Haymo and Veremundus of Meda in the Diocese of Milan

CONCERNING SS. HAYMO AND VEREMUNDUS OF MEDA IN THE DIOCESE OF MILAN

AROUND THE YEAR 790.

Haymo, Confessor, of Meda in the territory of Milan (Saint) Veremundus, Confessor, of Meda in the territory of Milan (Saint)

I.B.

[1] The Corio family is an ancient and illustrious family of Milan, from which, born of his father Marco in the year 1460, the patrician Bernardino Corio was the first to commit to written records the origins and distinguished deeds of the Milanese: From the Corio family sprang SS. Haymo and Veremundus. which literary work he began in the twenty-fifth year of his age and completed in his fortieth, namely in the year of Christ 1490, on September 8, as he himself attests. From the same Corio stock are thought to have been descended long ago Haymo, as Filippo Ferrari calls him, or, as others have it, Aymo or Aymus, and Veremundus: and so the same Ferrari calls them Counts of Turbigo, or rather of Turbigo, following Bernardino Corio, because the leading men of that family now hold that title. Those holy brothers built a monastery in the village of Meda in the diocese of Milan, they found a monastery at Meda, and dedicated it to St. Victor the Moor, Martyr, who is venerated on May 8 at Milan. The same Corio affirms these things about them, at the year of Christ 1189: At last Henry, son of Frederick Barbarossa, departed from Milan, he says, with his wife Constance, returning to Germany, and on the first night he lodged in the castle of Meda, formerly founded by the brothers Aymondus and Vermondus, born from our most ancient Corio family, and Counts of Turbigo, who were afterward enrolled in the Catalogue of Saints. Their deeds are known from their Legend.

[2] Their anniversary solemnity is celebrated on the Ides of February. So Ferrari in his General Catalogue of Saints, they are venerated on February 13, which are wanting in the Roman Martyrology, at that day: At Meda in the territory of Milan, SS. Haymo and Veremundus. The same author mentions them in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, where he also recites an epitome of their Life composed by himself, and affirms they died around the year 790. they died around the year 790. The same author in his annotations to the General Catalogue has this: Their Life exists along with an Office of the same, published by Fr. Modesto, formerly Inquisitor of Como. But in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy he notes that in the said Office some things of little verisimilitude are contained, which could be corrected. We have seen neither that Office or Life, nor the Legend which Corio cites (if indeed it is not the same), by whom was their Life written? nor another Life of them published by Gaspare Bugatto, a weighty writer of much authority, as Emmanuel of Lodi, from the village of Treviglio in the diocese of Milan, Doctor of Theology and confessor to the nuns of the monastery of Meda, attests. Emmanuel himself, having encompassed the history of Meda in four chapters -- the site and antiquity of the place, the recent translation of the Saints at which he had been present, their conversion, and miracles -- explained it all in the Italian language, in the year 1629, and inscribed the narrative to Caterina Sica, Abbess of the holy convent at Meda: the printer Giovanni Battista Alciato dedicated it to Count Antonio Corio. whence published here. I have condensed that entire narrative into a few words, cutting away much that seemed to have been amassed by the author more for ornament of style than as necessary for the exposition of the truth.

LIFE

abridged from the Italian published by Emmanuel of Lodi.

from the Italian of Emmanuel of Lodi.

CHAPTER I

The conversion and sanctity of SS. Aymo and Veremundus.

[1] Meda lies fourteen thousand paces from Milan, on the road to Como, a most ancient village, Meda, a village in the diocese of Milan, pleasant in location, with a mild and healthful climate, adorned with several splendid buildings, fairly populous for the capacity of the place -- even inhabited by noble families. But its chief ornament comes from the magnificent church of St. Victor the Martyr, and the monastery which Virgins inhabit, following the Benedictine institute, all of distinguished birth and widely celebrated throughout Italy for the reputation of their holiness. There are also relics of the Saints there for the adornment of the church and the protection of the entire place.

[2] The origin of the name is uncertain: scarcely a few writers of recent memory have mentioned it. Some fancy that it was first inhabited by Trojan immigrants, uncertain whence so called, and called Meda in honor of Medea, whose beauty and a certain appearance of divinity, asserted by magical illusions, was celebrated at that time throughout Greece and Asia.

Others hold it was founded by the Orobii, and was perhaps named Meda from some Medus, one of their leaders. What if the name flowed from the very situation of the place, so that, because it lies at nearly equal distance from Milan and Como, Meda was so called as if it were "Media" the middle? The author writes that he found a half-line of an ancient but unknown poet of this sort: "There was a Medean forest," with the remaining words so eroded by age that they could not be read. From this, therefore, he conjectures -- by a futile conjecture indeed -- that there had been a forest sacred to Medea there, as many were sacred to Diana or other gods: and that hence the name survives, though truncated.

