ON BB. EVANGELISTA AND PEREGRINUS, AUGUSTINIANS, OF VERONA IN ITALY.
ABOUT THE 13TH CENTURY.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Evangelista, confessor, Augustinian, at Verona in Italy (Bl.)
Peregrinus, confessor, Augustinian, at Verona in Italy (Bl.)
BY THE AUTHOR P. B.
§ I. The modern and ancient cult of both Blessed; and the distinction of blessed Evangelista from Blessed Albert or Albertinus of Verona.
Concerning the modern and public cult of these Blessed there can be no doubt; for this not only did the authors testify who published their Life in the past century; but our Elders (Majores), Godfrey Henschen and Daniel Papebroch, also inspected it in person; The present-day cult of the Blessed, of whom the former, from Verona (where both then were), wrote to Bolland in the year 1660, on the 25th of October, among other things these words: Among the Augustinians there is a cult of Blessed Evangelista and Blessed Peregrinus on the 26th of July: but the latter, in the description of his journey, thus noted concerning Verona: To their monastery (of the Augustinian Fathers of Verona, of whom he there treats) we betook ourselves… Several of them received us most humanely… and led us to their temple, where, on the left side, there is a chapel of the same blessed ones (he had a little before mentioned Evangelista and Peregrinus), of neat but simple workmanship, with a luminous cupola, under which is their altar; and above it, in a wooden tomb, elegant enough, are the bodies of the same. Their feast they keep on the 26th of May (nay, of July, as the same Papebroch elsewhere, and Henschen above, noted); but without a proper Office; except that in the daily Office they make a commemoration of them. Their miracles, painted on little tablets, together with many votive offerings (anathemata), hung round about; and a certain breviary of their Life in an expanded form. The temple… is sacred to St. Euphemia. Thus Papebroch.
[2] But that they were held for Blessed from time immemorial before the Decree of Pope Urban VIII, and the ancient cult, at least of Blessed Peregrinus; is gathered from Raphael Bagatta in the "Ancient Monuments of the SS. bishops of Verona," which were printed at Venice in the year 1576; for on folio 17 he thus has: The bodies of BB. Albert and Peregrinus rest in the church of St. Euphemia; who, as Francis Corna asserts, despising the world and its pomps, serving Christ under the rule of St. Augustine, never wearied, at last, having ended their life in their own city, were buried in the church of St. Euphemia, as is also had from the Table of the Saints, of which above. But Francis Corna wrote (as the same Bagatta testifies, folio 1) concerning the antiquities of Verona and the sacred relics which are found in it—he wrote, I say, in the year of salvation 1477: but the Table of the Saints, which is here assigned, is that which, according to the same writer, folio 2, was drawn up according to the custom of the Cathedral church of Verona, in the year 1518, and which was the first published in that diocese; and it distributed the Saints and Blessed, whom it exhibited, throughout the circle of the year, each to his own feast; as can be gathered from the thirty-six holy bishops of Verona, who, as Bagatta testifies ibidem, were noted in it as to be celebrated under a double Office, and whose names were had in the Table itself in their own places (that is, on the days, I think, on which they were to be celebrated).
[3] nay, of Evangelista too, under the name of Albert, or Albertinus: And these testimonies indeed are most valid, that the legitimate antiquity of the cult may be vindicated for Blessed Peregrinus: for both are earlier by a hundred years and more than the most celebrated decree of Urban VIII: but do the same also make for Blessed Evangelista; since to Peregrinus they join not Evangelista, but Albert? Bagatta affirms it, and those who, in that same little work, so faithfully and accurately lent their labor to the collecting: for they think that Albert, Albertinus, and Evangelista are to be held for the same Blessed: so that there are indeed three names, but of one and the same Blessed. It is permitted to gather this from the words next subjoined to the text already cited: for they thus have: In that place where their bodies (of Albert and Peregrinus), removed from their former places, were laid up in the same church, these letters were painted: "AN ALTAR DEDICATED TO THE MOTHER, QUEEN OF THE HEAVENS, IN WHICH THE BODIES OF THE BLESSED CONFESSORS EVANGELISTA AND PEREGRINUS OF VERONA REST." In which place Blessed Evangelista is called, not Albert. But on the pall also of St. Nicholas (that is, in the panel or picture of the altar of St. Nicholas of Tolentino) in the same church there is an image of Blessed Albertinus with these letters, "BLESSED ALBERTINUS OF VERONA." It is clear that here Albert is openly confounded with Evangelista; nay, even with Albertinus too, although somewhat obscurely. And therefore he mentions neither Albertinus separately in his place and order (for the author recounts the Saints and Blessed of Verona in alphabetical order), nor Evangelista, just as, again in his place, he mentions Peregrinus. Then, where he enumerates the churches of Verona with the relics preserved among them, folio 79 he thus writes: In the church of St. Euphemia, or monastery, are laid up the bodies of BB. Albert or Albertinus and Peregrinus, confessors of Verona. You see here, I think, that Albert is no less expressly confounded with Albertinus, than the same Albert above with Evangelista: and indeed by an argument probable enough, as will be seen below.
