Andrew Corsini

CONCERNING S. ANDREW CORSINI, BISHOP OF FIESOLE, OF THE CARMELITE ORDER.

Year 1373.

Andrew Corsini, of the Carmelite Order, Bishop of Fiesole in Italy (S.)

From various sources.

I. The time of the See and death of S. Andrew. The Acts.

[1] Fiesole, a city formerly held among the chief cities of Etruria, battered by five hundred years of hostile feuds with Florence, which was three miles distant, and at length utterly destroyed by a nocturnal assault of its citizens; of the city of Fiesole only the cathedral and the Bishop's residence were spared; the citizens were led away to Florence: scarcely do thin traces of the once great city now appear: the episcopal See nonetheless endures, which S. Romulus, a disciple of the Apostles, is said to have erected there, concerning whom we shall treat on 6 July.

[2] Among his successors was S. Andrew Corsini, of the Order of S. Mary of Mount Carmel, Bishop S. Andrew Corsini, who died with a holy end on 6 January 1373, in the year of his age, as is said in the former life (for we give two), number 28, seventy-two, or rather seventy-one, as in the latter life, numbers 19 and 21. Whence it is clear that he was born in the year 1301 or 1302, on the 30th day of November, born in 1302, 30 November, as is asserted below. The whole course of his life can be thus reckoned: In the former life, number 4, when he was about fifteen years old, moved by his mother's rebuke, he recoiled from a more licentious life, and in number 5, on the next day he went to the church of the Carmelites, and having duly conceived his prayers, he entered religion in the 15th year of his age, he begged to be received into that order: he becomes the possessor of his vow; in number 7, he is led into the convent, tested for three months, etc. The other Life agrees, in which, number 3, his mother admonished him when he was in his fifteenth year of age; number 4, he is said to have been received into the religious community in the year 1316, or perhaps more correctly 1317; so that he would have made his profession under Guido Perpignano, of whom we shall treat in the Annotations. Dominicus a Iesu, in his Notes to the former Life published by himself, asserts that he entered the Carmelite order at the age of eighteen, because in number 28 it is said that he died in the fifty-fifth year since his entry into the order. But we suspect some error admitted there by copyists, and that the author had written fifty-six or fifty-seven.

[3] It is more difficult to determine in what year of his age he assumed the episcopate. In the former Life, number 19, the year of Christ 1362 is established, in the time of Pope Urban. These words are absent from the latter Life; and indeed they seem, made Bishop in the year 1360, like many other things about which we treat in the Annotations, to have been added by some interpolator. For Urban V became Pope on 27 September 1362. Let it then be that Andrew was also elevated to the episcopate in that year: let the calculation be made: to 6 January 1373, only ten years and some months will be counted; although in number 28 he is said to have died in the twelfth year of his episcopate, a number of years which Surius also expressed. In the latter Life from the manuscript of Rouge-Cloitre, everything is connected in a stronger chain: for in number 14 it is read that he was made Bishop in the fifty-eighth year of his birth; in number 21, that he died in the thirteenth year of his episcopate, but in the year of his age, as said above, seventy-one, of Christ 1373. From which it necessarily follows that he was born in the year of Christ 1302, was made Bishop in 1360, and died in 1373.

[4] These things briefly about the Saint's chronology. What more recent writers think, it is not worthwhile to review and weigh individually. Chronological errors of some writers corrected. Thomas Saraceno in the Carmelite Menology says he was ordained Bishop in the year of Christ 1362, under Urban V, in the fifty-eighth year of his age; and yet he died in the twelfth year of his episcopate, at the age of seventy-two, in the year of Christ 1373, which does not cohere. Abraham Bzovius, volume 14 of the Annals, year of Christ 1373, number 7, cites a diploma of Clement VI (whose beginning is: Among other things, which by supreme disposition), given in the eighth year of his pontificate to Andrew as the head of the Church of Fiesole. Clement was elected on 7 May 1342, and died at the end of the year 1352. The eighth year of his pontificate was therefore from the Nones of May 1350 to the same Nones of May 1351, and so it would follow that Andrew had been a Bishop for at least twenty-two years.

[5] After the body of S. Andrew was translated to Florence to the Carmelite church, that many miracles were wrought at it is proved in the former Life, number 28, from the epitaph which Coluccio Salutati, at that time Chancellor of Florence, composed for him. This is Coluccio Piero of Florence, The epitaph of S. Andrew written by Coluccio, who served as secretary to Urban V and Gregory XI, and therefore was a contemporary of Andrew himself; whose student, as Possevino attests, was Leonardo Aretino, who in book 1 of his letters, writing to Nicholas, says he died in the year 1406, as the same also says, and who also treats of other books composed by the same Coluccio in both prose and verse in his Apparatus Sacer. This epitaph of S. Andrew, composed by Coluccio, was thus presented in the manuscript codex of Rouge-Cloitre: His epitaph, published by Coluccio the laureate poet, and inscribed on his marble monument, is as follows:

Snatched from the ancient religion of Mount Carmel To the Church and the mitre of Fiesole, Famous in lineage, more famous in every virtue, Under this marble from the Corsini family he lies covered. Andrew, rightly called a servant of Christ, Wholly in the service of the eternal Deity; A cultivator of virtues, a father and helper to the needy, Wonderful in the example of his life and in his eloquence. What manner of man he was, many miracles attest, Which God has shown at the tomb of his body. He died on the sixth day of January, in the passing years One thousand three hundred and seventy-three of the Lord.

What those miracles were which Coluccio here recalls, we have nowhere read.

[6] There is no doubt that at that time also the life of S. Andrew was written: for who would believe that only about eighty years after his death were his deeds committed to writing, which were celebrated in everyone's conversations? That written Life which we give is perhaps the one composed then, but afterward interpolated by someone and variously expanded. That the author was nearly contemporary is indicated by what is found in number 25: The Life was written long ago. Upon his loins he carried iron twisted in the form of chains, namely of those which are kept at the fire, which I have in my possession, and I myself received it from a certain most devout Fiesolan woman, who seized it after his death, and herself wore it until her death.

[7] Moreover, the former of those Lives which we give here was published from a manuscript codex of the Vatican Library and illustrated with Notes by Dominicus a Iesu, a Discalced Carmelite, in a booklet What is published here, which he collected concerning the Acts of the Canonization of S. Andrew. This codex, he says in his Notes, contains the life of three Heroes of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, namely Blessed Angelo of Jerusalem and Martyr, Albert of Sicily and Confessor, and Blessed Andrew Corsini, as the writer of it attests with these verses, which he placed at the beginning of the codex:

Friendly reader, this brief booklet contains the deeds of three Heroes, whose illustrious stock from a lofty mountain Took its beginning: from the summit of holy Mount Carmel A holy offspring arises, a praised progeny, Angelo from Jerusalem, Albert born on Sicilian shores, And pious Andrew, scion of the Corsini.

The same Dominicus says the author of this Life is Peter Andrew de Castaneis of the same order, by Peter Andrew de Castaneis, Professor of Sacred Theology; and that he spoke those words about himself in number 33: When a certain Brother Peter Andrew, at that time a Bachelor, had to preach to the people and narrate that very life and miracles, he hesitated and feared to name him Saint or Blessed in the face of the Church, etc., where he indicates that he who was at that time, that is in the year 1440, a Bachelor, had afterward ascended to the higher degree of Master in Theology. And indeed the author himself seems to indicate that that life, or at least the miracles, was written not a few years after that victory which the Florentines gained in the year 1440; as when in chapter 7, number 31, he writes: Among whom (Magistrates) were these, as I recall, Lord Angelo Jacobi, etc.; and number 42: From whose authentic minutes I the writer have extracted; and he speaks in the same manner in number 44. That these things were committed to writing before the year 1466, however, can be conjectured from this, written after the year 1440, that in number 34 it is said that a public supplication of the principal Magistrates to the Carmelite basilica with candles (which ceremony, as we shall say in the following section, was afterward discontinued and then changed) was still then in force, decreed by Senatorial decree; for thus it reads: And so it is done, and has been done, and sanctioned by the ecclesiastical will of our Lord the Pope.

[8] But if anyone compares those things with each other -- that the author of the life confesses he received from a pious Fiesolan matron the iron with which S. Andrew was accustomed to gird himself, or certainly the miracles were added, which she had seized after his death; and then indicates that he wrote the miracles after the year 1440 and perhaps about 1460 -- he will perhaps think that the life was written either by Coluccio or by someone else, and that only the miracles were added by Peter Andrew de Castaneis. What if the miracles which are narrated from number 37 to the end were added by yet another?

[9] We give another shorter life from a manuscript codex of the monastery of Rouge-Cloitre of the Canons Regular in the Soignes forest near Brussels: Another life from manuscripts and Surius: whose author seems somewhat more recent than the author of the former, chiefly because in number 27 it is said: Most recently in our memory, Matthew Corsini, etc. He cannot, however, be much more recent, since John Gielemans, who collected those Lives which are preserved at Rouge-Cloitre and copied them in his own hand, died in the year 1487. Surius published that Life, but in a mutilated form, on 6 January.

[10] From these two sources, all who have written about S. Andrew have drawn their streams; Other things written about S. Andrew by various authors, Abraham Bzovius, volume 14 of the Annals, year 1373; Franciscus Haraeus, Zacharias Lippelous, Gabriel Flamma, Silvanus Razzi on the Saints of Etruria, our Peter Giovanni Maffei on the Life of Seventeen Confessors, Francesco Cattani da Diacceto, Bishop of Fiesole, in the Deeds of the Bishops of Fiesole, Diego Coria, book 11 of the Chronicle of the Carmelites, chapter 10, Thomas Saraceno in the Menology of the Carmelites, Marc'Antonio Allegri in the Paradise of the Carmelite Order, state 4, age 15, chapter 139. Thence also was drawn what is written about the canonization and sanctity of S. Andrew: the Report to Paul V made by three auditors of the Sacred Roman Rota, Francesco Sacrati, Giovanni Battista Coccini, and Alfonso Manzanedo; the Report to Urban VIII made by the Most Eminent Cardinal Giovanni Battista Deti, Bishop of Porto; the Oration of Count Antonio Montecatini, Consistorial Advocate, delivered before Urban VIII; the Response of Giovanni Ciampoli, domestic Secretary of the same Pontiff; the Instrument of Canonization written by Costantino della Rovere, Papal Referendary. All of which, frequently published in print separately, some inserted into the Annals of Bzovius, were finally collected into one small work by Dominicus a Iesu, and printed at Paris in the year of Christ 1638.

II. The ancient veneration and Beatification of Blessed Andrew.

[11] Blessed Andrew had lived with a great reputation for sanctity. This was greatly augmented at his death, and soon confirmed by miracles. Hence a contest arose between the Canons of Fiesole S. Andrew was venerated immediately after his death: and the Carmelites of Florence over the obtaining of his sacred remains. The former buried them in a stone tomb with the greatest honour; the latter, because he had chosen his tomb in their church, secretly removed them by night and afterwards placed them in a marble sepulchre. A great concourse of the people was made to it, and divine benefits were bestowed through his intercession: Indeed it is remarkable, says Cardinal Deti in the Report of the Canonization, with what veneration of all people the sepulchre of the blessed man was frequented from the very moment of his death, his relics venerated, and his name invoked.

[12] In the year of Christ 1339, when the Ecumenical Council was being celebrated at Florence, a new translation of the body was prepared, miracles were multiplied, and -- what must be referred either to this time or even to preceding times -- public worship, such as is due only to Saints, was rendered to him. For (as the Report of Canonization to Paul V states) the day of his death was always celebrated as a feast with Mass and a proper office before the year 1440 down to the present time in the church of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel at Florence, with an ecclesiastical office? and in the entire diocese of Fiesole, as is proved from the said office recorded in a book preserved in the sacristy of the Church of Fiesole, and thence extracted in the said process of the Acts. But this is not supported by the fact that in the year 1440, after the Florentine victory (below, no. 32), a solemn Mass was sung of the Trinity, It does not appear so. and by the will of the Lord Pope Eugene... the body was shown... with lights and thurifications, and on the advice of Cardinal Albergati the preacher called him Saint and Blessed. These facts suggest that before this time no sacred office or ecclesiastical service had been celebrated for him: and that in the passage above some error in the dates has crept in.

[13] The Cardinals said in the place cited that, according to the intention, Blessed Andrew was canonized. Cardinal Deti interprets this in his Report as follows: When the Cardinals who were then present at Florence Beatified by Eugene IV. saw the zealous efforts of the nobles and the common people vying with one another in pious veneration of the blessed Bishop, and at the same time the consent of Pope Eugene, who most graciously assented to the wishes and prayers of the peoples, they did not hesitate to affirm that those honours had the appearance of a canonization, and that in their judgment Andrew Corsini could on that day be considered to have been enrolled among the Blessed in heaven. Montecatinus in his Oration to Urban VIII calls it a Beatification: Pope Eugene himself, he says, on account of this so remarkable a miracle (of the Florentine victory), added to so many others, enrolled him in the number of the Blessed. And this is the reason why many of the more recent writers have thought that S. Andrew was canonized by Eugene IV.

[14] From this time, therefore, public worship began to be increased, especially on the 29th of June, on which the Florentine victory had occurred: for on that day the body was shown each year by permission of Eugene, and wax torches were offered by the Florentine Senate, as is related at no. 34. But that solemn offering was transferred to the second Sunday of June, and afterwards changed for some reason. Thus the fourth part of the Report to Paul V states: The Florentine Republic, not content with the first solemnity, honoured with public and solemn offerings by the Florentines. ordained that each year on the second Sunday of June the Lords Priors of the Liberties, the Standard-Bearer of Justice, and the other Magistrates, should proceed to the church of Blessed Mary of Carmine, and there with lighted candles offer a gift in honour of Blessed Andrew. And when from the year 1466 for a few years the said offering had been intermitted, the history of the revelation and the outcome of the victory were narrated in the council, and the said decrees were then recalled in memory of the benefit received in the council; and it was decreed, lest the memory of the said revelation be omitted, that in place of the said offering, ten novices of the said monastery of Blessed Mary of Carmine should be vested, who should go in procession to the church of S. Peter Major, and thence to the said church of Carmine, which is observed to the present day. And in part 5, section 3, it is said... a decree of the Republic made in the year 1446 (perhaps to be read as above, 1466) by which it was ordained for the Magistrates that, in memory of the benefit received from the servant of God Corsini, each year at the expense of the community twenty poor persons should be clothed; which shortly afterwards was also ordained, that ten professed novices of the convent of S. Mary of Carmine, where the body of this Blessed is preserved, should be clothed, and certain other things should be provided.

