ON ST. FAMIANUS, CONFESSOR OF THE CISTERCIAN ORDER, ANCHORITE
AT GALLESE IN THE PRESENT-DAY ROMAN TERRITORY.
In the year 1150.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Concerning the Saint's cult, deeds, age, and profession.
Famianus, confessor, at Gallese in the Roman territory (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
We do not undertake to describe here the ancient region of the Falisci, All things being renounced at Cologne, much less shall we dispute whether the name of Gallese was thereafter given to the ancient capital itself of the Falisci. It abundantly suffices us that present-day Gallese is a city of Italy in the dominion of the Church and in the province of the Patrimony, otherwise episcopal and called Fescennia, now united to the bishopric of Civita Castellana. It was formerly in Suburbicarian Tuscia, situated on the river Tiber on the border of Umbria; between Civita Castellana on the south and Orte on the north, at five thousand paces, and twenty-five miles from the City of Rome to the north. These things, taken generally from Baudrand, we adduce here in a few words, that it may be plain how wonderfully St. Famianus, called by his proper name Quardus, a German by origin, of Cologne by fatherland, after forty-two years of pilgrimages, at last laid down his sacred remains there, being made thereafter the titular Patron of the town, renowned for very many miracles; so that it is sufficiently a wonder that he had no place in the sacred Calendars, at least in the supplements of Usuard, so that Ferrari in both catalogues had to supply us with his first memory, whom the more recent writers everywhere imitate. Le Mire had gone before in the Belgian Calendars; there followed Gelenius in his Cologne, Henriquez, Chalemot, Bucelinus, nay also Tamayo, who used excellently his accustomed privilege of claiming Saints for Spain, besides that he confounds many things which I have not judged worthy of refutation. Castellan also can be added.
[2] he undertook sacred pilgrimages. Ferrari's eulogy embraces nearly the whole Life, not even that error being omitted by which it is there said that St. Bernard died before St. Famianus, whereas it is established that he survived him a full three years, and did not depart before the year 1153, since ours died in the year 1150. But Gelenius slips more shamefully, when he writes thus: At Gallese, in the kingdom of Naples, of St. Famianus Quardus of Cologne, son of Godescalcus and Guimara, wealthy citizens, whose means being distributed among the poor, Famianus, visiting the holy places in the Cistercian habit, died in 1150, famous for miracles and enrolled in the Catalogue of the Saints by Pope Hadrian IV. You would seek Gallese in the kingdom of Naples in vain: if by "holy places" he understood only those of Jerusalem, that could be borne, but since he seems to indicate the Saint's whole pilgrimage also to other holy places, both of Italy and of Spain, here he stumbles again, for if anything in the Life is certain, this is established, that a very few years before his death he took the habit in some fashion in Galicia, whence he undertook his last pilgrimage to those holy places of Jerusalem.
[3] However these things may stand, concerning his perpetual and constant cult it cannot at all be doubted, Concerning his cult there is no doubt. the Life especially testifying at number 10: Whose sanctity and fame of miracles in a short time spread through and grew rife in the towns, cities, and nearer provinces, so that an almost infinite multitude of men, women, and boys, affected with devotion toward the said Saint, hastened to come to Gallese. Wherefore by Hadrian IV, Pontiff, in the year from the same Lord's saving birthday 1154, his name Quardus being changed for him, on account of the fame of his miracles, by a Latin appellation he was called Famianus and enrolled in the number of the Saints, and outside the town, around his tomb, a sacred and notable building was raised to him by the people of Gallese. The matter is further confirmed and set forth by what is recorded in the same place concerning the feasts instituted and the singular graces granted about the year 1511 by Pope Julius II to the whole college of canons.
