Francis Solanus

ON ST. FRANCIS SOLANUS, OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR OF THE OBSERVANCE.

AT LIMA IN PERU.

IN THE YEAR 1610.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Francis Solanus, of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance, at Lima in Peru, in America (Saint).

BY G. C.

§ I. The Acts, the day of death, the wondrous condition of the corpse, and other prodigies a little after death; the honorable funeral rites and burial.

The Acts and miracles of St. Francis Solanus have been so copiously written that there scarcely remains anything for me to do, except that I should, after our manner, divide into chapters and numbers those things laboriously collected by others, and excerpt from them some things Certain things being premised concerning the writer of the Life, which are wont to furnish matter for our preliminary Commentaries. Besides others who published the deeds of the blessed Man in Italian, Spanish, and Flemish, Tiburtius Navarrus, a Minorite, and lector and preacher of the province of the Immaculate Conception in Aquitaine, committed his Life to Latin letters at Rome in the year 1671, who collected those Acts and miracles from memoirs, processes, documents, and books furnished to him by the procurator of the cause of Beatification, as he himself testifies in the little preface to the reader. And he divided this whole work into two books, of which the former contains the virtues exercised in the time of his life, the other the miracles performed after death. But those things which that writer mingled with the Life concerning the honorable funeral rites, the testimonies of sanctity, and other matters pertaining to the posthumous glory of the blessed Man, I shall insert into this Commentary in his very words and with the places cited, after I have premised a few things concerning the day of worship and of death.

[2] an intricate difficulty concerning the day of death Although this eminent Thaumaturge of the New World did not die on this day, yet today we have inserted him into our Acts, because the Seraphic Order of Minors on the 24th of July celebrates the annual memory of this holy Alumnus of theirs: for Hueber in the Franciscan Menology, at the 24th of July, after a brief eulogy of St. Francis Solanus, column 1453, thus speaks concerning this matter: On the 14th indeed he migrated from this his prison-house to the most ample palace of heaven; today, however, under a double rite his feast is celebrated in the Franciscan Order, because the concurrence of the offices of the Breviary would not admit a more convenient time for its celebration. Carolus Bartholomaeus Piazza in the Sacred Hemerology, published in Italian, relates him on the 20th of July, and says that his feast is solemnly celebrated among the Franciscans in the Aracoeli in his sumptuous chapel with a plenary indulgence. It could be doubted whether the blessed Man migrated from this life on the 14th of July, since the reverend Father Jacobus Alvarez de Paz, Provincial of our Society in Peru, who himself was present at the funeral rites of St. Francis Solanus, in a eulogy to be exhibited hereafter expressly asserts that he died on the third of the Ides of July, that is, on the thirteenth day (Antonius de Caprarola, custodian of the Roman Province, in the Italian Life, page 194, wrongly renders this text as a dodici, that is, the twelfth) of that month, and that a little after noon of the day sacred to blessed Bonaventure, the venerable body of the Servant of God, enclosed in a wooden ark, was committed to the earth. It is added that Arturus in the second edition of his Martyrology places this blessed Man on the 13th of July, and in the notes expressly affirms that he died on that day and was buried on the following.

[3] But, thou wilt say, what is to be said of the Acts, to be subjoined to this Commentary, is examined, and somehow resolved. which in chapter 14, number 168, have it that the venerable Servant of God foretold that he would die on the feast of St. Bonaventure? Then in the same chapter, toward the end, these things are read: The bell of the church also sounded the sign of the elevated Host in the solemn Mass of St. Bonaventure; and then the holy Man, intent upon the Crucifix, with his hands composed in the figure of a cross, having darted forth to God the devout little prayer "May God be glorified with the soul," expired, like one sleeping, on the 14th of July, the feast of St. Bonaventure; but in the year one thousand six hundred and ten, in the sixty-first year of his age. Long I considered whether I could by any reason reconcile such diverse assertions. I know indeed, Wadding being witness in the Annals of the Minors, at the year of Christ 1274, number 16, that the Chronicle and Breviary of the Minors and other writers consigned the death of St. Bonaventure to the 13th of July, and that his feast was celebrated on various days, as we advised in the preliminary Commentary to the Acts of that holy Doctor; but the proposed discrepancy concerning the day of death does not seem able to be composed in this manner, since the supreme Pontiff Sixtus V in the year 1587 published decretal letters, by which he commanded the feast of St. Bonaventure to be venerated on the day before the Ides of July, that is, on the 14th day of this month. And it is not to be doubted that in the space of twenty-two years which intervened between the decree of that Pontiff and the death of St. Francis Solanus, that mandate became known to the American prelates, and was everywhere observed by the Minorites. Wherefore I suspect that our reverend Father Jacobus Alvarez de Paz slipped in memory, whom Arturus in the Franciscan Martyrology incautiously followed. If anyone can loose this knot in another way, I will gladly hear his reasoning.

[4] Now the place requires that, after the day of death has been examined, we say certain things concerning the marvelous constitution of the sacred corpse after death, The author of the Life narrates how, to the corpse of St. Francis Solanus, and other prodigies and honorable funeral rites. All these things Tiburtius Navarrus, book 2, chapter 1, narrates in these words: When the soul of the man of God Francis Solanus had migrated to the glory of the immortal King, his body, which beyond its natural complexion, on account of long and difficult pilgrimages, rigid penances, and grave infirmities (while he lived), verged toward blackness and dryness, suddenly, not without the stupor of the beholders, became white, beautiful, tractable, and full. The eyes, which perpetual mortification had closed to visible things, being soon opened, glowed with a wondrous splendor. That flesh, bereaved of the spirit, emitted a sweet odor, and, which before, on account of the leanness of sickness and the rigor of the wintry season, had contracted so keen a cold that it could not be sufficiently warmed by any covering, now put on a new warmth, by which for many hours the cold hands of others grew warm by the mere contact.

[5] endowed with wondrous prerogatives, There was added another marvelous thing, that even after the seventeenth hour from his happy passage, when some had tried to cut the extreme nail of the foot and the hairs of the head, the forceps being inconsiderately brought to the flesh and skin, copious red and colored blood flowed for a long time from the slight cut on both sides; all which was ascribed by physicians and learned men to a miracle. This too is not to be kept silent, that when Joannes Mondragon, a surgeon, after the twenty-third hour, wishing to kiss the foot of the deceased, had gently grasped with his hand the calf of the leg, straightway (as if he had been alive) the leg drew itself back to him; by which motion he struck great fear and reverence into the one touching.

[6] a very great concourse of people was made, When the most excellent viceroy, the marquis de Montesclaros, heard of the death of Francis, he ordered his burial to be deferred to the following day; wishing to exhibit the offices of devotion, even to him dead, whom living he had esteemed more highly. Meanwhile the whole multitude of the people flocked to the Convent, of every sex, age, and condition, to see (as they said) the Saint: some fixed devout kisses on his feet, others cut up his habit into precious little pieces (and of these the number was so great that on the same day four tunics, successively fitted to the dead body, were cut into fragments). Others consecrated rosaries and beads by the contact of the precious corpse; and all marveled at the manifest first-fruits of future glory in that flesh. After sunset, the people withdrawing, a freer approach lay open to the Religious, who, guarding the holy deposit through the whole night, rendered to it the effusive offices of devotion.

[7] and after death, illumined by a fiery column, The same night, a fiery column from heaven resting [*] upon the Convent and the oratory of the infirmary, which, proceeding about the eleventh hour, was seen by certain devout nuns of the Poor Clares to descend upon their monastery; and which, being also twelve times reborn, so many times turned the obscure darkness of that night into the light of day, account being also had of the wintry season, was thought to presage something singular. This, and certain Religious women of the same monastery testified had appeared on three nights, namely that which was next to the death of the holy Man; that on which (as we have already related)

the body lay in the oratory, and that on which it was drawn out of the sepulcher (as will be said below).

[8] and very many Religious also came to honor it. Meanwhile there did not withdraw from the doors of the cloister the innumerable throng of the common people, which did not cease continually to transmit, through the hands of a certain Brother, beads and rosaries to be blessed by the touch of the sacred body. Two hours before dawn, the clamor of the people urging, the doors were opened, and so great a concourse of all was made that guards had to be set at the entrances, to restrain the excessive impetus of those entering. Then the Religious of all Orders, prelates and subjects, flocked together to behold and venerate him, and the poor

THE TRUE EFFIGY OF BLESSED FRANCIS SOLANUS OF THE INDIES

Here I see Francis twofold, the Parent with his offspring; the paper bears the likeness of the son, but he the likeness of the Father.

to retain the little pieces of his tunic. The very venerable community of St. Augustine, which for two years had not used the accustomed intercourse of the Franciscan family, as if invited by the angel of peace, of its own accord came to honor the sacred body. Then too was fulfilled the word lately uttered by Francis, by which he caused answer to be made to a certain Religious of the aforesaid Augustinian Order, his friend and neighbor, condoling because he could not see him in his infirmity, saying: "Let him not thence perceive trouble, since soon I shall be seen by him according to his desire, and within four days the highest peace shall be established among all."

[9] The same morning the most illustrious archbishop of the metropolis of Lima, attended by the ecclesiastical chapter, His funeral rites are honorably celebrated, and the most excellent viceroy of the Peruvian kingdom, with knights and senators and many officials, came to the oratory of the infirmary; who, admiring the beauty, sweetness, and whiteness of the sacred body, fell prostrate to the earth, and, fixing humble kisses on his feet, demonstrated how much eminent virtue prevails even among the very princes of the world. The distinguished viceroy himself, who within himself had resolved to kiss the hands, out of the greatest reverence did not presume. And, to keep with himself a perpetual memorial of so great a Man, and to have ever a present help in perils, he caused the humble cloak of the Servant of God to be given to himself as a precious relic. Afterwards both of them, the illustrious princes of the Church and of the world, putting their shoulders under the sacred burden, with the aid of the prelates of the Religious Orders, carried the bier from the oratory to the church. It is incredible how thronging the people flocked to the church: for the very guard of the viceroy (although this church, with its triple nave, was capacious of an innumerable multitude) scarcely sufficed to ward off the tumult, and to open a space for carrying the body. All strove to touch, see, and venerate the body. And so, the bier being placed in the middle chapel, the musicians of the cathedral church with many religious sweetly sang the Mass for the deceased, the most reverend father Venido, then Commissary of those provinces, soon bishop of Orense, celebrating. The sermon was preached by the reverend Father Joannes Sebastianus, Provincial of the Society of Jesus; who, being an apostolic man, and conspicuous for the innocence of his life, announced the eminent virtues of the Servant of God, his heroic deeds, frequent miracles, and precious death with a truly seraphic spirit. At length, although the devotion of all resisted, which ill bore that such a treasure should be snatched from its eyes, the body was committed to burial, and deposited in a wooden case under the high altar in the chapel destined for the burial of the Brothers.

[10] Then, book 2, chapter 3, the same writer of the Life narrates how the body of St. Francis Solanus was drawn out of the sepulcher [and afterwards the body is drawn from the tomb, that its true effigy might be painted.] to be painted from life. The body of the holy Man being buried, he says, a pious thought came upon the most excellent viceroy, namely that the world was not to be defrauded of his true image. Wherefore the same night, eight hours after the funeral, he ordered it to be drawn from the sepulcher, that his natural effigy might be painted. Then were observed the same marvels in the sacred corpse which we narrated above. The image being completed, the precious deposit was again committed to the earth. But the Religious not only of the convent, but of the whole province, being suffused this day with spiritual consolation, noted that they at the same time perceived a certain ineffable tenderness of mind, an ardent desire of profiting, and a love of heavenly things. As to what here pertains to the true effigy of the blessed Man, I have two impressions of the same image, of which one is prefixed to the Latin and Italian Life, the other to the process of canonization. But although both those exemplars are subscribed "the true effigy," yet they differ not a little from each other, as will be manifest to one comparing both. Since, however, the image prefixed to the process of canonization seems sculpted by a more skilled hand, and more probably represents the Blessed one truly, I here exhibit it, contracted from a larger form and engraved on copper. And the sculptor sufficiently happily expressed the prototype, whom I also ordered to render the subscription faithfully, although in the title some word seems to be lacking or to be understood.

read: insedit* (sat upon)

§ II. The great esteem for his sanctity, declared by men of various condition.

The common report of the sanctity of Francis Solanus How public was the report of his virtues among men of every kind, the already praised author of the Life indicates, book 2, chapter 18, where he thus speaks: The eminent virtue of the servant of God Francis Solanus, and the shining indications of his sanctity, like a good odor of ointment poured out, a celebrated esteem among all men followed: for wherever he diffused the rays of his light, and, leading a mortal life, passed the years of his religious conversation; there he made himself lovable to all, hateful to none, venerable to all. What the report of his virtue could accomplish among the Spaniards, before he crossed to the Indies, what applauses of the peoples, what honors of Friars and seculars it conciliated for him, this above all demonstrates; that, to flee the titillation of popular favor, an enemy of his humility, he went to the American hemisphere (like the setting sun) that he might lie hidden. Among the inhabitants of Tucumán, and the gentile Indians of those regions, what report, reverence, and authority he obtained, the very examples which we narrated above in the first book testify. What finally at the city of Lima availed to his commendation his apostolic virtues, miracles, prophecies, and also his preachings, the very works already described manifest. It remains therefore that the esteem which after his death, either increased or confirmed by frequent miracles, flourishes first among the nobles of the Church and of the world, among the Religious and the learned; then among cities and poles, kingdoms and nations, be declared.

[12] of the archbishops of Lima, From the princes of the Church, with whom is the knowledge of good and evil, whose authority also ought to be preferred to the rest, I shall begin. The most illustrious archbishop of the City of the Kings, or of Lima, lord Bartholomaeus Lobo Guerrero, had conceived so great a reverence toward the man of God Francis Solanus while living, and so good an opinion of his sanctity, that (as we related above) he venerated the sacred corpse of the deceased on bent knees, humbly placed his eyes and head beneath his feet, and, with the most excellent viceroy, did not blush to carry the bier on his own shoulders, though unbefitting the pontifical gravity. His successor, the most illustrious lord doctor Ferdinandus Arias de Ugarte, also showed himself singularly devoted to the Man of God, while he both honored his sacred relics; and, by the force of an Apostolic commission visiting his sepulcher, poured out copious rivers of tears, and, spiritually refreshed by the sweet odor, kneeling before him, paid the tribute of just reverence; and thereafter showed by frequent indications how much he esteemed his sanctity.

[13] The most illustrious lord and master Brother Gabriel de Zarate, and other prelates of America formerly qualifier of the holy Office, and second Provincial of the Peruvian province of St. John the Baptist of the Order of Preachers, bishop of the province of Guamanga, and also Fr. Franciscus de la Serna, formerly theological lecturer of the academy of Lima and Provincial of the Order of St. Augustine, bishop of Paraguay, soon of Popayán, extol the Man of God with great encomiums. For the former calls him the glory and honor not only of the Seraphic, but of all other Religious Orders, who by his virtues and examples illustrated the new world; and whom the divine Majesty, like a shining star, in the midst of the cloud of blindness and gentile ignorance, sent to this kingdom for the remedy of the Indians. But the latter (formerly a familiar of the Man of God, while he lived) followed him after death with a special affection, and in his deposition before the Apostolic judges affirms that he so excelled in all virtues as if he had possessed each singularly: he moreover calls him a heavenly man, an apostolic herald, an angel sent by God, and destined to these provinces for the salvation of innumerable souls. Him also in his juridical declaration the lord master Fr. Augustinus de Vega, moderator of the sacred Order of Preachers in the Peruvian province, and bishop-elect of Paraguay, having formerly used the intimacy of the holy Man, adorns with signal titles.

[14] The greatest reverence of the most excellent viceroys of the Peruvian kingdom toward the holy man Francis Solanus, before and after his death, as also the viceroys manifests of how great merit he was. The most excellent lord Ludovicus de Velasco, marquis de Salinas, president of the royal council of the Indies, and viceroy of the Peruvian kingdoms, was greatly refreshed by the devout conversation of the Servant of God; and not rarely went to him in the Convent of the Recollection of St. Mary of the Angels, humbly ministered to him at Mass, that he might at close hand participate in his spirit; in one word, he always reputed him for a holy, just, and friend of God. The most excellent lord Gaspar de Zuñiga Azebedo, count de Monterrey, when he presided over those kingdoms, always exalted the virtue of the holy father Solanus with singular words; but especially after that celebrated sermon, the worker of a marvelous conversion in the whole city, he openly said: Truly father Solanus is the instrument and organ of the Holy Spirit. The most excellent lord Joannes de Mendoza y Luna, marquis de Montesclaros, as soon as he passed from the Mexican government to the Peruvian, desired to know from face and speech father Francis Solanus, already commended to him by public report; whom afterwards he held in greater esteem, and, dead, honored with those (which we recounted above) signs of honor and reverence, and with kisses of his feet.

[15] of Peru, Finally, the most excellent viceroys of Peru, lord Ludovicus Ferdinandus de Corduba, marquis de Guadalcázar, and lord count de Chinchón, illustrated the memory of the holy Man with peculiar monuments of honor: for the former, roused by the recent odor of his good name in the city of Lima, visited his sepulcher, and affected his relics with Christian veneration: but the latter both frequently stood at his tomb, and bestowed large alms for the expenses of his canonization: and when he wished to provide for the perennial succession of his family, thinking no other means more efficacious, he offered his firstborn son, the marquis de San Martín de la Vega, a two-year-old little boy, in his first going out of the house after his birth, carried to the sepulcher of the Man of God, to his merits, and commended him to his protection. He also, lest he do anything arduous without his auspices, when each year he transmitted the royal moneys to the Spanish treasury from the port of Callao, standing by the tomb of the Man, placed the happy outcome of the voyage under his patronage.

[16] and other grave men and religious The lords master Dominicus de Almeido, dean and doctor, and Joannes de la Roca, archdeacon of the church of Lima, Apostolic delegate judges, after authentic and innumerable testimonies of the holy life and miracles of the Man of God had been juridically received, publicly affirmed that to them had happened what formerly happened to the queen of Sheba, and that the virtue of Francis Solanus was greater than his report. The most reverend and most pious father Joannes Sebastianus, twice Provincial of the province of Lima of the Society of Jesus, thus at length concludes the innumerable excellences of the Servant of God: "God granted wisdom to this holy Man for the consolation and protection of the whole Peruvian kingdom, for the edification and example of this city, and for the ornament and crown of his sacred Religious Order." Lord Franciscus de Alfaro, of the council of the Catholic majesty in the administration of the royal jurisdiction, and consultor of the holy Office, having related what he had received in the regions of Tucumán concerning the most celebrated report of the Man of God, adds that he detected all the marks of proved and public sanctity from the common and constant opinion and consent of all (none excepted); nay, that he found so great a fragrance of his virtues in the town of Estero that all grieved that he had been snatched from them, and had not died there, so that they might be enriched with the treasure of his body, and at length affirmed that they would take care that it be restored to them even at the cost of a lawsuit: since they bear to him so great a devotion and affection as the greatest and inexplicable opinion of his sanctity demands.

[17] confirmed by their testimonies, The Commissaries general of the Peruvian provinces of the Order of Minors, to whom the virtue of Francis Solanus was more proved and known, extol him with wondrous encomiums in their declarations made (an oath being premised). This one calls him a most pure virgin, an ecstatic man, and an apostolic preacher; that one an instrument of the Holy Spirit, a just man, innocent, an image of the Apostles. Another, in the six years in which he presided over him and those provinces, says that he observed in him the highest conditions of a most perfect man, and a true son of the Seraphic Patriarch; and calls him the center of the virtues, resting in a complete triumph over vices. Other Provincials also, Guardians, and conspicuous Religious call him a just man, ecstatic, apostolic, a most bright mirror of every kind of virtue, an indefatigable herald of the divine word, a faithful friend of the Lord, a most upright defender of the Catholic religion, an exemplar of penance, and a most similar image of our holy Father Francis.

[18] The devotion, affection, and reverence of all peoples, cities, and kingdoms, indelible at any time, [to which is added the public devotion of the people, which was only inhibited by the decree of Urban VIII.] besides those things which will be written below, openly demonstrate: first, that in the processes made both by ordinary and afterwards by Apostolic authority, the names of six hundred and twenty-eight witnesses are recounted; among whom are numbered viceroys, archbishops, bishops, prelates of Religious Orders, secular priests, and men conspicuous for doctrine and piety: moreover, Masses, prayers, vows, lamps, oblations, festive solemnities, which persevered to be celebrated, offered, and hung up until the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-six: but in the aforesaid year, that due obedience might be rendered to the decrees of Urban VIII of holy memory, all the monuments (which savor of worship and public veneration) were taken away: but this remained, never alterable, the internal reverence, in its own time; namely when, God inspiring, he shall be aggregated to the blessed hosts, and declared by the heaven's Key-bearer, to be manifested. But meanwhile there remain both the constant report of sanctity, and the common vows and desires of all (especially Peruvian) regions for his canonization. Thus he, at the time when the venerable Servant of God had not yet been referred to the number of the Blessed by the Apostolic See.

[19] To these eulogies the same writer subjoins the testimony of a synchronous priest of our Society in these words: Our Alvarez de Paz, synchronous with the saint A signal master of theology, eminent for piety and doctrine, Provincial in the Peruvian province of the most sacred, and never sufficiently praised, and to the Order of Minors ever benevolent Society of Jesus, the most reverend father Didacus Alvarez de Paz, among the conspicuous lucubrations of his genius, which he dedicated to the supreme Pontiff Paul V, wrote these eloquent and ingenuous words concerning the Servant of God, father Francis Solanus, tome 2, book 15, chapter 13, on poverty, on folio 1445 (in our edition the same is read tome 2, book 5, part 1, chapter 13 ^a) in the following style: "And indeed in the month of July, the first past of this year one thousand six hundred and ten, in which we write these things, there was made by the Lord in this city of Lima a certain marvelous showing of the reward of poverty. For on the third of the Ides of the same month there died in the convent of the Minors brother Francis Solanus, a sexagenarian priest, and preacher, born in the southern part of Spain, which is called Baetica, in the town of Montilla; a Man conspicuous for sanctity, and a worthy son of the Seraphic Francis. He for forty years and more professed the religious life, in which he bore himself not sluggishly, but ran the way of the spirit with wondrous velocity; he was most humble, a great despiser of himself, a mocker of honors and dignities, patient beyond measure, meek, obedient, and beyond what can be said chaste and pure. He burned with the fire of fraternal charity, and frequently visited the sick, and consoled them with the sweetest words: he was inflamed with zeal for the house of the Lord, and with desire for the salvation of souls, whose sermons, according to the wisdom of this world little composed and less eloquent, vehemently drew the hearers away from vices, and invited them to good fruit.

[20] after a brief eulogy of his virtues He loved secrecy, and to dwell with himself, unless the glory of God demanded otherwise, he preferred to all things; and there, giving himself to assiduous prayers and the contemplation of divine things, not rarely suffered ecstasies and raptures. And, accustomed to these feasts, he often passed sleepless nights on the footstool of the high altar with the Lord lying hidden in the Eucharist, and, with his hand plucking a little lyre, and with his mouth singing psalms, and with his heart tasting heavenly things, spent the night through. But since he possessed these most true riches, it was no great thing, if he was a lover of poverty, and loved all penury and indigence for Christ, to which he was so addicted that, content with the poorest habit and tunic, he scarcely endured to receive the necessaries for his weak and infirm little body; to which also, become an enemy, or (to say better) made a most faithful friend, he preferred to love it by afflicting it, and by afflicting it with vigils, fasts, and every kind of harshness, rather than to lose it by pusillanimously fostering it and softly treating it. And, to make an end, … his life was nothing else than a certain most holy and most useful action, or a most fervent prayer, most full of heavenly consolations and illuminations.

[21] he narrates how honorably his funeral rites, On the day therefore next following his falling asleep, on which the body was committed to the earth, such a meeting and concourse of men and women flocked together to celebrate his funeral rites, as I had never seen in this kingdom: all, both greater and lesser, came not invited, not called (for who would call the whole city to the funeral of a certain poor little man?), except that the report of his death had already spread abroad, and many had hastened to visit him as a Saint, and to kiss his feet. There also ran together all the Religious families, and from each of them not six or eight (as is the custom) but very many Religious, I believe by the nod of God, not only that the funeral rites might be done according to his dignity; but that by such a spectacle the hearts of many (which was done) might be kindled to the desire of a more perfect life. I too ran, when the body of this venerable Man was now being carried to the church, and while I scarcely, on account of the multitude, and a certain Friar Minor going before, and procuring me the opportunity of entering, made my way into the funeral, I confess that, moved by the novelty of the spectacle, I was astonished: for lord Joannes Mendoza Luna, a most illustrious prince, marquis de Montesclaros, and viceroy of this most ample kingdom, and lord doctor Bartholomaeus Lupus de Guerrero, archbishop of Lima, and metropolitan of this whole Peruvian kingdom, first bore the bier of the poor little man; then after them the prelates of the Religious Orders, and other men celebrated for letters and authority, to whom I (though unworthy) joined myself, and straightway there presented itself inwardly to me that saying of David: Thy friends, O God, are exceedingly honored. And again that: So shall he be honored, whomsoever the king shall wish to honor.

[22] "At length, not without a great pressure of men of both sexes, we came to the church, at which he himself was present, we set down the bier, and could behold the habitation of the pure soul covered with a sackcloth. I devoutly kissed the hands and feet of that venerable body, and found those parts not rigid, but soft and tractable; not cold, but moderately warm, so that I seemed to touch not so much a corpse, which the day before the soul had deserted, as a man resting and tranquilly sleeping. Many of us surrounded the body, not sad, but glad, not commending his soul to the Lord, of which the spirit in each one said that it had rested in the bosom of the Lord from its labors, but extolling with praises God himself, wonderful in his Saints: no foul odor, no horror of a corpse, no sign of corruption was perceived there; but a serenity of mind, a sweetness of heart, and, as it were from his society, a wondrous tranquillity. The most illustrious viceroy, when the divine offices began to be celebrated, ordered the cushion of his throne, woven of silk and gold, to be placed under the head of the deceased; and commanded the sackcloth cushion, on which the head lay, to be put in place of the golden and silken one on the throne, and so it remained the whole time of the divine offices. He judged (as I believe, and as is true) that by that sackcloth he had shown his royal power much more than by gold and silk, who, while he lay on silk, was the viceroy of a mortal prince; but while he honored the sackcloth, he appeared a most pious and most Christian prince, and a servant of Christ, and a venerator of his servants.

[23] "At length, the office, a funeral sermon delivered extempore, were celebrated. and the solemnities of the Masses being performed, we came together to bury the body; and we could scarcely carry it to the place destined for burial (which yet was near, under the steps of the high altar), the crowds impeding and pressing us, and casting us hither and thither, that they might kiss the feet of the deceased, that they might touch them with rosaries and linen cloths, and that they might cut off some little piece of his sackcloth (in which he was buried). But, aided by the viceroy's guard, we prevailed, and a little after noon of that day, sacred to blessed Bonaventure, the venerable body of the Servant of God, enclosed in a wooden ark, was committed to the earth. But the same night, by the order of the viceroy, it was dug up, that a certain diligent painter might express an effigy after his likeness, from whose mouth I received that the deceased was found like one sleeping, and as it were suffused with a sweet odor. His soul (as we piously believe) enjoys great glory with the Lord; his body is kept with honor among his own, and his good and praiseworthy memory (as we hope) voracious time shall never consume."

§ III. The public devotion of the people toward him, which is stayed by the decree of Urban VIII.

He is chosen patron Tiburtius Navarrus, book 2, chapter 19, explains how ardent was the devotion in America toward Francis Solanus, and first indeed how cities,

roused by his frequent miracles, chose him as patron. The divine Majesty, he says, exalted the merits of his servant Francis with frequent prodigies; and willed also that the report of his sanctity should take deep root in the hearts of all peoples, and, by recalling to their minds the memory of the benefits received from him, and increasing that of those to be received, he should be assumed as patron by all the peoples of the Peruvian kingdom. The city of Lima, the head and mother of those provinces, which above the rest had experienced the opportune help of the Man of God, first consecrated to him the devoted office of its clientage. For on the twenty-sixth day of June of the year 1626 was held a congregation, or chapter, of the praetors and senators of the City of the Kings, by whom the things which follow were ordained and established: namely, that the desired time was at hand for supplicating the supreme Pontiff, in the name of the senate and city, for the beatification and canonization of the apostolic, and, in their pious and common opinion, holy man, brother Francis Solanus, of the regular Observance of the Seraphic father St. Francis: since Apostolic letters had come to those parts for the complete verification of his perfect life, in which was the whole desire and expectation of the senate; that it might prosecute the diligence, so reasonably undertaken after the prodigies manifested at his happy passage.

[25] by the city of Lima, But since the things which God wrought through his Servant in life and death were innumerable, most well known to the world, patent to that kingdom, but especially to the aforesaid city; this city above others was so bound to him, on account of the long stay of many years, in which he illustrated it by preaching, doctrine, virtues, and miracles: since finally in that city his body is so solicitously kept by the Order of Minors, and so piously venerated by the faithful; therefore the senate was justly held to fulfill the desire long since conceived, and to choose the Man of God Francis as patron, and to subject itself, with the whole city peculiarly devoted to him, in imitation of many cities (which assume other patrons to themselves with no juster title, nor for a more urgent cause), an oath being made, to his clientage; that that city, in the frequent times of calamities, might be protected by his merits and tutelage: it was moreover declared that the senate ought to press with the supreme Pontiff, and Rector of the universal Church, for the canonization of its patron Solanus, and to ask the Catholic majesty (to whom, among so many treasures of that new world, none more precious than this is offered by the faithful city of Lima) to interpose its supplications; and finally that each year two hundred coins for the expenses of his canonization were to be transmitted to Rome by the senate. This their determination the most excellent viceroy, count de Chinchón, confirmed, as to the largess of the aforesaid money; but as to the solemn oath of patronage, he referred it to the resolution of the supreme Pontiff. But meanwhile the city, persevering in the love of its patron, in public and solemn feasts was wont to display his image, hung in the frontispiece of the houses on cloths precious with gold and silver interwoven, with the shield of its arms hanging beneath his feet, before the notice of the decrees of Urban VIII; in one word, persevering in the ancient esteem of his sanctity, it awaits the honor of beatification, about to pour forth the conscience impatient of its devotion.

[26] In imitation of this, the rest of the cities and towns of the Peruvian world submitted themselves to the patronage of the holy man Solanus; whose example various towns of America for the city of La Plata, head of the province and archbishopric of Charcas, in the congregation of its senate, held on the 25th of February of the year 1631, constituted the Servant of God its patron, and for the expenses of his canonization assigned for some years one hundred coins, with the consent of the governor. The city of Cartagena with the same solemnity in the year 1631, on the 11th of October, chose him for its Protector. The city of Santiago, head of the kingdom of Chile, and of the bishopric, in the solemn assembly of judges and magistrates on the 26th of August of the year 1633, the consultation of many theologians and jurists being premised, ascribed the same Servant of God to itself as protector and patron, and celebrated the festivity of his election for many days with public joys and dances, festive fires, and music, comedies, bullfights, wrestlings, and also the sound of drums and bells; especially at the instance and urging of the governor himself, lord Franciscus Lasso de la Vega, who, when in the battles entered against the Indians he had felt the opportune help of Francis Solanus, invoked, and had won victories, he aiding, was borne with a peculiar devotion toward him.

[27] Finally the episcopal city of Cusco in the year 1632, imitated. the city of Havana; the town of Salinas, head of the bishopric of Santa Cruz, on the 20th of September of the year 1631; the towns of San Felipe de Oruro, of Valverde, of Ica, of Oropesa in the Valley of Cochabamba, of Castrovirreina in the year 1631; the rich and imperial town of Potosí, on the 23rd of March of the year 1632; the towns of Carrión, of Velasco, and of Amedo in the year 1632; the Leonine city of Guánuco in the year 1634, and many other provinces, cities, and towns, with like rite and similar apparatus, chose the Servant of God Francis as patron.

[28] In the very sea of Southern America also, the Man of God Solanus is recognized as patron and singular protector, The royal fleet, from the following occasion. For when, about the end of the month of May in the year 1631, the fleet, laden with the royal treasure, had set sail from the port of Callao to the kingdom of Tierra Firme and Panama, about to proceed, having for some days experienced a harmful calm, remained immovable; then lord Bernardinus Hurtado de Mendoza, general prefect, asked brother Ildephonsus Queto, a Recollect of the Order of Minors (who was carrying to Rome the informations made by the Apostolic commissaries concerning the life and miracles of the Servant of God Francis), to unfold the entire image of the same holy Man: which, when it was extended and placed in the midst, and honored by all, straightway arose a propitious wind, filling the sails, and happily driving the stern. But some of those present testify that they observed that the face of the image, which represents him lean and penitent, at that time appeared full and beautiful, and as if it emitted the wind from its mouth. Some days having thence elapsed, the wind failed; but by the exposition of the same image, it again blew opportunely: but on a dark night, about thirty leagues from Panama, the flagship, or (as it is commonly called) the Admiral's ship, struck upon unknown shoals, and perished; the same peril was imminent for the captain's ship; but the image of the holy Man, manifested a third time, freed it from the present danger, and obtained that all who were carried in the wrecked ship should be received into it.

[29] having experienced the help of the Blessed one, Yet not yet was there an end of the benefits: for the wind so adverse began to drive this ship also that it was dragged into a syrtis in its way, and to be dashed against the same shoals with a straight impetus; had not the effigy of the Servant of God, now expanded a fourth time, drawn forth prosperous blasts of the winds from the divine treasures, by which the ship, laden with more than a thousand travelers, came to the port of Panama with a happy landing. And, finally, to the extracting from the lost ship of the silver masses and engines of war, and to the investigating of other chests of moneys, the efficacious intercession of Francis Solanus, invoked, gave an easy outcome. For so many graces therefore, the general prefect lord Bernardinus, with the consent of all the captains and officials, named the blessed father Solanus as patron of the royal fleets sailing the Southern sea; and for the confirmation of such an election, directed a special supplication to the Catholic majesty. But the travelers, to fulfill the vow which they had vowed in the peril, celebrated a solemn festivity in the Convent of the Friars Minor: and what within the church was done by Mass, preaching, the manifestation of the most august Sacrament, and the most adorned exposition of the image of the Servant of God, they imitated outside with joyful fires, processions, discharged cannons, and other signs of exultation. So great was the devotion of the people of Panama that for a whole month a great concourse of the sick impeded the doors of the church from being closed; of whom some afterwards published the health received from the Man of God.

[30] confers itself, with the city of Panama, into his clientage. But Panama itself, head of the kingdom of Tierra Firme, and episcopal see, chose the venerable Servant of God Francis Solanus, in a celebrated assembly of the senate and magistrates on the 4th of July 1631, as patron to be preferred to all others, assigned a copious alms for the expenses of his canonization, and wrote an urgent letter for his promulgation to the supreme Pastor of the Catholic flock, the Roman Pontiff, as also very many other cities of the Peruvian world, humbly and solicitously asking the same; in which it sets forth the celebrated testimony of the virtues and miracles of the Servant of God, the already narrated protection of the royal fleet, and the decree and vow of the conferred patronage.

[31] As long as the informations deduced above were being made by the ordinaries of the places, Public veneration is exhibited to him, and while, by the force of the Apostolic letters, a special inquisition was being formed by the commissaries; meanwhile the devotion of the people of Lima, roused by the frequent miracles of the Servant of God, exhibited celebrated honors to his relics. For besides lamps, vows, images, Masses, and other indications of this kind of Christian piety offered at his sepulcher, his sacred body also (which after six months in the tomb was found to keep that wondrous odor contracted with death) after some years at length was translated and elevated into a cedar ark, preciously furnished, by father Joannes Moreno Verdugo, Commissary general of the Order of Minors in the Peruvian provinces, wishing to satisfy the private affection, the common desire of all, and piety, many religious being present.

[32] Moreover lady Mencia de Silva y Corduba, and a magnificent chapel is built; widow of lord Georgius Manrique de Lara, knight of the Order of St. James, not ungrateful for the benefits conferred upon her by the Man of God (while he lived), caused to be built in the church of the convent of St. Francis a magnificent chapel, roofed with embossed work, and gilded, curiously painted on the walls, and affectionately destined it to the venerable Servant of God. But the principal panel of this consists of three niches, in the middle of which (until the Apostolic See shall decree him the honor of beatification) is placed meanwhile the image of St. Bonaventure, and beneath it is seen a rich case, wrought with wondrous artifice, fitted for storing the body of Francis Solanus.

[33] Since therefore the informations made by the commissaries by Apostolic authority had been transmitted to Rome, but by the decree of Urban VIII that worship is impeded. before all prosecution of the cause, by the new decrees of Urban VIII of happy memory, as soon as they came to the notice of the Peruvians, exact obedience was rendered: for in the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-six the body of the venerable man of God Francis was carried from the tomb of the church, in which it was venerated by the public veneration of the people, into the chapel of the infirmary of the convent of St. Francis, and, without any elevation, buried in the level ground. The lamps also, images, vows, hung-up gifts, and finally all the indications of worship, according to the tenor of the aforesaid decrees, were removed, and are reserved in a secret place up to now. I doubt not that after the solemn beatification of the venerable Man these votive offerings and other signs of worship will

not only be restored to their former splendor, but even vehemently increased.

§ IV. The informations concerning his sanctity made by the ordinaries, and the cause of beatification and canonization agitated at Rome.

The already often mentioned writer of the Acts, book 2, chapter 9, relates The informations concerning his sanctity and miracles made how, a little after the death of the venerable Francis Solanus, inquiry began to be made juridically concerning his virtues and miracles, that the cause of beatification might be instituted in the Roman curia. Thus therefore he writes in the place just cited: In the year 1610 and the following years 1611 and 1612, at the instance of the procurators, both of the City of the Kings and of the province of Lima of the Regular Observance, informations were made in the Peruvian kingdom by the archbishop of Lima and his suffragans concerning the sanctity of life, virtues, and miracles of the servant of God Francis Solanus; in which the depositions of three hundred and four witnesses were received, whose authority is so much the greater because among them are very many conspicuous for ecclesiastical and secular dignities, and many alumni of religious Orders, excellent in offices, piety, and doctrine, who all with one mouth proclaim Francis Solanus holy and marvelous.

[35] are transmitted to Rome, The processes made by the archbishop of Lima being carried to the City, and humbly presented to the congregation of the sacred Rites by the most reverend father Benignus of Genoa, Minister General of the whole Order of Minors, and there maturely examined; the same sacred congregation judged that from the proofs contained in the said processes the general inquisition required by the sacred canons had been fully satisfied; and therefore that it was possible, if it should seem good to the most holy Father and Lord (then Urban VIII), to proceed to a special inquisition by new proofs. To which decree the aforesaid supreme Pontiff Urban assenting, by a commission signed with his own hand, remitted this cause to the said congregation of the sacred Rites.

[36] and the Apostolic remissory letters are received at Lima with great applause, In execution of this rescript, the same sacred congregation, benignly receiving the articles exhibited by the procurator of the cause concerning the life, virtues, and miracles of the Servant of God, granted remissory and compulsory letters on the first day of February of the year 1625 for the city and diocese of Lima, directed to its archbishop, and two other persons first in the order of the same metropolitan church; or to any others constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, to be chosen by the archbishop himself, and, as it should seem good to him, even to be subrogated in place of those chosen: with the clause that all, or at least two of them jointly, should proceed to the execution of the letters; the faculty also being given not only of inquiring in the aforesaid city and diocese of Lima, but even outside it in other dioceses obedient to the Roman Church. But meanwhile, and before the reception of the letters of the sacred congregation, the most illustrious lord Gondisalvus de Campo, archbishop of Lima, having died, their execution devolved upon the dean and archdeacon of the same church. Wherefore the aforesaid lords dean and archdeacon, being required by Father Joannes Moreno Verdugo, Commissary general of the Peruvian provinces of the Order of Minors, in the name of this Religious Order, concerning the acceptance and execution of the Apostolic letters, answered that they would admit them; and, in sign of obedience and reverence, having kissed them and placed them upon their own heads, determined to receive them in the manner now to be related. Here is fully described with how great applause and apparatus these Roman letters were published to the people of Lima. We omit here that solemnity and ceremonies, as pertaining little to our matter.

