ON BL. JOHN MANETTI OF ANTELLA, CONFESSOR, ONE OF THE SEVEN FOUNDERS OF THE ORDER OF THE SERVANTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY,
ON MONTE SENARIO IN TUSCANY IN ITALY,
In the year MCCLXVIII.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
John Manetti of Antella, confessor, on Monte Senario in Tuscany in Italy (Bl.)
BY J. P.
§ I. The place; the Blessed one's name; his family; his secular life; his deeds down to the supreme government in the Order.
The most eminent lord Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, who in the year 1740 was raised to the chair of Peter amid the applause of the Christian world, A description of Monte Senario: in his most praised Work On the Beatification of the Servants of God and the Canonization of the Blessed, book 2, §42, that is, volume 2, chapter 24, page 286 and following, treating of six of the seven Founders of the Religious Order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, sets before us the place in which Bl. John passed from this life in these words: There is a mountain of notable height in the province of Tuscany, which on the southern side looks toward the city of Florence, and on the north on the contrary looks upon the district of Mugello, walled about by the continuous range of the Apennine mountains. This mountain is called Sanarius, which some of the older writers called Asinarius; but others Sanarius from the healthiness of the air. On its summit, namely, was built a church with a sacred hermitage, into which nearly five centuries ago, with the approval of Ardingus, then bishop of Florence, seven noble men withdrew, who, casting off riches and the pomps of the world, embraced a harsh manner of living and founded the Order of the Servants of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. In this sacred place all died piously, except Alexis, who fell by a precious death in the convent of St. Mary of Caphagio, today of the most holy Annunciation of Florence: although his body was afterward carried to that same Mountain, and laid with the bodies of his six other companions beneath the high altar. Set therefore on the said Mountain while they lived, they confirmed themselves in a new institute of life, and on that Mountain those praised Founders died, one excepted. This Mountain Arcangelo Giani, presently to be cited, describes at length, book 1, century 1, chapter 9.
[2] But their names are noted thus in the praised most Eminent lord Cardinal: the Blessed one's twofold name, the institute of his life: Bonfilius Monaldi, John Manetti, Benedict of Antella, Bartholomew degli Amidei, Ricoverus Lippi, Gerardinus Sostegni, Alexis Falconieri. In nearly the same manner Giani names them in the Annals of the Order, century 1, book 1, chapter 3. But the order of the Generals is not set down the same by all, as was observed in the Annotations on chapter 5 of the Life of St. Philip Benizi in our volume IV of August, page 674, letter e. We, following Giani, set as the first general Bonfilius (formerly N. de Monaldis), from the cited Annals, book 1, chapter 18, and book 2, chapter 11; as the second Bonaiuncta (de Manettis, as is added in the index of those same Annals), in the same place, book 2, chapter 20; as the third James of Siena, book 3, chapter 1; as the fourth our Manettus of Antella, book 3, chapter 10, who, as is found in the index, was formerly called Benedict. We have therefore his twofold name, of which it will be well hereafter to be mindful. Let us hear Giani, century 1, book 1, chapter 15, folio 11, observing this about the change of names: Bonfilius and Alexis kept the same name they had in the world: but the others received a changed one. Whence Gerardinus was afterward called Brother Sostegnus; Benedict, Brother Manettus; Ricoverus, Brother Uguccio or Uguccionius; John, Brother Bonaiuncta; Bartholomew, Brother Amideus. Which change of names, being perhaps little observed by authors, seems often to have given occasion to many to err in enumerating these seven. These things I thought must be distinctly set forth on account of what I shall narrate in §3 about our Manettus under the name of Benedict. But of what condition our Manettus and his other companions were in the world Giani hands down, century 1, book 1, chapter 3, folio 3: These at first, he says, traders in human affairs …, being reformed by gravity of manners and innocence of life, though they were merchants …, afterward happily became traders in souls. They were likewise citizens of Florence, as the same Giani reports in chapter 5, folio 4: Dismissed therefore with such a pastoral blessing by the bishop, the citizens of Florence … all together at early dawn meet in the name of the Lord.
