ON ST. PETER, CONFESSOR,
AT TREVI IN LATIUM, A REGION OF ITALY,
About the middle of the eleventh century.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Peter, confessor, at Trevi in Latium (St.)
BY J. P.
§ I. Various notices of the Saint: his country, education; his training under St. Cletus; his ecstasy; his preaching of the word of God in many places; the time of his life and death.
The town of Trevi in Latium, to be mentioned more fully below, and its territory and the neighboring tract received no small splendor from this holy Confessor, Various documents about the Saint, whence and by whom sent hither: most illustrious in virtues, merits, and miracles: for the advancing of whose glory Fr. Domenico Antonio Pierantonio of the Society of Jesus excellently instructed us, when in the year 1700 he sent hither from Rome various and many notices of him, afterward to be more fully praised by us. And among other documents which he supplied us, I find a transcript of an ancient Life, of which the discourse will afterward return, divided into two columns, in one of which is given the narrative of that Life; but in the other are set Latin notes upon it; then follows a manuscript Appendix in Italian, which, as also the notes on the Life, although written in a different hand, and carefully and curiously elaborated, I ascribe to the learned labors of the praised Fr. Pierantonio, and which therefore I shall hereafter cite under his name. And some of the said notes I shall insert in this Commentary; some I shall keep for the Annotations after the Life; both of which will be of great use to us for elucidating and illustrating the deeds of St. Peter and the matters which pertain to him. Let us begin therefore with his native soil.
[2] The place which by its common name is called Carsoli fell to the holy Man as his native land, St. Peter's country, as the Life will say at number 1. Pierantonio says: Carsoli it is even now called, a town under the title of a Duchy in the diocese of the Marsi, 9 miles from Subiaco and 20 from the town of Trevi; formerly among the Aequicoli a most famous city, made a colony of the Romans in the year of the City CDLV, according to Livy; and from Valerius Maximus, book 7, chapter 7, there is mention of Marcus Anneius Carseolanus, son of a most noble Roman knight; and in Ovid, Fasti 4, it is said:
Cold Carseoli, a land not fit to bear olives, But a soil ingenious for crops;
which is now called il Piano di Carsoli. It is three miles distant from Roccabotte, and on the summit of a neighboring mountain is the famous church of the Blessed Virgin called delli Bisognosi, erected there in the year of the Lord DCX under Boniface IV. And of the region of the Marsi, its origin, some of its towns and its borders, and other matters pertaining to that people, Orlendi writes in part 2 of the Sacred and Profane World, volume 3, book 4, chapter 3. So much of the Saint's country.
[3] the place of his upbringing: The author of the Life at the same number 1 writes that he was born and brought up in the castle of Arx Vegetis, treating also of the innocence of his manners. Pierantonio observes this of that place: The castle of Arx Vegetis, now called Roccabotte, perhaps Arx fortis, since "Arx Samnitum" is read. In the Chronicle of Subiaco it is read Roccavotte, under the aforesaid duchy of Carsoli, in the diocese of the Marsi, on the border of the kingdom of Naples. Formerly it was under the dominion of the abbey of Subiaco, together with Carsoli itself, about the year ML, 17 miles distant from the town of Trevi. Within the walls stands the paternal house of St. Peter himself, turned into a sacred building, above which is the chamber in which he was born and brought up; and in the parish church of St. Peter the Apostle, formerly a monastery of monks of St. Benedict, there is a chapel with relics of that same holy Confessor; and on the neighboring mountain outside the town walls there is held in veneration a healthful spring of water, which is said to have arisen at that Saint's prayers, and is called la Fontana di san Pietro.
[4] [he flees that he may not take a wife, profits under St. Cletus, and is made a cleric:] The biographer in the passage cited subjoins that the Saint, being compelled by his parents to marriage, secretly withdrew and went to Tivoli, and attached himself to a certain most honorable man Cletus, and stayed there with him for two years. In the aforesaid observations concerning Cletus, that most honorable man, this is found: the feast of St. Cletus, confessor, deacon of the church of Tivoli, is celebrated on the XXIV of October, from Ferrarius (in the General Catalogue, where he is marked with the title of confessor only; nor is it proved that he is the same of whom the biographer speaks, nor is he sufficiently known to me). In the square near the cathedral there formerly stood a hospital of St. Cletus, citizen of Tivoli, whose sacred head is preserved in the sacristy of the aforesaid cathedral church of Tivoli, from the monuments of Tivoli, and from Philippo Ferrari on the saints of Italy, who in their index assigns his body to that cathedral church, and sets him on the XXIV of October. And when that same Cletus saw that his disciple was of no small promise, he brought him to Gregory, bishop of that same city, as the author of the Life indicates at number 1, who, rejoicing, shore him and prepared him as a cleric. Let the notes be heard: This Gregory, bishop of Tivoli, the only one of that name in the catalogue of the bishops of Tivoli from Ughelli, number 17, flourished under Pope Leo IX about the year ML: from which is deduced the time of the life of St. Peter, who was made a cleric by this bishop Gregory, being offered to him by St. Cletus, deacon and his master.
[5] Let us proceed with the Life: And the aforesaid master presently brought him an iron cross, he preaches the word of God, and exhorted him to preach the word of God. And this cross, as is found in the notes, of an iron plate one palm in length, but six inches and one minute in breadth, is preserved at Trevi in a separate reliquary: by which cross many miracles were wrought, as below. From the same Life, number 2, the Saint, from a disciple now made a master, preached the word of God in his own country and through all the neighboring places for two years — namely, as I read in the notes, the towns and castles in the Valley of Nerfa of the diocese of the Marsi, namely about Carsoli, Pereto, Riofreddo, Poggio Cinolfo, Oricola, etc.; Camerata, Arsoli, Vallinfreda, Collalto, Tufo, Cerbaria, etc., in the diocese of Tivoli. And the period of two years mentioned above is reckoned in the same observations from the beginning of the month of March of the year ML to MLII of the same month, when he came to Subiaco. But after the blows and mockeries patiently endured by God's Herald in the aforesaid sacred expedition, divine consolations refreshed him, being caught up into ecstasy for seven days and as many nights, as the biographer there subjoins, and describes it.
[6] And the history of this apparition, as Pierantonio's notes relate, he is caught up into ecstasy for many days: is seen painted in the choir of the collegiate church of St. Mary on the Gospel side, and on the Epistle side a like painting of St. Blaise, secondary patron of the same town. A like rapture through a whole week is read of St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus. The Saint's Life may be consulted in volume VII of July, on the XXXI day of that month, page 665. And among other things which the biographer relates with us at number 3 about St. Peter, he says: From the Virgin Mother of God he received a rod in his hand, on the head of which a leafy lily was set. It may be asked what kind of rod that was. In the following number XI (which in our division is 12), of a certain woman of Trevi it is said that she cast his rod out of his hands. It may be doubted whether this rod handed over by the Blessed Virgin was the staff he carried, a great part of which is preserved at Roccabotte his native place among the relics of the parish church. Certainly that Saint carried a staff, as will appear below. So the oft-mentioned annotations; but they do not decide that doubt.
[7] Our holy Confessor, roused from his ecstasy at the Mother of God's words, seeks Subiaco, lodging as is indicated
by the writer of the Life at number 3, where also he treats of his lodging, and of the time which he spent there, and also of the marvelous things which he did. Of the castle of Subiaco I read the following in the oft-mentioned notes: From which place the famous abbey of Subiaco took its name, founded by St. Benedict in twelve monasteries about the year of the Lord D, as St. Gregory writes in book 2 of the Dialogues. And that castle was so named, as Pierantonio's notes record, from the ancient lake which the emperor Nero raised on the river Anio, and where he had a villa, called by Tacitus and Frontinus the Sublacensian villa of Nero. Pliny calls it Sublaqueum, distant 40 miles from Rome, ten from Trevi, and as many from Roccabotte: it was in the diocese of Tivoli, even at this time a town populous enough, to which St. Leo IX the Pope had come in the year MLI; and in the year MLXVII on the summit of that same lake was erected the Rocca, which is still seen, the residence of the abbots of Subiaco. Besides these things there may be consulted what Mabillon has in volume 1 of the Annals of the Order of St. Benedict under the year 494, number 8, where he gives the situation and description of Subiaco.
