Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 88

For in the province of Valeria this deed which I relate was done, made known to me by the account of my abbot Valentio of blessed memory. For there was there a certain venerable priest, who with his clergy, intent upon the praises of God and upon good works, led a life of holy conversation. But when the day of his calling came upon him, he died, and was buried before the church. Now to that same church there adjoined a fold of sheep, and the same grove in which he was buried lay open as a passage to those going toward the same sheep. But on a certain night, while the clergy were chanting psalms within the church, a thief came, that entering the folds he might commit a theft, took a wether, and departed in haste.

But when he had come to the place where the man of the Lord was buried, he suddenly stuck fast, and could not move his step. He set down the wether from his neck, and when he wished to let it go, he was not able to loosen his hand. He began therefore to stand, the wretch, with his booty, guilty and bound. He wished to let the wether go, and could not; he wished to depart with the wether, and could not. In a wonderful manner, then, the thief, who had feared to be seen by the living, this dead man held fast. And when thus his steps and his hands had been bound tight, he stood motionless. But when morning came and the praises of God were finished, the clergy went out from the church, and found an unknown man holding a wether in his hand.

The guilty man came into doubt, whether he should take the wether or offer it, but as one guilty of a fault he all the more quickly disclosed his punishment. All marveled that the thief, having entered, stood bound before his booty by the merit of the man of God. They at once gave themselves to prayer for him, and by their prayers could scarcely obtain that he who had come to seize their goods might at least deserve to depart empty. And so the thief, who had long stood a captive with his booty, at length went out empty and free. PETER: It appears how great the sweetness of Almighty God is toward us, whose miracles concerning us are so delightful. GREGORY: A mountain rises above the city of Praeneste, on which is situated the monastery of blessed Peter the Apostle, of men of God;

and by their account, while I was still stationed in the monastery, it befell me to hear this great miracle which I relate, which the monks of that same monastery testified that they knew. For in that monastery there was a Father of venerable life, who, rearing a certain monk, advanced him even to reverend character. And when he saw that he had grown up in the fear of the Lord, he then had him ordained a priest in that same monastery. To him, after his ordination, since his departure was not far off, it was made known by revelation. And he asked of the aforesaid Father of the monastery that he would grant him leave to prepare a tomb for himself. To whom he answered: 'I indeed shall die before you, but nevertheless go, and, as you wish, prepare your tomb.'

He therefore went and prepared it. When not many days after, the aged Father, seized by a fever, came to his last extremity, and commanded the priest who stood by, saying: 'Lay me in your tomb.' And when the latter said: 'You know that I am now about to follow you, and it cannot hold us both,' the abbot at once answered, saying: 'Do so as I have said, for your tomb holds us both.' And so he died, and was laid in that same tomb which the priest had prepared for himself. Presently a languor of the body also followed the priest, and as that languor increased, the priest the more quickly ended his life. And when

his body had been carried by the brethren to the tomb which he had prepared for himself, and that same tomb had been opened, all who were present saw that there was no place where he could be laid, because the body of the Father of the monastery, which had been placed there before, occupied that whole tomb. And when the brethren who had carried the priest's body saw the difficulty of burying that was made for them, one of them cried out, saying: 'O Father, where is that which you said, that this tomb would hold us both?' At his word, suddenly, as all looked on, the body of the abbot, which had been placed there before and lay on its back, turned itself onto its side, and offered the vacant place of the tomb for burying the body of the priest;

and because that place held both, as alive he had promised, so dead he fulfilled. But since this which I have related was done at the city of Praeneste in the monastery of blessed Peter the Apostle, would you like to hear something also in this city concerning the guardians of his church, where his most sacred body is laid? GREGORY: There still survive some who knew Theodore, a guardian of his church, by whose account a thing became known which befell him, greatly memorable: that on a certain night, while he had risen rather early to trim the lamps near the door, he stood, as was his custom, on the wooden steps set beneath a lamp, and was renewing the light of the lamp. Then suddenly the blessed Apostle Peter, in a white stole, stood below on the pavement, and said to him:

'Fellow-servant, why have you risen so early?' Having said this, he vanished from the eyes of the beholder. But so great a trembling rushed upon him that all the strength of his body failed in him, and for many days he was unable to rise from his bed. In this matter, what did that same blessed Apostle wish to show to those serving him, save to make manifest the presence of his own regard, namely that whatever they should do for his veneration, he himself would ever, without ceasing, see it as for the reward of recompense? PETER: This does not appear to me so wonderful because he was seen; but because he who saw him, though he was in health, fell sick. GREGORY: Why do you marvel at this matter, Peter?

Has it perhaps slipped your mind that, when the prophet Daniel saw that great and terrible vision, at which vision he also trembled, he straightway added: 'And I fainted, and was sick for many days' (Dan. 8:27)? For flesh is unable to grasp those things which are of the spirit; and therefore sometimes, when the human mind is led to see beyond itself, it is necessary that this fleshly vessel, which is not able to bear the weight of the talent, be weakened. PETER: An open reasoning has dissolved the scruple of my thought.