ON BLESSED JOANNA, CARMELITE VIRGIN, OF REGGIO LEPIDI IN THE DUCHY OF MODENA.
IN THE YEAR 1491.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Cult; the writer of the Italian life; the translator of the Latin.
Joanna, Carmelite Virgin, at Reggio Lepidi, in the Duchy of Modena (Bl.)
J. P.
Reggio Lepidi, a city in the Duchy of Modena, of whose primitive origin and other things pertaining to it Ughelli treats in Italia Sacra, volume 2, from column 297, celebrates with special zeal of religion the Blessed Joanna the virgin, Blessed Joanna, most celebrated at Reggio in the Duchy of Modena, in Ferrarius; a nursling of the Carmelite Order; of whom Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy thus announces on this day: At Reggio in Aemilia, of the Blessed Joanna the virgin, of the Order of the Carmelites. Of whose cult he observes the following in the annotations,
indicating whence he received her, namely from the Calendar of the church of Reggio and the monuments of the convent of the Carmelite Order, of which the Blessed Joanna herself was foundress. She died in the year of salvation 1491, in the sixty-third year of her age, illustrious for miracles, and, buried in the same monastery which is called Santa Maria del Popolo, is venerated with the greatest concourse of the whole people. Concerning her, in her church, an Office and Mass are recited on the aforesaid day, from ancient devotion rather than from the concession of the Roman Pontiff. Her Life was printed at Milan in the year 1617. That she is venerated, therefore, not on the IX of June but on this day, was rightly noted long ago among the Passed-Over on the ninth day of June, in these words: In the Vineyard of Carmel and the Well-Ordered Battle-Line she is said to be venerated on this day, the ninth of June; but by the error of a single letter, as appears from the new Mirror of that Order, where her life is referred to the day IX of July; which was the day on which she passed to the better life, as is clear from the author of her Life. Nothing of doubt therefore remains concerning her stable and ancient cult, which, begun already for so many years among the people of Reggio from a propensity of affection toward the Blessed, then increased, amplified, and continued from pious custom, we are not ignorant of.
[2] her elogia from the Carmelite Mirror, The Carmelite Mirror, volume 2, part 1, page 541, proceeding from the proof of the cult of this Blessed to her elogia, reports that Benedict Gonon the Celestine, in the Chronicle of the Most Holy Mother of God, under the year 1328, from the blessed Mutti, author of her Life, commemorates her eminent and quite singular affections of a most propense and most pious will toward the Virgin Mary, and that in the recitation of a single Ave Maria she sometimes remained the whole night in rapture and ecstasy. Then in the same Mirror the birth of the Virgin is proclaimed from volume 4 of the Carmelite Annals, referred to the year 1428: In the same year was born at Reggio in Aemilia Joanna the virgin, afterward a nun of our Order, illustrious in sanctity and miracles. She had pious and modest parents, Simon and Catharine Scopelli. This Virgin was foundress of the monastery of Carmelite virgins of the same city of Reggio, which is called Santa Maria del Popolo, under the obedience of our Fathers of the Mantuan Congregation. And now there, from the same source, at the year 1491, the holy death of Joanna is described in these words: The number of the heavenly ones was increased under this year, on the ninth day of the month of July, by the Blessed Joanna Scopelli of Reggio, a nun of our Order, of whom we treated above, sending the mass of her flesh to the earth and her spirit to heaven. For, a vision of Jesus the Bridegroom preceding, under the appearance of a most beautiful youth, adorned with most white garments, who offered her a garland of the roses and flowers of paradise and invited her to the heavenly nuptials, pressed by a most grievous illness, fortified with the arms of the Church, the sisters being called to her, and holy exhortations to piety, devotion, and the observance of religion being sent before, she breathed out her holy soul.
[3] Further, the solid virtues of the Blessed, the heavenly delights, the sublime contemplation, More in the writers of the life, of whom we here treat. the patience proved by the harsh assaults of the demon; the apparitions, the day of death foretold and holily fulfilled; finally the apparitions after death, the finding of the body incorrupt and breathing forth a sweet odor, and at first indeed honorably laid away by the nuns and frequented with miracles; then in a wondrous manner, after a revelation received, visited by the Bishop of Reggio, recognized, and honored with a solemn cult, and the things which pertain to these, the Life will give, here reprinted. The first, so far as we know, to publish it in Italian was Benedict Mutti of Reggio, collected from many writings, as he himself indicates in his dedicatory epistle. In various places it is handed down, in the annotations of the aforesaid Mirror, prefixed to the Latin Life, that it was printed. We have a copy printed at Venice in the year 1611. A copy of the same year served as a guide to Father Seger Pauli, a Carmelite of Cologne, who received the Latin Life, written by himself, from the Italian, some things being omitted which the aforesaid Mutti had verbosely adorned: a few things also being added of his own, as I found from the collation of both Lives, meaning to give an account of them in the annotations. The Latin author would not have ill consulted for Latinity if he had avoided these solecisms; at number 8, asserting that Joanna, on account of the lack of money, a price being set, would never be satisfied (fore satisfaciendam); and at number 20, cumulandas iri for cumulatum iri. Elsewhere occurs Modena for Mutina. He had premised at number 6: But God, who does not desert the care of those who hope in Him, was pleased to rescue her from the wiles of the aforesaid crafty one. Behold now for thee the
LIFE.
