ON STS. JOHN PLEBANUS AND LEO BEMBO,
AT VENICE IN THE ILLUSTRIOUS CONVENT OF ST. LAURENCE.
A COMMENTARY OF CONRAD JANNING, OF PIOUS MEMORY.
John Plebanus, Confessor, at Venice (B.)
Leo Bembo, Confessor, at Venice (B.)
BY THE AUTHOR C. J.
A little Preface.
We here give the first-fruits, so to speak, of our predecessor Father Conrad Janning in this work; namely the notices collected when, being younger and about to return from his theological studies at Rome into Belgium, he turned aside to Venice, and there found what he judged to pertain and to suffice, not indeed to the life or the deeds of the Blessed of whom we here treat, but at least to their cult, all the rest having long since been buried in long oblivion. But since he seems abundantly to have proved the immemorial veneration of both, giving also the reason why they are placed on this day rather than on any other, we have not thought that the labor undertaken should be neglected: for we trust that a little work of whatever sort, elaborated during, so to speak, his hagiographic apprenticeship, will not be ungrateful to readers. Papebroch referred the Saints hither in the Appendix to the XXI of May. Thus he, the monuments being accurately examined, arranged the whole matter.
CHAPTER I.
Of the day of the cult, the state and finding of the body, and the cult itself of B. John Plebanus.
At Venice in the convent of St. Laurence Having completed in the famous Athenæum of the Roman college of our Society the course of theological studies, before I should leave Italy to return to my province of Flanders-Belgium, I spent nearly a whole year in various places, not uselessly bestowed upon the illustrating of the Acts of the Saints by new notices of things. Nor did the most celebrated city of Venice claim for itself the least part of my delay, which, having entered in the year 1686 on the XXVII day of June, I inhabited for a whole month, visiting and studiously inspecting the sacred relics of Saints of every kind and state, which are venerated there in very great number, and examining and noting the old memorials of donation, translation, and public veneration. But among the more distinguished sanctuaries of the said city there ought deservedly to be numbered the most noble and likewise most religious monastery of sacred Virgins of God, commonly called of St. Laurence, in whose double church,
the one distinguished by the name of the Saint just mentioned, the other by that of St. Sebastian, very many bodies of Saints are preserved with the highest honor, the whole city celebrating yearly the feast day of most of them with the divine Office suited to them.
[2] To one or two, however, whose bodies rest in the same place, the blessed Leo Bembo and John Plebanus such honor is not hitherto paid; and these are B. Leo Bembo and B. John, formerly Plebanus of the church of St. John Beheaded. Nor is it a wonder that so solemn a cult did not fall to either: for since the life of each is very obscure, the day of his death wholly unknown, and almost all memory of them buried with their bodies, there was nothing which could be composed into proper lessons concerning their deeds, nothing which should determine a certain day for such veneration: and moreover the Nuns themselves, amid so great an abundance of sacred pledges of which they sing divine Offices, were little solicitous about these two at that time when that favor could more easily have been obtained — though they would now gladly obtain it, when a very difficult approach is given to it. But however it be, it is certainly established that each was long ago attended with such veneration that they ought by their own merit to find a place in these Acts. why they are given on the 9th of August. And although B. Leo might not unfittingly be referred to the XX of October, and B. John to the XXI of May, on which day with more solemn pomp in the years 1643 and 1644 the body of each was translated to a new altar, nevertheless, because their simultaneous Translation was duly made in the year 1632 on the X day of August to the new church of St. Sebastian, it seems more fitting that both should be treated of together on this IX day of August, especially because many things which pertain to both, if they themselves were separated from each other, would have to be repeated twice over.
[3] In the year 1686, when I was staying at Venice, I saw the body of B. John entire in flesh and skin, I saw the body of B. John entire, yet dried up, dark in color, clad in priestly habit, which at that very time was for a while kept outside its monument, which was in the trunk or hollow of the altar, in an old wooden chest in the middle of the church, while both it was being clothed in a new and more precious priestly habit, and the hollow of the monument was being hung round with red cloth. The altar of the aforesaid monument is consecrated in honor of St. Laurence, whom it also exhibits on the panel laid upon his gridiron. But beneath the panel, yet above the altar, another sacred deposit is kept, namely the bones of St. Candida, Virgin and Martyr, translated thither solemnly in the year 1644 on the XXI day of May together with the body of B. John. his ancient image with rays, The aforesaid wooden chest was said to be the same in which formerly the body of that same B. John had been laid; and it exceeded in its antiquity the memorable time, and bore not obscure signs of the ancient cult paid to that Blessed one. Since indeed his image, formerly painted on it, can even now be distinctly seen with rays about the head.
[4] A more certain indication also of such veneration is an Apostolic Brief given by Pope Boniface IX in the XI year of his pontificate (that is, of the Christian Era 1400) on the Nones of October to the Primicerius of the church of St. Mark at Venice, at that time Francis Bembo, who in the next following year, namely 1401, was promoted to the bishopric of Castello in that same city. In the said Brief therefore, after the Pontiff had recounted from the petition offered to him on the part of the Nuns how the body of B. John had first been found, and indeed entire, by the sweet odor proceeding from it; how, being presently exhumed by common consent, it had been raised on high and deposited in a chapel appointed for this, and had had veneration with the concourse and piety of a frequent people, he at last charges the Primicerius that, the matter being examined, if he shall have found it so, he should by Apostolic authority order the aforesaid body, which the Bishop of Castello, led by we know not what mind, had caused to be hidden away, to be replaced in its own place, and exposed as before to the veneration of the people. But let us here append the Brief itself, whose original with the leaden seal I myself saw at Venice in the monastery of St. Laurence.
