Contardus the Pilgrim

ON ST. CONTARDUS THE PILGRIM, AT BRONI IN LOMBARDY.

IN THE YEAR 1249.

Contardus, pilgrim at Broni in Lombardy (St.)

BY D. P.

Marcus Tullius Cicero writes in book 2 of Familiar Letters, Ep. 14, that he received two letters from his brother Quintus, when he came to Rome; one at Placentia, and another sent from Blandinona; from which the proximity of the places is understood: and many think this is what is now in the diocese of Placentia called Broni. It is (as Ferrarius writes in the General Catalog in the Annotations for this 16th of April) a village of the Ticinese region, on the river Po, on the road between Placentia and Dertona, eight miles distant from Ticinum, neighboring the ancient castle of Clastidium. This place was ennobled by the sacred deposit of his body by St. Contardus, He is thought to have been the son of Azzo and Elisa Marquises of Ferrara, born of the Atestine or Este family; to whom, because the Ferrarese dominion is said to have especially pertained, and he himself died in the year 1249, when Azzo, most famous for his victories over the tyrant Ecelino and the Emperor Frederick, held the Ferrarese Marquisate; it would follow that Contardus was the son of him and Elisa Princess of Antioch, and indeed the firstborn; who, thinking that through the son born of his brother Rainaldo the succession of the Este family was placed in safety, in that same year went away on pilgrimage out of devotion and died.

[2] Thus judged, and first published in public writing, the Reverend Father Master Ciarlinus de Carpis, of the Order of the Servants of the Blessed Mary, in the Life and History of St. Contardus, which he described very fully and elegantly, and dedicated to Sister Angela Catherine of Este, notwithstanding the silence of writers, Abbess in the monastery of St. Clare of Carpi, printed at Guastalla in the year 1627. Here on page 24 and following he meets the doubt of those who would object the genealogical tree of the Este family and the authors who have treated it without any knowledge of this Contardus; and shows that it is not so complete that it cannot be presumed that many persons are lacking in it, especially those who did not propagate the stock; and moreover demonstrates that Tancred and his son Manfred, although not named there, were truly Marquises of Este; and this through the testament of Tancred made on the 27th of February 1145, in which he substituted to his son, if perchance he should die without male heirs, various monasteries, in one of which, called "of Carceres" and belonging to the Camaldolese monks three miles from the city of Este, that testament is kept. Moreover, within more recent memory, namely in 1301, Leo Marquis of Este was living, equally omitted in the Genealogy, to whom Albert de Scala Lord of Verona had betrothed his daughter, as Jerome Corte writes in book 9 of the History of Verona. According to this author therefore, Contardus had a sister and an aunt, both named Beatrice, both honored as Blessed; this one at Padua, of whom we shall treat on May 10, the other at Ferrara, of whom we have already treated on January 18, to treat more fully in the Supplement, if the Nuns of Ferrara send us the ancient Life urgently requested and at length promised.

[3] When we had understood from the aforesaid Ciarlinus, that the history of B. Contardus, from a history transcribed after 1376 divided into fourteen chapters, and to be found on parchment near his body at Broni, Lord Presbyter Peter de Crosnis, Archpresbyter of the parish of St. Peter of Broni, had caused to be written in 1376, Indiction 14: and "at the time of the capture of the place of Broni, … was lost and entirely carried away: and the same Lord Archpresbyter, considering that the life and tomb of B. Contardus cannot fittingly be admired without the history; therefore had the history itself rewritten and renewed." When we had read these things in Ciarlinus, whose transcript we give. as taken from the prologue of the manuscript history itself, by our custom of following the genuine sources, we asked that those fourteen Chapters and whatever else of authentic writing about the miracles might be found, be sent to us, by letters sent to the Archpresbyter of Broni, and obtained what we sought, the matter being taken care of and promoted by the Reverend Father John Baptist Menochius, Rector of our College of Pavia in the year 1671; and now we judge the said Archpresbyter not to be the first author of this history, but only the restorer of the writing arranged in chapters and hung at the tomb. For since, beyond the third translation of the body to the place where it is now honored, hardly one or another miracle is recounted, it seems verisimilar to us, from a later transcript: that this history was composed while those who took care of the said translation were still living; but since it was kept privately in writing with the Archpresbyter, he took care to publish it for public display one hundred and twenty-seven years after the death of the Blessed: and that the copy at Broni is transcribed from it, would that it were by a more skillful hand; now, contrary to our custom, we have had to change some things, so that a sound sense might be had.

[4] an epitome is found in the Lessons, The substance of the entire history (if you except certain miracles done after his death) was comprised by Philip Ferrarius in a succinct encomium, which is read in the Catalog of the Saints of Italy on this day. But of greater authority is the compendium thereof, which for the Lessons of the Semi-Double Office, for the use of the diocese of Placentia, by the referral of Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, was approved in the year 1609 by the sacred Congregation of Rites; and in the year 1628, at the petition of Cesare of Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio, was extended by Urban VIII to the whole state of the said Duke. These Lessons composed by Peter Mary Campi, Canon of Placentia (as he himself attests in History of Placentia book 18, exhibiting them at the year 1249), are of this sort.

Contardus, of the illustrious Este family, although he recognized himself born to the highest honors and amplest degrees, yet cast off all human things, however fair, that he might gain Christ. Wherefore embracing poverty, and having made a vow, narrating the Saint's pilgrimage to Compostela, with two companions he undertook a pilgrimage toward Compostela. But on that journey it happened that, staying for a while in the town of Broni in the Episcopate of Placentia for the sake of refreshing his strength, he ascended a neighboring hill, which has kept its name from St. Contardus to this day. Captured by its pleasantness, he silently besought God, that if perchance he were to die on that laborious pilgrimage outside his homeland, he might die in that very place. He felt his prayers were heard from the sense of pain, with which he was suddenly seized, and carried by his companions to the nearest lodging.

