ON BL. JOHN OF CARAMOLA, CONFESSOR, LAY BROTHER OF THE CISTERCIAN ORDER,
IN THE MONASTERY OF ST. MARY OF SAGITTARIO IN THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES,
In the year MCCCXXXIX.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
John of Caramola, confessor, lay brother of the Cistercian Order (Bl.)
BY J. P.
§ I. Notice of the place, the cult, the author of the Life.
Ferdinando Ughelli in volume 7 of the Italia Sacra, treating of the bishops of Anglona, The origin of this monastery, column 123 of the earlier edition, thus describes to our purpose the monastery of St. Mary of Sagittario, which Bl. John of Caramola illustrated by his virtues and miracles, alleging an old monument of that same monastery: In the year MCC this abbey of saint Mary of Sagittario, of the Cistercian Order, was miraculously founded and established in the diocese of Anglona in the province of Basilicata, near the town of Chiaromonte. When a certain hunter was lying in wait for wild beasts among the lairs of that forest (for round about this abbey is a woody forest, most thick with wild trees, namely firs, chestnuts, beeches, oaks, limes,\ cornel trees, and the rest of such trees and thickets, whence consequently it is excellent for hunting), intending to loose an arrow at a stag, like another Eustace warned by a stag, and terrified by the stag's warning — when the arrow which he had loosed returned upon himself, touching him without hurt — he beheld there an image of the most Blessed Virgin set up near the roots of a chestnut tree.*
[2] Which vision being beheld, he went on to the bishop of Anglona, its situation and dignity who, betaking himself thither with the clergy, takes pains that a church be built there to be dedicated to the most Blessed Virgin, and that it be destined for our Order. This abbey flourished, and was of exceeding devotion to the people, increased and magnificently endowed by the counts of Chiaromonte and by other princes, and marvelously enriched with privileges and gifts by the bishops of Anglona. The most reverend Lauro, of whom below in §2, inserted this description from an anonymous manuscript into the Life of Bl. John, chapter 5, and there heaped up many other things concerning this place. But among others, at page 10, he indicates that the old monastery of Sagittario was built about the year 1060, and was given to Benedictine fathers to be inhabited, after he had before recorded the history of the hunter, whence it took its name. But the present monastery, at page 11, from an inscription which he there brings forward, is marked as founded in the year 1152; but in the same place the said author makes mention of a threefold foundation; whence it comes about that we have not ascertained to what time the aforesaid history of the hunter ought to be referred.
[3] are described: the Blessed one's name, and his hermitage. But by a special title there belongs here what Ughelli has at column 107: The first among the other abbeys of which he there treats, consistorial, as he calls them, is that of saint Mary of Sagittario of the Cistercian Order, situated in the territory of Chiaromonte …, of the highest veneration among the neighboring peoples. For the place is remarkable, in which for three hundred and seventeen years now the body of Bl. John of Caramola of Toulouse, a Religious lay brother of the Cistercian Order, is kept entire and still incorrupt. Augustin Lubin in his Notice of the Abbeys of Italy, page 351, treating of Sagittario, says: In it there flourished several men illustrious in sanctity, but chiefly Bl. John of Caramola of Toulouse. The name Caramola, by which you have so often heard the Blessed one called, the most reverend Lauro thus expounds in chapter 1 of the Life of our Bl. John, page 2: He is surnamed, he says, from Caramola, not because he drew such a surname from his forebears, but from Mount Caramola, where for many and many years he led a most harsh life. Then in chapter 7, page 23, he writes that this mountain, lying within the bounds of the territory of Chiaromonte, and distant about four miles from the most sacred shrine of Sagittario, was inhabited by the Blessed one in the greatest harshness. But the hermitage into which the Blessed one, while living in the world, withdrew, and of which below in the third lesson of the Life, Lauro describes in chapter 3, and calls it by the name of saint Sabas. He treats also of the small level ground of that hermitage, in which, he says, to this present day there is an olive tree planted by the Man of God John, to which those laboring under quartan fever devoutly flee; and taking with confidence of its leaves, they recover from their infirmity through the Blessed one's intercession, and glorify God in his Saint. In chapter 4, page 7, on occasion of what he suffered in this solitude, the same biographer narrates this: Moreover, because, in falling, he struck upon the two parts of a very high rock into which he had fallen, two almond trees miraculously sprang up, which are seen to this present day as the mothers of the others standing at their feet; whereas they are found neither in any other place of that rock, nor in the neighboring countryside. These things concerning the monastery of Sagittario, and concerning the hermitage which the Blessed one inhabited before he had been admitted into it, being premised, let us now prove John's public cult from time immemorial before the famous Decree of Urban VIII.
[4] First, Ughelli at column 140 says: His sacred body, incorrupt, is honored by the faithful; and in that church, namely of the aforesaid monastery of St. Mary, the Blessed one's public cult is proved, his memory is daily celebrated at the divine praises. Second, the writer of his Life, a contemporary, calls him by the name of holy Man, of most holy Man. Third, how proper to him that title of honor was, is confirmed from the same biographer, where he relates this concerning our Saint's abbot, answering thus to a certain man who desired to see his body: I cannot show you the sacred body (for he had secretly laid it away, lest so great a treasure should be taken from him by theft), but I will give thee a particle of his garments, etc. Fourth, the aforesaid writer narrates few miracles indeed, but written with great fidelity and select, which he wrought in favor of those who, afflicted with evils and upheld by confidence toward him, implored his patronage. Fifth, Angel Manrique in volume 3 of the Cistercian Annals at the year 1202, chapter 7, number 9, records this: Sagittario … St. John of Caramola illustrates, to be recorded by us in his own time; who would perhaps have transmitted more to posterity concerning his cult and miracles, if he had been able to publish his Annals down to that point. Sixth, as regards the sacred Fasti of the Cistercian Order, it moves wonder that no memory of him is found by us in Henriquez, elsewhere so profuse an amplifier in multiplying the titles of Saints; none in the Calendar of the said Order, which was printed at Dijon in the year 1617; none, finally, in Chalemot. But Castellanus in his Martyrology dug him out and disclosed him, relating him on this day: At St. Mary of Sagittario in the diocese of Anglona in Basilicata, blessed John of Caramola of Toulouse, lay brother of the Cistercian Order.
