William

ON ST. WILLIAM, THE FATHER; AND ST. PEREGRINE, THE SON; ANTIOCHENES, AT FOGGIA IN ITALY.

In the 12th century

William the father, Antiochene, at Foggia in Italy (St.)

Peregrine the son, Antiochene, at Foggia in Italy (St.)

G. H.

[1] In that part of the present Kingdom of Naples, which by the ancients was called Apulia Daunia, now Capitanata, there is seen the town Foggia, in the countryside, At Foggia in Apulia they are venerated as Patrons. according to the witness of Leandro Alberti, most fertile in wheat, barley, and other kinds of grain, situated between the Episcopal cities Troia and Manfredonia. It cultivates and venerates as its own Patrons two Saints, by country Antiochenes, but who died among them, William the father and Peregrine the son. Their Acts, but mutilated, Acts from MSS. were wont to be recited at Matins on this 26th of April, distributed into nine Lessons: of which the other part we think was perhaps through the Octave, or certainly in the month of October (when also a cult is indicated to have been), wont to be recited in the office. We supply somewhat that missing part from hymns, responsories and antiphons, from which, with no word added, we have gathered it, as we judged would be more convenient for the reader;

omitting those which pertained to the earlier part of the life, or which were more often repeated.

[2] All these things P. Antonius Beatillus had sent to John James Belvedere, Archpriest of Foggia, with a letter, in which about the Relics, in the year 1630 in his presence recognized, he thus writes: "The Most Illustrious John Baptist Astalli our Bishop (This one had been made Bishop of Troia by Urban VIII in the year 1628, and to his diocese Foggia pertains) being asked by this community of this place, that he would permit the church to be enlarged, The bodies of them in 1630 raised: and the Relics of the said Saints to be translated to a more conspicuous place; went there one evening, accompanied, besides me the Archpriest of the place, by the Auditor John Baptist Muscettola and some Canons and Nobles. With the altar destroyed however, he found the sacred lipsana, placed within a stone chest: to which a certain cloth painted with colors was spread under, covered with waxed red cloth, both so whole, as if it had first been placed there. Eight days later were found inserted in the same altar two earthen vessels, one of which contained the viscera; dried and arid indeed, but preserving the natural color so lively, that they were a wonder to all; the other was full of earth, with little bones and flesh and fats dissolved in it, mixed with which namely the bones had lain, until from the first place of burial they were removed to be more honorably placed. All however breathed a most pleasant odor of a certain heavenly sweetness. These sacred pledges are now preserved in a certain little chest, covered with a crimson silk garment, and placed among the rest of the church's treasure; until the major altar, destined to receive the same, shall be completely and perfectly adorned. There is preserved there also in a crystal vessel that palm, by which wonderfully with its reflowering they mutually recognized the Saints, as is narrated in their proper office; that one dried indeed, yet flexible, no less than if it had been freshly gathered from the tree and green: which very thing seems must be imputed to a miracle." Thus he, writing in the year 1638. He adds moreover this inscription found there:

"Here the kindly father and son Ancient Inscription found. Antiochenes deposit their limbs: Who wandered the regions of the world, With blooming branch, with serene mind. Now, with Foggia founded by Frederick Rufus the Emperor, she preserves them."

[3] This is Frederick Barbarossa or Aenobarbus; with whom dying in the year 1190 Henry his son reigned, and in the year 1194 with Rogerius son of Tancred extinct, was made King of both Sicilies; in whose time we opine the said inscription was made, The time of their life. for the reason that the author preferred to note the time of Foggia's founding by Frederick's name, though then having no right in it, than Tancred's or Rogerius's names of Kings, by whose name otherwise it should have been noted. How long before these Saints died is not clear. The name William is Gallic and German, they seem to have been born after Antioch was occupied by the Latins in the year 1100. In the Office there is added a double collect or Oration for these Saints, one of which touches on some of their deeds thus.

Oration. "God who wondrously created the world, and in your Saints daily work more wondrously, and who made the palm of your glory, dry and without root, to grow and bear fruit, by the merits of the holy Confessors our Fathers, William and Peregrine his son, whose bodies rest in our church; be propitious to us your servants, that by their pious intercession, we may always be protected from all adversities."

LIFE

From MSS. of the Church of Foggia.

William the father, Antiochene, at Foggia in Italy (St.)

Peregrine the son, Antiochene, at Foggia in Italy (St.)

BHL Number: 8915

FROM MS.

PART I.

From the Lessons recited at Matins.

[1] In many places and in many ways God, of old speaking to the Fathers in the Prophets, in these last days has spoken to us through the Saints, William the father and Peregrine the son: whom he made heirs of the heavenly homeland: to which by word and example they do not cease to invite us, saying: "Come, sons, hear us, we shall teach you the fear of the Lord." St. William an Antiochene, For William from the most bright city of Syria, Antioch, and from an ancient and illustrious lineage drew the origin of his birth. Who after he attained the age, in which he could be formed in manners, wondrously as a little boy, under the diligent solicitude of his parents and teacher, strove to adorn himself with the whole troop of virtues. Then reaching the years of puberty, bereft of his pious parents, abounding in the greatest riches, from a most illustrious wife and worthy of such a man, he begets St. Peregrine: he merited to have Peregrine the only son, the future heir of such great virtues and riches. Whom in his time to be formed in manners and letters although he had given to a paedagogue, a holy and lettered man; yet he the pious father, just as another Tobias, diligently taught him by word and example to scorn and value as nothing the enticements of the world. he instructs him in pious morals and letters: But the pious boy, not a deaf hearer of his father, imbued with good morals, so held this world in contempt, so dreaded and fled it, as others in our times are wont to make much of and to seek. Therefore he began not sluggishly to apply himself to letters, with such care and such zeal, that in a short time, not only his contemporaries, but also those who long before had given labor to the same, he easily surpassed.

[2] When however in these he had become most learned, and knew that learning without wisdom and goodness would profit him nothing or little; he began to apply himself to virtues, the son devoted to contemplation, then to have leisure for contemplation: so that he might show himself to all the form and example of all sanctity. Wherefore he began chiefly to emulate his parent, who was held as holier and more religious than other Antiochene citizens, he imitates his father and good men: then to imitate the others, who shone with some virtue: and like a most prudent bee from here and there to gather various flowers of virtues, whence in the future time he could make the sweetest honeys, to be useful to himself and others. What more? The holy boy indeed came in a short time to the whole perfection of holiness, so that you might not without reason esteem him no man, and indeed mortal, but a certain heavenly virtue.

[3] he departs for Jerusalem: When however he had exceeded adolescence, inspired by the divine gift, there seized him an unheard desire of visiting the city of Jerusalem and of visiting the sacred places there. Wherefore going to his father, first having received his blessing, and not without the greatest difficulty obtained permission to go there, content with a cheap garment for silks, and for a golden belt girt with a cord, a pedestrian and in voluntary poverty taking up the journey, he came to Jerusalem: in whose most sacred places to be visited he was affected with such great devotion, with such emission of tears, that he could say with the Psalmist: "My tears have been my bread day and night." Ps. 41:4 How often however the holy man entered the most holy sepulcher of the Lord, his mind was filled with such sweetness in contemplating the divine mysteries, that he was wholly absorbed in spirit, and a complete forgetfulness of all earthly things took him. Wherefore nothing delighted him except to contemplate, to pray, to have leisure for God, and to insist on the salvation of neighbors. he ministers in the hospital: Whence betaking himself to a certain hospital of the poor and of many sick, there he wholly committed himself to their holy and pious services: where he consoled the afflicted, lifted the wretched, and amid the adversities of this world cherished the failing with word equally and by example. Indeed he so loved all the poor of Christ, as if he had conceived all in the bowels of charity; so to all willingly he most eagerly served; so gladly he touched, licked, kissed those flowing with matter and affected with leprosy, as if he seemed to touch and kiss Christ our Lord in them.

