Mary of Cleopas

ON SAINT MARY OF CLEOPAS, MOTHER OF SAINT JAMES THE BROTHER OF THE LORD, BISHOP OF JERUSALEM.

FIRST CENTURY.

Mary of Cleopas, in Judea (St)

BHL Numbers: 5430, 5434, 5518

BY G. H.

CHAPTER I.

The Acts of Saint Mary as indicated by the Evangelists. Her kinship with the Mother of God. The bodies of her and of Salome formerly at Constantinople, and their cult there.

The holy Apostle and Evangelist John, in chapter 19 of his Gospel, describing the mysteries of our redemption accomplished on the cross by Jesus Christ our Savior, from verse 25 has these words: "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, Saint Mary of Cleopas is present with the Mother of God by the cross of Christ. whom he loved, he said to his mother: 'Woman, behold thy son.' Then he said to the disciple: 'Behold thy mother.' And from that hour the disciple took her to his own." In Greek the last words read, Ἔλαβεν αὐτὴν εἰς τὰ ἴδια, as if to say: Saint John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, took her into his own keeping. And from that hour, when darkness came over all the earth, it seems that he led her away from the tumult of the Jews, with Mary of Cleopas and Mary Magdalene following her. Whether she was brought away from there and returned to the same place Whether the Blessed Virgin Mary afterwards returned thither is not clear. Johannes Hesselius, in his Censura concerning certain Histories of the Saints, published together with the first edition of Usuard edited by Molanus at Louvain in 1568, in chapter 4 asserts this: "Out of a devotion not altogether solid, the Mother of God herself is depicted as receiving Christ taken down from the cross into her lap, and diligently contemplating the tomb." But we leave these things to the stricter examination of others, because both Greeks and Latins, out of their pious affection toward the Mother of God, and especially the later writers, set forth her grievous sorrows at the death of Christ.

[2] Beyond doubt Mary Magdalene and Mary of Cleopas returned to the cross of Christ, with other women? with Salome the mother of the sons of Zebedee and other women. And John himself saw the side of Christ opened and bore witness. The Evangelist Matthew, when in chapter 27 he had narrated the death of Christ and the centurion's confession about him, adds at verse 55: "And there were there many women afar off, one of whom is called mother of James and Joseph, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him, among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee." So he writes; which the Evangelist Mark in chapter 15 verse 40 indicates in these words: "There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joseph, and Salome." Behold Salome, who in Matthew is the mother of the sons of Zebedee: in the same way in these two Evangelists is called "Mary, the mother of James and Joseph," who above in Saint John was Mary of Cleopas, as will be more accurately proved below. But let us proceed to the said Evangelists. When, therefore, Christ was laid in the sepulchre, according to Matthew verse 61, "There was there Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre": or, as Mark expounds in verse 47, "Mary Magdalene and Mary of Joseph beheld where he was laid." When afterwards Christ had risen from the dead, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulchre, as Matthew relates in chapter 28, which Mark in chapter 16 thus more fully expounds: "And when the Sabbath was past, afterwards having bought spices they wished to anoint Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Mary of James and Salome bought spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus." Thus far concerning the said women; of whom Mary Magdalene is venerated on July 22, Salome on October 22, both inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, as also on this day, April 9, Mary of Cleopas in these words: "In Judea, of Saint Mary of Cleopas, sister of the most holy Mother of God Mary." We have not found her cult proposed under this surname in any earlier martyrology; but under the name of Mary of James she is commemorated on various days, as we shall say below.

[3] Now James, the son of the said Mary, called the brother of the Lord, ordained Bishop of Jerusalem by the Apostles after the Ascension of Christ, her son was Saint James the brother of the Lord. is plainly distinct from James the son of Alphaeus, the Apostle; and although he was not chosen in the number of the Twelve Apostles, yet like Saint Paul he is honored with the title of Apostle, even by Paul himself in the Epistle to the Galatians, describing his first visit to the city of Jerusalem after his conversion, to see Peter, where he adds: "Other of the apostles I saw none, save James the brother of the Lord." Theodoret in his Commentaries on the said Epistle expounds this passage thus: "James was called brother of the Lord, but he was not such by nature; nor was he son of Joseph, as some supposed, born from a former marriage: but he was son of Cleopas, born of Cleopas his father and cousin to the Lord, having for mother the sister of the Mother of the Lord." Thus Theodoret, following Saint John Chrysostom, who also in his Commentaries on the said Epistle to the Galatians thus explains the title of honor: "See with how much honor he named him! For he did not simply say James, but added that magnificent title, 'Brother of the Lord.' He could have distinguished him by another mark if he had said 'James of Cleopas,' which surname the Evangelist gave him. And yet he was not brother of the Lord according to the flesh, but was thought to be so." So he writes. But it is Saint John the Evangelist who gave the surname "of Cleopas," namely while he stood by the cross of Jesus with his mother Mary of Cleopas, that is, the wife, who by the other Evangelists is called Mary the mother of James. That Cleopas was the brother of Saint Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, Saint Hegesippus testifies in Eusebius book 3 of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 11, near the end. How ancient and illustrious a writer Saint Hegesippus is, we have said at his Life on April 7. Now just as Saint Joseph and Cleopas were brothers, the brother of Saint Joseph, so Saint Mary the mother of Jesus and the other Mary were called sisters, because they were the wives of Joseph and of Cleopas: as also Suarez thinks in the third part of Saint Thomas, volume 2, disputation 5, section 3. Further, in Luke 2: "Joseph went up into the city of David, whence both Marys were considered sisters. to be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife, being with child." The Blessed Mother of God herself in the same chapter at verse 48 thus addresses her twelve-year-old son, found in the temple among the doctors: "Thy father and I, sorrowing, sought thee." Therefore, as Euthymius testifies in chapter 19 of John, the Mother of God Mary and Mary of Cleopas were sisters by affinity. Epiphanius in book 3, chapter 78, against the Antidicomarianites, asserts that James was called brother of the Lord because of the great similarity of his manners with Christ, in Greek διὰ τὸ ὁμότροπον, not according to nature but by grace. By this manner of explanation, therefore, Saint Joseph, the spouse of the ever-virgin Mother of God, could have remained with her in perpetual virginity; and Saint Anne, married to Joachim alone, having been long barren, by the singular favor of God bore the one offspring Mary the Mother of God—which is now reckoned the view of very many Doctors of the Church. The remaining things concerning Saint James the brother of the Lord and Bishop of Jerusalem, and the other Saint James the son of Alphaeus, the Apostle, are all ready for the press, to be published on the Kalends of May. Here we go on with those things which are related concerning Saint Mary of Cleopas, mother of Saint James, and Saint Salome, mother of the sons of Zebedee; for the translations and miracles of both after their deaths are so linked together that they cannot in any way be separated.

