John of Fermo

ON ST. JOHN OF FERMO, OR OF ALVERNA, OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR,

ON MOUNT ALVERNA IN ITALY.

1322.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

John, of the Order of Minors, on Mount Alverna in Italy (B.)

BY THE AUTHOR G. C.

§ I. Testimonies concerning the immemorial cult of this Blessed one, notice of his Acts, and of their writers.

This blessed Man received the surname of "Firmanus" from the city of Fermo, in which he was born; Mount Alverna is described, but afterwards, from Mount Alverna, which he long inhabited, he was commonly called John of Alverna. And this mount is, as Wadding writes in the Annals of the Minors at the year of Christ 1213, number 32, tall in height among the steep ridges of the Apennines, separated from the other mountains, above all of which it has raised its head, girt on three sides with precipices, as with certain very lofty walls. It is washed by a double river, the Tiber and the Arno; distant seven miles from Bibbiena, a noble town in the territory of Chiusi. Some think that Averna is derived from Verna: for Verna was among the Romans the goddess of robbers, and had a temple at Rome, where Verna was worshipped by assassins. However it may be, that mountain is lofty, whose highest summit no one would dare to climb, did not the frequent beech take away the prospect of the danger, and promise a barrier to those about to fall. The beeches are broad at the summit, and there are grasses, and green meadows, with which they make new shadows … The mountain is now most delightful, and crowned with very great and green trees, whereas before it was bald, inhospitable, and rugged. In the place familiar to Francis there appear impenetrable caverns, broken and overhanging stones, rocks inaccessible on every side, most profound gaping chasms into the abyss, which it will be a horror to behold: now everywhere sacred caves, clefts, churches, shrines, chapels, prodigies, and miraculous traces of holy men, etc. The praised Wadding at the same year, number 46, among these sacred traces of holy men makes mention of the chapel which was there dedicated to our B. John, and which chiefly pertains to our purpose; but since he transcribed that notice from the most illustrious Gonzaga, let us rather go to the source itself.

[2] Francis Gonzaga therefore, most reverend Minister general of the Franciscan Order, in the Work in which this Blessed one has an immemorial cult, which he published at Rome in the year 1587 and dedicated to Pope Sixtus V, On the Origin of the Seraphic Religion, in the description of Mount Alverna, page 239, has these things to our purpose: But on the slope of that little hill which rises above the chapel of the sacred stigmata, another sacred house also is raised, dedicated to the blessed father John of Alverna. For that blessed Father was most religious, and led a most holy and altogether angelic life in perpetual fasting, contemplation, and penance, for very many years on this sacred mountain, but especially on the aforesaid little hill, where also he had built for himself a wooden cell, translated into the aforesaid sacred shrine. Moreover he contracted the surname of Alverna, whereas at first he was surnamed of Fermo, from his long habitation of the mountain. Besides, the same blessed father John had laid out beside the aforesaid chapel a path for the sake of walking, which ended at a very tall beech. And when on a certain day, intent upon divine meditations, he was walking along it, and had directed the keenness of his eyes upon a cross fastened by himself to that tree, he suddenly saw Christ the Lord walking upon it with a heavy step: at whose most sacred feet, falling prostrate, when once and a second time he had as a suppliant asked that pardon of his errors be given him, and had received no answer, following him a third time beside the tree, his body meanwhile lowered to the ground, he repeated the same petition, and at length, obtaining his wish, he merited to kiss the divine feet, hands, and most sacred wound of the side. Wherefore he was flooded with the highest joy, and was carried into ecstasy. When this had been spread abroad among the laity, so great a religious feeling and devotion toward the aforesaid beech came upon them, that by no means could they be prevented by the Brethren from stripping it entirely of its bark. And thereby at length it came about that, being stripped of its bark, it perished. Father and Brother Angelus Rassinas therefore, Guardian of this sacred place, lest so great a devotion of the peoples should some day vanish, took care that it should be cut down, and that a certain sacred chapel should there be built in the year of restored salvation 1518, whose altar rests upon the trunk of that same tree.

[3] as we gather from the chapel, Benignus Fremaut, a Minorite, who laboriously collected the Lives of the Saints and venerable men of his Order, and not long ago published them in Flemish in twelve volumes according to the series of as many months, at the IX day of August, after the Acts of this Blessed one, at page 122 of that month, expressly asserts that that chapel of which mention is made above was built in honor of our B. John in the year 1518. Hence we seem able safely to infer the immemorial cult of B. John, since that sacred little shrine was dedicated to his honor a hundred years before the decree of Pope Urban VIII. To these add that the contemporary writers of the Acts, and other ancient praisers of this man, commonly call him blessed and most holy, as will appear from what we shall report in the course of this Preliminary Commentary and below in the ancient Acts.

[4] Moreover this conclusion of ours can be confirmed from the singular care and from his sacred relics, which has always been had of his relics, as Wadding in the Annals of the Minors at the year of Christ 1322, number 48, testifies in these words: Although the corpse remained unburied for three days on account of the devotion of the peoples running to the funeral, yet it gave forth a most sweet odor, and the face always appeared cheerful and ruddy. And on the very day on which he was buried, an angel revealed to a certain pious Brother, an intimate friend of John, that he had on the day on which he died passed to heaven, and there enjoyed great glory on account of his most holily spent life. Many years after his burial, the Brethren opened the sepulchre, and laid up his sacred relics in an honorable place in the sacristy; but the head they carried off to the monastery of the holy cross of the city of Florence.

[5] Nay more, Arthur du Monstier and, most recently, Fortunatus Hueber affirm which are there publicly exposed. that this cult of his sacred relics persists even now, when in their Franciscan Menology at the IX day of August, after the eulogy of our B. John, each thus writes: He was distinguished with great and very many miracles, and his sacred body is venerated with worthy veneration in the church of the Friars Minor of the Convent of Mount Alverna, where it is honorably kept until now. To those two Menologists we add our Papebroch, an eyewitness, who concerning his stay on Mount Alverna, where in the month of January of the year 1662 he tarried a little while together with Godfrey Henschen, narrates these things in his Ms. Itinerary: On the twenty-first of January we offered sacrifice in that very place where the sacred stigmata are recorded to have been divinely imprinted upon the seraphic Francis; for which cause, in each of the prayers which are recited in the Mass concerning that mystery, the adverb HERE is expressly added. Then we saw the relics magnificently placed upon a proper altar, and among them the bones of B. John of Alverna and of another, B. Marianus, divided among several reliquaries, with wholly equal cult and adornment as the other relics. But who would readily believe that the Minorites would have continued or permitted a public veneration of this kind after the decree of Urban VIII, unless it had already been begun from immemorial time? Wherefore we by no means doubt concerning the lawful cult of B. John, and accordingly, relying on these testimonies and led by other arguments, we have confidently inserted this wonderful Man into our work. Now it remains to investigate what Acts of this Blessed one are extant, and who wrote them.

[6] While the praised Papebroch was in the same year 1662 at Florence, The Acts of this Blessed one are extant in a Ms. codex of Florence, he there transcribed with his own hand from the library of the holy Cross the Acts of B. John, and prefixed to them this notice: From a most ancient Ms. of the library of the Convent of the holy Cross at Florence, shelf XXVI on the right, a parchment codex without number, in quarto. That the writer of these Acts was contemporary with the blessed Man, and in many things an eyewitness, is clear from the very narration of the deeds and from the prologue, in which he thus forewarns the reader: I do not know all his deeds; but the few things which I relate I either received from his own mouth, though with great effort and under secrecy while he lived, or heard from persons very worthy of credit, or myself perceived from myself. But let it please all who were more familiar with him, and obedient to him in the divine office *, to correct these things, and to add others, according as it shall seem good to them. Then at the end of the Acts he also has these words: I have heard that many miracles were done by the merits of this holy Man, and some I have heard were done while he lived, and some after he passed from this world; but because I did not see them with my eyes, nor could I receive them from his mouth, therefore I have not written them. Since therefore this contemporary biographer, whom we shall commit to the press in the first place after this Commentary, ingenuously confesses that not all things were known to him, and moreover warns that he was unwilling to commit to letters certain things which he had heard, no one ought to wonder that other deeds also of the same Blessed one are found, which are omitted by that author.

[7] and others in the Ms. Mirror of St. Francis, We have certainly found other deeds of B. John of Alverna in the Mirror of St. Francis, which William Spoelberch published in type at Antwerp in the year 1620; but he changed the ancient series of chapters and the barbarous style of the Ms. codices, as he himself confesses in the prologue to the reader. We nevertheless prefer to hear writers of this kind speaking in the barbarous style of their own age. Wherefore the edition of the same little work which Philip Bosquier caused to be made at Cologne in the year 1623, and in which he retained the original phrasing of the authors, pleases us more. But in it too certain chapters are lacking, and the series of the deeds differs from the manuscript copy of the same Mirror which is preserved in the library of the Minorites at Louvain, and a transcript of which we received very many years ago. There are extant elsewhere various copies of the same work, as Matthias Grouwels, of the Order of Minors, jubilate lector and definitor of the province of Lower Germany, testifies, who in the critical History of the sacred Indulgence of the Portiuncula, part 3, chapter 5, number 17, supplies the following notice: Just as there were various writers of the Life of blessed Francis and of his companions, he says, so various manuscripts of the same are found. Of these there still exists a certain copy in our library at Louvain, written with ancient and difficult abbreviations by Brother Cornelius of Zierikzee, concerning whom at page 61 above. And at the page cited, 61, he advises that that Louvain copy was written out by Brother Cornelius of Zierikzee in the year of his novitiate, and of Christ 1454, on the ninth day of the month of February. Then in the same place he adds these words: Likewise I consulted a similar ancient manuscript on parchment in the library of the Friars Minor Recollects at Mechlin.

[8] both of which we shall publish in type, All things being maturely weighed, we have judged it more advisable to publish these other Acts of B. John from our Louvain transcript, which has been laboriously collated with other Ms. copies of the same Mirror, from which we shall thereafter correct our faulty Ms., and shall note the variant readings in the margin, where it shall seem worth while. Further,

these second Acts of the Blessed one we shall, after our manner, divide into larger chapters, although in the Louvain codex they are sometimes distributed into smaller ones. Nevertheless, that the reader may more easily understand the order of the narration, which differs from the printed copies, we here prefix the ancient titles of the chapters, which in the second book of our aforesaid transcript run thus: Chapter 51. How Brother John of Alverna was caught up into the abyss of God, and buried in the ocean of the divine infinity and eternity. Chapter 52. How Brother John saw Christ glorious in the Host, and how he was upon the altar when he said, This is my body. Here is thrust in chapter 53, in which is narrated how the Mother of God appeared to Brother Corrardus, which does not pertain to our purpose. Then follows Chapter 54. How Christ appeared to Brother John of Alverna, who, embracing Christ, was caught up. Chapter 55. How to Brother John of Alverna, praying for a certain Brother, a divine answer was made. Chapter 56. How Brother John, while he was celebrating, saw souls freed from purgatory. Chapter 57. How Brother John saw blessed Francis with many Brethren, and Brother James spoke to him after death. Chapter 58. How Brother John had the spirit of revelation. Chapter 55, and this last one, are wanting in the editions of Spoelberch and Bosquier.

[9] These things being premised for the knowledge of the Acts to be printed, although we judge against the opinion of Wadding, it is now asked who wrote these two different sets of Acts of B. John. To this question Wadding in the Annals of the Minors at the year of Christ 1272, number 23, thus answers: Wonderful are the remaining Acts of this holy Man, which two contemporary men wrote fully and sincerely, John of Septimium and Hugolinus of Monte Santa Maria, and we shall give them at the year 1322, in which he departed from this life. Then at the year 1322, number 48, he repeats this assertion of his more clearly in these words: There wrote, as we have said elsewhere, all these things from eyewitness knowledge, Brother John of Septimium and Hugolinus of Monte Maria; of whom the former testifies that he wrote only what he saw or received from the Man of God himself, and therefore abstained from relating many things and miracles which others reported, but which he had not himself seen. From their narration was compacted the Life of the same, which is preserved in Ms. in the library of the aforesaid monastery of the holy Cross, namely of Florence, of which he had treated a little above. By this manner of speaking Wadding hints that those first Acts, which our Papebroch copied at Florence in the library of the monastery of the holy Cross, must be attributed to a twofold author; but in these Florentine Acts the writer nowhere gives his name: nay, whoever shall be willing to peruse them attentively with us will not with difficulty see that they had one and the same writer. For the rest, against that opinion of Wadding various scruples occur, which we shall now set forth.

[10] In the first place, we wonder that that John of Septimium (Severanus in the Precious deaths of the just, page 287, surnames him "of Septimana") is not reckoned among the writers of the Order of Minors. that they were written neither by John of Septimium, But if anyone should say, on the witness of Bartholomew of Pisa, that John of Septimium was familiar with our Blessed one, since he stood by him as he was dying, and familiarly questioned him concerning an apparition he had had, we answer that we freely admit all this. But if anyone should further urge that the Acts of B. John were written by some familiar friend, as is indicated in the prologue, we reply from the same prologue that there were several more familiar with him, as the writer of the Acts himself testifies in the same place, who therefore asks them freely to correct his lucubration and to add to it other deeds. Finally, in our Florentine Ms. John of Septimium nowhere appears. Wherefore we ascribe those first Acts to an anonymous witness, yet contemporary and worthy of credit, until their true author be discovered by name from elsewhere.

[11] But as regards Hugolinus of Monte Santa Maria, nor by Hugolinus of Monte S. Maria; we do not easily grasp how he could have written the Acts of B. John of Alverna, since Wadding himself concerning the same Hugolinus, if we are not mistaken, among the Writers of the Order of Minors, page 179, reports only the following: Hugolinus of Santa Maria in Monte, of Picenum, a contemporary of St. Francis, a pious man and a candid author, wrote a history (which he entitled the Floretum), in which he narrates the life and deeds of St. Francis and of his companions down to the Pontificate of Alexander IV. I have it by me, written out on parchment in a clear hand. But the Pontificate of Alexander IV began in the year of Christ 1254, in which B. John of Fermo was not yet born, and lasted until the year 1261, when our Blessed one was in the third year of his age. How therefore could that Hugolinus have written the deeds of B. John, if he carried his history only down to the Pontificate of Alexander IV? Besides, that author must have been more than ninety years old when, after the death of B. John, which happened in the year of Christ 1322, he committed his deeds to writing: for if Hugolinus, on Wadding's witness, was a contemporary of St. Francis, who passed to the world above in the year 1226, already in the year of Christ 1322 he would have counted at the least ninety-six years of age. Add that from the very reading of the first Acts it is established that their writer survived B. John. From what has hitherto been disputed we conclude that neither John of Septimium nor Hugolinus of Monte Santa Maria can certainly be called the author of those Acts.

