Justus

ON SS. JUSTUS, ORONTIUS, AND FORTUNATUS, MARTYRS,

AT LECCE IN THE PROVINCE OF OTRANTO IN ITALY,

Under Nero, as is reported.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Justus, martyr, at Lecce in the province of Otranto in Italy (St.)

Orontius, martyr, at Lecce in the province of Otranto in Italy (St.)

Fortunatus, martyr, at Lecce in the province of Otranto in Italy (St.)

BY J. P.

§ I. The Acts of these holy Martyrs are examined.

Lycium, otherwise Lupiæ and Aletium, commonly Lecce, is thus described under Aletium in Baudrand: Aletium, Of what sort these places are a city otherwise of the Salentines or of Messapia in Pliny and Ptolemy, now Lecce, in the province of Otranto, of which it is the head, ample and well cultivated, so that it far surpasses the other cities of the kingdom of Naples in the number of its inhabitants, Naples alone excepted. It is an episcopal see under the archbishop of Otranto, lying between Brindisi to the north and Otranto to the south, twenty thousand paces distant, but seven from the shore of the Adriatic sea toward the west, fifteen toward Nardò, and nearly fifty from Taranto toward the east. It is called Litium by more recent writers. So he. There may also be read what Leander Alberti records in his Description of Italy, in the section on the inland parts of the Salentines, page 361 of the Cologne edition of the year 1566. Now these three holy Martyrs the aforesaid city of Lecce honors as its tutelary saints and its distinguished patrons; and of their number it has very often found St. Orontius beneficent and favorable toward itself, as will be declared more fully below, attending the most devout prayers and zeal of the people of Lecce toward him with a most abundant multitude of miracles and heavenly gifts. But what is to be said concerning these Saints I distribute into three parts: of which the first will treat of their deeds; the second of their public veneration; the third of the miracles of St. Orontius.

[2] of these Martyrs We have a document printed at Lecce by Peter Michael in the year MDCLVIII, with this title: Of Lecce. Before the sacred Congregation of Rites, for obtaining the confirmation of Saints Justus the martyr, and Orontius and Fortunatus, bishops and martyrs, as patrons. Concerning this last Saint it is petitioned that he be graciously granted as a new patron, for reasons brought forward before the same sacred Congregation, to be mentioned below. In this document, or petitionary libel, the people of Lecce set forth in summary that it is an immemorial tradition that Justus was sent to Rome by the Apostle Paul while he was staying at Corinth; that he landed on the maritime shores of Lecce, and was the guest of Orontius; and that he converted him, and Fortunatus, and others joined to them by blood, to the Catholic faith, and baptized them; that he then went on to the City, and, being dispatched from it and returned to Lecce, he conferred baptism also upon very many others who had been catechized by Orontius; and that he returned to Corinth with Orontius and Fortunatus themselves; and that there Orontius was made bishop of Lecce by the Apostle Paul, and Justus himself was given him as a companion for the preaching of the Gospel; and that these returned to Lecce, and there, and throughout the whole province, propagated the Catholic faith; and that at length Justus and Orontius themselves, while the Neronian persecution against the Christians was in force, on the XXVI day of August, the fourth Sunday of the same month, in the year sixty-eight, being together crowned with martyrdom by various torments, flew away to heaven; and that Fortunatus succeeded Orontius in the bishopric, and likewise suffered martyrdom.

[3] Thus far the aforesaid document, which under the name of the petitionary libel of Lecce we shall cite below. The Acts, But since it was presented on behalf of the city and Chapter of Lecce to the most eminent Fathers of the sacred Congregation of Rites, there can be no room for anyone to doubt that they set forth both the sum of this their tradition and the other matters contained in it with the utmost good faith, and in every manner which they judged conducive to persuasion. Now what writers they used in this cause, the same petitionary libel of Lecce had premised: It is to be known, it says, that besides what Paul Regio, bishop of Vico Equense, and Antonio Beatillo of the Society of Jesus, in the Life of St. Irene, virgin and martyr (book 2) chapter 7 in the annotation, and Philip Ferrari in his New Topography upon the Roman Martyrology under the word Aletium, and in his General Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, in the month of August on the eighth Kalends of September in the annotation — which author is extolled with praises by the most learned and most erudite Lezana, consultation 2, numbers 23 and 46 — and finally Jacopo Antonio Ferrari, a patrician of Lecce, in his description of Corinth, which he composed in the year MDLII, and in his Paradoxical Apology for the claims of the city of Lecce, both of which works are read in manuscript, have written of these Saints: it is established from the Process drawn up in the episcopal curia of Lecce at the instance of the said city and Chapter that from time immemorial, first, these three Saints have always been held for Saints in that same city — indeed Justus and Orontius also in the province of Otranto — and have been so called; and that it is an immemorial tradition, and the rest, which we have just set out above at number 2. But now we propose the following things to be observed.

[4] And first indeed, as regards the writers, the most illustrious Paul Regio — of whom the copy which I have before me is noted as printed at Naples by Giuseppe Cacchi in the year 1592, what things are current among the people of Lecce and reprinted at Vico Equense in the year 1593 by Giovanni Tommaso Aulisio — in part 1, page 430, having briefly premised a summary of the Life of SS. Justus and Orontius, martyrs, and then a preface to their Acts, sets these out in five chapters; the substance of which, since we have already given it from the petitionary libel of Lecce, we judge it superfluous to linger over the circumstances of the matters, which are described with greater prolixity of words than with authority suitable for producing belief — as the people of Lecce themselves seem not obscurely to indicate, when in their petitionary libel they are compelled to have recourse to an immemorial tradition. Indeed the most illustrious man just praised procures for himself little authority in what he narrates on pages 444 and 445. For, having related the martyrdom of the said Saints, he indicates that certain faithful people of Lecce, having collected their bodies from the midst of the place in which they had been slain, placed them in a safe and hidden place; and that there they remained concealed until, through the baptism of Constantine the Great, free liberty was granted to every Christian of building churches and altars to the Saints; and that these bodies, being found full of a most sweet odor, were received by the people of Lecce as their protectors.

[5] are current, But after they had placed them in two silver caskets, they built, he says, an adorned church in their honor outside the western gate of the city, where they had once been put to martyrdom; that there was the body of St. Justus (whence he asserts that this gate is called the gate of St. Justus down to the present time); but that the body of St. Orontius was buried in another church outside the city. These things we have extracted from Paul Regio, who brings forward a very infirm and feeble authority for historical credit to be given to matters so ancient by those who are not too credulous in narratives of this kind, nor carried away by partisanship or by zeal for their native land. Let us now hear in what way the same Paul Regio attempts to prove his history. Alleging a manuscript codex, extracted from ancient commentaries of Lecce, he affirms that the matter was made fully known by trustworthy persons, and by the Doctor Jacopo Antonio Ferrari, from whom he confesses that he drew the truth of this history: which Ferrari, when by a revelation had in sleep he had found an old man named Giovanni dell' Aimo, about the year of the Lord 1430, built together with him a beautiful church in honor of St. John the Baptist, with a convent for the Dominican Friars, and also a hospital for the poor in memory of St. Orontius, who used to receive pilgrim guests into his house. But how slight — let us say, how nonexistent — is the proportion in this narrative for confirming the history of SS. Justus and Orontius, crowned with the laurel of martyrdom in the first century of Christ under Nero, as the people of Lecce will have it?

[6] and what things are wrongly Fr. Stanislaus Maria Grassi of the Society of Jesus, in a letter written in the Italian tongue on the IX day of August in the year 1735 at Portici (a place in the territory of Naples, where our Society has what they call a residence), and thence sent to Naples together with other manuscript documents, especially those which pertain to the miracles or benefits of St. Orontius, as we suspect, to that most distinguished gentleman Don Domenico de Giorgi, who by long and many services has deserved excellently of our Work, that they might thence come to us — in these letters, I say, the aforesaid Father writes that the Compendium of the Life of St. Orontius, in Latin and Italian, taken

from the Life of the same Saint, which was published at Naples, and of which we have just treated, in the year 1592 by the most illustrious Paul Regio; but that whatever this man wrote was drawn from the history of the noble Doctor Jacopo Antonio Ferrari, a man, he says, most learned, and a royal minister, etc.; and that a most ancient and most noble family became extinct in him. These things are from the letters of Grassi, who adds that he asserts that he brought these things forth from a most ancient book written on parchment in Lombardic letters, that is, from the ancient Chronicle of the church of Lecce; and that the original of that Chronicle, as Grassi goes on, belonging to Signor Ferrari and preserved in the house of the late Signor Giusto Palma, one of the chief men of the two academies existing at Lecce, was published in print by the same Signor Palma at Lecce in the year 1707; and that in that book it is related that the bodies of SS. Justus, Orontius, and Fortunatus were hidden away for reasons which occurred in the 12th and 13th centuries, to be mentioned afterward more distinctly from that same source. But the things which we have now said out of these letters supply us with matter for framing the following arguments.

