Vita Sancti Emerici
A Miracle Worth Telling
The narrator introduces a recent miracle granted by God for Saint Henry and notes how widely known it is by oral tradition.
Now there is one outstanding miracle that God has deigned to reveal in our own day for the sake of his confessor, and I take it up in this account of mine. Yet in this matter, as in others, everything is so widely known without any written record that the children who are born and rise up will come to know these things and will tell them to their own children.
The Wretched Condition of Conrad
Conrad, crushed by dreadful sins, is brought by God’s compunction to see the misery of his state.
There was a certain man named Conrad, a German by birth, so burdened under the weight of abominable sins and so crushed by such disgrace that he stank like a four-day-old corpse in a tomb. But because the one who raised Lazarus in the body daily raises sinners in their minds, he did not leave the aforesaid sinner in the depths of his sins. Instead, so that Conrad might recognize the full weight of misery surrounding him, God opened the eyes of his mind through compunction.✦
Confession and the Pope’s Counsel
Conrad confesses to Pope Hildebrand, who, astonished by his sins, hesitates on penance yet strengthens him with counsel.
So then this man came to Hildebrand, the vicar of blessed Peter, who then presided over the Roman see. He laid bare the wounds of what he had done, and once he had submitted to the penance imposed, he sought the medicine for his soul. The Pope, however, was stunned by the gravity of this man's sins, as though they were unheard of before. After deliberating, he did not treat the wounds through the penance that had been imposed — yet so that the man would not waver in despair, he confirmed him with counsel.
The Chains of Penance and the Sign of Release
The Pope clothes Conrad in chain mail bound with five iron chains and gives him a sealed confession as a sign to be miraculously blotted out.
So he had Conrad put on a chain-mail shirt, and to make it cling more tightly to his body he fastened it with five iron chains, in the manner of the five wounds of Christ. He also handed him a document inscribed with his confession, sealed with wax and with the Pope's own ring, urging and exhorting him to visit all the places where saints rest, wherever by divine grace and the intercession of the saints God might visit him. And this would be the sign of divine visitation: if at any point the chain mail, its chains broken, were to burst apart into pieces, and the document were to contain nothing written on it.✦
Pilgrimage and the Lord’s Hidden Purpose
Conrad journeys to many shrines and Jerusalem, but the Lord withholds the miracle to reserve it for Saint Henry’s glory.
So the man set out and traveled through many shrines of the saints. Finally, coming to Jerusalem to the Lord's tomb, he waited there for mercy from the one who heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.✦ But the Lord did not show his power in that man within a fortified city, so that the miracle might be reserved for the praise and glory of blessed Henry.
At the Tomb of Saint Stephen
Conrad reaches Alba and the tomb of Saint Stephen, yet his chains only tighten as he vows not to leave until a miracle occurs there.
Meanwhile, the fame of blessed Stephen, king of Pannonia, whose tomb was the site of daily miracles, was spreading widely. When his journey was complete, the man we mentioned above reached Alba, where the body of blessed Stephen was enshrined and venerated. And although in other places God's power and the intercession of that outstanding king were being revealed through frequent miracles, this man, however, was being pressed more and more tightly by the chains of the breastplate, and he swore an oath to himself that he would not move from the place of the church until the Lord showed him in that very place how great blessed Stephen's merit was before him.
A Dream of the Virgin Saint
In a dream, Saint Stephen tells Conrad to seek the intercession of his virgin son, Saint Henry, who follows the Lamb.
It happened, then, when it was about the sixth hour of the day, that from extreme weariness of body and contrition of heart he fell asleep in the church. Blessed Stephen appeared to him in a dream and spoke to him in this way: 'Rely, and do not presume on my merits before God, because I am not enough to intercede for you; go therefore to the tomb of my son, blessed Henry — have him as your intercessor. He is the one who pleased God in a virgin life, whose garments were not stained, and who follows the Lamb wherever He goes. He is also among the number of those who sing a new song before the throne of God, which no one can sing except one who is a virgin.'✦✦
Liberation at Henry’s Tomb
At Henry’s tomb, Conrad’s chains burst apart and the papal letter is found blank, revealing God’s forgiveness.
Rising from sleep that same hour, he hurried to the tomb of blessed Henry, located in the same church, and when he had prostrated himself there to pray, suddenly the breastplate, its chains broken, burst apart into many pieces and leaped to the ground, while many in the church looked on in amazement at what had produced such a loud crash of iron. When the matter had been made known and the clergy and people had gathered, the pope's seal — which the man had carried intact for a long time — was broken by Fabian the chancellor, the rector of that same church, and the letter inside was opened, but no trace of writing appeared on it.
Praise, Proclamation, and Translation
The people and King Ladislaus praise God and honor Henry, who is solemnly translated after a three-day fast.
Then indeed all who were present burst into praise of God and of blessed Henry, and so that so great a blessing would be remembered, they reported what they had seen and heard to King Ladislaus, who at that time ruled over Pannonia, and to all the bishops and nobles of the kingdom. King Ladislaus, then, as a devotee of the religious life, having called a council and proclaimed a three-day fast, solemnly raised the body of blessed Henry on the Nones of November.
Christ’s Ongoing Miracles
The chapter closes by confessing that Christ continues to show Henry’s merits through mighty works, ending with “Amen.”
