ON ST. VERENA, VIRGIN, AT ZURZACH IN THE DIOCESE OF CONSTANCE IN SWITZERLAND, AT ZURZACH IN THE DIOCESE OF CONSTANCE IN SWITZERLAND
About the year 300.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Verena, V., at Zurzach in the diocese of Constance in Switzerland. (S.)
Written by J. S.
§ I. The memory of the Saint in the sacred Calendars: the place where she is chiefly venerated: elogia: what the Acts are, and of what quality.
[ ] The Roman Martyrology on this day announces St. Verena, a virgin famous in Switzerland, in these brief words: The memory of the Saint in the Calendars of today, In the territory of Constance at Aquæ Duræ, of holy Verena the Virgin. The same words are used by Arturus in his Gynæceum, and by the author of the Paris Martyrology, who nevertheless adds among the Swiss. Ferrari in his General Catalogue has it thus: At Aquæ Duræ in Germany, of holy Verona (read Verena, as he has it in his annotations), virgin and martyr. Aquæ Duræ he there thus explains: It is a town of the Swiss by the Rhine between Constance and Basel in the diocese of Constance, which is called Zurzach by the natives. He adds that in the Roman Martyrology she is called only a virgin, when he says that in the diocese of Constance she is celebrated as virgin and martyr with a double rite. Whether he has rightly enough called her a martyr will be seen afterwards. But here he rightly corrects what he had written in his Topography at the word Aquæ Duræ, where he interprets it of a river called by the inhabitants Anderthur, and at the word Constantia, where he had wrongly banished St. Verena to Coutances in Normandy. Castellanus in his Universal Martyrology had attributed St. Verena to Baden, so interpreting Aquæ Duræ; but Baden is called Aquæ Helvetiæ, as he himself acknowledged, correcting the error in his Addenda, page 738, where he substitutes Zurzach. And indeed there is no doubt that St. Verena is to be announced at Zurzach, not at Baden, not at Coutances in Normandy, nor even at Constantia Julia in Bætica, whither Tamayo wished to drag her in his Spanish Martyrology.
[2] Hence she is excellently recorded in the Hagenau codex of Usuard in Sollerius in these words: and announced in older ones: In the territory of Constance, at the place which is called Aquæ Duræ, that is Zurziatum, the deposition of holy Verena the virgin, illustrious for the glory of miracles and for sanctity. Many other codices of Usuard have the memory of St. Verena the virgin, but none calls her a martyr; and most announce her at Aquæ Duræ without further explanation of the place, save that they attribute it to the territory of Constance. Grevenus has it thus: In the diocese of Constance, of holy Verena the virgin, of the company of the Theban Saints. Usuard himself passed over St. Verena, as also did Ado; but Wandelbert, in our manuscript, celebrates her with this verse: On this day [*] also shine the solemnities of holy Verena. A summary of her Acts Notker wove for her in his Martyrology, and we shall recite it below. He concludes it, moreover, with these words: And the blessed Virgin was buried in the place which is called Zurzacha. Various writers also name Bede, as though St. Verena were recorded by him; but they saw the enlarged Martyrologies of Bede, since she is not found in the pure one. Finally St. Verena is celebrated by the author of our manuscript Florarium, by Canisius in his German Martyrology, and by many other modern martyrologists. And Murer in his Holy Switzerland, from page 41, narrates her Life at length, as it is related by more recent writers, and contends that she must be called a martyr, because she is said to have endured prison for religion, although she ended her life in peace.
[3] she is venerated chiefly at Zurzach, which is described; Zurzach, which we have seen was once called Aquæ Duræ, is described by Josias Simler in his Commonwealth of the Swiss, book 2, in the prefecture of Baden or Aquæ, folio 191, a few words being premised about the two towns between which it lies: There belong also to the county and prefecture of Baden, he says, two little towns, Klingnau, and another commonly called Kaiserstuhl. But over these the bishop of Constance sets prefects… Besides, between each town lies Zurzach, a great village by the river Rhine, built up after the manner of a town, subject to the bishop of Constance, and belonging to the prefecture of Klingnau; concerning whose polity, because of the celebrity of the place, I shall add a few things. For most famous fairs are held twice a year in this place, to which merchants flow together not only from Switzerland and Germany, but also from France and Italy, although the fairs, wonderful to say, are finished in one day. These fairs are held on the Kalends of September, that is, on the very day on which the festivity of St. Verena falls; and on the second feria after the festivity of the most holy Trinity. To these the same writer adds various things about the jurisdiction of the bishop of Constance and of the prefect of Baden, which may be read there.
[4] St. Verena is venerated not only at Zurzach, where a church was of old raised to her, an ancient Office from the Breviary of Constance, which is now parochial and collegiate, but in other places also. In the Breviaries of the diocese of Constance of the years 1561 and 1575, which we have, it is prescribed that of her there be recited with a double rite an Office of nine lessons, of which the first six are taken from the Life. Yet those lessons do not contain a summary of the whole life, but both her death and her later deeds are plainly omitted. I should believe that formerly all nine lessons were recited about her life, and that the three latter were afterwards exchanged for three from the common of Virgins. These lessons are preferable to the longer Acts, or at least displease less, and therefore I transfer them hither: The most blessed virgin Verena, a Theban, of the stock of the Thebans, sprung from most honourable parents, is first handed over to a certain holy bishop to be baptized and more rightly formed in the faith. And when he was afterwards crowned by martyrdom (for he was an old man, Cheremon by name), the Virgin herself with some Christians came to lower Egypt, where at that time a very great multitude of the faithful was being enrolled to serve in the camps of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian.
[5] Lesson II. At that time the Theban legion of Maurice was held there. whose lessons To which the virgin of Christ Verena, desiring to come into Italy and to visit the sacred places, joins herself with other faithful. Coming therefore to Milan, and with her whole soul longing for the glory of martyrdom, anxiously seeking out the places of the martyrs and the prisons of the saints, and bestowing on them the office of piety, she remained there some years, kept back by a certain holy man named Maximus. At last, hearing that the holy legion of the most blessed Maurice had been slain by the most impious emperor for the faith of Christ, and that holy Victor, who had joined her on the journey, had likewise been crowned in that very legion, she ardently made her way over the Alpine ridges to Agaunum on the Rhone.
[6] Lesson III. Thence, when she had come beyond the river Aar, contain she dwelt with a certain holy man who had escaped from the Theban legion, not far from the castle of Solothurn, giving herself almost night and day to fastings and prayers, intent upon the psalms, and having in her hands the book of blessed Cyprian on the Dress of virgins; then, in the greatest and scarcely credible austerity of life, she shut herself up for a while to be mortified in a certain very narrow cave, that she might the more avoid the vanities of the world and serve God more securely. And not far from that cave a certain old woman dwelt, who, selling whatever the holy Virgin could work with her hands, furnished her with sufficient food.
[7] Lesson IV. But because every advance of virtues is ever contrary to the devil, a summary of the life, a certain tyrant, under the power of the Roman name, monstrous and sacrilegious, inflamed against the Virgin of God, after afflicting her with various injuries, kept her bound for some days in the public prison; where, commending herself to God with psalms and prayers, she is visited by night by a certain young man, splendid beyond what can be told. By whom she was greatly consoled, and admonished not to yield to anyone's threats, or to leave the way of truth. And when she asked who he was who had deigned to visit her, he answered that he had been sent by God, and that, being numbered among the martyrs in the kingdom of life, he was called Maurice.
[8] its latter part Lesson V. She, hearing such things, prostrates herself to pray, and entreats that holy martyr with prayers that he would be mindful of her before the Lord. Suddenly a multitude of young men in purple, with the adornment of a most white cloak, surrounded the holy martyr, and so he departed, taken from the eyes of the holy Virgin. And on the same night the same tyrant, seized with a most grievous fever, death being now close at hand, sends in haste to the Handmaid of God, that she should be brought to him with great speed. Being brought therefore to the judge, and prayer being made, she removed the violent fever from the body of that tyrant, and so with great praise returned to her former place, destined for herself and for other virgins.
[9] mutilated: Lesson VI. But as her fame increased, and was spread far and wide, secretly fleeing the praise of men, lest she should lose the reward of eternal recompense, she came to a certain island, not large, and to a small hut built there by Christians, and there remained some time of her life, ever at leisure for prayer. But when there also, by the Lord's bestowing, she was honoured by the people with worthy honours, at length, after many signs and miracles which the Lord wrought through her both in the little cell which is near Solothurn and elsewhere, the Virgin of Christ began to make her way thence to the Confluence of the Rhine, along the bank of the river which is called the Aar.
[10] another historical elogium With this mutilated summary of the Life there agrees well enough the elogium which blessed Notker Balbulus inserted into his Martyrology at 1 September in this manner: On the same day, the birthday of the most holy virgin Verena, a Theban by race, who is commended by her parents to a certain bishop Cheremon, who also was afterwards crowned with martyrdom, to be instructed; thereafter, having set out for lower Egypt with other faithful, the Virgin of Christ, desiring to come into Italy, joined herself to the blessed legion, that is, to Maurice and his companions, who at that time, as though about to serve Diocletian and Maximian, were staying there. Coming therefore to Milan, and seeking out the places in which the holy martyrs were confined, and ministering to them also works of piety, herself also longing for martyrdom, she remained there, kept back by a certain holy man Maximus. At last, hearing that the holy legion of the Thebans, and he whom she uniquely loved, Victor, were consummated by martyrdom, she made her way over the Alpine ridges to Acaunum to learn the matter. Thence, near the river Aar, not far from the castle of Solothurn, she dwelt under a wondrous strictness of fastings, vigils and prayers, continuing them days and nights. In a certain very narrow cave therefore she shuts herself up for some time to mortify her flesh. Not far from which a certain Christian old woman dwelt, and whatever the sacred Virgin could work, the aforesaid woman sold, and from this furnished food to the holy woman of God. For the sacrilegious worship of the pagans still held the Alamanni.
[11] from the Martyrology of Notker: Very many signs therefore being wrought by the Lord through his Handmaid, the Alamanni began to be moved to the faith of Christ. And so the fame of the Virgin, the miracles making her known, so increased, that, being made a mother of virgins, she was venerable to all the people by the discretion of her piety. Whose praiseworthy life the devil envying, he inflamed a certain tyrant under the power of the Roman name, who, afflicting the Virgin of God in many ways, consigned her to the public prison. In which dungeon a certain young man of remarkable splendour appeared to her, whom she asks who he is. When he answered that he was Maurice, at once, surrounded by a multitude of men in purple, he is taken from the eyes of the Virgin as she implores his prayer; and on the same night the tyrant, seized with a most violent fever, but calling the Virgin to him, is immediately healed by her prayer, and so with the praise of all is sent back to the place of the virgins; in which, when on a certain day bread had failed, a complaint arose about this: she, admonishing her sisters to trust in the divine liberality, prostrates herself in prayer for the cause of the pressing need, and behold, unexpectedly forty sacks full of the purest flour are found at the door of the little cell, from which for some years that congregation was sustained. And when now the end of her life drew near, being weakened in body, yet not laying aside the rigour of her purpose, she lay down upon her little bed; and while she awaits the term of her death, there is present the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, going before innumerable choirs of virgins: whom Verena, gazing with all devotion, and asking whence she deserved this, heard from the same Mother of God: I have come, she said, that you may be rewarded by him whom you have faithfully served. Which said, that blessed soul left the body; and the blessed Virgin was buried in the place which is called Zurzacha.
