Modern British English translation.

Prologue to the Life of St Virgil #

Let the care of the heavenly spirits above and our mother the Church on earth rejoice together at the memory of our most blessed father Virgil — she who, while the foe’s assault is tamed before the eyes of her sons, daily grows by the acquisition of sons through him. Let the daughter of the heavenly city exult, who, still exercising the militia of this pilgrimage, already sees her patron in the heavens — whom she had received on earth as her faithful shepherd, leader and fellow of labour — nor does she despair of becoming, through his intercessions, the consort of the eternal kingdom. Above all, let our Salzburg church especially run together in praise: he first cultivated her in Carinthia with the word of preaching from the errors of idolatry, enriched her wondrously with holiness of manners and the marks of miracles. See — this tree of the highest parent, fruitful like an olive in the Lord’s house: what he sowed in us he reaped; what spiritual sons he begot to the Lord by the word of salvation, coming in the exultation of the Resurrection he shall carry his sheaves. The wise steward and prudent artisan of the Lord, enduring in charity, built faithfully on the structure of his labour for the edification of others, with wisdom and the grace of God dwelling in him.

The Life of St Virgil Bishop of Salzburg #

¹ We confess that Virgil, born on the isle of Ireland of noble stock, applied himself so fully to literary studies that he could be held the most learned among the doctors of his time and clime. He studied likewise to grow illustrious in honesty of manners; and not undeservedly did he merit to have transferred to himself that notable saying, “beloved of God and men, whose memory is in benediction,” whose name is sought from generation to generation — that the Lord might show His mercy from parent to offspring, and lead His servant Virgil, a future shoot and planter of the Lord’s vineyard and the coming Apostle of Carinthia, from the land of his birth to the land of the Franks. There he was honourably received at Quierzy by the illustrious king of the Franks Pippin, called the Mayor. And because the knowledge of letters abounded in him together with honesty of manners, the king kept him with himself for nearly two years for God’s sake, gladly hearing him preach the Gospel.

In the times of Duke Odilo of the Bavarians — who with the whole Noric province was then subject to the foresaid king of the Franks — the Salzburg church, which by an ancient name was once called Juvavum, lacked its own bishop. And the king, a prince in all things beloved of Christ, sighing with no small desire for the increase of God’s church, granted the Salzburg episcopate to Virgil as a due of royal magnificence, and sent him to the aforenamed duke of the Noricans as to a dearest friend, to be received with highest honour. The man of the Lord, his ordination dissembled for the space of nearly two years, had with him as sharer of labour and crown a bishop who had come with him from his country, Dobdagrec by name, to perform the episcopal office. Afterwards, the Carinthian people and the bishops of the province asking, moved by the exhortation of his own men, he consented to receive episcopal consecration from them, and was ordained by the provincial prelates in the year of our Lord’s nativity 767, on the fifteenth before the Kalends of July [17 June]. Then, as the authority of the dispensation committed to him required, what he taught by word day and night he ceased not to fulfil in the exhibition of works — in vigils, in fastings, and finally in unfeigned charity. The things also which pertained to the provision of outward utility he studied to promote as diligently as the state of the Salzburg church, then lately initiated and small, seemed to require — afterwards by God’s co-operation to appear most famous in religion and possessions. Indeed he built the monastery’s fabric with immeasurable labour and excellent disposition of foundation; and the body of St Rupert, which after his death rested in the church of St Peter prince of the apostles, together with the episcopal seat which had likewise been in that church for some years, he translated by divine inspiration — as they say — into that place in which it has remained to the present times.

² In the times of the glorious king of the Franks Dagobert by name, a certain Selditius dwelling in the Albienses was duke of that nation — who bade the merchants coming to King Dagobert be slain, and robbed them of the royal money. Which when King Dagobert learned, sending his army he bade the injury which Selditius had contumaciously inflicted be punished by just vengeance, and so they were at last subdued to the royal service. Not long after, the Huns began to afflict the same Nortalani grievously with hostile incursion; and their duke then was Boruth by name — who, seeing the Huns’ army gather strength meanwhile, had tidings reported to the Carantanians asking them to come to his aid. And they, coming with great haste, defeated the Huns and took hostages from the Carantanians, and likewise subjected them to the kings’ tribute — which when he refused, a sedition arising which we call Cheval, by counsel taken he left the priest Dominis there. And not much after, another sedition arising, the priest Lupus was sent from there; the tumult being settled there again, Bishop Virgil sent the priest Urolf, and after him the priest Wernherius. But Dominis dying and a third sedition arising, for some years there was no priest there — until likewise also their neighbours. From there he took hostages with him into Bavaria, among whom was Boruth’s son named Cacatius, whom his father asked to be nourished and baptised in the Christian manner — which was so done. He likewise asked for Cheitmar, his brother’s son. But Boruth dying by leave of the king of the Franks, Cacatius was made a Christian in Bavaria; the same Slavs sent him back and made him duke, but afterwards he died in the third year. Again, by permission of the lord king Pippin, the people asking, Cheitmar a Christian took the dukedom. At the suggestion moreover of a certain priest of the diocese named Marsarus, who had received the laying-on of hands from St Virgil in the Juvavian monastery — whom he kept with him for the doctrine of the Christian religion, pertaining specially to the church of the monastery — the duke dedicated himself to God’s service, and in sign of his subjection rendered some service there yearly so long as he lived.

