{"slug":"tmp709.tmp709.opp-lat1","id":"latin:ogl-pl:tmp709.tmp709.opp-lat1","title":"De Miraculis Sancti Stephani Protomartyris / DE MIRACULIS SANCTI STEPHANI PROTOMARTYRIS LIBRI DUO AD EVODIUΜ","title_source":"De Miraculis Sancti Stephani Protomartyris / DE MIRACULIS SANCTI STEPHANI PROTOMARTYRIS LIBRI DUO AD EVODIUΜ","author":"Auctor Incertus","genre":"hagiography","date":"","tradition":"latin","coverage":"not-located","coverage_claim":{"status":"not-located","text":"No English translation could be identified: a language model asked twice could not name one, though it could not rule one out either. That is not proof that none exists — translations in dissertations, recent books and other modern languages are easily missed."},"publication":{"status":"machine-draft","reviewed_by":null,"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash:floor","provider":"Baidu","generated":"2026-11-15T19:16:16Z","cost_usd":0.005929},"source":{"registry_id":"latin:ogl-pl:tmp709.tmp709.opp-lat1","work_id":"tmp709.tmp709.opp-lat1","edition":"ogl-pl","language":"","license":"Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License","url":"https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/patrologia_latina-dev/blob/master/data/tmp709/tmp709/tmp709.tmp709.opp-lat1.xml"},"stats":{"passages":63,"english_words":16250,"coptic_letters":0,"source_letters":63050,"commentary_units":0,"commentary_kinds":0,"derived_notes":2,"ambiguities":0,"work_notes":0,"external_links":0,"timeline":0},"summary":{},"links":[{"kind":"source","label":"Open Greek and Latin Patrologia Latina","url":"https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/patrologia_latina-dev/blob/master/data/tmp709/tmp709/tmp709.tmp709.opp-lat1.xml"}],"checks":{"work":"tmp709.tmp709.opp-lat1","status":"pass","blocking":[],"warnings":[],"stats":{"passages":63,"translated":63,"commentary_passages":0,"commentary_units":0,"english_words":16250,"source_letters":62553,"commentary_kinds":0},"model":"deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash:floor"},"work_notes":[],"derived_work_notes":[{"kind":"coverage","severity":"info","text":"No English translation could be identified: a language model asked twice could not name one, though it could not rule one out either. That is not proof that none exists — translations in dissertations, recent books and other modern languages are easily missed."},{"kind":"limit","severity":"caution","text":"The English is a machine draft produced passage by passage from the transcribed Latin; no human has verified it. The commentary is model-written and cites only keys the pipeline could resolve."},{"kind":"register","severity":"info","text":"Register: hagiography in Latin; the English keeps the liturgical formulae and the vocatives rather than normalising them."},{"kind":"structure","severity":"info","text":"Passages: 63 narrative."},{"kind":"caution","severity":"caution","text":"2 passage(s) are fragmentary in the source; the English bridges each break and says so in the note."},{"kind":"source","severity":"info","text":"Source edition: ogl-pl."},{"kind":"source","severity":"info","text":"Licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License"}],"derived_structure":{"narrative":63},"term_index":[],"citations":{},"segments":[{"i":1,"ref":"p1","source":"DE MIRACULIS SANCTI STEPHANI PROTOMARTYRIS\n\nLibri duo.\n\nLIBER PRIMUS.\n\nTextus divinorum operum, quæ ostensa sunt per beati protomartyris Stephani venerabile meritum, mandata quoque notitiæ fidelium ab Evodio in Ecclesia Uzali, cujus urbis pontificatum administrabat sacerdos dignissimus; Aurelio tunc temporis Augustino apud Hipponem dominicæ sationis dispensatore constituto.\n\nPrologus.\n\nQuoniam sanctus Raphael angelus nos adhortari dignatur, ut opera Dei non tam in abscondito collocemus, quam potius pro Dei gloria in aperto pandamus, monens et dicens, Sacramentum regis bonum est abscondere, opera autem Dei revelare et confiteri honorificum est (Tob.","english":"ON THE MIRACLES OF SAINT STEPHEN THE PROTOMARTYR\n\nTwo Books.\n\nBOOK ONE.\n\nThe record of the divine works that were shown forth through the venerable merit of the blessed protomartyr Stephen, and which were also entrusted to the knowledge of the faithful by Evodius in the Church of Uzalis, of which city he was administering the pontificate as a most worthy priest, while Aurelius at that time was constituted at Hippo as dispenser of the Lord's sowing.\n\nPrologue.\n\nSince the holy angel Raphael deigns to exhort us that we should not so much lay up the works of God in secret as rather spread them abroad openly for the glory of God, warning and saying, It is good to conceal the mystery of a king, but to reveal and confess the works of God is honorable (Tob.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":2,"ref":"p2","source":"xii, 7); quia sicut cognitis fidem non adhibere infidelitatis est, ita invidentiæ est in ædificationem aliorum nolle cognita prædicare: propterea, beatissime papa Evodi, jussis Paternitatis tuæ studiose obtemperare curavi, non tam fisus viribus meis, quam adjutus gratia Dei et sanctis orationibus tuis; ut ea quæ per patronum nostrum Stephanum primum martyrem suum operatus est apud nos Christus, et adhuc operari dignatur, non malivola taciturnitate supprimere, quo cæteri fraudarentur; sed magis pia devotione narrare, quo Amici Dei gloria fraternis auribus intimetur: nec ingenio et lingua aliqua quasi exaggerare prævalentes; sed ipsarum rerum veritatem, prout Deus donaverit, fideliter explicare cupientes, ut ipsa nostra narratio non tam verborum pompam audeat quærere, sed potius mendaciorum fucum studeat declinare; ita ut ubicumque res postulaverit, ipsorum quoque hominum verba, sicut ab eis dicta sunt, simpliciter ponere non debeamus erubescere. Magis enim placent bonis ac religiosis quæcumque dicuntur vera, etiam vitiosis verbis, quam falsa politis et ornatis verbis. Sane non ob hoc nos quispiam arbitretur voluisse ista narrare, quasi aliquid nos gloriæ beato Martyri videamur præstare: quandoquidem illi nec tacendo demere, nec loquendo quidquam possumus conferre.","english":"For, just as it is a mark of unbelief to withhold faith from things that are known, so it is a mark of envy to refuse to proclaim what one has learned for the edification of others. Therefore, most blessed Pope Evodius, I have taken care to comply diligently with the commands of Your Paternity, not so much trusting in my own strength as aided by the grace of God and your holy prayers; so that those things which Christ has wrought among us through our patron Stephen, His first martyr, and still deigns to work, I might not suppress in spiteful silence, whereby others would be defrauded, but rather recount with pious devotion, so that the glory of the Friend of God may be made known to fraternal ears; not as though we were able to magnify them by any talent or eloquence, but desiring faithfully to set forth the truth of the things themselves, as God has granted, so that our narrative should not dare to seek the pomp of words, but rather should strive to avoid the cosmetic of falsehoods; so that wherever the matter requires it, we should not be ashamed simply to set down even the very words of the people themselves, just as they were spoken by them. For whatever is said truly, even in faulty words, pleases good and religious people more than what is false in polished and ornate words. Indeed, let no one think that we have wished to tell these things for this reason, as though we seemed to bestow some glory upon the blessed Martyr: since we can neither take anything away from him by silence nor confer anything upon him by speaking.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":3,"ref":"p3","source":"Ipsa quippe virtutum miracula nullo humanæ linguæ præconio indigent; jam ubique personantem exserunt tubam: sed tantum nostram devotionem ad fratrum ædificationem pro recipienda obedientiæ mercede cum humilitate volumus demonstrare, metuentes quoque quod ab ipso Domino legimus terribiliter dictum esse, Si vos tacebitis, lapides clamabunt (Luc. xix, 40). Quæso autem vos omnes, quotquot hæc audire vel legere pie ac religiose volueritis, ut hujus peccatoris ultimi, qui hoc in nomine Domini scripsi, semper in sanctis orationibus vestris meminisse dignemini: et si quid a nobis rusticiter profertur, non indignemini; sed tantum, quia veraciter dicitur, delectemini.\n\nCAPUT PRIMUM. — De ampulla sanguinis famulæ Dei per somnium ostensa.\n\nCum igitur adhuc nullus saltem rumor esse potuisset, quo ad nos indignos Domini sancti Stephani, in martyrio primi confessoris Christi, reliquiæ venturæ essent (non enim hoc fieri posse aut in cogitatione habebamus, aut suspicari poteramus): ecce ex anteriori tempore cœpit idem gloriosus quibusdam apud nos sanctis animis se ipsum revelare.","english":"For the miracles of the virtues themselves need no proclamation of human speech; they already sound forth their trumpet everywhere. But we wish only to show our devotion with humility for the edification of the brethren, in return for the reward of obedience, fearing also what we read was said terribly by the Lord Himself: If you keep silent, the stones will cry out (Luke 19:40). But I ask you all, as many of you as wish to hear or read these things piously and religiously, that you deign always to remember in your holy prayers this last of sinners, who wrote this in the name of the Lord; and if anything is brought forth by us in a rustic manner, do not be indignant, but rather rejoice, because it is truly spoken.\n\nCHAPTER ONE. — Concerning the ampulla of the blood of the handmaid of God shown in a dream.\n\nWhen, then, not even any rumor could yet have existed by which it might reach us, unworthy ones, that the relics of the Lord's Saint Stephen, the first confessor of Christ in martyrdom, were to come (for we neither had this in our thoughts, nor could we suspect that it could happen): behold, from an earlier time, the same glorious one began to reveal himself to certain holy souls among us.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":4,"ref":"p4","source":"Nam cum quodam loco vel die sermo supradictarum reliquiarum ab his servis Dei fieret, qui easdem sibimet de Orientis partibus missas nobis nescientibus habebant, adfuit in sermone quædam etiam mulier, sacra famula Dei; quæ ubi hoc audivit, ut evenire assolet, non facile credidit, et apud semetipsam tacite dicere cœpit: Et quis scit si vere martyrum sunt reliquiæ? Statim autem sequenti nocte per somnium ampulla quædam eidem demonstratur intra se habens sanguinis quamdam aspersionem et aristarum quasi ossium significationem: quam presbyter quidam manu tenens germano ejus monacho illa præsente locutus est dicens: Vis scire quomodo martyrum probentur reliquiæ? Quo dicto ampullam ejus ori injecit, et mox flamma ignis per aures ejus atque oculos evomi cœpit, Hoc quomodo res ipsa manifestata sit dignanter accipite. Ampullam sicut oculis suis vidit ancilla Dei in somnii revelatione, sic inter manus suas accepit postea sacerdos Dei in ipsius rei manifestatione; et quod illa quamdam dubitationem prius in se habuit, eamdem nunc in quibusdam res ipsa declaravit. Quod deinde ignis per ampullam aures atque oculos comprehendit, quid aliud tunc præsignavit, nisi quod prædicatio sanctarum reliquiarum perveniens ad os monachorum, unum corpus Ecclesiæ per auditum atque visum claritatis Dei igne succendit, ut omnes merito dicerent, Sicut audivimus, ita et vidimus (Psal. xlvii, 9)?","english":"For when in a certain place and on a certain day the servant of God was speaking of the aforementioned relics, which those same servants of God had received, sent to them from the regions of the East without our knowledge, there was present at that discourse a certain woman also, a holy handmaid of God; and when she heard this, as is wont to happen, she did not easily believe it, and she began to say silently within herself: And who knows whether these are truly the relics of the martyrs? But immediately on the following night, through a dream, a certain ampulla was shown to her, having within it a certain sprinkling of blood and a representation of awns as of bones; which a certain presbyter, holding in his hand, spoke to her brother, a monk, in her presence, saying: Do you wish to know how the relics of martyrs are proven? Having said this, he thrust the ampulla into his mouth, and at once a flame of fire began to be vomited forth through his ears and eyes. How this matter itself was made manifest, receive with favor. The ampulla, just as the handmaid of God saw it with her eyes in the revelation of the dream, so afterward the priest of God received it into his hands in the manifestation of the matter itself; and the doubt that she had first held within herself, the matter itself now declared in certain persons. Then, that the fire through the ampulla seized his ears and eyes, what else did it then prefigure, except that the preaching of the holy relics, reaching the mouth of the monks, enkindled the one body of the Church through hearing and sight with the fire of God's brightness, so that all might rightly say, As we have heard, so also have we seen?","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":5,"ref":"p5","source":"Nec quod ille presbyter apparuit, qui ad os monachi ampullam applicuit, quæ ignem emisit, inane fuit. Is enim erat qui nuper ex Oriente rediens, et de sanctis reliquiis quas illic viderat, in ore servorum Dei verbum ponens, quasi ampullam admovit, et sancto igne succendit. Sed jam vellem ad evidentiora et manifestiora patroni Stephani transire miracula, nisi ad rem pertinere existimarem, alteram adhuc Sanctitati vestræ proferre visionem. Quam peto ut patienter, et sicut arbitror, non infructuose, audire dignemini. CAPUT II. — Ubi virgini sanctus Stephanus apparuit.\n\nAlia autem virgo sacra ad locum antiquorum martyrum in suburbio civitatis constitutorum, qui Felix et Gennadius nuncupantur, videbatur sibi iter facere per somnium, non ea via qua de civitate compendio pergi assolet, sed aliquantulum devia et flexuosa. Per hanc videt adventare innumeros populos gaudentes sane atque psallentes, et cereos et luminaria cum grandi celebritate gestantes, et quasi quemdam candidatum parvulum comitantes, eique iteratis vocibus inclamantes: Confessor Christi, confessor Christi. Quem cum ad ecclesiam perduxissent, atque supra pulpitum elevassent, videt eumdem parvulum subito manus extendisse, et ore proximo populis dixisse: Ecce habetis martyrem.","english":"Nor was it without meaning that the presbyter appeared, who put to the monk's mouth the ampulla that emitted fire. For he was the one who, recently returning from the East and placing the word concerning the holy relics he had seen there in the mouth of the servants of God, as it were applied the ampulla and set it alight with holy fire. But now I would wish to pass on to the more evident and manifest miracles of the patron Stephen, were it not that I judged it pertinent to bring forth to Your Holiness yet another vision. Which I ask that you deign to hear patiently and, as I believe, not without fruit. CHAPTER II. — Where the holy Stephen appeared to a virgin.\n\nNow another holy virgin, at the place of the ancient martyrs established in the suburb of the city, who are called Felix and Gennadius, seemed to herself in a dream to be making her way, not by the road by which one is accustomed to go from the city by the shortcut, but somewhat off the way and winding. Along this she sees coming innumerable peoples, rejoicing indeed and singing psalms, and carrying wax tapers and lights with great solemnity, and as it were accompanying a certain little child in white, and crying out to him with repeated voices: Confessor of Christ, confessor of Christ. When they had led him to the church and raised him above the pulpit, she sees that same little child suddenly stretch out his hands and say to the peoples with mouth close at hand: Behold, you have the martyr.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":6,"ref":"p6","source":"Mirabile dictu est, quanta hujus quoque visionis veritas consecuta est: nec immerito olim per prophe tam divina voce prædictum est: Ecce dies veniunt, dicit Dominus, et dabo de Spiritu meo super omnem carnem, et prophetabunt filii vestri et filiæ vestræ, et juvenes visiones videbunt, et senes somnia somniabunt: et super servos meos et ancillas meas effundam de Spiritu meo: et dabo signa in cœlo sursum et in terra deorsum (Joel ii, 28-30). Unde etiam stella ad locum supradictorum martyrum, ab his qui tunc in agro fuerunt, occurrisse refertur. Nam si placet, secundæ visionis fructum incipiamus ostendere. Igitur post quadraginta ferme dies ex quo ista revelata sunt, in loco memoratorum martyrum nostrorum, quo illa pergentem se viderat, susceptis ibi reliquiis, atque sacramentis fidelium celebratis, exinde cantantes atque psallentes cum immensæ multitudinis choris ad civitatem regredi cœpimus, per illam vero viam quæ puellæ monstrata est, portabantur sancti episcopi gremio residentis vehiculo sanctæ reliquiæ, velut ille parvulus candidatus qui ab illa fuerat visus. In sui quippe corporis portione parvulus ille cognoscitur confessor Christi. Dubitas an martyr parvulus sit? nonne propter innocentiam infantulus, propter humilitatem pusillus est? Ipse denique hymnus qui ore universi populi cantabatur, id est. Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini (Psal.","english":"It is wonderful to tell how great a truth followed this vision as well; nor was it without reason that of old through the prophet it was foretold by the divine voice: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; and upon my servants and my handmaids I will pour out of my Spirit; and I will give signs in heaven above and on earth below (Joel 2:28-30). Whence also a star is reported to have met those who were then in the field, at the place of the aforesaid martyrs. For if it pleases, let us begin to show the fruit of the second vision. So then, after nearly forty days from when these things were revealed, at the place of our remembered martyrs, where she had seen herself going, the relics having been received there and the sacraments of the faithful celebrated, from there we began to return to the city singing and chanting with choirs of an immense multitude; and along that road which had been shown to the girl, the holy relics were carried in the lap of the holy bishop as he sat in a vehicle, like that little child in white whom she had seen. For in a portion of his own body that little one is recognized as a confessor of Christ. Do you doubt that the martyr is little? Is he not a little infant on account of innocence, and little on account of humility? Finally, the hymn itself which was sung by the mouth of the whole people, that is, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (Ps.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":7,"ref":"p7","source":"cxvii, 26), quid aliud, dum repetita voce cantaretur, significasse intelligitur, nisi quod illa audiente dicebatur. Confessor Christi, confessor Christi? Jam vero sicut ostensum erat puellæ, ita cereis luminaribusque fulgebant. Eamdem quoque, quam illa per visionem viderat, nos etiam intravimus ecclesiam. Unum aliquid ultimum de omni visione jam restat, quod puella confessorem illum in pulpitum levatum esse conspexerat, et extensis manibus dicentem populis audierat, Ecce habetis martyrem. Hoc quoque qualiter impletum sit divina procuratione ad tempus dignamini accipere. Eodem namque die in quo ingressæ sunt ecclesiam beati Stephani reliquiæ, in ipso principio canonicarum lectionum, epistola ad nos quoque delata cujusdam sancti episcopi, Severi nomine, Minoricensis insulæ, de pulpito in aures Ecclesiæ cum ingenti favore recitata est: quæ continebat gloriosi Stephani virtutes, quas in insula memorata per præsentiam reliquiarum suarum in salutem omnium illic credentium perfecerat Judæorum. Unde ex hac recitatione talium factorum suorum tanquam extensione manuum suarum acclamantibus et exsultantibus fidelibus ipse dicere videretur, Ecce habetis martyrem. Verum hæc dicta sint, ut commendare fratribus aliquo modo possemus, quam non utcumque et temere, sed divina dignatione ad nos quantumlibet homines peccatores, sancti Stephani reliquiæ videantur pervenisse.","english":"(cxvii, 26), what else is understood to have been signified, while it was being chanted with repeated voice, except that it was being said in her hearing? Confessor of Christ, confessor of Christ? And indeed, just as had been shown to the girl, so they shone with wax and lights. We too entered the same church that she had seen through the vision. One last point remains from the whole vision: that the girl had seen that confessor raised up into the pulpit, and had heard him saying to the people with hands outstretched, Behold, you have the martyr. How this too was fulfilled by divine providence in time, deign to receive. For on the same day on which the relics of blessed Stephen entered the church, at the very beginning of the canonical readings, a letter was brought to us also, of a certain holy bishop named Severus, of the island of Minorca, and was read from the pulpit into the ears of the Church with immense favor; it contained the virtues of the glorious Stephen, which he had accomplished in the aforementioned island through the presence of his relics for the salvation of all the Jews there who believed. Hence, from this recitation of such deeds of his, as if by the stretching out of his hands, with the faithful acclaiming and exulting, he himself seemed to say, Behold, you have the martyr. But let these things have been said, that we might in some way commend to the brothers how not in any haphazard or rash manner, but by divine condescension, the relics of Saint Stephen appear to have come to us, however much we are sinful men.