Brocard

ON BL. BROCARD, SECOND PRIOR GENERAL OF THE ORDER OF ST. MARY OF MOUNT CARMEL, IN PALESTINE

About the year 1221.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On the cult and the deeds of the Blessed.

Brocard, second Prior General of the Order of St. Mary of Mount Carmel, in Palestine. (B.)

BY J. V.

Although Castellanus in his Universal

Martyrology on this day numbers Brocard among the Venerable only: The public cult of the Blessed, On Mount Carmel in Galilee, the venerable Brocard, Prior, etc.; there is nevertheless no doubt that he is honored with a public cult. One may see Lezana, volume 4 of the Annals, at the year 1221 from num. 3, and the new Speculum Carmelitanum, part 4, page 660, num. 2267. Besides, Simon de Peyronet inscribes his name in his Catalogue of Saints, page 40: Brocard, priest, Prior General of the Carmelites, 2 September, in Molanus, in the Auctarium to Usuard of the second edition, 1573, where Molanus reports him as Blessed in these words: On the same day, of blessed Brocard, priest and Prior General of Carmel, a man of great sanctity. Ferrarius likewise on this day, not on 29 March, as Lezana wrongly wrote at num. 4, has the following in his General Catalogue of Saints: On Mount Carmel, of Bl. Brocard, second Prior General of the Carmelites. And he adds in the Notes, page 349: The Carmelites lately obtained leave to venerate him in their own churches, as the proper Offices of the Carmelite Order teach, approved by the sacred Congregation of Rites and printed at the Plantin press at Antwerp in 1617. In the repeated edition of the same, made likewise in the same place in 1631, there is added to the double rite a proper Collect: Sanctify, O Lord, thy servants who humbly make supplication in veneration of blessed Brocard, dweller on Mount Carmel, thy confessor; that by his saving patronage our life may everywhere be governed amid adversities. Through our Lord. Finally, at the end of the Carmelite Breviary of the year 1672, among the Offices newly granted by our most holy Lord Clement X, there are found concerning him, page CCLXIII, three proper Lessons of the second Nocturn.

[2] The beginning of the first Lesson is: Brocard, born at Jerusalem; his native place, the time of his prelacy, his virtues. whence we learn the native place of the Blessed: we do not, however, on that account believe that he was a Jew by nation, as Peter Saracenus writes in the Carmelite Menology, page 239; since Didacus de Coria, John Palæonydorus, Lezana and others keep deep silence about his Jewish stock, calling him only a man of Jerusalem. Far less true is what Palæonydorus has in the Venetian edition of the year 1570, book 3, chapter 2, page 52, that the election of the Blessed as Prior General happened in the time of Eugenius III, in the year of the Lord 1166: since the said Pontiff died in the year 1153. Wherefore the new Speculum Carmelitanum, published at Antwerp in 1680, cautiously omitted the cited words, vol. 1, part 2, page 251, num. 1034. Lezana at the year 1166, after he has proved that those err who contend that Bl. Berthold fell asleep in the Lord in that year, adds at num. 3: Since, however, as we have said, the death of Bl. Berthold did not take place until the year 1187, therefore consequently we also do not think that Bl. Brocard was elected General until the year 1188 or 1189. Adhering to this opinion, the beginning of Bl. Brocard's prelacy may be set at about the year 1188, against Zeger Pauli, who places it in the year 1175. Our Blessed, elected by the unanimous consent of all, held the prelacy not fifty-two years, as Philip of the Holy Trinity will have it in his History of the Carmelite Order, page 341, but 33, shining forth with outstanding virtues, which Lezana, at the said year 1188, num. 7, records from the cited Palæonydorus: This is Brocard, who throughout the whole age of his priorate strove to be loved as an easy man, to be feared as a strong one, and to be regarded as a prudent one. And it was granted him by God that even while living he was distinguished by miracles: for, after the manner of Elijah raising the dead, he drew a young man to the reception of the Order as another Jonah. But what he brings forward at the year 1221, num. 5, from Werner Rolewink in the Fasciculus temporum about the year 1204, in Rolewink, vol. 2 of the German Writers published at Frankfurt in 1581, I do not find in the place cited by Lezana; but altogether other words.