[12] The Acts of St. Verena are various, some a little longer, Acts written later others compendious. These in substance agree wholly with the elogium of Notker, to which they add nothing, save that many miracles are wrought at her tomb. Three manuscript copies of this kind are at hand, which by diversity of style show that there were three different writers, but that all drew from the same source, namely the Martyrology of Notker. Of these therefore I shall add no more. The longer Life seems to have been composed from the shorter by a certain writer of the tenth or eleventh century, as I gather from the miracles which he subjoined to the Life. Of these Acts we have a copy from a manuscript Passional of the Charterhouse of Würzburg of the year 1483, as is noted in the margin. Here there is no preface, nor are any miracles subjoined. Another Ms. was sent hither by Elmenhorst, known by his writings; but it is not added whence he received it. That manuscript copies of the same Acts exist at Cologne, in the abbey of Böddeken, and at Trier at St. Maximin's, our Elders noted. But the Acts themselves are not to be made so much of that we need them all. Our copy, however, has been collated with the Trier one. Further, the author of this Life narrates various facts which are not read in Notker, so that he must have drawn them from elsewhere, unless we should prefer to suspect that the deeds which he added to the preceding elogium were narrated by him from popular traditions or uncertain conjectures. Certainly the unfitting manner in which some things are related, and the discourses inserted into the Acts, can procure it but small authority. Some things also are read inserted which are utterly to be held for fables. Nevertheless these Acts I shall publish, illustrated and corrected with observations, that the studious reader may understand what sort of monuments the more recent writers followed who published the Life of the Saint in German. The miracles drawn up, as it appears, by the same writer, deserve more credit, since he lived almost in their time, and even professes himself an eyewitness of one.
[13] The German Life, printed in the year 1616 at Augsburg, was written by Mauritius Adler, dean of Zurzach, and the same in the year 1652 was rendered into Latin by Johannes Vianden, then a student of sacred theology at Cologne. a twofold German Life. That author imitated the Acts which we are about to publish faithfully enough, save that he narrated some things in a more likely manner. I should rather he had rejected what was not likely. Besides, this writer adorned what is related in the Acts with various texts of sacred Scripture, and so made the Life much longer. The miracles also he narrated from the Acts, but added some more recent ones at the end. These were translated for us at the same time into Latin speech by Winand Pescher, another student of sacred theology at Cologne. These more recent miracles I shall subjoin after the Acts as an appendix. The other German Life, which I have in hand, and which is much longer and fuller than the preceding, was published in the year 1736, its author the Reverend Father Hieronymus Richter of the Premonstratensian Order. And this little book is said in the approbation to have been collected partly from ancient authentic authors, partly from old documents communicated at Zurzach. The title of virgin and martyr this author attributes to St. Verena, and alleges reasons in chapter 30 why he believes she should be named a martyr: these we shall examine below.
Annotations* in the printed editions, faultily, has
§ II. The facts related in the Acts and in the German Lives are discussed and set out.
[ ] [The Saint is said to be of Theban origin, and to have set out for Italy with the Theban legion,] In upper Egypt by the Nile there was of old a most ample city called Thebes, which gave its name to the Thebaid. That St. Verena sprang from this city, or at least from the region of the Thebaid, the Acts hand down with wonderful agreement: for all call her a Theban, either from the city or from the province. From the same province the Theban legion took its name, which with St. Maurice its tribune was crowned with martyrdom under Maximian, probably because it was enrolled in the Thebaid. The German Life which I said was rendered into Latin for us affirms that she was born there not only of noble race and blood, but also, as the most firm opinion of some is, he says, of the kindred of St. Maurice. But the Acts nowhere call her a kinswoman of St. Maurice. Nay rather Notker says that St. Victor was uniquely loved by Verena. If therefore St. Verena was really of the Thebaid, and followed the Theban legion into Italy, it is more likely that she was under the protection of St. Victor, and was his blood-relation. St. Eucherius in the Passion of the martyrs of Agaunum, which Chifflet published in his Paulinus illustrated, records two Victors, one of the Theban legion, the other joined to that holy legion by martyrdom. The former could have been the friend and kinsman of St. Verena: for of him Eucherius has this on page 91: Of this same legion are said to have been also those martyrs Ursus and Victor, whom fame confirms to have suffered at Solothurn. And Solothurn is a castle above the river Aar, and situated not far from the Rhine. These, with other martyrologists, Notker announces at 30 September thus: In the castle of Gaul, Solothurn, the passion of the holy martyrs Victor and Ursus of the legion of the Thebans: who by the order of Maximian were tortured by Hirtacus with dire torments, then cast into fire, and at last consummated by the sword.
[15] That it is this Victor whom Notker designates is somewhat intimated by his very words, by which he seems to separate Victor's martyrdom from the slaughter of the others, when he speaks thus: [in which was Victor her friend: on whose account she seems to have come to Solothurn:] At last, hearing (St. Verena) that the holy legion of the Thebans, and he whom she uniquely loved, Victor, were consummated by martyrdom, she made her way over the Alpine ridges to Acaunum to learn the matter. Thence, near the river Aar [*], not far from the castle of Solothurn … she dwelt. Then, that the Saint came to Solothurn for no other cause than to follow Victor either living or dead is likely enough. Therefore, if credit is to be given to the Acts, nothing more likely can be said than that Verena went out from her own fatherland for St. Victor's sake, perhaps because she had been placed as it were under his guardianship, and lacked other friends. I confess indeed that it is marvellous, and seems little credible, that a girl is said to have followed a troop of soldiers from upper Egypt all the way to Switzerland; yet it is not so incredible that it ought to be rejected on this ground alone, especially since all the Swiss writers, and all their monuments, affirm that she was not born in Switzerland, and that she came thither on occasion of the Theban legion.
[16] But it may be doubted whether the Theban legion came from Egypt into Italy, whence the Theban legion came into Italy. as is said in these Acts, or rather from another province of the Eastern realm. St. Eucherius in the praised Chifflet, page 86, has this about the Theban legion: There was at that time in the army a legion of soldiers who were called Thebans… These had come, summoned from the parts of the East to Maximian's aid. The Acts of St. Maurice and his companions in Surius at 22 September add of these soldiers: These soldiers therefore had received the rite of the Christian religion by an eastern tradition from the bishop of the city of Jerusalem. Hence Baronius at the year 297, number 5, and Tillemont, volume 4 of the Monuments, in St. Maurice, believe that the Theban legion came from Syria into Italy, that it might pass thence with Maximian into Gaul. Nevertheless I do not judge this so certain that I should think Notker, who says that they came from lower Egypt into Italy, must be convicted of manifest error. For even if it were established that the legion was made Catholic by the labour of the bishop of Jerusalem — which Eucherius does not have, as he is genuinely published by Chifflet — it could afterwards have been sent back into Egypt. Now the parts of the East, from which they are said to have come, do not exclude Egypt, which was a part of the Eastern empire. Finally, if we weigh the time at which this legion was called into the West, it is more likely that it was called from Egypt than from Syria or Cilicia, whence others would have it summoned. For while the Theban legion was coming as a support to Maximian in the West, Diocletian was preparing to make war on the Persians, who had occupied Mesopotamia, as Tillemont relates, volume 4 of the Emperors, in Diocletian, article 2, at the year 285. Hence it is less likely that any legion was drawn out at that time from Syria or Cilicia, since these provinces are too near Mesopotamia. But that is less to be wondered at of Egypt, which is far more remote from Mesopotamia.
[17] From what has been said we may conclude that it is not incredible that some Virgin came from Egypt into Italy, [Although there were various Cheremons in Egypt, it is unknown by which one the Saint was instructed:] and thence into Switzerland with a band of soldiers, since she might follow her kinsman or her friend; nor can the words of Notker, asserting that the Theban legion came from Egypt into Italy, be convicted of falsity. Yet I should not wish to contend that these things are altogether certain; for the age of Notker does not attribute to him so great an authority in these matters, nor do we know what the documents were which he followed. No more can we say who Cheremon the bishop was, to whom he affirms the Virgin was commended by her parents. Eusebius indeed in his Ecclesiastical History, book 6, chapter 42, records a certain Cheremon in upper Egypt, bishop of Nilopolis, in the time of the Decian persecution; but since the name Cheremon is found often enough in Egypt, we do not know whether Notker wished to designate this one, who probably found a bishop Cheremon in older monuments without further notice of him. Take nevertheless what St. Dionysius of Alexandria writes about that Cheremon, whose letter about the persecution of Decius in Egypt the praised Eusebius recites: Cheremon was a certain aged bishop of the city of Nilus. He, together with his wife, having fled into the Arabian mountain, returned no more. And the brethren, although they searched everything carefully, could afterwards find neither them nor their bodies. The same St. Dionysius had a certain Cheremon among his deacons, and he suffered many things for the confession of the faith in the persecution of Valerian. Further, if the elder Cheremon the bishop had presided over the instruction of St. Verena, she would have been at least fifty years old when the Theban legion was crowned with martyrdom, since the persecution of Decius preceded their martyrdom by thirty-four or five years. But if Cheremon the disciple of St. Dionysius had afterwards been made a bishop, like Eusebius and Faustus, who are recorded there with him as deacons, he could have instructed the holy Virgin about the time at which she is said to have set out from Egypt. But these things are altogether uncertain, and are only recorded by me that the fair-minded reader may understand that facts of this kind, which appear less likely for this reason, that they are related without their circumstances, are not straightway to be rejected as fictitious or false. For the rest, we freely confess that Cheremon, Verena's instructor, if she was really instructed by a bishop Cheremon, is unknown to us.