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":8,"ref":"p8","source":"CAPUT III. — De muliere cæca, quæ pallam cum reliquiis contigit, et visum recepit.\n\nNunc ergo, sicut promisimus, ad notiora miracula veniamus. Cum igitur ejusdem diei vespere in loco absidæ super cathedram velatam essent reliquiæ constitutæ, mulier quædam nomine Hilara, oculis capta, civibus nota panaria, excitata tantæ gloriæ Martyris fide, et nulla incredulitatis fluctuans dubitatione (Qui (??) hæsitat, inquit apostolus Jacobus, æstimabitur tempestati maris, quæ a vento movetur et circumfertur [Jacobi, i 6]): hæc itaque in fide roborata, et in spe percipiendi luminis confirmata, ac divinæ gratiæ amore inflammata, ad locum ubi erant reliquiæ, quo ipsa per se impedientibus carnis oculis corpore appropinquare non poterat, sed lucentibus oculis cordis spiritu jam pervenerat; rogavit quamdam feminam religiosam, ut sibi manum d(??)ret, et se illuc duceret, unde lucem se recepturam esse confideret. Quo cum alienæ manus auxilio deducta fuisset, pallam super reliquias positam manu errabunda comprehendit, statimque suis utrisque luminibus applicavit; atque exinde nondum quidem corpore illuminata, sed jam luce fidei irradiata discessit. Nam gloriosi Martyris nomen nunc ore, nunc corde precando, etiam Christum Dominum non reticebat.","english":"CHAPTER III. — Concerning the blind woman who touched the pall with the relics and received her sight.\n\nNow therefore, as we promised, let us come to better-known miracles. When, then, on the evening of that same day, the relics had been placed in the apse upon a draped chair, a certain woman named Hilara, deprived of her eyes, a bread-seller known to the citizens, stirred by faith in the great glory of the Martyr, and wavering with no doubt of unbelief (He who hesitates, says the apostle James, will be considered like a wave of the sea, which is moved by the wind and carried about [James 1:6]): she, therefore, strengthened in faith, and confirmed in hope of receiving light, and inflamed with love of divine grace, to the place where the relics were—where she herself could not approach in body by her own means, since the eyes of the flesh hindered her, but had already arrived in spirit with the shining eyes of the heart—asked a certain religious woman to give her her hand and lead her there, whence she trusted she would receive light. When she had been led there with the help of another's hand, she grasped with a wandering hand the pall placed over the relics, and immediately applied it to both her eyes; and from then on, though not yet illuminated in body, but already irradiated with the light of faith, she departed. For by praying the name of the glorious Martyr, now with her mouth, now with her heart, she did not even keep silent about Christ the Lord.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[{"kind":"lacuna","severity":"caution","text":"The source is fragmentary here: the edition marks a break or an editorial bracket, and the English carries across it. Treat the bridge as supplied, not translated."}]},{"i":9,"ref":"p9","source":"Quæ cum domum suam fuisset reducta, intra ipsos quoque domesticos parietes ad evincendas c(??)citatis tenebras, quasi adversus Amalec hostem Jesu 1, continuata oratione pugnabat (Exod. xvii). Parum aliquid noctis transierat, cum ecce mulier, ostii sui limen egressa, paulatim cœpit: lumen recipere, ita ut parietes contra positos aspiceret, et silices plateæ visu discerneret. Statimque filium suum appellavit, atque his verbis alloqui cœpit: Fili, nonne isti parietes de domo infantis villici sunt? Ecce et silices de platea. Et dixit ei filius suus: Utquid mentiris? putans quod illa tentando id diceret, non videndo. Iterum levans oculos ad cœlum: Ecce video, inquit, et lunam super theatrum adhuc dimidiam. Dixitque ei filius suus: Quare te faciebas non videre? quasi nunquam antea mater ejus cæca fuisset, sed potius cæcitatem finxisset 2. Nec mirum si animalis homo nondum perciperet quæ sunt Spiritus Dei (I Cor. ii, 14), ignorans quod olim prædictum esset: Tunc aperientur oculi cæcorum (Isai., xxxv, 5). Verum illa non simulatæ pristinæ cæcitatis, ut filius putabat; sed conscia perceptæ novæ lucis, ut veritas habebat, Amico Christi gratias agebat: quoniam non frustra Deo cantaverat, Tu illuminabis lucernam meam, Domine, Deus meus, illuminabis tenebras meas (Psal. xvii, 32); et, Illuminans tu mirabiliter a montibus æternis (Psal.","english":"When she had been led back to her own house, within the very walls of her home she fought with unceasing prayer to drive out the darkness of blindness, as if against Amalek, the enemy of Joshua. A little of the night had passed when, behold, the woman, having stepped out onto the threshold of her door, began gradually to receive light, so that she could see the walls opposite her and discern with her sight the stones of the pavement. And at once she called her son and began to address him with these words: \"Son, are these not the walls of the house of the tenant farmer's child? Look, and the stones of the pavement.\" And her son said to her: \"Why do you lie?\" — thinking that she said this by way of testing, not from seeing. Again, lifting her eyes to the sky, she said: \"Look, I see the moon over the theater, still half full.\" And her son said to her: \"Why were you pretending not to see?\" — as though his mother had never before been blind, but had rather feigned her blindness. Nor is it surprising if the natural man, not yet perceiving the things that are of the Spirit of God, did not know what had long ago been foretold: \"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened.\" But she, aware not of a feigned former blindness, as her son thought, but of a newly received light, as the truth held, gave thanks to the friend of Christ, because she had not sung to God in vain: \"You will light my lamp, O Lord; my God, you will enlighten my darkness\"; and, \"You who wonderfully enlighten from the eternal mountains.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":10,"ref":"p10","source":"lxxv, 5): quæ sic de montibus æternis exaudita sit et illuminata. Altera die mane ad ecclesiam sola, nullo alio comitante, sed proprio lumine deducente, perrexit, laudes Dei et Amici Dei non abscondit, quid in se mirabiliter gestum fuisset, congratulantibus et admirantibus fidelibus enarravit. Hoc ergo primum notum est apud nos in adventu sanctarum reliquiarum.\n\nCAPUT IV. — De homine qui cadens pedem fregerat, et salvus factus est; et de multis qui a variis morbis curati sunt.\n\nPer idem tempus quidam civitatis tonsor, qui Concordius vocabatur, pedem cadendo fregerat. Is diu lecto decumbens, variis doloribus cruciabatur. Cum hinc eum paupertatis cogitatio, inde parvulorum (??)iorum sollicitudo in tanto casus sui mœrore positum maceraret, ecce quadam nocte, ipso quidem dormiente, sed non illo dormitante neque obdormiente qui custodit Israel (Psal. cxx, 4), qui pusillum et magnum fecit, et æqualiter est illi cura pro omnibus (Sap. vi, 8), videt per somnium perductum se in arduum quemdam et angustum cujusdam montis ascensum, unde nulla sibi esset facultas remeandi, nullus exitus evadendi. Ex quo quid aliud demonstrabatur, quam ut sciret atque intelligeret in angustiis pressurarum suarum non humanum, sed solius Dei deberi quærere auxilium?","english":"(75:5): she who was thus heard and enlightened from the eternal mountains. On the next day in the morning she went to the church alone, with no one else accompanying her, but with her own light leading the way; she did not hide the praises of God and of the Friend of God, and she recounted to the faithful, who rejoiced with her and marveled, what had been wondrously done in her. This, then, was the first thing made known among us at the arrival of the holy relics.\n\nCHAPTER IV. — Concerning the man who fell and broke his foot, and was made whole; and concerning many who were cured of various diseases.\n\nAt that same time a certain barber of the city, who was called Concordius, had broken his foot by falling. He lay in bed for a long time, tormented by various pains. While on one side the thought of poverty and on the other anxiety for his little children wore him down, placed as he was in such great grief over his misfortune, behold, one night, while he himself was indeed sleeping, but He was not sleeping or slumbering who keeps Israel (Ps. 120:4), who made the small and the great, and who has equal care for all (Wis. 6:8)—he sees in a dream that he was led to a certain steep and narrow ascent of a mountain, from which there was no means for him to return, no way out to escape. What else was shown by this than that he should know and understand that in the straits of his afflictions he ought to seek help not from man, but from God alone?","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":11,"ref":"p11","source":"Namque apparuisse sibi ait quamdam reverendi visus feminam, quæ sibi sic afflicto et dolorum an aritudine repleto, speciem fici traderet, per cujus dulcedinis significationem spiritualis gratiæ perciperet suavitatem. Unde etiam fiduciam impetrandi accipiens precibus insistebat, et sanitatem ab ea petebat. At illa, quæ typum procul dubio gestabat Ecclesiæ, Modo, inquit, accede ad sanctum Stephanum, et faciet te sanum. Quod dictum facti fides est subsecuta. Nam cum illa discederet, et ipse post eam relinqui se dolens diceret. Dimittis me, et ducis te? ecce videt illam, sicut illi promiserat, ad sanctum Stephanum accedentem et pro se rogantem ac dicentem his verbis: Rogo te per sanctitatem tuam, cura illum; miserere illi 1, miserere filiorum ejus, libera hominem innocentem de tribulatione. Tum illum qui rogabatur vidit ad se atque ad cubiculum in quo jacebat, ingredientem amictum veste candida, specie decora. Quem mox ut agnovit, ut ægrotus medicum, egenus copiosum, supplex patronum, his verbis cum lacrymis rogabat dicens: Chare Christi amice, cura me, libera me de tribulatione, miserere mihi, miserere filiis meis. Vix precator verba finierat, et jam precum exauditor precibus respondebat, dicens: Surge, salvus factus es.","english":"For she said that there had appeared to her a certain woman of venerable appearance, who, when she was thus afflicted and filled with the distress of sorrows, handed her the likeness of a fig, through the signification of whose sweetness she might perceive the sweetness of spiritual grace. Hence also, receiving confidence to entreat, she persisted in prayers and asked of her health. But she, who without doubt bore the figure of the Church, said: Now go to Saint Stephen, and he will make you well. The fulfillment of the deed followed this saying. For when she was departing, and he, grieving that he was being left behind her, said, You are leaving me, and taking yourself away? behold, he sees her, as she had promised him, approaching Saint Stephen and pleading on his behalf and saying these words: I ask you by your holiness, heal him; have mercy on him, have mercy on his sons, free an innocent man from tribulation. Then he saw the one who was being asked entering to himself and to the chamber in which he lay, clothed in a white garment, of beautiful appearance. As soon as he recognized him, as a sick man recognizes a physician, a needy man a wealthy one, a suppliant his patron, he entreated him with these words and with tears, saying: Dear friend of Christ, heal me, free me from tribulation, have mercy on me, have mercy on my sons. Scarcely had the suppliant finished his words, and already the hearer of prayers was answering his prayers, saying: Rise, you are made well.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":12,"ref":"p12","source":"At ille statim in sermone jubentis, tanquam qui obdormiens corpore, sed vigilans spiritu audisset, continuo de lecto exsilivit, et ante lectum suum firmis gressibus incedere cœpit, ac sic verbum illud prophetiæ implevit. Et claudus saliet sicut cervus (Isai. xxxv, 6). Deinde mane surgit, votaque sua Martyribus, ubi eædem reliquiæ susceptæ sunt, reddere properavit. Quo propter itineris longitudinem baculo adhuc innitendum esse putavit. Ubi postquam diu oravit, cereos accendit, baculum dereliquit, atque exinde filium parvulum collo sustinens repedavit: in ecclesiam venit, et gloriam Dei atque Amici Dei sanitatis attestatione prædicavit. Post hæc reliquiis in ecclesia cum ingenti celebritate collocatis, tanquam proposita statione medicinæ (unde cantavimus, Suscepimus, Deus, misericordiam tuam in medio templi tui [Psal. xlvii, 10]), quanti ex illo die multitudinis undique concursus fieri cœpere, quanta beneficia fuerint collata, et quotidie conferantur, quanta miracula demonstrata, quot cæci illuminati paralytici sanati, quanti variis morbis passionibusque curati, sed et mortui suscitati, longum est nobis et pene impossibile universa vel memoria retinere, vel sermone digerere, vel stilo mandare; cum unumquodque miraculum sui generis quamdam historiam habere noscatur.","english":"And he, immediately at the word of the one commanding, as one who had heard while asleep in body but awake in spirit, at once leaped from his bed and began to walk with firm steps before his bed, and so fulfilled that word of prophecy: And the lame man shall leap like a stag (Isa. 35:6). Then in the morning he arose and hastened to pay his vows to the Martyrs, where those same relics had been received. For the journey's length, he still thought he must lean on a staff. After he had prayed there for a long time, he lit wax candles, left the staff behind, and from there returned carrying his little son on his neck; he came into the church and proclaimed the glory of God and of the Friend of God by the testimony of his healing. After these things, when the relics had been placed in the church with immense celebration, as at a station of healing set before us (whence we sang, We have received, O God, your mercy in the midst of your temple [Ps. 47:10]), how great a concourse of the multitude from every side began to be made from that day, how great benefits were conferred and are conferred daily, how great miracles were shown, how many blind were enlightened, how many paralytic healed, how many cured of various diseases and sufferings, and even how many dead raised—it is long for us and almost impossible to retain it all in memory, or to set it forth in speech, or to commit it to writing; since each miracle is known to have, as it were, its own history of its kind.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[{"kind":"lacuna","severity":"caution","text":"The source is fragmentary here: the edition marks a break or an editorial bracket, and the English carries across it. Treat the bridge as supplied, not translated."}]},{"i":13,"ref":"p13","source":"De quibus tamen omnibus, quæ neque explicare possumus, neque penitus reticere debemus, pauciora quæque et notiora eligimus, ut neque fastidientium aures inundemus, neque diligentium studia defraudemus.\n\nCAPUT V. — De muliere quæ pro marito suo sanctum Stephanum invocavit, et exaudita est.\n\nIgitur Memplonitani loci mulier quædam diu peregrinantis mariti nec de morte certa, nec de vita secura, cum triennii ferme tempus emensum esset, quo illa diversis opinionibus de conjuge exagitata in ancipiti et dubio vitæ suæ statu fuisset collocata, fluctuabat ex incerto pendens muliebris animus, et in quod se latus ægra projiceret ignorabat, dum hinc nuptiæ suaderentur, paupertas proponeretur, sollicitudo ingereretur, fragilitas carnis insidiaretur; rursum ex alia parte castitas, maritus, fama, religio ante oculos ponerentur: tandem inter hujuscemodi sibimet repugnantium cogitationum æstus, potentissimi advocati Stephani implorare debere patrocinia, non sine divina providentia est a quibusdam in ligata atque cohortata. Nam ad ejus Memoriam supplex advolavit, ibique se cum lacrymis stravit. Et dum orat, audire meruit, Maritus tuus venit. Propere illa domum rediit, et maritum incolumem invenit. Ita et conjugi castitas custodita, et Amico Dei quanta fuerit animæ· periclitantis cura, cognitum factum est in Dei mirabili gratia.","english":"Nevertheless, from all these things, which we can neither fully explain nor entirely pass over in silence, we choose the fewer and the better known, so that we neither flood the ears of the fastidious nor defraud the zeal of the diligent.\n\nCHAPTER V. — Concerning the woman who invoked Saint Stephen on behalf of her husband, and was heard.\n\nNow there was a certain woman of the place called Memplon, whose husband had long been abroad, and who was neither certain of his death nor secure of his life. When nearly the space of three years had passed, during which she, agitated by various opinions concerning her spouse, had been placed in an uncertain and doubtful state of her life, the womanly mind wavered, hanging upon uncertainty, and she did not know to which side, in her distress, to cast herself: since on the one hand marriage was urged upon her, poverty was set before her, anxiety was pressed upon her, and the frailty of the flesh lay in wait; on the other hand chastity, her husband, reputation, and religion were set before her eyes. At last, amid the surging of thoughts thus conflicting with one another, she was bound and exhorted by certain persons—not without divine providence—that she ought to implore the patronage of the most powerful advocate Stephen. For as a suppliant she flew to his Memoria, and there prostrated herself with tears. And while she prayed, she merited to hear: Your husband is coming. She returned home swiftly and found her husband safe. Thus both was chastity preserved for her husband, and it was made known, in the wondrous grace of God, how great was the care of the Friend of God for a soul in peril.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":14,"ref":"p14","source":"CAPUT VI. — De homine quem collapsa domus oppresserat, cujus conjuge orante sanctum Stephanum, vivus inventus est.\n\nPer idem tempus, in nostra civitate quædam domus ruina collapsa hominem oppresserat, cui nomen Dativus est. Cujus exinde erutum corpus et ad vicinam domum translatum, funeris obsequio plangebatur. Proinde jugalis ejusdem, mariti sui tanto luctu perculsa, ad Memoriam gloriosi Stephani pro vita mariti cum lacrymis se prostratura perrexit. Ibidem dum illa aliquandiu ad aures Amici Dei fide pulsaret, precibus insisteret, ecce repente in conspectu plangentium funeri circumstantium et nomen venerandi Martyris invocantium, vir ejus in quo jacebat loco, aperire oculos, et corpus movere, videntibus et mirantibus omnibus qui aderant, cœpit: ac deinde post aliquantum ejusdem diei spatium emensum ad vivos rediens, et in se residens, ad illum cujus domus erat, dixit: Beatus es, frater, quoniam hodie angelus Dei domum tuam intravit. Et narrare cœpit quæ animæ suæ revelata fuissent. Dixit enim multitudine mortuorum se fuisse circumdatum, quorum alios agnovisset, alios ignorasset. Deinde quodam ingresso juvene, candida veste nitente, habitum diaconi præferente, et pietatis imperio jubente ac dicente illis mortuis, Recedite; statim illas mortuorum turbas non comparuisse. Tum illum ad se accessisse, ac sibi dixisse, Redde quod accepisti.","english":"CHAPTER VI. — Concerning the man who was crushed when a house collapsed, and who, through the prayers of his wife to Saint Stephen, was found alive.\n\nAt that same time, in our city, a certain house had collapsed in ruin and crushed a man whose name was Dativus. His body was then dug out and carried to a neighboring house, and was being mourned with the rites of burial. Accordingly his wife, struck by such great grief for her husband, went to the Memoria of the glorious Stephen, about to cast herself down in tears for her husband's life. There, while she for some time kept knocking with faith at the ears of the Friend of God and pressed on in prayers, behold, suddenly, in the sight of those who were mourning and standing around the funeral and calling upon the name of the venerable Martyr, her husband, in the place where he lay, began to open his eyes and move his body, with all who were present seeing and marveling; and then, after some space of that same day had passed, returning to the living and coming to himself, he said to him whose house it was: Blessed are you, brother, for today an angel of God entered your house. And he began to tell what had been revealed to his soul. For he said that he had been surrounded by a multitude of the dead, some of whom he had known and others he had not known. Then, when a certain young man had entered, shining in a white garment and bearing the appearance of a deacon, and by the command of piety was ordering and saying to those dead, Depart; immediately those crowds of the dead disappeared. Then he came to him and said to him, Give back what you have received.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":15,"ref":"p15","source":"Et se non intelligente, iterum illum repetisse, Redde quod accepisti. Sed et tertio ut redderet similiter imperatum sibi ab eo fuisse, seque respondisse, Num Symbolum jubes ut reddam? Et illo dicente, Redde; se ex ordine Symbolum reddidisse, et adjecisse, Si jubes, et Orationem dominicam reddo: atque illo annuente reddidit. Tunc ille signo salutari cor jacentis signavit, eique dixit: Surge jam salvus. Et surgens, sicut dictum est, salvus effectus est.\n\nCAPUT VII. — Ubi prohibuit sanctus episcopum, ne reliquias suas transferre præsumeret.\n\nEodem tempore venerabilis episcopus noster de ejusdem sancti reliquiis aliquam partem disposuerat in Promontoriensi ecclesia collocare: dies etiam quo id fieret statutus erat. Ecce ante diem fere tertium quidam Ecclesiæ nostræ presbyteri duo, quorum unus maturioris ætatis, Zumurus nomine, admonetur, quod ipse postmodum retulit, ut ad episcopum mane pergeret, eique diceret, ne perficeret quod de parte reliquiarum facere disposuisset. Quod cum memoratus presbyter negligenter habuisset, nec ad episcopum pertulisset, secunda vice et graviter arguitur, et alapa illisa in faciem verberatur. Alium autem presbyterum, Donatum nomine, retulisse quod in ipso loco Memoriæ eumdem episcopum nostrum viderit sibimet e diverso astantem, et sacramenta nivei candoris in palla manibus et collo gestantem.","english":"And, without understanding him, he asked him again, \"Give back what you received.