[4] From this opinion of Bagatta, however, recedes Joseph Pamphilus, others, however, distinguish Albert or Albertinus from him; himself also of Verona, and indeed first an Augustinian Hermit, and then bishop of Segni: for in the Catalogue of the Saints and Blessed of his Order, which he published together with a Chronicle at Rome in the year 1581, folio 133, he does not acknowledge Blessed Albert of Verona; yet he acknowledges Blessed Albertinus of Verona, and Blessed Evangelista of Verona; but this one distinct from that; although he assigns the foundation of his distinction neither there nor elsewhere. Pamphilus thereupon was followed by all the Augustinian writers who composed anything of a work in this kind, whom I have happened to see; if you except one, Thomas de Herrera, who indeed does not desert Pamphilus; but neither does he seem altogether alien from Bagatta; since in the Augustinian Alphabet, part 2, page 239, his text being cited, which we described in the preceding number, to these his words, "In which place Blessed Evangelista is called, not Albert," he himself subjoins these of his own: "Perhaps because they were different; or because the same was called Evangelista, Albert, or Albertinus": then, as by mere conjecture, he adds: "I would rather believe, however, that they are different": but he adjoins no reason for this his opinion.
[5] But neither could we obtain from elsewhere a ground sufficiently suitable for defending this opinion, which distinction, since it seemed not sufficiently founded, although we have not idly sought it. We know indeed that one Life of Blessed Albertinus, another of Blessed Evangelista, has been written: but each is too recent for its diversity, however great, to be able to avail much here. We know that in the church of St. Euphemia there are two effigies painted, one in the altar in which the bodies of BB. Evangelista and Peregrinus rest, as the inscription of the altar itself, which corresponds also to the picture, has; the other in the altar of St. Nicholas of Tolentino, to which another name is prefixed, namely of Blessed Albertinus of Verona, as we noted a little before; and this indeed to have been painted in the year 1406, by what authority I know not, Pona testifies, and thence gathers that Blessed Albertinus was from that year reckoned among the Blessed; but that other one the same Pona called very ancient in the year 1635. But why cannot several images of the same Blessed be painted in the same church, even with a different gesture, and various names imposed on them, if various names fit the Blessed; and that especially if they be painted not at one time, but at one and another, when one or another name of the same person is more commonly in use? We know, finally, or rather we believe Pona asserting, that an ancient inscription was found, when the ancient choir of the same church was demolished, which indicated that the body of Blessed Albertinus rests on the right, outside the choir. But that inscription may be so ancient that it indicates the place in which the body of Blessed Evangelista was laid up before its elevation. At least hitherto the body of Blessed Albertinus, if indeed he be not Evangelista himself, could not be found. These, however, are the chief points from which it can be argued that Blessed Albertinus differs from Blessed Evangelista.
[6] we consulted the people of Verona themselves concerning it; Since therefore it greatly concerned us to define nothing rashly in this controversy, and thus either to set up a Blessed who had never existed, or to expunge one who had existed; and likewise (although this is not so necessary) to be able or not to be able to support the cult of blessed Evangelista, of whom we treat, from time immemorial through the testimonies of immemorial time; since, I say, this greatly concerned us, we thought that the Reverend Augustinian Fathers of the convent of Verona themselves should be consulted, to whom, by repeated letters too, besides other things of which I shall treat below, we proposed these three points to be illustrated. 1. By what, and how ancient, a monument it can be shown that Blessed Albert or Albertinus is not one and the same with Blessed Evangelista,
as seems to be drawn out from Bagatta and the older monuments cited by him. 2. If Blessed Albert or Albertinus differs from Blessed Evangelista, whether, and in what month, on what day, with what cult, Blessed Albert or Albertinus is celebrated at Verona, and when he began so to be celebrated. 3. If Blessed Albert or Albertinus differs from Blessed Evangelista, by what legitimate instrument the cult of blessed Evangelista can be proved from time immemorial before the decree of Pope Urban VIII: whether at least, for asserting it, the inscription of the altar exhibited in Bagatta does not suffice; and moreover how ancient that is.
[7] who, in its favor, appeal to the constant fame among the people of Verona; At length, in the stead of the people of Verona, the very Reverend Father Jerome Augustine Zazzeri, Assistant General of the Augustinians throughout Italy, replied—a man, as we perceived from his letters given at Bologna on the 16th of December 1727, full of humanity and of courtesy. But after excusing the delays of writing, because, to explain the proposed doubts, it had been necessary to search the archives both domestic and public, not only of Verona, but also of Rome and of Pavia, he answers to the 1st, that there is a constant fame among the people of Verona, that that blessed Albertinus was one of those religious men who, with uncovered feet, bore upon their shoulders the sacred bier of the blessed Evangelista and Peregrinus in the first solemn translation. Accordingly, as regards Raphael Bagatta, he says, although he was a diligent and accurate searcher of the Saints of Verona, I would believe that he dozed a little, when he confounded blessed Albert or Albertinus with blessed Evangelista: for he exhibits no other foundation of his assertion, except that in the altar where the image of St. Nicholas is worshipped, there is found also painted the image of blessed Albertinus … For the rest, since in the altar to which the bodies of our Blessed were translated there is found this epigraph: "An altar dedicated to the Mother, Queen of the heavens, etc." as above, this inscription seems to be made of more account for discerning the proper names of the said Blessed, than the assertion either of Raphael Bagatta or of Francis Corna; who, however accurate they be said, and be, since nevertheless they were not coeval with our Blessed, are to be believed to be less skilled in their proper names than men of the same institute with the Blessed, who could have learned the same either from the monuments which they had, or from constant fame.
