James De Oldo

ON BLESSED JAMES DE OLDO,

PRIEST OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS.

AT LODI IN INSUBRIA.

IN THE YEAR 1404.

James de Oldo, Presbyter of the third Order of St. Francis, at Lodi in Insubria (B.)

BY D. P.

Michael Angelus Seghitius, Bishop of Lodi, whom in volume 4 of Italia sacra Ferdinand Ughellus praises, because he never omitted anything which would be useful to the flock committed to him, Cult among the other cares of his Pastoral office considered the first to celebrate a diocesan Synod; by whose decree the Catalogue of the Saints and Blessed of Lodi was compiled, where among others is read: "Blessed James Oldus of the third Order of St. Francis." Then in the sixth year of his Episcopate of Christ 1621, the same Prelate, examining the churches of his city, decreed: "Let the bones of James de Oldo, and the elevation of the body, founder of the church of St. Julian, who by public documents and ancient images with head radiate, is known to have been so far marked with the name of Blessed, be lifted up from the depressed situation of the pavement, where they are read to have been transferred from the ancient church; and placed in a more fitting place beside the altar within six months, at the expense of those obtaining the patronage portions of this church, with the rite of the Provincial Councils observed, prescribed about the arrangement of sacred Relics." Thus, from informations authentically sent to him, Wadding in his Annals for the year 1404 no. 11, where at the same time he says the Life, described by his Confessor Sebastian Dardadone, a Minorite, in the year 1423, was sent to him: and he inserted a compendium of it into his annals for the year 1404 in which the Blessed one died.

[2] The Life composed by the Confessor, The same, with such an indication known, that we too might obtain it, was acted upon at Lodi through Francis Castiglionaeus, priest of our Society, at whose instance, he being now dead, it was extracted word for word, even as to orthography, by Lord John Peter Villanova, Doctor of Laws and portionary Chaplain of the church of St. Julian of Lodi, founded by the Blessed James himself with two chaplaincies, under the patronage of the lay Nobles of Villanova, Carrada, and Cadamosta: and he extracted it from the original, by the same Fr.

Bassanus, in writing, which exists in the keeping of Lord Jerome Sommativa, Doctor of Medicine and Decurion of the said city. Thus by his own hand the aforementioned Lord John Peter, it is given from the original Italian, in the title of the transcript sent to us, which, through Archangelus Portaluppus the Notary, he had fortified with the usual attestation of the College of Notaries, with seal and subscription, in the year 1673, on February 19. The style of the author, writing in the vulgar tongue, not very cultivated and with useless digressions fringed, had at times to be restrained in translating, but not to be ornamented: because as simple truth does not require paint, so it does not ask that every single thing be rendered verbatim, when a clearer sense can be had in fewer words. Therefore we give the meaning unchanged; if we cut away anything as superfluous, and importunately breaking the thread of the history, we give the cause of the omission in the Annotations, and thus we believe we have fulfilled the duties of a faithful interpreter.

[3] The year in which Wadding says the Life was written, he himself took from no. 24, where Fr. Bassianus says, that being often asked to write what he knew about the holy life and happy death of the Blessed, he had deferred to yield to those asking, being hindered by sermons to be given at home and abroad; until in the year 1423 forced by pain of the teeth to cease, he had some leisure for writing. But whatever it is that he then wrote, the final hand was not applied to it before the year 1448, in the author's own declining age, as is clear from no. 18, written in the year 1448, and from those things which he gathered about the Indulgences set up at Lodi and about the miracles of the Blessed after the Life, which make chapter 4 for us. Another afterwards had Aurelius Rubeus the Notary from public Acts append to the same writing at the end first the above-cited decree of Bishop Seghitius, then another document of this tenor: "We the undersigned Guardian and Brother Priests, of the Order of Minors of the observance of St. Francis of the family, of the Convent of the same Order in the city of Lodi, make faith and attest by oath, that in our church of St. Francis of the said city of Lodi, namely in the first and third column, to the right of the entrance into the said church, among the various old effigies of Saints and Holy Women, are found two ancient images, with the habit which the Brothers Penitent Tertiaries of St. Francis use, with their head everywhere radiate, with the inscription Beatus Jacobus Doldus. the cult of his images, But subscribing to the attestation on May 13 of the year 1633 were Fr. Archangelus Forettus the Guardian and eleven Brothers one by one; and finally the aforementioned Aurelius Rubeus Notary. Thirdly finally under the faith of the same Notary is described the exemplar of the Testament, on April 10 made by the sick Blessed James a little before his death, which we give as an Appendix.

[4] But neither from this nor from any place in the Life is the day of death certainly had. Wadding expressed the month of April, to which Arthur in the Franciscan Martyrology added day 20: doubtless from his own conjecture. But the author of the Life overturns this when he says no. 22, that in the year 1404 around the 11th hour of the night, on a certain Friday of the month of April, death on April 18 or 25. the Blessed one died: but in that year, having the Dominical letters F E, the first Friday after the 10th day of April was on the day following, the 11th of the same month, then the 18th and 25th; from which we choose the 18th, as being the middle between the two extremes. For this Blessed one has no proper or established feast for himself, nay not even any feast, and all his veneration consists within the limits permitted for the Blessed. The body of the deceased had been, Elevation in the year 1412, after most honorable exequies, buried in his church of St. Julian before the very altar; and when it shone with miracles there, with mother Flordonina taking care, dug up from the ground and found whole, after seven years, it was placed higher from the earth, within a monument built on the right of the aforesaid altar.

[5] The present place of the body, When the Episcopal decree testified it had been moved elsewhere, we asked of the aforesaid John Peter when and whether the decree had been committed to execution: he himself replied: "The decree of the Most Reverend Fr. Michael Angelus Seghitius, Bishop of Lodi, was put to execution by me, as the beneficed Chaplain of the said church: and according to the disposition of that decree, the body of Blessed James is now found placed in a wooden chest, set above the ground, yet within the wall, near the altar on the Gospel side within the enclosure of the Presbytery; with this inscription cut on a marble sepulchral stone, placed over the chest: 'The bones of James Oldo, from the old church of St. Julian, which he himself had founded, collapsed with age, into this church of St. Giles, which received the name of St. Julian, with the memory of the translation made in the year 1587. transferred in the year 1587 here rest.' Under this stone, namely, laid on the ground, the sacred bones were lying before the said Episcopal decree; and under this they had placed them, who had restored the church of St. Giles, under the new title of St. Julian, from the foundations: Faustus Rebalius, citizen of Lodi and Beneficed Chaplain of the same church, and afterwards Bishop of the city of Sessa, and Ludovicus Calamitus, likewise citizen of Lodi, and Chaplains there, and also Archdeacons in the Cathedral church of the same city of Lodi; daring nothing more, lest anything be committed against the recent decrees of the Council of Trent; and not even thinking that the title of Blessed, now due by the right of prescription, should be usurped. Whose excessive religion in this part the Bishop not approving, ordered what had been unnecessarily changed to be brought back to the ancient state; and by his mind an effigy of the Blessed was placed above the chest and the aforesaid stone, expressed in colors, with this epigraph: and of the elevation made in the year 1630. 'Of Fr. James Oldus of Lodi, of the third Order of St. Francis, in the third Synod of Lodi reckoned among the Blessed of Lodi, Institutor of the right of lay Patronage in the old church of St. Julian in the year 1404, hither with it destroyed legitimately translated with his body in the year 1587, an effigy shining forth, after ancient examples, set up in the more ample church of St. Francis of Lodi, John Peter Villanova, Doctor of Both Laws and Co-patron and Rector of this church, took care to have made, in the year of our salvation 1630.'"

