ON ST. MARGARET, WIDOW,
AMONG THE PEOPLE OF SAN SEVERINO IN PICENO IN ITALY.
In the year 1395.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Margaret, Widow, at San Severino in Piceno in Italy (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
§ I. Her birth, surname, marriage, offspring, widowed life, a miracle, the time of her life and death, her burial.
That Septempeda was a city of Piceno, or, as we now say, of the March of Ancona, A notice of Septempeda: mentioned by Ptolemy in the sixth table of Europe, by Antoninus in the Itinerary, and by other ancients; leveled with the ground by the Lombards, on Leander's testimony (or, as I read elsewhere, overthrown by the Goths), and from its ruins the noble town of San Severino built, a name being given it from St. Severinus, once prelate of Septempeda — has long since been said among us at the VIII day of January, volume 1 of that month, page 499, on the occasion of the praised Prelate. But that city lies among hills bordering on the Apennines, upon the river Potenza, distant some miles from Tolentino and Camerino. Further, our Manuscript monuments of San Severino (of which below) derive the origin of the name of ancient Septempeda from this: that seven hills, as it were seven bases, crowned it; and they add that it was once a municipality of the Romans, as is gathered from ancient inscriptions. One Ughelli gives in Italia Sacra, volume 2, column 845.
[2] Our Saint's fatherland fell to be the territory of Septempeda or San Severino, she being sprung namely from the little village of Cesalo; The Saint's fatherland, surname, marriage: on the testimony of her Latin Life. The monuments of San Severino call the place in Italian Cesolo, distant a little more, as they add, than two miles from the said city. The same manner of forming the said place's name the Italian Life keeps, to be mentioned below. The Saint was born of unknown and rustic parents; and was reared in poor attire and in the office of a shepherdess; but was excellently ennobled and enriched by the abundance of heavenly gifts; as we have from the documents which are at hand. That as long as she lived the name of the Barefoot clung to her, because she never put shoes upon her feet, the monuments of San Severino report after the Italian Life. Numbering fifteen years, she is given in marriage by her parents, unwilling, to a certain holy man (that he was of San Severino the history demonstrates, and, as I think, a citizen or inhabitant of the Borgo): who always lived with her with such benevolence, and so complied with her, that they alone seemed in marriage to be without quarrel; from the Latin Life, number 8.
[3] her husband: To which the monuments of San Severino are contrary, when they give her a husband by whom, being namely austere by nature, she was treated with unworthy words and deeds. For he wished that, after the manner of the other women of his village, she too should wear shoes: as though indeed his wife, walking with bare feet, were a continual reproach of his own beggary, reduced to such a state that he could not provide for his wife a pair of ordinary shoes. But she, that she might humor her husband and remain constant in her purpose, is said in the same place to have obtained by fervent prayers that her feet should appear to his eyes as shod: and accordingly that she persevered in her own manner in the good which she had undertaken. These things, drawn out from the said monuments, if they are so, could perhaps in some way be reconciled by distinguishing the times; in some one of which, and that a short one, the husband made trouble for his wife for the cause mentioned; and, this being removed, as he supposed, he was thereafter placid and kindly toward her. That the Saint very often betook herself to Cingoli, distant eight miles from Cesolo, to confess her sins there to a certain Father of the Order of St. Dominic, her director, the said monuments will have it; her husband, at the devil's instigation, taking those excursions in an evil sense and forbidding them; and they add that, after St. Margaret had fled to prayer, an angel, having assumed her likeness, supplied her place in the guarding of the flock and in the discharge of the other rural and domestic services, while she meanwhile went as usual to the aforesaid place.
[4] her offspring; her widowed life: There is a difficulty also concerning St. Margaret's offspring. For the Latin Life affirms at number 8, treating of her marriage, that she bore from it several sons and daughters, whom the author (of the history of which we are speaking) extols in a wonderful manner. But the Italian Life reports that a daughter was born to her. The monuments of San Severino write this: After she had brought into the light one only daughter, she remained her husband's widow especially in her youthful age. These things are such that they can in no way be reconciled with the preceding. But what was just added about the Saint's youthful widowhood, how it sufficiently coheres with the Latin Life, I do not understand; for from the number cited above, she lived in matrimony for twenty-one years. The virtues of the life spent by her in widowhood stand in Italian in the monuments of San Severino and in the Italian Life; but in Latin in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy in Ferrarius: from which it has seemed good to transcribe them hither, where at the XXVIII day of August I read thus: Her husband being dead, she began more ardently to cultivate the offices of piety, leading a more austere life. Twigs were her bed; a stone her pillow; her food and drink, plain bread and water. She walked with bare feet even in winter, covered with a single garment.
