ON BLESSED GILES OF ASSISI,
THIRD COMPANION OF ST. FRANCIS OF THE ORDER OF MINORS,
AT PERUGIA IN UMBRIA.
YEAR 1262
PrefaceGiles of Assisi, third companion of Francis, of the Order of Minors, at Perugia in Umbria (B.)
By the Author D. P.
Writing the Life of his most holy Patriarch Francis, St. Bonaventure is found to have spoken thus about this his third companion in chapter 3 of the said Legend: "The holy Father Giles was indeed a man full of God and worthy of famous memory. His holy life praised by St. Bonaventure, For this one, distinguished by the exercise of lofty virtues, as the servant of God Francis had foretold about him, although he was an idiot and simple, was raised to the summit of lofty contemplation. For through many courses of times, always intent upon things above in his actions, he was caught up in such frequent excesses (as I myself saw with my own eyes) that he was judged among men to lead an Angelic rather than human life." His holiness not only the writers of the Minorite Order, but all other ascetics everywhere commend: Celebrated among the Perusians, of whom a good number mentioned by name, see in Arturus a Monasterio in his Franciscan Martyrology, among the Annotations to this present day, on which the body of the deceased first stood in the church of the convent of St. Francis "on the mountain": where today, says Marcus of Lisbon in part 2 book 2 chapter 15, "his cell is shown, and the well called of St. Giles." Thence the body was translated to the urban convent, where in the sacristy the bier or little litter on which he was translated here is reverently kept, as we are taught from the little commentary about the saints of Perugia, written for our uses by John Baptist de Ninis, and directed to Antwerp by R. P. Silvester Petra-sancta.
[2] Anciently described in Latin parchments, "In the same sacristy," says the author of the said little Commentary, "there is preserved a manuscript book on parchment, quite ancient, closed with iron little chains, in which are described the life, conferences and miracles of Blessed Brother Giles, in rather rude Latin: where at the end these things are held: 'In the year of the Lord 1209 the Venerable Father Brother Giles was associated with St. Francis and was made a Friar Minor: and in 1262 in the time of Lord Pope Urban, on the 10th day before the Kalends of May, he migrated to heaven; whence he lived in the religion of the Friars Minor 53 years.'" Roused by this indication we begged R. P. William Aloysius Leslaeus, of which we received a copy from Perugia, who deigned to offer us his service for such things unsolicited, that he would take care that a copy of that Ms. book be described for us; for which he, having at last found a suitable man (for it was difficult to find one who knew how to read the characters so ancient and implicated with so many abbreviations), made us sharers of our wish, so accurately, that also through the public Notary Julius Caesar Rodius he made us certain of the fidelity of the transcription; and he wanted us to be secured about the legality of that Notary, through the Decemvirs of Perugia, whose Chancellor Constantinus Garofanus in their name, by the subscription of his hand and the impression of the public seal, made all the aforesaid things have the faith of an authentic copy, 12 November 1671.
[3] And we compared it with a fuller Silesian Ms., Finding another Life of the same Blessed in a certain Silesian Ms. of the year 1490 R. P. Theodore Moretus of pious memory had described the whole in his own hand and sent it to us from Wrocław: which comparing with the edition of Surius, who had led the same back to Latin from an old German translation, we found that the German interpreter had used a Latin Ms. mostly similar to that which was found in Silesia; and so we the more lightly bore the loss of some leaves made on the way, which otherwise on account of the death of the said Father seemed irreparable: and also with Surius, although in those things which could be compared with each other, not all were the same; but here and there not a few and notable things either added or omitted in each. The same indication of one and the same source, with a similar dissimilarity of excess and defect, to St. Antoninus, we found also in St. Antoninus part 3 title 24 chapter 7 §§11 and 12, in which a good part of the things done and said by B. Giles is contained: yet so that, although the same things in the same words are read there which are in the Perusian Ms., yet Antoninus refers there not all those that are there, and some besides which are not expressed in it. Thus it was clear by an evident argument, that the four Lives hitherto mentioned are of such a condition that none of them can be said to be the source of the rest; but each separately received from the very source itself, with those omitted which to each seemed good, some also expressed more succinctly.
[4] Whether Waddingus, writer of the Minorite Annals, had the first source, and Waddingus: we cannot divine, for no such thing has since been found in his repositories: yet he had some Manuscript Legend either similar to the Silesian Ms. or fuller: for citing it he has certain paragraphs, which we found in it alone, others which in none of the aforementioned.
The same Waddingus besides had borrowed from Blessed Constantine Cajetano a certain Italian Ms. Legend of 72 Chapters; who also had the Italian Legend, "and the author of this Legend," he says, "professes and declares beforehand that he had used the holy man familiarly": and the opinion of most is that it was Brother Leo, namely that one who was the Confessor of B. Francis, and died at Assisi with the fame of holiness and of miracles in the year 1271 on 15 November. The author indeed (whom we believe to have written in Latin, but afterwards verbally translated into the Italian tongue) was different from the author of the Perusian Ms.: inasmuch as this one only declares and professes, perhaps taken verbally from the first source of all, that he is writing upon the testimony of those who saw him or heard from him: but in number 17 he cites a witness who stood with him for a long time, "and the things which he saw and heard from his mouth, he told and caused to be written." Would that among the Mss. of the deceased Cajetano, which we inspected at Rome, that Italian Legend had been found, it would perhaps have shown us the very first source of the others, although tinged with the color of another language: but Gabriel Bucelinus carried it off with many other monuments into Germany, by whom the repositories of his master were for the greater part emptied, as those with whom otherwise the remains of his illustrious collection remained complained.
[5] Since therefore there shines no hope of finding the original Acts entire: which, despairing of finding, nor is it worth the effort to give the same four or five times, only because of the mutual difference of excess and defect, and some diversity of style or order: we believed we would do more pleasingly for the reader, and would avoid the odious prolixity of the work, if from all the members together, though heterogeneous, we formed one body, with the natural species of each preserved: and so Quadripartite Acts are born. The first part, containing the history of the Life, is wholly from the Perusian Ms., which in that respect as more ancient, so also we found fuller and better ordered. from all together we have collected the Quadripartite Acts, The second will have the Golden words of Giles from a double Ms., namely the Wrocław of Moretus and our Antwerp, in the first of which these were held, after the history of the Life; in the second they stood apart without it, after the Commentary of Hugh of St. Victor on the Rule of St. Augustine the Bishop; whence they were also separately published in print at Antwerp in the year 1534 by Martin Cæsar, under this title "The truly golden Sentences of the holy Father Giles of Assisi, most useful to all aspiring to Christian perfection." Also in the Perusian Ms. after the history of the Life follow the Conferences which he had with the Brothers; in mostly the same words in which the Golden Words are in the aforesaid Mss., yet they are held there in a less fitting order and much less complete.
[6] The third part, as a supplement to the previous two, is taken from the Silesian or Wrocław Ms., and also from St. Antoninus, Surius, and Waddingus, with the words of each preserved: of which the last part about miracles has hitherto lain hidden untouched. so that nothing is proposed twice, nothing is omitted of those things which were somewhere singularly related. The fourth and final part, which neither Waddingus nor any other seems to have had, is wholly and solely from the Perusian Ms., "about the signs and miracles which the Lord showed through Blessed Brother Giles," and that within the same year in which the Blessed died: whence it appears of what great authority and antiquity this last part is, and that the compiler of the Perusian Ms. did not care to change anything in the style, since it is here different in this part than in the first. Annotations to each part will be added, by which we hope sufficient will be abundantly done for those who shall wish to adorn the deeds of this Blessed in one continuous style of their own; and to be ignorant of nothing of those things which our diligence could supply to that end.
[7] The body is now under its own altar, "The body of B. Giles," says Marcus of Lisbon, "rests in a most beautiful marble tomb, above which an altar was built, with an ancient painting representing his likeness to the life." But that painting has now been removed, and is preserved in the sacristy, as we are admonished from the aforementioned little Commentary: but the altar itself today also is called the Altar of B. Giles, in the chapel of the Lords of Crispoltis, and to it is hung a Ms. Latin tablet, in which after the noted name of Brother Giles, with the title of Blessed Father, and after the day and year of his death, are placed his prophetic words about the sign of the Prophet Jonah, to be given to the Perusians after his death, as below at no. 96, and some of the words of St. Bonaventure related above, and finally this conclusion is placed: "India indeed boasts in gems, in the city of Perugia: Sheba in incense, Arabia in gold, Egypt in wisdom, Italy in power: now therefore let Augusta Perugia exult, rejoice and glory over this incomparable treasure B. Giles, who remains forever a stone of the marvelous edifice of the sacred Order of Minors." Waddingus concludes his account of the year 1262 in number 10 thus: "I visited his body at Perugia, where it is held in great veneration": which we grieve has so cooled in this time, that the aforementioned altar is complained of by Leslaeus as adorned throughout the year with poor and almost no worship and visited by few; who however admonished us that the feast of St. George, (which day is the anniversary of the Blessed) is celebrated in his honor in such a way, that at the aforesaid altar a solemn Mass is sung, not however of the Blessed, but of St. George.
[8] On the same day devoutly visited is the Mountain convent of the same Order, brought within it from the suburban convent, in which Giles ended his last day, on Saturday evening, at the very beginning of night, beginning the following day, Sunday and the 23 April. In the church of this Convent the sacred body stood exposed to sight and touch for a whole month and more, as is clear from the narration of miracles: moved by whose frequency the Perusians decreed to have it carried to the church of the Urban convent: which was done within the second month from the death, as is gathered from no. 115. But the cause of going to the suburban convent on the Mountain, where the well and cell of the Blessed are still honored. even after the absence of the sacred body, can be both the above-mentioned well and the one built from his design, whose water is said often to heal fevers and other diseases; according to Leslaeus in his letter to us about these things, and about which it is treated in the Acts no. 82; and the Chapel, into which (as the same writes and we indicated above) his cell was converted: but those who inhabit this convent are Recollects, while the Urban one has Conventuals.
[9] A new translation perhaps made on 2 March. In the additions of the Cologne Fathers to Usuard, printed in 1515 and 1521, on 2 March is read thus: "At Perugia of holy memory Giles, disciple of B. Francis": which words Canisius translated into his Martyrology in German on the same day; on which also we found the bare name of Giles inserted in the MS. Florarium. Perhaps because on such a day, with not yet a whole year elapsed from the death, the altar was built, and to it the chest was more solemnly translated; which stood before in the middle of the temple so exposed, that it could be both approached from below and walked around and by suppliants and the sick, as the History of miracles indicates, written earlier than the said translation took place. Further, because the Blessed in the Perusian MS. is twice said to have migrated to heaven on the 10th day before the Kalends of May, therefore Philip Ferrarius in his Catalog of the Saints of Italy He himself died on 22 April at the beginning of the night starting the 23rd, referred him to 22 April. For indeed the beginning of the night on which he died was referred to that day anciently: but now the Italians number their hours from sunset, and so the same night looks to the 23rd. To this, not except on the feast of St. George was the death of the holy man spread through the mouths of the crowd, and the body began to be a spectacle for those visiting: and therefore nearly all others assign this day to his memory rather than the preceding one, and indeed Jacobilli in volume 1 of Saints of Umbria has the Life in Italian: where he says the altar of the Crucifix is that under which the chest rests, and the head is kept at Assisi on the altar of the Relics: where we also remember having venerated it in the year 1660 on 15 December.
[10] It is remarkable that the year of his death is noted so diversely by some, that the German Codex of Surius the year 1283, in the year 1262. Peter Rodulphus 1282, Ferrarius from the Chronicles of the Minors 1260, the very Chronicles elsewhere note the year 1261: "but we," says Waddingus, "have fully taught in its proper place that the conversion of Giles fell in the year 1209, from which time if you count the following years with Marianus, the contemporary Legend, and the old Chronicles, the better witnesses of that matter, you will number, down to this 1262, fifty-two, which years all agree he lived in Religion." But if the Perusians at that age, like many other peoples of Italy, were accustomed to put forward the reckoning of the common Era by nine months, the year 1263 was already in course for them, beginning to be numbered already from 25 March, the annual feast of the Lord's Incarnation. And so perhaps we would find the year marked in the notarial instruments about miracles, if any had been made, as happened in the miracles of B. Ambrose of Siena. But the Brothers, accustomed to number the years by the common custom of the whole Order from the following January, expressed the year 1272 in the Perusian and Silesian MSS., and others in Waddingus: and about this the character of the Sunday concurrent with the feast of St. George makes us altogether certain, which indicates the Dominical letter A, not agreeing with any of the years signified, but with this one, 1272.
ACTS
From Various Manuscripts and printed books.
Giles of Assisi, third companion of Francis, of the Order of Minors, at Perugia in Umbria (B.)
BHL Number: 0088, 0089, 0090, 0091, 0092
FROM MSS.
PART I.
History of the Life of B. Giles
From Perusian MS. parchment.
CHAPTER I.
The beginnings of the Religious Life and pilgrimages. A living sought at Rome and elsewhere by the labor of his hands.
Prologue. Because the saving examples of Holy Men a incite the devout minds of those hearing to contempt of transitory pleasure and the desire of eternal things: therefore, to the honor of the Lord and the benefit of the hearers, the life of the holy Brother Giles, and the honesty of his virtues and morals, are written upon the testimony of those who saw him or heard from him.
[1] A pious man in the world, There was a man in the city of Assisi, Giles by name, a man. This one, still set in the secular habit, the Lord inspired by his most kindly spirit, and so he began to think within himself about his state, and how he might please the Creator of all in all things. At that time, a little after this, the Lord illumined B. Francis (through whom the Lord showed to Giles himself the right way, by which he could come to him, because he by himself could not find it) leading him forth along a straight, easy, and holy way. Not gold, not silver,
not money, not field, nor any thing did he wish to possess: but in humility and poverty of his heart following the Lord, he walked with bare feet, was clothed in a cheap habit, was girded with a most worthless belt. Many mocked him, and saying injurious words against him, held him as insane: but he cared for nothing, nor replied, but with all solicitude strove to work, as the Lord had shown him; walking not in the learned words of human wisdom, but in the showing of the spirit.
[2] Then a certain man Bernard b by name, with another Peter c by name, when they saw and heard this, it pleased them: and selling all their things at the command of B. Francis, they were associated with him according to the holy Gospel. Hence after eight days it happened, With St. Francis having embraced the Evangelical life, that when the aforementioned Giles was one evening in his own house, his parents began to relate what Brother Bernard and Brother Peter had done, and having heard this it pleased him greatly. On the following morning rising early, solicitous about his salvation, he went to the church of St. George, whose feast was celebrated on that day, and entered the church adoring. His prayer finished, going out of the church, he was thinking how he could find B. Francis and his Companions. And when he had come to a certain crossroads, he asks to be joined as a third companion: and was ignorant by which way he could come to them, he prayed to the Lord saying: "Lord holy Father, I beg you by your mercy, that if I ought to persevere in this holy calling, you would deign to direct me on the way by which I may come to those your Saints, whom I seek." And so heard by the Lord, walking a little further, he found B. Francis whom he sought: and falling at his feet, and received by him, he suppliantly begged that he would receive him into his fellowship. But he eagerly and willingly receiving him, addressed him thus: "Brother, the Lord has done for you what an Emperor would do, if he were now coming to this city, and wished to choose some one as his beloved familiar: all would say individually, 'would that he would choose me': and so the Lord has chosen you." And he admonished and comforted him that he should faithfully remain in the calling to which he had been called. And he had with them the great joy of all four of them, and joy in the Holy Spirit, and there were not yet more. d On that very day a certain poor woman came asking alms from them. He gives his cloak to a poor woman. When St. Francis, who had proposed in his heart not to refuse any asking for the Lord's sake, as long as he had anything to give, that he might fulfill that Gospel, "To everyone asking you, give"; calling Giles said to him, that he should give that poor woman his cloak (for he was not yet clothed), at his command he hastened and eagerly gave it to her: and immediately it seemed to him that he was filled with a new spirit, and that his alms ascended to heaven, and came into the sight of the Lord God. Luke 6:30 The next day B. Francis clothed him f.
[3] After this B. Francis led him with him into the Marches. He accompanies him in the Marches: But B. Francis was not yet preaching to the people: yet, when he passed through cities and castles, he encouraged men to do penance: and Brother Giles answered saying: "He speaks very well: believe him." But whoever saw them marveled saying: "Never have we seen such Religious, so clothed, unlike all others in habit and life; they seem to be saving men." g Who since they were most devout, whenever they found any churches either uninhabited or abandoned, they devoutly turned aside to them for prayer, and thought and felt that they found a place for the Lord. Afterwards they returned to St. Mary of Portiuncula, then returning to Assisi, which stands near the city of Assisi, where at that time Brother Bernard and Brother Peter were dwelling. But when they saw each other again, they were filled with such joyfulness and joy, that they remembered nothing more; and they reputed as riches the greatest poverty they suffered. They were also solicitous daily in prayer and in the labor of hands, that they might altogether drive from themselves all idleness, enemy of the soul. At night too they solicitously rose in the middle of the night, according to that of the Prophet, "At midnight I rose to the Lord," and they prayed with devotion, humility and tears. Ps. 118:62
[4] Then holy Francis, calling to himself in the wood, which stands near the said church, to which he often went adoring, those Brothers whom he already had, and again ordered to make pilgrimage, said to them: "Consider, Brothers, humbly our calling, in which the Lord has mercifully called us; because not for ourselves only, but also for the utility and salvation of many he has called us. Let us go therefore through the world, exhorting and teaching men by word and example, that doing penance, they should remember the commandments of the Lord, which have been delivered over to oblivion, according to that prophetic word: 'Cast your thought upon the Lord.'" h Ps. 54:23 Then Brother Giles joined to Brother Bernard, went with him for four days together. Then Brother Bernard, leaving him, he visits St. James in Galicia, went to other parts. Then i Brother Giles went to the church of St. James of Galicia: who always bearing a pious mind toward other poor, in the time of his own poverty, as long as he had anything, gave to the needy. For one day he had a poor man meet him, asking alms from him: but since he had nothing but one tunic, a belt and breeches, he began to think within himself what he could give him: and dividing the hood from the tunic, he gives his hood to the poor man, he gave it to him, and went without a hood for twenty days, because he could have no other. But many mocked him saying: "Mad," k for the Friars were not yet known. But in that whole journey of his he did not drive hunger from himself, on account of the penury which he cheerfully bore. Going therefore thus as a pilgrim through the world; the men and women whom he met, he admonished and exhorted devoutly, that they should fear and love the Creator of heaven and earth, by doing penance for their sins. But on a certain day, when being very weary from the labor of the journey he was suffering extreme hunger, and when he had slept beside the way, Bearing hunger, he is divinely helped, aroused from sleep he found half a loaf of bread at his head: and giving thanks to the Lord, when he had eaten, he was comforted. Another day going and being unable to find bread, he came to a certain threshing floor, on which grains of beans had remained; and lodging there that night, he ate of those beans, and was much consoled in the Lord, as if he had had diverse kinds of dishes. He also more willingly lodged in deserted places than among women and men, that he might be more securely free for vigils and prayers, as he was accustomed. But as he was returning he came to a certain castle of Lombardy, l Ficarolo by name, and was going for alms door to door. Who called by a certain one of that castle, and he endures mockery, as a man very needy, approached him, hoping to receive something from him. But he, feigning to offer him something, placed dice in his hand. To whom Brother Giles said: "May the Lord spare you." But he was mocked by many, invited by them if he wished to play. Then he returned to St. Mary of Portiuncula, where the Brothers were staying: who seeing him rejoiced with very great joy.
[5] Then he was sent to Rome to dwell: who, since he was devout from the time he came to the order, Living at Rome, he lives from the labor of his hands. always proposed to live from the labor of his hands, and fulfilled his purpose: and before he was involved in other affairs, every morning he wished to hear Mass. And so he went to the wood, which was eight n miles distant from the City; and carrying wood on his own shoulders, he sold it and received his necessities. But one day coming to the City with wood, as was his custom, he met a woman wishing to buy wood; and the bargain made, he carried it to her door. Who seeing him to be a Religious, wished to give him more than she had promised him. Which the Blessed one seeing said: "I do not wish that avarice conquer me": and so dismissed for her half of the price. But she marveled much, because he was unwilling to receive what men covet, and so held him then in great reverence. There was no labor however lowly that he was ashamed to do, with remarkable contempt of himself, provided he could do it honestly. In the time of the vintage he helped men to gather grapes, which carrying to the troughs or winepresses, he trod with his feet. But one day when he was going through the street of the City, seeking some work to be done, that he might live by it; he saw a man wishing to take another for that day, to help him to gather nuts: which when that man refused because of the height of the trees, and because it was too far from the City; Brother Giles approaching said to him: "I will help you." The bargain being made that he should give him part of the nuts, he went to the place; and fortifying himself with the sign of the Cross, he ascended and gathered the nuts. Which having been gathered, he received his part as they had agreed together. Which since they were so many that he could not carry them in his lap, he took off the tunic with which alone he was clothed, and tying the sleeves and hood, he put the nuts in it: which carrying on his shoulders to the city, he distributed to the poor.