[6] Meanwhile, if anyone should reprint the Franciscan Martyrology, other authors about the same Blessed on day 20, he can transfer either to this or to the 25th day Arthur's words, making memory of this Blessed thus: "At Lodi, of Blessed James Oldus, Confessor, Tertiary; who constantly intent on the works of mercy and charity, was exalted by the gift of prophecy and the grace of miracles." Arthur in the Annotations enumerates various writers, who in their lucubrations have mentioned the same Blessed with praise; but since they are all more recent, they contribute nothing to our purpose. James Thielmann would contribute to it, there cited, as if he had written two volumes on the Lives of the Saints of the Seraphic Order, if he should at some time come into our hands if published, or if the Manuscripts of unpublished works be indicated where they are. Cornelius Thielmann we knew in this our age, dead not yet fifty years ago, who from Latin rendered into Flemish, both many other things, and several Lives of Saints, which among the writers of the Order of Minors are praised by Wadding (to whom James of the same surname was altogether unknown), but reading the titles there enumerated you will find no trace of Blessed James. and on April 16. Besides, Jacobus Raps, Guardian of the Brussels Convent, published the Life of St. Francis with the Lives of the Blessed Tertiaries in Flemish at Brussels in 1655, in which, taken from the Latin of Wadding, what he has about this Blessed, where in the margin he noted the day April 16; undoubtedly no happier a conjecturer than Arthur, because he equally had no foundation on which he might rest.

LIFE

By Fr. Bassianus Dardadone of the Order of Minors, the Blessed one's own Confessor.

From an old Manuscript Italian Original.

James de Oldo, Presbyter of the third Order of St. Francis, at Lodi in Insubria (B.)

BY BASSIANUS FROM THE ITALIAN MS.

"O you, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, Who willed to die to save us, I devoutly ask, that for your love You may give me grace to narrate well The Angelic Life of our citizen of Lodi, Fr. James de Oldo of San-Julian."

CHAPTER I.

Blessed James's conversion from secular life to the profession of the third Order.

[1] In the new city of Lodi, which has been built in Lombardy and in the parts of Liguria near the river Adda, Born at Lodi of his father Marchesius, there lived a certain honest man, named Marchio or Marchesius; truly such that he brought forth from himself a golden mark, as you shall hear. To him, from his wife Flordonina, also fulfilling the significance of her name, because she was a flower and mirror of every virtue, was born a son who shone forth like the sun, well called James, because according to the reason of his name he supplanted the devil, despised the flesh, and with it the world and whatever the world counts great. He, his father dead, had given himself wholly to worldly vanities, and first given to vanity, in the cultivation of clothes, in the exercise of music both by voice and strings, in the agility of body to be displayed through dances, according to the custom of his homeland second to none in these: by which he easily found a wife like in such habits, Catharine, herself also most vain. But it happened one night, James while sleeping with his wife, that he dreamed of a great treasure found by him under the earth, in the place where a chest stood. Therefore at once in the morning, with his wife getting up from bed, and going out of the house with her mother-in-law to the sacrifice of the Mass; he also leapt from bed, and with the chest removed began to dig the earth: and deceived by the dream, but finding neither gold nor silver nor anything of any value, he grieved that he had trusted the dream, and did penance for such a fault, by which he had succumbed to a most foolish temptation.

[2] Meanwhile his wife Catharine was carrying in her womb, and at the due time, with the most holy Father in Christ Pope Urban VI reigning, in the year 1387, she gave birth to a son, to whom the name of Anthony was given. Some time afterwards a pestilent air infected the city of Lodi, and the citizens, in fear of contagion, went out to their country houses and neighboring places and dispersed: on the occasion of the plague he goes out, among whom Lord James with his wife retired to St. Mark near Lodi-Vecchio, where his father-in-law Lord John Bocchone, father of the aforesaid woman, was staying: who received his son-in-law and all his family most lovingly, and held them with great honor at his house. Already he had remained there some time, when, with the tedium of domestic enclosure creeping in, he addressed his father-in-law, and asked for permission to take freer air for himself and his son Bassanus, and obtained it; but on this condition, that they should neither enter any tavern, nor approach any crowd of men where there might be fear of contagion. Therefore they went out toward Lodi-Vecchio, and having roamed around the surrounding plain, at length came to the church of the Holy Sepulcher, where James, looking at his relative, said, "I wish to try which was longer, Christ or I"; and lying down upon the sepulcher of Christ, and he stretched himself within

the cavity of that sepulcher.

[3] Scarcely had he done so, when, as if red-hot iron had been plunged into cold water, he was so inwardly changed, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, that with the ardor of his former vanities wholly quenched, he rose up wholly another, and returned to St. Mark. There, now illumined in mind, suddenly he is changed within. he set about a life wholly different from that to which he had been accustomed. No longer did his cithara, wont to make so many delights for him, lie in his heart: but in the church of St. Mark he was more frequent, where he painted the image of the Crucified with the Saints Mary and John standing by: and wholly kindled with divine love, he devoted himself to works of devotion, with so great humility, that he struck the greatest wonder into his father-in-law, his wife, and all his acquaintances with so great and so sudden a conversion of morals. He then wished to return to the city, where he had left his mother with two daughters, to see how she was, and commended his wife Catharine and son Anthony to his father-in-law. But his mother did not permit him to enter the house, shutting the door against him, and said: "Do not be surprised that you are not received here: but know, patiently he bears the death of his daughters, that your two daughters died yesterday, whom I immediately had buried, because they were extinguished by the pestilence. But do not let this matter disturb you or make you sad: but go back outside, and there rejoice."

[4] he gives himself to works of piety. Such things heard, James returned to St. Mark, and there devoutly remained until the mortality ceased, daily painting the images of the Saints, because in this art he was very strong. Afterwards, returning to Lodi, he began to hear Mass daily, which ended, he occupied himself in working wool by carding fleeces, and exercising himself in this labor whole days, and this with a mail shirt over the bare flesh, according to the word of St. Paul the Apostle, "I chastise my body and reduce it to servitude," namely to the spirit, that is, to the soul subjecting it with all humility. 1 Cor. 9:27 This life he led for seven whole years, of which he lived three without any use of carnal intercourse, although he slept with his wife in the same bed. Meanwhile going to the monastery of St. Martin of Lodi, with a certain Religious, he learns the divine office, who was called Peter Andrew of Bologna, he made a diligent confession of his sins; and there for some days he remained, ministering to the said Priest (who, on account of a certain grave infirmity, could not move himself from his bed) with such humility and charity, that it cannot be sufficiently explained in word or writing: but he in return was teaching him the divine Office, though he seemed little suited, as being very little lettered, and accustomed to no language except the vulgar. And indeed it did not lack wonder that he could be so quickly taught, with him presenting it who said, "I will give you mouth and wisdom, and it is the Spirit who shall speak for you."

