Richard of St. Victor on Jacob’s Wives

The marriage of Jacob and Rachel, Basilica of St. Mary Major (5th century).

Chapter 1: On the pursuit for wisdom and its excellence.

“Benjamin the youth, in ecstasy of mind.”¹ Let youths hearken to a word about a youth; let them awake to the voice of the Prophet: “Benjamin the youth, in ecstasy of mind.” Many are those who have learned who this Benjamin is, some by knowledge and others by experience. Let those who learned by instruction listen patiently; let those who learned by experience listen gladly, for—of this I am certain—whoever was able to learn about him once in the school of experience cannot be sated by discourse about him, howsoever long. But who can speak about him worthily? For he is “beautiful above all the sons” of Jacob,² and such as befitted Rachel to beget. Indeed, Lia, although she begot more sons, nonetheless had none more comely. It is well known that, as you have read,³ Jacob had two wives: one was called Lia, and the other Rachel. Lia was more fruitful; Rachel more beautiful. Lia was fruitful, but blear-eyed; Rachel nigh barren, but singularly fair. 

But let us now see who these two wives of Jacob are, in order to understand more easily who their children are. Rachael is the teaching of truth, Lia the discipline of virtue; Rachel the pursuit of wisdom, Lia the desire for justice. We know that Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and yet “they seemed but a few days, because of the greatness of his love.”⁴ Why dost thou marvel? The greatness of his love matched the greatness of her beauty. Verily, were I to attempt to say anything in praise of wisdom, whatever I say would fall short, for what is loved more ardently and possessed more sweetly than wisdom? Her comeliness surpasses all beauty; her taste exceeds all sweetness. “For,” as someone wrote, “she is more beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of the stars; being compared with the light, she is found before it. For after this cometh night, but no evil can overcome wisdom. She reacheth therefore from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly. Her I have loved,” he adds, “and have sought her out from my youth, and have desired to take her for my spouse, and I became a lover of her beauty.”⁵ Why marvel, then, if Jacob burned with love for such a bride; if he could not quench the fiery flames of such love? O how he loved her, O how he burned with love for her, who said, “I loved wisdom above health and all beauty.”⁶ As we have said, nothing is loved more ardently and possessed more sweetly than this wisdom. This is why all wish to be wise, yet few can be wholly wise.   

Chapter 2: On the desire for justice and its characteristics.

Shall we say the same about justice? Do we all similarly wish to be just, but do not perhaps manage to be just? Nay, rather, everyone could be just, if he perfectly willed to be just. For to love justice perfectly is already to be just. You can have great love for wisdom, but lack it. But verily and certainly, the more you love justice, the more just you shall be. 

But now let us see what the habits of true justice are, and we shall discover why so disdain to wed Lia. For it must be asked why nearly everyone who pants for Rachel’s embraces so abhors to marry Lia. Perfect justice enjoins us to love our enemies, to leave our parents and possessions, to suffer wrongs patiently, and to decline all manner of proffered honors. But for those who love this world, what could be more foolish and burdensome? For this reason Lia is thought to be blear-eyed, and is called burdensome. For “Lia” means burdensome.⁷ For it seems to them a great burden and a serious error to rejoice in tribulation⁸ and flee the prosperity of the world like the plague. So they call Lia blear-eyed, not blind, because she uses the world’s bounty for her need, not her pleasure, and so they think that she errs in her judgment.

And so if Lia is understood to be the desire for justice, and Rachel the pursuit of wisdom, it is clear why Lia is almost universally despised, while Rachel alone is loved.

---

Caput I: De studio sapientiae et eius commendatione. 