[4] The father however again was tormented by excessive affection of seeing his son. he is sought by his father: And when day by day he awaited his return, and he did not return; frustrated in his hope, sending to Jerusalem most diligent messengers for the inquiry of his son, and they returning empty, the son nowhere to be found, he resolved himself also to seek Jerusalem: which in a short time he accomplished. Where having visited the sacred sepulcher of our Lord, and other pious places of the same most devoutly having traversed, while most lovingly he searches everywhere and can find him nowhere, he receives him sick unknowingly, more and more was he tortured in mind. Thence incurring ill health he turned by chance to the hospital: in which the pious son had dedicated himself to the services of the poor: by whom when he was recognized, as having retreated there with habit unchanged, but he did not at all recognize his son, though he daily had him present, serving, comforting, and many times, the cause of his sickness having been learned, promising the son's return within a few days. And when his languor daily increased utterly, he indicates he is the son, and makes him sound: and the son saw the most cruel death of his father impending; thinking that he no longer ought to put off being son, he manifested himself to his father, and all the things he had done he narrated in order. The father however from the found son, seized with sudden joy, rushing into his embraces, immediately rose from the bed, in which he lay, sound, with all languor taken away.

[5] The pious son opens to his father, whatever he had long since conceived in his soul, both return to Antioch. and that nothing else was to his heart, than to minister to God in the habit of pilgrims and of the poor. By common consent both return to their homeland, that with the patrimony distributed, which for them was most ample, its whole price they might convert into pious uses. In a few days when they had done this, they distribute their patrimony; and had willingly given part to the poor of Christ and likewise to holy churches and to hospitals to be built, they carried with them part to Jerusalem, that thence they might be able in the hospice of the poor, where first they should turn, to nourish the poor of Christ. At Jerusalem they exercise pious works. And so coming there they most abundantly supplied all necessities to the needy. For they freed those obligated by debt, they cherished any sick and poor with alms, they clothed the naked, they fed the famished and hungry, and gave drink to the thirsty: the bodies of the dead at their own expense, as often as there was need, they most willingly handed over to burial: pilgrims turning aside to them, travelers, as if they received Christ, they received: and thus by such and such great works of piety, they prepared for themselves starry and everlasting dwelling places.

PART II.

Collected from hymns, responsories, and antiphons.

[6] William an Antiochene by birth, Peregrine the son by name, by divine gift indeed, brought to Foggia help. Rejoice happy Apulia, but you more, O Foggia, since from Antioch great things have been sent to you. William the famous father with Peregrine his son, divinely inspired, become help for you. After many detours of regions and spaces traversed, great miracles are turned to you. How great is the glory of the Saints, the green palm testifies: After various pilgrimages they come to Foggia, which when it was dry, was made moist by the touch of the Saints. Wondrous, O good Jesus, you were for the sake of your servants the Antiochenes, whom you directed to us full of holy mercy. By example the father and son preach, and call all mortals to heavenly things, who while they abdicate themselves from fleeting goods, amass eternal and true ones. they instruct the citizens, The holy men despise none, nor in any way hold their neighbor in contempt: and while they make themselves least of all, they gain the kingdoms of heaven. By the sign of the Cross

made, Ambrose the blind man received sight, they shine with miracles: who by the merits of the Saints seized it. Riccardus, who long had been held in a cot, by the Saints' merits soon was healed and stretched out. A certain Mary, vexed for two days by a demon, by the patronage of the Saints was immediately freed. The Saints cure the sick while they visit, and often redeem the bound, sometimes place the dead in the ground, and willingly refresh the famished: in such a manner they inhabit this life.

[7] They die at the same place and time: In the same place and time the Saints of God fly hence, and in the supreme and pure aether now inhabit a heavenly life, where with bright and pure heart with all the Saints they dance. The Lord made his Saints wondrous, while with manifold miracle he adorned them. Let the faithful citizens of Foggia jubilate, because many languishing return sound from the tomb. Our great Lord and greatly praiseworthy recently appeared in the city of Foggia; when in her places, his very great virtue, in the Saints William and Peregrine, shone forth. Rejoice mother Apulia: but you more O Foggia: because to the whole world you give joys. Kindly mother Church indeed celebrates solemn feasts with you. The feast is celebrated. All proclaim you blessed, because in crowds the nations visit your tabernacles. Praise God, you nations, honor the bones of the Saints, that their vows may not fail.

ON BLESSED ALDA OR ALDOBRANDESCA,

WIDOW OF SIENA OF THE THIRD ORDER OF THE HUMILIATI.

IN THE YEAR 1309

Alda or Aldobrandesca, Of the Third Order of the Humiliati, at Siena in Tuscany (B.)

By D. P.

[1] The Order of the Humiliati flowered in the Duchy of Milan, and scattered joyful and fruitful shoots through the whole of Italy, approved by Pope Lucius III, The Order of the Humiliati, with monasteries of both sexes erected. Treating of these Jacques de Vitry in the History of the West chapter 28, an author nearest their beginnings, says that by their preachings it came about that many noble and powerful citizens, matrons also and virgins were converted to the Lord: of whom some renouncing the world, passed to their religion: others however remaining in the world bodily, although they remained with their sons and wives, humbled and drawn from worldly business, remaining in religious habit and sobriety of food and works of mercy, use this world, according to the Apostle's counsel, as not using it. Of these latter was B. Alda or Aldobrandesca, a Sienese widow, who after the death of her husband having taken the aforesaid habit, retiring to a certain little estate of hers, shone with examples of virtues and signs of miracles, with the graces of heavenly visions seasoning her most austere life.

[2] At Siena had the church of St. Thomas, The body of the deceased at Siena in the church of St. Thomas the Apostle, which once was of the Humiliati, now with the convents of men extinguished under Pius V, has passed to Nuns from the Order of St. Francis, after their monastery (which had been outside the gate Camulia) was brought back into the city, keeping the title of St. Petronilla, next to the aforesaid church. The Abbess of this monastery, Mathilda Petrucci, being asked to submit, if there existed anywhere any monuments of these, from which Friar Gregory Lombardelli wrote and published a Life in Italian, where only the body of the Blessed remains, and dedicated it to Louis Cardinal of Este in the year 1583; replied in the year 1671, that nothing of the kind was now to be found. Truly Gregory Lombardelli is most well-deserving of his countrymen Saints, by digging out acts lying hidden in archives, and adorning them in the mother tongue: but that the same things have not been restored to the same archives, is not so much to be imputed to him, as to those who did not care to receive the ancient originals lent him: that however the same are nowhere now found, is the fault of those who, finding such writings in the strongboxes of the deceased, knew not how to value them. If however these still exist with someone, the originals of the Life being lost. we ask him to absolve the aforesaid Gregory and his Brothers from the mark of unfaithfulness and negligence, by exhibiting the writings themselves, that they may be inserted into this work or into its supplement. I speak not only of B. Aldobrandesca: but also of many of those, whose Lives Gregory wrote in Italian, and whose original monuments handed to him are complained to have perished, with those among whom the bodies of the Saints of whom he treated, are. Further, because it pleases us neither, nor are we at leisure, to make Lombardelli's context, stuffed with rhetorical amplifications for pomp, wholly into Latin; following the sense of him not the words, we shall embrace the whole series of the life in a briefer period; but the titles of the chapters proposed by the author, we shall give at the end of this commentary, and adapt their numbers to our briefer version.