[5] Him wishing to separate from his wife, Thus instructed, he signified to his wife, that his resolution was to leave this deceitful world full of various impostures, and to enter the third Order of St. Francis for better serving God. But this resolution of his was for some time hindered by his mother Flordonina. For fearing lest her daughter-in-law Catharine, young in age, could so easily restrain the concupiscences of the flesh, as her son overcame them, she firmed her as much as she could not to consent in this to her husband, aspiring to the full conversion of life, in the manner of foolish mothers, loving the conveniences of their children more than is fitting. his mother hindering him Therefore the most pious Lord, wishing to urge on further James's resolution on account of his good and fruitful works, offered a certain vision to his mother, in which the nature of the vain pomps of the deceitful world was most excellently expressed: which truly are nothing other than a certain empty smoke. On a certain night under dawn she seemed to see her son, locked in a certain chamber of her house, she is taught through a vision that she is doing injury to her son, struggling with a most dense and most troublesome smoke, and with breath almost cut off, crying out, "Woe is me! for I am being killed by the smoke." But she herself seemed to run around the chamber in aid of her son, if she could in any part either through the door or through the window make an exit for him: but in vain; since this was fortified with the strongest bars, nor could it be unlocked by any force. And pitying her son, whom she thought about to die, she lamented his fortunes and her own, who was compelled to watch the calamity of him which she could not relieve; but he applying himself to the iron bars and striving to wrench them away, said, "Be certain, dear mother, that you yourself are the cause of my death, to be undergone in this dark and most foul smoke."

[6] After his and his wife's continence proven for three years, At these words the terrified woman began to awaken, and recalling the series and manner of the vision made to her, without delay she rose from bed, to tell the same to Lord John Bocchone her son's father-in-law: and said that she no longer in any way wished to oppose the holy desires of her son, with which the pious spouses had proven the divine will to be sufficiently joined, since through three whole years they had abstained from carnal union even in a common bed, than which no more certain experiment of firm continence can be had from spouses, still set in youthful age, and to the wise words of the Apostle, "If you shall have lived according to the flesh, she consents that both should profess the third Order. you shall die." Rom. 8:11 Hearing these things, her father-in-law opposed nothing, himself also judging that no one should be drawn back from what was agreed to be better, nor hindered from serving God wholly, to whom to serve is to reign. But Catharine, consenting to her husband, received a similar habit, namely of the third Order of St. Francis, as did James's mother: whose separation from his wife was legitimately made by the Bishop of the place, with the counsel of certain religious men; on one side Flordonina standing surety for her son James, on the other for Catharine her father John. And so James was made a most devoted Brother, as you are about to hear.

[7] But his first care was to place both women in a certain house of his own property, neighboring the house in which he himself dwelt, where both led a most honorable life. Then he converted his chamber into a little church, which still survives, called of St. Julian: and thus the prophetic vision was fulfilled, which done, he converts his house into the church of St. Julian. of the one dreaming that an immense treasure had been found under the chest: for in the very place where the chest had stood, namely in the middle of the chamber, was erected an altar, at which the most precious of all treasures, namely the very sacrifice of the Lord's body, was daily handled. For the use of the same sacrifice Catharine converted all her ornament of silver, commissioning a beautiful chalice to be made therefrom, and on its veil weaving the gems which she had formerly used; but changing silk garments into Priestly paraments and palls to be spread before the altar. Luke 18:22 But he himself sold a certain possession of his and distributed the fourteen hundred pounds made from the price among the poor, and he distributed among the poor a sold possession. attending to the voice of Christ saying: "Go and sell all you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven"; likewise this: "Remove delays; it has always hurt to postpone things for those ready." But he left another possession after his death to the said oratory of St. Julian, for the sustenance of two Priests. But while he himself and the aforesaid women lived, they strove to divide almost all its income and of their other revenues to the poor of Christ, in food, drink, and clothing, as the necessity of each demanded. Indeed James himself was wont to visit hospitals and the hovels of poor men bedridden, spending abundant mercy on them, because he remembered that Christ had professed: "What you did to one of the least of mine, you did to me." Matt. 25:40

NOTES.

CHAPTER II.

Blessed James's conversation with neighbors, sojourn in suburban churches, rigor of life.

[8] James consecrated a Priest, He had learned, as I indicated above, to recite the divine Office, using as teacher the aforementioned religious Priest of St. Martin: but he had learned so well, that he was fit to receive holy Orders. Therefore not long after, consecrated a Presbyter, he began publicly to celebrate Masses with such devotion, that he inspired the same in all those present, using for this ministry his companion whom he had, called Fr. Francischinus. he chooses some companions for himself. And when the fame of his most praiseworthy life which he was leading, through the whole city of Lodi and the surrounding towns and the rest of Italy, was gradually diffused, nine companions soon gathered to him. But of those who for the sake of spiritual instruction repeatedly visited him, both seculars and religious, from the Franciscan Order and others, the number was very great; all of whom withdrew most excellently edified by the example of so absolute a humility: especially when they understood, how from the vanity of the world, which he had followed, to the service of God he had been converted: nor did anyone recede from his countenance sad, but as though he had been thought worthy of an angelic gaze and address, with wholly cheerful and tranquil mind.

[9] He leads a Lady of Mirandola to religion. Among these was a certain most noble matron, the Lady of Mirandola, who coming to Lodi with a distinguished company of several men and ten maidservants, and betaking herself to the church of St. Julian, after she had spoken with the aforesaid Brother, and beholding more intimately and admiring his distinguished holiness, determined to bid farewell to the world; and having sought permission to enter the monastery of the Clarisses of

Lodi, for this end only, that she might more intimately know the manner of life there wont to be observed, she approved it exceedingly; and after she had had the whole Life of St. Clare described for her, she returned to Mirandola to dispose of her affairs; then migrating to Milan, she instituted the order of St. Clare in the monastery which is called of St. Ursa; and having been made a nun, she gathered there many noble girls and women; whose Abbess being made, she so ruled and instructed them, that, by the odor of the most exact discipline which was observed there, and I hear is still observed today, very many nobles, drawn by it, came to visit her and her nuns.

