ON ST. PETER, CONFESSOR,
AT FOLIGNO IN UMBRIA.
IN THE YEAR 1323.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The Saint's cult, the writers of the Life, and the Acts.
Peter, Confessor, at Foligno in Umbria (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. C.
Foligno is an ancient episcopal city of Italy, now commonly called Foligno, and situated in Umbria near the roots of the Apennine mountain on the river Topino, and venerates on the 19th of July blessed Peter its citizen, who nevertheless is reported to have died on the preceding day. The chief witness of this cult is Ludovico Iacobilli of Foligno, The cult of St. Peter is proved, who in his Italian work on the Saints of his country, pages 242 and 243, proves from ancient monuments that the title of blessed or holy is rightly attributed to Peter his countryman, and cites among other things from a Brief of Pope Boniface IX, which was given on the 11th of May in the year 1391, the following words: To all truly penitent and confessed, who on the feast of St. Peter, which is celebrated on the nineteenth day of July, and for the three days following the said feast and on its Octave, shall devoutly visit the greater church of Foligno, yearly in perpetual future times, by apostolic authority, by the tenor of these presents we grant, etc. Then the same writer asserts that already from the year 1385 a chapel was erected to this St. Peter in the Cathedral church of Foligno, and that even today his vigil and feast are solemnly celebrated every year, and his relics, adorned with crystal and gold, are exposed to public veneration. Finally, in another Italian work on the Saints of Umbria, volume 2, page 48, he testifies that the garment of that Saint is honorably preserved in the monastery of Subiaco, and is thus noted in the catalogue of relics: The tunic of St. Peter Crisci of Foligno. These things seem sufficiently to prove an immemorial cult. Now a few things must be premised concerning the writers of his Acts.
[2] whose life Ferrarius reduced into a compendium. Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, from the monuments of the church of Foligno and his manuscript Life, as he himself notes, wove an accurate compendium of the Acts, which I here transcribe. Peter of Foligno, born of the family of the Crisci, when, his parents being lost, he was in the thirtieth year of his age, began to grieve for the institute of his former life. Wherefore, his family estate, which had been left to him copiously by his parents, being sold, he gave out all the price to the poor. His mercy toward the poor was so great that, when nothing else remained which he might give, he hired himself out to a certain man to serve for an agreed wage, which he distributed to the poor. Clothed in sackcloth, he was so addicted to prayers and vigils that often he abstained from food for several days and nights. On the ground in the building of St. Felician, which he served, scourging himself with whips, he lay at night; where he put to flight, by the sign of the cross, a demon who had appeared to him in a certain human and illustrious form, offering riches. Having gone to Rome for the sake of devotion, he venerated the relics of the saints with the greatest humility. The basilica of St. Mary of the Angels he very often visited. At Spoleto and Assisi falsely accused of heresy, his innocence being at once recognized, he was dismissed free by the inquisitors. When the day of his death, which he had foreknown, drew near, he asks a friend to bring light from the church: and when he found all the lamps extinguished, being again asked to go to the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary and take light thence, when he had gone, he found a lamp divinely kindled. Finally, when he had beheld a demon in a horrible form, embracing the image of the Crucified, he rendered his soul to God on the 14th of the Kalends of August in the year of salvation 1323. Whose body, several days unburied, sending forth a sweet odor, with many sick, who were healed, running to it, was laid up in the same church. Almost the same things Bzovius has in the continuation of the Annals of Baronius at the year of Christ 1323, number 20.
[3] Iacobilli in the work on the Saints of Foligno, from page 225, wrote more fully the Life of St. Peter in Italian; The most ancient writer of the Acts is John of San Gimignano the Dominican, but the same Acts already in the year 1627 Niccolò Barnabò had published at Foligno, whom Iacobilli cites in the title and margin. But, leaving aside these more recent writers, let us come to the ancient writer of the same Life, whose transcript we have mutilated at the end. He is John Gorini of San Gimignano of the Order of the Friars Preachers, as the title of our manuscript indicates, which has thus: The Legend of the life and death of the glorious confessor blessed Peter of Foligno, composed and arranged by Friar John Gorini of San Gimignano of the Order of the Friars Preachers, by the command of the reverend father in Christ and Lord, the Lord John, by the grace of God bishop of Foligno, to the praise and honor of God, and of his most holy Mother, and also to the honor and magnificence of the said confessor
the most holy Peter, and of the whole city and people of Foligno. From this title the age of the author must be drawn out, in assigning which the Dominican writers do not agree, and various ones have gravely gone astray, as Jacques Échard rightly observed in the writers of that Order most recently reviewed, volume 1, page 528. But now it must be examined whether he himself, correcting others, has here avoided every error.
