ON BL. JAMES OF BEVAGNA, OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS PREACHERS, AT BEVAGNA IN UMBRIA,
In the year 1301.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
ON BL. JAMES OF BEVAGNA, OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS, AT BEVAGNA IN UMBRIA
BHL Number: 4103
§ I. This Blessed man's native place, his cult begun from time immemorial, and afterward confirmed by the Apostolic See.
BY G. C.
We have surnamed this Blessed James in the title "of Bevagna" from the city of Mevania, This Blessed man was born at Bevagna, which saw him born and dying not without prodigies. Ferdinand Ughelli, in the Italia sacra of the latest Venetian edition, volume X, column 137, describes this native place of the blessed Man in these words: At the confluence of the Timia and the Clitumnus in Umbria, and on the road once called Flaminia, lies the now illustrious town commonly called Bevagna, formerly the celebrated city Mevania, which Cato in his fragments reckons among the more ancient and chief cities of Umbria, and which Strabo in book V reports among the more illustrious cities worthy of mention. Other ancient writers being alleged, who render testimony about the profane celebrity of this city, Ughelli records its sacred antiquity in this manner: But when the Christian faith began to be propagated through Italy, the people of Mevania opened their eyes to the light of the Gospel, at the preaching of Saint Vincent their first bishop, who watered the faith once planted there with his own blood also, poured out in the triumphal contest of martyrdom. Then Vincent's successors cultivated it, almost all of whose names have perished, until, the barbarians rushing into Italy and devastating everything with sword and flame, Mevania suffered a destruction which, if not of the Christian faith, yet made a loss of the episcopal dignity.
[2] Then, some bishops of Mevania having been reviewed down to the year of Christ 844, which is a city of Umbria he reports in the same place, column 139, the various ruins of Mevania and the present state of that town thus: Nor does any further mention of the episcopal dignity of Mevania occur, except that in the geography of the ancient church Mevania is reckoned with an episcopal see. Its ancient cathedral, to Saint Vincent the first
bishop of Mevania and patron of the place, stood next to the city at the gate thence even now called St. Vincent's, which was overthrown by the Lombards in a wretched manner together with the city. Then the citizens, returned from their dispersion, restored it, and afterward more than once rebuilt it when it had either collapsed or been demolished; but they never gave it back its former splendor, the episcopal see having been lost.
[3] is described from Ughelli, The city itself, restored after the injuries of the Lombards, suffered grave damages from Frederick II in the year 1248; but graver ones in the year 1377 from the Trinci, lords of Foligno and pressing the men of Mevania with a tyrannical yoke, against whom the city had dared to rebel. But afterward, the tyranny of the Trinci being abolished, under Eugene IV, through the mediation of his Legate John Cardinal Vitelleschi, in the year 1439 it recovered its liberty, and began under Martin V to be shaped by new statutes and laws, and thence returned to the rights of a notable city. Now it flourishes, filled with people, and numbers about four thousand inhabitants. Its chief and Collegiate church is sacred to Saint Michael the archangel, and two dignities serve it, namely a Prior and a Provost, fifteen Canons, four Beneficed clergy, and as many Chaplains. Two other parish churches are seen there, seven monasteries of Regulars, three of sacred virgins, four confraternities of laymen, a hospital for pilgrims, and a Mount of Piety. From it have come forth several celebrated men, among whom the most shining name is that of blessed James of Mevania, of the Order of Preachers. It now obeys the spiritual commands of the bishop of Spoleto.
[4] In this city Blessed James ended his life in the year of Christ 1301, [and there his cult began, as we gather from the Martyrology of the Fathers Preachers] and not long after his death he was renowned for miracles, so that the Friars Preachers had to translate in the following year, and to place in a more honorable spot, his sacred body, which they then found incorrupt, as will be plain from the Acts to be published below. We suspect that from this time the public veneration of Blessed James began among the citizens of Mevania, which was gradually increased, even though we cannot assign a certain and lawful beginning of it. Certainly about the year of Christ 1380 Processes began to be instituted for his Beatification, which nevertheless at that time did not have the desired success. Perhaps of that slow progress of the Beatification are to be understood those things which, after the Martyrology of the Friars Preachers, which was reprinted at Rome in the year 1616, are read in the Little Index of the blessed Martyrs and confessors of that same Order, in our copy at page 95, in this manner: Blessed James of Mevania, a man of admirable sanctity, often changed water into wine; he merited to hear from the mouth of Christ the glad message of his own eternal salvation, of which he received this sign, that from an image of the Crucified, before which he was praying, copious blood flowed out, which sprinkled his face, his mouth, and his garments. He is honored as a Blessed, and action was begun concerning his canonization; but (it is not known through whose fault) the business fell through.
[5] From this public testimony of the sacred Order of Preachers we gather and from an old commemoration. that this venerable Man was honored as a Blessed, although he had not yet been solemnly entered in the catalogue of the Blessed. Moreover we bring forth the immemorial cult of Blessed James from an old commemoration, which Ludovico Jacobilli in his Italian Life of him, chapter 19, reports thus: Antiphon. O moon full of graces, washed with the blood of Christ. In this valley of tears restrain the evil floods. To the penitent grant a heart made bitter by the gift of light. ℣. Pray for us, blessed James. ℞. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Let us pray. O God, who didst deign to pour over and to adorn blessed James the confessor with the wave of thy precious blood, that he might meditate anew upon the mystery of thy most holy Passion; grant, we beseech thee, by his intervention, that we may be so devoted to the meditation of thy Passion that we may continually feel in ourselves the fruit of that same blood. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. Of this collect or prayer, whose age we do not know, the most eminent Bellarmine afterward made mention in the cause of that same Blessed, as will be said below.
[6] Meanwhile Pope Boniface IX removed every doubt Although the Indulgences, that could arise concerning the lawful cult of Blessed James, when in the year of Christ 1400 he published a constitution which runs thus: Boniface, servant of the servants of God. To all the faithful of Christ who shall inspect the present letters, greeting and Apostolic benediction. Although he, of whose gift it comes that he be worthily and laudably served, out of the abundance of his own goodness both exceeds the merits and the prayers of suppliants, and repays to those who do him good much greater things than they can deserve, nevertheless, desiring to render to the Lord a people acceptable to him and a follower of good works to please him, we invite them as it were by certain alluring gifts, namely by indulgences and remissions, so that they may thereby be rendered fitter for grace.
[7] which Pope Boniface IX Desiring therefore that the church of the monastery of Saints Dominic and James of Mevania of the Order of Preachers, in the diocese of Spoleto, may be frequented and preserved with fitting honors, so that the faithful of Christ may the more gladly betake themselves to the same for devotion's sake, and stretch out helping hands to its preservation, the more abundantly they shall have perceived themselves there filled with the gift of heavenly grace; trusting in the mercy of almighty God and in the authority of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, to all who are truly penitent and have confessed, who on the festivity of the holy Apostles Philip and James, on the Kalends of May, from first Vespers to second Vespers of that festivity, and also on the two following days, shall devoutly visit the aforesaid church yearly, and shall stretch out helping hands to its preservation, we grant by Apostolic authority by the tenor of these presents that very same indulgence and remission of sins which those obtain, in whatever way, who yearly visit the church of Saint Mark of Venice in the diocese of Castello from first Vespers to second Vespers on the feast of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[8] had granted to the faithful visiting this Blessed man's church every year And nevertheless, that those faithful, thereupon flowing together to the said church of the said monastery on the aforesaid festivity of the Apostles Philip and James and on the two following days aforesaid, may be able freely to obtain such peace and salvation of conscience, God being propitious, and the indulgence; to our beloved sons the Prior and the Friars of the said church who now are, and to their successors, the Friars of this monastery who shall be for the time being, that they may yearly be able to choose three priest Friars of the said monastery as confessors, who by the same authority may hear the confessions of each and all of the faithful of Christ flowing together to the same church of that monastery on the festivity of the holy Apostles Philip and James, and also on the two following days aforesaid, for the sake of obtaining this indulgence, as is set forth above, and, their confessions having been diligently heard, may be able to grant them due absolution for what they have committed, and to enjoin a salutary penance according to the measure of the fault (unless perchance they should be such things as the Apostolic See ought deservedly to be consulted about) — this we indulge by Apostolic authority by the tenor of these presents out of special grace.
[9] had granted in the year of Christ 1400, Let it therefore be lawful for no man to infringe this page of our concession, or with rash daring to go against it. If anyone shall go against it or presume to attempt it, let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God and of the Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome at St. Peter's on the sixth of the Ides of January, in the eleventh year of our Pontificate. We have in hand two copies of this constitution, one of which is read in the newest Bullarium of the Order of the Friars Preachers, which was published at Rome not so long ago, volume 2, page 390 and the following. The other the most eminent Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and archbishop of Bologna, Prospero Lambertini, lately inserted into his excellent Work on the Beatification of the servants of God and the canonization of the blessed, where in book 2, chapter 24, §9, number 29, this same Bull of Pope Boniface is reported. Between these two copies there is a certain discrepancy of lesser moment, which we have indicated by brackets or asterisks, and which the curious reader will easily see who shall wish to compare these two assigned editions with each other. Further, concerning that Constitution some things now occur to be noted.
[10] In the first place we observe that those indulgences of Boniface IX were revoked or abolished in the year 1567, were afterward revoked, when Pope St. Pius V at that time published his thirtieth Constitution, in which, in Laertius Cherubinus, volume 2 of the Roman Bullarium, page 214, §2, he speaks thus: All and singular indulgences, even perpetual ones … for the obtaining of which helping hands are to be stretched out, and which in any way contain a faculty of collecting alms, … we by Apostolic authority by the tenor of these presents perpetually revoke, cancel, make void, and annul, and empty of force. But at the same time we note that this revocation of indulgences does not stand in the way of the sanctity of James of Mevania, to whom Boniface attributed the title of saint, when he named that church the church of SAINTS Dominic and James of Mevania. This observation is proved from what follows: for Pope Paul V in the year 1620 renewed the Bonifacian indulgences, as Jacobilli in the Italian Life of Blessed James, chapter 18, attests, and retained for that same church of Mevania the title of SAINTS Dominic and James of Mevania, even though he omitted the helping hands for giving alms and similar formulas of collecting alms forbidden by Pius V. Hence at last we conclude that at that time the immemorial present-day cult of Blessed James was known to Boniface IX, and consequently was approved by the authority of the supreme Pontiff. Although these things seem sufficient for proving the lawful veneration of that same Blessed man, nevertheless the Fathers Preachers, for the sake of greater security or fuller solemnity, took care that the honor long since granted to their blessed Alumnus should be more distinctly and clearly confirmed, as will be reported below.
[11] In the year of Christ 1608 (we here omit other attempts, earlier in time and fruitless, for obtaining a solemn beatification) a Process was instituted by the ordinary authority of the prelate of Spoleto, nevertheless after various Processes, from which Cardinal Bellarmine reported the following to the Sacred Congregation of Rites: In the Process there is first of all a History of his deeds written in the year of the Lord 1377, about seventy years after the death of that same Blessed man, by a certain Brother Bonaventure, a holy man, afterward renewed and corrected in the year of the Lord 1514 by Brother Albert the German. In the History there is, first, about his most holy life. Second, about his austerity. Third, about his miracles wrought in his life, and at his death, and after his death; which, if they were lawfully proved, would suffice for his canonization. Fourth, it is set down that his feast day and solemnity is kept at Mevania every year, and that a very great crowd used to assemble to him. This History was extracted word for word from an ancient book by four Friars Preachers of the Convent of St. Mary above Minerva.