[3] The Blessed is written to have died on the 26th day of April in the year 1310: She seems to have died in the year 1309. but that the years are to be counted in the Sienese manner (which at the 17th day treating of B. Clare Gambacurta we explained) and that what there is the tenth, by the usage now received is to be counted the ninth, both by the very reckoning of time we are persuaded, and it can be confirmed from this, that in narrating the death of the Blessed, no mention is made anywhere of the Paschal time; which does not seem to have had to be omitted, if indeed the Blessed died in the year 10 of this century, when Easter was celebrated on April 19, and the 26th day of that month coincided with the octave of Easter or the Sunday in Albis. But Easter of the preceding year had been on March 30: and so the aforesaid death, falling on the Saturday before the fourth Sunday from Easter, was far removed from the Paschal festivity.

[4] The cult formerly among the Humiliati, Moreover not only at Siena, but through the whole Order of the Humiliati was the fame of this holy Widow celebrated, and her name everywhere received with the title of Blessed, and represented in images: of which also we saw some in this very century engraved in copper at Milan, with all the instruments of the Lord's Passion, and other characteristic marks, making us trust that she is the one whose Life we here give. Also at Milan among the heirs of John Peter Puricelli, Archpriest of the Laurentian church, we found a History of the Humiliati, hitherto unpublished and collected by him with great zeal: from which we transcribed various things, to be given on the 26th of September for the Life of St. John, first Priest in that Order. There we noted about Blessed Alda, under the name of B. Alda, that at Rondinari (this suburb is of the city of Como, in which was the principal monastery of the Order and temple with the body of St. John) among the effigies of other Humiliati Saints, expressed in ancient work, is seen a woman in religious habit, with three nails in her hand and this epigraph: "B. Alda, who changed water into wine," which is read in the Life of Aldobrandesca. Similar images with the title and insignia of the Blessed depicted, in many convents of the Nuns of the Humiliati (for these to the present day at Milan and elsewhere under the direction of the Bishops flourish), the same Puricelli attests and by name at Milan in the ancient temple of the monastery of St. Erasmus, commonly called San-Novo, (which now applied to other uses is squalid) and above the columns in the portico of the cloister of S. Maria de circulo. The same says, that in the last place, with two women in the habit of Nuns consequently expressed, one in the act of supporting a round and large millstone placed on her head by the hand, by which some miracle of hers wrought from obedience seems to be represented; and the other with three nails in her hand; he says, I say, under this one indeed is written, and B. Blanca, along with B. Bruna: "B. Bruna de Vercellis"; under that one, "B. Alda de Senis"; yet he adds that by no means does it seem doubtful to him, that by the error of the modelers and the neglect of those in charge of the work, the epigraphs were exchanged; and that as the sign of three nails fits B. Alda, so the sign of the millstone carried fits B. Bruna; of whom we more gladly remember here, because of her and of the day of her death we have learned nothing from elsewhere. The same Puricelli had an ancient Missal of the Humiliati, printed at Milan in the year 1504, and in it he found (on a page perhaps blank before or behind) either written or printed a catalog of the Saints or Blessed of the Order, in which only two Blessed women are named, B. Blanca of Siena, and B. Bruna of Vercelli. We suspect that the longer name Aldobrandesca was cut into two parts and thus commonly wont to be used, so that now the first part of the name, now the later, and indeed contracted, is employed: and hence it came that now Alda, now Branca, is found, and more corruptly Blanca; perhaps with some play, in words of opposite meaning, Blanca and Bruna.

[5] now among the Dominicanesses scarcely any. And these things indeed, while the affairs of the Humiliati stood, sufficiently declare the known and celebrated holiness of the Blessed; and convince us, that a place is owed to her in this work. Otherwise, ever since the church of St. Thomas passed over to the Religious of another institute, so neglected lies the cult of the said Blessed, that it is painful and shameful to confess. For her bones in the right wall of the outer church (so that free access might be open to the citizens about to adore it) in the year 1489 were deposited and in the year 1583 in the presence of Gregory Lombardelli himself (as he attests in the Appendix) they were translated into a new little chest, occupying the same little place even now, one cubit wide and high; which is closed with a wooden little door sufficiently cheap, and a cheaper iron bolt; under which is seen the Blessed depicted, in the habit of one lying and dying, without any honor of lamps or candles, or any other indication of sacred cult, or any religion of yearly feast; as was written to us from Siena by the one, who being asked inspected and considered the particulars, and could not contain himself, but in his letter to us complained of such great neglect of a thing once so sacred.

[6] Various more recent Life compendia, The Life of B. Aldobrandesca, composed by Gregory Lombardelli, and published in the year 1584, Silvanus Razzius, Camaldolese Abbot, reduced to a briefer form, and first in the year 1593 published among the Lives of the Tuscan Saints, then in the year 1606 in the Lives of illustrious holy women. Arnold Wion in book 3 of the Lignum Vitae, citing Razzius, inscribed her in the monastic Martyrology, with this encomium: "At Siena the deposition of B. Aldobrandesca, religious of the third Order of the Humiliati, a woman of wondrous sanctity and patience. She, born of the noble family of the Ponzi, and joined in matrimony to Bindonus Bellanti a most noble youth, by the example of Anna the prophetess remained in perpetual virginity with her husband: he dying, taking the habit of holy Religion from the hands of R. P. Fr. Accursio Tolomeo, she lived with such great religion, that both in life and after death she shone with many miracles." Thus Arnold. not without errors. Gregory and Razzius from him had written that the pious spouses abstained from marital embrace in reverence of the received Sacrament, for a few days after the example of Tobias the younger. Behold now (to know how much it matters to seek histories from the first fountains) Arnold feigns perpetual continence, and Gabriel Bucelinus follows him weaving a longer compendium of the life: and to both Arthur of Monstrous in Sacred Gynaeceum believing, proposes

the Deposition of B. Aldobrandesca Virgin. More cautious than they, Hugh Menard transcribed only the first two lines from Arnold, and Philip Ferrari in the General Catalog used even fewer words: thus they avoided the slip into which Arnold had drawn the others, erring as much in this as in the example of Anna the prophetess, of whom Luke the Evangelist asserts precisely the contrary, testifying that she had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity, that is, after it. With the same lightness it is said in the Annotations, that Silvanus Razzius brings forward the Life, written in Latin by Gregory, in the book on the Lives of the Saints of Tuscany: for Razzius nowhere mentions a Latin Life written, as he is always wont to do whenever he translates anything from Latin; nor did Gregory write anything in Latin, nor did he allege a Latin Life anywhere. And some still from the Benedictine Order are indignant with us, that we hesitate to follow Arnold Wion, an author of such vacillating faith and diligence, both in other matters, and in ascribing Saints to the Benedictine Order? Another compendium of the life will be found in the Sienese Fasti, composed by Fathers John Ferrari and Sebastian Conti.

SYLLABUS OF CHAPTERS.

I On the parents and homeland of B. Aldobrandesca.

II On the birth of Aldobrandesca, and the vision presented to her mother before birth.

III How well she was brought up in her infant age.

IV How she was given by her parents in honest matrimony.

V How great her discretion was in the conjugal state, which made her both lovable to her husband and admirable to all.

VI With how great patience she bore misfortunes, illnesses and the death of her husband.

VII How she resolved to serve God more holily under a religious habit.

VIII That she was sought and stimulated in vain to second nuptials.

IX How she took up the habit of the third Order of the Humiliati.

X On the continual fasts of Aldobrandesca, and the foods on which she lived.

XI How on this occasion she was gravely tempted by demons.

