ON ST. GUALFARDUS SOLITARY
OF VERONA AND AUGSBURG.
IN THE YEAR 1127
PrefaceGualfardus Solitary, of Verona and Augsburg (S.)
By the author D. P.
[1] The kingdom of Italy, which had passed from the Lombards to the Franks by the virtue of Charlemagne, took under his far lesser-virtued posterity Berengar, a Prince of Italian blood: who, establishing his seat at Verona about the year of the Lord 894, In the church of St. Salvator de Curteregia and adorning it both with a most fortified citadel, and with a stone bridge, and with other great works, had there two successors of equal name and title, his son Berengar II, and his grandson through his daughter, Berengar III, whose varied fortune in the new and violently usurped kingdom the Veronese historians pursue. Which of them built the Royal Court on the bank of the river Adige (for it is probable it was built by someone) I have not ascertained; nor would we know that it was a Court or palace, except that the church of St. Salvator built there preserves the name from that, and is called St. Salvator in Curte-regia. It is the eighth in order among the forty-five parishes of the city of Verona in Ughelli, and has adjoining a monastery of Nuns of the Order of St. Benedict.
[2] the body is of St. Gualfardus, But what makes this church memorable to us in the present work, is the body of St. Gualfardus, born at Augsburg, a saddler by craft; who, about the year 1096, coming from Germany to Verona, after he had lived a whole twenty years as a solitary in a little wood near the city, known to God alone; being drawn back into the city, he lived there ten years near the aforesaid church as a sort of recluse; and dying in the year 1127 on the day before the Kalends of May; and, by miracles which he had begun to be famous for while living, he was made more famous soon after death; and he now has his tomb there and an altar over it with a yearly feast. Francis Corna in a book, once adorning the altar, which he wrote in pedestrian and vernacular speech in the year of salvation 1477, concerning the antiquities of Verona and of the Saints' relics which are found in it, asserts that the bones of St. Gualfardus rest in a sepulchre (that, namely, which we shall soon understand from his Life had been miraculously kept for him) in the wall at the side of the altar: and that there also are an iron haircloth and hood. Thus Augustine Valerius, Bishop of Verona, in the Monuments of the Bishops and Saints of Verona published in the year 1576; and he adds, "But this haircloth and hood the Abbess of the Nuns of the said church of St. Salvator, on the 16th day of February, 1574, affirmed to us that she had seen and touched, which was made of iron chains, and the hood covered with all-silk or velvet, and so great that it could also cover the shoulders: and that these things were thence carried off under John Matthew Gibertus, Bishop of Verona, with his iron tunic and hood, and that she knew not what afterwards became of them. She said also that within the monastery there was an ancient cloth, on which was the image of St. Gualfardus, clothed with a haircloth in the manner of a garment composed of chains."
[3] John Matthew Gibertus sat in the See of Verona from the year 1524 to the end of the year 1543. Mark Corner, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, had preceded him by 21 years, under whose Pontificate the Translation of St. Gualfardus was made, from the old chest to a new one in the altar, then in the year 1507 translated into a new chest to the altar which is now honored there under his name. Of which Translation the memory is contained in a leaden tablet placed within the chest and inscribed with these letters: "In this tomb lies the Most Blessed Gualfardus, from the city of Augsburg: who passed away at Verona in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1127, the day before the Kalends of May, and his Translation was on the 7th Kalends of December, 1507, with John of the Abbey, Canon of Verona, present." Below the said chest is read this title sculpted: "Bones of St. Gualfardus": and before the altar on a transverse tablet, another longer is seen in this form: "The bones of St. Gualfardus from the city of Caesar-Augusta rest here." with various inscriptions, Where Valerius in vain, and after him Ferrarius in the Annotations, suspecting an error, warn that the word "Caesarea" should be erased, because St. Gualfardus was a German, not a Spaniard. For it is not plausible that it came into the mind of the authors of that inscription to write anything of the city of Saragossa in Spain: but since in the Subalpine regions there was another Augusta of a most famous name, called by the ancients Augusta Praetoria, metropolis of the Salassi, and called by Solinus the border of Italy, the head of a Duchy of its own name in Piedmont; lest anyone err by the ambiguity of the name, they indicated that "Caesarea," that is, "Imperial" city, was to be understood.
[4] Above the same altar is also seen the image of St. Gualfardus, wooden, carved, clothed with a haircloth of chains, with image and patronage of saddlers, made in the year 1517; which, as also the altar itself, I believe to have been placed by the craftsmen of the Saddlers, who venerate St. Gualfardus as their Patron at Verona; and indeed, as Octavius Ianolinus, Rector of the College of Verona, lately questioned by us, wrote back, on the very day on which he died, on which also by Ferrarius is mentioned in both Catalogues of the Saints, namely on this last day of April. Yet formerly, for the greater convenience, as I believe, of the Saddlers themselves, and for the better drawing of a throng of people running to the Saint, that feast was held on the Kalends of May: for so in the Missal of the church of St. Mary of Frata, from parchments, The feast at Verona on May 1 and the manuscript Life it is found written on the first day of May, "Gualfardus the Confessor rests in St. Salvator": and in the Martyrology among the Nuns of St. Dominic, Kalends of May, "At Verona, St. Gualfardus the Confessor rests in St. Salvario." Thus Augustine Valerius, and he signifies that his Life is held in the said church in manuscript: such as the Capuchin Fathers in the year 1602, with particles taken from the body, received transcribed and brought to Augsburg, as will be said below, and preserve wrapped in green silk, together with the German version printed the same year at Augsburg; whence our own John Gamansius communicated it to us, having received the same. The translator was Cleophas Distelmayr, The same in German in the year 1602 minister of the altar in the Cathedral of Augsburg: who aptly prefixed to his version the words of St. Ambrose on the finding of SS. Gervasius and Protasius: "We have escaped, brethren, no slight burden of shame; for we have found today how we may seem to surpass our elders; we have found the recognition of holy Martyrs, which they had lost."
[5] The same Life was translated into Italian by John Anthony Blanchinus, printed at Verona in the year 1604: and translated into Italian in 1604: and at the care of the Saddlers of the city of Rome, who, by the example of the Veronese, had adopted the Patronage of St. Gualfardus, reprinted at Viterbo in the year 1620, and dedicated to Alexander Cardinal of Montalto. Which version, made from the Veronese original, comparing with the Augsburg copy, we not only learn that this had been faithfully copied from that; but turning our mind thence to these words in n. 4: "Of the … miracles which the most holy man of God Gualfardus … displayed, as from present witnesses, most religious persons still living, whom we shall enumerate in what follows, we have found to be true, we shall endeavor to open to you with good faith"; and yet finding no witnesses anywhere named, we are compelled to believe that the Veronese original itself is not the primitive one, but perhaps after the burning of the city (mention of which is inserted in n. 12) to have been copied, the autograph having perished among the flames; as among them then perished the ex-votos hung around the tomb. which seems to have been written in Latin before the year 1200; For that fire happened only in the year 1230 (so far as can be known from the Veronese history by Jerome della Corte); but the miracles, whose present and still living witnesses the author of the Life promises to name in what follows, even if only those which happened after the Saint's death seem to be meant (for there follows, "but first those which … in his life he did … we shall try to declare"), nor were they written except after the death of those who, having received health by the intercession of St. Gualfardus, long surviving, gave certain testimony of the whole affair, as did Vivianus, of whom n. 11 treats: yet they seem to have been made not very long after the death of the Saint, and at least to have been written before the end of the same century. Be that as it may, the writer of the Life here to be edited comes very near to the authority and credit of contemporary writers, its abridgments in others, and from it have been drawn the shorter synopses of the Life, which it is permitted to read in Valerius and Ferrarius in Latin, in Jerome della Corte in Italian, in Stengel in German. But the Saint himself, who is venerated at Verona on the day before the Kalends of May, is commemorated at Augsburg, on account of the memory of the Translation, on October 26, in the year of the Lord 1602.
[6] We shall give the instruments of the said Translation after the Life, from which another copy in the manuscript of Welser. we shall learn that Mark Welser, the illustrious man and chief ornament of the city of Augsburg, labored for the same: whom I persuade myself to have been the first author of relics sought from Verona. For our own Gamansius, in a Codex, copied at St. Anne's in the public school about the year 1580 (which is now of the Commonwealth of Augsburg and formerly was of Mark Welser), found another copy of the Life, and transcribed and communicated it: whose tenor of Life, in the same words for the most part, yet sometimes woven more briefly and more polished, we shall sometimes cite below in the notes. But from this Codex, which itself may seem to have been received from some Veronese manuscript, Welser, brought to the knowledge of this Augsburg Saint, whence he himself composed a new one. first wove a new Life in his own style, with additions which could be added from Augustine Valerius: and so it is found printed along with the opuscula of Blessed Brother David of Augsburg of the Order of Minors in the year 1596: then he seems to have conceived a great desire of communicating so great a good to his fellow citizens, as we shall soon see done.
LIFE
From a Veronese manuscript brought along with the Relics.
Gualfardus Solitary, of Verona and Augsburg (S.)
BHL Number: 8789
FROM A MS.
[1] Brought to Verona, he remains there, There was a certain very noble man of Christian profession, named Gualfardus, arising from the province of Germany, from the city of Augsburg: who by divine providence, with certain of his companion merchants, came to the city of Verona: and there, seeing the fertility of the time, the fitness of the place, with a companion of his own craft named Licko a, all the others returning, arranged to stay in the same city. Blessed Gualfardus, therefore, snowy-white in chastity, flame-like in charity, sober in modesty, empty of anger, great-minded in constancy, long-suffering in the virtue of patience, compassionate in mercy, holding compassion inwardly, yet performing the work outwardly daily, whatever finally he found by the labor of his hands, he sustains himself by the work of a saddler. he distributed to the poor and needy keeping nothing for himself except only so much clothing as he could drive away winter and at least cover his body. In the same place the most blessed Gualfardus, in the exercise of saddlery (for he was an excellent saddler) remained for a short time. For considering the deceitfulness of men, the fragility of his life, the craftiness of the devil, it displeased him to lead his life in such a way.
[2] Therefore, that he might gain for himself eternal life, and wholly put away the vanities of this world; thereafter he lives as a solitary for 20 years, a grove
which is called Saltuccius b, for the purpose of dwelling there, with desirous mind, no one knowing, he entered: which grove was not far distant from the city of Verona, near the Adige river. In that same grove, however, the most blessed man of God Gualfardus for nearly twenty years, no man could know how most strict and how good and how very useful a life he led there. For the grove in which he remained was not frequented, the place of it was almost impenetrable on every side. But when it pleased the Lord to show the works of so great a man, to certain sailors navigating near the wood, he showed forth St. Gualfardus near the bank of the Adige; where, found and brought back to Verona. who, thinking he was either a wild or a sylvan man, came in their ship to the shore. Going out therefore from the little boat and advancing by that same path, they found him in a small hut having a little garden. Him they seized unwilling and led off to the city of Verona. Whom his countrymen recognizing, they found a suitable place for him at the church of St. Peter c in the monastery, and gave him garments and other necessary things: from which nevertheless he daily abstained, and as much as possible aided the needy, and there, being devoted to good works for a very brief space of time, he remained.
[3] Then at the time when the Adige river greatly d rose, so that it overflowed the squares of the whole city, with the Adige flooding he departs: and with almost all men fleeing from fear, the most blessed man of God Gualfardus also went out of the city of Verona: then he sought the church of the Holy Trinity e, not far distant from the aforesaid city. But remaining there a brief time, serving God, obeying, denying nothing; renouncing the world with its pomps, by certain most religious men of the church of St. Salvator, with the affection of pious love and the clemency of highest devotion intervening, and returning again he lives ten years at St. Salvator's, he was received. When therefore the most holy man of God Gualfardus was remaining in that same place, immediately he ordered a cell to be made for himself, to which at his own pleasure, situated near the church, he entered. There indeed for ten years, persevering day and night in vigils, persisting in most frequent prayers, and continuing in fasting, and always abstaining from foods and drinks, he did not cease daily to distribute to the needy. He freed the sick from fevers and from many other languors, where becoming famous for virtues and miracles, by the virtue of God he enlightened the blind, he drove away demons, he sent the lame home upright. For he was a man who by piety, by justice, by modesty, by fortitude, by prudence, by finally the splendor of all virtues, shone by the goodness of God alone. He was a man to whom wisdom was a sister, prudence a friend, modesty a mother, fortitude a midwife, justice a nurse. Therefore the most blessed man of God Gualfardus, being thus devoted to good works, was always free from anger and hate, and from step to step always ascended.
[4] Of the manifold and innumerable miracles, which the most holy man of God Gualfardus by God's help and virtue after his death f displayed; as from present witnesses, most religious persons still living, whom we shall enumerate in what follows, this we have found to be true; he has fishes sporting with him, and we shall labor with good faith to open to you some of his miracles. But first the signs, the miracles in his most holy life which he himself performed, we shall try to declare with the inquiry of highest love. For often this most holy man of God Gualfardus, going down to the bank of the river Adige, to wash his hands, and take some water in his cup, fishes came of their own accord, and vied to leap into the cup, and also licked the hands of the most holy man: some of them he raised up, yet afterwards putting them down, when they were unwilling to depart, commanding them he made them return for the church of Salvator is adjacent to the Adige. O how great is his humility! he preserves the alms brought to him, how great his wisdom and how great his fortitude! How magnificent are the wonders which God displayed through so most religious a man, praying to God for the whole people of Verona in that cell! For boys and virgin girls, coming from afar by the command of their elders, bringing food to the most holy man Gualfardus in small dishes, most frequently fell on the most foul road; yet they lost nothing of what was in the vessels: which he distributed almost wholly to the poor there present.
[5] At that same time a certain citizen of Verona, Mugetus by name, he enlightens the blind, was held in grievous infirmity of the eyes, so that he believed the lost office of seeing would not be henceforth in any way restored to him. And when he had been long wearied with such labor, he sent a messenger to the venerable man, asking and with many prayers begging that he would deign to come to him as if for the purpose of visiting. Who, when, avoiding the favor of men, he refused to go; being admonished by the words of the Priest of that church at which he dwelt, at length, with night already pressing on, he went to the house of the aforesaid man. he heals those sick in the eyes, Therefore when his hands were violently drawn over the eyes of the sick man himself, the next day sight was restored to him; and being brought back to his former well-being, he rendered immense thanks for the bestowed benefit to the Man of God. Another citizen also, Albericus by name, suffering from like infirmity, came to the man of God, and prostrating himself at his feet, and drawing his hands over his own eyes, he who had come grieving, the remedy being received, is said to have departed with joy.
[6] likewise another blind man, Besides, from the same city of Verona a certain man, who was called Gisalbertus, had fallen into total blindness of sight: to whom it was revealed in a vision, that he should seek the man of God Gualfardus, and through his intervention he should not doubt that he would receive a fitting remedy. Therefore supporting himself on a staff, he came to the place where the man of God dwelt: whom, that he might have mercy upon him, he most instantly besought, and so departed joyful from having received his former health. To the wife also of a certain Rodulph the saddler, suffering from the heat of fevers, it was shown at night in a vision, that if she drank of the water with which the hands of the aforesaid man of God were washed, without any delay she would escape from that languor of fevers. Which being done, that woman became well, and gave not a few thanks to the man of God for the remedy granted. and a woman with fever. Therefore with such and other innumerable miracles and good works the most sacred worshipper of God, relying on humility, polished by patience, and composed with discretion; never was he made arrogant, never exalted, never angry, never could he seem to be proud.
[7] About to die, he begs to be humbly buried: But when he understood the end of his life, he ordered a wooden coffin to be constructed for him, which he asked to be placed in the common way about the church: upon which coffin, with the man of God placed within, he wished men going and returning to tread. He said he was not worthy to remain in the cemetery: he called himself greatly a sinner and said God had been offended by him in many things. Not long after, while he was sick, certain most honorable men of the same church of St. Salvator, with some of their neighbors, found two wagons, and were pleased to go for a stone chest, which was reported to be in the valley of Paltena, at Cozanum g: which for a long time previously, but in a stone chest miraculously conveyed, even in the serenest weather and calmest air, could not be taken from there by any men who had very often wanted to carry off that chest; nay, immediately upon their attempting to move the said chest, the whole coast of the place was devastated by a great storm. But when the aforesaid men by divine providence came to the chest, all the men of that valley, fearing the usual storm, on bended knees earnestly begged them not to move the chest. However, as it was God's will, not therefore abandoning the chest, they placed the box in one wagon, and the cover in another vehicle, with God's help, with great joy, without any adversity of weather. it is laid up: Coming therefore with great festivity and great gladness, they brought the chest to the church of our Lord the Savior without any hindrance. But in that same hour the most holy servant of God Gualfardus gave up his spirit, in which they, coming with the chest, approached the aforesaid church with great jubilation.
[8] After the death of the most holy man, a certain woman named Tulcelda, h oppressed by the plague of paralysis, and therefore deprived of the function of one arm and shoulder, a paralytic is healed at the bier, scarcely walking, approached his bier: and there by his intercession, received full health. But when a certain woman of the same quarter of St. Salvator, called Otta (whose son, named Henry, was held in grievous infirmity of one eye) had heard that such wonders were being done through the merits of the most holy man of God Gualfardus; she brought the boy to his bier, and with the eye of her son being touched by the hand of the most holy man, and then with the foot, and many other sick, he was thus, by God's mercy and by the merits of the holy man, delivered. We have learned that many also there, both men and women, were cured from diverse sicknesses, the blind enlightened, the contracted extended, those burning with fevers freed; [of whom, lest if we be drawn out into a volume and an abundance of words, we become a weariness to readers, we have thought it fitting to be silent].
[9] Afterwards at the tomb they are cured, a contracted man But after the burial of that most holy man Gualfardus, a certain man of Trent, John by name, was brought to his chest: who was so contracted from the navel downward, that he could scarcely move himself, nor could he walk except with his hips resting on the ground. And while he remained persisting there in prayer, with the people then standing by looking on, his paralytic limbs began to be stretched out, and then at length being raised up, he ran rejoicing to the bells, and made all present equally certain and glad of his liberation. a blind woman, Besides, from a certain village, which is called Agna i, of the Paduan diocese, a certain woman coming, wholly deprived of the light of her eyes, brought before the chest of the man of God; the light, which she had long lacked, was straightway restored to her. A maidservant also of Thebaldus k Strusius was so sharply vexed by a demon, a possessed woman, that she could scarcely be held and restrained by three men: who, when for some days she had been held before the tomb of the most blessed man, on the Lord's day, while Mass was being celebrated, that wicked spirit going out, ceased to infest the girl: and so, freed, with great gladness she returned to her own.
[10] But another woman from Terratio l, which place is of the diocese of Verona, with her throat obstructed, situated not far from the field of Padua, was seized with such misfortune, that with her cheeks falling down and obstructing her throat, scarcely was the faculty of breathing granted: and she could taste nothing, except with a little knife opening her mouth. To her in sleep was made a revelation in this manner. For it seemed to her that the man of God Gualfardus came to her, and with him drawing his hands over her cheeks the languor departed; moreover, he exhorted her to go to the presence of his body. Therefore coming to his tomb, she obtained the remedy. So great is the certitude of this miracle, that after these things the woman offered the tithes of all her goods to the church at which the venerable body rests: and so she was accustomed to do by custom in each year.