[3] He asks a Rule from Albert the patriarch; The Blessed General, says the first Lesson, in order to increase regular observance, asked of Bl. Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, a Rule embracing in a brief compendium the whole institute of the Order. Many believed that this was given in the year 1171, as Lezana attests at num. 2; where he also wonders that so vain an invention grew common among good and learned men, and thereafter laboriously refutes it: others, among whom is William of Sanvico, assign the year 1199; but these too Lezana refutes in the same place, num. 5 and following. The same argument tells against them all, namely that Bl. Albert did not land in Palestine before the year 1206. The aforesaid Lezana, treating at the year 1205 expressly of the primitive Rule given to the Carmelites by Bl. Albert the patriarch, confesses at num. 8 that nothing certain can be affirmed about the date; take his words: As to the time of the Rule's being given, since neither in that which is in the Speculum of the Order, book 8, chapter 3, nor in the Vatican Bull under Innocent IV, which we have seen, is any such date subjoined; nothing certain can be affirmed. For what many have said, that it was written in the year 1171, we have rejected under that year as a vain and fabricated assertion. Likewise what others (with sounder foundation, to be sure) have assigned to the year 1199, we have also there disallowed. This alone, then, is ascertained, that the date of the Rule is to be sought from this year 1205 * down to 1214; for in this time alone was Albert surviving in the patriarchate. Nevertheless it is credible enough that in this same year of Albert's coming to Acre, or a little after, the Rule was given to our men by him. At least it is certain that this was done before 1214, perhaps in the year 1209, as has been said in Bl. Albert, vol. 1 of April, page 786. And let this suffice concerning the Rule, which may be read there entire on page 778 and the following, and which Lezana at the said year 1205, num. 14, deservedly commends for its brevity, clarity and perfection.

[4] The histories of the Order relate, in the same author at the year 1213, num. 2, by the same, as they say, he is sent as legate to Damascus, that Bl. Brocard was sent by Albert to Damascus; which, he says, we believe happened about this time. Especially because, as that Bradley affirms, Albert wrote to Bl. Brocard "how he should proceed to Damascus to the king of Syria, and afterwards should proceed with him to Rome to the Lateran Council". Bostius and Palæonydorus are indeed deceived, in that they believe this Sultan to have been Saladin, whereas he was none other than Saphadin; since Saladin had already departed from life some years before… Both Bradley and they themselves also seem to have been deceived, when they assert that Bl. Brocard was sent by Albert to arrange a truce *; since the Pontiff's letters (in Odoricus Raynaldus, at the year 1213, num. 3, addressed To the noble man Salphadinus, Sultan of Babylon and Damascus) were not about truces, but about the restitution of the Holy Land to be made; although it is possible that Albert, who had desired to come to Rome for the Lateran Council, lest his absence should be to the loss of the Holy Land, procured that a truce should meanwhile be arranged, Brocard and others being sent for this purpose. Certainly, on Raynaldus's testimony at the year 1214, num. 3, the letters transmitted to the Pontiff by the agency of the Venetians assert that the Saracens, filled with fear of the Christians' warlike preparation, made a show of being about to restore the Holy Land to the Christians, and that, in order to be safe from the arms of the Christians, they would commit themselves to the patronage of the patriarch of Jerusalem, and would pay a fixed weight of gold by way of tribute; which letters he there recites entire, from the Chronicle of Richard of San Germano, a contemporary author, from num. 4.