[5] Having gone on pilgrimage to Rome, she visited the holy places; she received the Sacraments most frequently: full of virtues. and at the very first dawn, going to church to Mass, she poured out her prayers: the remainder of the day she spent in visiting the sick, whom she served by laboring, and in gathering alms to distribute to the poor. Above her hair-shirt she was so tightly bound with a cord that from it the blood became matter. As she prayed by night, the devil appeared to her, saying: In vain do you afflict yourself with fasts and disciplines, poor little woman; since you do it to be seen by men. You do not drink wine, nor do you eat flesh: yet you most greedily devour grapes and figs. Which being said, Margaret imploring divine help, he vanished; and she thereafter did not touch figs. When again the demon had entered the house through a window in the likeness of a she-goat, and the whole seemed to be filled with flames, her daughter, terrified, called upon her mother: who, running up, suddenly put the enemy to flight.
[6] Altogether wonderful are the things which are circulated concerning the shoes which the Saint, near death, left to her daughter, Two wonderful things and which are had in the Italian Life and in the cited Ferrarius; add Severano in the book whose title is The Precious Deaths of the Just, page 359, the monuments of San Severino, and finally the Latin Manuscript Life; to whose copy, which I have before me, our Father Papebroch subscribed this: They seem to be of the same author: they were written in the same hand. And these are the things, written also by the praised Father's hand: Of this blessed Woman these two things above all are worthy of record: that she was admonished of her approaching death fifteen days before by the Virgin Mother of God herself, and, being asked by her daughter what she would leave her when dying, when she had said that she would leave her shoes, which nevertheless she had never used; her daughter, knowing that her mother was not accustomed to speak anything rashly, examining the matter more diligently, found the soles of her feet so separated from the other parts that they bore the appearance of shoes, an iron nail being also fixed in the heel of one of them; which the Woman, severe against herself, is believed to have driven in there for the sake of afflicting her body more grievously. Those same shoe-coverings are still preserved together with the nail itself at Septempeda at the church of St. Dominic, apart from the rest of the body, in a certain glass vessel.
[7] But there stands as an index and as it were a witness of what has been said a very ancient image of Margaret herself, are recorded concerning St. Margaret. painted at St. Severinus' on that wall which is on the left to those entering; where she is seen so prostrate before the Virgin that she seems to bear likewise a nail fixed in one of her feet. Thus far there. But as to what has been said concerning the preservation of those shoe-coverings, together with the iron nail fixed in the heel, and the image of these as witness, Severano on page 360 in a note, where he had written that these things are reported in the acts, thus subjoins: But the wall in which such an image was seen having been demolished on the occasion of a new apse built in that same church in our days, so notable a memorial perished: just as also the nail itself (likewise by the carelessness of our people), which is nowhere found.
[8] The time of her life and death. Concerning the time of her life and death receive this. St. Margaret departed from the living at seventy years of age; from the Italian Life, the monuments of San Severino, and Ferrarius, the day of her death, as the latter has it, being foreknown and foretold. But that this fell on the V of August the Italian Life asserts, and indicates that under that day her memory still survives in the Roman Martyrology. And rightly: for in that Martyrology which was published in print in the year 1586 she is marked at the said V day of August. But what the cause was why in later editions the Saint's annual memory was transferred to the XXVII of the said month, I neither understand nor divine. Besides this, Baronius in the notes at that day assigns no cause for this change. But that today is the genuine day of her death, besides what I have said, is urged, first, by the announcement which is subjoined to the Latin Life and will be given below. Second, the documents of San Severino urge it, which for confirmation of that day cite the monuments of the convent, of which afterward. I therefore by no means assent to Ferrarius when he says that St. Margaret died on the VI of the Kalends of September. The year 1395 was the last of her life, on the testimony of the Italian Life, of Baronius, whom I just alleged, of the monuments of San Severino, and of Ferrarius.
