1. A MIRACLE OF SAINT JAMES WRITTEN DOWN BY HIS EXCELLENCY POPE CALIXTUS1The latin consistently refers to Pope Calixtus with the Latin Dominus. The modern form of reference is “His Holiness” for a pope. Excellency is a compromise between the two terms.
Saint James the apostle, who in the fervor of obedience was the first of the apostles to suffer the pain of martyrdom, undertook, through countless signs of his powers, to remove the peoples’ roughness, which he saturated with the doctrine of his holy preaching. Saint James, who arose by divine influence as the worker of such power, after he has wiped away the sweat of his labor with the cloth of reward, now pours a display of his powers abundantly over those who tirelessly and unceasingly petition him. Therefore we will tell straightforwardly a certain miracle that we heard and recognized as true, in its proper order in the series of those following it.
At the time of Alfonso,2Alfonso VI of León-Castile (1065-1109). king over the regions of Spain, the fury of the Saracens increased quite sharply. A certain count named Ermengotus3Ermengol IV or V, count of Urgel, in Lérida, Cataluña. saw the Christian religion oppressed by an attack of the Moabites.4Also known as Almoravids, a North-African faction that reasserted Islam’s dominant warrior culture in the Iberian Peninsula in the latter eleventh century. Girded with the support of his army for the purpose of overcoming their ferocity, and based on indications of certain victory he attacked. However, despite the merits of our side, with his stronghold overcome, he ran into the contrary of triumph.
As a result, the savagery of the enemy, filled with a pride of elation bordering on arrogance, led the twenty men encouraged by a wave of faith–and among whom there was a priest–into captivity in the city of Zaragoza as a sign of victory. Here, in the semblance of the perpetual blindness of hell, in the intolerable darkness of prison, the prisoners, bound with restraints of various types, chained together, with divine inspiration and with the priest’s advice, began to call upon Saint James in this way, “James, precious apostle of God, you who piously come out of mercy in aid to those in the snares of their oppressors, and who offer your hand of consolation toward the wailing from unspeakable captivity, hasten to free those of us who are crushed so inhumanely.”
Saint James, hearing their voices of inconsolable pain, appeared in brightness in the darkness of the prison, saying, “Behold, here am I, whom you have called.”
The prisoners, whose heads were bent over onto their knees because of the magnitude of their pain, were encouraged by the clarity of this sound, and they threw themselves at the feet of the saint. Saint James, feeling their pain deeply and pouring the salve of his power on them, broke through their chains. Then with his potent right hand joined to the hands of the captives, the saint, with divine approbation, released them from this perilous prison and took them to the city’s gates, with him in the lead. When the saint had made the sign of the cross with apostolic reverence, the gates willingly granted exit, and once the prisoners had exited, the gates returned to their former closed state. Saint James the apostle, quite some time after the cock’s crow and with the first ray of light almost shining on them, led them to a certain castle held in safety by the Christians. Then after telling them that he could be called on by them, he rose toward heaven. Then, calling on him with a loud voice, as he had just told them to do, the gates opened, and the former captives were taken inside.
On the next day they left the castle and started toward their homes. After some time one of them, seeking the threshold of Saint James,5That is, going on pilgrimage to the shrine of St James in Compostela. told everyone on the feast day of the saint’s translatio, which in our time is celebrated annually on the third calends of January,6December 30, the feast day for which the Veneranda dies sermon was written. that all these things had happened in the way in which we have written down here.
This was accomplished by the Lord and it is miraculous in our eyes. Therefore, let there be honor and glory to the supreme King for ever and ever. Amen.
17. A GREAT MIRACLE OF SAINT JAMES WRITTEN DOWN BY SAINT ANSELM, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY7This miracles is told by Berceo and by Alfonso X, in their selections in Spanish and English.
Near the city of Lyon is a village in which a certain young man named Gerald dwelled. He was instructed in the art of tanning and lived from the just labor of his hands, supporting his mother, as his father had died. He ardently loved Saint James and was accustomed to travel to the saint’s threshold every year to make an offering. He had no wife but lived a chaste life alone with his old mother. While he could contain himself for a fairly long time, finally on one occasion, he was overcome by the voluptuousness of the flesh and fornicated with a certain maiden.
