ON ST. RAYMUND PALMARIUS, CONFESSOR
AT PLACENTIA IN ITALY
In the year 1200.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Raymund Palmarius, confessor, at Placentia in Italy (St.)
BY FATHER P. B.
§ I. The Saint's name; his cult among the Placentines, approved at Rome; his express canonization in dispute.
Of the Saints whose memory is celebrated today, the company is closed by St. Raymund, called now Placentine from his homeland, St. Raymund, surnamed Palmarius, now Palmarius or Palmerius. Whence he received the surname Palmarius, there is not one single opinion; as you will gather below from Rufinus in the Life, chapter 2, no. 17; where he himself thinks that it arose on the occasion of the palm which the Saint, on his return from Jerusalem, bore in his hand as he entered Placentia; and, "There are," he says, "those who would have it that his family was of the Palmarii; but of this matter I have found no clear testimony." Those more recent authors who agree with Rufinus contend that the proper name of the Raymundian family was Zansogni, on the testimony of Peter Maria Campi in the Life published in Italian, chapter 3; but he himself, having abandoned the opinion both of these and of Rufinus, prefers to subscribe to those who make the name Palmarius proper to this family; and hold the surname Zanfogni to have been added either to the father or to the grandfathers of St. Raymund. But why he thinks thus, that author does not say. It seems, therefore, that one should rather adhere to Rufinus, to whom the family of Raymund must have been much better known; inasmuch as he lived and wrote with him at Placentia, the Saint himself dictating through his son Gerard.
[2] There is no reason why anyone should demand his cult from the ancient martyrologists; it is celebrated on this day at Placentia, since Ferrarius seems to have been the first to note it on this day from the proper Offices of the Placentine church, both in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and in the other general one, in which he includes the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology. Ferrarius was followed by the most illustrious Brautius, who in his poetic Martyrology sings thus of St. Raymund, confessor of Placentia, on this day:
Returning from a pilgrimage abroad, Raymund, the illustrious father of the needy, ascends to the stars in his native city.
To these add Castellanus in his universal Martyrology. Furthermore, the proper Offices of the Placentine church, which Ferrarius cites for himself, are those which, approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites at Rome in the year 1608, were printed at Placentia in 1610, and at the same time prescribed by the then bishop Claudius Rangonus to the whole clergy to be observed thenceforth. Among these is the Office of St. Raymund, to be celebrated on the 28th of July with a double rite, the feast of SS. Nazarius and his Companions being transferred. Hence, I think, is that annotation of the same Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, at the cited place: "But his (Raymund's) feast began to be celebrated at Placentia and throughout the diocese by the concession of Pope Paul V."
[3] and indeed from time immemorial; But this author errs, if he wishes this to be so understood that St. Raymund's feast, or his natalis, is supposed never to have been celebrated at Placentia before the time of Pope Paul V. For it was indeed celebrated before the times of Paul V; as is clear from the Briefs of the Supreme Pontiffs Clement VIII and Gregory XIII, by which they grant plenary indulgences to those "Who shall devoutly visit the church of the monastery of the nuns of St. Raymund, of the Cistercian Order, of the city of Placentia, ON THE FEAST OF THE SAME SAINT Raymund from first Vespers," &c. These are the words of Clement VIII; with which agrees the Brief of Gregory XIII, given on the 12th of November 1576, which Campi presents in full in the Italian Life, chapter 19, page 118. This alone, then, follows from the aforesaid booklet of the Placentine Offices, that the natalis ceased for some time to be celebrated with a proper Office, and that only from the time when the Placentine church abandoned its own Breviary, that it might thenceforth follow the Roman one published by St. Pius V: for before that time the natalis of St. Raymund was celebrated there with a proper Office, as the cited Campi shows on page 120 from the older Breviaries of the same church; and particularly from the one which he says was printed at Venice in the year 1530. You may read the preface of the most illustrious Rangonus himself, prefixed to the booklet of the proper Offices of the Placentine church.
[4] Nor does Campi agree with Ferrarius on that which is said in the same annotation about St. Raymund, "That he had not yet been reckoned among the Saints, although the Saint is called such in the records of the Placentine church": whether he was formerly reckoned among the Saints this, I say, Campi denies in his chapter 17, and contends that Raymund was altogether inserted into the roll of the Saints by Pontifical authority, whether by Innocent III or by Honorius III, who succeeded Innocent in the year 1216: the first, however, he thinks less probable, both because it does not seem to have been done under Grimerius, bishop of Placentia (for he died two years before Rufinus wrote his Life, who makes no mention of a canonization), and because after the death of Grimerius the times both of the Placentine and of the universal Church were so entangled, that there could have been opportunity neither for Pope Innocent, nor for St. Fulco, the successor of Grimerius, to attend to a matter of so great magnitude. He judges, therefore, that it happened under Honorius, and indeed at the beginning of his Pontificate; since not the title of Blessed, as before, but of Saint, is read ascribed to B. Raymund more than once in an authentic and public document of the year 1217, as you may see below in Appendix 1 of the miracles, chapter 2, no. 21: and this document, with no word altered, B. Albertus, a man no less renowned for learning than for sanctity and miracles, and then bishop of Placentia, ordered to be confirmed and made public by his own authority in the year 1246; by no means about to do this, unless he had ascertained that such a title and honor had been granted him, and was due, by the lawful authority of that time, and accordingly by that of the Roman Pontiff.