[8] To the 2nd he has only this: But as to the day and month, or with what cult, Blessed Albert or Albertinus is worshipped, they confess, however, that nothing is known of the cult of Blessed Albertinus. or when he began to be worshipped, hitherto it has not been permitted to discover; since nothing else has been given to ascertain, except what I indicated in the foregoing (namely, that his image is in the altar of St. Nicholas with this epigraph: "Blessed Albertinus of Verona.") If, however, it shall happen to fish out anything besides, I shall not be reluctant to bring it to the notice of Your Reverence. But to the Third point he thus responded: As regards the title of Blessed, with which Evangelista and Peregrinus are adorned; sufficiently, as I think, does the antiquity of the nomenclature shine forth from this, that from the time of Jerome Cardinal Seripando they are read to have been distinguished by this proclamation: for that celebrated man, while he acted as General moderator of our institute, adjoined to the Constitutions of the Order, which by the singular prudence and wisdom in which he excelled he arranged into a better form, a catalogue of the Blessed of our Order; among whom the oft-mentioned Evangelista and Peregrinus are recounted. By which illustrious testimony indeed it becomes clear, that they, about a hundred years before Urban VIII framed his decree, were adorned with the encomium of the Blessed. This same thing the instruments of the translation performed in the year 1635, with the intervention of the bishop of Verona, seem to prove; with whose approval the bodies of the aforesaid Blessed were translated into a more decent place, and exposed to the veneration of the faithful: but since that happened only ten years after Urban's decree, it can assuredly be gathered that the Blessed themselves had obtained cult and veneration long before it. Thus he.
§ II. Whether the distinction now spoken of is to be admitted; whether it is prejudicial to the demonstration of the legitimate cult of Blessed Evangelista; what is to be thought concerning the Life of the Blessed.
[9] I fear that our readers may not sufficiently acquiesce in the Veronese responses which we have just recited: for, to the first indeed, that Bagatta is believed to have dozed with the associate of his work, The distinction now spoken of, until it be more solidly proved, this will not easily be persuaded to those who have perused his preface and his work, unless to his ancient documents there be opposed others either more or at least equally ancient, such as we have hitherto desired: thus must Bagatta be said to have proceeded: He thought that several monuments of the Saints of Verona had perished by fires, devastations, and plunderings; he feared lest thus at length all should perish: he wished therefore to vindicate from destruction whatever remained: to effect this, for some years, as the preface of his book has, not without great labor and study, he scraped together from various places as many relics of antiquity as he could obtain at Verona, whence some knowledge of his Saints could be drawn out. Thus he fell upon the ancient book of Francis Corna, of which above num. 2, and in it found the two Blessed joined together, namely Peregrinus with his Companion, buried in the church of St. Euphemia. He asks thereupon whether the church of Verona ever publicly venerated them for Blessed, and when that began; and he begins his examination from the ancient and first table or directory of his church, of which we spoke in the same place: there he found the memory of the same Peregrinus and of the same Companion noted as to be celebrated with a proper feast. Hence he betakes himself to St. Euphemia, to inspect the matter in person; and understands that the relics of St. Peregrinus and of his Companion are laid up in the same altar, and that on the same day yearly the memory of both together is celebrated. But he marvels that the Companion of Blessed Peregrinus has there another name, and is inscribed Evangelista, whereas in his monuments was read Albert.
[10] does not at all seem to us to be admitted; What ought a prudent man to determine here? That from the year 1518 another Companion had been given to Blessed Peregrinus, namely Evangelista; and that to him the tomb had yielded, from which the other, namely Albert, had been ejected, and the public veneration of which the other had been deprived, so that his body should thenceforth be consigned to darkness and to the perpetual oblivion of the memory, not only of any of the faithful, but even of his own posterity in the same Order and convent? But by what authority would he believe this to have been done? By the public authority of the bishop? He would then have found the records of this matter, nay he would have seen it with his own eyes, or others certainly, old men who ought to have survived in great number in the city. Or by the private authority of the Augustinians? But even to suspect this was absurd. It remained therefore that he should judge him to be altogether the same, who in the monuments was called Albert, and in the altar Evangelista. But since there was no knowledge among the Augustinians of an Albert of Verona, but there was of an Albertinus, as we saw in num. 5, he believed this to be the one who in the ancient Veronese writings was read as Albert: nor rashly: for, first, each name can be reckoned the same, especially among the Italians, among whom both the word Albertino is a diminutive of the word Alberto, and diminutive names are most usual in place of the diminished. Then, that Blessed Albertinus was once worshipped in the same church, was testified by his ancient image publicly exposed in the altar with the title of Blessed inscribed: but Bagatta then understood that no memory of him was kept in the Office, just as neither is now kept. What then? Should he believe his veneration antiquated (fallen out of use)? But he could excogitate no cause of the antiquation. He judged therefore that it had persevered, but under another name, namely that of Evangelista. Thus to me indeed he seems to have gathered, not imprudently, that Evangelista, Albert, Albertinus are indeed various names, but the same person.
