Life of St Severinus 1

The letter of Eugippius to Paschasius. To the holy and venerable lord Paschasius the deacon, Eugippius sends greeting in Christ. About two years ago, namely in the consulship of Importunus, a letter of a certain noble layman, addressed to a certain presbyter, was offered to us to read, containing the life of Bassus the monk, who once dwelt in a monastery on a mountain whose name is Titas, above Ariminum, and afterward died in the region of Lucania, a man very well known both to many and to me. When I learned that this letter was being copied out by certain persons, I began to ponder within myself, and also to declare to religious men, that miracles celebrated through blessed Severinus by so many divine effects ought not to be concealed.

When the author of the aforesaid letter had learned of this, with a ready mind he charged that there be sent to him by my hand some accounts of the same holy Severinus, so that, being thus furnished, he might write a little book of his life that would be of profit to the memory of posterity.

Constrained at once by this request, I composed a memorandum filled with not a few accounts, drawn from the report most well known to us and daily related by our elders, not without great sorrow of mind, deeming it unjust, namely, that while you survive, a layman should be asked by us to perform this work, upon whom the measure and color of the work might be enjoined not without a certain presumption, lest perchance, being polished only with secular learning, he might write the life in such language that the ignorance of many would labor exceedingly over it, and the marvelous deeds, which long lay hidden in a certain night of silence, would not, as far as concerns us who are unskilled in the liberal arts, shine forth through obscure eloquence. But by no means shall I seek you out, you who are as a sun shining bright, beyond the little flame of that lamp;

only do not veil from me the rays of your skill with some cloud of excuse, namely by accusing your own lack of skill. Do not, I beseech you, lash me with such harsh words, while you say: 'Why do you expect waters from a flint?' I no longer indeed expect them from the flint of a secular pavement, but from you, who, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, will refresh us from that most firm rock with the honey of prayer that flows from you: of which, even now directing a nectar-like taste of your most sweet promise, you bid me to transmit the memorandum and the accounts of the life of the oft-named holy Severinus; which, until they may deserve to pass over into the little book of your composition, may by no means offend the mind of one who reviews them. For whoever

who requires an architect for building a house, carefully prepares the necessary material. But if, while the craftsman delays, he should heap up a wall in the likeness of a mass with unpolished stones, is he to be said to have built, where no construction of the master at all has intervened, and no fortification of a foundation is duly laid down? So I too, scarcely preparing precious material for your genius by a most lowly arrangement, ought I to be thought to have written what I desire, where there exists no construction of liberal discipline, no adornment of grammatical eminence?

It has plainly a sure foundation, that of faith alone, by which it is established that the holy man shone with wondrous virtues; this I now hand over through the hands of your tongue to be set in place, intending to render to Christ the praises due from the summit of your work. Those benefits also of virtues and remedies of healings, I pray, which were accomplished by divine power either on the journey or here at the shrine of the same most blessed father, deign to append:

which, since the faithful bearer, your son Deogratias, knows them very well, we have commended to be made known by word of mouth, hoping that we shall continually speak of the name of our carrier even through the completion of your work, so that the most faithful servant of God, rich in such great virtues, just as he is exalted to the glory of the saints by his own merits through the grace of Christ, so may be consecrated to human memory by your writings. Indeed the homeland from which he came is perhaps necessarily inquired of us, whence, as is the custom, the beginning of weaving anyone's life may be taken. Of this, although I confess that I have no clear documentary evidence, nevertheless what I have come to know about this from my earliest age I shall not pass over in silence.

For when many priests and spiritual men, and also noble and religious laymen, whether natives or those flocking to him from distant regions, often hesitated, asking among themselves of what nation that man was whom they beheld shining with such great virtues, and none at all dared to inquire of him, at length a certain Primenius, a noble presbyter of Italy and a man of full authority, who had fled to him at the time when the patrician Orestes was iniquitously slain, fearing his murderers, because it was said that he had been as a father to the slain man, after many days of intimacy thus gained, at last burst forth as if on behalf of all, and inquired thus, saying:

'Holy lord, from what province has God deigned to grant such a light to these regions?' To him the man of God first replied with witty cheerfulness: 'If you think me a fugitive, prepare for yourself a price which you may be able to offer for me when I shall be sought after.' Soon adding such things in earnest: 'What does it profit,' he said, 'the servant of God to indicate his place or lineage, since rather, by keeping silence, he can the more easily avoid boasting—that sinister boasting, as it were—by which, unawares, he desires to accomplish every good work, Christ granting it, that he may merit to become a companion at the right hand and to be enrolled as a citizen of the heavenly homeland? But if you truly know that I, unworthy, desire this, what need is there for you to know the earthly homeland which you seek?

Nevertheless know this, that God, who granted you to become a priest, he himself also commanded me to be present with these men in their peril.' The aforementioned presbyter fell silent at such a reply, nor did anyone, before or afterward, presume to question the blessed man upon this matter. Yet his speech showed him to be a man wholly Latin;

of whom it is established that he had first set out to a certain solitude of the East in the fervor of a more perfect life, and thence afterward had come, compelled by divine revelation, to the towns of Noricum Ripense, neighboring upon Upper Pannonia, which were being oppressed by frequent incursions of the barbarians—as he himself, in veiled speech, was wont to relate as though of some other person, naming several cities of the East and signifying that he had wondrously passed through the perils of an immense journey. These things only, which I have reported, I always heard, even while he himself was yet living, as often as discourse arose concerning the homeland of blessed Severinus. But the accounts of his marvelous life shall be set down, reviewed in the memorandum joined to this letter with chapters prefixed, as I have requested, made clearer by the book of your mastery.

It remains that you do not cease to join your prayers to his, and do not desist from asking pardon for me. The letter of Paschasius to Eugippius. To the holy lord and ever most beloved Eugippius the presbyter, Paschasius the deacon. Most beloved brother in Christ, while you, weighing me by the eloquence of your skill and by the felicity of leisure, disdain to recount the bitternesses and the manifold occupations of sinners, I endure the loss of modesty out of regard for love.

You have sent a memorandum to which the eloquence of the learned could add nothing, and you have unfolded in a brief compendium a work which the whole company of the Church may review, since you have more truly set forth the life and character of blessed Severinus, who dwelt in the borderlands of the provinces of the Pannonians, and have handed down to memory the miracles which divine power wrought through him, to abide for lasting ages; for posterity does not let the deeds of those before them pass away with their age, so that all may hold him as present and may in a certain manner feel him dwelling with them, to whom the narration of the reading has conveyed him. And therefore, because you have uttered these things, which you asked to be narrated by me, more simply, and have unfolded them more easily, we have believed that nothing is to be added by our zeal to your labor:

since indeed we narrate one way the things we have heard, and set forth another way the things we have experienced. More easily are the virtues of masters expounded by disciples, which are more frequently suggested by the daily intercourse of the teachers. Inspired by divine gifts, you know how much of usefulness the deeds of the saints impart to minds to be cultivated unto good, how much fervor they bestow, how much purity they infuse. Concerning which matter the authority of the apostolic voice, becoming more widely known, says: 'Be a pattern to the flock!', and blessed Paul charges Timothy: 'Be a pattern to the faithful.' Whence the same apostle, weaving together a catalogue of the just with the utmost brevity, beginning from Abel, proceeds to narrate the virtues of distinguished men.