\" And a third time he was similarly commanded by him to give it back, and he answered, \"Do you order me to recite the Symbol?\" And when he said, \"Give it back,\" he recited the Symbol in order, and added, \"If you order it, I also give back the Lord's Prayer\"; and when he nodded assent, he recited it. Then he signed the heart of the one lying there with the saving sign, and said to him, \"Rise now, saved.\" And rising, as has been said, he was made whole.\n\nCHAPTER VII. — Where the saint forbade the bishop to presume to transfer his relics.\n\nAt that same time our venerable bishop had arranged to place some portion of the same saint's relics in the church at Promontorium; the day on which this was to be done had also been fixed. Behold, almost three days beforehand, two of the priests of our church, one of whom was of more advanced age, by name Zumurus, was warned, as he himself afterwards reported, to go early to the bishop and tell him not to carry out what he had arranged concerning the portion of the relics. When the aforementioned priest had treated this negligently and had not conveyed it to the bishop, a second time he was rebuked severely and was struck with a blow on the face. But another priest, by name Donatus, reported that in that same place of the Memoria he had seen our said bishop standing over against him, carrying in his hands and about his neck the sacraments of snowy whiteness on a pall.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":16,"ref":"p16","source":"Quem protinus appellans, constanter dixit: Pone hic quod portas. Cumque ab alio in sinistra episcopi stante presbytero sibimet diceretur, Et quis alius portabit? ipse respondit, Quid ad te, modo hic quod ab episcopo portatur, loco suo reponatur? Quod sicut revelatum est, ita post diem tertium impletum est. Namque cum jam præcedente die vehiculum pararetur, ut cum parte reliquiarum episcopus proficisceretur, repente hujusce rei fama per civitatem divulgata, immensa ad ecclesiam multitudo confluxit. Tumultus et clamor magnus fieri cœpit, zelus fidei et amor Amici Dei omnes accendit. Circumdatur episcopus stipantibus turbis, rogatur, et tenetur, nec ante dimittitur, quam sacramento etiam interposito nihil se reliquiarum de civitate ablaturum esse polliceretur: quo ita demum illa populi pro zelo fidei tempestas placaretur, simulque reliquiæ in unum congregarentur, in eodem Memoriæ loco, ubi jam pars fuerat reliquiarum primitus collocata, ibi et alia pars similiter reponeretur. Donatus presbyter per somnium sacramenta portantem episcopum, hoc est sacratarum reliquiarum portionem gestantem, compellere, sicut dictum est, videbatur, ut in loco suo reponeretur quod ab eodem reportabatur. Ideo factum credo, ne ullus divisionis locus daretur, maxime quia in Ecclesia hoc agebatur, quæ primitus a Donatistarum divisione usurpata, postea usque in hodiernum unitati Catholicæ est restituta.","english":"Addressing him at once, he said firmly, \"Put down here what you are carrying.\" And when a presbyter standing at the bishop's left said to him, \"And who else will carry it?\" he himself replied, \"What is that to you? Let what is carried by the bishop be put back in its place here.\" And as it was revealed, so it was fulfilled after the third day. For when on the preceding day the carriage was already being made ready, so that the bishop might set out with part of the relics, suddenly the report of this matter was spread abroad through the city, and an immense multitude flocked to the church. An uproar and a great clamor began to arise; zeal for the faith and love for the Friend of God inflamed them all. The bishop was surrounded by the pressing crowds, entreated, and held fast, nor was he released before he promised, with an oath interposed as well, that he would take none of the relics away from the city. Only thus at last was that storm of the people, roused by zeal for the faith, calmed, and at the same time the relics were gathered together into one place, in that same place of the Memoria where a part of the relics had first been placed, so that the other part might likewise be put back there. Donatus the presbyter seemed in a dream to compel the bishop carrying the sacraments—that is, bearing a portion of the sacred relics—as has been said, to put back in its place what was being carried back by him. I believe this was done so that no occasion for division might be given, especially because this was being done in the Church which, having first been usurped by the division of the Donatists, was afterward, and to this day, restored to Catholic unity.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":17,"ref":"p17","source":"Unde etiam vocabulum sumpsit, ut ecclesia Restituta appellari meruerit.\n\nCAPUT VIII. De cæco qui capsellam reliquiarum tetigit, et visum recepit.\n\nSane codem quo hæc agebantur die, cum pars ipsa reliquiarum de monasterii habitaculo prolata cum ingenti celebritatis exsultatione et hymnorum choris resonantibus dulci modulatione manibus sacerdotis ad ecclesiam portaretur; ecce quidam cæcus apprehendens capsellam argenteam, in qua erat reliquiarum portio memorata, cœpit fortissima fide regno cœlorum vim facere. Et quia qui vim faciunt, diripiunt illud (Matth. xi, 12), continuo lumen recepit. Unde universæ Ecclesiæ suæ Christus non modicum gaudium cumulavit.\n\nCAPUT IX. — De duobus catenatis per gloriosum Stephanum liberatis.\n\nItem cum quidam in custodia publica catenarum nexibus vincti districtius haberentur, eorum unus cruciatu pœnæ ac dolore compunctus, sanctum Stephanum Christi charum in auxilium invocabat. Ecce vero inter lacrymas vocesque ejulantis, subito de manibus ejus corruere catenæ. Quo facto, cum præposito custodiæ solutus ultro se ipsum ingessisset, et rem tanti miraculi confessus fuisset, non est ausus custos rursum ei vincula injicere, sed plane ex hoc quasi cautior et sollicitior effectus alium pariter vinctum arctius fortiusque constrinxit: quasi divinæ potentiæ possit esse quidquam insolubile, ignorans quia sermo Dei non est alligatus (II Tim. ii, 9).","english":"From this it also took its name, so that the church deserved to be called Restituta.\n\nCHAPTER VIII. Concerning the blind man who touched the reliquary and received his sight.\n\nIndeed, on the very day when these things were being done, when that portion of the relics had been brought out from the dwelling of the monastery and was being carried by the hands of the priest to the church with immense rejoicing of celebration and with choirs of hymns resounding in sweet melody, behold, a certain blind man, grasping the silver reliquary in which was the aforementioned portion of the relics, began with most steadfast faith to do violence to the kingdom of heaven. And because those who do violence seize it (Matthew 11:12), he immediately received his sight. Wherefore Christ heaped no small joy upon his whole Church.\n\nCHAPTER IX. — Concerning two chained men set free through the glorious Stephen.\n\nLikewise, when certain men were being held rather strictly in the public prison, bound by chains, one of them, stung by the torment of punishment and by pain, was calling upon the beloved Stephen of Christ for aid. Behold, truly, amid the tears and cries of the wailing man, the chains suddenly fell from his hands. When this was done, since he had been released and had presented himself of his own accord to the overseer of the prison, and had confessed the matter of so great a miracle, the overseer did not dare to put chains on him again, but plainly, having become from this as it were more cautious and more anxious, he bound another prisoner likewise more tightly and more strongly: as if anything could be insoluble to divine power, not knowing that the word of God is not bound (2 Timothy 2:9).","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":18,"ref":"p18","source":"Verum cum ille simili vinculorum asperitate compulsus ad eumdem tanti miraculi auctorem talibus, sicut socius ejus, vocibus et fletibus suppliciter exclamaret, ipse quoque exaudiri meruit, et similiter catenis resolutis opera Dei confitendo narravit.\n\nCAPUT. X. — De reo soluto, et per meritum sancti Stephani sanato.\n\nAlio item vincto cum in thermis publicis vapore caloris catenarum vulnera intumescerent, et gravissimum dolorem eidem concitarent, adfuit fides, ut Amici Dei opem imploraret. Qui cum ad piscinalem egressus esset, subito etiam ipsi catenæ ceciderunt, et omnes quotquot viderunt, Christum atque ejus primum confessorem Stephanum magnificare cœperunt.\n\nCAPUT XI. — Ubi paralyticus meruit sanitatem.\n\nParalyticus territorii Hipponensis Zaritorum 1, vocabulo Restitutus, faber ferrarius, per plurimum tempus lecto decumbens, non pedibus poterat incedere, non linguam in verba resolvere: tandem beati Stephani ad se fama perlata, parentes proprios nutu quo poterat hortabatur, ut ad Memoriam gloriosi Martyris portaretur.","english":"But when that man, compelled by a like severity of chains, cried out suppliantly to the same author of so great a miracle with words and tears like his companion, he too deserved to be heard, and in like manner, his chains being loosed, he confessed and proclaimed the works of God.\n\nCHAPTER X. — Concerning the guilty man loosed and healed through the merit of Saint Stephen.\n\nAgain, when another man in chains was in the public baths, and the heat caused the wounds from his chains to swell and stirred up the most grievous pain in him, faith came to his aid, so that he implored the help of the Friend of God. And when he had gone out to the pool, suddenly even his chains fell off, and all who saw it began to magnify Christ and Stephen, His first confessor.\n\nCHAPTER XI. — Where the paralytic deserved healing.\n\nA paralytic from the territory of Hippo of the Zaritani, by name Restitutus, a blacksmith, had lain on his bed for a very long time; he could not walk on his feet, nor loosen his tongue into words. At length, when the fame of blessed Stephen was brought to him, he urged his own parents by a nod, as best he could, to carry him to the Memorial of the glorious Martyr.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":19,"ref":"p19","source":"Quo facto, dum ibidem hiemis multo tempore in tanta frigoris asperitate super p(??)vimentum tessellæ jaceret in oratione (quod utique contrarium hujusmodi infirmitatibus esse solet), fere vigesima die per somnium noctu apparuisse sibimet indicavit quemdam juvenili forma præditum, speciosa etiam veste et habitu decorum, seque tunc ab illo accersitum, sibique esse jussum ut ad locum Memoriæ suis pedibus accederet: et ex illo cœpisse paulatim gressum et linguam ad propria officia aliquantulum revocare. Cumque quartus mensis fuisset emensus, eo quod nondum adhuc plenam receperat sanitatem, cogitare cœpit ad propria remeare; seque tunc admonitum fuisse ait sibique dictum esse, ne f(??)stinare vellet, sed adhuc quatuor menses exspectare deberet, quo tunc domum suam propriis pedibus repedaret. Quod omnino sicut promissum est, ita die et tempore denuntiato adimpletum est. Nam sicut et nostra conscientia testis est, et ipse in gloriam Dei confessus est, et pedibus suis ad propria remeavit, et ore proprio verba distinctius pronuntiare cœpit.","english":"When this had been done, while he lay there in prayer for much of the winter in such harsh cold upon the tessellated pavement (which is, of course, usually contrary to infirmities of this kind), on about the twentieth day he reported that by night in a dream a certain man appeared to him, endowed with a youthful form and comely also in beautiful clothing and attire, and that he was then summoned by him and commanded to go on his own feet to the place of the Memory; and from that time he began gradually to recall his step and his tongue somewhat to their proper functions. And when the fourth month had passed, because he had not yet fully recovered his health, he began to think of returning to his own home; and he said that he was then warned and told not to be in haste, but that he ought still to wait four months, so that he might then return to his own house on his own feet. And this was fulfilled altogether just as it had been promised, on the very day and at the time foretold. For, as our own conscience is witness, and as he himself confessed to the glory of God, he returned to his own home on his own feet, and with his own mouth began to pronounce words more distinctly.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":20,"ref":"p20","source":"CAPUT XII. Ubi quidam paralysi linguæ et pedum liberatus est.\n\nQuidam de civitate Uticensi paralysi pedibus et lingua implicatus lecto detinebatur. Cujus mater ad sancti Stephani Memoriam fide firmissima convolavit, secumque, postquam filii sui causam optimo advocato commisit, exinde aliquid pulveris pro sanctificatione abstulit, et reverteas domum filio jacenti adhibuit. Ex quo mox ille sanitatis beneficium sentiens, de lecto surrexit, et non solum pedibus suis ambulare cœpit, sed etiam per duodecim millia passuum proprio gressu ad beati Martyris Memoriam pervenit, gratias in corde suo agens de pedum sanitate percepta, sed adhuc preces fundens de propria lingua solvenda. Proinde exuens sibi manicam tunicæ suæ, eo quod orarium non haberet, per fenestellam Memoriæ ad interiora loca sanctarum reliquiarum manu injecta mittebat, atque inde rursum dexteram reducens ori suo admovebat, et linguam contingendo paulatim nodos loquendi gratia fidei resolvebat. Hoc enim sæpius faciendo, tanquam salutares cibos de cœlesti assumens cellario, ægrotanti suo adhibuit membro: unde arentem linguam refecit, et loquendi officium adjutus Dei gratia idoneum recepit: ac sic in utrisque illa suppleta est prophetia, per quam olim dictum est, Et plana 3· erit lingua mutorum (Isai. xxxv, 6).","english":"CHAPTER XII. Where a certain man was freed from paralysis of the tongue and feet.\n\nA certain man from the city of Utica, afflicted with paralysis of the feet and tongue, was confined to his bed. His mother flew with the firmest faith to the Memorial of Saint Stephen, and after she had entrusted her son's cause to that best of advocates, she took away from there some of the dust for sanctification, and returning home applied it to her son as he lay there. At once, sensing the benefit of health from it, he rose from his bed, and not only began to walk on his own feet, but even traveled twelve thousand paces on foot to the Memorial of the blessed Martyr, giving thanks in his heart for the health of his feet that he had received, but still pouring out prayers for his own tongue to be loosed. Accordingly, taking off the sleeve of his tunic, since he had no orarium, he put his hand through the little window of the Memorial into the inner places of the holy relics, and from there drawing his right hand back again, he brought it to his mouth, and by touching his tongue, little by little, by the grace of faith, he untied the knots of speech. For by doing this rather often, as if taking wholesome foods from a heavenly storehouse, he applied them to his ailing member; hence he restored his parched tongue, and with the help of God's grace received a fit office of speaking; and thus in both respects that prophecy was fulfilled which was once spoken, And the tongue of the dumb shall be plain (Isa. 35:6).","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":21,"ref":"p21","source":"CAPUT XIII. — Ubi cæcus Pisitanus lumen recepit oculorum.\n\nCæcus etiam quidam Pisitanæ civitatis, cui vocabulum est Donatianus, ad stationem potentissimi medici Stephani advenit. Ibi denique pulsans fidei pietate, die octavo, tanquam dominicæ resurrectionis sacramento, quæ facta est a die quidem passionis tertio, sed in dierum numero post sabbatum octavo, eo die, ut dixi, per fidem lumen oculorum recepit, quando lucem mentium universus mundus per Domini Resurrectionem excepit. Qui cum vota sua cupiens sancto Martyri reddere, argenteam offerret pro sua dovotione candelam (nec immerito candelam offerebat, qui lumen receperat); is accersitus a ven(??)- rabili episcopo, atque interrogatus ut ei diceret quid sibi præstitum esset, quare illud donum offerret, astante universa Ecclesia, etiam ore confessus est, quod et corde et corpore, spirituali archiatro curante, illuminatus redditus est. CAPUT XIV. — Ubi cuidam sanctus Stephanus apparuit, qui audierat filium suum a latronibus interfectum.","english":"CHAPTER XIII. — Where a blind man of Pisita received the light of his eyes.\n\nA certain blind man also of the city of Pisita, whose name was Donatianus, came to the station of the most powerful physician Stephen. There at last, knocking with the piety of faith, on the eighth day, as by the sacrament of the Lord's resurrection, which was accomplished on the third day from the day of the passion, but in the number of days after the sabbath the eighth, on that day, as I said, through faith he received the light of his eyes, when the whole world received the light of minds through the Lord's Resurrection. And he, desiring to pay his vows to the holy Martyr, offered a silver candle for his devotion (nor undeservedly did he offer a candle, who had received light); he, having been summoned by the venerable bishop, and asked to tell him what had been bestowed upon him, and why he was offering that gift, with the whole Church standing by, confessed even with his mouth what he had been granted to be enlightened in both heart and body, with the spiritual chief physician healing him. CHAPTER XIV. — Where the holy Stephen appeared to a certain man who had heard that his son had been killed by robbers.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":22,"ref":"p22","source":"Ubi lanius nostræ civitatis nomine Rusticanus 2, filium suum cum alio homine suo porcos mercatum, connumeratis solidis, miserat fere ad ducenta millia passuum: cumque complures transacti essent dies, neque illi adhuc reversi fuissent, a quodam amico suo argui et increpari cœpit, eo quod filium suum et hominem suum in tam longinquam regionem mittere voluisset, quos jam a latronibus occisos se dixit audisse. Quo audito, ille quasi miserabili luctu perculsus domum flens lugensque regressus est. Lacrymis pro cibo tota pastus est die. Interea cum sic nox eum oppressum mœroris tenebris invenisset, ecce per somnium videt sibi apparere quemdam decorum juvenem, cujusdam honorati et primarii civitatis viri nomine Uzalensis vultum habitumque præferentem, eumque hilari facie sibi dixisse: Quid ploras? Respondisse autem se, ut ipsius utar simplicibus verbis: Domine meus, per bonitatem tuam ideo ploro, quia audivi quod homo meus et filius meus occisi sunt. At ille consolans eum ait illi: Non sunt occisi. Tamen qui sum ego, ait? Ille respondit: Domnus meus Uzalensis. Bene: ait ipse 5, dixisti, quia Uzalensis sum, sed non sum ipse quem putas: ego enim sum Stephanus. Sane unde tristis es de filio tuo et homine tuo, scias quod jam huc habent redeuntes faciem.","english":"CHAPTER XIV. — Where Rusticanus, a butcher of our city, received consolation concerning his son and servant. A butcher of our city named Rusticanus had sent his son, together with another of his men, to buy pigs, having counted out the money, a journey of nearly two hundred thousand paces; and when several days had passed and they had not yet returned, he began to be reproached and upbraided by a certain friend of his, for having wished to send his son and his man into so distant a region, whom he said he had already heard were killed by robbers. Hearing this, he, as if struck by a pitiable grief, returned home weeping and mourning. He fed on tears for food the whole day. Meanwhile, when night had found him thus oppressed by the darkness of sorrow, behold, in a dream he sees a certain comely young man appear to him, bearing the face and appearance of a certain honored and leading man of the city named Uzalensis, and he said to him with a cheerful face: Why do you weep? But he answered, to use his own simple words: My lord, through your goodness I weep for this reason, because I have heard that my man and my son have been killed. And he, consoling him, said to him: They have not been killed. But who am I, he said? He answered: My lord Uzalensis. Well, he himself said, you have spoken rightly, for I am Uzalensis, but I am not the one you think: for I am Stephen. Indeed, as to why you are sad concerning your son and your man, know that they are already on their way back here.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":23,"ref":"p23","source":"Nam dedisti illis solidos viginti quinque, insuper autem acceperunt creditam pecuniam prope viginti millia folles, et adducunt secum porcos numero quadraginta quatuor, omnes electos. Venient autem die Romanorum civitatis, hora prima. Hæc itaque omnia sicut per somnium revelata sunt, ita postea re ipsa completa sunt. Namque et homines incolumes reversi sunt, et porci tot numero adducti, et summa pecuniæ creditæ eadem inventa, et dies horaque adventus illorum prædicta sine ullo prorsus errore est consecuta. CAPUT XV. — De parvulo qui catechumenus mortuas est, et meritis sancti Stephani matri vivus restitutus est.