[10] Such good successes did not lack the envy of the demon, wont to tempt those who give themselves to divine service: but faithful is God, promising in the Gospel help and saying: "I will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able"; through the envy of the Franciscans as though he were saying: Promptly and eagerly pass into my service, all you who love virtue: for I shall not suffer you to be more vehemently assailed by the world, the flesh, or the devil, than you are able to bear and overcome with my grace helping you, with great increase of your merits. For it is to be known that the demon is very weak, and conquers only those who wish to be conquered, by consenting to sinful delight. This one therefore, about to tempt Fr. James also, put it into the heart of the Franciscan Brothers, dwelling in the neighborhood of the little church of St. Julian, to say among themselves, "What shall we do? for Fr. James, through that so great fame of his virtue and sanctity, draws all to himself: and we fear lest with that new Order of his and the exact observance of the Franciscan Rule, he grow to our harm, and with respect to him we may be marked among the common people as less religious and observant; and so our church may be deserted, and the one which is now a very small building be enlarged to the greatest extent. What then? We shall accuse him before the General or Provincial of the Order, and say that it is not fitting that within the same city there should be two Orders of the same Rule."

[11] he is compelled to depart with his own. No sooner said than done: they summon from more distant parts some Provincial with some Religious, and before him measuring the distance between the churches of St. Francis and St. Julian, by a few paces less than the laws allow, they caused it to be ordered that James migrate outside the city. But when the citizens of Lodi had heard this, they denied that they would permit him to be torn from them. But he himself, pretending the obedience prescribed by the Rule of St. Francis, while he persisted in his resolution of migrating, was begged by the same, that he should not at least go outside the territory of Lodi. Which he kindly and willingly granted to those asking; and retired to Lodi-Vecchio, to the church of St. Bassianus near Sellera: where daily he said Mass with a great outpouring of tears and much wonder of those present. There he made a wooden Crucifix, and afterwards another to be placed in the cemetery, which is now at St. John outside the royal gate near the way of Milan, to the suburban church of St. Bassianus, where now the Franciscan Brothers of the Observance of Fr. Bernardinus dwell. He also made a third Crucifix, which is now to be seen above the altar of the chapel of St. Julian, and is most beautiful; and in such pious and holy works he was passing the time.

[12] thence he migrates to another of St. Mary, After some space of time, having left the place of St. Bassianus, he crossed over to the neighboring church of St. Mary across the Sellera: and there he began to attend to preaching the word of God, so solidly and usefully, that for hearing him there was a concourse not only from the Lodi but also from the Pavia and Milan districts, with the peoples saying, "Oh what a change of the right hand of the Most High! Who has seen, who has heard such a thing ever?" Truly it can be applied to this holy Religious, what Paul about himself writes to the Galatians: "I make known that I was storming the church of God above all my contemporaries: with great edification of all, but when it pleased him who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, I did not yield to flesh and blood; but considering that if I should wish to follow the pomps of worldly life, I would have to be condemned to hell, and by the inward breath of the Holy Spirit, I chose to become a preacher and amplifier of his very church." Gal. 1:15 For this most devout Brother remembered that truest saying: "One does not go to the stars by delights": therefore he proposed for himself to imitate the most austere life of St. Mary Magdalene and of other Saints named in the Scriptures.

[13] living in the greatest austerity: From the time that he assumed the habit of St. Francis, never did he taste meat, never wine: but for drink he had water boiled with myrrh and incense, to which boiling, when a third part had departed, he himself mixed a little honey, to temper somewhat the bitterness of the myrrh: and this was to him for wine. But after the mail shirt was broken, with which he was clothed over the flesh; in its place he took a hair shirt, woven of knotty cords; which he tied around his body with three cords, in honor of the most holy Trinity; but of these cords, one was made of hog's bristles very sharp, another of horse's tail hairs, the third of goat's tail hairs, so that it might more afflict and chastise the body, and reduce it to the servitude of the spirit. His bed was composed of twigs, and for a pillow he had hard and cold marble, in honor of our Savior, who hanging on the cross, and pierced with a crown of thorns, had not where to lay his head. And he kept this manner of dressing and lying, as long as he lived on earth, that he might say with Paul: "I am crucified with Christ." Gal. 2:29

[14] he resolves on a fast of the whole of Lent, He once proposed to pass an entire Lent without bodily food, and in fact he spent the first eight days thus, content with the reception of the Lord's body alone: at which time Fr. Francischinus, his companion, remembers that with the Brothers eating, he would take food in his hand and as it were bring it to his mouth, yet not put it into his mouth; and sometimes he would withdraw to the garden, whither Fr. Francischinus himself following him, when he would say that the Brothers desired his presence; James would answer that he would shortly be there, and again called, he would humbly command, that without regard to him they should dine: which done, he himself not dining would remove the table, as though the least of all and minister to all. Fr. Francischinus therefore, seeing that he did not eat at all, began to fear lest he die of hunger. by his mother's command on the eighth day he interrupts it, Meanwhile James's own mother came to Lodi-Vecchio for the Indulgences, and hearing of this abstinence of her son, and herself also fearing lest he fail, rebuked him. Who, while out of reverence for his mother promising he would do what she commanded, she prepared him a porridge; which out of obedience he consented to take, yet so that he diluted its delicate flavor by mixing his myrrhed water.

[15] The meal finished, Francischinus rose, and coming to Lodi related to the Bishop, then at the Bishop's command, what abstinence James had begun, and how he had at his mother's command interposed the eating of porridge tempered with a myrrhed liquor. But the Bishop, having heard such things with wonder, ordered that Fr. James should be at once called. And with him humbly obeying and coming, the Bishop commanded that he take food once a day thereafter. And when James humbly excused himself, and prayed not to be compelled by so severe a command to take a more copious refreshment than was truly needed; since he trusted that from God strength would be with him, he takes food three times a week: to continue the rigor of the abstinence begun; the Bishop willed and expressly commanded that at least three times a week he should be refreshed. And to this precept James humbly obeyed, and held such a manner of eating, not only that Lent, but through all his life thereafter, eating only on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, but without the use of meat and wine; so that he could apply that saying of Aristotle, "Study made me ingenious, but abstinence chaste."

[16] Moreover Fr. James was moderate in gait, look, speech, and every action; always showing a lofty and cheerful mind, time usefully occupied, and offering to others an example of virtues: sweet in correcting, gentle in teaching, never carried away by the impetus of fury and anger, but fervent in charity, nor had he conversation except with honorable or religious persons. But since the admonition of St. Jerome is, "Always do something good, that the devil may find you occupied"; James now prayed, now turned over by reading the Lives of the Fathers, now clung fixed in contemplation of divine things; from which, lest he be hindered by an importunate and excessive flow of citizens, not rarely he shut himself within the sacristy, most fond of solitude. and there devoted himself to divine praises and considering the benefits of the Creator scattered among creatures. This was indeed for him a cell, of which Basil speaks in his book On the Solitary Life, saying: "O cell, the delight of holy minds and the inexhaustible sweetness of inmost taste! For the cell is a paradise of delights, where, as of fragrant species of spices, or flashing flowers of aromatics, so fragrance breathes the odors of virtues."

NOTES.

for entrance under the same common vault, added to the enlarging of the church by the venerable Religious Father Gerardus de Mayocchi, Rector and Beneficed there in the year 1435, and this from the testament of the same James, willing that after the death of the said women the very chamber should thus be united. We have chosen to remove this digression from here, because it was interrupting the context of the history; and here from it to infer, that besides the testament to be given below, where nothing is said of such a chamber, a certain codicil afterwards added must be understood: then that the said two women had died before the year already noted, or at least had yielded their right of usufruct.