[4] Further, on what authority the series of the deeds of St. Famianus, or his Life such as it is, rests, A Life somewhat more recent it is not so easy to determine. It exists twice printed in our sacred store in a larger and a smaller form, that is, in folio, as they say, and in quarto, to which the year of printing is appended: At Gallese, at Agostino Colaldo, in the year 1576, with a rather rude image of the Saint himself prefixed, formed according to the mere judgment of the painter:
[5] To this image there is subjoined a title expressed in both editions in this manner: but collected from ancient sources. From the Life of blessed Famianus, patron of the city of Gallese, the Anonymous author wishing to hint that another Life is preserved in the same place, from which this was abridged, as you will more clearly understand from another appendix. That it is not older than the sixteenth century is made manifest from this, that in it the times of Julius II, Pope, are most expressly marked, who it is established died in 1513. The writer of that Life therefore lived four whole centuries after the Saint's death, so that a conjecture can be made concerning its value, namely because it was compiled from monuments, among which his Breviary is adduced, and from traditions, and at last printed in the year indicated above, with such simplicity and good faith that Manrique seems to have judged rightly concerning it in the Cistercian Annals at the year 1142, when he speaks thus in chapter 9, number 3: His deeds an Anonymous author published earlier than Ferrari, in a brief compendium indeed, but in a middling style, and narrating only those things which are of certain credit. So that another more recent one, which he records appeared at Gallese in the year 1616, need not be attended to at all, the order both of matters and of times being changed in various points, which we have judged should be much more safely distributed from the Anonymous author thus.
[6] The series of his deeds, Since he is said to have been sixty years old when he rendered his blessed soul to God, in the year 1150, going backward he must have been born in 1090: but he was eighteen years old when he undertook the institute of a penitent life. Having first venerated Rome and the other holy places of Italy, he stayed in that region a whole six years, and about the year 1114 set out thence into Galicia, and there, being trained for three years under the direction of the good old man Antony, went on to the most celebrated sepulcher of St. James, where, after he had remained for some while with the greatest devotion, in the year 1118, seized with love of solitude, he withdrew into a wood by the river Minho,
not far from a certain church, today unknown, of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, persevering there in a most austere kind of life for twenty-five years, so that he did not begin wonderfully to profess the Cistercian religion, then especially flourishing, before the year 1144, and there lived regularly for two years in the greatest sanctity, namely until the year 1146, when by the leave of his superior he humbly visited holy Jerusalem and the glorious sepulcher of the Lord, three years being spent in the pilgrimage of the holy places; whence at last, the end of his life drawing near, his pilgrimage being drawn out to nearly forty-two years, he returned again to Rome in the year 1150.
[7] and the Cistercian habit taken up. Further, the end of his life is so described in the Acts themselves that there is no need of a commentary. It remains to be asked what kind of Cistercian habit he took up, and when he was promoted to sacred Orders. The Anonymous author having used a compendium, it is no wonder if he omitted many things, of which he himself could not obtain certain knowledge after so many centuries. That he professed the rule of the Cistercians toward the end of his life has already been shown from him, not the cloistered rule, as is plain, or the monastic, but the anchoritic. Hear again Manrique in the place cited, number 2: Therefore Quardus was received as a hermit, being about to preserve his former vocation, so far as it might be lawful under the yoke of religion. The other part the praised Manrique likewise thus determines in the same place: Ferrari reports that he was promoted to Orders at once, others that he was admitted already a priest, which to me is truer, and that thence an easier way was paved to the solitude. Whether he chooses the truer on that argument, there is no one who can explore, much less settle. Concerning his priesthood or the time of its reception there is nowhere in the Acts even a word, except toward the end of number 5, where in express words he is called the holy Priest of Christ, Famianus. The rest you will most easily understand from the Life subjoined here.
THE LIFE
From the Gallese edition of the year 1576.
Famianus, confessor, at Gallese in the Roman territory (S.)
from the Gallese edition.