[7] by them First, that Chronicle, of which Grassi was treating, we have not seen, nor do we know it to be in our possession; and therefore we cannot pass judgment as to what sort of value and age it may be of. Second, experience has taught us that it sometimes happens that documents are put up for sale as most ancient which, in view of the nature of the matters and times of which they write, cannot be held even ancient, much less most ancient. Third, granting — yet not conceding — that that Chronicle was written out in Lombardic letters, and indeed about the seventh or eighth century, according to those words of Mabillon On Diplomatics, book 1, chapter 11, page 46, number 2: In the VI century, when the Lombards poured into Italy, the Lombardic writing succeeded to common use. That Roman writing (the old one, of which he had treated), thus corrupted, flourished for some time in the transcribing of books, namely down to the VIII century — how great a chaos of centuries would even so be interposed, if from about the seventh or eighth century you go back to the first, to which the tradition of the people of Lecce affixes the deeds of their Martyrs? Yet although we do not deny that a great weight of credit would accrue to the said tradition if the Chronicle of Lecce had been written in Lombardic letters at that time, nevertheless by no means can so long an age be attributed to it, since Grassi, as we saw above, signifies that matters are recorded in that same book which pertain to the 12th and 13th centuries, Mabillon, whom we were just citing, affirming this: The Lombardic (writing) prevailed among the Italians down to the XII century, from which time it was gradually brought into that more polished manner, which the more recent Roman now is. Let these things be said on occasion of the most illustrious Paul Regio, and of Jacopo Antonio Ferrari, who were named above in the petitionary libel of Lecce.

[8] What shall I say of our Beatillo? We have read the compendium cited in the same libel; are held for true and genuine documents; but of what sort it is may easily be understood from the writers whom he alleges: these are Paul Regio and Jacopo Antonio Ferrari; to whom he adds Peregrino Scardino, to be mentioned by us afterward, Cæsar Baronius in volume 1 of the Annals, but he does not indicate the place, and Giovanni Giovane. Giovanni Giovane wrote eight books On the Antiquity and Varied Fortune of the People of Taranto (they are inhabitants of the kingdom of Naples), which are contained among the various writers on Italian affairs and cities, published at Frankfurt in the year 1600; and he carried his Work down to the year 1588. There remains Philip Ferrari, alleged in the often-named petitionary libel. In his New Topography Justus and Orontius are noted by him as the first bishops, martyrs, disciples of St. Paul; but again recourse is had to the same source, from the monuments of the church of Aletium. In his General Catalogue he makes mention of St. Orontius, the first bishop of that same city, and martyr; but in the annotation he again repeats the same source, from the Records of the church of Aletium. Then in the same place he makes mention of St. Justus, bishop and patron of the same city. Concerning him see Paul Regio, book 1 On the Saints of the kingdom of Naples. But that he was bishop of the same city, the people of Lecce will not admit, who in this office substitute Fortunatus for St. Orontius. The same Ferrari in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, which nevertheless is not cited in the petitionary libel of the people of Lecce, on the XXV day of August sets forth a compendium from the Annals of the city of Aletium, and from Paul Regio at the place cited; and thus Ferrari goes and comes back along the same road, so to speak, while he so often repeats the same documents.

[9] From what has been said it is also concluded that the tradition of the people of Lecce, so far at least as pertains to the history of the deeds and to their times, and are not for us grounded is not sufficiently proved, nor are those documents produced by them which are suited to persuade readers that the deeds of their three Martyrs and Patrons truly so befell in the first century of Christ, as they will have them to have befallen at that time. And indeed you would say that the proofs walk as it were in a circle: for the people of Lecce run to writers who have not a suitable age; and these run back to the people of Lecce, who labor under a defect of the same thing. Further, Carlo Bozzi, a patrician of Lecce, published in the year 1672 in Italian a history of SS. Justus, Orontius, and Fortunatus, together with the miracles and benefits of St. Orontius, and dedicated it to the most illustrious Don Antonio Pignatelli, bishop of Lecce. This history also Bozzi transmitted hither. Another Italian copy of the Life of SS. Justus and Orontius is likewise in our hands, but we do not know of what author it is, nor of what year; which perhaps were noted on the title-page of the book, which is lacking in our copy. Fr. Tommaso Angiullo, of the Order of Friars Preachers, published in print in the year 1656 a Panegyric, which is entitled Lecce rosata, that is, Lecce Rose-crowned. But writers of this kind, even if more were brought forward, make up rather a number than a credit.

[10] for persuading Nor is there ground for anyone to object to us that the processes of Lecce are lacking here. For our own Papebroch requested them, but could not obtain them; Carlo Bozzi writing in a letter sent hither from Lecce in the year 1674 that he would most willingly have transmitted a copy of the assigned processes, if in them had been contained the antiquity of our history, he says. But since one alone contains many miracles, some of which he affirms to be extant in his own little book, while the other contains many proofs made by his Prelate (that is, by the bishop of Lecce), and exhibited by him to the sacred Congregation, he signifies that he is sending this latter: which is without doubt that which we have so often recited under the name of the petitionary libel of Lecce. Father Giovanni Battista de Ciocchis of the Society of Jesus, in a letter written at Lecce on the X day of April in the year 1686 to the same Papebroch, indicates various things pertaining to the present matter; of which, lest I be tedious to the reader, I compress the following most briefly.

[11] the deeds Hence therefore I learn: 1. that the aforesaid Ciocchi urged, at the request of Papebroch, that he might obtain the processes, but in vain. 2. That there is nothing ancient in those processes concerning the Acts of the Saints of whom we are treating, but only those things by which the most illustrious Luigi Pappacoda, bishop of Lecce, proves that those Saints are to be promoted to the cult of patrons of Lecce, the ancient tradition standing. 3. That the tradition of the people of Lecce, as regards the Acts of their three Saints, did not altogether please the sacred Congregation, is argued by this, that, as is written in the cited letter, that Congregation was unwilling to admit the Lessons which had been proposed for the Office by the Clergy of Lecce. 4. That the same sacred Congregation was unwilling to place the said Saints in the Calendars or Martyrologies. 5. In the same letter the same Father records that Don Nicola Fatalo, master of ceremonies, abbot and canon of the church of Lecce, a man, as he adds, sufficiently learned and erudite, told him that there is nothing ancient in the Life of SS. Orontius, Fortunatus, and Justus, except that which the most illustrious Don Paul Regio, bishop of Vico Equense, printed at Naples in the year 1592, and reprinted at Vico Equense in the year 1593, in part 1 from page 431; and that it was much desired that this Life be inserted into our Work. These things I have extracted from the said letter. But to render this Italian Life into Latin, and to commit it to the press, is not worth the labor: since the tradition of the people of Lecce is sufficiently expressed in their petitionary libel, from which we produced it before, and it relates in compendium things like those which Paul Regio sets out at greater length, as will be plain if one compares the latter with the former.

[12] For after the preface he narrates: How St. Justus was a disciple of the Apostle St. Paul, which, as they will have it, happened in the first century came to the city of Lecce, and converted Orontius, chapter 1. Bl. Orontius with his household was baptized by St. Justus; who, having set out for Rome, returns again to him, chapter 2. How ten other men of Lecce were baptized, and how Orontius with Fortunatus and Justus went to find St. Paul, chapter 3. How St. Paul, having heard the petition of Orontius, made him bishop of Lecce, and gave him Bl. Justus to be his preacher, chapter 4. How Justus and Orontius received holy martyrdom in the Neronian persecution, together with other faithful, chapter 5. Now indeed, although this tradition seems to us so infirm that it cannot be sufficiently proved, nevertheless, since it is not manifestly false, we leave it in its possession such as it is, and have set down above that these three Martyrs suffered under Nero, yet with the restriction, as is reported. In our manuscript collectanea I find an Italian copy, subscribed with the name of the master Friar Ambrogio da Taranto, an Augustinian, which contains notes, as is said in its title, upon the errors which are inserted into the Life of St. Orontius the martyr. Then he relates that he made many observations in his Sacred History of Taranto upon the Life composed by Carlo Bozzi of Lecce, which he presently recounts at greater length. But since concerning the history which is current of our three Martyrs enough and more than enough has already been said by us, we forbear to transcribe hither the aforesaid notes.

§ II. Their public cult, together with the title of patrons of Lecce, approved at Rome.

It being proved before the sacred Let us now come to the second part of this our Commentary, in which we must speak of the cult of our three Saints. But it would be too long to exhibit here again the things which are read on this matter, diffusely and learnedly collected, in the petitionary libel of Lecce; but it will suffice to cull from it the following fragments, by which the public veneration of the praised Champions is abundantly established. These things, therefore, are contained in the said libel: It is established from the process drawn up in the episcopal curia of Lecce at the instance of the said city and Chapter that from time immemorial, first, these three Saints have always been held for Saints in that same city — indeed Justus and Orontius also in the province of Otranto — and have been so called, and that it is an immemorial tradition, etc. (which we gave above at number 2, where we treated of their deeds.) Secondly, always

images of those Saints have been painted with the marks of sanctity, and statues erected. Thirdly, that in public prayers offered to God they have been invoked, especially St. Orontius, to whose church it was customary to go in procession to obtain rain, and that the same city has always esteemed and honored Orontius himself and Justus as its Patrons. Fourthly, that in honor of Saints Justus and Orontius churches and altars have been dedicated to God, and that among the ancient canonries of the cathedral church of Lecce, one under the title of Saint Justus and the other under the title of Saint Orontius were founded from time immemorial; and that in the territory of the city of Monopoli in the province of Bari there is a church under the invocation of Saint Orontius, which Alexander the Third numbered among the churches assigned, within the bounds of jurisdiction, to the bishopric of that same city, in his bull issued in the year MCLXXX, preserved in the original in that episcopal archive, a copy of which has been brought into the process, together with the written attestation, strengthened by oath, of the syndic and of others of the government of the same city, that from time immemorial this church is seen to have been built in that place, and that in it Mass has always been celebrated, and is now celebrated. It is also established, from the simple hearsay of witnesses, that certain most ancient churches under the same title of Saint Orontius were set up in certain places of the province of Otranto. But in honor of Saint Fortunatus an immemorial altar was erected in the same cathedral of Lecce, with two benefices instituted upon it under the title of that same Saint, whose collations appear, more than a hundred years back — namely the one in the year MCDXCIV, the other in the year MDLI — from the Acts of the ancient visitations of Marco Antonio Ptolomei and Giovanni Battista Castromediano, bishops of Lecce. From which it is argued that they were erected long before those dates; although the same altar, because it adhered to one of the columns of that church, and was therefore an impediment to it, was demolished by order of the prelate of that time, the burdens of the Masses of those benefices being transferred to other altars of the same church.