[18] The Saint's journey from Egypt to Solothurn: The Saint's whole journey is to be arranged thus from Notker and the Acts. Having set out from the Thebaid to lower Egypt, she joined herself to the Theban legion, with which, being put on board ship, she crossed into Italy. When the Theban legion was going over the Alps into Switzerland, she herself stayed at Milan with Maximus, a holy man, but unknown to us, until she heard of the slaughter of the Theban legion, and of one of it, her friend Victor, whom we suspect to have suffered at Solothurn, although some other Victor also may have suffered with the legion itself, since probably there were several of the same name in it. That the Saint stayed some years at Milan the Acts have at number 2, but with little probability, since she seems to have departed at once after hearing of the martyrdom of the Theban soldiers, and that happened not long after their departure from Italy. From Milan she is said to have set out for Acaunum or Agaunum, a place of the Valais by the Rhone, where now is the famous monastery which has its name from St. Maurice. The situation of the place St. Eucherius thus describes in Chifflet, page 87: Acaunum is almost sixty miles from the city of Geneva, and is fourteen miles distant from the head of the Lake of Geneva, into which the Rhone flows. From Agaunum she seems to have departed soon to Solothurn, probably because she had heard that her friend Victor had fled thither. Further, the Acts say at number 3 that she dwelt near Solothurn with a certain Holy man who had escaped from the Theban legion. This might be understood of St. Victor, if it were established that he survived long after the slaughter of the others. But if Victor with Ursus suffered on 30 September, on which they are venerated, in the same year, that is eight days after the others, as appears more likely, Verena did not find him alive at Solothurn, unless she had left Milan before hearing of the martyrdom of the others. Notker has nothing about his being found at Solothurn; and the Acts perhaps will have to be explained of the Saint being found there crowned, after he had escaped by flight; so that she seems rather to have found his tomb than the Saint himself. But these things are too doubtful for anything certain to be drawn out of them.
[19] It is more certain that the Saint dwelt near Solothurn in a cave, she dwells near Solothurn in a cave, where now there is a chapel: which even now is held in veneration by the faithful. That cave, in the year 1741, on 22 March, the Reverend Father Matthæus Wider, Rector of the college of the Society of Jesus at Solothurn, and the Reverend Father Johann Baptist Gachet of the same Society examined, and on that very day gave this letter about it: There is distant from Solothurn — a most ancient colony of the Romans, then a noble city of the Gauls, but now a fortified town of Switzerland — at the space of half an hour toward the north, near the foot of mount Jura, a cave in the manner of a waning moon, nearly seventeen feet long, seven wide where it is widest, nature having hollowed the living rock into this form of a cave. That in the time of the persecution stirred up by the emperor Diocletian, and raging in the Valais at Agaunum against the Theban legion, this cave was at some time inhabited by the fugitive St. Verena, is attested both by the most ancient and constant tradition of all the ages from that time, and by the perpetual and religious worship of the neighbours, who call that place by no other name than that of St. Verena. As time went on, the devotion of her clients set a chapel over the cave, with this distich written on the wall:
While with her heart she serves Christ, and with her comb the needy, In this hollow once holy Verena lay hid.
1555 renewed 1575
We, the undersigned, examined the place with diligence today, 22 March 1741, in the presence of the Reverend Dom Bonaventura Gerber, chaplain at Holy Cross in Jerusalem. Their names I have given above.
[20] Solothurn, which by the ancients is Salodorum, and by the inhabitants Solothurn, the things she is said to have done there are not all likely: is situated on the banks of the river Aare [*], which Notker called the Arar, with the Acts and certain others, as may be seen in Valois in his Notice of the Gauls, page 496, where likewise you will find that the inhabitants of those places were reckoned among the Alamanni by various writers, as they are here called. But what the Acts relate about the Saint's deeds there is not all equally likely. For that the Virgin, at first almost unknown, became by degrees famous through miracles, and that on that occasion not a few were converted to the faith, can easily be believed, as also that for that cause she was consigned to prison. But what is said about the reading of St. Cyprian's book, and about virgins instructed from it, is little likely. For although we should believe that St. Cyprian's Little Work could have fallen into her hands in Italy, it was written in the Latin tongue, which the Saint seems to have been ignorant of, if she was of Theban origin, since the Latin language was little used in Egypt. The same reason makes us judge the instruction of virgins less likely, especially since Notker does not record it, nor is any one named who had been instructed by Verena.
[21] [afterwards she is reported to have set out for an island at the confluence of the Rhine and the Aare,] After the Virgin had dwelt some years near Solothurn in her cave, she is said to have set out for an island near the confluence of the Rhine and the Aare. So the Acts, with the Office of Constance; but about these Notker has nothing, and by his silence that dwelling is rendered less certain. And the circumstances of that journey and of her dwelling on the island near the Swiss Confluence are so marvellous that they do not deserve credit, certainly as they are related in the Acts, and even less as they are embellished by the modern biographers. For first, the flight of serpents, even if in itself not incredible, cannot safely be believed on the authority of the Acts alone; much less the Virgin's prayer and the promise divinely given her that her prayers would always be heard: for those things are feigned in a manner not in the least likely. Murer and Richter add that the Saint used a great stone for a ship, and thus sailed by the Aare to the said island, and that that stone is preserved to this day at the side of the chapel of Confluentia. Indeed some stone may be preserved there, and we do not deny that it is shown; but there may be many other causes why that stone is kept in memory of the Saint, and therefore we do not believe the popular tradition on which alone that marvellous voyage rests. No more pleasing is what Richter subjoins to the preceding in chapter 33, about a part of the mountain torn away by a demon, who had striven to crush the Saint with that huge rock. That little fable was not unknown to the Rector of our college at Solothurn, the Reverend Father Matthæus Wider, praised before, when he wrote this to us: Some other things also are reported — for instance, about an enormous rock cast by the devil at the Saint, which they still show lying beside the road; likewise about a certain spring healthful to the sick, etc. But since those things are not certain enough, and we have preferred to relate what is certain, we have been unwilling to add anything further about them.
[22] and at last to Zurzach, where she died. From the said island, near the village of Confluentia, she is said to have set out for Zurzach, where at last she was brought to the blessed end of her life. She is reported first to have dwelt in the house of a certain presbyter, then in a cell built by the same presbyter. Her deeds in that place are omitted by Notker, save only her blessed death, which it is likely happened there, since he affirms that she was buried at Zurzach. But the Life has many deeds at Zurzach, yet so awkwardly related that most of them must be numbered among fables, as I shall say in the annotations. For the rest, that I may briefly declare my mind about all of them together, all that Notker narrates, doubtless from older monuments, seems able to be admitted, as at least probable. But all that is added over and above in the Acts deserves less credit, most of it even none, especially in the several circumstances of the deeds, which are unfittingly narrated. It remains that we say something about the posthumous glory of the Saint.
Annotations* that is, Arolam
* the Aare
§ III. The Saint's tomb, her miracles, and other things pertaining to her posthumous glory.
[ ] The Saint's tomb of today, That the Saint was buried at Zurzach Notker asserts, and the moderns add that her body was laid in that very little house which the presbyter had built for her to dwell in. The Acts have it that a church was built for her in the same place. Certainly her tomb is seen to this day in the collegiate church of that place. Richter exhibits and describes it in German in chapter 33, in about this manner: To one entering the collegiate church at Zurzach, beside the nave of the church and the choir, there present themselves stairs rightly laid out beneath the choir. When you have descended by those stairs, there lies open toward the East an entrance into a venerable chapel, ancient and vaulted, which, abundantly furnished with columns, is of moderate breadth and length. Near the entrance of the chapel is the tomb of St. Verena, raised from the floor, free on every side, and in the middle covered above with an ancient stone, on which lies a statue of St. Verena after the ancient manner, with hanging hair. Her head is set upon a pillow of cut stone: in one hand she holds a comb, in the other a pitcher (the instruments, namely, with which she is believed to have served the poor). That holy tomb is surrounded on every side with gratings and very tall iron bars from the floor above the height of a man's stature, and is so constructed that it can be adorned with candlesticks, and candles lit upon them. A glass lamp also gives a perpetual light there. Above the tomb of St. Verena, on the eastern side, are two windows, which give sufficient light to this underground chapel. Beside the same tomb is an altar, at which the most holy sacrifice of the Mass is offered. The vault of the chapel is not very lofty; yet the same chapel, both by its underground situation and by its venerable antiquity, greatly moves to piety, and is of itself apt and ordered to awaken true attention. Richter gave a figure of the whole tomb, such as I here exhibit; but I doubt whether what the Saint holds in her right hand is accurately represented, since it less resembles the figure of a pitcher, though he himself names it a pitcher.
[24] Of the church itself, of which this is the crypt or underground chapel, and its collegiate church: the praised Richter subjoins this: The great collegiate church which at Zurzach is built above the tomb of St. Verena is splendid, of remarkable breadth, height and length, restored and whitewashed with more recent work, and altogether magnificent in aspect both within and without. In how great veneration this collegiate church of St. Verena has been for many centuries, the same writer shows in chapters 31 and 32, from the various donations made to it by secular and ecclesiastical princes, from the privileges and indulgences granted by the prelates of Constance and by the supreme Pontiffs, from the confraternity instituted, or rather restored, in the same church in the year 1613 in honour of St. Verena and of St. Maurice the martyr, by Jacob, bishop of Constance, and enriched with indulgences by Urban VIII in the year 1625; from the processions, one of which is repeated every year on the Tuesday in Easter week, and often with the relics of St. Verena; finally from many other things which may be read there. Besides, it will appear from the miracles that the tomb and church of St. Verena were in great veneration, and that the people flocked with much devotion to that Saint's patronage. And that this devotion of the people continues even at this time, not only at Zurzach but also in other places of Switzerland, is testified in a letter sent to us by the Reverend Father Mauritius Chardon, Rector of the college of the Society of Jesus at Constance, who most kindly helped us by sending those things which he judged conducive to the illustrating of the Saint's Acts.
[25] her body preserved there, That the body of St. Verena is preserved at Zurzach in her tomb is frequently repeated in the history of the miracles; nor have I anywhere found anything about its translation. Wherefore Ferrari is to be corrected in his Topography at the word Aquæ Duræ, where he says: Whose (St. Verena's) body now rests and is venerated in the monastery of Rot, which is distant four German miles from Constance. In the topography of the monastery of Rot he errs much, since it is far distant from the city of Constance, as we shall see. So likewise in the same place he wrongly explained Aquæ Duræ by the river Ander Thur. And finally he thus errs in designating the place where St. Verena rests. For not even Richter, although he is of the abbey of Rot, attributes to it the body of St. Verena; nay rather, having related her burial in chapter 30, he testifies that the Saint is to this day celebrated at Zurzach with a great concourse of men, and shines there with benefits and miracles. Whence Ferrari drew that error I plainly do not know, unless perhaps he believed the body to be in the abbey of Rot, because Verena is the patroness of that abbey.