Of Cologne by origin Blessed Famianus sprang from Germany, a most noble province, and from Cologne, a renowned city: who was called by his proper name Quuardus, was of tall stature, comely, adorned with all virtues and with blessedness, of magnificent birth: whose father was called Gotthiscalchus, and his mother Giumera, of outstanding nobility, and abounding in riches on every side. Which same Blessed one, seeing them to be perishable, purposed in mind to forsake them and all other worldly things, and to seek sacred delights, recognizing that these would be unchangeable and destined to endure forever. Wherefore he stripped his flowering youth of worldly garments, and, clothed in an honorable clerical habit, and bearing continually on his breast the victorious sign of the passion of Christ, he shone in His love, and, persisting in the devotion of perfect charity, stretching out pious hands toward the poor of Christ, observed the law of God in all things.
[2] For blessed Famianus aforesaid, wishing to enter the saving way, having undertaken a holy pilgrimage, by which, strait and narrow, one presses on to the courts of the Savior, his parents, fatherland, riches, and worldly allurements being forsaken, took up a pious journey to the city of Rome and to visit the basilicas of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and directed his saving steps. On which journey he bore assiduous prayers to the Lord for his own salvation and that of all, and endeavored in every way to visit the churches of whatever places, and other pious places, and wasted his body, in which the spirit of the Lord assiduously abode, with labors, fastings, and scourgings, for his salutary penance.
[3] But on the sixth of the Kalends of September of those days, when the blessed Saint had come to the city of Rome and to the thresholds of the aforesaid Apostles Peter and Paul, he venerates the holy places of Italy and of St. James. he visited again and again the venerable buildings of the Most Blessed Virgin and of the aforesaid Apostles, and, pressing on with prayers and fastings, procured that same Mother of God and the holy Apostles as his chief and special patrons before God the Father, and also did not cease to venerate the other pious places of the City, going to them meanwhile; in which pilgrimage of the City and afterward of other places of Italy, six years being completed, in the following year he journeyed with ardent desire into Galicia, on account of his exceeding devotion toward the divine James: and at the monastery of St. Antony, under the mastership and discipline of Antony the abbot, he lived for three continuous years; and by the leave of that venerable abbot he went (as he had vowed) to venerate the body of St. James.
[4] Where, after he had remained for some while with the greatest devotion, After a penance of 25 years he becomes a Cistercian. thence in a certain wood beside the river Minho, in the churches of St. Pladius a and of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, he served God faithfully and of his own accord for twenty-five years. And then in the church of St. Lawrence b he wonderfully professed the Religion of the Cistercians, then especially flourishing by the sanctity of the divine Bernard, who had died some years before c, the abbot and all the monks assenting, and there lived regularly for two years in the greatest sanctity: by the leave and permission of which Superior of his he afterward humbly visited holy Jerusalem and the glorious Sepulcher of the Lord, and, three years being spent in the pilgrimage of the holy places, being always received charitably and kindly by all, he was humanely treated.
[5] Jerusalem being visited, But when the end of the life of this holy Man and the term of his resting in the Lord drew near, departing from the aforesaid holy places, his pilgrimage being drawn out to nearly forty-two years, being now heavy in body, Eugene the third sitting, he returned again to Rome, to rest; where, being warned in sleep by the divine Peter and Paul that he should seek the city of Gallese, which almighty God deigned to visit through him; and there they foretold that the burdensome pack of the flesh was to be laid down and his spirit rendered to God. Nor did the holy priest of Christ Famianus refuse, but straightway obeying the word, and taking up the journey, he shortly reached the territory of Gallese, and, wearied from the journey, sitting on a certain tufa rock (since he was suffering from thirst), that rock being struck with his traveler's staff, water of the best taste at once seemed to flow out, making a perennial spring d.