Beniamin adolescentulus in mentis excessu. Audiant adolescentuli sermonem de adolescente, euigilent ad uocem Prophetae: Beniamin adolescentulus in mentis excessu. Quis sit Beniamin iste, multi nouerunt, alii per scientiam, alii per experientiam. Qui per doctrinam nouerunt audiant patienter; qui per experientiam didicerunt, audiant libenter. Qui enim eum experientiae magisterio semel nosse potuit, fidenter loquor, sermo de eo, quamuis prolixus, illum satiare non poterit. Sed quis de eo digne loqui sufficiat? Est enim speciosus forma prae omnibus filiis Iacob, et qualem Rachel generare decuit. Nam Lia quidem, quamuis plures, pulchriores tamen liberos habere non potuit. Duas namque, ut legitis, uxores Iacob habuisse cognoscitur; una Lia, altera Rachel dicebatur. Lia fecundior, Rachel formosior. Lia fecunda, sed lippa; Rachel fere sterilis, sed formae singularis. 

Sed nunc quae sint istae duae uxores Iacob uideamus, ut qui sint earum filii facilius intelligamus. Rachel doctrina ueritatis, Lia disciplina uirtutis; Rachel studium sapientiae, Lia desiderium iustitiae. Sed scimus septem annis Iacob pro Rachel seruisse, et tamen uidebantur ei dies pauci, prae amoris magnitudine. Quid miraris? Secundum magnitudinem pulchritudinis erat magnitudo dilectionis. Certe si in laudem sapientiae aliquid tentare uoluero, minus erit quantumcumque dixero. Quid enim sapientia ardentius diligitur, dulcius possidetur? Eius decor omnem superat pulchritudinem, eius dulcor omnem excedit suauitatem. Est enim, ut ait quidam, speciosior sole, et super omnem stellarum dispositionem; luci comparata, inuenitur prior. Illi enim succedit nox, sapientiam autem non uincit malitia. Adtingit ergo a fine usque ad finem fortiter, et disponit omnia suauiter. Hanc amaui, inquit, et exquisiui a iuuentute mea, et quaesiui sponsam michi eam assumere, et amator factus sum formae illius. Quid ergo mirum, si Iacob in huiusmodi sponsae amore flagrabat, si talis ignis, si tantae dilectionis flammas temperare non poterat? O quantum amabat, o qualiter in eius amore flagrabat, qui dixit: Super salutem et omnem pulchritudinem dilexi sapientiam. Nichil enim hac, ut diximus, sapientia, ardentius diligitur, nil dulcius possidetur. Hinc est enim quod sapientes omnes esse uolunt, pauci tamen admodum sapientes esse possunt. 

Caput II: De desiderio iustitiae et eius proprietate. 

Numquid de iustitia similiter dicimus? Numquid aeque iusti omnes esse uolumus, sed iusti forte esse non possumus? Immo omnes utique iusti esse potuissent, si esse iusti perfecte uoluissent. Iustitiam enim perfecte diligere, est iam iustum esse. Sapientiam et multum amare potes, et ipsa carere potes. Omnino, et absque dubio, quanto amplius iustitiam dilexeris, tanto iustior eris. 

Sed uideamus nunc quae sint instituta uerae iustitiae, et inueniemus cur homines tantum detestantur connubia Liae. Quaerendum namque est, cur fere omnes coniugia Liae tantopere abhorreant, qui in amplexus Rachel tantum suspirant. Perfecta iustitia iubet inimicos diligere, parentes, propria quaeque relinquere, illata mala patienter ferre, oblatam gloriam ubique declinare. Sed ab huius mundi amatoribus quid stultius, quid laboriosius esse reputatur? Hinc est quod ab eis Lia et lippa creditur, et laboriosa uocatur. Lia namque laboriosa interpretatur. Magnus namque labor, sed non minor error uidetur eis esse, in tribulatione gaudere, prospera mundi quasi pestem fugere. Sed quia copiam mundi ad necessitatem non respuit, et ad uoluptatem non admittit, Liam lippam, non caecam uocant, quam in rerum iudicio errare putant. 

Si igitur per Liam desiderium iustitiae, per Rachel uero studium sapientiae intelligitur, patet ratio quare uel Lia ab omnibus fere contemnitur, uel Rachel tantum diligitur.

