ON BLESSED CONRAD MILIANUS OF THE ORDER OF MINORS AT ASCOLI IN PICENUM.
IN THE YEAR 1289
CommentaryConrad Milianus, of the Order of Minors, at Ascoli in Picenum (B.)
D. P.
[1] Weaving the catalog of the Blessed of the Seraphic Order
Francis Gonzaga, in part I of his work
p. 93, and numbering them in alphabetical order
and arriving at the letter C,
says: The cult of the body "Blessed Conrad distinguished by miracles
lies at Ascoli." Which with the same words indeed the author of the Franciscan Martyrology
in the 2nd edition in the year 1623 thus expressed:
"At Ascoli in Picenum of Blessed Conrad Confessor,
celebrated for life and wondrous signs." In the annotations he adds that Luke
Wadding, in the Additions to Vol. 2 of the Annals,
edited after Vol. 4 n. 33, from the Process for his canonization
compiled, has reduced his life, family and deeds into
a compendium. Excited by this indication, and taught from elsewhere that his body
rests in the church of Saint Francis of the Conventuals
under the Altar of the Resurrection with this inscription: "Here lies
the body of Blessed Corrado of the family of the Milianians of Ascoli, and the day of death.
of the Order of Minor Conventuals of Saint Francis,
Theologian and Doctor of Paris, and also sworn companion
of Pope Nicholas IV. He died in the year of the Lord
1289, on the 19th day of April." Having learned this, and likewise
that his feast on the said 19th day of April is celebrated with great
frequency and veneration of the people, and that his image
is painted above the chest with rays, and before it a lamp burns
continually; we thought nothing more to be taken care of by us,
than that we should obtain the aforesaid Process, by which
it ought to be evident with how great a foundation the title of Blessed
and the veneration was attributed to Blessed Conrad.
[2] The style of the aforenarrated epitaph, savors of every
kind of novelty (for who has called Minor Conventuals or Doctors
of Paris from a somewhat older age?); yet it itself
proves sufficiently his present cult: A Process for canonizing him was made, which since
it is from immemorial time according to the prescript of Urban VIII,
no doubt can be raised about the right of the title, by which he is called
Blessed. Yet to confirm it greatly the said Process could have helped,
and at the same time would have removed the necessity of seeking scattered through various
authors with lesser faith, what under
oath could be held collected there. Therefore for obtaining the same
we gave letters to the Elders of the city of Ascoli
(with whom we had understood to be the original itself, of which
only a compendium and indeed in Italian Wadding had had),
and a reply from the same was humanely given on March 21 in the year
1671, in these words. "Your most pleasing letters received from
the Very Reverend Father Diego Calcaneo Rector of this College
brought to us, and asked by the Elders of Ascoli, in our Council of One Hundred and
Peace by the Secretary read through, moved the minds
of all the Senators to resolve, that two deputies
specially chosen for this, namely Lord Francis de la Torre
and Lord Octavius Novellus, with all their effort should incumbent,
to collecting the more distinguished deeds of Blessed Corrado Milianus,
our most worthy fellow-countryman, of whose glorious
death the sweet memory is recalled on April 19."
[3] and by no means found. That no labor was spared by those, who to the above-written
had been deputed, a most distinguished man from the same
family as the Blessed, Joseph Miliani,
uterine brother of Francis de la Torre, one of the Deputies, made us certain: but he indicated that every labor
had been in vain, because the Ascoli archive
had once been burned, with the distinguished loss of many
ancient writings. The same suspecting to Rome
the aforesaid processes to have been carried, and either in the Vatican Library
or in the archive of the Congregation of Rites to be preserved; or
at least to be held in copies in the Episcopal archive; he solicited whatever friends
he could and exercised them in searching for them there:
but this diligence too thus far has lacked the desired effect. Meanwhile from
his letter of January 23 in the year 1672 we have learned the following. "The body rests
in a chapel elegant of plastic and gilded work, the annual celebration of the feast.
adorned with the proper expenses of the family,
within two chests, of which the outer is of marble, the inner
of cypress; and lying intact and entire, wonderfully
sends forth a pleasing odor at any time. Many
days before his feast the bells are rung; on the feast itself,
both in the first and second Vespers, before the Most Illustrious
Elders of the city, fitting Psalms and hymns
are modulately sung; after which at his
altar in the morning hours frequent Sacrifices are offered
to God, by Priests flowing together to honor the memory of the Blessed
Confessor: from whose
hands very many citizens of both sexes are refreshed with the sacred
meal, until with solemn rite a votive Mass is celebrated?
