RESURRECTION MIRACLES OF ST. BENEDICT AND OTHERS
Testimony of Pope St. Gregory The Great
"For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God."
—Job 19:25-26
One day the great abbot St. Benedict (c. 480-c. 547), returning to the monastery from working in the fields, was met by a farmer in great distress. "Give me back my son! Give me back my son!" he cried. Benedict came to a halt.
"But I have not taken your son from you, have I?"
"He is dead. Come! Bring him back to life!"
Some of Benedict's companions started forward eagerly, as if intending to go along with the distracted father. But Benedict was stricken over the suggestion implied in the father's words and cried out: "Stand back, brethren! Stand back! Such a miracle is beyond our power. The holy Apostles are the only ones who can raise the dead. Why are you so eager to accept what is impossible for us?" He spoke in humility.
But the man pleaded on. He even swore an oath that he would not leave Benedict until the saint restored his son's life. Benedict may have been troubled by the oath; he asked the man where the body was. The father told him he had left the body at the monastery gate and gone to search for Benedict after being informed of his absence.
When the band arrived at the monastery gate the saint knelt down beside the lifeless body and bent over it. Then he stood and lifted his hands to pray. "O Lord, do not consider my sins but the faith of this man who is asking to see his son alive again, and restore to this body the soul Thou hast taken from it." Benedict's prayer was scarcely over when the body became animate and throbbed with life. All who were present attributed the miracle to heavenly intervention. Once again a saint had restored a child alive and happy to the arms of a jubilant father.
As Pope St. Gregory observes in his narration of this miracle, it was not Benedict who possessed such power in himself; rather, he begged for the miracle from God. This is always the manner of the saints. It was only Jesus who, with the majesty of the Son of God Himself, worked miracles in His own Name. Far from reaching for glory, the saints often tried to obscure their own identification with miracles by various ingenious methods and diversionary tactics. (Recall St. Anthony Mary Claret's myriad cures through "herbal remedies" in the nineteenth century.)
The above account, along with other accounts of Benedict's miracles and of the dead being raised, is from the Dialogues of Pope St. Gregory the Great (c. 540-604). Before the age of 30, Pope Gregory was Prefect of the city of Rome under Emperor Justinian II. Gregory became a monk, spent his fortune in founding seven monasteries on his Sicilian estates, and was an apocrisiarius or papal nuncio to the Emperor at Constantinople. He returned to Italy to become an abbot and, finally, by unanimous choice of clergy and laity, was persuaded to accept the office of Pope.
Gregory was considered the saviour of Italy; he was the builder of the Papal States free from the Empire's control, as well as a Doctor of the Church. It is Pope Gregory who is responsible for the conversion of England, as he sent St. Augustine of Canterbury and 40 monks as missionaries to England in the year 596. According to a tradition, Gregory received his first glimpse of Englishmen when he saw some handsome blond Anglo-Saxon youths for sale in a slave market in Rome. When he asked who they were, he was told that they were "Angles." He replied, "Not Angles, but angels!" and resolved to send missionaries to England to win the English people to Christ.
During his life Gregory dealt with emperors, kings, princes and ruthless barbarian invaders. Yet despite his vast accomplishments, Pope Gregory took as his title, "Servant of the Servants of God." It was this great man who wrote the life of St. Benedict.
St. Benedict, born of a distinguished family of Nursia, Italy, and the Father of Western Monasticism, is another of the greatest men of history. The development of medieval and modern Europe hinged upon the monasteries established by Benedict in the decaying Roman Empire. His Rule and works did much to establish order and stability. The great Abbey of Monte Cassino, restored after its destruction during World War II, is a lasting symbol of his life and contributions. This monastery was the birthplace of Western Monasticism, and St. Benedict's influence upon monastic life and upon the whole Church lasted for centuries—and are still felt in our own day.
St. Gregory the Great relates a story of how St. Benedict once had Totila, the cruel King of the Goths, trembling in fear. Benedict said to him, "You are the cause of many evils. You have caused many in the past. Put an end now to your wickedness. You will enter Rome and cross the sea. You have nine more years to rule, and in the tenth year you will die."
King Totila was less cruel after that. Then the prophecies came true, and in the tenth year he lost both his kingdom and his life. Gregory, too, even more so than Benedict, dealt courageously with invaders—for example, Agiluff, the King of the Lombards who was bent on destroying Rome.