[8] among the people of Subiaco: But what the biographer relates of the Saint's lodging among the people of Subiaco in the church of St. Abundius is thus set forth in the same notes: This church lies almost in the very bed of the river, which in the course of time became the subterranean part of the parish church of St. Andrew, now collegiate, and serves for the use of burial: in which in the year MDCLXXI this ancient inscription was found: "On the day of Jupiter, the XIX of April, in the year MDLIV, Andrea Croce, bishop of Tivoli, built a new high altar over the old altar of the lower church of St. Abundius, and laid in it relics of the holy Apostles Matthew," etc. And the church of St. Andrew, one of the four parishes of Subiaco, was made a notable collegiate with six canons, and a provost who was also parish priest, by the aforesaid bishop Croce in the year MDLXV. This year does not agree with Ughelli, volume 1 of the Italia Sacra, column 220, where this is said of the aforesaid bishop: He governed the church of Tivoli most wisely for many years; but in the year MDLIV he discharged himself of that office. He dies in the year MDLXIII.*
[9] how long he remained there with a certain Peter, In the Life our holy Confessor is said to have lodged with a certain most honorable man named Peter, and remained with him five months. Which Pierantonio thus explains in the notes: From the fact that this Peter is called by the same title "most honorable," as St. Cletus was called, it may be believed that he was endowed with a like sanctity. And although at number 4 he is called Prior, he ought not on that account to be called a cloistered monk, as others wrongly interpret: because the aforesaid church of St. Abundius, afterward of St. Andrew, is nowhere read to have been under the dominion of monks, but always subject to the bishop of Tivoli; and so Prior was the same as parish priest or curate, just as in the other parishes of Subiaco the rectors were called by this title of Prior, according to the custom of other places. And presently concerning the five months he subjoins this: Whence is corrected the error which crept in by writing "six," even in the lessons of the Office, since in the original "five" is read, and not "six."
[10] and through what places he scattered the seed of the word of God: Nor indeed did St. Peter so remain a guest in the aforesaid church of St. Abundius as to cease from procuring the salvation of men; but he went out, visiting the neighboring places and returning thither rather often, doing many marvels, the biographer being witness. Those places the notes record: About Subiaco many places, namely castles, flourished under the dominion of that abbey, and twenty are numbered on a marble stone beside the door of the church of the monastery of St. Scholastica, cut by abbot Humbert in that very year MLII in which St. Peter was staying at Subiaco; and they are Subiaco, Genna, Augusta, Cervara, Marano, Anticoli, Roviano, Arsoli, Carsoli (the native place of that same St. Peter, as was said above), and others which are named in the same observations; and other castles, now ruined, are added, whose names I forbear to transcribe hither. And the marvels of the holy Man, which he wrought both in his life and after his death, will be illustrated below. But of his death the biographer writes so meagerly that he merely mentions it, expressing neither the manner nor the year nor the day of the month. For thus he records with us at number 17: All these things and many others being accomplished in the city of Trevi, and while he remained [] there in the space of twenty days, he passed from this world to the heavenly country.*
[11] Pierantonio in the notes says: The historical Life of this Saint comprises the short time of four years and a half, the time of his life ten days however being deducted, because in it it is narrated that he stayed at Tivoli under his preceptor holy Cletus the deacon two years; that he likewise sowed the divine word two other years in his own country, and at Subiaco exercised the same office for five months, and at last lived at Trevi twenty days, namely under the narrow shelter of a certain stone stair, which has been consecrated as an oratory or small church within the town walls: where he passed to heaven on the XXX day of August, which was a Sunday, in the year MLII, which was a leap year. This day and year I could wish to be informed of from ancient documents. Above, at number 4, the same Pierantonio gathered the time of his life from Gregory, bishop of Tivoli, who is related in the Life to have shorn the Saint and enrolled him among the clergy; which, although it implies that this happened not in the first but in the second year of that two years of which we have spoken, yet I do not see that from this the year 1052 can be strictly determined for the Saint's death, the other earlier years being reckoned to it according to Pierantonio.
[12] Obscure also and very defective are the things which in Ughelli, volume 1 of the Italia Sacra, column 216 of the earlier edition, are recorded to our purpose concerning those bishops of Tivoli whom he mentions, and the year of his death. where he writes: John in the year MXXXIX, the seventh year of Pope Benedict IX, gave some goods to the church of Subiaco. Then he subjoins: Benedict subscribes a certain bull of Pope Leo IX granted to the church of Bergamo in MXLIX. Of Gregory he has this: Gregory succeeded Benedict, Leo IX being in the see. Of John, finally, whom he subjoins to him: John sat at the council held under Nicholas II in the year MLIX. Then in Manfred he leaps to the year MCX. From these therefore I cannot establish the year of St. Peter's death, because Ughelli left the death of Gregory unnoted: yet on his credit, as also on the biographer's, I have marked the Saint above as of about the middle of the eleventh century, who is also given on this day, on which he is found in the Roman Martyrology. Nevertheless the circumstance of the famine, of which the biographer at numbers 7 and 8, confirms the truth of the history, as I read in the notes, concerning the time and year in which that Saint was staying at Subiaco, namely in the year MLII: because in this same year it is narrated in the Chronicle of Subiaco that abbot Humbert, aided by St. Leo IX, "completed the fabric of his monastery at immense cost, at a time when all Italy was suffering in the matter of grain and with the greatest dearness of corn."*
Annotations. Read permanens*.
§ II. His sepulchers; miracles; proper Office; the promotion of his cult; the translation of his body; relics.
The odor of his garment, the places of his burial: What the biographer relates with us at number 18 about St. Peter's obsequies, the odor of his body, and his sarcophagus, is thus explained in the notes: He was buried in the collegiate church of St. Mary, namely in the lower church, which is subterranean, and therefore is called the church of St. Peter, distant only thirty or forty paces from his aforesaid oratory. Nor indeed was the sacred body odoriferous only after the Saint's death; but that wondrous odor, as Pierantonio's notes declare, after seven centuries is still perceived and persists in his hair-cloth garment, which, covered with a transparent silken veil, is given to be kissed by all and each who enter his chapel in procession, fenced round with iron gratings, on the day of his festival. And concerning the sarcophagus in which the Saint was buried they subjoin this: Three successive sepulchers of this sacred body are numbered: the first of porous stone, large enough and oblong, with its stone cover, which is now seen at the left of the aforesaid chapel: within which sepulcher are preserved those ancient leaden caskets in which the sacred bones were enclosed at the first translation: the second was beneath the ancient altar, in which it had been laid in the year MCCXV at his canonization on the first day of October. The third at last stands within the new altar, in which it was placed in the year MDCXIX by Seneca, bishop of Anagni, at his last finding and translation made in the year MDCXIX. A sweet odor also remained in St. Peter's tunic, as will presently be said on the occasion of the miracles.
[14] his patronage against wolves: a miracle wrought by the Saint's tunic: The author of the Life will narrate these things below. And they were wrought partly by the Saint while living, partly after his death. A wondrous patronage of the holy Man among the people of Trevi against troublesome wolves is related at number 21: On a certain night, he says, a certain man of Trevi was lying in a field, when the terror of wolves devouring children was very great; and then it is written that those same animals were slain in a wondrous manner. That Saint is invoked as protector and defender, as the notes assert, against the rage of wolves, whom therefore he holds chained in his hand, as appears in the image engraved on copper: of which more will be related below. The biographer at number 23 narrates a miracle about a three-year-old boy who by St. Peter's tunic laid upon him obtained the power of walking: That tunic, Pierantonio being witness, is still preserved in a most noble shrine or casket, skillfully wrought and gilded, and is held in great veneration, chiefly because even now it gives forth a sweet odor. It is woven of very coarse hair or wool, which is called lana canizza; whence it is called the hair-shirt of St. Peter. Wherefore Cardinal Baronius in the modern lessons of the Office wrote: "He also afflicted his flesh with a perpetual hair-shirt." It is a garment large enough, since it is seven palms and two inches broad, and five palms high. And from such a size his body's almost gigantic tallness is inferred: of which below. But other miracles of St. Peter will also be mentioned afterward.
[15] a hymn from his ancient manuscript proper Office. The proper Office, published in the year 1674, is of the common of a confessor not a bishop, except the lessons of the second nocturn, which narrate the Saint's life and miracles. The Mass Os justi from the same common. Nine proper lessons were formerly recited, for which see the text of the Life to be given below. Another proper manuscript Office Pierantonio sent hither, prefixed with this title: On the solemnity of the most blessed Peter, confessor, of Trevi, and on his most blessed festival. Besides other proper parts which are in the same Office, there are two proper hymns. And at Lauds that one is directed to be repeated which is at first Vespers, part of which I transcribe:
O Peter, confessor of the blessed faith, Whose thrice-holy life was made plain to be A heavenly one, and worthy of the Lord, I pray thee, hear.
Let us all resound with worthy praises The splendid feast of the faithful Servant, To whom the Founder of the world gave power To relieve the sick.
Giving light to the blind, putting demons to flight, Freeing limbs weighed down with fevers, Loosening rings of iron from the hands Of those who entreat thee.
Full of the loving-kindness of the Holy Spirit, Thou biddest bread be set in the oven; In the oven the bread set within is baked, The fire being removed.
