ON BLESSED ANTHONY THE PILGRIM, AT PADUA IN ITALY.
Year of Christ 1267.
PrefaceAnthony the Pilgrim, at Padua in Italy (Blessed)
By I. B.
[1] Ezzelino, a most atrocious tyrant, set not so much over Padua and the neighboring cities as prefect by the Emperor Frederick II, as sent by God to avenge the sins of the people (as a heavenly revelation shown to a holy man reports, according to Bernardinus Corius, History of Milan, part 2, at the year 1207), although he perpetrated innumerable slaughters of men and other infinite crimes, while Ezzelino the tyrant raged, nevertheless gave occasion to some either to undergo a glorious death for the sake of justice, or to order their lives piously. We shall relate on February 10 the case of Blessed Arnald, an Abbot extinguished by the foulness of prison at his command. To escape his fury, Anthony, Anthony, a Paduan nobleman, flees: born of the noble Manzio family, of his father Marsilius and his mother Dulcina, fled from his homeland and cultivated piety abroad, visiting places celebrated for miracles and religion; at length, when the tyrant had been destroyed, he returned to his homeland, and there, unknown even to his own family, spent some years in the utmost poverty. In the brief Chronicle of Paduan affairs, from the year 1189 to 1325, published after the Chronicle of Rolandinus, at the year 1267 these words appear: "Blessed Anthony the Pilgrim died in this year." Guglielmo and Albriceto Cortusio, who wrote their history around the year 1364, book 1, chapter 8, have the following: "In the same year (1266) Blessed Anthony the Pilgrim died." From their testimony it is clear that he was commonly called "Blessed" already three hundred years ago.
[2] Bernardinus Scardeonius composed a brief epitome of his life in his Antiquities of Padua, book 2, class 6, section on Blessed Anthony Manzio the Pilgrim. he goes on pilgrimage for five years: Angelus Portenarus also treats of him in his Paduan Felicity, book 9, chapter 40, and reports that even before he fled from his homeland he was of the most upright character, and so generous to the poor that he poured out all his goods upon them; that he went on pilgrimage for five years, and after the death of Ezzelino, which occurred in the year 1259, [after death he is buried in the church of S. Maria de Porcilia: relics transferred into the city,] he returned to his homeland and thenceforth lived by begging, using no other lodging than the portico of the church of the convent of S. Maria de Porcilia outside the walls. This convent of nuns was demolished in the year 1509, when the Emperor Maximilian was preparing a siege of the city, as was the other Camaldolese convent nearby. The nuns withdrew to the monastery of St. Benedict within the city, and carried there the body of Blessed Anthony and of Blessed Compagnus, which had been left in the neighboring church by the Camaldolese and had been brought by the soldiers themselves to the nuns' church, as Portenarus writes.
[3] In the year 1575 the same nuns built another convent, through the patronage and effort of Daulus Doctus, and it was called after Blessed Anthony the Pilgrim; the church was dedicated in the year 1581. For the memory of the matter, this inscription was engraved upon a stone: then, a convent built in his name, "To Daulus Doctus, son of Bernardinus, originally of the Dauli family, because, when the convent and church of St. Anthony the Pilgrim together with the other buildings near the walls had been destroyed by public decree lest they obstruct the city's defenses, he was designated Protector and with the greatest zeal had them restored in this place within the city; Lucretia Capivaccia, Abbess, and the other Virgins erected this monument because of his faithfulness and diligence. The church of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary was consecrated in the year 1581 from the birth of Christ, on the 17th day before the Kalends of June, by Federico Cornelio, Bishop of Padua." transferred there. In the same year, on the 25th of March, in a solemn procession of the entire Clergy, with the whole people accompanying them, the relics of Blessed Anthony the Pilgrim were carried to this new church, as were those of Blessed Compagnus, and placed in their ancient marble tombs, elevated upon small columns. Inscriptions were added on twin tablets, one of which is of this sort: "Here lies Blessed Anthony the Pilgrim of Padua, born of the Manzio family, who visited all the holy places. He died in the year of the Lord 1266, on the 30th of January." We shall give the other inscription on the 8th of October, the day on which the memory of Blessed Compagnus is observed.
[4] That it is here said he died in the year 1266 we believe to be an error, since the others already cited, as well as Scardeonius himself He died in the year 1267, January 30. and Portenarus too, report the contrary -- unless here too, as in France, the months before Easter pertained to the preceding year. We have therefore entered him under the Kalends of February, although he died on the 30th of January, because the inscription reported by Scardeonius expresses that day; whence we conjectured that on that day he was entombed, and venerated by the accustomed concourse of the people, with offerings and other marks of private piety, but not yet with public sacred rites, since he has not yet been enrolled by the Church in the catalogue of the Saints.