[14] Congregation of Rites Fifthly, that in memory of SS. Justus and Orontius the sacrifice of the Mass has been offered to God. Sixthly, that on the said fourth Sunday of August a feast in honor of those same Saints Justus and Orontius was always celebrated solemnly, year by year down to the year MDCXL, with a solemn Mass and an Office under the double rite with an octave from the common of several Martyrs (confirmed afterward in the diocesan synod of Lecce, held in the year MDCXXVIII), with a sermon, and very often with the syndic and the decurions attending in the formal array of the city, in sign that they venerated them as Patrons; and that on the same day famous fairs were held, and are now held. Seventhly, that the relics of Saints Justus and Orontius, by immemorial tradition anciently preserved in their churches formerly erected outside the city of Lecce, were on account of wars transferred to the cathedral church, and are hidden beneath its pavement; but in what place of it, is unknown.

[15] by the people of Lecce From all which it clearly appears that these Saints, especially Justus and Orontius, are endowed with all those seven qualities of honor which Bellarmine teaches are wont to be attributed to Saints, Controversies, volume 1, general controversy 7, On the Beatified and the Saints, book 1, chapter 7, at the verse ad septimum; who below, chapter 10, at the verse quantum ad tertium, also delivers that, in order that they be held for such, it would suffice either that churches and altars be set up to God in their honor alone, since these denote a public cult in the name of the Church, and the erection of an altar with the image of some Saint is a sign of canonization — for the Church permits these things only to the canonized, as Baronius teaches out of Peter Damian, Annals, volume 10, at the year CMXCIII, § Non est autem, at the verse Concedere, whom Molfese reports and follows, conf. 45, number 32; or else that sacrifice be offered to God in their memory, which more, and chiefly, confirms the cult itself in the name of the Church, since there is in the Church no Sacrifice which is not the common one instituted by God, and churches and altars are referred to it; Bellarmine at the place cited.

[16] It is no objection that the aforesaid Saints have not been canonized by the Apostolic See, of these Martyrs nor that these honors are paid them by the universal Church. There follow in this petitionary libel various objections and responses, which in this cause are set out very diffusely, and which would lead us into too long a discourse if we were to relate all that was proposed to the tribunal of the sacred Congregation of Rites. Add that this would seem to be, if not superfluous, at least by no means necessary, since satisfaction was so far given to that Congregation by the people of Lecce that it issued a decree in their favor, by which it approved the present cause of these three Saints, as will presently be said. Nor did it stand in the way of the people of Lecce that the cult of SS. Justus and Orontius was interrupted for several years: which matter it will not be irksome to touch upon here from their libel, that it may be understood how they sought the restoration of their cult, as of patrons, not absolutely, but so far as should be needful; whereas they asked absolutely that Saint Fortunatus be joined to them with the same title, which also was granted them by the sacred Congregation.

[17] Nor is it an objection either, says the petitionary libel of Lecce, with the cult, it is asked that the city itself and the Chapter of Lecce seem to have renounced this immemorial custom of the church of Lecce of celebrating the feast of the said Saints Justus and Orontius with a solemn Mass and a double Office with an octave, in the year MDCXL, in which year, and in several following years, they omitted to celebrate it, as is established from the same process: because this omission did not come about from the proper will of the city and Chapter, but by the bishop's so commanding, the Chapter itself being unwilling, as is clear from the said process. But after other things which are added on this argument, as also concerning the decree of the sacred Congregation of Rites under the date of the XXIII of March MDCXXX, approved by the Most Holy Lord Urban VIII, to which decree, after the people of Lecce had replied in the cited libel, they thus conclude: But Saints Justus and Orontius have from time immemorial been held by the people of Lecce for their patrons, as is clear from the same process, and their confirmation as patrons was sought so far as should be needful, because the celebration of the feast had been omitted for some years, as evidently appears from the public resolutions of the city and Chapter. Therefore the church of Lecce and the same city ought to be maintained, or at least reinstated, in the possession which they had of honoring them as patrons, before and after the said decree: for the aforesaid omission of their festival is established from the aforesaid process to have occurred in the year MDCXL, as we said a little before.

[18] But that the manner of petition was different, in asking that a third, St. Fortunatus, be added to these two patrons, their merits being alleged is understood from what is presently subjoined in the same place concerning him: But as to Saint Fortunatus, whom from time immemorial the church of Lecce itself has venerated as a Saint, yet not as a patron, the same city has humbly supplicated the same sacred Congregation that it may graciously grant that hereafter it may honor him as a patron also. For the causes of these suppliant prayers are the ancient and more recent benefits, both public and private, always obtained from God by the citizens of Lecce in their own necessities on account of the merits of those same Saints; on account of which, from time immemorial, a living faith and religion toward them, proved in the said process, has continually flourished, since in every public peril and necessity, even unlooked-for,\ they were always preserved by God through the help of the said Saints; and it is now the more increased, since from the recent and cruel plague, by which Naples and very many cities and towns of eleven provinces of the kingdom were oppressed, the city of Lecce alone, with the whole of its twelfth province of the same kingdom, remained unharmed by the divine mercy, on account of the merits and intercession of those same Saints, especially of Saint Orontius, whom moreover at this same time God, the Best and Greatest, has illustrated, and does not cease to illustrate, with continual remarkable miracles — many of which, strengthened by the oath of witnesses, have been transmitted to the same sacred Congregation — in that same city and province, and indeed also outside it. And subscribed to the petitionary libel of Lecce is noted Luigi Pappacoda, bishop of Lecce*.

[19] that they may be honored as principal patrons, and this is obtained. But the decision of this cause, which is subjoined, is of this tenor: The cause having been proposed by the most eminent Lord, Lord Giulio Cardinal Sacchetti, in the sacred Congregation of Rites held on the XIII day of July of the present year MDCLVIII, a decree was pronounced by its most eminent Fathers, transmitted to the city of Lecce, strengthened by the subscription and seal of the most eminent Sacchetti himself, prefect of the same sacred Congregation, of the following tenor: "Of Lecce. The sacred Congregation of Rites has approved the election made by the city of Lecce of Saints Orontius, Justus, and Fortunatus as patrons; and has granted that their feast, as of patrons equally principal, be kept on one and the same day of precept; and also that an Office to be taken from the common of Martyrs may be recited there by both Clergies, and Mass celebrated, according to the prescription of the Rubrics. On the XIII day of July MDCLVIII. Julius, bishop of Sabina, Cardinal Sacchetti. In place of the ✠ seal. Francesco Maria Febeo, secretary of the sacred Congregation of Rites." But what things were done after that famous contagious plague, which was recorded as having been driven off from the people of Lecce by the help of these three holy men, and especially of Saint Orontius, the reader will learn from what shall be given in the next paragraph.

\* That is, beyond expectation.

§ III. The cult of the Martyrs, especially of St. Orontius, raised to greater splendor; their bodies concealed, and afterward not found.

Chapels; inscriptions The excellent and very reverend lord Giovanni Camillo Palma, doctor of theology and archdeacon of the church of Lecce, published in the year 1657 a Relation of the renewed religious piety toward St. Orontius: in which Italian tract, after he had described in many words the deadly disease which, as he adds, in the year 1656, in the month of March, began to afflict Naples, and its ravaging through various tracts of Italy, the province of Lecce remaining untouched, he narrates that two chapels were erected in the said church, the one indeed sacred to St. Orontius, the other to St. Justus; and the inscription of each, setting forth what was done, has been transmitted to us. In the chapel of St. Orontius, therefore, the following inscription is seen: To God, Best and Greatest. To Saint Orontius, the first prelate and worshiper of Christ among the Salentines, a martyr under Nero, who preserved all the Iapygians unstained from the plague that raged through nearly the whole of Italy — to their fellow patrician citizen, their averting deity, piety pressing upon them from every side, the Order and People of Lupiæ, mindful and grateful, have set up this chapel for the time being, to give perhaps one day a more august one; Gioacchino Faciolli being father of the fatherland, in the year of salvation MDCLXXII. Those who are here called Iapygians are peoples in the province of Otranto. More in the geographers. For Apotrapheo we judge that apotropæo should be written: for the Greek ἀποτρόπαιος signifies a driver-away of evils. Further, since that year which we read in this inscription does not agree with the chapel as it was while Palma was writing, it follows that it

was afterward either raised to greater splendor, or that another was erected.

