CatholicaMGH SS XI (1854), ed. Pertz — translated into modern British English.
Editor’s Preface (Pertz) #
In the year of the Lord 1181 the sepulchre of St Virgil was found at Salzburg; and at once the fame of the miracles wrought by his intercession and that of his successors Hartwich and Eberhard filled all Bavaria, and companies of suppliants began to flock to Salzburg. This was the reason why a certain Salzburg clerk — as it seems, for he testifies more than once that he was himself present — undertook the task of writing their lives and miracles. For the manner of writing is the same in all, so that I do not hesitate to attribute everything to one author, especially as the time agrees. For the miracles of Virgil and Eberhard were written while Conrad III was archbishop, who on the death of Christian, archbishop of Mainz, on 25 August 1183 returned to his former see. The author drew Virgil’s life almost entire from the little book on the Conversion of the Bavarians and Carantanians; of Hartwich he found almost nothing, and of Eberhard he hands down very few but noteworthy things. All these, however, he buries under such a mass of reflections and commonplaces that his contemporaries substituted for his life of Eberhard the other one published above, augmented with certain passages taken from ours. Among the miracles moreover there are many by which you may learn both the names of places and the manners of those times.
This work survives entire in:
- Codex of the Salzburg chapter n. 11, now Vienna Imperial Library n. 339, pp. 201–336, in a hand of the late twelfth century; but the beginning, pp. 291–296, is written in another perhaps later hand, and what follows, pp. 291–300, seems to be of the late thirteenth. On pp. 343–317 another life of St Virgil, written in a very turgid style in a thirteenth-century hand, is inserted. In this codex alone is the older life of Virgil divided into lessons; I have followed the rubrics of the codex in dividing it into chapters.
1*) Codex of St Florian, now Imperial Library, in quarto, fifteenth century, containing the same life of Virgil, copied apparently from ours, with added verses on St Virgil: “Pangens chorus dulce melos,” etc. I collated this only cursorily and did not note the variants.
- Indersdorf 192, now Munich Latin 1592, on paper in folio, fifteenth century — sent us to Berlin with customary kindness — which after the legend of St Rupert contains the same life of Virgil with miracles, though some things are changed or wholly omitted. But we were unwilling to burden the text with the whole mass of variants, whether of this or of the following codices.
B. A second recension, printed in Canisius’s Antiquae Lectiones VI, is exhibited by:
Codex Sanctae Crucis n. 14, late twelfth century — the fourth tome of that huge legendary we have often mentioned. There the miracles of St Virgil are followed by the interpolated life of Eberhard with miracles, then the life and miracles of St Hartwich, then the translation of St Martin, brief annals, and lastly the catalogue of archbishops.
Zwettl n. 15, early thirteenth century, very like the former.
St Peter’s H. 9, late thirteenth century — the very copy which Canisius printed.
[Marginal excerpts printed in the apparatus:] — In Canisius: “We received from our fathers: A.D. 767 Virgil the bishop began [to hold] the church.” — That the emperor Otto set out for Spain with great equipment and entered the city of Tours for lodging; there he is said to have secretly obtained the body of St Martin and given it to Herolf to keep. When Herolf refused restitution, Henry the duke, the emperor’s brother, and certain knights of Prague — wishing to please the king, since they were also enemies of the Salzburg church — persecuted him to strike him, and the raging men seized and blinded him. Hartwich is then said to have found and raised him. But already an old censor of the thirteenth century wrote in the Sanctae Crucis book: “And how is the body of the blessed Martin, that great confessor, in the Salzburg church? Is it not kept at Tours, glorious in its sarcophagus? Did he have two bodies? Christians do not believe this; but the one at Tours is the true one. That which is held at Salzburg is some other’s, deceitfully sold as the true, since it is another’s.” — “A.D. 614, in the second (or third) year of Pope Boniface V and the eighth (thirteenth) of the emperor Heraclius’s reign, thirteen (twenty) years and five months after the death of Gregory the Great, on the day of the Lord’s resurrection, as we read, the blessed Rupert, first bishop of Juvavum, passed to the Lord.” — “…to build a church of wondrous size at Salzburg, in the seventh indiction.” — “A.D. 774 the church of St Rupert was first dedicated by St Virgil the bishop, in the twenty-sixth year of Duke Tassilo’s reign. In the same year the same bishop translated St Rupert and his two chaplains, the blessed Chuniald and Gislar.” — “A.D. 782, fifth indiction, a basilica on the island in the Chiemsee was consecrated and a monastery built, on the first day of September.” — In the catalogue of bishops, five abbots are counted who ruled the Juvavum see without pontifical order and dignity: Ansogolus, Savolus, Ezzius, Bertricus, Ammiloni. If these are removed from the catalogue, only twenty-five bishops are numbered down to the present lord Adalbert; with them added, thirty. Codex 3 continues the catalogue to Rudolf (1284–1290).
