Beati Filastrii Episcopi Carmen Saphicum Pentametrum

For the Praise of the Blessed Bishop Filastrius, a Sapphic Pentameter Poem. Every inhabitant of the Clusa sings a song, whence flows the Clossa, whence flows the Melta, the Ollius runs winding in its curve, sing in harmony (??). Let a singer of this man be present, dwelling on our Benacus and its shore: free man and slave; and let them sing odes with all their voices. Let the whole joyful populace of the people resound; whoever is born in Brixia, and the guest, the clergy, and the ranks of the lay people, sex and age, let us be roused by the melody of such a father, in whose bones we delight perpetually; and every bishop who was in this city in ancient times. This good and blessed man sat as the seventh on the episcopal throne of Brixia. He was noble and prudent, who was called by the name Filastrius. From whose towers he was born, none of us remembers, nor does he know; but we know this, that he followed the blessed Abraham. Having left behind his homeland with its property and acquaintances, and with faith always accompanying him, he sought the divine teaching with his inmost senses. This man, vigilant in reading the sacred books, continent, as if he were alone, instructed himself, a wise man with a love very much for the divine. A good man, simple, filled with goodness, who believed that the Lord and God was his own portion and his own lot. Consecrated as a priest by divine lot, he then strove to teach the peoples to the ends of the earth.

With holy teaching. The barbarian peoples, bent before idols, and the wicked Jewish men, treacherous against the heavenly warnings, the beloved minister of the eternal King himself withstood; he said that the teachings of the perfidious sects, but especially those of the Arians, were false, always and everywhere opposing them with his inmost feeling, as if in conflict. With constant whips his limbs, beaten, pour forth a flowing stream of rosy blood. While he tirelessly warned the curious, the impious were only permitted so much against him, that he might bear back upon his own limbs the stigmata of Christ to an excessive degree. But for you, Auxentius, wretched, unskilled one, he stood firm with the strength of faith, refuting your people with your very bloody bites. In the faith he himself established many cohorts of people throughout the city and the world; until he came to Brixia, by the will of the King of the heavens; and the people, though untaught, yet eager to be warned, though ignorant, yet firmly ready to be taught, with shrewd zeal and natural ability. For he stripped the untaught people of many old stains they had, and clothing them anew, renewing them in Christ, with nourishing morals. This holy man was a prophet of this age, ignorant of pomp, an ardent worshiper of the Lord's honor, not seeking his own; Well done, faithful one! He believed the empty honors of this age to be of cheap value, he who meditated day and night under the law of Christ. He spurned the great and precious things of the age as small and counted them as nothing; but the buyer increased the price of the lesser goods. With a father's affection, patient to anger, and brief, nor easily forgiving; sweet, humane, sober, kind, to all.

A righteous man and judge, and a prudent physician, who knew the spiritual remedy: he mixed the waters of olive oil with wine, healing wounds. And although he was a father bound to the very least, he himself was always bound by sex, age, servitude, and nobility. Hail, wondrous one, and imitable! His bearing was humble and gracious: his humility lacked foul gesture, his grace lacked arrogance. The twenty-eighth day of the month of July snatched him away, with the clergy weeping; but the great crowd of the people wept with loud cries. Hence we believe that by his blessed merits we are always lightened of our burden of sin, and that we can hold a place of pardon, if the Father of Light, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in their mercy toward us, grant perpetual grace through continual remedies for all years. Amen.