With suppliant vow the varicose man praying, The lame man desiring to be healed in his walking, Pay their vows, and become glad When the gift is received.
After the Office follows the Mass Os justi: but the few proper parts which it has it is not worth while to transcribe hither.
[16] The oft-mentioned Pierantonio sent hither an Appendix written in Italian, The Saint's cult promoted by the bulls of Pontiffs from which it will be profitable to sip various things which pertain to the Saint's miracles and cult. From three papal bulls therefore, which he affirms are preserved written on parchment in the archive of the collegiate church of Trevi, he recites these fragments. And the first indeed of the said bulls is of Paul II, signed at Rome in the year 1470, on the XXIII day of July, as he adds, and containing this: Since on the part of our beloved sons the syndic, councillors, and community of the said castle of Trevi it has been humbly besought of us that we would deign of Apostolic kindness to unite, annex, and incorporate in perpetuity the aforesaid church, etc., to the parish church of St. Mary of the said castle, in which the body of blessed Peter the confessor is piously believed to be laid up, and because, on account of the very many miracles flashing there, on the day of that Confessor's festival a copious multitude of the people of those parts flocks to the same church, etc.
[17] The second bull is of the same Pope Paul, in the same year 1470, of Paul II, given on the XX day of August, in which, praising the Saint and busying himself to promote the new fabric of the aforesaid church of St. Mary, he records this: Desiring therefore that the parish church of the Virgin Mary herself, of the land of Trevi, of the diocese of Anagni, in which is said to be buried a certain body of Bl. Peter the hermit, who, as report is, and also is said to appear from writings, once living among men, lived religiously, exemplarily, and honorably, and moreover grew famous both in life and after his death by divers miracles, etc., to each of Christ's faithful truly penitent and confessed who on the feast of the Annunciation of the aforesaid Virgin Mary, and on the thirtieth day of the month of August — on which was our assumption to the summit of this Apostolic see — shall every year devoutly visit that church, and shall stretch out helping hands to its repair, enlargement, fabric, and adornment, on each of the said feast and days on which they shall do this, we mercifully relax in the Lord seven years and as many quarantines of the penances enjoined upon them, these presents to be valid in perpetuity for times to come, etc.
[18] and of Alexander VI, and also from pious The third bull is of Pope Alexander VI, as is read in the aforesaid Appendix, which is there noted as given on the XX of August in the year MDII, the tenth of his Pontificate; from whose words related in that Appendix I excerpt this: Desiring therefore that the chapel of St. Peter the confessor of Trevi … may be frequented with fitting honors, and be maintained, repaired, and preserved in its structures and buildings, and moreover duly furnished with books, chalices, and other ecclesiastical ornaments …, to all and each of Christ's faithful of either sex, truly penitent and confessed, who on the festivals of that same St. Peter the confessor, who is venerated on the penultimate day of August, and of his canonization and translation …, which are celebrated on the first days of the month of October, from first vespers …, shall yearly devoutly visit that same chapel, and shall stretch out helping hands to the aforesaid ends, on each of the days of those same festivals we relax ten years and as many quarantines …, these presents to be valid in perpetuity. Hence the same Appendix passes to certain examples testifying to a singular piety toward the Saint. And among many other things, as I there read, ancient and modern, the following are narrated. First, the magnificent lady Miotia Caetani, daughter of Don Antonio and Jacobilla likewise Caetani, and sister of Benedetto Onorato Caetani, counts palatine, and wife of Don Jacopo Caetani, the last lord of Trevi, in her last testament, which she made in the year 1468, on the X day of January, thus expresses her particular affection toward the holy patron of Trevi: Likewise she willed and directed that she be buried, and chose her burial place, beneath the church of St. Mary of Trevi, namely beside the chapel and altar of St. Peter the confessor, etc.
[19] donations: Likewise she left to the chapel of St. Peter the confessor of Trevi the Valcatorium (perhaps a mill, or a dam, or a place where waters are enclosed, etc. See the enlarged lexicon of Du Cange) or the place of the Valcatorium, situated in the place which is called il Ponte delle Tartane, with the course of the waters, and with all and each of the rights, uses, profits, adjacent lands, and appurtenances belonging and pertaining to that Valcatorium, and with a way of going and returning through the due and accustomed place, etc.; where now is, as Pierantonio indicates, the community's mill, one mile distant from Trevi. Besides, for other pious legacies for other churches she left her three sons, Antonio, Nicola, and Cristoforo; and, some things being interposed, it is added: as from the archive of Trevi in the acts of Jacopo Luca de Conversis. In these same years, as the Appendix continues, Antonio Ronconi of Trevi in his last testament left the confraternity of St. Peter heir of his goods; and although three nephews of his claimed that they had been given to them earlier, and litigated for twenty years, by a sentence directed to the castellan of Trevi, Ludovico Spagnoto, in the years 1486 and 1489, they were nevertheless adjudged to the benefit of the pious place; nay more, in the year 1510 a settlement was made and the agreement confirmed in the year 1512 by Cardinal Pompeo Colonna, as commendatory abbot of Subiaco, at the instance of the archpriest and canons of Trevi, and also of the aforesaid confraternity of St. Peter, which up to the present time enjoys a house in which the public council meets, and is called the house of St. Peter, situated in the precinct of the collegiate church of St. Mary, a perpetual obligation of Masses being imposed upon the priests of the territory for the soul of the benefactor Ronconi, as is said to be read there in the long process of the said suit, which is in the archive of the community. These things have been extracted by me from the Italian manuscript Appendix of Fr. Pierantonio; and since it is written in characters most difficult to read, the reader will forgive me if perhaps slips have crept into my Latin transcript. There remain very many other things highly honorable to the holy Confessor's cult.
[20] For at the beginning of the sixteenth century a new church was erected, a church erected, the finding of the body, its translation, as the Appendix declares, completed and consecrated in the year 1616, as is read in the inscription which is set at the right side of the principal door, at the top of the stair which goes down to the subterranean church of St. Peter. It says: This temple, dedicated to God most good and great in honor of the blessed and ever Virgin Mary and of St. Peter the hermit by the piety of the people of Trevi, Antonio Seneca, bishop of Anagni, consecrated with the greatest attendance and devotion of clergy and people on the IV day of October, in the XII Indiction, in the year MDCXVI of the Pontificate of our lord Pope Paul V. In the year 1619 the last solemn translation took place with the finding of his sacred body, which was found at the foot of his ancient altar and enclosed in the new one; of which matter the following memorial, written on parchment and enclosed in a leaden tube, gives evidence; and all his sacred bones entire in a leaden casket, another casket of cypress covering it. Take the inscription: The body of St. Peter the confessor was found this year MDCXIX, on Friday the IX day of August, by Antonio Seneca, bishop of Anagni, in the altar standing in the lower church of St. Mary the collegiate, in the presence of Don Lorenzo Jacobuzio, abbot of St. Theodore, Don Donato Brunneri the archpriest, Olivante Cecconi, and Cesareo Aurelio the notary, and the masters of the feast of that same Saint.
[21] And the work of physicians being employed not once but twice and thrice by the same bishop of Anagni, and its recognition: in the presence of the most reverend Giovanni Battista Tosco, bishop of Tivoli, and Jovita, abbot of St. Scholastica of Subiaco, with a solemn translation and with the common joy of the people of Trevi and of the neighboring cities, it was honorably laid in the same lower church, at the high altar, on Friday the thirtieth of August of the same year MDCXIX. And on a marble stone incrusted upon the column of that Saint's chapel, at the left side of his altar, this public memorial is read: To God most good and great. The body of St. Peter the confessor and patron of the land of Trevi, examined with the greatest piety by the art of physicians, and honorably borne through the whole land by Antonio Seneca, bishop of Anagni, together with the most reverend gentlemen just named, with an innumerable throng of peoples, was translated to this altar, the old one being destroyed, in the year of the Lord MDCXIX, on the XXX day of August. The clergy of St. Mary of Trevi, being present at the recognition and translation, set this up for a memorial of the matter.
[22] The finding, recognition, and translation of the sacred body just mentioned call us to describe its relics. relics preserved among the people of Trevi, Many are they, says the Appendix, which, distributed in various places, are preserved of this Saint. First, at Trevi, besides the body, formerly entire in all its parts, within his altar is the head, separated from the other parts at the last translation of the year 1619, and enclosed in a great silver bust, three hundred crowns being spent upon it, and with this inscription engraved on a metal plate behind it: "The head of St. Peter the hermit, patron of the land of Trevi, separated from the other members on Friday the XXX of August in the year of the Lord MDCXIX at the solemn translation of the body, Giovanni Battista Melis, bishop of Anagni, ordered to be preserved in this silver image on Friday the XXX of August. Lorenzo Jacobuzio, abbot of St. Theodore, for a memorial of the matter." I observe that in Ughelli, volume 1 of the Italia Sacra, column 365, the bishop just named is called Giovanni Gaspare Melis, elected in the year MDCXXVI; and so this was not done immediately after that separation. This being observed, let us return to the Appendix. One joint of a finger of extraordinary size, from time immemorial — perhaps from the first translation and canonization, which took place in the year MCCXV — enclosed in a separate silver reliquary, very ancient; and around that joint is seen a thread or long fragment of his hair-shirt tied; which had been secretly taken away by the hand of a certain indiscreet devotee, who, being struck from heaven with sudden blindness, and not finding the way by which to go out of the church, confessed his offense and restored that sacred pledge as he was bound to do; and so it appears to be exposed to the eyes of all in memory of the prodigious event.