[12] Second, there is the commission of the general Chapter of 1596 under the most reverend Father Brother Vincent Justiniani, instituted concerning his beatification that the Procurator of the Order procure that the Office of blessed James of Mevania may be recited in the whole Roman province. Third, there is another Life by Brother Bartholomew Mortari, reported by Leandro Alberti of Bologna; in which history there are read two dead persons raised to life; but concerning
the first there can be doubt, since in the History of Bonaventure, chapter XXVII, he is not said to have been dead, but freed from death in a moment. Fourth, there is the testimony of St. Antoninus. Fifth, there is an Antiphon and its Prayer, which it is credible was at some time recited. Sixth, there exists a Process made in the year 1608 by the Rural Vicar of Mevania by commission of the lord Vicar general of the most illustrious lord bishop of Spoleto, in which about twelve miracles are contained; but two seem the chief ones. Seventh, there exists an authentic testimony of Pope Boniface IX, that the church where the body of blessed James is, and which used to be called St. George's, was afterward called the church of Saints Dominic and James of the Order of Preachers. The most eminent Prospero Lambertini, in volume 2 of the Work praised above, page 214, alleges this report of the venerable Bellarmine, made before the Sacred Congregation of Rites, in just so many words.
[13] Pope Paul V renewed the same, These proofs of an ancient veneration probably moved Paul V to grant indulgences more freely to the confraternity of Mevania of both sexes, which was instituted under the invocation of SAINTS Dominic and James of Mevania, as that Pontiff speaks in his decree, which was given at Rome at St. Peter's in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1610, on the Ides of April, and which may be read entire in the most eminent Prospero Lambertini, volume 2 of the Work just cited, page 215 and following. Ludovico Jacobilli in the Italian Life of Blessed James, chapter 18, asserts that the same Pontiff in the year of Christ 1620, on the 6th day of February, granted plenary indulgences, to last for seven years, to all the faithful of Christ who should devoutly visit the aforesaid church of Mevania and perform the prescribed pious works, the obligation of giving alms being passed over, which St. Pius V had already abolished by his Constitution mentioned above. This decree of Paul V we have not been able to find in the recent Bullarium of the Order of Preachers.
[14] and at last Pope Clement X of Rome But in volume VI of the same Bullarium, page 307, we find the decree of the Canonization of Blessed James of Mevania, published under the Pontificate of Clement X, which runs thus: Whereas by the Postulator of the cause supplication was made that it be decreed, declared and promulgated by the Sacred Congregation of Rites that it is established that a cult was and is exhibited to the aforesaid Blessed James by Apostolic indults, and that therefore a cause of this kind is comprehended among the cases excepted from the decrees issued by command of Urban VIII of happy memory in the Congregation of the most holy Inquisition concerning non-cult, and that the same have been sufficiently satisfied; the same Sacred Congregation, on the report of the most eminent Lord Cardinal Sforza as relator, judged that it is established to be an excepted case, and that therefore one may proceed to further steps, if it shall please His Holiness; on this 14th day of May, 1672. And report having been made of the aforesaid to His Holiness by me the secretary, His Holiness kindly assented on the 18th day of the same month of May 1672.
F. M., bishop of Porto, Brancati.
Place of the † seal
Bernardino Casali, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.
After the title of saint already granted him by the Roman Pontiffs, and on account of other indications of ancient veneration, we think that this declaration of immemorial cult was sought rather out of fittingness than out of necessity.
[15] recognized the immemorial cult of this blessed Man as lawful, Finally the Fathers Preachers took care laudably that the lawful cult of their blessed Confrère should be increased and extended, as is clear from the following decree, which came out at Rome in the year 1674 from the printing house of the Reverend Apostolic Chamber, and is of this tenor: Whereas the Sacred Congregation of Rites held on the 6th day of March 1673, His Holiness also assenting on the 17th of the same month and year, at the pious prayers of Father Brother John Thomas de Rocaberti, Master General of the whole Order of Preachers, granted the faculty of reciting the Office with the celebration of a Mass from the common of one confessor not a pontiff, every year, on the 23rd day of August, the feast of blessed James of Mevania of the Order of Preachers, in each and all the churches of the territory of Mevania of the diocese of Spoleto, where it is asserted that this same Blessed man was born and died; and for all priests both secular and regular flowing together only to the church of the Convent of the Friars Preachers of the said territory, where his body is said to be kept and exposed to public veneration, notwithstanding Apostolic constitutions and ordinances and all other things to the contrary:
[16] But now, at the earnest and repeated prayers of the aforesaid Master General of the Order of Preachers, and extended it more widely. the same Sacred Congregation judged that the aforesaid concession can be extended also to each and all the churches and Religious of the whole aforesaid Order of Preachers of both sexes, so that both the Friars and the Nuns existing in whatever parts of the world may lawfully and freely recite, and respectively be able to celebrate, the Office and Mass of the aforesaid blessed James on the said day, his feast, under the rite of the Breviary and Missal of the same Order; and it judged that the same favor can likewise be extended to all priests, both secular and regular, flowing together to the churches of the aforesaid Order of both sexes on the feast day of the aforesaid Blessed man, so that they may there be able to celebrate a Mass of the aforesaid Blessed man under the same rite, yet with the Roman Missal, if it shall seem good to our most Holy Lord. On this 4th day of August 1674. And word having been made concerning the aforesaid with His Holiness by me the secretary, His Holiness kindly approved and confirmed the aforesaid extension on the 8th day of the same month of August and of the year 1674.
F. M., Bishop of Porto, Cardinal Brancati
Place of the † seal
Bernardino Casali, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.
Whether the cause of this Blessed man has since been promoted still further, we do not know, and we await this information from the very Reverend Fathers Preachers. Meanwhile we shall give some advance notice about the biographers of that same Blessed man in the following paragraph.
§ II. The chief writers of his deeds, a fragment of a most ancient Life, and information about the two copies of the Acts which we shall publish after this Commentary.
The old Process having been lost, It is truly to be lamented that the most ancient records which had been written about the deeds of the present Blessed James perished in a fire. But that loss was in some measure repaired by Bonaventure Camassei, a Dominican, who from the recollection of documents formerly read, or from the tradition of the citizens of Mevania, gathered the Life of this Blessed man about the year of Christ 1377; and of whom, as the first restorer of the Acts, Jacques Échard, among the Writers of the Order of Preachers reviewed by him, volume 1, page 720, hands down the following: Brother Bonaventure Camassei, an Italian of Umbria, called from his native place "of Mevania," and having embraced the Order in that same place in the course of the fourteenth century, was renowned for erudition and holiness of life. But when in the year 1375 our confrères, oppressed by the tyranny of Corrado Trinci, lord of Foligno, had been driven out of Mevania by force of arms, their house being plundered by the soldiers, and there being consumed by fire, together with the rest of the furniture, also the title-deeds and older records, among which was the Process instituted concerning the life, character, sanctity and miracles of B. James de' Bianconi of Mevania, who died in the year 1301, on the 23rd DAY (rather the 22nd, as others will have it, and as Échard himself had earlier noted on page 492 of the same volume) of August.
[18] Bonaventure Camassei, nearly contemporary, In the following year 1376, Corrado being driven out and our men having returned, Bonaventure, the more eminent among them, applied his mind to restoring the buildings, and in particular restored the said Process according to the tenor and form of the earlier one that had been lost or burned, so far as memory suggested and more certain records gathered from every side supplied; whose αὐτόγραφον is even now preserved and seen in our church at Mevania, as Jacobilli reports in the Library of Umbria, page 74. Malvenda had a copy of the same manuscript on parchment, and used it in the Annals of the Order at the year 1236, page 550, where he treats of this Blessed man. Camassei died in the year 1400, on the 14th day of September, and was buried among his own, as Fontana has it, On the Roman province, page 141, who calls him not Bonaventure but Ventura, by a shortening familiar to Italians. His work therefore is the Life of Blessed James of Mevania. This Life, however, however accurate they may wish it to be, we frankly confess will always excite among the skilled a longing for the earlier one.
[19] is said to have been admonished by the Blessed man himself, We willingly admit these assertions of the most learned Échard; but we certainly wonder that he makes no mention of the wonderful manner in which Camassei is handed down to have been induced to gather those Acts of Blessed James: for the truth of that history or revelation, which Ludovico Jacobilli in the Life of this Blessed man, chapter 17, narrates in Italian, would add no small weight of historical credit to Camassei's work. Wherefore we shall render in a few words Jacobilli's Italian narrative, which can be compressed into Latin roughly in this manner. After the devastation of the town of Mevania, which some writers attach to the year of Christ 1375, others defer as late as the year 1377, Bonaventure Camassei of Mevania was taken captive by the enemy in his native place. But being freed from captivity by divine means, he dwelt in the monastery of the Friars Preachers at Pisa, where after a few months he fell into a deadly illness. In this straitness of body he fled to the patronage of Blessed James, his fellow townsman, who, appearing with a venerable and splendid countenance, foretold his health, and bade him return to the Convent of the Friars Preachers at Mevania and restore it. Then the Blessed man pledged his help in carrying out these matters, and disappeared.
[20] that he should write his Life. But Camassei, restored to his former health, obeyed the commands of Blessed James, and moreover out of a grateful mind promised that he would commit to letters the Life of his Deliverer. But when he deferred his promise too long, and even neglected the vow afterward made, he relapses once and again into an illness graver than the preceding one. After Blessed James had again appeared in glory to his client and had now healed him a third time, at last Camassei carried his vow into execution, and without delay wrote the Life of the Blessed man, and finished it about the year of Christ 1385, as Jacobilli attests in the same place. But others make no mention of so wonderful and so long a postponement, and commonly refer that work of Camassei to the year 1377; among whom the most eminent Prospero Lambertini, in the Work praised above, book 2, chapter 24, §9, number 27, writes thus to our purpose concerning Blessed James: That Blessed man died in the year 1301, and his Life was written about the year 1377 by Brother Ventura Camassei of the Order of Preachers, a man of entire credit; which, however, has not yet been published, but is kept in manuscript both in the City and at Mevania in the libraries or archives of the Convents of the Order of St. Dominic. Further, we cannot bring a certain judgment concerning the truth and the time of the history reported above, since we lack the works of Camassei and of Laurence, whom Jacobilli alleges as witnesses of this matter. Lest, however, anyone impute this penury of documents to us, it will not be beside the point here briefly to indicate how great a diligence we have employed to obtain them.
[21] When the Reverend Father Carlo Matthioli, a Dominican, had sent a certain notice about the immemorial and lawful cult of Blessed James to our Papebroch, Since that work of Camassei, still surviving, he, replying to him, also asked from him other documents pertaining to the same Blessed man,
as Papebroch left noted on the very page of the notice which he had received, in these words: I wrote back on the 25th of November 1672, that he should see to it that anything be supplied that is lacking to our Life, of which I sent a list, and that the Life and Process be transcribed, drawn up by the care of Brother Bonaventure in the year 1380 written. Likewise a copy of the instruments and Briefs. Third, from the Lives composed by Brothers Laurence and by Felix, as much as is sufficient. Likewise from the Processes of the years 1608, 1612 and 1631. We are of the opinion that here by Papebroch, besides Bonaventure Camassei, are indicated Laurence Fungolo and Felix de Rosso, whom Jacobilli in the catalogue of authors prefixed to the Italian Life of Blessed James reckons among his biographers, and whose works he attests to be preserved in the Convent of the Fathers Preachers at Mevania. But Papebroch, receiving no reply, and thinking that his earlier letter had perished or gone astray on the way, in the year 1673, on the 16th day of June, wrote another again, as he noted in the same place. But we do not know whether, or what, was answered to this second letter.