[4] The praised Échard, in the place just cited, thus begins the eulogy of this author: about whose age there is dispute. Friar John of San Gimignano, so commonly called from his country, whom others name de Goro or Gorinus from his family, was by nation an Etruscan; he saw the first light at the town of San Gimignano, and gave his name to the Order of St. Dominic at Siena. Leander praises him as a preacher most celebrated in all Italy about 1314, and a most excellent sacred orator with polished and smoothed discourses. Then, after a long disputation about his writings (among which he does not recount this Legend), he opines that he died more than seventy years old in the year 1323, which is, he says, the further term of his life. But how can this year of death stand, if he composed the Life of St. Peter by the command of the reverend father in Christ and Lord, the Lord John, by the grace of God bishop of Foligno? For Ughelli, volume 1 of Italia Sacra, column 757, among the prelates of Foligno enumerates two Johns, of whom the first in the year 1364, the other his successor in the year 1384, ascended that chair. Iacobilli indeed in the Chronology of the bishops of Foligno published in Italian, page 35, names only one John, but asserts that he too was created prelate in the year 1364. It must therefore be that Échard and the other Dominican writers go astray concerning the age of this author, or that the catalogues of the bishops of Foligno err from the true chronology.
[5] The mutilated copy of the Acts, For the rest, whatever be the determinate age of this biographer, he is certainly the most ancient of those who committed to writing the deeds done by blessed Peter. Wherefore we shall subjoin to this commentary a copy of his manuscript, which we have mutilated, and in our manner divide it into fewer chapters. But the old titles of the chapters are the following: Chapter 1. How blessed Peter forsook the world and wholly devoted himself to the divine service. Chapter 2. How blessed Peter, contrite of heart, with many tears confessed all his sins. Chapter 3. How blessed Peter sold all for Christ, and gave out the price to the poor. Chapter 4. How blessed Peter sold himself, and gave the price to the poor for Christ. Chapter 5. Of the mean and despised garment in which blessed Peter went clothed. Chapter 6. Of the manner of the assiduous prayer of blessed Peter. Chapter 7. Of the wonderful penitence of blessed Peter, and the greatest maceration and affliction of his body. Chapter 8. Of the various temptations and persecutions which blessed Peter suffered from the demon. Chapter 9. How blessed Peter, examined concerning the faith by the inquisitor of heretical pravity, was found perfect. But the rest are wanting, and are said to exist at Rome in the Vallicellan library; but sought thence they could not be found, as our Papebroch noted in his manuscript itinerary index.
[6] is supplied from elsewhere. This defect therefore must be supplied by Ferrarius, who from that manuscript, entire, seems to have woven his synopsis of the Acts, which I exhibited in number 2. Giovanni Severano, who arranged in alphabetical order a book on the precious death of the just, thus narrates the death of blessed Peter, which is also lacking in our manuscript: Peter of Foligno, divinely instructed of the day of his departure, was thereupon seized with a grave languor. But giving himself more fervently to prayer, he did not cease, in his wonted manner, daily to hear Mass in the church of St. Felician, and to receive the sacraments of penance and of the Eucharist. At last, detained by a graver infirmity, in his accustomed place (namely the bell-tower of the same church), lying upon hard stones, he would not (by the example of St. Agatha) acquiesce in the counsels of those persuading that carnal medicine should be applied to his body, knowing that he would soon depart. But on the last night in which he migrated to the Lord, about Matins, knowing that the hour of his passing was at hand, he asked a certain man, dwelling there with him, to bring him light from the church: but when he reported that he had found the lamps extinguished, being again bidden to return, he found them kindled: for he had prayed the Lord with great confidence that He, who is the true light, would grant him a little light in that hour, and had said to that man to go before the image of the glorious Virgin, and to say to her that so often he himself had kindled her lamps, and set light before her, therefore let it please her to grant him a little light. The light therefore being seen, he gave thanks. He beheld and despised a demon standing by, saying with St. Martin: Why do you stand by, bloody beast? And at last having taken the image of the Crucified, and having often embraced it, he rendered his soul to God in the year of salvation 1323. Perhaps that writer had the same manuscript before his eyes: for at the end he cites it thus: Manuscript of the Vallicellan Library, from the Legend of the same published by Friar John Gorini of San Gimignano of the Order of Preachers, by the command of the bishop of Foligno. Now I think nothing remains but that we publish in print the mentioned manuscript, although truncated in its last part.