By the author Benedict Mutti of Reggio.
From the Italian, printed at Venice in the year of Christ 1611, published in part I of the Carmelite Mirror from page 542, collated with the Italian.
Joanna, Carmelite Virgin, at Reggio Lepidi, in the Duchy of Modena (Bl.)
CHAPTER I.
The parents of Blessed Joanna; her virtues; the austerity of her life; the taking of the Carmelite habit; the foundation of a new monastery; the conversion of a Manichaean through her.
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
In the year of Christ 1428 the blessed Joanna the virgin, her father Simon, her mother Catharine, illustrious both in birth and in piety, was born in the noble city of Reggio. The birth of Blessed Joanna, and the austerity of her life joined with virtues; Truly the supreme love toward God, which had wounded the heart of the most holy Virgin and had transfixed it as it were with certain darts, seemed inborn, and in her, like a fire lurking under the ashes, took nourishment. For she had scarcely passed infancy when, about to deliberate concerning the loosing of the entanglements of the world and the putting on of the monastic habit (she who had already put on virtue), she debated with herself, if her tender age had permitted, tasting how sweet is the yoke and how light the burden, taken up for the love of Christ. In age therefore alike, and by the most abundant waves of graces and the droppings of heavenly charisms she was so advanced that her mind, fixed on the divine splendors, and in restraining the incentives of the unbridled flesh (which are wont to assail the frail little body by impulse), never ceased, now macerating her body with hard fasting, now constraining it with disciplines, now attenuating it with fastings, now devoting herself to the zeal of prayer, and continually intent on other pious works.
[2] Prayer heard; virtue grows with age, and constancy in adversities. When she had one day offered prayers to her Bridegroom Jesus Christ, with eager spirit and sincere heart, for the joining in marriage of her two full sisters, God Himself granting the offering, they deserved to obtain the effect. For behold, the divine power inspiring it, two young men of the forum, both noble, are borne toward them in love, solicit them as brides, although not before seen nor known to them. Meanwhile the parents remain doubtful, on account of the inequality of the young men's birth: nevertheless among so many doubts they are bent, the betrothals are contracted at the instance of Joanna the virgin, asserting that the will of God was not wanting, to which in all things one must most promptly submit. In this first shone forth her admirable sanctity. When she had grown to the increase of a somewhat larger age, there began also, through the heaping up of daily progress, an increase of truer discipline to come to her, so that she who advanced in the number of years grew also in the showing of mortifications; so that love flourished green in her, namely of forsaking vanity, and excluded from her the fear of entering religion. For the virgin, amid the very rudiments of her suckling infancy, directed her whole intention, her whole love, upon her Bridegroom to this end, that she might consecrate her body and soul to Him by the vow of her virginity. In this holy purpose flourished the omnipotent blessing of the merciful Lord: for neither by the blandishments, tears, nor threats of her parents did she change her mind. For she knew that the uncontaminated, unfading palms are conserved in heaven only for those lawfully contending against the enticements of the flesh, the temptations of diabolical fraud, and the seductions of the world; and therefore, that she might truly become wholly God's alone, she eagerly receives the darts of all, and, that she might perpetually enjoy by right the heavenly inheritance, she is gladly worn away by the scourges of the times of tribulation.
[3] Enriched with the best desires, she resolved to take the sacred habit of holy Mary in the religion of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. [She takes the Carmelite habit with a hair-shirt and an iron chain, hating the world.] She put on a hair-shirt beneath it: with which once clothed, she retained it to the end of her life. And that she might more subject the spirit of the flesh and of elation to the rule of reason, she girded her naked body with a little iron chain. Behold a new kind of martyrdom, a new spectacle she affords in a virgin: for to her the town is a cloister; her garment, an inward one; the rough hair-shirt; the pressure of the chain, the girdle of her body; the blandishments of the world, the torments of the spirit; and the bodily death of her parents is to her the beginning of the spiritual life. For, deprived of both parents, she wholly resolves to deprive herself of the vanity of the world, of her own accord forsaking, gladly casting away, voluntarily relinquishing the house of her own right, the possession of property, her inheritances, and even her parents and those of noble stock a, setting them after the love of Christ, and following His poverty, she despises the most ample resources of princely opulence, in no way solicitous for the present, secure of the future, namely of the promised blessing of a hundredfold to be received from her Bridegroom.