³ Some seasons being passed, the forenamed duke of the Carantanians asked the blessed bishop Virgil to visit the people of that nation and strengthen them in the faith. Which he could by no means accomplish, but in his stead sent his bishop Modestus to teach that people, and with him the priests Wernherius, Govanus and Latinus, and Eucharius the deacon with other clergy — giving them licence to consecrate churches and ordain according to the canons’ definition, and to usurp nothing for themselves that might contradict the decrees of the holy fathers. Modestus dedicated the church of the Virgin St Mary and others in the city of Liburnia and in very many other places, and there Bishop Modestus remained until the end of his life. When therefore that bishop was dead, Duke Cheitmar again asked Bishop Virgil — if it could be done — to come to him. Vadalhuc their duke sent again to Bishop Virgil and earnestly asked that he should destine some priests for strengthening the foresaid region in the faith. Attending therefore to the memorable duke’s petition and consulting the increase of the holy church, he sent Heimo and Byzantium as priests and Nithard the deacon, with other clergy, men both religious and of honest conversation. And not much after he sent there again the same Heimo, and Dupliter and Tilterdus as priests, with other clergy. Again he sent them Gordicus, Majorinus, Erkembert and Augustus as priests; after them Remidius and Reinclarius as priests; likewise Ambold and Gimchald for the ministry of doctrine and offices.

⁴ These things being done for utterly extirpating and eliminating whatever idolatry of barbarous superstition appeared in the matter, and for thoroughly strengthening his diocese’s church planted by the frequent diligence of preachers, providing by the watchfulness of a provident shepherd he sowed the word of life most copiously through the villages and provinces, and showed the sheep the presence of his own long-desired visitation. O what exultation of the princes of every religion met him with the pomp of those going before! How laudable the rivalry of spiritual men striving to outdo one another in devotion to the Lord and Father! At whose petitions he indeed, full of sanctity and grace, becoming all things to all men that he might gain all, obedient to the zeal of piety, consecrated churches, and passing gradually through Carinthia came to the borders of the Huns where the Drave flows into the Danube — which afterwards in the time of the first archbishop of the Salzburg territory, Arno, as the chronicles assert, were extended. Enjoying the office of most salutary visitation, and propagating the branches of the heavenly vine by promoting clergy to the sacred orders, he laid on each, as he judged them worthy, the light of blessing with his hand.

⁵ The blessed prelate of God Virgil therefore, of inestimable sanctity and merit, the course of his labour happily and strenuously consummated — after the tempests of the worldly sea had been sailed, declining to the limit of this pilgrimage and to the port of salvation, Jesus Christ — foreknew by divine revelation the dissolution of his body impending according to the necessity of the human condition, the Lord by His Gospel truth being about to reward him under the persona of the household father with the crown of immortality for the denarius of his conversion, exchanging eternal for corporal, celestial for terrestrial things; to be freed from the flesh’s prison, he is believed to have sung to himself such words as: “Virgil, arise! Mine you are, since in you my soul is well pleased; enter into the joy of your Lord.” And what mercy and ineffable providence of divine dispensation shone forth! — who prepared for His saint, set over this diocese, a mausoleum long ago brought here from the utmost parts of the western sea, reverently prepared in the middle of the ends of Pannonia. Returning therefore more quickly, and entering that his memorable city, pouring forth most bitter tears he seemed to speak this verse: “This is my rest,” etc. And at last, the mystery of the divine sacrament celebrated, seized by a gentle sickness, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 784, on the Kalends of December [1 December], he fell asleep in the Lord. Whose body was honourably laid in the southern side of the monastery whose fabric he had built in twelve years and consecrated in the thirteenth — as befitted such a pontiff; but his spirit rejoices in the company of the saints.

Of the Miracles of St Virgil the Bishop #

⁶ In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1181, the fourteenth indiction, the fourteenth before the Kalends of March [16 February], Pope Alexander III being apostolic in the twenty-second year of his apostolate, the most serene prince Frederick, Roman emperor Augustus, reigning in the thirtieth year of his reign, and his son Henry the most glorious king of the Romans reigning with him — Otto of Wittelsbach, palatine count, holding the duchy of Bavaria — the fabric of the aforementioned monastery, which had perished, ruined and in ruins, by a conflagration of fire some years before, began to be built from the foundations by the care and command of the most illustrious Adalbert, then archbishop of Salzburg, legate in Germany of the apostolic see, cardinal priest of St Marcellus, bishop of Sabina, now metropolitan of Mainz — the grace of the Holy Spirit co-operating and the clemency of the divine majesty favouring. And the body of the blessed Virgil, which on account of the immensity of ancient time was unknown to all, came to be revealed. For it happened one day that, stones having slipped from the wall, a certain entrance for looking within was offered to passers-by; and some diligently considering the sepulchre of antiquity could see the indications of the ancient burial in the gilded epitaphs there seen. Furthermore, the canons of the church inquiring, and the face of the same wall being opened, the tomb of the blessed Virgil was found, on the octave after the holy nativity of the Salzburg bishop, and a painted image, and an epigram of this kind on the same image: “Virgil built his home in a beautiful style.” And moreover the day of his death, the fifth before the Kalends of December [27 November] — since the same man of God, worthy pontiff, was, as we find in our annals, the perfect founder of the Greater Church, in which he was also buried; and the blessed Rupert and the episcopal seat were piously translated into that church which now is. The time also at which that pontiff died, in the year of the Incarnate Lord 784, we find in the same annals.

