ON THE BLESSED NEVOLONE, CONFESSOR,
AT FAENZA IN THE ÆMILIA OF ITALY.
IN THE YEAR 1280.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The monuments of his cult in his native land, and the candid simplicity of his Acts.
Nevolone, confessor, at Faenza in the Æmilia of Italy (Saint).
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
Faenza of the Æmilia,
or of the present-day Romandiola (Romagna), a notable city, distinguished by an episcopal see under the metropolitan of Ravenna, Ughelli adorns at greater length, in respect of its antiquity, nobility, power, and many other prerogatives, in his Italia Sacra, tome 2 from column 510. Notice of the place in which the Blessed one flourished, That no small part of its former splendor has today perished, I reckon better known than that it should here be commemorated at length. Its situation the geographers describe on the Anemo, by others called the Hamno river, which, says Ughelli, "divides and washes it": namely it divides it from a very populous village, with which it is joined by a bridge nobly furnished with towers. In few words I would say, that it is midway between Forum Cornelii (Imola) to the west, and Forum Livii (Forli) to the east, distant ten miles from each on either side, and eight miles from the boundary of the dominion of the grand duke of Etruria to the north. For its baked ware, named from the city itself in French, (in Italian commonly "majolica") it is even today not a little celebrated, although, from the time that Chinese ware prevailed, that ware has very much declined in esteem.
[2] The people of Faenza glory especially in the sacred bodies of Saints, the one being that of St. Savinus, or Sabinus, unknown in the sacred Fasti. once bishop and martyr of Spoleto or perhaps of Chiusi, of whom it will be treated on the 7th of December: the other that of the most celebrated St. Peter Damian, who ended his life there, as you may see at his birthday on the 23rd of February. To these is added the man of the people Nevolone, by others Novolone, or Nevolo, a shoemaker by craft, who illustrated his fatherland by many examples of signal virtues, by pilgrimages, and by miracles, so much so that, although he is inscribed in no sacred Fasti or Martyrologies, not even in the most fecund Catalogs of Saints of Ferrari, he seems nonetheless by no means to be excluded from this work, since for his cult those testimonies are adduced against which no one would rightly dare to gainsay, the very bishops of the place having for a century and more approved that cult, or at least most evidently tolerated it, which, in the ecclesiastical state under which Faenza lies, I judge the Sacred Congregation of Rites would by no means suffer, if this Nevolone, of whom we speak, were not acknowledged among the Blessed.
[3] The arguments of his true cult Now already eighty years ago the above-praised Ughelli wrote most explicitly, in the cited Italia Sacra, tome 2, column 512, when he mentions the cathedral church of Faenza: "It is adorned with the relics of illustrious Saints: those of St. Savinus, bishop of Spoleto, and of Bl. Novolone are venerated in the cathedral." Then indeed at column 535, treating of Erminio or Herminio the Cardinal, he testifies this: "For St. Charles Borromeo he constructed a notable chapel in the cathedral, to the model of which the people of Faenza consecrated another of no less elegance opposite, dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God, where the Cardinal honorably enshrined the body of Bl. Novolone of Faenza, who died two hundred years before (he meant to say, three hundred years and more before) and is renowned for miracles." That these are most patent indications of ecclesiastical cult, no one, I think, would call into doubt, whatever attention Ferrari, most diligent, I say again, in gathering the Saints of all Italy, here suffered to be lacking.
[4] Ughelli had long before been preceded by Giovanni Severano in his "Precious Deaths of the Just," published at Rome in the year 1627, they are adduced from various sources; when out of the Vallicellan library he either transcribed or himself composed this brief eulogy: "Nevolone, shoemaker of Faenza, when he had reached a decrepit age, and knew that the time of his dissolution now pressed, praying on bent knees rendered up his spirit in the year 1280." To which the same rightly observes: "Nevolone, seized with infirmity, as though admonished by a scourge, neglecting the desire of gain and money, resolved to give himself wholly to the service of God. Whence, restored to health, he distributed to the poor what means he had; for whom also he afterward repaired their old shoes. He devoted himself to fasts and prayers, ten times visited at Compostela the relics of St. James the Apostle, his especial patron: twelve times he came to Rome to the venerable thresholds of the Apostles; and at length, renowned for virtues and miracles, he passed to the Lord. But his death was announced by the bells of the church, which, none moving them, then sounded."
