Prudentius

ON SAINT PRUDENTIUS,

BISHOP OF TARAZONA IN ARAGON.

Prudentius, Bishop of Tarazona, in Aragon (Saint)

BHL Number: 6983, 6981

FROM THE MSS.

CHAPTER I.

The age of Saint Prudentius discussed, and the dispute of the Cistercians of Monte Laturci and of Najera concerning his body.

Turiaso, commonly Tarazona, is a city of Aragon, by which it borders Castile and Navarre, seven miles distant from Calahorra and eleven from Zaragoza; noble for its ancient Episcopal See, Saint Prudentius, Bishop of Tarazona which Saint Prudentius, whom we here present, occupied, as his Acts and the Breviary of Zaragoza printed in 1541 in the Office testify. Meanwhile not sufficiently distinguished from others of the same name, he is conjectured by writers to have lived in various and greatly differing times. Thought the same as others of the same name Alphonsus Venerus, Vasaeus, Baronius, Mariana, and some more recent writers following them, identify him with that Prudentius who buried the body of Saint Engratia, Virgin and Martyr of Zaragoza; with the one who wrote hymns and sacred poems, Bernardus Lucensis, By some referred to the year 300 and 390 Taraffa, Ferrarius, Trujillo. And therefore, to make the times correspond with the facts, the former refer him to the year 300 and the reign of Diocletian, the latter to 390: Sanctorus and Marieta to the year 1126; Tamayo with Bivario from the Chronicle of Maximus to 570. By others referred to the year 570 and 1120 Yepez finally places him between 700 and 900. In such great variety of assigning an age, this at least is certain, that Saint Prudentius by living preceded the year of the Lord 846. This is clear from the act of Ramiro, King of Castile, who, having obtained a victory over the Saracens around this year, as Mariana and others hold, to show himself grateful to God for the benefit received, and having poured out prayer at Saint Prudentius's body, augmented with certain estates the monastery He lived at least before the year 846 in which that body lay. A very ancient manuscript of the same monastery narrates the matter thus: "Battle being joined, the Saracens turned their backs to the swords, and almost seventy thousand of them fell. In which battle Blessed James is said to have appeared on a white horse carrying a white banner; and from that time it began to be said in wars: 'God help me and Blessed James.' From that time also vows and offerings are paid to him in some places. Then King Ramiro entered the church of Blessed Vincent, where the body of Blessed Prudentius rests; there he prayed before the cross of the Lord, and made joyful by the victory, gave and granted to Blessed Prudentius the adjacent lands." Thus there. With about the same times also those agree which we will soon report from documents to be presented; from which it will again be clear that Saint Prudentius passed from life before the year 950.

[2] The body of the deceased was buried in a cave at the foot of Mount Laturci, two miles from Juliobriga, The body was buried at Mount Laturci at the borders of Old Castile; where a church was afterwards built to Saint Vincent, which later assumed the title of Saint Prudentius; and the Cistercians migrated there into the old monastery, which had previously been the Canons', in the year 1181, from the monastery of Sacra-moenia of the Morimund filiation. Juliobriga is distant from there about five miles going toward Burgos; thence Najera (commonly Najara) occurs next: whose inhabitants have an old and very sharp contest with the neighboring Laturcenses about the body of Saint Prudentius; and because the weight of arguments is almost equal on both sides, Those of Najera prove it was carried to them it has seemed good to set them here before the Reader's judgment. The people of Najera prove the body's translation to them from an old epitaph found on Saint Prudentius's tomb, engraved on a gilded copper plate, of this kind:

"The illustrious Bishop Prudentius rests here, From an old epitaph By whom Calahorra flourishes, through whom Tarazona shines. He gave to the Church teachings of faith and morals, Through whom she gains the rewards of perpetual life. King Garcia brought him here and placed him; Because he built this basilica at his own expense."

This translation they refer to about the year 1052, and that from the documents of the same Garcia, King of Navarre, which speak of the foundation of the Najera monastery, in Yepez, volume 6 of the Benedictine Annals, to which this year is subscribed.

[3] They further defend themselves by the diplomas of certain Bishops, in which there is a most clear mention of the body resting with the Najerans: the first, of Cerebrun, Archbishop of Toledo, written in the year 1175, From the diploma of Cerebrun, Archbishop of Toledo is of this kind: "Hence it is that we more attentively admonish your Fraternity in the Lord, and in remission of your sins enjoin upon you: that from the goods given to you by God, you should willingly bestow upon the church of Saint Mary of Naxara; in which, as we have heard by the report of many, Almighty God through the intercession of his most blessed Mother and of Blessed Prudentius, Bishop and Confessor, whose body rests in the aforesaid church, daily works many miracles," etc. To this they add another of Asnar, Bishop of Calahorra, written in the year 1246, in these words: Also of Asnar "Since therefore the silver ark, in which the body of the most blessed Prudentius the Confessor is venerated, in the church of Saint Mary of Naxara, is consumed by age, so that it seems to need no small repair; and since for this and other things which are fitting for the veneration of the said most precious body, the proper resources do not suffice; we admonish your whole community," etc. A third finally is the diploma of Bibianus, And of Bibianus, Bishops of Calahorra likewise Bishop of Calahorra, in which, granting forty days of indulgence to those coming annually to celebrate the translation of Saint Prudentius, he speaks in these words: "Hearing in the year 1267 the miracles and graces which God works at the body of Saint Prudentius, which rests in the monastery of Saint Mary of Naxara," etc. Yepez in the Appendix to volume 6 of the Annals provides documents From documents of the years 1533 and 1602 signed by the public scribes of Najera; in which John Gutierrez, Abbot of the said monastery, in the year 1602, in the presence of several Abbots and other most conspicuous men, is said to have transferred the body of Saint Prudentius, mutilated in the head, from the old ark into a new silver one, together with the said plate containing the sepulchral verses, witnesses of the translation made by Garcia. The same was done in the year 1533 When it was inspected without the head on the 20th day of April, Yepez is the author also from public documents, century 6 chapter 8, and that the plate was then viewed with the body not whole, as elsewhere, by the Duke of Najera Antonio Manriquez, Juana de Cardona his wife, Abbot Diego de Liziniana, and the whole Convent. To these, for the defense of the Najerans, Yepez adds the old Breviary of the said monastery, which also thus makes credible the translation of the body thither: And from the Breviary of the Najera monastery "But after much time the body of the same most holy Prudentius, with the relics of very many other Saints, was translated, namely of Pelagius his disciple, of the most glorious Vincent the Martyr. With worthy honor they were translated by King Garcia, who built this royal monastery of Najera, in honor of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the most blessed Virgin Mary and of the most holy Prudentius."

[4] The Laturcenses on the contrary maintain the body remained with them And these are the things by which the Najerans claim Saint Prudentius for themselves: now to be added are those things which favor the Cistercians of Mount Laturci. These are testimonies of no lesser faith, partly collected from the diplomas of Kings, partly asserted from elsewhere. That Saint Prudentius's body was with the Laturcenses in the year 950 is clear from the following document of Abdica the Abbot, written in the same year in these words: From the documents of Abdica the Abbot in the year 950 "Abdica the Abbot offered the monastery of Saint Prudentius to the Abbot of Albelda through fear of the Saracens. Under the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity, I, Abdica the Abbot, with my Brothers Christopher, Fortunius, Saracino, Dato, Stephen, Rapinatus, with ready mind and whole heart, to you spiritual Father Dulquitus and to the Brothers, dwelling with you in the love of Christ at Albelda in the monastery of Saint Martin, we hand over our souls, and together our bodies, that we may obtain the rewards of heaven. For we above named have had and held, by the nod of Almighty God, conferred on us and confirmed, the church of Saint Vincent and Lord Prudentius, where his venerable body rests, which is situated at the foot of Mount Laturci, with its adjacencies, lands, vineyards, gardens; and likewise the inheritance of Peter the Presbyter, who was our colleague while living and at last died. May this vow of ours obtain firmness in the age. Made the charter at the river Hiberus, era 988." Thus there.

[5] That the same body rested with the Laturcenses in the year 1065 and the following, a double diploma of those years makes testified. In the earlier, Sancho, King of Navarre, thus speaks: And from the diplomas of King Sancho of the year 1065 "In the name of the holy Trinity. This is a charter of donation, which I, Sancho, by the grace of God King, make for the remedy of my soul and of my parents. I give to God and to the Church of Saint Prudentius, where his body rests, the monastery of Saint Augustine near Nalda with its lands, and the monastery of Saint Saturninus of Pavia with its village, etc., that they may serve from there God and Blessed Prudentius through all ages. Made the charter of donation in Najera in era 1103, our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, and under his rule I Sancho by the grace of God King in Najera and Pamplona," etc. In the other the same in these words: "I Sancho, by the grace of God King, ordered this little charter to be made. Finally it has pleased me that I should grant some gift to that monastery of Saint Prudentius, in the place which is called Laturce, because there rests the body of the most blessed man Prudentius the Bishop; and I grant to it the tithes of the valley of Arnedo," etc.

[6] And others of the year 1145 Of the year 1145, the documents of Alphonsus exchanging certain things with the monastery of Saint Prudentius prove the same: "I exchange," he says, "with you, Abbot Martin and the Convent of Saint Prudentius, existing near Clavigium, where the body of the aforesaid Saint Prudentius rests, that village which is called Langunilla," etc. Made the charter at Toledo, era 1183. Of the year 1181 also, from a certain privilege of Diego Ximenius, Lord of los Cameros, written in era 1219, And 1181 it is clear: in which "Besides," he says, "we wish that an Abbey and Convent be established (namely under the Cistercian Order) where the body of Saint Prudentius is believed to rest," etc. In the said temple is seen the epitaph of the same Diego, buried there

in 1186. Finally from the lifting of the siege of Logroño in 1521 Of the year 1521 at last, the neighboring people of Logroño testify: who at that time, with the aid of Saint Prudentius invoked, being freed from the siege of the French, come annually on June 11 to the said monastery in solemn procession with remembrance of the benefit received. At which time this also happened marvelous: that when, through fear of the French, the body placed on a pack animal was to be carried away elsewhere, it could not be moved from the place. Manriquez in the Cistercian Annals for the year 1181 narrates the matter thus: "With the French in that year besieging Juliobriga and devastating the fields round about, the Prudentian monks were in straits. The Abbot, who was then called Bernard of Valladolid, providing for the precious body rather than for himself and his own, resolved to carry it off to farther parts, to be preserved from the incursions of the French the more safely the more remotely. He orders the sacred pledge to be placed on a horse, that it might go out by the vehicle by which it had come. Then, with the monks accompanying, progress was made and they came to the bounds of the sacred home. A wondrous and stupendous matter, though not new! Scarcely had the horse touched those bounds, and behold, swollen and dripping sweat with all its limbs, it stood immobile to the blows of those striking it, and there was no step or motion except in returning. The body was restored to its cave. Whence, keeping watch close by at Juliobriga, it took care of itself without guard, dissolved the siege, and on that very day of April 28 sacred to it, drove off the French, reduced in forces and orphaned of their leader. This the people of Logroño promised to commemorate each year, received from the holy Bishop, carrying out vigils at the sacred body. From the devoted discharge of which vow, they are not retarded by the distance of place, stretched to about eight miles, nor by inclement weather, nor by any other obstacles." To these Bivario in his Commentaries on the Chronicle of Dexter adds that Hadrian VI, in a diploma written in the same year on July 23, says that "in exchange for a little bone of Saint Prudentius, which he had received from the monks of the monastery of Laturci, where his holy body rests, he was sending to them a joint of the hand of Saint John the Baptist."

[7] Probably a part of him is with both parties Manriquez, in volume 3 of the Cistercian Annals, weighing the import of both the testimonies we have brought forward, attributes the body of Saint Prudentius partly to the people of Najera, partly to the Laturcenses; yet granting to these the chief portion, and only some bone to the people of Najera. Yepez above cited does the same, but with almost the whole body attributed to the people of Najera, leaving only the head with a few little bones to the Laturcenses. And so perhaps the matter stands, that the sacred body is divided between both; and while the testimonies say that the body is in both places, "body" is to be taken not for the whole body but for a part; and that this was customary elsewhere, Baronius, in the year 761, treating of the translation of the body of Saint Stephen the Pope, asserts in these words: "But that in the cemetery of Calixtus likewise the body of Saint Stephen the Pope and Martyr is still said to be placed, is thought to come from this, that as was customary in other cases, when the sacred bodies of Saints were wont to be translated, some part was usually left in the former place."

CHAPTER II.

The fabulous Acts of Saint Prudentius, from which a more recent Bishop of Tarazona of the same name is produced.

[8] Bivario with Tamayo admits another Yet Bivario, with Tamayo, goes further, to whom the cited testimonies carry such weight in his Commentaries that he therefore maintains that there were two Saints of this name who were Bishops of the Church of Tarazona. For while he believes those testimonies to be altogether irrefragable, so that he is not confident either of contradicting them on either side or of reconciling them in any other way, he places in them the chief strength and patronage of thinking so; although he does not think he is destitute of other reasons for defending his opinion. For establishing first what is beyond controversy, that Saint Prudentius, with whom we here deal, preceded the year of Christ 800 by living; he says that there are mixed into his Acts certain things which, wrongly attributed to him, [Because of certain things mixed into the Acts pertaining to the times of Alphonso VIII] relate to years much later than his own age; and thus also another Prudentius, likewise Bishop of Tarazona. But those things which are mixed into the said Acts are: first, Alphonsus, King of Aragon, that one, as he says, who with long and happy wars was tamer of the Saracens, and recovered many cities of Spain from their yoke, and departed from life in the year 1134: then the fatal imprecation, at his death, made by Saint Prudentius against the city of Garray, which was of the diocese of Tarazona. Which, that the zealous Reader of truth may rightly judge, it has seemed good to place here the whole fable; thus it runs:

[9] It is handed down to memory the miracle which the Lord did under the seal by Saint Prudentius the Bishop. For in his time, Alphonsus, King of Aragon, wishing to ride against the Saracens, [In which it is narrated that the citizens of Garray, having set out for war with Alphonsus] by royal edict commanded that each man from each house should follow him against the enemies of the faith; and whoever should remain from the army on any occasion, except for love of the King, should vehemently incur his offense. With the appointed day pressing, all followed the army, both soldiers and rustic people, because of the oath and fear of the King. In the province of Blessed Prudentius, within the kingdom of the aforesaid King, was a certain castle on the bank of the Douro, having the name Garray: a town, I say, situated in pleasant places, surrounded by green meadows, with healthful waters, fertile places. From one side the bed of the Douro, from the other side the rivers Terus and Terregronius, and from the east the water of the river of Nebulae: these four aforesaid streams abundantly produce fish. As we have said, almost all the men of this castle followed the King's army, the women and children remained at home. [The priests of the town with their wives were accustomed to live in married fashion] In this same castle were not a few Priests, who loved the world and the slippery things of the world more than to keep the Catholic faith and the commandments of God. The King of Aragon was so long a time occupied with his army against the Saracens, that the sons, left by their fathers nursing at their mothers' breasts, growing to adult youth, sought their parents in the territories of the Saracens. Meanwhile the most ancient enemy, who always strives to deceive mortal man, so deceived the priests of that castle, that, inflamed with shameful and illicit love, they received the wives of those men into their own houses; and they, transgressors of the law, worthy of hate, unworthy of the priesthood, dwelt with them impudently and publicly. What more? It happened to many of those women that they begot sons from men not their own and from abominable Presbyters.

[10] Time having passed, the King of Aragon, And returning from victory, the husbands being kept from the city with great victory and glory, with Saracens in chains, with horsemen and spoils, joyfully returned to his own. The men of Garray, therefore, returning to their own, met travelers: "Hail," they said to those meeting them, asking them about the state and condition of Garray, how their wives and sons were doing. They peacefully and admonishing with chastisement announced how the priests of Garray and the lay sons of the priests had fortified the castle of Garray, and how the priests slept with their wives. They, grieving with great bitterness, entered into counsel how they should act and how they should speak. One of them, more honorable than the rest, before all gave counsel that they should come peacefully to the gates of the castle. But those who were inside, all together with warlike arms drove them off, inflicting wounds and killing, as far as a mountain called Moncayo, which lies on the side of Mount Tygnos. Thence the people of Garray, returning to the castle, day and night carefully guarded themselves and the town. The aforementioned chosen men, remaining on Mount Moncayo, built a wall and castle of hewn stones; and all days with an armed hand, riding to the castle of Garray, and fighting in turn, many fell on both sides.

[11] Meanwhile the King of Aragon died, and dissension in the kingdom, with the devil as author, lasted for many years; With the King dying in the meantime, Prudentius labored in vain for peace and no one, neither Bishop nor Abbot, could bring concord between them, most wickedly disagreeing into diverse parts. This dissension was in the province and bishopric of Blessed Prudentius; who many times wished to make peace firm, but could not recall their savagery. And it happened that by Apostolic command, all the Archbishops and Bishops came to the Council of Bourges. The Archbishop of Toledo and the Bishops of his province prepared the journey; And Bishops as intermediaries and they caused Prudentius, Bishop of Tarazona, to be informed beforehand of the day they would lodge with him. Who, rejoicing with excessive joy, prepared his house honorably, and received them with great devotion and most affectionate embraces. Matt. 4:4 And because he had often read the words of the Lord in the Gospel saying: "Man does not live by bread alone," after the refreshment of foods, desiring also to refresh their souls with discourses, he narrated to the aforementioned Archbishop and Bishops how the deceitful and perfidious enemy had inspired an evil spirit into the people of Garray. Which having been said, tears breaking forth, he asked them to go there together, that by their admonitions they might put an end to the discords of the aforesaid people. They, with willing mind consenting, with cheerful will promised to obey to this.