[37] Afterwards the author of the Life, book 2, chapter 19, narrates how, after obedience rendered to the decrees of Urban VIII, and after an interval of many years of which we treated above, number 33, in his very words, the cause of beatification began again to be urged with new fervor: These things therefore being premised, he says, the cause of beatification and canonization is straightway resumed; there being therefore subrogated in place of the Apostolic Nuncio by the sacred congregation of Rites the bishop of Tymnos, suffragan of the archbishop of Toledo in the town of Madrid, to inform concerning the non-worship and obedience to the decrees of Urban VIII, by virtue of the aforesaid commission, and the prorogation of the same for a year granted to him by the sacred congregation on the 22nd of November, and approved by the supreme Pontiff Alexander VII on the 24th of the same month in the year 1664, made diligent informations, from which the truth of the aforesaid non-worship and obedience to the decrees is manifestly proved.

[38] When these had been carried to Rome, at the constant instance and procurement of Brother Joannes de S. Didaco Villalon, the cause of beatification is thus urged at Rome, professed lay brother of the province of Andalusia, and procurator of the same cause in the Roman curia; the aforesaid congregation of sacred Rites, the sentence of the bishop of Tymnos being proposed and maturely discussed, judged that the sufficient fulfillment of the decrees of Urban VIII was established, and that it was possible to proceed to further matters, as is more fully contained in the decree issued on the 26th of June 1666. But afterwards, on the 27th of August 1667, the most holy lord Pope Clement IX, at the humble prayers of the aforesaid Fr. Joannes de S. Didaco Villalon, procurator, benignly granted that it might be proposed and discussed in the ordinary congregation whether the validity of the processes made by Apostolic authority concerning the life, sanctity, virtues, and miracles of the servant of God Francis Solanus was established. In execution of this grace, the matter being proposed in the congregation of sacred Rites, on the 10th of December 1667, it was declared that the validity of the said processes was established and that it was possible to progress to further matters, and this decree was approved by the same supreme Pontiff on the 16th of January 1668.

[39] At length, in the year 1675, after the accustomed instances and formulas, Pope Clement X, for the perpetual memory of the matter, issued the following decree of beatification: so that Clement X issued a Brief, As the heavenly Emperor, and our Master Christ Jesus, who sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high, gives the crown of perennial glory in heaven to his champions who have excellently discharged their warfare upon earth, who, endued with virtue from on high, and mortifying by the spirit the deeds of the flesh, not only offered their will, crucified with all its concupiscences, to God in a holocaust for an odor of sweetness, but also merited to report luminous victories over impiety, and to lead the nations, which had not known God, to the acknowledgment of the truth and the way of salvation; so we too, who bear his stead, though unworthy, in this earthly station, cleaving to the footsteps of our Master, as far as our weakness allows, study to promote their worship and veneration on earth, as we know in the Lord to be expedient for the glory of the divine majesty, for the protection of his Church, for the edification of the faithful, and for the salvation of souls.

[40] Since therefore, the processes made by the license of the Apostolic See being maturely and diligently discussed and weighed by the congregation of our venerable Brothers, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church set over the sacred Rites, by which the venerable Francis Solanus concerning the sanctity of life, and the virtues, both theological and moral, in the heroic degree, in which the servant of God Francis Solanus, professor of the Order of Friars Minor of St. Francis called of the Observance, was manifoldly asserted to have shone, and also the miracles which by his intercession, and to manifest his sanctity to the world, were asserted to have been performed by God, the same congregation constituted before us, the suffrages of the consultors also being heard, unanimously judged that it was possible, whensoever it should seem good to us, safely to proceed to the solemn canonization of the same Servant of God, but meanwhile that it should be granted that in the whole world he be called Blessed; hence it is that we, benignly inclined to the pious and earnest supplications of our most dear son in Christ Charles, Catholic king of the Spains, and of our most dear daughter in Christ Maria Anna, Catholic queen dowager of the same Spains, his mother, and also of the whole aforesaid Order, humbly presented to us upon this matter, by the counsel and unanimous assent of the aforesaid Cardinals, by Apostolic authority by the tenor of these presents grant that the said servant of God Francis Solanus henceforth be called by the name of Blessed, and that his body and relics be exposed to the veneration of the faithful (not however to be carried about in processions); that his images also be adorned with rays or splendors, and that concerning him each year, on the first day not impeded after the day of his happy death, an Office be recited, and a Mass celebrated, of a confessor not a pontiff, according to the Rubrics of the Breviary and the Roman Missal.

[41] solemnly ascribes to the catalogue of the Blessed. Further, we grant that the recitation of the Office and celebration of the Mass of this kind be made only in the places below-written, namely, in the town of Montilla, in which the said Servant of God was born, in the city of Lima, whence he flew to heaven, and where his venerable body rests, and in the province of Tucumán, into which he happily carried the new seeds of the Catholic faith, by all the faithful of Christ of both sexes, both secular and regular, who are bound to the canonical Hours, and also in the whole aforesaid Order, both of Friars and of nuns, and, as far as pertains to Masses, also by priests flocking to the churches of the same Order. Moreover, only in the first year from the date of these letters, and, as regards the Indies, from the day on which the same letters shall arrive there, beginning in the churches of the town, city, and province, and Order aforesaid respectively, the solemnities of the beatification of the same Servant of God, with Office and Mass under a greater double rite, on the day respectively appointed by the ordinaries, and to be promulgated within six months, after however the same solemnities shall have been celebrated in the basilica of the Prince of the Apostles at Rome, for which matter we assign the 30th of June next coming, we in like manner give power to celebrate. Notwithstanding the Apostolic constitutions and ordinances, and the decrees issued concerning non-worship, and all other things to the contrary whatsoever. But we will that to the transumpts or copies, even printed, of the same present letters, subscribed by the hand of the secretary of the aforesaid congregation of Cardinals, and fortified with the seal of the prefect of the same congregation, the very same faith be given by all and everywhere, both in judgment and outside it, as would be given to these presents themselves, if they were exhibited or shown. Given at Rome at St. Mary Major under the ring of the Fisherman; on the 25th of January 1675, in the fifth year of our pontificate.

[42] Then in the year 1688 license was granted to proceed to the process of canonization in these words: Afterwards the cause of canonization was instituted. The sacred congregation of Rites, a supplicatory libel presented to our most holy Lord by Father Fr. Franciscus Rossellon, postulator of the cause of the aforesaid Blessed Francis Solanus, being remitted to it, at the report of the most eminent and most reverend lord Cardinal Chigi, Ponent, judged that it could be dispensed and granted that in the ordinary congregation of the sacred Rites, with the intervention of the consultors, the doubt might be proposed and discussed concerning the miracles which supervened after his beatification, in the case, and to the effect, of which the matter is treated, all decrees and other things to the contrary notwithstanding, if it should seem good to our most holy Lord. On this 24th of January 1688. And a report of the aforesaid being made to the most holy one, his Holiness benignly assented on the 27th of January 1688. Afterwards this process was instituted, which we have printed at Rome in the year 1692. In it twenty-four miracles are briefly related, and seven others are proposed for examination, concerning which

there it was fully disputed. We shall excerpt from the aforesaid process those miracles which occurred after the title of Blessed was granted by the Apostolic See, and afterwards subjoin them to the more ancient benefits.

§ V. The canonization at length obtained at Rome.

The postulators of the canonization, on account of the slow progress of the business, such as is wont to be in laborious and mature disquisitions of this kind, After the long perseverance of the postulators did not despond in mind, but repeatedly resumed the cause, as is sufficiently plain from the following decree, which sounds thus: Long ago, namely on the 12th of April 1712, before Clement XI of holy memory, was held a general congregation of the Sacred Rites, in which, the Cardinal Bichi of illustrious memory then being Ponent or reporter, the Lima cause of the canonization of blessed Francis Solanus of the Order of Minors of St. Francis of the Observance was proposed upon the doubt: Whether the relevance of those things which supervened after the veneration granted to the same Blessed one was established; and, some miracles performed by God, as was asserted, by the intercession of the same Blessed one, being discussed, no resolution then came forth.

[44] But thereupon, the same supreme Pontiff being snatched from the living, the sacred congregation of Rites issued a decree the postulators of the aforesaid cause not until the year 1723 presented a supplicatory libel to Innocent XIII of holy memory, by which they obtained a new examination of the miracles on the 10th of September of the same year. The cause therefore being proposed by the most reverend lord Cardinal Scotti, in place of the most reverend lord Cardinal Fabroni being absent, in the general congregation of the Sacred Rites before our most holy Lord Benedict XIII on the 9th of July of the present year, again upon the same doubt and the same miracles subjected to a new examination, his Holiness, the suffrages of the lord consultors and the most reverend lord Cardinals being heard, judged fit to defer the resolution to that day, that first, according to custom, he might implore the help of heavenly light both by his own and by others' prayers. These things therefore being abundantly fulfilled, on the below-written day, sacred to the Seraphic Doctor of the church, St. Bonaventure, of the Order of Minors, and on which the same blessed Francis Solanus flew to the heavens, he approved the three following miracles in the third class, namely: The first, of the sudden healing of Joanna de Blancas from a cancerous tumor; the second, of the instantaneous liberation of the city of Montilla from plague; and the third, of the instantaneous healing of Francisca Victoria from plague and a malignant fever. And moreover he decreed that, the approbation of these miracles standing, it was possible safely to proceed to the solemn canonization of blessed Francis Solanus, to be made whensoever; and so etc. On this 14th day of the month of July 1726.

C. Card. de Marinis, prefect.

In place of the ✠ Seal.

N. M. Tedeschi, Archbishop of Apamea, Secretary of the Congregation of Sacred Rites.

[45] [and finally the Pontiff a constitution concerning the canonization, that the glory of God in his Saints may be manifested.] At length, while we were preparing these things for the press, there opportunely came forth the constitution of the most holy father in Christ and our lord Benedict XIII, supreme Pontiff, concerning blessed Francis Solanus of the Order of Friars Minor, who are called of the regular Observance, ascribed by the same to the canon of the holy Confessors, on the 27th of December of the year 1726. After this title follows the very constitution of the Pontiff, which was most kindly communicated to me by the reverend Minorite Fathers, and is of the following tenor: Benedict, bishop, servant of the servants of God, for the perpetual memory of the matter. To the manifesting on earth of the glory of the faithful servants of God, whence divine worship may be greatly increased, and the growing-cold hearts of men may be inflamed and raised to the works of true piety by their illustrious examples, we intend with willing and vigilant mind; since we are commanded to praise Christ the Lord in his Saints. Hence, having found the blessed servant of God Francis Solanus, of the Order of Friars Minor, who are called of the regular Observance, illustrious for the excellence of Christian virtues and the number of his miracles, we thought that we should bring a great protection to the peoples entrusted to our solicitude, if we should, by a solemn ceremony of the Holy Roman Church, on this day, sacred to God in honor of the blessed John, Apostle and Evangelist, ascribe him to the canon of the holy Confessors not pontiffs.

II.

[46] At Montilla, a town of Baetica in Spain, [The birth of blessed Francis Solanus, his pious education, and his religious institution of life.] under the church of Cordova, which many Martyrs of Christ ennobled, Francis Solanus, about to be a martyr in will, beheld the vital light on the 6th of the Ides of March in the year of restored salvation 1549, born of freeborn and pious parents, who took care that their son be solicitously taught the fear of God and the virtues worthy of a Christian man, with which he himself, kindled in mind, was as a youth enrolled into the sacred family of the Friars Minor, who are called of the regular Observance. In it he shone with wondrous and many proofs of a more severe discipline and of Christian humility, day and night intent upon the exercises of divine piety and assiduous penance, imitating also those blessed fathers, Benedict and Francis, who cast themselves naked among the sharpest thorns, that they might tame all the force of the senses. These and other illustrious gifts of mind repeatedly coming forth from his admirable tenor of life, he himself, by his sacred sermons, which a most ardent charity and the other eminent virtues shining in him adorned, gaining souls, everywhere attained the eulogy of a Saint, especially where, licking the little body of a sick boy, wholly covered with ulcers, the linen cloths being removed, he restored it to health.

III.

[47] But, a cruel plague raging in Baetica in Spain, the Servant of God laid open his greatest charity to those wasting with the pestilential disease, His piety toward those wasting with the pestilential disease. where, about to bring help in so great a calamity to those destitute of human and spiritual solace, he gave the greatest exertion to caring for the souls and bodies of the perishing, terrified by no dread of death; nay, even himself infected with the mortal contagion, and restored safe by the hand of God, he went on to exercise himself more eagerly in his former ministry up to the end of the deadly disease.

IV.

[48] The report of the sanctity of Solanus spreading through the mouths of all, the most modest Man, who sought the glory of God, His great modesty and charity toward the salvation of his neighbors. not his own, thought to withdraw himself secretly from it. Wherefore, most desirous of undergoing martyrdom for Christ, he most humbly begged this grace to be given him by his superiors, that he might cross over to Africa to preach the word of God. Yet, by no means made master of his wish, he at last obtained this, that he should sail with other heralds of the word of God to imbue the most remote Indians with the evangelical doctrine. The Man of God, preferring the salvation of souls to many and those most grave perils of sea and land, not without a prodigy landed with his companions at the vineyard prepared for him by the Lord, to be laboriously cultivated, and, that he might keep for the highest Shepherd the wandering sheep snatched from the jaws of the wolf, spared no discomforts and vigils. Reckoning others' troubles his own, and glowing with the love of God and of his neighbor, the tongue of the nations being divinely received, holding most sweet discourses, by the grace of God he brought this to pass, that the barbarians, laying aside their fierceness, of their own accord and vying ran to Solanus to be instructed; whence it came about that he regenerated an innumerable multitude of them by the sacred font, held in such esteem by all that he easily obtained from them what otherwise the fear and rigor of punishments could not extort. How much his presence and the force of his pious discourse could avail among the Indians, then most of all appeared, when many thousands of infidels, about now to bring a bloody slaughter upon the Christians, holily occupied, according to custom, on Thursday in the Lord's Supper in recalling the mysteries of the Lord's passion, he himself disarmed by the word of God, and, having addressed the barbarous men of a diverse and to him unknown tongue in one idiom, not only persuaded peace, but converted above nine thousand to the faith of Christ. The report of Francis being spread abroad, repeatedly increased by wondrous deeds, he, fleeing to hiding-places, tried to decline it, and, obeying only the command of his superiors, discharged the offices imposed upon him, until, sent to Lima, the chief city of the American world, having exhorted the minds of the inhabitants to penance, another Jonah, he threatens the last destruction unless they act. And without delay, he led all to do serious penance for their crimes.

[49] Meanwhile, worn out with the greatest labors for amplifying the glory of God, [Blessed Francis Solanus died piously, is illustrious for miracles, and is ascribed to the Blessed.] recognizing that the day of his supreme calling was imminent for him, he wished to be fortified with the most holy Sacraments of the Church, and on the day before the Ides of July in the year of Christ the Lord 1610, sacred to God in honor of the blessed Doctor of the church Bonaventure, to whose patronage he had once addicted himself, with his hands composed in the figure of a cross, reciting pious little prayers, and ever fixed in the Lord, expired in the cloister of the Most Holy Name of Jesus at Lima. The soul of Francis being received into heaven, his sacred remains, before somewhat black, soon appeared beautiful and white, and suffused with a sweet odor, the peoples flocking from all sides to venerate them, and striving to procure for themselves the little pieces of his garments to be kept as sacred relics. The virtues and miracles of Solanus being afterwards spread everywhere by the praise of all, and proved before this holy Apostolic See, our predecessor of pious memory Pope Clement X, on the ninth of the Kalends of February, in the year of salvation 1675, ascribed Francis Solanus to the Blessed by the rite of the Holy Roman Church.

VI.

[50] But afterwards, by our venerable brothers, He is enumerated among the Saints by a solemn rite. the Cardinals of the holy Roman Church, new miracles performed since the time of his beatification being equally discussed in our presence, and in three consistories and a plenary assembly of the same venerable brothers, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and also of the patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops present with us at Rome, being duly weighed, by the unanimous sentence of the same, received before us by the notaries of the Apostolic See, and the prayers of the kings and princes of the Christians, and of the whole Order of Friars Minor for the referring of blessed Francis Solanus into the canon of the holy Confessors not pontiffs, being earnestly presented to us, after a solemn day for perfecting so great a matter had been appointed, and the help of almighty God had been most fervently implored through prayers, fasts, and alms, at length, all things which from the constitutions of our predecessors the Roman Pontiffs, and the discipline of the Holy Roman Church, were to be done, being performed with all religion, on this day, sacred to God in honor of the blessed John, Apostle and Evangelist, together with the same venerable brothers, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops, and with a frequency of both clergy and people, we came together supplicating God in the most sacred basilica of the Prince of the Apostles, where, once, again, and a third time, for the referring of the man of God Francis Solanus into the canon of the holy Confessors, through our venerable brother Laurentius, Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum of the Holy Roman Church, called Corsini, the prayers being repeated, after the sacred orations had been chanted, and the grace of the Holy Spirit most humbly invoked, to the honor of the holy and undivided Trinity, the exaltation of the Catholic faith, and the increase of the Christian name, by the authority of almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own, by the counsel and unanimous consent of the same our venerable brothers, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops, present with us in the plenary assembly of the Vatican basilica, we have defined blessed Francis Solanus the Spaniard, of the Order of Friars Minor, who are called of the regular Observance, of whose sanctity, sincerity of faith, and excellence of other virtues and miracles it was and is fully established, together with the blessed men, likewise confessors not pontiffs, Peregrinus Latiosus of Forlì, of the Order of Friars Servants of the blessed Virgin Mary, and John of the Cross, of the Order of Friars

Discalced of the blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, to be a Saint, and have decreed and defined him to be ascribed to the canon of the holy Confessors not pontiffs, as by the tenor of these presents we decree, define, and ascribe, and have commanded and command the same to be honored by all the faithful of Christ as truly a Saint, ordaining that by the universal Church, in his honor, sacred edifices and altars, in which the unbloody Sacrifice be offered to God, may be built, and that each year on the day before the Ides of July, on which day he flew to the heavenly homeland, his solemn birthday, as of a holy Confessor not a pontiff, may be celebrated.

VII.

[51] Moreover, by the same authority, to all the faithful of Christ truly penitent and confessed, who on the same solemn birthday, in memory of blessed Francis Solanus, shall each year come to venerate his sacred remains, a year and a quarantine; but to those who, in the octave of the same feast, forty days of the enjoined, or in any way owed penances, we have mercifully relaxed and do relax in the Lord.

VIII.

[52] Lastly, thanks being given to God, that he had willed to illustrate his Church with this signal and new luminary, The Mass celebrated by the Pontiff in his honor. a solemn oration being sung in honor of the holy ones Francis Solanus, Peregrinus Latiosus, and John of the Cross, at the high altar above the confession of the Prince of the Apostles, we celebrated the sacrosanct sacrifice of the Mass with the commemoration of the same Confessor and the rest, and to all the faithful of Christ then present we granted a plenary indulgence of all sins.

IX.

[53] It is fitting therefore that, for so peculiar and great a benefit granted to us, we all bless and glorify God the Father, God is to be glorified on account of blessed Francis Solanus. and the author of all good things, to whom is honor and glory forever, begging of him with assiduous prayers that, through the intercession of his chosen one Francis Solanus, turning away his indignation from our sins, he may show us the face of his mercy, and send the fear of himself upon the nations which have not known him, that at length they may know that there is no other God but our God.

[54] But since it would be difficult for our present letters to be brought to the several places where there might be need, Let faith be given to these letters everywhere. we will that to their copies, even printed, subscribed by the hand of a public notary, and fortified with the seal of some person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, the same faith be given everywhere as would be applied to these presents themselves, if they were exhibited or shown.

XI.

[55] Let it therefore be lawful for no man at all to infringe this page of our definition, decree, ascription, Let no one dare to infringe them. relation, mandate, statute, relaxation, and will, or with rash daring to contravene it. But if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God, and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome at St. Peter's in the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand seven hundred and twenty-six, on the 6th of the Kalends of January, in the third year of our pontificate.

✠ I, Benedict, Bishop of the Catholic Church.

✠ I, Franciscus, Bishop of Ostia, Cardinal Barberini.

✠ I, Petrus, Bishop of Sabina, Cardinal Ottoboni, Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church.

✠ I, Laurentius, Bishop of Tusculum, Cardinal Corsini.

✠ I, Joseph Renatus, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Lawrence in Lucina, Imperiali.

✠ I, Philippus Antonius, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Praxedes, Gualterio.

✠ I, Annibal, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Clement, Albani of St. Clement, Chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church.

✠ I, Ludovicus, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Silvester in Capite, Pico della Mirandola.

✠ I, Joannes Antonius, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Calixtus, de Via.

✠ I, Antonius Felix, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Balbina, Zondadari.

✠ I, Petrus, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. John before the Latin Gate, Corradini.

✠ I, Curtius, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Eustachius, Origo.

✠ I, Melchior, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Mary of the Angels, de Polignac.

✠ I, Nicolaus, Cardinal Priest of the Title of Saints Nereus and Achilleus, Spinola.

✠ I, Georgius, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Agnes, Spinola.

✠ I, Cornelius, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Jerome of the Illyrians, Bentivoglio of Aragon.

✠ I, Ludovicus, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Prisca, Belluga y Moncada.

✠ I, Joseph, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Susanna, Pereyra de la Cerda.

✠ I, Alvarus, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Bartholomew on the Island, Cienfuegos.

✠ I, Bernardus Maria, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Bernard at the Baths, de Comitibus, Major Penitentiary.

✠ I, Joannes Baptista, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Matthew in Merulana, de Alteriis.

✠ I, Vincentius, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Onuphrius, Petra.

✠ I, Prosper, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Chrysogonus, Marefoschi.

✠ I, Nicolaus, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Mary in Dominica, Coscia.

✠ I, Nicolaus Maria, Cardinal Priest of the Title of Saints John and Paul, Lercari.

✠ I, Brother Laurentius, Cardinal Priest of the Title of St. Lawrence in Panisperna, Cozza.

✠ I, Benedictus, Cardinal Deacon of St. Mary in Via Lata, Pamphili.

✠ I, Laurentius, Cardinal Deacon of St. Agatha in the Suburra, de Alteriis.

✠ I, Carolus, Cardinal Deacon of St. Angelo in the Fish Market, Colonna.

✠ I, Julius, Cardinal Deacon of St. Hadrian, Alberoni.

✠ I, Alexander, Cardinal Deacon of St. Mary in Cosmedin, Albani.

✠ I, Alexander, Cardinal Deacon of St. Mary de Scala, Falconieri.

✠ I, Nicolaus, Cardinal Deacon of St. Mary of the Martyrs, Judice.

P. Cardinal Prodatary.

For the lord Cardinal Oliverius.

C. Archbishop of Emesa.

SEEN

Of the Curia, J. Archbishop of Ancyra.

L. Martinetti.

Registered in the Secretariat of Briefs.

We now think that nothing remains, except that we set before the pious reader the longer Acts and miracles of the Saint.

THE LIFE, BY THE AUTHOR TIBURTIUS NAVARRUS, A MINORITE,

Collected from the processes of beatification and other monuments, and published in print at Rome in the year 1671.

Francis Solanus, of the Order of Minors of the Observance, at Lima in Peru, in America (Saint).

FROM THE PRINTED WORKS.

CHAPTER I.

The Saint's fatherland, parents, morals in boyhood and adolescence, his entrance into the Order of Minors, and his religious profession.

In the year from the nativity of Christ one thousand five hundred forty-nine, the sixteenth of Paul III supreme Pontiff, the thirty-fourth of Charles V, august emperor, St. Francis Solanus is born in Spain in the year 1549 Catholic king of the Spains ^a, the darkness of heresies rising up, and mournfully enveloping the face of Christian Europe, there was born to the world Francis Solanus; who, because he was destined by the care of divine providence to repel from the American hemisphere the gloom of gentile error, and to diffuse the light of orthodox truth, could not undeservedly be called the one sun of the Peruvian world. To this so excellent offspring the fatherland was Montilla, a town of the diocese of Cordova, the chief place of the marquisate of Priego, and situated in the most fertile region of Andalusia in Spain.

[2] of honest parents, and his boyhood piously passed, He obtained honest and pious parents, not degenerate from ancestral virtue and the illustriousness of blood. His father's name was Matthaeus Sancius Solanus, his mother's Anna Ximenes; he was an Hidalgo ^b: the former, reckoned among the chief fellow-citizens, deserved to be twice chosen prefect of the aforesaid town. From the stock of these therefore, like the best fruit of a good tree, was born this boy Solanus, first indeed in the sanctity of life, but in the order of the sons the second. In the same year, on Sunday, the tenth of March, in the church dedicated to St. James, he was regenerated by the laver of sacred baptism ^c. His parents solicitously taught him from his tender years the fear of the Lord and the Catholic faith; imbued not so much with their precepts as prevented by the help of divine grace, from the very entrance of his boyish age, and in the slippery way of adolescence, he showed himself most loving of virtue: for, studiously declining depraved conversations, and reining in the appetite of juvenile petulance, he labored indefatigably in the culture of his soul. Hence so great a splendor of the sanctity springing up in him began to shine forth that by his mere presence he now compelled the other youths (who had detected in him something beyond the human) either to desist from unseemly games begun and indecent words, or altogether to abstain from their purposes.

[3] joining virtue to the studies of humane letters In the college of the Society of Jesus of the same town, addicted to the study of letters, he conciliated to himself the love of all, both masters and fellow-students, and turned their eyes upon himself as upon a mirror of modesty, meekness, and every kind of virtue. For since he uttered nothing boyish, but in all things savored of a consummate man, he demonstrated a manly prudence and discretion. He was most loving of peace and mutual love, and took pains to compose the quarrels arising among his fellow-disciples; so that when once he had seen two (with whom he was walking beside the river Aguilar) wrangling among themselves and contending with fists, he intervened in the midst to allay them; and when he had been attacked by the hand of one, he did not desist until he had brought them back to peace, and to his friend condoling with him over the blow inflicted, he said: "It has brought me no pain at all; but I have obtained the end intended, in recalling them to their former friendship." He took care to establish this concord not only among his fellow boys, but also among men themselves greater in age: for when once, near Montilla, he had found two in a field contending with drawn swords, he boldly approached them, and with words dripping honey said: "For the love of God, do not fight so dangerously with each other; for there is no one to reconcile you, and without doubt you will kill each other with mutual wounds." Hearing these things, they suddenly put their swords back into the scabbard, and, going off into different parts, departed peaceably from each other.

[4] and joining piety, The good Boy therefore studied, and spent the hours left over from study in aiding the culture of his father's garden, where, while he applied his body to labor, he refreshed his mind with devout songs, and by their sweetness kept his mind elevated to God. Knowing moreover that by the love of letters the affection of virtue ought not to be extinguished, he gave himself to the interior progress of the heart and to devotion. About to receive the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist, disposing himself with due preparation, and afterwards repaying humble thanks to Christ for what he had received in the secret of prayer, he also efficaciously exhorted others to their participation.

[5] But so generous an Athlete of the Christian warfare demanded a nobler stake than the world befitted; He enters the Order of Minors, in the field of the religious wrestling-ground his strength was to be exercised. Wherefore (God inspiring), panting after a higher degree of perfection, he meditates to retire into the solitude of the cloister; and at last, by mature counsel, from the Fathers of the regular Observance of the convent of the Recollection of Montilla, of the province of Andalusia, he put on the sacred habit, and humbly asked to be aggregated to their fellowship. Whom the prudent religious, having tempted and wisely proved, in the year one thousand five hundred sixty-nine, in the twentieth of his age, admitted to the probation of the Seraphic Order.

[6] Clothed with the habit of the Minors, he straightway began to unfold before all the treasures of virtues budding in his soul. and in the time of his novitiate, giving wondrous examples of austerity Bearing before all especially a singular modesty, blind obedience, submissive humility, long silence,

and a rigid mortification of the senses everywhere, he drew the eyes and affection of the brothers to himself. There are indeed common to the sacred inhabitants of the Recollection of the province of Granada the rigor of penance, a harsh, vile, and rough garment, exact and long fasts, frequent flagellation, the highest poverty, in one word, the truly regular observance of the Franciscan institute: there are also other exercises of the austere probation of novices and those to be fitted for religion; but all these our Francis, swifter in course and more fervent in zeal, outstripped; under his cloak he fitted a sharp hair-shirt to his flesh, and for the space of a year used a cork bark, but in the times of Lent and Advent a hurdle made of sticks bound together for a bed, and a piece of wood for a pillow.

[7] He tortured himself with frequent scourges even to a large effusion of blood, and giving examples of abstinence, and to these, as it were the safest guardian of nascent virtues, he added fasting; and, to forestall the impetus of juvenile fervor, applied the medicine of abstinence. For never (as was observed by his companions of the probation and profession through three years) did he eat flesh, fish, or eggs, unless on more solemn feasts bound by the precept of the master. He had prescribed for himself such a law of temperance that on Fridays he ate nothing cooked by fire; but on all the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays of Lent he used bread alone for food, and water for drink. I pass over that he then endured the entire barefootedness of the feet, common to all novices. He loosed the rein of religious silence, compelled by necessity, and spoke only of spiritual things to the edification of the hearers. And since he always uttered few things with singular discretion, the novice fellow-students, when they were engaged in the rare recreations (which the Order indulges for relaxing the mind), in the presence of Francis dared to mingle nothing light, or provoking laughter, and which did not savor of holy religiousness. And this reverence for his presence was found to have persevered among the brothers until he went to the Indies.

[8] and, given to prayer, he emits his religious profession. So eminent virtues of the fervent Novice prayer fostered, like irrigating water new little plants: for the pious Youth, understanding that the mortification and other gifts of the religious mind, which the richness of divine converse did not fatten, would not be perennial, but would quickly perish, gave himself unceasingly to contemplation: for besides the hours in which the whole community attended by praying, he, in the nocturnal silence, after he had wakened his body with the scourges of the discipline, often protracted the holy exercise of prayer through the course of several hours, even to the rising of the day. Manifestly attesting therefore that by such good beginnings he was truly called by a divine impulse, and, he inspiring perseverance who had given the will, after the year of probation was completed, all the fathers of the sacred Recollection consenting and exulting, he emitted the solemn profession of the life and rule of the Friars Minor.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

The study of the sciences, the priesthood, the offices administered in Spain, and the apostolic zeal shown there.

The studies of philosophy and theology being finished Having professed the institute of the regular observance, he did not dismiss the virtues which he had begun to cultivate in the probation, but consummated them: and so firmly held the manner of living begun in the novitiate that he never deviated from that first path of simplicity, obedience, and fervor. After about three years passed in the convent of Montilla, he is sent, as he had wished, to the cloister of the Recollection of St. Mary of Loreto ^a, under a perfect and pious Guardian. There, addicted to the study of philosophical discipline, although an abundance of cells was at hand, yet in a certain corner near the little bells he built himself a small and humble little cell of reeds; in which, for furniture, were a little bed of cork and a wooden seat, and from a small hole the light flowed in. There, solitary and segregated from noise, he passed days and nights either praying or studying. He also gave attention to theology, whose doctrines, which he had perceived by the intellect, converting into food for the soul, by meditation, weeping, and fasting he tempered the aridity of studies; so that (which often happens otherwise to many) he came forth thence learned and at the same time holy, wise and humble.

[10] The course of study being finished, he was promoted to the priestly order, he is initiated into the priesthood, and after other offices and for the first time offered the august Sacrifice to God on the solemnity of our holy Father Francis. Then, since he was solicitous for divine worship, and excelled in the grace of a sonorous voice, he is designated vicar of the choir, in which office indeed he bore himself most accurately and exactly. Anticipating and preparing the nocturnal and diurnal Hours, lest anything be deficient in rite and chant, he assisted at them unfailingly. By the command of his superior also he was assumed to the office of preaching, in which how laudably he acted, how fruitfully he labored, the events that followed, to be narrated below, will prove.

[11] He had now passed several years in that sacred recollection, he is made master of novices, when he is called by obedience to another convent, and set over the novices as master in the monastery of Arrizafa ^b. In this burden committed to him, the Man of God, understanding that example is more efficacious than word, and that the eyes of the recruits are turned upon the life of the master, as upon a mirror to which they may be conformed, kindled with new zeal gave himself wholly to penances, and renewed the fervor conceived in the novitiate. Reproving the faults of the youths by his own perfection more sharply than by voice, and ascribing to himself the errors of the delinquents, he himself paid the punishment owed by them; and giving himself to be beaten by their hands with scourges, he expiated in his own body the defects of others. Flesh and fish being forbidden him, he was sustained by the food of cooked herbs. He gave himself to prayer so intensely and frequently that the novices, on purpose observing whether he ever rested, for the most part caught him praying on bent knees in his cell, or in the choir (in which he remained after Matins until Prime), and at length heard him mingling sighs and groans with the gravest blows.

[12] The novices, provoked to the imitation of so great a rector, labored not sluggishly in acquiring perfection, whom he teaches by word and example; and when they once inquired by what penance especially a religious might merit divine grace, he rendered an answer worthy of a wise man: That the safer way to merit was patience, and the equanimous tolerance of labors and tribulations, especially when they are inflicted by parents or religious. Being asked also by that company of simple ones what would increase the pain to be perceived from the scourges, he taught them that, as the innocent Lamb Christ, stripped of his seamless tunic, received the bitterness of the blows in his whole body, so, the tunics being laid aside, not one but several parts of the body are to be scourged. With these and similar documents he watered the tender little plants, and disposed them by words and deeds to the observance of the religious profession.

[13] and, again set over the novices in another Convent Thence he is destined master of novices to the Convent of St. Francis del Monte ^c, set in steep and rough places, remote from the habitation of men, and most apt for the contemplation of heavenly things; in which office indeed he exercised the virtues which we related above: but, using also the opportunity of the place, he indulged more eagerly in his private progress; there he protracted long prayers, and enjoyed the uninterrupted quiet of silence and solitude: there, devising modes of a stricter penance, he afflicted himself with new mortifications. There were near the monastery thorns stiff with horrid points, into which the true imitator of the Seraphic Father sometimes rolled himself naked so long, until he had bloodied his whole body with a dire wound.

[14] Such eminent virtues of his it befitted always to be occupied for the good of the Order; in the same he is compelled to undertake the office of Guardian, wherefore in the provincial chapter he is instituted Guardian of the aforesaid convent of St. Francis del Monte; which office, although he refused it with the greatest humility, yet, compelled by obedience, he undertook. In it he fulfilled all the parts of a good superior: he applied especially the vigilance necessary to a prelate and the greatest solicitude, that by his subjects the precepts of the rule and the statutes of the sacred Recollection might be inviolably observed; and, that the exhortation might be more efficacious, he strengthened it by example: for, concurring first to all the exercises of the monastery to be undertaken, he was never absent from choir, table, prayer, common labor. Taking up the little bag, he went from door to door to beg alms. Affable to all, burdensome to none, he yet discreetly reproved those to be rebuked, and coerced stiff-necked subjects with the rein of obedience.

[15] which administering humbly and afterwards resigning Reckoning the special care of the sick committed to him by his office, he sedulously served them, and, anticipating the hands of the infirmarian, made up their little beds, and washed and cleansed the foul furniture of the infirmary. Moreover, that he might shine before the brothers by an example of religious self-abasement, often, while all sat at table, taking a piece of wood or a reed in his teeth, walking with a humble and modest step, suffused with tears, and accusing himself, he entered the refectory, and, kneeling, proclaimed himself a useless man, and unworthy to be trodden by the feet of men. At length by deed and word he converted that family into a certain sanctuary and, as it were, a voluntary prison of penitents; and yet the virtue of holy humility had so invaded his soul that by importunate and urgent prayers he extorted the acceptance of his renunciation of this office.

[16] he is wholly intent on the salvation of souls, Attending to the utilities of the neighboring peoples, the Servant of God exercised the office of preaching now committed to him, while he stayed in that convent of St. Francis del Monte, with great profit to the adjacent villages. For he informed the inhabitants of that region with words not empty and worthy of laughter, but penetrating the marrow of the heart, and conceived in prayer, Christ teaching. Not a few were converted, and came to the holy Preacher confessing their sins, that they might cast off the filth of vices. When he was sent to the neighboring places for alms, he was wont to gather the boys, with whom, going in troops through the ways, he at the same time recited the dogmas of the Christian faith. And if perchance a gathered number of adults met him, he preached to them of the divine fear, and commended the holy service of the Lord. The sermon being finished, although the monastery was distant from the nearest hamlet by the space of at least one league, he returned to it fasting; which strict law of discretion and abstinence, even while he labored under a quartan fever, preaching in Lenten time in the village of Adamuz ^d, he did not break.

[17] On account of these offices of charity exhibited to souls, the Man was held by all apostolic and holy; and prodigiously profits the bodies of some. but there also increased his fame the benefits conferred even on bodies. For when in

the town of Montilla he once stood at the door of Didacus Lopez for alms, there was offered to him a little boy, son of the aforesaid Didacus, sick and miserably ulcerated over his whole body, that he might pronounce over him some holy Gospel. Then he bade the woman carrying him to uncover the sores, the swaddling-cloths being removed; which seen, touched with compassion, applying his tongue, he licks the whole body of the boy. At his salutary contact the sick one convalesced: for after a few days interposed he attained the entire health and comeliness of his flesh. When another time the Man of God came to the same town to beg, at the very entrance of the place he met a poor man with his legs wounded by many an ulcer. Then, mindful of Christ wounded for us on the cross, he fell to the ground, and kindly kissed the feet of the wretched man. By this kiss it is piously believed that health was restored to the poor man: for a month having elapsed from thence, he was seen to walk with sound legs, and leaning on no staff.

[18] In the year one thousand five hundred eighty-three, The souls of those infected with plague a calamitous plague of pestilential contagion raging in many regions of Andalusia, the town of Montoro ^e felt the rigor of the divine scourge. Pitying it, the Man of God, and compassionating those destitute no less of corporal than of spiritual help, having obtained, though with difficulty, license from the Guardian, with a companion, a priest by name Bonaventura, animated by the same spirit, betook himself to the aforesaid town; and, the parish priest and the other inhabitants assenting, nay, even exulting, undertook the care of the hospital destined for those laboring with the plague. There, terrified by no peril of death, he cured the souls of the sick and their bodies; now exhorting them with the sweetest words to patience, to a humble conformity with the divine will, and to gain the remission of the jubilee sent from heaven (for so he called that plague): now administering to them the Sacraments, soon disposing them by pious colloquies for the supreme struggle of the death-agony.

[19] Nor for that forgetful of corporal help, he made up their little beds, and cures their bodies, prepared foods and medicines, and helped them with every ministry. But those who had escaped death and, the wasting of sickness being overcome, had attained the good of health, having been washed and cleansed in the waters of a neighboring mill, and stripped of their former garments and clothed with new ones, bearing a cross before his hands, and chanting aloud the articles of our faith, he led back to their own homes. Thence returning to the care of the sick, and persevering amid these labors with a cheerful face and ever composed countenance, he brought to those wretched ones singular consolation and joy.

[20] and, afflicted with the same disease, is healed, Meanwhile his most dear coadjutor Bonaventura being killed by the contagion of the disease, the Servant of God did not desist; but, pouring back upon himself the whole solicitude before common to two, he succored the necessities of all with indefatigable vigilance. But he himself, that he might taste the bitter cup of sickness, and be proved by God faithful in infirmity, did not escape the violence of the plague: for, seized with a double bubo or carbuncle, he felt the trouble of a vehement pain, which he tolerated with a wondrous tranquillity of mind and patience. But, reserved by heavenly providence to work greater things for God and his neighbor, he was restored to his former health, and straightway resumed his first ministry; nor did he cease from it any more, until, the sword of the smiting angel being put back into the scabbard, the fire of the raging pestilence was extinguished. Then indeed, bidding farewell to the people, he withdrew to the beloved solitude of the monastery.

[21] and he is sent to another convent, where he exercises apostolic labors. But no long time having elapsed, he is transferred by obedience to the convent of the Recollection of St. Louis the Royal ^f, distant by the interval of one league from the city of Granada. There received by the Guardian and brothers, on account of his approved virtues, with the greatest exultation and singular reverence, he did not abandon the begun way of aiding his neighbor: for straightway he began to minister to the sick of the cloister, and, since the domestic necessity did not suffice for so great a charity, the superior assenting, he often hastened to the hospital of Blessed John of God, or to the public prison of the city, where he consoled the sick Christians, or those detained in the prison-house, with word, ministry, and the refreshment of sacramental penance.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

The voyage to the West Indies, the shipwreck, and his charity toward his neighbor.