[12] but by authors hitherto unknown, Nor can it be more certainly affirmed who collected the other Acts which we excerpt from the Mirror of Saint Francis. Nevertheless their writer will have to be called the famous Brother Ubertino of Casale, if we believe the praised Matthias Grouwels, who in part 4 of the aforesaid critical History, chapter 5, page 430, thus discourses concerning the authors of this little work: And so that above-praised Mirror, which is nothing but a certain compendium of the Life, or a small chronicle of the Life of blessed Francis and of his companions, was first written by the holy Father's companions Ruffinus, Angelus, and chiefly by Brother Leo, down to the year 1270. Then it was continued by contemporary and nearly contemporary Brethren, among whom Ubertino of Casale, as to the things done in their own times, down to the year 1330, and thence by the Pisan down to about the year 1400, and afterwards increased by others as matter offered down to the year 1506. Then on the following page he thus again concludes: Of those things therefore which in that same Mirror are narrated to have happened from the year 1270 to the year 1330, Brother Ubertino of Casale is deservedly written as the author, who, a diligent and devout writer, visited various holy places, among which also the chapel of the Portiuncula, and collected many Acts of blessed Francis and of his companions together with the monuments of the indulgence of the Portiuncula, granted by Christ himself. Hence it would manifestly follow that the deeds of B. John of Alverna which are narrated in the Mirror of Saint Francis were written by that Ubertino, since they certainly happened between the year 1270 and the year 1330.

[13] who nevertheless are contemporary, But from admitting that opinion at once we are deterred by the judgment of Wadding, who in the Annals of the Minors at the year of Christ 1226, number 44, after the death of Saint Francis has been reported, thus reasons concerning the authors of the said Mirror: Elias the vicar general wrote at once concerning the death of the holy Preceptor and Founder to all the provinces. A copy of the letters sent to the Provincial of France we received from the Convent of the Recollects of Valenciennes in Belgium, where the originals are kept, which William Spoelberch, definitor of the province of Lower Germany, transcribed into the Mirror of the Life of St. Francis and of his companions published and polished by him, many apocryphal and frivolous narrations being neglected, which were had in the old edition; which Philip Bosquier of the province of Flanders would also have done more advisedly in the other, later one, which he caused to be made in the year just past at Cologne; from whom I should wish to know whence he received that the Brethren Fabianus and Hugelinus, with other Minorites contemporary with St. Francis, were the authors of that little book: but Henry Sedulius also, a learned and pious man, will have its founders to be Leo, Angelus, and Ruffinus, the perpetual companions of St. Francis. These indeed compiled the Legend of the holy Father, not this little work; from that Legend many things have been inserted here, and more recent things added by others far later.

[14] The compiler of this work lived after the year 1300, and worthy of credit, and father Bosquier will admit this if he read the ancient volume of the old Venetian impression of the year 1504, folios 77 and 78, or that newly published by himself, the first Century, chapter 96, where from a certain event of the year 1303 the truth of the Indulgence of Saint Mary of the Portiuncula is confirmed, and chapter 97, where for the same thing the testimony of others is adduced under the year 1310. Not therefore could those three companions assigned by Sedulius write the book, nor those contemporaries reported by Bosquier: nor has it hitherto been established by any certain argument or by an approved inscription of the work who its lawful author is. This controversy being in some fashion discussed, we thus far judge that, according to the time of the events, various authors, and those not yet known to us, gradually contributed their labor to the completing of that Mirror, and that thus by degrees that little work grew. But we do not wish that anyone should thence wrongly infer, with the anonymous assailant of the Indulgence of the Portiuncula, that no credit is to be given to this Mirror of Saint Francis: for in our Work there occur very many Acts of Saints written by anonymous or unknown authors, whom nevertheless we judge most worthy of credit. Wherefore these deeds also of B. John, which are inserted into that same Mirror, deserve great credit, since especially they were collected by one or more eyewitnesses and contemporaries, as we shall observe in the Annotations after the several chapters.

[15] Moreover these deeds are confirmed from nearly contemporary writers, since their narration is confirmed by other nearly contemporary writers. who saw the more ancient Acts of this Blessed one, and committed them to writing in compendium: for Bartholomew of Pisa, who flourished in the fourteenth century in the Order of Minors, in the Work of the Conformities, book 1, Fruit 8, part 2, folio 78, briefly narrates most of the deeds of the same Blessed one. Saint Antoninus, who about the middle of the following century was taken from the Order of Preachers to the see of Florence, in part 3 of the Chronicles, title 24, chapter 7, §15, also had the old Acts before his eyes, and reduced them into a compendium. Him there follows next in order of time the Vineyard of St. Francis, which was printed in the Flemish idiom more than two hundred years ago at Antwerp, and which embraces the Life of B. John at folio 375 verso and following at sufficient length. We do not wish in this place to recount Marcus of Lisbon or his various interpreters, Francis Gonzaga, Peter Rodulphius, Bzovius, Wadding, and other more recent writers, who inserted the chief Acts of our Blessed one into their writings. Also

we pass over Bernardine de Bustis, Dominic Gravina, Benedict Gonon, John Severanus, our John Nadasi, and other writers of various Orders, who have made mention of B. John of Alverna only in passing. Nevertheless in the following paragraph we shall examine, both from these and from those, some gleanings of the Acts.

* perhaps "frequent"

§ II. An examination of some matters which are not recorded in the most ancient Acts, to be printed after this Commentary.

Concerning this Blessed one, who was born about the year 1259 at Fermo in Italy, Although the contemporary authors do not expressly state the year of B. John's birth, yet from Bartholomew of Pisa, who lived near his time, we easily gather that he was born about the year of Christ 1259: for that writer, in book 1 of the Conformities, Fruit 8, part 2, folio 78 verso, refers the death of B. John to the year of Christ 1322, and with the contemporary author of the first Acts asserts that this Blessed one entered the Order of Minors in the thirteenth year of his age, and passed fifty years in it. And so from the year of his death, and by a backward reckoning of sixty-three years, it manifestly follows that he came forth into the light about the year of Christ 1259, in which Wadding and other writers commonly record his birth. For the rest, it is sufficiently established from the ancient monuments that this Blessed one's fatherland was Fermo, an ancient city of Picenum or of the March of Ancona: but it is not equally certain what parents that pious Boy had, since contemporary and nearly contemporary writers are deeply silent concerning their names and condition. And so, when the Marquess Maiolinus Bisaccioni, in the Description of the whole world, which he translated from the Latin work of Lucas de Linda into the Italian idiom and published enlarged at Venice in the year 1672, at page 397 affirms that our B. John was born at Fermo of the noble family of the Elisei, we leave that nobility to be proved by him and to be further investigated by the citizens of Fermo.

[17] Bartholomew of Pisa and St. Antoninus, Bartholomew of Pisa, treating of the Convent of Mount Alverna, at folio 78 of the work cited above, thus begins a synopsis of the Acts of the same B. John: In the said place lies the holy Brother John of Fermo, called of Alverna, a man wonderful in sanctity and perfection: concerning the sanctity of this Man some things are to be narrated, and briefly. He had his birth in the city of Fermo of the province of the March, who, when he was nursed as a little infant in the cradle, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday sucked the breasts only once. Saint Antoninus, part 3 of the Chronicles, title 24, chapter 7, §15, in a similar compendium of the Acts, indicates the same matter otherwise in these words: About the years of the Lord 1300, among other most perfect men of the Order of Minors there shone singularly the ecstatic man Brother John of Fermo, sprung of the province of the March; who, when he was nursed as a little infant, by a wonderful presage of his merits, as is read of blessed Nicholas, fasted three days in the week. And although our ancient Acts make no mention of this wonderful abstinence of the blessed Infant, yet I do not doubt that each of the praised writers drew that narration from more ancient monuments which have not come to our knowledge.

[18] and other more recent writers report some things, Also in our aforesaid Acts no mention is made of that matter which John Severanus, priest of the Congregation of the Oratory, in the book whose title is Precious deaths of the just, at page 181, thus reports from Franciscan writers: Jacopone of Todi, of the Order of Minors, when, full of days and broken by the labors of penance, he seemed now nearest to death, is urged by the Brethren to fortify himself with the Sacraments of the Church; but he answered them that the time was not yet come. And when it was suggested to him that he was dying as an unbeliever, then, opening his eyes, he at once made a profession of the faith, and forthwith recited the Symbol of the Apostles. Nevertheless the Brethren urge him again, saying that this was not sufficient for him, but that it was necessary to receive the divine Sacraments. He answered that he was awaiting John of Alverna, from whose hands he would receive them. Hearing which, the Brethren were greatly saddened, knowing that he was far away, and that there was not time enough to send for him. But while thus anxiously they press preparation upon him, Jacopone sang that canticle which begins: Anima benedetta dall' alto Creatore, contempla il tuo Signore. Which canticle being finished, John was there, divinely taught by a vision; and from his hands he reverently received the Sacraments, etc. Wadding in the Annals of the Minors at the year of Christ 1306, number 7 and following, and other more recent Franciscans, narrate similar things more at large, with whom we leave the credit of that matter, since neither Bartholomew of Pisa nor Saint Antoninus inserted it into his synopsis of the Acts.

[19] We more easily believe the praised Bartholomew of Pisa, who lived near the time, which are not read in our ancient Ms. Acts, when in the compendium of the Life just cited he sets forth concerning B. John of Alverna a certain prodigious testimony of sanctity, passed over by our ancient biographers, in these words: He, because on account of his sanctity he was honored by all, once, wishing to avoid honors of this kind, withdrew secretly from Siena, and went secretly to Columbanum, that no one might know this. But while he was staying there and praying, a fiery column seemed to those who tilled the neighboring lands to descend from the height of heaven and to settle upon his cell: on account of which miracle he began to be frequented by the people; whence for this cause he withdrew from there. This prodigy is not recorded in our ancient Acts, nor by Saint Antoninus himself. Hence among other things we conjecture that Bartholomew of Pisa and Saint Antoninus had before their eyes different copies of the old Acts, out of which they wove their compendia.

[20] This conjecture of ours is further confirmed from the fact and St. Antoninus narrates a certain circumstance of a miracle, that Saint Antoninus reports the following prodigies, passed over by Bartholomew of Pisa, in the compendium of the Life already often cited, in these words: And when he was preaching most fervently, and at Florence in the cloister of the Brethren was preaching the Gospel under the open sky on account of the copious multitude standing by, though rain poured down and drenched the people, not one drop of water fell upon him, nor upon the pulpit, although the people were much wetted. Preaching also in the same place, he said: I know a Friar Minor who, while he was celebrating, saw Christ behind the consecrated Host slain in it, from all whose wounds blood flowed abundantly into the chalice. And when that Brother nearly fainted for compassion, the form of bread returned. Afterwards he secretly revealed to a companion that he was the one to whom this had happened. He saw at another time the Lord Jesus in the flesh so despised and vile that a man could scarcely be so vilified. Whom with wonder he questioned, saying: O Lord, why do you appear so vile and poor? To whom Christ said: Know that in the hearts of Christians I am still more abominable and despised. This narration of Saint Antoninus we have not hitherto found among older writers.

[21] But as regards the miracle of the rain, more recent writers double it, or set it forth in another way: which cannot be reconciled with the narration of Wadding, for Wadding in the Annals of the Minors at the year of Christ 1322, number 32, among the deeds of B. John thus reports this prodigy: When he was preaching most fervently in the court of the Friars Minor at Florence to a vast multitude of men, and the whole was disturbed by a rain that came on, nor yet, by reason of the highest pleasure of hearing the word of God from his mouth, did it withdraw from him, it rained with a great shower on the rest of the field, no drop falling upon the Preacher or the HEARERS. When the sermon was finished, they beheld the whole surrounding region moistened with abundant water; but the court and the place where the assembly of the people was, dry without any sign of rain. We do not see how that narration of Wadding can be reconciled with the text of Saint Antoninus, who expressly asserts that no drop of water fell upon the preacher or his pulpit, although the people were much wetted. More cautious in this matter was Marcus of Lisbon, who in the Chronicles of the Friars Minor, narrating the same miracle in Portuguese, part 2, book 8, chapter 3, in our copy at folio 199, says only that no drop of water fell upon B. John or his pulpit, which, when the people saw, they held it for a great miracle. No word is here made of hearers untouched by the shower, even though the interpreters of this Portuguese writer, both the lord Horatio Diola the Italian and Brother John Blancone the Frenchman, wrongly affirm with Wadding that not even the least drop of the copious rain fell upon the hearers.

[22] and of other more recent writers. Perhaps at Carmignano that miracle happened in the way in which these later authors narrate it, since Peter Rodulphius of Tossignano, book 2 of the Histories of the Seraphic Religion, folio 261, reports something similar in these words: It is reported that, while blessed John of Alverna was preaching in that place (namely the town of Carmignano, of which he there treats), the rain coming down watered the whole earth, the pulpit remaining untouched and the place where the holy Man was holding a sermon to the people. On another occasion Wadding in the Annals of the Minors at the year of Christ 1209, number 35, citing in the margin the Peter Rodulphius just praised, somewhat enlarges the same prodigy of Carmignano in these words: This also is memorable in this place, that, while blessed John of Alverna was preaching there, a great rain watering the whole earth round about, there was not moistened by even one little drop the pulpit set under the open sky, nor the space of ground in which the hearers stood round about. By this manner of speaking Wadding hints that no rain fell either upon that place in which the people stood round and heard B. John preaching, even though Rodulphius indicated that circumstance of the miracle there by no word.