[5] He adds that, after that year 1217, the same title is constantly attributed to him in several extant authentic writings, by an express decree of the Apostolic See, of which he presents two from the archive of St. Raymund, on page 97 and following; one of the year 1223, the other of the year 1227; two he cites in the margin, of the year 1228 and 1235; and he says that indeed many more are available; but that they have nevertheless been omitted, lest they bring both an unnecessary labor to himself, and weariness to the reader. And truly, can it seem credible to anyone, either that those who then presided over the Placentine church, or B. Albertus de Prandoniis, who a little after presided for fourteen years, or finally he who followed him, and in confirming the same documents in the year 1286 on the 27th of August imitated Albertus, Philip Fulgosius—can it seem credible that they permitted these things, or his public veneration through Sacrifices and an anniversary feast, contrary to the usage and laws of the Church long since established, not only, so to speak, with closed eyes, but even promoted it by their own labor? So, more or less, Campi.
[6] This very thing, moreover, the same author presently concludes, as by an inescapable argument, in the same place, from the fact which Campi thinks against Ferrarius; or [that he was not reckoned:] that B. Domninus, a priest of Parma (concerning whom we shall have to treat on the 6th of February, when what has been omitted there will be supplied), followed our Saint with such singular devotion that he both went repeatedly as a suppliant to his sepulcher (God in a manner approving this piety by a miracle, when, returning thence, Domninus came upon a certain man wretchedly wounded by an enemy, and by the sole sign of the cross and the invocation of the most holy Trinity freed him on the spot from both imminent death and his wounds), and imitated him in a most similar manner of life among the people of Parma, where also, in the church of St. Martin, in the place which is called Gallican, in the year 1344 on the day before the Kalends of August, he erected and endowed, with an altar, a chapel consecrated under the title of our St. Raymund;
consecrated under the title of our Saint; which altar indeed, after the destruction of the church I mentioned, having been transferred toward the beginning of the seventeenth century, by order of his superiors, within the city of Parma itself, in the sacred building which they call "Del Conforto," that is, of Consolation, still bears witness to the ancient cult of our Saint and stirs up the present one. And, he says, can it be believed that B. Domninus would have done such a thing, before he knew that honors of this kind had been decreed to Raymund by the sentence of the Roman Pontiff? Meanwhile Campi confesses, on page 95, that that decree (unless perchance it was given only by a "living-voice" oracle) has now so perished that it can be affirmed for certain neither by what Pontiff, nor in what year, it was issued.
[7] for these arguments do not seem to prove it, There will perhaps be one to whom these things do not seem sufficient for asserting a positive decree of canonization; and he may say: 1. The cult and public veneration of St. Raymund began from the very day on which he was buried, not only with the bishop not opposing, but even inducing it; since, according to Rufinus in the Life, chapter 5, no. 54, he so laid down his body that it was convenient for anyone to venerate his sacred tomb on bended knee. Had a decree, then, been already obtained at that time; or, without it, was it more permissible by the laws of the Church to venerate anyone as a Saint than to call him a Saint? II. He had the title of Saint long since, not only before the Pontificate of Honorius or the year 1217, but even for several years before Rufinus wrote, as he himself testifies chapter 5, no. 56, when he says: "After some days from that time, when the magistrates of the city had observed that both the piety there and the greatest abundance of gifts continued, they decreed that the hospice founded by him should thenceforth be called the Hospital of SAINT Raymund; which title it keeps even today." The same title was given to it in the year 1209, that is, three years before the Life was written by Rufinus, and indeed in an authentic document drawn up before the bishop of Cremona, and afterward recognized by the authority of the same B. Albertus, when he was bishop of Placentia, as will appear in Appendix I of the miracles, chapter 1, no. 2. Tell me, was the Roman decree already in existence at that time; or not yet? If you say the first, you will both think against Campi, and will deservedly accuse Rufinus, as one who, in chapter 5, no. 57, to prove the sanctity of B. Raymund, produced only miracles; but omitted the most certain testimony of sanctity—the decree of canonization, I mean—and did not even name it. If the second, why did B. Albertus close his eyes there; why did he fortify that title in that document, just as in the other of the year 1217, with his own name too?