[On the manuscripts further:] A) A Lunaelacensis codex in folio, now Imperial Library 3663, like the one Canisius printed. There the life of Rupert precedes, and after the translation of St Martin the series closes with the life of Gebhard — but only excerpts. The life of St Virgil as codex 4 has it also survives in Imperial Library codex 3825 among the Lunaelacenses in quarto, fifteenth century; part of it likewise in codex 4222. St Virgil’s miracles are in the Lambach codex after the life of Adalbero, and in the Linz Lyceum codex, thirteenth century, which “Romanus wrote for St Lambert in Suben.” These begin: “On a certain day, in the wall — he received the tomb.” John Mabillon reprinted the life of Virgil with the miracles from Canisius’s edition (Acta SS. O.S.B. III, 2, 308); Canning printed Hartwich’s (Acta SS., June VI, 1, 134).
On St Virgil #
To the memory of our most blessed father Virgil, the heavenly court of blessed spirits above and our mother the celestial Church rejoice together — she who, while she is happily endowed with the happy assumption of so great an offspring, is yet more happily multiplied daily by the acquisition of many sons through it. Let the daughter of the heavenly city exult, still exercising the warfare of this pilgrimage, who now sees her patron in the heavens — whom she had as shepherd on earth, whom she had received as guide and fellow of labour on the way, and through whose suffrages she does not despair of becoming a sharer of his consolation in the fatherland. Above all, let the Salzburg church itself run together with special and singular joy to the praises of so great a man — she whom, lately purged of the errors of idolatry, he first cultivated in Carinthia with the word of preaching, made fruitful by the example of holiness, and wondrously adorned with the marks of miracles. See, the husbandman of the highest Father — fruitful as the olive in the Lord’s house: what he sowed in tears he received in joy, and as many spiritual sons as he begot to the Lord by the word of salvation, so many sheaves of souls shall he carry, coming in the exultation of the resurrection. See that faithful and prudent steward of the Lord’s money, happily exulting as he is admitted into the joy of his lord — for the received measure of the word he faithfully nourished and wisely instructed the Lord’s household, and the talent of divine grace entrusted to him he restored multiplied to the Lord in the edification of others. To investigate his temporal life, the miracles which the Lord works through him exhort us the more diligently.
Lesson One #
The most blessed Virgil, born in the isle of Ireland of a noble stock, so applied his mind to literary studies that he could be held the most learned among the learned of his own time and clime. He studied likewise to grow in honesty of manners, yet so that, virtue not being abandoned, he might by pleasing all men avoid envy — and worthily merit that desirable saying be transferred to him: “Beloved of God and men, whose memory is in benediction, whose name is sought from generation to generation.” That the Lord therefore might show His mercy from generation to generation, He led His servant Virgil — a strenuous planter of the Lord’s vineyard and the future apostle of Carinthia — from the native soil of Ireland into Francia. There he was honourably received at Quierzy by the illustrious king of the Franks, Pippin, who was called the Mayor of the Palace. And because the knowledge of letters abounded in him together with honesty of manners, the king gladly heard him as a trumpet of evangelical preaching and kept him with himself nearly two years for God’s love.
Lesson Two #
In the times of Odilo, duke of the Bavarians — who was then subject with the whole Noric province to the foresaid king of the Franks — the Salzburg church, which by an ancient name was called Juvavia, lacked its own bishop. And King Pippin, a prince in all things most Christian, sighing with no small desire for the increase of God’s church, granted the Salzburg episcopate to St 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 the highest honour. The man of the Lord therefore, his ordination dissembled for nearly the space of two years, had with him as sharer of his labour and crown a bishop accompanying him from his country, Dobda by name, to discharge the episcopal office. Afterwards, at the people’s insistence and induced by the assiduous exhortation of his fellow-bishops, he consented to receive the episcopal unction from them, and was ordained by the provincial prelates in the year of the 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 in charity at last unfeigned. The things also which pertained to the provision of outward utility he studied to promote the more diligently, as the state of the Salzburg church — then lately founded and small, afterwards, God co-operating, as plainly appears, most famous in religion and possessions — seemed to demand. For he built the monastery’s fabric with immense labour and excellent disposition from the foundation; and the body of the most blessed Rupert, which after his death rested in the church of St Peter prince of the apostles, together with the episcopal seat which had likewise stood in that same church for some years — admonished by divine inspiration he translated into that place in which it has remained to the present times.