[15] Cardinal Deti adds in his Report: The Florentine people, not content with those honours, great and annual though they were, which they had obtained from Eugene, earnestly petitioned Paul II to deign to enroll him in the number of the Saints. Nor did Paul refuse, Canonization sought: and he entrusted the matter to the Cardinals of Rouen, Teano, and Pavia. But through the change of times and persons, the matter was drawn out until Clement VIII. Clement VIII assumed the pontificate on 30 January 1592. Paul II reigned from 30 August 1464 to 25 July 1471. In the intervening time the feast day with Mass and proper office began to be celebrated among the Carmelites at Florence and in the diocese of Fiesole, as is narrated in the Report of Canonization to Paul V, part 4, section 1, where it is added: Indeed the same observance was maintained in the entire Carmelite Order, an ecclesiastical office was rendered to him; as is found in its Missal and Breviary printed as early as the year 1557. And when the Bishop of Fiesole in the year 1583 (it is not known for what reason) consulted Pope Gregory XIII of happy memory about the celebration of this feast, Cardinal Sirleto replied by letter that the Pope had consented that the Mass and proper office might be celebrated according to the Carmelite Missal and Breviary. This declaration is mentioned by Francesco Cataneus Dacettus, Bishop of Fiesole, Philippus Ferrarius on the Saints of Italy under 14 January in the annotation to the Life of S. Andrew, Lucas Castellinus on the certainty of the glory of canonized Saints, ch. 9, no. 42, and Dominicus a Iesu in his Notes to the Life of S. Andrew, who holds that S. Andrew was then reckoned among the Blessed, and that it was sanctioned that the ecclesiastical office could be celebrated for him as for one Confessor in the entire Carmelite Order and the Church of Fiesole.

[16] But on what day was this office then celebrated? On the 6th of January, on which he died, it is recorded in most Martyrologies. The manuscript Florarium: In the city of Florence, Blessed Andrew Corsini, not 6 Jan., which is his birthday, Bishop and Confessor, who flourished around the year of salvation 1373. The Carthusians of Cologne in the supplement to Usuard published in 1515 and 1521: In the city of Florence, Blessed Andrew the Carmelite, Bishop of Fiesole. An old Calendar of the Carmelite Order in Dominicus a Iesu: At Florence, Blessed Andrew the Carmelite, Bishop of Fiesole, resplendent far and wide with the fragrance of virtue. Molanus in his additions, and Canisius in the German Martyrology, say the same of him. Galesinius in his Notes to the 6th of January: At Florence, Blessed Andrew of Fiesole, whose life piously composed is found in Surius. Constantius Felicius: Andrew Corsini, Bishop of Fiesole, of the Carmelite Order, who was born on the last day of November, entered the Order in the year 1317, and afterwards in the 58th year of his age was elected and consecrated Bishop against his will; finally, having already acquired a celebrated name on account of the miracles he performed, he died in the year 1373, in the 71st year of his life, whom the Florentines venerate by concession of Eugene IV.

[17] These entries are under the 6th of January, on which day, however, the office of Blessed Andrew could not be said because of the solemnity of the Epiphany, but 14 Jan. and therefore the 14th of January, after the octave of Epiphany had passed, is given in some Breviaries, on which day Ferrarius records from the records of the Church of Fiesole in the General Catalogue of Saints: At Fiesole in Tuscany, Blessed Andrew, Bishop, of the Carmelite Order. And he notes that by concession of Pope Gregory XIII he is honoured with an ecclesiastical office on this day, although he died on the day of Epiphany. He is recorded on the same day in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy and in the new Topography of the same Ferrarius. Dominicus a Iesu dissents in his Notes to the Life of S. Andrew, and says that Ferrarius departs from the truth: now the 30th: It is established, he says, among our ascetics that the feast of S. Andrew was never celebrated on that day. For since he died on the day of Epiphany of the Lord, the 6th of January, his celebration was deferred to the 30th of January by ancient custom of the Order. He adds that Ferrarius cites Francesco Maurolico to support his opinion, whereas he mistakenly understood those words of Ferrarius as referring to S. Andrew, because of an omitted distinction. Maurolicus on this day, says Ferrarius, after S. Pontianus the Martyr, mentions Clerus the Deacon and Martyr. Thus Maurolicus has: At Spoleto, of Pontianus the Martyr. Likewise, of Clerus the Deacon, drowned in the sea.

Section III. The Canonization of S. Andrew.

[18] Such was the ancient veneration toward Blessed Andrew and the honours decreed to him. What was done thereafter, until the solemn canonization was completed, is explained by Cardinal Deti in his Report to Urban VIII: Pope Clement VIII, moved by the prayers of the Most Christian Kings of France, The cause of canonization conducted under Clement VIII. and of Ferdinand, Grand Duke of Etruria, and of the venerable Carmelite Order, and of the noble Corsini family, by Apostolic letters commanded the Cardinal Lords of Sacred Rites to examine the informative Process already composed by ordinary authority, containing one hundred and eighty-one witnesses, and to make their report. They examined it and reported to the Pontiff that the cause was in such a state that it could be committed to the Auditors of the Sacred Rota. Therefore, at the petition of the said Princes and of the General of the Carmelite family with the entire Order, as well as of Bartholomew Corsini, Florentine Senator, both in his own name and in that of the entire Corsini house, the cognizance of the cause was entrusted by the same Pontiff to three Auditors of the Sacred Rota: Francesco Penia, Dean, Giovanni Garcia Millino, and Alessandro Giusto.

[19] But when Clement had been taken from the living, Paul V, assenting to the renewed prayers of the same nobles and others, confirmed the cause to the same Auditors of the Rota for due investigation. They, embracing the cause with new zeal, relaxed letters remissorial and compulsorial, and appointed as delegates Alessandro Marzio de' Medici, Archbishop of Florence, Luca Alemanno, Bishop of Volterra, and Bartolommeo Lanfredini, Bishop of Fiesole, and Paul V. by whom, with every care applied as was enjoined, one hundred and fourteen witnesses having been examined, and rights and ancient documents extracted, the process was legitimately formed concerning the life, sanctity, and miracles of the blessed Bishop, and transmitted to Rome to the same Auditors of the Rota. But of those Auditors, one being absent, two having died, and the one who had been substituted, Orazio Lancellotto, having been elevated to the dignity of the Cardinalate, there were at last appointed as judges of this cause from the same Roman Rota: Francesco Sacrato, Giovanni Battista Coccino, and Alfonso Manzanedo: who, meeting frequently, at last declared the process to have been duly constructed, and judged, after examining each point individually, that the sanctity and excellence of life and miracles were established, and reported their judgment to the same Pontiff.

[20] This was the state of the cause, Most Blessed Father, when, Paul V and his successor Gregory XV having been taken away by death, it came to pass by the beneficence of God The cause under Urban VIII. that Your Holiness was raised by the suffrage of merit to that supreme pinnacle of the priesthood. Then, besides the Princes already commended, Octavius, Archbishop of Tarsus, and Philip his brother, and the sons of their brother Nereus, now deceased, of the illustrious Corsini family, as well as Brother Gregory Canalius, a Venetian, General of the Carmelite Order, began to press anew that Your Holiness would deign, by that authority which you possess and wield, to put the finishing hand to a cause already so often discussed and brought nearly to its conclusion. It pleased Your Holiness to assent to such just and repeated prayers of so many, again discussed and graciously to transmit the report made to Paul V to our Congregation of Sacred Rites for examination.

[21] We, Most Blessed Father, discussed it carefully in many sessions, and approved by the Congregation of Rites, and at last by unanimous vote and consent judged that all things in the process fabricated at Florence had been valid, the witnesses duly and rightly examined, and the proofs contained in that process concerning the sanctity, excellence of faith, and illustrious miracles of the servant of God Andrew Corsini, to be legitimate and sufficient. These are the things, Most Blessed Father, which had to be said from the legitimate Acts of this cause concerning the life and virtues of Blessed Andrew Corsini and the miracles wrought through his beneficence. After these were weighed and discussed at greater length in many Congregations, the Cardinals of the Congregations of Sacred Rites came to this unanimous opinion: that Your Holiness could (if it so pleased) proceed further, and complete the Canonization of Blessed Andrew Corsini according to the sacred Canons of the Roman Church, and celebrate it with solemn rite. Thus Cardinal Deti.

[22] The rest is continued by Constantinus de Ruuere in the Instrument of the Canonization: The Supreme Pontiff ordered a secret Consistory to be convened on the 14th of March 1629, as is customary, in which the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Andrew, Bishop and Cardinal Peretti, reported to the Pontiff: on behalf of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Giovanni Battista, Bishop and Cardinal Deti, in his own name and in that of the entire Congregation, reported that the documents, processes, and all the Acts of this cause had been legitimately prepared and possessed the force of the greatest authority and proven truth: then, having narrated the life, deeds, virtues, and miracles of the servant of God Andrew, he said that he and the other Cardinals of the said Congregation of Sacred Rites had judged that Andrew (if it so seemed to His Holiness) could be added to the Catalogue of Saints. On the 20th of March 1629, according to the ancient institution of the Roman Pontiffs, Our Most Holy Lord convened a public Consistory, in which, besides the Most Illustrious Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, also Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, Protonotaries, and other Prelates, as well as members of His Holiness's household, assembled; and in it Count Antonio Montecatinus, he exhorted all to prayers, Advocate of the Consistorial Court, demonstrated in his most eloquent oration the extraordinary charity of the servant of God Andrew, his sanctity of life, and his miracles, and finally, in the name of the aforesaid King of the French, Dukes, Princes, and the entire Carmelite Order, as well as the most noble Corsini family, humbly petitioned that he would deign to enroll Andrew in the number of the Saints. Having heard these things, the same Pontiff replied that he gladly received the wishes of Kings and Princes seeking solemn saintly titles for Andrew Corsini from Apostolic authority, and that the merits and miracles of the same Andrew, set forth in eloquent words and duly investigated by the inquiries of learned judges, were illustrious proofs of heavenly blessedness: but because the Apostolic authority does not dare to scrutinize that book of eternal life, in which the names of God's Elect are written, unless the Holy Spirit opens it; therefore in so weighty a matter he must still deliberate more maturely with the same Brethren, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and the Patriarchs, Archbishops, and Bishops. And in the meantime His Holiness judged it fitting, and therefore exhorted all in the Lord, to explore with holy prayers, fasts, and alms the judgment of divine wisdom, so that His Holiness, having then heard their opinions, might at last, with the Holy Spirit as teacher, pronounce rightly from the chair of Christian truth in this most weighty cause.

[23] At last on the 2nd of April of the same year 1629, a Consistory (called semi-public) having been assembled of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and Patriarchs, Archbishops, and Bishops, at which also the Protonotaries of the Apostolic See and the Auditors of causes of the Sacred Apostolic Palace were summoned and present, the same Pontiff, after he had set forth in a most eloquent oration the process, sanctity, miracles, and merits of the said servant of God, requested the opinions of the same Brother Cardinals, Patriarchs, Archbishops, and Bishops: and when first the Cardinals, then the Patriarchs, Archbishops, and Bishops, all in order, had responded with unanimous consent that, from what had been proved in the entire process, the fellowship of the Saints could rightly be declared for the servant of God Andrew by Apostolic authority; the aforesaid His Holiness first gave thanks through Jesus Christ, he appointed the day of canonization: that there was such great agreement among all those convened in the name of the Holy Spirit concerning this matter, as if of one heart and one soul: then, having appointed the day for the Canonization of the said servant of God Andrew Corsini, namely the 22nd of April of the present year 1629, he admonished all in the Lord that in the meantime, with renewed prayers, fasts, and alms, they should together with His Holiness implore the grace and help of Him who enlightens the minds and hearts of men in this most weighty matter.

[24] All things therefore having been duly and rightly performed according to the traditions of the holy Fathers, the institutions of the sacred canons, and the rite and ancient custom of the Holy Roman Church, on the aforesaid day of 22 April, to the most sacred basilica of Peter, Prince of the Apostles, fitted out with the most sumptuous display, various kinds of ornaments, and resplendent with innumerable wax tapers, the same Our Most Holy Lord, Pope Urban, clad in Pontifical and most precious vestments, and crowned with a tiara gleaming with gems, together with the same Most Illustrious Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Patriarchs, Archbishops, 22 April 1629, with the utmost solemnity, and Bishops, vested in sacred garments, and the Ambassadors of the Emperor, the Most Christian King, and other Princes, as well as the Prelates and Officials of the Roman Curia and members of His Holiness's household, preceded by the entire regular clergy of every order and the secular clergy, and the Canons of the collegiate and other basilicas and churches of the City, vested in surplices and rochets according to the custom of each, and carrying lighted candles, the choir of singers chanting the hymn Ave maris stella, begun by His Holiness, proceeded with solemn ceremony: and there, after petitions had been repeated a first, second, and third time through the Most Illustrious and Most Excellent Lord Philip de Bethunes, Count de Selles, Counsellor of the Most Christian King, Ambassador to Our Most Holy Lord, etc., in the names of the aforesaid King, Dukes, and Princes, and of the Carmelite religion, as well as the most noble Corsini family, that His Holiness would enroll Andrew Corsini among the Saints; and after the threefold responses of His Holiness, to which at suitable intervals he added Litanies, hymns, and prayers; at last, all things having been completed which the Roman Pontiffs have instituted to be observed in similar cases and have been accustomed to fulfil, and the work of the Holy Spirit having been implored with common prayers, he pronounced the following Decree.