[8] which that pious and learned author had set before himself III. What of the fact that a decree of this kind (if there ever was one) does not seem to have been issued before the year of Christ 1286? For why did B. Albertus in the year 1247 so diligently collect the authentic miracles of B. Raymund, drawn from the archives of Cremona, Genoa, and Placentia? Was it not that through them he might be able to institute and obtain the cause of his canonization at Rome? By no means, Campi will reply; but lest anything that could pertain to the glory of the Saint should perish through the injury of the times: for the decree of canonization had been issued long before. But indeed, if it had been issued, this too could surely make for the glory of the Saint, and indeed more than all the authentic copies of the miracles together. Why, then, did he not append the authentic testimony of the canonization, made either in writing or (if you please) by a living-voice oracle, to the rest; why did he not vindicate it from the injury of the times? Then, if B. Albertus had already placed the documents of those miracles in safety, why did Philip Fulgosius, the successor of B. Albertus in the See of Placentia, wish the same to be copied out again in the year 1286 and confirmed with his own seal? Was it because there was even then a danger lest they perish? Or rather that he might press for a bull of canonization not yet obtained?
[9] IV. Nor does it matter that neither B. Albertus nor Philip hindered that cult, although it was by no means established by a positive definition of the Supreme Pontiff: for many things could deter them; namely, the possession of forty years and more, during which that cult had flourished, for the illustration of St. Raymund's cult, when B. Albertus came to Placentia; and this with Rome tolerating, and even, as could be interpreted, tacitly consenting: then the incredible zeal of the magistrates and the people, which, since it was confirmed with continual miracles, and by so great an influx both of natives and of foreigners, it was far more dangerous to check than, the cause of canonization having been instituted before the Roman Pontiff, to establish it in perpetuity: this, then, both Albertus and Philip the bishops seem to have attempted, when they collected the authentic miracles of the Blessed sought out from every quarter: finally, the examples of other churches here and there; for how many permitted a cult of this kind both through those times and long afterward, without an express decree of the Roman See, so far as is known, may be seen everywhere in our Acts toward the end of each day: so that the Roman Pontiffs do not reject even now that cult which preceded the famous Bull of Pope Urban VIII by at least a hundred years, even though it cannot be shown by what authority, tacit or express, it was begun. Hence, moreover, an easy answer will be given also to what has been related concerning B. Domninus.
[10] However it be; whether St. Raymund was at some time ascribed to the Saints by a solemn decree, illustrious enough by its own antiquity, and approved at Rome. or was not; this is certain, and suffices for us, that from about the beginning of the thirteenth century he was constantly and openly held and venerated as a Saint: for this both the Acts testify, and the miracles subjoined to the Acts: nay, even that manuscript Chronicle of Placentia, which Campi cites in the Annals of his native land at the year 1200, teaches that this little verse was in use among all about those times: "For thy people pour forth virtues, holy Raymund." So far, indeed, is it from any Roman Pontiff ever having opposed this public veneration, that rather not a few, and not moderately, fostered it: for concerning Gregory XIII and Clement VIII we have already spoken above, no. 3; to these Campi adds, on page 119, Sixtus V and Gregory XIV, who indeed enriched with indulgences not the feast of St. Raymund, but nevertheless the church: and Paul V may also be added, under whom, as we intimated before, the booklet of the proper Offices of the Placentine Saints was approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites; in which both the prayer, and the first Lesson of the second nocturn, are proper, and the Mass is assigned from the Common of a Confessor not a bishop, "Os justi." There is moreover kept another feast of his among the nuns of St. Raymund at Placentia (for in the proper Offices approved for the whole diocese no mention is made of this celebration) on the 11th of July, and indeed, as it appears, from time immemorial; and this by reason of his translation, of which we shall speak in the next paragraph; where, on the occasion of his relics, more will be suggested concerning the cult of this Saint.
§ II. His sepulcher; his relics, and their translation; the hospice.
About to treat of the relics of St. Raymund, I begin from a description of the place where they are laid up. Its situation is within the city of Placentia, on that side Not in the church itself of the canonry of the Twelve Apostles; where it is watered by waters led from the river Trebia; and not far from that gate of the city which is now called St. Raymund's: for there Campi places the church, on page 38, which is read as formerly called, in our Life, the canonry of the Twelve Apostles, and, as it stands in the first Appendix of the miracles, chapter 2, no. 21, "the church of the canonry of St. Mary of the Twelve Apostles"; but now, the ancient name having been lost, it is called the church of St. Raymund, and the church of the monastery of the nuns of St. Raymund. Now among the writers of the Middle Ages a "canonica" is the same as what we now call a collegiate church, or one distinguished by a college of canons. Namely, a certain Albert Moroni, a Placentine, still surviving when our Saint founded the hospice adjoining the church, had founded this for the Canons Regular of St. Augustine. But when these at last, in the mature fourteenth century (so iniquitous were the times then), had fallen into decay, that church, no longer a canonry, devolved first to a single provost, then, this too failing, to commendatory prelates, and then to absent Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church; until Pope John XXIII in the year 1414 granted it to the nuns of the Cistercian Order, who a little before had been compelled, on account of wars and devastations, to abandon their suburban convent, called Nazareth, and to take refuge in the city, not without a great increase of the glory of St. Raymund, which they promote there even today: as may be seen in the often-praised Campi throughout the whole of chapter 19.