[5] In what manner the body was found Boniface the Bishop, servant of the servants of God. To his beloved son the Primicerius of the Church of St. Mark of Venice, of the diocese of Castello, greeting and Apostolic benediction. Indeed, a petition offered to Us on the part of our beloved daughters in Christ the Abbess and convent of the monastery of St. Laurence of Venice, of the order of St. Benedict, of the diocese of Castello, contained that, whereas some time ago in a certain chapel of St. Sebastian adjoining and annexed to that monastery, a honey-sweet and boundless odor was perceived by the same Abbess and nuns when they came from time to time to that chapel; and therefore the said Abbess and nuns, being stupefied, and a murmur having arisen among them, observing the place from which such an odor might proceed, on a certain day caused it to be opened; and at length, a certain human body having been found, which, according to the estimation of the older persons and the common estimation, had already fifty years since been given to ecclesiastical burial, yet remained sound and unhurt, and as beautiful in that state as if it had lately been taken from among the living, and from it such an odor, as evidently appeared to those who beheld it, and exposed to public veneration, proceeded: and they accordingly, giving worthy thanks to God with becoming devotion and humility, taking that body out of such burial, caused it to be raised on high and, with the help of divine grace, to be placed in a certain spot of the said chapel appointed by them for this end; and to it also afterwards a multitude of the people had come with great devotion of inmost heart: our Venerable Brother Leonard, bishop of Castello, led by what mind is not known, by the Bishop's order it was hidden away. the foregoing having been brought to his notice, treating this body less honorably, caused it to be taken from the said place and, as is believed, to be shut up in a certain place, nevertheless expressly forbidding them, penalties and censures being interposed, to attempt henceforth in any way to touch that body: whence, as the same petition subjoined, there arose among the same Abbess and nuns a rumor and confusion worse than the former: Hence the nuns appeal to the Pontiff, on the part of the said Abbess and nuns humble supplication was made to Us that we would deign of Apostolic benignity to provide in this matter with fatherly diligence.
[6] who commits the examination of the matter to the Primicerius of St. Mark's. We therefore, considering that, if it be so, the faculties of the human condition by no means suffice for the fitting honors, praises, and exaltations to be bestowed upon that body, and being inclined to these supplications, by Apostolic writings commit and command to your Discretion that concerning the foregoing you diligently inform yourself by our authority, and, if by such information you shall find them supported by truth — whereupon we charge your conscience — you procure by the same authority that the said body be restored and replaced in this or in some other place more fitting and suitable for this in the same chapel, in which it may be able to be exalted and venerated by all the faithful; granting nevertheless to the same Abbess and nuns that they may be able to show that body to all the Faithful of Christ who desire it with a pious heart, as often as it shall be opportune, the license of the said Bishop or of any other whatsoever in these matters being by no means required. Notwithstanding Apostolic Constitutions and the statutes and customs of the aforesaid monastery and Order, strengthened by oath, Apostolic confirmation, or by any other firmness whatsoever, and any other things to the contrary whatsoever; or if to you, or to the Bishop of Castello for the time being, or to any others jointly or severally, an Indult be granted by the aforesaid See that they cannot be interdicted, suspended, or excommunicated by Apostolic letters not making full and express and word-for-word mention of such Indult. Restraining gainsayers by our authority, appeal being set aside. Given at Rome at St. Peter's, on the Nones of October, in the eleventh year of our Pontificate.
Free, by the mandate of our Lord the Pope.
CHAPTER II.
The ancient cult of B. John and of B. Leo, confirmed by its own continuation and by solemn Translations.
[That the cult was confirmed to John by another Brief of the Pontiff is not sufficiently established:] I confess indeed that no rescript of the Primicerius to the foregoing Brief, nor any other Brief of the aforesaid Pope Boniface, by which he expressly permits public veneration to B. John, has been seen anywhere by me: although in a Ms. tablet containing the account of the Finding of the body of B. John Plebanus, which we shall give below, it is read that it was obtained from Pope Boniface IX, then presiding over the Church, that (as appears from the Bull of his Holiness preserved in this monastery) it should be lawful to expose the aforesaid body to be beheld, to celebrate mass over it, and to venerate him as a saint and a friend of God. Although also Paulinus Flamma of the Order of the Crossbearers writes similar things in the little book which he published in the year 1645 on the true origin of the churches of the glorious martyrs Sts. Laurence and Sebastian, saying: In the year 1400 there was granted by Boniface IX, by a particular Brief, the faculty of showing to the people the body of B. John and of venerating it, as Sansovino also testifies.
[8] But however little those things be established, it is established from its continued use yet that the suit was decided in favor of the Nuns, and that its place and veneration were restored to the body by supreme authority, seems able to be gathered with certainty even from this, that thereafter the body, placed in a more honorable spot, is to these times piously visited by the people, and that more than once it has been translated from one place to another with the approbation and intervention of the Ordinaries, with equal pomp and solemnity as the Relics of Saints are wont to be.
The first translation which I find committed to writing in notarial form was instituted on occasion of the restoration of the church of St. Sebastian (which is also designated the little church of St. Laurence), begun about the year 1629, when also the bodies of Bb. John Plebanus and Leo Bembo, in the presence of the Most Illustrious Lord Tiepolo, Patriarch of Venice, were carried from the said little church into the greater church of St. Laurence, and were kept there until the year 1632; and by solemn translations, but then thence, by order of the Most Reverend Lord John Paul Savio, Bishop of Feltre and Lieutenant general in the Patriarchate of Venice, the bodies, first inspected and examined, were carried back into the little church and to their own place on the IX day of August, and there were visited and recognized by the same Most Reverend Bishop of Feltre on the XI day of the next following month. made with the approbation of the Ordinary. The Notarial instrument has it thus, translated from the Italian into Latin.