[5] All these things the Faenza historiographer Julius Caesar Tonduzzi confirms in a great posthumous volume, also from a public inscription, published by Girolamo Minaccio, his nephew and heir, in the year 1675, from which I will here especially take an irrefragable monument engraved on his sacred tomb, which before had been transmitted to us in manuscript, but here and there mutilated. Behold the very words, plain to all eyes in uncial letters, from page 13:
BL. NEVOLONE OF GOD DIED ON THE [QO *] KALENDS OF AUGUST 1280.
The miracles which he wrought while living testify him dear to those above, And by which he shines forth even after his death.
THE BLESSED NEVOLONE OF FAENZA, RENOWNED FOR PILGRIMAGES,
ABSTINENCE, DISCIPLINE,
CHARITY, AND MIRACLES, FELL ASLEEP
IN THE LORD 1280 ON THE [EX *] KALENDS OF AUGUST.
HIS BODY LONG ENSHRINED HERE, HERMINIO,
CARDINAL DE VALENTIBUS, ORDAINED
TO BE KEPT UNDER THE NEAREST ALTAR OF ST. MARY
OF THE PEOPLE, 1614.
THE GUILD OF SHOEMAKERS AND
TANNERS SET UP THIS MEMORIAL TO THEIR OWN HOLY ADVOCATE,
IN THE VERY SPOT WHERE HE HIMSELF,
THE DOORS BEING SHUT, ENTERING THE TEMPLE BY NIGHT,
WAS OFTEN SEEN TO PRAY,
THE COLLEGE OF CANONS ASSENTING,
JULIO MONTERENZIO BEING PRELATE,
1620.
[6] and from a more ancient witness A singular argument of a veneration dating from the very death, the same Tonduzzi adduces, when at page 303, in the series of his history, he thus records the death of the Blessed one: "There fell (he says in Italian, which I translate into Latin) on the 27th of July the happy passing of Bl. Nevolone of Faenza, renowned for pilgrimages, abstinence, scourgings, and the miracles which he wrought both in life and after death. His sacred body was deposited in the cathedral, as was said above. Thus concerning him writes Cantinelli, a contemporary, but erring in this, that he numbers him among the Franciscans." Cantinelli's Latin text is of this kind: "In 1280, on the 27th day of July, Nevolone, of the Order of St. Francis, passed from this life to the Lord, at the place of brother Lawrence, a Camaldolese hermit. The whole clergy of the city of Faenza, with the people and an innumerable multitude, raised that same brother Nevolone from that place, carrying him with the greatest joy and honor to the greater church of St. Peter, holding him as a blessed and holy Confessor. At his obsequies there were present, with the Podestà, the elders and consuls, and the whole council with wax tapers, and with the greatest honor, to sing the Mass and Office of God and to do honor to the aforesaid holy body; and this was on the Lord's Day, the 28th of July."
[7] to be corrected in a few small points. And these things Cantinelli, himself also of Faenza, here reported on the faith of Tonduzzi, since his Chronicle concerning the deeds of his own time is unknown to us; from whose words, already reported, it would follow, says the Historian, that Bl. Nevolone would have been a Tertiary, as they call it, of the Order of St. Francis, which elsewhere he denies that he ever anywhere found. Nor do I remember reading it elsewhere, neither in Arthur the Martyrologist, otherwise by no means scrupulous in heaping up Saints, nor in other writers of the Order, who certainly are not themselves wont to neglect their own Saints, of whatever class. Nor indeed in the whole series of Bl. Nevolone's history does even a word occur, from which that could be drawn even remotely. But for the rest, let these things said for the veneration of the Blessed one suffice, lest we here pursue at greater length concerning the hospice, distinguished by his name, or the confraternity, begun under his auspices, and perhaps still subsisting: we seem to have done enough for our task, in that we have vindicated the ecclesiastical honors of Bl. Nevolone, scarcely known outside Faenza. It now remains that we advise the reader in a word concerning the Acts, or the most simple narration of his life.