\n\nCujusdam mulieris filius parvulus mortuus catechumenus erat. Qui matris portatus manibus cum ingenti ejulatu et miserabili vociferatione ante ipsam Memoriam gloriosi Stephani fuit projectus, tradente illa mortuum, ut ab eo reciperet vivum. Cumque ad aures Amici Dei pulsaret fide pietatis, percussa duplici luctu orbitatis, quod et in præsenti vita filium perdidisset, et in futura, utpote sine gratia Baptismi, salvum habere non posset, ecce inter diu lamentantis et vociferantis dolorem et clamorem miseræ matris, repente parvulo spiritus redditur, vita tribuitur, vox viventi conceditur.","english":"For you gave them twenty-five solidi, and in addition they received credit money, nearly twenty thousand purses, and they bring with them pigs, forty-four in number, all choice ones. They will come, moreover, on the day of the Roman city, at the first hour. And so all these things, just as they were revealed in a dream, were afterward fulfilled in reality. For both the men returned unharmed, and the pigs were brought in that same number, and the sum of the credit money was found to be the same, and the day and hour of their arrival, foretold, followed without any error at all. CHAPTER XV. — Concerning the little boy who died a catechumen and, by the merits of Saint Stephen, was restored alive to his mother.\n\nA certain woman's little son had died a catechumen. Carried in his mother's hands, with immense wailing and pitiable outcry, he was cast down before the Memoria of the glorious Stephen, she handing over the dead that she might receive him back alive. And when she knocked at the ears of the Friend of God with the faith of piety, struck by a double grief of bereavement—because she had lost her son in the present life, and in the future could not have him saved, since he was without the grace of Baptism—behold, amid the grief and clamor of the wretched mother lamenting and crying out throughout the day, suddenly breath is restored to the little boy, life is granted, and voice is given to the living child.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":24,"ref":"p24","source":"Continuo presbyter accersitur, Baptismus parvulo traditur, sacramenta complentur, atque ita a peccatorum lethali catena anima liberata, statim etiam mortalis carnis vinculo exuitur, et ad Dei spirituales amplexus summa celeritate liberata dimittitur. Ita et matri non modica consolatione concessa gaudere de redditio filio datur 1, et parvulo salus vera conceditur. Qui profecto ob hoc ad modicum vitam recepit, ne in æternum moreretur; ob hoc ad tempus mori meruit, ut vita perpetua frueretur.\n\nHæc interim de multis et pene in(??)nitis miraculis pauciora decerpsimus, ne in præsenti auditoribus propter festivitatem Martyris de longinquo advenientibus forsitan oneri esse possemus. Cæterum quod nobis difficillimum est, si omnia recordari ac recensere, ut superius dictum est, vellemus, librum prolixum faceremus. Ipsas enim notissimas clarissimasque virtutes ad prædicationem sui sibimet sufficere existimamus, quæ non indigent humanæ linguæ facultate, quoniam prævalent divinæ poten(??) perspicua veritate. Verumtamen devotionem nostram ad ædificationem fratrum in nomine Christi ex aliqua parte exhibere voluimus, ut paternæ obedientiæ mercedem orationibus vestris recipere et gloriosi Stephani, primi testis Christi, benedictionem favente divina misericordia possimus impetrare: per Christum Dominum nostrum, cui est honor et gloria in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.","english":"Immediately the presbyter is summoned, Baptism is given to the little child, the sacraments are completed, and thus the soul, freed from the deadly chain of sins, is at once also stripped of the bond of mortal flesh and, set free, is sent to God's spiritual embrace with the greatest swiftness. Thus also to the mother it is granted, by no small consolation, to rejoice over the return of her son, and to the little child true salvation is granted. He indeed received life for a brief time for this reason, that he might not die eternally; for this reason he deserved to die for a time, that he might enjoy perpetual life.\n\nIn the meantime we have culled these few from many and almost innumerable miracles, lest in the present we might perhaps be a burden to the hearers who have come from afar for the Martyr's feast. But if, as has been said above, we wished to recall and review all things—which is most difficult for us—we would make a lengthy book. For we consider that those very well-known and most illustrious virtues suffice of themselves for their own proclamation, which do not need the faculty of human language, since divine power prevails in manifest truth. Nevertheless we wished to show forth our devotion in some part for the edification of the brethren in the name of Christ, so that we may receive the reward of paternal obedience through your prayers and, with divine mercy favoring us, be able to obtain the blessing of the glorious Stephen, the first witness of Christ: through Christ our Lord, to whom is honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":25,"ref":"p25","source":"LIBER SECUNDUS.\n\nCAPUT PRIMUM. — Allocutio de libro altero ad præcedentem adjungendo.\n\nBene mecum recolit Sanctitas vestra, sanctissimi patres et fratres, quod cum in conventu nostræ hujus Uzalensis Ecclesiæ cum domini Stephani primi martyris Christi miracula fideliter descripta, et publica attestatione comprobata, ante hoc tempus vobis qui adfuistis de publico recitarentur, hoc quoque plenissimæ gratulationis munus, ipso Amico Dei, ut credimus, procurante. Dilectioni vestræ exhibitum, ut post recitationem divinorum operum atque gestorum, ipsarum etiam personarum in quibus illa mirabilia facta, quæcumque in præsenti reperiri potuerunt, demonstratio perspicua et professio propria, non solum scriptis nostris testimonium perhiberent, verum etiam oculis aspectibusque vestris fidem veritatis ingererent. Unde factum est ut, dum ipsæ virtutes Dei vestris auribus primitus per lectionem intimarentur, etiam visibus vestris oculata fide præsentarentur, ut illud in vobis quod in Psalmo scriptum est, compleretur, Sicut audivimus, ita et vidimus (Psal. xlvii, 9). Erat namque in tanta re cœlestis gloriæ spectaculum grande.","english":"BOOK TWO.\n\nCHAPTER ONE. — Address concerning the second book, to be joined to the preceding one.\n\nYour Holiness remembers well with me, most holy fathers and brothers, that when in the assembly of this our Church of Uzalis the miracles of the lord Stephen, the first martyr of Christ, faithfully written down and confirmed by public testimony, were read aloud from the public records before this time to you who were present, this also, the gift of most full rejoicing—with the Friend of God himself, as we believe, procuring it—was shown to your Charity: that after the reading of the divine works and deeds, a clear demonstration and personal confession of the very persons in whom those wondrous things were done, as many as could be found in the present time, should not only bear testimony through our writings, but also instill the faith of truth into your eyes and sight. Whence it came about that, while the very powers of God were first made known to your ears through reading, they were also presented to your sight by eyewitness faith, so that that which is written in the Psalm might be fulfilled in you: As we have heard, so also have we seen (Ps. 47:9). For in so great a matter the spectacle of heavenly glory was great.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":26,"ref":"p26","source":"Ubi enim pronuntiaverat lector quamlibet historiam, verbi gratia primitus de quadam cæca, postea illuminata, statim terminato sermone hæc eadem persona requisita in populo, et inventa, et in medium omnis Ecclesiæ producta, admirantibus et congratulantibus, videbatur sola jam sine ullo comite ac duce, sicut prius solebat, incedere, ipsaque etiam per se gradus absidæ conscendens, universis eminus conspicienda astabat, et testimonium in se divinæ gratiæ, ipsorum suorum illuminatione oculorum veluti fidelium testium tacita quadam prædicatione proclamabat. Item cum de paralytico sanato multis antea cognito præcessit lectio, continuo idem qui ab ejusmodi infirmitate fuerat curatus, similiter productus e populo propriis gradiens passibus, cum totius Ecclesiæ magno gaudio cernebatur, præconia divinæ laudis quibusdam contestans palpabilibus documentis, ipsis sanatis sui corporis integris membris. Dum hæc itaque gererentur, dumque uno eodemque tempore singulis quoque conscriptis etiam ipsæ res mirabiliter concordi unitate coirent; profecto putares non tam præterita narrari, quam potius præsentia demonstrari. Ita enim, quod sermone proferebatur, statim etiam ipso præsenti opere cernebatur, ut alio quodam majori miraculo mirabiliora ipsa miracula redderentur. Quis tam durus ac ferreus non in lacrymas erupit? non ad pietatem humilitatemque defluxit? Quis unquam digno præconio loqui possit?","english":"For when the lector had read out any account whatsoever—for example, first about a certain blind woman, afterward enlightened—as soon as the reading was finished, this same person was sought out among the people, found, and brought into the middle of the whole Church, while all marveled and rejoiced; and she seemed now to walk alone, without any companion or guide, as she had formerly been accustomed to do, and she herself also ascended the steps of the apse by herself and stood there to be seen by all from afar, and by the illumination of her own eyes, as by faithful witnesses, proclaimed the testimony of divine grace within her with a kind of silent preaching. Likewise, when the reading concerning a paralytic who had been healed, known to many beforehand, had gone before, immediately the same man who had been cured of that kind of infirmity, brought forth from the people in like manner, was seen walking on his own feet with the great joy of the whole Church, attesting the heralds of divine praise by certain tangible proofs, namely by the healed and sound members of his own body. While these things were being done, therefore, and while at one and the same time the very events themselves came together with each of the written accounts in wondrous and harmonious unity, surely you would think that not so much past events were being narrated as rather present events being demonstrated. For thus what was uttered by the reading was immediately also seen in the actual deed, so that by a certain greater miracle those very miracles were made more marvelous. Who was so hard and iron-hearted as not to burst into tears? Not to flow down into piety and humility? Who could ever speak of it with worthy praise?","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":27,"ref":"p27","source":"Fiebat clamor gratulationis in auditu lectionis: rursum quoque major exsultatio excitabatur in aspectu visionis; ac sic per auditum et visum penetrabat flamma divini amoris omnis tunc cor hominis. Hæc autem quia sine silentio præterire non potui, propter eorum qui illo tempore adfuerant memoriam renovandam, sive eorum quos ista latebant nequaquam scientiam defraudandam; et quia illa ipsa continuo quæ recitata sunt, statim etiam a religiosis plurimis cum clausula sua capta sunt atque descripta: idcirco ad alia quæ consecuta sunt narranda, hinc adjuvante Domino, quasi libelli secundi exordium sumpsimus. Referam igitur vobis, charissimi, adjutorio Domini nostri Jesu Christi, adhuc Stephani patroni communis mirabilia gestæ rei multisque bene notissimam in laudem et gloriam Dei memorabilem historiam.\n\nCAPUT II. — De Megetia quæ paralysi fuera percussa, quæ inter medicorum manus defecerat, et currens ad sanctum Stephanum a duplici infirmitate curata est.","english":"A cry of rejoicing arose at the hearing of the reading; then again a still greater exultation was stirred up at the sight of the vision; and so through hearing and sight the flame of divine love penetrated every human heart at that time. But because I could not pass over these things in silence—both to renew the memory of those who were present at that time, and by no means to withhold knowledge from those whom these things lay hidden—and because those very things which were read out were immediately, with their conclusion, grasped and written down by very many religious persons, therefore, with the Lord's help, I have taken up, as it were, the beginning of a second little book to narrate the other things which followed. I shall therefore relate to you, most beloved, with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, still further marvels of the deed wrought by Stephen, the common patron, and a memorable history, very well known to many, to the praise and glory of God.\n\nCHAPTER II. — Concerning Megetia, who had been struck by paralysis, who had failed in the hands of the physicians, and who, running to Saint Stephen, was cured of a twofold infirmity.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":28,"ref":"p28","source":"Carthaginensis civitatis quædam fuit, nobilis genere, nobilior Christi fide, Megetia nomine, dives in sæculo, ditior in Deo: cui christiana mater erat nomine Vitula: pagani autem erant maritus, et socer (??)ater. Hæc cum in utero haberet, quarto mense conceptus sui, nescio unde nauseando prius ac rejiciendo, dum frequentius pateretur stomachi concussionem orisque distensionem et vomitus provocationem, in pravitatem pestemque paralysis causa perducta est, ita ut exclusis a locis suis ipsis cardinibus dentium et arteriarum, nequaquam posset dilapsa ora constringere, neque pervios atque integros palati motus ac linguæ ad aliquid vel ore emittendum, vel in os recipiendum habere. Remanserat in femina pia et pudorata deformis quidam et aversandus aspectus, et ibi vitii macula corpori erat infixa, ubi utique nequaquam posset esse celata: facies quippe erat, de qua quidam dixerat, Fro(??)s hominem præfert, quæ tegi sine dedecore non potest. Cæterorum namque membrorum cum aliquo vitio officia præpediuntur, nonnulla industria rubori subtrahuntur. At vero cum ipse vultus aliqua fuerit fœditate turpatus, quidquid propter verecundiam tegminis adhibetur, ipsa verecundia magis augetur.","english":"There was a certain woman of the city of Carthage, noble by birth, nobler in the faith of Christ, by name Megetia, rich in the world, richer in God; her mother was a Christian named Vitula; but her husband and her father-in-law were pagans. While she was with child, in the fourth month of her conception, from I know not what cause, first through nausea and retching, while she suffered more frequently the heaving of her stomach, the distension of her mouth, and the provocation of vomiting, she was brought by this into a foul and pestilent condition of paralysis, so that, with the very hinges of her teeth and her arteries displaced from their places, she could by no means close her slackened mouth, nor have free and unimpaired movement of the palate and tongue for either emitting anything from the mouth or receiving anything into it. There remained in this pious and modest woman a certain deformed and loathsome appearance, and the stain of the defect was fixed upon her body there where it could by no means be concealed: for it was her face, of which someone had said, \"The face is what makes a human being, and it cannot be covered without disgrace.\" For the functions of the other members, when they are hindered by some defect, are in some measure withdrawn from shame by ingenuity. But when the countenance itself has been disfigured by some foulness, whatever is applied for the sake of modesty as a covering, that very modesty is the more increased.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":29,"ref":"p29","source":"Quid ergo faceret nobilis matrona, velamento abscondens ora vitiata, dum venientibus salutatum ad se æque aliis nobilibus feminis, aut osculum dare, aut sermonem conferre, ipsius vitæ societas atque humanitas compulisset, ut taceam de cibo et potu, quod vix ægre poterat manducare vel haurire? Namque ingenium industriaque medicorum diu multumque circa eam laborantium frustra, non solum nihil salutis ei conferre poterat, verum etiam in deterius causa pergebat. Nec immerito: ab illo enim conditore et redemptore omnis naturæ Deo nondum in illa reformabatur, quod nonnisi ejus virtute formatur, cujus censura omne hominis corpus et disciplina constringitur, et medicina laxatur. Tali igitur confecta mœrore ac dolore, nec quorumcumque remediorum aut medicamentorum ullo adjuta levamine, fere jam sexto mense, tabefactum fuerat delicatæ corpus animusque puellæ. Ob quam rem etiam illud quod gestabat a vitali spiritu jam destitutum, intra septa viscerum retinebat emortuum. Ita cum prius sub uno paralysis vitio jam ipsa vita horreret, accessit aliud gravius et periculosius, unde nec ipsa quidem vivendi possibilitas remaneret. Nam si puella sic defecerat sub vitiosi oris labore, quomodo posset vivere cum mortuorum viscerum collapsione? Septimus mensis incesserat, non vultus pestifer a pravitate exuebatur, non alvus onere mortuo exuebatur.","english":"What then was the noble matron to do, hiding her disfigured face with a veil, when the company and courtesy of her own husband forced her, as other noble women came to greet her, either to give a kiss or to hold conversation—to say nothing of food and drink, which she could scarcely manage to chew or swallow even with difficulty? For the skill and diligence of the physicians, who labored long and much over her in vain, could not only confer no healing upon her, but the case was even progressing toward the worse. Not without reason: for by that God, the founder and redeemer of all nature, there was not yet being reformed in her that which is formed only by his power, by whose judgment every human body is both bound and its medicine released. Wasted therefore by such grief and pain, and aided by no relief of any remedies or medicines whatsoever, by now almost the sixth month, the delicate body and the spirit of the girl had been consumed. For which reason she even retained within the walls of her entrails, already dead, that which she carried, now destitute of vital spirit. Thus, when she had already shuddered at life itself under the single affliction of paralysis, there came upon her another, graver and more dangerous, from which not even the possibility of living would remain. For if the girl had so failed under the affliction of her diseased mouth, how could she live with the collapse of her dead entrails? The seventh month had come on; the pestilential face was not being stripped of its foulness, nor was the belly being relieved of its dead burden.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":30,"ref":"p30","source":"Pontius vero, Megetiæ pater, socer autem Avitianus, et maritus Adventius, utpote adhuc gentilitatis erroribus adstricti, quidquid non solum per industriam medicorum, verum etiam per artes dæmoniorum ac superstitiosarum figmenta vanitatum, quasi pro vita intermorientis Megetiæ poterant attentare, frustra omnino atque inaniter desudabant. Sed error infelix, quid saluti humanæ te crederes posse conferre, quam studuisti semper auferre? Refellit te vox veritatis in sacratissimis Psalmis, contestans generaliter et breviter, a quo vere sit omnis salus animæ corporisque, dicens: Domini est salus (Psal. iii, 9). Soli enim Deo recte cantatur, Homines et jumenta salvos facies, Domine (Psal. xxxv, 7). Qui dignatus est creare, ipse prorsus dignatus est et sanare.\n\nProinde illis memoratis personis diu in talibus frustra laborantibus, et non corpore, sed corde dormitantibus, ecce Deus ille magister qui non dormit neque dormitat, qui custodit Israel (Psal. cxx, 4); ipse Deus, inquam, cui cura est pro omnibus (Sap. vi, 8), religiosam Vitulam, Megetiæ matrem, fideli calore succendit, atque ut ad domini Amici sui Stephani suffragium accurreret, inspiravit.","english":"But Pontius, Megetia's father, and Avitianus, her father-in-law, and Adventius, her husband, being as yet bound by the errors of paganism, were toiling altogether in vain and to no purpose in whatever they could attempt for the life of the dying Megetia, not only through the diligence of physicians, but even through the arts of demons and the figments of superstitious vanities. But unhappy error, what did you believe you could confer upon human salvation, which you have always striven to take away? The voice of truth in the most sacred Psalms refutes you, testifying generally and briefly from whom truly comes all salvation of soul and body, saying: Salvation is the Lord's. For rightly is it sung to God alone: You shall save men and beasts, O Lord. He who deigned to create, himself surely deigned also to heal.\n\nTherefore, while those aforementioned persons had long labored in vain in such things, and were sleeping not in body but in heart, behold, that God, the Master who neither slumbers nor sleeps, who keeps Israel; that God, I say, who has care for all things, inflamed with faithful zeal the devout Vitula, Megetia's mother, and inspired her to hasten to the aid of his friend Stephen.