[4] The Greeks commemorate on April 8 the "Evangelical Matrons," who came on Sunday morning Cult of the Matrons, at the sepulchre of Christ to anoint Jesus: and to them these verses are chanted:

Χριστῷ φέρουσιν ἁι μαθήτριαι μύρα: Ἐγὼ δὲ ταύταις ὕμνον, ὡς δῶρα, φέρω.

The women disciples bring ointments to Christ; I, in place of gifts, bring hymns to them.

The occasion of this solemnity seems to have arisen at Constantinople, on account of the bodies translated to the church of Saint James the brother of the Lord, concerning which in George Codinus, On the Origins of Constantinople, page 56, these words are read: "Justin and Sophia built the temple of the sacred repository in the Chalcoprateia… Near the said temple the same Emperor erected a church of Saint James, where in its repositories are preserved the relics of the Holy Innocents, their bodies at Constantinople. and of Simeon Theodochus, and of the Prophet Zechariah, and of James τοῦ ἀδελφοθέου, the Brother of God. Moreover, on the right side of the sacred repository are placed the bodies of the holy women who bore ointments to the tomb of Christ." The last words in Greek read thus: Ἐν δὲ τῷ δεξιῷ μέρει τῆς ἁγίας σοροῦ, ἐισι κείμενα τῶν ἁγίων μυροφόρων γυναικῶν τὰ σώματα. These seem to be understood as Saint Mary of Cleopas, mother of Saint James the brother of the Lord, and Salome, mother of the sons of Zebedee. That the said temple was consecrated to the honor of Saint James the brother of the Lord is read in a very ancient manuscript Synaxarion of the Church of Constantinople, which belongs to the college of Clermont of the Society of Jesus at Paris, on October 23, on which day the said James is venerated by the Greeks with solemn veneration. The translation of James, Simeon, and Zechariah is commemorated on the Kalends of December in an Arabic-Egyptian manuscript Martyrology. That temple was built

by the Emperor Justin the Younger, nephew of Justinian through his sister Vigilantia, who placed the crown with the dignity of Augusta upon his wife Sophia, after he himself had been crowned on November 14, 565. Now it seems to us more probable that the said bodies of the holy matrons, together with the relics of Saint James the brother of the Lord and of other saints, were at that time either brought to Constantinople or at least deposited in the newly built church. We also scarcely doubt that, during the time when James was bishop at Jerusalem, his mother Mary lived there, and indeed Salome also; and from there the bodies were translated to Constantinople, together with the relics of the said Saint James. Our opinion is supported by the present-day Roman Martyrology, which assigns the heavenly birthday of Saint Salome on October 22 at Jerusalem, and assigns Saint Mary of Cleopas or of James, as above, to Judea.

CHAPTER II.

The sacred cult of Saints Mary and Salome in the Italian city of Veroli: relics and miracles performed there.

[5] The veneration of these matrons did not stop among the Syrians in Palestine, nor among the Greeks at Constantinople, but was transferred to many regions of the Latin Church, to which either both of them together or one of them is said to have come, to have established a dwelling, and, surviving until the end of life, to have obtained burial and sacred cult. This is the boast both of the city of Veroli in the territory of the Hernici, a people of Latium among the Italians; and of the territory of Arles, in the region of Narbonese Gaul in France; and indeed of the city of Ciudad Rodrigo, in the ancient Lusitania of the Spaniards. From the city of Veroli we begin this controversy. We have long Acts of these matrons, transcribed from a manuscript codex of the Most Serene Christina Queen of Sweden, numbered 1131, under this title: "Life or Legend of the three sisters, Some Acts concerning Saints Mary of James and Salome Mary the Virgin, Mary of James, Mary of Salome"; and the prologue of this legend begins thus: "The holy and undoubted, most exalted and saving genealogy of the most blessed Sisters, the glorious ever-Virgin Mary, namely the Christ-bearer, Mary of James and Mary of Salome, maternal aunts of the same our Lord Jesus Christ, their manner of life, and the dissolution of their bodies in the Lord, and their discovery, with the translation and their miracles, we shall endeavor to relate, with God's help, though with slight and unpolished speech." At last, after all these things are fully indicated and related, there is added a short Sermon on the holy Sisters, on the Birthday of the most blessed Mary of James and Mary of Salome, sisters of the most sacred Virgin and maternal aunts of Christ. And after the last leaf, written in another hand, was: "This book was newly written in the year of the Lord 1491, and given to the Masters for preaching in the same year." Written in the 15th century The author writes that he was miraculously cured of pains of the stone in 1423, and confesses in the Prologue that he had brought forth in Latin eloquence, from French writings, the virtues and praises of these women, to be recalled with the greatest humility to the memory of readers in the yearly round. The authors of the French writings are indicated by Colvenere on May 25 in his Marian Calendar. "The first author of these," he says, "is John of Vinette, of the Order of Carmel, by nationality a Picard, in French rhyme: from whom, with many additions from Latin books, as he says, John Droven, Bachelor in both Laws, rendered it into prose." So he writes. After others, John Baptist de Lezana, volume 4 of the Carmelite Annals, year 1367 number 3, mentions John of Vinette, and asserts that among other works he produced the Lives of the Three Marys. But Antonius Verdier, they are not sufficiently solid. in the French Library, mentions John Droven or Drovyn, Bachelor in both Laws, adding that he translated from Latin into French the Rule of Honor, from which he exhibits a rhyme placed at the beginning of the book, but in old and unpolished French. Who the author was that translated all these things into Latin remains hidden. This one thing we can say about all of them, that they heaped together various matters without any examination; from which we select a few miracles, as more probable, which are related to have taken place in Gaul, to be given below. They are mistaken, moreover, who, in order to find three Marys, nor was Saint Salome a Mary. call Salome the mother of Saints James and John the Evangelist "Mary of Salome," as if this Mary were the wife of Salome. But Salome is a woman's name and not a man's, and so was called also the mother of the seven Maccabee Martyrs; Salome was also called the wife of Aristobulus and sister of Herod, in Josephus, book 13 of the Jewish Antiquities chapter 19, and book 15 chapter 3.

