ON ST. ANDREW, CONFESSOR,
NEAR FIESOLE IN TUSCANY,
ABOUT THE END OF THE NINTH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Andrew, Confessor, near Fiesole in Tuscany (S.)
BY G. C.
§ I. The public cult of this Saint from time immemorial, and his posthumous glory.
In the Florentine codex of Usuard, of which Sollier makes mention in the preface to our illustrated Usuard, page LXIII, This Saint is announced in the Usuardine supplements on this day is celebrated the memory of St. Andrew, deacon and minister of St. Donatus of Scotland, bishop of Fiesole, whose body is honorably buried in the monastery of St. Martin of Mensola in the territory of Florence. The Medicean codex has like things, as is noted there. Thomas Dempster in his Scottish Menology announces the same, as his own countryman, on the IV day of August thus: At Fiesole, of Andrew the archdeacon, companion of St. Donatus, whose body in the church of St. Martin of Mensola in the mountains of Fiesole is frequented with the greatest concourse, with mighty devotion, and with a frequency of miracles. David Camerarius in book 3 On the Piety of the Scots likewise assigns the fourth day of August as festal to this holy man.
[2] But Philip Ferrarius in the General Catalogue records this St. Andrew on the XXII day of August, and in other Martyrologies, and on the same day in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy adorns him with the following eulogy: Andrew, a Scot by nation, disciple of St. Donatus, bishop of Fiesole, coming with him from Scotland into Italy for the sake of pilgrimage, settled at Fiesole; where, on account of his virtues and upright character, being initiated into sacred orders by Donatus, he was afterwards created archdeacon of the church of Fiesole: in which office, among the other things nobly done by him, he restored the sacred building of St. Martin outside the city by the river Mensola, which had fallen down. He built a monastery, in which with some others he led an austere life to his last breath. His sanctity was attested by many miracles wrought by him, the blind, the possessed, and other sick persons being wonderfully cured. He lived under the emperor Charlemagne. At length, worn out with pious exercises, he fell asleep in the Lord on the XI of the Kalends of September, on which day his birthday is celebrated by the church of Fiesole. His body was laid in the church built by himself.
[3] Castellanus and others follow Ferrarius in marking this day, and his public cult and Placido Puccinelli in the Italian Life of St. Andrew, in our copy page 54 and following, contends that this was always the true day of the annual festival. And this he proves first from the ancient custom on account of which the Benedictine monks of the abbey of Florence expose yearly on the XXII day of August the half of the head of St. Andrew upon the high altar for public veneration. Moreover on the same day the monks of Florence go to the church of St. Martin of Mensola, and there with the neighboring people solemnly honor the feast of St. Andrew, appointing a pious procession in which the other half of his head is carried about. Against this proof it does not tell that a certain congregation or confraternity of workmen honors this Saint particularly on the first Sunday after the XXII day of August: for this is done in order that his festival may be celebrated with greater solemnity and concourse of people.
[4] and his posthumous glory Nor is this institution of the confraternity new: for the praised Puccinelli in the same place testifies that the Florentines, the people of Fiesole, and certain other neighbors anciently established among themselves a congregation which on Sundays and feast days assembled in the church of St. Martin of Mensola, and there out of their devotion toward St. Andrew had chosen a burial place. This society, which time, the devourer of things, had dissolved, a certain servant of God in the year 1473 joined together again with such success that even women imitated the men. But when this was again extinguished by the chance of wars and of pestilence, the reverend Master Luca Bartolini, abbot of the monastery of Florence, revived it in the year 1600, and ordered the ancient burial place of both sexes to be restored in the middle of the aforesaid church of St. Martin, where these inscriptions are read:
D. O. M.
To the memory and honor of the society of men of St. Andrew of Scotland, placed A.D. 1600
D. O. M.
To the memory and honor of the society of women of St. Andrew of Scotland, placed A.D. 1600
Although all these things abundantly demonstrate the public veneration of St. Andrew, yet from the same Puccinelli we shall here add some things which pertain to the posthumous glory of the same Saint, and by which his ancient cult will be not a little confirmed.
[5] from the adornment of his sacred relics, In the year of Christ 1380 a certain noble Florentine matron, having received a benefit through the intercession of St. Andrew, ordered a silver effigy of this Saint to be fashioned down to the breast, and herself carried it in token of a grateful mind to the church of St. Martin of Mensola, on which these characters were engraved: To Master Andrew, a Scot by nation, fellow citizen, disciple, companion, and levite of St. Donatus, bishop of Fiesole. He flourished about the year DCCCLXXX. But since the church of St. Martin of Mensola was exposed to frequent robberies, the Benedictine monks translated that effigy to the abbey of Florence, and enclosed in it the half of the head of St. Andrew, which on the more solemn feasts and in the octave of the Assumption of the most blessed Virgin Mary is exposed upon the high altar for the public veneration of the faithful, as has been said above on another occasion.
[6] from chapels and altars Besides, the noble family of the Mazzinghi in the church of St. Donninus, of which it has the patronage, out of singular devotion built a chapel in honor of St. Andrew. Leonardo Buonafede also, who was afterwards raised to the see of Cortona, ordered a chapel to be built in the church of St. Martin of Mensola to the glory of St. Andrew, and took care that the sacred relics of this Saint be translated to the altar of that chapel with a great concourse of the neighboring people. The Roman Pontiffs, as the same Placido Puccinelli testifies, granted various indulgences to the faithful devoutly visiting this place. Below there will occur an intricate difficulty concerning this Leonardo Buonafede the Carthusian, who, after resigning the bishopric of Cortona, died in a monastery of his own Order, where this epitaph of his is read: Leonardo Buonafede, having professed Religion in this convent and having discharged the highest honors, so bore himself for many years that by Clement VII
the supreme Pontiff he merited to be called to Rome to gather the fragments of the Holy Spirit. At last in extreme old age, being distinguished by the same Clement with the pontificate of Cortona, he closed his day and left the greatest longing for himself, in the year of salvation MDXLV, being in his XCV year. Puccinelli in the Chronicle of the abbey of Florence, page XI, reports this epitaph, of which it will be useful to be mindful below.