The illustrious indications of sanctity by which the life of Francis Solanus shone among men had conciliated for him great esteem in the parts of Spain; The Blessed one, incited by humility and zeal for souls, which, that he might escape, and lie hidden unknown in some corner (yet without loss of charity, and without detriment to his neighbor), not dreading the peril of death, but longing for the struggle of glorious martyrdom, he pressed instantly with his superiors, that license might be given him to go to the African peoples of Barbary. But, this being denied, he did not desist from his purpose, but, looking to the far regions of the new hemisphere, needing evangelical workers, when the Catholic king Philip II had ordered the prelates of the Franciscan Religion to send friars to the Indies, who might communicate to those peoples the light of Christian truth, the Man of God, reckoning the occasion favorable to himself, instantly asked to be numbered among the sacred missionaries; that by this pious art he might not transgress the precept of charity, and might fulfill the instinct of humility. Having therefore obtained the faculty, he chose to be joined as a companion to the religious going under father Balthazar Navarro, commissary, to the provinces of Tucumán ^a, rather than to others going to diverse regions of America; because he had heard that this part above the rest was less imbued with the evangelical precepts, and in need of a more difficult labor.

[23] Bidding farewell to the brothers, and having visited in passing the peoples (whom he had before informed with salutary documents), he sails to America; and on the journey giving himself to pious exercises, with the naval forces going to the Indies under lord Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, marquis of Cañete, viceroy of the Peruvian kingdom, and with several religious of his Order, in the year of salvation one thousand five hundred eighty-nine, he set out from the city of Seville, and in the ship, as in the solitude of a monastery, fulfilled his spiritual exercises; nor by the multitude of the voyagers, or the smallness of the space, was he impeded from the interior colloquy of prayer or from the external care of his neighbor. For after he had ceased from private prayers, he inflamed others with fiery words to the divine love, and, the Crucifix grasped in his hands, attested that death was to be preferred to sin; and those whom he had wounded with the dart of his discourse, he healed with the medicine of sacramental penance.

[24] The voyage proceeding on its way, they came to the sight of the islands of St. Dominic ^b, to which certain religious (among whom the Man of God himself) descended to wash their tunics. At the fourth hour after noon, as many as the little boat could hold returned to the ship set in the deep. Francis remained with others, until he might cross over by the benefit of the skiff again about to return; which indeed, on account of the excessive distance, did not return until the second hour after midnight. But meanwhile the Servant of Christ overcame the tedium of the perilous waiting by the perseverance of prayer, and, himself not fearing the ferocity of the barbarians dwelling in those horrid mountains (which others feared), exulting with joy he chanted aloud the praises of the Lord and of the Virgin Mother, and, with the jubilation of mouth and heart, danced that the desired occasion of attaining martyrdom was at hand for him.

[25] he earnestly cares for the salvation of his neighbor. All having returned to the ship, and the course of the voyage being resumed, the fleet put in at Cartagena ^c, where, some days being passed, it directed its prow to the port of Nombre de Dios, or Portobelo ^d; whence, the sea being left, our Francis with his prelate and companions, undertaking the journey by land, came to Panama ^e. In this city, admitting no refreshment of his laborious pilgrimage, he fitted for himself in a corner of the choir a rush basket for a pallet, and a wooden pillow: the hours of office and prayers being finished, he passed to the hospitals of the city to minister humbly to the sick.

[26] In a shipwreck Some days having elapsed, the sacred missionaries, having boarded the ship of Joannes de Morgana, set sail from the port of Panama. But scarcely, the sails being spread, had they directed it to the Peruvian kingdoms, when, behold, as they sailed near the gulf of Gorgona ^f, a tempest suddenly arose, by whose impetus, and the fury of the blowing winds, the ship, cast hither and thither, about midnight struck upon the sands, and, shattered by violent impulses, opened an entrance to the overflowing waters; by which, and by the abundance of rains falling from the air, a certain shipwreck was threatened, and a present peril of death was aimed at the wretched ones. In this extreme despair of safety the sailor committed a little boat to the sea, in which, with the chief men and religious, he resolved to hasten to land.

[27] an excellent despiser of his own life The man of God Francis is therefore asked to withdraw himself with his companions from death. But since he bore in his heart that greater charity, by which life is laid down for friends and neighbors, considering that an unhappy end awaited those whom the skiff was not able to take up, postponing the life of his body to the spiritual salvation of the same, he could not be induced to desert those afflicted ones, of whom very many barbarous gentiles, black, had not yet buried the old Adam in the baptismal waters, destitute of all help. Crying out aloud therefore, he said: Far be it that, for love of temporal light, I be sundered from these my brothers, set in the peril of both lives. Soon, the cross being taken up, he exhorted them to lift their eyes to the mountain of divine mercy, and to hope from him who rules the power of the sea for a mitigation of the waves. To the barbarous gentiles also, in the fervor of the spirit, he announced the name of Christ, in few but efficacious words, and, sufficiently disposed, regenerated them by the laver of baptism.

[28] exhorts the shipwrecked to confidence, and foretells that help will be at hand Scarcely had the little boat, laden with the more worthy, begun to make for the shore, when a strong storm of the sea, and the violence of a rushing wave, divided the ship into two fragments, one of which, with many men, among whom some newly baptized, the sea swallowed up; the other, on which the Man of God with several floated, upon the waters. At the event of so mournful a case, extreme terror invaded all; Francis alone, intrepid, displaying the cross, exhorted them from the height of the stern to place their hope in the Lord; he affirmed that after three days help would be at hand,

and that the little boat would return to them. And, that in the peril of their bodies he might provide for the security of their souls, he disposed them, by the second plank after the shipwreck of sin, namely the Sacrament of penance, to find the port of safety; and also, that he might render heaven propitious to the wretched ones, within, he immolated the victim of his heart with sighs and prayers; without, the victim of his body with scourges laid upon his bare shoulders. In these straits they passed the whole space of three days, refreshed by no other food than the word proceeding from the mouth of Francis; by which some professed that they had been so strengthened that they felt no hunger of famine.

[29] At length, according to the discourse of the holy Man, the heavenly breeze of help began to breathe: which followed according to his prophecy. for certain wax tapers being cast from the sea into the ship (which some ascribed to a miracle wrought by the prayers of the Servant of God) and lit, they signified to those who in the skiff had crossed to the shore that they were still surviving and in need of prompt help. On the third day therefore (that the word of Francis might be fulfilled), the little boat, drawn from the waters in which it was submerged, and sufficiently furnished, by the hand of the rowers returned to the wretched shipwrecked ones; into which the holy Man did not descend until all had been received into it, and then, his habit being laid aside and tied with a cord, clad in his inner tunic, bearing the cross in his hand, he came by swimming to the little boat, somewhat separated from the ship by the motion of the waves, but the garment, being cast into the waters, fell down. Scarcely had all entered the skiff, when the fragment of the ship which hitherto had floated was suddenly plunged into the deep. But they, safe and unharmed, being brought to land, came by a two days' way to the huts (into which their companions had withdrawn), and narrated to them how great a consolation and help they had received from Father Francis.

[30] But there happened at the very going-out of the sea a thing After miracles not to be passed over in silence, namely that the Man of God, having gone forward along the edge of the sea to seek the habit (which we said fell into the waves), others asserting the finding of it impossible; he, as if not uncertain of the outcome, answered: "I hope in God that my seraphic father Francis will now restore the garment of his Order which he bestowed upon me." These things said, having prosecuted his way, within half an hour, clad in the habit and hood, and girt with the cord, no trace of wetting remaining in them, he returned to the others.

[31] But those who had escaped the storms of the sea, set on land, labored under the torment of a deadly famine: for in that region, deserted and stiff with harsh mountains, performed on the journey, nothing else was at hand for the sustenance of the wretched ones than tasteless roots and fragile herbs, and also a certain kind of fruits, bringing death within twenty-four hours to those who ate them. Moved by these troubles, the pious Father gathered the herbs with his own hand, and, blessed in the name of the most holy Trinity, offered them to the rest. Often too, fish (by a divine art, as is believed) drawn from the waters, he divided among the several; with which foods, seasoned by the charity of the holy Man, all remained sound and unharmed through the sixty days of the pilgrimage.

[32] Moreover, that he might bend the justice of God, in a narrow and poor little hut he built an oratory, and in it an altar with the image of the Mother of God Mary snatched from the shipwreck; and various examples of charity and piety, that beside it daily at evening the Salve Regina might be chanted. Moreover, five hundred paces from thence he had erected for himself another most narrow dwelling, into which, after administering to the rest the word of God and corporal food, he withdrew; and there, with continual prayers (among which he was sometimes seen to rejoice at a heavenly apparition), penances, and scourges, he implored the eternal clemency. And when, on occasion of the furniture cast from the sea to the shore, among those shipwrecked men another more perilous tempest of angers and dissensions had arisen; the holy Man, wishing to extinguish it, going out of his hut naked (only his breeches retained), by a harsh shower of blows, drawing innocent blood from his shoulders, and with clamorous groans, so softened the minds of the dissidents that, suddenly making peace, they fell confounded at his feet, and begging pardon.

[33] and another prophecy fulfilled, he proceeds to the city of Lima. But when, after the shipwreck, a little boat being furnished, father Balthazar Navarrus the commissary with some Spaniards had sailed to the city of Panama, distant thence a hundred leagues, to seek food and a ship; now fifty days had flowed by from their departure, and no hour of the desired help appeared to those who had remained in the horrid desert. And so, the vigil of the Nativity of Christ dawning, casting away all hope of escaping, they loosed their mouths into mournful groans and pitiable cries. In these straits the man of God Francis, on the very night of the Nativity, wholly absorbed in mind, jubilant and exulting, like an angel of peace, enters the hut (in which they lay), and invites them, for the imminent consolation, to render praises to God and the Virgin. Faith is straightway given to his words, so often proved; the mourning is turned into joy, and the natal day of Christ is celebrated with great joy of all. Three days not yet elapsed, the prophecy of Francis was fulfilled; the companions return, they bring the ship laden with foods, received from the royal audience of Panama. All, refreshed, sailed happily up to the port of Paita ^g; but Francis, by a land journey, with the other religious went to the city of Lima.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER IV.

The journey from the city of Lima into Tucumania, the apostolic labors among the Indians, and the prodigies performed there.

When the sacred missionaries had recovered in the city of Lima the strength of their bodies, broken by so laborious a pilgrimage, From the city of Lima again committing themselves to a more difficult way, they strove to the provinces of Tucumán ^a, or, as it is called by the vulgar name, Rio de la Plata, or the Silver River, over the spaces of more than seven hundred leagues, through pathless and arid places, intersected by rapid and deep rivers, through a thousand perils and immense labors, stimulated by the mere zeal for the salvation of souls. To those barbarous and wild nations the light of evangelical clarity had lately shone by the preachings of father Ildephonsus of St. Bonaventure, a recollect of the province of Andalusia of the regular Observance; whom also there had preceded Brother Ludovicus Bolanus ^b, then only a deacon, who, because he had perfectly learned their idioms, translated into the same the Christian doctrine and the Lima catechism; and afterwards, having become a priest, aggregated a great multitude to the bosom of the Church, deserving to be called the apostle of those regions.

[35] To cultivate and multiply this vineyard our Francis desired to be destined; set out into Tucumania, into which having entered, he undertook the care of the peoples who inhabit Socotonium and Magdalena ^c, and of many others, that as a shepherd and parish priest he might imbue them with holy doctrines, and initiate them into the Sacraments: and therefore he armed himself with all the virtues of an apostolic missionary. First of all, preferring deeds to words, by prayers, fasts, and voluntary torments he subjected his spirit to God, and his flesh to his spirit; he exhibited modesty, meekness, zeal, charity, and a rigid penance in the nakedness of his feet, in the vileness of his habit, and in the parsimony of his food. He was often seen in the church, with his face prone to the earth, and extended in the figure of a cross, from the inmost of his heart to protract long colloquies with God, and to commend himself and his ministry to his protection.

[36] he learns the difficult languages of the Indians, Girt with these arms, that he might declare war upon others' vices by purging and reproving them, he ardently applied himself to learning the most difficult languages of those gentiles; which he received, transfused not so much by the keenness of his genius and the sagacity of his memory as by divine communication. For by the testimony of all it was a wondrous and heavenly thing that in the shortest time he so perfectly learned all those confused and various idioms (especially the Toconotic ^d within fifteen days) that he made himself clearly intelligible, and surpassed the very native inhabitants of the places in the facility and propriety of expressions, and corrected those deficient in speech. Which when the barbarians, not understanding the divine grace, observed, at the beginning they ascribed it to the magic art. Nay, it is handed down by the testimony of public report that, when he was teaching the divine doctrines in the Spanish idiom of Castile, Indians of various nations understood him as if speaking each in his own tongue.

[37] and with wondrous charity, Having therefore learned those speeches, he labored sedulously in the preaching of the divine word: for he traversed all those horrid regions, and, the fear of death being postponed, carried the evangelical sermons to the more remote parts. He spared no labor, no difficulty, that he might snatch those wandering sheep from the truculent jaws of the infernal wolf. He kindly received the confessions of all, consoled the afflicted and those set in straits with the sweetest words, and reckoned their miseries as his own. Bearing a special solicitude for the sick, he frequently visited them, and offered the foods brought with him. He once visited a grievously sick Indian, who, engaged in the death-agony and deprived of speech, he, crying out aloud, signified that he should speak in his mother idiom (which he asserted he would understand, though otherwise unknown to him) the secrets of his heart and the hidden things of his will. Then the sick man, his tongue loosed to speech, sought to be taught the Christian law, and to be disposed to the Sacrament of baptism.

Instructed therefore by the holy Father, and washed by the salutary laver, he rested in peace.

[38] by his meekness, At the most devout discourses of the meek Man, laying aside their fierceness, the barbarians were converted, whom, cleansed by the sacred waters, he regenerated to the spiritual life. Others, allured by the report of his sanctity, came to him of their own accord, whom, kindly instructed, he baptized; and thus tamed an innumerable multitude of them by evangelical kindness. And so great was his esteem among all that what the rigor of justice and the fear of punishments could not extort from them, he obtained by the mere command of his voice: for, being called, they straightway were present, and eagerly executed what he bade to be done.

[39] and by his authority he instructs the barbarians, An indication of this authority, which he had procured for himself by humility and love, is this: that when once on the holy day of the Lord's Supper, while the Christians were occupied in the sacred rites, a numerous throng of many thousands, infidel and barbarous, furnished with arms, about to bring war and death upon the faithful, assembled. At which unexpected event the terrified Christians feared a great slaughter of themselves: when the man of God Francis, armed with the sword of the sacred word, reaching to the marrow, approached, and although he addressed men of a diverse and to him unknown tongue in the speech of one idiom, yet he announced so fruitfully the Catholic doctrine, peace, and concord, that of them he converted above nine thousand, and, asking baptism, made them Christians. Whose change indeed was so true and sincere that very many of them the same night scourged themselves together with the Catholics, in imitation of Christ scourged for us at the column. And from then on the public report prevailed among those nations that, preaching in a single idiom, he had been distinctly perceived by many of various tongues. By the same power of his innate meekness he straightway reduced to peace the peoples dwelling near the city of Santiago del Estero ^e, from the mutual hatreds with which they burned.

[40] The benefits and miracles which he conferred on the peoples, with which he flashed, increased this report and esteem of the holy Man. and there he prodigiously draws forth a spring, When in the territory of the town of Talavera ^f of Madrid ^g, of the province and bishopric of Tucumán, he was preaching the evangelical dogmas among the Indians of the land of Socotonium; hearing that, on account of a scarcity of water, some of those peoples suffered a grave discomfort, and meditated departure from this place with great loss to themselves and labor, the Man of God was present, and, illumined by a divine light, affirmed that a vein of waters lay hidden not far off. They denied it, on account of the long experience of aridity; but he, going out with them into the field, marked with his staff a place in the wholly arid ground, and bade the incredulous ones to dig. And when they had scarcely begun to cleave the earth, a most copious spring of sweet and clear water flowed forth; whose abundance perseveres to this day so great that it suffices to turn two mills, and up to the present day is called the Spring of St. Solanus by the Spaniards and the native Indians: and moreover it is proved by very many signs to have a wondrous virtue for healing men from infirmities.

[41] The Man of God journeying through those waterless regions of Tucumán, and elsewhere, his fellow-travelers thirsting and going from the town of Santa Fe of Paraguay ^h to Cordova ⁱ, it happened that in the whole three days' journey, up to the fourth day, water failed. There were in the company many burned with the heat of thirst, but among them two soldiers, more impatient than the rest, loosed their soul to desperation and their tongue to horrid blasphemies. Then Francis, moved with keen grief for the injury done to God, said to the venerable man father Andreas de Fizaguirra, a preacher of the Order of the Blessed Mary of Mercy, going forward with him: "Although the blasphemies which they vomit against the name of God render them unworthy of all grace, yet I wish to show them and the others a spring of water. Do thou therefore ascend to the summit of this hill, there thou wilt find a place arid, sterile, and open to the wind, and in it a little paper folded in the middle. Two paces further is a round stone, which if thou remove, thou wilt find a gushing vein of water."

[42] He obeyed the voice of the Servant of God, and found all things in the order in which he had signified. But the water having been sufficiently drawn by all, he supplies water in a wondrous manner, when he wished to take up the little paper which he had left below, he did not find it. Descending at last from the hill, and returning to the holy Man, he marveled at his face suffused with a certain fiery color and wondrous splendor. Thence, as they prosecuted the way, where the gibbet erected near Cordova appeared, Francis Solanus, turned to the aforesaid Father Andreas, foretold that those two soldiers, on account of a most cruel death inflicted on a certain man, would be hanged on it the following day. And indeed, informations being sent the same day by the president of the audience of Charcas ^k, they were ordered to be seized, and, according to the word of the Prophet, the next morning to be put to death by hanging.

[43] and besides other things It also happened once that he was asked by an Indian to bury his dead son; into whose house when he had entered, he found the boy sound and warming himself beside the fire. He therefore reproved the parents for having thus mocked him; but they affirmed that the son had been truly dead. Whence the report went out among all the neighboring peoples that that boy had been raised from death by the prayers and merits of the holy man Solanus.

[44] miracles While in the town of Todos los Santos ^l of the province of Tucumán the servant of God Francis, detained by infirmity, was making a stay; illumined by that spirit by which Christ the Lord saw Nathanael under the fig-tree, he recognized a certain Indian woman, the servant of Petrus Sotelus, killing herself with her own hands by hanging. Wherefore he asked the priest Emmanuel Muñez, being called, to go as quickly as possible to such a side of the mountain, by this and that way, and to lead to him the Indian woman whom he was to find there. He therefore went, but, detained on the journey by the conversation of a certain one who met him, came too late, when he found the Indian woman already emitting her last breath. Returning to himself, the holy Father, grieving and lamenting the death of the wretched woman, distinctly disclosed the occasion of the delay: adding that, when at noon she should meet the Spaniards hanged, he should order the corpse to be burned with flames by the very Indians for an example to themselves, and a detestation of the crime. But after these things the holy Man himself held a grave discourse to the Indians, moved by whose efficacy, they began thereafter to hold this kind of death as abominable.

[45] he tames fierce bulls, To the greater reverence of the servant of God Francis Solanus among the Indians the divine protection greatly conferred, which guarded him in every perilous event with a peculiar assistance. When once in the town of St. Michael of the province of Tucumán ^m a solemn bull-baiting was held; a certain untamed and fierce bull, having crossed the barriers, miserably killed some Indians. Then by chance the Servant of God was walking by the same way, whom, when no human force could snatch from the meeting of the fierce beast, yet he was not for that seized with fear; but he intrepidly cast his little cord before the bloody animal; but it, straightway tamed, touched the cord with mouth and smell, and soon, as if changed into a sheep, went further forward. Great was the admiration of the beholding people; nay, even the governor himself, meeting Francis, said: Thus, Father, dost thou tame fierce bulls? But he humbly ascribed the whole event to the divine benefit.

[46] Among the people of Socotonium it is most well known he tames them, that when at another time Francis Solanus traversed the same region of Tucumán, he met an untamed bull, which by its ferocity had greatly terrified those passing that way. To this one, running upon him with fury, the Man of God, kneeling, cast his innocent hands, which the animal, bending its knee and kissing, peacefully withdrew into the mountain, and left him a free way. Thus at length another bull, no gentler, was seen to lick the hands of the holy Father, to venerate his habit with its mouth, and, having cast others into peril of life, to be tamed and made gentle under this Friend of God.

[47] When the holy Man traversed those provinces evangelizing, rivers he came to the bank of a rapid and deep river; where, a little boat being lacking, his eyes being lifted upward, he spread his cloak upon the waters, and, led by faith as by an oarsman, by the prosperous wind of divine help, crossed to the stupor of all the beholders. Another time, as he crossed a river, the impetus of the waters by chance snatched away his cloak, and led it into the more downward courses of the waves. When the holy Man had come to the opposite bank, he prosecuted his way to the higher parts: but a certain Andreas Garcia de Valdes, who was in the company, having gone forward with him a little, wished to go back, that he might perhaps recover the cloak cast off by the waters. And behold, at the place at which they had landed in the crossing, he found it folded upon the grass, and as if placed there by a human hand, although by the drawing of the running river it should have been carried much lower down.

[48] When he passed from the town of St. Michael to the city of Santiago del Estero, marvelously refusing all aid of the journey, he came to a deep river, on account of the wintry storm more rapid than usual and overflowing. Of crossing there was no hope; on this side there was fear of the gnats, with which this tract is wont to be infested, on that side the peril of famine in a deserted region: more than twenty men awaited the crossing with the Man of God, and on the opposite side forty carts, and a copious multitude of travelers. Afflicted by their grief, Francis, turned to God, received a certain hope of prompt remedy, and said to the bystanders: "Be not terrified, dearest brothers, for tomorrow at the ninth hour (it is the third before noon) you shall cross the river clear and lowered in its waters; and since I know that you are hungry, I wish to serve supper."

[49] Soon, a little net being cast into the waters, he drew out very many fish, he crosses, and, prepared and cooked by himself alone, distributed them to the others for abundant food; and he obtained also, by the efficacy of his virtue, that all that night they were infested by no gnat. But on the following day, and at the foretold hour, the river appeared quiet, lowered, and easy at the ford; which, when all had crossed from either bank, suddenly returned to its former height, although neither in all that time had it rained, nor had any natural cause anew come in.

[50] On a certain day a most dense cloud of locusts invaded the wheat of the captain Andreas de Inoisa. and he puts locusts to flight from the wheat. The Man of God being called to help, taking his stole, and the exorcisms being made according to custom, he sprinkled the grain with holy water; and, his knees being set, he ordered the insect creatures to depart, the wheat untouched, and, pointing out beforehand with his finger and manifestly designating certain mountains of the infidels, straightway to fly across to them. The command of Francis, or rather of God speaking in him, was heard by the locusts; suddenly they withdrew, and, gathered in a dense column, passed through the air to the designated lands. But to the men inquiring why he had not afflicted them with imprecations, the pious Man answered: Because, as of old John the Baptist used them, so now the Indians are wont to use the same for food.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER V.

The double prefecture in the Order, the abdication of both, his zeal in the city of Lima, and the efficacy of both his public and private exhortations.

In these times a provincial chapter was celebrated in the valley of Jauja ^a, the father Franciscus Antonius Ortiz, Commissary of the Peruvian provinces, presiding, Elected Custos of the Tucumanic province in which the man of God Francis is chosen moderator of the Custody of Tucumán. At this office he was not puffed up, but asked to be freed from it the more fervently, as similar offices are the more eagerly sought by many others. Yet, bound by obedience, he accepted it, and, that he might religiously fulfill the duty of Custos, he diligently visited the convents committed to him, in which he shone as a mirror of true sanctity.

[52] When in the town of Talavera del Estero ^b the Custos had stayed for some time, Custos being elected, he was observed by a pious and trustworthy Religious to pass sleepless nights in prayers and flagellations, and was seen clad in a hair-shirt and the most harsh bristles of wild beasts next to his skin. He was heard also to utter his exhortations with heavenly and fiery words, and, abstaining from every jocose or idle word, always to provoke his subjects to the divine service. At length the man of God Francis, having endured many labors in cultivating this vineyard of the supreme Father of the household, the year in the office of Custos being completed, when he frequently pressed with his Superiors for the acceptance of his renunciation, is made master of his wishes, and moreover is called by the aforesaid Commissary to the City of the Kings ^c, that there he might preside as founder and rector over the Recollection lately instituted.

[53] and afterwards set over the convent of Lima Therefore, complying with the custom of obedience, he departed from those provinces; whence there was great sorrow of the peoples, and especially of the Indians: for they said that they were being deprived of their holy Father and consoler, and grieved that they had enjoyed his presence so little. But a certain one, peculiarly devoted to him, lest he remain without his dear pledge, asked of him the cord with which he was girt. By the contact of which indeed great miracles were wrought, nor is there in that region a woman in childbirth who does not invoke the holy name of Francis Solanus, and gird herself with his cord; whence in the town of Santiago del Estero it is kept with great reverence. And so great was in those parts the longing for the holy Man that many times they pressed with the prelates for his recall; who would have assented to prayers so just, had not the excessive distance of the places, his age, and the continual infirmity of Francis stood in the way. But a certain Religious, returning after some years from those provinces, affirmed that the Indians were sad on account of the absence of the holy Father, and still solicitous about his return.

[54] he abdicates those offices, Recalled to Lima by the mandate of the Commissary general, the man of God Francis Solanus is set as vicar and prefect over the new cloister of the Recollection of St. Mary of the Angels. This office indeed he undertook, overcome by obedience, but, the virtue of humility urging, he shortly retained it, and by frequent instances drove his Superiors to the acceptance of his voluntary demission. Afterwards, the guardianship of the same convent being conferred upon him by Father Joannes de Monte-majori, Commissary general, with tears, sighs, and prayers he again cast it from his shoulders, which he reckoned too weak; and, that he might withdraw himself from the eyes of the prelates, he took care to be sent to Trujillo ^d, as to a certain hiding-place, where he stayed for some time; until at length he was summoned to Lima, as to a greater theater of virtue, in the provincial chapter, to undertake the care of the convent of St. Mary of the Angels. Yet, this being administered for four months, after many supplications he was permitted to return to the desired life of a subject.

[55] and he is wholly bent upon the salvation of souls, While therefore he stayed in the city of Lima and the bordering places, recognizing himself called thither by God, with all his strength he labored in purging, curing, and fertilizing this field; now loosing his tongue to preaching, now opening his ear to confessions, now extending his hand to works of charity. Frequently he came forth into the squares of the city, where, the Crucifix being drawn out (which he bore hidden under his sleeve), he preached with fiery and apostolic words; there he commended to the hearing peoples the passion of our Savior, the love of God, the hatred of vice, the honesty of virtue. Sometimes, going forward through the streets of the city, the Crucifix being raised, he uttered the words of salvation; where so great was the concourse of the multitude running up that the passage through the common ways was blocked. Hence also he entered into the churches, to which he had seen the peoples gathered by some peculiar celebration, and, ascending the pulpit, briefly but fervently uttered divine sermons, and thence swiftly transferred himself to another place for the same ministry.

[56] Often, animated by a divine spirit, he went to the theaters and profane spectacles, and both by public sermons, and, the blush of human respect being postponed, ascended to an eminent place, or to the very stage, and, displaying the bloody figure of the Redeemer affixed to the gibbet of the cross for us, invited all to the bitter tragedy of the passion with words, tears, and sighs: often, after long prayers made before the image of the Seraphic Doctor Bonaventure (to whom he was most devoted), by the general license made to him by his Superior, he went out into public, and uttered divine things with a wondrous ardor of mind and mouth. Often, betaking himself to places destined for games and worldly recreations, and therefore open to blasphemies, oaths, and all sins, he spiritedly reproved those playing, blaspheming, wrangling, and drew them away from evil conversations, and by these means wrought the greatest conversions.

[57] Having thus once gone out to preach, in a crossroads of the city he held his first exhortation, held with a great concourse of people, at which at the beginning there were at most three or four hearers. But, the Crucifix being lifted on high, he began so powerfully to provoke them to the divine love that straightway a great multitude of people, running up, blocked the outlets of the ways. Thence, the crowds following, coming to the square, at length, after a double sermon, he could scarcely, on account of the excessive frequency of the bystanders, disengage himself and return to the convent. But he was wont, such sermons being finished, to return with hurried foot to the monastery, and, that he might escape the applause of those following him, to seek a hiding-place in some corner of the same.

[58] Moreover, by private colloquies he instructed the nuns in the monasteries, as by private colloquies the captives in the prisons, the sick in the hospitals, the seculars in meetings and visitations; and by this salutary remedy of discreet and secret correction, or conversation, he brought back many to the way of salvation. He once came to the convent of the Incarnation of the city of Lima; there a certain nun, shaken by the temptations of the enemy, and afflicted by the mortifications undertaken of the religious life, and affected with tedium, he freed from all straitness of heart by a single spiritual colloquy, and rendered her mistress of her former quiet. Thus also another religious of the monastery of the Immaculate Conception of the same city, thinking to depart from the cloister, he deterred from her purpose by the efficacy of his words, and brought back to a better state. When in the monastery of the Discalced nuns of St. Joseph he was often wont to preach, it is incredible how much those devout virgins profited under so great a Master and preacher in Christian perfection and regular observance.

[59] He once earnestly asked, and with great

grief of heart, a certain secular man of father Joannes Lainez he moves certain persons to the flight from sins, that he would deign to impart to him promptly the Sacrament of penance. Being asked the cause of so instant and tearful a petition, he answered that, as he walked through the cloister of the convent, there had met him a certain religious, unknown in face, who, kneeling, entreated him that he should no more offend God, and admonished him to blot out his sins by confession. Meanwhile the servant of God Solanus by chance passed that way, whom the secular penitent, recognizing from his countenance, testified to be the one at whose admonition and entreaty he had received the spirit of compunction: and afterwards the sacred exhortation of the Man of God remained so impressed upon his mind that he was seen both to attend Mass more frequently, and more often to participate in the Sacraments with a great flood of tears.

[60] others to perfection The Servant of Christ exhorted a certain young man, by chance found in the same cloister, to keep the divine precepts, and to love God with his whole heart; and these things said, he withdrew from him. And so he moved the youth to contrition that, straightway feeling a vehement impulse concerning the contempt of the world and the embracing of a sacred religious institute, he soon put on the habit of the Minors in the convent of St. Francis. The Man of God once visited doctor Albertus de Acuña, dean of the audience and chancery of the City of the Kings, whom, having addressed concerning heavenly things, he so moved that he himself, and others present at the conversation, testified that they had been marvelously inflamed by his words: so that they could say: Was not our heart burning within us, while he spoke and opened to us the Scriptures?

[61] and he excites the love of God, To Maria Arbanal, much inclined to the Franciscan Order, in the fervor of the spirit he once repeated three times: Daughter, to love God; and at the third repetition he remained suspended, and as if abstracted from himself. But she, wounded by these words, as by fiery darts, felt within a great ardor and an ineffable sweetness of heart; and so this brief exhortation of his remained impressed thereafter, that she thought it ever sounded in her ears. Nay, so great was the efficacy of his discourses that a certain man of proved faith asserted that, while he heard the holy Father speaking, he was wont to suffer as it were a swoon of soul from the violence of love and tenderness.

[62] and finally others to confession, The captain Franciscus de Vileja, much his friend and devoted, the Servant of God some times asked that he would not deny what he should ask of him; to which he, thinking that he would confer some temporal benefit (as he had long desired), gladly assented. Then the holy Father: I ask that as quickly as thou canst thou confess thy sins, and then diligently beware of them. The captain acquiesced in these admonitions, and, confession being premised, amended his life, and a few years after died intestate.

[63] and he induces penance. In the year of the Lord 1609 a great earthquake shook the City of the Kings by night; but on the following day, as the brothers and seculars were praying before the most holy Sacrament, exposed in the church of the Minors, by a sudden motion the earth trembled, at which all, trembling and perturbed, attempted to seize flight. At which the man of God Francis, standing and averting the people from going out, preached so holily and fervently that all, marvelously compunct, began to detest their sins, and also, with tears, sighs, and prayers, implored the divine mercy, and appeased its justice.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VI.

The citizens of Lima induced to penance in a wondrous manner by his preaching, and his ecstasies in the sermons.

When of old Nineveh, the head of the Assyrians, stank with the corruption of all crimes, by the divine mandate Jonah entered it, [When the Blessed one had held a sermon concerning the spiritual ruin of the soul,] and foretold its future subversion after forty days. Yet, because the immutable God knows how to change his sentence, if man knows how to amend his fault; therefore, the penance of the Ninevite people following, it appeased the impetus of heavenly fury. The great and enormous sins of the city of Lima also provoked the justice of the offended Deity, when, behold, the man of God Francis Solanus (as is piously believed), impelled by the divine spirit, on a certain day at evening, in the year 1604, went out from the convent of the Recollection of St. Mary of the Angels (over which he then presided) to the city, saying at his going-out to the doorkeeper: "Commend me to the Lord, since I go to render him a great service." Having followed the main square of the city, with a grave and modest countenance, and one inspiring penance, he presented himself before the people; who being gathered, he began sharply to reprove the corruption of vices, concupiscence, and lust.

[65] But since it was said by the Lord to the sacred preachers: [which the citizens of Lima had interpreted concerning the sudden destruction of their city,] It is not you who speak, but the spirit of your Father, who speaks in you; it came about that, as Christ, when he brought into the midst that place of the Gospel, Matthew 26, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it," willed it to be understood not of the temple, but of his body: so Francis, striking the dregs of sins with a sharp reproof, and announcing the spiritual perdition of the depraved city, when he alleged that text 1 John chapter 2, "All that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life," threatened not that material city, but the souls of the inhabitants, to be quickly destroyed by that triple evil of the flesh, avarice, and pride, and to be punished with a grave punishment. But God, who moved the tongue of the Preacher, so tempered the understanding of the hearers that all thought the Servant of God spoke prophetically concerning the destruction of the city of Lima.

[66] the whole city is terrified, Hence therefore the rumor, running through the whole city concerning its imminent overthrow, struck all with the trembling and terror of death; no one doubting that what was published as foretold by a Man so holy, and so often proved to have announced true things, would come to pass. Therefore the whole city clothed itself with mourning and grief; every age and sex, and every condition beat their breasts, offering propitiatory prayers of divine mercy: the churches are thrown open, the most august Sacrament is exposed, most bitter confessions are made, for the receiving of which the great number of confessors of the city did not suffice.

[67] and is moved to public penance, Some, concealing horrible crimes for many years, then, the rein of shame being postponed, announced them with poured-out tears and a tearful voice: others, when they were prohibited by the multitude from approaching the priest's feet for private confession, publicly manifested the hidden wounds of their consciences. Among these was a certain woman, so terrified by the fear of the divine judgment, and convicted of the foulness of her crimes, that she cried out aloud that the city would perish on account of her crimes, especially since even that very night she had proposed to have an incestuous union with her own son. A certain boy also, of twelve years (as it seemed), prostrate at the feet of the Superior of the convent of St. Augustine, confessed so horrible a malice, even exceeding the human, that afterwards the confessor, reconsidering it with himself, suspected that not a man, but a devil, had lain hidden under this figure. This night, inveterate hatreds and internal rancors were laid aside, friendships renewed, debts paid, things stolen restored, fame compensated; and at length such were the weepings, griefs, penances, that no room remained for doubting that this change was of the divine right hand.

[68] which terror reached even the religious, That salutary terror reached also the monasteries of the religious; when the fathers of the convent of St. Dominic, straightway bursting forth into groans and cries, all girt with the arms of voluntary affliction, raged upon themselves either with the harshest scourges or with iron chains. Soon, a procession being ordered, honorably carrying the most sacred Sacrament of the Eucharist from the part of the novitiate into the church, with devout chants they offered the pious prayers of the Litanies for appeasing the heavenly justice.

[69] [and to the ears of the archbishop and viceroy, who the latter, the matter being examined,] There governed at that time the Peruvian kingdom the most excellent man count of Monterrey ^a, who, having heard of the commotion of the city, called to himself that same night the council of the royal audience, with whom, the circumstances of the sudden terror being weighed, he judged the most illustrious archbishop of the city, Toribius Ildephonsus Mogrovejo ^b, also to be consulted thereupon. The matter therefore being conferred together, it pleased the prelate and the viceroy to signify, through the provisor of the archbishopric Michael de Salinas, to the father commissary general of the Peruvian provinces of the Seraphic Order existing in the same city, that he should diligently examine the case. Being called therefore, the man of God Solanus intrepidly came to the presence of the commissary, and answered a certain brother saying that he should not fear: Know, brother Joannes, that I preached by divine mandate. Being ordered therefore to repeat the words of his preaching, he adduced that text especially of the 1st epistle of John chapter 2, verse 16, and the rest of the sermon so efficaciously and fervently that it was noted that he moved all the religious (who were present in great number) to lamentation, and raised the hairs of many for fear of the divine judgment.

[70] But the declaration of the Man of God, by which he asserted that he had understood these words concerning the destruction of the soul, judges that this interpretation of the people was made by a divine nod. not of the city, being consigned to writing, was carried to the archbishop and viceroy; which being published to allay the terror and perturbation of the people, when nevertheless the fear grew and the lamentation increased, the governor viceroy said to those assisting: "Let us not labor in vain: for it is plain that this is the work of God, by which his Majesty willed the hardened hearts of men, and prone to evil, to be softened, and converted to good." And indeed it is plain that Francis uttered these things by a plainly divine impulse: for although he was conscious of having intended nothing else than the spiritual destruction of the soul, to be struck by that triple dart; yet in the mind of God the material loss of the city had been foretold to the people, unless perhaps, being converted, it should appease the avenging wrath, it can be piously and reasonably judged.

[71] But the matter and style of his fruitful preaching the holy Father drew from no other source The holy Man, during his preaching, than from assiduous prayer, or from the divine eloquence; for thence he derived those pungent and sharp reproofs. From the fountains of contemplation,

and of sacred Scripture, he drew abundant waters, with which he irrigated the whole face of that land. Nor was the preaching of Francis sterile or arid, because he had first made altogether familiar to himself the emotions which he intended to suggest to others; and therefore, about to persuade the hearers to lamentation and weeping, he bore before them in face and eyes the grief to be imitated. Meanwhile, in explaining the divine mysteries, he was sometimes rapt out of himself, and, melted by their consideration, failed in the use of voice and senses, and substituted silence rather than eloquent words.

[72] On a certain day of the solemnity of St. Didacus ^c, while, holding a sermon in the convent of Lima, he was relating his precious death, he is sometimes rapt into ecstasy. coming to these words, once uttered by him: Sweet wood, sweet nails; he felt himself so changed by the tenderness of melting that in the middle of the sermon he was compelled to be silent, and, wholly abstracted from himself, to spring back from the pulpit. When once, on the day of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he set forth to the nuns of St. Clare the words of salvation, at that place of the Canticle: And my spirit hath rejoiced, his eyes lifted to heaven, he adduced wondrous things concerning the Virgin, and concerning the Word made human in her womb. And again, uttering the same words, And my spirit hath rejoiced, he felt so great a sweetness and exultation that, rapt out of himself, his head reclined between his arms on the edge of the grate, he was seen to languish like the bride of the Canticles. While he exhibited the dire passion of the Savior in the image of the Crucified, suffused with a shower of tears, he excited the hardened and insensible souls of the hearers to contrition and groaning. In one word, this true son of the Seraphic Father, and faithful disciple, announced to the people vices and virtues, punishment and glory, with brevity of discourse.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VII.

The destruction of Trujillo long foretold by him, and many other things foretold by a prophetic spirit.

St. Francis Solanus, by a prophetic spirit The fountain of prayer is most profound, from which most pleasant little streams gush forth, and, as it were from a most fecund cause, manifold effects; thence assuredly arose that participation of heavenly light, by which the mind of the Servant of God, illumined, saw future events in the dark mist of contingency, and penetrated the inscrutable secrets of the human heart, and by which he added great weight of esteem to his preachings. There are indeed at hand innumerable examples of that revealed knowledge, of which it will suffice here to enumerate the chief and more useful.

