Aybert the Priest

ON SAINT AYBERT THE PRIEST,

RECLUSE OF THE BENEDICTINE ORDER IN HAINAUT.

IN THE YEAR 1140.

Aybert the Priest, recluse of the Benedictine Order, in Hainaut (Saint)

BY G. H.

The monastery of Crispin, situated between the Hainaut cities of Valenciennes and Gislenopolis almost equidistantly on the roads, owes its origin to Saint Landelinus, who in the seventh century of Christ built it, Crispin transferred from Clerics to Benedictines. and after a life passed there with the greatest perfection passed over to Christ on June 15. Clerics formerly inhabited it, whence by Baldric in book 2 of the Chronicle of Cambrai, chapter 41, it is called a monastery of Canons, in whose place about the year 1080 Benedictine monks were substituted; over whom the first Abbot was Rainerus, Saint Aybert there becomes a monk in the year 1090, mentioned below in the Life of Saint Aybert, who, having taken him as companion of his journey, set out for Rome, and received the same among his monks in the year 1090, and made him Provost and Cellarer of his monastery. Saint Aybert afterwards lived, both as monk and as recluse, died in the year 1140, for fifty years, until the year of Christ 1140; when with Cycle of the Moon I, Cycle of the Sun I, Dominical Letters G.F., the feast of Easter fell on the 7th day of April, on which below in number 23 Saint Aybert is said happily to have fallen asleep in the Lord.

[2] This Life was written by a contemporary author, who in number 22 asserts that he loved him living and dead. He indicates his name in the dedicatory epistle to be Robert, Robert Archdeacon of Ostrevand wrote the Life and that by God's mercy he was Archdeacon of Ostrevand. Now Ostrevand, or Ostreband, Austerbantus or Austerbantia, is a district enclosed by the rivers Sensée, Scarpe, and Scheldt, into which they flow at Bouchain and Mortagne. To Alvisus Bishop of Arras, who died in the year 1148 This Life is inscribed to Alvisus, Bishop of Arras, established when Saint Aybert was still alive: who by the command of Eugenius on the expedition to Jerusalem was made Father and Pastor of the whole army of the Franks, and at Philippi in Macedonia in the year 1148, eight years after the death of Saint Aybert, departed this life. Laurence Surius affirms that this Life was written in good faith, which he published on the 7th day of April, but for the most part with style changed for the benefit of the reader and contracted at the end. We have the same in its primitive phrase from the Manuscript of the Convent of Rouge-Val near Brussels: and the same was published by Arnold Rayssius, Canon of Douai, extracted word for word from a most ancient parchment Manuscript of the convent of Crispin: which we give here, distinguished in our way into chapters and numbers, and illustrated with marginal summaries and other annotations. From this Life published their summaries Franciscus Haraeus, Lippelous, Dubletius, and commonly others.

[3] The body of Saint Aybert was buried in his cell, in which as a Recluse he had lived, in an oratory there built in honor of the Virgin Mother of God. From the ancient monuments of the Oratory or Chapel of Saint Aybert, John Cognatus writes, in book 3 of the History of Tournai, chapter 42, that the sacred relics of Saint Aybert enclosed in a reliquary The body enclosed in a reliquary in the year 1303 were in the year 1303 brought from the monastery of Crispin to the said Chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God; which afterwards in the year 1464 under John de Gavere Bishop of Cambrai, and again in the year 1464 by his Suffragan Godefridus, were on the 3rd of October placed in a new reliquary. When in the year 1566 the Calvinist heretics raged with the greatest fury through the Belgic territories, preserved against the fury of the Calvinists: and tore away and burned the sacred relics of the Saints everywhere; this shrine of the sacred body of Saint Aybert was hidden by the Lord of this place and estate beneath brambles and nettles in some pastures, and not found by the heretics though diligently searching. Then when the oratory, destroyed by the heretics, had been repaired, Martin Cuprius, Bishop of Chalcedon and Suffragan of Maximilian of Berghes Archbishop of Cambrai, in the year 1568 on the very Kalends of May dedicated it in honor of the Holy Cross, the Virgin Mother of God, and Saint Aybert the Confessor, whose sacred body rests there, and Indulgences of eighty days were granted partly by the Archbishop, Indulgences granted: partly by the Suffragan Cuprius, on the individual solemnities both of the Holy Cross and of the most blessed Virgin Mary, as well as on the day of Saint Aybert, and on the Lord's Parasceve.

[4] And perhaps from this year 1568 it came about that by the authority of the Archbishop those coming from Crispin yearly celebrated the feast of Saint Aybert on the day after the Kalends of May, as on the second day of the same month with some Life of his Molanus reports in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii: His feast is celebrated May 2 and April 7: who however in the Additions to Usuard places the name of Saint Aybert on this 7th day of April, on which commonly others have it, Miraeus in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti, Antonius Balinghen in the Marian Calendar, Hugo Menard in the Benedictine Martyrology, Canisius in the German, Balduinus Willotius in the Belgian Hagiology, likewise the Martyrology printed in French at Liège in the year 1624; the Auctarium of the Carthusians of Tournai to Greven not yet published. On both days, both this 7 April and May 2, celebrate Aybert, Ferrarius in his general Catalogue, Saussay in the Gallic Martyrology, Wion, Dorganius, Bucelinus in the Benedictine Fasti.

[5] The body of Saint Aybert at this time is preserved at Crispin in the said oratory, the above-mentioned Cognatus relates, and Rayssius in the Belgian Hierogazophylacium page 178, who then on page 345 asserts that the arm of Saint Aybert the Confessor and Benedictine monk, together with a rib and vertebra of the same Saint, arm and rib brought to Tournai to the monastery of Saint Martin, by Peter Aymericus Abbot of Crispin, with the consent of the Prior and Convent, and by the permission and license of John Richardot Archbishop of Cambrai, was given to Peter de Loyers Abbot of Saint Martin of the city of Tournai, in the year 1610, on the 24th day of November. Which relics duly examined Michael Desne Bishop of Tournai approved, in the year 1611, on the 15th day of March, and he granted that the Ecclesiastical office of double rite from the Common of a Confessor not Pontiff be celebrated on April 7, the natal day of the same Saint, and he bestowed Indulgences on those visiting the said Church on that day. Finally on the reliquary case the following inscription is found: "These inestimable treasures of the Relics of Saint Aybert, for the sake of piety and veneration, the Reverend Lord Dom Peter de Loyers caused to be honored and preserved in this little case, in the year of the Lord 1615, April 18." Other complete documents may be read in Rayssius: who adds that the said Lord Peter de Loyers gave the aforementioned vertebra as a gift to the parochial church of the village of Espain, between Tournai and Saint-Amand on the Scheldt, vertebra to the village of Espain, on the 10th day of April in the year 1611, where divine mercy has worked some miracles through the merits of Saint Aybert, which, approved by Michael Desne Bishop of Tournai, together with certain others we shall give after the Life: here we say only that the Bishop bestowed on those present at the Translation Indulgences of 40 days, and similar ones in favor of those who should visit the Espain church on the feasts or within the Octaves of Saint Aybert, of Pentecost, of the Venerable Sacrament, of the Assumed Virgin, of All Saints, and of the Lord's Nativity.

[6] Finally so great a concourse of Prelates, magnates, and pilgrims from Hainaut and Artois shortly began to be made to Espain, that the alms collected in a short time sufficed to build from the foundations a chapel in honor of Saint Aybert, adjoining the side of the parochial church, Where his chapel the first stone of it being duly laid by the Abbot of Saint Martin, in place of the Lord Bishop then hindered by arthritic pains, in the year 1612, on the third Sunday of June, in the presence of the Lords of Mortagne and Rongi and a countless crowd of neighbors. But the dwellers of Espain and of the neighboring villages of Mande, Rongy, Hollain, and Wes, desiring to have some part in this pious work, instituted various collections, by which at length it was effected, that the whole fabric being completed, the altar of the chapel was consecrated by the Most Reverend of Tournai, on the Sunday falling on the 22nd of September in the year 1613. Thus far Cognatus in the History of Tournai, part 4, chapter 40. Some relics of the same Saint Aybert are in the monastery of Haut-Mont in the aforesaid Hainaut. Moreover, that a bone of the arm of the same Saint is in veneration at Mons in the monastery of the Black Sisters, bones of the shins at Mons, given to them by Louis Berlaymont Archbishop of Cambrai (who during his See, which he held from the year 1570 to 1596, visiting the said Relics had taken some of them for himself) testifies Cognatus, book 3 chapter 42, where he says that in the year 1609 the body was brought to Valenciennes, and with other bodies of the Saints carried around in solemn procession, and then brought back to its own chapel.

[7] These things so set forth, and leaving no place for doubt that Saint Aybert not only was a Belgian, He is falsely said to have been of the Order of Vallombrosa, but also lived as a monk and hermit in Belgium and died there; no one will be able to imagine any other Crispin Abbey, whose Abbot Raynerius the Saint once followed into Italy, than that from which both the Life and the Relics and all knowledge of this Saint have flowed, as is evident from what has been said above. Because, however, after the Life published by Surius, the Vallombrosan congregation of Benedictines in Italy inscribed him in the Catalogue of their Saints, as one who from the said Life was known to have lived piously as a guest for some time in Vallombrosa itself, and because the same Congregation, in the borders of Tuscany and Romagna under the diocese of Faenza, has an Abbey called Saint Mary of Crespino; occasion has been given to some to number Raynerius among the Abbots of that monastery, and to transfer Aybert to the same, with such boldness of conjecture that even there nearby is now shown the place in which the Saint led an eremitical life. Which, as may most truly be believed concerning other Religious of the same institute and monastery (for even now both at Vallombrosa and at many other Abbeys of this Order are seen cells or hermitages, into which with the permission of their Abbot those whom God called to a more abstract kind of life withdrew themselves), so it cannot be imagined of Saint Aybert except most inconsiderately. For the hermitical cell of the aforesaid Saint, to Saint Mary of Crispin in Italy, before he went to Italy, it is established from number 6 of the Life that it was the same in which Saint Domitianus, the inseparable companion of Saint Landelinus founder of Crispin, was said to have been, and at Crispin was buried: and after Aybert had returned to the same place from Italy, he dreamed of a very high tree situated between Hasnon and Saint-Amand, as is said in number 9, to which an eagle flying brought a monastic robe, and seemed to clothe him with it; whence he understood that he was called to enter upon monastic life in the Abbey of Crispin, which the situation of the tree designated: which alone could be enough to distinguish the Crispin monastery of Saint Aybert from a hundred others of the same name wherever they might be. I omit refuting these things at greater length, since the deep silence of the Vallombrosan writers concerning Saint Aybert sufficiently dilutes the novel opinion, born from the mere affinity of names.

the Abbots of that monastery, and to transfer Aybert to the same, with such great boldness of conjecture, that even there nearby is now shown a place in which the Saint led an eremitical life. Which, as it may most truly be believed concerning others of the same institute and monastery (for even now there are seen both at Vallombrosa and at several other Abbeys of this Order cells or hermitages, to which with the license of their Abbot those withdrew themselves whom God called to a more abstract kind of life), so concerning Saint Aybert it cannot be imagined except most inconsiderately. For it is evident from number 6 of the Life that the eremitical cell of the aforesaid Saint, before he went to Italy, was the same cell in which Saint Domitianus, the inseparable companion of Saint Landelinus founder of Crispin, was said to have been, and at Crispin was buried: and after Aybert had returned from Italy to the same place, he dreamed of a very high tree situated between Hasnon and Saint-Amand, as is said in number 9, to which an eagle flying brought a monastic garment, and seemed to clothe him with it; whence he understood that he was called to enter the monastic life in the Abbey of Crispin, which the situation of the tree designated: which alone could be enough to distinguish the Crispin monastery of Saint Aybert from a hundred others of the same name wherever they might be. I omit refuting these things at greater length, since the profound silence of the Vallombrosan writers concerning Saint Aybert sufficiently dilutes this novel opinion, born merely from the affinity of names.

LIFE

By Robert, Archdeacon of Ostrevand.

Aybert the Priest, recluse of the Benedictine Order, in Hainaut (Saint)

BHL Number: 0180

BY ROBERT THE ARCHDEACON

EPISTLE

To Alvisus Bishop of Arras

[1] I Robert, by the mercy of God Archdeacon of Ostrevand, humble and unworthy, this little work, which concerning the life and morals of Dom Aybert, venerable Priest, by God's inspiration I have composed, Reverend Father and Lord Bishop Alvisus, The author offers this Life to Bishop Alvisus to be corrected, I have destined to be reread by your diligence with this intention, that whatever in it by reading you shall find laudably said or worthy of correction, by the weight of your authority may be confirmed or changed. For I know and have learned from a certain wise man that nothing is perfect in human acts, nor blessed in every respect. Wherefore I blush the less, if perchance something imperfect be found in our work, which by the industry of a wise friend may be brought to perfection. For it is by far dearer to me if any things are said less carefully in our writing, to be emended privately and paternally by your prudence, than to be gnawed publicly and with a livid tooth by some malevolent man. We have indeed as our form and example of acting in this way the poets and ancient wise men, whom we ought to imitate, who delegated their books to be recited to wise friends, that if they should find anything in them said less regularly, with brotherly sweetness they might correct them, before the volumes themselves should come forth into public. For it is written: "When parchments have been laid within, it will be permitted to delete what you have not yet published." These things having thus been said, I myself, who in this little book have painted a comely man with the color of virtues, although a deformed painter and devoid of virtue, Reverend Father, he has knowingly put no falsehood into it, as if by oath assert, and in asserting swear, that I have knowingly mixed in no falsehood: because by God's grace such is the abundance of truth, that there was no need to us of devising pestilent falsehood. Whence I reckoned it as it were sacrilege, if the honest life and bright fame of an Angelic man I should have darkened with the stain or contagion of invented falsehood, which he living abhorred as a crime. For whoever strives to honor a religious person, living or deceased, with false praises, and in honoring to magnify, it is necessary that he beware lest by lying he fall into the snare of perdition. For it is written: "You will destroy all who speak a lie." Ps. 5:7 Thus by the Almighty God, who is Truth, and to whom all deceitful iniquity is abominable, such a praiser by killing himself makes himself far alien from him. For "the mouth that lies kills the soul": nor is such praise pleasing to any person soundly wise (because praising false things, it defrauds things pleasing or well said). Wis. 1:11 Foreseeing all this therefore, I have forbidden my tibiae from the mixing in of lying: for I knew that a little of pernicious mendacity ferments and in fermenting corrupts the whole mass of sincerity and truth: and therefore I judged that these false inventions should be avoided. Farewell.

PROLOGUE.

[2] Just as in antiquity images of triumphators and combatants, or triumphal arches, in which triumphs and the likenesses themselves of outstanding men for the sake of recalling and remembering honor were expressed, used to be made, so that those looking upon them might in some way be stirred to works of probity; The Lives of the Saints are proposed for imitation, so the points of letters, by which the glorious deeds or sayings of the holy Fathers are related, are usually written, that those reading or hearing the letters themselves may be vehemently kindled to doing those things which are worthy of relation and writing. Following this similitude therefore, the life of the holy Priest of Christ, Dom Aybert, as truthfully collected of this Saint, as from religious and truthful men, and especially from Dom Alulphus a religious monk, who better than others knew his secrets, I have received, I have proposed diligently to elucidate according to the mediocrity of my wit; so that those reading or hearing it may strive to imitate the holy man, if not in all things, at least in some part; or devoutly implore him that before the merciful God he may be for them a pious intercessor and prompt helper. For it seemed to us very unseemly and absurd if the fame and works of so great a man should be shut up in silence. And since the Lord has magnified his servant, giving him strength to suffer and act marvelously, we also from the debt of fraternal love should glorify him, by the color and ornament of words, according to our measure, in writing; if the capacity of speaking nobly and urbanely were available to us, and our lips were ours, so that smoothing the ears and hearts of our hearers with the sweetness and elegance of positions, we might render them more attentive and more prompt to hear and imitate those things which shall be written about the venerable man. But if the capacity is lacking, yet the will is not lacking. The grace of the Holy Spirit is invoked Let us pray therefore to the Holy Spirit, who in his Saints is marvelous and glorious, that to the praise and glory of his name and of the holy man, and to the benefit of ourselves and our hearers, those things which I have determined to explain concerning the holy man, I may be able worthily and laudably to perform. Ps. 67

CHAPTER I.

Pious adolescence, eremetical life, Roman journey, entrance into religion.

[3] Blessed Aybert therefore, the outstanding Priest of Christ, arose from the territory of Tournai, namely from that village which is called Espeen. More powerful in virtues and sacred works than distinguished in lineage, although yet he is known to have been begotten of religious and honest parents. For his father is for certain believed to have been a Knight, by name Albaldus: his mother was called Helvidis: Born of honest parents, both of free condition and honest persons, fearing and loving God. And since, as the Psalmist testifies, "the generation of the upright shall be blessed," we believe that from the merit of their goodness they begot a son worthy of heavenly benediction, as the following things will teach more clearly than light. Ps. 5

[4] That therefore proceeding in natural and right order, we may pursue by writing the works of the holy man, first of all must be said what presages or beginnings of future sanctity the boy of good disposition showed forth, with the Holy Spirit teaching him, not the letter, who breathes where he will and inspires whom he will. For when he was a very little boy, at night, with bent knees he perseveres long, he was accustomed very often at nights secretly to rise from the bed, and with bent knees and his members prostrate on the ground, kissing it, to fatigue his whole body with innumerable genuflections. John 3 Which when scarcely sleeping he frequented, wishing no one to know, at length he was unable to hide; for he was found so acting by the servants of the house. But since he wished to have no judge or witness of his labor except Christ, whom he feared to displease if he pleased men, he withdrew into the sheepfold, thinking that he would more secretly do there what he had been accustomed to do elsewhere. praying also in the sheepfold that he may lie hidden, But at length, sometime fatigued by the excessive bending of the knees, prostrate on the ground, he was again found. Yet he did not cease from the good work, because withdrawing himself as much as he could from human sight, he was seeking other corners suitable for his solitude: for he did not wish to lose the glorious reward by popular favor. For certainly whoever places his goods in the praises of men is not of sound mind, nay sits by an insane one, not attending to that word of the Apostle: "If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ." Gal. 1 He fasts frequently, Nor only in this way did he vex his body with divine love, but also frequently insisting on fasts, and cautiously fasting, he rigorously macerated it: for on the day when he thought to fast, he would pre-taste a tiny bit of apple or of something: so that if perchance by his Father, unwilling for the little one to fast, he were asked whether he had eaten; the truthful boy might be able clearly to answer that he had eaten. Wis. 1 For perhaps he had heard: "The mouth that lies kills the soul." He was not accustomed either to lie or to swear, or to utter playful or idle words, and therefore for idle words in the day of judgment he would give no account. Nor must it be kept silent that while in the field he was guarding his father's cattle, having heard the signal in the fields he flies to the church: on hearing the sound of the bell, leaving them he flew to the church, to pour forth praises with prayers, according to the measure of his understanding, into the divine ears. Nor is it to be wondered at, for it is written: "Out of the mouths of infants and sucklings you have perfected praise." Ps. 8

[5] With these first-fruits of virtues and good action the illustrious boy being educated, his age changed and become more advanced, with the Holy Spirit as leader, as quickly as possible hastened to greater things, which with the style running and divine grace seconding, will presently on the spot appear. For he from the first flower of youth began to frequent the thresholds of Churches, and more advanced he hears sermons. devoutly to hear the words of life: for the man full of God had understood the saying of the Lord: "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it." Luke 11 Who while he still lingered in the world, gradually abhorring the lasciviousness of the world and its delights, and in abhorring vilifying them, thought to be free for Almighty God alone; fearing lest he should become an enemy of God, if he became a friend of the world. He leaves worldly delights: Wherefore, eager to snatch up a narrower life, after a little he altogether renounced worldly enticements. But how he arrived at the grace of conversion, changed his life, deserted the world, and by what order and labor he happily crossed over to God by the very narrow and strait way, it is worth the labor to relate and sweet and pious to hear. Therefore when he was a youth and a layman in the house of his father, and, as was said, a lover of sanctity, pricked to the heart by the song of a minstrel,

one day he chanced to hear a minstrel singing of the life and conversion of Saint ^b Theobald, and the austerity of his life, which he never forsook in his living, at length obtaining perpetual glory. These things thus heard, and received with the ear of his heart, he was on the spot so pricked with divine grace, that thereafter he would use neither flesh nor fat nor linen cloths, but woolen and haircloth ones; in cold and nakedness gladly about to serve Almighty God. Wherefore he began studiously to seek the companionship of religious men: He chooses a stricter life: with whom by hunger, thirst, fasts, vigils, frequent prayers, he chastised the body and reduced it to servitude, strengthened the spirit, subjecting the flesh to reason.

[6] While he was therefore seeking this, with a certain pilgrim, whom his father had received in hospitality, as leader and indicator, he found a man of great sanctity and marvelous abstinence, namely an outstanding Priest, by name John ^c, dwelling in a certain solitude far from the noise and conversation of men, in which it was said Saint ^d Domitianus had been. But this Priest was a monk from Crispin, but by the permission of Dom Rainerus ^e Abbot of Crispin he was inhabiting this desert place; from the monastery of Crispin, to whom venerable Aybert is joined by a bond of charity, that there with one spirit and equal will they might serve the Lord. But how many miseries and calamities and poverties for the hope of eternal life they patiently endured in the same place, they bear miseries patiently, it is not easy to set forth individually, not ceasing from the praises and prayers of God alone: for from one side the hardship of nakedness and cold pressed them, from the other the want of bodily sustenance constrained them. For they passed many days not seeing bread with their eyes, they live on herbs: but they were content with herbs and roots of herbs, of which then there was not great abundance in those parts. Why should I pursue many things concerning the affliction of these men? With such hunger, such leanness, such pallor, fasting, watching, praying, suffering cold and nakedness, were they affected, that they might seem utterly unlike men, not appearing as men: for, as Father Aybert himself used to relate, when sometimes he went out of the place in which he dwelt, compelled by necessity, shepherds seeing him, hairy and hideously clothed in rags, fled, thinking him to be a prodigy. For he said that he was so often distressed by cold that he would put on the garment which the monk had taken off to celebrate Mass, fearing that meanwhile he might be extinguished by the force of the cold. What wonder? For often in winter it happened, that bread failing, with the ice broken they drew herbs from the waters with their hands, using which they scarcely held back their soul, having nothing else to eat. They thought perhaps with the Apostle that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared to the future glory which shall be revealed in us. Rom. 8 The servants of God also considered that, as much as anyone in this life treats himself more harshly, so much the more closely he is joined to supernal love; just as on the contrary, as much as anyone is delighted in lower things, and they reckon themselves unprofitable servants: so much he is disjoined from supernal love. Who, while they subtly considered these things in their heart, perhaps said among themselves that they were unprofitable servants, doing by right whatever good they labored to do, and not being able to do anything beyond or above the debt: because, although a man is justified by his works, yet, however great he be, not without the aid of divine grace and mercy can he be saved, as the Apostle says: "It is not of him that wills nor of him that runs, but of God that has mercy." Rom. 9 And therefore whatever good they did, they ascribed not to themselves but to the Father of lights, from whom every perfect gift comes down. Among these things however which have been said, the man of God little by little was learning the psalter.

[7] With the Abbot of Crispin they set out for Rome, At the same time therefore it happened that Dom Rainerus, Abbot of Crispin, to confirm the liberty of his monastery, was visiting the thresholds of the Apostles: where his plan was to lead with him these two men, bound to him by the bond of love. On which journey how many labors and hardships these three holy men, bound by brotherly charity, sustained, is known to God alone: since they walked entirely with bare feet, clothed in hairshirts, having a little money, rich with abundance of poverty; the mule which they had led with them scarcely ever mounting, with bare feet, clothed in hairshirts; but they made weak and infirm pilgrims sit upon it. Who when they had come to Rome, it was told them that the Pope of holy memory ^f Urban, whom they were seeking, was at Benevento. Hearing which, Dom Aybert and brother John did not dare to undertake so long a journey, With the Abbot seeking Benevento, both because they distrusted their bodily strength, and because Brother John was sick. And therefore by the counsel and benevolence of the aforesaid Abbot they withdrew to Vallombrosa, there to await him until he should return. They withdraw to Vallombrosa: Where indeed they found monks of marvelous continence and exquisite life, who pouring forth on them the bowels of piety and ^g benignly receiving them, strove to retain them with themselves perpetually. For these monks, of whom we speak, as the sincerity of many testifies, by monks living holily firmly and perfectly observe the rule of Saint Benedict, living by the labor of their hands, affecting their bodies incessantly with many and various labors, in hope of the heavenly life; fervid in the rigor of discipline and severe charity, benign in receiving pilgrims and the poor, received them kindly: pious in burying brethren, moreover distinguished in every kind of religion, and (as the two aforesaid men used to confess) to be preferred in sanctity to all the monks whom they had hitherto seen. Who dwelling with them for some space of time, received from them many lessons of right living, as they themselves testified.

[8] Meanwhile Abbot Rainerus, with a few companions, completed the journey begun; and coming to Benevento, was honorably received by the Lord Pope Urban. Wherefore he very easily obtained the protection of his monastery, which he had devoutly requested. So the business being completed and the Abbot confirmed with the Apostolic blessing, rejoicing and glad he returned to his companions, by whom and by the monks he was gladly received. Although we may seem in this place to have made a digression from our purpose, in descending to the monks of Vallombrosa and commending their life, yet whatever is said laudably of them, the whole certainly may seem to a wise man aptly and conveniently to cohere with the proposed purpose; because while in writing we magnify their excellent deeds, we intend also in some way to lift up him whose cause we have undertaken to write this work, and who, as he himself used to relate, and animated by their example; received from them many examples and incentives of serving God, not with deaf ear. Nor is it to be wondered at: for as the Psalmist testifies, "With the holy you will be holy." Ps. 17

[9] At last, after the servants of God were well refreshed, the Brethren having been saluted, and with a multitude of thanks and praises given for the benefits bestowed on them by them, they return to the hermitage: they returned to their own places, having endured many things in going and coming, as has been said. The Abbot returned to the monastery, and the two holy men to the hermitage. Where while by chance on a certain night Dom Aybert had given his limbs to sleep, in a dream he seemed to have ascended a very high tree, situated between Hasnon ^h and Saint-Amand ⁱ, Saint Aybert moved by a vision, to which flying down a white hawk or eagle brought a monastic garment, and seemed to clothe him with it. Moved by which vision he awoke, and began vehemently to meditate what that vision portended. At length it seemed well to him, according to the tenor of the vision, to become a monk. Which he easily ^k obtained from Dom Rainerus Abbot of Crispin, a man of holy memory; though the monks at first refused, he becomes a monk of Crispin. but afterwards willing. For they saw a humble and despised person, and did not think he would be such as afterwards they found him. And so it happens that certain things formerly seen as base are afterwards, God willing, promoted on high, as is read of David. So he is made a monk with heavenly blessing. Then after some time he is made Provost of the same monastery, and by the common election of the Brethren Cellarer: then Provost and Cellarer for they understood him to be very useful for carrying out these tasks. For in these offices, both in exterior and in interior matters, he so served Almighty God and the Brethren, that he was loved by all. He was always indeed solicitous for the common utility, laboring for the common good, discreet and keeping the measure of discretion in all things, in his work and hands, as is said, prompt, every good thing overflowed. He was prompt to hasten to carry out external business, when brotherly utility or necessity demanded. Then he bore the care of the monastery, hospitable, like a pious mother of sons: a lover of hospitality, generous to the poor, sparing to himself; and what he took from himself, peaceable, he bestowed on others. Peace indeed and concord among the Brothers he loved above all things; murmurings and detractions and other such things, which are wont to be felt in the cloister, he detested and drove off. Proprietorship in a monk he asserted to be deadly and detestable in every way.

[10] He keeps the rigor of his former life. But how he lived for himself in the cloister must not be kept silent. With bread and water, herbs and legumes, and the fruit of trees, used moderately once a day, he sustained his body: milk and cheese or fish did not enter his mouth: with a most harsh hairshirt he tamed his flesh. He is believed to have had no bed except a bench or other wood, upon which laid down he moderately rested. The Psalter before Matins he was always accustomed to chant. In bending of knees he was most frequent, with abundance and effusion of tears he was watered and flowing: devout in prayer, whence with the Psalmist he could confidently say: "I have labored in my groaning, every night I will wash my bed; I will water my couch with my tears." Ps. 6 He who while in the cloister for ^l twenty-five years thus marvelously exercised himself, He remains 25 years in the cloister yet always bore the praise of God in his mouth. Hunger indeed, thirst, cold, every kind of affliction of the flesh seemed to hold the place of delights with the holy man, since he was always and seemed joyful and cheerful. always cheerful, For holy men, while they sometimes consider in mind the future penalty of the impious and the glory of the just, more lightly bear whatever they suffer for God, while on this side the hope of perennial glory soothes them, on the other the future penalty frightens them: and therefore by enduring temporal penalty they avoid eternal, and by avoiding the eternal, they gain the perpetual crown. And so it comes about, that while the servants of Christ beware of what is more grave, they bear more lightly what is less grave, even if it be very burdensome. So to this spiritual man the yoke of Christ was made sweet and his burden light: who though he flourished in many virtues, is believed to have remained whole in body and virgin from his mother's womb, always a virgin. which is an angelic ornament and the chief distinction of virtues.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Return to the hermitage: most austere life even after the Priesthood.

[11] What more shall I say? Although these things that are said may seem great and stupendous, yet reckoning as of least account whatever good he had done, he desired to have reclusion in the hermitage, that more freely he might there be occupied with divine praises and prayers, and more sharply tame his body. Therefore he caused a little cell to be prepared in a deserted place, before he departed from the monastery: He returns to the hermitage. which having been prepared, he scarcely obtained license from Abbot Lambert ^a to leave the monastery and enter the little cell: for he had been very necessary to the Brothers of the monastery. Which at length having been received, he entered the reclusion, in which as long as ^b he lived, under the authority of the Abbot of Crispin he served the Lord. But how rigorously he exercised his body in it, as it is glorious to hear, so is it glorious to imitate. For twenty-five years he remained enclosed in it: of which for twenty-two he abstained from all bread, and for as many from all drink, For 22 years he abstains from bread, for 20 from drink: except two. Not however bound by any vow, but of his own accord he altogether abandoned bread and drink, and certain other foods necessary for the body for so many years.

[12] But how it happened that he abstained from bread, let him who has ears to hear hear; for this is pious and very sweet to hear. It happened indeed at a certain winter time, that the place in which the man dwelt was so surrounded by the overflow of waters, that no one could approach him, nor could anyone go out. Wherefore, pressed by the want of bread, and because he did not hear the solemnities of Masses, more vehemently moved (for he was not yet a Priest), on a certain night he began sorrowfully to complain, and in complaining earnestly to entreat the holy Virgin Mary, that she would be propitious to his miseries, using these or similar entreaties: "O holy Virgin of Virgins Mary, who by bringing forth the Son of God, he is roused by the Virgin Mother of God appearing: conferred joys on a lost world, who are the fount of piety and abundance of mercy, come to the help of me a wretch, in need of bodily bread, and not hearing the solemnities of Masses." Which having been said, immediately the man of God fell asleep, but the holy Virgin Mother of God on the spot in the form of a most beautiful woman, with a multitude of girls of lower stature, through a vision appeared to the servant of God: whom when he had seen, he seemed to have said, "If I had before seen women in the cloister, I would surely have driven them from there. Why therefore have you presumed to come here?" To this the holy Virgin: "Be silent, Brother, I am the Virgin Mary, whom you so sweetly invoked. What do you want?" And he: "Help me a sinner, concerning those things which I need, and which you well know that I need." And the Lady to him: "Do you believe that Almighty God can feed you without bread?" And he: "I believe, Lady." And the Lady: "Why again do you complain of the Masses which you do not hear? Certainly your whole life and all your work are the solemnities of Masses." Then the Lady seemed to take a morsel of bread, and to put it in the mouth of the holy man. He, moved by such a vision, was so from this hour, that he neither hungered for bread nor cared to eat bread any more, content with herbs, roots, and those vile foods with which he had been accustomed to feed.

[13] He is clothed with a most harsh hairshirt, Do you wish to know with what purple or fine linen the soldier of Christ shone? Certainly from the sole of the foot to the crown he was clothed with a most harsh hairshirt. If you ask about the bed; his bed was, as we have said, a bench or other wood, with a hairshirt sack put for his pillow. Why should I repeat what has been said? Whatever good this servant of God did before he had entered reclusion, once enclosed he amplified, and by treating himself more harshly improved. If before he wept bitterly, afterwards more bitterly; if before he burned with charity, afterwards more fervently; if before he fasted on bread and water, afterwards for as many years as we have said, he used neither: and so the other good things which he did before, living more strictly he heaped up. Having shown how becomingly this worshiper of God clothed and cultivated the exterior man, it is sweet and fitting to depict with the pen, how gloriously he adorned the interior. Clothed therefore with patience and charity, armed with patience and charity: in scarlet twice dyed, and with the other arms of light so armed him, that the soldier of Christ himself, fortified on either side, might securely and honestly walk in the day, before the face of the strict and dreadful Judge, where scarcely the just shall be saved: for of this day the prophet Malachi says: "Who shall be able to think of the day of his coming? Or who shall stand to see him?" Mal. 5 Thus therefore inside and out the athlete of Christ armored with the arms of justice, could constantly proceed to combat the strong, terrible, and fearful armed one, that is, leviathan, who counting it a little thing that he has swallowed the sea, thirsts also to drink down the Jordan, that is, striving to incorporate the faithful with the unfaithful to himself.

[14] Meanwhile, as his good odor filled the world, the people began to throng to him. Meanwhile by the counsel of wise men, having first been an Acolyte, at length he was made by Lord Burchard ^c Bishop of Cambrai Subdeacon and Deacon, consecrated a Priest then raised to the honor of Priesthood as if from a layman, that he might better counsel the peoples coming to him, and more familiarly hear the secrets of confessions. Having been made a ^d Priest he daily celebrated two Masses, one for the living, the other for the deceased. He was accustomed to sing the Vigils for the dead to nine readings, he celebrates two Masses daily: in this order: in the first part of the vigil he chanted fifty psalms, with three lessons following: for the souls of the deceased he recites the entire psalter: so also in the second and third part he did. Thus in his vigil he was accustomed to chant three times fifty psalms, which is the whole psalter, with nine lessons interposed: which indeed would be burdensome and heavy to one not doing it from the heart. A hundred times a day he bent his knees, He bends his knees a hundred times: and fifty times with his body prostrate, lifted up on his joints and fingers, in each bending saying: "Hail Mary, full of grace: the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." His mouth ceaselessly sounded psalms and prayers, unless perhaps he were hindered by the people asking counsel: which, if anyone wishes diligently to consider, is not to cease from prayer. Money to receive, he does not touch money. or to touch with his hands, he shrank from as from the venom of a serpent. But if anyone wished to bestow something on him importunately, he bade it be given to the monastery of Crispin, involved in many and various necessities.

[15] What shall I say beyond this? If this man had been guilty of all crimes, which by repenting and macerating himself he would have wished to wipe out, what more would he do? Who in these times thus hated his soul, that he might save it to eternal life? Who was so a persecutor of himself? a persecutor of himself, Surely if some tyrant had held him in fetters or chains, and had withdrawn from him bread and drink for at least three or four days, it would be judged lamentable or pernicious: but he himself took both of these things from himself of his own will for many years: and yet he is known to have been liable to no crimes, but full of many virtues. immune from graver sin Yet we do not make him free from sin, but a stranger to deadly wickedness: for as blessed John the Evangelist testifies: "If we say that we have no sin, we lie." By the aforesaid exercises and other hardships, this living stone polished, and on every side made smooth and round, deserved to be placed in the building of the heavenly Jerusalem, where precious stones, polished by pressures and blows, with gems and pearls shining in the quality of their merits, with eternal and marvelous brilliance glitter: for it is written, "The just shall shine." 1 John 1 Matt. 12 What at last shall I rather say of this man? he is compared to the Martyrs: Shall I call him a Martyr or a Confessor? But to confess more truly, both a Martyr and a Confessor. For although not crowned with shed blood, yet in another manner, by bearing the cross of the Lord, in will and act he was a Martyr, to be crowned with glory and honor. He was a Martyr, when he crucified the flesh with its vices and concupiscences; he was indeed a Martyr, when he abdicated to himself every carnal pleasure; although in more frequent usage Martyrs are said to be purpled with the blood of passion, or extinguished by other force of persecutors. Which kind of martyrdom he endured by will alone, since nothing is richer to God than a good will: for if perhaps the times of persecution had returned, as certainly is believed by many, rejoicing and glad he would have run to meet his persecutors, willingly offering his neck to the striker. But since this could not be done in another way, he sought out another way of martyrdom; namely, he offered himself as a living sacrifice to Almighty God in the odor of sweetness, made the cruel persecutor of his own flesh, which is not far different from the passion of martyrdom inflicted by a tyrant. For the blessed Apostle John is read to have drunk the cup of the Lord, but is not read to have shed blood for Christ, finishing his life in peace. Nor let anyone think that I am of so perverse a mind, as to reckon one should be equated to the other; since blessed John is called a Virgin chosen by the Lord, and more loved than the rest. Matt. 20 But by the example of the Apostle I understood to show that sometimes someone

may drink the chalice of the Lord without the shedding of blood.

[16] He was indeed a Confessor, because with heart, mouth, by the exhibition of every good work he praised God, and to the Confessors and drew many to the confession of their filth by his benignity and meekness. For Confession is sometimes of sin, sometimes an act of praise and thanksgiving: for when the Son of God says to the Father, "I confess to you, Lord, Father of heaven and earth," this confession is not of sin, but an act of praise and thanksgiving: for the Son of God himself neither sinned nor could sin. Matt. 11 Certainly, if by chance Tullian eloquence were granted to me, yet the greatness of his sanctity would exceed the eloquence of an orator, and speech would fail sooner than the subject matter. Often indeed, my brothers, in the affliction of the flesh second to none of the Saints: I have read and reread the Lives of the Holy Fathers, in which men of marvelous abstinence are found: but I have found none to whom, in the affliction of the flesh, I can make this man second. Who therefore can to the fingertips express the sanctity of this blessed Priest? who when he shunned the food of men, using the food of beasts, the bestial food became for him a saving medicine: for by eating the husks of swine he well merited to enjoy the bread of Angels. So the Angelic man ate the bread of Angels, which came down from heaven and gives life to the world: for this man while contending in the contest abstained from all that wars against the soul, received the prize of those running well, well running himself. Which is not of one study's law only, nay of all well-running ones by right of heaven.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

Zeal for souls. Confessions heard.

[17] Having thus far prescribed how he lived for himself, now it seems consequent that it should be said, how from the debt of fraternal love and to others he lived. For when by counseling he profited others, he assuredly multiply increased the heap of his beatitude. He devotes himself to the salvation of others So this lamp kindled by the fire of charity, and full of the light of virtues, not to be placed under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, after it had poured forth the rays of its brightness throughout the world; with fame carrying his stupendous benefits far and wide, from all sides thronging to him thence the peoples of various nations stirred up rushed in crowds, desiring to see the face of the holy man, and to hear what was said by him, and desiring to confess to him their wicked crimes. But he with joyful mind and cheerful countenance received and sweetly consoled all coming to him. For it was as it were implanted in him by nature, that he made himself all things to all coming to him, according to their quality, desiring to make them a people acceptable to God, made all things to all, a follower of good works. Compassionating the sad and afflicted, rejoicing with the joyful and glad; counseling both these and those as the matter demanded with fatherly affection, making their adversities and prosperities his own by mourning and congratulating; mourning their adversities, rejoicing in their prosperities, which is an argument of true love. For it is written: "The exhibition of a work is the proof of love." Saint Gregory

[18] Those also who came for the sake of confession, he first as though bound by an oath, that after hearing his counsel they should return to their Bishops, about to confess the same crimes to them. Whom indeed he saw pertinacious and obstinate, and swearing that they would relate their crimes to no other, fearing lest they should fall into the pit of despair, if he did not hear them, at length overcome by their stubbornness, he received them to confession, according to the measure of their crimes enjoining the medicine of penance, He hears those confessing, yet not desisting strongly to persuade and vehemently to adjure them, that they should not hide from their Bishops the filthy things which they had uncovered to him; otherwise he imposed on them a grave and almost unbearable penance; since indeed those obliquely mocking him and carping at his deeds with biting tooth, having received authority from Pope Paschal II falsely said that he ought not to do so. Yet he received from the Lord Pope ^a Paschal through the Lord ^b Oduinus Abbot of ^c Saint Ghislain a mandate, that he should cheerfully hear all coming to him to confess the enormity of their crimes, and according to the quantity of the offenses burden them with the measure of penitential medicine: then this same thing was enjoined him by the Lord Pope ^d Innocent. and by Innocent II Whence from the above said we can gather how many uncovered to him their filth: who would never have revealed them to any other, about rather to perish in their iniquities. So great a concourse of peoples coming from everywhere flocked to him, that the place in which the man of God dwelt was so surrounded on every side, as sometimes castles or cities are wont to be besieged by enemies. Wherefore they so fatigued him that he could scarcely eat a little, and rest a little, as the nature of human frailty required. Whence also it often happened, that many desiring to speak secretly with him, and not being able to find place, crying out their miserable uncleannesses and abominable crimes publicly and with all hearing, confessed. But he responding to them according to time and place, gave salutary counsel. Very many indeed, pieces of his garments carried away like relics, who could come near to him, violently tore his garment, and whatever anyone could snatch from it, bore away, to have it for relics; while he cried out and grieved, and called himself a miserable sinner, and not such as they thought him.

[19] If therefore we wish faithfully to consider the deeds and sayings of this man, it will seem probable to us that the heart of so great a man, illustrated with so many and such great virtues, has by no means infected the spirit of elation with the venom of its wickedness; since he himself in the age of boyhood and youth had cautiously avoided the plague of that very pride with the sword of his enemy. He does not grow proud. Yet perhaps he could have been tempted by it, but with God giving the issue, he is not believed to have been able to be overcome: with which vice however many reputed wise are often deceived: because, as a certain Wise Man says, "In this light sometimes the rose is turned into mountain nard." For with all other vices pacified and utterly quieted, the watchful dragon and twisted serpent with every effort strives to mingle the venom of pestilent elation with good acts, and by it to corrupt the whole mass of sincerity and goodness; for when pride is mingled with whatever things or minds, it is the cause of their perdition: for it has long been accustomed to cast down Angels and men: Whence by a certain Wise Man it is commanded to be guarded against even in right actions. Whoever therefore is delighted by this pestilent plague, as Jerome says, is a Scribe and a Pharisee, more desiring to seem and to be called good than to be. Book 2 of the Commentary on chapter 23 of Matthew

[20] When therefore peoples, moved by the fame of this wonderful man, flowed to him from every part of the earth, let no one think that only the illiterate crowd and the unlearned came to him: nay, Bishops, Archdeacons, he is visited by Bishops and other great men, Abbots, Hermits, Nuns, and every kind of religious and literate men, noble men and women, frequented the holy man, rejoicing to commend themselves to his benefits and prayers, not unmindful of confession, and marveling at the man of God as at a beast of many heads. For who would not be astounded hearing a man drinking nothing at all for so many years, as has been said, not eating bread? marveling at his abstinence. As it seems to me, if he could thus altogether without food, just as without bread and drink, have lived longer somewhat, he would have eaten nothing at all. But since this, nature resisting, could by no means be done, he chose those not precious foods mentioned above to eat, using which he could scarcely retain his life. Since therefore I know that Christ is wonderful in his Saints, yet in myself being astonished I marvel, and marveling I cry out saying: O incomprehensible height of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Ps. 67 How many souls, deceived by diabolical fraud, from the snares of the devil did this simple man, somewhat mediocrely imbued with knowledge of letters, moderately educated, snatch by the medicine of confession and penance, nay, God through him! Rom. 11 Who if he was not in the adornment of the tabernacle typically a bowl, he produces great fruits: offering abundance of wisdom abundantly to many; he was at least a cup, inebriating many with moderate doctrine, sweetly instilling into their minds by God's inspiration oblivion of perpetrating most wicked things. Whence when he shall come to judgment, he will come not with empty hand, bringing many sheaves, and about to hear with rejoicing from the Lord: "Well done, good and faithful servant," etc. Matt. 25 Among whom he converted also that minstrel, trifles cast off, to the way of truth, by whose song divinely inspired he had first been converted to true religion.

[21] These things so written down, we say, if anyone wishes to consult the aforesaid and diligently weigh the order of the matter, he will find that the Priest of Christ mystically in the sacrifice of God offered the head not without the tail, Such a Priest, when walking from virtue to virtue, he joined a better exit to a good beginning, about to see happily the God of gods in Sion. Why do I delay on many things? That therefore whatever has been written diffusely above concerning the venerable man I may gather in brief, I say that his whole life was a martyrdom, a miracle, a consolation of the wretched, a solace of sinners, a labor and penance, a love and fear of him who in the Gospel speaks terribly, Following Christ saying: "Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, he takes up his cross: and follow me: otherwise he is not worthy of me." Luke 9 Whom he, hearing not with deaf ear, by bearing his cross, has quite expressly followed, loving him as a father, and fearing him as a lord. Nor is it to be doubted that Almighty God through his servant did both other miracles in his life and after death, which in due time by his help will shine forth written; he is believed to have been illustrious for miracles: since yet the virtue of charity had abounded in him in many ways, which is also common to the good alone; and far more worthy than the virtue of miracles, which is common to the good and to the bad. Since even though he did not have corporeal food, with which he might refresh the poor, and all who came to him, which is the effect of true love; yet he had the affection of good will, hidden in the treasure of the heart, than which nothing is richer to God: whence proceeded the bread of the word of God, with the word of God he refreshes others: with which he refreshed according to the measure of his doctrine all those needing it, which is so much better than bodily bread, as the soul is better than the body.

[22] Yet with great joyfulness of mind he offered to whomsoever to eat those rustic foods by which he himself was sustained. For what else should he give, who had nothing at all except the hairshirt with which his flesh was covered, and the gift of good will, which before God's eyes is no less bountiful than the munificent hand of a giver? So what he had, this he did. O if long ago among the ancient Fathers this golden star had glowed with so great splendor, with how many commendations and praises would it be celebrated today? to be compared to the ancient Fathers, For there are certain things which, the more ancient they are, the dearer they are, and of better estimation than things present and those which are held before one's eyes, chiefly because they are more ancient; which cause is quite weak and feeble. But if perhaps the force of times is so great that more ancient things prejudice things present in this respect, then it may truly be said that the praises and commendations of the holy man, which by the moderns are now kept silent, our posterity becoming veterans, with magnificent mouth admiring will chant. And since this Saint is of great merit before God, as a man of highest merit, let us beseech him, dearest brothers, sweetly and devoutly, that by his prayers and merits with the fount of mercy, our Lord Jesus Christ, He is invoked by the writer: he may obtain for us pardon of our sins, we who desire to extol his glory and honor, and who loved him living and dead, and for all piously and mercifully seeking his suffrage, and the joys of eternal beatitude to endure without end. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

Death, burial, miracles.

[23] But lest by dictating many things and writing more we seem to bring tedium to our hearers, we must stop over these things, and hasten to the end of the work as quickly as possible. Having therefore passed fifty years, not much more or less, from when he had been made a monk, to his end, in which so harshly, In the 60th year of his monkhood: as has been said, he exercised himself; those times being omitted in which he treated himself no more softly, living in the hermitage with John the glorious monk and holy Priest; having passed through, I say, so many years, a few days preceding the Lord's Pasch he began to be sick with a lethal disease. Who when he felt that in no way could he escape, he caused to be called Dom Ingelbertus, then time Prior of the Church of Crispin. Whom having been summoned, he was anointed with sacred oil by him, fortified with the last Sacraments, and by the participation of the Lord's Body and Blood was catholicly confirmed. Then on the very most sacred day of holy Pasch, which ^b then fell to be celebrated on the 7th day before the Ides of April, about the ninth hour of the day breathing out his spirit, he happily fell asleep in the Lord, from this world gloriously passing to the Father, with him perpetually to reign: but his sacred body, left unburied by his friends for two days, he dies on April 7, the day of Easter, was kept to be buried on the third day. Meanwhile Abbots, religious men and women, and with them peoples of both sexes, came together from every side to the exequies of the holy man, vigils having been held for two days, and with wax candles and lights, they piously and devoutly celebrated the vigils of both nights, about on the morrow honorably to bury the glorious one. But on the morrow, that is, on Tuesday, the sun pouring forth the rays of its brightness everywhere, the venerable body was buried by the Abbots of Crispin and of Saint-Amand, and other religious and honest men, with weeping and lamentation and great outcry in the same place he is buried in his cell: in which his cell had been: where by his merits and prayers to the sick and those piously asking him many benefits are granted, with our Lord Jesus Christ bestowing, he shines with miracles: who with the Father and Holy Spirit lives and reigns God through all ages of ages. Amen. ^c

[24] At the same time also Count Arnold ^d, not because he was a Count, Count Arnold but because he was the brother of the Count of this province of Hasnon, provoking death rather than life, was so enticed with fever. Who when he could by no means recover his health, held by a grave fever, groaning greatly more than to a cordial friend, does not yet reckon himself to be defrauded, if to the sight of the most blessed and most religious man, thus divulged through all nations, he might be able to come. Such things not long rolling in his mind, the place in which he knew one of so sought-after life to be sequestered, in whose sight hung the remedy of any crimes, after confession made to Saint Aybert, with hope more quickly approaching he receives: before the window of whose most narrow cell, where others had been accustomed to sit, he sat. There therefore various counsels of entreaties having been turned over among them, by the almightiness of our Lord Jesus Christ, the feverish man observes that if he were given drink from the drink of the blessed man, at once his several members would be restored to health. Many times indeed he vexed his mind with this word: "The Lord is able from the snare of this muddy infirmity to free me," by repetition of that man. Nor neglecting to make light of this reflection of mind, he asked the blessed man for his drink to be administered. The man of God therefore with a religious oath said to him, he seeks his drink: that he was utterly without beer, mead, wine, and all other drink whatsoever, except the water of the well near at hand. And the sick Count began not a little to entreat for the water of that well. Which heard, the man of God, full of good work, and crushing the morose crowd of pleasures, leading an angelic life, having summoned his attendant Hilmar, he takes water drawn from the well, ordered water drawn from the well to be brought to the Count. But this servant, following very many footsteps of his patron, draws water in a vessel diligently, and as diligently as he could offered it to the Lord the very mighty to be drunk. For indeed that remembrance which Jesus Christ to our first leaders revealed, when he blessed in the Supper of the highest Father's grace to his disciples the drink, the aforesaid Very Powerful awaits to be had by the servant of God. The man therefore beloved by God and by men, in this or a similar manner with his right hand extended, with the sign of the Cross blessed this creature of water: by the Saint's benediction "May the Son of God bless the drink of his servants." And the Count, the benediction finished, while he drank the drink of the same water, feels it so to be marrowed through his every member, as if it were mountain Falernian wine, changed into most excellent wine or of any kind of vine, since of marvelous potency. To this alone the voice quicker than the mind responds, that the water was made wine of this essence which he had tasted. Which heard, the man of God, lest he be judged a liar to God and men, more swiftly the cup being received, he felt the taste of that drink (either tasting a little or almost nothing), because for a long time past he had begun to macerate his body by any drink, all bread, vigils, fasts, prayers (abundantly distributing to the poor the alms bestowed on him in the Lord) and all exercises, as has been said: for it is found by reading, that no man is utterly without sin. Of very many in the Lives of the Fathers and elsewhere the most religious religion is read, but if it could be said, nothing to this one. For what mortal has ever been found almost thus without a speck of fragrant honey, suffused with sweetness in any place?