So too that most faithful Mattathias, now drawing near to a most glorious death, distributed to his sons by hereditary right the examples of the saints, that, more eminently stirred up by their admirable contests, they might in the fervor of holiness despise their own lives for the everlasting laws. Nor did the paternal instruction deceive his children; for the deeds of the men so mentioned profited so much that, armed with the most manifest faith, they overawed princes, overcame sacrilegious camps, demolished demonic cults and altars far and wide, and, adorned with everlasting garlands of the civic crown, made provision for their splendid homeland.

Whence we too rejoice that by fraternal ministry something is provided for the ornaments of the bride of Christ, not because, as I believe, in any age a more illustrious life of our elders has been lacking, but because it befits the house of the great King to have the standards of very many trophies. For true virtue is not excluded by the multitude of virtues, but is rather enlarged thereby in desired successes. I. How blessed Severinus first shone in the town that was called Asturis, both by the most wholesome exhortation to good works and by the most truthful prediction of things to come. II. Concerning the town whose name was Comagenis, marvelously delivered from enemies through him. III. That, while the inhabitants of the little town of Faviana long labored under famine, God in a wondrous manner came to their aid through his prayer. IV.

Concerning the barbarian robbers, who lost even all their weapons together with the plunder which they had long taken outside the walls of Faviana; or concerning his way of life and his outstanding humility. V. In how great reverence Flaccitheus, king of the Rugi, held him, and how he was delivered from the ambushes of his enemies by an oracle. VI. Concerning the only son of a widow of the aforesaid nation of the Rugi, whom pain had tormented for twelve years, healed by the prayer of the man of God. VII. How Odovacar, while a youth covered with very mean skins, was foretold by him that he would reign. VIII.

That Feletheus, who is also called Feva, king of the Rugi, son of the aforementioned Flaccitheus, out of fear of holy Severinus forbade his most wicked wife to rebaptize the catholics; and what peril she incurred on a certain day concerning her little son Frederic, when she had despised his intercession concerning certain matters. IX. Concerning the bearer of the relics of the holy martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, shown by a marvelous revelation of the man of God; and by what answer, when he was asked, he declined the honor of the episcopate. X. Concerning a certain doorkeeper, forbidden on a certain day to go out anywhere, soon captured by the barbarians and by them humbly restored. XI.

Concerning the miracle which happened in the fortress of Cucullae, where, when candles were kindled by divine power, sacrilegious persons who had first hidden themselves were exposed and corrected. XII. How from the borders of the aforesaid fortress the locusts, by fasting and prayer and almsgiving, with God appeased, were driven away, the crop of a certain poor and unbelieving scorner being marvelously consumed. XIII. How a candle was kindled in the hand of the servant of God as he prayed, when fire, customarily necessary for the office of evening praise, had by no means been found. XIV. Concerning the marvelous healing of a despaired-of woman, who, after a monstrous and long-lasting languor, so recovered by the prayer of the man of God that on the third day she came strong to her work in the field. XV.

How, upon the bearing-posts on the river side that supported the church, which the often-overflowing water used to climb over, the servant of God, praying, carved the sign of the cross with an axe, which sign the water thereafter never at all overpassed. XVI. Concerning the deceased presbyter Silvinus, whose corpse, placed upon the bier, after vigils had been celebrated in the night, soon opened its eyes at the voice of the one calling, begging the servant of God, at whose call he had returned to life, that he might not be deprived any longer of the rest he had experienced. XVII. How solicitous was the care he ministered to the poor; and that even the Norici directed tithes for his distribution, which, being brought according to custom, he foretold that peril threatened those who had delayed to send them. XVIII.

How the mildew, which had appeared as about to harm the harvests, was driven away through the man of God by fastings and prayer. XIX. That Gibuldus, king of the Alamanni, was shaken with great trembling in the presence of the servant of God and gave back a multitude of captives. XX. How the slaughter of soldiers was revealed to him, on account of whose bodies, to be buried, he sent his own men, who knew nothing of it, to the river. XXI. He foretold that the presbyter Paulinus, who had come to him from afar, would soon, on returning to his homeland, be ordained bishop. XXII. That, while the sanctuaries for a new basilica were being sought, he of his own accord foretold that the blessing of holy John the Baptist would be brought to himself, and that a calamity would befall that town in his absence, in which a chattering presbyter was killed in the baptistery.

XXIII. How he received the aforesaid relics. XXIV. Concerning the inhabitants of another town who, having despised the warning of him who had instructed them, were soon slain by the Heruli, because, though forewarned, they refused to leave the place. XXV. How, by letters sent into Noricum, he fortified the strongholds with fastings and almsgivings, so that the irruption of the enemy, which had been foretold, could do them no harm. XXVI. Concerning the leper who was cleansed, and who avoided returning to his own home lest he incur more grievously the leprosy of sin. XXVII. Concerning the victory which the Romans won over the Alamanni among the Batavians through the prayer of Saint Severinus, and how, after the triumph, those who had scorned to follow the one who foretold it were destroyed. XXVIII. How, while the servant of God was ministering to the poor, the oil came to increase.

XXIX. Concerning those to whom, while they were carrying garments from Noricum to be distributed to the needy, a bear in the depth of winter afforded guidance through the snows of the wilderness even to human dwellings; and how the man of God knew by revelation that they were coming with such a guide. XXX. How he foresaw that the enemy would come the following night to the city of Lauriacum, and how he could scarcely persuade the over-confident citizens to keep watch; and how in the morning, finding it proved, they sought pardon for their unbelief with thanksgiving. XXXI. How he went out to meet Feva, king of the Rugii, who was coming to Lauriacum with an army, and received the people under his own protection, that he might lead them down to the lower towns, that is, those nearer to the Rugii. XXXII.

How King Odoacar, asking that something might be hoped for from him, recalled from exile a certain Ambrosius at the letters of the servant of God; and how that same servant of God foretold to those who praised him how many years he was to reign. XXXIII. Concerning the son of one of the nobles of the king of the Rugii, who in the town of Comagenis was healed by the prayer of the man of God. XXXIV. How a certain man afflicted with elephantiasis, named Teio, was cured. XXXV. Concerning the monk Bonosus, who, while he was complaining of weakness of his eyes, heard from him: 'Pray rather that you may see more with your heart'; and who soon wonderfully obtained the gift of praying continually. XXXVI.