[5] Seventh, that we have a manuscript copy of his Life, and the same is corroborated divided into proper lessons, antiphons, etc., is an argument that he was honored with a certain especial cult. Here for you, reader, is the following, which is interspersed in that copy of the Life, of which afterward, after the said lessons; but because it is very faultily written, we have endeavored, for the reader's sake, that he may the better understand what he reads, to apply the sponge to it, the substance of the matter being preserved.
Lesson I. … ℞. This man was like to Isaiah in sayings and to the prophecy of David; humble, he joined himself to Jeremiah. He forewarns the great lady piously enough: no heir is conceived, the ways are not granted. ℣. The prophetic Man says: Kindly lady, thou shalt conceive offspring; this I resign to thee, dear to all nations, much worthy of God. He forewarns the lady.
Lesson II. … ℞. To Angelo de Rubio he foretold his death; to the abbot Roger he said, Go quickly; declare to thyself that what he took away while he lived, he should quickly repay as a debt to the monastery which he wrote down. ℣. Now let him know that death is prepared for him, and that the prison-house of the flesh shall now be taken away; let him prepare himself as a servant commended to the Lord. Quickly.
Lesson III. … ℞. O how abstinent was this kindly poor man; nor does he, worthy of God, ask for nectar-like wine; to whom water afforded a draught, he is white as a swan. ℣. He so keeps silence that his contemplative mind ever ruminates upon heaven. To whom.
[6] from his proper Office Lesson IV. … ℞. The chosen Man bends his knees a hundred times in the night; hunger does not overcome him, covered by which he is never seen sleeping, but ever awake. He appears ever watching, bowed down, beloved of God. ℣. This the monastery attests, all the brethren attest; all who dwell with him give this testimony. He appears. In the second nocturn, Antiphon: The boy of Noha is freed from an old wound; he suffers an evil of the arm, by whose harshness he obtains health of the flesh set free. Ant. This holy man, following the holy Master of the Order, seeks the heaven-born life, spurning the odor of the world. Ant. The world offers what is pleasant; he believed it foul: what the world gave as sweet, he counted as hay. Ant. This most faithful Man imitated the Saints; the most illustrious Man shone forth, founded upon the rock. Ant. Miracles lie open to all, through which he is magnified; he obtains the tabernacles, he is placed in the kingdom of heaven. Ant. The monastic choir rejoices, gladdened by so great a Man; deservedly a citizen of heaven, he has passed from the world.
[7] proper, Lesson V. … ℞. He, contemplating continually upon the divine precepts, is not slackened by the threats of heat or of winter; for the talent is stored up through thee, the end of the Saints. For through him grace is gained for his neighbors. ℣. Let us therefore rejoice in mind at so great a light, by which we may be led to the heavenly country which we have hoped for.\ For through him.*
Lesson VI. … ℞. He leads an angelic life, the highest of hermits, having obtained heavenly praise, spurning the bitter world. Holding the monastic life, by the way of the paths he goes on to the glory of heaven through the vast course of the ways. ℣. He goes on to his Lord, he climbs the palace of heaven, which while living he gained.
Holding the monastic life. Lesson VII. … ℞. O stupendous miracle! It was made plain to all: when the Man had his departure, he said that he was fitted for the earth; there he wills his dwelling, he said this place was fitting. For nine days he is shut up; the body remained untouched. ℣. In the month of August he is laid up, in which a great fervor arises; after these things the body is drawn forth, a wondrous matter urging it. For nine days.
Lesson VIII. … ℞. A certain sick man had remained with an ulcer grown old, whom the physician had left, his cure now despaired of. For devoutly he sought the sanctified Man; when he touched his staff, we saw him freed. ℣. Suddenly he becomes whole who had suffered from the ulcer; he becomes aware of health, who was wearied by his weakness. Devoutly.
The dots which we set after the several lessons signify that after them in our copy there follows the history of the Life, which we shall give separately. Let us pass on to the Antiphons.
[8] by antiphons, At the Canticle, Antiphon: In the rose-garden of the heavens a new rose is set; into the college of the Saints a new Saint is gathered. ℞. IX. There comes upon all the greatest amazement at a sudden healing; this voice sounded in their ears, a sign to the valley of that district;\ by this manner so great a matter of sanctity is made clear to all. Basilicata gleams with so wondrous a novelty. ℣. From every side the peoples run; they see in truth the cause of so great a miracle. Basilicata.*
℞. X. A certain woman's fistula, grown old, is healed, utterly despaired of by the physician's care; and when the sick woman touched her limbs, she carried herself home, and was suddenly freed. ℣. The grace of St. John renders great wonders to those endowed with faith in the matter. Many.
℞. XI. He frees women possessed by demons; those who\ are vexed by fevers the heir of heaven heals. O heavenly wonders of men, which thou dost earn freely; bring the company to the joys which thou hopest for. ℣. Be thou for us an anxious intercessor to the Lord, a continual mediator, a lover of the King of heaven. O heavenly wonders of men.*
℞. XII. He turns a priest's hoarse voice to clearness, an infirmity of the voice possessed for two years; the hoarse man goes to the tomb asking purity; already bowed, he bends his knee, and obtains health. ℣. By night he devoutly keeps vigil; he takes up again the instrument of voice he had sought; it gleams; he perceives that he has been heard. Already bowed. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son.
[9] At Lauds, Antiphon: While he renders praises to the Lord, he obtained praises; he shone as a new star; safe, he is enclosed in heaven. and by a hymn: Hymn. O heap of virtues, matter of sanctity, thou art not comprehended in a brief hymn, so amply art thou spread abroad. By Mary's sweet steps thou didst go on, never wearied, while by days and nights thou didst stand with thy mind among heavenly things. Nor, leaving Martha's paths, wast thou, in brotherly love toward all, less careful; beholding the world's byways, thou didst call them to heavenly things. By fasting from foods, taming the pride of the flesh, thou didst set before thyself bran bread, and give thyself water for drink. Glory be to thee, O Lord.
