Modern British English translation. The file contains the Duthac dossier followed by the dossier of St Stephen of Obazine, as captured from the printed volume.

The Bollandist’s preface #

In northern Scotland is the region called Ross or Rossia, containing under it the province and earldom of Armanoth. The chief city of all — and the seat of the Bishops of Ross — is Chanonry, in whose place, it is said, Tain once stood, where St Duthac, long buried, shone in miracles. We give a compendium of his life from the old Aberdeen Breviary, under which he is inscribed at the 8th of March, the day on which he was called to his eternal reward. His name is likewise inscribed in the Cologne Martyrology and the Doctrinal of the Clerks printed in 1490 — before which time Hermann Greven had died, who also inserted St Duthac, bishop and confessor, in his additions to Usuard. The same was done at about the same time by the author of the manuscript Florarium Sanctorum. Ferrarius, finally, has this in his General Catalogue: “At Tain in Scotland, St Duthac, bishop.” These things being premised, we may more confidently adduce the Scottish Menologies of Dempster and Camerarius — in the former of which this is read: “In the town of Tain, of Duthac, bishop of Ross, whose holiness is confirmed by frequent miracles.” Camerarius asserts him to be famous in the provinces of Ross and Moray for the reputation of holiness.

John Leslie, in the sixth book of his De Rebus Gestis Scotorum, under King William, records this: “Into this age fell, for our republic’s highest felicity, two men above others eminent both for hidden learning and for holiest manner of life — Gilbert and Duthac, both bishops: the one of Ross, the other of Caithness. Though both gathered the praise of piety, partly by miracles, partly by doctrine, so as to be deemed worthy to be numbered among the saints, yet Duthac seems to have carried the first part of glory in two respects: first, that whatever Gilbert had of piety or doctrine he drew entirely from Duthac; and secondly, that Duthac was so venerated by the unbroken devotion of Scots, kings, princes and commons that in all Scotland no pilgrimage was more numerous or more frequented than that vowed to him in Ross.” Thus Leslie. St Gilbert, bishop of Caithness, is venerated on the Kalends of April, for which day he also has his own lessons in the said Aberdeen Breviary.

Camerarius asserts in his Menology that many things were recorded of him divinely foretold — as concerning the calamities of war to be brought on the Scots by the English and Danes; nor did the event deceive. For in the year 1263 (the tenth, namely, after his heavenly passage) Haco, king of Norway, put in with 160 ships at Ayr, a maritime town of the Kyle in Scotland. But by St Duthac’s prayers, as is rightly believed, Haco was struck by a double misfortune at almost the same moment: first, meeting Alexander Stuart — the first of the Stuart family to govern the realm in Scotland, his great-grandfather — he was defeated and put to flight by him, the king calling often upon St Andrew, the Scots’ tutelar apostle; then, his ships vexed by a most foul tempest and some sixteen thousand Norwegians lost in the fight, Haco, consumed with grief of mind, perished. King Alexander of Scots — the third of that name — is said to have enjoyed this saint’s friendship; if any other king of Scots was adorned by God with all virtues of body and soul, and most tenacious of the Catholic and ancestral religion, it was he: it is said to have been his custom to attend the most holy sacrifice of the Mass daily, and most devoutly to kiss the hands of the offering priest from the elevation of the host, believing and holding most firmly that the same God and man who is adored in heaven by angels is handled on the altar by the priest’s hands. Moreover St Duthac, weary of mortal life and desirous of seeing the eternal, now almost wasted with age, fell into sickness; enduring its ills with most equable mind — the sickness itself being counted by him in the place of a divine benefit, as the material of solid virtue and eternal glory — and often repeating that Davidic word, “And what is my expectation? Is it not the Lord?”, he sought the heavenly things about the year of Christ 1253. Thus Camerarius. Of the kings of Scotland so far mentioned, William died after 1200 in his 49th year, Alexander I in his 49th, Alexander II in his 51st, as these are noted in Leslie. In the Aberdeen Breviary it was prefixed that St Duthac died under Alexander II in the year 1249.

Compendium of the Life — from the Aberdeen Breviary #

1. Duthac, the elect pontiff of God, drew his origin and birth from no ignoble family and lineage of the Scots; and in the first beginnings of his youth he was handed over by his parents to tutors excellently instructed in the Christian faith, to be imbued. When age grew upon him, together with the same age every virtue of good arts was multiplied and increased in him. And while in these boyish and youthful years he was bound to the keeping of his tutors, the glorious God Himself decreed to show and did show a signal miracle through him. For when, at his tutor’s bidding while still a boy, he was sent to a smithy to fetch fire — the smith, moved by a diabolical spirit, mocking the little child’s innocence at his asking for fire, snatched up in the smith’s tongs no small portion of the glowing coals from the forge and, bringing it, cast it into the blessed boy’s bosom: which he patiently received and, carrying it to his tutor, his garments remained unburned and unharmed.

2. Then, instructed by divine grace, he crossed over by ship into Ireland, in which he most accurately learned the precepts and laws of both the Old and New Testaments; and returning from there into Scotland, he openly professed the same with all meekness and clemency to all. A little after, by the grace of the Holy Spirit he was raised to the episcopate, and constituted universal and chief pastor of those souls, and was consecrated by his fellow-bishops — supported meanwhile by illustrious miracles.

