Martin

ON BLESSED MARTIN

SOLITARY AT GENOA IN LIGURIA

IN THE YEAR 1342,

Martin, Solitary, at Genoa in Liguria (B.)

By the author D. P.

A fruit of the survey of Genoa in the month of March 1662 was the lives of a few saints, surviving the almost universal destruction of manuscript codices, to which in past years the fear of pestilence had impelled the trembling Conservators of the public health, In the temple of the monastery of St Benignus when without any discrimination they commanded to be burned whatever furniture of those houses which contagion had touched. Frustrated therefore in the hope of such monuments, as in the most ancient and most noble city of all Liguria, of finding a great abundance, we more zealously went to the very temples in which the Bodies and Relics of saints were said to be kept and honored. Among these was the monastery of St Benignus, inhabited by Religious of the Benedictine Order; to which was added a sufficiently elegant temple which on each side had three altars; those however of these which held the middle place on each side excelled the other two in this, that they exhibited to the gaze and veneration of those approaching two marble chests, precious with the body of some Saint deposited within. One was said to be of St Bede, about whom we shall treat on April 10; the other of Blessed Martin the Hermit, about whom we now speak.

[2] above the altar we saw the chest of Blessed Martin, These chests, elevated above the very altars, so looked at each other mutually, that the one which contained the bones of Blessed Martin, occupied the right side of the church, the other the left: both however were so inserted into the wall, that only a single side of them was given to be viewed. Therefore in the receptacle of Blessed Martin we saw none of those inscriptions, which we shall soon say were engraved on it; but only the leafy engraving of elegant work; and at the corners of the chest painted in the wall on one side St Benignus, in the Levitic habit; on the other side Blessed Martin, in the eremitic habit; both with radiant head, both kneeling, whose feast is kept on a day of holy Easter week, as adoring the image of the Virgin Mother of God, which stands above the chest. Before this altar each year, on the fifth day of Easter week, the commemoration of the Blessed already mentioned is celebrated: and formerly indeed there used to be read a brief life of him, composed in Italian about the end of the 15th century, which we have transcribed and give in Latin; but now for the reading there is a panegyric sermon, concerning the praises and virtues of the Divine one there to be honored: the festivity and all things pertaining to it being procured by the college of Tailors, who chose him as their Patron, as a professor of the same craft: and then they, with their Consuls, used to gather in numbers. The same have taken care, that the head separated from the rest of the body be enclosed in a silver herm, which the Religious custodians so keep in the sacristy, that they may at their times expose it together with the head above the altar, especially on their own feast, as we have said.

[3] Have this Latin synopsis of the life and cult from another more recent MS. of the same monastery: Compendium of the life from a MS. "Martin, from Rimini, a noble and strenuous soldier, was first a courtier: but on a certain day, moved by anger, he killed a comrade very dear to himself and to his Prince. For this cause driven into exile, he came to Genoa; and between Pegli and the Voltri chose a place for himself near the sea, in which he led an eremitic life, not without opinion of sanctity. But that by some honest exercise he might procure for himself sustenance, and lest from long leisure he should become weak and torpid, he learned the tailor's art, which he most often exercised for the use of the poor. He was wont however sometimes to go to Genoa, to buy for himself necessaries: but wearied with age, that he might not give out on the long road, he would turn aside to the monastery of St Benignus. For he was very familiar and pleasing to the Reverend Prior, by whom he was most gladly received as a guest, nor was he ever permitted to depart empty from him. And when according to custom he had turned in here for the last time, burial. seized by a grave fever, he died, and next to the bell-tower or sacred tower he was committed to the ground. After some months in that place lights were seen at night: wherefore those digging up the body, found it intact and sweetly redolent: which removing thence they placed under an altar sacred to St Martin Bishop. But as miracles increased, the Consuls of the tailors' art, with no small sum of money gathered, caused a marble chest to be constructed, in which they placed the body of Blessed Martin, and with a rather rude and inelegant hexastich and title, testified their religion toward the Saint. epitaph placed in the year 1449.

1449 This work was caused to be made by the craft of Cutters of garments and jupons, begun at Genoa in the time of the Consulate of Martin de Ivera and Peter de Castilione, and finished in the time of Baptist Guidi and Peter de Cara.