[23] and distributed through various places. And that same hair-shirt, or plain garment, which the Saint used, and which to the present
day after so many centuries retains its prodigious odor, is preserved in a gilded casket closed with four great crystals, from the gift of the most eminent Cardinal Carlo Barberini. And in the year 1602 a great fragment taken from the sleeve of that garment by the clergy of Trevi passed to the church of Roccabotte, in which it is held in veneration together with a great part of that Saint's staff. At Trevi is preserved the iron cross given to him by Gregory, bishop of Tivoli, through the hand of St. Cletus the deacon, his master. At the time of the last translation of the year 1619 the following relics were distributed by Seneca, prelate of Anagni: namely, to the cathedral of Anagni one rib; to the neighboring territories, whose names the oft-mentioned Appendix expresses, in the diocese of Trevi, and also to the territories of Acuto and Anticoli of the diocese of Anagni, other bones and fragments of ribs; to the monastery of St. Scholastica of Subiaco a tooth, which is now seen in the great cross with the other relics of that sanctuary. To the aforesaid territory of Roccabotte, which was the Saint's native soil, another tooth fell; and to the territory of Camerata bordering on it another. Sacred pledges granted to other places the Appendix records; but let it suffice to have related the foregoing from it. Now I shall sip various notices pertaining to the Saint's cult from the praised Appendix.
Annotations. Read eis*. *. That is, of physicians or anatomists.
§ III. The new Office and its extension; the Saint entered in the Roman Martyrology; images and paintings; the stature of his body; whether he was a hermit; various copies of the Life; what kind is here given.
[An Office with an octave granted to the people of Trevi; which afterward without it was extended to the clergy of Subiaco,] In the year 1602, by a bull issued at Rome on the XIV of August, for the ancient Office of St. Peter, containing nine lessons, a new one was substituted in conformity with the bull of St. Pope Pius V which is printed in the Roman Breviary; and so the nine lessons of the Saint were reduced to three, published at Rome by Cardinal Baronius with an octave, and also with the aforesaid bull of Clement VIII, and a dedicatory letter of the people of Trevi to the bishop of Anagni, who was then Gaspare Viviani of Urbino, as their diocesan, with this title: Double Office with an Octave on the feast of St. Peter the hermit, patron of the town of Trevi of the diocese of Anagni, for the use of that place, in which his sacred body rests. It is celebrated on the XXX day of August. But the territory of Trevi being afterward separated from the diocese of Anagni and united by a bull of Urban VIII in the year 1638 to the abbey of Subiaco, that same modern Office was granted to the whole clergy of the seventeen lands of the modern abbey by the labor of Cardinal Carlo Barberini, commendatory abbot, in the year 1674, and then published at Rome with this title: Double Office of St. Peter the hermit, patron and protector of the land of Trevi of the abbey of Subiaco of no diocese, whose sacred body is piously preserved in the collegiate church of that same place: by the Apostolic indult of Pope Clement VIII of happy memory wont to be recited with an octave by the clergy of the said land on the feast of that Saint, which is celebrated on the thirtieth day of August; but now by decree of the sacred Congregation of Rites granted and extended to the whole clergy also of the other places of the abbey of Subiaco, but without an octave.
[25] Finally in the year 1683 the same Office with an octave was extended and granted to all the seventy-two territories and castles of the diocese of the Marsi at the instance of the most illustrious lord Antonio Corradini its bishop, and to the diocese of the Marsi with an octave: who ordered it to be printed at Naples, by force of the following decree of the sacred Congregation of Rites, which speaks thus: The sacred Congregation of Rites, at the prayers of the most reverend bishop of the Marsi, has kindly granted the faculty that in future, for just causes, once a year, on the XXX day of August, in his whole diocese the double Office with an octave of St. Peter the hermit may be recited by all of both sexes, both regulars and seculars, who are bound to the canonical hours, already approved and granted for the town of Trevi of the diocese of Anagni, and afterward extended by the same sacred Congregation on the III day of March MDCLXXIV for the whole clergy both of the land of Subiaco and of the other places of the abbey of Subiaco. This III day of October MDCLXXXIII. Nicolò Cardinal Ludovisi. Place of the seal. Free of charge. Bernardino Casali, secretary of the sacred Congregation of Rites.
[26] In the year 1691, on the XXIV of November, the Saint by that same sacred Congregation of Rites, in the year 1691 the Saint the authentic papal bulls written above having first been examined, and its own decrees which had already issued concerning his Office, was entered in the Roman Martyrology by the following eulogy and decree printed at Rome: Of the abbey of Subiaco. Eulogy for the XXX day of August. "At Trevi in Latium, of St. Peter the confessor, who, famous for many virtues and miracles, there passed to the Lord, and is honorably venerated." And thus he is afterward read as inserted in the latest Martyrologies which have been reprinted in the Latin and vernacular tongue at Venice, as Pierantonio affirms in the Appendix, in the year 1700, and at Rome in the year 1702. And in the said decree there follows this: The above-written eulogy of St. Peter the confessor, CALLED THE HERMIT, protector of the land of Trevi (concerning whose canonization authentic documents were produced), as it stands, upon the report of the most eminent and most reverend lord Cardinal Casanate the promoter, with the pious and earnest prayers of the most eminent and most reverend lord Carlo Cardinal Barberini, commendatory abbot of Subiaco, coming in support, the Congregation of sacred Rites has approved, and has judged that it can be set and printed in the Roman Martyrology, if it shall please our most holy Lord. On the XXIV day of November MDCXCI. And a report of the foregoing having been made by me the secretary to our most holy Lord Pope Innocent XII, his Holiness assented. On the XXIX day of the same month of November and year MDCXCI. A., bishop of Ostia, Cardinal Cybo. Place of the seal. Giuseppe Vallemani, secretary of the sacred Congregation of Rites. The aforesaid announcement of St. Peter was first inserted in the Plantin edition of the Roman Martyrology which came to light in the year 1701.
[27] was ordered to be entered in the Roman Martyrology: paintings, images, This singular favor brought a new triumph to that Saint, and moreover a plainly singular gladness to the clergy and people of Trevi, who therefore wrote most dutiful letters of thanksgiving both to their most eminent abbot and patron and to the most eminent Cardinal Albani, afterward Pope Clement XI, who most fervently and piously promoted this cause out of his singular devotion, which, while he was in minor orders, as they say, he professed toward this Saint. Besides the foregoing, which I have taken from Pierantonio's manuscript Italian Appendix, other things are subjoined in it about paintings, images, and inscriptions, which both declare and confirm the antiquity of his cult and its continuation through various centuries. In the church of St. Nicholas outside the walls of Trevi, beneath a painting of the Saint, is this: In the year MCCCLI, in the month of July, at the charges of the archpriest. Another image was in another neighboring church of St. Lawrence, and in the church whose name is del Riposo, likewise outside the walls, in the year 1483; likewise in the adjoining chapel of St. Sebastian in the year 1486, and another like it, etc. In the year 1603 an engraved image of the Saint shows him holding his cross in his right hand, but in his left three wolves bound with a chain, with this inscription added to it: He stilled their untamed rage. Beneath the wolves are the arms of the community, which represent five mountains, and a dove above; and to the shield is inscribed that motto: Safe under this patron; and beneath the image this distich:
Who with great soul had tamed the fierce monsters of vices, What wonder if he tames the wild beasts of the field?
At the end this dedication is subjoined: Of St. Peter the confessor, hermit of Trevi. He is celebrated on the XXX day of August. Jacopo de Carolis of Trevi, of the diocese of Anagni, presented to his fellow-citizens this monument of his piety toward the best guardian of his country and of his just regard for that country itself, engraved at his own expense, in the year of the Lord MDCIII. What is related on the present subject as done in the years 1621, 1642, and 1700, from the same Appendix, as also other things which follow about the ornaments of the church, likewise about the pious school, etc., I do not transcribe, since these suffice me, and it would be long to record all which Pierantonio pursues with singular diligence, and concludes his Appendix, after he had treated of the Saint's relics, related above by us from it, with a double observation, one of which is about his stature, the other whether he was a hermit.