3. For when the blessed Duthac had been invited to dine with a certain man, one of the company — stricken with drunkenness — entrusted a piece of pork, with a gold ring, to a certain disciple of the blessed Duthac to carry to his house; and the disciple, making his way through a certain cemetery, laid down the piece of flesh and the ring there that he might pour forth prayers for the souls of the departed resting in that place. But while he was praying, a rapacious kite came, seized the piece of flesh with the ring, flew over a certain river into a very dense wood, and hid them there secretly. The disciple, stricken with fear lest he fall into that man’s hatred, at once returned to him and told the whole story; hearing which the blessed Duthac poured forth a short prayer — and without delay the kite flew back, dropping at the feet of the blessed Duthac, the man of God, the said piece of flesh and the ring. And the blessed Duthac, taking the ring, restored the piece of flesh to the kite once more — which joyfully flew back to its accustomed woods.

4. A certain devout man brought the blessed Duthac bread made with honey and butter, which the blessed Duthac sent to a certain religious man; that religious sent it to another, and so through one night to seven persons in all — the seventh of whom, ignorant of the matter, sent the same bread back to the Lord Duthac; who, blessing the same bread, satisfied those seven with the best food though they had long fasted. The fragments moreover being gathered and given to the sick whom no medicines could help, they were freed from their infirmities by the mere taste and savour of those fragments in Christ’s name.

5. In the city of Dormach, on the solemnity of St Finbarr, a certain canon of that church bade a fat, sleek ox be killed to be given to the poor; and while it was being divided, one of those present said: “And who will carry a portion of this to Duthac?” A clerk, held by fervent love of the blessed Duthac himself, offered himself ready for the task above others; but on account of the night’s most foul darkness and the tempestuous air stirred by mighty storms and winds, he could not and dared not go out of the house — yet trusting in the aid and help of the blessed Duthac, he set the portion of beef upon a spit and went forth; in whose journey the spit he carried in his hand shone like a burning lamp, giving the clerk clear light in the darkness as he went and returned.

6. The blessed Duthac, after many other marks of virtues and presages of miracles, passed over to Christ on the 8th of March, and is held in the church of Tain, in the diocese of Ross, in the greatest honour and veneration — divinely granting health and soundness of life to the languid and ailing. Therefore a great concourse of Christian people continually flocks there, and he ceases not to shine with most illustrious miracles. After the burial of this venerable body, moreover, the same body was found seven years, six months and nine days later so incorrupt as though he had departed this life in that same hour: which ecclesiastical and God-devoted men honourably lifted and translated with due honour from the grave into a sarcophagus and fitting shrine. At the translation very many miracles were wrought, and many more sick and languid persons were restored to health.

St Stephen, Abbot of Obazine in Gaul, of the Cistercian Order #

The Bollandist’s preface #

Bernard Gui — a Limousin by birth, bishop of Lodève, who died in the year 1331 — writes in his Chronicle: “Lord Stephen rests at Obazine, an abbey of the Cistercian Order, who founded the place there, and the monastery of nuns at Coyroux not far from Obazine; whose famous deeds are had, and who frequently shows by many miracles that he lives with God.” Geoffrey, prior of Vigeois, in his Chronicle written within thirty years of the blessed Stephen’s death (part 1, chapter 15, where he treats of the more famous saints in the bishopric of Limoges), records near the end: “At Obazine, St Stephen, prior of that place, shines with many miracles.” The deeds of St Stephen were written by his disciple, arranged in three books — from which Angel Manrique inserted very many into volumes I and II of the Cistercian Annals; in whom the anonymous author testifies in the prologue to book 4 that he would write nothing save what he either saw himself or proved true by the sure narration of faithful men who saw it. The like he promises in the prologue of book 2, and then in chapter 4, where he asserts that he was received by the blessed Stephen as a professed monk and lived under him or his successors. Consult Manrique, at the year 1142, chapter 6, number 2. This Life was afterwards abbreviated by someone — certain things cut as superfluous, the rest kept in the same words — which we, in the year 1663 while at Cîteaux, transcribed from volume 8, number 37, received there with singular kindness. Certain things from other acts we indicate in the notes; and from the same we subjoin an appendix on his death, burial and miracles.

The blessed Stephen died in the year 1159 on the 7th of March, the second Sunday of Lent, and was buried on the Wednesday following, 11 March — as is clear from the Life, number 18, a passage misread by Claude Robert and the Sanmarthani in Gallia Christiana, and by Jongelinus in his Notitia Abbatiarum Cisterciensium, who write that he died on the sixth of the Ides of March [10 March]. To that day Menardus inserted him in the Benedictine Martyrology thus: “At Obazine in the Limousin territory, the blessed Stephen, abbot, of the Cistercian Order.” In the compendium of the Life in book 2 of his Observations, however, he rightly writes that he died on the 7th of the Ides of March. Menardus is copied by Bucelinus and, among the pious, Saussay. Angel Manrique, at the year 1159 chapter 3 number 9, corrects Henriquez, who refers him to 27 April, and praises Menardus who assigned him to 10 March, on which the saint died — though in the author’s own words, at chapter 2 number 5, he indicates he passed on the 7th of the Ides of March. Manrique calls him Saint throughout in the Annals and in the Laurea Evangelica — where at book 3, discourse 7, are cited the old Missal, Abbot John, Robert Rusca and Barnabas de Montalto; whom also Chrysostom Henriquez adduces with Philip Seguin at 28 April, where he has: “At Obazine, St Stephen, first abbot of such a monastery, etc.” Bucelinus, thinking him another than him whom he had reported at 10 March from Menardus, gave him again at the said 27 April in Henriquez’s very words — keeping “Obosma”, for which “Obazina” should be written. He then added Seguin’s words transcribed from the same Henriquez.