Martin lies here, Soldier, Hermit, Blessed: A Tailor indeed he was, now he is called the Father of the Craft."

[4] The day is seen to be April 8, This translation therefore happened in the 106th year after the death of the Blessed: since in the Italian life he is said to have died in the year 1342. On April 8? Not at all. For at that time by the Genoese, after the French manner, years were numbered from Easter to Easter: but the year 1343, in which Easter was held April 13, lacked April 8: because in the following year Easter had to be celebrated on April 4. That therefore in the Kalendar of Saints, who are celebrated in the particular churches of Genoa, printed after the proper Offices of the Church of Genoa, recognized and again edited by the command of Stephen Cardinal Duratius Archbishop of Genoa in the year 1640, it is noted in St Benignus "April 8, the body of Martin Hermit"; this since it cannot be drawn to the year of the printed kalendar, when not the fifth day of Easter, but Easter itself fell on April 8; nor also to the time of death as already said or to the year of the translation made into the marble chest, because both times the said day 8 preceded Easter, on which day first under the altar the body was placed. to be celebrated on April 13: since, I say, from these the reason for the eighth day to be marked in the kalendar cannot be sought; there seems to be place for a conjecture not entirely improbable, by which it could be said, that the 8th day of April, and the same the fifth day of Easter week, was that on which in the year 1344 the sacred body was placed under the altar. So however he had died a few days or months before the same Easter; I however prefer to believe a few days, because the writer of the life asserts that the lights seen above the body were a few days after death, not months; nor does it seem to have required months, that for the body disinterred and whole to the astonishment of all, a wooden chest and place under the altar should be fitted.

[5] As to what pertains to the inscription of the chest, this, as we have said, after the recent renovation of the altars, by which the chest itself was immersed in the wall, does not appear; it notes however the Consuls, not of the city, but of the craft, Patronage of the Tailors, whom in Belgium we call Deans: and when it names the Cutters of garments and jupons, that is, thoraxes, it sufficiently clearly hints, what we know from our parents' memory was observed with us, also to have obtained then at Genoa; namely that under the craft of Cutters, that is of Tailors, were not counted the Hosiers, who made both lower and upper hose (the Italians call "calze" and "calzoni") and had their own separate Consuls or Deans, and abstained from sewing every other kind of garment: but now, with these received into the class of tailors and so extinct, there is no longer any trace of that distinction in Belgium, France, or Italy: but one and the same man fabricates the whole vestment of the entire body, whom from cutting the cloth (for this requires the chief industry of the craft, and belongs only to the masters in it) you see called by the Genoese "Taliator," just as also by the neighboring French "Tallieur": for to cut in Italian is "tagliare," in French "tallier": in which way and signification also in Teutonic, from "Snyden," "Snyder" is used for tailor.

[6] The place near which Blessed Martin led his life, called Pegli, place of retirement. is distant from Genoa seven or eight miles, on the western side of the Ligurian coast; whence not by a great interval is distant Voltri, a village designated by the name Vulturnae by the author of the Compendium. There dwell however, where once the Saint, now the Franciscan Fathers of the Observance, in the monastery which is called of St Anthony. Within the bounds of this monastery a spring is enclosed, of which there is mention of its being miraculously made to flow by the Saint in number 5, and flows with perennial waters in the very shore of the sea: and to it as to a present medicine for diseases and all evils whatsoever, with so great faith and devotion everywhere the inhabitants and neighbors run, that not rarely they congratulate themselves on having obtained the desired health by drinking of that water. From the situation moreover of the said spring, you may learn that not far off was that marine rock of the extreme promontory, which at the prayers of the Saint, dividing into parts, offered a cave fit for his pious exercises: although now not even a trace of that rock is recognized, as writes the Reverend Father John Stephen Fliscus. It is thought, however, that in the building of the temple and monastery, that place or cave was filled with rubble, and with earth carted out for the building of the foundations, and so the memory of such a great miracle was buried.

LIFE

From an old Italian MS. of St Benignus.

Martin, Solitary, at Genoa in Liguria (B.)