[25] But a certain monk, whose whole life was religion, Alulf by name, tasted by the monk Alulf. who by the public assessment of the Church of Crispin had been delegated to preserve the ecclesiastical and other benefices of that place, when he tasted the same drink, at once declared the omnipotence of Jesus Christ clearly to flourish there, and elsewhere now and always with the companies of the faithful. For who ever with pure heart invoked God, and was forsaken? Who serving him with faith is deserted? Abundantly this sacred man follows the precepts of the Psalmist saying, "Hope in God, and he will give you the petitions of your heart." Ps. 36:4 For he turns over in his heart so great a variety, to what first he may be able to tend, which he is in no way able to find: but now, with the frailty of the flesh demanding, he trembles with much greater fear, than if a monster or something of like horror he should see standing in his presence: but now according to custom, and equivalently in this manner or another, to invoke God and say, "O infinite Father of mercy, how comprehensible is your power to those obeying you, in whom are, through whom are, from whom are all things; through you the grace of the world in whom is eternal salvation; from whom whatever good proceeds best, every holy thing more holy, every proved thing more proved; pardoner of crimes, consoler of the wretched, bestower of joys, medicine of vices; having suffered weeping to

evening, from deep dawn before the morning star, you have wiped out through Jesus your Son his efforts, who console us in our several tribulations: to you be praise, salvation and glory, honor, power and empire through endless ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

EPITAPH OF SAINT AYBERT.

Aybert the Priest, recluse of the Benedictine Order, in Hainaut (Saint)

In this tomb is laid the Recluse renowned throughout the world, Dom Aybert: who slaying his flesh on the cross, Was the Pasch of Christ, when he kept his own Pasch. Let that mighty King be praised through you, Aybert, Who to you, mortally clothed with the covering of flesh, By a manifestly marvelous gift gave the food of life.

RECENT MIRACLES.

From Various Sources.

Aybert the Priest, recluse of the Benedictine Order, in Hainaut (Saint)

[26] In the year 1609 the Senate and people of Valenciennes sought and obtained from the Abbot of Crispin the shrine of Saint Aybert, Relics carried around at Valenciennes together with the body of Saint Landelinus and the pledges of other Saints, to be carried around the city in processional pomp. That solemnity completed, the shrine was brought back to Crispin, and I, says John Cognatus in book 3 of the History of Tournai, chapter 44, while visiting certain abbeys of Hainaut, arrived there on the very day on which the keepers of the chapel of Saint Aybert had come, to bring back the shrine to the chapel. I therefore was granted that happiness of honoring then the body of Saint Aybert, the chapel saved from fire, both in the church of Saint Landelinus at Crispin, and in his chapel and along the way: and on that occasion I heard that when in our age a fire had seized the very estate which is there, and the part of the chapel nearest to it; a certain tenant of that estate, touched not so much with the sense of the perishing house as of the endangered chapel and shrine, threw himself on his knees; praying to God, that he would at least wish the chapel to be safe. At which the whole house burned, but in the chapel the fire was extinguished of itself, without anyone bringing aid by pouring water, or otherwise opposing the flame as it grew.

[27] Another marvel also is attributed to the merits of the same Saint, and a boy from drowning. likewise performed in our memory. The son of a bailiff, who was working the aforementioned estate, had carelessly fallen into Saint Aybert's well (whence I too devoutly tasted the water drawn), near to the aforesaid Chapel: whom his household, thinking he would be brought out dead, were astonished to find him drawn up by them full of life and health: but he himself, asked how he had remained safe, answered that Saint Aybert had been with him, and as he had caught him gently falling, so he had held up the fallen one that he might not be suffocated. Thus far Cognatus: what follows, performed at Espain, and printed in French at Tournai in the year 1613 with the approbation of the Most Reverend of Tournai, we received from Father Peter Lechon, Rector of our College at Tournai, which also in volume 4 of the History of Tournai chapter 40 John Cognatus, mentioned above, inserted word for word: and they were again printed separately in the year 1626.

[28] Another brought to the last extremity by fevers, John Verie, son of Peter Laboureur and Catherine Simon, living in the village of Bleheries of the parish of Espain, five years and ten months old, when for the space of a whole year, excepting only three weeks, he had suffered fever; for the last twelve days of his illness he was so gravely afflicted that, because he was feared to be dying, many continuous nights it was necessary to watch by the one lying there. It happened meanwhile that in the year 1611 on April 10, the relics of Saint Aybert were brought to Espain: whose fame heard, the parents of the sick boy conceived great confidence of obtaining for their son health; and him, though on account of excessive weakness refusing, on the 13th day of the said month they brought to the church of Espain: where after hearing the office of the Mass and imploring divine aid, he recovers by kissing the relics. At Espain. they brought the son to kiss the relics of the holy man, and in a short time felt their power. For scarcely were they returning home, when the boy said he was feeling better since he had kissed the sacred pledges: at home placed on a chair before the fire, he began to play and chat with those present, nor thenceforth did he need to lie on the bed, or feel fever. But on the next day, to give thanks to God and Saint Aybert, the boy was brought back to Espain by his parents: who caused the sacrifice of the Mass to be offered, with the intention of doing the same for nine continuous days. The boy recovered full strength in such a short time, that from the fifth and sixth day of the novena devotion he was able to go to Espain on foot, and thereafter remained constantly well, as is established by the declaration of the aforenamed father and mother, of the Parson of Espain, and others testifying the matter under oath at Bleheries in the year 1612, on the 29th and 30th days of March, before Master Nicolas Philip Loys, Licentiate of Sacred Theology and Dean of Tournai, deputed for this by the Most Reverend of Tournai: whose depositions, duly examined, the said Most Reverend of Tournai judged should be admitted, with the counsel of his Vicariate, on the 9th day of April of the year aforenoted.

[29] John le Roux, fifty years old, a tenant of the village of Saint-Amand-en-Pabula, a long fever is driven out in the same hour, a fisherman by profession, and serving in the abbey of the said place, from the beginning of June of the year 1611 to the middle of September bore a fever, and this in the last fifteen days of the said illness so grave, that scarcely for two or three hours a day did it remit. It happened that a certain relative of his from Mortagne, who had come to visit him, brought up a discussion of the benefits, which were said to be obtained through Saint Aybert at Espain: and he urged that he should send someone there for three days, to ask grace for him. This counsel seemed too slow to the sick man, and he thought it better to dispatch three of his own there in one day, namely his wife, his brother, and his sister. These on the following light, about the 5:30 morning hour, while others supplicate at Espain for the sick man. leaving the man in his bed gravely feverish, set out on the journey, and arrived at Espain a little after seven. At the very time when they were praying in the church, the sick man fell asleep at home, who for the preceding days had been unable to take any sleep; and then waking up, and feeling himself free from fever, he rose from bed, put on his clothes, approached the fire, and in that state was found by his own returning home. But fasting as he was, before he tasted anything, he drank the water brought from Saint Aybert's well: which very thing he persevered in doing for three or four days. At length, thinking that he had been healed in the same hour in which the pilgrims were praying for him at Espain, he diligently asked them the hour at which they had arrived there; and finding it to be the very same in which he had been restored, he promised himself to go to Espain with his wife: which on the next Sunday he did, and again afterwards. As is more fully declared by the depositions of John le Roux himself, of Stephen his brother, and of Jassina Potier his wife; who in the Village of Saint-Amand, on the 29th day of March and the 7th of June, in the year 1612, sworn, unanimously testified that this cure, in the manner stated, happened, before the aforesaid Lord Dean of Christianity, deputed for this by the Most Reverend of Tournai, and before many witnesses.

[30] Martin du Sart, twenty-eight years old, living in the suburb of Saint-Amand outside the Tournai gate, the same coming to visit the relics on Wednesday before the feast of Saints James and Christopher, in the year 1611 was seized with fever, which compelled him to lie in bed for three continuous weeks; whence without another's help he could in no way move himself, and often also was driven from a state of mind: thenceforth he languished with a slow fever until the second feria of Easter of the year 1612, when he conceived the vow, that if on the morrow he could stand with his feet in some way, he would, God favoring, go to Espain, and there invoke Saint Aybert, to obtain health by his intercession. In the morning he did what he had promised; and, He is freed from a slow fever: although with the greatest difficulty, yet was present at the sacred sacrifice of the Mass with his wife, and duly invoked the saint. Thence they return home; and because they were expecting the fever to return that day, again he and his wife promised God and Saint Aybert, that if with their good help he was healed, they would again go to Espain: and from that day, having suffered no more fever, he certainly believes that by the merits of Saint Aybert he was healed. Concerning which matter Martin himself and others by the mandate of the aforesaid Most Reverend were heard, and examined before his Vicariate, in the year 1612, on the 10th day of December, and it was permitted that this cure be published as miraculous, T. Noppenus signing in place of the Bishop. Let us add to these three others, excerpted by Rayssius from the monuments of Crispin.

[31] As also the cook of Crispin, Jacobus Dorliens, cook of the abbey of Crispin, had labored with a quartan fever: against which evil he tried in vain every aid of the medical art. For six and a half months the sick man was so pressed, until on May 2, 1626, the help of Saint Aybert having been invoked, immediately he was freed from the fever, nor afterwards did it ever return. And he made this attested on the 6th day before the Kalends of June, in the year 1629, both to others specifically summoned for this purpose, men worthy of trust, and to his Pastor, to whom on account of his outstanding gifts both of mind and body all confidence is to be given.

[32] The most choice woman Agnes Meurin, wife of Vincent Massenaire, merchant of Ath, and a woman of Ath at Crispin. had been so involved with the troubles of pestilential fevers, that she was brought into the danger of her life. She beyond all expectation, when she fled to the sanctuary of the best Confessor of Christ Aybert, suddenly recovered. This gift of such sudden health, conferred on her by the intervention of Saint Aybert, she herself affirmed under oath before witnesses worthy of trust, and signed in her own name, in the year 1629, on the 6th day before the Ides of May.

[33] A contracted girl also is healed. Martha, daughter of Jaspar Bourgeois and Anne François, of Crispin, in the twenty-fourth year or thereabouts of her age, a certain quite vehement contraction of the nerves vexed her for about a year, so that she could not walk at all, on account of one shin being more drawn up than the other. And when again and again she had implored the helping hands of Saint Aybert, the good daughter at last is restored to her former health. Afterwards she and her mother and her brother, Landelinus by name, on the 6th day before the Nones of Quintilis in the year 1629, in the presence of the Pastor,

the Bailiff, and many others of the same place, declared and affirmed it to be consonant with the truth.

PRAYER TO BE RECITED BY THE FEVER-STRICKEN.

O most holy Father Aybert, faithful and just servant of the Most High God, who grantest relief to the fever-stricken, and conferrest healing on those held by various kinds of diseases; I beseech thee by thy accustomed piety to have mercy on me, and restore me, vexed by long and grave ailment of fevers, by thy holy prayers to former health; that sound in mind and body, I may be able to give due thanks to Almighty God, and constantly serve him.

V. Pray for us, blessed Father Aybert.

R. That cleansed from the stain of crimes, we may live blessedly after the end of this life.

LET US PRAY.

Almighty eternal God, who by the merits of Blessed Aybert thy Confessor, by the taking of the water of his well, hast willed the weak bodies of the faithful to be called back to their former health; grant, we beseech, that we, anointed from the fount of thy mercy, despising the enticements of this world, may deserve with integrity of mind and body to arrive at the heavenly reward. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

ON BLESSED HERMAN JOSEPH,

OF THE PREMONSTRATENSIAN ORDER, AT STEINFELD IN GERMANY.

AFTER THE YEAR 1230

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Herman Joseph, of the Premonstratensian Order, at Steinfeld in Germany (Blessed)

BY G. H.

§ I. Life of Blessed Herman written by an eyewitness: testimonies of others: his own little works.

Steinfeld is an ancient and celebrated Abbey of the Premonstratensian Order, in the diocese and dominion of the Archbishops of Cologne, inserted into the region of Eifel, and situated among four towns, of which mention is made below in the history of the miracles. The first of these toward the North can be reckoned Tulpiacum, Steinfeld in Eifel, in ancient sources Tolbiacum and Tolpiacum: to which more toward the East is joined the Monastery of Eifel. But toward the South is seen Blankenheim, and what is closest to Steinfeld, extending westward, Rifferscheid. The Steinfeld monastery is said to have been begun in the tenth century of Christ, formerly a monastery of nuns, and for 177 years inhabited by nuns: in whose place about the beginning of the 12th century Regular Canons were substituted, called from the monastery of Springiersbach in the diocese of Trier: then of Regular Canons, afterwards of the Premonstratensian Order. who stirred by the illustrious fame of the Premonstratensian Order, begun by Saint Norbert about the year 1120 and spreading in a marvelous manner, submitting themselves to this, took up the white habit of the said Order.

[2] The Life of Blessed Herman Joseph written by an eyewitness, Among these Steinfeld Canons, in the first century of the Premonstratensian Order, flourished Blessed Herman, afterwards called Joseph; illustrious while he lived by the exercises of virtues and the grace of revelations, and soon after death heaped by God with the benefits of miracles. All of which, that they might be known to posterity, a certain monk of this Steinfeld convent was stirred to write down concerning the blessed man, what he himself had either seen with his own eyes, or had known from his mouth, or had learned from the Brothers most familiar to him, or finally what by celebrated opinion had been so spread abroad that nothing could rightly be contradicted, as is often indicated in the Prologue and in the Acts themselves. Laurence Surius had this Life, published in contracted form by Surius, and published it with the style changed throughout, so contracted that he sometimes omitted whole chapters, and scarcely touched a fourth part of his miracles. Wherefore John Chrysostom Vander-Sterre, in full by Chrysostom Vander-Sterre, in the year 1627 Prior at Antwerp of the Premonstratensian Order, afterwards Abbot and devoted to our studies of the Lives of the Saints, strove to review this Life, and publish it illustrated with more ample notes: whom in that dignity Norbert van Couwerven and Macarius Simeomo succeeded: to each of whom we inscribed some preface in the Acta Sanctorum of February and March, testifying their benevolent spirit in promoting our studies. This Life consists of two treatises, of which the former touches only on those things it consists of two treatises: which from his first boyhood to his very old age or last year of life were happily performed. But the other treatise, after a brief recapitulation of his whole life, embraces the death of the blessed man, the translation of his body, and very many miracles by which God adorned him. The latter treatise seems however to have been composed before the longer Life, contained in the former treatise, was compiled, or at least published. For the author thus prefaces the latter treatise: "Those things which either I myself have seen, or have truthfully understood from those who saw and truly knew, I have faithfully noted in the present paper, as far as brevity of time allowed, omitting many things, which in another little work (if thou, highest Maker, wilt grant) I shall treat more fully, more lucidly, and more sweetly." Thus the Author, who at the end calls the said latter treatise a little refreshment of lunch, and promises a supper fuller with more exquisite dishes, in which these and other things both done and to be done will be more fully written, which he fulfilled in the earlier treatise, which the historical order requires should be put first.

[3] The Author nowhere reveals his own name: something is hinted in the later treatise number 8 about the sacristan of Steinfeld, whether the author was its sacristan, who went to a frantic man, and engaged himself that the man would be freed by God through the Saint's merits; and it is added, "who also wrote this." But this single miracle of the healed frantic man seems to be meant, which either ordered or of his own accord the sacristan offered in writing to the author of the life, at least a man of outstanding sanctity, whose being among the Steinfeld Canons a man of outstanding authority the admonitions often interposed to his own for greater reformation of morals and religious life indicate, and especially the venerable Elisabeth, a Cistercian nun, with her commendation reported in number 39, by which she diligently admonishes the writer (after she had been fortified by him, in the presence of Blessed Joseph, with extreme unction) that he strive by all means to beware, lest ever by word or deed he disturb him: mercifully to condescend to his infirmity, and in all things, in which he could, to bring him aid. Surius suspects that he was Abbot or another Superior of Steinfeld. whether Abbot or Superior? Surius's opinion is embraced by Peter Cratepolius in the treatise on the Saints of Germany, by Zacharias Lippelous, or at least by Cornelius Grasius in the Select Lives of the Saints on May 24, and by the mentioned Vander-Sterre in his annotations on this Life: which he asserts that he had faithfully brought forth from the ancient manuscript codex of the Steinfeld monastery, from which MSS. published? but the latter treatise he had compared with another manuscript of the monastery of Marchtall, in the diocese of Constance and the circary of Swabia, sent by Andrew Binder, Prior of the same place. He adds that in the manuscript codex this title was prefixed four hundred years ago: "Here begins the Life of Saint Joseph, Priest and Confessor, Canon in Steinfeld."

[4] The Life of the same Blessed Herman Joseph, in verses which they call leonine, but very simple and rough, was composed in the year 1358 by William Vressenich, then fulfilling the office of Pastor, Another Life written in verse by William Vressenich, in the following year elected Abbot of Steinfeld. The beginning of the poem is as follows:

"The birth of Herman of Cologne, a poor man"

But it ends with these verses:

"Truly of the Saints it is read that none has had so many Discourses with the Virgin Mother Mary, as Joseph had."

Another Life of the same Herman in the manner of a dialogue, with a Master and Novice speaking in turn, another in dialogue form by Razo Bonusvicinus, was composed by Razo Bonusvicinus, otherwise Goetgebuer, from a celebrated family of Ghent, Licentiate of Sacred Theology at Paris, and Master of novices at Steinfeld, who died on October 18 of the year 1509. This Life, printed at Cologne, while the author was still alive (for this is suggested by the form of the letters), we had from the abbatial Library of Saint Michael, but mutilated in the first and last leaf, where perhaps the time of printing and name of the author were expressed, and from it compared with the ancient context we have noted various things in the Annotations. It is divided into 31 Chapters, and interpolated with brief admonitions, otherwise much more succinct than the former; whose prolixity producing tedium for some gave the occasion for writing it, as is said in the prologue: and in chapter 11 the Father thus addresses his Novice: "I said at the beginning, I do not wish to strike new things (for I neither can nor wish), but from those things which I found written more diffusely concerning him, as much as I could, to entice you both by his examples and by my words to such a most holy life of his." The name of Razo as author of the Life published by Surius is wrongly printed in Francis Haraeus, in his compendium on the Lives of the Saints, in Aubertus Miraeus in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti, in Heribert Rosweyde in the Belgian Legendary, and in others: which it is enough to have here warned of. Besides the authors already praised, another metrical one by Peter de Waghenaer, a metrical Life of Blessed Herman Joseph, Canon and Priest of Steinfeld, Peter de Waghenaer composed and dedicated to the Supreme Pontiff Alexander VII, Canon of the same Premonstratensian Order among the Furnenses in Flanders: who at the end subjoined with a list of authors who treat of him. a list of seventy-two authors, of various orders, states, and nations, celebrated for piety, erudition, and writings, who in preaching and by pen, or in Martyrologies, Fasti, Hagiologies, Natales, Histories, Commentaries, and ascetic booklets, through five centuries, gave testimony of the fame of the sanctity of Blessed Herman Joseph. Among these 72 authors, twenty-six illustrious Writers of the Society of Jesus are expressed by their names, among whom stand out Peter Canisius, Jacobus Alvarez de Paz, Matthaeus Rader, Cornelius a Lapide, Herman Crumbach, Paul Barry, Jeremiah Drexel, Nicolaus Lancicius, Antonius Balinghem, and others, whose treatises, in which they treat of Blessed Herman Joseph, are indicated by the said Waghenaer. Others translated the life of this blessed man into other languages: which Peter Boreus, Canon of the Abbey of Saint John at Amiens, rendered into French; Cornelius Hanegravius, Head of the Premonstratensian college at Rome, published in Italian; and Gaspar Tsandoel, Canon of the Tongerloo monastery, in Flemish, as above. Finally, the same Life Christopher Pilckmann, Abbot of the Steinfeld monastery fifty years ago, illustrated in German rhythms.

[5] The little works that Blessed Herman Joseph published are reviewed below in the Life: Little works published by Blessed Herman. from them various rhythms were subjoined to the Life by Chrysostom Vander-Sterre, among which is the Iubilus, pertaining to the history of Saint Ursula and her companions, which how it was composed, or rather dictated to him from heaven, is narrated in the Life. Also two books of revelations, concerning the Passion or History of the eleven thousand Ursulan Virgins, and their expedition and pilgrimage, Herman Crumbach published with his annotations in Saint Ursula Vindicated, book 7, from page 512 to page 654, attempting from the aforesaid life to prove in book 1 chapters 24 and 25 that they were composed by Blessed Herman of Steinfeld. In favor of that opinion is that Razo Bonusvicinus, whether also the books of revelations of the Ursulans? after narrating the manner in which the Ursulan hymn with its notes was composed by Joseph, as is had in the Life number 29, receiving the said books of Revelations as beyond doubt, before chapter 13 places this title: "Many secrets of the deeds of the holy virgins are revealed to him." And the content of chapter 12, ending in these words: "the Numbers also (of the said hymn namely)"

the holy Virgin who had appeared to him from the Ursulans adapted, so that now our Brother truly played the parts of a notary rather than of one dictating; the context I say he thus continues: "the things which concerning the kind of her companions (and indeed by name for each individual) concerning moreover their departure and consummation had previously been known to no one, from this Virgin, he most truly learned, and most faithfully committed to writing: which things have hitherto been most faithfully preserved in his house." But how could the author of the Life either have been ignorant of so illustrious a matter, indeed more illustrious than all those reported in the Life, or known of it and either altogether omit it, or touch on it so obscurely, that it cannot prudently be believed that he wished to treat of it at all? For suppose in the latter Treatise number 2 mention is made of certain revelations in general, by which he had been consoled by the holy Virgins, and that when he had composed words for the praise of their history, with them teaching and chanting beforehand, he learned the melody of almost the whole history: and that some of the Virgins had also deigned to reveal their names to him; scarcely, however, can these be extended beyond the hymn afore-cited, and the proper lessons for the divine Office: for these in the former age were designated by the name of "history" in the rubrics of Breviaries, and to these alone was his melody to be adapted. More we shall say on October 21.

§ II. Time of the Life of Blessed Herman, year and day of death: sacred cult.

[6] [He had a revelation concerning the martyrdom of Saint Engelbert in the year 1225.] There is only one testimony in the ancient Life, in number 23, concerning the time at which Blessed Herman Joseph lived, where it is treated of the martyrdom of Saint Engelbert, Archbishop of Cologne, previously shown to him: which happened in the year of Christ 1225. How long thereafter he lived is nowhere suggested. In the latter treatise he is said to have departed on the 3rd Sunday of Lent to the monastery of Cistercian Virgins, and on the third feria after Palm Sunday to have been seized with fever: afterwards, Blessed Herman died on the 5th day of Easter week, when on the fifth day of Easter week freed from the flesh, and in the tomb of swampy earth, naturally damp, he had been laid, and on the third day of Pentecost exhumed, the sacred little body was found uncorrupted. Thus there, where there is a bare character of "the fifth feria of the days of Easter," on which he was freed from the flesh: but this feria recurs every year: and it seems that both the said fifth feria of Easter and the third of Pentecost among the Canons of Steinfeld remained in some reverence in the century immediately after his death, because of the happy death of Blessed Herman Joseph and the reception and deposition of his body in their monastery. Hence afterwards a controversy arose among authors as to what day he died, some assigning the seventh of April, others the fourth or third for his death or burial.

[7] In the most ancient obituary of the convent of Hoven of the Cistercian Order, and according to most, April 7, in which he is said to have died, his death is noted on the 7th day before the Ides of April, Vander-Sterre observes in his Notations, and adds that in the same Codex these things are found in the most ancient hand: "Let it be known to all the daughters of this Church, both future and present, that these are the Brothers whom we have received with full charity, and hold commended with special prayer, the Brothers of Peter's Valley, that is Heisterbach, of Sigeberg, and of Steinfeld." In the year 1644 Hermann Mylius, printer of Cologne, wrote to us these words: "I have come across various images of Blessed Herman called Joseph, sculpted at Antwerp, to which was added the 4th day of April: whereas here in the fatherland the ancient tradition is plainly contrary: which Surius followed and placed his Life on April 7. I, inquiring more curiously, treated of this matter with the Prelate of Steinfeld, who answered that the first of April in the Hemerology (in which all days of death of whatever Brother of the same Convent are reported) was marked by the death of Blessed Herman: nay, his memory was hitherto observed and is still observed on that day at Steinfeld. I would like sculptors to be warned to assign him April 7 or none. And if they perhaps have any argument to the contrary, to the greater praise of the Saint's cognomen, I will gladly refute it." Thus the said Hermann Mylius. But easily a hundred years before Surius, on April 7 the author of the Manuscript Florarium reported the following: "On the same day of Blessed Herman monk and Confessor." About the same time also flourished Hermann Greven, Carthusian of Cologne, who died in the year 1480, who in his additions to Usuard has the following: "Also in Eifel at the monastery of Steinfeld, of holy memory Herman, who was also called Joseph on account of his simplicity." Which eulogy Canisius inserted in his German Martyrology, and Molanus in his additions to Usuard often reprinted, who wove a greater encomium in the Natales Sanctorum Belgii, and Miraeus in the Belgian and Burgundian Fasti, that for the sake of his studies he had lived some years in Frisia. Constantine Ghinius also celebrates him with a long encomium in the Natales Sanctorum Canonicorum, as does Balinghemius in the Marian Calendar. Finally Wion and Dorganius inscribed him in the Benedictine Martyrologies, for what reason we do not know, unless perhaps it suffices that he died his last day in a Cistercian monastery. By the example of all these Ferrarius reported him in his general Catalogue. A compendium of his life on the same 7th day is mentioned by Haraeus in Latin, by Rosweyde in Flemish, by Valentine Leuchtius and Francis Agricola in Lives of the Saints published in German. William Gazaeus and Dionysius Mudtzardt in the Ecclesiastical Histories of Belgium, and several others follow. According to their opinion, it should be said that Blessed Herman Joseph departed this life in the year 1233, when with cycle of the Moon 18 and of the Sun 10, Dominical letter B, Easter fell on the 3rd day of April, and the fifth feria of Easter on the 7th of the same April: translated on May 24. and the third of Pentecost on May 24, on which day Gelenius in the Agrippinian Fasti, and Vander-Sterre in the Natales Sanctorum Praemonstratensium celebrate the Translation of the body; on which day also his Life was published by Lippelous and the Carthusian Grasius.

[8] Others meanwhile contend that the death of Blessed Herman Joseph fell on the 4th day of April, according to others he is said to have died on April 4, which Vander-Sterre asserts is clearly declared by two Necrologies or Memorial books of the Steinfeld Church, one of which was written four hundred years ago, in which his Natal is placed on April 4, Peter Rostius, Canon of Steinfeld, indicated to him. But to this could be opposed the authority of the Prelate of Steinfeld, asserting that April 7 in the Hemerology was marked by the death of Blessed Herman, and his memory was hitherto observed and still observed on that day at Steinfeld in the year 1644, as we said above from the letters of Hermann Mylius. Another argument is taken from the Dialogue Life of Razo Bonusvicinus printed at Cologne in 1511, in which in chapter 26 he is said to have died in the year 1226, on the day before the Nones of April, which day is held a feast for the holy Bishop Ambrose. Thus Razo, about three centuries younger than Blessed Herman Joseph. Saint Ambrose died on the day before Easter, and his Natal in the Milanese church is transferred to the fifth feria after Easter: so that for this reason Razo could have read the cult of both as falling on the same day. Whether Saint Ambrose departed this life on April 4 or rather April 17 of the same month, we shall elsewhere discuss at greater length. Furthermore, the day April 4 indicated by Razo of the year 1226 in no way agrees with the Easter fifth feria, but would fall on the Saturday before Passion Sunday, Easter then being celebrated on April 19. Despite this, some more recent writers have assumed April 4. There was a Premonstratensian Breviary printed at Madrid, in whose Calendar on April 7 these words are said to be placed: "Blessed Joseph-Herman, Double," Vander-Sterre relates from the letters of Michael Maldonat, and he is venerated with an ecclesiastical office, Subprior of the Madrid convent and Procurator General of the Spanish Congregation. We have an order for reciting the divine office printed in the year 1640 and others, in which for the Order of Canons Premonstratensian are assigned on the 4th day of April these words: "Joseph Priest and Confessor, Double." On which April 4 also the same Canons Premonstratensian in Belgium celebrated the sacred memory of the said Joseph with ecclesiastical office, and with a long encomium the same Vander-Sterre venerates him in the Natales Sanctorum Ordinis Praemonstratensis: and consequently in his annotations on this Life, he holds that he died in the year 1241, and he would have died in the year 1240 when with cycle of the Moon 7, of the Sun 18, Dominical letter F, Easter was celebrated on March 31, and the fifth feria of Easter fell on April 4.

[9] But since Molanus, Miraeus, Rosweyde and commonly others write that Blessed Herman Joseph died in the year of Christ 1236, according to Gelenius he died on April 3, Aegidius Gelenius took another way in the Agrippinian Fasti, and on April 3 writes the following: "On the same day the passage of Blessed Herman of Cologne, surnamed Joseph, concerning whom on the following day." And then on April 4 he has: "On the same day the festivity of Blessed Herman of Cologne, Canon Premonstratensian at Steinfeld, and he is venerated on the 4th on which he would have been buried, a monastery of the same diocese, on account of his simplicity and singular affection of devotion to the blessed Virgin Mary surnamed Joseph, who divinely illuminated revealed many bodies of the holy Virgins, and predicted the martyrdom of Saint Engelbert, and followed him eleven years after, namely in the year 1236, on the fifth feria after Easter, and on the following day April 4 was buried." Thus there, but with the words to be read in transposed order. The same Gelenius on April 7 observes that then by most is his natal day reviewed: and consequently on May 24 he has: "Translation of Blessed Herman of Cologne, surnamed Joseph, Canon and Priest of the Premonstratensian Order, to the church at Steinfeld of the diocese of Cologne, where in great veneration, illustrious with wonderful miracles, he hitherto rests." Thus Gelenius and nearly from Chrysostom Vander-Sterre: who has the same things on the said May 24, but in the Notations on this Life, judging it an error, he establishes May 21, on which the Translation would have taken place in the year 1241. But Gelenius, while with others he establishes that he died in the year 1236, in the year 1236, for the Translation should assign May 20: for in that leap year, with cycle of the Moon 2, of the Sun 13, Dominical letters F E, Easter was March 30, and the fifth feria of Easter fell on April 3, and the feast of Pentecost on May 18. We do not review the opinions of others, because they do not observe that he died on the fifth feria of Easter, which however from the ancient Life is certain; although the burial could have happened on the morrow, and attracted to itself the annual festival.

[10] To us the day and year of death remains doubtful. All these things having been accurately weighed, we judge indeed that the year, month, and day in which Blessed Herman Joseph departed this life cannot by evident arguments be altogether approved: yet greater verisimilitude stands for April 7, and therefore we give these to the public light on that day; giving to all

and each full liberty, that they may also bring these back to the 4th day of this month for their greater devotion, since in some monasteries the principal solemnity of him is then celebrated; on the margin at the beginning we inscribe both days, and we hold that he died after the year 1230: whether three, six, or even eleven years be added to it.

§3. Relics, statues and images, Acts at Rome for his cult.

[11] Blessed Herman Joseph has at Steinfeld a raised tomb, in which his sacred body rests, Ancient tomb of relics, but it is not known at what time it was raised from the earth: but from the frequency of miracles we do not doubt that it was done formerly. The said tomb is old, sculpted from wood, and beautifully painted; and in the year 1509, placed in the middle of the church in 1509: by Abbot John of the monastery of Eifel, it was translated from the place of burial to the middle of the church together with the altar, which is commonly called Blessed Joseph-Herman's. In a tablet of the Sacristy these things are read: "The third altar outside the iron railings altar is consecrated in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Blessed Joseph Confessor, Blessed Peter, Andrew, and Matthias the Apostles, and of Saints Dionysius and Nicasius, Martyrs and Pontiffs, and of Blessed Catherine Virgin, whose effigies are placed on the doors of the altar." But these doors, with the larger painting which they cover, are now shown to be translated to another altar: and in their place above the aforesaid altar has been raised a not inelegant shrine-work structure, which being penetrable to air and sight less impedes the view toward the choir. To this kind of tomb is affixed the Epitaph: Epitaph.

In this tomb lies simple Joseph, that dove, The delight of Mary, the great glory of the homeland.

[12] Near the burial place is seen a beautiful statue of this Blessed one, reaching the full height of a man; which has on the right hand an equally tall icon of Blessed Mary. statue, There was some image of him sculpted in Germany, in which he is expressed in his ancient regular habit, image with keys, chalice, and roses to which from the belt are hung several keys, and with the other hand he holds a chalice, from which three flowers rise like roses. Where by the keys the office of Sacristan, which he held, seems to be meant. It is said among the people of Steinfeld to be a tradition, that the Virgin Mother of God scattered roses through his room, which he gathered with his chalice. Whatever may be of that tradition, in which we do not place much confidence, since that apparition is not found in the ancient Acts; it seemed enough to the painters, that they should fashion the image so. Chrysostom Vander-Sterre has mystical explanations of it: as if it were signified that he was sometimes filled with heavenly odor under the sacrifice of the Mass, or that he was accustomed to call the Virgin Mother of God "rose." Another effigy of the same Blessed one the said Vander-Sterre caused to be made, in which with one arm he devoutly clasps the boy Jesus, with the other he holds a lily. Rosweyde in the Belgian Legendary among other Saints, [another image with the boy Jesus, another with the Virgin Mother of God and Angels.] who are venerated in the month of April, caused Blessed Herman Joseph to be sculpted conversing with the Virgin Mother of God, offering him the boy Jesus. Among the rarer pictures which are seen in the church and oratories of the Sodalities at Antwerp in the professed House of the Society of Jesus, is in the Sodality or Congregation of young men some painting of this Blessed Herman Joseph, formed by Anthony Van Dyck, in which the said Blessed one receives as bride the Virgin Mother of God appearing between two Angels, as that history is explained below in the Life number 22. Hermann Spruit, Priest of the Society of Jesus, who then directed that Congregation, afterwards constituted Rector of the colleges of Aalst, Ypres, and Bruges, wished to stir his Sodales by this representation to the love of the Virgin Mother of God.

[13] Vander-Sterre closes his Notations with three Prayers, which were formerly composed and recited concerning Blessed Herman Joseph, of which we here give one found in the Maresse monastery, but composed for the people of Steinfeld, which is of this kind: "O God, ancient form, who didst deign to call Blessed Herman to the height of monastic perfection by a wonderful vision, and to strengthen him with the aids of thy grace, so that he might deserve to be betrothed to the Mother of thy most beloved Son under the name of the most chaste Joseph, and enjoy her stupendous familiarity throughout all his life; mercifully grant that, him whom thou hast willed to shine with wonderful virtues and flourish with miracles in this place, we may be aided by his most worthy intercession, and be gifted with perpetual beatitude in heaven, with thy Only-begotten and his most holy Mother. Through the same Lord, etc."

[14] Notable relics of Blessed Herman Joseph are preserved at Cologne in the Parochial church of Saint Christopher, Relics at Cologne, which Norbert of Horichem, Abbot of Steinfeld, conferred on it with pious munificence, whose hall and seminary of the Order are contained within the parochial territory: in which hall is seen a chapel of Blessed Herman Joseph, into which on account of wartime incursions his sacred body, long most religiously preserved in the Steinfeld church, as is described below in the Process, brought afterwards, was there still preserved in the year 1660, when led there by Hermann Crumbach, Priest of the Society of Jesus, we venerated these sacred relics, enclosed in an oblong chest, but this on account of the absence of the Superior was not opened for us. Some other Relics of the same Blessed one the Abbey of Park near Louvain has, and Tongerloo, with a lofty and elegant statue, which we venerated there in the year 1669. The Carthusians of Cologne also have some, concerning which elsewhere. Moreover, providing for the destruction of the whole sacred Body, to be feared from such distributions of Relics, John Roberti, by divine permission humble Abbot of the monastery of Blessed Mary of Floreffe, separation forbidden hereafter. of the Premonstratensian Order, diocese of Namur, and Vicar of the Most Reverend General in the Circaries of Floreffe, Flanders, Ponthieu, and Westphalia; when among the other duties of Visitation he had venerated the most holy Relics of Blessed Joseph and of other Saints, which rest and are venerated in the Church of Steinfeld; and had found the same Relics diminished by various distributions, and apparently about to be diminished by importunate solicitations of various persons, unless by some suitable remedy such a treasure should be preserved; thought it worthwhile to command and forbid the Abbot of Steinfeld, lest hereafter by himself or others of the said Relics of Blessed Joseph, or of other Saints male and female resting in that church, he should distribute or allow to be distributed to any persons, of whatsoever quality they might be, without the express license of the said Most Reverend Lord General or the Father Visitor: signing the mandate thereon made in the year of the Lord 1619, February 9.

[15] How diligently it has been labored, to promote his cult, thus Vander-Sterre relates to the Reader: "The Emperor Ferdinand II with most instant prayers from the Holy Apostolic See through his Orator Prince Savelli, and through the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Cardinals, Intercession of Emperor Ferdinand II to the Pope for his cult and veneration. Protectors of the famous German nation, sought that divine and public honors be decreed to the same Most Blessed Joseph, formerly called Herman … who four hundred years ago (these are the words of the most pious Caesar) lived with such integrity of life and manners and sanctity, that in all his actions always something divine shone forth, and his monument there and his sacred bones, still shine forth with various and new miracles daily. This man's honor and glory, with which he already long ago shines crowned among the seats of the Blessed, since the whole sacred Premonstratensian Order desires by their particular affection of reverence toward their Confrater to be augmented, and propagated among mortals by the authority of His Holiness, rightly we too willingly accede to the most pious desire of the same, and on this account more strongly support it, because we recognize that it concerns greatly our Germany, afflicted and exhausted by the tribulations of so many years, and the Church militant in it, that the number of her Patron Saints in heaven be increased, their veneration amplified, and their honor and glory by daily increases shine more and more on earth."

[16] We were at Steinfeld in the autumn of the year 1668, and there most benignly received by the Most Reverend Abbot of that place, Lord John Luckenracht, Proper Collect in the Mass. before the body of Blessed Joseph at the aforesaid altar we celebrated Mass, and that of the same Blessed one votive with the proper Collect, according to the pious custom of all Priests coming there for the sake of devotion. This is the Collect: "O God, who didst so prevent Blessed Herman Joseph, thy Confessor, with the blessings of sweetness, that from boyhood he might deserve to enjoy the most frequent visitations and conversations of the glorious Virgin Mary, and to be betrothed to her through an Angel: grant, we beseech, that following the footsteps of his innocent and holy life, we may safely come to the heavenly homeland, in which he gloriously exults. Through the Lord, etc." We saw there paintings, statues, and other monuments of antiquity testifying to the public and ancient cult of the same Blessed one: process concerning his ancient cult. of which to treat at greater length here we pass over, about to give below nearly the whole tenor of that Process which, to prove the fame of his sanctity, for solemn canonization to be obtained at Rome, was instituted in the year 1628: and transcribed and transmitted to us, by the benefaction of the said Most Reverend Abbot. Let this preliminary Commentary therefore be closed by the elegant Sequence, once composed concerning the same Blessed one, and perhaps sometime used in the sacred rites; but abrogated with most of the rest of the Sequences, formerly in use among various.

SEQUENCE ON BLESSED HERMAN JOSEPH

LIFE By a Contemporary Canon of Steinfeld.

Herman Joseph, of the Premonstratensian Order, at Steinfeld in Germany (Blessed)

BHL Number: 3845, 3847

BY A CONTEMPORARY AUTHOR.

TREATISE I.

Acts in his Life.

PROLOGUE.

[1] O Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit alone dost great marvels, The author invokes Christ the Lord: whether thou dost deign to work these through the ministries of Angels or of men; desiring to commend in writing the marvelous Life of Blessed Joseph our Brother, and his death precious in thy sight, and the beautiful miracles which on account of his merits thou hast deigned to work, I, a suppliant and devoted one, approach the feet of thy mercy: through his love, O Lord, beseeching thee, that to his praise (which is truly thine) thou mayest benignly aspire, inspire to the writer truth: thou who needest not feigned praise, executest lying, and lovest the truth. For before thine eyes I do not fear to protest this, thou who art the faithful witness in heaven, he asserts that he is writing certain and trustworthy things: that I set down nothing feigned by design; but those things which from his most familiar associates, or from his mouth I have learned, or what among the Brethren have been spread abroad by so celebrated an opinion that they ought to be contradicted by no evasion. Yet there are very few things which have not been made manifest to me by certain trustworthy narrators, or from his faithful mouth itself. For which cause also I must pass over in silence certain wonderful things: which, although I firmly believe to be true, yet because I do not have the root of truth, that is, witnesses by sight and hearing, to omit doubtful things, I have not wished, for the truth of writing, to commend doubtful things as certain. Of these there is one

in our times very wonderful: namely, such as of an infant dead being recalled to life by him while still a boy. that a certain infant, crushed by his sleeping mother, after compassion shown to the lamenting mother by our Joseph, and a prayer poured forth in the church by him to the Lord Jesus, and to his blessed Mother, was raised up by the merits of the blessed boy while still a boy. Which fact, though it deserves difficult faith, yet will not be incredible to confess, to him who wishes to give credit to what follows, which without doubt is true. But this doubtful thing I have decided not to commit to the present page for this reason; that the other undoubted things may be believed with a faith the firmer, the more clearly it will be seen that no doubtful thing (however much it could work to the praise of our Brother) have I deemed worthy to write as certain. For I am about to write marvelous things, which among those who love their own praise, and among envious detractors, who seek not God's glory but their own, however much they may be supported by truth, ought scarcely to find credence. Wherefore also I believe that the Lord God himself has made him illustrious by so great miracles after death, These Acts are confirmed by miracles performed after death, that the marvelous life may be commended by the miracles done after death: and also that by the marvelous life the truth of miracles done after death may be confirmed. For faith can with more difficulty be given to those miracles wrought after anyone's death, which do not receive firm testimony from the marvelous life preceding. Also the marvelous life of Saints is not altogether without danger preached, which after death is strengthened by no testimonies of miracles. There are, however, certain ones glorious both before God and before men, whose life or death lacked miracles. But he worthily kills all detractors, whose life as well as death is commended by miracles, each supporting the other in turn. For if the marvelous life be not believed, or even detracted from; the miraculous death cries out for the life: but if the miracles of the precious death are derogated from, the marvelous life itself is attested by those very miracles. Even now then, Lord Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life, be present to thy writer serene with abundant benignity: sweet address to Jesus, and, through the marvelous life of thy Servant, deign to come to me as way and guide; that, with the understanding of my deficient knowledge cleared, supported by every truth, I may be able worthily to explain both the precious death and the praiseworthy life of thy Servant. Shall we call him thine, O Lord, or ours? If we shall speak truly, we shall say he is both thine and ours. For though he is thy servant alone (for thou alone art the Lord, to whom every knee bows, and every tongue confesses), yet he is our fellow-servant, since with him we have thee as common Lord. He is thine, Lord Jesus, our Joseph: whom chosen out of all the Brethren, with the multi-colored tunic reaching to the ankles of all the virtues thou hast singularly clothed, and placed as an example to all; wonderful indeed to all, but imitable to few. He is also ours, Lord Jesus, thy Joseph: whom (as we hope from thy goodness, Lord) not only for the salvation of his Brethren and of one family, but also of the whole Church, thou hast translated from the prison of the body of this death to the kingdom, no longer of Egypt, but of that heavenly Jerusalem (which he so often desired with all his vows). He is thine, Lord Jesus, thy Joseph; whom from the first rudiments of infancy by a special benediction thou didst deign singularly to claim for thyself, and strongly to preserve to the end. He is also ours, Lord Jesus, our Joseph; whom we rejoice to have had on earth as a Confrater, when he lived among us as one of us, but now before the face of thy Majesty we rejoice to have as a propitious Patron for us. Through his intercession and merits, Lord Jesus, deign to look upon this work of my hands, and to direct it, and to sanctify it for thee: that as he, when he was yet living with us mortal, shunned his own praises in every way, so as to make a few things of his secrets known to few, always saying in deed, and also sometimes in words, "My secret to me; my secret to me" (lest, if it were revealed to the unworthy, he should lose what he had; as he sometimes related to me), so now do thou deign to reveal to thine own the praises and merits of the same thy servant, placed in an altogether safe station: that he may be magnified through thee, and thou, Lord Jesus, mayest be magnified in him, who never cared to be magnified in himself, but in thee.

This Life was divided into Chapters, but the summaries were lacking for 28 chapters in the Steinfeld Manuscript, which Chrysostom Vander-Sterre supplied. We substitute numbers for the said chapters, and according to our custom we distinguish into larger chapters, but subjoin the summaries for the eye of readers.

1 Blessed Joseph is born at Cologne Agrippina, and in Baptism is called Herman.

2 Outstanding infancy of the holy boy.

3 Applied to schools, he begins to venerate the Virgin-mother with rare piety.

4 Joseph is given the faculty of playing with the boy Jesus.

5 The apparitions of Christ and his Mother and of the Saints are discussed.

6 In a marvelous manner the Mother of mercy relieves the poverty of the little Joseph.

7 He sees Christ in the form of the Crucified.

8 In the twelfth year of his age he leaves the world, and at Steinfeld is clothed with the white habit of the Premonstratensian Order.

9 He is sent into Frisia for further studies.

10 The scab of his head is cured in a marvelous way.

11 Applied to the service of the Brothers, he is instructed by the Virgin Mother.

12 With what fervor he exercised himself in the service of the Brothers.

13 Promoted to the office of Sacristan, he is devoted to contemplation.

14 Very devoted to exercises of devotion, he afflicts himself with long vigils and hardness of bed.

15 With a sweetest heavenly odor he is often refreshed on entering the church.

16 His great reverence toward the name of the Virgin Mother of God.

17 He sees Angels ministering incense at Matin Lauds.

18 He is honored with very frequent apparitions of the Virgin Mother.

19 The glorious Mother of God calls him her Chaplain.

20 After his vein was cut, the Virgin Mother appears to Joseph sleeping incautiously.

21 That God has not without reason sometimes changed the names of his Saints.

22 How he was called Joseph, and was made Spouse of the Most Blessed Mother of God.

23 He receives the boy Jesus to be carried in a vision, and the name of Joseph is confirmed to him.

24 How the Blessed Virgin appeared to Joseph taking the appearance of an old woman.

25 Two teeth of Blessed Joseph knocked out are marvelously restored by the Virgin Mother.

26 Blessed Joseph is exercised variously by God.

27 From immoderate weakness he is relieved by the help of the Most Holy Virgin.

28 Before major Feasts he is wont to be more gravely afflicted; and is marvelously strengthened divinely once.

29 With what love he embraced Saint Ursula and her companion Virgin Martyrs.

30 With great insistence of prayers he obtained one head of the holy Virgins.

31 The irreverence of a certain one toward the sacred Relics is divinely punished.

32 How in a rapture he saw the beauty of creatures.

33 He foreknows from heaven the slaying of Blessed Engelbert, Archbishop of Cologne.

34 How many excesses of mind he often suffers under the Sacrifice of the Altar.

35 Under his prolonged Sacrifice the candles were not as much consumed as under another's shorter one.

36 The extraordinary cult and reverence of Joseph toward the divine Sacraments.

37 How, intent on divine things, though otherwise weak, he is often strengthened above nature.

38 The sanctity of blessed Joseph is confirmed by the testimony of a certain holy Virgin.

39 On the merits of Blessed Joseph.

40 On the Chastity of Joseph.

41 On his Humility.

42 On his Charity.

43 On his Patience.

44 That he was called the Lily of the Church.

45 On the testimony of another virgin Elisabeth.

46 That nine years were added to his life.

47 That the soul of a Virgin was presented to him at the Altar.

48 That his head was seen to burn.

49 On the exposition of the Song of Songs.

50 That while writing he was not seen by the Brothers.

51 By a marvelous favor of God, that he not be disturbed in Contemplation, he is often not seen by those present.

52 That the Lord appeared to him bearing an axe in his hand.

53 That though languishing he did not need the necessity of nature.

54 That he drank from an empty flask.

55 That he predicted the place of his burial.

56 That he predicted his own death.

57 On his temptations.

58 On the reception of the grace which he had lost.

59 Of the slaying of Blessed Engelbert shown beforehand to Blessed Joseph, a testimony from another Treatise.

CHAPTER I.

Birth, pious education, studies, cult of the Virgin Mother of God, and her apparitions.

[1] Blessed Joseph therefore had as the place of his birth that famous city Cologne: He is born at Cologne, in which his parents dwelt among their fellow-citizens quite honest and rich, as regards the world. But after his birth arose also the necessity of household affairs; of honest parents: so that now it was necessary that the infant himself (as we have known from his own later telling) should be reared not in delights, but in poverty. Begotten, when in the laver of Baptism he received the Sacrament of regeneration, he received the name Herman: which in our language can be called Man of honor or Man of the army: He is called Herman, both of which expositions of the name are very suitably adapted to the one named. For he deservedly was called Man of honor: whom the Lord, as with a diadem of glory and honor, crowned both in gratuitous and in natural things on earth, but now crowns his blessed soul in heaven with that inestimable glory and honor. with a well-omened name: Nor does the sacred little body lack the privilege of its honor, though subject to corruption: at whose tomb so many benefits of miracles have been wrought, so great remedies have been conferred on the sick. Worthily also he was called Man of the army: whose soul, even while it was still surrounded with corporal frailty, was so fortified with the army of all virtues, that rightly could be said to him by his Spouse: "You are beautiful and comely, daughter of Jerusalem, terrible as the ordered battle-line of an army": and that, "Behold, sixty strong ones surround the little bed of Solomon." Song 6 Song 3 For from the time of his regeneration the little boy was the true little bed of Solomon: in which, with the white robe of sacred Baptism preserved, it pleased the Spouse himself desirably to dwell without intermission. This little bed of the Spouse sixty most strong ones incessantly surrounded: that is, the perfection of the works of the Decalogue; or the perfect guardianship of the holy Angels, to whom the Lord commanded to guard his holy one in all his ways.

[2] Therefore the chosen boy of God, whom he chose, and upon whom he placed his Spirit, reared in tenderer infancy under poverty, piously and modestly educated, learned even then to subject his mind to no pleasure; but to be subject to his parents and all his elders with fear and reverence, and with his young companions to be connected by a kind society and social kindness. He had no wantonness of countenance, nor blasphemy of words, and disordered shaking of all limbs, which are wont to stain most of the infants of our time; but a wholly serene countenance, and most gentle eyes, which, what was contained within the heart, they displayed with certain joyful sparkles shining forth. He truly had this grace to the end of his mortal life; that whenever without envy

he should be seen, both his countenance and his eyes, altogether dove-like, and full of spiritual joy, showed in themselves, and ministered to those gazing on him. Custody of the mouth he so strove to preserve from the time of his earliest age, In his tongue he does not offend. that neither have we, who were accustomed to dwell together with him in one house, ever heard from him a word of boasting or contumely, or reproach or curse against anyone, or any shameful speech or scurrility, much less of detraction or lying. Yet sometimes (lest he should seem altogether above a man), to dissimulate what he was, he showed himself sociable to all; and used most gentle jokes, by which he depressed himself and raised others to joy. But since we have slipped into these things by a certain anticipation, let us now turn hand and mind together to the rudiments of his infancy.