[3] their nobility, age, and state in the world: Nor did nobility of family fail them, on Giani's testimony, folio 3: for in chapter 4, folio 3, those Seven Men are said to be equal in nobility of blood. The same he indicates in chapter 5, folio 4: Coming together, those men of good omen, having first laid aside the senatorial robe …, put on iron chains in place of a military belt, and in place of a purple mantle worn tunics of a hair-cloth or ashen color. That he came of the family of Antella, Ferrarius indicates on this day in the Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, in his notes. This is confirmed below at number 11: To whom … the illustrious stock of the Antella family is not lacking. As to the age of these seven Founders: All, as Giani writes, century 1, book 1, chapter 3, were of flourishing age, between the twentieth and the thirty-fifth year: among whom it is plain that Bonfilius exceeded the others in age : but that Alexis had reached his thirty-third year. Their state, while they lived in the world, being recorded there thus — Of these seven, some are said to have been perpetual virgins, others married men, and others freed from marriage by the death of a wife — he refutes that opinion among the Annotations on the said chapter: Of their virginal, conjugal, and widowed state, he says, Peter of Todi reports in his manuscript Chronicle, and Thaddeus Ademarius in his manuscript Chronicle, chapter 2, and it is the common opinion of all, whatever the manuscript Chronicle of Bon. may say, in which its author incautiously wrote that all of them were virgins: which he seems to have said gratuitously, since it is against the opinion of all and against the truth.* For the rest, when the Order of the Servants of the Bl. V. M. began, in what place, and in what wonderful manner, and other things pertaining hereto, the reader will find in Giani. Of the same Order treatment was also made among us in volume IV of the month of August, on the day XXIII, from page 664, in the Life of St. Philip Benizi, propagator of that same Order. Hence let us pass to the particular deeds of our Blessed one.
[4] Of his priesthood Giani treats in book 2, chapter 2, his priesthood: he is sent to the council of Lyons folio 14: The fathers therefore, coming down from Sanario to Florence, go to Ardingus: by whom, being gladly received and initiated into holy orders, they undertake the priestly office, namely in the year of Christ 1241, which is there noted. Then, as he goes on, they seek Sanario again, and there celebrate their first Masses with solemn rite. Whence the author gathers this he indicates in the annotations to the aforesaid chapter. Of the most illustrious Ardingus, bishop of Florence, see the Annotations on chapter 2 of the Life of St. Philip Benizi, page 666, letter a. But now it conduces not a little to Bl. Manettus's praise that by the common consent of the fathers he was sent to the first council of Lyons, to propagate the new Order in Gaul. That ecumenical council was celebrated in the year of Christ 1245. Let us hear Giani, century 1, book 2, chapter 6, folio 16 verso, setting forth the office laid upon Manettus: Father Bonfilius (he was at that time the first General of the Order), hearing the public report of a new council, and thinking it would greatly conduce to his Religious Order if he should send thither some grave man from among his companions, having first taken counsel with the fathers, sent brother Manettus, a prudent man of most upright life, and moreover sufficiently
learned in the divine Scriptures, he resolved to send: who by his example and by most holy sermons should lay in the kingdom of the French the foundations of his Order.
[5] Him therefore, by the counsel of bishop Ardingus, they appoint with full powers to Gaul, to propagate the new Order of the Servites as though he were being sent, the first of all of this Order, as procurator of his Order to the court both of the king and of the Pontiff. For on the one hand the fathers desired (though then of a small and slender flock), after the manner of the other mendicants, so far as they could, to render special services to the Holy Roman Church and to the supreme Pontiff: but on the other hand they judged that from such services toward the Apostolic See they could daily hope for a great increase of their Order, since they saw that other Orders of Religious grew vehemently by such offices. They had also learned the mind of the supreme Pontiffs Gregory and Innocent, who sent the best preachers and chosen Religious to the Tartars for preserving and propagating the faith of the Christian commonwealth, and how they bent all their diligence and care upon entering on a sacred war for recovering the kingdom of Jerusalem; which the supreme Pontiffs would not so easily hope to attain without the ministry of such Religious, who everywhere and in every place with the sign of the cross in their sermons should stir up princes, commonwealths, and peoples (for this indeed is reckoned the office of monks, that they be bound to watch no less over another's salvation than over their own) to that most sacred enterprise.