[21] But the inscription which was transmitted to us, in them; solemn processions, in the chapel of St. Justus, records this: To God, Best and Greatest. To Saint Justus of Corinth,\ disciple of Saint Paul, apostle of the people of Lupiæ and of the Iapygians, guarding his flock — and guarding also the whole province — from the deadly plague that was laying waste the kingdom; great benefits having been received in every age from a great patron, and the hope of yet greater ones being conceived, Luigi Pappacoda of Naples, a patrician, a grateful and suppliant pastor, set this up in the year from Christ MDCLVI.* Now the aforesaid archdeacon Palma also treats of two public processions which were celebrated by the people of Lecce with solemn rite and retinue, three statues being carried about through almost the whole city, namely of St. Justus, St. Orontius, and St. Fortunatus. But the other matters which the same author inserted in his tract for the renewing of piety toward St. Orontius may be read in it one by one; among which no lowest place is deserved by the festive cavalcade — splendid not merely for pomp, but instituted also for the showing forth of a singular devotion toward that same holy Protector — held in the year 1657, on the XXV day of August: (the order and retinue of which, and also the particular veneration toward their Preserver, the same archdeacon sets forth in the said tract.) At which time also there was reverently offered in the cathedral church, before the altar of the Saint, in the name of the city, a banner, on which was painted the image of that same Saint. The lord syndic Russo consecrated the banner to him, and likewise the obligation of expending each year those charges which should be necessary for celebrating most solemnly the festival of St. Orontius on the XXVI day of August; and the archdeacon Palma showed that in the name of the most illustrious lord bishop he readily admitted the said banner, answering in these Latin words:

[22] the banner magnificently offered to the name of St. Orontius That it may turn out well perpetually, and be perpetually happy and auspicious, for the Author and most munificent Bestower of all good things, God the Best and Greatest; for the Virgin Mother, taken up into heaven with earth and heaven applauding, to whom this church is dedicated, our patroness ever august, ever health-bringing; for our fellow patrician and father Orontius, most unconquered martyr, to whom above all this our city and province of Lupiæ owes it that they stand safe, when the black plague raged more monstrously and all but demolished this kingdom; for the rest of our tutelary Saints, and for all the citizens of heaven, that it may ever be glorious; for the most holy, most wise, and most vigilant hierarch of the Christian religion, Alexander VII; for Philip IV of Austria, our Catholic king, pious, august, ever unconquered though fortune blow against him; for our most loving and most indefatigable prelate, Luigi Pappacoda; for the Order and the whole people of Lupiæ, illustrious, pious, grateful: this banner of Saint Orontius, our most powerful and most present patron, which by the pious and excellent man Giovanni Francesco Russo, the most illustrious father of our fatherland, has been carried into this chief church, the peoples of this whole province following after and acclaiming it auspicious — I, Giovanni Camillo Palma, archdeacon of Lupiæ, in the name of that same most ample and most illustrious prelate of ours, Luigi, receive obediently, willingly, reverently. Him, and all this city, I place beneath the most powerful protection of Orontius himself; and I demand that the memory of this deed, most worthy of commendation, and destined to be a spur to noble posterity, be entered upon the public records, an eternal monument of a most devoted and most religious fatherland. After this, the hymn Te Deum.

[23] The bodies of the Martyrs are said to have been once found, and hidden away; To these things the often-cited tract subjoins other offices of public piety and rejoicing which took place on the following day. Finally the aforesaid Don Palma, about to conclude his little Work, indicates that it is awaited only with the most ardent desire that the bones of those Saints be found, which rest in the cathedral, as is anciently believed; ending with this Latin clause: In my own words I have expressed these things, and with my own hand written them — I, Giovanni Camillo Palma, archdeacon of Lupiæ — a slight monument of great piety toward God, and of no common devotion toward my fatherland, in the year MDCLVII, on the last day of August. Now indeed, since he was making mention of the finding of those bodies which lie hidden, here for you, reader, are certain observations drawn from elsewhere. Among the other things which we mentioned above in the first paragraph from the letter of Fr. Grassi, that book was designated which Don Giusto Palma had printed at the press of Lecce in the year 1707; and the same Father indicates from this book that the bodies of SS. Orontius, Justus, and Fortunatus were exposed in the cathedral; but that, on account of the cruelty of William the Bad, king of both Sicilies, in the year 1161, and of Charles I of Anjou, and of the Count of Lecce, Hugh of Brienne, in the year 1268, who destroyed the whole city (the church of Monreale in Sicily having been built by William out of the riches carried off), it came about, he indicates, that the people of Lecce concealed the bodies in an unknown place, where they now lie hidden.

[24] but afterward not found. Then he confirms this opinion from Peregrino Scardino in his Discourse on the antiquity and situation of the city of Lecce, from Antonio Beatillo in the Life of St. Irene, and from the parish priest of St. Mary of Light, Don Giulio Cesare Infantino, in his Lecce sacred; by both of whom, he says, is cited the famous Galateo or Galatino of San Pietro in Galatina, a place twelve miles distant from the city of Lecce. Yet he asserts that no other Galateo is now found in print at Lecce than the Basel editions, and that there is a suspicion that the heretics deliberately neglected to print those things which pertained to St. Orontius. These things from the letter of Grassi. But whether, and how far, the things just narrated above may stand, although I have nothing from which to determine or to deny with certainty, I should nevertheless wish that documents be brought forward for this matter which might more convince me. However that may be, this is established, that the bodies of our Martyrs still remained hidden in the year of Christ 1735, in which Grassi was writing his letter. But now the testimonies of the public veneration toward St. Orontius recall us to the earlier matters — testimonies which were transmitted to us in an Italian manuscript, which is prefaced with this title, Avanzi pretiosi, etc., and which we shall afterward cite under the name of the manuscript notices of Lecce.

[25] The cult of St. Orontius In the same it is indicated that a lofty column was erected among the people of Lecce, upon which was set a bronze image of the Saint, blessing the city (with this inscription added at his feet, as we read in another manuscript: I have ever protected, and I will protect); and further, that Innocent XII established his memorial on the XXVI day of August with a perpetual plenary indulgence; that the province of Otranto also, wishing to show how much it owed to St. Orontius, in the homage of a grateful mind chose him as its singular protector (although this was refused by the people of Taranto), and to this end laid before the sacred Congregation suppliant and earnest prayers, that, the order of law being observed, they might have him for their principal protector, and celebrate his feast as of precept; and that the matter having been exhibited to the sacred Congregation by the most eminent Don Giovanni Battista Ptolomei, this grace was granted by the same in the following decree: Of Otranto. Saint Orontius, first bishop of Lecce and martyr, having been chosen\ by the Clergy and the communities of the province of Otranto in the kingdom of Naples as principal Patron, and the clergy and communities of the aforesaid province\ having sought his approbation no less earnestly than most humbly, the same sacred Congregation, recognizing that the aforesaid election was made with the things to be observed observed, and with all the requisites contained and expressed in the general decree of this sacred Congregation issued under the date of the XXIII of March MDCXXX, upon the report of the most eminent and most reverend Lord Cardinal Tolomei, approved and confirmed it, and attributed and granted to the aforesaid Saint Orontius, thus chosen as principal Patron, all the prerogatives befitting principal Patrons, yet according to the rubrics of the Roman Breviary and Missal, after the form of Urban VIII of happy memory concerning the observance of feasts. On the XII day of September MDCCXVI. Francesco Cardinal d'Adda. Nicola M. Tedeschi, bishop of Lipari.

[26] From these things it becomes plain that the public cult of St. Orontius not only flourished and constantly persevered among the people of Lecce, extended but was also propagated through the province of Otranto, cleaving to their most devout sentiments concerning their great Patron. But how great a devotion in honoring, and confidence in hoping, and memory of grateful clients in acknowledging the favors obtained by his heavenly help, have settled in the minds of men toward this most present Preserver, especially among the people of Lecce, will appear most clearly from the miracles and benefits which we shall relate below. Bozzi likewise revives various memorials in book 5, writing of sacred buildings, paintings, crypts, etc., where also may be seen what he has concerning SS. Justus and Fortunatus. But the authority of this writer is small; would that a greater were at hand from elsewhere! But to come to a particular matter: on page 166 he asserts that in the place Turi, of the diocese of Conversano, there exists a crypt under the title of St. Orontius, which on account of its great antiquity was not only little honored, but altogether abandoned.

[27] We have a manuscript instrument, which is dated under the day XV of May 1733, to various places and subscribed by the archpriest, the primicerii, and the canons of the distinguished collegiate church of Turi, and strengthened by the accustomed capitular seal; in which, besides several other things of which there will be speech below, they relate that the crypt has always been held in veneration by an annual simple procession of the whole clergy and people, and by a solemn Mass sung at the altar of the Saint within the sacred crypt: where, as they will have it, the same Saint celebrated while he lay hidden there on his return from the city of Corinth, etc. They relate moreover that the same crypt, although it was always honored on a single day of the year, was nevertheless found so ill kept and so befouled that it was fit for the lodging of animals, inasmuch as it had neither guard nor door, as they write. But we observe that what is current among the people of Turi concerning the perpetual cult of this crypt, from the very first century of Christ onward, by a never-interrupted tradition, as they will have it, is by no means proved; and since it rests not upon documents suitable for so long an antiquity, but upon public report alone, this tradition merits no other name than popular, on account of the things said and set out at length by us above in §1 concerning the tradition of the people of Lecce. Then, although the people of Turi do not record from what time this sacred crypt began to be religiously and publicly frequented by the people, yet because it is established that it is now so frequented, and that the Saint confers singular and heavenly favors upon those who frequent it, as will be given to be seen afterward in §4, therefore we now treat of this crypt, in a place, namely, pertaining to the public cult of St. Orontius.

