From: Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum V, ed. B. Krusch & W. Levison (Hannover, 1910), pp. 129–157. Latin text as printed — Levison’s critical preface, the genealogy, and the Life in two books, followed by the opening of the preface to the Vita Nivardi. Translated into modern British English; the editors’ Latin apparatus notes are rendered in English.

The editor’s introduction #

[The monastery of Menat in Auvergne is found subject to Cluny from the time of Abbot Hugh (1049–1109) onwards. In the age of Louis the Pious, Ardo (Life of Benedict of Aniane, ch. 31) testifies that “the monastery which is situated in the territory of the Auvergne, which St Meneleus, sprung from royal seed, founded, and in which he also lies in the body,” showed the fair fame of the holy man; it was believed to have been founded by him, so that, if such a late witness may be credited, he lived neither before the time of Brachio his predecessor nor after the first part of the sixth century. That the name Meneleus, beginning by a strange chance with the same letters as Menat and Memlai, revives the memory of the king of the Grani cannot remove all suspicion. Before the ninth century his fame had travelled beyond the bounds of Auvergne, since Usuard entered his name in his martyrology on 22 July: “In the territory of the Auvergne, St Meneleus, abbot.” Ardo recorded that he was of royal stock; and many things related at length in the Life of Meneleus about that same origin are such as would of themselves alone strip the author of all credit.

The Life of Meneleus was composed by an author who was doubtless enrolled in, or bound by certain ties to, the monastery of Menat. Well skilled in the Latin tongue, though not wholly avoiding faults, he often employed a turgid style, and was so devoted to the kind of diction we call “rhymed prose” that we conclude he wrote not before the tenth century; nor can he be later than the twelfth, on account of the one extant codex. Prefacing the saint’s genealogy, he comprised the life in two books: in the former are related the deeds of Meneleus as a layman; in the latter and shorter, what the saint did “in the office of the clergy” after receiving the tonsure from Eusebius, bishop of Auvergne. The verbose Life is stuffed with speeches of men conversing with one another, and its credibility does not match its prolixity.

The saint’s origin is traced back to the Emperor Heraclius (610–641), of whose progeny we are excellently informed from trustworthy witnesses. Of the sons attributed to him by our author, one — Modestus, bishop of Jerusalem — was indeed his contemporary but by no means his son, while the other, Chobar by name, is wholly fictitious. This man the author makes Meneleus’s great-great-grandfather, although Meneleus himself was born “on the fourth feria in the first month, in the second year under Queen Brunichild” and, being grown up with that same queen (d. 613), would have considerably outlived Heraclius his great-great-grandfather (d. 641). Nor can the biographer be given more credence if you conjecture without good reason that the genealogy was prefixed to the Life afterwards by another hand; for Heraclius the “atavus” (rather, great-great-grandfather) recurs in the first chapter, attributed to Amanulfus, father of Meneleus. Likewise Genesius, count of Auvergne, who is said to have granted a certain fortress to the dying saint, does not square with a “descendant of Heraclius,” since he is known to have been the contemporary of Bishop Praejectus (d. 676); and finally, Dotiva, sister of Brunichild, is entirely fictitious. The remaining convolutions the author narrated were judged by Pinius to be contaminated with hallucinations, who rightly held that the Life should be removed from the number of genuine acts; nor can it be doubted that almost everything was devised and fabricated by the author himself — save for certain things he borrowed from the biographer of Vincentianus, himself also a forger.

For very many of the events which occupy the greater part of the first book of the Life of Meneleus (I, 3–4, 10, 13–20, 22–23) — the same in which Vincentianus is said to have taken part — are also narrated in that saint’s life (ch. 10); and pseudo-Hermenbertus passed over these things more swiftly and pursued the fates of Barontus and other matters with greater simplicity than this second biographer. The latter not only drew out and exaggerated what is read of Meneleus in the Life of Vincentianus, but transferred the story “of the introduced relics” to the monastery of Tresfagium instead of the church of Avolca; and I incline to think he himself was the first to assert that Savinianus was set by Meneleus over that monastery and afterwards succeeded Meneleus as abbot of Menat — whereas in Hermenbertus, Savinianus fulfils the office of first priest of Avolca, and in the Menat tradition was nourished there and consecrated priest.

About the beginnings of the monastery of Menat the author was wholly uninstructed: ascribing its origin to Meneleus just as Ardo did, he was altogether ignorant that the monastery already existed in the middle of the sixth century, and — after the unwonted fashion of forgers — attributed a later age to the founder. Taking Meneleus as the contemporary of Queen Brunichild, he feigned that she had done him injuries — perhaps on the model of the Life of Columbanus. That Meneleus was held by our author as the first founder of the monastery cannot be denied; nor may we follow the steps of certain later writers who, to reconcile the saint’s life with the eminent testimonies of Gregory of Tours, would have it that the monastery of Menat was not founded but restored by Meneleus, after it had in some manner been destroyed after Gregory’s age — so that a second destruction would fall in the eighth century and a second restoration in the times of Benedict of Aniane. Nor should we believe certain authors that Meneleus died about 720, who decided that the name Brunichild must be rejected — rashly taking the name of Eusebius, bishop of Auvergne, as a fiction for Bonitus. In truth, nothing at all is certain about his life, except that from the age of Louis the Pious he was held as the founder of Menat, and his memory was celebrated on 22 July.

In fabricating his deeds, the author aimed not only at furnishing the history of a hitherto unknown patron, but also — unless everything deceives — at a somewhat more useful purpose not unheard-of among hagiographers: the vindication and confirmation of certain possessions and rights. The greater part of each book is occupied by a rather similar narrative: in both, Meneleus is attacked, the persecutor is divinely punished and, restored to health, grants the saint gifts most profitable to the monastery of Menat — in the first book Barontus fills the office of gracious persecutor, in the second Queen Brunichild. Barontus, when healed, first gives him the monastery of Tresfagium, situated in the region of Yssandon, with forty-six “inhabited manses” and other goods, “to retain in his own right and dominion”; then he adds the villas of Avolca and Varicius situated in the same district — these remoter possessions being so dear to the biographer that he does not omit to relate how Meneleus’s envoy was duly “revested” with the donated property through a messenger of Barontus, and how Meneleus himself took care “lest in future the frauds of deceitful men should creep in.” Furthermore, he would have Tresfagium, together with those villas, afterwards entrusted by Meneleus to the priest Savinianus; and showing more openly what advantages the men of Menat might expect from their dependants, he relates that when the monastery of Menat was burnt down, at Meneleus’s bidding the men of Tresfagium and of the villas came, divided the work into shares, and gladly bestowed their labour on the conjoined cause — doubtless inventing the whole conflagration so that those men labouring for the Menat monks might be a useful example to posterity.

A like design he pursued in the second book, narrating that Brunichild, her folly being recognised, granted Meneleus the villa of Sigola and the church of St Martin, together with the most precious licence of enlarging the bounds of the monastery of Menat — situated in the royal forest — at his own pleasure. Past events could scarcely be more manifestly fabricated for the use of posterity; and I wonder whether the biographer of Meneleus furrowed the famous Life of St Gall with the same art. To Barontus and Brunichild are added the priest Leopasius and Genesius, count of Auvergne — the one brought in to give the church of St Gervasius, the other to give Meneleus the fortress of Mont Maur; and finally a certain Ermendricus is said to have sold certain lands to him and, the price accepted, to have transferred them “into the right and dominion of the monastery of God’s beloved Meneleus.” The author therefore had no small regard for the possessions and rights of Menat; and in fabricating fables he thought not only of edifying the minds of his readers but also of the monastery’s manifest advantages — a forger both shameless and ignorant of history.

Meantime the forger himself must be distinguished from the author of the extant Life of Meneleus: for the latter recast an older work into a different style, so that the frauds are to be attributed to his predecessor. The earlier Life is for the most part lost, but a fragment survives which in the seventeenth century existed both in a copy of André Du Chesne and with Fr Thomas Aquinas “de S. Josepho,” a Discalced Carmelite of Paris; it was transcribed by hand from an unknown codex and published by Philippe Labbe (Nova bibliotheca manuscriptorum librorum, vol. II, Paris 1657, pp. 591–593). The fragment — beginning “The blessed Meneleus, having left his wife, the daughter of a certain Barontus” — contains the dealings between Brunichild and Meneleus (II, 3–12), often agreeing with the complete Life word for word; but its diction is much simpler, less tricked out with the paint of empty words. Compare, for instance, the words which Brunichild’s messenger is said to have addressed to Meneleus:

• Labbe p. 591: “The queen calls you; come to her.”
• Vita II, 3: “The magnificence of Queen Brunichild commends your presence to come to her without prolongation of time.”

And his reply:

• Labbe: “Go you; I will follow after.”
• Vita: “Go,” he said, “and as swiftly as I can I will fulfil the queen’s commands with a good will.”

