Obitius

ON SAINT OBITIUS, CONFESSOR, AT BRESCIA IN ITALY,

AROUND THE YEAR 1200.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Obitius, Confessor, at Brescia in Italy (Saint)

By the author I. B.

[1] The cities of Cisalpine Gaul were once shattered by frequent and bloody wars among themselves, especially in those times when the German Emperors were endeavoring to destroy the dominion of the Roman Pontiff with impious arms. The former wars of the Lombard cities, and their causes And those cities were indeed drawn into factions, but in such a way that they rather exercised the hatreds ingrained in the minds of the populace. For the demons, who are occupied in sowing enmities among mortals, when they are released from the bonds by which they were restrained by Divine Justice, drive entire nations to destruction, often presenting in common one appearance while meanwhile moved by another end. Yet the propitious Deity is accustomed, even from these evils, to draw forth something for the salvation of men and the glory of His name. This can be discerned in the war that broke out in that region around the year 1191, in which year Henry VI, son of Frederick Barbarossa, received the crown of Empire from Celestine III.

[2] That war, and the causes of the war, after others, Charles Sigonius thus briefly summarized in his History of the Kingdom of Italy, Book 15: "In the same year another war arose among the Lombards, in the year 1191, by the Brescians and the Milanese begun from the Brescians and the Bergamasques, who had renewed their contention over borders. The Milanese favored the Brescians, the Cremonese the Bergamasques. But the Cremonese, having halted at Citta, a castle of the Bergamasques, with their carroccio in support of the Bergamasques, suffered great harm. For when on the Ides of July they had crossed the river Oglio and entered the territory of Brescia to plunder, they were overwhelmed by the enemy and forced to fight a battle; and as the multitude of the enemy prevailed, they were driven to flight the Cremonese defeated and not only lost the carroccio, but together with the Bergamasques were partly captured, partly drowned in the river Oglio, and many were also foully slain by the sword. This victory gave the victorious cities the appearance of a great triumph. The body of the carroccio was transported to Milan as a memorial of the deed. The Brescians carried the mast and the bell to Brescia, having lost the carroccio and suspended the mast in the cathedral church as a perpetual memorial of the trophy won from the neighboring enemies; the bell, however, they brought up into the tower of the people, and they instituted that it should be rung during the days of Carnival as a sign of public rejoicing."

[3] Lodovico Cavitelli of Cremona reports the same, and indeed numbers his fellow citizens' losses at five thousand -- some killed, some drowned -- one thousand wounded, and as many captured. Elias Capreolus agrees in Book 5 of the History of Brescia, except that he would have this event take place on the Nones of July, (what it was when the feast of Saint Apollonius the Bishop was celebrated. Sigonius explains in Book 7 what a carroccio is: namely, a banner which, placed upon a cart, they sent to wars with great religious reverence and which they defended in battle with great care. and how greatly it was valued And in Book 11 he writes that to be stripped of the carroccio was at that time considered a mark of notable disgrace. Donatus Bossius calls it the "carrocerum" and greatly diminishes this victory, but attributes it entirely to the Milanese and places it in the year 1190.

[4] Sigonius continues in Book 15, relating what devastations of fields were subsequently made, what battles were fought, and how the Cremonese were despoiled of a new carroccio; and how at length, through the mediation of Trussard, the Legate of the Emperor, peace was established in the year 1194. After the first defeat of the Cremonese, Capreolus commemorates the following: that the Bergamasques plundered the borders of Brescia the following winter and recovered the castle of Calepio by a nocturnal assault on March 29. Then, having joined the forces of the Cremonese, in the year 1192, defeated again they came as far as Pontoglio, or the bridge of the river Oglio, the westernmost fortification of the Brescians, on July 7. Twelve thousand Brescians went out to meet them, and in the engagement that followed, many of the Cremonese and Bergamasques were slain, many swallowed by the river Oglio, and not a few led away to Brescia as captives.

[5] In this battle, and as is likely also in the previous one, Obitius, a Brescian Knight and a most valiant man, took part. [then Obitius of Brescia, preserved among the dead when the bridge collapsed, sees the infernal regions in a rapture] It is related that, while he was vigorously pressing the enemy and fighting on the bridge over the Oglio, which suddenly collapsed under the excessive weight of the mingled multitude, he too fell into the river and was preserved unharmed the entire night among heaps of the slain and the drowned by the singular beneficence of God. Then, extracted by his fellow citizens and conveyed to a certain castle to be revived, he lay there and was seized by a deep sleep; and after he awoke, he related that he had been carried to the regions of the infernal world and had seen there an innumerable multitude of souls being cast down, as thick as snow customarily falls from the sky, and being torn by various and truly horrifying torments. Having therefore laid down his arms, he returned to Brescia, he lives holily thereafter and reflecting upon that singular beneficence of God toward him, he led thenceforth a most devout life and upon his death was buried in the church of Saint Julia. There, as he is invoked with great confidence by many, he is reported to have wrought not a few miracles.

[6] Thus Capreolus. Ferrarius reports nearly the same, though he writes that Obitius was seized in a rapture to the infernal regions while lying among the corpses of the enemy; he serves the nuns and adds that he was renowned for miracles both in life and after death, and narrates these things from the ancient records, as he says, of the convent of the nuns of Saint Julia, whom he says Obitius served for the sake of penance as long as he survived.

[7] "When a bridge," says Ferrarius, "was being built over the Oglio, and the hand of the architect had been crushed under a beam, he heals a crushed hand Obitius, wrapping it in his cloak and warming it with his hands, wonderfully healed it."

[8] Water with which the dead man was washed cured illnesses. When the body was being carried out for burial, and many who were sick were healed by being sprinkled with the water with which it had been washed, a certain maidservant, full of fistulas and sores, who had been unable to find any of the water, touched her sores with earth that had been moistened by that water, and was immediately healed.

[9] At his tomb a blind woman received sight; a crippled woman was cured. A blind woman, brought to the tomb of Saint Obitius by young girls, recovered her sight while she prayed most fervently, and returned home without requiring a guide for the way. A woman also whose entire body was crippled, brought to the tomb of Obitius, was cured -- not without the great amazement of those who knew her.

[10] A certain sick man also. A certain man was also so debilitated in his hands and feet that he could scarcely be moved from his place even when supported by crutches. After staying for a year in a chest near the sepulchre of Saint Obitius, when he touched it out of devotion, he received the ability to walk.

[11] He is venerated on February 4. Ferrarius adds that, although the name of Obitius is not noted in the Records of the Church of Brescia, his feast is nevertheless celebrated in the church of Saint Julia, Virgin and Martyr, where his body is preserved. He himself inscribed him in the general catalogue of Saints on this day as follows: "At Brescia in Transpadane Italy, of Saint Obitius, Confessor." Galesinius likewise: "At Brescia, of Saint Obitius, Confessor, at whose sepulchre many miracles have been produced by the gift of God."

ON BLESSED JOAN OF VALOIS, QUEEN OF FRANCE, FOUNDRESS OF THE ORDER OF THE ANNUNCIATION OF BLESSED MARY,

In the year of Christ 1505.

Preliminary Commentary.

Joan of Valois, Queen of France, Foundress of the Order of the Annunciation (Blessed)

By the author G. H.

Section 1. The royal lineage of Blessed Joan. Marriage contracted and dissolved.

[1] Bourges of the Bituriges, which we commonly call Bourges, the illustrious capital of Aquitania Prima, Among the Bituriges has been the seat of numerous Dukes descended from the blood of the Kings of France of the House of Valois since the year of Christ 1360. With that dignity there were distinguished: John, third son of King John, and brother of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy; another John, fourth son of King Charles VI, as also his brother Charles, later King Charles VII; and afterward his fourth son, also called Charles. After whom Francis, third son of Louis XI and brother of the most blessed Queen Joan, was honored with that Duchy. After the annulment of the marriage contracted with Louis XII, made in the year 1498, Blessed Joan dies in the year 1505 she also obtained this Duchy of Berry and ended the rest of her life, holily spent in that city, on February 4 of the year of Christ 1505 -- which is often numbered 1504, because the French at that time reckoned the beginning of the year from Easter, as has been said many times.

[2] This most noble Joan is surnamed both "of Valois" and "of France" on account of her illustrious ancestors, the Kings of France continued in the line of Valois. For her father was Louis XI, descended from the Valois Kings her grandfather Charles VII, her great-grandfather Charles VI, her great-great-grandfather Charles V, her great-great-great-grandfather John, her great-great-great-great-grandfather Philip of Valois, the son of Charles Duke of Valois, to whom the royal House of Valois owes its origin. This Duke Charles was the son of Philip the Bold, King of France, and the grandson of Saint Louis, to whom it suffices to have traced the ancestors of Blessed Joan. The interval of generations between Joan's father Louis XI and other French Kings and Saint Louis IX is the same as the distance between the latter and Hugh Capet, the first King of that family -- in whose descendants, through the fifth son of Saint Louis, Robert, the Royal Bourbon line now holds the French kingdom. At what time each of these reigned through nearly the last seven centuries, chronologists and historians of French affairs everywhere report, and we shall often refer to them on other occasions. Hugh Capet was proclaimed King in the month of May in the year 987. Saint Louis began to reign in the year 1226. Philip of Valois was crowned at Rheims on August 22 of the year 1328.

[3] The father of Blessed Joan, Louis, became King in the year 1461; upon his death in the year 1483, his son Charles, the brother of Blessed Joan, succeeded him. When Charles died leaving no offspring in the year 1498, the kingdom devolved by right of blood to Louis, Duke of Orleans, she marries Louis, later King XII born of his father Charles, also Duke of Orleans, and of his other grandfather Louis, likewise Duke of Orleans and brother of King Charles VI -- whose father, King Charles V, called the Wise, was the great-grandfather both of Louis XI, father of Blessed Joan, and of Louis XII, her husband. Joan was married to Louis while her father was still alive and at his command; she afterward obtained his life by her own tears when he was condemned to death. him who rebelled against Charles VIII For after the death of her father Louis XI, when Charles VIII, brother of Blessed Joan, being in his thirteenth year and under the guardianship of his elder sister Anne, married to Peter of Bourbon, Lord of Beaujeu, assumed the kingdom, Duke Louis, husband of Blessed Joan, bearing ill that Peter of Bourbon and Anne were preferred to him as the next heir, disturbed the kingdom with tumult and civil war. Then, when Francis, Duke of Brittany in Armorica, and other nobles had joined his cause, and captured him a battle was fought with the Royal Generals at the shrine of Saint Aubin in Brittany, and he was deprived equally of victory and liberty in the year 1488. Captured and transferred more than once from one place of custody to another, he was long detained at Lusignan in Poitou, and finally enclosed in the tower of Bourges, where he was held for nearly three years -- she liberates him until Blessed Joan, his wife, by frequent prayers and tears before her brother Charles VIII, obtained his liberation, and he was soon admitted even into the closer friendship of the King. The French historians treat of this rebellion under Charles VIII and Louis XII, notably Paul Emile, Arnold Ferron, Francis Belcaire Book 8, Henri de Sponde in the Ecclesiastical Annals, and others.

[4] The great-great-great-grandfather of this Peter of Bourbon was the aforementioned Robert, son of Saint Louis. she has as her sister Anne, a benefactress of the Annunciades Louis XII's sister Mary had been betrothed to him; but Louis XI intervened against the success of that marriage and gave Peter his own daughter Anne on November 3, 1473. She, after the first branch of the Bourbons was extinguished, survived her husband and sons until the year 1522, and upon her death, besides other gifts to various monasteries, she also benefited the convent of the Annunciades at Bourges, founded by her sister Blessed Joan. On these matters, the Sainte-Marthes should be consulted, Book 23 of the Genealogical History of France, chapter 11, and others cited by them.

[5] But the aforesaid Francis, Duke of Brittany in Armorica, having been reconciled to King Charles after the defeat of Louis, died in the year 1489. His lineage through several Dukes of Brittany and Counts of Dreux is traced back to Louis VI, King of France, so that Anne, heiress of Brittany called the Fat, great-great-grandfather of Saint Louis and great-grandson of Hugh Capet, in the Sainte-Marthes, Books 34 and 35, and in Andrew Du Chesne's treatise on the family of Dreux. formerly married to King Charles Anne was left as the heiress of this Francis, the last Duke of Brittany; though she had been betrothed to Maximilian, King of the Romans and later Emperor, who was then a widower after the death of Mary of Burgundy, Charles VIII took her as his wife, repudiating Margaret, daughter of Maximilian, whom he had betrothed to himself at his father Louis's instigation. When the first branch of the royal Valois family was then extinguished in Charles VIII, the Duke of Orleans received the kingdom, that she might be married to Louis XII as stated above -- Louis XII, husband of Blessed Joan. This concern, says Ferron in Book 3, troubled him: that Anne, previously married to Charles, would take with her the sovereignty of Brittany. The matter seemed most grave and likely to convulse the peace of France. Having consulted his intimates, he formed the plan of repudiating his wife Joan of Valois -- the one woman to whom he owed his life, both as a captive and as one burning with hatred before her brother. Would he repudiate the King's sister, and that sister to whom he owed so much? Blessed Joan is repudiated What if the French nobles should take it grievously? These matters, debated at some length, tormented the King. And finally, how would the people divine that the wife to whom the King had been accustomed for so many years should be repudiated? The opinion of others prevailed, who said that the marriage had been contracted under compulsion with Joan, and that this was established by the protestations employed at the time, and that it had not been contracted by any natural bond -- Louis himself asserting this. Malicious judges of affairs attacked his deed in various ways. "As if," they said, "this can seem plausible: that when King Charles had three children, when the grieving wife had obtained the life of her captive husband from her brother with many tears, the fear -- if any was applied at the beginning -- was never purged? No act of duty on the part of the husband was bestowed upon a wife who had deserved so well of him? His heart was not won over, not softened by the many tears which his wife's eyes had shed for her husband's liberation?"

[6] Recourse was had to the Roman Pontiff. He was Alexander VI, the marriage dissolved by Ecclesiastical authority most eager to elevate his son Borgia and seeking every occasion to enlarge his dominion. Judging the friendship of Louis most suited to this end, he appointed judges for him. These were Philip of Luxembourg, Cardinal; Louis, Bishop of Albi; and Ferrand, Bishop of Ceuta. These at last dissolved the marriage by a pronounced sentence; and thus it came about that the King received Anna, wife of Charles, together with the sovereignty of Brittany. These and many other matters Ferron relates with more than due severity. How much Alexander the Pontiff appeared to be intemperately advancing his son's honors is described by Guicciardini, Book 4 of Italian Affairs; Sponde at the year 1498, number 4; and Frison in his Gallia Purpurata under Philip Cardinal of Luxembourg, who was then the Papal Legate a latere in France, where Ferrand also was Apostolic Nuncio. The sentence of these men and of Louis d'Amboise is given from the Annals of Nicolas Gilles in the said Gallia Purpurata, and below in the Beatification Process, chapter 4, number 46.