[7] The aforesaid reverend Master Luca Bartolini, Florentine abbot, restored the chapel of our St. Andrew, erected in his honor, and in it erected a marble altar which he caused to be consecrated by the bishop of Borgo San Sepolcro in the year 1602, as this inscription in Puccinelli's Italian Life of St. Andrew, page 84 and following, teaches: D. O. M. This altar, which, worn by age, the reverend father Master Luca of Boiano, abbot of the abbey of Florence, took care should be adorned and honored in honor of St. Andrew the Scot, for piety's sake, its structure being renewed and the sacred bones of that Saint being carried away and brought back, the reverend Master Alexander Burghius, bishop of Borgo San Sepolcro, dedicated with a consecrated stone in the year of the Lord MDCII, on the XV of the Kalends of August. Finally, in the years 1613 and 1614 certain workmen in the church of St. Martin of Mensola renewed the confraternity and the chapel of St. Andrew, in which on feast days they assemble to recite the Office of the Mother of God, whom together with our Saint they venerate as patroness of that place. The often-cited Puccinelli on this occasion notes that the monks there celebrate the feast of St. Andrew under a double rite on the XXIII day of August, because on the day before they are hindered by the Octave of the Assumption of the Mother of God.
[8] Further, that sermons were once delivered on the annual festival of St. Andrew we gather from two copies of the Acts, which thus begin: and are confirmed by other signs of veneration. Holy and solemn, most dear brethren, is the day at hand, to be exalted with all praise, to be honored with all devotion, on which at the death of our holy Father the angelic choir exults; and although we celebrate the solemnities of all the Saints with worthy offices and exalt them with worthy praises, yet we ought especially to celebrate with wondrous affection and to venerate with wondrous dancing the festivals of those whose pledges we possess as heirs, by whose merits we are supported as weak men, by whose prayers we are helped as faithful, and are washed from the filth of sins; of whose company was the most blessed Andrew, whose feast falls to us to be celebrated today. He, sprung from a noble lineage of the nation of the Scots, etc. Then are related the chief deeds of St. Andrew, which appear to be abridged from his longer Acts, concerning which we shall now give some preliminary notices.
§ II. The writer of the Acts, their various copies, the Saint's native land, profession, and date.
A certain difficulty The most illustrious Francesco Cattani da Diacceto, bishop of Fiesole, in the Italian Preface to the Lives of some Saints of his church, Thomas Dempster in the Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish Nation, book 1, chapter 31, and Placido Puccinelli and others everywhere assert that Filippo Villani first wrote the Acts of St. Andrew in Italian. This assertion is favored by the copy of the Acts which is preserved at Rome among the Irish Minorites at St. Isidore's, in press 4, number 32, and to which in our transcript this title is prefixed: The Life and miracles of St. Andrew of Scotland, written in the old Italian tongue by Filippo Villani, dedicated to Leonardo di Jacopo Buonafede, extracted or transcribed from an old manuscript codex of the monastery of St. Martin of Maiano (perhaps we should read of Mensola) of the Order of the black monks of St. Benedict near Fiesole. Doubtless some will at once think that this Filippo Villani is the son of Matteo Villani, who in the year 1363 continued the historical work of his father, as may be seen in the Writers of Italian Affairs, lately published at Milan, volume 14, column 729 and following. I should readily come down to the same opinion, were I not delayed by a certain difficulty which occurs in the prologue of the Acts, and which I now propose to the learned to be untangled.
[10] concerning the writer of the Life The writer of this Life, who nowhere expresses his own name, dedicates his lucubration to a certain Leonardo, and thus addresses him in the prologue: In this number of the faithful, most dear Leonardo, your intention affectionately moves, since you have solemnly taken care that the relics of the holy man Andrew the Scot, which long remained almost unknown without due honor, should be translated with the highest honor into the chapel which you caused to be built for him at your own expense in the monastery of St. Martin of Mensola. We have already reported above from Puccinelli that Leonardo Buonafede the Carthusian, and afterwards bishop of Cortona, erected in the church of St. Martin of Mensola a chapel of St. Andrew, and took care that his sacred relics be honorably translated to it. But this Leonardo, being in his ninety-fifth year, departed from among the living in the year of Christ 1545, as is clear from his epitaph reported above. Since therefore that Leonardo Buonafede was born only in the year 1450, that Filippo Villani who was the son of Matteo Villani, and who in the year 1363 began to continue the history of his deceased father, could not have dedicated his lucubration to him, as will become manifest to one who makes the reckoning of the years.
[11] or of the Acts is set forth, Someone might suspect that perhaps this prologue or epilogue was added by the Latin translator of the Italian Acts, and that by him the Latin Life of St. Andrew was dedicated to that Leonardo. But in the transcript just mentioned we have these Acts, partly rendered in Latin, partly left in Italian, in whose Italian epilogue things altogether similar are read concerning that Leonardo. It is necessary therefore either to seek another Filippo Villani who first wrote these Acts in Italian, or to assign another Leonardo who caused the chapel of St. Andrew to be built and his relics to be translated. I, on account of this difficulty, which I confess myself unequal to resolving, have been unwilling to prefix a certain biographer's name to the Acts, although I have seen this everywhere expressed by others. If, however, any of the learned men of Fiesole or Florence shall be able to reconcile these things among themselves, he will do me a great favor, and I shall gladly change my opinion. Now some transcripts of the Acts which I have in hand must be enumerated.
[12] The first copy, whose title I transcribed at the beginning of this paragraph, and their different copies is almost half Latin and half Italian, as though the translator had repented of the labor begun, or lacked time to complete it: for the whole transcript is written by the same hand. Although it comes from the same Italian source, yet the Latin style differs somewhat from the others, as is evident from the very opening, which runs thus: The holy Apostolic See has ordained that the birthdays of the Saints, whose memory is in benediction, be solemnly celebrated throughout the whole world, and that their relics likewise be held in veneration, etc. But another copy, which is wholly rendered into Latin, and which we shall publish in print after this preliminary Commentary, thus begins: The Apostolic See has decreed that the birthdays of the Saints, whose memory is in benediction, be solemnly celebrated and their relics venerated, etc. You see that these differ in style, although they agree in the substance of the matter.