[6] in Gaul. By counsels of this kind, therefore, father Manettus, a man of great mind, having received a blessing from his prelate, goes with a companion to Lyons, by whose prudence and by the example of a most innocent life the first seeds of the Order of the Servants are sown among the French; from which afterward, in course of time, it was not difficult for Bl. Philip, for Sostegnus, and for others to propagate and administer this Religious Order there far and wide. Of the Tartars many things are narrated in the preliminary Commentary on the Acts of St. Louis, king of the French, on the day XXV of August, §47, from page 407. Rinaldi in the Ecclesiastical Annals, volume 13, at the year 1241, in the pontificate of Gregory IX, reports various things about the Tartars at number 13 and following: but at the year 1245, from number 15, he records what was done by Pope Innocent IV to bring them into the Catholic faith: To enlighten whom, he says, with the light of the Gospel, he sent some Friars Minor, most brave in undergoing such labors and dangers for Christ. By apostolic letters also he invited them to the faith of Christ, which are there given from number 16. The complaints of the praised Gregory about the unhappy state of the Holy Land may be read in Rinaldi at the year 1227 from number 35; who writes of the sacred expedition decreed for the Holy Land by the Innocent already mentioned at the year 1245, number 51. Let us return to our former matter.
[7] He presides over the province of Tuscany: Manettus, not content with the labors spent in Gaul for the propagation of the Order, applied new ones in Italy in its favor. For after fruitful sermons throughout Gaul, as the cited Annals of the Order record, century 1, chapter 14, at the year 1252, and the conversion of peoples, some places being founded there for the Order, he returned to Italy and was busied at Bologna about building a new convent. But of the Order divided into provinces the same Annals treat in the same place, book 3, chapter 5, marked with the year 1260, and report the government of Tuscany committed to Manettus in these words: And since the Order now seemed to be widely spread, the fathers did not suffer it longer to be deferred that the Religious Order should begin to be distinguished into provinces. Wherefore in this chapter at Florence at Caphagio they determined first about distinguishing the Order into provinces, and presently about laws to be made for administering the whole commonwealth. First therefore they resolved to set over them two men far most approved of those who had laid the foundations of this Order, by whose authority and counsel two provinces should be governed: Tuscany, which they committed to father Manettus; Umbria, which to father Sostegnus, most watchful superiors. Of the hospice of Caphagio, built outside the walls of the city of Florence, more is written in the oft-repeated Annals, century 1, book 1, chapter 11.
[8] and for building a church But toward building a church in this place Bl. Manettus bestowed his labor with Clement IV, raised in the year 1265 to the summit of the supreme Pontificate, and, using the old familiarity which he had had with him in Gaul, as the same Annals record more fully, century 1, book 3, chapter 10, asked that by granting indulgences he would promote this new building. Take a few out of the many words of the Annals: Having therefore found a new opportunity with an old friend, Father Manettus came to Perugia, and, having with the greatest joy done reverence to the Pontiff, set forth the need of his Order, and especially of the Florentine convent, and the poverty for building the church, and told what a costly work of the Annunciation he had in hand; which he could scarcely hope to finish without his help. But the Pontiff, not unmindful of an old friend and an excellent Religious, though not so easy in granting indulgences of this kind, yet for the honor of the Blessed Virgin resolved to dispense the treasure of indulgences for her shrine not once but twice (though sparingly), by apostolic letters of the following form: which we too here give, because they are very short and conduce to a fuller knowledge of the matter. Thus therefore they run:
[9] Clement the bishop, servant of the servants of God, to all Christ's faithful established in the city and diocese of Florence, he obtains indulgences from Pope Clement the fourth of Fiesole, and of Pistoia, greeting and apostolic benediction. Since, as the Apostle says, we shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ, to receive according as we have done in the body, whether it be good or evil, it behooves us to forestall the day of the last harvest by works of mercy, and, with a view to things eternal, to sow on earth what, the Lord rendering it, we may gather with multiplied fruit in heaven, holding a firm hope and confidence; since he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows in blessings shall also of blessings reap eternal life. Since therefore, as our beloved sons Manettus the prior and the brothers of the house of the Servants of Caphagio near Florence, of the Order of St. Augustine, have taken care to make known to us, they have begun to build anew in that house a certain church with a costly work, and their own means are not sufficient for the completion of such a work: we ask and exhort you all in the Lord, enjoining it for the remission of your sins, that of the goods conferred upon you by God you bestow upon them for this pious alms and welcome aids of charity, that by your help that work may be completed, and that by these and other good works which, at the Lord's inspiration, you shall do, you may be able to attain to the joys of eternal happiness.