[6] he is warned at Rome in sleep to go to Gallese, And on that account, thanks being given to God, the holy Man straightway set about visiting the churches of the territory of Gallese, praying continually for the peace and safety of the said city, to which, as he perceived, he had been destined as Patron by the revelation of the said Apostles. And at length, being received in lodging by a certain man named Ascarus, a native and a noble man, on the fifteenth day from his coming he began to be sick, and when the dissolution of his body was now at hand, he caused Blasius, archpriest of the church of Gallese, to be summoned, to whom, after many things, he foretold that his death would be on the eighth day from then, and, being strengthened by God, leaping from his little bed, and taking the archpriest's hand, he pointed out with his finger from a watchtower a place beside the water in which he desired his body to be buried (for the house of his host Ascarus was situated in the walls of the city); which place, since it seemed to the aforesaid archpriest little fitting for the burial of so great a Man, he answered the holy Man that it was better, namely, that he be honorably laid in the temple of Mary the Mother of God, placed within the city, than in that little garden, where there was neither a church nor a place for a church.
[7] where, sick, he chooses his burial, But persisting in his purpose, having learned from the archpriest that the little garden and that place belonged to the said Ascarus his host, he straightway obtained from him and from his honorable wife the aforesaid place for his own burial (as he had asked). But on the eighth day, when the archpriest and all the priests of the said city came to him, he humbly enjoined them that they should deign to guard his body after his death; for they would see the great deeds of God: nor long after, the above-mentioned Ascarus, who then and long already had suffered from pains of the kidneys, caused himself to be carried by his servants to the little bed of the holy Man, and, having devoutly kissed his hands, being immediately freed from the disease by which he was held, gave the highest thanks to God most good and to blessed Famianus.
[8] and dies most holily. Which being done, the holy Man, looking up to heaven, with the clergy standing by and praying, delivered his spirit to Christ on the sixth of the Ides of August in the year from the Nativity of the Lord one thousand one hundred and fifty, but in the sixtieth of his own age; of which he spent nearly forty-two in holy pilgrimage, as has been ascertained from certain little pages annexed to a Breviary and inscribed by the hand of the same Saint, which book he held with him as he died; to see and likewise to venerate whose body there was no small concourse of the people of Gallese: and so, the clergy and people chanting psalms and hymns with ecclesiastical rite with the utmost devotion, they honorably carried the blessed body to the place near and outside the city, beside the waters, and, guarding the blessed body from morning until evening, a marvel (which God wrought by the merits of the most Blessed man) came to pass.
[9] For two deaf men of the aforesaid city, coming to the blessed body, A great confluence of the people straightway received hearing; and many others in ill health were restored to health. Then the clergy and all the people piously and devoutly buried the blessed body. Nor did many days pass, when a certain man of the aforesaid city (who was grievously vexed by a demon), having been brought to his sepulcher, merited to be freed; likewise a poor little woman, handmaid of the Lord of the castle of Verchiano, who had long been blind, coming to the same place, recovered the light of her eyes: and many others of the same city of Gallese, held by various sicknesses, commending themselves to God through the prayers and merits of holy Famianus, and praying beside his tomb, were cured.
[10] The sanctity of which Man and the fame of his miracles in a short time spread through and grew rife in the towns, and various miracles, on account of which he is canonized. cities, and nearer provinces, so that an almost infinite multitude of men, women, and boys, affected with devotion toward the said Saint, hastened to come to Gallese. Wherefore by Hadrian the fourth, Pontiff, in the year from the same Lord's saving Nativity one thousand one hundred and fifty-four e, his name Quuardus being changed for him, on account of the fame of his miracles he was called by a Latin appellation Famianus, and was enrolled in the number of the Saints. And outside the town, around his tomb, a sacred and notable building was raised to him by the people of Gallese.
[11] Which afterward by the bounty of bishop Munaldus (Nicholas the fourth f, Pontiff, approving it) in the year from the birth of Christ one thousand two hundred and eighty-five, being joined to the building of the Virgin Mother of God which is within the city, A church is built for him, adorned with many graces. is governed by the care of the archpriest and canons of that inner building of the Virgin, with an immense gift of Pope Julius the second, who granted to those piously visiting that very temple of Famianus on the eighth of the month of August (on which day a feast is celebrated in his memory with a great concourse of men) pardon of all offenses, and also to the archpriest and canons a most ample faculty of remitting whatsoever offenses, as in letters under the Date at Rome at St. Peter's in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand five hundred and eleven, on the tenth of the Kalends of August, in the eighth year of his Pontificate.