[12] But the next day the Archbishop of Toledo and seven Bishops came to the castle of Garray, wishing to make peace between the exiled men and those who dwelt in the land of Garray. Assiduously, therefore, and more earnestly for four days, the holy Fathers, praying for peace and concord for them, could accomplish nothing. For the Priests full of iniquity and together with others dwelling in the castle, desiring that the Bishops should depart without honor, counseling among themselves, commanded the butchers Who, wicked, had cat-flesh sold in place of wild game that they should secretly kill fat puppies and cats, and make them fit as if for sale, hide their heads and feet in pits, and where they were accustomed to keep meat for sale in the market, there openly on Thursday show them. No other pork or beef or flesh of any birds or beasts on that day should appear in the castle, so that when the servants of the Bishops came to buy meat, they should find no other. They asked the butchers what that meat was; the butchers asserted with an oath that that meat was from the mountains, more useful, fatter, and sweeter than the meat of other beasts for eating, and that it was necessary to eat them only roasted with fire and seasoned with pepper. The ministers bought the meat, and prepared it unawares, and set it before their lords on the table. The Archbishop of Toledo beginning "Benedicite," But these when brought to the table let out sounds with the others beginning together, the holy Fathers showing deference to Blessed Prudentius, signaled him to raise his hand and bless the things placed. After the blessing, immediately the roasted puppies and cats over the whole table with their own voice grunted. The Archbishop and Bishops, then, terrified with excessive fright, sought their horses and fled in haste. And so departing they ascended Serra-Alba, which overlooks

and is higher than other mountains. Blessed Prudentius therefore asked the Archbishop and Bishops to put on special vestments as for celebrating the sacrifice, That those of Garray, bound by curses, were consumed by lice and with him together to curse the abominable inhabitants of Garray. He himself, supported by the authority of God, cursed Garray with all its inhabitants, and likewise the Archbishop and the other seven Fathers with him. Immediately the curse being made, there fell upon the wicked people of Garray a certain kind of lice, which among the Spaniards are called "Garrapatae" and are wont to bite dogs and cats; so that even in this the heavenly vengeance for their crime might shine forth, and all from greatest to least died from the tearing and piercing of lice. From then on that castle is uninhabitable to this day. These miracles and many others God did through Blessed Prudentius the Bishop.

[13] To these things, which alone complete the whole Life and Acts of the more recently asserted Prudentius, Other arguments of Bivario Bivario adds certain other things which likewise would prove a Prudentius distinct from the one we here present. Among these is a difference of feast, and another day sacred to the Saint about whom they dispute among the Laturcenses, another among the Najerans; among the latter the last Sunday of May, among the former April 29: then the testimony of two going in some way to the opinion before him: first of Florian Ocampo, who in book 1, chapter 6, describing Garray among other cities, says: "Garray, a place at the borders of Soria, Especially of Ocampo or especially noble for this, that in former times it was an Episcopal See: among its many Bishops, however, no one, as we shall say in its own place, was as illustrious as Saint Prudentius." The other of Julian Peter, whom he asserts to have reached by living to the year 1160, contemporary to the more recent Prudentius devised by him: from his Adversaria he produces these things: "It is probable that there were two Prudentiuses, Bishops of Tarazona; one under Diocletian, And the testimony of Julian Peter who, translated to Zaragoza, buried Saint Engratia, translated finally to Tarazona; another much lower in the course of time: both preached to the Calahorrans; the latter to gentiles, the former however to Mohammedans, with great fruit. The prior Saint Prudentius flourished in the year of the Lord 297; but the latter in 1110; the prior is called of Calahorra and of Zaragoza." Further, he says, his opinion is favored by the fact that Saint Prudentius's Acts mention certain words, for instance Canons, and the canonical Third hour chanted before Mass, and reveal the body being buried with a responsory and a prayer. Which since they had not been in use in the Church, as he says, before the year of Christ 1000, he therefore contends that they refer to a certain Prudentius more recent than the one whom he himself, from the Pseudo-Chronicle of Dexter, refers to the year 570. Also favoring, that in the same Acts there is mention of Mohammed and his Saracen worshipers, who in the said year 570 were not yet known.

CHAPTER III.

The arguments of Bivario are weighed, the fable is examined. The ancient Acts are partly indicated, partly sought out.

[14] These are the arguments of Bivario, which seem to us not to have such force, To which it is answered as, prudently weighed, could incline anyone to agreement with him, admitting two holy Prudentiuses of the Church of Tarazona. Testimonies ascribing the body to both the Najerans and the Laturcenses can conveniently be reconciled, if we understand the word "body" not as "whole body" but only as "a part." And indeed that the body of one and the same Saint Prudentius is divided between both, you will easily gather from the fact that the Najerans keep the body, but, as we saw above, lacking the head. The Mohammedans and their worshipers mentioned in the Acts could indeed favor some more recent Prudentius, if it were certain that the other with whom we here deal lived before the year 600: which the Chronicle attributed to Maximus asserts, but those knowing historical matters rightly despise it as supposititious. Investigating what is certain on this matter, Of Saint Prudentius only this is certain, that he lived before the year 846 we have already found that Saint Prudentius lived at least before the year 846: of the age of earlier times, no certainty is found anywhere, if any is to be attributed to him. Saint Prudentius could therefore have been contemporary with the times in which the followers of Mohammed summoned from Africa settled in Spain, opposite their coast, that is, a little after the year 700. Moreover, the Acts themselves, in that place where they mention the Mohammedans, how weak their faith is, appears from this, that they say they worshiped an idol of Mohammed: certainly the Mohammedans are not idolaters, nor do they ever venerate their pseudoprophet in an idol.

[15] The names of Canons, the canonical Third Hour, The writings of Julian are spurious of the Responsory, of the Prayer, no more favor a more recent Prudentius: for, contrary to what Bivario unlearnedly said, they were in use in the Church before the year 1000, indeed before the year 846. But be it that these also are more recent, as certainly more recent are the names Ximeno for Simon, Ebro for Iberus, etc., nothing else follows from this than that the Acts are not held in the original style of a contemporary author—if an author was contemporary. The testimony of Julian destroys itself in a way: for if he was contemporary with some more recent Prudentius, why does he speak of him as removed from his own age? Why does he say that there were two "probably" and not rather "certainly"? Certainly living in the flower of age and on the same soil with the more recent, he could have pronounced of him with certainty; but of the prior not even suspect through any suspicion. Florian Ocampo is fittingly understood of the Prudentius whom we here give, Ocampo can be understood of one Prudentius and not so recent one only, and who lived before the year 846. For nothing forbids believing that before this year, with African barbarians occupying the towns of Aragon, the Episcopal See of Tarazona of Saint Prudentius was occupied by them; with Garray safe meanwhile, which he for some time and his successors (for Ocampo says there were several Bishops of Garray) held as their Episcopal See. To which also makes this: that those who defend the Garrayan Prudentius as distinct from the one whom we here give, can produce no Bishops of that town either before or after him. Morales, continuing Ocampo's annals, and the years to which the latter had promised to speak more fully of the Garrayan Prudentius, brings forward no traces of even the smallest monuments, adding that of this more recent Prudentius, if indeed Ocampo speaks of him, he has found nothing except in this writer. The discrepancy of feast among the Laturcenses and the Najerans is a weak weapon: for it is very common in the Church that even the same Saints are venerated on different days; especially those whose Relics have been translated, as it can scarcely be doubted happened to Saint Prudentius.

[16] The remaining narrative above was the crime of the citizens of Garray, and the curses pronounced against them by their Bishop under Alphonsus the Warrior. The narration about the people of Garray mixed into the Acts seems fabulous That narration, besides being consigned by many others, even on Bivario's own testimony, to the most fabricated fables, to us carefully weighing the whole matter, seems deservedly to be sent away to the same and not another place. For what? When Prudentius was snatched from Tarazona, the chief seat of his episcopal cares, by the barbarians, while now only the town of Garray and perhaps a narrow vicinity besides remained to him as Pastor, was his industry in feeding his afflicted flock so small, that his Priests, with himself looking on, should dare to commit adultery with impunity? If they dared, why did not the holy Prelate oppose the evil while still in its beginnings? From the circumstances But had he as many Priests in one town as citizens who had gone out to war? But why did only the fathers go out, and not rather their grown sons? Was that war so grave and so long without interruption, that from some interval of quiet no one returned home to greet his widow, wife, and children? He who considers these things rightly makes the credibility of the said narration suspect to himself. Now indeed, who would believe that King Alphonsus, if he was then still alive, would have wished to leave unpunished so signal a daring of adulterous Priests, who kept his soldiers, dear to him and victors in long wars with him, from their paternal and own homes? And that Alphonsus was still alive at that time may be gathered even from the said narrative itself, by the one who observes that it is there said, that after the citizens had already been driven out from their town by force, and fortifying themselves on a neighboring mountain had already fixed their seats there, only then did Alphonsus depart from life. From the false assertion of the Council of Bourges But nothing more openly calls the whole matter into the suspicion of a fable than the Council of Bourges, mentioned among other things there, of which kind none existed even in that entire century: seeing which, Bivario, lest he should be left without a council, to which the Spanish Bishops could be said to have gone at that time, when they assisted Saint Prudentius cursing the people of Garray, gratuitously seizes upon the Council of Pisa celebrated in the year 1134, and says that it must be substituted for "Bituricensi" (of Bourges) erroneously written there. I omit to say how ridiculous the very deed of the people of Garray, selling cat-flesh to the Bishops for wild game, appears.

[17] Finally, if, as the champions of a more recent Prudentius wish, he was Bishop of Tarazona under King Alphonsus, though he had fixed his See not at Tarazona, as being still in the power of the Moors, [From the act of Alphonsus granting the bishopric of Tarazona to Michael in the year 1119] but in the town of Garray: if, I say, this is so, Alphonsus certainly, having recovered Tarazona in the year 1119, would have restored his Bishop to it, especially him whom he knew to be a holy man, exiled from his own and chief See, hitherto occupied only with a narrow part of it. But when Alphonsus received Tarazona by surrender, he took care to place over it a Bishop named Michael. So in book 1 of the Annals of the Kingdom of Aragon in the said year, Zurita testifies in these words: "Tarazona, through which the Chalybs river, rising from the roots of Mount Caunus, flows, rich in a fertile and pleasant region and abundance of fields, is snatched from the dominion of enemies. The sacred building and See of the Church, illustrious in Gothic times, is restored. Michael the Bishop is put in charge, and his diocese is extended over a great part of Celtiberia." That this Michael extended his episcopate until the year 1150, Who held it until the year 1150 appears partly from the said Zurita, partly from Briz in the History of San Juan de la Peña; and from Geographers we have Garray, about five miles distant from Tarazona, also numbered in part of Celtiberia. These things notwithstanding, however, the Directory for reciting the Offices of the Saints of the Church of Tarazona, printed in 1664, mandates sacred cult to a twin Prudentius: the prior on April 28, the latter likewise Bishop of Tarazona on November 14. What then, if Diego Escolanus, Bishop of Tarazona, by whose authority that Directory came forth, so decided from the opinion of Bivario? He is not the first nor the only one who in the present century, rashly credulous to Pseudo-Dexterian and similar fictions, has disturbed the Fasti of their Churches, and given occasion for just complaints to judicious and learned Spaniards.

[18] Ghinius, Molanus, and Ferrarius have inscribed Saint Prudentius on April 28 in their Martyrologies; and the Roman Martyrology has this: Mention of Saint Prudentius in the Martyrologies; relics "At Tarazona in Spain, Saint Prudentius, Bishop and Confessor." What from his Relics has been scattered to various places, Manriquez in the Cistercian Annals thus briefly commits to memory: "Tarazona, the ancient See of the Saint, has for about three hundred years had an arm, sent by the Prudentians, as a great gift. Vitoria, which rejoices in the natal soil of the man, with two bones received from the same. Huerta, a royal monastery, with three small ones; finally, Pope Hadrian VI carried with him two fragments, not large, to be laid up in his own sanctuary at Rome."

[19] The Life of Saint Prudentius, as if edited by Pelagius his nephew and Archdeacon, The Acts from 4 MSS. published by Bivario Bivario first brought to light in fol. 549 of his Commentaries on the Pseudo-Maximus chronicle, extracted from four codices: Ferrariensis, Saint Prudentius's, and Buxetensis (which, he says, is with me), and the Cistercian Lectionary, but "with those things which had been added by an unskilled compiler about the Garraytan Prudentius, as foreign to Pelagius, far removed and restored to their own author." But what if these are written in exactly the same style as the rest? Will even then the scribe of these rather than of those be believed to be Pelagius? I fear indeed lest the same one who wove that fable reformed the whole style of the old MS., and with the same faith with which he added that, also added the clause about the scribe Pelagius, perhaps devised by himself, to gain credibility for a most inept fiction. But why on fol. 552, about to give the Acts of the Garrayan Prudentius, does Bivario profess that he gives them drawn from only two MS. codices, namely from the Laturcensi of Saint Prudentius and the Ferrariensi, where they had been mixed with the Acts of Saint Prudentius? Was that fable absent from the Buxetensi and Cistercian MS.? Then certainly those would be of greater credibility with us and alone would deserve to be cited, especially the Buxetensia, which are indicated by Bivario to have been written in a style somewhat different from the others.

[20] With judgment therefore suspended concerning the name, age, and sincerity of the author, we shall give the Life on Bivario's credit, More sincere fragments sought until the Buxetensi MS. copy or some similar one someone may suggest to us, which we have not hitherto been able to obtain; although the Justiciar and ordinary Judge of the city of Tarazona Don Pedro Perez, and the Consuls and Senators of the same city Don Luis de Casavade y Blasco, Don Antonio de Rama y Aziona, Don Antonio Navarro, Don Francisco del Corral, Don Lorenzo Bonel, having learned of Father Bolland's death, ordered letters to be written to his successors in the year 1666 on September 20, through their secretary John Francis de Arnedo, and confirmed them with their own signatures, in which they enumerated the tutelary Saints of their city, and testified a ready will to suggest whatever monuments might be needed. But the same one who had urged the aforesaid illustrious Lords to give us this hope, Hieronymo Xaray de Morales, made the same void. For when from the response he had learned that here a second Prudentius was doubted whether he had ever existed in the nature of things, and that the chronicles published under the name of Dexter, Maximus, and their followers were not received, to which he wished all faith to be given as most sacred; he withdrew his hand from the begun work, and dissembled to carry out what had been commanded him by the Senate. We meanwhile profess that thanks are owed by us to the Senate of Tarazona, for what it piously wished; and we wish it may find another more faithful executor of its will.

[21] We also more willingly profess that the Life of Saint Prudentius is given by us from Bivario rather than from Tamayo; Tamayo's credibility in these matters is suspect not only because he prefaces that he took from him, but even more because Tamayo has been convicted with us by manifold experiment of passing off, as sincere copies of ancient writers, Lives interpolated at his own discretion. And, not to go too far afield, see, I pray, at November 14, with what sincerity he transcribed from Bivario the Acts of the second, or more truly fictitious, Prudentius. Here he had found nothing else in his MSS., such as they were, than what is set forth by us in §2. Tamayo, judging the narrative mutilated in head and tail, as extracted from the Acts of another Prudentius, prefaced a beginning about the lineage and homeland of the second: then added a conclusion about his last life and death; and before he comes to the Translation of the body to Najera under King Garcia, he writes thus: "His body was buried in his church, on whose sarcophagus this epigram was inscribed."

"This man was Bishop of Tarazona (if we believe these Acts Which we have seen), chaste, humane, keen. And of the epitaphs proposed by him Chaste: for he strove to compose the shameful Incests of the people: prudent, but the crude crowd cannot. Then he was humane: because while he desired to prefer life For the sake of peace, nothing but gentle things avail. Hence keen, hence rigid, he curses the citizens of the city, All of them: and at last the Saint flies to the stars. The Bishop died in peace, when the day often Nine days twice past the Kalends of December arose.

ERA MC LXXII."

[22] If you ask, whence these? He answers on this April 28, "from my MS. Codex"; The imposture is proved from which, namely, so many epitaphs scattered throughout the whole Hispanic Martyrology under the name sometimes of Julian Peter, sometimes of Aulus Haly, sometimes of no one; but (by which the imposture itself is betrayed) all of one and the same vein and style, though each one should have to be attributed to the most diverse places, times, and authors, if they had truly been composed in antiquity. To persuade of this, the barbarism of style is affected in vain, since it is itself such as to present the very marks of its novelty, while it uses solecisms altogether unlike the solecisms of the ancient age. So that concerning that Codex of Tamayo, it must altogether be judged, after those Pseudo-chronicles which we have so often refuted, that the book of Songs has been fabricated and thrust upon Tamayo to prop up so many tottering contrivances: unless someone prefers to suspect that Tamayo himself is the author of those songs, which as a younger man, and wholly contemplating the admirable names of Dexter, Maximus, and Julian, he strung together, then no better as a Poet than afterwards as an accurate and faithful historian.

CHAPTER IV.

The Acts of Saint Prudentius from ancient MSS. published by Bivario.

In the Commentaries on the Chronicle of M. Maximus, fol. 537.