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":31,"ref":"p31","source":"Quam, ubi benedicta femina in sacratarum reliquiarum loco de Carthaginensi urbe ad Uzalensem profecta est, misericordissimus Dominus et miserator excepit, exaudivit, adjuvit, atque de filia compotem fecit, ac de diabolo adversario superato victricem triumphare permisit. Diei non potest quibus illa pia femina Amicum Dei flebilibus vocibus fuerit aggressa, et quanta cum miseratione ante limina gloriosi Martyris prostrata effusos sui cordis dolores expresserit, in hæc verba prorumpens: Domine Stephane, Christi amice, subveni matri miseræ, ad te confugienti pro salute periclitantis filiæ. Hic te ergo planctibus oro, illic te ancilla tua præsentem medicum sentiat imploro. Scis ipse qualibus causis laboret Megetia, et in quo vitæ discrimine sit constituta. Ecce enim ex quanto tempore jacet, misera toto corpore, et paralysi dissoluta, et visceribus tabefacta. Proximum est autem, ut septimo mense completo, comprehendatur ab octavo. Omnes desperant de salute Megetiæ: ego quæ ad Christum et te, Amicum ejus, confugi, credo quia talis luctus de filia non imponetur capiti meo. Peto autem et rogo, ut, cum hinc a corona tua revertens festinanter ad ancillam tuam proficisci cœpero, recreetur anima mea de filia aliquo nuntio bono.","english":"When that blessed woman had set out from the city of Carthage to Uzalis, to the place of the sacred relics, the most merciful and compassionate Lord received her, heard her, helped her, and made her the possessor of her daughter, and, with the devil her adversary overcome, permitted her to triumph as a victor. It cannot be told with what tearful cries that pious woman assailed the Friend of God, and with how great compassion, prostrate before the threshold of the glorious Martyr, she poured out the sorrows of her heart, bursting forth into these words: Lord Stephen, friend of Christ, come to the aid of a wretched mother who flees to you for the safety of her daughter in peril. Here, then, I beseech you with lamentations; there, I implore, let your handmaid feel you present as her physician. You yourself know by what afflictions Megetia labors, and in what danger of life she is placed. For behold, how long she has lain, wretched in her whole body, dissolved by paralysis and wasting away in her inward parts. Moreover, it is near that, when the seventh month is completed, she be seized by the eighth. All despair of Megetia's safety; but I, who have fled to Christ and to you, his Friend, believe that such mourning for my daughter will not be laid upon my head. But I ask and entreat that, when I begin to return hence in haste from your shrine to your handmaid, my soul may be refreshed concerning my daughter by some good tidings.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":32,"ref":"p32","source":"His et horum similibus multis affatibus ubi satis visa est sibi idoneum instruxisse advocatum sanctum Stephanum apud judicem Christum, propere ad revisendam filiam, unam et solam suam maximam curam, mater parturibunda revertitur. Oleum tamen sanctificatum, et orarium vel sudarium orationum suarum sudorumque pro salute filiæ laborantis testimonium, a beati Martyris Memoria secum pariter reportabat. Ecce igitur in via, cum declinandorum æstuum gratia (nam æstivum tempus erat, quo igneus sol terras urebat) secessisset, subito adveniente nuntio accepit litteras a viro suo de Carthagine directas, sicut precibus suis postulaverat, in quibus proxime futura liberatio filiæ significata erat. Nam mensem octavum altera die ingressura filia dicebatur, aliquantulum tamen vegetior esse, et sui jam partus signa præcedere, et bono animo illam de filia esse debere. Quod totum religiosæ Vitulæ matri, non ore humano, sed divino oraculo nuntiabatur. His igitur primis votorum suorum relevata mater auspiciis, perniciter advolavit. Quæ ubi pervenit Carthaginem, suamque natam in ipso vitæ suæ articulo positam invenit, statim sacrato oleo filiæ membra perunxit, sudarium quoque amplexandum pectori tradidit. Quo facto, rediviva Megetia uteri sui partu exonerata, octavi mensis ingressa prægnantibus mulieribus tremenda lumina 1, ab ipsa mortis regia, rursus auris est vitalibus restituta.","english":"By these and many similar addresses, when she seemed to herself to have sufficiently instructed Saint Stephen as a fit advocate before Christ the judge, the mother, in the throes of childbirth, hastened back to revisit her daughter, her one and only greatest care. Nevertheless, she carried back with her from the Memoria of the blessed Martyr the sanctified oil and the orarium or sudarium, as a testimony of her prayers and sweats for the health of her laboring daughter. And so, behold, on the way, when she had withdrawn to avoid the heat (for it was the summer season, when the fiery sun was scorching the lands), a messenger suddenly arrived, and she received letters sent from Carthage by her husband, just as she had requested in her prayers, in which the imminent deliverance of her daughter was indicated. For it was said that the daughter would enter the eighth month on the next day, yet that she was somewhat stronger, and that the signs of her childbirth were already preceding, and that he should be of good cheer concerning the daughter. All of which was announced to the devout mother Vitula, not by human mouth, but by divine oracle. Relieved, therefore, by these first auspices of her vows, the mother flew swiftly. When she arrived at Carthage and found her daughter placed in the very crisis of her life, she immediately anointed the limbs of her daughter with the consecrated oil, and handed her the sudarium to be embraced against her breast. Having done this, Megetia, revived, was relieved of the offspring of her womb, and having entered the eighth month—a time dreaded by pregnant women—was restored from the very palace of death to the vital breezes.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":33,"ref":"p33","source":"Sic itaque una lethali causa dispuncta, archiatro cœlesti protinus altera curanda restabat. Quod ut jamjamque fieret, fida mater Vitula filiam liberatam ad vitalis fontis venam, unde ægræ suæ haustum cœleste poculum attulerat, salubriterque infuderat, secum reducere cupiebat. Sed nondum recuperatæ vires Megetiæ, post laborem periculosæ enixionis suæ, alterum itineris subire laborem minime permittebant.\n\nInterea vir, socer et pater puellæ nihilo adhuc permoti in laudem Dei verique ejus Martyris primi de tam miserabili causa uteri, rursum cœpere ob ejusdem curandam reliquam valetudinem, id est, vitiosi oris pravitatem, illa hominum remedia erroresque consulere, et longas moras temporum frustra conterere. Namque annus integer et aliquot fere menses evoluti sic erant. Tandem fidelis mater Vitula, archiatrum quemdam, Felicem nomine, Carthaginensis civitatis, fidelissimum præ cæteris atque amicum domus suæ, corrogavit ad se ipsam, ac super salutem ipsius unicæ obtestando constrinxit, dicens: Sic unica filia tua vivat; potestne curari Megetia de paralysi ista, an non? Tum ille: Fideliter dico, filiam tuam de hac causa penitus curari non posse, quia sic me voluisti constringere. Ipsa, inquit, junctura quasi carri, ubi oris et maxillarum retinacula quædam continentur, exclusa est a locis suis.","english":"Thus, when one deadly cause had been settled, another immediately remained to be cured by the heavenly chief physician. So that this might now at last be done, the faithful mother Vitula wished to bring back with her the daughter who had been freed, to the vein of the life-giving font, from which she had brought the heavenly draught to her sick daughter and had healthfully poured it upon her. But the strength of Megetia, not yet recovered after the labor of her perilous childbirth, by no means permitted her to undertake another labor of the journey.\n\nMeanwhile the man, the father-in-law and the father of the girl, not yet at all moved to the praise of God and of his true first Martyr for so miserable a condition of the womb, again began, for the curing of her remaining ailment—that is, the deformity of her defective mouth—to consult those human remedies and errors, and to wear away long delays of time in vain. For a whole year and nearly several months had thus passed. At last the faithful mother Vitula summoned to herself a certain chief physician, by name Felix, of the city of Carthage, most faithful beyond the others and a friend of her house, and bound him by entreaty concerning the health of her only daughter, saying: As your only daughter lives, can Megetia be cured of this paralysis, or not? Then he said: I tell you faithfully, your daughter cannot be cured at all of this condition, since you have so wished to bind me. She said: The joint itself, like that of a cart, where a kind of restraints of the mouth and jaws are contained, has been dislocated from its places.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":34,"ref":"p34","source":"Cui respondens mater Vitula, fidei suæ stabilitate fundata, continuo retulit dice(??)s: Ego non sic credo in Christo meo, quia sic relinquetur filia mea in hoc tanto paralysis malo. At ille fidei firmitatem valde admirans in femina: Hoc, inquit, omnipotenti Deo licet facere, cui credis; nam nihil speres ex nobis. Quibus religiosa Vitula auditis, dimisso a se archiatro, assumens secum Megetiam suam, adiit virum suum et virum filiæ suæ, ac pio inflammata dolore, sic fari exorsa est: Acquievimus, inquit, vobis misere usque nunc, nec resistere viris mulieres valuimus: diu vestras pertulimus voluntates, ex quibus nullus fructus salutis filiæ, nullus cessit effectus, ita ut ecce per annum et quot excurrunt amplius menses inter manus medicorum corpus filiæ meæ tantummodo fatigetur, nec omnino, sicut videtis, aliquid perficiendo sanetur. Rogo, aliquando permittite et nobis, ut faciamus et nos quæ expediunt nobis: eamus et nos ad medicum nostrum. Credo in illum, quia qui noluit Megetiam cum suo partu mortuo mori, ipse etiam eam faciet sano vultu suo inter homines conversari. His atque hujuscemodi queri moniis deploratis justis ac veris, nequaquam il(??)i viri tali feminæ vi(??)ili animo indutæ valuerunt resistere. Maluerunt sponte cedere, quam quolibet alio judicante victi discedere.","english":"To him the mother Vitula, answering, founded on the stability of her faith, at once replied, saying: I do not so believe in my Christ, that my daughter will thus be left in this so great evil of paralysis. But he, greatly admiring the firmness of faith in a woman, said: It is permitted to almighty God, in whom you believe, to do this; for you should hope for nothing from us. When the religious Vitula had heard these things, having dismissed the chief physician from her, taking with her her Megetia, she went to her husband and to her daughter's husband, and, inflamed with pious grief, began to speak thus: We have, she said, acquiesced in you in our misery until now, nor have we women been able to resist men; long have we endured your wills, from which no fruit of health for the daughter, no effect has come forth, so that behold for a year and as many more months as run on, the body of my daughter is only being worn out in the hands of the physicians, nor at all, as you see, is she healed by their accomplishing anything. I ask, at some time permit even us, that we also may do what is expedient for us: let us also go to our physician. I believe in him, because he who did not wish Megetia to die with her dead offspring, he also will make her to converse among men with his healthy countenance. When these and similar complaints had been lamented as just and true, those men by no means were able to resist such a woman clothed with a manly spirit. They preferred to yield of their own accord, than, overcome by the judgment of any other whatsoever, to depart.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":35,"ref":"p35","source":"Flexis itaque illis in hanc sententiam matris Vitulæ, marito scilicet simulque patre Megetiæ, sed marito quidem adhuc pagano, patre vero christiano catechumeno effecto nomine Pontio, senatoriæ dignitatis viro (dignum est ut cujus fidem in Christo cœpimus pronuntiare, ejus quoque vocabulum jam incipiamus cum debito honore pariter nominare: qui sane quemadmodum initiatus christiano nomine fuerit, quoniam locus videtur exigere, minime nos pigebit aperire. Quando enim religiosa Vitula, nondum de partus periculo liberata Megetia, ad Amicum Dei fuerat profecta, ibi in suis precibus etiam de hujus viri sui venerabilis credulitate instruxerat, ut ille imbueretur fide ac nomine christiano. Quod sane eidem illa ipsa nocte tali est visione revelatum. Visa est quippe sibimet videre juxta ipsam beati Martyris Memoriam duo cerofaria luminosa, pariter igne flammantia, ibidemque assistente secum atque apparente memorato Pontio viro suo, sibimet dictum fuisse: Vitula, melius lucet cerofarium nostrum; unde volo scias me posuisse jam jugulos. Quo viso auditoque, religiosa Vitula somno expergefacta, et mane facta oratione suppleta, hoc ipsum quod in somnis viderat quibusdam ancillis Dei enarrare cœpit. Et prior ipsa somnium suum interpretata respondit, dicens ad memoratas circumstantes virgines Noverit Sanctitas vestra, quia cito Pontius credet in Christo, sicut confido de Christo meo.","english":"So then, when they had been brought over to this opinion of the mother Vitula—namely her husband, who was also the father of Megetia, though the husband was still a pagan, while the father had been made a catechumen named Pontius, a man of senatorial rank (it is fitting that we begin to name with due honor as well the very name of him whose faith in Christ we have begun to proclaim; and indeed how he was initiated with the Christian name, since the place seems to require it, it will not displease us at all to disclose. For when the devout Vitula, not yet delivered from the danger of childbirth—Megetia—had set out to the Friend of God, there in her prayers she had also instructed concerning the venerable belief of this her husband, that he might be imbued with the faith and the Christian name. And indeed this was revealed to her that very night by such a vision. For she seemed to see for herself, next to the very Memorial of the blessed Martyr, two wax candles shining, blazing alike with fire, and there, standing by with her and appearing, the aforementioned Pontius her husband, and it was said to her: Vitula, our candle shines better; therefore I want you to know that I have already laid down the yokes. On seeing and hearing this, the devout Vitula, awakened from sleep, and when morning had come and prayer had been completed, began to recount to certain handmaids of God this very thing that she had seen in her dream. And she herself first interpreted her dream and answered, saying to the aforementioned virgins standing around: Let your Holiness know that Pontius will soon believe in Christ, as I trust in my Christ.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":36,"ref":"p36","source":"Nam hoc est quod per somnium mihi significavit dicens: Vo- (??)o scias, Vitula, quia posui jam jugulos, non utique nisi sub jugo Christi. Sic ergo honorabilis Pontius effectus, ut dixi, primum catechumenus christianus sequenti anno, iisdem diebus quibus a religiosa Vitula beatus Stephanus pro salute mariti æterna fuerat exoratus).\n\nSed, ut dicere cœperam, consentientibus sibimet viris suis, mater Vitula cum Megetia sua pariter de Carthagine profectæ, pariter ad Memoriam beati Martyris pervenerunt, ac deinde ante sacrata ipsius limina prostratæ, die noctuque flentes et ejulantes, cinere et cilicio squallentes, inde nobiles feminæ homines non erubescentes, ut Deo essent placentes, susceperunt illud quod dictum in P(??) (??)ant: Fuerunt mihi lacrymæ meæ panis die a(??) dicitur mihi quotidie, Ubi est Deus tuus ((??) 4.)? Etenim neque ista de ipsa nostra religione christiana piis et nobilibus feminis deerant ab incredulis improperia, unde ante Dominum flebilibus vocibus, et amaris, ut scriptum est, verbis memorabant, et effundebant super se animam suam. Dicebatur namque ab inimicis fidei nostræ: Ubi est Deus vester? Inclamabat ergo Vitula mater auribus Amici Dei: Domine Stephane, ecce adduxi Megetiam tuam ad te, quam tu ipse liberasti de morte.","english":"For this is what he signified to me in a dream, saying: I want you to know, Vitula, that I have already placed necks under the yoke—none other, surely, than under the yoke of Christ. So then, the honorable Pontius having become, as I said, first a Christian catechumen in the following year, in those same days on which blessed Stephen had been entreated by the devout Vitula for the eternal salvation of her husband.\n\nBut, as I had begun to say, with their husbands agreeing among themselves, the mother Vitula together with her Megetia set out together from Carthage and together arrived at the Memoria of the blessed Martyr; and then, prostrate before his sacred threshold, weeping and wailing day and night, squalid in ashes and sackcloth, these noble women, not ashamed of men so that they might be pleasing to God, took up that which is said in the Psalm: My tears have been my bread day and night, while it is said to me daily, Where is your God? For indeed these reproaches against our Christian religion itself were not lacking to these pious and noble women from unbelievers; therefore before the Lord with tearful voices and bitter words, as it is written, they called to mind and poured out their soul upon themselves. For it was said by the enemies of our faith: Where is your God? Therefore the mother Vitula cried out in the ears of the Friend of God: Lord Stephen, behold I have brought your Megetia to you, whom you yourself delivered from death.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":37,"ref":"p37","source":"Nec nos in gaudium inimici fecisti venire, non tradens nos in animas tribulantium nos, qui detrahunt et desperant de Christo Domino nostro, et de te, ejus tanto Amico. Fac, rogo, fac iterum erubescere eos de tota et de plena Megetiæ tuæ salute, sicut jam fecisti erubescere eos de ejus uteri periculosissimo labore. Non omnino deficies ad minora, qui præstitisti majora. Quod promisi ejus viro pagano de te, imple propter te. Non confundatur mater in filia, quæ præsumpsit in te, quæ confugit ad te. Certe ut oculus cordis nondum credentium nobisque insultantium sanetur, os filiæ curetur: et ut acquiratur sanitas animæ illorum, præstetur puellæ sanitas membrorum suorum.\n\nTalibus in ejusmodi sensum dictis lacrymabilibus deploratis, septima transierat dies, cum ecce nocte intempesta visitatur per somnum Megetia; videt apparentem sibi insignem virum visu, diaconi præferentem habitum. Illa cum rogare cœpit, velut quemdam medicum spiritualem, ut os suum inspiceret, et si dignaretur, curaret. Verum ille mox ut os ejus inspexit, vultu eam hilari serenoque intuitu ait: Equidem adhuc os tuum non rectum; sed sursum aspice, et vide quid volitet super caput tuum.","english":"You have not made us come into the joy of the enemy, not handing us over to the souls of those who trouble us, who disparage and despair of Christ our Lord, and of you, his so great Friend. Do, I ask, do again make them blush for the whole and complete salvation of your Megetia, just as you have already made them blush for the most perilous labor of her womb. You will not fail altogether at lesser things, who have furnished greater. What I promised to her pagan husband concerning you, fulfill for your own sake. Let not the mother be put to shame in the daughter, who presumed upon you, who fled to you. Surely, so that the eye of the heart of those who do not yet believe and who insult us may be healed, let the mouth of the daughter be cured: and so that health of soul may be acquired for them, let health of her limbs be granted to the girl.\n\nWhen such tearful words of this kind had been lamented into her hearing, the seventh day had passed, when behold, in the dead of night Megetia is visited through sleep; she sees a distinguished man appearing to her in appearance, wearing the garb of a deacon. She began to ask him, as though a certain spiritual physician, to inspect her mouth, and, if he deigned, to cure it. But he, as soon as he had inspected her mouth, with a cheerful countenance and serene regard said to her: Indeed your mouth is not yet straight; but look upward, and see what flies above your head.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":38,"ref":"p38","source":"Continuo illa super se erigens oculos, vidit serpentem quemdam teterrimum supra se pennarum remigio volitantem, atque huc et illuc tortuosis anfractibus oberrantem.·At pavefacta Megetia horribili monstruosoque visu, insignis illius viri exhortatione firmatur, ad ipsam dicentis: Nisi prius istum serpentem occideris, sanari non poteris. Sed noli metuere, forti animo illi congredere, et omnino superabis. Quo audito, Megetia fidei su(??) robore et de tanti adjutoris sui armata protectione, arrepta in tempore sibimet velut virga oblata, contra (??)llum draconem teterrimum et tortuosissimum decertavit. Quem, etsi diu exercita diuque ab reluctante adversario delassata, ad extremum tamen, ubi(??)illum in capite percussit, continuo prostravit. Quo trepido gaudio expergefacta, strato exsiliens evigilavit. Cumque somnii sui quid ratio portenderet cogitaret, nec liquido intelligere valuisset, exinde oravit visitari, confirmarique poposcit 1, ac deinde se quieti permisit. Ecce denuo videt illum decorum habitu juvenem, nivea veste fulgentem, ac statim jacenti sibimet velut manu porrecta, audivit jubentem pariterque dicentem: Surge, sic curaris. At vero Megetia, ut ante medico homini facere consueverat, capite opposito, quasi fovenda ora sua ei offerebat. Sed ille, utpote ignorantis corrigens factum, respondit eidem: Utquid hoc facis? Prius sunt tibi oculi curandi.","english":"Immediately raising her eyes, she saw above her a certain most foul serpent flying on the sweep of its wings and wandering hither and thither in twisting coils. But Megetia, terrified by the horrible and monstrous sight, was strengthened by the exhortation of that distinguished man, who said to her: Unless you first kill this serpent, you cannot be healed. But do not fear; go against it with a strong spirit, and you will overcome it completely. Hearing this, Megetia, armed with the strength of her faith and the protection of so great a helper, seized in time what was offered to her as a rod, and fought against that most foul and most twisting dragon. Though she had struggled long and been wearied long by the resisting adversary, at last, when she struck it on the head, she immediately laid it low. Awakened by trembling joy, she leaped from her bed and woke. And when she considered what the meaning of her dream portended, and had not been able clearly to understand it, she prayed from then on to be visited, and asked to be strengthened, and then allowed herself to rest. Behold, again she sees that comely youth, shining in a snow-white garment, and at once, as if with a hand extended to her as she lay, she heard him commanding and saying at the same time: Rise, thus you are healed. But Megetia, as she had been accustomed to do before for the physician, turned her head toward him and offered her face as if to be warmed. But he, correcting the deed as of one who did not know, answered her: Why do you do this? Your eyes must first be healed.