ON BL. RAINALD OR RAYNALD, ARCHBISHOP OF RAVENNA,
AT RAVENNA IN ITALY,
In the year MCCCXXI.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Rainald, archbishop of Ravenna in Italy (Bl.)
BY G. C.
§ I. The veneration of the Blessed one from time immemorial, his miracles, relics, a certain eulogy, and the chief writer of his Acts.
Although this blessed Bishop does not yet seem to have been solemnly enrolled in the number of the Saints, It is established from various documents as Ferrari noted on this day in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and Girolamo Fabri in the Sacred Monuments of Ravenna, part 2, page 514, confesses, yet this last Italian writer rightly proves in the same place that this Prelate has from time immemorial had a lawful title of blessed and a public cult of the Saints. This he first demonstrates from an old manuscript Missal which is in the archive of Ravenna, where the memory of blessed Rainald the archbishop is celebrated. Moreover he asserts that it is read in the municipal statutes of Ravenna that formerly the Magistracy came every year on the XVIII day of August to honor his tomb, and offered a taper there. He also makes mention of the altar which was erected in the Metropolitan church to his posthumous glory, on which is read this inscription: To the Virgin Mother of God, and to the blessed archbishops of this church, Rainald and Ursus. Finally the praised author shows by various arguments that the public cult of Bl. Rainald still flourished in his own time, and that his yearly festival is celebrated with an ecclesiastical Office on this day not only in the diocese of Ravenna but also in that of Adria. This immemorial veneration of Bl. Rainald will be confirmed by what is to be said below.
[2] I have at hand the Calendar of the holy metropolitan archiepiscopal church of Ravenna and of its diocese, concerning the immemorial cult of this Blessed one, which was revised by order of the most illustrious and most reverend Lord Luca Torrigiani, archbishop of Ravenna, and printed in the year 1660, and in which at the XVIII day of August the yearly festival of Rainald, archbishop and confessor of Ravenna, is recorded, and an Office of him under a double rite is prescribed to be recited. But I doubt whether hitherto that Office is recited from the Common of a confessor pontiff, or whether it is proper to this Blessed one. The reason for doubting is that our Papebroch excerpted concerning the same blessed Prelate, from a manuscript Lectionary of the church of Ravenna, three proper lessons of the second Nocturn, when in the year 1660 with Henschen he stayed a while at Ravenna. But Papebroch notes in his manuscript Itinerary that that Lectionary had not then yet been approved at Rome. At least among the proper Offices of the Saints of the holy Metropolitan church of Ravenna, now for the first time approved by the sacred Congregation of Rites,
and published at Venice in the year 1665 by order of the most illustrious and most reverend Lord Luca Torrigiani, archbishop and prince of that same holy church, nowhere do three proper lessons of Bl. Rainald appear. But I do not know whether those three lessons were afterwards approved at Rome, which perhaps someone composed out of private devotion, or prepared in order to obtain approval. However it be, it is sufficiently established from elsewhere concerning the ancient cult of this Blessed one, which without doubt had its beginning immediately after his death on account of the evident and authentic miracles which we shall subjoin below to the Acts, and concerning which we shall now premise something.
[3] who after his death grew famous for miracles, Girolamo Rossi in the History of the People of Ravenna at the year of Christ 1321, book 6, in my copy pages 538 and following, relates this of Bl. Rainald when already dead: At his corpse, while it had not yet been laid in the tomb, many miracles were wrought, and in the following days and years also; and, to omit the rest, James Benincasa, a jurisconsult of Ravenna, when, all hope of health being despaired of and being utterly forsaken, he was afflicted with the sharpest pains of the gout, and had bound himself by a vow to celebrate solemnly every year the feast day of Rainald, on the day after that day was freed of his pains and of his disease. Which happened at the same time to John Grado also, in a grave pain of the head and of the eyes, when he had gone to Rainald's tomb and had suppliantly implored his aid. Likewise from the territory of Ravenna, from that village whose name is Erbosa, a woman called Blonda, agitated by an evil spirit beyond what can be told, and dragged with the greatest force by her kinsmen to Rainald's tomb, is set free. With like happiness Thomasina, daughter of Peter Lambardanus of Ravenna, a consecrated virgin of the convent of St. Mary surnamed Padriele, which was at Cenceda not far from the walls, and which, now translated into the city, we call St. Stephen among the Olives, languishing with a palsy of all her limbs, when she had invoked the holy Man's patronage, is suddenly restored to health. And let it suffice to have gathered these few out of the many which are wrought day by day.
[4] Nor were these prodigies merely bandied about among the common people, as sometimes happens in a vague and popular manner, juridically examined, but they were lawfully discussed and proved, as Rossi, praised just above, indicates in book 6 of the History of Ravenna at the year of Christ 1326, page 545, in the following words: In this interval, since Rainald, archbishop of Ravenna, though already dead, day by day shone forth with an admirable brightness of prodigies, in this same year, in the month of August, an inquiry concerning them was instituted by Nicholas of Cortona, vicar of Archbishop Aimeric, many witnesses being gathered in the Ursian church who affirmed upon oath that they had been divinely freed of grave perils and diseases when a vow was made to him; as appears from those records which upon this matter John Morandus, son of Morandus and grandson of Guido, a notary of Ravenna, called to write down those testimonies, drew up. While our Godfrey Henschen in the year 1660 stayed some days at Ravenna, he transcribed the Acts and miracles of Bl. Rainald from the manuscript records of that church, whose transcript we shall below compare with the edition of Ferdinando Ughelli, who published the same a few years later in his Italia Sacra. Now something must be said of the venerable relics of that same blessed Prelate.