The Life — by an anonymous disciple of the blessed Stephen, from the Cîteaux manuscript #

Chapter One — His studies. The priesthood. The eremitic life. #

1. Stephen sprang from the Limousin territory in the region of Aquitaine, of parents honourable among their own and Christian by long descent: his father was likewise named Stephen, his mother Gausberta — who, approved by many goods, begot this son beloved of God not so much for themselves as necessary for God’s Church. A vision is said to have been shown to his mother by night while she bore him, pregnant with swelling womb: that she had brought forth as it were a lamb in place of a son, to which, grown up, a great flock of sheep was entrusted — which when she told to a certain holy man of God, she heard from him that she would bear such a son to whom a great people of souls would be credited by Christ, to be formed by heavenly teaching. Born therefore and grown, he was given to tutors to be imbued with sacred letters in the Church’s school; by whom, being not indifferently instructed, he in a short time fully attained the knowledge of those scriptures which pertain either to divine worship or to the edification of souls. When he had come to a greater age, he took up the care of his father’s house, which he governed diligently and ruled with discipline. But being given to good works, he busied himself with the care of the poor rather more than of his parents — for the better cause pressed him: to the one he was drawn by humanity, to the other by mercy and the hope of eternal reward. He was a father to orphans, nourisher of the poor, receiver of pilgrims and kindly comforter of widows. His hands were stretched out more to give than to receive — that the Psalmist’s word might be fulfilled: “He has dispersed, he has given to the poor; his justice remains for ever and ever.” He showed himself chaste, sober, gentle, affable and bountiful to all, so that all round about wondered at his industry and prudence; yet he still outwardly served the trifles and pomps of the world — he was elegant in dress, though accounted more elegant in manners, which he showed rather to hide the purpose of his heart and to avoid vain glory, lest others should think more of him than he of himself.

2. After he had been raised — God bestowing — by the grace of the priestly order, he utterly abandoned the secular life; and what he had before despised in mind, he now rejected in deed and manners. Laughter and those former trifles were turned to mourning, and the lightness of joy to sorrow; the huntings after wild beasts he had been custom to follow were changed into the capture of souls; the elegance of costly garments was put off and the preparation of sweet foods despised. For in place of soft clothing he wore a hairshirt next the flesh, and in place of pleasant food he took his bread with tears and his drink with weeping. Indeed he treated his body with such austerity that he almost killed it both with hunger and cold: in mid-winter, when all things were bound with frost and ice, he would break the ice with an axe and, plunged in up to the neck, remain until the force of the cold penetrated more deeply into his inner parts. He was foremost in fasts, assiduous in vigils, ready in prayers — which he offered to the divine ears not in the composition of words but the devotion of tears. His speech was seasoned with salt and kindled with charity, pouring into his hearers the fire of divine love and the seasoning of wisdom. Such grace of teaching had been given him by the Lord that no satiety ever followed from hearing the word from his mouth. He attended the divine offices sleeplessly, interrupting their proper course by no cares or occupations unless detained by grave infirmity or unavoidable cause. In those things which properly pertain to the altar’s ministry — the sacred vessels or vestments or any ornaments in the churches where he ministered — he bestowed such diligence that by it he appeared admirable in other churches and everywhere irreprehensible. He was constant in reading the divine scriptures, and clove especially to the exposition of the Gospels — from which he provided eternal salvation both for himself by reading and for others by preaching. And when he there read and heard much of the contempt of the world and the glory of the world to come, his mind was greatly kindled to the despising of present things and the desire of things to come, saying in a manner with the prophet: “When shall I come and appear before the face of God?”

3. Inflamed with such desires, he daily purposed to renounce the world: that, earthly cares cast off, poor and naked he might follow the poor Christ with unencumbered steps. But lest he should seem to do this rashly and without counsel, he went to a certain religious and most holy man whose fame of sanctity was greatly celebrated round about. Having disclosed to him the purpose of his mind and asking counsel, the venerable elder answered him thus: “It behoves you, dearest, not to prolong the desire divinely inspired in you, nor put it off from day to day — knowing that delay has ever harmed the ready. Rather, as you have conceived in mind, cast off the world’s cares and follow Christ’s footsteps with a happy course, that by your example many may be converted to God.” Relying on this answer as on a divine oracle, he returned joyfully to his own. He had in this purpose a certain companion, Peter by name, a man of wondrous simplicity, who had also himself been newly ordained priest — to this man alone he had committed the secrets of his heart, on this condition: that renouncing the world together they should take up the habit of holy religion without delay and persevere in it to life’s end. From there the holy men hastened to fulfil what they had vowed to God.

4. A few days being interposed therefore — in the week before Lent, when ashes are accustomed to be given — they called together the crowds of their kin and, meaning to bid them a last farewell, offered them a solemn feast in brotherly charity, and divided whatever remained of their substance among the poor. The following night they spent sleepless in vigils and prayers, beseeching God’s clemency that He would perfect in helping the vows He had inspired in preventing. At last, clothing themselves in the religious habit — on a Friday, before dawn, leaving their native soil — they began to go barefoot as it were into exile. The man of God therefore, proceeding with his venerable companion and surveying the region round about, at last sought the forest of Obazine — so called, I believe, from the darkness of its woods and the density of its thickets wherewith it was clothed on every side. Which place, besides the density of woods, was girded here and there with steep rocks, a certain river running beneath it which seems to lend the place no small beauty. Coming to this place on the day of Preparation, the blessed men — barefoot as they were — penetrated its inner parts undaunted. There was not far off a small plain, sunk between valleys but dense with the waste of thorns and thickets, a little rill running through its middle; into this, entering after many windings and downward circuits through the hollows of valleys and the precipices of mountains, they remained that day and the next without food or any consolation. On the third day, which is the Lord’s Resurrection, they went to the neighbouring church and, shoes being lent them, one of them sang the Mass and gave communion to his companion. Which being done, leaving the shoes — since no one invited them to dinner — they began to return to Le Moustier not without sadness. And as they climbed the mountain ridges by degrees and rested a little at its summit, spent with weariness and hunger, a certain matron from the neighbouring countryside called Paulhac came to them, bringing half a loaf of bread and a vessel of milk — which they received with such joy that the holy man afterwards testified he had never in his life taken anything more delightful as food. Returning therefore to Le Moustier and refreshed by that food — since as yet they were recognised by no one, either who or where they were — they passed many days there without human food, except roots of herbs and fruits of trees such as could be found in the wilderness.