⁷ To the spectacle of so great a thing therefore, very many eager for novelties, as is custom, flocking, not a few were relieved of various griefs. But of those who ran together venerating the man of God’s relics, a certain young deacon, canon of the same church, opening the said place among the rest — approaching with vain curiosity rather than pious devotion — presumptuously stretched out a slow hand to the venerable bones, all rebuking and forbidding him, and asserting that this very act, as the event proved, would not turn out well. But he, obstinate of heart, recking little of all these things, cared nothing for the violation of the sacred relics which had lain hidden for so many years, intact and in a decent veneration. Meanwhile, the rumour of the holy prelate’s invention growing frequent, a woman of the city of Salzburg, labouring in childbirth for many days and in peril, admonished by a nocturnal revelation sent a candle measured to her body to the saint’s sepulchre; and the candle being lit, she was immediately delivered of a boy and recovered. And a certain companion of that woman, tormented with an incurable and long pain of the bowels, following her faith sent a candle in the same manner and was suddenly cured. By a third miracle also, a woman held by contraction of the hands, hastening to the man of God’s sepulchre, was healed on the way. After this, a blind infant five weeks from birth, brought by his parents, received sight. Likewise a certain woman was cured there of bleared eyes.

⁸ But that deacon whom we mentioned before, unbelieving of these miracles, feared not to snatch the oblations of the faithful which were already being brought there by pious devotion and to appropriate them to his own uses; nor content with this rashness, he irreverently presumed to repel a little woman praying there, mocking the sacred relics. He therefore, punished at once by divine vengeance, was seized by a demon with terrible eyes and gaping mouth; running about on every side he entered the sacrarium, and showing the first mark of his vexation and madness on a certain priest, the church’s treasurer — whom he happened to find alone there — he mauled the priest with fists, blows and nails, tearing him for a long while. And when one of the church’s resident servants came up, the foresaid priest, lifted from the hands of the possessed, fled within the bedchamber of the sacrarium, the door being quickly shut. But the possessed man, full of the demon, began to arm himself for his own destruction; and since he now saw no other into whom to pour out his fury, stripping off all his garments — having, as it were, no obstacle for wounds — he seized a razor and began with mighty effort to pierce his breast with many blows, the priest and the servant foresaid looking on and not daring for excessive fear to approach or restrain him. And when he had now bloodied his breast and hands with many wounds — yet by no means did God reserve him, that He might not let him pierce his heart, for the greater and more evident showing of His servant Virgil — collapsing to the ground he tried with his whole strength to cut his neck and throat. Then therefore the priest and the servant, who had before fled from him, seeing him fallen and rolling on the ground, boldly bursting forth rushed upon him and snatched the iron from his hand. And now very many, roused by the outcry, began to run toward the young man; and he, escaping into the darkness — for it was twilight — mounted the tower with swiftest course; and his business wandering in the dark, he turned to the arguments of his own insanity and, winding the bell-rope round his neck like a noose, leapt out of the tower window. But two of the boys, following him close at hand — where the tower rose — found him hanging and palpitating, and by God’s grace loosed the young man from the noose and drew him down between their hands. And when he was brought near to the blessed Virgil’s sepulchre, gnashing within himself he began to struggle and slip backward and fall, and brought his hands to his eyes lest he see the holy sepulchre. He was carried back therefore to the sacrarium; all the clergy ran together; psalms, exorcisms and litanies were said without intermission. When in those prayers of the litanies the name of St Virgil was invoked, that malign inhabitant who had possessed the vessel — not enduring the hearing of the holy name, gnashing and horribly grinding his teeth — emitted a most foul howling and cruelly tormented the infirm young man.

⁹ It being evident therefore to all present that he was so vexed on account of the injury done to the holy bones, he was brought back to the foresaid one’s tomb, terribly shaking head and limbs and now breathing hard; and the bells sounding, all the people of the city assembled. Brought near the sepulchre, he spat upon the tomb itself, and crying out openly that the fire by which he suffered came from St Virgil, and trying to gnaw and corrode with his teeth the hand that had violated the sepulchre, he protested he would not come out unless that same hand were cut off. Then indeed so great a cry was raised by both sexes that the voice joining with tears seemed scarcely endurable. He was carried from there from the church and laid on a bier. Where the demon, adjured by the priests through the tremendous judgement and similar words, being asked why he had brought God’s vessel into his power, broke forth in these words: “I came not willingly but compelled. The candles and other oblations at the man of God’s sepulchre — I stole them; and unless they be restored as quickly as possible, my master with seven worse spirits shall inhabit me and hold me here for ever.” And when the candles had long been sought and — the demon’s indication — were found and brought, the same demon added that the miserable body must be purified with a number of brooms’ whippings, and he would render the young man perfect health within twenty days. But the misery could be seen in the possessed youth — in whom iniquity reigned and dominated — and from where those not only present but even absent could receive no small terror. For the brooms being brought, the candles also carried back and lit in the church, the foresaid young man was borne to the blessed prelate’s sepulchre, commended by the prayers and tears of the whole multitude. Where while he was long beaten with the brooms as had been said, and all besought the aid and mercy of the blessed Mother of God Mary, and chiefly of St Virgil, with inmost sighs — that wicked spirit fled with a crash and no small whistle, many of those standing round feeling his departure and onset. The man freed from the demon and refreshed by the life-giving sacrament was carried back to the common hall. There remaining mute for three days, he exposed the intent of his mind by signs of the hands and writings, since he could not by tongue — for this dumbness afterwards proved to have been the penalty of his unbelief. And being admonished by the reverend priests to lend faith to the things done and believe that St Virgil shone in miracles, he refused with hand and writing — and so long as he refused, he received not the use of speech. At last, failing in mind and body together and believed about to die soon, he communicated again in the Lord’s sacrament; and the priest earnestly asked, “do you believe Virgil God’s servant?” — and he, his throat and tongue suddenly loosed as of old the prophet Zechariah’s, cried “I believe!” and at once received the use of speech together with pristine health.