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":39,"ref":"p39","source":"Illa retulit dicens: Domine meus, oculos sanos habeo, sed ut os meum cures rogo. Et ille: Jam, inquit, tibi dixi, prius sunt in te oculi curandi. Tunc velut cœlestis archiatrus, spiritu cordis secreta introspiciens, quasi cutem medicinalem collyrium imposuit, oculos super linivit, atque discessit. Verum cum mane facto hoc ipsum religiosa Megetia somnium suum charissimis suis et sanctissimis feminis indicaret, in ipso sermone narrationis suæ ultro corde compunta et cujusdam peccati sui recordatione subito stimulata, peccatum suum confiteri non distulit, sed, sicut scriptum est, delictum suum agnovit, et injustitiam suam non operuit (Psal. xxxi, 5) Ecce ergo qui illi erant oculi prius curan(??) non (??)que corporis, sed cordis, quod, ut (??) (??)cus, gloriosus Stephanus pronuntiavit (??) (??)ius sunt tibi oculi curandi. Sanandum quip(??) (??) quod vitiosum latebat in mente, ut sic demum sanaretur quod depravatum cernebatur in corpore. Hinc ille quoque teterrimus serpens, qui super caput volitabat, quia principalem rationalis animæ mentem obtinebat, conterendus fuerat et vincendus. Dum enim reatus cujusque delicti humiliter agnoscitur, caput colubri pœnitendo quassatur, cordis oculus confitendo purgatur.","english":"She replied, saying: \"My lord, I have sound eyes, but I beg you to cure my mouth.\" And he said: \"I have already told you that the eyes in you must first be cured.\" Then, as if a heavenly chief physician, searching out the secrets of the heart by the Spirit, he applied a medicinal salve as though to the skin, anointed her eyes, and departed. But when morning came and the devout Megetia told this same dream of hers to her dearest and most holy women, in the very telling of her account she was of her own accord pricked in heart and suddenly goaded by the remembrance of a certain sin of hers, and she did not delay to confess her sin, but, as it is written, she acknowledged her offense and did not hide her iniquity (Ps. 31:5). Behold, then, those eyes of hers that had first to be cured were not of the body but of the heart, as the glorious Stephen declared: \"The eyes in you must first be cured.\" For that had to be healed which lay hidden as a defect in the mind, so that only then might be healed what was seen to be corrupted in the body. Hence that most foul serpent also, which flew above her head, had to be crushed and conquered, because it held possession of the principal mind of the rational soul. For when the guilt of each offense is humbly acknowledged, the head of the serpent is battered by repentance, and the eye of the heart is cleansed by confession.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":40,"ref":"p40","source":"Duodecimo igitur die, ex quo cum sua ad Amicum Dei venerat matre, dum orat ad locum sacratæ Memoriæ pulsans fidei pietate, non solum affectu cordis, verum etiam motu corporis, ipsa ostiola Memoriæ impulsa patefecit, ac vim faciens regno Dei, caput suum intromisit interius, et super cubile sanctarum reliquiarum confixit, lacrymisque suis omnia illic lavit, atque rigavit. Verum ecce illo desuper miserante qui appropinquat contritis corde (Psal. cxlvi). Megetia famula Dei quadam sibi visibili et attrectabili manu os suum corrigi et compalpari persensit. Quæ posteaquam ab oratione surrexit, circumstantibus choris virginum sanctarum, ibidemque pro illa et cum illa Deo laudes dicentium, tremens et gaudens hoc ipsum indicavit. Quale tunc quantumque in omnibus mentibus fuerit gaudium, et flendi ante ipsum Deum excitaverit affectum, vix poterit explicari.","english":"On the twelfth day, therefore, from when she had come with her mother to the Friend of God, while she was praying at the place of the sacred Memorial, knocking with the piety of faith—not only with the affection of her heart but also with the movement of her body—she pushed at the little doors of the Memorial and opened them, and doing violence to the kingdom of God, she thrust her head inside and pressed it upon the couch of the holy relics, and washed and bedewed everything there with her tears. But behold, with him from above having mercy, who is near to those contrite of heart (Ps. 146). Megetia, the servant of God, felt her mouth being set right and stroked by a certain hand visible and tangible to her. After she rose from prayer, with the choirs of holy virgins standing around, and there praising God for her and with her, trembling and rejoicing she made this very thing known. What and how great a joy was then in all minds, and what emotion of weeping it stirred up before God himself, can scarcely be explained.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":41,"ref":"p41","source":"Sed antequam gestæ rei ad finem optatissimum veniamus, ubi plenam perfectamque salutem religiosæ Megetiæ, Amico Dei curante atque auxiliante in nomine Christi, demonstraturi sumus, quod in medio hujus aliud mirabiliter contigerit, nequaquam præterire debemus. Cum ferme quadraginta diebus circa sancti Martyris locum orando mater filiaque persisterent, ecce repente venientibus litteris, sibimet Carthagine directis, quo pater puellæ honorabilis Pontius diceretur corpore ægrotare, ad eumdem visendum de Uzalensi civitate profectæ sunt. Verum cum in medio itineris, æstuum causa, fovendi corporis gratia lavacris uti voluissent; adfuit in præsenti quædam domestica ab infideli cognita Megetia et in obviam missa 2, non tam ad salutandum, quam potius ad explorandum. Quæ cum curiosius cuperet benedictæ Megetiæ nuda ora vultusque conspicere, intravit cum ea in obsequium 1, et ubi quantum voluit in faciem famulæ Dei intendit, prorsus integrum sibimet apparens os Megetiæ sanumque conspexit. Quo viso, obstupefacta atque mirata illa domestica, quæ aliud quam sperabat invenit, continuo ad quamdam juxta stantem sacram virginem convertit sese, et nominatim eam compellans ait: Infans Helpidiana, sana est prorsus domina Megetia.","english":"But before we come to the most desired end of the matter at hand, where we are to show the full and perfect healing of the devout Megetia, brought about by the Friend of God caring and aiding in the name of Christ, we must by no means pass over in silence what else happened wonderfully in the midst of this. For when the mother and daughter had persisted for nearly forty days in prayer around the place of the holy Martyr, behold, suddenly letters arrived, sent to them from Carthage, in which it was reported that the girl's honorable father Pontius was sick in body; and so they set out from the city of Uzal to visit him. But when, midway on their journey, because of the heat, they wished to use baths for the sake of refreshing their bodies, there came upon them a certain household servant known to the unbelieving Megetia and sent to meet them, not so much to greet them as rather to spy on them. When she desired rather curiously to see the bare face and countenance of the blessed Megetia, she entered with her to attend her, and when she had gazed upon the face of the handmaid of God as much as she wished, she saw the face of Megetia appearing to her entirely whole and sound. Seeing this, that household servant, stunned and amazed, having found other than she had hoped, immediately turned to a certain holy virgin standing nearby, and addressing her by name said: \"Child Helpidiana, the lady Megetia is entirely healed.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":42,"ref":"p42","source":"Sic enim Dei gratia vigebat in Megetia, ut, licet ejus plenior cura in corpore ex parte aliqua differretur, perfecta tamen sanitatis species reverberandis incredulorum oculis objiceretur. Quod illa ancilla Dei intelligens magnum mysterium Dei, illi mulierculæ respondit dicens: Increduli, vel modo credite.\n\nRursus apud Carthaginem cum benedicta Megetia quadam die cum viro suo pagano sermonem conferret, et inter fabulas dum viro suo ore integro vultuque appareret, commotus tali visione vir ejus gratulari cœpit ac dicere: Domina Megetia, sanam te prorsus aspicio. Verum illa dissimulando interim tegens quod divina virtus in se demonstrabat, sermonis sui cursum tenebat. Itidemque ille quod videbat tacere non poterat, et sicut prius eidem respondebat: Sana es prorsus, Deo gratias. At illa impleta gaudio, tandem subridens, ait marito: Vel modo jam credes Christo? Et ille: Quid vis, inquit, faciam patri meo? nam et ego christianus fieri volo.","english":"For the grace of God was so strong in Megetia that, although the fuller care of her body was for a time in some measure delayed, nevertheless the perfect appearance of health was set before the eyes of the unbelieving to be struck back. That handmaid of God, understanding the great mystery of God, answered that little woman, saying: \"Unbelievers, at least now believe.\"\n\nAgain at Carthage, when the blessed Megetia was one day conversing with her pagan husband, and amid their talk, while she appeared before her husband with unblemished face and countenance, her husband, moved by such a vision, began to rejoice and to say: \"Lady Megetia, I see you wholly sound.\" But she, concealing for the time being and covering over what the divine power was showing in her, kept the course of her speech. And he likewise could not keep silent about what he saw, and as before answered her: \"You are wholly sound, thanks be to God.\" But she, filled with joy, at last smiling, said to her husband: \"Will you now at last believe in Christ?\" And he said: \"What do you want me to do with my father? For I too wish to become a Christian.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":43,"ref":"p43","source":"Sed ut jam ad terminum quem promisimus veniamus, dies Paschæ sanctissimus propinquabat, ecce benedicta Megetia a quadam amica atque nobili femina Rustica rogabatur, ut voto suo solvendo beato martyri Cypriano in Mappalia secum pergeret, et solemnitati pariter interesset. Quod Megetia facere se non posse causabatur, sciens quid in se Dei potentia infidelium oculis ostenderet, quid plene salutis cœlestis gratia reservaret. Tamen amicam contristare nolens, non penitus negavit, sed plane ad illum diem quod Deus voluisset facturam se esse promisit. At ubi illa amica discessit, non destitit die noctuque orationi instare Megetia. Buccellam sane omni die in oleo sanctificato tinctam prius accipiebat; et sic cæteros cibos sumebat. Quadam vero nocte visitavit in somnis, ita ut se juxta Memoriam beati Stephani stantem putaret, ibique juvenem illum speciosum cerneret, candida luce perfusum et insigni equo subvectum, lampadesque quamplures lucentes, ac præcedens ei splendidissimum apparatum, sibique ab eodem clara voce dictum: Ad te pertinet ista lux, Megetia, suscipe illam.","english":"But now, that we may come to the end we promised, the most holy day of Pascha was drawing near, and behold, blessed Megetia was asked by a certain friend of hers, a noble woman named Rustica, that, in fulfillment of her vow, she would go with her to the blessed martyr Cyprian in Mappalia and take part together in the solemnity. Megetia pleaded that she could not do this, knowing what the power of God was showing in her to the eyes of the unbelieving, and what the grace of heavenly salvation was reserving for her in full. Yet, not wishing to sadden her friend, she did not refuse outright, but plainly promised that on that day she would do what God willed. But when that friend had departed, Megetia did not cease to press on in prayer day and night. Indeed, every day she first took a morsel dipped in sanctified oil, and so took the rest of her food. But on a certain night she had a vision in a dream, such that she thought she was standing beside the Memorial of blessed Stephen, and there she saw that beautiful young man, bathed in bright light and borne on a splendid horse, with many shining lamps and a most brilliant array going before him, and she heard it said to her by him in a clear voice: This light belongs to you, Megetia; receive it.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":44,"ref":"p44","source":"Post quam visionem expergefacta gaudioque repleta, statim ubi se sanam sensit, manus suas ad os suum faciemque inspiciendam applicavit, et quasi præ nimio gaudio soli sibi non credens, ancillas suas quæ circa lectum suum quiescebant, clara voce excitavit, et ut ad se inspiciendam atque contemplandam accurrerent, advocavit. Tum illæ, ut viderunt in domina sua donum Dei fuisse impletum, votumque omnium esse perfectum, omnes pariter in lætitiam exclamaverunt, et in laudem Dei eruperunt. Advenit etiam ille ab amica præstitutus sibimet dies, venitur a diversis ad religiosam Megetiam, ut, sicut promiserat, ad destinatum locum charas suas non deserendo pergere dignaretur. Sed Megetia Dei famula velamento adhuc, sicut solebat, ore contecto, ab intimo cubiculo ad amicas suas foras egressa est. Quas ubi de se aliquandiu tristes esse permisit, subito illo a facie velamento ablato, et vultu demonstrato, ait: Ecce vos videte quid in me Deus dignatus est perficere, et una mecum gaudete, et ipsi Domino pro me gratias agite. Quam ubi omnes conspexere, gaudentes et Dominum benedicentes, osculis lambere, et eam complexari cœperunt. Tunc omnes una ad ecclesiam perrexerunt cum ea, et vota sua Domino persolverunt.","english":"After she awoke from that vision and was filled with joy, as soon as she felt herself healed she applied her hands to her mouth and face to examine them, and, as if not believing it was really herself for excess of joy, she roused her maidservants who were resting around her bed with a loud voice, and summoned them to hurry to look at her and behold her. Then they, when they saw that the gift of God had been fulfilled in their mistress and the vow of all was accomplished, all cried out together in gladness and burst forth in praise of God. The day appointed by her friend also arrived, and people came from various quarters to the devout Megetia, that, as she had promised, she might deign to set out for the appointed place without forsaking her dear friends. But Megetia, the servant of God, with her face still covered by a veil as was her custom, came out from the inner chamber to her friends outside. When she had let them be sorrowful on her account for a little while, suddenly, with the veil taken from her face and her countenance shown, she said: Behold, see what God has deigned to accomplish in me, and rejoice together with me, and give thanks to the Lord himself on my behalf. When they all had looked at her, rejoicing and blessing the Lord, they began to kiss her and embrace her. Then they all went together with her to the church and paid their vows to the Lord.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":45,"ref":"p45","source":"Peracto autem sancto Pascha Domini, etiam ad Uzalensem civitatem religiosa Vitula una cum Megetia sua aliisque religiosis feminis venit, votaque sua de salute filiæ plena et perfecta Christo Domino Christique Amico in conspectu omnis nostræ Ecclesiæ congaudentis atque congratulantis hilariter reddidit, ferventer exhibuit, fructuoseque persolvit.\n\nCAPUT III.— Donatus quidam apothecam habens, fere ducenta vasa vini corrupta reperit, cujus jussu minister lagenam ex omnibus vasis impletam attulerat, et ad sanctum Stephanum currens, ibique ponens oravit, et reversus cum lagena, in omnibus vasis ex eadem infudit, et reparatum est vinum.\n\nDonatus quidam dicitur homo, sane honestissimi quoque filii, nomine Rustici, præfectorum numerarii cunctis bene notissimi, pater. Hic in fundo suo suburbano cum loco et nomine vocitato probi generis vina quotannis condere et conservare consueverat. Interea, ut possessoribus mos est, commodorum quæstuum causa, quoslibet terræ repositos fructus tunc malle venales emptoribus publicare, cum votis exoptatorum lucrorum avariora concurrunt pretia temporum, visum est memorato domino prædii, cum quodam homine suo, vini scilicet gustatore peritissimo, apothecam suam primitus intrare, ac per singula vasa examinando vina approbare. Quo facto, mox ut degustator haustum vasis merum applicuit judicio labiorum, continuo stupefacta in homine ora vultusque palluere.","english":"After the holy Passover of the Lord had been celebrated, the devout Vitula also came to the city of Uzalis together with her Megetia and other religious women, and joyfully rendered, fervently presented, and fruitfully paid to Christ the Lord and to the Friend of Christ her vows concerning the healing of her daughter, full and complete, in the sight of all our Church, which rejoiced and congratulated her.\n\nCHAPTER III.—A certain Donatus, who had a wine-store, found almost two hundred vessels of wine spoiled. At his command a servant had brought a flask filled from all the vessels, and running to Saint Stephen and setting it there, he prayed; and returning with the flask, he poured from it into all the vessels, and the wine was restored.\n\nA certain man named Donatus is said to have been the father of a son of very honorable standing indeed, named Rusticus, a tax accountant of the prefects, very well known to all. This man had been accustomed each year to store and keep wines of good quality on his suburban estate, in a place also called by the name Probi Generis. Meanwhile, as is the custom of landowners, for the sake of profitable gains, when the prices of the times, more greedy for the hoped-for profits, run together with their vows, it seemed good to the aforementioned master of the estate, along with a certain man of his, a most expert taster of wine, first to enter his wine-store and, examining the wines vessel by vessel, to approve them. This done, as soon as the taster applied the draught of pure wine from the vessel to the judgment of his lips, immediately his face and countenance grew pale and he was struck dumb.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":46,"ref":"p46","source":"Nam præter quod vini teterrimus color aversandum oculis ex se offerebat aspectum, etiam tristissimus sapor labiis mœrendum ingerebat gustum. Verum cum hoc malum in uno tantum vase consistere putaretur, non tam molestante damnum jactura patrisfamilias habebatur. At ubi per singula vasa cœptum est circuiri, omniumque vasorum, id est ferme ducentorum, numerus examinatus similiter degenerasse ac deperisse repertus est; quis tunc ibidem fuerit possessoris animus, quis ipsius apothecarii luctus, puto quod ignorare non possit omnis compatiens animus humanus. Non enim revera minimum et contemnendum detrimentum damnumve contigerat, sed ducenta, ut dixi, fere quæ putabantur vasa vino suavissimo plenissima, eadem e contrario reperiebantur nec aceti, sed cujusdam corruptissimi et fæculentissimi liquoris squalore adimpleta. Quid ageret ita rei labefactæ suæ dominus, vindemiæ suæ interitum non adhuc in vitibus, sed, quod est gravius, in ipsa perpessus apotheca? quid, inquam,ageret? quid tam corrupto nec jam dicendo vino facere potuisset? An forsitan qualicumque abjectissimo pretio vendidisset? Sed quis tam fatuus emptor ad rem fatuam accessisset? An saltem effunderet atque projiceret? Sed quis ita oblitus laborum suorum esset, ut qualescumque anni fructus proculcandos hominibus belluisque facile exponeret?","english":"For besides that the foulest color of the wine of itself presented to the eyes an aspect to be shunned, its most sorrowful savor also brought to the lips a taste to be lamented. But since this evil was thought to consist in only one vessel, the loss was not held to be so much a vexing damage by the father of the household. But when they began to go around through each vessel, and the number of all the vessels, that is, of nearly two hundred, was examined and found to have likewise degenerated and perished, what then was the mind of the owner there, what the grief of the cellarer himself, I think no compassionate human mind can fail to know. For in truth no smallest and contemptible loss or damage had occurred, but two hundred, as I said, nearly, vessels that were thought to be most full of the sweetest wine were found on the contrary filled with the filth of not even vinegar, but of a certain most corrupt and most foul liquid. What was the master of his thus ruined affair to do, having suffered the destruction of his vintage not still on the vines, but, what is graver, in the wine-cellar itself? What, I say, was he to do? What could he have done with wine so corrupt and no longer to be called wine? Or perhaps would he have sold it at some most abject price? But what buyer so foolish would have approached a foolish thing? Or would he at least have poured it out and thrown it away? But who would have been so forgetful of his labors as easily to expose whatever sort of fruit of the year to be trampled by men and beasts?","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":47,"ref":"p47","source":"Tandem fluctuabunda in talibus mœroribus anima divinæ aspirationis aura perflata in portum fidissimum stationemque tutissimam velificante deducta est gratia. Nam multa secum agitanti hæc potior sententia animo insedit possessoris, confugiendum esse ad Amicum Dei Stephanum sanctum, primum martyrem Christi. Proinde jubet illi prægustatori vini sui, ut unam (??)gunculam ex quolibet vasorum suorum adimpleret, eamque ad Beati Memoriam, benedicendam diluculo deportaret, atque exinde sanctificatam continuo referret, tuncque ex illa per omnia vasa parum quid superfunderet atque discederet. O Domine, Domine, cui cura est pro homine, omnia benigne faciens propter hominem, qui per sanctos tuos olim aquas amaras et infecundas, ligno immisso et vase salis injecto sanasti (Exod. xv, 25; IV Reg. ii, 21), ac per te ipsum, Domine, aquam in vinum convertisti (Joan. ii, 1-11), ipse nunc et per amicum tuum Stephanum sanctum, reparasti in statum pristinum vina perdita, versa amaritudine in suavitatem, nigredine in candorem, mœrore in exsultationem! Propere igitur domini sui jussa minister ille fidelis exsequitur: lagenam, ut fuerat præceptum, hausit, perrexit, apposuit, reportavit, vasisque singulis permodicum quid contribuit, et abiit.","english":"At last, the soul, tossing about in such sorrows, breathed upon by the breeze of divine inspiration, was brought, with grace sailing before it, into the safest harbor and most secure anchorage. For as she turned many things over in her mind, this better judgment settled upon the spirit of the owner: that refuge must be taken with Stephen, the holy Friend of God, the first martyr of Christ. Accordingly, he ordered that taster of his wine to fill one small vessel from any of his jars, and at daybreak to carry it to the Blessed One's Memorial to be blessed, and from there to bring it back at once, sanctified, and then to pour a little of it over all the vessels one by one, and depart. O Lord, Lord, who have care for man, doing all things kindly for man's sake, who of old through your saints healed bitter and barren waters by casting in wood and throwing in a vessel of salt, and who through yourself, Lord, turned water into wine—do you now also, through your friend the holy Stephen, restore lost wines to their former state, turning bitterness into sweetness, blackness into whiteness, sorrow into exultation! Swiftly, therefore, that faithful servant carried out his master's commands: he drew from the jar, as had been commanded, went, presented it, brought it back, and poured a very little into each vessel, and departed.