Epiphany day, when holy Lucillus the presbyter, anxious, had intimated that on the morrow he would celebrate with annual solemnity the day of deposition of his abbot, Saint Valentine, formerly bishop of the Raetias, that same servant of God thus replied: "If blessed Valentine has delegated to you these solemnities to be celebrated, I also, on the same day, leave to you the observances of my vigils to be kept, as I am about to depart from the body." He, trembling at these words, since, as a decrepit man, he commended himself the more earnestly as though he were to pass over first, added: "This will be, holy presbyter, what you have heard, nor will what has been decreed by the Lord be passed over by human will."

XLII. Praeterea Ferderuchus a fratre suo Rugorum rege Feva unum ex paucis, quae super ripam Danuvii remanserant, oppidis acceperat, Favianis, iuxta quod sanctus Severinus, ut retuli, commanebat. Ad quem cum idem Ferderuchus ex more salutaturus accederet, coepit ei Christi miles iter suum enixius indicare, sub contestatione haec proloquens: "Noveris me -inquit- quantocius ad Dominum profecturum et idcirco monitus praecaveto, ne me discedente aliquid horum, quae mihi commissa sunt, attaminare pertemptes et substantiam pauperum captivorumque contingas, indignationem Dei, quod absit, tali temeritate sensurus." Sed Ferderuchus insperata commonitione perculsus: "Cur -inquit- hac contestatione confundimur, cum non optemus tantis orbari praesidiis et sanctae largitioni tuae, quae omnibus nota est, conferre nos aliquid deceat, non auferre, quatenus solita, sicut et pater noster Flaccitheus, tua merear oratione muniri, qui experimento didicit sanctitatis tuae meritis se fuisse semper adiutum?" Cui ille: "Qualibet -inquit- occasione cellulam meam volueris laedere, et hic statini probabis et in futuro solves, quam non opto, vindictam." Tunc Ferderuchus promittens se Christi famuli monita servaturum remeavit ad propria.

42. Moreover Ferderuchus had received from his brother Feva, king of the Rugians, one of the few towns which had remained upon the bank of the Danube, Favianae, near which Saint Severinus, as I have related, was dwelling. When the same Ferderuchus was approaching him, according to custom, to pay his respects, the soldier of Christ began to indicate to him his journey more earnestly, speaking under adjuration as follows: "Know that I — he says — will set out to the Lord as soon as possible, and therefore, being warned, beware lest, when I depart, you attempt to stain any of those things which have been entrusted to me, and touch the substance of the poor and the captives; you will feel the indignation of God — far be it — for such temerity." But Ferderuchus, smitten by the unexpected admonition, said: "Why — he says — are we confounded by this protestation, since we do not wish to be deprived of such protections, and it befits us to contribute something to your holy largess, which is known to all, not to take away, to the end that, as is customary, just as our father Flaccitheus, I may deserve to be fortified by your prayer, he who learned by experience that by the merits of your sanctity he had always been helped?" To him he said: "On whatever occasion you should wish to injure my cell, both here you will straightway prove and in the future you will pay the vengeance — which I do not desire." Then Ferderuchus, promising that he would observe the admonitions of the servant of Christ, returned to his own.

Doctor vere dulcissimus non cessabat suos alloqui per momenta discipulos dicens: "Confido de gratia Domini mei Iesu Christi, quia vobis in opere suo durantibus et meae memoriae pacata societate coniunctis aeternae vitae bona tribuet nec praesentium solacia denegabit."

The truly most sweet Doctor did not cease to address his own disciples from moment to moment, saying: "I trust in the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, that, as you persevere in his work and are conjoined with the peaceful society of my remembrance, he will grant the goods of eternal life and will not deny the consolations of the present."