[5] The most learned Rossi in book 6 of the praised History at the year of Christ 1321, page 538, after narrating the death of Bl. Rainald, writes thus concerning these: and whose body long remained incorrupt, He was buried in a monument of marble in the Ursian church; which, when in former years Giulio Feltrio della Rovere, Cardinal, archbishop of Ravenna, had commanded to be opened in his presence, the corpse of the holy Man, as the Cardinal himself affirmed to me, was found entire and almost fresh, with a long beard, of tall stature, of noble form, and of an aspect suited to his dignity. Girolamo Fabri in the aforesaid Monuments of Ravenna, part 1, page 19, adds that that sacred body was afterwards found in the same condition by the most eminent Pietro Aldobrandini, archbishop of the church of Ravenna, who departed this life in the year of Christ 1621. And when the sacred corpse had remained incorrupt for three centuries, at last in that violent inundation of the year 1636 it was dissolved, the water penetrating into the tomb and remaining there a long while, as the praised Italian historian attests in the place cited.
[6] Finally the most illustrious Lord Luca Torrigiani in the year 1659 ordered these relics of Bl. Rainald to be solemnly translated to the chapel of the most blessed Virgin Mary the sacred relics, afterwards dissolved, being translated to an honorable place. and honorably placed there, as is clear from the following inscription: The venerable remains of the divine Rainald, archbishop of Ravenna, though illustrious with the divine splendor of miracles, yet obscure in a humble corner of the basilica, Luca Torrigiani, archbishop, transferred, as this chapel of the munificence of Ravenna arose, that they might rise more illustrious to the more eminent light of public devotion, as a perpetual monument of his own piety, in the year of salvation MDCLIX. This inscription is related in the Sacred Monuments of Ravenna, part 2, page 514, by Girolamo Fabri, who in part 1 of the same Italian Work, page 19, had written that the people of Ravenna piously flock, especially on the yearly festival of Bl. Rainald, to venerate his tomb, and that then a little woolen cap of black color, which the blessed Bishop used in his life, is there exposed to public veneration. Francesco Barbarano de' Mironi, a Capuchin, in the Ecclesiastical History of the City and Diocese of Vicenza, book 2, chapter 57, adds that this little cap of the Blessed one is touched with great devotion and confidence by those who are afflicted with pain of the head. Moreover the immemorial and lawful cult of Bl. Rainald is abundantly proved by all these things, to which we shall now subjoin a certain brief eulogy or compendium of his life.
[7] Ferrari wove for him a compendium of his life, Philip Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy at the XVIII day of August, from the Monuments of the Church of Ravenna and from Girolamo Rossi, as he himself indicates, gathered the following synopsis of his deeds in this manner: Raynald, a Milanese by birth, of the family of Concorezzo, was first a Canon of the church of Lodi (when Pope Boniface VIII had sent him into France to make peace between Philip, king of France, and Edward, king of England), then governor of all Emilia, then bishop of Vicenza. But when Opizo, archbishop of Ravenna, had died, the people of Ravenna, holding an assembly after their custom in the Ursian church, elect Raynald and Leonard Fieschi, Provost of the church of Bruges: of whom Pope Benedict IX, who had succeeded Boniface, approved Raynald, whose character he had well examined and who had celebrated the sacred rite in his presence. He promoted and increased the divine worship by the publishing of most holy laws. He held a council of the bishops of the province in the year of the Lord MCCCVII, in which many most salutary decrees for the churches were made. Him the emperor Henry VII employed, so long as he was in Cisalpine Gaul, administering almost all things by his counsel, until, changed for the worse, he filled all Italy with disturbances, Robert king of Sicily being deprived of his kingdom by public edict. To him also Pope Clement V committed the cause of the Templars to be examined, because he knew him to be a most equitable man and most skilled in the laws. At length, having discharged many labors for the Church, in the year of salvation MCCCXXI, on the XV Kalends of September, he fell asleep not without a great reputation of sanctity; famous after his death for miracles. Then he briefly subjoins a few miracles which we have exhibited above from Rossi, and more of which we shall relate below after the Acts. Now in the following paragraph that compendium of the Acts will have to be somewhat illustrated and set in chronological order, after we shall here have premised certain things concerning the writer of the Life.
[8] and in the year 1413 his fuller Acts were collected, Ninety and some years after the death of Bl. Rainald, Nicholas of Rimini of the Order of Minors gathered his Acts and miracles, as appears from the title which is thus prefixed to our copy: A treatise on the laudable life of the happy archbishop blessed Rainald, published by me, Brother Nicholas of Rimini, of the Order of Minors, humble professor of sacred theology, in the year MCDXIII. And this writer notes in the prologue that he had gathered the deeds of that holy Man noted here and there and related by word of mouth by many, and had mingled with them a brief introduction and three sermons which might be delivered before the people in praise of that Bishop. This introduction and those three sermons are at hand for us in the transcript which the most learned Ughelli most courteously communicated to our Elders. But it is not of our purpose to publish in print this introduction or those sermons, which contain nothing historical and can be fitted to any Saint of the same condition. Wherefore the praised Ughelli also, passing over all these, published only the Acts and miracles of Bl. Rainald, as in the latest Venetian edition of Italia Sacra, volume 2, column 382, treating of that blessed Man, he attests in these words: In the diocese of Ravenna and of Adria on the same XVIII day of August his feast day is celebrated with an ecclesiastical Office; whose Life, written in the year MCDXIII and extracted from an old manuscript codex of the archiepiscopal archive, was communicated by a man joined to us with the highest good will, upright, learned, and eminently versed in venerable antiquity, Girolamo de' Fabri, theologian Canon of the Metropolitan church of Ravenna, which we have thought good to exhibit, since hitherto it is unpublished. Then in the same place he subjoins to this notice the promised Acts and miracles of Bl. Rainald, omitting however the collector's prologue, which we shall exhibit below.
