Bonaiuncta

ON BL. BONAIUNCTA, CONFESSOR, ONE OF THE SEVEN FOUNDERS OF THE ORDER OF THE SERVANTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY,

ON MONTE SENARIO NEAR FLORENCE,

In the year MCCLVII.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Bonaiuncta, of the Order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on Monte Senario near Florence (Bl.)

BY J. P.

§ I. Various matters pertaining to this Blessed treated elsewhere; while he asks alms, he detects poison offered him, and takes it without harm; his government of the Order.

Monte Senario was described at length in this volume on the XXVII day of this month, page 133, [Various things about him to be sought from the 27th of August: while he asks alms] when I illustrated the deeds of Bl. Manettus of Antella, there wrongly called John, who was one of the seven Florentine founders of the Order of the Servants of Blessed Mary, and General of that same Order, as was Bl. Bonaiuncta, whom I set forth on this day. Various things I premised on the said XXVII day which belong here, namely the change of his name, his manner of life in the world, his age, his nobility. But of his priesthood and of the Order of the Servants of the blessed Virgin Mary see in the same place, page 134; his most severe austerity of life you have at page 138. But these things are proper to Bl. Bonaiuncta, which I cull from the Annals of the said Order, by Fr. Arcangelo Giani. Century one, book 1, chapter XI, folio 8, thus praises his charity toward his companions and the modesty of his soul, among other things which he refers to the years of Christ 1235, 1236, and 1237: By his (Bonfilius's, who also is one of the seven blessed founders of the Order) command and authority two are at once sent to Florence, who should daily transmit thither (that is, to Monte Senario) the alms received from door to door through the city from pious men.

[2] This office of begging is first committed to the prudent man Bonaiuncta, notable for his gravity of manners, with his companion Alexis : begging from door to door, (for Alexis was the humblest of them all, and disposed no less by nature than by will to bear every discomfort.) And he most gladly exercised that office for his companions as long as he lived. But when those two noble and most approved men were first seen through the city so humbly asking alms with little sacks upon their shoulders, you would have seen the whole city likewise stirred, and the people running up (it was then the feast of the Epiphany); you would have heard again infants and boys crying out: Behold the servants, behold the servants of Blessed Mary; you would have seen the same clapping their hands, coaxing their mothers in their arms, and asking: Give alms to the servants of Mary.*

[3] falling in with But in the notes upon the aforesaid chapter XI is this: That Bonaiuncta and Alexis were the first who begged alms through the city the author infers from this, that the former of them was to have been killed with poison under the appearance of alms by Antonio, a most wicked citizen and usurer, as will appear in its place; and that the other, Alexis, always of his own accord served in this office in the habit of the laity, thinking himself unworthy to be promoted to holy orders. But if the author has written otherwise in the history of Bl. Philip, book 3, chapter 1, folio 191, he did so deceived by the authority of previous writers, to whom it is to be imputed as a fault. But the story which was here indicated, of the poison overcome by Bl. Bonaiuncta through the sign of the cross, Giani, alleged above, describes at greater length, book 2, chapter 5, folio 16, recording this at the year of Christ 1244: Among other crimes which by the iniquity of men seemed at that time greatly to provoke God to vengeance, one was that burning goad of avarice, by which very many, being driven, strove above all to oppress their neighbor daily with great usuries, that they might become rich from the mammon of iniquity.