[3] among the studies of letters When the Lord's boy had attained the time of seven years, he was applied to the studies of letters: for the grasping of which, according to the capacity of childish wit, being teachable by God, he was sufficiently able. Soon in a wonderful manner inspired by the divine Spirit, the little boy was wholly converted to the service of God: and while the rest of his schoolmates (as is the custom) played on feast days, he separated himself from their company, He piously venerates the image of the Mother of God, and entering ^b the monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Mother of God, before her image, bearing the form of Jesus in her bosom, he was wont to stand; and now with the image of the Mother, now with that of the Son, as with the living, the little boy of dove-like simplicity spoke: and if he by chance had anything in his hand of bread or fruits (as is customary for boys), now to the Mother, now to the Son he offered it. There is a very notable thing and handed down to us by his familiars, a marvelous matter, which I shall tell. At some time the holy boy stood (as he had made a custom for himself) before the icon of the blessed Virgin, and the apple which he had brought, and offers her an apple he offered to her with great instance and devotion. And behold, the kind Mother, to commend the devotion of the boy, and not to sadden the infant devoted to herself, extended the hand of the image, and graciously received the little gift offered to her from the boy's hand. O truly blessed infancy of the innocent boy, who deserved to be consoled with such timely revelations! Why are you tortured, O envy? Wait a little, and you will burst. But rather be converted, and be healed; that with charity you may be able to look upon this boy of ours, and say with those who admire so great a beginning with joy: "Who do you think this boy will be?" In whom without doubt the hand of the Lord works.

[4] With a fuller joy the Mother of joy deigned to multiply such joy, manifesting herself to her boy with more frequent and more manifest revelations. Therefore when on a certain day (as he was accustomed), not mingling with those playing, the little boy had entered the monastery, he saw near the pulpit, which is situated in the middle of the church, on a certain elevated way, in the form of a living virgin, the blessed Virgin, who appearing to him with Jesus and John the Evangelist the Queen of virgins, and with her the guardian of the same Virgin John the Evangelist; and before the Mother the boy Jesus, exercising himself with John as in certain childish sports. And while our boy stood, fixing his mind and eyes on them with delightful admiration and admirable delight, the kind Mother called him with a nod of the hand and voice, addressing the boy familiarly by his proper name thus: "Herman, he is invited to come up: come up to us." But the boy said: "How shall I be able to come up, since the choir is closed, and I do not have a ladder, by which I may come up?" To whom the blessed Mother: "Try," she said, "if by any means you can: for I will help you, and with her extending her hand he ascends extending my hand to you." The boy obeyed: and when he could not prevail, the kind Mother extending her hand to him, he came up to them. He was however accustomed to narrate this to his familiars, that while he was striving to come up, he received a sensible but not visible puncture from one iron nail, which had been fixed for the fortification of the Choir, near the place of the heart: having received a puncture near the heart; which also many times afterward he bore with pain: and he said that that puncture had been a presage of many tribulations and sorrows, which afterwards, like his cross, daily to the end of his life he carried. For always (as I shall afterwards relate, the Lord helping), when he had grown into a man, the man of marvelous innocence was vexed by tribulations of body or sorrows of heart. When with the aid of the blessed Mother he had come up higher on the pulpit; with her admonishing, the faculty of playing with the boy Jesus was given to our boy: and he plays with the boy Jesus, the blessed Mother sitting, and familiarly watching the boyish games. And when some part of the day had been spent in such wonderful delight; with the evening Office approaching, the boy, by the aid and command of her with whom he had ascended, now also ministering, came down, about often to receive the same consolation in the same place.

[5] ^d Readers are wont to raise not childish questions concerning these childish deeds: which indeed I have decided to touch on, but not to solve: for I confess that I am ignorant, and wish rather to be taught than to teach. They ask, how the Lord Jesus, in what form of apparition this could have happened. who without doubt in the flesh which he took from the Virgin went away into heaven; or how the same Blessed Virgin, of whom it is presumed that she too was assumed with her body; are wont to appear to men: namely, whether in the same flesh which they have, or only in the soul: and whether the soul be then separated from the body: or how the body remain in heaven; and yet appear to us without that body, or even with what body it appears: whether any of the Angels appears on their behalf, which is also asked of the souls of Saints whose bodies have been dissolved into dust. But in whatever way, unknown to me, these things happen; that they happen, with the Christian faith safe, I know. For it is no longer doubtful that the Lord Jesus, after his ascension, appeared both to blessed Peter and Paul and to many others, which can be confirmed by the testimony of Scripture. Which indeed of God is not difficult to believe: whose Divinity is within all things, but not enclosed; outside all things, but not excluded: which also, even without the humanity assumed, through the ministry of his creatures, in whatever way he wills, can reveal itself to men. But of the blessed Virgin Mary (if she was at the same time assumed with her body) and of the souls of other Saints, or even of the damned, it is more unknown to me in what way they are revealed: yet that they are revealed, the use of the Church has already received. For it is written, and read in Churches, and recited in public, that she appeared ^e to Theophilus and to certain others: Christ also, with a number of disciples, appeared to Blessed John the Evangelist, about to migrate from the world. Blessed Gregory too relates that the blessed Martyrs John and Paul appeared to a certain matron, and gave her thanks for her offerings: and by some of the Saints the souls of the damned also have been seen. Horace, 1 Sermons I Let them exercise themselves in these things,

"Who have genius, and a mind more divine, and a mouth About to sound great things":

let it suffice me and my readers to hold the truth of the matter, though we cannot comprehend it by reason: which certainly is some; although it may perhaps not yet have been manifest to me.

[6] When on a certain day, according to his custom, the boy of the Lord had entered the church of the blessed Virgin, and in the harshness of winter was walking with bare feet; The Mother of God addressing and showing seeing the boy, the Mother of mercy, in such great bodily cold, not at all grown tepid from the devotion of his fervid heart, was moved with her accustomed mercy. And calling the little one, placed before her face, she said: "Why in such great cold do you walk with bare feet?" The boy answered: "I do not have shoes." But the blessed Mother, knowing that the boy's parents labored with want of household goods, said to him: "Go to ^f that stone" (and she showed the stone with her finger) "and under it you will find four denarii, He finds money for shoes which you will take, and with them you will have shoes made for yourself." The faithful boy believed, and obeyed the commands: and finding as had been shown, he returned to his nurse, the blessed Mother, joyful with the denarii. But she added: "As often as you need anything: shoes, tablets, or styluses, or other necessary things; go to the same place, and other necessary things. and you will find denarii, by which your necessity may be relieved." Who would presume to report these things, to write them, to believe them; if not a few days before his death, induced by pious cunning by us, he had made these known to us by his own confession? Thanks to thee, Lord Jesus Christ; that thou hast willed me to know these things from the confession of his blessed mouth. This unheard-of and so marvelous truth standing; what will there be, which cannot be believed of thee, O most blessed of little ones? But not less wonderful I reckon what I subjoin. It did not long escape other boys where the most pure boy so often found necessary things, and going to the same place, and long seeking, they could find nothing of such things; without doubt, because a great distance of merits and the prerogative of special grace separated them from such consolation.

[7] After these things the Lord Jesus himself revealed himself to his boy, our Samuel, not in the form of a boy, but in the appearance of the Crucified, and so he revealed himself. It happened in the city of Cologne that the walls of some houses burned by fire, where the boy of the Lord at that time dwelt nearby. Many rushing, that, if they could, they might quench the fire; in a public fire or (as is customary) at least to watch; the blessed boy also among others hastily ran. And behold, in a marvelous manner in the midst of the fire a certain ^g Basilica stood: which although pressed by fires on every side, by divine protection remained unburnt. He sees a church being preserved by Christ crucified appearing over it. With all marveling, and showing the miracle one to another, the wonderful boy began to admire these things with the rest: and when he was looking on the Basilica more diligently with admiration, behold, the Lord Jesus appeared to him in the appearance of the Crucified, standing on one part of the top of the not-burning Basilica. The discerning boy felt and understood that that part of the Basilica, on account of the presence of the Crucified, did not burn. But again he was permitted childishly to doubt, that more wonderful things might succeed the wonderful, why in the other parts of the Church, in which he did not see the form of the Crucified, the fire could not prevail. And when he went around all the parts of the Church more curiously: wherever he turned himself, he saw the same appearance of the Crucified standing against himself in all parts, and defending the very house from fire. He marveled indeed that this was happening corporally, which also spiritually much more he afterwards experienced to happen: namely, that the faith and memory, and especially the imitation of the life of the Lord crucified, prevail against all incentives of vices, so that he could truly say with the Psalmist:

"If I walk in the midst of tribulation, you will quicken me, O Lord; and you will extend your hand against my enemies, and your right hand will save me." Ps. 137

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Entrance into the Premonstratensian Order: studies, service in the refectory.

[8] His tenderer infancy passed in such consolations of revelations, of which very few have come to our notice from a very great multitude, as soon as he could perceive what it was; the boy of the Lord strove to declare by evident signs the blessing of sweetness with which he had been prevented by the Lord. And when he was now about in the twelfth year of his age; In the twelfth year of his age leaving the wide and spacious way on the left side, which leads the multitude of men walking through it to death; he strongly desired the narrow and straight way on the right, through which walks the small number of those to be saved. For he already saw the whole world burning with the fire of the worst desires, and that only those could be saved from the deadly heats, who should flee beneath the saving wings of the Crucified: as had been shown him corporally by the Basilica saved, by the Crucified protecting it. Wisely therefore and quickly he decided, while still clean, to leave the unclean world, and without confusion to withdraw from the midst of Babylon. The Lord therefore applied concomitant grace, who gratuitously had given preventing grace, and was about to give perfecting grace: He goes to the Steinfeld monastery of the Premonstratensian Order: and through certain acquaintances of his, led him on a prosperous journey to the church of Steinfeld, in the diocese of Cologne, of the Premonstratensian Order. Blessed be the Lord God of our salvation day by day: who gave so prosperous a journey to such a boy, that he came to our house in the name of the Lord. Ps. 67 And when he had there stayed for some time, before he was clothed with the monastic habit; it happened that the Dedication of the chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel came. Now the same Archangel has a chapel in the Steinfeld church, from the chapel of Saint Michael, in a lofty place, above a vault, situated on the West side: whose Western wall was then for some necessity opened in the manner of a door. in a vision he sees flames bursting forth Thus while the angelic boy stood in view of the chapel of the blessed Archangel, he saw through the aforesaid door of the Western wall a certain flame of such quantity burst forth, with such force and violence, that he feared the whole monastery within would already be consumed by fire. Now already he was about to cry out, and to ask help to be brought to the burning monastery; but restrained by boyish modesty and the bashfulness of humility (by which even to the end of his life, even surpassing the female sex itself, he moderated in all things) or rather with interior grace teaching him, he decided to contain himself in silence, until he should see the outcome of the matter; since he marveled much that all those standing around either did not see or dissimulated. he is kindled to receive the white habit, But the fire itself, marvelously seen, had no other effect, except that he was kindled to receive the habit of Religion with a new and so strong affection, that from receiving it, because of the sweetness of the flame and the flame of sweetness which he had received inwardly to the marrow, he with the greatest difficulty contained himself. For now he himself had been wholly converted into a certain Divine fire, so that he might minister in the Angelic habit to him who makes his Angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire: by whose ministry, on their festival in the vision of fire appearing, I believe our Angel was so strongly kindled; that he recognized that fire was spiritual, which had kindled not the body but the spirit.

[9] having taken the habit, Having at last received, according to his desire, the snowy garment of sacred Religion; the religious boy began to progress both before God and before men in wisdom and age: and because he had not yet reached the years of discretion, before which in that monastery boys were not usually received to the habit of Religion ^a, he was sent into Frisia ^b with other young companions of his, both that the scandal of his age might be removed, and that in the schools he might progress in doctrine. sent to Frisia, to finish his studies in doctrine and piety, he makes progress: He progressed therefore above all his contemporaries, both in knowledge and in morals: so that he showed himself as teacher to the younger, and as Angel to his companions. Nothing of the vices, by which that kind of men (I mean scholars) seems to be entangled (namely, insolence, lying, disobedience, dissimulations, quarrels, insults, lacerations, He avoids vices: and blows, scurrility of words, and also heaviness of heart to doctrine) was in him: but rather suffused with a certain spiritual alacrity, prompt to learn, obedient to any commands, he so marvelously bore himself with his contemporaries; that both among them he deserved special favor, and before God grace. But then in the name of the Lord Jesus, kindled with marvelous affection, nothing in all doctrine pleased him to hear which did not resound the saving name of the Lord. As often as according to the custom of boys he was ordered either to learn or read the fables of the poets, he did not patiently endure it: nay, he even rebuked those teaching him, above whom by interior spiritual unction teaching him he had already progressed; asserting, nor does he bear the fables of the poets: that they were bringing insult upon the true God, in reciting the names of false gods even in the books of the poets. And he was accustomed afterwards to narrate to us concerning some of his masters, who seemed to excel the rest in religion: that he could not cease to marvel that religious men could be delighted with poetic writings; when there are such great writings, based on truth, through which one can come to the knowledge of God. For who, unless a fool, would seek a lily among thorns, whence it cannot without wounds be taken away, which more easily and usefully could be acquired without injury? To name Jupiter Omnipotent, to attribute the name of divinity to Juno, to swear by Hercules and by Castor, to be delighted by any falsehoods whatsoever, are thorns, and they tear the soul, by which the boy of the Lord did not wish the purity of his soul to be violated, who had already learned to delight in the one and true God alone.

[10] I touch briefly on a matter not to be passed over perfunctorily, but to be weighed with great consideration of mind: for how much care the Father of mercies has borne for the purity of his boy, will clearly appear in this matter. The blessed boy had at some time contracted, though abandoned by father and mother, suffering from an enormous scab of the head but taken up by the Lord, such a scab of the head that he could not appear among his schoolmates without shame. For they were troublesome to him, and mocked him (as is usual for that restless kind of men), and the boy, though patient and quiet, wasted away in mind at the daily mockeries, and burned with the blush of shame. Therefore the Lord saw the continual affliction of both mind and body of his poor abandoned one, and marvelously turned his faithful help to the aid of the orphan: for on a certain night, when he had given his little body to sleep, he felt gently a certain animal (I know not whether a reptile or a bird) come, and with its beak with such great caution to amputate all that putrid scab, miraculously he is healed through a vision: so that nothing of it remained, and the boy of the Lord suffered nothing of trouble in that corroding. The integrity and purity of the whole head followed immediately in an instant: ^c so that when on the following day he entered to his schoolmates, the unexpected health appeared in him to all: and because so manifest a matter could not be hidden, they rush to the boy one by one, and inquire the cause of so sudden health. He opened, as much as he could, what had been done, with his customary simplicity: but in his heart he praised the mercy of the Lord shown to him. Truly the Lord mindful of the sayings which he spoke through the Prophet: "You, O Lord, consider labor and sorrow: to you the poor one is abandoned, you will be the helper of the orphan." Ps. 9 And again: "But I am a beggar and poor: the Lord is solicitous for me." Ps. 39

[11] But when, after progress in knowledge and morals, the boy of the Lord had returned from Frisia to his own church; returned to Steinfeld, he was at some time appointed to serve the Brothers in the refectory with another Brother, older than himself. Which office, although he devoutly fulfilled; appointed to the service of the refectory, yet he was somewhat grieved that because of the continual bodily labor he could not be free for his accustomed and due prayers, reading, and contemplation. For he grieved that the best part was being taken from him, which he had long ago chosen: He grieves that time for prayer is lacking, namely, either to sit at the feet of your humanity, Lord Jesus; or to hear your word, which you deigned to minister to us both by mouth and by examples; or taking up the wings of a dove, with those four living creatures, to fly up to the face of your Divinity, and to taste and see your sweetness, Lord: which surely those are accustomed to perceive more perfectly, who have been lessened in action. The boy felt this; who had now advanced into the puberty of adolescence: and with difficulty was torn from the embrace of the beautiful Rachel. by the Mother of God appearing, Seeing therefore the Mother of mercy her adopted son gravely wasting away in mind for such causes, she took care to show him her presence: and with her accustomed sweetness caressing him, she asked how he was doing. But he, answering that he was doing well enough, asserted that he was greatly burdened by this one thing: that burdened with daily labors, he could not be free for his accustomed prayers; and especially those which according to the constitutions of the Order he was bound to. Feeling the pious Mother that the youth had indeed good zeal, but not according to knowledge; with a brief but extraordinary saying she so instructed him: he is taught to serve the Brothers in charity: "Know," she said, "that you owe no greater debt, than to serve your Brothers in charity." She said, and made the teachable youth understand what she had said: that laying aside the burden of fear, he might thenceforth with security serve the Brothers. I reckon it necessary that murmurers be admonished in this present sermon, who against every office enjoined on them murmur and

bark; and when they cannot find suitable excuses for their sloth, and (what is more dangerous) for their disobedience, in the offices enjoined they claim they are defrauded of their own devotion. Nearly all monasteries are filled with such complaints: to such a degree that the life of Prelates (whose duty it is to arrange individual offices) is brought to bitterness through such. Would that they would hear and harken to the answer of the Mother of the Lord Jesus, full of authority: that they owe no greater debt than to serve the Brothers with charity. Let them also know that such service will by no means lack its due reward; since the rewarder of good, faithful, and not slothful servants shall come, Christ Jesus, who shall condemn the slothful servant, from good work grown sluggish, for sloth alone. Fear then, O Brother, whoever you are, to be condemned by the sentence of the slothful servant and of him not wishing to spend the talent entrusted to him; if the heart for meditating, the tongue for correcting, the voice for singing alacriously and reading, the hands for working, the feet for walking, in the offices enjoined to you, you will not exercise: always having in mind, that whatever in all the powers of the soul, whatever in all the members of the body, has been conferred on you by the Lord, the strict judge, is a talent of the Lord entrusted to you.

[12] Strengthened by the colloquies and admonitions of the sacred Mother, the teachable youth began to treat with himself by higher counsel, with the example of the most humble Jesus set forth whose form he would have in this service: and there came to his mind (as he was accustomed to tell us in spiritual joy) that highest and most humble servant of his servants, the Lord Jesus: who, that he might show himself a servant, showed his servitude both by words and by examples. And by words indeed: "Who," he said, "is greater, he who serves, or he who reclines? Is it not he who reclines? But I am in your midst as one who serves: For the Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve." Luke 22, Matt. 20 These things Christ the Lord taught by words: but also he fulfilled them by most humble examples. For so much did the Lord of Majesty lower himself, that he washed the feet of his servants, bent down before them in body, and wiped them with the linen with which he was girded ^d. John 13 Of so great a Lord serving his servants, the form our humble Brother, serving his Brothers, always bore in his heart: from which he felt himself borne with such alacrity, that as often as he performed such service to his Brothers, with the greatest alacrity he serves others: he thought himself not to walk or run, but rather to fly, with the lightness of mind passing over into lightness of body. A great distance of this blessed Brother from most Brothers, who are either lifted up by pride, or weighed down by sloth, lest they be raised to spiritual joy, or humbly bent down to minister to God in the Brothers, and to the Brothers for God's sake. Let them learn from the present example, not only without murmuring, but even humbly and alacriously to show service to the Brothers: and let them learn to glorify God and the Lord Jesus, whose figure ministering they bear in heart and body: and let them see nonetheless how much grace our minister obtained from his ministry. For inebriated with the grace of the Lord Jesus (whose form he recognized and felt himself to bear), and refreshed with spiritual satiety, for a long time he did not feel the losses of bodily hunger and thirst; so that beyond what could be believed, he prolonged his abstinence, by pious fraud circumventing that Brother with whom he was serving together ^e in the refectory. For finding causes He is much given to abstinence. for which he should eat either before or after him; without the other's knowledge, he was content with the refreshment as it were customary of simple bread and water. Marvelous grace! that on account of his long abstinence, neither did he fail in bodily labor, nor in so long a time did he lose the sweetness of grace divinely received.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

Office of sacristan. Contemplations: marvelous odors conferred: reverence toward the name of Mary, her various apparitions.

[13] Therefore the chosen one of God, relieved by many benefits in offices pertaining to the active life (for through this the way has been ordered to the contemplative, so that through the labor of Leah one ascends to the embrace of Rachel; and the Spouse declares that she was first blackened, and had endured the battles of the sons of her mother, before she was led into the king's cellars), then at last the beautiful youth was called to the office of Sacristan, Promoted to the office of Sacristan, in which he could more fully and safely be free for contemplation. Song 1 For thus the Lord (who orders all things in order) willed to order the life of his chosen one, that he might know how to fight with both hands: lest, as very many of the Brothers, in action he should become dissolute, and in contemplation remiss. For many are seen, who when they enter to contemplate, never wish to go out to the works of necessary action, and obstinately shun all bodily labor; so much so that at last, fallen into the torpor of sloth, they also fail in the virtue of contemplation: nor do they know how to recall themselves to her, to whom sometimes the mind (as is human weakness) grown lukewarm, is recalled by the exercises of the active life. But others when, necessity demanding, they go forth to the works of action; so pour themselves entirely into them, that they neither remember at all their past contemplation, nor grieve to be torn from her, the labors of the body relieved by the alacrity of the spirit: nor think of returning to her. Not so is our Brother known to have been instructed by the Lord and the best Master: but so he exercised the office of action, that he tempered the labors of body by the alacrity of spirit, lest dissoluteness should follow; so he clung to the office pertaining to contemplation, that yet for bodily exercise he did not become lukewarm or remiss: and so, by the example of Ehud, the strongest athlete, he used both hands as a right hand; when he used both lives no less wisely than strongly, that through both he might gasp for the embrace of the desirable right hand of the spouse. Judges 3

[14] In the Acts of the Saints some things to be marveled at, others to be imitated: Before I continue the rest, I think it necessary to admonish the reader, lest he draw into consequence for himself all the things which we propose to explain concerning our Brother: but rather let him know that some things are so written that we only marvel at them in him who did them; and, praise the Lord, who willed to do these things through a man: but some things he may know to have been set down in writing that we may imitate them. For if we wish to imitate, incited by the examples of the Saints, those things which are above nature; not the edification which we seek, but rather ruin we shall find in them. Likewise, if in the Saints we should wish only to marvel at all the things written of them; we shall remain in our slowness, and without our fruit will be written and read the examples of the Saints. Therefore I admonish the reader, to attend diligently and discern wisely, what is to be marveled at and what is to be imitated: that in things to be marveled at, to God, wonderful in his Saints, worthy thanksgiving may be given; but in things to be imitated, through examples of virtues, the life of the readers may be amended. For this intention alone does not move me, that I preach the Brother, and magnify the Lord; but also, that readers through the ministry of my poverty may acquire some utility. But now let us return to the order of the narrative. Devoted to contemplation, Having received the office, which suited contemplation very much, in a marvelous way (as if then for the first time he were approaching to the divine service, who had before surpassed others in all spiritual exercises) stirred by fervor of spirit, he began to surpass even himself. For by no means content with the common vigils and prayers; he composed for himself new ones, corresponding to the sweetness of his devotion, and also marvelously stirring the devotion itself, He composes new prayers and ^a many thanksgivings; by which he recalled to memory for himself all the benefits which the Lord God had conferred on the human race. to God and the Mother of God: Especially he burned with fervor of marvelous devotion toward the Mother of the Lord, his nurse: whom he also saluted with the ^b joys of new words relating to her her own joys, and with the multiplied versicle of the Angelic salutation. And he added to the individual joys and salutations individual genuflections: and with such exercises, both corporeal and spiritual, he passed the greatest part of the night sleepless. And he gave so much attention to such vigils and prayers, He watches very much that he exceeded the measure of human nature; and no one of the Brothers, observing his vigils, for any time could watch like him. For he was borne with such sweetness of prayers, contemplations, and revelations, that forgetful of corporeal necessities, he believed he was living by the food of spirit alone. He had therefore made it a custom for himself (because the custody of the monastery was in his hands) in such studies to watch until the time of the Matin Office: until the first ringing for Matins: and when by the sound of the first bell he had given the signal of rising to the sleeping Brothers, he then reclined in his little bed, until at the sound of the third bell (with the signal of the hand-bell given in the dormitory, that the Brothers might enter the choir), he too with the rest entered, and was present at the Matin offices. Sometimes he was admonished by the Father of the house and by the Brothers, that he should not torture himself with such inhuman labors: but the vehemence of desirable sweetness and of sweet desire could not be restrained in him. For he had a body suitable enough for labor, and composed of fitting limbs, He lies on a hard bed: and well ordered from its first constituting parts, which he did not believe could be exhausted by any labors. He added to these labors also the hardness of his bed, his head resting on stone and his body on the hardness of wood. For he reckoned the whole time of the present life as deputed to penance, and reckoned as superfluous and vain whatever he should indulge to his wretched body. O how unlike us wretched ones, who with all our might struggle lest we be always in full labors.

[15] His body therefore being thus caught up by such a great force of spirit pressing it, raising the spirit, and exercising itself in all virtues, a fuller grace followed the blessed youth; the servant rejoicing with the Lord, the disciple with

the Master, as it were in a certain contest fighting. he is prevented by the blessing of sweetness: As it were the Lord and Master strove to prevent his servant and disciple in all the blessings of sweetness, and to minister various graces to him: he also as it were on the contrary strove with all zeal to follow, wherever he knew himself to have been prevented by divine benediction: but the grace of God in him was not in vain, which with alacrity of mind and exercise of good works he took care to stir up in himself. Therefore the Lord determined to provoke him, following him where he was called, and showing himself receptive to fuller grace, to the taste of sweetness and to the odor of his suavity, with frequent, nay, daily consolations. For as often as after bodily refreshment, singing the Psalm Miserere mei Deus in thanksgiving, he went from the refectory into the monastery; an aromatic, nay, paradisial odor of such sweetness received him, He perceives a marvelous fragrance from heaven: that he thought himself to enter the paradise of the Lord. And truly the Church is the paradise of the Lord: in which are living flowers of roses, and lilies of the valleys, violets of humility, camphor with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, myrrh and balsam, with all the best and chief unguents; all of which spiritually are to be found in the spiritual men who are in the Church. He is not a man, but an unclean beast, and unworthy even in body to enter the Church of the Lord, who has not been delighted by their odor. There is also in the monastery without doubt the presence of the holy Angels, joined to those chanting psalms, in the midst of the young maidens playing tympana. There is also corporally the Lord of the Angels, the flower of the shoot, of the most sacred little Virgin, at whose odor the dead revive. Is not he dead, who is not delighted with the presence of such flowers and perfumes, and especially of that chief flower, the flower of all flowers? O if we could see, in whose presence we stand in the Choir! O if we could behold, whose companionship is joined to us! O if we could understand, to whom we chant, and how great is he who is delighted by our studies! Without doubt, we too would be delighted, and as often as in hymns and spiritual canticles we entered into the sight of the Lord, we would feel a heavenly, nay, a divine odor with our dearest Brother. How much odor and delight, we think, could he have in his heart, who even corporally perceived so great an odor? There is no doubt that he was alien to all delight of flesh and world, and with all the desires of his soul entered into your sight, O Lord; who even corporally entering to you, was refreshed with the fragrance of corporal odor. But not knowing at first that what he had felt was a divine grace, or rather special to himself (for he was always accustomed to such abjection of himself, that he claimed nothing specially of his merits), he hinted to his companions, the Brothers entering with him, whether they caught anything delightful by smell; by revealing it to others, he loses it: and the grace revealed, due to him alone, he immediately lost; until at length by revealing and losing it often, and again receiving it, he understood, made more cautious, that it was not to be revealed, lest it be lost. He was accustomed himself to say with vehement contrition of heart to some of the Brothers, that he had lost inexplicable graces by incautious manifestation.

[16] This also I cannot pass over in silence: that the Mother of all sweetness and suavity refreshed her son, whom she had deigned specially to adopt from the first rudiments of infancy, more frequently with a similar odor. This too we learned from his relation: but we find that he suffered nothing of trouble from this. Whence it is not inconveniently conjectured that some revelations should be revealed to none ever, some to certain persons but at the due time, some to all. Paul never revealed his revelations to anyone. The blessed Mother and Virgin took care to manifest the revelations of her conception and birth to certain persons, at the due time. The Prophets poured out their revelations in the hearing of the whole people. And these diversities of revelations we can easily find in our Brother, if only we apply diligent understanding. But let us return to the matter. It is a customary practice in our Order (I think also in others) that as often as the venerable Name of the venerable Virgin is named in the Collects, in the Creed, in the Preface, and in the Angelic Salutation which is said for the Invitatory, the Convent according to the time should ask a venia; on days of affliction and not festive on the knees, and on festive days with ^c the hand. But our Sacristan, as often as on festive days he was not present at the Convent, prostrating himself at the name of Mary at that lovable and beloved name he most swiftly prostrated himself to the ground; and, as long as he could without scandal, he remained prostrate on the ground. And when he frequently did this contrary to the custom of the Order, one of his familiars decided to accost him about this, and humbly asked that he explain the cause of such unusual custom. He, understanding that he had found a person to whom this secret could be committed with impunity and utility, "Behold," he said, "as often as at the name of the sacred Virgin I prostrate myself to the ground, the odor of all flowers and spices, with such abundance of sweetness, seems to me to breathe forth from the earth, he perceives the odor of all flowers and spices, that I would always wish to lie there in these delights, if it were permitted. Therefore I hasten to fall down in hope of that refreshment; but, because I find it painful to lose so great a delight, I am slower to rise. And here too I seem to see a certain delightful contention, while Mother Mary and her Son Jesus strive to adorn the blessed youth with similar signs of graces." How great sweetness, think you, did the memory of the Mother of the Lord emit in his heart, at whose heard name the earth poured forth so great an odor to the nostrils of his body? Truly I may say, the memory of Mary is in the composition a work of perfumery; in every mouth her memory shall be sweetened like honey, and like music at a wine-banquet, fragrant like the rose flowers in the spring days, and like lilies which are at the passage of water, and like frankincense in the odor of sweetness. Let us also strive to cleanse the nostrils of our soul (which I think can be called the concupiscible power) from all delight of sin: that in the memory of the abundance of the Lord's sweetness and of his dearest Mother, we too may be delighted.

[17] From the praise of God and the commendation of our Brother, and from the edification of morals, this too is not idle, which we learned from the same Brother relating it: namely, that at Matin Lauds, when according to custom was sung the Evangelical Hymn, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he has visited," etc.; Under the Canticle Benedictus he feels the fragrance of incense, the Lord deigned to visit with marvelous sweetness him whom he had peculiarly chosen for himself from all his people, making him feel the sweetness of the odor of incense. Luke 1 For whereas in our Order, only on the four chief solemnities, namely of the Nativity, and Resurrection of the Lord, and holy Pentecost, and the Dedication of the Church, incense is brought at Matins; this Blessed one, who in his heart celebrated a daily, nay continual solemnity; delighted in blessing the Lord at all times, also on daily days in the Hymn of the Lord's Benediction, not undeservedly perceived a solemn odor. Yet there is treated here too a complaint against the torpor of our sloth, that sluggish to rise at midnight with the Psalmist, sluggish to praise the glorious and praiseworthy one, swift to run back to the sloth of our bed, we do not persevere in the praises of the Lord to the end. I hope also that for this cause, in that Canticle in which the Lord is blessed, for that he has visited his people, so often the blessed of the Lord perceived spiritual grace, that it might first be given to him, then to us to notice, that he had received a special grace from the Lord the lawgiver: that through him the Lord should visit and redeem his people, and specially the Church, in which he felt that grace; and that he would raise him up in a horn of salvation in the house in which he had been nourished from boyhood. But this is greatly to be noted, that he himself (without doubt concerning himself) was wont to relate to us as if of another: namely, that at the same time in which he himself perceived the wonderful odor in Matin Lauds, a certain one of the Brothers saw two Angels on right and left presenting incense to the Brothers, which he sees being ministered by two Angels. and to some they presented it cheerfully, and most devoutly bowed down; but others, as with some negligence, they passed by; while from some, as with a certain horror, they altogether recoiled. And it was easily made to be understood what the Angels either venerated or shunned in the Brothers, when our contemplator expressed the names of each. For those whom the Angels honored by incensing and bowing, were known to exist such as praised the Lord both in heart and voice: but others, whom they more negligently passed by, either by not singing or less attending what they sang, had rendered themselves unworthy of the Angelic sight: but a third sort, whose life was death, whether singing or silent, were shunned by the holy ministers as fetid corpses; without doubt giving us lessons how much by our good studies and good deeds, especially in the praises of God, the holy Angels are delighted; and how much they execrate the perversity of our manners, and our sloth.

[18] About to relate a marvelous thing, and unheard-of in all ages, I must ask for and have credulous and faithful readers: lest in the multitude and greatness of true virtues (which the Lady and Queen of virtues has deigned to work in her servant, and with him) they lie to themselves, if the enemies of virtues deny them. Appointing therefore a youth devoted to her, and ceaselessly insistent on her praises, the blessed Virgin to be magnified; not once or twice, or as often as could easily be comprehended by number, she took care to show him her most sweet presence: He frequently sees the Mother of God appearing to him: and she joined herself to him by so great familiarity through most frequent revelations; that even among men whom special charity is wont to join, scarcely could so great familiarity sometime be found. For so much did familiarity in charity, and charity in familiarity, progress on both sides, that it was most certainly held by all who knew the youth, that our faithful Samuel (for so on account of such timely revelations not undeservedly he is named) had been singularly pre-elected by the Blessed Virgin not only as a faithful servant, but rather as a unanimous friend, from the number of all her elect: and truly so it was. We often heard it happen to him, that when in one ^d apse of the monastery he was occupied with prayers and meditations, and called by her, he speaks with her: he heard the voice of his Lady and dearest friend, standing in the opposite part; and not doubting by whom he was called (for he knew the voice of the caller from frequent custom) he passed over to her: and sitting together in some more secret place, he answered the blessed Mother asking individual things about his state; and he in turn asked of her whatever he wished. With such reductions he consoled his nightly vigils: with such a consoler he endured whatever adverse events: he was fostered by the consoling breasts of such a mother:

by such a mistress instructing him he came to know many doubtful and uncertain things. What shall we say to these? Let us marvel, let us marvel at so great marvels in the marvelous Saint, praising the Lord in him and him in the Lord, whom in these marvels we cannot imitate. Of the blessed and distinguished Martin Bishop of Tours it is written, read, believed, and held for great, that the blessed Virgin Mary, with certain other of her fellow-virgins, sometimes deigned to reveal themselves to him, and were in conversation with him. In others also of the Saints it is reckoned marvelous, that now glorified, they are sometimes admitted to the sight, colloquy, and consolation of mortals. So also in our Brother it is marvelous and so much more marvelous, that this has happened to him, we know, not a few times, but very many times.

[19] It will not be idle, if also some lesser things, supported by truth and pleasantness, containing the merit of the man and the marvelous favor of the Blessed Virgin toward him, we bring into the open. He was to come at some time, compelled by necessity, to a certain church of Sisters, subject to the rule of the Church of Steinfeld. And behold, the blessed Mother (wishing also in other churches to declare the merit of her familiar) like a faithful minister preceded him as he came, about to prepare a place for her beloved; and to a certain Sister, so religious that her sanctity ought not to be doubted, she deigned to reveal herself with words of this kind: "My faithful Chaplain is coming to this place today; He is called her Chaplain by Saint Mary. see to it that he be received by you with honor and benignity." The faithful virgin believed the faithful revelation: and, that she might have witnesses of the truth, made known to certain ones staying with her what she had understood. I judge that in this matter the most sweet Mother spared the modesty of the bashful youth: who in places, especially unaccustomed ones, where he did not see signs of familiarity toward himself, reckoned himself a pilgrim and guest; nor (as we see to be the custom of very many young Brothers, to conciliate to themselves in favor the minds of unknown Sisters) have we known him to have sought the familiarities of any unknown woman. Yet he was not inhumane, as we see some on the contrary, who execrate the whole female sex; but he was of marvelous benignity toward certain women and virgins, especially in whom a devout heart could be experienced through external signs of devotion; giving a useful example, of abstaining with modesty from unknown persons, and of showing the affection of benignity toward beneficent ones.

[20] It pleases to add something brief, of exquisite delight, which by its pleasantness may make the Reader marvel, and in marveling be pleased. Having once been bled (as is the custom), the beautiful youth incautiously reclined himself upon his little bed to sleep, so that with his whole body he lay dangerously upon the wounded arm; and, if his most faithful Procuratress had not defended him, after his vein was cut, sleeping he would perhaps have diminished his life along with the blood, which by the bleeding he had sought for the health of the body. But not permitting that her unanimous one, to whom she owed fidelity, by the Mother of God appearing, he is taught the manner of lying down, should suffer loss of life by so lamentable a chance (which he could easily have suffered in sleeping) she hastened to come; and already drowsing she roused him with words of this kind: "Take care to apply caution to yourself; for you have less cautiously placed your bled arm beneath you," and after these things, taking hold of the wounded arm with her blessed hands, she taught him who was about to sleep how he should place both it, nay, also the whole body, lest he should suffer any peril.

What is this? Have such things been heard, or commended in writings anywhere? They would be thought feigned, if they had not been most pleasantly related from his own mouth for the warning of the Brothers. Nor was he accustomed to reveal such things in any degree, unless they pertained to the salvation of anyone's soul or body; especially after by the loss of certain consolations he had been curbed from the revelation of great secrets; or, unless at the same time with the revelation it was revealed to him to whom and for what cause what he had received must be revealed. But we on account of both these and the following things let us bless in women the Blessed one, and her most faithful servant, and her friend blessed among all her friends.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

Name of Joseph imposed and confirmed from heaven. His various sicknesses and benefits received from the Mother of God.

[21] ^a I have long since listened and observed these murmurs of readers: why, and how the name of our dearest Brother was changed, which he had received in baptism, and which I have shown specially to suit him by moral exposition. I will not defraud the reader of the pious question: for I have known the truth of this matter from his own confession; so that I dare confidently to commit this to the truth of writing. Be present, Author of truth, highest Truth, my God, nor permit me to wander in any degree from your truth. But before I begin the treatment of the proposed matter, I judge it not superfluous, to show by the example of the sacred Scriptures to simple and restless ones, that it is not superfluous, By the usual example of names to be changed if names, even those suitable by moral interpretation, are changed in persons; provided that those also which are newly imposed contain a spiritual understanding, and especially congruent with the person and the cause for which they are imposed. in the old Law This is shown in the Old Testament in Abraham and Israel: to whom although the former names agreed (for before they had been called Abram and Jacob), and (as is known) were not empty of mysteries; yet the Wisdom of God did not judge it superfluous, if for the acts and causes for which they were changed, new suitable names should be assigned. and new In the New Testament also, our Lord and Savior himself, we read to have changed names of certain Apostles (whom surely he had as familiars more than the rest), names which were good and well suitable to them, imposed according to the precept of the Lord in the Sacrament of Circumcision (which then bore the place of Baptism, and to some extent its effect): and (lest anyone make a forced reading in this) we do not read that he changed these in Baptism; when he called Peter the one who was before called Simon, and called James and John sons of thunder. But why some of those whose names are changed altogether lost their first names; while others retained the first almost altogether; and others are sometimes named indiscriminately by the first and second, separately and even conjointly — why I do not confess to be ignorant? For I do not remember to have read or heard, whether such a doubt has ever been raised in question; but yet there is no doubt that the truth is thus. For Abraham is now by no one called Abram, but Abraham, with the first name altogether abolished: but Jacob, although called Israel, in customary usage, not Israel, but rather Jacob is called; the Lord himself saying: "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Ex. 3:6 and 15, 16 The Prince of the Apostles, now singly Simon, now Peter, sometimes by both names together is called: which in those afore-named is by no means found. The sons of Zebedee are very rarely called sons of thunder, except when that passage of the Gospel or the cause of such name is recited. Herman Joseph has two names, But our two-named one, with the Prince of the Apostles, seems most to agree in the appending of his name; in this, that now, though rarely, by the first name unless with the appending of the second, now by the second name singly and more frequently, and sometimes by both conjointly, he is usually called.

[22] These things having been premised by a certain necessity, now let us come to the long-awaited order of the matter itself. I know not from what cause, unless we know it to have happened from the divine will, that our Brother, the little vessel of snowy chastity, began to be called Joseph by some of the Brothers. on account of his chastity he began to be called Joseph by his own, He took it amiss (as he himself confessed to us) that he should be named by the equivocal name of two very distinguished men: namely that outstanding Patriarch, who was the holiest among the brothers; and that most holy one, who had been chosen out of all for this, that the Mother of the Lord should be betrothed to him. But the cause of the trouble which he endured in his heart for this name, but unwillingly: was this: that he found himself like to them in no virtue by whose name he was counted. So great anxiety of heart he therefore incurred, for the name unjustly (as he asserted) imposed on him; that on the next day he proposed to denounce in Chapter the Brothers calling him so, to be corrected. But in the middle of the night, when he was keeping vigil in his accustomed prayers and thanksgivings, standing in the last stalls near the stall of the Abbot, and bowing himself over the formas in the usual manner; behold, he looked in the middle of the choir, at the steps of the Presbytery, a Virgin of unutterable beauty, distinguished with royal schema: two most beautiful youths near her on the right and left seemed to stand, The Virgin Mother of God appearing between two Angels. whom he understood to be Angels, ready to show ministry to so great a Lady. While the blessed Brother, soon to be more blessed, stood, and marveled at the newness and sweetness of the vision, he heard one of the Angels speaking thus to the other: "To whom shall we betroth this Virgin?" The other answered: "To whom shall we betroth her, except to the present Brother?" And he: "Let him come then," he said. Called, he came forward with shame of modesty: but, as is said elsewhere, "Shame itself became him": for by such incredible newness of things seen and heard he could not but be amazed. But when he had come forward to the presence of the Queen, one of the Angels spoke to him: "It is fitting," he said, "that this most bright maiden be betrothed to you." Terrified at so great a dignity, the humble and modest Brother began to allege his unworthiness: and by so great a name of spouse of so great a bride, he proclaimed himself altogether unworthy. And when he had begun to delay in obeying, the Angel took his right hand, and joined it to the hand of the most sacred Virgin, and under these words completed the betrothal: "Behold," he said, "I hand over this Virgin to you as spouse, as she was betrothed to Joseph; he receives her as spouse, and is called Joseph by the Angel. that you may take the name of the spouse together with the spouse: and hereafter, Joseph shall be your name." Who presumes to calumniate, if that has happened which the Angel promised, the true messenger of the true God? Into all the earth the sound of this name has now gone forth, and to the ends of the world the name Joseph, which was called by the Angel.

[23] And if perchance there be anyone who still seeks something to be added for the confirmation of the name Joseph; let him hear what I subjoin. With Joseph himself telling the truth of the narration

of this kind confessing in my presence and that of some other Brothers, as I protested above, rejoicing that I had an occasion to extort from his mouth what I had heard sufficiently from others; (for, as someone says,

"And although there is a sweet savor in the water brought, More gratefully waters are drunk from the very fount.")

I immediately added: "We ask that this also be recounted to us, how this name Joseph was confirmed in you by the mouth of the blessed Virgin near the high Altar." But he smiling said: "This was a vision." Now this vision was as follows: When on a certain night he had been occupied long with prayers, and from labor had returned to the rest of his little bed; when he was now beginning to be made drowsy, he seemed to himself to have returned to the same place from which he had departed from prayer: and behold, looking at the high Altar he seemed to see the most blessed Virgin, carrying a most beautiful little boy in her arms. And when he looked at both the Mother and the boy with great delight; at length he approached the Mother of the Lord, familiarly called by her: and touched and drawn by the desire of the desirable boy, and encouraged by accustomed confidence: "Dearest, give me your Son," he said. She drawing out the petitioner a little (I think, so that his desire might be more inflamed) at length held out to him the infant supremely desired; [He receives the boy Jesus to be carried in a vision, and again is called Joseph by the Mother of God:] and added: "Carry my son, as he was carried by my spouse Joseph into Egypt; that as you have the same burden, so also you may have the like honor of the same name." The name Joseph was confirmed therefore in our Joseph, and will be confirmed forever, and a new name will be called for him which the mouth of the universal Lady has named. Admonished also by his Lady and spouse that he should no more in any way murmur over the name Joseph, he thenceforth bore the honorable name without burden: and so it was brought into custom, and in custom by the aforesaid authors irrefragably confirmed, that the increase of the glorious soul might be proved also by his name. ^b

[24] A memorable fact is called back to my memory, which may usefully edify the reader in morals. It happened that the youth of such great progress, whose conversation was already in heaven, and who walked above men, was somewhat tickled by the defect of human frailty; so that not with altogether his accustomed fervor of devotion he fulfilled for some days the obedience which he owed to the most blessed Mother. on account of a slight torpor Now that torpor of sloth was so small, that he by no means detected it in himself, or rebuked himself for it. There was at that time great importunity of house-breakers, who broke into monasteries and churches, and despoiled them of whatever precious things. Therefore blessed Joseph, solicitous lest any sinister thing happen in the monastery committed to his custody, drew himself somewhat from prayers and praises of his familiar Lady, and watched the approaches of the monastery. Therefore she who is satisfied with the continual praises of Angels, not bearing that the devotion of her faithful one for whatever causes should be diminished for her, He sees the Mother of God in the form of an old woman: met the youth, now watching not for herself but for the custody of the monastery, like a little old woman, with her face deformed with wrinkles. Whom when he saw and did not at all recognize, he was vehemently frightened, because of nocturnal fears, and crying out said: "What is this?" But she: "I am," she said, "the custodian of this monastery, as of so long a time its own." He, recognizing the speaker whom he did not know in appearance: "Are you, O Rose?" he said; for from excessive familiarity, with the name of reverence suppressed, he was accustomed to call her so. Who answered: "I am." He was accustomed to call her Rose: He amazed said, "What is the cause that you wished to assume for yourself the face of such an old woman?" To whom she: "Such," she said, "I appear to your eyes, as you have chosen to keep me in your heart. For I have already become an old woman to you. For where is the representation of my joys? Where the gladdening memory of the Angelic Salutation? Where that fervor of devotion, the youth of your soul, and the other spiritual exercises which you have hitherto been accustomed to show me, which made me to you and you to me young? I do not wish that by the custody of the monastery you excuse yourself from my service, which my custody will preserve much better." Corrected by severe reproof, the youth decided to commit hereafter the care of the monastery to so great a custodian: and promised to bring back both himself and his Lady to their former youth, and to preserve himself in it. What shall we say? Who does not fear this most wicked torpor and tepidity, old age of the soul, into which so great an athlete could slip? Into what old age, think we, do our daily and continual slothfulnesses lead us, if the Queen of heaven showed herself to be aged by so slight a sloth of her Brother? How shall we by superfluous works, in which (lest we seem to have done nothing) we very often occupy ourselves to cover our sloth, be able to excuse ourselves; when the occupation of the Brother is not admitted as an excuse, which seemed necessary? Let us learn to fear this vice of sloth the more, the more it is hidden, and is wont to lie in wait for spiritual things themselves, with hidden snares, for the spirit itself. Let us continually have in memory the Angelic Salutation, the joys of the Mother of God commended by her and the joys of the most blessed Virgin, and recall these to her memory: for by this we know we please her greatly. For she herself in place much commended a certain little book containing in many ways her joys, composed by a certain very religious man, ^c the first Abbot of the Church of Steinfeld (for before him the Prelates were called ^d Provosts), saying to our Joseph that with delight she recounts: she had no small delight in those her praises.

[25] Among other signs of charity, which the most beneficent Mother was accustomed to show in manifold ways to her Joseph, this marvelous one is specially related: that when at some time proceeding less cautiously with his feet he had stumbled, falling on his face he was deprived of two teeth. Which when he was carrying uprooted in his hand, without any hope of recovery (for not if anyone is made toothless, do teeth spring up for him again, His teeth torn out by a fall, much less are they sometimes replaced; since, according to nature, there is no return from privation to habit), he went spitting out blood, perhaps to the ^e lavatory, to wash away the flowing blood. But the Mother of mercy, pitying the pain, shame, and such great loss of her most faithful one, took care to show him her most blessed and accustomed presence meeting him; and with words signifying compassion most familiarly she asked: "What is the matter?" she said. To whom he, speaking as much as he could: "I have lost my teeth," he said, "and I am tormented with pain." But she added: "Give me," she said, [by the hand of the Mother of God the teeth are placed in his mouth and he receives them:] "those very teeth torn out." Which when she had received from the hand of her beloved, she placed them in the bloody gums in their places, and with all pain removed and the wound healed she solidified the same teeth, so that no trace at all of pain or wound remained. I think these teeth washed with the milk of innocence, nor corrupted by voracity, nor accustomed to grind against any by movement of wrath or envy, which the most sacred Mother took care to touch with kind hand, and so marvelously to restore.

[26] The most blessed youth, consoled with many such benefits, and raised by revelations, had already advanced into a spiritual man; whom it was necessary to nourish with solider foods and with the bread of children and with the very dishes of the Lord's table. Those barley breads therefore, which our Father of the family himself deigned to take into his own hands (for he found tribulation and sorrow for us, and carried our infirmities, and sorrowed for us), and also to bless, he copiously distributed to our Joseph, as to a beloved son. He girded him therefore with harder scourgings, fatiguing him within with pain of heart, and without with tribulation of body. For when he had applied to him knowledge with charity and zeal (which he had toward all he could know, both his own and the universal Church), he applied also pain, equally corresponding to charity and zeal. From excessive labors and vigils (by which he exceeded the human measure) he incurred such bodily infirmity that, his stomach growing weak, the mass of his whole body was disturbed: He is afflicted with various infirmities and headaches. when he could no longer digest any foods because of the rawness of the languishing stomach, from which undigested and raw fumes had long been evaporating into his brain already exhausted by vigils, and had brought him nearly continual head trouble. Then at last it was necessary to remove him from all offices, and to permit him to be free for his necessity, as the matter demanded. And although he was vexed in body with infirmities, to the point of utter failure; yet for this, that he was reckoned useless, and could not go out to the accustomed offices, he was much more tortured in mind: especially because he himself was said to have inflicted this defect on himself, who in inept labors, when he was warned by many, had not wished to spare himself. He himself also afterward rebuked his indiscreet labors in our presence, and admonished us to temper our labors, setting himself forth to us as a mirror and example. And these things indeed, as far as the man is concerned, I have said. But as far as is given to know of divine providence and ordering, I not unwisely understand that this sting of his flesh was given to him (which Blessed Augustine also in the Apostle understands as a certain most acute infirmity), by which he might be buffeted like a boy: God exercising his Saint, lest, as a youth, he should grow proud, by the greatness and multitude of revelations lifting him up. 2 Cor. 12 Nor let anyone wonder that we fall into certain tribulations and sorrows from our own indiscretion; into which the Moderator of all things from his highest discretion permits us to fall. For there is no doubt that sometimes he uses our folly well (especially when goodness of will is not lacking to us); who also uses diabolical malice well for his own good will.