FROM THE ITALIAN MS.

CHAPTER I.

The killing perpetrated by Martin, the beginning of a more holy life.

[1] Blessed Martin was born in the March a of Ancona of most noble parents: who, educated by the same in the fear of God and grown up, his friend having been slain took up the military

belt, and lived dear and lovable to all. He had a certain companion dearer than the rest, with whom he was accustomed to frequent the palace of the Governor b Anzelinus, into whose intimate familiarity he so insinuated himself little by little, that of those three there seemed to be one mind only, one will. The devil, sower of all discord, did not bear such concord of theirs, and turning himself in every direction, by his accustomed machinations brought so much to pass that, a quarrel arising between Martin and his comrade, from words it came to hands, and the comrade was killed by Martin's sword. repentant, The place in which the murder was committed was void of witnesses: wherefore it was not difficult for Martin to hide the corpse, and to remain outside of suspicion.

[2] Therefore withdrawing at once, and his anger now subsiding, returning to himself, he conceived in mind an immense sorrow: which when he could no longer sustain, and seeing himself distant about two miles from the place of the murder; he entered the nearest church to himself, and there prostrate before the image of the blessed Virgin, and having confessed to the parish priest, with many tears and laments he began to beseech her, that for so enormous a crime as a most pious mother she might obtain pardon for him from her Son. At length the affection of true contrition progressed to this point, with divine grace illuminating and directing him within, that without any delay interposed he summoned the Parson of the place, for the sake of making confession: who hearing him kindly, and bidding him to hope well of the divine mercy, after assigning a fitting penance dismissed him.

[7] Martin having returned to the court, two days had passed, by the brother of the same one violating his seal when Anzelinus, wondering at the longer absence of the third comrade, inquired of Martin about him. This man denied knowing anything about him, and pretended to be himself wondering how he had as it were vanished from his eyes, who was wont to be assiduous with him and in the court. Therefore Anzelinus, suspecting something sad (yet nothing about Martin, whose love toward his comrade he had known, nor had ever noticed any quarrel with him) commanded an inquiry to be made for the absent one, and to be proclaimed how many gold pieces' price he would give, whoever would point out the Soldier, not long since begun to be missed, alive or dead. The fame of the reward offered by Anzelinus for the sought information reached the Parson, to whom Martin had confessed his crime: when therefore he had a brother pressed by straits of fortune, whose want seemed likely to be greatly relieved by the acquisition of the proposed money, forgetful of the Priestly office, and looking only at the aid of his needy brother, he commanded him to go to Anzelinus, and signify that his comrade had been killed by Martin, about to bring back the promised reward. The wretched man went, thinking of nothing except the money: but when Anzelinus had questioned Martin; and he denying the deed, he threatened the accuser with the gallows, unless he should prove the information by evident testimony; this man did not have a witness whom he could allege, except his Brother the Parson, from whom he confessed he had learned the matter.

[4] and ordered to go into exile Then indeed Martin is called aside again, and life is promised him, if he would confess how he had committed the fault. He therefore, understanding himself to be made known by him, who besides God alone knew the matter; having confessed what was, protested against the injury done to him and to God through the Parson, violator of the sacramental secret. Nor could the Parson deny the fault: condemned therefore to receive on his head the red-hot helmet c, by such a punishment he bore the death he had merited. Martin however from all Anzelinus's dominion, under threat of capital punishment, he chooses a dwelling under a sea-rock; being at once commanded to leave, took up the eremitic habit; and setting out for Genoa, he passed to a place not far distant, by the name of Pegli.

[5] There on the extreme point of the promontory was a rock, which the pious exile judged fit for leading a solitary life; but after the experience of some time, feeling himself too much impeded by the roar of the nearby sea, from reciting the divine Office, and from being able to attend attentively to prayer; he asked God, that he would impose silence on the raging waves of the sea. The divine clemency heard him praying; for the rock dividing into parts, he obtains quiet and water by miracle. one side indeed wrapped itself around with the sea, so that it was as a wall for him standing behind; the other however offered itself to its inhabitant, fittingly hollowed out into the form of a cave. Water was still lacking to the place, to be sought farther off: but this too God granted him, with the vein of a most limpid spring opened at his prayers, which still there gushes forth for the public use and convenience.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Holy life famous for miracles, death. Elevation of the body.