¹⁰ And when he had thus recovered and breathed again, going round also the single monasteries and churches giving thanks to God and the saints — because his voice had not yet been explained, he returned to his former guilt; and by that saint’s merits, without intermission in the sepulchre’s neighbourhood and in the people’s sight, upbraiding he merited to be chastised, since chastised he would not be amended. For being asked whether he remembered the things done concerning him, he added insults: that he would profane the holy pontiff’s sepulchre and utterly overturn it, unless they ceased from questioning him. Nor delay: smitten to the ground he fell, and being lifted by those standing by he recovered a little. Nor content with this — when one of the infirm canons had been brought by night to the sepulchre itself, the young man met him, coming with the other canons to pray for the sick man’s health; and tauntingly and mockingly prayed that the sick man might recover — “otherwise,” he said, “I shall not believe that any are freed by this saint’s merits.” But adding also similar words, not praying but mocking, the sick man implored aid with bended knee. At once therefore, collapsing upon the tomb, he trembled with so great a crashing that he seemed shaken with huge stones. That young man also, freed from the demon and often chastised for his presumption, still remained in his obstinacy; smitten again, prostrate before all the multitude of the people, he cried out that he was burning in fire and dying. Carried therefore from the church, he was held so long in intolerable pain until, confessing he had sinned against God’s saint, he fully believed and was fully freed. Cured at last, he exposed to him who had formerly exulted the order of his vexation — namely that at the time when, as aforementioned, he repelled the women from the holy sepulchre, the unclean spirit with a venomous blast entered his mouth in the appearance of a bat; and when the time of his cure approached, the blessed Nicholas — whom he specially venerated — and moreover St Virgil came, and drew from his mouth a most black and very long veil; and the holy Nicholas added: “you have grievously sinned against our brother, yet by our intercession with God you obtain your health.”

¹¹ To these marvels more marvels were added: a blind and lame woman from Loussen came to the man of God’s sepulchre and received sight and step. A woman of Salzburg city, her legs contracted for a long time so that she could not walk, divinely admonished at night came to the holy prelate’s tomb and was cured. Another of the same city, having her back bent down and wholly unable to look up, her feet and hands also weak — held by this torment for twelve years — came to the said sepulchre and was suddenly made whole. Likewise a certain blind woman of Louffen, lacking gait by dissolution of the nerves, came creeping on her hands to the tomb, and having long implored the man of God’s aid, was made whole, the soles of her feet consolidated. Likewise a man of Unningen, labouring under the same disease, was brought to the foretold sepulchre and returned whole. A woman also of the village of Cerdi, contracted in hands and feet, returned healed from the same tomb with all men’s great joy and wonder. Two women moreover met — one from Salzburg city, the other from the village of Anfel — both deprived of the light of their eyes, the former for twenty years, the latter for three; approaching the sepulchre with great devotion, both suddenly received sight. At another time also a woman of Dentis, contracted three years and held by very many infirmities, brought with great labour to the said place, was healed. At the same time a certain infant from Hall, contracted in the feet, was healed. Likewise four women — each blind — received sight there in the sight of very many standing by; one from Salzburg city, the rest came from neighbouring hamlets — Unphald, Guzrat and Selben — of whom she who came from Selben had been blind twenty years. In the following time two women, one blind, the other having her back bent down with age, were cured. At the same time a girl contracted in the legs, and a deaf and dumb woman, were healed. From there another blind woman received sight there.

¹² Nor do we think it should be passed over what God deigned to work in remote parts at the same time through St Virgil’s merits — for we heard this from truthful men’s witness: a certain Salzburg man, a known person, blind for many years, was illuminated. A certain brother at Brixen, having lived most religiously more than forty years in the monastic habit, was herniated and had been ruptured about the groin a long time — and the passion exceeding his strength, he failed, destitute of human aid. When the fame of the blessed prelate Virgil’s signs came to his ears, he began to beseech the Lord most devoutly with sighs that by the merits of His servant Virgil he might merit to be restored to pristine health. While he prayed these things, his intestines began to be drawn up to the upper parts, gradually slipping back to the ancient place — so that within two days he was made whole, and preached the manner of his cure to all comers. At another time two paralytics brought to the holy man’s tomb — a woman of advanced age from Weiterskirchen, and a boy of two from Tuntzen — recovered pristine health. A certain blind man from the district of Chiemgau, coming to the tomb itself, most devoutly commended himself to the holy man and, returning home, received sight in the very middle of the way. A certain girl from Nauders, having a bent hand from birth, was healed there in the presence of clergy and a multitude of people. Likewise a girl from Pernegg, having a withered and bent hand, was healed. Likewise a boy from Tusin, four years old and hitherto wholly unable to walk, was brought by his father to the tomb and began to walk as befitted his nature and age. A five-year-old boy from Buchesburg, dumb and contracted in the legs from birth, carried to the tomb by his mother, received the use of speech and of walking. A certain boy from Lucht, dumb and having a paralysed arm so that he could not put it to his mouth for eating, received a desirable cure of both ills. A certain deacon clerk of Vienna, presuming to disparage the merits of the blessed Virgil, said the Lord worked no miracles for him or through him; and being at once seized by a demon, he was so long chastised until, drawn to the man of God’s sepulchre by divine mercy and the instant supplication of the faithful, he merited to be freed. A certain youth, son of Henry of Lehmingen, nephew by his sister of the noble citizen, deaf — at the blessed Virgil’s sepulchre received hearing. Likewise an infant from Tiscendorf, contracted in the feet, laid by his mother upon the sepulchre, rose cured, his gait recovered. A certain boy of Wasenberg, having prepared to come to the place with the faithful, sent by the travellers a candle made to his body’s measure — which being brought and lit, he obtained the benefits of health.