A certain citizen of Verona, a paralytic, Andrew by name, had been dissolved by the infirmity of paralysis, so that with all his limbs on one side drawn together, he was compelled only to lie. Brought however to the presence of the man of God, he received full healing: and without anyone's aid, he returned to his own dwelling.
[11] an epileptic, There was also a certain citizen of Verona, Vivianus by name, who before his entrance into the Clergy was held by that infirmity which in common speech is called "cadiva" (falling), wherefore daily he was compelled to fall. This man, when he had come to the tomb of the man of God, was freed at the same hour at which he was accustomed to fall, and long surviving, he gave certain testimony of this matter. Another man, from a certain castle which is called Marciana m, in the valley of Paltena of the Veronese territory, a possessed man, was afflicted with such intolerable passion, that for three years day and night he did not at all cease from immoderate chattering; which many thought was done by the infestation of the evil spirit. This man being led to his tomb, was restored to his former quiet; and with the chattering calmed, joyful and with great joy of his parents, returned home. For which benefit granted him, as long as he remained in this life, each year he was accustomed to give a certain measure of oil to the church. pain in the sides, Besides, a certain Lady, who is named Redalda, had suffered for nearly sixteen years so immense a pain of the sides, that no hope of escape remained. Therefore on a certain day, while she was tormented in her usual manner, coming to the chest she began to persist in prayer, and to pour out tears: and there through the intervention of the man of God she received a full remedy of that languor, and being healed she returned home.
[12] In the parts of the Germans also, while the feast of St. Margaret n was imminent, a certain maidservant, who had vowed to observe the same feast, a girl having her hand contracted for the violation of the vow, her mistress compelling her and frightening her with threats, went out into a meadow where hay was being cut. Who when she had taken a rake in her hand, and had extended it to gather the hay; soon her withered hand remained bound around the wood, so that in no way could it be extended, nor the rake which she was holding be taken from her: whence it happened that on each side of the rake was cut, but the part which her hand was closing on (since it remained immovable) was left so. She, the fame of the most holy man of God being spread abroad, sought the presence of his body. Where when she had come, little by little approaching, her withered hand with the other, sound hand she raised over the chest: and soon, by divine power working, with her hand extended the wood fell: which was indeed hanging there, until that city of Verona o was burnt, and gave credit to this fact. There were also two girls from the diocese of Trent, who had been seized by a demon. But when they had come to the blessed man's chest, two possessed women, and had vomited forth blood and other most foul things from their mouths, thus freed by God and the merits of the holy man, they returned home with great joy.
[13] a woman weak in body, From the region of the Germans also there was a certain Countess, who was held in the greatest impediment of her limbs, so that she could in no way walk. But when she visited the tomb of the most holy man of God Gualfardus, by divine providence and by the merits of the blessed man, she departed freed. There was also a certain man, Consoldinus [p] by name, who, having a certain friend of his named Ursatus, a lame man, who for a long space of time had been lame, brought him on his own back to the threshold of the holy man: and immediately being freed before the chest, he went home on his own feet. Another man also, Gilbert by name, on a certain feast, as he himself professed, punished for the violation of the feast, was making suitable combs for the work of wool-making: for which reason one of the combs so strongly clung to his hand, that it could never be taken from it, until he visited the tomb of the most blessed man of God. But his hand being placed upon the chest, immediately by God's power and the intervention of the aforesaid man, from his outstretched hand the comb fell; and having thus escaped, he long bore witness to this. On one day alone five men seized by demons, 5 possessed men, by the merits and intercession of Blessed Gualfardus, were freed together, when they came to the aforesaid chest, with many standing by and seeing them vomiting blood from their mouths.
[14] But it is not much time since, three Germans, likewise one previously prohibited from approach to sacred places. who were coming from the sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ, and who had also visited the church of the most blessed Prince of the Apostles, and of St. James, came to the chest of the most religious man of God Gualfardus, and two of them placed great gifts upon the chest. But the third, when he wished to offer his gifts upon that chest, could in no way approach the chest. Whence his companions thought him to be seized by a demon, because he could neither touch the sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor kiss that of Blessed Peter at Rome, nor also approach the chest of St. James. But while the aforesaid man tried three times in vain to go to the chest of Blessed Gualfardus, by divine providence and by the merits of the blessed man, he violently cast forth blood from his mouth; and thus freed from the chattering and from the devil's temptation he departed: and his companions rendered immense thanks to God and to his most blessed servant Gualfardus. By the bestowal of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen. Blessed Gualfardus, however, passed to the Lord in the year from the incarnation of the Lord one thousand one hundred twenty-seven, the day before the Kalends of May: [and his holy bones rest in the church of our Holy Savior in the Royal Court above the river Adige.] [q]
ANNOTATIONS.
h MS. Velser: Tuleda.
p In Bianchinus: Contoldinus. MS. Velser: Centolinus, which pleases most as well known to Italians, namely a diminutive of the name Vincentius. In the same MS. he is called Ursinus, who here is Ursatus.
q MS. Velser adds these things, and at length subjoins the clause placed above, "Through the bestowal" etc.
TRANSLATION OF THE RELICS
From Verona to Augsburg,
from authentic manuscript instruments.
Gualfardus Solitary, of Verona and Augsburg (S.)
FROM A MS.
[1] On Monday, the 3rd day of the month of June 1602, at Verona, By order of the Coadjutor of Verona in the year 1602 in the below-noted church of St. Salvator. I Antony son of the late D. Francis of Rothariis of St. Stephen of Verona, Notary and Coadjutor in the Episcopal Chancellery, by order of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Albert Valerius, Bishop of Famagusta and perpetual Coadjutor of the Bishopric of Verona, and so requested by the Reverend Fathers Brothers Mansuetus of Hostilia and Masseus of Bergamo, both Capuchins, residing here at Verona in the venerable monastery of the Reverend Fathers the Capuchins, I betook myself together with the said Reverend Fathers Capuchins to the parish church of the Venerable Lady Nuns of St. Salvator in the Royal Court, for the cause of noting down the present act, on the exhibition of the below-inscribed Relics of St. Gualfardus the Confessor. a thigh-bone with three particles is delivered to the Capuchins, When I had arrived there the Reverend Francis de Nigris, Curate Chaplain of the said parish church of St. Salvator, having first made prayer and lighted two lights, and the little window in the chest of the altar of St. Gualfardus being opened, took a certain Relic from the Relics of St. Gualfardus (as was there asserted) existing in the chest of the said Saint, namely a part of the thigh-bone, oblong, about one quarter in length, with three other particles, and consigned and delivered it to the same Reverend Fathers Capuchins, accepting it and placing it in a certain oblong box, to be carried to Augsburg: for the cause of transmitting it to Augsburg, to the Reverend Fathers Capuchins residing in the said city of Augsburg, and of preserving it perpetually in their church, which is now newly being constructed under the title and invocation of St. Francis, near the convent of the aforesaid Reverend Fathers the Capuchins: and so they insisted and requested that it be noted.
[16] likewise 4 particles of the skull, There follow the names of the witnesses, the subscription of the Notary and the authentication made by the Vicar of Verona, with the accustomed seal of the Chancellery: with which omitted, here rather is to be appended a similar Act, concerning other particles received in a similar manner, under this tenor. "On Wednesday, the 31st day of the month of July 1602. I, Antony of Rothariis, the aforementioned Notary, by order of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Augustine Valerius, by divine mercy Cardinal Presbyter of the Holy Roman Church, of the title of St. Mark, named 'of Verona,' and Bishop of Verona and Count,
and so requested by the Reverend Fathers Mansuetus of Hostilia and John Baptist of Caravaggio, both Capuchins, and by the Reverend Lord John de Nigris, Curate Chaplain of the aforesaid church of St. Salvator at Verona, I betook myself with the aforesaid … to that parish church of St. Salvator: where when I had come … the same Reverend Lord John … took the upper part of the head of the same St. Gualfardus, and broke it, and from it exhibited four particles and delivered them to the same Reverend Father Mansuetus: who placed them in the aforementioned oblong box, in which is also found the aforementioned thighbone of the said St. Gualfardus, for the cause of transmitting it to Augsburg, as was noted in the aforementioned Act. And so, with the rest as above": to which the Instrument of Augsburg approbation is to be subjoined from the parchment autograph.
[17] "Henry, by the grace of God and the Apostolic See Bishop of Augsburg, to the perpetual memory of the matter. which having been presented to him the Bishop of Augsburg permits, Mindful of our pastoral office, we with all zeal willingly embrace those things through which the piety of Christ's faithful is stirred up, and the veneration of the Saints triumphing with Christ in heaven, especially of the Patrons of our city and diocese of Augsburg, is increased and enlarged. For thus we all Christians ought to venerate the Relics of the Saints, whose souls we do not doubt reign with Christ in heaven, with singular love on earth; that honoring the friends of God, we may fit ourselves to his good pleasures; and begging their patronage with God on this account, what we cannot by our own merits, we may deserve to obtain by their intercession. Hence it is that when lately to us, on behalf of the Religious Brothers of the Order of St. Francis of the Capuchins residing at Augsburg, certain Relics were exhibited from the body of the glorious Confessor Gualfardus, who, once born in the city of Augsburg, led at Verona a life of wondrous sanctity, and there in the Parish church of the Nuns of St. Salvator in the Royal Court most honorably rests, famous with many miracles by which God confirms his sanctity; namely one oblong part of the thighbone with three other particles, likewise four particles from the head of the same St. Gualfardus. Which Relics the same Brothers had taken from the aforesaid church of St. Salvator from the body of the said St. Gualfardus, through the Most Reverend Father in Christ Lord Albert Valerius, Bishop of Famagusta and perpetual Coadjutor of the Bishopric of Verona, obtained at their own prayers and at the prayers of the remarkable and eminent piety of the man Mark Welser, Prefect of the city of Augsburg, to be given, delivered, and consigned to them, as they said was established by the public instrument drawn up thereupon and by other documents worthy of credit. Therefore humbly and earnestly asking that we might permit Relics of this kind to be placed in the church of St. Francis, recently built from the foundations near their convent at Augsburg, and there to be honored by Christ's faithful, and to be held and published as such. We therefore, taught by the example of our elders to laud and honor Christ the Lord in his Saints with the highest desires, to be exhibited in the new church of St. Francis, favorably assenting to supplications of this kind laudable, and desiring the memory of St. Gualfardus to be celebrated with worthy honors in this his native soil: and because we have diligently inspected the aforesaid instruments and testimonial letters, sound and in no part suspect, and also have received diligent information about the aforesaid Relics from letters of this kind and otherwise, by which we have found them to be reputed, held, and received as Relics of St. Gualfardus from his body. Wherefore the said Relics and the aforementioned and specified parts of the same, as Relics of St. Gualfardus the Confessor, by Christ's faithful, with that honor with which the holy Catholic Church worships the bodies of the Blessed reigning with Christ, we have permitted to be venerated and to be held and published as such, and by the tenor of these presents we permit. In faith and testimony of all and each of which, we have caused and commanded the present letters, strengthened by the subscription of our own hand, to be made thereupon, and to be confirmed by the appending of our seal. Done at Augsburg in the year of the Lord one thousand six hundred and two, on the twenty-sixth day of the month of October.
Henry Bishop of Augsburg."
[18] Carl Stengel in the Chronicle of the Church of Augsburg published in German in the year 1620, book 4 chapter 5, the feast of the Translation on October 27 after rendering the Life of St. Gualfardus from the Latin of Augustine Valerius, and making mention of the relics brought from Verona, adds that their solemn Translation was made by the aforesaid Bishop Henry and all the clergy and a very great multitude of people, in the same year 1602, when the Capuchins' church was to be dedicated: and that thenceforward the feast of St. Gualfardus began to be celebrated at Augsburg on October 27. That day in that year was a Sunday, such as is usually read for the dedications of churches: from which time, since seventy and more years have flowed by, we wonder that no worthy adornment has yet accrued to Relics so earnestly sought and so magnificently brought into the aforesaid church; nor that the benefits obtained from them by the citizens of Augsburg are committed to writing; when nevertheless among them fame celebrates that St. Gualfardus still now at Verona shines forth with new miracles, as Brother Rudolf Weissenhorn, for the time being Vicar of the Augsburg Capuchins, wrote to us when asked about these things in the year 1674, transmitting copies of the authentic documents which I had requested. We, admonished by that suggestion, asked Verona whether any new thing about the Saint had been printed or written in this century; for seeking which indeed effort was promised us; but because thus far nothing has been brought, we believe that nothing has been found either.
ON BLESSED ANTHONY,
OF THE ORDER OF THE HERMITS OF ST. AUGUSTINE
OF MONTICIANO IN ETRURIA
AFTER THE YEAR 1300.
PrefaceAnthony, of the Order of the Hermits of Augustine, of Monticiano in Etruria (B.)
D. P.
[1] At the fourteenth mile from the city of Siena toward the south, is Monticiano; which some interpret "Mount of Janus," another "Mount Cyaneum"; a third, from the ram, accustomed to be offered in the sacred rites of the sound (for Etruria now calls the ram "Montone," and the Community of the place marks the ram on its seal), as if called "Monton-jani." If it pleased to insist on new conjectures, from some Titian, the ancient inhabitant or even lord of that place, I would imagine the name born, "Mount of Titian," In the Sienese territory of Monticiano, which is commonly pronounced Monticiano. Whatever the origin of the name, which no prudent man would believe to be very ancient, from it Blessed Anthony retains his surname, buried there and held as a Saint: concerning whom, that we might be able to produce something certain, the diligence and kindness of Ludwig Torelli, who, when we were laboring on these things, sent us the Latin Life of the same Blessed, such as is preserved at Monticiano written on parchment for the use of the divine Office in ancient times, and also an Italian little commentary on the same material, elaborated twenty years ago by Brother John Baptist Pizzichini of Monticiano, of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, a curious scrutinizer of ancient papers.
[2] and the church of the Hermits of St. Augustine, On the slope of the hill, above which the aforesaid place is for the greater part situated, where it looks toward Siena, is the Convent of the Augustinian Fathers, with a church ample and beautiful, bearing an inscription of this kind: "This work the sons and heirs of Ghino Azzonis had made, for their souls and those of their dead, in the year of the Lord 1380." But that much earlier than such a building of great size rose, a Convent of Hermits was there, is proved by public Instruments, kept in the archive, from which it is clear that Brother Benedict in the year 1274 there performed the office of Prior; and that in the year 1291 the cemetery was consecrated by Rainer, Bishop of Volterra, with the grant of forty days of indulgence. The same may be said of the neighboring convent of Camerata, whence the Venerable Peter took his surname, to be commemorated in the Life of Blessed Anthony, and at length united to the aforesaid convent of Monticiano; in which the aforementioned Brother John Baptist Pizzichini teaches, from similar instruments of the same hermitage, now kept in the archive of Monticiano, that the aforesaid Brother Benedict was Prior in the year 1260.
[3] The injuries of times destroyed that convent of Camerata, so that, apart from the church, scarcely traces of ancient ruins remain; Blessed Anthony is venerated therefore also the distinct knowledge and veneration of the aforesaid Blessed Peter perished. Happier was the condition of the place of Monticiano: and so to this very day the cult of Blessed Anthony has persevered, as will soon appear from the Life, to which we have decided to subjoin an Appendix from the Italian commentary of Pizzichini, as far as it treats of Blessed Anthony. We take the last day of this month: since the last Sunday of April on the last Sunday of April is a feast day for Blessed Anthony among the people of Monticiano, nor is it certain from what year of his death or elevation the day of the month could be more determinately known, on which either the Saint was taken from this mortal life, or, with the sepulchre opened, was again restored to the eyes of mortals.
LIFE AND MIRACLES
From a Monticiano MS. parchment.
Anthony, of the Order of the Hermits of Augustine, of Monticiano in Etruria (B.)
BHL Number: 0586
FROM A MS.
[4] Blessed Anthony, born in the city of Siena [1], when he was burning with the love of Christ, leaving the vanity of the world, entered the Order of St. Augustine [2]: in which, living laudably for a long time, His holy life lived, he hid his sanctity (lest, as a treasure publicly borne on the road, he might easily lose it). Therefore the servant of God, following the way of the cross, hid the treasure found in the Lord's field from all worldly favor; and for joy of it selling all, bought it with virtues. For as Blessed Jerome says, of Blessed Paul the first Hermit, how harsh and strict a life he led, at its end or how many and what sort of snares of Satan he endured, because they are uncertain to us, we cannot tell. But let us briefly declare something of his end, in which all perfection is demonstrated.
[5] Since therefore among his other virtues he was burning with fraternal charity, he imitated the custom of the ancient Father St. Anthony, visiting Paul near the end he obtains health by a miracle,; and taught by the Holy Spirit, he arranged to visit the holy hermit man Brother Peter of Camerata, whose fame and sanctity was held celebrated among all. But while he was making his journey, it happened that he fell sick on the road: who, when he foreknew himself to be called by the Lord, prayed to the Lord that he might complete his journey; and that the man of God, to whom he was going, he might deserve to see before the passing of this life. Whose prayer the Lord heard, and restored his health, and granted him to visit the holy man.
[6] that he might see Peter of Camerata: With what charity the holy men saw each other (since their hearts were full of perfect charity, which is God) each should consider. For I think, as is told of the ancient Anthony and Paul the first hermit, the servants of God, falling into each other's embraces and the kiss of peace, greeted each other by their own names, and together, as is the custom, gave thanks. And sitting they uttered sweet colloquies of eternal life. For Blessed Anthony could say: "Of old I knew you as God's servant, of old I had desired you: therefore I sought you and have found, now shall I die joyful, because I have seen your face, nor has God cheated me of my desire." He could
conversely the servant of God Brother Peter say the word of Blessed Benedict: "Rightly today is Easter, on which I have deserved to see you: for the length of lands does not separate those whom the love of charity joins. O how good and how pleasant for brothers to dwell together! For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in the midst of them, says the Lord: Matt. 18:20 and he who abides in charity, abides in God and God in him." After many colloquies of eternal life [3], Blessed Anthony giving thanks to God, then he dies returned to Monticiano; and there commending himself to God and saying, "Now dismiss your servant in peace," he was visited by the Lord with bodily infirmity: which he, alertly and patiently accepting, called by the Lord, rested in peace.
[7] But because a city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden, nor is a lamp kindled that it may be put under a bushel, but upon a lampstand, that it may give light to all who are in the house; since he in life was a city full of virtues, and in death was raised up on the heavenly mountain, and, like a lamp kindled with the fire of the Holy Spirit, was placed upon the lampstand of glory; he could in no way lie hidden or be concealed, because the hour had come that the servant of God should be glorified. and is glorified by miracles: What then? Such as he was in life, is shown in death: revelations are made, infirmities are cured, signs are shown, and graces are bestowed: as if it openly said: "Praise not a man in his life, but praise after life, magnify after consummation: praise the valor of a leader, but when he has been brought to triumph; praise the fortune of a sailor, but when he has reached the port." When therefore he was triumphing over manifold war, and was being called from the sea of the world to the port of glory; at night-time he came to the inaccessible light of highest brightness.