[22] Certainly in our literary stores we have found nothing transcribed from the desired instruments. we have not been able to obtain, Wherefore in the year 1736, when the time for examining the Acts of Blessed James was now drawing near, our old request was repeated, a letter being sent to the Reverend Father Prior of Mevania, to which the Reverend Father Domenico Guidotti (he was then Prior of that convent, unless we are mistaken), in the same year 1736, on the 9th day of October, most courteously replied in this manner: It is fitting to render the greatest thanks for the sacred ardor of your devotion toward our blessed James our founder. Wherefore, desiring in every way to comply with your Reverence's so pious wishes, after on the 5th day of October I received your most exceedingly welcome letter sent to me from Antwerp under the date of the 9th of September, at once on the immediately following day, namely the 6th of the current October, I most fully informed my Superiors of this, so that it might be possible to come the more quickly and the more safely to the opening of the sacred chest in which, at the feet of that same holy Founder of ours, the Life written by the hand of Father Bonaventure Camassei (as you request) is kept; whose original copy it will be my care to transmit to you. It is hidden from us for what cause, notwithstanding that obliging promise, we have received nothing hitherto. On this occasion we wish the very Reverend Fathers Preachers to be asked that they themselves, after the example of the learned Fathers Benedictine, should publish and illustrate the authentic Acts of the Saints or Blessed of their Order, if they are unwilling to share them with us. By this Work they will increase the splendor of their sacred Order, and will greatly oblige us and all lovers of hagiography.
[23] from Taegio, a more recent biographer Now therefore we are compelled to be content with the Acts of Blessed James which Ambrose Taegio collected, of which laborious collector of very many records the praised Échard, among the Writers of the Order of Preachers reviewed by him, volume 2, page 35, supplies this notice: Brother Ambrose Taegio, an Insubrian, born at Milan, and having embraced the Order in that same place in the monastery of St. Mary of the Graces, namely one lately erected in the year 1485, after he had bestowed excellent labor in it upon piety and letters, applied his mind and his studies to the knowledge of the history of the Order, and diligently and with great labor collected the original Acts. Then he alleges the words of Leandro Alberti, and from them gathers that Taegio was still among the living in the year 1517, and was toiling at that great Work of his.
[24] we are compelled to give briefer Acts of the Blessed man, After assigning Taegio's date he hands down the following about his chief work: He wrote therefore a general Chronicle of the Order divided into six manuscript volumes in folio on parchment, in which he most diligently collected all things that pertain to the Order — the erections of provinces and monasteries, the Lives and original Acts of the Saints and Blessed, the series of Cardinals, archbishops, bishops and illustrious men, and any singular rights and privileges granted by supreme Pontiffs and princes, the Acts of the general chapters from the year 1220 to 1513, and very many things of this kind, some of which are sometimes read repeated in different volumes with different notices often added. These six volumes, moreover, are kept in the said monastery of the Graces. And these are what are commonly cited by our men under the title of the MONUMENTS of the Order, and of which the first volume is called the first part, and so of the others. These were used by those who thereafter wrote about the affairs of the Order: Lusitanus, Razzi, Castillo, Pio, Malvenda and others. From these also the learned editors of the Acts of the Saints, Bolland, Henschen, Papebroch, have copied out certain Lives of the Saints and Blessed of the Order, and produce and set them forth in their Menaea as occasion offers.
[25] whose beginning may be compared Willingly and with a grateful mind we confess that our Predecessors published various Acts of the Saints from this Work of Taegio, and in particular that Papebroch transcribed with his own hand from these same Monuments the Life of the present Blessed James. Nay rather, we could wish that Taegio had here also preserved the original Acts, as he was accustomed to do in certain others. But in this place he reduced the Life of Blessed James merely into a compendium, as will be plain from the following fragment of the Acts, which Malvenda in the Annals of the Preachers, at the year of Christ 1236, chapters 4 and 5, reports thus in Camassei's own words: Blessed James was born in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and twenty. Now this Brother James was illustrious in origin according to the pride of the world, of a noble stock called de' Bianconi, which in Latin sounds "of the Whites." For nature produced nearly all of the said house generous and well-constituted, and moreover adorned them with upright manners, dowering them at once with nobility of blood and of manners. Whence he is truly to be reckoned noble and by nature a lord whom his own virtue ennobles. But of how great gentility and distinction this kindred was, the ample structures now ruined and the parts of its walls destroyed bear witness, and the upright deeds magnificently done by them. His father was named John, his mother Vanna; and his own brother had the name Andrew: he indeed, a soldier vigorous in arms, second to none in piety, ruled the city of Mevania with the political skill with which he was triumphantly endowed, and managed it at his own discretion. Whence also he taught the men of Mevania all urbanity and civil manners, from which in time they fell away.
[26] Now there appeared at the nativity of blessed James wondrous prodigies in heaven and on earth, with a fragment of Camassei, as I have heard from the old Brethren of Perugia and Spoleto; not only to mark his most worthy birth, who was to be as it were a kind of radiance, but also to declare the virtue and magnificence of the other two aforesaid Saints. On that night indeed three moons appeared, in each of which a certain Brother was seen, clothed in the shining habit of the Friars Preachers, wrapped above with light as with a garment. Likewise at the morning hour there rose as it were three suns, figuring certain boys clothed in snowy garments. But the glittering morning star, and the other sparkling stars, and the rest of the flame-bearing planets, which at the coming of the sun had been accustomed to withdraw their splendor, were found this morning to glow more brightly. And a certain boy was crying out with a loud voice through the squares and streets of the city: To the schools, to the schools, to the schools. And when he was asked why he went about crying thus, he replied: Because the whole world was awaiting the coming of the masters and their schools. Likewise a certain lunatic saw the whole land burning, and it was not consumed, as is read of the bush of Moses, which likewise burned and was not consumed. Again the lord Andrew, of whom mention has been made above, who was the brother of blessed James, saw in a dream his mother with a boy clothed in the habit of the Friars Preachers, to whose preaching and teaching a very great multitude was flowing together: and when the mother had learned this from her son and was constantly pondering it, a like vision appeared to her, which she afterward revealed to her husband. But in that land there was as yet no knowledge whatever of the Brethren of the Order of Preachers.
[27] The noble boy therefore being born of pious and honorable parents, which the Reverend Father Thomas Malvenda is called James, which sounds SUPPLANTER, because forsooth he was to supplant the deceitful riches of this world, to war down the airy powers of these darknesses, and moreover had to subjugate to his rule the world that presses upon us. Finally he is handed over to a teacher to be instructed in letters; in which, as a sharp youth, he made very great progress in a short time. But his mother, loving him most tenderly, formed him most diligently both in letters and in divine manners. And so the little boy, growing from good to better, becomes humble and devout beyond measure, giving himself very frequently to prayers and fasts. Moreover, at his birth, there was made a confederation and great concord between the house de' Bianconi and the house of Celtus Gonorus de' Alberti, where formerly great discord had fallen out. Whence, kinship being contracted and joined by affinity, the renewed friendship endures unimpaired to this present day.
[28] But when James was almost sixteen years old, in the Annals of the Order of Preachers the vanity of the world being spurned and worldly pomps cast off, he entered the divine Order of Preachers. Advancing diligently in the Order, as a boy of ability, inasmuch as he had obtained a good soul, he began not sluggishly to act, but vehemently to apply himself to the study of the Scriptures, gathering like a resourceful bee the honeyed utterances of the various sciences. Hence also he is assigned to a certain man to be instructed in the ecclesiastical office, that as a youth he might drink in holiness of life, and afterward keep it in a perpetual tenor. His boyish years therefore having been passed innocently, he was sent to Perugia, that he might sweat over the arts which they call liberal: for there then, as also now, a universal school flourished, abounding both in a disciplined multitude of scholars and also in the skilled perfection of the masters. And the youth of excellent disposition began earnestly to give himself to the letters for whose sake he had been sent; and, the frivolous sciences which they call human being left aside, to take exceeding delight in true letters.
[29] published in print, Whence in the liberal arts he advanced in his own kind beyond many of his contemporaries in a shorter space: being moderately instructed in these, lest the time suited to a holier life should be lost, he betook himself wholly to the study of theology; and he began greatly to pant after the divine utterances, and with immense eagerness to give labor to the sacred Letters, so that he passed many nights sleepless. Of meditations too and of holy affections, like earth drenched with a heavenly shower, he produced most abundant fruits. Holiness of life also, and the spiritual fruit of good works, he set before the leaves of words. And his voice and his speech and his preaching were not in the learned words of human wisdom, but in the power of God and the showing forth of the Holy Spirit. These things being reported from Camassei, in the same place at the end of chapter 5 Malvenda promises that at the year 1301, in which Blessed James died, he will set forth the rest of his deeds. But since Malvenda did not carry his Annals down to that year, we are destitute of this help also, and cannot judge concerning the remainder of Camassei's work. Nevertheless from the fragment already reported we conjecture that this biographer is more prolix in narrating the deeds of Blessed James, as the curious reader will easily see who shall wish to compare that first part of Camassei with the beginning of the Acts which after this preliminary Commentary
we are about to publish from the collection of Taegio.
[30] and to those Acts of Taegio Contemporary with the aforesaid Taegio is Bartholomew Mortari, another biographer, of whom the aforementioned Échard, in volume 2 of the Work cited above, page 86, has this: Brother Bartholomew Mortari, an Italian, was already flourishing in the year 1516, and is praised by Leandro at folio 148, where he introduces him speaking with himself, and adorns him with no small encomiums; namely that he frequently and most eloquently held forth in the chapters of the congregation of Lombardy, and that in the past year 1515, on the Lord's Nativity, in a crowded gathering of doctors and scholars, he spoke from the pulpit in a Latin oration so elegantly and gracefully that he drew all into admiration: for he was a man (the same adds) elegant, florid, and polished, who was strong in talent and in true Latinity no less than in philosophy and theology, which — he says — his published Opuscula excellently prove. What these are he does not subjoin; but his is the Life of blessed James de' Bianchi of the Order of Preachers, commonly called "of Mevania," which is published in the same Leandro at folio 227. Then he makes mention of certain other works of his, which here make nothing to our purpose.
[31] we shall subjoin another compendium of the Life. We are unwilling in this place to review more at length Ferdinand del Castillo, Serafino Razzi, Michele Pio, Ludovico Jacobilli, and other more recent writers, who wrote the Life of the same Blessed man in the vernacular. These, however, and other Latin writers of the Acts, we shall use where we shall judge that something worthy of note occurs. Since therefore the work of Camassei is lacking to us, in its place we shall first publish from the Collection of Taegio the Life of Blessed James, and shall divide it after our manner into larger chapters, indicating nevertheless the ancient titles of the chapters, which we shall prefix to the Acts and assign in the margin. To this Life we shall subjoin another, which Bartholomew Mortari abridged more briefly and elegantly from Camassei or Taegio. Although this second one exists in print in Leandro Alberti in the Work on the Illustrious Men of the Order of Preachers, nevertheless we shall add it to the former, both because Leandro Alberti's edition is rare, and because Mortari here and there sets forth the preceding Acts more clearly. Finally we exhibit the deeds of Blessed James as we can, since as we would we may not. But now we shall try to illustrate the posthumous glory of the same Blessed man, before we proceed to the edition of this twofold Life.
§ III. The Blessed man's posthumous glory from the writings left to posterity, and from the honorable preservation of his incorrupt body.
We doubt whether the Blessed man, among other things, Not only in piety, but also in learning was our Blessed James renowned, as bibliographers everywhere attest, among whom Antonio of Siena, or the Portuguese, in the Library of the Order of the Friars Preachers, page 124 and the following, praises him thus: Brother James of Mevania, a man prudent and grave, and one who always busied himself to make his calling sure through good works, and who therefore came to be celebrated in repute by the merit as of erudition so also of sanctity, and being eminent in the greatness of human disciplines, wrote one book on our Savior; another on the Last Judgment. He died at Mevania in the year of the Lord 1301. Ludovico Jacobilli in the Italian Life of the Blessed man, chapter 4, reviews both, or that bipartite Work, which is divided into several chapters, and sets forth in Latin the ancient titles of the individual chapters, as may be seen in that place. Moreover he there records a book of Sermons which the Blessed man composed for the year, and asserts them to be most richly adorned with eloquence and with sentences of sacred Scripture.