[12] but the Saint's body was buried next to it, Whoever reads our Acts, chapter 5, no. 52 and following, will no doubt suppose that the sacred remains of B. Raymund were first laid within this very church: but the matter is otherwise; and accordingly our author has here spoken somewhat obscurely, in that by "canonica" he wished to be understood either the whole convent of the canons, or at least the church together with the cemetery: for you will gather from the authentic document of the year 1217, in the Appendix of the miracles, chapter 2, no. 21, that it was placed not in the church itself, but next to it in the cemetery; and the same will become clear from other things soon to be said. Campi observed this too, chapter 13, page 70, where, having described the funeral rites celebrated within that church, he subjoins these things: "When these ceremonies had been performed with the greatest jubilation and most modest order, his sacred coffer, and the holy pledge in it, was placed, not within the church of the said canonry (whose compass indeed was not very capacious), but somewhat outside it, before the doors, toward the public square, that is, to the left of those going out of the church, in a certain place so enclosed with railings that it was convenient for anyone, whenever it pleased, to run thither, to touch the sepulcher out of devotion, and to implore the aid of the Blessed by prayers."
[13] to guard which, perpetual custodians were appointed, Now, to guard so precious a deposit, perpetual custodians were at once appointed; among whom especially Gerard, the son of St. Raymund, is said in the Life, chapter 5, no. 54, to have obtained this charge for himself, as he had requested: this was therefore an office of the canons, at least in the beginning: for later the lay brothers too discharged it, who ministered to the poor in the adjoining hospice of the Saint; as is clear from the acts of the visitation of the same hospice, held in the year 1263 on the 7th of June by the provost of the aforesaid canonry; in which, on the testimony of Campi chapter 18, page 102, among other things it is laid down that the rector and brothers of that hospice should build a dormitory within the buildings of the hospice, in which by night only the rector and the said brothers should sleep, excepting the custodians of the sepulcher of St. Raymund. It was their part, as the same writer asserts in the same place, not only to guard the monument of the Saint, or to receive the offerings which were freely offered; but
also to feed a lamp burning steadily there in his honor; and moreover to take care that no wood or filth be heaped up around that place, nor the bodies of the dead be buried there; and this last thing he proves, from an authentic document of that time, that they constantly hindered in the year 1265, when there was a question of burying there a certain John Nanso, as he had wished when dying.
[14] I said that these custodians were perpetual, that is, that when one of them failed, whether by death or otherwise, others upon others soon succeeded: even to the mature 14th century. for Campi rightly draws this, at the cited place, from the document of the visitation of the same hospice made in the year 1349, on the 5th of November; in which, since one of them had either died, or at least had been wanting to his office, a decree is read that another be substituted in his place without delay; that the Saint's sepulcher be perpetually honored with its accustomed lamp; that, as often as need shall be, that sacred guardianship be filled up; that they remove filth, wood, and whatever offends the decor of the place, from there and from the adjoining cemetery. Hence, he says, it came about that both the cult of the Saint and the liberality of the suppliants there flourished excellently at that time. But when in a short while civil and foreign wars, and the fierce pestilence which more than once followed these, had, as we noted above, extinguished the canons; so too in the same century both this shrine ceased to be guarded, and, together with the altar which is said to have been erected in it, it so gradually fell into ruin, that the sacred body of Raymund, buried for some time in the earth, was at last altogether deprived of its accustomed honors.
[15] The indignity of the matter was not long endured by a certain John Picolla (as the same Campi relates, In the 15th century his cult and veneration revived, whom I so often name, the most diligent searcher-out of all these things): he therefore, out of his affection for our Saint, since he could not do it himself, commanded his uncle and heir, Christopher, when dying, according to the authentic document on this matter drawn up by Christopher Trinchi the notary on the 8th of August in the year 1400, that, at the expense of a sum of three hundred pounds, he should build anew a chapel with an altar over the sepulcher of St. Raymund, whose sacred bones he affirmed to rest buried before the church of the Twelve Apostles; and that he should there see to it that a daily sacrifice of the Mass be offered for himself and his ancestors. The heir indeed deferred this, and he being carried off not long after by an unforeseen death, a certain Petraccinus, surnamed Bucca Asinina, who acted as guardian of his son and heir, deferred it too; but, the nuns, whom we said were admitted into the church of the Twelve Apostles in the year 1414, urging the pious bequest, it was at last carried into execution in the year 1415; as is attested by a writing composed by the notary John Datari in the same year, on the 28th of May.