[8] his passing is revealed to certain people, There was a certain man of Monticiano, named Maggiolus, who together with his wife testified that he had seen this vision. For in the hour of his passing he saw a certain soul, shining with exceeding brightness, gloriously being led by the choirs of Angels into heaven from the place in which the holy man was. Who, shaking himself from sleep for joy, awakened his wife as quickly as he could, saying: "Is there some Brother who is held to be sick?" She answering, "I know not"; the man says: "Truly I saw the soul of a certain man led into heaven." The woman answered: "I too saw the same vision." They ask therefore between themselves whose soul this is: but immediately the bell ringing, as is the custom, interrupting their words, they learn that the vision is true: and at early morning running to the place, they find that the holy man has passed from this life, and openly tell what they saw. All the people run together, and all testify that such a man is a Saint.
[9] the body of the dead man grows damp with sweat, When however the aforesaid man was held by a certain infirmity, nor could find a remedy, at his wife's persuasion he commended himself to Blessed Anthony, and straightway, being well, gave thanks to God and Blessed Anthony. A certain woman, seeing others stirred to devotion, wondered, and like an unbeliever was not moved. And straightway the dead body began to sweat, as if it suffered for her unbelief: which miracle being seen, that woman believed perfectly, all wondered, and God is preached as wondrous in his Saint. candles burning by it are not consumed: And when four candles were kindled around the body, as is the custom, and the burial was delayed for two days; the aforesaid candles burned day and night, and were not consumed. All wondered, because they burned in the manner of the bush and were not consumed, showing the holy man's brightness and incombustibility. After the burial however the candles are weighed, and although they had been lit for two days and nights, yet they had not burned an ounce.
[10] After the holy body was committed to burial, after two years it is exhumed; whole: as is reported, it lay buried almost two years: and he who living had given the odor of sanctity, did not yield the stench of death: and he who living had resisted demons, did not succumb to worms dead: and he who living so remained whole in the service of God, even dead could not be dissolved. For when his sepulchre was opened, because of the signs which were seen; the holy body is found undissolved, uncorrupted, and uncontaminated, and filled with a sweet odor: and even to this present day his body remains whole; marked with innumerable miracles.
[11] a man wounded to death recovers; A certain man was wounded to death by his enemies, with the sword remaining in the wound. But when doctors were called to draw out the sword and heal the wound, they would not touch the sword, until the same wounded man should confess and arrange his affairs, asserting that he would die immediately when the sword was extracted. He, disposing himself for death, confessed and arranged all his affairs: then with most faithful devotion, he commended himself to God and Blessed Anthony, promising to bring his vow to Blessed Anthony personally, if by his merits he could be freed from death. Then God and Blessed Anthony being invoked, the sword is most easily drawn out, the doctors' sentence of death is refuted, by the grace of healing obtained, with all wondering.
[12] an exile and condemned to death, A certain man of Bologna was exiled from his homeland, who, having received pay at Siena, heard in these parts that Blessed Anthony was commended by many. Having received this information, it happened that he received pay of the Pisans. There therefore, having committed a fault, he is imprisoned, to be punished with a capital sentence. But while he was worn out in prison sad and mourning, he returned to his heart, remembering God and blessed Anthony's mercy toward his devotees: and weeping his sin and trusting in God's mercy, having invoked Blessed Anthony, he devoutly vowed himself to Blessed Anthony: whose help he immediately felt. For when at night he had vowed, immediately the iron fetters fell to the ground, and he found himself free to go. Who, wondering at this, greatly rejoiced; and with Blessed Anthony invoked, the others being asleep, he hastened to the door of the prison: looking, he saw it open, and all his guards asleep. Going out therefore he found no one contradicting, but he feared he could not escape from the city, and as if made of little faith he hid himself, as if he who had opened the prison could not bring him out of the city. What therefore? With his bonds loosed and the gates opened, For correction of his unfaithfulness and for the proof of truth, it happened that the guards awoke: they find the door open, and see that he has fled; they raise a cry, run to arms, pursue and find the aforesaid man, lead him back, enclose him in prison, bound with hard fetters and bonds, with the door very strongly secured. But the aforesaid man wept bitterly in the night until the others should fall asleep. And when all were sleeping, again he called Blessed Anthony, and as before, all the iron fetters and all the bonds fell off: who, not doubting that this was done by the merits of Blessed Anthony, having invoked the aforesaid Blessed with all his mind, he found the door open and the guards sleeping. he is restored to freedom and his homeland: Going forth therefore manfully, he hastened as quickly as possible to the gate of the city; and finding it open, went forth unharmed. But when he had gone free, he began to think where to go, longing to return to his homeland, because he had been exiled. Again therefore he commended himself to God and Blessed Anthony: from whom he received such grace; and trusting also in their goodness, he returned to his homeland: and there he found that every proscription and condemnation had been revoked on that very day on which he had commended himself to Blessed Anthony and had gone forth from the prison: which being learned, giving thanks to God and Blessed Anthony, from Bologna all the way to Monticiano, to visit the body of the aforesaid Blessed, he reverently went, and there narrated all these things in order.
[13] A certain woman of Monticiano, Bilglucia by name, a contracted woman is cured, had remained contracted for more than eight years, so that she could not even stand on her feet: but on a certain occasion, when the bell rang out of reverence for Blessed Anthony, some standing by her said: "Why do you not commend yourself to Blessed Anthony, who abounds in so many miracles?" She, pricked with devotion and faith, vowed a vow: and being faithfully and devoutly aided by bystanders, rose up well in the name of Blessed Anthony: and from that time to her death lived free of that infirmity: and he who saw, and another with an afflicted leg. bore witness. A certain man of Monticiano, called Chinus, suffered much in the leg, so that he could in no way be freed by the remedy of doctors: he, destitute of all other help, devoutly vowed himself to Blessed Anthony; and immediately being made whole, afterwards lived free from that infirmity.
[14] A certain Brother Angelus of Siena, of the Order of Friars Minor, while he was staying with the Prior of the Canonry of Monticiano in the year of the Lord 1432, A preacher disparaging Blessed Anthony is punished, by rash audacity publicly preached that this Blessed Anthony had a foul body and in no way worthy of veneration. But it happened that in the same year the aforesaid Brother Angelus was held by fevers and flux of blood so much that there was no hope of his life. But what? On the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul of the same year, when that blessed body was being shown to the people at Vespers, and he himself was suffering grievously, hearing the bell, immediately Blessed Anthony came into his mind, to whom devoutly and earnestly he commended himself; promising, if by his prayers he were brought back to his former health, publicly to preach and retract what with polluted mouth he had preached against his body. and repenting is healed. Which being done, by the intercession of Blessed Anthony, Our Lord Jesus Christ freed him from that infirmity: whence afterwards he went devoutly to his tomb, and composed certain praises in his honor, and left them there: and what he had vowed he retracted, not only once but several times, publicly preaching, before the whole people in this present church.
[15] Thus far the copy of the Monticiano MS, without any usual closing clause in such Legends, whence we may suspect either that it has not come down whole to these times, or that it was deliberately left so, that other miracles done or to be done might subsequently be added: in place of which, from the aforementioned little commentary of Pizzichini, we shall subjoin some annotations to the aforesaid. He adds.
ANNOTATIONS1 He is said to have been born of a noble family of the Patricians, and to have been the lord of a certain castle: although in the genealogical tree of the same family his name is not found, The lineage of Anthony: this is done by the custom of the Sienese, who erase the names of those who, renouncing the world, devote themselves to religion, lest any claim upon their inheritance may be founded in them, and represent them only with a white circle without a name: otherwise the Patricians themselves willingly recognize this Saint among their own.
2 He seems to have been drawn by the example of Blessed Augustine Novellus, who died on the 19th of May about the year 1310, and in the monasteries of Lecceto
of St. Lucy, and of St. Leonard he lived religiously with the same: his body being venerated at Siena, we shall give his Life on the aforesaid day.
3 a footprint of Peter of Camerata. It is a tradition of the people of Monticiano, that Peter conducted Anthony, who was about to depart, for a fourth part of a mile outside the convent of Camerata, up to a certain rock, which has its name from the Cross, whence Monticiano could be seen; and there, blessing the aforesaid land and Anthony himself, he left the imprint of the print of his bare foot on the stone; which endures to the present day, visible to the eyes of all, although exposed to the open air and the injuries of heaven.
APPENDIX.
On the cult of Blessed Anthony, and the benefits in turn conferred on Monticiano, from an Italian MS.
Anthony, of the Order of the Hermits of Augustine, of Monticiano in Etruria (B.)
FROM MSS.
[16] In what year Blessed Anthony died is not handed down by any monuments of writings, The year and day of Blessed Anthony's death is uncertain: and we have not even found the day recorded; only by perpetual tradition of our elders have we learned that his feast is held on the last Sunday of April, whence we suspect that either on such a Sunday he died, or that the elevation of his body and its translation to the altar then took place, for the greater convenience of the people resting on that day from servile works. Yet since among the ancient instruments of the Convent of Monticiano, one is found drawn up by Meto de Mantello in the year 1292 with this beginning: "Let it be open to all, that the religious man Brother Peter of Siena, of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, serving as Prior in the place or convent of the said Brothers of Monticiano"; with a certain Maggiolo subscribing with the rest, probably the very one who with his wife deserved to know Blessed Anthony's glorious passing; since, I say, such an instrument is found, occasion is given to conjecture that Brother Peter then passed from the convent of Monticiano to that of Camerata, and from that last place of his dwelling retained his name, as happens to many Blessed, even if otherwise he was from Siena. But this being assumed, and likewise admitting what Pamphilus and Crusenius without a witness say, that Peter died about the year 1313, it would be necessary that Blessed Anthony died about the beginning of the fourteenth century.
[17] the place of his burial But the body of the dead Anthony, according to the custom of that time, was buried outside the church in the cemetery, consecrated by the Bishop of Volterra, by the wall of the church itself below the eaves of the roof. In which place, when besides a sweet odor emanating therefrom, there had arisen a quantity of white lilies, he brings forth white lilies of his own accord; according to the exact measure which the holy body occupied, it was at once dug up again, and was found in such a state as is seen even today with the wonder of all. For which to be received into the church of St. Augustine, so commonly called, although it is otherwise sacred to Saints Peter and Paul, there was erected an altar against the façade of that church in the direction from the high altar to the left of those entering; where for many years it remained, until a Confraternity, the body is placed in an altar; instituted under his name, caused a more elegant altar to be built from plaster under the main altar itself on the gospel side, with two columns and a panel painted by the hand of the excellent painter Rutilio Manetti of Siena, representing the blessed passing of that same Blessed. Beneath the panel, a wall dug out contains a chest, the guardian of the holy body, which is opened and closed by two little doors and as many keys: and the keys are in the power of the Brothers: but an iron grille well fastened is stretched before the chest itself, whose key is with the Chamberlain of the aforesaid Confraternity.
[18] In the aforesaid translation of the sacred body, a thing worthy of memory occurred; after 300 years he is translated elsewhere: namely that when for such an action there were shut up together in the church the Prior of the Convent, with men chosen from the number of the Confreres, all of whom I knew very well, but did not judge should be named here; a curious desire came upon their minds of experiencing whether the holy body was so stiffened that it could be raised upon its feet. Therefore, reverently brought out from the chest, they applied it to a wall, leaning it on its shoulders. But while they wondered at its standing so solidly and firmly, it fell rolled upon its side: and while all thought that by such a fall it would be found dislocated and broken, they found it as before most perfectly entire and unhurt in any part, although more than three hundred years had flowed from its first burial. No less worthy of wonder is it, that in that place, where we said he was formerly buried, lilies once grew in abundance, and even now spring up in great plenty, with no one there sowing or planting them. And although the pious faithful, experiencing their utility for the cures of various infirmities, not only pluck the flowers that are born, but carry off the stems and bulbs themselves by rooting them up; nonetheless they keep being born again, yet so that sometimes for three years they cease to appear. And hence it comes about that the cemetery is commonly called the Garden of St. Anthony, of which I myself at one time had the care, I who write these things with ocular faith.
[19] a brotherhood is instituted under his name. The town of Monticiano has, among other pious institutions, a Brotherhood of Disciplinants under the invocation of St. Anthony, which once had its oratory under the greater dormitory of our convent. It might be believed that its patron is St. Anthony the Abbot, especially since his image is also seen depicted in the said oratory: yet it is far more likely that this our Blessed Anthony, not only now, but from the beginning of the erected Brotherhood, was tutelary, and indeed the principal one: both because this began after he was already commonly venerated as a Saint and Blessed; and because I have with me an ancient parchment document, drawn up by Ser Stephen son of Nerius of Loghereto, made in the Episcopal court of Volterra in the year 1379, by which the Vicar of Lord Simon, Bishop of Volterra, discharges himself of a fourth canonical part of a certain legacy, left to the Society of the Flagellants of St. Anthony of Monticiano: finally, because in the oratory of that Society, above the altar is painted the image of the Blessed Virgin holding Jesus on her lap, to whom on the left stands St. Augustine, on the right our Blessed Anthony with an aged face, with this inscription under his feet: "Saint Anthony of Monticiano, in the year of the Lord 1422. Thanks be to God." So that it is credible that by the same piety of the people, by which immediately after the first elevation of the body an altar was erected under his name, so also this Society of Flagellants, or as we commonly say, "battentes," grew up, and from him has its appellation.
[20] the body is shown to the people twice in the year, The sacred pledges of the blessed man are shown twice in the year, namely on the day of Saints Peter and Paul, to whom our church is consecrated; and on the last Sunday of April, which is called the feast of St. Anthony; and by the Brothers, before the revelation of the holy remains, is sung a Hymn, Versicle, Antiphon, proper Prayer, all composed in his praise. The Hymn whole is to be read in Herrera's Augustinian Alphabet; yet it is pleasing to weave in here its beginning, if I should first warn that all things formerly (although perhaps instituted more by private piety than by any greater authority) were accustomed to be done in the manner of suffrages of the holy Patrons, and were sung daily after the sacred Office, and thus are found written in a certain choral parchment codex, under this title noted in rubric: "In the commemoration of Blessed Anthony, of the Order of Hermit Friars of St. Augustine." The beginning of the Hymn, I say, is such:
21 "Kindly Confessor, Anthony, as suppliants singing thy praises and humble prayers, commemorations to be made of Blessed Anthony during the divine office, Standing humbly before thy body, Help them. Receive the prayers of this thy people, And supplicate Jesus Christ for them, That he may keep them and defend From every evil. He who placed thee here miraculously, That thou mayest be intercessor with him, So be thou guardian of this thy castle Of Monticiano," etc.
Antiphon at Vespers.
Antiphon at Matins.
Anthony, illustrious Father, you who are adorned with virtues, Already crowned with the rich stole among the choirs of the Saints, Let us sing your praises, venerating your virtues, Which you infuse into those who ask for them, From the sick, the contracted, the dead, you close your bosom to none, You despise no wretch, kindly Confessor of wondrous praise.
Prayer.
O God, whose majesty creatures throughout the whole world testify wondrous on all sides; grant to your suppliants, that by the merits and intercession of your most Blessed Anthony your Confessor, we may happily pass from the present misery to the joys of eternal beatitude. Through Christ, etc.
[22] The sanctity of Peter of Camerata, As to what pertains to the Venerable Peter of Camerata, although authors of our Order are accustomed to apply to him the title of Blessed, nevertheless he abstains from it who wrote Blessed Anthony's Life in ancient times; whence we are persuaded that no public cult was given him, although Pamphilus reports of him that food was sometimes sent him from heaven; and that while he alone performed the divine office, he was heard by many to sing with a great multitude; and that most frequently he foretold future things, and therefore all flocked to him as to a divine seer; to say nothing of what Jordanus has in his Lives of the Brothers concerning the death of Blessed Augustine of Teramo or Novellus revealed to the said Peter who was absent. and veneration. Yet the place of Camerata is in great veneration of the people of Monticiano, and to it they resort on the feast of St. Peter in Chains, which is the sole title of the only church still remaining there; especially in view of Blessed Peter buried there, by whose merits the faithful are persuaded that their vows and prayers are heard there, running together from every quarter on the said day. It is not indeed known in what exact part the body is buried: yet by ancient tradition it is held that it rests outside the church, at the side wall, looking at the gospel horn; because from all memory there breathes from that place an odor of unusual sweetness and of uncertain quality, which all attribute to a miracle so much more manifest, because nothing fragrant grows there, but only brambles, thorns, and briars. Yet no one has presumed to scrutinize the earth for the cause of investigating the body; but they remain within a great desire, that the hidden treasure may at some time be revealed by him, who keeps all the bones of the just.
[23] I return to Blessed Anthony, whose cult, as it flourishes remarkably among the inhabitants of Monticiano, A ninety-year-old man narrates to the author, so also is rewarded by him with illustrious graces: and some of these indeed are perpetual, as I first learned by hearing, then by actually experiencing and observing I have proved to be true: which here, at the end of this little commentary, it will not be wearisome to report. When, forty years ago, being still very young, I had observed in this convent that a certain Anthony Constantini of Monticiano, a nonagenarian man, was very devoted to this Blessed, and spent quite long hours in prayer before his tomb; one day as he was coming out of the church I addressed him, and said: "I believe, indeed, that it is more distinctly and more in particular known to you, how much this our country is indebted to Blessed Anthony." To which, sighing, he answered thus: "Know, my son, that in this my age of ninety years, already
from my earliest boyhood up to this hour and hereafter, I have been, I am, and I shall always be most devoted to our Blessed Anthony, whose name, although unworthy, I bear. But in all that time I have, so to speak, handled with my own hands as most true what I heard reported by my father as a boy and by the elders of this land, namely, that Blessed Anthony unceasingly works three special benefits in favor of this our land.
[24] The first is, that he does not wish that any of our people be reduced to beggary, three graces commonly ascribed by the people of Monticiano to Blessed Anthony. nor yet that we should abound to prodigality: which was the vow of that Wise man, "Give me neither riches nor poverty, but grant me things necessary for my life." The second is, that so far as I indeed and our elders can remember, the lands of the Monticianesi were never injured by hail or tempest: but if, through a failing of our due service to the Blessed, we felt any such inconvenience, we yet escaped the peril with slight loss, although neighboring lands complained of having suffered great loss. The third finally, that until this hour no one of the Monticianesi has perished evilly by the sentence of a temporal judge, nor has anyone fallen in war. Thus far he. I could indeed confirm each by several examples, but for brevity's sake I pass over all: I say only this of the last gift, that not only no one of the Monticianesi has been seen by me to whom death at the hand of an executioner has come; but also that from this last war, which was waged for the defense of the states of the Most Serene Duke Ferdinand II de' Medici, all the Monticianesi, who many had given their names, returned safe and sound, which I know not whether, besides this our Land, any other can testify of its own. Let these things suffice, written by me with all sincerity and truth, Brother John Baptist Pizzichini of Monticiano, of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, most devoted and most obliged servant of Blessed Anthony of Monticiano, to whom I humbly supplicating prostrate myself, at Monticiano on this 13th day of November in the year 1651.