Lesson Three #
In the times of the glorious king of the Franks Dagobert, a certain Slav named Samo, dwelling among the Carantanians, was duke of that nation — who bade the merchants coming to King Dagobert be slain, and despoiled them of the royal money. Which when the king learned, sending his army he bade the loss which Samo had contumaciously inflicted on him be punished by just vengeance; and so they were at last subjected to the king’s service. Not long after, the Huns began grievously to afflict the same Carantanians with hostile raid; and their duke then was Boruth by name — who had tidings sent to the Bavarians that the Huns’ army would march against them, asking them to come to his aid. And they, coming with great haste, defeated the Huns, strengthened the Carantanians, and subjected them to the kings’ service, and likewise their neighbours. And they took hostages from there with them into Bavaria, among whom was Boruth’s son named Karastus, whom his father asked to be nourished and baptised in the Christian manner — which was so done. He asked likewise for Cheitmar, his brother’s son. But Boruth dying, by order of the Franks the Bavarians sent back Karastus, now made a Christian, at the request of the same Slavs, and they made him duke — but afterwards he died in the third year. Again, by permission of the lord king Pippin, the same peoples asking, Cheitmar took the dukedom. At the suggestion moreover of a certain priest named Maioranus, who had received the laying-on of hands from St Virgil in the Juvavian monastery — whom the duke kept with him for the doctrine of the Christian religion — Cheitmar bent his head specially to the Juvavian monastery in God’s service, rendering some service there each year so long as he lived, in sign of his subjection.
Lesson Four #
Some seasons being past, the forenamed duke of the Carantanians asked the holy bishop Virgil to visit the people of that nation and strengthen them firmly in the faith. Which he could by no means then accomplish, but in his stead sent his bishop named Modestus to teach that folk, and with him his priests Wato, Reinbert, Gozarius and Latinus, and Ekkehard the deacon with other clerks — giving him licence to consecrate churches and ordain clerks according to the canons’ definition, and to usurp nothing for himself that might contradict the decrees of the holy fathers. Who, coming among the Carantanians, dedicated there the church of St Mary, and another 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; which he refused, a sedition arising which we call carmula, but by counsel taken he sent there the priest Latinus. And not much after, another sedition arising, that same priest Latinus went out from there. When it was settled, Bishop Virgil again sent the priest Madelhohus, and after him the priest Warmannus. But Cheitmar dying and a third sedition arising, for some years there was no priest there, until Waltunc their duke came to Bishop Virgil and earnestly asked that he would destine some priests for strengthening the foresaid land in the faith. Satisfying therefore the memorable duke’s petition and consulting the holy church’s increase, he sent Heimo and Reginbald as priests, and Maioranus the deacon, with other clerks — men both religious and of honest conversation. And not much after he sent there again the same Heimo, and Duplit and Maioranus as priests, and other clerks with them. After them he sent them Gozarius the priest, Maioranus the priest, Erchenbert, Heginbald, Reinhar, Reinbald and Gunthar.
Lesson Five #
These things being done — to extirpate and eliminate utterly whatever idolatry of barbarous superstition seemed to flourish, and to strengthen thoroughly in the faith his diocese’s church, planted by the frequent diligence of preachers — with prudent and provident watchfulness of a circumspect shepherd he sowed the word of life abundantly through villages and provinces, and showed his sheep the presence of his long-desired visitation. O what exultation of the princes of every religion met him with the pomp of those going before! How laudable the devotion of spiritual men inviting their lord and father, thronging — no, striving with one another! At whose petitions he indeed, full of sanctity and grace, become all things to all men that he might gain all, obedient to the zeal of piety consecrated churches; and passing gradually through Carinthia to the Huns’ borders where the Drave flows into the Danube — where also afterwards in the time of Arno, first archbishop of the Salzburg territory, its boundaries were extended, as the chronicles attest — fulfilling the office of most salutary visitation, and propagating the branches of the heavenly vine by promoting clerks to the sacred orders, he laid the hand of his blessing on each as he judged them worthy.
Lesson Six #
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 goal of this pilgrimage and to the port of salvation, Jesus Christ — foreknew long before, divinely revealed, the dissolution of his body impending according to the necessity of the human condition. Whom the Lord of the Gospel vineyard, under the persona of the household father, about to reward with the crown of immortality by the covenant of the daily denarius — bestowing eternal for temporal, celestial for terrestrial things in happy exchange, to be freed from the flesh’s prison — is believed to have invited with such words: “Virgil, you are my servant, for in you my soul is well pleased; enter now into the place of exultation, the joy of your fellows.” And how wondrous and ineffable the providence of divine dispensation shines forth — which, while it had once brought His saint from the utmost parts of western Hesperia to be set over the Juvavian see, prepared for him there likewise, returning from the middle of Pannonia’s bounds, a mausoleum of burial. Returning therefore more quickly and beholding his memorable city, pouring forth most bitter tears he seemed to chant 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 fifth before the Kalends of December [27 November], he fell asleep in the Lord. His 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 so great a pontiff; but his holy spirit rejoices in the company of the heavenly citizens.