[9] Certainly our Henschen in the year 1660 had a like manuscript codex before his eyes, which our Henschen transcribed at Ravenna. when he transcribed at Ravenna the Acts and miracles of that same blessed Prelate, then not yet published in print: for he also makes mention of the aforesaid introduction, which he asserts to be wholly moral and composed upon these words of Ecclesiasticus: He chose him out of all flesh, and gave him a heart unto (thus, for coram, is read in the Complutensian and Sixtine editions) the precepts, and the law of life and of instruction. Nicholas of Rimini, weighing those words of holy Scripture, shows that all sanctity consists in these three things, as Henschen there notes, although he did not transcribe the introduction itself. Then after the Acts and miracles of Bl. Rainald he also makes mention of the three sermons, whose opening or prologue runs thus: I consider the threefold state of the most blessed bishop Rainald, in which he was famous for virtues and merits and rendered welcome service to the Lord. For he was a Cleric, a Priest, and a Bishop or Prelate. Aiming therefore to break forth into his praises, I have purposed to compile a threefold sermon or treatise for his exaltation: the first of him as Cleric, the second as Priest, and the third as Prelate, in each a theme being first assumed from the sacred volume of the Scriptures. Finally Henschen noted in the same place that he had omitted the rest, because in them nothing singular concerning the deeds of Bl. Rainald occurred. But since Nicholas of Rimini in the Acts themselves also passed over some deeds of the blessed Man, and related most of his other actions and virtues in general without any note of time, we shall now draw out certain gleanings from elsewhere, and shall here, so far as may be, set the chief deeds of the Blessed one in chronological order.
Annotata. Perhaps exoriantur or exorirentur*.
§ II. The chronological order of the Acts, and certain gleanings of the same.
Our Blessed one was born at Milan (I know not at about what time, although this may somehow be conjectured from what is to be said below), and is said to have sprung from the stock of the Concorezzi, which Tristano Calco, Morigia, and other historians reckon among the most noble families of the city of Milan. The Blessed one is said to have been born at Milan of a noble family, That surname of the blessed Prelate is expressed variously by various writers: for Barbarano, praised above, in book 2 of the History of Vicenza, chapter 57, surnames him in Italian Grancoreggi; but others call the same in the vernacular Concorreggi or Concorrezzi, and in Latin Concoregium or Concorretium. Whatever be the case concerning this diversity of expression, in the old Spicilegium of the History of Ravenna, which ends at the year 1346 and was lately published among the Writers of Italian Affairs, volume 1, part 2, page 579, the surname of that same Bishop is thus read: In the year of the Lord MCCCXIV. In the month of August. The whole nave of the Ursian church of Ravenna was built anew, in the time of the lord Rainald de Corrigio, archbishop of Ravenna. Thus far concerning the country of our Blessed one, which his Minorite biographer also expressly records, although he is silent concerning the surname already related.
[11] and, having been enrolled among the Canons of Lodi, he afterwards lived at Rome, His boyhood or youth being piously passed, our Blessed one was most probably enrolled among the Canons of the city of Laus in Italy, which is commonly called Lodi, although some writers name him Canon of Laon, whereas Laudunum is properly a city of Gaul which is called by the inhabitants in the vernacular Laon. While he was leading a holy life among the Canons, he was called to Rome, as Girolamo Rossi in book 6 of the History of Ravenna at the year of Christ 1303, page 508, relates, where on the occasion of the election of Bl. Rainald to the archbishopric of Ravenna he at the same time narrates his earlier deeds, and calls him a man of approved uprightness, who nine years before, when he was of the household and domestics of Benedict Caetani, Cardinal Deacon of Saints Cosmas and Damian, and a Canon of Laon, had obtained from Pope Boniface, Benedict's uncle, at Benedict's own request, that, while attending upon that Cardinal's service in the Pontifical court, or by his order or permission anywhere in the world, he might receive, apart from the daily distributions, the fruits which he drew in the sacred buildings of Laon and of St. Martin de Bolate of the diocese of Milan, of which he held a canonry, and in others which he should afterwards obtain, even with the cure of souls, and that he should not be bound to reside.
[12] then he ascended the see of Vicenza, Then he was raised to the see of Vicenza, the time and circumstances of which Ughelli in the Venetian edition of Italia Sacra, volume 5, column 1057, assigns in this manner: Blessed Raynald Concoregio, a Milanese, was promoted to this see in the year MCCXCVI, Boniface VIII so judging, who declared null and void the election of the Chapter made in the person of Guido, Prior of the Friars Preachers of Vicenza, although the same had received the office of consecration from the patriarch of Aquileia … After this Raynald was rector and vicar general of the Patrimony of St. Peter. He is read to have labored in vain as Apostolic nuncio in France, when he had more than once attempted by his industry to bring about peace between the kings of the French and of the English. Having returned to Italy, after the seventh year of his administration he became archbishop of Ravenna.
[13] he was sent as legate into France, The most illustrious Rossi in the Work already often praised and to be praised sets forth more distinctly at the year of Christ 1299, page 502, the blessed Prelate's French legation, on the occasion of the letters which Pope Boniface VIII had given to Rainald, bishop of Vicenza, whom at the beginning of this year (namely 1299, of which he there treats), when he had sent him into France as an envoy to reconcile peace between Philip king of France and Edward king of Britain, he also ordered to demand subsidies for the Pontifical treasury from the bishops and consecrated men of that kingdom, whose grateful or ungrateful disposition, the Pontiff said, he wished to test … And if he should find any contumacious, he should order them to appear at Rome to answer for their offense. Nor yet had the Pontiff failed to appoint a certain daily stipend for Rainald, to be paid by the Florentine society of the Franciscans; and, to provide for his honor, he had granted to six men in sacred orders whom he had with him that, although they did not reside, yet, while they were of his household, they might enjoy the revenues of their benefices, apart from what they call the daily distributions. Afterwards a dissension arose between Pope Boniface VIII and Philip king of France, on account of which perhaps our Blessed one, bishop of Vicenza, returned to Italy.
[14] Certainly in the year of Christ 1302 he obtained the government of Flaminia or Emilia, and, being made rector of Emilia or Flaminia, of which Ughelli made passing mention above. But what befell him in this prefecture the praised Rossi in book 6 of his History at the year 1302, page 505 and following, thus explains in detail: Rainald, bishop of Vicenza, of a Milanese house, of the family of Concorezzo, created by the Pontiff rector of sacred and profane affairs in Flaminia, entered the province on the third of the Ides of April, three days after Andrew of Cereto, by order of Charles the Squinter, brother of the king of the French, had held an assembly of the whole province at Cesena; James Pagano, bishop of Rieti, departing, whom Pope Boniface punished with the loss of his bishopric for having ill managed public affairs in this province.