[25] To the honour of the holy and undivided Trinity, and for the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian religion, he publicly enrolls him in the number of the Saints: by the authority of the same almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own, with the counsel of our brethren, we decree and define that Andrew Corsini of Florence, of happy memory, of the Carmelite Order, and Bishop of Fiesole, is a Saint and is to be inscribed in the catalogue of Saints, and we inscribe him in that catalogue; decreeing that in the universal Church each year on the day of the death of the said Andrew, his feast and office shall be devoutly and solemnly celebrated as for one Confessor Bishop. Moreover, by the same authority, to all who are truly penitent and have confessed, he grants indulgences: who shall devoutly visit his sepulchre each year on the same feast day, we mercifully relax one year and forty days; and to those who visit the sepulchre each year on the Octave of the said feast, forty days of the penances enjoined upon them.

[26] At last, all things pertaining to the canonization of the said S. Andrew Corsini having been duly performed, and the hymn Te Deum laudamus having been solemnly chanted, and divine help having been implored through the merits of S. Andrew by a special prayer he celebrates Mass: which the aforesaid His Holiness devoutly recited, the same Pontiff celebrated the most holy and unbloody sacrifice of the Mass with solemn pomp and rite at the altar of the Prince of the Apostles, and imparted to all the faithful of Christ who were present, confessed and contrite, a plenary pardon and indulgence of all sins, to the praise of God and the glory of S. Andrew. Thus far that writer.

[27] S. Andrew was inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, augmented and revised by order of Urban VIII in the year of Christ 1630, under the 6th of January with these words: he inscribes his name in the Martyrology. At Florence, S. Andrew Corsini, a Florentine, Carmelite, Bishop of Fiesole, whom Urban VIII, illustrious for miracles, enrolled in the number of the Saints. But under the 30th of January, on which he is venerated in the Calendar of the Discalced Carmelites, according to Dominicus a Iesu: At Florence, S. Andrew, Bishop of Fiesole and Confessor, of the Carmelite Order, illustrious for miracles in life and in death.

LIFE

By Petrus Andreas de Castaneis, published from a manuscript codex of the Vatican Library by Dominicus a Iesu, Discalced Carmelite.

Andrew Corsini, of the Carmelite Order, Bishop of Fiesole in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 0445

By Petrus Andreas de Castaneis.

CHAPTER I.

The birth, education, and worldly life of S. Andrew.

[1] Andrew was born of noble Florentine parents, namely of the Corsini family, whose father was called Niccolò and whose mother was called Pellegrina: who, living in holy matrimony The parents of S. Andrew and leading their lives in the fear and service of God, meditated day and night and yearned to beget children from themselves for the praise of God and the increase of holy Mother Church. When therefore once, as is the duty of Christians, on a Sunday they heard a sermon in the Cathedral Church of Florence, and understood through the mouth of the Holy Spirit what is written in Exodus, as the preacher alleged: Exod. 22:29 You shall not delay to offer your tithes and first-fruits to God, and what is written in the Canticles, the first and purest fruits thereof; they judged this to have been said concerning themselves, and that the first fruit to be born from them belonged to God. Whereupon each one devoutly resolved to give to God and to His Mother the Virgin the first offspring to be born from them. And since at that time, namely in the year of the Lord 1300, in the church of the sacred Carmelite Order, there was an image or panel of the Mother of God, which was popularly called Our Lady of the People, before an image of the Blessed Virgin: to which the people flocked out of devotion to obtain graces, especially women unable to conceive; both came and most devoutly vowed to God and the Virgin, each one separately, to hand over the first-fruits of their children to the service of her holy religious order.

[2] After the vow had been made, while they were together at table, Pellegrina said to her husband Niccolò: Tell me, I adjure you, dearest husband, what indeed were you asking when this morning you remained so attentively before the image of the glorious Virgin? they reveal the vow to each other, To whom Niccolò, responding sweetly, said: This is the truth, most beloved wife: Yesterday, hearing the sermon in the cathedral, when I understood that the first and purest fruits ought to be offered to God, I sincerely resolved to do so. To whom his wife said: Say no more, I already understand you: I, hearing the same thing, was of the same will and purpose, and this morning I vowed to give to God and the glorious Virgin the firstborn of my womb. So also did I, said the husband, when you saw me standing before the image of Our Lady. Wherefore, marvelling not a little at their shared will, they said: This is the Lord's doing. and confirm it. And so, what each had vowed separately, both together, kneeling on the ground, promised to God. After not many weeks had passed, Pellegrina, Niccolò's wife, feeling by divine bounty that she had conceived from the lawful and holy marriage, The mother, being with child, both giving thanks to God, prayed continuously and besought the Lord that their offspring might be such as would be acceptable to God. When therefore the time of delivery drew near, the night before, while Pellegrina was praying, she fell asleep, and in her dreams it seemed to her that she was giving birth to a wolf, at which she was exceedingly saddened in the vision, and she complained lamentably to the Virgin Mary, she seemed to herself to give birth to a wolf, then converted into a lamb. and thus grieving she saw the wolf enter a church, and that it immediately became a white lamb. When she awoke, she pondered what the cause of the dream might be; she did not dare to reveal it to anyone, but considered the matter in silence.

[3] On the following night, therefore, namely on the feast of S. Andrew the Apostle, she gave birth to a most beautiful boy, so that all, both those of the household and strangers, marvelled, since he appeared to be not one day old S. Andrew is born, but of three months. There was the greatest joy and celebration in the house, because the barren woman had given birth; but she herself pondered more and more the cause of the dream in her heart. The boy is baptized and at the sacred font of baptism the name Andrew is given to him, he is baptized, in which a presage of his future contemplation was shown. The boy grows and is weaned, he is instructed in letters, and is taught in secular letters. But when he was twelve years old, because he was a handsome and clever boy, he was loved exceedingly by his parents, although after him they had had many other sons; he became very disobedient, gave himself to games, and cared little for his parents' obedience: he lives dissolutely: but always acted contrary to their will, every day he brought quarrels and contentions into the home; he delighted in arms, in hunting: and cared not at all for the Church or for the things of God.

[4] Grieving greatly at his evil course, his parents feared disobedient to his parents, and knew not what to do. One day, when Andrew was now nearly fifteen years old and was growing in evil habits, he was summoned by his parents; but he, raising his head, refused to go to them, and spoke words full of great ignominy. At which his mother said in a loud voice: Truly, truly, Andrew my son, you are the wolf that I dreamed of. Hearing those words, Andrew came to his mother and said: What do you say, mother? How am I a wolf? Then she said: Know, my son, that your father and I were barren, and we made a vow to the glorious Virgin to give her our first son, and you are he, and know that I dreamed of giving birth to a wolf, he is admonished by his mother, who reveals the dream and the vow: but the wolf, upon entering a church, became a lamb. And so, my son, you are not ours, except as to your generation; you belong to the Virgin Mary; therefore I beg you not to disdain to serve so great a Virgin. These words were the arrow of God wounding his heart, and through that whole night he turned his eyes to the Virgin, saying: Since I am yours, Virgin Mary, with great courage I will serve you day and night, he comes to his senses. but pray your most loving son to deign to pardon the offences of my youth and adolescence: as much as I have displeased him and you by living wickedly, so much will I strive with all my strength to please you, by changing my life.

Side Note* indeed Proverbs 3:14. They vow to God their first-born son.

b alt. Nicolaus.

c alt. Peregrina.

CHAPTER II.

Entry into the Carmelite Order. The exercise of the novitiate. Profession.

[5] On the following day, therefore, he came to the church of the Carmelites, and humbly placed himself on his knees before the image of Our Lady of the People, Having poured out prayers before the image of the Blessed Virgin, to which the vow had been made by his parents: Behold, glorious Virgin, he said, the ravenous wolf, full of every iniquity, stands before your image, humbly beseeching that just as you bore the immaculate lamb Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who redeemed, washed, and purified us from all sin by his precious blood; so by purging and washing me, may you change my wolfish and cruel nature; he asks to be admitted to the Carmelite Order: so that, serving you perpetually for the love of your Son, I may become a gentle lamb, acceptable as a sacrifice of praise, in your most sacred Order. In which prayer he remained until the ninth hour, his whole face bathed in tears, and rising he came to Brother Jerome de' Meliorati, who was then Provincial of Tuscany, and casting himself on the ground, he sought admission to the religious life. To whom the Father Provincial replied, saying: My son, tell me whence this desire comes, since you are born of noble lineage and lack nothing? Andrew answered: This is the Lord's doing, and the doing of my parents, who vowed me to be dedicated in this place to the honour of the Virgin, to dwell here forever. Then the Provincial said: Wait a little, and I will shortly give you my answer.

[6] He assembles the Fathers of the convent and sends a messenger to the house of Andrew's parents. The parents, who had been seeking him, rejoiced, and came to the convent, and entering the church, found their son kneeling before the aforesaid image. having obtained the consent of his parents, When the mother saw her son, she said: Behold my son, who from a wolf has become a lamb. Then the Provincial came together with the Fathers of the convent into the church, where Niccolò and Pellegrina, Andrew's parents, were, and asked them whether it was of their will that Andrew should receive the religious habit. Both raised their hands to heaven, saying: We desire and wish for nothing else, since we made such a promise to God and the glorious Virgin. Andrew is then summoned and asked what he sought: casting himself on the ground, he said in a humble and dove-like voice: I seek admission to this sacred religious order, that I may be able to do penance for my sins. And immediately he turned to his parents with infinite tears, and kissing the ground, begged them to forgive him and to give him their blessing. Who, with kisses and embraces and tears, laying their hands upon him, said: May God bless you, our God, may God bless you; and may your soul be filled with such a blessing as may be for your salvation. and blessing, And immediately turning their eyes to the Virgin, they said: Behold, glorious Virgin, our promise; behold the gift from our very flesh: we give him to you and commend him into your hands. Be, glorious Virgin, the guardian, the ruler, the helper of our son. O how devout it was then to shed tears! Indeed who could have contained them, hearing such sweet words, seeing such humility, a wolf converted into a lamb?

[7] After the blessing of his parents, therefore, Andrew is led into the convent, he is admitted. and is tested for three months, during which the most humble offices are given to him: for he is made doorkeeper and house-sweeper, assistant to the cook, server of the Brothers at table, he is exercised in humble offices; all of which he regarded as his glory: he became a great observer of silence, assiduous in prayer, and most patient. For when he was mocked by his relatives and by those who had been his companions, he overcame them by silence and patience. Often, while he was guarding the door of the convent as the Brothers ate, he was found so intent in prayer before an image devoted to prayer: which still stands above the door by which one enters the cloister from the church, that although the Brothers passed after their meal, singing Miserere mei, etc., he neither saw nor heard them.

[8] One day while the Brothers were eating, a certain man came knocking at the door with great insistence. Andrew, coming to the small window of the door and seeing him well-dressed and accompanied by servants, asked what he wanted. He replied in an arrogant voice: the devil calling him back to the world Open quickly, for I am one of your relatives, and I by no means intend for you to remain here with these rogues and beggars: and this is the will of your parents, because they have already promised you in marriage to a most beautiful girl. To whom Andrew replied: I do not intend to open, for under obedience I have been commanded to open for no one without permission: I do not believe you are one of my relatives, for I have never seen you before: he nobly repels him; and if I serve these humble Brothers, Christ also became man to serve us. And I by no means believe it is my parents' will for me to leave this place, for they vowed me to God and the Virgin, in whose service I greatly rejoice; and I have already received obedience and humility as my bride: I believe, however, that you are of the kindred of the devil. Then he said again: Andrew, I beg you to open just a little, so that I may confer with you on certain matters, for the Prior will not see you. To whom Andrew said: Even if the Prior will not see, God stands above, who is the searcher of hearts, and no one can be hidden from him; for his love I remain here at the door as guard, so that he may be God my guard and helper. And saying this, fortifying himself with the sign of the Cross, the knocker, who was the devil, fled like a foul bolt of lightning. Andrew therefore, giving thanks to God for the victory gained against the devil, became stronger and more perfect.

[9] The year of probation having passed, the time of profession arrived. On the day after Epiphany the Brothers are assembled in Chapter, likewise all his kindred; a notary is present: in their presence Andrew is led forth, as is the custom, he makes his profession. without the habit, and placed before the Provincial he is asked what he sought. And he, with many tears, said: I seek the mercy of God and of the Virgin Mary, and the fellowship of the Carmelite Brothers, with the habit of the religious order, and I ask that you deign to receive me to profession. Then the Father Provincial, after an exhortation and the blessing of the habit, vested him, and immediately Brother Andrew, with his hands crossed in the hands of the Provincial, began to sing with the deepest humility: I, Brother Andrew, make profession and promise obedience to God and to Blessed Mary the Virgin of Mount Carmel, and to Brother Giovanni Balisterii, the most worthy General, until death: which words he repeated three times. There were, however, some of his relatives exhorting him not to make profession, some promising him money, some estates, some garments, and some jewels. But he said to them: Depart from me, all you who work iniquity, for the Lord has heard this day the voice of my weeping and my desire. Then he turned to his parents and others of the household, begging to receive their blessing, and said: Be content, my lords and friends, with my entry into this sacred religious order of the Virgin Mary; for this is the will of God, and I will pray for your sins. By which words he moved to tears all, both Brothers and laypeople.

CHAPTER III.

His extraordinary virtues. The priesthood.

[10] Having therefore received the habit and made his profession, with the blessing and the kiss of the Brothers and all his kinsmen, he persevered in all virtues, and especially in humility. For he was, He carefully observes the monastic practices: as we have said, diligent in the humble works of the house; every day with his own hands he wished to distribute alms to the poor, to clean the house, to serve the sick of the convent with great devotion, holding written in his heart: What you did for one of the least of these my brethren, you did for me. Matt. 25:40 He never omitted the divine Hours, but day and night he was seen first in the Choir. He never resisted the commands of his superiors, but rejoiced and was glad in proportion as something was commanded to him; and lest he waste time, he was assiduous in the study of sacred letters.

