Part 8 (1/2)
_Also_, ST. CONCORDIUS, M.
A HOLY subdeacon, who in the reign of Marcus Antoninus, was apprehended in a desert, and brought before Torquatus, governor of Umbria, then residing at Spoletto, about the year 178. The martyr, paying no regard to his promises or threats, in the first interrogatory was beaten with clubs, and in the second was hung on the rack, but in the height of his torments he cheerfully sang: ”Glory be to thee, Lord Jesus!” Three days after, two soldiers were sent by Torquatus, to behead him in the dungeon, unless he would offer sacrifice to an idol, which a priest who accompanied them carried with him for this purpose. The saint showed his indignation by spitting upon the idol, upon which one of the soldiers struck off his head. In the Roman Martyrology his name occurs on the 1st, in some others on the 2d of January. See his genuine acts in Bollandus, p. 9, and Tillemont, t. 2, p. 439.
_Also_, ST. ADALARD, OR ADALARD. A.C.
p.r.o.nounced ALARD.[1]
THE birth of this holy monk was most ill.u.s.trious, his father Bernard being son of Charles Martel, and brother of king Pepin, so that Adalard was cousin-german to Charlemagne, by whom he was called in his youth to the court, and created count of his palace. A fear of offending G.o.d made him tremble at the sight of the dangers of forfeiting his grace, with which he was surrounded, and of the disorders which reigned in the world. Lest he should be engaged to entangle his conscience, by seeming to approve of things which he thought would endanger his salvation, he determined to forsake at once both the court and the world. His sacrifice was the more perfect and edifying, as he was endowed with the greatest personal accomplishments of mind and body for the world, and in the flower of his age; for he was only twenty years old, when, in 773, he took the monastic habit at Corbie in Picardy, a monastery that had been founded by queen Bathildes, in 662. After he had pa.s.sed a year in the fervent exercises of his novitiate, he made his vows; the first employment a.s.signed him in the monastery was that of gardener, in which, while his hands were employed in the business of his calling, his thoughts were on G.o.d and heavenly things. Out of humility, and a desire of closer retirement, he obtained leave to be removed to mount Ca.s.sino, where he hoped he should be concealed from the world; but his eminent qualifications, and the great example of his virtue, betrayed and defeated all the projects of his humility, and did not suffer him to live long unknown; he was brought back to Corbie, and some years after chosen abbot. Being obliged by Charlemagne often to attend at court, he appeared there as the first among the king's counsellors, as he is styled by Hincmar,[2] who had seen him there in 796. He was compelled by Charlemagne {078} entirely to quit his monastery, and take upon him the charge of chief minister to that prince's eldest son Pepin, who, at his death at Milan in 810, appointed the saint tutor to his son Bernard, then but twelve years of age. In this exalted and distracting station, Adalard appeared even in council recollected and attentive to G.o.d, and from his employments would hasten to his chamber, or the chapel, there to plunge his heart in the centre of its happiness. During the time of his prayers, tears usually flowed from his eyes in great abundance, especially on considering his own miseries, and his distance from G.o.d.
The emperor recalled him from Milan, and deputed him to pope Leo III. to a.s.sist at the discussion of certain difficulties started relating to the clause inserted in the creed, concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son. Charlemagne died in 814, on the 28th of January, having a.s.sociated his son, Lewis le Debonnaire, in the empire in the foregoing September. While our saint lived in his monastery, dead to the world, intent only on heavenly things, instructing the ignorant, and feeding the poor, on whom he always exhausted his whole revenue, Lewis declared his son, Lothaire, his partner and successor in the empire, in 817: Bernard, who looked upon that dignity as his right, his father Pepin having been eldest brother to Lewis, rebelled, but lost both his kingdom and his life. Lewis was prevailed upon, by certain flatterers, to suspect our saint to have been no enemy to Bernard's pretensions, and banished him to a monastery, situated in the little island Heri, called afterwards Hermoutier, and St. Philebert's, on the coast of Aquitain. The saint's brother Wala (one of the greatest men of that age, as appears from his curious life, published by Mabillon) he obliged to become a monk at Lerins. His sister Gondrada he confined in the monastery of the Holy Cross, at Poitiers; and left only his other sister Theodrada, who was a nun, at liberty in her convent at Soissons. This exile St. Adalard regarded as his gain, and in it his tranquillity and gladness of soul met with no interruptions. The emperor at length was made sensible of his innocence, and, after five years' banishment, called him to his court towards the close of the year 821; and, by the greatest honors and favors, endeavored to make amends for the injustice he had done him. Adalard (whose soul, fixed wholly on G.o.d, was raised above all earthly things) was the same person in prosperity and adversity, in the palace as in the cell, and in every station: the distinguis.h.i.+ng parts of his character were, an extraordinary gift of compunction and tears, the most tender charity for all men, and an undaunted zeal for the relief and protection of all the distressed. In 823, he obtained leave to return to the government of his abbey of Corbie, where he with joy frequently took upon himself the most humbling and mortifying employments of the house.