[9] The things which followed her death are narrated. Her death was followed by these things, which I extract from the often-mentioned Italian Life; whence we learn that her body was carried to the church, a great throng of people accompanying, many miracles of hers having been seen, chiefly toward persons oppressed by the vexation of demons; and that the same body was placed in a casket, and afterward in a stone chest lofty and raised from the ground within a chapel built for the said purpose in St. Mary's, commonly "del Mercato," which is that very one in which the altar and the confraternity of the most holy Rosary have been erected. And when a little afterward, as we learn from the said Life, the miracle of St. Margaret's shoe-coverings, of which above at number 6, had been revealed to a certain pious and religious person, and they had been asked for from her daughter, who refused to bring them forth openly, care was taken that they be carried to the said church and handed over to the fathers of that place; and they are preserved in a silver tabernacle in the sacred treasury of the aforesaid church. These things I have taken from the Italian Life. Further, that church is of the Dominican Fathers.
[10] The recent state of the shoes wondrously formed from the Saint's skin. The monuments of San Severino already mentioned, and marked with the III day of November of the year 1710 in the testimony which will be given below, instruct us concerning the recent state of those shoe-coverings. For from them we have that those skins (John Michael Pius, to be cited below, calls them the rind of the soles of her feet) are preserved untouched to this present day at St. Dominic's in an elegant urn of nine pounds of pure silver with its crystals, and are exposed on the altar
every year on the festal day of St. Margaret, so that together with her holy body they may lie open to public veneration. Untouched, I say, and entire, if you except some fingers' breadth which perhaps the indiscreet devotion of those who had them in their hands took away. This I have given on the credit of the said instrument, of which I shall speak below.
§ II. Miracles, public cult; spiritual graces annexed to it by the Apostolic See; the translation of the body; the monuments of San Severino; the Lives.
Miracles, The Saint, who while she lived lay hidden under the obscure shadow of an ignoble condition, when the Lord called her to himself, he made illustrious with signs before men. Ferrarius says of the shoes just mentioned by me: When touched, they heal the sick of various sicknesses. And presently he adds that at her tomb the sick and demoniacs are wont to be cured. Baronius in the notes at the XXVII day of August has likewise most briefly: She was made illustrious by many miracles. Would that the age gone by had taken care to review these one by one and to transmit them to us!
[12] As regards public cult, Ferrarius in a note to the Saint's eulogy writes this: She has not yet been reported among the holy women by solemn rite; announcements; the modern cult; yet her birthday is celebrated by license of the Apostolic See, and she is called a Saint in the Martyrology and everywhere. After our Latin Life this announcement is set down: On the Nones of August, in Piceno among the people of San Severino, of St. Margaret, widow. On the same day and in the same way the Roman Martyrology of the year 1586 reports her; but afterward in it she is noted at the XXVII day of this month. See what was said at number 8. But now she is celebrated on neither day in the city of San Severino. For from the monuments of the said place I learn that her feast is celebrated with an Office from the Common of one widow on the last Sunday of the same month, for the greater convenience and concourse of the people, who are accustomed to have recourse to her intercession on account of the many miracles which that Saint works for the benefit of those who are piously disposed toward her, chiefly in freeing the possessed.
[13] From the documents brought forward we have besides that on the evening with a solemn procession, which precedes that same Saint's feast, after the Angelic salutation, there is instituted by the community a procession shining with lighted tapers, which begins from the palace of the council as far as the church of St. Dominic, to which all the Religious of the convent betake themselves with the cross raised: one of whom, clothed in a cope, carries in his hand a small reliquary in which there is a part of a bone of the aforesaid Saint. Further, the said procession is accompanied by the Magistrates, and by the governor of the city (who is always a Prelate), or he who holds his place supplies his stead. On the next day in the morning the city orders a solemn Mass to be sung, at which those whom I have mentioned are present. There is added that in honor of the said Saint free markets are held in that city for twenty days; that is, from the twentieth of August to the 10th of September.
[14] To St. Margaret's splendor very much conduce the spiritual graces and with spiritual graces granted by the Apostolic See. liberally granted by the Apostolic See to the place in which her sacred body was deposited. For in the year 1396 Pope Boniface IX granted to all those who should visit the church of St. Dominic on St. Margaret's feast all the indulgences which Pope Gregory XI had granted to the church of St. Cyriacus, tutelary patron of the city of Ancona; and which coincide with all those indulgences granted by Pope Alexander III, and by other Roman Pontiffs, to the church of St. Mark at Venice for the feast of the Ascension. All of which are reported in those same documents of San Severino which I have repeatedly cited: from which moreover it is had that the same Vicar of Christ, by another Brief of his issued on the same day and year, granted faculty to the Prior for the time being of St. Dominic's that on the said feast, with two or three other confessors to be chosen by him, he might absolve all those who should come to gain the indulgences from all cases and sins, except those which are reserved to the holy See. The above-mentioned Briefs, as is added in the cited monuments, are preserved in the archive of the said convent.
