Chapter XII. Consequences of the brief of Benedict XIV in regard to the medal of St. Benedict

It follows, in the first place, from the Papal document which we have just given, that the medal of St. Benedict is put under the sanction of the Holy See. The pretended scruples which certain persons had excited regarding it, are hereby shown to be groundless. It is well known with what extreme caution, and with what profound knowledge of principles, Rome proceeds in everything. She has not, however, found anything superstitious in this medal; the letters which are marked upon it have not seemed to her deserving of the slightest suspicion. The using of the first letter of a word for the word itself may have appeared strange to the author mentioned above (Chap. XI.), who, like so many other intolerant critics of his time, had but a very shallow knowledge of archaeology; otherwise he would no more have thought it strange to express these words, Vade retro , Satana , &c ., by V. R. S., &c., than it is to employ, as did the early Christians, the word to

.stand for these words, of which it contains the ini-

CONSEQUENCES OF BRIEF OF BENEDICT XIV. IOI tials, ’It)(tov$ XpuaTos Geov IVo? HwTTjp} At Rome, these things have always been perfectly understood, and the approbation of St. Benedict's medal, with its inscription, which is so easily explained, could not meet with the slightest opposition from any fear of appearing to be giving a sanction to some superstitious formula.

But the approbation is given not only to the medal, but also to the prayers to be used in blessing it. Moreover, a liberal grant of indulgences is made to all who shall wear it or carry it about them with devotion. We give in the next chapter the list of these indulgences, with the conditions for gaining them, as specified in the Papal Brief. It is clear, therefore, that the Holy See formally recommends the medal or cross of St. Benedict, to the confidence of the faithful.

The privilege of blessing the medal and attaching the indulgences to it is, as we have just seen, reserved to the Benedictines of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, with a strict prohibition to any other priest, unless he has received permission, to exercise this privilege, under penalty of nullity both to the blessing and the

1 The initial letters of the phrase Irj<rovs Xpiaros Qeov Ttos Xumjp, form the Greek word Ix^s, a fish. Hence among the early Christians a fish was an emblem of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the lamb, is amongst us now. We learn this from many representations in the Catacombs. Hence several of the Fathers, commenting on those passages of the Holy Gospels where Christ gives His apostles or the people fish to eat, make that act figurative of His giving Himself to us as our food in tl^p Blessed Sacrament. (See “Spicilegium, &c.,” by Card. Pitra, O.S.B.) — Ed.

indulgences. This same power has been since extended to the various Congregations of the Order of St Benedict . 1 With regard to the approved form of blessing, it is of strict obligation ; so that it would not be enough to make use of the simple sign of the cross, as is generally done in the attaching indulgences to medals, crosses, and beads, in virtue of faculties granted by the Holy See.

In case, however, of any one not being able to meet with a priest who has the faculty to bless the medal of St. Benedict, a Christian may still have confidence in this sacred object. Of course, it deserves our con- * fidence so much the more, when it has been enriched with the blessings of the Church, and with the indul-

1 His Holiness, Gregory XVI., extended to the Congregation of Monte Cassino all the privileges that had been granted by Benedict XIV. to the Benedictines of Bohemia and other countries ; and the late Sovereign Pontiff, Pius IX., by an audience, March 18, 1855, has conferred them on all priests of the English Benedictine Congregation, as may be seen from the following : —

“ De Numismate SS. P. N.

“ Beatissimo Padre, — II P.D. Paulino Heptonstall, Provinciale della Congregazione Anglo-Benedettina, supplica umilmente la Santiti Vostra per ottinere aUa sua Congregazione la medesima facoltk accordata alia Congregazione Cassinese di potere benedire coll * Indulgenze annesse le Medaglie di S. Benedetto. Che della grazia , &>c.

“Ex audientia SSmi, 18 Mart. 1855.

“S. Smus Dnus N. Pius divina providentia P.P. IX., referente me infrascripto S.C. de Propaganda Fide Secretario, benigne annuit pro gratia juxta petita per rescriptum praefatae Cong, absque ulla brevis expeditione. Contrariis non obstantibus. Datum Romae ex aed. S.C. die et anno praedictis. Gratis, &c.

“ Al. Barna^o, a Secretis.”

— Ed.

Google gences which she grants to those who carry it about their persons. At the same time, we must not forget that many favours were obtained by its means, even before it had been made the object of such special privileges, as we have seen bestowed on it by the Holy See. The power of the medal is attached to the sign of the cross, which is marked on it, and to the effigy of St. Benedict, whose protection is secured to those who wear it.