At the Benedictus, Antiphon: O Man wonderful to all, who hast pierced the heavens: a way lovely to us, by which thou hast so walked, that we may be able to climb to the glory to which thou hast flown.
At Prime, Antiphon: This holy man sang Prime unceasingly at its hours; he lives happily in life, he rejoices mightily in the heavens.
At Terce, Antiphon: For he gives to the Lord the devout hour of Terce; he climbs to the heights of heaven, he stretches toward the bright sun.
At Sext, Antiphon: At the sixth hour he mortifies himself; with all devotion he afflicts himself with abstinences, sure of redemption.
At None, Antiphon: At the ninth hour, in which the Lord, thirsting, expired, he renders the acceptable service which he had prepared for God.
At Second Vespers, Antiphon: Fervent in the work of God. More we have not found in the manuscript.
[10] From what we have gathered concerning the holiness of life, the miracles, and the public veneration of Bl. John, [From what has been said we conclude that the honor of the Citizens of heaven is due to him.] it seems to us altogether proved that he deserved and possessed, from time immemorial before the Decree of Urban VIII, Pope, those marks which are required by us for his being set in our Work among the other Citizens of heaven occurring on this day. Nor do we know of anything to hinder us from dislodging him from his possession, long enough in conformity with that same Decree. That honor, therefore, we do not so much give to the holy Man as restore to him, while we have endeavored to bring him, not sufficiently known to the other hagiologists, forth into greater light, and to the knowledge of the present and of future time. Other things which illustrate his cult, see §§2 and 3. It remains that we proceed to other matters which conduce to our purpose, and weigh the value of the author of the Life and its copies.
[11] Both the name of the biographer and his manner of life are hidden from us; The author of the Life for nothing occurs in the course of his narration whence they can be determined. Yet that he was contemporary with the Blessed one of whom he writes, he indicates in his Preface; nay rather, if not familiar with him, he testifies that he was at least known to him, at the end of his history, saying: With him, that is, with that man, unworthy as I am, I deserved to converse. Whence it comes about that both for this reason, and because he used a singular diligence in writing the Blessed one's deeds, and a particular discrimination in gathering the miracles, he wins great credit for himself. Let it be heard what he says toward the end of his narration, and with how great zeal he endeavored to write true things rather than many concerning the Blessed one: For I have written down only those things which were notorious, which more clearly than light were able to inform my mind, etc. — not to relate more, which may be read in the same place; and then he thus goes on: The deeds also of this Man I have searched out with all the diligence I could … Nearly all whom I have said were oppressed with sicknesses I wished to see; I saw them, and beheld each thing as true. This I had to say concerning the author of the Life; now learn concerning the copies of that same Life.
[12] and its copies. Ughelli, cited above, published it at column 140 and following, under this title: Here begins the Prologue concerning the Life and miracles of Bl. John, lay brother Religious of the Cistercian Order of Saint Mary of Sagittario. Then we have a manuscript copy, to which these words are prefixed in red characters: Here begins the Prologue to the Life and miracles of blessed John (what follows is written in black) of Caramola, lay brother of the Cistercian Order, whose feast is celebrated on the XXVI day of August in the monastery of Bl. Mary of Sagittario, of the same Order, in which his body is honored with the utmost veneration, and is illustrated by miracles. Further, we owe that copy to Ughelli, as we gather from the name which is ascribed to it. That copy is very faulty, so much so that at first it seemed to us better to use the edition of the aforesaid Ughelli than a manuscript so ill written out. But afterward, our counsel being changed, it pleased us rather to commit that manuscript, such as it is, to the press, because it contained not only the life of the Blessed one, but also his proper Office, which Ughelli has not. But now the copy of each Life is so like in style, argument, and matter, that it must be referred to the same fountain of an original author. A few other things remain to be noted; but we defer them to the end of paragraph 3, before the Life to be published by us, being now about to treat of the more recent biographer.
Annotations\ Perhaps tiliis*?
\ Perhaps speramus*.
\* That is, of that tract or region.
\ Perhaps quo*.
§ II. A more recent writer of the Life; the Blessed one's marvels related from him.
Gregorio de Lauro, abbot of Sagittario, The most reverend and excellent Father Gregorio de Lauro, doctor of sacred theology and abbot of the monastery of Sagittario, in the year 1660 published the Life of blessed John Joachim, abbot of the Cistercian Order, whose Acts have long since been illustrated in our work in volume VII of May, on the XXIX day, page 89 and following. But having finished what he had undertaken to record concerning the aforesaid Joachim, that most reverend man appended the Life of our Bl. John from the Office which is celebrated every year on his feast day in the church of Sagittario, dedicated to the most excellent lord Carlo Sanseverino, Count of Chiaromonte, and viceroy in the province of Lecce for his Catholic Majesty, and published in print in the same year 1660. In his Preface he warns the reader that four facts were added by himself which are not in the Office; and confirming their truth he says: Only the four aforesaid being excepted, of three of which I was an eyewitness, but the last I learned from the relation of men worthy of credit giving testimony of what they had seen …, we shall gather from his proper Office, being helped by the tradition of the elder Cistercians dwelling there concerning those things which the Blessed one endured while living,\ and which have been proclaimed by the common mouth of all, although by the historiographer's liberty they are not set down in his Office.*
[14] But that Life is very liberally stuffed with passages of Scripture, and with sentences of the Fathers, and with the diplomas of concessions or privileges, [published the Blessed one's Life. Why we do not give it, but only certain miracles.] and is furnished with other interpolations; so that it ought by no means to seem strange that it is kept out of our Work. For we hold it certain that to a lover of the saints, who loves antiquity and sincerity, the lessons of the older Life, which we shall afterward give, will be more pleasing than the medley of many matters in the more recent one; although from this too we are presently about to cull not a few things which we have judged conduce to our purpose. Let us therefore bring forth from it the miracle by which he records at chapter 8 that the Blessed one relieved the great want of the monks of Sagittario, the bread of the monastery being multiplied by divine power, from a most firm tradition of the elders, as he sets in the margin. We shall compress the longer narration of the deed into fewer words.