5. On a certain day, as a certain householder who lived nearby was going to church, it came into his mind — God inspiring — to carry food to the poor dwelling there. And as he was on his way there, he suddenly lost the road and, as it were wandering, came to the place where the man of God lived with his companion. The aforementioned man, therefore, seeing unknown persons sitting in the religious habit, at first wondered, and then pitying, offered them the provisions he carried; on which they were sustained that day and the next. Nor was it long before, being found by shepherds and divulged by them through the neighbouring places, many began to come to visit them — who, while they brought them the food of the body, carried back from their mouth the food of life. Yet they feared, from what had gone before, that they would not long persevere there. For a certain false anchorite had once come there who, feigning to wish to stay, built a cell after the fashion of an oratory; and when the people offered him many things he gladly received them, and what he could not consume he turned into money. Finally he appointed a day for those coming to him on which they should assemble as it were for the votive solemnities of Masses — but in the night before the said day, thinking who knows what, he took all he had and appeared nowhere. From his sudden departure, those who had gathered and those who heard of it, equally mocked and offended, began to be harsher to these men, reckoning they would do likewise. From where, neglected by them, they sustained such injury of hunger that they eagerly plucked even the tender shoots of trees and whatever was green, and set them before themselves as pleasant food. Their drink was a little water which they drew in a broken pot-sherd, with which they satisfied nature — for they used that same sherd many days. The hard ground served them for a bed, on which they cast their limbs worn out with fasts to be dashed rather than to rest; and lest pillows should be wanting, they put hard stones under their heads — to chase away sleep and banish softness. Their garments clung to their flesh until the excess of filth compelled them to change them; then stripping them off they threw them into water — which, washed and wrung out a little, they put on again in such wise that their bodies, the garment drenched and soaked with cold, were almost consumed both by the weight and the frost. And this they did chiefly in winter, when there was no need of washing but only the will of tormenting. But when these things sufficed not, Father Stephen procured himself an iron coat, which he secretly wore next the flesh for many years until it was gradually consumed by age and rust. So had the good athlete condemned himself in the flesh for Christ, that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord.

Chapter Two — The building of Obazine monastery. The rigour of monastic life. #

6. Moreover he built there of logs a small hut covered with a mean roof, in which day and night, with the venerable Peter, he persisted in continual prayers and psalmody. And when after a little rest — wherewith they recreated their weary limbs a while — they rose to the divine praises, if while psalming they felt themselves weighed down with sleep, snatching up bundles of rods they beat each other in turn on their bared sides. So the flesh, spent with fasts and wearied with the weight of vigils and labours, was furrowed also with daily stripes — that, being thus reduced to servitude and made subject to the spirit, it might bring forth not carnal but spiritual fruits. Clear proof was given of how he did this, since his holy face, furrowed with wrinkles and worn with the pallor of fasts, sprouted sparse and thin hairs; and the hair of his head did not change even in old age, contracting neither baldness nor whiteness, so that he would have been thought a youth, had not his wrinkles, as it is written, given testimony of him.

7. After this, the aforementioned companion by common consent went to the city of Limoges, having joined to himself a clerk who had lately come to them — who afterwards, leaving all things, was converted in that place, where he lived religiously to the end of his life and was consummated in a blessed death; from whose account I learned much of the blessed man’s deeds, for I was both his familiar in the world and clung to him inseparably in religion until his death. Coming to the city they spoke with the bishop, diligently opening to him their cause and the blessed man’s purpose; who, blessing them, blessed the cross they had brought him and gave it them with water blessed by himself, granting them power to celebrate Mass and build a monastery — on this condition, that they should in all things follow the custom handed down by the Fathers. Hearing and receiving these things, they returned to their Father with joy. Then the man of God moved his dwelling to the further side of that stream, and built an oratory with the houses pertaining to it enlarged — for some persons, converted to God, had for some time adhered to his discipleship and, subject to the yoke of discipline, led with him a life exceeding harsh and dry. But when that place was filled with the multitude of those coming and remaining, Father Stephen began to think where he might suitably establish them; yet his mind, desirous of solitude and impatient of cares, gnawed and was more vehemently troubled — fearing he would have to endure the government of many. For he had not sought the aforementioned place to gather many troops of men there, but to live solitarily, that he might be more secretly and freely free for God and might the more freely rack his flesh, fearing no man’s praise or prohibition. Often addressing his companion he strove to persuade him they should go to the Saracens — if perchance they might convert some of them by preaching, or themselves be slain for Christ by the unbelievers. Which his venerable companion dissuaded by all the admonitions he could — saying it was better to convert those who already believed from their evil acts by word and example, than to labour fruitlessly on those who did not believe and perhaps were not predestined to life.