[4] But afterward, fortified with the Crucified alone, in whom she gloried with the Apostle, She meditates founding a new monastery, and obtains her wish; placing her whole trust in Him, she forsakes her father's house, and turns aside to a certain woman most slender in fortune, but opulent in piety and the fear of God. To her, inquiring what means she had brought for building the monastery which she intended, Joanna the virgin most wisely answered: I have, she said, a treasure, namely the crucified God, in whom alone I am rich in all things. Meanwhile, by no means slothful, she did not rest from seeking out a place fit for the monastery, kindling others by her good example to serve God, and endeavoring to associate to herself, in the monastic camp, soldiers of another profession. What the virgin of generous spirit had conceived in her mind she vehemently desired to fulfill, namely to find a suitable place for building the monastery; and behold, a widow woman of the same city, divinely inspired, offered herself, her two daughters, and her own house, situated in the vicinity of St. Peter, otherwise of the castle, now called "of the Mutti," firmly resolving to serve manfully under the camp of Joanna the virgin, that she might happily attain to the triumph of the heavenly court. Suffused with immense joy, the prudent handmaid of God, from a vocation so divine, gathered them into her camp, filled with no less consolation. Whence, greatly edified over this, they turn aside to the house, together, in unity of spirit, for the sake of dwelling; and there for the space of four years they diligently applied themselves to the exercise of virtues, sedulously preparing the things necessary for building the monastery, with the incredible applause and joy of all the inhabitants of the city; whom they adorned with singular favor by their continual prayers; since the opinion and fame of the sanctity of Joanna the virgin was now widely diffused among all.
[5] A certain son named Augustine at that time afflicted a certain compatriot of hers with the bitterness of monstrous grief, She converts a Manichaean from heresy to Christ. oppressed by the darkness of the Manichaean error; who could neither be brought to the Sacrament of penance nor removed from his perverse and diabolical error by his mother's prayers, nor by the persuasions of his friends. What meanwhile was the mourning of the mother? What the lamentation of the desolate woman? What the solicitude of the afflicted one for her son's salvation? At length one day she is bathed with a ray of the divine sun, and, trusting in the Blessed,
she importunes, beseeches, and adjures her, that by her aid especially she would storm the iron spirit of her son, held fast by the ambushes of the Manichaean superstition. Whom the truly merciful Handmaid of God calls to herself, first of all kindly rebuking him for the error in which he was involved, saying that a man must rise again as often as he falls from frailty, and that he was even now, by the accelerated severity of divine vengeance, to be given over to be devoured by the jaws of the demons, unless, assiduously recalling the darkness of error to the eyes of his mind, he should drive it away, and bewail the shadows of the guilt he had committed. But the wretched man, like a rock casting back the assailing waves of the sea, is thus not moved by the importunate entreaties of the Virgin, bound with an iron will. But the Blessed hastens, on the contrary, to turn away the curses of the Omnipotent and the fury of the Most High; she adorns herself with prayers as with little stones and precious gems, clothes herself with the mantle of abstinence, and, anointed with the exotic ointments of vigils, she proceeds to loose this admirable siege, to avert the force of the hostile deity. And behold, suddenly she appeases God toward the wretched man, reconciles the wretched man to God; the unhappy one happily abjures the heresy; he prostrates himself humbly at the feet of the confessor; the prevaricator passes into affection of heart, and returns to his heart, and washes away the gravity of his crime with the tears of penance; and equally the salvation is in the virtue of Joanna, but of Joanna lamenting the sufferings of the unhappy one, but of Joanna praying, of Joanna mourning, of Joanna continually knocking at the gates of heaven.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The demon's assault against the Blessed; heavenly consolation and her virtues.
From the Carmelite Mirror.
Assailed by the demon, she is restored by a divine vision, The crafty ensnarer, taking it ill that the best prey had been snatched from him by the virgin, everywhere and in every way assumes the subtleties of his craftiness, endeavoring to bring her into the depth of despair, namely by persuading her that she had lost the kingdom of heaven, for the recovery of which she would labor in vain. But God, who does not desert the care of those who hope in Him, was pleased to rescue her from the aforesaid wiles of the crafty one; to whom on the following night He appeared, glittering with wondrous splendor, and attended by infinite bands of Angels, and began most sweetly to address her within, in the inmost places of her heart, saying: Do not shudder, daughter, at the impostures and illusions of the demons, nor ever turn aside from the way of good works begun. At the same time also rendering her secure of her increasing merits; in testimony of which He adorned her head with a precious diadem, and at once filled her heart with infinite joy.