[11] Nor does the constant fame among the people of Verona stand in the way, by which Blessed Albertinus is said to have borne on his shoulder the sacred bier of BB. Evangelista and Peregrinus, [although the ancient cult of Blessed Evangelista can be defended even without it.] and so to be different from these two: for that fame, as it can indeed now be constant, yet cannot be believed ancient, until it be proved; since concerning this matter no mention is made even among the more recent—Pona, Curtius, and others—neither in the Life of BB. Evangelista and Peregrinus, where their translation is treated, nor in the Life of Blessed Albertinus, whom they thought different. Since therefore for the diversity nothing else is brought forward, I confess indeed candidly that I now incline to the opinion of Bagatta more than before; and that the more willingly, because through it can be shown the arguments by which the immemorial cult of Blessed Evangelista is proved a priori, as they say; which without it cannot be so demonstrated, until the age of the inscription of the altar be known, which perhaps is more recent than the catalogue of Jerome Cardinal Seripando; which catalogue indeed also does not settle the matter altogether, if it was first written then, when the Constitutions of the Augustinian Order were reformed: since this reformation began to be treated only in the year 1543, according to Pamphilus in the Chronicle, folio 116. I do not deny, however, that the same cult of Blessed Evangelista—although one may wish this one to be different from Blessed Albert or Albertinus—is sufficiently demonstrated a posteriori by the solemn translation made in the year 1635, as Zazzeri testifies, who kindly offered us his documents to be inspected, if it pleased, which sufficed us for faith. For who would believe that it was celebrated in Italy in the tenth year after Urban's decree, nay in the first year after the confirmation and at the same time the explanation of the same decree, while he still lived and watched over his published decrees who had issued them; unless the antiquity of the cult, both of Evangelista and of Peregrinus, required by the decree, were established?
[12] Now let us proceed to the Life of our Blessed, which is much more obscure than the cult, [The Life of the Blessed, written in the year 1636, is not established by antiquity,] and rests on a weaker foundation; concerning which therefore, consulting the Augustinian Fathers of Verona, I wrote nearly to this effect: There is celebrated among the Reverend Fathers, on the 26th of July, an illustrious pair of Blessed, Evangelista and Peregrinus. I have their Life published in Italian at Verona by Francis Pona in the year 1636; nor have I found any other more ancient. In the following year Fr. Cornelius Curtius, a Belgian, made it Latin from the Italian, and offered it to the very Reverend Father Zilius Maurocenus, then Prior of the convent of Verona: but I marveled, when I discovered him not rarely to recede from the Italian exemplar: for the things which in it are said concerning the pact, by which the pious Youths in their paternal houses distributed the day together into fixed exercises of piety; likewise concerning the order, which, the novitiate being completed, each received, the priestly order; likewise concerning the assiduous prayer of both before the image of the Bearer of God, which is now translated into the church next to the building of St. Michael, commonly "di Campagna"; these Curtius altogether omitted. And why, I pray? Was it because he had been admonished from Verona that they were not true, or at least could not be proved? And yet these are asserted in the Italian Life by the same reasoning as very many others; so that if it was permitted to Curtius to doubt of those, by equal right it may be permitted us to doubt of almost the whole history of this Life.