[5] What effect, however, the preceding legation obtained is still unascertained, and he converts the Sultan's viceroy: says Lezana at num. 4, both on account of Albert's death, which happened in the following year, and because we find nothing about it in the histories. Whence, then, could it have been known that the Blessed obtained everything at Damascus according to his wish, as is said in the second Lesson? Sixtus of Siena, in book 4 of his Holy Library, relates that Albert, by order of Innocent III, wrote commentaries not to be despised on the site and state of the Holy Land: would that (as Papebroch wished in Bl. Albert, num. 27) would that, I say, those Commentaries had been found somewhere and brought to the light of day, from which perhaps we might learn some things pertaining to our Blessed. Meanwhile I fear that this legation of Brocard, with its circumstances, may not appear sufficiently credible to the learned reader: since neither the cited Richard, nor Marinus Sanutus, nor Sanvicus himself in his Chronicle has made mention of it. With some things interposed, Lezana thus proceeds: Yet those things which Bostius and Palæonydorus, as above, record to have happened at that time, since they very greatly commend the sanctity of blessed Brocard, are not to be omitted; namely: "Being asked by the Sultan's Mamluk, that is, his vice-prince (the second Lesson calls him viceroy), a leper, and with his hands eaten away by contraction, for a fitting remedy, he led him to the streams of the Jordan and baptized him, and having made him a faithful defender of the name of Christ, took him with him to Carmel; where, persevering in the habit and observance of the Order, he passed over to Christ". Peter Saracenus has the same, from the writers of Bl. Brocard's Life, in the Carmelite Menology, page 242. As wonderful and illustrious as these things are for the Blessed's commendation, so much should I wish them supported by the testimony of some more ancient writer.

[6] he dies an octogenarian about the year 1221. When he was already passing his eightieth year (says the third Lesson, but Saracenus his ninetieth), being set in the agony of death he exhorted the brethren with a weighty discourse, that they should remain constant in good, should abhor riches, should despise the world, and should order their life by the standard of all the virtues; and when these things were finished, he breathed out his soul on the 2nd day of September. Patriarch Albert, hearing that he had died, said: Now the flower of Carmel departs. And having said this, he wept, saying: Now he is secure, he is safe, exalted among the princes of the Church, to be inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints. So Palæonydorus, page 53, after he had fixed the Blessed's death in the year of the Lord 1197: how ill these things hang together is clear from what was said at num. 3. Saracenus and others write that he died in the year 1207, whom Lezana refutes in the same place, num. 9. Castellanus favored the year 1231. We, following Lezana's reckoning, as Henschen did in St. Berthold on 29 March, have placed the happy passing of Bl. Brocard about the year 1221. Grossi's Viridarium briefly praises him in the Speculum Carmelitanum, vol. 1, part 2, page 133, num. 561: Now this Br. Brocard ruled the Order for thirty-three years, and at length rested in peace, and is buried on Mount Carmel: where God did many miracles through him, both in life and in death. And in Lezana here at num. 3, reviewing the Saints of the Order, he says thus: The seventh was Bl. Brocard, second General of the Order, to whom the patriarch Albert expressly directed and wrote the Rule of the Order; whose glorious body indeed, renowned for many miracles, rests on Mount Carmel.

[7] The deeds of the Blessed written of old: observations That the Acts of the Blessed were committed to writing by some contemporary, Molanus notes at 2 September in these words: The Life of Brocard was begun to be written in the same year in which he died, as the beginning of his history has. But that Life, says the cited Lezana, although we have not seen it, is nevertheless easy to believe of, namely that the apostate Bale, who also wrote his Life, as we shall see below (num. 6), had this more ancient one in his keeping, and that all perished with him. The new Speculum Carmelitanum too, part 4, page 659: It is truly to be lamented, it says, that this Life lies hidden or has perished; for from it Carmelite history would be not a little illustrated as regards those things which happened in his own time. A certain manuscript Life was sent hither in the year 1670 by Louis of St. Teresa, provincial definitor of the discalced Carmelites of the province of Paris, in a very courteous letter to Henschen and Papebroch of 17 March; on which Papebroch noted these things: This Life is in no way ancient: I asked that the author be indicated, or at least his date; and then that a note be sent of the other Lives collected by the same man (as I suspect). I wrote 15 April 1670. Whether and what answer was made, I am to this day ignorant. Rightly, however, did he observe that it is not ancient; since it was compiled and put together from the hortatory Oration of Thomas Bradley, bishop of Dromore, inserted in the new Speculum Carmelitanum, part 4, from page 662, as will be plain to anyone willing to compare the two. For indeed, if it had been written before Bradley or Bostius, it would not, I think, have escaped the author of the Speculum, who would surely have preferred it to Bradley and Bostius as more ancient, or at least would have compared it with them.