[26] her head at one time translated, but afterwards brought back: The Saint's head, however, was carried elsewhere, but afterwards brought back to Zurzach, on the testimony of Richter, who in chapter 22 has it that with great joy of the people and remarkable celebrity that same head was brought back to Zurzach in the year 1658, on the fourth day of August: From which time, he says, the feast of the translation of the head of St. Verena is constantly celebrated every year under a double rite. He affirms that the sacred head had probably before been removed from Zurzach after the collegiate church was burnt, and added to the sacred treasury of Hall (in the county of Tyrol, I think) by Agnes of Austria, daughter of the emperor Albert I, who was married to Andrew king of Hungary, and, long a widow after his death, was often in Switzerland, on the testimony of Simler, folio 39, who also at folio 46 narrates that she was chosen arbitress for the making of peace between her brother Albert and the confederate cantons of Switzerland. If this translation be true, it happened in the fourteenth century; for Agnes of Austria died in the year 1364, as her contemporary Thomas Ebendorffer of Haselbach writes, volume 2 of the Writers of Austrian affairs, column 748, where he wonderfully praises her piety.
[27] relics in the chapel of the cave near Solothurn, a statue at Baden, Certain other relics of St. Verena are also shown in other places sacred to her. Richter testifies this in chapter 35, where he shows that the Saint is celebrated in various places. He describes first the cave near Solothurn, of which we treated at number 19; and to what we have said he adds that a certain hermit at the present time lives there for the service of the chapel erected in honour of the Saint; that the sacrifice of the Mass is frequently offered in the same chapel, and that the Saint's festivity is celebrated with a great concourse of people. And indeed, he says, it is the greater because there, in a precious statue or silver image, relics of the arm of St. Verena are exposed to public and attentive veneration, and others sent thither from Zurzach. Then the same writer proceeds to other places thus: Besides, it is not to be wrapped in silence that in honour of the oft-to-be-praised virgin and martyr Verena, in the bath called the Bath of the Poor in the most well-known city of Baden in Switzerland, there has been erected a stone column, above which is set a statue of the saint herself. Before this holy statue the people of Baden, before they plunge in, and at other times too, pour out attentive prayers, that by the powerful intercession of this great Patroness they may the sooner obtain the health they desire… Not far from this bath is seen a chapel, in which the most holy festivity of St. Verena is every year celebrated with divine worship. He adds that elsewhere also St. Verena is venerated in such a manner, and indeed is in great veneration in all Catholic places throughout the whole of Switzerland.
[28] The same author proceeds to the Abbey of Rot in Swabia, the distinguished abbey of Rot in Swabia sacred to her, and asserts that it was founded in the year 1126. Charles Louis Hugo in the Annals of the Premonstratensian Order, part 1, volume 2, column 697, writes thus of Rot: The imperial and exempt abbey of Rot, girt with two little rivers, one called Haslach, the other Rot, whence the abbey also took its name, dedicated to blessed Verena, virgin and martyr, is a distinguished monastery of our Order in Swabia, splendid in buildings, glittering with privileges, powerful in royal jurisdiction; acknowledging the Pope alone as superior in spiritual matters, the emperor alone in temporal, having a vote and a seat in the circle of Swabia and in the imperial diet. A house adorned with so many pre-eminences shines more splendidly from another source: by the observance of regular discipline, by assiduity in divine worship, by modesty of manners, by love of learning, by the profession of virtues. He then examines its antiquity doubtfully, and teaches that its foundress was Henna (otherwise Emma), widow of Henry, baron of Wildenberg in Freidenberg, her sons Rhenigenus and Chuno assenting. In the bull of confirmation of Eugene III, which he recites among the documents at column 446, the church of Rot is said to have been built by a venerable matron and widow named Hemma and her son Chuno, free persons, on their own allod, and is said to be of the holy Mother of God Mary and of blessed Verena the virgin, the title of martyr being omitted. More about the aforesaid abbey the praised Hugo will give: for I have recited these things only to show how widely already from the twelfth century the veneration of the Saint was spread.
[29] Besides, St. Verena is patroness in the parish church of the town of Wurzach (in Swabia, as also many other places in Swabia and Switzerland. or in that part of it which is called the Allgäu), and in the parish church of the village of Steinbach (likewise in Swabia, in the margraviate of Baden). Finally he adds that an image of the same Saint is seen at Illerbeuren and at Ilgenbach, and an altar sacred to her in the abbey of the Cistercian Order which they name in Latin Salem, Salemium and Salomonis Villa, and here Salmannsweil in German. This is situated in Swabia, distant from Überlingen and from the Lake of Constance about one German mile. An altar of St. Verena together with other Saints is also dedicated at the Mount of Angels, an abbey of Switzerland, commonly called Engelberg, as I understand from the instrument of the dedication of that church, made in the year 1325 at the petition of the illustrious Agnes, once queen of Hungary, as the instrument sent from the abbey has it, in which also mention is made of the festivity of St. Verena the virgin. These things suffice to show that the memory and veneration of St. Verena is widely celebrated through Switzerland and Swabia; and from these the studious reader will marvel at the impudence of Tamayo in his Spanish Martyrology at 1 September, where he tried from fictitious monuments to claim this Saint for his Spain, and to adorn her with many fables, thinking perhaps that she was nowhere sufficiently known.
[30] [The Saint venerated by the ancients without the title of martyr, which Richter tries to claim for her by slight little reasons,] From what has been said, and from the Life and Miracles to be published, we perceive that St. Verena was formerly always venerated as a virgin without the title of martyr. Hence I wonder why the modern writers of her Life have tried to attribute and to claim this title for her: for the reasons which are brought forward only prove that she can be called a martyr in a very improper sense, so that they might easily and rightly have acquiesced in the Roman Martyrology, which does not attribute the title of martyr to Verena. Richter, part 1, chapter 30, contends that she must be named a martyr for these reasons: that for the faith she was cast into prison; that she desired martyrdom and was ready to die for the faith; and finally that she was named a martyr by certain writers, among whom he says is Urban VIII in the bull by which he confirms the confraternity erected in honour of St. Verena and St. Maurice. The first reason he confirms by the example of St. John the apostle and Evangelist, whom he says is held a martyr because he was thrown into boiling oil, even though he remained unhurt and came out of the oil sound: for since a disease is said in the Life to have been sent upon the tyrant and taken away by the Saint's prayers, and her deliverance from prison to have followed thence, he judges that St. Verena was delivered from death by a miracle, as St. John was divinely snatched from a death naturally imminent.
[31] which Richter tries to claim for her, But in this likeness many things are unlike. First, the prison of St. Verena is not so certain as is St. John's being cast into oil; nor is it so certain that the Virgin's deliverance happened in the manner related, as is the deliverance of St. John. Then (even if we believed all things equally certain) the Virgin had not yet been condemned to death when she was freed from prison; nor is it even said whether she would have been condemned to death, if the healing of the tyrant had not intervened. Much less was she afflicted with those torments which naturally bring death. Yet this is the only reason for which St. John is held among the martyrs: for neither exile, nor prison, nor torments make anyone truly and properly a martyr, unless death follow from them, or unless they are so atrocious that they constitute a natural cause of death, and would certainly have brought death, had it not been hindered by a miracle. Thus St. John is a martyr, because he was put into boiling oil for the faith; martyrs are the three children sent by the order of Nebuchadnezzar into the burning furnace; a martyr is Daniel, because he was cast into the pit to the lions — namely because all these would have met death, unless the divine power had prodigiously preserved them.
[32] and which we do not attribute to her. But those who have suffered prison, exile, or lighter torments for the faith of Christ are indeed worthy of remarkable praise; but they are not properly martyrs, if, surviving these, they afterwards ended their life by disease or by an infirmity contracted from another source. These things Cardinal Lambertini, now happily presiding over the whole Church as Benedict XIV, pursues more at large and learnedly shows in his Work on the beatification and canonization of the Servants of God, book 3, chapter 12. Therefore this first reason does not properly make St. Verena a martyr; nor does the second, since the will alone does not suffice for martyrdom. And if Urban VIII in his bull named her a martyr, he probably did so by repeating the words of the petitioners. But things which the supreme Pontiffs thus insert into their rescripts cannot be brought forward as a lawful proof. Then the Pontiff was not consulted whether holy Verena was a martyr or only a virgin; but the confirmation of a confraternity had been sought. Of little moment therefore is the bull of Urban, whose words he does not even recite, for proving St. Verena's martyrdom, especially since she is not called a martyr in the Martyrology. For these causes I have preferred, with all the older writers, to pass over the title of martyrdom.
LIFE
by an anonymous author. From two Mss., collated with the Trier one.
Verena, V., at Zurzach in the diocese of Constance in Switzerland. (S.)
BHL Number: 8541
By an Anonymous author.
PREFACE.
The author exhorts the Brothers and Sisters to imitate the Saint. About to write the Life of the glorious virgin Verena, according to what we have learned from the report of certain persons, we implore the grace of almighty God, that we may be able to accomplish in this work what shall be pleasing and useful to our Brothers and Sisters. For it avails nothing to read the Life of virtues, unless we strive to have the life of virtues. For to this end a pious soul recalls [] the memory of the Saints, that by their examples it may become more fervent, and may the more easily overcome the hardship of its own pilgrimage by following their path. For in the several deeds of the Saints it considers [] most intently with the eye of the heart wherein they the more pleased [*] God, and ardently searches out whatever it ought itself diligently to do. These things, dearest Brothers and Sisters, reading them from time to time, perform most zealously, that by the merit of your profession and chastity you may be able to carry off, together with the most blessed Verena, the crown of eternal reward; and go over her life vigilantly, not only in words but also in manners, that so you may live. For you will then have her as an intercessor for you, if, following her footsteps, you keep her ever before your eyes as one to be imitated, so that, by how much you are more illustrious in birth, by so much you may be more excellent in sanctity a.
ANNOTATION.
* otherwise: recolat
* otherwise: placuerit
* otherwise: contempletur
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's fatherland: her journey into Italy and Switzerland, where in a cave near Solothurn she becomes famous for virtues and miracles: setting out thence she dwells on an island near the confluence of the Rhine and the Aare.
[ ] Verena's fatherland, her journey into Italy, The most blessed virgin Verena was a Theban a by race, sprung from most honourable parents, and first indeed she is handed over to a certain holy bishop to be baptized and to be formed in the faith. And when he was afterwards crowned by martyrdom — for he was an old man, Cheremon b by name — the Virgin herself with some Christians came to lower Egypt, where at that time a very great multitude of the faithful was being enrolled to serve in the camps of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. At that time the Theban legion of Maurice c was held there, to which the virgin of Christ Verena, desiring to come to Italy, joins herself with the rest and with other faithful. Coming therefore to Milan d, longing with her whole soul, if it were possible for her, for the glory of martyrdom, anxiously seeking out the places of the martyrs and the prisons [] of the Saints, and bestowing upon them the office of piety, she remained there some years e, kept back by a certain Holy man named Maximus. At last, hearing that the holy legion of the most blessed Maurice had been destroyed by the sword by the most impious emperor for the faith of Christ, and that holy Victor f, uniquely [] joined to her, had likewise been crowned in that very legion, she ardently made her way over the Alpine ridges to Agaunum, to learn the matter.