[13] Moreover I have before my eyes two shorter Acts of St. Andrew, are enumerated, altogether alike to one another, which appear to have been formerly used for a sermon, as is evident from their beginning, which I set forth above at number 8, that from this side too I might prove the immemorial cult of the Saint. To one transcript, which our predecessors received from the collection of Constantine Caietanus, this title is prefixed: The Life of St. Andrew, confessor, of Scotland, from a very ancient manuscript codex of St. Martin's by the river Mensola and the city of Fiesole. But to the other copy, which John Colgan the Irish Minorite communicated to them, the following is prefixed: The Life of St. Andrew, archdeacon and confessor, founder and patron of the church of Mensola, a Scot from the island of Ireland, and disciple and fellow pilgrim of St. Donatus, bishop of Fiesole in Italy. From a manuscript codex of St. Martin's by the river Mensola. To these is added a compendium of the Acts which our Papebroch transcribed at Florence from the Medicean library, shelf XX, and which a certain anonymous writer seems to have abridged from the longer Acts and altered at his own pleasure. Wherefore, leaving all these aside, we shall submit to the press a single copy of the Acts, which is taken from a manuscript of Placido Puccinelli and wholly translated into the Latin tongue by an anonymous translator. We shall nevertheless compare it with the other transcripts, giving notice in the Annotations if any discrepancy of greater moment shall occur.
[14] Moreover we do not wish laboriously to dispute concerning the true native land of St. Andrew, which in the Acts is called Ireland and Scotland, and the controversy about the Saint's native land and profession being omitted, being mindful that Bolland in the preface to the first volume of January, page XXX and following, wrote thus: Between the Irish and the Scots a great battle is fought concerning the nation, name, country, and native Saints … I am not unaware which side more often (yet not always) seems to be in the right; but to decide so great disputes I confess is not within my power. When I find that Saints are called Scots, I reckon them among the Scots; when Irish, among the Irish. I do not wish the Irish or the Scots to be angry with me, since I love both nations. The Saints of whose race they boast themselves sprung (yet the nation of the heavenly ones is one, propagated from one Father, bound together by the one law of charity) I pray to be propitious to me, that they may both obtain for me divine grace and imprint upon me the understanding of their Acts, which are sometimes wrapped in more than Cimmerian darkness. Neither does it please us to dispute about the definite rule of life which St. Andrew at some time embraced, whom Constantine Caietanus and Placido Puccinelli ascribe to their own Benedictine Order. But Bucelinus, Mabillon, and other writers of that Order make no mention of a Benedictine profession of this Saint, so far as we know. Rather therefore shall we investigate the time at which that Saint approximately passed to the heavenly ones.
[15] his date is in some way indicated. Our Bolland, on occasion of St. Bridget the younger, whose Acts he illustrated with a preliminary Commentary on the first day of February, in volume 1 of that month, page 244 and following, discourses at greater length concerning the bishopric of St. Donatus of Fiesole, from which the death of St. Andrew is in some way to be drawn out. But his opinion cannot be reconciled with Ughelli's catalogue of the prelates of Fiesole, which others have already observed to be faulty. Nor can Bolland's opinion or conjecture about the death of St. Donatus be brought into agreement with the date of the prelates of Fiesole who about these times were present at councils: for in the year of Christ 826 a Roman council was celebrated in the presence of Grausolf, bishop of Fiesole, as may be seen in our Labbe, volume 8 of the Councils, column 103. Besides, in the year 877 Zenobius of Fiesole subscribes among the bishops to the Letter of the council of Ravenna, as is read in the same Labbe, volume 9 of the Councils, column 305. Since therefore St. Donatus governed the church of Fiesole for forty-seven years, as is related in his Acts, he seems to be placed between Grausolf and Zenobius. Hence Ughelli must be corrected, who puts St. Donatus after Grausolf, although he confesses that he presided over the church of Fiesole for forty-seven years. Further, from this corrected chronological arrangement of the prelates of Fiesole we conjecture
that St. Andrew died after St. Donatus about the end of the ninth century, since he was doubtless younger than his master, and yet about the time of his death is called a venerable old man, as will be evident from the Acts now to be published.
ACTS
Which we received from a manuscript of Placido Puccinelli.
Andrew, Confessor, near Fiesole in Tuscany (S.)
BHL Number: 0448
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
PROLOGUE.
The author gives notice that, with the other Saints, The Apostolic See has decreed that the birthdays of the Saints, whose memory is in benediction, be solemnly celebrated and their relics venerated, that thereby the Christian religion may be taught how precious the life of the Saints is in the sight of the Most High; who, that he might redeem us from the power of the devil and from eternal death, willed that his Only-begotten, in the mortal flesh he had assumed, be offered as a holocaust for us upon the altar of the cross; that thereby, the most gentle a wrath of God being appeased, mortals might be admonished of the unspeakable power of his charity, in which he mercifully received us; and might learn humbly, for the sake of the heavenly kingdom, the pomps of the world being spurned, to bear all adversities with patience. From this holy institution of immeasurable charity the holy martyrs of God, bravely despising the most proud commands of tyrants, with lofty and unbroken spirit overcame by dying, mocking incredible torments and their very torturers.
[2] Hence blessed John, before he began to grow up, going into the desert, some of whom he enumerates, that he might teach us penance, ate locusts and wild honey all the days of his life until the palm of martyrdom. Whom Paul, Antony, Hilarion, and other holy hermits beloved of God followed, and shone with innumerable miracles. Hence Jerome of holy life, Benedict, Basil, and the other Fathers of monks, leaving this world and choosing the secret places of the solitary life, while they strove to flee fame and the glory of the world, fell into the greatest praises b. It would be long to enumerate the merits of the Saints, by which our dark day, in which we are continually vexed by wandering c, is lighted as though by flashing stars. And by the consideration of their merits the pious minds of men, being roused to devotion, are wonderfully inflamed with love of the Saints. Thence, having obtained their patronage and suffrages, they await with most certain hope pardon for the sins into which by the frailty of nature they easily fall; and, being by no means disappointed of it, they are more ardently kindled into love of God and of their neighbor: and this holy devotion has proceeded so far that each Christian chooses for himself a special intercessor whom he may serve, whom he may honor, to whom he may offer prayers, and by whose intercession especially he may hope God to be propitious.
[3] In this number of the faithful, most dear Leonardo, your intention affectionately moves, this St. Andrew also is honored. since you have solemnly taken care that the relics of the holy man Andrew the Scot, which long remained almost unknown without due honor, be translated with the highest honor into the chapel which you caused to be built for him at your own expense in the monastery of St. Martin of Mensola d; and, being seized with a wondrous love of the holy man, you have urgently demanded of me further that I should set forth in this little work, in the best style I could, the things found scattered in various codices concerning the life of the holy monk. I have done it, yielding to your wishes, as I could; but whether I have put together things worthy of so great a man, and have satisfied your desires, I do not know. You, who are endowed with lofty wit and with a more polished eloquence, will be able to supply what is lacking, and to blot out whatever you find less well said. Trusting therefore in your judgment, I shall pursue what you sought.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
The Saint's native land, his pilgrimage with St. Donatus his countryman, and the wonderful election of his companion to the bishopric of Fiesole.