[6] But on a certain day when he was at the monastery of the o Four Holy Crowned Ones, which is near the Lateran, where he lodged; Hiring out his labor to a certain monastery, it happened that the cellarer of that monastery was seeking a man to sift flour for him. Having heard this, Brother Giles offered himself to do this work: and the agreement made, he gave him seven loaves for the flour: he also gave him loaves for bringing water, and because he helped him to make bread. Rarely did he bind himself to anyone for a whole day, that he might be able at a suitable time to flee to prayers: but when he bound himself for the whole day, he always reserved hours for himself, that he might be able to say his prayers. On a certain day when he was going to the fountain of St. Sixtus, which was a mile distant from the same monastery, and begged, from water he was carrying to give to another, that he might bring water for the monks dwelling there; on his return a certain man asked him for a drink. Who answered him: "I will give you a drink, and I shall bring the remainder to the monks?" for he greatly revered the monks and all Clerics. But that man, greatly disturbed, because he did not give him water,
hurled many insulting words at him. Then Brother Giles, returning to the monastery, and grieving more over his disturbance than over the injury to himself, took another jar, He seeks new water for him even after receiving insults. and going to the fountain brought it full to the house of the one who had insulted him, and said: "Drink, brother, and give to whom you wish." But he, grieving much and repenting, asked that he would pardon him his unjust injury for the Lord's sake. Who gladly pardoning him, was much afterwards loved by that man. Whatever remained to him from the gain which he received from his work, he distributed to the poor. He was always, as it were, stirred further in the labor of hands, or in the devotion of prayer, or in saving things: and always shunning idleness, without one of these three he could scarcely or never be found. But in all these things, because of the small number of Brothers, he had no companion.
[7] After these things p, desiring to visit the sepulcher of the Lord and the other places of the Holy-land, He makes pilgrimage to the Holy Land. where Our Lord with the Blessed Virgin and his disciples had dwelt; on a certain day being asked by B. Francis what he wished to do, he made known to him this his desire. To whom B. Francis, with a companion given, granted that he should go by salutary obedience. When therefore going there he had come to the port of the city of Brindisi, and there stayed for a short time, awaiting a ship; he bought meanwhile a certain jar; in which carrying water, he went through the City crying out: "Who buys water?" and lived on these things. Then passing over to the sepulcher of the Lord, he also visited the other holy places which he had desired, with great devotion and reverence. Who staying in the City of Acre, tried to live from his labor: he also made certain little works from rushes, which those men used: q but when he could not do this, he begged r alms from door to door. Then he returned to Saint Mary at Portiuncula to his other Brothers. s
ANNOTATIONS.
"They were received by some very humanely, but with most people the novelty of the dress and the austerity of the singular life created great wonder: Giles prefers contempt to honor. in some towns they were mocked, in others they were afflicted with both bad words and harsh beatings, they bearing all with the greatest patience. Nay, Brother Giles grieved that, to their already shown virtue, were exhibited human honors, which he considered as the highest blame; and said that only reproaches suffered for Christ were glory: wherefore to the leader and Father Francis, grieving and sad, he said with great sincerity: 'Father, our glory is now gone, while we are affected by the glory of men.' Which words affected the holy Father with great joy, seeing his disciples neither moved by injuries nor lifted up by glory. But when Giles grieved that the salutation which he had learned from the Father, revealed by God, many indignantly heard, and rejected as new; Francis piously consoled him saying: 'Dismiss them, because they do not know what they are saying, when they condemn these words, "May the Lord give you peace." In truth I promise you, that many nobles and princes of this world hereafter will show great reverence to you and to the other Brothers, so saluting them.'" In the Silesian Ms. is added: "But in that very journey Francis, prophesying about the dilation of his Order, said to Brother Giles: 'Our Religion will be like a fisherman casting his nets in the water, taking a copious multitude of fish, and leaving the small in the water, and taking the great into his vessels.'"
p In the year, as Waddingus teaches, 1216.
q There is added in the Silesian Ms., "He also carried the dead to the cemetery and water through the city."
r The same, "He had recourse to the table of the Lord, begging alms from door to door."
s In the same place is added, "He also visited St. Angelo and St. Nicholas of Bari": and there is added what above at no. 4 is held about the half-loaf of bread.
CHAPTER II.
Deeds at Fabriano, Rieti, and at the town of Deruta.
[8] St. Francis to convert the Saracens, Meanwhile St. Francis, seeing his flock enlarged, desired that some one of them should preach the name and law of the Lord among the Saracens and other unbelievers; and for the confession of the name of Christ, if necessity should require, should die. And when he did not find Brothers learned in knowledge of letters, fit, who would voluntarily go; seeing Brother Giles fit for this and willing, as one who burned with the spirit of the Lord; he destined him with certain others to the barbarous peoples. a For he had heard that that people afflicted with insults those men holding and commending the law of the Lord, and depraving their own law and faith. Who when he had come to a city of the Saracens, Tunis by name, He sends Giles, a certain man then, reputed among the Saracens as very wise, who had long been silent, going out began to preach, and to say to the Saracens: "There have come to us unbelieving men, who wish to disturb the truth and the law: all such therefore I counsel be subjected to swords and deaths." And between them and the Christians a great tumult arose: but the Christians who were present, with whom Brother Giles was staying with the others, hearing this and greatly fearing to die, and thence compelled to return with failed effort, violently made the Brothers themselves re-enter the ship that evening, nor did they permit them to go, or to speak among the Saracens. In the morning the Saracens coming impetuously to them in the ship, found them, who against the will and prohibition of the Christians were preaching to them from the ship, and exhorting them to the faith of the Lord: and vehemently fervent with the Holy Spirit and kindled with divine fire, they were indeed eager to die for the passion of the Savior. But seeing that with the Christians hindering, they could not fulfill that for which they had come, they returned to B. Francis.
[9] He orders him to choose where to live: B. Francis therefore, beholding Brother Giles as a man of virtue and grace, and for every good work prepared and prompt, loved him intimately, and said of him to the other Brothers: "Behold our knight of the round table b." And when Brother Giles asked from Blessed Francis what he wished that he should do; B. Francis said to him: "Your seat is prepared: go wherever you wish to go." But he thus going freely for four days, since from such free obedience he did not find rest, returning to St. Francis, said to him: "Father, send me where you wish, because in such free obedience the foot cannot find rest." Then c sent to a certain hermitage in the county of Perugia, d Fabrion by name, Which excusing himself, he is sent to Fabriano, he went barefoot and clothed in one tunic only in the time of great spring cold: whom a certain man met, and that man said to him: "If I knew that I would immediately enter paradise, I would not wish to go thus." At which word the enemy sent such a cold into him, that he almost died from the chill. So thus full of distress, he began to think within himself, how Our Lord for us went barefoot and poor. And with such a meditation suddenly warmed, he praised the Omnipotent Lord, who without material fire had so quickly filled him with his warmth. But dwelling in that place for several years, on a certain occasion when he recalled his sins, where he gives a rare example of humility, he went out into the wood near the place, and stripping himself of his tunic he put a cord around his neck; and calling to himself a certain Brother, he made himself to be dragged naked to the church of the place by the cord, crying out and saying: "Have pity on me, Brothers, a wretched sinner." At which the brothers of the place coming up, began to weep; and seeing him thus naked, said to him: "Put on your tunic." To whom he answered: "I am not worthy to be a Brother: but if you are willing to return it to me for mercy and alms, I receive it." Whom the Brothers gave it back; and thus he was re-clothed. He made little houses e and baskets, and f reeds, working strenuously, and from these he himself and his companions well-laden carried them to the city, working strenuously, and sold them, and bought for themselves the necessities of food and clothing. He was sometimes so earnest in his labors, that he supported g one brother by his labor: for he wished that with this alms he should pray for him, while he rested or slept. On one occasion returning from a certain
reed-bed with a bundle of reeds, and passing by a certain church, he ran into a certain Priest, who said to him: "You are a certain hypocrite." h At which word Brother Giles, exceedingly saddened, wept inwardly, yet believes he is truly called a hypocrite: which could not be hidden from the Brothers. Whom one Brother finding weeping, said to him: "Why are you so sad?" Who said: "Because I have cause for sadness." And the Brother said to him: "What is the cause?" Who answered: "A certain Priest said to me that I am a hypocrite." And the Brother to him: "Do you therefore believe this?" Who answered: "I believe it: because I do not believe that Priests lie." And the Brother said to him: "The opinions of men are not similar to the opinions of the Lord." Brother Giles, having heard this word, rested in it, and was somehow consoled from his great sadness. In the time of harvest, in the manner of other poor men, He refuses to accept anything freely. he went through the fields collecting the ears left behind: and if anyone wished to give him a whole bundle of grain, he was unwilling to take it: and he said to the one wishing to give: "I have no granary to gather into, nor do I wish to have one." But the things which he thus collected, he gave not to himself but to others in need. Brother Giles made a garden in that place Fabrion, and the Lord multiplied it in his hands: thus, he did with other works. And a certain man was sometimes working near that garden, whom Brother Giles often invited from the things which were in the garden, A theft to be made from his garden is prevented by a marvelous chance. but he was unwilling to take them. But once when Brother Giles was absent, that man entered the garden as if stealthily, and gathered what he wished from it. But another man Roland by name had made a little bundle of grass there nearby; and throwing his donkey to the ground, he placed it upon him: who by the nod of the Lord, as is believed, although it was a very light weight, in no way would rise. So that man moved by this, went seeking a helper for himself; and while he was going, he found that man in the garden, who for fear went out of the garden. Whom he rebuked for this wickedness with such a reprimand that many on all sides looked, and he did not seek aid from him: and so with him alone returning to the donkey, the donkey by himself rose with the greatest speed and ease: which that man had no doubt was done by the miracle of the Lord and the merits of Brother Giles.
[10] At another time, when Brother Giles was staying at the city of Rieti, one of the Cardinals, Lord Nicholas by name, Dwelling at Rieti with the Cardinal of Tusculum, desiring to have him as a familiar, on account of the many insignia of holiness which shone in him; was asking him affectionately that he should stay with him, and receive from him his necessities: but he, desiring to live from the labor of his hands, refused to receive necessities from him. He persisted in prayers, that at least what he gained he should eat at his table together with him: and unwilling to be fed except from his own labor, to whose prayers Brother Giles acquiescing gained continually enough for himself, and returning he ate at the table of the Lord Cardinal from the loaves which he had gained in the sweat of his face. So he did every day. But on a certain day when there was a great inundation of rains, so that Brother Giles could not go for gain in his usual way; the Lord Cardinal rejoicing said to him: k "Today it will be necessary for you, Brother Giles, to be fed with our alms and our foods." But he bearing another thing in his heart, was thinking how for that day he might gain something: and approaching the kitchen of the Lord, he said to the cook, He hires himself out to clean the kitchen, "Why do you have the kitchen so unclean?" Who answered: "Because I have no one to clean it." But Brother Giles, a bargain made with him for two loaves, swept it; and so earned what he was about to eat. At the hour of eating he brought to the table the bread obtained by his labor, and fed on it: which when the Lord Cardinal saw and knew, marveling, he grieved that he had been defrauded in his hope and desire. But when the rain was threatening to continue on the morrow, with the same words the Cardinal used to Brother Giles, that he should be fed that day with his alms. And to sharpen knives. But he finding the knives in the house very l rusty and foul, said to the m steward that he wished to sharpen them. And a bargain made with him for two loaves, he sharpened and adjusted the knives perfectly: and in the usual way on that day he ate the food acquired by labor. All kinds of work, which were needed, he always did eagerly and willingly. n
[11] After these things, with Lent drawing near, he desired to transfer himself to some remote place, About to spend Lent in greater solitude, where he might find greater rest. The places of the Brothers then were found very rare. And when with permission obtained to go from the Lord Cardinal, although unwillingly, he wished to take up the journey with a companion; the Cardinal grieving much at their departure, with the compassion by which he was affected toward them, said to them: "Where will you go? You go as birds having no nests." They came o therefore to a certain church of St. Lawrence, on a mountain above the town p Deruta, far remote and abandoned by all. But the men of that land at that time did not revere the Brothers, nor love them, nor were the Brothers yet known; and so they did not provide for them, as extreme necessity demanded, and prevented from seeking food through the snows, in that time and year, which had been very dear. Brother Giles, a faithful man and acting confidently in the Lord, placed all his hope in him. When they had stayed there three days, the greatest snow covered the face of the earth, so that they could not leave the place. But Brother Giles seeing that the time was not suitable that he could acquire his food by his labor, as he used to, nor could he go door to door; said to his companion: "Brother, let us call upon the Lord our God, and let us so address him with loud cries, that he may hear us, and in such great necessity may have mercy and succor us." And he told him the example of certain monks, who in the time of their necessity asking help from the Lord with loud voices, were heard. And so provoked by their example, they began to render high praises and prayers to the Lord, and day and night fervently to press on in these with many vigils and fastings. But the merciful and pitying Lord, attending to his faith and fervor, inspired a certain man of that Castle, a spiritual man among the others, named Benincasa: who, since he had more devotion than the rest, He is helped by a man divinely warned of their necessity, came by chance to them, not knowing that anyone was there: and brought them bread and wine. But he was saying to himself: "Go to such a place, because perhaps there is there some servant of God." Coming therefore to them, and seeing them so compelled by such poverty and necessity, returning to the Castle, announcing to its inhabitants their great necessity, he admonished and exhorted them that they should help them for the Lord's sake. Who moved by the affection of compassion for them by Divine inspiration, a little after brought them so much bread, that through all that Lent they lived from it. Which Brother Giles seeing, and considering in this great grace of the Lord, said to his Companion: "Brother, up to now we have prayed the Lord that he might help us: but now having been heard by him, it is necessary that for the mercy received we render thanks to him, praying also for those who have bestowed their alms on us." And so resuming songs of praises, and jubilating in the Lord day and night, through all that Lent they stood. So great a grace indeed had the Lord conferred on Brother Giles, and by his conversation he benefits many. that by his life, which he was leading praiseworthy and wonderfully, he so provoked all who saw him, and his fiery speech penetrating the inmost of the heart so struck the hearers; that those who once saw and heard him, the more they desired to see and hear him; and departing from him greatly benefited, they could scarcely or never be satisfied with the sight and address of him. Many also coming to him, kindled by his example and salutary admonitions, left the world and assumed the habit of holy Religion. But some, who could not come to this, did penance in the world. q
ANNOTATIONS.
"When Brother Giles was with the Lord Bishop Cardinal of Tusculum, and was going to gather wood, olives, and to do other services, and was bringing bread to the hospice of the said Cardinal: and the Cardinal said to him that he should eat of his bread as a poor man; he answered this verse of the Prophet, 'For you shall eat the labors of your hands; blessed are you, and it shall be well with you': because thus Brother Francis had taught his Brothers that they should faithfully labor, and for the wages of labor, receive not money, but the necessities for food." Ps. 127:2
"These things however are more to be admired, and in Brother Giles commended from his mortification; rather than to be imitated by modern Religious, not having that spirit: for great occasion of wandering and dissolution would be given. Yet the idleness of those is confounded, who do not labor and eat the bread of sorrow."
p Surius calls it "the Castle of Derute": in the Silesian MS. is read "the castle of Dirutio"; Antoninus neglected to express the name: Waddingus places it on the Tiber in the Perugian territory, and sets there a convent founded about the year 1263.
q In the said MS. these things are thus explained: "and many companions from that region were converted to the Lord and were made Brothers: but others married in their own houses were practicing penance."
CHAPTER III.
Spiritual consolations and raptures of B. Giles; his pious death.
[12] He begins to experience heavenly delights, In the 18th year of his conversion, within the Nativity of the Lord, Brother Giles staying in the Bishopric of Chiusi, in a certain hermitage near the castle of a Scitona; on a certain night, according to custom, he rose betimes for prayer; and praying in his cell, he was suddenly filled with an extreme odor, and as it were with an unbearable sweetness of heart, so that he was strongly anxious from the drawing of the odor. Which hearing a certain boy, he did not dare to approach him: but going to the cell of his Companion, he said to him: "Come to Brother Giles, who is dying." Who immediately rising came, and said to Brother Giles: "What is the matter with you?" And he answered, "Come, Son, because I desired to see you just now" (For he loved him very much, and held him as a son, because he had reared him from his adolescence, in sciences, morals and spiritual things: but he explained in order all that had happened to the Saint) His Companion hearing this, knew it was a divine visitation, and returned to his cell. On the following day his companion went to the cell of Brother Giles, and finding him weeping and tearful, admonished him not to afflict himself so much, He humbly acknowledges the gift conceded to him, lest his body should fail from this. To whom he answered: "How can I not weep, when I know myself to be an enemy of the Lord? And he has done me such great mercy, and given me such a gift, that I fear lest I work not in it according to his will." But this gift he called the special grace given to him by the Lord: in which grace wondrously renewed, and feeling himself changed, he said to his Companion: "Until now I went where I wished, and what I wished to do I did working with my hands: but now and henceforth I am not able to do so as I was accustomed; but as I feel in myself, I must do: about which I much fear, lest some seek from me about myself, what I cannot give them." To whom his Companion said: "He who gives his servant grace, does not deny guard of the grace, but bestows it: yet it is good that the fear of the Lord be with you." Which answer pleased him. But on a certain night when he was standing with his b Companion before the cell, He is illumined with divine light, and speaking with him of the things of the Lord sweetly and devoutly; there came a certain splendor c plainly passing between them both. And when his Companion sought from him what this was, he answered: "Let it go." There was then there a certain religious and holy man, to whom the Lord had revealed of his secrets. For a little before this happened to Brother Giles, he had seen in a dream, that there the sun was rising, and there was going to its setting, where the cell of Brother Giles was built. Who afterwards seeing Brother Giles wonderfully changed by the change of the right hand of the Most High with a new spirit of grace, said to him: "Carry sweetly the Son of the Virgin." But afterwards Brother Giles strove with all the care he could to guard the grace given to him by the Lord. d He was always as it were solitary in his cell, He attends wholly to cultivating the spirit: watching, praying, fasting, and was careful to guard himself from every evil work and word. And if anyone wished to relate anything evil to him about another, he said this word: "I do not wish to know another's sin." And he said to the one relating: "Take heed, Brother, that you see not except up to your own good." e Finding therefore this good and in little faithful servant to himself, the Lord worthily committed to him greater things: to whom meanwhile he augmented the grace given, so that it could no longer be hidden from men. For if anyone should treat with him of the glory of the Lord, and of his sweetness, or of paradise; he was altogether caught up in spirit, and thus through a great space of the day remaining immobile, he neither spoke nor moved. f
[13] At a certain time Lord Pope Gregory g coming to Perugia to stay, and hearing the fame of Brother Giles, sent for him, desiring to see him. Who when he had come to the entrance of the chamber in which the Lord Pope was, fell on his face, Summoned to Pope Gregory IX, and reverently kissed his foot h. Whom the Lord Pope, holding, raised with his hand. To whom Brother Giles said: "How is it with you, my Father?" The Lord Pope answered: "It is well with me, Brother." To whom Brother Giles: "You sustain great labor." To whom the Lord Pope answered: "Brother, it is true: but I beg you that you help me to lighten this burden." To whom Brother Giles, "Willingly," he said, "I submit my neck to the yoke of the commandments of my Lord." To which the Lord Pope answered: "You say truly, Brother: yet your yoke is sweet, before him he is caught up into ecstasy, and your burden light." At which word, Brother Giles rising a little, departed from him, and thus was caught up in spirit, and so stood from evening until the third part of the night. Which the Lord Pope seeing, marveled greatly, and all who were with him, and devoutly commended the life of Brother Giles with those who were with him i. And when he desired again to see him, on a certain day he went devoutly to his cell, which was near the city: and that same thing which had happened to him before, happened to the Saint then, and again when he was visited by him. in the presence of the Lord Pope himself and some Cardinals and many other Clerics and Laymen. Seeing therefore, and considering him a true servant of the Lord, the Lord Pope held him from then on in special devotion and love.