Of the Miracles #
In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1181, the fourteenth indiction, the fourteenth before the Kalends of March [16 February], under Pope Alexander III in the twenty-first and last year of his apostolate, the most serene prince Frederick, Roman emperor Augustus, reigning in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, his son Henry, most glorious king of the Romans, reigning with him, Otto of Wittelsbach the renowned duke holding the duchy of Bavaria — when the fabric of the aforementioned monastery, which had perished, ruined and ruined again by a conflagration in the persecution of the schism some years before, began to be rebuilt from the foundations at the expense and command of the most renowned pastor Conrad, archbishop of Salzburg, then legate in Germany of the apostolic see, cardinal priest of St Marcellus, bishop of Sabina, and later also archbishop of Mainz — the Holy Spirit’s grace co-operating and the clemency of the divine majesty favouring — it happened that the body of the blessed Virgil, which on account of the immensity of ancient time was unknown to all, was revealed. For it happened one day that stones slipping from the wall offered passers-by some little entrance for looking within; and some diligently considering the same saw indications of the hollow space and the gilded schemes of an older painting. Furthermore, the canons inquiring into the novelty of this thing and opening wider apertures in the same wall, the tomb of the blessed Virgil was found — eighth bishop of Salzburg after St Rupert — and a painted image, and an epigram of this kind on the same image:
“Virgil built the temple in a beautiful style.”
And moreover the day of his death, the fifth before the Kalends of December. For the same pontiff, worthy of God, was — as we find in our annals — the first founder of the Greater Church in which he was also buried, and the pious translator of the blessed Rupert and of the episcopal seat into that church which now is. The time also at which the said pontiff died — the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 784 — we find in the same annals.
1 #
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 and canon of the same church, opening the said place among the rest — approaching with vain curiosity rather than pious devotion — presumptuously, the earth dug up, stretched out his left hand to the venerable bones, all rebuking and forbidding him and asserting that this very act would not turn out well for him, as the event proved. But he, recking little of all these things with obstinate heart, cared nothing for the violation of the holy relics which had lain hidden for so many years, intact and in decent veneration. Meanwhile, the fame of the holy prelate’s invention growing, a woman of the city of Salzburg, labouring in childbirth many days and in peril, admonished by a nocturnal revelation sent a candle measured to her body to the servant of God’s sepulchre; and the candle being lit, she at once bore a boy and recovered. And a certain neighbour of that woman, tormented with an incurable and lasting 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, bearing a candle to the man of God’s sepulchre, was healed on the way. After this a blind infant, five weeks from birth, brought there by his parents, received sight. Likewise a certain woman was cured there of bleared eyes.
2 #
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 many in pious devotion and to draw them to his own uses; nor content with that rashness, he irreverently presumed to repel a little woman praying there, mocking the holy relics. Justly therefore, seized at once by divine vengeance through a demon, running about on every side with terrible eyes and gaping mouth, 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 and blows and tore him with his nails for a very long while. And when one of the church’s resident servants came up, the foresaid priest, lifted from the possessed man’s hands, fled into the inner bedchamber of the sacrarium, the door being shut behind him. 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, stripped of all his garments — having, as it were, no obstacle for wounds — he seized a razor and tried with mighty effort to pierce his breast with very many blows, the foresaid priest and servant looking on and not daring for excessive fear to approach or restrain him. But when he had now bloodied his breast and hands with many wounds — yet by no means did he pierce his vitals, God preserving him 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 collapsed 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 together to the young man; but he, slipping into the darkness — for it was twilight — mounted the tower with swiftest course; and his affair wandering in the dark, he turned to other arguments of his own destruction 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 behind — where they had climbed the tower — found him hanging and palpitating, and drew back the young man by God’s grace, loosed him from the noose, and led him down between their hands to the lower parts. Moreover when he had been brought to the neighbourhood of the blessed Virgil’s sepulchre, gnashing within himself he began to struggle and slip backward and fall, and brought his hand to his eyes lest he see the holy sepulchre. He was carried back therefore into the sacrarium; all the clergy ran together; psalms, exorcisms and litanies were said without intermission. When in those prayers of the litany the name of St Virgil was impressed, that malign inhabitant who had possessed the vessel — not enduring the hearing of the holy name, roaring and horribly grinding his teeth — emitted a most foul howling and cruelly rent the most wretched young man. All present therefore plainly conjecturing that he was so vexed on account of the injury done to the holy bones, he was brought to the foresaid one’s tomb, terribly shaking head and limbs and spewing foam; and the bells sounding, all the people of the city assembled. Brought near the sepulchre, he spat upon the tomb itself; and the demon, now openly proclaiming the fire which he suffered from St Virgil, and trying and desiring to gnaw with his teeth the hand that had violated the sepulchre, testified he would not come out unless that same hand were cut off. Then indeed so great a cry arose from both sexes that the voice, joined with tears, seemed unable to be ended. 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 enter and abide here for ever.” And when the candles, long sought, had again — by the demon’s indication — been found and brought, the same demon added that the miserable body must be beaten with brooms equal in number to the candles, and that the young man must fast twenty days after the restoration of his health. But the misery could be seen in the afflicted youth, in whom iniquity reigned and dominated, and from where not only those present but also the absent could receive no small terror. For the brooms being brought and the candles 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 shown, and all present besought the aid and mercy of the blessed Mother of God Mary, and also of Saints Nicholas, Rupert and Virgil especially, with inmost sighs — that wicked spirit fled with a crash and no small whistling, many of those standing round feeling his departure and onset.