[15] After this, when certain seditions and civil wars have been related, Rossi goes on thus: he strenuously governed that province. Rainald meanwhile, rector of the province, did not cease from his zeal for peace, and diligently met troubles as the matter required: but when he was at Forlì, which city the Ordelaffi and their followers governed, a popular tumult being stirred up, he received a deadly wound on the Kalends of September; at about which time Maghinardus of Susinana, prince of Imola and Faenza, departed this life at Imola. Bernardino da Polenta was still pressing Cesena with war, and John Putirolus of Milan, a man renowned for valor, was governing it; but when he was more sharply pressed day by day and was aided by no succors from the allies, Uberto Malatesta, Count of Ghiaggiolo, son of Paul, entered upon its magistracy and prefecture on the XIII Kalends of February, especially since, with Theodoric Calisidius and Ubertino Articlino at variance with each other, who had already run to arms in the forum, it seemed likely soon to undergo a great crisis. But three days later Rainald, rector of the province, arrived, freed of his wound by a plainly divine miracle, and reconciled them with each other, and ordered Theodoric, who with his sons had left the city, to return to his country. Presently in the Pontiff's name he commanded Opizo, archbishop of Ravenna, that, the bishopric of Forlimpopoli being vacant by the death of Bishop Thaddeus, he should not consecrate Peppo Ordelaffi of Forlì, designated bishop of that city by most people, nor approve the election. The same he signified to the assembly of the church of Ravenna and to their vicars, that Boniface had for certain causes then reserved that election to himself. There may be read in the same place other things which Bl. Raynald did in the administration of this province.
[16] Now let us see in what manner that Bishop of Vicenza was translated to the see of Ravenna, and how long he governed that church with the highest praise. Ferdinando Ughelli in the latest Venetian edition of Italia Sacra, volume 2, column 382, will teach us these things in these few words: Finally he was raised to the metropolitan see of the church of Ravenna, Raynald Concoregio, a Milanese, formerly bishop of Vicenza and rector of the province of Emilia, was raised to the same see by the Chapter and Clergy of Ravenna with divided votes together with Leonard Fieschi, and was confirmed in the same dignity by Benedict XI (his rival being excluded) and consecrated in the year MCCCIII. With singular love and piety he governed this church, and, holding frequent councils, so cut the throat of abuses and of fallen ecclesiastical morals that he seemed to have corrected his whole diocese and Clergy to the standard of the ancient canons. He died not without a reputation of holiness in MCCCXXI, on the XV Kalends of September, and was buried in a marble tomb in the Ursian church, whence afterwards he flashed forth with most illustrious miracles. Rossi narrates these several deeds of Bl. Rainald, which are here touched upon in passing by Ughelli, more fully from the year 1303 to the year 1321 in the History of the People of Ravenna, from which we shall excerpt a few briefer eulogies.
[17] which with great prudence, That most cultivated historian in book 6, in my copy page 512, has the following: Meanwhile Rainald the archbishop, advancing day by day in virtues and religion, diligently took care that the purest worship of the divine Godhead should be propagated among his people by the publishing of most holy laws; wherefore he often visited the towns of the archbishopric, and especially Argenta, and held a provincial council at Ravenna in the year from the birth of Christ MCCCVII. The most useful decrees of this and of the other provincial synods which the blessed Archbishop drew up may be consulted after Rossi's History, page 837 and following. About the same time, on Rossi's testimony in the same place, there arrived meanwhile grave letters against the Knights Templar sent to Rainald by the Pontiff, in which he committed that cause to be examined to Rainald and to some colleagues in all Italy. If anyone desire to know what the blessed Man did in that very well known cause of the Knights Templar, which had been committed to him by Pope Clement V, let him turn over Rossi at this year and at some following, where he mentions this matter here and there.
[18] with singular fortitude, With how great constancy this Prelate defended the immunity of the Church appears from the same Rossi, who at the year of Christ 1321, page 535, relates this: In the same year Rainald the archbishop, by the command and authority of Pope John, laid an interdict upon Frederick, Guido, and Sperantia, sons of the Count of Urbino — whom the Pontiff in his letters calls pestilent sons born of a poisoned root — and upon the people of Urbino themselves, because with most unworthy and most grievous slaughters they had seized Urbino and very many other towns subject to the Roman Church, had driven out many citizens, and were oppressing the rest with a most harsh rule: besides this, because Frederick had assumed to himself the prefecture of Osimo, Recanati, and likewise of the exiles of Jesi and of the other people of Picenum, and had taken the town of Pira itself, first surrounded by a long siege, and had wickedly plundered it; because Guido had done the same in the town of St. Donato, and had ordered the envoy of Amelio de Belmont, who governed Picenum for the Pontiff, to be seized with his letters near the gates of Urbino and to be delivered into custody; whence, had not the Legate escaped by a great benefit of God, he would have paid the penalty with his head. Nor indeed did Rainald only read out and publish these Pontifical letters of interdict, but he ordered all in his dominion to whom he had sent them to do the same; and, by the same command of the Pontiff, he aided the rector of that province with horse and foot, that the boldness and wickedness of the exiles of Picenum might be beaten back.
[19] Finally Rossi at the same year narrates in what manner the blessed Bishop, and with the spiritual profit of his flock he ruled it laudably, by drawing up most prudent decrees, recalled certain Religious Orders in his diocese to their former discipline, and thus recounts the other pious works of this diligent Pastor together with his happy death: But when Rainald had also reformed the manners and life of the consecrated virgins, and had raised and dedicated in the Ursian church an altar to the Cross, in which he had enclosed a marble chest full of many and excellent relics of holy men, and had, certain laws being laid down, enriched it with estates; and had also established an assembly of the priests who preside over the parishes of Ravenna, who on fixed days should perform the funeral rites and, for the dead, psalms and prayers
conceived out of the sacred books should recite — an institution established many ages before and corrupted in this time of Rainald through the license of the priests — those being wholly rejected who cast reproaches and insults against God and holy men, and gave themselves to harlots' loves, and were noted for other vices: in the same year MCCCXXI, not without a great reputation of sanctity among all, on the fifteenth of the Kalends of September, dying peacefully, he flew away to the heavenly country; a Man deservedly to be heaped with all praise, who together with the use and management of great human affairs kept perpetually joined religion and the care of piety and of eternal things.