MUTILATED ACTS, BY THE AUTHOR JOHN GORINI OF SAN GIMIGNANO OF THE ORDER OF THE FRIARS PREACHERS.
From a certain manuscript, perhaps of Foligno.
Peter, Confessor, at Foligno in Umbria (S.) BHL Number: 6709
FROM A MS.
CHAPTER I.
The conversion of St. Peter, his mercy toward the poor, and contempt of himself.
There was in the parts of Umbria, of the city of Foligno, one Peter a by name, who in the time of his youth, The Saint converted to a better life, namely in the thirtieth year of his life, having a great abundance of worldly riches, being without a carnal father, and the Holy Spirit instigating, knowing that whatever glory of worldliness is nothing, and that the lovers of riches carry nothing away of their riches from this world—when he experienced this in himself, that those who wish to be rich in this world fall into very many snares of the devil, and lose heaven—resolved to forsake all vain glory and pomp of the world, and all riches and delights of the body, all which in their time he loved and followed with ardent mind, and began to think how he might wholly cleave to the divine commands and services, and be able to obey what is pleasing to God. At last the man of God, considering that such a thought as he had was from God so inspiring him, put it into effect, namely, by removing his mind from all worldly, perishable, and vain things, or honors, and likewise renouncing wholly the world itself and all its pomps, and dedicating himself for the rest wholly to the divine service. O happy Confessor, to whom there was not lacking the most perfect manner of cleaving to the Savior, which the Apostle Peter, wishing to follow Christ, held, of whom it is read that at the voice of one command he followed Christ, which this Peter too did not omit, since at the voice of one command, that is, an inspiration had from the Lord, he left all worldly things, and cleaved to the Savior Christ alone.
[2] and having confessed his sins But the gracious confessor of God, Peter, considering with careful attention that God himself does not dwell in a body subject to sins, and that all things are washed in confession, his mind being purged from worldly external things, which for the most part, and in many, are an occasion of sinning, thought to dispose and order his mind wholly, so that in it Christ himself, by a singular grace, as afterward He did, might deign and be willing to dwell. He began therefore to think with most bitter grief of his perpetrated sins, and to have the greatest contrition for his thoughts, words, and works, wrought and had by him at various times, in particular and in general, and concerning them with the greatest tears, sighs, and sobs, lamentably and humbly to ask pardon of the divine mercy, and, for the immense contrition which he had, praying and wailing before the divine clemency, he abounded in so great a plenty of tears that his eyes were as it were hollowed out into little brooks or living fountains of waters from their abundance; and not only now in this beginning, but whenever he remembered his sins, he poured forth the same already mentioned plenty of tears.
[3] with many tears, Whence too it is said of him that very often he took from the river certain very smooth stones, and steeped and washed them with his tears: which stones, thus moistened with his tears, in a certain basket, with a certain fresh c cloth b upon his head, he carried through the city, and offered before the image of the glorious Virgin to the Mother herself and to her offspring Jesus, wishing thereby to intimate that, as those smooth stones, which were heavy, were thus cleansed by the water, so also the sins which weighed down and defiled his soul were, by the power of his tears, removed or blotted out. O most holy Confessor! who art truly called Peter both in deed and in name, and art such, following Peter the Apostle in all things, of whom it is had that after the sin of denial he wept bitterly, and that whenever he remembered his sin and the sweet presence of Jesus Christ, he was wholly dissolved into tears, in so much that on account of the abundance of tears he always carried a handkerchief in his bosom, which you likewise are proved and convicted to do in all things. At last the said Confessor of God, full of tears, with the greatest and most abundant grief weeping so much that he could scarcely express his words, coming to the priest, and confessing his sins most fully, obtained indulgence and full remission of his sins from the Lord fully, and with effect merited to hear what Magdalen, full of tears, heard, namely: Your sins are forgiven you: go in peace.