[74] foretold the destruction of Trujillo When, as we said above, from the city of Lima, about to decline the offices offered to him, he had withdrawn to Trujillo, and in that Convent bore ill the office of Guardian conferred upon him; on the 11th ^a of November, 1603, sacred to St. Didacus, holding a sermon to the people, he foretold the destruction and ruin of the same city, shown to him divinely, fifteen years before it happened: and he added that, however much that church (in which he spoke) should be shaken by the violence of an earthquake, and upon the pulpit in which he preached the mass of the falling walls should come down; yet this should in no way be shattered, remaining untouched. All which were fulfilled according to his word; for on the 14th day of the month of February, in the year 1618, namely the eighth after his death, by a horrible earthquake the buildings and temples of that place were leveled to the ground, and under their ruins a great number of men buried: but the very pulpit (in which he had prophesied these things) remained without harm, and under it a certain good and poor old woman escaped peril and death.

[75] and foretells the death of a woman. When the holy Man foretold these things, he also admonished the spouses Didacus Sancius and Maria Ortega to flee from the coming wrath; who, obedient to his discourses, withdrew to the city of Lima; where, when Father Didacus Curiel, an observant recollect, once persuaded the aforesaid Maria to return to Trujillo, on account of the troubles which she suffered at Lima, she answered that she had once been taught by the holy Father Solanus that if at the time of the earthquake, infallibly to come, she should stay there, she would be miserably buried under the ruins. Which prophecy indeed of the Servant of God was also fulfilled in this part, when that unhappy woman, having returned to Trujillo a little before the earthquake, remained suffocated under the falling rubble.

[76] By the pains of a perilous childbirth to the most grievous struggles of the death-agony had come lady Maria de Sylva, wife of Georgius Manricus de Lara, He foretells a woman a happy childbirth, knight of the Order of St. James, and auditor in the royal audience of La Plata ^b; the delivery of the child was despaired of by the physicians, to whom no way lay open except that of section. But since that is wont to bring peril of death, therefore, for whatever outcome of so hard a remedy, the woman in labor is disposed by the reception of the Sacraments. Reconsidering these things with sad heart, she remembered that four months before it had been said to her by father Francis Solanus that she should call him to herself when the time of childbirth drew near, because she would receive great help from his presence. Being asked therefore, the Man of God straightway dissuaded the prepared remedy of the cruel section, affirming that she would forthwith bring forth a beautiful male: meanwhile the pains of the pregnant woman increased, her eyes began to grow dim, and the offices of the senses to be lost; so that she was believed by all to be in the death-agony.

[77] There was present among others the major secretary of the Peruvian government, and knows by divine gift the sex of the child. who, for a last trial of remedy, wished the dying woman to be surrounded with the cord of father Solanus: scarcely did the sacred cord touch her, when straightway she was seen to return to herself, and to resume her strength. Then the aforesaid secretary and the Servant of God, withdrawing into another nearer chamber, there, a short space of time being passed, received from all and from the midwife herself that the woman in labor had been delivered of the birth, and had borne an excellent female. But the Man of God, whom the infallible truth had taught the event by a sure prediction, answered that all had been deceived in the sex of the child: Let them observe, he said, diligently; for it is a male, and is to be adorned with the name of Francis. The infant therefore being inspected, it is found to be a beautiful and comely son, and in the sacred laver of baptism, out of reverence and love for the Servant of God, received the name of Francis. And although that mother in the course of time bore very many sons, yet he survived them all with a longer life.

[78] Father Ludovicus ab Ayala, a religious of the Society of Jesus, [To a certain young man he foretells his entrance into religion and the healing of his father,] when he still lived in the world, heard from the man of God Francis that he would one day embrace the regular life. Of whom he had also another irrefragable sign of the prophetic spirit, when, his parent Ferrerius de Ayala laboring under a mortal sickness, and despaired of by the physicians, he came to the convent of St. Mary of the Angels to commend him to the prayers of the Servant of God. For, desisting from the prayer to which, segregated from all human converse, he had for some days given himself, the holy Man, foreseeing that he was being sought, went to the door of the monastery; and, with his wonted cheerfulness of countenance anticipating the other's words, repeated twice: Thy father is very sick; yet this infirmity is not unto death. The effect that followed, beyond human hope, confirmed his promise.

[79] to another religious the health of a sick man, Similarly also to father Andreas ab Fizaguirra, a religious of the Order of the Blessed Mary of Mercy, coming to him to commend by prayers the vicar general of the said Religious Order, being sick, Francis met in the cloister, and, anticipating him, said: Tell the father vicar general not to tempt God; but let him forthwith rise from his bed. Moreover he foretold to Father Andreas himself very many events; which, having all successively happened, attest the prophetic spirit of the Servant of God.

[80] to a mother the transit of her son from one Order to another, The son of Maria de Ortega, admitted to be clothed with the habit of the sacred Augustinian religion, was now to be signed with the monastic crown, and to be marked with the regular garment; which being heard, the mother ran to the convent of St. Francis, and complains to father Solanus that her son, long since consecrated by her to the Order of Minors, was now being clothed with the Augustinian tunic. To whom the blessed Father answered: A religious indeed the boy will be; yet not in the family of St. Augustine. Returned home at this, the woman found the youth changed from his begun purpose; who afterwards, having entered the Franciscan Order, was called brother Lucas Sancius.

[81] of an infant, When once he had gone out through the ways of the city of Lima to preach, together with a copious multitude of the common people there approached a certain Negro servant carrying a six-month-old little girl; to whom the Man of God, turned, and addressing the little infant, said: Little angel, to die, before to sin. These words, though of uncertain meaning, the servant mother received, and, weeping, returned home: to her mistress asking the cause of her weeping, she answered that she grieved for the certain death of her little son, whom the man of God Solanus had foretold would die. And indeed it was noted that when Francis began to be sick, the boy fell ill, and three days after his death departed from among the living.

[82] and the death of a man, To a man walking through the cloister of the convent of Lima, depraved and contaminated with the corruption of many vices, the holy Man made himself met, and admonished him to be converted from the worst way to the path of salvation by means of penance, since his days were to be few, and the end of destruction was imminent. Terrified by the admonition, the sinner was compunct, and by the friends to whom he had related the things said to him is recorded to have died the same year of a quartan fever.

[83] finally to another he foretells the birth of a child and the death of his wife. There once fell sick of a perilous sickness the wife of Gregorius Lopez; but the parents of the sick woman, ill-affected toward her husband, threatened that, she being dead, they would take away all the dowry (which she had brought). Having learned the case of the afflicted man, Francis admonished him not to be consumed with grief in vain, for a daughter would shortly be born to him of his wife, who would free him from this fear; but his spouse (God so ordaining) would die. The event that followed proved the truth of his assertion.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VIII.

The knowledge of thoughts, and the notice of other hidden things, and the healing of some sick persons.

Lady Joanna de Sylva, mother of Father Bonaventura de Salinis y Corduba, long since afflicted with grave infirmities, He commands a woman to disclose the suggestion of a demon, and detained in bed, was wont to be visited by the Man of God. But on a certain day at evening the reverend Father Joannes Sebastianus ^a, Provincial of the Society of Jesus, visiting her, after setting forth words of consolation and admonitions of salvation, withdrew into a corner of the chamber with the servant of God Francis: and while they conversed together in a low voice, and the sick woman rested quietly, suddenly, groaning in spirit, the holy Man hastened to the little bed, and interpellated the sick woman to disclose the suggestion of the demon (which she then suffered).

[85] To whom she answered that Satan was now trying to induce into her mind a perverse thought, which he had recognized by divine gift, namely that she now suffered graver things in her bed than Christ suffered on the cross, and that her pains were sharper and also more lasting than the torments of the Savior; in which, since the divinity strengthened the weakness of human nature, and gave an end to the torments in the space of three hours, there was no reason why her troubles should be compared with his. The bystanders marveled at the frauds of the infernal enemy, but were more astounded at the spirit of the Man of God, penetrating invisible things; who had learned by revelation the temptation which he had known neither by the words, nor signs, nor motions of the sick woman.

[86] The same woman, at length brought to the last period of life, and to open the inspiration of her guardian angel. he visited, about to relieve her by counsels and prayers: who, when on account of the vehemence of her pains she was held to lie supine, straightway, her face suffused with joy, began to sit up on her little bed. The Man of God approached her, and, by a divine light recognizing what new thing had happened, the others being astonished at the case, admonished her with the sweetest words that, for the glory of God, and to the utility of the bystanders, she should narrate the vision which she had seen, and the new things which the heavenly messenger had brought. To whom she, complying, said that she had enjoyed the kindly sight of her guardian angel, and had learned by his colloquy that her sins had been forgiven her, and that she was shortly to be loosed from the flesh, and to be transferred by him into the kingdom of beatitude: and these things said, within a short time she sweetly expired. From which it is manifestly plain that the Man of God either with pure and purged eyes detected the angelic presence, or reported by the understanding of the prophetic spirit what the corporeal keenness of light could not.

[87] Brother Bernardus Arias, a Minorite lay brother, while he passed the year of probation, suffered grave temptations concerning his religious vocation; A secret temptation of a certain one, and when he once ministered to the Man of God as he celebrated, he felt a most urgent impulse of the demon concerning returning to the world, and casting off his habit. Perceiving this suggestion of the enemy by a divine light, the holy Priest, made nearer to the minister on occasion of the washing of hands, in a low voice (lest he be heard by the bystanders) said: Do not, Brother, put off thy garment, nor obey the diabolical voice; beware lest it deceive thee. The tempted novice was astounded at this, and began thereafter to reckon the Father, before unknown to him, as a prophet, and, acquiescing in his admonitions, persevered in his holy vocation.

[88] and he knows the hidden sins of another, A certain man, having entered the convent of Lima to visit a Religious familiar to him, while he awaits the one called in the cloister, is met by the Man of God; and is asked whether he sought a friend. He, thinking that he inquired of him concerning the Religious dear to him, answered by assenting. But the pious Father, affirming that he had spoken not of a temporal friend, but of the true and eternal beloved of souls, Christ (whom he had here grievously offended), solicitously admonished the man to abstain from sins, and to flee the proximate occasion of sinning with such a woman, wholly to desert that harlot, and not that night to go out into the city on account of the snare of death prepared for him. Softened by these words, and stupefied, the sinner was induced to a prompt confession: which, because it seemed too sudden for want of preparation, Francis pressed, and took upon his own care the disposition of him.

[89] and suggests to the one confessing. While therefore he, having entered the cell of the Servant of God, confessed the guilt of his conscience, the latter so distinctly brought back to his mind all his faults, as if he had perpetrated them all in his presence and sight. At length, when the penitent thought that nothing further lay hidden, the prudent Confessor added that there was still one wound of the heart unknown; but he, on the contrary, asserting the opposite, he added again: Dost thou not remember such a girl, whom thou art leading into the peril of perpetual loss? Thus therefore, the confession being completed, he thereafter abstained from the wicked conversation of the woman. But, mindful of the entire prophecy, he did not dare to go out from the house that night, and rightly indeed: for afterwards another, who was perishing for love of the same harlot with a most intense affection, ingenuously told him that if on the aforesaid night he had come to the woman's house, without doubt, to be pierced with a dagger, he would have perished in the very snares which the same had prepared for him. All these things that man, from a sinner made just, and therefore become his own accuser, juridically declared, to the glory of God and the honor of so great a Father.

[90] He detects secret hatreds, When Gregorius Lopez fostered in his heart a secret hatred toward a certain one, he asked to be heard in confession by the Man of God. To whom he: Be it so, but first go to be reconciled to thy neighbor, whom thou hast affected with injuries. The astounded man obeyed, and, pardon being obtained from him (whom he had injured), was received to salutary penance with the greatest consolation of his soul. When also a certain woman, Maria de Valera, once commended herself to the prayers of the Servant of God, the holy Man answered her: Lay aside hatred from thy heart, and extinguish the enmity (by which thou offendest God), and then hold for certain that the divine mercy will heap upon thee many benefits. Compunct by these words, the woman turned into love and peace the secret aversion which, on occasion of the paternal inheritance, she had conceived against her own brother; and afterwards was endowed by God with very many graces, according to the word of the Prophet.

[91] The venerable Father was wont so frequently and so distinctly to manifest the hidden secrets of the heart of a certain grave man and he manifests the hidden sins of another. that he more than once fled from his colloquy and meeting, lest he should declare to him the latent guilts of his conscience. But among other things, on a certain day, when, overcome by the violence of temptation, he was meeting an impure woman, Francis met him as he went, and with sharp words reproached him with the turpitude (which he was about to perpetrate), disclosed whatever he was revolving in his mind; indicated the name of the harlot, admonished him of her perilous infirmity, and (which is best) brought the man, turned away from the precipice of sin, to contrition and horror of his fault.

[92] Maria Magdalena de Salinis, coming to the convent of St. Francis for confession, marveled that the secret The purpose of a girl concerning embracing religion which she had confidently manifested to two only, concerning her purpose of putting on the habit of St. Clare, had been penetrated by the man of God Francis: for he, sent into the confessional, straightway anticipated her with a cheerful countenance: Happily, he said, mayest thou come, bride of Christ; the angels have rejoiced at thy purpose, be patient and constant; since many contradictions of thy parents will arise in the profession, but all will fail, and all things will happily succeed for thee. Marveling at the secret of her heart detected, the virgin, when afterwards, having entered the monastery, she saw the storms which the Man of God had foretold, and their happy outcome, did not doubt that he was illumined by prophetic knowledge.

[93] Brother Ildephonsus, a lay brother, while he ministered to the Man of God in his last sickness, and he opens the secret thought of a Minorite. once gazing upon his dry and emaciated countenance, and reconsidering his eminent sanctity, began to agitate with himself: Truly this is the most perfect image of our holy Father Francis. Then the humble Man, illumined, taught by his interior spirit the secret of the brother, said: Pray God, brother, that he wholly turn away from thee this thought.

[94] To Petrus de Andasalazar, walking through the cloister of the convent of Lima, a certain unknown Religious presented himself, To a certain man he indicates the places in which he had sinned, who said: "Know, sir, that God has used his mercies with thee, in that he has so long awaited thy penance. Remember the faults which thou hast perpetrated in France, Castile, Portugal, and elsewhere." The man was astounded at these words, and at the distinct designation of the places (in which he had been): yet who it was that had spoken them, he knew not; until, a rumor being spread of the passing of a certain holy Man, he went to see him; whom, when he had gazed upon him, he said: This is he who revealed to me the state of my conscience; and, having inquired the name, received that he was called father Solanus.

[95] By the same light of the spirit, foreseeing Joannes Denia Bolañus ^b hastening to a single combat, and the purpose of a single combat, he brought him back to peace with his adversary. Thus also Joannes Luzerus de Savedra, by chance having entered the church of the convent of Lima, the Man of God, appearing unexpectedly, exhorted with distinct and fervent words to enter into concord with a certain soldier (against whom he was going to fight), and to lay aside the appetite of vengeance.

[96] and he sees and impedes the meditated vengeance of another. Moved on occasion of a certain injury, Franciscus Ildephonsus de Caravajal resolved to take away the life of another. And when for this reason he sought an opportunity, by chance he had to enter the convent of St. Francis. When straightway Francis, wholly unknown in word and face, met him, and with a kindly voice asked that he would deign to bestow an alms upon him: and to him asking what he sought, the Servant of God answered him: "That he should wholly repel the perverse thought (which he had formed), about thence to render to God a pleasing service, and to himself a large benefit; and also to arm himself with the shield of patience, of which especially he had need." Having heard so lucid a declaration of his secret, the man commended himself to the prayers of the Father, and, returning confounded, presumed that he, though unknown to him, was a holy Man and dear to God; by whose word he had felt the hidden heart opened, healed by a prompt correction, and changed for the better. In fine, the gaze of the Man of God in searching out the secrets of hearts was so perspicuous that many, fearing the revelation of their secrets, either sometimes declined his meeting, or at the beginning of a discourse voluntarily laid open their hidden thoughts. How much he expended this grace of the divine largess for the good of his neighbor, the arguments already related have proved.

[97] By his prayers he obtains health for a sick man, The holy Man cured the souls of the people of Lima by the word of preaching and the light of prophecy; but their bodies by the efficacy of prayer and merits he snatched from the jaws of death and from perils. For doctor Joannes Velasquez, archdeacon of the church of Lima, oppressed by a grave sickness, ordered the man of God Francis to be called to himself; who (his hands being placed upon his head) reciting the Gospel, he straightway felt the pain mitigated and diminished, and conceived a sure hope of perfect health, which he also attained without any other remedy.

[98] and others from a quinsy Laboring under the pain of a quinsy, and brought into the peril of life, lady Mayor de Alarcon asked Father Didacus de Pineda, the guardian, to send her some cord of the holy father Solanus, still living: which indeed being received, she girt herself at the fourth evening hour. But on the following day a pestilent ulcer emitted foul and evil-smelling

pus through the very mouth of the sick woman, the physician marveling, and ascribing the sudden case to a miracle.

[99] from a mortal fever, When Michael de Belilla, a bookseller, by the violence of a mortal fever seemed to have come to the last term of life, the Sacraments being received (by the counsel of the physicians despairing of his health), the Religious are called to aid him set in the death-agony. Father Francis Solanus is sent, who with another father of the Society of Jesus recited according to custom the commendatory prayers of the passing soul. Meanwhile the physician, by name Raymundus, arrived: since it was the seventh hour after noon, he affirmed that the sick man, most certainly, according to the rules of art, would die within four hours (that is, about midnight). But the servant of God Francis, approaching the sick man, and the Gospel being pronounced over him, turned to his companion, said: Let us return to the convent: for we shall accomplish more there than here. The passing of the dying man is therefore awaited, when, behold, at the very hour at which the physician had foretold the soul would depart, suddenly the sick man, free from all sickness, all marveling, appeared sound, and within two or three days went out of his house and returned to his shop. When the aforesaid physician saw him there, astounded, and thinking he saw a phantom, he signed himself with the cross; but he did not at all doubt to ascribe his sudden health to the merits and prayers of the holy father Solanus.

[100] Didacus de Astorga had for three days emitted copious blood from his mouth, and he frees from a hemorrhage. and had filled three no small vessels with that humor. But when he had drunk a cup of pure and clear water offered to him by the man of God Francis, his confessor, he straightway felt the blood stanched, and the sickness wholly departed. Many other benefits received from the venerable Servant of God are related, by which he bound the whole of that city to himself with the bond of perpetual gratitude.

ANNOTATIONS.

read: institit* (pressed)

CHAPTER IX.

His lively faith, firm hope, and ardent charity toward God.

As a stream from a fountain, light from the sun, an effect from a cause, so the external acts of men proceed from an internal principle, There was in St. Francis Solanus and, like the fruit of a tree, such as are the interior affections, such come forth the extrinsic operations. Hence it is that Christ, the master of perfection, teaches that men are to be known by their fruits. Since therefore from the preceding the wondrous proceeds of the external operation of our Francis Solanus have appeared, it is not incongruous to enumerate the virtues by which he rendered himself commendable before God and among men.

[102] Faith, without which no one can please God, a lively and in whose solidity, as in a base, the foundation of the whole spiritual edifice subsists, had so invaded the man of God Francis, that he gave a firm and undoubted assent in all things to the Catholic truths. There was in him not only that speculative and idle faith, languishing and as it were dead; but a living, practical, and operative faith, by which each one exercises by working what he believes: hence arose the desire of sowing the Gospel and propagating the faith, by which he asked to be sent by his Superiors to the barbaric lands of Africa; and when he could not attain the desired end in this part, God disposing otherwise, he passed over to the Peruvian kingdoms, and traversed those deserted and uncultivated regions in hunger, thirst, cold, and nakedness, and desired to attain the palm of martyrdom the more eagerly, as riches are desired by the miser, and pleasures by the sensual heart.

[103] faith, How firmly he believed the mysteries of the most sacred Trinity, of the Incarnation, of the Eucharist, and the other supreme heads of our faith, so many affections, sighs, ecstasies, and swoons of heart, which he suffered at their simple reading or hearing, openly testify. There was moreover in the Man of God that faith freely given, which, proceeding from the liberal hand of God, renders a man safe in adversities and perils, a thaumaturge in the necessities of his neighbor. Hence it is that, appearing ever quiet and imperturbable in so many straits, pilgrimages, shipwrecks, he admonished others that divine help was at hand for those in peril, and that in troubles one should not despair.

[104] firm hope, But theological hope had chosen for itself a peculiar dwelling in the Servant of God: for by this he inclined his heart to do the justifications of God forever; by this, every temporal affection being loosed from its bond, he wholly aspired to the heavenly felicity, to be rendered from the most kind promise of God. For he desired to be dissolved, and to come to that homeland in which the object of our hope, beheld by a clear vision, is delivered into perennial fruition: there arose from that hope, as from a fountain, the contempt of human things, the love of heavenly ones, an ardent desire of paradise, and so efficacious an appetite of glory that at its mere name he was wholly loosed into jubilations and ecstasies.

[105] and an ardent charity; Charity, the form of virtues, had so made the man of God Francis its own that, like iron made red-hot, he was totally penetrated by its burning: for from its furnace he drew those frequent and anxious sighs, by which he showed himself wholly melted in the love of the highest good; he frequently reconsidered those divine mansions of the Blessed, and, wholly kindled in attaining them, grieved that his sojourn was prolonged. Thence also arose so great a love of heavenly things that when once he had asked a certain sick man the state of his health, and he answered, "Glory to God, for I am better": as soon as he heard this voice of the divine glory, struck by the invisible arrow of love, he seized two staves found there, and, striking one with the other, uttered a sweet ditty concerning Christ and his love; and thus, wholly rapt out of himself, and suspended in God, he went hurriedly out of that place, doubtless to give a freer entrance to his interior rapture.

[106] whence for the heat of love often into ecstasy, A certain Religious once visited him when sick, and addressed him concerning the glory of heaven and the felicity of paradise; at whose words the flame of love so blazed up in the Man of God, and so great a desire of the blessed fruition increased, that, wholly exhilarated, he suffered a marvelous rapture, so that, with hands extended and lifted, mouth open, eyes fixed on heaven, ears wholly deaf to the words of the Religious, he attested himself wholly immersed in the ocean of heavenly sweetness.

[107] or into a like excess of mind he was rapt, On a certain feast of the most holy Trinity, and a few days before he paid the debt of death, when in the oratory of the infirmary he had taken the sacrosanct food of the Eucharist, and while he was present at the dread Sacrifice, having heard these words from the Mass: Let us bless the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit: although weak and consumed with infirmity, yet he went out into the cloister, and, going forward with hurried step, as if by flight, cried out: Let us bless the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and repeating this, not without great admiration of the hearers, he went round the monastery. At another time also, coming out of his little cell, he uttered these words affectionately: Let us keep the faith and law of Jesus Christ; and, with his arms extended in the manner of a cross, his eyes lifted on high and dissolved in tears, he repeated with a terrible voice: "Fathers, let us keep the law of God, and the rule which we have professed; may God grant that I may never infringe his sacred precepts."

[108] But as often as a discourse concerning God, or his love, was instituted before the Man of God, he was wholly inflamed, he burst forth into joy of heart; and, that he might fan the fire of sacred love, withdrawing from others, he hastened alone into a corner before the cross or a devout image, as a victim to be burned by heavenly flames. Kindled also by that fire of charity, he often came forth into public, and commended to the crowds meeting him the love of God; attesting, O how sweet is God, how lovable, how worthy of love. And if ever he recognized some Religious conspicuous for the gift of a peculiar love toward God, and eager to promote the divine honor, hearing him, he thus said: "Let us see which of the two loves more fervently Christ the spouse of our souls, and, in sign of the greater love, let us contend this week which will render him more services, and more diligently procure the glory of his most holy Mother."

[109] From the very sensible things also, from which he might rouse himself to divine love, and from creatures he ascended to the Creator. he drew urgent and efficacious reasons, beholding in the created works the Maker himself, and from the effects of inanimate creatures regulated the motions of his soul. Whence, when on a certain day he had seen a pot kindled and boiling, having inquired of the Religious standing by the cause of the boiling, and he ascribing it (as is fitting) to the material fire, the holy Man, his eyes lifted on high, added: "Alas, what hinders that we too burn with the fire of charity, and our soul, like a kindled pot, boil with flames?" And these things said, feeling the impulse which he desired, he remained suspended in a long ecstasy. The effects also of that most intense charity are the discomforts which he suffered for God, the perils which he undertook, the martyrdoms which he desired; the things which he preached, which he did, which he endured, are also its most efficacious indications; his continual prayer, most lofty contemplation, and finally the rest of the virtues, with which his soul was adorned, the following chapters will demonstrate.

CHAPTER X.

His devotion toward the sacred mysteries of Christ, the most holy Eucharist, the Virgin Mother of God, and St. Bonaventure.

Toward the most holy Trinity, the Nativity of Christ Besides the eminent devotion toward the mystery of the most sacred Trinity, which he attested by praises, services, and songs, there was moreover in the man of God Francis a certain ardent and tender inclination toward the sacred Nativity of Christ, and he celebrated that most blessed night, in which the Word, clothed with flesh, assumed the human miseries, with a special worship and religion: for, revolving in his mind this ineffable condescension of the eternal Son, he was wholly loosed into jubilations, and chanted, with his voice and the sound of his little lyre, songs fit for so great a solemnity. While in the province of Tucumán he scattered the evangelical seed, he once passed that whole most holy night praying, weeping, and praising God. At another time, the same night recurring, unequal to his joy, he ran through the convent of the Recollection of Lima, drunk with charity, and wounded with love, and, moving the little bell, singing and psalming, provoked all the brothers to admiration and devotion.

[111] and the infancy, But the sacred infancy of Christ he recalled with so pious and tender an affection that he could neither think of it, nor utter it with his voice, nor contemplate it in an image, without a change of heart and body. Setting before the eyes of his mind the Savior as an infant, he exhibited to him the simple and pure reverence of the shepherds, and the solemn adoration of the magi; nor content that he alone should praise and bless, he invited a companion to render with him alternately the same offices of jubilation, song, and love.

[112] The Passion How much the Man of God loved the most precious Passion of Christ and the cross, not a few effects testify. For this he handled with continual meditation, extolled in his preachings,

and exhorted the peoples to imitate and bear it. The Crucifix, as an inseparable wall of his defense, wherever he went, he always bore. In one word, he continually bore in his body the mortification and torments of Jesus Christ, and took indefatigable care to impress them upon the minds of others. And when in the Mass he once read the history of the Passion, he was observed by the Religious minister to be dissolved into bitter and copious rivers of tears.

[113] and toward the Eucharist most devout To the memorial of the Passion, or the most august Sacrament of the Eucharist, he was borne with all the ardor of his heart; in it he had placed the citadel of his fortitude, in its contemplation he had put all the sweetness of his converse and the consolation of the present life. Having become a priest, he disposed himself to the celebration of so great a Sacrifice by vigils, abstinences, scourges, and prayers. While he celebrated Mass, with a most sweet affection of mind he ruminated the mysteries enclosed in its ceremonies and rite, and so great seemed the devotion of the celebrant that it both drew many hearers, and induced several to vie in serving him. The most excellent viceroy of the Peruvian kingdom himself, Ludovicus de Velasco, marquis de Salinas, frequently coming to the convent of the Recollection, perceived great sweetness from the private sacrifice of so great a Priest, to which he devoutly ministered.

[114] Often, having gone forward to the altar, and observing himself clad in those mystic vestments by which mortal and wretched man represents the figure of the Word incarnate, at once priest and victim, with singular piety he celebrates Mass he failed in the consideration of that ineffable condescension, and burst forth into praises of Christ and of the most blessed Virgin (who brought forth so great a food). Sometimes he was seen, while he performed the Sacrifice, to be rapt into ecstasy, and lifted up into the air; at another time, while he came to the altar dedicated to St. Anthony to celebrate Mass, there appeared before him a certain heavenly light, not inferior to the brightness of the sun, by which, as if led by the hand, he could say with the Psalmist, Psalm 118: Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths.

[115] He was wont, the mystery of the dread Sacrifice being completed, and the sacred vestments laid aside, and thanksgiving rendered, straightway to withdraw into his cell, and, the door closed, exhilarated by the presence of the heavenly King, to utter gifts of praise and reverence worthy of so great a guest: there he enjoyed the beloved, and in his most sweet converse tasted beforehand the delights of paradise. and is sometimes rapt into ecstasy, While once thus alone, and enclosed in his little cell, he mingled sweet colloquies with Christ, a certain brother knocked at the little door; but the mind of the Man of God, abstracted from the senses, did not hear the doubled knocks. Then the other, wishing to try the force of obedience, signified aloud that he was called by the Superior. At this sound Francis, suddenly awakened from spiritual sleep, opening the door, with a kindled and inflamed countenance, his cheeks and even his hood wet with a shower of tears, showed himself to be seen by the one calling; but recognizing the mandate of the Superior, straightway, in imitation of him who was made obedient unto death, that he might fulfill obedience, with a cheerful face went to the cell of the Prelate.

[116] At another time, while he thus prayed alone in his cell after the life-giving Sacrifice, and is surrounded with a wondrous splendor. roused by the repeated blows of a certain brother at the door of the little cell, the Man of God appeared to the one knocking, and with a kindly voice said: God pardon thee. But he was seen to emit such shining rays of light from his countenance that he dazzled the keenness of the eyes of the same brother and of another present: and filled their minds with so great reverence and admiration that he thought himself guilty of a grave fault, who by thus importunely knocking had turned him away from so ineffable a colloquy. But how many graces, illuminations, and benefits the friend of Christ Francis perceived in those private meetings with the divine love, he manifested to no one (because truly humble).

[117] There was in the Servant of God that affection and love toward the venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist, as it were the legitimate offspring of true and sincere faith, His veneration toward the Eucharist, by which he reckoned Christ lying hidden under the species of bread and wine so present, so venerable, worthy of love and adoration, as if he had seen him reigning in the midst of the senate of angels, and sitting in the empyrean at the right hand of the Father: whence, when he assisted at that divine presence, he was filled with an inconceivable joy and admiration, and, wholly absorbed in the serious contemplation of that supreme and great mystery, in the sweet sound of the lyre uttered sweet harmonies. When he discharged the office of Custos in the province of Tucumán, the festivity of the Body of Christ recurring, he was present at its wonted triumph in the public procession of the faithful; but when with the eye of faith he beheld the King of glory present, suddenly with a lifted voice he poured out sweet songs with so great a violence of love that in the midst of the assemblies of the Indians he imitated David singing and dancing before the ark: by which spectacle all being moved, tears springing up for tenderness, they increased their devotion with veneration.

[118] and his ministers. Profoundly indeed and devoutly he spoke of all the mysteries of the Christian religion, but especially of the most sacred Eucharist he uttered things so lofty, so savory, and profound, that he manifested that the treasures of divine grace lay hidden in him, and that heavenly secrets had been delivered to him. From that devotion to the life-giving Sacrament arose, inseparable from a devout and faithful heart, a true and humble reverence and affection toward the sacred ministers and priests; but especially toward the highest and greatest priest and Pontiff, the vicar of Christ, and the successor of Peter. He grieved moreover that so great a mystery was treated unworthily, and conceived a grave sorrow at the undevout deportment of Christians while they assist at the dread sacrifices of the Mass, and at profane colloquies before the altars and in the church; by which very often the temples of the faithful are dishonored more than the shrines of the gentiles.

[119] Most devoted to the worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary The special inclination of the predestined and of the Saints is devotion to Mary: this the truly predestined and holy man of God Solanus followed with all the ardor of his mind; to her service he was borne with a most intent reverence of heart. Her he had chosen for himself as a peculiar advocate and lady, whose glory, honor, and worship he took pains to promote in himself and in others; often revolving in his mind with how great privileges she was endowed by God, and considering the almost infinite grades of magnitude and perfection by which she surpasses the rest of creatures, he said: "I congratulate thee, O most holy Virgin and Mother, and I rejoice that the divine hand made thee so beautiful, so holy, and pure." With other encomiums of his fiery tongue also he uttered the praises of the beloved patroness of his heart, and in most devout song, even to ecstasy and rapture, he resounded her merits. But of this singular affection, which from his tender years to his death he ever led on by increasing it, there are at hand certain examples not incongruously to be related.

[120] by celebrating her praises, When he stayed in the convent of the city of Trujillo, he went to the church to pray, and once said to father Hieronymus Ildephonsus a Turre meeting him: "I go to modulate musical accents before the most beautiful Virgin, who awaits me." But he, that he might for certain and secretly detect what the Man of God was about to do, being wont to lie hidden in a corner, often saw him set before the altar and the sacred image of the Virgin Mary, and striking the little strings of his lyre, filled with so great sweetness and joy that he burst forth into wondrous leaps and movements, and at length observed him quiet, with knees bent, and persevering in prayer.

[121] Father Joannes Annas Solanus, procurator general of the Order of Preachers in the Peruvian province, and by delighting in enjoying colloquy, once visiting the man of God Francis in the convent of the Recollection of Lima, tried to persuade him to go out for a short space to the city, to refresh his mind even slightly from continual labors and penances. But straightway he received answer from the Servant of God: "In this monastery are my recreations and solaces, since it is given to me to enter frequent colloquy and to lead sweet converse with a certain lady, in whom I find relief of my pains, and perfect gladness of heart." Soon, taking his friend the Preacher by the hand, he drew him to the church, and, both setting their knees before the high altar, Francis, drawing off the veil with which it was covered, uncovered the sacred image of the Queen of angels, subjoining: "This is the plunderer of my soul, the lady, to whom I communicate, to whom I direct my words; and with whom I lead a sweet commerce." At this, pouring out an abundance of tears, he directed to the pious image discourses so sweet, tender, and affectionate that he filled the Religious assisting him with wondrous admiration and devotion.

[122] While the Man of God stayed in the same convent of the Recollection, and a man given to sadness when on the vigil of the Assumption the religious community had come to render thanks before the Sacrament after dinner; behold, that suddenly, moved by an impulse of love, and by the exaltation of so great a Virgin to heaven, springing into the middle chapel of the high altar, his eyes lifted to heaven, he began to psalm and sing: soon, his knees being set, in singing the devout songs of the praises of Mary, he persevered, not without the admiration of the beholders. There was then present Father Joannes de Navarreta ^a, a man illustrious for every kind of virtue; but chiefly conspicuous for the exercise of so great penance, compunction, and holy sadness that for many years he was never seen to laugh or to bear a cheerful face; but always so intent on ruminating within himself the sorrows of the suffering Christ that, on account of the copious tears of compassion which he poured out, he was called a new Jeremiah.

[123] This man therefore, since he thought that lamentation rather than joy more befitted a recollect Minorite, he induces to sing her praises cheerfully, not approving that sudden joy of our Francis, reproved him in some manner: but, O wondrous thing! straightway the man of God Solanus, rising, and in the fervor of a vehement spirit approaching the aforesaid father Joannes de Navarreta, so provoked him, tearful and sad, with few but efficacious words, to celebrate and sing the praises of the Virgin, that, changed inwardly by the invisible hand of the working God, he was straightway filled with spiritual joy, and he who before had preferred grief to gladness, burst forth into songs of jubilation, and with alternating voices vied with the servant of Mary Solanus in chanting the glory of the triumphant Queen in heaven.

[124] The praises of Mary were to the laboring Man of God rest, by which exercise he mitigated his labors to the afflicted a solace, and to the weary a refreshment: for in the great and harsh pilgrimages undertaken for God, wearied from the journey, exhausted with labor, consumed with hunger, dry with thirst, burned with heat, spent with cold, he reconsidered the name of Mary, and, in her most sweet praises forgetting his pains, perceived a heavenly sweetness. This tender devotion at last toward the most pious Mother of God, and constant confidence, which he had held in life, he consecrated when set in the death-agony: for when the last term of life was at hand, he asked that the sacred Canticle Magnificat, and the hymns dedicated to the Virgin by the Church, be recited before him by the brothers standing by; since from their most sweet words he perceived a great relief of his pain and disease.

[125] as also with special devotion toward St. Bonaventure. Among the other glorious citizens of the heavenly court,

he venerated with special devotion the Seraphic Doctor of the Church Bonaventure, whom he had chosen as a powerful advocate and intercessor with Christ. He was wont therefore, while he stayed in the convent of Lima, to withdraw secretly into the hall or school of theology, and there before the most devout image of the same holy Doctor to pass long hours of prayer, to beat himself with scourges even to a copious effusion of blood; there he conceived and fostered the apostolic spirit, full of which he went out to preach in the squares of the city; there he merited to have obtained and communicated to himself from so great a patron that seraphic love, and that sweet and kindly converse and longanimity by which he rendered himself lovable to all. There he was more than once seen to be illumined by certain heavenly and wondrous splendors running about on every side; and how grateful to himself were the services of his devoted Francis the holy Doctor showed, when he obtained from the divine goodness that he should migrate from this life on the same day of his own death ^b.

ANNOTATIONS.

perhaps eminentibus* (eminent)

perhaps conservavit* (preserved)

CHAPTER XI.

His fervent prayer, profound contemplation of heavenly things, ecstasies and raptures.

Devoted to the contemplation of heavenly things The gift of prayer and contemplation God granted to his servant Francis with so liberal a profusion that he is found to have attained all its grades, effects, and prerogatives, as far as mortal weakness allows. But since (the divine grace, however, preventing) a man disposes himself to this sublimity by some cooperation, therefore what Francis did in this exercise, or what he contributed by cooperating; and then what he attained by the kindly largess of the heavenly Father, is to be disclosed. The soul which desires to touch the death of secret contemplation, and to come to the supreme summit of union, must flee creatures, close the windows of the senses, and be free interiorly for itself. Let it have a familiar consideration of the divine presence, let it assign not a few hours to mental exercise; in one word, despising the flesh and the world, let it subject itself wholly to the will and motions of the Holy Spirit.

[127] This, the Father of lights preventing and aiding, the sublime grade of prayer mortal man can do; this Francis Solanus also, relying on divine help, did first: for his converse was heavenly, and however much among human solicitudes, yet he had made the habit of interior prayer so familiar to himself that he seemed to cease from it by no interval of days or nights. The interior peace of his soul no care, no trouble disturbed, and, taught the doctrine of the Seraphic Father, he held his soul in his body, like a quiet and solitary hermit in his cell. From that love of sacred prayer there flowed, like a stream from a fountain, flight from the world and desire of solitude: for he did not go out into public unless obedience commanded or charity persuaded; and then, lest he should disturb his beloved contemplation, from the sight of the material species meeting him he rose to the effigy of the divine beauty, and by the traces impressed on creatures he came to the infinite beauty of the Creator.

[128] The Man of God was wont moreover to destine determined hours to sacred prayers: he attained, for often, while he dwelt in the convent of St. Francis at Lima, he was seen to protract the exercise of holy contemplation in the choir from the eleventh hour of the night (namely that which precedes midnight) up to the fourth of the morning. No infirmity ever, no occupation or labor called him away from performing the times of prayer; often he passed whole nights sleepless, and days perpetually fasting, in the sweet consideration of heavenly things, and, as the reverend Father Alvarez de Paz ^a, tome 2, book 5, chapter 13, speaking of the Man of God, says: "He loved secrecy, and to dwell with himself, unless the glory of God demanded otherwise, he preferred to all things; and there, giving himself to assiduous prayers and the contemplation of divine things, not rarely suffered ecstasies and raptures: and, accustomed to these feasts, he often passed sleepless nights on the footstool of the high altar with the Lord hidden in the Eucharist, and, striking a little lyre with his hand, and singing psalms with his mouth, and tasting heavenly things with his heart, spent the night through."

[129] Since therefore the man of God Francis thirsted with so ardent a mind for the waters springing up into eternal life (which are granted to those thirsting in prayer), and in the meditation of divine things it is no wonder if God, who does not upbraid, gave them to him affluently, and made him admirable by the gift of most perfect prayer, as is plain from what follows. For first of all he decorated the continual attention of his Servant to heavenly things with those frequent ecstasies which souls, wholly torn from earthly things, are wont to experience. For the Man of God seemed, while he contemplated the things above, to have left his earthly dwelling, and, the bond of the corporeal mass being dissolved, to have transmitted his soul to the stars. For deaf then to those calling, blind to those meeting him, mute to those questioning, and abstracted from the images of sensible objects, he copiously tasted the sweetness of contemplation, and, suffused with an abundance of tenderness, was thought to be melting.