[23] it cannot be reconciled. Indeed, Benignus Fremaut, praised in the preceding paragraph, so understood Wadding, who in the Flemish Acts of B. John, recording together the prodigy of Florence and that of Carmignano, in the volume of the month of August, page 120, confidently writes that in both places the hearers wonderfully remained untouched by the shower. But this Belgian writer followed Wadding in his error, and in the narration of the Florentine miracle contradicts Saint Antoninus, who nevertheless could have better known the Florentine tradition in this matter, since he governed the church of Florence itself for some years. In order therefore that we may defend the authority of Saint Antoninus, and yet not reject the narration of Peter Rodulphius, it will have to be said that a similar miracle happened twice, yet so that at Florence no drop of rain touched the blessed Preacher or his pulpit, although the people were much wetted; and that at Carmignano besides the hearers were preserved from the shower; and that certain more recent authors have wrongly ascribed this circumstance of the prodigy of Carmignano to the Florentine miracle.

[24] There occurs also some discrepancy between the contemporary writer of the Acts and Bartholomew of Pisa concerning a certain answer of B. John when he was now at the point of death, Besides the discrepancy between the Pisan and our ancient Acts, which the author of the earlier Life sets forth with us below at number 48 thus: At length, when he had returned to himself, a certain Brother familiar with him, clinging to him, humbly said: Come, Brother

John, I ask you to tell me what you have seen; I would gladly know. Then he answered, saying: I will not tell you what I have seen. It is enough for you to know those things which I have told you. But Bartholomew of Pisa in the often-cited synopsis of the Acts narrates this matter thus: But as he came to death, he first showed a terrible countenance, so that all the bystanders greatly feared; but at once, made serene, he looked upon the Brethren with an angelic face, and, when he was asked by Brother John of Septimo of Pisa, who was present, what he had seen, he answered: If I should tell what I have seen, you would not understand me. But know this one thing, that he who wishes to obtain eternal salvation should cleave ardently and effectually to Christ crucified alone. And these things being said, he passed on to the Lord. Perhaps between the older and the more recent writers of the Acts there occur other differences of less moment, which we do not undertake to examine laboriously, since for the most part we give greater credit to the more ancient authors.

[25] Since in contemporary or nearly contemporary monuments we nowhere read from a diploma of the emperor Henry VII that B. John ever presided over the Friars Minor of Mount Alverna, or there discharged the office of Guardian, it is not certainly established to us that the diploma of the emperor Henry VII pertains to this very man, which in Peter Rodulphius of Tossignano, book 1 of the Histories of the Seraphic Religion, folio 110, is thus reported: Henry, by the grace of God Roman * emperor ever august, to the noble men and all the vicars of the city and district of Arezzo, and to the Counts of Casentino, of the Ubertini, of Valenzano, Tolla, Bagnena, and of Chiusi, and to the other faithful subjects of the Roman empire who shall inspect the present letters, his grace and every good. Whereas we have thought fit to take into our special protection, and that of the empire, the Religious men John the Guardian and the Brethren of the Order of Minors of the house of the sacred place of Mount Alverna, our beloved devoted ones, we by firm command charge your fidelity that, holding the same Guardian and Brethren of the aforesaid place as committed to us, you effectually defend them in their persons and their goods by our authority, not permitting any molestation or injury to be inflicted upon them by anyone, so that you may wish to avoid the indignation and penalty to be inflicted at our discretion, by the testimony of the present letters. Given in camp before the Castle of Montevarchi, the XVII of the Kalends of October, in the year of the Lord 1312, in the IV year of our Reign, and the first of our empire.

[26] The praised Rodulphius from this diploma alone assertively concludes certain recent authors assert, that our B. John was Guardian of Mount Alverna, when at the folio just cited he thus prefaces the same diploma: Wherefore on account of the singular sanctity of his life he was dear to all, and especially to Henry the seventh, emperor, who wrote letters on his behalf, while he was Guardian of Mount Alverna, of which this is the tenor. Abraham Bzovius of the Order of Preachers followed Rodulphius, and rests on the same foundation, when in the ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 1322, number 31, he prefixes to the diploma already reported the following: On account of the singular sanctity of his life he was dear to all, and among these to the emperor Henry VII, who also at that time, when John was discharging the office of Guardian on Mount Alverna, gave in his favor the letters which I subjoin.

[27] that our Blessed one was Guardian on Mount Alverna, Although Wadding in the Annals of the Minors at the year of Christ 1311, number 4, asserts that B. John dealt with the emperor Henry on Mount Alverna, yet he does not expressly affirm that he was then Guardian there, as is clear from the following words of that writer, which he there thus premises to the same diploma of the emperor: But Henry, crowned at Rome not in this but in the following year, went to Tivoli, and thence to Arezzo; from Arezzo, turning aside into the territory of Florence, and harassing with arms the Etruscans who were not obedient to him, he ascended the mount of Alverna, where, having tarried for some days with great consolation of mind, and having entered upon a pious conference with blessed John of Fermo concerning the salvation of his soul, he ordered with lavish hand that all necessaries be supplied to the Brethren; then, descending from the mountain into the valley of the Arno, he transmitted to them this privilege from the castle of Montevarchi.

[28] which nevertheless cannot evidently be concluded from that diploma. Candidus Chalippe, a learned French writer of the Order of Minors, after the Life of St. Francis which he published in French at Paris in the year 1728, in the special History of the sacred stigmata of that Saint, page 552 and the following, translated the same diploma of the emperor Henry into the French tongue, and before it asserts that at that time B. John was Guardian on Mount Alverna; but he alleges no witnesses of this monastic dignity except Wadding, who nevertheless in the place there cited makes no mention of that office of our B. John. This French writer, and the others reported above, seem to attribute that office to our B. John because in the aforesaid diploma the Guardian of that time is called John. But that appellation does not sufficiently invincibly prove their assertion: for we have already reported above from Bartholomew of Pisa that on Mount Alverna another John stood by our B. John as he was dying. It could therefore be that some years before that John, or another of the same name, was Guardian on Mount Alverna, since the forename of John was without doubt common to several Brethren. If nevertheless anyone should show from ancient documents that our Blessed one ever discharged the office of Guardian on Mount Alverna, we gladly approve the conjecture of those more recent writers.

[29] [This Blessed one is also said to have composed the Preface concerning St. Francis,] B. John is also said to have composed the proper Preface which is sung in the Mass of St. Francis, as Wadding in the Annals of the Minors at the year of Christ 1322, number 48, testifies in these words: This holy Man composed that Preface which the Minors recite in the Mass of Saint Francis, WHO THE VENERABLE PROFESSOR *, YOUR SERVANT, etc.; and he himself used to say it in votive Masses, as is now the custom throughout the whole fellowship. This assertion of Wadding is confirmed by Matthias Grouwels, who in the critical History of the sacred indulgence of the Portiuncula, part 2, chapter 5, at §4, noted the following: John of Alverna (otherwise of Fermo), so called on account of his long dwelling on the sacred Mount of Alverna, where he lived most holily, as appears from Harold, Wadding, and others, at the year 1322, in which he died on the very solemnity of Saint Laurence the martyr, to whom he was most devoted; with whom, as also with the holy father Francis, he sometimes held sweet conversations, as his companions testify. In which conversations, when he had learned by voice, sight, and touch that great mystery of the impression of the sacred stigmata upon the body of our holy father Francis from the same Patriarch appearing to him, he composed that solemn Preface proper to the Mass of the same Saint: "Who exalted the venerable confessor, your servant, blessed Francis, O God, by your most high goodness and clemency, by the merits and virtues of your Saints, and whose mind that Seraphic love, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, most ardently kindled within, and marked his body outwardly with the sacred stigmata by the sign of the crucified Jesus Christ our Lord." Although our ancient Acts make no mention of the composition of that Preface, yet, since in them the contemporary writer testifies that St. Francis, now received into heaven and marked with the sacred stigmata, appeared to B. John of Fermo, we admit without difficulty that tradition of the Seraphic Order concerning the author of the said Preface.

[30] Moreover in Wadding in the Annals of the Minors at the year of Christ 1277, number 20, it is reported that B. John of Alverna gave the following testimony concerning the indulgence of the Portiuncula: and to have given testimony concerning the indulgence of the Portiuncula I in the word of truth assert that I have heard from the best and most approved men, companions of our holy father Francis, worthy indeed of credit, that they received from Brother Masseo, an intimate companion of the same Father, a most holy man and approved in all sanctity and truth, the series and relation of the obtaining of the indulgence of the Portiuncula, who told them that he had been with Saint Francis when the Pontiff confirmed the same indulgence, given by the Lord. The authentic credit of this testimony we leave with Marianus of Florence, whom alone Wadding alleges, and who by some is said to have flourished before the middle of the fifteenth century, and by others in the following century. Whether that testimony of B. John be genuine or not matters little, since the indulgence of the Portiuncula is supported by more certain and more ancient instruments, as among other defenders of it the praised Matthias Grouwels not long ago learnedly demonstrated in the Work just cited. Now it only remains that we faithfully exhibit the ancient Acts from our Mss., and illustrate them with the customary observations or annotations.

* elsewhere, "of the Romans"

* elsewhere, "if and"

* read "confessor"

THE ACTS

By an anonymous contemporary author.

From an old Ms. parchment codex which is kept at Florence in the library of the Convent of the holy Cross, shelf XXVI on the right.

John, of the Order of Minors, on Mount Alverna in Italy (B.)

BHL Number: 4393

FROM THE MS.

PROLOGUE.

The author prefaces concerning the various virtues of the Blessed one, In the sacred place which is called Mount Alverna ^a, in which blessed Francis, founder and leader of the Order of Friars Minor, received the sacred signs of our redemption, miraculously impressed upon his flesh by Christ in a seraphic vision, there dwelt for a long time a certain venerable man, John by name, who was sprung from the March of Ancona ^b, from the city of Fermo ^c; how acceptable to God his life was appears clearly, first from his love of the highest poverty, which he was seen to love above all temporal things, as the evangelical pearl; secondly from the rigor of his most harsh penance, by which he wished to tame his flesh, whose fire of concupiscence divine grace on account of that very penance so willed to lull to sleep in him, that he seemed by no means to have even the first motion of concupiscence; thirdly from the fervor of charity, with which he was so kindled that for the consolation of seculars and of Religious he went round cities and castles; by which charity he merited from God, although he was at first unlettered and simple, to possess the whole understanding of sacred Scripture, so that not only were the common people, to whom he preached continuously through the whole of Lent in famous cities, converted to penance because of the things which proceeded from his mouth, but even Cardinals, with many of whom he was familiar, and great prelates of churches, and doctors of sacred theology, before whom he very frequently spoke of the Scriptures, and to whom he frequently untied the doubts of questions, were exceedingly edified and greatly wondered.

[2] and gives an account of his little work. Fourthly, from the sweetness of divine contemplation, with which he was so filled that not only was he frequently, as we have learned by hidden * faith, caught up into God, but he also very frequently enjoyed wonderful visions of Christ and of his most holy Mother and of the holy angels; fifthly, from his praiseworthy end, by which he so miraculously departed from the world, that we believe him to have passed suddenly to the glory of paradise

to have flown, as after his death it was shown in a certain vision to a Brother familiar with him, who wrote these things. I do not know all his deeds; but the few things which I relate I either received from his own mouth, though with great effort and under secrecy while he lived, or heard from persons very worthy of credit, or myself perceived from myself ^d. But let it please all who were more familiar with him and obedient to him in the divine office to correct these things, and to add others, according as it shall seem fitting to them ^e.

ANNOTATIONS.

* perhaps "by eyewitness"

CHAPTER I.

The pious boyhood of the Blessed one, his stay among the Canons Regular, his passage to the Order of Minors, and various exercises of piety in it.

As a boy most tenderly affected toward Christ crucified, While that most holy Man was still a little boy of about seven years, and in a certain church, after the manner of boys, was learning his letters, it happened that on a certain day he gazed with fixed eyes upon the Lord's cross; in which vision, although he was a little boy, yet he received a spirit of compassion and devotion, so that he could not outwardly refrain from tears; but as often as the most holy image of the Crucified came into his mind, he was so watered with tears that by his mother and by other ladies of his kindred and by the neighbors he was judged utterly out of his senses: for they could not think (since the thing was unusual) that those tears were of devotion, but rather of a turning of the brain. Nay, what was more, while he slept by night, even in dreaming he seemed to lament: and if he was suddenly awakened, and the cross of the Lord came to his memory, he poured forth tears in so great abundance that his pillow, as though it had been wetted with water, appeared most evidently to all.

[4] From that time he began to withdraw himself from the company of boys, and, abhorring all play, he afflicts his flesh in various ways, gave himself to penance and prayer. And because he was not permitted to do these things in his own house, he fled the sight of men, and going outside the city to a certain vineyard of his father, he there gave himself to prayer, and afflicted his own flesh, delicate and tender, in a wonderful and astonishing manner beyond the age of that time: but because he had not yet the use of mental prayer, he occupied himself in vocal prayer, saying so many times the Lord's Prayer with the Hail Mary, and so many times in the day bending his knees, that he was frequently found by his mother with his knees reddened with blood: for he did not bend his knees in a meadow or on grass, because they were, as it seemed to him, too delicate; but on ground turned over and worked, as is wont to be in vineyards. There too, wishing to afflict his flesh, he took nettles and briars, and spreading them on the ground, and even making as it were a coverlet of them, he laid himself naked among them. Wishing also continually to prick his own flesh, lest hereafter he should be pricked by the flesh, with boyish and holy ingenuity he wove nettles together with little cords, and putting it on as it were a shirt ^a next to his flesh, he used over it a linen shirt and other garments. These things, frequently done within three years, were signs of the future perfection in him, and of his virginal purity.