[16] Scarcely had the chapel been built, and fortified with suitable railings, scarcely had sacred rites begun to be celebrated at its altar, chiefly by the zeal of the nuns of St. Raymund, when the former devotion of all toward their Raymund, and the former benefits of St. Raymund toward suppliants, were revived; and although these are nowhere recorded, yet Campi asserts that there were very many about these times; since in a short while his glory and name so grew among the Placentines that it made antiquated any other ancient things, even those of Saints: for from then both the church, which up to that time had been accustomed to be called either "of the Twelve Apostles" or "of St. Mary of the Twelve Apostles," and the nuns who held it, and who were called Nazarene until the year 1422, and the surrounding tract of the city, and finally that gate of the city which is nearest of all, began thereafter to be called by the new and single name of St. Raymund. Nor indeed content with this name alone, those sacred virgins took care that his effigy too be represented in their church, and indeed on an elegant panel of the principal altar, and that his natalis be kept with an anniversary celebration as a feast, just as the brothers of the Raymundian hospice in the chapel nearby had been accustomed to do; a custom being introduced then, which is still kept there, of blessing on that day and distributing very tiny loaves, stamped with the impressed image of the Saint; which the pious faithful hold in esteem as most present antidotes against various diseases.
[17] who at last transferred his body into their own church, But neither did the love of these same nuns toward their now Patron stop there: for fearing lest some unlucky accident should snatch his sacred body from them out of the chapel—by their opinion not safe enough—even though it was buried in the earth, they ordered it, with the consent of their superiors of the Cistercian Order obtained, but secretly and without consulting those who presided over the adjoining hospice, to be dug up, and, having been transferred into the innermost part of their church and decently received into a chest fortified with a lock, to be placed behind the high altar, where up to this very day, says Campi chapter 19, page 116, it is kept with great veneration. The memory of this translation those nuns celebrate every year with a special Office on the 11th of July; whence you may understand that it was done on that day: for the year in which it happened is unknown. Campi indeed says that it occurred about the beginning of the fifteenth century; but since that cannot be reconciled with what he had before asserted from himself; therefore I judge that an error, otherwise common enough, crept in upon the learned man here, so that he called "fifteenth century" what was in fact the sixteenth. This is certain, that the relics of the Saint were already in the choir of the nuns when the Italian interpreter of his Acts visited them there, as he will testify below in his Letter, dated the 1st of September in the year 1525.
[18] and they still keep it, besides small particles shared with other churches. Moreover, on the occasion of this translation, however clandestine, Campi relates in the same place that some particles were broken off from the sacred body and distributed to certain Placentine churches; and especially to the cathedral, where a tiny fragment still remains, since the bishops repeatedly inserted the rest into consecrated altars: nay, that a piece of his hair-shirt was even sent to the people of Cremona, which is still kept there in the church of St. Peter the Apostle: that moreover something similar happened some years after, through a certain visitor, an abbot of the Cistercian Order, named Cosmas, who, when he was inspecting this convent of virgins, ordered the sacred chest of St. Raymund to be opened for him, and thence, rather by his own authority than with the assent of the nuns, carried off to Milan the posterior part of the skull, which he had taken, when he betook himself thither, the visitation being finished.
[19] The head separated from the body and exposed in the year 1616. This visitation was followed in the year 1616 by another, that of the most illustrious Claudius Rangonus, bishop of Placentia, the more welcome to that virginal community because he had freely sought it, as the same author testifies on page 121. In it the head of St. Raymund was drawn out of the chest, washed, and placed in a silver and precious tabernacle prepared for it; which thing began to be not only an ornament to the aforesaid church, but also a means of health to not a few of the sick: for many, sprinkled with that water with which that sacred head had been cleansed, felt it salutary for themselves. Nay, on the same testimony, a sufficiently wonderful event preceded this very solemnity: for at that time the lady Alba Francisca Via, a nun of the same convent, was suffering from a tertian fever; but at the very time which the bishop had appointed for inspecting the relics, she saw herself hindered from being present on two heads; namely by the letting of blood, which the physician had prescribed, and by the accustomed onset of the fever. Since this troubled her greatly, turning to the patronage of St. Raymund, she prayed only this, that she might obtain that both hindrances be deferred for so long, until the inspection had been performed. When, behold, she suddenly so recovered that neither the remains of the disease survived, nor accordingly any need of the remedy. But the writer I mentioned adds also that the rest of the body of our Saint was then left in its chest, until another most ornate one should be constructed. Whether this was done afterward, I for my part do not know, though I have inquired more than once.
[20] But since mention of the hospice of St. Raymund recurs so often, The hospice founded by St. Raymund, I seem likely to do not amiss if I gather here, at least briefly and succinctly, what Campi hands down about it scattered and at length in the Italian Life of the Saint; since it too, while indeed it survived, could in a manner be reckoned among the relics of the same most holy Man. St. Raymund obtained it, as you will also gather from our Life, chapter 3, no. 34, after his return from Rome, from the canons of the Twelve Apostles, to whose garden it was contiguous toward the north, and that (according to the same Campi in the Placentine Annals, tome 2, page 42, and our Life, chapter 4, no. 48) in the year 1178; when the provost of that canonry was that Ardicius who in the year 1192 was made bishop of Placentia. But since the place, as it was granted, did not have within the form of a hospice, Raymund introduced it at his discretion, Albert Moroni supplying the expenses, who had founded the aforesaid canonry some time before. There Raymund at first alone exercised his charity toward pilgrims and the poor; until, stirred by his example, several others joined themselves to him as companions in so holy a service; to whom he, dying after twenty-two years, committed the whole care of the hospice.