¹³ A certain citizen of Halle, carrying denarii to be exchanged while he rode toward Salzburg city, silently purposed to visit the blessed Virgil’s sepulchre and lay an oblation there according to his means. But coming — whether occupied by business or distracted by forgetfulness — he began to return home without saluting the relics. When therefore he had proceeded farther from the city, his horse, though urged by spurs, not only refused to go forward but grew restive; therefore returning to the city he went back to the lodging from which he had set out. And when his hostess asked why he had returned, he confessed he had come back to transact a certain business. Setting out again and making for home, not far from the city he was made retrograde as before and sought his lodging again. His hostess again asking the cause of his return and wondering greatly, he feigned another business had befallen him; by a like return of divine dispensation he indicated for the third time the truth of the matter — that he had been recalled by the travellers because, according to his purpose, he had neglected to offer the votive offering to the blessed Virgil. Which done, he went home by the right path.

¹⁴ Likewise two knights, about to visit the blessed Virgil’s sepulchre, were leading a certain little client lacking hearing as driver and charioteer of the cart — at St Virgil’s tomb, while they presented their oblations and poured prayers to the Lord, the said servant stood with them; and since God is no accepter of persons, he himself merited to be heard before his masters — for he received hearing without delay. A certain citizen of Hall, having a son with the stone, called a physician and asked him to cut the stone out with iron and so end his son’s pain; who, when he had begun to apply the knife and other instruments, the said boy, unable to endure the difficulty of the medicine, moved his father to tears also. The father therefore, pitying his wretched son’s pain, sent the physician away; and the business unfinished, he began strongly and humbly to invoke St Virgil — that by whose merits innumerable sick had been cured by God’s clemency, his son also might be rendered to pristine health. Nor delay: amid the very words of the petitioner, the calculus, slipped from the boy, appeared in the father’s hands.

¹⁵ A certain boy from Merseburg, vexed by a demon and brought by his mother to the blessed Virgil’s sepulchre, merited by the faithful’s prayers and his mother’s tears to be freed. A servant of the bishop of Regensburg, on the Paschal day — the communion of the Lord’s body received — on that same Lord’s day presumed to enter a tavern, where, given to drinkings and drunkenness, he took part in the revellers’ wantonness. Receiving therefore a deserved penalty for his deeds, he was turned into such madness that for eight days he neither took food nor laid aside his mind’s injuries. At last, in a vision of the night, salutarily admonished by the blessed Virgil, he learned the manner of reforming his health — namely in this tenor: that he should visit the said prelate’s tomb with humble prayer, and so by God’s clemency inspiring he need not despair of restoration to pristine health. Which vision being exposed to certain persons, by order of his lord the bishop of Regensburg, keepers being assigned him, he was led to the blessed pontiff’s sepulchre. On which leaning and pouring forth what prayers he could to the Lord — aided also by the tears of the faithful standing by — the whole of the bread offered there by a certain person he ate without hesitating, and received vigour of sense.

¹⁶ A certain woman of Selehuben, seized with most heavy grief, was overtaken by such languor that, all despairing of her life, she agonised in the last article of death. Who, since she could by no means implore God for herself — being destitute of reason and of voice’s benefit — the multitude of the faithful standing by began to invoke the aid of our Lord and Saviour for her; and commemoration of the blessed Virgil being made with highest devotion, from which it happened that in that very moment the woman rose from her bed and, pristine health recovered, on the following day at once visited the blessed Virgil’s sepulchre with praises and thanksgiving.

¹⁷ Since an infinite crowd of Christian profession flowed together to the man of God’s tomb from far parts to be cured of various ailments of body or mind — a certain man, rich and most honourable from Michelsberg, when the inhabitants of the neighbouring region were going to the blessed Virgil’s sepulchre, alone neglected to come, pondering this in his mind: that he was pressed by no adversities, since his domestic affairs were composed in future prosperity. While he thought these things, a paralysis suddenly seized his only son of eight years, depriving him of voice and step. The foresaid man therefore, weeping, was forced to enter sad ways — and though by exceeding grief at the unlooked-for evil he almost failed, consulting for himself by reason he called the deacon doctor of the parish, and in the words of confession faithfully exposed to him the whole series of the matter; due satisfaction to God being promised and penance accepted, by the parish priest’s counsel he took the road to the blessed Virgil’s sepulchre together with the boy — and while they went, the sick boy found remedy for his infirmity.

¹⁸ A man of Obur, having a paralytic son, vowed to bring him to Virgil’s tomb; and at once in that same place he merited to be restored to pristine health. A certain boy of Helimis, five years old, blind and contracted, received beside the man of God’s tomb the benefit of both infirmities. A certain bent man of Fist, the name of St Virgil being invoked, was in the same place restored to health.

¹⁹ To all the foresaid we think this also worthy of record: how a certain old man of the village of St Hippolytus took the road to visit the blessed man’s sepulchre and, become blind in voice, while the priest’s words of exhortation to the people stood by, lost the darkness of his eyes’ blindness in the habit of private prayer. A certain woman, hearing how great virtues the Lord had worked through His servant Virgil, implored his tomb’s divine aid at home; and by the man of God’s intercession recovered the benefit of sight on returning home. Likewise a certain woman of Lenting, wounded by her less-cautious husband for some cause in the elbow with a not-mediocre blow, and having her hand henceforth bent and contracted — accompanied by many inhabitants of the same region she approached the blessed pontiff’s tomb with due reverence, suppliant. But because the fit time of pitying her had not yet come, almighty God delaying, she began to return home, her business undone. However, accomplishing the journey begun, while she passed the night in a certain village beside the Tauern mountain, she invoked the blessed Virgil’s name most devoutly with most copious weeping — and in that same place, the hand’s crookedness laid aside, she merited to obtain the vigour of pristine health.