[7] That these events greatly displeased the populace is written from an ancient manuscript by Bishop Attichy in his Life of Blessed Joan, chapter 6; the people protest and he says the judges were not without calumny nicknamed Caiaphas, Annas, Herod, and Pilate, because they had rendered judgment against the holy Lady, that she should no longer be Queen of France. Indeed, certain Parisian Doctors vehemently disapproved of the King's action, as the historian of that age, Christian Massaeus, reports in his Chronicle at the year 1498. and certain Parisian Doctors "Master John Standonck," he says, "distinguished for both learning and holiness, boldly reproached the King, who, stirred by anger, banished him from the entire kingdom. In exile at Mechelen and Louvain he established a school for the poor. He had as a disciple Master Thomas Warnet, who, having boldly inveighed against the deranged King, was nearly captured but escaped by flight and established a school at Valenciennes." More can be read in Massaeus, who served Standonck at table when he was received at his house. Frison and Attichy, cited above, as also Hilarion da Costa in his Life of Blessed Joan, report that this Lord of Villette was the reformer and, as it were, second founder of the college of the Capettes at Montaigu in Paris. Among the Religious and preachers who opposed this divorce, the celebrated court orator Olivier Maillard, a Franciscan, was preeminent, whose fearless spirit in defense of the truth the same Attichy commends in chapter 6. Finally, Attichy writes, after several others, that this divorce did not please God, a storm sent from heaven inasmuch as about the eleventh hour of the day, at which this sentence was to be publicly pronounced, a great and dense cloud descended from heaven over the city, turning midday, with the light of the sun removed, into what seemed a mournful night, so that the document had to be read out by the light of torches. Anna of Brittany survived in this marriage contracted with Louis XII until the year of Christ 1513. Da Costa described her Life in his Catholic History.

[8] Four children were born of them, of whom two sons who died before them extinguished also the other branch of the royal Valois family, the crown being transferred to the collateral relatives, the Counts of Angouleme, the kingdom conferred upon Francis I from whom Francis I, born of his father Charles and grandfather John of Angouleme, and of his great-grandfather Louis, Duke of Orleans, son of Charles V, King of France, married Claude, daughter of Louis XII and Anna of Brittany, who were related as children of first cousins.

Section 2. The Order of the Annunciation established. The veneration of Blessed Joan. Her Life as written.

[9] A twofold Order of nuns flourishes in the Church under the name of Annunciades: one established at Genoa under Clement VIII in the year 1600, as Attichy reports, the Order of the Annunciades of Genoa or in the year 1604 according to Sponde in his Annals, number 9. The foundress was a Genoese matron, Maria Vittoria Fornari, who, having been joined in a first marriage and upon the death of her husband, received from the hands of the Archbishop the habit of holy life -- namely, a white dress and a scapular with a cloak of sky-blue color, whence they are also called Celestines; but the name of Annunciades was given to them because they are moved with a particular devotion to the mystery of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary. Different from this is the Order of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary at Bourges of the Bituriges, another of the Annunciades of Bourges, founded by Blessed Joan established a full century earlier by Blessed Joan. These nuns use a floor-length dress of a grey or ash color, as the common people say, in testimony of the penitential life they profess; but they wear a cloak entirely white, falling from the shoulders to the feet, in memory of the virginal purity of the Mother of God, which they emulate. They are further adorned with a scapular, as it is called, of red, fitted before the breast in the form of a cross, for the continual calling to mind of the Passion of the Lord, as Miraeus reports, after others, in his book on the Order of the Annunciades, chapter 1, which matters are also briefly touched upon in their Rule. Miraeus enumerates thirteen monasteries of this Order up to the year 1608, 33 monasteries of this Order in which he published that treatise. But Attichy denies that the eleventh, at Montpellier in France, was built, after the Life of Blessed Joan published in the year 1644, where he exhibits a catalogue of thirty-three monasteries, of which fourteen are in Belgium.

[10] In all these monasteries, Attichy reports in chapter 25 of the Life, the following Antiphon, which contains an epitome of her life, is sung on February 4, the day of her death: Veneration of Blessed Joan "There died the illustrious and merit-filled, Holy Joan of France, most distinguished daughter of Louis XI, formerly King, and sister of another, namely Charles VIII, who, freed from her husband, living chastely, bereft of the world, and devoted to divine and sacred things, was the most pious foundress and ruler of this holy convent, indeed of the entire Order of the sacred evangelical counsels, whose sacred remains are honorably buried within, illustrious with miracles. Moreover, now blessed and crowned in heaven, she perpetually enjoys God with the Blessed. She died on the fourth day of February, in the year of the Lord one thousand five hundred and four." So it reads there, and the same is found in the Sainte-Marthes, Book 18, chapter 5, where they describe her Life. The same Attichy, in the Preface to her Life addressed to the Reader, reports that every year on February 4, in the church of the Annunciades at Bourges during the sacred sermon given there in her honor, a Prose is customarily sung to the melody used in the Hymn for Confessors whose first words are "Iste Confessor"; and in that Prose Joan is frequently called Saint and Blessed; her help and assistance is publicly invoked; and by those who come from the towns and villages of Berry to the church of the Annunciades in sacred procession to implore her intercession, her name is added among the holy Virgins in the Ecclesiastical Litanies, her name in the Litanies nor is she impeded by any Archbishop in this her chant: "Holy Joan, pray for us." And finally, her image has always been publicly sold an image in churches and displayed in churches, especially of her Order, with the knowledge and awareness of the Ordinaries, and indeed with a diadem and rays of glory, as they are called, with the name "Blessed" inscribed beneath. Such an image the same Attichy exhibits after the Preface, with the Virgin Mother of God appearing in a cloud, and with these words subscribed: "Blessed Joan of Valois, daughter of Louis XI, sister of Charles VIII, wife of Louis XII, Kings of France, Foundress of the Order of the Annunciades." In all these matters Attichy judges that there is no sin against the Pontifical decree issued in the year 1625 by Urban VIII, by which it is absolutely forbidden that these titles of sanctity or external signs be henceforth attributed to anyone without the indulgence of the Apostolic See -- unless from a very long time, with the permission of the same Apostolic See or of the Ordinaries, such veneration has been customary; which veneration, he asserts, had been granted to this most august Princess for nearly a hundred years before the promulgation of this Bull, and that the Beatification hitherto granted to her by the universal testimony and consent of the provinces should hopefully be pronounced certain and irrevocable shortly by the holy oracle of the Roman Pontiff. Together with Bishop Attichy of Riez, Henri de Sponde, Bishop of Pamiers, also calls Joan Blessed in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 1604, number 9.

[11] Arthur du Monstier in the Franciscan Martyrology adorns her with this eulogy: annual commemoration inscribed in Martyrologies "On the day before the Nones of February, at Bourges, of Blessed Joan, Queen of France, Virgin, Foundress of the Order of the Nuns of the Annunciation of the most holy Mother of God, Mary, who, adorned with the highest virtues, is also illustrious with the greatest miracles." Andrew Saussay in the Gallic Martyrology writes thus on February 4: "At Bourges, the death of the most pious Princess Joan of France and Valois, of holy memory, Foundress of the Annunciades, who, admirable in her rare contempt of the world, disdaining scepters, assumed the sweet yoke of Christ; and exchanging lilies for thorns, having gathered a holy company, enclosed in the religious house she had founded, she sent forth outstanding flowers of every virtue and the sweetest odors of piety, and at last, full of merits, ended her life in all holiness, and was illustrious at her tomb with many signs of the blessedness she had attained."

[12] For obtaining solemn Beatification, Andrew Fremiot, Archbishop of Bourges, prepared in the year of Christ 1617 a Process concerning the Life and miracles of Joan, Process of Beatification formed to be submitted to Pope Paul V; which was then presented to Urban VIII by the ambassadors of the Most Christian King of France, Louis XIII, and of the Most Serene Infanta of Spain, Isabella Clara Eugenia, Princess of the Belgians (for she was descended from her father Philip II, King of Spain, and her mother Elizabeth of France, daughter of Henry II epitome of the Life and granddaughter of Francis I, Kings of France). A prefixed epitome of the Life, inscribed to Pope Urban, accompanied the submission. These two treatises, printed by the Plantin press in the year 1624, we give here divided into chapters in our manner and illustrated with our observations. Our Rosweyde inserted the Acts of the same Blessed Joan Acts written in Flemish and French in the Lives of the Saints published in Flemish and mostly translated from the Spanish of Ribadeneira. Several have written the same in French, of whom the principal are Nicolas Gazaeus, Superior of these Annunciades at Bethune in Artois, and Hilarion da Costa, of the Order of Minims, Book 1 of the Catholic History of the Lives of Illustrious Men and Women of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

[13] Louis Attichy, of the same Order of Minims, made Bishop of Riez, after various earlier editions published the same Life in the year 1644, inscribed to the Queen Mother Regent, and divided it at length into twenty-five chapters; with an appended epitome at the end of the Life of Father Gabriel Maria, of the Order of Saint Francis, who was the Confessor of Blessed Joan and is regarded as the second Founder of the Annunciades. Through his industry the Rule of the Annunciades was drawn up and approved by various Pontiffs, the Rule of the Annunciades approved by a diploma of Leo X which the same Attichy appends in French; Miraeus published it in Latin. It is a diploma of Pope Leo X, in which that Rule, distinguished by the ten virtues of the most blessed Virgin Mother of God, is included; and as Attichy notes in his Preface to it, it was principally drawn from the illuminations divinely communicated to Blessed Joan, and displays her extraordinary devotion to imitating the virtues of the Virgin Mother of God. Arthur du Monstier enumerates at length in his Martyrology the authors who have mentioned Blessed Joan, of whom Attichy in his Preface considers that nearly only Christian Massaeus was omitted. In chapter 24 Attichy reports that Father Gregorius Mirauld, a Franciscan religious, published in the year 1615 a catalogue of one hundred and thirty miracles; various miracles published of which we believe the principal ones were selected two years later for the Beatification Process. A few others, wrought through her intercession from the year 1633, the same Attichy reports in chapter 25. Finally, the fury of the Calvinist heretics, when more than a hundred years ago, as is related below, the fury of the heretics they laid their sacrilegious hands upon her most holy body, amply testifies that the pious veneration which they detest was customarily practiced by Catholics.

LIFE

INSCRIBED TO POPE URBAN VIII.

Joan of Valois, Queen of France, Foundress of the Order of the Annunciation (Blessed)

FROM THE PUBLISHED PROCESS.

CHAPTER 1

Epitome of her life before the establishment of the Order.

[1] Most Blessed Father, Joan of Valois (concerning whose Life and miracles we present the Process, instituted by the authority of the Archbishop of Bourges, with due reverence to your Blessedness) was the daughter of Louis XI, the sister of Charles VIII, and the wife of Louis XII, Joan, born of the royal stock Kings of France. She was born in the year of the Virgin's childbearing 1465, and immediately, with the Elect (God so disposing), she began from her earliest age to be afflicted, and indeed to her very last breath no breeze of joy or bodily comfort ever blew upon her, [afflicted with many adversities her whole life; taught by the Blessed Virgin to found a Religious Order] though she superabounded with joy in spiritual things. Already in her fifth year, she besought the Mother of God (whom she followed with singular devotion and love) with continual and most fervent prayers to deign to reveal to her in what way she might render the most pleasing service. The Blessed Virgin seemed immediately to answer her that she would one day found a Religious Order consecrated to her honor. Afterward, by divine prompting, she chose a certain member of the Order of Friars Minor of the Regular Observance as her confessor.

[2] When she had long before the reign been married to Louis XII, she marries Louis XII who was then still Duke of Orleans, he, having been placed on the throne when Charles died without children, at the persuasion of the nobles of the court, lest the Duchy of Brittany be alienated, married Anna, heiress of that province and widow of Charles, the divorce having been made after Joan was dismissed. As the cause of the divorce, fear was alleged, and the claim that he had not married her willingly but under the compulsion of her father, the virgin's father King Louis XI; and that therefore he had never touched her. Joan did not vigorously oppose it, but willingly turned herself to the service of another and eternal King; she departs to Bourges and indeed with a glad and tranquil mind, because she understood that Alexander VI, the Pope, had granted the dispensation. She further received from the King as a gift the Duchy of Berry, the revenues of which, while living in the city of Bourges, sustained her, and she devoted the remainder to pious uses.

[3] There she gave herself entirely to piety and the spiritual life, which she had happily begun from her earliest age. assiduous in exercises of piety, penance, and mercy She afflicted her tender flesh with a rough hairshirt and an iron chain (as was also more evidently discovered after her death); she pressed against her bare breast the points of silver nails fixed in a thin little board or tablet; at nighttime she subdued her body with scourges; she was moreover wonderfully strict and abstemious in food and drink, fasting throughout the whole of Lent and on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the year; nor did she use dairy products except when necessity urged. To all the poor, the afflicted, and the sick, she brought no less spiritual than bodily assistance.

a The Sainte-Marthes and Attichy, after others, write that she was born in the year 1464.

b The same authors report that she was less pleasing to her father the King, both because she appeared rather unattractive in face and body, and because she seemed more devoted to piety and monastic life than to the courtly manner of living. Attichy adds that a meager annual allowance was assigned to her by her father for sustaining her royal dignity, which did not exceed one thousand two hundred florins; that she was accustomed to wear very modest garments, and did not seek others even when those she had were worn; and that she was content with her circumstances with great patience and humility.

c The words delivered by the Mother of God appearing to her are recorded by da Costa and Attichy: "My beloved daughter Joan, before you depart this life, you shall found, to my honor, a religious order which will bring the greatest joy possible to my Son and to me." It is added that she had then reached six years of age.

d According to Attichy, she is said to have been anxious about choosing a Confessor, and during the Sacrifice of the Mass to have seemed to hear this voice: "My beloved spouse, if you wish to be loved by the Mother, seek the wounds of the Son." And she immediately understood that the Directors of her conscience should be taken from the Seraphic Order of Saint Francis.

e He was John de la Fontaine, then Guardian of the Convent of Amboise in the province of Touraine-Poitou; his companion was Gilbert Nicolas, later called Gabriel Maria, whom du Monstier confuses with the other and calls Guardian of Amboise.

f She was sixteen years old according to da Costa and Attichy, therefore in the year 1480, not 1476 as the Sainte-Marthes write, citing Du Tillet; and she was married at about eighteen years of age, before her husband Louis XII began to reign.

g In the year 1498.

h Sponde adds that this Louis XII had been received from the sacred font by Louis XI, father of Joan, and that no dispensation from the Pope had intervened to remove this impediment of spiritual kinship.

i The sentence is recited below in the Beatification Process, chapter 4.

k The Sainte-Marthes add that she also received the lordships of Chatillon-sur-Indre in the territory of Touraine, Chateauneuf-sur-Loire, and Pontoise. A certain author also reports that she had in addition an annual revenue of twelve thousand florins.

l Attichy in chapter 9 reports that the nails were five in number, and that the small board had the form of a Cross. All these instruments of penance are still preserved in the convent at Bourges. Da Costa adds that the nails were two fingers long.

m Attichy adds Wednesdays, and that she did not use fish during Lent except when necessity urged.

n These matters are explained below in the Beatification Process, chapter 7.

CHAPTER 2

The Order of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary established by Joan; approved by the Pontiffs.