CHAPTER III.

Returned to Lodi he helps captives, and thence with disease contracted, he dies: his body is elevated.

[17] With the discords of Italy burning, At the devil's instigation and God's permission, through all Lombardy a great fire of discords blazed, on account of enormous sins, born of obstinate hatreds, among those to whom this common saying had not been in heart:

"If you wish a good life and reputation, Do not follow factions according to Solomon: For the Guelf party and the Ghibelline party Shall be chastised by divine power, In this life with an accumulation of sighs, In hell with the pains of martyrdoms."

Therefore the aforesaid Fr. James, he foretells the devastation to be inflicted on the territory of Lodi. by divine inspiration foreseeing the great commotions that were imminent, on a certain feast day preaching to the people, began to say: "O noble citizens, O matrons, O men of whatever age and condition, whether you be natives or foreigners, I ask and beseech you as much as I can, that, with the fields left, you betake yourselves to your cities, castles, and towns, before such and so great evils as are imminent seize you: nor despise what I tell you, for I speak by the command of God. Do not, I pray, wish to die before the time, but by the example of Christ himself, when the Jews wished to stone him, who hid himself because the hour of his passion had not yet come, take counsel for yourselves, while it is allowed and you can."

[18] and about to give to others an example of fleeing, But seeing that they were not moved nor feared by such an admonition, again with loud voice he said: "O my brothers, O sisters, if you are not now willing to depart when you have time; I with my Brothers am going away to Lodi": and the sermon dismissed, delaying no longer, together with his own he began to set forth. But with the inhabitants of the village running up, and asking him to stay with them, because they were about to fortify the church against any sudden incursions; he would not consent, but went whither he had begun. The people therefore terrified by such speed of flight, also themselves began to gather their goods, to load carts, and to transfer themselves and their families to Lodi: he retires to Lodi with his own: but some persisted in the place, who shortly after regretted their incredulity, when they were plundered and captured by the enemy, with all the houses outside the walls overthrown or burned; which during the wars remain in that desolation to this year 1448, nor was there for any safety of life or liberty outside the city gates: but those whom the danger seized were led away into various and distant captivities; and in turn many from hostile lands were brought to Lodi, and thrown into prisons.

[19] he devotes himself to the service of captives, Then Fr. James and his Brothers, especially Fr. Francischinus, pitying the unhappy condition of the captives, went round through the houses of more powerful citizens, and of those to whom the severity wont to be exercised against the wretched was displeasing, and for the love of God they gathered alms to be distributed among them, carrying a wallet of loaves, skin bottles full of wine, with cooked meats, and ministering with their own hands to those who, hindered by the weight of manacles and chains, or weakened by the enormity of their wounds, could not help themselves with their own hands. And in this exercise of Christian charity and humility whole days were passed from morning to evening, with the highest humility and charity, while meanwhile James himself cleansed the clothes of those wretched ones from vermin, covering them for the time with his own clothes, whence he brought back to his house no light torment to his own body, seeking material on all sides for afflicting the flesh. It cannot sufficiently be explained in words with how great ardor the holy man was engaged in these things, having always before his eyes that saying of the Gospel, where in the person of Christ it is said: "I was in prison and you came to me." Matt. 25:36 But so much progress was made by this his solicitude, that nothing of things necessary for life was lacking to any of the captives; since he went now to these houses, now to those, as the bound are wont to be kept in various places, as those experienced know, as many as have ever lived among such wars.

[20] and for the salvation of many to be destroyed otherwise by hardships But it sometimes happened that some among the captives fell sick, whom James, with many prayers begging the custodians, would himself carry to the hospital, and there tend. But if he could not obtain this freely, but inhuman soldiers would demand one and sometimes two ducats; he would go round through the houses of devout and wealthier persons, until he had begged enough to placate the soldiers' avarice: and by this means he rescued many from the squalor of the prisons. Among these was one whom he had cared to be brought to the hospital of St. Elizabeth, whose shin, horribly affected, had almost entirely rotted, and scarcely clung to the rest of the body by the nerves alone, he ordered a certain silver instrument to be made for him, and so dexterously treated the sick man, that the incurable part being cut off, he preserved the rest of the man: who afterwards did not cease to praise God and his servant James, by whose mercy he had been retained among the living.

[21] These calamities lasted for a long time; which, when they were producing daily and greatest labors for James, hence with a disease contracted, I have no doubt but that the infirmity into which he fell was the fruit of those same labors. But it was a grave infirmity: but he bore it with peaceful and cheerful mind: and men of every condition and sex, coming to visit him, he received with joyful face. There came to him also once a certain little old woman, a magician, and said: "If you will, Brother James, I will make for you a sign by which you may recover health." But he: "Away," he said, "for I prefer to die just than to live unjust": and so should anyone speak who wishes to live according to the law of God, and so in such a case St. Bernard is said to have answered another little old woman, offering a similar remedy for his disease: nor can those be sufficiently blamed, who so trust to diabolical incantations for bodily life, that they count for nothing losing the eternal salvation of the soul. But the warnings which James gave to those coming to him chiefly regarded mutual charity, since he constantly inculcated that saying of Paul: "We are all Brothers in Christ": he predicts the death of his companion and warning these things he seemed to laugh, so that all marveled at the serenity of his countenance in a sick body, when they considered the pains he was suffering: for indeed a rejoicing heart makes the face cheerful, as Solomon testifies; and James rejoiced wholly in the Lord. Prov. 15:7 Nevertheless his companion Francischinus was sad: wherefore wishing to console him, James said: "Do not, I pray, mourn, Brother; for the Lord invites you equally with me." Nor was such an admonition vain: for a few days later the said Brother was seized by disease, and died of it, on the third day of his infirmity, and is buried and rests among the Friars Minor in their cloister.

[22] he himself too dies piously At length James himself, after the exercise of long and wondrous patience, in which he never gave any sign of pain or trouble, never showed a more contracted countenance, received the Sacraments of the Church with as much devotion and reverence as he could, such as no one can explain in words, before a numerous multitude of both secular and religious persons standing around, in the year 1404, about the 11th hour of the night on a certain Friday of the month of April. Then he began to comfort all who were present, 1404 on Friday. and with eyes and hands lifted to heaven he said: "You have broken my bonds, Lord"; and saying this he expired, the same cheerfulness of face remaining even after death, with which he seemed as it were to smile upon all those running to the spectacle: of whom early next morning the number was greatest, when the body of the dead man lay in the atrium of the house in religious habit, as is the custom of such, visible on the bier. Nor was there anyone who did not believe, that so decorous and graceful an appearance and most like to a living man, was an argument of that beatitude, which his soul already then possessed in heaven. But among the others who came reverently were the mother and wife of the deceased, with his son Anthony aspiring to the Priesthood.