[15] In a certain year, he says, so huge an abundance of snow fell in winter, He relieves the great want of the monastery of Sagittario: and settled in the solitude of Sagittario, that access to the sacred house did not lie open to travelers without the most evident peril of life; nor could the men of Sagittario in any way … go out to procure the necessaries for the food of their own. … John went to the monastery to ask the accustomed alms … And when John had entered the abbot's cell, he asked first a blessing, and then a morsel of bread from the abbot. Who, having compassion on John, enjoined his cellarer to give the Servant of God the crumbs which by careful search might perhaps be found in the cell where the bread was wont to be kept. The cellarer said to the father abbot … that he had many times searched through the bread store, and had gathered all the fragments of bread for the sustenance of the sick brethren; and that, being unable on account of the abundance of snow to provide for the necessities of the sick from elsewhere, with pulse, barley, and boiled grain — as we too, he said, are refreshed — the sick themselves also … are refreshed, and that now for several days. John urged the abbot, who again ordered his cellarer by precept to go to the bread cell, and to bring brother John with him. But (O marvelous to say!) so great an abundance of bread was found by the cellarer in that cell … that the like never seemed to the other elder fathers to have been there. Thus Lauro, from tradition; I could wish it were from the older anonymous biographer, that this miracle might be more certainly established.
[16] The aforesaid author at chapter 22, page 56, says: A Religious a sick man brought to the last extremity cleric of Sagittario, Thaddeus by name, surnamed Terracius, while he was giving himself to the study of philosophy in the college of Sagittario, fell into the disease of dysentery, with biting and abrading pains in the belly, and with a most burning fever and vomiting; who, wholly failing, namely on account of the long flux of blood, and the continued pains and fever,
the strength of his body being exhausted, was already set at the last extremity, without the refreshment of the most sacred Sacrament of the Eucharist by way of viaticum, so frequently did vomiting distress the sick man. And when the mourning fathers were commending his soul to the Most High, Thaddeus in mind fled with the greatest devotion to blessed John of Caramola for his health. And, behold, he who two hours before had lacked the use of his tongue, and who was watched by the fathers as about presently to depart, rising from his little bed says that he wishes to go to the altar of Bl. John. The bystanders rejoice; the infirmarians gird themselves to support him.
[17] But he who had been unable, unless helped by two at the least, to approach the chair standing near his bed, he restores to health, in going to the church refused\ the help both of the infirmarians and even of a staff from others. Having come step by step to the aforesaid altar, he again most devoutly commended himself to Bl. John; where, being signed on the belly with the sign of the holy cross by that same foot of the Servant of God which, cut off from the body but preserved with the sacred body, as has been said above; and drinking, after the receiving of the Eucharist, a cup of the water in which that holy relic had been washed, at once the fever flees away, the blood stops, the excessive pains cease, and he finds himself sound — save that from long fasting and from a large loss of blood he remained weak for some days; and both he himself and all, rejoicing and glad with thanksgiving, gave glory and praise to God and to his humble servant John.*
[18] as also two others In the same place, chapter 23, these things are narrated: Brother Cosmas, surnamed Vacca, a lay brother of the same holy house, when on account of a flux of blood [and] a most acute fever he perceived himself near to death, turned with all devotion to blessed John of Caramola, his patron; and having taken with the greatest confidence the water from the washing of the sacred relics of blessed John, which he had asked the Prior, named Marzio Frezza, to have brought to him, he at once found himself released from the flux of blood and from the most acute fever, and knew himself sound, not without the wonder of the Prior and of the monks. A like healing was granted to another by the merits of the same Blessed one, which Lauro relates in chapter 24, page 57, in these words:
[19] dangerously sick: Brother Giovanni Camillo Donadeo of Castelluccio, an oblate of the monastery of Sagittario, wearied by altogether the same infirmities, had come to such a pass that no hope was had of his recovery, and the sick man complained of the shortness of his days, seeking some remedy for his long life. At length with great devotion and no small humility he asked to be refreshed with the washing of the servant of God John of Caramola. The aforesaid Prior took up the Relics of the holy Man, washed them, and finally gave to drink of the washing, with the devotion of both, to him who was suffering a flux of blood and burning with a most acute fever. Whence by the grace of almighty God and of his Servant it came about that, having at once obtained health, he gave innumerable thanks to God and to his servant John at his own altar. Thus far the most reverend Lauro, who in chapter 25 narrates a notable favor of another kind, by the Blessed one's patronage, wrought in his own time, and with his own service interposed in communicating the sacred veil with which the body of Bl. John was covered. Here for you is his text.
[20] a woman suffering from a miscarriage The most illustrious and most excellent lady, the lady Delia, of the most noble stock of the Sanseverini, wife of the most illustrious and most excellent lord, the lord Giovanni Sanseverino, count of Saponara, being wearied by the miscarriage of twins, and most grievously tormented for many days by the heat and shivering of fever, had now been brought into peril of death; since for as many more days she could take neither sleep, nor rest, nor food, and was almost wholly without her senses. Whose martyrdom the count felt in his own bowels, on account of the most singular love with which he was affected toward her, so that even he himself seemed presently about to fall sick from too great affliction. And when he had tried in vain the remedies of the most celebrated physicians, at length with great faith he had recourse in mind to the merits of our blessed John, most devoutly beseeching him that he would deign to meet the needs of his wife the countess. All these things came to my knowledge.
[21] he preserves. In the morning I went down from the abbatial buildings into the chapel dedicated to the Servant of God, and, the door of the sacred treasure being opened, lights being first kindled, the accustomed hymn, antiphon, versicle, and collect being most devoutly chanted in convent, with that devotion and reverence which was fitting and which I owed, I drew forth thence the sacred veil with which the body of the blessed man John of Caramola was covered, and sent it, well wrapped up, to the most illustrious and most excellent count, accompanied by a letter of mine, that I might in some measure relieve the necessities of the countess and of the count. Nor was the confidence of either frustrated of its fruit; for scarcely had the countess seen and venerated the sacred veil of the Servant of God, when at once she gained such strength that, rising from her bed, she straightway began to walk about the castle, as the most devout count himself testifies in his letter directed to me, containing as much. This letter, written in the Italian tongue, is subjoined in the same place, and is marked as given at Saponara on the III day of October in the year MDCLIII; after which Lauro thus goes on: Then all who were present, amazed at the wonder of the matter, gave great thanks to God, that they had beheld with their own eyes so great a thing; and those who were absent, hearing the fame of the deed, being strengthened in a more perfect devotion toward the Servant of God, rejoicing praised and glorified God in his humble Servant.