[8] Concerning the Acts once transmitted hither. That narration, up to now, so far as I know, at least unedited in Latin, our John Rho once transmitted to Bolland, then, unless I am mistaken, recently translated, being through that time most celebrated in all Italy for his sacred sermons and various erudite written works. These are the words of a letter given on the Ides of May 1649, which I have in hand: "Hence I have judged that the Life of blessed Novolone of Faenza, in which city I preached the Ash-Wednesday fast, compiled from an Italian manuscript codex, out of various ancient monuments, and rendered into Latin in a simple style by a friend, should be transmitted to Your Reverence, reckoning that it is not had by you." He could have said, that our Elders were wholly ignorant both of Bl. Nevolone and of his whole sanctity: most rightly indeed did he judge that the Life was thus far unknown to them, which therefore we set down as received from this ecclesiastic alone. That it is written in a simple and unadorned style will soon abundantly appear to the reader, not lacking in solecisms, of which we judged that a very few should be cleaned up without scruple; other things being noted which here deserved to be observed, and the whole history, after our manner, divided into chapters and numbers. That the very marrow is contracted in the cited brief eulogy of Severano, you will now safely perceive.
Annotations* read "VI."
* Is it not "VI"?
LIFE
By an anonymous author,
Collected from ancient Faenza monuments.
Nevolone, confessor, at Faenza in the Æmilia of Italy (Saint).
By an anonymous author, from a manuscript.
CHAPTER I.
Converted from a depraved youth by the aid of St. James, he shines forth in works of charity and other virtues.
Blessed Novolone; that is, a new man a, who knew how to change the active and secular life into the contemplative, born in the city of Faenza, chose for himself and had as patron, Converted to God by sickness in Galicia, St. James the Apostle, which was for him the cause of setting his mind on heavenly things, and turning it away from earthly. This Blessed one, I say, was a shoemaker, and until the twenty-fourth year of his age was engaged in the vices of the world. But when God had afflicted him with a grave sickness, mindful of that saying, "Those whom I love, I rebuke and chastise," he bade farewell to his former habit of manners and vices, and, putting on the new man, began to lavish his own means upon the poor, distributing to widows, orphans, and those laboring in poverty the shoes which he sewed: and when he no longer had leather from which to make new ones, for the love of God, by repairing those broken and worn by use, he sewed them for the poor.
[2] While he was intent on these offices of mercy and piety, yet his especial study was in restraining the depraved senses of luxury, he devotes himself to the offices of charity alone. by fasting three days in each week, according to this rule; that on each of the vigils appointed by the church, he should be content with bread and water alone; moreover, that he might afflict his flesh more and more, he resolved to visit the shrines of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul b; and moreover the temple of St. James c, which is in Galicia, with feet and shoulders bared, which he scourged on the journey with an iron chain: and when on the way he had found poor and needy men lacking clothing, he covered and clothed them with his own, so that he remained as though with body naked. Like a poor man among the poor and the beggars he slept, not blushing to sit with them.
[3] These things being happily done, the demon stirred up the wife of the Blessed one against him, His wife too much hostile that, discords arising here and there, the charity of the holy Man might grow cold. For she began to complain that she was deprived of the marital consortium; that with too prodigal a hand he squandered his goods by distributing them to the poor. But our Blessed one overcame these frequent complaints of his wife with long-suffering patience and humility, and at the same time
eluded the snares of the demon, prepared by these arts.