[9] The bodies of John and Leo are translated together Since the little church of St. Laurence had to be restored, in which rested the bodies of the servant of God John, formerly Plebanus of St. John Beheaded, and of the servant of God Leo Bembo, it was necessary that these be placed for a while in a becoming spot until the building should be finished, into which they were afterwards to be carried back. Wherefore with the leave, nay in the presence, of the Lord Patriarch Tiepolo of glorious memory, the aforesaid bodies were placed, each with its own chest closed with a key, to the church of St. Laurence in the great church, which likewise is of St. Laurence; and the one indeed, of the servant of God John, above the altar of St. Mark near the sacristy, but the other, of the servant of God Leo, above the altar of the Virgin Assumed, which is opposite that of St. Mark. After
an end had been put to the building of the little church, at the request of the Reverend Mother Abbess and the other Reverend mothers of the said monastery, I, Francis Priori, Patriarchal Notary, was ordered by the Most Reverend Lord John Paul Savio, by the grace of God and of the holy Apostolic see Bishop of Feltre and lieutenant general in the Patriarchate of Venice, to betake myself today, the IX of August 1632, on the vigil of St. Laurence the martyr, and, being recognized, are brought back in the year 1632 to the said church, to recognize the aforementioned bodies, and, when recognized, to see to their being replaced in the places where they had been before. I betook myself therefore whither I had been ordered, and the Reverend Father Aloysius Navara, chaplain-curate of the church of St. Severus, vested in surplice and stole, opened the said chests and swore that those were the same bodies which had formerly been in the little church of St. Laurence; and so, being recognized, they were carried, enclosed in their own chests, to their former place in the little church, to their place in St. Sebastian's, where before its restoration they had rested: namely the body of the servant of God John beneath the altar which is on the right side; but the other, of the servant of God Leo, above the altar which is opposite to it on the left side, and they were becomingly replaced by the above-named Reverend Father Aloysius, in the presence of me the aforesaid Notary and of the Reverend Fathers Aloysius Zonatus the chaplain and Cæsar Massi the sacristan. I, the aforesaid Francis, was requested concerning all the foregoing, and, being required, made this public instrument to the praise and glory of the Lord God and to the honor of these his Servants.
[10] where a little after, by the Bishop Vicar About one month after the aforesaid translation and recognition, the aforesaid Bishop of Feltre himself wished to inspect the bodies: and concerning this the following Notarial instrument was drawn up, which runs thus: On Saturday, the XI of September 1632. The aforesaid Most Reverend Bishop of Feltre, Lieutenant general in the Patriarchate of Venice, having gone in person to the church of St. Laurence, in his presence, and in mine, the aforesaid Francis's, and in that of the undersigned witnesses, the chest was opened in which the body of the servant of God John was laid with becoming adornment, and the Reverend Father Aloysius Navara, chaplain-curate of St. Severus, affirmed that it was the very one which formerly had been kept in the old church, thence translated into the great one during its restoration, and lately on the vigil of St. Laurence carried back to its former place. they were again inspected and recognized. In like manner the other chest was opened, placed also in the new church opposite the other, and there was found the body of the servant of God Leo, becomingly preserved. But since on the lid of the aforesaid chest was read written, The body of B. Paul, the aforesaid Most Reverend Lord Bishop ordered the said inscription to be removed, and in its place to be set the proper name, namely, The body of the servant of God Leo Bembo. Concerning which matter I, the aforesaid Notary, was requested, in the presence of the Reverend Antonius Norsinus and James Fabutius, chaplains of the aforesaid Most Reverend Bishop, as witnesses. Below was read: Francis Priori, Patriarchal Notary at Venice, was present at all the foregoing, and, being requested, subscribed in attestation.
CHAPTER III.
Another Translation of B. John with St. Candida, Virgin and Martyr, and also of B. Leo Bembo.
Two altars being erected in the church of St. Sebastian The second Translation of B. John Plebanus occurred nearly twelve years after the former, when he was solemnly translated to one of the new altars very lately erected in the new church of St. Sebastian by the very illustrious Lord Francis Lumaga, together with the sacred Relics of St. Candida, Virgin and Martyr, namely in the year 1644 on the XXI day of May: just as with like solemnity to the other, opposite to this, in the preceding year 1643 on the XX day of October, the body of B. Leo Bembo had been translated. The instruments of both Translations, since we are treating of both Blessed ones together, and they have a certain connection between themselves, let us here subjoin together. From the Italian they run thus in Latin:
[12] In the name of God, Amen. In the year from the Nativity of our Lord 1644, in the XII Indiction, on the day, namely Saturday, the XXI of May, the bodies of St. Candida and B. John are translated in the XXI year of the Pontificate of our Lord Pope Urban VIII: the Abbess of the venerable monastery of St. Laurence being the Most Illustrious and Reverend Lady Electa Dona; and the sacristans the Most Illustrious and Reverend Ladies Andriana Badoëra and Maria Grimani. Be it known and manifest to all how, the sacred church of St. Sebastian, which adjoins the far end of the greater church of the aforesaid St. Laurence, being now rebuilt, there were afterwards constructed in it by the very illustrious Lord Francis Lumaga, a Venetian merchant, out of his pure devotion, two altars, one under the title of the B. Virgin Mary and St. Francis, on the side of the monastery; the other dedicated to St. Laurence on the gridiron, on the side of the cemetery, so that the one is opposite the other, and each is furnished with niches or hollows for placing therein the bodies of Saints or of the Blessed. And whereas the aforesaid Reverend Mothers had in their inner little chapel the body of St. Candida, Virgin and Martyr, and also the body of the servant of God John, formerly Plebanus of St. John Beheaded, which had always remained outside the altar with its usual chest in the church of St. Sebastian, but which they, from their devotion and for other causes, the Lord chaplains intervening, had on the evening before carried within the monastery with full faculty, as in the instrument drawn up on that matter on the XI of September 1632, to which etc.