Concerning three proud monks whom he delivered over to Satan, that their spirit might be saved; on which matter, by bringing forward examples of two fathers, he gave in its place the truest account. XXXVII. How, by prayer in the presence of the other brethren, he marked the hour of the tribulation of his monks Marcianus and Renatus, which they endured while placed in another province. XXXVIII. Concerning the perils of a deadly pustule, which forty days beforehand he both foretold by revelation would befall the monk Ursus, and cured by prayer. XXXIX. Concerning the dwelling of that same blessed man; and a few things are also briefly indicated about his bed and his food. XL.

How, when he perceived by God's revelation to him that his passing was drawing near, he addressed King Feva and the harmful queen, nor did he cease to forewarn his own people through his pupil, foretelling that a general migration of the people was approaching, and likewise commanding that his own poor body should be carried with them. XLI. How also he made the day of his passing more plainly known to the holy presbyter Lucillus. XLII. How he solemnly charged Ferderuchus, the brother of the aforesaid King Feva, and admonished his own people. XLIII. Concerning his death, and with what admonitions, in a final and lengthy exhortation, the holy man accompanied his own to the end. XLIV.

What things Ferderuchus brought upon the monastery after his departure, and how he was punished; and how far his prophecy was fulfilled by the prosperous migration of the people, and his little body was lifted up and carried away in a cart. XLV. Concerning the healing of many infirm persons at that time, of which, passing over the individual cases, only the restored speech of one mute man is related, given back through prayer beneath the wagon in which his body still lay. XLVI. Concerning the faith of the illustrious lady Barbaria, who received it, and the meeting of the people of Naples, where, though no fewer than many were then healed of various sicknesses by different means, the healing of only three is recorded. I. At the time when Attila, king of the Huns, died, both the Pannonias and the other regions bordering the Danube were disturbed by uncertain affairs.

And first, great contests arose among his sons over the obtaining of the kingdom; for they, puffed up with the disease of dominion, reckoned their father's death to be the occasion of their own wickedness. At that time, therefore, the most holy servant of God, Severinus, coming from the regions of the East, was staying in the vicinity of Noricum Ripense and of the Pannonians, in a small town called Asturis. Living according to the evangelical and apostolic doctrine, endowed with all piety and chastity, he was fulfilling his venerable resolve by holy works in the confession of the catholic faith. While, therefore, strengthened by such exercises, he was innocently pursuing the palm of the heavenly calling, one day he went forth to the church according to his custom.

Then, having sought out the presbyters, the clergy, and the citizens, he began with all humility of mind to foretell that they should restrain the imminent ambushes of the enemy by prayers and fastings and the fruits of mercy. But, stubborn of spirit and defiled with carnal desires, they put the oracles of the one foretelling to the test, to the peril of their own unbelief. The servant of God, however, returning to the lodging where he had been received by the keeper of the church, declaring the day and the hour of the impending destruction, said: 'I depart in haste from this stubborn town, which is soon to perish.' Thence he turned aside to the nearest town, which was called Comagenis.

This town was guarded most strictly by the barbarians stationed within it, who had made a treaty with the Romans, and to no one was easy leave granted to enter or to go out. Yet by these men the servant of God, being unknown, was neither questioned nor turned back. And so, having soon entered the church, he exhorted all who were despairing of their own safety to be armed with fasting and prayers and almsgiving, setting before them ancient examples of deliverance, by which the divine protection had wonderfully delivered its people, contrary to the expectation of all.

And when, as he promised them the safety of all in the very crisis of danger, they hesitated to believe, an old man, who shortly before had been the host of so great a guest at Asturis, came; and, examined with anxious questioning by the gatekeepers, he showed by his appearance and his words the destruction of his town, adding that on the very day on which the man of God had foretold it, it had been destroyed by the devastation of the barbarians. Hearing this, they answered anxiously: 'Do you suppose it is not he who promises us God's aid in desperate circumstances?' Soon, therefore, the old man, recognizing the servant of God in the church, prostrated himself at his feet and declared that he had been delivered by his merits, so as not to undergo destruction with the rest of the townsmen. II.

Hearing these things, the inhabitants of the said town, begging pardon for their unbelief, obeyed the admonitions of the man of God with holy works, and, given over to fastings and gathered together in the church for three days, they chastised their past errors with groanings and laments. On the third day, however, when the solemnity of the evening sacrifice was being fulfilled, by a sudden earthquake the barbarians dwelling within were so terrified that they forced the Romans to open the gates for them quickly. Going out, therefore, in haste, they fled in all directions, supposing themselves to be hemmed in by the siege of neighboring enemies; and, their terror increased by God, confused by the bewilderment of the night, they cut one another down with their own swords.

When the adversaries had thus been consumed by mutual slaughter, the people, preserved by the divine protection, learned through the holy man to fight with heavenly weapons. III. At the same time a fierce famine had oppressed a city by the name of Favianis, whose inhabitants believed that one remedy alone would be at hand for them, if from the aforesaid town of Comagenis they should invite the man of God with devout entreaties. He, knowing beforehand from the Lord that they would come to him, was warned to go with them. When he had come there, he began to persuade the citizens, saying: 'By the fruits of repentance you will be able to be delivered from so great a destruction of famine.' And while they were profiting by such instructions, the most blessed Severinus learned by divine revelation that a certain widow named Procula had hidden away very many crops.

Bringing her forward into the midst, he sharply rebuked her. 'Why,' he said, 'though sprung from a most noble lineage, do you make yourself a handmaid of greed and stand forth as a slave of avarice, which, as the Apostle teaches, is the bondage of idols? Behold, while the Lord mercifully provides for His servants, you will have nothing to do with your ill-gotten gains, unless perhaps, casting into the streams of the Danube the grain you harshly denied, you display to the fish the kindness which you have refused to men. Wherefore relieve yourself rather than the poor out of those things which you still think to keep while Christ goes hungry.' Hearing these things, the woman, struck with great fear, began gladly to distribute her hoarded store to the poor.

And so, not long after, very many rafts laden with merchandise from the regions of the Raetias appeared unexpectedly upon the shore of the Danube—rafts which for many days had been bound fast by the thick ice of the river Aenus; and on the day on which, at his command, they were soon set loose, they brought supplies of food to those laboring under famine. Then all began to praise with continual devotion God, the bestower of the unhoped-for remedy—they who had believed they would perish from the wasting of long-continued famine—openly confessing that the rafts, loosed out of due season from the glacial cold, had come by the prayers of the servant of God. IV. About the same time, by an unexpected raid, barbarian robbers carried off as captive whatever they had found of men and cattle outside the walls.