XLIII. Nonis itaque Ianuariis coepit tenuiter lateris dolore pulsari. Quo durante per triduum medio noctis tempore fratres adesse praecepit, quos de corpore suo commonens et paterna informatione corroborans, instanter ac mirabiliter talia prosecutus aiebat: Filii in Christo carissimi, scitis, quod beatus Iacob de saeculo recessurus, condicione mortis instante, filios suos adesse praecipiens ei propheticae benedictionis affatibus singulos quosque remunerans mysteriorum arcana prodidit futurorum.

43. And so on the Nones of January he began to be lightly smitten with a pain of the side. While this continued for three days, at the middle time of the night he ordered the brothers to be present, whom, reminding concerning his body and strengthening with paternal instruction, he, insistently and wondrously proceeding with such things, was saying: "Dearest sons in Christ, you know that blessed Jacob, about to depart from the world, with the condition of death imminent, by ordering his sons to be present, and recompensing each one with the addresses of a prophetic benediction, disclosed the arcana of future things."

Nos vero infirmi ac tepidi tantaeque impares pietati hanc praerogativam nostris usurpare viribus non audemus, unum tamen, quod humilitati congruit, non tacebo, mittens vos ad exempla maiorum, quorum intuentes exitum conversationis imitamini fidem. Abraham namque vocatus a Domino fide oboedivit, ut exiret in locum, quem accepturus erat in possessionem, et exiit nesciens, quo venturus esset. Huius igitur beati patriarchae imitamini fidem, imitamini sanctitatem, terrena despicite, patriam caelestem semper inquirite.

But we, truly infirm and tepid and unequal to so great a piety, do not dare to usurp this prerogative by our own powers; yet one thing, which is congruent to humility, I will not keep silent, sending you to the examples of the elders: beholding the outcome of their conduct (conversation), imitate their faith. For Abraham, called by the Lord, obeyed by faith, to go out into a place which he was going to receive in possession; and he went out not knowing whither he was going. Therefore imitate the faith of this blessed patriarch, imitate his sanctity; despise earthly things; always seek the heavenly fatherland.

Confido autem in Domino, quod mihi de vobis aeterna lucra provenient. Video enim vos gaudium meum fervore spiritus ampliasse, amare iustitiam, fraternae caritatis vincla diligere, castitati operam dare, humilitatis regulam custodire: haec, quantum ad hominis spectat intuitum, laudo confidenter et approbo. Sed orate, ut, quae humanis aspectibus digna sunt, aeternae discretionis examinatione firmentur, quia non, sicut videt homo, videt Deus.

I confide, moreover, in the Lord, that eternal profits will accrue to me from you. For I see that you have enlarged my joy by the fervor of the spirit, that you love justice, that you esteem the bonds of fraternal charity, that you devote effort to chastity, that you keep the rule of humility: these things, insofar as pertains to the outlook of man, I confidently praise and approve. But pray that the things which are worthy to human sight may be made firm by the examination of eternal discretion, for not as man sees does God see.

Ille siquidem, sicut divinus sermo denuntiat, omnium corda scrutatur et omnes mentium cogitationes antevenit. Assiduis ergo precibus hoc sperate, ut oculos cordis vestri Deus inluminet eosque, sicut optavit beatus Heliseus, aperiat, quo possitis agnoscere, quanta nos circumstent adiumenta sanctorum, quanta fidelibus auxilia praeparentur. Deus enim noster simplicibus appropinquat.

He indeed, as the divine word declares, scrutinizes the hearts of all and anticipates all the thoughts of minds. With assiduous prayers therefore hope for this: that God may illuminate the eyes of your heart and open them, as blessed Elisha desired, whereby you may recognize how great the aids of the saints surround us, how great the aids are prepared for the faithful. For our God draws near to the simple.