[12] By the merits indeed and intercession of which holy Famianus, almighty God this city
of Gallese and its people may not disdain hereafter to protect from enemies, to bestow peace and concord, Invocation of his patronage. to grant health of mind and body (as He has done hitherto); who is blessed forever and ever. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
The waters which, thirsting, you draw beneath the mossy vault, Famianus led forth from the veins of the marble. So of old the Hebrew people stood amazed at the miracles of Moses, At the spring which the smitten flint gave. Therefore by a new Moses the Falisci deservedly boast themselves, Whom the field of Orte and of Amelia nourishes.
APPENDIX
On the manuscript Office, the Mass, and a more recent image.
Famianus, confessor, at Gallese in the Roman territory (S.)
An Office composed The things which did not pertain to the illustration of the Life or to the Preliminary Commentary we have put off to this place, to be set forth in few words. There is among our manuscripts an Office extended through all its parts with hymns, antiphons, lessons, and the other things proper to the Saint: likewise a Mass after the custom of the Church; but that these were ever received into use at Gallese I nowhere find indicated, inasmuch as they are more recent, composed first in the seventeenth century. That they are the meditations of a man learned as well as pious, the epistle prefixed to them teaches, of which this is the title: Brother Melidonius Giardinellus of Cori, of the Order of hermits of St. Augustine, master of sacred theology, to the very reverend clergy and the illustrious citizens of Gallese and to the whole commonwealth, greeting. There follows an exordium, a little more elaborate and inflated than was fitting, to whose last part alone, explaining the matter itself, we have here given place, where the orator renders an account of the province undertaken by him of his own accord, in this manner:
[2] by private authority, The sacred remains of Blessed Famianus, most vigilant patron of that your city of Gallese, no less ancient than illustrious, having been visited several times and very often honorably venerated; because, I say, my flaming mind and the vehement ardor of my devotion desired it, and a great longing toward that Saint blazed up, that I might accomplish that his feast should be celebrated yearly with a more solemn and proper holy composition both of Offices and of Masses, and with a most sweet publication of hymns, in which also his gleaming and immense miracles and the admirable sanctity of his life should be earned by divine songs. This yearly gift of my devotion therefore I send to you, this I give; but receive it with placid mind and cheerful heart: and just as your continual and exceptional kindness and no small goodwill was then toward me, so also with the same may you be willing to attend me day by day more and more, as I attend you all in a greater degree. Farewell. Given at Orte on the III of the Nones of July, 1600.
[3] but never received Hence there become manifest the things which I was just saying about the age of the aforesaid Office and Mass and their composer, truly not so inelegant; if only their authority were equal, from the approbation of the supreme Pontiff or at least of the Ordinary, concerning which, since there is everywhere deep silence, this one thing only remains, that concerning the more recent image also mentioned in the Commentary above, which we have not been permitted to see, we should subjoin a few things from another manuscript, of which this is the title: The Acts of the same (namely of St. Famianus), from an image and an ancient hymn. In the year 1626 at Rome an engraved likeness of St. Famianus came forth, on which such an inscription is seen: St. Famianus, Cistercian monk in Galicia. But to the image such a Distich is subjoined:
The lame man stands firm, the blind sees, the deaf uses his ear, From the possessed the black spirit is gone.
His deeds, expressed in twelve little images, surround his likeness: to each there are subjoined four verses from such a hymn, in which you may find the order of things somewhat lacking.
[4] Seeing Rome, he exulted, Thus did he greet her: A compendium of his Life. Hail, Rome, of all the lands The lofty and illustrious Head.
Five lusters set apart He lived, dwelling in places Deserted, where he greatly Afflicted and pressed his body.
He traveled the holy places, He visited Compostela, He sought Jerusalem, Where he searched out Christ.
Thence returning, all earthly And pleasant things despising, He entered upon the Cistercian Order and professed it.