Many other moreover of joy and devotion
public signs are shown on this day by the citizens, which it would be long to relate one by one.
[4] Further, since the public Acts which we mentioned are lacking, we shall give here a compendium of his Life from Waddingus's abbreviator and most worthy successor Francis Harold, at the year 1289 no. 14. Thus it runs: "In this same year died at Ascoli Blessed Conrad of Ascoli; born in the same city in the year 1234 on 18 September, As a youth he presages Nicholas IV's Pontificate. of noble parents Francis Miliani and Agnes Marcelli of the Saladini. From his very infancy on fast days he would suck the breasts only once, and growing a boy he pursued other modes of abstinence, and adorned with other virtues and the discipline of the humaner literature, while still an adolescent endowed with the prophetic spirit, as often as he met Jerome, a rustic boy, he adored him on bended knees: because, as he affirmed, he beheld the keys of the kingdom of the heavens in the boy's hands. For this was Jerome of Ascoli, and joined to him in friendship, who afterwards as Pope Nicholas IV ruled the Church, and then in boyhood, having struck a pact of perpetual friendship, walked with Conrad: whence the two, unanimously running to the works of the virtues, gave their names together to the Minorites, professed together, studied together, and together with the laurel of the Doctorate, which they humbly declined, admonished by an Angel not to struggle against it, were endowed.
[5] "Afterwards, having set out for Rome, while with equal course they applied themselves to Theological lectures and preachings of the word of God, and dispatched on a legation to Gaul Jerome was taken up to the offices of the Order: but Conrad, always suspecting that he was not suitable for the care of souls, having obtained from Jerome, now made Minister General, license to cross over into Africa, through many labors and hardships, he bears fruit in Africa: through various regions of Libya, six thousand four hundred and seventy-eight men, and besides these whole families, by his preaching and many miracles he converted to the faith of Christ; suffering therefore many snares and blows from demons. But lest, while he preaches to others, he himself should become a reprobate, content with the very fewest things, covered with a cheap little cloak, The austerity of his life he walked with feet bare to the ground. Distributing all the days of the week into various fasts, mostly living on bread and water only, he was wholly intent upon meditating on the passion of Christ the Savior. By which exercises and many other virtue he merited to free many souls from the pains of purgatory; to see often Christ crowned with thorns and afflicted with other sorrows; to enjoy the frequent colloquy of the Angels, in the name of the most holy Trinity, which he intensely cultivated, to illumine the blind, to raise the lame, to heal paralytics, to put demons to flight, and finally to raise two dead men in Africa.
[6] "Thence by Pontifical authority called into Europe, his death undergone at Ascoli, that with his brother Jerome he might treat of peace at Paris between the Kings, by his aid and prayers it was brought about that Jerome happily performed his legation. Therefore endowed with the Cardinalitial dignity, he led Conrad back with him to the city, and after two years sent him back to Paris publicly to lecture on sacred Theology. At length in the year 1289 by Jerome made Pontiff, he was again called to the City, that he might be adopted among the Cardinals, but passing through Ascoli, he died there most holily, on the 19th day of the month of April. For three days with a flexible and sweet-smelling body, unburied on account of the devotion of the gathering people, he shone with many miracles. Which hearing, Pope Nicholas wrote that he should be placed in an honorable tomb. In which, while his translation to another place was being made in the year 1371, his body was found whole: which still works frequent miracles, and grants benefits to those invoking him."
