Saint Severinus of Noricum

In the time when S aint Severinu saint Séverin Monk and apostle of Noricum, protector of the populations against barbarian invasions. s lived, more than thirteen hundred years ago, Attila, that terrible king of the Huns of whom we have already spoken, had just died. Upon dying, he left several sons who disputed the empire, mainly in the regions situated along both banks of the Dan ube. T Danube European river mentioned to locate Michaelsbuch. error and desolation reigned from afar. Saint Severinus was then dwelling in the vicinity of the city of Asturis; he announced to the inhabitants of this city that they were threatened by the horrors of war, and that their city would be destroyed unless they moved heaven through fasting, prayers, and almsgiving. To their misfortune, the Asturians did not listen to the wise exhortations of the Saint, and their city was ruined from top to bottom, so that today one does not even know the place where it was located.

But before the disaster, Saint Severinus had withdrawn to another city, called Cumanis. There he renewed his counsel and his sinister predictions; but there too he was not listened to. Then an old man, who alone had escaped the massacre and the burning of Asturis, recounted to the inhabitants of Cumanis all the details of the horrible disaster of which he had been a witness; and he added that before the event an unknown man had come to predict to them everything that had happened, and had exhorted them to avert these misfortunes through penance. — "And it is because they did not believe him," he said in concluding, "that all these misfortunes came upon my homeland!..." And the old man, having seen Saint Severinus, exclaimed immediately: "It is he himself, listen to him!" — Then the Cumanians asked his pardon for not having wanted to listen to him at first; and for three days they implored the help of heaven through prayers, fasting, and almsgiving. During this time the fierce enemies had drawn near to Cumanis; but toward the end of the third day their camp was shaken by a terrible earthquake, and they fled in terror. During the following night, they imagined themselves to be pursued, and, taking their companions for enemies, they killed one another.

Another city further along the Danube (it is believed to have been V Vienne Episcopal see and principal city of the saint's activity. ienna) was devastated by famine. It was in the heart of winter, and provisions were expected to arrive from the lands near the Inn. But the river was frozen, and the boats that were to transport the food could not arrive. Now, the inhabitants of this city, having heard of the marvelous efficacy of Saint Severin's prayers, invited him to come to them. His first care, upon arriving, was to exhort them to prayer and penance. And almost immediately, a crowd of boats loaded with provisions was seen arriving. What had happened? The river, which for a long time had held the boats imprisoned in the ice, had suddenly melted due to a miraculous thaw that occurred at a completely unheard-of time. Great was the gratitude of the Viennese, and great were their thanksgivings.

Now, there was in Vienna a wealthy widow named Procula who had hidden, during a famine, an immense quantity of wheat: the Spirit of God having revealed this act of avarice to Severin, the Saint publicly rebuked the heartless widow, reproached her for being the cause, through her greed, of the death of a great number of the poor, and showed her that she called herself a Christian in vain, since by worshipping riches she had fallen into a detestable idolatry. Procula understood the enormity of her fault and made amends by opening her granaries for free.

Later, Saint Severinus withdrew into solitude, with the desire to live only for God; but he did not remain alone for long. A crowd of people went to find him to ask for help and counsel in their spiritual or bodily needs.

A man named Rufus had been ill for twelve years: he suffered horribly in every limb of his body. Now, the means employed until then had been fruitless. His mother placed him on a cart and brought him before the Saint's dwelling. She begged him to heal her son. The Saint replied: "God alone can restore health to the sick; but I will give you a piece of advice: give alms, according to your means." This woman, having nothing else to give at the moment, stripped herself of her clothes to give them to the poor. But the Saint said to her: "Put your clothes back on; your son will be healed; then, when you have returned home, prove your faith through works." Saint Severinus then began to pray; and immediately, to the great astonishment of all those present, the sick man rose healed and returned home. The astonishment of all those who knew him was so great that many did not want to believe that it was the same man they had seen so infirm.

The fame of Saint Severinus's holiness and miracles spread far and wide. Several cities thought that if they possessed such a treasure, they would be safe from all calamities. The Saint was therefore urgently called from various sides. Now, one day he was in a city where a portion of the inhabitants practiced idolatry. Saint Severinus pointed out to them how great this crime was, but no one wanted to admit guilt. Then he prescribed a three-day fast and ordered that on the third day each family should go to the church with an unlit candle. The Saint having begun to pray with the priests and the people, the candles of the true believers lit themselves, while those of the idolaters remained unlit. Being thus miraculously convinced, the idolaters confessed their sin; and the chronicler, in reporting this fact, adds: "O sweet power of my Creator, who lit hearts at the same time as the candles! For fire also took hold of the candles of the guilty, after they had confessed their fault; and while this fire consumed the wax they held in their hands, an immaterial fire consumed their hearts, and made tears of compunction flow from their eyes."