[15] The translation of the body It remains that we treat of the translation of the body; concerning which we shall give those notices which the documents of San Severino suggest to us. And so our Saint's body, laid away before the new church was rebuilt beneath the altar or chapel of the most holy (so it is there called) name of God, in a damp place, the casket broken and eaten away with rot, and the garments utterly torn, those found who were examining the sacred deposit. Whence the Fathers of the Convent had already, down to the year 1665, a mind to translate it into a more seemly place; and they obtained faculty from the most reverend father General John Baptist Marini; but nothing was ever committed to execution. At last in the year 1691, on the 10th of June, a Sunday on which fell the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, the matter being managed by father Benedict Landi, a patrician of San Severino and son of that same Convent of the Order of Preachers, the solemn translation was made. On the first day of June, therefore, of the aforesaid year came the most illustrious Master Scipio Negrelli, bishop of the city; and, the most illustrious Master Tornaquinci Belloni, a Venetian noble, governor of that same city, and also the Magistracy of the said place, together with many other gentlemen being present, the sacred bones were lifted from the old chest which was beneath the aforesaid altar, and laid in a new one of cypress, doubled in wood, of carved work and gilded, two great crystals being set in it, through which the sacred relics are seen.
[16] made with solemn rite But there were found only the bones of the body entire, bound with iron wires at the joints; and near them a white earthen vessel, full of the ashes of the aforesaid Saint's dissolved body: which was laid away in a small chapel in which other relics are preserved — God perhaps permitting that the whole body be dissolved into ashes, so that from it a greater weight of authority might accrue to the prodigy of the skins. There was summoned for the act of the said translation from one casket into the other John Baptist Vilimteni, notary and episcopal chancellor. And so, the tenth day of the above-mentioned month having dawned, a solemn procession was held through the city with the said chest, and with the urn in which were the skins of her feet, twelve priests, who were vested in priestly fashion, bearing the treasure, together with the attendance of all the clergy, both secular and regular, and also of all the numerous lay confraternities, carrying lighted lamps in their hands; and moreover of twelve noble youths of the city with shining torches, which were furnished with its arms and offered in the Saint's honor.
[17] was performed. Besides these, there was a very great concourse of people from the neighboring cities also and places of the March. Add the singular adornment of the church of St. Dominic, and also the excellence of the divine Offices from the summoning of choice musicians, etc. Among the distinguished men who were present at the said solemnity are named these, afterward taken up to the Cardinal's purple; namely the most Eminent Grimaldi, Paolucci, Gualterio, and Cornaro. The procession being ended, the sacred urn was again set upon the aforesaid altar of the most holy name of God: where it is preserved for the public veneration of the people.
[18] And that he compiled these things which have been said above, he himself testifies The compiler of the documents of San Severino: who subscribes with his own hand to the present document from which we give these things: Brother Benedict Landi, of the Order of Preachers. To whom are also subjoined the Consul and Priors of the most illustrious city of San Severino. There is subjoined concerning the praised father the following testimony: That the very reverend Father, brother Benedict de Landis, of the Order of Preachers, son of the most illustrious Master Anthony de Landis of good memory, a noble of San Severino, already four times Prior of the venerable Convent of St. Dominic of this city, and at present Vicar of the Holy Office of that same city, is such as he declares himself behind, and that the pages written behind were written and subscribed by his own hand, letters, and character, a recognition in form having gone before, we all undoubtedly testify. In faith whereof. Given at San Severino from the Consular palace, on this III day of November 1710. Hyacinth Constantinus, secretary.
