1. Messianus the presbyter and Stephen the deacon said: Concerning the way of life and the virtues of our holy and most blessed Father and priest and master, the lord Caesarius, we are about to tell those things which, whether together or singly, we came to know of him, or which, together with the most holy fellow-bishops—that is, lord Cyprian and lord Firminus and holy Viventius—we alike beheld; who also, having related from the beginning to the end of the section those things which are written above concerning him, brought them to a close, and deigned to permit and command us that each one of us should faithfully narrate those things concerning his deeds which were well known to himself.
We have no need of it, even were worldly eloquence available to us, because the truth of holy deeds transcends every ornament of secular fluency: for the fullest setting-forth of which, let that purity and simplicity suffice us, wherewith the most blessed Father himself also wrought the miracles that are to be related by us—especially since the lord himself frequently held this in common discourse, that what was said in a learned manner would minister understanding only to the learned, whereas what was said simply would fittingly instruct both the learned and the simple together.
Therefore those things which we truly came to know to have been done or said by him, we shall undertake—God being favourable—with unadorned and unimpaired words, so far as we are able, to make known to the faithful hearers, so that from them both compunction may be ministered to the weak, and joy to the perfect, and to those tending toward perfection an example. We shall begin, therefore, as we recall, briefly to unfold, with God's help, his holy works. 2. The daughter of Peter, deacon of this church—in whom all the welfare of his household seemed to consist—being afflicted by a grave sickness, now lay speechless for three days; on which account, one day, he prostrated himself at the feet of the most blessed man, saying: Have mercy, servant of Christ, upon my old age; pray for my daughter, for I am confident that nothing is denied you by the Lord.
Lay your hand upon her, and she shall be saved. For now for three days she lies speechless with closed eyes, and at every hour and every moment I await her departure. Hearing this, the old man, moved and constrained by tears, went to his house; and when he had entered and saw all in that house weeping bitterly with the father, he prostrated himself in prayer; where, like another Elijah, he drew himself to her head amid the narrow space between chest and bed. After the prayer, which he poured forth with tears, he at once began to return to the house of the church. 3. For it was his custom that, when, at the Spirit's prompting, he recognized his prayers to be heard for the sick, he at once withdrew thence in haste;
lest, if that which he had obtained from the Lord by his prayers should come to pass in his presence, some occasion of arrogance might arise. For indeed frequently and sweetly, as if in a figure, so that no one might understand, he would say: To whom the care of souls is entrusted, he ought greatly to fear to indulge the pleasure of bodies. In fine, to the simple rather than to the learned did divine grace grant this. Would that in these things which the merciful Lord has given us, He might grant us the discretion pleasing to Himself! This, however, is by no means to be presumed by us unworthy ones. As he departed, therefore, the father began again and again to cry out after him as he went: I know that, if you had prayed to your God, He would have restored my daughter to me. Then he left behind one of his chamberlains, saying:
Go, keep watch there, and after a little while come and tell me what happens. Scarcely was the hour completed, and behold, the servant announced to him: My lord, he said, the girl for whom you prayed has come back to herself; and she says this: The lord bishop was here, by whose prayers I have been restored and made whole. For which reason the father came giving thanks, and testified that his daughter had now, through your prayers, been recalled from death for him. For, the Lord at last granting it this day, she herself, living, stands as witness of this matter in her own person. 4. But although—as is the way of the servants of God—they always deprecate the working of wonders, especially the servant of Christ, even when, at the Lord's prompting, he was confident that a thing would be granted him at the present, not even then did he wish rashly to seize upon it, but cautiously to shun it.
But whether he had stayed or had fled, never did God fail him when he asked. Him he had ever with him in his heart, not only in prayer and supplication, but also at the banquet, on the journey, in conversation, in the assembly, in prosperity, in adversity, even in sleep. In fine, we ourselves, or our fellow-servants who dwelt in his cell, know what we say: that amid the pauses of sleep—which now his age not only required, but which also, on account of his infirmity, sometimes weighed upon him—with his spirit ever watchful he would say, as though admonishing one who should recite the psalm: 'Come now.' To no one is it doubtful that either he was spiritually chanting psalms with the saints, or assuredly was fulfilling that prophetic word:
'I sleep, but my heart waketh.' Often, even while wrapped in slumber, he would preach of the judgment to come or of the eternal reward. Yet it is by no merit of mine that I, unworthy as I am, should report such illustrious things concerning this servant of God. When, therefore, I had been assigned by my superior's order to serve him in his cell as a deacon, he had commanded me, among my other duties, to take charge also of the night hours. And so, when I had gone out from the lower cell where I lodged, since in all things the holy man ever wished to keep due measure, and above all kept the most vigilant watch over the night offices, so that (apart from what he did privately for himself, with God alone as his witness) none of his household who lived with him might be roused before the lawful hour.