[7] Jerome was elected to the governance of the whole Order in the year of Christ 1274, and set out for Gaul in the 77th year of the same century, and returning thence, the Pontifical seat being vacant through the death of John XXI, was created Cardinal by his successor Nicholas III: from which the whole chronology pertaining to Conrad receives light. This Conrad is moreover to be distinguished from another of the same name and Order, then Provincial of Germany, who was sent by Rudolph King of the Romans as Procurator and Nuntius, in the first year of Nicholas III, to perform those things which had formerly been promised by the same King to Gregory X: concerning which matters tables are extant in Raynaldus's Annals Eccles. tom. 4. The Life of Blessed Conrad is said to have been written by Brothers Benedict of Poggio of Canosa and Dionysius of Saint Hemerus, his companions: which perhaps the aforesaid Process attested. Would that it still survived and might sometime be sent to us! Meanwhile we have received that one which in the year 1664 was printed at Macerata in Italian, composed by Francis Antony Migliani, son of the aforesaid Francis: and it was indeed worthy that those who shared the same blood with Conrad and the name drawn from Milliani, a distinguished and ancient castle, should labor more solicitously in promoting his honor. other things published in Italian, From this (which is almost wholly taken from Waddingus, Harold, and a certain epitome pertaining to the convent itself) we have learned the cause of the aforementioned translation to be, that the Convent itself was transferred from a suburban place within the city, a new and sumptuous church being built there, not far from the church of Saint Mary, said to be among the vineyards. There beside the door, by which one enters to the sacristy, the ark was deposited within the wall; but afterwards placed beneath the altar of the said chapel; when also, and not before, I think the marble ark with the aforenoted inscription was made.
[8] This author did not specify any of the ancient miracles produced after his death, being destitute of old documents: he only mentions certain favors, attributed by those who experienced them to the intercession of this Blessed; namely, witness of certain favors attributed to him, a noble man of Ascoli, having professed to himself and to others often, that afflicted with incurable gout in his youth, the physicians despairing of human aids, he had recourse to the divine aids to be invoked through this servant of God; beseeching that at least this trouble of his might be converted into another less difficult disease; and by so limited a prayer he had obtained a likewise limited favor, the peccant humor bursting out like water through the fingers of his feet on some days in spring and autumn, without any sense of trouble. Another, arising from the Saladini family (which was maternal to Blessed Conrad) and anointed with oil from the lamp burning before the tomb, to have expelled from himself that arthritic evil. A woman sick with gouty and sciatic pains, so that she could not even turn herself to the other side, immediately upon invoking Conrad, to have arisen from her bed, and walked wherever she wished expeditiously. Another, with a dying little son, to the amazement of all the bystanders, to have recovered life and health for him as soon as she poured forth prayers. A third, made a sharer of her vow by which she desired male offspring. Finally, above all things this author appends, that in the year 1628 at first Vespers, whence the feast of Blessed Mary of the Angels or Portiuncula the Friars Minor began in the month of August, the effigy of Blessed Conrad, deposited above the ark, was seen to flow with a miraculous sweat, which then endured the following day, prognostic of the violation in the second Vespers of the temple by a bloody fight of citizens: in which a certain one more devoted to the Blessed, when vehemently wounded he was held for dead, not only preserved his life, as he believed, by the benefit of his Patron, but also quickly recovered from his wound.
[9] In the first edition of the Franciscan Martyrology of the year 1638 this Blessed is referred to 5 July: not because any of those Writers whom the author alleges handed down such a day of death or cult; the name rashly referred to 5 June, but because, in the silence of all, he believed himself free, by that authority which he assumed for himself, to accept whatever day pleased him. Which because he is known to have done in very many others, of whom he was ignorant of the day, which nevertheless afterwards became known from elsewhere; therefore we can believe nothing to him even when treating of such persons, whose cult is otherwise sufficiently certain and sufficiently public, until we know more certainly from the place itself or from some witness of better faith, whether in reality such a day befits them. And let this be said for the sake of those among whom there is some public veneration of some Minorite Blessed; that, if they wish him to be inserted in this work, they may know that we are to be informed; nor let them think it sufficient that we can read his name in that Martyrology; otherwise let them understand him to be among the Pretermitted to be rejected.