[5] But his parents, seeing his mind wholly removed from the vanity of the world, and embraces the institute of the Canons Regular, and thinking that he would be worth nothing in the world, consented that he should serve God in Religion, providing for him that Religion in which he could live more delicately and abound more in temporal goods. When therefore he had reached the age of ten years, in a certain monastery of the Order of St. Augustine ^b he was made a Canon Regular; who, when he had assumed the habit of Religion, advancing from virtue to virtue, always held the holy zeal of prayer and of the maceration of the flesh as his friend, on account of which he began to be so dear to all the Canons that by his Prior he was honored above the other young men who were in the same monastery with a better bed, and was lodged in a closed chamber ^c set apart from the dormitory. Which honor he therefore gladly accepted, because it was for him an occasion of so beloved a solitude, and matter for exercising virtue: for, whereas at first he went before all to the canonical Hours and the common prayers, from that time, since he saw himself alone in the chamber, he so passed the night in prayer that he frequently spent nights sleepless, abhorring the softness of the bed, and chastising his own flesh with lovable abstinence and wonderful maceration: for he thought to make such an abstinence as should render him lovable to God, courteous to all, and singular and burdensome to none; and therefore through the whole week in food and drink he conformed himself to all, eating flesh and drinking wine, abstaining only in quantity: for he ate and drank with such moderation that he always rose from table hungry and thirsty. But on Friday, on which he abstained in quality, eating only bread and drinking water, he relaxed the rigor of abstinence in quantity, granting his body as much bread as it desired, and as much water as it wished: from which it followed, as he himself said, that his body, restrained through the whole week in delicate foods, awaited Friday, on which it was freely lawful for him to eat bread and drink water according to his need, as it were a feast of delights.

[6] in which, living holily, But what shall I say of his clothing? Although outwardly, like the other Canons, he was clothed in decent and in some sort delicate garments, yet he considered whether he might wear a coat of mail next to his flesh instead of a linen shirt. Yet he did not know, since he was a boy of eleven years, how he might be able to accomplish this. Yet while he turned this over daily in his mind, it happened that on a certain day he found under a bed an old coat of mail; which, when he had found it, he carried to his chamber and put on: but seeing that it did not suit his body, because on account of the excessive length of the mail he could not hide it under his common garments, and wishing to shorten it, since within his chamber he could not do this without noise, he climbed the bell-tower of the church, and, taking an axe, aided by the Spirit of God, he cut down the mail and adapted it to the stature of his body, which for two years he wore for the greater part of the time; and he would have worn it continually, had the possibility been at hand: for his boyish and tender flesh was so pressed by such a weight that, as he himself said, just as a seal leaves its mark in wax, so he frequently saw the marks of the mail impressed upon his tender flesh. But when on a certain day this had been discovered by the Canons, he had to lay aside so great an austerity, and to conform himself to the rest.

[7] he resolves to pass to the stricter Order of Minors, But hearing it frequently said to him: You would be a good Friar Minor; and considering, as he had heard, that in the Order of Friars Minor no one was held back from any austerity of penance whatsoever, but rather was helped and promoted to it, and that the solaces of solitude were conferred on him, moved not by boyish feeling but by prayer going before and by the Spirit of God, he resolved to ascend from virtue to virtue, and from a perfect Religion to one more perfect and more holy: but because he could not procure this by himself, since he was suspected of such a thing, and, by reason of the excessive love which they had toward him, was guarded by the Canons lest he should have converse with the Brethren, through a certain servant ^d who served in the kitchen, whom they called the broth-maker ^e, he frequently directed prayers and letters to the Custos and Guardian of the Friars Minor; who, when, after his constancy had been proved and examined, they had given assent by the counsel and consent of Brother John of Murro, who afterwards was lord of Porto ^f, he on a certain morning, having made upon himself the sign of the holy cross, and prayer being sent before, divine grace leading him, when he was thirteen years old, came to the place: whom, when the Brethren had received with vast joy, they laid upon him the habit of their Religion, wondering at the beauty and the fervor of the Boy.

[8] Having become therefore a Friar Minor, through the whole time of his novitiate he conformed himself to the rest in dress and food, into which, being received, keeping within himself and hiding the purpose of the things which he intended to do. But when the year of probation was completed, and he was received to obedience, at his own wish and consent he was sent to places of solitude, in which he gave himself to so great a humility that he alone, though still a youth, seemed to bear the burden of the whole place. For he frequently ruminated on that word which the Lord spoke through Jeremiah: It is good for a man when he has borne the yoke from his youth: he shall sit solitary and hold his peace, because he shall raise himself above himself. And therefore very frequently in that same place he served in * everything, doing the cooking, preparing the table and serving the Brethren at it, answering at the gate, washing the tunics of some of the older Brethren who were in those little places, keeping the sacristy, and in the church performing the office of cantor, and sometimes laboring in the garden. And yet, while he sweated at so many labors and occupations, he did not extinguish the spirit of holy prayer; but at midday and passing the night in prayer, he wonderfully received consolations and graces from the Lord.

[9] But when he was in great Convents, he wholly devoted himself to the service of the sick. and, imitating the poverty of St. Francis, And reading and studying the Legend of blessed Francis, because once, when the Brethren asked what virtue would render a man nearer to God and further from the world, he had answered: Know, Brethren, that poverty is the primary foundation of the whole spiritual edifice, as the nourishment of humility; wishing to preserve and nourish the humility he had conceived and begun, he began to be the most perfect imitator of the most holy poverty of the aforesaid Father: for from that time to the end of his life he wished to have nothing else for his use except only the tunic of his habit, a cord, and drawers, and a little Breviary, with which he said the Office when he was shut up in his cell and when he traveled through the world, except that toward the end he had a little under-tunic, which he wore beneath his habit on account of a certain infirmity which had come upon him.

[10] That holy poverty, which joins a man to Christ he devotes himself wholly to rigor, and estranges him from the world, as he sometimes said, and as any of us could observe, conferred upon him two most excellent goods, namely strength of body * and loftiness of mind. He was unshod and half naked, robust and strong for walking through wooded and rough places full of snows: for he seemed to fear neither fasting nor cold, by the sweetness of holy poverty. For once, when on the preceding day he had fasted with the Brethren, and on the following day was to make a long journey with some Brethren, he at the sixth hour set out upon the road with his companions who had already eaten, himself remaining fasting on that day; and when they had walked all day through mountainous places, sprinkled with ice and full of snows, those companions, who had already eaten and were well clad, in a manner gave out from cold and weariness, while he, unshod and naked and fasting, continued in his vigor, and always went before them, and manfully comforted them, although he seemed more delicate and tender than any of them. Nor did this happen once, but many times, as they well know who sometimes went with him.

[11] and gives himself to various works of penance, Of the loftiness of his mind what shall I say? He always seemed in heart and in countenance lifted up to things above, and frequently, as it appeared, walking and sitting, he seemed intent upon heaven and utterly estranged from the world: for when one day he was going through wooded and rough places, and, as he was wont, was walking swiftly with eyes raised to heaven, he frequently struck his bare feet against wood and stones; from which no small pain was caused in his feet, and blood sometimes flowed from them. And when he was admonished by his companion, and it was familiarly said to him: Brother John, look to your feet, he answered, saying: We ought not, Brother, in order to guard against injury of the feet, to desert the mind. Since therefore he was so great a friend of holy poverty, from this it appears that in it he was pleasing to God, because he bore in his heart humility, which is nourished by poverty; which was clearly understood from this, that he judged no one and murmured against no one.

[12] and exercises other religious virtues. I confess before God and his holy angels that I never saw a spiritual man who murmured less concerning the prelates and Religious of the Church, and judged them less, although he was wise and well-sighted. Nay, certain Religious, who had proudly raised themselves up to judge others, who showed that they loved poverty because they wished to live without the yoke of obedience and in liberty, he detested with great horror. And at that time, when that most wicked plague ^h arose, I recall having heard from him this most virtuous saying before many Brethren — for he spoke not to me only, but to many Brethren — saying to them: When I came to the Order, God conferred this grace upon me, that in all things and concerning all things which I saw in the Order I praised him. If I saw a great and beautiful church, and great buildings, such as a dormitory and refectory and infirmary, in all things I praised God. If I saw the Brethren abounding in tunics and books and other alms of the divine mercy, in all things I praised God, and gave him thanks; and from this I always lived quiet in my mind, because concerning whatever good I saw in any Religious or prelate or other secular man, it seemed to me that he was worthy, and that God had conferred all these things upon him for the better: and that meditation was for me matter for keeping silence, and for speaking ill of no one at all. And afterwards he added, speaking to the young men: Sons, you have not come to judge others, but to offer your mind to God, and in all things and concerning all things which he has conferred upon us to praise him; and the greater the place and the church, the greater ought your praise to be. From this it appears that the servant of Christ was founded in humility. But if at any time in his preachings he reproved the vices of prelates and of Religious, he did not do this out of pride, but because the subject required it.

ANNOTATIONS.

* perhaps "in the day"

* perhaps "of the heart"

CHAPTER II.

His austere penance, fruitful preachings, and infused understanding of sacred Scripture.

This blessed Man passed various Lents But let us look at the austerity of his penance, which was so great that it gave us sure faith in the penance which we hear was performed by blessed Hilarion and blessed Francis. For the distinguished doctor Augustine says: When I have at any time heard some things which seemed to me impossible, I believed that they could have been done, when I perceived that similar things had been done. That devout Man therefore took upon himself a wonderful austerity of penance, and, to use the words of the Apostle, in hunger and thirst, in many fastings, in cold and nakedness, in disciplines and vigils almost impossible, and in other admirable austerities, he served the Lord: for at the time when he was a youth, and also when he had come to advanced age, all the Lents — namely of the Holy Spirit, of the blessed Virgin, and of the Angels — in which he wonderfully afflicted himself, the vigils of the Saints, and Fridays also, fasting on bread and water only, and always eating with wonderful frugality, and sometimes in abstaining he seemed to exceed human possibility.

[14] with wonderful frugality of food, For in a certain Lent he abstained with so great fervor that every day he ate nothing at all but as many herbs as he could enclose between two fingers of his hand, without salt, oil, or vinegar, drinking nothing at all but water. He made another Lent in which he took nothing on any day for food but as much of beans soaked in cold water as he could take in one hand and enclose within his fist. He made another Lent shut up in his cell, in which he ate nothing but forty-six barley loaves, that is, very small ones, one on each day, never tasting wine. He made another Lent, again shut up in his cell, in which he ate only one little basket full of twice-baked bread, taking each day no more than a single dry biscuit ^a. In all the other time, when he was on Mount Alverna, whether in summer or in winter, he did not commonly eat except once in the day, namely at supper, having first read to the Brethren at table, unless sometimes to keep company with strangers ^b, with whom out of charity he ate of everything, and sometimes twice in the day. But that strict penance he then laid aside, when he was taken up to the office of preaching: for from that time, traveling through the world, he conformed himself to the rest.

[15] and with intense cold, Of cold and nakedness what shall I say? I have already said above that besides the tunic of his habit, which was of coarse and rough cloth, and drawers, he had nothing to protect himself from the cold, except that when he stayed on Mount Alverna he had a mantle, like the rest also. Always too in winter, in the time of his youth, through very difficult and dangerous ways on account of the precipices, in a time of great snows and of nocturnal darkness, he went down from his cell to the church of the Brethren over no small distance of way for Matins; which way indeed was so often slippery on account of the ice that frequently, not being able to plant his unshod foot upon it, but descending headlong, he was wholly sunk in the snow; and thus, sprinkled with snows, he chanted to the Lord in the church with admirable devotion of spirit, and always joyful and upright. While he was on the Mount he never had any other bed than boards upon the ground or upon stones, and upon the boards a mat ^c, the white hide of a bear, and not lying upon these, but commonly and for the most part always sitting.

[16] with long vigils, He gave himself wonderful disciplines when he was young, and so strong that he frequently shed blood. He frequently spent nights sleepless, continually persisting in prayer. He once also kept such vigils that it can scarcely be believed by many that this austerity of life could be endured by a man. But if any are incredulous of this austerity, let them consider that word which the Apostle Paul spoke in the person of himself and of other holy men crucifying their flesh with its vices and concupiscences; for he says: I can do all things in him who strengthens me. For this holy man for three continuous years led his life in so great an austerity of vigils that never, either waking or sleeping, did he sit or lie down; but always in his waking he stood upright; and when he slept, he did not even sit, but stood leaning upon a low wall or upon a pole . Only within those three years did he sit at that time in which he was in the choir or in chapter or at table with the Brethren

took his meals.

[17] That austerity of vigils had brought his body to great weakness, from which he contracted an illness, and on a certain night, while he was doing great violence to himself, he was suddenly broken in the kidneys, as they are frequently broken who lift a great burden from the ground beyond their power. But he, in the deep of night, seeing his body made useless for the service of the Brethren, and feeling himself wholly shattered, taking pity on himself, went in the manner in which he could to the church, and devoutly besought the Lord Jesus Christ that he would deign to confer upon him his former health and strength. The prayer being completed with tears, he was heard by the Lord and restored to his former health; and then it was revealed to him by the Lord that so great an austerity of vigils in him was not thenceforth pleasing to the Lord. From that time, as far as was fitting, he condescended to his body, giving it rest according to place and time.

[18] With an unheard-of fervor also of penance and austerity, and with other afflictions of the body at the time when he had newly come to the Order, being not yet fifteen years old, he wished to wear an iron girdle next to his flesh; and not knowing how he might accomplish this, because such an austerity was not customary in the Order, with boyish and spiritual sense he thought to go to the kitchen of the Brethren, and took that iron instrument with which we tend the fire, which by a common word we call tongs ^d, and first straightened it, and afterwards, aided by the Spirit of the Lord, girded himself with it, and by those knobs ^e which tongs are wont to have at their end he so inserted one extremity into the other that that iron circle remained immovable about his body. But seeing that beneath the circle, which he had now worn for a month, his flesh was putrefying, and that his belly was so constricted by that circle that he could not digest at all ; and, as he himself related to us, when he drew the knobs out of the place of insertion, the iron with a great noise separated itself from his body, returning to a kind of bow-like straightness: from which we can weigh how great was the boy's power in bending the iron, and how great the violence of the iron in such a circular shape, and in lasting so tight for a month. And thereafter, seeing that he could not wear the circle, he took a very rough knotted cord, which for a long time he wore hidden next to his flesh beneath the tunic of his habit, which alone he had.