[4] The Blessed one had learned the tailor's craft: when therefore some pilgrims turned aside to him (for that they should do this, the prolix charity of the man of God persuaded), he would repair the garments of those sleeping at night; he exercises the tailor's craft. and by what means he could, with them helped he would dismiss them, not without a viaticum, from those things which had been given to him by way of alms: whereby it came about that his dwelling quickly became a common lodging of poor men and pilgrims. He himself however fasted almost continually, so that except for herbs and a few small fish he admitted nothing for food, he lived abstinently, nor ever ate cheese: on Wednesdays and Fridays however he kept a far stricter abstinence. To boys gathering in summer time and in great number to that promontory for the sake of swimming, he gave suitable instruction, and refreshed them kindly when they asked for bread, and on such occasions caught, he taught them what reverence they owed to God, to the untutored, what obedience to their parents. But one could also see little birds, flying into his lap, eating the crumbs which Martin offered them. When however in the same parts some very noxious serpent was driving away from itself all those dwelling in that neighborhood, Martin, asked by the inhabitants of the place, and armed with the faith of the most holy Trinity, commanded it, to yield its place and be plunged into the sea, he drives a serpent into the sea, and to free the neighbors from fear: what however he had commanded, was suddenly done; and the venomous reptile ceased to be seen and to harm.

[5] Martin would sometimes come to Genoa, especially on Saturdays: and returning thence toward evening, he would turn aside to the monastery a of St Benignus; where, kindly received by the reverend Abbot Oggerius, he would pass that night and the Lord's day, until after the midday meal: which having taken, the Abbot would command the gourd which Martin was carrying to be filled with oil, and for him to be provided with bread and other necessities. It happened, however, that the Procurator of the monastery, commanded to fill Martin's little gourd with oil, reported that the "jarra" b was empty of oil; and begged pardon for himself, he makes a vessel of oil found empty to be full, that he could not do the desire of the Guest and the command of the Abbot. But Martin, full of faith, ordered him to return, and promised that he would find as much as was sufficient. He however, having protested in vain, that he himself had seen the bottom of the empty vessel, and being ordered by the Abbot to return to the storeroom, when he had lifted the cover placed upon the vessel, found the jar full of oil; and having filled the gourd he announced the miracle: which Martin referred as accepted from the divine goodness, and from then on was dearer and more venerable to the Abbot and Brothers.

[6] After these things, perceiving the day of his departure to approach, he returned to St Benignus; having died in the monastery of St Benignus and received with great charity (for now he appeared to be held by burning fever) and placed in bed, he asked for his accustomed Confessor; from whom, absolved of his sins, and fortified with the last Sacraments of the Church, he most religiously migrated to the Lord, he is illustrated by prodigies in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred forty-third. As soon, however, as he exhaled his soul, the chamber was filled with butterflies of inestimable whiteness; which you might rightly suppose to have been Angels, gathered for the accompaniment of that blessed soul. d Solemn obsequies were performed for the deceased, before a great multitude of monks and laymen flowing together from everywhere to see the holy body, because, even dead, he bore the appearance of one smiling, and nothing of a corpse before him. A few days however after his burial, when in the dark of night the Reverend Abbot was looking through the cemetery gate, incorrupt he is dug up, he saw a great light above the tomb of Martin: which when it had become known to the Consuls of the tailor's art, they lifted the blessed body from the earth; and finding it whole and sweetly-smelling, they placed it in a chest fabricated for this, and with the greatest reverence they laid it under an altar constructed for the same end. From everywhere the sick detained by various infirmities flowed here, he shines with miracles. who all returned healthy: some of the very many we shall not be loath to recount in compendium.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

Miracles after the elevation.