[6] How Mary of Cleopas, the mother of Saint James the brother of the Lord, was called sister of the most blessed Virgin Mother of God, we have said above. That Salome was held to be sister of the same Virgin Mother of God is not read either in the Evangelists or in the ancient Fathers. Whether Salome was the sister of Mary of Cleopas, and from this the occasion was given of saying that she too was sister of Mary the Mother of God, we have no basis from which to assert solidly, or to refute those who so assert. But we think this is a sufficiently convenient explanation for those things which are read about them, as sisters of the Mother of God, in various Missals and Breviaries. We have ancient Breviaries of the Church of Auxerre in Gaul, and of Tournai in Belgium, in which on May 25 the feast of Saints Mary of James and Mary of Salome, sisters, is celebrated with solemn cult; and in the Breviary of Tournai nine, and in that of Auxerre six proper Lessons are recited concerning them in the first and second Nocturns, together with proper hymns, antiphons, responses, and collect. The said feast is celebrated on the same day in the Breviaries of the ancient profession of the Regulars of the most blessed Mother of God and ever-Virgin of Mount Carmel, according to the approved usage and custom of the Church of Jerusalem and of the Lord's Sepulchre. How the said usage was transferred from Gaul and Belgium to Jerusalem, we have said on April 8 in the Life of Saint Albert the Patriarch of Jerusalem and lawgiver of the said Carmelite Order; and this same thing is confirmed from this. cult in various Breviaries and Missals, In the Church of Reims the said feast of Saints Mary of James and Salome is celebrated on May 11, and three lessons, different from the earlier ones, are reported to be recited in the second Nocturn, in which only Saint Mary of Cleopas is called maternal aunt of Christ the Lord. In the Missal of the Church of Utrecht, printed in 1514, after the Masses of the Common of Saints, there is a Mass in honor of Saints Mary of James and of Salome, and the same Collect is prescribed as in the Breviaries of Auxerre and of Carmel. But both are called sister of Mary the Mother of God and maternal aunt of Christ, and a Sequence is added to be recited before the Gospel, where the same things are explained. All these are magnificently printed together at the press of Josse Bade in 1529; and in the office of the Breviary all the psalms are also inserted at the diurnal Hours and at Compline, as in the Mass the whole Canon and Preface and other things with their notes. Added is the lucubration of John Bertaud of Perigueux, on the kinship of Saint John the Baptist with the daughters and grandchildren of Blessed Anne. In this is pressed upon us the mother of the same Blessed Anne, Emerentia, married to Agar—according to others Emerentiana, married to Stollanus or Gazirus—to whom she bore Esmeria, mother of Elisabeth the mother of Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Anne who bore Mary the Virgin Mother of God by Joachim; and moreover she is said to have borne Mary of James by another husband, Cleopas, married to Alphaeus, and Salome by a third husband, Salomas, married to Zebedee. These things, as they have been ingeniously invented by some, are not easily to be admitted without the consent of Holy Scripture and the ancient Fathers, they are said to have lived with the Mother of God, and must be further examined at the Life of Saint Anne on July 26. So much concerning the genealogy. But after the death of Saint Anne and her husbands, if she had had several, and after the deaths also of the husbands of Salome and Mary of James, these matrons, now widows (as the aforementioned Legend has it), are said to have come to the dwelling of the Virgin Mother of God, and there to have taken up residence and lived. Which we judge can be said more probably of Mary of James and her sons, reckoned therefore brothers of the Lord. According to the same lucubration, these same matrons were present as a consolation to the Mother of God when her spouse Joseph was dying a holy death, and when she had died and when Christ was breathing his last, nailed to the cross for the redemption of the human race; finally, after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, they had remained with the Mother of God until they had rendered her the final obsequies at her own death. Having set out for Italy, they died at Veroli. But afterwards, when rumor had spread that Saint John, son of Salome, had been cast into a vat of boiling oil at Rome and had come out of it safe and unharmed, leaving Palestine they had sailed to Italy, and going on to Rome had dealings with Pope Clement; and being more fully instructed on all things, they had come to the city of Veroli, and there both had passed from this mortal life, being laid in the same tomb—Mary of James on May 25, Salome on October 22. Almost the same things are related in the ancient Carmelite Breviary at the feast of Saint John at the Latin Gate on May 6, at least one of them, but only about the mother of Saint John.

[7] Baronius, in his Notes on July 25 treating of Saint James the Apostle, brother of Saint John, asserts from the monuments of the Church of Veroli that the mother of these men, Mary the wife of Zebedee, in that persecution which followed the death of Saint Stephen, having been driven into flight, came to Italy, and among the Hernici, weary from the journey, rested in peace; and that her venerable body is there religiously preserved—with no mention made of any companion or sister. In the same way Ughelli, in volume 1 of Italia sacra when treating of the Bishops of Veroli, whose body was found in 1209 recalls one matron alone, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, and does not call her Salome but Mary of James, who died on June 26. But he says that the sacred body of the same Saint Mary of James was found on May 25 in 1209, in the twelfth year of the pontificate of Innocent III, in the tenth year of Oddo Bishop of Veroli, after it had been revealed both by her son, the Blessed James the Apostle, and by Saint Peter, to a certain man of Veroli named Thomas, who frequently prayed in the church dedicated to that same Prince of the Apostles—found to the greatest joy of all, in a certain cave outside the city, long since hidden by the faithful of old. … And the Church of Saint Mary of James was built, "Very many miracles, moreover, worked by the Lord at the finding of the sacred body of Mary of James, and innumerable peoples flowing together from every side, and so great an abundance of alms that from them first a small church, then a most noble one, which now exists, was built to her glory and honor, the ancient monuments of the Church of Veroli relate." And a little later he asserts that even now the Cathedral Church is rich in the relics of saints, among which he reckons the body of Saint Mary of James. About this matron the following is read on May 25 in the present-day Roman Martyrology: "At Veroli in the territory of the Hernici, the translation of Saint Mary of James, whose sacred body is illustrious for very many miracles." Baronius in his Notes adds these things: "The history of this event has been received by us, published by the Church of Veroli, where her body

is most fittingly preserved. There are there several miracles written concerning the matter. We have also received other manuscripts concerning these things from the Church of Pistoia, agreeing with the aforesaid. We have transcribed these last at Rome from volume A of the Galloni collection among the Fathers of the Congregation of the Oratory at the Chiesa Nuova, as reported to Pope Innocent III. together with the report of a certain Abbot to Pope Innocent concerning the discovery of the relics of Saint Mary of James, which is found thus in a fragment of the Acts of the Bishops of the Church of Veroli, in volume E of the said Galloni.