His boyhood piously passed, Andrew, the man of God, was from the island of Ireland, which by another and more common name is called Scotia a, situated in the western regions beside the shore of the Ocean, so bordering upon the island of Britain, which is called England, that they are almost reckoned one and the same island; for they are separated by a very small strait from sea to sea in the likeness of a river b. He was also sprung from most noble parents, abounding in many riches. He had a sister younger in years, named Bridget c, a virgin of great merit with God, whom on account of the chastity of her life and the works of justice blessed Andrew loved singularly beyond the natural love of kinship. This boy of holy disposition, although he skillfully bestowed labor upon the studies of the liberal arts, yet at the due hours with dove-like simplicity continually visited most devoutly the churches of God and the holy places. The time that remained he spent very frequently in reading and in prayer, a small portion being left for nightly rest in sleep; he repressed his rebellious flesh with fasting, and by continual maceration reduced his most delicate body into the servitude of the mind. Embracing with the highest desire the conversations of religious men and servants of God, he sought them out most ardently without ceasing on feast days and working days, when opportunity was given; and, piously compassionating their want and necessities, he often stretched out a most liberal hand to relieve them. He was besides a boy comely in appearance, modest in demeanor, grave in gait, restrained in speech and gesture, most seemly in dress, and such as showed the degree of holiness to which he was to attain. He most modestly avoided, with all humility, the company of his coevals who were growing up loosely and after the world, lest his conscience should be defiled by their depraved vices.
[5] the holy youth, with his master, And when he had reached the bounds of adolescence and sought higher sciences, he began assiduously to frequent the schools of Donatus, a philosopher of holy manner of life, most learned in the doctrine of Christ; and, being made his hearer, he came into such favor with him, both on account of the ready docility in which he wonderfully excelled and on account of the sanctity of his life, that Donatus cherished and loved him in the place of a son. And when in the course of time these two were held among their people to be most learned men and of singular grace with God, and, remitting nothing of the rigor of penance and inflamed with the love of Christ, glowed wonderfully in the charity of God and of their neighbor, fearing lest, being enticed by popular praise — which is wont to raise the dust of vainglory and to lay low the victors in the very triumph of victory — they should be defiled and stained as with a most pernicious blemish; and lest idle conversations and the company of kinsfolk and relatives should be a danger to them and should soften the rigor of penance: being breathed upon by the Spirit of the holy God, whatever of their riches they had been able to gather in the Lord having been most discreetly bestowed upon the poor of Christ and upon pious places, choosing the evangelical way they determined to come to the city of Rome in the guise of poor pilgrims, and there to pass their days in penance.
[6] And so, having bidden farewell to their own, and having taken the habit of poor wayfarers, departs from Scotland not without the grief and lamentation of their kinsfolk and countrymen, who followed them in throngs even to the shores of the sea, they went down from the island and began their journey. But that they might omit nothing of the precepts of charity, before they went aboard ship they consoled with pious exhortations in the Lord their own people, who were weeping and weighed down with sadness, showing that it would little please God if men should contrive anything against those whom by a sure lot in the secret of his predestination he himself was calling; and at the same time promising that, if their pilgrimage should find any merit with God, they should according to their wishes be partakers thereof.
[7] After therefore the soldiers of God, having taken the slenderest provision for the journey, into Italy, which would scarcely suffice for the crossing by sea — since they had resolved to beg by asking alms — and having sailed over the deep with a favoring wind and landed, went on their begun journey humbly, content with staff and wallet, they diligently visited the sacred places of the cities and of all the places that met them on their way, wherever they learned from the inhabitants that indulgences were granted or that relics of the Saints remained; and if anywhere they had learned that a hermit lay hid in order to flee the company of men, even though he dwelt in wild and most rugged places and most difficult of access, thither they hastened, wearied by no labors, that they might hear the consoling discourses of those who despised the world, and be fed with holy conversations; and in this fashion they continued their day's journeys d, praising and blessing God, and beseeching him to grant them an unhindered way. At that same time the city of Florence, destroyed by the scourge of the most impious Attila e, lay hidden without form, without inhabitant, beneath its own ruins, covered with thorns and briars. And Fiesole, which had been restored by Totila f himself out of hatred of the Florentine name, lest they should ever suffer anyone to give himself to the rebuilding of the rival city, was then populous, and happy in the fertility of its very wide fields and in a long peace.
[8] And when in those days the people of Fiesole, being bereft of a shepherd, were troubled by civil discords about the election of a new one, where his master the minds of nobles and commons tending in different directions, and therefore the divided city was in great hazard and peril, while the good and just citizens prayed earnestly that God would free their wavering city from civil bloodshed and would mercifully provide it with a good shepherd: in that whirlwind of the dismayed city, when to them, as they were traveling through Tuscany, the men of God, namely Donatus and Andrew — called by the famous number of martyrs who lay there and by the abundance of indulgences — had come, and, as is the custom of pilgrims, being wearied by the loftiness of the ascent g and worn with the journey, were turning back to a hospice which was a stone's throw before the gate of the city, God, who does not suffer those who hope in him to stand in the contest beyond what they are able, having pity upon the labors of the people of Fiesole, and the prayers of the just being heard, suddenly provided for them by a wonderful dispensation.
[9] For when, having recovered their breath a little, Donatus and Andrew had risen up to go into the city, by God's previous admonition all the bells of the city, with no human hand coming near, being moved of their own accord began to sound most loudly; and the lamps extinguished in the churches suddenly flashed with a marvelous brightness beyond their wonted manner. Astonished and amazed at so great a miracle, the citizens ran here and there through the city everywhere without order in wonder, timidly inquiring what the prodigy and sign of God might mean; and, being turned after their wonder to religion, men and women, old men and children, running together with pious desire by God's will to the cathedral church, with knees set upon the ground and hands raised to heaven, asked the suffrages of the saints, devoutly praying God that he would deign to show what the miracles which they beheld meant; they cried out and pressed on with heaped-up prayers: and as they thus prayed, silence suddenly falling, a voice from heaven sounded, saying: "Receive Donatus the Scot, the stranger, who will be at hand for you, and take him for your shepherd."