[27] It happened therefore, when on a certain day he was being more sharply tortured, that he implored the suffrages of many of his Saints: but from this he obtained no remedy; I think, that he might be more sweetly consoled by her, to whom he had specially devoted himself as her special one; nay rather, who had specially adopted him to herself as her special one. Therefore when tortured and sick he came before the high Altar, he saw a glorious woman sitting upon the Altar: whom not recognizing, by the Mother of God appearing on the altar he is healed of his weakness: and thinking her to be some mortal, he began not a little to be indignant at such great presumption of a rash woman. But she revealing herself to her faithful one, called him to her, saying: "If you had invoked me as the other Saints, I would perhaps have cured you of your infirmity." But he, when he recognized the Lady, who had already for some time absented herself from his presence, fell down before her, and asked a remedy. She saying: "Behold, be now healed"; he was relieved from that immoderate weakness: He retains the other infirmity until death: yet the accustomed infirmity remaining, which, for the guarding of humility, from the Master of humility he had received and which was to be terminated only by the remedy of death.

[28] Yet we know that sometimes it happened that for some time he was marvelously cured; and the time having elapsed he returned to his happier custom

of his own, and to the eating of the daily bread, with the Lord calling him, he returned. This however he had as a custom for many years, especially on the greater feasts: that with the approaching solemnities he always expected a new misery; unless it pleased the most prudent dispenser the Lord, on the days preceding the solemnities, to anticipate the expected misery: whence that saying, "My feasts are unfriendly to me," he often used to repeat to us. He was accustomed also on festivities (unless, as I said, the scourges happened to be anticipated) to be so sharply scourged, that in himself he truly felt to be fulfilled what is written: "Your feast days shall be turned into mourning"; and by many who did not recognize him, he was believed humbled and cast down by the Lord. In this way, on one of the vigils of the Lord's Nativity he began to be so unmercifully afflicted, that all who saw him were moved with mercy around him. For fear of heart for the present solemnity, and trembling of body from the greatness of cold in his limbs came upon him, so that covered with the garments of all he could not be warmed: nay even a great mass of wood, at his request, they placed over his rigid limbs: but neither thus did they accomplish anything. At length the hour of the blessed time coming, in which the boy Jesus had come forth like a bridegroom from his venerable chamber, from the Virginal womb, with all pain receding, Joseph also came forth from the chamber of sickness; and entering to Matin Lauds, and then divinely strengthened. on that day with such great alacrity of heart he celebrated the threefold solemnities of Masses, that not only did no sign of pain or sadness appear in him, but he also seemed to have received double from the hand of the most munificent Lord for all his tribulations. Ps. 18 And so through the whole time of his life, as though by two millstones, now with tribulations and now with consolations he was ground; that he might become bread, without any leaven or bran, of fine flour, delicate, worthy to be presented to the table of the highest Father of the family.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

Love and reverence toward the Ursulan Virgins. Elevation of mind from creatures. Martyrdom of Saint Engelbert revealed.

[29] Now to those marvelous and pleasant revelations which we know him to have had concerning Blessed Ursula and her companions, let us turn our hand with mind together: and we shall see manifestly that even in continual tribulations the Lord our God stored up joy and exultation upon him, and gave him an inheritance with an eternal name. With such great affection happy Joseph had conceived toward these fair Virgins of the Lord and precious Martyrs, [He is borne with great love and devotion toward Saint Ursula and her companion Virgins,] that he could not sufficiently open it with evident signs: with such familiarity and purity of mind he was joined to them, that he knew many secrets through them, and some of them revealed to him their names, and consoled him in his tribulations. Therefore to prove his intimate affection toward these sacred Virgins, he proposed to compose a new history of a chant ^a in their honor and love. And when he applied his right hand to writing: behold, one of the Virgins evidently appeared to him; and standing before him, most benignly and most familiarly informed him what he was about to write. Moreover, he saw a most beautiful dove sitting upon his shoulder, which thrust its beak ceaselessly into the ear of the one dictating. This also he understood to be one of the number of the holy Virgins: whence also afterwards the whole sacred companionship, and all virgins devoted to the Lord, he was accustomed to call ^b Columbelles ("little doves"), as by a customary name. But when he had to compose the melody of the history already written (which was of greater difficulty); as often as he applied his mind to this, he was accustomed to hear no small choir of Virgins above him in the air, chanting with heavenly joyfulness such a melody as was suitable to the written words. He was wont to call them Columbelles. This also, because it will with difficulty deserve the credence of some, I rejoice to have heard from his own mouth (who could not lie about himself). For when long afterward alone with him I was sitting together familiarly, I began as though jesting to call him presumptuous, who dared to compose melodies of histories, which seemed very difficult even to those most skilled in the art of Music. Compelled to remove the scandal from me, and to excuse himself from the vice of presumption falsely imposed on him, he opened to me the truth hitherto concealed. Taught by them he composes a canticle concerning them. "Not I," he said, "alone composed this melody; but the sacred Columbelles were my help." And when I inquired the manner of this wonderful revelation; "When after the composition," he said, "of the words of the history, solicitous about the melody I had reclined on my little bed, a choir of Virgins gathered over me in the air sang to me beforehand the melody itself: which as I learned from them, I strove to note down in the subscribed words." To whom I: "This," I said, "seems frivolous and feigned, that anyone of however great talent could thus commit to memory and writing afterward a melody heard from those chanting together." But he, wishing altogether to satisfy the doubter, dissolved my wonder with greater wonder: for he said: "As often as I happened to forget their harmony, and to set down in writing notes other than I had heard; they, coming over me again and again and many times, did not cease to repeat those notes, which I had committed to oblivion, so long and so many times, until they were perfectly imprinted on my memory, and I erased my error, and committed to writing fully what they had taught." ^c He was accustomed to recite to us often some words of the same history with their melody: which, in chanting, he said, his Teachers were moved by such alacrity, and he asserted that they had repeated these with such great cheerfulness many times, that he himself also relating these things to us was moved with wonderful joyfulness of both mouth and mind. Whence also for his hearing, by which you gave him joy and gladness, and for my hearing, by which you deigned to reveal this truth to me from the mouth of blessed Joseph, I bless you, O Lord Jesus.

[30] The truth also of the two following miracles, dearest Brother, I dare to prove by your testimony: for neither will you by telling, nor will I by writing, offend truth: with you telling what you knew; and me writing what you willed me, not knowing, to know through your mouth. After the Relics of the holy Virgins had been found It happened by God's nod that the blessed Man was sometime present, where that most noble treasure, hidden in the field of earth, and those most precious pearls (I mean the Relics of the Blessed Virgins) were found ^d. At that time among others was found, but above others lovable, the little body of a little Virgin, for whose head the most virginal Joseph himself was borne with the highest desire of receiving it. To those therefore to whom the care of the holy Relics had been committed, and especially to the ^e Abbess, he approached to supplicate for the head of the little girl; asking the head of one most humbly and most earnestly he supplicated, whatever conciliating words he could interposed: but he patiently suffered a refusal. Entreaties often repeated availing nothing, with them saying that they would give him abundance of Relics of the same companionship, if he wished; but that little body, and especially the head, could in no way be torn from them: He suffers a refusal, he took the refusal very hard, and with human aid failing, he felt that divine help must be implored. He therefore asked that, according to his custom, in the same church of the holy Virgins he might be permitted to celebrate the most sacred mysteries: after the Mass celebrated there he obtains it: within which, with such great devotion he prostrated himself to the Lord and to the sacred Virgins: that he became certain (whether by revelation, or by inspiration, I know not) that he would receive what he had asked. Nor was there delay. Departing from the altar he approached the Abbess: who had ordered that aforesaid head to be brought into her own chapel, to have it for her special Relics: and repeating his first prayers, he found her so marvelously changed; that by offering what before she had so hardly denied, she even seemed to anticipate the humility of the petitioner. Having received therefore so desired a treasure, he brought the shining pearl to us; and he knows by revelation it is of Saint Gertrude. and that she had the name ^f Gertrude (as had been revealed to him), he revealed to us rejoicing with him.

[31] About the same time, our Joseph had entered into a certain castle, to a certain matron of good devotion: to greet her, whom for the fame of her devotion and the zeal of her service (which he was accustomed to show to religious) he loved most familiarly. There had been brought there two heads of the blessed Virgins: which were kept by her in a chest. Which when (I know not by what chance) had been placed on the ground; on account of the sacred relics irreverently treated someone in Joseph's sight, showing no reverence to the sacred Relics, did not fear to sit upon them. Seeing the lover of the sacred Virgins that such contempt was shown to them, moved by pious zeal, he was zealous with great zeal for his beloved ones; and (as he himself was accustomed to recite to us in joyfulness of spirit) he wholly burned inwardly with fire of indignation: and desired that such vengeance should follow the one contemning the Virgins, by which the raving contemner of Blessed Martin, with the chair blazing beneath him, was compelled to rise up to the holy man. In a wonderful manner the effect continuously followed the blessed man's desire, he obtains amendment divinely: with that ardor of zeal (which he silently bore in his indignant breast) marvelously passing into the hinder parts of the contumacious sitter: which he not enduring, with haste leaped up, ignorant of the cause of the so sudden heat which he had felt: which however he knew on the report of the blessed man; yet by no means ascribing it to himself, but to the merits of the sacred Virgins. What kind of heat, do we think, shall we fear, we who show reverence neither to the Relics of the Saints, nor to sacred places, nay nor to the Holy of Holies himself in the church or in the choir, or before the altar, with the holy Angels indignant at us, guardians of the sacred places, and especially around the Body of the Lord, nay around the Lord himself, celebrating their devout and reverent watch? They are indignant at us without doubt, indignant, as often as they see us pass by the holy altars, thinking vain things, bowing more negligently, not praying to or honoring the Lord.

[32] The Lord, the consolation of the sad, the strength of those laboring, determined to strengthen with manifold consolations his servant laboring in daily tribulations, both through his creatures and through himself. And indeed of the consolations which through the aforesaid sacred Virgins he ministered to him, very few things have come to my knowledge, which I have through this writing commended to memory: but there remain very many which have neither come to my knowledge, nor been committed to writing. But how through the knowledge of those creatures, which are subject to the eyes, and whose natural appearance commends itself to the eyes of those beholding, namely of the heaven and the stars, he gladdened the man of extraordinary simplicity; I indeed wish, but am not able to explain. For it is such a matter, which

cannot be explained by those seeing and feeling it, as it is, how much less by those imperfectly hearing of it? Yet lest I say nothing, I will explain as much and in such manner as I can. When he was being touched by the hand of the Lord in daily (as has been said) tribulations, amid tribulations and had received this answer from the Lord within: "My grace is sufficient for you, for strength is made perfect in weakness," he began frequently to think of the reward which he hoped: and to desire to know what delights the supercelestial things had, and to enter into God's sanctuary. Occupied with these meditations, it happened on a certain night that he stood at the window of the Sacristy, and looked toward the east: where he could for some time contemplate the rising of the moon and of some stars, and the purity of the firmament. He contemplates the rising of the moon and stars: And when he clung with all the intention of mind and body to beholding all these, seized by great delight in the creatures, and by the ardor of knowing them fully, he so addressed the Creator himself: and with mind lifted up to God "Lord founder of all things, even though I must know you, while I dwell in this Babylon, through a mirror and in a riddle; yet give me knowledge of your creatures, through which the gaze of the mind may be somewhat more perfectly raised up to knowing you yourself." And while praying and desiring he stood; behold, in a wonderful manner (which he himself could not explain, nor I either) alienated from himself, he was suddenly translated into a man of other knowledge: and the Lord suddenly placed under his gaze, He knows the beauty of creatures: extremely broadened, the quality and quantity (which we can more plainly call the beauty and greatness) of the firmament and the stars, and for some time satisfied his desire. But from him returned to himself we could learn nothing else; except that in this perfect knowledge of creatures, he had been refreshed with such inestimable delight, that no tongue could in any way explain it. O truly inestimable man, to be pursued with every praise! whom the Lord wished to scourge as a son, and as a unanimous friend to console with the delights of his secrets. Does he not in this deed seem equal to that incomparable ^h Benedict, under whose eyes in a moment the whole world was brought? Let us not contend about merits, but in both deservedly praise the Lord.

[33] It is worthwhile to insert also in the reading, and to commend to the memory of readers, how the passion of the distinguished Prelate ⁱ Engelbert, Archbishop of Cologne, was shown beforehand to our Joseph, not through phantasms of dreams, but through a vision, manifest even to his corporal eyes. I write it (as I am able to remember) as I received it from the mouth of the one seeing it. Before the passion of the aforesaid Pontiff, about ^k four weeks, on one night in ^l the middle, delighted (as I judge) by the purity of the firmament and stars from the cause stated above, he had gone out under the sky, and stood contemplating the Lord Creator in the beauty of creatures: for from that time in which by rapture he had known the nature and disposition of creatures, contemplating the lunar globe, he was accustomed to gaze upon them with greater devotion and delight. When therefore he was looking at the lunar globe in the southern region, at that time shining with full and unimpeded light; turning to the northern region, he saw another moon rising, he sees another phantom moon, whose brightness was so great that it almost entirely obscured the perfect brightness of the natural moon. And when he stood astonished at the novelty of the matter; behold, he saw the firmament opened on the right, and between the aperture and that phantom moon (which had already begun to rise toward the approach of heaven) he saw the figure of a sword, after the contact of the sword entering into the firmament: short indeed, but broad, such as are the swords of the Bavarians. But the moon, which seemed to rise from the north toward the east, when it had touched the sword; they entered together the approach of the firmament. But Joseph, not understanding the vision (yet not doubting that it portended something great), with anxiety of heart returned to his little bed. In which when he was reclining solicitous, with his eyelids relaxed somewhat to drowsing, he seemed to himself to hear a certain crowd passing by before the house in which he lay; and one complaining to the other saying: "Alas! alas! Bishop Engelbert has been killed": and he hears that Saint Engelbert the Bishop has been killed. and this they often repeated. The blessed man sufficiently conjectured from this what that vision portended, but hesitated to believe the vision. For he said to himself: "How shall a man of such great glory and such great power, always supported by such great companions, be killed? And if he shall be killed; who will believe that a man totally devoted to the world, a man of such great successes and such great delights is suddenly crowned? who was afterward killed. But the thing foreshown could not but be fulfilled, and what had been ordered by the Lord consummated. Therefore a short time afterwards such a great man fell by the swords of his own kinsmen; for whom, that he might not fall, they ought rather to have endured the swords of strangers. Yet with one part of the vision completed, still Joseph (as he was always accustomed to be suspicious of himself) doubted the glorification of the Martyr. doubting of his glory, A voice therefore was made to him saying: "Because you were not willing to turn the eyes of faith to the most true vision; behold, he is punished with pain of the eyes, you shall incur pain of your bodily eyes: nor shall you in any way obtain health, until you offer wax eyes at the tomb of the Martyr, and in your healing most certainly experience that truth (of which you now doubt)." The words were said, faith immediately followed: Joseph was gravely afflicted with pain of the eyes, and, and with wax eyes offered at his tomb he is healed. through the fulfillment of the aforesaid vow, sudden and entire health received. I omit writing what he answered me, when I asked him what he saw with heaven open; lest I seem to stir up questions for Philosophers or Theologians. Nor do I expound the vision article by article: namely, what the beauty of the moon surpassing the natural moon, and its path from the north to the east signify; what also the shortness and breadth of the sword, and other things that may be sought about these; when our brevity can suffice for lovers of simplicity, whom in this little work I confess I principally serve.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VI.

Excesses of mind and highest reverence under the sacrifice of Mass.

[34] It pleases to subjoin (would that it be worthy) concerning the singular grace which the giver of all graces had conferred on him, for some years before his death, in the most sacred mysteries of Masses, unheard-of in all past times. But nor do we write these things, that they may be drawn as an example by anyone who is not similar to the exemplar. Blessed Joseph therefore, beloved of God and men, although from the beginning of his ordination, was of singular grace in divine things, so that by the highest Father he was held as unique before his other Brothers; especially when he was offering his Only one to the Father; yet about his last times, he took care to visit him in such an unheard-of manner, that on almost every day during the Secrets of the divine Mystery he went into excess; Under the divine Sacrifice of the Mass he suffers marvelous excesses of mind: and standing without any motion of body for very many hours he showed to all a wonderful spectacle of himself. And he became to many a stumbling-block and a parable, not only to strangers but to his own Brothers: so that scarcely was anyone found who, on account of such long delays in the mysteries of the altar, would minister to him. By some Brothers also admonished and asked, that he either cease from such prolongation, or indicate the cause of such unheard-of prolongation; he in no way yielded to them. I too among others came upon him in familiarity about this matter, and humbly asked that the causes of such great delay, not to me (who knew myself altogether unworthy of such great a mystery) but to some one of the Brothers, whom innocence of life and purity of mind commends, he would be willing to communicate his secret. And when to him not consenting, even moved in mind, I insisted, saying that it was full of danger, that he should have no sharer of such unheard-of secrets; such an answer at length I was able to extort from him: "Truly, I do not dare to reveal this secret to anyone: for if I reveal it, I shall both lose the grace of devotion, and shall be miserably tormented." I decided therefore to cease henceforth from the wonderful man; lest by my importunity I should perhaps extinguish the spirit, and lest I should despise prophecy. But certain ones (who were accustomed to assist him more familiarly) wishing to explore what he did in such great delay, threw themselves into his face as he thus stood; and saw him keeping such great quiet of body, that he used neither his mouth for speaking nor his eyes for seeing.

He does not see those before him with his eyes open: For those who stood in his face near at hand and directly, he did not see as they gazed upon him; though he had his eyes open for seeing. After many delays, as if waking from sleep, he vehemently drew breath, and completed the most sacred mysteries. I think by those who waste away over transgressors, and not over those who walk in the law of the Lord, it can easily be grasped that the spirit of the spiritual man was caught up to contemplating great, many, difficult, and sweet things; when he so left all the senses of the body, that he did not serve in the office of any of them. How much, do we think, did he attend to spiritual things, who in no way felt himself to be in the body? How much, do we think, did he attend to heavenly things, who remained on earth with his body alone? How much, do we think, did he enter into God, for whom his soul thirsted, who left his own body behind? With what purity of spirit did he see and hear ineffable words, which it is not permitted to a man to speak, who with his bodily eyes open saw nothing, with his ears wide open heard nothing? Meditating and treating on these things, I am compelled to behold (and may I behold well!) different from those who approach the divine Sacraments negligently. the misery of my soul, and of those like me; who to those terrible Sacraments so wholly carnal, nay rather wholly flesh, approach: we meditate, savor, and look upon nothing spiritual, nothing heavenly, nothing divine: scarcely have we faith alone, and that (alas!) too weak, concerning the divine Sacraments: we do not feel the presence of the Creator, Redeemer, and Judge, nor do we think of the most devout ministry of the present Angels. We neither praise worthily the Majesty of the Lord with the Angels, nor with the Dominations worship, nor tremble with the Powers, nor with the heavens and the Virtues of heavens and the blessed Seraphim exult at all. Cold, hard, heavy, and dry of heart, restless in thoughts, and subject to various passions, we presume to touch and take the Lord Sabaoth undevout: alas! unlike that one, who not only put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man; but even left himself behind, and, remembering the Lord, poured out his soul over himself: passing from the tabernacle of the flesh to the place of the wonderful tabernacle unto the house of God; nay even unto himself and into God himself, the living fount: for whom his soul thirsted, as the hart desires the fountains of waters. O those stag-like leaps, which he gave in the spirit, migrating from visible things to invisible, from bodily things to spiritual, from earthly to heavenly, from human to divine! He leapt out of the eye of the body, that not seeing bodily and visible things, he might see spiritual and invisible things: he leapt out of the ear of the body, that not hearing audible and speakable things, he might hear unspeakable things which should overcome human hearing. for many years he is thus caught up into divine things, And (what you may more marvel at) this grace was not of one day, or of one week, or of one month, or even of one year; but for several years so great a grace remained in so great a man, he tasting and seeing the abundance of your sweetness, Lord Jesus: of whom we, too poor and beggarly and mendicant, can bring up only the memory, not the taste and fullness. ^a

[35] Yet let us bring up what we can and what we know concerning the servant of God to the praise of God: and let us praise the servant in the Lord, and the Lord in the servant. He was at one time, with the Lord disposing, in a monastery of Nuns for some years, and there celebrated the Divine offices: and there arose against him no small murmur over the prolongation of Masses; some complaining that he was uselessly spending the time of labor; others saying that damage was being done to the candles burning long. And when these questions were being carried on for some time, a certain servant (but afterwards a Conversus) who loved him quite familiarly, grieved on the blessed man's behalf: and desiring to prove the truth of the damage of the candles, on a certain day (when he was about to go on a journey of a mile, containing two or three Gallic leagues) he hid one of the two candles, which were accustomed to burn at the altar, where the Priest of the Lord celebrated, and which were of equal length: and with the solemnities of the Masses begun, the same servant began to make his journey: which, with business completed, with the candles less consumed than under a shorter Mass: he returned and found our Contemplator still standing at the sacred altars. The Office finished, he measured the hidden candle with the candle which had burned during the solemnities of Masses, and found that not so much had been consumed of the latter as naturally could have been consumed during a Mass of the usual brevity. Rejoicing, he took both candles, and showing them to the Sisters, related what he had done: and diligently admonished, that they should not hereafter murmur against the servant of the Lord. Behold, truly the chosen boy of the Lord, whom he chose, to prove whose merit the fire forgot the force of its virtue; that it could not exercise it in such soft matter of its fuel, and the boy of the Lord was freed from his calumniators unharmed. Does not that candle seem to you rightly compared to the burning and not-consumed bush? Unless perhaps it is more wonderful, that material fire could do much less in the matter subjected to it than it should have done naturally. ^b

[36] I think it will also profit somewhat for the edification of the hearers, if, how great reverence he had for the Sacraments, how great diligence about their being confected, handled, and taken, with what fear and trembling he was accustomed to handle all the vessels and other utensils of the sacred ministry, be brought forward. For I do not think any of men has been found so suspicious of himself in these things, and of such delicate conscience, who always believed himself to have erred in something. Now he feared that he had mixed too much water with wine, now that some drops of wine had adhered separately to the Chalice, he had scrupulous reverence toward the venerable Eucharist: now that in the contact of the consecrated Host, or even in its fraction, some very small particles had adhered to his fingers. Sometimes he feared he had with his breath, in taking the Eucharist from the paten (upon which we are wont to place the two parts of the Host), thrown back those same small particles: sometimes in drinking from the Chalice, he had spilled something; or that something of the Host or of the liquid had incautiously remained in the Chalice, which had not been carefully wiped off. Now he feared he had touched that fold of the Corporal, upon which the Host is usually placed, either with his fingers or with another part of the Corporal: now that with those joints of the fingers with which he had handled the sacred Host, before the ablution, he had touched something: and above all he tearfully complained that he lacked due devotion; so that truly with blessed Job he could say, "I feared all my works." On account therefore of the great reverence which he used toward the Sacraments, he performed everything morosely: so as often as he lifted up and placed the Body of the Lord as a Man still passible, [on account of whose touch preserving the clippings of nails, and of the upper beard.] he tempered the elevation and letting down of his arms, and the gesture of his whole body with the greatest reverence. He was accustomed to cut off with scissors the nails of those fingers with which the sacred Host is handled, and the beard of the upper lip closest to the mouth, by which by some chance the Sacrament of the Chalice could be touched, and to preserve them with himself out of reverence for the Sacrament; judging it unworthy that those extremities of the body (though in themselves base) should be trampled underfoot, which by touching the Lord of all (though in the Sacrament) had many times been ennobled. Nor do we write this, that it should be drawn into an example, since the whole Church does not observe it; but that by this we may show, how great reverence the blessed man showed in heart to the Sacraments, who with such great diligence, for the honor of the Eucharist, honored the extremities of the body. He often in our presence sharply rebuked those and their custom, who are content with a single, or even double ablution after the Eucharist has been taken; asserting that by divine revelation he had truly learned, that even after the third ablution something of the Sacrament (which is the same as the whole) had remained in the Chalice.

[37] This too, which seems to have been above nature, and to have exceeded the natural limits in the servant of God, I cannot pass over in silence: that though he himself was of such great weakness, and had turned it now into custom and nature, that he was not able from his own strength either to stand long or to fast, [he is stronger than usual in the ministry of the altar: and among devout persons,] without incurring utter failure; yet occupied about the ministry of the altar, he was able both to stand for a very long time, and to fast. It happened sometimes, when he was with such persons, in whose devotion he specially rejoiced, that for some days he was refreshed with such bodily strength through the alacrity of spirit, that he both did not feel the accustomed weakness in fasting, and quite miraculously also labored bodily. For he had learned to make clock mechanisms; on account of which he was sometimes requested from other monasteries, either to make new ones where there were none, making clock mechanisms for them, or to set in order again those that were out of order. He did this with such great affection of joyfulness, that not only was his presence burdensome to none, but even most dear to all. With such benignity he knew how to conform himself to the customs and habit of all; that although he spoke wisdom among the perfect, made all things to all. yet he was held as a boy to boys, so that boys reckoned him as one of their own. This strength of body we know he also sometimes received, when he applied his study to meditating and writing something spiritual (about which he was moved by some singular devotion and grace); he delights in spiritual writing: so that sometimes he prolonged his fasting until midday, frequently until evening and twilight. Then also when the Brothers admonishing and compelling him sometimes (those who ministered in the Refectory) that he should indulge his fragile little body, he came to the table; he often used one pottage, and especially gruels.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VII.

The sanctity of Blessed Joseph approved by testimonies. His extraordinary chastity and humility.

[38] I come now to the visions and revelations of the Lord which were made concerning the blessed man to other persons also known to us, and approved for holiness of life: that he may have testimony of truth not only from himself, but also from others. There was in a monastery known and near to us, a holy Virgin of the Cistercian Order, the flower and light of our times: to whose testimony I the more strongly dare to believe, and the more confidently dare to commend it to writing, the more specially and familiarly I knew her. Concerning whose testimony no one will doubt with me, who shall read the booklet which Joseph himself first wrote concerning the life of that blessed Virgin, and I afterwards ^b shortened, lest anyone should perhaps be weary of its prolixity. It happened at some time that a certain Brother of our church, a simple Priest, to a certain holy Virgin of the Cistercian Order his virtues are indicated. having a good

testimony from the Brothers, was taken away from human affairs, and summoned to the Lord. For whose soul to be commended to the Lord, the aforesaid holy Virgin pouring out many supplications to the Lord, asked of the Lord, that he would deign to reveal to her by true signs what was being done with the soul of the deceased Brother. After some days the deceased appeared to the suppliant, and certified her of his salvation and gladdened her. To whom after other things she said: "I ask that you tell me about Joseph, of what merit he is before the Lord." He answered: "He is of great merit; because he is of great virtues. You should know that he is adorned with the virtues of humility, patience, charity, and obedience, in which he excels all." But when this revelation had been reported to Joseph, he answered (for I heard it from his own mouth in the course of time): "I," he said, "hitherto gave credence to the revelations of Elisabeth (for that was her name); but now I am compelled to fear that she is deceived, to whom these things have been revealed concerning the least of all, and altogether useless, and who is not worthy of the bread he eats ^c." By such words, he both confounded himself in himself, and dissimulated before us what he was, and lest something great should be thought of him, he was wont especially to decline the praises of men.

[39] A second vision was also revealed to the aforesaid handmaid of God concerning Joseph, which she related to me with her own mouth. But as the term of her dissolution approached, lamentable to me, whom she was accustomed by her prayers and tears to protect from all adversity, and to certify in every doubt, there stood by her the Angel of the Lord, saying thus: "Prepare yourself, because you are going soon." likewise the Angel warning her of her death, Understanding of what journey he spoke (for concerning this she had long earnestly prayed to the Lord), she answered: "Eh! how soon shall I go?" But he: "Very soon," he said. She added: "Shall I pass over more quickly, or Joseph?" He said: "You indeed shall pass over more quickly; but he will follow you not long afterwards." To whom she again said: "What kind of a man is Joseph?" The Angel answered: "Joseph is a great man." He testifies to the sanctity of Blessed Joseph. "How great?" she said. "He has," he said, "none like himself in the Church of Steinfeld." The holy Virgin began therefore to recite to the Angel by their names the Brothers of good opinion of the same Church, and said: "Is not Joseph greater than all these? For these are held to be good Brothers, in the opinion of all." The Angel said: "These indeed are very good; but nothing compared to Joseph." And with a certain severity of voice, signifying the force of his intention, he added: "No one is like to Joseph: for know most certainly that Joseph excels all in chastity and purity of mind and body, in perfect humility, in highest charity, and in the longanimity of patience." And he repeated more things in this manner concerning the man's virtues. In extreme unction also, when I most sadly had imparted this office to the Handmaid of God, with her bidding and Joseph present; with all removed, making me alone remain with her alone, whom she commends to the author of this Life: she began thus: "Behold," she said, "I shall not speak many things more with you henceforth: for I know most certainly that what I have learned through the Lord, with the Angel announcing, is to be fulfilled, and desirously longed for. In our last conversations therefore I commend Joseph to your love: and diligently admonish you, that you strive in every way to beware, lest you ever disturb him by word or deed. Mercifully condescend to his infirmity, and in all things in which you can, bring him aid. For know most certainly, that no one has provoked Joseph with impunity, even in this present life, besides the future penalty which (if he shall have died impenitent) he shall endure: for I know myself to be tormented in this life longer, because I sometimes disturbed Joseph." And she recited the words of the Angel, who had said: "Because Joseph is a great man."

[40] But since mention has been made of the virtues of the blessed man (in which all the force and sum of sanctity consists), that the virtues themselves may be able to be known through exterior signs, it seems worthy to explain the signs of each virtue (which we were able to see in him with our eyes, and hear in him with our ears). And first let us look at his chastity, by which he was first commended. By this virtue from the reception of the white and unstained garment, His extraordinary virginity, never burned by any flames of lust. with which at the time of Baptism he was clothed, he was adorned with such great perfection, that he could deservedly be called the gem of virgins, the flower of virginity, the lily of chastity, the glory of modesty, the chosen vessel of continence, the lamb of innocence, and the virgin of virgins of our time: a virgin in heart, a virgin in eyes, a virgin in ears, a virgin in smell, a virgin in taste, a virgin in touch. For as much as we could judge, in this virtue he had exceeded our frailty beyond measure; when (which it is not fitting to draw into example for the work) in every place, even admitting the service of women. even in divine things (when sometimes there was need) he used the service of devout women, as of men. I know there will not be lacking those who bitingly contend that this point should by no means have been done, nor these things put in writing. But what shall I do? How shall I enlighten the blind, that they may see what I commend? For I do not commend the service of women, however holy, ministering to the Priest: but the carnal eyes of the Priest, washed with the milk of innocence, so filled and absorbed by the spirit, that they did not distinguish woman from man: or, if he distinguished, nothing through the sight entered the most pure heart of human frailty, why should I not commend? For such he was an Angel in body. Blessed Bernard is commended that riding in a golden saddle painted with colors (which he asserted he had received on loan) he did not distinguish, due to the preoccupation of spirit, on what kind of saddle he was sitting; when yet it was not good that a monk should ride such a saddle: but it was commendable that he had averted his eyes from vanity. What if I shall say and write, that sometimes, when at noon the chaste Joseph the third wanted to recline his angelic body on a little bed, he did not refuse to place himself on that bed on which a woman lay asleep? Who when, Joseph still sleeping, awoke from sleep, and saw the man, was frightened, blushed, and fled. Do they not see here too, those who seeing do not see, and hearing do not understand, whom I commend? I do not commend a man to sleep in one bed with a woman; but a spiritual man not to feel the presence of a woman. Nor would it be evil for a man to sleep with a woman, if he could feel nothing unlawful; since in the commendation of chastity it is said: "The young man shall dwell with the virgin." Which surely will not be evil, when neither shall spirit lust against flesh, nor flesh against spirit: which also we have seen already fulfilled in our Joseph. Is. 62

[41] How shall I worthily commend his virtue of humility? For before all virtues this virtue was specially the virtue of Joseph: which, as a true disciple of a true Master (who in teaching about himself said: "Learn from me, because I am meek and humble of heart"), he observed in heart, voice, gesture, habit, acts, and sufferings. Matt. 11 By this virtue he so stood out, that while he surpassed all in all virtues, yet the excellence of humility in him surpassed the excellence of all his other virtues. And indeed, if you heard the voice and manner of the speaker, if you attended how prompt an accuser of himself he was, and excuser of others, and (where it was necessary) how modest a rebuker; truly you would say that the virtue of humility held in his heart, above a man and above his own other virtues, the throne of royal loftiness. And as he never boasted of his own goods; so he always praised the goods of others. by which he highly esteemed the affairs of others, and his own as nothing. If sometime in his presence he was praised; that praise he had marvelously learned to decline, either with some jests, or by the circumlocution of denial, or by some commemoration of his own confusion; so that sometimes that very thing, which we saw with our eyes and heard with our ears, he so shook from our credulity, that we should believe nothing of virtue concerning him. As often as he made mention of himself before us; he named himself the reproach of men and the abjection of the people, the cipher ^d of arithmetic, a mere number, and born to consume fruits, a rotten wild apple, cast out from useful apples, and the burden of all. The gestures of all his members were most simple; so that you would find nothing of nobility, nothing of singularity in any of them. I am pierced placing you in the sight of my heart, dearest Brother; and I bewail my dissimilarity to you in consideration of you. Your head like the head of the whitest lily, humbly bowed down: for neither against God, with armed neck and fat neck, did you ever run with the proud. Your eyes most truly of doves; who would snatch nothing of another's, nor bring anything harmful into the dwelling of your heart. Your cheeks, like the cheeks of a turtledove; cast down with humility, red with the modesty of virginal shame. The pace of your feet moderate and simple; showing nothing at all of pride, nothing of levity. If at some time he saw or thought anyone offended by him; to ask pardon he was wont, without respect of persons, very easily to bend down on his knees, and with a most humble voice to ask indulgence. The habit of his garments was neither delicate nor sordid; yet appeared more sordid than delicate. He desires worn-out clothes: For several years we did not see him clothed in a new cappa: which he himself was accustomed to attribute not at all to humility, but to the weakness of his body, asserting that he could not bear new clothes because of their weight. Which although it had truth, yet we knew the virtue of humility was especially the cause. He sometimes used new tunics; but more frequently and willingly old ones, with patched ^f sleeves. His pelice, which he was accustomed to wear for a very long time, he sometimes with his own hands mended with woolen cloth equally old: and refuted by a familiar Brother he betrayed the truth: "I," he said, "am not worthy of a better one." He used shoes fashioned with no art and often old, and which others had worn before him; and if any seemed to have any nobility in their front point, he knocked it down by striking it against the hardness of wood or stone. In all his acts there was nothing which could offend the sight of any virtuous man; but rather in all things he bore signs of sanctity. For he had wholly become base to himself from the heart; and what was within him, he also showed outwardly to others. How therefore should he seek praise from others, which he himself denied to himself? Certainly not only not to be praised, but even to be despised he sought: which I shall prove by an evident document. As Joseph was going, a certain rustic met him on the way: whom having saluted, the Priest of the Lord bent his knees before him, and said: "I beseech you, that you do for me what I ask of you." When the other answered that he would do it willingly; he added: "I ask you," he said, "that you strike me on the cheek." The rustic terrified he wishes to be struck on the cheek by a rustic:

at the unusual matter, began to confer with him, and to inquire the cause of the unusual petition. Joseph said: "I am not worthy of anything better than to be struck in the face, because I am a rotten carcass." This same thing the rustic related to one of our Priests. Which having learned, we bore with some difficulty the simplicity of the man, a fool for Christ and prudent in Christ: not attending in him humility (which was truly the cause of this deed) but foolishness. But he rebuked by us, that he might lead us back to the way, said: "Of what else am I worthy now, an unclean corpse, except to be struck in the face?" A response full of humility taught us — and let it teach the reader — what the blessed man thought of himself: nor let us dare to rebuke the folly, where we find the wisdom of such great humility: and to be despised by others, since perfect humility, without a note of folly, in the sight of men who seek glory from one another, can scarcely or never be observed. By such deeds therefore nearly all who knew him, he had so blinded in consideration of himself, that they judged him worthy of no praise; wishing much more to have the name of folly than of sanctity: marvelously knowing how to preserve the gem in the shell, the grain in the chaff, the fire under the ashes. It is little to commend the proper virtue of Joseph by words or writings, which in all things said and written about him has a special praise. For if to despise the world, to despise none, to despise oneself, to despise being despised, are truly said to have the perfection of humility; we truly assert that the perfection of humility was in Joseph above all whom we have known. Likewise if it is sufficient humility to be subject to greater ones; abundant, to be subject to equals; superabundant, to be subject to lesser ones; of this superabundance of our Joseph, not only before men who can be deceived, but before your face, infallible Lord Jesus, we confidently preach.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VIII.

Excellent charity and patience of Blessed Joseph, compared to a lily: two other testimonies concerning his sanctity.

[42] Let us praise also the charity of the praiseworthy man, and explain with whatever praise we can, which is the root and origin of all virtues: so that whatever does not proceed from it as from a root, is most truly judged not virtue but folly. For what is humility but folly, if it does not proceed from the root of charity, that is, if it is not had for the sake of God? What is chastity? Are not the foolish virgins refused by the judgment of the true Judge, who lacked the oil of charity? Matt. 25 What is more foolish than patience, which judges the reward of its labor to be sought not from God, but from men? In this root and foundation of virtues therefore, our architect had planted and founded all his virtues: with sublime charity which he will in no way doubt, who wishes to behold the perfection of his humility. For the simulation of virtues (which is called hypocrisy) is mostly exercised for transitory glory. If therefore the poor man of Christ and contemner of the world does not exercise himself in virtues for it; what does he seek, except the glory of God? And this is to love God and have the charity of God, to seek God's glory and not one's own. Truly the beloved of God loved God: for whose sake he despised the pleasure of the body in chastity, and the glory of the world in humility. Truly the beloved of God loved God; for the sake of whose words of lips he kept the hardest ways, walked the difficult ways, ran the way of his commandments; he strove to enter through the narrow gate of humility, poverty, labor, and sorrow. Truly the beloved of God loved God, who for every transitory pleasure despised, and every tribulation undergone, sought no other reward except your face, Lord Jesus. For what did he seek except you? Who sought neither riches, nor delights, nor glory, nor anything transitory, except you. To you, to you, and to you alone his heart said, wounded by your charity: "My face has sought you: your face, Lord Jesus, will I require." O how often, and with what profound groans (even in our presence) did he sigh for you, Lord Jesus! How miserably did he complain of the present misery of this Babylon, the absence of your face! He complained of our misery, he sought your presence: and behold what he complained of he has lost, and what he sought he has found. There is nothing now in Christ which he complains of; nothing outside him which he seeks, except perhaps the second robe, his misery altogether ceasing, and your mercy, Lord Jesus, satisfying him. So much did he burn with charity of neighbor, that he truly knew how to rejoice with those truly rejoicing, and weep with those weeping. And, that we may preach those signs of charity which we have seen in him he helped his neighbors, especially the afflicted, (which I say to you, Lord Jesus) he was moved with such compassion and mercy around those afflicted, both in mind and body; that you would believe his most gentle and most benign heart to be a hospital for all the sad, laboring, sick, and all crying out from whatever tribulation. I myself saw sometimes, when some of the Brothers were expounding their temptations and other adversities to him in complaint, he was moved with such mercy and compassion, that his countenance fell, manifest failing of heart held him. Also by all the ways he could, by solicitude, compassion, consolation, and prayer, he devotedly bore the burdens of the afflicted, that he might fulfill the law of Christ, which is charity. The Lord had given him good grace and a learned tongue, that he might know how to sustain by the word those who had fallen, and whose steps had wavered: because from those things which he had suffered, and was suffering daily, he knew how to make himself all things to all the afflicted: who both by the Holy Spirit and by experience was in all things instructed, and with charity compelling him, reckoned no one a stranger to himself.

[43] From the virtue of patience too he could not be alien, who daily bore his cross, as though composed of two pieces of wood, namely of exterior tribulation and interior sorrow, with great patience following the footsteps of the crucified Lord. For he was as it were girded with blows, although a man of marvelous innocence, that in every part of him patience might be exercised. And from the Lord indeed he endured scourges of many kinds, that he might deserve to receive joys of all kinds. With many and daily and almost continual infirmities of body, weakness of stomach, headache, most frequent failing of heart (besides languors often supervening) was he vexed. He is exercised with various infirmities: The Lord afflicted him also in some way forbidding him all bodily comforts, of foods, drinks, and riding, and soft beds: so that he often hungered and thirsted, nor yet was he permitted to refresh himself with those foods and drinks which he hungered and thirsted for. It was no small wonder to all, when they saw him hungry or thirsty, not to use the foods and drinks which according to order he could have used. Sometimes also when after labor and weariness outside the monastery softer little beds had been spread for him by those who loved him, that he might somewhat relieve his weak and feeble joints, he cast off the prepared beds, and reclined his weak limbs on the straw alone. Sometimes asked by those marveling, what the cause was, and in no matter does he indulge himself: that though so weak he was unwilling to use either lawful foods or softer little beds; answering briefly: "Jesus," he said, "has forbidden this": or, "Jesus does not will this." Horses or carriages for about twelve years he did not use, neither in snows, nor in rains, nor in heat, nor in cold: but he walked whatever difficult ways on foot, supporting his very feeble limbs with a small staff. That he had undertaken this penance by divine authority, we experienced by the following case. He was at some time about to go to the farms of our Church, having taken with him a Brother joined to him in special familiarity, and they had only one horse in their company. And when leading the horse in their hands, they had passed a small space of the way, Joseph said: nor on a journey does he mount a horse "I can scarcely now proceed, because I am too tired." With the Brother urging him to mount the horse and rest somewhat; he answered: "I cannot." At length with the Brother more importunately insisting, he mounted the horse: and when he had gone a few paces, the horse stumbled so gravely that he scarcely remained sitting on it. He said therefore: "Did I not tell you that I cannot ride?" The Brother answered: "Let us try further." They tried; and a graver stumble followed. "Still, let me down," he said, "that I may dismount, lest I incur a graver fall." The Brother marveling, and yet ignorant of what was being done, said: "Also a third time, in the name of the Lord let us try, and I will hold you, lest you be dashed by a graver fall." Scarcely had he finished the words: and with the horse moving its feet it wholly fell; so that the rider, with the Brother sustaining him, barely remained unhurt. Then the Brother seeing himself so often frustrated by his own will, began humbly to ask, that he would reveal to him the mystery of this matter. Joseph said: "I tell you; the Lord Jesus has forbidden this to me. Do you think that if I were not forbidden, I would not eat, drink, and ride, like other men? But now, with the Lord commanding, I must singularly bear such labors." And so until his death, he remained bound by the precept of the Lord Jesus; that by his example he might be carried neither by horses nor by carriages in any way. forbidden by Christ: By men and by some of his own Brothers he was vexed by certain insults, who objected to him, that he could eat more often and not labor at all: He is assailed with insults: not attending, the foolish, that at every

labor it was more laborious to him not to be able to labor, and harder than every fast, that he could not fast. I believe, Lord Jesus, that the shame and confusion which he endured, even when he heard no one's reproaches (for there were few among us who were scandalized in him), you recompense to him today by the revelation of your most bright face. Those foods which, even in common fasts, like a little boy, he had to take (for neither did you spare him even in the time of Lent, nor did you withdraw the hardness of your paternal hand from him, that he could then at least at interspersed days fast with the little ones); I believe that you recompense him today with the sweetness of your revealed face. Satan himself also, as much as he could, was hostile to him, he is harassed by the devil appearing to him transfigured, now in the form of a crow, now of a cat, as he prayed; now with the cowl of the cappa hanging on his back, he pulled him back, to make him at least cease from prayer, or to shake him with sudden terror, whom otherwise he could not incline to the malice of his will. The patience of the most strong athlete was exercised in all these and many other things daily; and fighting manfully in both the man, he deserved the prize of the crown. These things about the virtues of the Blessed one, not signifying but effecting sanctity, I thought should be pursued somewhat at greater length, that here as in a mirror he may be able to look, who wishes to gaze infallibly upon our Joseph. Nor is it necessary, here to treat singularly of all his virtues, concerning which through this text and treatise it both has been treated and will be treated: but these four virtues are the origin and sum of all moral virtues.

[44] I have decided briefly to explain another revelation of the aforesaid handmaid of Christ, without doubt made concerning Joseph, containing the highest praise of his sanctity with certainty. to the nun Elisabeth, praying for the people of Steinfeld, For although one must irrefragably believe the testimonies of glorified men and Angels (for they are messengers of God, and assert testimony for truth), much more should firmest faith be given to God himself and Truth itself. When therefore the Church of Steinfeld was shaken by great adversities, and its only remedy was to be sought from the Lord; the aforesaid virgin of Christ ^a Elisabeth (who on account of spiritual friends whom she had in the same Church loved it as her own) began to take up for herself the cause of the troubled Church, and not to cease day and night from prayers and tears. I speak from experience: such was the custom of the virgin of Christ, that as often as for any cause she had begun to supplicate the Lord, she by no means restrained from the labors begun, until she deserved to receive certain consolation from the Lord. To her insisting therefore in prayers, and knocking at the gate of the most gentle heart of the Lord with many rivers of tears and strong cry, the very consoler of the mourning stood by her, and by his presence and sweet address consoled his handmaid. a response from heaven: a lily was sprouting there most pleasing "Why," he said, "do you cry out to me for the Church of Steinfeld? Do you think I have forgotten it? Know most certainly, that in the same Church a lily is now sprouting, which shall surpass you yourself in dignity: and as long as that shall be in that Church, it cannot perish." If anyone doubts whom this Lily signifies; let him strive to compare the flower of the lily and the testimony of the Angel. For when the often-mentioned handmaid of God asked the Angel concerning his merits, he answered: "None in the Church is like to him." The lily is preferred before all flowers; Joseph is preferred before all the Brothers. And if you wish to see in the lily those virtues which we have shown above; and Joseph is best likened to a lily. he was not only the lily of the valleys through humility, but he was also the lily among thorns, through patience: he was the lily of the field, through charity, communicating himself to all; he was the lily, named without addition, through the excellence and whiteness of chastity. And (that we may dissolve every doubt) the Lord has already shown in manifold, marvelous, and merciful ways, through the frequency of miracles, that he had called him this lily. For he has magnified him, not only above all his Brothers, but even above his handmaid, the precious Virgin, to whom he had predicted these things, and has diffused the odor of his lily into all the ends of the earth.

[45] We append the testimony of another virgin, equally holy and of the same name: for the attestations of faithful women, especially of virile women, who have trampled both sex and world alike (I mean the Virgins of God), are not rejected by the benevolent in such a point. The things I say are brief but great: love brevity, marvel at greatness. At some time the distinguished Priest of God was standing, and with the prolongation of sweetness and with the sweetness of his accustomed prolongation, in the greatest harshness of winter celebrating the most sacred mysteries: who while within the Canon he was standing with hands elevated, did not feel at all the vehemence of the cold (by which at other places and times he was wont to be vehemently pressed): for thus he became a stranger to himself, caught up in ecstasy under the sacrifice of the Mass in the greatest cold that the members appointed for bodily senses were at that time idle in him. The eye saw nothing: the ear heard nothing: from the hands themselves the sense of touch fled away. There was present at that time, at the solemnities of the Masses, the aforesaid Virgin of Christ ^b, of the best repute, of the purest simplicity, and of outstanding chastity: who began to marvel the more vehemently at the Priest of the Lord, that in so long a time, in which he was standing at the altars, he did not feel such great vehemence of cold. The Lord marvelously opened the eyes of her marveling, and by a greater miracle dissolved the doubt of her wonder. He is warmed by Christ and the Blessed Virgin, For he made her see the high Priest and true Pontiff the Lord Jesus on one side, and his most blessed Mother on the other side, standing by the most blessed Priest. Nor did they stand idle, but ministered in turn to their most dear minister in the most sacred mysteries. For Jesus held his right hand, Mary his left; and warming them with their touch, they tempered the vehemence of his cold. Why are you indignant, envious incredulity? Why do you marvel, faithful charity? See the deed, and for the revelation of the vision you will be moved neither by wonder nor by envy. So manifest is the truth, that by no envious or incredulous person can it be doubted, that the most blessed Priest of the Lord did not feel such force of cold: for this is confirmed by the testimony of the bodily senses. For how, if he had felt the cold as a man, would the man weakened for so many hours in such cold have endured? But he persisted, he endured: nor did he put his hands to the fire: nor even by contraction of fingers did he either temper the cold or give any sign of suffering: but neither when the mysteries were finished did he retain in his hands any sign of cold: it follows therefore that he did not feel it. But that he did not feel the cold, and he does not feel the cold: by whose grace can it be believed to have been done, except the Lord Jesus'? Truly therefore (even if it had not been proved by revelation) the favor of the Lord Jesus warmed your hands, most worthy Priest. Who doubts that also the venerable Mother rendered service to her minister; who could obtain for him from her only Son by her prayers the fire, inflaming not only body but also spirit? I believe that he who sees this truth with pious heart ought not to marvel or doubt about the joyful vision at all. Therefore the sacred solemnities of the Masses having been completed in the fervor of heart and refreshment of body, the contemplative Virgin approaching the angelic Priest explained to him what she had seen. But he (as he was always wont with marvelous prudence to decline the breeze of human praise): "I," he said, "did not see this: but because I did not feel the cold, I thought it could so happen." By this which he said, "I did not see" (which surely must be understood bodily, because he saw neither with the body nor bodies), he insinuates his humility by denying: in this which he said, "I thought," he indicates the truth of spiritual vision. Those who are frustrated in marveling at these things (because they do not understand either the dignity of the man or the condescension of the Lord Jesus) will be able to marvel no less at what I subjoin. For what has less of wonder and miracle than the aforesaid, which we heard from a faithful and highly reputable witness, that the most blessed Virgin and Mother of the Lord was seen by her minister, with a golden Chalice having a golden Cross in the middle, standing by him, when he was offering his only one to God the Father in honor of the blessed Mother; and at length, with the breast of the Priest opened and widened, at other times sacrificing he also receives the Mother of God herself. he received the Minister of such great dignity, together with the Cross and Chalice, into the middle of his breast? I do not much marvel that she was seen to enter into that breast, in which through the affection of love and constant memory she dwelt without intermission.

[46] I wish (would that I may worthily!) to narrate another miracle common to the aforesaid Virgin and Joseph: which is known to us by the testimony of both. She had struck her servant, nay, her most beloved son, for her glory with a grave and long infirmity; lying in grave disease which to all seemed entirely to tend to death. The Virgin of Christ therefore came, to visit her sick one, whom she firmly loved, and to bid a last farewell to the one about to die. But he lay at that time by divine disposition in a certain ^c castle, where he could lawfully be visited by the servants of God of both sexes. But the Virgin of Christ coming, pitied her friend humanly as he languished; yet much more deeply did she groan with pain, that she would not be preceding or at least accompanying him as he went, and going together with him to the beloved of both. With her spirit therefore collected, she conceived hope that the already despaired of could by the mercy of the Lord be called back from the very gates of death. She came therefore to prayer, and most earnestly supplicated the Lord Jesus Christ for the life of the one now dying. At length therefore the hearer of all, to her watching in prayers with such great confidence and such great insistence, deigned to reveal himself, and so to address her as she prostrated herself: "I have now heard your petition; at the prayers of the holy nun Virgin and, for your sake, I have added to his life five years." But she: "If you have heard my petition," she said, "I ask you not to refuse to add to him not only five (which I did not ask of you) years, but twelve. For what are five years? Certainly I am not content with them." But the merciful and pitying Lord, that he might somewhat satisfy his delicate daughter (whose spirit he did not wish to sadden): "Behold," he said, "I will give you, for the increase of his life, nine years: for in this life he will in no way remain twelve years." He receives nine years of longer life. But she, doubting nothing about the oracle, revealed to the sick man what she had received; and to others thinking entirely otherwise she said that Joseph was not then about to die. The truth followed the truth, what had been predicted following in the event of things. For he recovered against the hope of all, and completed with us in this life the term of years predetermined by the Lord.