[23] Prudentius, Bishop of Tarazona, was born in Spain, Boyhood passed piously of parents rich according to the dignity of the world, illustrious in the faith of Christ, and most devoted to good works: who began, almost from infancy itself, to instruct the offspring received in holy faith and letters. He, by the inspiration of divine clemency, although he was a boy in age, yet was girt with virtues: so that he surpassed all his peers in wisdom, and the holy Scriptures which he read he retained almost all by heart. For he was so full of sacred genius and meekness, that he quickly recalled his discordant peers to the concord of peace, and himself, fasting, fed the poor with his own food. Still an infant, he meditated on the word of God, and the faith which afterwards he taught as Pastor. ^a Thus, as we have said, Prudentius was begotten of a noble and religious father, named ^b Ximeno, and was a native of the town which is called ^c Armentia; whose line of family always flourished, a most generous model of nobility and religiousness shone forth.

[24] When the boy Prudentius had reached his fifteenth year, and burned wholly in the love of God, He crosses the Iberus leaving his homeland and parents he crossed the river which is called ^d Ebro; and on that very night, resting with certain shepherds, he spent the whole night in God's praises: he ran through the psalmody with perfect heart; and teaching the unbelieving shepherds the Catholic faith and the word of God, holy and religiously correcting their wandering and unclean and bestial life, he amended them in many things. Morning having come, bidding farewell to the shepherds, he departed: having set out, he reached Serra-Alba, and not ceasing to take the way, in green places he descended by a torrent which is called ^e Douro; and on that night he lodged in a certain mill with a few. On that same night he heard a rumor that in a hollow rock above that river a certain Hermit dwelt. Hearing which, rejoicing in heart, at sunrise taking the road, he came near that place; from the other side of the river he saw the entrance of the cave in a steep place. But the most holy boy Prudentius, considering within himself by what art he might cross the torrent, began to walk back and forth, asking counsel of God with perfect heart. Thus walking, he often looked toward the opening of the cave, And around the Douro and sang the seven Penitential Psalms. The Hermit, coming out of his oratory, came to the mouth of the cave, and seeing the boy, marveled how he so incautiously walked. He called out with a loud voice, and the boy hearing him looked up; and seeing the man of God standing upon the rock, was filled with joy; and trusting perfectly in God, walked over the waves of the Douro with dry foot, and climbed the rock where the cave was, and embraced the feet of the man of God.

[25] ^f Saturius (for so was the Hermit called), seeing so great a miracle, that the water offered itself to the boy about to cross with dry foot to tread, Having found Saint Saturius he joins himself to him trembling to the ground with tears prostrated himself beside the boy. There for about an hour both lay weeping, each asking a blessing from the other. But the Hermit, not being able to overcome the boy, with hand extended raised him from the earth; and signing him with the sign of the holy Cross, and leading him by the hand, brought him into the oratory. After prayer he asked him many things: first, he received him as a disciple to be instructed, whom afterwards, instructed in good things, he loved as a master; because God had bestowed such grace upon him, that he was venerable and marvelous to the others, not only by the middling but even by the elders, he was preceded in honor. The holy boy dwelt in that same cave with the aforesaid man of God for nearly seven years: and both, like two animals, day and night ruminating on the divine pastures, persevered in one praiseworthy life, until the happy soul of Saturius, the Lord inviting, should go from this valley of hunger to be satisfied at the table of the Lord.

[26] When more mature, he preaches at Calahorra God thus arranging the acts of the aforesaid young man, he, now most well instructed, left the cave we have mentioned, and closed the door. Having God always before his eyes, he went to the city of ^g Calahorra, situated not far from the river Ebro, where many had fallen away from the faith. And when the citizens of Calahorra had been, by the warnings and preaching of Prudentius, recalled to a sounder mind and to the path of truth, the Bishop of that city, ^h warned beforehand by an angelic revelation, chose Blessed Prudentius as a Canon of his Church ⁱ. And so the man of God Prudentius, faithfully and industriously keeping God's precepts, devoted himself wholly to the service of the heavenly King.

expended. And since a city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden, his fame, which could not be hidden longer, came to all neighboring cities and castles; and the infirm afflicted with various illnesses were brought to the feet of that Blessed man, and received health by his merits.

[27] But since he did not wish popular favor to applaud him, He migrates to Tarazona taught by the divine Spirit, at a certain time he secretly departed from that city, and humble went to the city of Tarazona. Entering the city, he was often associated in the church with the sacristans, and exercising the office enjoined on him with humble solicitude, like a sheep, the future Pastor, remained in the church without complaint. Time having passed, the Sacristan died, and in his place they judged Blessed Prudentius suitable to be appointed. Living under that office, he was promoted to sacred Orders. As time passed, the Archdeacon of that same Church died in the Lord; and because Prudentius was found prudent in ecclesiastical matters, by the nod of God, who drew him gradually to greater things, he was substituted as Archdeacon by the favor of all. Where Archdeacon Who, like a good steward, manfully ruled the Archdeaconate, and devoutly fulfilled the precepts of Christ in his heart: by refreshing orphans, visiting the poor, consulting for all the Church clergy, bountifully distributing his goods to the poor, reforming those in discord to the good part. And such virtues shone in him in that place, that the sick from places adjacent and remote flocked to him: to whom God, by the prayers of the blessed man and the sign of the holy Cross, granted their former health.

[28] Then the Bishop of Tarazona, weighed down with infirmity, And at length he is chosen Bishop with the holy Fathers fell asleep in peace. After the death of this Bishop, to many Clerics and laity and women, through the Holy Spirit, by the command of an Angel, it was manifested and revealed that the election be confirmed upon Blessed Prudentius the Archdeacon. On the seventh day after the Bishop's burial, all the Clerics of the city, together with the citizens, orphans, and poor, from the greatest to the least, were gathered, and with one voice cried the election upon that same Prudentius the Archdeacon present, saying: "Let Blessed Prudentius receive the Episcopal care and the Chair: because he is the father of us all, and the consolation of the infirm and the refreshment of the poor." With the Lord granting, the election solemnly made, after sixteen days he was consecrated Bishop in the same church of Tarazona.

[29] Blessed Prudentius lived a long time with great love and humility in his Episcopate; Having gone to Osma for the sake of peace and where there was dissension and schism in neighboring cities, that blessed man diligently restored to peace both Clergy and people. In those days ^k, when he had come at the invitation to compose peace between the Bishop of Osma and the Clergy of his Church, and was near Osma, two bells which were wont to be rung on festive days at Terce, at God's command, at the coming of Blessed Prudentius, sounded without the touch of a man, until before the Altar he prostrated himself in prayer. The Bishop and Clergy of the Church received him with great reverence, knowing without doubt that he was a Saint of the Lord. The Bishop of Tarazona remained for three days in the city of Osma; and the dissension which the enemy of peace had sown between the Bishop and Clergy of that city, by God's will, he entirely dissolved: and by his merits demanding, the Lord gave peace to the Church of Osma. But now when the day was turning to evening, saying "Farewell" to all, He falls into sickness he sat down to supper with the Clerics. After the hour of Compline, prayer having been made, he went to bed; and as he was accustomed, he sang the seven penitential Psalms, and fortified himself with the sign of the holy Cross, and immediately fell asleep. The hour of cock-crow passed, waking from sleep, he was weighed down with such infirmity that he could scarcely call his Clerics. They, hearing the voice of their most holy Father, rose quickly and all came before him. They, seeing that he was weighed down with such infirmity, warned him to receive the Body of Christ. The Viaticum having been received with ineffable devotion, by revelation of the Holy Spirit he openly foretold to all the day and hour of his dissolution.

[30] Pelagius therefore his Archdeacon, after the third day, seeing and knowing And shortly dies that now the Lord was calling him from the way to the homeland, thus spoke to him: "Father, the day of your death approaches: after your death where do you wish to be buried?" The most blessed Prudentius answered: "O Pelagius, my Lord Jesus Christ knows where my body will be buried. But I entreat your benevolence and command, that you place my body on the mule which I was accustomed to ride; and where it rests, there prepare a sepulcher for me." And so the venerable ^l hero, on the day and hour which he had foretold, passed to Christ, full of faith, illustrious in holiness, lover of peace, and wonderful teacher. There arose therefore a dissension between the Clerics of Saint Prudentius and the Clergy of Osma, who wished to intend this, that they might keep the Blessed Body at Osma. Pelagius the Archdeacon, To the people of Osma the body is immobile wishing to still the discord, thus addressed the Clerics of Osma: "Dearest Brothers, let quarrels between us be destroyed: by whomever he shall allow himself to be moved from the place, let them receive the body." Which thing pleased all. At once the Bishop of Osma and all his Clergy with an adorned procession approached the bier, and could in no way move it, spending the whole day and night in labor in vain.

[31] And easily lifted by the people of Tarazona The next day, after Mass had been celebrated, the Clerics of Tarazona, who were obedient disciples of the blessed Man, saddled the mule; and drawing the venerable body lightly from the church, placed it on the mule. Saying "Farewell" to all and giving thanks, they let the mule go on the way without a driver, and followed after him. The mule going thus before with the Clerics following all day, that animal carrying the blessed burden, where the day sought its setting, made the limit of the journey and rested. The aforesaid Pelagius and the others thought that the Saint had chosen that cave there; and wishing to place the body down, they could not at all. The next day before sunrise, the mule rising up with the body, began the journey, and on that day, overcoming with great efforts the steepness of many places, descended sloping valleys; and passing the torrent which is called ^m Lecia, began to climb a terrible and deformed rock. The animal went before, the Archdeacon and other Clerics followed his footsteps, wearied, tired, tortured, Miraculously it is placed in its own place fearing and marveling how the mule could climb that terrible place with such momentum. Around the ninth hour he came near the top, and bent to the right part where there was a cave. There the mule entered with the body of Saint Prudentius, and with bent knee rested there. But Pelagius the Archdeacon and those who were with him, placing the holy bier on the ground, lit candles and tapers, and after prayer took food, and throughout the whole night devoted themselves to prayers. "Blessed Prudentius was buried on the day before the Ides of April* by his sons with great devotion" ⁿ. Pelagius, his humble Archdeacon in life and death, in a humble and truthful style rather than with lofty and composed discourse, briefly described these things of his life: The Life is said to have been written by Pelagius and in the place of burial founded a church with great building; in which omnipotent God, for the love of his Confessor, worked many and great miracles: he, to whom be honor and glory, power and dominion, through the immortal ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

ON BLESSED LUCENSIS OR LUCHESIUS,

NEAR POGGIBONSI IN TUSCANY.

A.D. 1260

Lucensis or Luchesius, of the Third Order of Francis, in Tuscany (Blessed)

By D. P.

The place which takes its name from the mountain site of "Podium," and from its founder or possessor "Bonitius," commonly Poggibonsi, around the year 1156, the people of Siena made subject to their own jurisdiction, distant only 15 miles. Having founded the convent of Minors of Podium (For Gonzaga errs when he says it occurs nearly midway between Siena and Florence, from which it is distant at almost double that distance.) From then the inhabitants, having the same enemies as the Sienese, and experiencing the same fortune, around the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1220, offered to Blessed Francis, whose fame of sanctity was becoming illustrious, a small shrine sacred to Blessed Mary in the village of Camulduli, by a public instrument, which is said to be still preserved in the common record office.

established a convent there, and imparting the habit of his Order to certain pious married seculars, There the Order of Tertiaries is instituted began the Institute of Tertiaries, for whom a little later he wrote a Rule approved by the Supreme Pontiffs. The first of all was the one we undertake to discuss, Lucensis in Latin, but commonly and more usually called Luchesius; by Saint Antoninus also Lucius, who speaks of him thus in part 3, title 24, chapter 7, §3: "In the year of the Lord 1221, Blessed Francis instituted the third Order, which is called of the Penitents, because of those joined in matrimony who were begging to do penance, of whom the first was a certain holy man, called Lucius. The same rendered the aforesaid place most celebrated afterwards by the deposition of his body." Of whom the first was Blessed Luchesius I say "the same," because some, with no suitable foundation, make them different, whom Arturus follows in the Franciscan Martyrology, attributing Lucius to August 28 and the present one to Luchesius.

[2] How long he lived under that institute, Wadding confesses he does not know; for in the only Life he had, the year of death is not expressed, and therefore he refers his death to the year 1261; He died in the year 1260 but another Life, which we shall give first, suggests to us the year 1260. Nor indeed could he have died much earlier. For the one who presided as Guardian of the convent of Minors at the castle of Barberino, built around the year 1300, when the miracle reported in n. 50 took place, had been present at the tomb and funerals of the holy man. The miracles that soon followed at the body of the deceased gave testimony to his sanctity; and before it was laid in the tomb, two days had to be given for the people running to venerate it. Then it was buried in such a way that the sepulcher did not rise above the common pavement of that little shrine; Whose miracles soon became famous which gave occasion to the healing of a boy ignorantly standing upon it. A little afterward followed a war between the people of Poggibonsi and of San Gimignano, of whom the latter adhered to the Florentine Guelphs, the former to the Pisan and Sienese Ghibellines; and the victory seems to have stood on the side of the people of San Gimignano: for some captives from Poggibonsi were led away, one of whom recovered his freedom by a miracle of Saint Luchesius; and in the Pisan chronicle of that time, in Ughelli, volume 3, col. 892, we read that the Pisans, in the year 1262, gave five hundred pounds for the rebuilding of their walls: which indicates a notable loss of theirs at that time, or a great preparation for new wars.

[3] A little afterward the ancient Legend of the blessed man must have been written, which the later Life mentions; from which we also gather Life written a little afterward that some miracles had been signed by public instruments, on the faith of sworn witnesses, among whom was Friar Hildebrandinus, Confessor of the whole convent and of the Blessed man himself, as appears from n. 35. Would that this legend still existed! Its place will be supplied by an epitome found in a Compilation of a certain Florentine Legendary, which is preserved in the Laurentian Library, shelf XX, where after the Life of Saint Zenobius, newly polished in style by the collector, follow the Lives of other Florentine and Fiesolan Saints, with some extravagantes also added, omitted from the compilation, whether new or old, of the Legendary then used in the Florentine church, Here is given in compendium "having seen their inestimable probity in the name of Christ," namely of Saint Benign, Vallumbrosan Abbot, on July 17, of Saint Verdiana, Hermitess or Anchoress in the Castle of Florence on February 1, of Saint Lucensis with whom we here deal, and finally of Saint Fina whose life we gave on March 12: which work the compiler prefaces as "by me anxiously collected from various books and narrated lucidly in a light style, to avoid the labor of those wishing to preach from these." Since the last miracle of Blessed Lucensis is one done at the time of the war between those of Poggibonsi and San Gimignano, but all the others seem earlier, we rightly judge this to be an epitome of an older Legend.

[4] With miracles thus flashing forth, the sepulcher was elevated from the ground; and with the body of his wife Bonadonna (who had been buried together with her husband) placed separately, and the head of Saint Luchesius extracted for public veneration, There followed the elevation of the body the remaining bones were more ornately placed. Now when in the year 1258 Charles of Anjou, King of Naples, had transferred Poggibonsi, occupied by arms, to the power of the Florentines, and they, out of hatred of the Sienese and of the Ghibelline factions, utterly destroyed it, with the inhabitants led down to the plains where Poggibonsi is named and seen today, And the destruction of upper Podium in 1268 about five hundred paces from the former place: such was the veneration for Blessed Luchesius that, though the body of Bonadonna was granted to the Germans to be carried off into Germany, no one dared to move him from the place. Thus out of all the public and private buildings, the houses and the church of the Friars Minor stood unharmed, in the very place where they still persist today: which in the year 1313 (when the Guelphs had burned the new Burg of Poggibonsi, lest it should give refuge to the Imperials against Florence) began to be restored by the order of Emperor Henry, And some restoration in the year 1313 the part of the wall which still remains being begun, and to be called "Imperial Poggibonsi." But this attempt was fruitless; and when the Imperials departed, work ceased, and the citizens were prohibited by the Florentines from restoring their lost homes elsewhere than on the plain, where they still remain today: so the burg rose again on the plain, the citadel or rather the beginning of the citadel remained on the mountain, with the same name in both places.

[5] Before these things happened, it happened that Gregory X, the Supreme Pontiff, in the year 1273, as he was going to the Council of Lyons, Meanwhile Gregory X in the year 1273 approved the cult having passed through Siena, also came to Poggibonsi, and on that occasion the strength of Pontifical authority was added to the former cult of Blessed Luchesius. Hear the matter from Gonzaga: "The church of this monastery is adorned with certain bodies of Saints, among which the chief is the body of Blessed Luchesius, whose head, when it was honorably kept in the sacristy by the Friars, at the command of Pope Gregory X, passing there by chance, was cast into the fire: from which nevertheless leaping out of itself, the Pontiff commanded that the Friars could carry it in procession. From which time each year, on that Sunday which is dedicated to the Passion of the Savior, with the people and Clergy gathering, with the greatest veneration it is borne from the convent to the town, And a new church under his name is built and thence brought back to its proper place." Wadding adds that "this is observed until now; and for many years on his solemn day, which is celebrated on the day of Saint Vitalis the Martyr, April 28, an ecclesiastical commemoration used to be made of the same, until by the carelessness of the Friars it fell into disuse." Then, in succeeding years, as the aforementioned Gonzaga writes, when very many alms were offered to the sepulcher of Blessed Luchesius there erected by the faithful (for it was resplendent with the greatest miracles), a sufficiently beautiful church, the older chapel being demolished, was constructed from these in honor of Saints Francis and Luchesius, and the monastery itself was enlarged and repaired; which, how around the year 1420, under Blessed Father Bernardino of Siena, was transferred from the Conventuals to the Observants, with a memorable example for posterity, Gonzaga narrates at length.