[14] Always indeed being joyful and alert, if at any time he spoke with anyone of any matter of the Lord, The fervor and hilarity of spirit shining in him, filled with saving and marvelous joy he most devoutly answered, and being wholly in jubilation he kissed straws and stones and similar things, with a motion of most sweet and marvelous devotion. But since to one persevering in such and so marvelous grace it seemed very bitter to leave it in any way and return to the humanity of the body; the Saint, for eating at the proper time, desired to be able to live from the leaves of trees, that he might be able to escape the conversation of men, and not be compelled hence to yield further to the grace at any hour. But when he returned to his Brothers; he came cheerful, dancing and exulting, praising and blessing the Lord, and saying: "Neither can tongue tell, nor letter express, nor can it ascend into the heart of man, what good the Lord has prepared for those who wish to love him." For since he was full of devout faith and faithful devotion, and held the Ecclesiastical Sacraments and Canonical ordinances in great reverence; whenever anyone related to him at any time about the arrangements of the Church, With the greatest esteem of the Church, he heard the one relating very eagerly, and devoutly and efficaciously commended them: and he said: "O holy Mother Roman Church, we foolish and wretched do not know you, nor your goodness. You teach us the way of salvation, prepare and show it to us; through which if anyone goes, his foot is not struck, but he ascends higher to heavenly glory. and of the Sacraments. He also heard Mass most willingly, and on all Sundays with singular reverence and devotion received the most holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, likewise on the chief feasts: and in the morning about to communicate, entering the church, he persevered all day, praying as he was accustomed to do in his cell.
[15] There was a certain Priest, who when he was pressed by the most grievous temptation, He helps a tempted Priest, nor did anything seem to profit him for driving it away; began to say within himself: "Would that I could see Brother Giles, that I might relate to him this my temptation!" but because set far from him, he could not have leave to go to him. On one occasion when he had given himself to sleep, Brother Giles stood by him: at whose presence and sight vehemently exulting and receiving the greatest consolation, he began to seek from him counsel and help over the temptation, proposing to him how and how grievously he was tempted. appearing to him in sleep, To whom Brother Giles said: "Brother, what would you do to a dog coming against you, and wishing to bite you?" And that Brother said: "I would strike it, and so drive it from me." Brother Giles therefore said to him: "Go, and do the same to the temptation." And when with comforting and consoling words he was exhorting him, that Brother asked him that he might pray for him; and a little after rising from sleep, he felt himself best freed from this whole temptation. After this on a certain day that Priest found the companion of Brother Giles, likewise to others tempted. to whom he related all these things in order as they had happened to him. Several others too tempted to desert Religion and return to the world, and others pressed by other temptations, at his word and exhortation, were often freed.
[16] Adorned with 7 virtues, Seven very praiseworthy and salutary things Brother Giles had deeply in himself in his life, because of which the Lord seems, by the hand of his large blessing, to have multiplied his grace in him, and enlarged him with better goods. First that he was faithful, nay most faithful; second devout; third reverent; fourth pious; fifth solicitous; sixth obedient; seventh because he was most grateful to God and men for the benefits given him.
[17] When at a certain time Brother Giles was staying in the place of k Agello, the Master General ordered him to go to him at Assisi. He especially excels in obedience: And when the Brothers were persuading him that he should return, and re-enter the place, in no way did he acquiesce, but said: "Brothers, I have been ordered to go to Assisi, not that I should return to the place": and so from the place, in which it was said to him concerning obedience, he began to direct his steps toward Assisi. But he did this because of the greatest reverence which he always had as long as he lived in obedience to his superiors. Who knows this and stood with
him for a long time, and who saw and heard from his mouth, said and caused to be written.
[18] He is afflicted by a demon, When once Brother Giles was at Spoleto at a certain church of St. Apollinaris, where at that time Brothers were lodging, and rising by night had entered inside the Church betimes; while he stood bent in prayer, he felt above him a demon, exceedingly oppressing and molesting him. With him however praying vehemently, he drew himself as he could to the vessel of holy water, with which being sprinkled by faith, he was immediately freed from the molestation of the demon. Likewise on a certain time when in the place of Fabrion he was keeping Lent in a certain cell remote from the Brothers; it happened that after his prayers, with night already come, entering his cell, and beholds him in a horrible form: he felt the devil near himself: whose horrible terror being unable to bear, he fell down in prayer; and in his heart suppliantly devoutly praying the Lord, because he could not speak, he was freed. But after a few days he himself asked B. Francis saying: "What is so terrible that it cannot be borne until one Our Father is said?" He answered: "It is the devil who cannot be borne until half of an Our Father is said." Which having heard, as one experienced, he believed it was true.
[19] By the same to lust, Likewise in the same place he once heard the voice of a certain woman calling: after whose voice he felt such temptation of the flesh, as he had never experienced. But he gave himself to prayer, and adding to himself hard blows, thus by the Lord's grace he was almost freed. Likewise at another time in the same l place, entering the cell at night, he heard certain ones standing near him, and saying to one another: and to pride he is tempted in vain. "Why does this man labor so much? He is now a Saint, now he is anointed, now he is ecstatic." He afterwards asked a certain companion of his, in whom he greatly trusted, what this was; especially about the word Ecstatic, which he did not understand. He answered: "Do not care, Brother, because it was a diabolic temptation." Likewise when once at the place of Fabrion he had made a certain reprehension to a certain Brother, who was worthy of reprehension; It is revealed how useful he was in reprehension, that Brother was offended at the word. To whom at night stood by a certain one, saying thus: "Do not be offended, Brother, at Brother Giles's reprehension, because blessed will be he who will believe him." But in the morning that Brother coming asked him that he would safely reprehend him. A certain Brother desiring with great desire to see Brother Giles, and efficacious even in dry prayer. how he was, being placed in m dryness; saw him half-asleep lying, and having a certain book at his head for a pillow. Which book when that Brother opened, he read written there: "This is he who prays much for the people and for the whole holy city of Jerusalem": and nothing else than this he saw written in the book. n
ANNOTATIONS
above all graces and virtues this is the highest perfection, to preserve the accepted ones humbly: and he added, that the Apostles, after receiving the gifts of the Holy Spirit, had undergone a burden a thousand times heavier than they felt before, that they might be able to resist temptations and tribulations, and guard the grace conferred on them."
"He fled seriously empty talk and vain laughter, saying that for a momentary and trivial pleasure divine consolations are often lost or delayed: and he gave that example of those who play with dice, who for one point sometimes lose a great sum of gold or silver. 'So,' he said, 'for a light sin, if a man does not know how to guard himself, he loses the irreparable gain of his soul': and he brought forth that salutary saying of his sacred teacher Francis: 'Take heed, Brother, lest laughing you lose what mourning you have gained.'"
paradise!'; hearing that he was immediately caught up. Whence the Brothers wishing to speak to him did not dare to name Paradise, lest they lose him because of his rapture: and because of this Giles withdrew himself from the familiarity, not only of laymen, but also of Brothers, and others."
Which when the Pope had commanded him, Brother Giles answered: 'What song do you want me, Father, to sing?' And thus repeating several times and running to another part of the palace, placing one foot over the other, caught up he stood until the evening hour: and the Lord Pope proved, and those who were with him, that there was neither sound nor pulse in him. The Curia dining and he remaining thus, the Pope said to those assisting him: 'Behold, we have lost this man: but in him let us prove the virtue of obedience.' And then commanding by obedience that he should immediately go to him; wonderful to say! immediately Brother Giles, who seemed insensible, ran to the Pope, and prostrated at his feet, said his fault."
he was comforted. These things done, Gregory calling him to himself said to him: 'What will become of me?' And when to this he was wholly unwilling to answer, excusing himself, Gregory said: 'Tell me at least what I ought to be.' After a long excusation upon this, he said: 'Indeed you ought to have two eyes, the right and the left: the right to contemplate the things above, the left to dispense the things below.' And so he took leave from the Vicar of Christ."
"In the year of the Lord 1209 the Venerable Father, The time of death, Brother Giles the holy, was associated with St. Francis. 1262, in the time of Lord Urban the Pope, on the 10th day before the Kalends of May he migrated to heaven: whence he lived in the Religion of the Friars Minor 53 years": which we have expunged as prematurely added, being about to treat more fully below of the death of the holy man.
PART II.
Golden words of B. Giles.
from the Antwerp and Wrocław Mss.
CHAPTER I.
Here begin the Conferences of Brother Giles which he had with the Brothers.
[20] Prologue. Because the word of the Lord is living, giving life to the dead in sin; and is efficacious medicine, healing the sick; more piercing than any two-edged sword, piercing through the hardened, and reaching to the division of soul and flesh, separating vices from virtues; it is worthy and salutary that the salutary words of the servants of the Lord, which are drawn not from human wisdom but from the founts of the Savior with inestimable joy of heart, be written down for edification. And therefore for the glory and honor of the Almighty Lord, His saving sayings are gathered, and for the edification of neighbors, who will read or hear the honey-sweet and saving words of Brother Giles, which from the abundance of the heart he uttered in holy conferences and other conversations, let us reduce them to writing most useful to the soul.
[21] On the grace of God. The grace of God and virtues are the ladder and way of ascending into heaven: but vices and sins are the way and ladder of descending to hell. Vices and sins are poison: but virtues and good works are an antidote. Grace draws grace, and one vice draws to another. Grace does not wish to be praised, and vice does not wish to be despised. The mind rests in humility: patience is its daughter. Purity of heart sees God, devotion eats him. If you love, you will be loved: if you fear, you will be feared: if you serve, you will be served: if you behave well toward others, others will behave well toward you. Blessed is he who loves, and does not desire to be loved: blessed is he who fears, and does not desire to be feared: blessed is he who serves, and does not desire to be served: blessed is he who behaves well toward others, and does not desire that others behave well toward him: and because these things are great, therefore fools do not attain them. There are three things very great and useful, which whoever has them, cannot fall into evil. The first is if you bear in peace every tribulation that comes to you for the sake of God: the second, if about all things that you do and receive, you are the more humble: the third, if faithfully you love the goods that cannot be seen with the eyes of the body. All the things that are most despised and left behind by worldly men, are the more honored and received by God and the Saints: and those which are more loved and embraced and honored by worldly men, are more hated and left behind and despised by God and the Saints: for a wretched man hates all things to be loved, and loves things to be hated. Brother Giles once asked a certain Brother, saying: "Do you have a good soul?" That Brother answered: "I do not know." Giles said to him: "Holy contrition, holy humility, holy charity, holy devotion, and holy joy, make the soul holy and good."
[22] All the things which can be thought, narrated, seen, and touched, are nothing, Of the ineffability of God, in comparison with those things which can neither be thought nor seen nor touched. All the wise and saints, who were and are and will be, who have spoken or will speak about God, have not said nor will ever say about God in comparison with what he is; except as the point of one needle in comparison with heaven and earth and all creatures that are in them, and more than a thousand times less: for all sacred Scripture speaks to us as if stammering, as a stammering mother with her little son, who otherwise
cannot understand her words. b Brother Giles once said to a certain secular Judge: "Do you believe that the gifts of God are great?" The Judge answered: "I believe." To whom Giles said: "I will show you that you do not believe this": and he added: "How much are your possessions worth?" The Judge answered: and faith is to be estimated from affection for heavenly things: "Perhaps a thousand pounds." Brother Giles said to him: "Would you give them for ten thousand pounds?" He answered: "I would gladly give them." Brother Giles said to him: "It is certain that all earthly things are nothing in respect of heavenly things, why therefore do you not give these for those?" The Judge answered: "Do you believe that a man does as much as he believes?" Brother Giles answered: "The holy men and women, the goods that they could do, they strove to practice in deed: and what they could not complete in deed, they completed with holy desires: and the holy desire itself supplied the defect of the work. If anyone had faith perfectly, he would come into such a state, in which to him full certitude would be given. To a man who certainly awaits great and eternal good, what evil can any evil do to him? And to a man who awaits eternal evil, what good can any good do to him? Of the hope of salvation not to be cast away. Yet no one should ever despair while he lives of the mercy of God: because there is hardly a tree so thorny and knotty which men cannot make full and beautiful, and adorn it. Much more there is none so grievous a sinner in the world whom God cannot adorn with grace and virtues."
[23] Of love, The love of God and neighbor is greater than all virtues. Blessed is he who is not satiated with things which he ought always to desire. Brother Giles said to a certain Brother, his special friend: "Do you believe that I love you?" That Brother answered: "I believe, Brother." Brother Giles said to him: "Do not believe that I love you; because the Creator alone is he who truly loves the creature: and the love of creature is nothing in respect of the love of the Creator." A certain other said to Brother Giles: "How is it to be understood what the Prophet says, 'Every friend walks fraudulently'?" He answered: "Therefore am I fraudulent to you, because I do not make your good my own: and how one should rejoice at the good of neighbor. for the more I would make your good my own, the less would I be fraudulent to you. For the more a man rejoices at the good of his neighbor, the more shall he be a partaker of that good: just as on the contrary the more a man rejoices at the evil of another, the more he shall be a partaker of that evil. If therefore you wish to be a partaker of the good of all, rejoice at the good of all. You make the good of others your own, if it pleases you: and you make the evil of others your caution or guard, if it displeases you. This is the way of salvation, that you be glad and rejoicing at the good of your neighbor, and grieving at his evil: and believe evil of yourself, and good of others: and honor others, but despise yourself. Who does not wish to honor others, shall not be honored: and who does not wish to know, shall not be known: and who does not wish to be fatigued, shall not rest. Labor c fruitful above every labor is, Of gratitude to God. to study piety and kindness. Whatever is done without love and devotion, is not pleasing to God nor to his saints. From his own things man becomes poor, and from divine things he becomes rich. Therefore man should love divine things and despise others. What is greater than to know how to be grateful for the benefits of God, and to know how to reprehend oneself of one's own evils? In this school I should have wished myself to have studied from the beginning of the world, and to study until the end of the world, if so long I had lived or should live, namely in the consideration and commendation of God's benefits, and in the consideration and reprehension of my own evil deeds. Yet if I had a defect in reprehending myself about my evil deeds, I would not wish to have a defect in considering the benefits of God. You see that players and mimes commend in a wonderful way those from whom they receive a small d gift: what therefore ought we or what could we render to the Lord our God? Very much you ought to be faithful to him, who wishes to free you from every evil, and to bestow on you every good."
[24] Of humility, "No one can come into the knowledge of God, except through humility. The way of going up is to go down; for all dangers and all great falls, which have happened in the world, have not happened except through the elevation of the head; as is evident in the Angel, who was created in heaven; and in Adam, and in the Gospel Pharisee, and in many others. And the great goods which have been done, happened through the bending of the head: as is evident in the blessed Virgin, and in the Publican, and in the holy Robber, and in many others. Would that some heavy mass were upon us, which would make us always bend our heads!" A certain Brother said to him: "How can we flee this pride?" And he: "Wash your hands: and where you put your mouth, there hold your feet. If you consider the benefits of God, you ought to bend your head: and if you consider your sins, you ought likewise to bend your head. But woe to him who seeks to be honored for his malice. The degree of humility in man is to know himself always to be contrary to his good. I reckon a branch of humility too, to render other things, and not to appropriate them to oneself; this is to attribute all goods to God whose they are, in which it is placed. but to attribute to himself his own evils. Blessed is he who reputes himself as vile before men, as he finds himself vile before God. Blessed is he who judges himself now, because he will not come to judgment. Blessed is he who walks faithfully to the judgment and obedience of another. For this the Apostles did, even after they had been filled with the Holy Spirit. He who wishes to have peace and tranquility, ought to reckon every man superior to himself. Blessed is he who does not wish to be seen in his words and morals, except in that composition in which divine grace composed him. Blessed he who knows how to preserve and hide the revelations of God: because nothing is hidden that God does not reveal, when it pleases him. If any one were the most holy of all men and reputed himself the greatest sinner of the whole world, in this would be humility. Humility knows not how to speak, and patience dares not to speak. Humility seems to me to be like lightning: for as lightning makes terrible strokes, and afterward nothing can be found of it; so humility dissipates every evil, and is the enemy of every sin, and makes a man reckon himself as nothing. Through humility man finds grace with God, and peace with his neighbor. For just as, if some great King wished to send his daughter to some place, he would not place her upon an untamed, proud, and kicking horse; but upon a gentle one and walking sweetly: so the Lord did not place grace in the proud, but in the humble."
[25] Of the fear of the Lord, "The holy fear of the Lord expels every evil fear, and guards those goods which cannot be expressed in tongue, nor even thought: which to have, because it is the greatest gift, is not given to all. He who does not fear, shows that he has nothing to lose. The fear of God rules and governs a man, and makes him find the grace of the Lord: which if a man has, the fear of God preserves it; and if he does not have it, makes him come to it. All rational creatures who fell, would never have fallen, if they had had this gift. This holy gift is not except of holy men and holy women, and the more gracious anyone is, the less humble and fearful is he, and the virtue which has been less worked by men f is not found greater than others. A man, who has so offended God that he is worthy of death, with what security can he go before the presence of God? Blessed, who knows himself to be in prison in this world, and always to have offended his Lord. Very much indeed ought a man to fear from pride, through which pride is excluded. lest it cast him headlong. From yourself and from your like fear always and beware. There is no perfect security for man, while he is among his enemies: our enemy is our flesh, and it with the demons is always adverse and contrary to our soul: therefore a greater fear ought a man to have, lest his own malice conquer him, than about any other thing of the world: for it is impossible that a man may ascend to the grace of God, or persevere in grace, without holy fear and holy dread: which he who does not have, is the sign of one perishing. This fear makes one humbly obey, and bend his head to the ground under the yoke of holy obedience: likewise the greater fear one has, the more one prays: but to him to whom the grace of holy prayer is given, it is not a little thing. The works of men however great they seem, are not according to the estimation of man, but according to the estimation and good pleasure of God: and first we must always fear."
[26] "He who patiently endured tribulations for God, would quickly come into great grace; Of patience in adversities, and would be lord of this world, and would already have his foot in the other world. Whatever a man does, whether good or evil, he does to himself: therefore you ought not to be scandalized, if anyone does you injury: but you ought to have compassion on his sin. Bear patiently the injuries done to you by neighbor, for the sake of God, and for the sake of neighbor, and for the sake of yourself. As much as one is prepared to endure tribulations and injuries for God, so much will he be great with God, and no more: and the more one is weak in bearing tribulation and grief for God, the worse he is with God, and he does not know what God is. If anyone says evil to you, help him: and who says good to you, render it to God. But you ought to help him thus, that if he says evil to you, you should say worse of yourself. If you wish to make your part good, make your part evil, and the other's part good; that is, and of bearing insults, praise the deed and word of another, and reprehend your own: and if you wish to make your part evil, do the opposite. When therefore anyone contends with you, if you wish to conquer, lose: for in the end, when you thought to have conquered, you will find that you have lost. The way therefore of salvation is the way of perdition."
[27] "We are not good bearers of tribulations, because we are not good seekers of spiritual consolations: for he who would faithfully labor in himself, and upon himself, and for himself, would sweetly endure all things. Do injury to no one: how much it is necessary, and if anyone does you injury, bear it patiently for the love of God, and for the remission of your sins: for it is much better to bear one grievous injury without any murmur for the love of God, than to daily feed a hundred poor, and to fast for many days up to the starry heaven g. What does it profit a man to despise himself, and to inflict tribulations on his body in fastings, prayers, vigils, disciplines, and not to be able to bear one injury from a neighbor, from which he would receive greater price or reward, than from his own things, which he bears of his own will? To bear tribulations without murmuring purges the sins of men more than the pouring out of tears. for expiating sins: Blessed is he who always has before his eyes his sin and the benefits of God, and patiently bears all tribulations and distresses: whence he ought not to wish to have consolation under heaven from any creature: Let a man not expect a reward from God if he is humble and devout, while all things are well satisfied to him. He who would always have before his eyes his sins, would fail in no tribulation."