[22] But after other things which he has in the last chapter, He preserves the statue of the Mother of God and his own body from a fire. giving the reason why more marvels are not adduced, I read this: Moreover, for the yet greater illustrating of the sanctity of so great a Man, that must not be left in silence which is above the rest admirable, whose apparent tokens are even now perceived by the sense of the eyes. For when in past centuries — whether by the fury of wars, or by the design of robbers, or by the onset of outlaws, or by the contrivance of conspiring enviers, or by chance and accident — the whole monastery of Sagittario, the sacred shrine of the Virgin, and the altar of blessed John of Caramola had been burned with fire, the statue of the most glorious Mother of God and the most sacred body of the Servant of God suffered from the raging fire, devouring with loosened reins, no other damage than this only in the arm; but the statue only a small burning upon the footstool of her feet; that in these, as in a book, the greatness of so great a miracle might be read. Finally we add that when the men of Sagittario feel themselves oppressed by the most grievous necessities, they have recourse to the intercession of blessed John of Caramola, expose his most sacred body, and at once the fire is bridled, the tempest of waters ceases, their needs are relieved, and they know themselves released from every peril. Thus far Lauro.
Annotations\ Read perpessus est*.
\* That is, refused.
\ Read cum pervenisset*.
§ III. The Blessed one's apparitions after death; his cult illustrated, and his prophecies.
He appears to his kinsmen, and bids them go to the monastery of Sagittario: This apparition, and other very marvelous things which followed upon it, Lauro, repeatedly alleged, relates in chapter 15, from page 51, from the tradition, as he notes in the margin, of the elders of Sagittario. But whatever that tradition may be, it has nevertheless seemed good to bring it forward, though shortened for brevity's sake: But on the ninth day from the death of the most blessed man John there befell the venerable fathers of Sagittario, still sorrowful, a certain marvel mingled with gladness and sadness. For there came to Sagittario certain kinsmen of blessed John of Caramola, seeking the most precious pearls of his most sacred body, and saying: Know, venerable fathers, that to us, dwelling separately in the city of Toulouse, and gently sleeping, there appeared a certain old man of most beautiful form, bearing a staff in his hand, and clothed in the habit of the lay brothers of your sacred Cistercian Order, and to each one of us he said such words: I am John your kinsman; and if you desire to have knowledge of me, go to the monastery of the Cistercian Order which is called Sagittario, in the county of Chiaromonte, of the province of Lucania. These things being said, he disappeared. But when morning came, one to another, and another to the rest of our kinsmen, we spoke of this vision, each one of us supposing that it had appeared to himself alone.
[24] who, being more fully instructed concerning him in the monastery of Grandselve, At length, all of us being gathered into one, and the vision being considered with all maturity, we resolved that we ought to betake ourselves to the monastery of Grandselve of your Order in our own diocese of Toulouse, for the sake of having a better and clearer knowledge of our John. Where, when some of ours had betaken themselves thither, they found a certain lay brother, also called John, whom above all others they longed to address, on account of the surpassing repute of his sanctity, which his most holy life had implanted, and daily implants, in the breasts of the faithful; and he is held as great in the sight of the Lord. This blessed man, therefore, when he had seen our men, said to them: You are men of Toulouse, and kinsmen of a certain lay Brother of ours, whom as dead or lost you have long bewailed. He indeed, these many years, is dead to the world and lives to God alone; and God has wrought many and great things through him, and does not cease to work daily. But our men, marveling at what they heard, asked him, saying: Whence hast thou this, holy father? To me a sinner, he said, he himself appeared, clothed in my habit; and when I would have known to what monastery he was serving, he answered, To the monastery of Sagittario, in the county of Chiaromonte, of the diocese of Anglona, of the province of Lucania, in the kingdom of Naples; and he said that he would live but a little while.
[25] set out for the men of Sagittario, and see the Blessed one's body; Our men returned from the monastery of Grandselve; and having heard such things from them, we resolved by common vote that it was expedient that we should come hither. And so with glad and cheerful mind we made our pilgrimage even unto you, venerable fathers, thinking that he was among the living; but because on the way we heard that he had departed from human things, we therefore suppliantly beseech you that you deign to show us the body of our John, and to grant it, that according to our purpose we may carry it over to our own people and countrymen. But the fathers of Sagittario answered that they would exhume the sacred body, that they might see it, but by no means alienate it. And so on that same ninth day from the passing of the holy Man — that is, on the fourth day of the month of September in the year MCCCXXXIX — the monks groaning and weeping, the kinsmen standing by and shedding tears for grief, a pit being made and the earth cast down, so great a sweetness of odor came forth from the tomb that it filled the nostrils of all and the whole circuit of Sagittario …
[26] whose leg and arm the abbot grants them: Terrified by so great a miracle, the fathers of Sagittario not only gave innumerable thanks to God, but also made a firm vow to guard the sacred body of his Servant as an inestimable pearl sent down from heaven, and by no means to assent to the desires of the suppliant kinsmen. But when the abbot Roger had refused to grant them any part at their entreaty, he at length resolved to bestow upon the men of Toulouse only the legs and arms. Which, although they had used all diligence, could be cut or severed by no iron instrument, save by that same rude little knife with which the Man of God was wont both to dig up herbs and to make little baskets
to make. Which little knife, together with the ring of the belt which he used when he was a hermit, and the book of the Office of the most blessed Virgin (which Lauro in chapter 13, page 48, had said was covered with boards and written by hand on parchment leaves\*), the men of Sagittario keep among the rest of the most sacred relics.
