Honoratus
Acta Sanctorum, May 16
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-16/honoratus.html
----------------------------------------

ON SAINT HONORATUS
BISHOP OF AMIENS IN GAUL.

ABOUT THE YEAR 600.

[Preface]

Honoratus, Bishop of Amiens in Gaul (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. H.

[1] Celebrated is the memory of St. Honoratus in the ancient
Breviaries of the Church of Amiens, which we have
printed in the year 1550 and 1554: where on
this May 16 is prescribed with the highest
solemnity his feast through an entire Octave to be celebrated. [An Ecclesiastical Office,]
There is preserved his sacred body, in the church formerly to SS.
Peter and Paul dedicated, which now is called of St. Firmin the Confessor,
into the city translated under the first incursions of the Normans.
For he died in a village of the County of Ponthieu, [The body at Amiens,]
Port called, where also he had been born: whence these verses for the first
Antiphon at Vespers are recited in the cited Breviary.
Whom Port begot, withdrew where was his rise,
      This his own garden, to him is setting and rise.
Ignatius Joseph of Jesus Mary, a Discalced Carmelite,
in bk. 1 of the Ecclesiastical History of Abbeville ch. 52 asserts, [the first burial at Port.]
in the said place formerly to have been a castle, in which born had been St.
Honoratus, of the Counts of Ponthieu (as is believed)
sprung, if however that County from those times was
instituted. There he added behind after the high altar
even now to be shown his burial, formerly with many miracles
illustrious: where he says St. Austroberta, when still younger out of devotion
thither she had come, took the resolution herself to God to consecrate.
We gave her Life February 10, in whose chapter
first it is handed down at Port at the Somme river in a monastery
the monastic life to have begun. William de Mascon,
Bishop of Amiens, in the year 1301 founded among the Abbeville people
of his predecessors a Bishop of Amiens, and to them gave
the sacred head of St. Honoratus the Patron of the Church: [a Monastery at Abbeville.] which
in a silver head enclosed even now there with the highest veneration
is preserved. Most celebrated also at Paris is the name
of St. Honoratus, [a Church at Paris.] from whom a very long street its name
takes, on account of a church to this Saint dedicated, and in the year
1204 by Renoldus Cherey and his spouse Sibylla built:
of which widely treats James Brulius in the Theater of Parisian
antiquities bk. 3 p. 801 and following.

[2] The complete MS. Acts of the life and miracles of St. Honoratus
are extant both at Paris in the said St. Honoratus's church, of which
makes mention the aforesaid Brulius; [MS. Acts] both at Abbeville in the said
Charterhouse, to which were subscribed these words: This book
is of the house of St. Honoratus of the Carthusian Order,
near Abbeville, in Ponthieu of the Amiens diocese.
It is a little book of eight leaves in parchment written,
which from the Rev. Father Francis Fuzelerius the Prior received, and to him
afterward returned, took care for us to be copied the Rev. Lord John
de S. Martino of the Congregation of Foligno, at Paris in the year
1662 deceased, who also another MS. but not of a complete
life from a MS. of Amiens had submitted. There is extant the greatest
part of it in the cited Breviary of the Church of Amiens, [their compendia:] and in French
by Renatus Benedictus edited. Some compendium have
Vincent of Beauvais bk. 16 of the Speculum historiale ch.
90, Peter de Natalibus bk. 2 of the Catalogue ch. 87, and earlier
it was related in the MS. of Utrecht of St. Salvator. There are also
from the said Acts encomia described in various Martyrologies,
especially in the MSS. of the church of the Morini and the monastery of St.
Lawrence among the Liège people, [a memory also January 16,] and by Saussay in the Martyrology
Gallican. There is also his memory in the present Martyrology
Roman, as in Greven, Maurolycus, Molanus, Ghinius
and others. The same is mentioned by various on the day January 16,
joined to St. Honoratus Archbishop of Arles: on which also
day is venerated at Fondi in Italy St. Honoratus the Abbot.