[4] he distributed his goods to the poor, This Peter, I say, the confessor of God, that he might be a perfect doer of the evangelical law, and might be able to serve Christ, the author of the said evangelical law commanding and saying that: If anyone wishes to be perfect, let him sell all, and give the price to the poor, and so ought to follow Christ, the oft-mentioned Confessor, a man indeed apostolic, wishing to be evangelical, sold all the temporal goods which he had, and gave and bestowed the whole price, and whatever he had in silver or gold, to the poor for Christ. In this indeed a disciple of those Apostles, of whom it is had in the Acts of the Apostles, who sold houses and fields, and laid the price at the feet of the Apostles to be distributed to others. Plainly happy Peter, the confessor of Christ, who deservedly could say with the Apostle Peter to Christ: Behold, I have left all, and have followed you; to whom Christ does not cease to answer with effect: Receive a hundredfold, and possess eternal life.
[5] But by no means is it to be passed over in silence, but must be proclaimed with a clear voice, that
a distinction most worthy of all admiration, Peter, the confessor of God, accomplished out of love of Christ: for, all being sold and the price given out to the poor, he sold his own body, and bestowed the price on the poor of Christ. In this following the apostolic and evangelical man of God Dominic, founder and Father of the Order of Preachers, who, to relieve the misery of his neighbors, several times wished to sell himself. In this too this confessor of God Peter recompensing his Savior, that as the Savior himself for his own salvation and that of the whole human race willed to be sold, so he for the love of his Savior sold himself, so that deservedly this Peter could say to the Savior himself what the Apostle Peter is read to have said to a certain infirm man lying at the gate of the temple: Silver and gold I have not, but what I have, this I give you, namely my body. Which Peter, his body being sold, with all humility offered himself to his buyer to obey in all things, which his buyer freely permitted him to go away, enjoining him that for him he should continually pour forth prayers to God: which the said Confessor of God did not omit to do with all charity and devotion. O renowned Confessor, who to your Savior, from whom the traitor Judas unjustly took away His innocent blood by selling it, you rendered back the price of your body.
[6] This is the confessor Peter, made not a forgetful hearer of the words of the Apostle Paul, With a mean garment, but a doer of the work of him who says: Having food, and wherewith to be covered, with these let us be content; he was clothed with a most mean and most despised garment, of hempen cloth d indeed, most coarse, most rough, and most hard. The form of his garment can truly be called nothing but a certain sack, since it has neither sleeves, nor skirts e, nor collars f, nor buttons g; nor did any vanity in any way appear in that garment, but it had certain little windows, through which putting his arms and hands, thus with such a tunic, or rather, to speak more properly, with such a sack he covered his body, which had wholly expressed the love of Jesus Christ, and went about and lived with so great contempt of his own body, that he was thought by all almost a fool. In this representing in himself the white garment in which his Savior Christ Jesus caused to be clothed by Herod in the time of the passion as a sign of derision, when he sent him back to Pilate.
[7] But as a sign of his greater contempt, the said Peter went about barefoot, not with a linen shirt or any inner garment, and goes about with bare feet. but only with the already mentioned sack at all times, in winter as in summer, was clothed over his bare flesh; but on his head he carried nothing. In this not omitting to do what is read to have been done to Peter the Apostle at Antioch, when the saint, with a thin crown, as a sign of foolishness and derision, with head uncovered, was ordered to be dragged through the city. On account of such and so great contempt, therefore, this confessor Peter was thought by all to be not of sound head or sense; but deservedly, on account of the greatest glory which he attained, it can be said that he is of the number of those of whom in the book of Wisdom it is said: These are they whom we once had in derision, and for a parable of reproach. We esteemed their life madness, and their end without honor; now they are numbered among the sons of God, and their lot is among the Saints. O most holy Confessor, who, holding your body in such meanness, are rewarded with so great glory among the Saints of God!