1. Ps 67:28. ↩︎
2. Ps 44:3. ↩︎
3. See Gn 29:16–17. ↩︎
4. Gn 29:20. ↩︎
5. Ws 7:29–8:2. ↩︎
6. Ws 7:10. ↩︎
7. St. Jerome, Liber interpretationis hebraicorum nominum, De Genesi (PL 23:781). ↩︎
8. See 2 Cor 7:4. ↩︎

Peter Riga on Paradise and the Fall of Man

The Aurora, written by Peter Riga, (c. 1140–1209), likely a priest and canon of the cathedral of Rheims, is a paraphrase and explication of the Bible written in verse, and was widely used in schools. We have previously offered translations of its prologue to the Gospels and its praises of Our Lady using Scriptural titles. The following extracts are taken from its section on Genesis.

Hortus deliciis florens, iocundus, amenus,     Fertilis, ecclesiam rite notare potest;	The garden, pleasing, beautiful, teeming with delights,     Fertile, is a fitting image of the Church.
Huius delicie sunt pure balsama vite,     Virtutum fructus angelicusque cibus.	Its pleasures are the balms of a pure life,     The fruits of virtues, and angelic food.
Quatuor ex isto procedunt flumina, quorum     Nomina vel numerus mystica signa gerunt.	Four rivers flow out from it, whose     Names and number are mystical signs.
Ut dicunt plures, oris mutatio Phison     Iure potest dici nomine teste suo	As many say, Phison may justly be called     ‘A change of mouth,’1 as its name attests.
Os mutat qui falsa loquens, post illa relinquit     Et verum vero predicat ore Deum.	He changes his mouth who ceases to speak falsehood,     And preaches the true God with a true mouth.
Designatque Gion pectus, quia lex nova monstrat     Ut sapienter agens, fortia queque geras.	Gehon means ‘breast,’ for the New Law shows you     How to perform mighty deeds by acting wisely.
Qui celer est, Tigris signat currendo per orbem     Terrarum legis scripta volasse nove.	The Tigris, ‘one who is quick,’ marks how the New Law     Flew speedily through the whole world.
Frugifer Euphrates notat hoc quod plurima profert     Germina virtutum legis origo nove.	Euphrates, ‘the fruit-bearer,’ indicates that the stock of     The New Law shoots out many virtues like sprouts.
His fluviis numerus scriptores comparat illos     Quos in lege nova quatuor esse legis,	Their number assimilates these rivers to those writers     Of the New Law, who were four.
Qui dum scripta serunt, animarum vulnera mundant,     Irrorant, satiant more salubris aque.	As they pen their writings they cleanse souls’ wounds,     Bedew them, and sate them like wholesome water.
Qui foris est factus, hominem tulit in paradisum     Conditor ut coleret hunc operando locum.	Man, who was made without, the Creator did bring within paradise,     That he might till this place with his work.
Otia quippe nocent anime, prodest labor illi;     Hec mala multa movent, hic bona multa parit.	For idleness harms the soul; labour profits her;     The one stirs up many evils; the other begets much good.

From Aurora, Liber Genesis lines 249–272.

God introduces Adam into paradise, with its four rivers. St. Mark’s basilica, Venice.

Plantarat Dominus a principio paradisum,     Plenum deliciis mirificisque bonis.	In the beginning, the Lord planted a paradise     Full of pleasures and marvellous delights.
Christum principium notat, Ecclesiam paradisus;     Extitit Ecclesie Conditor ille sue.	The beginning is Christ, paradise the Church;     He was the Creator of his Church.
Formatum Dominus hominem tulit in paradisum     Ut custos esset ac operator ibi,	The Lord formed man and brought him into paradise     That he might be a guardian and labourer there,
Preceptumque novum protoplasto prebuit istud,     Iussa tenenda docens et prohibenda vetans.	And he gave a new precept to his first-made,     Teaching him to obey orders and forbidding the prohibited:
«Ex omni ligno paradisi vescere preter     Lignum quo scitur cum bonitate malum.	‘Eat from every tree in paradise except     The tree by which good and evil are known.
Quaque die comedes, morieris morte, sequetur     Mors anime, tibi sit carne necesse mori.»	On what day soever thou shalt eat it, thou shalt die the death,     The death of thy soul shall follow, and thou must needs die in the flesh.’
Per quandam speciem, quam Conditor ipse creavit,     Hec homini primo iussio facta fuit.	By a certain creature, which the Creator himself created,     This commandment was first given to man.