[7] The Handmaid of Christ, touched with the zeal of building, at length cast her eye upon a certain church of St. Bernard with a little garden and a house, a little removed from the gate of St. Peter, at that time occupied by the Humiliati brothers. This therefore so pleased the sight of the Blessed that she solicitously sought it from God for the building of a monastery. And once, while she was praying, St. Bernard appeared to her, whom he consoled with a wondrous sweetness of mind, and to her consoled he soon made a promise; and this the Blessed afterward recognized fulfilled in herself, which had before been promised her through the vision: for in the year from Christ's Incarnation 1484, Innocent VIII, formerly protector of the Carmelites, holding the see of the Roman Church, the General of the Humiliati brothers passed through the city of Reggio, on his way to Rome; who, at the instance of Philip Zobolo of Reggio, Bishop of Comacchio [*], granted the aforesaid dwelling. But when that ancient enemy of the human race had beheld the continual war waged against him by the death (?) of Joanna, he was bound with such an affection of fury that he strove to have the promise made revoked, the bloody beast not ceasing to rage against the handmaid of Christ with all the powers of his malice; not ceasing visibly to spread the poison of his wickedness. For he often somewhat stirred up a certain woman, who claimed to have the same place, endeavoring to induce her to this, that for the sake of acquiring the aforesaid place she should oppose herself with the support of favors: and the wicked one made himself the more vigilant, the more he knew the peril of the possession not being acquired to be imminent for the woman.
[8] This woman therefore, by diabolical persuasion, betaking herself to the superior of St. Bernard (who a little before, with the consent of his General, had promised the place to Joanna), [obtaining the church and house from God by prayers, St. Bernard intervening, who appears to her.] exhorted him that he would deign to revoke the promise of that place, of which she knew herself to have demanded the purchase, asserting that Joanna, on account of the lack of money, a price being set, would never be satisfied, many reasons also being produced to persuade him to it. Moved by which, the superior judged that the contract should be rescinded. And so when Joanna, the faithful handmaid of Christ, suffered thence no small vexation in her mind; to whom the door of human aid seemed closed, and the hope of the whole possession shut off; nevertheless with eminent reverence and great submission of spirit she asserts that the Most High would provide the things necessary for paying the superior. But indeed Joanna, through various kinds of solicitations, not being able to obtain words of resolution, the superior, kindled with the zeal of immoderate fury, seized his journey, and began to hasten furiously with his steps to the house, to expel them. But the speech of Joanna the virgin, through the poured-out sweetness of honey, so drives away the fury of the blinded mind of the superior that he who before had been like a gnashing lion, now become a mild little lamb amid the cloisters of the nuns, amid the gentleness of the words, returned home. And after such temptations were often repeated by Joanna, the superior ceased to trouble her, plainly persuading himself that all these things came from no other than the Father of lights and the Angel of great counsel; whence afterward he peacefully entered into the possession of the place.
[9] And when the year of this world was reckoned 1485, Set over the new monastery, she is eminently devoted toward the Mother of God, she established the beginnings of the monastery under the title of the Mother of God del Popolo: in which, dwelling together with the other nuns, as it were standing in a battle-line, anointed with the oil of heavenly grace, they fought manfully against the worldly wedges of the opposing enemies, the tumultuous uproars of the foes, ever supported by the aid of the citizens and especially of Christopher Zobolo of Reggio, whose most ancient care it was, striving with eminent charity and all the zeal he could, to promote the monastery; so that in a short space of time, by the concourse of certain spiritual persons, it became renowned for religion and pious worship. Over the government of which Joanna is set, who, like a sun, shone before her daughters not moderately by the examples of good working. Besides the hard macerations of her body by fasting, she generally abounded in most copious compunctions of tears; she continually devoted at least five hours to prayers. And when she intended to receive some gift of heavenly grace, she recited fifteen thousand Ave Marias, and crowned every hundredth with the recitation of the Salve Regina. Which said, she also said seven times the Ave maris stella, and as many times the O gloriosa Domina. Which devotion she surnamed the tunic of the glorious virgin Mary.
[10] endowed with the spirit of prophecy. She was also endowed with the prophetic spirit, by which she foretold future things. For once the lady Juliana Suessi b, held by a grave infirmity, being about to visit Joanna, when she had hastened to the monastery, received through her merits her former health: and at the same time a great consolation, in that the Blessed had foretold to her that, at the beginning of the year's course, she would bear a male child. And that this was afterward fulfilled she learned in fact, which she had greatly at heart. When in the Lenten time of Holy Week she was engaged in prayer for the household affairs of her convent, and especially for the need of books, she is beheld by her daughters (to whom likewise she had enjoined that they should implore the immense clemency of God for the same) rapt in mind into an ecstasy for the space of three hours. And as the end of the aforesaid time drew near, behold, a certain Chrysanthus Susente c of Correggio by name, of holy conversation, struck by a wondrous motion of heavenly inspiration, relieved the need with munificent liberality.
[11] A prayer wont to be recited by her. The venerable Mother, praying for herself and her own, was wont frequently to say the following prayer: Hear, holy Father, omnipotent eternal God, through thy only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, hear, I beseech thee, me, thy wretched handmaid N, beseeching thy mercy, and trusting in thee. Give in my mouth a good word, and in my heart sure counsel d, strengthen my mind, that it may remain in sanctification, that the force of the ancient enemy, and the lustful contagion of the body, may excite no war in me, that no wandering of the mind may alienate my senses, no filthy speech, nor biting, nor lying: but let a holy word resound in my mouth, that thy name may be glorified, which is blessed unto the ages of ages. Be, O Lord, mindful of thy congregation, which thou didst foresee from the beginning, and close not the mouths of those who sing thee; but give a just and well-sounding speech into our mouth, that our supplications may be accepted in thy sight. Who livest and reignest, God, unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
* Otherwise, Coma clensis.
