Cosmas

ON ST. COSMAS, HERMIT AND CONFESSOR AT VENICE, AT VENICE.

About the year DCLVIII.

Cosmas, hermit and conf., at Venice. (S.)

BHL Number: 1981

BY J. P.

§ I. The announcements of more recent writers; his ancient cult; the place in which his body is kept; the writers; the time of his life.

[ ] The silence of the ancient Martyrologists, among whom I have not known mention to be made of this Saint, more recent hagiologists have supplied,

his name being inscribed in the sacred Calendars, after his sacred body was translated to Venice from the island of Crete, in which the Saint was renowned. Belinus to the text of Usuard published by him subjoins this: Likewise of saint Cosmas, confessor and hermit. Greven: Of Cosmas the confessor, who, leading an eremitic life in the island of Crete, rested. With Belinus Molanus agrees. Galesinius reports him thus: At Venice, the translation of saint Cosmas, hermit and confessor, whose body was carried thither from the island of Crete. Add Canisius, Maurolico, Ferrari in the General Catalogue, and Castellanus. And deservedly that holy Solitary was inscribed in their sacred Calendars, as will be clear from the proof of his public cult, which I subjoin.

[2] Ferrari, cited above, indicates in his notes that he is found in the Records of the church of Venice on the V day of this month. because he has a true and lawful cult at Venice: Yet the Order of reciting the divine Office according to the rite of the patriarchal church and diocese of Venice, printed by decree of the most illustrious D. Giovanni Francesco Morosini, patriarch of Venice, for the year 1657, transfers this Saint's feast from the 2nd day of September, on which then fell the dedication of the patriarchal church, to the XXIV day of the same month, to be celebrated in this manner: Of Cosmus, as he is there called, conf., semid. His body is in the R. Ch. of St. George the Greater (it was the 2nd of this month) from the common of 1 conf. not a bishop. The bone of Justus. Fortunato Olmo, a Venetian and a monk of Monte Cassino, who published the Life of St. Cosmas with Venetian types in the year 1612, in his notes on it, p. 19, indicating where the body lies, and at the same time teaching that an altar had been erected to the Saint, says: The body lies at the altar sacred to our holy Father Benedict and to the Hermit himself. Since therefore from these things his public and lawful cult is established, I add no more in this place, of things which will occur in what follows.

[3] The place of St. George the Greater, in which we have already said his sacred body rests, where lies his body, honored with public veneration. is described by Augustin Lubin in the brief notice of the Abbeys of Italy, p. 410, from which I select the following: At Venice, the abbey of the title of Saint George the Greater, of the Order of St. Benedict, … which, on account of the relics of St. Stephen brought into its church, was also named of S. George and S. Stephen. It took its beginning in the year CMLXXXII from Giovanni Morosini, a noble Doge, who led and propagated the monastic life in it, and, having discharged the office of abbot, died. The island, and the chapel of S. George already existing, Memmus the Tribune gave for founding a monastery. The instrument of the donation Ughelli reports in vol. 5, pp. 1272 and following, where its privileges are recounted. … It is the most beautiful of all the abbeys of the city, situated in the quarter of S. Croce. Of it Sansovino, bk. 5, p. 166. Let these things be said on occasion of the body of our holy Hermit translated to the said abbey, of which matter we shall say more when we treat of his life.

[4] Notices are given Peter de Natalibus, who flourished in the fourteenth century, in bk. 8 of the Catalogue of Saints, ch. 26, records a few things of his deeds, with this title prefixed: On saint Cosmas the confessor. Then, Cosmas the confessor, he says, a Greek by nation, led an eremitic life in the island of Crete; who, all the days of his life giving himself to fastings and prayers, sat in a certain cave, where also after a praiseworthy life he rested in peace on the IV of the Nones of September. Whose body, when it had rested for some time buried in that same cave, was translated by the inhabitants of the place into the city, that he might be more honorably venerated. That this displeased God and the Saint appeared by an evident sign. For, a very great dryness of the air coming on, the earth was parched and a strong famine followed; nor did fertility abound before, with rain falling from heaven, until the holy body was brought back to the hidden places of its own spot. This scanty Life is printed in Peter de Natalibus.