[19] Concerning the Saint's Latin Life, or rather a fragment of it, The Life I have thought some things must be premised beforehand. First: From Father Gallonio, Volume A, among the Fathers of the Oratory at Rome — which I read written to our copy by our Papebroch's hand — gather whence it was taken. Second: The title which is prefixed to it runs thus: The Life of blessed Margaret the Barefoot, by Master Pompilius Caccialupus. Third: The author of the Italian Life or history which lighted the way for it is obscure. Fourth: He wrote indeed many things, but not with great elegance, about our Saint. Fifth: He was her contemporary. All and each of which I prove from the preface prefixed to our Latin copy, in these words: From a history compiled in the mother tongue, and in verses indeed unskillfully, but published by a prudent and ingenious man, I have found that Blessed Margaret's Life was given to posterity. Following, therefore, in the footsteps of this author, whose name is quite obscure and which I have found unknown to this our age, omitting the songs and the inelegance of his time, I shall touch only those things which are consonant with truth and clear of their own nature, as published by a prudent and contemporary man.
[20] For the rest, before I committed them to the press, I used, as they say, the sponge, Latin, and purged them of blemishes and barbarisms. But since that Pompilius Caccialupus whom I just named is unknown to me, I shall gladly learn if anyone shall teach me more about him. Baronius in the notes to the Roman Martyrology at the XXVII day of August has thus: Of her deeds (that is, of St. Margaret's) there are Acts among us, sent to Rome by the people of San Severino. Their opening is: Margaret of Septempeda, etc. Where you see that that Life begins otherwise than that fragment which we shall give.
[21] The Italian Life which is alleged above, employed by us in the same place to supplement the Latin, and the Italian. is a Manuscript copy of about three pages, at whose end this is written: Excerpts from the History of Septempeda of the lord knight Valerio Cancellotti of San Severino: of which Ughelli, designated at the beginning of this Commentary, makes mention. But from the fact that the Acts sent by the people of San Severino to Baronius are not at hand for me, I seem able to gather that it is a small loss, because the brevity of the fragment which we commit to the press has been supplemented from elsewhere out of the monuments of San Severino. A brief Life of our Saint John Michael Pius, of the Order of Preachers, inserted into his Italian Work which he entitled: On the noble and generous progeny of Father St. Dominic in Italy, book I, chapter 70, toward the end. These things being noted, here now for you, reader, is
A FRAGMENT OF THE LIFE,
By the author Master Pompilius Caccialupus, from Father Gallonio, Volume A, among the Fathers of the Oratory at Rome.
The Saint's birth, an apparition of the Lord, a miracle, her marriage, the austerity of her life.
Margaret, Widow, at San Severino in Piceno in Italy (S.)
The Saint's birth. Blessed Margaret was sprung from the little village of Cesalo, as I have learned from men worn out with age, and reporting the sayings of their grandfathers, who, a reckoning of the times being made, could have spoken with her,
born indeed of rustic and most poor parents: and this may be gathered from the said history and proved as true, since it narrates that she was devoted to pastoral services, and, to use his own words, calls her a little shepherdess. That she was in form — as is seen from a natural and lifelike painting — between comely, lean, and as it were uplifted in spirit, and somewhat rustic, and endowed with a middling stature, is established. We read that she was especially pleasing to God by simplicity, charity, gentleness, and humility; always setting this before her eyes: to serve God most good and great and her neighbors, and to bring help, judging no one; thinking it worthy only to inflict blows upon her own body, and always to waste it with fasting, that she might be at hand for the poor.
[2] By a certain sweet Nor indeed undeservedly or foolishly: since God, the rewarder and bestower of all good things, seeing her goodness and the ardor of her soul, for her praise and for an example to those who do well, brought forth and showed this miracle. For this girl Margaret had gone out at her poor little mother's bidding to pasture the sheep; and, as is as it were discerned from the words of the history, being quite little and scarcely seven years old. When a certain pilgrim, conspicuous in form, and greatly weakened by hunger and by the labor of his long journey, met her: who, prayers and tears being poured out, at length addresses her thus: Daughter, hear the words which I am now about to speak. Unless you help, I am already perishing of hunger, and for this cause, being weak, I have come to you. If, then, any relief of bread remains to you, bestow this on me for the love of God.
[3] apparition of our Lord Which being scarcely heard, Margaret so burned with the love of our God that, although she herself was greatly laboring with hunger, taking all the bread, which she had brought in very small quantity, from the little sack which country people call a "saccutella," she brought it to him. And when he had driven away this little maiden Margaret's hunger with this bread, being exceedingly glad and cheerful, rising to his feet, since he had before been sitting, and greatly extolling her charity, he blessed her several times with his own hand: and departing, he seemed to her not a human man, but divine: especially since he left there a very great and most sweet fragrance: and he affected Margaret with such sweetness that thereafter she always neglected the vain delights and honors of this world, burning and glowing continually with the memory of the conspicuous pilgrim, believing him to be her God.