[11] One day Andrew most earnestly begged the Father Provincial for a very great favour, he scourges his body severely: namely, that every Friday he would allow him to go to the cross. The Provincial, thinking he wished to take the discipline, said: I am content, my son, but do so discreetly and moderately, lest you be deceived by the devil. Andrew, however, immediately after Mass, taking the discipline with the psalms Deus misereatur nostri, etc., Ad te levavi, etc., De profundis, etc., Ps. 66, 122, 129 with the customary prayers in the Order, scourged himself to the point of blood: and afterwards he took a basket upon his neck for the love of Christ and went among the nobles and his relatives in the street called Via Maggiore, begging for bread and alms. His relatives, however, regarded this as done to their shame and were greatly indignant, and arranged that he should be mocked by all and that they should say insulting words to him. Then he went all the more willingly and joyfully, and said within himself: My Lord Jesus Christ, when he was cursed, did not curse in return, and when he suffered, he did not threaten. This is my profession, mocked by friends while begging: for I am of the Order of Mendicants; for my crown and my craft is to beg, and thus he overcame all.

[12] From his mouth nothing foolish or youthful was ever heard; but, as we have said, he was of great silence: he cautiously avoided women and lascivious words: the garden was his solace and the solitude of his cell: the church was a paradise of delights, the Crucifix the tree of life, and the glorious Virgin was his holy ground. For he was of the greatest abstinence and austerity of life; he mortifies himself with fasting and hairshirt: he fasted beyond the fasts prescribed by the Church and observed in the Order, always on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and also on Saturdays for the love of the Mother of God, on which fast days he tasted only bread and water; he subdued his flesh with a most harsh hairshirt, and always slept on straw with it on.

[13] While Brother Andrew was going out for alms on Friday, as we have said, there was one of his relatives who was afflicted with the disease of lupus, by which all the flesh of his legs was being eaten away, he calls back a sick man from gaming, from the pain of which he howled day and night, and in order to give some relief to his pain and suffering, he occupied himself with games, and had turned his house into a gaming-house, to which all the gamblers flocked. Andrew, seeing this and taking pity on him, and grieving more for his soul than his body, came to him and said: My uncle John, do you wish to be healed? John replied: Go away, go away, beggar, do you think you are mocking me? To whom Andrew said: Do not be troubled, my kinsman; but if you wish to be healed, follow my advice. John then was at once softened and humbled and said: I will do whatever you wish, if it is possible. Andrew said: If you wish to be healed, I want you to abstain from games for seven days, and fast for six days, and obtains health for him by a vow to the Blessed Virgin: and for seven days devoutly and attentively say seven Our Fathers with the Hail Mary, and afterwards say the Salve Regina; and I promise you that the glorious Virgin will obtain the grace of your healing from her Son. John, although he was an undevout man, hearing this lamb and seeing his simplicity, yielded, overcoming himself, and so he promised to do, and did, giving up gaming, praying and fasting. On Saturday, that is, the seventh day from the beginning, Andrew went to visit him: he asked how he was doing. Who replied: Truly you are a friend of God, I no longer feel any pain, and I can walk as if I were young and healthy, whereas before I always lay bedridden. To whom Andrew said: Let us go together to the convent, and they came before the image of the Virgin and prayed together on bended knees. After the prayer Andrew said: My uncle, untie your leg, for it is completely healed; and so it was done: and where the flesh had previously been eaten away to the bone, it had become like the flesh of a small child. John then became wholly devout and God-fearing, giving thanks to God and the Virgin.

[14] While Brother Andrew persevered in holiness, so that he was now in great perfection and also in the devotion of the people, he was promoted to sacred Orders; which he did not refuse, he avoids pomp at his first Mass, but humbly accepted, thinking he could serve God and the glorious Virgin even more in them. When he was ordained a priest, his relatives wanted him to sing Mass with great pomp. He, however, having received permission from the Provincial, went to the convent of Selve, and there with the greatest devotion of heart he sang his first Mass, at which the Blessed Virgin appears to him. in which, immediately after communion, the glorious Virgin appeared to him, saying: You are my servant, for I have chosen you, and in you I will be glorified. Yet he was not exalted by this revelation, nor by his promotion to sacred orders, but was ever more humbled, washing the feet of the Brothers, cleaning their cloaks, caring for the animals when there were any, fleeing the praises of men, and always conferring and preserving in his heart what he read.

CHAPTER IV.

Various miracles. Appointment as prior of the Florentine convent.

[15] There was a certain nobleman, powerful in riches, who had one daughter of ten years, who was suffering from a consumptive illness; for the recovery of whose health he had done everything possible according to the advice of the physicians; A girl afflicted with hectic fever, and since he was without sons, he greatly feared being deprived of this only daughter. One day with many tears he went to his daughter and said: Alas, alas, my daughter! What more can I do for you and for the recovery of your health? You are my heart and my soul, and in this life I had no other hope but you, and I fear being deprived of you. I beg you to tell me if you wish or desire anything, if you believe there is any remedy by which you could be healed: for you know I am wealthy and I have no other heir but you: and so all that is mine is yours. Speak freely, my sweetest daughter, ask whatever you wish: for money shall not be lacking. The girl, however, in weeping and tears, said: Come now, my father, I have no hope of being healed except in the help of God and the glorious Virgin Mary, to obtain which help I beg you to send for the servant of God, Brother Andrew de Corsini, and imploring his assistance, so that he with his most holy hands may prepare food for me, which he will gladly do; and thus I hope to be freed from this hectic fever. Hearing this, the father does not send servants but runs on his own feet to the Carmelite convent; he enters the church and finds Brother Andrew praying before the Crucifix: he casts himself at his feet and with the greatest wailing and sorrowful tears says: I beg you and beseech you, man of God, to come to my house and deign to visit my daughter, who calls upon you in her illness, and to be pleased to invoke divine assistance for her recovery. To whom Brother Andrew replied: Alas, alas, my brother, know that I am a most vile sinner: but may God who heals all the brokenhearted grant health of soul and body to your daughter. Hope therefore in the Lord Jesus, in his most holy Mother, and go, for I will come immediately after you. And having obtained leave from the Prior, he went and entered the chamber where the girl lay, where the parents and many of the kindred were, he visits her: and entering the chamber he said: May God who saves those who hope in him, heal you from this sickness, that you may be able to serve God and the glorious Virgin. Then the girl said: I beg you, Father Andrew, to prepare food with your hands, by which my breast may be cleansed. Then Andrew took bread and placed it in wine, and praying said: he prepares food for her, blesses it, Lord God almighty and Christ Jesus our Saviour, who, so that we might always keep in mind the memorial of your most holy passion, under the species of bread and wine handed over your body as food and your blood as drink to the faithful; bless and sanctify this bread mixed with wine, that it may be for the health of both soul and body of this girl who hopes in you and in your assistance, who live blessed forever, Amen. he gives it to her: And with his own hands he gave the bread and wine to the girl: who immediately after she had eaten and drunk a little, fell asleep; and shortly after, awakening, she began to cry out: My father, and renders her well, my father and my mother, run, and give me my clothes, for Brother Andrew calls me. Clothed, on her own feet without anyone's help, she went to the church, healthy and free, and consecrates her as a nun: to give thanks to God, and while all marvelled, singing praises to God, Father Andrew enclosed and consecrated her among the nuns of S. Anne.

[16] At that time, therefore, at a Chapter celebrated in the convent of Pisa, Brother Andrew is promoted to Paris for study: he went with a willing spirit, he studies three years at Paris: both to obey the commands of his superiors, and to flee the praises of men, and for the sake of progressing in sacred learning. In which study he remained for three years only, during which he made very great progress. He is recalled by the province, and on his return he came to Avignon, where he was detained by the Most Reverend Lord Cardinal Peter de Corsini, with whom he stayed for some days, during which he visited churches and places of devotion. One day, while visiting the church of S. Mary de Donis at midday, a certain blind man was before the door of the church begging alms. Andrew asked At Avignon he obtains sight for a blind man: how he had become blind. Who replied: Good sir, I have a wife and children, and my trade was to purify gold and silver. And so I was always standing near the fire, and with my eyes fixed on the fire, and in order to provide for my children and wife, I worked without restraint; and so from the excessive heat I became blind, which greatly grieves me, not for my own sake, but for my children, who are still small and do not know how to earn bread. I beg you therefore, Father, to pray to God for me. Andrew could not contain his tears and said: May God, who is the true light, who illumines every man coming into this world, deign to enlighten you, that you may be able to nourish your children to his praise. And he entered the church and cast himself prostrate before the high altar, stretched out upon the ground in the form of a cross, and remained thus for nearly an hour. And rising, he came to the blind man and sprinkling him with holy water, said: May God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave sight to the man born blind and restored light to the blind man on the road, by his power and might restore your sight. O wondrous and astonishing thing! Immediately his eyes were opened and he saw clearly, and giving thanks to God, he proclaimed this throughout the whole city.

[17] He then left Avignon and came to his own country, namely to the city of Florence, He is made Prior of the Florentine convent: where a provincial Chapter was celebrated, and Brother Andrew was made Prior of the Florentine convent. When he had governed the convent and the Brothers with the greatest propriety and religiosity, he healed Brother Ventura of Pisa of the disease of dropsy, placing his finger in his mouth in the name of Jesus, he heals a man with dropsy: who ejected from his mouth about a barrel of water, and was healed.

[18] The man of God was asked by a certain noble citizen to be godfather, for a son had been born to him; and he accepted. he receives a child at baptism, When the boy was in his arms to be baptized, he began to weep. After the baptism he was asked why he had wept so while the boy was being baptized, since it is a work of joy. Blessed Andrew replied: My dear friend, I could not hold back my tears, since this boy is born to endure such great miseries and calamities of this world: whose evil end he predicts. and I tell you that if this boy does not die in childhood or become a religious, he will be the cause of his own destruction and that of his entire lineage. The imprudent father began to laugh and said: I would rather he become a soldier and a brigand than a religious. What happened, listen. The boy was nurtured voluptuously, so that when he was not yet twenty years of age, he associated himself with certain rebels and those expelled from the city, with whom he plotted to make a fortress rebel, and to hold it by force, in contempt of the city, and to plunder all who passed by. For which reason all of that wicked company were captured and also hanged; all of their kindred were deprived of offices and dignity: and so, as he had foretold, it came to pass.

CHAPTER V.

The Bishopric of Fiesole. The virtues of the holy Confessor set forth.

[19] In the year of the Lord 1362, therefore, in the time of Pope Urban V, who adorned the heads of the Apostles, the city of Fiesole being without a Bishop through natural death, He is elected Bishop: the entire clergy with unanimous assent elected Brother Andrew de Corsini as Pastor and Bishop. Hearing this, he secretly fled to the Carthusians and remained hidden, praying and beseeching the glorious Virgin to free him from that perilous dignity. he hides: The Canons, priests, and even the laity sought him, sending throughout the province and among his acquaintances; and not finding him, they knew not what to do: wherefore they had resolved to change the election. The clergy and the people having therefore assembled in the cathedral to take counsel about this, some of them said: Let us wait yet a few more days; but others said: No, let us change the election. O wondrous and admirable thing! A boy of scarcely three years, the election divinely confirmed, who could barely ask for bread, forced his way into the assembly and said in a loud voice: God has chosen Andrew as his priest; do not change the election to the contrary: but send to the Carthusians, and you will find him praying. And while Andrew was also praying about this, a shining boy appeared to him, saying: Do not fear, Andrew, for I will be your guardian, and Mary will be your helper in all things; accept the bishopric with confidence. The clergy and the people, joyful at the revelation and marvelling not a little, sent to the Charterhouse, where they found Andrew praying, as the boy had foretold. And so he was elected to the episcopal dignity, and also confirmed by Urban V. he acquiesces:

[20] In which bishopric he truly merited what can rightly be sung of him:

This man was devout, wise, humble, modest; Sober, chaste he was, and tranquil, While the present life animated His bodily limbs. At whose sacred tomb frequently, etc.

wherein there are eight parts in commendation of his most holy life, of which the first is: This Andrew was devout. devout toward the poor and afflicted, Of how great devotion and mercy he was toward the poor and afflicted, the imprisoned, women in labour, the wretched, orphans, the fatherless, and widows, the voice of the crowds resounds Hosanna. He was of such great devotion that whenever he saw wretched poor people, or heard of anyone's calamity and misery, he continually burst into tears; out of devotion he had the entire bishopric, the choir of the church, and the roof built and restored, since all things were, as it were, in ruin and destruction. Out of devotion he had the first new beam of the Carmelite church in Florence made, on which he spent 200 florins. Out of devotion every day he gave bread and wine to the poor with his own hands: out of devotion he kept a book in which were written all the wretched and poor persons unable to help themselves, whom he secretly and covertly assisted. When at that time there was a great scarcity, or dearness, every day with his own hands he gave five measures of bread. And when the poor multiplied, and his steward had kept only fifteen loaves for dinner, he said to the aforesaid steward: Go and bring me more bread: do you not see the poor multiplying? Who replied: My lord, Your Paternity has given everything away; only fifteen remain for our dinner. Then Andrew said: Go the loaves divinely multiplied; and look carefully whether there is any, lest these people be scandalized. He, however, asserted that there was no more. Then the Bishop said: Since you will not go, come with me: and they came to the bin and found it full of fresh, warm bread. Then the steward cast himself on the ground, saying: My lord, I do not know whence this bread has come; one thing I know, that no one can enter here without me, since no one else has the keys: but I know for certain that this has been done by the power and might of God and by your merits; and rejoicing he gave it to the poor.

[21] The second, This man was wise: I do not speak of his wisdom in consideration of past and future things; wise in making peace since he himself had reconsidered all his years in bitterness and inner sorrow, and made a great matter of conscience of every least thing, and always feared the divine judgment: but he had great wisdom in pacifying and reconciling the citizens of Florence, and also the common people, labouring much to destroy their factions and to bring them to the kiss of peace and unity. Once when he was preaching in the square of Fiesole, and a great number of Florentines were present, he cried out with a loud voice: Rise up and lift up your heads, and see whence your quarrels and factions proceed: and they saw above the city an innumerable multitude of crows stirred up by demons; and kites fighting one another, which were truly demons in that guise, inciting the Florentines to war. By this event they were pacified, forgiving all injuries to one another.