[5] The disease then growing worse, and almost no hope left of escaping, his sickness at Broni, his two companions, with his own encouragement, continued the journey they had begun. Contardus therefore, afflicted for some days by the violence of fevers, showed admirable patience: and when the bitterness of pain increased daily, he could scarcely take any rest, or restrain his plaintive voices. Here the host, hating the unknown sick man (for he had not wanted his birth to be revealed) and bearing ill that strangers were frightened from lodging, drove him out of his house into a neighbor's hut, where he lay on a little straw. Incredible is what he endured in that place, destitute of all hope. But indeed, with pain and torment of body, his fortitude of mind and patience grew. For engaged continually in pious prayers and divine contemplation, but most of all pondering the most bitter death of Christ, and his glorious death, he provided himself with an excellent remedy against the force of the disease and the sharp bites of pain. Finally, sufficiently tested and tried, like gold in the furnace, he died on the sixteenth of the Kalends of May, in the year one thousand two hundred and forty-nine after the birth of Christ. His body was buried there in the Church of St. Peter; which, afterwards illustrated by many miracles, was after some years translated to a more honorable place in the same Church: where each year on the last Saturday of the month of August, with great concourse of peoples and singular piety, he is visited and celebrated.

[6] That Contardus was about thirty-five years of age when he is thought to have died in his 35th year when he died, Hippolytus concludes from the more advanced age of Azzo and Elisa, and especially from the principal right, which he supposes to have been demonstrated, to the dominion of Ferrara. Indeed if Rainaldo was secondborn, and he, sent in 1239 as hostage to Frederick, was then already joined in marriage, as Hippolytus presumes, the conjecture would not be incongruous. But neither is it certain that Rainaldo was then joined in marriage, to whom offspring was only born after a decade: nor is that principal right of Contardus proved efficaciously enough from the prologue, so much later than the history itself,

in which he is only said to be "born of the Este house." Yet with no effective argument appearing to the contrary, let these things stand as not unlike the truth: in Christ 1249 on a Saturday, much less should there be any doubt about the year of his death, that it was 1249, although the history gives no indication of this. For there is found in its transcript, whether by Peter de Crosnis or by another later, this clause added at the end: "In one thousand two hundred and forty-nine, seventh Indiction, on the sixteenth of the month of April, Blessed Contardus died." One thing we can and should reject here is the day of his death, noted as the 16th of April: because greater weight for us is the credibility of the history, asserting in chapter 6 that "he rendered his spirit to God at the hour of None on Saturday": and hence not April 16 but rather August 28: but in the year 1249 the Dominical letter was C, and hence the 16th of April fell not on Saturday but on Friday. I should rather believe that the Blessed died in the month of August: for on the last Saturday of this month, which in the aforesaid year fell on the 28th, St. Contardus is again venerated at Broni, and from this Saturday the nearest Sunday is taken for his yearly feast; accustomed to be celebrated in various places in Italy, of which below. But the 16th of April is celebrated only at Broni, on the occasion as we believe of the solemn translation performed, through the zeal of the Lords of Este, who had come to visit him, around the year perhaps 1300. For as was said he died on a Saturday, and was buried on the same or the next day; after many days had been added, first he was translated to the burial place of pilgrims next to the church, as is said in chapter 9; afterwards, miracles becoming known for a long time, and finally his lineage being known, his relatives, that is kinsmen, demanded that the body be translated with ceremony into the church, as is had in chapter 11, for which they had a sumptuous underground tomb built.

[7] The body was also translated a third time, but at night and with the doors of the church closed, the body placed under an altar, according to chapter 12, and placed above ground in a new tomb of white marble; but to this translation, done so secretly, no solemnity of yearly festivity should be ascribed: and the first translation was less solemn, the sanctity of the man not yet being famous through miracles growing in neighboring regions; and thus, if the 16th of April was not his death but the day of some translation, it should be believed to have been the second. Moreover that marble tomb, in which after the third translation the body of the Blessed now rests, is so composed that it also serves as an altar, for celebrating the sacrifice of the Mass above the body of the Saint: which also so that it can be devoutly circled by pilgrims, a suitable space was left between it and the walls of the chapel, adorned with various panels representing the life of the Saint. On the threshold of the church this inscription is now read, related by Philip Ferrarius in the Annotations to the Catalog of the Saints of Italy: "Traveler, halt your step, and venerate the glorious body of Lord Contardus of Este, hidden in the chest, opposite B. Parmerius, which illumines the right horn of this temple with golden ornaments: and which, hidden in a marble casket, adorns the left part of this temple, at the feet, the most Blessed body of Parmerius. Pour forth prayers here, that your journey may be always fortunate and happy." Ferrarius then adds that Parmerius is seen depicted in Episcopal habit, but on which day his feast is kept neither does he say, nor do we find elsewhere.

[8] It is credible that the body of St. Contardus still lies in that altar or tomb of his whole: since the head, separated from the body, remains uncorrupt; and as we are written to, the head still whole is preserved separately. as if it were alive, enclosed in an ebony case, adorned with silver plates, and translucent through interposed crystal windows: which Carlo Filiberto Estense, Marquis, with his brother Alfonso, Knight of Malta, having beheld on the 11th of July 1618, had it accurately depicted by a painter's hand: and this painting is preserved in the major chapel of the Capuchin Fathers of St. Martin, together with the effigy of B. Beatrice the younger, as Ciarlinus notes on page 78, applauding himself that the kinship of these Blessed, which he himself first established in words, seems by this deed to have been divinely commended. Be that as it may, it is altogether wondrous that of so notable a matter, as is the preservation of an uncorrupt body, the history makes no mention even once. And therefore we can say nothing about the time of the separation of the head except by conjecture: but by these we suspect that those four Priests, who carried out the last translation of the body in secret, since they were about to enclose it under the altar for none to see thenceforth, which perhaps before, while it rested in a wooden coffin, was easily offered to be seen; wanted to keep the head outside the tomb, to be shown in place of the whole body.