[3] her dwelling near Solothurn, Thence, beyond the river Arar g, she dwelt with a certain Holy man who had escaped from the Theban legion, not far from the castle of Solothurn, continuing with wondrous strictness in fastings and prayers almost night and day, intent upon the psalms, and having chiefly in her hands the book of blessed Cyprian [h] on the Dress of virgins, where that same blessed martyr teaches that discipline is the guardian of hope, the stay of faith, the leader of the way of salvation, the fostering and the nourishment of a good disposition. Most intent therefore was the sacred virgin Verena upon the reward of most chaste virtue and the palm of incomparable recompense; and in a certain very narrow cave i she shut herself up for some time [*] to be mortified; where not far off a certain Christian old woman dwelt. For the nation of the Alamanni [k], subject to the devil, had set up for itself as gods various monstrous shapes of idols. Whatever the sacred Virgin could work with her hands, that same old woman sold, and furnished her with sufficient food. Very many signs also the Lord wrought through his handmaid Verena, so that certain possessed persons, before they had come to that cave in which the Handmaid of God was dwelling, were freed from the infestation of the demons and were healed by her prayers; and certain blind men also were enlightened by her touch. As the miracles therefore increased, a multitude of the Alamanni began to be moved to the faith of Christ, and, at the request of the holy Virgin, they were baptized by a certain holy presbyter of Italian race, exulting for the faith of Christ l.
[4] Thence the name of Christ begins to be spread abroad within the borders of the Alamanni. the conversion of the Alamanni; precepts given to virgins. The fame of the Virgin therefore began to be published everywhere through all that land, and to be so far spread that, as a Mother of virgins and a superior under the discretion of piety, she was everywhere venerable and powerful among all the people, setting forth this form of piety to all the virgins m: that by how much the greatness of this gift was more excellent and more divine, by so much more necessary and most safe for its keeping [*] was humility; that they should everywhere beware of dangerous pride, which lies in wait more for those on higher ground, and of envy as its daughter and attendant (since indeed pride is not without such offspring or companion, of which two evils, that is of pride and of envy, the devil was the author); that they should follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, not only by the integrity of virginity, but also by the grace of most sincere humility; and that those who had dedicated themselves to Christ, and, withdrawing from carnal concupiscence, had faithfully vowed themselves to God both in flesh and in mind, should consummate their work, destined for a great reward; and that they should not strive to be adorned or to please anyone but their Lord, from whom also they should look for the reward of virginity; that they must not only be virgins, but also be understood and believed to render an equal integrity in all things, lest the adornment of body and mind should defame the good, if they went about adorned and dressed up, as though desiring to please men; since it is not lawful for a virgin to be adorned for the beauty of her form, or to glory in the flesh and in its comeliness; especially since she has no greater struggle than against the flesh, and no more obstinate contest than of conquering and taming the body. For it would be of lesser fault to have sinned before the law of innocence, when discipline was not yet known; and of graver punishment is the fault of a lapse of the flesh n. Finally, the loftier the glory of virgins, the greater ought to be their care for the observance of integrity; since indeed virginity is the flower of the Church's growth, the honour and ornament of spiritual grace, a joyful disposition, a work of praise and honour whole and uncorrupted, the image of God answering to the Lord through holiness, the more illustrious portion of Christ's flock o.
[5] Since therefore every advance of virtues is ever contrary to the devil, [The Saint, consigned to prison, is visited by St. Maurice, and, the tyrant being healed, is set free:] a certain tyrant [p] under the power of the Roman name, monstrously [] sacrilegious, inflamed against the Virgin of God, having afflicted her with various injuries, bound her some days in the public custody; where, commending herself to God with psalms and prayers, she is visited by night by a certain young man, splendid beyond what can be told; and being greatly consoled by him, she heard that she should not yield to anyone's threats, nor leave the way of truth. And when she asked who he was who had deigned to visit her, he answered that he had been sent by God, and that, being numbered among the martyrs in the kingdom of life, he was called Maurice. She, hearing this, prostrates herself to pray; and that he might be mindful of her before the Lord, she entreated with prayers that holy martyr, splendid with light. Suddenly a multitude of young men in purple surrounded the holy martyr with the most white adornment of a cloak; and so he departed, taken from the eyes of the holy Virgin. And on that same night the same tyrant is seized with a most violent fever, and, death being now close at hand, he sends in haste to the Handmaid of God, that she be brought to him with the greatest honour []. Being brought therefore to the judge, and prayer being made, she put to flight that violent fever from the body of that tyrant; and so with great praise she returned to the place of the virgins.
[6] On a certain day, when bread for food was lacking, and those who dwelt with her bore this very thing most grievously, she, not doubting that the goodness of God was at hand for their needs, turning to the Lord, is reported to have spoken thus: in want of food she wondrously obtains sufficient flour by prayer: Lord, who givest food to thy creature in due season, thou seest what is expedient for thy handmaids; with thee it is ordered in what way our life may be sustained. Scarcely had she finished her words, and behold, forty sacks full of the best flour were found at the door of their little cell, and it was uncertain to all which of men had placed them there. All therefore turned to the praises of God, and were sufficiently fed from that flour for some years. In a wondrous manner it grew in their teeth, and satisfied them fully. But as her fame increased and spread far and wide, secretly fleeing the praises of men, lest she should lose the reward of eternal recompense, she came to a certain island [q], not large, and there, in a small hut built by Christians, she remained some time of her life, ever at leisure for prayer; and none the less, signs making her known, she was honoured by the people with worthy honours, our Lord Jesus Christ bestowing it.
[7] [setting out for the island near the confluence of the Rhine and the Aare, she drives the serpents from it:] After many signs and miracles [*] which God wrought through his handmaid Verena in the little cell which is near Solothurn, the Virgin of Christ began to make her way thence to the Confluence [r] of the Rhine, along the bank of the river which is called the Aare [s]. She found there, as has been said, one beautiful island where the aforenamed rivers flow together; and there were in it innumerable serpents, so that she could not lay her head upon the ground. Then the most holy virgin of Christ Verena began to pray to the Lord, saying: Lord, almighty king, all things are set in thy dominion; and there is none who can resist thy will; thou hast commanded the serpents to go upon their breasts; do thou command these serpents that in this island they harm no man nor any beast. And blessed Verena heard a voice from heaven saying: Verena, the Lord has heard thy voice for those serpents, and thy entreaty; and daily he will hear thy prayers, and all [t] the petitions thou shalt ask. Make the sign of the cross against the serpents, and command them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that they go out and depart from this place: and every man, on whatever day he shall call upon thee for his help, shall be delivered from the tribulation in which he is held. And the holy virgin of God Verena stretched out her hand and made the sign of the cross against the serpents; and so they were turned to flight, and all fled thence, nor has even one appeared there afterwards down to this present day. And blessed Verena, seeing the flight of the serpents, said: I praise and glorify thy name, O God; I rejoice and exult, because thou hast deigned to hear the voice of my prayer, and now [u] I know that thou dost not forsake those who seek thee.
[8] she heals a blind and lame boy. And after these things there came to her many sick, blind and lame, and she cured them: and there came to her a certain poor woman carrying her son, blind and lame, and cast him before the feet of the holy Virgin, and said: O most holy virgin of Christ Verena, for the love of thy God I ask that thou help my son, because he is blind and lame. The Virgin of Christ answered: What wilt thou that I do for him? The woman answered and said: Most holy Virgin, make him see and walk, for I cannot carry him. Then the Virgin of Christ spread herself upon the ground in the likeness of a cross, and adored the Lord, saying: Lord God, who madest man of the slime of the earth, and createdst eyes to see [*], ears to hear, and feet to walk, make this blind and lame boy to see and to walk. And straightway he rose up, saw, and walked whole. Thereafter these signs were noised abroad in those regions; and many sick came to her, and by her holy prayers she cured them all.
ANNOTATIONS.
q. This is the very island of which presently more at large.
r. Confluentia, or Confluentes, says Hofmann in his Universal Lexicon, is a little village not far from the town of Klingnau, of the domain of the bishop of Constance, at which three rivers of the Swiss, the Limmat, the Reuss and the Aare, empty into the Rhine; yet in such a way that the Aare has the two former joined to it for some miles.
s. Before, the same river was designated by the name of the Arar; it is commonly called the Aar. t. This promise is not likely, and the whole matter is set out in an improbable manner. u. That "now I know," with many other things, and namely the following miracle of the blind and lame boy, the author unfittingly took from the sacred Writings, who attributes to the Saint not a few things contrary to the humility of the Saints and to other virtues.
* otherwise: reliquias
* otherwise: in itinere
* otherwise: aliquanto
* otherwise: custodiam
* otherwise: immanis,
* otherwise: festinantia
* otherwise: mirabilia
* otherwise: ad videndum, etc.
CHAPTER II.
Her deeds at Zurzach, most of them fictitious or corrupted with inventions: the Saint's death and burial.
[ ] She comes to Zurzach, where she is received by a presbyter; And blessed Verena, coming thence into the castle which by the ancients was called Zurziaca [], and finding a church there built in honour of the glorious Virgin Mary, began there to pray to the Lord God, saying: Invisible Jesus, at whom the abysses and the treasure of the abyss tremble, who didst found unfailing paradise, and didst set a bound to the sea, and thy precept shall not pass away, and didst lay waste hell, didst bind the devil, who didst extinguish the power of the malignant dragon: thou knowest that here I am alone, an orphan and a stranger; grant me, for thy great mercy, to await here the day of my end [] in this world. And when she had finished her prayer, a presbyter entered the church to celebrate Mass; and Verena took a flask of wine in her sacred hands, and brought it to the altar to the hands of the priest a. And when he had finished the Mass, he said to her: Whence art thou? Verena answered him, saying: I am of the race of the Thebans, and was in the company of holy Maurice, martyr of Christ, and I am a Christian, and I wish to remain here to the end of my life in the service of God and of his holy Mother Mary. The presbyter answered and said to her: If thou wilt be here with us, remain in my house and use my goods; and he committed to her the key of his cellar, and all that he had.