[5] of the Life Olmo in his annotations says: There exists a fuller one in a manuscript of an anonymous author, anciently kept in our monastery of St. George the Greater; from which, and from the same Peter (de Natalibus), we have learned whatever we have written. Thus he. But we have another Ms. copy headed with this title: The Life of saint Cosmas, hermit and confessor, a Cretan monk, which in the margin is indicated by the hand of our Henschen to have been taken from the codex of the Queen of Sweden concerning the Saints whose relics are in the monastery of St. George. It thus begins: Most beloved, our Creator and lover has provided for us, who the precious gem of his diadem, most holy Cosmas, whom he withdrew from another nation, gave to us, though unworthy, as a most pious patron to the honor and salvation of all Venice. The author is anonymous, and reports things like those of Peter de Natalibus concerning the Saint; but where he digresses to the translation of the body carried to Venice, he indulges in by-matters about the Venetians. Here is a specimen: It happened that from the custom of trading a ship went out from Venice and came to those parts (namely of the island of Crete): for this people, from love of liberty, dwelt in the sea marshes, and is almost the only one in the world which by a praiseworthy zeal retains the manners of its ancient nobility even to these times.

[6] But because once, from love, as we have said, of liberty, leaving the accessible places, the writers, they preferred to dwell in remote marshes, and peacefully to live content with their own manners and laws, rather than to serve the hard exactions of kings or princes. Let it suffice to have reported these few out of the many things which are there subjoined. That copy perhaps coincides with the one from which Olmo indicated that he had partly learned what he wrote of the Saint. The same man in his Annotations, p. 15, treating of the day of his death, supplies this notice: Concerning the day of his death both Peter de Natalibus and Molanus and others agree; which our manuscript also sets forth as the same. In our copy also is this: Therefore untiringly he clung to the term of his labor, for which he waited and thirsted, on the second day of the month of September, that is, he entered upon the way of all flesh.

[7] Following, I suppose, monuments of this kind, Olmo thus determines the day and year of his death in the Life below in our work at n. 5: and of the time of his death. Shining with these and countless other virtues, he came to heaven … on the IV of the Nones of September in the year after the birth of Christ DCLVIII. Of the day of his death it has already been said: but of the year Olmo observes this in the Annotations, p. 15, cited: For both in Natalis and in the Ms. it is established that the sacred body of Cosmas rested four hundred years in Crete. And it was carried thence to us … in the year MLVIII. Let therefore CCCC years be subtracted; there remains the year DCLVIII, in which we have set that he departed this life. Peter de Natalibus, or, as Olmo calls him, Natalis, adds an adverb "nearly" to those four hundred years, which our Ms. of the anonymous author indicated above also does: on the faith of which we have set the word "about" above at the year 658.

§ II. The body translated from the island of Crete to Venice; its condition; the time of the translation; the copy from which these things and the Saint's Life are given.

[ ] That translation is not narrated in the same way: The translation of St. Cosmas from the island of Crete to the Venetians is very briefly touched in Peter de Natalibus: But after nearly CCCC years, he says, that body was taken thence by Venetian seafarers and translated to Venice, and laid up in the monastery of saint George the Greater, where it rests at present. At far greater length Olmo narrates it, and sets it forth clothed with circumstances sufficiently wondrous, below in our work at n. 10 and following, indicating in his Notes, p. 16, whence he drew these things: The manner of the translation, he says, Natalis does not have. The whole we bring forth from a manuscript. But that narrative would be of greater authority if the credit and time of the writer were established. Things like in substance our anonymous Ms. also records about the manner in which that translation happened.

[9] the condition of the body: The biographer Olmo at n. 13 asserts that the body was found among the Cretans so entire that it seemed to everyone in a wondrous manner as though recently buried. But the same author writes this in his Annotations, p. 16: According to the report of the venerable monks who were permitted to see it before it was closed up, it is not now wholly entire: but it equally denotes holiness by its incorruption and antiquity by some corruption. The head is separated from the body, broken, they say, and enclosed within the body: for which there formerly served the head of saint Felix the confessor, which now by the care of the very reverend father dom Michele Alabardi, abbot, covered with a silver case, is set forth to be publicly venerated. Of this matter a slip of paper once attached to the chest of the most holy body has thus: "The head joined to the body is the head of saint Felix the confessor, brought to these shores by the most serene emperor Charles (IV), and laid up in this monastery of St. George the Greater of Venice, by the care and diligence of R. Fr. D. Gerard Pante, abbot of the aforesaid monastery, on the VIII day of the month of October in the year of the Lord MCCCLXI. But the head of this St. Cosmas the confessor is in the body itself."