[33] But other bibliographers have made no mention of this preaching Work. wrote a book of sermons, Nay, Jacobilli himself in the Library of Umbria, which he afterward published at Foligno, is altogether silent about that book of sermons, although there at page 143 he commends the piety and erudition of that Blessed man in these words: Blessed James de' Bianconi of Mevania, of the Order of Preachers, who died holily on the 22nd day of August 1301. He erected two monasteries; one for the Friars, the other for nuns. He composed two volumes with eloquent speech and grace. The first entitled The Mirror of the Humanity of Christ, divided into 25 chapters, where he treats of his Incarnation, Conception, Nativity, Circumcision, Baptism, Passion and descent into hell. The second volume entitled The Mirror of Sinners and On the Last Judgment, divided into 23 chapters, as Brother Bonaventure of Mevania reports in his Life, in manuscript in the Convent of the Preachers at Mevania, and Brother Michele Pio, part 2, book 1, On the Illustrious Men of the Preachers, and Possevino.
[34] Jacobilli differs from other writers in a twofold circumstance of the narrative: for he asserts that Blessed James erected two monasteries, one for Friars, founded two monasteries, the other for nuns. But Ambrose of Altamura, a Dominican, in the Library of the Order of Preachers, makes mention of only a single monastery, when in the second Century of that Work, at the year of Christ 1301, or page 80, he praises this Blessed man among the writers of his Order in this manner: Blessed James of Mevania, most celebrated for sanctity, learning, miracles, of the family de' Bianconi, enters the Order at Spoleto in 1236. At Mevania he had a Convent of the Order built, in the construction of which he wrought many miracles. He multiplied bread, he turned water into wine. Desirous of eternal salvation, while he was praying before a most sacred image of the Crucified, he was assured of it from that image in this manner. He is wholly sprinkled with blood by the Redeemer, who said to him: Let this blood be for a sign of thy salvation. He raised two dead persons, he wrote a book on our Savior, likewise a book on the last judgment. He flew up to heaven in this year 1301.
[35] and whether his writings still survive. But that difference between the two writers concerning a twofold or a single monastery will probably be able to be explained if Jacobilli, besides the Convent of the Fathers Preachers at Mevania, also ascribes to Blessed James the other monastery of Benedictine nuns, which a certain woman Lucia built by the counsel of the same Blessed man, as will be narrated in the Acts to be published below at number 6. But we shall not so easily reconcile Échard with Jacobilli concerning the surviving or lost works of that Blessed man: for the latter in the Italian Life of Blessed James, chapter 4, affirms that they were once preserved in the Convent of Mevania, but that they are no longer found there since the age of our grandfathers. But Échard, among the Writers of the Order of Preachers reviewed by him, volume 1, page 492, expressly hands down that the manuscript Opuscula of the same Blessed man are even now kept among the Fathers Preachers of Mevania. This opposition or controversy of the two authors, which requires eyewitnesses, we leave to the learned men of Mevania to examine and decide.
[36] His incorrupt body, Further we shall report the illustrious eulogy with which the praised Ambrose of Altamura adorns this Blessed man in his Appendix to the Library of the Dominican Order, page 464, thus: Blessed James of Mevania began to be renowned for miracles amid the first novitiate exercises of his Religion, and in a brief compass arrived at once at the summit of sanctity and of letters, so much so that in the twenty-fifth year of his age the office of apostolic preaching was entrusted to him. Nor without fruit: for he utterly routed the heresy of the Nicolaites reviving in Umbria, and at length brought Ortinellus himself, the ringleader of that pestilent sect, to a public detestation of his error. Most sparing of sleep, after the example of our holy father Dominic, three times each night he made his poor body bleed with a most sharp scourge. He had so bound an iron chain about his loins that thereafter it could not be torn away. His body when he was dead, within three hundred years from his death having been translated three times to a more fitting place, was as many times found entire and incorrupt; and to those who piously visited it on the first three days of May Boniface the ninth kindly granted indulgences; and finally Pope Clement the tenth, by a decree of the senate of sacred Rites, extended the solemn festivity of this Blessed man to the whole Order of Preachers.
[37] St. Antoninus, archbishop of Florence, confirms by his eyewitness testimony the integrity of the sacred body here mentioned, which will be narrated in both the Acts to be published below, when in the third part of his Histories, title 23, chapter 10, §5, among other Friars Preachers illustrious for the fame of sanctity, he writes thus of our present Blessed man: which St. Antoninus asserts he saw at Mevania, In the Convent of Mevania near Foligno rests the body of Brother James, a native of that place, and whose body I saw entire, dried up after the manner of a wooden statue. He was exceedingly devout and religious, glorious with miracles. Échard too, in volume 1 of the Work already often cited, page 492, attests that the body of Blessed James continues still incorrupt at Mevania, and at the same time in the same place indicates the day of his death and of his yearly festivity in these words: He died at Mevania on the 22nd of August 1301, whose body still continues entire, having now for the third time been removed from its former sepulcher that it might be translated to a more fitting place, always held in veneration and honored there by the peoples; to whom, fleeing to his sacred relics, Boniface IX of old wished to be beneficent by the bestowal of Apostolic indulgences; whose feast day, finally, Clement X, upon the inquiry of the sacred Congregation of Rites, decreed by a solemn oracle to be celebrated thereafter in the whole Order of Preachers on the 23rd day of August.
[38] Besides, the often-praised Jacobilli in the Italian Life of Blessed James, chapter 16, sets forth more distinctly the same integrity of the sacred body after various translations and its various translations, roughly in these words: The venerable body of Blessed James was piously buried, with a great concourse of the people, among the Fathers Preachers of Mevania before the door of the sacristy, and there it rested until the beginning of May of the following year, that is, from the Virgin's childbearing 1302: for within that time from his death God wrought through the intercession of this Servant of his so many and so great miracles that the Friars of that Convent were compelled by the faithful to disinter that precious pledge and to translate it to a more fitting place. And they did this in the presence of many religious and illustrious men, who then beheld his sacred body still entire without stench or any corruption, and laid it in a marble chest which was wonderfully found in the time of his life, and which God seems in a manner to have prepared for his faithful Servant after his death. Then he makes mention of two other translations, of which the one was made in the year of Christ 1401, the other in the year 1555, each always more ornately and more honorably.
[39] Finally Jacobilli in the same place narrates how that sacred pledge was translated a fourth time, it is still preserved there honorably and carefully. and how carefully it was guarded in his own time. In the year of Christ 1589, he says in Italian, it was translated to the place where it now rests above the high altar, and is honorably preserved in a beautiful reliquary, which is enclosed in another case for greater safekeeping. And this sacred treasure is locked with four keys, of which two are kept among the Fathers Preachers of the Convent of Mevania, and as many are in the hands of the Magistracy of the city of Mevania, so that the venerable body of Blessed James cannot be shown unless someone deputed by the Convent and by the Magistracy be present; excepting nevertheless his yearly festivity, and the two following days, on which it is publicly exhibited to be seen by everyone. But then and at any other time those venerable relics have always been devoutly visited by inhabitants, neighbors, and pilgrims of whatever state or condition, and hitherto
they are honored. But whether after Jacobilli's time anything has been changed concerning those sacred remains, we do not know. These things being reported for the posthumous glory of Blessed James, we shall faithfully transcribe certain more recent benefits obtained by those who implored the patronage of the same Blessed man.
§ IV. Some more recent miracles of the same Blessed man, which the Reverend Father Prior of Mevania sent to our Predecessors.
The Reverend Father Meniconi in his first letter relates, In the year of Christ 1648 the Reverend Father Antoninus Meniconi of the Order of Preachers, Prior of Mevania, sent a most courteous letter to Henry Lindanus, a priest of our Society, who was then staying at Loreto, that he might forward it to our Predecessors. In this letter, which Bolland noted that he received from Loreto in the month of January of the year 1649, after an obliging preface the following miracles or benefits are read in Latin: In the year 1605 a youth of Mevania, son of Olinda de' Saraceni, Crispoltus by name, when he was performing the service of a court page at Naples in the palace of the marquis Cyrus, was exercising himself in fencing practice with an equal of his own, the swords indeed being kept in their scabbards. It happened by chance that the other's sword was bared in some part and was plunged into Crispoltus's right side with a mortal wound, so that two pieces of the liver were drawn out through the wound. The news of the misfortune came at a hurried pace to Mevania; it informed the wretched Olinda of her son's desperate condition. But she flies to the patronage of the most blessed man James, demanding with such devotion as was fitting that her son be brought back to his mother's dwelling, that at least amid his mother's chaste embraces he might pay the penalties of his birth. A plainly wonderful prodigy! Through long spaces of lands the boy is brought back from Naples to Mevania, and now, before the eyes of his weeping mother, he seemed about to render his soul to heaven, when again she implores the clemency of blessed James, and in a short time receives her son not only alive, but in the best of health.
[41] how Blessed James succored various clients, That same woman in the year 1608, reduced to the extremity of life, found no medicine profitable to her body: for the cause of the illness was hidden, and unknown to the wisest physicians. Wherefore she invokes heavenly help, trusting that she would be relieved by the aid of her blessed fellow-citizen and patron James. All things fall out according to her prayer, and the origin of the languor appears: a demon, which had settled in her mute, now speaks. She now experiences the most efficacious powers of the most blessed father James, by which, the spell being loosed, she is freed both from the most shameless spirit and from a most troublesome distress.
Moreover in the year 1594 a little boy of a year and a half, Pompey by name, and another whose name is not known, son of a certain Octavius Cardus, were walking outside and near the walls of Mevania about a pit from which earth was taken for making bricks. And behold a great heap of earth falls from above, and while the others flee, Pompey alone is overwhelmed and buried; who at length is dug out half-dead and covered with mud. All the townsmen condole, while the mother most wretchedly mourns her dying son. But grief stirs up piety; it does not take away the light of reason, by which she is directed to the tomb of holy James; she prays that her son be given back to her from God, of whom she had despaired by human means. Nor did divine grace add delays; it gave him back alive and sound to his mother, that she might rear him in the service of the holy Man.
[42] imploring his patronage, In our days this Saint, the singular and most vigilant Patron of this Convent and town, confers upon us very many benefits in the grace of healings. Water drawn from his well heals innumerable languors; from his well, I say, which he himself had ordered to be dug, from which he three times turned the water into wine. Among other things, in the month of July one of the Fathers who are with me devoted to the service of holy James was suffering from a most grave illness: all his limbs were held by a putrid fever; nor was there any counting of the signs that indicated he would die. He asked from me a draught of water from the holy Man's well; I gave it him to drink. Soon the deadly heat grows cold, and after a few days intervening, he returns to his accustomed duties. Pieces of bread that have touched the body of blessed James and his hands marked with the blood of the Crucified work wonders. And within eight days I shall signify other things to your very reverend Paternity by another letter of mine.
[43] I think it is not hidden from you that in our sacristy there was preserved for two hundred and twenty years a flask of the water turned into wine by the blessed Man; and this retained the original color, odor and savor which it had had from the instant of its production. It is added also that a single drop of the prodigious unmixed wine was dispensed to each of the sick; nor yet was there any diminution of the liquor; although the phial daily poured out wine, nevertheless it always remained full. and punished a sacrilegious soldier, But at that time when Charles of Bourbon advanced with the army of the emperor Charles the fifth to the destruction of the city of Rome, a certain most abandoned soldier, having despoiled the sacristy of our church, when he found the flask, and having drunk of the wine, not only tasted it, but seeing the phial still full of the same, full of a heretical fury, hurled it against the wall, broke and destroyed it; and an hour after, drowned in the river, he paid the penalties of his fury.