[9] Moreover to the more abundant knowledge of the veneration decreed to St. Contardus by our forebears, it pertains, the feast on April 16 with the blessing of bread, that at Broni on the day of his feast in the month of April, by most ancient usage, according to the form prescribed in the Roman Ritual, before the solemn Mass there is a blessing of loaves, afterwards to be distributed through the families of Broni, not without manifold and miraculous comfort of the sick. With the prayers prescribed by the Ritual, this oration is also added: "God the Savior of the world, Lord Jesus Christ, who have consecrated this day with the solemnity of the most Blessed Contardus, and have created diverse creatures for the health of men, who from five loaves and two fishes fed five thousand men, and fed the Jewish people miraculously in the desert: we humbly beseech and ask your ineffable mercy, that you deign by your piety to bless ✠ and sanctify ✠ these loaves, which the faithful people have devoutly brought to you to be sanctified; that those who eat or taste of them may receive complete health from every epilepsy and headache and infirmity of the whole body, by the merits and intercession of the same Blessed Contardus your Confessor, and may you preserve us your servants from every sickness of body and soul, you who live and reign forever and ever. Amen."

[10] Observe here two diseases named specifically, against which the patronage of St. Contardus is more frequently applied: whence it happens that by sufferers from headache many linen caps are applied to the sacred relics, the custom of signing epileptics there. and by those cured are brought to be hung at the tomb. It is also the occasion for epileptics, accustomed to be signed and cured there, which disease is commonly called Bruttura, an ambiguous word also used to signify deformity of face; it is, I say, by a playful ambiguity said that at Broni bruttura is signed, and those conspicuous for some striking deformity are ordered to go to Broni as a reproach. Furthermore, as the Rector of Pavia taught us by letter, another more recent Life. a Life of the same St. Contardus, newly written in elegant style and adorned with most beautiful moral discourses, by Father Gianoli the Capuchin, was printed and dedicated to Lord Lazarus di Corte, uncle of the said Rector; and most recently again subjected to the press, offered to James Menochius Royal Senator of Milan, Patrician of Pavia, brother of the same Rector, no less devoted to the Saint than his uncle: which nevertheless did not seem fit to be sent to Belgium, because adding nothing to the history, it is also much more concise than the Latin Acts themselves. and eulogy. We also have a brief but elegant panegyric, under the title "Humble Nobility," printed at Milan in the year 1654 by Sigismund Castaldi of the reformed Congregation of St. Bernard of the Cistercians, and offered to the Most Serene Francis Duke of Modena together with the genealogical tree of the Este family, to which we refer those curious of such elegancies.

[11] Another feast in the month of August. After the last Saturday of August (on which as we said the Saint is again venerated at Broni, and indeed with public fairs) the following Sunday, in honor of St. Contardus, is festive in the parochial church of Lugagnano and in another at Vigolo Olto, sacred to St. Martin, both of the diocese of Placentia, indeed even in the city of Placentia itself at the collegiate church of St. Alexander, where the Chaplaincy of St. Contardus is found established. In the diocese of Genoa too, at the parochial church of St. Andrew of Foggia, in the Captaincy of Rapallo, a similar cult thrives on the said Sunday, and from time immemorial: all of which prove the ancient cult, as does the Chaplaincy founded around the year 1410 at Broni, which is of the patronage of the Beccaria family of Montecalvo, as Ciarlinus writes on page 73, from whose little work the notices conveyed thus far have been received.

[12] To these things can be added from the book of the Fabric of Broni folio 125, that in the year 1640, The visits of Princely men on the 16th of April, the Most Serene Prince Reinaldo of Este came to Broni, and venerated the head of the same Saint, exposed for public devotion, and also the altar or chest of the same, as of one of his ancestors, with a long prayer and splendid gift offered. Then in the year 1657, when the Most Serene Duke Francis of Modena, commander of the French troops in Italy, passed through Broni with his army on the feast of the Nativity of the Lord; he too, venerating the tomb, by most severe commands provided for the safety of the church from military insolence. Finally in the year 1669 the Most Serene Duke of Parma Ranuccio Farnese, and his Most Serene wife Maria of Este, with a noble company of nobles and matrons, arrived on the 23rd of April to honor this their family Saint with prayers and gifts. These things stand in the book I mentioned, whose words in the vernacular he ordered to be written under Notarial faith, the same who had commanded the ancient history to be transcribed with like faith, the Archpresbyter of the very church of Broni, Peter Paul Zoppi, Vicar Forane; teaching us then in a separate paper, that from the gifts offered at the last visit, the mausoleum placed above the altar, in which Turcazzino the excellent sculptor had engraved the history of Blessed Contardus, was wholly gilded. And again in other letters, at the end of November of the year 1673, he reported that a few weeks before there had diverted thither the Most Serene Duke of York's bride, from Modena, with her mother, while the Duke was reigning, and Prince Reinaldo, with a noble retinue, about to commend her journey into England to her family Saint.

ACTS

from the manuscript parchments of the church of Broni.

Contardus, pilgrim at Broni in Lombardy (St.)

