Epistola Ad Sanctum Remigium Rhemorum Antistitem Missa

APPENDIX TO THE WORKS OF ST. FATHER BENEDICT. SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS. LETTER OF SAINT BENEDICT sent to Saint Remigius, Bishop of the Rhemi. To the Lord Priest Remigius, both brother and fellow servant in Christ Jesus, Benedict, humble cultivator of the cenobitic life, sends the gift of eternal blessing. Rejoicing in your most holy progress (priest of the Most High King), because we are members of the same supreme head, I believe that whatever I feel is lacking in me, I wholly possess (praise be to God) in you. Behold, what my sins have prevented from coming to be, the sacerdotal merits of your authority have achieved; and let the rumors of men about me cease from now on, since with you it is established that there is perfection of all virtues. This captive [soul], besieged by the ancient enemy, I entrust to your highness; so that for her liberation you may offer the sacred host to God, and that the victory itself may greatly gladden my own wretchedness. Farewell, most delightful jewel of Christ's priests.

When, however, he was bidding farewell to the same guests with sealed letters, he dispatched his own messenger with them into Gaul, to offer to blessed Remigius the gift of such great humility. And when they entered the city of the Rhemi, and the holy pontiff of the Lord had beheld the letters of so great a father, bathed in copious tears, he burst forth into these words: "Thanks be to you, O Christ, most merciful Redeemer, who exalt our times with such great glory, that in your special servant Benedict the whole Church magnifies you throughout the world." And immediately the glorious archimandrite Remigius arose, and arrayed himself in his episcopal insignia in the usual manner; and, about to offer sacrifice to God, he entered the church with haste. And when that pitiable woman, bereft of parental comfort, had come into the church, that crafty deceiver, the turncoat, unwillingly uttered these words through the girl's mouth: "O priest Remigius, do not boast against Benedict: for it is not by your command, but by his humility, that I am compelled to depart." Having said this, the woman was freed: and all who heard gave glory to God, who is wonderful in his saints and blessed throughout the ages.

This letter, together with the miracle contained at the end of the letter, is offered by Hincmarus, bishop of Rheims, successor of Saint Remigius and the most ancient writer of his Life: for he flourished in the time of Charlemagne, eight hundred years ago. And although in the testament of Saint Remigius, which is in Brissonius’s Formulae, he himself ascribes that miracle to himself concerning the healing of the daughter of a certain nobleman named Benedictus, we do not deny that that miracle can be ascribed to many: first and chiefly to the sacrifice of the Mass, secondly to the most ardent prayers of Saint Remigius, and thirdly to the humility of Saint Benedictus, which is wonderfully displayed throughout this entire letter, as indeed in his whole life and teaching. But if you should suspect that an error has crept in here on account of the similarity of the name Benedictus, why should not the opposite conjecture be more plausible: namely, that the coincidence of these names was a most fitting occasion for Saint Remigius to acknowledge the divine Benedictus, whose fame for sanctity was flying everywhere, but especially in our Gaul through Saint Romanus, who had given the habit of holy conversation to the holy Father; to whom, when it had been said divinely that he should spare those places because another friend was present, he had come into Gaul: where he was building a monastery called Fons Regis in the territory of Auxerre, at the time when Saint Maurus came into Gaul, as testified by Adrevaldus of Fleury, who flourished in the year 890, in his book On the Miracles of Saint Benedict, chapter 8.

The same letter is presented in the appendix of the Chronicle of Monte Cassino, and by Arnoldus Uvion in book 1 of the *Lignum Vitae*, who also says that it has often been printed in various places. I have seen it printed together with the Rule and its exposition made by Cardinal Turrecremata, in the year 1517.