[13] The same Mothers, moreover, wishing the aforesaid bodies to be taken from the inner place where, as has been said, they now are, from the cloister of the monastery to be placed above and within the aforesaid altar of St. Laurence respectively, for the greater honor and veneration of the same. Hence it is that, in the presence of me the Chancellor and of the undersigned witnesses, with the license of the Ordinary and with famous pomp the due faculty having first been obtained from the Most Reverend Lord Alexander de Franceschis, Doctor of both laws, Apostolic Protonotary, Archdeacon of the Cathedral Church of Venice, and, the Patriarchal See being vacant, deputed Vicar Capitular General, all the venerable Abbess and the other Mothers of the same monastery being gathered together in the inner place where the said bodies were laid upon two litters, beautifully and elegantly adorned with flowers and other things wont to be employed at such a time and place. Hence eight of the said Mothers, after the manner of suppliants, no small number of lighted torches being borne before them, carried out the litters, and, going round the cloister within, came to the door by which one goes from the cloister into the renovated church of St. Sebastian.
[14] by the nuns through the monastery, Here there awaited them, prepared, the Reverend Lord John Massiccius, first chaplain, with a cope, and three other Lord chaplains, and the Reverend Father Master Stella, their Confessor, with several other priests called for this end, to whom the aforesaid bodies were delivered by those Reverend Mothers, by the priests through the cemetery first indeed that of St. Candida, Virgin and Martyr, laid up for so many years past in the cloister of the monastery, and then that of the servant of God John, formerly Plebanus of St. John Beheaded, brought into the cloister the day before, as above: finally the torches also, as they were lighted, were delivered: and with these the aforesaid Lords, beginning their own procession also, went out from the church of St. Sebastian, and, going round the cemetery, entered the greater church of St. Laurence, and, proceeding through it, came at length by the lesser door to the above-mentioned altar, where, the bodies and the coffers being incensed, to the altar destined for them, that which was of St. Candida, Virgin and Martyr, was placed in its shell or coffer above the altar, fashioned for this end: then the other, of the aforesaid servant of God John, was enclosed in the hollow of the same altar beneath the table itself, destined for this purpose. in which they were enclosed, and Mass celebrated over them. Then it was again incensed, and, the customary prayers being said, the whole action had its end: at which likewise had been present the very illustrious Lord Andrew Lumaga, brother of the aforesaid Lord Francis, who was then absent from the city with many other persons. After these things, by the Reverend Lord Francis Lombardo, one of the chaplains of the aforesaid Reverend Mothers, the sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated upon that same altar.
[15] It is asked in this Instrument that mention be made of the Note set down below Concerning all these matters the aforementioned Mother sacristans asked me, the undersigned Chapter Chancellor, to draw up the present Instrument, at the same time producing also a Note of the tenor written below, to be inserted for its greater validity both in the present instrument and in the Acts of the Patriarchal Chancery, so that at no time may a doubt arise concerning what was done in the Translation or transporting of the said bodies, affirming to me that they are the same which are named in the aforesaid Instrument of the XI day of September 1632, to which recourse must always diligently be had. As also that of St. Candida, Virgin and Martyr, which for the space of so many years was preserved in its old little chapel and was held in veneration among them. Concerning which matter likewise, etc. Done and Given at Venice in the aforesaid church of St. Sebastian, in the year, Indiction, day, month, and pontificate as above: in the presence of the very illustrious and Reverend and most Excellent Lord Aloysius Zane, ecclesiastical Advocate; the most distinguished Lord Peter Lauretanus, agent and factor of the business of the same Reverend Nuns and of the monastery; and of very many other witnesses called, specially had, and requested.
Antonius Pulzonus, Apostolic Protonotary, Plebanus of the Parochial and Collegiate and Mother church of St. Mary of Šibenik at Venice, Canon of the Cathedral Church, and, the Patriarchal see of Venice being likewise vacant, deputed Chapter Chancellor, being requested concerning the foregoing, in attestation subscribed with the required hand, etc.
[16] Thus far that Instrument, whose closing clause from those words "Done and Given" is Latin also in the Original: [concerning the Translation of B. Leo Bembo made in the year 1643, on the 20th of October,] and immediately subjoined is read the Attestation concerning the Relics of St. Leo and their Translation, under this title: There follows the tenor of the Note mentioned above, presented to me by the aforesaid Reverend Lady Mother Sacristans for the effect stated above.
We the undersigned attest under our oath how on Tuesday, the twentieth of the month of October 1643, we were present at the Translation of the body of St. Leo Bembo, made in the church of St. Sebastian near St. Laurence's. And it was taken out of the old chest in which it was enclosed in the said church, and fittingly placed on a litter, carried by way of procession round the church of St. Laurence, and at length laid up on the aforesaid day in the altar constructed for this cause in the said church of St. Sebastian, in the presence of many persons who had come together thither: after the said body had been recognized by the undersigned Lord chaplains of St. Severus, by whom it had before been taken out of the aforesaid chest. In attestation whereof we have all subscribed with our own hand. as eight persons testify. I, priest John Chassicius, chaplain-Curate of St. Severus, was present and affirm as above. Likewise the three remaining chaplains
and four other persons subscribe and affirm.
CHAPTER IV.
Concerning the cult, the Episcopate, the Martyrdom, the Life, the Finding of the body, and the age of B. Leo Bembo — what is certain or doubtful.
Arguments of an ancient cult are had from the paintings Besides what has been said in the two immediately preceding chapters concerning B. Leo Bembo, tending to his more recent veneration, some more ancient indications of the cult formerly paid him must now be brought forward, drawn chiefly from images and old panels. I myself saw at Venice in the year 1686 an oblong panel, equal to the body of B. Leo laid out above the altar, and which hides him enclosed behind it. It is divided as a whole into five nearly square spaces, representing B. Leo in one way and another, yet everywhere glowing with rays about his head. But what each representation is representing Leo with rays, will be made fairly plain from the inscriptions set beneath in the same place. In the middle space he is depicted clad in Episcopal habit with this subscription: St. Leo, Bishop, illustrious offspring of the Bembi, living and dead did many miracles. The two spaces which are to the right of this exhibit the same man: the one indeed assisting a sick woman, with the added motto: Catherine de Ronconelli, blind, prays to God, and forthwith received her sight, in the year of the Lord 1318. as also the miracles indicated in the same place, The other, showing him lying in a tomb, with a light shining above, the story of the finding of the body is explained by the epigraph set beneath: The stars point out the sepulchre of the divine Leo; the sick run, pray, and return healed, in the year of the Lord 1207. That which on the left is nearest to the middle space shows Leo dead and laid out, with these verses: The incorruption of the body, lying in the ground for many years, indicates to us, Leo, your holy and perennial life, in the year of the Lord 1207. Finally the outermost space on this side has a picture such as these words indicate: A girl, her recovery despaired of, approached the divine man; the mother gives on behalf of her daughter and obtains health, in the year of the Lord 1321.