[130] ecstasies, On a certain day, while, leaning on a column of the cloister of Lima, he held his eyes fixed on the devout image of our seraphic father Francis, hung on a certain altar there, there passed by chance a pious and grave Religious, who, when he perceived that he was not anticipated by the honor of a salutation by the Man of God (as was wonted), as one who had once been his guardian, approaching nearer, called him, took his arm and pressed it; yet he neither answered his voice, nor felt the touch. But sometimes, while thus abstracted he was engaged in the divine colloquy, and yet the operation of the senses was not wholly idle, to the same one calling he bore for answer: Let God be glorified, let us love God; and repeating these things in the fervor of the spirit, he went out with a swift rapture beyond himself.

[131] raptures There is also another kind of raptures, by which not only does the fervent attention to heavenly things preclude the entrance of the animal spirits, lest they be transfused into the senses; but also the very soul, abstracted by desire of the object shown to it in the highest lovableness, draws with it the very body (to which it is annexed), and, overcoming the heavy mass of carnal weight, the spirit ascending to God like fire through the kindled motions of the powers, transfers with it into the air its material partner; this is the gift of the most liberal God, by which he rewarded the services of his servant Francis Solanus: for often, lifted into the air, he traversed no small spaces by a wondrous flight.

[132] and other favors of this kind Once, on the vigil of the solemn indulgence of the Portiuncula, after receiving the confessions of many penitents, when on the lowest of the twelve steps by which one ascends to the high altar of the monastery of Lima he had set his knees to pray before the most holy Sacrament; suddenly he was seen by Father Claudius Ramirez de Sosa, a religious of the same Order, and guardian of the convent of Cajamarca ^b, abstracted at the very summit of the aforesaid altar, and rapt into ecstasy, and soon in the same posture and kneeling, to have returned through the air to the place whence he had gone. While he stayed at Lima in the convent of the Recollection, once, drawn by an impulse of contemplation, he came from the upper choir up to the high altar, lifted in the air over a distance of a hundred feet, and there was found giving himself to serious prayer; thus also, while he inhabited the cloister of Trujillo, the undoubted report of the city published that he several times appeared lifted from the ground by the measure of half an ell, by the fervor of his spirit.

[133] he obtained from God. When once in the infirmary of the convent of Lima the Man of God lay very sick, brother Ildephonsus Muñoz, a Religious of exemplary life, companion of the commissary general, came to his chamber to visit him; and when he had found him kneeling and praying before the sacred image of the Virgin, he returned to the little cell of his companion. Scarcely had he entered it when he heard a sudden noise in the cell of the holy Father, as if proceeding from a cannon, at which, suddenly running up by the command of the aforesaid commissary to explore the cause, he beheld the ecstatic Servant of God coming out of the little cell, lifted more than half an ell from the ground, and flying hither and thither, the Holy Spirit leading him lest he strike against the walls and the vaults of the cloister, with his arms extended in the figure of a cross, his eyes lifted to heaven, and heard him uttering with a great voice the pious sentences of Scripture; until at length, clinging with a tenacious embrace to an Indian Tertiary ^c who by chance met him, returned from his ecstasy, he afterwards felt so great a debility of strength that he was carried by the aforesaid Ildephonsus and the Tertiary, languishing and failing between their hands, to his pallet.

[134] The offspring of spiritual joy conceived in prayer, But amid these tender affections, namely the holy cries and voices of the exulting soul, uttered either from admiration or from love, by which the human mind lays open the affections impressed upon it by God, most of all shone in our Francis Solanus. For he, while, illumined by the light of contemplation, he either beheld the divine perfection, or looked upon the misery of his own nothingness, was heard to exclaim: Who art thou, my God, and who am I; thou all, I nothing? But sometimes he said: My Jesus, mercy! Sometimes, before the precious Sacrament of the Eucharist, spreading his arms in the figure of a cross, he was heard to say aloud, Alas, Lord, who is it that offends thee; who offends thee, my God? And soon, prostrate with his face fixed on the ground, he began another kind of prayer.

[135] But inseparable from those excesses of cries and voices were the little streams of tears, sweet tears the gift of which he had received from the heavenly Giver, as a sign of compunct and efficacious prayer: for this abundance of weepings, flowing either from the melting of the heart, or from grief, God is wont to bestow on his servants exercised in contemplation; nor would it be fitting that, the intellect growing clear with the rays of truth, the will should grow cold, and, harder than rocks, should refuse to be cleft to tears of grief and compunction. Francis Solanus therefore mourned, softened by the tenderness of love, but especially compunct by the recollection of the Lord's passion; so that not rarely his eyes swelled from the vehemence of his weeping.

[136] But since God exercises contemplatives both by pains sent upon them and by their voluntary chastisements, and divine consolations, he often grants them with a liberal hand the sweetness which the Psalmist invites to taste. This assuredly Francis tasted in prayer, where, abounding with divine consolations, he was wholly loosed into jubilations, which, lest they lie open to human eyes, he fled into secret. That sweetness also of heavenly favor for the most part redounded from the soul into the body, which, flashing with a wondrous splendor, returned from the fellowship of the discourse of God, and dazzled the eyes of the beholders (as we said above concerning charity and love toward the sacred Eucharist), and sometimes, praying in the hall of theology of the convent of Lima, he appeared surrounded with certain rays of supernal light; sometimes many saw his face, by nature somewhat black, whitened with a color whiter than snow.

[137] Raptures of this kind, ecstasies, tears, voices, he preserved the highest self-abasement of soul, unless they beget the affection of holy humility, are doubtful indications of the divine Spirit: but if this be present, since the Father of pride can neither beget nor foster it, it is a most certain

argument of prayer taught from heaven and divinely inspired. Wherefore our Francis Solanus, whom the unction of the Holy Spirit taught, drew that fruit above the rest from prayer: for often he came forth from it so full of the knowledge of his own infirmity, and drew so submissive a judgment of himself, that he reckoned himself unworthy to tread the earth, and frequently repeated that it was a great wonder to him that the earth tolerated so grave a sinner (as he was). Another infallible effect also of true contemplation the Man of God drew from it for the good of his neighbor: for from it emanated that heavenly light by which he penetrated future events and the hidden secrets of hearts. And, finally, how great was the efficacy of his prayer, the history of his whole life, and what will follow below, will disclose; when what he could not procure for himself and others by human strength, he obtained by the virtue of his prayers by land and sea.

[138] and to the brothers he commended the zeal of prayer. Since therefore the servant of God Francis had proved by experience the utility of so holy an exercise in himself, and recognized its entire necessity to those walking in the way of perfection, he earnestly commended it to his brothers, and therefore, when he sometimes saw them intent on idle conversations among themselves, he grieved at the loss of time so precious; and for that reason also feared to be set over others, lest he be held to render to God an account of so great a loss. While he was guardian of the convent of the Recollection of Lima, he thought to root out the trees from the garden, lest the Religious, too intent on their culture, should neglect the care of the soul to be exercised by prayer: and finally he took it ill that elms should be planted in the promenade of the city near the aforesaid cloister of the Recollection; foreseeing that the Religious would be disturbed in the holy quiet of prayer by the noise and clamor of the people gathering there for recreation. From that fountain of prayer at last the Man of God drew salutary counsels in directing souls, efficacious words in preachings, and prudent documents and discreet precepts in prelacies.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER XII.

His highest charity toward his neighbor, prompt obedience, religious poverty, and angelic chastity.

The offspring of the love of God is the love of neighbor: with this fire of charity also the man of God Francis blazed, His charity as many things related in the preceding chapters testify. For this ardent love toward men he manifested in Spain, in his voyage, in the provinces of Tucumán by not a few indications; nor did he abandon it in the parts of Lima (as is plain from what follows), but by new increases daily intensified it. He was touched by all the evils of his neighbor more than by his own, sought prompt remedies for them, efficaciously succored all; yet the spiritual losses of others, because graver, pierced his mind with a keen sorrow: whence arose that continual and indefatigable solicitude in preaching, reproving, and admonishing, which throughout the whole course of his life marvelously shone in him.

[140] The poor he loved with the tenderest affection, dealt with them humbly and kindly, toward the poor, bestowed the alms (which he could procure), and, informing and directing them with good and salutary counsels, turned them away from evil, teaching that death and deadly famine were rather to be endured than sin and the offense of God to be perpetrated. Moreover he diligently took care to make this love common to all by extinguishing hatreds, taking away enmities, recalling the peoples to peace and love, and exhorted the afflicted or oppressed, by the example of the passions of Christ, to the tolerance of labors.

[141] In the care of the sick he was marvelous: the sick, for, being wont to visit the hospitals, to prepare the beds of the sick, to cleanse the vessels, to furnish certain sweet foods, to ease their pains with services and exhortations, to hear the confession of their sins, he embraced all with ardent charity. He never intermitted also the solicitude for the sick brothers, which, because commended by the precept of the rule, he preferred to the exercise of prayer, otherwise so dear to him from another source. And so, besides the most lavish ministries by which he succored the infirm brothers, he also refreshed them with what consolation he could, and, chanting the divine praises and the hymns of the Virgin Mother with the most sweet harmony of lyre and voice, affected their hearts with a wondrous sweetness.

[142] When Father Joannes de Arpeytia, who was minister of the Province of the Twelve Apostles, the sad, was staying at Trujillo, and on a certain night was perturbed by importunate and sad thoughts; behold, that at the tenth hour of the night the Man of God enters his cell, and, anticipating him, asked what trouble he suffered; and to him denying that anything had happened to him, he said: All thy things are manifest, but I know how to sing; and saying these things he drew out his lyre, which, striking before the image of the most sacred Virgin, he chanted her praises with a sonorous voice. The music finished, he withdrew in silence, and left the sad Religious suffused with a wondrous joy of mind, his grief changed into gladness.

[143] the dying, Similarly the Servant of God visited Anna Manrique, the first restorer and abbess of the third Order in the Peruvian kingdom, laboring under fevers; but she said within herself: What could more fitly ease the sadness of my heart than the most pious song of father Solanus? yet she feared to lay open the desire of her mind. But the Man of God, the Spirit speaking within to him, taught the thought of the devout woman, straightway uttered songs so sweet in honor of the recently born Christ-child that the sick woman, filled with consolation of mind, thence began to acquire perfect health of body. For directing the sick in the death-agony, and preparing them for the passage of death, he had received a special grace from God, and therefore to the office of so great a charity he seemed not only to run, but to fly; and he who otherwise was most given to silence, then, like rains, sent forth the eloquence of wisdom; in one word, he ministered to the sick so eagerly that no word of impatience or sign of sadness was ever detected in him.

[144] and other sick persons, When he stayed at Trujillo, he was sometimes seen by a certain woman devoted to the Order to come forth from the convent with his sleeves full of provisions; to whom once, when she inquired whither he went so often, he answered that he went to the house of a certain one dear to him. By which answer the woman, stimulated to curiosity, perceived him, having gone out of the city, to have entered the house of a certain little old woman, detained in bed, infected with a horrible leprosy, wholly abandoned by neighbors and kin on account of the foul odor of putrefaction; where, in the fervor of the spirit of charity, his knees set on the ground, he was seen to kiss the horrid ulcers of the sick woman, then, standing, to cure, wash, and cleanse them: at length, patience being commended to her, and the gifts (which he had brought) bestowed, to pass thence to the hospital; where he made up the beds, and bestowed on the sick the spiritual and corporal ministries which we related above.

[145] and mercy toward the souls of purgatory About the last years of his life he occupied in the infirmary of the convent of Jesus at Lima a cell assigned to him on account of his continual sicknesses; there he was wont daily to visit the sick brothers twice, and to exercise ardently and humbly all the meaner offices. This affection of charity also he extended even to the souls of purgatory, tenderly compassionating their pains, and took pains to free them by prayers, penances, and suffrages from that prison-house of the dungeon, and to restore them as quickly as possible to the heavenly light; and invited others to the same offices of piety by frequent discourses.

[146] and his kindness The Man of God, in fine, was adorned by the supreme Artificer with a nature so sweet, so kindly, and gentle, that he suffered no one to withdraw from him unless suffused with gladness and joy, and consoled, and whoever chanced to address him, or to utter his sins before him in confession, professed that he experienced a wondrous cheerfulness and quiet of heart. The very animals also found in so worthy a Son of the Seraphic Parent the innocence and kindness which they had once proved in him; whence it is no wonder if he tamed fierce bulls, if he exterminated locusts, if gnats, by the command of his voice, as was seen above.

[147] Birds also, presensing in him the traces of that primitive innocence which Adam by sinning had lost, toward the very irrational animals. showed themselves familiar and domestic to him: for often he was seen and heard, while he stayed in the convent of Trujillo, to converse among the little birds, and to exhort them to utter the praises of the Creator by song; but they, as if possessed of reason, sat upon his head, shoulders, and arms as upon the branches of trees, resounded the divine songs with him by the harmony of their natural voice, plucked with familiar beak from his hand the provision of bread cut into little pieces offered to them, two of which, by chance killed, the report of faithful witnesses affirms were restored to life by the Man of God, moved with compassion. The ants infesting the infirmary of the convent of Lima he so drove away by the command of his will alone that they thereafter brought no trouble to the sick, nor damage to their food. Allured by the same kindness of the holy Man, the fish, in the aforesaid shipwreck of those going from Spain to the Indies, offered themselves of their own accord to him to be caught for the food of men: crabs also, coming from the waters even to his little hut, receiving them with a kindly voice, he said: Come, creatures of God, that you may be food for your greater brothers.

[148] The obedience of the man of God Francis Solanus is a most bright mirror, Impelled by obedience in which every Religious will be able to contemplate the exemplar of his actions. For nothing was more at heart to that Minorite than to fulfill the course of his profession by the safe and beaten paths of obedience. No one hastens more eagerly to dignities and honors, none more swiftly to the pomps of the world, than he sought the life of a subject and the grade of an inferior; how often he refused and renounced the offices of the Order offered, nay, even conferred upon him, that he might not desert his beloved obedience, the examples related above testify. But as many as chanced to be under him as prelate, all with one voice proclaimed him a most zealous observer of the regular observance; for since he knew that this virtue is blind, and that its perfection consists not only in the absolute abnegation of one's own will, but also in the perfect blindness of reason, he promptly and cheerfully obeyed all the nods of his superiors, nor, detained by debility or infirmity of body, did he run to fulfill the mandates of his prelate.

[149] Being ordered by a certain superior, he undertook a long and difficult pilgrimage, he executes difficult commands, though so infirm and weak of body, and afflicted by a supervening fever, that the very one who had ordered it, led by penitence, and fearing lest he fail on the way, when nine leagues were completed, commanded him to stop; adding moreover that he should

choose some convent pleasing to himself to inhabit: but he, lest he should in anything follow the impulse of his own will, asked the prelate to appoint by his prudence the house which he should inhabit. Knowing therefore how much of price accrued to religious actions from the merit of obedience, he never presumed to undertake a work, however small, without its intervention; but in all things either awaited the mandate of his Superior, or asked license. This finally he tried to persuade his brothers by words and deeds most efficacious to be the proper and innate virtue of the regular state, by which, as by the foundation of a structure, falling, the whole spiritual edifice collapses, without which there would be neither Religion nor fraternity.

[150] and from love of poverty The precious pearl of the Minorite family, poverty, the Man of God cultivated earnestly, and in its observance proved himself a legitimate son of the Seraphic Father. A vile and harsh tunic, a hard bed, thin food, fasts almost continual, a short and narrow cell, scanty furniture, flight from rest, love of labor, hatred of delights and pleasure, demonstrated that that true poverty which Christ taught, which the Seraphic Father desired in his own, had chosen for itself a peculiar throne in Francis Solanus. The beauty of that virtue is wont for the most part to wither in prelates, when, rigid to themselves, they indiscreetly admit either an excessive curiosity in buildings, or a largess in gifts to seculars. But our Solanus, while he presided over the convent of St. Mary of the Angels of the Recollection of Lima, rejecting everything superfluous or curious, permitted neither the pavements to be laid with a floor, nor the boards of the doors and windows to be planed with the chisel; affirming that by those ornaments the beauty of holy poverty is deformed.

[151] he rejects precious gifts, Likewise, two images of Christ and the Virgin offered by a certain devout secular to the convent of the Recollection, when he knew that they were appraised at five hundred coins, a zealot of evangelical poverty, he would not receive, and said, with a sentence worthy of Father Francis, that their price exceeded the condition of mendicant brothers; and that it would be more grateful and acceptable to God if it were turned to relieving the misery of some orphan girl or of many needy. From love of the same evangelical poverty he rejected the peculiar gifts offered to him by seculars, compassionating his necessity, of things otherwise lawful to a Minor. Some months before his death, he carried to the guardian certain vile books of small price (from which he drew the matter of his sermons), that he might transfer them according to his discretion to the use of others: but at length, in the last struggle of the death-agony, that he might show himself truly poor, he humbly asked of the guardian a habit for his burial, and obtained it as an alms.

[152] and to preserve chastity That the flower of unspotted chastity in the man of God Francis imitated the beauty of angelic purity, the trustworthy assertion of those who lived familiarly with him and of the Religious who received the sins of the one confessing confirms. For he had so impressed the care of this virtue upon the marrow of his heart that all his words and deeds, his looks and steps, his converse and action breathed the sweet odor of chastity; no one more modest than he, no one more silent, none purer in eyes and senses. Familiar colloquy with women he wholly avoided, nor did he ever address them unless bound by the necessity of obedience or charity; and then he bore before them so great a composition of sight and tongue that from it he openly manifested the innocence and purity of his heart.

[153] he employs various means, While in the province of Tucumán he taught the peoples the Christian doctrine, observing the perverse occasions, and the unbridled liberty of the nation to evil, he designated a certain place and tract, a hundred paces distant from his little cell, beyond which he forbade any Indian woman at all to pass, nor to address him anywhere except in the church for confession or some other necessary matter; but if any transgressed the prescribed limits, he ordered her to be punished by the fiscal officers set over the doctrine. But so fortified against the external attacks of the senses by modesty and flight from female converse, he also repressed the domestic enemy, namely the petulance of the flesh, by harsh penances, and by continual afflictions of the body disposed himself to attain that best gift of the supreme Giver (virginal chastity). Which indeed that he attained, not only many indications while he lived, but also the change of his body, its whiteness, tractability, and sweet odor proved. Moreover God willed to manifest the purity of his Servant even by a miracle, when the leg, touched by the physician after death, drew itself back to itself.

CHAPTER XIII.

The austere manner of living, the greatest humility, and wondrous patience.

Whoever shall inspect the debility of the human body, and the weak complexion of corruptible flesh, Besides an austere abstinence will reckon the penances of the man of God Solanus as it were incredible; unless he attend to the power of the divine hand, shining forth in the victories over our frailty: for the servant of Christ Francis declared so hard a war upon his members that he seems never to have granted any relief or rest to his body; marvelous in the mortification of the senses, he tamed his eyes with modesty, his tongue with silence, his mouth with abstinence: he was never heard to utter idle words, nor ever to open his ears to voices of contumely, murmuring, and dishonor. He was so sparing in food that he frequently protracted abstinence for two or three days; and so temperate that he scarcely ate the foods necessary for sustaining nature: whence, debilitated by continual infirmities, bound by the command of physicians and prelates to the eating of flesh, content for the most part with half the liver of a hen and a small draught of broth, he was thought to lead a life, as the physicians affirmed, miraculously protracted.

[155] To so many abstinences he added a rigid maceration of the exterior man: he tortured his body with hair-shirts and scourges, for under a shaggy and harsh garment he bore a hair-shirt horrid with points next to his flesh, which he also tortured every night with the harshest scourges, sometimes repeated even to a copious effusion of blood; so that he, who on account of his health seemed to the physicians never to have an abundance of the sanguine humor to be poured out by section, expressing the same so frequently by the violence of the scourges, stained the walls and pavements. An irreconcilable enemy of his own flesh, while in his last sickness he suffered the sharpest pains, and moved the affection of compassion of all the brothers toward himself; he himself, ever austere and merciless to himself, lifted cheerful eyes to heaven, and said with a lively voice: O happy me, for whom, when strength is lacking to me to scourge my body and to bind and tame that traitor, the divine hand has armed itself in my vengeance.

[156] and with apostolic labors Besides those hard and assiduous mortifications of the penance inflicted upon himself, incredible are the discomforts, and how great, which in so many pilgrimages undertaken for the glory of God and the good of his neighbor the apostolic Man tolerated. All the faithful alumni of the Minorite profession know how grave evils the preachers walking according to the evangelical norm suffer, and of how arduous a reward he is worthy who, without money, without a bag, without human aid, on foot and a beggar, goes forth to sow the word of the Gospel. By these ways the true Minorite Francis Solanus was exercised, going from the city of Lima to the provinces of Tucumán through shores burning with the sun's rays, through pathless mountains, through deserted and horrid places, through deep and rapid rivers; now vexed by thirst, now by hunger, now by infirmity, now by persecution, he passed, and traversed so great a course of six hundred leagues, as it is certain he did on foot in his return, so also it ought to be beyond doubt that he traversed it going.

[157] he added other macerations of the flesh; Sometimes also, being sent from the convent of the Recollection of Lima to the place which is called Callao ^a, distant two leagues; that he might render the shortness of the journey harsher by the affliction of the flesh, he pierced his sandals with sharp nails, whose points, verging toward his feet, it is to be believed bloodied them in the course of the way with a cruel wound. When he was in the convent of Lima, often, with bare knees bent to the ground, suffused with a shower of tears, he ran through the cloister. Set in the last death-agony, when he wholly burned with the vehemence of fever, only by the counsel and assent of his confessor did he dare to apply a little water to refresh his tongue. At length, having imitated the Seraphic Parent in the austerity of body, with him also he begged pardon of his body, ingenuously tortured with graver pains and penances than the debility of nature allowed. But indeed God showed that he had received the holocaust of his Servant for an odor of sweetness, when, the period of death being imminent, returned from a profound ecstasy, he was heard to say in the cheerfulness of spirit: "Blessed be such scourges, fasts, and penances, which so great a weight of glory awaits." Hence it is permitted piously to believe that the grade of eternal felicity, to which by the merit of mortification he was to come, had been revealed to the Man of God.

[158] yet he was endowed with so great humility, In the abyss of humility he had placed the base and stable foundation of the eminent virtues with which he shone; in this he was seen to have surpassed himself. For this is that virtue at whose persuasion he so often laid down the offices of prelacy conferred upon him; so that within the four months in which he exercised the office of guardian, he is found to have renounced it eleven times, by no other impulse than that he reckoned himself altogether unworthy of them. This is that which brought him from Spain to the Indies no less than his intense charity; for, that he might decline the pomp of the good fame which he had procured for himself by so many virtues (and, as a certain religious man relates that he heard confidently from him himself, by the resurrection of a dead boy), and might more safely lie hidden, he withdrew not only to the lands of the other hemisphere, but into its most secret regions. This is that which also, while he discharged the office of guardian, drew him sometimes into the refectory with a cord or his habit tied about his neck, and a reed set crosswise through his mouth, for the greater contempt of himself and to ask humbly pardon for the faults which he thought he had committed, and prostrated him to be trodden at the feet of the Religious.

[159] He had attained the highest grades of humility, when in his own esteem he was nothing so that he thought the worst of himself, the best of others, but a sinner and a vile man, and most greatly desired to be reckoned such by all; he easily submitted his own opinion to the judgments of others, and, presuming nothing good of himself, conceived a great esteem of others, preferring all to himself, setting himself before no one. Worthy of eternal memory are the words by which he laid open the good opinion and reverence which he had conceived of his brothers; for he said: "When I hear the brothers conversing with each other, I believe them to treat of God; when I see them eating, I think them bound to it by necessity; when I perceive them walking with hood immodestly lowered, arms uncomposed, and hurried or unseemly step, I judge that they thus wish to be despised by men and reckoned fools, although in truth before God they are just and good." Of this humility, at last, as daughters of a mother, are kindness, familiarity, and modesty, by which he gladly mingled even with the least and poorer, despising no one, rendering to all love and due honor.

[160] The legitimate fruit of perfect humility, patience, the man of God Solanus preserved unconquered in all the trials of human life: and in labors and infirmities he showed wondrous patience, for since he reckoned himself unworthy of all consolation, he not only patiently tolerated troubles, infirmities, and contempt;

but even rejoiced in them, and resounded the songs of God. In those great pilgrimages how many perils of life he endured, how often he labored with heat and cold, thirst and hunger, the things related above have proved; and in all these no word of impatience went out from his mouth. Afflicted moreover with the gravest infirmities, and oppressed with continual pains, he fortified himself with the strongest shield of patience; nor was he ever either sadder, or a burden to others, but always cheerful and quiet he blessed God, so that he afforded to all examples of wondrous tolerance.

[161] The Man of God was proved also by those temptations by which both sincere humility and true patience are disclosed; namely he was more than once agitated by the sharp reproof of his friends the brothers. To his cell once came a certain grave Religious, and, when he was thinking of no such thing, began sharply to rebuke him; that he was a proud man and a hypocrite, that he deceived all with a vain appearance of sanctity, adding moreover that his frauds would one day be detected, and that the common people would not always be deceived by his pretenses. At this the humble and patient Man, exhilarated that he had found such a reprover as the Seraphic Patriarch once formed for himself, and suffused with jubilation, fell at the feet of the one accusing, gave thanks, confessed that he was truly known, asked that he would pardon him, and offer prayers to the divine mercy for the salvation of his soul. The other withdrew compunct, and confirmed in the good opinion which he had conceived of the Man of God. A certain grave and learned Religious, being sick, when the holy Man once entered to him, began to upbraid him with this discourse: "Why comest thou to me, hypocrite, is it that thou mayest deceive me like the others? Go back, and never present thyself to my sight." The Man of God was not disturbed by the sudden case, but because humility and patience had driven deep roots into his soul, filled with joy, and his cheeks suffused with a smile and gladness, he answered aloud that in all things he had spoken the truth.

[162] which he suffered undeservedly from others. When he sailed from Spain to the Indies, he tolerated with wondrous patience a harsh reproof from a Religious, not equal to him in merits and grade: for on a certain day, while he was intent on profound prayer, that man rebuked him with a hard and rude accent; that, to be free for private consolation, he deserted the good of his neighbor, and did not teach the Negroes ^b the Christian doctrine. Receiving this rebuke in silence and quiet of mind, the holy Man straightway instructed the barbarous Negroes sailing together in the documents of the Christian faith; and afterwards, his mouth being loosed to the divine praises, passed the whole night in devout songs and the praises of God and the Virgin. The reprover, marveling at this meekness, and confounded, on the following day, about to beg pardon, fell at the feet of the holy Man; whom he, embracing with singular love, received as a special benefactor. By these and other trials he bore off the palm of unconquered patience.

ANNOTATIONS.

* on foot

read: prosternebat* (prostrated).

CHAPTER XIV.

His last disease, the wondrous things performed in it, and his pious death.

The blessed man in his last infirmity Although the whole life of the man of God Francis was a cross and a martyrdom; yet for two months (before he departed from among the living), that by the price of Christian patience he might acquire the divine promises, he felt graver pains, to which, a vehement fever being joined, compelled him wholly to lie in bed. Let all Christians come hither, and by the example of so great a Man learn the way of a good death: for, lying in his little bed, although he was little by little destitute of the strength of his body, he intensified the virtues of his soul, becoming more powerful in infirmity. There was before his sight the sacred effigy of the Crucified, whom sometimes addressing he gave thanks, that the scourges which he could not inflict on his body with his own hand, he inflicted, and demanded from his enemy (namely his body) the desired vengeance. Then, directing his words to himself, he attested that here no rest was to be awaited by his failing members.

[164] From the exercise of prayer no infirmity could remove him, he gives various indications of tender piety, but in those last days the flight of contemplation so boiled up in him that he seemed always to converse among the angels, and, forgetful of corporeal necessity, was believed, even in the judgment of skilled physicians, to protract his life so long miraculously. Never was his prayer more fervent, or more prolonged; he suffered no discourse to be mingled before him except of God, nothing to be read except what was profitable and spiritual. He wished his companion to read before him the most devout meditations of the most learned and most pious father Luis of Granada; yet in such a manner that, sometimes bidding him cease from reading, the Man of God, his eyes turned to the Crucified, ruminated in most sweet prayer the things heard, from which, roused as from sleep, he again attentively heard the one reading. Afterwards, dissolved into tears, he repeated with great tenderness of mind the little prayer familiar to him, Let God be glorified; or another of this kind. Sometimes he asked those psalms to be recited: Praise the Lord, O my soul, and: Bless the Lord, O my soul; and felt in these an ineffable melting of heart.

[165] That Gospel of John, Before the feast-day of the Passover, he also desired to be read to him; he exercises fervent acts of the virtues, at whose words, but especially at the history of the crucifixion, marvelously moved, he began to address the suffering Christ, and, giving thanks, to celebrate his goodness and mercy, so kindly bestowed upon him a sinner. By the hymns of the Blessed Virgin also he was greatly refreshed, and in her consideration was suffused with jubilation and gladness. To his confessor he once said: "Help me, Father, to utter the praises of God"; and soon added: "My God, thou my Creator, King, my Father, thou my delights, thou all my things." And these things said, the flame of divine love so blazed up that his soul, turned within, and wholly occupied with spiritual delights, left his senses immovable, and his body like marble.

[166] On a certain day, when the same confessor, to relieve the straits of his body by the pleasure of his soul, had said: and after ecstasy "O father Francis, how great will be the joy of the holy city of Jerusalem, built of precious stones, whose lamp is the Lamb"; the heart of the holy Man so boiled up that he burst forth into the divine praises, and, immersed in the sea of contemplation, and wholly absorbed, with mouth open, eyes lifted, his body (which through the whole time of his sickness had lain) erect, his arms extended, with a comely composition of himself suffered a long ecstasy: who, when he did not answer the voices of those calling, was left alone in the freedom of a sweet swoon. But from these excesses, according as the heavenly impression had affected his mind, he sometimes returned cheerful, sometimes tearful.

[167] The festive day sacred to the most holy Trinity having arisen, in the thought of so great a mystery, and rapture strengthening the debility of his body by the fervor of his spirit, he went out of his cell as if winged, intoning aloud: Let us bless the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit, inviting all to celebrate the praises of the undivided Trinity. The solemnity of the Body of Christ afterwards succeeding, he was refreshed by a certain special benefit from the beloved immaculate Lamb of his soul. For Father Francis de Mendoza his confessor (who that night opened the door of his little cell to visit him) found him indeed alone, but speaking, and demonstrating many signs of joy. He heard him also repeating these words several times: Come, let us adore and fall down before God. He saw him also designating with his hands a certain corner of the chamber, as if he indicated that Majesty (which he praised, to whose praises he also called the creatures). Who soon, turned to the confessor gazing, asked him to depart, and not disturb by his presence that sweet morning. To whom he, complying, the little door being closed, withdrew; but then understood, from what he had seen and heard, that the Man of God had been honored with some singular vision of Christ.

[168] fortified with the heavenly Viaticum, he foretells the day of his death; The infirmity increasing, the time of the sacred Viaticum seemed opportune to the physicians: whose opinion the brothers signifying to him, the holy Man answered: "Untimely indeed, and too readily; but let us quickly receive so good a guest, Christ." This was the fifteenth day before his death. The Sacrament being taken with wondrous devotion, he seemed to have acquired as it were new strength: wherefore the most reverend Father Joannes Venido, soon bishop of Orense ^a, thinking the term of his life was to be longer protracted, said to the Man of God that he was thought about to gain the sacred indulgence of the Portiuncula. To whom he added that he would indeed attain the indulgence of his beloved father St. Bonaventure: by which words, and other indications, all understood that he would die on the feast of so great a Doctor; nor are there lacking pious and good Religious who affirm that it was thus clearly and distinctly foretold by the Servant of God. And Father Francis de Nuñes asserts that on the night of Monday, two days before he migrated, when some brothers had run to the little cell of the holy Man, it was said to him by him: "Admonish the Fathers to return to sleep; for not this night, but on the day of my father St. Bonaventure, shall I die."

[169] about whom the little birds sing sweetly in the wintry season. About the last days of his life there were many times heard and seen certain little birds at the window of his little cell, ravishing the ears and minds of the bystanders with most sweet song and unwonted melody; which, since they were terrified neither by noise nor by human voices, and sang, contrary to custom, on the very nights and in mid-winter (for in the month of July it is winter for the people of Lima), and afterwards followed his dead body to the oratory of the infirmary, sweetly resounding, were thought to portend some wondrous and plainly divine effect of operation.

[170] At length, after fervent affections, On the fifth day before his death he said to brother Joannes Gomez, set over the care of the sick: "Dost thou not observe, brother, the great mercy of God toward me, who has supplied me strength to conquer and vanquish the enemy?" Three days before his death, turning to the Religious ministering to him, weeping and sighing, he burst into these words: "Whence this, my Lord Jesus, that thou crucified, and I aided by the ministry of thy servants; thou naked, and I covered; thou struck with buffets and crowned with thorns, and I heaped with so many goods, and consoled with so many benefits?" On the following day, in the presence of many brothers, he exclaimed: "O God of my soul, be glorified; what is thy condescension toward me? That whereas I deserve to be cast into a deserted solitude like evil-smelling dung, and to be abandoned by all, then I see myself surrounded by those angels (namely the Religious), and so affluently relieved by their offices. I rejoice, my Lord, that thou art God, O how sweet thou art!" These things said, turned to the bystanders, he exhorted them to the divine love with efficacious words. At length, whatever of time flowed to his last breath, he wholly expended in acts of charity, prayer, and all the virtues.

[171] On the 12th of July, by the Sacrament of extreme Unction he girt himself for the death-struggle, as a good soldier of Christ,

and that he might more easily fight, poor and naked, with the naked enemy, he obtained from the guardian as an alms a more tattered habit; soon, the observance of the heavenly precepts and of the seraphic rule being commended, he bade farewell to the several brothers with the tenderest embrace, and although, while he lived, he had been a mirror of sanctity, suppliant and groaning he begged pardon for bad edification and a life little religious. On the night preceding his death, rapt into a profound ecstasy, he was believed by the judgment of all the bystanders to have expired; yet returning afterwards, he exclaimed: "I rejoiced in the things that were said to me; we shall go into the house of the Lord." From then until the end, there was seen in his face an overspreading gladness, cheerfulness, and comeliness, and his soul, exulting in the good promised to him, burst forth into effusive signs of joy. To a certain brother saying to him, "Since God will now lift thee to heaven, Father, remember me, when thou comest to the eternal kingdom," he answered with a cheerful voice: "So it is, that I go to heaven; but this from the merits of the death and Passion of Christ: for I am the greatest sinner; when I shall have landed at the homeland, I will be a good friend to thee."

[172] At length the day sacred to St. Bonaventure arose, his body being marvelously changed, on which the Man of God, about to pay the debt of nature, did not shudder at the most terrible of terrible things, but by many indications laid open an ineffable gladness. On the same day, the intemperance of the continual fever (which had dried up his body, the flesh being eaten away, like dry roots) suddenly ceased: the saliva of his mouth, before foul, now emitted a sweet odor: his hands, harsh and wrinkled, then appeared white and restored to their natural proportion. And he seemed to have put on so much new strength that a certain physician, when he afterwards learned that he was dead, affirmed that he had expired by some extraordinary case (namely by the violence of divine love, or of heavenly desire).

[173] Since therefore the Religious standing by recited the divine Office with an intelligible voice, the Man of God, at the versicle, he dies piously. Glory be to the Father, his eyes and hands lifted upward, sweetly uttered his wonted ejaculation, Let God be glorified. The psalms being finished, the symbol of faith was chanted, the little birds meanwhile mingling their music and harmony; and when it came to those words, And was incarnate of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, the bell of the church also sounded the sign of the elevated Host in the solemn Mass of St. Bonaventure. And then the holy Man, intent upon the Crucified, his hands composed in the figure of a cross, darted forth to God the devout little prayer, Let God be glorified, with his soul, and, like one sleeping, expired on the 14th of July, the feast of St. Bonaventure ^b, but in the year one thousand six hundred and ten, in the sixty-first year of his age. His body, cared for by the brothers, was carried about noon to the oratory of the infirmary according to custom.

ANNOTATIONS.

THE MIRACLES, BY THE SAME AUTHOR TIBURTIUS NAVARRUS,

Collected from the process of beatification and other instruments of this kind.

Francis Solanus, of the Order of Minors of the Observance, at Lima in Peru, in America (Saint).

CHAPTER I.

Various benefits which on the day of the death and burial of blessed Francis Solanus were granted to many imploring his help.

Various persons from a pain of the head, By his virtues man, while he lives, proves himself a faithful servant of God; that the services of man have been grateful to him, God after death manifests by miracles: so assuredly the divine munificence bore itself toward its beloved Servant, whom on the very day of his death it willed to flash with wondrous operations. There suffered from a most grave pain of the head the fathers Joannes Sedano and Ludovicus Pacheco, Observant Minorites, when on the very day of the death of Francis Solanus, the former, reverently placing the sacred hands of the deceased upon his head, the latter devoutly touching a certain relic of the same, received the grace of sudden liberation. Nor did the Man of God show himself less beneficent toward his other brothers: for, as Father Francis de Mendoza, a preacher, a Religious of blameless life, testifies, on the same day certain brothers detained in the infirmary by sicknesses escaped safe and unharmed.

[2] from asthma, When Christophorus Vivas had long labored under an asthmatic pain, human remedies being tried in vain, he had recourse to the divine help, and, humbly kneeling before the body of Francis Solanus, prayed. His humble entreaty was heard: for by the intercession of the Servant of God he withdrew free.

Similarly also Anna de Prado, asthmatic for ten years, sometimes suffered an acute fever and an acute torment of the side. She, relieved by no remedy, having heard of the happy death of Father Francis, entreated him for her health, and devoutly applied a little piece of his tunic to her breast: at whose contact, suddenly convalescing, she never thereafter felt a like sickness, although she often deviated so far from the manner of life prescribed to her that before, from the least excess of these, she was wont to experience troubles as it were deadly.

[3] Joannes ab Azaña, a merchant, long weighed down by winds shut within his breast, from flatulence, could neither raise his body, and had swollen in certain members. He, kneeling and praying before the sacred corpse, as he devoutly kissed the hands and feet, saw himself free.

On the same day Franciscus de Avalos Tinoco, when for many months he had endured a tertian, and sometimes a quartan fever with a frequent access of vehement cold, from a fever, as he visited the body of Father Solanus, fixed kisses on the hands and feet, reverently placed cuttings of his habit and cord upon his neck, felt neither then nor thereafter the trouble of the fever which he thought imminent.

[4] A six-month-old girl, daughter of Joannes Stephanus Perez and Antonia Ortiz de Vargas, from fluxes, on account of a swelling of the sinews was made maimed; there came also a vehement flux into the arm already injured, extorting mournful weepings from her. The parent, afflicted by his daughter's evil, ran to the convent of St. Francis to ask a certain relic of Father Solanus, deceased on the same day: having obtained a small fragment of the tunic, he reverently brought it near the injured parts of the sick little girl; at whose contact suddenly the contraction of the sinews ceased, the flux ceased, and the little infant recovered the perfect use of hand and arm.

[5] A seven-year-old boy, son of Joannes de Esquibel, had fallen into a perilous fever by alternating turns of intense cold and vehement heat. again from a fever, At the moment in which the Man of God migrated, he exclaimed: Carry me to father Solanus; for he will heal me. Carried therefore to the oratory in which the body was exposed, he venerated his hands and feet with devout kisses; and soon, feeling relief, returned home cheerful and rejoicing, nor labored under any such evil more.

Ludovicus Laurentius de Esquibel, a boy of twelve years, from a swelling, oppressed by a grave infirmity, as if by an obstruction, had so swollen about the orifice of the stomach that he was believed by the physicians about to die. But on the same day on which the Servant of God paid the debt of nature, he received a little piece of his tunic from a certain Religious, which the following night he confidently applied to the swollen jaws of his stomach; but rising in the morning, he found himself sound from the swelling.

[6] Catharina de Armenta, wife of Joannes Martinus de Vivas, from a retention of urine, laboring under a long strangury, or retention of urine, since she could take neither food nor sleep, abandoned by the physicians, was believed near to death, and now the things necessary for her burial were being prepared: when Joannes de Villavicentio, entering to her, announced the recent death of Father Solanus, and admonished the sick woman to implore his merits. She therefore, humbly demanding the help of the Servant of God, touched the aching part with a fragment of his tunic, and swallowed a linen thread of the same with her mouth, and straightway, casting out the stone with her urine, was restored to complete health.