The fragment’s author, relating the prepared journey:

• Labbe: “Having received the gifts — wine, fishes and a honeycomb — for the sake of blessing, he bade his domestic donkey be saddled for him to sit on.”
• Vita II, 4: “But that he might the more amiably stand before the queen’s countenance — poor in earthly things, rich in heavenly — the holy man Meneleus prepares certain gifts, namely of wine, fishes and honey, and carries these with him, that he may find a better place of reception. And he orders the donkey customary to his riding to be saddled for him, that he may the more briskly accomplish the course of the enjoined journey.”

He has even used an absolute accusative, presenting the appearance of greater antiquity. Nor are weightier proofs wanting that the fragment was composed before the Life: Meneleus’s cell has grown into a monastery with the later biographer (“So he returned to the monastery of his own labour” — where the fragment has “he mounted his donkey and returned to his own cell”); the fragment’s “licence to enlarge the bounds of your cell round about” has become the “licence of enlarging the bounds of his monastery in perpetuity”; the oratory of St Gervasius “which he had received by letter of sale for a price” has become a church “of his own right,” given and dedicated to God’s honour — where the words added “in perpetual right” served domestic utility all the better. And the false etymology of the name Menat is more clearly defined in the fragment: “For you did see your disciples weeping because you were hastening to the sword’s threats (minae). Let that place henceforth be called Minatus” — where the Life has the queen bid the same place be called for ever Menatum, “from which St Meneleus had of old been dragged away,” in memory of the tears the disciples shed on hearing the threats of his death. Finally the fragment’s author distinguishes the monastery’s condition in the same manner as Gregory of Tours (“a wood belonging to the Vindiciacan house”), where the Life says the queen lived “in the parts of the place Vinciacensis.”

This being so, I am persuaded that the Life which survives entire is a recasting of the earlier one to which Labbe’s fragment once belonged. From this it may be concluded that nearly the same events were narrated in each; from where — on account of the villa of Avolca being claimed for the monastery of Menat — the earlier work also must have been composed before the middle of the eleventh century, by which time the villa had already passed to other lords; and it is clear that neither the earlier nor the later deeds of Meneleus were written before the Carolingian age. Since the earlier Life is for the most part lost, and the fragment differs from the recast Life only in style, I have been unwilling to repeat the whole text, but have thought it enough to insert passages of some moment taken from Labbe into the notes of the complete Life.

Either the lost or the later Life seems to have been known to the authors of Calmiliacum (Saint-Chaffre), who related the beginnings of that monastery — to the author of the eleventh-century cartulary, to the biographers of Abbot Theofredus (both the first, chs. 8 and 10, and the second who distinctly mentions him), and to the biographer of Savinianus, the reputed second abbot of Menat, who both used and cited it, partly repeating the same things he had read in the Life of Meneleus. Finally, in the suppliant little book which they delivered to Pope Martin V in 1423 on behalf of the monastery of Menat, its origin is narrated in several words according to the Life of Meneleus.

The manuscripts and editions #

Of the later Life of the saint, which alone survives entire, only one codex contains it:

1. Clermont codex no. 150 (139 — A. 15), twelfth century, formerly (fol. 1, seventeenth-century inscription) of the monastery of St Illidius at Clermont: it contains, fol. 1–27, the Life of Meneleus; fol. 27–28, two poems on the same (beginning Angelus ista Deo and O Menelee pater); fol. 28v–46r, the Miracles of Meneleus (beginning Omnium gesta seu memorias); fol. 47–55v, the Life of his successor Savinianus; fol. 56–72v, the second Life of Carileffus; fol. 72v–84v, the Life of Vincentianus; fol. 84v–86, the fabulous Life of Genesius, count of Auvergne — so that the whole codex is dedicated to saints who were believed to be connected by certain ties with the monastery of Menat. Collated by B. Krusch.
2. The codex of Menat used by Mabillon, now lost, which likewise exhibited the Life of Meneleus together with the Miracles.

The Life of Meneleus, of which Hugues Ménard made mention, was first published by Jean Mabillon (Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, saec. III, pars I, Paris 1672, pp. 404–422) from codex 2, with certain passages suppressed; this edition was reprinted by Jean Pinius (Acta Sanctorum, July V, Antwerp 1727, pp. 308–319). The predecessors’ text, drawn from codex 2, differs from codex 1 only in a few places, and the variant readings of 2 are in general of no moment, therefore I have rarely troubled with them.

W. Levison.

Here Begins the Genealogy of Meneleus #

The origin of the blessed Meneleus flowed from a famous spring — namely, from the progeny of the great Emperor Heraclius. For the Emperor Heraclius begot Chobar and Modestus bishop of Jerusalem; Chobar begot Agor; Agor begot Amanulfus; Amanulfus begot Meneleus.

Now at a certain time the religious man Modestus the pontiff went out from the city of Jerusalem, having Chobar and Agor attending him; and they made their way to Rome for prayer’s sake, and waited their turn at the basilica of blessed Peter. That same night, weighed down by bodily illness, Bishop Modestus ended his life. Then Chobar and Agor went on with a great retinue as far as the city of Tours. But when they had come into the church of blessed Martin, their spiritual comfort failed: for after a space of time, as they went on their way, brigands rushed upon them and with wicked intent laid hands on them and slew them with the sword; and Agor alone remained, bereft of the fellowship of his father and brethren.

He, prostrate in mind, began to weep most bitterly; yet, sustained by the divine aid, he took strength and was valiant in war. Then the heavenly consoler, unwilling that his servant should be tormented overmuch with grief, sent him a man named Arimundus, who began to comfort him with gentle words and said to him: “Be not sad nor sorrowful, but come with me into the parts of the famous city of Angers, and I will give you my daughter Raganilda to wife, and enrich you with great riches, that you may enjoy good things together.” So Agor, having taken Raganilda to wife, begot of her a son named Amanulfus; who, taking a wife named Doculama, begot of her a son, Meneleus — on the fourth feria in the first [month], in the second year under Queen Brunichild.

HERE ENDS THE PROLOGUE.

Here Begins the Life of St Meneleus, Glorious Confessor and Most Worthy Abbot, Whose Feast Is Celebrated on the Eleventh Kalends of August [22 July] #

Book One #

1. Of his birth. — Born of famous parents, the blessed Meneleus rendered the ancient line of his nobility splendid with the brightness of his merits. Descending from the genealogy of the Emperor Heraclius, he had for father one Amanulfus, who also had that same Emperor Heraclius for great-great-grandfather. This Amanulfus, father of the blessed Meneleus, had for his own father one named Agor, who, coming from Jerusalem for love of God, sought the aid of blessed Martin at Tours, and after some days arrived at the borders of the lands of the Angevin country; where, living nobly as a noble man and joining to himself in marriage the noble wife Raganilda, he begot of her the aforementioned Amanulfus, the renowned father of blessed Meneleus. The aforementioned Amanulfus, not degenerating from the renowned line of his parents, in the times of Queen Brunichild ennobled the number of all his kindred, when by God’s mercy he begot a true friend of Jesus Christ, Meneleus.

2. How, leaving father and mother, he vowed to serve the Lord for ever. — This blessed Meneleus, prevented in his mother’s womb by the Spirit of God and fortified while yet seven years old with the sevenfold gift of merits, bound himself wholly under that discipline whereof it is said: Blessed is the man that has borne the yoke from his youth. Instructed by this heavenly teaching, he governed the ways of his childhood with the ordinances of an old man; and as good ground he rendered a hundredfold fruit, being both a prompt hearer and a doer of the evangelical word. For leaving father and mother while yet a child of seven, the pious boy clove with pious zeal to the doors of neighbouring churches. But one day his father Amanulfus, hearing that he busied himself attentively in such zeal, and that like some wise architect he had vowed to devote himself to the Lord’s service, bade him be drawn back from such a work, and — ignorant of divine secrets — commanded the divine-wise child to be beaten with rods, and enjoined him that, returning to his own home, he should not leave his carnal mother until she should receive her last day by the death common to all living.

So after enduring the strokes of the rods and hearing the threats of his father’s wrath, blessed Meneleus returned to his mother, and was in all things obedient, according to God, both to his parents and to strangers. But when his mother heard of this business — not only from the pious boy Meneleus himself but from his father Amanulfus — she perceived that her son was divinely seeking after the grades of holiness that should profit him, and confirmed him with a heartfelt blessing for their attainment. So there were multiplied in him the laudable qualities of mind according to the multiplied revolutions of days; and while yet a little boy he surpassed the age of certain ancients by a certain magisterial gravity of manners.