[3] But let us set aside that useless dispute about the name, vainly entangled with ancient fables. It is established that on the summit of the hill there a church was built and dedicated to St. Victor the Moor, there a monastery of Virgins, who won the laurel of martyrdom at Milan, and is honored by many churches in that diocese. The brothers Haymo and Veremundus afterward founded a monastery, sprung (as tradition has it) from the most noble Corio family, founded by SS. Aymo and Veremundus: which now holds the town of Turbigo on the Ticino River, distinguished by the title of a County, and several other villages and castles. They are said to have lived in the eighth century after the Incarnation of the Word, and to have been drawn in a marvelous manner from the vain cares of the world to the pursuit of piety around the year 776. They took delight in hunting, as is generally the custom of the nobility. they, while hunting, were about to be torn apart by wild boars. It happened, then, that a certain ardor for taking prey carried them away into pathless hills, thickly overgrown with forests, far from their servants and companions, where they plunged themselves upon the spears of divine Love, which had long been lying in wait for that prey. When they had thus come alone into the deep woodland passes, they caught sight of two wild boars of unusual size and ferocity, which had emerged from their lairs and were rushing toward them at full speed. What were they to do? They had courage indeed equal to any danger, but their strength was perhaps already somewhat weakened, and there was no hope of help. They therefore took to flight, deeming this the only path of salvation remaining. The beasts pursued with equal speed. Catching sight of the church of St. Victor on the summit of the hill, they flee there and climb into tall laurel trees, which we mentioned, they rushed to it as to a place of asylum. The wild beasts were bearing down upon them and pressing close upon their heels. There stood beside the little church twin laurel trees, quite tall: whose roots survive to this day, from which new shoots sprout from time to time, and they are held in great honor by the nuns on account of the memory of the holy brothers. Into those laurel trees, therefore, each quickly climbed, hoping thus to frustrate the rage of the wild beasts, which could reach them neither by leaping nor by climbing.

[4] But not even that station was safe enough. For when the beasts realized that their prey had been snatched from them, first uttering a horrible roar around each tree, while the beasts strive to uproot them, they began with their deadly tusks to dig up the ground, so that by baring and tearing out the roots they might topple the very trees, and together dash the youths to the ground and devour them. In this extreme danger, the youths, now almost dead with fear, seeing all exits blocked and no means of escaping the savagery of the beasts, had recourse to heavenly help, by which alone they could be saved in their now desperate situation: and (wonderful to relate!), though neither was aware they vow to build a monastery: of what the other was turning over in his mind, both at once, at the same moment in time, made a vow to God, to the Virgin Mother of God, and to the glorious Martyr Victor, that if they should be snatched from their present and certain destruction, they would build in that place a monastery in honor of that same Martyr at their own expense, which was very ample. Scarcely had the vow been conceived, when the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation ratified it, and, just as He once snatched Daniel from the very jaws of lions, so He freed these men from the most imminent peril. By His divine power, the beasts which had been so savagely bent on their destruction and soon the beasts withdraw: suddenly ceased from digging up the earth and undermining the roots, and with lowered heads, as if they wished to show reverence toward those who had already professed themselves servants of God, they retreated to their dens like the gentlest of lambs.

[5] One may exclaim with the Apostle: How incomprehensible are the judgments of God, and how unsearchable His ways! Rom. 11:33 He gently invites Peter, a poor fisherman, to the office of Apostle, and easily persuades him. To draw these brothers to the care of their salvation -- being as they were noble and wealthy -- He strikes terror into them: by which method He once also impelled Paul himself to the preaching of the Gospel. Struck therefore by the arrow of divine love, they themselves, crowned with laurel, confirm their vows in the church, and as if already enlisted as champions for heaven, flooded with immense consolation and joy, the beasts having been put to flight by the protection of the holy Martyr, they descend safely from the trees, and weaving crowns for themselves from the foliage of those trees, and adorning themselves with them, as if celebrating a distinguished triumph over conquered death, they enter the church: they render infinite thanks to God, by whose so illustrious favor they had been delivered, and having confirmed the pledge which they had made before, they return home.