XII How for overcoming the temptation she began to be clothed with a hair-shirt, girt with a rope, to lie on the ground, to walk barefoot, to wear a thorny crown.

XIII On the solitary life, which she led in a certain oratory of hers.

XIV How Christ appeared and conversed with her there.

XV How she lost the light of one eye and again recovered it.

XVI How she changed water into wine by the sign of the Cross.

XVII How, having prayed God that the form of the nails by which the Lord was crucified should be shown to her, she had a similar one made, which still survives.

XVIII How devout she was to Christ and the Virgin Mother of God.

XIX How the mystery of Christ's nativity was shown to her.

XX How with bodily eyes she saw the whole history of Christ's passion.

XXI How it was granted her to taste of the blood of the side of the Crucified.

XXII How she contemplated the mystery of the glorious Resurrection.

XXIII How she saw the mystery of the Ascension into heaven.

XXIV How humble she was before God and men.

XXV How she chose and preserved voluntary poverty, having spurned all earthly substance.

XXVI How great her charity was toward her neighbor.

XXVII How she devoted herself to the service of the poor in the hospital of St Andrew.

XXVIII How two candles were seen to precede her walking.

XXIX How she saw Mary Queen of heavens in great glory and majesty.

XXX How carried up to paradise she saw the holy Angels assisting at the throne of God.

XXXI How she knew and foretold things to come.

XXXII How variously she was afflicted, snatched into ecstasy.

XXXIII How she foretold her death, and the lawsuit about to arise between two churches over her body.

XXXIV How she healed various sick people by the sign of the Cross.

XXXV On her happy passing, neither awaited nor seen by those who were in the Hospital.

XXXVI How she was honorably buried in the church of St Thomas, with the suit pending between it and the church of St Andrew.

XXXVII On the translation of the sacred body.

XXXVIII Author's appendix.

LIFE

From the Italian of Gregory Lombardelli.

Alda or Aldobrandesca, of the Third Order of the Humiliati, at Siena in Etruria (B.)

FROM THE ITALIAN OF GREGORY LOMBARDELLI.

CHAPTER I.

Birth, marriage, and widowhood of the Blessed.

[1] About to be born nobly at Siena, In the city of Siena in the year of Christ 1245, on the 28th day of February, was born Aldobrandesca, who had as her father Peter-Francis, of the noble family of the Ponzi, a man of honest morals and blameless life; who so exercised commerce, that he was harmful neither to himself nor to his neighbors, as those do who for temporal gain stain their fame, and expose their soul to eternal damnation. Her mother, of the most illustrious stock of the Bulgarini, was called Lady Agnes, equal to her husband in probity: with whom she looked at nothing else, in giving labor to the begetting of children, than that they should produce offspring fit for the divine will.

[2] That she was about to be a partaker of this vow, was made manifest to her, while pregnant, by such a dream. it is foreshown to the mother that she is chosen by God, The chamber of the parturient woman seemed to be illumined with admirable light, and the girl about to be born seemed to be soon surrounded by a great number of persons, paying her great obedience and reverence: and she thought she heard a voice fallen from the heavens which said: "See, Agnes, that you have a solicitous care of this infant, because God has chosen her for himself." She, awaking, appeared afterwards more thoughtful than usual, yet did not wish to reveal the cause of such a change even to her husband; and is solicitously brought up: but being asked about the same, she would excuse herself by her pregnancy, which made her so morose. Then relieved by birth she returned to her former alacrity; and after the daughter's baptism celebrated, revealed to her husband whatever she had seen and heard in the dream; exhorting him, that with her he should likewise apply himself to fulfilling the divine will. Which he, with thanksgiving, undertook to do.

[3] instructed in good arts and morals: As her age advanced, she was instructed in those arts and morals which befitted her sex and condition: but she was much more gladly occupied with sacred studies than with profane ones, especially with those which had more momentary pleasure than solid utility; although she also embraced these, with a view to the obedience and reverence due to her parents. In both, however, she so progressed, that, praised and esteemed everywhere, she was sought in marriage by the youth of Siena.

[4] given in marriage, Among all who were courting the girl, Lord Bindus Bellanti was pleasing to her parents, as adorned not less by virtues than by nobility, modest, religious, reverent toward superiors, instructed in human and divine letters: with the proposal of him to herself the most modest virgin agreeing, protested that she indeed had it more in her vow, that in some monastery, dedicated to divine services, she might be permitted to draw out her life; yet that to the will of her parents she would consider every personal affection inferior, since she was persuaded that it was the same as the divine.

[5] she persuades her husband to continence for some days: The nuptials being celebrated according to the custom of the Catholic Church, as soon as she came into her husband's house, mindful of those things which she had read about the younger Tobias and Sarah his wife, she persuaded her husband, that out of respect for the Sacrament which they had received, he should be willing to abstain from consummating the marriage for six or eight days, devoting herself meanwhile with him to fasts and prayers. Then understanding that the husband is the head of the wife, and that she had no power over her own body, she first studied to comply with him, then to decline all things by which she might perchance please other eyes, beyond what she herself wished, or was expedient for her neighbor's salvation. Therefore most modest in care of her body, from whom thereafter bearing no offspring, rare in the squares or at the windows, assiduous at home and in domestic exercises, intent on works of charity, vigilant beyond the actions of household members, devoted to fasts and prayers, she led a life useful and pleasing no less to God than to her husband; and lived for some years in marriage, meanwhile receiving no offspring.

[6] the same after the exercise of much patience having died, Because however her soul was pleasing to God, it was also necessary that her virtue be tested by adversities, which neither few nor light befell the pious spouses. For first some hundreds of scudi, which Bindus had spent on his mercantile business, perished: then struck by a grave infirmity of the nerves he began also to be tortured by acute fevers; and finally to flow with purulent ulcers all over; with the wife holding to Christian constancy through all these things, and exercising patience by consoling her husband's losses, illnesses and ulcers, by serving and cleansing him. At length to so many troubles death most religiously received put an end; in which she grieved nothing more, than that the example and material of her toleration was snatched from her. Wherefore as soon as he breathed out his soul, prostrating herself before the crucified Lord, she gave thanks to him, that he had freed her from that servitude. Then she took care that the body, composed by her own hands, was buried with fitting honor in the church of St Dominic.

7, 8, 9 shrinking from second nuptials, Widowed of her husband, she set before herself the examples of matrons praised in the Scriptures, Judith and Anna, to be followed by her; the latter indeed by frequenting churches and assisting at sacred offices; the former, by fasting and macerating the flesh. She was nevertheless sought for second nuptials, on account of her probity known to all: but to her parents persuading a second husband she always pudically and freely resisted; entirely professing that she did not wish to obliterate the memory of her former husband by new loves. At length wishing to cut off the snares of the world and every hope contrary to her purpose, she takes up the habit of the Humiliati she went to the church of St Thomas, which belonged to the Friars Humiliati: and Brother Accursius having been summoned, he who second took the habit of the Order, and was afterwards General of the same, a man of great sanctity and most ardent zeal, she declared to him that she had resolved, having renounced the world, to lead the rest of her life under a religious habit. Receiving her, he, with the Sisters of the same institute who lived scattered through the city called together, in their presence clothed her, having received her, in the sacred habit.

CHAPTER II.

B. Aldobrandesca's penitent life in suburban solitude, heaped with heavenly favors.

[10] From then on declaring war on her body, she fixed for herself a law of strictest abstinence, she institutes a most austere life, and held it to the end of her life. For besides water she never used anything for drink, except sometimes vinegar and gall, and on Fridays also myrrh, that she might be made like to her Jesus thus given drink: and she used foods altogether vile, namely herbs and legumes: but if she felt herself too weak, for a few days she would eat bread, abstaining from it again as soon as she seemed to herself stronger. Furthermore she ate only once in the day, and that at a late hour, namely the ninth.