[10] For we, trusting in the mercy of almighty God and in the authority of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, indulgences. mercifully relax twenty days of the penance enjoined upon them to all who are truly penitent and have confessed, and who shall stretch out to them a helping hand for this; these presents to be of no force after three years, which we strictly forbid to be sent by pardon-collectors, decreeing that, if it be otherwise done, they shall lack force. Given at Perugia on the XIII Kal. of June, in the first year of our Pontificate. The Annals add that a similar other bull of Indulgences, in nearly the same words, on the IV day of the following December, the same Father Manettus, now General, obtained from the same Pontiff for the same fabric of the church of Caphagio: and it is indicated in the notes on the said chapter 10 that both bulls are kept in the archive of the church of the Annunciation: of which the same Annals treat at length in the Treatise on the Convents and Sacred Buildings of the Servites to the first and second centuries, from folio 152. Of the supreme government of the Order, to which the blessed Man was raised, mention was just now made: let us therefore subjoin some things about it in order of time.
Annotationsread præstitisse*
§ II. The Blessed one promoted to the government of the Order, Pope Clement IV approving the matter; the laying down of his office; his death; a eulogy.
The Blessed one by Father James the General in the chapter of the Order Giani at the year 1265, century 1, book 3, chapter 10, narrates this: Meanwhile the time was at hand at which the general chapter (by Father James's command) should be celebrated at Siena; and since Father Manettus had to be present at it, having obtained the Pontiff's blessing at Perugia, he came straight to Siena. The senate of fathers therefore being gathered on the day of Pentecost, the twenty-fourth of May, in the church of St. Clement, after the Blessed Virgin had been saluted and the rest done according to custom, Father James the General, desiring to lay down that office, began thus. There follows in the same place his address to the assembled fathers; in which, besides other things with which he addresses them, he proclaims Manettus's praises, and earnestly exhorts them to elect him as his successor. He is therefore reported to have spoken there thus: But an opportunity ought now to move every one of you, which, lately offered, must in no way be let slip; nay rather it should be desired if it were not at hand, and now embraced by all votes. For it smiles upon your wishes (if you are rightly wise) that we now have as supreme Pontiff that man who was once bound by a great bond of love to our most prudent father Manettus, when both were in the court of king Louis; and who lately received him so kindly at his feet at Perugia, and treated him so friendlily: what occasion will there be like this, of electing as prior general him to whom lie open not only the doors, not only the ears, but the favor, the kindness, the love of the Roman Pontiff?
[11] is praised for his excellent gifts, and is chosen his successor: Our Order (give me credit, I pray, fathers), our Order, like a new plant in the Lord's field, that it may drive deep roots and put forth happier shoots, ought to be supported by the same props by which it was planted from the beginning. Here is Father Manettus, one of the seven, to whom (if we look to blood ) the illustrious stock of the Antella family is not lacking: if we regard prudence joined with goodness, this too is shown to be very great by the places received through him in both Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul; and (what is greatest of all) if we seek in him wisdom coupled with innocence of life, the testimony and good will of the supreme Pontiff Clement IV will declare it, under whose auspices I foresee that all happy and prosperous things will come to this Order. Father James had scarcely made an end of speaking when one voice of all broke out: Father Manettus General, Father Manettus General!* Who, though under compulsion, yet took up that supreme burden with the intention of laying it down as soon as he might.
[12] He takes St. Philip Benizi as his companion. But the chapter being ended, after he had declared Cisalpine Gaul the fourth province of the Order and had set over it brother James Rota of Florence, taking again as his companion, though again refusing, Father Philip, and Brother Restaurus being substituted as prior of Caphagio, he returned to the court at Perugia. Thus far Giani in the same chapter 10 cited above. The James praised above, whose surname was da Poggibonsi, chaplain and spiritual director of the Servites and afterward made a Religious of that same Order, was created its third General superior, and occurs in various places in their Annals. Of the church of St. Clement at Siena, the same
handed over to the Servite Fathers, the Annals may be consulted in the Treatise on the Convents and Sacred Buildings which we indicated above, folio 153. Louis, of whom there was mention, is the ninth of that name and a saint, whose deeds we illustrated at the day XXV of August. But Pope Clement IV, formerly called Guy Foulques, first archdeacon, then bishop of Le Puy, and at last created metropolitan of Narbonne and Cardinal, is extolled with the greatest praises for his singular jurisprudence, as see in volume 2 of Gallia Christiana reprinted with new labors, column 717: where he is said to have been drawn, for the fame of his learning and virtue, … by St. Louis into his more secret council; under which king he is also read to have held the office of seneschal of Beaucaire. But that companion here taken by Bl. Manettus into the supreme government of the Order is St. Philip Benizi. He had before been chosen to the same office by the said James, as may be seen in Giani, century 1, book 3, chapter 8, and afterward was substituted for Manettus as General, his election being confirmed from heaven, in the same place, chapter 13. But how Pope Clement IV confirmed Manettus's supreme office by an oracle of the living voice, let us report from the Annals in the place just cited, chapter XI.