[8] For the rest, the style is oratorical rather than historical, on the Life to be published here. nor sufficiently polished, and now and then even disjointed; some things have been added, others wrongly transposed, as at num. 7 the words of the patriarch, which Bradley reported after the Blessed's death. At the end of the prefixed exordium the anonymous author grandly declares that he has considered each particular very slowly and carefully, and has not wished to write anything false or trivial or unfitting. Whether he has stood by his promises we leave to the learned reader to judge. The title is of this sort: On Saint Brocard, FIRST Prior General and lawgiver of the Order of the Most Blessed Mother of God Mary of Mount Carmel. This anonymous writer contradicts Lezana and the Speculum Carmelitanum, indeed himself; for in the Life at num. 4 he has this: He governed the congregation of the brethren of Mount Carmel … after the death of St. Berthold his predecessor, for thirty-three years … Moreover in the very beginning of the Life (unless it be an error of the copyist) he commits a shameful parachronism, setting the year of the Blessed's death as 1117, which in Saracenus's opinion was the year of his birth; indeed, when more probably he was not yet born. See above, num. 6. Whence this Life was taken is indicated at the end in these words: Excerpted from a manuscript of the Library of the Discalced Carmelites, marked in the year 1670 on the 9th day of March. 5. GGGGG namely in our Convent of St. Peter at Clermont in Auvergne, as is plain from the cited letter of Louis of St. Teresa. But although the authority of this anonymous writer be small, we have nevertheless judged that Life should be published, with certain annotations added: both because no other Mss. concerning the Blessed were at hand, and lest we should appear ungrateful to those who courteously transmitted it to our predecessors.

* better, 1206

* i.e. by a truce

VITA

by an anonymous author From a Ms. of the Convent of Clermont of the Discalced Carmelite Fathers.

Brocard, second Prior General of the Order of St. Mary of Mount Carmel, in Palestine. (B.)

BHL Number: 1466

By an Anonymous writer.

The reason for the writing being given, Since I have undertaken to write the life of the holy father Brocard, who in the year 1117 , on the second day of September, bidding farewell to earth rendered his soul to his Creator, I know not whence I should make the beginning of my composition; if I were to start from his virtues, I do not see any way in which, in making them known, I could excerpt them in a single chapter: for their greatness is such that they demand not the brevity of a chapter, but the length of a volume. For who could in few words tell the wisdom of so great a Man, his gravity, the loftiness of his mind, his gentleness, his temperance, his justice, and in all things that discretion which is the moderator of the virtues? If I should begin from praising and adorning the brilliance of his speech and this most learned manner of writing, I fear lest I should be one , in Roscius's sight, ^a making a gesture on the stage, and should myself appear barren and thin. If concerning the miracles wrought through him, with the Holy Spirit cooperating, by which on earth a testimony of sanctity by no means doubtful is rendered to Christians, and in heaven a crown of rewards is prepared for the Saints out of the goodness of miracles: for not all the things which he did excellently occur to one describing the life of St. Brocard, nor are they to be heaped together in this place; but only those which are true and worthy of note. Here, then, I would premise, that it may be understood that I * have very slowly and carefully considered each particular which I have gathered into the life of St. Brocard; and that I have not wished to set down anything which I judged either false or trivial or unfitting.