[28] extended The manuscript notices of Lecce, of which we made mention at number 24, treat of another crypt, which is at Ostuni, and above which they assert that a most ancient church is seen, and that there also there rises even now a miraculous and perennial spring. Now Ostuni is a city in the province of Otranto toward the shore of the Adriatic sea. We cannot here pass over another monument of the public veneration of St. Orontius, which is recorded in the cited Notices; namely, that a church of the same Saint belonged to the bishopric

of Monopoli, assigned by the supreme Pontiff Alexander III; concerning which matter there is cited in the same notices a bull issued in the year 1180, the original of which is there said to be preserved in the archive of the bishopric of Lecce, and a copy of the same to have been presented in the acts of the above-said curia, and at the same time transmitted, together with the process drawn up for the said cause, to the sacred Roman Congregation. Concerning the city of Monopoli in Apulia on the Adriatic sea in the territory of Bari, Ughelli may be consulted, volume 1 of the Italia Sacra, column 1043 of the earlier edition; in whom, in that bull which is given at column [ ] and following, I find the church of Saint Arontius.

[29] existed. But if in the original copy of this bull Arontius is written, not Orontius, then we do not so far see why in that bull there should not be indicated another martyr, who among those passed over today is deferred to the XXVII day of August, and is then announced in Castellanus's Universal Martyrology: At Potenza in Lucania, now Basilicata, the holy martyrs Arontius, Felix, Sabinianus, and Honoratus, under the judge Valerian: so that, on account of the formation of the name, of which the one differs so little from the other, that St. Arontius marked in the said Martyrology in that province, which is contiguous to that of Otranto and is partly bounded by its tract, might in good faith indeed, yet through an added notion, have been taken by the people of Lecce as their own Orontius.

\ Read Corinthio*.

\ Read Electo*.

\ Add supplicantibus*, or something similar.

§ IV. Marvels of various kinds wrought by St. Orontius.

Marvels in an infant, The letters of Fr. Stanislaus Grassi, repeatedly cited, relate that when devotion toward St. Orontius had been renewed about the year 1656 and 1657, there were at that time sent by the most illustrious bishop of Lecce, Luigi Pappacoda, to the sacred Congregation many miracles, most accurately narrated, which had been wrought through the same Saint. Among these, moreover, the following miracle is related (which Bozzi also has, book 5, page 182), juridically approved, as Grassi indicates, by that episcopal curia; namely: Lucrezia Longa, of the territory called Vernole, of the diocese of Lecce, wife of Angelo Piccinno, bore a male child. The midwife Rosa Mezzeina, mother of the same Lucrezia, urged her daughter to give the infant the name of Orontius: that thus she would affect the archpriest of the said place with the greatest joy, and — what is much more — that in this she would please most particularly the most illustrious Don Pappacoda, bishop of Lecce. But the daughter most obstinately wished the infant to be named either Peter or Sebastian, and not Orontius. What moved her was that her ass was called now Ronzo, now Ronzino; and that she was unwilling that her son should be called by the name of an ass. The whole following night the infant did not cease to weep; but in the morning the midwife, having unwrapped its swaddling-clothes, found it no longer a male, but changed into a true female: which, being baptized the next day, had the name of Rosa. The infant finally died after three days of life. These things we have translated into Latin from the said letter. Observe in passing that the Italian word ronzino signifies a kind of small horse, which in Latin is called mannulus, in barbarous Latin runcinus, in French roncin. The Vocabulario della Crusca may be consulted; to which add Du Cange in his Glossary at the word runcinus.

[31] In a manuscript testimony, which is dated at Lecce on the 2nd day of March 1733, in a contagious disease, the auditors of the Chapter of the same city give assurance, and testify also with an oath as often as need shall be, that in the year 1691, when the plague raged through the city of Monopoli and all the neighboring cities, their own province alone remained immune; and that for this cause the city of Lecce had a most noble statue of silver cast to St. Orontius, which with solemn rite and most exquisite pomp is carried in procession on the XXVI day of August, which is dedicated to the glory of the Saint. They testify also that, when an earthquake had brought damage upon the metropolis of the kingdom, and had laid waste many other lands and cities, the city and province of Lecce alone were not only immune and free, but were not even touched by so terrible a scourge, through the most powerful protection of the holy Martyr, as is clearly signified in a certain painting of his image, which stands placed in the parish church of the land of Campi, not far distant from the city of Lecce: concerning which matter, more presently.

[32] The manuscript notices of Lecce, which I assigned at number 24, by earthquakes, indicate that St. Orontius stood forth as tutelary patron to the people of Lecce in three earthquakes; and that one indeed occurred in the 80th year of the past century on the 1st day of June; but the other on the XX day of March, and on the XVII of October in the year 1731 — so violent that the first shook Naples, casting headlong the vault of the Gesù Nuovo, as they call it, which was a prodigy both of the architectural and of the pictorial art; that the second submerged the city of Foggia (in the province of Capitanata); that the third desolated Canosa (in the territory of Bari), damage being brought upon all the buildings of Apulia; and that there would not have remained a stone upon a stone in the city of Lecce, if St. Orontius had not protected it, as he shows in the place of Campi in his painting.

[33] Let us now hear the following testimony, which we have concerning this marvelous painting among the other notices of Lecce: Of the Saint I, Don Tommaso Bari, priest of the land of Campi, of the age of eighty-four years, and with me the other undersigned priests of the same land, give assurance, even with an oath, so far as shall be needful in court or out of it, that what I here testify and assert is true. In a church newly built about seventy years ago, situated not far from the front of the mother church, and dedicated to Saint Orontius, prelate, martyr, and our patron, there is an image of the same Saint, painted on canvas by Carlo Rosa of Bitonto, of him standing between two angels, of whom the one on the right supports in his hands a pastoral staff, the other on the left the city of Lecce, Campi, and other places of this diocese.

[34] the painting, But he himself holds his hand outspread above this left hand in the act of one giving patronage. Now this hand was distant from the places set beneath it, from the spot where it had been placed by the painter, by nearly half a palm; presently, with the passage of time, it was seen to be less distant; then after some time it came nearer to the places set beneath it than before; and not many years ago they seemed to be distant by only one finger. But now it is so lowered that with its thumb it touches the city of Lecce; nor is it far off but that with its other fingers it touch Campi also and the other neighboring places. And so it was not at one and the same time,\ but with intervals between, and through several turns, that he moved his hand forward and let it down toward the places set beneath. Wherefore the citizens are glad and firm in this hope, that so far is Saint Orontius from failing us with his patronage, that he is ever nearer to God to intercede for us. At Campi, on the VI day of May MDCCXXXIII. I, Don Tommaso Bari, testify as above. I, Don Domenico Simone, archpriest, of the age of 72, testify as above. I, Gennaro Magi, cantor, of the age of 67. There follow the autographs of thirteen other priests, which testify to the above. That the above-said assurance was subscribed in my presence by the above-said reverend priests of the land of Campi, and that they are such as they assert themselves to be, I, Antonio Simone di Giuseppe, priest of the same land of the diocese of Lecce, public notary by Apostolic authority, testify, and being asked have signed in witness. A. S. N. A.*

[35] by drought of the land, Above at number 26 we related the cult which is paid to St. Orontius in the crypt of Turi. But how pleasing this was to him, the heavenly gifts obtained there by his patronage are the argument, which are related in an Italian writing which we have in our hands. Thence, therefore, we cull the following: In the year 1627 there befell a terrible drought, which, having begun in the month of April of the same year, was protracted successively as far as August. The fields were burning; and that people, in such affliction mindful of their ancient Preserver, besought the clergy that the ancient and prodigious painting of the Saint be carried in procession to his crypt, that burning prayers might be poured out there to God, that through the merits of the Saint he might deign to grant the longed-for rain: which was not obtained until the XXVI of August, the day sacred to his martyrdom; and at that very same hour precisely Mass was being sung in the sacred crypt at his altar.

[36] and by other miseries. Further, the more singular graces, as the same manuscript relates, which were noted at the last recourse to the Saint (of which we have already treated) are: sight restored to a blind man, who was of the territory called dello Noci; a lame and altogether useless man of the territory named Fasano, restored; to whom another like him is added, of the territory which they call Ginosa. A mother and daughter of the territory of Castellana, affected with leprosy through the whole body for twelve years, marvelously cleansed by this water, which trickles drop by drop from various places of the sacred crypt; which, being collected in various vessels, is distributed to pious persons flocking to the same crypt while the Saint is devoutly honored there, that they may use that water in their necessities, and especially in fevers, which have been extinguished in a wonderful manner after they had drunk the same together with the stone of the sacred altar ground into powder. By this same remedy also another is said, in the above-said manuscript, to have been freed from most bitter pains of the side. The above relation is confirmed by the archpriest, the primicerii, and the canons of the distinguished collegiate church of Turi, and they strengthen it with the accustomed capitular seal, their autographs, twenty in all, being appended, under the day XV of May 1733.

