ON THE HOLY ROMAN MARTYRS CYRILLUS, ELEUTHERIUS, MARIANUS, DOROTHEA, IN THE MONASTERY OF S. LAMBERT IN STYRIA.
CommentaryCyrillus, Roman Martyr in Styria (S.)
Eleutherius, Roman Martyr in Styria (S.)
Marianus, Roman Martyr in Styria (S.)
Dorothea, Roman Martyr in Styria (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
So illustrious throughout the lands was the fame of S. Lambert Bishop of Maastricht and Martyr, that propagated even to the outermost peoples of the German Empire, it gave name to the famous monastery, which on the borders of Styria and Carinthia, uncertain at what time first founded, under Otto III began to flourish again, The now ruling Abbot of that Monastery, with monks of the Benedictine profession introduced there; who, while the more ancient beginnings lie in the dark, sufficiently consider the first Dukes of the Carinthians, instituted by the aforesaid Otto, to be acknowledged as founders. The series of Abbots and Princes, under whom each of them flourished, with an accurate commentary, at the beginning of this XVII century, was published at Salzburg by Georgius Ulricus Chemnicensis. The Abbot who now presides over that monastery, the Most Reverend D. Franciscus, when he had obtained the three first months of our work, and also received the brief Notices, taken from that quarter and published in the year MDCLXVIII, at the end of which is appended some notice of the work still remaining and of help desired for it; gave to us a most kind letter, through the Most Reverend Lord Christopher Iager, Subprior of his monastery, in these words.
[2] zealous to promote this work Later there came to me the brief Notices, printed after the published March of yours, in which for enriching the Acts of the Saints, with the highest diligence and eminent erudition already to some extent advanced, further informations are desired by you to be supplied. I feel myself vehemently incited to contribute in this part some kind of contribution, both by zeal to assist pious lucubrations of this kind in which I burn, and by the pleasure with which I am suffused in perusing the first quarter of these same Acts. So having shaken out the monuments of my monastery, by the injury of times for the most part long since lost, I find and transcribe three things, which I judged would be to the present purpose. among other notices, The first is concerning the Relics of S. Candidus the Roman Martyr, in the year MCXXVI found, of whom we shall treat on III October. The second concerning the pieces of bread, which Beatrix, sister of Henry Prince of the Carinthians, was carrying in her bosom, converted into roses: which can be of use on XXIX June for the life of B. Hemma, which most laboriously gathered and illustrated by the kindness of the aforesaid Lord Subprior we have afterward received. The last I add here in the words of the Abbot himself, and is the very thing for whose cause we have touched on these things. So therefore he writes:
[3] he communicates the translation of these Saints; My predecessor Abbot Benedict of pious memory from Rome received as a gift four whole bodies of Saints: namely of S. Cyrillus, S. Marianus, S. Eleutherius, and S. Dorothea. Whether these names are genuine, or rather adopted, is not certain, nor is it expressed by Alexander Victricius Bishop of Alatri in letters patent, dated at Rome VII September in the year MDCL, by which moreover he gives public faith, that the said sacred bodies by the mandate of Pope Innocent X were extracted from the cemetery of Calepodius, with the faculty of exhibiting them in churches to the public veneration of the faithful. But prevented by death the same Predecessor of mine, left to me the entire task of adorning these sacred ashes: which task I have already discharged in S. Cyrillus and S. Eleutherius; of which two enclosed in precious arks their Relics with gold, silver, gems and pearls, with what magnificence and art could be done, with great expense adorned, and in the sacrarium of the miraculous church of Blessed Mary the Virgin in Cella of Styria, likewise pertaining to my monastery and administered through my Religious, with many other relics of Saints, in the midst of the treasure of sacred votives and offerings, most famous both in price and number, were placed: where by pilgrims, with incredible frequency yearly there flowing together, with no less sense of piety than admiration they are seen. in Cella of B. M. the Caesar with his wife Claudia venerates, And in these very days, when the Most August Emperor and Empress on the Kalends of May, were in Cella for the cause of a vow, both their Caesarian Majesties, and all the Magnates and the Court retinue and nobility hastening to the same place, beholding the bodies of the said Saints so adorned, extolled them with praise and venerated them. If life shall remain to me, my mind is to expose the two remaining bodies of S. Marianus and S. Dorothea, decorated with equal ornaments, to public veneration. For the rest in the aforesaid Cella church the solemn and anniversary memory of the same Saints Cyrillus and Eleutherius Martyrs, on the day XI of this month is celebrated.
[4] These things, Reverend Fathers, are what to satisfy your desire at present I have had to communicate. Praying God meanwhile, that He may favor your distinguished labors, with the patronage of the very Heavenly ones to whose honor you toil bestowed, so that, happily placing the desired finishing touch on your work, you may behold yourselves at length bringing back exulting the most abundant handfuls of the fruits sown by you. in the year 1675. We embrace the best wishes of the most loving Prelate, measured to his affection more than to the magnitude of the work remaining; ours do not extend so far, the sum of which is, that the same who drew us unworthy to this labor, may be sufficient for others to advance and complete what has been begun. He wrote in the year MDCLXXV on IX May, when he was still living, but using adverse health, the Most August Claudia of Tyrol, then the most worthy wife of the Caesar Leopold: whose chief vow for the perennity of the Austrian House before the Virgin of Cella, she now sees fulfilled from heaven, while in this year in which we write MDCLXXVIII in the month of August, to the Most August Caesar from a third well-omened marriage with the Princess of Neuburg, a male offspring came to light, whom to perennate unharmed and after many years at last to succeed to the Empire, and to hold it long, may the same divine Clemency that gave him do, by the prayers of nearly the whole Christian world to be entreated.
[5] As regards Saints Marianus and Dorothea, to them also, for the other two the same day of cult is designated. when their bodies have been adorned and placed either in S. Lambert's church, or in another subject one, the day XI May is to be held sacred decreed the same Most Reverend Abbot; that of those whose other things are common to all, common also, though in different places, may be the day of veneration and the common commemoration in the Calendars of the monastery. Thus he wrote to me in the year MDCLXXVI, on XX February the aforenamed Subprior: in the same letters also indicating that the cult of S. Lambert the Martyr in those parts does not consist in that monastery alone, but in three other places besides not so far distant the same number of monastic churches have been erected to his honor; namely S. Lambert in Altenberg, in Lower Austria, of the Order of S. Benedict; S. Lambert in Seon, in Bavaria of the same order; and S. Lambert in Suben, of the Order of Canons Regular, in the same Bavaria; his own monastery moreover from those is distinguished by the added epithet of S. Lambert in the Wood, and the church is believed to have been built for the expiation of a sacrilegious slaughter, by the descendants of those who perpetrated it, under the rule of the Franks powerful in Carinthia.