[44] In the month of September, on the 20th day, of the present year, my brother Tiberius Meniconi arrived here for the sake of visiting me his brother; and he promises further news of miracles. but what befell him I shall signify within eight days, along with the other things worth knowing which for want of time I omit this day. Would that holy James, for whom we labor, might grant your prayers and mine! Meanwhile I kiss your devout hands. On the 16th day of November in the year 1648. At Mevania, from the Convent of St. James. Your very reverend Paternity's most devoted servant in Jesus, Brother Antoninus Meniconi, Prior of the Convent. The same pious man stood by his promises, and sent to our Henry Lindanus another letter, written in the same hand, although the writer's name and certain other things are lacking to it, as we shall note below.
[45] In this second letter, therefore, he goes on to set forth other benefits which Blessed James bestowed upon his clients, From another letter of his we learn, in these words: There died about the year 1617 the lord Ovid de' Ciccoli of Mevania, who experienced the most efficacious intercessions of blessed James. He had drawn from his birth a monstrous deformity of the knees and feet. These, clinging to each other, were filled with such weakness that they produced a monstrous limping to both sides; nor could he be supported upon his infirm soles. All the remedies of human wisdom having been applied, he recognized the treatment to be altogether useless. Hence, leaning upon two staves, supported by the help of his mother's kinsmen and accompanied by a crowd, he came to the church to implore the patronage of blessed James. While, prostrate on the ground beside the sacred ashes, he was pouring out a shower of tears with prayers filled with true confidence, behold, before all he rises up in entire health, with straight legs and a strong step. All were astounded, celebrating with devout voice the glory of the holy Man.
[46] In the year 1607 Anthony of St. Gilia of Mevania, by accident, while he was cutting the branches of a fig tree, many men of various condition, had struck his left hand with a pruning knife between the forefinger and the thumb, so that he received thence an incurable wound, all the care of the skilled being shown to be of no avail. Then he vowed to God and to blessed James, and by his prayers obtained complete health.
The lord Luke Venturini of Trevi (he is still alive, and recounts the benefits of holy James), while as a boy he was staying at home at Mevania, was weeping inconsolably with an infant's wailing. His mother, to console the little one, gave him her gold ring; and putting it to his mouth, while he was eager to swallow it, he felt it clinging immovably in his throat. Soon he came into danger of his life; and behold, to the dying boy there is present the hand of blessed James, granting the pious supplications of his weeping mother. The little one spits out the swallowed ring, and is restored unharmed.
Faustina de' Mannucci, seized by a deadly illness, burning wondrously with fevers, asked for a draught of water from the well of the Servant of God. And when she had drunk it, the infirmity ceased. I add another wonder. For the space of six years she had had her head full of scab and corrupt matter, bruised with immense pains, which by the draught of the aforesaid healing water was cleansed of all defilement and pain within two days.
[47] Blessed James of Mevania being invoked, In the year of the Lord 1599 Julia de' Saraceni, a woman of seventy, fell upon the step of the door of her house, and her left leg being broken in several places, the heel was turned toward the front. Pressed by pain and by age, she lay abed for the space of 30 days, judged incurable by Achilles Aegidius, physician, and by Puccius Pucciarellus, surgeon. Then Olinda, daughter of the bedridden woman, urged her mother to visit the burial place of the holy Man, trusting in his patronage. She is therefore led down to our church, and upon two staves and the arms of her household is drawn to the sacred deposit, where, complete health being obtained, leaving her staves behind, she returned home on foot, having experienced the Lord wonderful in his Saints.
Very many who were sunk in the river he freed from imminent death, besides that he twice restored to the living Valerius, who had died in the waters — once when he was a boy of four years; again when he had grown up, and his parents had not, as was fitting, fulfilled their promises.
Our lay Brother Peter Martyr he preserved from all harm. He had climbed a ladder of about 25 feet in height, to adorn this our church with hangings for the glory of the blessed Man on the day before the Kalends of May. But the wooden ladder being broken into several pieces, Peter Martyr is let down from on high, with several looking on and commending the falling man's case to the divine James. He struck the ground with a huge blow, and rising at once and laughing, made all certain of his safety and of the grace obtained.
[48] in grave illnesses Joanna de' Antici confessed the notable beneficence of the holy Man in a crisis of her life on account of illness; and a few days ago the lord John Baptist de' Antici, doctor of both laws, of Mevania, reported it to me.
Camilla de' Lucerotti of San Severino, sister of our Brother Francis Mary Tromba, who is here with me, was laboring at the last. The news being received, the aforesaid Francis Mary, knowing his most dear sister's piety toward the divine James, went to the tomb of blessed James, repeating over and over the Lord's prayer and the Angelic salutation for his sister's safety; when by the next ordinary post he received letters by the courier that Camilla had at that same time been made whole. And every day we await her to pay her due thanks to the Servant of God. He did this in the present month of November, on the fifteenth day.
There is near Mevania the territory of Cannara, where an innumerable multitude of men and women receive great benefits; and they themselves bear witness to it every day.
[49] I had hinted to your very reverend Paternity about my most beloved brother Tiberius Meniconi of Perugia. and in evident dangers of life He had arrived, as I wrote in my other letter, in the month of September to visit me. When on the 16th of September, before he reclined at table, I was relating some things to him about the holy man James, I tried to make him devout toward the Blessed man. Some Fathers who live with me were present. I urged him to pray to holy James in his own affairs, especially because of the dangers and enmities existing between himself and several nobles of Perugia. He replied: What do you fear, brother? What dangers threaten me, who am to go hunting tomorrow? The preacher of this church, rising, began to speak thus: My lord Tiberius, a man is in peril in his bed: how do you go secure through the fields? Increase, I pray, your prayers; intercessors and patrons
obtain with the Lord, whose concern it is to rescue devout men from dangers.
[50] On the morning of the 17th of September he rose, went to the church, to have experienced his help. prayed devoutly to James; he mounted a most spirited horse, which he had now for twelve years reared for the uses of war, by which he had been rescued from his enemies amid the assaults of combatants. He had already dismounted, to avoid the injury of the weather, armed with a dagger and a firelock (four servants were present, five companions and friends), when the horse, burning for a mare, makes at him with its hooves, strikes him most violently in the groin, lifts him from the ground above the height of a man, turns him with his head toward the ground. Meanwhile his weapons fall; but he himself is thrown into a ditch upon the unsheathed dagger near the firelock. All cry out with him: Holy James, deliver him. In such great dangers he is little hurt, and is not hurt save by the hooves in the groin. He returns to Mevania, and the surgeon confesses that my brother was miraculously snatched from death: for the blow miraculously turned out not to be lethal within four…
The rest is wanting, which perhaps followed on another page, which we have not found. But it is hidden from us whether that fragment of the letter remained at Loreto or perished elsewhere. Other and older miracles of Blessed James will be read in his Acts, which we now put to the press.
ACTS
From the manuscript book of Brother Ambrose Taegio the Dominican, On the Distinctions of the Order of Preachers, folio 354.
ON BL. JAMES OF BEVAGNA, OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS, AT BEVAGNA IN UMBRIA
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
TITLES OF THE OLD CHAPTERS.
Here begins the Life of Blessed James of Mevania, a most holy and most skilled man
CHAPTER I.
The Blessed man's nativity indicated by prodigies, his entrance into the Order of the Fathers Preachers, the foundation of the monastery of Mevania, his learning, his various virtues and certain miracles.
Various prodigies appeared, Blessed James of Mevania, of the Order of Preachers, was born of a noble lineage which is called de' Bianchoni a, of the city of Mevania. This city indeed lies at unequal distances from Perugia, Spoleto and Todi b. Now at his nativity c various prodigies appeared in heaven and on earth: for on the night of his nativity three moons were seen in the sky, in each of which a Brother of the Order of Preachers appeared; in the day too, when the sun appeared, they were seen more fully. A certain boy, when blessed James was born, began to cry out through the city: TO THE SCHOOLS, TO THE SCHOOLS. Being asked why he said so, he replied: There are born into the world masters whom the world seeks to hear: for at that time had been born Blessed Thomas Aquinas d, and Blessed Ambrose of Siena aforenamed e, and this Blessed James. A certain other man f saw the whole land burning; yet it did not seem to be consumed. The lord Andrew, brother of blessed James, saw in a dream his mother bring forth a boy clothed in the habit of the Friars Preachers, to whose preaching and teaching a very great multitude of people flowed together; and when the mother had learned this from her son, and was constantly thinking about it, the like appeared to her also, as she herself reported to her husband.
[2] The Boy therefore being born and brought up in good manners and knowledge, when Blessed James was born at Mevania, when he was sixteen years old, it happened that two Brothers of the Order of Preachers came to Mevania from Spoleto, to preach there in Lent. These the pious Boy followed both in hearing their sermons and in receiving their counsels, and to them he also confessed his sins. On the Lord's Supper, when he had received the Sacrament of communion, and, opening the Psalter, had read Set me a law, O Lord, etc., suddenly inspired by God, he said to Brother Peter the Preacher: Father, inspired by God I have determined to leave the world and to enter your Religion. To whom Brother Peter said: Well, my son, tomorrow you shall fast on bread and water, and we shall see whether the Lord shall show you anything. You shall persevere this night in devout prayers, that your purpose may be the more confirmed by the Lord.
[3] And blessed Dominic appeared to him, saying: Son, who, having entered the Order of Preachers, accomplish in deed what you have conceived in mind; for I by the Lord's command have chosen you, and I will always be with you. He reported the vision to Brother Peter, and said that he wished altogether to accomplish what he had conceived in mind. After the Paschal feasts he departed secretly from Mevania with the said Preacher, and went on to Spoleto, his parents being ignorant of this. The Brethren of Spoleto g received him gladly and clothed him in the habit of the Order. Thus therefore, clothed in the habit of Religion, he set human glory at naught; subduing his passions, he rose up to the virtues: for he gave himself assiduously to contemplation and prayer. He was not saddened in adversities; but he loved in the highest degree the poverty of the Order. His parents too tried in many ways to call him back from his good purpose; but they were by no means able.
III
[4] After some time he began to consider how he might found a Convent of the Order in his city of Mevania. erected a Dominican monastery in his native place, Whence, a moderate sum of money having been collected h from his mother and certain citizens, he bought a little house near the square and the houses of the magnates. And when it was asked of him why he had bought that house near such people; since it would be difficult to extend himself near such people, he replied: God is powerful, who extended the Order of Preachers from sea to sea, to make this small place be extended. And so it came to pass: for he obtained a certain small church of St. George with its appurtenances from the Chapter of Spoleto, to whose jurisdiction the said church belonged. There was therefore begun by him a great church and Convent under the title of St. George, near that little church.
[5] In the building of this church the Man of God began to shine with miracles, which rendered him more illustrious. A certain woman, in the building of which Lucia by name, devoted to God and to blessed James, being unwilling to contradict her husband, who had ordered that of a certain cask i, which alone contained good wine, she should give to no one, distributing to men the gergometum k she distributing, was raised by the holy Man to such a hope. When the blessed Man had asked wine of her for the builders of the church, and she said that it was all gergometum, save one cask which she did not dare to touch, the blessed Man said: Go, and give to drink as much as is necessary for the building of the church, because according to Christ's word you shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess eternal life: for your husband shall find more and better in it than you shall have drawn from it. And she, trusting the holy Man's words, gave every day, so that daily it sufficed abundantly for drawing off for the whole building. But when her husband afterward wished to sell the said wine, the said woman on bended knees prayed: O blessed James, keep your promises; and going down, she opened the door of the cellar, and all who entered found the cask full to the top with the best wine, so that from the upper part down to the ground the wine was flowing; and they, smelling the odor, and seeing the ground about the cask sprinkled with wine, doubted of the cask's soundness, and searching, noticed that it was running down through the bung l. Then Lucia disclosed the secret, saying: Of the wine of this cask I have supplied more than two casks to Brother James for the work of the church, and now you see it full to the top, and you have found the wine three times better, because he had so promised me.