[19] It is read also of blessed John Chrysostom and of blessed Basil he tamed his flesh. that on account of the great penance which they, as companions together, performed on the mountain of Antioch, they received from the Lord this grace, namely that they were free from the temptation of the flesh. Not therefore ought that grace which God had conferred upon him, and for which he himself praised the divine mercy in himself, to be reckoned incredible by any, and held for impossible: for many of us frequently heard him saying, not boasting of himself, but rather commending the divine mercy, that God had so subjected his flesh to the spirit, and his sensuality to reason, that he in no wise felt even the first motion of concupiscence. Let each of us perform so harsh and so hard a penance, and perhaps he will receive a like grace from the Lord. But I should rather wonder if, after so harsh a penance, begun from boyhood and continued without interruption for so long a time, the fire of concupiscence had lived kindled in his body. Many have I seen who, when they heard this, did not believe; and, as I judge, they therefore did not believe, because they had not yet heard that he had performed so great a penance; or, if they had heard, and did not believe, it was because the animal man does not perceive the things which are of the spirit of God. Nor is that grace which was in him so incredible, as though it were altogether singular above all men: for divine grace, as we read, conferred it upon many Saints, such as blessed Francis, and, as blessed Gregory says in the first and second book of the Dialogues, upon blessed Equitius and blessed Benedict, and upon many others ^f. Since therefore the hand of the Lord is not shortened, we ought not to wonder if God granted this same grace to this holy Man in our times.

[20] With great fruit he preaches the word of God; But as that holy Man bore in his body the mortification of the cross, so in his heart he was kindled with the fervor of fiery charity. He desired above all things the salvation of Christians and the conversion of sinners, and for this he frequently relaxed the rigor of penance, and came down from the height of contemplation. Frequently he came down from Mount Alverna, and went about cities and castles with great edification of all and profit of souls. But since this going about was not pleasing to many, a certain Brother familiar with him, making himself one of the number of the murmurers, began to murmur against him to his face. Then he, patiently bearing what he said, wished to show him how great was the fruit of his going about, and then said: Behold, within these fifteen days, being summoned by the Minister, I came from Columbarium by a straight road as far as such a city of Tuscany, and yet, besides that good for which I was summoned, on that road I did so many and so great things. And then, without expressing the names of the persons, he began to enumerate how many and how great goods God had wrought through him in the secret conversion of sinners, and in the consolation of the afflicted, and, what is more, in the deliverance of the despairing. And then he added: What do you think? The Minister summoned me for the pacification of such a lord; but I am certain that the Lord Jesus caused me to be summoned for this greater and better working of his mercy. And again he added: I have frequently thought of wishing to rest in my cell, and yet the Spirit drives me, and so compels me to go out, that even if I were bound with iron chains, I am certain that they could not hold me. And he, hearing what he had said (for he had unfolded to him only so much of the matter as was lawful), was quietly silent. And then again he added: God permits these murmurings to happen for the exercise of the good: for as to the Apostle Paul a sting of the flesh was given, lest he should be proud of the greatness of the revelations, so to just men is given the sting of tongues, lest they be proud of the working of the virtues.

[21] and he has infused knowledge of sacred Scripture, On account of this most fervent charity we believe that God conferred upon him a wonderful clearness of understanding of sacred Scripture. It is not to be believed that God conferred so wonderful a gift upon him for his own sake; but for his neighbor's sake, and that the Lord himself might show that it is the unction which teaches all things, as was shown in that unlettered and simple man: for all things which are in Scripture, according to the spiritual and soul-saving understanding, he seemed to know, and sometimes he so poured himself out that he seemed to feel all things within himself, nay, seemed to have seen them. That man had never learned Grammar, had never entered the schools of theology, had never had a man for master, had never kept books of learning in his cell for study, save that sometimes he might read briefly in them for a certain recreation of mind; and yet not without wonder we saw him subtly and spiritually, according to the rules of the Scriptures, instructing individuals concerning the virtues according to the degree which they held in the world, whether they were Religious of whatever Religion, or seculars in whatever state, such as merchants and soldiers, physicians and judges, or whether they were prelates of churches or clerics.

[22] So great an authority also had the Lord conferred upon him in speaking, by which he, otherwise unlearned, instructed men of the first rank that even when speaking to Cardinals he instructed them with great reverence concerning their life and manners. We saw him also instructing the Emperor with his barons who stood by, with an admirable efficacy of word, concerning the heavenly kingdom, and concerning the great fidelity which he ought to have toward the empire of the most high God ^h. We saw him also preaching in all the famous cities of Tuscany through the whole of Lent, and on Sunday twice in the day, although we did not see him reading by night, but only praying; and the more he preached, the more the Lord enlightened him: for in that year in which he departed from this life, when in the city of Siena, in which are Religious and secular men of much understanding, he was preaching in the Lenten season, he had in his mouth so living and most subtle a word, always continuing the Gospels and expounding them according to the mystical understanding, that many still confess that they never heard the like sermons in one Lent.

[23] We saw him also standing in the midst of doctors of sacred theology, and taught the most learned, and so subtly expounding the sayings of the Gospel and of the Epistles of Paul, and moreover harmonizing them with one another, that they wondered not a little: for God had conferred upon him a singular grace of understanding the epistles of Paul. And not only had he from the Lord grace for expounding the Scriptures and for speaking of God, but also for resolving the doubts of questions: for a certain very famous doctor of sacred theology, when he had once framed for him a question concerning the sanctification of the Virgin, he answered so subtly and to the point that that doctor had to say: Let this then be my opinion all the time that I have to live. And thus he held the word of that Man as authentic, as though concerning the solution of the question he had heard an oracle of the divine voice: for that same doctor afterwards related this to us.

[24] Sometimes at the instance of the Brethren he was willing to use sermons for his preaching; his ecstasies ceasing meanwhile. but when he used them, we truly perceived that he went by byways and knew not what to say; nay, sometimes he gave the whole over to forgetfulness: and this was because he had not the use of such arms. But when he turned himself to the staff and the shepherd's scrip, and to the five most clear stones which he frequently contemplated in the torrent of divine wisdom, and seemed to have laid up in his mind, then he seemed to strike the heart of the sinner, and, saying subtle and astonishing things, he seemed to carry off the victory from the enemy. Before he received this grace from the Lord, he had been wont frequently to have rapture and the grace of tears; but after that grace of understanding he seemed to have lost those two graces, or at least not to have them so frequently. To whom, when on one of the days a certain familiar of his said as it were reproachfully: What is this, Brother John? For the love of others you seem to have lost your perfection: to him he answered: I have not lost the grace; but the grace has been conferred on me by God in a more solemn manner: for before, the grace ruled me, because, willing or unwilling, I very frequently wept and was caught up; but now I rule the grace, because I have it when I will ⁱ.

ANNOTATIONS.

* that is, a small wall

* that is, leaning

* that is, a girdle

* perhaps "almost"

CHAPTER III.

The spirit of prophecy given to the Blessed one, his lofty contemplation, and the apparitions of Sts. Laurence and Francis made to him.

The Blessed one discloses hidden things, With that understanding of the Scriptures he also shone not a little with the spirit of prophecy, whether in the revealing of secrets or in the foretelling of things to come. For a certain Brother ^a, having conceived a spirit of wickedness, had thought to leave Religion, and was so far stirred by this evil spirit that he would scarcely have stood a day until he had accomplished what he had evilly conceived to do. But what the man did not say, the Spirit revealed. The holy Man went to the Brother; he began sweetly to reprove him, and most openly to reveal to him the secrets of his own heart. And he, seeing himself detected, blushed, shed tears, and, aided by divine grace, persevered to the end in the good which he had begun. He foretold many things to come, some of which we now see fulfilled. But what shall come of the rest, he knows who gave his spirit to the holy Man. These things, as I think for the better, are not to be written; but, lest they be to anyone a scandal, are to be omitted.

[26] He seemed to have ascended most perfectly to the height of contemplation, frequently in lofty contemplation and always seemed to have the grace of mental prayer: for when he remained in his cell, he always seemed absorbed in God; and when he stood among Brethren and seculars, because most frequently he lifted his eyes to heaven, he seemed intent on prayer, sending forth sweet sighs from the depth of his heart, and uttering honeyed words for the sweetness of his spirit. Frequently in the deep of night we heard him from his cell, no little distance removed from the place of the Brethren, crying out most vehemently, and with deep sighs invoking the divine mercy for sinners. We heard him with so exceedingly loud a voice, and one unaccustomed to human hearing, saying, O king of glory, speaking with God, that the fear and numbness of limbs which seized those present was a witness of the presence of the divine majesty, which spoke with him as with its servant and beloved son. Frequently he was found by many praying in his cell, caught up, and, as though he had passed the barriers of the body, to a man not experienced in such things he seemed dead.

[27] This grace he merited to have from the Lord while very young, he is caught out of himself, and he was so much a boy and a youth that to some that grace seemed incredible. But on a certain occasion, when he had been found caught up by a certain spiritual father of his, although he himself was believing, yet he called the unbelieving to see, and before them applied fire to the hand of the holy Man; and although the fire burned it with much ulceration, yet the holy Man for the time felt nothing at all; but, returning to himself, for exceeding pain he uttered great cries, and long remained in a state in which he could not be healed: and although he was afterwards perfectly healed, yet the scar of the burning always appeared visible to us on his hand. And persisting in that prayer and contemplation, we know and hold with sure faith that he had visions of the Saints and wonderful consolations, as he related to one familiar with him, compelled by his excessive importunity, always exacting from him upon his faith and under the seal of secrecy that he should never, while he lived, disclose it to any man. But that familiar of his perceived sensibly that of many things he had told few, reserving to himself entirely the greater and loftier things. And because I believe these things profit the believing unto devotion, I have thought to write down, not all which I know, but some things, not in the order in which he had them, but as they occur to my mind ^b.

[28] For at a certain time, since that most holy Man was much devoted to blessed Laurence, he sees St. Laurence when the feast of the aforesaid Martyr came on, he was standing at first Vespers in the choir with the Brethren to chant. And when they had come to that psalm with which is sung the Antiphon, My soul has cleaved after you, because my flesh has been burned with fire for you, my God, he saw in the midst of the choir before the altar fiery coals, and a gridiron placed upon them, and blessed Laurence naked burning upon it, directing his eyes toward him with an angelic countenance: at the sight of whom he himself was caught up into God, in the sight of all the Brethren who were present. Yet the Brethren did not know the cause, nor did they perceive the vision. And he remained thus caught up until the hour of Compline. But at the hour of Compline, returning to himself, he sang the divine Office with the other Brethren in the choir.

[29] with the instrument of his martyrdom, But after Compline, passing the night in prayer before the altar of the Convent for a long space of time, while he turned over in mind the passion of the aforesaid Martyr, he suddenly saw blessed Laurence with his back to the altar, in the manner in which a priest stands turned toward the people, standing clad in a red dalmatic, holding in his left hand after the manner of a shield the gridiron, and looking upon him with a luminous countenance; whom, when that holy Man beheld and well recognized, he rejoiced in his heart. Thus they stood for some space of time, the Martyr upright and he on his knees; nor yet did they speak to one another. At last blessed Laurence directed his speech to him, saying: My Brother John, do you see this gridiron? To whom the holy Man answered, saying: I see it. And then blessed Laurence added, saying: On account of this gridiron I possess in heaven a great beatitude, and the Church affords me so great a solemnity. Therefore be not wearied, nor let it irk you discreetly to perform the penance which you are doing; because on account of the penance which the faithful do in this life, eternal joys are prepared for them. And this being said, the most blessed Laurence, martyr of Christ, disappeared.

[30] and at another time St. Francis, At another time also, when it had come into his mind to do great penance, and to consider persevering in it continually not only in the time of Lent but also in all the other time, what he had thought he began; and, living in that penance, he began devoutly to ask blessed father Francis to do him two graces: one is, that he should reveal to him whether so strict a penance was acceptable to God and to him; the other grace which he asked is, that he would deign to show him the stigmata impressed upon his flesh by Christ. And when, performing such penance, he persevered in prayer, on a certain day, as he was watching and praying, blessed Francis appeared to him, wholly cheerful and joyous, and, speaking to him at once familiarly, granted his prayer concerning the twofold grace which he asked.

[31] marked with the sacred stigmata, For first he said: Son, it is not fitting to live always in so great a strictness of penance, because thus a man could not persevere for a long time. It is good sometimes to condescend to the weakness of the flesh, that it may be able to serve God more joyfully and more strongly. And afterwards he added: Behold, son, the stigmata which you desired to see. And then he showed him his hands and feet and side. Then he, seeing and astonished, fell at the feet of him who showed him these things, as one trembling. Then blessed Francis raised him up, saying: Rise, and touch. Then, strengthened in the Lord, he took confidence, and began to touch those sacred stigmata and to move the nails. And then, as he himself related, he proved by experience that what Brother Bonaventure set down in the Legend concerning those sacred stigmata was true, that when they were pressed on any one side, they stood out on the opposite side. And he was filled in that happy vision and handling with so great a sweetness of heart and pleasantness of odor, that afterwards, when that blessed Father had disappeared, he remained about eight days, in which he could not take food, and everything whatever that he perceived seemed to him to stink.

[32] I report also another thing which happened to him concerning blessed Francis in a certain open vision who appears to him again; while he was praying. When once the Brethren of the March of Ancona, from which, as has been said, he was sprung, had assembled for a provincial Chapter, and in that Chapter were to elect a Minister, the general Minister being present, namely Brother Matthew of Acquasparta ^c, who afterwards was lord of Porto, and presiding over the Chapter, that holy Man went to pray that God would deign to provide the province with a good Minister. And when the Brethren

gathered in Chapter disagreed greatly among themselves, because there was there one man ambitious of the Ministry, who to many seemed unworthy of so great an office, Brother John, persisting in prayer at the time of the election, saw with open eyes, while waking, Christ sitting upon a throne, and blessed Francis and the enemy of the human race standing by the divine majesty and wonderfully disputing between themselves; yet he did not understand the words which they, disputing, spoke to one another before Christ: he nevertheless then devoutly meditated that the enemy was inciting the Brethren to elect an unworthy Minister; but blessed Francis, not bearing this, and unwilling to forsake his sons, was asking Christ that in that election the enemy of the human race might not gain his purpose: and after a little while he saw blessed Francis driving the enemy out from the sight of the Lord, and he saw the devil himself fleeing in confusion.