Non desit militantibus Deo iugis oratio; non pigeat agere paenitentiam, quem non puduit facinus perpetrare; non dubitetis lugere peccantes, si quo modo offensa divinitas vestrarum lacrimarum inundatione placetur, quia spiritum contribulatum suum dignatus est vocare sacrificium. Simus igitur corde humiles, mente tranquilli, delicta omnia praecaventes ac divinorum semper memores mandatorum, scientes non prodesse nobis humilitatem vestis, nomen monachi, vocabulum religionis, speciem pietatis, si circa observantiam mandatorum degeneres inveniamur et reprobi. Mores igitur, filii mei carissimi, proposito suscepto consentiant: grande nefas est peccata sectari etiam hominem saecularem, quanto magis monachos, qui blandimenta saeculi quasi atrocem bestiam fugientes Christum cunctis affectibus praetulerunt, quorum incessus et habitus virtutis creditur esse documentum.

Let unceasing prayer not be lacking to those soldiering for God; let him not be loath to do penitence, whom it did not shame to perpetrate a crime; do not hesitate to mourn the sinners, if in any way the offended Divinity may be appeased by the inundation of your tears, because He has deigned to call a contrite spirit His sacrifice. Let us therefore be humble in heart, tranquil in mind, forestalling all delicts and always mindful of the divine commandments, knowing that the humility of dress, the name of monk, the appellation of religion, the appearance of piety do not profit us, if we are found degenerate and reprobate regarding the observance of the commandments. Let your mores, therefore, my most beloved sons, agree with the undertaking assumed: it is a great nefas to pursue sins even for a secular man, how much more for monks, who, fleeing the blandishments of the age as if a savage beast, have preferred Christ to all affections, whose gait and garb are believed to be a document of virtue.

Sed quid vos ultra demoror, filii carissimi, longi sermonis affatu? Superest, ut beati apostoli ultima oratione vos prosequar ita dicentis: et nunc commendo vos Deo et verbo gratiae eius, qui potens est conservare vos et dare hereditatem in omnibus sanctificatis. Ipsi gloria in saecula saeculorum.

But why do I detain you further, dearest sons, with the address of a long discourse? It remains that I accompany you with the last prayer of the blessed apostle, saying thus: and now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, who is powerful to preserve you and to give an inheritance among all the sanctified. To him be glory unto ages of ages.

Post huiusmodi igitur aedificationis alloquium cunctos per ordinem ad osculum suum iussit accedere et sacramento communionis accepto fleri se penitus prohibet totumque corpus signo crucis extenta manu consignans, ut psallerent, imperavit. Quibus maeroris suffusione cunctantibus, ipse psalmum protulit ad canendum: "Laudate dominum in sanctis eius ... omnis spiritus laudet dominum." Sexto itaque iduum Januariarum die in hoc versiculo nostris vix respondentibus quievit in Domino. Quo sepulto credentes omni modo seniores nostri, quae de transmigratione praedixerat, sicut et multa alia praeterire non posse, locellum ligneum paraverunt, ut, cum praenuntiata populi transmigratio provenisset, praedictoris imperata complerent.

After an address of such edification, therefore, he ordered all to approach, in their order, to receive his kiss; and, the sacrament of communion having been received, he utterly forbade that he be wept for, and, marking his whole body with the sign of the cross with outstretched hand, he commanded that they chant psalms. As they hesitated, suffused with grief, he himself brought forth a psalm to be sung: "Praise the Lord in his holy ones ... let every spirit praise the Lord." Thus, on the 8th of January, as ours scarcely responded to this versicle, he fell asleep in the Lord. When he had been buried, our elders, believing in every way that the things he had foretold about the transmigration could not fail to come to pass, as also many other things, prepared a little wooden casket, so that, when the foretold transmigration of the people should come about, they might fulfill the commands of the foreteller.

XLIV. Ferderuchus vero beati Severini morte comperta, pauper et impius, barbara cupiditate semper immanior, vestes pauperibus deputatas et alia nonnulla credidit auferenda. Cui sceleri sacrilegium copulans calicem argenteum ceteraque altaris ministeria praecepit auferri.

44. But Ferderuchus, on learning of the death of the blessed Severinus—poor and impious, ever more monstrous in barbarous cupidity—believed that the garments deputed to the poor and several other things were to be taken away. To this crime coupling sacrilege, he ordered a silver chalice and the other ministries of the altar to be removed.