3 #
The man freed from the demon and refreshed by the life-giving sacrament was carried back half-alive to his bed. There remaining mute for three days, he exposed the intent of his mind by signs of the hands and by writings, since he could not by tongue — for this dumbness, as afterwards appeared, was the penalty of his unbelief. Admonished by the reverend priests to lend ready faith to the things done concerning him and to 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, mute and failing in mind and body together and believed about to die soon, he communicated again in the Lord’s sacrament; and the priest added: “If you believe Virgil to be God’s servant, may He who opened the prophet Zechariah’s mouth open your mouth” — and he, his throat and tongue suddenly loosed, cried “I believe!” and at once received the use of speech with pristine health. 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 the dregs had not yet been emptied out, 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 again — since chastised he would not be amended. For being asked whether he remembered the things done concerning him, he insultingly added that he would profane the holy pontiff’s sepulchre and utterly overturn it unless they ceased from questioning him. Nor delay: as if smitten he fell to the ground, and being lifted by those standing by he recovered a little. Nor content with this — when one of the infirm canons had been brought to the sepulchre that same night, the young man met him, coming with the other canons to pray there for the sick man’s health; and rashly and mockingly he prayed the man of God to heal the sick man — “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, he demanded aid for the sick man brought there. At once therefore, the roof overhanging the tomb trembled with so great a crashing that it seemed shaken by hailstones. That young man also, freed from the demon and often chastised for his presumption, still remained in his obstinacy; smitten again and prostrate with 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 what he had before concealed — the order of his vexation: namely that at the time when, as aforementioned, he repelled the woman from the holy sepulchre, the unclean spirit with a vehement 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 both 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.”
4 #
To these marvels more marvels were added: a blind and lame woman of Loufen came to the man of God’s sepulchre and received both sight and step. A woman of Salzburg city, the nerves of her legs long contracted so that she could not keep her gait, 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 hands and feet also weak — held by this torment for twelve years — came to the said sepulchre and was suddenly made whole. Likewise another man of Loufen, lacking gait by a dissolution of the nerves, came creeping on his hands to the tomb, and having long implored the man of God’s aid, was made whole, the soles of his feet consolidated. Likewise a man of Prunningen labouring under the same disease was brought to the foresaid sepulchre and returned whole. A woman also of the village of Grelich, contracted in hands and feet, led to the same tomb, departed healed to all men’s great joy and wonder. Two women moreover met — one from Salzburg city, the other from the village of Aneva — both bereft of the light of their eyes, the former for twenty years, the latter for three; approaching the sepulchre with pious devotion, both suddenly received sight. At another time also a woman of Pongau, contracted three years and held by very many infirmities, led with great labour to the said place, was healed. At the same time a certain infant of Hall, contracted in the feet, was made whole. Likewise a certain man of Salzburg, a known person, blind many years, was illuminated there. Then four blind women — each known to very many standing by — received sight there; one from Salzburg city, the rest had come from neighbouring hamlets, from Vischahe and Gläes and Alben — of whom she who came from Alben had been blind twenty years. In the following time two women, one blind, the other having her back bent to her knees, 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.