[28] That he was of gigantic stature, although in a youthful age of about twenty or twenty-five years, a stature of wondrous tallness: as is gathered from the time in which he lived, Pierantonio there indicates; and he says that this is understood from his skull and head, and from the aforesaid finger joint, which, though it was the greater finger of the hands, nevertheless is no less by the measure of anatomical proportion an argument that the tallness of his body was as it were nine Roman palms, like the tallness of the patriarch St. Benedict, whose measure of nine palms he affirms is shown in the sacristy of the sacred cave of Subiaco, and also at Montecassino. So too he indicates that it may be observed from the size of the aforesaid garment or hair-shirt, and from the breadth and length of the sleeves; to which he adds that this was observed from the length of the bones, which at the last finding were known to have been of a much larger form than they are wont to be in others.
[29] As regards the surname and title of hermit which is joined to the Saint, more probably he was not a hermit: Pierantonio wishes it to be observed that this came about after two centuries had passed from the Saint's death, and that it is nowhere read in his authentic Life, and that it is found expressed only in the bull of Pope Paul II of the year 1470, and was thence appended to the modern lessons of the Office and to other later memorials. And that title, he affirms, seems to him rather to conflict with his life, which indeed was not eremitical nor solitary, but was an active and mixed life, applied to the ministry of preaching the word of God for two years in his native soil, at Subiaco for five months, in the lodging of Peter, Prior of St. Abundius, always preaching and gathering alms for the relief of the poor; and he held this manner of life in the last twenty days of his life among the people of Trevi until his death. So too he acted in the first two years of his youth at Tivoli under the discipline of St. Cletus the deacon. To these Pierantonio might have added that in the announcement of the Roman Martyrology the title of hermit is not set down. And although in the decree of the sacred Congregation of Rites, by which St. Peter is ordered to be entered in the said Martyrology, the title of hermit occurs, yet because called is added to it, this is an indication that the title of hermit raised a doubt or suspicion in that same sacred Congregation, since it indicates that it is attributed by it to the Saint not so much because he was such as because he was then so called.
[30] Many and various are the things which in the collection sent hither by Fr. Pierantonio I read about the copies of St. Peter's Life. The ancient Life: Treating of the ancient one, he asserts that it was extracted faithfully and word for word from a manuscript parchment book of many leaves, which is preserved in the archive of the collegiate church of St. Mary
of Trevi in Latium. It is read as written in an ancient hand, distinguished into thirty numbers or paragraphs, of which the first nine contain the nine lessons which were sung in the three nocturns of his ancient Office, according to the use of the churches down to the reform of the Roman Breviary established by the sacred Council of Trent; and therefore the hymns, antiphons, and responsories proper to the Saint, with others from the common of confessors not bishops, are still set out in the aforesaid volume and book with the musical notes of Gregorian chant, as also the Mass with its proper collect, Sequence, etc.
[31] added to it after the miracles: The Life was collected and written a short time after the Saint's death, since in the fourth lesson certain men of Subiaco are alleged as eyewitnesses, examined upon his deeds and the miracles done at Subiaco, and attesting on oath, down to number 25 (which in our division is 22), where his canonization is narrated as celebrated under Innocent III in the year 1215, on the first day of October, a little before the Lateran Council. Then from number 26 (with us 23) to the end there is a collection of other miracles added and written by Peter, abbot of the aforesaid collegiate church of St. Mary, who at least lived from the year 1260 to 1300, when from a bull of Boniface VIII it is found that in advanced age he restored that abbacy. As regards the style, it is rude, and not without errors even of grammar. And this indeed is the more authentic Legend and history which exists of that Saint.
[32] many other Lives But in the seventeenth century many other Lives, both published in print and written by hand, saw the light, which are partly mutilated and imperfect, partly changed and badly composed, because they have not been collated with their original. Such was the Life printed at Viterbo in the year 1621 in a Latin style otherwise pure and elegant, which Giovanni Battista Piantamuro, canon of Viterbo, composed, and which he says was extracted from the Office and from the manuscripts of Trevi; but that Work is believed to have been composed by Fr. Fabrizio de Britiis of the Society of Jesus, who is praised in the Library of that same Society. The foregoing thus far has been abridged by us from the collection of which we were speaking. This Life, transcribed from the Viterbo edition, our Fr. Pierre Poussines sent hither in the year 1671, but no author's name is appended to it. In the year 1642, as the collection continues, that Latin Life was translated into the vernacular tongue by Don Tommaso Belliccione, a priest, and printed at Rome. In the year 1673 Muzio Febonio, abbot of Trasacco, inserted the Life of St. Peter into a book published by him at Rome about many Lives of the Saints of the Marsi, which he also praised in his Latin Work of the History of the Marsi, printed at Naples after his death in the year 1678.
[33] written in the seventeenth century. From the year 1622 Don Lorenzo Jacobucci of Trevi, doctor of sacred theology and abbot of St. Theodore, at the instance of the most illustrious lord Antonio Seneca, bishop of Anagni, began to write a historical Life of St. Peter together with the chief notices of his country; but he dying there in the year 1647, the Work remained unfinished and scarcely begun. Further, the more exact Life is known to be that which Fr. Raffaele Pasini of Venice, of the Order of St. Augustine, dwelling at Frosinone in the year 1624, wrote, divided into twenty-four chapters with as many figures elaborated with elegant pen and art, and dedicated to Olivante Cecconi, townsman of Trevi, which is now preserved in the archive of the church together with the original, which is here afterward transcribed, with some very brief marginal annotations added for understanding the circumstances of times, places, and persons. The foregoing it has seemed good to us to abridge from the said collection. And the marginal annotations we have partly already used above in this our Commentary, and shall partly use in the Annotations to the Life, which, together with the notes and appendix and the Saint's proper Office, Fr. Domenico Antonio Pierantonio, S.J., sent from Rome to our Fr. Konrad Janninck of good memory in the year 1711 — so often and deservedly praised by us through the course of this Commentary. Further, that Life, occasionally corrected by us, we shall divide in our accustomed manner into chapters, headings, and numbers, the numbers of the ancient lessons which are marked in the transcript being also set in the text; and in it some things occur which do not seem to me sufficiently probable.
LIFE
By an ancient anonymous author,
From the archive of Trevi in Latium.
Peter, confessor, at Trevi in Latium (St.)
BHL Number: 6783
By an Anonymous writer.
CHAPTER I.
His country, his progress in virtue under St. Cletus; his clerical state; an apparition made to him; his preaching of the word of God; miracles.
He leaves his country, cleaves to St. Cletus, is made a cleric: he is sent Lesson I. Blessed Peter therefore, of the country which is commonly called Carsoli a, born and brought up in the castle of Arx Vegetis b, was from the time of his boyhood good and innocent. But when he had come to adolescence, he was compelled by his mother and father to take a wife; and refusing, he secretly left his country and went to Tivoli, and there attached himself to a certain most honorable man named Cletus c, with whom he remained for two years, in which he learned all his teaching. So that to the aforesaid Cletus very many good things seemed to be done rather by him than by himself. Wherefore the aforesaid Cletus brought him to Gregory, bishop of that same city d, asking him that he would do some good thing. And the bishop hearing this, rejoicing, shore him and prepared him as a cleric, as though he knew letters, which he had never known. And the aforesaid master presently brought him an iron cross e, and delivered it into his hands, saying: Go through the whole world, and preach nothing else but what God shall have taught us; but seek first your own country, and urge its inhabitants to good work, and instruct them that they may depart from evils. ℞.
[2] Lesson II. Which command brother Peter received with thanksgiving, to preach the word of God, and being refreshed by a heavenly vision and so returned to his own home; and there he preached the word of God, and through all the neighboring places, so far as divine providence granted him, for two years. And some heard him well; but others took ill what he taught, and many times struck him in the face and in his other limbs, and mocked him exceedingly. Which the humble Brother bore kindly and patiently. Performing such things in his own country for two years, he fell asleep for seven days and as many nights. And in this sleep a vision was revealed to him: that the Son of God and his Mother Mary came before him, and brought a golden apple in their hands and set it at the mouth of the sleeper.
[3] he traverses various places: And then from the Virgin of the Lord he received a rod in his hand, on the head of which a leafy lily was set. To whom the Virgin of the Lord gave command, saying: Go forth from thy land, and finish doing what thou hast begun. These things being said, he was at once awakened, and set out thence. For he came to the castle which is called Subiaco f; and there in the church of St. Abundius g he lodged with a certain most honorable man named Peter h, and remained with him five months, visiting the neighboring places and returning thither rather often, doing many marvels in the name of God almighty; some of which are not to be given over to oblivion, for his memory.