[22] The third, This man was humble. Although we have spoken at length of his profound humility when he was among the Brothers, humble in washing feet, and how he distributed alms to the poor with his own hands; I will disclose yet one more thing, so that the fruit of his humility may be seen: for always on Thursdays, in memory of the fact that Jesus Christ our master washed the feet of his disciples, he too washed the feet of the poor, and fed them, serving them personally; and among other things it happened that, when he had washed the feet of several, one man by no means wished to be washed. To whom Andrew said: Tell me, my brother, why do you not wish me to wash your feet, as I have done for the others? He replied: My lord, I have legs that are completely putrefied, health bestowed by a kiss: wherefore it would be absurd to cause offence to Your Paternity. To whom the Bishop said: Come, my brother, and trust in the power and mercy of God, for he will heal all your infirmities: and he put his feet and legs, which were completely putrefied, into the basin, and the Bishop humbly washed them, dried them, and kissed them. O wondrous thing! When he kissed the feet with tears, compassionating the infirmity, the tears were the ointment of healing for this man, and he was made whole, immediately giving thanks to God and the Bishop.

[23] Concerning his modesty and bashfulness, how great it was, is shown from this: that this modest man in his youth was so bashful about speaking with his own mother modest in the custody of the senses; and sisters, as if they were strangers; he fled the company and conversation of women, and if from necessity he spoke, he always kept his eyes fixed on the ground. Such was his modesty that while he was in Paris at his studies, he was called by the other students Andrew the blind, deaf, and mute; and this because he restrained all his senses from immodesties.

[24] sober in food and drink; The fifth is, this man was sober. So also we have spoken of his sobriety and fasting, for from the time he was changed from a wolf into a lamb, from the time he received the habit of religion, he devoted himself to many fasts and abstinences. His drink was water slightly tinted with wine; and although he was burdened with many infirmities, he still did not wish to eat meat; he always rose from the table hungry; he took bread by weight, and did not even take as much water as was necessary; he took all things with measure and order.

[25] chaste, adorned at death with the aureole of virginity; The sixth, this man was chaste. Of which chastity I shall say nothing, since he was truly a virgin and incorrupt, nor did he in any way experience the corruption of the flesh, as he revealed after his death to a certain priest who was a Canon and his table companion: to whom he appeared all white and beautiful, with a nosegay of roses and lilies in his hands: when asked why he carried lilies and roses, since it was not fitting for a Bishop to bear such things, he replied that he bore them as testimony of his purity and virginity, and therefore followed the Lamb with the Virgins.

[26] The seventh is, this man was tranquil. He was tranquil in not speaking loudly, tranquil in conversation and in illness, nor haughtily, nor much, but little and usefully, and this humbly and softly: thus from his words no scandal ever arose, but rather peace. Likewise tranquil in his patience, in his illnesses, who, although he was afflicted, never or seldom complained, and, as we have said, he promoted peace and tranquillity for all whom he could.

[27] The eighth, His bodily limbs. For the stricture of his body was shown by fasting. 1 Cor. 9:27 He could truly sing with the Apostle: I chastise my body and bring it into subjection. For beyond the most harsh hairshirt, taming his bodily limbs by penance: upon his loins he wore iron twisted in the form of chains, namely those which are held over the fire, which I have in my possession, and I received it from a certain most devout woman of Fiesole, who snatched it after his death and wore it herself until death. He disciplined himself with the Litanies every day after the penitential psalms to the point of blood. His sleeping arrangement was almost unbelievable; for he had made a bed of vine-cuttings, and over them a rough blanket, with a bundle of vine-cuttings under his head, and lest these be seen, above them he had a painted cloth, as if for ornament.

[28] I will add one more thing: on a certain night he called his cleric, and chanting the psalms they went to visit the church of the Abbey, and after the visitation, returning, they came to that place where there is the tabernacle which is called La Vergine Maria, which they found closed with a very large wall; to whom his companion then said: Father, what is this? Who built a wall so quickly after we passed through? For when we came it was not here. he removes a diabolical illusion by the sign of the Cross. Andrew, however, began almost to laugh, and drawing near, fortifying himself with the sign of the Cross, he said: Let us sing, Brother, for this is an illusion of the devil, and they began to sing: Deus in adiutorium meum, etc., and Domini est terra, etc., and when this was finished the illusion departed, and they passed through freely.

CHAPTER VI.

Death. Burial. Translation.

[29] When he had lived in the episcopate for twelve years, and the time of his death drew near, after he had reached seventy years of age and had performed many miracles, on the night of the Nativity of the Lord, before he sang the first Mass, while praying in the church of S. Mary Pumerana, He learns the time of his death from the Mother of God: the glorious Virgin appeared to him, saying: Behold, my son, the time draws near when you must depart from this wretched prison: and so on the night of the Apparition, when the Magi offered gold, frankincense, and myrrh to my Son and to me, and you too have given your soul, your body, your heart, and all your goods, for the love of him and of me, on that very night I will come for your soul and will join it with the Angels in the kingdom of heaven. Andrew, exceedingly joyful at this revelation, sang the three Masses with the greatest delight, and was of such joy that his face appeared rosy and Cherubic, whereas before, from the austerity of his penance, he had been pale and of no living colour. On the following day, therefore, weighed down by fever, he summoned Canon Guido, he falls into a fever, whom he had as his most faithful friend, and told him that he was about to depart on the night of Epiphany, and asked him to pour forth prayers to God on his behalf. Hearing this, Guido began to weep bitterly and to cry out: Woe to us! Truly the crown has fallen from our head: our sins do not deserve such a man. Meanwhile he was visited by citizens and clergy, all of whom he comforted to peace and to union, saying: My children, give no place to the devil.

[30] On the night of the Apparition of the Lord, therefore, reclining upon his most harsh bed, he had the psalter brought, and with the aid of the clergy he began to recite most attentively the Athanasian Creed, his chamber illuminated by night, Quicumque vult salvus esse, etc., and the Apostles' Creed, and the Creed of the Fathers; and when these Creeds had been said, the chamber became as luminous as if the sun were at its meridian, so that those standing by were not a little amazed. After the space of one hour, when all the Canons and clergy were before him, S. Andrew at dawn began to say: Lord, now you dismiss your servant, according to your word, in peace. When this was finished, his soul was separated from his mortal body and flew freely to glory, he dies holily: on the aforesaid day, namely the sixth of January, in the year of the saving Incarnation 1373, in the 72nd year of his age, the 55th from his entry into the Order, and the twelfth year of his episcopate: his body, however, remained upon the straw, but fragrant, he is illustrious for miracles: so that from that fragrance many were freed from various infirmities. Many sick people came, who by touching him were healed. These things indeed are attested by Coluccio, who was at that time the celebrated Chancellor of Florence, in the Epitaph which is carved upon the sepulchre, which begins:

From the ancient religion of Mount Carmel.

and at the end:

What manner of man he was, many miracles declare, Which God showed at the tomb of his body.

[31] There was a certain woman very devoted to Blessed Andrew, who had a most beautiful daughter in body, but more beautiful in faith and virtue. That matron every Sunday ascended the hill of Fiesole to hear the preaching of Blessed Andrew. On the day of the Circumcision, hearing of his illness, such was her importunity a girl, that she gained admission to him; she stood before him and lamented, and after many words she said: whose death he had foretold, O Father, I beg you not to leave me, but at your death to come for me. To whom Father Andrew said: I shall leave you, daughter, because your time has not yet come; it is expedient that you merit more; but for your daughter I will truly come, that she may accompany me to the fatherland: and so depart, and go to her, for you will find her ill. When this lady had returned home, she found her daughter labouring under a grave illness, as Father Andrew had foretold; she said nothing, however, to the girl, but adorned her with the Sacraments, and afterwards said: Know, my daughter, that our Father and Bishop Andrew is gravely ill. To whom the girl said: O would that he might come for me at his death, and not leave me here! The girl's condition worsened so that on the night of Epiphany there were some of her kindred and neighbours watching over her, for she was in her last agony. he calls her from life, At dawn a voice was heard, as if angelic, saying: Come, daughter, for I await you, that together we may enter the eternal fatherland. When this voice was heard, the girl immediately opened her eyes and began to smile, and thus raising her hands to heaven she expired. Observing the hour, all understood that Blessed Andrew had passed from this world. After the devout mourning, the girl's mother, the bystanders having withdrawn, fell asleep, and the good matron, sleeping, saw a road full of roses and lilies and other flowers, and leads her into heaven: which stretched all the way to heaven; along which she saw Blessed Andrew vested in pontifical garments, and her daughter on the left side, whom Blessed Andrew held by the hand. Before and behind was a multitude of youths with various musical instruments, playing and chanting with the greatest joy: These are they who were not defiled with women, etc. By which vision the sadness of her daughter's death was turned to joy, and she revealed it to all those present, giving praises and thanks to the Almighty.

[32] The body of Blessed Andrew is laid out and buried with the greatest honour in a stone tomb, he is buried: and since he had indicated that he wished to be buried at Florence in the church of the Carmelites, and neither the Canons nor the people were willing to give the sacred body to the Brothers; he is transferred to Florence. the Brothers, having observed the right moment, after fifteen days came furtively by night and carried off the body; which body was as whole and fragrant as on the first day of death; and they placed it in the chapel of S. Ursula upon a chair in a seated position, as if it were alive; and in this manner they kept it until his honourable sepulchre was made. Meanwhile the peoples flocked to obtain graces, and returned to their homes with joy, rendering praises to God and thanks to Blessed Andrew.

CHAPTER VII.

The victory of the Florentines. Veneration of the relics of S. Andrew.

[33] The body thus remained unentombed until the year 1440, in which year Pope Eugene IV with his very notable Curia was personally at Florence. The Church, as well as the Florentines, were being cruelly harassed by Philip Maria, Duke of Milan, and by Niccolò Piccinino, the commander of the said Duke's army. The Florentines, harassed in war by the Duke of Milan, So greatly and in such a manner that the greater part of the fortified towns, namely those which lie between the city of Florence and the territory of Arezzo and Siena, had been lost; and the forces of the enemy commander came even to the plain of the city of Florence, plundering goods and men, and burning and doing infinite harm: so that the nobles, citizens, and artisans of the city, as well as the courtiers, were as if blind, and knew not what to do: for they feared to undertake battle and lead their forces against the enemy commander, since he was very cunning and had a great abundance of strong men, as well as arms and horses. But God, who is wonderful in his Saints and does not despise or abandon those who hope in him, but helps, defends, and protects them, since in the first year he had already shown infinite miracles through Blessed Andrew, particularly curing people of various infirmities, and throngs of people were coming to visit his relics, through a certain youth he encourages them to battle; bearing and offering their vows, he revealed through Blessed Andrew to a certain youth that on the feast of S. Peter the Apostle, who is the head of the Church -- which feast was approaching within eight days -- battle and engagement should be made against the plunderer, the enemy of the Church and of the Florentines, against whom a very great victory would be won; so that the whole city should be filled with songs, dances, bonfires, lights, and processions: and that youth was commanded to announce these things to the Ten Officials of the Balia, that is, of the war of the city, among whom were these, as I recall: the Lord Angelo di Jacopo de' Acciaioli, Knight, Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici, Neri di Gino de' Capponi, Giovanni di Piero Bartolomei, and others; which youth, fearless and manly, without any hesitation entered the assembly of the aforesaid, whom he found sad and full of grief, and said to them with a cheerful and joyful face: My Lords of the Ten, why are you sad, when God through his Saints he promises victory: and the advocates of this city is disposed to fight against your enemies in such a way that by his aid you will obtain such a victory as within the memory of men this city has not had in times past? Therefore be of good courage and act manfully, for Blessed Andrew de Corsini, your fellow citizen, Bishop of Fiesole, of the Carmelite Order, and buried in their house, who has recently shown so many miracles, has wished to reveal and command these things to me, that I should announce them to you, my Lords.

[34] These Lords and Officials, greatly encouraged and comforted, laying aside all fear, as true believers and confident of such a revelation, arranged with their Captain and the Captain of the Church to engage battle against their enemies on the very feast day of S. Peter the Apostle. O wondrous and almost unheard-of thing! In a few hours such a victory was won he himself was seen to be present in the battle. that scarcely one of the enemies remained. For certain devout persons, dwelling where or near where the battle was fought, reported having seen in the air a certain Bishop dressed in white, on horseback with a staff in his hands, driving before him an infinite army against our said enemies; and thus by divine grace and the merits of the blessed Saints who are the advocates of the city of Florence, and especially of Blessed Andrew de Corsini, the aforesaid victory was received, and the city was freed from the tyrants, and consequently the Church, that is, Pope Eugene with all his clergy. On account of which victory a very great festival was appointed, namely a solemn procession of all the religious orders and of all the Florentine citizens; who were commanded to come to the church of the Carmelites, and there a solemn Mass was to be sung of the Trinity, and by the will of our Lord the Pope Eugene, to whom the following most reverend Cardinals made supplication, namely Lord Capranica, Lord Colonna, Lord of Angers, Lord of Piacenza, and Lord of S. Maria Nuova, at the request of the entire Florentine people. In the procession held for the victory, his relics are exposed for veneration. In that procession the body of Blessed Andrew was shown to all, which is as intact as if he had died today. By which grant, made and conceded by the aforesaid Pope Eugene, with lights and thurifications, the aforesaid Lord Cardinals said that according to their judgment Blessed Andrew was canonized, since Canonization is nothing other than the approval of sanctity by the Church and the Cardinals, and that his relics ought to be venerated.

[35] On that very day, since a certain Brother Petrus Andreae, then a Bachelor, was to preach to the people and narrate his life and miracles, he hesitated and feared to call him Saint or Blessed in the face of the Church: he therefore went to the Lord Cardinal of the Holy Cross, the Grand Penitentiary, seeking counsel as to what he should do. Who replied: Go, my son, and call him Saint and Blessed, for the Church of God is never harmed in his lifetime he had once miraculously restored peace to the Bolognese. by any of the Saints being invoked. For it is not new to us that he is a Saint. When I was Bishop of Bologna, I read how Blessed Andrew had been sent to Bologna by the Lord Pope Urban V to pacify the people, and authority and a legation had been given to him to excommunicate and aggravate penalties, and also to impose temporal punishments against those unwilling to live in peace; who humbly went and stayed in the convent of S. Martin de Lanisa, and sent for the partisans and exhorted them to peace and concord, and to lay down their arms; one faction of whom consented to his will, but another faction, which would not accept peace or lay down arms, was excommunicated by Blessed Andrew; and those sons of the devil imprisoned Blessed Andrew and put him in fetters and took all things from him, expelling his servants and companions. But God, who avenges the wrongs of his Saints when he wills, struck all the leaders of that diabolical faction with a disease of the loins and arms so grievously that they did not cease to howl and cry out, beseeching God and S. Andrew to pardon them for such iniquity, and none of them could be freed except by the bodily visitation of Blessed Andrew. He is taken out of prison, and on the following day he humbly visits, absolves, blesses, and embraces them all, and thus they were all freed from that pain and laid down their arms and were reconciled with one another, and afterwards they showed him the greatest honour, and many gifts were lavished upon him; but he, beyond what he needed for his sustenance, distributed all to the poor. After some days, the leading citizens of the city accompanied him all the way to Fiesole, continually asking pardon and beseeching him to pray for their peace.

