Part 41

S. Renovatus is chiefly memorable for his treatment of a gluttonous monk in his monastery at Cauliana, of which he was abbot. Indeed this is the only incident of his life recorded, and it is given at considerable length. Renovatus was much troubled in his abbey by the conduct of one of his monks, whose love of eating and drinking was a governing passion. The fellow would steal what he was not given, and he became a scandal to the community. Renovatus exhorted him, and reproached him, in vain. Then he ordered him to be whipped; but the whipping proved as inefficacious as the admonitions. The abbot then gave him leave to depart if he liked, or, if he stayed in the monastery, to take anything he found most succulent and dainty in the house. The monk went into the kitchen, opened the cupboards, and helped himself to everything he fancied, then descended to the cellars and carried off some flasks of wine under his arm, out of the abbey gates; and finding a pleasant shady nook among some bushes, picnicked on what he had brought, and ate and drank till he could contain no more, when he lay down and fell asleep. The dogs carried off the rest of his food, and the cellarer, who little liked the abstraction of the bottles of best wine, and had dogged his steps, when he heard him snoring, stole up to the half-consumed meal and recovered what was left of the precious wine. Towards evenfall the monk came home, tumbled into bed, was left undisturbed to sleep through matins and lauds, and rose when it pleased him, took another turn through the larder and cellar, helped himself to the best of everything, and spent another jovial day of eating, drinking, and sleeping, with no churchgoing to interrupt its calm delight. So he lived for some days, and the daily surfeiting began to tell on his constitution. One morning, as he went forth with some wine bottles under his arm, and a fat capon in his hood, he heard the schoolboys reciting an antiphon they had been learning, "Consider the terrible judgment of the Lord, and the dread sentence at the trial; consider the dread avenging severity of His judgment; consider the years of thine age, and now at last change thy ways for the better, or even one day before thy death correct thy life."[95]

[95] "Considera judicium terribile Domini; considera tremendi examinis metendam sententiam; considera formidandam atque horrendam ejus judicii ultricem severitatem; considera etiam annos ætatis tuæ, et sic tandem mores commuta in melius et vel uno die ante mortem tuam corrige vitam tuam."

The monk feeling fever in his blood, and hearing the solemn appeal, was conscience-struck, and sending for the abbot, he confessed his sinful life with heartfelt contrition, and falling ill with fever, died a few days after.

S. Renovatus was afterwards elected bishop of Mende, but nothing is related of the events of his episcopate. He is said to have been a very stately, handsome man, with a sweet expression of countenance. He was buried before the altar in the Church of S. Eulalia, whence the bones were raised and enshrined, and where they are still preserved.

S. DANIEL, C.

(A.D. 1411.)

[Martyrology of Camaldoli, and Bucelinus in his Menology of the Order of S. Benedict. Authority:--Augustine Fortunatus in his History of the Order of Camaldoli.]

S. Daniel was a German by birth; having entered a mercantile life, his business took him to Venice. But though the affairs of commerce engaged the greater part of his time, they did not take possession of his heart, and whenever he had a few minutes of leisure, he was wont to hasten to a church, and spend the precious moments in prayer. Also to prevent himself from becoming ensnared with the love of gain, he regularly distributed a portion of all his proceeds among the poor. The convent of S. Matthias belonging to the Order of Camaldoli presented to his mind great attractions, and he was fond of entering it for the purpose of making retreats, or for converse with the fathers, or for the sake of the peace and atmosphere of prayer which hung about its cloisters.

At length he resolved to live nearer to that house which was to him a port of safety, and he obtained permission from the prior to build himself a chamber opening on the cloisters, into which he might retire as guest of the Fathers, without giving up his business, and adopting the habit and rule of the Order. In 1411 he was assassinated in this little room, one night, by robbers who broke in, thinking that they would find therein considerable wealth amassed.

His relics are preserved in a shrine in the church of Camaldoli at Venice, where an altar is erected under his invocation.

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_Edinburgh and London_

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Transcriber's Notes

Inconsistencies in spelling and accents in names have been resolved.

Hyphenation has been standardised.

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.

Other variations in spelling, punctuation and accents are as in the original.

Italics are represented thus _italic_.