ON BLESSED PEREGRINE LATIOSI,
OF THE ORDER OF THE SERVANTS OF BLESSED MARY, AT FORLI IN EMILIA.
AFTER THE YEAR 1330.
PrefacePeregrine, of the Order of the Servants of Blessed Mary, at Forli (B.)
By the author D. P.
[1] Going to Rome in the year 1660, and returning thence in the following year, we looked upon and venerated many bodies of the Saints, religiously preserved; but nowhere was this grace granted to us with greater ceremony and splendor, A cult singular with the body placed upon an altar, than at Forli on the 23rd day of November, when the Secretary of that city and also Historian, D. Paulus Bonoli, had led us to the church of the Servite Fathers, whose soul now deceased may rest in the peace of Christ. For not only did several Religious assemble, led by Master Michael Angelo Gaddio, on behalf of the Convent, exhibiting the key of that chest in which the sacred body of Blessed Peregrine is kept, to honor this act with their presence; but also the deputies from the Magistracy, who through another of their Secretaries D. Marcus Marcianesius exhibited other keys of the same chest. There went forth also, besides the Sacristan and those in surplices assisting him, four pairs of Religious: while they sang the hymn, "Iste Confessor," as long as the chest was open, and noble men held lighted torches, it was permitted through transparent crystals to see, dried up indeed, but yet whole, the venerable pledge; to which view lies open to no one, unless first the great gate of the work and carving, which occupies the front of the most august tomb, is let down; and after that gate, the iron grilles gilded are unlocked, for which also several keys are needed. But the tomb itself rests upon a most ornate altar, in its own chapel, on the right side of the church, its own appearance and that of the whole chapel introducing to beholders not only wonder and delight, but also piety.
[2] concerning whom a Process composed in the year 1608, here will be given, But how ancient and continuous has been the religion of the people of Forli toward this their blessed citizen, and with how great miracles approved, will be clear from the Process, which was drawn up in the year 1608, extracted from the archive of that same city with the consent and by the mandate of the Magistracy, indeed by another's hand but faithfully for him, and sealed with his own Notarial and public seal of the Community, on the 25th day of April in the year 1673, by Horatius Marcianesius, Notary and Secretary, at the solicitous insistence of D. Eugenius Menghi, a man of primary nobility and authority, and most zealous for the cult of Blessed Peregrine; being persuaded through Reverend Father Bonifatius Vincenti, that not a small honor would accrue to that Blessed himself, if that whole Act, however prolix and filling a hundred pages, were transcribed for us. But that same Act was of such efficacy with Paul V the Supreme Pontiff and the Sacred Congregation of Rites, the Office granted to the Servites, that in the following year 1609 on the 20th day of March, a decree was issued, by which it is established that, concerning the Blessed Joachim of Siena (for his cause was also similarly being treated at that time) and Peregrine of Forli, the Religious of either sex of the Order of the Servants of Blessed Mary, on the feast days of those same Blessed, as they had formerly been accustomed, so in the future might lawfully recite the office of One Confessor not Pontiff, with proper lessons from the Lives of the same; and also that the names of the aforesaid Blessed Joachim and Peregrine might be inserted and noted in the new printing of the Martyrology in their proper place.
[3] which these recite on April 30, As far as the Office is concerned, the decree was at once ordered executed, as we have shown at length on the 16th of this month, before the Life of Blessed Joachim, which there is no need to repeat. Proper Lections also of Blessed Peregrine, recognized, approved, and prescribed for the Order of Servants for this day, have come forth from the press more than once. But in the Martyrology, of which since that time no new edition has yet appeared from Rome, whether the name of Blessed Peregrine is to be inserted on this or the following day, we have not yet learned: we believe however it should rather be inserted on this day. For although he died on the Kalends of May, and the citizens of Forli under this title hold it most festive, as if the feast of Saints Philip and James were not held on that day; since the people of Forli hold it on May 1. yet since the choir is impeded on the same Kalends by their Office, the Order of Servants has determined that he should be venerated on the day before; which we too think should be followed here. Philip Ferrari, who had composed the Lections for the General of the same Order, afterwards in his Catalog of the Saints of Italy preferred to retain him on the 1st of May according to the usage of the Forlinesi, and to insert into the said Catalog those same lections changed in a few places. On the same day had Francis Maurolycus entered him, in the third re-casting of his Martyrology; in the Marian calendar, Antony of Balinghem; and in the Poetic Martyrology, Nicholas Brautius.
[4] The Life written by Nicholas Burgensis, No contemporary wrote the Life, who is anywhere named or indicated: that praise was reserved for Nicholas Burgensis, a Knight of Siena, who is also said to have written the Life of Blessed Francis of Siena, of which we have some hope of receiving from Siena: and to him Philip Ferrari ascribes some Life of Blessed Joachim, which we have not yet seen: but well does he ascribe the Life of St. Catherine of Siena, from which in the last place we give, for her Acts, a remarkable miracle manifested in the person of the same by the Holy Virgin. This Life however of Blessed Peregrine we found at Rome in the Vallicellana library, in Codex H, containing a huge pile of Lives of this kind collected from every quarter, folio 285. That Nicholas died near the end of the fifteenth century: and had as contemporary Master Paul of the Attavantes of Florence, whose Life of Blessed Joachim we have edited. He wrote some Dialogue, and abridged by Pinus Cedrius. into which he wove a eulogy of Blessed Peregrine, which may be read in the Chronicle of the Servites compiled by Michael Poccianti at the year 1402; where also is proposed a brief Life of Blessed Peregrine himself, which in the year 1528 Lord Pinus son of Jerome Cedrius wrote down; which is a mere abridgment of that which we here give as written by Burgensis.
[5] Since neither names the year in which the Blessed died, nor any older writer; The year of death uncertain, I know not whence we can certainly define it. Gianius cites the MS. Chronicle of Brother Simon of Castellaccio of Alessandria, where the year 1330 is noted. A gloss added at the end of the Life written by Burgensis so notes the year 1284, that it easily seems that by the error of the transcriber L crept in for C, and so it may be believed (if you correct that error) that the number is defined in this place, which in Simon, who designates round numbers, was incomplete. Meanwhile the aforesaid Poccianti begins the year 1402 with these words: "In these days (as has been permitted to gather from the Annals of certain Fathers) Blessed Peregrine of Forli gloriously passed to the heavenly kingdom, who was not in 1402. sprung from the noble family of the Latiosi." I do not see how Gianius can here suspect carelessness of copyists, for how could such a thing find place in Annals and Chronicles successively noting the years, in so enormous a transposition of matters and times? Nor do I see any more how solidly is said "the truth, far superior to all these, approved by the authority of the Supreme Pontiff, nor in 1345. appears in his own lections," in which he is now said to have died in the year 1345. For of these Lections, as to this point, the whole authority finally resolves itself into the authority of the Prior of Forli, proposing for the first article, witnesses in the Process to be heard and examined, declaring, "how in the church of the Servants of St. Mary of Forli there rests in the Lord the body of Blessed Brother Peregrine of Forli for about two hundred sixty years or thereabouts": which manner of speaking determines nothing certain, and at most proves (and this from fame, as is stated) that the Blessed died half a century, at the least, earlier than Michael believed could be gathered from the Annals of certain Fathers. We say therefore that Peregrine died after the year 1330; but how long after precisely, we do not define.
[6] Finally after all these things there came forth in the year 1648 at Cesena, A more recent Italian Life by Albicinius the Life of this same often-named Blessed, set forth in elegant style in Italian, composed by Bernardinus Albicinius, with an appendix of 15 Miracles selected from the process. From that Life we note some things to the earlier one written by Burgensis. From the Appendix annexed to it, this one thing occurs to be noted, namely, that by the worship of the ecclesiastical Office granted by the Apostolic See to Peregrine, the piety and liberality of the Forlinesi citizens was so stirred up, that to that elegance and majesty which we described above the chapel of the Blessed himself was brought back, with altar and chest: into which when the venerable body was to be translated, the whole religious and secular Clergy flowed together, and a great number of Servite Fathers then present for the celebration of the Chapter. But when the pomp of this Translation was being led through the chief squares of the city, it happened also to have a passage through the Cathedral itself, and the sacred body to be placed before that statue of the Virgin Mother of God, from which he while living had once received an oracle about entering the Order of the Servants. These things were done,
as Paul Bonoli testifies in book 12 of his History of Forli, Translation of the body made in the year 1638. in the year 1638: at which time, although it is credible that not a few things happened which would have deserved to be committed to writing (nor does divine goodness usually let such occasions pass, by which it is invited to display itself more largely), nevertheless the before-mentioned D. Eugenius Menghi asserted to us that nothing was kept in writing under legitimate testimony: who also warned us in his own hand, that in the city of Barcelona and in the Principality of Catalonia the cult of Blessed Peregrine is remarkably strong, because of the stupendous miracles which are said to be there wrought at his invocation.
[7] The cult at Barcelona and miracles. Stirred by this indication, through the Reverend Father Matthias Soutermann, of the Austrian province, acting at Madrid in the service of the Most Excellent Count de Harrach, Imperial Legate, I easily obtained from Barcelona what seemed relevant. The first things are from a certain Spanish treatise, thus far kept in manuscript, but prepared for the press with the Ordinary's approbation, which has the title: "A brief account of the veneration and cult in which Blessed Peregrine Laxiosus is held in this city of Barcelona, and through these parts of the Spanish province of the Servite Fathers; and of some miracles, selected from a greater number, which God has wrought through the intervention of the Blessed aforesaid"; of which account, divided into three books, the third chapter of book 3 constitutes what we give below in the Appendix up to number 43. Then are subjoined things which the Prior of the Barcelona Convent, Brother Sebastian Fixeres, then commanded to be written, from the Accounts of those to whom the miracles themselves happened: which Accounts, he says, "have been sent to Rome by the mandate of the Superiors, whence in turn is expected the Commission directed to the Lord Archbishop, for approving those miracles themselves. And already more are also being sought out, to be placed after the Life of the Blessed, translated from Italian into Spanish, which as soon as it shall be printed will be sent to Antwerp, together with a copy of the authentic instruments to be drawn up thereupon." But these things, when they shall be brought, will have their place in a future Supplement of the work.
LIFE
By the author Nicholas Burgensis, Knight of Siena.
From a MS. of the Vallicellana Library.
Peregrine, of the Order of the Servants of Blessed Mary, at Forli (B.)
BHL Number: 6629
By the author NICHOLAS Burgensis FROM A MS.
[1] The only son of noble parents, The homeland of Blessed Peregrine was the not ignoble city of Romagna, Forli; his father, however, was a wise man, drawing his lineage from the illustrious and ancient family of the Latiosi, richer in gifts of mind and virtues than in possessions a. To his parents Peregrine was an only son, and accordingly most dear to them. He had already resolved, despising secular pomps, to follow the way of heavenly discipline; and considering death itself as gain, if he should proceed by the right way in the road, he had refuted the condition of this mortal life as a certain shadow and smoke: admonished by a stable and holy resolve, one day he betook himself to the church under the title of the Holy Cross b. And when he had stood before the figure of the Virgin Mary c for a rather long time, he at length besought her to deign to open to him the way of his salvation. To him immediately the Blessed Virgin, adorned indeed with precious and festive garments, manifestly appeared, and gave this answer: by the Blessed Virgin appearing to him "I truly desire, my son, to direct your steps in the way of your salvation."
[2] After he had considered with himself that she had been marked out with such adornments, and had thus immediately addressed him, he, in the manner of a simple dove, feared lest he were being deceived by the deceiver and enemy of the human race. Whom when the Virgin Mary saw thus uncertain and terrified, she said more kindly: "Fear not, son, for I am the mother of him whom you adore fastened to the cross; and by him I am sent, to show you the way of future felicity." To which words Peregrine thus answered: he is commanded to enter the Order of the Servants, "Behold I am ready to keep your commands: for I have always desired this in my mind above all, that I might in no way transgress your precepts. Do you then command, O Queen, and I am ready, and will willingly obey your commands." "Do you," said the glorious Virgin, "know our Religious, who are called the Brothers and Servants of Mary?" To this Peregrine: "I remember that mention of them has been made by many, and that their institute is holy and their conversation approved in a wondrous manner: but where they dwell, I am entirely ignorant." Which he said because there was not yet any convent of the Fathers Servants of the Virgin Mary at Forli.
[3] and to set out for Siena, Then the Virgin Mary thus spoke: "Peregrine is your name: you will therefore be both in name and in very deed a pilgrim: for it is needful that you go all the way to Siena; where, when you come, you will find those holy men, whose number you shall earnestly ask to join." Having received this, Peregrine immediately began his journey, and with an Angel accompanying him, he betook himself to the city of Siena. After he was before the building, with the door immediately knocked on, the porter, weighty in age, comes forth. "Whom do you seek?" he said; adding that it was now the hour of silence begun. When the porter had said this, Peregrine fell at the feet of the old man, as if exhausted beyond measure; and as a suppliant besought the old man that he should not be prevented from entering, especially because he had some secret matters to speak with the Prior.
[4] where received Hearing this, the porter gave him entrance, and the time of silence being over, led him to the Prior. Whom when the Prior himself had looked over with his eyes, he inquired then where he was from. He answered: "I am from Forli." Then, the matter having been told and Peregrine's counsel being known, the Prior with the Brothers, who had come together in one, were easily induced to believe entirely that he had been sent to them by the Virgin Mary; and they thought it a miracle of the Virgin Mary, who is accustomed to enlighten her faithful, and with great zeal to make them partakers of blessedness. Wherefore all the Confreres willingly received Peregrine, he is given the habit; clothing him with the holy and widowed habit of the Virgin Mary. Which done, a wonderful splendor shone around his head, since he was to keep most perfectly the chastity, obedience, poverty which he was about to profess. Having advanced to the thirtieth year of his age d, he was to the rest an example of virtue and sanctity.
[5] By the command of his Superior, he afterwards returned to Forli, his homeland, to observe and carry out the commandments of the Lord e: where first he wondrously mortified his flesh with vigils, afterwards sent back to Forli fastings, and afflictions of the body; and, what is incredible, for thirty years he was seen never to sit. He always stood while he ate; he prayed on bended knees; if perhaps sometime he was overcome with weariness or sleep, for a little while he leaned on a stone, or on a bench if he had been in the choir. At night he did not sleep in a bed, but spent almost the whole night reading hymns and psalms. He always meditated on the law of God: he lives in great sanctity by the examples of Christ, as far as he could, he desired to advance: each day he rehearsed with himself his deeds, weeping over the offenses and errors which he seemed to himself to have committed; which also each day he revealed to a Priest, and confessed with many tears: and because he was a holy man, from the most burning desire of fully keeping the divine law, he imputed many things to himself. f
[6] His leg eaten by incurable cancer, Meanwhile the best and merciful God, who is accustomed to try those inflamed with heavenly love, and by trying to strengthen them, inflicted a most troublesome kind of disease upon Peregrine; for one of his legs so swelled up and wasted away, that all those visiting Peregrine for duty's sake could not hold back from tears. To the swelling of the wasted leg was added the disease which they call cancer, most terrible; from which such a stench breathed forth, that it could be endured by no one sitting by; for which reason he had now been abandoned by his kinsmen, nay, he was a weariness to himself, and was commonly called another Job; so corrupted, so afflicted he seemed. Yet, placed in so great and so odious a torment, he did not for that reason bewail his lot with complaints. But he bore that wasting and torment with most constant mind, trusting in the Apostolic tradition, by which it is asserted that virtue is made perfect in weakness.
[7] One of his fellow citizens, greatly lamenting so grievous a sickness of Peregrine, Paul Salatius, a physician, came to the servant of God languishing at home: which the doctors had decided to amputate, then, having inspected the leg, most accurately inquired the cause of the disease; in which finally, together with all the rest, he remained of this opinion, that no remedy for health was at hand, and that the disease itself was going to grow greater day by day, and finally infect the whole body, unless the swollen leg were quickly amputated. Therefore it was determined, with all agreeing, judging it better that one limb should perish than the whole body. Peregrine, before the appointed day for cutting off the leg, on the next night, after he had meditated with himself upon that matter, determined to have recourse to Jesus Christ our and his Savior. Therefore he arose as he could, and with the greatest difficulty dragged himself alone into the Chapter, he praying to the Crucified himself, in which was the figure of Jesus Christ crucified g: to whom as suppliant he used these words: "O Redeemer of human nature, you for the atonement of our sins willed to undergo the torment of the cross and a most bitter death: while you were on earth among mortals, you healed those afflicted with various diseases, you cleansed many lepers, you gave the light of eyes to the blind, when he said, 'Jesus son of David, have mercy on me.' In like manner, Lord my God, free this my leg from this inexplicable disease: which if you do not, it is necessary that it be amputated."
[8] As he was saying these things, greatly tormented by the infirmity and put to sleep, during his rest, Jesus, placed on the cross, seemed to him to descend from the cross, he is miraculously cured: and to take away all the languor of the leg. Soon waking up, he felt the leg cured and so firm, as if he had never labored under any adverse health. Due thanks then being rendered to most merciful God for so great a gift, he returned to his cell. Behold, in the morning, after day had dawned, with instruments and ointments the doctor is present, to perform the cutting of the leg. To whom Peregrine said: "Return home, you who came to heal me: that doctor, who has restored me to entire health, has thus spoken in me: 'I am he who gives and takes away equally adverse and prosperous health, since I bear the care of soul and body together: I am he who enlightened the blind, cleansed the unclean, cured the paralytics, raised the dead from hell: behold, I am he who refused no labor, no disgrace for your salvation, not the hardest kind of death.' He who so spoke in me, O doctor, to the doctor who had come to perform the cutting, he has wholly freed me."
[9] When the doctor had heard these things, he thought that Peregrine had become delirious from the force of the disease: and "Show your leg," he said, "that I may deliver you from the contagious ruin of the whole body." "O doctor, heal yourself," said Peregrine: "I have no need now of this art of yours: he wondering, the Prince of medicine and the author of human salvation has driven away all my sickness." And straightway showing his leg, "Behold with your eyes," he said, "and know what doctor I had." The physician wondered exceedingly, when he saw the leg so free and
so strong, so that no signs of such a tumor, no scars of the consuming cancer were seen; and he said to his companions: "O great miracle!" Who, departing from there, preached to all whom he met the so evident miracle of God shown upon his servant, and desired to spread it through the whole city. and publishing the miracle. Immediately the fame of so great a matter was diffused abroad, and produced the greatest veneration for Peregrine, the friend of God. Who, after these things, being still more sanctified, followed the way of the Lord with all his strength, sighing for the heavenly joys, prepared for all who keep the lordly and vital commandments.
[10] He dies nearly eighty years old, He, nearly eighty years old, seized by a most burning fever, closed his last day; whose soul the Blessed Virgin Mary, accompanied by Blessed Philip [h] of Florence and Blessed Francis of Siena of the same Order, led to the honor of the heavenly kingdom. With Peregrine immediately i dead, a most fragrant odor emanated from his body; which those who stood around, feeling not without great and wondrous sweetness, were greatly wondered. and many flow together to see the body: While that sacred covering of flesh of the soul now triumphing in heaven, was placed upon a bier and kept supine according to custom; as if the death of the holy man had been proclaimed by a trumpeter, it was on the lips of all the people of Forli, striving to see the venerable relics in the choor. The country folk likewise from every quarter of the town flowed together, compelled by the fame of the departed man of God, nor could the gates of the city be closed that night with the multitude rushing in. Nor were there lacking divinely sent testimonies of miracles of his sanctity to Blessed Peregrine: but we shall be content to recite two or three miracles; for very many others at Forli, in the church of the Servants of the Virgin Mary, are laid up committed to writing and signed by the hand of a most approved notary k.