[8] "To the Most Reverend Father and Lord Innocent, the supreme and universal Pontiff of the Holy Roman Church, Brother G. Abbot of Casamari, offering the submission of due obedience. A certain young man of Veroli, among other visions which he asserts he saw, is reported to have seen this one, which I am writing back to Your Holiness. He saw, as he asserts, the Blessed Apostle Peter manifestly, who showed him clearly the place where he affirmed that the relics of the mother of the sons of Zebedee were hidden. After some days there was a going to the place which had been pointed out to the boy by the Apostle, and I was present with two of my brethren, at the request of the Venerable Bishop of Veroli. The place was outside, near the walls of the city, steep and dry and very difficult to reach, full of precipices and rocks; and the rocks were of such mass and size with this inscription that they could not be broken and moved from their place without stakes and iron hammers and much labor. When they were moved, a cavity was dug about the height of a man, and a stone was found, under which another stone was found, where it was written: 'Mary, mother of the Apostles John and James, lies in this.' A little paper was also found, on which was written the same thing that was on the stone; which paper was sewn into a cloth, in which the relics themselves were wrapped. The paper, the cloth, and the bones, all were pure, whole, and intact, as if they had just been placed there. The bones, then, that were thus found, just as the aforementioned young man had seen and foretold, the Bishop lifted up, and handed to me, which I after a little returned to the Bishop. The Bishop gave them to his Vicedominus, the Vicedominus to a certain Monk of mine; and the Monk, touching one of the bones, saw and felt his hand suffused with fresh blood; and afterwards I, together with many others, saw the cloth and the towel suffused with blood, in which the relics were wrapped. During the excavation a most sweet odor filled me and all who were present. It did not last very long, but also a great earthquake, as they say, occurred, though I did not feel it. After a few days, going there with the Lord Bishop of Penne and the Abbot of Saint Anastasius, in a bone, as I think the shinbone, we saw pure and fresh blood. What I have seen with my own eyes I have faithfully reported to Your Holiness."

[9] Elsewhere the bodies are said to have been found. So far this account; from which different things are related in the Legend cited above: namely, that Blessed James, brother of Saint John the Evangelist, appeared to the Bishop of Veroli and pointed out the place where he would find the bodies of his mother Mary of Salome and her sister Mary of James hidden; and then, with the splendor of great brightness shining forth and the fragrance of a wonderful odor following, the bodies were found so white and snowy that no traces of corruption appeared; and the pallium in which they had been wrapped was found entirely whole as if new. They were therefore, decently placed in a new shrine near the high altar, with this inscription: "Here two sisters are, maternal aunts of Christ, who, having finished life, hold the stars with their mind." There healings were given to the sick; lepers were cleansed; the blind received sight, the deaf hearing, the lame the power to walk. We append the miracles from the Pistoia manuscript, handed down under this title: "Concerning Saint Mary mother of Saint James and of John the Evangelist"; and they are of this kind:

[10] "Let Your Sublimity know, that while a certain married woman, Aldruda by name, of our parish, A woman of Pistoia afflicted with elephantiasis. seemed by divine judgment to have contracted elephantiasis, so that, through the loss of her eyebrows, the crumpling of her nose, the hoarseness of her voice, and the coarsening of her face, the signs were already beginning to appear in her; it was being treated by her parents and husband, together with the sick of the neighboring houses of their province, that the said woman, removed from the company of her relatives and of other healthy persons, as the order of law and custom requires, should be joined in some suitable place to the community of the sick. Meanwhile, while the woman herself hesitated to remain in her city out of shame and chose to flee to a more remote place; on a certain night, on the morning following which she was planning to set out on her journey, having already assigned the cloths and household utensils to her husband, and having taken back for her own use certain garments admonished by Saint Mary of James which she judged most fitting for her own use and sustenance; when she was about to set out with her husband's permission, she saw a vision in sleep, which was such. There appeared a certain woman, who said to her: 'I am Mary, mother of the Apostle James. Arise quickly, and hasten to set out to my house in the region of Campania, that is, to the city of Veroli, where you will know and trust that you will be delivered from elephantiasis by the divine mercy and restored to your former health.' When she replied, 'Because I do not know the way and have no guide,' the Saint said: 'I will provide you with a guide and companion, when you have set out on your journey.' Terrified, therefore, by this vision, and stupefied with fear, having after many thoughts taken on the strength of hope and faith, she rose very early in the morning and set out alone on her journey. And immediately, before she had gone far from her husband and dwelling, travelers—namely, a man and woman, Apulians by nation—met her face to face. Having taken guides for the journey, she goes to Veroli. When, after greeting them, she carefully inquired about their journey and purpose, from their reply she learned that they were proceeding, with the Lord's approval, to pray at the house of Blessed Mary of James. Why say more? After conversations and words that they had together, she joined their company; and the three of them, as weak and feeble folk, setting out together, proceeded with slow steps. About noon, in the first stage of the journey, when the husband of her companion was without bread, the said sick woman offered them a charitable portion of the bread which she was carrying. Then for the first time the wife of that traveler, when she had carefully looked at the sick woman's face, but abandoned by them, perceived from the coarseness of her face and the loss of her eyebrows that she was a leper: on this account she did not allow the bread offered by her to be taken by her husband, and desiring to refuse her company, she forbade her to come near her any more. And so, when she had come to the city of Aquino, those two, desiring to leave her entirely, found an occasion to turn aside from the market and the road, giving her leave, and declaring that they had relatives and acquaintances in that very city, to whom they would have to turn aside and stay for that day without doubt. She believed them, and going out of the city alone with much sadness, when she sat down by the side of the road to wait for anyone, the said spouses, thinking she had remained in the city, went out by another road; and while they were proceeding rapidly, the one they thought they had left behind they found before them, as if quicker and going ahead. Looking at her and considering the event, they take her up again. they judged that they could not escape the company of this woman, nor complete the journey they had undertaken without her. They then resumed the plan of walking together, and lest she seem troublesome to them with her prolixity, with the Lord as guide they reached the desired place. Having therefore dismissed those companions, having entered the church our woman entered the oratory of Blessed Mary. When a certain knight, appointed to guard the altar, by the providence of the same Lord recognized her, moved with mercy at her illness, he hung around her neck a small piece of the stone of the place in which the relics of Blessed Mary had been found, and sent her away. And so it came about that she, believing, fulfilled the commandment and obtained what she wished. For she received health, she recovers health, so that immediately, as she was returning along the way, looking at the tumors and fissures of her flesh, she found them suddenly dried up and whole."