[20] All modern writers agree in assigning the year and day of his death which Rossi here noted, and at length on this day of the year 1321 he passed to the heavenly ones. and that date can be confirmed from the old Spicilegium of the History of Ravenna, which was lately published among the Writers of Italian Affairs, as I noted above, and where in volume 1, part 2, page 579, there is read to our purpose the following: In the year of the Lord MCCCXXI, on Tuesday, the XVIII day of the month of August, the lord Rainald the archbishop gave the last term to his life, and dies in glory, and on the following day was buried in the greater church of Ravenna. Now nothing remains but that we publish in print the Acts and miracles of this blessed Man from the transcript of our Henschen, which we shall first compare with the edition or the other copy of Ughelli, as we promised above.
Annotata. Read ineundam*.
ACTS AND MIRACLES,
Which Nicholas of Rimini the Minorite collected in the year of Christ MCDXIII.
From the transcript of our Henschen, who wrote it out at Ravenna from the manuscript documents of that church, and which has been collated with the Ughellian edition.
Rainald, archbishop of Ravenna in Italy (Bl.)
BHL Number: 7081
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
PROLOGUE.
To the religious man, the lord Christopher, honored Canon of the holy church of Ravenna, Brother Nicholas of Rimini a, least of the Minors, wishes happy consolation in the Lord []. The author gives the reason of his writing. Taking a bond from the side of Christ, thou hast bound me to thee, beloved, with deeper affection; whereby I can no longer put off what thou, in many an entreaty, hast in friendly wise demanded of me, who am truly thine: namely, that I should describe, according to the small measure of my capacity, the life and merits of Bl. Rainald, once the happy archbishop of the church of Ravenna. Wherefore, so far as ability is mine, desiring to satisfy thy laudable wish, I have gathered together compendiously, in a familiar style and as briefly and clearly as I could, the deeds of that holy Man noted here and there and related by word of mouth by many: and since these things are to be piously [] recited to the people under the form of a sermon, I shall, a theme being taken from the sacred Books, premise a certain brief introduction b to the Legend, and add to the same three sermons c to the people, so that the most worthy proclamations of that holy Man's praises may be set forth by preachers four times over and in various ways. Thee also, father, I beseech to be mindful of me, while I shall commemorate in humble prayer to God the sanctity of the man of God Rainald, toward whom with a most forward [*] devotion I burn with all my mind and all my limbs. Fare thee happily well d.
ANNOTATIONS.
. Otherwise consalutat*.
. Otherwise primum*.
. Otherwise prænimia*.
CHAPTER I.
The Blessed one's country, his pious youth, and his life holily led among the clergy.
The Blessed one, a native of Milan, Bl. Rainald of famous memory, the happy Archbishop of the church of Ravenna, drew his origin from the parts of Lombardy, from the city of Milan: who, while he was still a young lad living with his parents, at their exhortation, being now sufficiently imbued with the doctrine of Grammar, and eagerly cleaving the way to the schools of learning with a diligent mind, became not slightly skilled in the liberal arts. But when, being now drawn on, he desired to add to this foundation already laid the summit of wisdom — which is fully granted only to purified minds — spurning also with his whole heart the vanities of this world, and restraining the impulses of sense with the bridle of reason, he began fervently to lead a celibate life: and that he might the more fitly perfect it by perseverance, being touched inwardly by a ray of the divine light and captured by the love of heaven, and forgetful of all his parents and kinsfolk of the flesh, he left the whole world, and, sweetly embracing Christ within the bosom of his mind as a bundle of myrrh — Christ who is the straight way, the clear truth, and the living life — he became a religious a Cleric. In which religious state indeed, taking up the shield of faith and fervently following the footsteps of Christ, he so strove to tighten the bond of charity toward God that he desired to know nothing save, with the Apostle, Jesus Christ crucified, for whose love he also loved his neighbor in all things with an affection no less deep than himself.
[3] But being made a true emulator of Christ, whose love is never idle, being made a Cleric he practices various virtues, and panting to receive a double fruit [*], he busied himself to labor with all diligence in the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth. For he gave himself with all effort to three things. First, he attended diligently and carefully upon the divine worship. For he looked upon holy things faithfully, performed them reverently, and ministered most devoutly; and he prayed with so great a delight of his devout mind that in praying he seemed absorbed into God by the sweetness of divine contemplation. To all the canonical Hours indeed he came first and departed last, and urged on the others also; and in this above all his look was offended, if he had noticed in anyone any omission or negligence or slackness or unlawful interruption or vanity, or in any way an idle withdrawing of the mind from the office, while the prayers and psalmody were being rendered.
[4] But by the ordinance of God, who, that he may more strongly encourage his servants to better things, sometimes affords them by certain gifts of consolation a certainty of the eternal reward of heaven, and being encouraged by a divine vision, it happened once that, when he had devoutly celebrated the Sunday Matins by night with the other Clerics, he remained in the church; and while with the recapitulation of his mind he was ruminating upon the holy words of God which he had uttered in praying in the choir, it seemed to him that he had passed over one verse or one word without a taste of devotion [], or without firmness of attention toward God: and the Man of God, fearing lest the said Matins had not been offered to heaven, began it again from the beginning, and a second time rendered it with the greatest devotion and fervor of spirit. Which being finished, since from the long performance [] of prayer he had stood there a long time (for now the dawn was breaking), going to his humble bed he slept a little while; and as he slept there appeared to him in a vision the Lord in kingly habit, yet with a fatherly aspect, with a vast troop of angels, who, dividing food for a meal with his own hands into portions, seemed to hand a single portion to each of the Clerics who had that night celebrated the sacred Matins in the church. But to the man of God Rainald he offered a double portion, saying: "Have a twofold reward, because thou didst pour forth a twofold prayer."