Remaining at Rome, by the command Then of the blessed Apostles He goes to the city of Gallese To teach the doctrine of God.
There, having first called to himself The curate already of the city, He warns him that his death would come, And marks out also his burial.
Wonderful signs are shown And the languishing are relieved; A citizen hindered in his leg Is made sound and unimpeded.
Those plainly bereft of senses Were made whole again, The deaf received hearing, The dumb brought forth words.
Carried from far away, The lame, thus made feeble, Returned firm to their own, Rendering worthy thanks to God.
Coming to the sepulcher Of the Saint, and touching it, Those vexed by demons Were straightway freed.
The dear light of her eyes A blind woman is reported Straightway to have received, And to have left her guide of the way.
Afterward, being reckoned by the Pope, Named among the Saints, He is from his fame called Famianus, And patron of Gallese.
A SECOND APPENDIX
From the Sacred Treasury of Pennazzi, published in the year 1723.
Famianus, confessor, at Gallese in the Roman territory (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
The monuments are weighed What has been said hitherto I had written long ago, when there came into my hands the Life of the Saint himself in Italian, distributed into five books, with a Latin Sacred Treasury subjoined, for compiling the History of the Life of St. Famianus, priest, confessor, and Cistercian monk, collected by the work and zeal of Splendiano Andrea Pennazzi, Apostolic Protonotary and Vicar general of Orvieto. He means to say, I think, that most worthy and most erudite man, that Latin monuments are there produced, from which he himself has diligently and elegantly worked up the Saint's Life, in this order: that in book 1 he embraces what pertains to the Saint's birth, education, and life: in book 2 he reviews his last pilgrimage and precious death: in book 3 he treats of his cult, chronology, and itinerary: in book 4 there are narrated his miracles wrought after his burial: in book 5 his heroic sanctity is extolled, and there is set forth the true devotion to be exhibited to the Saint through nine-day exercises, deduced there at sufficient length, all of which extend to 127 pages in quarto form, as they say; but which have above been abundantly explained in the Life of the Anonymous author, which alone I judged should be given, and still judge.
[6] supplied by Pennazzi. I have not indeed thought it worth the labor to render into Latin the things which Pennazzi has embellished with his fuller discourse, being content here to select from the Treasury those things which I had not been able to find elsewhere before. And first indeed he inquires diligently enough into the more ancient Lives, as he calls them, of St. Famianus, of which he describes the first, divided into six lessons, as the most ancient, from page 136, and sets it forth rather laboriously with various and very long notes, certainly at no great profit of labor. There follow the Acts written by the Anonymous author and printed at Gallese by Agostino Colaldo in the year of the Lord 1576: and it is the very same Life already given above by us, rendered namely a little more ornately from that earlier one, and abundantly explained by our necessary annotations. He has subjoined in the third place a Life from Tamayo de Salazar, which he could have wholly passed over, as also the eulogies with which he over-much praises that Martyrologist. Nor do the Epitome of Antonio Massa, or the eulogies of Ferrari, Henriquez, and others, contribute greatly to the matter.
[7] Lessons approved at Rome More pleasing are the approved Lessons confirming the solemn cult, which by the Roman concession of an Office and by its extension to the neighboring cities has wonderfully grown in this century. Behold the decree of the sacred Congregation itself: The clergy and people of Gallese, setting forth that they recite every year from the Common the Office of holy Famianus, Confessor not Pontiff, and asserted principal Protector of the same Gallese, humbly petitioned the sacred Congregation of Rites for the extension of the prayer and of the proper lessons of the second and third Nocturn, otherwise approved on the third day of December, 1701, for the Congregation of the monks of St. Bernard, of the Cistercian Order. And the same sacred Congregation of Rites, at the report of the most eminent and most reverend Lord Cardinal Gabrielli, kindly indulged and granted the extension sought for both the secular and the regular clergy of the aforesaid Gallese, on the XXIV day of April, 1706. There follows the extension of the same Office to the cities of Orte and Civita Castellana. Now we transcribe the Lessons themselves, which most make to our purpose.