[11] she conquers offered temptations, Not on this account however did the devil, the enemy of all good, despair that he could overthrow her, but first he disturbed her most chaste mind by frequent recollection of conjugal delights: and presented to her in sleep her husband's appearance, as if exacting the marital debt. But even then firm in her purpose, she somehow strove to spit on his face: but waking, she would prostrate herself on her knees, and beating her whole body with a chain, drenched it with copious blood, until the conquered enemy departed. But he soon returning, called her wretched and insane, who hoped by such penance to placate God, offended by her so many and great sins. To whom she answered, that she had no hope except in the mercy alone of the most clement God: and so compelled him to depart

confused, despising the noise and stench he stirred up, by which he strove to disturb her.

[12] clothed with a hair-shirt, But that against attacks of this kind she might be more armed, with the linen shift dismissed, she clothed her flesh with a rough hair-shirt, made of bristles, and girt it with a girdle uneven with very frequent knots, saying: "Gird, Lord, my loins, that in them I may not feel the rebellion of the flesh." And saying these things, she felt herself heard, with ineffable jubilation of heart, suffering thereafter no stings of it. and armed with other instruments of penance, She also used, for macerating her body by nightly and daily flagellation, an iron chain, and took her sleep on the pavement, on which she had spread a vile sack; and that for at most four hours, spending the rest of the night in prayer and meditation and beating her body. Finally, that no member of hers should be without torment, she put off her shoes, using a longer dress to cover the nakedness of her feet: she also girded her head with a little crown, piercing it with most sharp thorns, to express in herself a more expressive likeness of Christ.

[13] she withdraws to her little estate, Then understanding how difficultly the soul is preserved from the defilements of human conversation amid the urban noises; and that not only does it become alms to be given in secret, but also any other good; she received herself to a certain little estate of hers, two miles distant from the city, which was called the villa at Quartum; and there she set up for herself a small oratory, in which she sometimes had Mass said, and was refreshed by the sacred body of Christ, for the most part there intent on prayer, and forgetting all earthly things.

[14] where deemed worthy of the sight and address of Jesus, She had once summoned a Priest to celebrate before her; whom while she was awaiting placed in prayer, she began vehemently to wish for the visible presence of her Jesus, such as he had once conversed in this world. He who is near to all who invoke him, fulfilling his spouse's desire, appeared to her in human form, but covered with a most white garment, and the same adorned with many precious necklaces, to signify that he wished to purge her soul from every stain, and to adorn it with the various beauty of the virtues. Christ however disappeared at the Priest's arrival: who when he had given her the Eucharist, soon saw her alienated from her senses and heard her speaking, but could not understand what she was saying: she however, returned to herself, the more weakened in body, the more ardent in charity she felt herself.

[15] she is deprived of the sight of one eye: Furthermore that her patience also might be tested, God tempted her with such a noxious swelling of the right eye, that with its humors rotting, after immense torments, he made it blind. The handmaid of God bore the discomfort with equanimity, and giving thanks to him she had thus passed several weeks: when through her Angel God indicated to her, that it was his will that she should take greater care of her health. Doubting whether the suggestion was of a good or bad spirit, Aldobrandesca gave herself to prayer. Afterwards a voice was heard by her sleeping of this kind: "Go to Siena there to be illumined, since God so commands." she miraculously receives the same: She waited until she should be admonished thus a third time, and then at length set herself on the way; arriving at the church of the Monticellesi, which now the Capuchin Fathers hold; and entering it according to her custom, she found a Priest standing at the altar, who, about to take the sacred Blood of Christ, had let one drop fall above the paten, and almost his very mind with it, not knowing what he should do in such a case. Aldobrandesca, divinely understanding this, exclaimed: "Take, take, holy Father, by licking with the tongue what fell; and trust that the merciful God will forgive you the negligence committed." Having said these things there leapt out from the paten an immense splendor, which with the astonishment of those present suddenly filling the whole church, was at once reflected on the face of Aldobrandesca, and removed all pain from her eye: which then arising from her prayer, perfectly healed she carried back to her oratory.

[16] She had once hired a peasant for the cultivation of her garden; who when he was thirsty, she changes water into wine, and at her place, accustomed to water alone, did not find wine; he drew from the spring a full cup, and said: "Come, mother, when wine is lacking, at least bless this water, that it may be better and more healthy for me." She did what was asked, and with eyes raised to heaven made the sign of the Cross over the cup; from which the peasant drinking recognized wine, than which he had drunk none more savory; and he did not cease to preach the prodigious change as long as he lived. Another time, when a certain Berta was supping with her, she, compassionating her guest, accustomed to wine, with mind raised to God similarly expressed the sign of the Cross: and Berta had the best wine in her hands: marveling at which and asking how she had made it: "Not I," she answered, "but he, who once drew water from the rock."

[17] contemplating the nails of the Crucified, Piously affected by contemplating and continually thinking upon the Lord's Passion, she once experienced a vehement desire of seeing those nails on which our salvation hung on the cross. Soon an Angel was present, showing her three bloody nails; one of which, larger than the rest, perhaps because it had to serve to fasten both feet, clung so tenaciously to her memory, that taking from her garden an olive branch, with a small knife she expressed the likeness of it, so perfect; that whoever has seen the nail kept in the sanctuary of the Most Christian King, affirms it to be in all its parts equal to it. This wooden nail is still kept in the church of St Thomas, she expresses the likeness of one of them. and after the lapse of three hundred years remains as if recently cut: wherefore she is seen depicted in various chapels of the said church with a nail in her hand.

18, 19, 20 After the sight of Jesus and Mary, She loved by many titles the most Blessed Virgin Mary and her blessed son the Redeemer of the world: and while she daily strove to inflame this love more by pious considerations, she dared to ask, that she might be granted to see both with bodily eyes: nor was she frustrated in her desire. For on the most holy birthday of Christ it was given her to see the whole order of the mysteries enacted on that day and night, with the adoration of the Magi and the flight into Egypt. But while in spirit she strove to run, that she might press the divine infant in the embrace of her arms, the vision vanished, she sees the mysteries of the Nativity and left her full of heavenly consolation; which Aldobrandesca, desiring to preserve the received grace by frequent memory, tried to retain its expressed likeness by imagining: but could not. Wherefore again on a certain Friday intent on recalling Christ's passion; and of the Passion: she asked that the entire series of this also be presented to her sight, and obtained it: which while she clings to, and bewailing herself as guilty of all things and in all, she undertakes to scourge her body with a chain, the lamentable scene disappeared from her eyes.

[21] By the recollection of this apparition while she from time to time feeds her soul, she is refreshed by the blood of Christ's side: she felt an immense desire of tasting the divine blood, which she had seen gushing forth from the right side. And while she clings fixedly upon this and upon the image of the Crucified, asking this grace from Jesus and Mary, she saw one drop of blood burst forth from the side of her image: which gathering with her lips, she felt an ineffable sweetness in her mouth: and in memory of this benefit she had painted the Virgin Mother, holding between her arms the body of her son taken down from the cross, and applying her mouth to the wound of his side. But on another occasion when a similar desire returned, she gathered the similarly bursting drop of blood with a little cloth, fearing lest it should flow away before she could place her mouth to it; and receiving it itself by sucking, she experienced a similar sweetness again.