[37] It will not be beside the purpose here also to make mention of the prodigious spring of St. Orontius on the mountain of Ostuni, The Saint's marvelous spring, which in the month of May of the year 1711 dried up on the XXV day; and on the XXVI of August of the same year, on which day the martyrdom of that Saint is honored, water gushed from it to refresh the persons who had flocked together not only from the city of Ostuni and the neighboring places, but also, as is related from the testimony of a Religious man, from the province of Bari: which spring on the XXVII day of the same month and year again remained dry for several months. These things are testified by Don Bernardino Lucesani, general syndic, Don Giuseppe Giaconia, and Don Lazzaro Fortunato Paleoli, auditors and provisors, and Don Orazio Tommaso Marasco, chancellor of the city of Lecce, as is plain from the manuscript instrument which I have before me, and which is signed with the autographs of the said gentlemen on the XX day of May 1733, and is also strengthened with the accustomed universal seal. The same witnesses in the same instrument observe that, whenever anything untoward befell the statue of St. Orontius, this was a foretelling sign of some impending evil. Let us hear the various outcomes of this matter.

[38] At Lecce in the year 1711, on the XXVI day of August, the silver statue of the same Saint fell as also his statue foretelling evils. while it was being taken up to be carried through the city in the solemn procession. And the aforesaid witnesses affirm that this event foretold the interdict which on the XI day of November in the same year 1711, in the city already named,

and in its diocese, came to pass.

On the VI day of April 1716 lightning fell upon the stone statue of St. Orontius, which is placed above the gate commonly called di Rugge, and broke his left arm and also his pastoral crook: upon which there then followed a contagion among the animals, and a drying up of the olive trees. The former, anointed with the oil of St. Orontius, recovered health; the latter grew green again with foliage.

On the XV day of July 1717 the middle of the stole of the bronze statue of St. Orontius, which stands in the middle of the market-place of Lecce, set upon a marble column, fell down; and there followed a scarcity of grain and other misfortunes.

These things are finally concluded with another event, in which it is related that the pastoral staff of St. Orontius on the bronze statue just mentioned was broken by the motion of the wind, and that an epidemic suddenly followed. These things we have taken from the above-said instrument of Don Bernardino Lucesani, Don Giuseppe Giaconia, and Don Lazzaro Fortunato Paleoli.

[39] By the names or autographs of the same men, and by the usual seal of the city of Lecce, another Italian manuscript testimony is strengthened, Apparitions of the Saint, from which we extract the following concerning the apparitions of the Saint. They assert, then, that they give full and undoubted assurance, even with an oath, so far as etc. But among the other things which they record in the said testimony, treating of what they call the second plague of the year 1690, they indicate that their holy Preserver appeared several times on the borders of their province, coming forth from his ancient crypt at Ostuni, in the sight of all the watches, and that after he had blessed it, he returned whence he had come forth, now as a priest, now as a Prelate; and they cite the process of the episcopal church of Ostuni, which was sent to the supreme Pontiff Innocent XII. This instrument is dated at Lecce on the XVI of April 1733. Marvelous also is not the apparition only, but the presence, as is believed, of St. Orontius in freeing a prisoner and in driving away the accusations which had been wrongly brought against him before the secular tribunal. Hear the matter from the Italian testimony which we have at hand, and which, compressed by us into fewer words, contains the following:

[40] one falsely accused is freed, The undersigned give full and undoubted assurance to whomsoever it shall concern to see the present writing in court or out of it, and with an oath also, as often as shall be necessary; that about the year 1680 Domenico Gigante, of the same city, dwelling at Naples, made a noble and precious silver statue of St. Orontius, at the request of the city. Meanwhile, when he had already put the last hand to it, he was for the second time investigated as a coiner, then committed to prison, and the statue placed under sequestration, at the instance of the exchequer. But he from his whole heart commended himself to his preserver St. Orontius, earnestly praying him for his deliverance. Some time after, on a certain morning, when his cause was to be juridically handled, and the usher was calling who should be the advocate for the cause of the said Gigante, who had had no defender, there came forward a certain venerable priest, who said that he was there for the cause of Gigante; and having entered in, when the cause had been pleaded, he showed the judges in a marvelous manner the innocence of the man wrongly accused, and the calumnies woven together against him by his rivals; and thus he was altogether freed, and without delay brought out of prison, and the statue restored to him, which he joyfully brought to Lecce, recounting what had been done to the glory of the Saint, and holding it for certain that that priest had been St. Orontius. These things from a notarial testimony drawn up on the XIII day of May 733 (after the thousandth). Subscribed are the Participating priests of the cathedral church of Lecce, Don Giacomo Beli, Don Domenico Calilli, and Don Nicola Gigante.

[41] as also another from raging mules. From the instrument already produced we briefly compress another fact which is woven into it. It befell a cleric of Lecce, Pietro Gothri, who, being surrounded by his own mules driven into a fury, was in great danger of being killed by them. But conceiving a confidence equal to the danger, he invoked the Saint; and the raging animals, presently made tame, grew quiet, and he saw himself freed here. But in acknowledgment of so singular a grace he gave to the same Saint no small sum of money, that there might be paid what remained to be paid for the silver expended in making the statue of which we spoke above.

\ Perhaps simul*.

§ V. A woman with her children marvelously preserved beneath the ruin of a house; oil drawn from the Saint's lamp beneficial to many.

A woman, about to be crushed One of the greatest favors by which St. Orontius proved himself in calamities of various kinds an outstanding preserver and a most present patron, especially toward the people of Lecce, is the marvelous preservation of a certain woman and of her children in the ruin of a house. The fact is narrated in an Italian manuscript drawn up at Lecce on the III day of the month of June in the year 1733; and it will suffice to excerpt from it the following. Benedetto Triachi, therefore, and Marina Durante, lawful spouses in the city of Lecce, declare before the undersigned notary with an oath that, whereas Don Tommaso Fini, a priest of the said city, possessed a certain little house, adjoining the great house of the reverend Don Giuseppe Totaro, a priest of the same city — that, I say, this same little house was let to them by the said Don Tommaso. Now when the said spouses were dwelling there together with their two children, the one an infant, the other not yet of age, on the X day of the month of November in the year 1731, in the night time, the very high wall of the aforesaid house of that lord Giuseppe collapsed, beneath which the said little house stood, and demolished it.

[43] And Marina indeed remained beneath the rubble together with her children, beneath its ruin with her two children, invokes the Saint, and with them but Benedetto not so; who, when he called out to the neighbors to bring aid, they presently ran up. But because the door of that same little house was blocked on the inner side by this rubble, no one at all could come to her help. Therefore, relying upon the patronage of the glorious Saint, he began little by little to remove the stones from the said door, so that the people entered in and began to heave them away, that they might find Marina; from whom, lying beneath the stones, they heard nothing else than, St. Orontius, help me; and having dug out the heap on that side where such cries were heard, they found her sound and altogether unhurt — which happened to her children also. It appeared only that the blows of the stones had cut her hair into shreds, and that the cloths of her bed were wholly torn, and also that the pin which she wore in her ear was divided into two parts.

[44] Besides this, since the said Marina was with child, she was carried to a certain neighboring house, is marvelously preserved. in which a few hours later she brought forth into the light a little infant, to whom she gave the name of Orontius; and to this day they are all alive and in excellent health. Therefore, that the truth of the fact might be made clear, the same Benedetto and Marina have given, as they do give, the present testification for a public act, and have confirmed it with their oath. In witness whereof, etc., the townsmen being present. That the copy from which we have excerpted these things agrees with its own original is testified by Fortunato Antonio Muci of Lecce, notary. But now let us proceed to set forth the marvels which have been wrought by the oil of the lamp of St. Orontius, many in number and various in kind.

[45] For indeed that oil profited most greatly the olive groves, Olive groves ill affected which were so infected with a certain destructive malady that they could not bring forth fruit. The fact is set forth and proved in this testimony: In the name of God. Amen. In the year from the salutary Nativity of the same our Lord Jesus Christ the one thousand seven hundred and thirty-third, and on the twentieth day of the month of May, of the eleventh Indiction, etc. In the city of Lecce, and before me the undersigned apostolic notary, the undersigned witnesses being called to all and each of these things, the honorable lord Andrea Guidani of the said city, personally constituted in our presence, declared by means of his oath, etc. From the Italian narration of what was done we extract the following: About twelve years ago a malady was creeping through the olive groves, which rendered the trees unfit to bring forth fruit.

[46] On a certain day, when the above-said lord Guidani had heard are restored to fruitfulness by the Saint's oil, that the above-said common malady was creeping through his olive grove, without delay he betook himself to the cathedral church of the same city; and there, having poured out prayers, he took a little flask of oil from the lamp of St. Orontius; and having carried it to the estate of the olive grove just named, he anointed those few trees which were laboring under that malady; then he took that little flask of oil and hung or fixed it upon a tree which stood in the middle of the estate of that same olive grove. But not only did the malady not go further; the few infected trees also grew well again. The matter being spread abroad through the whole city, every man failed not to do the same, and especially the reverend Fathers of the Society of Jesus, who had a great estate infected with the same malady. But when the aforesaid oil of the glorious St. Orontius had been brought by the reverend Fr. Antonio Grassi of the same Society, and all the trees which were infected had been anointed with it, and a little flask of the oil which we have mentioned, from the lamp of the glorious Saint, had been fixed or hung upon one tree of the said estate, not only did the malady not increase, but the infected trees returned to fruitfulness.