[4] Wherefore God sent a very great want of all things, by which alike the rich and the poor were pressed with hunger through almost all Italy; from which afterwards, a grievous pestilence raging everywhere, the cemeteries scarcely sufficed for burying the bodies of the dead. with a most wickedly avaricious man, In that failure of all things, therefore, a certain Antonio, a citizen of Florence, exceedingly rich from usuries and iniquity, in order that he might elude the poor Brethren Servants who daily sought alms through the city, and cast them from the door of his house, that man most given to avarice devised this snare to lay for those who sought mercy. For when Brothers Alexis and Bonaiuncta, upon whom the office of collecting alms had long before been laid, were begging through the city in those calamitous days, it chanced that one of them, Bonaiuncta, recognized this Antonio as a worthless man from a former long acquaintance; whom, seizing the occasion of asking alms, he approached (as he was a Man innocent of hands and clean of heart),

and, being smitten with religious zeal, began sharply to rebuke him for his many and great usuries; and, objecting with many arguments the precept of God about not stealing, and setting before his eyes the command of Christ that those who lend should hope for nothing thereby, he had begun vehemently to deter the man.

[5] For he moved and at the same time admonished the man who was most greedy of another's goods, when he heard that the sword of the almighty God's anger already threatened; that a time fit for redeeming his sins by alms was now at hand in that calamitous season; that he could again not only restore what he had taken away, but even, after the example of Zacchaeus, repay fourfold; that he could leave the toll-booth and his usuries with Matthew; that finally the recent example of the seven Florentines, who had exchanged trade for a celibate life, might well enough persuade him to give up his usuries; that otherwise, unless he restored his ill-gotten gains and came to his senses from his iniquities, it was all over with his soul, and nothing remained for him but the fire of hell with the wicked rich man. rebuking him for his unjust gains, But that most wicked man, dissembling that this urgent and, as it were, free correction of brother Bonaiuncta, once his familiar friend, was pleasing and profitable to him, and craftily promising that he himself would willingly restore in full measure what he had gotten by fraud, and giving him thanks, dismissed him with these deceitful words, saying: Soon, Father, you shall see the fruit of this your charity and rebuke bestowed upon me: meanwhile aid my purpose with your prayers.

[6] Then Bonaiuncta, exulting as a victor over the devil he detects and overcomes the poison offered him at his command. and giving thanks to God, while he prays to God for that usurer, behold a certain maidservant of Antonio at the door of the hospice, bringing loaves in her master's name with a flagon of wine. But at once the Spirit of God came upon Bonaiuncta as he rose from prayer, revealing that that food was infected with poison. Taking the gifts, therefore, from the little woman's hand, he said: These I gladly accept from your master's liberality on this condition, that you, woman, first pledging me of them, do not refuse to taste them. And when the old woman, ignorant of her master's frauds, was of her own accord about to do so: Stop, he said, daughter, take care not to bring it to your mouth, and know that these gifts are prepared with poison, with which your master intended to kill me; but returning home you shall see that your master has wretchedly suffered these same penalties in my stead. Which said, after the example of St. Benedict, having purified the bread and the wine with the sign of the cross, while that little woman looked on, he tasted and drank them without any harm. But the maidservant, returning home, found in terror her master Antonio stretched upon the pavement and dead. The report of this portent, spread through the city, greatly increased the opinion and veneration of the most upright life and holiness of Bonaiuncta among the citizens of Florence: since the brethren also, seeing such things of him daily, had already thought of committing to him weightier offices of their Order, and meanwhile of having the greatest reverence toward him, so that a few years afterwards (which remains to be told in its place) they conferred on him the supreme magistracy of governing the Servite commonwealth. Does not the above narrative seem to have been amplified?

[7] This history In the notes upon this history this is brought forward: That there was a great scarcity at this time, which was afterwards followed by a grievous pestilence, the records from the archive of the convent of Florence attest, besides the most trustworthy interpreters of those times. Then what Giani reported as having passed between Bl. Bonaiuncta and the Usurer is confirmed in the same notes from Pocc. (that is, Pocciantius) in the Lives of the seven Blessed, and before him from the Dialogue of Paul to Pietro de' Medici, from which he is said to have gathered it. From the Dialogue on the Origin of the Servite Order of Paul of Florence I have narrated some things in the account of Bl. Manettus of Antella, page 137, where I also more clearly designated that little Work; but here I shall record and confirm that miracle, both because Paul addressed his little Work about the middle of the fifteenth century to Pietro de' Medici, and because the narrative is not too long and differs from the above. In Martène, then, volume 6 of the Most Ample Collection, columns 576 and 577, it is reported in these words: I shall show another foundation and immortal glory of our Order, whose name is John . He by the grace of the Holy Spirit is held a man worthy of the highest praise, so that even until now he is not unknown to anyone. First, being illustrious in the practice of the virtues and enlightened with the sacred light of Christ, he labored much for our Order, and burned with zeal for the affairs of the faithful; making no account of his own patrimony, poor, he entered on the widowhood of the Virgin.*