[11] "Let Your Beatitude know, moreover, that a certain Neapolitan woman, Aufreda by name, for five continuous years suffered so gravely from gout in her hands and feet A Neapolitan woman for five years gouty. that she could scarcely move herself from place to place or perform any task. And finally, throughout the following year, she was so gravely weighed down by the said diseases that she entirely lost the use of her hands and feet, and lying in bed she took food and drink through the hands of the maids of the house, and other necessities of nature she performed by the same. But though many and various kinds of medicines had been applied to her body for her recovery, she could feel no remedy for her infirmity; and so, as if despairing of her health, she preferred rather to die than to live. To her ears, while she was in these straits, there came the report that the body of Blessed Mary of James had been found at Veroli, by whose worthy merits our Lord Jesus Christ had already healed very many who had come to the members of her body, taken there from many and various infirmities, and restored them to their former health. Encouraged by this, the woman began to beg her husband to carry her to Veroli, to Saint Mary of James, to receive, by the Lord's gift, health with the other sick. Her husband, granting her prayers, placed her on a beast, supported by the hands of others, and they bore her wearily to Veroli. Devoutly remaining there before the body of Blessed Mary, after three days she was healed by her merits and returned safe and sound to her own."

[12] "Moreover let it be known, that upon many other men and women of the city of Naples Among others healed who were troubled with many and various infirmities, the same Blessed Mary of James, as we have received, miraculously worked miracles of healing. Let it therefore be known to the greatness of Your Clemency, that a certain young man of Apulia named Gregory, who had lost his speech and suffered from a very great distortion of his mouth, when, for the recovery of his health, he had gone to the baths of Pozzuoli, the dumb man recovers speech could by no means obtain a remedy of salvation by the efficacy of the baths. At last, having heard of the revelation and remarkable miracles of Blessed Mary, mother of the Apostles John and James, he came to Veroli, and having remained there for some days, we saw him returning from Pozzuoli with speech and with a straight mouth, rendering thanks to the Creator of all things, who is wonderful in his saints."

Let the reader note that here is called "Saint Mary of James" and held to be the mother of the sons of Zebedee, the holy Apostles James and John the Evangelist, who for others is Salome: whereas, on the contrary, the mother of Saint James the Brother of the Lord and Bishop of Jerusalem ought to be called Mary of James—so that it seems doubtful whose body is said to be preserved there. Ferdinand Ughelli, volume

5 of Italia sacra, column 1261, enumerates the sacred relics preserved at Venice, and records that the head of Mary of Cleopas is in the church of the Servites.

CHAPTER III.

Sacred cult of both matrons in the diocese of Arles. Relics. Miracles.

[13] Camaria, or as learned men prefer, Castra Mariana and Campus Marii (where Marius is thought to have had his camp against the Cimbri, The bodies of Saints Mary of James and Salome are said to be in Provence and to have inflicted a great defeat upon them), commonly Camargue, between the mouths of the Rhone and Arles, is a most fertile district of Provence. In it there is to be seen the town of Tri-Mariana, or of the Three Marys, otherwise called the town of Saint Mary of the Sea. In this church are said to be preserved even now the bodies of Saints Mary of James and Salome, and concerning them—and chiefly concerning Saint Mary of James—the feast is celebrated on May 25 in the Church and diocese of Arles under a double rite, at which solemnity this hymn is recited at both Vespers and at Lauds. Cult in the Church of Arles.

Let the court of heaven exult, let this Church rejoice: Let the land of Provence applaud, praising God together today. Town set on the confines of the sea, pour thyself forth with joy, Thou who art endowed with the relics and suffrages of the Saints. Now with the dart of the rising sun, kindled with extraordinary love, They bring mystic ointment to the Lord's tomb. May the holy Mothers and their Sons grant that we be not reproved, When the great Day shall come, and the supreme Judge shall be present.

[14] So far the hymn. But how the bodies of the said Saints were brought there is handed down in various ways. Of those things which are related at length in the Legend cited above, I set forth these few: A certain knight, very noble and eminently Catholic, and lord of the said Camaria, moved by pious religion, made a pilgrimage to Palestine, and visited the Holy Sepulchre and other places of our redemption. Were they translated from the city of Veroli? Thence returning to Rome, he devoutly approached the sacred thresholds of the Apostles, and there being informed of the sacred relics resting in the city of Veroli, he set out for that place and was kindly received by Rainerius, Duke of Veroli and lord of the adjacent territories; to whom he rendered distinguished service in the war against the Saracens who were invading those territories; when this knight freed Rainerius from the greatest peril, and beheaded Garferius, prince of the Saracens, and was the author of the victory that followed. Being therefore asked to request and accept some gift, he asked that the sacred bodies of Saints Mary of James and Salome be given to him, and with great joy of heart he obtained them and transferred them to the aforesaid place, where at that time there was a monastery of Canons Regular. So far the author. He seems to have looked back to the times when Nuceria lay open to the dominion of the Saracens in the neighboring kingdom of Naples, whom Frederick II, King of Sicily and Apulia, in 1220, having driven from the mountains of Sicily, transferred to Apulia and caused to dwell together in the city of Nuceria, as is read in the Paduan Monk. The citadel of Nuceria then, made most strongly fortified, became a den of robbers until King Charles, brother of Saint Louis, compelled it to surrender about 1266, or rather (because some were still left there) until under his son Charles they were utterly expelled in 1295, when John Pipino de Baculo, knight and master of the rational court, was appointed to this expedition, as Summonte relates in book 3 of the Neapolitan History. And let these things be said, if perchance the author of the Legend intended to indicate those times.