[6] he wrought various miracles, From that time the holy Man's fame was much spread abroad. Moreover the said Lucia, by the counsel of the holy Man, her husband being dead, built a monastery m in the honor and name of St. Lucy virgin and martyr under the rule of St. Benedict; where until now great buildings remain, and there she shut herself up with many other ladies. But now, on account of the perils of wars n, houses having been built within the city, several nuns remain there with great devotion; and in the outer church every year on the feast of St. Lucy the feast o is celebrated. The same miracle of wine multiplied he did for a certain Margaret, since he blessed a cask, and the little wine that was in it grew up to the top. A like multiplication he made of bread, since when he asked bread of the same woman for the same work, and she replied that she had none, but that it now had to be made, Brother James said: Go to the chest and look, and you will find. The woman went, and when she had opened the chest, she found it full of fresh loaves so hot as if they had that very hour been brought from the oven, and she gave the holy Man as many as he had need of.
[7] He was pleasant in conversation, singular in word and deed, interposing droll, cheerful and jesting things for the bystanders, lest he should be burdensome to anyone, grave, rustic: for when on a certain occasion he was taking the road from Spoleto toward Mevania before Lent, and he pleasantly teaches a peasant, intending to preach to certain people there, he lodged in the house of a certain peasant of Beroto [p], a village of the County of Spoleto, where the Friars Preachers passing that way were accustomed to lodge. But when in the evening the host returned weary, and saw his sons and daughters, of whom he had many, sitting round a small fire, and Brother James and his companion standing far off, he said: Reverend Father, Brother James, I have heard that you know and can do all things. I ask that you teach me something, so that I and the mother of these boys may have a place about the fire; and likewise the guests who sometimes arrive: for they will yield to no one in time of cold.
[8] Then Brother James, cheerful and affable, laughing briskly, said: that miracles are not to be asked of God rashly. What you ask pleases me much. Have you vine-shoots or twigs? He replied that he had. Bring, he said, three or four bundles; which when they were brought he put upon the fire, and the flame being increased, they all drew back. But Brother James said, Let us all now sit at the fire, because the place has room for all: for when a fire is great, it warms those far off, which a small one cannot do. At this the head of the household, being rude and coarse, was looking for a remedy through the coming of some miracle. Whence he replied: This I well knew, and I was expecting something else from you. To whom the Man of God said, If you knew it, why did you not do it? There is another remedy, that your children should not sit so continually at the fire, namely that you should clothe and shoe them well: for miracles are not to be sought where nature furnishes remedies. And beginning from these words, he preached the word of God to them and to others who came.
[9] At Beroto also blessed James was very famous on account of a miracle which he did there while he was still a young man and was studying at Perugia. He heals a man injured by a fall, For when he was in the said village at the time of vintage, according to custom, seeking wine freely and for the love of God, a certain young man fell from a tree, altogether broken. Blessed James is called to hear his confession, because he was near death. He prayed for him day and night, with all
others being shut out. When morning came, the young man cried out: O blessed James, by your merits health and life have been given me. But so evident was the knowledge of this miracle that it could in no way be concealed. Whence, fleeing human glory, he returned to Perugia.
VII
[10] After blessed James had studied at Perugia, he was a lecturer and a gracious preacher in many Convents. He discharged the office of Prior laudably, he performs various offices in his Order, and especially at Mevania, where he gave very many examples of his sanctity. He taught not only by word, but also by writing: for he composed two treatises; one was on our Lord the Savior, divided into fifteen chapters; the other was on the last general judgment, divided into thirty-three chapters [q]. He also detected and assailed a heresy [r] flourishing in the parts about Mevania, which said that all things are lawful and all things are common; and the error of those women who go on the course with Diana [s].
VIII, IX
[11] When a certain peasant was digging a field for planting olives, he found a marble chest, very beautiful; he obtains a marble chest in a wondrous manner, and when he had sold it to the Friars Minor of Assisi, and they had wished to bring it to Assisi with oxen and buffaloes, they were never able to. The money being restored, Brother James had it; this he caused to be carried easily with two little cows [t] as far as the church of the Friars Preachers, in which after his death his body was at last placed; and so it appeared that by a divine nod it could not be moved before, because God wished to reserve it for his Saint. He wore down his body with fasts and abstinences: for he carried a cord next to his flesh drawn so tightly about his loins that it was covered by the flesh. He used a hair-shirt on Friday, on which he also abstained from wine, fasting on bread and water. He observed the fasts of the Order inviolably. His food was bread and boiled herbs, or sometimes raw ones, seasoned with salt. Between day and night he disciplined his body three times, following the footsteps of his Father Dominic.
[12] The men of Todi making war upon the men of Mevania, that they might subdue them, he frees captives by his prayers, it happened that the lord Andrew, captain of Mevania, was captured. He was thrust into prison, to be beheaded on a certain day. Many of Mevania asked blessed James to pray to the Lord for his brother and to succor him. To whom he said: The sinner shall watch the just man, and shall gnash upon him with his teeth, etc. And this also he said to them: Fear not the assault of your enemies; be mindful how our fathers were saved, and now let us cry to heaven, and our God will have mercy on us. But let us hear what happened. Namely, on the night preceding the day on which he was to be brought forth and beheaded, by blessed James's prayer the prison being opened, the aforesaid Andrew was found at Mevania loosed and unharmed. Being asked how he had escaped, he replied: As blessed Peter the Apostle from Herod's prison. From which thing it is shown that by blessed James's prayer his brother was freed, and peace was made with the men of Todi. A certain man, Marius by name, being held suspected of treason, was put in chains and tortured. But his kinsfolk went on to the Blessed man, asking that he would succor their friend. To whom he said: I will pray for him. Prayer being made, the doors of the prison were opened, and all the chains loosed, and thus he escaped. Then Blessed James obtained a complete release from the men of Spoleto, among whom he was greatly revered.
[13] That he had the spirit of prophecy has been ascertained from many things: he uncovers the secrets of hearts, for when a certain man, Matthew by name, of Colepopi, was gravely ill, so that he could not even keep down food, and had been given up by the physicians, he had blessed James called that he might pray for his health. To whom blessed James said: You cannot be cured unless you restore the cow and sheep which you stole. This theft was hidden. Restitution therefore being made, and the blessed Man praying for him, he was restored to health. Gualterus at Mevania summoned blessed James, that he would come and pray for his son, who had been bitten by a mad dog, and restore [him] to health, because he was dying. To whom blessed James said: Let him do that to which he is bound, and he shall be well. To what is he bound? said the father. The holy Man replied: To his mother's legacy: for his mother when she died had bequeathed to the church of the Friars Preachers a certain sum of money, which he was withholding and did not pay. The legacy being paid, he was restored to health. But that, since it was hidden, could not be known save by divine revelation.
XII
[14] When Maurice the Lombard was removing the supports of the great chapel of the church of the Friars Preachers at Mevania, he succors those in peril, and had fallen, dragging after him stones and timbers from a high place, and was lying as though dead, all who ran to see said to blessed James: Your work is at stake; help him. And blessed James, coming, took his hand, saying: May the Lord Jesus Christ heal you, and in his name rise and walk. And at once he rose up sound, and returned to his work. Matthew of Bologna, a carpenter, was setting the great bell which he had made in the belfry, together with brother Paul the lay Brother of Perugia and many others helping. From a platform set at the top of the belfry all fell down together with the platform upon the vault of the chapel of St. Peter martyr, one on top of another. But through blessed James, whose work they were doing, they all rose up sound and unhurt, giving thanks to God.
XIII
[15] Billa of Montefiascone, having a great cancer in her breast, and he restores health to the sick. when she had tried almost all the remedies of the physicians, and they profited nothing, came to blessed James, that he might pray for her health. But he, blessing the oil of a lamp, gave it to her, saying: Go, and anoint yourself with this oil, and you shall be healed, because your faith has made you whole. She went and anointed herself, and on the third day was fully cured.
Margaret of Spello made light of a thorn entering her foot and did not draw it out; she bathed it, and did not treat it. From which thing she incurred so great a sickness that she was almost dying. After many medicines she came to blessed James, who at once cured her with the blessed oil of a lamp: for she carried the thorn, extracted, home from Mevania, giving thanks to God and to blessed James. The water remaining in the cruets, and the wine, after the consecration of his Mass, conferred cure upon many infirmities. The same was found of the water of the washing of his hands, since that, given to the languishing, conferred the benefit of health.
ANNOTATIONS.
p. I suspect that this is the village called in Italian Berotii, which is marked in the geographical maps of Fabio Magini between Spoleto and Montefalco on the road toward Mevania, yet so that it is nearer to Montefalco than to Spoleto.
q. At the beginning of the third paragraph we made mention of the writings of Blessed James, where at number 32 and the following of the preliminary Commentary we reviewed this twofold or bipartite work, and assigned another division of the chapters.
r. Among the chief defenders of this heresy is numbered Ottonellus, whom nevertheless our Blessed man convicted by arguments and brought to penitence, as Jacobilli in the Italian Life, chapter 8, narrates more fully, where also he surnames that heresy that of the Nicolaites or Fraticelli.
s. Although this phrase about the women who go on the course with Diana is obscure, nevertheless the author seems to allude to the error of those who think that witches, anointed with a certain magical oil, are really changed into cats or other animals, and are carried at the time of the moon, or by night, to other places; concerning which matter the praised Jacobilli in the same place discourses more distinctly in Italian. Perhaps on this occasion Taegio
made mention of Diana, who is also called the threefold Hecate, because by the poets she is feigned to be changed into various forms, as may be read among the mythologists.
t. Even though the word vaccheta in the enlarged Glossary of Du Cange has an altogether different meaning, and one not pertinent here, nevertheless from the sense we easily conjecture that here by vacchetae are understood younger cows, which in barbarous Latin are also called vacchellae, and are by the Italians commonly called vaccarelle.
CHAPTER II.
His predestination to his own eternal salvation wonderfully indicated to him, his visions, his pious death, a wonderful apparition, the integrity of his body and miracles after his death.
XIV.
When blessed James was at Mevania, he asked money of his mother for buying clothing. The image of the Crucified, which he had bought in place of a garment, Having therefore received a certain sum of money, he went to Perugia, and had a wooden image of the Crucified made. But when he had brought it to Mevania and had placed it in the church of the Friars, his mother said: Why did you tell me a lie, that you might ask money for a garment, and you have made a Crucifix? To whom he said: My mother, this was no lie, because Christ is a garment, as the Apostle says: Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ a.
[17] When on a certain occasion the holy Man was praying very devoutly before the image of the said Crucifix and was saying: makes this Blessed man certain of his salvation, Lord Jesus Christ, who didst deign to put on the covering of our mortality, I beseech the abundance of thy immense majesty that thou wouldst deign to reveal and manifest to me, thy least servant, by some certain sign, whether the sprinkling of thy precious blood be to me effectively and finally a cause of salvation, so that I may be of the number of thy elect and predestined. To whom the Crucified answered with a clear voice: Let this blood be to you for a sign and a certainty. At once from the side of the Crucified there flowed living blood and water into his face and onto the front part of his cape as he prayed, in the manner in which boys are wont to squirt water with a little reed. And clinging there for a long time, it could by no washing be removed from his so comely face; and three drops of that blood flowed down upon his lips, from which he felt so great a fragrance and sweetness of odor that from that time he always desired with the Apostle to be dissolved and to be with Christ. This his confessor reported after his death, as he had heard it from him. The same he did concerning an image of the blessed Virgin, out of the money received from his mother, which now remains in the church of the Friars.