Lines 285–298.

‘Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat.’ Palatine Chapel, Palermo.

Nudus uterque parens erat absque pudore; moveri     Nescia ditabat singula membra decor.	Naked were both our parents and not ashamed;     Beauty graced all their parts, unknowingly.
Qui iam corruerat de celo, Lucifer illos     Vidit et invidit instituitque dolos;	Lucifer, who had already fallen from heaven,     Saw, envied, laid snares for them,
Et quia perdiderat celestis gaudia vite,     Temptat ut eternis privet utrumque bonis;	And, having lost the joys of heavenly life,     Tried to deprive both of eternal goods.
Femineumque sciens sexum cito perdere sensum,     Ut flecti tanquam possit arundo levis,	Knowing that the female sex soon loses its wits,     Bending like a thin reed,
Serpentem, qui tunc erat erectus, subit, eius     Linguam movit in hec, cor muliebre movens:	He took the form of a serpent, then still upright,     Moved its tongue, moved the woman’s heart:
«Cur vetuit vobis Deus unum tangere lignum?»     «Ne moriamur,» ait; «cetera ligna licet.»	‘Why did God forbid you from touching a tree?’     ‘Lest we die,’ quoth she, ‘The other trees are licit.’
«Non,» inquit serpens, «ita; sed si tangitis illud,     Vivetis; vestrum fiet uterque deus.»	‘Not so,’ said the serpent, ‘but if ye touch it,     Ye shall live, and both of you be gods.’
Femina capta dolo discerpit ab arbore malum     Datque viro; comedunt, nascitur inde malum.	The woman, tricked, plucked from the tree a fruit,     And gave it to the man. They ate; thence sprang evil’s root.
Tunc prius agnoscunt se nudos esse, reatum     Percipiunt, foliis membra pudenda tegunt.	Only then they realized they were naked,     Perceived their disgrace, and covered their shameful parts with leaves.
In libris legitur grecis quod ab arbore cuius     Fructu peccauit primus uterque parens	Greek books say a branch from the tree whose     Fruit caused our parents’ sin
Ramus Ierusalem fuerit translatus, ibidem     Plantatur, crescit, magna fit arbor ibi,	Was taken to Jerusalem and planted there.     It grew into a large tree
De qua facta fuit domus, ut reparetur in illo     Quo periit ligno perditus omnis homo.	From which a house was made,2 wherein     Mankind, ruined by a tree, might be restored.
Facta Dei iussu sequitur maledictio culpam:     Vir, mulier, serpens, debita quisque luit.	By God’s command punishment followed the fault:     Man, woman, serpent, all pay their debts.
Terre cultura vir, partu femina, serpens     Pectore punitur, cui datur esca cinis.	Man is punished by tilling earth, woman by childbirth,     The serpent by crawling, given ash to eat.
Dicitur huic: «Fraudem pones plante muliebri,     Sed vires capitis conteret illa tui.»	To it God said, ‘Thou shalt lie in wait for the woman’s foot,     But she shall crush thy head’s power.’
Verbum dicitur hoc pro partu Virginis; hostis     Demonis attrivit Virgo Beata caput.	He spoke of the virgin birth; the Blessed Virgin     Quashed the fell demon’s head.
Vipera vim perdit, sine vi pariente Puella; Exclusit virus nescia Virgo viri.	The viper lost its venom when a virgin gave birth;     The ban was banished by a maid who knew not man.

Lines 329–362.

The disobedience of Adam and Eve and expulsion from paradise, Palatine Chapel, Palermo.