[47] and an ox to health: The aforesaid Don Guidani declares moreover that about three years ago he had an ox which for many days now neither ate nor drank, but lay stretched out on the ground; and that counsel had been given by all, and especially by those skilled in such matters, that he should kill it. But the same Don Guidani, having gone with a living faith to the church of the glorious St. Orontius, anointed the above-said ox with the oil which he had taken in a little flask from his lamp; and at once it prodigiously raised itself from the ground, and began to eat and drink, and was well. To these things is subjoined this Latin clause: And thus for the truth of the fact the aforesaid declarant declared, etc., swore, etc., in form, etc. Whence, etc. All these things were done in the year, month, day, Indiction, etc., as above, before Gioacchino Pepe and Gioacchino Cazato of the said city, witnesses called to this act, etc. And in witness I, Don Carlo Paternello, priest and portionary of the cathedral church of Lecce, apostolic notary, being asked have signed. † Place of the sign. The present copy has been extracted from its original from my Acts, with which, collation having been made, it agrees, a better one always being reserved. And in witness I myself, Don Carlo Paternello, as above, apostolic notary, being asked have signed. D. C. P. N. A.

[48] A certain man laboring under a most grievously affected foot What of this, that in curing the miseries of men most grievously afflicted, the oil from the lamp of that great Wonder-worker, applied with great confidence, has wrought several other marvels, as is made plain from the documents which we bring forward: In the name of God. Amen. In the year from the salutary Nativity of the same our Lord Jesus Christ MDCCXXXIII, and on the XX day of the month of May, of the XI Indiction, etc. In the city of Lecce, and before me the undersigned apostolic notary, the undersigned witnesses to all these things

and each of them being called, etc., Salvatura Candido, of the land of Melendugno, dwelling at Lecce, personally constituted in our presence, declared by means of her oath, etc., the things which we extract from the narration of the matter. It is related, then, that about ten years ago the same above-said Candido had a son who was suffering from a spina ventosa in the foot. But since the malady was incurable, she carried her son to the cathedral church of the same city on the XXVI day of August, on which the feast of St. Orontius is solemnly celebrated; and having left him at the altar of the Saint, she took oil from his lamp, with which she anointed the ill-affected foot, praying the Saint that he would obtain this grace for the boy.

[49] is healed, They returned home; and while meanwhile her son was sitting in a chair, he set his foot upon the ground, feeling no pain, and, relying on the Saint, raised or lifted himself from the chair, and began to walk through the house. When his mother saw this, for joy she began to cry out with a loud voice, saying: Grace, my St. Orontius! At such an outcry the whole neighborhood ran together; and all were astounded, and together began to praise the Saint, and to give thanks for the favor received. But the above-said mother, with her son, to whom the use of his foot had been restored, went again to the same church, and, kneeling before the image of the Saint, they did not cease to cry with a loud voice: Grace, grace, grace to St. Orontius!, and returned home. And thus for the truth of the fact the aforesaid declarant declared, etc., swore, etc., in form, etc. Whence, etc. All these things were done in the year, month, day, Indiction as above, before Gioacchino Pepe and Gioacchino Cazato, witnesses called to this act. And in witness, I, Carlo Paternello, of whom above, have drawn up the present instrument, and being asked have signed, etc.

[50] Another fact also ought to be reckoned exceedingly illustrious for the memory of posterity, and equally worthy of all admiration, as also a boy of the use of his feet whereby, by the application of the same oil, a boy who was dumb and deprived of walking came out free and whole from both those maladies. Here for you, reader, is again a public document: In the name of God. Amen. In the year from the salutary Nativity of the same our Lord Jesus Christ MDCCXXXIII, and on the XX day of the month of May, of the XI Indiction, etc. In the city of Lecce, and before me the undersigned apostolic notary, and the undersigned witnesses called to all and each of these things, Orontia Stabbile of the said city, personally constituted in our presence, declared by means of her oath the fact which we extract from the Italian: About five years ago, the same Orontia had a male child of four years, who neither walked nor spoke.

[51] On a certain day, with great and living faith, she carried her son to the cathedral church of the said city, and deprived of speech. and at the altar of Saint Orontius, having taken a little oil from the lamp of the same Saint, she anointed him, weeping with living tears, so to speak, and imploring the Saint's patronage, that her son might speak and walk. On their return, scarcely had they entered the house when the same son, who had hitherto not been heard to speak, asked for water from the said Orontia, his mother: which thing was a matter of great wonder to those who heard it. On the next day the same Orontia again carries her son to that church and to the altar of the Saint, anointed him with the oil of his lamp, and at that same instant the son, raised upon his feet, began to walk freely. All these things were done in the year, month, Indiction, as above, before Gioacchino Pepe and Gioacchino Cazato of the said city, witnesses called to this act. And in witness I, Don Carlo Paternello, etc.

§ VI. The Saint's oil increased in a wonderful manner; its healing power in contagions; memorable things wrought by it among the people of Molise; certain other marvels.

The oil increased when it was lacking: Concerning the oil of St. Orontius marvelously increased, and beneficial to many, testimony is borne in an Italian manuscript, from which I cull these things to this effect: The undersigned Diego Don Passante, mansionary of the cathedral church of Lecce, gives full and undoubted assurance to whomsoever it shall concern to see the present writing in court or out of it, even with an oath, as often soever as shall be needful, that among the portentous graces and miracles by which God assiduously deigns to glorify St. Orontius is this. About three years ago, he says, it happened to Domenico de Luca, one of our common people, that, laboring under most bitter pains, he asked his wife to bring to him the little flask of oil from the lamp of St. Orontius which she kept in her house; and, most devoutly affected toward the Saint, he believed with firm confidence that he would be freed. She answered him that no oil was left, well remembering that, through the anointings made before on occasion of other maladies, it was empty. But on the next morning she found the said flask full of oil, although no others had poured it in. Thereafter the oil was commonly esteemed miraculous, as having been given by the Saint to the constant and fervid devotion of the said Domenico, and it was held in the highest veneration; and when it was applied to various persons, they obtained singular graces. The same Diego Passante, as above, subscribes with his own hand, at Lecce on the XIII of May, in the year 733, understanding after the thousandth: concerning which subscription, after two witnesses, Carlo Paternello, notary by apostolic authority, gives assurance.

[53] healing in contagious diseases of men and of beasts. Another Italian and notarial instrument has come into our hands, in which the patronage of St. Orontius against contagious diseases is asserted. We compress what was done, that we may be briefer. Don Ignazio Viva, a patrician of Lecce, testifies, even with an oath if it should be necessary, that the late lord Don Francesco, marshal, as he calls him, a patrician of the same city and his kinsman, related to him in past years that, while he was at Vienna, there arose there, as also in the neighboring places, a certain contagious disease; and that when it increased, and was judged pestilential from the slaughter which it brought, the court had to withdraw to Graz; whither he too betook himself; but, thinking that he was not safe there, he determined to return to his native land. Now on the first evening, having been carried to an inn, the driver who was conveying him was found to be infected with the plague; but the same lord Francesco, provided with a little vessel of the oil of St. Orontius, willed that this driver should be anointed with that oil, and that he should stir up a living faith toward the Saint, the singular preserver from the pestilential malady. And after the anointing had been made, when in the morning the said lord wished to take another driver, he found that driver, who before had been infected with the plague, sound and free; and he himself wished to convey Don Francesco, whom he brought as far as Venice. But when in past years the aforesaid lord Ignazio was in the territory of Campi, a certain contagious malady was creeping there among the oxen and cows; and when it was enjoined that they should be anointed with the oil of St. Orontius, great piety toward the Saint flourishing there, as soon as they had been anointed, no more oxen or cows perished, etc. In witness whereof, etc. At Lecce on the XIV day of May in the year 1733, the same Don Viva testifies to the above with his autograph, the autographs of two witnesses and of the notary being also appended in confirmation of that public act.

[54] By the use of the same oil The County of Molise, situated in the kingdom of Naples between the Hither Abruzzi to the north, Capitanata to the east, and Terra di Lavoro to the west, was also marvelously illustrated by the prodigious oil of St. Orontius, as is given to be seen in the following Latin instrument: Whereas I was dwelling in the monastery of Campobasso of the Congregation of the Celestines under the auspices of Saint Mary of Libera, and was there discharging the office of Prior, although far removed from Aletium, in which I first beheld the light, it could not be that I should at the same time be far from Orontius, the illustrious patron of my city and of all my fellow citizens. Nor do I take to myself the cult, veneration, and patronage of the illustrious Martyr in such a way as to hesitate to make it common to others. Yet no fitting occasion had there smiled upon me, by which I might think I could satisfy at once both the due piety of a son and the salvation of my neighbors. In the course of the year MDCCXXVIII an uncertain report of a raging contagion was so spread abroad that upon this report there followed among all men fear and horror of approaching death; so that already the citizens, having got together their household goods, were withdrawing to the suburbs, or even preparing to lead their lives under the open sky, cut off from all society with their fellow citizens. Amid so many common fears, I myself also feared, and hoped that the help of Orontius would profit me; and I promised him that I would celebrate his feast day every year, if he would free me and all my fellow citizens from the fear which had crept into the minds of all. The matter answered to my vow, as I desired; for, letters having been received from every quarter, it was published abroad that the report of contagion was false. This good fortune, a favorable destiny leading, was offered to me, since from it I took occasion of showing the power of Orontius, so that he who had often rendered the people of Aletium immune from contagion and from other evils, might be taken by these also for their patron, and that others too might rejoice in the same good fortune. The matter turned out as I had wished; so that scarcely had the name of Orontius been heard — hitherto unknown — when it was not possible to find anyone who did not venerate him both with the outward homage of veneration and with the inward affection of piety.