[7] from fevers, Father Didacus de Estrada, a priest of the Order of the Blessed Mary of the Redemption of Captives, laboring under acute and intense fevers (by whose several accesses he was detained for two days), and finding no remedy among human things; on the very day of Father Solanus's funeral rites, when his pain of the head was most acute, and a more vehement increase of heat, betook himself to him to entreat for his health. And so, penetrating the frequent crowds of the people, and kneeling and prostrate before the body, he fixed devout kisses on his feet and hands, and reverently placed his head beneath his feet. He was heard for his devotion and the merits of the Servant of God: for straightway the fever and pain departed, never to return. In memory of which benefit he was afterwards wont, on each night, to direct a Pater and Ave Maria to the holy Man.

from a rheum, Eleonora de Coca, widow of Joannes Perez de Mendejar, when for three years afflicted with continual fluxes of the brain and rheums, could neither touch her palate with her tongue, nor utter the articulations of her voice, drew a certain relic of the habit of the Servant of God over her head, and straightway, relief following, merited to be freed from her sickness. Thus also Maria Sancia, by the virtue of the same cuttings of the tunic, on the very day of the funeral was healed of a troublesome pain of the head and an intense fever.

[8] from a flux of blood Eleonora de Abreu for six months suffered a flux of blood: the infirmity, by exquisite remedies of medicine not so much diminished as increased, was leading her little by little to death. But the chief force of the evil boiled up on the very day of the funeral rites of father Solanus. But it happened that the captain Dominicus de Bustinca her husband, with the viceroy (whose office of lieutenant of the guard he discharged), having entered the convent of St. Francis in the morning, and admiring the whiteness, sweetness, odor, and other privileges of the lifeless body related above; by chance received from the Religious some little pieces of his tunic as a gift, with which, returned home, he admonished his wife, so imperiled, that she should rejoice, and hope to obtain health by the contact of the relics of father Solanus. And indeed, the sacred cuttings being applied to the belly of the sick woman, suddenly the flux stopped, and the desired health returned.

[9] Isabella Carillo bore a son with his right side broken, from a fracture of the side, whose sickness was of so great force that when one leg was brought to the other, for the vehemence of the pain he seemed to change toward death. And so, the remedy of the infirmity contracted in the mother's womb being despaired of, and neither unction nor other medicine helping at all, the afflicted parents humbly offered the boy to holy father Solanus. Whose day of funeral rites, since it was, and on account of the concurring multitude they did not dare to carry the little infant to the church, they confidently applied a little piece of the tunic of the holy Man to the sick one; who, at the salutary contact of the relic, straightway escaped sound and wholly unharmed.

[10] Eleonora de Sotomayor, wife of Franciscus Suarez ab Amaya, from a pain of the leg, vexed with an intense pain of the leg for fifteen days, though with difficulty betook herself to the funeral of the Man of God; to which, when she had not come until it was already buried, she poured out devout prayers at the sepulcher, and, a cutting of his habit being applied to her, gradually free from the torment,

was restored to perfect health.

Maria Euphemia de Pareja, wife of Joannes de la Raya, he frees from a pain of the heart and tremors of the body. a vehement pain of the heart for more than two years distressed, to which, sudden tremors of the body being joined, arising from every slighter trouble, often drew her to the jaws of death. The cares of medicine being exhausted, and the infirmity judged unto death, the afflicted woman, on the day on which the Man of God was buried, applied a fragment of his tunic to her heart, and devoutly implored his help; nor was she defrauded of her desire: for straightway she obtained entire health.

[11] Maria Gutierrez de Medina, wife of Thomas de Herrera Escalona, A woman, concealing the benefit of health conferred upon her, afflicted with a grave scrofula, bursting forth in the manner of a carcinoma under her left arm; when in the care of the physicians she had expended great resources in vain for about two years, and her arm had so swollen that she could not bring it to her breast, came, though most difficultly, to the sacred funeral of the Servant of God: having reverently kissed his feet, from those indications of sanctity (which she saw in his body) she began to hope that he would be to her a powerful intercessor with God: wherefore, animated by faith, she drew off the plasters administered to her by the surgeon, and deposited them in the hands of Joanna Franco, her companion and helper, and in their place covered the swollen scrofula with some little piece of the habit of the Servant of God. Meanwhile humbly entreating him, and promising that on each Wednesday of one year she would fast in his honor, and recite the rosary. Francis was present to the prayer of the devout woman, and marvelously healed her, the swelling being wholly dissolved and the pain repressed.

[12] But when, after eighteen years, all who had it clearly known were ordered by the apostolic judges deputed to inquire into the miracles of the Servant of God, an edict being promulgated in the cathedral church, to declare them juridically, is punished, and, resolving to promulgate it, is healed. she refused to bring forth this benefit of health received by a faithful testimony. She, in punishment of her ungrateful memory, again afflicted with her former pain and a recrudescing carcinoma, recognized the scourge of God, and, going to the sepulcher of the holy Man, begged pardon for her culpable silence, and a remedy for the punishment inflicted, and vowed a juridical declaration of the health once marvelously restored to her. The promise pleased God, and straightway the scrofula, springing up again, departed: but the woman, before the apostolic judges, with Joanna Franco, gave a sincere and diligent confession of the whole event.

[13] But not only did the virtue of the man of God Francis extend itself to bodies, A man from an evil habit, but even to the very minds. There was a certain man in the city of Lima so subdued under the inveterate yoke of a perverse habit, and for thirty years prone to a horrible sin, that he affirmed that he could be drawn back from it by no force. He, running with the affluence of the common people to the funeral rites of Francis Solanus, approached the body, saying within himself: If this Man is holy, he will free me from the bonds of this vice. While therefore he commended himself for that reason to his prayers and merits, and fixed devout kisses on the sacred feet, suddenly changed into a new man, he felt his heart melt, to be urged within by the grief of contrition, to be terrified by the deformity of sin and the scourges of divine justice, and to be refreshed by the consideration of the heavenly mercy. And thence straightway rising, he laid open to his confessor the latent wounds of his conscience, and escaped free from the hard law of sin by the help of the Servant of God.

[14] and frees a woman from an inveterate hatred. A certain woman of the chief of the city had for twelve years conceived so great a hatred toward a certain man, the author of the extreme poverty to herself, that to forgive him she could by no reason ever be brought by religious men: nay, even to him dead she cursed with continual imprecations, and demanded from heaven the vengeance which she herself could not take. When she had come to the funeral rites of the Servant of God, and, about to kiss his sacred feet and hands, tried to approach nearer; suddenly a light shone in the dwelling of her heart, and, illumined within, she began silently to reproach herself: How, since I am guilty of so many sins, shall I dare to handle the feet of that Saint? And, turned to him, she asked that he would be an intercessor for her with God, that by divine help she might lay aside the hatred from her heart. Soon, having kissed the sacred hand of the Man of God, she applied it to her heart. At so happy a contact the hardness of her stony breast was softened: the hatred being put to flight, love succeeded, and tranquillity to aversion. And thereafter she was solicitous to procure for her deceased enemy not vengeance, but pardon; not calumny, but good fame.

[15] Refusing to honor the Servant of God, he is punished, and, penitent, is healed. But as much as God showed himself munificent toward the friends and venerators of his Servant, so much did he prove himself a severe avenger toward his despisers by the chastisement of Michael Gomez, a saddler by craft: for he not only would not visit the body of the deceased with the whole frequency of the people, but even despised it in some manner: but on that night, when he had felt himself disturbed by grave and deadly troubles, on the following day he betook himself to the convent of St. Francis, and kissed the sacred feet. From that kiss he perceived not that sweetness which other devout persons did, but a loathing of the stomach and a horror. Returned home, he ascended his little bed, nor found the rest which he desired: he seemed meanwhile to see the venerable Father Solanus present, and to hear him upbraiding him thus: Why, since thou art earth and ashes, didst thou shudder at the kiss of my feet? Beware for thyself, and thou shalt see what will thence befall thee. But on the next day he was made a very image of all misery, lame and weak in the legs, deformed by the state of his mouth, pale in the gums of his teeth, and immovable in his whole body like a trunk. He recognized the occasion of the inflicted scourge, and turned himself to the protection of the holy Man by a devout prayer. His wife also reverently applied some relics of the sacred Intercessor to her husband, at whose contact his mouth returned to its former state, and all sickness withdrew; except, however, that, for an example to others, for some time he could not walk without supports, until from him, from whom he had received the instantaneous cure of others, he presently obtained also the entire health of this infirmity.

CHAPTER II.

Certain religious persons restored to health by his intercession, and many boys raised from death, and snatched from various diseases.

The venerable servant of Christ brother Andreas Corzo ^a, tortured by the sharp trouble of gout, The holy Man from gout, for a year and a half could not walk without a staff. He scarcely put on the breeches (which the holy father Solanus had worn while he lived), when suddenly he felt himself free, and, though advanced in eighty years, yet thereafter walked without support. Thus also a certain other Religious extinguished the grave pains of gout with a little piece of the habit of the servant of God Francis.

Brother Joannes Gomez, infirmarian of the convent of Lima, from an evil of the stomach, laboring grievously in his stomach, reverently covered himself with the scourge which the Servant of God had once used, and straightway convalesced, which he also found salutary in many other infirmities. Of a like sickness also, and the evil of many other torments, father Francis de Mendoza, a Minorite preacher, by a cutting of the tunic of the holy Man escaped sound.

[17] Father Joannes Rodriguez de Saavedra, guardian of the convent of St. Mary of the Angels of the Recollection of Lima, from an abscess and a fever, lying sick with an abscess and a vehement fever, a fragment of the cloak of the holy Man being applied to him, received relief straightway, soon entire health. Thus also Father Hieronymus Ildephonsus a Turre, vexed by a perilous fever, visited the sepulcher of the Servant of God, and, a relic of his habit being applied to him, convalesced.

Brother Antonius Lopez, a lay brother, suffered a pain and injury of the leg so grave from an injury of the leg, that he could be relieved by no remedy; but, turned to the merits of father Solanus, in his memory recited once a Pater noster and Ave Maria, and straightway the pain and injury ceased; and with the foot which before he could not set on the ground, he began to walk conveniently.

[18] Father Francis de Torrez, guardian of the convent of Trujillo, from various pains. besides most acute pains of the leg and shoulder, afflicted also with another secret and perilous infirmity, was sent by his superiors to the baths of the province of Cajamarca for a cure. When he had come thither, he applied a cutting of the habit of Francis Solanus, given to him, to the aching parts, and by a pious supplication asked that he who was once his friend (while he lived) should now become his advocate. And behold, suddenly he felt so great a relief that without any human remedy he escaped sound from all his diseases.

Father Joannes Sedano, on account of a vehement pain of the foot, from a pain of the foot, could neither stand, nor sit, nor lie: who, when he applied a cloth, consecrated by the touch of the body of the Man of God, to his sick foot, was straightway possessed of health.

A certain other brother, attacked and almost prostrated by sharp temptations against chastity, from a temptation against chastity, girt himself with the cord touched by the hands of the deceased holy Man, and with that girdle of purity extinguished the humor of lust.

[19] from a disease of the eyes, Father Blasius, a religious of the sacred Order of Preachers, human remedies for the cure of his eyes being exhausted, made mud from the dust clinging to the sepulcher of the Man of God, and anointed his eyes with it; and straightway, by the powerful intercession of Francis Solanus, the flowing humor stopped, the keenness of his eyes was purged and strengthened. The same also, having already experienced his help in the necessities of the body, had recourse to him in a certain spiritual strait, and straightway obtained the desired consolation.

Father Ludovicus a Guadalupe, an alumnus of the same Order of our holy Father Dominic, for four years labored under a pain of the eyes on account of continual defluxions of humors, and had especially lost the clearness of one from the abundance of the flux. He, when he had touched the sacred corpse of Francis Solanus with a certain rosary, returned to his convent and felt his troubles increase; so that he could not open his eyes to perform the morning hours by reading. In that strait he thus addressed the man of God Francis: "O father Francis Solanus, if thou wilt wholly convince me of thy sanctity (which public report celebrates), make by thy prayers that God heal me of this infirmity." Scarcely had he thought these things, when he moved his eyelids, opened them being moved, read easily, and remained wholly free from his sickness.

[20] from deafness, Sister Andrea de Jesu, a professed Religious of the monastery of St. Clare, for one year had contracted a deafness curable by no remedy; who, while she humbly implored the help of Francis Solanus, and asked that by his merits the benefit of hearing be restored to her for the greater service of God, was made mistress of her desire: for when she had borne a little piece of his tunic to her ears for two days, this being elapsed, suddenly she heard some noise and crash as of a rattle, and straightway received the perfect use of her hearing power: who, in gratitude for so great a good, thereafter recited on each night twice the Salve Regina in memory of the holy Father Solanus.

from a pain of the forehead, Sister Beatrix de Illescas, a professed of the monastery of the Incarnation, suffered an acute pain in the forehead, by whose continual troubles being detained in bed,

when she had learned the celebrated sanctity of the man of God Solanus, devoutly commending herself to him, took up a small cutting of his tunic; by whose virtue that very night she vomited from her mouth a putrid abscess, and always ascribed the health that followed thence to the merits of her Intercessor.

He heals from the trouble of a cross. Another nun of the same convent, Bernarda de Caravajal, when she was tormented from the hip down to the middle of the leg with so intense a pain that she could not rest at all, by the efficacy of a relic of the servant of God Solanus attained the desired health.

[21] [Two] On the second day after the happy passage of the holy Man, a certain little girl died of a grave infirmity; whom the sad parents, hoping that she would be restored to them by the merits of father Francis Solanus, when the matter of his funeral was being handled, spread his hood over the corpse of the dead child. And behold afterwards, as they lifted the sacred relic to wrap the body for burial, suddenly the little infant began to weep, and by the virtue of so great an Intercessor obtained new life.

In the city of Trujillo, and the house of the general treasurer Gaspar de Giles, a two-year-old little infant fell from a high balcony five stories up into the courtyard, Girls paved with stones; and by so grave a fall died on the spot, and, thus miserably killed, was carried up to a high chamber. There was present among others, compassionating the sudden death, Catharina Gomez, a widow, who confidently applied a relic of the habit of the man of God Solanus to the head of the dead child, and prayed for her resurrection. Suddenly the prayer of the woman is heard, and, an hour already elapsed from the fall, the little soul of the girl returned into her body, as if roused from sleep (all being astonished); nor did any trace of injury remain in her.

[22] In the Valley of Nazca ^b, distant six hundred ^c leagues from the City of the Kings, and two boys a certain boy Nicolaus, son of Joannes Home and Isabella Rodriguez, seized by a vehement fever, was suddenly so occupied by mortal straits that, making a noise with his feet and hands, then stretching out his legs as after the struggle of death, changed in countenance, and deprived of the use of his senses for the space of a quarter of an hour, he remained. The desolate father, holding him, since from the manifest indications, and in the judgment of all the bystanders, he did not doubt that he had expired, grieving and lamenting, laid him on his little bed. And then, remembering the holy man Solanus and his miracles, he began to exclaim aloud: "O blessed father Francis Solanus, render me my son alive; and I, not ungrateful for the benefit, promise that I will make nine-day stations at thy sepulcher, and thou shalt ever be dear to me with a peculiar devotion." Scarcely had he vowed these things, when all the bystanders saw, not without stupor, the eyes of the little boy opened, and turned gently hither and thither, the color of his face renewed, his cheeks suffused with a rosy blush, his body, the heat of the fever being extinguished and the sickness repelled, made sound and vigorous.

[23] Petrus da Figueroa, a little boy, son of Isabella de Torres, are raised from death. in the year 1614, agitated for two months by acute fevers, at length on a certain Thursday before dawn expired, as was ascertained by sure experiences and signs. His mother, worn out with grief, carried the lifeless little body to the chapel of the servant of God Solanus, and there with tears and sobs poured out fervent prayers for her little son's resurrection. Night coming on, not yet heard, and, her firmness of faith to be proved, the corpse being left in the aforesaid chapel, she returned home. The morning of Friday having arisen, betaking herself thither again, she found her son still bloodless and dead. Her wailings therefore being renewed, she gave the stipend of a Mass to be celebrated there presently. And so, while the Sacrifice is offered to God in invocation of his Servant, and it comes to the second elevation of the immaculate host, the boy begins to weep, and to suck the breast: with whom restored to life, the mother, praising God and jubilant, returned to her own. But he afterwards enjoyed the use of the light restored to him for many years.

[24] A seven-year-old boy, son of lord Joannes de Cespedes and Isabella de Camargo, for two years labored under a quartan fever and frequent obstructions, Various boys from fevers, obstructions, to which, a double tertian fever being superadded for three months, he had come into a manifest peril of life in the judgment of the physicians. His health therefore being despaired of, when on a certain day the vehemence of the heat had boiled up beyond the usual, the afflicted parents carried him to the sepulcher of our holy father Solanus; where, humbly praying, they promised that they would make nine-day vigils if he escaped safe: and soon, a certain relic of the same holy Man being applied to the sick one, all the stain of the sickness withdrew.

and the peril of death, are snatched away. When a certain three-year-old little boy, son of the servant of the captain Petrus de Azaña, was sick with perilous fluxes, the incautious mother, having stripped him of his garments, washed him in a drainage ditch: whom suddenly the rigor of the cold so penetrated that (since he was already weak) he straightway suffered a swoon of the heart: and on account of the indications of death, patent in his eyes, teeth, and countenance, he was believed by those present to have expired. At this the desolate parent, ascribing the death of the little infant to her own imprudence, tore her garments, plucked out her hair, and filled the whole house with sad wailings. But his mistress Hieronyma de Santander applied a cutting of the habit of the holy man Solanus to the boy's lips; at whose salutary contact he straightway opened his eyes, loosed his mouth, and, he who scarcely by reason of his age had the use of speech, uttered the praises of the Creator with a sweet song.

[25] [A woman, keeping silent about her son's hernia being healed, is punished, and, promising to divulge it, is heard.] Ildephonsus de Vargas, son of Joanna Poncia de Leon, from his first boyhood contracted an incurable hernia from a fracture; whose cruel troubles when he had endured for eleven years up to the thirteenth of his age; at length, by the merits of the venerable Servant of God, and the contact of a relic of his habit to the injured part, that same night all the swelling and hardness of the injury ceased. But when for joy the boy could not conceal the benefit received, he is chided by his mother, and prevented from disclosing the grace: but behold, that God, the avenger of ingratitude, permitted the young lad to fall sick with a relapse of the swelling: taught by which scourge, the parent begged pardon for her silence, and promised that she would divulge the fame of the miracle performed. Being again heard therefore, she obtained for her son the good of health restored, nor thereafter presumed to dissemble it.

[26] Girls and boys The two-month-old daughter of Isabella Ortiz, for twenty days tortured by a bitter pain of the chest, and sometimes burned with a sharp fever, no remedies helping, was believed about to die: who, commended to father Francis Solanus, after a vow was sent forth by her mother concerning the girl to be carried to his sepulcher, and the stipend of the sacrifice of the Mass to be paid in his chapel, straightway, seized by a sweet sleep, entirely convalesced.

Petrus de Mendoza, a five-year-old boy, seized by a sudden and acute pain, by which he seemed to be driven into madness, was suddenly healed by the virtue of a relic of the holy Man.

A certain little infant of Lima, ten months old, gave the last indications of death by a flux of the belly, and a perilous supervening evil (which the natives call del Valle ^d) creeping in the manner of a cancer; when, by the efficacy of a little piece of the holy Man's tunic, she received sudden health.

[27] are freed from various infirmities. Many other boys also, near to death and abandoned by the physicians, the merits of the Man of God snatched from many diseases. For a two-year-old boy, son of Joannes de Herrera, judged to have died by a sudden case; the son of Petrus de Ribera, for eighty days sick with a fever, obstruction, debility of the bones, and in the opinion of the physicians incurable; a certain little Indian infant, wholly incurable by a stupor of the senses, and a carcinoma impending over his mouth; a certain little Negro girl of despaired-of life; the little son of Agnes de Ribera, grievously attacked by a flux of the belly and a fever; all these, by the salutary virtue of cuttings of the tunic of the man of God, escaped from the jaws of death. Moreover Basilius, a boy of one year, is snatched at the tomb of the holy Father from the violence of a deadly fever: Nicolaus, called Solanus on account of the health received from the man of God, born nine months, convalesced from deadly diseases by the efficacy of a rosary which the contact of the holy Father's body had consecrated. The two-year-old little daughter of Joannes Perez and Anna a Cruce, despaired-of, on account of a persistent fever and fiery weals spread over her whole body, being commended by her mother to the merits of the Man of God in the sacrifice of the Mass, recovered health. The son of Melchior del Castillo, and a three-year-old girl, daughter of Antonius de Zuniga, carried to the sepulcher of the holy Man, and humbly entrusted to his prayers, overcame the mortal straits of a malignant fever by prompt recovery. Finally, a certain boy perilously sick in the town of Trujillo, despaired of by the physicians on account of the gravity of an abscess, as soon as he drank water poured over threads of the holy Man's tunic, cast from his body the foul pus of the corrupt matter, and attained a marvelous health.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

Various women aided in perilous childbirth, two blind women illumined, and other men of both sexes freed from various diseases.

No long time having elapsed after the passage of the holy Man, Agnes de Vascones, wife of Petrus Pinel, having suffered the cruel torments of a difficult childbirth, remedies being tried in vain, was judged to have come to the extreme death-agony. Various women Whom, when the midwife saw of despaired-of health, wishing to make a last trial of her art, she said she was to be suspended in the air, and therefore asked for two other midwives to help her. Then the distressed woman, fortified with the spiritual helps of her soul, judged that another gentler remedy was to be tried for her body; and therefore, having invoked the protection of the holy man Francis Solanus, whose miracles were everywhere published, confidently applied to her stomach the cord (with which he had once girt himself), and suddenly, without labor, all marveling, brought forth a male. Whom afterwards, about two or three years later, when, laboring under a fever and other straits of various sickness, he had been despaired of by the physicians, the mother carried to the chapel of the holy Man, wished to be clothed with the Minorite habit in devotion to him, and ordered the celebration of a Mass: in which, while she prayed that the use of health now be restored to her son, for whom she had once obtained the first grace of light, being made mistress of her vow, she led him home unharmed by the merits of the holy Father.

[29] by the intercession of St. Francis Solanus Clara Eugenia, wife of Matthaeus Muñez, when she was pregnant, endured the bitter torment of a malignant fever, at which, no remedies of the physicians profiting, death was thought to be at hand with hurried step on account of the superadded pains of childbirth. In these straits, placing her hope in father Solanus, she ordered a little piece of his tunic to be reverently applied to her belly; nor in vain: for she quickly gave birth, and emerged sound from her sickness.

While brother Joannes Rodriguez was doorkeeper of the convent of St. Francis of the town of Potosí ^a, on a certain night about the eleventh hour a certain man knocked hastily at the door, asking for a confessor, who might receive the confession of his wife, imperiled in the straits of childbirth, and now near to death: moreover asking that if the doorkeeper had any relic of holy father Solanus (whom he had once known in Tucumán, and reckoned for a Saint), he would commend it to him for the solace of the woman in labor. The doorkeeper gave a little cloth which the Servant of God had once used, and admonished that the pregnant wife should be girt with it. He, returned home, fulfilled the brother's counsel, and straightway, when his wife felt the contact of the sacred cloth, the fetus, which, folded in the womb, found no place of exit, was drawn forth by an easy birth, so that the woman testified that she had never given birth more conveniently. The next morning the husband went to narrate the marvelous outcome to the doorkeeper, from whom, after much instance, he obtained a little piece of the cloth.

[30] in perilous childbirth Joanna Rodriguez, pregnant, on account of a picatio ^b having endured intense torments for twenty-four hours without relief, had recourse to the help of holy father Solanus; whose cutting of the tunic, when she applied it to her belly, she suddenly cast out a dead fetus. On the following day, by the efficacy of the same relic, she poured out another lifeless offspring. But when within three days she had gone out too incautiously into the fields, on the next day she is carried back into the city, numbed in her limbs, full of pains, and almost destitute of her senses: and when she was not believed about to escape death this time, having recourse to her powerful Helper, she promised the stipend of a Mass and a nine-day station. And without delay, she wished to be carried to his sepulcher, where, with her face fixed to the ground, she directed a humble prayer for health, and sprinkled her head with earth from the adjacent tomb. At this her health returns; but, having returned home, she poured a little oil in the name of the holy Man into her ears, and quickly heard perfectly, and so was entirely freed from all her infirmities.

[31] Maria Salazar, wife of Joannes de Govantes, are aided, in the year 1611, was brought to the extreme straits of life by an unhappy childbirth: for through eight days, agitated by continual pains, she had exhausted all the cares and arts of the midwives. Then the desolate mother of the woman in labor devoutly girt her with the little cord of the holy man Solanus, who straightway, the pains being mitigated, bore a daughter, and remained safe.

Lady Floriana a Santa Cruz y Padilla, drawn to the jaws of death by the bitter pains of childbirth and the vehement burning of a fever, was relieved by no remedy of the midwifing women or the physicians. Then, despaired of by men, casting her thought upon the divine help, she devoutly touched a little piece of the habit of the venerable servant of God Solanus, by whose efficacy within a few hours she cast a dead fetus from her belly, and was free.

[32] A certain Maria, servant of Maria de Salas, contracted blindness on account of continual defluxions of humors. and two blind women: In her cure her mistress (who loved her uniquely) had spared no remedies; but in vain: for for more than two months she had remained wholly blind. But when at that time the report of the miracles of Father Francis Solanus was being spread, the mistress turned to him: who at night filled the dimmed eyes of the maidservant with dust from his adjacent sepulcher. What eyewash would have been harmful to nature, the efficacious virtue of the holy Man made salutary: for, the morning having arisen, the mist being wiped away, and the bloody redness laid aside, she found, astounded, the clear vision restored to her maidservant.

Catharina de Origo lost the light of her eyes from a grave infirmity, are illumined. whom, when no medicines of the physicians sufficed to restore, she, wholly blind, imploring the help of the heavenly physician, on a certain night drew a fragment of the tunic of the Man of God over her eyelids; by whose powerful virtue through the whole night a certain watery humor flowed from her eyes, and, the day having arisen, they attained perfect clearness.

[33] Ferdinandus del Poco had contracted a bitter swelling and pitiable ulcers on his tongue and throat from a copious passage of fluxions: Some afflicted with a swelling of the throat, which, having suffered for eighteen years without any relief of remedies, at last, to temper the trouble by a change of air and climate, he crossed to the kingdom of Chile ^c, distant five hundred leagues from the City of the Kings. There, five years being passed without a cure, he returned again to Lima, where, medicines being renewed, he found no way of health; nay, he was admonished by the physicians to gird himself for the journey of eternity. In these straits, having heard the report of the miracles which the divine power daily wrought by the intercession of Francis Solanus, he began to trust much in his help: wherefore he began nine-day prayers in the chapel of the tomb of the Servant of God. And when he recognized that daily by his merits he acquired some grade of health, in the fervor of faith he brought much earth from the sepulcher, put into his mouth, rubbing and moving it about the ulcers of his throat and tongue. Repeating this several times, without any other medicine, within fifteen days he found the health so long sought.

[34] from a dog-bite, To Mencia, servant of Dominicus de Salazar, a dog-bite consumed the greater part of the calf, of which soon, the flesh near the injury being cut away by the surgeons, a deadly carcinoma grew there. The servant, abandoned by the physicians, and now about to be fortified with the Sacrament of extreme Unction for the death-agony, the master, grieving that she was being snatched from him, carried a waxen leg to the chapel of the holy man Solanus, and bestowed the stipend of a Mass to be celebrated there. After the Sacrifice (at which he devoutly assisted), returned home, he found the maidservant much relieved; who on the following day rose from her bed sound, and new flesh for the old was restored to her by him who once set flesh in place of a rib.

with ulcerated nostrils, Petrus a Texada cured, by the help of the holy man Solanus, his nostrils, swollen and wounded with ulcers for forty days, which no art of men could heal: for on a certain night he inserted into each nostril two little pieces of his habit folded into a circle, and the following morning found himself sound.

[35] with a wound of the leg, Ildephonsus Mexia, a priest, suffered acute pains in the calf of his right leg from a perilous and inflamed ulcer, to repress which, since the force of medicine was too weak, though with great torment he went to the sepulcher of holy father Solanus: where, after a devout prayer, his finger being immersed in the oil of the lamp burning before the sacred body, he anointed the ulcer, the sign of the cross being made, and straightway the pain withdrew, the stench of the pus and the swelling of the wound vanished, only a scar being left in sign of the miracle.

with ulcers Andreas de Hornillos, a bookseller, healed a wound of the leg impervious to human cares by the contact of a fragment of the tunic of the Servant of God, and Joannes Rubio a like one, by his intercession.

Petrus de Ribera, a scholar, overcame by the patronage of the Man of God an incurable ulcer verging toward a carcinoma, about which three other smaller ones flowing with copious pus had grown; for, a little piece of his cloak being applied to his leg, when after three days he laid aside his hose, the relic also fell off, leaving him sound from all the trouble of the wound.

[36] in the arm Joanna de Villavicencio, long wounded with five ulcers on her right arm, would never suffer them to be pierced through with the iron by the surgeons, but always entreated holy father Solanus for her health. Meanwhile, visited by a certain religious, she received a linen cloth which had touched the breast of the Servant of God by rubbing; which, when she confidently applied it to her arm, straightway she began to move the arm, immovable now for forty days, and to lean herself easily to that side: and at length, after five days, the putrid pus of the ulcers burst out of itself, and the sick woman attained health.

and hand, Maria de Ribera, daughter of Gaspar de Ribera, besides the violent straits of a fever, suffered swollen wounds growing on her hands with putrefaction. Who, when she saw human exertion spent on her in vain, hung a cutting of the tunic of holy father Solanus about her neck for a cure; nor was she deceived: for the sickness being repelled, perfect health quickly succeeded.

[37] Francisca Serrano de Espinosa, brought to the last breath of life by a long flux of blood of two months, with a flux of blood, so that she seemed unable even to receive the sacred Viaticum, a vow being humbly made concerning visiting the sepulcher of the Servant of God, was straightway healed, and within three days, rising from her bed, devoutly fulfilled her promise.

Anna de Villadiego, a like promise of nine-day stations being uttered, was heard: but on account of not fulfilling it, in punishment of ingratitude, seized again by the same flux; when she had renewed the vow, straightway obtained also renewed health.

Agnezia, an eleven-year-old girl, daughter of Didacus Hurtado, epilepsy for three years attacked by frequent convulsions of epilepsy, was often cast to the ground by a sudden fall; where, miserably agitated, she vomited foam from her mouth and as it were sparks from her eyes. The incurability of the evil, tried through all remedies, increased the misery of the sick girl and the grief of her parents: for no hope of a cure shone, until a certain little piece of the habit of Francis Solanus was hung about her neck in the manner of a little bubble: for then suddenly, as fire dissolves ice, so the pious intercession of the Man of God conquered and put to flight all the persistence of the infirmity.

[38] Joannes de Riberia, a mason, miserably laboring without hope of remedy under a long asthma of seven years, with asthma which at each new moon reduced him to the last straits, at length, that he might obtain from God the health which he could not from men, vowed a nine-day devotion in the chapel of Francis Solanus, and the stipend of a Mass. On the first day therefore on which he visited the tomb, he recognized his health manifestly changed for the better, and thus prosecuting the several stations, his asthma daily decreasing, at the end of the fulfilled promise he saw himself wholly unharmed.

Petrus de Soto, first minister of the prefect of the town of Guánuco ^d, with a retention of urine, having fallen into peril of life from a most grave pain of the urine, made his testament, took the last Sacraments; and when he was thought about to die, the habit was sought in which he should be covered for burial. He, in so evident a peril, obtained that certain cuttings of the tunic of Francis Solanus be applied to his aching part; and straightway emitted the stone, attaining health, which the physicians, considering the circumstances of the disease, judged to be attributed to a miracle.

[39] Isabella de Angelis was prevented by a two-month debility of hands and feet from rising from her bed and bringing food to her mouth. with a debility of the limbs, She, judged by the physicians to labor under an incurable arthritic chiragra, humbly asked health from the man of God Solanus, which indeed she promptly obtained from a relic of his devoutly handled.

Maria Angola, a Negro woman, servant of Francis a Cueva, endured a pitiable palpitation of the heart; with a palpitation of the heart and swelling of the body, moreover she swelled in her legs and whole body. So many evils, no remedy profiting, turned to God, who does not spurn the prayers of the humble, she asked health by the intercession of the holy man Francis Solanus,

and confidently applied to herself a little cutting of his cloak. The great faith of the woman a prompt liberation from the swelling and torment straightway followed.

[40] Hieronymus de Azevedo, a priest, being wont to suffer a long quartan of three years, and sometimes, from three days to three days, an incurable pain of the stomach, with a pain of the stomach. devoutly applied a relic of the habit of father Solanus first to his mouth and eyes, then to his stomach. He was straightway seized by sleep, from which, returned after an hour, he recognized health restored to him, which thereafter for many years like diseases did not disturb.

Doctor Emmanuel Lopez Caravantes, a physician, lost again by a relapse of a pain of the stomach the health which he had once restored to himself by human arts: who, a little piece of the tunic of the holy Father being applied to his stomach, entreated him, whom while living he had so long cured by earthly virtue, to compensate for it by the exertion of his heavenly power. He merited to be heard: for by the merits of so great a Protector the recurring pain withdrew.

[41] With a stupor of the senses In the year 1624, the Dutch ships infesting the southern sea, among others Clemens, a soldier, fell into their hands, who, seized by a grave infirmity of stupor of the senses; when at length for three days he could take neither food nor drink, believed by the heretics to have expired, was destined to be cast into the sea. Which, when the captain Christophorus Lopez de Robas, his fellow-captive, heard, he asked that the casting-out be suspended: and soon drew a fiber from the cord of holy Father Solanus, once given to him by the marquis de Guadalcázar, and, the sign of the cross being premised, thrust this into the mouth of the sick man. Who straightway opened his eyes, asked for food, and on the following day, to the great admiration of the heretics, rose sound from his bed.

[42] and other infirmities Catharina de Nao, sick, despaired of by the physicians, fortified with the Sacraments, and near to death, drank water infused with a fragment of the tunic of the Man of God, and perfectly convalesced.

Petronilla de Escovar y Azevedo, a vow being uttered concerning visiting the sepulcher of father Solanus, was straightway freed from a pressing evil of the liver.

Joanna de Laon, vexed with an acute torment of the hip, when she could neither be moved, nor rise, nor sit, a cutting of the habit of the holy Man being applied to her, suddenly leaped up sound.

Joanna de Valdes, having endured a fever persistent for two months and more, and an abscess in the liver, at length, abandoned by the physicians, awaited the last term of life; when, behold, from the application of the devout image of the holy Man upon her face she felt relief, and on the following day, rising from her bed sound, with her own hands arranged her mattress.

[43] and those oppressed with diseases are cured. Maria Magdalena, daughter of Maria de Miranda, from a most intense palpitation of the heart contracted before the passage of the Servant of God, could be freed only by the efficacy of the same little pieces after his death.

Ludovica de Mendoza, wife of Philippus Gutierrez de Toledo, agitated by a vehement ardor of the body, and Maria de Campomanes, laboring under a year-long flux of the belly, felt the virtue of this salutary contact.

The captain Thomas Guerrero, brought by an intense vexation of the liver to the cold sweat of the death-agony; Petronilla de Sarmiento, from a fever and a perilous vomiting; Maria Valguer, from a persistent swelling of the belly of eighteen months, and other torments; Floriana, a Negro criolla ^f, from a debility of the limbs, by which for four months she was detained in bed; a certain Ludovicus, from a long flux of blood; Isabella de Merodio, from a torment of the leg, from the heat of a continual fever, and from a flux of blood; Catharina Gomez, a widow, and Anna de Valverde, from a similar deadly flux. All these, and many others, escaped safe and unharmed from the evils by which they were afflicted, by the devout contact of the aforesaid cuttings.

ANNOTATIONS.

read: a long asthma, which*

read: asthma*

CHAPTER IV.

Fires extinguished, a tempest of the sea allayed; and other miracles performed by his intercession.

In the valley of Guambacho ^a is a spacious tract of sweet canes fertile of sugar, near which, at about a league and a half, a fire was kindled in a certain small wood; By the patronage of St. Francis Solanus which, carried by the impetus of the winds to the reeds, now dry and ripe for cutting, as to food prepared, wrought great destruction. Human strength was unequal to extinguishing it: nay, even ecclesiastical prayers and exorcisms, though otherwise efficacious, then, the divine providence ordaining, availed nothing: for meanwhile the fire crept, and would have consumed the whole, had not the captain Antonius Alvaredo given two cuttings of the tunic of the holy man Solanus, which by chance he had with him, to Martinus de Ortega, the parish priest, to be set against the flames: for then, these being cast into the fire, suddenly the flaming torrent stopped, nor advancing even a little further, was gradually extinguished in the material now devastated, and left the rest, which it threatened, untouched. Thus also, after fifteen days, a fire kindled in the middle of the night by the inadvertence of someone, in another sweet reed-bed of the same region, more vehement and perilous, the parish priest, mindful of the recent benefit, repressed by setting against it a fragment of the tunic of the holy Man.

[45] fires Franciscus Beltran, once coming to his sugar-cane field, situated in the valley and district of Santa ^b, found a fire clinging to another tract also of sweet canes, and then leaping over into another of wild ones. Who, when on account of the impulse of the blowing wind and the contiguity of the place he held the loss of his property certain, hung a relic of the habit of the holy man Solanus, wrapped in a silken cloth, on the branch of a wild cane, saying: "O blessed Man, others cast relics into the fire, but I not so; but I fix them to this shoot, that they may ward off the fire." The outcome assuredly was marvelous, for although the reed-bed of fruit-bearing canes was distant from the sweet one scarcely half an ell, and the leaves of one were folded into the other; the fire stuck at the margin, and did not touch the sweet reeds, though dry. Thence also weight was added to the miracle, that the relic and the silken veil boiled up without any injury; while both the wood on which they had been hung, and whatever stood about it, it burned.

[46] arising in various places Once in the City of the Kings, by the accidental burning of a candle, a certain dwelling of Mariana de la Vega with all its furniture caught fire; yet a wooden little chest, in which were the woman's precious garments, and which above the rest she feared would be burned, escaped the fury of the fire. The bystanders, admiring the outcome, open the chest, and, at first sight finding a little relic of the tunic of father Solanus placed over the precious cloths as a guardian, ascribed the matter to a miracle and the privilege of this kind of little piece. Similarly at another time, though the fuel of more solid material was devoured, a like cutting, having by chance fallen into the fire, was found as if recently cut off, and without slight scorching.

[47] are extinguished, About the year 1617, when the house of a certain man in the city of Trujillo caught fire in the night by a vehement conflagration, and so great was the voracity of the fire that, on account of the dryness of the fuel to which it clung, namely the wood of the canes and the beams, it could be extinguished by no human remedy, especially in so great perturbation and the darkness of the night, Franciscus Fernandez, judging that heavenly help must be sought, cast a little piece of the habit of the holy man Solanus into the fire; and straightway the fire, checked as by the barrier of a torrent of waters or a stone wall, stopped, and abstained from the nearest material. But the morning having arisen, that the dignity of the miracle might shine forth the more, that sacred cutting was found unharmed and untouched.

At length, he who could extinguish a fire raging in the goods of others, and a lamp is miraculously lit willed also to light the extinguished in his own honor. For once a lamp hung before his sepulcher, by a man and a woman praying there and grieving that it was destitute of flame, suddenly, fire being conceived, was seen to be lit by an invisible hand.

[48] All the elements are subject to the Creator; whence he who had subjected the burnings of flames to his servant Francis, submitted also the storms of the waters. the same Saint frees certain persons For in the year 1610, the ship of Franciscus Livius set sail from the port of Lima, about to proceed to the port of Pisco ^c; which, when on the first day of September at evening it had come to the tract of the town of Cañete ^d, distant twenty leagues from Lima, so vehement a blast of winds arose that the sailor, lest he strike against the land, kept to the deep. The storm of the sea growing hotter, the ship, agitated about the eleventh hour of the night, which is one hour before midnight, was shattered and dissolved, and plunged into the deep of the abyss: to escape whose shipwreck, twenty-one of the voyagers, having entered a skiff, committed themselves to the sea. The growing masses of the waves, the dark night, the whistling winds, and the fear of peril had taken away all hope of safety from the wretched ones; in the certain loss therefore of the little boat, Joannes Rubio de Vargas and another of the fellow-voyagers, attesting that the help of holy father Solanus must be invoked, cast into the sea the little pieces which they carried with them from his habit, and well: for straightway, he working to whom the waves and the sea obey, there was made a great calm; and, a happy breeze blowing, and filling the coverlets for sails, they put in at the port of Surco ^e, which is two leagues from Lima.