[27] The abbot's decree notwithstanding, certain fathers took away from the men of Toulouse one leg and an arm of the Servant of God, but certain men oppose themselves, that they may not carry these away. to whom above the rest the bestowal made by the abbot had been displeasing; and as soon as those men had departed, with the common applause of the men of Sagittario, with praise of God and thanksgiving, they carried them back to the sacred body. They stand from time immemorial down to the present upon the altar dedicated to that same Servant of God John of Caramola, in that very place where the Blessed one's little cell is reported to have been, on the side of the church toward the North. This clause conduces to the greater confirmation of his public cult; which, although it has been established by us above in §1 abundantly and more than abundantly, yet by way of corollary let it be permitted to subjoin here the following, by which it may be further illustrated.
[28] Above the door of this blessed Man's chapel, which looks westward, [It is illustrated from a picture with rays, the elevation of his body upon an altar, etc.] says Lauro at page 53, there are seen images painted in various colors, of the most blessed Virgin Mother of God, at whose right hand the holy honey-sweet doctor Bernard the abbot, and on the left Bl. John of Caramola with … rays: which images indeed display very great antiquity. But when the most sacred body of the blessed Man was elevated above the altar, there is no memory at all among mortals. Every year by the venerable fathers of Sagittario, on the twenty-sixth day of August, his proper Office is recited before the altar of that same Man of God, with no small multitude of nobles, magnates, and peoples flowing together to obtain graces from Bl. John; and this too from a time in which there is no memory of men to the contrary. On each day also in the greater Office, both at Vespers and at Lauds, a special commemoration is made of him, which through the same period has never been found to be omitted; which is as follows: At Vespers, Antiphon: Miracles lie open to all, etc. (See §1, number 6 at the end.) ℣. The Lord led the just man, etc. ℞. And showed him, etc. At Lauds, Antiphon: Let the monastic choir rejoice, etc., at number 6 just cited. ℣. and ℞. as above. Prayer: Almighty everlasting God, who hast adorned blessed John thy confessor with the merit of a stricter life: grant, we beseech thee, that we may deserve to acknowledge him in heaven as a most loving intercessor for us, whom we have known on earth as flashing with miracles. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
[29] Nor can I pass over that the name of the same Blessed one was in the highest veneration in the years that passed after his death, as also from ancient diplomas the cult of Bl. John. as is clear from these diplomas which stand in Lauro, produced from the archive of the monastery of Sagittario. For in chapter 12, page 31, one is given in the year one thousand three hundred and eighty-three … for the honor of the glorious Virgin, and of saint John of Caramola. In another, which is marked as given … in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and seventy-eight, on the tenth day of May, of the first Indiction, and in which the sons of the monastery of Sagittario are praised, he is honored at page 37 with this notable eulogy: Brother John of Caramola was sanctified in that place, and was renowned for many miracles both in life and in death, and is continually renowned, and especially in the land of Senise and of Chiaromonte; where he restored to their former health many men infected with various sicknesses and infirmities; whose most holy body is known to be at present in the aforesaid monastery.
[30] Of the same Of the Life we have already treated in §1, where also we referred certain matters hither; the first of which is to that passage of the biographer in lesson 5, number 4, where the Blessed one foretells to Margaret, countess of Chiaromonte, who had long been barren, that a numerous offspring would be born. Lauro illustrates this prophecy in chapter 12, page 28: Deriving her origin, he says, from the most ancient stock of Charlemagne, king of the French, Margaret of Chiaromonte, daughter of James, count of Chiaromonte, and wife of the most noble man James of San Severino, count of Tricarico and Chiaromonte (he descended from Turgisius, begotten of the blood of the princes of the Normans, who first made the county of San Severino subject to his own right, from which the surname de San Severino flowed down upon his posterity; and this James was the first of the Sanseverini who, by the right of his marriage with Margaret of Chiaromonte, after the death of Hugh of Chiaromonte, his brother, ruled the men of Chiaromonte), when for years and years she had been barren, etc., concerning which in the lesson cited.
[31] prophecies, But concerning the children whom the aforesaid Margaret bore after Bl. John's prophecy, Lauro observes this: The names of the daughters we have not. The sons were three, who have come to our knowledge. Roger, as first-born, succeeded his father James Sanseverino in the county of Tricarico and Chiaromonte. Hugh became count of Potenza and great protonotary of the kingdom; and Thomas possessed the county of Montescaglioso, exercised the office of viceroy in the kingdom of Naples for Louis of Anjou, freed the Roman Pontiff Urban, the sixth of that name, from the siege of Nocera, and granted to Sagittario the holdings of Rotonda del Mare and of Trisaia. This concerning one passage of the Life, briefly touching upon the Blessed one's prophecy. But the other, which follows next in the same place, is the prediction of the death of Angelo, lord of Rubio, whom he declared would shortly depart this life; and concerning whom it is also treated in the said Commentary, number 5.
[32] briefly touched upon by the writer of the Life The same most reverend abbot Lauro in chapter XI thus amplifies and elucidates this history at page 27: There was indeed at that season in the province of Lucania, in the diocese of Anglona, and in the county of Chiaromonte, a certain town called Rubio, which paid to the queen's court two ounces and fifteen tarenes yearly, as is noted in the Cedulary of queen Joanna the second (which in the margin in Lauro is written as made in the year MCDLXVI, page 46, etc.); and under her it was left utterly destitute of inhabitants and ruined. The baron of which town, called lord Angelo de Rubio, was bound to restore many things taken by him from the sacred house. Nor did the abbot Roger, out of reverence toward him, press him greatly for restitution. And when the most blessed servant of God John had foreseen that Angelo, though sound and whole, was nevertheless near to death, presently going to his abbot with most humble steps, he addressed him with such words: Go quickly, etc., which are contained at the place alleged concerning his impending death.