[3] The time of the life and death of St. Honoratus is greatly controverted,
nor sufficiently do we seem able to trust the said Acts, since it appears,
they were composed first in the Christian century XI or XII,
when happened the miracles, which the chief of the Acts
part constitute. [He was Bishop in the time of the Emperor Maurice.] More late also was written the Appendix after
no. 13, inasmuch as at whose end is commended to the prayers of others
the matron Sibylla, who at Paris in the year 1204 the church
of St. Honoratus built. Meanwhile it is permitted to presume
also the beginning from older Church monuments to have been received
by the author, who the Characters of times not
wholly ineptly added from his own ingenium. First he indicates
the empire of Maurice the Emperor, who reigned from the 13th day
of August of the year 582 up to the 27th of November of the year
602, on which by the order of Phocas the successor he was slain. It is added that by
Maurice a treasure was conferred on Childebert King
of the Franks, namely of the Austrasians, as Gregory of Tours
explains bk. 6 of the History of the Franks ch. 42 fifty
thousand solidi, [of Childebert of the Austrasians:] that the Lombards from Italy
he might expel. Let us grant this ineptly added (the Amiens people
for were not under the Austrasian Kings, but in the kingdom
of Soissons of Chilperic, and then of Chlothar his son)
nothing however against Chronology will have erred the author, commemorating
the friendship of Maurice the Emperor with the said
Childebert, who reigned from the day December 25 of the year 575
up to the year 596. But if he believed, as he seems to have believed,
this same Childebert to have sought the Relics
of SS. Fuscianus, Victoricus and Gentianus the Martyrs, by St. Honoratus
translated, and from carrying them off by a miracle prohibited,
to have given to the Clerics of Amiens the village Megium; in this hardly
can he be excused; and I would prefer to say, provided it were established that donation
to be of some Childebert, the third of this name
to be noted, who from the year 698 to 711 reigned; and
what one century after the sacred bodies were found happened, I would judge
wrongly hither to have been referred. [and of Pope Pelagius II,] Secondly is indicated the Pontificate
of Pelagius II, who the most blessed Gregory had as
a successor. Sat moreover this Pope from the day about the 10th
of November of the year 577 up to February of the year 590,
and succeeded St. Gregory the Great. Thirdly in their times
it is said St. Honoratus the Church of Amiens to have ruled, [to the year at least 600]
and the year six-hundredth is prefixed, in which he could still
have survived.

[4] How the blessed Confessor Firmin's successor
is said there, has its difficulties; about which more accurately
could be treated on the Kalends of September, [he did not immediately succeed St. Firmin the Confessor.] the day of his birthday. John
Monchiacenus Demochares, these first assigns
of the Church of Amiens Bishops, St. Firmin the Martyr,
Eulogius, Firmin the Confessor, St. Honoratus,
and so also of this See the fourth Bishop
to be numbered St. Honoratus asserts Baronius in the Notes to
the Martyrology. But it is not to be presumed, that the author
intended to signify an immediate succession: wherefore nothing
prevents that between the two intervened several,
not named in the older Catalogues. For such
Catalogues seem in great part drawn from the Litanies
and Martyrologies of the Church of Amiens, in which were noted
the Bishops, who in sanctity had flourished, the rest omitted,
whose memory by the injury of wars or the negligence of ancestors
seems to have perished. Of these moreover some, by others
afterward into notice recalled, thus are indicated; Leodardus,
Audoënus, Edibius, and Beatus, who was present at the Council
of Orléans V, in the year 547 held. There is mentioned from a most ancient
Martyrology of the Church of Amiens Deodatus
in the time above indicated St. Honoratus, and to him is substituted
St. Salvius, as the Acts of this man testify, on January 11 by us
illustrated; then Bercundus, who in the last of Chlothar
II's times to have presided is said in the Acts of St. Walericus the Abbot, on the Kalends of April. These things, all among themselves collated, seem
to us more probable: if anyone more certain monuments
should propose, gladly we will follow.