[11] At his invocation a blind man is enlightened When the venerable body of Blessed Peregrine was in the choir visible to all; behold, a man of the lowest lot, a beggar and blind, as a suppliant asked the sacred relics, and with inmost soul poured forth prayers for recovering his sight. O the immense power of God! O graces upon his servants! The blessed body then raised itself, and before the sight of a great crowd blessed the blind man with the sign of the Cross, to whom, as it were, scales seemed immediately to fall from his eyes. He exclaimed for joy, who had been blind, and before all testified that he plainly saw; and after he had given great thanks to most merciful God and to blessed Peregrine, he departed rejoicing.
[12] A possessed woman is freed Into a woman of Forli, one or several of the more wicked spirits had rushed, and turned to madness she was tormented beyond measure, nor could she be restrained by fetters or chains, for she was very strong, and burst forth from or carried far from her all kinds of bonds. The fame of the miracles being more widely spread, her relatives dragged this raging woman to the sacred relics of blessed Peregrine in the church: which as soon as she touched, the malignant demon was driven away from her, not without a horrible cry; and various kinds of living creatures seemed to come out from the mouth of the seized woman; and such words were heard by all who were then present: "Your prayers, Peregrine, and your orisons torment me wondrously." The woman therefore, wholly freed from the diabolic power, gave greatest thanks to God and blessed Peregrine, and joyfully returned home with her family.
[13] A certain man, climbing up a tall tree, A man fallen from a tree is healed. then, with his footing failing, fell headlong to the ground; from which fall with his intestines bursting out he was ruptured. There was no other hope of his recovery. Afterwards, with the prayers of Blessed Peregrine intervening, he obtained his former and whole health, and mindful of the grace gave due thanks. l
ANNOTATIONS.
PROCESS
on the cult and miracles of Blessed Peregrine,
from the archive of the City of Forli.
Peregrine, of the Order of the Servants of Blessed Mary, at Forli (B.)
FROM A MS. Process
CHAPTER I.
The institution of the Process: the inspection of the sacred body and chest.
[1] In the name of Christ, Amen. In the year from his nativity 1608, Indiction 6, on the 28th day of the month of July, but in the third year of the Pontificate of our Most Holy Father and Lord in Christ, Lord Paul, by Divine Providence Pope the Fifth. Whereas, as daily experience teaches, all things which are contained within the compass of heaven, however strong, firm, and permanent they may sometimes appear, [Lest the memory of the particular things proving Blessed Peregrine's sanctity perish] nevertheless slip away in the course of time; so that many things which still flourish among the memories of men, from thence as if they had never existed, voracious time would have already destroyed, unless by the labor and care of provident men, those same things, snatched from the whirlpool of death, were restored to the monuments of memory: therefore hence it comes, that although in the sacred pages, which in common speech are called Chronicles, of the venerable Religion of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where it treats of Blessed Peregrine of the Latiosi of Forli, who was a professed Brother of the said Religion, many things are told about the sanctity of his life, miracles, and deeds; yet many other things are also said to have existed, which make his sanctity more evident, although, either by the course of days which we have already spoken of, or by the negligence of men, they are so hidden and unknown, that in a short time they would entirely perish. For this matter, to the greater praise and glory of God Almighty and of Blessed Peregrine, being willing to provide so far as in his power, the religious and distinguished preacher and professor of sacred theology, Master Peregrine of the Dandi of Forli, The Prior of Forli by the mandate of the Order, in the year 1608, of the same Order of the Servants, and at present most worthy Prior of the Convent of the said Order in this city of Forli; and the more so since that business had been imposed on him by the Most Reverend Father General and other Superiors of his said Religion, and was frequently and repeatedly entrusted and committed to him, and on account of his distinguished devotion toward the said Blessed Peregrine; therefore before the Illustrious and very Reverend Lord Archangel Albertinus, citizen, Doctor of Laws and Archdeacon of the Cathedral of Forli, and General Vicar in spiritual and temporal matters of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Caesar Bartolelli, by the grace of God and the Apostolic See Bishop of Livio most worthy, on the said day the same Reverend Father Master Peregrine de Dandis appeared, and in fact presented a certain paper of the following tenor.
[2] "Appearing before you, Master Peregrine Dandi of Forli … humbly and with due reverence said and set forth, he asks the Episcopal Vicar that for drawing up the Process that since he wishes and intends, as he has in commission from his Most Reverend Father General and other Superiors of his Religion, and for other just and rational causes and reasons moving his mind to this, to draw up a Process on the life and sanctity of the Blessed Brother Peregrine of
the Latiosi of Forli, who was a professed member of his said Religion: therefore, both in his own name and in the name of his said Most Reverend General and other Superiors of the same Religion, he asked, insisted, and earnestly requested, that his Illustrious and very Reverend Lordship might deign by his authority and by his favorable and fitting office to intervene, and to appoint a legal and enrolled Notary, to choose a Notary; who might authenticate and write down faithfully the sayings of the witnesses to be examined, the instruments to be drawn up, and any other writings necessary in such a process, and also to choose an hour more convenient for his Illustrious and very Reverend Lordship, to be present at the examinations of the witnesses and other things as above…"
[3] He also presented the articles to be proposed to those being examined, of which below. And then the very Illustrious and Most Reverend Bishop, or the very Reverend Lord Vicar General, having seen the said petition, and considering what was contained in the said paper, because to those justly asking assent should not be denied, accepted and admitted the aforesaid, insofar as they should be received and admitted by right; Here he prescribes the manner of hearing witnesses and commanded that proceedings be had thereupon and that the aforesaid examination should take place, interposing his authority thereupon in every better way: yet with all those having any interest whatsoever, or the Lord Fiscal Procurator of the Episcopal Court, being cited for every good end and effect by public edict…to say against and to see the witnesses examined and to state a cause why the premises should not be done. And the Fiscal may protest, that the witnesses are examined on their names, surnames, profession, homeland, if they are confessed and have communicated, if they have any interest, if anything was promised to them; and that they be interrogated how they know the premises, and on the cause of knowledge, place, witnesses, co-witnesses, and other things which are required for a valid examination and deposition of the witnesses … The same Lord Vicar chose and appointed, for the writing, asking, and making of the said Process, Lord Horatius Leonius, and appoints Horatius Leonius as Notary; a public Notary of Forli, and accepting with very full faculty and authority … as if he were the Chancellor of the Episcopal Court, with the Illustrious and Reverend Lords Baptista Avezzanus and Hieronymus Nicolinus, Chancellors of Forli, present.
[4] who on July 30 before many witnesses Which Notary, having been asked above all to go on the 30th day of the month of July to the chest of the holy body itself to inspect it, "as a son of obedience," he says, "I personally betook myself to the church of the Servites, where also all the undersigned assembled: namely, the Illustrious and very Reverend Lord Vicar, the Illustrious and Reverend Lord Flaminius Porrettus de Russio Provost, the Illustrious and Reverend Lord John Francis Rabbius Archpriest, the Illustrious and Reverend Lord Horatius Betius Primicerius of the Cathedral of Forli, and also the Illustrious and Reverend Lord Bernardus Dentus, the Illustrious and Reverend Lord Bartholomew Solombrinus, the Illustrious and Reverend Lord Baptista Avezzanus, the Illustrious and Reverend Lord Baptista Gabbonus, and the Illustrious and Reverend Lord Camillus Paulutius, all Canons of the same Cathedral, others being legitimately prevented being absent; equally, the below-written Illustrious Lords of the Magistracy of the Lords Conservators of this city of Forli; namely the Illustrious and Generous Knight Lord Bernardus Paulutius Head, Lord Fabritius Terdotius, from the ecclesiastical and secular order Lord Marius Avezzanus, and Lord Gaspar Numajus, the others being absent; and also the Illustrious Lords of the Magistracy of the ninety Pacificators of the said city, namely Master of Arts and Medicine Lord Alexander Padovanus Prior, Lord Ludovicus Angelerius, Lord Fabritius Betius, and Lord Aemilius Betius, the others being absent. Likewise the Illustrious Doctor of Both Laws Lord Hieronymus Paulutius, Advocate of the Illustrious Community, and Lord Fabrius Marcianesius and Lord Caesar Blondinus, Secretaries of each Magistracy respectively; and also the Illustrious and Excellent Lords Antonius Dentus and Absalon Savorellus, Jurisconsults, and the Illustrious Knights Vincentius Capoferrus Gabeatius, and Silvius de Numajis, of the Militia of St. Stephen; and very many others both Knights and Doctors, and finally a great multitude of citizens and of the common folk of the people of Livio…"
[5] he opened the chest of the holy body, "And when I had arrived there, with the Notary and all the others above-written standing by and observing, the same very Reverend Father Prior, with many and very many lights first kindled, and with the sound of bells accompanying, and with other signs and acts of reverence and the greatest devotion set forth before, opened a certain gilded chest adorned with many paintings, existing above the second altar, in order situated on the left side of the said church of the Servites, entering the said church by the greater door: which chest was closed and guarded by keys, as is done at all times; and is fixed in the walls of the said chapel and altar and walled in, having within itself another smaller chest, similarly supported with gold and decorated with various paintings, which likewise was opened. And when thus the said Reverend Father Prior and with him also the Sacristan of the Convent, with stoles and surplices, had opened the said chests, by all first kneeling before the said altar a prayer was made: and afterwards the prayer finished, exhibited its intactness to be considered by all, the said very Reverend Father Prior showed to me the Notary and to each of those above-named and to each and every other standing by, both those placed in dignity and those outside it, both noble and ignoble, and one after another, and gave for seeing and considering a certain corpse, placed in the said inner chest, lying supine and clothed with the habit of the said Religion of the Servants. And that corpse of a man, having its flesh fitted together with bones and nerves and whole in every part, unharmed, not affected by any corruption, not corroded anywhere, except in the face where the nostrils are lacking; but the feet and hands with their nails, and finally the rest of the body, which can be seen and which is covered by its garments, together with the aforesaid garments as above, appear whole and entire; although the flesh is dried up by age of time. And from the opening of the said chest and the inspection of the corpse no bad odor at all emanated.
[6] They swear that it is the body of Blessed Peregrine, Which body, so exposed above for seeing, having been seen and diligently considered by all and each of the above-written, all and each of the above-written and the whole multitude of people standing by, by their corporal oath to the holy Gospels of God, as they swore, having touched the Scriptures with their hand, being in the hands of the above- and under-written Notary, said, affirmed, and recognized, and with one voice all confessed, that the said corpse was the proper and real body of the Blessed Father Brother Peregrine of the Latiosi of Forli, of the Order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which there had been preserved for about 260 years, and had been and was venerated and adored as such by them and by the whole city of Forli, and also by the whole people of Forli and by all who had knowledge of Blessed Peregrine, which has been publicly honored at Forli for 260 years. had been and was held, kept, believed, and reputed as such through many years, and always, and from so great a time past that no memory at all exists to the contrary; and that today also he is held, kept, reputed, and believed as such; and daily venerated with the greatest honor and reverence, and with no doubt whatever existing; and that upon this there never arose or was or is any suit, controversy, or doubt by anyone, contrary in any way to this truth: and so also all with one mouth and by oath said and affirmed, that this had always been handed down, said, and published by all and each of their ancients and predecessors without doubt… and that this is public and notorious; since the same corpse and holy body has always been publicly shown to all each year on the first day of May with the greatest fervor, devotion, and joy of the whole people of Livio and of the district and of neighboring towns and cities, as is held from most ancient traditions, and is still shown today…"
[7] A public instrument was drawn up and signed concerning this matter on the third day of August: but on the fourth day was presented and received the Martyrology published by Maurolycus and printed at Venice by the Juntas in the year 1576, to this end, that in its proper place and time it might be presented to the witnesses to be examined, because of these words there to be read: "On the Kalends of May at Forli, of Blessed Peregrine of the Order of the Servants." Then the articles being presented, on the same day, to be proposed in the examination of the witnesses, witnesses began to be heard according to them up to the 14th of October inclusive. Then again the Notary was asked to come to the said church of the Servites, on October 4 the Notary returns to recognize the images; for the purpose of recognizing and more diligently inspecting and considering all and each of the miracles already done and wrought by the said Blessed Peregrine, and all other images and figures which are and are found depicted, both upon the upper chest and upon the inner chest where the body of the said Blessed Peregrine is laid up, and also upon the walls of the said chapel, and for recording all these things here. Who by the command of the said Vicar, betaking himself thither, in his presence and in that of three Canons, Baptista Avezzanus, Hieronymus Nicolinus, and Baptista Gabbonus, and with many other noble men, with the same rite and order as above, the chest being opened, he saw over it so opened and noted as follows.
[8] in which partly the Life of the Blessed First in the first part of the first order of the said chest is the figure of a lay man, knocking at the doors of a monastery, which prefigures the vocation of Blessed Peregrine to religion. In the second, however, appears a certain figure of a man, clothed with the garb of the Brothers Servants, and offering his leg to a doctor, laboring with an ulcer and cancer, to be cured. The third part contains a certain figure, clothed in the aforesaid habit, praying before the Crucified and representing the miracle of the Saint restored to health. The fourth prefigures a Servite Brother showing the healed leg to the doctor present there, having with him instruments for cutting and ointments for healing, the doctor being astonished for this reason: and all the aforesaid pictures denote the same history of the leg of the Blessed healed by the most holy Crucified.
[9] partly miracles are indicated. But in the first place or part of the second order of the said pictures, there appears a certain possessed woman, standing before the bier where the body of Blessed Peregrine lies, and freed from the demon. In the second, however, are the following figures: a certain lay man dead and placed in a sarcophagus, but the same there restored to life, and kneeling before the figure of a man clothed in the habit of the Servites, appearing in the air and surrounded with splendors. This is the history of the dead man called back to life by Blessed Peregrine. In the last place a certain man fallen from the top of a tree fixed in such and such a way, that that trunk penetrated in a straight line through the belly and thence through
the shoulders: then afterwards appears the same man whole, on bended knee before Blessed Peregrine, appearing in the air as above: which miracle is read in his life.
[10] and other pictures on the wall. All these things appear and are seen depicted on the aforesaid chest enclosing the body of Blessed Peregrine, and on the inner cover or little chest of the same curvature, where the said casket is preserved, respectively delineated, and painted with most ancient paintings. But on the wall of the said chapel are painted, on the right side, the same miracles of the dead man raised, and of the man fallen from the top of a tree, with the figure of Blessed Peregrine appearing in the air surrounded with lights. On the left side, however, of the said altar, on the said wall is seen a man kneeling before the image of Blessed Peregrine, appearing in the air surrounded with such lights or splendors, and a woman similarly kneeling. And all these things are in the lower part of the said wall: but above, on this side and that, are painted two figures of Brothers Servites, at the just stature of a man, with splendors, as Saints are accustomed to be painted: of which one is the image of Blessed Peregrine, because he holds the Crucified in his hand, as the said Saint is accustomed to be painted; the other of Blessed Philip of the said Order of Servants…
[11] On October 20 passages of authors about the Blessed are exhibited Finally on the 20th day of October the aforesaid Prior appeared and, thinking within himself that it was not absurd, for making the sanctity of Blessed Peregrine more widely known to the world, that all those things which gloriously speak of him should be gathered together in one and registered in this present process, actually presented a certain book printed at Florence in the year 1557, "Of the Chronicles of the affairs of the whole sacred Order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary," by the author Brother Michael of Florence: likewise a certain panegyric oration on the praises of the city of Forli by the Reverend Father Master Nicholas Brigantus of Foropompilii, delivered at Forli in the Provincial convent of the Brothers Servites celebrated there, in which mention is made of Blessed Peregrine. According to whose petition there were consequently gathered, copied, extracted, and registered those things which are contained in the Chronicles from folio 70 to folio 71 and from folio 178 to 182; and those which in the aforesaid oration on pages 8 and 9: which oration appears to have been wholly manuscript; and since nothing contributes to the knowledge of the history, we do not think it is missed in this place. But the Chronicles themselves are those of which treatment was made in number 5 of the Preliminary Commentary.
CHAPTER II.
The witnesses heard on thirteen articles proposed to examination.
[12] In God's name, amen. Below are the depositions of certain witnesses, examined on the articles and interrogatories produced, for the future memory of the matter and that the truth may more appear. On the 4th day of August 1608, The names of the witnesses. before the Illustrious and very Reverend Lord Archangel Albertinus … General Vicar, and me the Notary specially appointed for this, personally stood the Illustrious and Noble man Lord Bernardinus Paulutius, soldier of St. Paul of the city, and at present Head of the Illustrious Magistracy of the Lords Conservators of Forli, the first witness, on behalf and at the instance of the very Reverend Father Master Peregrine de Dandis, of about 58 years of age.
II. The Illustrious and Excellent Doctor of Arts and Medicine Lord Alexander Padovanus of Forli, and at present most worthy Prior of the Illustrious Magistracy of the number of ninety men Peacemakers of Forli, of about 40 years.
III. The Illustrious and most Excellent Doctor of Both Laws Antonius Dentus, a Noble of Forli, of about 60 years.
IV. Lord Peter James de Fulfis, a Noble of Forli, of about 76 years, of the Council.
V. The Illustrious Lord Knight Vincentius Capoferreus, a Noble of Forli, of the Order of St. Stephen, of about 52 years, who was often Head of the Conservators.
On the 13th day of August, Lord Ludovicus de Angeleriis of Forli, a Noble, of about 62 years, witness VI.
VII. The Illustrious and Excellent Doctor of Both Laws Lord Hieronymus Paulutius of Forli, Advocate of the Illustrious Community of Forli, of about 28 years.
On the 19th day of August, the Illustrious Knight Lord Bernardinus de Ferramontibus, a Noble of Forli, of the Order of St. Stephen, of about 52 years, witness VIII.
IX. The Illustrious and Noble Knight Lord Galeatius de Numajis, of the Order of St. Stephen, of about 45 years.
On the 20th day of August, Lord Peter Martyr Timideus, witness X.
On the 21st day of August, Lord Galanottus Panticius, a Noble of Forli, of about 64 years, witness XI.
XII. Master Henry Caesarius of Forli, Surveyor, of about 72 years.
XIII. The Illustrious and Reverend Lord Baptista Avezzanus, Canon of the Cathedral of Forli, of about 40 years, Priest.
On the 7th day of October. The Reverend Father Brother Antonellus of Foropompilii, of the Order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of 60 years of age, 48 of habit, witness XIV.
Witnesses of the Castle of Foro-Pompilii one after another.