[8] Wherefore, most ardent in the practice of a holy life, and made drunk with the sweetness of charity, he did not shrink from strong torments of the body. is confirmed from elsewhere Let them be silent, therefore, who detract from the servants of God; nor let them ever despise holy religion. There was a certain citizen of Florence, noble on account of the flying report of his riches, who was called by the name Antonio. He on a certain day came to John by way of a walk, desiring to be better informed of the man's excellent virtue. Whose thought John perceiving from afar, said: Alas, wretched body, wrapped in the chains of riches, you snatch away the labors of the poor: to one giving death, but to the other health, at your pleasure. Not so. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. Which words thundering in the citizen's ears, he fell into the greatest terror, lest the man's excellent fame should raise the common people into a hope whereby they should never enjoy the life most pleasant to mortals.

[9] Whereby it came about that he determined to kill him with poison; and he delivered to him, through a certain maidservant, wine into which it was poured, under the appearance of alms. it is confirmed: But John, the Holy Spirit teaching him, said: Drink the cup which you prepare for me. And she, out of shame and fear, ignorant of the deed, wishing to taste, was held back by the Man. And she said: What cup is this, Father? To whom John answered: Tell him who bade you give me a deadly draught that I have drunk the whole cup. He must die for me along with you. And having applied the sign of the cross, he boldly took the wine. A wondrous thing: at the same hour Antonio, absent, dies by a sudden fall. John is preserved unharmed. And if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them, the Gospel proclaims. Wherefore, of how great merits and how great virtue he was, discourse does not require to be labored further.

[10] Giani at the year of Christ 1255, century 1, book 2, he is made General of the Order: chapter 20, folio 24, writes of a general chapter held at Florence, in which Bl. Bonfilius the General asked and obtained that another should be substituted for him. To that first head of the Order, therefore, Bl. Bonaiuncta succeeded as the second: whom, an excellent Man, as Giani narrates, the fathers assembled chose by all their votes, and hailed as supreme prelate of the Order. For they knew that he was greatly adorned both with prudence in human affairs and with wisdom in divine, and that he was far distinguished by uprightness and most holy manners. But that the supreme government of the Order was committed to him in the aforesaid year the Notes upon the same twentieth chapter, folio 24 verso, confirm: That Bonaiuncta was elected General in this year, and neither earlier nor later, most certain records of certain purchases of lands indicate, as Pocciantius seems to suggest in the Chronicle, and as the author saw in the archive of the convent of Florence: for in those contracts, first, of the year MCCLV, he is called Prior of the Annunziata, then in another he is called General of the Order of Servites, as may also be seen in the catalogue of the Generals of the same author.

[11] But an error committed somewhere concerning a certain circumstance of the election wrongly narrated, a certain error in this matter is corrected. the Notes in the same place record and correct. Let us hear the matter from them: That Bonaiuncta was not made General by the authority of the letters of Alexander IV, as some are deceived into thinking, the difference of time from the year MCCLVI to the year MCCLIX indicates, when the faculty of creating a General is granted by those same letters of Alexander IV. It may nevertheless be believed that this was done by an oracle of the living voice, or by the permission of William the protector. Whence the author seems to need correction in the History of Bl. Philip, book 1, chapter IX, who, following Pocciantius's Chronicle, fell into the same error, saying that this General was created after the indult of Alexander IV, and issued many decrees in this chapter, and first divided the Order into provinces: which to assert of this year is not sufficiently consonant with truth, as will afterwards be seen in its places; for the Order was as yet governed not by laws and constitutions but by the resolutions of the fathers, because the General had not yet received full faculty from the Pontiff, as he had afterwards in MCCLIX, as will appear below.