BHL Number: 1941

FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

PROLOGUE.

added in the second transcription after the year 1378.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Here begins the history of Blessed Contardus: who by nation and lineage is said to have been of Ferrara, and to have descended from the stock of the Lords of Ferrara, and to him the Lordship of Ferrara principally belonged. Who, wholly given to God, and not willing to be hindered by worldly dominions, utterly refused to have the same dominion. And disposed in person to visit the body of St. James, departing from Ferrara, he undertook the journey, and proceeded, as will appear in chapters below. This history the Lord Presbyter Peter de Crosnis, Archpresbyter of the parish of St. Peter of Broni, out of reverence for the body of the same Blessed Contardus lying in the said church, had written in this form, in one thousand three hundred and seventy-six, Indiction fourteen. And at the time of the capture of the place of Broni, made

by armed troops of the Roman Church, the history itself was lost and entirely carried away. And the same Lord Archpresbyter, considering that the life and tomb or history of the same Blessed Contardus could not easily be had; therefore had the history itself rewritten and renewed, in this manner, to wit.

NOTES.

PART I.

Pilgrimage, death, decease, and burial of the Blessed.

[1] Chapter one, how Blessed Contardus, wanting to go to St. James, Setting out on pilgrimage to St. James, out of reverence for God and the Saint, humbly asking and likewise obtaining leave from his parents (though with bitterness of heart) undertook the journey toward St. James; with a copious multitude of many companions and venerable persons, yet not without weeping and anguish of heart, having struck a pact of fraternal faithfulness between them firmly and sincerely.

[2] The second chapter, how Blessed Contardus, continuing the journey humbly and devoutly with his brothers, he stops at Broni with his companions. praying, fasting and weeping, and turning over in his heart the merits of the Lord's Passion and the Apostle James, passing through various regions of lands with labors and hardships, humbly bearing the yoke of obedience, manfully holding the shield of patience, as a strong athlete of Christ, he came with his companions to the place of Broni as guests in the morning hour. He, as prudent, continually considering the expenses of the journey, both his own and his companions', and their sufferings; not wanting them to fail on the way of the Lord, but, like another Elijah, desiring to comfort them; decided to stay there in the place of Broni with his companions for the remainder of the day, and to be refreshed both in heart and in the heavy weight of the flesh.

[3] The servants of the Lord, desiring to bring forth what they had accomplished in heart there, when they had given to the wretched flesh some place of rest somewhat shaken; not sluggish, but fervent in spirit by zeal for the house of the Lord, and going to a nearby mountain unanimously ascended to a mountain nearby, like Moses to receive the commandments of the Lord. And seeing Blessed Contardus the pleasant and fertile land, the beautiful neighboring places and castles, and the unusual mildness of the air; in a prophetic spirit he humbly besought God, that where divine providence had foreseen he would fail on the journey, at least in the place of Broni, already given to him, his body might rest in the tomb, and his soul be mercifully placed by gracious clemency in the seat of heaven: both of which he soon merited to have heard by the Lord. he is seized with infirmity there. O wondrous thing! Scarcely had he finished the prayer with his mouth, when by the Lord's command he began to lose strength, so much that it was necessary, like Paul at Damascus, to be carried shortly on the shoulders of his companions from the mountain. Which mountain, after his happy passage of the flesh, by his suffrages merited to be more often called "The Mount of Blessed Contardus" to this day.

[4] The body of the servant of the Lord being carried by the brothers of the journey to the place of Broni, in the lodging to which they came, the brothers began groaning to place him thus burdened with sickness on a little bed; he is carried by his companions into the lodging, that he might seek salutary remedy for his sickness, and happily finish the journey which he had begun with his companions. This done, God willing, the raging sickness grew strong, and with pains began to increase; so that, nothing being taken which might serve for nourishment, day and night he sent forth groans and sighs from his breast. there by the same, pursuing their journey, dismissed, Which his brothers and companions seeing, seeing the long and almost incurable sickness, desiring to satisfy the vow they had promised, with groaning mind asked leave to depart from him. He with cheerful face bidding farewell, and fortifying himself with the sign of the Cross, remained there alone: and they set out on the journey they had undertaken, promising on their return to visit him in the Lord, and to lead him back to his own home prosperously and happily.

[5] Therefore pains pressed upon him, and heats likewise dried him up: punishment was heaped on punishment, because of the sickness's afflictions, and pain grew daily above pain, and sorrow somewhat dulled the sad one. But like a true Job, broken by no punishment, troubled by no heaviness, he bore all with equal praise: glorying in the Lord's cross, he thought he had nothing except Jesus alone, for whose love he bore his own cross. But when he was pressed in so many anguishes, the host did not fully sympathize with him with brotherly charity: whence because of his disturbance the other guests refused their lodging, unless this man of God, tortured by such pains, he is cast out of the lodging, were carried elsewhere for the sake of lodging: which was done. Hence the man of God is taken to the house of a certain poor peasant, to lie in a prison-house, as one seeing, making no murmur, but bearing all patiently: and secondly he was uselessly dragged to the prison-house of another poorer man.

[6] and in a rustic hut he dies. On such a cot therefore, resting as in a manger, with mind no less cleaving to God, with the anguishes of the flesh pressing, he released the bodily prison, and gave back a spirit worthy of God at the hour of None on Saturday, and put an end to a most wretched life, presenting himself unharmed to God. Then with all marveling, the bells of the parish church of the aforenamed place of Broni, with no human help assisting, rang the sign of a man already dead. For such a sound grew so strong at the appointed hour, that nearly all the farmers standing in the surrounding fields, with their tools and work implements, ran hastily to Broni, wondering what the cause might be, and inquiring with the greatest diligence, people gather from everywhere at the unusual sound of bells: whence this sound of bells more than usual had arisen. They finally came to the presence of the Rector of the aforesaid church, and with great insistence demanded the cause of this so astonishing thing. The Rector, moved by these, thinking there were some insolent and young men at the top of the belltowers, who were making this sound by way of prank, sent a diligent investigator up to the summit to search more carefully: who seeing no one there, and when it had been discovered to be miraculous astonished returned below, announcing that he had found nothing at all.