[13] This same mind of doubt is thrust upon us even much more by the following. but rather it is repugnant to antiquity. 1. That Francis Pona cites no older witness of the things which he narrates concerning these Blessed—no record, no annals. Whence then could he, in the year 1636, know the things which he says happened in the twelfth or thirteenth century? 2. That the Reverend Joseph Pamphilus, in his Chronicle, makes not a word concerning them; but in the catalogue of the Blessed describes only their bare names. 3. That Raphael Bagatta, with his assistant Baptista Perettus, found nothing concerning them except a very brief elogium (which we gave above, num. 2), and in this indeed disagrees with Francis Pona, who will have it that the Blessed lived and died outside the city, before, in the year 1262, the Augustinian Fathers, called to the monastery of St. Euphemia within the walls of Verona, migrated thither. 4. That John Francis Tintus, in the "Nobility of Verona," printed at Verona in the year 1592, book 5, chapter 12, where he recounts the Saints of Verona, thus writes: "The Blessed Albert and Peregrinus, Augustinian Brothers, died at Verona, and were buried in the church of St. Euphemia. Nor could I find anything more concerning them." I pass over Thomas de Herrera, who in the Augustinian Alphabet, part 1, page 208, thus pronounces: "But at what time Evangelista flourished, what office he held, in what virtue he excelled, in what year he died, is utterly obscure." To the same returns what he has, part 2, page 239, concerning Blessed Peregrinus. He had indeed read the Life of both in Simplicianus San-Martinus; but, he says, he does not disclose the author of the ancient matter. I therefore also ask, whence Francis Pona drew his materials, and by what authority the Life which he wrote can be supported. Thus far I: to which the very Reverend Father Zazzeri replies thus:
[14] Whence its first author, Francis Pona, drew his materials, But this I think must first be observed, that the praised Francis Pona, who made public the Life of the aforesaid Blessed in the year 1636, was not a professor of our, nor of any religious, institute; but he was a man of the world (secular), of Bologna by country, a doctor in the medical faculty, and in that office he served the Augustinian convent of Verona. But from what fount Pona drew the things which he heaped into the Life of our Blessed, I would not dare to divine: although it is easy to believe that he took them either from authentic documents, which perhaps he had at hand, or from a constant tradition among sensible men. But that Curtius, giving to the Life composed by Pona the gift of Latinity, deviates from the prototype, omitting some things at will, changing very many—although he could have had some cause—I recognize and suspect no other, except that perhaps he fell in with some writers who reported the affairs of our Blessed otherwise than Pona does; as usually happens for the most part; to whom therefore he judged more deference should be given. Then a little lower: I say that, since he (Francis Pona) was an erudite man, a domestic of our convent of Verona, it is fair to believe that he drew those things from authentic monuments, which perhaps can be found among his heirs; who nevertheless, since they cannot hitherto be certainly known, could not even be interrogated concerning documents of this kind.
[15] and what faith it merits. There will be perhaps someone whom these things by no means satisfy, and who thus argues with himself: If that author had authentic documents at hand, why did he never cite them? Why did he wish credit to be given to himself alone? Then, if he had them, why did Pamphilus lack them; or if he did not lack them, why did he dissemble; why did he not touch with even one word the deeds of his country, of his Order, of the blessed Citizens; and thus preferred to incur the indignation of posterity, as in de Herrera, part 2, page 239? If these things were once at Verona, why could they be denied to Tintus, to Bagatta, to his assistants Perettus, and to Augustine Valerio himself, bishop of Verona, seeking so solicitously, so piously? Indeed suspicions of this kind strongly shake the authority of this writer. Upon this foundation meanwhile rely all who have put together the Acts or elogia of our Blessed: as Cornelius Curtius in the year 1637, John Nævius in the "Augustinian Hermitage" in the year 1638, Simplicianus San-Martinus in the French History of the illustrious men of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine in the year 1641, Ludovicus Torellus in the Italian Legend of the Saints of the same Order in the year 1647, Philip Elssus in the Augustinian Encomiasticon in the year 1654. We have here chosen out of all to reprint the lucubration of Curtius, as coming nearer to the Italian fount: for the authority of Francis Pona is not of so great weight to us, that his verbose and bedizened work should seem either to require or to merit a new interpretation. And lest anyone think this was done from negligence, we shall compare the Italian Life with that of Curtius, and wherever they discrepate in an historical fact, we shall observe it in the Annotations.
THE LIFE
By the Author Francis Pona, physician; interpreter Cornelius Curtius, of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine.
Evangelista, confessor, Augustinian, at Verona in Italy (Bl.)
Peregrinus, confessor, Augustinian, at Verona in Italy (Bl.)
FROM PRINTED SOURCES.
CHAPTER I.
The age, country, character, studies, vocation to religion, exercises of piety, and heavenly favors of BB. Evangelista and Peregrinus, all common and conjoined.
[1] At the time when Ezzelino, the cruelest of all the tyrants who ever were, drunk with the blood of his own citizens, [Both, Evangelista and Peregrinus, are born in the 13th century with the same character:] but not yet sated, was making through the March of Verona a slaughter as infamous as it was monstrous a, there were born—nay, given from heaven—Evangelista and Peregrinus, who should illustrate the clouded state of their country with the excellent splendor of their virtues. You would have said, with the casters of nativities, that the stars have power not only over bodies, but also over minds; which, gazing upon them at the same point of time, imbued them also with the same goods: so the mind of each was borne inclined to the same things. Scarcely could they form their lisping tongue into half-words, scarcely make firm their step, when they gave great hope and specimen of the best character. Even then they composed themselves to prayers; followed the words of the one leading, and with gesture too; grew with age in the love of piety; turned themselves from childish petulance to serious studies; lent not their tongue to childish words, gave not their ear; finally, by a certain gravity of manners, played the prelude to their other years. These were the same exercises of the Little Ones, as yet unknown to each other under different roofs.