CHAPTER III.
Singular cult of the Mother of God; the frauds of the demon; sublime contemplation.
She celebrated yearly the feasts of the most glorious Mother of God Mary (of whom she was a most zealous client) with such solemnity, [She anticipates the feasts of the Mother of God with fasting, and honors them with the Angelic Salutation;] that on the vigils of the same festivals she recited the angelic salutation a thousand times: and on the day itself she performed seven of her Offices by reading; and continually, at the stroke of the Angelic Salutation, meditating upon that very mystery of the profundity, she clung somewhat to it. And she was of such great abstinence that she passed the Sabbath content with bread and water; and likewise ran through that whole space, namely from the feast of the Exaltation of the holy Cross to the day of the Lord's Resurrection, fasting without intermission, [although on certain days she was exempted, according to the mitigation of Eugene IV, the Supreme Pontiff (a).] Since therefore so great an austerity of her life, which could scarcely lie hidden, became known to her Confessor, he soon commanded her, under the rule of holy obedience, that, as the sun was sinking to its setting, on the vigil of the Annunciation of the gracious Mother of God she should recite a single Ave Maria. Most promptly obeying whom, she consented to relax the number of her wonted prayers and their rigor, but did not cease to augment her affection and fervor. For she recited that single Ave Maria with such greatness of devotion and profundity of contemplation that, kindled with the fire of divine love and irradiated with heavenly light, she was seen to be rapt into ecstasy; and, her mind wholly fixed in heaven, she thus consumed the whole night. Whence it may clearly be gathered, and piously believed, that she then ran through by meditation the deep mystery of the Lord's incarnation, as manifested on such a day to the whole human race.
[13] The enemy of human salvation, taking it ill that the Handmaid of God should be heaped with so great an abundance of heavenly charisms, [tricks of the demon follow the ecstasy; the Blessed by her prayers relieves the need of her own.] attempted with every engine he could to hinder the consolations infused from above; for a little before the mind of the handmaid of God had recollected itself within and been brought back to the use of the senses, the malignant one, about to strike terror, was seen to stand by in the appearance of a little sheep. But seeing that she was in no way troubled, suddenly, as if passing through, he escaped confounded from the eyes of the Virgin looking at him. At another time also, abstracted for eight hours from all operation of the outer senses, she was seen by her daughters: whom she consoled with kindly words, restored
to their senses, exhorting them never to intermit the wonted exercises of piety toward God, and by no means to shudder at the cunning of the demons; For, she said, we have in heaven as intercessors and advocates St. John the Baptist and St. Jerome. Of such virtue and efficacy were her prayers, that at the time of refreshment it once happened that bread was lacking. And when they were exceedingly anxious in this want, at once the Blessed Joanna, running back to the wonted armaments of prayer, and pouring forth prayers to God in silence, a very little after, behold, beyond the hope of all, bread is multiplied in the greatest abundance, which sufficed abundantly for all dwelling there. At another time three horrid voices are heard in her cell: soon the Blessed, from a great affection of heart, pronounces these secret words, full of mystery: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Be to me Christ Jesus and Savior for a protection. And to a certain one of the nuns solicitously inquiring what these clamors meant, Joanna answered that three souls, held in the prison of purgatory, had asked aid with a very importunate supplication, that they might be snatched from such great pains. Whence also she afterward commanded her that she should never presume to declare it to anyone, so long as she lived.
[14] Repeated assaults of the demon; The malignant spirit very often harassed her praying in dire ways, and once rushed monstrously upon her, wore her down with most grievous blows, and cast her from a stair half-dead, whom the nuns, who had come thither at the noise heard, found; although she by no means set forth to them the course of the misfortune she had borne. Nevertheless, to two of them journeying to Modena [*], for the sake of dwelling there and serving a monastery, it became known at that time, when they met a certain most wretched woman, miserably vexed by a demon: to whom the malignant spirit (as he is indeed most foul, shaggy, horrible) said, that these were Nuns of the monastery of Joanna of Reggio, whom a little before he had cast from a stair, after he had worn her down with blows. At another time, when she was occupied with a great variety of thoughts pressing upon her, and was turning over in her mind the paying of the purchase of the monastery, the crafty twister, who is wont to whirl all things in the chamber of the mind, and to involve the purity of the intellect in the diverse remembrance of past things, seeing her turning over in her mind the payment for the purchased monastery, undertook to tempt her again, assigning her a certain place where she could find money. Which she by no means consented to do before she had given herself to prayer: which finished, she knew it had been a diabolical device.