[6] Here immediately, lest any forgetfulness or sloth should creep in, they deliberate by what means what they had vowed might be accomplished. Then, having made their plan known to kinsmen and friends, they dismiss their servants with generous gifts, and sell their furnishings, jewels, and some of their estates: and from the considerable sum of money thus raised, they go to the place where they had escaped the danger, and having purchased the land, they build a monastery, which they assign to sacred Virgins to inhabit, prescribing the Rule of St. Benedict for them to observe, since that Rule especially flourished throughout Italy in that age. they build and endow a monastery of Virgins, They then endowed the same monastery with splendid revenues: in which very many Virgins soon devoted their virginity to the heavenly Bridegroom, most of them born of noble families, drawn even from distant places, not only from Milan and neighboring cities, by the fame of flourishing sanctity there. celebrated for its privileges and sanctity: The same monastery was afterward adorned and fortified with many privileges of Emperors. For the Abbess administered justice to the inhabitants of that village and the vicinity. That power was lost through the passage of time, by which all things are changed: meanwhile the splendor of the monastery was enhanced by the nobility and holiness of the nuns themselves.

[7] There those generous brothers also devoted themselves to the worship of God: and they so ordered their life they themselves live holily nearby, that they were an object of admiration and example to all, especially to the sacred Virgins, as they saw them daily mortifying themselves with fasting, subsisting three days a week on bread and water alone, in fasting, and as if striving not to be surpassed by the diligence and devotion of the nuns themselves in singing psalms and hymns to God; a thousand times a day they supplicated God on bended knees, and whenever the memory of Christ crucified for their sake came upon them, they dissolved in tears, in prayer, beating their breasts with their fists, begging pardon for their sins. The chief among the virtues to which they especially devoted themselves was charity toward their neighbor: in charity, daily they distributed their resources to widows, orphans, and other needy persons, and whatever money remained after the building of the monastery and the sustenance of the nuns. They themselves meanwhile lived a life of poverty: in roughness of clothing, straw or a few twigs were their bed; their pillow, a stone; their blanket, a rough mat; their undergarment, a harsh hair shirt: for they believed that those who had resolved to follow Christ must strip off their own will and bear the Cross of penance and mortification. This manner of living they maintained until their last day, which they are believed to have met around the year 790. Their bodies were buried in the church of St. Victor, which they had built next to the older chapel of the same Saint. here buried, Their anniversary commemoration is observed and venerated, with great devotion and a concourse of people, on the Ides of February.

CHAPTER II

Miracles of SS. Haymo and Veremundus.

[8] When many years had passed since the death of these Saints, the Countess Besutia, who was then Abbess of the monastery, began to restore the church of St. Victor in which they were buried, intending afterward to build another and dedicate it in their name. She therefore erected a brick tomb in which they might be more honorably reposed: and from that tomb, as will be narrated below, their relics have recently been translated. their first translation. When the day was set on which that first Translation should take place, and many priests and religious men had been summoned (as those times required), with an immense multitude of people flocking together of their own accord, the sepulcher of the Saints was opened with great reverence and piety. In it, beside their bodies, was found the entire sequence of their life, already narrated, depicted in vivid colors, together with the images of the wild boars and of each of the two laurel trees to which they had fled. a divinely diffused fragrance: While these things were taking place, with great piety and spiritual delight of the bystanders, suddenly from the bodies of the Saints a most sweet and plainly divine fragrance was widely diffused.

[9] The same Abbess Besutia was afflicted by a severe pain in one knee: since no art of physicians could relieve its intensity, healed of their knee gout, she piously implored the aid of these Saints, making a vow to hang a wax offering in the shape of a shin and knee: and she was immediately restored to health.

[10] Galdina, a nun of the same monastery, having invoked their aid, was freed from the arthritis arthritis, which was tormenting her arm.

[11] Conrada de Besutii, likewise a nun there, had a part of her body so dissolved by paralysis paralysis, that she could neither move it by its natural power nor feel anything by touch. Weeping, she went to the church, piously besought God and the holy founders, and obtained her former health.

[12] Margarita Iussana, likewise a nun there, when she was vexed by a troublesome illness grinding of teeth, and a constant motion of her jaws and grinding of her teeth, made a vow to God and to the Saints Aymo and Veremundus that when she recovered, she would give to the poor the first threads she should spin with her hands, and she recovered.

[13] Cita was a nun in the same monastery. An abscess had formed in her throat and had swollen so greatly that she could scarcely draw breath, an abscess: nor did any remedies relieve her. Ottolina, her niece, also a nun in the same place, made a vow to God and to the Saints of keeping a fast on their vigil, taking only bread and water, of reciting the entire Psalter, and of placing a candle before them. As soon as the vow was conceived, the ulcer suddenly burst and health was restored to the sick woman.

[14] The young boy Bertarolo Porro had an abscess lanced in his throat: a dying boy healed: the pain of which so prostrated him that all cried out that he was dead, and arrangements were being made for his burial. His mother, terrified by the danger to her little son, sent word to her daughter, who was a nun of the same monastery, to beseech the Saints for her brother's health. She obeyed, with an extraordinary piety: her brother was restored to health.