It seems incredible that when faced with the talents, leadership, holiness, actions and greatness of such men as Benedict and Gregory, many so-called "historians," while accepting many other "ordinary" facts about these men, will treat their attitude toward miracles as naive. But reason tells us that one can safely trust the discernment of Gregory, whose business it was to discern.
The great 17th-century saint and Doctor of the Church, St. Francis de Sales, has defended the writings of St. Gregory the Great. In one of his Sermons on Our Lady (July 2, 1621), St. Francis de Sales says: "There are some who are ready to banter and jest over the writings of this glorious saint, and indeed wrongfully, for St. Gregory was one of the greatest Popes that ever sat in the chair of Peter; a few years after his elevation to the papacy he withdrew into solitude and wrote the book of his Dialogues."
Another raising of the dead by St. Benedict came about as a result of the devil's malice. The monks were at work adding to one of the monastery's walls. While Benedict was in his room praying, the devil appeared to him and remarked sarcastically that he was on his way to visit the monks at work. Benedict sent word at once to the monks to be on guard because the devil was on his way to disturb them. But the devil moved fast and overturned the wall as Benedict's message arrived. Under its ruins lay a very young monk, his body crushed. St. Gregory adds that he was the son of a tax collector.
Aghast, the monks hurried to report the tragedy to the abbot. The young monk had not only died, he had died without the Last Rites, an additional cause for their sorrow. Benedict told them to bring the body of the youth to his room. It was so mangled that both arms and legs were broken and all the bones were crushed. They had to carry the remains in a blanket.
In St. Benedict's room there was a reed-matting, where he was accustomed to pray. Benedict told all to leave, closed the door, and knelt down to pray.
Within that very hour Benedict sent the young man back to work as hale, whole and healthy as he had been before the accident. There were no broken bones, no wounds, not even a bruise. Surrounded by his amazed brethren, the youth helped them to finish the wall. It was a wall built by holy men, a wall of faith.
Many other wonders occurred in St. Benedict's life. When his sister Scholastica died, he saw her soul leave her body and fly to Heaven under the form of a white dove. He also saw the soul of Germanus, the Bishop of Capua, carried up to Heaven by angels in a ball of fire. With the Lord, one wonderful event is as simply arranged as any other.
Gregory recorded other miracles besides those of St. Benedict. There was a monk of Illyria who had been in the monastery at Rome with Gregory. This monk told Gregory the story of a Spanish monk named Peter, who had been with him as a hermit of Illyria in the vast solitude of Erasa.
Before living in the desert, Peter had become sick and had died. On being returned from death to life, Peter declared he had seen Hell, its torments, its pools of fire, and some of the world's outstanding men tossed amidst its flames. When Peter's turn came to be tossed into the flames, an angel in shining white robes suddenly appeared and preserved him from the burning fires. "Leave this place," the angel instructed him, "and consider well how you are to live henceforth."
With those words Peter came back to earth and felt the warmth of life being restored to his cold limbs. He described it all in detail. But even if he had never said a word, his changed life, his penances, and his night watches would have borne sufficient witness to his visit to another world and his subsequent fear of Hell.
A high-ranking man named Stephen, who was known to Gregory personally, told Gregory how he had sickened and died on a business trip to Constantinople. Since no doctor or mortician could be found that day to embalm his body, it was kept until the following night. In the meantime, Stephen found himself on trial before the Judge of the Infernal Court. However, the Judge dismissed him, saying, "I ordered Stephen the blacksmith to be brought here—not this man." So the Stephen who stood before the Judge was sent back to earth.
At the same time, the neighbor, who was a blacksmith also named Stephen, died, and so proved that what the first Stephen had heard at the Infernal Court was true. St. Gregory knew of Stephen the blacksmith and wrote that he had indeed died three years earlier of the plague.
Gregory goes on to relate that a soldier at Rome also died and came back to relate what had happened to him. The soldier had found himself on a high bridge over deep, dark, vaporous and smelly waters. There were beautiful meadows and delightful light beyond it, fragrant flowers, white-robed people and lovely dwellings. The soldier saw an overseer of the Church, a man named Peter who had died four years earlier. Peter was sunk in some foul mire below, bound in chains. This was his penalty for the just but cruel punishments he had given out when in authority (and Gregory remarks that everyone knew of these acts).