5 #
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 as we heard from truthful men’s witness, a certain brother at Raitenhaslach, having lived most religiously more than forty years in the monastic habit, was herniated and had been ruptured about the intestines a long time — and the passion exceeding his strength, he failed, destitute of human aid. When meanwhile the fame of the blessed prelate Virgil’s signs came to his ears, he began to beseech the Lord most devoutly with inmost 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 and gradually to slip back to the ancient place — so that within three days he was made whole, and preached the manner of his cure to all comers. In like manner, by the relation of the venerable man Isinric, abbot of Admont, we learned that a monk of the same place was cured: who, held three years by the disease of paralysis and able neither to sit nor walk, began to beseech his abbot earnestly to grant him means of coming to the blessed Virgil’s sepulchre, either in a cart or by any means whatever, that through contact with the holy sepulchre he might recover health. Amid the very words of his supplication, obtaining the fruit of his faith and devotion, he rose cured from his bed. At another time two paralytic women were brought to the holy man’s tomb — a woman of advanced age from Sechir and a twelve-year-old girl from Walwes — and recovered pristine health. A certain blind man of the district of Chiemgau, coming to the tomb itself and most devoutly commending himself to the holy man, returning home received sight in the middle of his journey. A certain girl of Matsé, having a bent hand from birth, was healed there in the presence of clergy and the whole multitude. Likewise a girl of Perndorf, having a withered and bent hand, was healed. Likewise a boy of Tuosendorf, four years from birth 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 of Vochenberg, mute and contracted in the legs from birth, carried to the tomb by his mother, received the use of speech and of gait. A certain boy of Fuohten, mute and having a paralysed arm so that he could not conveniently put it to his mouth, received a desirable cure of both ills. A certain deacon clerk of Prien, presuming to disparage the blessed Virgil’s merits, 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.
6 #
A certain youth, son of Henry of Laimingen and nephew of Chuno by his sister, deaf from birth, at the blessed Virgil’s sepulchre received hearing. Likewise an infant of Tuosendorf, contracted in the feet, laid by his mother upon the sepulchre, rose cured, his gait recovered. A certain bent boy of Winheringen, hindered by the distance of places from coming, sent by the travellers to the blessed Virgil’s tomb a candle made to his body’s measure — which being brought and lit, he obtained the benefits of health. A certain citizen of Hall, carrying denarii to be exchanged, while he rode toward the city of Salzburg, silently purposed to visit St Virgil’s sepulchre and lay an oblation 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 a little farther from the city, his horse, though urged by spurs, not only refused to go forward but stood still; no, he returned to the city and 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. Taking the road again and making for home, not far advanced 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; a like return being made by divine dispensation for the third time, he at last indicated the truth of the matter — that he had been so often recalled on the road he had taken because, according to his purpose, he had neglected to offer the votive offering of prayers to the blessed Virgil. Which done, he went home by the right path. Likewise two knights, about to visit the foresaid sepulchre, were leading a certain little client lacking hearing as driver and charioteer of the cart. While they presented their oblations at St Virgil’s tomb and poured prayers to the Lord, the said servant of theirs stood praying 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.
7 #
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 try to end his son’s pain. When he had begun to apply the knife and other instruments, the said boy, crying out tearfully — unable to endure the difficulty of the medicine — moved his father to tears also. The father therefore, pitying his wretched son’s pain with paternal affection, 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 through 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. A certain boy of Chraiburch, vexed by a demon and brought by his mother to the saint’s sepulchre, merited by the faithful’s prayers and his mother’s tears to be freed.
8 #
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 continuous days he neither took food nor laid aside his mind’s madness. 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 — he ate without hesitating the bread offered there for every kind of health, and received vigour of sense.
9 #
A certain woman of Selhuoben, overtaken by most heavy grief, was seized by such languor that, all despairing of her life, she agonised in the last article of death. Who, since she could by no means suffice to implore God for herself — being destitute of the benefit of reason and voice — the multitude of the faithful standing by began to invoke the aid of our Lord and Saviour for her, commemoration of the blessed Virgil being made also 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.
10 #
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 soul or body — a certain man of Megling, rich and very well known, 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 the highest prosperity. While he thought these things, so great a force of paralysis suddenly seized his only son of eight years that it deprived him of voice and step. The foresaid man therefore, weeping — alas — 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 doctor of his 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 foresaid sepulchre together with the boy — and while they went, the sick boy found remedy for his infirmity. A man of Owé, having a paralytic son, vowed to bring him to the blessed Virgil’s tomb; and at once in that same place he merited to be restored to pristine health. A certain five-year-old boy of Vohendorf, blind and contracted, received beside the man of God’s tomb the benefit of both ills. A certain bent man of Erlach, the name of St Virgil being invoked, was in the same place restored to health.
11 #
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, made partaker of his vow, while he stood by amid the priest’s words of exhortation to the people, put off the darkness of his eyes’ blindness. A certain woman, hearing how great virtues the Lord had wrought through His servant Virgil, imploring the divine aid of his tomb at home, by the man of God’s intercession recovered the benefit of sight on returning home. Likewise a certain woman of Aquileia, wounded by her less-cautious husband for some cause of anger in the elbow with a not-mediocre knife-blow, and the nerves being cut having her hand bent and contracted — accompanied by many inhabitants of the same region she approached the blessed pontiff’s tomb suppliantly with due reverence. But because the time of pitying her had not yet come, almighty God deferred the wonder, and 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.