[4] he fights with the devil: Lesson III. Now on a certain Sunday, when the aforesaid Peter with his companions, namely Massarus and Joseph, were standing before the church, they saw and most plainly perceived God's servant Peter fighting with the devil in the church three times, and so beating him as if he were striking a beast or a man, and that from those blows a sound was given back. And they, hearing this, marveled greatly, and, knowing the Lord's power, gave praises to the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory for everlasting ages. Amen.
[5] a miracle in a broken glass vessel and wine restored: Lesson IV. But on another day, when the hour of eating was at hand and they needed wine to refresh their bodies, the aforesaid Peter sent a certain boy named Joseph with a glass vessel to bring wine. But on his return it happened that, as the boy entered the house, the glass vessel in which the wine was, by chance was broken, and all the wine fell to the ground; seeing which, Peter began to be violently angry with the boy. But brother Peter, hearing this, addressed him with most humble words, saying: Sir, let your anger depart; only put the vessel into my hands. And he took the broken vessel and forthwith handed it to God's Servant. And the Man of God, going out of the house, and having tarried a little, returned laughing [], and gave back to him the vessel restored and full of wine, saying: Be not saddened; for nothing is impossible with God.* And he, joyfully receiving the vessel, they alike rendered thanks to God the giver of good things. All this was related to us by the aforesaid Peter, Prior of the church of St. Abundius i, and by his companions, who saw the aforesaid things with their own eyes and heard them with their own ears, and firmly affirmed them on oath k. For the Lord wrought many miracles with him there, all which it would be difficult to set down.
[6] three lessons Lesson V. Magnify l the Lord, dearest brethren, who ever makes his church fruitful with new offspring, and makes his beloved sons, born again, perpetual coheirs with himself; of whom one is this confessor Peter, who, earthly deeds being renounced and the standard of the holy cross received, truly drew to himself the Lord's [] counsel: He shall not be crowned unless he strive lawfully. This holy Man, protected not by shield or helmet but adorned with holy works, manfully bore off the victory over his enemies, that he might deserve to receive from Christ the everlasting crown of reward. A double crown of the Saints, dearest brethren, is read of in the Scriptures: one with which they are crowned on the way, and another with which they are crowned in the fatherland; each great, but the second greater; because it is so much the more glorious [] for the Saints to be crowned in the fatherland than on the way, as they more diligently desire to have heavenly things than earthly. The second crown the Apostle desired to have, who said: For the rest there is laid up for me a crown of justice — that is, the reward which shall be rendered for merits. Whence he subjoins, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me in that day.
[7] ascetic Lesson VI. Although upon this holy Man's head a crown had by no means shone — since he neither learned letters nor attained to the holy order of temporal things — nevertheless the crown which he did not receive on his head he kept in his mind. These are the things which are known always to belong to the crown of the Saints: four chief precious stones, and most beautiful flowers with pearls and gems. The stones
are these: justice, fortitude, prudence, and temperance. On the front side justice, on the hinder side prudence; temperance on the right, fortitude on the left. For the things that are before are certain; the things that are behind are doubtful; the things on the right are prosperous, the things on the left adverse. Justice has two virtues, discernment and rectitude. Prudence has vigilance and caution. Temperance, continence and abstinence. Fortitude, constancy and magnanimity.
[8] Lesson VII. Among these flowers four lesser gems are set [], concerning the Saint's virtues. that is, the four natural affections: sorrow and joy, fear and hope. For justice directs hope; prudence assuages sorrow; temperance shapes joy; fortitude strengthens fear. Around the gems in a circle seven pearls shine forth, that is, the seven gifts of the sevenfold grace, which Isaiah enumerates, saying: The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him.* Under the covering of these pearls, stones, and gems, Peter the confessor of Christ being protected, no iniquity harmed him, nor did adversity separate him from the faith of Christ. Since therefore it would be long for me to relate his history with the weight of his miracles, if it please your charity I wish to set down on this present page a few things out of many. When the holy Man of God at one time had beheld men tormented by the want of famine m, and that they had nothing to eat, he began anxiously to seek alms, that he might distribute them to Christ's poor n.
[9] Lesson VIII. He loved the monastery of Subiaco o more closely, Loaves multiplied in the time of famine and had been accustomed to go to it frequently. In that same year of want, on one day he came thither: he went quickly to the cellar of that monastery, to whose keeper the Saint said: My brother and dearest son, behold we see Jesus Christ's poor already failing with the torment of famine, in whom God is loved and possessed, and most precious charity works together. Give me, I pray, as much bread as thou canst, that I may be able to succor his pitiably hungering servants. But he, who would not deny him the truth, answered with an oath: I call God to witness that I have no loaves, save four only, and I know not what to do; because I have not today what to set upon the table. And, he said to him, come and see, Father; and when thou seest, thou wilt be able to have inviolable trust in me. The Saint says to him: I have toward thee an unblemished and firm purity of trust: go to the chest, and out of the loaves which the Lord has given thee, let thou and I today give food to the hungry.
[10] Lesson IX. And he at once went to the chest, and found there loaves prepared by angelic hands. by the ministry of angels. And he marveled greatly, and rendered thanks to God and to the kindly Peter. Then the Saint together with him on that day gave abundant food of bread to all. And this we read in the book of Kings, in the days of Elias in Israel, when heaven was shut for three years and six months. When a great famine had come upon all the land, Elias was sent to Sarepta of the Sidonians to a widow woman, who did all according to Elias's command; and the cruse of oil did not fail, nor the handful of meal in the jar, according to the word of the Lord which he had spoken by the hand of Elias [p].
ANNOTATIONS.
p. See 3 Kings, chapter 17.
*. That is, Tibur in Latium. . Perhaps totam*, not repeated. . Read namque*. . Read dicebat or docebat*. . Perhaps arridendo*. . Perhaps Dominicum*. . Read gloriosius*. . Perhaps consistunt*. . Add referre*, or something similar.
CHAPTER II.
Other miracles of the Saint, his death, obsequies, burial.
A hand withered for a blow struck at the Saint But on another day the cook of the aforesaid monastery was preparing for the monks a meal of fish. When the Man of God saw it, he went to the Prior, and for a certain sick man asked his portion of those fish. And the Prior hearing this, quickly with cheerful and glad mind bade the cook generously assign his share to the Saint. But the cook, seized by a malignant spirit, wished to give the Saint two of the smaller fish; to whom the Saint said: If it please your charity, give me of the larger, that I may be able somewhat to sustain a needy sick man with them. But he, hearing this, was exceedingly angry; he rose up suddenly and struck the Saint a blow on the forehead. When the Saint had suffered this from him, he immediately departed from that place; entering the church, he prayed for him. Presently the man's hand appeared withered: the evil he had done could not lie hid; as quickly as he could he ran to the monks and related what had happened.
[12] Hearing this, the monks were made exceedingly sad, is healed by him: because, while they desired that the Saint should be honorably reverenced by the monastery, they had then done him injury in it. But why should I say much? By words and deeds they enjoined upon him no small penance, ready for so grave an offense, as the holy rule teaches; and after this he was led to the Saint. At once he fell upon his knees, entreating the Saint and asking his suffrages together with all, humbly saying thus: Command what I should do, holy elect of God: have mercy on me and succor me, and restore health to my right hand. To whom then the Saint gave this answer: May God have mercy on thee, beloved brother, and forgive thee this sin; and by his intervening grace presume not henceforth to do such things to anyone. For to wicked men such is the judgment. And forthwith he raised him from his knees, and signed his right hand with the sign of the cross, and by his prayers immediately then the grace of health was restored. The monks, seeing it in that hour, began to say: God is wonderful in his Saints, and the rest.
[13] After this he departed thence: he preached to all men how the Lord's day should be observed. He went up to Trevi b, in which through him the Lord wrought divine miracles: on his entering which, the Lord, unwilling that that light should be placed under a bushel but upon a candlestick, wrought such a miracle upon a certain woman: because that woman began to spurn his words, and even cast his rod out of his hands, an arm cured: so great a pain rushed upon her that her right arm fell as if broken. All the neighbors seeing it, began to say: Therefore this evil has befallen her, because she attempted to spurn God's holy one. And her neighbors and kinsfolk, taking hold of her, brought her before his sight, saying: We ask thee, Servant of God, that, if it please thee, thou wouldst pardon this woman; and begin to pray to God for her, that by your prayers he may deign to free her from this infirmity. And he at once, as soon as he had heard their prayers, prayed, and this most grievous evil ceased from her, and her arm was so made whole again as though she had no evil.