[28] "Every good which you have, you ought to receive from God; and every evil from your sin: for if one man had done and did all the goods, which all the men of the world have done, do, whose consideration makes evils light. and will do; yet, if he looks well at himself, he will always find himself contrary to his good." A certain Brother said to him: "What shall we do, if great tribulations come in our times?" Brother Giles answered: "If the Lord rained stones and rocks from heaven, they would not harm us, if we were such as we ought to be. If a man were such as he ought to be, evil would be turned to him into good: for all great goods and great evils are within in man, which cannot be seen. To great infirmity, and great labor, and to great h hunger, and to great injuries done to anyone, the worst demons run together. If you wish to be saved, do not seek justice to be done to you by any creature. Holy men do good, and suffer evil. If you know yourself to have offended the Creator and God of all, know that it is fitting that all things should persecute you, and avenge the injury which you have done to God. From all creatures you ought to bear patiently the vexations done to you, because against anyone you have no justice, since you are worthy to be punished by all."
[29] "A great virtue it is for a man to conquer himself. If you conquer yourself, you will conquer all enemies, and will come to every good. How anger is to be restrained: A great virtue would be, if one should allow himself to be conquered by all men, because such a man would be lord of this world. If you wish to be saved, try to despair of every consolation, which any mortal creature can give you; because greater, and more frequent are the falls happening from consolations, than from tribulations. Noble is the nature of a horse, which although he is in the swiftest running, yet he who rides can turn him aside from one way and direct him to another; so a man ought, in the onset of his anger, to allow himself to be ruled by him who corrects him. To the sole memory of God ought a man to desire, as far as in him lies, and to give a price to others, that they should give him slaps and blows, and that men should drag him by the hair."
[30] A certain Religious was once murmuring before him about a certain hard obedience given him: to whom Brother Giles said: "My friend, the more you murmur, and that one should not complain of injuries. the more you burden yourself: and the more devoutly and humbly you submit your head to holy obedience, the lighter and sweeter it will be to you. You do not wish to be blamed in this world, and wish to be honored in another? you do not wish to be cursed, and wish to be blessed? not to labor, and wish to rest? You are deceived, because through vituperation one comes to honor, through curse blessing is had, and through labor rest. The proverb is true, who does not wish to give of what he owes, cannot have of what he wants. Do not marvel if your neighbor offends you sometimes: because Martha, who was holy, wished to provoke the Lord against her carnal sister, yet Martha unjustly murmured about Mary; and the more members Mary had lost, in respect to use, than Martha, the more she labored than Martha; for she had lost speech, sight, hearing, and gait. Strive therefore more gracefully and virtuously, and fight against vices, and bear willingly tribulations and humiliations: for it is nothing else, but that you conquer yourself, because it is little for a man to draw souls to God, unless he conquer himself."
ANNOTATIONS
CHAPTER II.
Second part of the golden sayings of B. Giles.
[31] "A religious man loses this world and the other, by not being fruitful for himself nor for others. Of holy solicitude and vigilance of heart, It is impossible to acquire virtues without care and labor. If you can be in safety, do not place yourself in doubt: he is in safety who labors for God. A young man who refuses labor, refuses the kingdom of heaven. If care does not profit, negligence neither obstructs nor harms. As bad idleness is a way to hell; so holy idleness and rest is a way to heaven. Very much ought a man to be solicitous to preserve the grace given him by God, and to labor faithfully with it; because often a man loses the fruits for the branches, and the grains for the chaff. To some God gives fruits, and makes them lack branches; to some he gives both; and some lack both. I reckon it a greater thing to preserve the goods given by the Lord, than to receive them. He who knows how to acquire, and does not know how to lay up, shall never be rich: necessary things for preserving what is acquired, but to know how to lay up, and not to know how to acquire, is not great. Many gain much, but never become rich, because they do not guard what they have gained: and some little by little gain, and are rich, because what they gain they guard well. The Tiber river, how great a gathering of waters would it have, if it did not flow down daily? A man seeks from God a gift without measure and without end, and wishes to serve him with measure and end. Who wishes without measure, and without end to be loved and rewarded, must love without measure and serve without end. Through his own negligence a man loses his perfection."
[32] and we must bear fruit while there is time: Once Brother Giles was speaking to one wishing to go to Rome, saying: "When you go along the way, do not draw to yourself those things which you will see, lest they hinder you, and know how to choose good coin from false: for there are many wiles of the enemy, and his snares hidden and various. Blessed is he who a enjoys his body for the love of the Most High, and from the good which is in heaven seeks no lesser reward. If anyone were most poor, and someone said to him: 'Brother, I lend you this thing of mine, that for three days you may enjoy it, and through this you shall have an infinite treasure'; would not that poor man, if it were certain to him that this was true, strive carefully to enjoy that thing? The thing lent to us by God is our flesh: and as it were three days, is the whole time of our life; if therefore you wish to enjoy, strive to gain, for if you do not labor, how shall you rest? If all the fields and vineyards of this world were of one man, who did not cultivate them or have them cultivated, what fruit would he receive from them? But another having a small quantity of fields and vineyards, and cultivating them well, receives therefrom fruits for himself and for many others. If anyone wishes to do evil, he scarcely asks counsel: and when he wishes to do some good, he strives to seek counsel from many. The common proverb is: 'Do not place a pot at the fire at your neighbor's hedge.'"
[33] "A man is not blessed, if he has only good will, unless he strives to follow it with good works: because for this God gives his grace to a man, that he may follow it. by doing good, A vagabond man, as it seemed, once said to holy Brother Giles: "Brother Giles, make me a consolation." Brother Giles answered: "Strive to do well, and you will have consolation; for unless a man prepared a place for God in himself, he would not find a place in the creatures of God. Who is there that does not wish to do that which would be better, not only for his soul, but also for his body in this world? But we do not wish to work either the good of the soul or the good of the body. I could truly swear, that who lightens the yoke of the Lord for himself, aggravates it for himself: and who aggravates it for himself, lightens it for himself. Would that men did that which would be better for the body in this world; he who made the other world, made this one also; and of the goods which he bestows in the other world, he can bestow in this; and the body feels of the goods of the soul." Then a certain Brother said to him: "Perhaps we shall die before we experience any good." Brother Giles answered: "Furriers know about pelts, tanners about shoes, and smiths about iron, and so about the other arts: but how can a man know an art in which he has never studied? Do you believe that great
Lords give great gifts to foolish men, and b mad? They do not give. Good works are the way to every good, as bad works are the way to every evil. Blessed is he whom no thing under heaven will de-edify, and whom all the things that he will see and hear or know will edify, and from all things he will strive to choose his own utility."
[34] "Woe to the man who places his heart, and his desire, Of excessive care of earthly things to be cut off. and his strength on earthly things, on account of which he leaves and loses heavenly and eternal goods. The eagle, which flies very high, if it had one of the beams of the Church of St. Peter tied to each of its wings, would not fly so high. I find many laboring for the body, and few for the soul: for many labor many things for the body, breaking rocks, hollowing out mountains, and doing other grievous works; but for the soul, who labors so manfully and fervently? The miser is like the mole, which believes there is no other treasure nor other good except to dig the earth and inhabit it: yet there are other treasures, which it does not know. The birds of heaven, and the beasts of the earth, and the fishes of the sea, when they have food suitable for them, are content: since therefore man is not content with earthly things, but always sighs for others; it is clear that he was not made for this in the beginning, but for others: for the body was made for the sake of the soul, and this world for the sake of the other world. This world is such a field, that he who has from it the greater part has the worse part." Likewise he said that ants did not much please B. Francis, because of their excessive solicitude in gathering their food; but the birds of heaven more pleased him, because they do not gather into their storehouses. c
[35] "Great grace cannot be possessed in peace: because many contraries always rise to it. Of the fight against temptations: The more gracious a man is, the more he is attacked by the devil: yet a man ought not for this to cease from his grace; because the heavier the fight will be, the greater if he conquer will be the crown. We therefore have many impediments, because we are not such as we ought to be; yet if anyone went well on the way of the Lord, he would have neither fatigue nor tedium: but in the way of the world a man has fatigue and tedium until death." A certain Brother answered him saying: "You seem to say two contrary things." Brother Giles answered: "Do not the demons run more to a man having a good will, than to others? Behold an impediment. And if anyone sold his denarius-worth d for a thousand times more than it was worth, what fatigue would he feel there? Behold the contrariety is solved. I say therefore, that the more anyone will be filled with virtues, the more is he infested by vices; and the more ought he to have them in hatred. Of every vice that you conquer, you acquire a crown; and of whatever vice you are more troubled, of that you will receive more reward if you conquer. Whatever the reason for which a man omits to go on the way of his lord, for that reason he loses his reward."
[36] How useful it is: A certain Brother said to him: "I am frequently tempted by a very bad temptation, and several times I asked the Lord that he would take it from me, and he does not take it." Brother Giles answered: "It is with temptations as sometimes happens with a farmer, who sees a wood of trees and briars in some territory of his, in which he would wish to make a new clearing, and to sow grain; but by many labors and sweats and distresses he is fatigued, before he gathers grain; and sometimes almost repents that he undertook that labor, on account of the labors and distresses which emerge for him in that work itself. For first he beholds the wood to be uprooted, and sees no grain: secondly with many labors he cuts the trees, and sees no grain: thirdly with much and heavy labor he pulls out the roots of trees, and still does not see grain: fourthly he cleaves the earth and adjusts, and does not yet see there the grain for which he labored so much: fifthly he plows the earth again: sixthly he sows it: seventhly he weeds it: eighthly he reaps: ninthly he threshes, and all these things he does with great labor: tenthly he lays it up with joy, as if not remembering the weight of such labor, because of the much fruit, which he has in the end; he bears even more labors than these, all of which he blesses, because of the joy that he has received good fruit."
[37] How to fight with vain glory. A certain one said to him again: "What shall I do? for if I do anything good, I have from it vain glory: and if I do evil, I fall into sadness and as it were into despair." Brother Giles answered: "You do well, if you grieve for your sin: yet I counsel you to grieve temperately and moderately: for you should always believe that the power of God in sparing is greater than your power of God in sinning. If God shows mercy to some great sinner, do you believe that he abandons a smaller sinner? Moreover on account of the temptation of vain glory, do not cease to do good: for if a farmer, wishing to cast the seed in the earth, said within himself: 'I will not sow this year, because if I sow perhaps the birds will come and eat of that seed,' and for this did not sow; he would not have the fruit of his land to eat: but if he sows, although some of the seed perishes, yet the greater part will remain to him: so it is with him who is tempted by vain glory, and fights against it." A certain Brother said to him: "It is read of B. Bernard, that once he said the seven penitential Psalms, nor thought of anything else, except about those things which he was saying." Brother Giles answered: "I reckon it greater, if a castle is attacked strongly, and defends itself manfully and valiantly."
[38] Of penance, A certain Judge once said to Brother Giles: "How could we seculars ascend to the state of grace and virtue?" He answered: "First a man ought to grieve for his sins, then to confess purely, then to do humbly the penance enjoined him, afterward to guard himself from every sin and from every occasion of sin, at last to exercise himself in good works. Blessed be the evil, which is turned for a man into good: and cursed be the good, which is turned for a man into evil. Willingly ought a man to bear evils in this world, because Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us an example. Blessed who will have grief for his sins, and will weep day and night, nor will be consoled in this world, until he comes there, where all the desires of his heart shall be fulfilled." e
[39] "Prayer is the beginning, and the completion of every good. Of prayer: Prayer illumines the soul, and through it good and evil are known. This prayer every sinner ought to make to the Lord, that he would give him to know his misery and his sins and his benefits. Who knows not how to pray, does not know God. All who ought to be saved, if they have the use of reason, it is necessary that in their end they turn to prayer. Let us suppose that some woman, very modest and simple, had an only son, who on account of some offense had been taken by the King, how easy it is for one knowing his own necessity and was being led to hanging; would not this widow, though modest and simple, with loosed hair and bared breast cry out and clamor for freeing her son, and run to ask the King? And who would teach that simple one to beg for her son? Love of son and necessity compels the modest woman, hardly going out before beyond the threshold of her house, to go afterward as if bold through the streets among men wailing, and makes the simple one wise: so he would know well how to pray and would wish to, who truly knew his damages and his evils and his dangers."
[40] A certain Brother said to him: "Much ought a man to grieve, when in prayer he cannot find the grace of devotion." It is not to be omitted because of the defect of devotion, Brother Giles answered: "I counsel you to do your business plainly; for if you had some good wine in a cask, and there were lees under the wine, would you wish to shake the cask, and mix the wine with the lees? This should not be done. Think that you are in no way worthy to receive any consolation from God in prayer. For if anyone had lived from the beginning until now, and were to live until the end of the world, and in prayer had poured out every day a full bowl of tears, he would not then at the end of the world be worthy that God should give him one single consolation."
[41] Once a certain Brother said to him: "Why does a man suffer more temptations when he prays to God, than at other times?" Brother Giles answered: Why we are tempted more frequently under it than otherwise: "When some one has a case against his adversary in the court of some prince, if that man goes to that prince, and proposes and acts against his adversary; that adversary, knowing this, opposes himself to him with all his strength, lest sentence be given for him: so does the devil against us. First, if you stand in conversation with others, you will often see that you do not feel many wars of temptations; but if you go to prayer, to recreate your soul, then you will feel against you the burning darts of the enemy. Yet you should not on this account leave prayer, but stand firm: because this is the way to the supernal country: and he who for this leaves prayer, is like him who flees from battle."
[42] A certain one said to him: "I see many who seem to have the grace of devotion and tears immediately when they go to prayer: How devotion is to be expected, by doing what is in us, but I can hardly feel anything from it." Brother Giles answered: "Labor faithfully and devoutly: because the grace which God does not give you in one hour or time, he will be able to give in another time: and what he does not give you in one day, or in one week, or in one month, or in one year; he will be able to give you in another day, or in another week, or in another year. You put in your labor and diligence, and God will put in his grace as it shall please him. The smith, who makes a knife, before the knife is finished, gives many strokes upon the iron, of which he makes the knife; but at last in one blow the knife is finished. Much ought a man to be solicitous about his salvation: for if the whole world were full of men,
even up to the clouds if it were possible, and of these no one should be saved except one; yet anyone should follow his grace, that he himself might be that one: because to lose the strap of a shoe is not to lose the supernal grace. But woe to us! there is one who gives, and there is no one to receive."
[43] At another time a certain Brother asked Brother Giles: "What are you doing, Brother Giles?" He answered: "I am doing evil." But that one said again to Brother Giles: and by using well the grace received, "What evil do you do, who are a Friar Minor?" And Brother Giles said to a certain Friar Minor standing by: "Brother, who is more prepared, either God to give his grace, or we to receive?" He answered: "God is more prepared to give than we to receive." Brother Giles said to him: "And do we do well?" That Brother answered: "Rather we do badly." And Brother Giles turning to him who had asked of him what he was doing, said: "Behold it is plain that I said a word to you, when I answered that I was doing evil." Likewise he said: "Many works are commended in sacred Scripture, such as clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and many others; yet speaking of prayer the Lord says: 'For the Father also seeks such as adore him.' John 4:23 Good works adorn the soul: but prayer is something exceedingly great. Holy Religious are like wolves, who hardly go out into public except for great necessity, and then in public they make a short delay."
[44] A certain Brother familiar to him said to Brother Giles: and fleeing the company of seculars, "Why do you not go out sometimes to secular men wishing to speak with you?" Brother Giles answered saying: "I wish to satisfy my neighbor with the good of my soul: do you not believe, that I would more dearly give a thousand pounds sometimes, if I had them, than I would give myself to my neighbor?" He answered: "I believe." Brother Giles said: "And do you believe, that I would rather give four thousand pounds than give myself sometimes to my neighbor?" He answered: "I believe." Brother Giles said to him: "The Lord says in the Gospel: 'Who has left father and mother etc. shall receive a hundredfold in this world.' Matt. 19:29 There was a certain Roman, who entered the Order of Friars Minor, whose possessions were said to be worth sixty thousand pounds, therefore it is something great that the Lord God gives in this world, from which it is worth a hundred times sixty thousand pounds. But we are blind and veiled: if we see a very gracious and virtuous man, we could not bear his perfection. If anyone were truly spiritual, he would hardly wish to see anyone or hear or delay with anyone, except for great necessity, but would always wish to be solitary."
[45] He said again of himself: "I would rather be blind, and by curbing the senses. than be more beautiful, or richer, or wiser, or nobler than anyone of the world." Someone said to him: "Why would you rather be blind, than have those things?" He answered: "Because I fear that they would impede my way: blessed will he be, who neither will think, nor say, nor do anything reprehensible." Once Brother Giles asked a certain Brother saying: "What do these wise men say about contemplation?" And he said: "I do not know." f And he: "Do you wish me to tell you, what seems to me?" And he said: "Now tell me." Brother Giles said: "The degrees of contemplation seem to me to be fire, anointing, ecstasy, contemplation, taste, rest, glory. g Likewise, if you find grace in prayer, pray: even if you do not find it, pray: because God accepted the hairs of goats in offering. Sometimes the King loves the foot of one laboring less for him, more than the whole person of another laboring much more for him: because the Lord regards the heart. When the Lord gave preaching to St. Peter, he said to him that he should always retain the lesser part, saying to him: 'And when you are converted, confirm your brothers.'"
[46] Of Spiritual caution. "If you wish to see well, pluck out your eyes, and be blind: if you wish to hear well, be deaf: if you wish to speak well, be mute: if you wish to walk well, cut off your feet: if you wish to work well, maim your hands: if you wish to love well, have yourself in hatred: if you wish to live well, mortify yourself: if you wish to gain well, know how to lose: if you wish to be rich, be poor: if you wish to be in delights, afflict yourself: if you wish to be secure, be always in fear: if you wish to be exalted, humble yourself: if you wish to be honored, despise yourself, and honor those despising you: if you wish to have good, bear evil: if you wish to be in rest, labor: if you wish to be blessed, desire to be cursed. O how great wisdom is this to know, and to do! but because they are great, not to all are they given. If a man lived a thousand years, and had nothing to do outside his mouth, he would have enough to do inside in his heart, nor could he come to perfect completion, so much would he have to do only within. No one should wish to see or hear anything, or speak of any matter, except up to his utility, nor to proceed beyond in any way. Who does not wish to know, shall not be known: but woe to us, because those who have the gifts of the Lord are not known; and those who do not have them, do not seek. Man feigns God, such as he wishes; but he is such as he is."
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
Other sayings of B. Giles.
[47] "Who wishes to know enough, let him bend his head enough, Of useful and useless knowledge, and work enough, and draw his belly through the earth, and the Lord will teach him enough. Divine wisdom is to do good works, to guard oneself well, and to consider the judgments of God." He said once to one wishing to go to the schools for the sake of learning: "Why do you wish to go to the schools? the sum of all knowledge is to fear and love God: these two suffice for you. A man has as much knowledge and wisdom, as he works good, and no more. Do not be too solicitous to be useful to others: but be more solicitous to be useful to yourself. We wish sometimes to know many things for others, and few for ourselves. The word of God is not of the hearer or the speaker, but of the one who does it. Many not knowing how to swim have entered into waters, to help those perishing in them, and with those perishing have perished: before there was one damage, afterward there were two. If you well procure the salvation of your soul, you well procure the salvation of all your friends. If you well do your business, you well do the business of all those benevolent to you."
[48] "A preacher of the word of God has been placed by God, that he may be a candle, a mirror, and a standard-bearer to the people of God. and on the preaching of the word. Blessed is he who so directs others on the right way, that he himself does not cease to go on it; and so invites to running, that he himself does not cease to run; and so is a helper to others, that they may become rich, and himself from this does not become poor. I believe that a good preacher speaks more to himself than to others. It seems to me that who wishes to draw souls of sinners, ought more to fear lest he himself be drawn badly by others." A certain Brother said to him: "How?" And he: "Turn your eyes away, lest they see vanity. Those who speak do not understand, and those who hear do not understand." A certain one said to him: "Which is better, to preach or to do?" He answered: "Who deserves more, he who goes to the house of St. James, or he who shows the way to others of going to St. James? Many things I see, which are not mine; many things I hear, which I do not understand; and many things I speak, which I do not work: therefore it seems to me that by sight, speech, and hearing alone a man is not saved."
[49] "Who speaks good words, is as the mouth of God: and who speaks evil words, Of good and evil words. is as the mouth of the devil. When servants of God are gathered in any place to converse, they ought to treat of the beauty of virtues, so that virtues may please them, because if they pleased them, they would be exercised in them; and if they were exercised in virtues, they would always love the virtues more from them. The more a man is full of vices, the more necessary is it for him to speak of virtues: for as from frequent depraved conversation about vices one falls into vices very easily; so from frequent holy conversation about virtues, he is easily led and disposed to virtues. But what shall we say? Of the good we cannot say good, nor of the evil can we say evil. What therefore shall we say? For of the good we cannot say how great good it is; nor even of evil, how great evil it is, since both are incomprehensible to us: for I do not reckon it of greater virtue to know how to be silent well, than to know how to speak well: and it seems to me that a man should have a neck like a crane, so that the word would pass through many knots, before it comes forth from the mouth."