[18] and also other, more ancient paintings And these things indeed I myself saw in person and noted in passing at Venice. I did not, however, see another panel, of which the above-named Flamma makes mention in the little book which he entitles the Life and miracles of the glorious saint Leo Bembo, although a very small part of the little book treats of them. This panel must have been nearly similar as to its representation, but dissimilar as to its form, to that which I saw and have just described: for that one of mine, of a similar representation nearly five times longer than high, is divided into five equal spaces in a straight row; but this one of the author's seems to have been nearly four-sided, and the middle picture to have occupied as much space as the other four together: of which two on this side and as many on that, I think, closed each side of the middle picture from top to bottom. But more may be drawn out from the author's own description. He speaks in Italian in this manner:
[19] in which B. Leo is painted in the habit, as is thought, of a Martyr, Painting, which is the mute speech of past things, has taught us some of the things said above, which may be seen on a panel, executed in the year 1321, when the Most Reverend Abbess Sister Tomasina Victuri was governing. The panel is divided into five compartments or smaller spaces: in the middle, from top to bottom, is to be seen the image of St. Leo, clad in an ankle-length gown of a chestnut color, his feet shod with sandals of the same color; a mantle of nearly like color, open from the right shoulder, flows down to the ground; which habit, on the witness of the Most Illustrious Archbishop of Philadelphia, a Greek by nation, is wont to be given by the Church to Martyrs. This mantle is covered by a surplice, very short, as the custom of the Greeks holds, but of black fur. The head is adorned with a head-covering, such as the supreme Pontiffs are wont in general to use, and over it is put another, of purple color, very like the head-coverings of this time, commonly called calottes: finally, at the feet of the Blessed one there stands written: This work was made in the year 1321.
[20] laid out on a bier, In one of the remaining four compartments B. Leo is painted laid out upon a bier, clad as above; a Bishop standing at the middle of the bier, who seems to venerate the corpse, with a numerous people and nuns standing round: and the place has the appearance of a ruinous building; and letters are written, partly eaten away by age, which say: How St. Leo was buried, and the whole city was present with a very great multitude of Clerics; and he did many miracles. In the other space, opposite to this, he is seen laid out in the sepulchre, girt with a wide crown of people; but above in the sky appears a crown of stars, sending forth a ray which points out the body. The writing which is read above the sepulchre is this: The body of blessed Leo; but that in the upper part of the space, corroded and difficult to read, has it thus: How the body of blessed Brother Leo was placed in a chest under the portico of the Priests, that it might fitly be placed in the church itself; and about the year of the Lord 1207 it was found. pointed out after death by stars, In the lower space is painted a blind woman, by name Catherine, daughter of Roger de Ronconelli, to whom through the intercession of the Saint the faculty of seeing was restored by God; as also another woman, who, being at the point of death, received health. healing various sick persons, Finally in the last space, opposite to that one, it is represented how, at the intercession of the Saint, a dying little girl was restored whole to her mother. Further, the years in which these miracles happened were 1207, 1218, 1321: and wherever B. Leo is portrayed, a halo surrounds his head.
[21] To one reading what has been said in the present chapter there can be no doubt that the paintings just spoken of were the prototypes of those which I saw, described above; for although those bear no small age, they can by no means reach back to the year 1321, to which Flamma refers his own: From the paintings it becomes probable that B. Leo was a Bishop, but it is enough for our purpose that we know the prototype to have existed so long ago, and that its likeness has been transmitted to our times by a copy. For hence, the habit of B. Leo being considered, it is not unfittingly permitted to suspect that he was adorned with episcopal dignity; it is certainly established that such an opinion concerning him prevailed commonly three centuries and a half ago, which will obtain credit, I think, even now among not too contentious appraisers of things, in a matter otherwise most obscure. That opinion certainly obtained at the beginning of the last century with Peter Bembo, most elegant in style and most Eminent in dignity, who at Rome was long secretary to Pope Leo X, and afterwards was created Cardinal by Pope Paul III, and had in his museum, as Flamma testifies, a large image of B. Leo, like that which is described above, save that here besides is painted an episcopal mitre, and that upon a little table stands a black hat with a Cross set upon it, such as those commonly called Papassi, or Greek Plebani, are wont to wear.
[22] But that Flamma should wish to reckon B. Leo among the number of the Martyrs, chiefly on this foundation, but that he was not likewise a Martyr, that he is painted with a long cloak, open from the right shoulder down to the ground, will not so easily be approved by all the learned. Nor should I think that the Most Illustrious Archbishop of Philadelphia meant that a habit of this kind was simply attributed to Martyrs by the Church. If he shall have seen any Martyrs painted with such a cloak, I should believe that they were also soldiers, and that they were so clad not so much by reason of martyrdom as on account of military glory. There is with us an ancient image of St. Sebastian, most famous both for military service and for martyrdom, represented with a mantle of such a form. The same may be observed in tapestries not very ancient concerning soldiers. but rather that he was a soldier. The same may be seen at Rome and at Ravenna in old mosaics concerning the dress of Christian Heroes, the same in statues of Emperors even heathen. Several things of this kind too may be noted in our Ephemeris of the Muscovites, figured before volume 1 of May. It seems therefore that it may more rightly be said that B. Leo was clad in such a garment by the painters of old, because, on Flamma's witness, under Domenico Michiel the Doge, admiral of the Venetian fleet, who was to bring aid to the Christians laboring in the Holy Land, he set sail to the East and went to Palestine, either to fight, or to encourage the fighters, or to visit those holy places: certainly he had some share in that glorious warfare, so that not undeservedly he is given a military habit.