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
His zeal for prayer, his penitence, temptations, and false accusation of heresy.
Since, the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ commanding in the Gospel of Luke, He devotes himself to prayer, and saying that one ought always to pray and not to faint, the gracious confessor of God Peter persisted in prayer day and night almost continually. But in praying the holy Confessor observed a manner very marvelous, but marked out for him, not without a singular mystery: for, setting himself to prayer, he commonly looked toward the sun, and with unbeaten eyes gazed at the sphere of the sun against the common course of man's nature: in which gazing he stood, beholding the true sun himself, Jesus Christ, with power so fixedly and immovably, looking at the wheel of the sun. Several times [he] was seen with a bright face, truly as another Moses taken up from the waters of worldly vanity, who spoke to the true sun, namely God, on the mountain face to face. To this confessor Peter too Christ showed himself in the sun, who appeared to Peter the Apostle in the transfiguration on the mountain, in his face splendid as the sun. But in such a gazing at Jesus in the sphere of the sun, the Saint was so sweetened or warmed with the love of Jesus Christ himself, that whenever such a name was named, he genuflected with the greatest devotion, and blessed such a name.
[9] Whence he persisted so long a space set toward the sun in prayer, and to the contemplation of divine things, that he genuflected a thousand times, and most devoutly praising the name of Jesus whom he saw, prayed with so great fervor also that he was wholly bathed with the greatest sweat; in this following his Christ, who, set in prayer, was filled with the greatest sweat. As often and whenever it was said to him by anyone, even a boy, that for the love of Jesus he should genuflect, Peter genuflected. Whence, as Paul the teacher of the Gentiles, after he saw Jesus in his conversion, so set Jesus himself in his heart that he thought he knew nothing but Him; so this Peter too, from the frequent vision of Jesus himself, whom he beheld in the sphere of the sun, was wholly set and established in His love. O marvelous confessor! who, by gazing at the corporeal sun in prayer, merited to see with corporeal eyes, with Stephen, the heavens opened, and the true incorporeal Sun of justice, Jesus Christ, sitting at the right hand of the Father.
[10] Since those who do the greatest penitence draw near to the heavenly kingdom, and his body the Lord saying: Do penance, and the kingdom of heaven will draw near. With wonderful and most hard penitence the confessor of God Peter afflicted his flesh, as is clear by running through his most holy life: for, wishing to subject his flesh to reason by the strictest abstinence of food and drink, he macerated himself with long and continual fasting. He fasted thus indeed at all times, and ate only once a day, and that with little food; with this often persisting continually for six continuous days without corporeal food. This Peter was one and another John the Baptist, not eating nor drinking; so little food did he take. Following the Apostle Peter, as also in other things, who, set in prison, was kept several days without food.
[11] With wonderful and most hard penitence he afflicted his body, granting to the body itself no delightful rest. he afflicts in various ways. For at night, allotted to human rest, he slept only a little, but passed those nights for the greater space of time sleepless, in that time persisting in prayers and contemplations. But in that little time in which he rested, not upon woolen cloths, or linen, or upon mattresses, or sheets a, but upon most hard stones in the bell-tower of the greater church of Foligno, namely of St. Felician b, he lay, and rising at once every night for Matins, and being mindful that Christ had been scourged at the column, he struck and scourged his body with many hard and frequent disciplines. That, as the holy Apostles, who went rejoicing from the sight of the council, when they were counted worthy to be scourged for the name of Jesus, obtained everlasting joy, so this apostolic Man in all things struck his body with scourges and disciplines, that he might in some way merit to obtain what they obtained. O plainly precious confessor! who, wishing his flesh to be wholly subject to the spirit, punished it with so great maceration, that he might always with the spirit exult with God.