[8] Lessons Lesson IV. Famianus, before called Quardus, born at Cologne of a noble family, of his father Gothescalcus and his mother Guimara, being first moderately steeped in studies, then, his parents and fatherland being forsaken, in the eighteenth year of his age set out for Rome, that he might visit the thresholds of the holy Princes of the Apostles. Having made pilgrimage through Italy for six years, and having visited the chief places of devotion, he hastened into Spain to Compostela to venerate the body of St. James the Apostle, and inhabited that province for three years, under the guidance of a certain holy old man. Afterward, seeking Syria, he most religiously traversed the sepulcher of the Lord and other places of Palestine. Having returned into Galicia, he penetrated into trackless places and woods, where he was refreshed with bread only rarely, for the most part with herbs and water. Then in the monastery of Sts. Cosmas and Damian he passed twenty-five years in the same kind of life, until in the monastery of Ursaria he put on the Cistercian habit.
[9] Lesson V. Being received as a novice, he was assigned to the little building of St. Lawrence, which embrace the chief part of his Life on the banks of the Minho, to complete his novitiate, and to preserve his former vocation, so far as it might be lawful under the yoke of religion. This was granted to the sanctity of the man of God, granted to his known and long-tested probation. Not because the desert is forbidden to Cistercian monks, but because by the Rule the cenobitic life must always precede the anchoritic. And so, a solemn profession being made, he was ordained priest out of obedience. Again Famianus, faculty having been obtained from his Abbot, set out for Rome, Eugene III, supreme Pontiff, presiding over the Church, to visit the Thresholds of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul; by those same Princes of the Apostles he is admonished in sleep to seek Gallese among the Falisci, where he was to render his spirit to God. As soon as the Man of God reached that place, wearied by the journey and suffering from thirst, from a flint struck with his staff he wonderfully brought forth a spring, which still endures and is wont to profit the sick.
[10] Lesson VI. On the fifteenth day after, he began to be sick, are comprised, and, the archpriest of that church being summoned, he foretold the day of his death: and presently, leaping from his little bed, and taking his hand, he pointed out with his finger the place beside the water in which he desired his body to be buried. Nor long after, his host by name Ascarus, vexed by a most grievous pain of the kidneys, caused himself to be carried by his servants to the little bed of the holy Man, and, having devoutly kissed his hands,
suddenly recovered. At last blessed Famianus, on the day foretold by himself, looking up to heaven, with the clergy standing by and praying, fell asleep in the Lord on the sixth of the Ides of August in the year of restored salvation one thousand one hundred and fifty, in the sixtieth of his own age. But so great was the celebrity of his miracles growing frequent, that not long after his death the Roman Pontiff enrolled him in the roll of the Saints, and, the name of Quardus being laid aside, commanded that on account of the fame of his signs he be called Famianus. There is at Gallese a church dedicated to God in his honor, to which the same Indulgence is reported to have been granted by the supreme Pontiffs with which the church of St. Mary of the angels near Assisi was adorned, countless persons from the neighboring peoples flocking thither every year to venerate his sacred body, uncorrupted to this day.
[11] not without some difference. Let it be said in passing that some things may be observed in these, especially in Lesson IV, which do not in every part agree with what has been said before, but rather turn aside to the opinion of others, especially concerning the time of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem undertaken by the saint, on which the praised Pennazzi treats at greater length. To us it is all one which opinion anyone shall wish to embrace. To his celebrated cult and to his posthumous glory there pertains more the burial of the holy Famianus himself, or at least the likeness of his body, as is here asserted, even now uncorrupted. Pennazzi prefixed it to his work, plainly worthy that it should also here be presented for the commendation of a perpetual miracle.
[12] Other most celebrated miracles of St. Famianus have already been briefly set forth above at the end of the Life and in the rhythm; Concerning the miracles it remains that, for the completion of the whole matter, some be selected from among countless and almost daily ones, which, rendered into Latin from Pennazzi's book 4, we subjoin here.