[47] And since I have already made mention of that Virgin, I will briefly touch her end: for this pertains to the commendation of Joseph ^d. The blessed Virgin therefore, perfectly desiring that perfect presence of her Spouse, and vehemently supplicating, that before the death of Joseph it might be granted her to pay the debt of death, migrated to Christ while Joseph was still living. But at the hour of her dying the blessed man was already present at the solemnities

of Masses, nor had anything of her death been humanly revealed to him; and behold, amid the very sacred and secret mysteries of the divine Sacraments, Angels stood by him, He sees under the Mass the soul of the said Virgin. who presented to him the happy soul of the sacred Virgin, already removed from the body, and announced to him her bodily death. Saddened at the Virgin's death, but gladdened at her glorious presentation, when the offices of Masses were completed, he announced to all present the recent death of the Virgin: but to his familiars more secretly he revealed how this had been revealed to him. Behold how even in our times the wisdom of God plays in the world of the earth, whose delights are to be with the sons of men. Behold how in our eyes ancient miracles are renewed, and this night of our time shines illuminated by the light of spiritual stars: so that our night is now like the day of past times, and the illumination of our night ought to be counted among the delights of day.

[48] I am compelled, but willingly, to bring to your sanctity, dearest Brother, also the testimonies of faithful men known to us, lest we preach you as wonderful by the testimony of women alone, as though we lacked the testimonies of men, or suppressed the same. Let them hear therefore, under compendious brevity, something quite marvelous, which a certain one learned concerning Joseph himself (not himself, but the Lord revealing). At some time an Angel of God stood (for, according to the Prophet's testimony, "the Priest, the Angel of the Lord of hosts is") near the altar (not at the time of the saving sacrifice, but at another time and for another cause) holding in his hand a book placed on the altar; and looking into it, he was reading something in meditation. It happened at the same hour, with the Lord ordering, that a Converse Brother of our church arrived, whom Joseph loved: who from his own mouth understood some magnificent things of those which are discussed. And looking upon Joseph standing, The face of the blessed one as though girded with lamps was seen to emit rays he saw his face shining like the face of an Angel, but the top of his head like burning coals and flaming lamps. Behold truly a man, a true Israelite's testimony, of a sworn man, of a man greater than every exception. What seems to you? Let all cry out and each: worthy witness, worthy testimony. For a worthy one is praised by a worthy one, and the innocent is proved by the testimony of the innocent. For he who saw, bore witness of these, and we know that his testimony is true. Let us also approach with heart as we can, and let us comprehend if we can, what kind of holocaust to the Lord the spirit of Joseph was under that time, with what fire the Holy Spirit inflamed him, when that interior furnace inside the body could not lie hid.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IX.

In the exposition of the Song of Songs and on other occasions he is made invisible. Other benefits bestowed on him.

[49] We have also the testimony of another Brother (since the sanctity of a man must be established by the testimonies of men): but it is necessary that I should first set forth what was learned from Joseph's own relation to me. He had begun to expound, and to put in writing when expounded, the Song of Songs, with us marveling, and both within ourselves and among ourselves vehemently accusing either his presumption or his simplicity. For most of us did not yet know that the life and deeds of the man were ordered in all things according to the institution of the Lord Jesus himself, or according to the admonitions of his most blessed Mother. When therefore at some time, an occasion having been taken, I had familiarly approached him on this matter; not having a suitable excuse, he was compelled to tell the truth. For he said: "Not by any rashness, nor by presumption of my own powers, as is believed, nor deceived by simplicity (as though ignorant how much talent this Treatise requires), have I undertaken this work, but with the Mother of the Lord admonishing me." But I, by no means content with the brevity and truth of the statement, more diligently inquired the manner of the revelation. But he, "I was seeing," he said, He is commanded by the Virgin Mother to expound the Song of Songs "and behold the Mother of the Lord Jesus appeared to me, carrying in her hands a beautiful and spacious dish, containing a little oil in its bottom. And smiling most kindly she said to me: 'And this little bit is reserved for you, that you may exhaust it.' And she added to speak and teach: 'Since the book of the Song of Songs has been almost entirely exhausted by the expositions of various ones; yet this little (which, after the similitude of this little oil, still remains) is to be exhausted by you for my commendation.' Trusting therefore in the admonition of so great an Author, and in the authority of so great an admonishing one, I took up for myself an unbearable labor; choosing rather to displease the ignorance of men than the Mother of the Lord."

[50] Immediately a testimony must be subjoined, very wonderful to say, and difficult to believe; but there is not one sole asserter of this truth, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses the marvelous word may obtain credence. Having undertaken to expound and write ^a on the Song of Songs in the person of the beautiful Rose, the shapely Dove (the Rose without thorn, the Dove without gall), he withdrew himself to a solitary place; where he would neither be disturbed by the insolence of those crying out, nor frequented by the approach of many. There very often, writing his exposition, forgetful of his continual weakness and daily infirmity, he was caught up with such vehemence of spirit, he enjoyed such sweetness of contemplations, he was given to drink such intoxication of the sacred Scripture which he was treating; that he handed over to oblivion his wretched little body, and either did not at all think of the hour of either supper or dinner (which he was wont anxiously to anticipate with the little boys), or was altogether ignorant of it. Sometimes the Brothers, vexed, who ministered in the refectory (when he delayed even in coming to the second table of those ministering) went to the place of solitude, where they knew he was accustomed to sit: and not finding him, or rather not seeing him (for he was there, though not seen) moved by excessive expectation, he is not seen by those present. they began with somewhat harder words to blame the one present, whom they thought absent, and to withdraw indignantly. Whom he, having followed at his own time, when he had come to them, began to repeat their words in order, and to rebuke the agitation of their mind, and with accustomed gentleness admonished them to temper themselves henceforth from the motion of anger and from disordered words, if they cared to avert the wrath of Jesus and his Mother Rose. But they, moved with excessive wonder, said: "Whence have you been able to know the words of our agitation, since we have not seen you present?" He, that he might lead them to some knowledge of the truth, said: "I know your words, not from anyone relating them, but from my own hearing: from which I ask that you henceforth abstain."

[51] Nor was it once only that it happened that he, though present, was not seen by those present; that the truth of so great a miracle (which is also confirmed by witnesses) could be hidden by no evasion. Trusting in the devotion and familiarity of the Brother who ministered in the refectory, he had chosen his seat in the refectory itself, in which after dinner in summer time, again remaining in the refectory he is not seen, and after supper in winter time, he was able to be free for contemplation and study for almost the whole day. There sometimes by the Brother entering and going out, and closing the door, he was not at all seen: so that the one entering was greatly amazed that he did not find the one he had left; and entering again was no less astonished that he found the one whom he thought he had not left there. For the closing of the door was such that it could not be opened by anyone existing within; so that no one should think he could go out or return without the Brother's knowing. Whence at some time when the Brother went out to close the door, and did not see him present (thinking however that he could be inside, as yesterday and the day before yesterday) he cried out openly: "Now if you are within, O Joseph, show yourself, lest with the door closed you be unable to go out." Joseph being silent, and the other preparing to leave the refectory, and now inserting the key into the lock, he began to cry out behind his back: "Spare to close," he said, "for now I am ready to go out with you." But he, marveling and amazed greatly, said: "If, when I am going out, you do not hereafter betray yourself, you must for the whole day remain closed within." But he, according to his custom, wishing to dissimulate what he could not deny, said: "Why did you not see me, who sat before your face?" Behold the testimonies of men, Brothers of the Church of Steinfeld, from whose mouth what I write, you witnessing, Lord Jesus, have flowed into my hearing; lest perhaps they should gain less faith and credence, if they were thought to have passed into a third or fourth person before they were committed to writing, or if they were related by a doubtful author. Nor was it rare, nay almost daily, that he was diligently sought by the Brothers through all corners of the workshops of the monastery, and not found; and, when it pleased him, was to their astonishment seen again ^b. Let us too not pass over so great a miracle perfunctorily, but let us enter as much as we can into its mystery: and with studious heart let us seek, of how great subtlety his spirit was; hidden in Christ:

how perfectly he approached that invisible and uncircumscribed divine light; how wholly he entered into the interiors of the veil, into the powers of the Lord, into that most secret sanctuary of the Lord; since even his corruptible little body was effected of such subtlety, that it could not be seen by those present. How wholly he had entered, with the Bridegroom himself leading him in, into the storerooms of the King, into the wine cellar of the Bridegroom, in gladness and exultation! How wholly he had hidden himself under the shadow of the tree of life, which is in the midst of Paradise, and was eating its fruits, and drinking the wine of the true vine in joyfulness of heart! How sweetly, after that amorous languor (in which he had long and continuously languished), after that deadly I know not whether to call it, or life-giving wound of charity (by which most sweetly and most strongly struck, he had fallen into the good death mortifying temptations and troubles, and no less had acquired the better life, vivifying the intellect and intimate savor), how sweetly, I say, and how wholly in those incomprehensible embraces of the Bridegroom, in that interior chamber passable only to the Bride, he had fallen asleep, with the Bridegroom himself hiding him in the hiddenness of the beauty of his most beautiful face, and adjuring the daughters of Israel, that they not stir up or make the Beloved wake, until she would. What then do you think the Bridegroom said, by hiding the Beloved even corporally, except that he be not stirred up by restless ones, nor forced to wake except willingly? Why, Brothers, do you marvel, if such a one does not feel the hour of dinner and bodily refreshment, who tastes and sees how sweet the Lord is, and how great is the multitude and greatness of the sweetness of the Lord, which he hides for those fearing him, he perfects for those hoping in him, and hiddenly and perfectly bestows on those loving him, whom in the light of his countenance he hides from the disturbance of men, in that his tabernacle (where is heard only the voice of exultation and confession, the sound of one celebrating a feast) he protects from the contradiction of tongues? If, my soul, you strive for anything, surely you do not arrive, surely you do not apprehend: how much less by writing and chattering do you lead others into that rest? Yet bless, my soul, the Lord, and all my interior his holy Name: because he has marvelously done his mercy to Joseph: and rejoice with him: and let this be the portion of your joy, that you rejoice with rejoicing Joseph; and let this be your present satiety, that (as much as you can) you see Joseph satisfied; and let this be your rest, that you consider Joseph resting in the embraces of the Bridegroom. Let that Brother alone not enter into this joy, let him alone not taste of these delights, let him alone in no way enjoy the rest of this sleep, who esteems himself greater, and envies the lesser; who delights more to dwell perversely in the field of the body, germinating thorns and thistles, than to enter to the banquet of the lesser Brother, where he may hear the symphony and chorus, and with the kid of lasciviousness despised, may eat the fatted calf. ^c

[52] From the marvelous testimonies (by which the Lord, doing marvelous things, took care to glorify his Saint before many witnesses), let us return to those things which we heard concerning Joseph from himself. I think that by the preceding testimonies the brows of the envious and detractors have been so struck and contrite, that no longer do they presume to say to Joseph: "You bear witness of yourself; your testimony is not true," since his testimonies have been made credible exceedingly. Let us therefore hear and believe the truth, and let us rejoice both to hear and to believe. By divine disposition he was at some time staying in a certain monastery, which was shaken by many and long tribulations, and brought to the extreme by frequent blows of the Lord's discipline. But we keep the name of the monastery silent, lest we seem to sow infamy about anyone. Moved therefore by mercy over the contrition of the monastery, Joseph (in whom he himself also was ground down, who had learned to be weak with the weak) He pleads the cause of the lost monastery before God, took on himself an Invalid cause as a valid Orator, and in the law not of men but in the law of the Lord (which is charity) as a most skilled Advocate: and having taken up the censer of the incensed prayer, and having drawn up the fire of burning charity, he set himself in the middle between the living God and men dead in sins, striving to appease the sentence already issued of the severe Judge and Avenger with the most sweet odor of devout prayer. And when in the spirit of humility and with contrite soul he did not desist from entering before the face of the Lord; at length even the Lord Jesus himself deigned to come to him, and to enter to him as he prayed. and Christ appearing with an axe that he might cut it down, But he came, not as the hearer of the one praying, but as the most severe avenger of the delinquent. For he appeared trembling and in a countenance of all severity, carrying in his hand a sharp axe, as though about to cut down the same Church by the roots, and utterly overthrow it. The lovable intercessor, terrified beyond what can be said at such a terrible sight of the Lord coming, trembling and fearing falls at the knees of the angry one; and with whatever prayers, tears, and groans he could, he tried to hold back the hand of the one threatening. To whom the Lord in great severity said: "Rise, and see for what you intercede: by his prayers he appeases him: consider and know that this whole place has no greenness, except as much as your feet occupy, and see what kind of cause you defend." Joseph rising, and recognizing the truth of the Lord's words, prostrated himself again on the pavement, and did not cease from prayers; until with the Lord somewhat appeased, he heard the voice of the Lord consoling him: "This Church indeed has rendered itself unworthy of mercy; but on your account the hand of my most just vengeance is suspended for a time."

[53] The benefits of God, by which our Joseph was increased above human nature, the brevity of this Chapter will explain. He lay down at some time, as it was thought, with the accustomed infirmity of body, and (as was afterwards more truly discovered) he was languishing, wounded by the dart of charity. He lay therefore on his bed for three whole continuous days, so that no one at all for all that time approached him for the sake of visiting. For he himself was accustomed also to repeat this to me often, that at some time the grace of men was so taken from him, that whatever he did utterly displeased some; but others did not care whatever happened to him. When therefore he thus lay without visitation, a certain Brother at length came to him, of whom I have often in this writing made mention without name: and found him lying down. To whom the Brother said: "What is it that you lie thus?" "I am languishing," he said. He: "How long," he said, "have you languished?" He answered: "It is now three days since I arose from this little bed." But he: "Did you not arise even for the necessity of nature?" Joseph answered: "I indeed know that I have by no means arisen for three days; but for God's sake, raise me up; and see lest perhaps something dishonest has happened to me unawares." But he said this, wishing to lead the Brother to cease from this kind of inquiry lest this incredible secret should become manifest. He lifted him therefore, as he had asked, and looked at the little bed; but nothing unseemly or unseemly was found ^d. Then that Brother, who was by custom already taught to search out his secrets, and that nothing was done around him without cause, said: "I ask you, do not hide from me this mystery. What is it that, lying for three whole days, you have needed no necessaries of nature?" But Joseph, overcome by the familiarity of the Brother, and constrained by his prayers, opened the truth. "I," he said, "when I lie down with natural infirmity, must be subject to the necessities of nature, like you and any man. [languishing with divine love, he did not seem subject to the necessities of nature.] But when the Lord Jesus sends languor on me, I exist free from all the necessaries of nature." Truly free, whom the Son of God has freed! Truly free, who in his holy languors could by no means be subject to the precepts of nature! What health of spirit, think we, did he attain in these languors, in which the body so escaped all the losses of nature? If the body exists of such great strength, that it needs neither refreshment nor evacuation; how is the spirit fed? The body, a vessel of dung, food of worms, above a man, above nature is, presents the glory of a man already glorified; how much does the spirit progress, with how great glory is it lifted up? O if it were permitted to see, to savor, and to taste what kind of languor this is, which administers such great strength even to a corruptible body! O if it were permitted to die of this languor! Blessed are you, Lord Jesus, Father and Ruler of nature, who have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to your Little one.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER X.

Drink administered. Death and burial predicted: Temptations overcome.

[54] I believe no less marvelous and contrary to nature is what I subjoin. Because the Blessed of the Lord, in such great weakness of body, which he endured on the journey, used neither horse nor any vehicles: he was accustomed to carry with him a small flask, capable of three or four drafts; that when because of excessive labor and intolerable heat he could not proceed, he might refresh his little body excessively exhausted. According to this custom therefore, when the time of his dissolution was now approaching, with a certain very religious man, though a layman, the servant of the Lord was walking: and when now with his limbs utterly failing he was falling into defection, he sat down, and asked for the flask to be given to him. To whom his companion of the journey said: from an empty flask, "Now you will not drink from this flask, because it is ^a exhausted." Joseph said: "I pray, make me two reeds, which I may thrust through the mouth of the flask into its bottom; perhaps I may find there some drop which may refresh me a little, because I am now altogether in defection." with reeds inserted But he, although he knew that no liquid had remained in the flask, obeyed, and offered Joseph the reeds made. Which he, thrusting into the bottom of the flask, he draws wine, drew wine, as much as could be drawn with the reeds. And he said to his companion: "Take and drink yourself." He thought himself deceived, that something had been in the flask, and put it to his mouth to drink. But when, as he drew through the reeds, nothing at all followed; he found that he had not been deceived, and said to Joseph: "What is drunk, where nothing at all is found?" He answered: "You know nothing at all." And having taken the flask, he said: "Turn it to this side, that you may find." And he drank a second time: and offered it to his minister. again and again. He tried again; but found nothing. But Joseph again, with a certain pleasantness reproaching him that he found nothing,

with the flask taken drank a third time, the minister finding nothing at all: because truly naturally there was nothing. But that the man full of grace found wine where there had been none, was done by the grace of him who is believed to have created all things from nothing, and who willed that so unheard-of a miracle should not be lacking to his chosen one. Let others marvel at the changing of elements, the knowledge of absent things, the foreknowledge of future things, the healings of the languishing; for these are marvelous: I marvel at nothing so much as that something was made out of nothing. For whence in a vessel was wine found, where nothing had been put, unless by the working of the power of the Creator alone?

[55] While in such and many more wonderful things the Lord showed his virtues around his servant, he also took care to magnify him with the spirit of prophecy. For when the desirable time of his dissolution was imminent; in the same year one of the Brothers, when after Matin Lauds, with the rest of the Brothers resting, he had entered the church, and had begun to fulfill the debt of the matin Office (from which he had been absent), heard from his side in the middle of the monastery a vehement sound happen, so that he was wholly shaken with horror, in the place where the sound was heard, and was vehemently frightened: nor did he marvel less from what cause so unusual a sound could happen in a place where there was nothing of such material, from whose ruin such a sound could be generated. Therefore with prayers completed, he withdrew not without wonder; and the Lord put it in his heart, that he should relate to Joseph what he had heard, if perhaps through him the Lord would reveal to him the mystery of this matter. Morning therefore come (as the Lord willed) Joseph met him as he was going forth: to whom the Brother immediately explained what he had heard; and asked to have it told to him, if he knew what so great a sound could portend. But Joseph smiling: "I," he said, "will manifest to you predicts concerning his burial what this deed signifies. In the same place, where that noise was heard, someone will be buried in the time to come: to whose sepulcher there will be a great concourse, and a great tumult of men will be heard, which the Lord through that sound which you heard wished to presignify." a concourse of men: Truly very manifest the truth of the one prophesying has been made, with peoples in crowds rushing to his very tomb (for he himself was buried in that place), seeking the remedy of health, or desiring to behold and hear what marvelous things the Lord works through him. He also predicted several years before that the Church of Steinfeld would be wearied with many tribulations; whose truth has now been too much proved by experience. He also promised the same Church that after the narrowness of tribulations happy times would follow: which in hope and desire we await, and will patiently await, doubting nothing of the oracle.

[56] That the time of his happy dissolution was not unknown to him, he himself disclosed to some by certain signs, which we briefly explain. About the same time, in which concerning the place of his burial (as we have said) he prophesied, he came to some of the Brothers, who were joined to him in greater familiarity, and in whom he had special confidence, both for the communication of certain of his secrets, and for the singularity of their devotion to God. For of no Brothers, what kind of life they had been or were, I do not doubt that he was ignorant. For he approached on a certain day a certain one of the Brothers (of whom I have as full a knowledge as of myself) who had spent the days of his first youth in the world, before he had taken up the habit of Religion: to whom he said: "It is worthy that to this verse of the Psalm, 'You have done goodness with your servant,' as often as you utter it, you should apply great devotion of heart." Ps. 118 Which when he, not understanding, said that not only that verse, but also the following one, and the whole Prayer should be said with great devotion; that he might more fully declare his intention, and that he might stir the Brother to knowledge of himself, He knows the sinful life of someone, and to giving thanks to God, he added: "There is also another verse of another Psalm, which as often as it is sung by you, must be sung with special intention and devotion: 'Because your mercy is great over me: and you have delivered my soul from the lower hell.'" Ps. 85 As if to say: "Understand, that this is the goodness of the Lord which he has done with you; because he has delivered your soul from the lower hell, in which you already were by the merit of guilt, not by the suffering of punishment." That Brother is still amazed that his sinful life, worthy of the punishment of lower hell, was revealed to the blessed man, which he could not have learned from man. Not then to this one and those like himself, but to others of greater innocence and devotion, with the time of his dissolution imminent, to some he predicts his own death he came, and humbly supplicating said: "Behold, the end of a certain Priest our friend is approaching: I ask you for God's sake, that you would take care to commend him by your prayers to the Lord." And when they asked about the person, he did not disclose who he was; he said only this: "For you will know more quickly by experience." Behold the great Prophet of past, present, and future, which to be true, if you apply attention, O Reader, you may find. And indeed that he had knowledge of both past and future, is declared in the present chapter; in which he is known also to have known the past life of the Brother subject to sins, and it is proved that he was not ignorant of the hour of his own departure and of the place of his second burial. That he had knowledge of present time also in those things which were absent from him, is declared in that Chapter, where with the virginal soul presented to him on the Altar, he knew and announced the departure of that Virgin.

[57] Of the man pleasing to God and lovable, not only his singular virtues and graces, but also his temptations and infirmities, perfective of virtues, for the consolation of the tempted and sick, I have thought worthy to unfold; that the truth of the Apostolic saying, even in our Brother, may be proved, that to those loving God all things work together for good; and, that virtue is perfected in infirmity. Rom. 8, 2 Cor. 12 With the time of his passing therefore approaching, in which he was called to the kingdom, on whom the kingdom of God had truly come; the Lord tickled him with unaccustomed temptations, which he had by no means previously known by experience. Luke 11 Nor do I think there was any other cause for this kind of temptation, as far as himself is concerned; except that the humble might be humbled still more, and the just justified still more. Before death he is afflicted with unaccustomed temptations: But in others there was another cause, namely that they might also know how to hope in temptation, and that the hand of the Lord strikes us not for consumption but for consummation. Now this was a carnal temptation, by comparison with our temptations small and almost nothing: but, with respect to his Angelic purity, it seemed very great. The Lord also permitted him to be wearied with other unbearable temptations within the divine mysteries, even with images of flies and spiders cast before him: with the devil showing him images of flies and very large spiders (whose size is unknown to us), and disturbing the mind of the most devout man. But he was so wearied by such phantasms and temptations, that for these also he sometimes abstained from the ministry of the altar. After some time he came humbly to some one of the Priests, our Brothers; and miserably complained to him of the troubles he was suffering. And he added: "Behold I have been sent to you, that from these troubles which I am suffering, I may be cured by you." The Brother terrified, who knew himself to be much less than he in merits, fleeing to some one of the Priests he is freed. said: "Who am I, to cure you from your temptations?" He answered: "Certainly I have been sent to you, that you may restrain from me the snares of the devil." That Brother seeing the insistence of the one entreating, and mindful at the same time of a certain sick man who (as is read in the Dialogues) was not cured by Saint Peter, whose suffrage he was begging, but was sent to a certain one of much less merit, to ^b Abundius; by whom he was also cured; not trusting in his own merits, but in the Lord, adjured the demon who was harassing the blessed man: nor did we find him afterwards wearied by such troubles. Saint Gregory, book 3, chapter 25. Thanks to you, Lord, who have willed the darts of the harassing enemy to be a proof of your faithful, and not wounds: who give such a reward for labor to your own, that the enemy rejoices that none of yours has been unwarlike: nay, you give them a perpetual triumph, that they may be for your faithful an example, while they, tempted, freed in humility, are strengthened in your charity.

[58] The Priest of the Lord had a certain young man, in the Canonical Regular habit, serving the Lord in a monastery of Cistercian nuns: who, bound to him with quite great charity, when he came to the same monastery, was accustomed to serve him in divine things. The servant of God had instructed the same young man, that after the solemnities of Masses had been performed, he should not presume to speak to him, or to inquire anything of him, until he himself had first wished to address him. On a certain day therefore when after the reception of the accustomed grace, with the sacred mysteries performed, he was withdrawing from the altar, he lost the grace which he had been wont to have sooner than he hoped. Terrified at the unusual event (as he was always wont to be suspicious of himself), he feared that he had offended in something the bestower of grace: and when conscience did not rebuke him in anything, it came to his mind that perhaps by God's will he ought to communicate his secret to his aforesaid familiar. And turned to the Lord, "Lord," he said, "if it is your will that I should reveal this secret to this your servant; now by his merits, deign to restore to me the solace of your grace, which I have lost." Scarcely had he finished the words; and behold, A wonderful odor refreshes him from heaven. with most sweet vehemence and most vehement sweetness the marvelous odor returned, which he had lost: by which we believe him to have been daily held, when he delayed in the administration of the altar. For we could for certain find nothing else besides that, which yet we believe did not alone hold him. Then approaching the often-mentioned young man, he related what had happened: but under severity forbade him, that as long as he lived, he should presume to publish this secret to anyone. ^c

ANNOTATIONS.

OTHER TREATISE

On his death, Translation, and miracles.

CHAPTER I.

Recapitulation of things done in his life. Death and burial.

[1] To the praise of your name, praiseworthy Jesus Christ, who appear wonderful not only in your majesty, but also glorious in your Saints (for which reason also we must praise you in your Saints),

we are admonished) this present paper, from so great a number of miracles which through the merits of your servant, Brother Herman Joseph (whose little body rests in the Church of Steinfeld), you deign to work, About to write the miracles, I have taken care to write; and to your praise, benign God, to stir the minds of readers, who do not proceed with wasting envy, who think the progress of others their own loss; but compelled by true charity, have learned to rejoice with the rejoicing and to weep with the weeping. With you therefore as witness, who are in heaven the faithful witness, Lord Jesus Christ, those things which either I myself have seen, and these most certain, or have truly understood from those who have seen and truly known, I have faithfully noted in this present paper, as far as the brevity of time permitted: with very many things omitted which in ^a another little work (if you, most high Maker, grant) I shall treat more fully, more lucidly, and more sweetly.

[2] He indicates briefly things done in his boyhood, I omit therefore, how from the earliest beginnings of his age the divine grace prevented the most pure boy in the benedictions of sweetness: with what sweet revelations, although befitting a boy, Jesus as a boy with the Virgin Mother took care to reveal himself to our Samuel: how the very Mother of mercy, pitying the boy freezing in the harshness of winter, with the coins shown to him, shod him: how progressing in age as well as in grace, he bound himself to the services of the Blessed Virgin: with what great abstinence and how great vigils beyond human measure he tortured himself: the apparitions of the Virgin Mother of God, how by the Blessed Virgin, appearing to him waking and in bodily form, he was betrothed by an Angel: but through a vision, with the Virgin Mother herself giving him her Son, that he might carry him as he had been carried by Joseph into Egypt, he deserved to obtain this name Joseph, first by the Angel waking, afterwards by the Mother of the Lord herself (who before had been called Herman) through a vision. I also pass over how by the Mother of the Lord, appearing to him in the form of an old woman, he was admonished to be of greater devotion in her service, in which (as is the human custom) he had somewhat grown lukewarm. ^b I omit also how for many years, on almost every night, he deserved to be relieved by the consolation of the blessed Mother of the Lord, asking her whatever he wished, and answering her in turn to her questions ^c. But nor at present do I propose here to explain, how much he loved, revelations about the holy Ursulans how much he honored the sacred Virgins Ursula and her companions; with what great revelations of them he was consoled: how, when he had composed the words of a History for their praise, with them teaching and chanting beforehand, he learned the melody of almost the whole history, and some of the Virgins even deigned to reveal their names to him. The vision also, and the martyrdom of Saint Engelbert which concerning the killing of the Martyr Engelbert, Archbishop of Cologne, was revealed to our Joseph not through a dream but while waking; also the praise of the Lord, who called him the lily of the Church of Steinfeld; also the praise of the Angel, who proclaimed him to surpass all mortals in the virtue of humility; and the marks of his other virtues, and the purity of his mind, the foreknowledge of future things, and the knowledge of heavenly things with which the Creator himself took care to gladden him — I omit.

[3] But I come to that time which he had so often desired with his vows: in which the Creator of light, the true light, deigned no longer to place his burning and shining lamp under a bushel and in hidden, before his death in Lent he fasts strictly, but to exalt it on the candlestick of manifestation. Therefore with the time of his dissolution approaching, throughout that whole Lent he took as food almost nothing but simple bread and warmed beer and a few roasted pears (although he was of marvelous weakness), with all of us marveling and blaming him; nonetheless bending his unwearied mind to contemplation, dictation, and writing, in his little body already failing.

[4] But on the Sunday on which is chanted "My eyes always," when the Lord deigned to look on him with eyes of mercy, to free the feet of his only and poor one from the snare; there came to our Lord Abbot a messenger ^d of the monastery of certain Cistercian Sisters, asking that he (with whom he had also at some time dwelt) might be conceded for a time: to celebrate divine offices for the Sisters throughout Lent. he departs to a monastery of Cistercian Sisters, Which when the Abbot and the Brothers altogether refused, because it seemed to go against the constitutions of our Order; he, in spirit foreseeing the future, approached the Abbot, and asked to be let go to go to the aforesaid Sisters: and he asserted this was God's will. Which when he had obtained, and saw the Brothers complaining about his departure and being very much saddened; "There is," he said, "one cause why I now depart: but know that I will without doubt return after Easter." Walking therefore on his feet (for in many years he had not used a horse or vehicle) with much haste he came to the place sought; and immediately entering the interior of the cloister, having entered the cloister with the staff (with which he was wont to be supported) he marked the earth in the manner of a sepulcher; and to the Sisters who were present he said: "Behold, in this place you will bury me."

[5] He designates the place of his burial: On the day of Palms, contrary to his custom, he was of such great strength that he performed the whole Office unwearied, and was filled with such consolation of grace that he cheerfully invited the Sisters to give thanks to God. On the third feria he was seized with fevers and lay down, seized with fever he is brought to the last extremity, and from day to day was more sharply tormented. For two hours with rare breath he rested: and made in ecstasy, when he returned to himself, complained that he was making no progress, and that Jesus was hard to his petitions. But the cause is still hidden from us. With the hour of dissolution imminent, bidding farewell to those sitting around, and commending his spirit into the hands of his Jesus, with heart and countenance erect he migrated to Christ ^e. By the nod of God, he most piously departs this life: he is buried. his little body was buried in the same monastery, in the pre-marked place, with our Subprior present, and asking the Sisters in vain that the body of our Brother be returned to us, whom, when he lived, we had granted to them. When this had been announced to us, after the pouring forth of tears when we had returned to ourselves, we proposed to seek back the body of our Brother, and to spare neither labors nor expenses for this. To those laboring therefore was present our God, the consolation of the mourning, the strength of those laboring: and, with grace given us in the sight of the Lord Archbishop of Cologne, with him commanding, and with the Archbishop of Cologne commanding, we exhumed the body of our Brother, to the praise and glory of our Lord and his most faithful servant. Indeed, when on the fifth feria of the days of Easter he had been freed from flesh, and had been laid in the sepulcher of marshy earth, naturally damp, the body after seven weeks uncorrupted, and on the third of the days of Pentecost was exhumed by us; we found the sacred little body uncorrupted: so that not only did no little worm appear in it, but even the very surface of the skin was found all unharmed. With such a treasure therefore received, made as if consoled, as we returned to our own place, there was a concourse of peoples, dwelling in the surroundings, transferred to Steinfeld: running to meet us with candles and crosses, praising God in his Saint, and saying: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." And immediately the Lord began to magnify his Saint with miracles, and according to his own saying, him who, above human measure, had humbled himself beneath every man, he shines with miracles. and had subjected himself to every creature for God's sake, marvelously to exalt.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Miracles done in the Translation, and after it.

[6] Toothaches are cured, Some citizens of the city of Cologne, running to meet the sacred little body, having a boy wearied with great pain of teeth, applied the swollen cheek of the boy to the bier of the sacred little body, and immediately the pain vanished and the swelling ceased. Henry, our servant at ^a Bessenich, from a similar disease, after the invocation of the name of Brother Joseph, was cured. The girl Agnes, a virgin devoted to God, from the disease from which she had labored for three years, and had lain on the bed for a year and a half, and an inveterate disease: with all the members in the lower part of the body as it were dead; with Brother Joseph appearing to her in a vision, and placing his hand upon her, and promising health, was so suddenly healed, that she who had in the evening determined that she must be carried in a carriage, in the morning walking a very difficult road on her own feet, came to our monastery, and with the rest of our land, both nobles and private people, all marveling, approached the sacrifice: who for so long a time lying on her bed, had until then been visited by many, praising God equally with her and in her, who had so mercifully visited her.

[7] Nor do I think this should be passed over, that some of our men, kindled with great fervor of devotion, in the silence of nocturnal rest approaching the shrine of the sacred little body, opened it; but not even then were they repelled by any stench: but they took for themselves whatever particles of clothing they could, as a blessing: they more diligently wiped the fresh blood flowing from the mouth of the innocent one (from which shameful speech or scurrility or incautious oath or curse had never come): Fresh blood flows from his mouth: with all marveling that in the body of the buried one, after seven weeks (for so much time had flowed from the day of his death to the day of his second burial) such fresh blood could be found: they also washed the sacred little body with water, through which very many afterwards obtained benefits of health. The whole body was found as handleable as that of a living man: The body is flexible as if alive: hands also and the joints of the fingers could be moved with such easy flexibility, that he was believed to be alive.

[8] In the bringing of the sacred little body, Godfrey, a certain man of our parish, had been with us for some days: whom such frenzy had seized that he was believed by all to be possessed, and it had been necessary to bind him with many ropes: A frantic man is healed, for he did not refrain his hands from his wife or children; but he rejoiced to seize, drag, strike, tear whomever he could. And when on the day of the Trinity he had returned somewhat to himself, and half-bound was sitting at the sepulcher of the sacred little body; the sacristan of our Church (who also wrote this) approached him, and asked whether through the merits of Brother Joseph, buried there, he trusted to be helped by the Lord. With the sick man confessing that yes; the sacristan added: "Invoke God then, that through the merits of Brother Joseph he may deign to bring aid to you." And he immediately cried out: "Lord God, I ask you, that through the merits of the good saint Joseph, you would deign to restore my mind to me." Then the sacristan, I know not by what true spirit moved, said: "Go to your house, and the Lord through the merits of his Saint will soon free you." From that hour, as he returned to his house, the health of his mind returned to him: and to this day, by God's grace, he continues whole.

[9] On the same day (on the Feast of Trinity) came a certain woman from ^b Dollendorp, bearing an infant still hanging at the breasts: who at night, with the mother sleeping, suffocated in the cradle, in the morning, The dead are raised, an infant suffocated in the cradle, when the mother rose to give the breasts to the suckling, was found dead. And when she was filling the ears of all with pitiable voices and wailing, and for many hours was satisfying her maternal grief with weeping (for there could be no doubt about the death of the infant), at length, mindful of the benefits with which the God of Israel deigns to visit his people through Blessed Joseph, with confidence received, she cried out: "I vow to you, Saint Joseph, if by your merits you shall raise my infant, I will present him at your tomb with offerings." God heard, and did not delay: but, with his spirit resumed, the infant began gradually to move, and to yawn. Which having seen, the mother seized the infant hastily, and to the sepulcher of Brother Joseph, with a certain godfather of his (the witness of this miracle) ran two miles of our province. And when she had placed the infant on the sepulcher, he then first opened his eyes; and received vital color, and entirely his former vigor. For the confirmation of the truth, the woman affirmed by oath that the boy had truly been dead and raised. After eight days there came to the tomb of Brother Joseph a certain man and his wife from Honkirchen, leading with them a boy of about eight years: and a boy fallen from a horse: who by a heavy fall from the horse which he had mounted, was dashed against a hard piece of wood lying on the ground; the wood itself pressing in the brain of the boy, and as it were making a certain concavity in the skull, though the skin with the bone remained whole. The parents astonished running up, roll and roll again the boy found lifeless, trying in all ways if they could find any sign of life in the drawing of breath or vital warmth: but when they could find no sign of life, they pursued the pitiable death of their son with long weeping. At length, with the fame of the benefits wrought by God through the merits of our Brother coming, in memory of those lamenting the death of their son; an invocation made with a vow, they deserved to receive their son living and whole: who also swore that so it was done, with the Convent present.

[10] A certain woman from Reiferscheidt ^c Adelhaidis by name, they are healed, deprived of the function of limbs, deprived of the function of all members in childbirth, when she had been brought to the sepulcher of our Brother, obtained such quick health, that she returned from there on her own feet, who had been brought by the hands of others. A certain man leading a boy of six years to the sepulcher of our Brother, said: "Behold, the son of blessed Joseph." For that boy strongly crushed by the wheel of a wagon, for five days lay senseless, a dying boy, so that scarcely a vital spirit was felt in him, and at every hour he was believed about to die. At length, with a vow made of bringing the boy to the sepulcher of Brother Joseph, the boy recovered, against the hope of all, and was restored to unhoped-for health. A certain girl of ^d Arwilre, vexed with headaches, who endured the greatest pains of head and tumults, when she had received in her ear a drop of the water with which the body of the innocent one was washed; with the tumult driven off, she received perfect hearing. A certain girl of Pelheya who for four years had lost the light of her eyes, blind, when at the sepulcher of our Brother she wept copiously, was illuminated. In the village ^e Werde, where there is an Imperial Castle, a certain demoniac, who did not care for exorcisms and Relics, a possessed one, with the cloth which had been dipped in Joseph's blood applied to him (as has been said above), immediately was compelled to leave the possessed body. Similarly a certain man of the village Were, Herman by name, was freed from the harassment of a demon at the sepulcher of Brother Joseph.

[11] Headache is cured, Beatrice the wife of John the shopkeeper in Cologne, through the imposition of blessed Joseph's cap, was freed from an intolerable headache. A woman of Fusnich, Gertrude by name, at the invocation of our blessed Brother, was freed from daily fevers. fever, The same had a certain infant a year old, who from the time he came out of his mother's womb to life, desperate disease of an infant, always bore the signs of death in his body. For in the whole body as if dead, in his chest alone was felt to have something of vital spirit. She, to trust in the health of her boy, quickly animated by her own health (which she had obtained), also vowed her son to our Joseph, and he was entirely restored to health. A certain woman Elisabeth by name, of ^f Brische, having one eye obscure, blindness of the other eye, the other altogether blinded, was illuminated: who when with the eyes of faith and trust she was hurrying to the sepulcher of Joseph, on the journey received perfect health of both eyes. A certain girl, who was in the service of the Advocate of Freissem, when a little worm of the ear had entered her ear, and was tormenting her with intolerable pain; pain of the ear from the entrance of a worm, with her lady admonishing, made a vow of coming to our buried one: and behold, in a marvelous way, at the sending forth of the vow, all pain equally left the head of the one suffering without delay.

[12] dysentery by his belt, A certain boy of Flastorp, Reiner by name, when for six months he was so strongly laboring with the disease of dysentery, that even by his own parents, who tenderly loved him, his death was wished for; when he had been girded with the belt of the body of chaste Joseph, with which he had been girded in the sepulcher, and with our Cellarer admonishing them (whose own the boy was a relative), the parents had promised to lead him to the sepulcher of Joseph, the health of faithful trust followed the vow. A virgin of ^g Veya, Mechtild by name, fell into a horrible infirmity, so that her body everywhere, dropsy, as though of a dropsical person, swelled, and all the skin, stretched with swelling, appeared bloody. Her mother had with her a little piece of the pelices with which our Joseph had been clothed (when he was still mortal with us), and the devout woman had kept with her, for a blessing. The piece of pelice brought forth, the mother anointed the body of her daughter all over; and immediately all the swelling subsided, and the natural warmth was everywhere called back to the body. A certain infant from the village Rode, pain of the throat, when on account of excessive pain of the throat he had also lost the function of the tongue; received in his mouth a drop of the saving water, with which the body of chaste Joseph was washed. At the touch of such great medicine immediately all pain fled; and, with the throat healed, the freed tongue began to utter its words directly. The falling sickness. In the village Fusnich, a certain woman had an infant so strongly laboring with the falling sickness, that within the space of one natural day, he suffered from it sixteen times. For whom when his mother had vowed that she must bring the boy, if he were cured, to the sepulcher of Joseph; the boy was so cured that he by no means suffered from that pitiable disease thereafter.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

Miracles added from the Marchtall MS. Epilogue.

[13] Pain of the throat is cured: A certain woman from Urs, named Hildegundis, was suffering the pain of the throat so gravely that it was impossible for her to swallow food or drink: and when she was now set between the confines of death and life, and saw that only one solace remained for her, that she should flee to the suffrage of Blessed Joseph; when she had invoked his name, and had tasted a drop of the saving water, immediately the pain vanished, and she was made fit for taking food. eyes badly affected, The daughter of the same Hildegundis, Adelhaid by name, when she was suffering excessive pain of the eyes, which she also had swollen like two eggs and deprived of sight, came to the sepulcher of Joseph with wax eyes: which having been offered, and the eyes wiped with the water of the saving ablution, the pain departed, the light returned, and the girl withdrew healthy. Our Conversus Nicholas once received a great wound in his right arm from a sword stroke: from that time, although the scar of the wound seemed closed, yet the sharpness of the pain remained to this time in a large part. Approaching therefore the sepulcher of Blessed Joseph, pain of the arm, he supplicated that he would somewhat mitigate his inveterate pain for him. His prayer was heard, and immediately the pain was quieted. After a few days there came very many guests for the sake of praying with many horses. Of whom when some were violently breaking into the granary of the Church, and were beginning to act not as guests but as though robbers, that Brother provoked to impatience said: "Would that this Lord, for whom we suffer such great importunities of men, had remained in the place where he had first been buried." Scarcely had he uttered the words, and immediately he paid the penalty and the sin of his rash tongue. For the pain returned revived, and began to pain more vehemently than before. Again therefore he ran to the sepulcher, confessed his sin, asked for help, and obtained a remedy.

[14] the sick eye A certain woman Mechtild by name, of the village called Goich, had an eye wasting away, and now almost failing from excessive pains. Moreover

[15] They are cured, a grave ulcer of the throat, Our Conversus John of Gustene, had his throat tightly constricted inside by a grave ulcer, whence he feared that great danger to his life was imminent: but when he had tasted a cup of the saving water, immediately without any sensation of pain, the ulcer broke; and so the man was freed from imminent peril. A certain girl of Holtzheim, Godesta by name, eight years old, an infirmity of 8 years, for three years and more was marvelously and miserably sick: in her all medicine failed, nor could any remedies bring relief: she was carried to various thresholds of the Saints, where divine grace was working around the sick; but all was done in vain: the longer she lived, the worse she was. At length when she was now near to death, her uncle caused her to make a vow, that if by the merits of Blessed Joseph she recovered, she would bring him a wax candle to her own measure. I heard from the mouth of the girl's mother, that immediately after the utterance of the vow, the daughter obtained health. Paulina a matron of Münster, walking in woolens and with bare feet, came humbly, and for the salvation of her husband devoutly offered two wax legs: for the same husband of hers had been sick in his legs for two years, and from the swellings and wounds of ulcers, ulcers of the legs, could neither use hose, nor walk in public with a weak step: but when the woman after the offering had returned home, the man at her entering perceived the heavenly benefit: for his legs were made firm, the ulcers were healed, and free ability of walking was divinely given back to him. Another girl of the town of Münster had her ears obstructed for hearing, obstruction of the ears with deafness: nor could she understand anyone except in a loud voice. She, as I heard from her uncle Arnold, reverently offering her headband which was of gold embroidery, placed it on the sepulcher. To whose devotion Blessed Joseph piously congratulating, did not wish to suspend the desiring one longer; but the difficulty which she had for a long time troublesomely endured in hearing, he as quickly as possible removed from her.

[16] A certain merchant of Tulpeto, Erewinus by name, promised to Blessed Joseph out of affection of devotion that he should visit his sepulcher. Involved in exterior business, now through negligence and now through forgetfulness, he did not at all fulfill what he had promised: but that vexation might give the man understanding, he was marvelously struck, but more marvelously healed. a disease inflicted for a neglected vow, For four weeks he lay on his bed, worn out with various pains, and despaired of by all. At last therefore mindful of his vow, he recognized his guilt, asked for indulgence, promised amendment; and so obtained the salvation which he desired.

[17] most sharp stitches of the side: Reiner a soldier of Arlesheim was very sick, and moreover frequently was touched in the side with most sharp stitches, which were also so grave, that at each stitch he believed himself to be breathing out his spirit. Since therefore no hope of life remained, and he was preparing himself for departure through extreme Unction; remembering Blessed Joseph, in his imminent tribulation invoking his help, and most devoutly promising him his offering, if he should recover. Marvelous to say! after he uttered this vow, he soon recovered, and on the following day running with marvelous alacrity he came to the sepulcher; giving thanks, and proclaiming himself always to be devoted for the rest to the services of Blessed Joseph, whose swift aid he had experienced. In the body of Mechtild the girl, daughter of Reiner of Fussenich, innumerable pustules boiled up; which, as was said, were so dangerous and deadly, that unless quickly aid was brought, deadly pustules. the girl would be compelled to undergo the loss of the present life. To whose pain her mother Mechtild, compassionating, and wishing to take counsel, dipped a little piece of the clothing of blessed Joseph into water, and gave the girl to drink, nay even washed the place of pain with the same water; and immediately all pain ceased: the multitude of pustules too, as though they had never been, suddenly did not appear. Through Christ our Lord.

[18] But why do I delay? For the paper could not, even if it were entirely written upon, comprehend how many signs and prodigies the Lord has deigned to magnify his Saint in so few months. The author selects a few from many: But neither can the sons of Belial (who still say and blaspheme that Christ, working in his Saints, casts out demons by Beelzebub) be satisfied by a multitude of miracles: but to the sons of light (who trust in the Lord, and rejoice in the truth) I believe enough has been done by the present ones. I leave them for the time after this little refreshment of my dinner, hungering and thirsting for supper, fuller with more exquisite dishes; until both these and other things, both done and to be done, we shall more fully (with the grace of God cooperating) write back, and he adds more: to the praise and glory of the praiseworthy and glorious one, who alone does great marvels, the Lord our God, who is blessed forever and ever. Ps. 135 But this magnificent thing, I ought not and cannot pass over in silence: that when Hermann, Custos of Saint Cunibert in Cologne, had received a portion of the clothes of our Joseph, and had thrown it less worthily into his own chest; at night, when he had given himself to sleep, he heard a certain unusual noise, stirred up in the same chest: and when, waked by the tumult, he also began to open his eyes, [A little piece of the clothes more negligently kept, is betrayed by a heavenly light.] the Custos saw a light of brightness burning over the same place. Believing that it had been incautiously left there by his servants, he rose to extinguish it; and as he approached, it immediately vanished. Shaking then with himself what this vision could portend, mindful of the sacred garment which he had placed there dishonestly, he took it at that very hour, and placed it in his chapel, with the other Relics, with due devotion; to the praise and glory of Christ Jesus our Lord.

PROCESS OF INQUIRY

On the fame of the sanctity of Blessed Herman,

From the Steinfeld MS.

Herman Joseph, of the Premonstratensian Order, at Steinfeld in Germany (Blessed)

FROM THE STEINFELD MS.

CHAPTER I.

Delegation of Commissioners, and acceptance of the commission.

[1] John Gelenius and John Schwan, To the Most Serene and Most Reverend Lord, Lord Ferdinand, elected and confirmed Archbishop of the holy Church of Cologne, Archchancellor through Italy of the sacred Roman Empire and Prince Elector: Bishop of Paderborn, Liège, and Münster, Administrator of Hildesheim, Berchtesgaden, and Corvey; Prince of Stavelot: Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of both Bavarias, of Westphalia, of Angrien, and of Bouillon; Marquis of Franchimont, Count of Loss, of Longwy, of Horne; Born Legate of the holy Apostolic See, etc.; our most clement Lord, John Gelenius and John Schwan, Doctors of Sacred Theology and of both Laws, Priests of the Metropolitan and Collegiate Churches of the Holy Apostles and of Saint Gereon the Martyr at Cologne, respectively chapter Canons; one Dean and Apostolic Protonotary, the other Vicar general and Counselor of your said Highness; Commissioners specially deputed for the things written below, our most humble and by every bond most devoted zeal and obedience.

[2] From Ferdinand Archbishop of Cologne, Commissorial letters, signed and sealed by the hand and seal of your most Serene Highness, at Bonn, May 5 of the current year, and issued at the devout insistence of the Very Reverend Father and Lord, Christopher Pilckman, Abbot in Steinfeld of the sacred Premonstratensian Order, altogether free of any flaw or suspicion, to us, assembled together in the sacristy of the Metropolitan church of Cologne, in the year of Salvation 1628, Indiction 11, in the fifth year of the pontificate of our most holy Father and Lord in Christ, Urban by divine providence eighth of that name; with the venerable men Laurentius Staden and Paulus Aussemius, Priests at the Holy Apostles and at Saint Cunibert, Canons and Scholastic respectively, Notaries of the holy Apostolic See; and William Wollersheim and William Sleidanus clerics, as witnesses, present and required for this; the most distinguished and most consulted Lord Anthony Fabens, Licentiate of both Laws, by virtue of his special mandate, of which he sufficiently showed, presented to us: and we with all reverence accepted the same under this tenor.

[3] Of the Saints to be honored, "Ferdinand by the grace of God Archbishop of Cologne... to the venerable and devoutly beloved to us John Gelenius and John Schwan... greeting and our grace. Since to the Saints who are before the throne of God; and in his temple, that is, in the Church triumphant, serve him day and night; we, who still fight on earth, render honor; rightly we fulfill that which the Scripture admonishes: 'The peoples shall declare their wisdom, and the church shall announce their praise.' Sir. 44:15 Which admonition must be received by us so much the more fervently, by how much more certainly we hold by faith, that the fruit of honor which we render to the Saints redounds upon ourselves: for they do not need our goods. Although we ought to render this cult to all who are enrolled in heaven, especially zealous for those of our own fatherland, and reign together with Christ without end: yet more specially we know ourselves obligated to those who illustrated the particular churches and earthly houses

[15] They are cured: a grave ulcer of the throat, Our Conversus John of Gustene had his throat tightly constricted inside by a grave ulcer, whence he feared that great danger to his life was imminent: but when he had tasted a cup of the saving water, straightway without any sensation of pain, the ulcer burst; and so the man was freed from the threatening peril. A certain girl of Holtzheim, Godesta by name, eight years old, an infirmity of 8 years, for three years and more was wondrously and miserably sick: in her all medicine failed, nor could any remedies bring relief: she was carried to various thresholds of the Saints, where divine grace was working around the sick; but all was done in vain: the longer she lived, the worse she was. At length when she was now near to death, her uncle caused her to make a vow, that if by the merits of Blessed Joseph she recovered, she would bring him a wax candle to her own measure. I heard from the mouth of the girl's mother, that immediately after the utterance of the vow, the daughter obtained health. Paulina, a matron of Münster, walking in woolens and with bare feet, came humbly, and for her husband's welfare devoutly offered two wax legs: for this same husband of hers had been sick in his legs for two years, and from the swellings and wounds of ulcers ulcers of the legs, could neither wear hose nor walk in public with a weak step: but when the woman returned home after the offering, the man at her entering perceived the heavenly benefit: for his legs were made firm, the ulcers were healed, and free faculty of walking was divinely given back to him. Another girl of the town of Münster had her ears obstructed for hearing, obstruction of the ears with deafness: nor could she understand anyone except in a loud voice. She, as I heard from her uncle Arnold, reverently offering her headband which was of gold embroidery, placed it on the tomb. To whose devotion Blessed Joseph piously congratulating, did not wish to keep the desiring one in suspense longer; but the difficulty which she had for a long time troublesomely endured in hearing, he as swiftly as possible removed from her.