[33] Which indeed came so to pass; for within a short space of time he was taken from this light, as the Life says. are elucidated. Lauro adds, and his whole family was extinguished. Richard de Rubio indeed survived — and, as it is right to suppose, a kinsman of that same lord Angelo, baron of the castle of Episcopia — but for a little while. For by the death of Richard de Rubio, no sons being left, the castle of Episcopia devolved upon John Wenceslaus of San Severino, count of Chiaromonte, with all rights, jurisdictions, men, vassals, etc. Let these things be said concerning the Life, which we shall presently exhibit committed to the press. Briefly we here add that our manuscript copy has been collated with that published in Ughelli, as will be plain from the brackets added to the text and from the marginal notes upon it; then, that the division of it into numbers is ours; and that correction has not been neglected where it seemed opportune. These things, therefore, having been gathered through the whole course of this Commentary, we have endeavored to bring light to the Life itself, concerning which some things also will be given in the Annotations. Here now for you is that Life, divided into the lessons which we found in the manuscript.
Annotations\ Read paginis*.
THE LIFE
By an anonymous contemporary author,
From a manuscript collated with the edition of Ughelli.
John of Caramola, confessor, lay brother of the Cistercian Order (Bl.)
BHL Number: 4369
A. By an anonymous contemporary.
THE AUTHOR'S PROLOGUE.
Lesson I.
For describing the celibate life and the stupendous miracles of this heavenly Man The author, having confessed his own slenderness, and earthly angel, whose history we attempt to weave, there would be need of the fitting eloquence of another tongue, and of the clearness of another understanding. For I, unless his prayer to God help me — to whom now not through riddles but face to face he speaks — should judge myself of too halting a tongue and of a dull wit for this; and unless there both moved and rather impelled me the great devotion with which by God's gift I am affected toward him, and was affected also while his most holy soul was still held in the flesh, remembering that saying, Seek not the things that are too high for thee, I should never have leapt forth to these things like a shameless harlot. But for the reasons which have been stated, and lest at length the antiquity of times should blot out from the minds of men the glorious deeds of this Man, which God has deigned to set before our eyes in these days, in which — what is not to be related without bitterness of heart — we behold the charity of all grown cold, if we do not say already extinguished, I have spoken as a stammering boy, and, if not flying, yet creeping after the manner of the animals that creep upon the earth.
Lesson II.
[2] To John, then, the city of a Toulouse gave his origin. the most upright life of Bl. John in the world, But I do not know for what cause he came to the province of b Basilicata, making a continual stay in\ and about the county which is called c of Chiaromonte, where, remaining for some time among seculars, but not living in secular fashion, he led a most honorable life. And that it may now be known\ of what purity he was while he still ran his course through the hindrances of this world, I do not think it should be passed over in silence what the common people publish\ by public report. For it is reported that when in the sweat of his brow he wished to eat his own\ bread, and, hired for a penny, was set as keeper of a certain\* vineyard, he guarded himself, as from a grave crime, against even plucking one cluster of grapes without first asking and obtaining leave from the spiritual lord. O mind filled with chaste fear! Why dost thou tremble with so great fear where there is no need at all to tremble with fear? Dost thou greatly dread to commit theft where thou believest the Lord would permit it? But it is the mark of holy minds to acknowledge fault where there is no fault.
Lesson III.
[3] But when the spirit, which had begun to grow warm within, was now sufficiently fervent, that spirit strongly drawing him, leaving all things behind his back for Christ's sake as dung, with hurried course he hastened to the neighboring hermitage which was there; and a most severe one in the hermitage, where with how great a rigor of austerity he afflicted himself, with how great a want of nourishment he dried up the members of his poor body, and how many hard things he endured for the love of the Redeemer, could with difficulty be expressed, and with yet greater difficulty be believed. For there, as they say, out of a sevenfold d loaf, which would scarcely have sufficed for seven small meals, he confined his refection for the whole of Lent. There sometimes he is wearied by no anxiety about food; he was accustomed to eat only that fare which the farmers brought him, who to him
turned aside for devotion's sake. There certain men of Belial, exercising the onset of their greed, in hope of snatching money cruelly afflicted that most true follower of poverty, who for\ Christ's sake possessed nothing else under heaven; whom at length, that he might betray them, he could be persuaded by no words, nor be prevailed upon\ by anyone's prayers.
Lesson IV.
[4] But when through so many good things he clove to the Most High, and, according to the Scripture, was now made one spirit with him, and it records his prophecies. he began, as is firmly believed, to be strong in the grace of prophecy. For the lady Margaret, countess of Chiaromonte, a friend of truth, relates that, having for years and years been barren, and already fearing vehemently a perpetual barrenness, when she had often commended herself to his prayers for the obtaining of offspring, he at length on a certain day addressed her with these words: Be, he said, of a strong mind; do not consume thyself further with grief; restore the goods of the Church, I promise thee without doubt that a numerous and welcome offspring shall be thine. And not long after her closed womb is unlocked, and thence comes forth a most abundant fruit of both sexes, very pleasing to God, to the mother who bore them, and to men. But he also foretold the death of Angelo, lord of Rubio. For he said to his abbot: Go, tell that Angelo to loose himself quickly from the bonds of the debt by which he is held to our monastery, since the term is short enough within which he must pay the debt of the flesh. Which indeed so came to pass; for within\* a short space of time he was taken from this light.
Lesson V.
[5] But when he had long led in this hermitage a life angelic rather than human, in an order, as it seems, inverted, but then of the Religious life but not inverted in merit, having left the anchoritic life, which is set on the summit of perfection, he came down to the cenobitic in the monastery of Sagittario of the Cistercian Order; and he who had deserved to be a master, under the form of a disciple humbly bowed his neck to the regular disciplines. To which lowest place of the cenobitic life he would never have come down from the summit of the anchoritic life, save that a grave bodily weakness now pressing upon him — especially a certain swelling of the knees and of the head accompanied by pain — urgently persuaded human aid. Where, unable to forget the instruments of his past perfection, he kept his wonted austerity with all his strength. For, being aged, sustaining himself with great sparingness on bread, not filling himself, he used bran bread; and to repress the burning of his boiling thirst, he rarely drank anything but a cup of water.