3. How Barontus would have joined his daughter to him in marriage. — When blessed Meneleus had reached that term of age at which he should in transitory wise take up the laborious burden of marriage, very many nobles sought him out, and looked that he should keep the pact of his kindred by taking a wife. But that animal of purity, chastity and innocence, consecrated by the divine espousal in the inmost chamber of his heart, could not suffer to be dimmed by the darkness of diseased marriage. Among others there was one named Barontus, of great nobility and wide power, who to accomplish such a business came with all speed to the blessed man’s father Amanulfus at the villa of Prisciniacum; for he did not hope that his daughter’s wifely embrace would be despised — she whom both the famous comeliness of her parents and the great abundance of her riches ennobled. So Amanulfus, father of blessed Meneleus, persuades his son to incline a willing mind to marriage with Barontus’s daughter, and not to put off the prepared honour which fortune, thus smiling unhoped-for, makes ready.

On this matter the mother’s will also is sought. But she, being well aware of her son’s good secret, answered that she did not expect it would ever be the will of her son Meneleus to be entangled in the delight of carnal marriage, since even when he was seven years old he watched voluntarily at the doors of holy prayer. Her wise counsel made Amanulfus’s mind exceedingly troubled — whether because he doubted his son could be inclined to the desired union, or because he heard the mother foretell it with such certainty. Inflamed therefore at his wife’s answer, he struck her on the cheeks with his fist, muttering that such a business did not concern her — a thing which he thought he could bring his son to shortly.

Then Barontus, whose daughter was being refused, not dissenting from the will of blessed Meneleus’s father, showed the pious Meneleus the ring whereby his daughter was to be espoused, and promised to enrich him with infinite wealth of goods, foretelling that he could hold the primacy of all his possessions after him. But he whom the zeal of settled perfection had hardened could bend his ear neither to promises nor to persuasions for the accomplishing of marriage. Therefore Amanulfus, embittered with the gall of an exasperated heart, struck pious Meneleus with a staff and, himself proud and pursuing vain things, vainly threatened him who held the humble and stable gifts lest he follow frivolities. At last, however, to satisfy and accomplish his father’s will, blessed Meneleus received the ring from Barontus’s hand, as though he seemed willing to become a carnal husband. Thus at last did St Meneleus espouse Barontus’s daughter — with the chaste espousal of Christ: and a chaste husband he remained, and the bride firmly kept the longed-for gift of virginity.

4. How he fled from the Angevin country. — Now on the seventh day after blessed Meneleus had thus been made a laudable bridegroom, Barontus, father of the espoused girl, began to prepare the various expenses of the nuptials; to view which a very great assembly of nobles was invited, attended by a copious number of both sexes. But the blessed man Meneleus, hearing that for such a work of gathering there was both being prepared a copious abundance of things and assembling the presence of many peoples, was neither softened — Christ’s veteran soldier — by the abundance of lavish delight, nor broken from his begun desire of heavenly perfection. Therefore he made manifest the secret treasures of his heart to a certain companion named Savinianus, and foretold to him that he would spurn the earthly apparatus of nuptials, since he had already vowed himself to serve the Lord in celibacy; and if he remained there, he feared lest, disobeying his father’s will and his friends’ petition, he should incur blame. Rather he declared that he chose to give his eaten body to beasts and birds among the mountainous and sloping crags of the rocks, rather than make void by the diseased touch of carnal marriage the vow of chastity promised to Jesus Christ the Lord.

While the heartfelt Meneleus thus wavered over these things, there was at hand for him the author of all consolation, who suggested to his servant to follow that worthy memorial of ancient Abraham’s obedience — that he should be willing to go out from his land and from his kindred. So the pious resolve of the most pious Meneleus being made executrix of that divine command, one day at earliest dawn he went out from the Angevin country with his companions Savinianus and Constandus, and fled away. And after long and rough windings of ways, in the Auvergne country, in the district of Vinciacensis, between the river Sioule and the Bouble, he determined to set an end to his journey.

5. How the blessed man Theofredus received them. — But the bountiful mercy of Almighty God looked with propitious regard upon his servant’s pilgrimage. For while blessed Meneleus wandered in that country with the aforementioned companions and had not yet fixed a firm place of habitation, he found in the place called the valley of Vaveris a certain man of great religion named Theofredus, who, bearing the Lord’s yoke under the religious Abbot Eudo, laboured not in vain nor to no purpose. He governed the monastery of Calmiliacum [Saint-Chaffre, now Le Monastier], and there sowed daily the profitable fruits of religion. The said man of the Lord Theofredus was in that valley under a dense oak, fleeing the excessive heats of burning and taking the pleasant repast of refreshment with his men at the opportune time. And blessed Meneleus, taking counsel with Savinianus, hastened to come to him with a well-pleased mind, wishing to seek from him a salutary counsel and a benefit profitable both to soul and body.

Now Theofredus, placed in a more retired part of the valley — whether to escape the throngs of passers-by or to avoid the rays of the burning sun — when he unexpectedly saw the blessed man Meneleus coming to him with his companions all readiness, feared lest some adversity should befall him through them. But seeing that the most blessed Meneleus — whose mind, as the Scripture says, his countenance declared — held the mastery among both his companions both for comeliness of beauty and for gravity of moderation, he doubted not that the men sought something of perfect reason. Therefore to those standing near the holy Theofredus addressed sweet words with sweet speech: “From where,” said he, “have we your coming? For the causes of what business do seek these hidden parts of a remote place? Do you search out a place of stay, or wander uncertain through these ways of solitude?” Questioned after this charitable colloquy, the blessed man Meneleus rendered a true and necessary account of his journey to those present.

6. How he opened all his need to the holy Theofredus. — He declared then that he was born in the Angevin country and in the villa of Prisciniacum; he hid not his father’s name Amanulfus nor his mother’s name Docula; he was not ashamed to say he was called Meneleus.

So when the blessed man Theofredus saw the son of such great persons walking in such humble poverty, he greatly prized the noble generosity of the parents thus disclosed, and doubted not to believe the disclosed reasons of his purpose. For after disclosing the name of his country and parents, blessed Meneleus disclosed that vow of his resolve whereby he had vowed to serve the Lord in celibacy when he was yet seven years old; and coming to that boundary of age at which he could be joined to take a wife in wedlock, he related with tears how a certain Barontus had arisen who, with his father Amanulfus’s consent, purposed to give him his daughter in temporal marriage; but he, unwilling to be forgetful of his promise to God, had spurned the bond of carnal marriage and, forgetful of country and parents, went to seek where he might freely serve Almighty God.

So the lover of God, Theofredus, hearing this blessed man Meneleus’s laudable desire, praised the heard purposes of the prudent man and announced to him the effects that would shortly follow: “Come with us,” said he, “and let not the comfort of your companions remain behind; this resolve of your heart the charitable hand of lord Abbot Eudo will bring to perfection.” So going together to the aforementioned abbot’s monastery, consecrated in honour of God and St Peter, the happy pilgrims made known their need to the same father, and with good will manifested that they sought his counsel. And hearing the desire of their good will, the man of God was filled with great joy and bade him come into his presence, that he might hear whether the things reported by him were true.

7. How he was received by Abbot Eudo. — And when he had rehearsed the causes of his desire and purpose before the presence of the blessed man Eudo, and had made known the cares of his will and resolve, this he earnestly begged in his prayers: that commending himself to God and to his spirit, he would join him to the body of his monastery. So Abbot Eudo, lending an ear to his prayers, associated the devoted Meneleus to his congregation there serving God, and bade him keep the example of obedience which he should see there, and commanded him to take with them eagerly the sustenance of earthly food. But after rendering thanks for his own private reception and his own consolation, he was not forgetful of the cares of the brethren who accompanied him, Savinianus and Constancius. And when for their sakes he sought reward from the same father Abbot Eudo with charitable affection, he was not disappointed in his prayers, since they also were joined by the aforementioned abbot’s command to the rest of the brethren.

And blessed Meneleus, received in such wise into the congregation of the brethren, began to be the example of all good things and, before yet the hair of his head was shorn, showed beforehand in deed and work the mortification of the flesh. For in all tasks enjoined on him he wisely applied the zeal of obedience; and as it is said of David that wherever he was sent he bore himself prudently, so also this blessed Meneleus, with the wise prudence of the serpent and with the sweetness of dove-like simplicity, finished all the sum of his labour; and as he kept an humbled heart before God, so by the supplement of bodily humility he showed it to men. For with a very bond of love he bound to himself all with whom he loosed the converse of any reasoning. So, beloved of God and men, afflicting his body with exceeding fasts and feeding his soul, he destined his days to works and passed his nights in prayers and in readings.