[13] That Father Manettus might carry out the decree of Urban the fourth about a General lately elected by the Order, the Blessed one's election and to be confirmed by the Apostolic See, and on this occasion might again visit the Pontiff who was kindly toward him, he at once came to Perugia, and, the feet of Clement being kissed and himself received with the greatest congratulation by Ottobono the protector, on Friday the twenty-ninth of May, as the first of all the Generals of this Order, he was expressly confirmed in that supreme office by apostolic authority of the living voice through Rodulph, cardinal bishop of Albano, by the letters written below, which are produced in the same chapter 10, and are set down in these words: Rodulph, by the divine mercy bishop of Albano, to all the religious men, the brothers of the Order of the Servants of St. Mary, greeting in the Lord. Brother James of Siena, formerly prior General of your Order, having voluntarily resigned the government and administration of that priorate, you afterward with one accord elected brother Manettus of your Order as prior General for yourselves and for that whole Order, and presented such election made of that brother Manettus to the Apostolic See to be confirmed.
[14] But since the lord Pope has thought fit to commit to us by an oracle of the living voice the examination of that election, is confirmed by the Pontiff's command we have diligently examined its process and his merits. Since therefore we have found that election to have been canonically celebrated according to the form of the general council, we confirm it by the authority of the lord Pope and by his special mandate by the tenor of these presents: committing to him the administration of that priorate in spiritual matters according to the institutes of your said Order. Wherefore we command you all that you attend humbly to him as your general ruler and the pastor of your souls, and devoutly render him due obedience and reverence. In witness whereof we have granted him these present letters, strengthened with the guarantee of our seal. Given at Perugia on the fourth Kal. of June, in the first year of the Pontificate of lord Pope Clement, on the twenty-ninth day of May.
[15] Then Giani subjoins the following notices about the aforesaid Rodulph: by Cardinal Rodulph: Plainly a great and excellent man was that Cardinal Rodulph, to whom Clement had committed such matters: for he, a Gaul by nation, being created cardinal bishop of Albano by Urban IV at Viterbo in MCCLXI at the Ember days of December, was one of those four Cardinals who at Rome crowned Charles, brother of St. Louis, king of Sicily; whom also, having accompanied him on the Sicilian legation, he obtained from Clement the fourth the legation overseas to Africa with St. Louis, king of the French, and died at Tunis in that most savage pestilence. More about that Man the reader will find in Ciacconius, Lives of the Pontiffs and Cardinals, volume 2, from column 157. But Ottobono, as Giani calls him (elsewhere Othobonus), was the second protector of the Order of the Servites: of whom the same Annalist, century 1, book 2, chapter 20, says: There still survived another nephew of Innocent IV by his brother Theodosius, Ottobono de' Fieschi, whom his uncle the Pontiff … in MCCLI had created Cardinal from being archdeacon of Rheims … Him therefore the Supreme Pontiff, at the prayers of Bonaiuncta the General, appointed in the second place as protector of the Order, in the room of the deceased William of the same Fieschi family: who … diligently protected that Order, and, so far as could be done, increased and strongly defended it. He was afterward the Roman Pontiff Adrian V. Ciacconius, whom I cited, may be consulted, from columns 129 and 207.
[16] with that office Bl. Manettus, intent on the public and private good of his Order, obtains apostolic letters from Pope Clement IV against apostates, which are recited in chapter 12 of book 3 in Giani at the year 1266 from the archive of the convent of Florence, and are expressed in these words: Clement the bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our beloved sons Manettus the General minister and to the brothers Servants of holy Mary the Mother of Christ, of the Order of St. Augustine, greeting and apostolic benediction. Granting kindly assent to the prayers of your devotion, we grant you by the authority of these presents full power of seizing the apostates of your Order, if they be found in a secular habit, and of subjecting them otherwise to a more religious discipline; and likewise of dealing with others (if it be necessary), after they, obstinately despising the excommunication incurred by them on this account, shall have refused to return (the consent of the diocesan bishop being had thereto), the aid of the secular arm being invoked for this (if there be need). To no one therefore at all, etc.; and if anyone attempt, etc. Given at Perugia on the Kal. of January, in the first year of our Pontificate.