[2] the author relates the Blessed's election to the prelacy, He was indeed the first ^b and chief Prior General in the Order of the brethren of the most blessed Mother of God Mary of Mount Carmel, raised up by the unanimous election of all the brethren, to whom he always showed himself companionable and lovable: which election indeed we believe was most burdensome to him, and that it befell him contrary to what he had wished. I think no one has used so great an effort to obtain an honor as he used that he might not be elected by the brethren, confirmed by Albert, legate of the Apostolic See and patriarch of Jerusalem, and have it laid upon him by the same. And since the will of God and the charitable affection of all the brethren had overcome his diligence and his resistance, he held out his right hand, extending it, and gave it to the brethren to be kissed; and he humbly gave his assent to his own election; lest he should be judged either too proud, or empty and ungrateful for so great a promotion. Having taken up the office, he not only in his own monastery of Mount Carmel handled the brethren of his Order in the Holy Land, then possessed by the Christians, humble and obedient in gentleness and zealous admonition, but also by the example of great virtues, like another Elijah, showed the way of God. And because the glory of the heavenly kingdom, which he desired with the highest longing, is not acquired save by doing something great, or by hazarding oneself for the faith against the Moors, and the crown is presented not to spectators but to contenders ; St. Brocard put his hand to strong deeds, proceeding so fervently that to some it seemed impossible to follow him. For who was more ready than he in holy works, and further removed from all obstinacy of hardness? Who was ever more moderate in acquiescing in the judgments of his friends, and more obedient to the Apostolic See? And what worthy of his merits did he obtain, who by his prayer and exhortation restored to the Christians Acre ^c, situated at the foot of Mount Carmel, which had been captured by the industry of Saladin, the wicked prince of Egypt and Syria? For before the coming of Philip and Richard ^d, kings of the Franks and of the English, the faithful peoples, placing in no one upon earth * their confidence of counsel and aid save in St. Brocard, had consolation.

[3] the regular observance, which Lastly, St. Brocard, whom his own virtue so raised that he became the first counselor of the archbishop of Cæsarea ^e, and likewise no mean one to the master of the Templars ^f, nevertheless did not neglect his purpose of the observance of the Order he had earlier taken up: but he labored fervently in vigils and through each * added something by which he might become better. He considered also, in those pursuits of the ancient Saints who had inhabited Mount Carmel before him, leading an eremitical life, the very great rewards now laid up by God for their labors: for he was strong in body, gracious in aspect, distinguished in learning, singular in eloquence, excellently instructed in letters both Greek and Latin. And, what is precious above all, conspicuous for entire faith according to the rite of the Roman Church, and for outstanding sanctity: and although he wrote a compendious rule excerpted from the Rule of St. Basil, handing it to the brethren to be observed; yet he was himself at once a rule of conduct, the integrity of honesty, a life of discipline and a standard of piety. O Carmelite brother, you have an excellent teacher, whose chastity, poverty and abstinence you should imitate, in which, for forty years in the desert of Mount Carmel, faithfully serving God and his blessed Mother, he never relaxed his vow. You will see in the rule, brother, the diligence of the holy Father, and you will not cease to marvel at his prudence, the assiduity of his prayer and his observance of silence: never in so long a space of his servitude did he taste flesh, and the longer his misery was for Christ's sake, the sweeter the happiness that comes after death. Few there are who pass their whole life happily: for fortunate times receive some at the beginning, others at the end; it goes well with those whose latter part of life is glad; but best of all, when, as men lay earth upon the body, they serve the dead man, and the key-bearer of the kingdom opens heaven to the soul.