[4] When a certain beggar asked alms from the Servant of God, he, turning to his wife, said: Go, he binds her to himself by a miracle, and to this wretched man do not deny even one loaf: she answered that the chest was empty of bread: yet the Blessed one insisted, and when she, on the contrary, affirmed that there was no bread in the chest, the Blessed one added: In the name of the Lord, take them, and bestow alms on the poor man. Moved by these words, she scarcely opened the chest, before empty, but that she found in it a very great mass of bread: which being seen, seized with astonishment, she rendered herself more humble; nay rather, after this miracle, she went with blessed Novolone to Rome, that she might obtain the indulgences which are wont to be gained in that holy City; which journey being finished, our Blessed one resolved to visit St. James a second time: which when his wife had heard, touched by piety and religion, she earnestly begged of him that he would not refuse to have her as a companion of this holy journey.
[5] and a companion of his pilgrimages When he had accepted her, she, in the course of the journey, was seized with sickness, and was so weakened in strength that she could not accomplish the begun journey; in which sickness she thus addressed her Husband: O if I might be permitted to eat cherries, surely I would be relieved of all infirmity; to whom the holy Man thus answered: You demand impossible things, for now winter rages, in which the trees are destitute not only of fruits, but even of leaves. These things being said, moved by the prayers and afflictions of his wife, he withdrew from her as far as one could throw a stone with a doubled cast of the hand, and, full of divine hope, on bent knees, his eyes raised to heaven, thus prayed to God: O Lord, ruler and creator of all, whose will there is none who can withstand, King of kings, turn not your eyes from your servant, but hear my prayer for my sick wife, for whose health I direct these prayers to you, that, being made whole, we may avail in this life, and in the life to come praise your name for ever and ever. Amen.
[6] by another miracle he heals the sick woman. The prayer being finished, turning his eyes, he saw a tree which had unexpectedly brought forth cherries, which the holy one at once gathered, and when he had brought them to his sick wife, she had scarcely tasted them, when suddenly she was healed, and thus she completed the begun journey: which finished, both returned home, giving thanks to God, who does not forsake those hoping in Him. After some time the wife of the Blessed one died. Then the Blessed one gave all that remained to widows, orphans, and the poor, then visited the temple of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and, returned to Faenza, instituted a society, which they call in Italian ("dei Battuti") d, which up to the present day keeps the ordinances left by him.
[7] He labored much thereafter, His various pious works at Faenza. to allure the citizens of Faenza to the divine cult. In the temple of St. Peter in that city he was wont to pray, standing long day and night at the divine offices before the altar in which the most holy body of our Lord was kept. Always on bent knees on the ground, with palms raised to heaven, he prayed long, so that the canons and sacristans, when they wished to cast him out of the temple, no longer saw him; whom nevertheless by night at Matins they perceived to be present, praying after his custom, which they recognized to be done by the divine will. After some space of time, a third time with bare feet and shoulders, as was his custom, he made pilgrimage to St. James; and when he had lavished all on the poor, as we have already said, he began to inhabit a certain house near the temple, which at that time was called the cell of brother Lawrence e, in which with five other brothers he lived in the utmost observance and austerity, in which place a monastery of nuns was afterward erected, which nuns are called "of the Cell." In that place lived our Blessed one, upon a wooden board, often even upon the ground itself, taking a little sleep, clad in a coarse woolen cloth.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
After repeated pilgrimages to St. James of Compostela, the bells sounding of their own accord announce his most pious death.
Behold, he undertakes a fourth pilgrimage to St. James, on which journey, when he had come upon a very difficult place, Going to St. James he is freed from peril: through which, on account of the roughness of the way, it not only was not permitted to pass, but not even to draw back: he had been reduced to these straits, when a man appeared holding in his hand a saddled horse, who urged blessed Novolone to mount, which when the Servant of God had done, he was led unharmed to the lodging, where he rendered thanks to God and St. James as far as he was able.