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":48,"ref":"p48","source":"Altera die, memor fidei mandatique sui, surgit paterfamilias matutinus, ministerii conscium ministrumque convenit, una secum ad apothecam comitem ducit: inspiciuntur denuo cuncta per ordinem vasa: vinum hauritur, nitor in colore conspicitur, sapor in gustu approbatur, tristitia in gaudium commutatur, et quid quantumque fides in Christo ejusque gloriosissimo Amico valeat reperitur, cunctisque audientibus mirantibusque succeditur: denique illa probatissima vina condigno pretio emptoribus distribuuntur. Ecce qualiter divina providentia utilitatibus hominum deservit: et quid tandem Deo pro tantis ejus beneficiis exhibetur aut redditur?\n\nCAPUT IV. — Ubi draco de cœlo magnificus apparuit, a cujus conspectu universa plebs ad Stephani limina confugit, et ipsis orantibus paulatim inter vellera nubium subtractus non comparuit.\n\nQuadam die agebantur nundinæ in nostra civitate, et hora jam meridiana cœli facies serena in tetram et caliginosam aeris turbidinem subito est commota. Ecce autem desuper aspicitur igneus quidam et immensæ magnitudinis propendens in caput e nubibus draco. Quod non ita insolitum et novum debet videri, non solum propter notitiam popularem, verum etiam Scripturæ sanctæ auctoritatem, quæ de draconibus sic memorat dicens: Laudate Domin(??) de terrea, dracones et omnes abyssi, ig(??), gra(??) nix, glacies, spiritus temp(??)s, quæ (??) ejus (Psal. cxlviii, 7, 8).","english":"On the next day, the father of the household, mindful of his faith and his commission, rose early in the morning, met with the servant who knew of the matter and was to serve, and took him along with him as a companion to the storehouse. All the vessels are inspected once more in order; the wine is drawn out, its brightness is observed in its color, its flavor is approved in the tasting, sorrow is changed into joy, and it is discovered what and how much faith in Christ and in his most glorious Friend can accomplish; and they proceed with all who hear and marvel. Finally those most excellent wines are distributed to buyers at a fitting price. Behold how divine providence serves the needs of men; and what, after all, is offered or rendered to God for such great benefits of his?\n\nCHAPTER IV. — Where a magnificent dragon appeared from heaven, at whose sight the whole people fled to the threshold of Stephen, and while they themselves were praying, it was gradually withdrawn among the fleeces of the clouds and did not appear.\n\nOn a certain day a market was being held in our city, and at the hour of noon the serene face of the sky was suddenly stirred into a foul and murky disturbance of the air. And behold, from above a certain fiery dragon of immense size is seen hanging headlong from the clouds. Nor ought this to seem so unusual and new, not only because of popular knowledge, but also because of the authority of Holy Scripture, which thus makes mention of dragons, saying: Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and all ye deeps, fire, hail, snow, ice, the spirits of the storm, which do his word.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":49,"ref":"p49","source":"(??)sus n(??) (??) non tantum hic deorsum aquar(??) (??) funditas, sed etiam sursum (??) quem suspicimus, immensitas, q(??) (??) humore videtur pinguescere: cu(??) (??) auræ excitantur, velut lanæ vellera (??) (??)ur, fulgura ignita emittuntur. Quæ omnia (??)icut insipienter sapientes putant, casu et fortui(??) (??)eri crederentur, sancta Scriptura vigilanter providit: et posteaquam dixit, Ignis, grando, nix, glacie(??) (??)piritus tempestatis; continuo subjunxit de ip(??) (??)niversitatis Creatore atque Rectore, et ait, quæ (??)unt verbum ejus. Proinde pendentem ex hac, ut dixi, providentia dispensationis Dei, et nubibus flammantem draconem tanquam de superiore abysso procedentem atque emicantem, cum aliquandiu huc atque illuc motus aer ferret atque deferret, ac jamjamque præcipitandum super mediam civitatem tremor omnium qui aderant exspectantium et stupentium cerneret, fugere conventu publico popularis turba cœpit, et passim quacumque timor egerat, sicut quisque poterat, discurrebat. Totus denique ipse dissolutus perturbatusque mercatus. Relicta namque omni negotiatione terrena, pro sola tantum homines metuebant vita. Quis enim tunc quæreret lucra pecuniæ, in tanto discrimine damna deplorans animæ? aut quis cogitaret vel corporis victum, formidans vitæ suæ ultimum occasum? quis porro cuperet vestem, metu mortis amittens mentem?","english":"... not only here below the waters flow, but also above, the immensity of him whom we look up to seems to grow rich with moisture; whence winds are stirred up, like fleeces of wool, lightnings flash forth. All these things, as the wise in their folly think, would be believed to happen by chance and accident, but holy Scripture has vigilantly provided: and after it said, Fire, hail, snow, ice, spirit of tempest, it immediately added concerning the Creator and Ruler of the universe, and said, which do his word. Accordingly, that fiery dragon hanging from this providence of God's dispensation, as I said, and from the clouds, proceeding as if from the abyss above and flashing, when the moving air had for some time borne it hither and thither and carried it about, and now at any moment about to plunge over the middle of the city—when the trembling of all who were present, expecting and marveling, perceived this, the crowd of common people began to flee from the public gathering, and everywhere, wherever fear had driven them, they ran about, each as he could. At last the whole marketplace itself was dissolved and thrown into confusion. For abandoning all earthly business, men feared only for life alone. For who then would seek the profits of money, lamenting the losses of his soul in such great peril? Or who would think even of bodily sustenance, dreading the final setting of his life? Who, further, would desire clothing, losing his mind in fear of death?","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":50,"ref":"p50","source":"Magnus etiam concursus multitudinis ad gremium Ecclesiæ matris, ad misericordiam protinus convolavit Dei Patris. Ad ipsam Amici Dei sacratam Memoriam in facie prostrata jacebat diversa ætas, dispar quoque sexus. Tandem pro cunctorum fletibus opportune ad Christum domini Stephani fusa prece, clementia Dei annuente, horrendus ille draco paulatim cœpit a conspectu hominum inter nubium septa subtrahi atque abscondi, et qua venti incubuerant, redeunte cœli serena facie, discuti atque propelli, ac sic revocatis animis, atque a tanta tristitia in lætitiam reductis, reddebantur Deo et Amico ejus uberes gratiæ cum ingentibus lacrymis de inopinata gratulatione profusis.\n\nAd hæc accedit etiam aliud quiddam ex. hoc ipso miraculo mirabilius: ne ignara in omnibus fragilitas humana, nihil de divinis judiciis et beneficiis evidentius apertiusque edocta, ita ut dignum fuerat, exstitisset grata. Ecce namque altero die, procurante divina dispensatione, quidam negotiator nunquam nostræ cognitus regioni, subdiaconum nostrum nomine Sennodum in loco Memblotutano ultro convenit, et ad se vocavit, et quisnam vel unde esset ab eodem flagitavit.","english":"A great concourse of the multitude also flocked to the bosom of Mother Church, and straightway hastened to the mercy of God the Father. Before that same sacred Memorial of the Friend of God, people of every age and either sex lay prostrate on their faces. At length, when the prayer of the Lord Stephen had been duly poured out to Christ on behalf of the weeping of all, and the clemency of God had assented, that dreadful dragon began gradually to be withdrawn and hidden from the sight of men within the barriers of the clouds, and, where the winds had settled, with the serene face of heaven returning, to be scattered and driven away; and so, when their spirits were revived and they were brought back from such great sadness to joy, abundant thanks were rendered to God and to his Friend, with mighty tears poured forth over the unhoped-for rejoicing.\n\nTo this there also came another thing, more wondrous than this very miracle itself: that human frailty, which is ignorant in all things, might not, having been taught nothing more evidently and openly concerning the judgments and benefits of God, prove ungrateful, as it ought to have been. For behold, on the next day, by the providence of divine dispensation, a certain merchant, never known to our region, of his own accord met our subdeacon, Sennodus by name, in the place called Memblotutum, and called him to himself, and asked of him who he was and whence he came.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":51,"ref":"p51","source":"Qui ubi se subdiaconum Uzalensis Ecclesiæ memoratus est, respondit continuo idem ille ignotus homo (si tamen solum homo: credendum est enim quia angelus et homo; neque enim hoc vel inauditum atque inexpertum est, sive religioni christianæ sive notitiæ humanæ, sanctos Angelos terreno habitu et visibili specie plerumque hominibus apparuisse). Dedit ergo subdiacono memorato velum variis pictum coloribus, in quo inerat pictura hæc: in dextera veli parte ipse sanctus Stephanus videbatur astare, et gloriosam crucem propriis repositam humeris bajulare, qua crucis cuspide portam civitatis videbatur pulsare, ex qua profugiens draco teterrimus cernebatur exire, Amico Dei videlicet adventante. Verum ille serpens noxius nec in ipsa fuga tutissimus, sub triumphali pede Martyris Christi contritus aspiciebatur et pressus. Talis itaque pictura veli non omnino absque mysterio Dei ubi a memorato subdiacono allata pariter atque suspensa est ante ipsam Memoriam tanti patroni, omnis ætas omnisque sexus intueri et mirari cœpit, tanquam spectaculum grande, quo scilicet auctore quove liberatore draco ille exstinctus est hostisque devictus. Gestæ quippe rei fidem præcedentis diei commendabat in animis omnium attestatio sequentis (??) Namque illud quod studiosius cernebatur in velo, (??) (??) credibilius (??)batur in vero.","english":"When he was reminded that he was a subdeacon of the Church of Uzalis, that same unknown man—if indeed he was only a man; for it must be believed that he was both angel and man, nor is this unheard of or unknown either to the Christian religion or to human knowledge, that holy angels have often appeared to men in earthly garb and visible form—immediately replied. He therefore gave to the aforementioned subdeacon a veil painted with various colors, on which was this picture: on the right side of the veil the holy Stephen himself was seen standing by, and carrying the glorious cross placed upon his own shoulders, and with the tip of that cross he was seen knocking at the gate of the city, from which a most foul dragon was seen to flee and go out, namely as the Friend of God approached. But that harmful serpent, not even in that flight most safe, was seen crushed and pressed beneath the triumphant foot of the Martyr of Christ. Such a picture on the veil, therefore, not altogether without the mystery of God, when it had been brought by the aforementioned subdeacon and likewise hung before that same Memorial of so great a patron, every age and every sex began to gaze upon and marvel at, as a great spectacle—namely, by what author or by what deliverer that dragon was slain and the enemy conquered. For the testimony of the following day commended to the minds of all the credibility of the deed of the preceding day. For what was more earnestly beheld in the veil was more credibly believed in truth.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":52,"ref":"p52","source":"Concurrebat (??) cum gra(??), et tam divinitus pridie ges(??) (??)um recolebatur, quam postea in (??) (??)batur. Denique ex ipsa congruen- (??) (??)is atque sequentis veritatis, et ima- (??) (??)orumdam exemplariorum, tantus in mu(??) (??) (??)ariterque amor, admiratio et gratulatio accendebatur, ut a cunctis nihil aliud omnino vel diceretur vel affirmaretur nisi hoc unum, Vere quia per Amicum suum Deus istam liberaverit civitatem, et grandem a nobis depulit pestem. Et revera Dei fuit ad homi(??) (??)ædam allocutio in velo tacite significantis quodammodo et dicentis: O miseri mortales, quale hesterna die draconis evaseritis incendium, vel cujus pro vobis advocati fuerit acceptum suffragium, isto sequenti die istius veli figuratione intelligite, atque gaudete. Hinc vestram et præcedentem tentationem et subsequentem liberationem apud vosmetipsos conferte, exinde non dubii, sed certi, Deo vestro per Amicum meum gratias agite. Ecce draconem de vestra civitate cernitis fugatum et expulsum, ecce conferentem caput ejus primum Martyrem meum: ecce Crucis tropæum, per quod vicistis inimicum. Hoc ergo modo civitate nostra a tanto periculo primitus liberata, ac postea tali per congruentem picturam veli admonitione instructa et illuminata, gemino miraculo est omnis pia anima in Dei gloria exhilarata.","english":"There was a running together with great rejoicing, and the event divinely accomplished the day before was recalled, just as afterward it was confirmed. Thence, from the very harmony of the matter and of the truth that followed, and from the copies of certain manuscripts, such love, admiration, and rejoicing were kindled in marvelous fashion that by all nothing else at all was either said or affirmed except this one thing: \"Truly, because through his Friend God has delivered this city, and has driven away a great plague from us.\" And indeed it was God's address to men, silently signifying in the veil in some manner and saying: \"O wretched mortals, understand by the figure of this veil on this following day what kind of conflagration of the dragon you escaped yesterday, and whose advocacy on your behalf was accepted. Hence compare with one another your former trial and your subsequent deliverance, and from this, not doubting but certain, give thanks to your God through my Friend. Behold, you see the dragon put to flight and expelled from your city; behold, my first Martyr presenting his head; behold the trophy of the Cross, through which you conquered the enemy.\" Therefore, when our city had first been delivered from so great a danger in this manner, and afterward instructed and enlightened by such an admonition through the fitting picture of the veil, every pious soul was made glad in the glory of God by a twofold miracle.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":53,"ref":"p53","source":"CAPUT V. — De dispensatore pecuniæ publicæ Carthaginis liberato.\n\nIn supra dictis miraculis domini Stephani patroni communis, virtutes sanitatum et visiones somniorum effectusque eorum mediocritate nostra nos digessisse men(??)nimus: nunc vero evidenter et occultata fide humani habitus corporales apparitiones et demonstrationes in foro, in judiciis, in luce diei, et conventu populorum, ordinum dignitates hominibus vigilantibus et videntibus exhibitas per ipsum Amicum Dei, adjuvante Domino, cupimus enarrare. Igitur dispensator pecuniæ publicæ Carthaginensis civitatis, Florentius nomine, sicut in talibus functionibus fiscalium actionum evenire assolet actoribus earum, ut motus sæpe potestatum sub quibus degunt, et quorum ditioni inserviunt, incurrant; idem usque ad periculum capitis offensam judiciariæ indignationis incurrerat. Qua de re ex præcepto nescio unde proconsulis, præcipitanter jussus est rapi, et ejus mox obtutibus sisti. Quod cum absque ulla mora officium quod patebat implesset, memoratumque dispensatorem raptum per publicum sedenti proconsuli in secretario obtulisset; continuo pallor ingens cœpit discurrere per corda eorum qui aderant, et videbant, atque humana miseratione hominem dolebant, ejusque periculum metuebant. Interea viso protinus quem furialiter quærebat, exsurgit in vo(??)erribili potestas irata, minaci eumdem dispensatorem interrogatione perturbans.","english":"CHAPTER V. — Concerning the treasurer of the public funds of Carthage, set free.\n\nIn the miracles of the Lord Stephen, our common patron, related above, we have remembered to have set forth, according to our modest ability, the powers of healings and the visions of dreams and their effects; but now, with the Lord's help, we desire to narrate plainly, even though the faith of human appearance be hidden, the bodily apparitions and demonstrations shown in the forum, in the courts, in the light of day, and in the assembly of the people, the dignities of ranks displayed to watchful and seeing men, through that same Friend of God. And so the treasurer of the public funds of the city of Carthage, by name Florentius, as is wont to happen in such functions of fiscal administration to those who carry them out—that they often incur the displeasure of the powers under whom they live and whose authority they serve—had himself incurred the offense of judicial indignation, even to the danger of his head. For which reason, by the command of the proconsul—I know not whence—he was ordered to be seized hastily and forthwith brought into his sight. When the official who was available had carried this out without any delay, and had presented the said treasurer, seized, through the public street to the proconsul sitting in his private chamber, immediately a great pallor began to spread through the hearts of those who were present and saw, and with human compassion they grieved for the man, and feared for his danger. Meanwhile, as soon as the proconsul saw him whom he was furiously seeking, the angry power rose up in terrible fashion, throwing the same treasurer into confusion with menacing interrogation.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":54,"ref":"p54","source":"At pavefacti hominis fugata mens metu, nec quid diceret inveniebat. Sed ecce Deus ille magister e cœlo prospiciens super filios hominum, miscens severitati lenitatem, minas transferens in benignitatem, castigando amans, amando consolans, judex in flagellis, pater in blandimentis, ubique fidelis, nusquam crudelis; ipse ergo Deus Dominus ad liberandum cum hominem angelum suum misit, de quo dictum est: Immittet angelus Domini in circuitu timentium eum, et eruet eos (Psal. xxxiii, 8). Nam cum dispensator ille vitæ suæ incertus ac dubius sub tanto metu terribilis potestatis inter quæstionarios astaret, repente pulsatum se a tergo persensit. Statimque paululum cervice defixa, oculisque furtim retrorsum reductis, videt velut unum de carnificibus circa se astantem, sibique suggerentem quid ageret, quem rogare deberet, dicentem et admonentem: Invoca sanctum Stephanum. Quo viso auditoque Florentius, suæ menti ac sensui redditus, et fuga dudum recreato animo confortatus, gloriosum Stephanum intra semetipsum orare atque invocare minime desistebat. Deinde elevata parumper facie ad interrogantem judicem, oculos intendit in judicis assessorem.","english":"But the terrified man's mind was put to flight by fear, and he could find nothing to say. Yet behold, that God, the Master who looks down from heaven upon the children of men, blending gentleness with severity, turning threats into kindness, loving when he chastises, consoling when he loves, a judge in scourges, a father in caresses, everywhere faithful, nowhere cruel—he, then, the Lord God, sent his angel to set the man free, of whom it is said: The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about those who fear him, and he shall deliver them (Ps. 33:8). For when that steward, uncertain and doubtful of his life, stood among the torturers under such great fear of a terrible power, he suddenly felt himself struck from behind. And at once, bowing his neck a little and stealthily turning his eyes backward, he saw one standing near him like one of the executioners, suggesting to him what he should do and whom he ought to ask, saying and admonishing: Call upon Saint Stephen. On seeing and hearing this, Florentius, restored to his own mind and senses, and strengthened in spirit, now revived by the flight, did not cease to pray to and invoke the glorious Stephen within himself. Then, lifting his face a little toward the questioning judge, he fixed his eyes on the judge's assessor.