²⁰ A certain boy of Linschbard, contracted in the legs and destitute of the office of walking, was carried by his parents’ aid to the blessed pontiff’s sepulchre — upon which being laid he fell into the sleep of healthful slumber; and awaking, the use of his gait restored, he walked to the great wonder of those standing by. Likewise a woman of Walt, having her back twisted with incredible crookedness, implored the divine clemency — that by the merits of the blessed Virgil, at whose tomb she had lain down, He might freely minister the remedy of her cure; and the zeal of her faith obtained a favourable outcome. A certain boy of Vyospath, lacking the benefit of walking by contraction of the legs, was restored to perfect health by the common custom of the faithful’s aptest prayers invoking the blessed Virgil’s name for him.

²¹ And since the blessed servant of God, to all invoking him, ever exhibited the work of his accustomed piety to each according to their necessities, a certain wonderful and most memorable thing is to be subjoined: a monk of Petersdorf, labouring with a long languor of the groin, while he journeyed in his abbot’s company at a certain time, was grievously seized by the foresaid passion and fell in the road, destitute of bodily strength. Moreover it happened that, by the rigour of the monastic rule, on the day on which the monks receive the disciplines of the flesh after custom — he also with the rest who were then present prostrated himself before the lord abbot to be chastised, exposing a part of his back, namely the sounder side, to the blows; and when he had felt it well beaten, he asked that the other side also, which had been spared, be scourged in honour of St Virgil — after the accomplishment of which petition he obtained the aid of full salvation. O the wonderful and praiseworthy pity of Christ! which declared the blessed Virgil’s merits far and wide with such celebrity that his fame filled all nations on every side. If therefore, by constancy of faith or for recovering salvation, Saxons and Bohemians are invited from far away to the man of God’s tomb, it is not to be wondered at.

²² For a certain woman of Gratwein, deprived of outward light — yet irradiated within her heart by the lamp of pious devotion — her long journey’s labour consummated, humbly rolled at the blessed prelate’s sepulchre and amid tears laid down her illuminated blindness. A parish priest of Thera, an aged man of good conversation and honourable, had been so pressed by the incurable disease of paralytic passion that, lying on his right side, foot and hand could not render their due service to the body — no, what was graver, a continual silence urged on his tongue. Strengthened therefore by confidence in divine consolation he visited the blessed Virgil’s relics; which saluted with decent veneration, he received the office of his foot in walking and the benefit of his voice in preaching the great works of God; and his hand’s languor, relieved in good part, was manifest to all by evident truth.

²³ A man of Berndorf, having a little son weighed down by such a mass of illness that he could by no means be moved without a supporter, hearing what great miracles almighty God wrought through the blessed Virgil, vowed a vow to bring the boy to the said prelate’s tomb. Nor delay: taking the road, at day’s decline he entered a village for lodging — where he purposed to leave the little one failing from excessive weakness and as it were dying. That night therefore he made a candle equal to the boy’s stature, that finishing the begun way steadily he might carry it to the blessed pontiff’s tomb for his son’s health, living or dying; whom, when morning came and he was about to depart, he found by God’s disposition wholly safe.

²⁴ A certain priest, while amid the mass-sacraments he admonished the people to assemble unanimously on an appointed day to visit the relics of God’s servants, the blessed Virgil and Zilp, from the people’s consenting vow a certain honourable woman not only dissented but, breaking forth, openly proclaimed she would by no means visit the sepulchres of God’s servants. But the contumacy of her presumption God’s patience did not at once repel; yet after she was shut out from the lights of the Church and made mad, she was led to her house — where, seized by an unwonted and wondrous madness, her face humbled to the ground in the likeness of a brute animal, she expressed the gestures and most like properties of a pig, so that she used not human reason but beastly sensuality. All present being filled with vehement stupor, the priest named Joseph was called by certain men of loftier counsel; through whose ample lessons of psalms and efficacious benedictions she recovered whatever little portion of reason remained, so as to recite the words of confession and acknowledge she had sinned against God’s saint Virgil — promising God full satisfaction from there, she purposed by solemn vow to visit the foresaid prelate’s tomb. And at once, the Lord’s communion received and the vigour of her former mind restored, she refreshed herself with all her household and the foresaid priest with a rich feast.

²⁵ A certain boy of St Mary’s church, having a bent hand, was brought to the blessed Virgil’s tomb in the presence of a great multitude; and while all prayed to the Lord for his health, his flesh cracking and sinews snapping he was restored to wholeness.

²⁶ And how should the tongue of flesh cease to extol the magnificence of the Saviour, who raised up sons to Abraham from stones? For renewing signs and changing wonders, He raised up for us a prophet and archiater of divine goodness — by whose virtues’ power He reformed sons of Abraham from stones, that is, faithful from unbelieving, contrite from perverse. But you who see the prodigies of those present, which happen in the people — who does not put off the vices of the old leaven, who does not make worthy fruits of penitence by the fountain of tears and contrition of heart? With the boy of Hartspech, contracted in the joints of his hands, the blessed Virgil’s intercession, in the very presence of his monument, restored pristine health. “Draw near therefore to Him and be enlightened; and you paralytics who lie on pallets, be strengthened by Him” — nor let examples be sought far away: a certain boy of Talmils, eleven years old, bent and blind from birth, and a fifteen-year-old paralytic girl of Celestar — we saw them fully cured with seeing faith. Of how great account therefore in our opinion, how near to thrones and dominations is he to be esteemed — through whose invocation a certain woman of Althay, contracted in her hands, and another woman of Sulben, weakened in one of her arms with a like disease, felt the efficacy of the heavenly remedy? Now also let every human race preach the clemency of the Lord Jesus Christ, from whose gift it came that the blessed pontiff Virgil stood propitious to all devoted to him: for from his tomb oil of mercy flowed copiously for the cure of a girl contracted in hands and feet; and by the grace of the same salutary unction, a certain little one of Kensten, mute from birth, recovered the organ of voice.