[50] Of the virtue of perseverance. "What does it profit a man to fast, pray, give alms,
to afflict himself, also to feel great things about heaven, and not to come to the port of salvation? Behold sometimes there appears in the sea a beautiful ship, large, new, and full of much treasure; yet with some peril coming upon it, it does not come to the port of salvation, but miserably perishes; what did all that goodness and beauty of it profit it? And again: In the sea there is sometimes a deformed ship, not large, old, despised, not filled with much treasure; and with much labor escaping the dangers of the sea, happily comes to port; this alone is commendable. A similar thing also happens with the men of this world; therefore all men should rightly fear. Although a tree is born, yet it is not immediately great; and, if great, not flowering; and if it flowers, it does not immediately produce fruits; and if it produces fruits, not immediately great ones; and if great, not ripe; and if ripe, yet not all come to the mouth of the eater, but many fall and rot, or are devoured by swine or by other beasts." A certain one said to him: "May the Lord make you end well." Brother Giles answered: "What will it profit me, if I had begged the kingdom of heaven for a hundred years, unless I end well? Two great goods I reckon in men, to love God, and to beware always from sin: he who had these two would have all goods."
[51] Brother Giles speaking of himself: "I would rather," he said, "have a moderate amount of the grace of God in Religion, In Religion one should live according to it. than much in the world, because there are more dangers and fewer helps in the world than in Religion: but a sinful man dreads his good more than his evil; because he fears to do penance, and to enter Religion, more than to lie in sin or remain in the world." Brother Giles also said: "Many enter Religion, and do not do those things which are suitable for Religion: and these are like the farmer who would put on the arms of Roland a, and with them did not know how to fight: for not all men would know how to ride the horse Bayard b, nor sitting upon him would know how to guard themselves from a fall. I do not reckon it great to enter the court of a King, nor do I reckon it great to receive goods from the King and gifts; but I reckon it great to know how to stand as befits in the court of the King. The court of the great King is Religion, to enter which is not great, and to receive some gifts of God in it; but to know how to live in it as befits, and to persevere until the end devoutly and solicitously. I would rather be in the secular state, and devoutly and solicitously sigh for the entrance of Religion; than be in Religion and be sated. The glorious Virgin Mother of God was born of sinners, male and female, nor was she in any Religion: and yet she is what she is."
[52] "A religious ought to believe that he does not know how nor can he live without Religion. How perfect the Religion of Minors is. It seems to me that the Religion of the Minors was sent by God into this world for the great utility of men: but woe to us; we are not such men as we ought to be. The Religion of the Friars Minor seems to me to be the poorest and richest of this world: but this seems to me to be our vice, because we wish to walk too highly. From the beginning of the world until now, a better and more expeditious Religion than the Religion of the Friars Minor has not yet appeared. He is rich who imitates the rich one: he is wise who imitates the wise: he is good who imitates the good: he is beautiful who imitates the beautiful: he is noble who imitates the noble, namely the Lord God."
[53] "The more a Religious is constrained by the love of God under the yoke of obedience, Of obedience: the more fruit he will render: and the more a Religious is obedient and subject to his Prelate for the honor of God, the more poor, and clean from his sin before other men of this world. A Religious well-obedient, is similar to a man well-armed, or a soldier sitting on a good horse, who passes secure among enemies, and no one can offend him. its necessity But a Religious obedient with murmuring, is similar to a soldier unarmed, sitting on a bad horse, who passing among enemies falls, and is taken by the enemies, sometimes wounded, imprisoned, and sometimes killed. A Religious, who wishes to live in his own will, wishes to go to the fire of hell. As long as the ox keeps his head under the yoke, he fills the granaries with grain: but the ox not keeping his head under the yoke, but wandering running about, seems to himself a great Lord, but the granaries are not filled with grain. Great and wise ones humbly put their head under the yoke of obedience, and fools draw their head from under the yoke, and scorn to obey. and excellence. A mother sometimes nurses and raises a son, who after he has become great by his pride does not obey his mother, but mocks and spurns her. I reckon it greater for a man to obey a Prelate for the love of God, than to obey the Creator himself commanding something through himself: for he who well obeys the Vicar of the Lord, would well obey the Lord commanding something to him."
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
Sayings of B. Giles from the Antwerp MS alone.
a
[54] "Good company is to a man like theriac: and bad company like poison. How one should act in time of dryness. Trees which stand beside the way are sometimes struck by iron from those passing, and are not allowed to ripen their fruit: so it harms to stand in public." A certain one said to Brother Giles: "What could I do, to feel some sweetness from God?" He answered: "Has God ever inspired you with a good will?" Who said: "Many times." Brother Giles said to him several times, crying out in these words: "Why did you not keep that good will, and it would have led you to greater good?" Another said to him: "What shall I do? for I am dry and undevout." He answered ironically: "Do not pray to God: do not offer a gift at the altar. When the force of the flooding water dissipates the channel and canal of the water of the mill, the miller strives little by little to mend what has been dissipated: and similarly when the millstones of the miller do not make good flour, he does not immediately break them with a large hammer, but little by little and slowly repairs them, by striking with a small hammer, until they are repaired. Religious have been called by God to be free for prayer, humility and fraternal charity: but woe to them who have lost the desire of their good, and wish to go too high."
[55] When once Brother Giles had related with much fervor to some of his friends, After Christ appeared to him, how in that year, in which St. Francis passed from this world to the heavenly country, Christ had deigned to appear to the same Brother Giles waking, visibly, corporally with a brilliance of marvelous clarity, many times, for fifteen days, in the place of Cetona; a certain one of the Brothers said to Brother Giles: "I would wish that in that place where Christ deigned so graciously to appear, there should be made one small church of beautiful and polished stones." Who answered: "O how well you say! He wishes a church to be built in that place: because many churches have been made in places where he did not do so great things as there." And another said: "And how should that church be entitled?" He answered: "It should be called by the name of Pentecost, that is, the church of the Holy Spirit." And another said: "Do you believe that the Holy Spirit has come after the times of the Apostles into any person, in the manner in which he came into the Apostles. in that vision he confesses that in place of faith, Who said: "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing." To whom a Brother said: "You say that God has taken faith from you: tell me, if it pleases you, whether you have hope." He answered: "Who does not have faith, how shall he have hope?" A Brother said to him: "Do you not hope to have eternal life?" He answered: "Do you not believe that God can give the pledge of eternal life to whom it pleases him?" And he said: "Let us not speak more now about this matter." That Brother believed that he said this to him, lest then, with the Brother present, he should be caught up there in ecstasy.
[56] Brother Giles also said, that he had been born four times. "First," he said, "I was born of my mother carnally; secondly, in the Sacrament of Baptism; thirdly, when I entered this Religion; clear knowledge succeeded: fourthly, when the Lord did me the mercy of his apparition." And the aforementioned Brother said to him: "If I were to go to remote parts and it were asked of me whether I knew you, I could say so: Thirty-two years is it that Brother Giles was born: b and before he was born he had faith, and after he was born he lost faith." He answered: "As you have said, it is true: yet I did not have faith before as well as I ought to have, but only when God took it from me: and whoever had it perfectly as it ought to be had, God would take it from him. Yet after this I had, what I merited, that a rope should be tied around my neck, and I should be dragged insultingly through all the streets of this city." And another said: "If you do not have faith, what would you do if you were a Priest and wished to say a solemn Mass, how would you say, 'I believe in one God'?" Answering with glad face and singing with a loud voice, he said: "I know one God, the Father almighty."
[57] It seemed to Brother Giles that the Prelates of the Order of Friars Minor did badly, He grieves that no labor is made for the canonization of the Martyrs. because they did not procure with their strength from the Lord Pope (not with a view to vain glory, but with regard to the honor of the Lord only and the edification of neighbors) the canonization of the Friar Minor Martyrs, who were killed at Marrakech for the glorious confession of the faith. c And if the Lord Pope wished to canonize them, well indeed; but if not, the Brothers procuring this with God would be excused. And he added: "If we had not had the examples of the Fathers preceding us, perhaps we would not be in the state of penance, in which we are: but is rendered to each gold for gold, scarlet d for scarlet, curl e for curl: nor let anyone do one thing for God, and not another in whatever way." f
[58] Once Brother Giles lamented about
of a certain city g being subdued, grieving heavily, both at the cruelty of those conquering and at the peril of those conquered. he teaches that sinners must be pitied, And after he said that these things should be greatly pitied, he added in these words: Yet God willed that the people of that city should repent and be humbled, because they had often treated their neighbors, over whom they were more powerful, quite savagely. Then a certain Religious said to him: If God willed this, as you say, we ought not to pity them, but rather to rejoice at their punishment; because every man ought to conform his will to the divine will. He replied, Let us suppose when they are justly punished by God: that some King has set an edict, that if anyone commits such a crime, he be beheaded or hanged; and suppose that the son of that King, fallen into such a crime, is led by the King's command to the aforesaid death; do you believe that it would please the King, that men should exult and say, Let us rejoice, because our lord the King is leading his son to death? Such joy would not please the King, but would displease him: so it is, he said, in this matter. At another time a certain one said to him: If someone praises me for a good thing, even which I do not have, I thereby glory vainly in my heart. He answered: If someone were very poor, what a foolish thing is vainglory. all covered with sores and pale, clad in most vile and filthy garments, and wholly unshod, and men should come to him saying: Greetings, lord, for you are wondrously rich, comely, and beautiful, and you have very splendid garments and shoes; would he not be a fool, if such praise pleased him, and he thought himself to be such as they said, when he knew most certainly that the matter was altogether otherwise?
[59] Of all Religious Orders and Religious, some please God, and some displease him. Of the Religious some loving God, Of those that please, there are two orders: one is named the order of those who love, the other of those who please. In the order of those who love are all great servants of God, who love themselves totally in the desire of pleasing God, and love one another in the desire of pleasing one another for God's sake. These lovers have four eyes; one eye always looks at what more pleases the will and good pleasure of the Lord God: another always looks to the neighbor, to give him always peace and good example: of the other two, one looks before, the other behind: the one before looks to what may happen to him from every work he does: the one behind examines whether the work he is doing pleases the Lord God. And thus the eye which is before looks behind: and the one which is behind looks before: and these two eyes are judges of works. The other order is called that of those who please; others pleasing God: and all those are called pleasing who guard themselves from saying or doing any trouble to another: and if others cause them troubles, they become servants of those who afflict them, with full and good will of heart, and they go to justice, and do not pass the limits of justice, in order to give account to anyone. These two orders are in the good pleasure of the Lord God.
[60] But those Religious who are in discords and contentions about earthly things, who are displeasing? and not for the good of the soul, but because of security reckon themselves good, are all in the displeasure of the Lord God: but they can return from displeasure to pleasing, through penance, confession, and caution. But let them beware; for they can persevere in evil so long, that the door of mercy would be shut to them, and they would be cast out of salvation. And Prelates, Masters of divinity, Preachers and Priests, are ordained by God for this reason, that they may know how to draw souls to salvation; and that they may desire and long for this more fervently than to drink wine or water when they thirst most strongly; and that they may suffer pain for souls: such aforesaid Masters, Preachers, and Priests are all in the good pleasure of the Lord God. But all the aforesaid Masters, Preachers, and Priests, who thirst more to be praised and honored than to draw souls to salvation, all stand in the displeasure of God: but from God's displeasure they can return to what pleases God, if they confess and henceforth guard themselves. But they can so long delay in this, that the door of mercy would be shut to them, and they would be cast out of salvation.
[61] The Lord God causes all nations h to be born; for his honor, The common obligation of all, and for this reason, that all should love him above all things, and love their neighbor for God's sake as themselves. One nation loves another as much as they love one another and exhort one another to salvation. Every nation which does not love and fear God is in mortal sin, and is given into the hands of hatred, and is cast out of salvation. Every nation which grows great in its own estimation, and reckons itself high and good, of that which is God's, and does not recognize to be from God what it has; he, will she nil she, shall make her small and humble her. and the punishment of this neglect. Every nation which does not wish to bear penance and punishment for its sins, is given into the hands of punishment, and is cast out of salvation into damnation. Every nation which does not fear and dread God shall be given into the hand of great dread, and shall be cast out of salvation into damnation. Nations which love earthly things more than the Lord who made them, shall be punished with tribulations and scourges. Nations which do not love their good, that is, the salvation of their soul, shall have their evil, that is, the damnation of their soul. Every nation which will neither hear nor observe the reason of its Lord, is ordained to punishment. Every nation which mocks the word of God is ordained to the punishment of wrath. As when the sun rises, the stars lose their light in respect to the sun, so the moon and the sun lose their light in respect to one glorified soul. One sign that a man is in the grace of God is, if in nothing he be exalted, but is always humbled. But I excuse myself before God and you, that it is not I who say the foregoing: for through me I would be hanged on a gibbet, and cast into damnation outside salvation.
[62] There are eight precious stones which the Lord gave to the holy hermits, Eight precious stones of the holy Hermits. to Bl. Francis, Bl. Dominic, and also to the holy monks and all his saints. The first is, to grieve for sins, and to confess them purely, and to bear penance for them; and to beware of future sins, and to be obedient. The second is, that those very Saints were rooted out from every hope of the world and of men; so that their hearts, finding no root of temporality or carnality where they might hold themselves, were necessarily turned back to God alone, who made the hearts. The third is, that they recognized every good they had to be from the Lord God, and every evil from their own sins. The fourth, that whoever spoke or did evil to them, they were their servants with full and good will of heart. The fifth, that they loved reproofs and not honors; and loved unity in every penitential nation; and they were merciful and pious. The sixth, that they reckoned themselves more vile than all others, and all others better than themselves. The seventh, that they served and did not expect to be served: and whoever reckoned them vile, they with them reckoned themselves vile. The eighth, that they recognized all benefits to be from God, and gave them back to him, saying: Lord, what are we? For if you took away from us your good things which you have done for us, we would be worse than all who are in the provinces. For he who appropriates to himself the good things which are God's, God un-appropriates them from him: and he who appropriates nothing to himself, but attributes all to God, to him God appropriates his own good things, which he himself does. i
NOTES.
CHAPTER V.
The remaining sayings of Bl. Giles. From the Silesian Ms.
[63] The memory of death is commended. If anyone had lived from the beginning of the world up to now, and had always suffered evil in all his life, and were now going to all good, what would all the evil he had suffered harm him? And if anyone had always had every good from the beginning of the world until now, and now were going to all evil, what would all the good he had had profit him? A certain secular said to him: I should wish to live long in this world, and to abound in all things. To whom he replied: If you should live a thousand years, and be Lord of the whole world, in death, what reward would you receive from the body, which you had served? But in a short time, he who bears himself well, and guards himself well, shall receive an ineffable reward in the future.
[64] Since there is no one who is able to come to the contemplative life, unless he has been faithfully and devoutly exercised through the active; In what the active life consists, it behooves that one use the active life with all diligence. He would be a good active man who, if it were possible, would feed all the poor of this world, would clothe all, would bestow on them all necessaries abundantly, and would make all the churches and hospitals
of this world; and if afterwards he should be held a bad man by all the men of the world, and he himself knew this well, and would not be regarded otherwise than as bad, and on account of this did not cease from a new good work, but more ardently, frequently, and fervently exercised himself in every good work; just as one who does not will, nor desire, nor expect any reward for it in this world, considering how Martha, anxious about frequent ministration, asking to be helped by her sister, was rebuked by the Lord, and yet did not cease from a good work: so also the good active man must not cease from a good work on account of any rebuke or despair; because not an earthly, but an eternal reward he looks to have therefrom.
[65] In what contemplative perfection consists. To contemplate the glory of the divine immensity and majesty, no one can come, except through fervor of spirit and frequent prayer. By fervor of spirit a man is kindled, and ascends to contemplation, when the heart with its members is disposed wholly and fully to this, so that it neither wills nor thinks anything apart from that which it has and feels. He would be a good contemplative, who if he had his feet and hands cut off, and his eyes plucked out, and his nose, ears, and tongue cut off; because of the greatness of the most sweet and ineffably and inestimably great odor and sweetness, cared not for any other members, nor desired to have anything else which about heaven can be conceived, except that which he has and feels. Thus Mary, sitting at the feet of the Lord, received such sweetness of the word of God, that she had no member which could or would do anything other than what it was doing. And this is the sign, that to her complaining Sister, that she did not help her, she responded not by word or sign, whose advocate Christ made himself, answering for her who could not answer: because she felt and thought nothing other than what he proclaimed. To contemplate is to be divided from all things, and to be united to God alone.
[66] By divine things a man is made rich, and by human things he is made poor: Graces are so ready for men, therefore a man should love those things greatly, and hate these. As all the ways of the earth are full of vices and sins; so all the ways of heaven are full of joys and virtues. Graces and virtues are prepared for creatures, calling all and saying, Come and receive us, and we shall teach you the way of truth: and the wretched man will not come. Whose fault therefore is it, if a man lives in misery and poverty, when he is called to the Lord, and will not labor to go to him? And therefore he is worthy of the pains of hell. As virtues and graces are the way and ladder to the kingdom of the heavens, so vices and sins are the ladders to the depth of hell. It is perilous to ask graces and virtues from the Lord; because if you do not work according to the graces and virtues given to you by the Lord, with what care they must be observed. you are made a greater enemy of God: and so to ask more is to make yourself a greater enemy of God because of the greatness. The greater gifts the Lord offers to his servant, the more ungrateful he is, if he does not guard and render grace to him. The more a man is full of virtues and graces, the more he is attacked by vices and sins, and the more he ought to hold them in hatred: whence from every vice which a man conquers, he acquires for himself a virtue.
[67] In prayer are found and merited many graces and virtues: The fruits of perfect prayer: of which the first is this, that a man is illuminated in mind; the second, that he is strengthened in faith; the third, that he knows his own miseries; the fourth, that he comes to fear and is humbled and becomes vile to himself; the fifth, that he comes to contrition; the sixth, that tears occur; the seventh, that he comes to amendment of heart; the eighth, that conscience is purified; the ninth, that he is established in patience; the tenth, that he submits himself to obedience; the eleventh, that he comes to true obedience; the twelfth, that he comes to knowledge; the thirteenth, that he comes to understanding; the fourteenth, that he comes to fortitude; the fifteenth, that he comes to wisdom; the sixteenth, that he comes to the knowledge of God, who manifests himself to those who worship him in spirit and truth; afterwards he is kindled in love, runs in the fragrance, comes to the sweetness of pleasantness, and is led into quiet of mind, and is carried into glory: and after he has placed his mouth in the words of the Most High, where the soul is satisfied, who will be able to separate it from the man who is led to contemplation?
[68] That one may come to the aforesaid, among many other things six are necessary; how these may be attained. namely the consideration of one's past evils, for which one must grieve; caution about penitents, fear about future things; consideration of the mercy of God, which awaits the conversion of men, not avenging himself for crimes, although for them mortal man is worthy of eternal punishment according to divine justice: attention to God's benefits, which cannot be explained, namely the benefits of the incarnation, which for us he assumed; of the passion, which for us he sustained; of the doctrine, which he left to us; and of the glory, Various useful sayings, which he promised us. Again he said, those things which the secular hates the Religious ought to love, namely, poverty, shame, nakedness, hunger, thirst, vileness, and the like. Holy Br. Giles said concerning religion: The ship is broken, the conflict is made: let him flee who can flee, and escape if he can. Again he said in fervor of spirit: Paris, Paris, you yourself destroy the order of St. Francis. b Again he taught a certain preacher to say, "Bo bo," c that is, "I say much," and "Poco fo," that is, "I do little." Again, hearing a certain one saying to the workers of the vineyard, "fate e non parlate" (do and don't speak); he called the Brothers saying: Hear what he says, do and speak not.