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":55,"ref":"p55","source":"Quem cum nova facie, novoque vultu micantem, fulgentemque conspiceret, neque illum sibi notissimum, sed alium incognitum atque mirificum judicis consiliarium cerneret, ita ut cum esset assessoris nota antea in omnibus, et marcida ævo in vultu deformitas et senilis ætas; in illo vero qui ei apparebat, juvenili decore vultus et candor effulgebat. Hoc viso memoratus Florentius, diu multumque permotus, non jam dubius, sed firmus et certus, gloriosum Stephanum ibi præsentem credebat adesse, ipsumque occultata sede intendere se, et in sua causa judicem sedere, vel judici assistere. Nam quo plenius perfectiusque de tali visione ac præsentatione Amici Dei fiduciam caperet, videt Florentius eumdem suum suffragatorem, suique judiciis misericordissimum consiliatorem, etiam manu sua sibimet annuentem, et ne quidquam prorsus timeret, per manum dexteram significantem, vultuque hilari sibi arridentem, et spem salutis plenissimam pollicentem. Quid multa? Sensim cœpere illi furiales impetus judicis tumentesque animi ad omnem tranquillitatem lenitatemque deduci: ita ut non formidaret judicem, sed agnosceret patrem; nec cujus securim capiti suo pertimesceret, sed cujus favorem propriæ salutis speraret.","english":"When he saw him shining and radiant with a new face and a new countenance, and perceived him not as the one he knew best, but as another, unknown and wondrous counselor of the judge—so that, whereas the assessor had previously been known in all things, with the deformity of a face withered by age and an aged time of life, in that one who appeared to him the youthful beauty of countenance and a brightness shone forth. At this sight the aforementioned Florentius, stirred long and greatly, now no longer doubtful but firm and certain, believed that the glorious Stephen was present there, and that he himself, from a hidden seat, was watching him and sitting as judge in his case, or assisting the judge. For so that he might take fuller and more perfect confidence concerning such a vision and presentation of the Friend of God, Florentius sees that same advocate of his, and most merciful counselor of his judgments, even beckoning to him with his own hand, and signifying by his right hand that he should fear nothing at all, and smiling upon him with a cheerful countenance, and promising him the fullest hope of salvation. What more? Gradually those furious impulses of the judge and his swelling spirit began to be led down to all tranquility and gentleness, so that he did not dread the judge but recognized a father; nor did he fear whose axe was against his head, but whose favor he hoped for his own salvation.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":56,"ref":"p56","source":"O Domine, Domine, qui veras tuas laudes in sacris tibi psalmis decantari non arroganter, sed misericorditer jubes; non pro tua jactantia, sed pro nostra tutela, cum dicitur, Tu dominaris potestati maris, motum autem fluctuum ejus tu mitigas (Psal. lxxxviii, 10)! Sicut consonat etiam evangelica auctoritas, ubi imperio Christi tui, dum levigarentur turbulenti fluctus ac venti, mirantes dixere discipuli: Qualis est hic, qui imperat ventis et mari, et obediunt ei (Luc. viii, 25)? Verissimumque quod etiam alibi in sermone Scripturæ sacræ dicitur de te: Cor regis in manu Domini, sicut aqua decurrens; quocumque voluerit, illuc detorquet eum (Prov. xxi, 1). Tu enim, Domine, de consulari irata primitus et post tranquillata potestate erga dispensatorem, illud nostris temporibus exhibuisti, quod in antiqua Scripturæ auctoritate prius ferociente et rursum blandiente regia potestate, circa Esther feminam sanctam ostendisti, et in memoriam posteris legendum sciendumque dedisti (Esther xv). Proinde dispensatorem Florentium proconsul, non jam ut officialem suum, sed tanquam filium remotis carnificibus, non solum ad sese atque ad gremium suum absque ullo timore vicinius jussit accedere, sed et eum cœpit paterna affectione familiarius commonere, ac deinde indulta venia vitaque concessa liberum facit de secretario abscedere.","english":"O Lord, Lord, who command your true praises to be sung to you in the sacred psalms, not out of arrogance but out of mercy—not for your own boasting but for our protection—when it is said, \"You rule over the power of the sea, and you calm the surging of its waves\"! As the authority of the Gospel also agrees, where at the command of your Christ, when the turbulent waves and winds were stilled, the disciples said in wonder: \"Who is this, who commands the winds and the sea, and they obey him?\" And most true is what is also said elsewhere in the speech of Sacred Scripture concerning you: \"The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, like running water; wherever he wills, he turns it.\" For you, O Lord, from the proconsular power first angered and afterward calmed toward the steward, have shown forth in our times that which you once showed in the ancient authority of Scripture, when the royal power first raged and then grew gentle, toward the holy woman Esther, and you gave it to be read and known in memory for posterity. Accordingly the proconsul ordered the steward Florentius, no longer as his official but as a son—the executioners having been removed—not only to approach him and his bosom more closely without any fear, but he also began to admonish him more intimately with fatherly affection, and then, with pardon granted and his life conceded, he set him free to depart from his secretarial office.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":57,"ref":"p57","source":"Quo facto, qui astabant et pro hominis periculo pia sollicitudine trepidabant, abeunte absoluto et illæso dispensatore, mixto cum stupore gaudio, modo hæsitabant, modo exsultabant, modo inter se mirantes et disquirentes dicebant: Unde ista tam repentina rerum commutatio atque conversio, quæ proconsularem potestatem omni severitate exuta ad tantam humanitatem lenitatemque perduxit, ut hominem ad vitam ab ipso mortis limine reduxerit?\n\nPorro autem Florentius, licet transacto periculo adhuc tamen ex priore metu aliquantulum animo saucius domum reversus est. Nulli sane suorum est in tempore confessus quid acciderit, quid viderit, quid evaserit. Verum nocte eadem per somnium videt sibi apparentem illum qui in secretario a se visus fuerat, juvenili specie vestitum, limine, atque ultro nominatim compellatus audivit: Quid est, Florenti? Agnoscis me? Ego sum qui in secretario apparui tibi, teque de morte liberavi. Quem cum Florentius agnovisset, ipsumque esse Stephanum intellexisset, ubi eum adorare voluit, manu mento supposita ab illo elevatus est. Expergefactus autem Florentius surgit matutinus, cupiensque grates Deo persolvere, ejusque Amico vota sua reddere, solus ad Uzalensem urbem proficiscitur. Sed cum viæ sibi incognitæ essent, viator ignarus orabat tacitus intra semetipsum, et ejusdem gloriosi Martyris Christi implorat ducatum.","english":"When this was done, those who were standing by and trembling with pious anxiety for the man's danger, as the steward departed absolved and unharmed, with joy mingled with astonishment, now hesitated, now exulted, now marveling and inquiring among themselves they said: Whence comes this so sudden change and reversal of things, which has stripped the proconsular power of all its severity and brought it to such great humanity and gentleness, that it has brought the man back to life from the very threshold of death?\n\nFurthermore, Florentius, although the danger had passed, nevertheless returned home with his mind still somewhat wounded from the former fear. To be sure, he confessed to none of his household in that moment what had happened, what he had seen, what he had escaped. But on that same night through a dream he saw appearing to him the one who had been seen by him in the secretariat, clothed in youthful form, and having been addressed by name of his own accord he heard: What is it, Florentius? Do you recognize me? I am the one who appeared to you in the secretariat, and I freed you from death. And when Florentius had recognized him and understood that it was Stephen himself, when he wished to adore him, he was lifted up by him with a hand placed under his chin. But Florentius, awakened, rose in the morning, and desiring to give thanks to God and to pay his vows to his Friend, he set out alone for the city of Uzalis. But since the roads were unknown to him, the ignorant traveler prayed silently within himself, and implored the guidance of that same glorious Martyr of Christ.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":58,"ref":"p58","source":"Verum cum ipse precem funderet, ecce in silentio precantis presbyter nostræ Ecclesiæ, Firmus nomine, Florentio aliunde superveniens adjungitur. Quem conspiciens Florentius percunctatus est quo iter ageret. Respondens memoratus presbyter, ad Uzalensem se pergere civitatem, unde etiam se presbyterum esse confessus est. Tunc Florentius animo exhilaratus gratulari plurimum cœpit, omne suum gaudium celare non potuit, sed ab ipso rei gestæ exordio supradicto presbytero itineris sui comiti adjuncto, quæ secum divina misericordia per gloriosum Amicum suum egerit, ordine indicavit. Deinde finito itinere Florentius una cum presbytero ad civitatem venit, beati Martyris limina humili pietate ingressus, et pavimento prostratus omnipotenti Domino Jesu Christo, ejusque beatissimo Amico gratias egit. Monasteria quoque ingressus venerabili episcopo, simulque servorum Dei ad se concurrenti choro, omnia hæc enarravit. Et nos quoque secum per multam gratiarum actionem in laudes Dei et coronæ martyris Stephani alacriter excitavit ac ferventissime accendit. Hæc dicta sunt a nobis pauciora de multis quæ valuit stilus indagare, et legenda magis cum desiderio, quam cum fastidio relig(??)osis pectoribus commendare.","english":"But while he himself was pouring out his prayer, behold, in the silence of the one praying, a presbyter of our Church, Firmus by name, arriving from elsewhere, joined himself to Florentius. Seeing him, Florentius asked where he was traveling. The presbyter, recalling the matter, answered that he was making his way to the city of Uzalis, and confessed that he was also a presbyter from there. Then Florentius, rejoicing in spirit, began greatly to give thanks; he could not conceal all his joy, but from the very beginning of the event, with the aforesaid presbyter joined to him as a companion of his journey, he indicated in order what divine mercy had done with him through his glorious Friend. Then, when the journey was finished, Florentius came with the presbyter to the city, and entering the threshold of the blessed Martyr with humble piety, and prostrate on the pavement, he gave thanks to the almighty Lord Jesus Christ and to his most blessed Friend. Entering also the monastery, he recounted all these things to the venerable bishop and to the choir of the servants of God running together to him. And us also, together with him, through much thanksgiving, he eagerly stirred up and most fervently enkindled to the praises of God and of the crown of the martyr Stephen. These things have been said by us, fewer out of many which my pen was able to trace out, and to commend to be read with desire rather than with distaste by religious hearts.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":59,"ref":"p59","source":"INDEX RERUM QUÆ IN HOC TOMO SEPTIMO CONTINENTUR.\n\nIn tomum septimum Præfatio. 9-10\n\nSyllabus codicum ad quos recognitum est Augustini o(??)us de Civitate Dei. 11-12\n\nS. AURELII AUGUSTINI, HIPP. EPISCOPI, AD MARCELLINUM DE CIVITATE DEI, CONTRA PAGANOS LIBRI VIGINTI DUO. 13-14 Liber primus. — Paganos reprehendit, qui orbis calamitates, maximeque Romanæ urbis recentem a Gothis vastationem christianæ religioni, qua deorum cultus prohibetur, tribuebant. Agit de commodis et incommodis, quæ tunc bonis et malis, ut solet, fuerunt communia. Illorum denique retundit procacitatem, qui Christianarum feminarum violatum a militibus pudorem objectabant. Ibid.\n\nPræfatio. De suscepti Operis consilio et argumento. Ibid.\n\nCaput primum. De adversariis nominis Christi, quil(??)us in vastatione Ur(??)is propter Christum Barbari pepercerunt, Ibid.\n\nII. Quod nulla unquam bella ita gesta sunt, ut victores, propter deos eorum quos vicerant, parcerent victis.","english":"INDEX OF THINGS CONTAINED IN THIS SEVENTH VOLUME.\n\nPreface to the seventh volume. 9-10\n\nList of the manuscripts against which Augustine's twenty-two books On the City of God have been collated. 11-12\n\nTHE TWENTY-TWO BOOKS OF SAINT AURELIUS AUGUSTINE, BISHOP OF HIPPO, ON THE CITY OF GOD, ADDRESSED TO MARCELLINUS, AGAINST THE PAGANS. 13-14 Book One. — He reproves the pagans, who attributed the calamities of the world, and especially the recent devastation of the city of Rome by the Goths, to the Christian religion, by which the worship of the gods is forbidden. He treats of the advantages and disadvantages which then, as is usual, were common to good and bad alike. Finally, he beats back the impudence of those who cast up as a reproach the violation of Christian women's chastity by the soldiers. Ibid.\n\nPreface. On the plan and argument of the work undertaken. Ibid.\n\nChapter One. On the adversaries of the name of Christ, whom the barbarians, in the devastation of the city, spared for Christ's sake. Ibid.\n\nII. That no wars were ever waged in such a way that the victors, for the sake of the gods of those whom they had conquered, spared the conquered.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":60,"ref":"p60","source":"III. Quam imprudenter Romani deos penates, qui Trojam custodire non potuerant, sibi crediderunt profuturos.\n\nIV. De asylo Junonis in Troja, quod neminem liberavit a Græcis, et basilicis Apostolorum, quæ omnes ad se confugientes a Barbaris defenderunt.\n\nV. De generali consuetudine hostium victas civitates evertentium, quid Cæsar censerit.\n\nVI. Quod nec Romani quidem ita ullas ceperint civitates, ut in templis earum (??)arcerent victis. Ibid.\n\nVII. Quod in eversione Urbis quæ aspere gesta sunt, de consuetudine acciderint belli; quæ vero clementer de potentia provenerint nominis Christi.\n\nVIII. De commodis atque incommodis, quæ bonis ac malis (??)rumque communia sunt.\n\nIX. De causis correptionum, propter quas et boni et mali pariter flagellantur.\n\nX. Quod sanctis in amissione rerum temporalium nihil pereat.\n\nXI. De fine temporalis vitæ, sive longioris sive brevioris.","english":"III. How imprudently the Romans believed that the household gods, who had been unable to protect Troy, would be of benefit to them.\n\nIV. On the asylum of Juno in Troy, which saved no one from the Greeks, and the basilicas of the Apostles, which defended all who fled to them from the barbarians.\n\nV. On the general custom of enemies who overthrow conquered cities, and what Caesar decreed.\n\nVI. That not even the Romans captured any cities in such a way as to imprison the conquered in their temples. Ibid.\n\nVII. That in the destruction of the City, the harsh deeds happened according to the custom of war, while the merciful deeds came about through the power of the name of Christ.\n\nVIII. On the advantages and disadvantages that are common to both good and evil.\n\nIX. On the causes of correction, for which both good and evil are scourged alike.\n\nX. That nothing is lost to the saints in the loss of temporal things.\n\nXI. On the end of temporal life, whether longer or shorter.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":61,"ref":"p61","source":"XII. De sepultura humanorum corporum, quæ Christianis e(??)amsi fuerit negata, nil adimit.\n\nXIII. Quæ sit ratio sanctorum corpora sepeliendi.\n\nXIV. De captivitate sanctorum, quibus nunquam divina solatia defuerunt.\n\nXV. De Regulo, in quo captivitatis, ob religionem etiam sponte tolerandæ, exstat (??)xemplum: quod tamen illi deos colenti prodesse non potuit. Ibid.\n\nXVI. An stupris, quæ etiam sanctarum forte virginum est (??)ssa captivitas, contaminari potuerit virtus animi sine voluntatis assensu.\n\nXVII. De morte voluntaria ob metum (??)œnæ vel dedecoris. Ibid.\n\nXVIII. De aliena violentiarum libidine, q(??) (??) oppresso corpore mens invita perpetitur.\n\nXIX. De Lucretia, quæ se ob illatum sibi stuprum peremit.\n\nXX. Nullam esse auctoritatem, quæ Christianis in qu(??)libet causa jus voluntariæ necis tribuat.\n\nXXI. De interfectionibus hominum, quæ ab homicidii crimine excipiuntur.","english":"XII. On the burial of human bodies, which, even if it has been denied to Christians, takes nothing away.\n\nXIII. What is the reason for burying the bodies of the saints.\n\nXIV. On the captivity of the saints, to whom divine consolations were never lacking.\n\nXV. On Regulus, in whom there exists an example of captivity to be endured even voluntarily for the sake of religion: which nevertheless could not benefit him, since he worshipped the gods. Ibid.\n\nXVI. Whether, on account of acts of debauchery, by which captivity, perhaps even of holy virgins, has been inflicted, the virtue of the mind could be contaminated without the assent of the will.\n\nXVII. On voluntary death out of fear of shame or disgrace. Ibid.\n\nXVIII. On another's lust for acts of violence, which the unwilling mind endures while the body is oppressed.\n\nXIX. On Lucretia, who killed herself on account of the violation inflicted upon her.\n\nXX. That there is no authority which grants Christians the right of voluntary death in any cause whatsoever.\n\nXXI. On the killings of men which are excepted from the crime of homicide.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":62,"ref":"p62","source":"XXII. Quod nunquam possit mors voluntaria ad magnitudinem animi pertinere. Ibid.\n\nXXIII. Quale exemplum sit Catonis, qui se, victoriam Cæsaris non ferens, interemit.\n\nXXIV. Quod in ea virtute, qua Regulus Catone præstantior fuit, multo magis emineant Christiani.\n\nXXV. Quod peccatum non per peccatum debeat declinari.38\n\nXXVI. De his quæ fieri non licent, cum a sanctis facta noscuntur, qua ratione facta credenda sint.\n\nXXVII. An propter declinationem peccati mors spontanea appetenda sit.\n\nXXVIII. Quo judicio Dei in corpora continentium libido hostilis peccare permissa sit.\n\nXXIX. Quid familia Christi respondere debeat infidelibus, cum exprobrant quod eam a furore hostium non liberaverit Christus.\n\nXXX. Quam pudendis prosperitatibus affluere velint qui de christianis temporibus conqueruntur. Ibid.\n\nXXXI. Quibus vitiorum gradibus aucta sit in Romanis cupido regnandi.","english":"XXII. That a voluntary death can never pertain to greatness of mind. Ibid.\n\nXXIII. What sort of example is that of Cato, who, unable to bear Caesar's victory, killed himself.\n\nXXIV. That in that virtue in which Regulus was more excellent than Cato, Christians shine forth much more.\n\nXXV. That sin ought not to be avoided by sin.\n\nXXVI. Concerning those things which are not permitted to be done, when they are known to have been done by the saints, by what reasoning they are to be believed to have been done.\n\nXXVII. Whether, for the avoidance of sin, a spontaneous death is to be desired.\n\nXXVIII. By what judgment of God the hostile lust was permitted to sin against the bodies of the continent.\n\nXXIX. What the family of Christ ought to answer to unbelievers, when they reproach it that Christ did not free it from the fury of enemies.\n\nXXX. To what shameful prosperities those who complain about Christian times wish to abound. Ibid.\n\nXXXI. By what steps of vices the desire for ruling was increased among the Romans.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]},{"i":63,"ref":"p63","source":"XXXII. De scenicorum institutione ludorum.\n\nXXXIII. De vitiis Romanorum, quos patriæ non correxit eversio.\n\nXXXIV. De clementia Dei, quæ Urbis excidium temperavit. Ibid.\n\nXXXV. De latentibus inter impios Ecclesiæ filiis, et de falsis intra Ecclesiam christianis. Ibid.\n\nXXXVI. De quibus causis sequenti disputati ne sit disserendum.\n\nLiber secundus. — In quo disputatione instituta de malis quæ ante Christum, vigente deorum falsorum cultu perpessi sunt Romani, demonstratur primum eos morum malis et animi vitiis, quæ mala vel s(??)la vel maxima deputanda sunt, cumulatos procurantibus diis falsis, nedum liberatos fuisse. 47-48\n\nCaput primum. De modo, qui necessitati disputationis adhibendus est. Ibid.\n\nII. De his quæ primo volumine expedita sunt. Ibid.\n\nIII. De assumenda historia, qua ostendatur quæ mala acciderint Romanis, cum deos colerent, antequam religio christiana obcresceret.","english":"XXXII. On the institution of theatrical games.\n\nXXXIII. On the vices of the Romans, whom the destruction of their fatherland did not correct.\n\nXXXIV. On the mercy of God, which tempered the destruction of the City. Ibid.\n\nXXXV. On the children of the Church hidden among the impious, and on false Christians within the Church. Ibid.\n\nXXXVI. On what causes it was necessary to refrain from disputing in the following discussion.\n\nBook Two. — In which, a discussion having been undertaken concerning the evils that the Romans suffered before Christ, while the worship of false gods flourished, it is shown first that they, heaped up with evils of morals and vices of mind—which evils are to be reckoned either the only evils or the greatest—while the false gods brought these about, were far from having been freed from them. 47-48\n\nChapter One. On the manner to be applied to the necessity of the discussion. Ibid.\n\nII. On those matters that were settled in the first volume. Ibid.\n\nIII. On undertaking the history by which it is shown what evils befell the Romans while they worshiped the gods, before the Christian religion grew up.","structure":"narrative","commentary":[],"ambiguities":[],"confidence":"","notes":[]}]}