[36] Returning therefore to the aforesaid subject, the aforesaid Bachelor publicly preached nearly all the things set forth above, in the presence of several Lord Cardinals, Bishops, and Abbots, as well as the entire clergy of the Florentines, the religious, and also the Lords of the Government with their Gonfalonier, and the Ten of the Balia, the Captains of the Guelf Party, the Eight of the Guard, the Consuls of the Monte, the Officers of the Sea, the Six of the Mercanzia, with the Heads of the twenty-five guilds, With great solemnity his relics were then, and an innumerable multitude of men and women. And immediately after the sermon the most blessed body was shown to all, with lights, canticles, and hymns, and with the sound of organs, trumpets, and all the instruments of the city, and the whole people cried out: and thereafter shown annually. S. Andrew, intercede for us. And after a most devout procession, afterwards by the appropriate councils of the city, in memory of so great a benefit, it was ordained, decreed, and established that each year in perpetuity, on the twenty-ninth of June, the Lords of the Government of the city and the Six of the Mercanzia, with the Heads of the guilds, should be bound and required to proceed honourably and solemnly to the church of the Carmelites, and each one to offer a wax torch in honour of God and Blessed Andrew, as is the custom of the city, and at that hour the body should be solemnly shown to the aforesaid Lord officials and the people: and so it is done, and was done, and was sanctioned by the ecclesiastical will of our Lord the Pope. I shall leave aside the temporal festivities, on account of the victory obtained through the intercession of Blessed Andrew, for it would be long to narrate the jousts, dances, and bonfires in every street, and throughout all the fortified towns and cities subject to the Florentines, and many other things, which for the sake of brevity I omit; but I intend to narrate some miracles, that his sanctity may be seen.

p Concerning the wars, seditions, and peace at Bologna under Urban V, we have treated on 29 January in the life of S. Peter Thomas, chapters 12 and 13. Some of these seditions appear to have rekindled after his departure.

q Gonfaloniere is an Italian word meaning Standard-Bearer; Gonfalone, a standard; and Gonfalonata, a body of troops under a standard. Gonfalonerius. Florentine liberty having been purchased from Emperor Rudolph in the year of Christ 1287, the magistracy which they call the Priors of the Guilds was created, with the addition of a Standard-Bearer of Justice, as Platina asserts under Honorius IV. Leander, in his account of Tuscany, says this magistracy lasted only two months, and calls the Standard-Bearer a Confalonier. Tarcagnota, part 4 of his history, book 55, adds that he had a thousand soldiers subject to his standard and command. A catalogue of the Confaloniers by family is provided by Jacopo Nardi in his Florentine history.

r Balia is likewise an Italian word meaning authority Balia. or power. But Balia or Bailiwick in the code of ancient laws is used for a province or the district of a certain place.

s Concerning the Guelf and Ghibelline factions, of which the latter followed the cause of the Emperor and the former that of the Pope, Italian historians treat passim, and specifically of the Guelf dominance at Florence, the Aretine writer.

CHAPTER VIII.

Various miracles.

[37] A certain parish priest, pastor of a certain parish, was being harassed in a remarkable manner by the people and his parishioners, so that he could in no way reside in his benefice, A parish priest, destined for death by his subjects, and he was wrongfully accused of many things by them, was prosecuted, and litigated with them for many months, and by no means could he be freed from them or win back his parish. He therefore turned his eyes to Blessed Andrew, praying and beseeching for his deliverance, and made a vow that if he were freed from them and held his benefice in peace, he would give him a wax torch as long as he himself was tall, and have it placed before his body. He made this vow on Saturday; on Sunday he went to his benefice and said within himself devoutly: O Saint and Blessed Andrew, having made a vow to S. Andrew, under the shadow of your wings I go to my church; I trust in your help and protection. The Parish Priest came to the entrance of the parish square, where the whole people were gathered with lances in their hands, and each one was threatening, saying: If he comes, we will kill him; we do not want him in any way as our Parish Priest or as our Priest; and they were all mutually sworn and resolute. O marvellous thing! Immediately when they saw the Parish Priest, each one threw down his weapons and went to meet him, all saying: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; and entering the church with him, they restored to him all the keys of the house and all the goods, he is kindly received by them. all begging pardon with tears and kneeling on the ground. The Parish Priest, greatly marvelling at these things, said to them: My fathers and brothers, I beg you for the love of God to tell me whence this change has come. Yesterday you all wished to kill me, and today you receive me with such love: be pleased to explain. The chief and principal man among them rose and said: Lord Parish Priest, not only yesterday, but for eight months now we have been resolved to kill you, and throughout the whole night we said nothing else on the square this morning but that, as soon as we should first see you among our people, each one should be bound to kill you: but whence this has proceeded, we do not know, for as soon as we saw you appear, we threw down our weapons, and our heart was changed; we believe it to be from none other than God, who has expelled all darkness from our hearts. Then the Parish Priest said: Let each one of you know, my friends, that yesterday I made a vow to Blessed Andrew that if I should enter in peace and take up residence in this parish, I would place a wax torch before his body, commending myself to him and placing myself under the shadow of his protecting wings. And so he, by divine grace, has changed your evil wills into good ones. And graciously he has been pleased to receive me. For which reason, first to God, second to Blessed Andrew, and third I give thanks to you, and humbly beg pardon. And thus they were reconciled.

[38] The Reverend Theologian, Master Brother Nicholas Kenton, Provincial of England of the Carmelite Order, was seized with a very high fever, so that from the pain in his head, crying out day and night, Illnesses cured by the touch of the image of S. Andrew, he was in the greatest anguish and almost wished for death. It happened, however, that when the bells were ringing loudly because of the concourse of people, the said Provincial asked why the bells were ringing so much; he was told that a new Saint had been discovered, and that God was working many miracles through him, who was of their order and had been Bishop of Fiesole. Then the aforesaid Provincial said: Help me quickly, for I wish to go to the church; perhaps he will not despise me, but will also help me, lest I die in torment. headache, Entering the church he came before his image and saw men and women touching his image and then rubbing their own faces, and he said: What are they doing? To which the reply was: They are suffering from headache, and by that devotion many are healed. When the Provincial had heard such things, he approached the image or icon on which the likeness of Blessed Andrew is painted, and said: I pray, Blessed Andrew, I pray and beseech you, not to despise me; but help me, for I am of your Order: see my pain and the torment of my head, and free me, for I am in anguish; and so saying, he touched the aforesaid image with the greatest faith, devotion, and hope, and then rubbed his head and face, and truly was at once freed from all pain and fever. Fever, When he returned to his lodging, he had an image of Blessed Andrew, together with some of his miracles, solemnly painted.

Miracles shown around the time of his translation, namely in the year of the Lord 1439.

A certain Florentine woman, named Bilia, wife of Francesco Martini, a shoemaker of the parish of S. Frediano, contraction of the feet, lying in bed, was afflicted with a certain illness so severe that she could in no way walk on foot and was almost crippled; she recalled to mind Blessed Andrew buried in the church of the Carmelites; and being with her mind raised to him, she began to sleep or to drowse, thinking of him: and while she was in bed, there appeared to her in a vision two Brothers of the Order of S. Mary of Mount Carmel, dressed in white cloaks, saying to her: Rise and go to Blessed Andrew the Bishop, buried in the church of the Carmelites, and he will heal you. Hearing this, out of devotion she began to weep and made a vow to God. Having done so, she left her bed healthy and free, and with the greatest reverence went on foot to the same church, and before the tomb, kneeling, she fulfilled the vow she had made.

[40] Antonio di Alessio Nochy, a silk weaver, whom I the writer know, having an infant daughter worms, named Dorothea, greatly afflicted by an illness of worms and reduced to the point of death, hearing of the sanctity of Blessed Andrew and the miracles he was performing daily, vowed to him that if he healed her, he would bring a wax image to his tomb. She was immediately freed and visited the tomb with the image.

[41] Filippo di Messer Andrea, also a silk weaver, of the parish of S. Frediano, pain in the leg, suffering from a very great infirmity in his leg, so that for ten days he lay in bed and could not move it without the help of another; hearing of the miracles shown daily by Blessed Andrew, with the greatest devotion he promised to visit his tomb: and he was immediately freed, and went on foot without anyone's help, giving thanks to God and to Blessed Andrew.

[42] Niccolò di Agostino Nicolai of the same parish, being in the sacristy of the said church of the Carmelites, blindness, previously inflicted for mocking the veneration of his relics, where a certain Brother of the said order was reverently showing the mitre and shoes and other relics of Blessed Andrew to very many Florentine citizens, who wished to see them with the greatest reverence on bended knees, he mocked those devout people: and persisting in that mockery, he immediately fell to the ground and lost the sight of his eyes, and could not rise from the ground or see anything. Lying on the ground, he recognized his sin; and having confessed it, asking pardon and humbly imploring the help of Blessed Andrew, he recovered the sight of his eyes.

[43] Leonarda, wife of the late Bartolomeo di Jacopo Banoti, a baker of the same parish, was suffering a great pain in her arm, so that she had lost all strength pain in the arm, and power of the arm together with the shoulder, and could in no way attend to the business and tasks of her household; hearing of the sanctity of Blessed Andrew and the miracles that God was continually performing through him, she vowed to him that if he freed her from that pain, she would offer a wax image: and upon making her resolution, she was immediately freed and recovered her former health: wherefore she came to his tomb with the greatest devotion and offered a wax image, giving him innumerable thanks.

[44] Marco Antonio Cini, of the parish of S. Stephen of Ognano near Florence, had suffered for ten years and more from an infirmity or pain in his leg, prolonged torment in the leg, which greatly tormented him, so that he could not walk without the help of another, nor perform any activity, and for the recovery of his health he had never found any remedy: hearing of the miracles that God was performing daily through Blessed Andrew, and that at his tomb many wax images had been offered, he vowed that if he recovered his health, he would offer him a wax image: wherefore the sick man was brought to his tomb, and touching it with his hands, he most devoutly rubbed them over his leg, and was immediately so freed from the infirmity and pain that, having fulfilled his vow, he walked and ran through the same church without anyone's help, showing the miracle to all who were in the church. He also testified to this in the presence of the Most Reverend Father and Lord, Don Benotto de' Federighi, Bishop of Fiesole, and the venerable men Don Giovanni di Niccolò de' Spinellini, and Don Salutati, and Don Cosimo de' Salutati, Canons of S. Reparata of Florence, and Domenico d'Amideo di Francesco, Notary of Florence, who was commissioned in the manner of notaries to record this miracle and the other miracles shown above in the year 1439, from whose authentic records I the writer have extracted these accounts. The said Marco, thus freed, returned home on foot without any other help, not without the greatest admiration of all, humbly and devoutly giving innumerable thanks to God and Blessed Andrew.

[45] When in the year 1440 many processions had come from various places to Florence to visit the body of Blessed Andrew, in the procession from Castelprato there came a certain woman, named Lady Betta, wife of the late Filippo di Giovanni Clenti of the Porta Gualdimari of Prato: who, shortly before, while in the parish church of S. pain in the arm and deafness, Mary of Prato, hearing a sermon by Master Petrus Franciscus of Prato, of the Carmelite Order, and hearing the miracles that were being preached about Blessed Andrew, with the greatest devotion and faith, humbly kneeling before the crucifix, said in the vernacular: O Blessed Andrew, I pray you to intercede for me to the Lord of heaven and earth, to make me whole and well of my left arm, which I cannot raise, and of the hearing in my left ear: and if he does so, I will offer a wax head before your tomb, in his and your honour. Having said this, she slept a little; afterwards, awakening, she reported that she had felt something descend from her head to her shoulders and arm, and then depart from her, and so she raised her arm and received her hearing, and remained entirely free and well: she afterwards came to Florence with the said procession and offered the wax head.

[46] Angela, daughter of Checco de Capella, and wife of Andrea d'Antonio of Quaracchi, while she was healthy and of sound mind and was going to her husband for the consummation of her marriage, madness. and was in her husband's house, she became foolish and deranged, and did many foolish things for a long time. Her mother, Lady Checca, hearing of the miracles that God was performing through Blessed Andrew, with the greatest devotion and faith vowed her said daughter Angela, that if God through his intercession freed her from that infirmity, she would with her visit his body three times with devotion and offer two candles. Having done this, she brought her bound upon a she-ass to Florence to the church of the Carmelites, and there with great devotion she had the pillow and mitre of Blessed Andrew placed upon her head; which, although they had lain in the tomb with the body for about sixty-seven years, appear new and without blemish. When these were applied, her mother led her to the altar of Blessed Andrew, and lighting two candles, kneeling humbly, she commended her daughter to him and besought him for her recovery: after the prayer they left the church and returned home. After twenty days, as it pleased God, through the intercession of Blessed Andrew, the said Angela, being deranged, was restored to her former health and perfectly freed. Afterwards the mother and daughter came twice to visit his body, and at his tomb offered a candle, giving thanks to God and Blessed Andrew. These last two miracles were performed in the presence of Brother Filippo di Tommasio of Florence, of the Carmelite Order, Benedetto di Jacopo, Benedetto Tempi, Zenobio di Jacopo Benintendi, and very many others, and Paolo di Lorenzo di Paolo, Notary of Florence, who was commissioned to record these things, from whose records I the writer have extracted them, written to the praise and glory of God and Blessed Andrew.