²⁷ A certain youth of Diessen near Freising, having a withered and useless hand, received from St Virgil the health he sought and desired. Men of the city of Ranshofen, sailing to the fair by the Danube’s channel with a very great ship laden with merchandise, fell into that peril called Sftelberg from the waters’ perpetual concurrence — nor delay: wrapped in a most impetuous whirling of storms, amid the violent gyration of the waters, a rock jutting in mid-gulf — from which that peril’s cause proceeds — whether they would or not, they drew near to suffer shipwreck at once; where at last so great an importunity of the swelling river beset those wretches that the whirlpool, sucking down the vessel’s prow, lifted the stern half-filled with water aloft, and rendered all universally — sailors and others — so despairing of life that they cast away the instruments of rowing as wholly useless; and what alone remained, set in death’s article: they most earnestly implored the Lord, the world’s redeemer, for the salvation of their souls. Then indeed that nation, amid the confused tumults of shipwreck, admonished by the most merciful dignity of the Lord Saviour — the help of the mildest confessor and athlete St Virgil, of whose many miracles and virtues they had before learned not a few — they all with unanimous mouth and heart suppliantly invoked; that He, the celestial and supreme restorer of the human race who is a swift and copious propitiator of all imploring the blessed pontiff’s name, might through His servant’s merits show to the afflicted His customary and necessary presence of consolation. At the help of this supplication, the said ship — about to inflict the exit of death on all by her sinking — raised higher above the waves was lifted up, and against the current of the descending river, bound as it were with ropes, she was drawn by a certain secret and mighty pilot and brought safe to the very bank, without loss of goods or men.

²⁸ A certain knight of Vils, taken captive by another knight, laid down his son — a youth of good disposition — as hostage for himself; who, bound in a dungeon with hardest chains for twenty weeks and more, led a laborious and miserable life. The said youth, seeing himself destitute of his parents’ aid, began staunchly to implore divine aid in commemoration of the blessed Virgil, Christ’s mildest confessor — by whose mercy, his prayer finished, he was at once loosed from his chains; and without delay of tarrying he went to the city of Salzburg to visit the saints’ relics, rendering due thanks to God his liberator and to all the saints, but chiefly to St Virgil. He faithfully exposed the matter to us. The rumour being therefore diffused, hearers are appeased by this odour of virtues, so that they run thirsting in faith like balsam to the house of grace; and consolation being received according to the multitude of their griefs, they are refreshed in fulness. Many kingdoms provoke, which through St Virgil are great works — and as at a Bethesda, the copious multitude dips itself for health’s sake into his benefits. From where a certain noble matron in the ends of Hungary, when she had long not seen, her eyes darkened, sent her two sons to the saint to fulfil the journey she could not — that under their prayer she might obtain what she believed. And they at once consummate the enjoined service, take the road, and prospering on the journey came to Salzburg. O how commendable a miracle! On a certain Friday, when the divine work was now being done, the sons offered — and at the same hour light was restored to the mother: wondrously, at one and the same hour God’s saint received the present offering and illuminated the absent blind woman. For this thing’s sake the sons depart at once; but to them on the way it is announced that light has been restored to their mother. And the hour being inquired and known, they praise the Lord and bless Him, admirable and glorious in His virtue. Worthy of true praise is he who stands fast in the Lord — who is everywhere present, that here he might receive the sons’ gift and there illuminate their mother from her blindness. But what shall I say? In Austria also I learned by many a relation that it had been wrought through God’s saint.

²⁹ A certain man was taken by his country’s judges; bound to a beam he is hung, and so in the city where he was to be punished he is held. But he, hanging from the post, lamenting with tears, turned to the blessed Virgil and begged to be protected by him — by whose help he believed himself recalled to life. In the likeness therefore of Jesus Christ pitying and raising the crucified thief, He loosed the hanged man and freed him, and suffered him not to be taken as he fled. Truly Christ’s confessor is to be praised, who saves a guilty man of death from death — for He willed not the sinner’s death but that he be converted and live. How faithfully he restores the man who thus restores him to the Lord’s flock lest he perish — let the faithful attend how he kept his sheep unharmed from the hungry wolf.

³⁰ In our confines also, in the village called Quiccele, the people made a collection for the blessed Virgil among themselves — one gave a calf, another a lamb, each according to his ability. Of which, one day a wolf seized a ram and, fleeing at once, famished bore it with him into the wood. At which he whose animal it was grieved not a little, judging himself unworthy, as though his gift had displeased the saint; and he asked of his son that he expect the lamb back. But he, mocking his father’s loss, refused. But see a wonder: when the next day’s day had dawned, before the eyes of those standing by he drew the ram unharmed from the middle of the flock — which left behind, he seized his son, who had reprobated the offerings made to the saints, and grieved the father. It is therefore plain that he gently defends man from the enemy’s hand, who thus suffered the sheep to dwell unharmed with the hungry wolf. That prophecy agrees with this miracle which says: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,” etc.

³¹ Likewise a certain man of Tauss, blind for two years and a half, when he had heard what things were being done through the saint, prepared to come seeking light; but because he was perchance still unworthy, he obtained not what he wished. Grieving not a little at this, led by penitence he began to be pricked in mind — since he endured a deserved penalty for his misdeeds; and at once he devoutly accused himself to God and the priest, adjudging this penalty merited for himself. And he, judging himself more loftily, asked a year’s abstinence from flesh-food, that being made purer he might merit by the saint’s merits to obtain the desired health. And the confessor, considering human frailty, granted it when asked with difficulty. And he, the book received, began and fulfilled it. The year’s time being finished, he asked again for the candle; and see, coming on the road — the saint Virgil standing by — he received the desired light.