[14] There was a certain woman named Boniza, who on a Saturday after none c, bread baked in an oven not kindled: was busy heating an oven to bake bread. Which the Man of God finding, that she had presumed to do this incautiously, began to reprove her for the deed, which she wished to begin with sin. But when she began what she desired, the Saint drew the wood out of her hands, and did not permit the oven to burn. Before the women came to the place as if for a quarrel, they began humbly to say thus to the Saint: Holy father, if this woman's bread be not baked, it will profit her nothing, nor will there be any use to anyone. Then the Saint, sure of God's mercy, said to those women: In the name of the Lord put the bread into the unheated oven. And they at once fulfilled his command; they put the bread into the oven; and thereupon it so rose and was made baked and beautiful as if the oven had been heated — which it was not — and as if the bread had been prepared out of exceeding reverence. No wonder, since he who gave refreshment to the three children in the burning furnace himself for his Servant granted, the heat being lowered [*].
[15] And since the divine word bids that a shining light be put not under a bushel but upon a candlestick, so that to those abiding in the house of the Lord blessed Peter, the guardian and defender of the people of Trevi, a cross wondrously fixed in marble: may afford light to all, that everywhere, illumined by his light and protected by his prayers and merits, the clergy of Trevi and all the people may render thanksgivings to almighty God, celebrating with devotion and service the feast of blessed Peter: hence it is that we desire with thirsting throat to relate some of his miracles, that those who hear them may render thanks to God, in that through the merits of so great a Man the Lord deigned to show such things. For as Peter, Christ's champion, was entering the doors of the Basilica d, and pouring out the Lord's Prayer before all e, he fixed in the marble the cross which he carried in his hand; and thus bent, with its point fixed in the ground without a hole and without any support, it remained so upright until his prayer
was finished. Which prodigy being seen by all, they rendered innumerable thanks to almighty God.
[16] women possessed, the blind, the lame, etc., are healed. We bring forth another miracle also, wrought through the crossroads of the city. A certain woman on a Sunday had spread grain in the sun [*] for the sake of drying it; and the Servant of God, making his way through that passage, touched the cloth with his staff f; which the woman took so ill that she began to rage, blaspheming God and dishonoring Peter by troubling him with her hand. But presently by divine vengeance her hand was made withered; but at the intervention of good men entreating the Servant of God, being moved by God's mercy he restored the withered hand to its former health.
And a certain woman, an inhabitant of this land, long vexed by a demon, he freed from the demon's vexation; and he cured other women possessed by demons who came from distant parts; he enlightened the blind, restored walking to the lame, gave hearing to the ears, and cured divers infirmities of the head and of the other limbs by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory, praise and dominion, through infinite ages of ages. Amen.
And a certain little boy named Walter, being three years of age, had for nearly a year lost one eye. And his parents, hearing the Saint's fame, at once brought the boy before his sight, and beseeching him with coaxing prayers, said: Sir, as we have seen and know, if thou wilt, thou canst confer health on this boy. We ask thee, if it please thee, to pour out prayers to the Lord, that this boy's eye may by your prayers receive its former soundness. And the Man of God, being inclined by their prayers, the sign of the cross being impressed upon that eye, by the favor of divine grace he was immediately made whole.
[17] his command over demons: his death among the people of Trevi, There was a certain woman named Lucia who for more than twenty years had been vexed by a demon; who, hearing the holy Man's fame, came before his sight, and the Saint spoke many words with the demon: and the demon was so bound by the Saint's power that he dared say no word. All these things and many others being accomplished in the city of Trevi, and while he remained there in the space of twenty days, he passed from this world to the heavenly country. In his very passing he freed the aforesaid Lucia from the demon; and the demon himself, while the Saint had life, very often declared that he must be driven out by the Man of God.
[18] his obsequies, the fragrance of his body, his burial. For when blessed Peter passed to the Lord, the people and clergy of the city of Trevi gather with veneration and trembling to perform his obsequies; and seeing his body filled with odor g, like snow, smelling more sweetly than a lily, and examined by all, stretching their palms to the stars they rendered thanks to almighty God: and so thereafter, being buried in a sarcophagus h, from that day until now he began to flash everywhere with innumerable miracles. O blessed Peter, confessor, shining light, devoutly pray the Lord for the clergy and people, and for all the elders of this land, that, fortified by thy kindly prayers, they may be delivered from all evils, may fully enjoy temporal goods, and may be able to receive everlasting life.
ANNOTATIONS.
*. He granted. *. That is, in the sun.
CHAPTER III.
Miracles after the Saint's death; his canonization.
Those suffering in the hand, with fevers, The miracles which after the holy Man's death our Lord Jesus Christ has shown you, most beloved brethren, we wish to relate. There was a certain girl, the daughter of a most valiant soldier, who by the disease of a fistula, so to speak, had almost lost her hand; who, when she heard the Saint's fame, presently came to his tomb. And when she besought God's Saint with tearful prayers, by the granting of divine grace and by the merits of blessed Peter she was immediately healed.
After this there came a certain man from the castle which is called Porciano a, who was so oppressed with fevers that his head and his whole body were almost convulsed in pains. And hearing that such things had happened at Trevi through God's Servant, without any delay he hastened to approach his sepulcher. And as soon as he came, he did not fail to entreat with heart and mouth God's servant Peter: whose prayers, and blessed Peter's intercession with God, we have known to have been heard, because he returned to his own home sound and unharmed.
[20] with the falling sickness, with a withered finger, are cured: a healing oil: There was a certain young man of the city of Alatri b, who was oppressed with that infirmity which is called by men the falling sickness c; who often fell to the ground, as if dead, wherever he was. But as soon as he came to God's Saint's tomb, he received from him his former health.
A certain girl born of the town of Vico [c] — a finger of her hand, withered and full of ulcer, could be cured by none of the physicians; but her mother, coming to blessed Peter's sarcophagus, vowed a vow to God and to blessed Peter that her daughter might be healed of her infirmity. Which being done, by the granting of divine clemency, by the merits of blessed Peter the finger of the girl's hand was immediately healed. And the mother, seeing her daughter healed of the disease of her finger, together with that same daughter rendered innumerable thanks to almighty God and to blessed Peter the confessor, and unceasingly pay the offices of praise with their vow.
Another miracle also wrought after his death we wish to bring forth. From the marble d with which blessed Peter's body was covered, a manna flowing unfailingly at his feet afforded a remedy to all who suffered infirmity; and so many, made glad and sound, being anointed with so great an oil, with thanksgiving returned with dancing to their own houses, blessing the Lord, who is wonderful in his Saints.
[21] his patronage against troublesome wolves: And moreover on a certain night a certain man of Trevi was lying in a field, when the terror of wolves devouring children was very great. Blessed Peter, confessor and defender of the eternal faith, seeing his people greatly beset with the terror of wolves, willed to appear to the aforesaid man, holding in one hand the wolves chained, and in the other having a glass vessel full of a most holy liquid; and to him half-asleep he said: How dost thou lie so secure? dost thou not fear the ravening wolves? He answered thus: But I have commended myself to God and to his most holy Mother, by whose defense I dare to lie here. Blessed Peter answered him: Thou sayest well: rouse thyself from sleep, and go, and recount these things to the people of Trevi, and say that they keep the Lord's day, which they promised, if they wish to be freed from the rage of the wolves; and that thou mayest believe this, turn thine eyes. He drew out some of the liquid of the glass vessel and threw it upon a stone. That stone was suddenly melted. So shall the rage of the wolves be melted away, if they shall begin firmly to observe the Lord's day. He recounted this to the people, and likewise confirmed it by the oath granted him by blessed Peter. And the Lord's day began to be observed, and the wolves were found dead through the byways e.
[22] Another miracle also we wish to bring forth, that we may know blessed Peter truly to have been God's servant. the appearance of a dove at the Saint's translation: When he had been translated from his tomb f to the altar, devoutly, with the clerics and bishops and with all the people singing psalms with worthy voice, God sent his angel in the likeness of a dove, which, many looking on, settled upon the tomb, and, flying through the church, flew away through the windows into the sky.
[23] Since the loving and merciful Lord bids the burning lamp be set not under a bushel a little boy most grievously afflicted in his left side but on high, that it may give light to all, we desire that a certain miracle which the Lord himself among others by the merits of blessed Peter the confessor willed to bring forth in our times should not be hidden from posterity. For when a certain little boy of Trevi, three years old, named Liotus, by a horrible infirmity coming upon him, had almost entirely lost his left side from the groin downward, so that he could not in any degree move his foot from the place, his parents, afflicted with unspeakable grief, for the space of three days uttered continual groaning. At last indeed, trusting in the merits of blessed Peter the confessor, they carried that little boy to the church of blessed Mary of Trevi, where his body rests, vowing to blessed Peter on bended knees and humbly beseeching that he would deign to free their son from such an infirmity.