[12] By the temptations of the demon, But our adversary the devil, the ancient enemy of the human race, not being able to endure the so perfect works of the said man of God, but wishing to draw him back from his purpose, assailed him with many temptations and adversities. For once the malign spirit, under the appearance of goodness, wishing to withdraw the said Peter from the love of the Creator, and to induce him to the love of a vain creature, used this most false manner. For, appearing to him under human form, he uttered [*] such words full of all guile and malice, saying namely: Peter, I marvel much, that for the things which you have done, you are called (and deservedly) a fool by all. For you have sold yourself, and so great things, and suddenly among the poor, moved by a vain love, dispersed; but if you will give assent to my admonitions, you will have much greater delights, and temporal goods, houses, coins, fields, and vineyards, and I will bestow on you so many and so great things, that if you should have fifty sons, each could live in a knightly c manner. But all these things I will give you, if you will wholly withdraw yourself from such a foolish life as you have begun to hold. For what (the enemy, full of all guile, said, creeping in) would it profit you to accomplish such and so great things despised concerning your body, clothed with so mean and despised a sack, to walk with head uncovered, arms and feet bared; follow therefore what I say, and you will also have delightful things at your wish.
[13] he strongly resists, Whence the man of God Peter, clearly knowing such seductive words to be of the enemy of the human race, fortifying himself with the sign of the cross, drove out that enemy with great confusion, saying:
Go, enemy, most full of all deception, such things which you creep in upon me, worldly or temporal goods, are not harmful to me, since I have the Lord Jesus Christ, who is to me every good, and both defends and helps me in all things. And in this the most holy Confessor followed his Savior, who, tempted by the enemy, in the third temptation drove out that enemy, saying: Go, Satan, it is written: The Lord your God you shall adore, and Him only you shall serve. The said enemy of God too, greatly envying the works of the Confessor, once took him visibly in his arms, and cast him from the bell-tower of the greater church of Foligno, of St. Felician, down to the ground; but because God himself sends his angels to his friends, to keep them in all their ways, lest perhaps they dash their foot against a stone, and God himself is with his friends in tribulations, snatching them out and glorifying them: so this his friend Peter too He kept unharmed, so that in no member of his body did he receive even the least harm from such a fall, and snatched him from all temptations always, and afterward glorified him. Whence from the effect it can be said that to this Peter was said what was said to the Apostle Peter by Christ, namely: Behold, Satan has sought you, that he may sift you like wheat by persecutions and headlong falls; but I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not. Because also very often to Rome, to visit the thresholds of the holy Apostles, and to the chapel d of the Angels, that he might merit to have the guardianship of the Angels, he went with the greatest devotion. From the demon himself he received many, and many times, assaults on the way; but he did not on this account permit himself not to continue the journey which he had begun. Plainly the holy Confessor of God so clearly always knew the wiles of the demon, that he could never receive any injury from him, but always carried off from him the greatest victory.
[14] Since over our adversary, namely the demon, the said Confessor triumphed with the greatest victory, and is falsely accused of heresy. certain sons of iniquity, members indeed of the devil, the same demon moving and instigating, moved by zeal of envy, most falsely accused before the inquisitor of heretical pravity how he erred in the faith. Blessed Peter, I say, most full of faith, hope, and charity, they accuse, being themselves without faith, hope, and all charity, and void of all good virtue, and full of all malice. But because wisdom overcomes malice, Peter himself, founded on the Rock, namely Christ, indeed the wisdom of the Father, most greatly overcame the malice of such men. But the inquisitor, because it so pertained to him by office, caused Peter, accused of heresy, but in all things Catholic and faithful, as appeared, to be cited: which Peter with all gladness appeared at Assisi before the inquisitor, ready to answer concerning that of which he was full, the Catholic faith. To which Peter the articles were proposed by the inquisitor, and the things which are of the faith, and being questioned what he thought of the Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ, it was answered by him as to all things clearly and Catholically. But the inquisitor was disposing to let him go as innocent, perceiving the accusation made against him to be most false. But the sons of the devil began to say to the inquisitor with their crafty and malicious words, that out of malice Peter had given such answers. Which the inquisitor hearing, resolved to send him to Spoleto, that he might be examined again; and if he should find him erring, to proceed against him as against a heretic e.
ANNOTATIONS.
* Perhaps, uttered.
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