³² A certain knight of the village called Dienge, when he was blind, hearing the man of God’s fame, forestalled by hope and faith asked for the holy Virgil; and while he took the road, see, coming on the way he received the desirable light. When therefore St Virgil’s fame, diffused far and wide, grew frequent, the sick flowed together from various nations and gave an end to grief by his consolation. Among whom one of Erphersfer came, bent and contracted in the shins — but carried by him through whom he was brought, that he might come into the way better; and arriving on St Virgil’s day he was fully healed. He returned leaping who had come limping; and he who had been infirm, now whole glorified God in all things he had heard and seen. As that one from the west, so another from the south which is in the east came blind — but illuminated by the saint’s merit he departed seeing. To this man also it happened that in the invention of St Virgil a certain blind woman of Regensburg received light. And beautifully is the saint illuminated in the day of his invention — that by how much he shines with the light of the ages, he who is found may testify in this miracle.

³³ Likewise a certain citizen of Freising, by name, since he had offended I know not whom — the duke’s minister Otto of Grarn — was circumvented by his enemies for vengeance’s sake and knew not what to do. When see, despairing of human aid as though by the shield of faith, and fleeing by pilgrimage to St Virgil, he asked to be defended by his virtue. From where wondrously, as he returned his adversary met him — but see, through the saint he was restrained; naked he struck the armed man so that he so failed as though about to die continually. A priest therefore being called, he repented by his counsels; the knight struck a covenant of peace with the citizen, and so praying to St Virgil he recovered. And so it happened that the fearful became secure, and he who was stronger became timid — the poor subjected the rich, and the powerful yielded to the impotent.

The end of the Life of St Virgil.

Testimonies concerning St Virgil #

From the Life of St Rupert bishop of Salzburg #

In the same times, namely of Odilo duke of the Bavarians — who was then subject to the first king of the Franks — there came a certain wise and good man, a doctor, from the isle of Ireland, Virgil by name, to the foresaid king in the place in Francia called Quierzy. Who, for God’s sake, kept him with him for nearly two years; and finding him well learned, he sent him to the foresaid duke Odilo and granted him the vacant Salzburg episcopate. Who, his ordination dissembled for the space of nearly two years, had with him his own bishop as companion from his country, Dobdagrec by name, to discharge the episcopal office. Afterwards, the people and the bishops of that region asking, Virgil consented to receive consecration, and was ordained to the episcopate by the provincial prelates — namely in the year of the Lord’s nativity 767, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of July. — From the Chronicle, under the year 767.

In this same year, Virgil and Sidonius, religious men — who had also come by God’s will into Bavaria for the sake of spreading the Gospel (Virgil from Ireland, from which Sidonius also came) — were made known to Boniface, under whose discipline they were, etc.

From Caspar Bruschius in his book on the bishops of Germany #

St Virgil, sprung of the noble race and family of Ireland, a man illustrious in piety and doctrine, was set over both the episcopate and the abbey of St Peter by Odilo, the most powerful duke of the Bavarians, in the year 745. He presided over the episcopate thirty years, over the abbey only twenty — substituting for himself in the abbey’s government a certain pious and learned monk, Bertric. Virgil in the year of the Lord 754, seeing that the faithful of God in the Juvavum episcopate and dominion had greatly increased, judged that more temples were needed; he built another episcopal seat and erected a notable new basilica in honour of St Rupert, the first teacher and prelate of the Salzburgers — which, finished in the year of our Lord 774, he himself consecrated, and into it translated St Rupert and his two chaplains, the holy men Chuniald and Gislar, from the church of St Peter together with the episcopal seat.

From the Salzburg Metropolis, tome I, by W. Hannesius #

The blessed Virgil, an Irishman by nation, sprung of noble stock, was destined by Pope Stephen and Pippin king of the Franks for the administration of the Juvavum episcopate — but was retained by the king for nearly two whole years on account of his eximious erudition and holiness of life. Afterwards, honourably sent to Odilo, then duke of the Bavarians, he received the episcopate from him. His consecration being dissembled for nearly the space of two years, he had with him his own pontiff named Dobdagrec the Greek, who had followed him from his country and meanwhile discharged his office; then, the subjects and pontiffs asking, he was consecrated in the year of Christ 767 on the fifteenth before the Kalends of July. To that Greek, however — his master and priest — he gave the Chiemsee seat, where he opened a school and had very many companies of learners, in the year of Christ 767. Lord Virgil began to lay the foundations of a temple of most ample and admirable extent; that whole temple was finished within twelve years, and in the thirteenth year dedicated in honour of St Rupert — in which he established the episcopal seat. In the same year the blessed Virgil translated St Rupert’s bones from the church of St Peter and placed them in the high temple, together with his two Symnisti, Chuniald and Gislar. At that time moreover, when Lord Virgil began to build the temple, he stored the money or wages in an impulse, from which none of the workmen could receive more than he had deserved by labour. The same blessed Virgil in the time of Duke Valtach is recorded to have converted the Vindelicians and Carantanians to the Christian faith, and to have given them a bishop named Modestus, consecrated by himself, in the place called Liburnia. The blessed Virgil presided over the episcopal dignity thirty years, and departed this life with great lamentation of his own in the year of Christ 784 — elsewhere 785 — on the fifth before the Kalends of December; he was buried in the temple which he himself had built, before the altar.