[4] While the humble and devout Princess was occupied with these pious works and duties, she at length disclosed the secret of her heart to her Confessor, the Reverend Father Gilbert Nicolas (who was afterward called Gabriel Maria by Pope Leo X), and indicated to him her desire and devotion to found the Order of the Annunciation of the glorious Virgin Mary. At first he indeed opposed it; but then, she reveals to her Confessor the plan of founding the Order having recognized the divine will and revelation, he gave his fullest assent and promoted the project as greatly as possible. Accordingly, by his counsel, ten most chaste virgins were brought from the city of Tours, willingly and gladly bidding farewell to the secular world in order to wed the eternal Bridegroom. having assembled ten virgins, she begins Having inaugurated her Order with these, the handmaid of Christ earnestly petitioned her Confessor to teach them the manner of living spiritually and religiously, and all things pertaining to monastic discipline; which he also willingly did, taking two Brethren into the fellowship of this labor. She herself meanwhile continued in spiritual exercises, devout above all toward the Passion of the Lord. piously devoted to the Cross and the Sepulchre of Christ And indeed she had caused a sacred tomb of the Lord to be built in her garden, with a Cross placed upon it, where very often, with unspeakable groans and copious tears, praying to the heavenly Father in secret, she would beat her bare breast with a stone.

[5] In the year of Christ 1501, as the number of daughters grew, her devotion also grew; and she conferred with her Confessor about composing a Rule for the greater promotion of her Religious Order, disclosing to him the revelation made to her by the most pure Virgin Mary on this matter -- that Mary wished it to be drawn from the holy Gospel and approved by the Apostolic See according to the decree of her Son and herself. [She receives the Rule of the Order based on the virtues of the Virgin Mother of God] Upon learning this, the reverend Father gave thanks to God, requested the prayers of Joan and her daughters, and diligently composed a Rule based on the words of the Gospels, containing the ten principal virtues of the most holy Virgin Mary. When completed, he first offered it most devoutly to the Virgin Mother of God, and then handed it to the most pious Duchess Joan, who approved it most heartily.

[6] Wherefore, complying with her pious wish, he set out for Rome to obtain confirmation of the Rule; and there, as a suppliant, he laid the Duchess's desire before the Supreme Pontiff. But having suffered opposition and rejection from the college of Cardinals, who disapproved the novelty of the Order, after repeated solicitations, having invoked the help of God and the Mother of God, approved and having devoutly offered the Sacrifice of the Mass, he was now contemplating departure with the matter unresolved. But when he was descending the steps of the Palace, behold, he was suddenly summoned by John Baptist Ferrarius, Bishop and Cardinal of Modena, the Datary of the Pope (as he is called); after the patronage of Saints Francis and Lawrence with him then acting as advocate and promoter, in accordance with the admonition of Saints Francis and Lawrence, who had appeared to him by night, Alexander VI, Supreme Pontiff, confirmed the Rule by his diploma, with the consent of all the Cardinals, by various Pontiffs in the said year 1501. After Alexander, Julius II in the year 1506, and then Leo X in the year 1517, approved and stabilized the same Institute with privileges. Following their example, Paul V and his successor Gregory XV afterward also honored the same Order with many graces and indults. Moreover, since Joan by divine admonition had wished or commanded that her daughters should be under the governance of the Friars Minor of the Regular Observance, the Roman Pontiffs thereafter willed this to remain ratified.

[7] And so the aforesaid Father, with the Rule bound to his arm, girded himself for the journey, in which he was preserved from many perils -- from robbers and from a precipice on a high mountain -- illustrious with miracles not without a miracle. Returning to Bourges, he presented the Rule to Joan, who placed it upon a sick virgin lying abed, and the sick woman immediately recovered her former health. Then at last Joan, admonished by her Confessor, she builds the first monastery ordered a monastery to be built for her virgins, in the construction of which the workmen themselves were preserved from many most grave and most imminent dangers, with God wonderfully protecting them. She most frequently visited her daughters and diligently inquired about their spiritual progress. She took care that the sick should be served in all things as though they were herself. She was affected with such great love toward them that she never set out anywhere without first visiting them. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1502, on the advice of the reverend Father, the sacred virgins received the habit of the Religious Order; and soon others, of the most honorable and noble rank, joined themselves to them.

a He was called Gabriel Maria on account of his singular devotion to the Virgin Mother of God and the Angelic Annunciation, by a diploma issued on the matter, a copy of which is said to exist among the Annunciade Virgins. These Virgins celebrate his memory annually on August 27, on which day Arthur du Monstier treats of him in the Franciscan Martyrology. Du Monstier contends that he was formerly called Nicolas Gilbert and was renamed Gabriel from the Ave Maria by Alexander VI. But more conformably to this Life, Attichy writes in his Life, published together with the Life of Blessed Joan in the year 1644. Both authors refer to other writers of his Acts.

b On May 27, 1500; one of them was called Andrea, and Attichy reports in chapter 10 that others are said to have been brought from the city of Amboise.

c Attichy reports in chapter 13 that before Father Guillaume Morin, the Rule had been presented to the Pope without success.

d February 14.

e July 25, whose diploma we give below.

f The miracles wrought in the construction of the convent are reported in the Beatification Process, chapter 7.

CHAPTER 3

Joan's love toward God and the exercise of heroic virtues.

[8] Moreover, the most pious Princess, giving immense thanks to the immortal God for all things, was moved with a singular devotion and worship toward the most august Sacrament of the Eucharist; devout toward the Eucharist and she refreshed herself with the sacred Communion with such great piety and abundance of tears that she aroused devotion in others as well. At a certain time she was thought to be ill; but the reverend Father Confessor understood that the illness arose from devotion. Wherefore, being questioned by him, she was compelled to say that she had been invited by Christ to a certain banquet on the following day. by Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, a twofold heart being offered On the following day, therefore, during the Sacrifice of the Mass, wholly dissolved in tears and seized in ecstasy, she saw Christ and His Mother (as she afterward faithfully reported to her Confessor, who pressed her greatly) offering her the aforesaid banquet -- namely, two hearts on a dish. Wishing therefore to add her own heart also in accordance with Christ's request, she does not find her own she put her hand into her bosom; and not finding it, she was greatly astonished, with the sweetest Jesus smiling gently upon her. But it is no wonder if she did not find what had already been united to the heart of Christ through love, for it lived in Him more than in her own body. For she especially had recourse to that lofty citadel devoted to prayer than which none is stronger, none better fortified -- that is, to the refuge of holy prayer; on whose wings she was frequently borne up to heaven, forgetful of earthly things, and enjoyed the sweetest conversation with God. The fruit of prayer in that humble handmaid of God was most abundant, for, already anticipated with the blessings of sweetness and tasting that glorious cup which inebriates the heart, she burned with the fire of ardent charity toward God and her neighbors with her whole breast. by this she drives away a fever Wherefore, when a certain old steward of her court, the Lord of Gaucourt, was most gravely afflicted with a fever with the most imminent danger of death, and she was asked to pray for him, she did not fail in the duty of charity; and going without delay to her Oratory, she prayed to God, the Author of all good things, no less fervently than humbly for his recovery; and behold, the fever immediately diminished, and indeed entirely departed.

[9] On the feast of Pentecost of the year 1504, the excellent Duchess pronounced the three vows of the Order in the hands of Father Gabriel Maria, she makes the Vows of Religion further vowing enclosure in this manner: that without the consent of her Confessor she would never go beyond the city of Bourges or to any of her residences; and thenceforth, beneath her splendid garment, she devoutly wore the holy habit of the Marian Religious Order. Following her example, certain other Virgins also made sacred profession; and their number, with God and His Mother cooperating as wonderfully as effectually, increased daily. When twenty-one virgins had gathered and the devout Lady had spared no expense in building the monastery, on the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary she commended and offered her body and soul, the convent, and all her daughters, both present and future, to the most holy Trinity and to the Virgin Mother of God. she binds herself and her daughters to perpetual enclosure Having done this, on the counsel of the reverend Father her Confessor, she thenceforth bound them to perpetual enclosure according to the prescription of the Rule -- which the most pious daughters received with the greatest joy of heart, as being that for which they had so ardently longed. And just as she herself strove most earnestly for perfection, so she most eagerly desired them to be perfect, to such a degree that she would correct even the slightest faults in them, lest they fall into graver ones.

a This driving away of the fever is discussed in the Beatification Process.

b Rather, according to da Costa, Attichy, the Sainte-Marthes, and others, in the year 1503.

c Under pain of mortal sin, as is stated below in the Rule.

CHAPTER 4

The death of Joan. Miracles. Her body burned by the Calvinists.

[10] On the most sweet solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, the pious handmaid of Christ brought to her daughters a last offering of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, wishing to impress upon them both the mystical meaning and the reality of these things. Then, requesting their prayers, she confessed that she was ill in body. When sick, she is taught by Christ of her approaching death. But the Spirit of the Lord who had anointed her was present with His handmaid Joan, and Christ Himself, the power and wisdom of God; by whose virtue and grace it came about that she knew uncertain and hidden things long in advance, and indeed the end of her own life. Hence, departing from her daughters, when she had reached the garden gate (through which she used to enter and leave at will), she ordered it to be entirely closed, inasmuch as she would no longer use it -- as the event itself confirmed. For from that time she always lay abed in illness, and at last yielded up her spirit to God.

[11] At the hour of her departure, therefore, which was imminent (it was the tenth hour of the night), through her chambermaid or attendant Mary Pot, she ordered herself to be turned onto her other side, the curtains to be closed, and the candle-light to be removed as harmful to her. But the attendant, having done these things and withdrawing within the curtains, she is illuminated by a heavenly light as she dies remained there for an hour to take greater care of her ailing mistress. Then an immense light, as of a burning torch, was observed by the said chambermaid to encircle the bed, to rest upon the body of the pious handmaid of Christ, then, gradually diminishing, to settle upon her breast and mouth, and at last, as it disappeared, the radiant soul flew forth from the prison of the body to the true light, which is Christ. Likewise at midnight, she is honored by a brilliant little cloud after death above the church of the nuns, all beheld a certain cloud, no less white than resplendent, which, lingering there for a long time and then vanishing, clearly signified that that most holy soul, blazing with the brightness of conscience and shining with the abundance of merits, had departed to the heavenly fatherland of eternal light. Already five or six hours after her death, her face appeared so beautiful and rosy that she seemed alive rather than dead.

[12] Meanwhile the grieving daughters bewailed with many tears the absence of their most pious Mother, whom they could no longer have present with them in the future. The Reverend Father Gabriel Maria came she was always most patient under injuries and, both for their consolation and for the commendation of the pious handmaid of Christ, among other memorable things which we have hitherto reported, he firmly asserted this: namely, that she had always greatly rejoiced and exulted in insults, reproaches, and other injuries; that her poor body had not been able to sustain the ardor of divine love with which she burned; that scarcely any mortal here on earth had abounded with so many spiritual consolations; abounding in divine consolation and that there was such humility of mind in her that she would open nothing about these things or about her life except when compelled, and to her Confessor alone. For she so conducted herself outwardly as if nothing had happened inwardly.

[13] Nor should what the Lord added to her glory be passed over. For while that sacred body was being carried most honorably to the church, the priest Maturinus, superintendent of the garden, who at that time was lying abed with an articular disease afflicting all his limbs, perceived it and she drives away an articular disease requested to be carried to the window of his room. Then, at the sight of the funeral, falling upon his knees, he prayed to the most pious handmaid of Christ that, if she had any power with God, she would deign to help him. Wondrous to tell: he had scarcely finished his prayers when he received complete health.

[14] Having therefore spent the entire course of her life in the holiest manner, Joan died in the Lord at Bourges at about forty years of age, on the day before the Nones of February, in the year of salvation (according to the Roman style) 1505. At the sepulchre of this most pious Heroine, the benefits of God have never been lacking, through her intercession and merits, to those who piously invoke her; she is illustrious with miracles and miracles are not infrequently wrought at her tomb even today, although it was violated by the impious followers of the Calvinist doctrine. When the Calvinists touched her body For in the year 1562, when the Calvinists were raging throughout France against the tombs and ashes of the Saints, and the city of Bourges had been seized by them, three soldiers entered the monument of the illustrious Joan in order to remove the leaden chest in which that sacred relic was enclosed. When they touched the body itself, they perceived a groan as of one sighing emitted from it three times; it sighs three times whence, driven to flight by excessive terror, they related this astonishing event to others. When others afterward came in greater numbers to seize the body and carry it to the place destined for burning, dead for 58 years, she sheds blood a certain impious man pierced it with a dagger; which thereupon, not without the greatest miracle, poured forth a most copious flow of blood, although it had been committed to burial for more than fifty-eight years.

[15] Not without reason, therefore, the Annunciade Virgins of Bourges and all the others have been accustomed to renew the memory of their Foundress every year, on the very day of her death, with these words: her annual commemoration is honored "There died the illustrious and merit-filled Joan of France, most distinguished daughter of the former King, and sister of another, namely Charles VIII; who, freed from her husband, living chastely, bereft of the world, and devoted to divine and sacred things, was the most pious foundress and ruler of the entire Order of the sacred Evangelical Counsels. Whose sacred remains are honorably buried at Bourges, illustrious with miracles; moreover, now crowned in heaven, she perpetually enjoys God with the Blessed."

[16] Wherefore, Most Blessed Father, the Most Christian King of France, Louis XIII, and the Most Serene Infanta of Spain, Isabella Clara Eugenia, together with the entire community of the Annunciade Virgins, humbly request that she whom the private suffrages of very many have hitherto called Blessed, Blessed by private suffrage your Blessedness may not be reluctant to declare such by a public sentence, to the greater glory of God and the Mother of God.

a Her death is said to have been revealed to her Confessor in the Beatification Process, number 63, and a comet was seen as a harbinger of her death in number 64.

b The same number 64 treats of this light.

c This miracle is confirmed in the same place, number 65.

d Concerning the body found incorrupt together with its garments, groaning at the touch of the heretics, and burned by them, witnesses are cited in the Beatification Process, chapter 3, number 17, and chapter 4, number 27.

e It has been said above that she is also called Saint and Blessed in the same eulogy.

PROCESS

for obtaining the Beatification of Joan, prepared by the authority of Andrew Fremiot, Archbishop of Bourges.

Joan of Valois, Queen of France, Foundress of the Order of the Annunciation (Blessed)

From the Published Process

CHAPTER 1

Petition of the Annunciade Virgins of Bourges presented to the Archbishop of Bourges.

[1] The Religious Virgins, Mother Handmaid and daughters of the convent of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary in this city of Bourges, set forth as humbly as they can that in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1499, the Lady Joan, daughter of Louis XI, King of France, Synopsis of the life and death of Joan sister of King Charles VIII and wife of Louis XII, taking herself to this city under the title of Duchess of Berry, here, moved by zeal and devotion toward the most holy Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, caused a church and convent to be built and founded in honor of the same most holy Virgin of the Annunciation; and after she had led a very devout and holy life in this city, she died in the month of February 1504, and was buried in the church of the said convent of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary, which is the first of that Order. From that time until the year 1562 (when this city of Bourges was plundered by heretics), innumerable miracles were wrought toward those who with the greatest devotion visited the sepulchre of the deceased Duchess; and continuously thereafter up to the present (even though the body itself has been reduced to ashes by the rebellious heretics), very many have been freed from various diseases, and daily, through prayers poured forth to God in the said church, they continue to be freed. And indeed for about four years now it has been observed that miracles become more frequent and cures more numerous every day.

[2] [The Annunciade Virgins petition that a Process be instituted concerning her miracles.] Wherefore the petitioners, longing with all their wishes for the Beatification of the aforesaid Lady, most humbly pray and beseech your most illustrious Lordship to order an inquiry both into the sanctity of life of the aforesaid Lady and into the works and miracles which have been done and are done daily in the said church toward those who implore the protection of the same Lady, in order to obtain from God grace and assistance in various bodily afflictions. And to this end, may your Lordship not be reluctant to issue letters by which you command to be cited before you those whom the petitioners presently propose to be cited for the greater investigation of the truth... In doing which, your most illustrious Lordship will perform a good, just, and God-pleasing office; and the petitioners will be eternally obligated to pray to God Almighty for your most illustrious Lordship.