[33] Then that holy Man gave thanks to the Lord, hoping that the province would be provided with a good Minister. putting the demon to flight, But in that election, when the Brethren could not agree in one, the general Minister, who was present and was presiding over the Chapter, suddenly in fervor of spirit with a certain wonderful cry, not without the wonder of the Brethren, cried out and said: Go your way; go your way. I do not wish you to elect; I do not wish you to elect. I will give you a Minister; I will give you a Minister. And so, the general Minister himself departing from the midst of the Assembly, the Chapter was for that time ended. And when the Brethren were talking together and conversing with one another concerning what the general Minister had said, and Brother John asked at what hour these things had been done, he perceived that at the same moment of time in which blessed Francis had driven the enemy out from the sight of the Lord, the general Minister in fervor of spirit had cried out: I will give you a Minister.

[34] This vision he afterwards related in order to the general Minister; as the blessed Man himself related to the general Minister. which being heard, he was set at rest in mind: for the general Minister seemed in a manner ashamed of having cried out so; but hearing the vision which the holy Man had had, he clearly perceived that in so crying out he had been moved by the Spirit of the Lord, and that that provision which the general Minister made for that province of a Minister was from God. The event of the matter proved this: for he provided Brother Solomon of Lucca ^d, who was a man very exemplary in the Order, and who ruled that province well and laudably; who after some years, being made Minister in Tuscany, in that very office of the Ministry, in which he lived very humbly and exemplarily, rested at Arezzo with a holy end.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

Various visions of the same Blessed one, in which Christ, the Mother of God, angels, and demons appeared to him.

Besides other Saints, From the holy Apostles Peter and Paul that holy Man received many consolations, which I therefore do not narrate, because, although I had the fact from him with certainty, yet, since he could not relate it on account of the great cry which he then uttered, I could not learn the manner from him. And what wonder if he received consolations and visitations from the Saints, since the Lord Jesus himself rather often deigned to show himself to him in his own person. But of many I narrate one only, a pious and wonderful vision which he had of the Lord Jesus, not in sleep, but truly waking, and in reality. For on a certain occasion, when day and night he had devoted and occupied himself without intermission in meditating on the Lord Savior, there came into his mind an admirable desire of seeing the countenance of the Redeemer: for at that time he seemed to pant more to see Jesus Christ and him glorious in appearance. And although he reckoned himself wholly unworthy, yet this desire seemed in no way able to be torn from his heart.

[36] Christ suffering, But the Lord heard the desire of the poor man: for on one day, while he was devoutly celebrating Mass, and had already consecrated the body of the Lord, when, continuing the Mass, he had come to the place in which is said by the priest THROUGH HIM, AND WITH HIM, AND IN HIM, and at these words had signed the chalice with the most sacred Host, as is the custom, and, having said THROUGH ALL AGES OF AGES, had laid down the Host, he saw upon the altar, in bodily appearance, the Lord Jesus in that form in which, taken down from the cross, naked, dead, and wounded, he was laid back between the arms of his most sweet Mother. Nevertheless he, thus appearing, appeared lying upon his back on the altar with open eyes, as if alive; at the sight of whom his heart was wounded with a wonderful sword of compassion; and, as he said, he then openly saw the head pricked with the points of the thorns, and the face and beard reddened with the blood which seemed to flow down from the prickings of the head. He saw the hands wounded, nay, torn open; and the feet, from which blood seemed to proceed as a stream from a fountain; he saw the whole body livid and full of innumerable wounds and wet with blood; he saw the side opened with a wonderful and astonishing opening, from which came forth blood and water; and he saw Christ showing him all these things with tearful eyes, and as it were reproaching him that he ought to have compassion on him: in which most holy vision his heart seemed so to melt as if he had all those wounds in his own flesh ^a.

[37] But when after a long while so wonderful a vision disappeared, as the blessed Man himself related, he could scarcely complete the Mass, and so remained abstracted that he did not seem to himself to be in the world. This same vision which he had had of the Lord's passion he narrated to the whole * Convent of the Brethren of Mount Alverna, while he preached to them concerning the Sacrament of the Altar on the Lord's Supper, although he then spoke of himself as of another. And when he had narrated this vision to one familiar with him, and that man had proposed to him some doubtful points concerning what he had said, to be resolved by him, he answered so subtly, and said such profound things concerning the Body of the Lord, that his most wise answer gave full credit to the hearers of the vision he had had. At another time also he saw the Lord Jesus the savior in the beauty of his form, in which vision he was filled with so great a fervor of love that for a long time he could not rest in one place; and had he not frequently moved from place to place, he would have all but fainted; and so it befell concerning him as sometimes befalls concerning very hot things, which, that they may be cooled, require motion. This I did not hear from him, but from another Brother worthy of credit, who ought to be believed ^b.

[38] As that holy Man had a desire of seeing the countenance of the Redeemer, and the humble Mother of God appeared to him. so at another time he desired to see the face of his most sweet Mother, not in that sublimity in which she is now glorious in the heavens, but in that humility in which she lived on earth. But in this too he was heard by the Mother of mercy: for while he was shut up in his cell on Alverna, the blessed Virgin willed to visit him in that dress and in that humble form in which she appeared and was seen by all when she dwelt with her Son on earth; but that stay was not brief, for she remained with him in the cell all the day, and the blessed Virgin showed him such familiarity that she frequently touched this Man's head and face and hands, and he humbly laid back his head in the lap of this blessed Virgin, while he knelt before her. The words which the blessed Virgin had said to him he would not tell. Nay, being asked, he disturbed himself with a great cry, affirming that while he lived he would reveal them to no man.

[39] It is no wonder therefore if to this holy Man, who was so familiar with the King and the Queen, He puts demons to flight, the angels afforded solace and consolation, and from him the demons, enemies of the human race, fled. For frequently he was seen, as he went along the road, to take up a staff and to run most vehemently, and at the end of the run to throw away the staff. Being asked what he was doing, and why he ran so, with fervor and grief he answered: I run against demons visible to me, and, as they deserve, in the way in which I can, I drive off with my staff those who have come to disturb our peace and that of this province. Being asked how many they were, he answered: Thousands of thousands. And he seemed so secure both by night and by day through solitary and shadowy places, that he clearly showed that the enemy of the human race could do nothing against him.

[40] The enemy of the human race made many illusions for him, who mocked him, which he counted as nothing. Once, while he was meditating in his cell concerning the Lord, and in some fashion lying upon the bear's mat ^c, a demon seized him and cast him into the cloister which was before his cell; and he, with eyes lifted to heaven, began to cry with a loud voice: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus; and the demon at once fled, and he remained set at rest. Another time, while he was meditating on the Lord by night beside his cell, and was leaning * against a certain tree, a demon appeared to him in the form of a naked man touching his private parts, because the demon knew that he abhorred such parts of the body; and, the sign of the cross being made, the enemy of the human race disappeared. At another time, while he was praying by night beside his cell, he saw with open eyes the whole wood burning, and the trees were falling to the ground; and when the fire was near him, as it seemed, he said within himself: Let us not tempt God; and he fled to the place of the Brethren, and recounted all to them, and afterwards the illusion disappeared.

[41] and with the angels, But how familiar he was with the holy angels, to whom he continually exhibited a most singular reverence, appears from the many visitations and consolations which he received from them: but out of many I shall report only two. Being asked by a certain familiar of his how he had received the gift of wisdom from God, since he was altogether silent and seemed unwilling to reveal it to anyone while he lived, at last, being constrained by importunate prayer and suppliant disquiet, that which was asked of him, under the seal

of secrecy while he lived, he revealed, saying that on a certain day, while, shut up in his cell and doing strict penance, he was attentively praying before the cross to the Crucified, a certain youth of wonderful beauty came to him, saying to him that he had been sent to stay with him for some time: whom, when the holy Man recognized to be an angel of the Lord, on account of the great security which he received in his sight at his presence, and the charity of good will which he conceived, he most devoutly honored him as was fitting; and, sitting together, they had a long conversation concerning the cross of Christ and the joys of paradise, and concerning the words of the Gospel and of the Apostle Paul and of the other Saints: and thus for three continuous months there was no day in which he did not enjoy his luminous aspect and honeyed speech.

[42] who frequently And he went and returned, as a friend is wont familiarly to go and return to the house of another friend, and a companion to the house of another companion. At length, the space of three months being completed, bidding him farewell, he opened his understanding, that he might understand the Scriptures; and from that time, as he related, there was no Scripture which in any place whatever he did not understand according to some meaning, although it was not given to him that whatever he understood he should at his own will lay open to another, and could disclose to another, except so far as it pleased the divine majesty, which had given him the spirit of understanding; and the holy Man did not doubt that that youth was his angel, who had been sent by God for his consolation, and showed himself to him very frequently.

[43] visited him under various forms, At another time there came the solemnity of the blessed archangel Michael, which is celebrated in the month of September; and when by night he had come down from the cell which he had on Mount Alverna, and had come to the church of the Brethren, that in reverence of the angels he might with those Brethren pay to God the praises of Matins, the Lauds being completed, he stayed a while in the church after the manner of the Brethren, devoutly meditating on the glory of the angels. But his meditation and his own particular prayer being finished, he was departing from the church to return to his cell. And when he had reached the door of the church, there appeared beside him a harper making so most sweet a melody that, had not the holy Man been strengthened by God, he would surely have been caught up for the sweetness; nay, it seemed to him that his spirit wished to be separated from his body.

[44] and conversed most familiarly with him. Then, exulting in the Lord, with a most loud cry, going up the mountain, he began to run toward his cell. But the harper, whether he ran, or stood, or walked in the common manner, never departed from his side. And when the Man of God had come to his cell, and had prostrated himself before the image of the Crucified, then, as it seemed to him, that harper began to move his hands over the musical instrument most swiftly, and so to hasten the sound, as they are wont to do who are skilled in that art when they wish to end the strain. And the sound being finished, the holy Man spent that night sleepless, persisting in prayer until day, giving thanks to God and to his holy angels for the consolation he had received.

ANNOTATIONS.

* read "to the whole"

* read "leaning"

CHAPTER V.

The last illness of the blessed Man, his admonitions to the Friars Minor, his pious death, and a revelation concerning his beatitude.

Blessed John, afflicted with a fever, But when it pleased the Most High to be willing to lead him out of this world and to reward his labors, by which for fifty years ^a he had served God himself in the holy Religion of the Friars Minor, he, being at Cortona ^b and going to Assisi ^c, not without the wonder of the Brethren suddenly turned back, and returned to Mount Alverna, that on that Mount he might render the spirit of his life to God, on which, by the merits of the blessed father Francis and by his own good works, he had been filled with much sweetness of divine contemplation. For on the fifth day of August, on which we keep the feast of Saint Mary of the Snows ^d, he began to be ill of a continuous fever, and for five days in his infirmity praising God with much patience, on the feast of Saint Laurence, namely at first Vespers ^e, between the hands of the Brethren, while he prayed with them, he departed from this world. And God willed that, as fervent in spirit he had always lived in this world, so fervent in spirit he should depart from it.

[46] When therefore on the aforesaid feast of the glorious Virgin, of whom he was a devout priest, with great fervor he goes to the church, he had devoutly celebrated Mass, and afterwards had eaten with the Brethren, and had returned to his cell, suddenly a fever invaded him. And the Brethren, hearing that he was ill, went to his cell, and found him kneeling before the image of the Crucified, praising the Lord Jesus himself with a sounding chant of the mouth and a wonderful jubilation of heart. And when the Brethren said that he should come down from the cell and come to the place of the Brethren, that he might be treated by a physician's counsel, he answered: I have given my spirit to the Lord Jesus; to you I give my body; if you can, cure it. But when the vigil of blessed Laurence came, and a certain Brother had visited him, and had said to him as he sat on his bed, Brother John, be strengthened in the Lord and in blessed Laurence, for tomorrow is his feast, he suddenly rose from the bed, and with wonderful swiftness, as though leaping, went to the church, crying out most loudly with a wonderful cry: Blessed Laurence, blessed Laurence. And when he had come to the church, he prostrated himself before the image of the Crucified, and, reverence being made, he rose quickly, and thus standing upright before the cross, with eyes and hands continually raised to heaven, he stood for as long a stretch of time as the Brethren in the choir sang the Mass of the vigil.

[47] and a little after, fortified with the last Sacraments of the Church, The Mass being finished, and the priest's blessing received, and reverence again made to the crucified Lord, when he had returned to the bed on which he lay, he devoutly asked for all the Sacraments of the Church; which being received, while the Brethren around him chanted the penitential psalms, as he looked to the left, he was suddenly caught up, and his face became so terrible, and as it were wholly contorted in that rapture, while according to sense he felt nothing at all, that we had no doubt that he then saw the enemy of the human race. And the Brethren who were present, seeing this, were so terrified that, falling to the ground, they altogether left off the psalmody. But when the holy Man had returned to himself, he strengthened the Brethren with a commanding voice, saying: Chant and praise the Lord; and when the Brethren had resumed the psalmody, and were completing the office of extreme Unction, he thenceforth, looking continually not to the left but to the right, was again caught up. And his face in that second rapture shone so serene and gracious that to none of us was there doubt that, as in the first rapture he had seen the enemy, so in that second he either saw Christ, or someone existing in the glory of the Blessed.