Then many of the citizens, flocking together with tears to the man of God, recounted the ruin of the calamity inflicted upon them, at the same time showing the marks of the recent plundering. But he questioned Mamertinus, then a tribune, who was afterward ordained bishop, whether he had any armed men with him, with whom he might pursue the brigands more closely. He answered: 'I have indeed very few soldiers, but I do not dare to engage with so great a host of the enemy. Yet if your reverence commands it, although the aid of arms is lacking to us, we believe nevertheless that by your prayer we shall be made victors.' And the servant of God said: 'Even if your soldiers are unarmed, they shall now be armed from the enemy:

for neither number nor human strength is required where God is proved in all things to be the champion. Only go forth swiftly in the name of the Lord, go forth confidently; for, with God mercifully going before, every weak man will appear most strong: the Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. Go, therefore, in haste, observing this one thing above all, that you bring back to me unharmed those whom you take of the barbarians.' Going forth, therefore, at the second milestone, above a stream which is called Tiguntia, they found the aforesaid robbers; and these being suddenly put to flight, they took away the arms of them all, and brought the rest, bound, as captives to the servant of God, as he had commanded. Loosing them from their bonds and refreshing them with food and drink, he addressed them in a few words:

'Go and announce to your accomplices that they should no longer dare to draw near here in their greed for plunder; for they will at once be punished by the judgment of heavenly vengeance, since God fights for His servants, whom He is wont so to protect by supernal power that the weapons of the enemy bring them no wounds, but rather supply them with arms.' And so, having dismissed the barbarians, he himself rejoiced over the miracles of Christ, by whose compassion he also promised that that town would never again experience the plunderings of the enemy—if only the citizens would let neither prosperity nor adversity draw them back from the work of God.

Then the blessed Severinus, withdrawing to a more remote place which was called Ad Vineas, and content with a small cell, was compelled by divine revelation to return to the aforesaid town; so that, although the quiet of the cell delighted him, yet, obeying the commands of God, he built a monastery not far from the city, where he began to form very many in the holy resolve, instructing the souls of his hearers by deeds rather than by words. He himself, however, would often withdraw to a secluded dwelling, which by the neighboring inhabitants was called Burgus, distant one mile from Favianis, that, the frequent throng of people who were accustomed to come to him being avoided, he might by continual prayer cling more nearly to God.

But the more he desired to inhabit solitude, the more he was admonished by frequent revelations not to deny his presence to the afflicted peoples. And so day by day his merit advanced, and the fame of his virtues grew, which, running far and wide, displayed in him the signs of heavenly grace. For the things which are good cannot lie hidden, since, according to the saying of the Savior, neither can a lamp be covered under a bushel, nor can a city set on a mountain be hid. For among the other great things which the Savior had granted him, receiving the especial gift of abstinence, he subdued his flesh with many fastings, teaching that a body nourished with more abundant food would forthwith bring destruction upon the soul. He used no footwear at all:

thus, content always to walk with bare feet even in the depth of winter—which in those regions grows numb with a more savage frost—he gave a singular proof of patience. To prove the immensity of that cold, the Danube is known to be a witness, so often congealed by the excess of ice that it even affords a solid passage for wagons. Yet he, exalted by such virtues through the grace of God, would confess with deepest humility, saying: 'Do not suppose that what you see is of my own merit: it is rather an example for your salvation. Let human rashness cease; let the haughtiness of pride be repressed. That we may be able to do any good, we are chosen, as the Apostle says: who chose us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish in His sight.

Pray rather for me, that the gifts of the Savior may profit me, not for the heaping up of condemnation, but for the increase of justification.' These things and the like he was accustomed to utter with weeping, instructing men by a marvelous example of humility; fortified by the foundation of which virtue, he shone with so great a brightness of the divine gift that even the very heretical enemies of the Church honored him with most reverent services. V. For Flaccitheus, king of the Rugii, began to waver in the very beginnings of his reign, having the Goths from lower Pannonia vehemently hostile, by whose countless multitude he was terrified. He, therefore, would consult the most blessed Severinus in his perils as a heavenly oracle.

Coming to him, while he was being more violently troubled, he lamented that he had asked of the Gothic princes a passage to Italy, by whom he did not doubt—since this had been denied him—that he would be killed. Then, therefore, the aforesaid man received this answer from the man of God: 'If one catholic faith bound us together, you ought rather to have consulted me concerning the perpetuity of life: but since you ask, anxious only about the present safety, which is common to us, listen, that you may be instructed. You will be troubled neither by the abundance nor the hostility of the Goths, because, they soon departing, you, being secure, shall reign in the prosperity you desired: only do not pass over the admonitions of my humility. Let it not, therefore, irk you to seek peace even with the least; never rely upon your own strength.

'Cursed,' says the Scripture, 'is he who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord.' Learn, therefore, to beware of ambushes, not to set them: for indeed you will pass away with a peaceful end upon your couch.' And when, enlivened by such an oracle, he was departing in joy, news being brought to him that a band of robbers had taken captive some of the Rugii, he at once sent to consult the man of God. He, by the Lord's revelation, forewarned him with holy commands not to pursue the robbers, saying: 'If you pursue them, you will be killed. Beware lest you cross the river and, with unwary mind, fall into the ambushes which have been prepared for you in three places:

for a faithful messenger will soon come, who will make you more certain concerning all these things.' Then two of the captives, fleeing from the very abodes of the enemy, related in order those things which the most blessed man had foretold by Christ's revelation to him. And so, the ambushes of his adversaries being frustrated, Flaccitheus, increased with more prosperous gains, ended his life amid most tranquil circumstances. VI. After these things, however, a certain man, a Rugian by race, worn down for twelve years by an incredible pain of the bones, had lost all soundness of his limbs, whose intolerable torments had become known on every side to his neighbors, most notorious by their very long duration.

And so, the variety of remedies availing nothing, at last his widowed mother brought her son to the holy man, placed upon a vehicle; and, laying him down despaired-of before the door of the monastery, she begged with continual weeping that her only son might be restored to her unharmed. But the man of God, perceiving that great things were demanded of him, moved with weeping, said: 'Why am I oppressed by a false opinion? Why am I deemed able to do what I cannot? It is not of my power to grant things so great: yet I give counsel, as one who has obtained mercy from God.' Then he charged the woman that she should bestow something on the poor according to her means. She, without delay, swiftly stripping off the garment she had put on, hastened to divide it among the needy.

Hearing this, the man of God, marveling at her fervor, charged her again to cover herself with her own garments, saying: 'When your son shall have gone home with you, the Lord healing him, you will fulfill your vows by your deed.' Therefore, a fast of a few days being appointed according to custom, and prayers being poured out to God, he immediately healed the sick man and sent him back to his own home, walking sound upon his own feet. And when afterward he was present at frequent fairs, he displayed the stupendous miracle to all who saw it. For some said: 'Behold the man who had been wasted away with the putrefaction of his whole body.' But others entirely denying that it was the same man, a pleasant contention arose.