[6] In 1477 the Life was transcribed more elegantly One of these Observants was the one by whose hand exists a transcribed, more recent and fuller Life, under this title: "In the name of the Lord. Here begins the Prologue to the Legend of Blessed Luchesius, of the Third Order of Blessed Francis, of Poggibonsi, written by me Brother Bartholomew of Colle, a small Preacher of the Order of Minors, to the praise of God and the salvation of souls, 1477." At the end are read these words: "Here ends the Life and Legend of Blessed Luchesius, of the Third Order of Saint Francis, to whom the same glorious Francis, as is declared above in the aforesaid Legend, imparted the habit of Religion with his own hands. But this Legend concerns and pertains to the use of the Friars Minor of the place or Convent of Poggibonsi; in which the said Saint Luchesius first was clothed by Blessed Francis, and in the title of whose name afterwards their church was dedicated. Now this Legend was compiled first by the Venerable in Christ Father Brother Bartholomew of Tolomei of Siena, Composed by Bartholomew of Tolomei of the Order of Minors in the Convent of Siena, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord* 1370, in the time of Urban V. But since it was now consumed by age, in some parts also failing, and everywhere besides, I believe through the fault of scribes, corrupted, and certainly quite unpolished; without any change of judgment or sense, it was reformed and written in his own hand by Brother Bartholomew Lippus of Colle Val d'Elsa, a small and unworthy Preacher of the same Order, in the year from the Incarnation of the same Lord Jesus Christ 1477, in the time of Sixtus IV, in the 6th year of his Pontificate."

[7] By Bartholomew of Colle, a holy man This is that Bartholomew, of whom, having obtained within a year the reward of his holy labor, and having deposited his body together with the bodies of Blessed Luchesius, the Marquis of Cortona, and Franciscus who was enriching the church of Saint Stephen, Gonzaga writes that "by the blessed Father of Capistrano, at Perugia in the public square, with many other Scholars and Doctors, he was clothed in the habit of the Seraphic Franciscan Religion, and in the sacred monastery of Mount Sion he at one time acted as Guardian, and at length in the year of the Lord 1478, full of good works, in this place, migrated to the Lord." No more was needed for Arturus, the compiler of the Franciscan Martyrology, that he and others by their own judgment should define the annual day of commemoration: and so he attributed Bartholomew to March 15; but the Marquis (that is Marcus) and Franciscus, the latter to February 6, the former to the 16th of the same month, with the title of "Blessed" added to each: which we also would willingly do, if any argument of public cult given to them were brought forth. Now we bring these things forward only for this reason, that it may be known what opinion Bartholomew, the refashioner of the Life, left of himself, whose notice first came to us from Silvano Razzi and the Franciscan writers; Which is also given but the copy was most humanely procured recently by Bernardo Benvenuti, instructor to the Most Serene Prince of Tuscany, for whom it was no trouble to come to Florence for this sole reason, to hand it over to the most erudite and most diligent of this work, Antonio Magliabecchi, the most intimate familiar of the Grand Duke himself and of his uncle Cardinal Leopoldo, to be transmitted to Antwerp, as was done in the year 1671.

[8] However not under the name of that Bartholomew, but of another older one, is the Life given: First published in the year, not 1370 because the second writer so religiously kept the sense of the earlier, adding or detracting nothing, that he did not even change those words which the earlier wrote speaking in his own person, both in the Prologue and in the context, n. 49. Which indeed succeeded more happily than his conjecture about the age of the author; in which he was deceived by the ambiguity of the numeral 2, formed in the ancient manner so that it was hardly distinguished from 7. Hence he signed the year 1370, and for explanation added "in the time of Urban V," who died at the end of that year; whereas it should be written

1320, when the Pontiff was John, But 1320 commonly called XXII. This is clear from the very Prologue, where Bartholomew of Tolomei, or of Bartolomei (which is an ancient and noble family among the Sienese), prefaces that he collects about Blessed Luchesius, as it were certain fragments, partly neglected and partly dispersed, lest with those dying who had lived with the man of God (and who must then already have been octogenarians or nonagenarians), such precious exchanges should perish. After his life was saved for the author For when, from the General Chapter of the Order, celebrated at Marseille in the year 1319, he had been freed by the invocation of Blessed Luchesius from an impending shipwreck, as he narrates in n. 49; nothing seemed more important to him than, out of gratitude, to come to the sepulcher of his liberator, where, that the truth of his life to be transmitted to posterity might be more certainly known, many and various times he professes to have held a diligent conference on these matters with the Brothers dwelling there and with the men of that country: for on account of the nearness of the place he could come and go in one day, he himself dwelling at Siena; and with the composition completed, to have died at Poggibonsi either as a guest or as a dweller for a short time.

[9] Great therefore is the authority of this Legend, especially as regards the miracles, both those that he found in his ancient Legend, With still fresh memory of the miracles as he writes in n. 35, placed by trustworthy predecessors of his, and those which he promises to note below, performed in his own times. As regards the history of the Life, the older Legend itself or its epitome is dearer to us, both because it is briefer and simpler, and because, written within the years immediately after the Blessed man's death, it touches on not a few circumstances which Bartholomew, wrapping the history in a more diffuse discourse, omitted as of lesser moment. However we in no way marvel at this fact, because we often note the same in Lives polished in a more refined style: we rather regret that those things which pertain to the honor of the sacred body—things done after the ancient Legend was written—namely how the body was elevated, and how it was spared by the Florentines, in what year the new church was built, what was commanded by Gregory X, he did not take care to add to the reformed history, content to add certain things about the many miracles after his death: among which certainly this of the head, spontaneously leaping back from the fire into which it had been cast, in no way deserved to be omitted.

* Rather 1320 in the time of John XXII.

EPITOME

OF THE OLDER LIFE.

From a Florentine MS. of the Laurentian Library.

Lucensis or Luchesius, of the Third Order of Francis, in Tuscany (Blessed)

BHL Number: 4983

[1] Lucensis, in the village of ^a Cagiani, near ^b Redde, in the Florentine county of ^c Val d'Elsa, according to the custom of the region took his origin from an honorable family. Joined in matrimony, he yields to a rival In the flower of his youth he took a wife, named ^d Bonadonna; and from her begot a son. In the course of time a certain man began to oppress him greatly with words and deeds: who, not being able to resist him, yielded to his fury; and to the castle of Poggibonsi, which then resisted his state very much, about two miles distant from the place where he was thus oppressed, with his wife and sons and all his furniture he went, and there, as long as he lived, he dwelt happily. For he was young in age, pleasant in appearance, And migrates to Podium affable in address, humble in conversation, and beyond what can be believed an exceeding lover of conversing with the nobles. But that from this he might not fail in his undertakings and be held in contempt, because he was rural and rustic, he desired to be enriched beyond measure with temporal goods, and as much as he could, he strove to satisfy his desire. For at one time he sent a great part of his goods for provisions; and as much as lay in him, he tried to bring about that there might be scarcity, not only great but the greatest.

[2] Entangled then in these acts, one day devoted to solitude, A better mind having been thrown into him by God he began to consider the supreme power, wisdom, and clemency of God in creation, governance, and the benign tolerance and reception of sinners: who coming back to himself entirely, resolved to abandon all the things of this fleeting and wretched life, and to serve Christ Jesus forever. And lest the life of his sons should be any impediment to him, wholly drawn away to Christ, bathed in many tears, with dire sighs and frequent prayers, against their nature he began to beg for their death: when he exposed this to his wife, she gave many praises to God, and she comforted him very much concerning these things, and prostrated at his feet, with uncontrollable tears and sobs, begged with all urgency that she too might follow one divinely inspired. With his wife he takes the habit of the 3rd Order Then the man of God, with the consent of his wife, sold all things, took the habit of the Friars of the Third Order of Seraphic Francis together with his wife, from a part of the money which he received from his goods bought a little garden of four acres, and all the surplus without any delay distributed to the poor: and so he observed afterwards, that besides food and clothing he had nothing in extremity; but all things in the manner of the supreme Master, not thinking of tomorrow, he placed in the heavenly granary by the hand of the poor.

[3] The holy man sought through roads, villages, nearby castles, and houses, for the needy, the infirm, and the weak, Distinguished by charity toward the poor and sick whom, if he could, he led with him; if not, upon his ass: and very often he would bear one upon his neck, with his own head placed under the legs of the infirm, and lead another with either hand to his home, and ministered necessities to them: and when he lacked from where to give, taking a basket, begging alms through the houses, he did not shrink to carry them on his own shoulders. And so much by pious and affable words did he induce them to love of poverty, that he made them not only content in poverty, but each of them by their evident words and deeds demonstrated that they wished to remain so. For the man of God was in habit mean and abject, in abstinence very great, lofty in prayer and assiduous, solicitous, eager, and attentive to hear divine offices and sermons. In the care of the infirm he was an incredibly continuous laborer, and beyond what can be said inestimably gracious to all.

[4] It was also the custom of the man of God, with his ass laden with medicines, By abstinence and prayer to go along the coast, where because of the unhealthiness of the air he knew them to be, to seek out the sick, and to provide for them as was needful for each, according to his own and the infirmity's condition; above all persuading those laboring concerning the state of the soul the things that bring salvation, as their state requires. At least twice every week he confessed, often receiving the most holy Sacrament of the body of Jesus Christ, and with such abundance of tears, With frequent communion as if he had the Lord Jesus Christ there present dead, whom he received under other species, and immediately fleeing he would hide himself. He devoted himself to prayer with such ardor, that by Friars and several other worthy men following him, he was found raised from the ground by the space of three arm-lengths, with eyes open to heaven, knees bent, and hands closed, wholly entranced, like a man utterly without senses. Meanwhile the holy man began to shine with miracles: for on a certain day a certain Priest named Raynuccius came to him, bought from him one bed ^f of onions from his garden, for ^g planting, and gathered whatever was good; but asked the aforesaid Presbyter to place the sign of the cross upon what remained: compelled, he did it. The following morning he returned, and found as if nothing had been collected from there: that he should keep silence, he humbly asks. ^h

[5] When his wife was held by that most grave infirmity from which she died, and he, though sick, was not yet so, he went to her and persuaded her that she should receive all the Sacraments, and most devoutly, he himself standing by, she did so. Comforting her for the departure, among other things he said this: Assisting his dying wife in her illness "My devoted companion, as you fully know, we together have affectionately served God, and now it is permitted, that together we go to those ineffable joys: wait for me; I indeed wish to receive what you have received, and hasten with you to the joys of heaven." And making the sign of the cross over her he returned to his little bed, and calling the Priest, with the greatest devotion received them. Meanwhile ⁱ he went to his wife laboring in her last extremity, and holding her with his hands, comforting her in the presence of those standing by, that holy soul penetrated the heavenly realms. ^k He was led to his little bed by those standing by; placed there, he fortified himself with the sign of the Cross, fixed his eyes; calling with sweet speech upon Jesus, his Mother, and his Father Francis, with many Religious, Clerics, and devout laymen, both men and women, standing by, Shortly afterward he dies that most devout soul flew away to the citizens above, on the third day of the exit of the month of April, ^l in the year of the Lord 1260. Their bodies the people of Poggibonsi took with the greatest honor, together bore them on a bier, and buried them with the greatest devotion in the church of the Friars Minor situated there.

[6] A certain man, approaching his unburied body, out of devotion cut off the toe of his foot, Blood flows from the dead body and immediately from it a great abundance of very living blood flowed. Tebalduccio of the same castle, having an incurable infirmity of swelling in his navel, approached his body, placed his hand upon it, and was immediately freed. When three men had been captured at Florence and were to be killed for their guilt, they invoked the Saint marvelously, and immediately that night with the prison closed at Poggibonsi, whence they were, Guilty men from prison they were placed safe. When the eight-month-old son of ^m Segna was dead and had to be buried, his mother coming back to herself called upon Blessed Lucensis, and immediately he revived him safe: who, coming to the age of ten years, from his chest up to his head was so made horrible by swelling, An infant restored to life that his mother with all her strength desired he should die rather than live (for he appeared as a certain monster); yet not distrusting the merits of the Saint she invoked him, and immediately, with all infirmity put to flight, She frees him from illness magnifying the Lord and the Saint, she reported what had happened and how to those who knew and those who did not.

[7] A certain blind man from Castrum Florentinum came there, knelt before his tomb, Grants sight to the blind and immediately with much prayer and many tears received light, and with great joy giving praises to God and the Saint, took care to return to his own. A certain one, named Bartolus, since from the back of his foot a sole had been made—for ten years in the manner of children—and stood upon his tomb unknowingly, suddenly, as if a dry stick were being cut, The lame walk his foot made a sound: which he looking at the sound, found himself whole, and with a loud cry returned most safely home. When a certain man of Pistoia was to have his hand amputated because of an incurable infirmity, his mother, having heard the fame of the holy man, commended him to him, and immediately without any cutting he was most excellently healed.

[8] With health to the sick When a certain little boy of Poggibonsi, at the end

laboring for many days had remained so; his mother, placing upon him a certain particle of a garment which she had kept with her out of devotion, invoking his help, and immediately rising from the little bed most readily he was freed. When at the time of the war between those of Poggibonsi and San Gimignano, a certain man was being held under tight custody in the castle of San Gimignano, he called upon Blessed Lucensis with the greatest devotion: The captive with liberty at once he was present at night, snatched him from the midst of the guards, drawing him from the wall of the castle on the side of Saint John, and accompanying him into the castle of Poggibonsi, he delivered him safe to his family.

ANNOTATIONS.

LIFE

By Bartholomew of Tolomei. From an old MS. of Bartholomew of Colle.

Lucensis or Luchesius, of the Third Order of Francis, in Tuscany (Blessed)

BHL Number: 4984

By Bartholomew of Tolomei, FROM THE MSS.

PROLOGUE.

[1] Let us praise our God in his glorious man, our Patron, beloved greatly by God and men, the nourishing Confessor of Christ, Blessed Luchesius: to whom without doubt he has conferred much glory, and established his memory in eternal blessing. For on him, as truly humble and contrite, A brief encomium of Blessed Luchesius God looked with such kindness, that in a singular way he forestalled him from on high with the gifts of his grace, through purity of heart, truth of speech, and also a multiplicity of virtuous work. For like Lucifer appearing at dawn in the darkness of this world, flashing with bright splendors of life and doctrine, those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death he directed into light. He was also often filled with the spirit of prophecy, and enjoyed contemplation in an angelic manner. Besides, despising in the apostolic manner the pride of the present life, by the burning of most fervent charity he was borne by faith into God, and through works of mercy he was wholly fervent toward his neighbor. Yet austere and rigid to himself, he chastised his own body and reduced it to the service of the spirit. Wherefore the Lord made him like in the glory of his Saints, and magnified him in the fear of his enemies, and glorified him before his people, causing his voice to be heard in the showing forth of many miracles. To describe the life of this man, lovable to Christ, imitable for us, and admirable to the world, I, Brother Bartholomew of Tolomei of Siena, the least of the Order of Minors, feeling myself altogether unworthy and insufficient, would by no means have attempted it, had not the fervent affection of certain Friars of the Sienese Custody and of many noble men and women of Poggibonsi and its confines, and of this Saint himself, incited me. Why and how the Life was written by the author Since I know myself to have received a singular grace from Christ through his invocation and merits, if I should be silent about his praises, I would without doubt be accused of a crime as ungrateful. And this was with me the chief cause of undertaking this labor, that I might describe as much as I could the virtues, acts, and words of his life, though I was not able to collect them in full, as it were certain fragments, partly neglected and partly dispersed, lest with those dying who had lived with the man of God, such precious exchanges should perish. And that the truth of his Life to be transmitted to posterity might be more certainly and clearly established for me, being in our Convent of Poggibonsi, where his holy body honorably rests, many times and at various times I held a diligent conference on these matters with our Brothers dwelling there, and with the men of that country: in whom and in which undoubted faith is to be placed. Nor have I always woven the history according to the order of time, to avoid confusion; but rather keeping the order of things, I have striven rather to adapt the joining, according to which things done at various times seemed to fit the same matter, and things done to the same matter at various times. The beginning of the life of Blessed Luchesius, its progress and consummation, are described in the eight distinct chapters noted below, namely:

CHAPTER I: Treats of his origin and life in the secular habit, and of some conversion of his to God.

II: Of his perfect conversion and vow of the Third Order of Saint Francis, and the true contempt of the world and of himself.

III: Of his immense piety, mercy, and charity toward the poor of Christ.

IV: Of his devoted prayer, sublime contemplation, and spirit of prophecy.

V: Of his worthy penance, singular abstinence, and maceration of the flesh.

VI: Of his special honesty, praiseworthy poverty, and profound humility.

VII: Of his perfect patience and holy passage of death.

VIII: Of the miracles shown forth from all sides after his happy passage.

This is the ancient division of the author: which, as it is prefaced in the autograph, setting here forth, we shall divide the very history of the life into longer chapters after our manner. Meanwhile observe that the last chapter in the MS. is subdivided into several Rubrics, and each of these into several miracles, in this manner.

CHAPTER I.

The manner of life led by Blessed Luchesius before and after his conversion, offices of charity rendered to his neighbors.