[9] A fifth time he was visiting the temple of St. James, when on the very way he heard a voice saying: he conquers the demon lying in wait for him: The Lord spares those who convert themselves to Him, but by no means those who, striking themselves with blows, rage against themselves; which voice the Blessed one, recognizing to be the devil's, struck himself with sharper blows with the iron chain, as he was wont. But the demon, when it had gained nothing by this voice; by God's permission, assailed him with a grave and terrible temptation of the flesh, by which, when he felt his body ever too much inflamed, the Blessed one at once cast himself into a river frozen with ice, that he might extinguish the infernal ardor with that coldness, nor would he come out thence, until, chiefly by divine aid, he felt all the ardor extinguished.
[10] He had undertaken a sixth journey to St. James, when he came upon a leper, on another pilgrimage he heals a leper; despised and abandoned by all; whom the holy one, when he had seen him, mindful of mercy toward the poor and the sick, for the love of God, kindly embracing him, at the first meeting kissed the hands of the leper: which scarcely done, that leper vanished from his eyes; wherefore he was ever more merciful toward the poor, and especially toward the sick.
[11] afterward he converts a woman; On his seventh pilgrimage to St. James he was received in lodging by a certain noble woman, but given to wantonness, who, when she had fallen into sickness, was freed by the prayers of the Blessed one. And when he strove to cure her of the sickness of her soul, he remained in that place the whole time of Lent, content with bread and water in fasting; moreover lacerating himself with the iron chain, sleeping on the ground, intent on prayers, until, overcome by the words and prayers of the holy Man, at length, by divine aid, that woman, abhorring her former manners, began to devote herself to holiness.
[12] then an innkeeper; When on an eighth occasion he was setting out to St. James, overcome one day by hunger, he asked of an innkeeper that he would relieve his necessity with a single loaf: the innkeeper answered, Unless you pay a coin, I cannot give bread; but if you have no coins, seek from door to door. Hearing these things, the Blessed one, with eyes raised to heaven, asked the Lord to relieve his necessity. The prayer finished, turning his eyes to the ground, he saw a coin, which, taking, he gave to the innkeeper, who then bestowed bread on the Blessed one, whereby he provided for his hunger; yet bringing back to his memory the great judgment of God, in which he was to be asked whether he had given bread to the hungry.
[13] next also a possessed man; lastly, purging a spring. When he was on his ninth journey to St. James, one of the companions who was with him on that same pilgrimage was possessed by a demon, over whom our Blessed one, having pity, taking off his cloak, put it on the neck of the possessed one: which being done, immediately the companion remained free from the demon. Lastly, when he was visiting the temple of St. James, he came to a precipitous place, in which he found a spring vitiated with poison, of whose water, when a certain man had tasted, he had departed from the living. Then the Blessed one prayed the Lord to restore the water to its former state, and to drive the serpent thence; all which so came to pass according to his wishes, that to travelers thereafter no fear of drinking from that water remained.
[14] His death is made known by a spontaneous sounding, These journeys being finished for the love of God, worn out with age, he closed his last day, full of days and of holy virtues. In a certain little house, near the monastery of the nuns who are called "of the Cell," in the year of the Lord 1280, on the 27th of July, his lifeless body was found, at which time the bells of that temple, in which he had been wont to live and to pray, gave, by their own sound, a sign of the death of the blessed Man, no one ringing them; which sound being heard by the Prior, he sent the sacristan to see what the matter was, and when he had seen no one ringing the bells, seized with astonishment he announced it to the Prior: who, lights being kindled, and knees bent in the temple, prayed with the rest.