[2] It happened then, by a divine instinct, that they came under mutual sight. they enter friendship from tender years, and foster it by the zeal of piety, Ye Powers above! O what embraces, and how great joys there were! You would have believed they had lived together an age, so suddenly, embracing one another with the chaste bond of love, did they come together into the holy bonds of a perpetual society; their parents, whom they had of the first nobility, not dissenting. Therefore to Evangelista, Peregrinus was a Jonathan; to him, that one a David: a pair of friends more faithful than those whom blood joins. To will and not to will one and the same thing was to both. To will one thing: to dedicate themselves wholly to virtue and to God; to will not one thing: to hearken to the world or the flesh. The same to will: to observe their parents, to rise before religious men; to frequent the temples; to be present assiduously at divine service, to be intent on prayers day and night, to place the good hours not ill, to flee from sin as from a serpent, to love the neighbor, and before him God: the same to will not: to leap over the limits of modesty or sobriety, to stray from the right line of truth, to cleave to trifling boys, to deign the weaker sex a glance, to follow after delights, to indulge self-love b.
[3] Furthermore, these so clear and brilliant beginnings of great virtues the splendor of letters afterward illustrated. Handed over into discipline to a pedagogue, then also of the humane letters, the most chaste Youths had the virgin Muses so propitious, that they who before excelled in integrity of morals now excelled also in the praise of the good arts c. But from these to penetrate into the shrines of a holier wisdom, their mind was much the most ardent: but what way should lead thither surely and without wanderings, was not yet sufficiently clear.
[4] and by frequent intercourse with the Augustinian Hermits. There was outside the walls of the city of Verona, celebrated for the fame of sanctity, an Augustinian monastery of Hermits under the tutelage of the great Mother. Hither the Adolescents went daily, sought the converse of the monks, enjoyed their familiarity, and finally sought from them holy examples of living. What fruit, think you, will these noble stocks at length some day bear, watered with so fecund a dew? They sprouted with the most fragrant shoots of piety, put forth the splendid buds of virtues, and scattered the branches of sanctity to the whole heaven. You would have seen them now dwelling in the temples, converting their very paternal houses into oratories, appointing themselves frequent fasting-holidays, keeping vigil whole nights in prayers, taking their sleep on the ground or on a bench, afflicting the flesh with a hair-shirt—worthy, in one word, of those to whom heaven, which they sought, should point out a shortcut to a holier life.
[5] [The Bearer of God, appearing by night to both with her Son and mother, offers a girdle.] In the dead of night, when a bland slumber had seized the Adolescents, each at his own home, having performed their heavenly meditation, it seemed to the sleepers that heaven opened itself, with unwonted fires of rays diffused every way; that conspicuous in it there sat upon a lofty throne the Bearer of God, and enclosed God the Son in her virginal lap; that on the left d there stood the aged Anne, and made caresses to the little boy e: that she f then looked down to the earth with glad eyes, and from her loosened mantle, which bright rows of gems distinguished, drew out a leathern girdle, and showed it to Evangelista and Peregrinus, and altogether cast it forth: nodded also, and exhorted, that with this they should gird their loins: that Mary finally and the little Jesus assented with a bland countenance, and commended the wish of Anne.
[6] [Hence they resolve that the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine must be sought by them;] Both, awake, exhilarated exceedingly much by so not-ungrateful a portent, longed to recount it each to the other as soon as possible. Evangelista ran up first; and, "You do not know," he says, "O friend, with what a dream the Saints refreshed me today": and in the order in which he had seen it, he explains the whole matter. Peregrinus, astounded: "This very same thing the Powers above set before me in my rest. We understand well enough what heaven wills. There is no need to consult a soothsayer. What then forbids us now at once to flee to the camp of St. Augustine, and to say the oath to him, and, armed with the belt (girdle) which heaven pointed out to us, to profess the sacred warfare among the Hermits? Ἅμμ᾽ ἔπος, ἅμμ᾽ ἔργον g." That is: At once the word, at once the deed no sooner said than done.
[7] into which they are soon admitted: No delay was interposed to those hastening: they go off with the same foot to the known ascetery; and, the Mother of God first saluted in the temple with the words of the angel, they commend the beginnings of their holier life: thence, prostrated at the feet of the head of the convent, they demand with lowliest prayers to be admitted into the religious fellowship, and to be reckoned in the number of the Hermits. This did not have to be long deliberated among his own, to whom the excellent character of the Adolescents had long before become sufficiently known. But indeed this rumor affected the parents variously: to grieve, that they departed without consulting them; to rejoice, that they went to God: at last each congratulated himself in his Sons, who had kept the sacred token of friendship inviolate even to the altars, nay on the very altars.
[8] The world therefore being bidden to keep its own affairs, the spiritual
our Recruits laid the rudiments of the spiritual warfare. and strenuously and continually they contend with the enemies of the human race: The war was full of dangerous hazard. The enemies abundantly many, vigilant, indefatigable, fierce, confident in their strength; yet for the most part conquering by guile and treachery. The standard-bearer evil-demon would descend first into the arena, and fill the whole circus with a roaring more than leonine; deploy his battle-line, give the signal of battle—blows, scourges, threats; and in open combat not languidly invade the most valiant Youths: but indeed for them there was around the breast a triple bronze of faith, hope, and charity, penetrable by no darts of hell. The World would come up with a peacock step, and wish to dazzle the eyes of our Soldiers with the golden gleam of arms: but they prudently turned their backs, with eyes directed to heaven. Finally the flesh, more to be feared than all with vulpine cunning, would drive mines (dig tunnels): our men, on the contrary, cautiously blocked up all chinks, and in every way excluded and eluded the enemy. Nor did they only repel force: they inflicted it too. Their arms were prayers, fasts, hair-shirts, scourges, the cross—not empty scarecrows, surely. It was fought sharply on both sides; often the battle was renewed: but the adversaries were never not conquered, and given over to blushing or even to foul flight. Furthermore, all this victory our Champions ascribed to God alone. Inflamed with love of Him, they sometimes so glowed, that someone saw their countenance, amid praying, coruscate with unwonted rays of flames.