[10] she serves lepers, is accused, And blessed Verena was serving our Lord Jesus Christ day and night in vigils, fastings and holy prayers, and gave out in alms to the poor all that she could. And there was there, by the bank of the Rhine, a town [b] in which were many lepers and other poor of Christ. The most holy virgin of Christ Verena went to them daily, and gave them to eat and to drink, and washed their heads and anointed them. Then came one servant of the presbyter, saying to him: Master, this woman who is here with thee, and has thy keys, takes daily thy wine and all thy goods, and carries them to the lepers and to those who are in that town. And he, answering, said: How can these things be, since I have never found out such things about her as I have now heard from thee? And he answered: If thou wilt make trial, follow me; and I will lead thee to the way by which she is wont daily to walk, and where thou mayest see all that I have told thee. And as they went together, they came to the way, where the virgin Verena met them, carrying bread and wine in her little vessel; and the presbyter said to her: Whither wilt thou walk, and what is it that thou carriest in thy little vessel? The Virgin of God Verena answered: I wish to walk to those poor men, and in this vessel is water [c]; and I wish to wash their feet and heads. The presbyter says to her: I will test whether it be wine or water. And when he had taken the little vessel into his hands, he saw in it live coals lying, and straightway in that hour the redness of the wine was turned into the paleness of water.
[11] Then the presbyter gave back to her the little vessel, and falling at her feet, she desires to live in a separate cell, prayed and said: O most holy virgin of Christ Verena, remember not my sins which I have committed before thee: for this man who is with me led me hither before thee. The holy Virgin answered: He for whose love I began to walk hither, may he deign to forgive thee thy sins; and to him [*] who led thee hither, may he not remit them d, and may he not die before he endure some marks in his body; and upon all his generation, before they go out of this world, let there be some marks in them. And when that presbyter had come into his own house and into his cellar, he saw all the vessels full of wine; and that servant, when he had returned to his own house, was blind and paralysed, and all his generation to this day, before they end the day of this life, endure some injury of their body: one blind, another deaf, another lame, another paralysed, another crippled, another epileptic; one dies in water, another is burnt in fire. Blessed Verena therefore, the virgin of God, went on to the lepers, and gave them to eat and to drink, and washed them over their whole body. And when the Virgin of God had returned to the chapel of holy Mary the Virgin, she asked the presbyter to build her a little cell, that in it she might dwell alone to the end of her life.
[12] But let us be silent meanwhile about these things, until, with the help of God and of his Saints, again she is falsely accused, we come to what still must be said about her glorious miracles: for we think that this should not be handed over to the disease of forgetfulness, but is worthy to be commended to holy memory, that the holy presbyter, the provider and master of blessed Verena the virgin, at the beginning of the season of Lent before the Resurrection of the Lord, laying aside his golden ring, committed it to the fidelity of the Virgin to be kept. She, kindly receiving it, put it in her casket. But a fellow-servant, the nephew [*] of that traitor, seeing this — for he always envied her happy works — stole the ring, and, withdrawing, hid it. But when the first inquiry was made about the ring, he went secretly to the Rhine and cast it into the mid-deep. But she daily wept bitterly, and drew long sighs in her breast, and did not cease continually to beseech God for the ring. But fishermen had gone up into a boat, and drawing their nets, they took a quantity of fish, among which they drew a great one to the shore. That fish too, with the rest, they offered to the holy presbyter. Who, filled with no small joy, and receiving with cheerful countenance the gift offered, ordered the fish to be divided into parts. The entrails being drawn out, they found the ring in its inwards. Seeing which, the presbyter with swift running came with the ring to the Virgin's little cell. And she was very glad for the ring, but gladder for God's miracle, and did not cease to render praises to Christ. O wondrous manner! Who ever saw such things, or who heard the like? O faithful fish, which chose rather to die than that the treasure should not be given back to the Virgin! O irrational animal far more faithful than the rational animal, namely man!
[13] Now it pleases us to return, and to turn our pen to setting forth the earlier things, lest her glorious deeds should vanish unheard in silence. For the holy Virgin, ever pressing on in her petitions, she lives in a separate cell: asked that the blessed presbyter should build a small cell, and shut her up alone for the service of God. Then at last, though unwillingly, he consented, and built the cell; and, all the clerics [e] of that region being called together, and God-fearing men and women, he led her into the little dwelling she had long desired with all magnificence of honour; where, living strictly, she left the world. And when Verena, the virgin of Christ, was enclosed, she began to pray to the Lord God, saying: God, who hast decreed the judgment of wisdom, at whom all the ages tremble, and those who dwell in them, whom all the powers dread, hope of the despairing, consoler of orphans, and true judge, light of light, look upon me: forsake me not, O Lord my God, for in thee is my hope, and thou art blessed unto the ages of ages. And she was there six years in the service of God. And there came to her a certain blind man, who with tears begged her, saying: Lay thy hand upon my eyes, that I may see thy face. Then blessed Verena, letting tears fall from her eyes, said: May the Lord Jesus Christ, who opened the eyes of the man born blind, himself enlighten thee. And when the sign of the cross had been made over his eyes, in that same hour he received sight. And there came to her many blind and lame and those held by various diseases, and she cured them all.
[14] the Saint's pious death and burial. And when the time of her reward and the end of her labour was now at hand, her body being weakened, she lay down upon her bed. And when the holy virgin Verena had begun to be sick, commending all her hope to the Lord, in sacred vigils and prayers, so far as she could overcome her infirmity, she ever joined herself to God with a most unconquered spirit. And when the day of her release was at hand, the Virgin Mary, Mother of God f, going before incomparable choirs with the sacred virgins, was present in the little cell in which the virgin Verena had lain down. Verena, most devout, desiring with all longing to go to meet her and to abide together among them, said: What merit is mine, that thou, the Mother of my Lord and my God, shouldst deign to come to me thy handmaid? To whom Mary, the Mother of God, said: That thy integrity, which has hitherto faithfully served the Lord, may be rewarded, follow us, with whom thou shalt rejoice for ever. And so her holy soul is loosed from the body, and the cell is filled with an immense fragrance. Then most dutifully she was buried by the sacred virgins in that same place which is called Zurziaca, showing herself everywhere by many miracles to live illustrious in the sight of God. And in that same place a church was built to her sanctity, in which her prayers flourish, and various miracles and many benefits are bestowed on those who touch her tomb, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God through all the ages of ages [g].
ANNOTATIONS.
THE MIRACLES
By the same author, as it appears, From the Ms. of Elmenhorst.
Verena, V., at Zurzach in the diocese of Constance in Switzerland. (S.)
BHL Number: 8542
CHAPTER I.
The liberty of the church of St. Verena vindicated, sight restored to a blind man by the Saint's invocation, and children obtained by various persons. At the time when Burchard a, a most illustrious man, obtained the dukedom of all Alamannia, many, disliking his austerity, held him hateful, [When Burchard, duke of Swabia, had subjected the church of St. Verena to a secular man,] and contradicted his will in all things. [ ] To subdue whom, he associated to himself a copious multitude of soldiers, to whom he gave in benefice not only his own but also ecclesiastical possessions, handling this matter inconsiderately.
Among which also the place called Zurziaca, amply enriched with the treasure of the body of the most holy virgin Verena, he handed over to be possessed by a certain retainer of his, Dietpold by name. But because the highest liberty is believed to be that one serve God especially [b], not after many days it became clear from heaven that it was not of sound counsel that a place fit for divine services should be enslaved to human and servile subjections.
For, as was learned by a most approved report from the faithful who were present at that time, it plainly became known by a certain most beautiful vision divinely shown that the power of the Lord was not wanting for the proving of the merits of blessed Verena the virgin.
[2] he is taught by a wondrous vision that this is not pleasing to God, When therefore the aforenamed duke on a certain day wished to pursue and take a certain adversary of his, it happened that with a great retinue he was fording the channel of the Rhine, where it flows past the town of Zurziaca itself; and all, the river being crossed, gathered into one body and beginning to go together, saw above their heads through the thickness of the air two most splendid men, carrying two crosses and two white candles in their hands, and thereafter four with a sarcophagus set upon their shoulders, following as it were in the conducting of the relics of Saints, which a copious army accompanied with a great brightness of light and with the sweetest pleasantness of hymns, and as it were going with the step of feet. Which also, as they themselves afterwards related, seemed to them to rise from the street which to this day is called Wihegaz, that is, the way of holiness, in which that virgin of Christ Verena, as long as she lived in the body, very often ministered to the poor; and going thence on high, with a sudden descent they let themselves in together through the eastern window of the church dedicated in honour of the blessed Virgin, and appeared no more anywhere.
[3] and thereafter he leaves it free; Seeing which, the duke and all who were with him, exceedingly astonished, entered the oratory with unshod feet, to ask pardon with most humble devotion. Then rising from prayer, and coming nearer to the altar, they diligently contemplated on every side the window through which before the entrance of so great a multitude had seemed to be. Which was so found solid and entire that in those glass edges no traces of any fracture appeared. Then the duke himself, together with his retainers, led by penitence, bound himself by a vow with the consent of all, that as long as he lived he would never consent that that same place should be possessed by secular persons; and so to this day those who serve God there have by the merits of holy Verena in no way borne the trouble of a secular person lording it over them.
[4] the punishment of Dietpold who vexed that church: Moreover there has come to the recollection of our mind how the aforesaid lord Dietpold [c], while he still held that place, Zurziaca, in benefice from the aforesaid duke, began to build a fortification beside the river Arar [d], and to construct in it a tower of wondrous height, and oppressed the whole household of the venerable Virgin with countless works, with hunger and thirst, and with many scourgings, to such a degree that it often escaped his hands by swimming the river Arar, and, so to speak, came with naked body to the thresholds of that Virgin, and asked her help, that she would free it and grant it to serve her. Which also so came to pass. On a certain day, while his offspring with their people were staying within, the tower began to tremble and to fall, and he miserably ended the present life. Then at last the aforesaid household was freed, and most ready to serve the holy Virgin. Whence it came about that the citizens of that place called her Werina [e], because all things which are faithfully asked of her are without doubt obtained. So it happens that, unless the grace of the Holy Spirit be present, peril of ruinous [*] destruction hangs over those who oppose God and his Saints.
[5] Certain men, deceived by the fraud of malice, breaking by night into a certain man's house, a man blinded for a theft receives sight, the Saint being invoked: stole a horse. But its owner, pursuing the fugitives with swift running, straightway caught them, and to two of them — for they were three — put out the eyes. But the third was of the household f of the most blessed Verena the virgin; who, being taken, calling upon her holy name, asked pardon and peace, saying that in all his life he had never committed anything of the sort, and that afterwards, helped [] by the grace of the Lord, he would not wish to commit it, if by her will he were let go in peace. But he against whom this outrage of robbery had been done, by no means sparing him for these vows, threw him on the ground, took away the light of his eyes, and departed. Then, thinking within himself that he had acted somewhat too slackly, and that the man whom he had left blinded still had even a little light, he returned again and again, and dug out the orbs through the eyelids so utterly empty that from his blindness there was no need for anyone to doubt further. After this, being wholly blinded in body, he at last rose up, and, as he could, groping [], began to walk, having nevertheless a firm hope and full faith of his enlightenment in God and in the patronage of holy Verena. A praiseworthy thing, and wondrous through divine mercy, that a man blinded by malice is straightway divinely enlightened, and after his blinding obtained a greater clearness of seeing. He remains even now alive, and serving in the ministry of the holy church of Zurzach, a witness of the heavenly benefits which the Lord through the most blessed Verena mercifully wrought upon him.