[17] he lays down his office: The Annals of the Order repeatedly mentioned report that in the year of Christ 1267 the blessed Man laid down its supreme office: A chapter, says Giani in chapter 13, having been proclaimed by the General at Florence on the Nones of June, and an assembly of the brothers being made on the appointed day of Pentecost, first the apostolic letters against apostates are promulgated with the greatest zeal of Father Manettus for the salvation of those to be brought back, and are ordered to be published everywhere. Which being done, the Father Superior, when he foresaw that from increasing age and long weakness he was less able to satisfy the office of the generalate, with the leave of all the fathers voluntarily lays down that office, which would at once serve the public good and his own private quiet: in whose place, by the applauding acclamation of all and chiefly by the counsel of the elder fathers, Brother Philip Benizi, when he had come from the convent of Cesena to the chapter, is chosen from being a colleague to be General and supreme pastor. Of this matter treatment is made at length among us in his Life designated above: read it in chapter 7, page 677. And these things thus far concerning the deeds done by Bl. John: of whose precious death in the sight of the Lord we must now treat.
[18] Giani at the year 1268, chapter 14, describes it thus: his death: The unspeakable … Man, the servant of God Manettus …, the fourth Prior General among the first founders of this Order, worn out by so many daily infirmities, into which he had fallen because of the various weariness of journeys and labors undertaken for his Religious Order, at length in this year (as the histories of our elders hand down) gloriously flies away to Christ. He died on Monte Senario, as is gathered from what is there written of St. Philip Benizi: A messenger, hastening to him from Sanario, reported the imminent death of Father Manettus: whose loss … taking ill, he went thither at once, at least to bring comfort to the sick man. That the day of his death fell on the XXVII of August does not seem to be indicated there clearly enough; but the place of his burial is more clearly expressed. For those two things are thus set forth: The man of God Philip therefore, bereft of so great a Father, took it grievously that he had lost the best of counselors: to whom at length, when he had paid the last rites on the VI Kal. of September, and had ordered his venerable body to be laid beside his other predecessors beneath the same high altar, he at last set out on his journey to the court (namely of the supreme Pontiff Clement IV) at Viterbo.
[19] If anyone should ask whether St. Philip found Manettus alive or already dead on Monte Senario, at whose death St. Philip Benizi seems to have been present: when he betook himself thither at least to bring comfort to the sick man, we answer that both by this manner of speaking and by that, when he had paid the last rites, it seems to be indicated that the Blessed one was found alive by St. Philip: whose Life's author in our edition, page 682, sets down, or composes, this about the event: Therefore, having swiftly retraced what was left of his journey to Monte Senario, after by his coming and by discourse suited to the time he had consoled Manettus, and when with divers conversations they had discoursed to and fro, according to the wisdom of each, of the fleetingness of present things and, on the contrary, of the eternity of things to come, the blessed Old Man, after he had as fourth Prior General propagated his Order with singular industry, especially throughout Gaul, met his last day in the Christian year MCCLXVIII, not without a fame of singular sanctity.
[20] But what of the Man's other eulogies? His virtues Giani adorns one by one with these praises in the said chapter 14: a eulogy. That Father was assuredly so great an emulator of meekness, peace, humility, and obedience, and of the other virtues, that his life was rightly judged by all to be beyond reproach; in governing so prudent that he was called by each the best rule of ruling. If any, whether of the brothers or of the citizens of Florence (to whom he was most dear), demanded, as afflicted, help; as sorrowful, comfort; as sick, healing; and lastly as poor, support, he at once brought a remedy. But that one word may gather up the several, his tongue cured spiritual and bodily diseases. Which the Dialogue of M. Paul also confirms, in which it is found that, while he was celebrating the Sacrifice, he freed a lame man, a mute, and a deaf man. But we shall produce Paul's own text in the next paragraph, that what Giani narrated may be the more confirmed and illustrated from this older writer.
Annotationsad sanguinem*
§ III. Another eulogy; miracles; austerity of life; relics; his public cult confirmed at Rome, and ordered to be set in the Roman Martyrology.
Paul of Florence praises the Blessed one In the Dialogue of Paul of Florence, in Martène's Most Ample Collection of Ancient Writers and Monuments, volume 6, from column 567, written On the Origin of the Order of the Servites and addressed to Peter de' Medici, son of Cosimo the elder, about the middle of the fifteenth century, the following is recorded concerning Manettus under the name of Benedict (that he was called by this name also we indicated above, §1), the interlocutors being Peter himself and Marianus, who from being superior of the convent of the Annunciation at Florence, as Mabillon warns before the said Dialogue, was raised to the mitre of Cortona from the year 1455. By the letters M and P therefore understand the persons speaking: M. And not otherwise, O Peter, is Benedict reckoned among these men by a twofold merit: for he flourished in letters and was famous for holiness, who is one of the seven who began this Order, and who once for all attained the immortality of his soul and eternal fame in the world. You should judge it worthy, O Peter, to make the memory of so great a Man, because, pleasing to mortals, he to the order
was more pleasing, and to God most pleasing. P. For my part, O Marianus, said Peter, although I have not that eloquence, yet I could wish it were given me by the immortal God that with you I might be able to attain by divine knowledge the deeds of such great men. But since I am not able to render merits worthy of such holiness, I offer at least the most abundant and greatest good will.