[15] In the diocese of Novara, Margarita, the wife of Otto, a nobleman inhabiting a place called Momo, gave birth to a son utterly deformed and monstrous, in whom neither movement nor sensation, nor any sign of life at all, could be detected. The women who had attended the birth, stricken with horror, a dead child raised to life: besought God that He would be willing to let the infant live just long enough to be washed with the sacred waters of Baptism. Present in the same household was Gualdrada, a nun of the monastery of Meda, the sister of Otto: on account of her, the memory of SS. Aymo and Veremundus came to the others; they make vows to them, and if they should obtain even so brief a lease of life that the child might be purified by baptism, they promise to call him Aymus. They obtained even more than they had asked for: not only was life given to the little one, but also a proper formation of limbs and the shape of the entire body, and he reached a mature age, distinguished by the name of Aymus.

[16] Maria, the wife of Andrea Confalonieri, a Milanese patrician, was seized by so grave a fever that, her strength already failing, she seemed not far from death. She ordered word to be sent to her sister Guilielma, a dying woman healed: who was a nun at Meda, that she should entreat God on her behalf with prayers. She immediately vows that if her sister should recover her health through the patronage of SS. Aymo and Veremundus, she would for an entire year venerate them and God in them daily by at least a double genuflection. Once the vow was conceived, the sick woman immediately regained her former health.

[17] A certain woman of Meda, named Donella, on the very day dedicated to these Saints, having undertaken some manner of work, punished with paralysis for violating their feast, was admonished by another woman that this was wrong on a sacred day. But she replied, "You, who have abundance of riches by the gift of the Saints, celebrate their feast: I shall never observe it." She did not utter those profane words with impunity. A certain rigidity suddenly seized her sinews, so that she could not move her limbs for the work she had begun. She recognized her rashness, then healed: and with her mind fixed on God, she besought these Saints to obtain for her pardon for her impiety, vowing that she would devoutly observe that day each year. Having so prayed, she recovered her former vigor.

[18] Another inhabitant of the same village, named Stramnaza, another punished with blindness: who was attempting some similar piece of servile work on the same feast of the Saints, and with equal insolence spurning the salutary warnings of one of her household, was punished by heavenly vengeance with the loss of her sight. Yet the eyes of her mind were opened, so that she might see and bewail her offense: she added a vow that if she should recover her sight through the aid of these Saints, she would devoutly venerate their feast each year, keeping vigil the night before and lighting a candle at their tomb. As soon as she made this pledge, her sight was divinely restored.

[19] In the same place, a little girl of two years named Allegranzina, playing in the street and lying heedlessly on the ground, a girl innocently crushed by a cart: was run over by a heavy cart, the driver being unaware. Her mother saw from a distance, and having no other means of helping her perishing child, prayed to SS. Aymo and Veremundus to save her: with a marvelous result. For the girl soon rose up entirely unharmed.

[20] In a village situated between Meda and Como, called Cantu, there lived Leo Otassus and his wife Conrada, saddened by the continual deaths of their little ones scarcely born into the light: at length they received a son vigorous and healthy, and were therefore filled with singular joy. But even him (as God is accustomed to mingle sorrows with joys) a lethal sickness overwhelmed, so that he seemed to be drawing his last breath. Both consumed with grief, the mother was watching at the child's cradle while the father slept: and in his sleep he seemed to see a band of soldiers a dying child healed: passing through the chamber, and when he asked who they were, he heard one of them reply: "We are Aymus and Veremundus of Meda; go, your son lives and is well." Awaking immediately, he asks how his son is. He sees him sucking his mother's breast, relieved of the disease. He attributed this benefit to the Saints and resolved to venerate them more devoutly.

[21] How gravely the same holy Founders are offended by injuries inflicted upon the monastery they had built was declared by a vision which is certainly worthy of being recorded here. invaders of the Church's goods punished by death: A certain Milanese nobleman, zealous for the Meda family, was anguished in his soul because certain more powerful men of the nobility were unjustly usurping the estates of the monastery. He sees in a dream SS. Aymo and Veremundus above the houses of those Noblemen, with angry countenances, brandishing burning torches in their hands and threatening to avenge the injuries done to them by fire. He implores the Saints to spare the fire, lest a great part of the city be engulfed by it. They then vanished indeed with the dream, and no trace of flames appeared. But those sacrilegious men were not long after expelled from the city, with their goods confiscated: one was afterward killed in battle, the other was captured and ended his life most miserably in prison.