[69] on various occasions, To one asking him why more evils sprout up in man than goods, he replied: After the curse, the earth is more inclined to produce bad herbs than good: yet a constant cultivator could do so often that the bad herbs could scarcely grow up. Again to one asking about a preacher, he said, that the shore of the sea sufficed him to wash his hands, feet, and whole body; and foolish was he who sought for that which was in the depth of the sea: and to whom knowledge suffices for living well, let him not seek things too lofty. Again he said: You ought to ask God, that he not do many good things for you in this world, and that he send you into hard battles, and not help you, for the sake of a greater reward. Again he said, In this can be known if any man loves God perfectly, who with all diligence separates himself from vices, and daily works good works more. Again he said, It is a greater virtue to follow grace, than to bear tribulations patiently: for many patiently tolerate tribulations, but do not follow grace. Again he said, To say "Friar Minor" is as much as to lie under the feet of all: for the more the descent, the more the ascent. Again he said, He who loves more, desires more. Again he said, We ought more to fear concerning good things than concerning evil: man follows evil, but is contrary to good.
[70] how one must cooperate with grace, Likewise he said concerning the grace which a man does not have, he will be bound to render account thereof; because since the Lord creates his creature by his benevolence and grace, even from nature he ought to be benevolent and gracious: whence from his own negligence and imperfection man loses his perfection; for if he labored well and diligently in the grace given and conferred on him, he would find and give himself grace which he does not have. Again he said: it is better to be in the house of God, that is in Religion, full of serpents, if the Lord is there; than to be in a beautiful house, full of delights and riches, without the divine presence. Again he said, I wish, he said, first to be obedient unto death: second, I wish to lie under the feet of others: third, I wish harshly to reprehend and chastise myself: fourth, I wish to tear my flesh with my teeth: fifth, if I am unwilling voluntarily to withdraw myself from others, I wish by force with a rope at my neck to withdraw myself d. When asked what he thought of Bl. Francis, he answered, what is to be thought of St. Francis. all inflamed at the mention of Bl. Francis, saying: That man Bl. Francis ought never to be named without a man, from joy, licking his lips: only one thing was lacking to him, namely the strength of body. For if he had had such a body as I have, namely so robust, doubtless the whole world would have been unable to follow him.
[71] Once Br. Giles said to St. Bonaventure: e My father, many graces has God done for us, The ignorant and the lettered can alike love God. we foolish and ignorant, who have received no sufficiency, what shall we be able to do, that we may be saved? St. Bonaventure answered: If God should give no other grace to a man, except that he could love him, it would suffice. And Br. Giles said: Can the ignorant love as much as the lettered? St. Bonaventure answered: A little old woman can more than a Master of Theology. Then Br. Giles in fervor of spirit, going into the garden toward the gate which looks upon the city, cried out: Poor old woman, simple and ignorant, love the Lord your God, and you shall be able to be greater than Br. Bonaventure: and then he was rapt motionless for three hours. Two Cardinals once came to him, that they might hear from him the words of life; The response given to two Cardinals. and when they wished to depart they asked him, that he would pray God for them: to whom he replied: What necessity is there that I pray God for you, since you have faith and hope greater than I? How? they said: who answered, Because you, with so many riches, honors, and prosperities of this world, hope for the mercy of God: but I, with so many calamities and adversities, fear to be damned. With which words they, moved to contrition in heart, and changed for the better, departed from him. The foregoing concerning the life and sayings of Holy Br. Giles, for the present may suffice.
NOTES.
PART III.
Edifying deeds and counsels at the end of his life.
Collected from the Wratislaw Ms., St. Antoninus, Surius, and Wadding.
CHAPTER I.
The prudent counsels of Bl. Giles.
[72] To a certain Brother complaining to him that the Guardian had commanded him at the time of prayer He teaches that obedience is the best prayer; to go for bread, Br. Giles answered: You have not yet known what prayer is; for true prayer is, that a subject does the will of his prelate. And Br. Giles said: It is a sign of pride to place one's head under the yoke of obedience, and to withdraw it from there, that the way which seems more perfect to him may be fulfilled. If a man were lifted up by such grace and devotion, that he were speaking with an Angel, and were called by his prelate, he ought at once to dismiss the colloquy of Angels, and obey the prelate more promptly. by it he is recalled from rapture, By this example Br. Giles once proved it, when, being rapt before the Lord Pope Gregory and the Cardinals, who had gone to visit him from Perugia to his place on the mount, with the Lord Pope commanding that he should at once return to them, he who had seemed insensible immediately ran to the Pope, and prostrated at his feet, humbly told his fault.
[73] Br. Giles, hearing of the case of Br. Elias, of his disobedience b and apostasy and excommunication, threw himself on the ground, and strongly pressed himself against the earth with his body; and when asked why he did this, he answered: I wish to descend as much as I can: Br. Elias therefore fell, because he ascended only by a leap. Once Br. Giles, wishing to test the obedience of a certain Brother Master in Sacred Theology, who was preaching to St. Clare and her Sisters, said to the preacher: Be silent, Master, for I wish to preach. He at once was silent: he tests the same in a Master preaching. and after Br. Giles in fervor of spirit had uttered honey-sweet words, he said to the Master: Complete now, Brother, the sermon which you began. At which Bl. Clare, exulting in spirit, said: Today is fulfilled the desire of Bl. Francis, once saying to me: I wish my Clerical Brothers to come to such great humility, that a Master of Theology at the voice of a Layman, wishing to preach, would cease from preaching. I tell you, Brothers, said St. Clare, that he has edified me more by his humility than if I had seen him raising a dead man.
[74] When Br. Giles had once gone to Assisi, the Brothers led him through the house, showing him the sumptuous buildings, which they had constructed, as if glorying in them. he disapproves large buildings, When these had been diligently inspected, Br. Giles said to those Brothers: I say, Brothers, that nothing is lacking to you except wives. And the Brothers were disturbed at this, and strongly scandalized; to whom Br. Giles said: My Brothers, you well know that it is as unlawful for you to dispense in poverty as in chastity; after you have rejected poverty, you can easily reject chastity also. c
[75] He intently strove to mortify the flesh, reducing it to servitude: wherefore he shone with the brightness of bright purity: he teaches to mortify the flesh; whence Br. Giles once ate in the day at the evening hour, and then very little: and Br. Giles said: Our flesh is like a pig, which runs eagerly to the mud, and delights to be continually in the mud: and the flesh is also like a beetle, which desires to roll in horse dung; the flesh is the boxer of the enemy. Being asked by a certain Brother, how we could preserve the flesh from its vices: Br. Giles answered, he who wishes to move great rocks or large beams, strives to move them more by wit than by strength: and in this matter similarly one must proceed. Every vice wounds chastity: for it is like a clear mirror, which is obscured by a single breath. It is impossible for a man to come to the grace of God, while it pleases him to be delighted in carnal things. The flesh wishes to betray us day and night; whoever conquers it, conquers all enemies, and comes to every good. And he sometimes said: he extols the praise of chastity, Among all virtues, I should love chastity. And when a certain Brother said, Is not charity greater? Br. Giles answered, And what is chaster than charity? And frequently singing he said: O holy chastity, what art thou, what art thou? Thou art such and so great, as and how great the foolish do not recognize thee. And when a Brother asked him what he called chastity, he answered: I call chastity to guard all the senses by the grace of God. And when he was commending chastity, a certain secular present said: I abstain from all things, except from my wife: does it suffice to stand thus? Br. Giles answered, It seems to you that a man cannot be drunk on the wine of his own wine-cellar.
[76] On one occasion the Brothers Giles, Rufinus d, Juniperus, and Simon were together; and Giles said: What do you do when temptations of the flesh assail you? He counsels flight against the temptations of the flesh. Br. Juniperus said: Prostrate on the ground I commend myself to God and his most holy Mother. Juniperus said, As soon as I feel such a temptation, I bid it depart far off, because my lodging is already occupied. Then Giles said: I agree with you: for with temptations of this kind, there is no more expedient battle, than to flee, and not to contend with them.
[77] A certain one of the Brothers came to him, whom in other tribulations he helped, exulting and boasting that he had escaped the snares prepared for him and overcome the temptations of the devil. For he said that, on account of a woman following him from behind, concupiscence had been sent upon him, and the closer she approached, the stronger it was: he reproves the curious gaze of a woman, but that he had stood a little, and afterwards had looked at her passing by; immediately all the temptation vanished. The holy man asked the boastful one, whether the woman was beautiful or deformed, young or old. He answered that she was an ugly old woman. Then Giles added: What wonder therefore if the temptation passed, the antidote being applied? Know, my son, that you rather succumbed than conquered. The victory consisted in this, that you should not look at her as she passed by: but with eyes turned away or closed, you should altogether ignore the tempter. Victory over carnal temptation, not in combat but in flight is safer and firmer. Beware again not to look in the face at women troublesome to you, or at any others in general: for in place of an old woman she will present herself as a young one; and in place of a deformed one, as a beautiful one; who will not remit the temptation but augment it; will not take it away, but will send it in: whence it will happen that easily instead of victory you will gain a shameful fall, and instead of perpetual glory, disgrace.
[78] He teaches that one must labor so that prayer may be effective. A certain Brother complained to him that the Brothers made him work too much, so that he could scarcely stand for prayer: and therefore asked permission to go to some hermitage, where he might serve God more quietly. To whom Br. Giles said: If you were to come to the King of France, and ask from him a thousand marks of silver, would he not rightly say to you: What are you mad about, asking this? For what have you done for me, that I should give you so much silver? But if you first did for him some great and laborious work, worthy of so great a reward, you would boldly and justly ask. So if you wish by asking to pray that you may be heard, you must first work for God. He also said: he inculcates the gratitude owed to God: It is a greater virtue to do one good for another's will, than two for one's own will. The same said: If to one deprived of eyes and hands anyone should restore all the members lost, surely he ought to serve him with great affection all the days of his life, that he might not be convicted of ingratitude for so great a benefit: but behold the Lord God has given us hands, feet, and eyes, and all other good things, spiritual, temporal, and bodily; and yet we are unwilling to serve him.
[79] he teaches how great is the damnation of those who perish from the Order. To another asking how he might flee temptations, Br. Giles answered, He who flees temptation, flees eternal life: for no one will be crowned unless he has legitimately striven. One Brother came to Giles saying with great joy: Father, I tell you good news. To whom he, Son, say. I, he said, was led in a vision to hell, and I saw no Brother of our Order there. And Giles with many sighs replied: I well believe, son, that you saw none there: and repeating these things he was rapt in ecstasy. When he had come back to himself, the other asked, How, Father, do you believe that no Brother is in hell? or if they are, why did I not see them? Giles replied, Therefore you saw no Brother there, because you did not descend so deep into hell, where those are tormented who wore the tunics of the Friars Minor without works and observance of the Rule: for as other Brothers observing the Rules are in heaven very glorious, so sinners and bad Brothers are more wretched than others in hell.
[80] Br. Gratianus said to him: I, my Father, know how to preach, to give counsels, and to do other good works: but yet I do not know what I should most follow. I ask you to tell me, He teaches to mortify the affections: what seems to you most advisable. Giles replied: Nothing can you do more pleasing to God, than to hang yourself from your neck. The man being terrified at this speech, Giles said: He who has been hanged, is not indeed in heaven, yet he is above the earth, and always looks downward. So also do you. Since it is not yet given you to be in heaven, raise your mind upward from these fleeting things, and exercise yourself in works of virtues, thinking humbly of yourself, and constantly awaiting God's mercy. A certain young man told the blessed man, that he wished to become religious, and to seek a monastery. Then he said: If you wish to do that, go and immediately slay your parents. But the youth wailing, How, he said, can I admit so great a crime in myself? Giles replied: I do not bid you kill them with iron, but with a spiritual sword: for he who does not hate his father and mother, cannot become a disciple of Christ.
[81] that even in dryness one must pray with confidence, To a certain one asking, by what means he could pray God fervently, feeling his heart affected with torpor and cold; Giles spoke thus: Let us suppose a certain King
to have two faithful servants, of whom one is furnished with arms, the other unarmed: and he sends both of them to engage battle with enemies. The armed one therefore will go undaunted to the contest: but the unarmed will say to his King: You see, lord King, me covered with no arms: nevertheless out of love for you I shall go to fight against your enemies. But the King, seeing such great faithfulness in him toward himself, will say to his attendants: Quickly prepare arms, with which my most faithful servant may be clothed, and impress on him the sign of my armor. So also, he who confidently comes to the contest of prayer without the taste of devotion, with God providing, will not be cheated of necessary things.
[82] that religion is to be taken up without delay: With one consulting him, whether he should enter a monastery, he answered thus: If someone very poor knew of a treasure hidden somewhere in a field, do you think he would ask someone, whether he should dig up that treasure? How much more therefore should men hasten to find the treasure of eternal life? Then that one, obeying his counsels, leaving all things, became a monk. Another Brother asked, that one must cleave to the one God, what he might do most pleasing to God: but Giles answered him in the morning singing: "One to the One"; nor did he add anything to these. The Brother saying that he did not know what these meant to him, "One," said Giles, "soul without intermission and without any medium you shall commend to the one God."
[83] How much safer is monastic life than the secular: With another asking him, whether he can conciliate divine grace to himself, who remains in the secular world; he said thus: He can indeed, but I would prefer one grace in the monastery to ten in the world: for the grace obtained in the monastery both grows easily, and is well guarded: because he who follows the monastic institution is separated from every noise and disturbing care of the world, which bring great hindrance to grace; and other Brothers by pious exhortations and holy examples withdraw him from evil, and incite him to good. Moreover, the grace which is received in the world is both quickly lost and with difficulty conserved: because the solicitude of worldly temptations, which is the parent of disturbances and unquiet, both hinders and loses the sweetness of divine grace; also because other men devoted to the world, with pestiferous persuasions and pernicious examples, recall from good him who is endowed with divine grace, and strongly impel to perpetrating evils: for if anyone wish to bear himself rightly and uprightly, they not only do not help him, but even deride him; but so far are they from reproving the enemies of God, that they even extol and exalt them. It is better therefore to possess one grace in liberty, than ten in such fears and perils.
[84] not all things are to be committed to the prayers of others; A certain Brother asked Giles, to beseech the Lord for him. To whom Giles said: But do you pray for yourself. For why do you send another for yourself, and meanwhile are sluggish, since you can make the journey yourself? With him saying that he was a sinner, but Giles a friend of God, and for that cause could confidently beseech both for himself and for others; Giles replied: My Brother, if all the streets of this city were full of gold and silver, and it were proclaimed that anyone was allowed to carry it away, would you send another messenger for you, who would take it up in your name? I think indeed you would go yourself, nor trust another enough. So indeed God fills the whole world, and can be found by any one whomsoever: therefore do you yourself approach him, and send no other for yourself.
[85] A certain nobleman converted to God became a Franciscan. With him Br. Giles had great acquaintance and familiarity when he was in the world: but after he became religious, Giles was unwilling to show him any particular familiarity, as he had been accustomed to do before, How to counsel religious friends. but said to him: Dearest Brother, we are of one and the same family, and we both equally serve one Lord: but it is unknown to me whether it is pleasing to God that you serve him as I wish to exhort you to: for perhaps when I am advising this or that, it may seem to him to require something different from you. So I am not hereafter solicitous about you, and I set aside all the particular familiarity toward you, such as I used to have with you, when you were secular. Five Provincial Ministers came to see him at Perugia: whom, when he saw them, by a mystical and spiritual song he wished to admonish of the office imposed, adducing a similitude of the eternal dwelling place, constructed without stone and mortar: nor unlike, he added, is Religion to be, of which building they were to be the workers. But when he wished to describe the heavenly mansions, he was suddenly rapt.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
The gifts of prophecy, understanding, and wisdom observed in Giles's deeds and sayings.
[86] He recognizes and removes a doubt about the Virginity of the Bl. V.M. There was in Giles also the spirit of prophecy, as the following will declare. At one time a certain Doctor of sacred Theology of the Order of Preachers, very learned, came to him, who for many years had been wonderfully vexed by a certain hesitation about the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God. For it seemed to him impossible that she could be both mother and virgin at once. Yet this hesitation greatly grieved him, as being a good Catholic man; and he desired to be taught about this question by a man divinely illuminated. He had heard Br. Giles to be distinguishedly illuminated, and often rapt in God: and so he decided to go to him, confident that by his words he would be freed from this ambiguity. When he was already on the way, Giles knew in spirit both his temptation and his coming; and going out to meet him, before he said anything, struck the earth with his staff, and said: Brother Preacher, St. Mary is a virgin before childbirth: and soon an elegant lily sprang up there. Again striking the ground, Brother Preacher, he said, St. Mary is a virgin in childbirth: and immediately another lily broke forth. Thirdly striking the soil, Br. Preacher, he said, St. Mary is a virgin after childbirth: and at the same time a third lily sprang up. But Giles soon fled, and that Doctor was cured. After he learned that it had been Giles, with much love thereafter he embraced both him and his Order.
[87] Once St. Louis King of the French had determined to undertake a pilgrimage, and to visit the holy places a: but hearing of the exceptional and admirable sanctity of Br. Giles, he decided to go to him. He recognizes St. Louis in spirit, Therefore he went to Perugia, where he knew him to be: and when he came to the gate of the monastery, as an unknown pilgrim, with a few companions, he asked where Br. Giles was, indicating nothing about himself to the porter. He told Giles that a pilgrim at the gate wished to speak with him. At once Giles knew in spirit that he was the King of France, and swiftly hastened to him: you would have said the man was drunk. When they came in sight of one another, they embraced each other very joyfully, as if long familiarity had intervened between them: and thus they stood together at the gate with many signs of outstanding love, although neither said anything to the other. At last silently they departed from one another. When Giles was returning to his little cell, a certain Brother asked him, who that pilgrim was, who had shown so many signs of benevolence to him. He replied, it was Louis the Most Christian King of France. and he mutually communicates his feelings without words: The Brothers were greatly saddened and shamed, that Giles had said nothing to so great a Prince, and said to him: Behold, so powerful a one has come from France to see you, and for what cause would you not even pour forth one word to him? Soon Giles, Do not wonder, he said, my Brothers, that I spoke nothing with that King: for as soon as we fell into mutual embraces and kisses, we were suffused with such a light of divine wisdom, that the heart of the one lay open to the other, and silently we saw whatever we were going to bring forth mouth-to-mouth with each other; and that far better than we could have said or heard outwardly. But what we heard from the Lord there, we can express by no sound of voice, because of the defect of human tongue, which cannot explain the secrets of God, except through the wrappings of figures: because if we had spoken between ourselves by mouth, we should have been a hindrance to ourselves inwardly. Know therefore, most beloved Brothers, that that King of France was affected with greater inward consolation than I can say or you can grasp: and that we departed from one another with immense joy of souls.
[88] He causes a well to be found, When the Brothers of the Perugian monastery on the mount wished to dig a well, and did not agree about the place, Giles approaching, and striking the earth with his staff, "Here," said he, "let them dig": which when the Brothers did, they immediately found the best water, which to this day does not cease to flow: wherefore by the holy man it is called St. Giles's Well b. That which is memorable about this well is that two hundred years later, when the Brothers wished, rather for luxury than necessity, to dig the well deeper, that they might draw deeper and cooler water, the well was altogether dried up: until, by the counsel of a certain pious and prudent old man, they put back the earth they had taken out, and filled the well to its former measure: by which deed it came to pass that water again abundantly, as before, gushed up, and was held in great veneration, and drunk with great confidence of obtaining salvation by the sick, as frequently happens.