[1] The illustrious Confessor of Christ Luchesius, from the village of Gaggiani near Redda, Blessed Luchesius born at Poggibonsi not far from the noble and famous castle of Poggibonsi, which was called Imperial, drew his origin. This castle, placed in the middle of Tuscany, once filled with the multitude of abundant people and noble men, and girded with the strong fortification of walls, that it might offer security of dwelling to friends and inhabitants, and strike menacing terror into enemies and strangers, alas! now, both by the multiplication of sins, and by the division of factions, and also by the inundation of wars, has been destroyed and shattered, and utterly brought to the ground. Blessed Luchesius, therefore, With his wife, devoted to the pursuits of the world together with Bonadonna (for so she was called) his wife, living in worldly fashion, not seeking those things that are Christ's but his own, wholly intent on the profits of secular men, and also desiring to preside rather than to be subject to others, in his village of Gaggiani was reckoned the head ^a of one party or of the parties, namely the Guelph and the Ghibelline. Incited however by the envy of his adversaries, that he might avoid the hatred and the fall into which such partisans are wont to fall, he betook himself to the aforesaid Imperial castle of Poggibonsi to dwell. Where, gaping after earthly things and not regarding heavenly, He exercises the trade of victualler he exercised the art of those whom we are wont to call ^b "pizzicarios," as is commonly said, or ^c "collybistae."

[2] However, beginning to breathe the divine sweetness, and to taste the love of heavenly things, touched in conscience inwardly, Then a grain dealer when in such purchases and sales of small things he saw the devil's snare prepared for him, he took up another manner of gaining. For he observed grains and individual crops, making ^d "hoardings," as is commonly said; at which time he would buy them more cheaply, that he might afterwards at another time sell them for a greater price or more dearly. Thus, with every other profit utterly renounced by him, and only this admitted that he might live, yet the root of all evils, cupidity, alone remained in him, so that, not regarding the miseries of the wretched, and hiding grain from the people, he waited for the time when he might sell it more dearly. But long surveying these base commercial dealings and pernicious negotiations, with the hand of the Lord made upon him, he no longer closed his heart, but opened it to him who in many ways called him. For, with the commerce of the world spurned, and desiring to serve God alone, already wondrously changed into another man, he more devoutly frequented the church, and what he noticed openly from the sacred Scriptures with his ears he in no way gave over to oblivion, but more secretly laid up in the little shelf of his breast.

[3] With grains sold by divine instinct he buys a field for feeding the poor Already made a follower of the poor of Christ, already breathing out evident indications of what he was perfectly to do, he began at once with compassionate tenderness to look upon the necessities of the fatherless, orphans, and widows. And immediately distributing the grains and crops, selling all that he possessed, he bought a field: which cultivating with his own hand, both for his own use and for that of the poor, for cherishing their vitals, with full intent of mind and effort of body he turned himself. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how incomprehensible are his judgments and inscrutable his ways! who turning stone into rivers, and rock into fountains of waters, makes streams so marvelous, to extinguish the thirst of his faithful, to gush from hard flints. O blood of the immaculate Lamb! which continually flowing from the vitals of Jesus Christ, breaks the adamantine, and reduces the hardest breasts of sinners almost into the finest dust. Truly most clement, with all distrust put aside, and merciful is God to his elect, and to those whom from eternity, predestined to himself, his will and immense charity take pleasure in: as in the conversion

of Blessed Luchesius it clearly appears, who among the worldly darkness (of which he first held only the name), afterwards was made light from eternal light, and lost not the thing of so great a name.

CHAPTER II.

[4] Proceeding thence, the servant of Christ daily more and more from virtue to virtue, Beginning a better life from the foundation of humility and according to the evangelical norm upon which he continually leaned, now despising earthly things and desiring heavenly things with all his heart, became a true contemper of himself and of the world; so that no longer was he to men a common man, but evangelical and to be numbered among the disciples of Christ. For before he had put off decent and colored garments, he knew by the Spirit's suggesting, that all perfection of evangelical conversation and the summit of the spiritual edifice, and also the beautiful variety of virtues, takes its beginning from true contempt of self and of the world. He therefore put on, by elevation of mind to God, in a wondrous manner, as a new man, the spirit of voluntary poverty, the assent of profound humility, and also the affection of intimate and heartfelt piety of charity toward God and neighbor. For that he might perfectly despise and contemn himself, the chief follower of Christ, for the sake of him who for us willed to be born in a stable, to lead a poor life among us, and finally for us to die naked on the cross, strove to help the poor, the lowly, and other miserable persons with assiduous piety.

[5] He therefore began to visit the hospital of Saint Mary, which was then situated in the said castle: He serves the sick in the hospital where he conferred on the infirm and sick what benefits he could: he invited them one by one, he fulfilled requests as he could, washed their feet, bound their wounds, drew out the putrefaction, and, like another Francis, with great tenderness wiped away the pus. Thus he began, devoted to God alone, to contemn himself, and to dedicate himself continually to the service of the poor of Christ; so that, with himself subjected to himself, he might also powerfully subject the other things opposing him, and sell himself as a vile slave to partake of Christ's price. So the viler the service, the more willingly he submitted himself to it, that both through the active life first he might, like Martha, win Christ, and afterwards, through the summit of contemplation, possess him like another Mary. Thus he took the person of any poor and sick man, as the person of Christ once needy and infirm: and that evangelical word, "Amen I say to you, inasmuch as you have done it to one of these my least, you have done it to me," Matt. 25:40 he hid not perfunctorily in the precious shrine of his breast. Since therefore he had so perfectly given himself wholly to Christ in the active life and in the splendid works of mercy; And he exercises agriculture for the use of the poor that same Christ, whom to know is to live and to serve is to reign, forestalled him with such a great blessing of his sweetness, that besides his love all the precious things of the world grew worthless, and all its delights were turned to bitterness for him. Nevertheless considering that leisure of the flesh furnishes food for its concupiscences, wishing manfully and prudently to remove it from himself, and though untaught understanding the poetic saying:

"If you spurn leisure, Cupid's bow has perished." Ovid, Remedia Amoris 139

That also, according to the Lord's precept, in the sweat of his brow he might be sustained by bodily food, he diligently cultivated with his own hands the aforesaid little field, by which he might refresh the vitals of the poor.

[6] But when he had already bestowed such preludes of his wondrous life upon this wicked world, behold, a not idle rumor flies to his ears, how that man conformed to Christ, He seeks the habit of the Third Order from Saint Francis the most brilliant example of evangelical perfection, emulator of better charisms, patriarch of the poor, Francis, conspicuous in every virtue, seraphic in the ardor of charity, had come to Poggibonsi bearing the banner of the three salutary Orders, and promising the Lord's talent, if anyone should choose to fight in the ranks of any of the said three Orders. When he understood this, quick and hasty (for the grace of the Holy Spirit knows no slow efforts), he came without delay to the Master of soldiers Francis, crushing the cunning of the ancient serpent and breaking his many horns, looking to the great bonus of so great a service. Thus to the poor in things but filled with divine charisms, Francis, the nourisher of the poor Luchesius, fled as to the great asylum of divine mercy; and prostrated at his knees, disclosing the secret of his breast, before the great people, humbly and devoutly asked for the habit of the third Order (for he was bound in matrimony).

[7] And he receives it The glorious Francis therefore, discerning in him the elegance of his person, the fragrance of his manners, compassionate piety to the poor, special devotion to Christ, prompt obedience to his Church, true contempt of the world, burning desire in the way of heavenly things, in desiring truth, in asking humility, in persevering firmness, kindly yielding to him, together with his wife Bonadonna, who was of the same vow, he marked him with the sacred habit of the third Order; and also humble and devout men Bruno ^f and Maretolensis, and some others of the neighboring places and inhabitants of Val d'Elsa (for now in their hearts the desire of eternal life and the fervor of Christian religion had grown), not without great weeping of those standing by, with tearful groans, and wondrous compunction of heart, he coupled with the glue of the same Fraternity. Immediately the new soldier of Christ Luchesius began, girt with the armor of God, fortified with the shield of faith, adorned with the over-signal robe, namely the garment of Francis, by which he could extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked enemy; to act manfully, to advance to better things, to climb thus to higher things; so that, though still oppressed by the mass of the flesh, he no longer sought the things that are of the world, but seemed rather to have changed human life into angelic. O truly happy merchant Luchesius, who in a small moment of time and a scanty space of fleeting life was richly enriched, who rejecting the most vile wares of the world, under Francis's discipline you have traded for heavenly things! And fighting under so great a captain, having manfully subdued the enticements of the world, the devil, and the flesh, which were pushing you to ruin, you have with no small triumph obtained incorruptible, solid, and eternal joys!

CHAPTER III

[8] But the charity by which the Son of God, through the death of the cross, deigned to snatch the human race from diabolical servitude, Luchesius, by divine favoring grace, had put on as a zealous habit of virtue, He shines with corporal mercy toward the poor so that he made of himself a living sacrifice to God; from piety a delightful holocaust, and from mercy an evening sacrifice. For with such tenderness of heart and compassion he was inwardly affected toward the poor of Christ, and with such darts was wounded to the marrow over the hunger, calamity, and miseries of any afflicted, that he himself suffered more in mind than the needy felt in body: so had the fiery sword of the Holy Spirit penetrated the vitals of Luchesius, thus flowed out the oil of most fervent charity. Among other virtues divinely conferred on him and gifts of charisms, he held mercy the greater, knowing that according to the Apostle, "piety avails to all things"; and always keeping in his breast that Gospel saying: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." 1 Tim. 4:8; Matt. 5:7 For all things which could come from the little field or the vegetable garden ^g, as if with a pierced hand, he distributed to pilgrims and strangers and all the poor of Christ: and such solicitude remained concerning them, that he seemed to care nothing at all or very little for himself or the needs of his own. Such force of compassion had grown in him toward every poor man, and the abundance of wondrous piety had overflowed; that he would constrict himself and his own by hunger to any need, before he would wish to send a poor man away empty, or not extend a helping hand to him. Such charity had filled his heart and penetrated his marrow and bowels utterly, and seemed to have claimed the whole of him into its dominion, that through devotion he was led upward into God, through compassion he was transformed into Christ, through condescension he was inclined to his neighbor, through conciliation finally he refigured for each the state of innocence.

[9] And although he was piously, mercifully, and charitably moved to all things, yet specially when he saw souls, And spiritual redeemed with the precious blood of Christ Jesus, befouled with any stain of sin, he so deplored it with such tenderness of compassion, that he daily, as a mother in Christ, brought them forth with groans of sorrow. Such an office of mercy conformed him to the Father of mercies more acceptably than any sacrifice; especially since it was bestowed by him with zeal of perfect charity, since he labored to fulfill it more by example than by word, by tearful piety than by talkative speech. This is true mercy, daughter of the eternal Father, which washes away crimes, purges the filth of vices, cleanses sinners, extinguishes the flames of Gehenna: which this wondrous man, keeping until death, whatever remained to him and his wife from moderate food, without any thought of the morrow, he divided entirely to the poor. It is therefore clear from what has been said, and more clearly appears than the light, that this provident and happy merchant, in some wondrous way, exchanged worldly for evangelical commerce, foreknowing by a lofty sense that by such an exchange he would gain great things for few, heavenly for earthly, eternal for temporal. But not only, as has been said, did he distribute superfluous things to the poor, but also more frequently subtracted from himself, for Christ's love, and from his own little body, necessary things; and to those to whom he could not at times offer temporal alms, He was accustomed to take from himself to help them opening the treasure of his heart, he bestowed the bowels of inward compassion. What more? Though he was most sparing of food and very abstinent, yet, revolving in his mind and often repeating that Christ had said: "As long as you did it to one of these my least," he frequently remained hungry without bodily food, that he might help some needy one with his daily portion, though very little.

[10] His wife reproaching him for this But considering, like another Tobias, that his wife, who did not yet fully relish heavenly things, would be very troubled with him on account of such things, and fearing that she might turn to want, and that she would gnaw at him with harsh words, exasperate him with reproaches, indignantly provoke him with injuries, finally afflict him with various insults; wishing to win her first by example rather than to restrain her by word, he merited to obtain from God a work worthy of report and wondrous. For when one day a multitude of poor pilgrims had flowed together at the door of his house, and he was trying, as he was accustomed, to divide to each individual fragments of bread according to his strength; it happened that he exhausted little by little all the bread that was then in the chest (so great was the number of pilgrims), and placed it in bags that were not old. But behold, when a new crowd of pilgrims approached his door, and he peacefully asked his wife to break bread for these hungering ones who had come upon them; she, indignant and troubled in mind, answered: "O mindless head, exhausted by vigils and much hunger! O too forgetful, too forgetful of your own! Where is bread in this house that I may break?" To whom the true father of the poor, and mother of the afflicted, and diligent nurse of the needy, the glorious Luchesius, said: "Hasten, with a placid face, to the chest, good woman, in name but not in reality" (for she was called Bonadonna, as has been said), "and have faith in him who from five loaves

barley loaves and two little fishes, With loaves miraculously multiplied he moves her to the same virtue with twelve baskets of fragments left over, satisfied so many thousands of men and women, apart from the children. O miracle to be celebrated, following the footsteps of the great prophet Elijah and that widow of Sarepta!" She came, not despising her husband's words, though unbelieving in mind, and with mind astonished and greatly affrighted, saw the chest abundantly filled with loaves by divine gift. She is terrified and trembles at so great a miracle, raises her voice and cries out, marvels and rejoices, redoubles her praises and gives thanks to God; is compunct and contrite and deplores, breaks bread and divides it to the poor: prostrated at her husband's feet, she humbly acknowledges her fault. At last with him she, henceforth solicitous and liberal to the poor, consented in all works of mercy as a devoted companion.

[11] He collects alms for the needy And because like things grow strong by like by nature, and sweet mixed with sweet is rendered sweeter; the woman's fervor grew daily from her husband's works, and the same husband's spirit grew strong from his wife's works; and boiling with a sweet flame, whatever he could have and himself entirely he spent on the poor of Christ. He went around villages, cities, and castles, and all shame laid aside, for him who sustained for us the cross with confusion despised, the humble and devout zealot of the poor among kinsmen and acquaintances, among whom he had been accustomed to be first, was not ashamed for the poor of Christ to beg door to door, and to prepare bodily food for them even with his own hands. Knowing besides that in the summer seasons very many were sick in the Maritima ^h; with an ass laden with electuaries, sugar, cassia, syrups, and common pills, potions, and antidotes, for the help of the sick and infirm he personally went there: He seeks out the sick far away and cherishes them with medicines and with such fervor of charity he brought solace to the sorrowing, that by his presence alone he offered a remedy to the languishing. Through villages, cities, and castles he transported the infirm; one he carried on the ass, another he bore on his shoulders, some by consoling with words he led along. They, when they saw such charity in the man of God, felt themselves transferred or transformed into him by the burning of love.

[12] It happened also once that, as he was carrying on his shoulders a gravely sick man, and was leading two others, a little convalescent, one on the right and the other on the left, he met a certain licentious young man: who so efficaciously reproached that work of mercy, that he burst out into these sacrilegious and at once mad words: "O Brother Luchesius, what devilish pack-load ⁱ is this which you carry?" But when the Saint, weeping, answered: A certain man made mute on account of insults said to him "O wretched and too pitiable! because I bear not the devil, but Christ truly in this poor man, who from the Gospel thunders to us: 'Amen I say to you, as long as you have done it to one of these my least, you have done it to me.'" Amid these words of the Saint, divine justice immediately assisting, that blasphemer was not undeservedly made mute. Recognizing in himself the power of God, and a sentence worthy of his guilt, the patience of Blessed Luchesius and his humble tears, for the grace of recovering his health, what he could not explain by speech, with tears flowing from the compunction of his heart, an empty motion of lips, a confused noise of voice, and a various and uncertain sign of all his members, miserably he indicated.

[13] The man devoted to God understood that the wretched one, by such signs and nods as he could, was beseeching him to pour out prayers to God for him, that for the restoration of the speech and viperine tongue, whose use, the Lord pitying rather than punishing, he had lost, he might deserve to receive by his intercession the indulgence of so great guilt: and immediately, not unmindful of divine piety and of the mercy of the Savior, who had come into the world to seek and save what had perished; and who commanded all saying: "Pray for those who persecute and slander you"; on account of the one whom he was carrying on his shoulders, being unable to kneel and fix his knees in the ground, yet groaning with heart and eyes, he poured out these prayers to the Lord: "Lord Jesus Christ, whom, not on the testimony of another but of yourself, I believe I bear in the person of this sick man, to whom for your love I have subjected my shoulders; and who hanging on the cross for us, also prayed for your crucifiers; suppliantly I beseech you, that pitying the miseries of this wretched one, Who gives him speech who, not considering what he was saying, brought blasphemy against you with his sacrilegious mouth, mercifully loose his tongue; that what he first moved in a curse, he may henceforth release in praise." Matt. 5:44 Scarcely had the Saint completed the words, when he, with knees bent to the ground and palms raised to the stars, "Give thanks," he said with a clear voice, "together with me to the Lord, Brother Luchesius: because, to confess the truth, by your merits and saving intercession he has powerfully loosed the tongue, which by proud insult against his poor, by his true judgment, a little before he had bound with an insoluble bond among men." John 5:14 "Go," subjoined Blessed Luchesius, "in peace, dearest son; and lest something worse happen to you, according to the sentence of our Lord Savior, wish not only not to loose your tongue in dishonor of his majesty, but also not now by heart, not by word, not by work, not finally by omission of any good work, to offend God, your neighbor, or yourself; since it is certain that God is both the rewarder of all good things, and the inflexible and inevitable avenger of evils."