[22] Martin Luaninus, the son of Siroldo Biagognato, was a servant of Bono Farga: seized by a grave illness, the use of his feet restored at their tomb: he lost the use of his feet, so that, leaning on crutches, he was compelled to beg for his food. When he heard of the miracles wrought through the merits of SS. Aymo and Veremundus, he went to their tomb, implored their aid with the utmost piety and humility of soul, adding a vow to keep a fast each year on the day preceding their solemnity, and to hold a religious vigil with prayer during the night. As soon as he had undertaken these vows, he rose up in health, sang praises to God and the Saints who had saved him, hung up his crutches, and devoted himself for the rest of his life to the service of the monastery. Official records of this entire matter exist, drawn up by a public notary, with the names of witnesses inscribed, on April 18, Friday, in the year 1337, under the Abbess Gualdrada Meniana. Many more miracles occurred, but are omitted to avoid tedium.

[23] Nor should this be passed over in silence. St. Charles, the Archbishop of this diocese, when he first visited this noble and religious monastery in the year 1581, ^a from the last day of May, entering the inner church of the Saints, pronounced it to be a place of sanctity. visited by St. Charles Borromeo. The bodies of the Saints were still entombed there at that time. That church is moreover adjacent to the ancient one of St. Victor the Martyr, somewhat taller, close to the laurel trees in which they had been saved, built by the Saints themselves, with a crypt added. For they judged that the earlier church, which stood there at the time when they had escaped the danger of death, should by no means be demolished, even though a larger one had been built. But that ancient church is now called St. John the Baptist, either because it was not thought very fitting that two churches so close together should be dedicated to the same Saint, or for whatever other reason the devotion of the nuns provided: and it seems that, when the village began to be inhabited, it was the parish church, because in the middle there still stands a very large vessel of brickwork which appears to exhibit the form of a baptismal font. and the cave: The same most holy Archbishop entered the cave where the Saints had once devoted themselves to piety and the mortification of the flesh, carefully contemplating everything, pervaded by a singular sense of piety, so that his attendants could scarcely draw him away from there. For this reason he afterward had the conversion of these Saints carved on the stalls of the metropolitan church of Milan. they are venerated at Milan. Public veneration is paid to them at Milan in the church of St. Francis, the most religious Fathers of that same monastery celebrating their anniversary feast with musical concert and festive pomp, in the chapel of Doctor Giulio Cesare Corio.

CHAPTER III

The relics of SS. Aymo and Veremundus solemnly translated by Cardinal Federico Borromeo.

[24] The bodies of SS. Aymo and Veremundus lay in the church dedicated to their name, adjacent to the temple which they had once built to St. Victor, but enclosed within the inner precincts of the monastery, so that they seemed not so much exposed to the veneration of the people as removed from the sight and knowledge of all. This distressed the nuns, who perceived that neither was the honor which the most holy Founders of their monastery deserved being given to them, nor was the fruit of piety and heavenly gifts which they desired flowing from them to other mortals. to translate their bodies, They had long entreated, by whatever means were proper, Cardinal Federico Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, to decree that these sacred relics should be translated to a more fitting and more conspicuous place, the nuns petition: and enclosed in a more elegant shrine, for the spiritual consolation of the nuns themselves and for the public benefit.

[25] He at length acceded to their long-standing desire. Alexander Mazenta, who was later Archpriest of the Church of Milan, Cardinal Federico Borromeo assents, was then Archdeacon and Vicar General of the nuns, a man of outstanding judgment and prudence, and was sent ahead to Meda to investigate the benefactions of these Saints, and with all things duly examined, their ancient veneration, and the prodigies long since wrought to attest their sanctity. All of which was entered into the official record by Giovanni Ambrosio Lonato.

[26] The Cardinal himself at last, on April 24, 1619, having duly celebrated the sacred rites, and having inspected the exterior church of St. Victor, together with the same Mazenta, Aloisio Bosso, an ordinary Canon and Theologian of the Metropolitan Church, the Confessor of the monastery and a few others, and the notary Lonato, entered the monastery itself: received with great joy by the nuns, who sang the psalm "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel": and so, conducted under a canopy to the inner church, he briefly venerated the sacred Eucharist in prayer, and then proceeded with the same ceremony to the church of the Saints, where their bodies lay. Prostrate at their tomb, he offered his prayers, and examined by himself, then ordered to be read aloud the records already previously entered into the official records concerning their conversion, their holy life, and miracles, and compared them with the ancient painting in which the same events were depicted. Then, asked by the Abbess to deign to examine their relics, he visits the relics themselves on April 14, 1619, he ordered part of the tomb to be broken open: and so he inspected and approved the sacred bones and ashes. Then, to render thanks to God, the bells were rung and the Te Deum laudamus was sung. Afterward he ordered the tomb to be sealed up again, and -- what the nuns especially desired -- a new altar to be built in the greater church of St. Victor, and a shrine for the more honorable placement of the sacred relics. and he orders the necessary preparations for the translation made: For this purpose two altars were erected of the most precious kind of marble, one in the inner church, the other in the outer, but contiguous, by such a device that the repository of the sacred remains, placed beneath the inner altar, could be viewed by the people from the outer church, through the front altar, which was open below. Three thousand gold coins were spent for this purpose.