[10] he is chosen bishop of Fiesole And when the voice of the Lord had ceased, and the people did not know what to do, and therefore persevered in prayer, behold, the man of God Donatus and Andrew, having lately entered the city, came to the church,
in which the assembled people were praying; and, thinking it a feast day, they wondered at the dismayed populace in prayer, in suspense and anxious; and, going forward with slow step, they stood still, silently awaiting the issue of the matter. Then a certain man of the common people, standing rather near them, chancing to look at the strangers, asked that they would say whence they were, whither they were going, and finally by what name they were called. Donatus with his accustomed simplicity humbly answered: "We are both Scots; this man is called Andrew, I Donatus; and we are hastening to Rome for the sake of pilgrimage." The man of the people, mindful of the divine oracle which he had lately heard, cried out at once with a loud voice: "The man is here, citizens, of whom the Lord spoke a little while ago"; and embracing him he lifted him in his arms. Then, a concourse of the people being made to the man, and the truth of the matter being understood, with all acclaiming he was elected bishop. For the voice of the people rejoicing in the Lord was this: "Donatus, father, God has given you to us, as you see. Have mercy on us, and take away the pestilent discord of this city, and extinguish the scandal by which this people is basely defiled. Have pity on our labors, and, we suppliantly entreat, do not decline what God has ordained by his mercy." God willed without controversy to assent to such prayers and desires of the people.
[11] and is compelled to accept this dignity, Donatus, a most gentle man, trembling, with rising tears, in the spirit of humility began thus to speak: "Brethren, why do you strive in vain? Why do you contend to disturb the desires of one who according to his vow is hastening to the City? Why do you compel to be a shepherd one unworthy of so great a task? Behold a little man, abject, half barbarous, and wholly ignorant of your customs. Suffer a pilgrim to weary himself on the journey which he has begun." With these and like words and deeds he strove, as modestly as he could, to avoid the burden. But the more humbly he persisted in refusals, the more trustfully and vehemently did they insist upon the election, and cleave more and more to their purpose. Donatus, marveling at so great an affection, and preferring God's will to his own, acquiesced in the wishes of the people; and, taking up the honor and burden of a shepherd, as a man in whom was great knowledge of things divine and human, and with whom God's grace cooperated, he began forthwith with such moderation of mind carefully to fulfill what pertained to his care and office that he showed the heavenly testimony concerning him to have sung most truly things: for a long time indeed that same pastoral office he seemed, a simple man and unskilled in the matter, to have administered.
[12] in which he shone with various virtues. Great discretion was in the holy man, great moderation, and great gentleness and piety, and, according to the quality of things and the fitness of times, prudence, whereby he might attend the good with worthy praise and deserved honors, and correct the bad with a humble rebuke, such as befitted a bishop; and in a short time it came about that he was loved with a filial affection by clergy and people alike: for the man of God Donatus was truthful in speech, just and equitable in judgments, provident in counsel, diligent and faithful in action, powerful in exhortation, in rebuking severe with mercy according to the enormity of crimes, liberal and munificent in alms, watchful and assiduous in prayer, mild and kind to all, and therefore dear and acceptable to all.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The Saint's office in the church of Fiesole; a miracle; and the restoration of a certain church.
St. Andrew, being made deacon There was to the most blessed Donatus, as we have said before, as fellow and companion, Andrew, who kept the humility of a disciple with all diligence and courtesy, and profited so skillfully in life without injury to anyone that he was loved by clergy and people no less than Donatus. Toward him the fatherly affection of Donatus was continually increased day by day on account of his good deserts and virtues; especially when he saw him flourishing in great sanctity: and, wishing to increase him in dignity, that he might make him the more revered by the people, he strove to promote him to the office of the diaconate. Andrew, reckoning himself unworthy, and desiring to remain in the humble state in which he was and to serve God as he had begun, with holy purity of mind began with modest and reverent speech to decline as modestly as he could the office offered him; whose humility when Donatus perceived, he began to mingle commands with persuasions, and to press him to undertake the office.
[14] in the church of Fiesole, Andrew, preferring reverence for his teacher and spiritual father to the desires of his own disposition, yielded to Donatus; and, having received the weight of the diaconate, he strove, as far as his strength allowed, to emulate the footsteps of the most holy Levites Stephen and Lawrence; and, being made their imitator, he performed the office enjoined upon him carefully and devoutly and without murmuring, and humbly dispensed it without complaint: and in a short time he so prevailed in the dignity of the office that among all, after St. Donatus, he obtained the second place and favor in holiness of life. The holy men were famous not only at Fiesole but in the surrounding regions for the beauty of their unstained sanctity, and singular in reverence and veneration: by their suffrages with God many obtained many benefits and advantages. While with this mind Donatus and Andrew were serving God and men, and were containing themselves within the consciousness of their holiness, shunning human praises, content with an evangelical life, and passing chaste days, in those days it happened that the daughter of a certain noble and rich man of Fiesole was miserably held by a most grievous disease, which the physicians call paralysis; her sinews being everywhere loosened, she suffered with the whole frame of her body as it were dissolved, and like one drunken a could not stand upon her feet.
[15] prodigiously heals a paralytic girl, Her father, to whom she was an only and tender child, was tormented in mind no less than she in body; and when by no benefit of medicine, though physicians were summoned, the girl could be cured, so that, being destitute of every human remedy, God's mercy alone seemed to remain, the noble man for his daughter's sickness cast himself down weeping humbly at the feet of Donatus, praying and beseeching that he would come to his house and would deign to lay his hand upon the girl. Donatus, breathed upon by the Holy Spirit, groaning with a sob, stretched out his hand and raised the prostrate man, and ordered that Andrew be at once called to him from the prayer in which he was abiding, rapt in the Lord; and he related to him in order the matter which that noble had asked, and commended the devotion of the petitioner, and subjoined and commanded him, under the precept of obedience, that he should hasten with the man who was there to the healing of the girl, so far as the Lord should grant him. He, as he was gentle in look, with eyes fixed upon the ground, trusting in the Lord obeyed, and, going forward with the girl's father, entered the house; and, standing in the chamber in which the girl lay, with knees set upon the ground and hands stretched out to heaven, prayers being poured forth to God with a great flood of tears and with the utmost fervor of heart, he was led into ecstasy; and, the prayer being completed, rising to his feet he cried with a loud voice, saying: "Daughter, arise; arise, daughter. Our Lord Jesus Christ has healed you." And the girl at once, to the astonishment of all who stood by, sprang from her bed restored to her former health, her sinews and joints being made firm, as though she had suffered no evil at all; and, falling to the ground before his face, she kissed the holy man's feet, giving thanks to God and to holy Andrew, by whose intervention she had been delivered. The miracle therefore being noised abroad, Donatus began to bless God, who had deigned to work such things by the hands of his servant Andrew; and when he had returned to him, in his usual manner reverently on account of his inborn humility, he granted him the degree of archdeacon, and ordered and willed that he should hold after himself the first place among the people in the church of Fiesole; although the more he was raised in honor, the more by true humility he grew of small account with himself and with others, being lowest b.* He reckoned himself a reed shaken by the whirlwinds, and the more he shone with miracles and benefits, the more he counted himself an unprofitable servant.