[23] most honorable exequies are performed for the deceased: Then I, Fr. Bassianus Dardadone, of the Order of Friars Minor of St. Francis and Confessor of the most devout Fr. James, before all the people, raising with my hands the hands of the deceased, showed them through all the joints of the fingers so handleable and moveable as though still animated with whole life, as a sign of his greatest sanctity. Nor much later, the Clergy coming with much honor and reverence, buried him under the earth, before the altar of St. Julian in his own church. But because God said to his Apostles: "Preach the Gospel to every creature, announcing virtues and vices"; I had a sermon on the virtues of the deceased. Further, in that place of first burial the body lay for seven years: the body after 7 years is elevated intact. but afterwards his mother told some Religious and seculars, that she wished to have her son's body elevated from the ground, into a monument to be built for this purpose; which she also did, beside the aforesaid altar on the right hand. But the body dug up gave forth a most sweet odor from itself, as if the place had been filled with abundant spices: and some of those present lifted his hands, and again as before found them handleable and moveable, although with the flesh consumed, only the skin remained drawn over the bones, firmly clinging to each other.

[24] Which, since they offered a certain testimony of the excellent sanctity he had obtained in life, I Fr. Bassianus Dardadone was often asked by the mother and many others, to describe his blessed life and death. But I could not comply with them, since I had no leisure from sermons to be given in our convent and outside the city through various

churches; until in the year 1423, compelled by a grave pain of the teeth to cease from preaching, I was able to attend to writing, and to consign to letters these few things, which my memory suggested to me about him: not doubting at all that many other things most worthy of being written were done by the same, which did not come to my notice. There are also many things whose memory old age has obliterated: for I experience that the same has become very slippery for me; by the common fault of senile age... Considering further that all must die once, whether in youth or in old age, I add this final admonition to all: Whatever you would wish to have done at the hour of death, do while you are sound in body, turning away from vices and exercising virtue, if you wish to enter into eternal life. Thanks be to God: that is, I Fr. Bassianus give thanks to God, who deigned to grant me grace to commit to writing this blessed Legend, for the honor of God and the edification of any who wish to live well, as this devout Religious lived, namely Fr. James de Oldo: and with him to rejoice without end for ever and ever. Amen....

NOTES.

CHAPTER IV.

Miracles performed after the death of Blessed James.

[25] The aunt of the Blessed suffering with pains of the stomach is healed, Here I wish to describe certain miracles, done through the devoted Fr. James de Oldo in the city of Lodi after his death: of which let this be the first. When the body still stood visible on the bier, a certain Antoniola, mother of Presbyter Ugo de Menna, who for twelve years had suffered a grave pain of the stomach, and was the aunt of the same Fr. James, made this prayer to him: "My son, if you have so great grace with God, I beseech you that you may wish to free me from this pain of the stomach which I suffer": and she felt herself master of her petition before the body was consigned to the earth, nor did that pain any more return, she being most perfectly freed.

[26] There was also a certain man from under St. Nicolinus of Lodi, seized by paralysis for two years, who when at night in bed he did not sleep, likewise a paralytic, but lay thoughtful, saw someone approaching him who said: "In the morning go to my church, and take care to have three Masses said there, afterwards you shall be sound." He answered: "But I do not know which your church is." And he said: "I am Fr. James de Oldo: go to St. Julian's." Again he: "But how shall I go who cannot walk?" "You shall go," the other replied. And in the morning he who had been paralyzed went; and took care to have the Masses said, as he had been ordered, and returned home wholly sound.

[27] and a dying man, There was also another citizen of Lodi, called D. Bassianus de Gorgonzella, dwelling in the borgo of the Cremonese gate in the neighborhood of St. Paul: who from a most grave infirmity lying in bed, deprived not only of bodily but of tongue's motion, devoid of almost all food and drink, was held as given up by the physicians, foretelling his nearby death: and therefore his household, after they had mourned him as dead, had taken care to have a bier made for his burial. But it is to be noted that the aforesaid sick man, feeling himself so weighed down, by God's grace was reminded of the blessed soul of the aforementioned Blessed Fr. James de Oldo, whose companion he had been in life once, and began within himself to address him in this manner: who invoking Blessed James in his heart "O glorified soul of Blessed Fr. James de Oldo; whom I most certainly believe to stand before almighty God, I beseech as heartily as I can, that you may wish to intercede for me with blessed Christ, that if it is profitable for the salvation of my soul, he may deign to restore to me bodily health: and I in turn promise the same, that for all the rest of my life, as much as is humanly possible, I shall strive to avoid all sins: which promise indeed, if its effect shall follow, is dearer to God than any other vow whatsoever, which a man or woman could pledge to God." The aforesaid D. Bassianus added also certain devotions and offerings to be made by him in the church of St. Julian.

[28] These things thus done, on the following night soon around the bed of the sick man appeared blessed Fr. James de Oldo, by the same appearing clothed in the grey mantle of the third Order, and three times called the name of the one lying there, saying: "O Bassianus. O Bassianus. O Bassianus." Though he was much weighed down then, yet he asked who it was who thus repeated his name. To whom he: "I am Fr. James de Oldo, who, moved by your great devotion and fervent entreaty, have supplicated for you the most high God, and from his grace and mercy I have obtained that you shall not die from this infirmity, and may thus be able to fulfill your good will, and those devotions to which you have bound yourself with sincere mind to God and me, that is, to my church. Take comfort therefore and be certain, the miracle done on him is ordered to be published: that you shall shortly be freed from this infirmity which you now suffer and from every anxiety, with great joy of all. But I command, that, as soon as you can take a step, you come to my church of St. Julian, and openly relate whatever has now happened to you; and this during the sacrifice of the Mass, when there is a more abundant people there, so that on the occasion of this blessed miracle, the glorious God, for us suffering and dying on the cross, may be praised always and forever."

[29] as after 4 days he does in the church of St. Julian It should be known that four days from then, the aforesaid D. Bassianus came to the church of St. Julian, at the same hour at which a certain Franciscan Brother was putting on the sacred vestments to say Mass. With this finished, D. Bassianus asked the Brother himself to call all those who were there, begging that no one depart, and saying that he wished to narrate to him a beautiful miracle of Blessed Fr. James de Oldo, which had recently happened to him: and he began minutely to set forth each of the things indicated above; nor did he moderately increase the devotion of all those present toward the Blessed. It is further to be known that with the people departed with great satisfaction, and he is led to see the chamber of the Blessed, Lady Flordonina, mother of the said Blessed, took the said D. Bassianus by the hand and led him into his house, that is, his little chamber, where the Blessed one himself was wont day and night to pray, and to turn over with diligent contemplation the books on the lives of the holy Fathers; and there she showed him in a certain corner a bed composed of twigs bound together, and the hard marble which had been for her son as a pillow, and also his hair shirt and the three cords with which he bound it to his body... But the aforesaid miracle in the person of D. Bassianus happened in the fourth year after the death of the Blessed: and he afterwards lived for forty-two years.