[14] Finally, on account of the stupendous and wondrous piety of this man, when a certain poor man of Poggibonsi, very familiar and devoted to him, whose little family he sustained by daily alms, had been bound in chains for public exactions at Florence; one night, solicitous and anxious about the little children he had, [A certain man whom Blessed Luchesius was accustomed to benefit was cast into prison] he began to complain within himself, grieving thus, saying: "Wretched me, most unhappy and afflicted exceedingly, behold I am in peril in prison; Brother Luchesius, eyes of the blind, hands of the weak, foot of the lame, staff of the poor, solace of all the afflicted, has perhaps ended his life; and my little family, whose vitals he nourished and refreshed with his foods, alas! now is dying of hunger. O Blessed Luchesius, if you have departed from this our mortal life, yet I most firmly believe and in no way doubt that in the heaven of heavens you live, and stand with the most blessed Spirits before the Creator of glory: I ask you therefore, by that uncircumscribed and admirable divine light, which now no longer through a glass in a dark manner, as we, but face to face you contemplate; help me and my little children, whom I commend to you in the vitals of your accustomed charity."

[15] Marvelous to say! more marvelous to hear! but most marvelous in effect! not in him who spoke and all things were done, who as Christ was able to come forth from the closed sepulcher, who through closed doors entered to his disciples, As if invoking him now dead, with his chains loosed he finds himself at home who coming to die came forth from the unopened womb of the Virgin: but in one who has suffered like things, and is still a wayfarer with us, who, if we should understand the manner of divine operation, would no longer be stupefied at a miracle. For at once a remedy was prepared for him from on high, Blessed Luchesius still surviving among mortals: for with the prison door closed, and his chains loosed without breaking, with his little sack and the rest of his little burdens, that same night, in a brief interval of time, he found himself in Poggibonsi in his own house, in which he found his wife and all his family sleeping; so that it seemed to him, as also to his wife, who was awakened from sleep by him, that he was seeing a vision for several hours. O stupendous to mortals and wonderful among all nations is the power of God! O illustrious merits of Saint Luchesius! That the invocation of his name, while still living among mortals, alone was of such avail with God, that a corruptible and mortal body thus escaped closed doors, thus loosed chains, thus entered a locked dwelling, that it seemed changed into the nature and state of a body already glorified.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Prayers frequented by Blessed Luchesius, ecstasies had, zeal of mortification and poverty.

CHAPTER IV

[16] But the servant of Christ Luchesius, feeling himself a pilgrim in body from the Lord, He gave himself wholly to the zeal of praying from whom now only the vile tent of the flesh and the ruinous wall of his members separated him; with all effort of mind as long as he lived, he firmly clung to him through the zeal of devoted prayer. For he understood that holy prayer is placed between God and men as a diligent advocate, through whom indeed his fury and dreadful anger is suspended, the pardon of sins is procured, the hellish and eternal, but sometimes also temporal punishment is avoided, the bounty of rewards and the manifold grace of divine goodness is obtained. He knew, I say, the man devoted to God, that prayer speaks with the Emperor of heaven, converses with the most beloved Spouse of the soul, pleads with the dreadful Judge, Understanding the prerogatives of this thing and makes present to him whom he cannot see, is admitted to the inmost chambers of the supreme King as a secret reporter, with whom none is rejected except he who in it is lukewarm

found. Desiring the grace of prayer with ardent spirit, and believing that no one without the zeal of prayer can advance in God's service, in whose journey not to advance daily is to go backward; by whatever means he could, yet more efficaciously by example than by word, he roused himself and others to its frequent exercise. For like another Francis, whose banner he, a most valiant soldier, followed, walking and sitting, within and without, laboring and at leisure, he did not relax the spirit of prayer: upon which, with such zeal of devotion he was intent—sometimes also on meditation, not infrequently also on the lofty contemplation of heavenly things—that he seemed to have dedicated to such things not only whatever was in him of mind and body, but also of work and time.

[17] Caught up in ecstasy Hence one evening, in the place of the Friars Minor near Poggibonsi, whose restoration or building—for love of Blessed Francis and his Brothers—he had greatly watched over, as he was devoting himself to prayer, and alone remained in the church when the doors were being closed; the doorkeeper, who presided over the guarding of the church's things, solicitously noticed. And when with subdued voice (for it was the time of silence) he had said, "O Brother Luchesius, depart, for the Compline Laudes are finished, and at the sign of the bell the Ave Maria has already been said": the man of God (as one who was most abundantly tasting the nectar of heavenly sweetness) answered nothing to him. For when he had noticed the Psalms of Compline and the other sweetest things of that Hour, as the canticles of a heavenly drama, with the open ear of mind and body; and had tasted the sweetness of the spirit, which surpasses all sense, with temporal cares set aside, with indescribable sweetness; his soul through the height of contemplation, though his body was on earth, was present to God in the loftiness of the heavens. The doorkeeper therefore approached nearer, and when with open voice he had cried: "O Brother Luchesius, depart, I say, because the time of sleep and not of prayer has come"; and he similarly answered nothing at all. A third and fourth time thundering, "O Brother Luchesius," he seized him by the hand, and striving to shake him as one sleeping, found him immobile like the trunk of a tree. He withdrew therefore, astonished and fearful, and not without reason suspecting death in him or some other mishap of flexible nature (for we are prone to such things); He is raised up from the ground that he might be more certain about the case, he returned, and with bodily eyes (for thus divine clemency had arranged, that his virtue might be transferred to posterity) he saw him lifted up in body, as one dead to the world, but alive in the lofty heaven.

[18] Again caught in ecstasy, he is covered with blushing Similarly one night (for on solemn feasts he was accustomed to be present at the Matins hours), when a certain Brother Minor, very familiar and devoted to him, had once and then a second and third time called him as he was praying, and he had answered nothing; at last coming back to himself, he said, "Brother Luchesius, why did you not answer your friend so often asking?" Then he, flushed with joy and blushing at once, said: "O Father and dearest friend, when you were asking me, I was then elsewhere." At another time also, when in the Paschal solemnity the Brothers were performing Matins in the same church, and were singing with sweet voice the hymn of the Three Youths, by which all creatures are alike invited to the praise of the Creator; cheered in mind, groaning and fervent, he himself also longed with burning spirit to bring forth some good word. Therefore a certain Brother, a lay one of the said Order, who himself not far from him was commending his little prayers to the Lord in the same church, familiar and devoted to him, as if unknowing and ignorant of what the Brothers were then so sweetly singing in the choir, with sweet speech and pleasant modulation asked him to give him occasion to speak. And the Brother, as he was simple, innocent, and devout, said: "Brother Luchesius, in the choir is now sung that most sweet hymn of the Three Youths, who in the midst of the most burning furnace, placed by the command of the sacrilegious King, feeling in no way the flame of fire, but as if placed in a delightful garden of roses and flowers of various kinds and delights, dancing and singing, concordantly invited all creatures to the praise of their Creator."

[19] He suffers another ecstasy at the song of the Friars Minor With such occasion provided, the Man of God Luchesius, boiling with ardor of spirit, and not able to contain himself any longer, bringing forth good things from the good treasure of his heart, thus added: "If irrational creatures, dearest Brother, such as fishes and beasts of burden, reptiles and birds, and likewise insensible ones, such as heavenly bodies, all the elements, metals, trees, and stones, are bound to the praise of their Creator; how much more are we bound to be, who, participants of reason, marked with his image, after countless gifts received from him, are in many ways called to the kingdom of heaven?" And no more than these words he returned, for no more were needed; and immediately absorbed into the light of that inaccessible light, which illumines every man coming into this world, coming indeed but not loving; not for a small interval of time, before he came back fully to himself, with his bodily senses bound on all sides, yet with knees bent on the ground, remained altogether immobile.

[20] Another ecstasy while he leads back to prayer a certain one deluded by a demon At that time also when in the same place of the Friars Minor near Poggibonsi he was staying, and was diligently intent on the restoration of that place, for love of Blessed Francis his father; on a certain night, hastening to the church for prayer, as he was going through the first cloister, he met with no slow steps a certain lay Brother of the said Order, who was fleeing from the church. To whom the man of God Luchesius (for he was familiar to him, and joined with no small glue of Christ) said: "Why, dearest Brother, do you flee? Why do you desert the church, in which is the most precious Body of Christ? Why do you abandon the urgency of prayer, which joins us to God?" And that Brother, terrified and frightened, answered: "Because I felt a great noise and uproar and earthquake, as if the whole structure of the church were collapsing at once, O wretched me!" The man full of God, not ignorant that this was the cunning of the ancient serpent, looking at him with cheerfulness of face, placid and smiling, added: "Dearest Brother, lest our adversary with the other apostate spirits rejoice today at having gained full mockery and victory over you—for he has already gained a part of you, whom he was striving to possess wholly—return with me, that you may know in clear light that it was an illusion of demons, who wished to disturb you from the zeal of quiet and prayer." The Brother believed the man of God, to whom he had always shown no small faith and reverence, and with him returned safe to the church. Where persevering in prayer, he merited to see Blessed Luchesius caught up in ecstasy lifted from the ground; and on that same night, after that first encounter in which he had been deluded and terrified, he bore a triumph over the most savage enemy of the human race.

[21] Another time also, when through the Maremma he was traveling, visiting the sick and weak, it happened that not far from the city of Massetana ^b, he met six licentious young men: who seeing him from afar, thus poor, despised, and wrapped in vile rags, with his ass solitary, and also He knows and discloses the secrets of hearts performing his little prayers, going, speaking secretly, thus said: "If we wish to prove and fully know whether this little Brother Luchesius is good and holy, as the rumor is, and appears commonly and outwardly; let us tempt him not slightly: and if indeed, provoked by us with various injuries, stripped, driven with blows, he has been patient, then truly he should be believed to be proclaimed perfect everywhere." All of which the man of God, foreseeing by the prophetic spirit and a certain divine nod, before he reached them, cheerful and joyful, said: "Well come, sons; I know that as much as is in you, you strive to strip me of my tunic, to vex me with insults, to drive me with blows, and to deprive me of my ass: but in truth I tell you, because God is my protector, and for his love I possess nothing in the world; but whatever things are necessary for life, for the use rather of Christ's poor and of me, than held by any right of dominion or property, none of those things which you have arranged among yourselves will you be able to carry into effect." Then they, all marveling, and each casting the glance of his face upon the other, contrite at last and compunct in heart, humbly falling before his feet, suppliantly asked pardon: and having confessed their guilt with blushing, commending themselves to his prayers, they always afterwards had special reverence for him. O ineffable man! who ever diligent in prayer, devoted in meditation, conspicuous in contemplation, solicitous in the divine Office, attentive finally in sermons and the word of God, observed that saying of Ecclesiasticus: "Be meek to hear the word of God, that you may both understand and give a response with wisdom." Ecclus. 5:13 He confessed frequently to a Priest of the Order of Minors, and with great reverence and devotion often received the Body of the Lord.

CHAPTER V

[22] Rigid besides and austere in discipline, like another Francis, and strenuously fighting under him for Christ, he watched attentively over the custody of himself, By long and various abstinence taking special care of the possession of an inestimable treasure, namely chastity and continence, which, as placed in an earthen vessel, he diligently strove to guard in the honor of sanctification, through unblemished and most entire purity of either man. For his abstinence of food and drink was in him not small, commonly however hidden and discreet: so that although he prudently abstained from a superfluous quantity of foods and drinkables, yet their qualities (since according to the evangelical sanction he ate what was placed before him with thanksgiving), according to places, times, and persons, he did not avoid. Luke 10:8 Always in the greater Lent, and that of Pentecost, of Saint Francis, and of Blessed Martin, he fasted: and content with only one refection on each day, he took so modestly of food and drink that it could scarcely suffice for the sustenance of his little body. Besides, on Wednesday, on which Christ was for us sold by a disciple for the number of thirty denarii; and Friday, on which pouring out his sacred blood for the cleansing of our transgressions, he died on the altar of the true cross, once only, tasting only bread and water, he broke his fast.

[23] ^c He wore a hard hairshirt for a shirt against his flesh: And by castigation of the body he reckons within himself but above was covered with vile and despised garments, which for the most part, for greater contempt of himself, he wore in public patched with multicolored pieces. He used a mean chamber: sometimes wearied he lay on the hardest bedding: sometimes also, that he might chastise his body according to the Apostle and reduce it to the service of the spirit, for a pillow, as was the custom of Blessed Francis, holding a piece of wood or a stone, on the bare ground he crushed his limbs barely clinging together. 1 Cor. 9:27 Finally, on the second, fourth, and sixth ferias,

that is, three times in each week, for the love of him who for us was tied to a column, naked and innocent, shedding the sacred blood on every side, from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head was most hardly scourged; with his garment removed, naked, he scourged himself with rougher cords fitted for this, sometimes with little iron chains. O wonderful austerity of the man! Who, covered with a vile covering, yet by that holy Spirit was warmed; refreshed with modest food, yet by this he satisfied the inner man; resting on a rough chamber, yet there rested more sweetly in prayer; castigated with a hard scourge, yet by this he fled the wounds of the enemy raging against him; his body he was accustomed to call his ass, and like a beast of burden and an ass he subdued it; who was an emulator of Francis his Father, and in the contest of this world, after him, striving with the armor of virtue as he could, poor and moderate, crushing the flesh, the world, and the devil, in apostolic manner walked in life and morals.

CHAPTER VI

[24] To these things the man of God Luchesius, from the time when he took the habit of the Third Order from the glorious hands of Blessed Francis Avoids the company and conversation of women—now distinguished by the sacred Stigmata of Christ—wholly avoided suspicious companies and conversations of women: prudently understanding that their converse has been the chief cause of great downfall and ruin to many. For he had heard, instructed in the word of God, and forewarned by the sentences of the holy Fathers, that chastity has a grave enemy and deadly adversary in woman; whose not only impudent acts and viperish speeches must be resisted, but even with the reins of all senses loosened, one must flee farther. He had also committed to memory from what he had heard, that they must not be any less shunned because perhaps nuns or otherwise religious: because the more religious and holier they seem, the more they allure men, since libidinous pleasure pursues honest women more than impudent ones, and under the pretext of sanctity often hides the birdlime of lust. Moreover, he had laid up in the little shelf of his breast, and often reckoned in his mind, that according to the sentence of the most holy man Job, "all the devil's strength and power against men lies in the loin, all his force against women grows strong in the navel." Job 40:11

[25] For he considered that Samson, strong and valiant, harder than rock, and who alone and naked pursued a thousand armed men, softened in the embraces of Delilah: Wise by the evil of those who fell through these he suffocated a lion, but could not suffocate the love of a woman: he loosed the chains of the Philistines, but did not break the chains of his own desires: finally he burned their harvests, but kindled by the little fire of one woman, he lost the harvest of his own virtue. He noted that the great prophet David, found according to the heart of the Lord, and who had often sung with honey-flowing mouth of our Savior to be born of a Virgin; after, walking upon the roof of his palace, he was taken by the nakedness of Bathsheba, another's wife, added to adultery betrayal ^d and homicide. He meditated that Solomon, through whom Wisdom itself sang, who of himself said: "I was made great and surpassed in wisdom all who were before me in Jerusalem, and my mind has contemplated many things wisely; and I learned and gave my heart that I might know prudence and doctrine"; and who most wisely disputed from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that came out through the wall; at last withdrew from the Lord because he was a lover of women. Eccl. 1:16 What more? He beheld fearfully that in the dangerous conversation of women to be feared by all and the society to be long shunned, lest perhaps someone should trust in the nearness of consanguinity or affinity, brother Amnon burned with a nefarious and unlawful fire for his sister Tamar.

[26] But not only did he avoid the companies of women, but also of all seculars, Likewise the depraved companies of men and detractors guarding against that prophetic saying: Ps. 17:26 "With the holy you shall be holy, and with the perverse you shall be perverted"; and keeping in mind the poetic:

"Contagion gave this blemish, And will give it to more: as a whole flock in the fields Falls by the scab and eruption of one pig; And a grape, seeing another grape, takes on the bluing." Juvenal, Sat. 2, 78

If ever, however, by charity's demand he turned aside to any, he did not use idle or otherwise vain words, but always useful and spiritual ones, which could edify them and turn them to God, with modesty and maturity, in sweet speech; so that he induced very many to compunction and confession of divine praise. He had neither an itching tongue nor itching ears; because neither did he ever detract from others, nor would he hear others detracting: to whom he always presented a sad brow wrinkled and with twisted nose, knowing that saying of Ecclesiasticus: "The north wind disperses rains, and a sad face the detracting tongue." Prov. 25:23

[27] Not only detractors and slanderers, but also all scurrilous or vain-speaking in any way, he either avoided, turning wholly aside from them; Not bearing even vain conversations or opposing their words and mildly correcting, turned their foolish talk and scurrility to the praise of God and evangelical doctrine; guarding against that Apostle's saying: "Evil conversations corrupt good morals." 1 Cor. 15:33 Moreover, he showed to all such gravity of manners and such honesty of a praiseworthy life, that by word and example together he strove to draw all to Christ; and living in the flesh beyond the flesh, he seemed an angelic man, and seemed to say with the Apostle: "Our conversation is in heaven": for he always raised body and soul to heavenly things. Phil. 3:20 Why do I linger on individual matters? He had two little sons from the aforesaid wife, whom he uniquely desired to pass from this world to Christ, lest either the wickedness of this world should change their age, or by the natural affection of sons some obstacle should be set for him in the way of God. On which account, because it could in no way escape her, his wife was greatly saddened out of inborn compassion.