The soldier also saw the first Stephen, the acquaintance of Pope Gregory, half-hanging over the edge of the bridge. There were princely spirits in white trying to draw Stephen up, while evil spirits from below were trying to pull him down. At that point the soldier was called back to life. This scene showed, as Gregory explained later in the Dialogues, that Stephen (whose ways since coming back to life Gregory knew well) had not fully converted his life. So at death Stephen would face a severe struggle between the forces of good and evil over the settlement of his final fate.
In his Dialogues I, St. Gregory tells of Abbot Honoratus, whose humble sandals once led to a great miracle. This abbot had built a monastery which housed 200 monks. Abbot Honoratus was very holy. He once stopped a huge rock rolling down the mountain that towered over the monastery; had it continued on its path, it would have destroyed the monastery buildings as well as the monks inside them. Honoratus raised his right hand, made the Sign of the Cross, prayed to Christ, and the rock stopped. St. Gregory said that in his day the rock could still be seen in a position on the verge of falling—seemingly with nothing to hold it back.
When Libertinus became Abbot of Fondi he always carried one of Abbot Honoratus' sandals with him on a journey. He had been a disciple of Honoratus and had been trained by him; he venerated him greatly. Once, on his way to Ravenna, Abbot Libertinus met a woman carrying a dead child in her arms. When the woman recognized who it was, she seized the bridle of the abbot's horse, called on the Name of God, and cried out to him: "You shall not pass until you have brought my son back to life!"
Libertinus was frightened because she had used an oath in her petition. He was also confused because, try as he might, he could not turn out of her way. He struggled between fear and compassion. The mother finally won out, and in doing so showed forth the abbot's true virtue. He dismounted, got on his knees, prayed, and raised his hands to Heaven. Then he took the sandal of the holy Honoratus from the folds of his garment and laid it upon the breast of the dead child. As he continued praying, the child came to life. He took it by the hand and gave it to its weeping, thankful mother, then continued his journey to Ravenna.
Pope St. Gregory also knew of a good man named Marcellus, who lived in Todi (Tuscany) with his two sisters. When Marcellus died his remains had to be carried a good distance. So his funeral was delayed and his two sisters went to inform Bishop Fortunatus of Todi, a mutual friend, of their loss. They said, "We know that you follow in the footsteps of the Apostles, and that you cleanse lepers and give sight to the blind. Come with us and bring our brother back to life."
Fortunatus, while in tears over his friend's death, said to them, "Go home again, and do not insist on this request of yours, for your brother's death occurred by God's decree, which no man can oppose."
The two women left, but before dawn on Easter Sunday, Fortunatus and his two deacons went to Marcellus' home. There Fortunatus went straight to the bier of Marcellus and softly called his friend by name: "Marcellus, Brother Marcellus!"
Marcellus came to life, and seemingly rather puzzledly, asked, "What are you doing?"
"What am I doing?" Fortunatus echoed.
"Yes, two messengers in white came for me. Then another came and said, 'Bishop Fortunatus wants you!' "
Fortunatus told Marcellus that his sisters and friends wanted him to stay a while with them. Pope Gregory observes that since Marcellus seemed destined for Heaven, the Lord knew he would live a good life—as he did for many years afterward—and so would not risk losing Heaven.
The key words in many raisings of the dead, as Marcellus' two sisters demonstrated, are: "We know that you follow in the footsteps of the Apostles." Where there have been "great apostles" there has also been great faith in their power (that is, power ultimately from God) to raise the dead to life.
We note here that St. Gregory the Great wrote to St. Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604), telling him not to be elated by the miracles God had worked through him for the conversion of the people of Britain. St. Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604) had been sent to England to establish the Catholic Church in that land; on Christmas Day of 597 he baptized 10,000 Saxons. St. Augustine of Canterbury is known as the Apostle of the English. He apparently heeded well the admonition of St. Gregory the Great.
St. Benedict and Pope St. Gregory the Great: two great men of history whose greatness, intelligence and supernatural discretionary powers, in addition to their natural talents, should always be remembered whenever they perform or testify to supernatural happenings.