[30] offspring is obtained for a sterile matron. A noble matron, named Aloysia, wife of Aloysius de Vinea, noble citizen of Lodi, had lived with her husband four years without offspring: and she had now laid aside the hope of conceiving, although she was still young. However, having heard the fame of this devout Religious, she set about making certain devotions, and began to pray him with intimate affection of heart to obtain for her from God, according to his good pleasure, sons or daughters. With the devotion she had undertaken completed, she soon conceived a daughter, and afterwards in order other children: and she asserted that all her prayers had always been heard by the Blessed one.

[31] Lady Joanna de Paternis, a matron of Lodi, grievously bore that her son Daniel was being consumed and withered by incurable consumption, a consumptive boy recovers so that he was nearer to death than life. But on a certain morning, having gone out of the house to hear Mass, she commended him to her daughter Cometa; afterwards returning, she found her son lying in bed in such a way that his head hung outside it. Wherefore she thought him dead (for she could not perceive any breath of his), and placed his head upon the pillow. But behold, the little boy awakening began to complain of his mother, saying, that this had happened to him importunately: "For," he said, "Fr. James de Oldo was now present to me, and said that I should tell you on your return home, to go to his church, and there to offer a wax infant, and so I should recover." The mother did as the son had warned: and from then on the boy was as well as if he had never suffered any evil.

[32] Another Joanna also, a woman of Lodi, had for some days been so ill affected, that she could take no sleep in her eyes. and a woman, both after seeing the Blessed in sleep. To her there was a brother, called Otto, of the Order of St. Dominic, Master in Theology; who

after he had been present to the dying John Patarinus until he rendered his spirit, reciting the sacred prayers over him, on his return to the monastery turned aside to visit and console his sick sister; to him asking how she was, the household replied, "She is resting a little." I therefore waited there for a while, and then entering the chamber of the sick woman, asked her also about her state: who replied, "I have slept somewhat: but while sleeping Fr. James de Oldo was present, admonishing me to take the habit of the third Order: and to him inculcating the same often, when I refused to promise this, at length he said I should be healed; and for certainty of the matter he gave a sign, saying, that at the same time Master John Patarinus had died." Truly her brother confirmed this, nor did he doubt that his sister had understood this divinely, since he himself had been with the dying man, and with no delay interposed had come to the sick woman, so that no messenger meanwhile about such a death could have reached her. Finally the truth of that vision was confirmed by the health, following within a short time.

[33] a boy afterwards touched is suddenly healed. A certain Bartholomew de Fasulis, at the time of mortality sleeping with his mother, as boys are wont, a grave fever came upon him, and produced a pestilent swelling. He awakening, and feeling himself greatly weighed down, and reaching his hand toward his hip, felt an unusual swelling; and wailing cried out to his mother. She asked what was troubling him; and at such a time suspecting what the matter was, began feeling to explore the body of the little son; nor did she find the evil less than she feared. But because she nourished a great confidence in God and that blessed man, she made a vow, that if the boy should be freed from that danger, she would offer some part of her goods. Nor was more needed: for early in the morning, inspecting the place before affected, she found it wholly sound and without stain or swelling, with the fever taken away, and the boy as lively as if he had suffered no evil.

[34] Another woman, called Facina de Longhis, wife of John Gallus, lay dangerously ill, having her body affected with nine great wounds, of whose cure the physicians despaired. So to her lying and sad, and almost placed outside the use of reason, likewise a woman ulcerated; there seemed to stand two Brothers, one clothed in grey, another in black; one of whom calling her by name, "Rise," said, "Facina." To her denying that she could rise, he replied, "Come, stretch out your hand to me"; and having taken her hand, he seemed to lead her around the chamber. At this the woman awakening, related the vision to a certain intimate friend of hers. Who confessed that, being very solicitous on her account, she had insistently supplicated Blessed Fr. James, because she had experienced him as present advocate in every necessity. From then on, from day to day the sick woman began to have it better, until she recovered full health, praising God and his servant James.

[35] another from a rising of bile to the head and obstruction of urine, Lady Bartholina de Somaripis, from bile diffused through her body was gravely sick, and noxious humors lifted to her head so swelled it, that her womanly appearance in it, so great, could hardly be recognized. There came a persistent obstruction of urine: and afflicted with these two evils, she turned herself to invoking God and the devoted Fr. James de Oldo, to whom she had always been piously affected, promising some offering to be made to him, if he should grant the grace of health. Scarcely had she uttered the vow, when in an instant she marveled that she had been so perfectly healed, as though she had suffered no discomfort.

[36] likewise a dying man in the year 1438 A certain citizen of Lodi, called Martin Gallus, after a grave infirmity of eighteen years had been reduced to such a state, that besides a little sugar confection he took no nourishment whatever, and was held by the physicians as given up. To him so lying came a kinswoman of his, named Thomasina, and said: "I wish for you, my kinsman, to pray Fr. James de Oldo, that if he has any grace with God, he may restore your health." At this admonition he himself also for himself the following whole night asked for the same grace; adding a vow about a wax head to be brought to the Blessed's church if he should recover. But the following day he sent his kinswoman with the wax head to the church, and suddenly rose up sound. This happened in the year 1438.

[37] Thomasina delli Bocchoni, a most honorable and pious matron, daughter of the noble man John and kinswoman of the same Blessed Fr. James de Oldo, and in the year 1445 the kinswoman of the Blessed is restored to her right mind. about the year 1445 fell into such an illness, that the physicians confessed it to be unknown to them, and since she spoke nothing aptly, but one thing for another, she was believed to be possessed by an evil spirit. Exorcisms therefore were applied by Priests: and when by these too nothing was accomplished, she began at length to be held as mad. Her sons and other household, seeing her so affected, and that from day to day the madness grew, and at length had taken away every use of reason from the unhappy woman, despaired that she would ever be restored to sound mind: but two of her nieces had greater confidence in God and his Saint, and began most blandly to urge their aunt, to place some hope in that devout Fr. James, to whom she had so often and so devoutly supplicated. And when the other women of the household suggested the same, and did not make an end of repeating such things and praying for the sick woman; so much did her sound mind return to her, that she could say: "O Lord, Fr. James, servant of God, deign to bring me help in this my affliction": then she was so sound in all her senses in a moment, that no trace of the previous passion could be noticed in her: and thus she praised God and the aforesaid Fr. James.

[38] A matron suffering a cancer in her breast, To another woman, called Lady Daria, wife of the noble citizen of Lodi James de Fissiraga, there came an incurable cancer in the right breast, which within two years so corroded her, that a wound of the size of a host was open, and for filling it there was need of several pieces of linen cloth cut in a circle, while meanwhile medicines were being applied around the edges of the wound itself. But by these not only was nothing accomplished, but with the torments always growing, as the evil crept more widely day by day, the physicians denied that any other means of healing remained beyond the cutting off of the very breast, if she wished life to be preserved, unless perhaps by an express miracle the merciful God should aid her. So judged Master John of Bergamo, Master Christopher Bocchonus, Master Martin of Cassino, Master Aloysius Paul; Master John Gamba, Doctors of Medicine and John Parasso, surgeon. With such their judgment heard, the woman, who had long known many things about the most devoted and most holy life of Blessed Fr. James de Oldo, which the physicians judged should be cut off, rather than consent to the cutting off of the breast, preferred, with all human medicines rejected, to place her entire confidence in him who raised Lazarus four days dead from the tomb, hoping to propitiate the same for herself through the intercession of Blessed James.