[28] Most holy poverty also, and expelled from nearly all lands (because few discern true goods), He loves and cherishes poverty he supremely embraced: and besides the little garden or little field aforesaid, which he kept more for the help of the poor than for his own sustenance, he desired to possess nothing else on earth. And he had perceived that there are three kinds of poverty: one, namely, of those who lack temporal goods, but unwillingly, which we can call "neediness"; for they lack both things and good will, than which nothing can be richer in the world: the second, of those who abound in things, but are poor in spirit, which is truly called golden poverty, because though riches flow, they do not wish to set their hearts upon them: the third, which Philosophers call frugality, we call mediocrity, which is voluntary poverty. This the holy man chose. This, as long as he lived in the world, he strove to espouse to himself with perpetual charity, not only for love of Blessed Francis, who from the beginning of the Religion until his death, rich in tunic, cord, and breeches, seemed to glory only in the penury of things and to rejoice in want; but also because by continual meditation he frequently, even with tears, daily recalled to mind the poverty of Christ and his Mother. From this he asserted that poverty itself is the queen of all virtues: "because," he said, "not only did it shine in most learned men and philosophers, not only did it brilliantly gleam in the servants and elect of Christ; but also in the very King of Kings and in the Queen of heavens his Mother did it shine forth so excellently." On this account also he was accustomed to say that those walk in vanity of sense and darkness of mind—that is, are made foolish—who night and day seek riches that will one day perish; who, that they may catch slipping riches, flatter the powerful, who pursue alien inheritances, who by various negotiations gather wealth, which at last in a moment they know not to whom they will leave.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

The humility and patience of Blessed Luchesius, his pious death, and the miracles that followed honoring it.

[29] Moreover, humility, the guardian and adornment of all virtues, had filled the man of God with a copious abundance of divine charisms and perfect charity. For in truth, if we inspect the Scriptures, He exercises humility there is nothing that so makes us grateful to God and men, and joins us with the bond of love, than if, great in the merit of life, by the right of humility we are lowest. For in his own estimation, by which he confessed himself an unprofitable servant of Christ and the least among the Brothers of the Third Order, he was absolutely nothing but a certain earthen and filthy vessel of disgrace in the court of the supreme King; though in truth he was a special vessel of honor, shining with multiform virtue, and dedicated to royal uses by the merit of sanctification. Upon this virtue therefore, as a wise architect, he strove to build himself on the foundation previously laid which he had learned from Christ and Francis conformed to him; and to raise the summit of his building to the loftiness of the heavens with a copious heap of virtues and graces, as with precious stones. He strove with all his might to become vile in his own eyes and those of others, and to possess the essence, not the image, of true virtue. For it is one thing to have virtue, another to have the likeness of virtue: one thing to follow the shadow of things, another the truth; and far more deformed and pernicious is that elation of mind which lurks under humble signs or phantasms. For he asserted, as he had learned from Saint Francis, that on account of humility the Son of God descended from the height of the Father's bosom to our despicable things, that by example as well as word the Creator and Redeemer of all, the true master of humility, might establish and teach humility to his own.

[30] He confirmed that because of this he had proposed the parable in the Gospel, in which the arrogant Pharisee is spurned, but the humble publican is heard. Because of this, Setting its value before himself from various arguments as the disciples disputed about dignity, he took one of the little ones, and placing him in their midst, said: "Unless you be converted and become as this little child, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." He preached from this that he spoke alone with the Samaritan woman, disputed about the kingdom of heaven with Mary sitting at his feet, washed the feet of his disciples, received his betrayer with a kiss, and finally, when with enemies triumphed over he had risen glorious from the dead, first appeared to the little women. Matt. 18:3 He concluded at last that Satan fell from being an Archangel and from the high summit of heaven, for no other cause than the pride opposed to humility, which has as adversary the King of the heavenly spirits. On which account Scripture commemorates: "God resists the proud, but to the humble he gives grace." James 4:6 He was also accustomed to say and often repeat that saying of Blessed Francis: "As much as anyone is in the eyes of God, so much is he and no more." And said from the highest

Master he recalled: "What is high among men is abomination before God." Moreover, the man worthy of God and humble preferred to hear blame about himself rather than praise; understanding that the one would lead him to amendment, but the other would powerfully push him to fall: so by this he was cheered, by that not a little saddened, foreknowing that the proud in the Gospel are cast down, but the humble are exalted even to heaven. O wonderful sight! who so conspicuous in such honesty of manners had laid up the greatest virtues in a small vessel: who content with such penury of things, that he might preoccupy the riches of glory, had of his own accord fled to the secure little nest of poverty: who finally, laden with such great merits, that he might be magnificently exalted, had descended to the true state of humility.

CHAPTER VII

[31] The virtue of patience had so adorned the man of God Luchesius, that in all temptations and adversities, Of patience in enduring injuries which the enemy of the human race set against him, he was accustomed to say: "Blessed be my Lord Jesus Christ, who sustained for me far greater things; and his most holy mother, and the glorious Francis, for whose love I am prepared to endure all the hardest things." In all injuries, inflicted on him by word or deed, without delay drawing the Lord's Prayer from his heart, he said: "Father heavenly, almighty, how or with what face can I ask you to forgive me my sins, unless from my heart I have forgiven whatever injuries have been inflicted on me." He had indeed learned, always intent on the word of God, that it was easy for him to have a mean and despised tunic, to walk with head lowered among men, to let the hood down over his eyes with covered brow; And he gives examples in adversities but patience of injury showed the true humble man. He had committed to memory that the virtue of patience alone crushes enemies, carries triumph from them, rules the other virtues, and is finally such a great gift of God, that even he who has bestowed it upon us is proclaimed as patience. From Blessed Francis he had heard, that it befits Christian warfare to be shaken by adversities, proved by calamities, to grow up under pressures, to be enlarged with joy under misfortunes and straits, finally by advancing to tread all the pressures of the world, straits, calamities, dangers. O truly happy Luchesius, who gloried not in the pleasures of the flesh, not in perishing riches, not in wisdom, not in secular power or eloquence, but in temptations and the sufferings of Christ.

[32] But after, through long and grave labors, mortifications of the flesh, Beginning to be ill, he sends his wife ahead to heaven frequent vigils, continued fasts, devoted prayers, elevations of mind, by which transformed into the divine likeness he was caught up to heaven; continuous exercises by which he nourished his own defense and had contest with dangers, proved by God, he was found worthy of him; at last through the raging dangers of the world, under the blows of military discipline, he gloriously came to the port of perpetual happiness. For when, sound in mind, languishing in body, by a long illness he labored almost at the last extremity, his wife asked him to wait for her a little; that as she had been companion of his sufferings in the world, so together with him she might deserve to become partaker of consolations in heaven. The holy man assented to his wife's prayers, who on that same day, oppressed by bodily sickness, in a short space shaken by fevers, signed by the hands of her companion, and blessed in the name of the Crucified, also fortified with the ecclesiastical Sacraments, migrated to the Lord.

[33] Then he himself, foreknowing the dissolution of his body not far off, summoning a faithful messenger, namely his fellow brother of the third Order, And he dies piously sent for Brother Hildebrandinus, Confessor of the Order of Minors, joined to him by the glue of true friendship. He himself also noting that with his distress growing worse he was now failing in his last moments, said to him: "Dearest Brother Luchesius, prepare your soul with all devotion before the coming of your Savior, act manfully against the snares of the devil, and let your heart be strengthened in the Lord: because near at hand, believe me, is the coming of salvation and the crown of your glory." To whom he, raising his face a little, smiling somewhat: "Father," he said, "lovable Hildebrandinus, if I noted that I had delayed the preparation of my soul until this hour, I should not indeed distrust the goodness and mercy of God; but to confess the truth, on account of the dangers of death, I should not depart securely from this life." And raising his hands, and with eyes intent upon heaven, he said: "I give thanks to the most excellent Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to Blessed Mary ever Virgin, to my Blessed Father Francis and all the Saints, because not by my merits, but by the passion of that same our Lord Jesus Christ, I feel myself prepared, free, and released from the snares of the devil." Finally, the hour of his passing now at hand, with the Friars Minor of Poggibonsi standing around him and praying for him, from whom now only the wall of flesh separated him from God, all mysteries and Sacraments of the Church being completed in him, his soul, loosed from the flesh, was absorbed into the abyss of heavenly light.

[34] But when his body was being honorably carried to the church of the Friars Minor, which afterwards, by the demand of his merits and miracles, was dedicated under his title, Those carrying the funeral are not wetted in the rain the whole multitude of Clergy and people was drenched by a copious inundation of waters sent from heaven with unavoidable swiftness. Wonderful indeed and a presage of future miracles! When the Clergy and people had come together with that precious pledge to the basilica of the Friars Minor, with nothing resisting them, so great and so sudden an inundation of waters, no one's garment at all in any place was poured upon; as was then clearly evident to all marveling at this, and those most worthy of faith who were personally present then related to others. With this indication of sanctity and prelude of future miracles insinuating and happily demonstrating—to whom under the banner of Francis our Luchesius had strenuously fought, our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reigns through the infinite ages of ages.

CHAPTER VIII

[35] But how great this holy and glorious man was in the eyes of God, the immensity of the divine bounty through many and various indications of miracles, Blood flows from the body of him already two days dead after his happy passage, deigned to show through various parts of the world. Because therefore miracles, as it is said, do not make but point out a Saint; to the praise and glory of almighty God, who is wonderful in his Saints, certain miracles from many which I have found in his ancient Legend placed by trustworthy predecessors of mine, and certain also performed in our times, I shall note below: which bear evident testimony of the man's sanctity and excellence. For Brother Hildebrandinus aforesaid, a very religious man and in all things most worthy of faith, touching the sacrosanct Scriptures, asserted that in his presence and sight, when a certain one had suddenly cut off the tip of the thumb of Blessed Luchesius, still lying on the bier (for thus for two days he had stood publicly in the church) for the sake of devotion; immediately blood, as from the thumb of a living man, flowed forth; which assuredly does not usually occur in dead bodies.

Rubric I, Miracle I

A certain man of Poggibonsi, Boninsegna by name, said and affirmed by oath, that when the body of Blessed Luchesius still lay unburied on the bier, and his mother, who had come to visit the Saint's body, had returned home with quickened step, His infant unharmed by his merits in a fire remains she found the little son whom she had left in the cradle in no small fire (for she had placed him near the fire): whom thinking utterly dead, and terrified crying "O Saint Luchesius," she saw the bandages and all the cloths in which the little infant had been wrapped burned; but the boy, by the merits of Blessed Luchesius, without any injury at all, smiling and caressing her, she received in her hands and arms.

II, III

[36] The same Boninsegna also asserted under oath, that when that same little infant had already reached his tenth year, And he is freed from a grave swelling of the body and from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head was swelling with a sharp humor, and seemed not a rational animal but rather a monster or portent of nature; with all human trust and hope of his health abandoned, a vow being made by his mother in the name of Saint Luchesius, immediately near the eye of the boy, a flow of watery humor burst out in such abundance, that in a short space of time, totally freed, as a testimony of the miracle only a small scar remained near his eye. Moreover, the same, touching the sacrosanct Scriptures, publicly said that he had a certain little infant son, Another is restored to life who, when he had already reached his eighth month as a most beautiful child, was suffocated in bed and utterly dead; with a vow made by the mother and the intercession of Saint Luchesius invoked, whole and safe he wonderfully breathed again.

[37] A certain young man, an inhabitant of Pontedera ^a of the Pisan diocese, when he had gone out with some of his peers to the fields to mow grass, fell incautiously into an old well, covered by herbs greening at its top opening, A certain one fallen into a well is sustained by him above the waters which contained a depth of three fathoms of water. The depth of the waters absorbing him, and only his mind remaining, with which without movement of lips he continuously invoked Saint Luchesius; his companions, noting this, rushed with quick course to his parents, that without delay they might rise and help their sinking son. The parents run to the well, surrounded by a multitude of neighbors, wailing and asking the patronage of Blessed Luchesius with loud voices: who, believing their son entirely drowned, found him alive and undaunted on the surface of the waters, as on the solid pavement of the earth, resting. Having been led out of the well, and asked by what means he had remained alive in such depth of waters: "When," he said, "the whirlpool of waters had held me to the bottom of the well, I called for the help of Saint Luchesius with my mind: who immediately was present to me, and extending his right hand, lightly suspended me on the surface of the waters until this hour."

[38] When a certain boy of Papaiano, of eight years, A dead boy is called back to life grievously sick, had for many days lost his speech, and was thought dead by all; his mother, who had covered him with the funeral garment (for the burial of the boy was being carefully arranged), a vow being made to the Saint who at that time had migrated to heaven, miraculously obtained the grace. For immediately the boy began to move his now cold limbs, to raise his already dead arms, to breathe more vehemently, to caress his mother's neck, to ask for bodily food, to be greatly refreshed in a short space of time; so that in a few days, sound, rosy, and vigorous, not only his parents and household, but the whole neighborhood at once marveled.

[39] Brother Boniface of Siena, of the Order of Minors, Visitator on the side of the Minister General in the province of the March of Ancona, a man highly erudite and conspicuous for honesty of morals, while with Brother Francis of Squaccialupi and Brother Francis of Casinis, his companions of the same city and Order, he was traveling through the same province for the sake of visitation; heard from many, both Religious and trustworthy seculars,

of a wondrous deed and most worthy of note which I narrate. In ^b Recanati, a very famous city of the same province, a certain one then was lord, who to check the shedding of human blood, A certain one alive was buried with the brother slain by him whose dire passion had invaded the minds of his subjects, had established by public sanction; that whoever should willfully kill a man, if he could be caught, should alive be bound limb to limb to the slain man and buried. It happened then that a certain one in that same city, irritated by rather harsh words by his carnal or uterine brother, and inflamed by cupidity (which is the root of all evils) over the common goods to be divided, and besides struck on the jaw by him, wounded by a dagger in the flanks killed him: whose maternal grandmother had been from Poggibonsi. The fratricide being caught on the same day by the officers, was buried together with his brother dead, according to the edict of the law, in the cemetery of the church of the Friars Minor of the said city. The next morning some little children playing in that same cemetery, and noting the ground trembling under their feet, now being raised, now being depressed, with cries summoned the Friars who were singing in the church. They themselves, seeing the same thing as the boys, terrified at first, then made secure by the exhortation of one another, And he escapes death and recognizing the tomb of the aforesaid brothers, and striving to remove the earth from above, heard the tenor of a confused voice, as if ascending from the infernal regions, escaping from the tomb.

[40] When, digging more and more lightly, they had drawn near to their bodies, and had heard distinctly, "Act mercifully with us, because we live"; they found them indeed bound to each other, but one alive, the other revived; loosing them from one another, they led both of them surviving from the pit. The fame of such wonderment was spreading through the city; men and women come together from all sides, among whom also their mother, Joanna by name (for no father survived), The dead man restored to life drenched in consoling tears, came. The Magistrate and Officials hurried, the Lord of the city himself appeared, the Bishop was present with the Clergy: who, investigating in different ways this so marvelous deed by asking of different people, at last chose this as worthy of note among many. For he who had been struck with the dagger, one of the two brothers, said: "Reverend Father and Lord, when I felt myself wounded with a deadly wound, forgiving my brother from my heart the death he had inflicted on me, dying I commended myself with all my mind to God and Blessed Luchesius, whose love and devotion from the cradle, my mother teaching me, I have retained." But the other remaining brother, who had wounded the same, added: "And I, while I was being bound with cords to this my brother, to be buried alive with him, with whole heart contrite and repenting of the fratricide, I made a vow to Blessed Luchesius, that if by his merits he should preserve me alive from such a cruel death, for his love I would take up the Religion of the Friars Minor." Their mother, who was present, drenched in the sweetest tears, added: "And I, the exceedingly happy mother of these, whom from their earliest age, under the care, patronage, and special devotion of my Saint Luchesius, I have to this hour fortunately brought up; hearing the too piteous misfortune of both, committed the soul of one, and the bodily life of the other, with many tears to God and to Blessed Luchesius, with all the intention of a contrite heart." With all who were present amazed at this, and weeping from devotion, the one who had died and revived returned to his own home with his mother; but the one who had been preserved from death, rejecting all his own goods, entered the Religion of the Friars Minor, which he had vowed to God and Blessed Luchesius. Whom the aforesaid Brother Boniface, Brother Francis of Squaccialupi, and Brother Francis of Casinis of Siena, saw with bodily eyes and heard with their own ears narrating the aforesaid.

Rubric II.

[41] When a certain young man of Poggibonsi, son of Francis surnamed Lupi, A blind man is given sight who had ^c a considerable abscess in his right eye, with which he saw nothing with that same eye, and found no remedy from the ^d surgeon-physicians; fleeing to Saint Luchesius before he was closed in the tomb, and with devotion kissing his hands, and rubbing his eyes upon them with tears; immediately from the same infirmity which he had had for three years, seeing perfectly, he was freed. This afterwards his said parent, and the Physician Master Meus by name, of Colle Val d'Elsa, who had given him remedies for three years, with some not believing, Likewise another touching the sacrosanct Scriptures, affirmed. A certain other, Guido of the castle of Linarii ^e, asserted about himself that when one day he was binding a bundle of vine shoots in his garden and had sharply struck his eye against a sharp sprout, and for many days seeing nothing at all, thought that he would become blind by his own opinion and that of others; turning himself with all his mind to Saint Luchesius, a vow being made, immediately recovered his sight.