[6] Conrad [g], the renowned king of the Burgundians, since he had no children by his lawful wife, Conrad, king of Burgundy, by her intercession obtains a son; thinking with troubled mind whom he should leave heir of his kingdom, said to his wife: There is a place in Alamannia consecrated to God and to the holy Virgin. Let us go and entreat her clemency, that we may be able to have children. They came, adored most devoutly, offered gifts, made vows; which after they had fulfilled, and had duly performed liberal almsdeeds, they returned home; and on that same night the queen went in to the king, conceived and bore a son. Who, when this was heard [h], while his father lived, took up the helm of the kingdom, and still rules with well-ordered government.
[7] Hermann [i], duke of the Alamanni, took to wife Reginlinda [k], a most noble matron. And when they had no sons, in like manner they came to adore the holy virgin Verena, and passed the night in that same place. And the aforesaid matron saw in a dream as it were something descending into her lap and hiding in it, and she told her husband. But he knew, for he was a wise man, that they would beget a daughter. And she conceived and bore a daughter. And that daughter of theirs [l] grew up with countless honours in the world, but with greater ones with God, as we believe, she was strong in heaven.
[8] To these let a third also be added, which is worthy to be handed down to memory. another matron, invoking St. Odilia for a son, A certain noble matron dwelt in the region of Alsace, who, long joined to her husband, was nevertheless barren of womb. She began continually to invoke the name of holy Odilia [m], that by her goodness she might deserve to have offspring. Her belly swelling with a conception, she brought forth a daughter in childbirth. Making little of this female child, and desiring to have the male sex, she does not cease to implore the Virgin's help. Conceiving again, she bore a second, and held her much in hatred. Nor yet did she any less implore the grace of holy Odilia. And conceiving a third time, she bore a third. Which when she learned, she fell into a bed of sorrow, and could be consoled by no one; and because she was not heard, she lay in bed half alive.
[9] is admonished by her to ask St. Verena, by whose help she obtains twins. But holy Odilia coming, and pitying her infirmity, consoled her with gentle words, saying: Why dost thou act thus? Why dost thou think unreasonably? What thou hast asked of me, I have done, as far as I could. But if thou wilt have sons, ask the holy and venerable virgin Verena: for she, not I, has the grace of giving sons and daughters [n], and saying this she vanished from her eyes. And the aforesaid matron, gathering her strength, and calling together the presbyters of that place, inquired of them where the body of the holy virgin Verena rested.
And when they had informed her, she was a servant of holy Verena all the days of her life. Then continually and without intermission she began to implore the holy name of the virgin Verena for the male sex. And afterwards conceiving, she brought forth by her mercy twin sons in the long-desired birth. The names of many [o] I should know how to name; but there is no need to set down each, because there are still many who will ask the same grace. O virgin Verena most worthy of all praise, pray for the salvation of us all, that we perish not in this pilgrimage.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
Benefits obtained by the Saint's help: those working on her festivity, blasphemers, thieves, and a ravisher punished, and some of them afterwards repenting and healed by the Saint's invocation. [ ] Stones for restoring the church easily lifted out of the river: At a certain time therefore a great part of the temple of the venerable Virgin, through the frailty of the watery ground, fell from top to foundation, and denied entrance to the people. Then it was ordered by the abbot a that they should procure such stones for a foundation that they should have no further need of restoring the work. At once the citizens gathered where they knew there was a heap of sunken stones, at the place called Confluentia, where the river Arar runs down joined to the Rhine; and they took the good counsel that, although they could not pull them out, they should nevertheless strive to begin: singing Kyrie eleison after the manner of faithful soldiers hastening to battle, they entered the Rhine with a leap. For God, who is the author of all good, through the merits of the holy Virgin gave them a firm will, took away the cold (for it was in winter time), granted boldness, and brought such vigour that stones which twenty men could not carry on land were brought to land by five or six in the water [b]. Looking at them, they saw the figures of letters and images of men carved upon them; and so they knew that they had long ago been sunk in a shipwreck. For the hand of a writer is useless in the substance of waters. Then with great prosperity they were laid on the foundation, and well built upon. Let us praise the venerable virgin Verena, who may make Christ to be appeased toward us.
[11] an inundation of waters checked after the Saint was invoked: In the summer season therefore of the former year, during the quiet of a certain night, we know not which, there befell a great miracle, which is well known to us, because we saw it with our eyes: therefore we are witnesses of the truth. For the Rhine, going out from an abundance of waters and swelling beyond measure and monstrously, covered almost the whole fruit of the corn, took away the hope of living, and made the citizens despair. Perceiving this, before daylight they came to the monastery [c], tearfully begging the Virgin's pardon, that she would not forsake them, and would free them from the importunate waters. And rising from prayer, taking up crosses and carrying the holy relics [d], they came as far as the field; but yet for fear of the waters they dared not enter the level of the corn. Then suddenly, in the point of a single moment, with a happy return the Rhine entered its own channel, no damage accompanying it; and the corn which was bent down in the morning straightway raised itself at noon. Then all were made joyful, singing and praising holy Verena, and saying: Let us praise the venerable Virgin, who by the flower of chastity deserved praise on high.
[12] Nor do we think this should be passed over, that a certain too incautious woman would not keep the day of the dedication of the church of that same glorious Virgin; [a woman working on the feast suddenly struck with an illness, and healed at the altar:]
but seizing spindle and distaff wrapped with its weight of wool, she pressed on with the works of her hands. And when she had been admonished by her neighbour women not to do this, but to go with them to the church, she would not consent to them, but rather to fulfil the work she had begun. As they went away [e], prayer being made, and the blessing received, they returned rejoicing to their own homes. But as they entered the dwelling of the aforesaid woman, they found her lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth, gnashing her teeth, the distaff clinging fast to her left hand and the spindle to her right, and lacking the use of all her limbs. Without delay, putting her upon a cart [f], and carrying the lifeless body before the holy altar, the clerics with all who were present made supplications for a long time, and by the merits of the holy Virgin the grace of the Saviour came to the aid of the incautious woman. Those things which were held in her hands, leaping over divinely, came upon the altar, and the woman's feeble limbs rose up whole. Then all the clergy, singing praises to God, returned rejoicing to their own homes. We see the stars in the height of heaven, we know the sand on the shore of the sea, but we cannot number them. So neither can we describe the miracles which are always wrought through the glorious merits of the Virgin, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God unto the ages of ages. Amen.
[13] Thus far you have heard the caresses of her goodness; now hear the sentence of this Virgin's power. blasphemy against the Saint gravely punished, In the region of the Franks [g] therefore there was a certain count, in all things very rich. He had lived all the time of his life without children with his wife. And when he had often been admonished by us to go to the place of Zurzach for the sake of prayer, to implore the Virgin's pardon, and to give her some little portion of his inheritance, however small, that he might be able to have sons; not consenting to our admonition, but breaking into ridicule, Such folk [h], he said, are frail in strength, and always useless in warlike affairs. But afterwards his very wife, because she would not believe that her hope should be placed in the holy Virgin, was struck by a stroke of lightning, and miserably ended the present life; and he himself remained without children.
[14] When the feast day of the venerable virgin Verena was at hand, thieves hindered and punished on the Saint's feast, and afterwards healed; the day of our yearly expectation, many peoples being gathered from the regions round about, thieves also, as though to adore the sanctity of this Virgin, entered the place of Zurzach by the same way with them. But in the twilight of a certain night they stole horses, and, withdrawing, wandered over mountains and woods, over fields and marshes, and passed the whole rest [*] of the night amid many discomforts, scarcely awaiting the twilight of day. But one of them came riding into the courtyard of the church with torn garments and disfigured face, falling to the ground without sense or understanding, as though dead. The horse is given back to its Master; but the thief is carried by the hands of the people to the holy altar; and prayer being made by all, he rose up whole, promising that he would never again do such a thing, and that he would serve as a bondsman [i] under the census of the holy Virgin. Which he did as faithfully as he promised. But the other came without sense, not knowing, with his horse to the scenonia [k] of his own lord [l]. Likewise by the merits of holy Verena he was freed, and departed unhurt; and both ended their life without crime.
[15] A certain countryman, when on the day of the dedication of that same church he entered the wood to gather firewood by cutting, the haft which he held in his hand clung fast. [another working on the feast is struck and healed; a mill vindicated to the Saint's congregation:] Being led to the altar, he prayed prostrate before the people. He departed whole. A certain man, for the redemption of his soul, gave a part of his inheritance to the Brothers serving God and holy Verena, and added a mill very necessary to the congregation [m]. Which a certain more powerful person resisting, what the former had rightly bestowed the latter wickedly wished to take away, changing the just course of the little stream, and leading it unjustly into another place belonging to his own bondsman [*]. But at a certain time that stream, swollen with unheard-of abundance, bursting forth and breaking the whole structure of the dam, without drops of rain and with no help of man, but by the sole power of the majesty of God, came to the place of its former course. And that man came greatly terrified, to beg the Virgin's pardon, and what he had incautiously taken away he diligently restored and made amends for.
[16] [a man struck by a sudden illness for candles snatched from the Saint's church, and afterwards healed.] A certain man of note [n], travelling with a company of a great multitude through the town of Zurzach, lodged for the time of one night in the buildings of the holy Virgin. But one of them, who presided over the rest in the service, showed himself hostile to us and a malignant steward of our goods in distributing them; which afterwards the event of things proved. For he sought from the sacristan of the church the wax appointed for the service [o] with great harshness; and he gave as he had. But the other wished more and more to receive; and he, because he had it not, by no means gave it. Then that man, filled with fury, drew to himself the candles about the holy altar, and straightway withdrew. But when morning came, they began to go; but suddenly that man in his anxiety fell from his horse on level ground, as though on the pavement of a basilica, and lay with broken legs as though dead; and being carried back to his lodging by the hands of his own men, he remained long held in this infirmity; nor did he fare better before he strove to redeem himself. Let us praise holy Verena, who gives mercy to the penitent, grants grace to those who come to her, strikes terror into offenders, and distributes pardon to those who ask, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit lives and reigns. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
* servi
CHAPTER III.