12 #
A certain boy of Linzharde, 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; awaking from which, the use of his gait restored, he walked to the great wonder of those standing by. Likewise a certain woman of Malsé, 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, she might find the remedy of her hoped-for cure; and at once she obtained the outcome favourable to her faith. A certain boy of Rospach, lacking the benefit of walking by contraction of the legs, was restored to perfect health by the faithful’s most apt prayers invoking the blessed Virgil’s name for him, the bases being strengthened in the common manner.
13 #
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 Raitenhaslach, labouring with a lasting languor of the shoulder-blade, while he journeyed in his abbot’s company at a certain time, was grievously seized by the foresaid passion and failed on the road taken, destitute of bodily strength. Moreover it happened that, by the rigour of the monastic rule, the day on which the monks customarily receive the disciplines of the flesh was at hand; and he also with the rest who were then present prostrated himself before the lord abbot to be chastised, exposing the sounder part of his back to the blows; and when he had felt it well beaten, he suppliantly asked that the other side also, which had been spared before, be scourged in honour of the blessed Virgil — after the accomplishment of which petition he obtained the aid of full salvation. O the praiseworthy and wonderful pity of Christ! which declared the blessed Virgil’s merits far and wide with such celebrity that their fame filled all nations on this side of the sea. 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 that a certain woman of Graz — deprived of the body’s light outwardly, yet irradiated to the heart’s core by the lamp of pious devotion — her long journey’s laborious consummation, humbly rolled at the blessed prelate’s sepulchre and amid the very tears of supplication laid down the darkness of her illuminated blindness. A parish priest of Theraz, an aged man of good conversation and honourable, had been so pressed by the incurable disease of paralytic passion that the foot and hand of his right side 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 that of his voice in preaching the great works of God; and his hand’s languor, relieved in good part, was made known to all by evident truth.
14 #
A man of Vansdorf, 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 blessed 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 steadily finishing the begun way 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 restored to every kind of health. 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 — from the people’s consenting vow a certain rich and honoured woman not only dissented but, breaking forth, 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 repress; yet after she was shut out from the church’s threshold, 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 sensibility. 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 small portion of reason remained, so as both to recite the words of confession and to acknowledge she had sinned against St 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. A certain boy of St Mary’s church, having a bent hand, was brought to the blessed prelate’s tomb in the presence of a great multitude of men; and while all prayed to God for his health, his flesh cracking and sinews snapping he was restored to wholeness.
15 #
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, the divine goodness raised up for us a prophet and chief physician — by whose virtues’ power He reformed sons of Abraham from stones, that is, faithful from unbelieving, contrite from perverse. But who of those seeing the prodigies which happen in the people 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 a certain boy of Hartspech, contracted in the joints of his hands, the blessed Virgil’s intercession, in the very presence of his monument, compensated pristine health. “You blind therefore draw near to Him and be enlightened; and you paralytics who lie on pallets, be strengthened by Him” — for lest examples be sought far away: a certain boy of Milstat, eleven years old, bent and blind from birth, and a fifteen-year-old paralytic girl of Celle in Zylarn — we saw them fully cured with seeing faith. Of how great account indeed in our opinion, how near to thrones and dominations is he to be esteemed — through whose invocation a certain woman of Aspach, contracted in her hands, and another woman of Suben, 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 health flowed copiously for a certain girl contracted in hands and feet and legs; and by the grace of the same salutary unction, a certain little one of the Chiemgau district, mute from birth, recovered the organ of voice. A certain youth of Tiernstein near Freising, having a withered and useless hand, received from St Virgil the health he sought and desired.
16 #
Merchants of the city of Regensburg, sailing down to the fair by the Danube’s channel at the place called Ardacher with a very great ship laden with merchandise, fell into that peril called Spilberch from the waters’ perpetual agitation; 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 tempest’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 and Saviour — the help of the mildest confessor and prelate 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 — lifted higher above the waves was borne 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.
17 #
A certain knight of Pilstein, 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 desolate 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 he went to the city of Salzburg to visit the saints’ relics, faithfully exposing the matter to us and rendering due thanks to God his liberator and to all the saints, but chiefly to St Virgil. The rumour being therefore diffused, hearers are appeased by this odour of virtues as by balsam; they run thirsting in faith to the house of grace; and consolation being received according to the multitude of their griefs, they are refreshed in fulness. Many kingdoms provoke the great works wrought through St Virgil; and as into the waters of Bethesda, so into his benefits the copious multitude dips itself for health’s sake.