[16] A certain merchant of Tulpeto, Erewinus by name, promised Blessed Joseph out of devotional affection that he would visit his tomb. Entangled in outward business, now through negligence and now through forgetfulness, he did not at all fulfill what he had promised: but that vexation might give the man understanding, he was wondrously struck, but more wondrously healed. an illness inflicted for a neglected vow, For four weeks he lay on his bed, worn out with various pains, and despaired of by all. At last therefore, mindful of his vow, he recognized his guilt, asked for indulgence, promised amendment; and so obtained the salvation which he desired.

[17] most sharp stitches of the side: Reiner, a soldier of Arlesheim, was very sick, and moreover was frequently touched in the side with most sharp stitches, which were also so grave that at each stitch he believed himself to be breathing out his spirit. Since therefore no hope of life remained, and he was preparing himself for departure through extreme Unction; remembering Blessed Joseph, in his imminent tribulation invoking his help, and most devoutly promising him his offering if he should recover. Wondrous to say! after he uttered this vow, he soon recovered, and on the following day running with wondrous alacrity he came to the tomb; giving thanks and proclaiming himself always to be devoted for the rest to the services of Blessed Joseph, whose swift aid he had experienced. In the body of Mechtild the girl, daughter of Reiner of Fussenich, innumerable pustules boiled up; which, as was said, were so dangerous and deadly that unless aid were quickly brought, deadly pustules. the girl would be compelled to undergo the loss of the present life. To whose pain her mother Mechtild, compassionating and wishing to take counsel, dipped a little piece of the clothing of Blessed Joseph into water, gave it the girl to drink, nay even washed the place of pain with the same water; and immediately all pain ceased: the multitude of pustules, too, as though they had never been, suddenly did not appear. Through Christ our Lord.

[18] But why do I delay? For paper could not, even if it were entirely written upon, comprehend with how many signs and prodigies the Lord has deigned to magnify his Saint in so few months. The author selects a few from many: But neither can the sons of Belial (who still say and blaspheme that Christ, working in his Saints, casts out demons by Beelzebub) be satisfied with a multitude of miracles: but to the sons of light (who trust in the Lord and rejoice in the truth) I believe enough has been done by the present ones. I leave them for the time after this little refreshment of my dinner, hungering and thirsting for supper, fuller with more exquisite dishes; until both these and other things, both done and to be done, we shall more fully (with the grace of God cooperating) write back, and he adds more: to the praise and glory of the praiseworthy and glorious one, who alone does great wonders, the Lord our God, who is blessed forever and ever. Ps. 135 But this magnificent thing I ought not and cannot pass over in silence: that when Hermann, Custos of Saint Cunibert in Cologne, had received a little portion from the garments of our Joseph, and had thrown it less worthily into his own chest; at night, when he had given himself to sleep, he heard a certain unusual noise, stirred up in the same chest: and when, waked by the tumult, he had begun also to open his eyes, [A little piece of the clothes more negligently kept is betrayed by a heavenly light.] the Custos saw a light of brightness burning over that same place. Believing that it had been incautiously left there by his servants, he rose to extinguish it; and as he approached, it immediately vanished. Pondering therefore with himself what this vision could portend, and mindful of the sacred garment which he had dishonorably placed there, he took it at that very hour and placed it in his chapel, with the other Relics, with due devotion; to the praise and glory of Christ Jesus our Lord.

PROCESS OF INQUIRY

On the fame of the sanctity of Blessed Herman,

From the Steinfeld MS.

Herman Joseph, of the Premonstratensian Order, at Steinfeld in Germany (Blessed)

FROM THE STEINFELD MS.

CHAPTER I.

Delegation of Commissioners, and acceptance of the commission.

[1] John Gelenius and John Schwan, To the Most Serene and Most Reverend Lord, Lord Ferdinand, elected and confirmed Archbishop of the holy Church of Cologne, Archchancellor through Italy of the sacred Roman Empire and Prince Elector: Bishop of Paderborn, Liège, and Münster, Administrator of Hildesheim, Berchtesgaden, and Corvey; Prince of Stavelot: Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of both Bavarias, of Westphalia, of Angrien, and of Bouillon; Marquis of Franchimont, Count of Loss, of Longwy, of Horne; Born Legate of the holy Apostolic See, etc.; our most clement Lord, John Gelenius and John Schwan, Doctors of Sacred Theology and of both Laws, Priests of the Metropolitan and Collegiate Churches of the Holy Apostles and of Saint Gereon the Martyr at Cologne, respectively chapter Canons; one Dean and Apostolic Protonotary, the other Vicar general and Counselor of your said Highness; Commissioners specially deputed for the things written below, our most humble and by every bond most devoted zeal and obedience.

[2] From Ferdinand Archbishop of Cologne, Commissorial letters, signed and sealed by the hand and seal of your most Serene Highness, at Bonn, May 5 of the current year, and issued at the devout instance of the Very Reverend Father and Lord, Christopher Pilckman, Abbot in Steinfeld of the sacred Premonstratensian Order, altogether free of any flaw or suspicion, to us, assembled together in the sacristy of the Metropolitan church of Cologne, in the year of Salvation 1628, Indiction 11, in the fifth year of the pontificate of our most holy Father and Lord in Christ, Urban by divine providence eighth of that name; with the venerable men Laurentius Staden and Paulus Aussemius, Priests at the Holy Apostles and at Saint Cunibert, Canons and Scholastic respectively, Notaries of the holy Apostolic See; and William Wollersheim and William Sleidanus clerics, as witnesses, present and required for this; the most distinguished and most consulted Lord Anthony Fabens, Licentiate of both Laws, by virtue of his special mandate, of which he sufficiently gave proof, presented to us: and we with all reverence accepted the same under this tenor.

[3] Of the Saints to be honored, "Ferdinand by the grace of God Archbishop of Cologne... to the venerable and devoutly beloved to us John Gelenius and John Schwan... greeting and our grace. Since to the Saints who are before the throne of God; and in his temple, that is, in the Church triumphant, serve him day and night; we, who still fight on earth, render honor; rightly we fulfill that which the Scripture admonishes: 'The peoples shall declare their wisdom, and the church shall announce their praise.' Sir. 44:15 Which admonition must be received by us so much the more fervently, by how much more certainly we hold by faith, that the fruit of honor which we render to the Saints redounds upon ourselves: for they do not need our goods. Although we ought to render this cult to all who are enrolled in heaven, especially zealous for those of our own fatherland, and reign together with Christ without end: yet more especially we know ourselves obligated to those who illustrated the particular churches and earthly houses

in which we, still in the body, sojourn from the Lord, illustrated by the example of their past life and by the glory of their miracles, nor ever cease to intercede for our salvation. Among these we do not doubt to be Herman, who was called Joseph, born in our city of Cologne, and a Canon of the Steinfeld monastery of our Archdiocese, four hundred years ago: whose holy life and precious death almost innumerable miracles and the common voice of the people, which voice is the voice of God, proclaim and testify.

[4] with a view to the canonization of Blessed Herman, Since truly to this very day this same Herman, whom they also call Joseph, has not been inscribed by the authority of the holy Roman Church in the catalog of the heavenly ones: hence it is that we, desiring that worthy honors be decreed for him, and moved by the prayers of the venerable and devoutly beloved to us, Christopher Pilckman, Abbot of Steinfeld, command and commit to you, in whose learning, zeal, and prudence we trust, jointly and severally, that you (with two Notaries, constituted in holy orders, joined for this purpose) examine those articles which the aforesaid Abbot or his Proctor shall exhibit before you; admit the examined articles to proof; cite, or command to be cited, produced and sworn, the witnesses named for the matter; hear the cited, produced and sworn witnesses; deputed to inquire, and their words or depositions, as well as any writings pertaining to this matter, cause and procure to be exhibited, written down, and signed; and transmit all these to us, written down and signed, in probative form. For we intend to submit them, by the aforesaid Abbot or his and his Order's Proctor, to the decree of our most Holy Lord (on whose definition the cult of the Saints depends). This is our earnest will. Given in our city of Bonn, on the 5th day of the month of May, in the year 1628.

+ Ferdinand.

[5] These letters having been reverently received by us, the Proctor or Syndic of the said Lord Abbot, and they are asked to proceed to Steinfeld, Licentiate Fabens, again and again insisted that we should deign to take up that same burden, laid upon our shoulders; and according to the tenor of the same, to the greater glory of God and honor of Blessed Herman, to proceed. Moreover he exhibited certain articles, drawn up for the verification of the fame of sanctity of the aforesaid Blessed Herman, most studiously asking that the same be admitted to proof and canonically examined. But because for a great part the same can and ought to be justified by ocular inspection, he asked that the next Monday, May 29, be designated for undertaking the journey to the Steinfeld monastery, in which the said Herman lived most sanctly; that there, in place, ocular inspection be taken concerning all things which consist in enduring fact; the necessary witnesses, for deposing on the truth of the fame of sanctity and miracles, be admitted and canonically examined; as well as writings and anything else pertaining to this matter be drawn out, written down, and signed.

[6] Therefore, we, wishing diligently and reverently to execute your most Serene Highness's mandate, most clemently enjoined upon us in this part, They undertake the commission, as is fitting, accepted the aforesaid articles; declaring that we would accurately examine the same, and in the place of the requested ocular inspection, upon the admission of the same to proof, would bring a decree. And since on account of other grave occupations falling upon him, your Highness's Vicar general, Lord John Gelenius, was unable to gird himself for this journey, and to be present at the examination of witnesses and other requirements for this salutary business at Steinfeld, and one of them betakes himself to Steinfeld, and since the execution of this commission had been most clemently imposed upon us jointly and severally; we judged it ought to be done thus, that one of us, Lord John Schwan, should betake himself to the aforesaid Steinfeld monastery, with the above-placed Notaries, on May 29; should inspect with his eyes the place in which Blessed Herman or Joseph lived his life, heaped with every kind of sanctity; his sacred elevated tomb and Relics; and should decree whatever he judged necessary for the successful continuation of this process.

CHAPTER II.

Articles proposed for the Commissariat examination.

[7] John Schwan admits the articles to be examined. After therefore John Schwan had on the second-to-last of the month of May prosperously arrived at the monastery of the Religious Fathers in Steinfeld, the Syndic repeated the decree brought on the 26th, most greatly asking that the articles, offered for proof, be admitted; that ocular inspection be taken concerning those things which consist in enduring fact; that what had been demonstrated be distinctly registered; finally that those things which are done on this day by the Christian faithful people, flowing together from the various surrounding parishes to the sacred tomb and holy remains of St Joseph himself, with religious cult, be referred to the protocol; imploring our office upon this in every better way. These things having been brought forth by the Syndic into the midst, and the articles carefully examined, by virtue of the aforementioned commission, we John Schwan, Doctor of both Laws and Commissioner, with the consent of our Lord colleague given beforehand, admitted the said articles by the interposition of our decree, and offered ourselves ready for ocular inspection; commanding that those things which were necessary to see be designated, shown, and all and each be studiously committed to letters and papers.

[8] The tenor indeed of the exhibited articles is this.

I That there is public voice and fame, that Herman of blessed memory, called Joseph, was born four hundred years ago at Cologne Agrippina of honorable parents, most innocently educated in his youth; that he professed the regular life in the most celebrated Steinfeld monastery of the diocese of Cologne, of the Order of Saint Norbert; that he flourished with wondrous holiness of life, whole faith, especially supreme chastity and humility, and dove-like simplicity, and singular cult toward the Virgin Mother of God.

II That there is public voice and fame, that the same, after most frequent revelations made to him divinely, and familiarity most chastely continued with the Virgin Mother of God, full of prophetic spirit, having first pointed out the place of his burial, departed to the eternal tabernacles with great opinion of sanctity.

III That divine goodness magnified him in life and after death with very many and most frequent miracles; and wondrously exalted his servant, who by the example of the Lord had subjected himself to every man: concerning which there is public voice and fame.

IV That there is public voice and fame, that at his tomb many sick have been healed, dead recalled to life, blind illuminated, deaf, frenzied and dropsical cured, demons driven out.

V That the body of the said St Herman, in token of sanctity, with the knowledge and tolerance of the Ordinary, has been elevated to the height of about four feet from the ground: and is honorably preserved in an old tomb, beautifully painted and enclosed around with iron lattices.

VI That this tomb exhibits Joseph himself, depicted with that splendor and glory with which the Saints are wont to be.

VII That an altar stands immediately next to this tomb, in the middle of the nave of the church: which very altar is commonly called the altar of St Joseph beyond the memory of the common people; as there is public voice and fame concerning it, and as the table of altars, perpetually hanging in the sacristy of Steinfeld, indicates.

VIII That on a column of the church, a beautiful and ancient statue of the same is seen, in the Premonstratensian habit, matching the just length of a man.

IX That on the doors of the altar the effigy of St Joseph is depicted, in the regular habit of St Norbert.

X That the aforesaid tomb and sacred Relics are piously visited by very many devout Catholics of both sexes, for the sake of fulfilling vows, in many bygone times and up to the present day (most of all on the Vigil of the Ascension of the Lord, when the tomb is accustomed to be opened); that they offer their luminaries and gifts, and send them in through the lattices of the tomb; that they sing a German hymn composed in praise of St Joseph, with this hope and confidence, that they trust themselves to be freed from infirmities.

XI That outside the monastery, at the foot of a vast mountain, a little spring gushes forth, which to this day is called the well of St Joseph: because that most devout man, on account of the scarcity of clearer water, without regard to the most difficult ascent and descent of the mountain, was accustomed daily to bring clearest water from it with his own hand for the use of the Sacrifice: to draw which water very many to this day, in honor of the aforesaid Saint, come in crowds, and are said to be cured of diseases through its use.

XII That for the foregoing reasons St Joseph is of old and today numbered among the chief Patrons of the Steinfeld monastery, and is venerated: as may be seen from the most ancient paintings and altar antependia and glass windows: and concerning him there is the common and certain persuasion of the religious Brothers.

XIII That the fame of his sanctity has been spread abroad not only through Germany, but also foreign nations, by the writings of sacred doctors, and commended by various authors through each century.

XIV That by various pious writers Blessed Joseph, as a holy man, has been referred to the kalendars of the Saints.

XV That the form of his sanctity has not proceeded from uncertain rumor: since indeed it is true

XVI That his life and miracles, following his death with divine grace cooperating, by a most grave man, who lived most familiarly with Joseph in regular observance, are preserved described in the most ancient Steinfeld archetype.

XVII That the aforesaid archetype has been kept in the Steinfeld archive up to these times with the greatest diligence.

XVIII That from this same archetype the Reverend Father Laurence Surius inserted the life of Blessed Herman under April 7 in the second volume of his larger edition.

XIX That this life in effect agrees with another most ancient manuscript archetype of Marchtal, of the same Order in Swabia.

XX That from that our archetype was faithfully taken that Life of Saint Joseph, which last year 1627 came forth into the light by the work of the Reverend Father Friar Chrysostom vander Sterre.

CHAPTER III.

Ocular inspection of the tomb and other monuments.

[9] After these articles, the aforementioned Syndic exhibited the following directory, alleging that he justified article V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, XII by ocular inspection: to which to be taken he pointed out the Steinfeld monastery, most celebrated and most flourishing in the Eifel, In the Steinfeld monastery, situated seven German miles from Cologne Agrippina, most conveniently fitted for regular discipline: asking us to inspect it, and to refer its quality and state to the protocol. When we had accurately and studiously surveyed it, we found it, in a place chosen in the famous forest of Ardennes, celebrated in the writings of many, though of sterile and rocky soil, yet fitted for Religion and the retreats of Religious, magnificently and splendidly built up already for many years, reduced into the true form of a monastery; and under the very Reverend Father and most religious man, Lord Christopher Pilckman, a most excellent Prelate in gravity of morals, zeal of the Order, and sincere piety toward God, today to flourish greatly in observance of the Rules, discipline, and doctrine.

[10] with a distinguished church, Then the Syndic showed the church, adjoining the aforementioned monastery, elegantly and magnificently built in the form of a cross, which twenty altars illuminated, and among others the sacred remains of St Potentinus, Martyr and son of the Duke of Aquitaine, kept in the highest altar with the greatest honor and reverence, rendered most illustrious and most distinguished. Wherefore in the presence of the above-mentioned

ecclesiastical Notaries and two trustworthy witnesses specially called for this, John Nicolai and Adam Pfaltz, on Wednesday, the last of May, we entered the basilica of the Virgin Mary Mother of God, is the tomb of St Joseph, august in its magnitude, splendor, and ornaments: whose choir, separated from the very nave by an apse or doxal and by iron lattices, bore before itself an outstanding appearance and form of divine cult and honor. Between the very columns, at the head or beginning of the nave, toward the choir, we saw a tomb of ancient work, elevated from the ground four feet more or less, adorned with paintings of the Apostles and other Saints, vested and fortified with iron lattices somewhat prominent above the tomb itself: in which the sacred Relics of St Herman were said to rest by the Lord Abbot and Brothers of the aforementioned monastery.

[11] and has joined to it his altar: The same tomb was about two and a half feet wide, six long: whose feet looked toward the choir; but its head touched the altar standing over it, consecrated in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Blessed Apostles Peter, Andrew, and Matthias, and of the Holy Pontiff Martyrs Dionysius and Nicasius, and of the Blessed Virgin Catherine. And that altar, on account of some singular fame of sanctity, was commonly named "of St Joseph," and was so arranged that it lay open to the view of all the Christian faithful people. with the effigy of the Blessed one, On the doors of the same altar, besides the pictures of the aforementioned Saints, the effigy of this Blessed Joseph had also been placed, in the habit of the Premonstratensians, with splendor and rays around his head, bearing a book in the left hand, a golden chalice with three roses in the right. At the foot of the tomb or holy sepulcher a brazen lamp, and with a lamp burning before it: set in the middle of two most ancient candelabra, elevated from the ground more or less fourteen feet, burned continually with no small devotion of the people.

[12] The body itself was most honorably kept in a chest, carved from wood and inserted into the elevated monument. in this tomb are decently laid the bones, The head, inclined on a pillow, and in its upper part wrapped around with gold embroidery, a likewise honorific crown of the same material adorned. Into the hollows of the eyes crystal balls had been inserted. The rest of the body, wrapped in a shroud painted with needlework with outstanding cleanliness, was at rest: and indeed all and each of the bones (a few excepted which were missing) were sewn on every side to the most clean cloth, they are seen through a glass window, and thus connected and bound to each other, that they most beautifully represented a skeleton of a human body. These, however, were all covered with a white and transparent cloth, which a window of translucent glass enclosed: above which an iron grating, through its lattices, afforded to those looking at the said glass window sufficiently convenient view of the sacred bones themselves. Above this glass window lay several hundred coins and many other things, which seemed to have been heaped up for the cult and honor of the oft-mentioned St Joseph by the offerings of pious men: among others were found certain needles, which, as the Sacristan reported, devout women were wont to offer with great confidence of soul; and others, and above this among the gifts many needles. which had lain there for some time, they were wont to take away, to fasten their headdresses with, trusting in the Lord that they were carrying away a most present remedy and undoubted medicine against pains of the head, pains of the breasts, and other diseases of their body.

[13] In the very wooden cover of the tomb. Moreover, lest any fraud or least irreverence could be inflicted on these holy Relics, the glass window was still closed with a peculiar lock: and the iron grating was covered with a wooden board, which, fortified below with hinges and above with a lock, protected the whole sepulcher itself from every injury of the malevolent. Further, on this board could be seen painted the image of a Priest, in a chasuble of green color, bearing in his hand a chalice, from which three roses projected: whose head was tonsured in the manner of a Premonstratensian Religious, and around it splendors and rays, Joseph is painted with the title of Blessed: wont to be painted on the icons of the Saints, with this inscription, "Beatus Joseph." From the shapes of the letters and from the whole painting above, a certain most beautiful antiquity sufficiently appeared. There was seen also in the middle of this board, as it were at the breast of the Saint, a slit, fitted for the casting in of the offerings of the faithful.

[14] The columns, between which the altar, overhanging the tomb of the Saint, had been placed, near and among statues of Saints, supported on one side the tabernacle, in which formerly the venerable Sacrament of the most august Body of Christ was accustomed to be kept; and on the other the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, bearing the little child Jesus in her arms. Near this, on the same right side on the second column, was seen joined the statue of the aforementioned Blessed Joseph, in the Premonstratensian habit with a gilded chalice: to whom was set opposite St Potentinus the Patron of this church: in which statues, the statue of the Blessed is shown, which match the just length and stature of a man, antiquity itself and old age were likewise openly shown. And these statues were arranged to the said columns in such a way that the Divine Virgin was set opposite the tabernacle of the Venerable Sacrament, and Saint Joseph opposite St Potentinus, in a certain beautiful order. Opposite the burial of Blessed Joseph there hung on the left side, under the vault of the temple, the organ; and the image on the doors of the organ, and on one of the doors covering it was depicted the image of the Blessed Mary, extending her hand with a cheerful countenance to St Herman kneeling, with Angels assisting on this side and that. and also embroidered on the altar cloths. There was also shown to us, before the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which the sacred Office of Mass was said to be read each day, a certain antependium, embroidered with gold and silk threads, in which Blessed Joseph with a lily-bearing chalice and Blessed Potentinus, as Patrons of this church, were represented with outstanding work: as also nearly the same things were accurately shown us to the eye in a certain other antependium for the greatest solemnities of the high altar (both of which, as was noted from the inscriptions, had been made from the offerings of Christian faithful and pious men).

[15] likewise on the panels, After these things then, having been led to the sacristy, we saw there two panels of the ornaments of the church: one of which, most ancient, was once the wing of the high altar; now however is almost corrupted and worn with decay: the other made in the year 1468: on which, among the other images of many Saints, the icons also of Saint Herman, in the Premonstratensian habit, painted with most ancient labor, could still be seen and best recognized: and on the windows: just as not dissimilarly they were represented and shown to us on the windows of the chapter house and cloister, placed around the year of the Lord about 1527 and 1530.

[16] While we were surveying these things, about the eighth hour of the morning, according to the aforesaid faithful narration, in the aforesaid manner faithfully and most maturely; with the greatest joy of soul and inmost commotion of the heart, we saw from various parishes the Christian faithful people, together with their Pastors, crosses, banners, and signs of our Savior, the throngs and devotion of pilgrims at the tomb. visiting the aforementioned church with the greatest devotion, alacrity and piety; singing canticles and pious rhythms, composed in honor of the Saint, with sonorous voices; at the sacred tomb of St Joseph, in great number, according to pious custom, kneeling and honoring him with the highest cult, pouring forth most ardent prayers to God; bringing also coins, eggs, and many other things to the sacred Relics; devoutly inserting rosaries around the head and bones of the same Saint, through the lattices and the open little glass window. When these things had been done, all and each attended the high Mass (which on that day, as also from immemorial time, was sung at the aforementioned altar, contiguous and adjacent to the holy tomb) and also the sermon, with the same devotion of soul, cult, reverence, and attention, for their singular piety and affection toward God, the Mother of God, and St Joseph of Steinfeld.

CHAPTER IV.

Testimonies of the Eifel Pastors.

[17] 10 Pastors admitted to examination, Subsequently the Syndic for the verification of articles I, II, III, IV, as also VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII, named as witnesses the venerable and erudite men, I Jacob Steigius, Pastor in Gartzheim; II John Mey, Pastor in the valley of Blankenheim; III Laurence, Pastor in Smidheim; IV Matthias Alffensis, Pastor in Zinsheim; V Adam Bisius, Pastor in Mulheim; VI Dionysius Molitor, Pastor in the village of Blankenheim; VII John Panhausen, Pastor in Kildenich; VIII Peter Bollich, Pastor in Dottelen; IX Anthony Panhausen, Parochus in Commeren; X Matthias Helmich, Pastor in Malmach: asking, saving further nomination, the same to be admitted, examined circumstantially on the proposed articles on the cause of their knowledge, and the depositions to be referred to the protocol. Accordingly we commissioned the citation of the named Witnesses to the Venerable Paul Haussemius, Notary of this sacred business: who, the mentioned Pastors being conjunctly present in the cloister of the Steinfeld monastery, showed them the above-placed commission, expounded its contents; and in virtue of it, cited them by living voice to tell the truth concerning the fame of the sanctity and miracles of St Herman: who all and each, having seen the commission, declared themselves prompt and ready. having taken the oath they testify, After, therefore, we had most diligently admonished them, constituted before us, concerning telling the truth; we received from them the bodily oath, given in the customary form: and with a most exact examination preceding, finding none of them induced to witness or give testimony by prayer, price, or favor (as all and each freely affirmed), nor bound by ecclesiastical censures, or otherwise in any way unsuitable; about the ninth hour of the morning, at the Syndic's instance, entering the chapter house, we examined the following Pastors individually with the greatest zeal and accuracy on the articles exhibited; and we caused the responses to be diligently noted down by the aforementioned Notaries assumed.

[18] That the first 12 articles are true, The first witness, Venerable Jacob Steigius, 52 years old, parish priest in Gartzheim, believes the contents of the first article to be entirely true on the public testimony of fame, and asserts that they were related to him in boyhood by his teachers, and afterwards by trustworthy men. He likewise believes the second: except that he has not heard that the Saint pointed out the place of his burial. He believes the third likewise to be true; alleging for the causes of his knowledge the same things as for the first. To the fourth he responds affirmatively, adding that the wife of the Steinfeld Prefect, his kinswoman, a few years before deceased, and especially pain of the eyes cured, was afflicted with most grave and intolerable pain of the eyes; she however made a vow to this Saint, and that vow being discharged, or the offering having been made and returned at the same sacred Relics, within a very short space of time, by the suffrages of the said Saint, she was restored to her former health: and that she often related this to him. Moreover he deposes that it is the common fame and voice of the people through this country, that by the merit of this Saint and his intercession with God, those who fall into ill health of the eyes, emerge from it and are healed: and that he has understood from various persons, that various languid persons and those subject to evils, by the prayers of this Saint and at his memory, have been healed. The fifth he says to be true: he says also that the ecclesiastical Lords Visitors have visited

and venerated his sacred monument. Articles VI, VII, VIII, IX he says are true, as appears from ocular inspection. The tenth he says to be true and notorious, adding that formerly, in peaceful and undisturbed years and times, seventy-two parishes (as he says was related to him) religiously visited the tomb of this Saint: but at this time fewer flow together, since wars plague the region. To the eleventh and twelfth he responded affirmatively.

[19] Witness II, responding in like manner to each (which there is no need here to repeat, where substantially the same things are said), affirms article X to be true, adding that he has sometimes made vows to this Saint, as he has heard his elders did: that a hymn in praise of the Saint is also sung by the faithful, and taught by the Pastors in catechetical instruction. Witness III, about 70 years old, responded to the first that 38 years ago, at the beginning of his pastorate, he asked of his parishioners why a procession is instituted in Steinfeld the day before the Lord's Ascension; the elders answered that it was formerly instituted on account of a certain Saint, called Joseph, buried there, and up to now continued. To the fourth he has heard from the most noble temporal Lord in Schmidheim, who died piously in 1603, an octogenarian, that by the intercession of St Joseph many sick have been cured. To the tenth he affirms that he has seen that about forty parishes have come to Steinfeld: that some of them make a journey of about four hours: that he has every year visited the Saint with his parishioners on this day. Witness IV deposed nothing particular, but only affirmed each article, as the prior ones. Witness V heard in particular from a certain William Sutorius, and of the head, a man of about a hundred years still living, that he had labored with most grave pain of the head and extreme vertigo: and having made a vow to visit the Relics of this Saint, after prayers poured out and divine service heard at the altar next to the tomb of St Joseph, he was miraculously healed.

[20] Witness VI believes article II from the canticle of St Joseph, which is commonly sung in these parts, and a woman dangerously laboring in childbirth was helped, and which among other things has it that St Joseph pointed out his tomb. Articles III and IV he believes to be true, adding for the cause of his knowledge, that a certain Catherine, wife of Eberhard Schloëmens the villager, his parishioner, had various times unhappily given birth, and had related to him, the witness, that after a vow made at the tomb of St Joseph, and Mass heard there, she more happily brought the child forth into the light. This same woman, however, in February 1628, when again she was carrying a child in her womb, approached him, the deponent, and asked that he celebrate the sacred office of Mass under the honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the parish church for her; because on account of the soldiers she could not visit St Joseph, whose tomb for the discharge of her vow she said she would certainly visit at the first opportunity: and afterwards she happily gave birth. Witness VII, affirming articles III and IV, adds that he has understood that from Marmagen and neighboring places pregnant women have made vows to St Joseph. To X he says that for thirteen continuous years he has visited the Relics of St Joseph in Steinfeld processionally: and that on the second day of Easter, without banners and signs of the holy Cross, he is wont to betake himself with certain of his neighbors to Steinfeld. Witnesses VIII, IX, X affirmed the same things as the others in general, but in particular deposed nothing that deserves to be noted here.

[21] the fountain called St Joseph's is inspected. These witnesses having been thus examined, and their responses ordered to be referred to the protocol; the Syndic on the same last of May urgently asked that an ocular inspection be instituted of the little fountain named in article XI, as we judged the same ought to be instituted. Straightway therefore being led to it, situated not far from the monastery, we found and saw with our eyes, that it flows forth and proceeds from a certain rocky and precipitous mountain. This little fountain, however, by the common and constant custom and name of all the natives, is called "of Blessed Joseph," and still retains that appellation, on account of a certain singular fame of the man's sanctity. Because the blessed man, when he often acted as sacristan of the Steinfeld church, is believed to have daily carried water from this fountain, on account of its most limpid purity: because he deemed that none but the purest water ought to be applied to the sacrifices, such as the said little fountain even now (as we saw with our eyes) gushes forth.

CHAPTER V.

Depositions of other witnesses heard at Steinfeld.

[22] New witnesses produced, On the following day, which was the first of July recte June, on account of the celebrated festival of the Lord's Ascension, this business of inquiry was laid aside. Therefore on the second of June, as we continued the office committed to us, the Syndic further named as witnesses on articles I, III, IV, X and XII, the very Reverend Lord Hubert of Casteren, Dean of the Collegiate church of the Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria in the metropolis of the Eifel, witness XI; XII the Reverend and most learned Lord William Elsich, Canon there; likewise the honest men, William Schoumaker, witness XIII; XIV Matthias Urfft; XV Peter of Urfft; XVI Hubert Roëst, Sheriff in Schleiden; XVII Anno Haës, Sheriff in Rhen; XVIII Anthony Becker; XIX Peter Latz; XX the noble and virtuous Lady, Sibyl Kintzweiler, widow of the noble and knightly man Peter de Crummel: asking that citation be decreed against them, as we decreed the same and caused it to be insinuated.

[23] they testify to the throngs of pilgrims, These appearing on the same day in the chapter house, Witness XI to X says that very many from all sides, not only Canons and farmers of the Steinfeld region, but also Magnates and Counts dwelling round about, have visited the tomb of St Joseph; that several parishes have instituted a pilgrimage to St Joseph at Steinfeld on the day before the Lord's Ascension; that the memory of the institution of the procession does not exist; that fame reports that formerly seventy villages flowed together to visit the sacred relics of St Joseph; that he has sometimes seen twenty parishes on one day at the Steinfeld church. of the help customarily hoped for by the sterile, Witness XII, of the age of 60 years, Chaplain of the Duke of Arschot, Prince in Aremberg, to X says it is altogether true, as he has often seen, and that it is the common confidence among sterile women, that by the visitation of this Saint they obtain fecundity.

[24] Witness XIII, dwelling in Mulheim, 96 years of age, Sheriff in Blankenheim and Erberich; who, though he leaned upon a staff, was altogether of sound mind, endowed with speech and good judgment; of the most ancient cult of Blessed Joseph, says that he heard from his septuagenarian father and many others long since deceased, that in Steinfeld St Potentinus the Martyr and St Joseph the Confessor are venerated with a peculiar cult. In particular of his own person he deposed, that about forty years ago he labored with grave vertigo and indisposition of the brain, so that he could in no way perform his business and works: and therefore on account of the fame of the miracles, of vertigo cured by him, which by men are plainly wont to be obtained in visitation of the tomb of St Joseph, he also was moved, from the village of Mulheim, three hours distance from Steinfeld, to visit the tomb of Blessed Joseph: and by offerings there made according to his small means and prayers poured forth, to have obtained perfect health, without any human remedy; nor from that time up to this his extreme old age has he felt a similar disease. Witness XIV, 67 years old, of the offering of eggs for ulcers and swellings, in particular knows that eggs are wont to be offered by the ulcerous at the tomb of Blessed Joseph: who after God, trusting in this Saint, recover health, as he knew various who were healed, though now deceased. He had a mother, grandfather, and grandmother who were centenarians, from whom he understood, that St Joseph was held by them and their elders as a holy man: and that many languid and sick, girding themselves with the girdle of this holy man, by vow were restored to health.

[25] of the healthfulness of the fountain, Witness XV, a nonagenarian, adds that he heard these same things about 80 years ago from his grandmother, who had passed 100 years of age, and who had understood the same things from her centenarian mother: and that many, despaired of as to their health, were wont to drink water from the said fountain of Blessed Joseph; and several of them, as he heard, by taking the same recovered health. Witness XVI says that he has frequently seen pilgrims, among whom were Magnates and Counts, visit the sacred remains of St Joseph: and that he himself, when in former years he dwelt near the Steinfeld monastery, saw the temple opened, even outside the times of solemn processions (about which the above-mentioned witnesses deposed) and the relics of St Joseph shown, and offerings made with the hope of having some consolation. Witness XVII saw, among other gifts, that eggs were offered, for curing unnatural swellings. Witness XVIII says, of a remedy obtained by the deaf, that he formerly suffered whispering and noise in the head, and with confidence of obtaining health came to the relics of St Joseph, and by offerings made and prayers poured out, without any other remedy recovered his health. A certain old man, Bernard Brower, dwelling in the village of Rohën, had also related to him, that when he had suffered similar things and for the sake of obtaining a remedy had betaken himself in pilgrimage to the tomb of St Joseph, as soon as he reached the walls of the Steinfeld monastery, he was cured and made whole: and that the same old man entered the temple, discharged his vows to God and the Saint, and is still living to this very hour. Which same witness, being sent by us Commissaries to bring the said Bernard, having returned from him, reported that the man, a centenarian, is so weak and of so little breath, that he could not come hither to the place of the monastery: but lest the truth should be hidden, he deposed to him, the witness, and to another co-witness, the said John Zimmermam, with constant judgment and speech, the same things as above.

[26] Witness XIX deposes that he twice labored with most grave fevers unto death, of a dying man healed, and was fortified with all the Sacraments of the Church, nor could he any longer drink or bear wine, beer, or anything else: but being thus despairing, the memory of the well of St Joseph fell upon him, and with all dissuading, he commanded water to be brought to him from it, and drank it with singular comfort, and so gradually was strengthened and restored to his former health: plainly and through all, as he judges, by the merits and intercession of St Joseph and by the use of that water. Nicholas Sleght besides, Praetor in Margamen, Urfft, and Walen,

testified that it is the public and constant fame that many by the intercession of the said Saint have recovered health; in particular he named the wife of the Quaestor in Dollendorff, of the generous and illustrious Lord Count of Manderscheidt, Keil and Dollendorff: who having suffered the greatest difficulty in childbirth, and having borne several dead children, at length by a vow made for the visitation of the Relics of St Joseph, gave birth alive without trouble and danger, and afterwards, a Mass being procured at the altar of St Joseph, she testified to the benefit, by the intercession

of this Saint, conferred on herself.

[27] Witness XX deposed on the faith of a noble matron, that she, some years ago, of a womanly infirmity suddenly cured. while her husband was still living, was laboring with a grave disease proper to the female sex, and was moved by the common fame of the miracles to a singular devotion toward St Joseph, and, prostrating herself before the image of the Crucified in her house, besought the divine help and the intercession of Blessed Joseph with most earnest prayers, and chose the said Blessed Joseph as her singular Patron, and firmly proposed to visit his tomb at Steinfeld. Nevertheless, looking also to human remedies, having mounted a carriage, she set out together with her husband to the most Illustrious Lady Countess of Blankenheim, for the sake of getting a remedy; but on the way she became so gravely ill that she had to be placed from the carriage onto cushions laid on the ground: yet immediately she recovered in so wondrous a manner, that having mounted the carriage again, and arrived at the Lady Countess, she was ashamed that she should have to complain of sickness: and could hardly grasp by what reason she had been so suddenly restored to health from this grave infirmity. Nor could she think otherwise, and firmly believed, that this same had happened at the prayers poured forth to God and Blessed Joseph. Whence also she was moved to visit his tomb at Steinfeld, and to offer vows and prayers there. And from that time, if at any time she chanced to be tried by a similar disease, she always has recourse to the tomb of this Saint, and with prayers poured forth and an offering made, with the disease vanishing, she returns healed. Maria, the handmaid of the same young lady, who had served her at the time of this infirmity and recovered health, affirmed the foregoing deposition to be true.

[28] This examination being finished, the Syndic protested, that all the land of the Eifel can testify to the antiquity and notoriety of the fame of the sanctity of the oft-mentioned Joseph: End of this examination. which would easily and willingly attest to the benefits conferred upon it by the intercession of this Saint. But lest the case should be drawn out more widely than seems necessary, he esteems, from the testimonies of the Pastors and Judges, who speak as for the whole community, the fame of sanctity and miracles sufficiently proved, and that further nomination of witnesses is not necessary in this place: reserving nevertheless to himself, at Cologne and other more remote places, the further production of witnesses, insofar as there is need.

CHAPTER VI.

Examination instituted at Cologne.

[29] Moreover on the ninth of the month of June the aforementioned Syndic, appearing before us John Gelenius, Vicar general and Commissary in this cause, in the sacristy of the metropolitan church of Cologne, for the purpose of showing that the fame of the sanctity and miracles of Blessed Herman called Joseph has been diffused not only through the Eifel, but far and wide through Germany, further named on articles I, II, III, IV and X the following witnesses, asking that citation be decreed against the same, etc. First of all he named the very reverend, excellent, and most magnificent man and Lord Severinus Binius, Doctor of sacred Theology, Rector of the University of Cologne, Priest Canon chapter of the Metropolitan church of Cologne, Rector of the dear University of the general Study of Cologne. II The most Reverend in Christ Father and Lord, Chorepiscopus, Otto Gereon de Gutmannis of Sobernheim, Bishop of Cyrene, Doctor of sacred Theology, Vicar general and Counselor in Pontificals of your most Serene Highness, Provost, Dean, and Priest Canon Capitular respectively of the Metropolitan and Archidiaconal Collegiate churches of the Blessed Virgin Mary ad gradus of Cologne, and of St Martin of Emmerich, Archdeacon of Utrecht, Dortmund, and Hamm. III The most Reverend man and Lord John Cholinus, Provost, Doctor of sacred Theology, Provost and Priest Canon Capitular respectively of the Metropolitan church of Cologne and of the Churches of the Holy Castus and Florentius of Bonn, intimate Counselor of the aforementioned your Highness. IV The very reverend and excellent man and Lord Henry Francken Sierstorffius, Doctor of sacred Theology, various Canons, Priest Canon Capitular of the Metropolitan church, most vigilant Regent of the Laurentian Gymnasium. V The very reverend and excellent man, Lord Leonard Marius, Doctor of sacred Theology and most profound Professor, Pastor at St Laurence's parish church, and Canon of the Collegiate church of St Ursula of Cologne, Dean of the Theological Faculty. VI The very reverend, most distinguished, and most consulted man, Lord Adolph a Pempelfurt, Licentiate of both Laws, Dean and Canon respectively of the Collegiate churches of St Mary ad gradus and St George of Cologne, and some Religious, Keeper of the great Seal of your Highness. VII The reverend and most learned man, Father Philip Sebius, Priest of the Society of Jesus. VIII The reverend and religious Father George Garnefeldt, Priest and Librarian of the Carthusian house of Cologne. IX Reverend Father Chrysanthus Bartzweiler, Vicar of the same Carthusian house. X The distinguished and most illustrious man, Lord Herman Mylius, Citizen and Senator of the renowned Republic of Cologne.

[30] We omit the depositions and attestations of each, because they contain nothing singular beyond the testimonies of the Martyrologies produced in the previous Commentary: they testify to the fame of sanctity, it is enough here to mention one Father Garnefeldt, who testified that the fame of the sanctity of this oft-named St Joseph has been sufficiently celebrated among the Carthusian Fathers already for a hundred years, as he knew, and that he, sufficiently and maturely instructed on this matter, believed, that the Reverend Father Laurence Surius, a man of the greatest judgment, most copious reading, and in historical matters as most versed so also most accurate, would not have inserted the Life of this holy man into his books, unless he had held the most known constant fame of his sanctity. Moreover, there are kept among the same Carthusian Fathers, among the other Relics of Confessors, the Relics of Blessed Herman, called Joseph, and to the Relics kept among the Carthusians: a Religious of Steinfeld, as the said Father Garnefeldt showed and demonstrated from the ordinary catalog of Relics, publicly read each year in the named Charterhouse. So also the same Father testified, that twenty years ago in this Carthusian house of Cologne, a certain man of the best fame and most observant religious life, of about seventy years, Father Marius de Mirich by name, piously died: who by a certain singular affection of piety, on account of the constant and perpetual rumor of sanctity, was always accustomed to cultivate and venerate this St Herman, and to speak piously and holily of him. Shown to us also by the same Father Garnefeldt was a reliquary, in which were most honorably preserved with religious cult the Relics of St Clement Pope and Martyr, of St Ursula and many other Martyrs and Confessors: and inspecting it more accurately, we found attached to it a paper with this tenor of words nearly: "Of holy memory Brother Herman, otherwise Joseph, Canon of Steinfeld, famous for miracles: who was born at Cologne: died however in holy old age, in the year of the Lord 1226 on the 4th day of the month of April in the Premonstratensian Order." This paper was written by the Reverend Father Nicholas Messenich, a most trustworthy man, about twenty-seven years ago Sacristan of the Charterhouse of Cologne, now Prior of the Charterhouse of Dulnamien in Westphalia, as the same Father Garnefeldt faithfully reported. This same paper had been placed next to a certain part of a human body or little bone, taken from the spine of the back.

[31] authors are produced who wrote of Herman as a Saint, On the 27th of the month of June Lord Licentiate Fabens, Syndic of the Lord Abbot, appeared before us John Schwan, and further showing concerning the fame of sanctity and miracles of Blessed Joseph, exhibited a humble brief under the tenor of words as below. We omit this: because it contains nearly the same things which have been deduced above, treating of authors attesting to Joseph's sanctity, who are known even from the articles proposed for examination. The aforesaid Syndic likewise brought forth attestations of the Illustrious and Generous Charles Count in Manderscheidt, Blankenheim, and Geroltstein, Lord in Cronenburgh, attestations of two Counts, Bettingen, and Dhaun, Knight of the Holy Roman Empire, and deputed Duke of war by his sacred Imperial Majesty, with Anna Salome, Countess and Lady of the same dominions, born Countess in Manderscheidt and Russy, giving faith to the constant and celebrated cult of Blessed Herman: and of Count Ernest de Marcka and Schleida, Baron in Lummey and Serein, Lord in Karpen and Saffenburgh, hereditary Prefect of the Marquisate of Franchimont: whose letters there is no need here to give in Latin from German. Finally the Syndic exhibited two most ancient books, and ancient codices on his life. of which the first contained a dialogue on the Life of Blessed Joseph, Canon of Steinfeld, with an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the frontispiece, next to which was painted Blessed Joseph, offering the little child Jesus to the Blessed Virgin: and had been printed a hundred years before: to which joined in the same binding was another Life of the same holy man, composed in verse in the year 1358. The other, however, had been written on parchment by a contemporary of St Herman, about the life of the same: of which we also transmitted to your Highness an authentic copy registered with the Acts... From all which the said Syndic esteems the fame of sanctity and miracles of the blessed man sufficiently proved, submitting himself upon it to the judgment of the holy Apostolic See.

[32] The process is offered to the Archbishop. These are the public Acts, most Serene and Most Clement Prince, which, by virtue of the commission made to us by your most Serene Highness, with diligent examination preceding, zealous inquiry made, and whole faith applied, through most trustworthy Notaries, specially assumed for this sacred business, we have caused to be registered and described, and we offer and transmit to your most Serene Highness, with all and due devotion of soul, with prayer for a most long and prosperous reign: and in faith of all and each, we have together with the Notaries subscribed the same, and caused them to be fortified with our seals. Given at Cologne of the Ubii, on the third day of July, in the year of the Virgin birth 1628.

[33] Add to this, that before the Translation of the body, made in the year 1509, on the feast of St Heribert, by John, then Abbot of the Steinfeld monastery, both the tomb and the altar of St Joseph were in veneration: concerning which, renewed by the command of the said Abbot, A multitude of offerings to the tomb, mention is made in the Lives and Accounts of the Steinfeld Abbots for the aforesaid year: from which, begun from the year 1492, it is also had, what was taken from the tomb of the Saint and transferred to the treasury in each year thereafter: namely in the aforenamed year 282 Marks, three shillings: as D. Norbert, Abbot of Steinfeld, collects these up to the year 1541, and we received them after the transcript of this Process was described. Where also, from booklets printed at Cologne concerning the solemn Processions instituted there, in the year 1639 at the time of the Jubilee, on the 29th of June; and in the year 1644 on the 29th of September, it is had; The Body carried around in procession. first indeed that the Body of St Herman called Joseph, son of Cologne, and great friend of the most blessed Virgin Mary, was carried around in the fourteenth place. Secondly, that the Abbot of Steinfeld wrote in these words, in the year noted above, on November 6, at the instance of the Reverend Fathers Franciscans of the Observance at Olivas, with me Brother Norbert Horichem, Abbot of Steinfeld, permitting, and the noble Lady Virgin de Bolant adorning the tomb, was carried around in solemn procession

the sacred body of St Herman Joseph, most chaste Canon of Steinfeld, and greatest cultor of the Mother of God: which, carried out from the chapel of Sts Norbert and Herman Joseph, with flame-bearers accompanying, was carried back to it when the procession was finished. Finally, most recently in the year 1666, there came to the Seminary of St Norbert in Cologne the very Reverend Father Wiex, Veneration promoted even to Austria. at that time Subprior and Master of novices among the Discalced Fathers of Cologne, the brother german of the generous Baron de Wiex, supreme Prefect of the hunts at the most Serene Elector and Archbishop of Cologne; bringing to us three imperials from Vienna in Austria, sent hither by a certain noble matron well known to the aforementioned Father, and to be conveyed to Steinfeld to the tomb of Blessed Herman Joseph, by whose merits and suffrages she said, after having ardently invoked him, she had most recently been freed from a certain special necessity. Whence it is clear that the cult of this Saint flourishes even in more remote regions, as the same Father knew how to confirm by several examples. I testify by the subscription of my own hand that it was so done, at Cologne on November 2, 1668.

Brother Theodore Firminich, President of the Seminary.

APPENDIX.

Concerning the Relics of Blessed Herman brought to Antwerp and solemnly exposed in the year 1683.

Herman Joseph, of the Premonstratensian Order, at Steinfeld in Germany (B.)

[34] The exile laid upon the Premonstratensian Virgins from the city of Breda, The monastery of the Premonstratensian Virgins at Antwerp, which the malice of non-Catholic magistrates had led them to for the increase of their miseries, divine clemency turned into an outstanding advantage and ornament of the Order itself and of our city of Antwerp. For, driven into the suburb of Oosterhout, as they considered that they would not rest there any longer than the heretical lords should please; they sent a few chosen from their number to Antwerp; whom the Abbot of the church of St Michael, Norbert van Cauwerven, received with fatherly affection, and fostered in hope of once again restoring there the community of Premonstratensian holy women, such as once existed in this city, as has been shown before the Acts of St Juliana of Cornelius, number 9, on April 5, and that five hundred years ago, much earlier indeed than any other monastery of sacred Virgins was had among us. Meanwhile, by the favor of the Prince of Orange, the Oosterhout exiles were recalled to Breda, and sent as Prioress to the Antwerp colony Lady Christine Crills with Catherine Snyders Subprioress: under whom, when she had obtained the supreme administration by the death of the already named Prioress, restored by reinstatement, the fledgling plantation, increased by several more heads, grew into a monastery of most select Virgins, inferior in number, cult, and discipline to none of the Antwerp Virgins' houses: to which finally in this year 1673, by the favor of the most Excellent Count de Monterey, Governor of the Belgian provinces for the Catholic King, with his most pious wife striving, was added the strength of a Royal Privilege, confirming the possession of the ground acquired for the monastery, temple, and garden, and transferring it to the so-called mortmain. Henceforth it continues to be augmented with daily increments, and refers its so happy successes as received, either solely or chiefly, to the most worthy Abbots of the cloister of St Michael, of whom Macarius Simeomo, promoting the undertakings of his above-named predecessor, A Relic of the Blessed one adorns it, both protected and adorned the virginal assembly in many other ways, and provided for it with the tutelage of sacred Relics; among other incitements of public and private devotion, communicating to it a not least part of the body of Blessed Herman, which long ago, at frequent and devout instance, the Abbot of Steinfeld had given to the Abbot and Brothers at Antwerp professed of the Premonstratensian Order, trusting that by this the cult of that holy Brother would be increased, fraternal love toward one another promoted, and mutual prayers could be helped.

[35] That the usefulness of this good might diffuse itself more widely, there was need of Episcopal recognition and approbation, which on March 16, 1673, the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Brother Ambrose Capello, by grace of God and the Apostolic See Bishop of Antwerp, dispatched under this tenor: communicated from the Abbot of St Michael, "Whereas the honors paid to the Saints redound to the glory of Almighty God and the utility of the whole Church; we rightly judge that those things which conduce to the amplification of their cult must be promoted by us with singular zeal. Since, therefore, on the part of the most worthy Lord Macarius Simeomo, Abbot of St Michael's of the Premonstratensian Order in this city, there had been exhibited to us a certain part of the spine of the back of Blessed Herman called Joseph, Canon of the Premonstratensian Order of Steinfeld, transmitted hither by the most worthy Lord Christopher Pilckman, Abbot of Steinfeld, and given as a gift to the aforesaid Abbey of St Michael (as the letters of donation, given on the 9th of August 1622, and approved by the Bishop; fortified with the authentic seal and signature of the said Lord Abbot, clearly testified), the same having been previously inspected, recognized and approved, at the petition of the same most worthy Lord Abbot of St Michael we divided it into two parts, and fortified each with our smaller seal impressed in Spanish wax. One of these the said Lord Abbot, by his singular affection of devotion toward Blessed Herman and the candor of a liberal soul, gave as a gift to the monastery of the Venerable Sacrament of the Nuns of the same Premonstratensian Order in this city. Having this pious donation as ratified and pleasing, we commanded it to be referred in our registers; and the aforesaid particle donated and fortified with our Episcopal seal as above, we newly inspected, recognized, and by our ordinary authority approved, and as true and legal relics of the said Blessed Herman Joseph, for the greater cult and glory of the same, in the church of the monastery of the Venerable Sacrament aforesaid and in our whole diocese we permitted them to be exposed to the public devotion of Christ's faithful."