[23] Flamma will have it moreover that Leo was the paternal or maternal uncle of the Doge Michiel, [He is believed to have been dragged from the bishopric of Modon into servitude by the Greeks,] and that by him, on the return, when Modon had been stormed, he was set over that place as Bishop; that thence afterwards he was carried off with other Latins into servitude by Manuel Comnenus, Emperor of the Greeks; that at length, having escaped by flight and been restored to his fatherland, he passed the rest of his life unknown in the monastery of St. Laurence of the Benedictine Religion, after the manner of a lay brother, serving the Monks who were there confessors to the Nuns and celebrated the sacrifices of the Masses in the church. [and, having escaped from them, to have hidden himself at Venice in the monastery of St. Laurence,] But I would rather that these things be believed on the credit of that author than on mine, who reckon most of them conjectures. The splendor of the family of B. Leo and its sufficiently ancient nobility the name of Bembo alone makes attested, so that it need not be traced back to the holy Hermetes and the heathen Scipios. That he was a Bishop, several indications above seem able to persuade; but that he was so at Modon is said to be drawn from the genealogical tree of the Bembo family, of I know not what antiquity or where produced. But receive in a few words the rest concerning his death, yet with the same credit as the aforesaid, and such as a modern author deserves, more wordy than circumspect, alleging in a matter so ancient no other's authority.
[24] where he died holily After he has narrated in the manner of a eulogy the exercises of the virtues in which Leo, unknown in life, had occupied himself in that holy monastery, It seemed good, he says, to the divine goodness to call him to heaven. On a certain night therefore, in the dead of it, after the signal for Matins had been given with the bronze bell, while he, resting on his knees, and with hands joined and stretched out to heaven, was praying, he rendered his holy soul to his Creator; and when presently the bells of themselves sounded the Ave Maria, the Nuns and the servants of the monastery ran about through the house, the bells sounding of their own accord. to see who at so unseasonable a time were ringing the bells; and no one being caught, they began to doubt whether perhaps the Saint had rung them: and hastening to his dwelling, which, ill-built and ruinous, was in the garden as a hermitage for him, they found him dead in the posture which has been described. In the hands of the dead man, opened only by obedience, Further, when the servants wished to carry the corpse thence, and to open his hands, they labored in vain, until the Abbess, being called, commanded him in virtue of holy obedience to open his hands: and then at last he did so miraculously, a paper is found with his name. and there was found among them a writing which said, Brother Leo; and it is credible that there was also added, Bishop.
[25] A numerous people run together At this miracle they run together from the neighborhood far around, and, touching and kissing with the utmost religious feeling the body, still placed in the same spot,
they obtained through his merits infinite graces from the Lord. Wherefore, the report being spread through the city, it pleased the nuns not to bury the body so hastily, that the desire of the devout people might be satisfied. But when troops of the sick and of others set in any necessity flowed together unceasingly, the report of the matter flew also to the ears of the Most Reverend Lord John Polanus, bishop of Castello: who resolved to betake himself thither in person; and the Bishop himself and, the body being seen, he made most solemn obsequies for him, all the Clergy of the city, both regular and secular, accompanying, and an innumerable people, stirred up by the fame of the miracles which God was working through the mediation of that venerable body and its merits. who instituted solemn obsequies, Finally, after three days, in which the body had remained unburied, it was laid in a marble chest, and left above ground in the portico of the crypt of the church of St. Laurence, and begins to draw up a process concerning his life, while a process was being drawn up concerning the graces and miracles and of his life passed in adversities and labors.
[26] which was interrupted on account of wars, But indeed, most mournful times for the Republic following on account of the war of Manuel, Emperor of the Greeks, … the fervor of the devout grew cool, and the memory of the Saint was blotted out from the minds of all. Yet the Lord, who is always wonderful in his Saints, did not suffer a man of so great merit to lie long inglorious. Wherefore in the year 1207, under the bishop of Castello, the Most Reverend Lord Philip Cassolus (rather Marcus Nicolai: for in the year 1184 Philip Cassolus had died, and Marcus had succeeded and ruled until the year 1225), Innocent III being supreme Pontiff, the Most Serene Doge being Peter Ziani, and the Abbess of St. Laurence the Most Reverend Mother Sister Maria Barbarigo, the sacristans several times saw a circle of stars in the sky, on account of the succeeding miracles from which there proceeded such a splendor as seemed after the manner of a hand to point out to men the chest of St. Leo, that that singular gem, until then hidden among the corpses of sinners, might be taken thence. After those Mothers had often labored that the chest might be opened, at length after many prayers they overcame the snares of the enemy of our souls, who further desired to hide the glory of God by hiding the miracles of this Saint, now blotted out by forgetfulness from the memory of men. The sepulchre therefore was opened in the presence of the chaplains of the churches of St. Laurence, and the finding of the incorrupt body St. Sebastian, and St. Severus, which are all under the jurisdiction of the Nuns, the Venerable Mother Abbess also assisting; and the body of this Saint was found plainly entire, as though it had been laid there the day before; nor had the flesh hardened, either from the departure of the soul or from length of time, but was delicate and soft, as if the soul had then first departed from it, just as it also endures to this day.
[27] The people, stirred again by so great a novelty of the thing, both those who were far off is resumed; and Leo is declared to be a saint. and those who were near, again applied their minds to prayers and vows: and the Divine goodness, which never fails its faithful, on this occasion consoled many to the glory of its Servant, by lavishing on them the benefits which they asked. Then indeed the bishop of Castello, the first process being resumed and these new prodigies being joined to it, after he had instituted the ordinary consultations, determined that Leo was worthy to be enrolled in the number of the Saints, and, taking him from his chest, with long ceremonies and a procession placed him in a conspicuous chest above the altar in St. Sebastian's.