[4] Since neither before, nor then, nor afterward did anything sweeter or more pleasant ever seem to her in her life, she is refreshed: and daily, morning and evening, she seemed to herself thereafter always to have this glory and fragrance present. And at last she did nothing else on that day on which this miracle shone forth than pour out prayers, tears, and orisons to the Lord Jesus, her God. For she had so burned with the love of her God that she passed this whole day entirely fasting and untasting.
[5] And at night, as is the custom, Margaret returning with the flocks, since she was now afflicted with hunger, addressing her mother most humbly, asks for bread; who, being a poor woman and exceedingly needy, is thus somewhat angry with her daughter: You saw, daughter, this morning our little chest a quite empty of bread, of grain, and of flour, and you took with you what was in it, whereby you were able to drive away hunger as usual. But you now, too bold, ask for bread before the hour, quite forgetful of your mother and of others almost failing with hunger; nor can I turn a scarcity of bread into riches, and small measures into great. And Margaret, turning to her, prays more urgently for bread, trusting in the Lord Jesus, who never left a good deed unrewarded; and she would do this the more confidently, since she was fasting for this reason, that she had given all the bread which she had brought to a certain pilgrim laboring greatly with hunger.
[6] Nor indeed does she repent of having so acted, since he seemed to her Jesus her God; which a miracle followed. and she relates the rest to her mother, as they had happened. Bear then with equal mind the hunger which you have willed of your own accord, says her mother. And these words being said, opening the chest, finding a very great and most sweet loaf, she takes it, and, divided into small pieces, gives it first to Margaret, then to the household, kinsfolk, and neighbors, who then by chance, that the miracle might become the more known, were present: and so great a satiety and sweetness suddenly arose in the bodies of all those named, that they thought they should regard, honor, and venerate Margaret alone; and they begged that she would pour out prayers to God for them. Whence it came about that all together, compelled by charity, benevolence, and the love of God, passed their life thereafter continually as brothers.
[7] Meanwhile Margaret, being now in her fifteenth year, She is joined in marriage, is by her father without the others' knowledge b joined in marriage to a certain man whose name is obscure; and no wonder. Since the history conceals the names of her parents and of her sons and daughters, whom the author knew, and, as he himself testifies in his verses, praises and admires as still living — in my judgment indeed quite unfairly; since nothing would be more desired by posterity than not to be ignorant of the pedigrees of their ancestors, and especially of so great a woman: of how great glory and imitation the author now deprives her successors, let all consider. But to return to Margaret, from whom I have digressed, this little girl bore nothing in her life more unfortunate than that she should be joined in marriage. For she had purposed to serve God and to keep her virginity: and she would altogether have accomplished this, had not God, taking counsel for posterity, disposed otherwise. For her father was indignant that he could not keep her, promised to a son-in-law with a contract and with public faith; and thus, being in doubt, he was compelled to pursue with hatred the daughter whom he had before guarded as the pupil of his own eyes, nor did he leave off before Margaret gave assent to his wishes.
[8] which she passes holily. Being given therefore to a certain holy man c (that he was of San Severino the history demonstrates, and, as I think, a citizen or inhabitant of the Borgo), she always lived with him with such benevolence, and so complied with him, that they alone seemed in marriage to be without quarrel: from whom she bore several sons and daughters d, whom the author extols in a wonderful manner. Yet because their end was as yet uncertain, he deliberately omitted it; which I should never approve. She was most constant in marriage, and never lay with her husband except for the procreation of offspring: whose life, during the marriage, in which she lived with him for twenty-one years, was thus divided. First of all, she brought up and guarded her own offspring well and religiously, teaching them alone Christian rites and morals, and preserving them from the fall of vices. They were adorned with the same manners and prayers as she herself. She instructed her own. She was clothed outwardly with garments according to her condition; but inwardly she was always clothed with a most rough undergarment, which they call a hair-shirt; a cord girding her flesh, so that, after her death, wearing away the bones, and the flesh being consumed, it was found as it were hidden e.
ANNOTATIONS.
* perhaps "found"