22, 23, 24 The individual mysteries of the Lord's Resurrection and glorious Ascension, in their order, on their very festivities Aldobrandesca contemplating, she sees the mysteries of the Resurrection and Ascension, she sometimes had them set before her eyes through bodily appearance, and in them she wondrously rejoiced. And though she was heaped with so many and so great favors divinely, not only was she not exalted into pride, but more profoundly humbled herself before God, reputing herself most unworthy of them: and also with respect to men she preferred the same lowering of soul, always humble impatient of being praised, desirous of being despised, placing herself after all: but if she heard anyone blamed, she would say with a groan: "If he who is so much better than I is so accused, what would befit being said of me?"

[25] Her poverty she advanced so far that, having sold and distributed for the use of the poor whatever goods she had in the city of Siena, she was content with the use of one of her little estates; and tenacious of extreme poverty. of whose fruits also she dispensed to the poor; reserving nothing else, than a vile little sack and a little stool, for the rest of the poor coming upon her; the bottom of a gourd, for drink; and a few earthen vessels, for ministering food to the same poor: nor could she ever be induced to lay anything aside or prepare anything for the future.

CHAPTER III.

The last of life passed in the Sienese Hospital, miracles, burial.

26, 27 So living she had attained an advanced age, when she began to consider the life of our Savior, returned to Siena, occupied for the benefit of his neighbor, and to be ashamed of herself, who quietly at home enjoyed divine consolations. She therefore proposed, the solitude dismissed, to spend herself for the consolation of widows, orphans, the sick, and other forsaken persons, for the conversion of prostituted little women, for exhorting holy women to the observance of the rule, and for whatever pious works. Finally she transferred herself to the Hospital of St Andrew, now called St Onuphrius, she devotes herself to the ministry of the Hospital; and there having found a secret place, where she might withdraw to pray or take a brief sleep, she gave herself wholly to the service of the sick and pilgrims, offering them prompt aid, not only by day but also by night, with the greatest edification both of citizens and foreigners.

[28] she is illumined by a prodigious light: God wishing to glorify her intent on such pursuits, brought it about that as she was passing through the hall of the Hospital, a certain handmaid of the same Hospital, by name Jacomina, saw before her two most white candles white, wherever she moved, borne, lit, with no one carrying them appearing: by which spectacle moved she began to exclaim, and to ask in loud voices what this matter was. Nor could she be restrained by any nods or prayers, from disclosing to all those who happened then to be gathering for hearing Mass, a thing so admirable. Wherefore Aldobrandesca, most fugitive of human praise, immediately hid herself in her chamber, harshly flagellated her body, and for some days kept hidden, before she returned to her customary ministries and to the human gaze.

29, 30 she enjoys the sight of the Mother of God On Sundays she was wont to honor especially the Queen of heaven Mary. Wherefore, when she gasped after heavenly visions, the more she enjoyed them the more eagerly, she once asked that our Lady herself give herself to be seen: which she also obtained. For when Sunday returned, she saw the Mother of God, clothed and adorned with most splendid byssus and most precious necklaces, with a golden crown of wondrous beauty; and again on another Sunday, she beheld the same in a golden garment, having on her head a crown of twelve stars, and the moon under her feet, and a tablet in her hand, thus inscribed: "Daughters, observe the law of the Mother." and of the Angelic hierarchy: Likewise

since she had especially dedicated each Tuesday to the honor of the holy Angels, and had wished to behold their Orders surrounding the throne of the divine Majesty; she was made a partaker of her vow on the third day of Easter: and from then turned to the contempt of worldly things, while addressing her own soul she was rousing it into the love of heavenly things, the vision disappeared, leaving her full of consolation and spiritual strength.

[31] she foretells things to come: That she was endowed also with a prophetic spirit became clear several times, concerning chances about to befall herself or others. Thus through sleep she seemed to herself to see a certain nephew of hers, in the midst of soldiers wounded, and dying from the wounds received. Wherefore not content to have warned the parents, that they should not allow their son to serve as a soldier; she also tried to dissuade him, summoned to her, from following the camps. But all things were in vain: the youth went out to war eager for glory, and laughed at the dreams and predictions of the Blessed: nor long after a messenger returned about his slaughter. A certain woman, of special note among the Sienese, after a grave infirmity which she had suffered, remained insane, yet so that in lucid intervals she sometimes seemed in possession of reason. With other remedies long tried in vain, her kinsmen offered her to Aldobrandesca: who, having made the sign of the Cross over her, said: "Go, daughter, nor henceforth think of medicines to be applied; but know that on the next feast of the Purification (it was distant three whole months) you are to be restored to perfect health, because the Lord has heard your prayers and those of your people"; nor did it happen otherwise than she had predicted.

[32] snatched into ecstasy and tortured in mockery, Besides this, while she was intent on heavenly contemplations, often she was caught up in ecstasy: in which state when the aforesaid Jacomina, the hospital servant, had once caught her, terrified she exclaimed, and called all to see her whom she believed dead. Which some turning into wonder, others into laughter, began to prick and pinch her, even to pierce her with needles, and applying fire to burn her hands, until she returning to her senses, she repays good for evil. and feeling herself tortured in her whole body, said: "May God forgive you." They however all stood immobile in place, until Aldobrandesca, having compassion on them, prayed for the same: but the prayer finished, not only were they restored to themselves, but she herself also felt herself freed from all pain. And from this time whoever came upon her thus rapt, with the highest devotion venerating her as a Saint, would kiss her garments, or otherwise testify his religious affection.

[33] Finally desiring to know the time of her death, through a nightly vision in sleep she understood it; knowing the time of her death, and not only this, but also the lawsuit about her body about to arise between the Parson of St Andrew and the Provost of the Humiliati. When however the designated day approached, the ministers of the Hospital being summoned she began to exhort to cultivate the honesty of life, and to exercise charity toward pilgrims and the poor; and she adjured the same not to take from her dead body the rope with which she was girt; she gives final commands: she also signified what had been divinely revealed to her concerning her death. But before we come to these things, we must narrate certain miraculous cures, by which the Lord honored his handmaid.

[34] A certain boy suffering great pains in his whole body, she heals many sick by the sign of the Cross: for which no remedy could be found; was healthy, as soon as Aldobrandesca, when he was offered to her, signed him with the Cross. In a similar manner from a swelling closing the throat the same boy's two-year-old brother was freed. Nor was any other medicine needed for a girl, whose whole face was swollen, and one eye now deprived of sight; for whom on the next day surgeons had decided to apply the iron to incise; nor for a woman, gravely tormented from a swelling breast. To another woman, suffering with a similar swelling, the physician had decreed an incision: but Aldobrandesca, compassionating the wretched one, anticipated him, and with anointing of oil from a lamp and the sign of the Cross dispelled the swelling. Another woman suffering the same evil took a leaf from a vine, and under invocation of her name with the sign of the Cross placed it on the sick breast, and rejoiced soon to be healthy. From a certain Conrad a malignant swelling closing his throat had taken away the faculty of eating: Aldobrandesca restored it, applying the salutary sign: by which she also opened the eyes of a blind woman, and freed a youth from epileptic disease. By the fame of these and other cures stirred a woman, long suffering various and incurable infirmities, implored the help of her prayers, and experienced the efficacy, when she was signed by her with the Cross. To another woman, long vexed by malignant spirits, similar confidence in approaching the Blessed availed for liberation, when she would not leave the Hospital, before she had recognized herself dismissed by those hostile guests. At Cerreto also a certain man was lying down to death: whose son hastened to Siena to procure black cloth for adorning the funeral: but when he had happily fallen in with Aldobrandesca, she compassionating the weeping youth, blessed bread, and ordered him to give it to the sick man: who soon recovered, as if he had never been sick.