[55] That which cult, in order that it might grow greater day by day, I in a short time erected in my church a marble altar most fittingly adorned, together with a singular piety toward the Saint and dedicated it to the tutelary Saint; and I also began to celebrate every year, with such solemnity as I could, the anniversary day of his death; and so long as I remained there, I celebrated it with a huge concourse of people running together, not only from the suburbs, but from the whole County of Molise, which is one of the provinces of the kingdom of Naples. And as the people of Aletium have related, and daily relate, innumerable benefits from the oil which is burned before his image for the honor to be paid to Orontius, so I supposed that the like ought to come about from that oil which burned before his image in my house. But wavering, lest anyone should believe that I was putting myself forward rashly, I hesitated in this matter; but when the patronage of this Saint had begun to shine forth upon these new peoples, I both disclosed the divine power of the oil, and every man applied it for his own remedy or for his neighbor's.

[56] Before his feast day was celebrated with that splendor which was fitting, spread to the County of Molise when it was being proclaimed in the surrounding villages, a certain man called Francesco Rocci, held down by a grievous fever, kindled with devotion and piety toward Orontius, on the XXIII day of August of the same year as above sent seven maidens, walking with bare feet, together with a priest, from the town called Ferrazzano, to pay vows in his name to the Saint; and before the XXVI day appointed for the festival he was rendered free from the infirmity by which he was held down, so that, had not the physicians urged the contrary, he could have presented himself in person at the solemnity.

[57] Giuseppe de Stefano was held by great fevers, and by the anointing with the oil was immediately made whole. being propagated, marvels Domenico de Marco was tormented by pains and fevers; he desires first to be freed from the pains, and is freed; then, made more confident by the outcome,

he wishes to be released from the fevers, and is released. When Cristina Chierizzi was already at the point of death from an oppression of the chest, by the anointing with the oil alone she was suddenly healed; which happened also to Marta Vellino, held by arthritis. When Giovanni Paradiso was afflicted with fevers, and thereupon a strophus\ supervening, since he despaired of human aid, he took refuge in the power of Orontius; when he had been anointed with the oil, first the pains, then the fevers vanished. The oil likewise healed many suffering from hernia: so Brother Benedict, an oblate of my Congregation; so also Don Francesco Pitillo, who, when he was about to speak concerning Saint Orontius in a certain assembly of the learned, being held by a hernia, by the invocation of the Saint alone and the anointing with the oil was brought back to his former health, and discharged his office as was fitting.*

[58] very many things done in that place And when in the same assembly Father Friar Pietro Battista of San Nicandro, of the Order of Friars Minor Observant, was about to speak, being hindered by a fever, he performed his part with the same trouble of fever, and in this way was freed. Likewise by the anointing with the oil Giovanni Leonardo Pirsichillo, Giuseppe Santelli, the priest Don Antonio Pulsone, Francesco Gargano, Gravilia Dragone are delivered from fevers. From various pains and ulcers Antonia de Albino, wife of Michele Ginetti, and Carlo Maione are freed. Among all men, Antonio Gianpaolo, professor of the medical art, experienced a special protection of Orontius, when his nephew, who could not be healed by human care, was healed by the divine power of the oil; and when Antonio himself had been summoned to restore the health of the prince of San Alcino, amid the various opinions of six professors he set forth his own under the auspices of Saint Orontius, which was received by all and attained its end. Whence it came about that Orontius was always employed by Antonio as the supreme counselor of the medical art. By these and by innumerable other prodigies, by which Orontius rendered himself and his powerful protection manifest, he so bound that people with obligation that, having remained there for the space of three years, I observed devotion and homage ever increasing day by day.

[59] are recounted, But when our supreme general chapter was drawing near, and I was summoned to it, I foresaw — or at any rate, moved by affection, I feared — that the rising cult of so great a Protector might pass into disuse, if, being detained by another office, I should not be permitted to return to my former place. I turned this matter over diligently within me; and while no hope of a remedy shone forth, behold, that most wealthy man Gennaro Pirsichillo met me, and of his own accord offered fifty silver ducats, out of the income of which he willed that the feast day be celebrated every year with a solemn Mass; whereby it was provided that some memory at least of so great a patronage should remain. Moreover such a successor in the government was appointed for me as seems either to surpass me, or at any rate to equal me, in promoting this devotion. I beseech and pray the Saint himself that, as he found me ready to preach his cult among the peoples with whom I have dwelt, so I may ever deserve to have him propitious for the salvation and safeguard of my soul and body, and may find him such as I trust.

[60] and are lawfully attested. This instrument is subscribed, and fortified with his abbatial seal, by Pietro Maria Pizziniaco of Aletium, formerly\ Prior of the monastery of Campobasso of St. Mary of Libera, now abbot of St. Peter of Siponto of the Congregation of the Celestines of the Order of St. Benedict. And below is signed Don Bartolomeo Ruzzi, master of novices and secretary of the same most reverend Father Abbot; then the notary Lorenzo Carlino of Lecce. But among the other testimonies of four notaries, by which they give assurance that he is such, etc., one appends: Given at Lecce on the fourth day of the month of July, one thousand seven hundred and thirty-five.* And these indeed are the things which it seemed good to set forth here concerning the newer prodigies or benefits of St. Orontius. But how greatly the memory of that same Wonder-worker is in benediction, especially among the people of Lecce, we perceive most manifestly proved by themselves, when with the utmost diligence, and with a labor owed to the merits of their holy Preserver toward them, they gathered together those documents which they judged to conduce most greatly to the glory of God the Best and Greatest, who is honored in the honors of his Saints, and to the propagation of the cult of St. Orontius. But if anyone desires to read more concerning the various favors obtained through the salutary and altogether marvelous Orontian oil, he may consult Bozzi, from whom I subjoin these few.

[61] The author just mentioned, then, relates marvels of various kinds in book 5, Certain other prodigies page 182 and following; of which, since he affirms that he has transcribed a few out of many in the same form in which he found them in the episcopal curia (namely of Lecce), diligently investigated by it, as the same author indicates, we cannot but extract at least some of them and set them before the reader.

[62] The cleric Francesco Maria Smachi of Lecce, from Carlo Bozzi weighed down with a pestilential fever, destitute of all human help and given up by the physicians, is reduced to his last agony. But after an apparition of the Saint he invokes him, and is healed. Sister Giacinta Penna, an enclosed nun in the monastery of St. Mary the New of Lecce, of the Order of St. Dominic, had for fourteen years been afflicted with a malady unknown even to the physicians; and after very many remedies applied in vain through all that time, she obtained health suddenly, when she had fervently commended herself to the Saint. Pietro Antonio and Veneranda, son and daughter of Leonardo Damiani of Lecce, the former five years old, the latter four, fell from a carriage, the wheel passing over both, namely over the leg of the one and over the back of the other. But after their mother, who was present, had cried out during their fall, St. Orontius, help them, they were entirely free and unhurt.

[63] Don Fabio Surgente, a Neapolitan nobleman, dwelling in the city of Ostuni, added to the aforesaid when he was suffering from an abscess in the neck which tormented him with most bitter pains, the Saint being invoked and a vow made to him, the pains suddenly ceased, and he recovered from the said abscess. Domenica Mastrangela, of the place Presicce of the diocese of Ugento, bore a son dead and black. But when the midwife had in a few words entreated St. Orontius for his life, that he might be baptized, the matter turned out according to her wish; for scarcely had she ended her prayers when that son, who for an hour had lain dead upon the ground, began to breathe and to move; and he who had been born livid appeared white, and received baptism, and life, and health. Marta Maddalena, afterward Orontia, Manna of Lequile, of the diocese of Lecce, two years of age, while she was standing in the middle of the public road, and a cart drawn by oxen was passing before her, it happened that one of them cast her to the ground, so that the wheel of the said cart passed over her back. But her mother and the bystanders imploring the help of St. Orontius, the daughter was freed and unhurt.

[64] are narrated. Donato Palma of Lecce had a son of nine months suffering from the falling sickness, and by it brought so low that he was near to death — indeed, he already seemed as it were dead. But after a commendation and prayers offered to the Saint, that, if it should conduce to the glory of God and to the salvation of the soul of his son, he would heal him, he assigned to the Saint the wax which he had already bought for his burial. And presently, the vow being made, the son began to breathe, and obtained entire health. Antonia Simone of Campi, of the diocese of Lecce, had in her house a wine cask. On a certain day, returning from church, she found the bunghole of the cask open, and all the wine poured out upon the ground. But when she had made a vow that she would give the Saint three measures a day for the celebration of Masses, a few days later the same cask was found full of wine, and indeed with interest. And when that cask had been emptied, it was again miraculously found full of wine, so that all, both Religious and those piously affected toward the Saint, took of that wine out of devotion, the mistress giving it to all freely.

[65] are narrated. Francesco Lolli of Squinzano, of the diocese of Lecce, about fourteen years old, was thrown by another into a well; who, while he was being seized and cast down, was ever imploring the help of St. Orontius; and having fallen as far as the water of the well, he sees himself set comfortably upon it; and as he went on praying the Saint to help him, neither the water nor four heavy stones, thrown down after him by the man who had cast the same Francesco headlong into the said well, did him any harm. Moreover he found there a certain person clothed in the habit of a priest, who told him that a grace had been done him by St. Orontius, and foretold his coming out of the well; and a little after, being bound with a rope in a wonderful manner, he came out safe and unhurt.

\* That is, a pain of the intestines.

\* That is, formerly.