[4] Further, St. Brocard throughout the whole age of his priorate strove, out of the wisdom for the conduct of affairs divinely granted him, both to be loved as an easy man, he wondrously advanced, and other virtues; and to be feared as a strong one, and he is found by the brethren to be regarded as a prudent one; and therefore the Lord assigned to him such a grace of merits that even while living he shone with miracles. For when on a certain day, at the solemnity of the Annunciation of the most glorious Virgin, he was devoutly celebrating Mass, he heard many murmurs in the church; and the Mass being ended, praying after his usual manner for the peace of the Church, he said: O most merciful God, although we are altogether unworthy of thy compassion, yet spare thy great name, spare, I beseech thee, the holy places: behold, now many churches are, with thy permission, destroyed; and where a little before the Christian religion flourished, now the sacrilegious fabrications of Mahomet ^g are worshipped. Nor yet had he finished his prayer, and behold, one of his friends called him, whose son on that day lay dead; and St. Brocard, compassionating his grief, having first poured out prayer, after the manner of his father Elijah the prophet raised the dead man: whom he invited to the profession of his Order, offering him the sacred habit, which the young man devoutly received and put on, and dying afterwards in it he is buried. But as many as are the miracles which the Lord deigned to show through his Saint, so many are the tokens of his sanctity. Nor am I able to note down all his good deeds, which from the years of discretion until old age he performed worthy of admiration: for the goods of the soul were especially conspicuous in him; admirable probity, remarkable kindliness and outstanding generosity. What shall I say of his wondrous humility and his charity toward his brethren, and his love toward all and his singular goodness, in which he strove to excel many Saints ? Of how great prudence he was appears from this, that he so governed the very great congregation of the brethren of Mount Carmel, and affairs so various and manifold, after the death of St. Berthold his predecessor, for thirty-three years, as St. Cyril ^h attests, that no one of the brethren ever felt himself lacking counsel, comfort, food and clothing at any time of his generalate.

[5] O Religion of the Carmelites, holy race, planted in the old Testament by Elijah ⁱ, so often visited by the Blessed Virgin Mary, which in the latest days deserved such a man as its first General! then For when the way of salvation had been opened to all through Christ the Son of God, the devil, grieving overmuch that Jesus Christ should reign everywhere, raised up a false prophet in Arabia, Mahomet by name, a wicked man, who lied that he was a minister of God, and founded a [law] contrary to the Gospel . When he was dead, Abu Bakr ^k held the principate three years: after him Omar ^l twelve years; whom a certain Persian, feigning that he wished to adore him, slew by fixing a sword in his belly. This Omar expelled by his wickedness all the Christians whom he did not kill; except the hermits of Mount Carmel, the servants of the Virgin Mary: yet he compelled them to change the white mantle into a barred mantle. Then the brethren were in great tribulation until the times of Godfrey ^m and of his brother King Baldwin; and then St. Berthold and St. Brocard were sent for the consolation of the hermits, and for the support of all Christians. Now the princes of the Holy Land saw in St. Brocard a steadfast mind, singular prudence, the highest liberality, a penetrating intellect, great care for administering justice according to the rigor of the Order; he therefore received their letters, and gave them useful counsel in difficult affairs.

[6] the legation to Damascus; Now on a certain occasion, not long before the Lord called him from this world, Albert the patriarch of Jerusalem wrote to him; how he should proceed to Damascus ⁿ to the king of Syria, to make a truce for a time, and afterwards should proceed with him to Rome to the Lateran ^o Council. And when he had obtained everything from the Sultan according to his wish, there came to him the Mamluk [p] of that land, by name Sarraia [q], stricken with leprosy, who had wholly lost the use of his hands, asking to be cleansed by him. To whom St. Brocard answered: Draw near to the spiritual water of the Jordan, that your body may be washed, and you will recover health. And he said: I know what you say; I wish to be baptized and to become a Christian. Then St. Brocard, keeping the manner of his father Elisha the prophet, taking a very little of the water of the fount of Elijah, poured it upon the leper's * head in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and at once healed he remained many years with the brethren of Mount Carmel, serving God and the Blessed Virgin until the end of his life, in which, dear to God, he passed to heaven.

