De sancto Amando
The Lovable Saint
The name Amandus is interpreted through three virtues that define his character: pleasant company, integrity of conduct, and excellence of spirit.
He is called Amandus because he was lovable; for he possessed three qualities that make a person lovable. The first is pleasant company. Proverbs. 18: A lovable person is more friendly for companionship than a brother. The second is integrity of conduct, as mentioned in Esther 2: that she was seen as lovable in the eyes of all. . The third is the excellence of integrity: 2. 1 Kings. 1. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant.
A Life of Discipline and Conflict
Amandus enters monastic life, faces trials in Rome and Gaul, and eventually reconciles with King Dagobert.
Amandus was born to noble parents and entered a monastery. While walking through the monastery, he found a massive serpent, which he immediately forced back to its den by the power of the cross and prayer, never to come out again. He came to the tomb of Saint Martin and stayed there for fifteen years, wearing a hair shirt and living on nothing but water and barley bread. After this, when he had gone to Rome and was spending the night in prayer at the church of Saint Peter, the church warden threw him out disrespectfully. Following a warning from Saint Peter—who appeared to him while he slept before the church doors—he went to Gaul and rebuked King Dagobert for his sins, for which the angry king banished him from the kingdom. Eventually, the king, who had no son, prayed to the Lord and was finally granted one; he began to wonder who should baptize the child, and it occurred to him that he should have Amandus do it. Amandus was sought out and brought to the king, who prostrated himself at his feet, asking him to forgive him and to baptize the son the Lord had given him. Amandus kindly granted the first request, but fearing he would be entangled in worldly affairs, he refused the second and left.
Miracles and Martyrdom
Amandus performs miracles, including the baptism of the king's son, and survives an assassination attempt through divine intervention.
Finally, overcome by their prayers, he agreed to the king's wish; and as he was baptizing the child, while everyone else was silent, the infant answered, "Amen." After this, the king had him raised to the office of bishop while he was still lying on the ground. When he saw that many people were treating the word of his preaching with contempt, he went to Gascony. There, when a certain jester mocked his words, he was seized by a demon and, tearing himself apart with his own teeth, confessed that he had done an injury to the man of God, and immediately died a miserable death. Once, while he was washing his hands, a bishop had the water saved, and a blind man was later cured by it. When he wanted to establish a monastery in a certain place by the king's will, a bishop from a nearby city, taking this badly, sent his servants to either kill him or drive him away. They came to him and deceitfully asked him to go with them so they could show him a place suitable for a monastery. But he, knowing their malice, went with them to the mountain peak where they intended to kill him, because he greatly desired martyrdom. But suddenly, such a heavy rain and storm covered the mountain that they couldn't even see one another; thinking they were about to die, they fell to the ground, begged for mercy, and pleaded with him to let them leave alive. He poured out a prayer and obtained a great clearing of the skies.
The Saint's Rest
After a life of miracles, Saint Amandus passes into peace during the reign of Heraclius.
They returned home, and after Saint Amandus escaped and performed many other miracles, he rested in peace. He flourished around the year 650, in the time of Heraclius.
Read the original Latin
Amandus dicitur, quia amabilis fuit: habuit enim tria in se quae faciunt hominem amabilem. Primum est societas grata. Proverb. XVIII: vir amabilis ad societatem magis amicus est quam frater. Secundum est conversationis honestas et sic dicitur de Esther II. , quod omnium oculis amabilis videbatur. . Tertinm est probitatis virtuositas: II.
Reg. I. Saul et Jonathas amabiles et decori.
Amandus ex nobilibus parentibus ortus monasterium introivit. Qui dum per monasterium ambnularet, quendam maximum serpentem invenit, quem slatim virtute crucis et oratione ad foveam nunquam inde exiturum redire coegit. Veniens autem ad sepulchrum sancti Martini, annis quindecim ibi mansit cilicio indutus et aqua ac pane hordeaceo sustentatnus. Post hoc dum Romam ivisset, et in ecclesia sancti Petri in oratione pernoctaret, custos ecclesiae ipsum irreverenter foras ejecit. Qui dum ad admonitionem sancti Petri, qui sibi ante fores ecclesiae dormienti apparuit, ad Gallias ivisset et ibidem regem Dagobertum pro suis criminibus increparet, iratus rex eum de suo regno ejecit. Denique cum rex filium non haberet et orątione facta ad dominum filium habuisset, cogitare coepit, a quo infantem sunm faceret baptizari, venitque in mentem ejus, nt ah Amando eum baptizari faceret. — Quaesito igitur Amando et ad regem adducto, rex ad pedes ejus prosternitur rogavitque, ut sibi indulgeret et suum filium, quem sibi dominus dederat, baptizaret. Ille vero primam petitionem benigne concessit, sed saecularibus negotiis implicari metuens, secundam renuit et abscessit.
Tandem victus precibus annuit voto regis; quem cum baptizaret, tacentíbus cunctis infans respondit: amen. Post hoc rex ipsum in terra jacenitem in episcopum sublimari fecit. Qui cum a plerisque verbum praedicationis contemni videret, in Vasconiam ivit. Ubi cum quidam joculator verbis ejus irrideret, a daemone arripitur et propriis dentibus se discerpens, quod viro Dei injuriam fecerit, confitetur et statim miserabiliter moritur. Dum autem quadam vice manus lavaret, quidam episcopus aquam illam servari fecit, de qua quidam caecus postmodum curatus fuit. Cum in quodam loco de voluntate regis monasterium constituere vellet, quidam episcopus proximae civitatis moleste hoc sustinens misit famulos suos, ut aut ipsum occiderent vel inde ejicerent. Qui venientes eidem dolose dixerunt, ut secum pergeret et sibi locum aptum ad monasterium ostenderent. Hle autem malitiam illorum praecognoscens usque ad cacumen montis, ubi eum occidere cupiebant, cum iis ivit, co quod multum martirium affectaret.
Sed ecce tanta pluvia et tempestate mons tegitur, ut se mutuo videre non possent, et jam se mori putantes prostrati veniam postulabant et ut eos vivos abire permitteret, exorabant. Qui orationem effudit et serenitatem maximam impetravit.
Illi ergo ad propria redierunt et sanctus Amandus evadens et multa alia miracula faciens in pace quievit, — Floruit circa annum. domini DCLHUI tempore Eraclii.
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