From that time, therefore, when health was restored to the despaired-of man, the whole nation of the Rugii, frequenting the servant of God, began to render the homage of congratulation and to ask aid for their sicknesses. From other nations also, to whom the fame of so great a miracle had come, many desired to see the soldier of Christ. Out of which devotion, even before this deed, certain barbarians, while they were proceeding to Italy, turned aside to him with a view to obtaining his blessing. VII. Among whom was also Odoacar, who afterward reigned over Italy, then in most lowly attire, a young man tall of stature, had come. And when he had stooped down, lest he should touch the roof of the most humble cell with his head, he learned from the man of God that he was to be glorious. To him also, as he was bidding farewell:

'Go,' he said, 'to Italy, go, now covered with the meanest skins, but soon about to bestow very much upon many.' VIII. Feletheus also, the king who was likewise called Feva, the son of the aforementioned Flaccitheus, following his father's diligence, began to frequent the holy man for the sake of the beginnings of his reign. Him a wife, savage and harmful, named Giso, was always drawing back from the remedies of clemency. She, therefore, among the other contagions of her iniquity, even attempted to rebaptize certain catholics; but, the holy man not consenting out of reverence for Saint Severinus, she desisted as soon as possible from her sacrilegious intent. The Romans, however, she oppressed with harsh conditions, and commanded some even to be carried off across the Danube.

For when on a certain day, coming from a village near Favianis, she had ordered some to be transferred to her across the Danube—men, namely, to be condemned to the servitude of the basest ministry—the man of God, sending to her, begged that she should let them go. But she, boiling over with the brands of feminine fury, ordered most harsh replies to be carried back. 'Pray,' she said, 'for yourself, servant of God, hidden away in your cell: let it be permitted to us to ordain concerning our own slaves what we will.' Hearing these things, therefore, the man of God said: 'I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ that she will be compelled by necessity to fulfill what she despised with perverse will.' And so swift correction followed and laid low the spirit of the arrogant woman. For she had shut up under close custody certain barbarian goldsmiths for the fashioning of royal ornaments.

To these the son of the aforesaid king, a very little child by the name of Fredericus, on the very day on which the queen had despised the servant of God, stirred by childish impulse, entered in. Then the goldsmiths set a sword to the breast of the infant, saying that, if anyone should attempt to enter to them without the protection of an oath, they would first run the royal child through and afterward slay themselves, since indeed they promised themselves no hope of life, worn out by their long imprisonment. Hearing these things, the cruel and impious queen, her garments torn in grief, cried out such things: 'O servant of the Lord, Severinus, thus, thus are the injuries inflicted upon you avenged by your God!

This vengeance for the contempt of me you asked for with poured-out prayers, that you might avenge yourself upon my own flesh and blood!' And so, running about with manifold remorse and pitiable lamentation, she confessed that she was struck by the vengeance of the present blow on account of the wickedness of contempt which she had committed against the servant of God; and at once, dispatching horsemen, about to seek pardon, she sent back also the Romans whom she had carried off on that same day—those for whom she had despised the one entreating her—and the goldsmiths, receiving immediately an oath and releasing the little child, were themselves likewise released. Hearing these things, the most reverent servant of Christ rendered boundless thanks to the Creator, who for this reason sometimes defers the prayers of those who ask, that, while faith, hope, and charity increase, lesser things being sought, He may grant the greater.

For this the omnipotence of the Savior wrought, that, while the savage woman subjected free persons to servitude, she was compelled to restore servants to liberty. These things being wonderfully obtained, the queen at once, hastening to the servant of God with her husband, showed him her son, whom she confessed to have been delivered from the brink of death by his prayers, promising that she would by no means henceforth oppose his commands. IX. Great also was the diligence of the servant of God, endowed with the grace of prophecy, in redeeming captives. For he insisted the more zealously on restoring to their native liberty those harassed by the dominion of the barbarians.

Meanwhile, to a certain man, redeemed together with his wife and children, he gave command to cross over the Danube, that he might seek out an unknown man in the fairs of the barbarians, whom he had learned of so fully by divine revelation that he even indicated the marks of his stature and the color of his hair, the look of his face and the fashion of his clothing, and showed in what part of the fairs he would find him; adding that, whatever the person found should say to him, he should on his return make known to him more speedily. Setting out, therefore, he found everything just as the man of God had foretold, and marveled. He, then, being questioned by that same man whom he marveled to have found, heard him saying: 'Do you suppose I can find a man who, for whatever reward he should wish, might lead me to the man of God whose fame is everywhere spread abroad?

For it is now a long time that I have been suppliantly imploring those very holy martyrs, whose relics I bear, that I, unworthy, may at length some day be released from such a ministry, which up to now I have borne not by rash presumption, but by a religious necessity.' Then the messenger of the man of God presented himself to his sight ................... Who, receiving the relics of the holy martyrs Gervasius and Protasius with the honor due to the saints, placed them in the basilica which he had built in the monastery, with the office of priests. In which place he gathered the sanctuaries of very many martyrs, which, however, he always obtained with revelation going before, knowing that the adversary often creeps in under the name of holiness.

Being asked also to receive the honor of the episcopate, he concluded with a predetermined response, saying that it was sufficient for him that, deprived of the longed-for solitude, he had come by divine appointment to that province, in order to be present amid frequent throngs of the troubled. About to give a rule to the monks nonetheless, he more carefully admonished them to cleave to the footsteps of the blessed fathers, by whom instruction in holy conduct might be acquired; and that care should be applied lest he who has left his parents and the world should, by looking back, long for the allurements of worldly pomp which he had avoided; and to this he set forth the terrible example of Lot's wife.

He used also to recall that by the fear of the Lord the incentives of lusts are to be mortified, and he asserted that the fires of bodily delight could not otherwise be overcome unless they had been extinguished by the grace of God through the fountain of tears. X. Now a certain man by the name of Maurus was the sacristan of the basilica of the monastery, whom the blessed Severinus had redeemed from the hands of the barbarians. To him one day the man of God gave command, saying: 'Beware lest today you go off anywhere: otherwise you will not be free from imminent peril.' This man, therefore, contrary to the command of so great a father, at the persuasion of a certain worldly man, going out at midday to gather fruit at the second milestone from Favianis, was soon carried across the Danube by the barbarians as a captive, together with his persuader.

In that hour the man of God, while he was reading in his cell, suddenly closing the book, said: 'Seek Maurus quickly.' And when he was found nowhere, he himself, crossing over the streams of the Hister as quickly as possible, swiftly pursued the robbers, whom the common people called Scamarae. Not enduring his venerable presence, they, as suppliants, gave back the captives whom they had taken. XI. While the upper towns of Noricum Ripense still stood, and scarcely any stronghold escaped the incursions of the barbarians, so widely renowned blazed the reputation of Saint Severinus that the several strongholds vied with one another to invite him to themselves for their own defenses, believing that by his presence nothing adverse would befall them.