[7] his labors, his love of poverty: But when the time was at hand in which the Lord had willed to reward his faithful Servant in glory, since the lawgiver of the Carmelite brethren and the teacher of the Holy Land, while he was young, while he could bear labors, sweating and enduring cold, fought bravely against the world and the devil, and never conquered but always came off conqueror by God's grace; but afterwards, weighed down by old age, he lost his strength: yet his soul, like a most valiant athlete, most bravely * overcame the assault. The patriarch also heard that he was sick and said: Now the flower of Carmel falls. And having said this, he wept and presently added: Now he is secure, he is safe, raised up among the princes of the Church; let him be written in the catalogue of the Saints. Fortune has those for enemies whom it casts down from felicity into distress, for whom it is most wretched to have been happy. But St. Brocard considered that man is born into the world not to gather wealth or to possess delights, but for labors: and therefore he wished to live on earth not as a dweller, but as a stranger and pilgrim, seeking the future and heavenly fatherland through holy works, persisting keenly. For indeed in great fortune virtue is not easily found. Perceiving which, that Theban philosopher [r] cast a huge weight of gold into the sea, that he might give himself more unencumbered to philosophy. So also St. Brocard, that he might cleave more closely to Christ and be free for contemplation in the desert, wishing to have nothing of his own, despised all temporal things: whence also at his death he made no testament.

[8] Many of whose disciples were holy lovers of poverty; his disciples, his zeal for prayer, as St. Cyril, the Greek doctor [s], who has also been canonized [t], and Bl. Angelus, martyred in Sicily, his brother by the same mother John, patriarch of Jerusalem, Joseph of Emana , Peter of Bethlehem [u] and several others. Many let go the reins of their sons when they have begun to grow up: but St. Brocard, from the time when, elected Prior, he had taken up the care of the brethren, so strove to restrain all, young and old, under the rigor of discipline, that no one is read ever to have fallen from the fiery chariot of Elijah; but by moving, chastising and kindling to virtues he diligently instructed all at all times. O with what urbanity of judgments and abundance of the best words, soothing the minds of the brethren, did he wondrously discourse! O with what devotion did he direct prayers, compunctions, tears to Christ, to the Blessed Virgin and to the Saints! Whence also he frequently exhorted the brethren to read over the collations and the Lives of the Fathers. And because his admonitions proceeded from the zeal of charity and a simple heart, the brethren were wondrously edified in hearing them. And so he was greatly distressed in mind, because, hindered by all the affairs of the Church or of the monastery, he saw the opportunity of praying taken from him. For as a merchant setting out for the sake of gain carries with him his books and counters, so St. Brocard, wherever he went, carried with him a stole, a Breviary and a Pater-noster [x].

[9] With these titles of praise, then, he came to the eighty-first year of his age, his happy passing from this world in prosperous health and with the authority of the priorate continued: he obtained too an easy and tranquil end of life, such as best accorded with his former manner of living . To whom at length, after much endurance of abstinence and labors, Mary the Mother of God stood by, saying: Come now, blessed of the Lord, and enter those eternal tabernacles which are owed to you. For behold, with me are your fathers Elijah [y] and Elisha and the prophets, who will now receive you into their choir. Having heard these things, Brocard on the following day is set toward the term of this life; whence, placed in his agony, having called the brethren, humbly asking pardon he said: My little sons, God has called us into an Order of hermits and of priests, and we are called Brethren of the Blessed Mary; but yet see to it that after my departure this name of Brethren of the Blessed Mary be not false in you. O most beloved, persevere, despise the world, hate delights, whose blandishments present the greatest hindrance to the attainment of eternal life. And with many other words he persuaded them to guard against future evils and to seek future goods.

[10] At last, as the hour of his passing drew near, that soul, lover of everlastingness , his passing, and miracles. freed from the bonds of the body, seized with easy ascent the way to the height of heaven, with the brethren standing by and seeing, borne up by angels into heaven: where now abiding, rescued from darkness, contemplating with pure gaze those divine spectacles, it looks upon our weakness. Whose holy body the brethren, with fitting honor, with psalms and prayers, delivered to burial beside our holy Father Berthold. Then his death affected the brethren, dwelling among pagans, with incredible sorrow: yet this was for their consolation, that at his tomb, by God's working, many miracles were wrought; the blind were enlightened, the lame set upright, demoniacs freed , and many others healed of divers diseases, to the praise and glory of almighty God. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