[89] In the Paris convent there lived a certain Brother,
William by name, the death of an undisciplined Brother undergone out of charity, born of a noble family, but not much given to monastic discipline, but rather seemed to the Brothers dissolute in words and gestures. He, when he was passing by a certain castle to visit his sister, and saw some boys swimming, and one of them snatched by the river and caught in the whirling waters; he, as he was girded in his habit, threw himself into the river, out of love for his neighbor, not foreseeing the peril of the hidden whirlpool: wherefore by the weight of his wet garment and his inexperience in swimming, before he reached the youth, he himself was suffocated, calling upon the name of Jesus. At this very hour the Brothers at Perugia were approaching dinner, and Giles was washing his hands: who, raising his eyes a little, smiled, and said to those standing by: It is well with Br. William of Paris, he sees him from afar and commends, and it shall be still better with him. The Brothers did not understand this, until, having received letters from Paris, they learned of William's death, and asked Giles why he had declared it well with a man of dissolute discipline drowned in the waters. He replied, that because of the fervent act of charity (by which he openly gave himself to danger, to help his neighbor in peril) remission was given to the contrite one invoking the divine name, and that after a brief passion in purgatory he had flown to heaven. One of the Brothers greatly desired to know the sanctity of this Giles. his sanctity is revealed to another. He was shown him in dreams, sleeping, and having at his head a book containing only these words in golden characters: "This is he who prays much for the people and for the whole holy city." At the same time also was sent upon him great reverence for the holy man and opinion of his sanctity. c
[90] Although Br. Giles was not instructed in letters (for he was a Lay Brother, or Conversus, as they call them), yet he was so illumined by the splendors of divine wisdom, that he excelled even those instructed in divine letters. Two Dominican Brothers came to visit Br. Giles; He declares God's ineffability by a fitting similitude: and when they were mingling very divine colloquies among themselves, and the occasion being offered one of them said that St. John the Evangelist at the opening of his Gospel spoke sublime things and such as cannot be comprehended about God, Giles said: Nay rather St. John said nothing about God. But the Dominican said: What do you say, Father? when Augustine witnesses that if St. John had spoken more sublimely, the whole world could not have contained him: say not therefore that he said nothing of God. Br. Giles replied: Indeed I remain in my opinion, and say again that he said almost nothing of God. But when the Dominican Father took this ill, Br. Giles declared his meaning by this similitude: Do you see this very high mountain? If it were all of millet seed, and a small bird ate from it daily, how great a portion of it do you think it would consume even in a hundred years? The Dominican replied; Even if it ate from it for a thousand years, yet that would be nothing in comparison with the rest of the mountain. So therefore, said Br. Giles, it is also with the immense Deity, and so great and infinite is the mountain of divine perfection, that St. John, like a small bird, said nothing about God, if you look at his supreme majesty. At these words the Dominicans felt themselves to have received much consolation, likewise why John the Baptist sought the desert. and happily departed from Br. Giles. Another asked him, why St. John the Baptist, being still a child, had sought the desert, and lived there so severely, when within his mother's womb he had been sanctified. Giles answered him, using this similitude: For what reason is the flesh of a freshly slaughtered ox sprinkled with salt? When he said, it is done that the meat may be preserved; the man of God said: So also St. John, was seasoned with the salt of penance, that his sanctity might be preserved longer and better.
[91] When Br. Giles was at Perugia, Jacoba d, most noble of Roman matrons, and most attached to the Franciscan Brothers, came to visit him. In her presence, a very religious Minorite Brother, Guardus e by name, came to hear something good from him. With the Brothers standing by, Giles said: Because of what a man can, A Brother, provoking with a subtle test, he comes to what he does not will. But that Br. Guardus might provoke him to speak, "Br. Giles," he said, "I wonder that you say, because of what a man can, he reaches what he does not will: especially since he can do nothing of himself: which I will show with four reasons. First, it is necessary that being be prior to capability: for such is the action of each thing, as is its essence. So fire, being by nature hot, heats. But man of himself is nothing, as the Apostle says, 'If anyone esteems himself to be anything, when he is nothing, he deceives himself': but what is nothing, certainly can do nothing. Gal. 6:3 Therefore man can do nothing of himself. Next, if man could do anything, he would do it either by reason of the body, or of the soul, or of both at once. But that he can do nothing by reason of the soul is certain, since the soul without the body can merit nothing. By the body alone also he can do nothing, as being, without the soul, void both of life and of form. But neither from both joined together has he any faculty: for if he had any, it would be from the soul, which is the form of the body: but it has been said already that the soul can do nothing without the body: therefore much less will it be able joined to the body, when the body, which is corrupted, weighs down the soul. An example of this can be proposed: If an ass cannot walk without a burden, much less will he be able to do so laden with a burden: and by this example the soul seems to be able to do much less with the body, than if it were destitute of it. Yet without it, it can do nothing. I return therefore to what I said at the beginning, that man of himself can do nothing." Many other arguments he wove against Giles, that he might have occasion to talk long with him.
[92] But when the other Brothers were admiring the acuteness of his arguments, Br. Giles said: You have spoken very ill indeed, Br. Guardus: with a learned reply the ignorant Giles confounds him. therefore say your fault. Then he did so in pretense. But Giles noticing that he was not doing it sincerely, said to him: Br. Guardus, you confess yourself a debtor, but not rightly: but where the confession of debt is invalid, nothing can be recovered from the man. But I ask you, are you skilled in singing? Sing therefore with me. And at the same time drawing out from his sleeve a lyre, such as boys are wont to fashion, he struck the first string, pronouncing rhythms: and thus in order striking all the other strings, he dissolved all Guardus's arguments. And at the first string struck, he said thus: I do not speak of man's essence, before he was created: for so it is true that he is nothing, nor can anything: but of the essence of man already created I speak: to whom is granted by God the faculty of free will, by whose assent he can merit both good and evil. Therefore you have spoken ill, and have wished to construct a fallacy against me, and to deceive me with your words. For the Apostle does not say of man's essence or faculty, that it is nothing, but that the merits of such a man are nothing: as also elsewhere he says, "If I have not charity, I am nothing." Moreover, I have not spoken of the soul separated from the body, nor of the inanimate body, but of the living man: who obeying divine grace can, if he will, do good works; and again resisting grace, can do evil, which is nothing else than to err from the good. 1 Cor. 10:3 As to what you say, that the corruptible body weighs down the soul, with these words Scripture does not take away from man the free will to act well or ill: but it wishes that the will, understanding, and memory be occupied with bodily things: for thence follows, "And the earthly dwelling depresses the sense thinking many things." Wisd. 9:13 For such do not allow their soul freely to attend to thinking of and inquiring into heavenly things, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, since the sharpness of the powers of the soul is blunted and hindered in many ways by the manifold occupations, and also the troubles, of the earthly body. It is clear therefore, Br. Guardus, that you have not spoken rightly. And in this way he dissolved all Guardus's questions and arguments, so that at length he sincerely confessed his fault, and admitted that a creature could do something.
[93] Then indeed Br. Giles said: Now the pronouncement of your fault is sincere. and he teaches that men are of free will But do you wish also to be taught more openly that a creature can do something? And at the same time going up, he exclaimed in a terrible voice: O you damned in hell. He answered himself in a very miserable voice in the person of the damned, trembling and groaning, so much so that all were struck with terror, and cried out: Alas! Woe to us, woe to us. Then speaking in his own person, Tell us, he said, why have you fallen into tartarus? And he himself answered: Because we did not abstain from the evil which we could have avoided; and the good which we could have done, we neglected. Again from his own person, O you wretched, lost, and given up to damnation, what would you do, if any opportunity could come to you of doing penance? And he replied: We would gladly, by digging little by little, dig out the earth of the whole world, if it were allowed us to escape pains, which shall never, alas, have an end: for of that labor there would some time be an end, our sufferings are everlasting. Then turning to Br. Guardus, Giles said: You hear, Guardus, that a creature can do something. And adding, "Tell me, Br. Guardus, a little drop of water falling into the sea, does it take away from the sea its name, or rather is it changed into it? With Guardus answering, that the substance and name of the little drop is absorbed by the sea, and is called by its name; Br. Giles before all suffered an ecstasy: for he said that human nature, compared to the divine essence, is as a little drop compared to the whole sea.
[94] Br. James de Massa f, a holy lay man, who was with St. Clare, and very devoted to many of the companions of St. Francis, Useful admonition given to one in ecstasy. when he had the grace of rapture, wishing to ask counsel from Br. Giles, asked what he would advise him, how he should conduct himself in said grace. He answered: Neither add, nor diminish, and flee the multitude as much as you can. Br. James said: What does this mean? Explain it to me, reverend Father; Who replied: When the mind is fit to be introduced into those most glorious lights of divine goodness, it ought neither to add by presumption, nor diminish by negligence, and love solitude as much as possible, that grace may be guarded, to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ.
NOTES.
CHAPTER III.
The ecstatic contemplations of Br. Giles and his pious death.
[95] In the 6th year of his conversion. After the servant of God Giles had manfully sweated in the labors of the active life, mortifying the sensitive passions; from the coupling with Leah of the bleary eyes, he passed to the embraces of the contemplative Rachel, who was beautiful in face and comely in appearance; being transferred, as a most perfect man, to great rest of mind and consolation. In the sixth year therefore from his conversion, on the plain of Perugia in the hermitage of Fabrio, on a certain night the hand of the Lord came upon him. For while he was fervently praying, he was so filled with divine consolation, that it seemed to him that the Lord wished to lead his soul out of the body, so clearly that he saw the secrets of his mysteries. he ecstatically beholds the beauty of his soul: And he began to feel how his body was dying first from the feet, so consequently through the other parts of the body, until his soul should go out. And standing out of the body, as it seemed to him, because of the great beauty with which the Holy Spirit had adorned it, he delighted to behold himself: for it was most subtle and most luminous above human estimation, as he himself reported near his death. Then that most blessed soul was rapt to contemplate heavenly secrets, which however he never wished to reveal expressly, saying: Blessed is he who knows how to preserve the secrets of God.
[96] Three days also before the feast of Christ's Nativity, in the oratory of Sethone, when he had fasted the Lent Christ appears conspicuous to him, which is called of St. Martin, namely from the feast of All Saints to the Nativity of the Lord; at night to him fervently insisting in prayers, the Lord Jesus appeared, whom he saw with the eyes of the flesh, and beyond the humanity something ineffable with the eyes of the mind, which he neither dared nor could declare: but human frailty could not long sustain, when so immense a brightness appeared. Whence he prayed earnestly to the Lord, that he would not impose on him so great a burden; alleging that he was not fit for this, being a rustic and illiterate sinner. And the more he cried himself unworthy, the more the Lord increased his grace in him a. And this apparition lasted, not continuously, but at intervals, until the Vigil of Epiphany, by which vision he was filled with so much sweetness, that he believed his soul went out of his body, and so it sometimes went out, as he himself said; whence he was constrained to cry out with the greatest voices, not without terror sometimes to the Brothers hearing.
[97] the manifold fruit of this vision. Which vision, as will appear from things related by Br. Giles himself, was very wondrous. First, as he said, through such a vision, from the certainty of God and of all divine things, he lost all faith b. Second, because Paul did not know whether he had been rapt in the body or out of the body; Br. Giles knew: for out of the body, as he revealed to a certain Brother. Third, because by this vision, as he said, God did greater things in him than in any other here: he showed the place of Scetona, beyond all overseas places (with six excepted, to which he compared it), and beyond all places on this side of the sea commending it. Fourth, because by this vision, as he himself asserted, he was filled with all charisms and with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, whence he said that on Mount Pesulo, where the said place is, a church should be built, which would be called of Pentecost. He had this vision in the same year in which c Bl. Francis died, in the eighteenth year from his conversion. Fifth, by this vision it came to pass that if he heard any discourse or word about God or the glory of paradise, he was immediately rapt.
[98] He greatly commended the aforesaid place of Cetone because of the frequent apparitions of Christ and the Angels. Wherefore after his death, a church founded for his memory: his Confessor relating many of these things, care was taken that a beautiful church be built, in that very place in which Giles felt these heavenly favors: in whose walls were arranged in order the stones of the chamber of God's servant; and distinguished signs were cut out of the licium-tree, growing near the same cell, under which, often to him praying, Christ appeared. These things, as monuments of piety, in memory of the holy man, on set days of the year rouse the faithful, breathing forth a most sweet odor. Giles surrounded with heavenly light, While he was staying in the place of Agello in the county of Perugia, after Vespers from the hour at which he had supped and said various sweetest things, he was rapt until cockcrow: and then, when he ceased from that rapture, as he was going toward his cell, such a light and splendor came, that the light of the moon was absorbed. Seeing which the Brothers justly stood astonished. To whom he said: What would you have done, sons, if you had seen greater things? He who has never seen great things, believes small to be great.
[99] A little before his death he began to presage the delights of the Bridegroom, so that his soul was melted with such sweetness, that he cared nothing any longer about bodily things. Called by his companion to eat: how great a treasure of spiritual things he made in his mind. Son, he said, there is no reason why I should think longer about food or drink, I have found an ineffable treasure and immense delights. But out of charity the companion became an importunate petitioner, that he might descend to the refectory, knowing that from bodily weakness he needed refreshment, and added somewhat indiscreetly: Do not care, Father, now about those treasures: come now and eat. He being somewhat moved: You have not spoken well, Brother, you have much offended me with these words: I would rather you inflicted a grave slap on me, than that you utter such words. No food, no delights, no bodily consolation is to be preferred to these treasures. Truly it is to be believed, said Leo, that most holy soul presaged the Beloved knocking at the doors, and from the tabernacle of the body through the sweet death of contemplation calling forth, which kind of transition he himself greatly desired. Wherefore when someone once said to him, that St. Francis had diligently sought martyrdom, he said: I would prefer rather by contemplation than by martyrdom to die: and therefore he gave thanks to God, who at Tunis had not fulfilled his desire, while he decreed to bring upon him this other kind of death.
[100] And although holy Br. Giles was thus full of virtues, and sublime with such gifts of contemplation, yet he was manifoldly afflicted by the devil. The devil appears to him in a horrible form, Near the end of his life, in the fifty-second year from his entry into the Order, the devil began to trouble him more strongly than usual; for on a certain night after prayer, when he wished to rest, the devil took him, and placed him in so narrow a space, that he could in no way move himself, nor could he be removed thence even with the help of his companion, but at length by divine grace he came out. Another time the devil so disturbed him praying, that with terrible voices he began to cry: Help, Brothers, help. But when Br. Gratian d came, he was strengthened and said: The enemy greatly resents the gifts of God, and exercises his arts to take them away: and is vexed by a demon. yet the wretch does not know that he has to do with a more powerful one than himself, and that the torment will be greater when vanquished and confused he departs. He is attacking God, not me; who have nothing of my own. It is the gift of God that I serve him; it is his mercy that I please him; it shall be his grace that I complete my course. Hence the devil's envy, the sting of temptation, and the occasion of persecution, because he sees a man, born in sins and conceived in guilt, assumed through God's mercy to those most bright seats, from which he himself fell. So hostile was the enemy to him every night, that sometimes Br. Gratian had to stand by him through the whole night or sleep in the same cell: whence often when leaving to go to his cell he said: Now I await my martyrdom.
[101] He predicts that his miracles should not be published, With the death of holy Br. Giles approaching, he was grieved by the Lord with a most acute fever, cough, and pain of head and chest; so that he could not rest, sleep, or eat; but it was necessary that the Brothers carry him upon his bed, that he might find some rest. The day before e St. George's when he had been placed on his bed by the Brothers at night, and the people of Perugia were keeping watch by him, that they might retain his sacred body for themselves after his death; he said to a certain Brother standing there: Tell the people of Perugia that neither for my miracles nor for my canonization should they ring any bell, f nor shall any other sign be given them, unless the sign of Jonah the Prophet. Then in the morning hour, almost without touch or violent motion of body, with his eyes and mouth closed, that most holy soul, stripped of flesh, he piously dies, sought the heavens, his fifty-two years being completed on the feast of St. George, on which day Bl. Francis had clothed him with the habit of the Order. A certain holy person saw his soul, with many souls of Brothers and others who had died, ascending from Purgatory to heaven, and our Lord Jesus Christ meeting him, and with him, with greatest honor and melody, most powerfully penetrating the tabernacles of the heavens, whom the Lord placed in a throne of glory.
[102] and he leads forth many souls from Purgatory. While Br. Giles was sick, a certain Brother of the Order of Preachers became sick in their convent; and when the Saint was dying, he too died. He appearing to a certain Brother his friend
said that he was well, "Because," he said, "when I passed from this world, a certain Friar Minor, named Giles, died; and because of his exceptional sanctity Christ granted that all the souls which were in Purgatory should pass with him to paradise: with whom I, being in torments, was freed by his merits," and having said these things he disappeared. The Brother, however, to whom these things had been said, since he was unwilling to tell the aforesaid, was immediately taken sick. Recognizing this was because he was not divulging the glory and virtue of the holy Brother, having sent for the Friars Minor and Preachers, when he had disclosed what had already been said, he was immediately cured from the fever. Br. Giles passed from this world in 1262 on the night of St. George, in the fifty-second year from his conversion. After his death, the people of Perugia seeking a stone for his burial, found a marble tomb, in which the history of Jonah the Prophet was sculpted g, and according to what he had foretold, they placed him. h He was buried outside Perugia on the mount, in the Franciscan monastery, and was famous for many miracles. St. Bonaventure, that excellent Doctor, used to say of him i, that it was granted him by God, that he could effectively help those who invoked him for the salvation of their soul: and the same Bonaventure gave thanks to God, that he had fallen upon those times, in which he was able both to speak with and see this most holy Br. Giles. k
NOTES.
PART IV.
On the signs and miracles which the Lord showed through Br. Giles.
From the Perusian MS. Codex.
CHAPTER I.
Various infirmities cured. A dead woman raised. A possessed woman freed. A woman in labor helped.
[103] a Living, he heals gangrene, The Lord willed to confirm this man's great sanctity also by miracles. A noble man of the same county was being led to Assisi, that his leg might be cut off, lest he should wholly perish from the spreading cancer. Meeting Giles, he disclosed his calamity, uncovering the corruption and stench of the wound, and asked that he would make the sign of the Cross. At his request he humbly made the Cross, affixing a kiss out of compassion; but he had not made it sooner than the lame man leaped up sound, and glorifying God returned home on foot. and restores milk to a woman. A poor little woman, with dry breasts, unable to nurse her little son, came to implore help: she found him attentive to prayer, and placed her breasts near the poor cloak, which immediately swelled up with milk. Dead, he also performed more miracles: three with bad eyes he restored to perfect sight: he healed five lame men: from two others he drove away pains of the legs: three from quinsy, one from peril of birth, Dead, he shines with miracles. two from fever, one from the stone, and he freed many others from various infirmities. For God appeared marvelous in this Saint of his, whom with rare virtues and great prodigies he made everywhere most renowned.
[104] They are healed, the one weak of eye, Francisculus son of Master John of Burgo, of the Gate of St. Angelo, continually as evening came on suffering in his left eye a certain obscurity very grave, as if the aforesaid eye were covered with a cloth; and deprived of all counsel and help of physicians, could in no way be freed from the aforesaid sickness, and so sometimes pitying himself was shedding not a few tears. But on Saturday, on the night b of which the Blessed Giles passed to Christ, sitting to sew, having heard of the passing of the holy man, rising quickly, with greatest devotion came to his body: and reverently approaching the hand of the Saint, he drew it over the sick eye: and by the merits of Blessed Giles knew himself to be most perfectly freed.
[105] On the ninth day c at the going out of the month of April, when Benvenutus son of Bonaventure Notary, the one sick in foot, of the parish of St. Lucia of Porta Solis, came to the place of the Friars Minor, on occasion of the veneration and devotion of Blessed Giles: and Lord Benvenutus was suffering, and had long suffered, in his foot; and no medicine or advice of physicians availed: he bowed himself before the body of Bl. Giles, and with greatest devotion kissed his feet and hands, to this end, that by the grace of the Lord he might free him from the pain and languor. And so he took the foot of Bl. Giles and placed it upon his languor: and immediately by the grace of the Lord he was freed from that sickness. and in mouth: Likewise the said Benvenutus affirmed and said, that in the life of Bl. Giles himself he suffered in the mouth: and the blessed Br. Giles touched his mouth with his blessed hand: and by the grace of God he was truly freed.
[106] another in foot: Likewise on the fifth day at the going out of the month of April, Baro son of Leonardus of Marsciano, having no small pain in his left foot, vowed d to Bl. Giles, that if the Lord and Bl. Giles should free him from that sickness, every year on the Kalends of May he would carry a waxen foot, wherever the body of the aforesaid holy Father should rest d buried: he therefore came to his body, and by the merits of the Saint himself felt himself immediately freed.
[107] A woman of Vianum e, who was staying in the hospital f of the ivory gate, contracted for a year, a contracted woman: when she heard that Br. Giles had migrated, devoutly praying to him, that she might be able to visit his sepulcher; at her invocation she received health, and by herself without violence visited that tomb on the tenth day at the going out of the month of April.