[22] for his virtues and miracles: M. This most illustrious man, said Marianus, carried away by longing for the heavenly country and shrinking from the confusion of men, became a dweller on Monte Senario, and there, keeping the manner of the apostles, by laying on hands he freed the sick, however difficult their case. P. Was it on the mountain, O Marianus, that these things were wont to be done? M. And there, O Peter, he was wont, by applying the sign of the cross, to destroy all the fierceness of serpents. A man indeed of wondrous simplicity, he shone forth famous among mortals by his signs, who, wholly given to the service of God, was for the most part sustained on herbs, of whom it may deservedly be said: Cast your heart upon the Lord, and he will nourish you. To him his kinsfolk with great weeping bring their lame and dumb nephew, asking whether by his power and sanctity he could restore him whole. "Now God," he said, "dearest ones, will fulfill your wish, from whom all good things whatsoever proceed." Then, being ready for Mass, offering the sacrifice to God, and, when it was finished, leading the sick boy by the hands, he raised him up delivered, straight upon his feet. And thereupon, pouring the body of the Lord into his mouth, when the communion was ended, he gave him the power of speech. Wherefore the people, filled with great admiration, joy, and fear, exulted. P. Marvelous things indeed, O Marianus, you tell. For you have said so much in Benedict's praise that I believe nothing greater or more excellent remains in the rest. Thus Paul of Florence. Of this Blessed one's miracles Ferrarius also makes mention in his notes on this day, writing thus: He was famous for some miracles, which are seen painted in his splendid chapel, built of varied and precious marble in the basilica of the Annunciation.
[23] A special eulogy the blessed Man also deserves from the most harsh severity of living which the most eminent Cardinal Lambertini in §42 designated above praises in the seven Founders of the Order, the severity of his life mitigated, because it exceeded measure: and therefore in Manettus, in these words: So piously and holily and with so great mortification of the senses did those seven Founders live in the desert, that Gaufridus the Cardinal legate seriously admonished them of too great cruelty toward themselves, inasmuch as in so great harshness of life they seemed to be willing to bring death upon themselves; wherefore, moved by his authority, they were compelled to relax their former rigor; as may be read in Arcangelo Giani in the Annals of the sacred Order of the Servants, with the additions of father Aloysius Garbi, book 1, chapter XII. Thus far the most Eminent Cardinal. Moreover that Gaufridus was a Milanese of the most noble family of Castiglione …, who in Etruria and Lombardy discharged a legation for Gregory IX …, a man most consummate not only in prudence and learning but in the highest piety and religion, as Giani reports, narrating also at length what a singular manner of living those seven Men kept in afflicting the body, that they might subject the flesh to the spirit. Concerning their sacred remains, receive the following.
[24] That the bodies of the aforesaid Founders were laid up on Monte Senario beneath the high altar we said on another occasion above, §1: his head placed apart: but at present, on the testimony of the most Eminent lord Lambertini, in a chapel situated behind the choir, which is commonly called the chapel of the relics, there is an adorned altar, on whose picture the most blessed Virgin appears painted, who, accompanied by angels, holds out a black habit to the seven Founders praying before her; and beneath that same altar, if the frontal be removed, though it be made of solid material and of varied workmanship, there appear seven heads set apart, with a crown of flowers upon each of them, and with a certain inscription carved in golden letters, which runs thus: The heads of the seven blessed Founders of the Order of the Servants of the blessed Virgin Mary, as is gathered from the visit of the bishop of Florence made to that place in the year MDCCXIX, afterward reported in the process drawn up upon the immemorial cult of these six of the seven Founders, in which process indeed innumerable proofs of a most ancient public cult are contained. To these we subjoin some things concerning their public veneration.