I. The Reverend Lord Virgilius de Bellenghis, Presbyter Priest, of about 50 years. II. The Reverend Lord Joseph de Bellonis, Presbyter Priest, of about 51 years. III. The Reverend Lord John Baptist de Spagnolis, Presbyter Priest, of about 33 years. IV. Lord Augustine Mazzolinus, of 40 years. V. Lord Sanctes de Gardinis, of about 59 years. VI. Lord Paul Mignanus, of about 42 years, long resident at Forli.
On the same day the very Reverend Father Master Peregrine de Dandis, at present Prior of the Convent of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Forli, of 53 years of age, about 36 of habit, a witness was heard after the three aforesaid from Foropompilii, before the other three of the same castle were heard.
[13] who answered, All these, with the articles soon to be individually adduced read to them, answered in the Italian tongue; nor is it necessary to weave in each one's answers, since they almost all agree in the affirmation of the truth proposed in each article, except witness XIV, who more clearly set forth most things: therefore his words we shall render in Latin more often, and those of the others when they shall have said something singular. But the articles are the following, namely:
I. How in the church of St. Mary of the Servants of Forli there rests in the Lord the body of Blessed Brother Peregrine of Forli, Professed of the said Order of the Servants, the body has been held for 260 years, about 260 years: and so it was and is public voice and fame, public and notorious. Which as most certain witness XIV affirmed after the others to know, because he had been of the family of the Convent of Forli more than twenty years, sometimes Sacristan, sometimes Prior.
II. How constant fame and common opinion and reputation of all, famous for miracles, in the whole city and in other parts of the world and throughout the whole Order of the Servants, is that both in life and in death and after death, through the merits of his humble servant Peregrine of Forli, God Best and Greatest has deigned to work very many and indeed remarkable miracles, and daily has been pleased to work to show the glory and blessedness of the said Blessed man and of his most holy Mother ever Virgin Mary. Which each simply affirmed, from public voice and fame only: but witness IV added that those who suffered from cancer were accustomed to vow themselves to him, and through him for the most part to obtain the grace of health, as, he says, "I remember very well." Witness V confirms the article, saying: "I remember that when I was at Rome, Cardinal Baronius of glorious memory and famous even among foreigners. often and earnestly asked me about the same Blessed, and in turn told me many things about the same." Witness VI: "I know," he says, "that a certain Father of Verona of the Order of the Servants took with him to Verona two fingers of one hand of this glorious Saint; and I understand they are there honored as very notable Relics." Witness VIII: "It should be known," he says, "that my late brother Matthew Ferramonti the Captain, who was a Knight of the Order of the Most Serene Duke of Savoy, often narrated to me while he lived, that when he was in the court of his said Most Serene Lord at Turin, a certain noble of the family Latiosa from the city of Nizza and Secretary of his Highness, when he knew my brother to be of Forli, often asked him for information about the family of the Latiosi of Forli, saying his family also had descended from there, and that he knew there had been a certain holy man of the same family named Blessed Peregrine, and that his body was still kept whole."
the Crucifix in the Chapter is venerated by all; III. How in the cloister of the same church, in the chapel commonly called "il Capitolo," is found and preserved even today the image of the most holy Crucified, before which Blessed Brother Peregrine praying deserved to receive the grace of cure from the most grievous and incurable disease of cancer, with which he was afflicted in the leg: which most holy image is held in great veneration, both by the Brothers and by all Christ's faithful in the said city of Forli. To which witness III more expressly says: "All Forli knows in how great devotion that devout Crucifix is held by all: and with how great frequency it is visited and adored by every kind of men, both because of the graces which there are continually granted, and because of the memory of the miracle wrought in the person of Blessed Peregrine, as is held from most ancient tradition." Witness V says he believes that there is no one in the whole city who is not most devoutly affected toward it. Witness XV confirms the continuation of the graces, formerly and now accustomed to be granted there, as known to him by most certain and ocular experience, as long as he lived in the Order and Convent.
the sepulchre and images are frequented, IV. How to his sepulchre and images (which always were and are depicted with splendors, as is customary with saints and Blessed) there always was and to the present day is held a frequent concourse of men of both sexes, for obtaining his intercession with God, on account of infinite graces, which, if any commend themselves to his patronage, they deserve to receive from our most kind God for the glory and honor of his Holy servant. This article almost in the same words all affirmed, so that no one added anything singular to be expressed.
before them lights burn, vows are affixed: V. How at his sepulchre and images lights have always been and are kept, and tablets and images are found hung, of wax and of silver, painted and sculpted, monuments and marks of the graces which they received in their necessities and infirmities, who had recourse to his suffrages with pious and sincere affection, showing by this reason their gratitude to God and to the blessed man. Witness XIV answered: "At the tomb of the said Blessed a lamp always burned: and I when I was Sacristan took care to keep it lit, but when I was Prior, I caused it to be lit by others. As for ex-votos, I most certainly declare that their multitude was so great that they covered the whole wall of that chapel: among others there was hung a wooden leg, and many silver offerings. But when on a certain night our sacristy was robbed, those also were carried off:
but the other vows of wax and the tablets, through the scanty care of him who succeeded me, were taken away, and the saint himself thus defrauded of the glory accruing to him thence on earth." The same things having been seen by themselves, but now no longer seen, nor knowing what became of them, several other witnesses also expressly affirmed. Witness IV also particularly mentioned the wooden leg. Witness XV denies ever having seen the altar of Blessed Peregrine without a lamp burning before it: that upon it always Mass used to be said and lights lit.
VI. How the said Blessed Peregrine by all faithful of both sexes, Peregrine is believed to be a Saint by all without doubt: both laity and ecclesiastics and religious persons, noble and ignoble, has always been, is held, and is kept reputed, for a most religious, most humble, most devout man, a Religious of most holy manners and virtues, and a most worthy and most acceptable handmaid and servant of Christ and his blessed Mother Mary: whom all with one voice and common opinion have always, for about 260 years, believed and believe to reign in eternal blessedness with Christ and the Saints in glory. This Article all confirmed with simple assertion, and almost in the same words in Italian: witness V added also here the weight of Baronius's authority, which he had previously cited. But witness XV in confirmation of what was said, says, "I suggest also this, that for some time in various convents of our Order and especially in this one of Forli the Office of the same Blessed was done on the day of his own feast, [the same was formerly worshiped with an ecclesiastical office among the Servites,] as of a lesser Confessor, and I remember that when I was a young man and novice, I sang the epistle in the solemn Mass, which is celebrated at his altar on the said feast: in which Mass was made his commemoration, and all else which is customarily done concerning a lesser Confessor. But if now many were still alive who were living at that time, they would still remember, as still lives and remembers Father Brother Antonellus of Foro-Pompilii, my contemporary in age." This is witness XIV, who himself also says, "I so did and saw done for many years. But the reform of the office came, once made by Pope Pius the Fifth of happy memory; and then the Priors, led by some scruple lest they be in opposition to that reform, judged that the aforesaid Office should be omitted, which other of their successors again took up; yet at last it was altogether omitted: and this is most true."
the feast of May 1 is celebrated most solemnly VII. How on the Birthday of Blessed Peregrine, which falls on the first day of May, not only the whole city of Forli, but also the whole district and other places and towns of Romagna, even to the Alps and the confines of the state of Florence, in the greatest concourse and frequency of men, run to venerate his sepulchre and his holy Relics; holding for certain, not only that he is placed in the glory of the Blessed, but that he will be a most pious intercessor for them with God. This article all attested from ocular faith, first of all witness XIV, adding that as sacristan he had been accustomed, for the feast day, to adorn the altar and assist, and to serve those who offered their eyes, to be touched by that wand with which he himself had touched the blessed body, as is done from most ancient custom. Witness I adds that on that day both Magistracies assemble for the festival of the Blessed, but Mass and Vespers are sung with solemn music. As for the concourse from neighboring towns, which was customary, witnesses from Foro-Pompilii expressly agreed, of whom the first says, "I affirm that from all the time I can remember, I always saw on the first of May many from Foro-Pompilii going to the festival of Blessed Peregrine; and always I also heard our elders were accustomed to go there: I myself went several times to the music, which then is made at the Servites of Forli. But this is one of the chief devotions of the people of Foro-Pompilii, because that Blessed is most famous in our castle."
& is named from him: VIII. How by all in the city of Forli the first day of May is called and named the feast day of St. Peregrine, although on the same day by the whole Catholic Church throughout the world the commemoration of the holy Apostles James and Philip is made. Nothing is added to this by anyone.
images also are had elsewhere with rays and the title of Blessed. IX. How the image of Blessed Peregrine, not only in the church of the Servites of Forli, but also in other places of the said city, and even in other cities, is found depicted and with splendors, as is customary with other Saints and Blessed. To this article Witness I, and several others after him, name the church of the Hospital of Casa-Dei, and the secretariat of the Palace, where such an image is seen among the images of the Forlinesi illustrious by sanctity or another title. Of places outside the city most deny to know; yet some indicate that it should be presumed that it is so found, especially in convents of the Servites, as in the convent of Forli it is had in several places: whose presumption confirming Witness XIV says, "Not only at Forli, but also at Bologna, above the door of our refectory, a large and beautiful image of the Blessed is seen depicted, with the inscription BLESSED PEREGRINE OF FORLI. I saw him also depicted in a certain little monastery of ours which we have at Rivera, above Imola, and in other places." Witness XV says: "Not only around our public cloister have I caused to be painted, as you know, the whole life of Blessed Peregrine; but I saw his radiant image also at Bologna and at Foro-Pompilii, likewise at Monte Senario of Florence, where are expressed all the chief Blessed of our Order, and above Pesaro in a certain place of ours which is called Monte-granario, where I was thirty years ago, and that painting is most ancient with the subscription BLESSED PEREGRINE OF FORLI: in general I believe there are few places of our Religion where such a figure is not to be found, since he himself is one of the chief Saints by whom our Order is illustrated." Witness II of the Foro-Pompilians and others after him likewise affirmed that in their own castle in the church of the Servites such an image is seen, and likewise at the altar of the Mother of God of Reggio: of which the former witness VI of the same Pompilians thought the one to be seven or eight years old, the other more than sixty.
many survive who experienced his help, X. How today still many live, who when they commended themselves in their needs and necessities and infirmities to the patronage of Blessed Peregrine, from most merciful God, through the intercession of the same blessed servant of his, deserved to receive the desired graces. So most testified that they believed it from public fame or had often heard it, excusing themselves that no one was known to them by name. But Witness IV: "If I had known," he said, "that I was going to be questioned sometime about this matter, I would have taken care to keep a distinct notice of those whom I only now remember in confusion to have received graces: of myself meanwhile I can testify, that I carried off a certain most notable benefit, which however for great and just causes I am prevented from making public." Witness VI named his daughter, and another woman, of whom this one was healed from a hideous tumor, that from a cancer eating her leg, whose depositions about themselves we shall hear below numbers 16 and 18. Witness IX recalls the son of the Knight Bernard Ferramontius; which Bernard, immediately heard before him, had more signally expressed, how his son was cured of dropsy; and again more distinctly below number 15 his wife.
miracles seen painted at the sepulchre, XI. How at his sepulchre are painted many miracles already wrought by the said Blessed Peregrine, which are still seen, and above number 9 were described by public authority, so that there is no need to hear witnesses about them. Witness II adds others: "which I read," he says, "in a certain writing which is kept with me and speaks of the same Blessed": which we wonder was not registered above number 11, and we would like to obtain if it anywhere survives. It is wondrous, however, that Witnesses VI and VII expressly remembered the blind man enlightened at the Saint's bier, as if they had seen it there expressed, although nothing of the sort is read in number 9.
his name is read in the Martyrology XII. How Blessed Peregrine is described in certain old Martyrologies: concerning which most would have known nothing to say, unless the copy of Maurolycus had then been shown to them; yet some add that they had heard something about him before. The very words of the Martyrology read above number 7 according to the edition of the year 1576: for in the earlier editions of the years 1568 and 1570 no such thing is found.
XIII. How all and each of the aforesaid things were and are true, public and notorious and manifest: and that of all those it is, was, and was public voice and fame, and common saying and undoubted belief.
CHAPTER III.
Some miraculous cures, obtained by the invocation of Blessed Peregrine.
[14] In God's name, amen. Below are the depositions of certain persons who, in certain of their infirmities, With Blessed Peregrine invoked, imploring divine help, through the mediation of Blessed Peregrine, to whose patronage they commended themselves, deserved to receive health from most kind God and Father of mercies, for the perpetual memory of the matter, and for the greater glory of God and Blessed Peregrine and for more widely publishing his sanctity, by me the below-written Notary and for this as above deputed, here registered. Which persons indeed have been diligently examined by me, with the due and diligent admonition first made to them and to each of them respectively, to relate only and simply the truth of the fact, adding or subtracting nothing. For as it is not for the glory of God and his Saints to conceal the truth; so for exalting God and the Saints, empty and false things are not to be commemorated, since they themselves do not need our glory.
[15] In the year of the Lord 1608, on the 7th day of October,… The Illustrious Lady Camilla, wife of the Illustrious and Noble man, Lord Knight Bernardinus de Ferramontibus, a child with dropsy is healed, with the oath first taken by me the below-written Notary … said, deposed, and attested, as below, namely: "My Lords, know that I have a son named Louis. He, when he was eight years old, by God's disposition fell into the grave and dangerous infirmity of dropsy; for whose cure Abbot Gaddidi of blessed memory was called, and other doctors of Forli, and also Doctor Marini of Cesena, whose soul God has in glory, all unanimously judged the boy's disease to be incurable, because with many remedies applied they could bring him no help. Which knowing, I turned to seeking divine things: and first I led the boy to the miraculous image of the Mother of God,
to which the name is 'from Germany,' in the church of the Jesuit Fathers; then to St. Dominic, and I brought him to various Relics of Saints preserved in the same church: finally here to the church of the Servants, where I had applied to him the little cap which living formerly Blessed Peregrine had used. But suddenly, as soon as the boy was touched with it, he began to be healed; and in a very short space of time he appeared free from all evil, which I judge is wholly to be ascribed to the Blessed's merits, although even then I was using some medicines, because the doctors who had ordered them applied nonetheless said that humanly he could not be cured."
[16] A leg dangerously infected, Lady Flaminia, daughter of Lord Ludovicus de Angeleriis and wife of Lord John de Serughis, a Noble of Forli, said, deposed, and attested, as below: "I say that about two years ago I developed on my shin a foul evil joined with danger of becoming cancerous, in that, though I endured it for many days, yet I called no doctor for shame: but I myself applied certain ointments, and devised various baths, which did no good. At last I fervently vowed a vow to Blessed Peregrine, and within a very short time I was freed, without human remedy. For although I applied what I said, by those means rather the evil ought to have been increased, as my sister and one maid knew, to whom I showed my leg. Now indeed I am altogether well, as if I had suffered no evil: but I had vowed to offer a silver leg, which I have thus far neglected to do, but I shall do as soon as possible. Meanwhile I remember that one of the nights I had seemed to go to the church of the Servants, and there, the Mass being heard, to receive health: but the next morning I came here, had Mass said at the altar of Blessed Peregrine, and made the vow of offering a silver leg, and was well."
[17] A tumor beneath the eye, On the 8th day of October, Lady Magdalena, daughter of the late John Baptist de Savorellis and wife of Lord Fabritius de Fachineis of Forli…deposed and attested of her own accord, as below: "It is about thirty years since I had a very foul evil beneath the left eye of the size of a goose egg, which I had borne for nearly seventeen years, applying no remedy, because it caused me no pain. Nevertheless, wishing at last to try whether I could free my face from that monstrous appendage, I had called the late Francis Sassi of Benevento, a physician and surgeon then residing at Forli: who, when he had come and seen, palpated, and considered the evil, said it was a tumor, and indeed most difficult to cure. Yet I ordered him to try the cure, if perhaps he could remove the evil. But after seven months of care applied with no profit, and certain noble women had advised me to have recourse to Blessed Peregrine, I obeyed the counsel: and having made a vow I began to feel a sudden cure; and at last, as it seems, I was entirely free without any remaining deformity, through the singular grace of God and Blessed Peregrine."
[18] A leg dislocated, Lord Caesar Blandinus of Forli…said and deposed as below: "In past years, when for the sake of some business of mine I wished early in the morning to mount a horse, in the very mounting I fell so unhappily that my leg was dislocated at the knee, and I had to be carried to bed; where I remained a whole month, in very bad condition, under the hands of the surgeons; and at last by God's benefit I recovered, so that most freely and without defect I could walk. Thus whole, when I was sometime in the house of a certain noble matron, who has now died and whose soul God has with himself in glory; she said to me these express words: 'I rejoice that I see you altogether well and whole, without any impediment of the leg: yet I tell you that there remains a certain obligation to be fulfilled by you.' But to me asking what: 'Know,' she said, 'that while from that fall you lay so sick in bed, I made a vow for you to Blessed Peregrine, that if you were healed without any limping, as soon as you should recover health, you should have a Mass made at the altar of Blessed Peregrine, and there offer a waxen leg in memory of the received grace: and I commended you affectionately and with great faith to that same Blessed. Now therefore, since I see you whole, nor do I doubt but that this was done by the intercession of that Blessed, it remains that I admonish you to fulfill the vow; otherwise I shall fulfill it myself.' Then, giving her thanks, I undertook to do what she urged. Nor was there delay: I went to the church of the Servants and asked for Mass to be said. Brother Anselm of Forli said the same to me, which having heard, I offered a leg of wax, giving thanks to God and Blessed Peregrine for the benefit which they had done me unknowing."
[19] A blind girl, Lady Philippa, daughter of the late Lord Lawrence de Tomasolis … attested as below. "My Lords, it is true that in the house of the Illustrious Peregrine Latiosi, my uncle, where from my infancy I was brought up, I often and often heard it related, that when I was about three years old, I suffered from such copious smallpox, that, covering the whole surface of my face, they corrupted both my eyes, so that even now you can see: but I know that they very often told me that I was wholly blinded; and therefore the household, after various remedies applied to me, grieving that all proved vain, brought me for eight continuous days in the morning to the sepulchre of Blessed Peregrine, that these eyes of mine might be touched with a wand placed within the sepulchre for this purpose. They said moreover that on the eighth day I recovered the use of the left eye, the right one remaining, as it was and is even now, extinct. So always I heard it related by the household: nor can I affirm otherwise, since I was then only three. Yet of one thing I remember very well, that when on the last day they had led me to the sepulchre, someone said to me, 'Philippa, open your eyes and take the cherries which Blessed Peregrine offers you'; and that suddenly I opened this one eye and took the cherries; and being asked in what place were the head and feet of the Blessed, I most certainly designated them. And so now I see with one eye, walking by myself, working and doing whatever is necessary, and distinctly recognizing any things and persons: and because so it was always told to me, referring the grace received to Blessed Peregrine: for on account of my tender age I do not remember the other circumstances."
[20] Pain in the hip, Lady Francesca, daughter of Lord Galanottus de Pansecchis and wife of Sebastian de Magris of Forli…attested as below: "Eight years ago, having suffered a miscarriage, I retained a great torment in one of my hips, which for two months kept me confined to bed, and deprived of the faculty of moving my body. But when, with several ointments and other natural remedies applied, I saw no profit, at last faithfully I turned myself to invoking Blessed Peregrine: and a vow being made, within eight days I rose up well and free, not doubting but that Blessed Peregrine had obtained that grace for me."