[5] The man of God Rainald therefore, being awakened, gave thanks to God, knowing without doubt from the revelation made to him that the merciful God had mercifully accepted that faithful prayer, he eagerly presses on to perfection, and he became much more careful and ready for the divine praises and for the unwearied pursuit of prayer. For he judged that more of the secrets of the divine mind are known, and the depths of the sacred Letters more clearly searched out, by the pursuit of holy prayer and devotion than by human exercise or by learning humanly acquired. Secondly, diligent and unwearied with exceeding readiness, he practiced the offices of charity upon the needs of his neighbors. Thirdly, he took his leisure from his inmost heart in the sacred Scripture and the doctrine of the saints; and whatever of the divine law or of moral [] discipline he had once cast into his mind, he tenaciously impressed upon his memory. For not in vain did he receive with the hearing of a mind attentive what he ruminated upon with the affection of a continual devotion. By these things, therefore, the servant of God Rainald was so drawn that, as a despiser of the world, he desired nothing of the temporal things of the world save so much as the necessity of his poor body scarcely required; and he used so great an uprightness of intention in all things that whatever of holiness [] and of justice he showed in his outward acts, that he wrought far more vehemently [*] in his affection, striving effectually to keep for the Lord a soul innocent and purged of every stain.
[6] and after a strict rule of living Strict also in discipline, he stood ever watchful over the guarding of himself, taking the greatest care for preserving the purity and chastity of the man both inward and outward. For he indulged his soul b, and by fastings and vigils and very many other austerities of the body, so that by the chastisement of the flesh there might be no rebellion against reason in the soul; and that in every war against the spirit the soldier might come off victorious. Him neither greatness nor the increase of virtue puffed up; nay rather, he judged himself the most wretched among the rest, and set all before himself in dignity and in place, and offered them the humble service [*] of charity: and lest his devout soul should be lulled by the heaviness of the body from the exercise of virtue, or grow sluggish, he was ever an enemy of feasting, master of himself, and sober; and thus he strove perseveringly to complete the course of the holy life which he had received.
[7] being ordained to the priesthood, At length the happy man Rainald, when he had been marked with the character of the priesthood, shone more simple and more upright, and far more notable in virtues; who, being made holier, despising himself with a more intent humility, deemed himself more unworthy of men's praises and of the gifts of divine grace; and often mocked by the wicked, rejoicing he sang to the Lord, saying: A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit; a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise; for thou resistest the proud, but to the humble thou givest grace. He went also through the city and the lands in a decent form of dress and content with mean cloth, offering himself to the service of the poor and the weak, firmly believing that by the step of humility, which is the guardian of virtues, the divine hand would open lofty heaven above him c. So great a priest of Christ was so simple, true, and upright, and his life so without falsehood, that whatever his tongue said or his deeds set forth seemed almost equal in authority to the Gospel.
[8] all the parts of his office But above all he asserted the orthodox truth of God so fervently, and approved it with so many virtues, that the things we hope for and see not were judged by many to be manifest to him. Wherefore he provoked and led unbelievers to the faith, and strengthened weak Christians in the faith: for he did not fear to expose himself to the flames to approve the truth of the Catholic faith, and therefore hoped the more firmly for the things which he believed with the greater faith. Being made a priest, in intention [] and affection he possessed evangelical poverty for a treasure of riches, being made a despiser of the world and a merchant of heaven, giving heed to the word of the Savior, who said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.* For besides a very sparing sustenance and a humble clothing he wished to have nothing, being gladder in want than in the possession of earthly
things in abundance. Being once asked why he rejoiced in so great want and spurned all things of the world, he answered: "I rejoice in poverty that I may enjoy riches; I neglect all things that I may possess all: for Christ is all things to me, and if I obtain him, I shall have happily obtained all."
[9] he fulfills exactly. But since the rule of life is the order and beauty of holiness, this blessed Priest suffered in himself in no way anything curious, anything worldly, anything unseemly, anything beside this due order; but, wholly religious in all things, he was a fully perfect observer of the priestly rule according to the order of the holy Fathers: and he gave himself the more earnestly to the study of the sacred Letters and to the doctrines of the holy Fathers, that he might the more eminently be able both to teach his ignorant neighbors the lessons of the divine law and the articles of the faith, and to overcome the assailants of the faith; whereby he became greatly skilled in sacred learning. But since it is shameful for a teacher when his own fault refutes him, and when he is despised for his life it remains that his preaching also be contemned: therefore the man of God Rainald, a fervent imitator of Christ, who began to do and to teach, taught others nothing by tongue, pen, or doctrine which he had not first himself experienced in his life; and he who labored to make others good was himself the best of all, and so diligent for the salvation of souls as though he had daily brought them all forth as sons in Christ. O truly happy Priest, who preserved the inheritance of the Lord so wholly unspotted, who, most pleasing to God, was to the world a standard and a mirror of every kind of holiness.
ANNOTATIONS.
. Otherwise centuplum*.
. Otherwise siquidem*.
. Otherwise protulerit*.
. Otherwise protractu*.
. Otherwise naturalis*.
. Otherwise pietatis*.
. Otherwise utroque*.
. Otherwise actu*.
. Otherwise interiore*.
CHAPTER II.
His election as archbishop of Ravenna, his various virtues in this office, a miracle, and his happy death.
Bl. Rainald is raised, unwilling, to the see of Ravenna, And when the fame of the merits of his virtue was spreading through the world, and he was of the greatest reverence and of exceeding repute among all, it happened that the archbishop of the church of Ravenna then died. The Canons therefore and the other Clerics and the people being assembled for the election of a new archbishop of that same See, none seemed to them worthier to be chosen than the servant of God Rainald a; and, none of the electors dissenting b and all the people urging it, they canonically and unanimously elected him. But the devout Rainald, who had striven to found himself upon the virtue of humility, as a wise architect upon a foundation already laid, which he had learned from Christ, despised in his own eyes and vile to himself, abhorring his own promotion and desiring rather [*] to minister to others than to be ministered to by others, in no way consented to the aforesaid election; and, renouncing it from his heart before all, lest he should be more urgently entreated, or at least more insistently importuned, he hid himself in a more secret place, and long lay concealed.