Signed, Touchebeuf, Procurator of the Religious Virgins, Mother Handmaid, and daughters of the Convent of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary.

a We have omitted the long catalogue of witnesses to be cited, since they are afterward mentioned.

CHAPTER 2

Decree of the Archbishop on instituting the Process concerning the Life and miracles of the Lady Joan.

[3] Having examined the petition presented to us by the Religious Virgins, Mother Handmaid, and daughters of the convent of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary in this city of Bourges, we willingly accede to the same petition An inquiry into her life and miracles is decreed in the year 1617 and decree that an inquiry into the matters contained therein be instituted before us, in the presence of two witnesses. As notary for this purpose we choose Master Claude Rebours, who has long been our secretary; and we issue our letters necessary for citing witnesses, both those named above and those to be named hereafter, who shall be able to testify concerning the matters contained in the said petition. Done at Bourges, in our Archiepiscopal palace, on the thirteenth day of the month of April, in the year 1617, in the presence of witnesses, the venerable Lords Jacques Daubenton, Provost and Canon of the Abbey church of Saint Stephen of Dijon, and Pierre Bariotte, Canon of the Collegiate Church of Our Lady of Montermoyen at Bourges.

[4] On the seventeenth day of the same month and year, at the ninth hour before midday, [For the citation of witnesses and the administering of the oath, the first decree of the Archbishop, April 17] there appeared before us the Archbishop, in our Archiepiscopal palace, Master Jacques Touchebeuf, Procurator of the Religious Virgins, Mother Handmaid, and daughters of the convent of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary, who reported to us that by virtue of our letters, through the notary Jean Beauvois, he had arranged for the following persons to be cited before us at this same hour, place, and day, to give sworn testimony concerning the matters contained in the said petition, upon which they would be questioned and examined by us: Master Pierre Roulin, and his wife Jeanne Descrosses; Pierre Lelasche, royal officer; Master Jean Helyot with his wife; Master Jean d'Orleans, Advocate of the Court of this city, and the honorable matron Genevieve Janpitre his wife; Master Daniel Bidard; Brother Jeremie Belleteste, a Religious; Pierre Musnier, a saddlery merchant; Jean Babou; Gaspard Bonzerat; Master Pierre Chardon, Priest; Severin Chauveteau, vine-dresser; Etienne Belloste, parchment merchant, and his son Jean Belloste; Jean le Clerc, miller; Pierre Taupin; Antoine de la Rue with his wife; Gabrielle Manzay, widow of Pierre Mazay; the honorable matron Marie Sevorat, widow of Master Jean Nauldet; Marie Duou; Guillemette Passavant; Jacquette Turfin; Claude Bernard, wife of Andre Chertier; Etienne Solendre; Jeanne Bernard, widow of Jean Mery; Catherine Huet, wife of Claude Sagorbet; Jeanne Bouchetel, wife of Pierre Andouin; Charlotte Pynet, wife of Jean Voulte, a royal officer; and the honorable maiden Jeanne Champauville -- all residing at Bourges. He then requested new letters from us for the re-citation of those who had not appeared, and asked that we administer to those who had appeared the customary oath required in such a case. Since the above-named Helyot and his wife, Bidard, Belleteste, Babou, Bonzerat, Chauveteau, le Clerc, Taupin, de la Rue, Duou, Passavant, Bernard, Solendre, Huet, and Champauville had not appeared, we ordered them to be cited again by a new decree for the following day, after it was established to us by the testimony of the said Beauvois that they had been legitimately cited. As for the above-named who were present -- Roulin with his wife, Lelasche, d'Orleans with his wife, Musnier, Chardon, Etienne and Jean Belloste, the widow Mazay, Sevorat, Turfin, Bernard, Bouchetel, and Pynet -- we received from them the solemn oath, by which, touching the holy Gospels, they promised and swore that they would give true testimony concerning whatever they should be questioned and examined upon by us. Accordingly, we assigned for hearing and examining the aforesaid witnesses the chapel of d'Estampes, founded in our church of Bourges, on this same day and hour, in the presence of Masters Jacques Daubenton and Pierre Bariotte as witnesses.

[5] On the twenty-first day of the same month of April and the same year 1617, Second decree, April 21 at the ninth hour before midday, in our Archiepiscopal palace, before us the Archbishop, in the presence of the aforesaid witnesses, the Procurator of the Religious Virgins, Mother Handmaid, and daughters of the convent of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary appeared again, and reported to us that by virtue of our letters, through the aforesaid Beauvois, he had juridically cited to appear on this day, at this place and hour, to give true and honest testimony concerning whatever they should be questioned and examined upon, the Reverend Father Claude Guillain, Rector of the Boarding College of the Society of Jesus; Antoinette Macee; Jeanne Quenouille, wife of Jacques Chebiton; Guillemette Quenouille, wife of Nicolas Laureau; Master Daniel Bidard; and Notesse Vignot, wife of Jean le Jeune. He requested a new decree for citing those who had not appeared. And because the said Bidard and Quenouille had not appeared, although legitimately cited, as was satisfactorily established to us through the aforesaid Beauvois, we granted further letters for citing them again. As for the above-named Guillain, Macee, Quenouille, and Vignot, who did appear, we received from them the solemn oath, by which they swore and promised to us that they would faithfully respond to whatever they should be questioned and examined upon by us; and we assigned to them and to others who similarly swore the same place in the aforesaid chapel, on these days and at this hour with the following days.

[6] Third decree, April 28 On the twenty-eighth day of the aforesaid month and year, at the tenth hour before midday, in our Archiepiscopal palace, before us the Archbishop, in the presence of the above-named witnesses, the aforesaid Procurator of the Religious Virgins, Mother Handmaid, and daughters of the convent of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary appeared a third time, and said that by the mandate of our letters of the thirteenth of this month and year, he had arranged for the following to be cited for this day, at this place and hour, to give honest and faithful testimony concerning whatever they should be questioned and examined upon by us: the honorable matron Michaele Fauvre, the Lady Marie Desanzay, Aime Matrat, Master Jean Asse, the Lady Marie le Comte, Silvain Coquillon, Gabrielle Bouard, Noel Piandon, Pierre Chantereau, and Etienne Vernier; and for the second time, Jean Helyot with his wife, and Guillemette Passavant -- as he satisfactorily proved to us by the testimony of the aforesaid Beauvois, requesting a new decree against the aforesaid witnesses with the imposition of a penalty if they should not appear. When the aforesaid witnesses afterward appeared, we also received from them an oath, by which they promised and swore to us that they would state and answer the truth concerning the matters proposed by the aforesaid Religious Virgins and for which they were cited; and we assigned them the said chapel for hearing on this day and at this hour.

CHAPTER 3

Testimonies produced by sworn witnesses, according to the first decree of the Archbishop.

[7] On the seventeenth day of the month of April of the aforesaid year, in the aforesaid chapel, we the aforesaid Archbishop began to attend to the hearing of witnesses, in the presence of the aforesaid Lords Daubenton and Bariotte, in the following manner and order.

The venerable and prudent Lord Pierre Chardon, Priest, [By the merits of Joan, a swelling of both shins and a pain in the eyes were driven away] Chaplain in the great hospital of this city of Bourges, residing there for twenty-four years or thereabouts, of about fifty-one years of age, questioned concerning those matters contained in the petition of the Religious Virgins, Mother Handmaid, and daughters of the convent of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary of this city of Bourges (of which the reading was also shown to him), by the sacred Orders he has received, and touching with his hand the holy Gospels, says and affirms that, while he is not unaware of the aforesaid convent of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary, he has never known any of the Religious Virgins, nor is he connected to them or any of them by affinity, blood, or domestic familiarity; but that he knew a certain matron, Michaele Siotelle, born in the parish of Foucherolles in the diocese of Seuet in Burgundy, of about seventy years of age (as she herself asserted), who in the aforesaid hospital of this city of Bourges was afflicted with a grave swelling of both shins, and moreover with so great a pain in her eyes that she could see only with the greatest difficulty; and that after she had prayed to God for nine continuous days in the aforesaid church of the Annunciade Virgins, through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France, she received complete health of both shins and eyes. He testified that this happened about two years ago, and that he knows nothing else about the aforesaid matters; and his testimony having been read to him, he persisted and persists therein, and subscribed in these words: "I, the undersigned, affirm that what I have just testified is most true. P. Chardon."

[8] The honorable matron Gabrielle Manzay, widow of Pierre Mazay, formerly a merchant of Bourges, dwelling in the parish of Saint Ambrose, about seventy-five years of age, affirms under oath (which we received from her with her hand touching the holy Gospels and the Missal book) that she knows the church and monastery of the Annunciade Virgins of this city of Bourges and some of the same Virgins, the use of an arm gravely afflicted restored to whom, however, she is joined by no affinity or consanguinity. Questioned concerning the matters contained in the said petition, she asserts that about ten or eleven years ago she was so gravely afflicted with a malady of the arm that she was entirely deprived of its use; and that she therefore conceived a nine-day vow to the Lady Joan of France, and when she began to fulfill it in the said church of the Annunciade Virgins, she was completely healed. She further affirms that when the rebellious heretics entered this city in the year 1562, the body intact after 58 years she saw the body of the aforesaid Lady Joan taken from the monument by them and deposited in the courtyard of the aforesaid convent, and that it was intact and in no part corrupted -- while a great multitude of the people looked on. She further heard voices openly saying that a certain woman named La Fayette had pricked the body of the aforesaid Lady in one of the breasts with a pin, it sheds blood from which blood flowed. The aforesaid matron asserted that she knows these things concerning the matters contained in the said petition; and her testimony having been read to her, she persisted therein; and because it is the only thing she knows how to write, she subscribed her name here: Gabrielle Manzay.

[9] The honorable matron Marie Sevorat, widow of the honorable Master Jean Nauldet, formerly an Advocate of the Court of Bourges, dwelling in the parish of Saint Pierre le Guillard, about fifty years of age, a witness produced, asserts that about twenty-five years ago her firstborn son, Master Jean Nauldet, a scrofulous tumor suddenly driven away suffered from a grave and dangerous disease (which the physicians called scrofulous); and that she therefore, having conceived a vow, frequented the church of the Annunciade Virgins for nine days and implored the help of God through the merits and prayers of the aforesaid Lady Joan of France; and that on the ninth night her son was restored to complete health, with no human remedy applied. And this she knows, etc.

[10] The honorable matron Anne Bernard, widow of Jean Mery, a resident of this city of Bourges in the parish of Saint Pierre le Guillard, about sixty-five years of age, a witness produced, affirms that in the year 1599, in the month of July, a leg that was to be amputated was healed her son, in about the thirteenth year of his age, suffered so gravely in one leg that he could only walk when supported by two crutches. She therefore devoted the said son to the Lady Joan of France, and after she had fulfilled a nine-day vow in the church of the Annunciade Virgins, the same was restored to complete health. She believes this miracle is to be ascribed to the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Lady, and adds that her son had suffered so gravely from this affliction that before the vow the physicians had judged that his leg would have to be amputated. She says further that she heard that in the year 1562, when the rebellious heretics were extracting the body of the aforesaid Lady Joan from the sepulchre, someone among their number, seizing a dagger, inflicted a wound on the body, and that blood immediately flowed.

[11] Master Marius Julianus, a student at the University of Bourges, dwelling in the parish of Our Lady du Fourchault, a native of Gatinais, about twenty-two years of age, another witness produced, affirms that, having been afflicted for nearly two years with a most grave fever fever driven away, and a swelling of the shins which twice each month tormented him with a severe swelling of the shins, he at last learned in the month of August just passed that frequent miracles were being wrought daily in the church of the Annunciade Virgins of this city, through the prayers and vows which were there offered to the Lady Joan of France, Foundress of that church and convent. Thereupon he did not neglect the occasion of taking refuge with the same Lady, and in fact vowed to have three Masses celebrated there; and when these were soon celebrated, he felt no more fevers and thereafter always enjoyed firm health. Moreover, his mother, having been informed of this miracle, when she herself had fallen into a grave illness toward the end of the previous month of March, likewise made a vow to the same Lady Joan and was immediately restored to her former health; and he received news of this from his mother, with a charge that he should have several Masses celebrated there, which he testifies he did; and he ascribes all this benefit to the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Lady Joan.

[12] The religious Brother Jeremie Belleteste, of the Order of Friars Minor, dwelling in the convent of the Annunciade Virgins at Bourges, about sixty years of age, a witness produced... affirms that, since he has lived together with the Confessors of those same Virgins for about seventeen years, he has observed the concourse of various persons coming to offer vows and prayers in the church of the said convent; and indeed for the past three years they have come in much greater numbers to fulfill the nine-day vow eye pain which they had undertaken for their own or others' health to the Lady Joan of France, Foundress of the said convent; and that after the nine-day vows were fulfilled together with the Sacrifice of the Mass, the sick recovered -- adducing as a reason of his knowledge that he himself celebrated many Masses at the intention of those who recovered their health there. Moreover, he asserts that he saw, about one month ago, a certain boy of ten years, from the town of Issoudun, afflicted with a grave eye pain and, in the physicians' judgment, in the gravest danger from it; who, when he had begun to fulfill a nine-day vow in the aforesaid church, recovered perfectly on the seventh day itself.

[13] Etienne Belloste, parchment merchant, a resident of Bourges in the parish of Saint Bonitus, about thirty-eight years of age, a witness produced... asserts that for six years he was afflicted with a grave pain of the kidneys, pain of the kidneys, hips, and legs hips, and legs, so that he could not work at all and could scarcely walk; and that about two years ago, after prayers were offered in the church of the Annunciade Virgins and the help of God implored through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France, he was restored to complete health, so that thereafter, and even now, he walks and works freely. He further affirms that his son Jean Belloste, now about thirteen years of age, once afflicted with a difficult scrofulous disease, scrofula was entrusted to the care and skill of a certain surgeon, among the most renowned of this city, surnamed Divin; who, when he openly confessed that he was wasting his effort and oil in treating him, since the disease increased the more remedies he applied, the father brought the boy to the church of the Annunciade Virgins, and after divine help was invoked through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan, his son recovered his health, in which he even now perseveres.

[14] Jean Belloste, son of the aforesaid Etienne Belloste, about thirteen years of age, a witness produced... asserts that he remembers that about three years ago he was most acutely afflicted with ulcers on his neck and face, ulcers and was entrusted for four months to the skill of a most experienced surgeon surnamed Divin; who, after his remedies of the art had been applied in vain, the boy was finally brought by his father to the church of the Annunciade Virgins of this city, and after prayers were offered there, he was freed from the ulcers, which the said surgeon had affirmed to be scrofulous tumors.

[15] The prudent and honest man Pierre Musnier, a saddlery merchant of Bourges, dwelling in the parish of Saint Ursinus, about forty-eight years of age, a witness produced... asserts that in the church of the Annunciade Virgins, around the feast of Saint John the Baptist just past, he fulfilled a nine-day vow and implored divine help through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France gout to be freed from most grave pains of gout which had confined him to bed for more than a month; and that after he had arranged for a Mass to be celebrated on the last day of his nine-day vow, he was so healed that he felt no pains thereafter.