[21] To these the administration of the domestic affairs then pertained. as holily at first, so iniquitously afterward administered, They were indeed laymen, but having professed voluntary poverty, called "brothers" among themselves, one of whom, by the name of rector, presided over the rest, all however subject to the provost of the canonry of the Twelve Apostles, as is clear from what was said above, no. 13. At first they had no fixed revenues, but fed themselves and the poor committed to them with alms sought door to door through the city and the neighboring fields. But their holy Founder had not long been dead, when so many gifts were freely brought to his sepulcher that they abundantly sufficed for supporting the hospice, to which they had been assigned by the city magistrate; and not only those loose and fortuitous gifts offered day by day, but also ones established in perpetuity, as you may see in the aforesaid author, chapter 18, page 104, where he mentions many of this kind. Thus this house flourished, as long as the canons who always watched over it survived: but when these failed, it too began soon to be brought to ruin through harsh rectors and ministers, who, neglecting the flock of the poor, fed only themselves: until the noble family of the Anguissola, pitying the cries of the oppressed poor, undertook its protection, with the bishop assenting, about the year 1387, and, the gluttons having been driven out, substituted other ministers, who under various guardians of the same family, according to the laws prescribed to them (concerning which consult, if you please, page 167 in the same place), flourished for a hundred years and more.
[22] I said, "about the year 1387," not "1487," at last it wholly perished. as is read in Campi, page 109; because the fault is manifest in the number, and it does not seem it can be otherwise restored; since he asserts that the supreme administration of the hospice lasted in that family about a hundred years; but that it was taken away
from it on account of discords in the year 1495: and indeed from the same author's Placentine Annals, tome 3, page 215, it is also certain that before the year 1433 this hospice was in the power of the Anguissola family. Furthermore, deprived of so illustrious a protection and care, it gradually went again into worse condition, until, by the authority of Pope Sixtus V, in the year 1586, all its revenues and fruits—which, namely, the ministers again alone were then devouring—were transferred to the great infirmary of the city, together with the price of the place itself, which the nuns of St. Raymund bought for themselves, that, in place of the old and ruinous building, which they demolished, they might build there some houses to be let to citizens, which they did in the year 1605; so that accordingly not even a trace of that most famous hospice now remains.
§ III. His Latin Acts, and their Italian version; a twofold appendix of miracles; the letter of the Italian interpreter.
His Acts written in Latin by the contemporary Rufinus, The Acts of St. Raymund, in the twelfth year from his death, in the year of Christ 1212, were written by a certain canon of the church of which we have already treated, of the Twelve Apostles, named Rufinus, who calls himself "magister," perhaps, as Campi conjectures chapter 16, because he had attained the laurel of a doctorate either in theology or in jurisprudence. Rufinus wrote them, I say, and indeed in the Latin tongue; but on what occasion, with what aids, with how great fidelity, there is no need to note here; since he himself does this clearly on his own behalf in the preface and dedication of this lucubration of his. Of this lucubration we know that up to now that was the only copy which was most diligently preserved among the nuns of St. Raymund at Placentia, until the year of Christ 1525, when they granted it to a religious interpreter to be translated into Italian, thinking that they were being splendidly treated, if in place of the Latin and obsolete little book, which they did not understand, they should obtain a new Italian one, which they could read. A lamentable exchange, indeed; but yet to be pardoned to the simplicity of those women, who could not estimate the value of their treasure!
[24] long preserved among the Dominican Fathers at Placentia, I indeed, when I had come upon the Italian copy of that interpreter and the added notes, bore it the more grievously, the less I could understand from them who that translator had at last been, of what convent, of what order; whence at least some way might be opened for inquiring after this treasure: when, behold, while I was perusing another Italian Life of St. Raymund, prepared by Peter Maria Campi and printed at Placentia in the year 1618, I found these things noted toward the end of the work concerning the aforesaid interpreter and Rufinus's Latin autograph at once: "This was some Father distinguished by charity, of the Order and religion (as at least my opinion holds) of St. Dominic, who, having translated that pious Legend into the vernacular and Italian tongue, abundantly consoled the good nuns, and then retained with himself the copy of Sir Rufinus in his convent of St. John in Canali; where even today it can be seen." Scarcely had I read these things at the beginning of January 1728, when I at once dispatched a letter to Milan to our Father Peter Gallaratus, known to us; in which I asked him to have recourse to some Placentine friend (for I knew no one there) who would be willing to undertake the care of inquiring after and copying the specified autograph. He approached Father Antony Bellatus, likewise one of ours, a man most renowned not only for his services, but also for his published books. But when after some months I had received nothing beyond good hope from these, I pressed once, twice, a third time; until from the last letter of Father Gallaratus, given in the same year on the 26th of September, I learned that no hope remained.
