Vita Sancti Emerici
Heavenly Witness at the Hour of Death
Saint Eusebius of Caesarea, through prayer, perceives the soul of blessed Henry carried to heaven amid angelic song, while demons seek to hinder him, and the same vision is shared with an archdeacon.
And I do not think this should be passed over: when a certain religious canon of the church of Caesarea was staying at Constantinople with the lord Duke Almo, having been sent to the Greek emperor, he related that he had read in the deeds of Saint Eusebius that at the very hour when blessed Henry departed this life, Saint Eusebius, metropolitan bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, when he was processing with the clergy and the people, heard a sound of angelic sweetness on high, and with the eyes of his heart opened, he looked up and saw the soul of blessed Henry, son of Saint Stephen, first king of Hungary, being carried upward. A crowd of demons was also present, as though they were trying to detect something in him so they could aim some stumbling block at so great a confessor; and when holy Eusebius was astonished at this vision, he heard from above that at the very same hour this same soul of blessed Henry was being carried in jubilation to the heavenly seat. The same vision and the sweetness of melody was also revealed to a certain archdeacon through the prayer of Saint Eusebius.
Joy at the Thirtieth Day
On the thirtieth day after his death, so many miracles appeared that grief was turned to joy, and even his father rejoiced in the certainty of his son's crown of eternal life.
And since miracles are necessary where human weakness is slow to believe, on the thirtieth day after his death his departure shone with so many and such great signs of virtue that for everyone staying in the royal city where his holy body is buried, it was a day not of grief but of joy — since neither was his own father distressed by grief at his son's death, but rather the full joy that a crown of eternal life had unquestionably been granted to his son by God flooded him entirely.
Read the original Latin
Nec hoc praetereundum esse puto, quod aliquando Constantinopoli cum domino Almo duce commoranti quidam religiosus canonicus Caesariensis ecclesiae, ad Graecorum imperatorem missus, narravit se in gestis sancti Eusebii legisse, quia eadem hora, qua beatus Henricus dissolutus est, sanctus Eusebius Caesareae Palestinae metropolitanus, cum in processione una cum clero et populo incederet, sonum angelicae dulcedinis in excelso audivit, apertisque oculis cordis, animam beati Henrici, filii sancti Stephani primi regis Pannoniae, sursum transferri prospexit. Aderat autem et daemonum multitudo, tamquam si quid in illo deprehenderent, unde offendiculum tanto confessori intenderent; cumque sanctus Eusebius in hac visione obstupesceret, desursum audivit eadem hora hanc ipsam animam beati Henrici in iubilo ad supernam sedem transferri. Eadem quoque visio et melodiae dulcedo cuidam archidiacono per orationem sancti Eusebii revelata est. Et quoniam necessaria sunt miracula, ubi humana imbecillitas ad credendum est tarda, tot tantisque virtutum signis dies obitus sui tricesima coruscavit, ut omnibus in regia urbe, ubi sanctum corpus eius humatum est, commorantibus non dies maeroris, sed gaudii esset, cum nec ipsum patrem maeror ob mortem filii angeret, sed eum ad coronam vitae aeternae filio indubitanter collatam laetitia plena perfunderet.
Vita Sancti Emerici Ducis (Life of Saint Emeric) companion
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