III, IV

[42] A certain Presbyter Ranuccio ^f of Poggibonsi, of honest conversation and reputation, asserted with certainty to all who wished to hear, And another that a certain totally blind man of Castellum Florentinum ^g, coming to the tomb of Blessed Luchesius, and with knees bent in the presence of the people, crying and wailing with tearful groans, and suppliantly invoking the help of the Saint, in his own presence and in that of all that people, not without great thanksgiving, recovered his sight. A certain woman of the castle of Linarii, named Gemma, And one woman for five months utterly deprived of her bodily sight and totally bereft of light, destitute of all worldly help, turned herself with all the intention of her mind to Saint Luchesius, to whom she had a special devotion. There appeared to her the following night Blessed Luchesius, surrounded by indescribable light and brightness, and blessing her and imprinting the sign of the saving Cross, said: "Be confident, daughter, and do not fear, because near at hand is your recovery of health." Rising in the morning, the woman began to see the whiteness of light, then to discern this and that, and to flee joyfully to the church, giving thanks to the Most High, not only because she had received sight of bodily light by the merits of Blessed Luchesius, but also because she had deserved by such a benefit to behold that saving sacrament of the Body of Christ, which is the true light of souls.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

The remaining miracles of Blessed Luchesius.

Rubric III

[43] In the time of a certain deadly war, a certain man of Poggibonsi, named Buondapescia, was led captive to the castle of San Gimignano by a certain one surnamed Tempus, who bound him in his own house with the tightest chains. A captive is freed from prison And when he had bound him by hands, neck, belly, and feet, to a certain piece of wood, in the likeness once of the thief crucified with Christ, and had set three guards, one on the right, another on the left, another at the feet, to guard against the danger of his flight; and the captive had said, "Never have I heard of a man being bound so cruelly"; and Tempus had answered with indignation, "Let God see to it": "And may God," added the captive, "help me and my Saint Luchesius." Marvelous to say! He slept a little, and waking around the middle of the night, he felt the chains loose, and escaped the drowsy guards, went out of the house with no one noticing at all, without any injury hurled himself down from the walls of the same Castle; and although he suffered gravely in the legs, in a short space of time free and safe he reached home.

[44] A certain Dominic Bindi of Volterra, captive in the same war and led to the same Castle of San Gimignano, Likewise another and bound with many others in the tightest public custody, when he was tormented by the hunger of horrid famine, from which many of his companions in the same prison perished; fearing to end his life by such a death, committed himself with all intention of mind to God and Blessed Luchesius. O wondrous God in his Saints! Scarcely had the vow been made, strengthened inwardly by spiritual food, he did not lose also the health of body. For many days and nights he remained there without food and drink: at last persevering in the vow, bound in chains, from the prisons, by whom he knew not, with them being unbarred, he escaped; he found the gate of the Castle open at night; and coming home safely, went personally to the Saint's tomb: where paying his vows, he hung up his chains for the perpetual memory of the thing.

III

[45] Three men of Poggibonsi, on account of some crime falsely imposed on them, And three others held in the most bitter prison of the city of Florence, for a very long time torn by various tortures, that they might at last escape the most cruel kind of death, despairing of any worldly help, with common concord making a vow, fled to the patronage of Saint Luchesius. O stupendous goodness of divine condescension to those who faithfully turn to his Saints! Behold, in the silence of the untimely night, a certain man gleaming with shining garment, whom they little suspected to have been Saint Luchesius, with the prison door unlocked, the chains opened, the iron bonds dissolved, leading them through the middle of the city; allowed them, outside the gate of the same city, which opened of itself, to go safe and free.

[46] A certain other moreover, from the county of that same Castle, captured by a multitude of enemies, which was called the Society; and with many others led near the Abbey ^b of Turri of the Sienese diocese, on the occasion of redemption, surrounded by a copious fire, and hedged in by the number of enemies, in the middle of a certain area near the said Abbey, Likewise another bound to a stake. Who, since he was poor, and had nothing with which to redeem himself like the others, a vow being made to God and Blessed Luchesius, in whom from a boy he had always had special devotion, repeatedly doubling his name, committed himself with the enemies mocking him. O faith always to be had in God and his Saints! The guards amid these words, as if all had taken a sleep-bringing potion, drunk with sleep fell down at once. That wretched one, but happy through so great patronage, invisibly loosed from the stake, unharmed leaped over the fire, safe penetrated the wedges of enemies: free at last, and cheerful in mind and rejoicing, having come to his own hearth, paid his vows.

Rubric IV.

[47] Brother Bartholomew of Pontremoli of the Order of Minors, when in a small boat upon the waters of the Arno, near Pisa near the monastery of Saint Sabinus, with many companions waiting on the bank of the river, A certain one fallen into the river is snatched from death he had entered first to cross, that little skiff by chance overturned, with the steersman swimming, submerged he sought the depth of the whirlpool. The Brothers from the bank were invoking with loud voices Saint Luchesius, who at that time had migrated to heaven: the submerged Brother also from the bottom of the river, with his heart indeed, for with his voice he could not, was imploring his help.

Marvelous to say! Holding the submerged boat with his hands, through the mud of the deep whirlpool he reached the shore, with the quality of his previous garments so preserved, that no mud, no watery humor, no, not even a single drop, had come near his tunic.

[48] ^d Brother Antonio of Oria, of the Order of Minors, of the province of Apulia, returning from Paris and passing through the place of the Friars Minor of Poggibonsi, in which he tarried several days, hearing the marvelous deeds which the Most High daily worked through his Saint Luchesius, publicly preaching in his homeland, reported these things to the people when he returned. A certain one is preserved from shipwreck Hearing which a certain compatriot of his, named Angelo, when a few days had passed, as he was crossing from the port of Brindisi to Epirus, and amid the inexpressible waves of the sea, after many invocations of God and his Saints, with the storm raging more and more, the ship with the mast broken and the rudder torn off, floating without a steersman, was in total peril; called back in mind what the aforementioned preacher had evangelized. With every nautical remedy despaired of, when at last he had unanimously provoked his companions to the invocation of this Saint (O miracle worthy of record!) with the sea in the most pitch-black night lying upon them, a light immediately appeared on the vessel like day, and with the light so great a tranquility was divinely granted to the sea, as if, after the example of his head, Luchesius had commanded the wind and the sea. All came safe to Epirus, and from this so great a fame of this Saint began to spread in those regions, and devotion to be stirred up in the minds of the faithful; that invoked very often he helped countless ones by land and by sea.

III

[49] I, Brother Bartholomew of Tolomei of Siena, of the Order of Minors the least, Likewise the author himself with many others when from our General Chapter then celebrated at Marseille, I had entered a certain ship of Lord Franceschini of Portovenere, about to return to my homeland, together with eighteen of our Brothers and many other pilgrims who were returning from Saint James by sea, near Savona ^e a strong and unexpected tempest lay upon us: with the spirit of storms more fiercely swelling the sea, and the impetuous southwest wind against us, which with salvation's remedy despaired of, drove the vessel upon rocks, with the mast torn away, the sails torn, the oars broken, the ropes loosened, at last the anchors dropped by fate, the ship, shaken on all sides, wandered with an uncertain and uneven course over the waters. Everyone's tears burst forth, all pay their vows, raise their voices to the stars, each invoked the patronage of his own Saints: I with tears committed the cause to God and Blessed Francis. The vessel meanwhile, destitute of all governance, was gradually being submerged into the depths. There was present a certain pilgrim, originating from Papaiano, ^f but an inhabitant of Figline, of the district of Florence: who rising in the midst, said: "Behold, with no one hearing you, you have invoked the help of all the Saints: let us, I beg, unanimously implore the patronage of my Saint Luchesius, who, although he is unknown among you, yet most known in my homeland, does not render in vain the vows of those supplicating him." We all invoked Saint Luchesius with his persuasion in concordant clamorous voices and groans: when suddenly (O wonderful omnipotence of God in his elect!) that pilgrim with bent knees, his cap raised, hands joined, said: "Rise, rise all of you, and with bent knees joyfully receive him coming to us." Scarcely had he finished the words, the winds at once flee, the waves are calmed, in a moment the sea is made peaceful: we reached Savona with God granting; and all paying our vows in procession, each with single candles of a pound in hand, for the honor and reverence of Saint Luchesius, we came to the church of the Friars Minor of that city.

Rubric V.

[50] A certain noble Florentine matron, in her villa not far from the castle of Barberino ^g, when being now near birth, she had for four days carried the dead fetus in her womb, A woman in labor with a dead fetus is helped was agitated with many unhappy pains, and pressed with deadly straits. For since the dead fetus compelled the mother also to death, and not yet brought forth into the light, that aborted one produced public danger of the mother; in vain she tried the help of physicians, and demanded in vain every remedy of little women and midwives. At last, with the Friars Minor, then dwelling in the Convent of Barberino ^h, summoned through messengers, committing herself with all devotion, she suppliantly asked with full faith to touch something, even the smallest, of the Relics of Blessed Luchesius. It happened that with the Guardian of the said place, who had been present at the tomb and funeral rites of the holy man, was found a little something of the tunic of the same Saint: which being placed upon the woman in peril, immediately all pain departed; and that which produced the cause of death, the dead fetus, was easily expelled, and entire health was restored to the matron.

[51] A certain woman of the village of Talcio ⁱ, named Gemma, when she was near labor but nearer to death; And another equally in peril with the strength of nature now failing, and every remedy and artifice of little women ceasing, turned herself with all the intention of her mind to the patronage of Saint Luchesius amid deadly pains of her entrails; and his help being invoked, immediately the pains being loosed she bore a son: whom after forty days she carried joyfully to the church of the Friars Minor of Poggibonsi, offering him to the holy Luchesius. Who afterwards, on reaching a mature age, devoutly took on their habit and life.

III

[52] A certain other woman, sixty years old, of Montemurlo ^k, named Francesca, to whom her dying daughter left a nursing little infant, An old woman to nurse her daughter's infant is filled with milk since she was poor, and found no woman who would give milk to the thirsty little one as necessity demanded, where to turn the old woman was utterly ignorant. It therefore came into her mind that Blessed Luchesius was powerful with God in his marvels. And when amid querulous groans and frequent sobs she held the crying little infant in her lap, and "O holy Luchesius, why do you not help so great a calamity of mine?" she redoubled; there appeared to her visibly, the lover of innocent age and the unfailing solace of the afflicted, who said to the amazed and greatly marveling woman: "I am Luchesius, whom with such tears you have so often invoked: place your breasts in the boy's mouth, for abundantly will divine clemency supply milk to you, he who drew abundant water from a rock for the thirsting people." The aged old woman believed, and the words of Saint Luchesius were fulfilled in her. Which wondrous work with such fame resounded to all the inhabitants of that country, that in rivalry men of both sexes, from the adjacent villages and towns, not without great admiration and praise of God, came together to see a sixty-year-old woman nursing a boy ^l.

[53] A certain noble lady of the Castle of Certaldo ^m, when for two years she had suffered alienation of mind, A certain woman laboring with mania, deafness, and blindness is healed deprived of sight and hearing, tore her garments with her teeth, did not avoid the dangers of fire, water, and other things, and had moreover incurred to the summit the horrible suffering of the falling sickness, which is called by antonomasia "royal"; one night, when by the merits of Saint Luchesius the divine goodness had from eternity arranged to have mercy on her great calamity, returning to herself, and superilluminated divinely with the brightness of the supernal light, she saw in dreams Blessed Luchesius, who at that time had migrated to heaven, before whom kneeling she more devoutly asked for health. With him being silent and not yet assenting to her prayers, the woman confirmed the vow that, if by his merits she should obtain grace, she would never at any time deny alms to any asking, according to her means, out of love of God and of him equally. O immense benefits of divine bounty! It seemed to her, the vow being made, that Saint Luchesius fortified her with the sign of the cross; who waking from sleep, and feeling herself restored to the most entire health, the next morning, not without great wonder of all who knew her, went to visit the tomb of the Saint.

V, VI, VII

[54] A certain one hung on the rack, with a great weight of stones and chain-mail, when he would not, A certain one is freed from the sensation of pain amid tortures to the prejudice of both his man and his death, confess the crime that had been falsely imposed on him; after long vexations and kinds of torments, being freed, asserted that by the merits of Blessed Luchesius, whom he had often invoked, he had felt the pain of no torture. The aforesaid Brother Hildebrandinus also asserted, that a certain uterine brother of his, who afterwards on such occasion became a Friar Minor, when he had a navel beyond measure and deformedly swollen, and raised above the surface of the body; kissing the hand of Saint Luchesius, still lying on the bier, without any other vow made, was immediately freed. A certain Bartholomew of Poggibonsi, when he was ten years old, and had a twisted shinbone, and presented the sole of his foot monstrously turned back above, A twisted foot is restored standing upon the tomb of Blessed Luchesius, not led by devotion, for he was a little boy; terrified by fear, because his shinbone resounded as if dry wood were being broken with force by hands; erect, sound and free, not without the wonder of all, he entered his father's home.

[55] A certain little Pistoian boy, when he held a little wagon ⁿ of bone in his hands, and, as is the custom of boys, strove to pierce it with an iron; that iron, slipping, penetrated his hand, A hand that was to be amputated is healed not without great pain and shedding of blood. But when after many medicines, with a tumor following, the whole hand was decaying, and by the counsel of physicians was judged to be cut off, lest the infirmity daily growing should infect the whole body; the mother hearing this, abhorred such a remedy more than the boy's death: turning to Saint Luchesius, whose fame of miracles was now resounding everywhere, a vow being made to him, within a few days the boy was so freed that no scar, no trace at all Likewise the scrofula, either of the original wound or of the tumor that had followed, remained. A certain young man of Monte Voltraio ^o, stricken with gravest paralysis, [p] had besides many varices, which are commonly called [q] "gangulae," throughout his whole body; a vow being made by his parents, he was perfectly freed from both infirmities alike by the merits of Saint Luchesius.

X, XI, XII

[56] A certain woman named Divitia Orlandi of Siena, who suffered a gout in her left leg which is called sciatica, And sciatica so that for three continuous years she remained immobile on that side, a vow being made to Saint Luchesius, within a few days she remained free from all pain. Bartholomew Giovanni of Poggibonsi, seized by the devil, and for thirty days so possessed, speaking horrible things, A possessed man is freed doing enormous things, when he tore himself with his teeth and others whom he could reach, being led to the sepulcher of Saint Luchesius, as soon as he touched it, was marvelously freed. A certain noble Florentine woman, And one suffering a flow of blood named Lenotia, for four years wearied by a flow of blood, so that sometimes by too great effusion of blood she was made half-dead; and if sometimes the flow was stopped, her whole body would swell; despaired of by all the physicians, and turning to the patronage of Saint Luchesius, was perfectly healed.

XIII

[57] A certain one of Poggibonsi, who for the reverence and devotion to this Saint, being lifted from the sacred font of baptism, was given the name Luchesius by his parents

had preserved; while in the city of Bologna he was selling meat publicly (for he was a butcher or [r] "beccarius," as is commonly said), the hand of a certain Bolognese, which hastily among many to indicate the meats A hand cut off from someone is restored which he desired to have, he had carelessly extended; he himself also unforeseen and greatly hurrying, with a knife raised for cutting meats, he [s] entirely amputated it from the arm. The noise of the bystanders rises: one half-alive, from pain and great effusion of blood, is carried home to be immediately offered to physicians; the other half-dead, from fear of the accidental misfortune and affliction of heart, enters a certain church [t] of Saint Bartholomew near the tower [u] of the Asinelli as a fugitive. The wretched one is sought by the Magistrates, pursued by the relatives and kin of the wounded, greatly indignant; he himself sad and grieving, crying and wailing, sighing and beating his breast, with a suppliant vow in the same church besought God, that by the merits of Blessed Luchesius he would deign to free the one whom he had incautiously struck. Meanwhile the hand of the Bolognese is bound by the Physicians, and though despaired of by them, asserting that a supernatural remedy was necessary for such a cure, yet is most diligently fitted to the arm. O admirable change of the right hand of the Most High! In one moment of time the pain of the wound departed, and, not understanding himself to be freed, pressed by sweet sleep he immediately fell asleep. In the morning the surgeons return, and whom they believed they would find weighed down by fever, seeing him lively and cheerful, stupidly unbinding his hand, with only a scar remaining, which remained as a sign of the miracle, they saw entirely without any injury.

XIV

[58] A certain Priest named Ser Dominic of Volterra, Profaning the feast of Blessed Luchesius he is wounded and healed very devoted to Blessed Luchesius, had proclaimed his feast in the church of Castiglione, near the town of Colle Val d'Elsa, to his people to be solemnly celebrated. The rest obey, with only one exception, who, conquered by cupidity, little esteeming the Priest's command, as if it were not divine or of the universal Church, going out that day into the field to cut the wood of a tree uprooted by the force of the winds, heard a voice expressing most clearly: "Today is the feast, it is not lawful for you to work." But when neither by the Priest's command nor by the oracle of the heavenly voice his servile rashness was restrained; not desisting from the work begun, at the first blow of the axe raised high, he gravely wounded his own left foot. O divine vexation, which gives understanding to feigned hearing! He recalls the Priest's precept, is compunct in heart, binds and ties up the wound as he can, sitting on the beast which he had brought with him; and hastening to the tomb of Saint Luchesius, a vow being made, in the same church he wondered with the others who were present at the wound thus healed, so that for joy and gladness they reckoned what had truly been done to have been a vision. Many indeed and other signs our Lord Jesus did in the sight of his faithful, that he might glorify his Saint Luchesius, which are not written in this book: but these few I have written, that you may believe that this distinguished Confessor, reigning with the same Christ, possesses the joys of heaven.

ANNOTATIONS.