[15] Honorat Bouche, Doctor of Sacred Theology, Provost of Saint James, illustrating with great diligence the chorography and history of Provence, did not deign to make even the slightest mention of the preceding translation, but thinks that these holy matrons, Or did they themselves die there? Mary of James and Salome and their handmaid Sarah, migrated from Palestine together with Saints Martha, Mary Magdalene, and their attendant Marcella, and arrived in Gaul, and indeed in Camaria; and that the said Mary of James, Salome, and Sarah remained there and built the church of Saint Mary of the Sea, and there lived until death and were buried; but that their tomb was hidden because of the invasion of various barbarians, namely the Goths, Vandals, and Saracens. So he writes in book 4 of the Chorography, chapter 491, page 327. William Durandus, Bishop of Mende, in book 1 of the Rationale of the Divine Offices chapter 7 number 28, says: "In the County of Provence, in the castle of Saint Mary of the Sea, is an altar of earth which Mary Magdalene and Martha, and Mary of James and Mary Salome, made there." So he writes, in the 13th century. John Bocaudus, cited by Colvenere on this April 9, in the Encomium of the Three Marys toward the end writes thus: "The bodies of these women—Mary of Cleopas and Salome, sisters of the Virgin Mary—are now seen hidden in Celtic Gaul, in a certain small town, one truly most religious for the French and very many others on their account, in the region of the city of Marseilles in the County of Provence. Whence, when Robert, formerly King of Sicily and Count of Provence, had ordered the aforesaid bodies to be taken out of their cell, in which they at present very famously remain, he strove in vain: for they are so joined divinely and manifestly in a twofold embrace that one would scarcely believe they had ever been separate—Brother John the Venetian being a clear author in the Lives of these same three Marys." So Colvenere writes. Robert reigned from 1309 to 1344. What he touches on concerning the indissoluble bond of the bodies, we more fully append from the said Legend, together with two other miracles, one of which is handed down as performed on Peter, Bishop of Saint-Pol-de-Léon in Brittany; the other on the very author of the Legend, in the year 1423; and they are of this kind.

[16] "As the fame of the holy Mary-sisters was running forth and spreading far and wide through the adjacent regions, the most pious King of Sicily and Provence, Robert by name, illustrious and magnificent, sprung from the noble blood of the Franks, tenacious of virtues, master of himself, By the command of King Robert their bodies were to be placed in new shrines, lettered and devout, moved with wondrous affection of religion and devotion toward the holy Sisters, decreed to go to them as a pilgrim; and as he conceived in mind, he ordered to be carried out in deed. Namely, two shrines gleaming with gold and silver, adorned with precious gems, to place more honorably upon the bodies of the holy Sisters, but with this intention: that he should separate them from one another and hide one in one of the shrines to remain in the monastery, and carry off the other to a reliquary at Marseilles to keep by himself. These things having been arranged, with a very great train of bishops, abbots, and other nobles and others, the said devout King came as a pilgrim. Therefore, his devotion performed, with two bishops in particular assisting him, he ordered the caskets to be opened and the most blessed bodies to be separated. Those who opened the casket suddenly drew in so great a fragrance of most sweet odor as no mortal man remembers to have perceived; and, by the royal command, stretching out their rash hands to the bodies, in order to divide them, wondrous to say! immediately the bishops were deprived of the light of their eyes and incurred the darkness they deserved; and the blessed bodies, lying on the same bier, in the sight of all, bound in close embrace cannot be separated like living persons clasped each other with mutual embraces, so that they could in no way be drawn apart from one another: so that, as in life, they showed that after death also they had loved one another. Whence so great fear and trembling seized all who were present that now they clearly perceived from God that they ought not to separate those who were not to be separated. These things accordingly done, the King, the bishops, and the rest, having closed the bier, falling around it with inmost groans and showers of tears, with bent knees insisted with devout prayers; and the King and all the others, with one spirit, most solicitous for their state, prayed the Lord that sight might be restored to them. The merciful Lord, kindly hearing their supplications and desires, granted them health and full recovery, following the vows of the supplicating people with kindly favor, the 2 bishops receive their sight, and at the intervention of his maternal aunts, bent to mercy, with all trembling removed, restored sight to the bishops. Then by royal decree it was edicted, that no one thereafter should presume to separate the blessed bodies. The bier of the holy bodies he also caused to be decorated with his jewels, he endowed the church and monastery with immense revenues, and established more Canons Regular there carrying out the divine worship; and there it was a canon that no one could long perform the sacerdotal office unless he were zealous of chastity and cleanness. For those who had defiled themselves by lust in the said monastery—when detected and cast out, as was consequent upon their being uncovered—was made manifest by many indications. Then the King, the bishops, and each individual returned to their own, magnifying and praising God and his holy maternal aunts in the things which they had heard and seen. Amen."

[17] There is another which I judge ought not to be passed over in silence. The Reverend Peter, Bishop of Saint-Pol-de-Léon, Peter Bishop of Léon, most famous for the elegance of his manners, a man of great renown and learning and eminent life—whom, as the Almighty often allows for the proof of their virtues and the heaping up of their merits for his faithful—a very grave illness oppressed, and held him so bound and afflicted that, without human help, he could not in any way turn himself onto either side, sit up, or even lie on his back; and lying in bed for many years, he lay destitute of the use of almost all his limbs. For this reason, having sent his servants around in every direction, he was eager to gather physicians, in case they might perhaps be able to relieve his troubles. And the physicians gathered from the neighboring places on every side, on feeling the vein and the pulse, declared that his death would come more swiftly; and with brief word, they were of no use whatever. Since, therefore, the disease was growing heavier and heavier, and his people now almost despaired of his recovery, despaired of because of long illness and were seeking a remedy from Almighty God by continual prayers, a rumor flying about concerning the holy Sisters and their translation reached him by divine gift. Soon turning his prayer into his own bosom, he besought from God and the holy Sisters interceding, that they would deign to grant him the grace to be able to visit their holy little place, adding by the pledge of a vow that he would go to them. With a vow made Then he composed a prayer which he afterwards commanded to be inscribed on a tablet for the perpetual memory of the matter, for his own devotion and affection and for those who should wish to recite it, in these words:

O noble college and with prayers poured forth, Of three holy Sisters, Whose name is Mary, Your holy suffrage I implore for protection Now in this distress.

What shall be more pleasing to Christ, Or what more acceptable to him, Than is your prayer? None is more close to him, None nearer to him, Than is your kinship.

Thou, virgin, art mother to him: Hence that thou mayst command him, The reason of nature also grants. You two others, Are his maternal aunts. O how great an affection!

To you I had dedicated myself As a servant, and had decreed To spend myself, In devout offices And due obsequies, By your and God's gift: But behold, I am now steeped in disease,

Failing and draining away.

If then remedy be lacking,

I, in sweet fellowship, Of your sweet prayers Shall now feel the help. Amen.