8. Of the threefold calling of the angel. — With these and innumerable fruits of praise, Almighty God, satiating blessed Meneleus for the number of seven years, extended the fame of his praise into the places of many lands; and lest — according to the evangelical saying — the famous candle should lie hid under a bushel, that true and burning lamp which lightens every man that comes into this world set him upon the candlestick of brightness, that he who had been instructed in the broad way of God’s knowledge might thereafter instruct the peoples with the doctrine of salutary institution. But one night, in the silence, while the same blessed man Meneleus had given himself to fitting sleep, the angel of the heavenly messenger — the legate neither sleeping nor slumbering — stood by him and thrice called him by his own name, saying: “Meneleus! Meneleus! Meneleus!” Wakened by the threefold repetition of the angelic visitation, he wondered at the unwonted sounds; yet he could not conceive that to the presence of so humble a person should be sent an angelic messenger, who used to be sent only to the assemblies of the perfect. But affrighted by the strange calling, St Meneleus answered: “Who are you that call me?” The angel said to him: “Fear not, but at the coming dawn of the dawning day hasten to fulfil the commands of my injunction. And leave not Savinianus, the helper of your labour, who may finish with you the ways of begun goodness. Hasten to come swiftly to that appointed bound of the place where you did find the man of religion Theofredus resting; and there I will show you what the mystery of my threefold calling requires, and will make known what the heavenly artificer wills to do for you.”

After this bidding of angelic admonition — and after he had fulfilled the number of seven years in the monastery of Calmiliacum — filled with the sevenfold gift, he gave his step back with joy to the aforementioned valley of Vaveris; and there attending for some space of time to the admonition of the angelic precept, he dwelling in holiness and justice before God all his days, from which he merited to be visited again in joy.

For on a certain day, giving the weary limbs of his body to rest, he fell asleep beneath the leafy shade of a branching oak — sleep, the friend of the wearied body; and again the angel visited his friend Meneleus and, declaring the causes of his promise, said: “Meneleus, in the place where you sleep, prepare by the zeal of your labour a house of prayer, where the frequented sublimity of angelic visitation may open the doors of eternal consolation to them that pray.” Having heard the causes of the expected angelic promise, he hastened to declare them to his companion Savinianus, forgetting the delays of hours. And Savinianus, turning over in his mind the disclosed vision of this blessed Meneleus, doubted not to believe that to him could come the visitations of angels — who, set on earth, kept the angelic life, ever abiding and praying to Almighty God; and remembering the doubled comings of the angelic visitation, he exhorted him to hasten to fulfil the commands, since such an injunction of work was worthily suited to such a messenger.

9. Of the unhoped-for coming of the wild sow. — But before ever they began to do the work of the heavenly bidding, and were turning over within themselves with subtle mind the manner of accomplishing such a structure, He consoled them with the sustenance of temporal provisions who gives not the just to wandering for ever. For from the neighbouring wood a certain wild sow of outpoured body and swollen fatness came out and, as though she saw a domestic of ancient acquaintance, came before the blessed man Meneleus and, casting off the wildness of her nature, began to lick the same blessed man’s feet with the blandishments of her tongue. So blessed Meneleus, seeing the beastly motions of this wild creature changed, considered that some profit would come to him by such a sign, and so warned his companion Savinianus to bring some of the provisions wrought by their own labour, wherewith to feed the neighbourly sow. And the sow, fed with such cheer by Meneleus in charitable kindness, brought her enjoined obedience to fitting perfection: for the saint bade her with cheerful command to return to him the following night with some gift of obedience. And neither transgressing the term of the appointed night nor coming empty to the man of God, she brought no strange gifts but those which her own womb had nourished — for she brought seven piglets with her; whose multiplication was not diminished for a long space of years, but gave aid in various expenses and necessities which the holy man Meneleus, ever patiently enduring his own, mercifully relieved in others.

10. Of the coming of his mother, sister and spouse. — While they dwelling meanwhile in that more secret place of the valley of Vaveris, not yet having prepared the costs fitting for the enjoined work, one day the blessed Savinianus saw coming from the quarter of the western region the saint’s mother Docula, his sister Bocula, and his spouse named Sensa — whom the boy Meneleus had espoused with the chaste espousal of Christ. For a mother’s sweetness, a sister’s affection and a wife’s charity had moved them to seek him; and for the zeal of unconquered love it was granted them to prove that evangelical saying true, whereby it is said: For every one that asks receives, and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be opened. So a mother seeking her son, a sister her brother, a wife in name only her husband, after the courses of some days found in the Auvergne country him whom they had petitioned, sought and knocked for — the true friend of God, Meneleus.

And blessed Meneleus, seeing these come unexpectedly with the same Savinianus, stood still amazed with fear — whether because he saw his mother, forgetful of her decrepit age, or because he saw his noble spouse, known only through the love of Christ, the comely offspring of parents, had set herself last for his sake, or because for love of him they had resolved to take up the ways of so great toil and so great a journey.

At length, overcome by the sweetness of his soul, the son addressed his mother with sweet affability: “Why, mother,” said he, “forgetful of the snow-white hairs of your head, forgetful of the ancient days of your broken old age, do you wander in this unknown land, aided by the presence of my sister and my spouse?” After wiping away the tears of maternal tenderness, the blessed man Meneleus heard from his mother the causes of the accomplished journey. And the mother rehearsed, among other things, the straits of his father Amanulfus over taking Barontus’s daughter in marriage, and rehearsed the judgments of her own maternal estimation on that business. This, however, she declared she could never have conceived — that for fear of an unwillingly espoused wife, a son should leave father and mother, a brother his sister, a citizen his kinsfolk, a man his own country. But blessed Meneleus, kindled with the fire of divine love, was neither softened by his mother’s weepings nor repented of the judgments he had formerly made.

11. What he did with his mother, sister and spouse. — So the holy man Meneleus, keeping the manly strength of his soul, prudently enquired of his friend and companion Savinianus what he should do about those who had followed him — not forgetting that it is written that there is wisdom in the multitude, where salvation is when many counsels reign. And Savinianus chose the better part of counsel, and disclosed that a little cell should be built for them where they could serve the eternal bridegroom. How such counsel pleased was not hidden from Savinianus for long: for the following night the angel of the Lord appeared to the same Savinianus, who showed him a place of vast solitude bordering on the river Sioule, where he should accomplish — for love of the chaste Meneleus’s mother, sister and chaste spouse, as he had counselled — a house of prayer. He showed also that the Most High required them for the special work of His service, desiring that, casting off the garment of the old man, He might clothe them with the man who is created according to God in justice and holiness. Savinianus briskly declared the vision of the angelic command to blessed Meneleus, and no more doubt entered concerning their establishment. Then together the true worshippers of God went with glad minds to see the suitable situation of the disclosed place; and so at last, the abundance of costs prepared and workmen sought out, they began in fervour the long-desired work of the angelic demonstration. Which Almighty God brought to the perfection of its coping in the number of forty days, proving the grace and merit of blessed Meneleus, proving the vows of the pilgrim women; and they caused that house to be dedicated in honour of God and in memory of the blessed ever-Virgin Mary, where also they themselves laid the foundation of holiness in faith and work — established and firm in heaven and for ever.

12. That he returned to the valley of Vaveris. — So when his mother, sister and wife-in-name-only had been established in a fit place of stay according to God’s will, the true lovers of God, Meneleus and Savinianus, learned by the wonted admonition of angelic familiarity that they should return to the aforementioned valley of Vaveris and there apply labours profitable to posterity for long. Which receiving with fervent mind, they were themselves fervent in the labour enjoined from heaven. For, shaking off the tepidity of soul and the forgetful repose of their own bodies, they felled great woods and now with iron tools, now with fire set beneath, made the rough and rugged places of the valley of Vaveris fit for level passage in due time.

13. How blessed Meneleus was reported to Barontus. — And when the multiplied fruit of the begun work pleased not only God but men also, that same thousand-wiled one, the cunning depraver of right work, willed it to be thus disturbed; but the eternal consoler rendered his deceitful attempts void, vain and shattered. For one of the servants of that Barontus named above, coming to his same lord, disclosed to him the various works of blessed Meneleus, saying: “That former acquaintance of yours, the betrothed of your daughter Sensa, Meneleus by name, has fled from the Angevin country with your daughter — praying his own mother and sister along — and now lies hid in the parts of the Auvergne region and in the upper places of the Vinciacan wilderness; and there, under a certain pretext of praying, cajoling very many, he claims to make the highest powers of miracles.”

Barontus, believing the hearsay mixed with conjectures of truth, groaned with grief for his daughter’s withdrawn presence — whether because Meneleus had not held her in the marital manner in which he had espoused her as a boy, or because he had thus unexpectedly lost them both. Tormented in this changing fashion, he rent the garments wherewith he was clothed at such a report, and broken between sobs rehearsed his griefs for the lost presence of his daughter, and rehearsed them mocked for the betrothal of his carried-off daughter. And the aforementioned servant, seeing his lord Barontus afflicted with such great sadnesses, promised at once that if he would follow him, he would show him the presence of that Meneleus and the place of his stay. An evil man believing an evil — and, as is commonly said, every animal loving its like — the lord Barontus confirmed his informer with many promises, and promised that he would even break the knot of his grievous servitude if he made not the deeds of his promise discord with his words.