[9] They had it for a custom, under the open sky, on the ground, on their knees, wont to pray under the open sky, and to be refreshed by a heavenly apparition, with eyes bent to heaven, to pour forth prayers. Which all believed was done for this reason, that from that illustrious work of nature, and the well-ordered machine of the heavens which they saw, they might raise themselves to its author, whom they saw not, and by this religious contemplation might erect their mind, pure from the contagion of earthly filth, to the love of eternity. But that something greater else lay hidden, very many observed not rashly: for they were seen even then to be rapt out of themselves, to be divinely illumined, and to be suffused with a certain as it were thin ray of heavenly glory. It pleased therefore the head of the convent to ask, why they were accustomed to supplicate the Deity under the open sky? Whence that so great ardor of theirs, which conquered the fires of the burning sun, and dreaded not the icy winds of winter? Astonished at that unexpected question, both trembled from bashfulness; and because it was a scruple of conscience to conceal anything from the president asking by authority, they unwillingly broke the bars of modesty, and at length disclosed what they would have preferred hidden. They say therefore that, thus praying, they clearly saw the Lady of heaven and earth leaning on a golden throne with God her Son, behind her most holy Anne, round about, without number, the most blessed winged ones (angels) playing; a spectacle like to that by which they had formerly been called to the religious hermitage: further, that, inundated with these delights, they departed from their senses, and observed nothing of human things.
[10] And indeed the more they tasted of the glory of the blessed, the less did the little glory of the world savor to them. [and they wrought very many miracles; being meanwhile most abject in their own eyes.] You would have seen those who a little before had been present at the blessed consortium of the heavenly ones, presently cast themselves down below the menials, seek the lowest ministry of the house, cut and carry wood for building the hearth, carry out the filth of the monastery, and finally exhibit gratuitous service to all h. But the more deeply they lowered themselves, the more, with loftier proclamation, did a holier fame celebrate their name. The wretched flocked from near and distant places, and sought health with them. Nor did that piety deceive. Tongue, eyes, ears, feet: the mute, the blind, the deaf, the lame found there; they returned healthy, whosoever came sick to them.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The most happy death of both; their common sepulcher, translation, honors, miracles.
[B. Evangelista, conscious of the death impending upon him, opens the matter to Peregrinus,] While that holy Pair of friends walked this way of virtues with equal step, very desirous someday to complete the same together, behold, an angel a unexpectedly announces; and bids Evangelista collect his baggage, and, the bond of sweet friendship being broken, to hasten to the heavenly fatherland. With what mind, think you, did Evangelista receive this message? Truly with a doubtful one, and midway between joy and grief. He rejoiced exceedingly to put off the chains of the flesh; but that he could not keep unbroken the bonds of love, he grieved not lightly. He goes therefore to his Peregrinus, and, "Alas," he says, "friend, I have lost my name: I am Evangelista (a bringer of good news) no longer: for neither do I bring you good news. The imminent day, fatal to me, will loose the Gordian knot of our love. So it is decreed in heaven." What to this Peregrinus? In vain you await an answer from him: for that voice bound his tongue. Nay, his very spirit had already fled, had not Evangelista recalled it by bland address, and bidden Peregrinus act bravely, as one soon to follow.
[12] On the day therefore which heaven had foresignified, Evangelista, sound and vigorous, among the brothers chanting in the choir lets himself down upon his knees, whom both the prediction and its event wonderfully affected, and placidly passes to the choir of the angels perpetually singing the praises of God. Since Peregrinus had the half of his soul in heaven, what should the other half of it do on earth? Surely far rather to die for him, than to tarry in life. You would have seen a sparrow sit solitary on the roof, groaning and panting for the sweet company of his Evangelista and of all the Blessed. You would have heard him sigh with vocal sighs, and ask of his Friend a friendly patronage before the Emperor of heaven, that he might obtain a liberal discharge for himself, whereby it might be permitted to him, now wearied, to desert his station, and to be presented with the discharge-rod (rude) by the privilege of eternal exemption.
[13] While with these vows he assiduously knocks at the gates of heaven, God at length, wearied, resolved to give Peregrinus too a term of his pilgrimage. until his returning Friend invited him to the Heavenly ones. Evangelista therefore, being sent, presents himself to him as he rests, surrounded with much light: who, suddenly gladdened at the known face of his Friend, while with open mouth he tries to expedite words, hears his welcome message: "Come, friend, a true Evangelista now, behold, I am present to you; what you long sought, right soon you shall obtain. You shall cease to be Peregrinus (a pilgrim) today, and shall gain the desired port of the fatherland, to be henceforth with me." As soon as he said it, he vanished. To Peregrinus, anointed with such great joys, each single moment seemed as many days, until, a few hours after, the faithful Orestes followed his Pylades, worthy of the friendship of all the Saints.