[16] The honorable matron Charlotte Pynet, wife of the prudent man Jean Voulte, a royal officer, dwelling at Bourges in the parish of Saint Jean des Champs, about fifty-four years of age, a witness produced... affirms that she was afflicted with a double quartan fever fever and ulcers and with so great a pain from ulcers in her shins that she was almost deprived of the ability to walk; but after she had fulfilled a nine-day vow in the aforesaid church of the Annunciade Virgins, and the Sacrifice of the Mass had been celebrated by a Priest, a candle also being offered, and divine help having been invoked through the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Lady Joan of France, she was restored to complete health, and was no longer tormented by ulcers or pain in her shins.

[17] The honorable matron Jacquette Turfin, widow of Martin Cottenoire, formerly a leather merchant in this city, dwelling in the parish of Saint Pierre le Marche, about sixty-five years of age, a witness produced... affirms that in the year 1562, when the rebellious heretics entered this city of Bourges, she saw them removing the body of the Lady Joan of France from the vaulted monument (which is still to be seen in the aforesaid church of the Annunciade Virgins), and that the body at that time was still intact, with hands joined, Joan's body found intact with its garments, burned by the heretics clothed in the habit of the Order of the Annunciade Virgins, with a pillow beneath the loins; and that by those heretics, while she also looked on, it was burned and reduced to ashes in the vestibule of the said church, so that no part of the aforesaid body survives, and all the chests (one of which was of lead) were taken away by them. By her merits, the pain of gout was diminished She says furthermore that she fulfilled a nine-day vow more than once in the aforesaid church of the Annunciade Virgins for the intention of her mother, who while she lived suffered from gout; and that she felt relief was afforded her through the intercessory aid of the aforesaid Lady Joan. She adds furthermore pain of the arms and shins driven away that about a year ago she similarly fulfilled a nine-day vow on account of grave pains in her arms and shins from which she was afflicted, and was thereafter freed from them, so that she now enjoys the best of health.

[18] The honorable matron Jeanne Bouchetel, widow of Pierre Andouin, formerly a furrier in the city of Bourges, dwelling in the parish of Saint Pierre le Marche, about seventy-five years of age, a witness produced, affirms that in the year 1562 a certain baker dwelling at the Quatre-Colonnes of this city [the pain of the shins of two persons and the debility of the feet of a third driven away] was tormented with a grave pain of the shins, so that he had to be supported by two crutches; and that she fulfilled a nine-day vow in the aforesaid church of the Annunciade Virgins for his recovery, and he immediately recovered so well that he no longer needed the crutches -- which, this same witness says, she carried to the aforesaid church and there arranged for a Mass to be celebrated in thanksgiving. She further affirms that she fulfilled a nine-day vow for the recovery of a certain Lady named Greuequin, a resident of this city, who was entirely debilitated in her feet; and she was soon so strengthened that toward the end of the nine-day vow she herself went to the church and arranged for a Mass to be celebrated. She adds moreover that forty-five years ago her aforesaid husband Andouin was bedridden from a grave pain of the shins and was in no way able to walk; but that she prayed to God for him in the aforesaid church of the Annunciade Virgins, and through the merits and intercession of the said Lady Joan of France he recovered his former health, and was afterward enrolled in the militia against the rebellious heretics.

[19] On the nineteenth day of the month of April of the aforesaid year, in the aforesaid chapel, by us the Archbishop and the above-named witnesses, the examination of the following witness proceeded. Master Pierre Roulin, Royal Notary, dwelling at Bourges in the parish of Our Lady du Fourchault, about forty-one years of age, a witness produced... affirms that on the Monday, pleurisy and pain of the kidneys May 9, of the previous year 1616, he was struck with a grave pleurisy with intense fevers, so that he could scarcely breathe; and was moreover afflicted with so great a pain of the kidneys (which had begun seven or eight days earlier) that his life was in danger. Accordingly, in this difficult and continuous languor, remembering the miracles that had occurred in the church of the Annunciade Virgins through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France, Foundress of that convent, he devoted himself to the same Lady, and immediately perceived a relief of the pains; and two days later he himself went to the church to fulfill the nine-day vow which his wife had begun to offer on his behalf. And when he had attended the church only four times, he was freed from all pain, with no bloodletting or medicine applied; and he piously believes that through the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Lady Joan he recovered complete health.

a The formula of the oath and the subscription, repeated everywhere in the same words, are omitted to avoid tedium for the reader.

b Commonly called Gatinais, from Vastinium on the river Yonne.

c We gave the Life of Saint Bonitus, Bishop of the Auvergne, on January 15.

d Saint Ursinus, the first Bishop of Bourges, is venerated on November 9.

CHAPTER 4

Testimonies produced by sworn witnesses according to the second decree.

[20] On Friday, the twenty-first day of the month of April of the aforesaid year, at the second hour after midday, in the aforesaid chapel, the examination of the following witnesses proceeded. The Reverend Father Claude Guillain, prefect of the boarding college of the Society of Jesus in this city of Bourges, about forty-four years of age, a witness produced... affirms that when eleven boarders of the said college were seized with a grave infirmity, some with tertian fever, others with quartan fever, during the winter just past, he vowed a nine-day devotion to be fulfilled in the church of the Annunciade Virgins at the sepulchre of the Lady Joan of France; fever removed and that he would offer the Sacrifice of the Mass on the first and last day of the vow to be fulfilled, that God Almighty, through the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Lady, might deign to cure the said sick persons; and soon seven of them were freed from all fever, even before the vow had been fulfilled -- which he piously attributes to the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Lady Joan.

[21] Notesse Vignot, wife of Jean le Jeune, a vine-dresser, residing in the parish of Saint Ursinus at Bourges, about thirty-five years of age, a witness produced... testifies that when about two years ago her son was suffering from a grave hernia, hernia she fulfilled a nine-day vow for his recovery in the church of the Annunciade Virgins, and prayed to God that through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France He might deign to heal him; and that after the vow was fulfilled, her son fully recovered and thereafter felt no trouble from the disease; and she firmly ascribes this to the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Lady.

[22] Jean le Clerc, a miller at the mill of Saint Austregesilus, in the parish of the Castle of Bourges, about twenty-seven years of age, a witness produced... affirms that about two years ago, afflicted with a grave pain of the shins and the worst ulcers, he fulfilled a nine-day vow pain of the shins and arranged for the Sacrifice of the Mass to be offered in the church of the Annunciade Virgins; and that after the vow was fulfilled, he immediately felt better, the ulcers closing considerably, so that he walked more easily, and still walks so today -- he whom the pain of the shins had continuously afflicted for twelve years. And although he has not been most fully healed, he nevertheless walks much better than usual, and ascribes this to the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Lady Joan of France.

[23] The honorable matron Jeanne Descrosses, wife of Master Pierre Roulin, Royal Notary, dwelling at Bourges in the parish of Our Lady du Fourchault, about twenty-seven years of age, a witness produced... affirms that during the Lent just past of the year 1616, about three weeks before Easter, she was afflicted with a grave and intolerable pain in her left breast, and of the breast so that she was unable to nurse her infant daughter; but having been informed of the miracles that are daily wrought in the church of the Annunciade Virgins at Bourges through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France, Foundress of that church and convent, she vowed a nine-day devotion to be fulfilled there by herself or by another; and when she herself had begun to fulfill it, on the third day she was freed from the grave affliction, which had spontaneously erupted in three places without any human aid, so that she was immediately able to nurse her infant daughter and has continued to nurse her ever since; and before the vow was even fulfilled, she was restored to complete health. She firmly attributes this to the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France.

[24] Antoinette Macee, dwelling in the parish of Saint Pierre le Marche in this city of Bourges, about fifty years of age, a witness produced... affirms that during the previous Lent of the year 1616, she was afflicted with so grave a pain of the left arm that, deprived of all its use, she could not move it except with the aid of her right hand; but after fulfilling a nine-day vow in the church of the Annunciade Virgins, she recovered her full strength, affliction of the arm as she even now perseveres in health and enjoys the use of the left arm no less than the right; and she ascribes this to the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France.

[25] The honorable matron Jeanne Quenouille, wife of Jacques Chebiton, dwelling at Bourges in the parish of Saint Pierre le Piellier, about fifty-six years of age, a witness produced... affirms that about two years ago she was oppressed by a grave swelling of the right eye like a boil, swelling of the eye so that she could see nothing for the pain; but after she had vowed and fulfilled a nine-day devotion to the Lady Joan of France, she was restored to complete health, through the merits (as she piously believes) and intercession of the aforesaid Lady.

[26] The honorable matron Michaele Fauvre, widow of the distinguished Master Noel Guyon, formerly an Elector of Bourges, dwelling at Bourges in the parish of Saint Pierre le Guillard, about seventy-two years of age, a witness produced... affirms that she was very frequently afflicted with pains of the head and shins while she was carrying a child; but after fulfilling a nine-day vow more than once in the church of the Annunciade Virgins at Bourges pain of the head and shins and invoking divine help at the sepulchre of the Lady Joan of France, she was freed through her merits and intercession. She says furthermore that she heard from her mother-in-law that the aforesaid Lady, whom she herself had well known while alive, had led her life with a reputation of extraordinary holiness, and was accustomed to go on processions with bare feet; that King Louis XII himself, who had repudiated her, the sanctity of Joan when on a certain occasion, hiding himself behind a tapestry in the sacred chapel of this city, he observed how greatly she was devoted to piety and prayer, was moved by admiration of her and groaned; and that she had caused a house to be built into which she withdrew from the allurements of the world with other pious virgins, whom she instructed in all holiness and moral discipline to the best of her ability; and in that house she herself completed the course of her life in all austerity and sanctity. She adds that she saw in the aforesaid convent a Religious Virgin named Marguerite Sagordet, sick for a full four years, mute and debilitated in her limbs; who, when she had devoted herself to the Lady Joan of France with a sincere affection of soul, immediately there was presented to her (as she herself related to this witness) the face of a certain most beautiful Lady, speech and strength conferred upon a sick and mute woman who admonished her to give thanks to God; and at that very moment, having been granted the use of her tongue, she called one of the Sisters; and that Sister, astonished, announced the miracle to the others, who all likewise came running and heard her speaking with the greatest joy; and on the following day they proclaimed a solemn procession of thanksgiving, in which Sister Marguerite Sagordet herself appeared; and shortly afterward she received the full strength and health of her entire body. The said witness ascribes all these things to the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Lady Joan, and adds that she has more than once observed the great concourse of people in the aforesaid church of the Annunciade Virgins fulfilling their nine-day vows to obtain a cure for their illnesses.

[27] The honorable man Jean Helyot, Secretary of the house of the Most Illustrious Prince of Conde, dwelling at Bourges in the parish of Our Lady du Fourchault, about sixty-four years of age, a witness produced... affirms that in the year 1562, when the city of Bourges was seized by the rebellious heretics under the leadership of the Lord of Montgomery (though it was soon recovered by King Charles IX), he remembers that after the city had been plundered by soldiers and inhabitants alike, three or four soldiers from the company of the captain Mire, Lutheran heretics, related to a certain Jacques Troullet, a wool-carder residing at that time in the parish of Saint Medard of this city and working nearly every day in the house of the witness's mother -- and the witness himself heard them say -- that they had never been so astonished as in the church of the Annunciade Virgins at Bourges. For after the entire church had been plundered, they had descended into the monument in which the body of the Lady Joan of France was deposited, in order to search for relics, the body found incorrupt and had found a leaden chest; and upon opening it, they had beheld the body of the aforesaid Lady so intact and beautiful, as if it had been recently committed to the earth. It groans at the touch of the heretics When they wished to overturn the chest itself, they perceived a groaning voice issuing from the body itself, and, terrified by this, they let go of the chest. Afterward, however, they regretted it, because other soldiers then came from the company of the captain Blanchet, who, finding nothing to plunder in the aforesaid convent and church, shook out the aforesaid body and took away the empty chest. Shortly after the recovery of the city, the said Troullet, at the request of the aforementioned witness, explained the entire sequence of these events, with the witness's mother, now deceased, standing by; and he confessed that he himself had also perceived a certain groaning voice three or four times. Whereupon the astonished mother, although at that time rather estranged from the true Catholic faith, a heretic woman is converted rebuked Troullet himself, charging him that they had done most wickedly in disturbing the body of the pious Princess; and adding that she had more than once heard from her own mother, who had known her while she was alive, that the Princess had been very devoted to God and truly adorned with every kind of virtue. The said witness likewise affirms that he heard from his mother, who had since converted to the Catholic faith, this saying: "It is a matter of grave fear for all, if there should be any doubt about the salvation of so pious a Princess." He adds furthermore that he has seen in the aforesaid church of the Annunciade Virgins a great crowd of people and devotion for obtaining a cure of diseases; and that he himself, in the year 1614, afflicted with a grave pain of the shin and knee, the afflicted shin and knee healed vowed a nine-day devotion to the Lady Joan of France and began to fulfill it on August 25 of the said year; and that on the fourth or fifth day after, while he was thinking about the aforesaid Princess, a certain most beautiful Lady, most splendidly adorned, appeared to him in his sleep; and immediately upon awakening, with the bed-curtain removed, he beheld a great splendor in his room; and astonished by this, he fortified himself with the sign of the Cross, and the light disappeared. Afterward he awakened his wife and narrated everything to her, and he was restored to complete health.

[28] The honorable matron Jeanne Guillot, wife of the honorable Jean Helyot, about fifty-nine years of age, a witness produced... affirms that she has observed a great concourse of people in the church of the Annunciade Virgins at Bourges, frequent swellings and contractions of the sinews driven away founded by the Lady Joan of France, and that frequent prayers are offered to her as to a Saint, for repelling various bodily afflictions and diseases, especially swellings and contractions of the sinews. She also saw Jeanne Durand, the little daughter of Master Pierre Durand, formerly a Notary of Bourges, about three years of age, afflicted with a wondrous swelling of the whole body and especially the belly, so that she seemed almost about to burst; swelling of the body and belly but after a vow was conceived to the Lady Joan of France for her recovery and the little girl was brought to the church, the swelling began to diminish; and after the nine-day vow was fulfilled, she was wonderfully healed and thereafter persevered in health, through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France, as it is piously believed. She further testifies that she saw a certain one of the Religious Virgins of the same convent, named Marguerite Sagordet, afflicted with ill health for four years and deprived of the use of all her limbs, except her hands, with which she wrote her confession with difficulty; she, being mute throughout those four years, at last devoted herself in heart -- since she could not do so by mouth -- to the aforesaid Lady Joan; and shortly after, by night, she beheld an excellent and beautiful Lady saying to her: "Rise, daughter, and give thanks to God." And immediately she called the Sister in charge of the sick in the said convent, who heard her speaking with the greatest admiration and reported the miracle to the other Religious Virgins of the same convent, who, struck by the novelty of the event, ran up without delay and instituted a solemn procession of thanksgiving, which she herself attended, slightly aided by the hand of a Sister leading her; and through the aid of the intercession of the Lady Joan, as is firmly believed, she recovered the former strength of all her limbs.

[29] The Lady Marie Desanzay, wife of the noble Master Jacques Bigot, Royal Counselor and Procurator in the municipality and Court of Bourges, dwelling in the parish of Our Lady du Fourchault, about fifty-two years of age, a witness produced... asserts that she had a son named Jacques Bigot, formerly a Royal Counselor and Elector of this city of Bourges, a dangerous disease of the throat who at about the third year of his age was seized with a grave and dangerous infirmity of the throat, and could be healed by no remedy of surgeons or physicians; and that she therefore, on the advice of pious persons, devoted him to the Lady Joan of France; and after she fulfilled a nine-day vow in the church of the Annunciade Virgins at Bourges, he was restored to his former health, through the merits and intercession, as she piously believes, of the aforesaid Lady Joan.