14. That Barontus came to seek the man of God. — So having prepared the costs for the appointed journey and gathered together two hundred and forty-three soldiers, Barontus, embittered with the gall of his heart, set out to seek the holy man Meneleus. He had already entered the bounds of the district of Yssandon and trusted he could obtain the necessary provisions from a certain monastery called Tresfagium — panting with his Angevin satellites to destroy the holy man who, living according to God, neither did guile nor ever willed to consent to them that did it. But to this blessed Meneleus, labouring in the aforementioned valley of Vaveris, it was made known by angelic command through the report of many that the presence of his enemy Barontus was at hand in the near place; nor was it hidden from the blessed man that he sought to pursue him to death, because he deemed that he had caused the presence of his daughter, whom he had espoused to him, to be withdrawn from her father’s eyes.

But neither by terrors nor by threats could Christ’s athlete Meneleus be broken; but clothed with the breastplate of justice and protected with the helmet of eternal salvation, and taking the shield of faith and the sword of salvation which is the word of God, he hastened with Savinianus, the sharer of his labour, to meet them where he heard Barontus was with his troops of soldiers. And when they had drawn near the streams of the Bouble and saw Barontus armed with the arms of war, the brave Meneleus, armed with Christ’s aid, burst into the middle of the squadrons and stood invincible among the hostile companies of foes. And then a certain spy showed him to his lord Barontus not only by name but with pointing finger, and made known that Savinianus was present with him — he who, favouring the blessed Meneleus’s bidding in all things, had undertaken the pilgrimage with him with intrepid mind.

15. The address of Barontus to the man of God Meneleus. — So Barontus, recognising the blessed man Meneleus both by the pact of the former agreement and by the present sign of the informing servant, and himself inflated with a certain wind of pride, bade him come to him, thinking to make the column of firm stability tremble with the whistle of reed-like mobility: “If, perverse Meneleus, the kinship of your parents, if the familiarity of neighbours, if the neighbourhood of your country displeased you, why yet have you taken up the hardness of such great savagery, that you would not let my only daughter, whom you had espoused, see her father’s and mother’s doors? Or feared you to be upbraided for such a marriage with her, who was strengthened both by the famous glory of her parents and by a beauteous appearance of comeliness?” To these questionings, very lean with the salt of wisdom, blessed Meneleus — to whom to live was Christ and to die was gain — answered cheerfully: “The transitory affections of paternal and maternal sweetness, and the friendly comings of neighbours, and the ancestral gods of the Angevin district — the love of that Father made me leave them, who promised His faithful, saying: Whoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother. As for the presence of your daughter — my wife in Christ — withdrawn from her father’s and mother’s eyes, why complainest you? She, leaving posts eaten with rust, has gained for herself heavenly seats and angelic citizens. Her earthly glory and carnal beauty He renders more fair, who sits brighter than the sun and loftier than the angels in His seat. But your journey’s labour had no wisdom in its beginning, nor shall it have an end according to your will, as you will shortly see.”

16. That Barontus would have slain St Meneleus. — His mind exasperated by such answers of the blessed man Meneleus, Barontus, brandishing in his hand the sword wherewith he was girt, vomited forth frivolous and empty threatenings, saying: “Who is he that can snatch you from my hands?” But the blessed man Meneleus, prizing neither the various brandishings of the sword nor the windy wordiness of threats, said that the presence of his deliverer was at hand, who in his deliverance would not labour at all. So at each of wise Meneleus’s answers that Barontus, sharpening the teeth of his embittered heart and of his denuded mouth, drew the sword and would have cut off the angelic head of St Meneleus. But the presence of his promised deliverer first struck the drawn sword from that Barontus’s right hand, and for the pride of his inflated heart covered his eyes with a cloud of blindness, and the flexible fingers of his hands felt the lamentable knot of bent contraction. Barontus lamented that he had received such a bodily affliction, because he had blazed like fire towards the killing of the holy man Meneleus.

17. What counsel Vincentianus gave him. — But the long-suffering of the pitying and merciful Lord, who reserves not His anger for ever nor avengs twice in the same thing, prepared a salutary counsel for the same Barontus. So his soldiers being terrified, each feared that the same toil and grief would come upon him, since following their elder’s will they had determined with him to persecute the deified simplicity of St Meneleus. But among them one named Vincentianus was present, who, knowing that it is hard to kick against the goad, persuaded his lord Barontus to all the arms of conquering humility, and advised him to vomit forth the tumour and pride of his former venom. And this he specially suggested to him: that the bitterness of his bodily affliction should not make him forget the wholesome ways of the soul; but that he should send to the man of God Meneleus, to whom it would please him to watch over the business of his salvation.

The counsel heard from Vincentianus displeased not Barontus, and the same blinded and withered man warned Vincentianus himself to come with all speed to the man of God Meneleus for such a bargain; whom he charged that he would honour him with many good things if he could restore him to his former health which he had lost. Vincentianus hastened to perform the words of that command the more gladly as he considered it was what his lord Barontus needed and desired. But not having a well-known familiarity with the holy man Meneleus, he sought Savinianus’s counsel for accomplishing such a business — he being most familiar with the blessed man Meneleus in all things. To him, disclosing his lord’s sharp stings of grief which he daily lamented — both for the blindness of his eyes and for the knotted gout of his hands — he begged as a suppliant that he would come with him to Meneleus, the physician of salvation, to whom he might disclose the sum of Barontus’s necessity and with him lament his great fault.

18. The embassy of Savinianus to the man of God. — So the man of God Savinianus, receiving Vincentianus’s prayers, came with him with all speed to blessed Meneleus, and as a suppliant disclosed the blindness and contraction of Barontus’s condemned body. And he concealed not how the injustice inflicted on the blessed man displeased the same Barontus, and made known the same vassal’s recognition and amendment concerning the fall of the presumption he had presumed, which he both would and could make. Meanwhile he besought him to have mercy upon that Barontus’s bodily condemnation, and to call to him the friendly ears of the Lord, that he might return to the vigour of his former health and, in recovered health of body, might repent the neglect of his committed vanity.

Blessed Meneleus, receiving the suppliant embassy of Vincentianus and of the man of God Savinianus, fitted his answers to their several prayers of charity, piety and compassion, saying: “If the bodily blindness and temporal contraction of Barontus’s limbs displease him at present, yet the recognition of his vanity and the resolve of his amendment please me greatly. But the restoration of his health rests in Him alone who, the humiliator of inflated pride and the exalter of humility, reigns without end. Moreover, obeying the admonition of your deprecation, I am ready to visit the bed of brother Barontus’s grief and infirmity; and if the hand of our medicine can help him, your eye shall see me prepared for it in all things. Then we will pour out prayers to God for him, that the plagues of his crimes may be diminished, that he may be restored to his pristine health, and that he may rejoice both for the alacrity of his soul and of his body.”

19. That Barontus received his sight. — So when Barontus’s necessities had been announced, the man of God Meneleus came to him with all speed, wishing to learn through him how he would attend to the embassy of Vincentianus and Savinianus. And the aforementioned Barontus, hearing that blessed Meneleus stood near him, fell upon his face and groaned, saying: “I have sinned before the Lord and before you, servant of Christ; please forgive my own misdeeds and loose the crimes of my guilt by your prayers.” And blessed Meneleus, seeing and hearing this recognition of his, and recognising the wild spirits of his former life changed into the magistracy of a better resolve, cried out joyful and eager, saying: This is the change of the right hand of the Most High! And the more willingly he rendered the gains of prayers to the Lord Jesus Christ for him, as he saw it profited him who lamented the condemned limbs of blindness and contraction. Nor did the pact of the former agreement hurt the seeking of health, whereby each recognised the other — since that same Barontus had wished to join his daughter Sensa in earthly marriage to the boy Meneleus, and he had espoused her with the chaste espousal of Christ. And after this prayer, which he uttered in the Spirit of God — “May the Lord God open your eyes to know the way of truth” — and after he had affirmed it a second time with the affirmation of the evangelical word “Amen, Amen” — Savinianus being faithful witness — at once Barontus’s eyes were opened, and he began to see clearly the angelic face of Meneleus. And to render thanks the same Barontus fell to the ground and said with tears: “Thanks to You, O God, who do the will of them that fear You and resistest the proud; but them that love You with an humble heart You exalt.”

20. Of the healing of Barontus’s hands. — So having recovered the sight of his eyes, Barontus persisted the more instantly in the recovery of the health of his hands, as he saw it was necessary to him and trusted how much blessed Meneleus could obtain it from God. And God’s saint Meneleus, seeing that Barontus wished to keep the ways of an amended life, gave the man this answer: “I pray for sinners and for those that persecute and calumniate us; therefore let it be done to you according to your heart for good.” And after the end of the prayer which Meneleus, the son of true charity, had poured out to the Lord Jesus Christ, Barontus’s hands began to feel the nature of motion, and the pain began little by little to be diminished and the sinews of the veins to be more solidly strengthened.