8. At length, surveying the spaces of that wood, when he had come searching to the upper parts of the hill which projected eastward, he found a certain promontory on which he built dwellings after the fashion of the former ones, a little ampler in number and space; which buildings the devil, being moved, strove to destroy by many machinations. On a certain day the devil, in the likeness of black men, attacked a certain carpenter hired for wages who was lining the wooden roof of the oratory with wooden boards within, and beat him most severely because he was doing work for the religious. For when he first began to dwell in the wilderness, the devil pursued him with such insistence that he could not rest even at night — from which the brethren, roused by his cries, leapt from their beds and passed the whole night sleepless with him in prayers and vigils. The monastery’s offices being built therefore, the man of God at once migrated there with the brethren from the former place, and resolved to call the place Obazine after the name of the wood itself — that is, the “workshop of obedience”. Then a certain venerable legate who had come into those parts enjoined on Lord Stephen the office of prior and the care of the souls subject to him. (His companion Peter, after his own death, shone with many miracles.) Thereafter the man of God Stephen, made prior, himself lived and taught others to live in the same quality of life and manners as before: the same observance of vigils and prayers, the same course of psalms by day and night; the same silence was kept everywhere by all; the same custom of fasting and measure of refection remained — save that they then possessed a more abundant plenty of temporal things than before. For the neighbours, seeing their true and proven religion and firm stability, offered so much that, unable to expend it all, it was near to their saying, “Why does the people offer more than is necessary?” Yet the servants of God, not forgetful of their former poverty, studied parsimony and humility; and what was given they divided equally among themselves, so that none should boast or murmur of having more or less. No one presumed to break the fast save on the Lord’s day, both summer and winter, unless held back by youthful age or certain infirmity.

9. This man was strenuous in discipline and exceeding severe in correcting the faults of delinquents — for if anyone in church had raised his eyes a little, or smiled slightly, or dozed lightly, or made any disorderly motion, he at once received either the rod on the head or the palm in the face. The brethren assembled at chapter daily after Prime or Mass — at which, the prior presiding, the reading being finished or whatever is said there by custom, at once the order was treated and whatever was amiss was corrected. If anyone was to be scourged, his garment being stripped off, the fiftieth psalm was at once begun, that he might receive a stroke for each verse; and if a greater fault required it, longer psalms were added, that he might be furrowed with a larger scourging. On the day of the Lord’s Supper, which is full of mercy, pardon was asked of all in a general supplication — that whatever they had offended in through the whole year’s circuit might be loosed by this sacred solemn indulgence. Then the venerable elder, wholly bathed in tears, recalling his sins before his eyes and trusting in God’s mercy, besought indulgence for himself and others from the Lord, and loosed the bonds of sins in God’s word. But when he had scourged anyone more heavily as their faults required, he at once prepared himself to endure the like, and bade himself be scourged by one or by all — which he did that he might not remain a stranger to the affliction of those he judged.

10. Hardly a day was passed over — and especially in Lent — on which he did not receive a private discipline from someone. After Compline, when the brethren had been settled to sleep as usual, the man of God remained in the oratory and persisted the whole night diligently in vigils and prayers with tears. And when, praying long, he was assailed by excessive cold, at once rising he ceased not to bend his knees until his body was bathed in sweat; and then, putting off his cape, he repeated the same again — until at last, spent with labour and wearied with the weight of vigils, he sank down or even fell asleep. From where he was found by the brethren coming to vigils asleep just as he had disposed himself for prayer. Moreover by night, if he found anything unclean which the brethren would abhor not only to carry but to touch, gathering it into a basket and laying it on his own shoulders, he carried it away farther. In the daytime hours he laboured, often alone, often with the other brethren — yet so that two could hardly attempt what he did alone. On all days, but on feast-days chiefly, both he and the brethren persisted in the praises of the divine office with such modulation that they seemed to imitate the custom of great monasteries.

Chapter Three — The approach to the Chartreuse. The entry into the Cistercian Order. The monasteries built. #

11. Having learned the fame of the Carthusian monks, whom the fame of religion then ennobled above all others, he undertook a pilgrimage pleasant indeed, but laborious for himself, to see them — in which journey he suffered many injuries of hunger and cold, those places being cold, especially in winter, and then full of snow. Going himself on foot, and sometimes barefoot, he carried nothing with him pertaining to food. He also then wore the iron coat mentioned above, which brought him no small burden. And while on a certain day he was going alone and last, it was suddenly broken through the middle — as though cut round by someone — the lower part falling at once to the ground; saddened by which he secretly called one of the companions privy to it, and by his help re-joined the coat as best he could with certain ligatures and refitted it to himself. And when they had proceeded a little, it broke again and fell, and he bound it again; but when it broke a third time, the man of God understood — the brother also admonishing — that it was not God’s will that he should wear it further. For before he had the coat, he is said to have worn iron rings next the flesh — which, being already broken a third time in a short space, he had fitted this coat to himself; which, besides its weight, was so rough that it not only pressed but greatly tore the flesh. Coming to the Chartreuse they were kindly enough received by the brethren. And the man of God Stephen spoke familiarly enough with the prior of the place and, counsel received from the prior, returned to his own. [Guigo the prior’s counsel is given in the longer Acts thus: the Cistercians, newly arisen, keep the royal way, and their institutes amply suffice for every perfection. “For to us,” he says, “both in persons a number and in possessions a limit is prefixed. You, who have gathered more to God’s service and resolved to receive more still, should rather seek the coenobial profession, which lies open to many as to few — for it is measured not by number but by religion.”] The man of God, returning from the Chartreuse, resolved to enlarge the monastery’s dwellings, which were small, the brethren being increased; and beginning first with the sanctuary, he began to build a church in honour of the holy mother of God Mary, after the pattern of the Carthusian church. He built also a monastery of nuns not far from the monastery of Obazine, separated from it by about three stades — in which he established a college of women to be gathered, that in both sexes the church of Obazine might rejoice that God was served at all times. This monastery is so constructed that its entrance is never open to anyone, save when some woman is let in, or when she is carried out once deceased. In necessities they are sufficiently provided for by the brethren of the greater monastery, so that they have no need to ask anything. Then nobles and ignobles of the world, men and women alike, began to flock to the man of God from every side and submit their meek necks to Christ’s sweet yoke.

12. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1142, on the Sunday before Easter which we call Palms, the true worshipper of God, Lord Stephen, was made a monk by a certain abbot who had come with the bishop of Limoges to Obazine, and was at once promoted and raised by the same bishop to be abbot; he, now abbot and leader of monks, blessed as monks all the clerks he had, and appointed the rest to remain in their former habit. The monks, therefore, made from hermits, were daily formed by new laws and new institutions — instituted at the pleasure of the monks of Dalon, who taught them and instructed and trained them in the regular precepts. Then Abbot Stephen began to build two monasteries — one in the Limousin territory [Bellevaux, founded about 1143], the other in the Auvergne territory [perhaps Valetta, in the Tulle diocese] — which being suitably furnished, he at once directed troops of monks there, appointing the best fathers over them.

13. At the same time, the Supreme Pontiff having died at Rome [Lucius II, on 25 February 1145], the reverend and virtuous Eugene was set in the apostolic see: he had been a monk of Clairvaux and was sent by St Bernard as abbot into the Roman parts — from where, afterwards taken up, he was made pope of the city of Rome. In the second year of his pontificate he came into Gaul and held a council at Reims; then the memorable Father Stephen came to Cîteaux with certain brethren, as he had long desired, and found the aforementioned apostolic there — for he had for a long time been desiring to acquire the society of that holy Order and to submit all that pertained to him to its sway. At that time there presided over the Cistercians an abbot, Raynard by name — a noble and comely man, of incomparable fervour of religion, pre-eminent among all the abbots set under him, who were three hundred and more. When therefore the blessed Stephen had come to Cîteaux, he went to the foresaid pope and intimated to the apostolic ears what he bore in mind — earnestly entreating that his desire might be brought to effect by his authority. Then the pope sent for Lord Raynard to come to him, and commended the holy man to him as a father to a son, the Father of all himself, and bade him take him into the convent of abbots and join him to the holy Order. Raynard, taking him gladly from the pope’s hand, introduced him into the chapter; and with cheerful countenance before all the abbots — the Lord Pope’s mandates being set forth and his petitions declared, and the man himself humbly petitioning in person — he was received by all the abbots with one accord into the society of the Order and specially assigned to the house of Cîteaux; in which they deferred not less to his religion than to the apostolic command — on this condition only, that those holy women should ever remain in the Order. [The other Acts add: “And although there were some things in his house by which such reception could be impeded — which seemed adverse not indeed to religion but to custom — that certainly occasioned greater difficulty: that the holy man had taken to govern women as well as men for the Lord, which their Order did not tolerate. Yet for love of him all was admitted, Lord Raynard pledging — who loved him as his own soul — that all things adverse to the Order should be gradually removed, since the still-new house could not bear a sudden change; provided only that those holy women should ever remain in the Order.” — Many objections to these insertions are made by Manrique.]

14. With such auspices the Order being taken up, our negotiator joyfully returned to his own, bringing from there with him eminent masters whom the Father of Cîteaux kindly granted him to teach the Order — of whom two were monks and priests, two laymen, each suitably instructed in his art, and a fifth who, the time of his mastership completed, remained at Obazine until death, when the others returned to their own. But since many things were bidden to be changed by their teaching, that certainly seemed most grievous: that the use of foods was conceded and allowed even to the sick — hitherto unknown to the brethren; which the holy man bore so heavily that he said in his agitation that they had introduced a shambles into God’s house, when he saw any animal slaughtered on account of the sick — yet for those masters’ sake he kept silence. [The other Acts explain: “When the chapter of the rule for the sick was set before him, he kept silence — since neither could it please him, nor could the rule’s authority be displeasing.”] On a certain day, going round the offices, he found foods hidden between two vessels, which he at once bade be cast into the latrine. After this he disposed to build two other monasteries in places before chosen — one in the Cahors diocese [Celle-Dieu or “Custody of God”, daughter of Obazine, founded 21 November 1150], the other in the Saintes territory [Frenade, daughter of Obazine, founded 27 September 1148] — which being suitably furnished, he sent there fit pastors with a supply of brethren to govern the places committed to them under the abbatial title. Their prior was Gerald by name, who after him happily ruled the house of Obazine — with whom he had built many places, and now rests happily with him as his inseparable companion. Next was Robert by name, who also was over our mastership; he obtained the abbey situated in the Saintes diocese, which he had also administered for a long time before without the abbatial title. Meanwhile, as the brethren of Obazine increased from day to day and the small dwellings of the former habitation could not hold them, the holy man after much deliberation built a great basilica in the upper part of the monastery [its first stone was laid in 1156, on the Friday before Palms] and enlarged the dwellings and sufficiently prepared the place’s habitation.

Chapter Four — The miracles wrought. His devout death and burial. #

15. While the man of God was pressed with the manifold solicitude of many, for whom daily provision was prepared with great care, yet his greatest care was for the poor. Once the procurator of that house came to him, saying he had nothing to set before the brethren or to bestow on the poor; to whom the holy man said nothing of the brethren, but of the poor commanded: “Go — you have no loaves? Kill the animals and give to the poor.” He went off to do as commanded; but because a little wheat remained in the chest, which could scarcely suffice the brethren alone for three days, he resolved to spend that at once and afterwards to supply the poor with foods. And see — while the failing of that wheat was daily expected — by God’s grant and the holy man’s faith cooperating, it so increased that until harvest-time, which was far off, both brethren and poor had bread from there sufficiently, as the season allowed; so that the animals remained unharmed, and many were sufficiently fed a long time from a little grain.