18 #
From where also 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 hastening on the journey quickly reached Juvavum. O how commendable a miracle! On a certain Friday, when the divine work was now being done, the sons offered their oblation — and at the same hour light was restored to their mother: wondrously, at one and the same hour God’s saint received the present offering and illuminated the absent blind woman. Ignorant of this 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 God and bless Him, admirable and glorious in His virtue. Truly worthy of praise does he stand fast in the Lord — who was everywhere present, that here he might receive the sons’ gift and there illuminate their mother from her blindness. But also what I shall relate, in Austria I learned by many a relation had been wrought through God’s saint.
19 #
A certain man was taken by his country’s judges; bound to a beam he is stretched, and so is led into a certain city to be punished. But he, lamenting unhappily for fear, turned his sighs to the blessed Virgil and begged to be protected by him — by whose help he believed himself recalled to nothingness. In the likeness therefore of Jesus Christ pitying and raising the crucified thief, He loosed the stretched man and freed him, and strengthened him as he fled lest he be taken. 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. In our confines, in the village called Quantele, the people made a collection among themselves for the blessed Virgil — 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; hence he judged himself unworthy and feared that he and his had displeased the saint. He therefore 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 the ram drew the wolf into the flock’s middle — which left behind, the son’s lamb it seized, who had reprobated the offerings made to the saints and not condoled with his 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.
20 #
Likewise a certain man of St Hippolytus, smitten with blindness for nearly two and a half years, when he had heard what things were being done through the saint, approached 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 — the penalty he suffers he imputes to his own misdeeds; and at once he devoutly accused himself to God and the priest. On the penitent therefore he inflicted a penance, adjudging it merited. But he, judging himself more loftily, asked a year’s abstinence from flesh-food, that being made purer thereby 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 gladly received it, began and happily consummated it. The year being finished, the blind man came seeking Juvavum; and see, coming on the road — the saint Virgil standing by — he received the desired light.
21 #
A certain knight of the village called Dienge, when he was blind, hearing the man of God’s fame, forestalled by hope and faith sought 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 Erpesford approached, contracted in both shins — but carried by the very faith in which he was brought, so that coming into the way he should fare 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 Austria, which is in the east, came blind — but illuminated by the saint’s merits he departed seeing. To this man a like thing soon happened, for in the invention of the blessed 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 merits, he who is found may testify in this miracle.
22 #
Likewise two knights in the castle of Charnarebrunne, bound with manacles and iron fetters together, were held captive in a dark dungeon under guard. Where when they saw the judicial straits approaching to punish them, now nearly sunk in despair of life, within they suffer the trial of future death — from which the next day’s day threatened their exit. Now within conscience they are accused to themselves as to a judge, and because guilty they thus suffer shipwreck amid the waves of thoughts, transfixed with grief as with a sword in the sea; but see, to the grieving — or rather penitent — divine mercy was not far off. For one of them spoke thus: “Let us cry to the Lord; let us vow to Him amendment into a better life; let us ask Him that through the merits of His saints Virgil, Hartwich, Eberhard and His other elect He would free us — and as He saved the thief hanging on the cross, so save us.” By these prayers therefore he began to urge his companion, somewhat obstinate, to prayers; but he with great faith ceased not to invoke the foresaid saints of God. When therefore he had a while implored divine aid with tears, he drew forth his hands as if the manacles had been crushed; and now stronger in faith, wrapping a little stone in a rag lest he be heard, he struck the chains and fetters — and they were broken in the manner of a crackling bladder. Rising therefore and lifting one another in turn, they cross the wall from the surface of the house in which they had lain; and from the high masonry — God with His saints aiding — they leapt headlong into the depth of the great valley without injury. Meanwhile the guards are roused, and when they had learned of their flight they pursue them with clamour and arms. He is taken and dragged by the hand, who believed not that the loosed man would escape; but he who both quickly believed and provoked the other to grace, secure and intrepid and without loss escaped by his own safety. He also brought his iron manacle with its fetter to the blessed Virgil’s tomb, and exultingly gave thanks to God with His saints amid all the people. The sign therefore being made from the broken iron bonds, it is plain how prompt the Lord is to loose the sins of the penitent. For since within, through good faith, the bonds of sin are loosed, the body is freed together with the soul — since if he had not merited within, he would not have been freed without. These things were done not only for the merit of him who was freed, but that it may be revealed to us all how great are the merits of St Virgil and the rest of the Juvavian saints.
Likewise a certain citizen of Freising, Ruozo by name, had offended I know not whom — a certain ministerial of the margrave of Styria, namely Otto of Gräzen — and was circumvented by his enemies for vengeance’s sake and knew not what to do. When see, despairing of human aid, he veils himself as with the shield of faith, and fleeing by pilgrimage to the blessed Virgil asks to be defended by his virtue. From where wondrously, as he returned, his adversary met him — but through the saint he is restrained; naked he feared the armed man so that he so failed as though about to die continually. A priest therefore being called, having confessed he repented; 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 impotent was set before the prince.
[Here the captured text ends.]