[7] Already the astonishment of the surrounding neighbors was inwardly afflicting their hearts, nor because of this did the sound cease, indeed it could not be restrained by human help. Then all, as with one mouth prophesying and exclaiming said: "Truly, truly someone among us a just man, they suspect the death of some Saint, his life having been accomplished, has today gained the citadel of heavenly glory to reign forever, with the companies of Saints and Angels: in whose passing the glorious God works more wondrously in insensible things." Pricked therefore in heart and with anxious spirit, they sought this holy man more diligently. Immediately that man, who in a straw hut had received him, said: "I know not what it is, for several days I have been hosting in my yard a poor pilgrim to Rome, weak and sick, whose country I am entirely ignorant of: I do not know whether he has migrated to the Lord, or whether the divine light still shines on him among the living."

[8] Without delay therefore all hasten to the house of this man, to seek him whom the Ruler of all had ruled in the world, and finding the bright body of Contardus, and had sent for his merits into the heights of heaven: and they come to the little place in which

the man of God had gathered his treasure through the shield of patience, like an undaunted warrior: and they find him like a rose fragrant among thorns, and like a lily blooming among briars, and like a gem shining among filth, whose most sweet odor had already filled the whole countryside. Hastily with due reverence, with bells ringing by themselves, they bear this glorious one to the church, to be entombed. O astonishment mingled with joy! they bury him honorably, The bells never ceased ringing, until the Office for the dead was recited, and the body of the same blessed man was duly and honorably entombed: then as though subjected to the yoke of obedience, they remained unmoving.

NOTES.

PART II.

The threefold translation of the body and miracles wrought at it.

[9] Many days having passed after these things, on any night, above the tomb four lights, Warned by lights appearing above the tomb wondrously shining, were seen by many. Nor is it a wonder if visible light obeys him beyond nature, who mingled firmly with the supreme light used to serve profitably. When this great thing was noticed, the Rector of the church was quickly notified. He, somewhat doubtful in heart, faithfully promised himself that he would see this; and to examine more attentively the truth of so great a matter, he rose at night, and vigilant explored so great a mystery. He himself wondered, and at the same time those who had told him. Then the cause of this thing was announced to the ignorant people. At once the people, as if recognizing their own fault, They transfer the body to the burial-place of pilgrims, thought they had done ill, because they had not placed the body of the blessed man in the burial-place of pilgrims built next to the church. They decided therefore to take the body from the tomb, and to place it in the burial of pilgrims. And while they complete this work, suddenly the bells begin again to be rung by themselves; and this glorious man, shining with innumerable miracles, they bring to the burial of pilgrims, who had truly lived as a pilgrim and stranger in the world. with the bells again sounding by themselves. To him are brought the blind and are suddenly enlightened, to the lame he gives walking, life to the dead, lepers are cleansed, the crooked are made straight, and those vexed by various diseases by the merits of this holy man are made whole.

[10] Then he is most fragrant with prodigies, then the servant of the Lord is known: now the works grow, With miracles increasing there, and heavenly gifts are offered to men: now the star shines, now the sun shines in shadowy nights, the lily whitens among briars, now the aromatic virtue is fragrant, and new miracles the King of kings works liberally in his servant. To him a multitude of the people flows, men of various arts frequent him: no one returns empty, each rejoices his desire to be fulfilled. Through him demons flee, the infernal regions confess his glory. Meanwhile a certain woman, vexed by a demon, who was dwelling in the village of Lidi nearby, was wandering here and there like one mad. It happened that she lingered in roaming the place of Broni somewhat longer. And when one day she was raging nearby as she passed, when she felt she was drawing near the burial of the Blessed, [and by a demon through a possessed woman betraying the name and lineage of Contardus,] there the demon of her began to cry out with her mouth, saying: "Alas! alas! I cannot pass: for that Contardus buried here holds me bound." Then many standing around, hearing these things, said: "Pass by another road across." Daring to attempt this, when she drew near the tomb of the Saint, she could by no means pass. Then all who stood by began shrewdly to ask her, who this Contardus was, whom she so feared. Finally by divine inspiration Satan through the mouth of the woman began to proclaim the life, offspring, country, and deeds of the same man, mostly unknown to all, fearing whose merits he could go no further.

[11] These things being made known to the people of Broni, which before were unknown, they took care to announce to the kinsmen, and equally to affirm his merits. And when of the aforesaid Este house, kinsmen are summoned which among the other Italian houses in nobility, manners and power, had possessed the ancient scepter in the Marquisate of Ferrara, that Blessed was born; moved to the marrow by love of blood, and warmed within by divine heat, they took care to come to the oft-said place of Broni, at least to see him entombed, and accomplished it in deed. Moreover with great apparatus, as worldly Princes are wont, they assemble at Broni: to whom at once the tomb is shown. who, prohibited from taking the body to Ferrara, They, bewailing him as one unseen, yet greatly rejoicing in the Lord for his life fortified by miracles, tried to transfer the noble deposit to Ferrara. The villagers learned of it: and suddenly like an untamed people they rise, and, as true defenders of their guardian and patron, by arms and violence they forbid the body to be taken across from there. Suddenly a light divinely illuminated the hearts of the kinsmen; and, lest a rumor should impede the venerable commerce of so great a father, they decreed in mind that the relics should rest in the place the Saint had chosen beforehand. But that his body thus illumined might be more fittingly venerated, they asked with suppliant prayers that it be translated with ceremony in the church. They agree to the prayers, and consent to the just wish. Plainly the kinsmen order a sumptuous underground tomb to be made, they build a crypt for him in the church: in which the venerable relics might be duly celebrated. Soon the sarcophagus of the Saint being arranged, again the bells begin to be rung by themselves, until with hymns, canticles and spices they place him in the church. There the protections shine no less than usual, miracles are wrought: there songs, there melodious consolations in the Lord are exercised among the people. The body having therefore been placed by the kinsmen with honorable grace, the kinsmen, leaving precious gifts in the already-said church for the honor of the Saint, and many estates bought, took the road toward Ferrara: with the greater men of Broni accompanying them as far as the middle of the journey, and even farther, if the nobility of the aforesaid Chiefs had demanded.