CHAPTER V.
The finding of the body and the miracles of St. John Plebanus.
Flamma sets John's birth in the year 1325, not rightly; The often-named Flamma, after he had treated of B. Leo, at once subjoins some things concerning B. John Plebanus, but conjecturing with no better fortune, and reasoning with no better foundation here than above. For he sets John's birth in the year 1325, and assigns to him a supreme Pontiff without a name, and the Emperor Henry; whereas nevertheless from the year 1313 no one of that name reigned. He then makes John a priest and a Plebanus, but as having died in the year 1348, so that it is necessary to say that he was never more than 23 years old, and yet, initiated into the priesthood, had the care of souls. Wherefore I think it better simply to confess our ignorance in matters of this kind, when no foundation at all is available for founding a conjecture. Certainly I find no more ancient memorial concerning B. John, after I had gone through all the writings pertaining to him, kindly shown to me in person by the Most Illustrious Lady Abbess, than that which is read in the petition of the monastery of St. Laurence offered to Pope Boniface IX and inserted into his Apostolic letters, reported above in chapter 1. The aforesaid letters were given on the Nones of October in the XI year of the Pontificate of Boniface, that is, of the common Era 1400: before which time the body seems not very long before to have been found, after it had been buried about fifty years; more rightly he sets his death in the year 1348: and accordingly the time of his death is indeed not unfittingly referred by Flamma to the year 1348, if the rest had been fitted to it suitably.
[29] Nothing at all more distinct does the author of the Account, presently to be subjoined, teach us Another Account wrongly notes concerning the Finding of B. John and his miracles — if indeed it be not even more indistinct. That certainly which is set down at the very beginning, namely that the body was found miraculously in the year 1503 under the Abbess Lady Joanna Zeno, contains one or two manifest errors: for either that year does not suit that Abbess, or, if it does suit her, both are wrongly set down; for it is established from the letters of Pope Boniface IX above that before the year 1400 that body had been found, the year of the Finding as 1503, and indeed by the token of a most sweet odor which proceeded from it. Whence also it is less rightly narrated in the same place below that the Nuns came to the knowledge of the body by the token of a star running above the chest: unless you think that all these things can be saved if they be understood of some second Finding, which in the already named year 1503 under the Abbess Joanna was made by the token of a star: for the body could, after it had been ordered to be hidden by Bishop Leonard, have lain hid until the year just named, and have been then revealed by a new miracle. This reasoning is not unfitting; and it will perhaps persuade me that it so happened, if I shall be taught that the Lady Joanna Zeno presided over the monastery as Abbess in that year 1503, and not in 1400 as I reasonably judge. But even granting freely that second finding, and has other incongruities, the author will presently seem again to stumble, where he makes mention of the body treated unbecomingly and hidden away by Bishop Leonard, whom Ughelli teaches to have ruled the diocese of Castello from the year 1392 to 1401; and accordingly it had already then been found.
[30] which are to be pardoned to a woman author. Wherefore I thus determine, that something must be allowed to the author of the Account, both because she was a woman and a Nun, as sufficiently appears from the context; and because she seems to narrate most things from the tradition of others and of the common people; and also because the chief error can, without fault of the author, be cast upon the carelessness of the copyist, setting down 1503 where 1403 should have been, which would have differed little from the truth and would have been accurately enough noted from tradition. I shall therefore give the Account itself, as I found it hanging in the church of St. Sebastian at the altar of St. Laurence burned upon the gridiron, The Account itself is given. in the trunk of which altar the body of B. John is preserved entire, as I remember saying above. It is written on a tablet, easily two feet long, of parchment, sufficiently ancient, in the Italian language, but in a quite simple style, so that even from that it can appear to be from a woman. Here is the title prefixed:
[31] The urn with the body of B. John, fixed to the wall, This is the finding of the body of Blessed John, formerly Plebanus of St. John Beheaded, with some of his miracles. And the body rests in this altar. Then it thus begins: When the body of a certain venerable Religious had been carried to be buried beneath the terrace of the church of the glorious Martyr St. Laurence, many of the clergy and of the congregation of the flagellants and other persons accompanying it, some boys, on account of the crowd of men standing about the funeral, climbed upon a certain chest, supported under the said terrace by two atlantes, for the sake of seeing the body. But it happened that, the atlantes being broken by the weight of the boys sitting upon it, the chest fell down and, striking against another, shattered that one, while itself remained entire and unhurt. Whence, being taken up and carried into the monastery, it was placed in our cemetery beneath an arched wall, and there lay unknown for many years; fell down unhurt; until in the year 1503, under the Abbess Lady Joanna Zeno, it pleased almighty God to reveal the sanctity of this venerable and precious body in the following manner.
[32] above which, long afterwards, a star was seen to run: The office of sacristans was being discharged by the Lady Sister Orsa Falier and the Lady Catherine Soranzo; to whom, as they went to give with the bronze bell the signal for the prayers of Matins, a star was seen, not without a miracle, to run above the aforesaid chest; and this happened again and rather often. Wherefore, judging that something miraculous was here portended, they went to the Lady Abbess, and, relating what they had seen, urgently asked leave to open that chest; which being at length with difficulty obtained, whereupon it is opened, and the body is found entire, they found this sacred deposit entire, with hair, eyelids, teeth, and all the other members; and it was clad in a priestly chasuble, alb, and girdle, whence a most sweet odor was diffused. Then with the highest reverence it was drawn out of that chest, and hidden beneath another which was there at hand. Which being done, the report of the matter was spread through all the land, and a vast multitude of men ran together to see it, and is visited by a numerous people carrying off for themselves out of devotion a part of the garment, so that after three days, during which the concourse continued, nothing of it remained. After these things, God glorifying by his grace this sacred body daily with many and continual miracles, and, growing famous by miracles, it was thence carried with most solemn pomp of procession and with piety in a wooden chest to the chapel of the glorious Martyr St. Sebastian.