[10] the time of the translation "And the body itself (as the slip cited above continues) of the aforesaid most blessed confessor Cosmas was placed in this already-said monastery in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord MLVIII, in the month of April, in the eleventh Indiction." Hence it is clear that Wion errs, who, following one deceived, was himself also deceived. At the end of the manuscript are these words written not in the same character as the manuscript itself, but in a finer one: "And that most holy body was translated to this our monastery in the year of the Lord MCCCCIII, in the month of April, in the XI Indiction." Which Wion following, as Olmo observes, in his Annotations on the Life of St. Gerard, places the translation from Crete in the same year MCCCCIII. But from the slip adduced above it is clear that the year MLVIII must be set down. For the words are shown to have been recently and rashly added to the manuscript, since, as we have set them here, they are both different in character from the manuscript, and are forced to end in the margin on account of certain other things which follow in the Ms. But although foolishly added, it is nevertheless pleasant to conjecture the cause of the error.

[11] wrongly marked elsewhere, The eleventh Indiction fell in the year of the Lord one thousand fifty-eight, and the eleventh also in the year one thousand four hundred and three. He therefore who added these things had perhaps read that Cosmas was brought to Venice in the eleventh Indiction in the month of April, no memorial of the year being had: which he set about to divine from the Indiction, but was cheated of his aim. For the time adduced of the year MCCCCIII is refuted first by that slip which we saw above: and then more strongly by another Ms., which treats of the translation of D. Paul the martyr: where among other things this is read: "He can, as we believe, rejoice in such a dwelling, where he is associated with the most blessed Stephen, most worthy Protomartyr, with Cosmas and Damian the martyrs, and also with Cosmas the most holy confessor." And the bringing of B. Paul the martyr from Byzantium to Venice took place in the year of the Lord MCCXXII, and the writer of that translation sets forth things seen, or heard from others.

[12] and here corrected For he says among other things, speaking of Marino Storlato, then prefect at Constantinople, who favored the religious work: "Which lord Marino, because his parents are of old buried at the monastery of saint George, and he himself believes he will be buried there, loves the monastery and the brethren." You have from those words an author contemporary with Marino Storlato, and therefore with the said translation of Paul the martyr: "He himself believes he will be buried there, loves the monastery and the brethren." Wherefore if in the year MCCXXII Cosmas, on the testimony of an eyewitness, lay in our church, with whom D. Paul the martyr was associated, how was he brought to us afterwards in the year MCCCCIII? False, therefore, is the addition to the manuscript: but true are the things which the slip sets forth: and truly the chief honor is owed to Cosmas for the priority of his coming. For even before the Protomartyr's translation he was brought to us *.

[13] Who that Felix the confessor named above may be is hidden from me. is exhibited. But the Life of Gerard, or rather a brief summary of his Life, and Wion's annotations on it may be found in Wion himself in the Lignum vitæ. Of him mention will often be made in the Acts of St. Stephen, king of Hungary, presently to be given. D. Paul the martyr, who occurs next, I believe to be the same as St. Paul, bishop of Constantinople and martyr, of whom we treated at the VII day of June. From what has been deduced above there is also to be corrected our transcript, in which these words are read: And that most holy body was translated to this our monastery in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and three, in the month of April, in the eleventh Indiction, nearly four hundred years after his most holy death. And when he says to this our monastery, he indicates plainly enough that the writer of this translation was a monk of St. Gregory the Greater among the Venetians.

[14] Since besides those things which have already been said of the Life and translation of St. Cosmas, The Acts to be published. published by Fortunato Olmo, a monk of Monte Cassino, and dedicated to F. Alessio Barozzi, a Camaldolese hermit sprung from Venetian patricians and procurator general at the Roman curia, almost nothing remains to be noted beforehand, and the very few things that remain will have their place in the Annotations, I set before the reader's eyes to be read what the said biographer transmitted to posterity, divided by me into chapters and numbers, as you here see. And the copy which we have came from St. George the Greater of Venice, and was given by gift of the most reverend Fr. Bonaventura Barozzi, a Venetian, Benedictine abbot of the Cassinese congregation,

… MDCLX.

*. read "brought"

THE LIFE

By Fortunato Olmo, a monk of Monte Cassino, published at Venice.

Cosmas, hermit and conf., at Venice. (S.)

By Fortunato Olmo.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint illustrious for various virtues in solitude.