[18] After the apparition of the Saints The prayer finished, a heavy sleep immediately crept over him. And when midnight had passed, rousing a little as is wont to happen, he saw the holy Sisters, holding in their hands pyxes of ointments, standing before him with most splendid countenances, and soothing him with most kindly consolation, saying: "Fear not the present anguish of pain; trust, fulfill thy vow, thou shalt be healed; for by our intercession thou shalt obtain full health." Waking immediately, he found himself sound and whole. Accordingly, rejoicing at so joyful a vision, he suddenly recovers and praising the Almighty and the holy Sisters, he made known the course of the matter to his summoned servants; and rising from the bed, whole and cheerful, he girded himself for the journey to fulfill his vow. At length reaching the place of the holy Sisters of which we have discoursed, he visited the monastery with offerings of victims and great gifts, openly narrating in eloquent speech the cause of his pilgrimage, and the grace shown him by God and his holy maternal aunts. Which deed remains memorable to this day in the same monastery, and has been handed down by the priors of old to be told to pilgrims setting out. Returning thence, he consecrated two altars in honor of the holy Sisters, one in the city of Nantes, he erects 2 altars to them whence he was sprung, and another in the convent and Church of the Brothers of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel at Paris—which, though not great in size of building, he yet sublimated with great blessing; and he composed an office which he devoutly sang every day as long as he lived, and appointed to be sung on May 25. He lived in good health to a ripe old age, a veteran in acts of mercy, and always intent on good deeds, and departed from this world in the year of our Lord 1350 (perhaps 1380), whose soul may possess paradise by the merits of the holy Sisters. Amen.

[19] Nor am I afraid, while I relate things foreign to myself, to put forth openly my own experience, The author of the Legend in the year 1423 of what I experienced concerning the holy Sisters and their graces: nor is the thing I shall narrate doubtful, though, if it were necessary to prove it, there are still living witnesses ready for me. I myself, in the year of the Lord 1423, was lying on a sickbed, ill, vexed with a most severe fever, and with the disease which physicians call "stone" (calculus) in the bladder, by which I rightly thought I had incurred the divine scourge. And there the force of pain held me bound, lying supine and almost motionless; usefully indeed, I now hope, and joyfully I recognize it; whence also, whenever lying in sickness, I returned in mind to the Lord, giving thanks to his immense love, who had judged me, his stubborn servant, to chastise me, not in wrath and fury, but with a filial rod; and I said, "Lord, if so is life, and in such things is the life of my spirit, thou wilt chastise me and make me live; behold, in peace is my bitterness most bitter." Thus I bore my heavy pains as I could, nor were physicians lacking, skillfully assisting my pains. When suddenly there came to my memory that in the most devout chapel of the Blessed Mary "of the miracles," in the ancient front church of Auxerre, At Auxerre at the altar of the Saints vowing to celebrate. where an altar and oratory is most decently erected for the grace and honor of the three holy Sisters, the great bells of the church were being rung for their solemnity; for it was a feast day and their birthday, which is noted on the eighth day before the Kalends of June. Soon, returning to myself, I began humbly and devoutly to pray and entreat them for my health, vowing to celebrate the solemnity of Masses in the aforesaid oratory, if I might escape my pains and obtain the desired health. When I had said this, in a wondrous manner the burning of the fever began to turn back upon itself, as if it feared by the force of its own reflection to burn any further in me. And so it came about, by the grace of God and the holy Sisters, he is healed. that the force of that fever, that hour restrained, gradually grew cold within itself, and no other terrible disease dared touch me thereafter. Accordingly, after three days, sound and whole, I devoutly rendered my vow as I was able; and I graciously dismissed the summoned physicians, no longer needing their help, by the supporting merits of the holy Sisters with our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

[20] Honorat Bouche narrates the things done under René of Anjou, the last King of Naples of the Frankish family and Count of Provence, in book 9 of the History of Provence, section 4, §2. When in 1448 a certain preacher in the presence of King René had discoursed on the exceeding holiness of Mary of James and Salome and their handmaid Sarah, whose glorious bodies were kept in the town of Tri-Mariana, A new inquiry made in 1448 but hidden under the earth, moved by devout piety, King René sought from Nicholas V, Pope of Rome, permission to search out and elevate the said relics. By him the commission to carry out the whole matter was given to Peter of Foix, Cardinal and Legate of Avignon; in whose place, because he was pressed with bad health, were substituted Robert Damiani, Archbishop of Aix, and Nicholas de Brancas, Bishop of Marseilles. They, having made due preparation, set out from Arles to the Church of Saint Mary of the Sea, and there found several inscriptions cut on stones, and other marvelous things, and among these an ancient stone altar, in the middle of which was set a leaden chest, and in it a large head, which was believed to be that of Saint James the Less; also four others arranged in the form of a cross, but of which saints they were could not be known. And when they dug more deeply, at the side of the footstep of the altar's bench, a wooden tomb was found, containing two sacred bodies with heads intact, 3 bodies were found, which were believed to be those of Saints Mary of James and Salome; and another lay opposite, which was believed to be that of Sarah the handmaid. From these bodies a sweet and very pleasing and admirable odor exhaled; so that it not only refreshed those who were present and spectators at the finding, but clung so to their garments that even a month later they still exhaled the odor. All these things, when King René knew them from a faithful report, And in the presence of the Apostolic Legate, he begged the Legate of Avignon to see to it that all the Prelates of Provence should be convened, in whose presence the sacred relics might be translated with solemn ceremony. Arles was appointed, where the King and Queen with their whole court were present near the end of November, and together there appeared Robert Damiani, Archbishop of Aix, The Archbishop of Aix and 12 Bishops and these bishops: Antonius Ferrerius of Orange, William Soybertus of Carpentras, Nicholas de Brancas of Marseilles, Palamedes de Caretto of Cavaillon, Pontius de Sadone of Vaison, Peter Nasondus of Apt, John de Colliarcis of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, Gaucher de Forcalquier of Gap, Tristan de Aura of Couserans, Peter Turelurus of Digne, William Guesus of Grasse, Peter Marinus of Glandèves; and these Abbots: Peter de Lacu of Saint Victor near Marseilles, Arnald de Saint-Félix of Saint-Gilles in the diocese of Nîmes, and John Eustachius of Nizelles in the diocese of Cambrai. And three Abbots Present were three Protonotaries, William de Harancour, John Huety, and Marquetus de Riciis, with several ecclesiastical men and Doctors of Sacred Theology. All these, together with the King, set out from Arles to the Camargue, and to the Church of Tri-Mariana, whither more than four thousand men had flocked in devotion. In which place the Legate, having received a juridical information of all things previously done from the Archbishop of Aix and the Bishop of Marseilles, pronounced in favor of the holiness of these matrons, and allowed them to be publicly honored and invoked according to the usage of the Church. Then, to complete the translation of the bodies, two bishops brought the chests in which they were enclosed, and placed them on a table richly adorned: the bones, exhaling an incomparable odor, washed with white wine, deposited and cleansed with cotton, were placed separately in a chest made of cypress wood, until silver shrines in which they might be enclosed should be made.