By his solicitude, earnest endeavors, and powerful example, his spiritual children grew daily in fervor and divine love; and such was his zeal for their continual advancement, that he pa.s.sed no week without speaking to every one of them in particular, and no day without exhorting them all in general, by pathetic and instructive discourses.
The inhabitants of the country round his monastery had also a share in his pious labors, and he exhausted on the poor the revenue of his monastery, and whatever other temporal goods came to his hands, with a profusion which many condemned as excessive, but which heaven, on urgent occasions, sometimes approved by sensible miracles. The good old man would receive advice from the meanest of his monks, with an astonis.h.i.+ng humility; when entreated by any to moderate his austerities, he frequently answered, ”I will take care of your servant, that he may serve you the longer;” meaning himself. Several hospitals were erected by him. During his banishment, another Adalard, who governed the monastery by his appointment, began, upon our saint's project, to {079} prepare the foundation of the monastery of New Corbie, vulgarly called Corwey, in the diocese of Paderborn, nine leagues from that city, upon the Weser, that it might be a nursery of evangelical laborers, to the conversion and instruction of the northern nations. St. Adalard, after his return to Corbie, completed this great undertaking in 822, for which he went twice thither, and made a long stay, to settle the discipline of his colony. Corwey is an imperial abbey; its territory reaches from the bishopric of Paderborn to the duchy of Brunswick, and the abbot is one of the eleven abbots, who sit with twenty-one bishops, in the imperial diet at Ratisbon: but the chief glory of this house is derived from the learning and zeal of St. Anscharius, and many others, who erected ill.u.s.trious trophies of religion in many barbarous countries. To perpetuate the regularity which he established in his two monasteries, he compiled a book of statutes for their use, of which considerable fragments are extant:[3] for the direction of courtiers in their whole conduct, he wrote an excellent book, On the Order of the Court; of which work we have only the large extracts, which Hincmar has inserted in his Instructions of king Carloman, the master-piece of that prelate's writings, for which he is indebted to our saint. A treatise on the Paschal Moon, and other works of St. Adalard, are lost. By those which we have, also by his disciples, St. Paschasius Radbertus, St.
Anscharius, and others, and by the testimony of the former in his life, it is clear that our saint was an elegant and zealous promoter of literature in his monasteries: the same author a.s.sures us, that he was well skilled, and instructed the people not only in the Latin, but also in the Tudesque and vulgar French languages.[4] St. Adalard, for his eminent learning, and extraordinary spirit of prayer and compunction, was styled the Austin, the Antony, and the Jeremy of his age. Alcuin, in a letter addressed to him under the name of Antony, calls him his son;[5] whence many infer that he had been scholar to that great man.
St. Adalard was returned out of Germany to Old Corbie, when he fell sick three days before Christmas: he received extreme unction some days after, which was administered by Hildemar, bishop of Beauvais, who had formerly been his disciple; the viatic.u.m he received on the day after the feast of our Lord's circ.u.mcision, about seven o'clock in the morning, and expired the same day about three in the afternoon, in the year 827, of his age seventy-three. Upon proof of several miracles, by virtue of a commission granted by pope John XIX. (called by some XX.) the body of the saint was enshrined, and translated with great solemnity in 1040; of which ceremony we have a particular history written by St.