1. See Philo the Jew, Liber nominum Hebraicorum; St. Jerome, Liber interpretationis hebraicorum nominum. ↩︎
2. According to the Golden Legend, which attributes the tale to an unspecified apocryphal Greek history, an angel gave Seth a branch from the tree, which he placed upon Adam’s grave. It grew into a large tree which Solomon cut down to build his ‘house of the forest of Libanus’ (see 3 Kings 7). Eventually this wood was cast in the pool called Probatica. As Our Lord’s Passion neared, it floated up, and was used by the Jews to make the Cross which bore Our Lord. ↩︎

The Bollandists on St. Peter Maiumenus

Historical Commentary on Saint Peter Maiumenus, 
Chartulary and Martyr in Palestine

in the year 743, 21 February.

1. Maiuma is a city in Palæstina Prima, only twenty stades away from Gaza, which Constantine the Great raised to the honour of a city because it had embraced the Christian faith, naming it Constantia after his son. Julian the Apostate, for the same reason, deprived it of its name, ordering it to be called λιμένα τῆς Γάζης (Portum Gazae, Port of Gaza), and subjected it to the Gazans. But thereafter Christian emperors restored it to the former dignity bestowed upon it by Constantine. Nicephorus Callistus recounts this more fully in book 10, chapter 4, as do other earlier writers. Here St. Peter Maiumenus, Πετρὸς ὁ κατὰ τὸν Μαϊουμᾶν, was either born or received the martyr’s palm, as Theophanes writes. Baronius calls him Mavimenus, and has him crowned in Damascus, inscribing his memory in the Roman Martyrology thus:

At Damascus, Saint Peter Mavimenus, who was killed by some Arabs visiting him when he was sick, when he said to them, ‘Everyone who does not embrace the Christian Catholic faith is damned, just as Mahomet, your false prophet’.

2. Baronius, like Maximus Margunius of Cythera, seems to have followed the Menæa, which state, for 9 February, Τῇ αὐτῆ ἡμέρᾳ ὁ ἅγιος ἱερομάρτυς Πέτρος ὁ Δαμασκηνὸς ξίφει τελειοῦται, ‘on the same day the Hieromartyr St. Peter Damascene was finished by the sword.’ The Menæa add:

Ὁ διελέγξας τοὺς παραπλῆγας Πέτρος,
Θνήσκει μονόπληξ τῷ διὰ ξίφους τέλει.

Peter, rebuking the madmen,
Fell by a single stroke, reaching his end by the sword.

Although St. Peter, metropolitan of Damascus, also died by the sword, as we shall say on 4 October, what is said about the rebuke of the frenzied Mahometans properly applies to Maiumenus. Perhaps the author of the Menæa calls him ‘Damascene’ because Theophanes, after recounting the death of St. Peter Damascene, immediately adds about Maiumenus: Τούτου ζηλωτὴς καὶ ὁ ὁμώνυμος Πέτρος, ὁ κατὰ τὸν Μαϊουμᾶν ἐν τοῖς ἀυτοῖς ἀνεδείχθη χρόνοις, μάρτυς ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ αὐτομόλως. The most learned James Goar of the Order of Friars Preacher, Vicar General of the Congregation of St. Lewis, translates: Eius æmulus & eiusdem nominis consors Petrus apud Maiumam, insigne pro Christo martyrium sub hæc tempora sponte tulit (‘His imitator and namesake Peter willingly underwent a famous martyrdom at Maiuma in these times.’) For his part, Anastasius the Librarian translates these words thus: Huius æmulator et Omonymus Petrus apud Maiumam eisdem temporibus ostensus est pro Christo Martyr vltroneus (‘His imitator and homonym Peter was revealed as a willing martyr for Christ at Maiuma in the same times.’) And Baronius himself writes the following in his Annals, vol. 9, year 742, n. 3, based on Theophanes: Huius æmulator homonymus Petrus apud Mauimenam iisdem temporibus ostensus est pro Christo Martyr vltoneus. (‘His homonymous imitator Peter was revealed as a willing martyr for Christ at Mavimena in the same times.’) 