21. That he caused Leopasius to come to him. — So blessed Meneleus, seeing Barontus restored to perfect bodily health, earnestly admonished him to watch over the profitable health of his soul. And by God’s grace the continuous labour of the sower Meneleus — sowing the divine seed neither by the wayside nor upon the hardened rock nor among thorns — brought his labour to the fruit of multiplied increase. For as good ground receives the late [seed], so Barontus, receiving the word of the man of God Meneleus, bade a certain priest of good religion named Leopasius come to him; to whom he committed the eradication of his negligences, that the admonition of his father Meneleus might have abundant fructification in his heart. And that Leopasius, a man of great compassion, praising the humbled mind of the penitent Barontus, broke the knot of his ancient negligences with a charitable hand, and returned joyful to his own priestly places, leaving Barontus the more joyful both for the health of his body and for the salvation of his soul.

22. With what gifts Barontus honoured St Meneleus. — Barontus, abiding by the grace of the mortifier of death and the vivifier of life in perfect bodily health, multiplied the better works of an amended life; and how much he desired the good of heavenly honour, he showed by scattering his earthly wealth. For with many prayers he persuaded the same blessed man Meneleus to receive certain gifts of his power and to retain them in his own right and dominion. For he conferred on the same blessed man a monastery named Tresfagium — consecrated in honour of God and in memory of the holy martyr Saturninus, bishop of Toulouse — with lands, woods, meadows, men-servants and maid-servants, and with forty-six inhabited manses.

23. Of the good counsel of the soldier Helias. — And after some space of time Barontus’s mind, kindled to better things, began to revolve with himself how he ought to have increased his former gift. And disclosing that will to certain of his chief men, he began a colloquy with them, saying: “Honoured with the numbers of earthly power and enriched with the spacious amplitude of riches, I see that by divine predestination I lack a progeny of sons who might receive their father’s earthly goods and hold them for certain spaces of years.” But among Barontus’s counsellors a certain chief was present named Helias, who wisely took upon the arms of his deliberation what counsel of salvation it behoved to make. “you see,” said he, “how this blessed man Meneleus is beloved of God and men; for full of goodness and wisdom, God works many miracles of virtues through him. How great his merit is in these things you have yourself well proved. For he bore off your haughtiness of power and the darts of your threats with bland mildness — and so proved victor, and how heavily he chastised you! Yet after the event of your chastisement he rejoiced like a father over your recognition; over the knot of your blindness and contraction he greatly grieved, and Almighty God broke it through his merits and prayers. Therefore it seems to me salutary and saving that the inheritance of very many of your goods should be given to him through whom you have recognised the fall of your injustice and through whom you have returned to the measure of health. Deliver therefore to him certain possessions besides the former gift, that he may not be slack to make prayers to God for you always.”

So by Helias’s counsel he gave to the same blessed Meneleus these villas — Avolca and Varicius in the district of Yssandon, with the aforementioned monastery named Tresfagium — under the testament of laws and the testament of charters, and confirmed it with his own hand, and delivered the writing of the cession to the blessed man himself. But the same blessed man Meneleus, forestalling the frauds of deceitful men thereafter, and wishing — as a wise man who sees well far away — to confirm Barontus’s donations, sent to the same man a certain one of his own named Constantius, whom he commanded and exhorted that after the charter of cession a certain missaticus should be sent to him to revest him with the donated property. And he sent that good counsellor Helias to accomplish this work, who delivered the aforementioned things to Constantius, the holy man Meneleus’s legate, and caused him to see that donation of all the demesne of those villas and possessions.

24. Of the burning of his monastery. — So as much as Almighty God caused the blessed man Meneleus to be praised on earth for his virtues, so much did the same man of God exercise himself in all goodness and watch sedulously over the fitting structure of his monastery — and he had now well brought it to perfection. But that thousand-wiled devil began to envy him and, God permitting, fulfilled his will for the hour: for on a certain night all the blessed man’s building remained burned to ashes. But the man of the Lord, who in the adversity of worldly loss diminished not the intention of his heavenly desire, sent Constantius to the aforementioned monastery of Tresfagium and to the aforementioned villas, and commanded that the men of those powers should come to rebuild the burnt monastery. For this enjoined work each one, being of good will, prepared his mind; and to each was divided a share of the work, which each accomplished, lest the tepid should be blasphemed in the working of his labour.

25. How the holy man Meneleus was made a cleric. — So blessed Meneleus, applying the zeal of pious labour to the construction of his monastery, lost not the steps of his hours, which Almighty God brought to the multiplication of good things. And very many came to see the structure of that monastery and the fitting edification of the wise architect, that they might improve their own buildings after that example. Therefore there came to the same man one day that blessed Theofredus, abbot of the valley of Vaveris — ever to be glorified in heaven and venerated on earth — he who had brought the same saint of God Meneleus to Abbot Eudo of great religion, as our rustic pen described above; and he rejoiced with great joy both over the known goodness of the blessed man and over the fitting structure of his monastery.

Then on the following day the illustrious and magnificent Eusebius, bishop of the Auvergnat, arrived; and these three true lovers of the Holy Trinity, after the joy of greeting and the kiss of pious love, sated themselves with the feasts of divine eloquence, and confirmed themselves to remain in all goodness with alternate hands. So confirming themselves one to another in the love of Almighty God, they entered into such counsel for its consolidation: to elect the man of God, the Israelite Meneleus, to the office of the clergy, and cutting the hairs from his head, to number him among the sons of God. This thing they determined to accomplish, which brought infinite joy not only to themselves, and gladdened the country-folk with much alacrity, but innumerable strangers also blessed God on hearing of such deeds.

HERE ENDS THE FIRST BOOK OF THE LIFE OF ST MENELEUS.

Here Begins the Second #

1. — After blessed Meneleus had received the office of the clergy, he made himself ever a living incense of Christ Jesus in the mortification of his body. How pleasing this was to the heavenly divinity, the frequent works of miracles wrought through him declare, which he performed laudably while yet remaining in the lay body, as the preceding little book recounts in simple sequence. But with how much more laudable works of virtues Almighty God honoured him, abiding in the office of the clergy, we purpose to write in the following book as best we can — that the same blessed Meneleus may deign to enrol the memory of the writer of his life in his own memorial.

So on the second day after receiving the office of the clergy, blessed Meneleus besought with many prayers the lord Eusebius, bishop of the Auvergnat, that the house he was building he would make a house of God by the ministry of his consecration. His petition he received with willing mind and consecrated that house of new building in honour of God and in memory of St Martin the supreme pontiff; and with his relics and with others of incomparable price he honoured the consecrated and blessed place. So they passed that day together in joy, and all things being well ordered, each one returned joyful and eager to his own place.

2. That he converted many to God. — From then on the man of God Meneleus began to exercise himself more solicitously in the zeal of divine working — here to build the fitting seats of monastic discipline, there to construct the useful quarters for arriving guests. And when not only the Auvergne country but very many more distant regions heard the good fame of his conversation, many resolved to come to him, and some chose to cast off the worldly burdens of superfluous curiosity. And to confirm them in this, like a wise man he opened ways; and for the good example of his conversation and for the teaching of his instruction, very many, leaving the world, took up in life and manners the monastic habit — the garment worthy of true salvation and true honour.

3. How he was accused before Queen Brunichild. — But the increase of the built monastery and the growth of the good flock — who had bound themselves under one bond of charity and peace and had by the regular path renounced their own uses of things and of wills — the devil, the enemy of all the perfect, began to envy. Therefore he ruminated much machination for the disturbance of the blessed man Meneleus, and chose for this a certain prince who, wasting with the zeal of envy and wrath, blasphemed the laudable works of the blessed man before Queen Brunichild, saying: “A certain man of unknown parentage and unregarded person has crept into your kingdom from uncertain parts of the earth, who under the whitewash of feigned sanctity has associated to himself certain men of vain reason; and, despising the glory of your power, makes fields of great spaciousness and certain halls of amplitude through the woods of your better hunting. After so great a dishonour, your honourableness will see harm creep in upon itself; and if this boldness be not repressed with the heavy loss of a rebuke, the frequent and unterrified contempt will grow to the despising of your more precious possessions without number.” Brunichild, receiving the accuser’s sharp accusations — she who used to heap iniquity upon iniquities — at once sent to the holy man Meneleus and without weighed reason presumptuously commanded him to come to her. So the missaticus, sent to the blessed man, came and, concealing the poisoned minds of the angry queen, announced such commands on her part, saying: “The magnificence of Queen Brunichild commends your presence to come to her without prolongation of time.” The man of God, hearing the curtailed causes of the deceitful mandate, opened to the messenger the ways resolved by him in a simple answer: “Go,” said he, “and as swiftly as I can I will fulfil the queen’s commands with a good will.”