Another time, the surrounding countryside was ravaged by swarms of locusts, and Saint Severinus was again begged to ward off this plague through his prayers. As always, he recommended resorting to prayer, fasting, and alms; at the same time, he demanded that no one go to the fields; "for," he said, "your untimely care would be more likely to drive away God's help than to chase away the locusts." Everyone complied scrupulously with the Saint's prescriptions, with the exception of one very poor man, who absolutely wanted to go visit his field. This field was surrounded by several others, and the poor man went there to chase away the destructive insects. But that very night the locusts disappeared completely, leaving all the fields intact, with the exception of that of the poor unbeliever, on which they did not leave a fruit, nor a blade of grass. This wretch then ran to the city, lamenting before everyone about what had happened to him. Thereupon everyone went out and saw with astonishment that their fields had been preserved from the plague, and that only the field of the unbeliever had been stripped. The Saint then said these simple words to them: Learn from the locusts to always obey God! Then the poor man said, lamenting: I am willing, in the future, to obey God faithfully, but who will give me something to live on, for my field is devastated? The Saint, addressing the crowd, said: It is just that he who, through his punishment, teaches you to be humble and obedient, should be fed by you for this year. And a collection was taken for the benefit of the poor man.

Another time, a woman, after having been ill for a long time, entered into agony; some of those who surrounded her, believing her already dead, began to lament, following the custom in such an occurrence. The others, on the contrary, imposed silence upon them, and, carrying the sick woman, they went to lay her before the door of Saint Severinus. The Saint said to them: What do you want of me? They replied: We pray you to restore to health this woman who is about to die. The Saint replied: You ask too much of a poor sinner like me. I am unworthy to perform miracles; all I can do is pray to God to forgive my sins. They replied: We believe that if you pray for the sick woman, she will be healed. Then the Saint began to pray; and immediately the sick woman was able to rise. And the Saint said to them: This miracle is not due to my merits, but to your faith: such a thing happens daily in many places, among all peoples, by the omnipotence of God, who alone can heal the sick and raise the dead, so that all peoples may know that He is the only true God. Three days later, this same woman was so well healed that she was able to return to her usual work.

But, although he performed these wonders to win the peoples to Jesus Christ, he would not heal an eye ailment that caused very sharp pain to Bonosus, the dearest of his disciples; he would have believed that by removing the suffering, he was depriving him of a means of perfection. His reputation went so far that even the princes from beyond the Danube, whether infidels or Arians, asked for his advice on the civil conduct of their States, although they refused to open their eyes to the truth and to correct the disorders of their lives. He established several monasteries, the most considerable of which FAVIENNE Site of the most significant monastery established by the saint. was near FAVIANIS. He often left it to go two leagues beyond, to a remote place, to pray more quietly. But charity often compelled him to go to various places to console the inhabitants in their alarms: for they believed themselves safe when he was with them. He recommended to his disciples above all the imitation of the ancients and withdrawal from the world; his examples preached to them even more than his words. For, except on feast days, he only ate after sunset, and in Lent only once a week; he slept fully clothed on a hairshirt, stretched out on the floor of his oratory. He always walked barefoot, even when the Danube was frozen. Several cities asked for him as bishop, but he would never yield to their entreaties. "Is it not enough," he said to them, "that I have left my dear solitude to come here to instruct and console you?"

One must not believe that our Saint established in a definitive and lasting manner either the Catholic religion or monastic life in these lands; it was neither the place nor the time. Providence had brought him there, a Roman, a Catholic monk, representative of the civilized world that was finally to be invaded, in order to halt for a moment, and to soften, the invaders; just as Attila found Saint Leo at the crossing of the Mincio, Saint Aignan beneath the walls of Orleans, and Saint Lupus at the gates of Troyes; just as Saint Germanus of Auxerre stopped Eocharich, king of the Alamanni, in the heart of Gaul.