It should not disturb anyone that St. John Damascene is said to have written his eulogy, for Damascus is not so far from Maiuma that the report of such a celebrated event could not have reached it swiftly. Even closer to Maiuma lies the Laura of St. Sabbas, where John was a monk at the time. Moreover, perhaps St. Cosmas, bishop of Maiuma, immediately conveyed the news of Peter’s martyrdom to John, since both had together been educated at home and later became monks.

But let us listen to Theophanes’s account of this martyrdom, which occurred on the second year of Constantine Copronymus, who succeeded his father Leo the Isaurian upon his death on 18 June 741:

3. ‘His,’ he writes, that is, of Peter, the most holy metropolitan of Damascus, killed at the orders of Valid, prince of the Arabs,

imitator and namesake Peter willingly underwent a famous martyrdom at Maiuma in these times. Yea verily, when he was detained by illness, he invited the leading Arabs to a private conversation. He was known to them because of his office as chartulary of the public taxes, and they were his intimates. 

Then he spake to them, ‘May ye receive from God, I pray, the reward for your journey to visit me, for although you are bereft of the light of faith, nevertheless you are to be counted among my friends. Therefore, I want you be witnesses of my testament, which is the following: He who believeth not in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the consubstantial and life-giving Trinity in the unity of the nature of its persons, is blinded in the eyes of his soul and worthy of everlasting punishment. Such a one was Mohamet, your false prophet and precursor of Antichrist. Hence if ye give any credence to me who now call upon heaven and earth as witnesses before you, abjure his fabulous and senseless teaching. This is present proof of my affection for you; heed this friendly counsel, lest you suffer the same torments as he.’ 

The Arabs, hearing him uttering these holy words and others like unto them, were all seized by astonishment and fury. They bid the man farewell, judging him to have fallen into madness of mind. When he had regained strength from his illness, he began to vociferate loudly: ‘Anathema on Mahomet and his fabulous teaching, and on all who believe in him!’ Subjected forthwith to the punishment of the sword, he achieved his martyrdom. He was praised in sermons by our holy father John, who is justly called Chrysorrhoas on account of the spiritual grace of his speech and holiness, bright and radiant as gold.

4. Thus Theophanes in Goar’s new translation. He who is here called Chrysorrhoas—from χρυσὸς, which means ‘gold’, and ῥοὴ, ‘flow’—is St. John Damascene, whom we shall discuss on 6 May. Perhaps he bore the nickname Chrysorrhoas, akin to the Damascene river Chrysorrhoas, because he watered souls far and wide through his various books, like unto streams of his teaching. Strabo writes these words about this river in book 16: ‘The Chrysorrhoas, beginning from the city and region of the Damascenes, is nigh entirely consumed in streams, for it waters many deep places.’ And the river itself perhaps acquired its name because it was a source of great fertility and wealth for the inhabitants, and enriched them with its golden flow, as it were.

5. He whom Theophanes calls Valid, prince of the Arabs—Οὐαλίδ υἱὸς Ἰσάμ—Anastatasius calls Hualiad or Uhalid, son of Hisan; the author of the Miscella, in Gruterus’s edition, Uhalid, son of Isam; from Henry Canisius, Gizid, son of Habdimelich. 

Goar defines ‘chartulary’, St. Peter’s position, as an ‘archivist’ (scriniarium), that is, ‘one who records deeds or accounts on charters and codies’. Anastasius explains: ‘Because he was a chartulary, and gathered public tribute with due account’. He writes about the nickname Chrysorrhoas: ‘He was well named Chrysorrhoas, because of the Holy Ghost’s golden and shining grace which blossomed in him both in word and deed.’

Acta Sanctorum, Februarius, vol. 3 (Antwerp, 1658), pp. 266–267.

The prophetaster Mahomet writhes as he is tortured in hell by the demons he served on earth (detail from Giovanni da Modena, The Inferno, 1410, St. Petronius’s Basilica, Bologna).