When the next morning arrived, since he had previously arranged it, he set out on his pilgrimage to Saint James in Galicia with two of his neighbors and brought a donkey with him. While they were on the road, they met up with a beggar going to Saint James and took up with him for the sake of company and even more so out of love for the apostle, sharing with him the necessities of life.
Continuing their travel, they spent several days together happily. The devil, however, who envied their peaceful and charitable company, approached in charming human guise the young man who had secretly fornicated back home and said to him, “Do you know who I am?” The young man answered, “Not at all.” The demon said, “I am James the apostle, whom you have been accustomed to visit every year for a long time now and to honor with your offering. May you know that I took great joy from you and that I had hope that great good would come from you. However, just before you left your home you fornicated with a woman, and between then and now you have done no penance, nor have you wanted to confess this act. Thus you have set out to a foreign land with your sin, as if your pilgrimage would be acceptable to God and to me. It must not occur in this way. For whoever wishes to make a pilgrimage out of love for me, must first disclose his sins through a humble confession, and afterwards wipe out those acts through making a pilgrimage. Whoever does otherwise will have his pilgrimage go unheeded.”8This type of moral sermon is not typical of the collection. Ironically, it comes from the mouth of the devil. The speech does confirm the advice offered in the “Veneranda dies” advice in Book I about taking care when preparing to go on pilgrimage.
Having said this, the devil vanished from the young man’s sight. After having heard these things, the man began to grow sad, thinking in his mind that he should return home to confess to his priest and then return to the journey that he had started.
While he was running this course of action through his mind, the demon came to him in the same form in which he had previously appeared and said to him, “What is this that you are thinking in your heart about wanting to go back home to do penance, so that you might be able to return to me more worthily afterwards? Do you think you can erase such a great crime with your fasting or tears? You are acting very foolishly. Believe my advice and you will be saved. Otherwise you will not be saved. Although you may have sinned, I still love you, and because of this, I have come to you, so that I might give you counsel by which you can be saved, if you should wish to believe me.”
The pilgrim said to him, “I was just thinking along the same lines as you are saying, but now that you assert that this course of action is not beneficial for my salvation, tell me what action is pleasing to you by which I may be saved and I will willingly carry it out.” The devil then said, ‘1f you wish to be completely cleansed from sin, cut off very quickly the manly parts with which you have sinned.” After having heard this advice, the terrified man said, “If I do to myself what you are advising, I will not be able to live, and I will be my own murderer, which I have often heard is damnable in the eyes of God.” The demon, laughing, said, “O, you fool, how little you understand the things that could be a benefit for your salvation. If you should die in this way, you will, without doubt, come to me, since, in effacing your sin, you will be a martyr. 0, if you were so prudent that you would not hesitate to kill yourself, I would certainly come to you immediately with a multitude of my followers and would gladly accept your soul to remain with me. I,” he said, “am James the apostle who advise you. Do as I have said if you wish to come into my company and find a remedy for your sin.”
After having said these things, the simple pilgrim turned his mind toward his crime, and while his companions were sleeping at night, he took out a knife and cut off his manly parts. Then, turning his hand, he raised the knife, thrust its sharp point into his stomach and pierced himself through.
As the blood flowed freely and as the man was causing a commotion by thrashing about, his companions were awakened and they called to him, asking what was the matter. When he did not give them any answer, as he was anxiously drawing his last breath, they became alarmed, got up, lit their lamps, and found their half-dead companion unable to respond to them. They were stupefied and stricken with great terror, lest his death be blamed on them if they should be found in that place in the morning. They took flight and left him, rolling in his blood, and the mule and the beggar as well.
The next morning, when the family of the house arose, they found the slain man. As they did not know to whom they might ascribe this murder, they called their neighbors and carried the dead man to church for burial. There they placed him in front of the doors because of the flow of blood, while the grave was being prepared. After a short delay, the man who had been dead came to and sat upright on the funeral bier. When those who were present saw this, they fled and cried out in terror. Alarmed by their cry, people ran up, and asked what had happened, and heard that a dead man had returned to life.
