Opera Omnia; cum Scholiis S. Maximi et Paraphrasi Pachymerae

then, with open arms she will receive him, whom she knew to have been held in such high esteem by Dagobert, her kinsman, the great King of Gaul. Then those lights of the religious life, Maurontus, Jonatus, Popo, and others, all saints, illustrious for divine miracles and celebrated by the common piety of men, who were Abbots of Marchiennes, filled with incredible joy, will recognize this most sweet guest as he arrives; and, having placed him in their midst, they will crown him with the flower of their virtues and their own excellent holiness. But when our Dionysius casts his eyes upon you, when he beholds that humility of soul in the highest dignity, that faith toward God, that love and beneficence, how joyfully will he introduce himself into your bosom and enjoy your companionship? For when I reflect within my mind upon those who formerly presided over Marchiennes with the highest praise and glory, I find exactly three of the same name as yours, plainly wonderful and perfect in every kind of virtue, so that this name seems destined for that Monastery for all excellence and sanctity; whom you have followed in such a way that those things which they possessed separately—clearly divine and singular qualities—you alone have embraced them all with that breadth of heart which the Divinity gave to you as to a new Solomon. He who first bore the name of John among the Prelates of Marchiennes, the sixteenth in number, was of such profound wisdom and so fruitful for the human race that they called him a second Moses; because, when he had found the whole neighborhood bristling and deformed with barbarism, he brought forth salutary laws, ordered the life of the rustics, and by his example and wonderful power of speech recalled all to gentleness. Then followed a second John, around nearly the year twelve hundred, who was known not only in Belgium, but even to the furthest shores of the earth. For when he had gone as a legate to Rome to the Supreme Pontiff Innocent and had scattered the light of his prudence and unusual modesty, St. Bernard advised the Prince of the Church that so great a man, besides the house of Marchiennes, should also undertake the administration of the Monastery of St. Medard at Soissons. The third John was the thirty-second in order, a man cultivated in every liberal doctrine, and especially in the knowledge of law,