[5] Masinus in Bologna surveyed hands down on this May
16, in the church of St. Stephen to be preserved some relics
of St. Honoratus the Bishop. But we would wish to see
the documents, by which it might seem proved, that those Relics are
of this Bishop of Amiens. Of the Centula monastery in Gaul
the Cenobites, by St. Richarius more commonly named, nor
much more than ten leagues distant from Amiens, [whether some relics at Bologna?] more certainly
their possession demonstrate: for in that monastery's
Chronicle, which into Achery's Spicilegium volume 4 is inserted, it is read
at the year 865 bk. 3, ch. 12, that in that year,
in which Louis the Pious the Emperor the kingdoms to his sons conferred,
Odulfus, the Custodian of the church of St. Richarius, asked the Venerable
Hilmeradus Prelate of Amiens, that
to himself, to the honor of God and for the love of his Brothers,
some portion of the Relics he would give: [A finger at Centula.]
which to him, by divine grace illustrated, with a willing mind he yielded,
and the day on which for them he should send he appointed. The aforesaid
indeed Custodian his disciple Samuel a Presbyter
to Amiens sent, who the received from the Bishop
Relics on the Ides of July to Centula carried. Namely
from the Chasuble of St. Firmin, which he had worn when he was killed
for Christ; and of the bones of the hams
of the blessed Martyrs Fuscianus, Victoricus and Gentianus;
and also a part of the front finger of the most famous
Honoratus the Confessor of Christ. Then the most religious
Brothers, to meet from the monastery proceeding and
to the ground adoring, received those with immense
joy and the highest honor; and in the chest, in which St. Richarius's
blessed head was kept, they placed. Thus far
either the Chronicle's initiator Lord Saxowalus, or its
after several years continuator Fr. Arnulfus, of the monastery
of B. Richarius a humble monk, completing the work
of that humanity of the son of God in the year 1088. About that
monastery if anyone wishes more in us to read, let him consult
the aforesaid St. Richarius's Life on April 26.

LIFE
From various MSS. and the Breviary of Amiens.

Honoratus, Bishop of Amiens in Gaul (S.)

BHL Number: 3972

FROM A MS.

In the year of the Incarnate Word six-hundredth, from the time
of Pope Pelagius, who the most blessed Gregory
had as successor, the Emperor of the Romans Maurice,
the predecessor of Phocas Caesar, the most Christian
King of the Franks Childebert received into grace, [Devoted to abstinence and piety,]
so that to him treasures he conferred not small, that
to defend the Empire he might become of Maurice a coadjutor.
In whose most happy times, the blessed
Confessor Firmin's successor, the Church of Amiens
ruled most holy Honoratus. Who when
himself wholly to works of piety and divine worship had given:
with fasts and vigils the flesh taming, the body
to serve he made the more ready spirit; and himself with divine
afflicting services, with charity's flame a placable to God
sacrifice he burned up. That moreover to Him pleasing
was this victim, afterward Christ showed.

[2] For on a certain day, when the man of God treated at the altar
the [b] Sacrament of the Lord's Body, to see
he deserved the palm of the Lord consecrating. That also
to his glorious merits without doubt accrued:
that in his times the precious of the blessed Martyrs
Fuscianus, Victoricus, and Gentianus bodies, more than
disclosed. For Lupicinus a Presbyter of Amiens,
in sleep by an Angel admonished, [the bodies of SS. Fuscianus, Victoricus and Gentianus found he translates:] that those bodies
from the hidden place to dig out he should hasten; proceeding to the place
and the commands busying himself to fulfill, the pledges being found, with a loud
voice his joy protesting, he chanted an Antiphon,
which from the fifth milestone of the city deserved to hear
the most blessed Honoratus. The miracle therefore made open,
when to the place the Clergy and people had assembled;
Childebert's messengers when by the royal command the found
treasures to the King intended to carry off, resisted
their attempts the divine power, so that the sacred clods
by no means to move could the human force. Which
heard the King compunct, there the Martyrs caused
honorably to be buried. And also silken ornaments
many to the Church of Amiens conferred: and the village Megium
to the Clerics, there the blessed Martyrs honoring,
assigned.