Gerard, who also composed an office in his honor, in grat.i.tude for having been cured of a violent headache through his intercession: the same author relates seven other miracles performed by the same means.[6]
The relics of St. Adalard, except a small portion given to the abbey of Ch.e.l.les, are still preserved at Corbie, in a rich shrine and two smaller cases. His name has never been inserted in the Roman Martyrology, though he is honored as princ.i.p.al patron in many parish churches, and by several towns on the banks of the Rhine and in the Low Countries. See his life, compiled with accuracy, in a very florid pathetic style, by way of panegyric, by his disciple Paschasius Radbertus, {080} extant in Bollandus, and more correctly in Mabillon, (Act. Ben. t. 5, p. 306, also the same abridged in a more historical style, by St. Gerard, first monk of Corbie, afterwards first abbot of Seauve-majeur in Guienne, founder by William, duke of Aquitain and count of Poitiers, in 1080. The history of the translation of the saint's body, with an account of eight miracles by the same St. Gerard, is also given us by Bollandus.)
Footnotes: 1. It was usual among the ancient French, to add to certain words, syllables, or letters which they did not p.r.o.nounce; as Chrodobert, or Rigobert, for Robert: Cloves for Louis; Clothaire for Lotharie, &c.
2. Hinc. l. Inst. Regis, c. 12.
3. Published by D'Achery, Spicil. tom. 4, p. 1, 20.
4. From this testimony it is clear, that the French language, used by the common people, had then so much deviated from the Latin as to be esteemed a different tongue; which is also evident from Nithard, an officer in the army of Lewis le Debonnaire, who, in his history of the divisions between the sons of Lewis le Debonnaire, (published among the French historians by du Chesne,) gives us the original act of the agreement between the two brothers, Charles the Bald, and Lewis of Germany, at Strasburg, in 842.
5. Alcuin, Ep. 107.
6. St. Gerard, of Seauve-majeur, died on the 5th of April, 1095, and was canonized by C[oe]lestine III. in 1197. See his life, with an account of the foundation of his monastery, in Mabillon, Acts, Sanctorum ad S. Benedict. t. 9, p. 841.
JANUARY III.
ST. PETER BALSAM, M.
From his valuable acts in Ruinart, p. 501. Bollandus, p. 128. See Tillemont, T. 5. a.s.semani, Act Mart. Occid. T. 2, p. 106.
A.D. 311.
PETER BALSAM, a native of the territory of Eleutheropolis, in Palestine, was apprehended at Aulane, in the persecution of Maximinus. Being brought before Severus, governor of the province, the interrogatory began by asking him his name. Peter answered: ”Balsam is the name of my family, but I received that of Peter in baptism.” SEVERUS. ”Of what family, and of what country are you?” PETER. ”I am a Christian.”
SEVERUS. ”What is your employ?” PETER. ”What employ can I have more honorable, or what better thing can I do in the world, than to live a Christian?” SEVERUS. ”Do you know the imperial edicts?” PETER. ”I know the laws of G.o.d, the sovereign of the universe.” SEVERUS. ”You shall quickly know that there is an edict of the most clement emperors, commanding all to sacrifice to the G.o.ds, or be put to death.” PETER.
”You will also know one day that there is a law of the eternal king, proclaiming that every one shall perish, who offers sacrifice to devils: which do you counsel me to obey, and which, do you think, should be my option; to die by your sword, or to be condemned to everlasting misery, by the sentence of the great king, the true G.o.d?” SEVERUS. ”Seeing you ask my advice, it is then that you obey the edict, and sacrifice to the G.o.ds.” PETER. ”I can never be prevailed upon to sacrifice to G.o.ds of wood and stone, as those are which you adore.” SEVERUS. ”I would have you know, that it is in my power to revenge these affronts by your death.” PETER. ”I had no intention to affront you. I only expressed what is written in the divine law.” SEVERUS. ”Have compa.s.sion on yourself, and sacrifice.” PETER. ”If I am truly compa.s.sionate to myself, I ought not to sacrifice.” SEVERUS. ”My desire is to use lenity; I therefore still do allow you time to consider with yourself, that you may save your life.” PETER. ”This delay will be to no purpose, for I shall not alter my mind; do now what you will be obliged to do soon, and complete the work, which the devil, your father, has begun; for I will never do what Jesus Christ forbids me.”