[36] It is exposed on September 11, 1673 For this solemn exposition the day chosen was September 11, which was begun from the first Vespers, with the excellent harmony of musicians, with Reverend Lord Herman Joseph vander Poorten, Provost of the same monastery, intoning the Ambrosian Hymn; and Reverend Father Philip de Mesemacre, of the Order of Minims, speaking to a frequent assembly of the people, on the praises and fitting cult of the Saint. The night, which somewhat interrupted the begun festivity, seemed longer to the piety of the faithful; and many anticipated the sunrise by some hours, demanding that the door of the church be opened to them, that they might be first in honoring that sacred pledge. Nor did lesser fervor shine through the whole remaining day and the following Octave, whether under the sacrifice of the Mass, both read privately by the Mystes of the Saint succeeding each other in order, and sung publicly by the very Abbot of St Michael in Pontifical vestments; or under other parts of the divine Office, interspersed with fitting and apt discourse, by outstanding orators from every body of the Religious, contending in pious emulation in exalting the Saint.

[37] To these things, in which chiefly the sacred cult is contained, there had been added a most magnificent apparatus of arches, with great apparatus: trees, and statues, representing various Saints of the Order, partly on the public road before the monastery, partly in the court open before the temple. The ornament of the temple itself was by far the most magnificent, for the altar rose up in the appearance of a silver mount, with gold and silver reliquaries of various illustrious Saints, arranged in the form of a spacious circle, so that the center of the circle was occupied by a silver chest, containing the relic of Blessed Herman, and terminating in a most splendid cross of the same metal. After, however, the said chest had been taken down from the altar at the end of the octave, then the Relic itself, to be placed where it could always be seen and honored, was taken out of the above-said urn, and placed within another work of silver, elaborated into the form of the sun, and precious with gems and diamonds, which a chorus of gilded Angels surrounds, so that the diameter of the work fills three feet; and a crystal in the middle of the boss protects the Relic itself. To this whole work (for which the industry of sculptors elaborated a suitable receptacle between the altar and the preacher's pulpit, in the side wall) where it now is honored in a beautiful reliquary, a mirror-glass of similarly spherical form is placed before, so that the sight, penetrating through the crystals themselves, may be more devoutly fixed on the sacred pledge, and the gaze of the Saint, as I may say, present, may excite and augment the hope of the prayer being heard. Nor indeed was that vain for very many, as can testify the offerings of silver votive gifts of every shape, which now occupy the nearer places of the said wall. And that this utility might be continual for the citizens, if the piety itself should be continued; it pleased the most Reverend of Antwerp to stimulate the same by proposing spiritual gains; and therefore forty days of Indulgences, offered to the faithful repeating the Lord's Prayer with the Angelic Salutation five times there during the aforesaid Octave, he extended to all Saturdays thereafter, by a bull signed on September 17.

[38] Furthermore, among the common joys of the devout city, how singular was the gladness of the sacred Virgins, with the fruit of devotion, congratulating themselves on being enriched with so dear a pledge, perhaps the very ones can hardly explain what they felt: nor are there wanting among the same who would wish to testify, how certain and prompt help of their new Patron they have experienced, when in their needs they had asked it confidently. But their Prelate, Lady Godefrida van Cappenberg, judging that domestic testimonies, on account of the magnitude of affection, would be subject to some suspicion; in her report which she wrote concerning the aforesaid, omitting these, preferred to collect certain external things, from those who professed a grace made upon themselves, as I shall explain in her very words, faithfully rendered into Latin; not as if presuming, before the judgment of the ecclesiastical forum, to number them among miracles; also bodily health-bringing. but to express more pointedly the confidence which they wished to signify they had placed in Blessed Herman Joseph, and their pious credulity concerning aid brought to them through him. A woman dwells near the monastery, who having her thumb dangerously infected, with danger of her life, came professing that by invoking the Saint she was suddenly healed, and offered the form of twin hands to be hung up in the temple. In like manner a certain girl, Elisabeth by name, and another woman sick at the same time with her, were suddenly healed as soon as they invoked the Saint; and therefore caused a Mass to be said, under which both, professing the grace imparted to them, were refreshed with the banquet of the Lord's Body. Finally a certain Louisa, a two-year-old girl, daughter of a certain Legate, for reasons by no means to be named, brought to the extreme danger of life; yet was kept alive, because someone of the family brought a candle to burn before the sacred relics, commending the little one to Blessed Herman: for at this done, the sick one immediately began to do better, and together with the consumption of the wax itself, the disease; this ceased to be here, that to burn.

ON BLESSED CHRISTIAN,

AT DOUAI IN FRENCH FLANDERS.

Monday of Easter.

Christian, at Douai in French Flanders (B.)

G. H.

Arnold Raiss of Douai, Canon there at the church of the Archapostle St Peter, most well-deserving in the cult and veneration of Saints, among other little works edited a Supplement to the Natales of the Saints of Belgium of John Molanus, with an illustrious tablet printed in the frontispiece: in which the Virgin Mother of God is seen among various Saints, and St Christian of Douai stands at her right hand, The image of Blessed Christian: as the subscription declares: and on April 7, after other illustrious men related, he prefixes this title: "The Monday after the Lord's Resurrection. Concerning St Christian Confessor": and then from the information of Anthony L'Espaniol,

Licentiate of sacred Theology and Parochus of St Albinus at Douai, and others, he sets forth this series of his Life and veneration.

[2] "At Douai the festivity of St Christian Confessor. The conversation of his life is altogether unknown to me; only that I have come to know from trustworthy men by report, of alms, that he was profuse to the poor. He is religiously invoked by women laboring in childbirth, likewise by those afflicted with fevers. He is thought to have been a Cleric of the church of St Albinus: patronage in childbirth and fever. therefore he is painted bearing the keys of the church in his hand. A thing indeed worthy of admiration happened in the year in which I wrote these things, namely 1622, on the 13th of March: when the roof of the temple with its very vault collapsed entirely. That the brazen chest, in which the sacred head is kept, pressed down by the great mass of rubble, the enclosed head was in no way broken. There is also a certain congregation erected in his honor, which each year on this day (for the day of his death I nowhere found) takes care to have the Office of the Common of Confessor not Pontiff sung with solemn rite. A Congregation, On the Sunday next before the Vigil of the Nativity of St John the Baptist, in the procession around the city, the bier is carried, in which his sacred remains are kept, relics carried in procession. and the chest where the sacred head. Not far from the church of St Albinus one can still see a place, which is called the garden of St Christian." Thus there.

[3] Another elogium of him Buzelinus has in book 1 of Gallo-Flandria, chapter 37, page 178, which I subjoin here. He writes thus: "To these I subjoin the Priest of blessed memory Christinus or Christian, who not a little illustrated the parish of St Albinus while he lived. Of his Acts nothing is supplied, whether this happened by the carelessness of men, or by the injury of time or fire, I hold uncertain. That his images are so painted, Clerkship in St Albinus, that they bear keys in the hand, leads some to the thought, that he was a Cleric of the Albinian house. That the people of Douai cherish no small opinion of his sanctity is gathered from this, that his body and head separately enclosed in cases, with the other holy bodies and relics of this city, are carried in the anniversary and city-wide procession; that a Confraternity has been erected in his honor, which each year the day after Easter solemnly has a Mass sung in his praise in the temple of St Albinus; that women laboring with the difficulty and pains of childbirth, Mass customarily sung in his honor, then those with fevers, implore his aid with vows and prayers. But at what time he lived, on what day and year he met his death, no monuments reveal."

[4] Besides these two elogia, in the Hierogazophylacium Belgicum of the aforementioned Raiss this reiterated memory exists: "In the parish temple of St Albinus at Douai, relics in the greater altar. of Blessed Christian of Douai Confessor, most munificent to the poor and needy. His body is seen in a gilded wooden case; his head however above the high altar in a particular vessel of metal, with beautiful ornament, is seen."

ON BLESSED URSULINA VIRGIN,

AT PARMA IN ITALY.

IN THE YEAR 1410

Ursulina Virgin, at Parma in Italy (B.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

[1] If the 14th century of the Christian era saw the Spouse of Christ the Church discolored by grave scandals and schisms, whence all good men grieved; it had also cause to rejoice, in men outstanding in sanctity, who opposed themselves as a wall for the house of God; not only men, but also virgins, most zealous for the reforming of ecclesiastical peace, and thereby most well-deserving of the whole assembly of Christ's faithful; Blessed Catherine of Siena, whose Acts we shall give illustrated on April 29; Blessed Colette, reformatress of the Order of St Clare, of whom we treated at length on March 6; and this Blessed Ursulina, who, delegated to Clement the Antipope first by Christ the Lord, then by his Vicar Boniface IX, confuted with heavenly-infused doctrine the most stubborn pertinacity of the schismatics, having previously obtained a great opinion of sanctity in Cisalpine Gaul, being famous for innumerable divine revelations.

[2] These Revelations, divided into several volumes, were preserved, in the fortieth year after the translation of the Blessed, around the year of Christ 1452, partly at Parma in the monastery of St Quintinus, to which the body of the deceased had been brought from Verona; We give a Life written by a Carthusian Prior, partly near Parma among the Carthusian Fathers; as attests the supplicating booklet then offered to the Lord Ancients of the city of Parma, for the augmenting of the cult of Blessed Ursulina. The same revelations he testifies he read all, who at the request of the Abbess of St Quintinus, Magdalen of San-Vitale, wrote the life and manners of the aforenamed Blessed in Latin and simple speech, Brother Simon of Zanachis, of Parma by origin, but Prior of the House of Sts Mary and Jerome of Montello near Treviso; far indeed from Parma by about a hundred miles, but much nearer to Venice and to Verona, whence the many documents necessary for this writing seem to have had to be sought, besides those which the author, being in the Carthusian house of Parma, could there read and collect. He prefaces however that on this matter, men both religious in life and distinguished in speech and science, in the year 1472, gathered many things here and there; he himself however hoped that the things would be received, which from various books, both in Latin and in the vernacular, he collected with great labor; finishing his writing, as is added at the end, "in the year of the Lord 1472, on the day of the ten thousand Virgins, in the month of October." That Life, which we long ago had rendered into Italian, by order of the Abbess and nuns of St Quintinus published in 1615 by the press of Anteus Viotta, with a dedication to the most Illustrious Lady Maura Lucenia Farnesia (since we had long in vain sought the Latin), we at last took from the Italian to be rendered into Latin: but before it was to be given to the press, the original text was found, and transcribed by Father Heraclius Cristanellus: which we preferred to our more cultivated phrase, and here we give from the original manuscript, which is kept with the aforesaid nuns.

[3] together with a supplicating booklet, That it may be clear in how great veneration this holy Virgin was, within the fortieth year from her death, we prefix the supplicating booklet, received from the archive of the same nuns, as was once offered to the Parmense magistrate in these words. "Magnificent and generous men, since Blessed Ursulina of Parma, whose body now for forty years elapsed rests in the church of St Quintinus of Parma, in the time of her life had many visions and divine revelations, of which many books reside both at the monastery of St Quintinus and at the monastery of the Carthusians, and shone with many miracles after her death, here and at Venice; by the multitude of which the most Illustrious Venetian Lords have already begun a certain monastery of Ladies, under the title and in honor of the said Blessed Ursulina, and intend to finish it, and through the aforesaid visions, revelations, and miracles to cause her to be canonized, and to take her up into the greatest devotion: and therefore the venerable Religious, Lady Abbess and Nuns of the monastery of St Quintinus, for the construction of a chapel offered who fear that her very body, which lies in their church not safely nor securely, could at night be stealthily removed and taken elsewhere, beseech you, that out of reverence and devotion of the said Blessed Ursulina, arisen of this city, and who for the same city ever pours out prayers to the Most High, you deign to impart a certain alms and support to the same suppliants, with which they may be able in their aforesaid church to have made and constructed a certain devout and safe little chapel, in which the said body may reside, with an altar devoutly; to the Senate of Parma, that the devotion and reverence of the said Blessed Ursulina may daily grow, and so it may come to pass that, when she shall have been canonized, her sepulcher may be found honored and secure by foreigners visiting, so that it cannot be from here removed and carried out: whose removal if it should come (which God avert), the greatest infamy, negligence, and lack of devotion of the said monastery and this dear city and to all the citizens of Parma would perpetually follow: the said suppliants offering themselves perpetually to beseech God and the said Blessed Ursulina for the same Community, which God preserve to its desires."

[4] What effect this supplication had at that time, the Italian translator of the Life does not express, and with a prayer of its own. who set this booklet, likewise rendered into Italian, after the Hymn or Antiphon and prayer which, in commemoration of Blessed Ursulina, to be sung, the aforesaid Simon composed, and subjoined to the life compiled by him. The Hymn (because it contributes nothing to the history, and has been composed with little elegance, as not accurately bound to any meter or rhythm) we do not think we need to transcribe: the Prayer is such: "Lord Jesus Christ, who hast adorned Blessed Ursulina with so many miracles and virtues, and hast gladdened her with perpetual and happy joys in heaven: mercifully grant, that by her merits and continual prayers, we may obtain the salvation and prosperity of mind and body, and happily come to the eternal joys of thy beatitude. Who livest etc." Nevertheless in course of time the chapel was made, Other compendia of the life, such as those pious Virgins desired, on the right side of the temple, within which the sacred body was placed under a marble chest, says Anthony Maria Garofanus in his Parmense Sanctuary, printed at Parma around 1593 at the press of Erasmus Viottus, page 129, reporting a compendium of the Life, excerpted from the Parmense Annals, which we have not yet seen: but from what is transcribed in Girofanus we recognize, that the author did not adhere very accurately to the faith of the ancient monuments, in which she is wrongly assigned to the Benedictines, as we shall observe in the annotations to the Life, and moreover wrote more for favor than truth, when he said, that at fifteen years Ursulina was given the habit of St Benedict by the Abbess of St Quintinus, where the Life expressly says, for what cause she always refused to take up the habit of any religious Order.

[5] The same Life, read more accurately, ought to have taught him, that Ursulina lived not much more than three years at Verona, where she died. But since she was banished in the year 1404, by an edict against all of the Rubea faction, and she is said to have died in 1414: even women and little children, published on the 24th of June (as is most clearly gathered from Bonaventure Angeli, describing the Parmense history most accurately, not only by years, but even by the days on which each event occurred, printed in 1591); and since the exile Ursulina did not tarry long at Bologna before betaking herself to Verona; it necessarily follows, that she did not die in the year 1414; but at most in 1410. since she seems to have died in 1410, Yet not earlier either: because one must find fifteen years after the death of Clement the Antipope, which occurred in September of the year 1394, and had Ursulina present at Avignon; indeed half a year before she set out on the journey to Jerusalem, in which those said fifteen years of hers were prolonged, as is said in the Life: which she dying herself testifies were completed. Moreover to those three years, which Ursulina passed at Verona in hired lodging, one must add another two which she spent

in that cloister of Verona nuns, which she is said to have reformed, before it was safe to return to Parma. having been brought there by the Abbess of St Paul, her companion in exile: which stay in that place the author has forgotten to note: for otherwise he could not even have reached the year 1410. But if to the three years expressed by the author of the Life two can be added, why not also six, and so Ursulina truly have died in the year 1414? The reason is ready at hand: because, Otto the Third, tyrant of Parma, having been killed at Pontalto, on the 27th of May, the day after Pentecost, in the year 1409; and the dominion of the Terzi at Parma having been utterly extinguished within one year, it is not credible that the exiles would remain longer on foreign soil, especially the Abbess of St Paul, with whom Ursulina died at Verona; and who was being urged by the care of her own monastery to hasten her return, as soon as it was permitted.

[6] With so many errors detected in that epitome of the life which is in Girofanus; what he says about the body placed inside a marble chest with this epitaph, composed by Nicholas Burcius, Parmense Priest, does not have great certainty with us:

Ursulina, ornament of her country, Parmense by origin, her marble chest also, Lay in this mausoleum, chaste, fair she was: By divine nod, showing miracles with signs, The blessed Virgin ceases not to give great things.

For in the marble chest, which still exists, this alone is read inscribed: "+ To Blessed Ursulina of Parma, was made only in the year 1507, Seraphic Virgin, adorned with divine eloquence and miracles, Joanna de Sancto Vitali the Abbess well-deserving made this cause 1507." I should therefore believe, that the mausoleum indeed or tabernacle, or, as in the supplicating booklet it is called, the little chapel, was built at the expense of the city of Parma, and inscribed with the afore-cited verses: but the case which contained the body, was of wood until the year 1507, when Joanna caused a marble one to be made for the well-deserving.

[7] and transferred in the year 1606, These things however thus persevered up to the beginning of the 17th century, when the old church of St Quintinus having been destroyed, a new one rose from the foundations: within which, says the Italian Interpreter, in the year 1606 the Chest was translated with the body, inscribed as we said; and placed in the chapel, which is the first on the left side as one enters the temple through the great door; and this, as Father Christanellus writes to us, under the altar, above which is seen exposed the image of Blessed Ursulina herself, accompanied by St John the Evangelist and her mother, as had happened on the Avignon journey. And this perhaps has not long ago been substituted in the place of another, under a new altar. of which the Italian Life makes mention, as representing our Lady the Virgin Mary, cherishing the body of her dead son in her bosom, and with her Blessed Ursulina. Moreover above the same altar (on which at other times Mass is never celebrated), says Father Christanellus, on the feast of this Blessed, namely April 7 (for this day of death Girofanus notes), four or six candles are lit, nor is there at present any other veneration of Blessed Ursulina, or particular concourse of the people at her memory.

[8] Miracles after death are lacking, Would that, to stir up the languid piety of the Parmenses toward this Blessed, documents of miracles wrought at Venice and Parma might sometime be found, and brought forth to be inserted into this work, by which the Venetian Senate judged canonization ought to be obtained! Would that someone might recollect the very codices of the Revelations, and either publish them, or pluck from them what may render more illustrious the history and sanctity of the Blessed; just as has been done in the Life of St Frances of Rome, published under the name of Magdalen Anguillaria, and edited by us on March 9! Perhaps also the public history of the universal Church, and historical excerpts at least from her revelations. would receive no slight light from those very things, especially concerning the matters transacted between Pope Boniface IX and Clement VII the Antipope; as the same things are much illustrated from this Life, inasmuch as it has been received from the writings of him who consigned to letters the Revelations of Ursulina at Avignon, she herself dictating, namely Anthony of Milan, Proctor of Clement the Antipope, and eyewitness of the things then called Acts. This we add here, that no one can doubt about the truth of these things, although others of the same times have omitted them; whom alone Oduric Raynaldus, the continuator of the ecclesiastical Annals, had and could alone follow. For the Annalist cites no regest of the letters of Pope Boniface; nor who, being present, would have known the end of that Antipope, and the election of Peter de Luna at Avignon, any author: but by the lack of suitable monuments, he was constrained to touch these things briefly, and to leave more to be drawn out elsewhere to the diligence of posterity.

[9] Devotion of the nuns of St Quintinus toward the Blessed, Furthermore, from the mouth of the Venerable Abbess Lady Mary Cecilia Palmia, in 1670, the aforenamed Father Heraclius Christanellus writes, that all the holy women there greatly venerate this Blessed one, and commend themselves to her; first that from plague, then that from fire the monastery may be preserved, thirdly that the honor of the sacred virgins may suffer no detriment in any part. The same Abbess adds, moreover, that she, at the time of the plague raging through all Italy, lived in this monastery, and testifies that none of them all was touched by that perilous disease, because each day the whole Convent was accustomed to go as suppliants to the chest of the Blessed, and to ask from her with concordant vows the preservation of the monastery: but one of the virgins, who had asked to be admitted to the holy habit (they are commonly called Donzenantes), having been touched by plague, had wished to be laid before the sacred chest, and there, with prayers poured out, was most swiftly freed, and still lives in the monastery itself.

LIFE by the author Simon de Zanachis, Carthusian.

From the MS. of the monastery of St Quintinus of Parma.

Ursulina Virgin, at Parma in Italy (B.)

BHL Number: 8452

BY SIMON ZANACHI FROM THE MS.

PREFACE.

To the Reverend in Christ Mother, Lady Magdalen de Sancto-Vitali, Abbess of the monastery of St Quintinus of Parma, of the Order of St Benedict, and the other nuns in the said monastery serving the most pleasing Spouse Christ Jesus, Brother Simon de Zanachis of Parma, useless servant of Christ, and unworthy Prior of the House of the Holy Mary and Jerome of Montello near Treviso of the Carthusian Order, imparts eternal life in the precious blood of the immaculate Lamb.

[1] It comes to mind, Reverend Mother, that passage of sacred Scripture, "It is good to hide the Sacrament of a king, but it is honorable to reveal the works of God": and turning that often in the recess of my breast, kindled with the ardor of your extraordinary faith, Asked to write whatever he knew, because you deign to choose or compel me, tongue-tied and poor in speech and science, that I might contribute something from the indigence of my sense to the fulfilling of your holy desire; I determined to do what you have often asked: that I would set down, with whatever unskilled style, the life and manners of the blessed Virgin Ursulina of Parma (whatever I may find in these parts in writing, or hear from trustworthy men), not seeking elegance of speech, but that I might transmit to you and to the other nuns, who remain in the monastery where her sacred body rests, the truth of her very life. Tob. 12:17 As greatly as the pious ardor of your holy desire provokes me to do this thing, so much do multiple labors and cares and occupations, which are honorably imposed upon me from the office of Prior, deter me, wishing to comply: he professes himself indeed hindered in many ways, and also the merits of my life do not make me equal, so that I might trust that I can worthily embrace with mind and heart the deeds or life of such and so great a Virgin. Add to this that on this matter men both religious in life and distinguished in speech and science have already gathered many things here and there: after whose so great rivers of exuberant eloquence, I could not unjustly be marked with presumption, if I should attempt to contribute anything of this drop; were it not that to this the confidence of your prayers animates me, yet he trusts in the good will of those asking, and the promise that either these (which from various books, written both in Latin and in the vernacular, I have collected with great labor) will be acceptable to you, whatever they are, or you would assign them to the consolation of the men of this country. If therefore something less cautiously shall have been brought forth by us, both piously set aside, and with the pardon of indulgence bear it, I beseech; seeking rather the faith and charity of my speech, than its elegance.

[2] Wherefore, most beloved in Christ Mother, and you most devout Mothers, unique exemplar of religion, animated by your heavenly prayers, according to the powers of my little wit, I shall attempt the work which you have enjoined; and those things which have been left by others here and there (as those who omitted to describe things heard rather than experienced), with rude style I shall intimate to you who know the truth. and intending to write things omitted by others: Although I fear and judge myself unworthy to sound forth the life and praises of so illustrious a Virgin, with my inert eloquence and unlearned speech, among the tongues of the wise and their composed mouths: whom I beseech, that they may wish rather to weigh the thing itself, than our uncultivated speech: may wish, I say, rather to examine my pious mind, than my unpolished pen. I want also them to know, that, bound by your assiduous prayers, I have placed on my shoulders a weight beyond my own strength. But so great was the force of your command, that I could in no way refuse what I did not wish and greatly feared. And although from the paucity of my wit I know myself entirely insufficient and unworthy for so great a work; he prays that the truth of the matter be received, yet, likewise compelled by the greatest devotion, which I have long known I have been bearing toward the same most illustrious Virgin, laying aside all fear and supported by ample hope, I shall gird myself. Finally, aided by your prayers, not the simplicity of style being considered. and by the intercessions of the holy Virgin Ursulina, strengthened especially with certain hope, I shall accommodate my wit as best I can to this little work. In which matter if perchance I shall have said too little, or of my own accord been silent about what the greatness of such a nurturing Virgin would seem to demand, grant pardon, best Mothers, to my inexpertness. One thing, however, will be especially my care: that I may touch on many things in brief speech, lest perchance prolixity of reading bring weariness to readers and hearers. Therefore, trusting in the grace of the nurturing Spirit, I shall attempt this work.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

Blessed Ursulina's birth and childhood, illustrated by divine revelations.

[3] There was a certain man Peter by name, most upright and in all goodness walking before God and men, With parents joined by divine command, a native of the golden city which is called Parma, famous among other Italian cities not a little by nobility and antiquity. He, when for a long time through zeal for chastity he had declined marriage after his first

nuptials, and commended himself with assiduous prayers to the Lord as he could, on a certain day, when with inmost bowels and intent heart he was praying to the Lord, a voice of this kind came from heaven to him, saying: "Peter, take Bertolina to wife for yourself." And when he took his first wife, the said Bertolina was in her mother's womb, who afterwards became his second. Peter therefore, astonished at this voice and very greatly terrified, began with much anxiety to think upon the voice that had fallen upon him. Being therefore more than sufficiently uncertain, and ignorant on what side he should turn, and especially since he had long before cast off marriage, at length having weighed counsel within himself for a long time, he resolved to obey the divine will. Which Peter, when after long and frequent inquiries he had clearly recognized the said Bertolina, hitherto unknown to him, and her virtues and lineage, took her to wife.

[4] it is revealed that a daughter is to be born, On a certain festive day, when this Bertolina, now for a long time led about and after some daughters brought forth, being alone in the house of her husband, was meditating with intent soul and mind upon the vanities of this world and the brevity of human life, and upon the heavenly glory and the beatitude of the blessed Spirits; she was caught up in an ecstasy of mind, and meditating long on how great is the indivisibility, sublimity, and greatness of the Trinity, compelled by the sweetness of so great a meditation, she burst forth into immense voices. For the Holy Spirit had chosen her. For on the following night that same Holy Spirit taught Peter her husband in his sleep, that namely from her would come the most precious fruit of matrimony. Fifteen days therefore having elapsed, it seemed to Peter in his sleep, that the Bishop of the city was calling him, that he might stay with him; and that he refused to do this, on account of the care of his family and wife. The Bishop however seemed to exhort him to do so securely. To whom he seemed to give such a response: "I will go home, and consult my wife." And with the promise of giving an answer made, he seemed to hasten home: and behold he heard an Angel calling him. And when to him, questioning, he recounted the petition of the Bishop, and that he had received a month's delay for responding, the Angel said to Peter: "Rather a delay of one year, over and above the month, for fulfilling the term of the response." his future sanctity, This term therefore having been obtained from the Bishop, the Angel said to him: "Your wife, now made pregnant, will bear a daughter, who will be not a little acceptable to God." "How," said Peter, "do you know these things?" And he said: "I am the Angel deputed to your custody: and know that for five years she will be unable to walk upright, and not without great mystery, because the Lord will reveal many things to her. In the sixth she will begin to walk, in the fifteenth she will begin to speak, and in the sixteenth b she will perfectly speak the things which the Lord shall reveal to her." And having said this, the Angel disappeared. Peter therefore, awakening, pondered with intent mind the force of the vision, and even afterwards declared some things in order to his wife: and after the aforesaid vision Peter survived a year and eight months.

[5] Time therefore succeeding, Blessed Ursulina is born of the said Bertolina, in the year of the Lord 1375, born, she refuses the milk of an adulterous woman: on the 14th day of May in the morning. And when on account of her mother's infirmity it behooved Blessed Ursulina to suck others' breasts, which she also gladly did; yet of one woman, who was held an adulteress, she not only refused to suck the breasts, but even abhorred to touch them. A wondrous thing indeed, but still more wondrous, that the other nursing mothers, seeing this, were amazed, saying: "Truly, if this little child shall live, she will be something great: she already prognosticates things to come." Hear, I beg, what follows. For this one, while she was in the fourth month of her age, when before she had never, nor after very many months had known how to speak, burst forth with these words in a clear voice: "O God! God the Father!" A four-month-old names the Lord: Which hearing, her mother was greatly astonished, and kept all these things in the secret of her breast. To this Blessed Ursulina, while still an infant, there was a sister, born of the father, four years old: this one often saw in the cradle of Blessed Ursulina two men assisting, clothed in the whitest garments, one at the right, having Saints assisting her cradle, the other at the left. So the mother had proved it to be true by many arguments; and rebuking her daughter she said: "Are you sleeping?" Who answered: "I am not sleeping," she said; "but when they come to her, I raise my head plainly, and behold them in clear light, and what I say is true." The mother was silent. But after much time she questioned Ursulina about these two: who said: "One of them was the Blessed Apostle Peter, who was appointed to me by God as my nursling. The other indeed she would never reveal; but that it was Blessed Paul may be piously believed, c or the Angel deputed to her. For just as in this mortal life they were companions, so after death she was not divided from him."

[6] at five years she receives the faculty of walking, Blessed Ursulina therefore, now in her fifth year, when she could not yet walk with upright step, just as had been foretold by the Angel; her mother being in the church, taught by divine inspiration, offered her to God on the altar of Blessed Peter Martyr, which is in the church of the Friars Preachers: who straightway, having touched the altar, received a solid and perfect gait, as far as that age allows. On a certain day, while Blessed Ursulina, still a little girl, namely six years old, was walking along the way near the house, behold two men venerable in aspect, whom no one of those standing by knew, passing by the blessed Virgin Ursulina, at six she is commended by Saints, placing their hands on her head, said: "This is the girl chosen by God, and reserved for a great mystery." From then on the blessed Virgin began to have wondrous visions: and the first which she had was on the first day of the year, concerning the consummation of the age, and the resurrection of the dead: and she began to have knowledge of God through human intellect: and beginning to enjoy divine sights, she spurns other companies: all which things with silent mind she tasted within herself; and alien from all secular desires, with mind and spirit and all devotion she devoted herself to the Lord. Whence also the neighbors said to her mother: "Truly your daughter is too proud and reserved, who never appears in our conversation, like other persons." And to the mother reporting this she responded: "By what reason could I leave the fellowship of my Lord Jesus Christ and of the Saints for their sake? For thus the Lord has called me, whom I serve, and thus I follow."

[7] And when she had reached the ninth year of her age, as time and place demanded, at nine she manifests certain things revealed to her, in humility preserved in the Lord, she began with thanksgiving to make some persons partakers of the visions and revelations she had received from God, knowing that she must give praise and glory in all things to God; that from this the power of God and his immense goodness might be praised, and for her neighbors likewise some utility might follow. Yet humbly always she bore herself in bringing these forth in common, namely when she says, "A certain person saw such a vision," understand that it was she herself. When, however, she says: "I heard from a certain person," understand, from the person of the Father, or of the Son, or of the Holy Spirit, or from an Angel or from some Saint. For thereafter God himself and our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to reveal very many secrets and divine mysteries to her in successive times, as long as she lived, as the several volumes written on these things testify, all which I confess to have seen and read with the greatest reverence. For this blessed Virgin Ursulina was of such humility and meekness, that the things which God had revealed to her, she strove to manifest with all caution, place and time.

[8] she abstains from hearing sermons, Not ignorant also of the divine will concerning what she was to do, she refused to come to hear the sacred voices of preachers. "I do not refuse, mother," she said, "because I despise the sacred teachings of the preachers, but because I obey the commands of him whom they preach. and in religious habit, For since through me God himself and Lord and Creator of all has decreed to intimate certain things to the human race, he forbids me to go there until those things are written which he has decreed to reveal to me: perhaps lest men should think that I had learned from their sermons what God wished to reveal through me." And therefore she never wished to assume any regular habit d, but only a spiritual one, [devout and humble as much as she could bear. For this blessed Virgin, now in the fifteenth year of her age existing, saw a vision of this kind:] at fifteen, a paternal vision is recounted, It seemed to her that she was in the heavenly fatherland, before the sight of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that the Lord himself said to the father of the blessed virgin standing by: "Is this your daughter?" To whom the father: "You know, Lord." And the Lord Jesus again said to him: "Is this your daughter?" To whom when the father had answered, "She is yours, Lord"; a third time he questioned the same: "Is this your daughter?" And when he had answered: "She is, Lord"; then the Lord said: "Tell now this daughter of yours the vision which you had of her, while she was still in her mother's womb": which the father commanded did. When this was done, the Lord said to him: "I was that Bishop, to whom after a month you had promised to return, having obtained your wife's consent, that you might dwell with me." And having said this, the vision disappeared.

[9] she is commanded to dictate her revelations to be written: And when to this Blessed Ursulina the Lord himself was openly showing visions almost daily, and indicating most profound revelations, he commanded her, that all the things which he had revealed to her she should cause to be transcribed. And when she hesitated to whom this burden should be imparted, she said: "Whom should I choose, Lord?" To whom the Lord declared a certain old man, a Priest of proven life, suited to this work. Which old man indeed, when three times he utterly refused to do this, at length knowing God's will, did not hesitate to take up the work: and so for three years intermittently, with the aforesaid Blessed Virgin Ursulina dictating, he set down several volumes of books. Besides him, however, Blessed Ursulina had six other writers of her revelations at various times and places. For the first was Lord Thomas of Fosio, Parmense, the aforesaid Priest; the second was Master Nicholas, of the Order of Hermits; the third was Lord Anthony of Milan, proctor of Clement the Antipope at Avignon; the fourth was Lord Jacob of Sibinago, proctor of causes in the Roman curia; the fifth was Master Amicus, physician in the Roman curia; the sixth was the Magnificent Gerard of Aldigerii, e Parmense, leader of soldiers; the seventh was the distinguished Doctor Lord Donninus of Garumberti, of Parma.

[10] her heavenly teaching, For this venerable Virgin was small in body, but adorned with a venerable aspect; lovable and affable to all for her placid conversation,

and had wondrous skill in the divine Scriptures: namely concerning the Trinity, the Incarnation of God, his Nativity, the Angels, the heavenly glory. All marveled at her wisdom, and judged that the elegance of her speech exceeded feminine powers: for each one carried away the clearest solution of every doubt. And, what is more wondrous and a singular gift of God, when she spoke of all these things so sublimely, elegantly, humility, and profoundly, no one could perceive any boasting in her. For all things she uttered with humility, all things with a certain meekness both within and without, and with charm of speech: so that they judged that in a human body, without any natural compassion, she spoke as it were beyond the body. Discretion. Fastings, disciplines, prayers, and other laudable works, which she continually strove to exhibit rather from the love of God than from the fear of Gehenna, she aimed to do with all careful and exquisite prudence, f to hide from sight. In all her works, however, whether spiritual or corporal, she observed discretion: for she knew it to be the mother of all virtues. She approached Confession most frequently, and each month she took the nourishing Body of Christ, as secretly as she could, that she might not be reputed spiritual by others; yet each day and hour she was inwardly fed by the Lord with spiritual foods.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Blessed Ursulina is sent to Avignon to admonish Clement the Antipope.

[11] Prevented by a new infusion of the Spirit, To this blessed Virgin God deigned to show a vision of this kind, before she undertook any journey. For he drew her spirit like a sword from its sheath, in his usual manner, and through this she understood how much fortitude, wisdom and charity he had communicated to her. For it seemed to her, that she was led to the greater church, where she saw the Lord walking, and seeking on all sides. Whom when the Blessed Virgin Ursulina had asked what he sought; he said: "I seek a certain seat, upon which I may rest; but nowhere do I find one." She however, having sat on the ground, said to him: "Lord, sit now and rest upon my knees," which he also did. In a short interval therefore he arose, and led Blessed Ursulina into a certain house, where, when from a certain cask, as it seemed to her, he had drawn a cup of wine excellent beyond measure, he commanded Blessed Ursulina to taste of it: who, when she had tasted and drunk of it, seemed to utter such things: "Some there are, who, when they are drunk, know not how to speak; but I, after I have tasted of this wine, see more deeply and think more clearly than usual." Meanwhile Blessed Ursulina awakens, seeing herself far more suffused than before, she returned immense thanks to God: by which vision she understood a great mystery, present and future, as will appear below.

[12] At a certain time therefore, when she had received the most sacred body of Christ on the day a of Easter, and was rejoicing inwardly with spiritual joy, she is commanded to gird herself for a journey: a voice of the Lord came to her saying: "Prepare yourself now to go where I shall send you." Which having heard, she at once gave faith to the one commanding. When however her mother had become more certain of these things, she groaned; and began to be much saddened, and said: "Alas! how can I, full of days, and you so young, go without a guide?" To whom Blessed Ursulina: "So it is, my mother, do not doubt; shall we fear with the Lord being with us? or shall we be without a companion? Far be it, let us only obey the Lord's commands, and he himself will be our helper and protector in all things." All things therefore being prepared for the journey, Blessed Ursulina, with her mother as a companion and her kinsman and another honest woman, to Avignon to the Antipope. then Ursulina said: "Lord, where do you want me to go?" To whom the Lord: "Toward the city of Avignon of Transalpine Gaul, where the Pseudo-Pope b Clement resides. Do you not understand how great a schism there is in universal Christendom on account of him? Direct your steps there."

[13] She, at God's command, undertaking the journey, decided first to visit the church of Blessed Mary Magdalene in the parts of Provence. And when they walked three together, it was reported to them, that the passage through those parts on account of brigands was doubtful without loss. Hearing this the mother was saddened, saying to Ursulina: "What shall we do then, daughter? Alas for us, daughter!" But she answered: "For the Lord will provide for us, mother, let us not doubt: since he himself said through the Prophet: 'Do not fear their face, because I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you: for you shall go to those to whom I shall send you, and what I shall command you, you shall speak to them; turning toward St Mary Magdalene, she receives a guide do not fear, says the Lord.'" Jer. 1 While the blessed Virgin Ursulina with her mother were awaiting divine help, how they might safely pass through, unexpectedly a certain pilgrim c came upon them: whom when they had asked, where he was directing his journey, he answered: "I am going toward the church of St Mary Magdalene, yet not all the way there." Whose face and aspect when Blessed Ursulina had more diligently gazed upon, not as of a man but of an Angel, she said to her mother: "This one now will be our leader, undoubted companion of our journey: let us cling securely to this wayfarer, whom the most clement Father himself and the benign hearer of our prayers has presented to our sights."

[14] St John the Evangelist in the form of a pilgrim: The pilgrim however, being asked to be their companion by them, feigned that he did not wish to cling to them, asserting that he had never gone on foot through those places, and that he himself did not have so long a journey, and thus about it he seemed much to hesitate. To him Blessed Ursulina said: "Why do we doubt? The grace of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ will be with us," as if she were secure about a companion. Which pilgrim indeed, nay rather God's messenger, with a certain Angelic grace and modesty of eyes, with head bowed, so that he might rightly indicate who he was, began the journey: whom continually Blessed Ursulina with her mother followed. And so indeed for continuous days this divine companion, shower of the unknown way, kept walking before them by a stone's throw in equal steps, so that he who was the companion and leader was thought to be separated from them. And if perchance at some time Blessed Ursulina or the mother, tired, turned aside to the shade of a tree, presently he too under another tree nearby sat in the shade. When they rose, straightway he too prepared for the journey. In the same lodging he never wished to descend with them, lest perhaps, as must be believed, he should stain the holy Virgin's fame with any infamy. Each morning however they soon saw him going before them: and so each day he provided Blessed Ursulina and her mother with the viaticum of the journey. And when d he had thus consumed several days, nowhere did they find a brigand, or enemy, or any other man of evil condition; although those places on account of many wars were disturbed in various ways on every side. For this was done by the Lord; nor indeed is it a wonder, if she is protected by heavenly protection, where by divine command she is a pilgrim.

[15] When therefore they had come to the place where he had foretold he would go, who then, having shown the way to Avignon, since the journey was now most safe for those going, he said to Blessed Ursulina and her mother: "This way I now go; but there is your road: go without doubt, and the peace of the Lord will be upon you." To whom Blessed Ursulina: "I beseech you," she said, "by him who redeemed us with his precious blood, that you do not leave us desolate, since without you we should have no knowledge of the way." And thus showing himself at length overcome by their prayers, he acquiesced to the vow of Blessed Ursulina and her mother: and as before, up to St Mary Magdalene, as guide and companion he went with them. And when they had visited the temple of St Mary Magdalene likewise, that blessed pilgrim said to them: "Behold, I have now satisfied your vows, I do not proceed further with you." And having shown them a certain way, he said: "Pass through this until that mountain which you see not far off, and finding a certain valley you will there see dwellers cultivating the land; these will show you the straight way." And having said this, departing, he suddenly vanished from their eyes. suddenly disappears, The mother, however, who until then had thought that man a pilgrim, terrified by his sudden departure, said to Blessed Ursulina: "I beseech you, daughter, who was this, who was the companion of our journey for so many days, and so suddenly vanished from our eyes?" To whom Blessed Ursulina: "That was Blessed John the Evangelist, whom God gave us as our guide until now." Which hearing, the mother was filled with no small joy. Proceeding after this, as they had been warned, they found laborers, as Blessed John the Evangelist had foretold: these, when they had shown them the way, permitted them to depart, who at length reached the desired city of Avignon unharmed.

[16] having entered the city, Then the blessed Virgin Ursulina, kindled with a certain spiritual joy, prayed to the Lord with hands stretched out to heaven, saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, best Master, and light of truth, since with you as guide I have arrived here safe, to fulfill your commandment, now from above infuse your grace into me, and fill my mouth with your eloquence, that I, the least of your handmaidens, and utterly unworthy, may be able to speak what may please your majesty, since, Lord, I am utterly ignorant." When she had made such a prayer, the Lord said to her: "Ursulina, do not fear; trust, for I am with you wherever you shall walk. Approach this Antipope, and speak to him whatever I shall inspire you to say to him." And so Blessed Ursulina by God's will had Peter de e Podio the Pseudo-Cardinal as her introducer to the Antipope: who said to her: "What salutation and reverence will you make to him, introduced to the Antipope, when you shall have been introduced?" To whom Blessed Ursulina: "That which the Holy Spirit shall inspire in my heart." And so in the very sight of the Antipope, kneeling on the ground, with hands stretched out and eyes directed to

heaven, she said with a clear voice: "Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit." Upon hearing such a greeting all were astonished.

[17] Then the Antipope commanded that all should withdraw a little, and ordered her to come closer to him. To whom she, with fearless tongue, bold countenance and undaunted mind, for almost f an hour and a half without hesitation delivered a discourse, which she concluded with these words: "Know, she boldly rebukes the same, that if you delay to carry out those things which I have set forth to you on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ, your seat in hell will have an equal place with Lucifer himself." By these words the Antipope was not a little terrified, and fearing the ears of the bystanders, he resolved to hear her again the next day, so that thus, having seized upon the opportune time, he might more conveniently avoid the deceitful ears. honorably conducted back by him she is ordered to return: Then rising from his throne, the Antipope went as far as the second door of his courtyard with Blessed Ursulina; where, when he had offered himself to Blessed Ursulina to do whatever he could for her sake, Blessed Ursulina said to him in a loud voice: "I would sooner take for myself the bark of trees for food, than suffer to receive anything of yours"; and having said this, she departed. Then all the Pseudo-Cardinals were indignant against the Antipope, because he had risen from his throne for a mere little woman, and had paid her so much honor. To whom he said, that it was not to this little woman, but to the Lord, who sent her.

[18] but often returning in vain, The next day appointed, Blessed Ursulina approached the Antipope. Whom when he understood to be entering to him, he was seized with such great trembling and likewise fear, that by no means did he dare to introduce her to himself, and to behold her countenance: so that he was forced to send her back to the house unseen. Another day too he ordered her to be summoned to him. But when he knew that she was before the doors, he was seized by much greater fear, and more than the first time a colder trembling ran through his limbs. A second time she is sent back to the house, to be heard more conveniently the next day. Again and a third time she is brought to the Antipope: whose arrival when he had recognized, he was oppressed by much more vehement fear than at the first and second time, always excluded, she returns to Parma. and shaken with trembling. That unhappy one, when with so many and such evident signs known, he ought to have received and heard this blessed Virgin with the highest veneration; sent her away from him as something pestilent, compelled by diabolic command, whom rather than God he served; nor did he in any way suffer to see her presence, whom before he had venerated with so much honor. O wretched man, and most unhappy of all men, and unspeakable despiser of divine monition and of his own salvation, who, drawn by so many ways, warned by so great disciplines, and foreseen by divine corrections, delayed to recognize his great perfidy and impiety, against himself and the holy Church of God. Seeing therefore Blessed Ursulina, that that wretched Antipope, on account of the exceeding fear and trembling diabolically inflicted upon him, did not dare to introduce her to himself; and that he would not from her mouth understand the will of God; with a very great multitude of men standing by hearing, she said: "Heaven, earth, sea, and all things which are contained within their circuit, I invoke and attest, that I have come to intimate to him God's will, just as God himself has deigned to enjoin and command me." And having said this, she turned her foot thence, and without delay departing from the city, she returned to Parma.

ANNOTATIONS.

d At least 20 days.

CHAPTER III.

Ursulina's repeated journey to Avignon, and her constancy amid raging schismatics.

[19] A few days therefore having passed, when Blessed Ursulina, thoroughly tired on account of the long hardships of the roads, sent to Rome, which she had undergone, had not yet recovered her former strength; meanwhile the Lord commanded her, that she should approach Boniface the supreme Pontiff, and true Shepherd of the whole Lord's sheepfold, residing in the City a, and should declare to him whatever she had done with the Pseudo-Pontiff. Which at once, having taken up the divine command, although she bore the members of her little body very weary, with hurried step, free mind, prompt intention, she hastened to Rome, placing all her confidence in the Lord Jesus: understanding undoubtedly that each man, with all the strength of his body, in word and work, must embrace the divine command. And when she arrived at Rome with her mother as companion; having received a convenient opportunity, she explains to Boniface what she did at Avignon: with divine grace bestowing, without long delay interposed, she approached the sight of the supreme Pontiff; and narrated to him all things, as they had been done. And when the supreme Pontiff Boniface disdained to give faith to her, almighty God himself (who is the moderator and ruler of heavenly, earthly, and infernal things, and foreknower of things to come, who also disposes all things in place and time with ineffable order) providentially in a wondrous manner, that a certain venerable Carthusian Monk, most worthy of faith and reverence, was present at Rome, who had likewise been present at Avignon, when Blessed Ursulina herself dealt with the above-mentioned Pseudo-Pontiff: who had seen all things, as they had been done, partly, and partly had learned from public and truthful report. This one indeed made the incredulous mind of the supreme Pontiff more certain of all things, as from certain of his letters making mention of this matter, which I myself have read, manifestly appears.

[20] From then on therefore Blessed Ursulina was both received by the supreme Pontiff and the Cardinals of the most holy Church, and treated with worthy honor: and by her words she acquired undoubted faith with them, so that truly without any doubt they did not hesitate that she was a messenger of the divine will. and by the counsel of the Cardinals, Therefore the supreme Pontiff Boniface, with the most Reverend Cardinals, in public Consistory, again and again treating and narrating those things which Blessed Ursulina had told; at length, divine wisdom so operating, they decided, for the reconciliation of the most holy orthodox Church, to send ambassadors to the aforesaid Antipope, according to the opinion of Blessed Virgin Ursulina. For such was the opinion of Blessed Ursulina, that these ambassadors of the Apostolic See should strive with all their strength to induce the same Antipope and his Pseudo-Cardinals, that they should not wish to resist the Most Holy Apostolic See, and that they should be careful to avoid the divine vengeance, and also that they should humble themselves as faithful and Catholic, and so not doubt that they would obtain the divine and the immense clemency of the Apostolic See itself, and that they should not wish to be a detriment and cause of perdition to themselves and others. And when such a speech pleased the supreme Pontiff and all the Cardinals; she is sent back to him: all, moved by one spirit, soon determined to choose no ambassadors to the aforenamed Antipope except Blessed Ursulina; since from what had already been accomplished they understood her to be fortified with divine supports. Therefore Blessed Ursulina, fervent with desire for the salvation of souls, and boiling with will in carrying out divine commands, although a woman and weak, and broken by her previous journey, not terrified by the long hardship of the roads, offered herself with joyful soul to return to the Antipope, for the quieting of the faith of God and the state of the most holy Mother Church, and to fulfill with her strength the commands of the supreme Pontiff himself. Which pleased the supreme Pontiff himself in a wondrous manner; and so the supreme Pontiff and all the Cardinals admitted the vow of Blessed Ursulina. b

[21] she comes to Avignon, Having received therefore the Apostolic blessing, Blessed Ursulina, with her mother as companion, again sought the Antipope: to whom at length, after very many labors and many hardships, she came with Apostolic letters. For knowing that first the house of the Lord must be sought, she was going to visit the church of St Desiderius, founded in the same city of Avignon. Behold, however, she had the Pseudo-Cardinal Peter de Podio, whom we have already often mentioned, meeting her. Who, when he had recognized her, called her to him, and said to her: "Ursulina, whither do you direct your steps? and whence now?" To whom she: "Charity, bearing all things, supporting and sustaining all things, has again brought me here to you." and persuaded by no terrors to depart, And when he more clearly inquired the cause of her journey, she said: "The salvation of your souls troubles me, and makes me a pilgrim and stranger." "What therefore do you ask," Peter said to her? "I desire," she said, "the salvation of your souls, that I long for, that I covet with all my bowels." To whom he, smiling: "You, who, as you say, so ardently and so affectionately, and with a thirsting soul, seem to desire the salvation of our souls; but if a just occasion were given, the Pope and Cardinals would desire to kill you. Do you not know, that upon you all now contrive causes? Do you not know that each one considers how they may destroy you? Return therefore whence you came, and as quickly as possible can be done, withdraw your face from this city: defer it no longer, as I advise. I already see in you tortures thought out, if you further delay your return." Blessed Ursulina, however, to whom the Holy Spirit gave eloquence, to whom charity afforded boldness, by no fear moved by these words, said to him: "I beseech you now, and introduced to the Antipope, and if I have any force of speech with you, I beseech, beg and entreat you; if it is right, without delay interposed, announce to your Pope and all the Cardinals that I have come to them a second time: for I have for them the discourse of the supreme Pontiff and true Vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ, which I shall bring"; and she did not at present show the Apostolic letters, but reserved them for a time.

[22] Of this blessed Virgin therefore when the Pseudo-Pope and his Cardinals had learned the arrival, he ordered her to be summoned to him. She, however, fortifying herself with the nourishing sign of the Cross, having all her hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, especially because she was giving labor to the union of the holy Church, at the sight of them without any hesitation, free from all fear, she betook herself; since no sight of men can be of so much value, that she whom the Holy Spirit has armed should be able to dread. Having entered to these therefore, she bends him, with countenance so constant and bold, and clear voice she began, that not terrified at all by the expectation of such great men,

she was judged to utter a divine rather than a human discourse: and when with so open a countenance she had spoken to them, no one however dared to utter an unfriendly word against her, although before they had decreed that she should end her life in torments. O supreme force of the divine word, and infallible disposition of its wisdom in all things! whom long since the erection and pomp of that most nefarious See had obscured from the way of truth and the path of true knowledge, the speech of the blessed Virgin, nay rather of the Holy Spirit, illumined their minds; so that soon upon hearing her, having resumed the strength of reason, the Antipope and Pseudo-Cardinals approved her discourse. And so the blessed Virgin, with fuller and every license of speaking given her, drew out a longer discourse; showing them with irrefragable reasons that it was not becoming for them to insist against the holy orthodox Roman Church; but rather with every neck lowered to submit themselves to her correction.