[30] Aime Matrat, a hemp merchant, residing at Bourges in the parish of Saint Bonitus, about fifty years of age, a witness produced... asserts that for eighteen months he was afflicted with a most grave pain and swelling of the shins, and that when a threefold ulcer erupted upon them, swelling and ulceration of the shins he summoned all the help of physicians but felt no relief; indeed the disease itself increased daily, so that he was tormented night and day with intolerable and continual pain. Having been informed, however, of the singular devotion of very many in the church of the Annunciade Virgins at Bourges, who were freed there from various bodily afflictions and languors through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France buried therein, he vowed a vow to her and continued his prayers in the said church for fifteen days, finishing on the solemn feast of Pentecost of the year 1615; and on the third day after beginning his prayers he felt relief, and moreover recovered complete health of body, with only the vestiges of the ulcers remaining; and this through the merits and intercession of the same Lady Joan, as he firmly believes.

a Saint Austregesilus is venerated on May 20; we treat of him on February 6 in the Life of Saint Amandus.

All the French historians who write of the events of that time narrate this rebellion of the heretics and the seizure and recovery of the city of Bourges -- among them Belcaire, Book 9, numbers 52 and 53; Sponde in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year 1562, number 12. But Attichy reports in chapter 24 that at Bourges the body of Saint William the Archbishop, whose Life we gave on January 10, was also burned at that time; and adds that in the Cathedral of Saint Stephen many vestiges of this fury of the heretics can still be seen.

c The same Attichy calls him Miregrand.

CHAPTER 5

Other testimonies produced.

[31] Guillemette Passavant, widow of Claude Ballot, residing at Bourges in the parish of Montermoyen, about forty-eight years of age, a witness produced, affirms that about four years ago her little daughter was most grievously afflicted with scrofulous tumors in the throat; scrofula of the throat when the witness's own mother, since deceased, noticed them and remembered the miracles that were daily occurring in the church of the Annunciade Virgins, through prayers poured forth to God and to the Lady Joan of France, Foundress of that church and convent, she devoted the scrofulous child to the same Joan and her intercession; and for her recovery she prayed in the said church every Monday for one year, and obtained her cure before the year's end, so that she still lives now free from all scrofula, with no human aid applied. She therefore professes to ascribe this benefit to the merits of the Lady Joan; scrofula and hernia of various persons and adds that she has also fulfilled a nine-day vow many times in the same church for several scrofulous and herniated children, who likewise all recovered and are well, as she has learned from their parents.

[32] The distinguished Master Jean Asse, Notary and Procurator of the Ecclesiastical Court of Bourges, a resident of the parish of Saint Jean des Champs, about thirty years of age, a witness produced, asserts that about two years ago he suffered from a grave kidney disease for three or four months; kidney disease when this ceased, he was tormented with so great a pain of the shins that he could scarcely move. Wherefore, for the sake of recovering his health, he vowed to visit the church of the Annunciade Virgins, personally or through another, and to pray to God there for the obtaining of health through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France, Foundress of that church and convent; and when he had arranged for prayers to continue there for nine days and for the Sacrifice of the Mass to be offered, he felt better, and moreover was able to attend the same Sacrifice, being thenceforth free from all bodily torment; and he firmly attributes this health to the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Lady.

[33] The Lady Marie le Comte, widow of the distinguished and prudent Master Jacques Nandion, formerly an Advocate of the Court of this city of Bourges, residing in the parish of Saint Jean des Champs, about fifty-four years of age, a witness produced, affirms that for the space of four years she gravely suffered from pains of the stomach, various pains of the chest, belly, etc., and vomiting of blood belly, shoulders, bosom, and chest; and that very frequently, provoked by excessive anguish of the heart, she was driven to vomiting and sometimes vomited blood. But after every human remedy had been applied in vain, she at last had recourse the previous year to imploring the help of the Lady Joan of France, Foundress of the convent of the Annunciade Virgins; and after fulfilling a nine-day vow for the third time, the aforesaid pains gradually abated and finally departed entirely. She says that after each nine-day vow she arranged for one Mass to be celebrated, and that after recovering her health, she again continued nine days of prayer in the said church in thanksgiving, piously believing that she obtained her health from God through the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Lady Joan.

[34] Silvain Coquillon, a wheelwright and resident of Bourges in the parish of Saint Bonitus, about forty years of age, a witness produced... asserts that during the Easter holidays just past he was so afflicted with a pain of the kidneys pain of the kidneys that he was compelled to abstain from all labor and to lie abed for some time; but when he heard of the miracles that daily occurred in the church of the Annunciade Virgins at Bourges through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France, Foundress of that church and convent, he vowed a nine-day devotion to God and to the same Lady, and arranged for it to be fulfilled by his wife and a candle to be offered, and thereafter felt better; afterward he himself visited the aforesaid church every Sunday, and was soon restored to complete health, through the merits and intercession, as he piously believes, of the said Lady.

[35] The honest maiden Gabrielle Bouard, daughter of the prudent Jean Bouard, a royal officer, residing in the parish of Saint Pierre le Guillard, about nineteen years of age, a witness produced... affirms that about fifteen months ago she prayed to God for nine continuous days in the church of the Annunciade Virgins, that through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France, debility of the limbs Foundress of that church and convent, He might deign to grant health to Gabrielle Degoy, daughter of Guillaume Degoy, a polisher of Bourges (whom she herself had received from the sacred font), who was so completely crippled and debilitated in all her limbs that she could not stand; and that before the end of the nine days she began to grow stronger; and afterward, with no aid of physicians applied, she was perfectly well, through the merits and intercession, as she firmly believes, of the Lady Joan.

[36] Noel Piandon, superintendent of the tennis court at Bourges in the parish of Saint Ursinus, about twenty years of age, a witness produced... asserts that about two years ago he was afflicted with a grave ailment of the left thigh, so that he could not support himself, and with no apparent sign of swelling or inflammation; ailment of the thigh wherefore, considering the miracles that daily occurred in the church of the Annunciade Virgins, he vowed a nine-day devotion to the Lady Joan of France, Foundress of that church and convent, and fulfilled it there, and arranged for a Mass to be celebrated. He says that on the first day he was tormented with such pain that he could scarcely reach the church in three hours, although he lived not far from it; that he felt better each day thereafter, and after fulfilling the vow walked freely and without any trouble, and recovered complete health; and he believes this came to him through the merits and intercession of the aforesaid Lady.

[37] The prudent Pierre Chantereau, a cloth merchant and resident of Bourges in the parish of Saint Pierre le Guillard, about twenty-five years of age, a witness produced... asserts that about one month ago his son named Simon suffered gravely from a hernia, hernia so that he was frequently provoked to vomiting; and that he, having been informed of the miracles that daily occurred in the church of the Annunciade Virgins, vowed a nine-day devotion for his son's recovery; and when it was fulfilled, the son felt better and afterward recovered entirely; and he piously attributes this to the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France, to whom he had directed his prayers and vows. This he knows well enough, etc.

[38] The Reverend Father and Lord in Christ, Charles de Boucherat, Abbot of Pontigny of the Cistercian Order in the diocese of Auxerre, residing at Bourges in the parish of Saint Austregesilus, about twenty years of age, affirms that about three weeks ago, tormented by a double or triple attack of quartan fever, fever he vowed a nine-day devotion to the Lady Joan of France, Foundress of the convent of the Annunciade Virgins at Bourges, and fulfilled it in the church of the same Virgins, and implored divine help at the monument in which the body of the same Lady Joan formerly rested; and that before the vow was even fulfilled, he was entirely freed from the quartan fever, contrary to the opinion of the physicians of this city, to whom he had disclosed his illness and who had answered that the fever would be long-lasting and would detain him the whole winter. Wherefore he testifies that he ascribes this sudden health to the prayers and merits of the aforesaid Lady Joan.

[39] Michaele Challotte, wife of Daniel Lonzay, a vine-dresser, dwelling at Bourges in the parish of Saint Fulgentius, about forty-six years of age, a witness produced... affirms that more than three years ago she suffered from a difficult hernia, hernia which had indeed so miserably afflicted her for five years that she was compelled to abstain from the slightest labor; and that she therefore at last vowed a vow to God and to the Lady Joan, Foundress of the convent of the Annunciade Virgins, and continued nine days of prayer in the church of the aforesaid convent; and that on the first day she felt somewhat better, and then more fully recovered, and has felt no further pain, nor does she feel any even now. She asserts moreover that at the previous grape harvest she had strained herself in supporting a cart laden with grapes, pain of the thigh and being thereafter afflicted with a grave pain of the thigh, she again fulfilled a nine-day vow in the same church and was restored to complete health, as she even now perseveres in health. Which things she therefore piously attributes to the merits and intercession of the above-said Lady.

[40] The prudent Etienne Vernier, a musician, a resident of Bourges in the parish of Saint Jean des Champs, about sixty years of age, a witness produced... asserts that three months ago he was so afflicted with gout that it was necessary for him to lie abed; and that he vowed a nine-day devotion to the Lady Joan of France, Foundress of the convent of the Annunciade Virgins at Bourges, gout and arranged for it to be fulfilled by his daughter; and that on the second day he felt somewhat better, and on the last day of the fulfilled vow he fully recovered; and afterward he himself, in good health, went to the aforesaid church and there arranged for a Mass to be celebrated. This he knows, etc.

[41] The venerable and prudent Lord Etienne du Pre, Priest, dwelling in the parish of Brexeuil, now present at Bourges, about twenty-nine years of age, a witness produced... affirms that on the very day sacred to the glorious Assumption of the Virgin Mother of God, in the year 1616, he was struck with a sudden paralysis to such a degree that he was deprived of all use of his thighs and shins paralysis and, continually confined to a sedan chair, could nowhere walk. But after human remedies had been applied in vain, he was at last informed, when on June 18 just past he was returning from the baths of Bourbon through this city, of the miracles occurring in the church of the Annunciade Virgins through the vows and prayers offered in honor of the Lady Joan of France; and on this occasion he vowed a vow to the same Lady and arranged to be carried to that church by two men whose help he was using; and there, after fulfilling his prayers and having money ready for the celebration of a Mass at his intention, he was brought back home; and placed in his chair there, he gradually perceived a relief from the pains, and soon rose of his own accord, and then walked about the room with the aid of the men he had summoned; and in thanksgiving he burst forth with them, as they acclaimed and applauded the miracle wrought through the merits and intercession of the said Lady Joan. He affirms that for ten full months he had been unable to move; but now, supported by one crutch under the arm and one walking stick, he walks without any pain. He ascribes this benefit entirely to the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan; and in order to give thanks to God and the aforesaid Lady for this, he was again brought to this city and yesterday arranged for the Sacrifice of the Mass to be celebrated in the said church.

[42] The prudent Jean Chamerlat, a merchant of Bourges in the parish of Saint Ursinus, about thirty-nine years of age, a witness produced... affirms that in the month of August of the year 1612, accompanied only by a servant and a certain Religious man, he traveled to Burgundy, and near the town of Sancerre he found a fountain and drank from it, and immediately became deaf in the right ear. Although astonished by this impediment, he did not interrupt his journey. But on the return he perceived beneath the said ear a certain pustule of the thickness of a pea; various ulcers of the face and not knowing the nature of the disease, he applied a suppurative remedy for three months, but in vain. He therefore pierced the same pustule with a needle to stir up the matter of the pus; but then, as many ulcers infected the entire face, he consulted physicians and surgeons, of whom some affirmed it to be scrofula and others a cancer. He vowed a vow to the holy Virgin of Liesse and to Saint Marculf, and went there three times; indeed he was also touched by the Most Christian King. On the second and third journey to those places he felt somewhat better; but when he observed that he was not fully healed, the ulcers continually infesting his face, and having been informed of the miracles that God was working in the church of the Annunciade Virgins of this city through the merits of the Lady Joan of France, he vowed nine days of prayer to be offered to God in the said church for obtaining health through the merits and intercession of the same Lady. And because at that time he was living in the village and parish of Savigny, three leagues distant from this city, he came fasting for nine continuous days from that village to the said church of the Annunciade Virgins; and on the ninth day of his vow, when he had arranged for the Sacrifice of the Mass to be offered there and had refreshed himself with holy Communion, he was restored to complete health; and from that time, which is now more than two years ago, he has persevered in health; and this through the merits, as he piously believes, and intercession of the same Lady Joan.

[43] The noble Lady Marie de Mareuil, daughter of Lord Bonaventure de Mareuil, formerly a Knight of two Royal Orders and Captain of a royal company of fifty armored horsemen, and of the Lady Lucretia de Beaucaire; widow of Clarambault le Picard, formerly Lord of the parish village commonly called Chateau des Chapelles in the territory of Brie, and Master of the Horse to the Most Serene and most powerful Lady Louise of Lorraine, Queen Dowager of France, and Supreme Steward to the Most Illustrious and most noble Prince and Duke of Vendome; herself now present in this city of Bourges, about forty years of age, a witness produced... affirms that after a most grave illness she was crippled and debilitated in all her limbs, so that she could neither stand on her feet, much less walk; but about a month ago she was divinely prompted to conceive a vow to the Lady Joan of France; debility of the limbs and having been informed of the sanctity of that most pious Princess's life, she vowed a vow to God and to the Lady Joan, to be fulfilled in this city of Bourges in the church of the Annunciade Virgins, at the monument in which the body of the same Lady formerly rested. And when the vow was taken in mind only, but with a fuller affection, she suddenly received new strength, so that she was soon able to cover a quarter of a league on foot without difficulty, and was not fatigued on the return. She therefore came on this occasion to the aforesaid church of the Annunciade Virgins (which she had never before visited, although she had often been in this city) and offered her prayers and gifts there to God and the Lady Joan, and gave thanks for the health obtained, which she now most fully enjoys; and she now desires to return to the said village of Chateau des Chapelles, which is about sixty leagues from this city of Bourges and only eight from Paris.

a Otherwise known as Liesse in the territory of Laon in upper Picardy.

b Corbigny, commonly called the Shrine of Saint Marculf, in the same territory of Laon, to which the Kings of France are accustomed to go immediately after they are anointed. He is venerated on the Kalends of May, and is invoked as patron by those suffering from scrofula.

CHAPTER 6

Decree of the Archbishop concerning the examination of public records and writings.

[44] On the fourth of August 1617, in our Archiepiscopal palace before us the above-said Archbishop, at the tenth hour before midday, Master Jacques Touchebeuf, Procurator of the Religious Virgins, Mother Handmaid, and daughters of the convent of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary in this city of Bourges, appeared and explained to us that he had previously arranged for not a few witnesses to be heard and examined, for the proof of the miracles that are daily wrought in the church of that convent; but that there was further need of our monitory letters, Monitory letters published to be published in every parish of this city, addressed to each and every person who might keep in their possession any records or documents which pertain to proving the sanctity of the life of the Lady Joan, or which contain miracles wrought both during her life and after her death. Wherefore, to the said Procurator who petitioned us to deign to issue our monitory letters, and at the same time compulsory letters, to each and every person who possesses such records or documents, we willingly acceded and issued the letters.