[12] There remains therefore by such great prayers the venerable commerce, and his tomb is spread abroad throughout Italy. The parts of Lombardy rush to it in great numbers, in which, when the danger from the crushing crowd grew, and Liguria especially flows together annually, and in the manner of sheep, sick with various diseases, they flow together to the tomb, that the Saint may help them. Finally the multitude of those languishing grew so great, that they almost killed one another above the tomb, seeking salvation of soul and body. Seeing therefore the Rectors of the church so great a slaughter of persons and the danger of horrible death imminent from near, they decreed that the body of the Blessed be raised above the ground in the air, so that the multitude of peoples frequenting it might not be oppressed by turns. It pleased them therefore to give to the Saint of God a certain marble stone, the body is raised above the ground in a marble chest. which had otherwise served as a baptismal font in the church, which ten yoke of oxen could scarcely have pulled back in carts. God willed, for the merits of the Saint, that, the doors of the church being closed at night, only four Priests, in the name of Jesus and by the merits of the Saint, might carry a stone of such weight to the place where the body was. And there again, in a stone cut out of rock, in which no one had been buried, following in the footsteps of Christ, entombed he rests in the Lord. Lately from the surrounding regions the infirm seeking reverence of the Saint, suddenly upon seeing the tomb, were freed from their sicknesses. Among others a certain noble and rich man from Lodi a dropsical man is cured. had long been detained by the infirmity of dropsy: and hearing of the reverence of citizens and peoples frequenting the Saint, struck in heart he commended himself intimately to the Saint: and immediately having made a vow, by the merits of the Saint he remained free from the infirmity. And from then, before he drank and ate, mounting a horse he visited the tomb of the Blessed.

[13] But unless the miraculous deeds of the Saints were narrated, we would be utterly ignorant that they are Saints; and also of the divine grace granted to holy men, in no way would they be known. It is fitting therefore to proceed to announce the wonders and miracles of Blessed Contardus to those who do not know, likewise one contracted in feet and legs, so that his pious and wondrous grace may become known to all the faithful. Whence a certain Bassanino … of Lodi, noble by birth, and rich in worldly riches, since from his birth he had always been crippled in feet and legs, in such a way that wishing to walk he always used two wooden stools for his aid; at last hearing the countless miracles of this Saint narrated by the common people, he visited the tomb in person under a vow; not forgetting, however, that men filled with firm belief, with the cooperation of divine grace, by the Saints

are mercifully made whole. Firmly believing this, directing his steps, he released the stools altogether along with health. With countless peoples manifestly seeing this: and until he closed the last day of his life, once a year always he visited the said tomb with great gifts.

[14] When too a certain most noble lady of Placentia heard such miracles divulged, moved by tears and sighs, she firmly vowed to bring to the presence of the foresaid Saint a certain strumous daughter of hers, whose face was turned backwards. When by the prayers of a certain presbyter, likewise a strumous girl with her face turned to her back. John of Raynerio, Canon of the aforesaid church of St. Peter of Broni, residing in Placentia, she had presented her daughter before the Saint, and also together with the daughter, with most perfect devotion had visited his sepulcher, seeking the grace of health for her daughter; in the hearing of all bystanders, a great murmur of the girl's bones, which were being miraculously straightened, became known. When that murmur of bones was completed, immediately without delay the daughter rejoiced in the grace of health. The merits and miracles of this Saint no one can enumerate, which day by day the glorious God manifests to men in his servant Contardus, to whom is owed all glory, praise, and power and imperial rule forever and ever. Amen.

In one thousand two hundred and forty-nine, seventh Indiction, on the sixteenth day of the month of April, Blessed Contardus died.

[15] The present above-written exemplar was extracted from a like copy, existing on parchment in the Chapter Archive of the Collegiate and Parochial church of the land of Broni, faithfulness of the transcribed exemplar. Principality of Pavia and Diocese of Placentia; and after due and diligent comparison of this copy with the one as above existing in the aforesaid archive, I, Octavius Pisanus, son of Master Contardus, Notary public of the College of Pavia by Imperial and Apostolic authority, and in this matter Notarial Chancellor elected by the most Reverend Lord, Doctor of both Laws and sacred Theology, Peter Paul Zoppi, Archpresbyter of the said Collegiate and Parochial church of St. Peter, found them to agree together exactly, with no word at all omitted, added or changed, and the punctuation and orthography of the manuscript faithfully observed: and therefore being asked, for the sake of trust I subscribe myself here, with my usual notarial sign.

NOTES.

APPENDIX

From the Italian Life published by Hippolytus Ciarlinus at Guastalla in the year 1627.

Contardus, pilgrim at Broni in Lombardy (St.)

FROM ITALIAN.