[15] on Christ's birthday the Blessed is refreshed by a mystical sight of Him, On the very birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, rapt into an ecstasy of mind, with the inner eyes of her soul she beheld the little child Jesus, in exactly the same manner in which He appeared born in Bethlehem, namely wrapped in swaddling clothes between the arms of the Virgin Mother, girded with bands, lying in the virginal lap; to whom the Virgin, moved by the piety of a mother, with her most pure hands, full of the Holy Spirit, ministered drops of milk from her sacred breast: then she laid Him down in the humble and hard manger upon the hay, adoring with Joseph the most chaste spouse, giving thanks to the eternal Father that He had given His heart for the reconciliation of the human race. Moreover, which is the greatest, the Blessed Joanna beheld the irrational animals, as if rational, cherishing with their breath the most tender and trembling limbs of their Creator: and the shepherds performing their proper office, glorifying together with the three Magi, who, a star as guide appearing in the regions of the East, had come to adore and to offer their precious gifts. But then Joanna, amid so many mysteries filled with a river of joy and the jubilations of the spirit, kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. And in the midst of pondering, she addressed the Little One with all reverence in these words.
[16] My Lord, brightness of eternal light, so abject, [addressing the little child. Likewise on the feast of Easter she contemplates the mystery of the Resurrection.] so poor, so patient, seeing thee for the love of me, what thanks shall I repay? What gift shall I offer for so immense a liberality? Since I myself am least in account, and am worth nothing, save in the affection of words and of heart. And therefore, because in my means the price of my redemption cannot be found, in speech I celebrate the praises of thy munificent liberality, and in my heart I have set the tabernacle of thy majesty. Affection draws me wholly, my Little One, but possession fails, and the rich thought is confounded by the poverty of my voice. Moreover, on the very day of the Lord's Resurrection, inebriated with the contemplation of so sublime a mystery and of the glorious triumph over death, she seemed to hear that Antiphon of jubilation, namely Alleluia, sung by all creatures. And suddenly, to her fervent with ineffable jubilation, our Redeemer Jesus Christ, veiled in immortality, everywhere darting the rays of His glory, gave Himself to be beheld; consoling her with words most sweet, because she had utterly condemned all the pomp of the world, fortified with the Crucified alone.
ANNOTATIONS.
* Mutina.
CHAPTER IV.
Christ appears to the Saint, foretelling the day of her death; spiritual teachings; her holy death.
When she was pressed by a most keen inconvenience of health, she beholds the divine physician of the human race standing by her, The death understood from Christ in the appearance of a certain youth, clad in white, bringing fresh roses from the heavenly garden, and other fragrant flowers, and weaving with his hands a crown, with which he adorned his most beloved spouse. Nor yet here do her desires and affections end: for the Bridegroom Jesus Christ, wishing to adorn His spouse with the nuptial chamber prepared for her in heaven, came anew to visit her, about to invite her to possess the crown of immortality, as the reward and recompense of her bodily struggle, revealing to her the day of her death, on which she was to pass to the rest of the eternal dwelling. Here it can scarcely be expressed in human eloquence with what joy, with what exultation her mind was filled, seeing the appointed end of the fixed time draw near, on which, the bonds of the body being broken, her soul would fly forth to the Bridegroom. And therefore, suffused with so great joy, she can no longer dissemble what she enjoys. She calls together her most beloved daughters, about to embrace them for the last time, wishing to set forth to them the whole course of the vision beheld by her, and of the things which had happened.