Quae cum imposta essent sacris altaribus nec auderet directus vilicus ad tale facinus suas manus extendere, quendam militem Avitianum nomine compulit diripere memorata. Qui quamvis invitus praecepta perficiens, mox tamen incessabiliter vexatus omnium tremore membrorum daemonio quoque corripitur.

When these had been set upon the sacred altars, and the steward, though directed, did not dare to extend his hands to such a deed, he compelled a certain soldier named Avitianus to plunder the things mentioned. Who, although unwilling, carrying out the orders, soon nevertheless, incessantly harassed by a trembling of all his members, is also seized by a demon.

Is ergo velociter consilio meliore correxit errata. Suscepto namque professionis sanctae proposito in insulae solitudine, armis caelestibus mancipatus, militiae commutavit officium.

He therefore quickly corrected his errors by better counsel. For, with the purpose of holy profession undertaken in the solitude of an island, consigned to the celestial arms, he changed the office of soldiery.

Ferderuchus autem immemor contestationis et presagii sancti viri abrasis omnibus monasterii rebus parietes tantum, quos Danuvio non potuit transferre, dimisit. Sed mox in eum ultio denuntiata pervenit: nam intra mensis spatium a Frederico, fratris filio, interfectus praedam pariter amisit et vitam.

Ferderuchus, however, unmindful of the protestation and presage of the holy man, after stripping off all the goods of the monastery, left only the walls, which he could not transfer across the Danube. But soon the vengeance denounced reached him: for within the space of a month, slain by Frederick, his brother’s son, he lost alike his plunder and his life.

Quapropter rex Odovacar Rugis intulit bellum. Quibus etiam devictis et Frederico fugato, patre quoque Feva capto atque ad Italiam cum noxia coniuge transmigrato, Post audiens idem Odovacar Fredericum ad propria revertisse, statim fratrem suum misit cum multis exercitibus Onoulfum, ante quem denuo fugiens Fredericus ad Theodericum regem, qui tunc apud Novas civitatem provinciae Moesiae morabatur, profectus est. Onoulfus vero, praecepto fratris admonitus, universos iussit ad Italiam migrare romanos.

Wherefore king Odovacar brought war against the Rugi. These too having been conquered and Frederic put to flight, with his father Feva also captured and transferred to Italy with his guilty spouse, afterwards the same Odovacar, hearing that Frederic had returned to his own homelands, straightway sent his brother Onoulf with many armies; before whom, fleeing anew, Frederic set out to king Theoderic, who was then dwelling at Novae, a city of the province of Moesia. But Onoulf, admonished by his brother’s precept, ordered all the Romans to migrate to Italy.

Tunc omnes incolae tamquam de domo servitutis Aegyptiae, ita de cotidiana barbariae frequentissimae depraedationis educti sancti Severini oracula cognoverunt. Cuius praecepti non immemor venerabilis noster presbyter tunc Lucillus, dum universi per comitem Pierium compellerentur exire, praemissa cum monachis vespere psalmodia sepulturae locum imperat aperiri. Quo patefacto tantae suavitatis fragrantia omnes nos circumstantes accepit, ut prae nimio gaudio atque admiratione prostemeremur in terra.

Then all the inhabitants, as if from the house of Egyptian servitude, thus, led out from the daily depredation of most incessant barbarity, came to know the oracles of Saint Severinus. Not unmindful of whose precept, our venerable presbyter at that time, Lucillus, while all were being compelled by Count Pierius to depart, with evening psalmody first set forth with the monks, commands the place of sepulture to be opened. When this was laid open, a fragrance of such sweetness took hold of all of us standing around that, from excessive joy and admiration, we were prostrated upon the ground.