[7] A certain craftsman, called master a Otto de Caset, was grieving for his brother's misfortune, whose three sons had already died of epilepsy, They are healed: a dying boy, and the fourth was believed about to expire within hours. He came therefore to St Benignus, and kneeling before the sacred body he besought life and health for his nephew: then, prayer completed, he applied a received small candle to the holy body, and plucked a little fragment from his sarcophagus b: both of these however he brought into the house, where his brother for the whole three days already was awaiting the last spirit of his little son. Immediately however as Otto approached the dying one, and placed upon him the relics which he carried, the boy began to fall asleep, and a little after so healthy to arise, as if his health had never been tried by any disease. Therefore the father and mother of the little one, hurrying with their whole family to St Benignus, and venerating the tomb of Blessed Martin, attested the benefit received by a solemn offering.

[8] A certain woman, the wife of Benedict Francone, leaving at home her son afflicted with a most grave fever, and another with fever, in order to obtain

life and health for him, came to Blessed Martin: to whom, returning home after making her prayer, the boy, now healthy and sound, said: "Come, mother, clothe me in my garments, because I am healed." The father of the boy heard the miracle, hurried with his son to St Benignus, and gave thanks for the benefit received.

[9] In the square which keeps the name of St Magdalene c, dwelt a painter, struggling for full eighteen months with a most grave fever; who when he had heard the miracles of the holy man, and that his body was to be transferred d to another place; likewise a long-continued fever: he decided to visit these sacred Relics in the best way he could. Therefore rising early from bed, and accompanied by his mother, wife, and brother, not without the greatest difficulty he came where he wished: and there straightway feeling a great relief, he persevered in praying until the morrow: and having heard Mass he found himself entirely healthy, and praising and blessing God he departed.

[10] At the gate e of the goat dwelt a woman, whose throat had swollen enormously; when she had it devoutly touched with a small fragment of the sarcophagus containing the sacred body, suddenly all the swelling vanished. many other healings are obtained. Another mute woman by touch of the same relics received the faculty of speaking, and before all proclaimed the virtue of Blessed Martin. The wife of Casuccius of Gisulfus, laboring with tertian fever and grave pain of the stomach, having piously visited the relics of Blessed Martin, immediately recovered. A certain young man marveled and rejoiced that his hand, moved out of place, was in a moment restored to its position by the touch of the same. A certain man of Pontremoli professed, that he was so badly afflicted in the kidneys, that he could in no way raise up his body; that he had obtained sudden health, as soon as something from the wood of the sacred sarcophagus was hung around his neck. A youth of La Spezia, whose right leg, dissolved by paralysis, was insensible and useless, religiously visiting the Relics of Blessed Martin, and kissing the bone f of the shin, received the use of his leg g.

[11] In the year 1485 h or thereabouts, the Procurator of this monastery was the Reverend Father Lord Gabriel de Garbarino, and he greatly loved a certain lay brother of his, to one asking for death Bartholomew by name, vehemently devoted to Blessed Martin. This Conversus when sick begged Blessed Martin instantly, that he would obtain for him from God a quick release from the miseries of this life, Blessed Martin appearing to him announced that his prayers were heard, and that on Saturday he was to be admitted to Paradise. But when Saturday dawned, Blessed Martin appeared again to Bartholomew, and said that the sentence of his death had been changed, longer life because the aforesaid reverend Father had deprecated it. And so recovering he yet lived for some years. Then being again infirmed Blessed Martin showed himself to be seen again, and said: then death on a certain day is foretold, "Behold a rose brought to you by me: be certain that on Saturday you are to enter paradise." Therefore on the said day he had all the Fathers called together to himself, and signifying what had been revealed to him by Blessed Martin, asked to be fortified with the last Sacraments, and having received them he most holily fell asleep.

[12] Conclusion. Many other and almost infinite miracles the Lord has worked through the merits of this holy man, which we shall here forbear to describe, lest weariness be caused to the hearer. It remains that we place our hope and confidence in the mercy of God; and that it may not be in vain, that we strive with all diligence to observe his holy commandments, not by blaspheming, not by profaning sacred places (which are certainly the house of God, and a house of prayer) through fables and other indecent actions, not by avenging injuries, but by forgiving offenses, and by often and frequently commending ourselves to his most Blessed Mother Mary, and to this Blessed one: by whose merits may be given us in this age grace, and in the other glory. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

April I: 9. April

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