[18] Which being heard, they began to be vehemently saddened, [and] the cloister was heard to resound all around with the groaning of all the inhabitants, with the wailing of lamentations. And each of them, lifting up their voices on high, she herself discloses to her own, grieving at her departure: with due reverence and filial affection kissing the garment with which she was clothed, supplicating her with the highest prayers, demanded that, inasmuch as she should behold the need of her daughters on earth, having compassion on them continually in heaven, she would implore the divine clemency for them. Soon the blessed Joanna, the pious mother, felt herself so inwardly pricked by these things that, touched with filial love, she could no longer restrain herself from tears, longing to bear all of them up to God, to be endowed with the everlasting prize. In the month of July a, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1491, she labored under a most grievous infirmity; which, knowing it to be deadly, she asked to be fortified with the saving Sacraments of the Church; and at the same time she caused all the nuns to be called to her, striving to impress upon their minds many saving admonitions, like certain seals, with skill. And so this distinguished dispenser of admonitions began to speak in these terms:
[19] to whom she gives pious admonitions, My most beloved daughters, and more than the inmost bowels of my heart, since, our Lord Jesus Christ disposing it, I am compelled to depart from this exile and vale of tears, I judge it fitting that in this hour of the last farewell (which I have so often desired) I should bring forth to you some admonitions: I. Therefore, my dearest ones, who have of your own accord and utterly left the rights of temporal inheritance, that you might securely attain the possession of perpetual felicity, fix firmly in your minds that you are bound with all care to fulfill your duties, frequenting the Sacraments, and obeying from a humble heart. II. Cease not also to cultivate the rich crops of good works: seize at once the hoe of saving mortification, and root out from the field of your heart the venomous shoot of your own will. III. Let your tongue and lips never be idle from the divine praises; but always turn over your prayers, grinding them like aromatic spices, that in the sight of God you may not undeservedly offer an odor of sweetness. IV. Set diligently also in the presence of your sight the terrible day of death. V. Turn over, with trembling bowels, the sudden coming of the just judge, namely of the hidden inspector, standing behind our wall and looking through the window; to whom you must render a strict account of the least things; who can neither be deceived by the concealment of crimes, nor corrupted to the meriting of impunity by anyone's offering, nor terrified by the harshness of threats, nor appeased by the instance of prayers; but will render to each, according as he has done in the body, whether good or evil. And therefore, most beloved daughters, directing the solicitous eyes of mind and body upon you, I am able indeed to be consoled, but I do not obtain to be satisfied. VI. Repress the transitory seductions of the flattering world with the instance of a wondrous fervor, that you may deserve to abound in the riches of all heavenly delights. VII. Bear generously on the way the scourges of temporal tribulation, that you may perpetually possess in the fatherland the rights of the everlasting inheritance. VIII. Then you will know that the rigor of your very slight labor, gladly endured for the love of Christ, will be the enjoyment of continual joy; you will know that the various kinds of tribulations will be to you garlands of gems. IX. And the more eager any of you shall be in affliction, the more eminent she will be in reward: the more diligent in performing her duty, the more happy in receiving her prize. And if you take me for a mother, I too will take you for daughters. Meanwhile, by the steps of firm hope, I hasten to prepare for you the way to the better life.
[20] Such admonitions being made, she made a testament, a testament being made before death. in which, among other chief things, she commended one in particular, namely charity. To exercise which in common she kindled the devout minds of her daughters, and proposed it as a path to be embraced. Since the whole engine of our faith and confidence raises itself upon two bases of charity, namely of God and of neighbor, she showed them also that the foolish Virgins had been excluded from the chamber of the heavenly Bridegroom with all confusion, because they were not found to have had in their vessels the oil of charity. Then, kissing each of them with the kiss of peace, and at the same time of blessing, in the year of salvation 1491, of her age about 63, on the ninth of July she rendered up her blessed spirit to God.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER V.
Various apparitions after death; miracles; the revelation made to the Bishop of Reggio; the elevation of the incorrupt body; cult.
Frequently after death she appeared to her most beloved daughters, [Appearing to many, she exhorts them to the frequent recitation of the Angelic Salutation.] comforting them in various tribulations and pressures: and among others to Sister Hieronyma Lanzi, once her most familiar companion, and her most diligent imitator. Who, that she might more conveniently devote herself to the holy service of God, had resolved to decline all care and office of the monastery: but the Blessed Joanna commanded her to break her own will, and most promptly to fulfill the commands of her superiors in all things. A little time after, again all beautiful, serene in aspect and conspicuous with a certain solemn brightness, she appeared to the same, and the blessed Virgin called her by her proper name. At whose voice
astonished she exclaimed: O venerable Mother, I render thee what thanks I can, that thou dost deign to be present to thy daughter by thyself, and sometimes to afford consolation by thy presence. Then the blessed mother, resplendent with the rays of distinguished beauty, manifested herself to her, and at the same time incited her to recite the crown frequently, and to persuade others of it; because it is more acceptable than every holocaust, and more pleasing than every sacrifice, to the Virgin Mother of God; adding moreover that they would be heaped with the wondrous consolation of the heavenly Bridegroom, if they should daily adorn the same with a hundredfold recitation of the Ave Maria, and should persevere constant in that devotion.
[21] This Sister Hieronyma, through the aforesaid miracles of visitations and favors, felt growing in her daily the increases of a greater desire to dig up the body of the Blessed Joanna. [Her body being dug up and her arm removed, she reveals the state of two deceased persons;] And although the prudence of her spiritual father refused consent to the desire, yet by the instance of her importunity she wholly obtained her effect. For, animated by a certain instinct of inward fervor, she uncovered the sepulcher, and from the uncovered body took away the right arm, leaving the rest untouched, and carried it, like a precious gem, to her cell, showing it the reverence of worthy devotion. Again on the following night the Blessed appeared, visible to her eyes, saying: I am here, dearest daughter; what dost thou ask of me? Where does the arm lie hidden, with which I so many times impressed upon thee and the other sisters the sign of blessing? Come, said Sister Hieronyma, blessed mother, all things are open to thee. Moreover she skillfully inquired of her what the disposition was concerning her father, long since deceased, and her sister, namely whether pain constrained them, or whether any prosperity smiled upon them. By Joanna's revelation she learned that her father's soul was constrained by the pain of purgatory; for whose refreshment she ought to appease God with the sacrifice of prayer; but that her sister enjoyed perpetual prosperity in heaven together with her.