Then in his sleep he would say with a soft voice: 'There are two, there is no middle; there are two: either one ascends into heaven, or one descends into hell.' As I was returning from outside, he awoke and said to me: 'What is it? Is it now the hour for the night office?' I said: 'It is not the hour; there is still time.' And he answered: 'Truly it is the hour' — and so indeed it was. Then we completed the night office. And he said to me: 'To someone in my sleep I was crying out with great earnestness: There are two, there is nothing in between: either one goes to hell or to heaven.' I answered: 'It is your habit to cry this out unceasingly.' Then I, a sinner, judged that he ever spoke of God and with God.
For this man, as has been said above, was so great a lover of all virtues that there was no good deed which he did not either perform himself with eagerness, or with fervour of spirit wish others to possess and teach them to do. Among all the good deeds, therefore, which he taught should be practised in general, and the evils which he declared should in no way be done, he above all (as your kindly and sincere conscience knows) most impatiently abhorred the vices of unbelief, lying, pride, lust, and drunkenness. O good Jesus! with what groans, with what sighs, with what weeping he made supplication for sinners! so that you might see this man of God, as it were, gazing upon a wretched sinner present before him, condemned to the torments of hell.
Finally, according to the Apostle, he never lived for himself alone, never prayed for himself alone. At a certain time, therefore, when — as if to crown his merits — captives to be ransomed were brought to Arles from all sides not in vain, a great multitude of ransomed freemen and of many nobles were fed daily at Arles by this holy man himself. Then his steward came and began to protest and to say to him: 'These captives, my lord, go through the streets and beg for something to eat; for if today they are fed as usual from the church's stores, tomorrow you will have nothing at your own table from which to make bread.'
Then he, entering the cell full of trust and taking refuge in the accustomed aids of prayer (where he never wished to have any man as witness), begged the Lord that substance be given to the poor. For if anyone chanced to come upon him where he was praying prostrate alone, he would shrink from it exceedingly. And so he wept so profusely that he at once obtained what he asked. Then, going out from there with cheerfulness and confidence, as it were rebuking the steward's unbelief, he said to the venerable Messianus, at that time a priest and secretary: 'Go into the granary and sweep it so that, if possible, not a single grain remains there; and let bread be made according to custom, and let us all eat together;
and if tomorrow there is nothing to eat, let us all fast, provided that today the well-born men and the rest of the captives do not go begging through the streets while we sit and drink.' Yet calling one of us aside, he said in his ear: 'Tomorrow God will provide, for he who gives to the poor shall never want.' For as yet those captives were not permitted to return to their own homes. Why say more? What he commanded was carried out. It was murmured by all who dined at the church's expense, wondering whence they would eat from the morrow. But he who had provided for Elijah a widow woman, to whom he might come and be sustained a little, had also without doubt intimated to this man, when he prayed, that by distributing all to the captives and pilgrims and reserving absolutely nothing for himself, he would ever be the more richly enriched.
Finally, on the next day, when those who were sustained by the church's help feared to see the pale dawn break, and were awaiting with no small sighing what would be done, Gundobad and Sigismund, kings of the Burgundians, knowing how eagerly the Lord's servant hastened to works of mercy, before the very light of day grew bright, sent three ships — which they call larger 'latenae' — full of wheat. And all who the day before had been fearing the peril of famine in their unbelief, seeing that the Lord never failed his servant, gave the greatest thanks with joy to God who came to their aid in need. At a certain time, then, the patrician Liberius was pierced through to his vitals by a lance-wound at the hands of the treacherous Goths, whom they call Visigoths.
And because that deed had been done across the Durance, while all in confusion ran together in pursuit of the striker, he alone was left behind. Terrified by the peril of his wound, and despairing of his life as far as a man can, until he should become bloodless, he fled on his own feet nearly no less than five hundred paces or more to the other bank. But when he reached the place Arnago, where the men of that village were able to meet him, he fell and lay utterly without any hope or breath of life. Almost the whole city knew this. Yet what we relate, we came to know from that most magnificent man himself, who with tears and great wonder told us of the powers of the holy man. Then, they say, that man related to us:
'Nothing else came into my mind with my last breath except that with tears I cried out: All remedies have failed; ask my lord Caesarius to come to my aid.' Which we learned to be true with speed through the man who had been sent. For while he had wished to rest a little and to arrange certain matters in the field of his holy monastery, he had begun to tarry there a while; and behold, suddenly he who had been sent came panting, humbly imploring: 'Hasten quickly, my lord,' he said; 'your son begs that you may see him before his death.' And since the man of God did not wish anyone to depart from this world without the medicine of penance, he especially did not desire that this man should go away without that remedy.