[48] and giving pious admonitions to the Brethren, At length, when he had returned to himself, a certain Brother familiar with him ^f, clinging to him, humbly said: Come, Brother John, I ask you to tell me what you have seen; I would gladly know. Then he answered, saying: I will not tell you what I have seen. It is enough for you to know those things which I have told you ^g. Then that Brother said: And were all the things which you told me true? Then he, as though disturbed, rebuking him, said: They are true, and they were; they are true, and they were. Would I have told you anything but the truth? By which word, although at first all these things which are written above were sufficiently credible to us, yet when he again said THEY ARE TRUE at the hour of death, they became exceedingly credible to us. And these words being finished, spoken in secret to that Brother, he directed his discourse to all the Brethren standing round, saying: What do you wish to know? What do you wish to know but Christ? Then, speaking in our hearing beautiful and subtle things from the Scriptures, he began from this word: Christ the way, the truth, and the life; and, pursuing this word subtly, he said: If you wish to have a good and holy conscience, care to know nothing but Christ, because he is the way. If you wish wisdom, care to know nothing but Christ, because he is the truth. If you wish glory and honor, care to know nothing but Christ, because he is the life. And first, pursuing the matter of the way, he said that Christ was the way, because he was the Word engrafted in human nature, which could save our souls; and therefore we ought, in order to walk through Christ as through the way, to cast off all uncleanness and abundance of malice. And after many things, then pursuing the matter of the truth, he said that Christ was the truth, because he was the splendor of glory and the figure of the substance of the Father, bearing all things by the word of his power, who, making purgation of sins, sits at the right hand of majesty on high. And afterwards, pursuing the matter of the life, he said that Christ was the life, that he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, because in him it pleased all fullness to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, making peace through the blood of his flesh, whether the things that are in the heavens or the things that are on the earth.

[49] And when he had said many things concerning those words, and had pursued many matters, he peacefully departs from this life, we diligently considered that, whereas at other times when he spoke in Latin he frequently offended in the Latin (and no wonder, since he had never studied Grammar), yet in that long discourse, which he made like a man absorbed, in our hearing, he did not sin even in one bad Latinism. And the Brethren, seeing that, being weakened, he was drawing near to his departure, when they had commended his soul to God and afterwards were praying, he, praying with them, gave up the spirit. And when he was dead, though we kept him three days unburied, since there were great heats, he yet remained pliable as to his limbs, lovely in odor, and cheerful and joyous in countenance, as though he had always been alive.

[50] But we believe and hold in pious faith that he then flew to heaven, whose beatitude as was shown in a certain vision to a Brother familiar with him: for on the third day after his departure,

when he had settled himself to rest, and was not fully awake, he saw some Brethren who had already died, but who while they lived had been familiar with him who was resting. And they appeared as it were sad, having in their company one beautiful and joyous youth. He, as he saw, recognized that they were sad because they were still held in the pains of purgatory. But that joyous youth was an angel, since he also showed an angelic countenance. And he, seeing this, approached those dead Brethren as being familiar to him, and questioned them, saying: Tell me, what of Brother John of Alverna, who lately on the feast of Saint Laurence departed from this world? Is he with you? But they stood stupefied at hearing this, and seemed to wonder vehemently, nor did they know how to give an answer to the question.

[51] Then that youth, drawing near and smiling a little, is revealed to a certain Friar Minor. said to them: This Brother asks you concerning him who two days ago on the feast of Saint Laurence flew away. Then the Brother, understanding the word, and grasping that at the hour in which the holy Man gave up his spirit he passed to heaven, said to the youth: I ask you to tell me whether there is any Brother in heaven, after blessed Francis, who is more glorious before God than Brother John. Then he answered: He is great and glorious before God; but there are many other Brethren there who are in paradise of much greater glory than he. To this glory may he deign to lead us, by the merits of the blessed father Francis and of that most holy Man, who granted him to live so laudably, and still more laudably to pass from this world to eternal life. I have heard that many miracles were done by the merits of this holy Man; and some I have heard were done while he lived, and some after he passed from this world; but because I did not see them with my eyes, nor could I receive them from his mouth, therefore I have not written them ^h, reckoning his spiritual life to have been greater than every sensible miracle.

ANNOTATIONS.

OTHER ACTS

collected by one or perhaps by several contemporary witnesses.

From the Ms. Mirror of Saint Francis and of his companions, book 2, chapter 51 and following, a copy of which is preserved in the library of the Minorites of Louvain, from which we have a transcript, which is extant in our Museum in codex O Ms. 20, and which has been collated with other Ms. copies of the same Mirror.

John, of the Order of Minors, on Mount Alverna in Italy (B.)

BHL Number: 4395

CHAPTER I.

The sublime contemplations of B. John of Alverna, and the wonderful ecstasy which he had at the time of the consecration in the Mass.

Chapter I.

The aforesaid ^a Brother John, when he had utterly renounced the consolations of this world, was anxious to be consoled in God alone. Whence, when solemnities came, Besides other divine consolations, especially those of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, divine grace granted him new consolations and wonderful revelations. Whence it came about that, as the Nativity of the Lord and Savior drew near, when he was certainly expecting consolation concerning the humanity of the blessed Christ, the Holy Spirit, who knows how, as he himself wills, to dispense his gifts according to place and time, not regarding the purpose of the man who wills or runs, but the wisdom of the Lord who has mercy, showed to Brother John himself not the consolation which he expected concerning the humanity of Christ, but so most fervent a love concerning the charity of Christ, that it seemed to him that his soul would be caught out of his body: for a hundred times more than if he had been in a furnace his heart and soul burned; on account of which burning he was in anguish and panted, and, being vehemently affected, cried out aloud, because for the excessive fervor of love and the excessive impulse of spirit he could not refrain from crying out.

[2] But in that hour in which he felt so great an ardor of love, spiritual excesses of mind, the hope of salvation so strongly strengthened him that he did not believe that, if he had then died, he would pass through purgatory. And that love, so great, lasted, though with interruptions, for half a year; but the ardor lasted more than one year, so that for some hour he seemed to be breathing out his spirit. But after that time he had innumerable visitations and consolations, as I myself have often beheld with eyewitness faith ^b, and as several others have frequently observed: for from the excess of fervor and love he could not conceal the visitations; for he was caught up many times in my sight. For on a certain night he was raised in so wonderful a light that he saw all created things in the Creator, both heavenly and earthly, and all distinguished in orderly fashion in their degrees, namely how the choirs of the blessed spirits are with God, and the earthly paradise, and the blessed humanity of Christ, and the habitations of the lower regions. In like manner he designated, and saw, and felt, and represented the Creator.

[3] Afterwards God raised him above every creature, so that his soul was absorbed and taken up into the abyss of the Godhead and of brightness, and lofty contemplations, and buried in the ocean of eternity and of the divine infinity, so far that it felt nothing created or formed, nothing finite or conceivable, which the human heart could conceive or the tongue narrate: and that soul was absorbed in the first abyss of divinity, and in the ocean or form of brightness, so that that soul was expanded like a drop of wine in the depth of the sea; and as that finds nothing in itself but sea, so that soul saw nothing but God in all things and above all things, and within all things and outside all things, and there three Persons in one God, and one God in three Persons. And it felt that eternal charity which caused the Son of God to be incarnate through obedience to the Father, by which he was incarnate; and by that way of the Incarnation and Passion of the Son of God, meditating on it, and wailing and weeping, he came to unspeakable lights. And he said that there is no other way by which the soul can enter to the Lord except through Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. There were also shown to him in the same vision whatever things were done by Christ from the fall of the first man to the entrance of Christ into eternal life, who is the head and prince of all the elect, who from the beginning of the world have been, are, and shall be until the end, as was announced by the holy Prophets, to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

CHAPTER II.

[4] To the same Brother John there happened a certain wonderful thing, and worthy of famous memory, as those related who were present: for when the aforesaid Brother John was staying in the place of Mogliano ^c , of the custody of Fermo and the province of the March, on the first day after the Octave of Saint Laurence, namely within the Octave of the Assumption of the blessed Virgin, The Blessed one, weighing the words of consecration, is caught up, he rose before the hour of Matins, and with the great unction of grace by which he had been forestalled by the Lord, he said Matins with the Brethren. And when Matins had been said, he went out into the garden, because he felt so immense an abundance of sweetness and pleasantness, that for the greatness of the grace which he had by a mental taste in that word of the Lord, namely THIS IS MY BODY, he uttered cries, and in his body said: This is my body; in which word, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, with the eyes of the mind opened, he saw the blessed Christ with the blessed Virgin and a multitude of holy angels, and he understood that saying of the Apostle, how we are all one body in Christ, and each one members of one another, that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, length, and height and depth, and to know also the charity of Christ surpassing all knowledge, which is wholly in that most high Sacrament which is consecrated when it is said: This is my body.

[5] and afterwards, about to pronounce them in the Mass, he sticks fast, And when dawn had come, thus affected with grace, he entered the church, in anguish with the fervor of the Holy Spirit, thinking that he was perceived by no one; whereas nevertheless a certain Brother was standing in the choir who heard this. And when in his anguish for the greatness of the grace he could not restrain * himself, he uttered a great cry. When therefore he approached the altar to celebrate the Mass which he was to sing, the grace was enlarged for him, and that aforesaid love grew, and there was given him a certain sense concerning God, ineffable and inestimable, which by his own words he could in no way explain. And fearing lest that sense and wonderful fervor should grow so great that he would have to leave off the Mass, he did not know which course to choose, namely whether to proceed or to wait. Nevertheless, because he had sometimes felt something similar, and the Lord had so tempered it that on that account he had not left off the Mass, he in some fashion trusted that he could proceed. None the less he feared lest there should happen what did happen; because such divine infusions are not in a man's power.

[6] and, these being uttered with difficulty, When therefore he had proceeded as far as the Preface of the blessed Virgin, that illumination and gracious sweetness grew, so that, coming to WHO, ON THE DAY BEFORE HE SUFFERED, he could scarcely bear so great a sweetness and delight. And when he had come to this, THIS IS MY BODY, he redoubles THIS IS, THIS IS, and very frequently, so that he almost fainted for the greatness of the things which he was now feeling in his soul. Whereupon the Guardian of the place, running to help, stood beside him, and a Brother also with a lighted taper, the other Brethren standing behind him and fearing, with other men and many women, among whom were some of the greater ladies of the province, who all, waiting and fearing, wept after the manner of women: but Brother John himself, as though estranged by a most blessed and most sweet gladness, stood without proceeding to complete the most holy consecration, because he perceived the Lord Jesus Christ, who did not enter the Host, or rather the Host was not transubstantiated into him, until to THIS IS he should add MY BODY.

[7] he undergoes a wonderful ecstasy, And not being able to bear so great a majesty of the blessed head, that is, of Christ, the paradise of the mystical body of Christ being shown to him, he cried out, saying MY BODY. And at once the form of bread vanished, and there appeared the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Son of God, incarnate and glorified, and he showed him the humility which made him become incarnate, and makes him come daily into the hands of the priest. And such humility held Brother John in so great a sweetness, and in an unutterable and ineffable wonder, that he could not complete the words of the consecration. For so wonderful is the humility and condescension of our Savior God toward us (as Brother John himself said) that it cannot be sustained by the body, nor explained in words. On this account he could not proceed; and on this account, even when THIS IS MY BODY had been said, he presently fell backward in a wonderful manner: but by the Guardian, who stood beside him, he was supported lest he fall to the ground; and, the Brethren running together, and the other men and women who were in the church, he was carried as one dead into the sacristy: for his body had grown cold, like the body of a dead man; and the fingers of his hands were so strongly contracted that they could scarcely be extended or moved: and thus he lay as one lifeless until the great third hour ^d: for it was in summer.

[8] But because I, who was present at this, greatly desired to know which he himself narrated to a certain friend. what the clemency of the Savior had wrought concerning him, almost at once, when he had returned to himself, I went to him, asking for the love of God that he would deign to tell me the aforesaid things. And he, because he greatly trusted me, narrated to me in order that all this had happened by the grace of God: and moreover he said that in the consecrating, and before, his heart was liquefied after the manner of wax much softened, and his flesh seemed to be without bones in such a way that he could scarcely lift his limbs or his hands to make the cross over the Host; adding that before he became a priest it had been shown to him that he was to fail in this way. But because he had read many Masses, and what had been foretold had not happened, he thought that he had been deceived in this. But nearly fifty days before the Assumption of the blessed Mary the Virgin, on which he had this again *, it was shown to him that this was to befall him about the Assumption; but he had forgotten that promise. To the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

ANNOTATIONS.

* elsewhere, "accustomed"

* elsewhere, "poured into him"

* elsewhere, Magliano

* elsewhere, "in heart"

* elsewhere, "to contain"

* elsewhere, "the last"

CHAPTER II.

The divine favors conferred on this Blessed one, and the wonderful apparition of Christ which was made to him.

CHAPTER III.

How glorious our Father Francis is in the sight of God The Blessed one at a tender age appears in the chosen sons whom the Holy Spirit gathered into the Order; so that truly wise sons are the glory of so great a Father, among whom shone singularly the aforesaid Brother John, who in the heaven of the Order, as a wonderful star, glowed with the splendor of grace. For he, when in youthful age he bore through wisdom an aged heart, kept the way of penance, and with all his inward parts desired cleanness of body and mind. Whence, when he was still a little boy, he wore a coat of mail and an iron circle next to his flesh, and daily bore the cross of abstinence; so that, while he was staying with the Canons at St. Peter's of Fermo, before he had assumed the habit of the holy Father, they living splendidly, he curbed himself with a wonderful rigor of abstinence, and amid delights celebrated the martyrdom of abstinence. But when he suffered many hindrances from his companions to his angelic zeal, so far that they stripped off the coat of mail and hindered his abstinence, he, inspired by God, thought to leave the world with its lovers, and to offer the flower of his angelic youth * into the arms of the Crucified, namely in the Order of blessed Francis, in which he had heard that the stigmata of the cross of Christ were renewed.

[10] When therefore in the name of the Lord the little boy had assumed the habit of the Friars Minor, he passes to the Order of Minors and had been committed to one master ^a for the discipline of spiritual things, when he sometimes heard divine words from the master, his heart, melting like wax, was filled in the inner man with so great a sweetness of grace, that the outward man, compelled to run about, sometimes through the garden, sometimes through the church, sometimes through the wood, ran or went about at a run in every direction, as the inward flame impelled him. But in the course of time divine grace lifted this angelic Man in different states by ordered actions; now to the cherubic splendors, now to the seraphic fire, now to angelic joys divine grace caught up this angelic Man; and, what is more, sometimes to divine kisses and to the excessive embraces of the love of Christ; not only by inward tastes, but also by outward signs, it took him as an intimate friend.