[22] [appearing again, she orders the body to be brought up from the earth: which, incorrupt, is laid away in a chest:] It happened afterward that the aforesaid Sister Hieronyma, together with another, by the command of her superiors, set out for Ferrara for the sake of asking alms of the Duchess for the need of the Convent's household. Meanwhile, in the silence of the night, when she had been received as a guest at the monastery of St. Gabriel, and, oppressed by a various entanglement of thoughts, was anxiously weighing in what manner she should address so great a Lady, again she beheld Joanna standing by her, refreshing herself with the nourishment of ineffable consolation; and saying to her that she was very welcome by her coming, that she would be heard and endowed with every favor of her petition, and would return cheerful and glad to Reggio: whither, when she had come, the Lord helping, by a prosperous journey, Joanna ordered her to bring up her body wholly from the ground. The dispatch therefore of her pious petition being happily accomplished (as had been foretold her), she returned to her fatherland: at that time in the running year 1492; and on the first of December the nuns bring up from the sepulcher the little body, incorrupt and unimpaired, just as it had been when it was first delivered to burial, exhaling on every side a most sweet odor; and they lay it away honorably in a chest.
[23] [and it is honored with innumerable prodigies: to which was added a revelation to the Bishop of Reggio,] For some time it thus remained, until the Prior of the Carmelites and the Confessor of the nuns should determine what was to be done in this event. Soon, seeing innumerable prodigies wrought daily from the body by divine power, at length with deliberate mind they go to the Bishop of Reggio, who was then Bonus a Franciscus Arlotti of Reggio, to announce to him the event of the matter. And they find him studying a certain book, whose author cited this passage of the Canticles: The time of pruning has come. But in place of "pruning" (putationis) he found written "publication" (publicationis). At which the Bishop, not a little astonished, bringing the variety of the text to the chamber of his mind, and diligently turning it over, compared it with the same passage of the Canticles, and found that it likewise agreed. While he was engaged in this ambiguity, the two aforesaid Fathers entered the cell of the Bishop, and set forth to him in order, as faithful relators, the whole event of the blessed body—namely that the more wondrous things which God had wrought through her, to the glory of His name, while she yet lived, He had also deigned to work after her death, and how the glorious body had been brought up from the earth. Wherefore they humbly begged counsel, aid, and license to publish it solemnly. Which heard, the Bishop, full of wonder, began to exclaim: Truly it is the work of God, and it was then revealed to me from heaven, when I read: The time of pruning; and continually there turned before my eyes, The time of publication; and I was compelled to read the same. Since therefore hitherto the holy little body has lain hidden, and now lies dug up, it is time, you consenting and desiring it to be done, to manifest it to the whole world under the title of a public declaration.
[24] Wherefore the Bishop, attended by some of the canons, doctors, who solemnly visits the body, and lays it away beside the altar. and various companies of the city, goes to the monastery, and, prayer being premised and diligent examination made, diligently fixed the eyes of his body and mind upon the holy body, free from corruption, and the habit with which it was covered, entire: and, full of amazement, he burst forth into these words, namely those of the queen of Sheba to Solomon: True is the report which I heard in my own land concerning thy sayings, and I did not believe those who told me; until I myself came and saw with my eyes, and proved that the half had not been told me. Afterward, a concourse being made both of the inhabitants of the city and of strangers, a solemn procession is ordered and celebrated by him: in whose presence, adorned with the pontifical infulae, he chanted the Mass in the church of the aforesaid monastery, very many tapers being kindled (as was fitting) continually before the holy body. The sacrifice of the Mass being accomplished, the holy Body was reverently taken up, and placed in a holy place, disposed for this, namely in the left horn of the altar; where entire and unimpaired it still rests, covered with a most fine veil, and this is its Epitaph.
[25] Here the glory and the greatest part of the fame of the Carmelites, Her epitaph and celebrity. the virgin Joanna lies with happy body. As her whole spirit rejoices in the heavenly court, so her gracious flesh is, with bones unconsumed. Let the whole assembly of the sisters rejoice, exulting in these things; let the house of Scopelli be glad in its own offspring. Let the people of Reggio cast voices of joy up to the stars, and keep glad festival for this divine virgin. Be good, be favorable to all, most holy virgin, and be mindful of us with thy voices before God.
And there, unheard-of throngs of peoples flowing together from every side, and piously praying, the illustrious fame of the holy body grows, and it is marked with the cult of many, and wondrous reverence is shown to it. And besides the more solemn feasts of the whole year, on which it is exhibited to be seen, it is also exhibited on the day of her own feast, which falls on the ninth of July, and is celebrated with the greatest multitude of the faithful; who greatly rejoice in her immense glory, with which she now reigns with Christ: where they hope to reign forever, supported by her patronage with God.