To those older miracles which the Acts can supply, Ciarlinus adds other more recent ones, the first of which we thus render from Italian into Latin:

[16] At Placentia, Francis Borreri, 66 years old, of Curtemajori, diocese of Placentia, steward of the nuns of St. Bernard at Placentia, A peasant recovers the use of his left side closed off, oppressed by a catarrh which had taken away all use of his left side, and for a year and a half had kept the man fastened to his bed; after many vows sent in vain to various sacred places to be visited, finally in February of the year 1619, he seemed to himself half-asleep to hear one advising him, to commend himself by vow to St. Contardus. As soon as he awoke, he made a vow to visit the sacred tomb, and to bring to it half a pound of oil: and with all the household, knowing nothing of the vow, in wonder, he began so quickly to have better and to be strengthened, that within a few days he returned to his accustomed laborious agricultural works. And when he had come to Broni to fulfill the vow, Francis Calabria, Canon of Broni and Apostolic Notary, took his sworn deposition in public writing, on the 16th day of August, before Lord Roccho Antonio Rocchetta the Archpresbyter of Broni. We would have preferred to give here the very original instrument in its own words; but sought diligently, it could not be found. The proper instrument of another grace, mentioned in the second place by Ciarlinus, has been found, whose tenor receive.

[17] In the name of the Lord. Amen. In the year from his nativity 1620, Indiction III, and the year 1220 the Inquisitor of Parma on Sunday, the 17th day of May, around the hour of Tierce or thereabouts, in the place of Broni on this side of the Po of the Principality of Pavia, in a certain upper room of the dwelling house of Jacob de Pasotis, situated in the said place on this side of the Po, there in the presence of me the Notary and the witnesses below written, before the Illustrious and very Reverend Roccho Antonio Rocchetta I.C. Archpresbyter of the collegiate church of St. Peter … and Vicar Forane specially deputed by the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Bishop of Placentia, appeared and personally presented himself the very Reverend Brother John Mary of Arighi, of the place of Soncino, district of Cremona, of the Order of Preachers, and Inquisitor of the city of Parma, through his oath, which he takes placing his hand on his breast in the priestly manner, set forth and said and attested, and with his own mouth delivered the formal words. So far the Latin Notarial words: the rest from Italian we thus render into Latin. is suddenly freed from arthritic pains before the altar "Lord Archpresbyter of this place of Broni, before you and the undersigned Notary and witnesses I say and protest, that to the honor of Blessed Contardus, whose body rests in the parochial church of this place, I wish to be held obligated to depose and manifest, just as I now say, depose, and manifest, that some days ago, namely the 3rd of this present month, passing through this place to the Provincial Chapter of our Dominican Order, which was celebrated at Genoa; as soon as I descended from my horse to the public inn of this place, I went to visit the parochial church of St. Peter: and when I saw there the memorial of a certain obtained grace hanging at the altar where the body of Blessed Contardus rests, and felt myself much aggravated by arthritic pain, so much that I doubted whether I could go further, I commended myself most affectionately as I could to the said St. Contardus: and suddenly I felt all pain taken away, nor to this hour have I been more tormented by it. Therefore from my obligation I notify all, and ask that a public instrument be made of these things." Thus he in Italian. as he testified by public instrument. And of all and each of the foregoing, the same very Reverend Father Brother John Mary asked me the Notary, to make a public instrument in the presence of the Illustrious and very Reverend Lord Archpresbyter and the witnesses below written. With present the very Reverend Brother John Paul Fiasca Dominican and Prior of the monastery of St. Dominic of the said religion in the city of Ferrara; the Reverend Brother Jerome of Tortona, of the Order of St. Augustine and residing in the monastery of the Most Holy Trinity of Ferrara; and the very Reverend Francis de Lazaris, Priest and Canon in the aforesaid Parochial church of St. Peter of the said place of Broni, known and suitable witnesses. I Contardus Pisanus son of the late Michael etc. made faith of the transcript, in the year 1673 at the end, Octavius Pisanus son of Master Contardus.

[18] The very same case, says Ciarlinus, when it had happened to Father Mag. Eliseo Masini of Bologna, likewise another 1226 of the Order of Preachers, and now Inquisitor of Genoa, in the year 1626 going to Genoa for a similar Chapter, and having heard told the grace done for the Inquisitor of Parma; he too commended himself to the Saint, with that result which the letter indicates, written after the dissolution of the Chapter, at Voghera (Vico Iriae in the vernacular), on the 13th day of May, in these words. "Passing through Broni, and feeling myself badly affected by gout, I visited the sacred relics of St. Contardus the blessed; and vowed myself to him for the recovery of health: having obtained the desired grace, on that very day, amid the middle inconveniences of the journeys;

I send to your Reverence this little silver figure, that it may be affixed with the other votive offerings, as a sign of my devotion toward the Saint and the benefit obtained."

[19] Lord Antonius Poggius, Chaplain of the Chapel of St. Contardus, in the year 1621 present, assisting at the ceremonies, and one from quartan fever 1221. with which the sacred head was shown for the supplication of the faithful, from the village of Rena together with his Priests and a twin order of flagellants coming to Broni (as also afterwards was often done) to visit the Relics of the Saint, devoutly commended himself to him, and from the quartan fever, which at that very hour was expected to return as usual, then and ever after was immune. This last thing Ciarlinus seems to have received from Poggius's private confession only: for he cites no writing. I add one a little later, whose witness is a letter written to the Archpresbyter of the place, kept in the Archpresbyteral archive, and the transcript is with us by hand and trust of Octavius Pisanus the aforenamed public Notary; which we thus render into Latin.

[20] "It must be confessed by all that the place of Broni is a distributor of graces; then in the year 1648 a Servite at Brescia when not only the inhabitants and neighbors become partakers of them, but even those who dwell in more distant regions. I myself offer myself as witness of this truth: who while I was performing my course of Lenten sermons there according to my poor ability, I received many favors and graces from all, but chiefly from my Lord the Archpresbyter, whose perpetual memory I keep and will keep: then indeed last month, O wondrous thing! lying here in my bed, on account of a cold flux upon one of my shoulders, from intolerable shoulder pain. which made it so I could not move that part, and was tortured with great pain for twenty-four whole hours; amid those torments, which seemed fatal to me, I had recourse with swift thought to Broni, and venerating the glorious Confessor Contardus in spirit, I begged with tears that he would deign to intercede with God for my liberation. This prayer ended, not without a vow of some offering, within a few hours the pain began to remit, and with God and St. Contardus helping, I quickly regained my former health. Therefore you will receive from the Reverend Father Prior of the convent of St. Mary two ducats, which you shall spend for the honor of the Saint, to whom I profess myself most obligated, Brescia January 20, 1648.