[21] Lady Faustina, wife of Lord Francis Dandi of Forli … attested as below: "Know, A woman vexed by specters, my Lords, that last year such a case happened to me. Every evening after sunset, walking through the house, I seemed to see before me a certain shadow walking, yet so that I could not discern what it was. Of which matter when I complained to Lady Faustina my daughter-in-law, and told what I was suffering, and that I feared lest it was the bewitching of a malign spirit, she tried to encourage me and shake off my fear: but in vain. Therefore, speaking of this very thing with some devout Capuchin Fathers, they too said that I should not fear, but sign myself with the Cross and invoke some Saint. When therefore after some days I commended myself to Blessed Peregrine, my patron, I was freed from the sight of the said shadow, nor from that hour did I see it any more: and I firmly believe this was granted me by the merits of Blessed Peregrine."
[22] Below are the depositions of certain witnesses, deposing respectively of the knowledge of the infirmities with which the above-written persons were afflicted, and from which infirmities they deserved to receive grace and cure from God almighty, through the intercession and invocation of Blessed Peregrine as mediation, as in the present Process; and also deposing of the health of those same persons, which they at present enjoy from the said infirmities, as follows below.
[23] On the 12th day of October … Sister Francesca, of the Third Order of St. Francis, daughter of the late Lord Alexander de Baldis of Forli … attested the same things which Philippa said of herself in number 19, saying that she had often been accustomed to visit the girl; and that seeing her to be wholly deprived of sight, she together with other household women took counsel of carrying her for eight days to the sepulchre of Blessed Peregrine: and at last on the last day they supplicated that at least to that extent her sight be restored, that she might be able to walk by herself, and do all other necessary things without anyone's service. They were made partakers of that so limited vow, in the way above stated. Similarly Lady Lisa, daughter of the late Lord Scipio Latiosi of Forli, deposed concerning the same Philippa, her niece.
[24] A grave head wound. On the 14th day of October, the Illustrious and Excellent Doctor of Arts and Medicine Lord Paul of Gradi of Forli, attested as follows below, namely: "It should be known to you, that when in past years on a certain occasion I was in the company of the Excellent Master James Bonaguri, the late physician-surgeon much experienced in this city; who, as you know, has passed to a better life; we began to inquire between ourselves, whether it was possible for a man to live, to whom some part of the brain was lacking. To which I said, it seemed to me that it was possible, provided the missing part were not from the chief ventricles of the brain, and not very large. Then the said Master James, after various reasons brought forward and heard on both sides: 'I also,' he said, 'concur in your opinion, having myself experienced its truth. For I inform you that the Reverend Master Anthony Latiosi, who last year was so unhappily wounded, as everyone can remember, among other things had a wound in the head behind the right ear; in which wound the brain was perfectly visible, because the membranes enveloping it were also cut. But while I was treating him, I often and expressly noted a certain cavity of that bone, which ought to be wholly filled with the substance of the brain itself, to be entirely empty: and therefore that some part of the brain was lacking, though a less principal one. And yet, as you see, Master Anthony lives, well and whole in all his senses.'" Thus far the discourse made to me by the said late James Bonaguri, as I truly and sincerely reported. But what has this to do with Blessed Peregrine? I fear that, in the depositions related above, there was one, of him who had been wounded
Master Anthony's own, affirming that he had escaped so present a danger of death, with the Blessed invoked for preserving his life, and that it fell out of the one transcribing these things.
CHAPTER IV.
Miracles described by public authority after the Process was ended.
[25] In the name of Christ, amen. In the year from his nativity 1615, Indiction 13, on the 10th day of the month of January, in the tenth year of the Pontificate of our most holy Father and Lord in Christ, Lord Paul, by divine providence the fifth Pope.
After the process was ended, Whereas, in past years, at the instance and request of the Reverend Father Superiors of the sacred Religion of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and license having first been obtained concerning this from the sacred Congregation of Rites in the Roman Curia, and here at Forli from the Illustrious and very Reverend Lord Archangel Albertinus, General Vicar of the very Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Bishop of Livio, the Process on the Life, sanctity, and miracles of the blessed Father Brother Peregrine of the Latiosi of Forli, who was Professed of the said Religion, was drawn up and completed by me the below-written public Notary, specially appointed for this by the same Illustrious Lord, and afterwards the same Process was transmitted to Rome to the said sacred Congregation; which, having seen the whole said Process, publicly and openly declared that Brother Peregrine himself was to be numbered and held among the Blessed, and decreed that through all the convents and churches of the same Religion, on the day of the obit of that same Blessed, each year, in the divine offices of the same Brother Peregrine, as of a simple Blessed Confessor, a commemoration should be made in the future. And although through what had been done until then, it seems and clearly appears that the said man's sanctity had become known to all.
[26] [Nevertheless the almighty God, who is wondrous in his Saints, and whose hand was never, nor is, nor will be shortened, does not cease daily to render his Saints more illustrious by the splendor of new miracles; that human frailty, which is easy and prone to consigning piety and devotion toward him and the Saints to oblivion, roused daily by fresher benefits, may follow its Creator with reverent heart and works; and may know that it needs daily the patronage of those who shone in sanctity. Therefore, since after the drawing up of the said Process, certain other things have happened, with Blessed Peregrine as advocate, perhaps no less worthy of being handed down to posterity than those which were done before, and especially here at Forli in the person of the Illustrious and Noble man Lord Nicholas de Mercianeriis, which will appear below from his deposition made by his own mouth; and also at Pesaro in the person of the same child, as is clearly established from the letters of Lord John James de Pandulfis, under the date of Pesaro on the 27th day of February 1609 (the tenor of which letters, together with the recognition of them under the signature of Lord James de Vetiis, a Notary of the said place, will be registered below, the Notary asked to describe after the deposition of the said Illustrious Lord Nicholas, to the effect of inserting all these afterwards in the Process itself), it seemed to the Fathers of the said Religion that these were not to be altogether passed over; nay, that those things which had happened privately and adhered to the memory of a few, should be brought forth publicly and to the eyes of all. For it was disgraceful that those things which by divine counsel had happened chiefly for the utility of all (as it is piously to be believed) and for the memory of Blessed Peregrine and for stirring up devotion toward him, should lurk as it were in perpetual darkness: and especially since the Illustrious Lord Nicholas himself, of himself and with no one urging him, had offered himself ready to publish this fact.
[27] approached the witness, who swore, I therefore the below-written Notary, with the same Illustrious Lord Vicar again agreeing and first giving and granting license for this, being asked and requested by the very Reverend Fathers Brother Claudius de Plaudino, now Prior of the convent of the Servants of Forli, and Master Peregrine de Dandis of Forli, personally betook myself to the house of the proper dwelling of the said Illustrious Lord Nicholas: and there the same Lord Nicholas, personally stationed in my presence and in that of the below-written witnesses, voluntarily and in every better way he could, that the truth of the matters which as below happened, for the glory and praise of God and Blessed Peregrine might become known to all, by his corporal oath, first having touched the Scriptures with his hand on the holy Gospels of God, swore, deposed, and attested as below, namely.
[28] "You should know that in the year 1608 in the month of May, on what day exactly I do not remember, being on a certain property of mine, situated in the district of Forli, in a village called Calanco, together with Lord John Albicini my kinsman, after eating lunch, suddenly I took counsel with him of going to a neighboring village called Ravaldino, in which was the property of the late Lord Colonel James Albicini, my kinsman likewise, that falling from a slippery road into a precipice, whom God has with himself in glory, both for the cause of exercising the body, and also for the sake of making an inspection, and of learning how well it was being cultivated. Together therefore we went, accompanied by some peasants: and having arrived there, we discussed with the farmers those things which we thought turned to the master's advantage. But while we were there, rain fell, though little, yet such that it not a little corrupted and made slippery the road, which before was convenient. Nonetheless, since there was not convenience there to spend the night, we decided before evening came on to return to Calanco; and having begun the journey and walking, we quickened our step, because it was late, Lord John going ahead on horseback; I following on foot, and speaking with a peasant companion. It happened, moreover, that while I was walking along this road, which for the situation of the region is mountainous, now rising, now descending; I, coming to a certain descent quite steep and precipitous, both because I was walking more quickly from desire of arriving before night, and because the ground was wet and slippery, descended so precipitously and with such force that, unable to contain myself or be helped by anyone, I was rolled headlong, and fell to the bottom of the precipice so formidably, he arose unharmed, that whoever saw me falling would have believed me crushed by the fall, and I myself despaired of preserving my life. But by the grace of God and the favor of Blessed Peregrine, when I had so lain stretched on the ground for a very little time, miraculously I rose up from the fall, without any injury of body or the lightest disturbance of mind, as if nothing adverse had happened."
[29] "This singular benefit I acknowledge as received from blessed God and from the patronage of his glorious servant Blessed Peregrine: since in the actual fall itself, with the Blessed appearing and extending his hand, visibly and with bodily eyes I beheld the Blessed himself approaching me suddenly, in the great glory which surrounded him, and sustaining me with his holy hand, and finally lifting me up, so that from the said fall I was not at all hurt. Indeed, considering the situation of the place and the height of the precipice, then the vehemence of the impetus with which I was carried headlong, and the grave impact of my body, since I am of large and heavy stature and build; and finally that not only was I not dead, not even bruised, without any injury to my limbs or even to memory and sense, I rose up so suddenly whole and unharmed; I am altogether persuaded that a singular and evident miracle was done upon me, and that through the intercession of that same Blessed. Yet it is true—and I frankly confess it—that what usually happens to others first in such dangers did not happen to me, that I commended myself to some of the Saints: for truly no thought of invoking Blessed Peregrine came upon me, because on account of the speed of the fall I had no time to turn any such thing in my mind. Yet I believe that God and the Blessed himself, most liberal in rewarding services however small, wished to render to me for a certain minimum action, done to their honor. for a small service rendered to his honor. For namely, when it had been decreed to paint the Life of the Blessed around the cloister, and by chance it happened that no mason could be found at Forli unoccupied, for scraping off the old incrustation from the walls, and laying on new lime, upon which the pictures might be expressed; I, hearing this and having at home such a workman engaged, ordered immediately that, my work for which he was hired being interrupted, he should go to the Servants, and render that service to the Saint. However it be, it ought to suffice that I acknowledge my life miraculously received from that Blessed: nay, I reckon myself obliged the more, the more opportunely he brought help before he was invoked: and therefore lest I be altogether ungrateful, I hung as a witness of the benefit a tablet to the sepulchre, which can even now be seen by all…"
[30] [The tenor of the said letters is as follows; namely, on the back: "To the Illustrious and very Reverend to me most observant Father Master Peregrine Dandi at the Servants at Forli": but within, "Illustrious and very Reverend and to me most observant Father. In every kind of urbanity your humanity anticipates my tardiness or rather negligence," etc. Then, answering the invitation often repeated, to finish the paintings of the Life of the Blessed begun by him and mentioned above, he excuses his many occupations, and at length promises he will be there next about mid-Lent or at least after Easter: he testifies in writing of a dying boy, then he adds. "But I wish here to add a grace done me in these days by Blessed Peregrine, not to be kept silent. When John Anthony, son of Benedict and of my stepdaughter Joanna, a charming and beautiful boy twenty-seven months old, and especially dear to me because of the name by which he recalls my best father, was held in a most grievous fever, born from an abundance of humors and joined with some kind of diarrhea; and when no medicine profited the sick one; it came to such weakness, that he could no longer even suck milk, nay nor cry; and so the eyes of all the household abounded in tears, their breasts in groans: nor was it hoped that he would see the next day. But I, that I might not look upon such affliction in person, but rather lament the sad case apart, betook myself to another chamber: and there remembering the exceeding sanctity with which Blessed Peregrine shone, I began to commend the boy to him, not doubting but that I should become partaker of my vow, if that were better for the boy and agreeable to the divine will.
[31] after he was devoted to the Blessed, But, O wondrous thing! O miraculous grace! O lofty gift obtained through the merits of that Blessed! Not only did he begin to sleep most peacefully, who had spent all the preceding nights in wailing, with me continually running back to the cradle because, not hearing his voice, I thought he had expired; but also the next day, having woken up in the morning, he sucked some milk, then by his custom earnestly asked to be lifted from the cradle and clothed; and being lifted and clothed by his mother, he ate bread; and seeing a little wand with which he was accustomed to play, he took it up and began to walk through the house in childlike
fashion striking about, his limbs indeed still weak, but yet active and lively. Then I, who had said nothing to anyone of my devotion to Blessed Peregrine, in recognition of so singular a gift, opening my mouth and tongue, began to exclaim: "Now indeed I confess, O Blessed Peregrine, that he had suddenly recovered. you are of great merit with God, and this is your miracle, for which, next to God, a copious thanksgiving is due." Saying these things, I turned the eyes of all the household upon me: and when they asked whether perhaps I had made a vow for the boy, I revealed the whole matter as it had been done, and by my example I moved all to tears of piety and gladness, to put their knees to the ground, and to profess the grace received from God and Blessed Peregrine: which I now also wish to be noted and made public… Pesaro, the 27th of February 1609." The same again on the 15th of December 1611 having personally appeared before witnesses and a Notary, he recognized this letter or epistle to be and to have been written by his hand, and the contents from the beginning, "But I wish," to the end, to have been and to be true.
[32] Another that her aching leg was healed: On the 17th day of November 1670 … Lady Isabella daughter of the late Dionysius de Minardis, widow left of the late Francis de Sanctis, of the parish of St. Mary Surbroilo of Faenza, by her oath to speak the truth, made the following attestation and deposition, under the following words, speaking in the vernacular, namely: "Before these Gentlemen I say, that for about two years ago, with the left hip so tormented, that for three months I had to lie on a mat, and felt discomfort through my whole body; when on a certain day I was in the church of the Servants of our city of Faenza, prostrate before the image of Blessed Peregrine, I turned to the same and said, 'O blessed one of God, you once were freed from the infirmity which you suffered in the leg, free me also from my disease.' And this said I began to walk altogether free as swiftly as ever; and so I continue sound up to now without the application of any human remedy through the assistance of the said Blessed." Done at Faenza in the house of the Most Illustrious Lord Jerome Patius, present being the Noble Faentini Fabritius Patius, Priest, and Lord Francis de Patiis, Knight of St. Stephen of Pisa, witnesses. ✠ I Hippolytus Berlandius, etc. Which again, on the 21st day of December of the same, the said Isabella legitimately recognized and confirmed with a repeated oath.
[33] To the perpetual memory of the matter, let this present attestation instrument be open and known and ascertained to all and each who shall inspect it, how in the year 1670 from the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Indiction 8, on the 16th day of October, there personally stood before me the Notary and the below-written witnesses, the magnificent Magdalena, daughter of the late Lucas de Baschesiis, of the jurisdictional territory of Sassuolo of the Duchy of Modena, Another that her husband, suddenly made blind, wife of John son of the late Geminianus de Bondiis of the said territory of Sassuolo, of her own accord having taken her oath, knowing that it is pious and rational to bear testimony to the truth, therefore makes undoubted faith, affirms and attests, as below, namely: that the said John her husband in the year 1667 at the end of the month of June on a Sunday, of which time the Attestant herself distinctly remembers, suddenly lost his sight, although he had always used it most clearly for sixty-two years. When therefore in this way being wholly blind and useless for any work, he lay always in bed, and had lain continuously for one three-day period, that is, from Sunday to Wednesday; the Attestant herself, well and piously inspired, early in the morning betook herself to the convent of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the lower suburbs of the said territory, where in a certain chapel outside the church of the said Fathers the image of Blessed Peregrine is honored and adored. after she invoked the Blessed, There she began, prostrate before the image, with great fervor of devotion to pray for the salvation of her husband. She had now repeated the same prayer a third time, when she felt an unusual movement of the soul, and so clear as if the Saint himself had said to her: "Go home and do not doubt that your husband shall recover his sight"; as indeed he recovered. For as soon as she returned home, she went to her husband's bed, and commanded him with great firmness of faith to rise. To which he: "Do you wish then that I should rise seeing nothing?" The Attestant answered that he should entirely rise, because Blessed Peregrine had told her, that while she was returning home her husband would recover his sight. Then the blind man, taking his clothes, rose: and soon not without his greatest astonishment, he began to see and to recognize any objects by the benefit of Blessed Peregrine: he too suddenly received sight. to whose image therefore the Attestant returned, with bare feet, together with her husband, to give thanks for the sight received as sound as ever he had. All of which, as supported by sincere truth, the said woman protested and protests before God and men, and that they may not lie buried and obscure under the darkness of the unknown, yet not being requested, but with her own devotion dictating, she asked me the below-written Notary to receive the testimony.
[34] The husband attests for himself to him. With all these things performed, read, and published as above, immediately and in one single context, likewise standing before me the Notary, in the presence of the below-written witnesses, the magnificent John son of the late Geminianus de Bondiis of the jurisdiction of Sassuolo, by his oath taken of his own accord, affirmed and affirms, made and undoubtedly makes faith, for the corroboration of all the said things, that in the year 1667, as it has been said, being blind, and being ordered by his wife to arise, as if from deep lethargy he woke up, and doubting nothing raised his head from the bed, and suddenly saw that lovable light, of which he had lain deprived for a whole three-day period; and that grace he acknowledges from Blessed Peregrine, persuaded that without his intercession he would never have obtained such a favor from God. Done, read, and published was the present instrument of testimony, in this territory of Sassuolo, in the church of the said Fathers or in its surroundings, present continuously for the aforesaid being the Illustrious Lords Michael son of the late Albert de Salviolis, and Aeneas son of the late John de Bassis, both of Sassuolo, witnesses called, asked, and specially chosen.
I, John son of Lord Octavius Cassius of Sassuolo, public Notary by the grace of God and Apostolic authority, enrolled in the celebrated College of Sassuolo among the Notaries, was present at all the aforesaid, and received them word for word as had from the mouth of the attestants, nor did I change even the breadth of a nail, at least in meaning, and for the perpetual memory of the matter I published and authenticated with my signet and subscription ✠.
APPENDIX
On the cult and miracles at Barcelona.
From Spanish MSS.
Peregrine, of the Order of the Servants of Blessed Mary, at Forli (B.)
FROM A SPANISH MS.