[5] Molanus entered his name on the same day, January 30, in his Additions to Usuard: "On the same day, of blessed memory, of Anthony the Pilgrim of Padua, born of the Manzio family, his commemoration in the Martyrology, January 30. who visited all the holy places and died in 1267." Canisius has the same, except that he makes him of Pavia or Paphos instead of Padua. Molanus in his second edition reports him on the same day in other words; on which day also Ferrarius, in his General Catalogue: "At Padua, of Blessed Anthony surnamed the Pilgrim."
[6] The same Ferrarius again on February 1: "At Padua, of Blessed Anthony surnamed the Pilgrim, of the Camaldolese Order." and February 1. Arnold Wion on the same day: "At Padua, in the convent of St. Benedict, the deposition of St. Ausonius (in the notes he has Anthony) surnamed the Pilgrim, of the Camaldolese Order, who, after the example of St. Alexius, serving his two sisters, who were nuns, remained unknown until death, and at last, full of good works, rested in peace." Menardus has the same. But that he was of the Camaldolese Order, neither the cited writers of Paduan affairs report, nor does it seem probable; for if he was a monk of that Order, why did he live in the portico of the church of S. Maria and not in the nearby Camaldolese convent? The occasion for suspecting this perhaps arose from the fact that Blessed Compagnus appears to have been of that Order, who rests in the same church as Anthony. Nor is it reported that he served his own sisters; nor did he die at the convent of St. Benedict, nor are his relics now preserved there, although they were deposited there for seventy years. More briefly, Benedict Dorganius writes on February 1: "Of St. Anthony, called the Pilgrim, who, full of good works, rested in peace."
LIFE, by Bernardinus Scardeonius.
Anthony the Pilgrim, at Padua in Italy (Blessed)
[1] At nearly the same a period lived also Blessed Anthony, surnamed the Pilgrim, Blessed Anthony, a beggar, goes on pilgrimage: who, from his earliest youth having begun to abominate the allurements of the world and to embrace heavenly things, while in the meantime the b tyranny of Ezzelino raged beyond measure, not compelled by any force like many others, but a voluntary fugitive, leaving his homeland, wandered over almost the entire globe as a beggar, living off the charity of others -- he who at home had previously fed beggars from his own means. He went therefore first to Jerusalem, Compostela, Rome, Loreto, and nearly all other places which either religion he visits sacred places: or the relics of some Apostle or outstanding Saint adorned. And so he spent nearly all the remainder of his life in traveling on pilgrimage, seeking daily sustenance by begging, not without immense labors of the body and sometimes with the greatest distress of mind.
[2] At length, having returned to his homeland, he lived for some time unknown, in the utmost destitution and misery, he returns to his homeland unknown: never recognized by anyone before the last day of his life. Finally, weariness, want of food, and intolerable cold brought him into a very grave illness; after death he is recognized by a written document: languishing for some time from this, he died. From a written document he was at last known after death -- both who he had been and for what reason he had been unwilling to be recognized by his own family. For he was born of the noble Manzio family of Padua, in the parish of St. Peter. He died in the year of salvation 1267, on the third day before the Kalends of February.
[3] He became illustrious after death through many great miracles, although he was not received into the catalogue of Saints by the Roman Church. he is illustrious for miracles: a chapel dedicated to him; He was nevertheless held at that time in the highest veneration at Padua, and a quite beautiful chapel was dedicated to him outside the Porcilia c gate; and by a municipal d decree it was established that on a fixed day a solemn procession should be made in his memory, a procession for that purpose: with all the shops in the entire city closed and a cessation from all servile work throughout the city imposed upon all, no less than if it had been commanded by the Supreme Pontiff.
[4] But as the blessed man became more and more illustrious with miracles day by day, canonization requested: the Paduans had petitioned the Supreme Pontiff through envoys that his name be inscribed in the catalogue of Saints. He replied that it could suffice well enough for the Paduans to have one Anthony who was sanctified. Nor was he for that reason held in any less honor thereafter than before, nor did it cease that on the same day the Praetor and other citizens would most honorably proceed in solemn pomp with the banners of the guilds and with the whole people, with wax candles, in religious procession, to salute the sacred Relics, both in the church of the nuns where he himself lay and in the neighboring church of the monks. relics transferred: Now, however, both convents having been demolished, the nuns withdrew within the city with these holy Relics, while the monks migrated to other monasteries of their Order at Venice, in the year of the Lord 1509. Of him, moreover, this epitaph is read there:
Here lies the body of Blessed Anthony the Pilgrim of Padua, born of the Manzio family, epitaph. who visited all the holy places, and died in the year 1267, on the Kalends of February.
Notes