[23] and likewise the Cardinal of St Angelo; Truly the already-mentioned Antipope, bound by such great divine reasons, resolved to place his neck under the yoke of the most holy Roman Church. Moreover the most Reverend, and indeed most distinguished in learning and life, Cardinal of St Angelo c of the most holy Roman Church, who then was present as Pseudo-Cardinal, and entangled in so great an error, radiated by such eloquence of this Virgin, with hands stretched to heaven said to Blessed Ursulina: "I call God and all the Saints to witness, you have obtained the grace of our salvation, just as the liberation of Jerusalem was given to Holy Judith." Hearing this some of the Pseudo-Cardinals, persisting most impiously in their perfidy and iniquity already conceived against the Holy Roman Church, in no way moved by the reasons of Blessed Ursulina from so great errors of their perfidy, bearing with difficulty the words of the Antipope and of the most clement Cardinal of St Angelo; but in vain on account of the obstinacy of the others: not with words, but with drawn face, wrinkled brow, and changed countenance, gave signs of their so great perfidy. And so with methods sought out and machinations premeditated they employed a way, that by some arrangement the blessed Virgin Ursulina might not further be able to approach the Antipope and the aforesaid Cardinal of St Angelo.

[24] A certain most impious Pseudo-Cardinal, more inhuman than the rest, Martin d by name, unable to bear his immense perfidy in silence, of whom one, more curiously questioning her, like a rabid dog, like a most ferocious lion, and as a most truculent and rapacious wolf, contriving to entangle the blessed Virgin Ursulina, or rather the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, with his sophistic arguments and pompous speeches, said to the blessed Virgin, with choleric mouth and prolix speech: "Even if you assert yourself to have come to us as a messenger of God, and moreover to have had such great revelations from him, as is reported; now settle the question which I shall propose to you: for I desire that you first and openly declare what the Trinity is." Then Blessed Ursulina, taught by the Holy Spirit, turned him into the pit which he had prepared for her, with such a most wise response; for she said to him: "Have you ever seen the Trinity itself, by her wise answers he is confuted: which you so greatly desire to know? and if perchance you should see it, would you recognize it?" When he had answered: "Not at all"; the blessed Virgin said to him: "Therefore my discourse about the Trinity would be in vain, since you would not grasp it." He however, having heard this answer, having laid aside all loquacity, was silent. But he who was conquered in the first line of battle, like a most cunning serpent prepared second snares for the blessed Virgin: but with an equal dart the dragon succumbed, as also the lion. For that huge serpent said, and from his pestiferous heart drew out such second words: "Since you speak so domestically with God, tell me, I say, and of your own accord teach me, who are to be saved, and who to be assigned to damnable punishment?" Accept, reader, the most elegantly subtle response. For Blessed Ursulina said to him: "Have you ever seen a tree adorned with the flowers which it had produced?" When he had answered that he had seen it, Blessed Ursulina said: "I bring such a tree into the midst: would you know how to discern the flowers of the tree which will produce good fruits from the flowers which are to be cut off?" To which when Martin the Pseudo-Cardinal himself with his accomplices standing by knew not how to respond; the blessed Virgin said: "This belongs to God alone, and to whomever he shall have wished to reveal it."

[24] Ursulina is variously assailed, Therefore acknowledging themselves overcome by Blessed Ursulina, they gnashed at her with their teeth; and the one whom they could not conquer by such an encounter, they endeavor to overcome by threats and pompous speeches. "Do you believe," they say, "that you alone exceed in knowledge so great Cardinals, and that you are wiser than they, who, having asserted that this is the Catholic faith, have not hesitated to die in that faith?" To whom Blessed Ursulina responded: "I confess, with God as witness, that I do not esteem myself wiser than others, since I am a vile little woman and of very little worth; but as an instrument of the Holy Spirit I have spoken to you." Again when they asserted her to have been thus taught by others; "In vain," she said to them, "is it that you believe, since by others whom you are now imagining, I have in no way been taught." They at length, judging her mother to be the source of all these things, she is separated from her mother, they separated them from each other; placing the mother in a certain monastery, and delivering Blessed Ursulina to be guarded by the wife of a certain noble citizen, so that thus more easily and conveniently the faculty of speaking with her might be given them. And so day and night they tirelessly hesitated, as rabid dogs, how they might be able to object something truly or plausibly against the blessed Virgin, whence having taken a cause as they desired, they might more keenly malign the Virgin. She however, with God's help, to all their speeches gave answers with all wisdom and circumspection; so much so that, conquered or confounded by her, or silent, they were always compelled to withdraw. And when they at times tried to break or overcome the blessed Virgin with threats, sometimes with terror and fear, they could never find her with changed countenance or terrified face, or stumbling in speech with ambiguous words.

[25] suspected of magic, But they, blind and deprived of the grace of the true light, by the life and holiness of this nurturing Virgin were in no way changed for the better; rather, daily increasing their perfidy, able to devise nothing beyond earthly things, they hesitated, that perhaps Blessed Ursulina was using some magic or superstitious art; since they clearly recognized that the eloquence of the Virgin herself exceeded human faculty. And so they caused all her garments to be changed, and sought with all diligence and accurate inspection, whether in any part of those garments anything unworthy or suspicious might be found sewn in. Therefore this blessed Virgin, having by exquisite reasons, by terror or fear or threats, and to be subjected to torture, and by all other things which they had contrived against the blessed Virgin, been unable either to conquer her or overcome her; they did not fear to extort by force of rack and cruelty of tortures (for so those most inhuman men were desiring) that she should absolutely confess by what evil arts they were overcome in all things. To whom she said: "I use no evil arts of the devil, but I have the benefits of our Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of your souls."

[26] O impious ones, and cruel ministers of so great a crime, with what face, with what mind and sense, and with what contrived reasons, with all fear laid aside, and the fear of God neglected, whose place on earth you professed to take, could you have laid your wicked hands on this holy Virgin? or excite your minds puffed up with pride, and bring forth your so inhuman words? What, I say, most cruel of all creatures, was this blessed and holy Virgin seeking from you? Was it not the salvation of your souls? Whence therefore in you so great inhumanity, and great impiety? From what fountain did your so great cruelty emanate, that you did not fear to exchange impiety for piety, perfidy for charity, hatred for love? Alas, the grief! When they had brought Blessed Ursulina to the rack, she is wondrously freed: and had covered her, stripped of her clothes, with an ignominious sack in the usual way; and the most impious ministers were striving to tie her hands now bound behind her back to the ropes of the rack; behold, the hall where these things were being done was shaken with the greatest motion, so that the whole structure of the house seemed to be dissolved, and to threaten the ruin of imminent destruction. Seeing which, all who were present, struck with immense terror, said: "Let us cease, let us cease, lest the same happen to us as to the torturers of St Catherine"; and so, terrified rather than drawn by love, they allowed Blessed Ursulina to remain unharmed. To whom the blessed Virgin, grieving more about their destruction than about the injury inflicted upon her, said: "Since you have neglected to give faith to what I have said to you, even before my departure await the divine judgment."

[27] [she gives a specimen of the Spirit speaking through her in the presence of her adversaries:] All marveled therefore at her sensible and exquisite reasons in all things. Lord Anthony of Milan the advocate answered: "You would wonder otherwise, if you saw her laboring and causing to write." The Anti-Cardinal Martin responded: "This I altogether wish to see." And they placed her in the hall, in the midst of four Anti-Cardinals, in the sight of the people. Then Blessed Ursulina, taught by the Holy Spirit, in sight of all began to sew and to dictate; and the aforesaid Lord Anthony wrote those things which afterwards came upon them: These things having been heard, all who were standing at this spectacle feared: nor yet on account of this did they cease from their malice; but persisting in their obstinacy, day and night for seven months they worked for the death of the blessed Virgin. by these she is tempted with poison: These things having been done, the blessed Virgin was brought back to her former house, where how they gave her poison, that thus she might end her last day, once in drink, a second time in the washing of her head, and from each time signs of poison clearly appeared to those understanding; the witness is He, who in a wondrously ineffable manner by his clemency made her free from all the contrivances of the impious. At length all danger having been passed to terrorize and exterminate the blessed Virgin, when they had profited nothing (for against the Lord and his servants there is nowhere counsel) they for a while ceased from their plots and molestations against Blessed Ursulina, wearied rather and ignorant of what they should further do, than contented; and more conquered than pacified.

[28] Meanwhile, while in so many and such ways they raged against the Virgin herself, the aforementioned Antipope inquires about Blessed Ursulina; and they say that the foolish woman has long since departed. Suddenly this was reported to the blessed Virgin, who soon sent the Apostolic letters, she sends the Apostolic letters to the Antipope: reserved by divine dispensation, which she had brought from Rome to the Antipope himself, on behalf of the supreme Pontiff and the Cardinals. Then the said Antipope was greatly amazed, when he learned that Ursulina herself had not departed. And when he had read the said letters, he was vehemently stunned: and shaking his head, stood long upon himself; with sighs, anxiously meditating for a long time upon this e. A few days therefore having been interposed, the aforementioned Antipope Clement, washing his hands, that he might sit at the table f, seized by sudden death, miserably ended his life. on his death, This

was done, that the word of Blessed Ursulina might be fulfilled, which she had foretold to them; that is, that before her departure they would experience the divine judgment. Then Peter de Luna g took the aforesaid Apostolic letters, and went to Paris to consult the wise men on these matters. The other Pseudo-Cardinals, however, turned to their heart, considering the life and manners and sanctity and constancy of the blessed Virgin, and greatly repentant of the injuries inflicted upon her, caused her to be brought to them, and to obtain pardon for the injuries inflicted, they consult the blessed Ursulina, what they should do. The Cardinals she bends to unity; To whom she: "For the salvation of your souls and of other peoples, unanimously and concordantly obedience must be given to the Most Holy Roman Church without delay." And so all promised that they would fulfill the vows of the blessed Virgin; and immediately they sent solemn ambassadors to the supreme Pontiff Boniface, desiring to come to God's mercy. And with the ambassadors departed and now arrived at Genoa; behold that most ardent enemy of all good works, together with his most wicked minister, namely Peter de Luna, who then after the aforesaid returned with the counsel of the Parisians, full of ambition and serpentine cunning, subverted their salutary counsel, when now all things were prepared and well disposed, for obeying the supreme Pontiff Boniface. and they abandoning what they had well begun, And at once they recalled the ambassadors, and elected Peter de Luna as their Antipope: and so in their already begun perfidy they resolved to persevere. O good Jesus, to whom every heart is open, and every will speaks, and from whom no secret is hidden; did you perhaps turn their wills away, since the conversion was not humble (as was fitting)? Or did they presume to go against the divine will in their perfidy long rooted? I do not know: no one is rightly conscious of so great a discrimination except you.

[29] She returns to Rome, Blessed Ursulina therefore, seeing that they had returned to their former error, destitute of every hope, with her mother as companion, returned to her own country, whence she had departed. And a few days having been interposed, at the Lord's command departing thence, she went to Rome, and seriously narrated all things as they had been done to the supreme Pontiff. By whom when she had been received joyfully and with a glad soul, he, greatly compassionating her on account of the many and various tribulations which at Avignon for the reconciliation of the Catholic faith she had endured, offered himself to her graciously; bestowing upon her some additional graces, namely Indulgences and fourteen privileges, by which she could build an Oratory in her own house, and cause divine Offices and Masses to be celebrated there, and many other things which I now think should be kept silent. At length she returned home; she goes to Milan. where when she had remained for a while, at the divine command she departed to Milan, and approached the Duke of Milan, then called h the Count of Virtue, to whom she revealed many secrets of God for the honor and preservation of his state. But he in no way wished to lend ears, to whom the blessed Virgin began with these words: "Unless you believe my words, nay rather the admonitions of God, know that in a brief time you will suffer the greatest persecutions i and tribulations," which also was done through k Fancincanus, the Leader of the soldiers. For the blessed Virgin was commanding among other things, that he should take up the defense of the Catholic faith, and that by no agreement should he interfere with the sects of churches.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

Blessed Ursulina makes a pilgrimage to the Holy Land: she dies an exile at Verona.

[30] This blessed Virgin therefore, after very many labors and hardships, many pilgrimages having been completed by divine command, when she had determined to visit the most holy sepulcher of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the other places of his nurturing Passion, she came to the most illustrious city of Venice with her mother as companion, having made a pilgrimage to Rome, where there is a great abundance of ships crossing to the aforesaid sacred places. a Having arrived there, when she had understood that a certain most safe vessel was going to sail to the aforesaid sacred places after two or three months, she resolved to board it, the opportune time of her departure being awaited. Meanwhile she revisited Rome, and visited the holy places there: where when she had spent a few days, having received the blessing from the supreme Pontiff, departing thence she entered the city of Urbino: where, by the wishes and prayers of certain venerable ladies for three days she was retained, conversing with each other about God, and consuming the time in the service of Christ. And departing thence, again she came to the aforementioned city of Venice, and more slowly returning to Venice, with her mother as companion: and the ship upon which she had determined to sail they found to have set sail two days before for the desired journey. When her mother bore this not without considerable distress, she said to Blessed Ursulina: "If you had not delayed with those ladies, we would have come at the hour of boarding the good and new ship: behold, it is gone, and we are compelled to board the old one." To whom Blessed Ursulina said: "It is the disposition of divine judgment: now be joyful, my mother, and let no sorrow at all, contrary to God's will, creep upon you: think that this is done by God's will."

[31] And so she directed her step to the very old ship there, in the old ship she sails safely to Jerusalem: and boarded. Which, when with blowing winds it had given its sails to the deep, and now through the middle of the deep, having a prosperous journey, was plowing the Illyrian sea, they see from afar from the ship a rock. The sailors, however, moved with much pity, began to weep over it, saying among themselves: "Alas! in the last few days that ship, laden with so many men and women, hurrying with all devotion to the holy places, which a little before us departed from the Venetian shore, with urging winds and a most savage storm compelling, driven by contrary whirlwinds, being dashed against that rock, equally in all things suffered shipwreck. O unhappy chance! no one from that ship escaped alive." These things having been understood, the mother clearly recognized how much God, the wisest moderator of all things, had care and governance of her and of the blessed Virgin Ursulina: and from then on the mother bore herself more wisely with her daughter, and gave thanks to God for the danger escaped, through the delay made at Urbino with those venerable ladies. she obtains that her life be prolonged for 15 years, Blessed Ursulina therefore, when on account of the unusual waves of the sea she was suffering a most grave vomiting and convulsions of the stomach, so that clearly she did not doubt that the end of her whole flesh was at hand; obtained from the Lord a delay of fifteen years for her life, as he did for Hezekiah, and so it was, as was clear at the end of her life.

[32] At length with favorable winds blowing, with a happy and prosperous course she arrived at the sacred and most desired places; which, when the time was at hand, with every inward devotion, she visits the sacred places; placed in the sacred and silent cabinet of her breast, she began to visit. Indeed no one could conceive, except He the scrutinizer of hearts God, how many tears she poured out at that most sacred manger, where the Savior himself deigned to be born, how many groans; how often with bitter sobs she interrupted her prayers, while she thought with pious soul of how there God and man

gave his first cries, and had shown himself by many arguments to be truly a man. She also meditated, how there the little ass and the ox had recognized their God and the creator of all creation; and through each of the things which there were done, with a pleased mind, with sweet meditation, with a mellifluous taste, she was inwardly fed. After these things, departing thence to the place of the gibbet, nay rather to the supreme mystery of our redemption, anxious and very thirsty with the desire of seeing those places, she arrived. Here that happy soul, but now more happy, here her sacred head, here her mellifluous heart, dissolved utterly in tears and sighs, redoubles her cries, pours forth tears in abundance, draws sobs from the depth of her breast: through each of the things of our Lord Jesus Christ's passion and death she dissolves, ruminates, and by such premeditation overturns all the limbs of her body. All therefore those most holy places having been visited, and the mysteries of each of those places, as we have said, having been tasted; to the city of Venice, having returned to Venice, whence she had departed, she returned with happy navigation. Where she spent very many days most holily, converted many to holiness, and established many good customs; so that she was venerated by all as a saint. Where also her fame and holiness flourishes up to this very day.

[33] and thence to Parma, Thence afterwards she returned to her homeland, where for some time, what she had seen, what she had touched, and what she had so piously tasted, in the silent counsel of her sacred breast she ruminated. O sacred head, and most exceedingly happy soul! how often in those holy places she recalled in abundance her poured forth tears and interrupted sobs! how often she renewed those most sweet sighs and groans! how often she restored anxious and most sweet sorrows, now with hands joined, now crossed, and sometimes spread out to heaven, with upturned eyes! and so with such most sacred meditations, with sweetest thought, with mellifluous bitternesses, she drove forth her holy heart and chaste mind, and most pleasantly struck it. most piously given over to those things which she had seen meditating, To confess the truth, what is sweeter than this meditation? what more pleasing? what more joyful to sight? what more delightful to touch? than there to recall the Lord Jesus born, suffered, and buried for us, and to behold the place of our redemption and release of our miserable captivity; to touch with bodily hands the holes of the Cross and the fissures of the rocks? Who, thinking of these things, seeing and touching them, could restrain abundant tears? Who, I say, so iron, dire and cruel? As I think, no one, who thence with dry eyes, without compunction, without groaning and undevoutly, would depart. Here indeed every iron mind and savage heart would lay aside all its ferocity. What tongue of man can speak, or heart can think, what that blessed and exceedingly happy soul did, said, and thought there? Truly none. Therefore I have more wisely judged that those things are to be passed over in silence, lest perhaps, speaking diminishingly, I might even unwillingly detract from the most illustrious Virgin.

[34] Meanwhile, when with such nourishment the blessed Virgin was being fed in her own country, Ottobon Terzi was holding the Prefecture of the city of Parma b, together with Lord Peter Rubeus, after the death of the Duke of Milan, John Galeazzo Visconti the first, who before had been called Count of Virtue. For a certain discord having arisen between them, Ottobon Terzi prevailed, c who made very many slaughters against the other party, While Ottobon Terzi held tyranny, namely the Rubei; so that in the highest degree he was judged alien from all humanity, and the inventor and fabricator of all ferocity and inhumanity. Into whose heart the devil, destroyer of peace, put it that the blessed Virgin, and the Virgin's mother with a great part of the people, from their quiet and most placid peace should be disturbed: for the enemy envied her so great peace. This Ottobon Terzi therefore, having summoned the blessed Virgin's mother, commanded her and others in such terms she is cast out into exile, that if on that day they should be found in the city, he would not hesitate to deliver them to the flames. For that cruel tyrant had decreed that one candle of two denarii should be placed lit, on d the bell set in the middle of the square, which being burned out, as many as were found in the city should be killed by the sword. When the mother understood this, she marveled much more at the term set for her than at the precept enjoined upon her: for he was of such ferocity toward all, that to no one against whom he had been exasperated a little, did he know how to prefix a delay for departing, but at once strove to fulfill the desire of his most inhuman will. Let no one, however, ascribe these delays to such ferocity, which had before known anything of humanity, but to divine mercy, prevented by the continual prayers and vows of the blessed Virgin Ursulina.

[35] She goes to Bologna, Blessed Ursulina and her mother willingly giving place to such a tyrant, since Truth itself has said, "If they persecute you in one city, flee to another"; leaving their homeland, they came to Bologna; and there for a little, but not for a long time, in all humility, continual prayers, many vigils, frequent fastings, thence to Verona, constant disciplines, and most fruitful meditations, she served Jesus Christ her spouse. Matt. 10:23 Thence with the venerable Lady e Maristella as companion, Abbess of St Paul of Parma, likewise expelled by the aforesaid tyrant (who once saw the said Virgin raised a cubit from the ground, while the Lord showed her in vision the Creation of the first man), and with her mother, they came to Verona, that by her help and industry God himself, the builder of all good things, might establish a certain monastery of nuns, which satan had long before stripped of every order and rule of good living, where she reforms a monastery, to resume, return, and come back to the former holiness of regular observance and regular institutions. Here therefore for three continuous years the blessed Virgin Ursulina lived almost unknown; at least no one judged that she was of such great merit before God, although among other matrons she was held in praiseworthy life and fame. For seeking with her own hands food and clothing for herself, together with her mother she sought little sustenance. But the fat of the holy Spirit, of the holy Scriptures, and the richness of meditations through every moment she sucked; and so she nourished that most happy soul of hers and peaceful mind with divine foods.

[36] and falling into extreme infirmity, Our God and Lord Jesus Christ, however, who is the most ample rewarder of all good works, wishing to make Blessed Ursulina his coheir and partaker of the heavenly kingdom, and to confer the reward of her prayers, vigils, disciplines, fastings, all labors, and her immense charity; sent upon her limbs a certain illness. Which when it was growing excessively strong in the blessed Virgin, the mother said to her: "I beseech you, my daughter, and again I beg you, ask from the Lord the relief of this sickness of yours. Come, my daughter, I beseech you; do as I desire; do as I ask; ask for what I greatly desire. Do not permit me, my daughter, to be deprived of your most pleasing conversation. I beg you, my daughter, have mercy on your mother, have compassion on the pains of the bowels which bore you." With such words therefore the mother in abundance entreated her daughter. To whom the blessed Virgin: "The will of God, my mother, she consoles her mother, we must bear with equal soul; for God himself knows what we have need of. Has he without cause brought us into this wicked and miserable age? Have we not also borne our little portion of the cross? Alas for me! Is it not necessary that we, guilty, suffer with Christ our head? For we are his members. He himself, innocent, suffered, that he might free us from a most shameful death, and so with him, by his mercy, we might fly up to the heavenly country. Know now, dearest mother, and you brothers and sisters standing by, that I have come to the end of all my flesh, and that I ought to return what is hers to our mother the earth. The fifteenth year is now completed, since, when I knew myself near to death, while I was on the ship, I obtained from the Lord an extension of my life of fifteen years: it remains, therefore, that I and you alike submit our necks to the divine will. This is the chief mark of a Christian mind, and the sign of a soul elected to eternal glory."

[37] Then the Reverend Lady Maristella, Abbess of St Paul, about whom we made mention a little before, she testifies to God's liberality toward herself, said to the blessed Virgin Ursulina: "I beseech you, and I entreat you by the Lord Jesus your spouse, who is the highest charity and love, and who is our common Lord, that you teach us, if in this sickness of yours God himself has made you a partaker of the glory of paradise." To whom the blessed Virgin Ursulina, filled with all humility, and infused with great charity, knowing that in a short space she would render her happy soul to God, is reported with every kind of purity to have given such a response: "God, to whom is all glory and praise, and to whom all our intention is directed, by his immense and unspeakable clemency, after he began to make me his handmaid partaker of his immense goodness, never ceased, never was absent, from watering miserable and ungrateful me each day more and more copiously with the dew of his clemency, and with such grace up to now has nourished me." The mother, however, now from these things made more certain of her daughter's passing, on the one hand is filled with joy, since she did not doubt that her blessed daughter was about to ascend to that supernal fatherland Jerusalem the blessed: on the other hand, agitated by excessive sorrow, because she was being forever deprived of such consolation and the firmest staff of her old age. Suppressing, however, her tears, and forcing joy into her mouth, she said to her daughter: "I beseech you, sweet daughter of mine, whom I bore in these bowels of mine, and nourished with my own milk; that before you ascend to that heavenly city, you leave to me and to those standing by some memorial of yourself for the salvation of our souls." Then Blessed Ursulina answered: she gives the best admonitions to those standing by, "Above all, I beseech you, that you have charity toward one another; moreover hold true and living faith, holding for certain, that whatever shall befall you, all proceeds from God on account of the immense love which he has toward his creature, not on account of hatred. Then I exhort, and as a singular memorial I leave you, that you never condemn anyone by your judgment." For the holy Virgin knew how deceitful is the judgment of men, and a most pernicious poison of our souls instituted from nature itself, nay rather from our very fragility.

[38] And when the mother after these things and the others standing by thought that Blessed Ursulina was about to depart from this world, she foretells her day to her mother: and had now, according to custom, lit candles around her, and she herself had recognized this, she said to those standing by: "In vain do you now labor around my funeral; for tomorrow will be our end." Meanwhile the Lord showed her many and stupendous signs concerning the damnation and salvation of various ranks of men, namely of Christians, Saracens and Jews, which I myself saw with my own eyes and read. Finally when in her last sickness she was tormented with the vehemence of fevers, and incredible pain of the loins; and was so attenuated and consumed, that presenting a miracle of herself to all, not a human but a heavenly creature, divinely brought up, could rightly be believed; she herself however with cheerful countenance and serene face,

nothing else resounded from her holy mouth except: "O my Jesus! O my Jesus!" A wondrous and stupendous patience, which without doubt was the gift of God, who works wondrously in his Saints, and is preached wondrous. Ps. 61:2 "Shall not my soul," says David, "be subject to God? for from him is my patience." Then she is reported to have uttered such a prayer to God. and after various affects of love, "O eternal God, O best Master, who hast made and formed this vessel of the body of your creature from the mud of the earth. O sweetest love! O fiery charity, from such vileness you reformed it, in which you placed so immense and great a treasure, as is the soul, which bears the image of you the eternal God. You, good Master, my sweet love. For you are that Master, who build and rebuild, who break and re-solidify this vessel, according to the good pleasure of your goodness. To you the eternal Father I, your miserable handmaid, offer again my life, for your sweet and pleasing spouse the Holy mother Church to be reformed, whom I most highly commend to you. Have mercy, Lord, eternal Father, and pardon me on account of the great ignorance and greatest negligence which I have committed in the Church your spouse: since I have not worked as I ought. I have sinned, Lord, have mercy on me, and, I beseech, bestow upon me your blessing. Amen."

[39] contrition, After these things she often beat her breast, saying: "Through my fault, eternal Trinity, since I have miserably offended your majesty in much negligence, in disobedience, in ingratitude, in ignorance, and in many other defects. Alas, poor me! since I have not observed your general commandments, and the particular ones made to me by your goodness; and most of all that which you imposed upon me, that I should always render honor to you and labor for my neighbor. But I did the contrary, because I sought my own honor, and in the time of necessity I fled labor for my neighbor. Through my fault, Lord: for you, Father, commanded me, that I should altogether leave and lose myself, and seek only the praise and honor of your name, for the salvation of souls, with the desire of apprehending this food upon the table of your most holy Cross: but I sought my own consolation, and did not study to see souls in the hands of lords. You most merciful Father, always invited me to bind yourself with me with fiery and loving desires, with tears of the heart, with humble, continual and faithful prayer, for the salvation of the whole world, and for the reformation of the holy mother Church, your most sweet spouse, promising with this means to reform the same spouse. But I, wretched, never responded, gratitude, but remained sleeping in the bed of my negligence; and therefore so many and so great evils have come upon the world, and so great ruin in your Church the spouse. Alas, wretched me! I have not had in due reverence the innumerable gifts, and graces of such sweetest torments and punishments, which you have placed upon this frail body. Alas! I have not regarded the ineffable affection and honor with which you gave them to me; and therefore I have not received them with affection and fiery desire. Alas! My sweet love; eternal spouse of my soul! you chose me from adolescence to yourself as spouse, and I have not been faithful to you, but unfaithful and adulterous, since I had not full memory of you yourself, and of your most exalted benefits; and therefore my will was not well disposed to love and follow you, as you asked me." Of these and many other things that most pure dove was declaring her fault, often beating her breast by the example of others.

[40] She receives the Sacraments: These things having been done, she received the Sacraments of the Church, with humble devotion and reverence: which having received, she fixed the eyes of her body on a certain image of the Crucified, and began devoutly to pray and speak most high things, which could hardly be understood. Then, having summoned her mother, she said: "Give, sweetest mother, and having requested the blessing of her mother, I beg, the blessing to the daughter whom you bore, since it is time that I return to him who sent me. Behold my Spouse calls me: behold the time and hour are at hand, which I foretold to you." Then the mother weeping from the anguish of her heart, and with every humble devotion, said: "Have mercy, my daughter, on your mother who bore you; have mercy on the bowels which carried you, have mercy on the breasts which nourished you. Whither do you go, my daughter? Alas, where do you leave me? Be blessed, my daughter: but I beg, bless you also your grieving mother." Then Blessed Ursulina, raising her hand a little, she in turn blesses her, blessed her mother and those standing by, and addressing them said: "Lord, you call me: behold I come to you. For I come, not through the merits of mine, but through your preventing mercy, which I ask of you in virtue of the blood of your Son." And thus with sweet voice she said: "Father, into your hands I commend my soul and spirit." and piously dies. Consumed at last by this sickness, nay by this martyrdom, she rested in a holy end: and leaving us in body, she returned her soul to God, about to reign with him forever and ever. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

Virtues of Blessed Ursulina and exhortation to imitate her.

[41] In this order therefore blessed Virgin Ursulina, having died, received the promise, which from a distance she saw and greeted, confessing herself a pilgrim and guest on the earth: "So long as," says the Apostle, "we are in this body, we are pilgrims from the Lord." 2 Cor. 5:6 A body free from corruption for the whole three days, When her sacred little body had been kept unburied for a full three days, on the third day it was so incorrupt, so beautiful, and so tractable, that it was believed not dead but sleeping. "You will not give," says David, "your holy one to see corruption." Which words although prophetically spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose most holy flesh did not see corruption, as the holy Apostle Peter testifies in the Acts of the Apostles; yet also may be understood of the venerable and holy Ursulina and of the other Saints, since they are members of Christ: For he himself, as the Apostle says, is our head, from whom the whole body, namely of the Church, is compacted and connected through every joint. Ps. 15:10; Acts 2:27; Col. 1:18 testifies to the beatitude of Ursulina. Who therefore would not believe this venerable and holy Ursulina, as a member of Christ, to reign with Christ in the heavenly country? Who would doubt her to be Blessed? O Ursulina, truly blessed, thrice and four times blessed: The author invokes her, behold what you believed, now you see; what you longed for, now you hold. Remember us, I beg, and help us, who are tossed about in these tempests of the world: and by the suffrage of your prayers draw us after you, that we may run in the odor of your virtues.

[42] But, O blessed Virgin Ursulina, mother and my most intimate advocatress, I would not even now wish to cease, but that I should pursue and relate with praises, according to the strength of my little wit, your other virtues, and commends her faith, with which you were always adorned: namely faith, hope and charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, and humility. For with faith, without which it is impossible for anyone to please God, this blessed Virgin was so filled, that like another Enoch she continually walked in mind with God. By faith she offered, not like Abel from the firstborn of her flock, but a great host of herself to God, living, holy, pleasing with rational service; being certain that she did not have here an abiding city, but looked for one to come, having eternal foundations, whose artificer and founder is God. By faith, imitating the examples of the holy ancient Fathers, she left riches, honors, and the delights of the world; and counting them as dung, she chose to live in want, in distresses, in afflictions, in labors, that in the heavenly country she might be made worthy of their consortship. By faith finally being justified, she always had peace with God. hope, With hope suspended toward the supernal goods, as a daughter of God, she rejoiced in all tribulations; knowing that tribulation works patience, patience proof, and proof hope. Such hope however did not confound her, since the charity of God was spread abroad in her heart, through the Holy Spirit who was given to her. charity, For with charity she burned toward the Lord and toward her neighbor, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith not feigned: with that charity, I say, of which the holy Apostle speaks, "Charity is patient, is kind, charity envies not, does not act wrongly, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeks not its own, is not provoked to anger, thinks no evil, rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth." 1 Cor. 13 All these things were present in the blessed Virgin: she was patient, she was kind, envying no one, not even the virtuous. Who saw her act perversely in anything? Far from her was pride, far off was ambition. Seeking not her own, but the things of Jesus Christ, she was not irritated by any insults or injuries, as most patient. By no means thinking evil, she grieved over iniquity, and rejoiced over equity and truth.

[43] Of her prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, and the rest of her virtues: what shall I say? She was prudent in things to be done, just in governance, strong in adversity, temperate in prosperity. From her prudence, not ignorant of what needed to be done, she prudently chose what was to be chosen, rejected what was to be rejected; temperately she used prosperity, strongly she bore adversity. Distributing justly to each what was his, she was of such great prudence, that she desired nothing to be repented of, did nothing beyond the just; of such great temperance, that fearing nothing but base things, whatever she thought, whatever she did, she directed according to the norm of

reason; of such great fortitude, that she not only repressed earthly desires, but even forgot them entirely; of such justice finally, that directing every thought of her soul to God alone, she beheld him, as the beginning, middle and end of all good things, with the fixed gaze of her mind. What more? whom like another Judith she applauds, Equipped with the arms of all the virtues, like another Judith, she so strenuously confounded and overcame the proud Holofernes with his whole army, that is, the devil with all vices, that rightly of her it can be sung: "God has blessed you by his power, because through you he has brought his enemies to nothing. You are the glory of your city of Parma: you are the joy of your people: you are the ornament and distinction of your race: you are the honor of your daughters imitating you: who fought manfully, and your heart was strengthened, because you loved virtues, and did not walk after vices; therefore the hand of the Lord strengthened you, and you shall be blessed forever." This most holy Virgin therefore, adorned with these gems and precious stones, and decorated with virtues of this kind, was she not introduced into the chamber of her beloved Spouse, and does she not deserve worthily to hear: "You are all beautiful, my friend, and there is no stain in you?"

[44] and the nuns of St Quintinus, Wherefore, Reverend in Christ Mother, and you most devout in Christ Sisters, let us rejoice and exult, and give glory to God, who granted us to have such an advocatress and imitator: who, having been introduced into the chamber of the eternal King, continually asks from God salvation and grace for us: for whom, by the merit of her virtues, we trust that nothing at all will be denied. But it remains, my venerable and most beloved Mothers in Christ, that in conclusion I, though not necessary, yet with filial boldness and love, exhort you, she invites to her imitation, that you strive to imitate the footsteps of the aforenamed most blessed Virgin Ursulina by a right path. For she is a burning lamp, not placed under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, which by the splendor of her virtues and the brilliance of her miracles shines not only for us, but for all the faithful in the house of God. This one, I say, precedes you nuns, led out of Egypt, that is, out of the darkness and distresses of the world, and proceeding through the vast and terrible wilderness of this world, and longing to come to the land of promise flowing with milk and honey, to the heavenly country, in which is the holy city Jerusalem, that is the vision of peace, as a column: which like fire in this dark desert, in the night of temptations, affords you the light of discretion; and in the very heat of temptations bestows on you the consolation of refreshment.

[45] especially in humility, Your holy College is that Evangelical field, full of sweetest odor, which the Lord has blessed, and which shows by what way each one of you ought to enter the chamber of the supreme King, where the most holy Virgin Ursulina has already been introduced, through her singular humility, which is the first of Christian virtues. For those who are true virgins and disciples of the Lord, ought, as Christ walked, themselves also to walk. For he himself taught his disciples and imitators this, as the foundation of all virtues, by word and example: by word, when he said, "Learn from me," not, as St Augustine says, to fabricate the world, not to create all visible and invisible things, not to do miracles in the world itself and raise the dead; but "because I am meek and humble of heart." By example moreover, since being the Son of God and eternal God, immense, incomprehensible, founder of all visible and invisible things, descending from the Paternal glory and his royal seats into this valley of misery, from the womb of the humble and most holy Virgin Mary assuming human flesh, being humbly born, a little child, little and poor, whose exemplar Christ showed himself, and most humbly for thirty-three years having conversed in this world, at length from his humility he deigned to be seized, flogged, crucified, and die for our redemption, with the humble and contemptible death of the cross. Phil. 2:8 "For he humbled himself," says the Apostle, "unto death, even the death of the Cross." No foundation therefore is better, none more useful, none more salutary than this, which Jesus Christ the blessed laid. Namely humility, without which, as St Gregory says, he who gathers the other virtues, carries them as it were dust in the wind; and where he seems to bear something, from there he is worsely blinded. and which is the foundation of perfection, Upon this therefore the fabric of the other virtues is to be constructed; that one may come to the summit of charity, which is God.

[46] If you desire to be exalted, if you desire to come to the sight of God, most beloved and venerable Mothers, dwell upon this foundation: upon it build for yourselves of living stones, that is of virtues, a tabernacle not made with hands on earth, but spiritual and eternal in the heavens. Imitate the venerable and holy Virgin Ursulina, who entirely founded herself in this virtue of humility, as a true disciple of her most benign Spouse Jesus Christ, whom she followed in mind and prayer, most humbly for her whole life in the world conversing; most necessary to virgins, and at her end showed to you and to the other Virgins the aforesaid example of humility. Concerning whom, although the Apostle Paul says he has not a precept of the Lord, yet he gives counsel, because it is good for them, if they so remain. 1 Cor. 7 Then he subjoins: "The unmarried woman and the Virgin thinks of the things that are the Lord's, how she may please God, and may be holy both in body and in spirit"; "the things that are God's," he says, "she thinks of, not certainly those of the age; not those of men, but those of God she thinks of." "First how," he says, "she may please God," not indeed men; since if, according to the same Apostle, he studies to please men, he is not Christ's servant. Gal. 1:10

[47] Then he subjoins, "that she may be holy in body and in spirit. Holy," he says, who ought to be holy in body, "in body," that is, that in all members of her body she preserve holiness; since the sanctification of the other members profits nothing, if in one corruption be found. Let the Virgin therefore cleanse, that she may be holy, her head, as the principal member of the body, from all the defilements and ornaments of the world and vanity. Let her cleanse her neck; that her ears bear not jewels, but rather those ornaments, of which Scripture says: "Let not mercy and truth depart from you, bind them on your neck." Prov. 3:3 Let her cleanse her eyes from all concupiscence; since the holy prophet Jeremiah complains saying: "My eye has plundered my soul." Lam. 3:51 Let her cleanse her tongue from lying: "For the mouth that lies kills the soul." Let her cleanse it from murmuring, from detraction, from swearing; because it is Scripture, "You shall not swear at all, but let your speech be, Yea, yea, No, no." Matt. 5:34 Let her cleanse it from frivolous and idle words: "For of every idle word we shall render account in the day of judgment." Let her cleanse her ears, that only to holy and true speeches they lend hearing. Let her also cleanse her hands, that they be prompt to every work of piety and mercy. Let her finally cleanse her feet, that they walk the steep and narrow way which leads to heaven: "for the way by which one goes to heaven is called the holy way," as Isaiah the Prophet says, "and a polluted virgin shall not pass through it." Isa. 35:8 And when she has cleansed all the members of her body from every stain of sin, then let her know that virginity will profit her. Therefore let her be holy in body; let her also be holy in spirit, and in spirit: that is, that what is unlawful to be done in deed, she does not admit in thought; for that virgin is holy as much in body as in spirit, who sins neither in body nor in mind, knowing that God is the inspector of the heart. Wherefore, sacred Virgins, give effort, I beg, that in every way you have your mind with the body clean from sin, since it is written: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God." Matt. 5:8 Finally, all of you together, Mothers, I exhort, that you be to all a form of piously living in Christ, and exemplar of virtues, just as the aforesaid venerable and blessed Virgin Ursulina was.

[48] he excuses himself because he has presumed to write, But now it is time, most beloved Mothers and venerable Sisters in Christ, that I impose an end to this work of mine, in which I fear being accused of exceeding measure, of having been too presumptuous and rash. "It is the office of a Monk," someone will say, "rather to lament and pray, than to waste time in the composition of such writings." I, however, call God, the inspector of the heart, to witness, that not from rashness nor from any presumption was I led to dictate this little work; but only to this I was impelled by a singular zeal of devotion, and the greatest force of love which I have had, have, and always shall have, as long as life shall accompany me, both toward you, my most beloved and venerable in Christ Mothers, as also toward the venerable and most blessed mother and my advocatress the holy aforesaid Ursulina, impelled by devotion and affection, upon whose tomb I determined to scatter these flowers of her virtuous life in place of an Epitaph, absent in body but present in spirit. Nor has it seemed to me that I have consumed time uselessly, since I have studied to commit to the memory of letters, according to the little measure of my wit, the praises and virtues of so great and so venerable a Virgin, for the example and utility of posterity. But that I have not kept measure, charity has done it, which, when it is true, does not know how to keep measure in good works. I trust however concerning you, that (let whoever wishes reprehend me) nevertheless this filial service of mine and pious study will not be ungrateful to you, on account of your humanity and love toward me: and it will be enough and more than enough for me, though reproved by others, if I shall have known that I have done a thing pleasing to you.

[49] Receive therefore, my sweetest Mothers in Christ, and asks that they hold this little work as welcome, this little gift from the hand of my heart, of your poor little servant, both for the memory and honor of our most beloved mother the blessed Virgin Ursulina, and in contemplation of you, dictated by me, with love instigating, with rude style; and love me as your son or little servant: for truly I love you with my whole heart in Christ. Open yourselves, I beseech, toward me in the bowels of charity, because my heart toward you is wholly opened. Remember me continually in your holy prayers, in which I have placed great hope and confidence. I, as a suppliant, beg almighty and most holy God, that upon you, and he wishes for them perfect sanctity. as long as you are in this pilgrimage, he may infuse so great a blessing to the fullness of sanctity, that, following the footsteps of the aforesaid venerable and most blessed virgin Ursulina,

one after another, having completed the course of this mortality, you may deserve to be sanctified in the Churches; just as I in no way doubt her to have been sanctified, to whom that word of the Apostle can most truly be applied, that namely God from eternity foreknew and predestinated her to be conformed to the image of his Son. Rom. 8:29 "Whom however he predestinated, these also he called; and whom he called, these also he justified; and whom he justified, these also he magnified," that is, he made great by sanctity. And may the God of hope fill you, most devout Mothers in Christ, with all joy and peace, that you may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

CHAPTER VI.

Certain Miracles of Blessed Ursulina.

[50] The sacred and venerable body of the nourishing Virgin Ursulina was buried at Verona in the church of St John. The Body entire after a sepulture of a year and a half, Which afterwards, a year and a half having been interposed, her mother caused to be honorably brought thence to Parma, entirely whole and unharmed, and in no way at all damaged by putrefaction or corrosion; nay rather it was fragrant with a wondrous sweetness of odor; and she placed it in the church of your monastery of St Quintinus with great devotion of the people, as you continually behold. This blessed body, when for four continuous days and nights they had left it unburied in the same church, is transferred to Parma. the Lord deigned to show many and very many miracles, that to all the people it might become known, how much the most blessed Virgin was acceptable to him. For I shall narrate a few from many, that from a few, of many, an undoubted faith may be given, how much the blessed Virgin was pleasing to God.

[51] The incredulous Abbess, The Abbess of your monastery of St Quintinus therefore, who, incredulous concerning the sanctity of the Blessed, made a mockery to all, with God permitting, on the second day before the body of the Blessed Virgin was brought to her church, was utterly deprived of all office of hearing. But when the body of the blessed Virgin had been brought into the church, the Nuns signaled to the Abbess by signs and hands, as best they could, that she should visit the sacred body with devotion; for they knew without doubt that this had come upon her by divine judgment, because she detested the blessed Virgin and her life. But this Abbess persevering in her obstinate hardness, and therefore deprived of hearing, rashly likewise mocked the holy women signaling this to her; but that she might satisfy the Nuns so insisting, overcome by their prayers, she went into the church, where the venerable body of Blessed Ursulina stood: yet she did not approach it, but sat apart in the choir of the church. But one of the Nuns, who perhaps more than the others was held by devotion of so great relics, standing behind the Abbess, with a straw reverently touched the body of Blessed Ursulina, she is cured by touch: namely through each part of the face, and this done she soon behind, the said Abbess not knowing, with the said straw touched the ears of the Abbess herself, who immediately received her former hearing. This Abbess therefore, moved by the novelty of so great a miracle, forthwith prostrated herself before the sacred relics of Blessed Ursulina, humbly asking pardon for so long protracted incredulity, and for the benefit bestowed upon her gave immense thanks to God and the blessed Virgin.

[52] A guilty man is freed from execution, A certain German, committed to prison on account of his demerits, when on the morrow he was to undergo a capital sentence, a certain woman, who bore this man's death most grievously, prostrated herself before the venerable Relics of Blessed Ursulina, and pouring out most abundant tears, said: "I beseech you, most pious Virgin, and earnestly ask, if you have been elected by God (as all say) and if you have found grace in the sight of God, that you obtain grace from God, that this poor and very unhappy man, allotted to capital sentence, may not perish; but by your merits may find the grace of liberation before God." A wondrous matter and indeed most astonishing! He who on the morrow was to undergo a capital sentence, is freed, and permitted to go away unharmed. Offspring is obtained for a sterile woman, A certain woman, while Blessed Virgin Ursulina was yet among the living, beseeched her mother, that she should ask her daughter for her, that she might intercede to the Lord for her, namely that she might deserve to be able to conceive children, because she was sterile: which when Blessed Ursulina had requested, a few days after this woman conceived, as she had desired.

[53] A certain virgin, who had been very domestic and familiar with Blessed Ursulina while she lived, was compelled by her parents to be betrothed to a man, to a virgin deprecating forced nuptials, although she had of her own proposal consecrated her modest and sacred body to the Lord, and desired with the greatest zeal to preserve it. This virgin however, destitute of all help, when the day of marital coupling was at hand, betook herself to Blessed Ursulina, as to the last and singular refuge; and when in the secret of her chamber she was insisting upon such speeches, she beseeched the blessed virgin: "And if I am certain, most chaste Virgin and most pleasing to God, that your intercessions with God are many and efficacious; I beseech you, I beg you, and with all my bowels I, wretched and unhappy, entreat you, and by the bowels of the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom while living you greatly loved, I adjure you, that you deign to intercede for me before Jesus Christ himself, when you shall be face to face, that if it is just and possible (since all things are possible before God) to this mortal spouse, to whom I am unwillingly betrothed, I may not be joined; but modest and chaste I may be able to preserve myself for your eternal spouse, our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom for a long time already I have with all my bowels and mind dedicated myself: and again with you as witness, now (if however you do not disdain to assist me, a wretched sinner) I offer, that I shall preserve myself pure and chaste, with the Lord Jesus Christ himself favoring, and with your merits co-operating, as long as I shall live. Come now, blessed Virgin, receive the prayers of this unhappy and devoted, though sinning, handmaid of yours: hear the vows: and look upon the tears which I now pour out, and the bitter sobs. I ask and again I ask, that you do not permit that they return to me empty, the tears which I have drawn from my most bitter breast: for you learned, while living, to have compassion on the miserable, and to have mercy on the afflicted: therefore much more, standing in glory, you ought to have compassion on these and have mercy: for in you is all my hope, and through you I hope to obtain every vow. Wretched me! alas, wretched me! O blessed Virgin, hasten to console me. I await your help; I long for your assistance; and I am certain, most pious one, that you will not despise so many prayers, so many tears, and such great sobs and bitter groans. Come now, hasten, that you may rescue me from such and so great misery and irrevocable fall."

[54] Blessed Ursulina appearing, Scarcely had she finished such words, when behold Blessed Ursulina appeared to her, clad in that same habit in which she had been accustomed to see her living, but much more beautiful; at whose sight that young woman, terrified, did not dare to look. Whom when Blessed Ursulina had recognized as trembling so, she said to her: "Do not fear, sister, behold I am here, whom you so greatly entreated: be of good cheer, my beloved sister, and coheir of the eternal kingdom with me: now rejoice and exult in our Lord Jesus Christ our spouse. Rejoice, I say, sister, because your entreaty and tears poured forth in abundance have passed the clouds, and passing through all the heavens and golden stars, have soon arrived at the sight of the divine majesty. Be now joyful, because our Lord Jesus Christ, the true and eternal spouse, promises her a blessed death within the third day: that he may consent to your will, invites you to eternal nuptials; for on the Lord's day to come you will rejoice with us in perennial glory." And this annunciation was on the Wednesday before the same Lord's day, when she passed on to eternal nuptials, and the young woman's parents had determined altogether to consummate the temporal nuptials. With such things said, the blessed Virgin Ursulina withdrew herself from human eyes. Then that young woman was filled with all joy and sweetness, and through every hour and moment the appointed day of her passing she silently remembered within herself, nor did she cease to render worthy thanks to God and the blessed Virgin: for she had obtained her vow more fully than she had asked. For on that day the young woman herself began to be febrile, and through her languid limbs a disordered heat to run, and to shake from the marrow all the strength of her little body and the senses. She, the young woman, soon to enjoy the heavenly kingdom, bore all things with equal soul; gladly suffering, but more gladly awaiting future rewards: for with the hope of glory immediately to come she extinguished her immense languor, and compensated the brief punishment with perennial reward. Unto the Lord's day, the third, namely from the apparition of Blessed Ursulina, the young woman herself, greatly weighed down by fever, full of pains, very anxious in body, but in mind cheerful, came; and at the hour appointed for her by Blessed Ursulina, rendered her spirit to the Lord Jesus Christ, to reign with him for ever and ever. Amen.

[55] she heals a dying man, A certain young man, held by a certain grave infirmity and now brought to the extreme, when by his mother, who bore her son's infirmity grievously, he was devoted to the sacred Virgin Ursulina, soon with strength resumed, in a brief time was plainly freed. she saves a woman about to be drowned, A certain woman of Verona, who, while she was washing a certain linen cloth at the river, and it leapt from her hands, and, desiring to recover it, was being carried together with the linen cloth by the course of the river through the water; seeing herself in danger of drowning, she invoked the Virgin; and immediately by the Virgin she was brought back with the linen cloth to the shore, and was freed from the aforesaid danger. she averts blindness, A certain woman, named Catherine, was suffering so much in the eyes, that with one almost blinded for shame she did not go out of her house. She devoted herself to the Virgin, who the following night appeared to her saying: "Go in the morning to Mass, and you will be freed"; and so it was done, as the virgin Ursulina had foretold to her. she changes a purpose of apostasy by her prayers:

[56] A certain nun in Venice was greatly tempted by the devil, that she should lay aside the habit of religion and join herself to a certain young man: and she was already reduced to this, that she was about to flee from the monastery altogether with the aforesaid young man. The mother, however, of the aforesaid nun, devoted to the holy Virgin Ursulina, understanding this and bearing it grievously on account of her daughter's honor, ran to the blessed Virgin Ursulina, and begged her, that she would obtain stability for her daughter from the Lord, and would drive out that most nefarious temptation from her heart. The blessed Virgin Ursulina entered her oratory, and prayed for the nun; and going out from there she handed to the mother of the aforesaid nun a certain writing, that she might take it to her daughter to be read. For it was written in the said paper thus: "Momentary what delights, eternal what tortures." And when the aforesaid nun had read it, she was soon made stable; and persevering in her former purpose, until the end of her life she served the Lord, and rested in peace. Amen.

[57] she shines with innumerable other miracles. But how many miracles the Lord works, through the merits of this most holy Virgin Ursulina, our Reverend Mother, I have considered it more worthy to leave to be heard and added by you most beloved Mothers in Christ, than to relate them insufficiently and with less polished eloquence. Wherefore, most devout Mothers in Christ, from these few we ought to consider many more, and her wondrous life, her most distinguished manners and holy conversation; that taught by so great an example, we may be able to come to that eternal beatitude, in which the blessed Virgin herself happily rejoices with God the Father, and his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Spirit, to whom be praise, honor, power and dominion through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

Here ends the compendious description of the Life of the most blessed Virgin Ursulina of Parma, most illustrious spouse of Jesus Christ. In the year of the Lord 1472, on the day of the ten thousand Virgins, in the month of October.

April I: 8. April

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