XV.
[18] But when the time of his consummation was coming on, who not long before his death is visited by four Saints, the Lord Jesus appeared to him in a clear vision with blessed Mary his mother and blessed George and Dominic, and said to him: Set thy house in order, for on the eighth day we shall come to you, that you may be with us in glory and in the number of the elect, as I long ago promised you, and for my sign sprinkled you with blood. And because you gave your money for clothing for my image, and did the like for the image of my Mother; and George, because you enlarged his church; Dominic, because you took up his habit and his Order — therefore we shall be present at your passing. Which said, he disappeared, leaving him consoled.
XVI.
[19] But on the eighth day, the Brethren being called, he exhorted them to live according to God, and, death now being at hand, namely that they should give themselves to prayer, hold to humility, and have charity. Having received Extreme Unction, he said to the Brethren: I thirst, Brethren, I thirst. Go, he said to the attendant, to the well of the church, and bring fresh water, because I wish to drink for the last time with my Brethren, since from now on I shall not drink with you. The water being brought, the holy Man blessed it in a glass vessel, saying: May the Giver of all good things bless the drink of his servants. At once, the blessing being finished, it was turned into the best red wine, in the sight of all who were present. Now there were many Religious and seculars who had come to see him who was shortly to die. The wine therefore did not suffice, because the vessel was small. The attendant was sent again, and again he brought water a second and a third time from the same well, which the Man of God blessed in the same manner, and it was turned into wine.
[20] They all drank together with Brother James, sick, sitting in his little bed. he turns water into wine. And when all had drunk of so most perfect a wine, some asked the attendant whence he had got such wine, because they had not seen with their eyes such a change, inasmuch as they were farther off. He replied, From the well. Then Brother James said: This has not been done for my sake; but for yours, that you may believe and know that the hand of the Lord is not shortened. Then again he said to them: Farewell, my dearest Brethren, farewell all in the Lord. Behold I see my patrons and lords, and those of this Convent, coming for me: namely the Lord Jesus Christ, Mary his mother, blessed George and Dominic, according to their promise. And with his eyes lifted to heaven, he said: I give thee thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, because thou hast deigned to come to thy poor servant with such and so great a company, according to thy word, in peace. These things said, he fell asleep in the Lord. But the Brethren, while they were carrying on the commendation of his soul, heard a voice saying: Do not ask God for this man; but ask him for yourselves. What was left over of that wine the Brethren kept in a glass flask for a long time b as a proof of so great a miracle and of the sanctity of blessed James, the man of God.
XVII.
[21] Another wonderful thing happened on the day of his death: On the very day of his death for when he died he was lecturer and preacher of the Convent of St. Dominic at Orvieto. He departed thence about the beginning of the month of August, and went to Mevania, where he rested in the Lord, in the year of the Lord 1301, on the day of the Assumption c of the blessed Virgin. On the day of his burial, indeed, the Masses having been said in the church of St. Dominic at Orvieto, a certain woman remained behind, Joanna by name, of the Order of Penance d of blessed Dominic: for this Sister had a singular devotion toward blessed James, not only by reason of his preachings and his sanctity, but also from a certain familiarity and assiduous confession. Now this holy lady remained (I say indeed holy, because at Orvieto she is honored by all as a saint e) after the solemnities of the Masses in the lower part of the church; and blessed James, coming to her as though a guest, said: Hail, Sister, in the Lord. And she replied: Welcome, my Father. God has willed that you should deign to come to me, because I had need to confess.
[22] he wondrously appears to a certain woman far away, And going apart into a fitting place, she made her confession to him. And blessed James absolved her and enjoined a penance. Then he said: I have brought you from Mevania my belt and my knife, that you may be mindful of me. And she, receiving the belt and the knife, went away to her house, and prepared a tart f and certain other things, which she sent by her maid to the Convent. But when the maid had learned from the porter that he was sick unto death at Mevania, and had reported it to Sister Joanna, she, not believing it, came to the Convent, and showing the knife and belt which she had received from him, said: For I spoke with him this morning. And the Brethren recognized that it was so as she said, saying: Certainly this is his belt and knife. And quickly sending two Brothers to Mevania, they found that blessed James had died on that day. Inquiry was made at Mevania concerning the belt and the knife, and they were nowhere found.
XVIII.
[23] His body was buried on the octave of the Assumption g of the blessed Virgin in the common sepulcher of the Friars before the sacristy, until the 15th day of April; and his body after some months is found incorrupt, within which time so many and such miracles appeared that on account of the complaints of many it was necessary to disinter the aforesaid body. And it was found entire and perfect, as if it had been buried that same day. Witnesses of this thing were certain Prelates, Religious, nobles and commoners. And his body was translated into the marble sepulcher which he himself had procured, as has been said, and was placed in the spot where it now h rests, on the first day of the month of May; and thus his word was verified, that that chest had been reserved for another. And the said Sister Joanna kept the gift all the time of her life.
XIX.
[24] After the holy Man's death also many miracles followed: and various benefits are conferred upon the sick. for he seems to have had this grace from God, that by his merits and intercession those who suffered from a rupture in the genitals were freed. Witnesses of this thing are many, both Friars and seculars, who, being ruptured in the said place, obtained health by the merits of blessed James; and as a sign too there appear at his sepulcher many rings and armlets i, which were brought and placed there by those who received the grace. To his sepulcher also there came a copious multitude of the common people from the surrounding places, and those who were harassed by unclean spirits came to him and were cured, and all sought to touch his sepulcher, because virtue went out from it and healed them all.
XX.
[25] A certain woman of Mevania, Cecha by name, wife of Lilus, Among other things, a boy, and the same later as a youth, when she had gone to the river to draw water, and had taken her little son with her, he, while his mother was busied with other things, in play went into the water. Walking incautiously, he fell into the depth of the mill-race. But his mother cried out on this side and that: Blessed James, help him; vowing that if she had him alive she would give him to the Religion of the Order of Friars Preachers. Going down as far as the lower part of the river, she saw her son upon the water, and blessed James holding him; and thus she had him back alive. But when the boy was of the age of discretion, his parents, because they had no other, neglected to fulfill the vow, especially because neither the father nor the son had vowed, but only the mother.
[26] One day, when, having become a youth, he was bathing in the same river, he snatched twice from the peril of drowning, he struck against the mill-wheel, and, sunk in deep water, did not appear. His parents, learning this, ran, and recognizing how ungrateful they had been to blessed James, did not dare to invoke him. At last both together in accord uttered a vow that, if they received him alive, they would present him to the Order of Preachers. After a great while, therefore, the boy appeared alive upon the water. And coming to the bank and being asked how he had lived so long in the water, he said that he had been preserved by blessed James. He became therefore a Friar of the Order of Preachers, of excellent learning and approved religion, and was called Brother Nerius of Mevania k. James, son of Dominic of Mevania, while he was passing by the mill, fell into deep water, and by the current
of the water was dragged along the stream. His parents, learning this, ran invoking blessed James, and so found the boy clinging to the willows, saying that he had been held up by blessed James, lest he should sink into the deep, since he did not know how to swim.
XXI.
[27] At Gualdo a certain youth, because of a sedition made in that land, he raises to life a man dead of a wound, when he had run up to see it, being struck by an arrow in the throat, as he was being brought home, met his mother, who, weeping and drawing the arrow out of her son's throat l, he, all covered with blood, fell dying before his mother. But she began to cry out: Blessed James, help his soul; and going out of the house in which she was, with disheveled hair she cried out * against the cruelty of certain men. After an hour the boy rose up, and said that his soul had been brought back to his body by a certain Friar of the Order of Preachers. And two Friars of the aforesaid Order at once appeared in that house, and gave him alive to his mother; and coming also to those who were at odds, and reconciling all, they were seen no more.
XXII.
[28] A certain noble lady of Foligno, returning from her country house to the city with only one little boy, and various persons in straits met two great wolves, which had come to harm them. Then the woman at once said, crying out: Blessed James of Mevania, help me. And straightway the wolves, with heads bowed, turned back. A certain steward *, Martonus by name, committed his sheep to a boy to guard. He, playing with other boys, did not notice how the sheep, slipping away, entered a great wood. Night came on; he seeks the sheep, and not finding them, returned home. But Martonus, seeing the dark night and fearing the wolves, which in those days had attacked some men even by day, feared to go out. But he said: O blessed James, if you shall guard my flock from the wild beasts, I will give you a ram. Rising in the morning and going to the wood, he found his flock surrounded by great wolves and one she-wolf. But crying out he put the wolves to flight, and received his flock entire, and paid his vow. A certain woman, when she had promised to blessed James the first chick to be born, and had not done it, seeing it more beautiful, a kite came, and first snatched that one, and successively all the rest.
XXIII.
[29] James son of Peter of the land of Mulforum, when he had come to great poverty, and those set in poverty since he had a wife and children, resolved to leave them and to go to St. Mary of the Angels of Assisi, to see whether in some way he might seek his living by some employment or by begging. But passing through Mevania he found that the church was being prepared for the feast of blessed James, and there he tarried until the feast. But when on the night of the festivity he had besought blessed James with tears that he would apply a remedy to his poverty, he saw in a dream the blessed Man appearing to him and saying: Rise early in the morning, and when the doors of the church shall be opened, go out, and take up the purse which you will find, and spend the money for yourself and your necessities. With the remainder buy two pigs, and commit the care of them to your wife and children; every year present one pig to me, and it shall be well with you. That man did as had been told him in the vision, and so he found. But doubting lest the money should be someone's, he had it proclaimed by the preacher that if anyone had lost money he should give a token, and it would be restored to him. Since no one appeared, he returned home, and, pigs being bought, he became so rich that he surpassed all the men of that land in riches; and every year he personally brought one pig to blessed James, giving thanks to God and to his Saint.
XXIV.
[30] A certain young man of Foligno, unjustly imprisoned for a theft not committed by him, or shut up in prison but nevertheless having confessed under torture, was condemned to hanging, certain men of Perugia bringing this about, where he was detained. He vowed himself to blessed James, that if by his merits he were freed, he would fast his vigil on bread and water, and would visit his sepulcher, and there lay aside his garments, and take up a new habit for a year, and would serve that church of blessed James for that length of time. Indeed, on the night preceding the day on which the magistrate was to bring him forth to hanging, blessed James appeared to him, saying: You and the others who are imprisoned for crime and for debts, yet are needy and unable to pay, break the prison and flee, when you shall perceive the uproar and sedition of the people; because for love of you I have obtained grace for all the aforesaid, and punishment for those who were the kindling and cause of your condemnation.
[31] he helped by his intercession. This said, he disappeared; and that man told the vision to all. A sedition therefore arising in the morning, they broke the prisons, and about thirty were freed. But those who were the cause of the unjust condemnation were all cruelly slaughtered in that same sedition. But two Florentines, who were in the same prison for debts, could never get out; since they had wherewith to satisfy their creditors. All therefore who were freed from the prison came with the man of Foligno to Mevania to the sepulcher of blessed James, giving thanks to God and to his Saint, and recounting the miracle to all.
ANNOTATIONS.
* that is, was accusing
* That is, a farm bailiff or manager
SHORTER ACTS
by Bartholomew Mortari, a Dominican.
From the Work of Leandro Alberti, On the Illustrious Men of the Order of Preachers, which was printed at Bologna in the year 1517, folio 227 verso and following.
ON BL. JAMES OF BEVAGNA, OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS, AT BEVAGNA IN UMBRIA
FROM PUBLISHED SOURCES.