[11] where, among other divine favors, Whence it befell him at a certain time that for a good space of three years, kindled with the fire of the love of Christ, he received wonderful consolations, and frequently in such ardor was caught up to him. But because God bears a spiritual care for his sons, now consoling them with prosperity, now exercising them with adversity, while the aforesaid Brother John was staying in a certain place, that ray and fiery state was withdrawn, and he remained without love and light, and was in the greatest sorrow: on account of which, since his soul did not feel the presence of the Beloved, he was in anguish and tormented, mourning and anxious through the wood, seeking the Beloved, who had for a little while hidden himself by dispensation; but in no way and in no place could he find the most sweet embraces of the blessed Christ Jesus, and the sweet and blessed kisses, as he had been wont. And this tribulation he endured for several days, wailing and weeping.

[12] But when on a certain day he was walking through the said wood, he beheld Christ, in which he himself had made a path for going, and thus afflicted and desolate was going along, leaning against a beech ^b, he raised his tearful face to heaven. And behold, he who heals the contrite of heart and binds up their bruises, the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, appeared on that same path, yet saying nothing: whom, when John so recognized, he at once cast himself at his feet, and with unutterable groanings entreated and most humbly besought that he would deign to succor him: For without you, he said, most sweet Savior, I remain in darkness and sorrow: without you, most gentle lamb, I remain in straits and terror: without you, most high Son of God, I remain in confusion and shame: for without you I am despoiled of all goods; without you also I am blinded with darkness, because you are Jesus, the true light of the nations . Without you I am lost and damned, because you are the life of souls and the life of lives: without you I am barren and dry, because you are the giver of gifts and graces. In you I am wholly consoled, because you are Jesus, our redemption, our love and desire, the bread that refreshes and the wine that gladdens the choirs of the angels and the hearts of all the Saints. Enlighten me, most glorious master and most loving shepherd, because I am your little sheep, though unworthy.

[13] Because desire that is deferred kindles to a greater love, who, after the abundant tears of the blessed man, the blessed Christ again withdrew, going along the aforesaid path, saying nothing at all to him. But Brother John, seeing that the blessed Christ was withdrawing and did not hear him, rising again with holy importunity, as one needy and poor, again runs to Christ, and, humbly prostrating himself at his feet, entreated with most devout tears, saying: O most sweet Jesus, have mercy on me, for I am afflicted. Hear me in the multitude of your mercy, and restore to me the joy of your salvation, for the earth is full of your mercy. You know, Lord, that I am vehemently afflicted. I ask therefore that you swiftly succor my darkened soul. And again the Savior withdrew, saying nothing to Brother John, and, consoling him in nothing, seemed to wish to depart, going along the aforesaid path, doing as a mother does with a little child, that he might inflame his desire the more; who, when she has withdrawn herself from the nursing child, and he, weeping, has sought her at the breast, after his weeping the mother, embracing and kissing him, receives him with greater sweetness.

[14] Whence Brother John, following the blessed Jesus Christ a third time, went on weeping vehemently, and his repeated prayers, like a nursling after his mother, and a little child after his father, and a humble disciple after a merciful master. And when he had come up to him, the blessed Christ turned his glorious face toward Brother John, and spread out his venerable hands, as a priest does when he turns to the people. Then Brother John saw wonderful rays of light coming forth from the most sacred breast of Christ, not only illuminating the whole wood outwardly, but also his body * and soul inwardly

filling them with divine splendors. Whence at once Brother John was taught by the Holy Spirit what humble and reverent behavior he ought to keep with the blessed Christ: for at once he cast himself at the feet of Christ.

[15] And the blessed Christ mercifully offered him those most holy feet, gave him his feet, hands, and breast where Brother John poured out so many tears that he seemed as it were another Magdalen, asking that he would not look upon his sins *, but that by his most holy Passion and by the sprinkling of his glorious blood he would deign to raise up his soul again into the grace of divine love, saying thus: Since this is your commandment, that I should love you with my whole heart and with all my strength, which commandment no one can fulfil without your help, help me therefore, most loving Jesus Christ, that with all my strength I may love you. And while Brother John thus urgently prayed, and lay at the feet of Christ, he received thence so great a grace that he was there wholly renewed, and, like the Magdalen, pacified and consoled. And then Brother John, feeling the gift of so great a grace, began to give thanks to God and humbly to kiss his feet. And raising himself, that he might look upon the Savior with thanksgiving, the blessed Christ offered and spread out his most holy hands to him to be kissed. At that opening of the hands Brother John, raising himself, drew near and embraced Jesus; and the blessed Christ embraced him: and thereupon Brother John, kissing the most holy breast of Christ, felt so great a divine odor, that if all the spices of the world were gathered into one, in comparison with that divine odor they would be thought a putrid stench.

[16] familiarly to be kissed, Moreover from that breast of the Savior came forth the aforesaid rays, enlightening his mind inwardly, and outwardly all things round about. And in this embrace, odor, and lights in that blessed breast of the Lord Jesus Christ, Brother John was caught up, and wholly consoled, and wonderfully illuminated: for from that time, because he had drunk from the sacred fountain of the Lord's breast, being filled with the gift of wisdom and the grace of the word of God, he rather frequently uttered wonderful and more than narrable words. And because from his belly flowed rivers of living water, which he had drunk from the abyss of the breast of the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore he changed the minds of his hearers, and produced wonderful fruits. Moreover that aforesaid odor and splendor which he had there perceived lasted in his soul for several days ; and, what is more, on the said path, whence and where the Lord's feet had gone, and for a wide space round about, he perceived the same splendor and odor for a long time. When Brother John returned to himself after the aforesaid rapture, the blessed Christ disappeared, and he thereafter remained always consoled and enlightened.

[17] and by this favor wonderfully enlightened his mind. And then he found the humanity of Christ, as he related to me who had it from the mouth of Brother John. But he found his soul buried in the abyss of the divinity; and this is proved by many and manifest testimonies: for before the Roman curia, and before kings and barons, and before masters and doctors, he uttered such profound and lofty lights that he turned all to wonderful amazement, since Brother John himself was a man almost without letters; and yet he wonderfully explained most subtle and most lofty questions concerning the Trinity and other mysteries of Scripture. But that, as appears above, Brother John was received first at the feet of Christ with tears, then at the hands with the arms, and thirdly at the blessed breast with rapture and rays, these are great mysteries which cannot be explained in brief words: but he who wishes to know this, let him read Bernard on the Canticle of Canticles, who there sets these degrees in order, namely of beginners at the feet, of the proficient at the hands, but of the perfect at the kiss and the embrace. But that the blessed Christ, saying nothing, conferred so great a grace on Brother John, taught that, as the best shepherd, he was more zealous to feed the soul with divine senses than to make a noise in the outward ears of the flesh with sounds; because the kingdom of God is not in outward things, but in the inmost: for all his glory is from within, says the Prophet. To the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen ^c.

ANNOTATIONS.

* elsewhere, "of modesty"

* elsewhere, "of minds"

* elsewhere, "most gracious"

* elsewhere, "his heart"

* elsewhere, "his own"

* elsewhere, "supernatural"

* elsewhere, "months"

CHAPTER III.

Other apparitions and revelations which happened to the same Blessed one.

CHAPTER IV.

The aforesaid Brother John, being asked by Brother James of Fallerone To blessed John holy Laurence the martyr to ask God concerning a certain scruple of conscience which greatly afflicted him, namely concerning certain things which pertained to the priestly office, had this answer from the Lord before the feast of Saint Laurence, as he himself related to him; and he said that the Lord said to him: He is a priest according to the order of God. And when conscience still pricked him, he asked again that he would ask the Lord concerning this. Whence he, faithfully, on the vigil of Saint Laurence by night, while he watched and prayed to the Lord that by the merits of Saint Laurence he would make him certain concerning the scruple, blessed Laurence appeared to him as he watched and prayed, clad in white garments after the manner of a levite, and said to him: I am Laurence the levite; and he for whom you pray is a priest according to the divine ordination. And then he was made certain, and was greatly consoled concerning the doubt which he had.

[19] Again to the same Brother John, when the Brethren were singing the Salve Regina in the evening, appears twice, Saint Laurence appeared in the form of a youth, clad in a red dalmatic and carrying an iron gridiron, saying to him: That little gridiron glorified me in heaven, and the bitterness of the coals gave me the fullness of God's sweetness; and adding he said: If you wish to have the glory and sweetness of God, endure patiently the suffering and bitterness of the world. And Saint Laurence stood with him thus visibly until the aforesaid Antiphon had been sung. Afterwards the Brethren went to rest, and he remained in the choir with Saint Laurence; who, making him certain and consoling him, disappeared, and left him in so great a love and divine affection that through the whole night of the said feast he slept not at all, but passed the whole night with wonderful consolation ^a.

[20] Likewise the same Brother John, when once he was most devoutly celebrating Mass, and Christ in the Mass, the Host being consecrated, the bread was wholly annulled in his sight, and in the twinkling of an eye Christ appeared there, clad in a red garment, who gave him so great a consolation of sweetness that, had it not been that his understanding remained to him, he would have been * caught up in ecstasy: and in that very vision he was made certain that on account of that Mass the Lord was appeased for the whole world, and especially for those commended to him. To the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

CHAPTER V.

[21] When the said Brother John was celebrating Mass on the Commemoration of all the dead *, and the souls which were freed from the fire of expiation. he offered with so great an affection of charity, and compassion of piety, that most high Sacrament, whose efficacy above all suffrages the souls of the dead desire, that he was wholly melted in the sweetness of piety and in honeyed heavenly love. When therefore in the said devout Mass he raised on high the most sacred Body of the Lord, offering it to God the Father, that for the love of him who hung upon the cross he would mercifully free from prison those souls created and redeemed by him, he saw as it were infinite souls going out of purgatory, like a multitude of sparks proceeding from a fiery furnace; and he saw them flying to the heavenly fatherland on account of the merits of Christ, who for human salvation hung upon the cross, and is daily offered in that most sacred Host for the living and the dead. To the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

CHAPTER VI.

[22] At the time when Brother James of Fallerone, a holy man, was sick in the place of Mogliano , The same Blessed one foretells eternal salvation of the Custody of Fermo and of the province of the March, Brother John of Alverna prayed to God for the said Brother James, who was gravely ill, with mental prayer and with heartfelt desire, because he loved him intimately as a Brother . And while he thus attentively prayed, being made in ecstasy, he saw in the air a host of many angels and Saints with great brightness abiding above his cell, which was in the wood; and so great was the brightness that the whole district ^b * round about shone: among which angels he saw the said sick man, for whom he was praying, standing most beautiful, resplendent in white garments. He saw there also our blessed father Francis, marked with the sacred stigmata, and shining with wonderful glory: he saw and recognized holy Brother Lucidus, and Brother Matthew the elder of Monte Rubiano ^c, and recognized several other Brethren whom he had never seen in this life, who with many Saints shone with a like glory. And while he beheld these things, it was revealed to him for certain concerning the salvation of that sick man, and that in that same infirmity he would pass to the Lord; but that he was not to pass immediately to heaven, because it was necessary that he be purged a little.

[23] to a certain James who was sick, And Brother John, who saw this, rejoiced so greatly for the salvation and glory of the said Brother, that in sweetness of spirit he frequently called Brother James, saying within the secrets of his heart: Brother James! My Brother James! My most faithful servant of Christ! Brother James! My most sweet father! Brother James, companion of the angels! Brother James, partner of the blessed! And thus made certain of the death of Brother James, and made certain of the salvation of his soul, he departed from the place of Massa ^d, where he had had this vision, and went to visit him at Mogliano, where he found the said sick man so weighed down with infirmity that he could scarcely speak to him: to whom Brother John announced that he would die, and, secure and rejoicing like a lion, would pass to life. And Brother James himself, already concerning his own salvation

certain, and wholly cheered both in mind and in face, received Brother John with gladness and a most beautiful smile and a joyous look, because he had brought him such joyous news, and because he loved him as a son; and, commending himself intimately to him, he indicated to him that he was now being loosed from the body.

[24] Whence Brother John asked him that he would deign to speak to him after death; and, by a compact previously entered upon, which Brother James promised, if the kindness of the Savior should permit. And these things being said, as the hour of his departure drew near, Brother James began devoutly to say: O in peace! O in the selfsame! O let me sleep! O let me rest! And these things being said, with a joyous and glad face he passed to the Lord Jesus Christ. But Brother John, having returned to the place of Massa, awaited the promise of Brother James on the day on which he had said he would speak. And while he was waiting, Christ appeared to him with great brightness and a wonderful company of angels and Saints: and Brother John remembered Brother James, and commended him to Christ.

[25] After this, on the following day, while Brother John was standing in the wood of Massa, after death he sees him glorious, Brother James appeared to him, angels accompanying him, wholly glorious and glad. To whom Brother John said: O father, why did you not speak to me on the day on which you had promised? He answered: Because I needed to be purged a little. But at the same hour in which Christ appeared to you, he appeared to Brother James the lay brother of Massa, a holy man ^e, both living and serving at Mass, where he saw the sacred Host at the hour of the elevation changed into a living and most beautiful boy. And I spoke to the said Brother, saying: Today with that boy I go to the kingdom, for no one can go except through him ^f. And when you commended me to Christ, you were heard; and at the same hour in which I spoke to the aforesaid Brother James, I was freed. And these things being said, he went on to the Lord. And Brother John remained greatly consoled; but Brother James of Fallerone departed on the vigil of Saint Paul the Apostle in the month of July ^g, and rests in the place of Mogliano, where through him God works many miracles. To the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER VII.

[26] When certain persons had certain terrible and hidden sins, and he discloses various secrets of hearts. which no one could know except by divine revelation, of whom some were dead and some living, Brother John by divine revelation disclosed to the living their hidden sins. On account of which they were converted to penance; one of whom said that the sin which Brother John had disclosed he had committed before Brother John was born into the world ^h: and he to whom he said this told it to me. And they confessed that the things which Brother John said of them were true. It was also revealed to him that some of those who were dead had perished by temporal and eternal death, and some only by temporal death; and this was demonstrated to him with certainty: and I have seen a Brother worthy of credit who knew those persons.

ANNOTATIONS.

* elsewhere, "he would have been"

* elsewhere, "on a certain day for the dead"

* elsewhere, Mogliano

* elsewhere, "father"

* elsewhere, "land"