Severus, on hearing these words, ordered him to be hoisted on the rack, and while he was suspended in the air, said to him scoffing: ”What say you now, Peter; do you begin to know what the rack is? Are you yet willing to sacrifice?” Peter answered: ”Tear me with iron hooks, and talk not of my sacrificing to your devils: I have already told you, that I will sacrifice to that G.o.d alone for whom I suffer.” Hereupon the governor {081} commanded his tortures to be redoubled. The martyr, far from fetching the least sigh, sung with alacrity those verses of the royal prophet: _One thing I have asked of the Lord; this will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life_.[1] _I will take the chalice of salvation, and will call upon the name of the Lord_.[2] The governor called forth fresh executioners to relieve the first, now fatigued. The spectators, seeing the martyr's blood run down in streams, cried out to him: ”Obey the emperors: sacrifice, and rescue yourself from these torments.” Peter replied: ”Do you call these torments? I, for my part, feel no pain: but this I know, that if I am not faithful to my G.o.d, I must expect real pains, such as cannot be conceived.” The judge also said: ”Sacrifice, Peter Balsam, or you will repent it.” PETER. ”Neither will I sacrifice, nor shall I repent it.” SEVERUS. ”I am just ready to p.r.o.nounce sentence.” PETER. ”It is what I most earnestly desire.” Severus then dictated the sentence in this manner: ”It is our order, that Peter Balsam, for having refused to obey the edict of the invincible emperors, and having contemned our commands, after obstinately defending the law of a man crucified, be himself nailed to a cross.” Thus it was that this glorious martyr finished his triumph, at Aulane, on the 3d of January, which day he is honored in the Roman Martyrology, and that of Bede.
In the example of the martyrs we see, that religion alone inspires true constancy and heroism, and affords solid comfort and joy amidst the most terrifying dangers, calamities, and torments. It spreads a calm throughout a man's whole life, and consoles at all times. He that is united to G.o.d, rests in omnipotence, and in wisdom and goodness; he is reconciled with the world whether it frowns or flatters, and with himself. The interior peace which he enjoys, is the foundation of happiness, and the delights which innocence and virtue bring, abundantly compensate the loss of the base pleasures of vice. Death itself, so terrible to the worldly man, is the saint's crown, and completes his joy and his bliss.
Footnotes: 1. Ps. xxvi. 4.
2. Ps. cxv. 4.
ST. ANTERUS, POPE.
HE succeeded St. Pontia.n.u.s in 235. He sat only one month and ten days, and is styled a martyr by Bede, Ado, and the present Roman Martyrology.
See Card. d'Aguirre, Conc. Hispan. T. 3. In the martyrology called S.
Jerom's, kept at S. Cyriacus's, it is said that he was buried on the Appian road, in the Paraphagene, where the cemetery of Calixtus was afterwards erected.
ST. GORDIUS.
MARTYRED at Caesarea, in Cappadocia, was a centurion to the army, but retired to the deserts when the persecution was first raised by Dioclesian. The desire of shedding his blood for Christ made him quit his solitude, while the people of that city were a.s.sembled to the Circus[1] to solemnize public games in honor of Mars. His attenuated body, long beard and hair and ragged clothes, drew on him the eyes of the whole a.s.sembly; yet, with this strange garb and mien, the graceful air of majesty that appeared in his {082} countenance commanded veneration. Being examined by the governor, and loudly confessing his faith, he was condemned to be beheaded. Having fortified himself by the sign of the cross,[2] he joyfully received the deadly blow. St. Basil, on this festival, p.r.o.nounced his panegyric at Caesarea, in which he says, several of his audience had been eye-witnesses of the martyr's triumph.
Hom. 17, t. 1.
Footnotes: 1. The _Circus_ was a ring, or large place, wherein the people sat and saw the public games.