[27] When these preparations were completed, the Abbess Praxedes of Lodi and the rest of the nuns petitioned the Cardinal through the same Mazenta to bring the favor to its completion and translate the sacred treasure to the place he had appointed. At length the most gracious Prince, having frequently taken counsel with his advisors and having maturely considered everything, with Mazenta as the chief administrator of the entire affair, fixed the day for completing the translation: the Sunday which falls within the octave of the solemnity of Corpus Christi, he decrees the translation to be made on June 14, 1626: which in that year 1626 fell on June 14. So that everything might be arranged properly, two days before, namely on the 12th, Alexander Mazenta, Giulio Cesare Visconti, Aloisio Bosso, Girolamo Settala, ordinary Canons of the Metropolitan Church of Milan, set out for Meda together with Francesco Casato, the master of ceremonies. They, having completed the divine service, inspected the entire church and designated the place where the Cardinal's throne, pulpit, and canopy should be set up, to lend greater grace and majesty to the entire proceedings.

[28] The Cardinal arrived the next day at the ninth hour, lodging at the house of the parish priest of Cormano: as he approached Meda, he comes to Meda the day before, he was saluted by two companies of ecclesiastical infantry from the legion of Ginetti, which was at that time stationed in that area as a garrison for the Valtellina. Torquato de' Conti, the supreme Commander of that militia, had ordered that honor to be paid to the Cardinal by them. Many noblemen from Meda and other places also came out to honor his arrival. He alighted from his litter at the bottom of the steps by which one ascends to the church of St. Victor. Entering this church, he offered his prayers before the sacred Eucharist, which was placed on a side altar: then he retired to the house of the parish priest to put off his traveling clothes and restore his strength with a brief rest.

[29] Shortly afterward he returned to the same church and put on his sacred vestments. Present, as he had commanded, were Giulio Cesare Visconti, the Primicerius, vested in a cope, Alexander Mazenta the Archdeacon, Girolamo Settala the Grand Penitentiary, clothed in tunicles which they call Dalmatics, and Aloisio Bosso the Theologian. Then the Cardinal began to dedicate the new high altar, he dedicates the new altar, which had been more elegantly constructed -- the old one having been removed -- for the purpose of depositing the sacred bodies beneath it, with those rites which the Roman Pontifical prescribes, placing within it, as is customary, relics of Saints, namely of St. Victor himself, of St. Zeno, and of other Martyrs excavated from the Roman Catacombs. Afterward he offered the sacrifice of the Mass at the same altar, and addressed a very brief discourse to the nuns seated within the enclosure. Then he returned to the house of the parish priest, where he had chosen his lodging.

[30] At the twentieth hour, having placed a stole over the Cardinalitial short cape which they call a Mozzetta, he enters the monastery with a sacred retinue, he entered the monastery, accompanied by Mazenta, Visconti, Bosso, and Settala, wearing red copes, and also by Giovanni Paolo Corio, the Master of Ceremonies, the Cross-bearer, and the one they call the Train-bearer, holding up the train of the Cardinal's vestment. While the bells rang in a festive manner, and the nuns, who walked two by two ahead, sang the "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel" in musical measures, he processed to the inner church: then, having adored the Eucharist and offered prayers before it, he was conducted in the same order to the other church of SS. Aymo and Veremundus, likewise closed off from secular access. Here stood their tomb, built of baked bricks, rising two cubits above the ground, adorned around with painted panels exhibiting the miracles of the same Saints. As he approached, two noble girls -- from those who are educated under the nuns' instruction in letters, piety, and good morals -- greeted him in alternating verse. He himself, prostrate at the tomb and having offered a brief prayer, took his seat on the Gospel side beneath a canopy, the tomb being opened, with those whom we mentioned above attending, and the nuns looking on: then he ordered part of the tomb to be broken open, as far as seemed necessary for extracting the relics. The Canons, vested in stoles over their copes, he himself places the extracted relics in a new shrine, reverently drew out the relics one by one and placed them in a lead shrine, to be afterward enclosed within a marble one -- itself lined on the inside with white linen, with which the relics also were covered and wrapped. The Cardinal himself placed them in the shrine with his own hands, in the position and manner that seemed most fitting: he then retained two small fragments for himself, of which he gave one to Giovanni Paolo Corio, to be placed in the parish church of St. Zeno in the village of Castano, belonging to the district of Dairago; and a part in another church, the other he sent to Virginia Spinola Coria, to be deposited likewise in the parish church of SS. Nazarius and Celsus, in the village of Bussero, in the district of Gorgonzola. In a certain smaller wooden shrine, some bones from the heads of each of the Saints were placed, and that shrine was sealed with locks and a seal affixed, which he also seals, so that they might thereafter be proposed for public veneration, enclosed in a silver head-reliquary or some other kind of case which was to be prepared by the zeal of the nuns, who had requested that this permission be granted to them.