[35] At length, with the time of her departure approaching, Aldobrandesca began to suffer feverish heats, composed for prayer she expires: yet did not cease from her accustomed ministries, although she felt herself being consumed, except for a very short time during the day, in which she would indulge some rest to her failing body. On the very day of her death however, having entered her chamber, she closed the door and window, and composed herself for prayer kneeling: and amid those affections which is fit to believe were employed at such a moment of extreme penitence and most ardent charity, she expired on the twenty-sixth of April, in the year of the Lord 1310. The inmates of the Hospital, to whom her custom and diligence was known, marveled that she nowhere appeared. They go to the chamber; they find it closed; they wait outside for some time; there is a rush to see the body, and when no answer was made to those knocking, having entered through some higher window, they marvel at the most sweet odor in the place and the brightest light: wherefore, although by the whole composition of her body she presented the appearance of one living and praying, they began to suspect that the blessed soul had now departed not only from her senses, but from her body. The same B. John Baptist Tolomei a Dominican confirmed, arriving at the very hour, and openly declaring, that her soul had been shown to him, with much glory in the form of a dove flying up to heaven. Soon a great wailing of all sounded through the whole Hospital; and the very sick, having gone forth from their little beds, began to run to see the sacred body, and very many were cured of their infirmities. Then the fame of the matter flew through the city, and stirring various motions of souls, made a very great multitude of every age and condition to flow together to the Hospital.

[36] which after some contention concerning it, Meanwhile the noble families of the Ponzi, Bellanti, and Bulgarini, consulting about the burial to be given to the sacred body, were drawn into parties. For the Humiliati Fathers contended that she was due to them, who had been clothed with the habit of their Order and had been their spiritual Sister: but on the contrary the Parson of St Andrew was upholding his right, as over a subject. That contention, as it imposed delay on the business; so it afforded opportunity to many of approaching the body and reporting cures of their infirmities. The cause was at length brought to the most Reverend Lord Roger of Casoli, of the Order of St Dominic and of the Sienese convent, Bishop of the city, a man of great learning and sanctity; who, having weighed the rights and arguments brought from each side, adjudicated the cause to the Humiliati Fathers. And so with these on the twenty-ninth day of April, with the greatest apparatus of candles and the most solemn office of the Magistracy and all the nobility, on April 29 it is buried among the Humiliati: the body was buried, on the right side of the church, under an altar of the Mother of God, about eighteen paces from the principal altar; and on the same day by many miraculous cures almighty God declared the sanctity of his handmaid.

[37] Nor with the day of burial was an end made to miracles, but with peoples flocking together from time to time, where shining with miracles, they were more often repeated. Wherefore to the Provost of the church, Brother Salvator once of Lazarus of Siena, it seemed that so great a treasure was not to be retained any longer under the earth: but to be borne forth higher into a more fitting place, which he had chosen for this, with the wall hollowed out between the chapel of the Lord's Nativity and the monument of the Bonsignori. it is elevated in the year 1489, To the translation to be made the most Reverend Lord Francis, of the illustrious family of the Piccolomini, then Bishop of Siena, afterwards Roman Pontiff Pius III, gave consent; and the earth being dug up again, within the stone chest were found only the bones of the holy body, and placed in a suitable little chest, and duly translated in the month of November of the year 1489. Afterwards the place was adorned by painters: who also on the very wall expressed the memory of certain miracles, divinely wrought through her. Thereafter also more occurred, as the votive tablets and several votive gifts hung up there testify, to the praise of the Blessed and the glory of God, who is blessed forever. Amen. b

[38] Author's appendix concerning a more recent miracle: Nor ought I to pass over in silence that when in these past years certain persons, piously devoted to her name, had persuaded the Reverend mothers c of St Petronilla, that they should cause the wall, within which the holy Relics were placed, to be pierced from the side of the monastery; and on this occasion the chest had been opened in the presence of the whole convent of holy women, one of them on whom an annoying catarrh was affecting her head and eyes with grave pain, with great confidence having received a little bone reverently applied it to the infirm parts, and soon feeling herself free lives healthy unto this day, and translation in the year 1583. as the very Reverend and Excellent Lord Abbot and Canon, Lord Julius Tuti once Confessor of the same venerable monastery, attested to me; and also the very Reverend Master Daniel Francus Rector of the church of St Thomas the Apostle, both knowing of the aforesaid miracle. No more do I wish to be silent, that when in the past d year I myself was desiring to see those sacred Relics, and had obtained this from the aforesaid Lord Rector, I betook myself with Father Master Simon Cannucciario of Siena, of our convent of St Dominic, to the said church, at that time when the wall was to be broken through, containing the venerable chest: and the chest being opened in our presence and that of the said Rector and the masonry workman, such great and so sweet an odor filled the whole place, that we should have been vehemently astonished, had we not been accustomed to read and hear about such divine effects. Then praising God, we placed the sacred bones in a better and more ornate chest, and placed this in the same place so, that thereafter it could be seen by all and honored. While this is being done, there was found within the former chest a paper, witness of the previously narrated translation.

ANNOTATIONS.

b This

manner of concluding, and that the rest follow under the title of Appendix, probably indicates an older Life, as we said at the beginning, to have been before the writer, who explained the same in a more elegant style.

ON THE VENERABLE PETER THE TEUTON,

CAMALDOLESE HERMIT IN ETRURIA.

IN THE YEAR 1472.

Venerable Peter the Teuton, Camaldolese Hermit, in Etruria (S.)

By the author D. P.

Augustine of Florence, Camaldolese monk, and founder of the histories of his Order, of which he published three books in the year 1575; in book II, treating of the privileges, of Calixtus III and Pius II, sovereign Pontiffs, obtained by the favor of Mariotus, Prior of the sacred Hermitage and 43rd General of the whole Order, in chapter 71 of the same second book sets forth thus: A recluse living, "These times produced the Venerable Peter Zelandrinus, the Teuton, a most illustrious Hermit. He within the secret places of the Lord Pope's first cell, and afterwards of St Bartholomew's, for thirty years, squalid and uncultivated in body, drew out his stay; while most clean in soul, for the safety of the holy Mother Church, in hiddenness he did not cease to weary the heavenly Father with perpetual prayer. Wherefore as he was most acceptable to the divine goodness, it happened that he saw the soul of Pius II Sovereign Pontiff, he sees the soul of Pius II being borne to heaven: borne to the heavens by the hands of Angels; just as it has been handed down to memory, that to St P. Benedict, at the death of Germanus Bishop of Capua, happened; with the whole world gathered before his eyes, under a certain shining splendor. They report still, from tradition, that he then with a cry burst forth into these words, with ineffable jubilation of heart from the mystery: 'Look, Brothers, look: behold the soul of the supreme High Priest, raised up by Angels into heaven, penetrating the ether by glorious assumption': which very thing those who committed to writing the deeds of Pius himself have not left untouched."

[2] opposing the sign of the Cross to a marauding soldier, There is a report besides, that during the passing of a certain army, a certain phalanx of soldiers had decided to come to depopulate the sacred hermitage, because they had perceived that a great quantity of grain and utensils had been brought there by the men of Casentino, on account of the fear of war. For this reason the hermits were affected with the greatest sorrow, so much so that there were not lacking some fearful ones, who decided to procure their safety for themselves by fleeing through the high ridges. But the venerable Peter, recluse, earnestly exhorting his family to hope in the Lord Jesus, and that a solemn supplication be held; when the hermits two by two, with the banner of the holy Cross going before, approached his cell; the man of God leaped up from prayer, and had scarcely formed with his right hand the sign of the holy Cross against the soldiers, he girds the hermitage with thick darkness, who had now entered the wood; when God by a great miracle, with an inexpugnable wall of most thick and most cold darkness, in the blink of an eye girded the hermitage round, so that the day, before most clear, was changed as it were into the dark shadows of night; and so great a horror invaded all, and cold and confusion, that not without great difficulty was there at length a return to the camps.