[33] Meanwhile, by a long lapse of time after his death, the name of this Saint had gone into oblivion and lay hid, it is translated to St. Sebastian's. when he himself presented himself in a vision to a certain venerable Lady of this monastery, whose name was Sister Nicoletta Gradenigo, and said: Go to the Lady Abbess and tell her He reveals his name. that my name is John. She obeyed, and early in the morning related her vision not only to the Abbess but also to the other nuns; who, diligently investigating and questioning persons greater in age as to who that priest might be who was formerly buried in that place, learned at length that it was the Plebanus of St. John Beheaded, and he by name John, a man of holy and exemplary life. Nor is it right to believe otherwise. And now for a long time he had been devoutly buried in this place, when God willed his glory to be made manifest in him and to exalt and magnify him.
[34] For more than fifty years the concourse of the people, stirred by the fame of the miracles, had continued to the sacred body, preserved with becoming honor: The body is visited by the Bishop when on a certain day the Bishop of Venice, at that time Lord Leonard, wished himself also to come to see the sacred deposit, but with the intention
and with a disposition less right: for when he had approached, treating the sacred body quite unworthily and irreverently, and is ordered to be hidden away without honor: he ordered it to be taken thence and to be placed in a less fitting spot, laying a command upon the Abbess and the other Ladies under pain of excommunication that they should not thereafter show that body to anyone, and should keep perpetual silence concerning it. But after he departed thence, so great a pain by divine judgment came upon him in one arm by the same man, being divinely punished, that he believed himself to be near death: and, recognizing his error and his slight devotion toward this Holy body, on account of which he suspected that this misfortune had befallen him, he turned his step, and ordered the body to be carried back with great reverence to its former place. it is restored to its place. He obtained moreover from Pope Boniface IX, at that time presiding over the Church, that (as appears from the bull of his Holiness preserved in this monastery) it should be lawful to expose the aforesaid body to be beheld, to celebrate Mass over it, and to venerate him as a saint and a friend of God: and that he truly is such it is permitted to judge from the miracles which are manifestly seen daily, and some of which will here be recounted as a sign of his sanctity.
[35] And first indeed a young man of 18 years, oppressed by a malignant spirit, came to visit this blessed body. Nor did any delay intervene before he was healed through the merits of the Saint. At the sacred body a demoniac is set free, A certain woman of the Barbafella family, palsied in her whole body, came leaning on crutches to this sacred body, where, her prayers being devoutly completed, she returned home having obtained perfect health, leaving her crutches in the church. two palsied persons are healed, One of the sons of the Lord Luke Donati, by name Francis, having a foot palsied and altogether useless for human employments, being stretched over the sacred body, at once obtained soundness of limbs. the use of limbs is restored, The little daughter of master Guido Coltrer, sick in her whole body and so weak that she could use no limb, after she had been laid upon the body already named, departed sound. A certain woman, touching the sacred body with slight reverence and faith, one punished for irreverence recovers, was straightway seized in shoulder and arm with a vehement pain: but, recognizing her sin, and repenting of the deed, she found without delay that all the pain had vanished. a dangerous abscess suddenly vanishes. The Lady Sister Lucretia Michiel, who is still living, and discharges with dignity the office of Prioress in this monastery, was suffering in one of her hands a huge abscess with pain, and it was on a certain day to be lanced by a physician, not without danger of losing the hand: when on the day before, toward evening, she had recourse to this spiritual physician St. John, imploring his help with great devotion. And behold, at the following dawn she found her hand as if at no time an abscess had grown upon it.
[36] One destitute of his senses The Lord Marcus Bondumier, when he was at Tana, was seized by a certain sickness with the privation of all his senses: but before he departed from Venice, a certain sister of his, a Religious of this monastery, had given him at his going a girdle which had touched the sacred body, that he might devoutly wear it. And indeed, as often as he remembered the said girdle, he signed himself with it with some relief of his malady, until, having landed at Venice, is carried to the body, and returns walking. he took care to be carried in a basket (for he could not move himself) to the body of St. John, to whom, devoutly commending himself with tears, he obtained what he desired, and returned walking on his own feet in the presence of many men worthy of credit. A useless hand is cured, A certain woman, Perina Massara by name, in this our monastery, had wholly lost the use of one hand; and, the physicians despairing that health could be recovered, she devoutly visited the body of St. John, and there, signing herself, received perfect health of her hand. a pain of the head, A certain little son of the Lord Triadan Gritti was sometimes brought to delirium by a certain infirmity of the head; to whom a certain woman of his house said: Commend yourself to B. John at St. Laurence's; which also he did, taking care besides that a little cap should be hallowed by the touch of his body, which he set upon his head, a dislocated leg, and he came off sound. The wife of the Lord Aloysius de Pesaro had by a fall dislocated her leg, and the malady had so grown that she could no longer move of herself: but taking refuge in the help of B. John, she put the malady to flight, and left her crutches there, being sound. a mute tongue, A certain little son of the Lord Paul Coltrer, mute from his birth, being brought to the body of the blessed Man, was seized with sleep, from which, being afterwards awakened, he began to speak clearly and distinctly. a palsied daughter, A certain daughter of the Lord John Pollanus, palsied in her whole body, was stretched over the body of B. John, with the recovery of her former health. In like manner very many children, oppressed with various diseases, were signed with this sacred body and healed. sciatica and other maladies. And lately the wife of the Lord John of Mantua, a physician, suffering from sciatica in one leg, when she came to this sacred body, obtained health. Finally very many other miracles are daily seen, wrought by the intercession of this Servant of God, which for brevity's sake I pass over in silence.