[35] At Barcelona the Servite Fathers have a convent, dedicated to the Mother of God of Good Success, who, stirred by the affection of pious devotion with which they have always pursued Blessed Peregrine, An altar with image erected at Barcelona decreed an altar to be erected to his honor and for kindling the souls of the faithful to the cult of the Blessed. They contracted therefore for a panel to be painted, seven and a half palms high, five and a half palms wide, in which is represented him lying upon a couch or bench, as if rapt in ecstasy before a venerable image of Christ placed on the cross, with his hands loosed from it as if inclining himself for the cure of the sick. And thus the memory of that miracle is brought back to the beholders, by which at Forli the Blessed obtained the cure for himself of a leg infected with gangrene, as we have narrated in book 2 chapter 15. This panel is seen between two columns, fitted with their bases and capitals, supporting an elegant cornice, not without a graceful variety of white and blue colors and golden rods. Before it, covered with fine and white silk, burn several lamps: and in its likeness also elsewhere in the Convents of our order images are seen represented on altars, namely in the Convent of St. Martirian, of the village of Banyoles; likewise in other convents of the Order throughout Spain: in the Ampurias Convent of the Virgin of Graces, of the diocese of Gerona; in the Convent of St. Marcial, of the diocese of Tortosa; in the Convent of the Holy Sepulchre of Quart, of the diocese and kingdom of Valencia; in the Convent of the Blessed Virgin of Bellpuig, of the diocese of Urgell; in the Convent of St. Michael de la Cueva, of the Archdiocese of Zaragoza; in the Convent of St. Lawrence de Villarotunda; and in the Convent of the Visitation, called of San Boi, of the Bishopric of Barcelona: in all which places with great devotion the faithful venerate images of Blessed Peregrine exhibited upon an altar, and have recourse to them not in vain in their needs, as ex-votos testify, affixed and hung in great quantity upon the altars.
[36] But in the whole province the feast of Blessed Peregrine is celebrated on the 1st day of May, when he passed to heaven, the feast of May 1. yet more solemnly than anywhere else in this Convent of Barcelona: for on the day before the Kalends through the public streets and squares the coming festival is proclaimed, with a herald's voice, among the sound of trumpets and the ring of drums and the concert of flutes, with the explosion of muskets, and up to the tenth hour that evening the church is kept open, which again at the fourth hour of the morning is unlocked, and is not closed before deep night. And although four doors stand open to admit the flowing crowd, they yet are narrow on that day for the multitude, because scarcely is anyone to be found in the whole city who does not think it his duty to run to venerate the Blessed in his image. To kindle popular piety also the Venerable Sacrament is exposed, and the temple resounds with choirs of musicians continually intermingling their songs, except when some chosen Orator makes an address on the praises of the Blessed.
[37] Perpetual cult at Barcelona. But that chapel itself is frequented throughout the whole year, nor does any day pass on which votive Mass sacrifices are not offered there in honor of the Blessed and for the glory of God. Nor do citizens alone run hither, many from more remote places also come: because here the blind recover sight, as the silver and waxen images of eyes testify, copiously hung on the altar and walls; and the same of the lame and weak cured, shins formed from similar material show: finally, in all kinds of infirmities to which human condition is liable, remedy is often obtained here by those who leave monuments of health recovered in gratitude: nay, grave-cloths also, to be seen in great number, openly proclaim that many have been snatched from the jaws of death now imminent by the invocation of the Blessed: of all which it is not easy or simple to give account. Which same must be understood of other places, where I have said there are altars with images of the Blessed. But when in this present year 1674 the Fathers of Banyoles, likewise at Banyoles. wishing to transfer into the city their convent thus far situated outside the city, for the greater convenience of the people enkindled to the Blessed's cult, had decreed to make for the same a name and title from the same Blessed;
but clerics and monks opposed themselves to the said Translation, and therefore it is deferred until it shall be defined at Rome.
[38] Hosts blessed under his name against fevers As many as are afflicted with fevers place their chief confidence of recovering health in this Blessed, and visiting his image they receive three hosts, of which on the first is inscribed, "Christ is born"; on the second, "Christ is dead"; on the third, "Christ is risen." These are usually consecrated with the customary rite of blessing bread, that they may be a saving remedy and expulsion of fevers to the human race by the invocation of the Divine name and the intercession of Blessed Peregrine. Hosts of this kind, so blessed, the sacristans distribute freely: and those who take them with devotion, when necessity requires it, recite once the Lord's Prayer with the Angelic salutation at each taking. Moreover, so lively at times is the faith of those requesting those hosts, that some feel themselves relieved in the very act of asking, others at the taking of the first host. and requested by women in labor. But so great is the number of those asking them, especially about the beginning of spring, when tertian and quartan fevers are accustomed to rage, that sometimes it is impossible for the sacristans to satisfy all. Women also laboring in childbirth, with their own or the fetus's peril, when they take the same hosts with a warm drink of wine or water, soon rejoice to be released from peril.
[39] The prodigies and miracles which God works through his blessed servant, most frequent miracles. are so manifold, that, as I said, their number cannot be counted; nor can a definite reckoning of the votive offerings for graces received be had, since daily new are added to old; and in place of miracles signs almost cease to be held among the people, which lose their wonderfulness by their frequency. Only this may be said definitely by common opinion, that by his devotees he is scarcely ever named except with the title "Prodigious," "Admirable," "Wonderworker," or some other similar: because he can hardly be invoked by anyone, without the effect of the grace requested being at hand through his intercession: and from his presence rarely does anyone return, frustrated in his hope and desire. Many and great books would be needed to narrate all that, obtained above the powers of nature from God, popular devotion acknowledges received through the prayers of Blessed Peregrine: yet I wish to mention some here individually, for common incitement and consolation.
[40] A leg that had to be cut off is healed Don Francisco Falco, son of James Falconi and Doña Maria, of Barcelona, when he was only a year old, from smallpox retained a humor in one of his shins, so malignant, that the doctors and surgeons called for his cure, despairing of the same, judged that the shin should be amputated. When they had indicated this to the boy's parents, and they most unwillingly assented; the most afflicted mother asked for a delay of at least one day, trusting meanwhile to be granted health for her son from Blessed Peregrine. The peril was in delay, since the inflammation spread by every hour; yet what the mother asked had to be given: and she herself both personally and through the Religious asked for this purpose began to invoke Blessed Peregrine for the son's health, if it were for God's glory. The surgeons returning the next day for the appointed section, the leg seemed to be better, and by continuous successes advanced little by little to health, so that the boy afterwards was able to use the same shin, though not without some distortion, quite conveniently for walking and running: whose parents in thanksgiving offered a silver lamp, to be added to the others which many hang before the altar of the Blessed. This miracle, which happened in the year 1634, is attested by two brothers german of that same boy, who are still alive.
[41] The Reverend Father Serra of the Seraphic Order, Rector of his college in this city, A paralyzed boy, when he was ten years old, for six entire months lay in bed, deprived of all faculty of moving his body. Human remedies being tried in vain, the boy's mother had recourse to divine; and with the greatest devotion she could, commending her son to Blessed Peregrine, she was soon heard; therefore she offered a silver effigy of the boy's body at the altars, a monument of the health obtained within a few days. The said Father, six or eight years ago, preaching in this Convent on the praises of Blessed Peregrine, published the miracle done on him, and his sister also even now attests it.
[42] Marianna Carreras, in the 44th year of her age, a neighbor of this city, in the year 1651, in which a great mortality was raging through the city and its territory, was also herself touched by the plague, so that on her right leg eleven carbuncles appeared, of which three were in the groin itself, all most virulent, with inflammation reaching from the hip to the kidneys and girdling her. A woman about to die from the plague. So affected she was brought to the pesthouse, and there strengthened with the last Sacraments, since she scarcely retained any life, she was left for dead. Feeling herself reduced to that state, what she could not say in words, she performed in her mind; and commending herself to Blessed Peregrine, if it should conduce to the honor of the divine majesty, she asked for life to be granted until she should have settled the seven children she had, three males and four females. With this prayer completed inwardly, she herself being somewhat drowsy, yet with her eyes awake, saw Blessed Peregrine standing by her bed, who touched the infected leg with his hand, and soon left her fully falling asleep. Night over, the attendants of the hospital returned with surgeons; and they were astonished to find her alive whom they had thought dead; and much more when, the garments being drawn back, they recognized the carbuncles broken and the inflammation removed; and said, "Surely, O good woman, you should give thanks to God and to that Saint to whom you commended yourself: for this cure is altogether miraculous." To whom she: "Indeed I commended myself to no one but Blessed Peregrine." Within a few days full health followed, and the woman lives still unharmed and joyful, because she sees all her children settled according to her vow; nor does she cease, with daily thanksgiving, to visit the chapel of her blessed savior. Thus far the author of the manuscript Life.
OTHER MIRACLES
From Spanish MS Accounts.
Rendered in Latin.
Peregrine, of the Order of the Servants of Blessed Mary, at Forli (B.)
FROM A SPANISH MS.
[43] In a town of the diocese of Tarragona, called Valls, only two leagues distant from Villarotunda, where there is an altar of the Blessed, there was a woman, named Francisca, wife of Cosmas Campos, a silversmith in the same town; Another with fever who, when she had seen the hosts distributed to the feverish according to the aforementioned custom, and having heard to what end this was used; said, "It cannot be that this Saint has the grace of healing fevers, because the Mother of God had granted it to St. Dominic." But it happened that very many that year in that place fell into fevers, and Francisca herself also became sick. While the others were obtaining health by the use of the blessed hosts, only Francisca remained without participation in the common benefit, nay, even by the judgment of the doctors she came to the extreme peril of life. Therefore recognizing that this was a punishment for her small faith, she humbly asked pardon, and repeated the taking of hosts; and at the first indeed she began to feel better, but at the other two successively she recovered, and finally, to give thanks, had a ninth-day sacrifice performed in the chapel of the Blessed.
[44] A shin crushed under a cart, To Gabriel, son of James Mazipes, a boy of three years, a cart passed over his shin, and broke it, so that a certain part of the bone itself was torn out. He was manifestly in peril of his life: nevertheless, by a vow made to the Blessed, he was cured, but in such a way that, because of the missing part of the bone, the useless shin compelled the boy to use crutches for walking: nor did the doctors give any hope to his parents that he would ever walk more easily. Therefore, to invoke Blessed Peregrine again and more ardently, together with their son borne in a wagon, they came to his church: where at the very entrance the boy, being healed, cast away his crutches; and running forward to the altar, "Mother," he said, "mother, behold, I am well." But as it was clear he was well, the crutches were offered at the altar, and the shin, before broken, was afterwards as whole as the other.
[45] A fatal wound, Francis Lladu, son of Hyacinth, of the town of Gramilles, of the diocese of Barcelona, while he was staying in this city for the sake of his studies, and was cherishing enmities with other students; was wounded by these with a gun in the right side, so deeply, that a candle lit and applied to the mouth of the wound was extinguished by the force of the spirit bursting forth that way. Therefore, strengthened with the last Sacraments, he almost expired between the hands of those giving first aid; then his head and chest so leaned on his lap, that he seemed like a monster. In this state he invoked Blessed Peregrine, and soon began to be better, and at last was healed. But coming to give thanks, he promised that in his homeland he would care to erect an altar of the Blessed.
[46] A frenzied Priest, The Reverend Lord Anthony Guarro, Primicerius of the parish church of St. Mary by the sea in this city of Barcelona, having fallen into frenzy from a grave infirmity, was judged to be beyond the hope of health by the Doctors. But he, having obtained some lucid interval, invoked Blessed Peregrine, and that same night took sleep. But when morning had come, to his family visiting him again he said that he was well, because Blessed Peregrine had so revealed to him. The man seemed to speak deliriums: and so no credit was given to him, until the doctors coming confirmed that he was better: which also health following within a few days proved: for which, giving thanks in the chapel of the Blessed, he had the divine Office sung there, and offered a chalice valued at a hundred scudi: and from that year, which was 1665, he lives sound, and very devoted to Blessed Peregrine.
[47] Likewise a shin crushed and to be cut off, Upon Bonaventure Comas, son of Francis, an apothecary, in the town of Cubelles of the diocese of Urgell, distant from this city about twenty leagues, slipping under a cart the wheel passed over his shin and crushed it. The surgeons treated, in the best way they could, one so affected: but they could not prevent gangrene from prevailing. Therefore, since the dead flesh bared and left the bones, and the incurable evil spread, they judged the shin should be cut off: yet they did not dare to do this because of the slight strength remaining to the boy. While they were thus hesitating, another surgeon arrived, and said the leg altogether should be judged rotten, since there was no other way of preserving life. The matter was put off to another day. Meanwhile the surgeon who had first undertaken to treat the sick boy, advised his father to devote the son to St. Peregrine; who himself while living had labored under a similar evil, and had healed the wounds and incurable diseases of many at Barcelona, where he said his altar was, heaped up with very many ex-votos, even of healed legs. The father and son obeyed the counsel, and commended themselves to the Blessed: but the next day the surgeons returned; and wondering that the bone which they were going to cut began to be covered with growing flesh, they did not doubt to ascribe the matter to a miracle. But the boy himself, within a few days entirely cured, went on foot to the church
at Barcelona, together with his father and his Priest uncle, who said Mass at the altar there; and the ex-voto which they had vowed being offered, they briskly returned alike to their own.
[48] An incurable abscess of a boy, To Francis, son of Augustine Civid, a tailor and citizen of Barcelona, and of his wife Anne, a boy of ten years, an abscess grew on the right side, which brought him to the threshold of death. Lest it be left without treatment, the doctors judged it should be opened by cautery, which was done on the feast of St. Catherine in the year 1671, and from then until May of the year 1672 he had to remain sick in bed. Meanwhile the parents invoked Blessed Peregrine with frequent vows, and were urging their son to do the same: and that the memory of doing this might be repeatedly renewed, they placed in his sight an image of the same Blessed, cast in bronze. Before this the boy often ordered candles to be lit, and himself, while they burned, held them in his hands. Nonetheless the wound grew worse, and therefore the doctors decreed that another cautery should open a way for the growing pus, which, unless given outlet beneath the prior wound, would wholly putrefy the viscera. Said, done: but with such great torment of the sufferer, that like one frenzied he gave out enormous wailings, to the horror of all the household. All those present in the chamber at the burning with the cautery had compassion on the boy; but above all the mother, who melting into tears, withdrew to another chamber, where with the most instant prayers she could, she began to commend her son to Blessed Peregrine. to whom the Blessed appearing, While she was doing this her other son, aged twelve, whom she had commanded to remain with his little brother, ran up, and "Come, mother," he said, "for our little Francis sees St. Peregrine, and is no longer complaining of the torment." The mother at once ran to her son's bedside, and found the sick boy altogether cheerful, who said to her entering: "I saw, mother, St. Peregrine." To whom the Mother, "Where did you see him, my son? And how?" "On the top," he said, "of that bed" (but he was pointing to another bed which was in the same chamber) "and in the same habit in which he is seen above the altar." He wished then at once to rise, but the household would not permit him to, until the second day; when, the doctors seeing health improving, said to the mother that without scruple she could fulfill her vow to St. Peregrine.
[49] Yet the wound remained in the same state, and though the boy could now walk about by himself, his side was pierced by a wound-fistula reaching from one opening to the other. But so great was the abundance of pus that the fistula itself, clinging to the flesh, was deeply implanted, and could no longer be extracted. Therefore the wound was opened and cut wider, with the horror of those standing by and with the greatest torment of the boy: whom, testifying his pains with continual wailing, the mother exhorted that for the love of the suffering Christ he should also endure that pain: but others begged Blessed Peregrine, he brought flowers which, while holding in his hand, that he would have mercy on the sick one. Meanwhile the boy brought forth five flowers of carnations, just as many clinging to little branches, altogether most beautiful, and asked his mother who had brought them to him. "These," said the mother, "the surgeon will have left here." "Not so," answered the boy, "St. Peregrine brought them to me." The boy's parents therefore asked the surgeons whether they had brought these flowers; and when they denied having done it, and no one else was found who could have brought them, all were seized with wonder; and one of these miraculous flowers the Doctor medical took for himself, another the surgeon, the three others remained with the boy; who although he held them almost continuously in his hands within the bed, did not wither, but remained as fresh as if they had just been plucked from the plant, he felt no pain of the cuts: even after eight days. And this also wondrous happened, that as long as the boy held them in his hands, he felt no torment from the treatment; and when he felt any, to him taking them into his hands and bringing them to the wound all pain at once ceased. Therefore when on one occasion during the treatment the boy brought his hand to the wound; and, the surgeon judging that this happened by chance, as is wont to happen to those who feel pain in any part, to strike his hand away more violently; the flowers fell out which the boy was holding, and pressed soon by intolerable torment, he began to wail more vehemently, until he had recovered the fallen flowers. But he lives: and although he bears a wound in his body, yet he is in no way prevented from attending the second class of Grammar, and from continuing the studies begun. The parents offered a votive tablet for him to Blessed Peregrine, hoping with confidence for the full recovery of their son from him.
[50] Hilarion Artes, nephew of Eugenia Buran, a neighbor of this city, Another boy's cancerous hand, from smallpox became so gravely sick, that the residual humor from it collected in his right arm, rendered it wholly useless together with its attached hand; and in it one finger had been enormously contracted: which when some wished to straighten, violence being applied, the joint moved out of its place. Meanwhile the evil grew worse, and the surgeon and doctor called, when the remedies applied did not profit at all, summoned others also of the same profession from the city; who likewise confessed they had never seen anything such. Cauteries were applied several times, and yet the whole hand was incurably putrefying; but the boy's aunt, grieving and lamenting for him on the report of his desperate life, the surgeon wished to give her this consolation, that even if perhaps he could be kept alive, he would be kept only with a mutilated hand: and so they left the sick boy, committing him to divine mercy. At these words the saddened woman turned herself to invoking Blessed Peregrine from her soul; and betaking herself to the church, had one Mass said in his honor, offering at the same time also a waxen hand. Then returning home, whence a little bone without harm was drawn out: she loosed the bandage for her nephew asking her for the pain in the hand, and saw the extreme part of one bone at the joint of the hand and finger protruding outside, which taking up with little tweezers she drew out, the whole bone following, which reaches from the joint of the finger to the wrist. The doctor and surgeons, called to witness so unusual a thing, were astonished; the doctor promised he would send some poultice for fomenting the affected part, which however he did not do, either having forgotten the promise, or despairing of achieving anything by it. They being gone, the aunt wrapped the hand as was her custom, which again uncovering in the evening, she found whole and sound: and the boy used it for anything he pleased, as if nothing had been wrong with him, to the great wonder of any experts; because it seems impossible that anyone should use a finger which does not cohere with the wrist through the joint of the interposed bone. Thanks were therefore given to Blessed Peregrine; and the boy, as his age advanced, took the habit of the Discalced Carmelites; and he as well as his aunt still lives most devoted to Blessed Peregrine, to whom he attributes this benefit, granted to him only divinely in the year 1666.
[51] and a leg similarly affected. In the same year there happened to the Reverend Father Isidore Costa, Rector of the Seminary of the Society of Jesus at Barcelona, that which he consigned with his own hand in these words: "In the year 1666 I was confined to bed, on account of a grave fever and a malignant humor which had descended to the knee, and there suppurating could never be sufficiently drawn out by cauteries and incisions, whence I had the whole shin most badly affected. It happened on a certain day that new cavities were found in the shin, from which, that the matured pus might be extracted, the surgeons had decreed to make new incisions. When I had understood this, and from the vehement apprehension of future torments was anxious in mind, I had recourse with lively faith to the intercession of Blessed Peregrine, and asked to be freed from this new torment. The next day the surgeon, returning for the decreed incision, changed his counsel, and inserting a leaden pipe through the wounds previously made, with wine infused, he cleansed the cavities which I said were newly found; and returning toward evening, for repeating the treatment, he found the wound dried up, and the flesh of those cavities restored; nor did I cease thereafter to advance to full health, until all was consolidated, which I acknowledge received by a special benefit of St. Peregrine."