Deinde humaniter aestimantes ossa funeris invenire disiuncta, nam annus sextus depositionis eius effluxerat, integram corporis compagem repperimus. Ob quod miraculum inmensas gratias retulimus omnium conditori, quia cadaver sancti, in quo nulla aromata fuerant, nulla manus accesserat condientis, cum barba pariter et capillis usque ad illud tempus permansisset inlaesum, linteaminibus igitur immutatis in loculo multo ante iam tempore praeparato funus includitur, carpento trahentibus equis inpositum mox evehitur, cunctis nobiscum provincialibus idem iter agentibus, qui oppidis super ripam Danuvii derelictis per diversas Italiae regiones varias suae peregrinationis sortiti sunt sedes. Sancti itaque corpusculum ad castellum nomine Montem Feletrem multis emensis regionibus apportatum est.

Then, reasonably estimating that we would find the bones of the burial disjoined—for the sixth year of his deposition had elapsed—we discovered the integral framework of the body. For which miracle we rendered immense thanks to the Founder of all, because the cadaver of the saint, into which there had been no aromata, to which no hand of an embalmers had approached, together with the beard and the hair had remained unharmed up to that time. The linens, therefore, having been changed, the corpse is enclosed in a little coffer long before prepared; placed on a cart with horses drawing it, it is straightway carried out, all the provincials journeying the same road with us, who, the towns along the bank of the Danube having been abandoned, through diverse regions of Italy obtained various seats of their peregrination. Thus the saint’s little body was brought, many regions having been passed through, to a castellum by the name Mount Feletre.

XLV. Per idem tempus multi variis occupati langoribus et nonnulli ab spiritibus inmundis oppressi medelam divinae gratiae sine ulla mora senserunt. Tunc et mutus quidam ad id castellum suorum miseratione perductus est.

45. In the same time many, occupied with various languors, and some oppressed by unclean spirits, felt the remedy of divine grace without any delay. Then also a certain mute, by the compassion of his own people, was led to that castle.

Qui dum in oratorium, quo sancti viri corpusculum super carrum adhuc positum permanebat, alacer pervenisset ac sub eo clauso oris sui ostio in cordis cubiculo supplicaret, ilico lingua eius in oratione soluta laudem dixit altissimo. Cumque reversus ad hospitium, quo suscipi consueverat, interrogantis fuisset ex more nutu signoque pulsatus, et orasse et laudem se Deo obtulisse clara voce respondit. Quo loquente pavefacti, qui eum noverant, ad oratorium cum clamore currentes sancto Lucillo presbytero simulque nobis, qui cum illo eramus, ignorantibus, quod evenerat, indicarunt.

While he, having eagerly come to the oratory, where the little body of the holy man still remained set upon the cart, and there, with the door of his mouth closed, was supplicating in the bedchamber of his heart, immediately his tongue, loosed in prayer, gave praise to the Most High. And when he had returned to the lodging where he was accustomed to be received, and, as was the custom, had been signaled by the nod and sign of one questioning, he answered in a clear voice that he had prayed and had offered praise to God. As he was speaking, those who knew him, aghast, running with a clamor to the oratory, informed Saint Lucillus the presbyter, and likewise us, who were with him, we being unaware of what had happened.

Tunc omnes exultantes in gaudio divinae clementiae gratiarum retulimus actionem.

Then we all, exulting in the joy of divine clemency, rendered thanks.

XLVI. Igitur illustris femina Barbaria beatum Severinum, quem fama vel litteris cum suo quondam iugali optime noverat, religiosa devotione venerata est. Quae post obitum eius audiens corpusculum sancti in Itallam multo labore perductum et usque ad illud tempus terrae nullatenus commendatum, venerabilem presbyterum nostrum Marcianum, sed et cunctam congregationem litteris frequentibus invitavit.

46. Therefore the illustrious woman Barbaria revered the blessed Severinus, whom she had known very well by report or by letters together with her former yoke-mate, with religious devotion. She, after his death, hearing that the little body of the saint had been brought into Italy with much labor and that up to that time it had by no means been commended to the earth, invited by frequent letters our venerable presbyter Marcianus, and also the entire congregation.