The anchorite who defended Noricum was watching at the same time over the interests of all of Christendom. If the overflow of the invasions had rushed in all at once, it would have submerged civilization. The empire was open, but the peoples were to enter it only one by one; and the Christian priesthood stood in the breach, in order to hold them back until the appointed moment, and so to speak, until the calling of their name... it was the turn of the Heruli: Severinus had contained their bands on the road to Italy. Among those who came to ask for his blessing, there was one day a young man, poorly dressed, but of noble race, and so tall that he had to stoop to enter the monk's cell. "Go," Severinus said to him, "go to Italy; you are now wearing meager furs, but soon you will have enough to be generous." This young man was Odoace Odoacre Barbarian leader and first King of Italy after the fall of the Empire. r, at the head of the Thuringians and the Heruli; he seized Rome, sent Romulus Augustulus to die in exile, and, without deigning to make himself emperor, was content to remain the master of Italy. From the heart of his conquest, he remembered the prediction of the Roman monk he had left on the banks of the Danube, and wrote to him to beg him to ask for whatever he might wish. Severinus took advantage of this to obtain the pardon of an exile.

Perhaps if Odoacer, master of Rome, used clemency, if he spared the monuments, the laws, the schools, and destroyed only the vain name of the empire, it is because he remembered, as we have seen, the Roman monk who had predicted his victory and blessed his youth...

Another time, as the Alamanni were ravaging the territory of Passau, where he was then staying, he went to find Gi bold, Gibold King of the Alamanni impressed by the firmness of Severinus. their king, and spoke to him with such firmness that the barbarian, troubled, promised to return the captives and spare the land: he was later heard declaring to his companions that never, in any peril of war, had he trembled so much. Severinus was thus there like a heavenly rampart on the banks of the great river that no longer protected the territory of the empire. When a city or a region of the empire was threatened by a barbarian army, he sometimes undertook the military defense with the calm of an old captain, restoring courage to the most timid with a single word, making himself obeyed where no one else was; if it was necessary to retreat, he organized the withdrawal; if there was no longer any hope of salvation, he would go to the camp of the victors, and, in the name of God, he would obtain that the vanquished would be respected in their persons and their property, and that all would live in peace.

He took the greatest care of the captives above all, first for their sake, in whom he saw Our Lord in chains and misery, but also for the sake of the salvation of the souls of the masters who oppressed them. He pleaded, according to hi s custo Fléthée King of the Rugians, to whom Severinus pleaded for the captives. m, this holy cause before Flaccitheus, king of the Rugians, a tribe that had come from the shores of the Baltic Sea to settle in Pannonia; perhaps the heart of this bar Gisa Queen of the Rugians, of Arian confession, initially opposed to the saint. barian would have been softened; but Gisa, his wife, who was an Arian and more ferocious than he, said one day to Severinus: "Man of God, keep quiet and pray in your cell, and let us do as we please with our slaves." But he did not tire and almost always ended up triumphing over these wild, yet not yet corrupted, souls. Feeling his end approaching, he summoned the king and queen to his deathbed. After exhorting the king to remember the account he would have to render to God, he placed his hand on the barbarian's heart, then turning to the queen: "Gisa," he said to her, "do you love this soul more than gold and silver?" And as Gisa protested that she preferred her husband to all treasures: "Well then," he replied, "cease to oppress the just, for fear that their oppression may be your ruin. I humbly beg you both, at this moment when I return to my master, to abstain from evil and to honor yourselves through your good deeds."

Saint Severinus had predicted the day of his death to his disciples two years earlier; he warned them at the same time that the inhabitants of Noricum would be forced to take refuge in Italy, and ordered them to follow them and to carry his body with them. He was struck by pleurisy on January 5, 482. On the fourth day of his illness, he requested the holy Viaticum; then, having made the sign of the cross and said with the Psalmist: "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord," he fell asleep gently in the Lord. Six years later, the disciples of Saint Severinus were, according to his prediction, forced to flee before the fury of the barbarians; they carried away the body of their blessed Father; almost the entire region accompanied him, and everywhere he passed, people ran to pay him homage, so that it was more of a triumph than a retreat. He was deposited at Monte-Feltro, in Umbria, from where he was transferred, five or six years later, Naples Place of the saint's death. to Lucullano, between Naples and Pozzuoli, b pape Gélase Pope of African origin who reigned from 493 to 496. y the authority of Pope Gelasiu s. A mo Eugippe Author of the biography of Saint Severinus and abbot of his monastery. nastery was built there, of which Eugippius, author of the life of Saint Severinus, was the second abbot. In 910, his holy relics were transported to Naples, to a Benedictine monastery that bears his name. — Saint Severinus of Noricum is one of the Patrons of Bavaria, of Austria, and of Vienna, the capital of that empire.