[25] The same most Eminent Cardinal in the cited place produces the public declaration concerning their lawful cult approved at Rome, expressed in these words: a decree of the sacred Congregation Decree. Florence: of the canonization of six of the seven Founders of the Religious Order of the Servants of the Bl. V. M., called Blessed. The doubt of this kind having been discussed in the sacred Congregation of Rites at the instance of the postulators of this cause — whether the cult exhibited to those Blessed ones from time immemorial is established, and the case excepted from the decrees of Urban VIII of holy memory, so that the sentence of the most reverend Ordinary of Florence is to be confirmed in this case, etc. — that same sacred Congregation of Rites, on the report of the most Eminent and most Reverend lord Cardinal Zondadari, the most Reverend Lord Prospero Lambertini, archbishop of Theodosia, promoter of the faith, having first been heard in writing and by word of mouth, judged that answer should be given that the immemorial cult of six of the seven Founders of the Order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary is established, if it shall so seem to our most Holy Lord. On the VII day of July MDCCXXV. And when afterward report of the aforesaid had been made by me the secretary to our most Holy Lord, his Holiness (namely Benedict XIII) kindly assented, on the XXX day of the same month and year MDCCXXV.
[26] concerning the public cult of him and of the other founders: But lest anyone should think that one of these men is excluded from the public cult of the others, let him hear this observation of that most wise Cardinal: The seventh, moreover, that is Alexis Falconieri, has been mentioned above (see book 2, chapter 24, §37); because, since the cause of his beatification and canonization had its beginning and progress by the care, zeal, and expense of his most noble house (which was also done in the cause of blessed Juliana of the same family), whereas the cause of the other six Founders was promoted and is promoted by the religious Order of the Servants of Mary, hence arose the separation of the one cause from the other, although both rested on entirely the same foundations, both as to sanctity and as to cult, as is declared by some things which the same Cardinal there subjoins. Bl. Juliana Falconieri is treated among us in volume III of June, on the day XIX, page 917; and since she has since been inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints, more will have to be said in the supplement to our Work about that Saint at the same day on which she is venerated by the Church. It remains, before an end be put to this Commentary, that I warn the reader: first, that although the decree given above, and other things transcribed from the most Eminent lord Lambertini in the course of it, are found at the end of the preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Philip Benizi by way of an appendix, yet it seemed good to me to repeat them in this place, because they are very proper to the present matter and not too long. Secondly, that since I have neither found among us nor thus far known that a Life of our Blessed one was written separately, I have used the Annals of the Order published by Giani, in whom other authors may also be consulted whom he assigns after the chapters.
[27] the announcement ordered to be inscribed After I had written these things, I came upon a Decree for the City and the world, with the title Of the inscription in the Roman Martyrology of the blessed confessors Bonfilius Monaldi, Amideus de Amideis, Sostegnus de Sostegnis, Uguccio de Uguccionibus, Manettus of Antella, and Bonaiuncta Manetti, of the Order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In this decree the first is ordered to be announced on the 1st day of January; the second on the XVIII of April; the third and fourth on the III of May; the fifth on the XX day of August; the sixth on the XXXI day of August, all with a eulogy: Our most Holy Lord Benedict XIII, at the most humble prayers of Father Brother Peter Mary Pieri the General (who was afterward enrolled in the sacred college of Cardinals) and of Father Brother Joseph Mary Curti, procurator General of the Order of the Bl. V. M., approved the above-written eulogies for the six blessed Founders of that Order, and ordered them to be recited and sung everywhere respectively on their feasts, and to be set in the Roman Martyrology on the assigned days. On the VII day of September MDCCXXVIII.
[28] in the Roman Martyrology. Thus far the decree: which, since it came to my knowledge too late for John Manettus of Antella to be set on the XX day of August with the Roman Martyrology, in which he is then ordered to be inscribed, we give him on this day, the XXVII of the same month, with Ferrarius in the Catalogue cited above, who marks the Man's yearly memory thus: At Florence, of Bl. Manettus, the fourth General of the Servants. But the announcement which is ordered to be inserted in the Roman Martyrology records this of him: In the sacred hermitage of Monte Senario in the diocese of Florence, of blessed Manettus the confessor, who, being one of the seven Blessed who instituted the Order of the Servants of the most holy Virgin, and having shone most excellently with virtues, but especially with prudence and with an exquisite piety toward the Mother of God, saying hymns to her at his death, holily fell asleep in the Lord. This decree had been preceded by another, given on the VII of August 1728, by which the praised Pontiff ordered the eulogies of Bl. Alexis Falconieri and of Bl. Juliana Falconieri to be set in the same Martyrology.