[21] Thus far Bouche at the cited place, who in the Chorography adds this: "The great precautions which the same King René applied for the preservation of the said relics show his remarkable piety and esteem, under 4 keys, on account of which he commanded that the chest in which the relics were enclosed should be shut with four locks and as many keys, of which keys one was always to be kept at Aix in the Royal archive, another in the Chapter of the Abbey of Montmajour, to which the said chapel is subject, the third with the Consuls of the city of Arles, and the fourth with the Trimarianians themselves. And hence a difficulty arises, that very rarely is the reliquary of the said relics opened, because of the expenses which must be made in summoning the custodians of the keys. For on the part of the Court, which exercises financial administration at Aix, at least three officials must be sent, namely the President or Counselor, the Advocate or Royal Procurator, and another Auditor of the said financial administration, and these are the custodians of the Royal Archive, who then carry one of the four keys. In our own century the said reliquary has been opened only twice: shown in 1627 and 1640, namely, around the year 1627 at the request of Alphonse Louis du Plessis de Richelieu, then Archbishop of Aix, afterwards Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and Archbishop of Lyons; and afterwards in 1640, at the request of Jean Jaubert de Barrault, Archbishop of Arles." So Bouche, from the Royal Archives kept at Aix-en-Provence; Memory in Martyrologies, and from here seems to come the memory related in the manuscript Florarium Sanctorum, in the Martyrology of Cologne and Lübeck printed in 1490, in the Additions of Greven to Usuard, and in the German Martyrology of Peter Canisius, with these words everywhere on May 25: "On the same day the translation of Saints Mary of James and Mary of Salome, sisters of the Virgin Mary." The same, omitting the word "translation," is read in the Martyrology printed at Paris in 1536. In Saussay's Gallican Martyrology the feast of Saint Mary of James is indicated at Arles. No mention is made of Sarah the handmaid in the Martyrologies. In the cited Legend it is handed down that one came to the city of Veroli and was there buried.

* perhaps eightieth or l'égusé*, or "Sharp."

CHAPTER IV.

Sacred cult in Spain. Is Saint Mary of Cleopas buried there after death? Is her head at Venice?

[22] Thus far we have traced the veneration of Saint Mary of Cleopas, mother of Saint James the brother of the Lord, and indeed of Salome, mother of Saints James and John the Evangelist, everywhere joined together, and shown to them in the Greek Church of Constantinople, in the Italian Church of Veroli, and in the Gallic Church of Camargue, with some preservation of their sacred relics. Some cult of Saint Mary of Cleopas in Spain: The Spaniards themselves also enter into this contention. And first George Cardoso in his Hagiologium Lusitanum on this April 9 celebrates Saint Mary of Cleopas and a certain Mary Magdalene,

who ended their lives in the town of Civitas, commonly Ciudad Rodrigo. The whole proof of this matter is taken from the Additions of Braulio and Helleca to the Chronicle of M. Maximus, in which in years 16 and 17 the following is read: Did she come there with others in the company of Saint James? "It is reported that when Saint James came into Spain, Mary of Cleopas and his mother Salome, and a certain Mary Magdalene, accompanied him as companions, and returned with him, and came with his body, and that both Mary of Cleopas and the Magdalene died in the town of Civitas in Lusitania, on April 10. But the Magdalene, sister of Lazarus, along with Lazarus, Maximinus, and Celidonius, Marcella, Joseph of Arimathea, came to Aquitanian Gaul, and there preached the holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus; as the French histories plainly teach, and it is a tradition everywhere sufficiently received in that region. Mary Salome, returning with her own son James, after traveling through parts of Germany, England, and Italy where she preached, when she had come to Veroli, worn out with age, rested there on May 24." So it is written under the name of Helleca, Archbishop of Zaragoza, who flourished in the ninth century. But whether any of these writings existed before this seventeenth century we have discussed elsewhere; and what is here produced concerning the double Magdalene can be examined on July 22, namely whether from Mary Magdalene, most well-known in the Gospel under that name, there is another, not Magdalene but Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus—which the cobbler-together of these things seems not to have sufficiently understood. But who ever called the region between the Rhone and the Alps "Aquitanian Gaul," unless one fabricates a new expedition to Spain and thence to Aquitaine at the river Garonne? Marseilles and Provence, the region nearest to Italy, are situated in Narbonese Gaul: that the said holy persons arrived there and remained in it to the end of their lives is a tradition sufficiently received in our time; but whether it was known in the ninth century of Christ is doubted exceedingly by learned men. But which of the ancients mentions their coming into Spain? Who mentions their veneration on April 10, or that of Salome on May 24?

Saint Mary of Cleopas is venerated on this April 9, and the translation of Saint Mary of James is celebrated on May 25. I believe that the author of these fabrications, lest he seem to have derived notice of them from the present-day Roman Martyrology, deliberately wished to deviate by one day. Saint Salome is inscribed in the ancient Martyrologies on October 22, Cult of Saint Salome in Spain. but the Church of Compostela celebrates her on the following day October 23, to which Tamajo assigned her with these words: "At Compostela in Galicia of Spain the annual festival of Saint Mary Salome is celebrated, the mother of Saint James Apostle of the Spains, who, having followed her son into Spain, rested at Vercelli with a glorious end." So he writes, where we think "Vercelli" should be read as "Veroli"; but concerning her coming into Spain with her son Saint James, inquiry may be made at the birthday of both. Meanwhile we think her death, with the Roman Martyrology, is to be assigned to Jerusalem, as Mary of Cleopas to Judea—and why not also to Jerusalem? Ferdinand Ughelli, volume 5 of Italia sacra, in the description of the Patriarchate of Venice, column 1261, among the relics of the said city simply indicates that the head of Mary of Cleopas is in the church of the Servites. For the rest, if perhaps in this troublesome inquiry we do not seem to some to have given satisfaction, we shall gladly be taught a better method of more certain truth, which we shall be able to embrace on July 25 or October 22, and indeed on the next Kalends of May at the Life of Saint James, son of the said Mary and of Cleopas.