16. On a certain day the cellarer came to him and said with sad countenance: “The brethren will eat nothing today — for the hour of refection presses and we have no loaves to set before the brethren being refreshed.” Then he, as was his custom, with eyes and hands stretched to heaven, sighed deeply, and at last turning to the doubting brother said: “Go then, brother, hasten to prepare the tables as usual.” And see — while the brethren sang in church, animals laden with loaves suddenly arrived, which faithful men inspired by God had sent for the brethren’s refreshment from a neighbouring castle: from which the brethren were abundantly refreshed.

A like thing is also said to have happened in the monastery of Grosbois [in the Limoges diocese, a daughter of Obazine]. One day the cellarer came to the abbot of that place, saying: “We have no loaves save three.” The abbot — who had been among Lord Stephen’s disciples — bade the three loaves be set aside for the portions of the dead, as usual, and the signal be rung after the hour, with stew set on the tables in place of bread. And while they sang the hour which was then in progress in church, the prince of the land and founder of that place came unexpectedly; entering the refectory — where the divine power then led him — when he saw only stew set out without bread, he went out hastily and sent both his own and his companions’ hors into the nearest village, bidding all the bread for sale be seized or bought at a price and carried to the monastery. The brethren, entering the refectory after the hour, as they prepared to eat — suddenly, while they were eating, unexpected bread came in with full hampers, which sufficiently fed them that day and the next.

17. When a severe famine was grievously afflicting the land round about, at the anniversary celebration of this saint — as they are accustomed to do each year — so great a multitude of poor assembled that those who came reckoned them, among the seculars, at fifteen thousand; but since others reckoned fewer, all agreed on ten thousand for truth. For to each was given, as is always done, one loaf or half a loaf, the customary measure of beans, with wine — as is done on that very day to this day or time, in equal measure to greater and lesser, so that women receive as many portions as the children they bring, even in cradles. But the knights and many others, seeing so great a multitude of poor and considering the fewness of the loaves, said the bread could not suffice for a tenth part of them — from which they counselled that the bread be broken into morsels so each might receive a little. But they were not heeded in this; rather, trusting in God’s name and the saint’s virtue, imploring his aid, they began to divide — first the bread, then the beans, afterwards the wine. And when to all — from the first to the last, from the greatest to the least — the accustomed measure had been distributed before sunset, the poor arising, so great a cry of those praising God for the abundance and blessing the holy Father arose that the very earth seemed to shake with their clamour: for they wept then rather for joy and for so great a miracle — since, had the distribution been prolonged until morning, the loaves would never have failed so long as the poor did not fail. This has been proved to have happened many times on this saint’s day and on very many other days: that the loaves to be distributed to the poor, the fewer they were reckoned, the more they superabounded.

18. Who could estimate how holy a life and how austere and strict this saint’s was? But by how many miracles he shone, it is long to relate. At last this St Stephen, being asked to visit a certain ailing archpriest, went — and returning from there at once incurred a bodily ailment. For fever had invaded his limbs exhausted by fasts — which the labour of the body and the chill of cold had gradually poured into his inmost marrow. Afterwards the holy man, the disease growing stronger, began to suffer more grievously; and while pressed by the force of the fevers, he rejoiced indeed that he would pass to the desired good things, but grieved that he left his own desolate and as it were orphaned. For which, stretching eyes and hands to heaven, he besought the Lord ever to enlighten and protect the place committed to him, to be a kindly shepherd to the sheep which through him he had gathered hitherto, and to govern them by His providence. All the brethren stood by him — especially those who had come from his monastery — weeping inconsolably and saying: “Father, why do you desert us, or to whom do you leave us desolate?” For he told them he would be more profitable to them after death, and would more diligently provide all things necessary — if only by their assiduous prayers they obtained that he might enjoy eternal rest. For he then promised them what we never read that anyone dared to promise: that if only they so prayed to the Lord for him that he might merit to be saved, he — trusting in the Lord’s mercy — would obtain eternal salvation from the Lord for all, especially for those dying within the monastery. From where he enjoined by command that none should ever in any wise depart from the monastery’s dwelling. And because the time of tonsure had passed, and on account of his infirmity he had not been permitted to be shaved — death now pressing — he bade himself be shaved at once, that his ailing body might be the more racked, and that, being about to pass to the Lord at once, he might enter new and crowned.

19. And when he was now more evidently drawing near death, at his own petition he was anointed with the holy oil and fortified with the reception of the sacred Communion. From there, a little after, the board being struck, all gathered from every side and began to say and perform the litanies with great weeping — which he caused to be often repeated, and dying, chanted with them as he could. And when he had now utterly failed, one taking his right hand signed the monastery and all the brethren — he aiding as far as he could, and with freezing lips faintly pouring forth the words of blessing; and so, amid blessing and praying, that holy soul was loosed from the flesh. So the venerable Father Stephen passed to the Lord — the heavens rejoicing, the earth lamenting: the one for the citizen received, the other for the shepherd lost. He passed on the seventh of the Ides of March, about midnight, which preceded the Lord’s day [the second Sunday of Lent], in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1159. His body, composed as usual and clothed sacerdotally, was watched in the church for what remained of the night. At dawn, the accustomed Masses being said, at once they took up the saint’s holy body and bore it with psalmody and great honour to the monastery of Obazine. And so, the sepulchre being prepared, on the fourth weekday of the second week of Lent [11 March], the general Mass being said and the absolution solemnly made by all the abbots who had gathered from various parts and orders, the blessed man’s body was carried to the chapter-house to be buried and honourably placed in a stone sarcophagus — where very many benefits are conferred on many, by the aid of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God for ever and ever. Amen.