When they came closer and began to speak to him, he told all of them freely what had happened to him. He said, “I, whom you see raised from the dead, have loved Saint James since childhood and I have been accustomed to serve him as much as I could. However, a short while ago, I decided to make a pilgrimage to his tomb, and as I was approaching this village, the devil deceived me, saying that he was Saint James….” Then he told the whole series of events, just as it is set forth above, and added, “After I took my life and after my soul was taken from my body, that same malignant spirit who had deceived me came to me, leading a great hoard of demons. Without mercy, they immediately grabbed me and took me, weeping and uttering miserable cries, to their torments.
“They directed their course toward Rome. When we had to come to the forest that is situated between the city [of Rome] and the town that is called Labicum,9Labicum was a town located about fifteen miles southeast of Rome, near Valmontone. It is now Colonno. Saint James, who had followed behind us, flew up to us and said to the whole group of demons, ‘From whence do you come and whither do you go?’ They said, ‘O James, certainly this is none of your business. For this man believed us to such an extent that he killed himself. We persuaded him; we deceived him; we must have him.’ The saint said to them, ‘You give no answer concerning what I ask, but you rejoice by boasting that you have deceived a Christian. For this may you receive ill thanks. This is my pilgrim, whom you boast of possessing. You will not bear him off with impunity.’ Saint James appeared to me to be young with a handsome face, lean and of that moderate color that people call ‘brown.’
“With him coercing us, we turned toward Rome. Near the church of Blessed Peter the apostle, there was a green and spacious place on an airy plain, to which an immeasurable crowd had come for a council, over which Our Lady Mary, the Venerable Mother of God and Perpetual Virgin, presided, with many admirable nobles sitting at her right and left. I began to contemplate her with a great affection in my heart, for never in my life have I seen such a beautiful creature. She was not of a large, but rather moderate, stature, and pleasing in appearance with a most beautiful face. The blessed apostle, my most pious advocate, sat in front of her and before all of the others, and he publicly made complaint concerning the treachery of Satan with which he had deceived me. She immediately turned to the demons and said, ‘0 you miserable creatures! What were you seeking in a pilgrim of my Lord and Son, and of James, His faithful one? Your pain should be enough for you. There should be no need for you to increase your pain through this depraved act of yours.’
“After this most Blessed Lady spoke, she compassionately turned her gaze on me. The demons, however, were beset by great fear, as all those sitting in council were saying that the demons had acted unjustly against the apostle by deceiving me, and the Lady ordered that I be returned to my body. Saint James immediately picked me up and brought me back to this place. That is how I died and was restored to life.”
Upon hearing this, the inhabitants of the place rejoiced enthusiastically and took him directly to their house. They kept him with them for three days, telling everyone about him and exhibiting him, as the one on whom God through Saint James had worked such an unusual and miraculous thing. For his lesions were healed without delay with scars alone remaining in the place of his wounds. In place of his genitals there grew a sort of wart through which he could discharge urine.
When the days during which the residents of the place had kept him with them out of joy came to an end, he prepared his donkey and set out on his journey along with his beggar friend who had joined him on the road. As he was approaching the threshold of the blessed apostle, lo and behold, he met up with his friends who had abandoned him and who were making the return journey, While they were still at a distance, and when they saw the two men goading the donkey, they said to each other, “These men are similar to our companions whom we left behind, the one dead, the other alive, and the animal that they are goading is not much different, as far as can be seen, from the one that we left behind with them.” Then, as they were approaching the two men, and as each group began to recognize the other, they learned what had occurred, and they exulted fervently. When they returned home, they told everything just as it had happened.
Furthermore, the man who had been raised from the dead confirmed in substance what his friends had earlier said, when he returned from Saint James. As the story spread far and wide, he retold the story, showed his scars and even showed what had been in his most private place to the many people wanting to see it. Saint Hugh, the most reverend abbot of Cluny10St. Hugh, abbot of Cluny, died in 1109. along with many others saw this man and all the signs of his death; and it is said that he was accustomed to assert rather often, out of admiration, that he had seen it.
We have also consigned this miracle to writing out of love for the apostle, lest it be dropped from memory. And we give the order to all that every year on the fifth day of the nones of 0ctober11This is October 3 on the modern calendar. a feast should be celebrated in all churches with worthy ceremony for this miracle and for the other miracles of Saint James.