[16] There was at the foot of the hill where the most ancient Fiesole was situated, and after restoring the church of St. Martin of Mensola, beside the torrent of the Mensola, a certain basilica long since dedicated in honor of St. Martin the bishop, which in the time of the most impious and monstrous Attila had been overthrown to the ground, and greatly offended the minds of the faithful by the spectacle of its ruins. Thence, when on a certain day bishop Donatus had gone forth, with Andrew as his companion, and had learned from the inhabitants whom he had questioned the cause of the desolation of the holy place, being moved with pity he wept bitterly, and, being saddened over the ruin, turned to Andrew, and, lamenting the destruction of the church, the bishop silently demanded of God a restorer. Blessed Andrew, understanding in that very conversation with the bishop the tears and words of the most pious father, and the wishes and desires of the inhabitants, being inflamed with the zeal of charity, began humbly to promise the bishop his most earnest labor for the restoration, and with his gaze cast down to the ground awaited his pleasure and commands. Donatus, praising the holy man's devotion as conformable to his own intention which he had lately conceived, with hand outstretched and the sign of the cross being made, granted him a blessing in the name of God, that he should thereafter give himself to the pious work and restore a convent, in which he might complete the days of his life in the Lord with brethren whom he himself should choose.
[17] Andrew, although the work seemed hard enough and difficult for a man who was a foreigner and poor, dwelling in that place exercises various virtues, being strengthened by the holy bishop, began, with very many religious men of those parts who favored the Saint's undertaking, to clear the holy place of briars and thorns, to search out the ancient foundations, and of the old walls
to dig out the stones which lay hidden beneath the ruin, and with diligent care to prepare new ones, and mortar and other things necessary for the building. Alms being sought out from every quarter from pious and faithful persons and abundantly received, and builders being hired for pay, he pressed on urgently with the restoration in the fear of God, after the manner of the industrious bee, and continually fulfilled what he could with his poor body wasted by fastings; and in a short time he not only restored the basilica to its former shape but rebuilt it far larger. Besides, out of those things which from his own labors and those of his brethren, or from the alms received for the love of God, the man of God could by holy frugality set aside after a most slender sustenance, he bought lands which could scarcely suffice for the strictest life of cenobites, rejecting superfluous things which might soften and enervate the vigor of stern penance. The rest, if anything had been offered after the work was completed, he distributed to the needs of the poor; nor did he suffer them to be laid up in purses even for a moment: for the man of God accounted avarice the greatest wickedness, by which occasion he knew that even the faithful souls of clerics are very often defiled. All things therefore which pertained to the order of a holy life being duly and maturely arranged, he came almost to the loss of his senses* c with the greatest tranquillity of mind, despising earthly things with an incredible vigor of the strictest penance and austerity of life, and subduing his body to the rule of reason.
[18] and works miracles, which the author omits. If I should wish to recount one by one the miracles which God deigned to work at the prayers of the holy man, my pen and my reed would fail me sooner than I should set forth what he did; and the volume would be drawn out to a length beyond the manner of the sacred Writings: for neither do we read that all things are laid up in the divine Writings which the Son of God wrought in the dispensation of the flesh assumed from the most blessed Virgin Mary: for not all things whatsoever he did are written, but only those which seemed necessary for the instruction of mortals. Nor did those who wrote the deeds of the martyrs commit to writing all that the power of the Most High miraculously accomplished at their prayers. For what mortal would have dared to reckon the frequent multiplication of miracles of the most holy Nicholas d, the excellent confessor and of singular merit with God, since he would have learned that scholars cut in pieces by an inhuman host and chopped into very small fragments and salted like fish and laid up in wooden vessels were raised at the command of the holy man, and that suddenly, as in the twinkling of an eye, those broken limbs rose up again into human form e? He who could do this so famous a miracle — who will deny that he could drive fevers from a sick body by the imposition of hands? Let the faithful cease, I pray, to seek the number of divine powers, and let them piously venerate in the Lord those whom they know to have shone with miracles even once. Assuredly the man of God, while he lived among men, drove out spirits from innumerable possessed persons not only by command and by the sign of the cross but also by the touch of his garments; he cured very many lepers by prayer, restored sight to the blind, strengthened the feeble, and restored the sick to health.
ANNOTATIONS.
perhaps cupiebat*.
perhaps senium*
CHAPTER III.
The Saint's last sickness, the prodigious transport of his sister from Scotland into Italy, his death, burial, and date.
The Saint, foreknowing his death, desires to see his sister, When he had long before foreseen in the Spirit of the Lord the day of his death, and had fallen sick of fevers by which also he died, having called the brethren together he made known the day and hour of his death, and, admonishing them with pious and fatherly affection, he strengthened them to patience and perseverance, and with an almost divine exhortation entreated and besought them to persevere in the fear of God and in their holy purpose, and not to forsake, as long as they lived, the place which he himself had restored, but there, as they had begun, to serve God humbly and piously. When therefore the brethren had received the holy man's admonitions in weeping and grief, by God's prompting, as I think, his sister Bridget came into Andrew's mind, and he began to burn with love of seeing her; but a holy moderation tempered his silent wish, since he understood that this would be difficult on account of the very great distance of the place in which she dwelt. But the Almighty, who understands the holy desires and pious wishes of the heart, willed to console him: for at that very hour at which the thought of seeing his sister had begun to stir Andrew's mind, Bridget in Ireland was sitting at table for a meal, and was eating a little vegetable and small fishes at a solitary dinner.