[45] Afterward, on the thirteenth of September 1617, in our Archiepiscopal palace before us the aforesaid Archbishop, at the first hour of the afternoon, the said Procurator of the Religious Virgins, Mother Handmaid, and daughters of the convent of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary appeared and informed us that he had arranged for our said monitory letters to be published on three Sundays in the parochial churches of this city (as is established to us both from copies of those letters and from the testimonies of the Parish Priests subscribed below each), and that he had found several records and documents; which he asked to be legitimately excerpted, collated, and inserted into this verbal Process by our authority, so that the truth of the matters (which he presented to us described in articles) might also be established by these literary monuments. Wherefore, hearing his just request, we now ordered this to be done, and indeed according to the formula presented to us by him, which is here appended:

[46] First, the Lady Joan of France, Duchess of Berry, led a most holy life: concerning the sanctity of Joan for she wore a hairshirt daily, visited hospitals and prisons, and there distributed great alms; and whatever poor persons she learned were afflicted with diseases or infested with ulcers, she immediately visited, taking care that medicine should be applied in her presence and all necessities provided.

Then, when the same Lady was having the monastery of the Annunciade Virgins built, and miracles many miracles befell the workers, both those who labored in building the walls and those who worked in digging the well of the same convent.

Finally, immediately after her death, indeed before the body was committed to the earth, frequent miracles were wrought, both for those who watched the body being carried to the church of the Annunciade Virgins and for those who approached the place of burial. And indeed from the time of her death to the present, these wonderful benefits have not been lacking, nor are they even now lacking, to those who, visiting the said church, have implored or now implore divine help through the merits and intercession of the same Lady.

Accordingly, in keeping with this formula, the Excerpts were arranged in the following manner and order.

[47] First, there was presented to us by the honorable Master Jean Cornillat, a citizen of Bourges and recently Clerk of the Court of Bourges in this same city, a certain book covered in red calfskin leather, entitled Annals of France, from the destruction of Troy to the reign of Charles IX, King of France, by Nicolas Gilles, Excerpt from the Annals of Nicolas Gilles Royal Secretary and Clerk of the Royal Treasury; printed at Paris in the year 1566 and divided into two volumes, the first containing 142 leaves and the second 179. From the second page of leaf 129 to the first page of leaf 130 of the second volume, where the deeds of Louis XII are treated, we ordered the following to be excerpted:

"In the name of God, of the most holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. Having examined the case pending before us, Philip, Cardinal of the title of Saints Peter and Marcellinus, of Luxembourg and Bishop of Le Mans; Louis, Bishop of Albi; and Ferdinand, Bishop of Ceuta -- judges selected by our most holy Father and Lord the Pope -- in the controversy between Louis XII, Most Christian King of France, plaintiff on the one part, concerning the marriage of Louis XII with Joan declared null and the most serene Lady Joan of France, cited on the other part; having also examined the Apostolic Rescript, the petition of the plaintiff and the response of the cited party, with further exceptions and replies respectively, the depositions and the responses thereupon from both parties, the witnesses also produced by the plaintiff and the exceptions against them, and other documents, and the conclusions taken in the case, and the citation to hear the law pronounced; having moreover taken counsel with Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, and very many Doctors and Professors of both Laws: we say and decree by our definitive sentence, having God before our eyes, that the marriage entered into between the said parties is and was null; and we give leave to the plaintiff, insofar as necessary by Apostolic authority, to marry any other wife, with costs compensated." Since this sentence was never protested against or appealed from, King Louis XII married by Papal dispensation the Lady Anna, Duchess of Brittany, widow of King Charles VIII; and he gave to the Lady Joan of France the Duchy of Berry, with an honorable retinue, to be always maintained at his own expense. She thereafter lived at Bourges very piously and holily, so that after her death, by her merits and intercession, very many miracles divinely wrought at her sepulchre are everywhere celebrated.

[48] Then, by the venerable and prudent Master Francois Ralement, Prior of the Church of Salles in this city, there was presented to us a book covered with a white binding and inscribed, History of the People of Berry, Excerpt from the History of Berry by Jean Chaumeau encompassing their origin, antiquity, illustrious deeds, privileges, and immunities, with a detailed description of the same Province; by the author Jean Chaumeau, Lord of Lassay, Advocate of the Municipality and Court of Bourges; printed at Lyon by Antoine Guffais in the year 1566, containing 183 leaves. From the second page of leaf 77 to the first page of leaf 78, the following was excerpted:

"The Princess Joan showed herself above all chaste and continent, acquiescing in the sentence by virtue of which Louis XII married Anna of Brittany, and gave to the Lady Joan of France the Duchy of Berry with an illustrious retinue, which he himself continuously maintained at his own expense. concerning her most holily led life This royal Princess then withdrew to the city of Bourges, in which she led a holy life most worthy of all praise. For it is established that she lived very continently and austerely, and associated with herself sacred Virgins exercising themselves in all piety; that she devoted herself to fasts, subdued her flesh with a hairshirt, and frequently afflicted herself, dismissing all her retinue. Full of charity, she most gladly assisted the honest and modest poor, and hired a surgeon at her own expense to attend to them continually. Moreover, in the city of Bourges she ordered a monastery of Religious Virgins to be built, to whom she gave the name from the Annunciation of the most holy Virgin and prescribed a fixed rule of life. The care of building this monastery she entrusted to a distinguished citizen of Bourges, Georges, Lord of Masnay, a man most skilled in architecture, whose services she also used in other affairs. And indeed the convent was so constructed that nothing may justly be found wanting in it; for its foundation she paid the Lords Canons of the Collegiate Church of Montermoyen eight hundred gold crowns. She departed this life in the year 1504, in the month of February, and was buried in the sacred monastery of the Annunciade Virgins built by her, leaving the greatest sense of loss to all, but especially to the poor, on account of her remarkable generosity toward them and her supreme humility in that royal dignity. She also laid the foundations of a certain new college, called today by the name of Saint Mary; but death overtook her while she was planning to provide it with all necessities."

a When this sentence was announced to Joan, she is reported to have replied: "A great injustice has been done to me, but God be praised in all things; for I know that He permits this so that I may have an occasion of serving Him better than I have done hitherto, and of fulfilling my first desire of founding an Order in honor of the Virgin Mary." So Attichy, chapter 6.

CHAPTER 7

Miracles wrought in the building of the convent and at the death of Joan.

[49] Finally, through Brother Jeremie Belleteste of the Order of Saint Francis, dwelling in the convent of the Annunciade Virgins itself, there was presented to us a book written in the hand of Francoise Guyard, a Religious Virgin of the same convent, in the year 1561, Excerpt from the manuscript book of Francoise Guyard de Villelume covered with a black binding, secured with a double brass clasp, comprising two hundred and ninety-three leaves. On the very first leaf it begins with these Latin words: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: the triumphal title. In the name of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen." And it ends on the last ten lines of the final page as follows: "I, Sister Francoise de Villelume, Discreet, testify that I have seen and heard all the things contained in this volume, both concerning the sanctity of the life of the Lady Joan and also of our deceased Father Gabriel Maria, whom I myself saw and knew; and so that greater credence may henceforth be given to these things, I have signed the present book with my own hand: Sister Francoise de Villelume."

The aforesaid Belleteste solemnly affirmed that this book had been given to him by the illustrious and Religious Virgin Madeleine Chambellan, Vicaress of the said convent, for the purpose of excerpting -- as we ordered to be excerpted from the second page of leaf 63 to the first page of leaf 66 -- the following:

"In token of the truth I have written this brief treatise with my own hand on the fifth day of the month of April 1507, before the feast of Easter, and signed it: Beneamatus Georgius."

[50] "First, I, Beneamatus Georgius, about forty-nine years of age, attest that the Lady Joan of France, Duchess of Berry, committed to me, her unworthy Master of the Horse, the construction of the monastery and the church. I caused the foundations of this church to be dug to a depth of twenty-eight feet, because the earth there had been disturbed long ago. When these had been dug to about twenty-five feet, the diggers deliberated whether they should go to lunch or first prepare the shoring to support the earth on both sides. While they were deliberating, they suddenly ascended a very large ladder; Workers buried by a great mass of earth are preserved unharmed and when some had reached the top of it, a huge mass of earth, joined together from both sides, fell upon the rest; and indeed so great that three hundred carts could have been loaded with it. Yet no one was harmed, God wonderfully protecting them. A truly astonishing miracle, and one which scarcely anyone could believe unless they had beheld it in person, as I did."

[51] "Likewise, after I had arranged for all that mass of earth to be removed, and workmen struck down by a full cart of bricks I soon employed many masons to complete the structure of the foundations as quickly as possible; and so that it might be finished more rapidly, I ordered a great supply of bricks to be brought from all sides by many carters. One of them, being overly hasty and striving to outstrip the others in unloading the bricks, turned his loaded cart around the path along the foundations, and a stone fixed in the ground under the wheel overturned the vehicle and cast all the bricks upon fourteen or fifteen workmen who were engaged in laying the foundations. But the most merciful God preserved them all so completely that no one was affected by the slightest injury, although the bricks fell upon them from a height of fifteen or sixteen feet. This must assuredly be regarded as a great miracle."

[52] "Likewise, while the garden walls encircling the entire convent were being built, the foundations having already been dug, a certain workman surnamed Le Regnard (who regularly served the masons in this construction of the monastery and lived nearby), having perhaps come earlier than the others in the morning, another falls into a trench began to cast certain enormous pieces of rubble into the foundations, while our Lady's Secretary looked on together with me. He seized a rather large stone, which he could scarcely lift; and when he had raised it to his shoulders and was attempting to throw it into the foundations, he happened to lose his footing and fell headlong together with the stone, so that those present feared he had fallen to his death. But with God protecting him, he was injured in no part, only slightly scratched on the forehead as if by a needle. This must certainly be regarded as a remarkable miracle, given the depth of those foundations -- sixteen or eighteen feet."

[53] "The following miracle must also be noted, which is greater than all the preceding ones and occurred in the construction of the well of the aforesaid monastery (twenty-one fathoms deep). For when the earth had been dug out down to the water, the masons began to work at the bottom of the well, and having laid the first stones, were preparing to build upon them larger stones shaped in a semicircle. A certain Jacques, surnamed Grandis, was stationed at the top of the well, as being the strongest and most suitable for lowering the stones on a windlass, so that the three masons with as many servants who were in the depths would not be injured by them. It happened, in my presence, others unharmed in the well from falling stones and timbers that the said Jacques wished to place two stones in the basket for lowering, which had been resting for some time on the platform beside him and were damp from a light rain. When he tried to place one of them in the basket, it slipped from his hands; and attempting to seize it again, by bending down he pushed the other one with his foot. And so both stones fell together, from the top of the platform on which Jacques was standing, down to the bottom of the well, and in falling they broke through and cast down a double set of planking. Now consider: so great a mass of stones and timbers crashed down upon six workmen stationed at the bottom of a well twenty-one fathoms deep; and by the wonderful providence of God they were so preserved that not one of them was even slightly injured. I, however, observing this fall from close to the well, called the masons each by their names; and when none of them answered me, I began to cry out: 'Good God! These poor men are dead!' Then Jacques fled away; and again I called the masons by name: 'Guillaume,' I said, 'Michael, my friend, speak to me.' And he burst forth into these or similar words: 'What evils have you thrown down here? You seem to have wished to suffocate us.' Then when I asked, 'Is anyone hurt?' he answered, 'Not at all.' Afterward, when they had all come up, they affirmed that the stones and timbers had fallen here and there alongside them, beside two men's sides, without any injury to anyone -- which is assuredly most worthy of admiration."

All these miracles the excellent Beneamatus Georgius reported to his Lady, who gave thanks to God and His most holy Mother, and asked that whoever might henceforth be employed in the construction of her convent, they might continue to be preserved from every danger.

[54] From the second page of leaf 115 of the same book, the following was excerpted:

On the day after the feast of Saint Vincent, our Lady lay gravely ill in bed. When her daughters learned of this (for she had arranged for them to be informed through their Father Confessor), all were affected with the greatest grief and turned at every hour to invoking the suffrages of the Saints, and persisted in continual prayers, fasts, and other bodily mortifications, to obtain health from God for their excellent Lady and Mother. But God Almighty had already decreed the end of her life and the hour of putting an end to her holy labors and of granting a worthy reward for the pious works she had done throughout her life. Moreover, to the Reverend Father her Confessor, while he was celebrating the sacred Rites the death of Joan revealed to her Confessor and standing at the corner of the altar, the deceased Father John de la Fontaine had appeared (as he had promised at the point of death that he would appear to him, God permitting, after the ten Masses which he had pledged to celebrate for the soul of the deceased were completed), and had foretold that the Lady would depart this life within ten days; and several other things which the Reverend Father was never willing to reveal to any mortal.

[55] From the second page of leaf 118 to the first page of leaf 120, the following was drawn:

Toward the evening of February 4, as the disease grew worse, she was entirely debilitated. Immediately the great bell of the Church of Saint Stephen was rung, to rouse the people to pray for her health. But a certain comet also appeared above her palace, foretold by a comet portending that the end of her life was at hand, while all groaned at the sight. The most pious Lady, observing that her spiritual Father, who was at her side, was affected and almost consumed with grief, ordered him to give himself a little rest, promising to call him back soon if she felt herself growing worse. The good Father asked her to do so, and withdrew with the others, except for a few women most familiar to her, who would attend to the care of the sick woman. But here must be noted the illustrious desire of the Lady to meet her day in the greatest tranquillity and quiet, without any disturbance from her attendants. For she remembered her mother Queen Charlotte, who at the final hour of death had suffered such annoyance from the frequent visits of courtiers that she could scarcely collect herself with God; and she feared lest something similar might befall her. But the most benign God, satisfying her wish, permitted her to depart this life with the desired tranquillity of mind. When therefore all had departed except the few women I mentioned, she asked to be turned to the other side of the bed and the curtains to be closed; then she also ordered Marie Pot, her chambermaid, to remove the light as troublesome to her eyes. The maid immediately obeyed and placed it where it would be most readily at hand if needed; and then withdrew within the curtains, so that she might more conveniently assist her Lady and more easily hear her voice if she called. After about one hour, she noticed the bed illuminated by a most brilliant light; illuminated by a heavenly light and doubting whether someone had lit a torch, she looked outside the curtains, but observing no light there, she withdrew within them again and again beheld the unusual splendor; and she observed it first spread over the entire body of her Lady, then gradually diminish and rest upon her breast and mouth, and finally disappear. It is surely to be piously believed that this splendor was divinely sent to prove the sanctity of the life of this blessed Lady, and to make it clear that the Lord Jesus the Savior had summoned her most happy soul to the heavenly company of His blessed Mother -- in whose honor she had founded in the Church militant a new Order of sacred Virgins. Marie Pot, astonished by the sudden withdrawal of so great a light, brought her head closer to her Lady; but perceiving no pulse or breath, she immediately seized a candle and said to those standing by with great sorrow of heart: "Our Lady has no pulse or breath; she must be attended to." And looking more closely into her face, she perceived that she had expired. Whence she began to cry out with a louder voice; but in vain, since her soul had already flown to heaven. Immediately therefore the Reverend Father was summoned, together with the entire household of illustrious men and women; and so great a lamentation arose from all that nothing but weeping and pitiful wailing could be heard.

CHAPTER 8

Various miracles.