[3] By these and other signal things famous the Prelate, the course
of his life consummated, tending to eternity's prize, [he dies in the village Port]
while he visited his parish, in a Ponthieu district which
is called Port, the laid down burden of his flesh he commended.
Which place long in honor held, at last
demanding the inhabitants' faults, [it is translated to Amiens.] to the barbarians' burnings
was exposed and to rapines. There was guarded moreover
the sacred Relics: for the bones of the blessed Confessor to the Amiens
church thence were brought, and to their proper See
commended. Many moreover, before his passing
and after, wondrous things through him wrought God:
which through the carelessness and simplicity of those then living
are not in the points of letters noted. But
many years' courses being revolved, that the praise and
glory of His Confessor the Lord might dilate on the earth:
new by his merits grew frequent miracles, which to the devout
hearers it is pious to open.

[4] In the year therefore of the incarnate Word about one thousand
sixtieth, [d] Philip the rule of the Franks procuring,
and the venerable Guido Prelate of Amiens being,
demanding the men's faults, our and other
of the kingdom Provinces, no small the sun's fervor invaded.
The trees with the crops a flame ravaging, [Rain is obtained:] the hope of fruits
compelled to defraud. Sighed therefore the people to
the divine suffrage desolate, where ceased the human.
Destined the Church of Amiens the body of B.
Honoratus about the city's cloisters to be borne. But while to
the church of B. Mary the Virgin the people assembled,
a certain paralytic thither himself dragged, the infirm with little stilts
members sustaining: and while honorably the sacred body
was borne by the Clergy and people, [a paralytic is healed:] the preceding crowd
the paralytic somehow followed. But when as far
as the church of B. Martin himself with all efforts he had raised,
there himself wearied he abandoned, and the holy Relics
with his mind alone follows: whence what piously he had besought,
worthily he deserved to obtain. For the little stilts left
whole rising, the crowd with a swift course he follows:
to whom what in himself was done preaching, with
all the rest praise to the Lord he cried. But
what the chief of the vows cause had been, the storm-clouds'
abundance the earth's thirst quenched, whence with doubled gladness
the people exulted in the Lord.

[5] [e] On the same day the fame of this new solemn one, two
to prison committed, what had been done instructed.
They B. Honoratus invoke, through him from the Lord
mercy asking. [2 captives thrice loosed from chains are freed:] Loosed were the chains,
broken were the bars: but preparing to escape, by
the maidservant of the house they were prevented, who fastening the door,
and to the church hastening, the deed to her Lord announced:
who home returned, the loosed not only
with chains he bound, but by anger moved with scourges afflicted.
Him however to the church returning, the loosed again
an exit sought; but the maidservant, by perfidy's
goads agitated, the loosed preventing, their flight by the barred
doors impeded. O woman wicked and
foolish, who thus to a man faithful herself feigned, that to God
herself she made unfaithful! To please more she wished, than
to profit: faith to her Lord to simulate she knew,
the flight of the captives to dissimulate she knew not: but her Lord
from the church to the crime recalling, the deed
showed. Who punishments sharper to the captives inflicting,
with stronger chains bound them. Tyrant senseless
and obstinate, what more would gentile perfidy have perpetrated?
Or a manifest miracle of God in vain to impede
do you try? If chains you multiply, if you fasten
bolts, if towers about them you build; nothing
the power will retard divine: those with chains you bind,
yourself with sins. The loosed moreover now a third, a fourth time
he had bound the brainsick man. Which made open [to give them]
to the church he was compelled, not however that the bound he should dismiss,
but that to the church he should make satisfaction for the offense.

[6] At the same time a woman deaf and mute, by her parents
to the city of Amiens brought, by B. Honoratus's
merits from the Lord what she besought received. [There are healed a mute and deaf one,]
Decreed moreover the father exulting, that his daughter of St. Honoratus
should become a handmaid, the Prelates of that church's
yoke submitted. O proud woman! the yoke of servitude
disdaining, and returned to her own, of the twofold gift
of grace, which through B. Honoratus she had obtained,
as quickly as possible she lost. O too proud a woman,
who the servitude escaped, which her sex's condition
could not escape. Not of a man she wishes to be
a handmaid, but of crime. She escapes the yoke of B. Honoratus,
but herself she subjects to the yoke of sin. She knows not the rash one,
that thus to serve is to reign. But always to be propitious
ready is God, who both us from sins compels
to be contrite, and mercifully the contrite meets. For
the aforesaid woman, to God's clemency returned, to the yoke whence
before herself proud she had shaken off, humbly herself subjected:
and the lost senses recovering, as long as she lived obtained.