[49] Similarly, for another ship going from the port of Callao to that of Arica ^f, distant two hundred leagues,

there arose so horrible a tempest that, driven far off by the motion of the whistling winds and the raging waves, it was dissolved into many cracks, and made so wide an entrance to the waters that a double pump did not suffice to draw them out, and all, lest they be suffocated, ascended to the higher stern. Then, at the persuasion of Isabella de Torres, the protection of holy father Solanus was humbly invoked; and a visitation of his sepulcher (after their liberation) was promised by the sailors and travelers: but she cast into the waves the little piece of the same Servant of God's tunic which she bore; which precious cloth scarcely entered them, when suddenly the fury of the winds grew quiet, the calm returned, and all with a happy landing came down to the port of Callao. The prosperous blasts of the wind obtained by the merits of the Servant of God for the fleet of the Spanish Catholic King, and their liberation from the imminent perils, being about to narrate more conveniently elsewhere, I here pass over in silence.

[50] Quiteria de Tejada, about to return from the Indies to Spain, he promises a wealthy marriage to a poor girl, wished first to place in marriage Joanna Duran, whom she kept with her: whence, when she wished to join her to Antonius Perez, an official of the prefect, he (to whom another richer was offered) refused to accept this poor and dowerless one. At his repulse the woman did not desist; but together with the aforesaid Joanna made a nine-day station at the sepulcher of the man of God Solanus, devoutly commending to him the good outcome of the business; on a certain day therefore at evening, the success being as it were despaired of, to the young girl, suspended and drowsy, a certain Franciscan religious appeared, who, touching her on the arm, said: Be not sad, daughter; for tomorrow thou shalt be joined in wedlock to that man. The oracle was fulfilled: for on the next day the aforesaid Antonius came to the house of Quiteria, sought Joanna in marriage, and gave the reason of his sudden change; that the very night the servant of God Francis Solanus had stood by him in his sleep, and demanded that Joanna be taken in marriage. Then she too related her vision, and both being compared, since they had so great an author and sponsor, on the same day they settled on earth the marriage already decreed in heaven.

[51] and takes care that a lost purse be prodigiously restored to a certain woman, Maria de Lao, wife of Damianus Mendez, while at the tomb of the holy Man she stoops to kiss the earth, her little girdle by chance being loosed, loses with it certain gold coins. Returned home, she notices the loss, returns to the chapel to seek it; but the money not being at all found, at length a man meets her saying that he had found it and given it to a certain unknown one affirming that it was his. At this the woman asks the Servant of God to avert the loss. Her prayer is heard: for as she entered the door of her own dwelling a certain man was present, and said: Behold the girdle which I received from another in the chapel of holy Solanus, as mine.

Martius Sancius, a surgeon, when he had once seen fugitive servants brought back to him by the prayers of the living Francis, after his death, as often as those slaves chanced to depart, so often commended their return to him, and straightway by a visible motion and impulse they returned.

[52] The holy Man by his prayers a hernia, Lucas, a ten-year-old boy, suffered for six years the importunate pains of a hernial swelling, whom Joannes de Esquederente his father, despaired of by the physicians, exhorted to seek the help of holy father Solanus. When therefore on a certain day of the month of March of the same year 1628, vexed with a more intense torment, he revolved in his mind the good counsel of his parent, in the morning he betook himself to the convent of St. Francis, and innocently and devoutly prayed before the sepulcher of the Man of God; where, when he was pouring out more fervent prayers, he saw beside him a certain woman, her head infected with great ulcers; who, earth from the tomb being placed on the wounds, and soon shaken off, attested that she was wholly healed. Animated by her faith, the boy confidently sprinkled his hernial swelling with the same dust of the tomb, and soon felt himself wholly free. Returned home joyfully, he narrated to his parents the course of the miracle, who, experience being made, found the fracture truly consolidated, and the excess of the swelling remitted; from which the boy thereafter enjoyed durable health.

[53] a flux of blood and other diseases, In the month of September of the same year 1628 Martha de Espinosa, wife of Franciscus Garcia, pregnant, attacked by a copious flux of blood, frequent vomiting, and deadly paroxysms, was judged by the physicians about to die shortly. The Sacraments of the Eucharist and Penance being now received, she was being prepared for the extreme Unction; when Father Brother Matthaeus Perez, sacristan of the convent of St. Francis, pitying her, said: "Since she is despaired of by earthly physicians, I will bring the heavenly physician, who will heal her without labor." And indeed, a relic of one finger of holy father Solanus, brought from the monastery, when he reverently hung it about the neck of the sick woman (who meanwhile vowed a station at his sepulcher and the oblation of a waxen body), straightway the blood and the vomiting stopped, the symptoms of death ceased, the eyes of the sick woman were opened, and she was straightway so strengthened that she asked for food, and ate and swallowed the breast of a little bird offered to her, as if wholly sound, with free tooth. Her, on the following day the physicians, finding her returned to the use of despaired-of health, attributed the outcome of the matter to a manifest miracle.

[54] At the beginning of the year 1629 a certain Moor, by name Theodora, a fever and consumption, twelve years of age, servant of Petronilla de Escovar y Azevedo, is seized by a persistent fever; which, the remedies of medicine being tried in vain, verging to the worse, degenerated into consumption. Abandoned therefore by the physicians, the servant was being sent by her mistress to a country house; though in vain, since on the same day she was believed most certainly about to die: there at length, because neither the care of those ministering nor the change of air and place had profited, her mistress undertook nine-day stations to holy father Solanus, and procured a Mass to be celebrated there. Scarcely was the devotion begun, when the infirmity of the little servant was seen to abate, her strength to increase so much that within some days she returned wholly sound to the city.

[55] In the same year, in the month of November, a certain Negro little girl, Paschalis, five years old, a swelling, servant of Isabella de Argote, having endured an acute fever, swelled in all the members of her right side, head, arm, and leg, and grew stiff with an insensible lethargy. Her the twisted hips of the same side and the contracted leg made lame, the swollen arm maimed, the swelling face deformed. And when for twenty days the state of so lamentable a sickness was changed for the better by no application of remedies, the mistress orders the sick girl to be carried with her to the church of St. Francis; and, applied to the sepulcher in which the Man of God had before lain, humbly commended her to him. After a fervent prayer, she anointed all the affected parts of the little servant with the oil of the lamps burning there, hoping that the unction would be salutary by the merits of the Servant of God: nor indeed was she deceived: for the girl, carried home thence, on the following morning rose sound and unharmed from her bed.

In the same month and year Mariana de Palacios, wife of Antonius Xamarillo, the afterbirth of a woman in labor, by an untimely birth bore a very small fetus; and when she poured out a great quantity of blood, she could not be purged of the afterbirth ^h. The physicians therefore despairing of her health, she herself does not despair: for, imploring the help of holy father Solanus, she swallowed two little fragments of his bone through her mouth, and straightway, by a double paroxysm, cast out the afterbirth, the blood stopped, and she convalesced.

[56] Maria, a three-month-old little girl, servant of Didacus Causinus, a grave infirmity, in the month of December of the same year 1629 infected or wounded with the grave infirmity which they call de oculo, that is, by a corruption of the visual spirits coming forth from the eye of one gazing upon her, was brought to the last hour of life. Her thus despaired of, and bearing all the signs of imminent death in her countenance, tongue, and whole body, her master and mistress carried to the chapel of the Man of God. Scarcely was the Mass, which for that reason they had ordered to be celebrated, finished; when the little infant, returned to herself, carried home, within the space of a quarter of an hour began to suck the breast which for eight days she had not taken. But it happened that a certain little boy also, six months old, servant of the aforesaid Didacus, on the same day and with a like disease fell sick; who yet, since he did not seem to have incurred peril of life, was cured only by human remedies, nor commended to the intercession of the holy Father. Whence it came about that the girl escaped death, and he lost his life.

[57] a dissolution of the stomach, Joannes Viafara, a farm-steward, and servant of Joanna de Lugo y Torrez, a widow, on account of a troublesome dissolution of the stomach, spat copious blood; and at length contracted the evil which they call del Valle. This, like a cancer creeping within, the vitals being eaten away, when he cast out little by little blood, liver, and lungs by spitting them out in fragments, abandoned by the physicians, was girt for the last struggle by the participation of all the Sacraments, even of extreme Unction. But on a certain Tuesday, the physicians assembling in the morning, he is judged most certainly about to die on the same day. Which being heard, the mistress uttered a vow concerning a fast of one day, concerning visiting the chapel of holy father Solanus, and concerning bestowing the recompense of a Mass; and indicated to Isabella de Lugo her daughter that she should apply a relic of the habit of the man of God to the sick man, and promise the observance of one fast. But she, the sacred cutting being applied, added that she would not believe the sanctity of father Solanus, which report published, unless he freed this man from his sickness.

[58] and drives off the present peril of death. The mother therefore, approaching nearer to the bed, when now the commendatory prayers and the sacred taper had been fitted to the dying man; as she saw three napkins wet with the blood and putrefaction cast from the sick man's mouth, she wished to extend another white one to his lips: which done, she perceived on the other side of the bed holy father Solanus, as if assisting her. Astounded at the vision, the woman, having considered him attentively, recognized truly who he was; and observed that he, clad in a new habit, bore snowy hands and a most gracious countenance. Full of the jubilation of inward gladness, she put to flight every scruple of doubt from the outcome: for at the same hour the sick man, his strength being resumed, asked for food; which consumed, he wished to rise from his bed. But when he was prevented by the bystanders, he affirmed himself wholly sound and unharmed, as indeed from then all the stain of infirmity had withdrawn from him. But the mistress, the servant being led to the chapel of the holy Man, faithfully paid the vow which she had promised.

ANNOTATIONS.

wheat, that a very great abundance of the best flour is transported hence by ship to the other provinces of southern America.

* doubtless the afterbirth

* or, "stopped"?

CHAPTER V.

Many sick persons healed by the apparition of St. Francis Solanus, the presence of his image, his invocation, and the contact of his relics.

In the month of October of the year 1630 Isabella de Mexia, wife of Ildephonsus de Castro, procurator of the royal audience of Lima, Appearing to two sick women her throat wounded with importunate ulcers, could take food only with difficulty; there came also a vehement pain of the ear redounding into her whole head; moreover she often cast copious blood from her mouth and nostrils: by which evils, every remedy of the physicians being useless, her health is pronounced despaired of. While therefore about midnight she was in the greatest strait of pains, she lifted the eyes of her soul to the holy man Solanus. And when she was possessed of mind and wakefulness, and no entrance lay open to anyone into the chamber, its doors being bolted and lit by a lamp; she beheld two Friars Minor entering to her, one of whom, like the venerable servant of God Solanus, sat upon her bed, and, his hand being gently extended, put his fingers into her ear, and soon both withdrew again. At this the sick woman, crying out aloud, roused her sleeping husband, and narrated the course of the vision: but straightway, the strait of her torments being relaxed, she was seized by sleep, which for eight days had withdrawn from her eyes. But the morning having come, her husband betook himself to the chapel of the holy Man, caused a Mass to be celebrated there; and at length sent home oil received from the lamps burning there: with which the throat and ears of the sick woman were anointed with so happy a success that suddenly she acquired full health.

Similarly also to Joanna Ortega Valencia, dwelling in the village of Carrión, he procures health; sick and despaired of by the physicians, asking help, the holy Man appeared, saying: What askest thou of me? To whom she: Health, my Saint. These things said, he vanished, and the woman received health by his benefit.

[60] A certain noble woman, pious and trustworthy, was seized by a malignant fever and a stupefaction of the senses so sudden that, the Sacraments being received, not even time for making a testament seemed to remain. She, about midnight, the violence of the evil being relaxed a little, and the full use of judgment left to her, turned affectionately to the image of the holy man Solanus (which she held in her chamber, lit by a lamp, over against her bed), but addresses and heals another through his image. saw his face as if reddening with blood, and heard a voice coming forth from it saying to her: Now thy sentence is revoked. At these words the woman, filled with consolation, as if she had tasted beforehand the sweetness of the heavenly homeland, devoutly intoned the psalm Praise the Lord, all ye nations; with which straightway the sweet music of certain little birds, harmonizing and long persevering, roused two maidservants lying below the sick woman's bed. To whom she too said: Know ye that I am not about to die of this sickness? And indeed the outcome proved the truth of her assertion: for thereafter she perfectly convalesced.

[61] From paralysis, The little girl Francisca, daughter of Ildephonsus Garcia Flores and Ludovica de Mingolla, who, occupied by a paralytic disease, the state of her mouth deformed and distorted, her feet and hands for the most part shaken with violent motion, no human remedies healing, received sound and tranquil from the heavenly Physician. For when on a certain day at evening her mother had applied the salutary image of holy father Solanus to her head, at midnight she sucked the breasts which for three days she had not taken: but in the morning, her mouth being returned to its natural figure, for an evident argument of the miracle there appeared upon the head of the sick girl a sign of the cross, as if gilded and very comely. Which quickly vanishing, the miraculous health of the little girl also shortly became known.

[62] fluxions, Mariana de Inestrosa endured for two months grave torments of fluxions falling into her left leg, by whose violence, the joints from the hip down to the foot being seized, she could neither stand, nor sit, nor be moved in bed, and by her tearful groans drew the compassion of all upon herself. The cares and remedies of the medical art seemed not even not to diminish, but even to increase the evil; thus therefore the woman, incurable by human virtue, having invoked the help of the holy man Solanus, and a nine-day station at his sepulcher being promised, reverently applied a relic of his bone to the injured parts: by whose efficacious contact indeed she felt the sinews and joints of her leg and side loosed, and the course of the never-returning fluxion suddenly ceased.

[63] a pain of the ear, Catharina de Quiroga, an eighteen-year-old girl, unceasingly afflicted with a vehement torment of the ear, relieved by no remedies, abandoned by the physicians, implores the help of holy father Solanus, promises the stipend of a Mass to be celebrated at his sepulcher, and a handful of her hair to be hung up: and the vow being paid in her name by Joanna de Escovar the following morning, straightway she convalesced from her infirmity; took food (which before she could not), and thereafter was confirmed in perfect health.

deafness, Thus also a young scholar overcame a contracted deafness by the unction of the oil of the lamps of the same Servant of God.

[64] A certain little Moor woman, by name Antonia, afflicted with frequent troubles of fevers and frees from various diseases. and importunate vomiting, corroded within by the disease of hemorrhoids (called del Valle by the natives); her vitals wounded, her intestines emerging, made a spectacle of human misery, and as it were a prodigy to those beholding it, while, despaired of by men, she awaited the outcome of her last hour, is commended by her mistress to the merits of the servant of God Solanus, is carried to his chapel, and confidently touched on her face with a certain relic of his. The prayer of the one entreating was efficacious: for without any other remedy the sick woman, returned to herself, opened her eyes, ate a little piece of bread before she was carried home, and gradually acquired health: but her mistress Clara de Montoyos, not ungrateful for the benefit, hung the linen which she had prepared for burying the little girl, as a perpetual trophy, in the chapel of the holy Man.

[65] Hieronyma de Nanavides, the flow of milk with which she fed her little boy failing and wasting away through the violence of a daily fever, He gives milk to a woman, a prayer being made in the chapel of the Man of God, received it full and sufficient for the suckling of three infants.

Father Hieronymus Ildephonsus a Torre, vehemently tormented by an acute fever and pains contracted in a damp dwelling, he snatches from a fever and pains, coming to the convent of St. Francis of Pisco, received from the prefect of the infirmary the girdle or cord with which the man of God Solanus had once girt himself, and which was said to work very many miracles; which, reverently applied to his aching members, he found salutary: for scarcely a quarter of an hour having elapsed, a refreshing sweat coming on took from him all the heat of the fever and the anxiety of his pains. He also shortly betook himself to Lima to give thanks to God and holy father Francis; where, anointing with the oil of his lamps a swelling which had remained in a certain part, he straightway felt it dissolved and diminished.

[66] In the year 1631 Maria de Torres, a widow, brought a neighbor woman of hers, he restores speech to a sick woman for confession, poor and sick, into her house to cure her of a fever, of whose health the physicians despairing, her eyes deprived of sight, blood [?] issuing from her arms; and, what was worse, she, in so many signs of imminent destruction, incapable of receiving the Sacraments, implored the help of the holy man Solanus to obtain for the dying woman the free faculty of confessing: and therefore set up beside her the sacred image of the Servant of God, placed between two lights, and God, who gives to all affluently, who exceeds the merits and vows of the suppliant, by the intercession of his Servant granted to the sick woman a tongue and mind free for confession, and then good health of body.

[67] On Sunday, the first of July, in the year 1640, he expels a morsel choking his throat, doctor Ildephonsus Ossorio, parish priest of the cathedral church of Lima, while about noon he had reclined at table, felt the first morsel of meat (which he tries to swallow) stick in the deep passage of his throat. The surgeons were present to make trial of their art, but in vain: a thin wax candle more than a palm long is thrust into his throat, and this being broken, another is again inserted; but although this care was more troublesome, yet it turned out no more salutary than the others. Meanwhile the straits of the sufferer grew, who, near to being suffocated, asked for water to be infused into his throat: but this too finding no exit, it was little but that he expired; his face swelled and was blackened, his eyes emitted as it were fiery sparks, his throat swelled as if compressed to strangle him. In so evident a peril there shone upon the wretched man the hope of heavenly help, when he reconsidered in his mind holy father Solanus, most dear to him (for he was wont to offer a large alms each year for the expenses of his canonization): for straightway he confidently applied a relic of his bone to his throat, and in the fervor of faith said: My Father, if thou art a Saint (as I believe) and my friend; ask of God my liberation. Scarcely had he uttered the last word of his little prayer, when straightway the morsel fell into his stomach, which, although it had wounded his throat, and afterwards compelled him to vomit copious blood; yet he, wholly sound, again reclined, ate freely, and, about to resume the offices of parish priest that same day, returned to the church to the admiration of all.

[68] and marvelously preserves a mule in a perilous case. The very invocation of the Man of God was also most apt for preserving the goods of fortune, and for freeing from the loss of imminent perils. For in the year 1632, the above-named doctor Ildephonsus Ossorio and his brother Joannes ascending the hill del Chorrillo, steep with a summit of two leagues, it happened that twenty mules going upward met others coming from Jauja, laden with the pigs of poor Indians, descending into the valley. The way was on both sides difficult, narrow, and slippery; wherefore, as they stood against each other, one of them by a headlong fall began to be rolled into the deep over rocks and precipices: the loss seemed unavoidable, had not the aforesaid Ossorios, compassionating the afflicted Indians, invoked the help of father Francis Solanus. For the divine protection was present on account of his merit, and the beast, which (as always was wont to happen to others) in the very rolling down the slope was to fall and be deprived of life, but, protected by an invisible hand, through so many spaces from precipice to precipice, from rock to rock, came sound to the lowest plain; where it grazed the grass, and

neither the burden being cast off, nor the cord or rope torn apart, prosecuted the journey with the others (which had gradually descended to the plain). But the Indians marveling, and ignorant of the cause of the miracle, those men said that this prodigy had been divinely wrought in testimony of the eminent sanctity of the Peruvian apostle Francis Solanus, and invited them to a sincere confidence toward so benevolent an Intercessor.

Thus also once, by the efficacy of a relic of the habit of the Servant of God, a threatening cloud of hail, at the pious prayer of Joannes de Quiros, governor of the valley of Jauja, being manifestly turned aside to another place, left the field, with its ears of wheat almost ripe for harvest, free from the imminent devastation.

ANNOTATIONS.

* or, "of a long fever"?

* perhaps "works"

CHAPTER VI.

Several dead boys recalled to life, and many women freed from perilous childbirth.

On the sixth day of April of the year 1631 Franciscus, a ten-month-old little boy (whom a little before his parents had offered to holy father Solanus), by the inadvertence of his nurse fell into a water-channel Certain boys turning three millstones of the mill of Ludovicus de Mendoza; and thus submerged, first through the aqueducts of the houses, then into the water-reservoir of the city (from which these dangerously issue), through subterranean passages, was rolled along the whole course of the inquiry leading to the Discalced nuns. Thence he came to the mill, which, since on account of the feast-day it was not grinding, by the water bursting forth over the high dam the boy is cast against the opposite wall with great force; and thus, through the sharp masses of rocks and precipices, and through various windings of almost half a mile, at length was carried to the roots of the monastery of the Immaculate Conception. Whom a certain Moor woman, having by chance seen him, seized by the foot, and, his face suffused with the blackness of death, his tongue stiff, his jaws wasting, his arms and the framework of his limbs loosed, his head inclined, water mixed with blood flowing from his mouth and nostrils, carried in her arms to Catharina de Leon.

[70] But she, as soon as she had learned of the boy's case, had not ceased to invoke the merits of holy father Solanus; suffocated in the waters, and now, when he was brought to her, though in the judgment of all dead, she affectionately commended him to his help. So efficacious was the perseverance of the woman in prayer that within half an hour she saw the boy restored to life, whom also on the following day, brought to the chapel of the Man of God for thanksgiving, Father Brother Didacus de Corduba ^a, receiving into his bosom, exhibited to all the brothers to be seen and admired without any indication of the recent case.

By the same intercession of the man of God Francis, the almost two-year-old son of Lucretia de Espinosa, who, when in the year 1634, on the fourth day of May, he was engaged in boyish games near the mill of Pastrana, had fallen into its deep channel, and had been cast by the violent motion of the waters upon very large rocks; drawn out by the foot by women there washing clothes, the water (which he had drunk) being vomited up, his senses (which had wasted away) returning, the color of his flesh (which had contracted blackness) being changed for the better, returned from death to life.

[71] Moreover, in the year from the childbirth of the Virgin 1639, Joseph, a one-year-old boy, or dead by another misfortune son of Franciscus Garcia and Catharina Martinez, when he sat placed on a table raised above the ground more than an ell and a half, fell, and struck his head on the ground with so vehement an impulse that straightway, pouring out copious blood from his eyes and nostrils, he lost sense, motion, and breath, and, suffused with a mortal pallor, died. Thus for a whole hour the parents, afflicted by their irreparable loss, mourned the dead body; until Franciscus Garcia, remembering the image of holy father Solanus, which he held hung in his chamber, confidently placed it upon the head of the dead child; and straightway, by the merits of the Servant of God, the soul received the body, and the little boy new life.

[72] he recalls to life, In the same year Maria Mingolla, wife of Martinus Godinez Ternero, bore a little son, Petrus; who, because brought forth by a premature birth, was failing and infirm. But him, on the seventh day from his birth, a sudden sickness invaded, by whose violence he died: for, received into his arms by his parent, the blackness of death being contracted, his breath failing, and the mouth of the languishing child gaping repeatedly, he ended his life. Then the father, sad indeed at his little son's death, but trusting in the help of holy father Solanus, and hoping that the boy would be restored to him by his merits, forbade the tears of the mourning household: nor was he deceived: for, by the virtue of the venerable image of the Servant of God applied to the head of the dead child, he beheld the little boy raised within half an hour, and, the pallor of death being changed, the rosy color of life succeed.

[73] and to a dead girl life, and a shattered head, and a gouged-out eye he restores, In the same year 1639, on the eighth day of November, Beatrix de Monroi, a five-year-old girl, daughter of Antonius Dias de Obregon and Maria de la O, fell to the ground from the topmost floor of five stories, a railing (to which she clung) being torn off with her. And so great was the violence of the fall that, her head striking, it was broken into two parts, and the railing, dashed against the little infant's face, tore out her eye, and left it hanging and falling out; unequal to which evils, the tender daughter suddenly expired. The dead child's parents, roused by the noise, lamenting her wretched end, at length treated of her burial: but the mother, while she filled the whole house with clamorous groans, by chance turned her eyes to the image of our holy Father Solanus, hung at the head of the bed; before which, her knees being set, in the bitterness of her heart and in the gall of tears, like another wife Peninnah, humbly asked not the generation, but the resurrection of her child.

[74] Soon, refreshed by inward hope, she so efficaciously anointed the face of the corpse with the oil of the lamps of the Servant of God that straightway the gouged-out eye was seen to return within the eyelid, and to occupy its former place; the shattered crown, straightway made whole; the dead little body, straightway animated, and restored to the movable faculty. And so the girl, endowed with the benefit of vital light, as if roused from sleep, exclaimed: Jesus be with me! and in her, out of so many injuries, only a small bruise remained under the eye, in perpetual memory of the miracle. But after three days the little infant, who enjoyed perfect health without any other remedy, went to her mother, and, having inquired the name of that Saint so dear to her, asked that a rosary be recited in his honor; and, the man of God Solanus being named to her, she expressed great signs of joy beyond her age.

[75] and he heals another almost killed by a wild horse. To these dead raised from death I will add another; snatched, if not from the grave, at least from its jaws. In the year 1634, in the region of Caras, of the province of Guailas ^b, a wild horse, running through the streets, and drawing great logs with it, prostrated by a violent impulse upon the stones Anna, a three-year-old girl, daughter of Joannes Ferdinandus Jordanus, wounded the temple of her head with a large wound, and gashed her face with a grave injury. At so deadly an event a cold humor came upon the little infant, the faculty of speech, and every indication of vital spirit deserted her; so that she was judged either dead, or about to survive little. Her thus despaired of by men, the afflicted father, having invoked the merits of the servant of God Solanus, quickly received unharmed: for, restored to the use of her senses, on the following day she stood by herself; but on the next she was seen to run and play with other children. Nor did she need any human remedy, commended to so good a Physician; nay, an herb which had been applied (as if into the fellowship of the heavenly medicine), when it manifestly harmed, was rejected; that the whole health of the little girl might be left to be perfected by the Servant of God.

[76] In the year 1630, in the month of March, Joanna de Carrion, Many women wife of Franciscus Muñoz, a goldsmith, by an unhappy outcome of childbirth underwent acute pains and a certain peril of death. For the fetus, folded into a ball at her throat, the head bursting forth, was as it were being suffocated; which when the midwife observed, she imparted to it the salutary waters of baptism. And so great were the straits of the woman in labor that, wasting with a cold sweat, and as if deprived of her senses, she was thought about to expire. Her thus suffering, the bystanders admonished that, the remedies and cares being exhausted, she should commend herself from the depth of her heart to the man of God Solanus, and vow the stipend of a Mass to be bestowed. The woman assented, and uttered the vow; and straightway gave birth, and afterwards mother and child remained without peril.

[77] Maria Magdalena de Alissis, wife of Joannes Ortiz de la Fuente, set in perilous childbirth in the same year 1630, being in labor, the fetus being transverse and also reaching to her stomach, perceived inexplicable pains: for by their violence, having suffered a swoon of heart and senses, and growing stiff with a deadly cold, she seemed to meet the death inseparable from such a case. There were not lacking the cares and arts of the midwives; but these profiting nothing, she persevered in this bitter torment until the next day. Then her mother Anna de Noyal, compassionating her, went to the chapel of the holy Man, committed the celebration of a Mass; and, bringing home from thence the oil of his lamps, anointed with it the belly of her pregnant daughter, and both devoutly implored the help of the Servant of God, this one with her heart, that one with her mouth. By so efficacious a remedy the sense of pains is recalled, strength is restored, the swelling of the body withdraws; and the midwife could with an easy hand raise the child and dispose it for delivery, so that at length within four hours the woman in labor poured out a female unharmed, without peril.

[78] Eleonora de Escalona y Aguero, wife of Franciscus Garnica, worn out with great grief of soul gave birth happily, because, now five times pregnant, she had always borne abortive and dead fetuses at the sixth or seventh month; is turned to the powerful intercession of the man of God Francis Solanus, a promise being made concerning the child to be marked with his name, if she should bring forth a living one. The entreaty of the woman was heard, who, a fetus being conceived, sometimes suffered the pains of abortion which she was otherwise wont to experience; but as soon as she confidently anointed herself with the oil of the lamp burning in the chapel of her Advocate, and with a tearful voice asked his help, she felt all the trouble allayed. At length, nine months having elapsed, she brought forth a living and sound daughter on the first day of July of the year 1631, who in baptism was named Francisca Solano.

[79] or, after deadly diseases Maria Ximenez, wife of Andreas de Villarroel, pregnant, swelled in her whole body and belly with a dropsy (which the physicians call infancy), by its nature very difficultly curable. Already for six months having endured cruel pains day and night, without any relief perceived from many remedies; a deadly torment of childbirth at length supervening, she came into the last peril of life: when, behold, a cutting of the habit of the holy Man, and his cord being applied to her belly, his help being humbly invoked over the sick woman, and a nine-day station at his chapel being promised; she in a short interval bore twin offspring possessed of life, and, emitting the afterbirth, soon made wholly sound, affirmed that that childbirth had been happier for her than all the preceding.

[80] and long pains of childbirth Isabella Barraza felt the strong pains of an unhappy childbirth, prolonged from Wednesday, the thirty-first of March of the year 1631, up to the following Friday, not without manifest peril. Her the midwives strove to relieve with unctions, to refresh with potions, and to relieve with other remedies; but in vain: at length the fetus put forth one little arm, in which, washed by the laver of baptism as a precaution, it thus remained until Saturday, the third day of April; and soon the little arm put forth was seen to corrupt, and to be covered with the corruption of death. And so the midwives, wishing to tear off and draw out the dead child either by hand or by an iron hook, disposed the woman by the reception of the Sacraments for the uncertain outcome: but the hook was insufficient, and human art useless: for the dead little body had gone up so high, and the belly of the woman in labor had hardened like metal, that neither could it be drawn out, nor she be aided. Already from the beginning of the pains the sincere faith of the parents and neighbors had fortified the sick woman with sacred relics, and even the very adorable little piece of the salutary Cross; but, God so ordaining, no efficacious help of health emanated from these. The miracle was reserved for holy father Solanus: for as soon as, his patronage being invoked, the belly of the woman in labor was anointed with the oil of the lamps brought from his chapel, the hardness being softened, she cast out the dead abortion with the evil-smelling afterbirth as quickly as possible, and the woman remained sound.

[81] the help of St. Francis Solanus being invoked, Catharina Bran, servant of Hieronyma de Pineda, seven months pregnant, struck on the belly by a stone cast by a young man, fell to the ground almost lifeless, and the child, injured by the blow, dies. Hence the mother's pains grow worse, and the outcome of childbirth is judged impossible by the midwives: in these perils the invoked merits of the holy man Solanus were present, an unction of the belly of the suffering woman from his lamps being premised; suddenly she uttered cries, and poured out a creature transverse, balled up, and confused among the dregs of the afterbirth with the shell of its head broken, and found free health.

[82] To Ludovica de Savedra, when once as a six-year-old little infant she had fallen from a high heap of sacks of flour to the bottom, a present peril of life her bladder having been dissolved by the violent fall, and her intestines flowing out, had exhausted all the art of the physicians; nay, her parents being dead, the care had ceased, and the force of the sickness had grown strong. When therefore for fifteen years she had thus passed a life full of troubles, at length, married to a man and become pregnant, there was peril lest the fetus should come out about to perish through the fracture of the hernia: in this strait, foreseen indeed by the physicians and midwives, but to be impeded by no hand but the divine, she found the sought protection of holy father Solanus: for when she had once anointed the fractured part with the oil of his lamps, she received new strength, gave birth at the opportune time, and was free from all injury.

[83] In the year 1633 Anna Malo de Molina, wife of Petrus Nuñez de Alvarada, a citizen of Lima, escaped. two months pregnant, for nine days poured out blood with excrement; and although, on account of the efficacy of the medicines, it did not flow in so great abundance, yet, since the flux had not stopped, she was always in peril of life. But on a certain night, while she was vehemently anxious, her belly is anointed with the oil of the lamps of the servant of God Solanus, and for her help the merits of so great an Intercessor are invoked. He was straightway present, and brought help: for the morning having come, the woman emitted a putrefied fetus, flowing with a foul odor; and from thence, without any other remedy, the blood stopped, and health returned.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VII.

Various infirmities driven off by the oil of the lamps burning before his sepulcher.

Bernardus, a newly born little boy, son of the captain Josephus Carrafo del Zaz and Isabella de Saavedra, By the oil of the lamps, by the continual motion of his wailings incurred a hernial fracture, for whose cure no remedies were omitted through four years; but these yielding in vain (for the boy's intestines flowed out, the injured parts swelled with a swelling, and the sharp pains of the sufferer warded off all refreshment) his anxious and troubled mother anointed the hernia with the oil of holy father Solanus; and straightway the little infant, the swelling being dissolved, the intestines brought back to their native seat, escaped sound. But when, exhilarated and rejoicing, he suddenly wished to rise from his bed, his too provident mother bound him and fortified him with a truss: the fellowship of earthly art displeased the heavenly Physician: for on a certain day at evening, the boy leaping from his bed, the truss was torn, and straightway the flux of the navel returned. The husband, observing the little faith of his wife, asked pardon for her from the Man of God, and a second grace for his son, and promised that he would be clothed with the sacred habit of the Seraphic religion, if he were healed; soon he took off the truss, and forbade that any other remedy be applied to him, set under the protection of so great an Intercessor; content only that these words be uttered by his little son lying on his bed, for three or four days: Holy Solanus, heal my fracture for the love of God. The sincere faith of the parent pleased God, and the simple entreaty of the little boy, in that the protruding navel went back in, the fracture was consolidated, and health marvelously restored to the sick one. Of which benefit, that a perennial memory might flourish, the parent had a devout image of holy father Solanus painted, with the boy kneeling before him, and placed it in his house.

[85] burning before the sepulcher of the holy Man, Nicolaus de Villavicencio, seven years old, son of Christophorus Guttierrez Muñoz, moderator of the town of Saña ^a, and of Lucia de Villavicencio, having fallen into a hernia, and suffered a grave swelling in his bladder; because an only-begotten and most beloved child, was handed over to a skilled surgeon to be cured: but he left him more afflicted with pains and ulcers about the fracture. While therefore the father grieved him as incurable, and thought of no other than earthly medicine; he is visited by the captain Josephus Carrasco del Zaz, and is taught of the marvelous health of his little son related above: at which he, made more courageous, suddenly ordered the plasters, bands, and ligaments of his boy to be loosed and cast off; and once anointed the fractured part with this salutary oil so opportunely that straightway the swelling was dissolved and the intestines closed up: and the boy was healed from that hour. In indelible monument of which miracle his parent had an image of the holy man Solanus painted, and wished it decently hung in his house.

[86] various persons from a hernia Joannes, a newly born little boy, son of a Moor servant, on account of the violent convulsions of epilepsy, also came into a hernial fracture; both diseases were judged incurable and mortal; nor did anything remain except the help of divine propitiation: wherefore for three days his injured limbs and the framework of his body are anointed with the oil from the lamps of the Servant of God; and the boy is healed of all his infirmities.

Joannes Narvaez, a surgeon, an old man, when for more than six years he had labored under the grave straits of a hernia, perfectly convalesced by the unction of the same oil.

Salvator, a four-month-old little boy, son of Ildephonsus de Orta and Petronilla de Vera y Soto, dwelling near Saña, a hernia being contracted, the navel protruding, and a fever being superadded, brought to the last peril of life, was carried by his afflicted parents to the sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe ^b, distant seven leagues from the town, for his health. Nor yet for that (God so disposing) did he receive any relief from that shrine of graces: wherefore Raphaela de Soto, the boy's grandmother, admonished Petronilla the mother that she should foster the wounded part with the oil of the holy man Solanus. She acquiesced, and anointed her son so efficaciously that straightway he escaped free from the hernia, the fever, and the disease of his eyes. But, that she might be proved faithful in temptation, again within four days the fracture broke out afresh: but the mother, not despairing, resumed the salutary unction for five or six days; by whose virtue indeed the boy attained secure and firm health in the year 1639.

[87] Emmanuel de Arco, dwelling near Saña, contracted a sweat by the ascent of a rough hill, and from that a debility of the legs; and other diseases which (to conquer) he applied very many medicines through two years, but in vain: for by the violence of his pains he had lost rest and appetite for food, nor could he walk without the support of stilts. But on a certain night, the heat of his troubles growing hot, his solicitous wife (he meanwhile humbly supplicating) confidently anointed his joints and injured parts with the oil of the lamps of the holy man Solanus: heavenly help was straightway present: for the sick man fell asleep, and protracted the sleep, snatched from him for many nights by his straits, up to the eighth morning hour (which is four before noon). About which, being awakened, feeling himself free, he eagerly ate food; and thereafter marvelously sound from all infirmity, hung the stilt (on which he had hitherto leaned) in the parish church as a trophy; but his wife placed the image of the Servant of God among the other effigies of the Saints in her chamber.

[88] Marcus de la Vega, when in the army of the Catholic king he fought against the rebel Indians, are freed. in a battle entered on the fifth day of October 1635, was pierced from the calf of his left leg up to the upper part of the knee by a double thrust of a lance. The surgeons, trying to cure him, cut off some sinews, by whose cutting his leg being injured, his joints contracted, and his foot made shorter, he walked only by the benefit of stilts: therefore he passed from Chile to Lima, the physicians despairing, and affirming that health was superior to human art. Now for almost three years he had remained in this trouble, when at length, taking refuge with the servant of God Solanus on Monday, the fifteenth of February, in the year 1638, confession and communion being premised, he came to his sepulcher, and humbly asked for his health. Soon, anointed by a certain religious with the oil of the lamps on the injured part, he straightway fell asleep; but after about an hour, being awakened, he stretched out his wounded leg, easily set his foot on the ground, and, the supports being cast off, walked. The report of the miracle being heard, many brothers ran from the convent, saw the lame man walking rightly, and in thanksgiving chanted the Te Deum laudamus. But the soldier, the stilts being hung before the sepulcher, returned home free, and needed no support thereafter.

[89] Petronilla, a four-year-old little girl, sustaining grave pains from her swollen eyes as if tinged with blood, The same oil ulcers, moreover with the palate of her mouth wounded with ulcers, taking food only with difficulty, was carried by her parents to the chapel of the holy man Solanus on the day of the indulgence of the Portiuncula. Who, when she had seen the sacristan of the convent drawing oil from the lamps hung there, she too asked for oil; which, that he might quiet her weeping,

he offered her a linen cloth dipped in oil. This, although she was turned away from it by her parents, and warned of the grave pain (which she would suffer from the contact), she rubbed over her eyes and anointed for some time: and soon she exclaimed that she was sound and endowed with clearness. The bystanders were astounded at the miracle indeed, but more at the faith of the little girl, who also, from the place in which the sacred body had before lain, when she had seen earth drawn out by another, herself too wished for earth, chewed it applied to her mouth, and rubbed it along the wounds of her palate by chafing her tongue, and straightway attested that she suffered no trouble from them. And indeed, as the swelling and bleariness of her eyes by the unction of the oil, so the ulcers of her mouth by the chewing of the earth were found on the same day to have ceased by a stupendous miracle.

[90] a trouble of the spleen, Hieronyma de Escalona y Aguero for eight years labored under so vehement a trouble of the spleen that sometimes, her breath failing, she could not be moved, and often came into peril of life. The care of the physicians was not lacking to the sick woman; but the remedies being tried in vain, the sickness was judged incurable: then she, turning herself with all confidence of mind to holy father Solanus, as the servant of the heavenly Physician, promised that she would visit his sepulcher, wear the habit of the Seraphic religion for a year, and fast on each Friday. These things being thus uttered, transferred to his chapel, she covered herself with the Minorite garment, and anointed her side with the oil of the lamp burning there: but straightway, the holy Man's virtue working, she returned home sound and unharmed without any torment of pain.

[91] a retention of urine, The captain Joannes a Santa Cruz y Padilla, a noble man, on account of a long and grave retention of urine of thirty years, sometimes fell into the last straits of death. He is cured by the physicians, exquisite remedies are applied, but in vain; for his pains increased so much that, wet with a cold sweat, and as if suffering the death-agony, he roared, and uttered mournful cries. At length four abscesses are opened, from which, turned into as many biting fistulas, the urine flowed as through open channels. In these extremities he came to the chapel of holy father Solanus to seek help, humbly asks, confidently petitions, anoints the ulcers with the oil of the lamps (signing them with the cross); and straightway found the good of health which he had so long sought, and returned free to his own.