[39] It is to be known that among those who had persuaded Lady Daria to turn to invoking Blessed James, was Lady Thomasina, the kinswoman of the same Blessed man. at the persuasion of the aforesaid kinswoman she invokes the Blessed, For as often as she came to visit Lady Daria, she inculcated in her devotion toward her Kinsman, from whom she also herself had previously obtained the benefit of health. Therefore instructed by her persuasions, Lady Daria, when she saw the matter brought to this pass; after she had on her own part omitted nothing which was expedient for the salvation of soul and body... finally seized this last anchor; and piously invoking Blessed James, made a vow of a certain offering to be offered at his church: and at the very instant she felt as it were a certain fiery heat depart from her breast: and she began, as if now certain of the obtained health, to give thanks to almighty Christ and his mother and Blessed James: and from then on she was seen by the experience of their own eyes daily to progress to perfect health. But what augments the miracle is this. Daria was carrying a child in the womb, and along with the childbirth she is freed from the disease, and the physicians had said that the nearer she came to childbirth, the more the cancer by which she was eaten would be aggravated and irritated: but the wholly contrary happened, that as much as the fetus matured in the womb, so much the evil was diminished; so that when the time of giving birth came, she was wholly free from it, with only the traces of the former wound remaining, without any feeling of pain at all. And this happened in the year of the Lord's incarnation 1448 a few days before the Lord's nativity. And thus the present miracle is ended: praise to God, peace to the living, rest to the dead. Amen.

[40] To the praise and glory of almighty God, to the exaltation of the name of Blessed Fr. James de Oldo, who took care of erecting the present church of St. Julian, let it be made manifest to all, that the said Blessed Fr. James through his merits has newly worked a great miracle, in the person of the noble man Master John de Populo, citizen of Lodi: likewise a man suffering a cancer in the mouth, and in this manner. The aforesaid Master Aloysius was suffering from a grave infirmity, which the physicians literally name Ad colla malignus, and is a certain species of cancer, which had grown in the same Master Aloysius within the mouth itself on the left side. As he was gravely afflicted by it, nor did the physicians judge the matter to be far from the danger of death, among the friends who came to visit the sick man, some began to relate the miracle, which in a noble matron laboring with almost a similar disease Blessed Fr. James de Oldo had performed, devoutly invoked by her. Not with deaf ears did Master Aloysius receive that narration, but with his mind lifted to God and his servant, he vowed, that if he should obtain a similar grace, at a similar vow suddenly he is healed, in the year 1449, he would take care to have Mass celebrated and a wax head offered in honor of the Blessed. And behold, with no delay interposed, the affected part burst within, and Aloysius spat out a piece of withered flesh of the size of a larger nut, and at the same time the whole evil with which he was weighed down, with no trace of the same remaining. Wherefore this also seemed not to be passed over in silence, so that the devotion and reverence of all toward Blessed James may be increased, as toward any other Saints of God, who through his merits similarly works miracles, and thereafter may be able and willing to work in several persons about to invoke him devoutly. But the matter happened in the year 1449 on the 12th day of February.

NOTES.

APPENDIX

The Testament of the Blessed himself from the Latin Original MS.

James de Oldo, Presbyter of the third Order of St. Francis, at Lodi in Insubria (B.)

[41] Wishing to dispose maturely of his goods In the name of the Lord. Amen. In the year of His nativity 1404, Indiction 12, on the 10th day of the month of April, in the city of Lodi, in the house of the habitation of the undersigned testator, namely in his bedchamber, situated in the neighborhood of the church of St. Giles: with the presence of Lord Ottinus de Fissiraga &c... Since death and life are in the hand of God, and because it is better to live with the fear of death, than with the hope of living to come to a sudden death; and elsewhere Scripture says: "We shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ, about to render an account of our own deeds which we have done in this life, whether good or evil, whatsoever it shall be"; and elsewhere it is said: "While in the state of health the course of life is revolved, a man ought wisely to dispose and order his goods and affairs, so that when Our Lord Jesus Christ shall will him to depart, he may not be reckoned impious on account of negligence, but praised pious on account of good work." Rom. 14:10 Therefore the venerable and religious man Fr. James de Oldo, son of the late Lord Marchesius, citizen of Lodi, Brother of the third Order of Penitence of the Friars Minor of the Convent of St. Francis of Lodi, he makes his testament, sick, 1404 April 10 sound in mind and understanding and of good disposition and memory, although he suffers some infirmity in his body, willing and desiring to make a testament and to dispose and order his goods in such a way, that among the survivors, to whom he wishes them to come and pertain, no strife or discord after the testator's death may arise; makes and made this his present nuncupative testament or last will, which he willed and wills to be valid and to hold in perpetuity and at all times...

[42] In the first place, the said testator cancelled, invalidated and annulled all other testaments, codicils &c,... but in all his goods movable and immovable, names and rights of names and actions, wherever they are and may be found, by which he instituted his son as heir, he instituted as his universal heir Anthony, his own legitimate and natural son, naming him by his own mouth, under this condition, that if the said Anthony should die without legitimate children descending from himself legitimate and surviving Ladies Flordonina the mother of the testator himself, and Catharine the legitimate wife of the said testator, that the said Ladies should enjoy and use all the inheritance and goods of the said testator while they lived: and after the death of the said Ladies all the inheritance and goods of the same testator should come into the church of St. Julian, and if he, before his mother and grandmother, should die without children patronal and founded from the proper patrimony of the same Fr. James, as he said, situated in the city of Lodi, in the neighborhood of the church of St. Giles: and that church, in that case supervening, he substituted as heir to the said Anthony his son. Willing however and ordaining, that the said Ladies, through all the time of their life, should be bound and obliged to maintain one Chaplain or Presbyter, who every day should celebrate and ought to celebrate one Mass in the said church, at the expense of the fruits of the goods of the said inheritance. After their death, the church of St. Julian, But after the death of the said Ladies he wishes, establishes, and ordains, that by Laurence de Corradis, Ottobellus de Cagamostis, Fr. Anthony de Populo, and Bettinus de Villanova, citizens of Lodi, whom he chose and names as patrons of the said church, two Chaplains should be maintained, who every day should make residence in the said church, and who should celebrate and ought to celebrate Mass in the said church, in case the resources of the said inheritance should suffice for the aforesaid... Likewise he left to the said church of St. Julian, with the said son of his living and leading a lay life, ten gold florins every year, at the rate of thirty-two imperial shillings each, for the cause of paying the salary of one Chaplain or Presbyter, who every day should celebrate one Mass in the said church. And this is the testator's last good will...

NOTES.