VJ 35

English

But I think I should not be silent about what happened during the night before the holy relics were placed there. The monk in charge of the place, joyful about the approaching solemnity, urged those, whom he had hastened to invite to a small cellar in the basilica, to celebrate the vigil together faithfully in the basilica. Drawing wine from a cask, he happily began to drink to their devotion, saying: "The divine goodness grants us powerful patronage through the blessed martyr. Therefore I ask your charity to keep wholeheartedly the vigil with me. For tomorrow his holy relics are to be installed here."

After having spent the night singing sacred hymns and heavenly melodies, and after celebrating the solemnity of mass, the cleric, elated about the feast, again began to ask those whom he had previously invited to take a meal with him, saying: "I thank you for persisting in the vigils with such unremitting concentration."

And the martyr did not delay in rewarding this goodwill with the grace of his power. For when the cleric entered the storeroom he found the small cask, which he had left barely half full, overflowing so vigorously through its opening at the top that the abundance of the overflowing wine made a rivulet to the door. Amazed at this, he placed a pitcher under the cask and filled it several times; but after enough and even more wine had been drawn, it never failed, and to everyone's astonishment the cask remained permanently full till the next day.

This happened, however, on the third day before the Kalends of the fifth month. O astonishing power of the martyr! He brought forth a vintage from a cask although no vine had bloomed: whereas usually one collects the wine to be put into a vessel, the cask itself produced a new wine, in which not grapes but pure holy power flowed! The vessel brimmed over with the liquid, but the fruit was not brought to it: it was created there. The Lord did this to glorify his martyr, just as he filled the womb of the Virgin without seed to let her become a mother while remaining chaste.

But this month of May abounded with a new fruit, offering a drink of Falernian wine that did not come from vines. While for normal vines the blossoms had as yet barely appeared, wine already flowed from this cask. Through Julian's power, May equals October because it offers a new kind of drink, and it is superior to it, for no vineyard appears in the storeroom, and wine is born in a house. Without a wine-press, a fresh wine came into being, for it was found not in vine shoots but in hidden mysteries; it was not from the vine that the heap of grapes was pressed, yet wine flowed; Faler-nian wine was drunk that was not seen to have been pressed.

Behold, vines were not seen, yet cups were filled to the brim! But why do I say this? For that heavenly power never fails those who believe in it. So the one who once made wine from water now extends to his believers a wine without the nature of any of the elements <that constitute the earth>; and the one who satisfied five thousand men with two fishes, now renews this act many times for those of good will.

Thus at the time of his birth angels bore witness to him, saying: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will." But let us now turn to his subsequent works of power.

Latin

Sed nec hoc silere puto, quod in nocte illa, priusquam sanctae reliquiae ibidem collocarentur, sit gestum. Monachus ipsius loci, dum de adventu solemnitatis gauderet et singulos quosque ad cellariolum basilicae prumptissimus invitaret, hortans, ut omnes in basilicam fideliter vigilarent, extracto a vase vino, coepit eos causa devotionis cum gaudio propinare, dicens: 'Magnum nobis patrocinium in beatam martyrem pietas divina largitur. Idcirco rogo caritatem vestram, ut unianimiter vigiletis mecum. Cras enim sanctae eius reliquiae in hoc loco sunt collocandae'. Exacta quoque cum sacris hymnis modolisque caelestibus noctem, caelebrata etiam missarum solemnia, ovans festivitate clericus, coepit eos iterum quos prius invitaverat rogare ad refectionem, dicens: 'Gratias vobis ago, quod sic ad vigilandum immobiles perstitistis'. Sed nec martyr diu distulit bonam voluntatem virtutis suae gratia munerare. Nam ingressus prumptuarium clericus, repperit cupellam, quam pene mediam reliquerat, per superiorem aditum redundare, in fantum ut copia defluentis vini rivum per terram ad ostium usque duceret. Quod ille admirans, positum deorsum vas, saepius extulit plenum; sed et de ipso, cum satis abundeque fuisset expensum, nihil prorsus defuit, sed usque in crastinum, mirantibus cunctis, semper stetit plenum. Erat autem tertio Kal. mensis quinti. O admirabilis virtus martyris! Cum produxit de vase sine flore vindemiam, cum sit solitum, ut collecta vina condantur in vascula, protulit doleum musta, in quo non uva, sed virtus sola defluxit. Turgescit vasculum a liquore, fructus non inlatus est, sed creatus. Agit hoc ille Dominus ad glorificandum martyrem, qui inplens uterum Virginis sine semine, et permanere praestitit matrem in castitate. Sed tamen hic novo Maius exuberat fructu, cum sine codicibus Falerna porregit ad bibendum. In aliis vineis vix adhuc erumpunt gemmae, in hoc vero vase vinum defluit a virtute. Aequatur Maius Octobri, cum nova porregit pocula; plus habet quam ille, cum in prumtu non ostenditur vinea et in domo gignuntur Falerna. Rudis etenim venit sine torculare vindemia, quae non in palmitibus, sed in occultis mysteriis est reperta. Acervus acenorum non premitur ab arbore, et vini defluunt undae. Hauriuntur Falerna, cum in torculari non cernuntur inpraessa; vitis, ecce, non aspicitur, et pocula large conplentur. Sed quid inquam? Non enim deest fidelibus virtus illa caelestis. Nam qui quondam nuptiis de aquis praestetit vina, nunc suis eadem large porregit sine ullius elimenti natura; et geminis piscibus quinque milia hominum satiavit, nunc bonae voluntati multiplicata restituit. In ipsius enim ortus tempore angelica vox testata est, dicens: Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. Sed iam ad sequentia virtutum opera veniamus.