This was done not without the nod of the divine gift, that all might be terrified by his admonitions as by heavenly oracles, and by his example might be armed with good works. To a stronghold also, whose name was Cucullis, the holy man had come, summoned by the devotions of the inhabitants, where there occurred a great miracle which I cannot pass over in silence—which, however, we learned by the stupendous account of Marcianus, afterward our presbyter, a citizen of that same place. A part of the people in a certain place clung to nefarious sacrifices. This sacrilege being discovered, the man of God, having addressed the people with many sermons, persuaded that a three-day fast should be proclaimed through the presbyters of the place, and commanded candles to be brought from each house, which each one with his own hand affixed to the walls of the church.

Then, the psalter being recited through according to custom, at the hour of the sacrifice the man of God exhorted the presbyters and deacons to entreat the common Lord together with him with all alacrity of heart, that, for the discerning of the sacrilegious, He might show the light of His knowledge. And so, when with many and most copious tears he prayed with them on bended knees, the greatest part of the candles which the faithful had brought was suddenly kindled from heaven; but the rest of those—belonging to the ones who had been infected with the aforesaid sacrileges and, wishing to lie hidden, had denied them—remained unkindled.

Then, therefore, those who had set them, being declared by the divine examination, at once crying out, disclosed the secrets of their breast with acts of satisfaction; and, convicted by the testimony of their own candles, by manifest confession they testified to their own sacrileges. O the merciful power of the Creator, who sets aflame both candles and souls! Fire was kindled in the candles and shone forth in their senses: the visible light melted the nature of the wax into flames, but the invisible light dissolved the hearts of those confessing into tears. Who could believe that those whom sacrilegious error had enveloped afterward shone more in good works than those whose candles had been kindled from heaven? XII.

At another time, again, within the territory of that same fort, locusts—devourers of the crops—had settled in great numbers, laying everything waste with their destructive bites. Stricken therefore by such a plague, the presbyters and the rest of the inhabitants soon approached holy Severinus with the most earnest entreaties, saying: 'That the cruelty of so great a scourge may be removed, we ask for the proven aid of your prayers, which we have seen long ago, by a great miracle in the candles kindled from heaven, to avail much with the Lord.' But he, addressing them with greater piety, said: 'Have you not read what the divine authority commanded the sinning people through the prophet: "Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting and weeping," and a little after:'

'"Sanctify a fast," he says, "call an assembly, gather the church," and the rest that follows? Fulfil therefore by worthy deeds what you teach, that you may easily escape the evil of the present time. Let no one indeed go out to the field!'—as though he would forbid the locusts by human anxiety, lest the divine indignation be the more provoked. Without delay, when all were gathered in the church, each one in his own order chanted the psalms according to custom. Every age and sex, even those who could not do so with the voice, offered prayer to God with weeping; almsgivings did not cease to be done; whatever of good works the present necessity demanded was being fulfilled, just as the servant of God had commanded.

When all therefore were occupied with zealous efforts of this kind, a certain very poor man, abandoning the work of God that had been begun, went out to the field to look upon his own crop—which lay, very small, among the sowings of others—and, anxious all day long, he drove off as he could, with diligence, the threatening cloud of locusts; and soon he entered the church to take communion. But the dense swarm of locusts devoured his scanty crop, surrounded by the abundant produce of his neighbours. When these had been driven from that territory in that very night by the divine command, it was proved how greatly the prayer of the faithful avails.

For in the morning the rash violator and despiser of the holy work, going out again to his field, ill at ease, found it utterly stripped bare by the destruction of the locusts, while the sowings of all round about were untouched. Greatly astonished, he returned to the fort with mournful outcry; and when he had reported what had happened, all went out to see a miracle of this kind, where the bite of the locusts had marked off the field of the obstinate man as if along a regular line. Then, casting himself at the feet of all, he begged with poured-out lamentation, through their intercessions, pardon for his fault. And the man of God, finding from this an occasion for admonishing, taught everyone to learn to obey the almighty Lord, whose commands even the locusts obey.

But the aforesaid poor man tearfully pleaded that he was able to obey the commandments henceforth, if any hope by which he might live had remained to him. Then therefore the man of God, addressing the rest, said: 'It is just that he who by his own punishment has given you an example of humility and obedience should, by your generosity, receive his sustenance for the present year.' And so, by the contribution of the faithful, the very poor man, both corrected and enriched, learned how much loss unbelief brings, and how much benefit the divine bounty confers upon its worshippers. XIII.

Likewise, near the town that was called Iuvao, when one day in the summertime they had entered the basilica to render the evening solemnity, and had found no fire at all for kindling the lamps, they could not strike forth a flame by striking the stones together in the usual way—being so long delayed by the mutual collision of iron and stone that the time of the evening solemnity was slipping away. But the man of God, with his knees fixed on the ground, prayed more earnestly. Soon therefore, in the sight of three spiritual men who were then present, the candle which holy Severinus himself held in his hand was kindled. By its shining, the sacrifice of the evening hour being supplied according to custom, thanks were rendered to God in all things.

Although he wished to conceal this deed from those mentioned who were present at this miracle—just as he did many great wonders that were performed through him by divine workings—yet the brightness of so great a power could not be hidden, but rather it excellently kindled others to great faith. XIV. It happened also that a certain woman of that same place, harassed by a long-lasting sickness, lay half-dead, her funeral rites already prepared. Her kinsfolk, in mournful silence, with a certain cry of faith repressed the funereal lamentations, and laid down before the door of the holy man's cell the body of the ailing woman, now almost lifeless. And so the man of God, seeing the entrance blocked by the bed set against it, said to them: 'What is it that you wished to do?' They answered:

'That by your prayer the lifeless one may be restored to life.' Then he himself, full of tears, said: 'Why do you demand great things from a lowly one? I acknowledge myself wholly unworthy. Would that I might deserve to find pardon for my own sins!' And they said: 'We believe that, if you pray, she will live again.' Then holy Severinus, at once pouring out tears, prostrated himself in prayer; and, the woman straightway rising up, he addressed them: 'Do not apply any of these things to my works:'

for the fervour of your faith earned this grace; and this is done in many places and among many peoples, so that it may be known that there is one God, who works wonders in heaven and on earth, raising up the lost unto salvation and restoring the dead to life.' But the woman, having recovered her health, on the third day, according to the custom of the province, began to perform the work of the field with her own hands. XV. Quintanis was the name of the second municipality of the Raetias, situated upon the bank of the Danube; to it on the other side a small river, named Businca, drew near. This, swelling with the frequent inundation of the overflowing Danube, used to occupy not a few areas of the fort, because it had been founded on level ground.

