De sancto Honorato
The Early Abstinence of Honoratus
Young Honoratus demonstrates his commitment to asceticism by refusing to eat meat despite his parents' mockery.
The patrician Venantius once owned a villa in the Sabina region, where one of his tenant farmers had a son named Honoratus. From his earliest years, Honoratus burned with a longing for his heavenly home, practicing strict abstinence. Because he was known for such exemplary conduct, avoided idle talk, and was already taming his flesh through constant fasting, his parents once held a feast for their neighbors where meat was served. When he refused to eat it, his parents began to mock him, saying, "Eat! Do you really think we're going to bring fish up into these mountains?"
A Miraculous Provision and Foundation
God provides a fish in a mountain spring to vindicate Honoratus's abstinence, leading to the founding of his monastery.
In that area, people had heard of fish, but never actually seen them. Yet, just as the blessed Honoratus was being mocked, the water for the feast suddenly ran out. Following local custom, a servant went to the spring with a wooden bucket to draw more, and a fish swam right into it. When the servant returned, he poured the fish out with the water in front of the guests, providing Honoratus with enough food for the entire day. Everyone was amazed, and the mockery from his parents ceased; they began to honor in Honoratus the very abstinence they had previously ridiculed. Thus, through this man of God, the sting of their mockery was wiped away by a mountain fish. As he grew in virtue, his master granted him his freedom, and on that estate, he built a monastery where two hundred monks lived.
The Protective Power of Faith
Honoratus miraculously stops a falling rock from destroying his monastery through the power of the cross.
He stood as a father there, and his life provided examples of exceptional conduct to everyone around. One day, a massive rock broke off from the mountain that rises high above his monastery and came crashing down the slope, threatening to destroy the entire cell and kill all the brothers. When the holy man saw it coming down from above, he invoked the name of Jesus, made the sign of the cross against it, and fixed it in place on the mountainside; and after many years, he rested in the Lord.
Read the original Latin
Venantii quondam patricii in Savinae partibus villa fuit, in qua colonus ejus filium Honoratum nomine habuit, qui ab annis puerilibus ad ainorem coelestis patriae per abstinentiam exarsit, cumque tam magna conversatione polleret seseque jam ab otioso sermone restringeret multumque, nt praefatur, suam per abstinentiam carnem domaret, quadam die parentes illius vicinis suis convivium fecerunt, in quo ad vescendum carnes paratae sunt, Quas dun ille ad esum contingere pro abstinentiae amore recusaret, coeperunt parentes ejus irridere et dicere: comede, numquid piscem in his montibus ablaturi sumus? Mlo vero in loco audiri pisces consueverant nec videri, Sed cum his sermonibus beatus Honoratus irrideretur, repente in convivium aqua ad ministerium defuit, cumque situla lignea, sicut illic mos est, mancipium ad fontem perrexit, ut hauriret aquam, Piscis sitnlam intravit reversumqne mancipiun ante Ora discunbentium piscem cum aqua effundit, qui ad totius diei victum potuisset Honorato sufficere, Adinirati omnes totaque illa parentum irrisio cessavit, namque coepere in Honorato venerari abstinentiam, quam ante deridebant, sicque a Dei homine irrisionis detersit opprobria piscis de monte, Qui cum magnis virtatibus cresceret, a praedicto domino suo libertate donatus est atque in eo loco, qui fundus dicitur, monasterium construxit, in quo ducentorum monachorum. pater exstitit ibique vita illius circunquaque exempla eximiae conversationis dedit, Quadam enim die ex eo monte, qui ejus monasterio in excelsun prominet, ingentis saxi moles erupta est, quae per devexum inontis latus veniens totius rninam cellae omniumque fratrum interitum minabatur, Quam cum venientem desuper vir sanctus vidisset, post nominis Jesu invocalionem signum crucis ei opposuit et in montis latere cadentem fixit; et post plures annos in domino requievit,
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