ANOTHER LIFE, BY AN UNKNOWN AUTHOR.

From a manuscript of Rouge-Cloitre, collated with Surius.

Andrew Corsini, of the Carmelite Order, Bishop of Fiesole in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 0446

By an anonymous author, from manuscripts.

PROLOGUE.

[1] When the world, keeping its course from the beginning of its creation and running on even to our own ages, The Saints are set before us by God as an example. had occupied the last times, and men were by no means separating themselves from sins, our Lord Jesus Christ, who wills that none should perish but desires all men to be saved, raised up for us a righteous branch for the salvation of sinners in these last days, namely Blessed Andrew Corsini, a pattern of all virtues. He, in the Church of God, brought forth as a lily the branch of righteousness, because he governed it devoutly, diligently, and fruitfully, and thereby propagated manifold fruit. Therefore let us know that his life has been set before us, so that we may look upon it as a kind of clear mirror: and according to it, with the help of God, direct our manner of life into the way of righteousness.

CHAPTER I.

The birth, education, and monastic novitiate of S. Andrew.

[2] Blessed Andrew Corsini was born at Florence of the noble Corsini family, The parents of S. Andrew obtain a son by a vow: his father being Nicolaus and his mother Peregrina. After they had come together in matrimony, nothing was more important to them than to observe the precepts of religion in all things. And so, setting aside the desire for earthly things, and devoting themselves to the things of God, they frequently visited the house of the Lord. Exod. 22. When they heard what is read in Exodus, namely that first-fruits ought to be offered to God, desiring greatly to make a pleasing offering to God and his Mother, they wished to beget children from themselves, vowing to hand over their firstborn to the religious order of the Virgin Mary. The Blessed Virgin, assenting to their prayers, divinely fulfilled their vow. For after a few days Peregrina, the future mother of the offspring Andrew, conceived: the mother is taught by heaven of things to come: and when the time of giving birth was imminent, it seemed to her in her dreams that she had given birth to a wolf instead of a human being; who, when he entered a church and remained there, was gradually changed and turned into a lamb. Awakening and silently considering this matter, she did not dare to tell even her husband what she had seen in her dreams. On the next night, that is, on the day before the Kalends of December, a boy is born: who, when he was washed with the sacrament of Baptism, received the name Andrew, because he was born on the day when the Christian religion celebrates the feast of Blessed Andrew the Apostle.

[3] The boy, raised nobly, grows, and is handed over to literary studies. But when the boy was very clever and of outstanding beauty, he was exceedingly dear to both parents. At length, having become an adolescent, he began to keep dogs, buy horses, him living dissolutely. form friendships, bear arms, engage in quarrels, and in all these things to treat sacred and profane matters alike; he was not only disobedient to his parents but could not even endure their correction. His parents, when they understood what great danger threatened the youth, fearing lest on account of his misdeeds he might lose his life in disgrace, resolved to call him back from such wicked habits, now in his fifteenth year. Seizing an opportunity, therefore, they order Andrew to be summoned to them. But he, neglecting his parents' commands, answering with insulting words, impudently withdrew from their sight. His mother, bearing this unjustly, with an agitated spirit addressed him: You are certainly, she said, the wolf whom I seemed to have given birth to in my dreams. Terrified by these words, the youth, stepping back, entreated his mother to explain what those words meant. Then the mother said: Hear, my son, my words, she admonishes him and narrates her dream about him: and do not despise the words of your mother. I, together with your father, lived barren for many years, and so great was our love of offspring that I even took vows to obtain children. And so I most resolutely vowed to offer the first-fruits of my womb to God and Mary his mother: the same thing your father Nicolaus promised by a common vow: and it came to pass that by the prayers of Mary I conceived: and already the time of delivery was at hand, and in my dreams I seemed to give birth to a wolf, who, having entered a church, abandoned the form of a wolf and became a lamb: the next day I gave birth to you. How you have lived in the time past, you well know: for not as a man using reason, but as a most rapacious wolf; now the time demands that you turn yourself into a lamb and be willing with a devout mind to fulfil the vows we have taken for you: for you were born not for us, but for the Blessed Virgin Mary. Awake therefore, my son, and do not wish any longer through sloth and evil habits to defile your life.

[4] After the mother had finished speaking, Andrew, struck by this speech, Andrew comes to his senses: silently considering his former life, moved to repentance, with many tears besought the Virgin to deign to pour forth prayers to her Son on his behalf, so that he might not know the offences of his youth. On the next morning he set out for the church of the Carmelites, and there, praying for a long time before the altar of the glorious Virgin, he bathed his face with tears, begging her to convert him from a wolf into a lamb. At length, rising from prayer, he prostrated himself before Hieronymus Melioratus, a Carmelite, who was at that time, namely in the year 1316 of the Incarnation of the Lord, governing the province of Tuscany, and begged to be received into his religious order. When that distinguished man heard this, marvelling that a well-born youth, born of the highest rank and raised in many delicacies, desired to be initiated into sacred life and to undergo the servitude of religion, he sent to his parents to report that their son Andrew was seeking the habit of religion. When the parents learned through messengers he becomes a Carmelite: that the Holy Spirit had worked so swiftly and wonderfully in their son, struck with amazement and joy, they hastened to the place where Andrew was; and with one mind, offering their son, whom they found praying, to the Blessed Virgin as they had vowed, they fulfilled the duties of the vow they had undertaken. Thus Andrew, converted from a wolf into a lamb, is admitted to the observance of the religious life. To test the firmness of his spirit, they assigned him tasks of the most menial kind; they ordered him to sweep the house, to tend the door, and sometimes even to scrub the pots. All of which he performed with so willing a spirit that it would be wonderful to relate his obedience and humility.

[5] It happened that while the others were dining, the guardianship of the door was entrusted to Andrew, who was to allow no one to enter until the Brothers had finished their meal. he repels the devil calling him back to the world: But the devil, envying such great humility, attempted to subvert the youth; he assumed the form of a very wealthy man and, standing before the monastery gate with a great retinue, ordered the doors to be opened for him. Andrew, marvelling at the man's importunity, asked what he wanted. To whom he said: Do you not know me? For I am born of your kindred: and when I heard that you had entered religion, bearing it with an angry spirit, I came here to call you back from such a degrading condition of life to your former pleasures. So open at once, that you may return home with me. Your father has already betrothed a maiden to you, of great nobility and immense dowry. To whom Andrew replied: I neither recognize you, nor are you born of our blood, you who seek to call me back from so salutary an office. For my parents, before I was born, begot me for this place, where, having embraced humility, I have received obedience as my bride. Thus the enemy, repelled at the door and defeated by the constancy of the boy, undertook his great crime in vain.

CHAPTER II.

Monastic profession. The priesthood. Government of the monastery. Virtues. Miracles.

[6] After Andrew's humility and obedience had been sufficiently tested by the Carmelites, He makes his profession: he made his profession according to custom; and he took the solemn vows of the religious life in the hands of the Provincial. These having been completed, the spirit of the youth blazed more and more each day with divine love and virtue; he overcame the desires of earthly things by fasting, abstinence, and bodily mortification: and he became of such great silence that he would not speak unless there was the greatest need. he excels in religious virtues: Three days a week he fasted, during which he was accustomed to take no food except bread and water. He observed obedience so well that he seemed to desire nothing more than that someone should command him, no differently than if he had entered religion for the sole purpose of serving. Devoting himself to prayers and sacred letters, he wasted no time in vain. Macerating his body with continual scourging, he brought it into subjection; he tamed it with fasting and chastised it with a hairshirt. Seeking the delights of solitude, fleeing from jests, he greatly avoided amusements.

[7] He stopped his ears so as not to hear the words of those who spoke ill of him. For, as is the custom of mendicants, going on Saturdays to the houses of citizens to receive alms, Andrew out of humility exercised this duty most zealously, and when he begged alms from his own relatives, who had great houses in the street, while begging he is mocked by friends and repelled: he was driven from their doors with many insults. For his relatives were displeased that Andrew had accepted the religious habit. He was mocked by acquaintances, despised by companions, and they called such a salutary and holy labour idleness. All these things and the like Andrew endured with great patience, as if the perfection of religion consisted in enduring injuries.

[8] At that time a certain John Corsini of his kindred was suffering from the disease of lupus in his leg, which affliction tormented the man greatly day and night. And in order to mitigate such anguish and suffering, he resorted to every kind of game, so that his house was called the gamblers' portico. Andrew, when he observed that John, while seeking to soothe the pain of his leg, was falling into the ruin of his soul, resolved to look after his interests, and addressed him with these words: John, if you follow my advice, I will restore you to your former health, he heals a sick man and calls him back from gaming: and free you from the snares of your enemies by divine protection. The latter, scarcely believing that Andrew had merited and found such grace in the sight of God as to drive away diseases, nevertheless, out of desire to recover his health, promised to do whatever the excellent youth should command. To whom Andrew said: It is necessary first that you cast aside all these habits of gaming: after that, you should strive by devoting yourself to fasting and by bending the Virgin Mary with the greatest prayers for eight days. John, moved by the simplicity of these words, immediately taking up his vows, performed with wonderful devotion whatever Andrew had commanded, and by his merits obtained his accustomed good health.

[9] Thus Andrew, burning in virtues and daily increasing in sanctity, is admitted to sacred orders. he celebrates his first Mass far from his relatives: All the Corsini, assembled together, resolve that Andrew should, according to the custom of the country, celebrate the offering of the Mass with great preparations and immense pomp. But he, having first obtained permission from the Provincial, withdrew to the Convent of Selve, seven miles from the city; and there, most devoutly offering the first-fruits of his priesthood, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him with a company of Angels, the Blessed Virgin appears to him at it: saying to him: You are my servant: for I have chosen you, and in you I will be glorified. And saying this, she gradually vanished into the air. Andrew, struck with amazement, was not exalted by the vision, but strove rather through humility to make himself a worthy servant, fleeing human praises and preparing immortality for himself through the study of good arts.

[10] At that time there was a nobleman whose daughter, his only child, languishing from the disease of hectic fever, could be freed by no physician's skill. he heals a sick girl: When she perceived the wonders that were daily being wrought by Andrew Corsini, she hoped without doubt to recover her health if the man of God would minister food to her with his own hands. When the father understood this, he obtained with the greatest entreaties from Blessed Andrew that he visit his ailing daughter at home, she who had placed all hope of her recovery in him alone. Andrew, when he knew the girl's faith, after praying much, visiting her and ministering food, restored her to her former health.

[11] After a few years a Chapter is held at Pisa; Andrew is also sent to Gaul, He studies at Paris: namely to the city of Paris, to devote himself to sacred letters: thence after three years he is recalled to his province. While thus returning to his homeland, passing through Dijon, he visited his uncle who, as Cardinal, was at that time exercising the office of legate there. he restores sight to a blind man. While he was staying there a few days with the Cardinal, he encountered a certain blind man, who, sitting at the door of the church, was begging alms from passersby: when the blind man asked him for a coin, Andrew, in place of a small coin, by divine compassion restored his sight.

[12] After a few days he returned to Florence, where a Provincial Chapter was then being held, He is made Prior: in which Andrew is placed in charge of the Florentine convent. In this administration, his sanctity of life was such he heals a man with dropsy: that it would be difficult to narrate. He healed at that time a certain Ventura, a Carmelite of Pisa, of the disease of dropsy. Asked by a certain intimate friend, to whom a boy had been born, he foretells the future. to baptize the child, he did not refuse. But while the infant was being washed with water and chrism, as is the custom, Andrew, to whom God had revealed the future, was wonderfully bathed in tears. When the child's parent asked the cause of the tears, Andrew said: This boy is born for the ruin of himself and his family. The father, however, making light of such a prophecy, despised the words of the man of God. But the boy, growing up, not otherwise than Andrew had predicted, covered with shameful deeds and crimes, conspired with many against the Republic. Brought to trial, he paid the penalties for so great a crime, and all his kinsmen were barred from every office of the Republic, lest they should attempt a similar act of treachery against it in the future.

CHAPTER III.

The Episcopate. The Apostolic Legation. Extraordinary virtues.

[13] Not long after, He is elected Bishop of Fiesole: when the obedience of his servant had been sufficiently proven to God, he wished to call him to a greater charge. For it came to pass that the Bishop of Fiesole closed his last day. After they had performed his funeral rites in pontifical fashion, the Canons and the rest, in whom the right was vested, assembled together to deliberate among themselves about electing a Bishop: by the unanimous voice of all, Andrew Corsini the Carmelite is designated Bishop. When this was announced to Andrew, fearing lest he should fail under so great a burden, he hid at the Carthusians, three miles from the city. The Canons, however, order him to be sought throughout the whole province: but when they cannot find him, a second deliberation is held about revoking the election: he hides: and while their wavering hearts were in doubt, the Holy Spirit spoke through the mouth of an infant, saying: God has chosen Andrew as his priest: the election is miraculously confirmed; he is divinely admonished to acquiesce: behold, he is praying at the Carthusians, and there you will find him. At these words, all filled with amazement, they confirm what had previously been done. A decree is therefore made that envoys be sent to the Carthusians to find the hidden Bishop and exhort him to the care of the episcopate. While these things were being done at Fiesole, to Andrew as he prayed a boy appeared in white garments, announcing to him that this had been done by divine will, that he should be made Bishop, and that he should not shrink from the labour. For a guardian Angel had been given to him, who would direct his steps in the will of God. Andrew, therefore, terrified by the vision of the Angel and rising from prayer, encountered the Fiesolans who were seeking him. They, meeting the Bishop, and peacefully greeting him, exhorted him not to despise his flock and the sheep of his pasture. Andrew, giving thanks to God, took upon himself with steadfast mind the burden he had shortly before been striving to cast off.