Tunc Sancti Gelasii sedis Romanae pontificis auctoritate et Neapolitano populo exequiis reverentibus occurrente in castello Lucullano per manus sancti Victoris episcopi in mausoleo, quod praedicta femina condidit, collocatum est. Qua celebritate multi langoribus diversis afflicti, quos recensere longum est, receperunt protinus sanitatem. Inter quos quaedam venerabilis ancilla Dei Processa nomine civis Neapolitana, cum gravissimum aegritudinis pateretur incommodum, sancti funeris provocata virtutibus in itinere properanter occurrit et ingressa sub vehiculo, quo corpus venerabile portabatur, statim caruit omnium langore membrorum.

Then, by the authority of Saint Gelasius, pontiff of the Roman See, and with the Neapolitan people coming to meet with reverent obsequies, it was placed in the Lucullan castle, by the hands of Saint Victor, bishop, in the mausoleum which the aforesaid woman had founded. At that celebration many afflicted with diverse languors, whom it would be long to recount, received health straightway. Among these a certain venerable handmaid of God, Processa by name, a Neapolitan citizen, while she was suffering a most grievous inconvenience of illness, moved by the virtues of the saint’s funeral, hastened to meet on the way, and, having gone beneath the vehicle by which the venerable body was being carried, at once was free of the languor of all her limbs.

Tunc et Laudicius quidam caecus, inopinato psallentis populi clamore perculsus, sollicite suos, quid esset, interrogat. Respondentibus, quod cuiusdam sancti Severini corpus transiret, compunctus ad fenestram se duci rogat, de qua poterat a sanis eminus multitudo psallentium atque vehiculum sancti corporis contemplari. Cumque fenestrae nixus incumberet et oraret, protinus vidit, singillatim demonstrans omnes notos atque vicinos.

Then also a certain Laudicius, a blind man, struck by the unexpected clamor of the psalming people, anxiously asks his companions what it was. When they responded that the body of a certain Saint Severinus was passing by, being compunct, he asks to be led to a window, from which, by those in health, from a distance, the multitude of the psalm-singers and the vehicle of the holy body could be beheld. And when, supported by leaning on the window, he was inclining and praying, forthwith he saw, pointing out one by one all his acquaintances and neighbors.

Quo facto cuncti, qui audierant, gratias Deo lacrimantibus gaudiis retulerunt.

When this had been done, all who had heard returned thanks to God with tears of joy.

Marinus quoque, primicerius cantorum sanctae ecclesiae Neapolitanae, cum sanitatem post immanissimum langorem recipere pro incessabili capitis dolore non posset, caput vehiculo credens apposuit et mox a dolore liberum sublevavit memorque beneficii semper in die depositionis eius occurrens voti sacrificium deo cum gratiarum actione reddebat.

Marinus also, primicerius of the cantors of the holy Neapolitan church, when he could not recover health after a most immense languor on account of incessant pain of the head, trusting, placed his head upon the vehicle, and soon he lifted up his head, freed from pain; and, mindful of the benefaction, always on the day of his deposition, coming, he rendered to God the votive sacrifice with thanksgiving.

Verum multis plura scientibus sufficiat tria de innumeris, quae in ingressu eius gesta sunt, beneficiorum virtutumque retulisse miracula. Monasterium igitur eodem loco constructum ad memoriam beati viri hactenus perseverat, cuius meritis multi obsessi a daemonibus sunt curati et diversis obstricti langoribus receperunt ac recipiunt operante Dei gratia sanitatem; cui est honor et gloria in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

But, since many know more, let it suffice to have related three out of the innumerable miracles of benefactions and virtues which were accomplished at his entry. Therefore the monastery constructed in the same place to the memory of the blessed man perseveres to this day, by whose merits many beset by demons have been cured, and those bound by diverse languors have received and do receive health, the grace of God being at work; to whom be honor and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Habes, egregie Christi minister, commemoratorium, de quo opus efficias tuo magisterio fructuosum.

You have, outstanding minister of Christ, a memorandum, from which you may, by your magisterium, make a fruitful work.