[6] He had a certain little bed (if it deserved to be so called) most short, square and hollow, and scarcely exceeding four feet in measure; where he could only lie curled up, bearing not the appearance of rest to be given, but of labor; and no wonder,\ since the whole monastery testifies that there was no monk who beheld him sleeping. perfection and rigor. He kept so great a silence that he deserved to be called not so much silent as tongueless.\ And he was intent with so great an assiduity of contemplation that he seemed always to sit with Mary at the feet of Jesus. Still sunk in the mass of the flesh, he passed beyond all the heaviness of the flesh.
Lesson VI.
[7] And when the divine bounty had decreed to reward him with so great a good, it took him from this wretched valley of tears, A marvelous thing at the Blessed one's death: and made him a fellow citizen of the heavenly country. But at his very departure into felicity (what it signifies I know not; the Lord\* knows) so great a rush of blowing wind arose that it seemed to shake his whole cell and the whole monastery. But (marvelous to say) the strong wind, which seemed to overthrow the whole cell, as has been said, passing through the openings of that cell, though it could have extinguished five great torches with a sudden blast, extinguished there not one of the small burning lamps.
[8] But Robert, called Maccaronus, an inhabitant of e Senise, wrought, whose arm an old and dreadful ulcer had invaded, so that he was deprived of all use of that limb, went on to a certain f barber to implore the help of some cure. To whom the physician himself said: The malignity of the humor has pierced thy arm greatly above and below; unless by an incision we come to the root of the ulcer, I can apply to thee no healing remedy. Meanwhile the passing of this Man, who in the opinion of all [men] was held of great merit, began to resound on every side. Which the sick man hearing with joy, said: I will not receive an earthly medicine; I believe that this most holy Man will obtain health for me from heaven. And having taken a confidence greater than could be told, he goes to the aforesaid monastery;\ he enters the Saint's cell; the abbot addresses him with these and like words: This is the staff which he was wont to carry in his hand; these are the little baskets which he had woven. Amid these words, the sick man presently looks at himself and sees himself whole.\ And then the greatest amazement seized all the bystanders, when they suddenly see the limb, swollen and thin, clean, and the putrid [and] ulcerous limb so sound that in a wondrous manner no traces of ulceration remained there.
Lesson VII.
[9] Thomasella\ also, daughter of John, master Udo of Senise, had her arm so eaten away by an inveterate fistula afterward, that the bones flowed\ away from it piece by piece. And when her father carried her to the aforesaid monastery, the abbot being found, he entreats him with these words: Show us, he says, the body of the Saint, if perchance he will deign to save my daughter. I cannot, said the abbot, show you the sacred body (for he had secretly laid it away, lest so great a treasure should be taken from him by theft), but I will give thee a particle of his garments; wrapping the feeble limb in it, if it please the Lord, he is able to magnify his Saint today in thy daughter. Which being wrapped, they passed the night there. It is indeed credible that at the touch of the garment health came at once. But because they do not uncover the arm until they return home, only then do they behold it fully whole. Moreover the lord John Capanus, a priest of that same land of Senise, for two years had his voice utterly choked. No skill of physicians, sought far and wide, could help him. But he was, as he says, brought to such despair that he now purposed to wander about through the world, blushing in the destiny of so great a misfortune to converse thus shamefully among his acquaintances and friends. But being destitute of the support of human aid, he turned himself to the mercy of God; he fell asleep upon this Saint's tomb, and obtained his former voice.
Lesson VIII.
[10] Again, Gentilis, a boy of g Noha, was so vexed by a continual trembling of the arm miracles, by his patronage. that if at times, to try the measure of his injury, he attempted to seize with his hand a vessel full of water, it was presently wholly spilled; but by this Saint's merits he was made fully whole. A certain woman also of that same land of Noha, whom indeed I saw, but whose name I do not know, suffered from a hard and old swelling upon her foot; which by the power of this Saint was dissolved incomparably more quickly than wax flows from the face of fire. But I do not omit the miracle worthy of memory wrought in John, called Barono of Armento. Who, when he had his leg so diseased, so foully ulcerated, that I know not what was there the more, of the putrid or of the sound — as soon as he entered the aforesaid little cell of this holy Man, at the touch of the herbs which he was wont to strew upon his little bed, the horrible injury of the whole leg passed away; the fissure\ of all\ the ulcers was at once made solid; the whole hollowness of the corrosion was filled up. Many other things also Jesus did through this most holy Man which are not written in this book. But these things are written that you may believe. Believe firmly, whosoever shall come in times to come, the things which are here inserted. For I have written down only those things which were notorious, and which more clearly than light were able to inform my mind. For the aforesaid miracles which have been told — the last being excepted — have as many witnesses as Senise and Noha have men. For the last I learned only from the relation of two men worthy of credit, giving testimony of what they had seen; whom honesty of life and gravity of manners render so worthy that I in no way think that they could have lied. But other things which I received from single persons, or which could have been darkened for me by any cloud, I have scorned to mingle here, lest perchance a falsehood should creep in under the veil of truth. The deeds also of this Man I have searched out with all the diligence I could; unworthy as I am, I deserved to converse with him; nearly all whom I have said were oppressed with sicknesses I wished to see; I saw them, and beheld each thing as true. But this Man, beloved and chosen by the Lord, died — nay, more truly was born into the heavenly country — on the seventh of the Kalends of September, in the year MCCCXXXVIIII h of [our] Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
which one 1 could more easily have been omitted than added in the said manuscript. In the new edition of Ughelli, volume 7, column 90, there is added in a marginal note to his text or 1339, as others will have it. Castellanus also sets 1338. But we, since we see nothing firm enough to compel us to turn aside from that manuscript and from Lauro, have set above, at the beginning of our Commentary, this year 1339 also.
\ Ughelli, infra*.
\ Ibid., innotescat*.
\ Ughelli, divulgatur*.
\ Ibid., sicco*.
\ Ibid., cujusdam*.
\ Ibid., præter*.
\ Ibid., adduci*.
\ Ibid., intra*.
\ Ibid., quippe cum*.
\ Ibid., quam relinqui*; not rightly.
\ Ibid., Deus*.
\ Ibid., monachum*.
\ Ibid., he presently looks at himself, whole, and falls down*.
\ Ibid., Masella*.
\ Ibid., deciderent*.
\ Ibid., omnino*.
\ Ibid., rosura*.