[14] Made Bishop, therefore, in the fifty-eighth year of his life, it is incredible to relate he lives most holily in the episcopate: with what sanctity of life he flourished. He trampled underfoot all earthly desires; he became of such great fortitude that he easily overcame all disturbances of the soul. He fled the company and conversation of women as the seeds of vices, with great diligence: having embraced temperance, he was oppressed by no concupiscence of the flesh. He macerated his body by reducing his food; beneath his tunic, upon his bare body, he wore a chain of iron. Vine-cuttings provided rest for his limbs at night. A great sower of the seed of peace, he uprooted civil wars, seditions of citizens, and the discords of many. Intent upon divine contemplations, he spoke nothing human or pertaining to buffoonery. For the higher he was in dignity, the lower he seemed in humility. Greatly devoted to sacred buildings, he ordered the Cathedral Church of Fiesole, which was threatening ruin on every side, to be fortified at his own expense.

[15] What shall I say of his compassion toward the poor, what of his devotion to his people? generous to the poor. He could not bear to see those afflicted by poverty, nor even to hear of it without tears. For he was of such great generosity toward the poor and all the needy who were then at Fiesole that he recorded them in a register, to whom he secretly furnished sustenance. No one ever departed from him without alms. Indeed, when there was a great scarcity of provisions and a great multitude of the needy was flocking to him for alms, he had given away to the poor as many loaves as were in the house: for when they were not enough for such a great multitude, he ordered more loaves to be brought to him. His servants, however, who knew that they had not left even a single loaf in the bin, the loaves are divinely multiplied: reported to the Bishop that the loaves had run out. He ordered them to search more carefully in the bin. They, however, lest they seem to disregard the Bishop's commands, returning to the pantry, found loaves in great number. Marvelling at this, they brought them to the Bishop. He, receiving the loaves, distributed them to the poor, that he might imitate the footsteps of the Saviour in all things.

[16] The man of God was accustomed every Thursday, in memory of the Lord's humility, to wash the feet of the poor. It happened he washes the feet of the poor: that one of those beggars resisted the Bishop, not allowing him to wash his feet. When Andrew asked the reason, the man said: My legs are turned to putrefaction by disease, and I fear they would cause revulsion to your excellency. To whom the Bishop said: Trust, my son, in the Lord Jesus Christ; and pouring water into a basin, he heals a certain man by washing: he began to wash the legs of the same poor man. O wondrous thing! He, having his legs washed, was immediately freed from the disease.

[17] He was accustomed at night, after the matutinal office, accompanied by only one attendant, to visit the church or house of worship which is commonly called the Abbey, he disperses phantasms of the devil by prayer: not far from the metropolitan church. It happened that as they were returning, they found a wall built across the road. Terrified by this, the attendant said: Father Bishop, who built a wall here so quickly? To whom Andrew said: Let us pray, that we enter not into temptation. And prostrating themselves on the ground, they chanted the Psalms Deus in adiutorium and Domini est terra, etc. And when the prayer was made, the wall vanished. Ps. 69. Ps. 23.

[18] When civil discord had arisen at Bologna, to such a degree that the tumult could be settled by no man's authority, Pope Urban V, the Supreme Pontiff, having heard of the probity of the Bishop of Fiesole, sent him as Legate to Bologna to calm their discontented hearts and bend the fierce spirits of the citizens. Andrew carried out the Pontiff's commands and set out for Bologna. The citizens, when they perceived the authority of the Bishop and the sweetness of his words, soon laid down their arms and were reconciled: a few, however, he reconciles the dissenting Bolognese, who opposed this, were struck with a terrible disease. They, at last freed through the merits of Blessed Andrew, laid aside their ferocity of spirit and were pacified. Thus Andrew, having completed his mission, with the commendation of all, immediately returned to Fiesole. the refractory are miraculously punished for a time. With these arts and labours he had reached a mature age.

CHAPTER IV.

Death, burial, translation.

[19] In the seventy-first year of his life, therefore, on the night of the Nativity of the Lord, in the cathedral church, while performing the divine service with solemn pomp, the glorious Virgin appeared to him, He is taught the time of his death by the Blessed Virgin: announcing his death for the coming month, namely on the 8th of the Ides of January: the day on which the Epiphany or Apparition of the Lord is celebrated. By which revelation he was filled with such great joy and gladness that he, who had previously been emaciated and covered with squalor from the austerity of his diet, he dies: was adorned almost with a Seraphic colour. Not otherwise than the Blessed Virgin had foretold, the blessed and divine Bishop, seized by disease, yielded to nature on that day. At his passing, many prodigies were divinely wrought, testifying that he had flown to the heavens.

[20] On that night, moreover, on which this man departed from life, many virgins saw visions. his glory is revealed to various persons: For, as is reported, a girl of ten years saw in her dreams heaven opened and a ladder reaching to the height of heaven, by which a Bishop, vested in pontifical garments, was ascending. Two other Bishops accompanied him on the right and on the left. When she told this to her mother, the latter said: Andrew Corsini has ascended to heaven. And comparing the time, she learned that Andrew had died at the same hour at which the virgin had seen the Bishops ascending to heaven in her dreams. On that night, another noble virgin, to whom Andrew while still living had foretold the day of her death, dying, cried out with a loud voice: Come, Bishop of Christ, wait for me, that together we may enter the heavenly fatherland. Having said these things, stretching her suppliant hands to heaven, she departed from this light. But why should I narrate what happened around the death of this blessed man; what words, he is illustrious for miracles: what precepts of life, what traditions of religion he gave, what light shone around the dying man, what fragrance of great sweetness breathed from the body of the deceased? Many were marvellously freed from various languors and diseases by the touch of his body.

[21] The holy Andrew died, therefore, in the seventy-first year of his life, he is buried at Fiesole: in the thirteenth year of his pontificate, in the year 1373 of the Incarnation of the Lord, on the 8th of the Ides of January, whose soul with the most blessed spirits contemplates the face of the heavenly King. His body was deposited with customary funeral pomp at Fiesole in the cathedral church in a stone tomb, although he had left in his testament that his body should be buried among the Carmelites at Florence. The townspeople, however, on account of the man's wondrous sanctity, did not permit the body to be carried to Florence: for they hoped that great protection would come from it. But the Carmelites, seizing an opportunity, secretly and furtively removed the body by night furtively transferred to Florence. and carried it to Florence, where at that time it was illustrious for many miracles.

CHAPTER V.

The Florentine victory. The solemn veneration of Andrew.

[22] The Florentines are harassed in war by the Duke of Milan: After a long interval of time, namely in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1440, under Eugene IV as Supreme Pontiff, Philip Maria, Duke of Milan, made war of his own accord upon the Church and the Florentines, and through Niccolò Piccinino, the commander of his army, seized many of the Florentine towns and laid waste many others. And so the enemy army had already occupied places close to the city: fear seized the Florentines and also the Cardinals who were then at Florence with Pope Eugene: everything appeared turbulent and harsh. The city, disturbed by these events, began to tremble, to distrust its arms, and each man to measure the dangers by his own fear. A decree was made that Ten Men should be created to manage the war, who should see to it that the Republic suffer no harm; they were authorized to raise legions, wage war, and encourage allies and citizens. Among them were Cosimo de' Medici, Neri Capponi, Angelo Acciaioli, a knight, and Giovanni Scodellario. These, assembled together, deliberated on the defence of the Republic: in the crisis of so great a war, their minds were in suspense.

[23] While these things were being done, they are encouraged by heaven through Blessed Andrew; the victory foretold: Saint Andrew Corsini was shining with many miracles. When almost the entire city was flocking out of great piety to the church of the Carmelites, where the body of this Bishop rests, a certain youth, out of exceeding religious devotion, was hastening along with the rest. The blessed Bishop appeared to him, saying: Young man, hasten speedily to the Ten Men of war, and deliver to them these my words: God who rescued Israel from the hand of Pharaoh, he himself will break their adversaries: let them not fear to engage the enemy: for God will scatter all their forces. Therefore let them now boldly take up arms to fight against the foe. On the fifth day after the coming feast of S. John the Baptist, which will be celebrated eight days hence, they will win victory over the enemy. The youth, although terrified by the divine vision, nevertheless went to the Ten and announced to them what Andrew Corsini had said. When these things were reported, the Magistrates placed remarkable faith in such words, and restoring their strength through religion, took heart, judging that this people was the care of the immortal God. They therefore prepared an army; on the 4th of the Kalends of July the armies clashed: but after much fighting on both sides, the forces of the enemy were routed. This is believed to have occurred not without divine intervention, since a huge multitude was driven back by a small force, they defeat the Milanese: so that few escaped by flight. Piccinino, when he saw his men failing and his cause ruined, despairing of his situation, fled with a few men to the town of Borgo San Sepolcro.

[24] After the news of this victory was reported at Florence, the city was transformed from the deepest sadness and was suddenly stirred by gladness and the greatest joy: holidays were proclaimed, games were organized, and other such things as are customary on such occasions. And lest they appear forgetful of religion, a decree was made that all the clergy and all the magistrates together with the people should assemble in the Cathedral church: from which place they should proceed in solemn procession, as is the custom, they give thanks to S. Andrew: to the church of the Carmelites, where the venerable body of the holy Bishop lies, and there a Mass should be solemnly sung in honour of the most holy Trinity according to custom, and the body of Blessed Andrew Corsini should be displayed to the entire people with torches and much incense. And since these things, which pertained to the veneration of this holy man, could not be done without first consulting the Apostolic See, supplication was made to Pope Eugene through the Most Reverend Lord Cardinals -- the Colonna, the Angevin, the Trapanese, the Placentine, the Cardinal of the Holy Cross, and the Cardinal of S. Maria Nuova -- that such honours might legitimately be rendered to this body each year. Eugene, although he had previously heard much about the sanctity of the man, they solemnly venerate him by papal indult. nevertheless moved by new reports and by the supplication of such great men, legitimately granted what was sought by the Florentine people. When these permissions were obtained, the religious duty, as had been decreed, was carried out with wonderful devotion of the people. Likewise it was provided by law that all the magistrates of the city of Florence should solemnly visit the church of the Carmelites according to custom; on that day, namely, on which the Carmelites themselves celebrate the annual feast of this blessed man. Which indeed is observed to our own time with the greatest devotion.

CHAPTER VI.

Various miracles.

[25] At that time a certain priest, at odds with his parishioners, By the help of S. Andrew a tumult of the people is calmed; was driven from his benefice; and accused of many evils and crimes before the Archbishop: nor could he by any means bend them or bring about a reconciliation. When he had spent much money on this affair and could not recover his benefice, he turned to Blessed Andrew with many prayers, vowing that he would place a wax image of himself before his body if he were peacefully received by his parishioners: and soon, having taken his vow, he set out for the church and found all of them changed: and those who shortly before had conspired to kill him, received him as a friend.

[26] Nor after many days did a certain Carmelite, who was head of the English province, a certain man is freed from a headache; being heavily oppressed at Florence by a pain in the head and unable to be freed by any medical skill, when he heard what was being done through Blessed Andrew, who was at that time shining with very many miracles, implore his patronage with many tears: and having taken his vow, he was freed from the torment of his head, and giving thanks to God, who works so wonderfully through his Saints, returned to his own country.

[27] Most recently in our own memory, a certain Matthew Corsini fell headlong from a high place in the countryside onto his head, another recovers the use of reason; and gravely wounded by the fall, for fifteen days spoke no word correctly: indeed he called all things by changed names, as one who, on account of an injury to his brain, had forgotten all things. The physicians, having despaired of his recovery, had entirely neglected his care. On the fifteenth day in the morning, calling his wife Thita by her proper name, he told her that Andrew Corsini, in the Carmelite habit and accompanied by one attendant with a lighted torch, had spoken with him at length in his dreams: and that he had given him a sure hope of recovering his health. When his wife heard this, marvelling not a little at the unexpected change in his speech, she said: Take heart, husband, that you can be freed by such a patron: for the same Andrew, dressed in the same habit and speaking the same words, had departed from me shortly before you called me. Matthew, recovering day by day, soon regained his former health.

[28] Peter Victorius, a well-born youth, when visiting his uncle, who was Praetor at Patri, a certain man is not injured by a dangerous fall. a town ten miles from the city of Florence, while climbing the town walls with his companions, fell incautiously from a high tower. Commending himself to Blessed Andrew Corsini as he fell, he escaped unharmed from so great a peril of death.

He also performed many other miracles, which we pass over for the sake of brevity.

MORE RECENT MIRACLES

from the Report of Cardinal Deti to Urban VIII.

Andrew Corsini, of the Carmelite Order, Bishop of Fiesole in Italy (S.)

[1] Junipera Ricci of Florence, having contracted from childbirth a grave disease, and then also reduced to insanity, By the help of S. Andrew, contraction and insanity are cured. remedies having been applied in vain, at last, upon the application of the relics of Blessed Andrew, she was restored to her former health of body and (which rarely occurs) made sound of mind.

[2] Bonaventura, son of Cassandra, two years old, having lain ill in his cradle for seventeen days, and abstaining from all food and drink, was considered dead by the physician; fever, when the chain of the blessed Bishop was applied to the boy's breast and his ring placed on the boy's finger, he immediately asked for food, put on his clothes, went out of the house, and played with the other children.

[3] For thirty years Angelica de Castro from Romagna had had hands covered with leprosy: leprosy, and the application of medicines having been tried in vain, she fled for help to Blessed Andrew; and having promised her hands as a votive offering at his sepulchre, she suddenly began to be cleansed, and within eight days not even a trace of leprosy appeared on her hands.

[4] Elizabeth, daughter of Peter of Cavarella, a Florentine, wretchedly tormented by a persistent fever and the falling sickness for a period of thirty months, deprived on account of her poverty of the assistance of physicians and medicines, fever and epilepsy, found more effective medicine in the help of the blessed Bishop; touching his chain with the utmost confidence and devotion, she suddenly recovered from both diseases.

[5] When Flammetta, daughter of James, had fallen to the ground and broken her left arm, the remedies of human art being of no avail, she had recourse to Blessed Andrew, fracture of the arm: and in the church of the Carmelites, having placed her arm upon his altar, she recovered her health.

[6] In the same church, when on the day of the Ascension the body of Blessed Andrew was being displayed, hearing recovered. Catherine, wife of Julius de Garbo, a Florentine, entirely deprived of hearing, held out a rosary of the Blessed Virgin so that it might touch the body of the Blessed: and when she had received it back and kissed it with great hope, placing one of its beads to her ear, she immediately and perfectly began to hear.

c In the year 1607.

d For three days.

e Cenanella.

f In the year 1603.