[108] Lord Bonaguida, Brother of Lord Bonafidace, dwelling in the burgh of St. Savinus in the parish of the same St. Savinus: his daughter named Clariccia, a dead girl, spending the whole Sunday after the death of the holy Father Br. Giles in games and joking; in the evening was gravely sickened, suffering fever and another very grave sickness. And with the advice and help of physicians sought, all agreed and said, that from the same sickness she was soon to die, and that no medicine could free her from the aforesaid sickness. But on Tuesday, by her relatives and all neighbors she was said to be dead to her mother. The mother, because she was her only child, loved her most tenderly. Hearing therefore of the death of her only one, she began strongly to weep, and to tear her hair, and to strike her breast with fists, and to beat her palms on her face. There was present there the aunt of the girl, a religious woman, named Benvenuta, who loved the aforesaid girl greatly: who having a rather great devotion to Bl. Br. Giles, vowed to the Lord and Bl. Br. Giles, that if the Lord by the merits of Bl. Giles should restore her niece g, she would come to the place where his holy Body rested, and lead the girl with a candle to gird h his sepulcher, and arrange that the bell of the Brothers should be rung for the aforesaid miracle. she is raised at the aunt's vow. This vow having been made, on the next Thursday coming, the girl began to open her eyes, and to ask about her aunt and to call her with a loud voice, that she might offer her a drink being thirsty. And so having been done, by the grace of God and Bl. Giles interceding, she was freed. And of this the father and mother of the girl, and the said Benvenuta, and the nurse of the girl, and many other persons are prepared to bear testimony, if necessary.
[109] A certain girl was in the city of Perugia, dwelling in the parish of St. Severus, daughter of Lady Clara, wife of Carsidonius, to whom it once happened to go to the river i Tiber, and to sit by the river, and to walk upon the bank of the same river: and while she tarried there thus for an hour, suddenly a certain sickness seized her, very horrible and greatly k fearful to all standing by the same girl; so much so that not only those known but even unknown, seeing and hearing the girl, were moved with greatest compassion. For she fell to the ground, a possessed girl: and held her mouth backward, and said she saw the devil, and desired to throw herself into water and into fire, and abhorred the sign of the Cross, and would in no way permit the Cross to be made over her; and thus seven times in a day and sometimes ten the aforesaid sickness afflicted her. And with such a disease for one year and one continuous month she remained sick, deprived of all counsel and help of physicians. Having heard of the passing of Bl. Giles, the mother remembering her daughter's sickness, she is freed at the mother's vow, vowed to the Lord and Bl. Giles, that if the Lord should heal her daughter, she would carry a candle, come to the little shrine, and gird it with the same. This vow having been made, and the name of Christ and Bl. Giles invoked, the girl was most fully freed from the same sickness. The neighbors testify this; the mother said this: and testimony is borne by Romulus, son-in-law of Scopoli; and Lady Blancalanda, wife of Bonus Martinus; and Riccola, niece of Carsidonius.
[110] a woman often aborting, A certain woman of Perugia, a resident of the same city, dwelling in the parish of St. Mary of the green garden, Inula by name, wife of Nicasius, was pregnant in her husband's house. And when the time of giving birth drew near, with continual fever and very great swelling, in the place from which the birth had to come out, she began to be gravely sickened:
so that the women standing by, because of the great swelling of the aposteme, said she had twin sons in her womb, one dead and the other alive. And because no sign of liberation from the aposteme appeared, they said that the dead son had come down there, and that no medicine could free the aforesaid woman from approaching death. Meanwhile a Priest was called, to offer her the ecclesiastical Sacraments: she takes penance, receives the Body of Christ, and is anointed with the holy Oil; and again evidently imperiled with the fetus, because it was believed that she was dying. But the merciful One of all creatures, and investigator of all secrets, not wishing that woman to end her life in such a manner, to lose the womb, and to lead an innocent to darkness; in the year of the Incarnation 1262, on the 5th Kalends of May, remembered that woman; and wishing to honor his servant Bl. Giles, brought back to the memory of the half-alive woman the passing of the holy Brother; and immediately in her heart she vowed, and expressed with her mouth as she could, that if the Lord and Bl. Giles would free her, she would make a waxen image; and immediately when she could, without any delay, she would carry the same to his shrine. In the morning of the following day, the neighbors came in, and learned that she had given birth to a male son: and lest by modesty the miracle be silenced, they assert what they saw, the vow being made, she is saved. namely that by two fingers in the birth itself that very sickness was healed. And thus both mother and son are freed: who by the father, out of reverence for the holy Father, is named Giles: and she is made the mother of a living son, who had borne three aborted: and has one living, who has buried so many dead. The witnesses of these things are, Droda, wife of Bucarelli; and Gilia, wife of Angeli; and Bellula, daughter of Bevegnatis.
[111] A certain woman was from Bittonio l, Benvenuta by name, daughter of John Uguicionis, wife of Giliolus Paltonis. On Tuesday after the Sunday of the Resurrection, A woman with a contracted arm is cured, a certain pain seized her in the right arm very grave, so that with the nerves becoming dry she could in no way extend that arm, neither to dress nor to undress herself, nor to do any work or service freely: and she believed her arm to be entirely contracted: and thus for three weeks she had it sick. But one evening, when she wished to enter her bed and could not undress herself swiftly, as she wished, because of the intense pain of her arm, she began most strongly to weep: and remembering the passing of the blessed Father Br. Giles, she vowed a vow to the Lord and the blessed Father Br. Giles saying: If the Lord should show me mercy by the merits of Bl. Giles, and restore my arm sound as in the first state, I will make a waxen arm, and I will go, and I will carry it, and I will devoutly visit his sepulcher. Wonderful to say! With her speech finished, and her vow made, and the name of Christ and the blessed Father Br. Giles invoked, suddenly she felt herself fully freed from the same sickness. The witnesses of this are her husband Giliolus, and Lady Blanca, daughter of Gentilis Joannis; and Savina, who was staying in the house with her.
[112] Renalducius of Diruta, son of Lady Berta, of the parish of St. Peter, and one laboring with quartan fever. for six continuous months having a quartan fever very strong, vowed to the Lord and blessed Br. Giles, that if the Lord should free him from the said fever, he himself in hair shirt and unshod would come to his shrine; and from that time he was most perfectly freed from that fever.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
Various healings and even a death obtained by vow.
[113] Vguicionellus Scatonis, of the Perugian county, of Columnella, when long before the passing of the blessed Father Br. Giles, Vexed by a most troublesome evil, was afflicted with a horrible sickness very greatly (so that for the horribleness the name of the aforesaid sickness was unknown, but various people felt differently, and some said he was vexed by a demon, others: No, but it is another very grave sickness) which strongly afflicted him in his bowels and brain, and he was losing his senses: and from the place where he stood he could in no way move himself, so that his relatives and neighbors could not refrain from tears seeing this. But the aforesaid Vguicionellus hearing of the passing of so great a Father, and of the report of his shrine, which with greatest reverence was being carried to Perugia by the Perugian citizens and those of the county; came to his tomb, and vowed to the Lord and Bl. Giles, he is freed invoking Bl. Giles. that if the Lord should free him from that sickness, he himself would make a waxen image, and carry the same to his sepulcher: and when he came to Perugia, he would come to his shrine, and from his goods give in that same place: and so he returned to Columnella to his house. And there, the next night coming, with the lamp burning in the house, and he resting in bed according to his usual manner, neither sleeping nor waking openly, he heard the voice of someone calling him: Christian, Christian, arise. Who immediately replied: Lord, Lord. And he rose, and sat in bed, and looked hither and thither through the house, with the lamp burning, and saw no one. And having reclined his head he began somewhat to sleep, and again he was called. He replied, Brother, Brother, what pleases you. And he said to him, arise, and make the sign of the holy Cross. And he did as had been imposed on him. From then on, by divine power and the merits of the blessed Father Br. Giles, he was freed from that sickness. This they heard from him, Br. John, Guardian of Perugia; and Br. Odrisius, and Br. Martinus Murator.
[114] Orlandinellus Philippi of Perugia, dwelling in the Burgh of St. Savinus, in the parish of the same Saint, in the year of the Lord 1262, on the Kalends of May was at Tortona b from pain of belly and dizziness of head strongly sickened; An epileptic man is cured, so that, while that sickness held him, he could not stand; but lay, deprived of memory, sense, and sight of eyes, and of gait. And because he had known the blessed Father Br. Giles, had seen him in life, and had heard wonders of him, while his holy soul covered his little body; he came to his shrine on July 7, and under his sepulcher he devoutly desired to remain. And when he bent down, to enter under it, immediately that accustomed sickness began to seize him. And led by someone into the house of the Brothers, there he lay, as he had been accustomed before, until after Nones. Then he raised his head, and as it were vomited poison. c And from then on he felt himself perfectly freed. The witnesses of these things are his Wife, and several other neighbors.
[115] Jacobus son of Matthew, a Perugian citizen, dwelling in the parish of St. Severus-Montis, and a boy blind, with hands and feet maimed: had a son named Philipuccius, to whom for one continuous year and one month a certain film so covered his eyes, that in no way was the pupil distinguished from the rest of the eye: and he had his left hand for two continuous months most gravely sickened, so that the physician in treating it had extracted the principal bones from it, and the mother believed that the son would wholly lose the index finger of that same hand: and with that hand he could work little or nothing. And not yet freed from the sickness of that hand, similarly sickness seized him in the other hand; and thus he stood deprived of the office of his eyes and hands. And once when the mother happened to go out of the house, and leave the son in the house; on her return she found him contracted in the left leg, and the heel of the foot without any extension clinging to the buttocks of the son. Seeing her son thus afflicted, and deprived of sight, touch, and gait, she came with him to the shrine of the blessed Father Br. Giles: and stayed with him for a little under the shrine, having faith in Bl. Br. Giles, that the Lord by his merits should heal her son. And after a little delay made there, the boy looked, and
saw a pitcher with water, which was placed there by the keeper of the shrine, to offer drink to those coming from afar: and immediately he asked his mother for a drink. She, desiring the boy's health, wishing also to see if the Lord had yet regarded the devotion of his handmaid, answered the boy saying: Go and take for yourself. And immediately the boy arose, and stood upon his feet: and walked, and fully saw, and the excellent use of both hands was suddenly restored to him; and thus by the grace of God he was freed from those sicknesses and from others. The witnesses of these things are his parents, Jacobus and Blanca; and his aunt Complita; and their servant Brunetta.
[116] The same Lord Jacobus had a daughter named… who for four years was gravely sick, a girl digesting neither food nor drink, so that whatever she ate and drank she similarly emitted below, and no digestion of food took place in her, and she could not be freed by the counsel or help of physicians. And since the mother strongly labored in caring for her, it happened that once, when she was strongly wearied from caring for her, she said in her heart: I shall go to the shrine of Bl. Giles, and I will vow my daughter to this most holy Brother; that the Lord by his merits may heal her, at the mother's vow she dies: or that she may die soon. And as she thought, so, as far as was in her, with affection she studied to perform in effect. She came to the shrine, and made her vow as she had said, and having made the vow she returned home. The sick daughter says to her: O my mother, that Brother Bl. Giles, to whom you made the vow, visibly came to me while I was waking, and said to me: Arise, daughter, come with me. So, mother, know that your prayer has been heard. Therefore I ask, that you make me d "excolata" (broth) for me, that from it I may eat with you this evening: for I know, that tomorrow you shall not have me with you. The mother fulfilled the exhortation of the daughter: and made it, and gave it to her, and she ate. But in the morning of the following day, the girl gave up her soul to the Creator.
[117] John son of Lady Ricla of the village of e Preggi, called Pulliani; on the 15th Kalends of June, when in the evening of Thursday f he had entered his bed and had there slept a little as was his custom; he is cured, seized in the use of all his members, suddenly a certain sickness very grave seized him, so that his head seemed to him altogether divided, and all his members g beaten, and deprived of legitimate action, so that he could find no place of rest at all: and thus he lay sick for three days, deprived of all help of physicians: and the physician said it had come to him through a diabolical shadow. On Sunday however, as evening came, he vowed to the Lord and Bl. Giles, that if the Most High should free him from that horrible sickness, he would come to Perugia, and with a candle would gird his shrine: and thus for it he was freed by God's grace. The witnesses of these things are Ricla, his mother, and Divitia and Laetitia, his sisters-in-law; and Solafolia his wife.
[118] A certain woman of the Perugian county, of the village of h Antery, named Nigra, wife of Bonaquistus living, for four continuous years (even though sometimes, but rarely, she was relieved, being free i for two or three days at most) of her hands and arms up to the shoulders was gravely sick, and she endured immense pain and swelling in her hands, and could work little or nothing with them. And once in the month of k June, in the year and time of the departure of the blessed Father Br. Giles, one evening she had just gone to bed sick, she commended herself to the Lord and the blessed Father Br. Giles, that by the intercession of the said holy Father the Lord might free her from the aforesaid sickness: because she, when she should be freed, would make a candle, and would come personally, and with the same gird his shrine. And while she slept in bed that night, the holy Father Br. Giles stood by her, saying: Christian, how are you? She answered: Brother, ill: because I am gravely sick. after the apparition of the Blessed. To whom the aforesaid Father replied: Do not fear, for you shall soon be freed. She answered: I know that with hoe and winnowing fan l I shall be freed. And with this vision seen, the woman awoke from sleep: and thereafter felt herself, by God's grace and the merits of the blessed Father Br. Giles, freed from that sickness: and with day come after the feast of the Nativity of the blessed John the Baptist, she came to the shrine, carrying a candle tied around her neck in reverence of the holy Father, and with it as she had said she girded the shrine. These things John the nephew, and Bucirellus, and Viventius her husband, and Lady Buta her sister-in-law saw.
NOTES.
CHAPTER III.
Some dying preserved in life: other benefits.
[119] Ugolinus of Cortona, compelled by poverty staying at Perugia in the hospital of the Gate of St. Susanna, A dying boy, had a son, named Philipputius, who on the 7th Kalends of June, with fever and a very great aposteme in his chest, was strongly sickened; so that lying on his bed, rarely, because of the very great sickness, opened his eyes, and in no way sought his mother's breast, nor ate anything else; and by all was said to be soon to die. On the 5th Kalends of July, it was said to the mother by the father of the boy and by those assisting him, that she should have the soul commended for the boy, who was laboring in extremis, and because he seemed to all to be dead. And since the mother was very poor, and had no candle, which she might light in front of him at the going out of the soul, she came to the Brothers, from whom she had received many alms, to ask for God's sake a little of a candle for the transition of her son. And when she came and asked, and the Brother went to bring it, committed to the Blessed, it happened to her to enter the place where the body of the blessed Father Br. Giles lay buried, who commended her newborn to God and the blessed Father Br. Giles, believing that by the merits and intercession of the holy Father she might free him: and having taken the candle she quickly returned home. And immediately, with the aposteme breaking, the son vomited much blood in the hands of the mother, he suddenly recovers: and between the third and sixth hour of that day the mother carried the son to the shrine of the most holy Father, most fully freed from fever and aposteme. These things Ugolinus, the boy's father, and Pax the mother, saw; and Berta, who stays in the same hospital; and Lady Laetitia, the Hospitaller; and Montagnola, wife of Spinelli.
[120] A certain girl of Perugia, of the parish of St. Valentine, daughter of Odo Gilii, named Frondola, likewise a girl, in the following May after the death of the holy Father Br. Giles, was strongly sickened in her throat; so that she could swallow neither any food, nor wine: but if water was put in her mouth, because of the great narrowness of her throat, it did not go into her belly, but went out through her mouth as it was put in: and on this occasion she had her tongue so impeded, that she could in no way speak openly, nor say what she wished: and thus she lay for three days, so that she did not eat, nor drink, nor could speak freely as is said. On the third day, Lady Benamata, whose throat had been closed for three days; the wife of said Odo, nurse of the same girl, seeing the girl thus most gravely afflicted, moved with compassion upon her, vowed to the Lord and the blessed Father Br. Giles, that if the Lord should free her from that sickness, she would make a waxen image, and offer it to the Brothers, that they might place it upon the shrine of the holy Father, in memory of the health of the same girl. And this vow having been made she sent the girl, that she might stand under the shrine, where the holy body lay buried. She came, and by the merits of the holy Father she was freed. The witnesses are Odo, and his wife, Lady Benamata, and Lady Palmeria, mother of Diotaleve, and Marsilia, and the parish Priest of his church.
[121] A certain little infant, Lambertinellus by name, son of Benvenutus the servant, dwelling at the Gate of St. Susanna, in the parish of St. John; and a little infant when he was 18 months old, began to be gravely sickened, so that he drank little milk, and ate less of other food: and because he was so small, physicians feared to give him medicine: but said, motion of blood being made in him by growing, perhaps he will be freed, God willing. And because he was much dear to his parents, his father was solicitous how he could free him. And on the 5th Kalends of August, laboring with stone, he brought a Physician to him to consult, whether he could help him in anything. Who among other things touched his thigh, and said, he was sickened by vice of stone. Hearing this, the mother, grieving much, commended him to the blessed Father Br. Giles, saying she would make him a waxen image, if he should free her child. On the 4th Kalends of August, the aforesaid little infant, wishing to make water and not being able, seemed to be afflicted with no small anguish and greatest pain. The mother, having compassion on her child, was leading him back and forth, pondering in her heart and professing with her mouth, and invoking the Blessed with his mother. "Holy Giles, my father. Brother Giles, help me." And the little infant hearing this, not fully forming words because of his sickness and age, said, "Giles, help me." And on the next night,
the little infant equally made water, and emitted a stone while urinating through his little virga: and thus by the grace of God and the merits of the blessed Father Br. Giles he was freed. And of this testimony is borne by those who saw, his mother, Lady Bona; and his aunt, D. Jacoba; and the nurse of the infant Ligera.
[122] A certain girl, Adactula by name, staying in the leper hospital of Coli, A contracted girl, daughter of Lady Laetitia, wife of Recabene, staying in the burgh of St. Angelus, near the gate of St. Angelus in the parish of St. Fortunatus, for two continuous years lay so greatly contracted in her legs, that she could in no way, because of the great contraction, move herself from the place in which she was placed by someone; but there she ate, and drank, and did her excretions. And when the women, with whom she stayed, could no longer tolerate so great a stench, they cast her out of the house, and placed her bed in the porch of the house, placing her above; and wretchedly forsaken, not placing because of wind or cold any other shelter about her: and so she was there in winter in greatest cold, and in summer enduring immense heat. But she seeing herself thus forsaken, and recognizing herself separated from others because of her sickness, turned to the Lord, consoler of all the desolate; and having heard of the passing of the holy Father Br. Giles she gave herself wholly to prayer, beseeching him, that by his intercessions he might obtain from the Lord health for her body: vowing to the Lord and to him that if the Lord should show this mercy to his unworthy handmaid, she would make a waxen image of her poverty, and would send or carry it to the shrine of the holy Father. And the vow having been made, on the following night she felt herself anxiously hastening to health: and thus, with the vow made she is healed, by God's grace and the merits of the same holy Brother, she is freed from that sickness. Ser-Amadeus, and Bruna, and Lady Valdegrana, and many other men and women of the hospital saw, bearing testimony about this.
[223] A certain woman of the city of Perugia, named Margarita, a woman lacking milk, when by her husband she was multiplied greatly in sons, and did not have milk with which she could nourish them; began to weep out of such compassion. Understanding the life and conversation of the holy man Br. Giles, with great confidence she came to him in the place where he stayed. But the Saint was rapt from the colloquy of holy words as was his custom, and thus could in no way speak to her. The custom of the same man was, that when he returned to himself, with genuflection he kissed the earth, where he held his feet; and immediately returned to his cell, or to some secret place. But the said woman seeing that she could not speak to him, and putting her breast on the earth where his knees had stood, with great reverence approached, and placed her breast where the man had held his feet: and asked God, that by the merits of the holy man he would give her milk, that she might nourish her children. And returning to her house she looked at her breasts, and saw milk dripping upon her oppression. she obtains her wish. The woman rejoiced in the Lord, giving thanks for so great a benefit conferred on her; and from then on had greater devotion to the holy man: and so coming to the companion of the Lord's man, narrated to him diligently all that had happened.
[224] A grave infirmity is healed. A certain woman, Benevenuta by name, born of Assisi, but staying at Perugia, wife of Amator, when by a grave infirmity she was held within in the private place, so that she could neither sit, nor lie down fully; for recovering her health she diligently sought the counsel of physicians, who could not free her by counsel or assistance. Whence when one day she stood, and saw herself destitute of all human help, she addressed her husband saying: Say, Amator, to what Saint could I vow myself, that would free me from so great a sickness. He answered thus: Vow yourself to the blessed holy Br. Giles, and very soon firmly believe yourself to be healed. She at once the same day, coming to the tomb of the said Saint, vowed herself to him; and within his tomb threw herself: and there made some tarrying. At length returning to her house, she began to sit somewhat more freely than usual: and while she sat, the sickness burst three times: and much blood having been emitted, the woman, by the merits of Bl. Br. Giles, was most perfectly freed from the same sickness.