The inhabitants of that place also had a church built of wood outside the walls, which, stretched out in a hanging extension, was supported by stakes fixed deep into the ground and by forked props, where, in place of a floor, there was a smoothed joining of boards, which, whenever the river had exceeded its banks, the overflowing water occupied. And so, by the faith of the people of Quintanis, holy Severinus had been invited there. When he had come thither in a time of drought, he asks why the boarded floors appeared with the coverings of their barriers stripped bare. The inhabitants answered that, through the frequent flooding of the river, whatever had been laid over them was continually slipping away. But he said: 'Let a pavement now be laid over the boards in the name of Christ:'

now from henceforth you shall see the river forbidden by the heavenly command.' And so, the pavement being completed, he himself, descending below in a boat and taking up an axe, after making prayer, struck the posts and, with the sign of the venerable cross impressed, said to the water of the river: 'My Lord Jesus Christ does not permit you to exceed this sign of the cross.' And so from that time, when the river had risen in heaps according to its custom and had surrounded the neighbourhood as it was wont, it was so far below the spaces of the church that it never at all exceeded the mark of the holy cross which the man of God had impressed. XVI.

Now it happened that a most venerable presbyter of the said fort, named Silvinus, died; and when, with the bier set down in the church, they had passed the night in psalmody, keeping vigil according to custom, now when the dawn was already growing bright, the man of God asked all the weary presbyters and deacons to withdraw for a little while, that after the labour of the vigils they might refresh themselves somewhat with sleep. When they had gone out, the man of God asks the doorkeeper, named Maternus, whether all, as he had said, had withdrawn. And when he replied that all had departed: 'By no means,' he said, 'but a certain person lies hidden here.' Then the keeper of the church, surveying the enclosures a second time, testifies that no one had remained within them. But the soldier of Christ, the Lord revealing it to him, said:

'I know not who,' he said, 'lies hidden here.' And so, searching a third time more diligently, he found that a certain consecrated virgin had hidden herself in more secret places. The aforesaid sacristan therefore rebuked her thus: 'Why, when the servant of God was present, had you believed that your presence could lie hidden?' But she said: 'The love of piety persuaded me to do such things: for, seeing all driven outside, I thought within myself that the servant of Christ, having invoked the divine majesty, would raise the dead man here present.' When therefore the said virgin had gone out, the man of God, bowed down in prayer together with a presbyter and a deacon and two doorkeepers, prayed with most copious weeping, that the heavenly power might show forth its accustomed work of majesty.

Then, the presbyter completing the prayer, the blessed man addressed the corpse thus: 'In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, holy presbyter Silvinus, speak with your brethren.' And when the dead man opened his eyes, the man of God scarcely persuaded those present to keep silence for joy. And again to him: 'Do you wish,' he said, 'that we ask the Lord to deign to grant you yet to His servants in this life?' But he said: 'By the Lord I adjure you, that I be not held here any longer and defrauded of the perpetual rest in which I perceived myself to be.' And straightway, the prayer being rendered, he rested lifeless. But this deed was so concealed by the adjuration of holy Severinus that it could not be known before his death.

Yet I learned these things which I have related from the account of Marcus the subdeacon and Maternus the doorkeeper. For the presbyter and the deacon, witnesses of so great a miracle, are known to have died before the holy man, to whom they had sworn that they would betray to no one what they had seen. XVII. Endowed therefore through the grace of Christ with such gifts, blessed Severinus had also undertaken, with the piety inborn in him, so great a care of captives and of the needy, that nearly all the poor throughout all the towns and forts were fed by his diligence; to whom he ministered with such glad solicitude that he then believed himself to be satisfied and to abound in all good things only when he saw the bodies of the needy sustained.

And although he himself was in no way broken by continual fastings of weeks, yet by the hunger of the wretched he believed himself afflicted. Very many, contemplating his bounty so full toward the poor, although they endured the straits of famine from the hard rule of the barbarians, most devoutly bestowed the tithes of their crops upon the poor. And this commandment, although most well known to all from the Law, they nevertheless kept with grateful devotion, as though they heard it from the mouth of an angel present. The man of God also felt the cold so much in the nakedness of the poor, since he had especially received from God that in a most frigid region, chastened by a wondrous abstinence, he should remain strong and cheerful.

Now concerning the tithes to be given, as we have said, by which the poor might be fed, he also exhorted the peoples of Noricum by sending letters. From this custom, when they had directed to him a certain abundance of garments to be distributed, he asked those who had come whether a similar contribution was being sent also from the town of Tiburnia. When they replied that some would forthwith be present from there too, the man of God indicated that they would by no means come, but foretold that their deferred offering was to be offered to the barbarians. And so, not long after, the citizens of Tiburnia, fighting in various struggle with the besieging Goths, having scarcely entered into a covenant of peace, offered to the enemy, among other things, the gift now gathered into one, which they had delayed to send to the servant of God. XVIII.

The citizens too from the town of Lauriacum, formerly admonished by the frequent exhortation of holy Severinus, had delayed to offer the tithes of their crops to the poor. When these were constrained by famine, now as the ripeness of the harvests was growing golden, neighbouring supplies were being shown to them. But when the corruption of an unforeseen blight, about to harm the crops, appeared, they soon came together to him, prostrate, confessing the penalties of their obstinacy. And the soldier of Christ relieved the weary ones with spiritual words, saying: 'If you had offered the tithes to the poor, not only would you enjoy an eternal reward, but you could also abound in present advantages. But because you chasten your fault by your own confession, of the Lord's mercy I promise that the present blight, though so strong, will not harm at all:'

only let your faith not waver henceforth.' Indeed this promise rendered the citizens more ready to pay the tithes from that time. Then, as was his custom, he exhorted them to proclaim a fast; and when this was completed, a gentle rain cut off the harms of the despaired-of harvest. XIX. Batavis is the name of a town situated between two rivers, namely the Inn and the Danube, where blessed Severinus had founded, in his usual manner, a cell for a few monks, because he himself, being often invited, used to come thither—especially on account of the constant incursions of the Alamanni, whose king Gibuldus regarded him with the highest reverence. He also at a certain time eagerly hastened to see him.

The holy man went out to meet him, lest by his arrival he should burden that same city, and addressed the king with such firmness that he began to tremble exceedingly before him; and withdrawing, he declared to his own armies that never, either in matter of war or in any dread, had he been shaken with so great a trembling. And when he gave the servant of God the choice of commanding what he wished, the most pious teacher asked rather that, as a favour to himself, he should restrain his people from the devastation of the Romans, and graciously release the captives whom his men held.

Then the king appointed that he should direct one of his men to carry out that work more speedily; and Amantius the deacon, being immediately sent, follows the king close on his track; but, keeping watch before his doors for many days, he could not be announced. To him, returning most sorrowful with the matter for which he had been sent not accomplished, there appeared a certain one bearing the likeness of holy Severinus, who, with a threatening summons, ordered the terrified man to follow him. And when, frightened and agitated, he followed, he came to the gate of the king, and straightway that leading guide vanished from the eyes of the astonished man. Now the king's messenger asks the deacon whence he was and what he hoped for. He, briefly explaining the matter, the letters being offered to the king and received back, returned home.