Therefore, may honor and glory be to the King of Kings, Who has deigned to work so many and such great miracles for His beloved James, for ever and ever. Amen.
19. A MIRACLE OF SAINT JAMES WRITTEN DOWN BY HIS EXCELLENCY POPE CALIXTUS
It is known to everyone, both cleric and lay, dwelling in Compostela, that a certain man named Stephen, who was endowed with divine powers, set aside the episcopal dignity and the pontifical office out of love for Saint James, and set out from a region of Greece for the threshold of the apostle. He renounced the enticements of this world so that he might adhere to the divine dictates. Therefore, he refused to return to his own region, and he approached the guards of the building in which the most precious treasure and honor of Spain, namely, the body of Blessed James, is located. He cast himself at their feet and begged them to grant him an out-of-the-way place in the church where he might be permitted to devote himself to continuous prayer. He asked this out of love for the most precious apostle, out of love for whom he had rejected worldly delights and earthly pleasures. Although he was wearing poor clothing and conducting himself not as a bishop but as a poor pilgrim, they did not hold him in contempt, but agreed to his just request. They prepared a sort of dwelling for him. This was constructed out of rushes in the manner of a cell and located inside the basilica of the blessed apostle, and from its right front he could look at the altar. In this place Stephen spent his celibate and most blessed life in fasts, vigils, and prayers both day and night.
One day, however, while he was engaged in his customary prayer, a crowd of peasants who were gathering for a special feast for the most precious James and were sitting next to this most holy man’s cell near the altar, began to appeal to the apostle of God with these words, ”Blessed James, good soldier, remove us from current and future evils.”
This most holy man of God reacted indignantly to this word, and because the peasants had called James a “soldier” he said to them angrily, “You stupid peasants, you foolish people. It is not proper to call Saint James a ‘soldier,’ but rather a ‘fisherman,’ in remembrance of the time when, at the Lord’s calling, he left the fishing profession, followed the Lord and after that was made a fisher of men.”
On the night following the very day during which the most holy man had said this about Blessed James, Blessed James appeared, adorned in the whitest clothing, bearing military arms surpassing the rays of Titan,12Here used in reference to Titan’s embodiment as the sun god of Greco-Roman mythology. transformed into a soldier, and holding two keys in his hand. After calling to him three times, James spoke in this way, “Stephen, servant of God, you who ordered me to be called not a soldier but a fisherman, I am appearing to you in this fashion, so that you no longer doubt that I am a fighter for God and his champion, that I precede the Christians in the fight against the Saracens, and that I arise as victor for them.
“I have sought something, in fact, from the Lord, as I am a protector for those loving me and calling on me with a proper heart, and as I am a support against all dangers. So that you might believe this, I ·will open the gates of the city of Coimbra with these keys that I am holding in my hand. At the third hour tomorrow I will hand over the city, which has been held under siege for seven years by King Ferdinand, to the power of the Christians who will then have entered there.” After saying this James disappeared from sight.
On the following day, when matins were finished, Stephen called on a great number of clerics and lay people and told them exactly what he had seen with his eyes and heard with his ears. Afterwards, this was shown to be true for a number of reasons. They had written down the day and hour that Stephen had told them; on these points, messengers sent by the king after the city’s capture offered a confirmation of accuracy, as they asserted that the city had been captured on just that day and at just that hour. When the truth of this was recognized by him, Stephen, the servant of God, asserted that Saint James was stronger than others for those calling out to him in battle, and he preached that he should be called upon by those fighting for truth. So that he himself might merit the saint’s protection, he increased his penance, kept vigil more efficaciously with prayers, spent the rest of his life there in the service of God, and finally received burial in the basilica of the blessed apostle.
This was accomplished by the Lord and it is miraculous in our eyes. Therefore, may honor and glory be to the King of Kings for ever and ever. Amen.
The three miracles are excerpted from The Miracles of Saint James, edited by Thomas F. Coffey, Linda Kay Davidson & Maryjane Dunn, Italica Press, 1996, pp. 60-61, 84-89, 91-93.