Chapter Five — Miracles after his death. #

20. A certain knight, powerful in the world, came to the monastery of Obazine after the holy man’s passage; seized there by a certain infirmity, he died after two months. And because he had been lord of many lands, he had waged many wars and battles to defend them and committed many evils. Yet he greatly loved the blessed man and all the brethren, and had enlarged them in lands under his lordship — for which he was brought to a good end. On the very night he died, a certain priest of his land — knowing nothing at all of what befell him, being far away — was suddenly rapt in ecstasy and saw him taken and led off by demons. In the place through which he was led there was on one side a very glorious and high wall whose end appeared not, having a gate in the middle, through which voices of psalm-singers, sweetest, poured forth without. And when they drew near there, he began to beg those dragging him to release him a little that he might hear the mellifluous voices. Obtaining this by no means, he was suddenly torn from them by the divine will and fled to the foresaid gate — which he found open. And seeing God’s holy Mother standing within with the saints, he began prostrate on the ground to beseech her suppliantly to have mercy on him and free him by her clemency from the demons’ captivity. To whom she answered: “O man, I cannot help you, since you have invaded, spoiled and violated many churches of my Son and of Mine, and wrought many slaughters of men, and done many other evils.” Then Lord Stephen, who stood near, prostrate at her knees, prayed her saying: “Lady, did you not promise me that all who should die in my house you would bring into your Son’s joy?” To whom she answered with a benign and glad countenance: “Know for certain, dearest, that whatever I promised you I shall fulfil without any ambiguity.”

21. A certain young and strong brother had charge of the ox-waggons, who — either from lifting a burden or for some other cause — incurred a rupture. He, betaking himself often to the tomb of the holy Father Stephen, prayed to recover health; the holy man appeared to him and he was made wholly whole, as though he had never suffered any such thing.

22. When certain nuns were dying and their keepers, growing slothful, fell asleep, the holy man appeared to one about midnight in the dormitory and bade her rise. She, being slothful, he began to pluck her straw, and said to her: “Rise quickly, light a candle and strew ash — for the little sister will immediately die.” She, troubled, soon rose and said — since it was dark — “And how can I, Lord, light a candle? For the dormitory light is now out.” To whom he: “Go to the kitchen, and there you will find it.” She went, and from a tiny spark, without any blowing, kindled a light, and found that sister labouring in extremity and her keepers sleeping around her; having roused them, she strewed ash and struck the board — and the sister breathed out her spirit. And when she herself wished to sleep again, the holy man suddenly said: “Arise at once — for that other sister is dying now.” At which word, the sound of the board being struck, that sister — the rest gathered and praying — rested in peace.

23. Certain sisters sitting over-slothfully in the infirmary he compelled to go to church — chiefly when they were to receive the holy mysteries; and if they could not rise from bed, he taught them how and by what aids they could be carried there. He wished to leave them no occasion for anyone to come to them, even at the last — that you might know he had not laid aside after death the care he had of them living. Certain ones also, vexed with most grievous pains from exceeding languor, he often cured by appearing or by touching.

24. A certain sister, walking in the middle of the house, was struck by a log falling from above, which sorely crushed her leg; at which blow she fell to the earth, and being almost beside herself the sisters ran and carried her to the infirmary. Coming to herself afterwards, she began to utter immense cries and often invoked Lord Stephen to aid her. About midnight Father Stephen was present at once, whom a youth wearing the monastic habit followed; and when, taking hold of her afflicted shin, he began to draw it, she began to cry out for the pain and waked the sleeping sisters — but was at once made wholly whole, and at dawn, the sisters being gathered, recounted how and in what manner she had been healed.

25. Another sister despised a certain infirm and humble sister — and that night her foot and hand withered; and next day she dragged herself along the ground with one hand and foot as she could, so that the sisters hardly carried her to the infirmary. Then, when she remained alone groaning, she invoked the holy Father Stephen to help her. The holy Father was present at once to her watching and praying; looking on her with stern countenance he said: “It has befallen you well, wretched one, as you have deserved. For know that this has come upon you because yesterday you despised that sister when she begged you, and would not aid her — and moreover bound yourself with a most evil curse. And had we not intervened for you, you would suffer not such things but die a sudden death. But this it behoves you to know: that so long as you live, you shall never be free of this affliction. Therefore tell the other sisters on our part that, admonished by your example, they despise not the ailing sisters but serve them according to their power — lest worse befall them.” Saying this he was taken from her eyes. In the morning, when the sisters came to visit the sick woman and strove to console her and promise remedies of health, she answered: “It shall by no means be as you say — for it has been otherwise disposed by God.” Then she recounted to them how she had seen Lord Stephen that night, and what he had said to her, and what he had bidden be told the others. Let all other nuns hear this.

26. At a certain time of famine in St Stephen’s life, it befell at Obazine that provisions estimated for scarcely one week sufficed for two months; and the grain which was being carried from the cellar to the monastery was so augmented and lasted that the brethren wondered. They asked the brother carrying it how the grain had lasted so long — who said: “Since I began carrying it, I have found no diminution in it.” He was then persuaded by certain persons to measure the grain — and he measured it, and at this the good giver, offended, ceased secretly to increase it, and that grain failed. [The remainder was wanting in the Cîteaux manuscript. Obazine is in the Limousin towards Auvergne, between Tulle and Brive, on the west bank of the little river on which both towns sit.]

Appendix from the Longer Acts #

[The captured source ends at this heading; the appendix itself was not included in the file.]