Being dismissed therefore, he brought back nearly seventy captives, and moreover delivered the king's welcome promise, by which he pledged that, when he had carefully traversed the province, he would send back as many captives as he should find in it. For which matter holy Lucillus the presbyter, sent afterwards, recalled a great multitude of the wretched from captivity. XX. During the same period in which the Roman empire still stood firm, the soldiers of many towns were maintained by the public pay for the guarding of the frontier. When this custom ceased, the military companies were destroyed together with the frontier, the garrison of Batavis somehow enduring still.

From there certain men had set out for Italy to bring the last pay to their fellow-soldiers; but no one knew that they had been slain on the journey by the barbarians. On a certain day therefore, while holy Severinus was reading in his cell, suddenly, closing the book, he began to weep with a great sigh. He orders those standing by to run quickly to the river, which at that hour he affirmed to be sprinkled with human blood; and straightway it was announced that the bodies of the aforesaid soldiers had been carried to the shore by the rush of the river. XXI. A certain presbyter named Paulinus had come to holy Severinus, his fame spreading more widely. He, lingering some days in the company of the blessed man, when he wished to return, heard from him:

'Hasten, venerable presbyter, because soon the dignity of the episcopate will adorn your beloved self, struggling against it, as we believe, by the desires of the peoples.' And soon, as he was returning to his homeland, the word of the one who foretold it was fulfilled in him. For the citizens of Tiburnia, which is the metropolis of Noricum, compelled the aforesaid man to take up the leadership of the highest priesthood. XXII. In the basilica outside the walls of the town of Batavis, in a place named Boiotro, situated across the river Inn, where he himself had built a cell for a few monks, relics of the martyrs were being sought. When therefore the presbyters were urging themselves forward to be sent to bring back the holy things, blessed Severinus brought forth these admonitions:

'Although all things constructed by the work of mortals pass away, yet these buildings, before the rest, must very speedily be abandoned.' And therefore one ought to undertake no labour for the relics of the saints, because of its own accord the blessing of holy John would be brought to them. Meanwhile the citizens of the said town came suppliantly to the blessed man, that, going to Feba, the prince of the Rugi, he might ask for them licence to trade. To whom he said: 'The time of this town has drawn near, that it should remain deserted like the other forts higher up, destitute of an inhabitant.'

'What need therefore is there to provide merchandise for places where a merchant will no longer be able to appear?' When they replied that they ought not to be despised, but to be relieved by the accustomed governance, a certain presbyter, filled with a diabolical spirit, added these words: 'Go, I pray, holy one, go quickly, that by your departure we may rest a little while from fastings and vigils.' At which saying the man of God was pressed by great tears, because, in the hearing of all, the priest had burst out into ridiculous folly. For open buffoonery is the testimony of hidden faults. And so the holy man, being asked by the brethren why he wept thus, said:

'I see,' he said, 'a most grievous plague about forthwith to befall this place when we are absent, and the sanctuaries of Christ—which not without groaning am I compelled to utter—will overflow with human blood, to such a degree that even this place will have to be profaned.' For he was speaking in the baptistery. And so he descended by boat upon the Danube to his ancient and, of all, greatest monastery near the walls of the town of Favianis, which was distant a hundred and more miles. Soon therefore, when he had departed, Hunumund, accompanied by a few barbarians, invaded the town of Batavis, as the holy man had foretold, and, nearly all the inhabitants being detained at the harvest, slew forty men of the town who had remained for its guarding.

That presbyter too, who had spoken so sacrilegiously against the servant of Christ in the baptistery, the pursuing barbarians slew as he fled to that same place. For in vain did the enemy of truth, having offended God, come there where he had so shamelessly transgressed. XXIII. So then the most holy Severinus, while he was reading the Gospel in the monastery at Favianis, the prayer being completed, rising up orders a skiff to be prepared for him at once, and to those who wondered he said: 'Blessed be the name of the Lord: it behoves us to go to meet the sanctuaries of the blessed martyrs.' Without delay, the Danube being crossed, they find a man sitting on the farther bank of the river and asking them with many entreaties that he might be led to the servant of God, to whom—the report spreading abroad—he had long desired to come.

And so soon, the servant of Christ being shown to him, he suppliantly offered the relics of holy John the Baptist, which had been preserved by him for many times. And the servant of God, receiving them with due veneration, consecrated the basilica of holy John, as he had foretold, by the ministry of the priests, with the blessing freely conferred. XXIV. Moreover, to the inhabitants of the town which was called Ioviacum, separated more than twenty miles from Batavis, the man of God, admonished by his usual revelation, sent Moderatus by name, a cantor of the church, charging that all should without hesitation leave the dwelling of that place: for soon they would perish if they despised what was commanded.

While some therefore doubted concerning so great a prophecy, and others utterly disbelieved, he again sent a certain man of Quintanis, to whom, weeping, he said: 'Go more quickly, announcing to them: if they remain there this same night, they will be taken without delay.' He also commands that holy Maximianus, a presbyter of spiritual life, be more urgently admonished, that he at least, leaving the despisers behind, should hasten to be delivered by heavenly mercy; concerning whom the servant of God said that great sadness was within him, lest perchance, by deferring the salutary command, he should be subjected to the imminent destruction.

And so the aforesaid man, going, fulfilled the commands; and while the rest wavered in unbelief, the messenger of the man of God in no way assented to the presbyter, who held him back and desired to offer him the grace of hospitality. On which night the Heruli, suddenly and unexpectedly rushing in and laying waste the town, led very many away captive, hanging the said presbyter on a gallows. On hearing which, the servant of God grieved heavily that those forewarned had taken no care. XXV. Then a certain man from Noricum, Maximus by name, accustomed to frequent the servant of God, when he had come and, on account of the familiarity which he had earned, was lingering some days in the holy man's monastery, is informed by his oracles that his homeland would suddenly undergo a grave destruction.

He, having received letters directed to holy bishop Paulinus, returned more urgently. So then the said bishop, instructed beforehand by the tenor of the letters, vehemently admonished by his own writings all the forts of his diocese, that by a three-day fast, which the letters of the man of God had indicated, they should meet the destruction of the coming disaster. When these fulfilled the commands, the fast being ended, behold, a most copious multitude of the Alamanni savagely laid all things waste, but the forts felt no danger, which the breastplate of faithful fasting and the praiseworthy humility of heart, through the prophetic man, had confidently armed against the ferocity of the enemies. XXVI. After these things a certain leper of the territory of Milan had gone to holy Severinus, his fame inviting him:

this man, suppliantly imploring the remedies of health, he commended to his monks, a fast being enjoined; and immediately, by the grace of God working, he was cleansed. And when, his health recovered, he was being urged to return to his homeland, he prostrated himself at the feet of the holy man, asking that he might not be compelled to return any further to his own, desiring indeed that he might escape the leprosy of sins as well as that of the flesh, and end his life in that same place with a praiseworthy end. The man of God, greatly admiring his religious mind, by paternal injunction charged a few monks, fasts being frequented with him, to persevere in continual prayer, that the Lord might grant him the things which were fitting.