For we immediately arrived at the village of Arnago. Therefore, as I said above, I will report those things which the man himself told me among many others. For while he lay so lifeless that he recognized not only none of the rest of his household, but not even his wife nor his only daughter, then he himself said with an oath that it had seemed to him that he heard a human voice, which said to him, speaking in his ear: 'Behold, the holy bishop comes.' 'At that very voice I at once opened my eyes and recognized the servant of God himself coming. But when he drew near to me, I began strongly to kiss his hand, as much as was needful for me, who had lost all hope of life.'
'Then, as I believe, at God's inspiration towards me a sinner, I seized my lord's own cloak and laid it upon my wound. But when I had held a part of his garment there for a little while, at that same hour the blood, which had not at all ceased to flow, thereafter so ceased that not only health but even the greatest strength was restored to me. And had I been permitted, I strove to hasten to the city seated on a horse.' Which also among us who were present was established to be most true. So too the most illustrious lady Agretia, the matron of the same man, when she was afflicted with the same infirmity as that woman who touched the outermost hem of the Lord's garment, was set free by a like faith and devotion.
When I had come to meet her, she in her familiar way deigned to receive my lowliness, and disclosing her infirmity as if with matronly modesty, she began under adjuration of the Lord to entreat me with many prayers that I should bring to the woman a single cloth from his mosaic-patterned garment, which he had worn next to his bare body. And although, while I was in the blessed man's cell, I could easily have done what she hoped, yet I began to fear that from the very thing whence she sought a remedy for herself, I might incur the sin of theft. Then I made known to the chamberlain, to whom the holy garments belonged, that someone had asked that a mosaic-patterned cloth be carried to him for a certain person. For which reason he did not delay to give me an old one. 'O Lord Jesus...
...Christ, you are glorious in your saints, and who is like unto you? Yet you promised that whoever should believe in you, the works which you do, he also should do.' For while that cloth to be carried was already being kept with me, when it was becoming evening, this was the custom: that before he lay down to rest (that is, went to bed), pieces warmed at the fire should be applied to him, and, the others being taken away, they should be applied. They were presented, as the one who served thought fitting. To him he said: 'Not these,' he said, 'but others, and I want this one and that one and such a one.' Other old ones were presented. 'This is not the one I seek,' he said, seeking what he was not accustomed to, so as to make known what he foresaw in the spirit.
Then by his gestures I and the one who had given it to me began to recognize that our theft could not have been hidden from the servant of God: so that it was clear and evident that your servant, O Lord, could say to us unworthy ones concerning those gifts which you yourself had bestowed on him: 'Someone has touched me.' Then I, as it were on behalf of her whom you, Lord Jesus, healed through the prayers of your servant — I, I say, fearing and trembling, began to confess to your servant what had been done, saying: 'Forgive me, my lord, I myself have the cloth you seek: it is for your daughter.' (Thus far he allowed me to speak.) But he, with a hiss of silence: 'Be quiet,' he said; and taking it with great tenderness, he gave me yet another piece as well, and said:
'Go,' he said, 'and carry both to the basilica of my lord Stephen, and place them under the altar, and let them remain there; and one, whichever you wish, carry in the morning to her who asked you, and bring the other back to me.' As he commanded his unworthy servant, so I did; and yet the one to whom I carried it never asked me for it, nor demanded the piece back. And when that woman did not cease to be an assiduous seeker, that I should bring what she had asked, and seeing me coming from afar, with hands stretched out, before I gave it, and now about to snatch what I was presenting, she came rushing to meet me. And before I could raise from the little house-cloak, under which I was carrying that very cloth, she hastened to snatch what she had begged with eagerness of faith.
But I, when I had brought out that piece, gave it to her, and she placed it about herself over her garments; but first bringing it to her eyes, and kissing it with devotion, she honoured it as was fitting. And without delay, at once, by the Lord's granting, the effect of her faithful petition was present. And now through the garment of the Lord's servant they had that which they are known to have even after his passing. Finally, as she herself was wont to confess, when she had placed that cloth upon her breast, at once, as when people are wont to be sprinkled with cold water, all her limbs and veins were held in a chill, even with a little pain, so that her body was shaken somewhat with both shuddering and trembling.
But at once the Lord's mercy was present, and the flux which was there departed, and never returned to her again; and there was fulfilled in her: 'Go, daughter, according to your faith be it done unto you.'