[25] For thus he continues, after having set forth the most obliging and long diligence both of himself and of Father Bellatus in this matter: at last they perished: "Although Father Bellatus had obtained nothing from the Reverend Dominican Fathers, yet I did not despair; but I had a letter written, through the Count de Silva, a most learned man and joined to me by ties of friendship, to a noble man, and one flourishing in riches and authority; who, when he had most vehemently commended the matter to the Placentine, reported to me that the Dominican Fathers had again and more carefully searched the manuscript library through his efforts, to find the Life of B. Palmerius: and when all contention, all zeal turned out in vain, that those Fathers had written to Father Sanguinari, who, formerly dwelling in the Placentine convent, had long and much worn and turned over the books of the library and the manuscripts; and that from him they had received an answer, that indeed the Life of B. Palmerius had been kept there before, but (by what mischance he knew not) had perished, and with it other monuments. It is certain that the Reverend Dominican Fathers acted in this matter not feignedly, but sincerely: wherefore if Your Reverence adds anything in the notes, to declare the diligence in searching for the autograph, do not, I pray, brand any stain upon the name and fame of the Fathers, as if under the pretext of an unforeseen loss they had refused to bring forward what was among them." Far be it, indeed, that I should think, still less utter, any such thing! Nay, I rather give the greatest thanks I can for the labors undertaken both in our cause and in that of St. Raymund. I do not deny, however, that it is a consolation to us, if, when we omit something, we can at least openly profess that it is not through our own negligence.
[26] But, cast down from this hope, I turned myself to the Italian manuscript interpretation of the Rufinian Life: [There remains, however, the Italian manuscript interpretation of them, of the year 1525,] for the praised nuns of St. Raymund, as they esteemed it more than the Latin autograph, so they still keep it more carefully. Thence, moreover, we received a copy of it, faithfully translated from the original in the year 1673 by the care of our Father Camillus Hectoreus, then professing rhetoric at Placentia, and most kindly sent to us by the Reverend Father Alexander Fiaschi, then rector of our college there. The style is barbarous and very far from the modern elegance of the Italians; simple, however, and nowhere affected: the chapters generally very short, as will appear from their numbers noted in the margin. Prefixed to them was the prologue, or dedication, of Rufinus: an epilogue of the same also closes the little work. All which, together with the letter of the interpreter himself, prefixed to all these, manifestly prove that this religious and pious man took pains to render Rufinus's Latin Life into Italian faithfully rather than ornately. The same is intimated by a clause, whether placed by the same interpreter concerning himself, or by another hand concerning him, certainly set in the same autograph of his old version after the epilogue of Rufinus, which in Latin sounds thus: "Recently found (the Life, namely, of which the epilogue had made mention) in the monastery of the nuns of the Cistercian Order of St. Bernard, who are called by the surname of St. Raymund, and translated into the vernacular tongue by some learned religious to the praise of God and of B. Raymund, for the spiritual profit of the said nuns, and for the example of the whole city, 1525, on the 1st of September."
[27] Since, therefore, we cannot give the words of Rufinus, yet we trust that we shall give his sense, [which we shall here give faithfully rendered into Latin, rather than the Campian Life;] by most faithfully translating this Italian interpretation back into the Latin language. Which, I believe, both those who know Italian and those who do not will take in good part: the latter, indeed, because the Acts of this Saint have never before been published in Latin; but the former, because, comparing these of ours with the Life of the same Saint composed by Peter Maria Campi from this same Italian manuscript of ours, and published at Placentia in 1618, they will be able to observe without any trouble how freely he here and there wandered from the meaning and brevity of his prototype. Which, however, I would not turn to a fault in a most pious and most learned man, as if he had foisted false things upon our interpreter, and indeed upon Rufinus himself (for we have not detected this done anywhere in the substance of the matter); but that, while he desires to allure and delight, or to move the pious reader, he inserted very many circumstances of his own, either true and proved from elsewhere, or at least likely to be true. This praise, moreover, that author deserves, that he first, and, so far as we yet know, alone, published the Life of St. Raymund; then that by tireless labor he drew forth from the ancient monuments of the Placentines, in which he was most versed, very many things, by which he illustrated not a little either the Life of the Saint or his cult and glory, as may be gathered from what has been said before.