[7] In the Amiens territory a Priest, contracted in the legs,
the solemnities of Masses himself not to be able to perform was sad:
but by the frequent of St. Honoratus he was compelled by miracles
that thither himself to transfer he should dispose. [and a contracted one:] Through the channel
therefore of the river in a little boat to the city he was brought, through
B. Honoratus he obtained health; and his bases
consolidated to the earth fixing, he returned glad to
his own.

[8] [f] A boy, afterward of the Therouanne people made Bishop,
while by the negligence of his nurse with hot water poured over, [burnt skin is restored:]
his skin burnt lay lifeless; of the hope of earthly
counsel he was destitute. But by his parents, the heavenly
imploring medicine, in a certain church
before the altar placed, a Mass, in which was made of B. Honoratus
solemn memory, he heard: and not yet
the celebration finished, a new skin the body covered: there remained
however certain of scars' traces, which faith
to the miracle should conserve. Those indeed afterward made a Bishop,
with a pious intention often he showed, that to
God's praise and B. Honoratus's the peoples he might invite to honor.

[9] A certain woman, from birth blind, in the Amiens
church a nightly keeping vigil, to B.
Honoratus prayers and vows poured: and while a fortunate
service she performed, she heard the voice of a man
himself B. Honoratus to be saying: [a blind woman is illuminated:] admonished
moreover the woman, that the eyes with the altar's cloth she should wipe.
But morning being made to the altar herself to be led commanding,
what persuaded to her had been she fulfilled: and
straightway sight received, magnificently to the Lord thanks
exhibited.

[10] [an energumen is freed:] A certain shepherd, his sheep driving through the pastures,
seized by a demon, himself into the Somme river to cast
strove: but by the shepherds he was prohibited
and detained. Who home returned, and with a bite those meeting
attacking, was found to be insane. Whom his parents
him with chains seized into the Amiens leading
church, for him B. Honoratus's name invoke:
through whose merits loosed from the demon, thanks
to God coming to his senses he exhibited.

[11] The bells' peal, in the aforesaid miracle's
joy made, heard a certain poor little woman, [There are healed contracted ones,] who from
the loins downward of the members' office destitute, into the church
herself to be borne commanded. Who the precious body's
casket kissing and embracing, the Saint with a piteous
voice's name invoked. Who mercy
having obtained, to the altar by her own effort herself bearing,
of B. Honoratus herself made a handmaid. So great a sorrow
in his lower members a certain man had invaded, [and a contracted one,]

that when himself by his own effort to bear he could not, himself to be borne
he commanded into the place, where a certain woman sight
to have received he had noted. Thence himself whole to the altar he directed:
and himself a servant of B. Honoratus glad he made. [afflicted by a horrendous disease,] Entered
the city a certain man of so horrendous a disease's kind
deformed, that who a place of lodging to himself would grant
nowhere he found. But before the doors of the church
to himself a bed strewing, thence himself a little after whole
he raised.

[12] Many besides are through B. Honoratus among
us miracles perpetrated, [various others,] of which some
with a briefer style to be recounted we have decreed, lest a discourse
more prolix the weak hearers should burden. A deaf man
a certain, B. Honoratus's clemency beseeching, received
hearing. A woman, with a distorted foot [coming] straight
withdrew. Another, in the back curved, home returned
straight. A girl mute, although not deaf, of speech's
use herself to have received rejoiced. A woman a certain,
of one eye's light deprived, experienced the Saint's
clemency. A smith a certain, of his feet's office deprived
had come, to whom the wished-for came suffrage.