Rudolph of Liebegg on the Lenten Fast

Propers for Ash Wednesday, Missale notatum Claustroneoburgense (CRSA Klosterneuburg, Ms. 0073), fol. 18r.

On fasting

Through pious fasting man makes satisfaction for sin,
Causing the sinful flesh to suffer,
Justly punishing that part in which
He has sinned. He seeks forgiveness, trodding down the flesh,
So prone to sin. Thus the whole man becomes
A burnt offering sacrificed wholly to the Lord.

But reason must hold tight the reins, lest
Fasting too intense or long endure,
Killing the spirit, impeding meditation.
No good comes from fasting two
Or three days, if thereafter you gorge yourself.
Fast every day instead,
Eat not to satiety, but only
When hungry, ceasing before surfeit.
Supporting nature with a moderate repast,
You tear up vice at its root.

So fast in flesh, that mind may brim with virtue.
For our Lord does not desire that such fasts
Be a sort of torture. To him the work of piety
Is more pleasing, for bodily exercise is
Profitable to little, but piety is profitable to all things.¹
Kept within these bounds fasts dissolve the debt
Our body owes and curbs its inner pestilence,
Making man fit for all the virtues.

We read how Daniel unlocked God’s hidden mysteries
Through fasts and tamed the proud lions;
John the Baptist our Lord praised for his fasts.
They are, moreover, sure remedies for bodily disease:
Books tell how many have been healed by them:
To those whose bellies are swollen by excess liquid
And to those whose knotty limbs are bound by gout,
The physician declares abstinence the surest remedy.

On the Church’s Fasts

Hence it pleased the Church to set certain
Times for fasting, lest the continuous fasts
Of apostolic custom should entirely die out.

On Lent

Therefore blessed Telesphorus, seventh from Peter,
Orders us to fast forty days before the holy Pasch,
Thus duly to return the tithe of days
To him who tithes the whole world,²
And to cleanse the year’s sins of omission,³
And thus come more worthily to the sacred feast.
These days are called by their number, Quadragesima.⁴
Whosoever violates a single day in Lent
Is guilty of marring its entirety.⁵

He also bade the clergy to abstain beginning in Quinquagesima,⁶
But this custom has not been retained
For we read Moses was the first to fast
For forty days, that he might become the lawgiver.
Elias kept forty days, that he might reach the Lord’s mountain
And eventually be carried to heaven in flame.
Jesus himself consecrated these forty days with his own fasting.

We, too, to whom each of Christ’s deeds is a teaching,
And to follow our Lord is a great glory, let us follow him
By keeping these days, hallowed by such weighty reason.
During these, let us eat but once a day,
And no fleshmeat or animal products,
Such as milk, cheese, or eggs.
For flesh feeds flesh. If you so feed it, you often
Fuel its vices; but if you restrain it, you also
Curb its deeds. It is good to abstain not only from fleshmeat,
But from all things which
Supply the flesh with nourishment. Let us therefore
Be sparing with food and drink, and with sleep, chatter, and play.
During these days, law permits eating fish,
So long as eating them does not lead to excess.
During them, we may also drink wine.

From Pastorale nouellum III, 10 (lines 589–654),
by Rudolph of Liebegg (c. 1275–1332), canon of Constance.

1. 1 Timothy IV, 8. ↩︎
2. See Gratian, Decretum III, 5, 16. ↩︎
3. See Exodus XII and 1 Corinthians V, 7. ↩︎
4. ‘Lent’ in Latin. ↩︎
5. See Gratian, Decretum III, 3, 7–9; III, 5, 17. ↩︎
6. See ibid. III, 3, 6. ↩︎

Chant Workshop with Marcel Pérès

The Cantores Sancti Ludovici are pleased to announce a chant workshop with Marcel Pérès (Ensemble Organum) from August 21-25, 2023, in St. Louis, Missouri. The week will include the study of chants from the Capetian Dynasty (987) through the Baroque period, culminating with liturgies for the Feast of St. Louis, August 24-25. To register for this workshop, please contact info@scholastl.org.