MIRACLES.
Famianus, confessor, at Gallese in the Roman territory (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Pennazzi has many How glorious the sepulcher of St. Famianus has been for a whole six hundred years now, the most constant fame, illustrated by daily signs, teaches, so that of every kind of afflicted men scarcely one has been found who does not declare that he obtained some benefit there. This Pennazzi especially and deservedly laments, that the people of Gallese have been so negligent in duly collecting these, that of by far the greatest part no authentic memory duly consigned to writing survives. Behold here out of many a very few particular cures under the title, Concerning those freed from possession by demons.
[14] from which here In the year 1616 on the VIII day of August, on the very solemn festival of the Saint, a certain woman, whose name is not expressed, possessed by an evil demon, was freed from the foul spirit at his sepulcher, falling almost lifeless while these words were being uttered by the exorcist from the Gospel of St. John: And the word was made flesh. In the same year on the following day, that is, the IX of August, a certain woman of Orte, by name Judith, came to Gallese to the same sepulcher also to be exorcized, out of whom the wicked spirit, being expelled, was compelled to confess that this was done by the merits of St. Famianus, leaving this sign, that he extinguished a lamp. There follow other very similar and equally notable ones wrought at the same sepulcher in the years 1618, likewise 1711, 1721, and 1723, to which he subjoins another class, Concerning those freed from fevers and other infirmities.
[15] The first placed is Ludovica, wife of Bernardino Pento, some of various kinds who was healed of fevers, and of another grievous evil in one breast, as is read in an ancient votive tablet hung up in the church of the Saint himself. Likewise in another votive tablet a testimony that Perna of Gallese, wife of Philip of Corchiano, was freed from fevers together with her son. A certain woman also, Jacoba by name, wished a votive tablet to be set up, who, when she was sick unto death, being commended to St. Famianus by her daughter Rosa, presently recovered fully. Margarita Pensani, a Sicilian by nation, heaped with very many benefits from the Saint, not only gave thanks at Gallese in the year 1617, but, having set out for Rome, wonderfully propagated the Saint's cult in the chapel of the Most Holy Savior among the Dominican Fathers above the Minerva, bequeathing by testament in the year 1649 the means by which his festival should be solemnly celebrated every year on the VIII of August. You have in the same place other memorable cures wonderfully multiplied down to this century, especially in chapter 5, where there is treatment of the salutary water of St. Famianus's spring.
[16] A certain man beset by raging spirits, who attacked men with stones and knives, as a specimen having drunk water of the aforesaid spring, straightway remained wholly free from the infernal guests. Antonio, nephew of the most illustrious Lancetta, given up by the physicians, was restored to his former health by drinking the same water, and came to give thanks to St. Famianus by offering him a silver lamp. The fame of so many cures which were obtained through the water of the often-mentioned spring growing rife at Rome, the Reverend Father General of the Order of St. Bernard sent a muleteer thither to load three mules with flagons filled with that water. But he, having first observed the scantiness of the spring, plainly despaired of carrying out the business. But when he began to fill the flagons, he saw the water increase so abundantly, that, the mules being properly loaded, he left the spring as he departed, not without the utmost astonishment, in exactly the same state in which he had found it. In the year 1688 the Reverend Lord Bernardo Pollione, pastor of Bassanello, returning home from Scrofano, felt the horse on which he was sitting suddenly struck blind, so that he was compelled to lead it by the bridle to his own great inconvenience. Opportunely he came to the spring of the healer, and, spitting a little water into the horse's eyes, the sign of the cross being made and the Saint being invoked, sight was restored to the horse, whence it was possible for him to reach home conveniently. You have there very many more recent ones of that kind.
[17] we have described But let it suffice to have given these as a specimen: there would be no end if I should pursue them one by one. In the following chapters there are enumerated those who in this very century have been freed from precipices, falls, and various evils and perils.