[ ] Various are the ways of the Saints to heaven, The shining hosts of the Saints flash above all with variety. Thus indeed the Ruler of all things leads the elect to heaven by distinct paths, so that no virtue here is passed over, and the rewards of no virtue are far from those sacred seats. For he did not will that all should be marked with the purple honor of martyrdom; but by a provident counsel he ordained that, for those who lacked cruel executioners, a ready will should suffice; and that there should be plainly other kinds of living by which, if one pleased, each might with vast praise win for himself perpetual glory.

[2] among which is the solitary life. To say nothing of the rest, there offers itself to us the sacred company of the anchorites, the more to be regarded in that those who are enrolled in it, destitute altogether of human comfort, trusting in God alone against invisible demons, are known to wage war in a long-lasting battle. To whom indeed a special prerogative is granted, that, while, stripped of perishable desires and kindled with divine ardors, they are approved, they are deservedly called not men but angels though still set on earth. Among these most blessed Cosmas, whose illustrious day is today, is seen to shine most of all. Who in the island of Crete ^a, an excellent dweller in an uncultivated solitude, strove, as long as he was among men, to conform himself wholly to an angelic life.

[3] This St. Cosmas For giving himself daily to the contemplation of heavenly things and to prayer, he sat in a rough cave, cheerfully showing ready service to the almighty Lord. Enclosed indeed within the walls of his beloved solitude, wearing down his own body with fasts, vigils, and outward work, he compelled it to serve the spirit. Enduring heat and cold, careless of rest, he exercised his resisting flesh with a certain wondrous zeal. Moreover, being exceedingly instructed in the arts of warring with the demon, he most easily withstood the inward vexations by which he was daily harassed. Wherefore, passing from virtue to virtue, forgetting his former * gains, he was always ascending to higher things.

[4] with excellent virtues For being kindled with the desire of advancing, the more he advanced, the more he strove to draw near to God. He always thought of God: he always panted toward him; that he might become lovable to whom, neither by day nor by night did he grow slack from upright works. And lifting the eyes of his mind in the contemplation of eternity, he judged wholly empty everything that passes away. And when, by the favor of the divine light, he knew himself enclosed within the secret places of solitude, he gave thanks to God, who had led him out from the tumult of the world, that he might be safe from human disturbances by the divine protection.

[5] he adorned, He hated the world, and had a wondrous compassion for its lovers: for whom, sending forth assiduous groans, the most pious man besought the clemency of God. In these things the most holy Man exercised himself in solitude, and in dwelling upon them made the beautiful places of the desert rich. Shining with these and other countless virtues, at length he came to heaven, whither he had directed his steps, crowned with the crown of immortality, on the IV of the Nones of September in the year after the birth of Christ DCLVIII, and was buried in the same cave in which while living he had lain hidden.

[6] with heavenly Where when he had been kept for some time, and frequent resort was made to the cave by the neighboring dwellers, it at length seemed good to them, out of the greatest piety toward the Hermit, to carry the body away from that place of horror and vast solitude, and to lay it in the town in a most adorned place. For thus they thought both that the Saint would be more worthily venerated, and that their way to the venerable tomb would be easier. And how these things, provided by human counsels, conflicted with the divine, what follows was a sign. For either from thenceforth the closed heaven withheld the gift of rain, or, opened, it consumed the crops with hail.

[7] Then as long as the holy Hermit's body lay amid worldly tumults, favors also so long, by the Saint's own prayer, dire droughts, and therewith vast straits of grain, endured. Which when those men unhappily experienced, and the times of Elijah seemed to be raised up again, when at the prophet's prayers heaven was closed for three years and six months ^b; doubting whence so grave a chastisement proceeded, they ascribed the cause first to their crimes, then, God inspiring them, to the said removal.

[8] Judging therefore that they would better take counsel for themselves if the sacred body were laid back whence it had been removed, after his death he is famous. they brought it back again to the friendly cave. At once there flowed a bounteous blessing of waters, and the heavens dropped dew from above and sent forth rains, flooding all the parts of the region, by a manifest sign of the appeased Godhead; and the accomplished miracle taught the ruder men that sometimes even from those things which we judge honorable and pious it is more honorable and more holy to abstain. It remained in that place for about four hundred years with the exceptional veneration of the peoples: from whom to the Saint's tomb there lay a long and arduous way, the more pleasing to God and to the Hermit himself in that it was undertaken with more difficulty and labor.

[9] For the rest, as all things strong in the beginning at length languish with time, even that plainly vast ardor of the faithful, by the fault of corrupted nature, had afterwards failed through the length of times. But God, the eternal lover of the Saints, who requires that a perpetual cult be paid by us to the Heaven-dwellers, had chosen at Venice a place fitter for veneration, to which, however, according to the blessed Hermit's pleasure, access should not easily lie open to all; namely our narrow shores, which it pleased him to make illustrious with so noble a gift. When and how this happened, what follows will show.