The Holy Name of Jesus, the words which our Saviour made use of in driving the devil away, and the allusion to the victories of St. Benedict over this spirit of evil, are all so many holy forms of exorcism which the fiend cannot withstand when they are used against him with faith.

Whilst, therefore, recommending the faithful to do their utmost to get their medals blessed, we must remind them that they ought to make use of it, and have confidence in the holy cross and St. Benedict, even when they have no opportunity of having it blessed by a priest who has the necessary power.

The reader has seen in the Brief that the effigy of St. Benedict is necessary for the medal. It is not therefore enough that there be engraven on it the letters C. S. P. B. {Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti ) ; it must, moreover, have upon it the effigy of the holy Patriarch of the Monks of the West There have been, within the last few years, a great number of medals made in France, which have not the effigy of St Benedict upon them ; these cannot be blessed as medals of the Saint, and they are essentially different from those which have been made both before and after the Brief of Pope Benedict XIV. It is well to make the faithful aware of this, and to impress upon them that these other medals, in spite of their being widely circulated in some places, are not authentic. The medal has been, from its first beginning, consecrated to the honour of the holy cross and St. Benedict ; both have always been represented on it from its very beginning, and it is only under this special form that the Church offers it to her children.

As one cannot dispense with the effigy of St. Benedict without essentially changing the medal, so precisely for the same reason, it is wrong to put anything else whatsoever upon it. We must consequently consider as spurious certain medals struck off in Germany. They are of a large size, and bear a device expressive of their being medals of St. Zachary. This medal is quite distinct from that of St. Benedict which is the subject of these pages. It is true, it has upon it the effigy of the holy Patriarch, and eighteen letters are written round the medal, which, if they mean anything at all, must be the initials of as many words, like the of the early

Christians, or the abjurations inscribed, by their initials, on the medal of St. Benedict.

Some have endeavoured to explain these eighteen letters by making them the initials of a series of formulas, in which God is besought to deliver us from pestilence. To say the least of it, it is strange that one single letter should be made to stand for a whole sentence, and this sentence sometimes a long one; thus, for instance, there is one which is composed of fifty-one words. This explanation, which is arbitrary from beginning to end, gives us a collection of sentences which have no connection whatever with each other. And then, why is there the figure of St. Benedict upon this medal ? Not the slightest allusion is made to the Saint in the explanation given to the eighteen letters ; whereas on the true medal everything which does not allude to the holy cross refers to the holy Patriarch. It may reasonably be doubted whether the Holy See would ever consent to give its approval to an object of so confused and undetermined a character. The propagators of this medal would have it that its originator was the holy Pope Zachary, who began his reign in the year 741 ; but so far they have not been able to give the merest shadow of a proof for such an assertion. In saying this we have no intention of hurting the feelings of any one ; but it seemed necessary to make these few observations relative to a medal which would justify, by its strange pretensions, the severity of criticism, and indirectly bring discredit and disrespect to the true medal of St. Benedict.

We must also protest against an error which is fourld upon a very great number of the medals of St. Benedict which are distributed. A gross ignorance of the habits of the different Religious Orders has given rise to this error, which represents the figure of io 6

St. Benedict in a dress, which is not that of his Order. On some of these medals we find, for instance, the holy Patriarch muffled in a cloak which is girded at the waist by a cord, after the manner of the Franciscans, instead of his having on the cowl, which is the essentially distinctive habit of the Benedictine. Not that such an error invalidates the medals, but it is one which ought to be corrected. The emblems or attributes which ecclesiastical tradition has assigned to each Saint, cannot be set aside without a sort of irreverence, and the caprice or ignorance of artists who do so, ought not to be tolerated. The impressions of the medal which we are now alluding to, are fortunately beginning to get rare, and the sooner the better ; for besides their giving the wrong habit, they represent St. Benedict in anything but a chaste style. The medals which are now in circulation are much more correct, and one has just been struck off in Paris, which is perhaps the best of all that have yet appeared ; it is of several sizes . 1

1 Medals and medal-crosses, the English Benedictine medal-cross and the Cassinese centenary medal (see Appendix), may be obtained through any Benedictine priest, or Catholic repository, or on personal application to Rev. Dom Morrall, Wootton Cottage, Henley-in-Arden, Birmingham. — E d.