[20] Then an angel of God presented both her and the table, with the things which had been prepared there, who in a moment of time is said to have been carried from Scotland in a moment of time before the sight of the man of God and of the brethren who were there. And when this miracle was seen, those who stood in the cell attending upon the sick man were astounded, and, amazed at the spectacle, called in whomever they could in eager haste. Bridget, thinking it rather a vision than a reality, now turning her eyes around upon the unwonted region, now upon the place and the sight of the venerable old man a lying upon a pallet, now beholding with fear and grief men unfamiliar to her, remained in suspense with mind as it were dismayed: whom the man of God, being at once forewarned by the Holy Spirit, addressed thus with pleasing speech: "Bridget, most dear sister, I desired in my heart to see you before I died; yet the hour of my death, to which I hasten, and the very great remoteness of the places which held us, quenched such a desire; but the fountain of eternal charity has granted the things which you behold to me, a sinner, hoping for nothing of the kind. Fear not, therefore: for truly and certainly you see Andrew the Scot, your brother, whom you shall see but a little while, whom you thought long since to have departed from this world. I have hoped that, by your merits, as I die I may have God propitious; I have hoped that you would one day come into this region, in which far from my country I, a feeble athlete, have spent my days, and would lead a solitary life and penance, so that what is lacking to my warfare you might supply by the severity of your penance. Behold, God's mercy is here. Fear not; but rising in the fear of God with fervor of mind, I would ask that you pray to God for me. Behold, the hour approaches at which I am called. Lay aside the astonishment of your mind, and know that you see truly the things which you see."
[21] Then Bridget, as though awaking from sleep, turned to devotion, into Italy, and began most tenderly to weep for joy and fervor and grief, and, kissing her brother's hand, held it fast: nor could she, sobbing and sighing hindering her, utter a word. Then with most chaste embrace and most modest hands she touched her brother, and, wailing with a certain seemly holiness and piety, bathed him with tears. And when for an hour, worn out with grief, she had been silent, at last she broke into speech, and, giving glory to God, with knee set upon the ground she thus began: "Almighty God, who alone do wonderful things, whom the powers of heaven serve, whom the elements obey, and whom every creature deservedly serves, in praise and blessing I give you thanks, since you have deigned in a great prodigy to show my holy brother to your handmaid. To you be honor and glory." Then, turning to her brother, she said thus: "Most pious brother, long since the best guide of my youth, and the instructor and keeper of the life to which you dedicated me by your holy persuasions, in this shortest course of time I rejoice and grieve alike: for when I behold your sicknesses, my feeling urging me, I suffer with you; and because, departing without me from this wretched life, you leave me unconsoled of the longer converse with you in which was the future hope of many offices of mutual charity in our God, I am saddened and grieve. But when I see that you have with the greatest labor overcome the flatteries and enticements of this world, and have conquered the ancient persecutor of man, and have deserved well in the Lord by many good deeds, I exult and rejoice. For the rest, whatever days shall remain to me after you, I have resolved to give to your most just wishes, following your footsteps, so far as the infirmity of the sinful flesh in which I am shall allow, and so far as, God willing, it shall be permitted; and in these places to which the angel of the Lord has carried me I shall abide in patience; praying you, most dear brother, that you would beseech God for me, that he may add manly strength to feminine frailty. So, brother, may you be strengthened in the Lord, and may you show in death upon the Lord's cross the fortitude which you have held in life."
[22] and was present at her brother's death, These things being said, the man of God Andrew, being strengthened by his sister's persuasions, rising to his knees upon the rough and very harsh bed on which he lay, with hands clasped and raised on high as far as he could, and eyes fixed upon heaven, having bidden farewell to his sister and to the brethren, said: "Receive, my good Lord and redeemer Jesus Christ, into your bosom the spirit of your servant Andrew"; and, his eyes being veiled, he straightway expired. Then the brethren, who with the sister were present in prayer, awaiting the hour of the man's passing which he had foretold, suddenly saw a splendor descending from heaven upon the man of God, which for its exceeding brightness they could not bear with their eyes, and received in their nostrils an unwonted fragrance of odor and of marvelous sweetness which had filled the whole house; and, the light returning to heaven whence it had come, they found the holy body upon the bed as though sleeping, with arms crossed above the breast in the likeness of a cross; and thence, as is the custom of cenobites, having reverently removed it, they laid it upon a bier and placed the coffin before the altar, until at the due time they should celebrate the solemnities of the funeral.
[23] who being honorably buried, Meanwhile, as though roused by an angelic trumpet, all the people of Fiesole, men and women, young and old, leaving the city, hastened in throngs to the convent of St. Martin to see the holy body. Moreover an innumerable multitude from the regions surrounding the territory of Fiesole, as though moved by a divine oracle, when they heard of the holy man's passing, flocked to the place where the man's body remained uncorrupted and undefiled and pliant after the manner of the living, without any stiffness of the sinews, and with reverence and devotion kissed his hands and feet, and what fragments they could of the holy man's garments
they secretly snatched away and carried off for relics. Nor did the Almighty, wonderful in his Saints, cease from the showing of miracles, that he might make the death of his old man precious: for at the touch of the holy body many demons were driven out of the possessed, sight was restored to many blind, walking was given back to many lame, many feeble were made strong; and he shone with so many and so well-known miracles that the Roman Pontiff, having received testimonies thereupon, did not hesitate canonically to add him to the catalogue of the Saints b. And, to go on in the order in which I began, on account of the importunity of the pilgrims who came, the brethren could scarcely after many days accomplish the funeral rites. At length the holy confessor of Christ and Levite Andrew was buried in the church which he himself had restored, and thereafter through the intervals of time shone with many miracles; and there even to this present day his merits assist the pious desires of men.
[24] The holy men Donatus and Andrew flourished about the year DCCC from the day in the ninth century itself on which our Redeemer willed to be incarnate of the glorious Virgin Mary, and their birthdays are celebrated for the days in which Leo III presided over the Roman church, and Charlemagne c, king of the Franks, was over the empire of the Romans; at that same time also in which the good Louis, son of the aforesaid king, established the canonical rule at Aachen; and their memory is continually celebrated in the benediction of the Saints. There was also another Bridget d among the Scots of most singular sanctity and life, and illustrious with many miracles, in the year of grace DXXV, in the time of John the Roman Pontiff, Justin e reigning at Constantinople, Rome miserably laboring under the impious Arian Theodoric: she ended her life in Ireland, in whose reverence, especially in that island where she lies, I think that many were called Bridget according to the variety of times, of whom one was this sister of Andrew, of whom my discourse has been and must be.