[3] The venerable Peter survived to the year 1473: dying he is buried beside B. Peregrine, he left these fragile shadows on the 6th day before the Kalends of May, being in his ninety-eighth year. With his body buried beside B. Peregrine, divine honors were paid to him equally by the Fathers. Augustine had treated of B. Peregrine in book 2, chapter 50, and we shall treat of the same on the 3rd day of the month of June. Neither did those Hermits of pristine simplicity care to describe the Life, content to hand down the memory of the virtues to their posterity through hands; and as this gradually faded away, except for the traces of one or another more illustrious action and the religious veneration of the sacred bodies, nothing remained, whence it might be known by what right they were everywhere called Blessed. Wherefore to Blessed Peter also (for so both Augustine in the title of chapter 43, and other authors unhesitatingly write, and is still used in the sacred Hermitage) to Blessed Peter, I say, can be ascribed the end of the epigram, affixed by the monk Gabriel to the chest of B. Peregrine: and is honored with votive tablets:

If, however, you wish to know both his life and his manners: The pious votive tablets placed beneath will tell you these.

[4] For Peter's chest also is reported to me to have been adorned with several votive tablets, in the year 1661, on the 20th of January, when I climbed again to the sacred hermitage: the body together with other Blessed bodies is kept separately, but with the temple recently restored and magnificently adorned, the chests had then been removed from their places, which they had had behind the high altar, together with the bodies, and brought into the sacristy, until another place was prepared, worthy of their sanctity, which has now been done, and it can be presumed not to have been done without the translation of the bodies into more decent chests, since the old ones, very simply assembled from boards and inside scarcely covered with silk cloth withered with age, were entirely unworthy that for so long a time they should contain such a treasure. For the bodies are not dissolved, although long lying in a damp place, but consist with solid composition; yet dry and rigid, and with features confused and a cinerary or stony color induced, presenting only a rough form of a man; and the same light in weight and breathing no heavy odor, as I myself am an eyewitness. Otherwise nothing was being done about them in the divine Offices, nothing on their anniversary day by those pious hermit-dwellers, without special cult in the Camaldolese hermitage, avoiding all ostentation. They, lest they be impeded by the access of secular men from the leisure of quiet contemplation, do not even have for the sake of sacred things the open gates of the wall, surrounding their hermitage; but at one of them a small chapel, and they appoint each week one of their own to celebrate Mass there. To guests and Pilgrims, however, who out of devotion wish to see the aforesaid hermitage, besides a guide to the temple and to the cell of the Pope mentioned above, nothing is provided; lest anything detain them there beyond what is needed, and so they are compelled, at least for the cause of bodily refection, to descend to the lower monastery. The hospice "of the good fountain" called in the Acts of St Romuald, where with great charity and liberality is administered to all who come.

[5] That cloister, whence by an arduous path of one and more miles one ascends to the hermitage, in which, similar to oriental laurae, is succinctly described on February 8, in the Acts of St Romuald, number 10. The hermitage itself has the form of Laurae, so often mentioned in this work and notably in the Acts of Sts Theodosius and Sabas; inhabited not by contiguous cells, as are the Carthusians', but by separate ones; so that besides the temple, common to the whole hermitage, to each cell its own chapel is attached, and the hermits are able to live shut up for weeks or months, outside all conversation and sight of anyone; except that at certain hours one of the Conversi may approach, who in the time of reclusion may assist those celebrating Mass, and supply slender food. The most extreme of all and somewhat ampler than the others is the Cell of the Pope, so called, because in the year 1220, Hugolinus Cardinal of Velletri, afterwards Pope Gregory the ninth, for six whole months lived there shut up, with St Francis having accompanied him there, and another cell (which is now called of St Francis, and out of reverence is inhabited by the Major or Prior) inhabiting at that time also. is the Pope's oratory, There as the Cardinal was celebrating, in the oratory which he himself had consecrated, at the very moment of consecration there stood above his head a dove sent from heaven, by which sign the Conversus then ministering to him, afterwards shut up in the same cell, knew and predicted to him the future Pontiff; whose bones also are placed within the wall of the oratory more highly, with this elogium: "Of B. Leonard, recluse hermit, the bones are placed here: whose soul after long maceration of the flesh, was seen in a fiery sphere to penetrate the secret places of heaven; and the bell of the hermitage was heard to be rung without the help of mortals. He also by prophetic spirit predicted the most Reverend Hugolinus Cardinal, then shut up in this cell, would be a future Pope: which so happened, and he was called Gregory the ninth." Indulgences also of one hundred days were granted by Gregory, to those visiting the oratory of that cell; which that they may more freely gain, both the hermits themselves and the pilgrims, the place is now kept almost empty; but formerly there were allowed to dwell those who desired a longer reclusion.

[6] So there dwelt he, on whose occasion we began to say these things, Peter, from his fatherland Zealand called Zelandrinus, from his nation or idiom common also to the Belgians called the Teuton. What is the other cell, called of St Bartholomew, I do not remember to have heard there: I only know, that pointed out to us at a distance was a cell hanging from a high rock above the hermitage; from which Peter migrated to the cell of St Bartholomew. in which a certain recluse dwelt, keeping perpetual silence, and not descending to the rest in the church except on the Lord's Supper, to whom once each week a Confessor Priest would ascend. When Peter therefore had decided to live perpetually shut up, and could not on account of the Indulgences to be gained in the Oratory of St Mary be entirely free from interruptors; it is credible that he obtained that more remote one. As to what pertains to Pope Pius II, he, prepared to mount a fleet against the Turks, while he awaits the Doge of Venice, died at Ancona, in the year 1464, on the 17th day before the Kalends of September. His most pious death various have praised: but who has touched on the vision made to the Venerable Peter (which Augustine here hints at) we have not yet read: nor is there need of the testimony of outsiders, who would have narrated things heard from the Camaldolese hermits; since the truth of the matter is more securely received from the narration handed down by themselves through hands.

[7] Furthermore the things which we have given in Latin from Augustine concerning Peter, the same Silvanus Razzius rendered in Italian in the lives of the Saints and Blessed of the Camaldolese. other things less foundedly written about the same. Of the same Peter Thomas de Minis makes mention, in the Catalog of Saints and Blessed of his Order, edited at Florence around the year 1606. Arnold Wion in the Wood of Life speaks in this manner: "At Camaldoli of St Peter, surnamed the Teuton, who saw the soul of Pius II the Pope, crowned with three diadems, far placed himself, borne to heaven by the hands of Angels": he cites however in the Annotations the Camaldolese Tablets: of which there is no memory at Camaldoli; as neither of the Vallombrosan, often cited by him, at Vallombrosa: from which you may learn, that these were nothing else than a Catalog by some monk, when Arnold asked it, by private authority woven together. He then cites Augustine, in whom he could not have read either the title of Saint, or any word about the three diadems. Meanwhile Hugh Menard and Gabriel Bucelinus, not knowing the faith of such a writer to be anywhere suspect, although they had Augustine's text before their eyes, preferred nevertheless to transcribe the words of Arnold. Nor content with these Bucelinus, while he sought a longer elogium from Augustine, and could not but add something of his own, about to describe the danger prepared by the hand of marauders and warded off by Peter, with bold exaggeration he invented the extreme destruction threatening Camaldoli from the imminent army.

April III: 27. April

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