[56] From the second page of leaf 156 to leaf 163, the following was excerpted:

First, while the Lady Joan was still living, a certain old servant of hers, the Lord of Gaucourt, was very gravely and dangerously ill from a vehement and continuous fever. By the prayers of Joan while still living, a fever is driven away Many nobles, visiting him out of friendship, advised him to fortify himself with the Sacraments of the Church, so that he might die as a good and pious Catholic. But one suggested that he commend himself to the prayers of his excellent Lady Joan of France, asserting that she was endowed with so many virtues and was of such merit before God that she could obtain health for him by her prayers. Believing this, he soon besought the Lady not to be reluctant to invoke divine help for the recovery of her servant. She kindly assented, and withdrawing to her Oratory, she prayed to God for him; and immediately his fever diminished and gradually departed entirely.

[57] Another miracle, formerly written in the hand of Beneamatus Georgius, which he himself saw with his own eyes, and he is a most trustworthy witness. "I saw," he says, "that immediately after the death of my most pious Lady, a benefit came to the Priest Maturinus, formerly superintendent of her garden, who, afflicted with arthritis in all his limbs, was continually bedridden with it and could not move even in the slightest without the help of another's hand. He was living in the house of Lord Nicolas Bany, in an upper room overlooking the street that leads from the church of Montermoyen to the palace. by invoking her after death, arthritis is healed On the day, therefore, when the body of the deceased Lady was being carried from the palace to the church of the Annunciade Virgins for burial, accompanied by the entire clergy of the city of Bourges, Lord Maturinus, confined to bed by most grave pains, when he heard the clergy singing, suddenly cried out: 'O my Lady, never to be seen by me again!' And he called to Captain de Maubranches, Jean de la Bergeune, who was leaning at the window in Maturinus's room and eagerly watching the funeral procession. 'Ah,' he said, 'my friend, help me and lead me to the window, that I may at least look once more upon the body of my dearest Lady.' The Captain willingly helped and with much labor led him to the window, clad only in his undergarment and gown. As he gazed upon the body of his Lady, he asked her on bended knees that, if she had any power with the Lord God, she would intercede for her wretched servant, now bereft of his Lady and crippled and debilitated in all his limbs. Having offered this prayer, he did not move from the window but watched the rest of the funeral procession. When it was finished and the Captain wished to lead him back to bed, he said: 'Leave me, my friend, for by divine beneficence and the prayers of my dearest Lady I feel myself healed.' And immediately leaping up, he himself seized his breeches and doublet and dressed himself without anyone's help, no less easily than he had ever done before. The Captain, without any delay, announced this miracle to the Lord Steward Maurion; and together with him I hastened to Lord Maturinus, who narrated to us the whole sequence of this marvelous event. And on the following day he himself sang a solemn Mass in the said church of the Annunciade Virgins for the soul of his Lady, and informed the Religious Virgins themselves of this extraordinary miracle."

[58] Another miracle. A certain one of the millers of the Lord of Baugy was so gravely tormented by articular disease again that he seemed out of his mind. His brother therefore admonished him, saying: "I beg you, my brother, commend yourself to the prayers of the Lady Joan of France, and you will be well." But he scorned his brother's advice as folly. Afterward, however, he himself dreamed three or four times that he was commending himself to the aforesaid Lady, and that she was praying to God for his recovery. At first he thought little of it; but at last, admonished by the more frequent dream, he recognized a certain divine prompting and earnestly devoted himself to the aforesaid Lady. He arranged to be transported from his bed by a vehicle to the church of the Annunciade Virgins, and there, brought to the sacred body itself, he felt himself afflicted with greater pain than before. But soon, after prayers were poured forth to God and the Lady Joan, he recovered; and leaving his crutches there, he returned home in health. Thanks be to God and the aforesaid Lady.

[59] There follow the things which Brother Ambrose Basset, a Religious of the Order of our holy Father Francis, reported to me and affirmed to be most true -- both miracles and other memorable acts of the Lady Joan of France -- which I myself also saw and knew, since I have lived in this convent of the Annunciade Virgins at Bourges by the command of my Superiors, namely from November 14 of the year 1506. But before I proceed, I shall set forth certain things most worthy of remembrance, which I learned from those to whom the secrets of the same Lady were once open. It is more than sufficiently clear that she served Christ in His members with every zeal and caused ointments to be abundantly prepared for distribution everywhere to the poor. Joan most generously succored the need of the poor She had selected certain trustworthy persons to inquire diligently everywhere into the necessities of the needy; especially a certain pious matron named Beline, dwelling near the palace itself, who daily informed the most pious Lady where the most destitute were hiding, and who received from her the money to distribute to them at her discretion, together with the ointments. I heard from the very man who prepared the ointments at the Lady's command, the Reverend Lord Etienne Mathe, cantor of the Lady's palace, and formerly (before he was ordained to the sacred ministry) surgeon to Louis XI, the Lady's father, that she preferred that the Lady herself apply the ointments with her own hands, from which she believed a greater virtue to be present. This was certainly a remarkable testimony of her extraordinary goodness and holiness. The same Lord Etienne Mathe is alive this very year 1515, she anoints and bandages ulcerated shins and can still testify to her supreme mercy toward the poor in former times: to such a degree that she herself, with her own hands, tended the ulcerated shins of poor women, and indeed on bended knees, so that she might more conveniently anoint and bandage the wounds. And she did this so gently and kindly that she gave to all a singular example of humility, charity, and piety. And those afflicted women, from her touch, received the health they desired.

[60] Another miracle. On August 23, 1507, Philippa Vesne, widow of Ursin Cousart, from the parish of La Celle de Brueres, By invoking her after death, a pain of the hands removed came here to give thanks to God, the Mother of God, and our Lady Joan of France, and to offer a votive gift. She solemnly affirmed to us that she had been afflicted with a grave pain of the hands, and especially of the left thumb, to such a degree that there was no hope of curing it, but rather a fear of soon losing it. But at the urging of Antoine Mostier, a tenant farmer of the Lord of Merlac, she conceived a vow to God and the Virgin Mother, and also to the Duchess Lady Joan of France, not long since deceased, whose fame of holiness had already filled nearly the entire region. Immediately upon conceiving the vow, a certain purulent and hardened matter erupted from the thumb, and shortly afterward her hands were healed.

[61] Another miracle. On November 10, 1507, affliction of the arm Petra Beruace, wife of Jean l'Aisne, a butcher, a resident of the town of Beaugency on the Loire, affirmed to me on her faith that she had been affected with so great a pain in one arm that she feared she would be entirely deprived of it. But when, admonished by others, she devoted herself to God and the Lady Joan, on the fourth day after she felt a great relief from the pains, and she was now perfectly well. She had come here to give immortal thanks to God, the Mother of God, and the Lady Joan, Duchess of Berry, for this wonderful healing.

[62] Another miracle. In the year 1518, a noble man, Pierre de Vaulx, resident of the parish of Saint Aubin de Lunery, which is four leagues distant from the city of Bourges, came to us and related a thing worthy of perpetual memory: epilepsy namely, that he had a daughter, now about twelve years old, who often and suddenly was accustomed to fall, sometimes as many as ten times a day, seized in her limbs and senses, like those who suffer from the falling sickness -- an infirmity which had afflicted her for about five years. After various pilgrimages which he had undertaken for his daughter's health, sometimes bringing her herself along, he at last, together with his wife the girl's mother, conceived a nine-day vow to God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Lady Joan, which the daughter herself would fulfill at the sepulchre of the same Lady. And immediately upon conceiving this vow, the daughter was restored to complete health; she ate more heartily, whereas before she had taken only the very smallest amount of food; and she no longer fell, being thenceforth free from all disease. Praise be to God, the Virgin Mother, and the holy Lady Joan. Present and listening to all these things were Brother Pierre Declose of the Order of our holy Father Francis, and Pierre Gilbert, now Minister to the Sisters of Avains. Shortly afterward the same nobleman arranged for his daughter to be brought here to fulfill the nine-day vow, which she duly performed, having her sins cleansed by humble confession and receiving holy Communion. The father offered a very large candle bearing his coat of arms, as a memorial of this great benefit; the miracle published in a sermon and moreover summoned hither a distinguished Dominican theologian to publicly proclaim to the people the miracle which God Almighty had deigned to work for his daughter through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan.

[63] Another miracle. On July 4, 1510, Jacques Jolinet, a merchant dwelling in the city of Angers near the portico of Saint Nicolas, affirmed to us in good faith that after vows conceived and fulfilled to God, the Mother of God, and the Lady Joan of France, Foundress of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he was freed from an intolerable affliction of gout, which had so gravely tormented him for nearly three years that he could neither walk on foot nor ride on horseback. But two days after fulfilling his vows, he was so cured gout that he walked freely and had no need of anyone else's help. He had now come here with his wife to honor with praises God and His ever-Virgin Mother and the Lady Joan of France. Present at the narration of this miracle were Lord Michael Guerin, Priest and Pastor of the parish of Brion near Chateauroux; Lord Pierre Guerin, Priest and Vicar at Herisson; Master Hugo Baudras, Priest and now Receiver of the Sisters of this convent; Brother Guillaume Peurgault, Confessor of the same Sisters; Brother Pierre Foussemenard; and I, Brother Antoine Basset, dwelling here now and from the very beginning of this convent's foundation, by the command of my Superiors; and also many others, namely Jeanne Valette, Catherine Rogere, and Catherine Boulee.

[64] Another miracle. On July 23, 1510, the Lady Catherine Anne de Clavieres, wife of Laurent de Charvalette, a nobleman, Lord of Clavieres debility of the arm and Captain of Montbrison, related to us and solemnly affirmed that she had suffered gravely for about eleven years from her right arm, to such a degree that, deprived of all its use, she had moreover endured continual pains. But after she commended herself to God, the Virgin Mother Mary, and the Lady Joan, Foundress of this convent, she was immediately healed and had now come here with her husband to render thanks to God, the Mother of God, and the Lady Joan for the benefit received. Her husband himself was present while she narrated this, as were the honest man Pierre Galevard, from the parish of Farques near Brueres on the river Cher, Notary of the same place; Pierre Claveau, Denys Gilbert of this parish of Montermoyen, and many others.

[65] Another miracle. On June 5, 1511, the nobleman Jacques de la Trimouille, Lord of Lignac, now dwelling in the Castellany of Argenton near the village of Saint Gaultier, and having as his wife the Lady Francoise de Beaumont, affirmed to us in good faith that in many affairs which would take long to narrate, he had invoked divine help through the merits and intercession of the Lady Joan of France, and that everything had always succeeded happily for him. He first related to us that he had had several children from his first and second wives, but none long surviving except one little daughter, now twenty-two months old, who herself fell into a most grave illness that already seemed to be bringing her death. He therefore had recourse to divine help and the intercession of the Lady Joan, a fatal illness having conceived a vow for his daughter's recovery, and she immediately recovered her health. But having been variously prevented, he had somewhat delayed the fulfillment of the vow, and meanwhile he was seized with so great a pain of all his limbs and especially of the right side pain of the side and limbs that he believed death was imminent. Wherefore, in such grave danger of life, he commended himself as usual to God and the Lady Joan, seriously promising to fulfill his vows at her tomb as quickly as possible. And indeed on the previous Saturday, which was the last day of May, he had felt the most grave pains; but they were soon diminished after the vow was resolutely undertaken by him, which he today fulfilled at the sepulchre of the Lady Joan, and gave immense thanks to God with joy. The same Lord de la Trimouille further testified to us that he had once stood surety for a friend for a large sum of money; and when the friend failed in his obligation, and he was condemned to pay, he again in his accustomed manner prayed to God and the Lady Joan, and was rendered entirely free from all loss, the mention of that affair being thereafter voluntarily suppressed. Present while these things were heard were Philippe de Beaumont, a nobleman and Lord of the same place of Beaumont near Chateauroux, together with Philippe Renault, servant of the aforesaid Lord de la Trimouille, and Master Hugo Baudras, Priest and Receiver of the Sisters of this convent. All the aforesaid miracles were arranged in order by the excellent Father Brother Ambrose Basset, who formerly saw and knew the holy Lady, and who has lived continuously in this convent since her death, diligently observing and listening to those who obtained health and other benefits from God through the merits and intercession of the same Lady; and he is therefore a witness most worthy of all credence.

...none long surviving except one little daughter, now twenty-two months old, who herself fell into a most grave illness a fatal illness that already seemed to be bringing her death. He therefore had recourse to divine help and the intercession of the Lady Joan, having conceived a vow for his daughter's recovery, and she immediately recovered her health. But having been variously prevented, he had somewhat delayed the fulfillment of the vow, and meanwhile he was seized with so great a pain of all his limbs and especially of the right side pain of the side and limbs that he believed death was imminent. Wherefore, in such grave danger of life, he commended himself as usual to God and the Lady Joan, seriously promising to fulfill his vows at her tomb as quickly as possible. And indeed on the previous Saturday, which was the last day of May, he had felt the most grave pains; but they were soon diminished after the vow was resolutely undertaken by him. Which vow he today fulfilled at the sepulchre of the Lady Joan, and gave immense thanks to God with joy. The same Lord de la Trimouille further testified to us that he had once stood surety for a friend for a large sum of money; and when the friend failed in his obligation, and he was condemned to pay, he again in his accustomed manner prayed to God and the Lady Joan, and was rendered entirely free from all loss, the mention of that affair being thereafter voluntarily suppressed. Present while these things were heard were Philippe de Beaumont, a nobleman and Lord of the same place of Beaumont near Chateauroux, together with Philippe Renault, servant of the aforesaid Lord de la Trimouille, and Master Hugo Baudras, Priest and Receiver of the Sisters of this convent. All the aforesaid miracles were arranged in order by the excellent Father Brother Ambrose Basset, who formerly saw and knew the holy Lady, and who has lived continuously in this convent since her death, diligently observing and listening to those who obtained health and other benefits from God through the merits and intercession of the same Lady; and he is therefore a witness most worthy of all credence.

[66] After these things had been legitimately excerpted, we enjoined that the volumes be returned to their respective owners -- namely to the above-named Cornillat, Ralement, and Belleteste -- through the Procurator of the Religious Virgins, Mother Handmaid, and daughters of the convent of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary; and he immediately arranged for their restoration. Then the aforesaid Touchebeuf, Procurator of the said Religious Virgins, The Process to be submitted to Paul V for obtaining her Beatification requested the public authentication of all that had hitherto been done, and asked that we not be reluctant to order that the present verbal Process be concluded; and that the same, sanctioned by our decree and Archiepiscopal authority, subscribed by us and our Secretary, and fortified with our solemn seal, be committed to a courier to be chosen by us, to be submitted to our most holy Lord Paul V, so that a just and equitable decision might be made concerning the desired Beatification of the Lady Joan of France. We therefore willed and ordered that an end be put to this Process; and we have approved and do approve it by our decree and Archiepiscopal authority, and have subscribed it with our own hand; and we have likewise ordered it to be subscribed by our Secretary, fortified with our greater seal, and delivered to Etienne Rameau, courier of this city of Bourges, to carry it to Lyon to the Lord Cabot, a merchant, who will transmit it to Rome to the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Archbishop of Lyon, now present there, so that it may be offered to our most holy Lord the Supreme Pontiff; and so that what reason and equity demand may be decreed concerning the Beatification of the aforesaid Lady Joan. Done in the year and day above-stated.

Signed, P., Archbishop of Bourges.

And below, Rebours (Secretary) and Touchebeuf, Procurator.

a The year 1618 was erroneously printed, and has been corrected from Attichy; the continuous order of years requires it to be 1608.