[25] Bridget, sister of St. Andrew, after her brother's death, for the sake of a stricter penance withdraws into the desert, and there dies piously. and to avoid the company of those living according to the world, withdrew into the desert, and into the then most rugged glades which are seen in the upper parts of the Alps and overhang them, where today a vestibule is built in her honor, which is situated among the crags of the mountains somewhat distant from the Pieve of St. Martin in Baco, where she accomplished her life and penance (for those places were then the haunts of wild beasts and untilled); and there, long practicing a most severe penance, content with wild fruits and roots of herbs for food, she rested in the Lord at an almost decrepit age. Nor were her life or her death altogether unknown, since those who tilled the fields bordering on the shady groves knew the holy woman's cave; and had sometimes, while wandering through the wood for the sake of hunting, found it by the barking of their dogs, and had at times bestowed upon her daintier alms of which she had no need. And when the time of her death drew near, by God's prompting many matrons and very many men of holy life migrated thither, serving her needs, until she ended her life, dissolved not by infirmity but by very long old age; and, holding in reverence the place which she had chosen for penance, they founded in it a church under her name, in which her birthday is celebrated with an annual festival. Furthermore the people round about began to make those places from every side more cultivated, the deepest groves being torn up to the ground and burnt, and domestic trees planted for wild ones; and in a short time that region became wonderfully populous. The miracles and graces which God willed to do and work through her while she lived and after her death, those who desire to know more fully and abundantly, let them read what has been written of her life and death by men of God.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
The finding of his sacred body, his posthumous glory, and the biographer's epilogue.
The author relates how the body of this Saint, I thought I had satisfied your desires, most dear Leonardo, since I had faithfully gathered into this little work the things found scattered and without fixed order concerning the man of God, St. Andrew the Scot, who merited to be noted in the catalogue of the Saints. But you are held by so great a love of the holy man that you demand further, and ask that there be added to the little work in what manner his venerable body — which, lest it should be carried off by stealth or by the inroad of enemies who might wish to honor their own country with the relics of the Saints, remained hidden in an unknown place — was miraculously found. I shall obey your affections, since I believe that this very thing pertains not a little to the praise of the holy man: and, to begin the matter, there had long since been erected in the convent, then a monastery of sacred virgins, under the same title of St. Martin, an altar in the reverence and honor of the holy man Andrew; where his birthday was honored with festive gladness and annual solemnity, in whose bosom the neighboring inhabitants supposed his body to lie.
[27] on occasion of a certain woman buried there It happened in the year of salvation MCCLXXXV that a girl of famous beauty and of remarkable vanity, who had lately been given in marriage, departed from this mortal life; whose funeral, both by the nobility of her kinsfolk and of her relations by marriage, was conducted with a most ample expense according to the quality of the places, and her body was buried before the altar of St. Andrew, that it might be more honorably interred. Which being done, in the night the image of St. Andrew, with countenance shining but somewhat angry, appeared in sleep to the priest who dispensed the sacred mysteries to the virgins dedicated to God in the ministry of the altar, and with a somewhat sad and angry face complained that his bones were being defiled by the corruption of an impure corpse, and most urgently demanded that the place in which they lay be cleansed. And when the sleep had vanished, the priest awaking, understanding the oracle little, as though no religion breathed upon him, kept silence. On the following night he appeared again to the same man as he slept, with an angrier face, and threatened him with punishment unless without delay he took care to free his body from the injury of an unseemly and impure body and of a horrible stench; and, like one indignant, suddenly departed. The priest, now warned a second time and rebuked so bitterly, being terrified with fear and trembling in the fear of the Lord, began to think more earnestly what the dream might mean; nor yet could he consider in his mind what the Saint required of him, and, reckoning the command vain, neglected it [a].
[28] At length, on the following night Andrew, appearing again in sleep, rebuking with a face sterner than before the obstinacy and slowness of the gross and slothful priest, after a threefold admonition of the priest first threatened him with a word, and then smote him with a most harsh scourge. Being shaken from sleep by that stroke, the priest, murmuring to himself, began to sicken in that fashion in which those who are touched by the epileptic disease are twisted and foam. But when morning came, and the hour had passed at which he was accustomed to celebrate the solemnities of the Masses, since the priest, otherwise diligent, appeared nowhere, the nuns wondered; and those who had been appointed to serve the priest about the altar, when they had rather anxiously searched the places in which he was accustomed to be after rising from his chamber, and he was nowhere found, thinking him held by a deeper sleep than usual, began to knock more frequently and more loudly upon the door of the chamber in which he lay, the priest's name being often repeated with a shout. And when he did not answer, and they found the door made fast with a bolt within, and when, being called, he answered no cries, they broke the door with an axe: and the man was found in the chamber laboring greatly, his mouth bent and twisted toward his loins, foaming with matter, all mobility of his limbs being lost. Those who had come in were astounded and stiffened at the sight of the calamity; and, wrapping the sick man in a covering and in linen cloths, with many called to the spectacle, as though by a hostile impulse, they by God's prompting by chance placed him, as one possessed by a demon, before that very altar of St. Andrew; and the holy virgins of God and the seculars who were present, pitying the man's misfortune and humbly offering prayers to God, began most devoutly to commend him to blessed Andrew.
[29] it was found and honorably translated. Then the priest, suddenly rising up as though he had come back to the light from the dead, having recovered his breath a little and the soundness of his body being restored, with trembling recounted in order all that had thrice happened to him. Touched by which miracle, those who had assembled — as though the veil of the miracle had been divinely opened — with tapers lighted and bells rung, taking mattocks, with fear of God and reverence for the holy man Andrew, began to dig up the place in which the girl of whom we made mention above had lately been laid, her putrid body, which swarmed with worms and smelled most foully, being removed thence: and then, digging deeper, they found the body of St. Andrew laid up with ancient spices in a wooden coffer, broken neither by rot nor by age but solid, as though lately buried; but rough, rude, and unpolished, bearing the sober likeness of antiquity: which was thence raised with reverence and with solemn hymns, and the sacred bones were translated with a hurried celebration and placed in a fair coffin beside the high altar, and there remained until that day on which you, most excellent Leonardo, earnestly procured that they be raised thence, and caused them to be laid richly in the new chapel which you dedicated to his praises, indulgences being obtained there from the Roman Pontiff and from other bishops, who, assenting to your devotion, rendered the memory of the holy man more celebrated, especially since you have caused the day of this translation to be solemnly celebrated with a canonical anniversary of the holy man b. You have now, friend Leonardo, perhaps what you seek; not in the style which befits it, but in pedestrian and common and unpolished speech. You, who have the true file and all the instruments of eloquence, will be able to polish these things, heaped together as they are, as you shall wish. I wish you good health and long life, and that you be mindful of me amid those leisured studies of yours in many disciplines and good arts, in which with continual lucubration you skillfully occupy yourself.