ANNOTATA.

*. read "his former gains"

CHAPTER II.

The translation of the body to Venice.

[ ] The body from the island of Crete The island of Crete had not yet passed into Venetian dominion ^a. Yet thither merchant ships hastened daily for the sake of bringing back foreign wares. Which custom of sailing thither Venetian merchants still keep: who do not fear with vast daring to seek even barbarous regions for the sake of merchandise. Therefore of the very many which were making for the said island, with a happy omen a ship of the Venetians put in there; in which was carried not so much a crowd of riches as of men zealous for religion. Who indeed, drawn by the fame of Cosmas, when they silently turned over among themselves the carrying off of his body, set their mind and their strength to this business, not knowing perhaps whether they were about to undertake so great a thing with Cosmas's power favorable or adverse. To which matter also the fear of the Cretans was added: for whom, if it became known that a theft had been attempted, their turning would easily be to the destruction of those who carried it off.

[11] in a wondrous manner While these things shook their minds, the Saint himself took away all doubtful thoughts, and appearing by night in a vision to one of them, who was perhaps dreaming of such cares, more fully admonished them that they should carry to Venice the Body given them by God most safely. Of which that man, loosed from sleep, admonishing his companions, exhorted them to fulfill the purpose happily conceived. Wherefore, calling one another back from fear to hope, they chose an appointed day on which they should go together to the cave. When therefore it first dawned, each hastened eagerly, walking a way through thicket and one almost * impassable for the thickness of the thorns.

[12] Of whom some more religious went with bare soles, part with feet less scrupulously covered. Then a thing altogether wondrous happened, is taken from the cave, which both confirmed the holiness of Cosmas and freed the Venetians from all hesitation. For those who, having taken off their footwear ^b, made their way to the tomb, the sharpness of the thorns in no way hurt: but the feet of those who hastened thither shod * were pierced with stings almost unbearable. And so, roused by the new thing, they were filled with unspeakable joy, and paid more ardent thanks to the Lord, who had made their voyage prosperous. Each therefore alike approaching the cave, on bended knees send prayers to God and to the Hermit himself, more eagerly setting about the religious carrying-off.

[13] and is translated to Venice. The entrance to the cave was plainly difficult, and a very narrow opening, through which scarcely the body of one man could pass, afforded access: entering through which, they found the precious treasure so entire that it seemed to everyone in a wondrous manner as though recently buried *. And so with all religion drawing it out thence, and carefully bringing it to their own ship, they set out as soon as possible on a calm sea and under a serene sky, and in the year from the Virgin's childbearing MLVIII brought it to Venice to this island of D. George, in the month of April, in the XI Indiction, on the XX day, the first century not yet being passed since monks began to inhabit the island ^c: which also he first deigned to make illustrious by his noble presence.

[14] God is praised All his deeds, as we desire, we are not able to recall: for the more secret manner of life chosen by him made him known to God alone, as he was dear to him alone. But to men it was not made plain, save from his death, of how great merit he was while living. He lived only for God and for himself: hence known only to God and to himself. Let therefore the few things which we have written of him suffice for us, even against our will, by which perhaps a more ardent devotion would not grow for us on account of more. Namely because we despise to imitate the Saints, the Lord, acting justly, often conceals their hidden actions, lest examples be set before us in vain which we use no zeal at all to follow.

[15] in a Saint, even though scarcely known, From the compassion, therefore, of that most pious Lord what is done is not far removed: since indeed on that last day there will be as many judges against us as we shall have had examples of good men for living rightly. For the rest, let us otherwise praise the Lord, by whose providence indeed it has come about that not all the deeds of the blessed Hermit have been blotted out: but that at least the memory of those has come down to us which could make us certain of his holiness.

[16] For that he whom today we strive to venerate was justified by his works, the miracles wrought after his death, as we have heard, show; so that if we should wish to flee to his help even in this solemnity, and his patronage is set forth. we may know from the certainty of his holiness that his patronage will not be wanting. Let us therefore pray the merciful Lord that those actions which we know may equally rouse us, and that those his illustrious merits which we do not know may help us; so that by both means we may be able to come to the heavenly joys of the poles, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God for ever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

*. perhaps "to the thicket, almost, for the thorns," etc.

*. read "shod"

*. read "buried"