[24] But when Peter the abbot, the humble minister of that church, he is healed by the Saint's tunic: beholding his parents held by so great a grief, moved with mercy, took the tunic g of blessed
Peter, bearing it with reverence, and laying it upon the sick boy, signed him with the sign of the cross. And these things being accomplished, the aforesaid little boy, his former health being received, by the favor of divine grace suddenly raised himself and most devoutly kissed that tunic; and on his own feet, together with his aforesaid parents, returned to his own home. Which prodigy being beheld by the people of Trevi, they rendered innumerable praises to the Lord. By these prayers, therefore, with blessed Peter's suffrage, let us hasten to the city where the royal hall gleams with tawny domes, and where worthy things are given to him who asks, our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
[25] A certain woman of the aforesaid place labored grievously with the sickness of an abscess h which she had in her throat; many brought back by him from various ills to soundness: and she spent much on physicians, and it profited her nothing, because by no one's charms nor by the medicines of physicians could she wholly recover health. The woman dismissed the counsels of the physicians and asked the suffrages of holy Peter's merits: she entered devoutly into the church of the Mother of God, and before the Saint's altar prayed with mourning voice. And the prayer being completed, a certain cleric signed her throat with holy Peter's relics; suddenly the woman then received the former health which she had lost. To many who languished, by his intervening merits, health has been restored. He gives back light to the blind: he cast off from the arms of a certain penitent iron rings i, which to this day hang above the altar k, that to the praise of his name they may be seen by all.
[26] A certain woman Lucia, by his intervening grace, was freed from a demon. The diabolical rage of the wolves, who were ravishers of men, is seen by some to have been driven from our parts. women possessed freed Let us therefore pray him that, protected by his patronage, we may be freed from the ambushes of the invisible wolves — that is, of the devils — who daily cease not to plunder the sheepfolds of men; which may he deign to grant who is God blessed above all for ever and ever. Amen.
Since the tongue of flesh ought not to be silent for the praises of the Lord, and blessed Peter the confessor is known to flourish daily with innumerable miracles, we desire that the wonders which the Lord, we being present, willed to bring forth by his merits should be related to Christ's faithful. For a certain girl of Trevi, named Mary, in the silence of the night was overshadowed by the infirmity which is called the epileptic disease l, or by a most wicked and most bitter spirit; who indeed with bared head, tearing her disheveled hair, struck herself with clenched fists, and twisted her hands and sides monstrously, crying out with a demoniac voice; and her neighbors, roused by the tumult and noise, suddenly came to her, her parents being moved with vast lamentation, beholding her with tearful eyes.
[27] by a malignant spirit. And the aforesaid neighbors, trusting in the mercy of Christ, who is wont to pour out his grace by the merits of blessed Peter upon those who firmly have faith and devoutly ask, were busy to carry the said Mary with devotion to the church m of blessed Peter. Whence, when, she resisting and crying out and by no means willing to enter the church, they, being hindered, humbly carried her with the greatest difficulty to the altar where his body rests, with tearful, bended knees they most devoutly besought the Lord for her. But when Peter, abbot of that church, beholding the girl so vexed, amid the throng of women weeping with a loud voice, being clothed in priestly vestment, candles being lighted, brought that Confessor's tunic; and laying it upon the sufferer, signed her with the sign of the cross: which being done, the girl, being at once called, by the grace of that bestowal was freed from such an infirmity, and rendered suppliant praises to the Creator.
[28] With solemn rite St. Peter And because the course of gliding times snatches away the memory of the things that are done, the caution of the prudent has provided against the disadvantage of oblivion by the help of writing, since a matter clear to those of today is often, by the length of time, rendered obscure to posterity: whence I, Peter, humble minister of the church of St. Mary of Trevi n, desire that certain things which were done by the reverend father the lord Hugh, Cardinal priest of the title of St. Sabina o, should not lie hidden from posterity.
[29] is canonized in the year 1215. Hence it is that, when the said lord had for nearly two years, in the said [*] and partly in the autumn season, with all his mind set on the refreshment of his spirit, prolonged his stay at the church of St. Theodore [p], having read through the miracles of the most blessed Peter the confessor [q], and having learned that the bishop of Anagni of good memory, the diocesan of the place [r], with other bishops of Campania, before the time of the council of the lord Pope Innocent III [s], had, so far as he could, solemnly canonized the body of that blessed Peter, coming devoutly with reverence to the church of St. Mary, where his body rests, on his festival, together with the patriarch of Jerusalem [t], who had visited him, he took the little casket which hung above the altar of blessed Peter, in which some of his relics were found, and carrying it in procession to the altar which is above, humbly adored the relics which were in it, and most devoutly showed them to the people standing by and praising the Lord. And afterward, offering the Sacrifice to the Lord, he narrated in his sermon some of blessed Peter's miracles, and announced an indulgence of three years and four quarantines, besides the forty days which that lord himself willed to grant to all truly penitent. Done in the year MCCLX, in the VI year of the pontificate of the lord Pope Alexander IV, in the III Indiction, on the last day of the month of August [u].
ANNOTATIONS.
p. The church of St. Theodore on the bank of the river Anio, near the stone bridge which is therefore called il ponte de S. Teodoro, where formerly was the seat and palace of the bishop of Trevi, of whose walls traces still exist; and this same church is believed to have been the cathedral and metropolitan of the whole diocese of Trevi; afterward abbatial, which in the year MCCXXVII by Gregory IX, a Pontiff of Anagni, was subjected to the bishop of Anagni; as from the bull printed in Ughelli under the bishops of Anagni, number XXVIII, from the Vatican register, and from the archive of Trevi. About the year MD, this ancient church being ruined, another was erected in its place within the town of Trevi, even now abbatial, with ten clerics, its own abbot being reckoned, who nevertheless in the year MDCLXXIII were united to the eight canonries and to the archpriest, or abbot, of the aforesaid St. Mary's.
q. Hence is deduced that the life and deeds of this Saint were at that time well enough known and expressed in writings, and that the later miracles were further narrated by the aforesaid abbot Peter and transmitted to posterity after the year MCCLX, at least from the year MCCC.
r. The bishop of Anagni had obtained the church and bishopric of Trevi united to his own diocese already from about the year MLVII by a bull of Pope Victor II, confirmed successively by Urban II likewise, Alexander III, and other Pontiffs down to Gregory IX: who at last willed that the aforesaid abbatial church of St. Theodore, left exempt, should also be subject to that same bishop. Whence he is rightly called the diocesan of the place, as from the archive of Anagni: by which is refuted the error of the modern chronicler of Subiaco, who faultily wrote that the bishopric of Trevi lasted until Alexander IV, moved by the fact that in many writings of the archive of Subiaco Trevi is read under the name of a city, which it once had been by reason of its own bishop.
s. The year also of this holy Peter's canonization is precisely expressed: because
this council, celebrated at Rome by Innocent III, was begun on the XI day of November of the year MCCXV, and was the fourth Lateran, opened in the Lateran basilica, and the XIV ecumenical or general council, as in volume 1 of the Councils, in Baronius, Spondanus, and others. And the day of that canonization is read expressed in the bull of indulgences for the church of St. Mary of Trevi granted by Alexander VI in the year MDII, namely the first day of October, which had preceded the time of the aforesaid council; in which month of October the aforesaid Pope Innocent was staying in his native Anagni, where he had given power to John, bishop of Anagni, and to the other bishops of Campania — namely those of Alatri, Veroli, Ferentino, Segni, Tivoli, and others — of accomplishing the aforesaid canonization at Trevi in that very subterranean church of St. Peter of the collegiate of St. Mary.
t. This was Jacques Pantaléon of the city of Troyes in France; who, coming from Jerusalem to Rome to transact business for the Holy Land, came as far as Anagni, where in this year and in the month of August the Pontiff Alexander IV was staying: to whom, when that great patriarch had come, being drawn by the nearness of the place and by love of visiting his friend, he set out from the city of Anagni to Trevi; where he greeted the aforesaid cardinal Hugh, his fellow-provincial and familiar friend, and together with him by his very presence rendered pious homage to the sacred relics of St. Peter; nay more, in the following year MCCLXI, on the same day on which he was staying at Trevi, on the eve of that very feast of St. Peter the confessor, the XXIX of August, that excellent man and patriarch, although he was not yet a cardinal, after the death of Alexander IV was raised to the supreme Pontificate under the name of Urban IV; who at once, among the other affairs of the universal church, being well mindful of the town of Trevi and of its protector St. Peter, freed it from the hands of tyrants and restored it to its former state, as Théodose Vallicolor and other writers of the Life of St. Urban IV narrate, whose feast, according to Ferrarius, is celebrated at Troyes in France on the XXX day of September: for he is venerated as a Saint.
u. From the circumstances of time — namely of the year, month, and day — concerning the Pontificate of Alexander IV, then staying at Anagni, the truth of this narrative is confirmed, which the said Peter, abbot of St. Mary's, committed to writing as an eyewitness, as was related above.
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