[31] These things having been thus completed, the Cardinal reverently washed his hands, with which he had touched the sacred relics. which, through the garden, Afterward a procession was formed from there through the garden of the monastery: with the Cross carried before, the nuns walked first, carrying lighted candles and singing in harmony the psalm "Praise the Lord from the heavens." The bier, on which the shrine was placed, covered with precious cloths, was carried by Mazenta, Visconti, Bosso, and Settala: a silken canopy above the same shrine was held aloft on poles by six of the leading nuns, and the same number of others carried torches. The Cardinal followed the bier. When they reached the door leading into the atrium and the atrium, which is before the outer church of St. Victor, because this was outside the canonical enclosure of the monastery, another prepared canopy stood there, which six noblemen carried, along with several priests summoned from neighboring places, vested in surplices and carrying candles in their hands: the most numerous people, arranged in an excellent order, closed the procession. All entered the neighboring church, with bells ringing, trumpets, organs, drums, and soldiers also repeatedly firing their muskets as a sign of veneration and common joy. When they reached the high altar, the shrine was placed on two supports beneath it. The nuns sang the Litanies with voices and organ. they are carried to the church. The Cardinal sang the proper prayer for these Saints, and then, having solemnly blessed those present in the customary manner, he granted an indulgence of one hundred years, and having again briefly venerated God and the Saints in prayer, he retired to his lodging around the twenty-third hour. The nuns kept watch in turns at the relics in holy supplications.

[32] On the following day, which was Sunday, June 14, around the thirteenth hour, the Cardinal proceeded to the same outer church of St. Victor, with a numerous retinue of noblemen who had gathered partly from nearby castles and villages, June 14, Sunday, partly from Milan, for these heavenly spectacles. The companies of infantry, mentioned above, distributed into various platoons, saluted him as he passed with a festive discharge of firearms. He himself, having offered a brief prayer, vested in pontifical attire, with the Canons previously mentioned assisting him -- some in copes, others in Dalmatics -- Mass celebrated, solemnly celebrated Mass, and imparted the holy Communion of the Eucharist to the nuns. Then, having put on a cope, he ascended the pulpit which had been erected beforehand on the Gospel side for that purpose, shaded by a canopy, and addressed the very large crowd concerning the heavenly manner of life of these Saints; the Cardinal preaches about the Saints: gravely and solidly affirming, both by their example and by other arguments, that even Noblemen can not only attain eternal salvation but also the glory of illustrious sanctity, so that their names may even be inscribed in the public records of the Church: but that those err who think that the marks and praises of true nobility consist in surpassing others in games, blasphemies, perpetrating murders, oppression of the poor, ambition, pleasures, and other transient things of that sort: for the supreme nobility is this, that one should serve God, the supreme Prince and Monarch, and humble oneself in His sight and aid one's neighbors: and finally that adversities, though they befall us against our will, often lead mortals to the knowledge of God: for thus the danger which threatened those holy youths Aymo and Veremundus from wild beasts had provided the occasion for establishing a most holy manner of life. Having expounded these things, Cardinal Federico Borromeo, with the outstanding efficacy and sweetness of speech for which he was renowned, descended from the pulpit and confirmed five girls from those who were being educated in that monastery with the sacrament of Confirmation.

[33] At length at the sixteenth hour he brought the officer of the Pontifical legion to his lodging for dinner. The Canons and other Noblemen, and the Cardinal's own household, after dinner, dined in the outer guesthouse of the monastery. Abundant provisions were furnished to the soldiers: for they stayed in that village for two days, taking turns in keeping honorary watches in the area of the church and at the Cardinal's lodging. After Vespers had been sung, the Cardinal came again to the church, and having put on pontifical vestments, after the nuns had sung in concert with the organ some sacred canticle, he himself sang the prayer of the Saints, offered incense to honor the sacred relics, and afterward intoned the hymn Te Deum laudamus, with the nuns continuing in musical measures. Meanwhile a procession was formed in this order toward the garden door by a solemn procession, through which one enters within the precincts of the monastery. The Cardinal's Cross was carried before: then the parish priests of neighboring villages in surplices, carrying candles in their hands, other clerics with thuribles, incense boat, and torches: the bier with the sacred shrine, borne by the Canons Visconti and Settala, Sebastiano Riccio and Bernardo Porro -- the former Provost of Secreto, the latter of Canto, both from neighboring places -- each wearing a white cope: the canopy was borne by six men of the leading nobility of that district: the Cardinal followed close behind, attended by Mazenta and Bosso.