p Hear Mark Antony Alegre de Casanate in the Paradise of Carmelite adornment, page 253: A Mamluk, an Arab by nation, viceroy of the city of Damascus, was drawn to the faith of Christ by the persuasions of St. Brocard, and, having come to loathe the world, was numbered by Brocard himself among the company of the sons of Elijah on Carmel. Shining forth distinguished by the example of his life, having quickly become a strenuous athlete of the Christian warfare, he flew to the stars, as the acts of Brocard relate, in the year of Christ Jesus 1173, that is, 40 years before Brocard could have been sent to Damascus by the patriarch Albert, by whom nevertheless this man is said to have been converted on the occasion of that legation. Du Cange in his Glossary at the word MAMELUCHI notes the following: Thus the Egyptians called Christian slaves, or those born of Christian parents, captured in boyhood and sold for a price, from whom was chosen the one who ruled the rest, under the appellation of Sultan. Edward Pococke in his Supplement to Gregory Abul-Faraj, page 8, says that the Turkish Mamluks began to rule in the year of the Hegira 648, of Christ 1250, whom, on page 19, the Circassian Mamluks succeeded in the year of the Hegira 784, of Christ 1382. On page 31 he says that those are in error who suppose that the Mamluks were only the sons of Christians. William of Tyre mentions the Mamluks in book 21, chapter 23, narrating the rout of Saladin by the Christians in the year 1177.

q In Bradley, Sacain; nowhere have I found either name.

r Crates, namely, who, having cast no small weight of gold into the sea, said: Away with you, sink, evil desires. I will drown you, lest I myself be drowned by you. Nor did he think that he could possess virtues and riches at the same time. These and similar things about Crates are had in St. Jerome, vol. 4 of Martianay's new edition, col. 89, in the Notes. Before the holy Doctor, Philostratus of Lemnos mentions the same deed in book 1 of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, chapter 13.

s In Bostius one does not read Greek, but excellent; and there is added, and Eusebius his inseparable companion. He is found among the Prætermissi at 10 June, vol. 2, page 263.

t It is an addition of the anonymous writer, Bradley and Bostius being silent about the canonization, the decree of which I have sought in vain. Bale, cited by Lezana at the year 1224, num. 6, only admits that Eugenius IV permitted that Cyril, that doctor who had had visions, be reckoned among the Saints. See also vol. 1 of March, page 499, num. 6.

u Of St. Angelus the martyr there is a full treatment in vol. 2 of May, pages 56 and 798. Mention of John his brother is made in vol. III of July, page 473, in the Prætermissi at the 13th day: of Joseph at 13 June, vol. 2, page 665: of Peter, finally, at 4 June, vol. 1, page 374.

x That is, a chaplet of prayer made up of beads, as Du Cange attests at the word Pater-Noster, by which the common people are wont to designate the Rosary. But orarium, which in Du Cange and others generally signifies the priestly stole, seems here to be taken by the anonymous writer for a little book of prayers.

y In Bradley Elijah is omitted: because he is not in heaven, but in the earthly Paradise, as Fr. Daniel of the Virgin Mary noted in the same place. But did not Moses and Elijah appear at the Transfiguration of the Lord, Matt. 17 v. 3? What, then, could the earthly paradise have set in the way of his appearing here?

* perhaps 1217

strike out quis*

delete me*

read electione*

Bradley, præstatur*

read sicuti*

Bradley and Bostius, singula*

invenitur* is redundant

Bradley and Bostius, necdum*

Bradl., Sanctus*

Bradl., gubernaverit*

Bradl., nuntium*

add legem*

Bradl., potestate*

the same, sanctitatem*

the same, leproso*

the same, fortunæ*

the same, Ejus*

Bradl. and Bost., Emaus*

Bostius, moderationi*

the same, fugere*

Bradl. and Bost., puritatis*

elsewhere, relevati*