This Blessed man is born at Bevagna not without prior prodigies, Mevania is a city, as most hand down, of Etruria; as others prefer, of Umbria a. In this there was once the illustrious family of the Blanchi b, from which was sprung the illustrious man James, whose excellent deeds and notable endowments of mind we undertake to relate in a few words. For he was such in holiness of life that he might seem defrauded of his due honor, if he too were not enrolled in the register of men distinguished for piety. At the time therefore when that most holy Man was brought forth into the light, wonderful prodigies shone in heaven and on earth. For on that night on which he was born, three moons (a wonderful thing, and most rare) appeared in the sky, each containing the image of a man in the garb of a Preacher, which even when day dawned, and the sun now shone more brightly, glowed more and more. When James was newly born, a certain boy was seen to run through the whole city, proclaiming this again and again: To the schools, To the schools. He, being asked what this speech meant, said: There are born teachers whom the world may seek to hear. Since about the same days c were born the most splendid radiance of the Church, the divine Thomas Aquinas, the most illustrious man Ambrose of Siena, and third this most holy James, all of the Order of Preachers. And someone saw that night the whole earth burning with flames after the manner of the old bush, and yet not being consumed. Andrew, brother of the most holy Man, saw (as happens) in sleep his mother bring forth a boy under the habit of a Preacher, whose teaching drew to itself a very great crowd of mortals. When he had set these things forth to his mother, a few days after, she too saw the same, and made the matter known to her husband.
[2] and having embraced the Order of Preachers, The Boy therefore being born and instructed in good manners and in letters, when he had now completed the sixteenth year of his age, by chance to that city
there came two memorable men of the Order of Preachers, in the sacred season of Lent, for the sake of the divine word. These therefore the holy boy began diligently to follow, to delight in their teaching, to embrace their salutary admonitions in his mind, and to fulfill them in very deed: to whom also he confessed his faults according to custom with a sincere mind. Accordingly, when on the sacred day of the Lord's Supper he had piously taken the most sacred Body and blood of our Savior, and, the book of Psalms being opened by chance for reading, had cast his eyes upon that verse, Set before me for a law, O Lord, the way of thy justifications, straightway breathed upon by the divine Spirit, meeting one of the two aforesaid, whose name was Peter, he said: Almighty God has admonished me that, the vanity of the world being spurned, I should devote myself to your Order. The provident man advised the holy Youth that, giving himself the following night to prayers, and by day eating only bread and water, he should mark whether the Lord should deign to indicate anything further upon that matter; on which night, behold, suddenly there appeared to the Youth Dominic, the most holy father of the Preaching family, counseling him to accomplish in deed what he had purposed with God as his author. And I, he said, will nowhere fail you. And when he had set this forth to the same Peter, he begged earnestly that he would be to him a help and a counsel in fulfilling his vow. The Paschal feasts therefore being past, the pious Youth, emulating the example of the divine Benedict, his parents and kinsfolk being altogether ignorant of the matter, coming together with the aforesaid men to Spoleto d, the nearest city, was enrolled in that same company of Preachers. But his parents, when they had long labored to call him back from his pious purpose, strove in vain; nay rather, the Youth began to enter the way of the virtues, to trample with a brave mind upon all worldly things, to count as nothing this shadowy glory of the world, to bear with unconquered strength of mind all adversities and the harshness of holy religion, and to apply himself diligently to pious prayers and to the contemplation of divine things.
[3] Some years therefore having intervened, in which he gave vigorous labor both to sacred letters and to the virtues, he builds there a monastery of his Order, he set his mind to this, whether in any way he might erect in his own city a house for his Order. A modest sum of money e therefore being gathered both from his mother and from friends for God's sake, he bought a little house, exceedingly narrow, and that clinging to the dwellings of some of the leading men. When some asked why he had prepared himself a house in that place, where there was no hope of extending it further, straightway, relying on divine hope, he said: God is powerful, who spread the Order of Preachers from sea to sea, to extend this little house more widely also. Not many days after, therefore, at his request a certain small church with its appurtenances was given as a gift in that city to the same Order. The holy Man therefore began to see to the matter anew, and laid the foundations of an ample church under the invocation of the divine George, and of buildings for the Preachers themselves. The vigorous Man pressed on with the work, and amid these things did certain wonders which made the man most illustrious and admirable to his fellow citizens. Twice he obtained from the Lord by his prayers that the wine necessary for the workmen was increased in a wonderful manner. Bread also for the same use he procured by the same counsel. About the same time a certain matron, her husband being dead, built by this Man's counsel a house of sacred virgins under the title of the divine Lucy. Shutting herself up in it, with many other women joined to her, she lived most holily under the observance of the divine Benedict.
[4] Moreover that Man was pleasant, exceedingly courteous, and endowed with great prudence and learning, always cheerful in mind and abounding in wit. To a certain rustic man who had received him into his lodging, and who asked a way by which his children, sitting crowded about the hearth, might yield place to any newcomer, whether father or guest, he said, Bring some bundles of wood, which when brought he ordered to be put on the hearth, and the flame being thus increased more widely, the boys suddenly rushed away farther off. The uncouth man was hoping to see some great and divine work; But, said the holy Man, where wit is enough, miracles are not to be looked for; and taking his argument from this, he taught the uncouth man and others like him certain divine and salutary things, as occasion offered. When he was still of youthful age, he restored to a certain young man who had fallen from a tree, and was crushed in all his limbs, sudden and full soundness, prayers being poured out to God. Moreover this holy Man was renowned for sacred Letters and learning; which he showed both by frequent sermons and by excellent writings. A certain heresy rising up against the truth of the faith in that city of Mevania he extinguished. He presided over several houses of his Order; he wore down his body with continual fasts and abstinences: using a cord, a hair-shirt, scourges, and most harsh observances of that kind, he subdued the flesh to the command of the spirit. His food was cheap and unelaborated: it had been the Man's custom on the sacred day of Friday to eat bread only and water.
[5] and moreover he was renowned for miracles. His brother, of whom we made mention above, he delivered from prison and chains, prayers being poured out to God. The same benefit he bestowed also on another at Todi. Things wholly hidden and secret in hearts he knew, the Holy Spirit teaching him, as was openly shown both at Mevania and in another neighboring town. It is agreed that he was endowed with that singular gift, that those falling from any lofty place either suffered no harm by the holy Man's suffrage, or, if they had suffered anything, quickly obtained soundness. Of these things a certain Maurice the Lombard could bear witness, and Matthew of Bologna, and very many others in that city of Mevania, who felt that power of the man. It has been quite frequently ascertained that oil blessed by the most holy Man, and likewise the water of the washing of his holy hands, and also the wine or water that had been left over when the Man was performing the sacred rites, at once cured very many sicknesses, and those grave and almost despaired of. That Man, to be praised in all things, spent the money once given him by his mother for procuring garments for himself upon the carving of a statue of our Savior crucified; and to his mother complaining that he had lied to her, he said, And Christ is a garment, as Paul the Apostle attests, who says: Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Something like this he did at another time concerning an image of the holy Virgin, which, as they hand down, is seen even today in that church of the divine George.
[6] Being made certain of his salvation, He desired at one time to know whether he too would be of the number of those who were to obtain the promised felicity in heaven. And when concerning this matter he had poured out most earnest prayers to God, the aforesaid image of the Savior, before which he lay prostrate praying, uttering a voice, said: Let this blood be to thee for a sign. A wonderful thing, and to be marveled at by anyone, even a heathen! At once there leapt from the side of the speaker blood, with which he who prayed was sprinkled both in face and in garment, and which could by no washing be removed, save after a long space of time. Moreover some little drops of that blood flowed down upon his lips, by which his mind was so sweetened that from that day he always desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ. At length, the time drawing near at which he must yield to the flesh, our Redeemer Jesus appeared to him openly, together with his Virgin mother and the divine Dominic and the divine martyr George, bidding and inviting him to prepare himself to lay hold within the eighth day of that promised heavenly felicity, and promising moreover that he would be present with the same company in the very crisis of death. Upon receiving which message, how his mind was gladdened I could not easily say.
[7] On the eighth day therefore, when he was now come near to the borders of death, the water being turned into wine, he dies piously, having been anointed, as is the custom, with the sacred oil, while very many were standing about, both religious and secular, who were present in crowds for the sake of greeting the man, he turned water brought from the well and marked with the sign of the cross into dark wine, and that indeed of the best, even three times; of which both he himself lying there and all the bystanders drank. But the last hour at length approaching, behold, suddenly there appeared to him, according to the promise, the Lord Jesus with the Queen of heaven and the divine Dominic and George; whom when he saw, giving them thanks, he was suffused with such great joy that all who were present marveled. Having therefore exhorted his sons and brethren to hold diligently to mutual charity, to apply themselves frequently to prayers, and never to forsake humility of mind, he most holily rendered his spirit to God.
[8] And when, as is our custom, all the Brethren stood by mourning, whose sanctity is declared by a heavenly voice and by the integrity of his body, commending their father's soul to the Most High, a sudden voice (whence, is uncertain) sounded: Do not ask God for this holy Man; but rather ask him for yourselves. And on that day on which he was loosed from the flesh, he appeared openly and manifestly to a certain matron at Orvieto. And on that same day he heard her confession of her faults in that city, and it was proved by the most evident sign that he himself had appeared there. Now that happy day on which he poured forth his soul was that same one on which also the most holy Virgin Mother of God ascended the heavenly realms f; and the year then running was the one thousand three hundred and first from that same Virgin's happy childbearing. But after some months, when the sacred body was raised from the earth where it had first lain buried, it appeared so entire and incorrupt as if it had been buried but an hour before. Of which thing there were almost as many witnesses as the city of Mevania had men. Being raised therefore, it was laid in a small marble sepulcher, which God the Best had by an evident miracle prepared for his Servant many years before.
[9] But the most loving God showed of how great merit with him the most holy man James had been, and by many miracles, by very many miracles and stupendous works, wrought marvelously both at his sepulcher and at any other invocation of him. And he is proved to have been endowed with a singular privilege, that all who were ruptured, or, as they commonly say, those with hernias, felt by his merits that help was present to them from heaven. But of that almost innumerable number of prodigies by which almighty God attested the most holy sanctity of his Saint, it has pleased me to set down a few summarily, for the glory and praise of him who is always wonderful in his Saints. A certain man, a fellow countryman of the divine James, twice received back safe, by his merits and prayer, the only son he had, twice sunk under the mill-stones in a swift river. Whom afterward, in memory of the thing, he devoted to the Order of Preachers. Another wholly like it g God the Best did at another time in that same city of Mevania by the intervention of the most holy Man.
[10] which God wrought by his intercession. By the holy Man's protection a certain matron, returning from her country house together with her little son, was safe from the fierce onset of wolves. A shepherd received back in entire number his flock of sheep that had strayed by night without a guard in the wood and had been attacked by four wolves. A sedition having once arisen in a town near Mevania which they call Gualdo h, a certain young man was by chance struck by an arrow in the throat, and having received that wound, within two hours or so yielded to death. And so when the dead man's mother had invoked blessed James from the inmost affection of her heart, he at once revived,
he who had been dead, and said that he had been restored to life by the suffrage of a certain man of the Order of Preachers; and soon there were seen in that house where these things were done two men of the same Order, who gave the young man back unharmed to his mother; and these same men, going where the ignoble crowd was raging in their minds, composed all that tumult, and were nowhere seen thereafter. A certain man, laboring under such want that, leaving his wife and children, led by utter desperation he had resolved to play the vagabond, the suffrage of this Saint being invoked, suddenly became so rich that for all the rest of his life he lived with his whole household both abundantly and honorably. A certain young man of Foligno, undeservedly condemned, was being hurried to hanging; when he had devoted himself to the holy Man, not only he, but also several others who were kept in custody with him, were straightway restored to liberty i. Nevertheless not a few other things which the most holy man James wondrously did could be narrated in a long discourse, but it will be enough to have touched upon these few for the present, in praise of him whose hand has never been shortened, to whom praise and glory are due for everlasting ages.