Francesca of the Third Order of Saint Francis

ON BLESSED FRANCESCA OF THE THIRD ORDER OF SAINT FRANCIS, AT GUBBIO IN UMBRIA.

Year 1360.

Francesca, of the Third Order of Saint Francis, at Gubbio (Blessed)

I. B.

[1] At Gubbio, an episcopal city of Umbria, Blessed Francesca, or Franceschina, of the Third Order of Saint Francis, is held in veneration, although Peter Rodulphius assigns her to the Second Order, of Blessed Francesca, or Franceschina, in book 1 of the Histories of the Seraphic Religion, folio 139, where he adorns her with this encomium: "Blessed Franceschina of Gubbio, illustrious for miracles, lies in the city of Gubbio, in the church of Saint Francis; her bones are preserved in a wooden chest. Certain Hungarian pilgrims experienced the sanctity of the bride of Christ; thereafter the people of Gubbio began to hold her in veneration." The same things, somewhat amplified in matter no less than in words, are recounted by Wadding in his Annals of the Friars Minor, volume 2, at the year 1255: "In this year," he says, "there dies at Gubbio Blessed Franceschina, born there, of admirable abstinence and most celebrated for miracles. Her bones are reverently preserved in a wooden chest at the church of Saint Francis, whose Third Order she assumed.[e] of the Third Order of Saint Francis. Uncultivated and neglected for some years, she lay hidden until certain Hungarian pilgrims, having experienced her power by a manifest miracle, celebrated this wondrous woman with worthy praises. Hence the people of Gubbio began to hold her in esteem." The same author, in volume 4 at the year 1360, no. 3, calls her Blessed Francesca.

[2] Marcus of Lisbon in his Chronicle of the Order of Friars Minor, part 2, chapter 54, has the same account but, like Rodulphius above, says she embraced the institute of Saint Clare, and that the bones are preserved beneath an altar, closed with a key so that they may be shown to those who request it; relics in the altar, and an image with votive offerings. her image is painted on the same altar, adorned round about with votive wax offerings, which are hung there as testimony of public piety and of miracles. Nor, on account of its antiquity, has anything else been ascertained about her. Horatius Diola, the Italian translator of Marcus, and the Frenchman Jean Blanconus write that not only wax but also silver and other material offerings were placed there, attesting to the restoration of health to many through her patronage.

[3] A more certain witness to her sanctity, adorned with public proofs, is Ludovico Jacobilli of Foligno in his Lives of the Saints of Umbria, where he writes the following, in agreement with what has been related: "Blessed Francesca, commonly called Franceschina, having assumed the habit of the Third Order of Saint Francis, lived with a great reputation for holiness, devoted to prayer, penance, and mortification. She was a contemporary of Blessed Delphine, spouse of Saint Elzear, virtues, and of Blessed Lucy of Venice and Joanna of Saint Mary in Balneo, who were likewise Tertiaries. She departed this life at Gubbio, her homeland, on the sixth of February, in the year 1360. Her body, reverently placed in a wooden chest, of pious workmanship, is kept within the altar in the church of Saint Francis, and her image is painted on the same altar, with votive offerings hung round about. God has worked many miracles miracles, through the merits of this beloved spouse of his; and in particular he graciously came to the aid of certain Hungarians who had come to visit her body. Wherefore the people of Gubbio held it thereafter in greater veneration."

[4] Jacobilli then cites Rodulphius and Arturus. We have already quoted the words of the former; feast day, the latter, however, inscribed her twice in his Franciscan Martyrology: on the eighth of the Ides of February and on the fourth of the Nones of March; on the first day in these words: "At Gubbio, of Blessed Francesca of Gubbio, a Tertiary, who shone everywhere for the fame of her holiness." On the other day: "At Gubbio in Umbria, of Blessed Franceschina, Virgin, whose sanctity the glory of miracles adorns." But from the Annotations added to both entries, it is sufficiently clear that she is one and the same person. Hence perhaps the error crept in because she is called now Francesca, now by the diminutive name Franceschina, and the same person is attributed by some to the Third Order and by others to the Second. Wadding himself, having written in volume 2 that she died in the year 1255, says in volume 4 that he was unable to find the certain time in which she lived. Marcus of Lisbon in his Chronicles, part 2, book 9, chapter 23, writes that she flourished around the year 1359, age. in which year he says Blessed Delphine died.

TRANSLATION OF THE RELICS OF THE HOLY MARTYRS THEODORE, TROSIMUS, EUELLIUS, TARCICIUS, FELIX, CANDIDUS, AND THEOPHILUS, AT FOSSANO IN THE PIEDMONTESE TERRITORY.

Year 1641.