[15] but he himself is honorably buried. While he was engaged in this office of religion, St. Novolone came back to his mind, since he was not with the rest: at once, having gone to his cell, they saw him with bent knees, and as though praying; and when they thought that he was alive, they approach to call him, but, moving his body with the hand, they knew him to be dead: then the bells ceased from their sound. Immediately the Prior admonished the bishop of the novelty of the matter, who, a great throng of clergy and people accompanying him, replaced the body of the Blessed one in the holy cathedral of St. Peter, which is in the city of Faenza, where now he has a marble monument a, and in that altar, before which he had been wont to pray, the bones of the holy Man rest, illustrated by continual miracles; among which let us review some.
ANNOTATION.
CHAPTER III.
Various miracles of his are reviewed.
Nicoletta, wife of Lupus de Soporinis, of the society of St. Terentius, when she had a finger twisted and greatly injured, so that she could heal it neither by medicament nor by any incantation, on the day of the festivity of Bl. Novolone, touching the cloak of the holy one, came away whole.
[17] Nicholas, son of Dominic de Puppinis, of the society of St. Anthony, when he had long labored with an incurable disease in the knee; the father of the sick one, when he had taken care that prayers be poured out for him before the altar of the Blessed one, returning home found his son whole.
[18] Nicholas Savorinus, of the society of St. Michael, when he had a son sick with an incurable disease, vowed himself and his son to the Blessed one, and thus deserved to find him whole.
[19] Soloanus of the village of Cesati, called de Piretto, [had] a daughter laboring with a swelling in the throat, in which four
pits flowing with pus, when he had vowed that he would give grain to the Blessed one, the daughter was at once healed.
[20] When the son of a certain Monaldini had his leg afflicted with four pestiferous pits, nay, when in it there was a worm lurking, the father of the sick one, when he had seen the image of the Blessed one impressed on a little tablet, commended his son to him; then the boy, taken with sleep, when he had afterward been awakened, said that he was whole, and, unbinding his leg, saw that the worm had gone out of the wound, and that he was altogether whole.
[21] Another, the son of Mazzoli, is likewise read to have been freed from a disease, for he had been broken in his limbs from his very birth; by the prayers of his mother.
[22] A certain man, by name Christopher, of the society of St. Severus, when he had his testicles very much injured, hearing the name of the Blessed one, and the fame of his miracles, vowed that he would fast every year, feeding himself with bread and water alone on the vigil of the festivity of the Blessed one, and moreover that he would offer a wax candle, if he were freed from the disease, and at once he was made whole.
[23] Margaret, wife of a certain Gregory, having received dust at the sepulcher of the Blessed one, and sprinkling with it the injured foot of her husband, healed it.
[24] In the same year a certain boy of Monte Rodi was tormented with the greatest pain of the head *, and on a certain day remained as though lifeless on account of a flux of blood from the nostrils, and when the mother of the son had gone to pray for him to blessed Novolone, returning home, she saw five rather large worms fall from her son's nostrils, and when again she placed in those same nostrils the dust received from the sepulcher of the Blessed one, four worms likewise went out, which she kept alive a long time, that she might show them the novelty of the matter, and thus the boy remained whole.
[25] Gorius Rizardus, when he had a sick son, and one so despaired of, that they had now kindled candles over his body, then went before the altar of blessed Novolone, and there, pouring out prayers with tears for the health of his son, returning home, sees his son standing whole upon the threshold of the door, whom nevertheless he had before left dying; nor had he stood before the altar of the Blessed one but for as much time as had been enough for him to recite a Pater and Ave, and to vow to the Blessed one a certain quantity of grain. For the magnitude of which miracle the father gave thanks; and fulfilled what he had promised.
[26] The Life of this blessed Man has been taken word for word from the Italian manuscript of a certain man of Faenza worthy of credit, who collected it, in a simple style, from various papers and monuments which are held by the confraternities and the hospital. The simplicity of the narration and the candor of the writer are everywhere manifest; and this the clause subjoined at the end sufficiently testifies: it is to be lamented that to the miracles the certain times at which they happened have not been added.
Annotations* read: "capitis dolore" (with pain of the head).