[13] Nor to be passed over we judge that signal
miracle, to which a like not yet among us has been heard.
For while from a church neighboring, in honor
of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul founded, [By the inclination of an image of the Crucified he is honored.] to
the proper See on a certain solemn day was carried back; of the aforesaid
church the image, Jesus Crucified expressing,
itself with its whole body inclined to the part, to which the body
most holy was borne. This of many as well of the Clergy
as of the people attested the sight: who together with voices
raised, to the Lord thanks rendered. To
so great therefore an intercessor let be directed our devotion,
of whose sanctity there existed so great a proof; whose
honor not only by man or Angel is preached,
but by the insensible is approved. He compassionating
the sheep and the flesh afflicting, the cross with the Lord
bore, that His true he might be disciple, which the Crucified's
appearance approved. The Pontifical of the Chair's honor
thus moderated Honoratus on earth, that the thing
of his name he obtained in the heavens. [An exhortation to the veneration of the Saint.] O a man of such
worthy an office, whose mind neither prosperity made
sublime, nor adversity depressed! His fame did not
beg dignity's suffrage: since by his own virtues
most celebrated he had been. For not him dignity,
but sanctity; not honor, but virtue, Honoratus
made. He was in doctrine prepotent, in signs
wonderful, in virtues strong, with wisdom endowed,
the things of the Church to him committed happily he administered.
Blessed his time's little sheep we judge, which so great
rejoiced to have a Pastor: blessed we call the Amiens
Church, which of so great a man keeps the relics,
to it the Lord granting committed. So great
therefore most vigilantly a treasure let it guard, so great
let it venerate the deposit, through which in heaven's court a most powerful
it has obtained advocate: to whom unanimously
let our vows tend, that by his merits raised, the strewn
way of heaven steep we may traverse, that with him of the divine majesty's
glory we may contemplate the eternal, granting our Lord
Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory in
the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATA.


The Sacrifice by the hand of the Saviour consecrated receiving, and with the highest
devotion taking, from all defilement of flesh and spirit afterward
he remained unharmed.




St. John in the year 1099 consecrated, and up to 1130 surviving, whose
life we gave January 27? Before him from the year 1084 sat a certain Gerardus;
John indeed followed Milo up to 1158.

APPENDIX

Honoratus, Bishop of Amiens in Gaul (S.)

BHL Number: 3974 a

FROM A MS.

[14] By many authentic and faithful testimonies,
which in your ears reiterated I am, [The reader is excited to understand the miracles seen:] Brothers
most dear, manifestly weigh you can, how great is
that glorious Confessor of the Lord B. Honoratus: whose
today our fathers have announced to us the works,
which He wrought in their days and in the days ancient.
For this therefore deservedly dancing and exulting
the mother Church, praises, blesses, and glorifies the Lord,
who in His Saints is glorious. To the augment
also of pleasantness and gladness, this especially
to us accrued, that since more sluggishly stir minds
things sent down through the ear than what are to the eyes subjected
of the faithful; and with new assiduously miracles, which under
our eyes are done, the pious and merciful Lord our devotion
to excite ceases not; that of past things
faith may make the present, while to the patronage
of the most blessed Confessor frequently the sick come and
are healed. Since many therefore are of our time the miracles,
about which many to us are at hand testimonies,
they cannot to the full by our briefer page be comprehended.
Whence also many omitting, two certain
of the blessed Confessor miracles, which lately to us
present and beholding were done, to write worthy
we have judged, that the present may hear and see, not
in writing only, but also with the finger pointing in faith strengthened;
and to the utility of the following may know generation
another, that truly great is the Lord, and
great His power.