[11] Nevertheless, by the deliberation of the whole Chapter and at the exhortation of the people, the Canons sent to the supreme Pontiff for the confirmation of the election already made; and he, having heard the fame of the holy life of the happy Rainald, and having received true information of his exceeding humility and of his manifold virtues, at once and gladly confirmed him as archbishop of the church of Ravenna, and sent him also a command in writing, enjoining him under salutary obedience and in the power of the Holy Spirit that for the salvation of souls he should undertake in Christ the labor of the pastorate of the aforesaid church. And the humble Rainald, being now found by the Clerics and now open to all, who had long lain hid, reverently receiving the command of the supreme Pontiff, stretched out his neck to the yoke of obedience, and, ascending the see of the archbishopric, took up the prelacy not so much to preside as to profit; and although he cast away every step of ambition, holding the presidency of no value, he nevertheless hoped [*] by a diligent ministry, as a loving shepherd bearing a solicitous care in the Lord for the sheep committed to him, to serve by the merit of humility God himself, the shepherd of all.
[12] and in the pastoral office The prudent shepherd therefore, willing to fulfill the office of prelacy to the praise of God justly and as well as he could, fixed his gaze upon the salvation of the sheep [*] as upon the best end; and that he might happily direct them thereto, he strove that a rule of life and honesty of morals should be observed among the Clerics, being ever watchful and diligent to guard the purity of those Clerics, especially of the priests, and of his own man both inward and outward. For he was strict and discerning in the reproof of offenders, just and merciful in punishment, careful in admonition, most ready in teaching, an accepter of the good, a corrector of the bad, and to all a mirror and pattern of every kind of holiness, so that more became good by his example than by his teaching. But if he had found any one of the Clerics incorrigible, he at once expelled him from the fellowship, lest the sheep, being made diseased, should defile the whole fold; yet he was zealous for all in Christ with a deeper affection, desiring them to be bound happily to Christ the Lord no less than himself; and the good father took upon himself more discomforts that his beloved sons in Christ might live comfortably, though holily.
[13] merciful toward the poor Finally the generous Prelate, out of the goods of the Lord of which he was the dispenser, was moved with exceeding tenderness and pity, as after the pattern of Christ, toward the poor, to whom he was most bountiful in the giving of alms, denying to none in any way [*] what was possible to him, who in asking alleged the love of the Lord. He aided prisoners, visited the sick, cherished the needy, and administered to all the needy the necessaries according to their requirement and to his power. Finally always, or very often, while he was at table, mindful of the poor of Christ, he sent his own trencher c, laden with meat or fish, to be distributed to them, choosing rather to feed on bread alone than that Christ's poor should be tormented with hunger. Sometimes, as he walked through the church, to many needy persons, little ones and grown, who had come to him at the fame of his loving-kindness to receive alms, he handed single pence to each. He was indeed a gentle shepherd, affable to all and kindly in intercourse: for while his devout subjects beheld his cheerful and, with its gravity, most dear countenance, they enjoyed in the Lord with exceeding delight the presence of so great a father. For which cause, so great a kindness being seen, none feared to approach him for the granting of a favor despaired of.
[14] In all things also he was so temperate that neither surfeit nor anger, neither love nor disturbance in any degree passed the limits of governed reason: and solicitous for his flock, yet he was manly [*] and steadfast, fearing nothing terrible where justice was to be done and virtue defended, and persevering most constantly against difficulties however great. He was indeed most learned, and excelled most brightly in the mastery of every faculty, as I have said above. Nevertheless by continual exercise and by the careful leisure of study, the grace of God also enlightening him, he added daily knowledge to knowledge; whereby, desiring to profit the community of the faithful out of the love of Christ, from whom he himself had freely received, he turned his mind to his neighbors and to the salvation of the souls of the faithful. Desiring from his heart that the Christian people should aim at heaven by imitating the standard of Christ, he strove by public preaching and also by private exhortation to imprint upon men's hearts faith, charity, and hope, and the moral virtues also, and to remove from them all vices; whose discourse, faithful, simple, devout, and clear, brought to the Church of Christ an exceeding fruit of souls: for by it very many who were once entangled in the crimes of divers sins were converted to living well.
[15] And that by the most loving God the devout simplicity of his word might be approved, after the working of an evident miracle once, while he was preaching in a certain village near the Po, which is called by the inhabitants Fossa-pudola [*], and a multitude of frogs with their croaking confounded the Man of God's sermon and hindered the hearing of the bystanders, trusting in the Lord he commanded the frogs to be silent: and they, obeying the command of the happy man Rainald as though it were God's, as if they had been rational creatures capable of a command, were straightway silent: which miracle the people beholding were filled with great amazement; since to discerning and especially clear-sighted men this was no less a miracle than to make a lame man straight by a word alone, or to give light to a blind man; and on account of these things, being filled with much greater devotion toward the blessed man Rainald, they stood attentive with more faith and devotion at the preaching of that simple man and servant of God.
[16] At last the strenuous soldier of Christ and faithful to God, Rainald, being now near to death, he dies piously. which by God's revelation he foreknew, called the people together to the cathedral church, and, a long and profitable admonition of all the virtues being first made, in which indeed he foretold to them many things to come, he exhorted all especially to mutual charity and peace. Then he had the Clerics and chiefly the Canons apart, to whom, a doctrinal discourse being first made that they should keep the honesty due to Clerics, he gave his fatherly blessing, promising them eternal life if they would keep what he their father was teaching; and after a sickness patiently borne for some time, completing as a conqueror the contest of this mortal life and rendering his holy spirit to God, his happy soul flew away to the stars: whose triumph and glory in heaven that the kindly God might make plain to the world, he marked out the fame of his sanctity with many authentic and approved witnesses worthy of credit, some of which are written below.
ANNOTATIONS.
. Otherwise prius*.
. Otherwise operabatur*.
. Otherwise omnium*.
. Otherwise quidquam*.
. Otherwise autem*.
. Otherwise putrida*.
CHAPTER III.
Various miracles which happened after his death by the Blessed one's patronage.