Theodore (Saint), Translation of the Martyr, at Fossano in the Piedmontese territory; Trosimus (Saint), Translation of the Martyr, at Fossano in the Piedmontese territory; Euellius (Saint), Translation of the Martyr, at Fossano in the Piedmontese territory; Tarcicius (Saint), Translation of the Martyr, at Fossano in the Piedmontese territory; Felix (Saint), Translation of the Martyr, at Fossano in the Piedmontese territory; Candidus (Saint), Translation of the Martyr, at Fossano in the Piedmontese territory; Theophilus (Saint), Translation of the Martyr, at Fossano in the Piedmontese territory.

I. B.

[1] Fossano is a town of the province of Piedmont, founded about four hundred years ago on the river Stura, recently honored in our time with the title of a City and an episcopal throne by Pope Clement VIII at the request of Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy. sent from Rome in 1638, The Cathedral basilica is rich in illustrious relics of saints: Saint Juvenal, Bishop of Narni, and the Theban Martyrs Alverius and Sebastian, among others. Other religious houses there have likewise recently been made distinguished by a similar adornment and protection. Three books were published in Italian by Giovanni Nigro, Vicar General of that diocese, concerning the origin of the city, its patron saints, and citizens renowned for holiness. And in the second chapter of the second book, he writes that certain relics were brought there, which had been obtained from the sacred places of the city of Rome in the year 1638, on the twenty-eighth of February, by Clement Ascanio Sandrio Trotto, accompanied by legitimate documents and the appropriate formalities, and donated to his uncle Federico Sandrio Trotto, Bishop of Fossano. The latter eagerly embraced what he perceived to be for the adornment of his city and the salvation of the people, and bestowed them upon three churches: given to various churches on February 6, 1641, Saint Mary of the Angels, of the Somascan Congregation, and Saint Catherine of the holy Virgins; to which churches, in the year 1641, on the sixth of February (which was the anniversary of the day Federico had entered upon the episcopate in 1628), he arranged for them to be solemnly transferred with distinguished ceremony, religious devotion, and the applause of the people.

[2] These were the relics of these Martyrs: half of the head or skull of Saint Theodore, these relics, and a large part of the body. The thick bone of the tibia of Saint Trosimus. Likewise the entire bone of the tibia of Saint Euellius, and a similar one of Saint Tarcicius. And these were given to the Somascan Fathers. To the nuns of the convent of Saint Catherine, the arm bone of Saint Felix. The pious Bishop reserved for his own Cathedral Church half the skull of Saint Theophilus and the thick tibia bone of Saint Candidus.

[3] Of Saints Theodore, Who these Saints may have been is not known to us with certainty. There were very many Martyrs named Theodore in various places; also some at Rome, such as the one inscribed in the Martyrology on the seventeenth of March with Alexander; the one on the twenty-ninth of July with Lucilla; the one on the fifteenth of December with Irenaeus. Whether the mentioned remains are of one of these or of some other, we do not know. Trosimus. Euellius. We know of no other Trosimus. There are several Trophimi elsewhere, but not at Rome. Euellius was a Roman Senator who, moved by the constancy of Saint Torpetis, gave his name to Christ and won the crown of martyrdom at Rome. Ferrarius records that his body is preserved at Pisa and that his annual feast is celebrated on the eleventh of May, although in the Acts of Saint Torpetis, which we shall give on the seventeenth of May, he is said to have completed his struggle on the fifth of the Kalends of May, that is, the twenty-seventh of April. Tarcicius, No Saint Tarcicius (under that exact name) is known; but Saint Tharsicius, inscribed in the Martyrologies on the fifteenth of August, is illustrious. He was buried in the cemetery of Saint Callistus; his relics, as Octavius Pancirolus attests in his Hidden Treasures of the Venerable City, of the Somascan church: are some in the Vatican basilica of Saint Peter and others in the church of Saint Silvester at the Campus Martius, or in the fifth church of the fourth region.

[4] Of the many Saints named Felix, it is not possible to divine whose sacred bone in particular of Saint Felix, of the convent of Saint Catherine: was given to the church of Saint Catherine at Fossano. We mentioned Saint Candidus above on the second of February in the Martyrologies; but on the third of February we reported that a body of the same Saint Candidus, or rather of another, was donated by Pope Urban VIII to the wife of the Duke of Bracciano, of Saints Candidus and Theophilus, of the Cathedral. and from her to Emilio de Feis, a knight of Volterra (page 330), and placed in the church of Saint Augustine, in the private chapel of the Fei family; the head was brought to the Cathedral and placed in a silver reliquary. One might suspect that the bone was detached from the body of this Candidus, which was given to Clement Ascanio; but I rather think it belongs to some other Candidus. Saint Theophilus, who won his palm after Saint Dorothea at Caesarea, is venerated on this very day; yet there are other Martyrs distinguished by that name elsewhere.

[5] The anniversary memorial of these Saints. Whether the memory of these Martyrs is celebrated on this day in those three churches, or separately on different days for each one, we are not certain. We have only ascertained what Giovanni Nigro committed to writing: that on this day, the anniversary of the inauguration of Bishop Federico, the translation of all those relics was performed with a splendid ceremony.