\* That is, Alexis, one of the seven Blessed founders.

\* So also the Blessed was called.

§ II. His sickness; the spirit of prophecy; his virtues; the wonderful strength of body and spirit before his death; a medal of the Blessed; his yearly announcement in the Roman Martyrology.

The Blessed's slow sickness, and his foresight of his death: The death of our Blessed, precious in the sight of the Lord, and certain memorable circumstances of that death, Giani, cited above, narrates in book 2, chapter 21. I subjoin his words: From the time when the blessed father Bonaiuncta, the General, a year having now revolved, had obtained Cardinal Ottobono as protector of the Servites, while he was visiting those few houses of the Order which then existed, and the Order had conceived the greatest hope of his administration, he came at last to Senario, to visit the fathers and that place most dear to him. For he had determined, departing thence, to return straight to the court, that, by the intercession of Ottobono the protector, he might at once obtain the privileges which Alexander IV had promised for the strengthening of his Order; but while he hopes to recover his strength by resting a while at Senario, behold, he perceives himself little by little weighed down by a certain slow sickness, from which at length, foreseeing that the day of his departure from this mortal life was at hand, he foretold that the hour of his death also was pressing.

[13] the spirit of prophecy: The blessed Man's spirit of prophecy and his virtues the Annals report in the same place in these words: Bl. Bonaiuncta was, besides his other virtues, adorned also by God with the spirit of prophecy, which privilege it must be believed came to him from purity of heart alone (for they easily penetrate the secrets of God who are clean of heart). He is said also to have presided with such charity toward his neighbor that he was held severe and sparing toward himself, but indulgent and most kindly toward others; a most bitter enemy and pursuer of the avaricious and usurers, the plunderers of the poor, and other rapacious men of that kind; but toward those who bestowed liberality upon the poor always fair, always friendly, and for whom he daily poured forth especial prayers.

[14] a grateful mind toward those who deserved well of the Order: After these things there follows in the same place the pious custom of the Blessed, afterwards introduced by his example into the Order of the Servites, of praying for those who deserved well of that Order: For he was wont at table, either when he came to it or when he rose from it, to pray to God in secret, not without tears and thanksgiving, for those by whose help that table had been prepared. Wherefore from his teaching there afterwards followed that so pious custom, that, thanksgiving having been made after table, the brethren together in silence, until the Superior gives the signal, dart forth to God sighs and prayers from the depths of their hearts for their benefactors, whose sins in a manner

they have eaten at that table. Hence too that very ancient usage is kept, that not only are the benefactors of this Order written in tablets and entered in the register, and to every priest daily saying Mass some one of the deceased benefactors is commended by his own name, but also in the provincial as well as the General chapters an especial commemoration is made of each, suffrages and Sacrifices being appointed by the Superior for each of them: all which flowed from the institution of this Bl. Bonaiuncta into laws and constitutions to be observed for ever.

[15] the Sacrifice of the Mass being celebrated To these is subjoined the wonderful and likewise most holy death of the Blessed, which he even foretold, though it seemed by no means so near. Let us hear the Annals: At the hour, therefore, of his passing to heaven (since he was daily wont to offer that unbloody Sacrifice with many tears), as though his departure were at hand, whereby he should be invited to the royal nuptials of paradise, he wished with cheerful spirit to prepare himself for that same Sacrifice; he put on the vestments, went to the altar, offered the Sacrifice with the brethren standing by, among whom was also Fr. Philip Benizi; he tasted, and brought it forth for the others to taste; and at last he came to the end of the Mass with the blessing of all — as if not an old man, not sick, not dying, but as though kindled with a certain vigorous ardor, he were hastening after the manner of Elias in the strength of that food unto the mountain of eternal glory.