[92] apoplexy, epilepsy, Joanna, servant of Hieronyma de Acuña, when she was pregnant, seized by a sudden defluxion of apoplexy on Monday, the last of September in the year 1630, and sometimes agitated by the falling sickness, bore the indications of imminent death. Her, set in the death-agony and now furnished with the mysterious taper of dying Christians, her mistress, the protection of holy father Francis Solanus being invoked, anointed with the oil of his lamps on the forehead, mouth, and belly, forming the sign of the cross: by so salutary an unction the sickness was straightway remitted, and the sick woman, freed from the fits of epilepsy and other contortions, gradually recovered health marvelously.

[93] carcinomas, In the same year 1630, in the month of October, Josephus Niño de Frias, a triple carcinoma being contracted, namely one at the head, and two on the face, thinking the fomentations of medicine would profit him little, anointed and fostered the injured parts with the oil of the Servant of God, and straightway, the swelling being dissolved, escaped sound. Animated by his happy success, Didacus de Savedra, a barber, in the same month and year merited to be freed from the graver ulcers of the leg (under which for seven years he had labored irremediably). For when on a certain night he was tortured beyond the usual by their bitterness, turned to the Man of God, he said: "O holy Father, if the unction of thy oil was salutary to Josephus Niño, let thy intercession also be profitable to me; and if thou grant me health, I vow a measure of oil to be destined for thy lamps." The vow of the supplicant was heard: for, awakened early in the morning, his ulcers being closed and dried up, finding himself sound, proclaiming a miracle, he roused his wife.

[94] In the same year as above, namely one thousand six hundred and thirty, an ulcer of the leg, Isabella Folupa, servant of Joannes Garcia Alvarez, was tortured by a grave and inveterate ulcer of the leg, about which others also breathing a pestilential odor broke out; and at length, the abundance of humors overflowing, her whole leg had swelled to the thickness of a boot, and to the troubles of the ulcers an acute fever had come. When to so many evils no help of human art profited, her mistress, the wife of Joannes, at the time when the straits were sharper, fostered her wounds with that salutary oil of the lamps; the sick woman meanwhile invoking the help of the holy Man, God heard the entreaty of the simple one: for the following morning, feeling herself sound, she began to sing the praises of the Creator in the vernacular tongue; to whom her masters, running up, found her perfectly sound, and equally unharmed in both legs.

[95] Innumerable indeed are the benefits which the servant of God Francis Solanus in the year 1630 conferred on those devoutly invoking him: and he heals other infirmities, for Petronilla de la Cueva, and Catharina de Vargas; the former by the unction of the oil of the lamps, the latter by the virtue of a sacred relic hung about her neck, he freed from a grave heat of fevers. Isabella Gabriela de Rojas, widow of Dominicus Rodriguez Freyle, seized in all her limbs, he restored to her former health by the happy relief of the same oil. A girl of fifteen months, by name Crispiniana, a vow being made by her mistress concerning honoring the chapel of the Man of God with gifts, was drawn back from the jaws of death and from an undoubted peril of life. The little boy Joannes, little servant of Franciscus de Aguilar, newly born, from a cruel epilepsy, and from a hernial fracture which he had incurred by a vehement collision and frequent fall; Joanna also, a little infant, from a like evil of epilepsy, perfectly convalesced by the sacred unction of the same oil. Vincentius Hernandez, a goldsmith, wholly cured the dropsy which he had contracted from a continual fever of ten months, by that fomentation of the oil. Thus Michael de Figueroa, a priest, overcame an abscess bursting out and swelling from the part of the liver, joined to a violent fever, by repeating that unction several times: Francisca de Acuña, wife of Gabriel Cavallerius, escaped from a deadly flux of blood, despaired of by the physicians, by the mere invocation of the name of the Man of God once; and from the same infirmity recrudescing after two months, when she fostered her belly with his sacred oil, she perfectly freed herself.

[96] But not only for healing bodies and restoring the good of health was the oil of the Man of God efficacious in the year 1630, and he puts weevils to flight from wheat and caterpillars from a field. but it also opportunely withdrew the goods of fortune from adverse cases: for the immense mass of weevils (which had settled upon the wheat of Prudentius Martinez de Azagra), and the formidable deluge of caterpillars (which infested the medicinal herb of Andreas Ximenez Maldonado in his field), the humble invocation of father Francis Solanus and the faithful sprinkling of the oil of his lamps destroyed.

[97] By the efficacy of the same oil ulcers are cured, In the year 1631 Emmanuel de Figueroa, secretary of the court of Lima, suffering a vehement trouble of the throat, a bitter scrofula, an internal inflammation, and ulcers infesting his throat, had neither room for food nor rest of sleep. To so many evils there had come a violent fever, which had now exercised him for about three months. Destitute therefore of human remedy, he vowed a vow to the Lord, and, commending himself to holy father Solanus, promised that he would devoutly frequent his tomb for nine days, bestow the stipends of Masses, and refresh himself with the holy Sacraments. This promise being uttered, he anointed his throat with the oil of his lamps, and straightway, perceiving relief, on the following day so happily began the nine-day station that on the fourth day, although he had eaten foods otherwise harmful, he was made perfectly sound without any other remedy.

[98] a flux of the belly and pain are removed, Ildephonsus Jacome Carlos in the same year, anxious with a fever, a flux of the belly, and an intense pain of the stomach with the disease of hemorrhoids (called in the Indian tongue Mal del valle), and relieved by no remedy, on a certain night, in the very violence of his pains, anointed himself with the oil of the holy man Solanus; by whose virtue the torment being allayed, he felt a sweet sleep (which for twenty days he had desired), and, awakened in the morning, proved himself to have attained the best health.

In the same year Catharina Bran, servant of Franciscus de Obando, by the drinking of the same oil obtained to be freed from a like evil strongly growing worse.

[99] a girl is withdrawn from the peril of death In this same year 1631, a Moor little girl was so grievously sick that within three days she could neither suck, nor was thought about to escape death. Her Joanna Delgado, her mistress, devoutly committing to the servant of God Solanus to be healed, promised a pound of wax and the alms of a Mass, if she were healed: and soon anointed the jaws and belly of the little servant with his sacred oil. Who afterwards within an hour uttered cries, sucked the breasts, and, the swelling of her belly being dissolved, remained sound. In the same year also Maria de Carranca carried her tender little daughter, seized by an acute fever, abandoned by the physicians, and emitting the last breath of life, to the convent of St. Francis about the twilight of night, and placed her upon the altar of the chapel of the Man of God, and anointed her face, turned to the sacred image of the Intercessor, with the oil of the lamps. But the little girl, straightway experiencing the efficacy of the Intercession, granted rest and sweet sleep, was carried home; but, awakened at midnight, she seized and sucked the breasts, and, the morning having arisen, was free from the fever.

[100] and the excessive abundance of flowing blood is stopped, In the year 1638, for Agnes de Orosco, wife of the standard-bearer Ludovicus de la Barrera Aguiar, that she might be healed of a sickness arisen in her throat by a moderate emission of blood, two veins under her tongue were opened: but the incision being drawn out too much, or ineptly, so large an abundance of blood began to flow from them that they could be closed by no remedy. Afflicted by the outcome, and fearing the loss of life, she had recourse, prudently indeed, to the efficacious virtue of holy father Solanus: for, the veins being anointed by her sister with that salutary oil of the lamps with the sign of the cross, straightway the flux of blood stopped.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER VIII.

The oil prodigiously multiplied, and various other benefits rendered by the patronage of the blessed Man both to bodies and to souls.

He who once in the desert multiplied bread for the food of the hungry multitude, so in our times in the Indies The aforesaid oil marvelously preserved the precious oil drawn from the lamps of the servant of God Solanus, lest it fail, for the remedy of the languishing people; or, it failing, created new in the vessels. Ildephonsus Martinez Lozano and his wife Augustina de Alvarado had received a glass flask not yet half full of the oil of the lamps of the Man of God; which, having frequently used for more than two years for various infirmities, they yet never knew to be diminished or changed: nay, when once half of the same had been drawn out and transmitted to many languishing persons; when within two

hours they came to draw out more, they found the flask replenished and filled to the very top with oil. Marveling at the case (especially since they knew most certainly that it had not been replaced by human infusion), they transferred it into another vessel. Which indeed the eyes reported to be clear and unmixed, but the taste judged bitter and impossible to swallow.

[102] Angela de Lescano Barbaran took care that a glass vessel full of the oil of the lamps burning before the sepulcher of the Servant of God be transmitted to her from the city of Lima to the region of Chiclayo ^a, which through five years she so frequently distributed to the sick of that province and of Trujillo, that, since it had not failed though drawn out six times beyond the vessel's capacity, it was held for a continual miracle. At length in the year 1632, in the month of June, on a certain Friday night, in the necessity of a little boy laboring under a difficulty of urine, it failed: for the aforesaid Angela, being asked for oil, moved the vessel brought to her, wholly empty and exhausted, rubbed it with linen cloths put into it, warmed it with a lighted candle, and yet pressed out no oil, nor any humor of oil. Wherefore, turned to him who created all things from nothing, she said: "How, Lord, is oil now lacking, so that with it the miracles of thy beloved Servant should cease; show, Lord, the virtue of his merits, that we may celebrate it." Scarcely had she uttered these things, when suddenly she saw the little vessel (which she still held in her hand) sensibly overflowing with a new liquor of clear oil: astounded at the novelty of the matter, uttering cries, she summoned several other witnesses of the miracle. With this oil, not produced by the offspring of nature, but drawn from the bosom of the divine Omnipotence; not generated, but created, when very many had used it as a remedy against sicknesses, in the year 1639, in the month of November, in which the most illustrious bishop of Trujillo drew up an information concerning the truth of the miracle, it was not yet exhausted.

[103] Blessed Francis Solanus interceding, This prodigious oil overcame many infirmities, and cured many languors. A certain Indian servant, by name Augustinus, reduced to extremity by an incurable fever and flux of blood, had lost the use of his voice; and since he could not manifest his own guilts with his tongue, he had received absolution from the priest relying on certain extrinsic signs of contrition. In this struggle of the death-agony, while he was about to be prostrated by death, he was anointed by the daughter of Angela Barbaran with the aforesaid oil on the forehead with the sign of the cross, and straightway the flux of blood ceased, the fever ceased; he returned to his senses, asked for food, and in the short space of four days attained good health.

[104] to many sick persons Ludovicus Ildephonsus, a three-year-old little boy, son of lord Joannes de Lossada and Magdalena Rosdam de Avila, in the year 1632, laboring under a vehement fever and a consummate dropsy, swelled greatly in his legs and bladder. When the learned solicitude of the physicians had in vain treated him for six months, and at length the physician affirmed that he would expire within an hour, his parents placed him under the patronage of the venerable Servant of God. And so the image of holy father Solanus is brought to the bed of the sick child, that miraculously produced oil is drawn over the navel in the figure of the cross by anointing, a certain little paper drawn from a purse of relics is applied to the top of the belly; and behold, scarcely a quarter of an hour having elapsed, as if the navel had been pierced with a chisel, through an imperceptible exit smaller than a needle a thin water was seen to flow out, which, running down from evening until dawn, and penetrating and wetting all the furniture of the bed, at length left the bladder and legs free from swelling.

[104] he restores health, The parents, not ungrateful for this benefit, carried the boy to the oratory of the Man of God at daybreak, that in a Mass, to be celebrated by the dean Julianus de Turre, his uncle, they might present him to the Lord, and give thanks to the propitious Deliverer: but on the next day the little infant rose wholly sound from his bed, and remained unharmed thereafter. From this too the fame of the miracle grew, in that after fifteen days Ferdinandus Perez, a silversmith, weighed down by the same infirmity of swelling, had his navel pierced by the surgeons' scalpel, which indeed emitted a copious watery humor; but within fourteen hours after the piercing, the sick man died.

[105] Maria Alfaro had often experienced the virtue of the oil of the lamps of the holy man Solanus in herself and after the cure of various diseases and in others: for a malignant ulcer corroding the left part of her breast, which earthly remedies had not been able to cure, she cured perfectly within four days by a single anointing of the same oil. Thus also by the same unction she wiped away the long stains and scars of a year and a half from a horrible scab. To herself also, laboring under a violent childbirth, when one foot of the child, bursting out of her belly, struck peril and fear of death, she asked to be anointed with the salutary oil of the man of God Solanus, and well: for straightway and without labor she poured forth a boy putting his feet foremost in his exit, whom she called Petrus. His five-year-old son Eugenius, despaired of by the physicians on account of the violent length of a double tertian fever, when he could neither loose his tongue, nor move his teeth for eating, nor open his throat for swallowing, the Gospel being recited over him, and the unction of the oil of the lamps of the Servant of God being drawn out, within an hour returned from the death-agony, sat up on his bed, uttered cries; ate eagerly part of a roast chicken and the minced breast of a little bird, and suddenly free from the fever, within four days attained the good of strengthened health.

[106] Since therefore the aforesaid Maria de Algaro, wife of Franciscus Ramirez, dwelling at Trujillo, again is divinely multiplied. had for five years frequently used, in her own and her family's necessity, a few little drops of this oil, never failing; at length she once felt its lack, at which time also, a certain little boy being sick, and his father Joannes Alvarez seeking oil, she, though she had already experienced its want by sight and touch, yet again drew out the little vessel from the chest, which indeed she found provided with oil equaling the breadth of a finger: and that this was not infused by men, but created by divine operation, both the security of the vessel stored in the chest under lock, and the health of the aforesaid little boy following from its unction, proved.

[107] Although the benefits divinely conferred on the bodies of men, or on the goods of fortune (because they strike the keenness of the eyes, The holy Man also profits souls, and move the material powers), are reckoned great among those who esteem marvelous things; yet the operations of wondrous virtue which regard souls, and which produce their effects in the spiritual substance of human nature, ought to be held of so much greater excellence, as the spirit is nobler than the body, and the soul more sublime than its earthly partner. Both this power over bodies and souls God bestowed on his servant Francis Solanus, that he might both snatch those from death, from perils, from diseases; and draw these back from the precipices of vices, and incline them to the love of sanctity, patience, and penance. But besides the arguments which he left concerning these (while he lived), certain ones following long after his death will be related.

[108] In the year 1630, when Juliana de Obregon was present at a Mass while he exhorts a woman to patience. celebrated by the bachelor Joannes Franciscus de Valladolid in the chapel of the Man of God, and prayed for the good outcome of the voyage of Antonius de la Cueva her husband, sailing from the city of Lima to the Kingdom of Tierra Firme and Panama, at the very elevation of the life-giving Sacrament she alone heard that voice, Patience, coming forth from the sepulcher; which, thinking it directed to herself, she uttered an act of entire conformity to the divine will. And indeed the previous admonition greatly aided the woman: for after three days she received the mournful news of the death of her dear spouse; to bear which, whether thou regard their mutual love, or the great necessity of her family, she would have been unequal, had not the efficacious word of holy father Solanus strengthened her, and fortified her with the shield of patience.

[109] He is present by a spiritual presence to a devout man, A certain ecclesiastical religious of the graver ones of the kingdom of Lima, about the beginning of the year 1631, came to the tomb of the holy Man, and devoted himself to him as a faithful devotee. From then the presence of so great a Patron was so impressed upon his mind that always by an intellectual assistance he was present to him day and night at the nod of his desire: but this manner of spiritual presence, by which the Man of God, with the seraphic father St. Francis, deigned at another time to honor him praying at his sepulcher, can be felt, cannot be described in words.

[110] he procures a happy marriage for a poor girl, A certain poor and old woman had this only, common to mothers, in her vow before death, that she might be able to place in marriage her daughter, advanced in thirty years; but the abundance of a dowry (without which no bond of wedlock is entered) being lacking, she made a nine-day station at the tomb of holy father Solanus, to obtain the means of fulfilling her desire. When she was ending it, and before she returned home, addressing the Servant of God with a tender affection of mind, she said: "Since thou art the Advocate of the poor, such as I so much am; let the care of my daughter remain with thee; for from thy solicitude I await a good." These words of the poor and humble old woman the pious ear of Francis Solanus received: for on the following day a certain man, rich and conveniently furnished with the goods of fortune, of himself, without any sensible impulse or supplication or word of anyone, entered to her, and, who had otherwise refused richly dowered maidens, demanded that her daughter be given to him in marriage: admonished of her poverty, he answered that he wished her dowerless, and took her such; and, the marriage being contracted, they perceived the peace (which God is wont to send upon those whom he himself has truly joined).

[111] he obtains the use of speech and senses for a sick man, A certain Chrysostomus, an inhabitant of the Valley of Jauja, by the violence of a malignant fever had lost the use of his voice and the free faculty of his senses: him thus distressed and in the death-agony, though on account of the death of his body, yet more on account of the loss of his soul, which they feared from the lack of sacramental confession, the affection of all the bystanders mourned. When Joannes de Quiros, governor of the aforesaid Valley, approaching, applied a relic of father Francis Solanus to the sick man, and prayed that the freedom of his voice be restored to him. The contact and entreaty were efficacious: for straightway the sick man, brought back to the ready faculty of his senses, loosed his tongue, confessed his sins, received the other Sacraments quietly, made his testament, and at length rested in peace.

[112] he brings a lost young man back to good fruit, A certain young man of twenty years, depraved and corrupt in morals, rash and fierce, when by his daily quarrels he drew great expenses upon his family, and frequent disgrace of prisons and fetters upon himself; after many admonitions, counsels, and human means of correction tried in vain, is offered by his afflicted mother to holy father Solanus to be changed. Who for that reason had Masses celebrated at his sepulcher, that (he interceding) the Spirit of kindness, of the fear of the Lord, and of piety might descend into her son's mind. Nor was she deceived: for suddenly, that wolf, changed into a lamb, cast away his sword, abstained from tumults, and thereafter diligently attended only to the service of God, and to the support of his family and mother.

[113] To these I will add a marvelous outcome, by which the Man of God the devout desire of his friend

fulfilled. and prodigiously fulfills the desire of a certain client of his. In the year 1633 the licentiate Franciscus Gutierrez de Salablanca, reporter of the audience and royal chancery of the city of Lima, sought the life of father Francis Solanus in vain through all the shops of the booksellers: but on a certain night, while he lay in bed, he signified to his wife Leonarda de Ulloa his grief over the not-found book of the aforesaid Life, according to his ardent desire, and in this discourse both fell asleep. The morning having arisen, on the pillow, on which they leaned their heads, when they awoke, a book met them; which, opened with stupor, the husband ascertained to be of the Life of holy father Solanus. But considering the circumstances, that neither was there any such in that house, nor had the man's affection become known to anyone, it was plainly established that it had been marvelously brought thither by the servant of God Francis, benignly inclined to the vows of his friend.

ANNOTATIONS.

read: to be prostrated*

perhaps performed*

OTHER MIRACLES PERFORMED AFTER THE BEATIFICATION,

Excerpted from the Process of canonization.

Francis Solanus, of the Order of Minors of the Observance, at Lima in Peru, in America (Saint).

FROM THE PROCESS OF CANONIZATION.

CHAPTER I.

Twenty-four miracles, done by the patronage of St. Francis Solanus in the town of Montilla.

Maria de Aguilar, together with her daughter and granddaughter, being detained in bed by nocturnal sleep, the house suddenly fell. [By the invocation of the holy Man a family is preserved unharmed under the ruins of a house,] Roused by the noise of the ruin, they straightway invoked the Blessed one, whose help was at hand: for the whole house being ruined, only that part was preserved in which they were, although composed of the same material as the rest of the house, nor was there any firmer support beneath; and not only did they remain unharmed, but even the furniture of the said house, among which a flask of oil for the use of a lamp burning continually at their expense before the image of the Blessed one; which, having fallen from the upper to the lower floor, remained unharmed, and the oil not dispersed even in the least drop, to the admiration of all.

[2] a girl is freed from a swallowed leech, Catharina Bernarda de Arana, a four-year-old girl, being in near peril of life on account of a leech swallowed, lying hidden in water which she had drunk, after many medicines had been applied in vain for many days, at length by the application of the cross which once belonged to holy Solanus, his help being implored, straightway convalesced, the leech coming forth of its own accord from her throat.

a pain of the throat is cured, Ildephonsus Marquez de Espexo, on account of a quinsy in his throat wholly powerless for food and drink for five or six days, having experienced no force of medicines, nor of eleven emissions of blood, having had recourse to holy Solanus, and the aforesaid cross being applied to him, straightway, the swelling bursting, escaped entirely unharmed.

[3] fevers When Joannes Traperus had been seized by a great swelling under his right knee and most burning fevers from an erysipelas ^a, and labored under most atrocious pains for four weeks, he remained so oppressed that he could neither raise his head nor take any food, the swelling especially hardening day by day: in this state, looking at the image of the Blessed one, and commending himself to him, he was seized by sleep, in which a great sweat supervened, and the swelling bursting, copious pus mixed with blood gushed out: and when he had awakened, he was also found without fever and without any pain in the injured part, and so restored to health that on that very day he could walk without impediment.

[4] and a plague are put to flight. Joanna Francisca Hurtado, a virgin, laboring under a pestilential disease, at the time when the epidemic raged in the city of Montilla, with two buboes in the groin, which out of shame she concealed, yet manifested to her mother: and because on those very days, and in that very house, two servants perished of the plague, they greatly feared both the death of the daughter and the burning of all the household furniture. In this conflict her parents commended to the Blessed one the sick woman now at the last extremity, and straightway, although she labored under a most burning fever and delirium, she began to recover health, to which in a very short time she was entirely restored: and, what is equally to be marveled at, none other of the said house underwent the said pestilential disease.

[5] A woman set in a difficult childbirth, Maria a Santo Georgio, after an infant was brought to light, when she had not emitted the afterbirth, the midwife recognized that another little infant remained, which after the space of four hours put forth an arm, and in this state remained for seven hours. The peril being recognized, they fortified the sick woman with the Sacraments, after whose administration she persevered in the same state for another twenty-four hours, so that, from excessive debility set at the last extremity of life, she was now despaired of by the physicians. There was brought to the sick woman from the convent of the Nuns of St. Clare an image of the Blessed one, and when she had received it in her own hands, all the bystanders, kneeling, invoked his help together with her; and in prayer she happily bore the second infant, emitted the afterbirth, and, to the admiration of all, remained without any injury at all.

[6] Maria del Pino, seventy-six years old, fell into a malignant fever at the time and others afflicted with malignant fevers escape the peril of death, when the city of Montilla suffered the epidemic: visited by the physicians, she was straightway given up, as not fit to be cured on account of her age and the gravity of the disease. Fortified therefore with the most holy Sacraments, she now labored at the last extremity; when her sons thought in the chapel of the Blessed one of the celebration of a Mass for her health, which they fulfilled, commending her from their whole heart to his intercession, and straightway found her free from the fever, so that, to the admiration of the physicians and of all, she straightway attained perfect health, in which up to the present she remains.

Joannes Bellimar, three years and a half old, when he had climbed upon a window, and a boy after a grave fall is found unharmed. fell from it from a height of eighteen palms into the public way paved with stones, and when he was already thought dead, being straightway commended to the Blessed one, the little boy suddenly revived, and was found unharmed without any injury.

[7] Joanna de Blancas, after she had received the benefit of a miraculous healing from a cancer, A certain woman, as will be related at length below in miracle III, deposes, folio 1292 ter, that when at the time of the epidemic she had labored under great fevers, with all the signs by which the plague began, being visited by the physicians, they declared all remedies useless, and therefore she was refreshed with all the Sacraments; on the third day, on which the fever began, fearing that she would die under it, she invoked the said Blessed one, that he would free her from that deadly peril, as from the other related above, by his merits, and straightway, in the very prayer, the fever ceased, so that she remained wholly sound and free.

She herself deposes, folio 1293, how in the year 1682, the help of St. Francis Solanus being invoked, in which also the plague pressed upon the said city, she had in her left eye a certain swelling, commonly carbunco ^c, with a great fever, her face swollen, and other accidents with which the epidemic began, and although medicines were applied by physicians and surgeons, since they profited nothing, and she now labored at the last extremity, she caused the oil of the lamp of the Blessed one to be brought, and the unction being applied, recovered perfect health.

[8] She herself deposes also, folio 1294, another benefit received by the intercession of the Blessed one; namely, she obtains various benefits, that Maria de los Santos her daughter labored under a great swelling of the throat with a most burning fever, so that she could neither receive food nor breathe: therefore, given up by the physicians, this witness had recourse to the intercession of the Blessed one, and placed his image upon the sick girl, who, holding it in her hands and weeping, entreated for her health. In the very act the sick girl suddenly vomited up an abundant humor mixed with blood, and, health being recovered, left her bed, restored on that very day to perfect health.

She herself deposes that a certain little girl for three months after her birth did not open her eyes, and granted to others but rather there flowed from them a pestilential humor mixed with blood, and she was judged by all to be blind; the sacrifice of the Mass was offered for her health in the chapel of the Blessed one, and in it the sick child was commended with great faith: which done, the little girl opened her eyes, and, to the admiration of all, they were seen brought back to their perfect clearness, and without any injury, and so they remain up to the present.

she confirms by her testimony. She also deposes the ruin of a certain house, in which were Anna Rodriguez, and Joannes, Mathias, and Franciscus her sons, and Joannes Perez; who, when they had seen and heard about midnight the aforesaid ruin, commended themselves to the Blessed one, and remained miraculously preserved without injury among the ruins.

[9] By his intercession a long flux of blood, Franciscus Antonius Solano fell from a window, from which, a vein being ruptured in his back part, he remained with a flux of blood for the space of nine years, and reduced to the state of a hectic and consumptive man, with swellings also ulcerated; and when he had been destitute of all human remedy, now near to death, his mother lady Anna Solano, taking the oil of the lamp of the Blessed one, anointed with it the rupture of the vein, and gave the remainder to the sick man to drink, and straightway, being seized a little by sleep, when he had awakened, he found himself not only free from the fever and from the flux of blood, but even wholly unharmed, his flesh increased to its natural plumpness, as it is today.

a dropsy, Joannes Franciscus a Sanctis, a five-year-old boy, for two years labored under the infirmity of dropsy, from which, swollen, and without remedy, he was given up by the physicians; in this affliction his parents commended him to the Blessed one, and the boy himself, weeping, asked of the Blessed one his health, and, the image being applied to his belly, suddenly a great evacuation (unusual to nature) supervened, so that without swelling, fever, and other accidents he was restored to health on that very day, as his mother, sister, and brother depose.

[10] a malignant fever, Lord Franciscus Antonius Perez, a priest, labored at the last extremity, on account of the malignity of a long fever now given up by the physicians. His brother lord Ludovicus Perez, a priest, celebrated a Mass at the altar of the Blessed one, commending him: he felt in the act of offering the Sacrifice a certain consolation of soul, and, returning home, found the sick man without fever, and shortly he recovered perfect health. For the benefit received, at the expense of both, they offered an image of the Blessed one, of the value of three hundred silver ducats, which today is placed in the chapel of the Convent of St. Lawrence, and is that which was carried in procession for the deliverance from the epidemic.

a distorted jaw, Joanna Muñoz, a sixty-year-old widow, labored under a great affliction, because her jaws, or

the lower parts of her mouth, had fallen out of their place, so that she could not take food, and thus she remained for seven days destitute of remedies: believing herself near to death, she commended herself to the Blessed one, and in prayer, a little sleep being taken, in it her jaws were restored to their place, and when she awoke, she found herself sound.

[11] a pestilent swelling, Petrus Arjona, at the time of the epidemic suffering a pestilent swelling in the groin with a most burning fever and most atrocious pains, was suddenly found free, the unction of the oil of the Blessed one being applied by Maria Candelaria his wife; so she herself deposes.

The wife of Emmanuel Solani, on account of the infirmity commonly called the colic infirmity, the colic, brought to the last extremity of life, given up by the physicians without human remedy, at the application of the image of the Blessed one, straightway her belly was relieved, and she was restored to health, to the admiration of all.

Sebastiana a Cruce labored under an erysipelas in her face with a most burning fever and great pains in her eyes, with an erysipelas, so that she could not open them, and all medicines were useless; the cross made of the wood of the cradle in which the infant Blessed one had lain being applied, she was suddenly restored to perfect health.

[12] Josephus Trillo, a little boy, son of lord Hieronymus Trillo, a hernia, knight of St. James, laboring under a hernial fracture on account of the violent convulsions of epilepsy, and declared incurable, by the unction of the oil of the lamp of the Blessed one was suddenly made sound.

Antonius Traperus escaped sound by the unction of the oil of the lamp of the Blessed one from a pestilent swelling in the groin at the time of the epidemic of the city of Montilla. and others

Emmanuel Cordon, at the time of the epidemic laboring under a great fever and great pains on account of a pestilent swelling in the groin, diseases by the unction of the oil of the lamp of the Blessed one the swelling suddenly burst, and, free from the fever, he remained sound.

Of the witnesses presented by the sub-promoters, the first deposes, are cured. namely lord Franciscus Sanchez de Toro, a priest, that when he himself had labored for three months under a great and acute infirmity with peril of death, he commended himself to the Blessed one, and straightway remained sound.

ANNOTATIONS.

read: furniture … among which*

CHAPTER II.

Seven other miracles which occurred at Montilla, and were proposed for examination in the process of canonization.

About the year 1685, on the 10th day of August, Franciscus Solanus, a boy three years and a half old, A boy falling from a tower escapes death, being in the upper part of the tower of a church recently built (since it had once been the house in which blessed Francis Solanus had his birth), and dedicated to the same Blessed one, of a height of about 27 palms, was reproved by Alphonsus Ruiz, the 38th witness, and also Joannes de Zea, the boy's father, was warned of the peril of his imminent fall, as the event shortly after showed, and indeed with a great noise; so that the 54th witness, below number 59, believed that a bell had fallen from the same tower. Among others the same Alphonsus ran up, and, first, lifted the boy lying as if dead, and giving no signs of life, in his arms, and delivered him to his father who met him, suggesting recourse to the intercession of the Blessed one. The father was not sluggish in the invocation, and to his pious and compassionate mind the vows of all who were present in the church were added. The said Blessed one showed an equal promptitude in hearing the prayers: for the said Joannes de Zea, going to the altar of the Blessed one, before he had come thither, felt his lifeless son restored to the functions of life by a sigh emitted by him. And so, turning his foot, he went up home, where, the boy's little body being straightway most diligently examined, besides a slight scratch under the left temple, and some drops of blood lying near the eye, he found him in the state of his former health, so that with a cheerful and smiling countenance he walked through the house, and asked for food, and ate. At the same time the physician came, who, no experiments being omitted, at length asserted the boy wholly unharmed, without a concussion of the viscera or a rupture of the vessels, especially of the brain. Wherefore, no medicine being applied, he departed, well admonished that there is no need of a physician for those who are well, Matthew 9, 12.

[14] and a woman after childbirth Maria Hieronyma de Aguilar, on the 23rd day of October 1685, brought a female to light; but the afterbirth, all diligence being applied by the midwife, she could never emit. The physicians being summoned, they, recognizing the weakness of her pulse from the copious flux of blood, and at the same time the urgent peril of death in which she was, first ordered the protection of the most holy Sacraments, and afterwards to take a potion, which, as soon as she had drunk it, at the very same moment she entirely vomited up, as had happened with those taken before: wherefore they declared her incapable of all human remedy: and lest anything be left unattempted, she was ordered to be lifted up, from which act she came into such a fainting that she was thought by all to be dead, and, remaining motionless, was abandoned by the physicians as inevitably about to die.

[15] prodigiously emits the afterbirth, Under this state of things Joanna Fernandez de Sotomajor, mother of the said sick woman, greatly trusting in the intercession of blessed Francis, brought an image of the said Blessed one received from Joannes de Saravia, and applied it to the belly of the sick woman, to whom, narrating the merits of the said Blessed one, she persuaded her to commend herself to his intercession, which she did from her heart. In the very act of the invocation the face of the Blessed one was seen to flash and glow; and at almost the same time the sick woman emitted the afterbirth without pain, and she who before could not utter even an entire word, cried out in a clear and loud voice, miracolo, miracolo (a miracle, a miracle). At the cry the midwife came, and when she found in the bed the said afterbirth in the manner of a bundle, at a time when the sick woman lay with her body not adjusted, nay, wholly indisposed for such an expulsion, she attributed it to a miracle. So much the more, that the sick woman herself remained free without any help of medicines, and wholly unharmed.

[16] For seven years Joanna de Blancas Canero labored in her left breast from a cancer. and another is freed from a perilous cancer. Many medicines were applied, none ever profitable; nay rather, the disease grew worse day by day. Destitute of all human remedy, she had recourse to the intercession of blessed Solanus: her daughter also did the same, bringing to her mother the effigy of the said Blessed one. The sick woman, greatly trusting in his merits, placed it upon her breast, and, imploring his help from her heart, fell into a deep sleep, nor did she awaken until she was roused by her daughter the following morning. Waking, she found the same effigy upon her breast, not agitated by the pains with which she was before. Having put on her garments, she withdrew to the church, and, her soul being expiated by sacramental confession, took the eucharistic bread, ever persevering in her confidence toward the said Blessed one. Returned home, suddenly the swelling burst, and with so great a force that the water flowing from it sprinkled the bystanders; nay, even the very wall opposite. Thereupon the sick woman lay as if dead, and, a physician being summoned, and successively a surgeon, the latter, observing from the wide ulcer that a cancer lay open, the protection of the Blessed one being also invoked by him, drew it out most easily without pain of the sufferer, and without any effusion of blood. All were astounded, examining with eyes and touch that very large mass of flesh, compacted to the likeness of a half-open hand, very varicose, and verging to a color between green and black; but the cavity, which remained so dilated and deep that for the cure eight lint-plugs were inserted, each of the size of one egg, remained wholly filled with flesh, and wholly healed immediately after the ninth day, only rose-honey being applied, with which the said lint-plugs were the first time moistened. All this happened at the beginning of the year 1678.

[17] About the summer time of the year 1681, when the plague had invaded the city of Montilla, In the time of the plague several persons, Francisca Victoria Soriano was seized with a most vehement fever with vomitings and deliriums, buboes ^a also being detected under her armpits, presenting a great hardness and swelling. The physician, being certified of the pestilential quality of the disease, ordered the swift help of the Sacraments, which was rendered. A section of a vein was applied, and the buboes were anointed with oil of sweet almonds: yet still the disease persisted in its strength, nay, advanced so far that the death of the sick woman was pronounced incurable by the physician. The mother of the sick woman fled from her heart to the help of the Blessed one, and, bringing his image, delivered it to her daughter, who with the greatest confidence applied it to the bubo under her left arm, which in an instant vanished, no medicine being applied; and, the same image being afterwards applied to the other bubo, the same thing happened, Francisca remaining in every respect in the best health.

[18] On the following day, to Anna Maria, mother of the said healed woman, the help of St. Francis Solanus being implored, from the preceding contact of her daughter there came a most vehement fever, whence she remained bereft of her mind, on account of which the Sacraments could not be administered to her, as the physician had enjoined. Three emissions of blood being applied, the malignity and persistence of the disease appeared in nothing diminished; but, the protection of our Blessed one being invoked by her daughter, her mother was restored to her former health, without any residual trace of the disease.

The aforesaid contagious plague now openly raging, there came upon Petrus Hieronymus, brother and son respectively of the healed women, they are healed. with a great fever and vomiting, a bubo in the groin, in which state he persevered all that day, although anointed with the same oil; but after the image of the Blessed one was applied, he remained free from the fever and the bubo; and the healing was so instantaneous and perfect that the said Petrus could on the next day freely go to his rural duties.

[19] A woman for three years afflicted with various diseases About the year 1679, Maria Ruiz, a seventy-year-old woman, fell into a disease of the contraction of hands and legs, coming to such a pass that she could neither walk, nor take food, nor turn herself hither and thither in bed without another's help. The condition was harder in her sinews, from whose contraction her legs clung to her thighs, wholly incapable of extension; whence it was given to her neither to stand on her feet, nor to sit. With many medicines the physician and surgeon moved every stone to overcome that most troublesome sickness; but they always labored in vain: for, the disease growing more stubborn day by day, a daily fever being added, the physician was compelled not once and again, but three times, to pronounce it incurable, into which sentence the surgeon also descended. All the sick woman therefore for three years being destitute of human solace, hastened to the merits of blessed Francis Solanus, commending herself from the depth of her heart to God, that he would deign through them to restore her to her former health, promising a visitation of the chapel recently dedicated to him, in the manner she could.

[20] suddenly obtains perfect health, She undertook the task therefore by employing her daughter and two supports for her sustenance. When she came to the church, she straightway experienced her sickness sensibly diminished, whence, her spirit being resumed with her strength, and with greater confidence in the help of the Blessed one, on the next day she again went to the said chapel, on which second journey her feet and hands bore before them a certain aptitude for movement, and on the third day at last, although she made the journey upon supports, yet she leaned neither on her daughter nor on any other. Hence the sick woman, with all the effort of her spirit, did violence to heaven, asking of the Blessed one perfect health by most vehement prayers, protesting with the greatest confidence that she would not return home unless it were obtained, and without the aid of supports. Straightway the sick woman is heard in her prayers: since, a certain diffusion of heat throughout her whole body preceding, she ran round nine times, praying around the said chapel and the altar of the Blessed one; which done, she remained in a state of most perfect health, free in feet and hands, so that she returned home without any aid of the supports, carrying them in her hands. And in this most perfect health she constantly persevered, and perseveres, that it may the more firmly be recognized that it was the work of God, whose works are perfect. Deuteronomy 31.

[21] The year 1682 was passing, when brother Laurentius de Aguilar, a priest of the Order of Minors of St. Francis, came to Montilla, and a Minorite priest is freed from a hectic fever. burning with a hectic fever of the second species, under which he had now labored for a long time, both while dwelling in the city of Úbeda ^b and in the town of Porcuna ^c. In each of the said places the physicians being summoned employed all their exertion to eradicate it; but they equally lost all their exertion, since neither foreign nor native air, on which all the hope of the sick man and of the physicians relied, gave any relief: nay, it always went from bad to worse; for through a whole year the sick man never felt himself immune from the same fever. Wherefore the physicians pronounced him a confirmed hectic, and declared the disease incurable, although they did not cease from administering some medicines. But these all being found useless, the sick man raised the keenness of his mind to the help of our Blessed one. And because such hope never confounds, as soon as he began to visit the temple sacred to him, and anointed himself with the oil burning before his image in honor of the same Blessed one, he began straightway to be better; and having performed this exercise of piety and fervent devotion for four days, he attained entire health; and where before, with a wasted face, he bore before him the image of a skeleton, he resumed his living color and connatural plumpness, to the admiration of all; whence this unexpected healing was by all attributed to a miracle, and indeed of the second kind, as the notorious property of this kind of fever discloses, and will better appear below in the point of relevance.

[22] From the town of Monturque, which was distressed by the pestilential disease, The plague raging at Montilla certain things were carried to Montilla, from whose contact, in the month of June 1681, the same plague invaded that city. Acquiring strength day by day, it came to such a pass that at the beginning of the year 1682, out of four thousand persons [*] (which number the said city does not exceed) fourteen and fifteen were found daily to perish, partly by malignant fevers, partly by carbuncles and buboes in the groin and under the armpits, in dying. To restrain this slaughter, the physicians met several times, and, foreseeing that it could no longer be concealed, as they had before taken pains, toward the end of March of the same year they established an infirmary opposite for the cure of the infected. This wild raging of the disease always proceeded pertinaciously with an even pace. Wherefore in the last days of the month of April, human diligences being found useless, it came into the minds of the Religious of the Franciscan family to have recourse to the help of our Blessed one.

[23] ceases by the invocation of the blessed Man. A procession therefore being appointed, accompanying the image of the Blessed one with prayers and afflictions of their bodies, they stopped at the infirmary, and there left for the infirmarians two baskets, one filled with raisins, the other with little cakes, carried together with the said image, that under the protection of the said Blessed one they might distribute them to the sick. Thereupon, as the same Religious traversed the city with the same image, very many flocked together following the said procession, and imploring the intercession of the Blessed one with pious tears and public cries. About the evening hours the attendants of the infirmary came to the aforesaid distribution among the sick, and, the said raisins and little cakes being tasted, the sick straightway convalesced; so that on the next day they ate foods, not only those set before them, but even those which had been prepared for the attendants. The miracle was increased from this, that neither on the day of the completed procession, nor on the following, did any of the infected die, and no one was found in the same city needing the infirmary, which for that reason within a few days was closed.

ANNOTATIONS.

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