4. How the holy man came to the queen. — So having heard Queen Brunichild’s message, blessed Meneleus committed the care of his monastery to blessed Savinianus, the most familiar sharer of his former labour; and he bade Audoenus be the companion of his journey, that he might see to what end of utility the queen’s precept would draw him. And that he might the more amiably stand before the queen’s countenance — poor in earthly things, rich in heavenly — the holy man Meneleus prepared certain gifts, namely of wine, fishes and honey, and carried these with him, that he might find a better place of reception. And he bade the donkey customary to his riding be saddled for him, that he might the more briskly accomplish the course of the enjoined journey. And so, the journey begun, he came before the presence of Queen Brunichild, who at that time was fanning the mortal glory of her honour and power in the demesne of Vinciaca. Wishing therefore to offer blandly the gifts he had brought with him, he perceived the queen’s exceeding angry mind; and she, reckoning the gifts of his charity as nothing, vomited forth at him such words of angry questioning: “Of wine, fishes and honey I have no lack of satiety. Yet tell me meanwhile, Meneleus, from where comes to you so great a power of presumption, that cutting down the delectable woods of my hunting you dare to build movable houses in them to my loss?”

5. The holy man’s answer. — To the queen’s angry questionings the man of God Meneleus rendered answers of great humility: “Neither by the will of presumption nor for the wind of vanity, O queen, have we built ample houses in the woods of your power; nor shall any case of loss come to you from there, if you deign to hear the recourse of our speech. I was wandering once through the groves of the vast Vinciacan wood, and for the weariness of my tired body fell into the friendly sleeps of rest; and there an angelic messenger bade me that in the place where I slept the divine pity would have me make a house of prayers. Hearing the messenger of the undeserved visitation, I began the enjoined work with joy. And God pitying, all that was necessary came in opportune time, whereby it appeared that He willed that work to be done. So the King of heaven will not deprive you of your reward, O queen, if in your dearer power your empire disturbs not henceforth the work of His making.” But meanwhile the ears of Queen Brunichild were hardened after the manner of the deaf asp, nor did she heed the voices of Meneleus wisely charming — things whereby afterwards she might the more strongly repent. Despising therefore the holy man’s salutary admonitions, she bade him go swiftly out of her presence, and threatened that he should be given over to death or hanged upon the trees of that same wood if he were seen to return to that place any more.

6. Of Leopasius the priest. — Then the holy man, armed with the constancy of faith, went out from the queen’s sight, saying: “I fear not your slaying, and I count your threats as nothing.” So he returned to the monastery of his own labour, and briskly sent Audoenus, the companion of his journey, to a certain priest of honesty and goodness named Leopasius; whom he charged to come to his monastery and to commend them to God and to his spirit by offering the sacred victims, lest any disturbance or adversity should be able to befall them. So to perform the obedience of enjoined charity the more swiftly, God’s priest Leopasius presented himself. For he performed the divine office and made the brethren more ardent in the service of Almighty God. And while he desired to win them for God in the present, he loved to be won himself by spiritual benediction. For beholding in those same brethren their brotherly affection and the amiability of unanimous conversation, he began afterwards to revolve within himself how for love of the eternal God he might leave the world and join himself to the number of that congregation. And He who performs the will of them that fear Him opened ways to Leopasius for the attaining of this. So afterwards the same priest Leopasius, wishing to change the burdens of worldly toil and the files of biting care for the abundance of heavenly delight, took up the monastic habit with whole mind, and honoured his monastery with much honour; among which things he gave a certain church of his own right, dedicated in honour of God and in memory of St Gervasius.

7. How the blessed man was seized and bound. — Meanwhile by Queen Brunichild’s command certain ministerials were chosen to take heed that the holy man Meneleus should not be able to labour in the aforementioned place of Vaveris, and to annul the begun work which they saw thus unexpectedly coming to perfection. Therefore one day a certain messenger of the queen, seeing the same blessed man labouring with the rest of the brethren in the aforementioned place, assailed him with furious onset and would have disturbed the good workman, and accused him of counting the aforementioned queen’s threats as nothing — since, abiding in that place after her command of threatening, he feared not, madman, to undergo death. Blessed Meneleus heard the rehearsed terrors of the queen’s missaticus as things vain and empty. And he returned him such words: “I fear not to die, for death and life are in the hand of God.” At the holy man’s sweet answers the queen’s missaticus was made the more inflated, and falsely swore that power had been given him to slay him; but the holy man Meneleus reconfirmed that it was in the hand of God. “you have no power against me,” said he, “unless it be permitted you by my God.” And at once that wicked man, troubled with the wrath of an embittered heart, bade him be seized and those blessed hands of Meneleus bound with a certain cord. And so he went to the parts of the place Vinciacensis, where Queen Brunichild lived, and caused the saint of God, bound and fettered, to be dragged after him.

8. How by God’s nod he was loosed, and his enemy blinded and withered. — So the holy man Meneleus bore the perils of such injustice with bland mildness; and he who kept the rest of the virtues kept also the treasure of patience, the highest of all good things. But the rest of the brethren, at such a carrying-off of their father, took up the sharp stings of grief and began together to follow him weeping, multiplying tears and sobs. And when the man of God had been dragged as far as the river Sioule, and grieved with the growing lamentations of his sons, he groaned, saying: “I am in straits on every side; I beseech You, O God, creator of heaven and earth, look upon the tears of these.” And the faithful throng of disciples, falling to the ground, began to pray for the grace of divine consolation — that He would send them the angel of heavenly visitation to snatch their father Meneleus from the hands of them that dragged him. But the wicked missaticus of Queen Brunichild, neither prizing the pious Meneleus’s straits nor caring for the heartfelt fountains of the brethren’s tears, remained esteemed for his excessive security and merry — a fool. And looking on the blessed man with stern eyes, he said: “Who can now deliver you from my hand?” Then, after a heavy bodily correction of the proud man — whereby he lost the clear sight of his eyes and gained the gouty contraction of his hands — by the divine nod the hands of the holy man Meneleus began to be loosed: He who breaks the bonds of our knotty sin.

9. Of a certain possessed woman healed. — So the man of the Lord Meneleus, seeing the work of divine mercy wrought upon himself, left not the course of his begun way but came to the palace where Queen Brunichild lived. And certain men of good testimony loved the blessed man’s coming at the court, while the worshippers of perversity envied it. So Almighty God, wishing to show the merit and grace of His faithful one Meneleus, delivered a certain girl oppressed by the demoniac enemy through his continual prayer’s intercession. For while the same blessed man tarried before the queen’s palace, one of her handmaids, condemned by a demoniac legion, lost the sense of reason by the divine judgment of eternal dispensation. And at length, whether by the will of some chance or by the suggestions of others, she was rolled before the feet of the blessed man Meneleus, and rejoiced to have obtained most entire health. But the same blessed man, both to conceal the virtue and to preserve humility, bade her go to some priest who should anoint her with oil, that she might believe herself healed through such a work. Brunichild, hearing of the work of virtue wrought, abiding in the hardness of unsworn perversity, croaked that he had done these things by the incantation of demons, and disdained to adjure those predictions as worth anything to him. But forgetting meanwhile that true saying — There is no power, there is no counsel against God — she afterwards saw well proved in her own self the charitable virtue which she believed not to have been wrought in a stranger.

10. How Brunichild received the office of her tongue. — Now her sister named Dotiva, wishing to soften the hard knots of the queen’s heart, counselled her to believe that the heard sign of virtue was not frivolous, and affirmed that so great a good could not have been done by the blessed man through any derision of diabolic incantation; but proclaimed that blessed Meneleus loved that Almighty God from a true heart who, trampling the proud by His virtue, exalts the humbled. Yet Brunichild — who ever loved discords — prepared not the poisoned arteries of her ears to believe even at this; but filled with malign indignation, she commanded St Meneleus to be slain without any reason demanded. Therefore St Meneleus, adjudged to undeserved death, hid not the rough curses of prophetic threatening: Let the deceitful lips be made dumb, said he. So after the saint’s curtailed judgment, the ill-willed who stood about the queen recognised the holiness of the holy man Meneleus by the lost speech of his mouth. And at this seen miracle the queen’s sister adjured him to be without doubt a true worshipper of God. For Brunichild, pitying the condemnation of the tongues of them that stood around, was suddenly compelled by divine judgment to lament her own not unlike peril of condemned speech, and ruminated within herself the events of grief, since she could not declare them in words. Therefore, wondrously, while she reproved her folly within the secret of her heart, she received back by divine mercy the modulations of ready speech. So chastened by such heavenly discipline, she promised the blessed man very many gifts of her bounty: and whatever he should ask of her that was within her possibility, he should not remain empty of her will and demand.