[14] There was one tomb of both, even as their mind had been one: Both were buried together, and together translated on the 16th of September: but also common miracles of each, which the wretched suppliants received there, and no vulgar ones b. Finally, when impious Mars, its arms clashed, was widely lording it over Italy, all sacred things were mingled with profane; religion came into contempt, the furniture of the church everywhere into plunder; monasteries with temples were polluted; the monks too, before they should become a foul mockery to all, took counsel for themselves, and had begun to migrate into the cities from the fields and woods: the Augustinian hermits, themselves also received within the walls of Verona, occupied the narrows of a certain convent of nuns, to which St. Euphemia gave its name, the nuns being dispersed hither and thither through other convents in the city. The day of the transmigration was sacred to St. Euphemia herself, the sixteenth of the month of September c: on which the prelate of Verona d with solemn pomp led the Hermit brothers into the city and the aforenamed place. At the same time was brought that image of the most blessed Virgin, to whom they are wont to give the surname of Piety (della Pietà), which has its place on the first altar, on the left, to those entering the building; the pious work of the Augustinians, saints Benignus and Carus e. There were brought also the sacred remains of Evangelista and Peregrinus, and of others f.
[15] and at Verona, in the new church of St. Euphemia Not much after g, the religious applied a diligent hand, the citizens a liberal one, to building the temple. But an obstacle not moderate to bringing the fabric to its coping-stone was an ample and royal square (piazza) which lay between, the pleasant delight of the nobles and the common folk strolling in summer from St. Firmus to the river Adige (Athesis); because there the city, the river, and the meadows ran together into one glance. But to go about to overturn that pleasure at that time, when everyone thought anything permitted to himself, was a thing hard to do. Experience gave proof. For as much as the workmen built up by day, so much by night the wantonness of certain profligate men demolished. A severe edict against the malefactors had to be promulgated, by which all were ordered, at peril of their head, to keep their hands from any injury to the building. Nor even thus, however, was the fabric secured; until the lictor, ordered to act by law, raised a good many upon the cross (executed them). Thus, the audacity of the wicked being scarcely repressed,
the builders put the last hand to their work, though late.
[16] [placed on their own altar; inspected in the year 1609, and enclosed in a new chest;] Furthermore, the Lombarda family here merited the excellent praise of liberality, by whose money was built the altar which has the aged icon of these Blessed ones, suppliant at the knees of Jesus, Mary, and Anne, and preserves their remains and those of others, enclosed in a chest marked with an ancient memorial h, which several histories mention i. Many years after, namely one thousand six hundred and nine, the prelate Albert Valerio revisited the same, and re-enclosed them in a new chest, and inscribed distinctly the times of the finding, the translation, and the repositing k.
[17] which, opened again later, exhaled marvelous odors; The repository of the bodies of the Blessed, thus restored, but uncelebrated and without public cult l, remained so, until a certain divine breath touched the pious heart of the excellent father master Zilius Maurocenus (Zilio Morosini) m—a man illustrious not only from the princely family in which he was born among the Venetians, but also from his doctrine and integrity of life—that he should examine this sacred treasure with his own eyes. And so, by his order, the coffers being again opened openly, all the fathers looking on, they are said to have exhaled a certain sweet fragrance above all the odors of Arabia: so that a suspicion fell upon most persons, either that perfumes had once been applied, or that the smoke of Sabaean frankincense had then been raised, which kept the air pure from every taint. An inquiry was instituted; but no trace of an external odor was found. That was the odor of virtue, a clear testimony of sanctity.
[18] and immediately other miracles followed. But because this visitation had been begun when the day was already dying, and so the great lamp of heaven was failing, nor did the things which came under examination lie sufficiently open to the eyes, the prefect of the sacristy had to be admonished to restore the light by a lighted lamp. But he was in a quandary, or at least in delay. Some one of the religious company, a venerable Father, stretched out his hand into the reliquary, and drew forth a candle, which the eyes present marveled at; but whether it was of wax or of tallow, they could never recognize: its lightness said it was rather of dust. Of whatever kind it was, being kindled, it gave as much light as a torch or firebrand is not wont to give. The mind of the head of the convent was indeed to render this solemn act worthy of the dignity of the Blessed; but a dire and long-lasting plague n had exhausted the whole strength of all; which afflicted grievously not only the monastery, but also the commonwealth, whole families being devoured, none untouched o. The religious piety of the Fathers therefore supplied the stead of the expenses, which could not be made because of the present calamity of the time; which piety at once, more vehemently than any bell-metal, stirred up the whole city: so that the people flocked in troops, full of veneration, to the sacred relics; especially when it learned by daily experience that divine power flowed thence. Witnesses are the votive tablets, with which the altar was a little after both adorned and loaded. These the prelate of Verona received, that with his censure they might then pass from his hand into the hands of all [p].