[16] before the brethren, Which being done, standing before the brethren at that same altar and clothed in the same priestly vestments, like another patriarch Jacob before his sons, he first foretold that his departure from life was at hand; that a tribulation was near at hand for the Order; then no small increase; and that mutual charity would not be wanting to them, provided that, wearing always with the utmost veneration that holy habit which they had received in that place, they should call to mind the mysteries of Jesus Christ our Lord suffering for us, and should often meditate on the sorrows of his most sorrowful Mother. In the Notes upon the aforesaid chapter 21 this is indicated: What the author reports of blessed Bonaiuncta is easily gathered from the Chronicle and the Lives of the seven Blessed of Pocciantius, and from the Dialogue of Paul, and from the history of Bl. Philip, book 1, chapter 9. Thus there, upon these words: Bl. Bonaiuncta was, continued above at number 13.

[17] Let us go on with Giani to the last things which he narrates of that same blessed Confessor: intent on the meditation of Christ suffering, he falls asleep in the Lord: And while these things were being done, it was Friday, the day before the Kalends of September, whose venerable and especial commemoration among the Brethren Servants so moved the mind of Bl. Bonaiuncta and of those standing by, that he himself, relating each mystery of the passion with fervent meditation, when he had come to that place of the crucifixion: And they crucified him, poured forth as it were a fountain of tears from his eyes, weighing on the one hand the sins of the human race, on the other the immense mercy of the most holy Son of God. Wherefore, with arms spread and hands extended, as though he were then to be fastened to the cross with Christ, all who were present weeping, when he had come to that word: Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit, he truly gave up his spirit into the hands of the Lord, some tokens of his holiness following. But among all, one especial had already followed, which our Lord had foretold of such as believe in him: If they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; since it is established that the poison offered and drunk did not at all harm this Man, who signed it with the sign of the cross, as was said above.

[18] Wherefore no one will wonder if he sees this blessed Man, of grave aspect and long beard, bearing and contemplating in his hands an image of Christ crucified, on an ancient bronze medal, his image and a medal: which John, a pious man of that illustrious family of the Manetti, having received it from his forefathers, most gladly offered in this our age to the fathers of Monte Senario, for the perpetual memory of so illustrious a Man. The Notes say: The author saw the bronze medal of the image of Bl. Bonaiuncta, as is stated in that same history of Bl. Philip, of which was said above; which today is preserved among the sacred monuments of Senario, John Manetti, a very close friend of the author, being the giver: who, to renew the memory of this Blessed in his family at this time, gave the name of Bonaiuncta to one of his sons. Thus there. Add this: our Blessed is called John Manetti and John in the Commentary on Bl. Manettus of Antella, which we cited before. But in Giani, in the index to the Annals, under the letter b, he is called Bl. Bonaiuncta de' Manetti. And the things which we have narrated above from him in the course of this §2 are fitted by that same author to the year 1257, by whose example we too have assigned the Blessed's death to that year.

[19] his eulogy in the Roman Martyrology. In the year 1728 the seven founders of the Order of Servites were ordered by Apostolic authority to be inscribed in the Roman Martyrology. See the Commentary on the aforesaid Manettus of Antella just alleged, pages 138 and 139. And our Blessed is commanded to be added to that Martyrology on this XXXI day of August, in these words: Near Florence on Monte Senario, of blessed Bonaiuncta, confessor, one of the seven blessed founders of the Servants of the Most Holy Virgin: who, renowned for excellent merits, when, the Sacrifice being finished, he was speaking in his sacred vestments to his brethren of the Lord's passion, and had come to that word of the Gospel, "And they crucified him," with arms and hands opened, as though he were to be fastened to a cross, having afterwards recited those words, "Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," suddenly gave up his spirit into the hands of the Lord.