The remaining miracles and benefits of the middle age. [ ] A certain nobleman restored from a grave infirmity; There was a certain Brother in the congregation a, noble indeed by birth, but nobler in worth. He always had the ways of justice in his heart, and, so far as he could, bestowed service on the Brothers. He loved all and was loved by all. But at that time of his youth there grew an infirmity of great heaviness, and by no physicians' [b] industry could the trouble be overcome. He had begun continually to implore the help of that same holy Virgin, and often to visit her resting-place [c], that he might deserve to be freed by her. And when on a certain day he came, and lay prostrate praying humbly, as men say, he fell asleep, and rose up whole, and with great joy returned to his own home, and remained unhurt to the end of his life. These things therefore, Brothers, we have written down, and have set forth a few of many, as it were certain flowers from the meadows, that on the day of the solemnity of holy Verena the virgin your charity may have something sufficient, beyond the nocturns, to read at night, and by day at the table of the Brothers' refection to understand, and that in every place the praise of God may ever resound in our ears, who in Trinity lives and reigns, one God, unto the ages of ages. Amen [d].
[18] [candles in the Saint's church put out by the wind, and again repeatedly kindled of themselves;] Therefore on the day of the Purification of holy Mary all the citizens were gathered with an offering to the church, awaiting the solemnities of the Masses and the procession of the holy cross. And when the time of divine praise came, and the office of the candles being duly performed, and all being lighted, we came to the door of the church, each carrying his own candle in his hands; but yet none entered burning, because of the strength of the wind. And when we had gone about a hundred paces from the church, suddenly with a great violence of tempest a strong wind rushed in from the north; it broke many buildings in the hamlets, and cast to the ground great trees torn up by the roots in the woods. And when we saw the burning flame in the candle, we put out our hand to shield it, and presently we saw it extinguished. At once we drew back our hand to our body, and swiftly found it burning; and all the people likewise beheld this deed, which was hidden from us who were behind our own backs. Again and again we set our hand to the burning candle: by a divine nod it is extinguished, and again it is divinely kindled. As often as we offered our hand for the flame's protection, so often, God inspiring it [*], it is extinguished, and again is set alight. But on the fourth time we came to ourselves, recognizing that this was truly done in the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. For a threefold and a one make four. The threefold pertains to the majesty of the holy Trinity; the one to the Godhead of the holy Unity [e]. And without the defence of our hands, and with the flame unmoved, we came to the temple of the Lord; with the highest gladness we returned to our own homes.
[19] one working on the Saint's feast, struck with a long illness: A certain villager [f] would not observe the solemn day of holy Verena with the due feast, but went off to his own little meadow, wishing to turn the dry hay from place to place. The good presbyters said to him: Today is the festivity of the holy Virgin. It is not lawful for thee to do any servile work today. But he counted it as nothing, and did not at all leave off his work. The presbyters cursed him, saying:
O holy Verena, render him his wages [g]. But that wretched man fell six times, falling to the ground as one moonstruck. He began to be in anguish, and had a long illness for a long time, until the Virgin's grace healed him.
[20] punished with his wife, one who refused to pay the tribute owed to the Saint: A certain tributary [h] joined to himself in marriage a tributary woman like himself. And being enriched by very many parts of her substance, not after much time he became a man of note. And when he had sons and daughters, being ashamed to pay tribute to the holy Virgin, which from his inheritance he owed to render, he withdrew himself and his offspring with the Virgin's curse; which afterwards the event of things showed in the doing. For he and his wedded wife both died an inspired death [i].
But his offspring, which now survives, suffers paralysis, lacking the use of all its limbs, having only the sight of its eyes.
So let it be [k] to those who detract from the holy powers of blessed Verena.
[21] a woman wondrously preserved in the water: At a certain time therefore the household [l] of holy Verena the virgin was ordered to cross from that bank on which the monastery is built to the other, to reap.
Some went on and passed the church by; but others humbly adored. And a poor little woman, prostrate, most intently commended herself to God and to the blessed Virgin; and so they came to the little boat for the crossing. But because the boat was small, it could not carry more. The few who had passed the church by perished by shipwreck. But those who had adored bowed down escaped by the grace of the Virgin. And that poor little woman was sunk to the bottom of the Rhine, and, walking, was wondrously brought across. And the citizens, seeing this, ran to meet her astonished, saying in wonder: Whence comest thou, or whither goest thou, or how farest thou? She said: A precious woman, placing in the depth her hand upon my mouth, and the other upon the lock of my hair, brought me forth into your midst. Then all, joyful, as best they could, sang aloud praises to God and to the holy virgin Verena.
[22] A stone vessel therefore had been found by shepherds of flocks in an ancient town beside the Rhine [m], [sight restored to a blind woman by the finding of the little vessel which the Saint had used, and thence a chapel built:] of which we shall speak a little later, when in writing we come to the places suited to it. For a certain faithful woman, a widow, weeping for her husband, lost the sight of her eyes; and continually with tears she implored the Virgin's pardon. Coming therefore by night, the holy Virgin roused her, saying [n]: There is a stone vessel, into which pouring hot water mixed with ashes, I washed the heads of the lepers and the garments of other sick people. If from it thou shalt wash, without doubt thou shalt have sight. She rose in haste, asked to be guided by a neighbour woman, found the vessel, washed her eyes, and saw. And after [o] these things a beautiful church was built in the same place to her Loving-kindness and to the holy Theban martyrs, in which the miracles of Christ have been seen and heard. For when through some negligence the nightly light was wanting, the whole place of the aforesaid town overflowed with a great splendour of light, as was seen by a certain blessed presbyter dwelling in the neighbouring town by the Rhine, and it remained [*] through the space of the whole night. And in like manner, when the church was deprived of the office of the clerics, there was heard the voice of angels singing psalms, and as sweet in the ears of those who heard as honey is in the teeth of those who eat. But the guardians, wishing to draw near, could not lift a foot forward.
[23] Hermann the Second [p] therefore, duke of the Alamanni, a son obtained. being a pre-eminent man and illustrious in all virtues, took to wife the daughter of the aforesaid king Conrad. And when he begot of her daughters enough, but had no sons, they both came and asked the Virgin's grace for a son, which straightway afterwards they obtained. And when he was born, they offered no small gifts with the boy; and, departing with the Virgin's blessing and grace, they came home rejoicing. Of whom we shall write very many things in another place, if God permits, who created all things out of nothing: to whom be honour and glory through all the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
APPENDIX
From the German Life, translated by Winand Pescher.
Verena, V., at Zurzach in the diocese of Constance in Switzerland. (S.)
By an Anonymous author.
[ ] A son obtained by the Saint's help, The most serene queen Agnes a, born of royal blood in Hungary, wife of the most powerful Roman emperor Rudolph, vowed at a certain time that she would visit the famous tomb of the holy Virgin, that God might deign to give her an heir; which done, she was heard, and obtained a Son, whom she called John [b]. Who afterwards in the year 1294 took the foundation of St. Verena into his guardianship and patronage. Which letters, besides other likely testimonies both about the donation and confirmation of this church, and also about the miracles narrated and others, are still preserved, and can be exhibited.
[25] In the year 1606 it happened that, when certain pious spouses had a little daughter long blind, sight restored to a blind girl, they vowed her to St. Verena at Zurzach. And behold, when they had fulfilled their vow there, the Lord God showed his grace, and enlightened again the blind little daughter, as we ourselves, being present, learned from both parents.
[26] A person not unknown in the place commonly called Thiengen, a scab taken away, subject to the county of Sulz [c], had a little daughter so disfigured over her whole face with a harmful and deadly scab that none of the physicians could heal her. Wherefore this sincere and pious person vowed to offer this little daughter to St. Verena. When she had now brought the girl to the tomb in the year 1613, all the scab quickly departed, and the girl was plainly healed. Wherefore she highly praised God in his beloved Saints, and gave thanks.
[27] In the year 1616 it happened that two men from the dominion of Zurich [d] came to Zurzach on the 14th of June, there to satisfy their vow which they had undertaken by the counsel of pious men, for these causes: that their wives were very sick, one of deafness, the other of glaucoma, or pain of the eyes. But as soon as they had paid their prayers, their petitions were satisfied through the intercession of St. Verena. As each of them, returning with thanksgiving, made known the issue of his vow.
[28] Margaret [e], a woman of Pfullendorf, in the year 1599 was afflicted with a great and terrible swelling in her foot, and for a long time suffered huge pains; and although she implored help and counsel wherever she could, and applied many remedies also, yet nothing availed, but the swelling and the pains grew the more the longer they lasted. Meanwhile there occur to her the manifold graces and favours which St. Verena, virgin and martyr, has obtained and won with almighty and merciful God by her faithful intercession for many men in all their difficulties and necessities. Wherefore she vowed that she would present some gift or offering and a pious pilgrimage to her holy church and tomb: presently she girds herself for the journey, and that in the winter season in January, in great cold and in deep and much snow; and when now, wholly languid and weary, and even somewhat feeble and infirm, she came to Zurzach, straightway and without delay she visited the church and the tomb of St. Verena, virgin and martyr, offers her gifts and prayers; to which end (because she, as has been said, was somewhat weary, feeble and infirm) she sat down, and even fell asleep while praying.
[29] she is healed of the swelling and pain of her foot. After about half an hour she wakes again, and finds that not only the pains of her foot and the infirmity of her heart, together with the weariness of her limbs, but even the swellings of her foot had gone.
Wherefore she rises, and most fervently gives thanks first to almighty and merciful God, then also to St. Verena the virgin for her faithful intercession. Then she betakes herself to the very reverend and most learned man and lord, the dean of that church, and to him, in the presence of the reverend lord Gallus, cellarer of the sacred church of St. Blaise, dean at Klingnau [f], as also of the most honourable man and lord Pelagius Artzlin, town secretary and prefect of the said church of St. Blaise at Kaiserstuhl, she narrates this express and notable miracle which by the grace and goodness of God, and by the intercession of St. Verena, virgin and martyr, was fatherly imparted to her.
ANNOTATIONS.
Vitus Arenpeck, in his Austrian Chronicle, has this about John and his parents in volume 1 of the Writers of Austrian Affairs, col. [ ]: To Rudolph, son of king Rudolph, was married Agnes, sister of Wenceslaus the sixth king of Bohemia, daughter of Ottokar, … and of her was born John, who slew king Albert with his own hand near the river Rhine, not far from the town of Schaffhausen, while they were journeying together in friendship; then, led by penitence, he went to Avignon to Clement V, the supreme Pontiff, that he might grant him purgation. The Pontiff said that the killing of a Cæsar must be judged by the emperor. He came therefore to Pisa, where at that time Note: perhaps then Cæsar Henry VII, emperor of that name, was residing; by whom, being ordered to enter the religion of the Hermits of St. Augustine, and in it to do penance perpetually, he did not refuse: he died in that same city and was buried in the church of his Order. The same author repeats it at col. [ ], and fixes the slaying of the emperor Albert in the year 1308, and says it happened near the city of Baden, … in which place a monastery was built and called Königsfelden.
From these things finally the reader will gather that doubtless more miracles and benefits happened, since they seem to have been continued from the tenth century, in which the earlier ones were done, down to the seventeenth century, in which the German writer of the Life added some, but only those, one excepted, which he knew to have been done in his own time.