Brother John Bapt. Melga, Servite of Brescia."

[21] finally in the year 1670 Finally in these last past years the following instrument was drawn up, whose exemplar transmitting the aforementioned Rector of the College of Pavia John Baptist Menochius affirmed, that he himself had personally visited in every respect him to whom the matter had happened, and had found all things most certain, and not only said without exaggeration but rather with some diminution; while the most circumspect witnesses wanted to attest under oath only what they knew most certainly: and the instrument itself is of this kind. "In the name of the Lord. Amen. In the year from his nativity 1670, Indiction XIII, on Thursday the 18th day of September, around the hour of Vespers, a citizen of Pavia declaring himself cured in the city of Pavia, namely in the shop of the dwelling-house of the undersigned Charles Stavrenghi, situated at the gate of the Bridge, in the parish of St. Peter in Chains; there in the presence of me Francis Jerome Canevarius, Collegiate Notary of Pavia, and of the undersigned witnesses, Charles Stavrenghi, son of the late Jacob, inhabitant of Pavia, in the present house there present, protested and protests to me the Notary and the undersigned witnesses, and to all others who will see the present instrument, just as to him in the month of April just past, when he was laboring with a most grave and malignant disease of acute fever, all hope of safety lost, by the merits, intercession and prayers of Saint Contardus with God was restored his former health, beyond the opinion and expectation of the undersigned Lord Physicians and all others who attended his care; and moreover also the same Charles Stavrenghi, for greater certification of the things expressed as above exhibited, presented and consigned to me the undersigned Notary the faith and attestation of the Lord Physicians of the following tenor, namely."

[22] "Charles Stavrengus, 30 years of age, residing in the city of Pavia, from a most foul fever, artisan of baskets and other instruments made of twigs and osiers, living in the parish of St. Peter in Chains, exposed to the sun's heat, grew hot, and was seized with a headache on the 30th of March of the present year 1670: in the following days immediately, with an acute fever, under a type somewhat tertian in proportion, he labored daily. He was wakeful: hence on the fourth day he submitted to treatment: for all the more violent symptoms pressed the sick man most strongly: and therefore at this time he called me the undersigned Physician: he took the mitigating, preparing medicines and other remedies of bloodletting, prescribed according to the indications: by which however, the accidents of the great and malignant disease were neither soothed nor lessened, but were rather rendered more violent, to which force was added daily more fiercely, with restlessness, wakings, joined with dire symptoms, first mental alienation, then delirium; and after the wakings, the more useful parts of the humors being consumed, and those same humors being thickened by the heat, putrefying and injuring the head, drowsiness followed, with torpor of mind and body and prostration of forces; so that consequently nature in all her functions exceedingly sluggish, and as it were overwhelmed, deserting the struggle, yielding and succumbing to the disease, as about to fight with many. Although these symptoms were treated according to the opportunity of time and occasion, nevertheless all things rushed to the worse, from the greatest disturbance and agitation or motion of putrid humors, with supervening rashes and prostration of appetite.

[23] and despaired of by the doctors, Wherefore in such calamities and evident danger of life of the sick man, all of us desiring with me in all things to satisfy the patient, the consultation of other most prudent and learned men was sought; in which, all things diligently weighed according to the state of the sick man as reviewed, salutary remedies were thought out and applied; and at the same time about the future outcome of the disease it was thought, that the most certain signs of death with reason prevailed in this disease, rather than hope of salvation of the breathing body, to which nothing remained but prayers. Nevertheless in such great danger, while all things were sorrowful and hope as it were lost, and while the sick man lay in this deplorable state with all senses dulled; by the clemency of almighty God, unexpectedly, at midday, the sick man, as if awakened from sleep and aroused, began to speak, saying (as was taken from him and the household bystanders) that he had been completely healed: with St. Contardus appearing to him he is miraculously cured, and that in sleep St. Contardus had appeared to him, blessing him the sick man with his hands, consoling and promising health. From then the sick man progressed always for the better; and it is piously to be believed, that by the merits of St. Contardus with God nature was helped, to prepare and find ways for itself, by which the pestilent and malignant cause of such a disease could be expelled from the noble and chief parts, as we saw to happen a little afterwards, through the separation and abscess made to the external inferior and ignoble parts, and the deposit of malignant matter with mortification, as was known around the buttocks. Which things seen and suitable treatment afterwards applied, especially surgical, and necessary time delay, by God's grace the sick man was restored to his former health. as the same doctors confirmed. Of all which for the truth of the matter being required I have made these, and although written by another's hand, have signed with oath by my own hand, Pavia, the 12th day of July, 1670.

I, Charles Stephen Bocchius, Physician of the Pavia College, and in the Pavia University first Professor of ordinary Theory, affirm with oath.

John Baptist Belcredius, Physician, Collegiate, and first Professor of practical Medicine in the same Royal University, who was called to the said consultation.

Paul Stephen Annibaldus, Physician and second Professor of ordinary practical medicine in the same Royal University, and called to the said consultation.

Present, the most Illustrious I.C. Clerk Lord Pomponio Sugetio, son of the late Lord Joseph; Lord Peter John Bentio, son of Lord Dionysius Francis; John Floro, son of the late Lord Bartholomew; and Michael Gandino, son of the late Balthasar, as known and witnesses."