[15] Let know therefore present and future, that
lately a certain boy, of a certain poor woman the son,
among us born equally and nourished, and known from
infancy, and from the knees downward with paralysis miserably loosened,
when daily to our church, to the solace
of his poverty alms about to ask from those entering,
he came; so that on little stools creeping of his shins
together and feet not only the use but also the sense
utterly he had lost; and indeed this by a certain we had learned
experiment, [A paralytic boy] that when in deepest winter through
the pavement of the church the aforesaid members loosened and
naked as if dead behind himself he dragged, no of cold
trouble he felt: and we ourselves present
and seeing, by the merits and intercessions of the most blessed
Confessor Honoratus, divine wonderfully was present mercy.
For on the great day of the festivity of the aforesaid
Confessor, on which we, [on the feast of St. Honoratus,] with much of the Clergy equally and
of the people throng, the body of the most holy Confessor
about our cloister to bear are wont, returning
we to the church, when now the Clergy into
the choir had betaken itself the Masses about to celebrate the solemnities;
and the casket of the most blessed Confessor in the middle of the church
upon a table placed, by the assisting Priests' devout
services was kept; and the people, there in the honor
of the Lord and the blessed Confessor collected, [at the tomb suddenly he is healed:] their prayers
longer poured and the vows promised paid;
the boy aforesaid to the casket of the blessed aforesaid Confessor
approaching, and gazing on those who it watched,
as if something about to receive from them; he felt
within himself the divine power's hidden miracle, which
outwardly to all is manifest in the deed. Present
for his mother and on prayers insisting, to cry
began the boy, that it seemed to him himself upward to be drawn: but
little understanding, not yet he knew what for himself
the power divine had prepared. To whom the mother in the Lord
comforted, answered: Trust, son, rise, take hold of
the casket of the blessed Confessor. For I believe that
him aiding you will be saved. At which words rose the boy,
and of his feet equally and shins the recovered power, in
praise of God equally crying together, and the church's
peal ringing; us who in the choor were first with a stupor
suspended horrible, as afterward with a sight wondrous they report.
For when we by the clamors excited of the peoples,
what had happened we asked, and the crowds rushing in
we heard what had been done, hardly faith to us
giving, the aforesaid boy was offered whole and
unharmed. Whence we all equally and singly of the eyes'
testimony in faith strengthened, in praise of God and
the blessed Confessor our mouths loosing gladdened, we blessed
and praised and glorified the God of heaven,
who is the salvation of all: and at the nod of His will
He disposes all things, and heals the contrite of heart, and binds
their contritions.

[16] Continually moreover the divine mercy about
us its multiplying grace, [another wholly contracted is healed:] in a hospital neighboring
our church, which the faithful's devotion there prepared,
that the poor and weak and infirm there
it might receive, and feed them in hunger; happened another miracle.
For a woman a certain in infirmity lying, when
so of her body's strength was destitute, that neither to sit
nor to stand she could, only the use of her hands to her by the Lord
reserved, to the Brothers by whose ministry she was sustained,
as she could of the benefit she repaid the return.
For a distaff and spindle holding, in the hours in which
to work it was permitted, what standing nor sitting to do she could,
lying she wrought, the debt to the hospital with pious devotion
repaying the service. She therefore on the day
of the aforesaid solemnity, when the office of her hands ceasing
in the bed of her infirmity to prayers she lay intent;
she heard the church tumultuating, and the peal. And
when she had asked what had been done, in the Lord comforted
the strength of her body to her restored by the Lord,
without human help, from the bed of her sickness rising,
she ran to the church: and the casket of the most blessed Confessor
holding unharmed, to God equally and to him rendering
thanks, us seeing and praising together the Lord,
to the solace of her poverty of the faithful assisting
received benefits, because for her poverty and infirmity
before for her to provide she could not, by God liberated
by power, and by the alms of the faithful supported, to
the hospice she returned. [b] These things therefore most beloved recalling
the miracles of the most blessed Confessor, [Prayers are asked for Sibylla the foundress of the church of St. Honoratus at Paris.] you commending
to the prayers, you, I say, especially who
in his diocese dwelling, before all others
a devout to him owe service, we admonish and beseech
in the Lord, and unto the remission of sins
your we enjoin you, that of the venerable matron
Sibylla, who in the city of Paris lately in honor
of the aforesaid Confessor Honoratus, an honorable built
church, in your prayers memory
you have: that with her a reward you may receive from the Lord
in the time of retribution. Amen. [c]

ANNOTATA.


b. The following
from the MS. of Paris of St. Honoratus are related in Brulius: and they prove
this Appendix to have been written before the year in which Sibylla died 1204.