A man sick of the gout, A certain honorable man, a citizen of Ravenna and an excellent doctor of laws, named the lord James Benincasa, was for a long stretch of time oppressed with the burden of gout, whom the gout itself, coming on afresh and more bitterly, so grievously troubled in his left hand a that he could scarcely walk [*] nor rise from sitting, and he was vexed with excessive pain. And when the pain was continually heightened and the infirmity increased, having suffered long, with faithful devotion and with the whole affection of his mind he humbly commended himself to Bl. Rainald, that, interceding for him with holy prayers to the Lord, he might obtain the grace of his deliverance; vowing to visit that Saint's tomb, when the grace was obtained, with lights of candles and with the offering of a waxen statue, and to fast all the time of his life on the day or vigil of his death: and he, persevering suppliantly in prayer until midnight, was on the following day wholly freed of the gout and of many other sufferings of the body.
[18] another afflicted with pain of the head, A certain citizen of Ravenna, a carpenter and a most excellent mason b, named John Gondus [*], was burdened with so grievous a pain of the head that he seemed to be losing the light of his eyes from the violence of the pain. He with great devotion, firm hope, and fuller confidence suppliantly commended himself to the intercessions of the lord Bl. Rainald, and fervently bound himself with a vow that, health being granted him, he would humbly visit the tomb of the aforesaid Archbishop with lighted candles and with the offering of a waxen head. And when this prayer and vow were made, the said John deserved to obtain the grace of deliverance.
[19] a woman suffering in the foot, A certain woman named Bagnollesa of Forlimpopoli c, but an inhabitant of the city of Ravenna, when she suffered a most grievous infirmity in her left foot, so that she could not walk without a staff to support her, and from excessive pain could scarcely ever rest, trusting in the prayers and help of the blessed father Rainald, most devoutly commended herself to him for the obtaining of the grace of recovered health, promising that she would visit his tomb with lighted candles and with the offering of a waxen foot, when the grace she asked was obtained. And she, the vow being uttered, was suddenly restored to her former health.
[20] another a demoniac, A certain woman named Blonda of the county of Ravenna was vexed by a demon, and was brought by force by her kinsfolk to the tomb of Bl. Rainald; and when she had stood there some hours, prayer being poured out for her by the bystanders to the said Saint, she was most fully delivered by God.
[21] another a paralytic, A certain nun named Sister Thomasina of the Lambardani of Ravenna was paralytic, and all her limbs trembled greatly: and she, long tormented with intolerable pains and despaired of by the physicians, looked for death rather than for life. And when she had recourse to the prayers of St. Rainald, humbly vowing that she would visit his tomb with lighted candles and with due reverence, by the grace of the merciful God and the merits of the oft-mentioned happy Archbishop she was restored to her former health.
[22] A certain citizen of Ravenna named Primus suffered from a tertian fever so grievously a certain man oppressed with a tertian fever that he now thought the peril of death threatened him: trusting in the merits and prayers of the glorious Rainald, he commended himself to him for deliverance, faithfully promising to visit his tomb with lighted candles and with the offering of one waxen statue: and he, as soon as the vow was uttered, was freed of the aforesaid fevers.
[23] A certain man named Hugolus [*] of the county of Forlì d, another tormented with gout, who for the space of five months was so grievously tormented throughout his whole person with the pain of gout that he cried out daily, nor could walk without crutches. He, humbly imploring the help of Bl. Rainald, with a promise of visiting his tomb and of offering lighted candles, was straightway freed by a divine work.
[24] A certain man named Petruccius of the county of Ravenna, and his wife, a boy vexed with quinsy, named Altemilia, had an only son whose name was Bernard, whose throat, a certain most grievous infirmity coming upon him, was so closed that he could swallow neither wine nor milk nor anything else; wherefore, the physicians despairing and the remedies applied profiting nothing, they looked for him rather to die than to live. Nevertheless his aforesaid parents, mindful of the admirable sanctity of the man of God Rainald, had recourse to him with full confidence for the obtaining from God of the grace of their son's deliverance, humbly and devoutly beseeching him to intercede with the Lord for their son, and vowing to visit his tomb with lighted candles when the grace was obtained. And when their prayer was finished, the boy, their son, was freed from that most terrible sickness.
[25] A certain woman named Jacobina of the city of Ravenna, from the vast vexation of demons a woman possessed by demons, who had fiercely attacked her, was tormented with such sharp raging, pains, and trembling that she had no power of speaking, of walking, or of standing. But her husband and her mother, by the counsel of friends and by the example of others delivered, brought the said young woman thus vexed to the tomb of Bl. Rainald, firmly hoping that she would be delivered by the merits and prayers of that holy Archbishop; and their devotion being accepted by God, that woman was wholly delivered.
[26] A certain man, Nicholas by name, of Germany, with his left hand drawn up, and certain men afflicted with diseases for two months had no power of opening or closing that hand, or of helping himself with it; and he, devoutly commending himself to Bl. Rainald, was delivered by God through the merits of that same Saint.
[27] or with wounds A certain man named Antoniolus of Bologna, grievously wounded in the throat by a certain man of Ravenna with whom he had had a quarrel, looked to die rather than to live. And he, despaired of and forsaken by the physicians, commending himself to the holy Archbishop, was delivered within a few days.
[28] are healed by the invocation of Bl. Rainald, A certain woman named Adalasia, tormented with an intolerable pain of the head and of the teeth, had recourse with devotion to St. Rainald for the obtaining of the grace of her deliverance; and, being heard, she had health by the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Bishop.
ANNOTATIONS.
. Otherwise anhelare*.
. Otherwise Gordus*.
. Otherwise Angelus*.
EPILOGUE.
as the author asserts is established from authentic instruments. These and very many other miracles, which for brevity's sake I have not taken care to note here a, almighty God wrought by the merits and intercession of the glorious archbishop Rainald, which have been written more diffusely and authentically by the hand of a public notary and approved by witnesses worthy of credit in a certain quire [] existing in the archive of the church of Ravenna, from which I extracted them b, and thus have reduced these few things to brevity: let those noted here suffice for the approbation of the aforesaid holy Bishop, by which it is shown beyond doubt how pleasing he was in his life to the Almighty [], and how glorious and exalted he is in heaven. Thanks be to God. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
. Otherwise quinterno*.
. Otherwise præsenti*.