[34] When they reached the enclosure of the monastery, impervious to outsiders, the others were ordered to halt, also through the garden, and the Cardinal entered with those who carried the bier, and with the two assisting Canons, the Master of Ceremonies, the Confessor of the nuns, Giovanni Paolo Corio, and a few of his household wearing surplices. Those entering were received by the procession of the nuns, with the Cross carried before, torches gleaming, and another canopy under which the bier was carried. The door was closed to the rest, and the sacred relics, having been carried out before through the same door, were brought back to the inner church, but from this the crowd of seculars was excluded, while the entire community of nuns sang the hymn Te Deum laudamus. Before the altar beneath which they were to be deposited within the marble chest, they were placed on a table prepared for that purpose. The Cardinal sang the same prayer as before and solemnly blessed all.

[35] Then Visconti and Settala, together with the craftsman who had made those altars and some workers, who the day before had raised the slab of the high altar -- made from a single stone -- to a height by means of mechanical devices, the relics, brought back, are deposited beneath the inner altar, placed the lead casket within the marble one beneath the altar: in such a way, indeed, that it can be viewed by those who offer prayers in the outer church, through the high altar of the same outer church, but so that they can also be seen from the church, which is open in the lower part, furnished only with iron grilles expertly polished and decorated with various ornaments. Although the sacred deposit itself can also be opened from the outside, should anyone of conspicuous dignity wish to venerate and contemplate the heavenly treasure; otherwise it is closed with two keys, of which the Confessor of the monastery keeps one and the Abbess the other.

[36] Within the lead casket itself there was also enclosed a lead plate an inscription placed within the shrine, on which the following inscription was engraved:

TO GOD, THE BEST AND GREATEST.

THE BODIES OF THE SAINTS AYMO AND VEREMUNDUS,

BROTHERS, COUNTS, OF THE CORIO KINDRED,

FROM THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF THE MONASTERY, TO THIS

ALTAR, TRANSLATED BY CARDINAL FEDERICO, ARCHBISHOP.

THE 18TH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF JULY, 1626.

On the base of the same altar of the inner church, fabricated from snow-white marble but elegantly adorned with black marble set around it, which adds a singular splendor to the work, was inscribed in uncial letters: and another inscription carved on the base: The bodies of the Saints Aymo and Veremundus, Counts de Coiris, first the foundations and now the ornaments of this monastery, the sacred Virgins, so that they might venerate those whom they have as more propitious in heaven by having them nearer in place, caused them to be translated hither from the nearby chapel of St. Victor, where they had long been preserved, by the direction of Cardinal Federico, Archbishop of Milan. 1626. The 18th day before the Kalends of July.

[37] While the craftsmen placed and secured the stone of the high altar once more, as we described, the Cardinal joyfully observes everything: with the nuns singing various canticles in voices accompanied by the organ, the Cardinal, having set aside his pontifical vestments, sat down at the side, contemplating with great delight of soul what was being done by the workmen. When this was completed, he viewed the shoots growing from the root of each of the two laurel trees into which the Saints had escaped, he inspects the shoots of the sacred laurel trees: having avoided the danger of death: and then he returned to his lodging. On the early morning of the following day, he went to the church of St. Victor and, having offered his prayer, he entered the place in which, with a grille interposed, outsiders are permitted to address the nuns. There all the nuns, exulting with joy, rendered him immense thanks the next day he returns to Milan. because he had so graciously carried out the translation of their founders and patron Saints, so long and so ardently desired by them. He himself, having wished them well, returned to Milan.

[28] The reader will wonder that we make no mention of the exterior decoration employed for that solemnity. The nuns indeed desired -- being naturally magnanimous and vehemently desirous of splendor in those things which pertain to the honor of God -- to employ the most magnificent display possible; but their zeal was restrained by the moderation of the authorities, and a certain measure was prescribed, lest they go beyond in expense and magnificence what the conditions of that calamitous time would allow. The outer church, already frequently mentioned, was built in the year 1620 by the Abbess Maria Cleofa Carcana, what the decoration of the outer and inner church was, of the most elegant form and workmanship, thirty-five cubits long, seventeen wide, and twenty-eight high, adorned with splendid images of Saints and with five altars. Equal in size and elegance is the inner church, where also the stalls of the nuns are skillfully and beautifully made, and there is a triple organ. Both churches, besides the splendor we have mentioned, dazzled the eyes and minds of the beholders with silver vessels, lights, natural and artificial flowers, as well as tapestries. Various arches were erected outside, and of the atrium, adorned with paintings, inscriptions, and verses. All of which the cited author Emmanuel of Lodi sets forth in detail.