11. What gifts Brunichild gave to St Meneleus. — So being an imitator of that prophet who said: Lord, I have loved the beauty of Your house and the place of the habitation of Your glory, the holy man Meneleus demanded not the purses of ill-flattering treasure nor the bounds of broad possession. But he sought certain gifts of consecrated vestments wherewith the priest might be clothed when he celebrated the divine mysteries. A handmaid of the queen brought the sought gift, which a priest had worn at the divine office three days before. But when such gifts of vestments had been brought before the holy man’s presence, by God’s hidden judgment they were seen to burn, not only before the queen’s own sight but before the presence of all there standing. And all were reduced to ashes — whether because there was, as we believe, some injustice in them, or because the queen had not yet purged the guilt of impiety which she had incurred when she bade God’s saint Meneleus be brought bound and fettered and at last threatened to give him to death. And after the burning of the vestments, the holy man admonished the queen to take up the mind of recognition, and to remember the committed sins of her former crime, and to seek the opportune gains of confession and penitence, and to redeem her sins in opportune time out of the transitory good of temporal abundance. If the queen would prepare a prompt mind for this counsel thus suggested, then the blessed man promised that she should receive the grace of great gain thereby; and if she would give him anything further, she would prepare a benevolent palm for it. The bystanders saw the queen willing to receive the blessed man’s fitting admonition. For Queen Brunichild was rolled at the same holy man’s feet, and laid down the mouldy bundles of her negligences. And after lamenting the filth of her iniquity, she sought St Meneleus’s prayers acceptable to Christ, whom she besought earnestly that he would not remember those straits of which he had caused him to be partaker through the counsel of the wicked; and that he would forget the tears of the disciples which they had poured forth abundantly on hearing the threats of his slaying. And for the confirmation of her recognition’s outcome, she bade that same place — from which St Meneleus had of old been dragged away — be called for ever Menatum [from minae, threats], a notable refuge of piety and consolation. And she gave to the same holy man the villa named Sigola with its appurtenances, and the church founded there consecrated in honour of God and in memory of St Martin the supreme pontiff; she gave also in perpetual right the licence of enlarging the bounds of his monastery according to his will. So after the confirmation of the number of the donation, the queen made known to the same holy man Meneleus that she wished to return into Francia. And the blessing of leave being sought, Queen Brunichild set out on the way to Francia, and blessed Meneleus returned joyful to his monastery and made the brethren glad and joyful at his coming.

12. That he sent blessed Savinianus into the country of Yssandon. — So the venerable man of God Meneleus, returned to his monastery, enquired of Savinianus, the sharer of his labour, how his congregation had hitherto kept the establishment of good conversation. And hearing their good example he praised it, and was not slow to bless Almighty God for it. Then he declared to them the prosperous events of his labour — and how his monastery had been honoured by the benevolence of Queen Brunichild. So he made the brethren more fervent in the service of Jesus Christ, since each of them knew well the good. And he sent the venerable Savinianus into the country of Yssandon, and commending him to God and to his spirit, committed to his rule the villas and the monastery which was in that country [Tresfagium]; and he bade that he should send him back brother Constantius the more swiftly.

13. Of the introduced relics. — So Savinianus undertook the charge of the holy father Meneleus, and by the labours of his hands procured the fruits of heavenly abundance. But one day he saw Barontus — often named in the former book — present for the friendship’s sake, who had come from the villa of Nantiniacum to see his confrere Savinianus, and was reviving friendly reasonings with him. And amid the returns of friendly converse, blessed Savinianus asked Barontus to send him the precious relics of certain saints, which he might place in the monastery he was building. Barontus received the just petition of the just man and sent him the precious relics of saints. But blessed Savinianus, intent on various occupations of affairs, neglected to ask the bearer whose saints’ relics he had brought. And the same bearer, returned to his own places, after a brief space of time departed the life of the body. From where the heap of greater grief grew for the blessed man. Yet such anxiety of sorrow displeased not the Lord, who more wonderfully made Savinianus certain, proving his faith and merit. For blessed Savinianus, going where he who had brought the relics was buried, there poured out a multitude of tears of prayers; and while he lamented over the chance of his doubt, he was made certain by divine predestination. For the multitude there present heard the lately dead man proclaim that they were relics of the holy Mother of God, Mary. So hearing so wonderful a sign, blessed Meneleus sent a messenger briskly to blessed Savinianus, bidding him come to him and make him certain concerning the heard sign of virtue. The good son Savinianus obeyed the good father’s command and returned to him briskly, and narrated the true account concerning the manifest relics.

14. Of the vision of the angel. — So over the demonstrated merit of brother Savinianus, blessed Meneleus rendered many thanks to Almighty God, expecting from Him the solace of firmer aid — wherein he was not disappointed in the end of his days. For one night the angel of the Lord visited blessed Meneleus and called him thrice by his own name, and was not slow to disclose to him how great a grace and merit he had with Almighty God. “you are a holy man,” said he, “and have merited the fellowship of the saints; from where you shall deserve to receive the heavenly kingdoms. And on the following night you shall see a troop of angels come to you, who for the innocence of your holiness shall bring your body’s blessed soul into the heavenly glory with brightness and with angelic modulation.” So blessed Meneleus, rejoicing with the angelic countenances, said: With the hearing of the ear I heard You, but now mine eye sees You.

O peaceful man, whose eyes ever looked to heaven and whose hands to good! Truly blessed, who so often merited to see the faces of angels and to enjoy their converse, and foresaw the day of his death and could believe himself worthy of everlasting joy! The companions of the angelic speech who were in the house heard it, but could not see the missaticus of the heavenly decree. And blessed Meneleus, not forgetting the salutary custody of his own passing, asked the heavenly messenger whom the Lord God would choose over that business. The worthy Savinianus is designated for that charge — he who is approved in life and manners. Therefore the man of God bade him be called to him, and disclosed the care of the enjoined obedience, which he worthily adorned when received, and gathered the sheaves of manifold increase through the courses of many days.

15. Of the blessed man’s death. — So the man of God Meneleus, seeing the term of his foretold passing at hand, bade the brethren — whom he had himself won for God and gathered into the bosom of one holy fold — stand by him, and foretold to them the approach of his life’s end. And he admonished them to keep the warfare of peace and charity, and counselled them to obey the precepts of Savinianus, their father to be. For while he watched over his sons’ profit, there drew near to him Genesius, count of Auvergne, a religious man, from the villa of Combronita [Combronde], who among other gifts of donation gave the blessed man — with good will — the fortress of Mons Maurus between the river Sioule and the stream Circiarcus. And there came from the parts of Auvergne a certain Ermendricus, who, the price being accepted for certain lands of his possession, transferred them into the right and dominion of the monastery of God’s beloved Meneleus.

So all things being well ordered, that holy man Meneleus heard the promised choirs of angels, who visit their familiar friend and present to God the works of his good doing. Therefore, now secure of receiving the denarius of reward and weighed down by the goad of infirmity, and after the consummated service of perfect Christianity, he demanded the delectable cup of charitable love and bade it be offered to the brethren after him. And after father and sons and sons and father had given one another the kiss of peace, and they had received the blessed hands of their father Meneleus in their own hands, fortified with the standard of the saving cross, he rendered the burden of his flesh to the world and carried back his happy and blessed soul to the Lord — on the eleventh kalends of August [22 July].

HERE ENDS THE LIFE OF ST MENELEUS, GLORIOUS CONFESSOR AND MOST WORTHY ABBOT.

[Overflow — the preface to the following item] #

The Life of Nivardus, Bishop of Rheims, by Almannus, monk of Hautvillers #

[The editor’s preface begins:] Nivardus or Nivo, bishop of Rheims, was sprung from wealthy parents, of whom his mother Emma — possessing estates beyond the Loire — had perhaps drawn her origin from Aquitaine, while his father, whose name is unknown, we conclude with Stilting to have been of the number of the nobles of the Champagne of Rheims, because in the same region were situated the possessions both of Nivardus and of his brother Gundebert, wherewith they enriched the monasteries founded by them there. That Nivardus sprang from a noble and rich family, his biographer Almannus doubtless rightly asserts, since episcopal sees in that age fell in general to none but the noble, and his brother Gundebert is numbered among the “illustrious men” and “the king’s optimates”; and, if the same author is to be believed, Nivardus himself was brought up in the royal palace. Having obtained the see of Rheims in 657 or before, amid the civil wars already breaking out he kept so middle a course that he experienced no more the favour of the legitimate king Clovis II than the rule of Grimoald, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, claiming it for himself and of his son Childebert, who, made king by his father, was the first of the Pippinid line to enjoy the royal name for a brief space. That Nivardus was among the bishops who favoured the Columbanian institutions is gathered from his having built the monastery of Hautvillers for the monks of Abbot Bercharius living “according to the rule of the holy fathers Benedict and Columbanus,” and having granted privileges…

[Here the extracted text ends.]