On that day, and afterward in many mighty works of miracles, Jesus Christ our Lord makes known the merits of his confessor, who lives and reigns with God the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
Read the original Latin
Unum autem de egregiis miraculis, quod postmodum in diebus nostris pro confessore suo Deus revelare dignatus est, nostrae narrationi assumimus; quamquam in hoc et in ceteris adeo famosa sine scripto sunt omnia, quod et filii, qui nascentur et exsurgent, cognoscent haec et narrabunt filiis suis. Erat igitur vir quidam Chonradus nomine, idemque theotonicus natione, adeo abominabili peccatorum pressura sarcinatus, tantaque ignominia affectus, ut quasi quatriduanus in monumento feteret. Sed quoniam ipse, qui Lazarum suscitavit in corpore, cottidie peccatores resuscitat in mente, nec peccatorem praedictum in profundo peccatorum reliquit; sed ut cognosceret, quantis esset circumdatus miseriis, oculos mentis eius per compunctionem aperuit. Ille itaque ad vicarium beati Petri Hildebrandum, qui Romanae sedi tunc praefuit, veniens, vulnera sui commissi detexit, et postulata satisfactionis iniunctione, medicinam animae expetiit. Papa vero quantitatem peccatorum illius tanquam antehac inauditorum obstupescens, deliberatione habita, vulnera per iniunctam paenitentiam non curavit; ne tamen desperans fluctuaret, consilio peccatorem confirmavit. Itaque loricam illum circumdedit, et eam, ut corpori firmius adhaereat, quinque catenis ferreis ad modum quinque plagarum Christi circumcinxit, chartamque confessione illius inscriptam et cera circumdatam proprioque anulo sigillatam illi porrexit, monens et exhortans, quatinus omnia loca, in quibus sancti dormierunt, lustraret, sicubi divina gratia sanctorum intercessione illum visitaret; hoc autem visitationis divinae signum foret, si quando lorica, fractis catenis, in partes prosiliret et charta nihil inscriptum contineret. Abiens ergo ille plurimorum loca sanctorum peragravit; novissime Hierusalem ad sepulcrum Domini veniens, ibique misericordiam exspectavit ab eo, qui sanat contritos corde et alligat contritiones eorum. Sed Dominus non ostendit in illo virtutem suam in civitate munita, quatinus ad laudem et gloriam beati Henrici reservaretur.
Interea fama beati Stephani regis Pannoniae, ad cuius sepulcrum cottidiana fiebant miracula, insignis habebatur; consummatoque itinere, vir supra memoratus Albam pervenit, ubi corpus beati Stephani reconditum venerabatur. Cumque in aliis virtus Dei et intercessio regis eximii crebris miraculis revelaretur, ille tamen vir vinculis loricae artius angeretur, penes se cum iuramento confirmavit, quod de loco ecclesiae se non amoveret, quousque Dominus in eo ostenderet, quanti meriti beatus Stephanus apud ipsum esset. Factum est autem, cum esset hora diei quasi sexta, ex nimia corporis fatigatione et cordis contritione in ecclesia ille obdormivit. Adfuit autem illi in somnis beatus Stephanus, ad hunc modum dicens: Surge, nec in meritis meis praesume apud Deum, quoniam non sufficio pro te intercedere; vade ergo ad sepulcrum filii mei beati Henrici; ipsum intercessorem habe; ipse est, qui in virginali vita Deo complacuit, cuius vestimenta non sunt coinquinata, et sequitur agnum, quocumque ierit; ipse est etiam ex eorum numero, qui ante thronum Dei cantant canticum novum, quod nemo potest canere, nisi is, qui virgo est. Eadem itaque hora ille de somno surgens ad sepulcrum beati Henrici in eadem ecclesia situm festinavit, et cum ibidem provolutus oraret, repente lorica, fractis catenis, per plurimas partes divisa in terram prosiluit, multis in ecclesia admirantibus, unde tanta ferri concussio sonum dedisset. Re autem declarata, convenientibus clero et populo, a Fabiano cancellario, eiusdem ecclesiae rectore, sigillum papae, quod diu ille vir integrum tulerat, confractum est, et charta interius soluta est, sed nec in ea litterarum vestigia apparuerunt. Tunc vero omnes, qui adfuerunt, in laudem Dei atque beati Henrici proruperunt, et ut tantum beneficium memoriale esset, regi Ladisclavo, qui tunc temporis Pannoniae praefuit, universisque episcopis et principibus regni, quae viderant et audierant, super hac re notificaverunt. Rex itaque Ladisclavus, utpote divinae religionis cultor, convocato concilio et indicto triduano ieiunio, in nonas novembris corpus beati Henrici cum honore elevavit.
Qua die et postmodum in multis miraculorum virtutibus confessoris sui merita declarat Iesus Christus Dominus noster, qui cum Deo Patre et Spiritu Sancto vivit et regnat in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.11.43 — And after he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!'
- ↩John.20.25-John.20.27 — So the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the Lord.' But he said to them, 'Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.' John.20.26 — And after eight days his disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being locked, and he stood in the midst and said, 'Peace be to you.' John.20.27 — Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it into my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing."
- ↩Ps.147.3 — He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
- ↩Rev.14.4 — These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among mankind as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
- ↩Rev.5.9 — And they sing a new song, saying: 'You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed for God people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.'
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