[28] together with a twofold appendix of miracles, To the Acts of St. Raymund we shall add a twofold appendix, both sent here from the same archive together with the Italian version of the Acts; in Latin, however. The first of these, which, because it is longer, we have divided into two chapters, comprises fifteen miracles, first legitimately proved at various times and places and consigned to authentic records up to the year of Christ 1217: then in the year 1247 all collected and copied out at once by order of B. Albertus, bishop of Placentia, perhaps that they might be offered to the Roman Pontiff to obtain the canonization. That the same were copied out again by Philip, the successor of B. Albertus, in the year 1286, we have said above from Campi; but we have not seen the document of Philip: this was omitted, namely, by Father Hectoreus, because there was nothing new in it, besides the names of the other bishop and of the notaries. That this appendix is to be esteemed more highly than Rufinus himself in the miracles which he narrates, no one will fail to see: since it both contains the sources from which Rufinus drew his own; and suggests some things which either he himself was ignorant of, or at least passed over; such as the first four prodigies, drawn from the archive of the church of Cremona in chapter 1 up to no. 4, and again that which is read in the same place, no. 9; and those which in chapter 2 are proved at no. 13 and 17; all which, however, had happened and were juridically established before Rufinus set about writing.
[29] The second appendix contains many more miracles; but so briefly noted, the letter of the interpreter of the Life being prefixed to all these. that they may seem to be the mere titles of some larger history. That he had once seen this same writing in the archive whence we received it, Campi shows chapter 16, page 90; where he affirms it to be ancient; but how ancient, neither does he say, nor is it clear to us. But now let us hasten to the Acts, which after our manner we have reduced to fewer chapters, prefixing however the titles of the ancient chapters; the indices of which we have noted in the margin with Roman numerals in their place. Since the Italian interpreter prefixed his own dedicatory letter at the front of the Acts translated by him, it is well to exhibit that too here, rendered from Italian into Latin. It runs thus:
[30] To the reverend mother lady Paula, abbess of Incarate, The interpreter, imitating St. Jerome, to his spiritual daughters as also to the venerable and magnificent matron, lady Oliva Salvatica, greeting. The most wise father St. Jerome so greatly loved his most chaste spiritual daughters—the Roman matrons, I mean, Paula and Eustochium—that, when he had noticed their most ardent desire, by which they wished to understand certain books of the sacred Scriptures composed in Hebrew, it by no means irked him to translate those same books into the Latin tongue; that his daughters might be delighted by the meditation of them, and in spirit
might profit, and be turned farther away from the vanities and false desires of the world. I reckon myself to be among you as another Jerome; nor can any labor seem difficult to me by which I may be able to bring you spiritual consolation and a fitting delight of mind in accordance with the divine law.
[31] When, therefore, some days ago I was present before your Reverences in the choir of your most famous convent, he translates the Latin Life of St. Raymund into Italian, and was visiting the relics of blessed Raymund, you brought me his Legend, written in an obscure and very faulty style of old: then you bade me sit familiarly in the choir, and said: Father, tell us something of this sacred Legend: for we do not understand it in Latin. I, as I had perceived your desire, then said a few things; but I silently determined within myself to translate it wholly into the vernacular tongue and give it to you: that you might understand with what and how great affection I attend you, founded not indeed in shadow or vanity, but in true religion. It will be permitted you, I think, now truly to say that you are first of all with me: for I have not endowed any other women with a gift of this kind. Yet see to it, I beseech you, that your daughter, and my sister, Paula Robata, together with her most pious sister, whose spiritual care and direction rests upon my shoulders, also become a partaker of it.
[32] I do not wish, moreover, to exhort you that you also share it with our most respected daughters in the convent of St. Bartholomew, commending that they share it with others; and by name with the venerable mother sister Thadaea, and with our pious and prudent sister Cornelia: for you will do, I know for certain, even more of your own accord than I would enjoin; so surely does the kindness innate in you persuade me. Furthermore, although I have undertaken this honorable business chiefly for your sake, yet a very great incitement to it was also for me the happy memory of the most respected mother, lady Polyxena, lately abbess of your convent; to whose most deserved praises, of prudence, of religion, I feel myself unequal even in the mentioning: for you yourselves are witnesses with how great industry and modesty she governed in her days; with how great diligence she not only sustained but even increased the esteem and splendor of your name; with what precepts, with how illustrious examples she educated you no otherwise than as daughters; with how great affection of piety and veneration she attended the sacred remains of blessed Raymund; with what virtue, finally, she applied herself to preserving and enlarging the resources of the convent.
[33] Come, then; and for the greater devotion toward your Blessed one; for the indelible memory of that mother of yours whom I mentioned; for the sharpening in spirit of the zeal of your nuns; and finally as a token of my singular affection toward you, receive this gift of ours; since it is unworthy that these Acts were unknown until the year 1525. for which I ask nothing to be repaid, except the grace of the Lord, and the suffrages of B. Raymund. This indeed I greatly grieve, that in our city the life and the history of the life of so great a Father is unknown, so pious especially and tender as you yourselves will now see. It is no light crime of ungrateful citizens against a Man conspicuous for such illustrious sanctity, when among them not one is found who has learned the Acts of the blessed Father by word or writing. But let these things be committed to your prudence: for me it is enough to have fulfilled your desires. Farewell. At Placentia, 1525, on the first day of September.
THE LIFE
Written in Latin by Rufinus; translated into Italian by an anonymous author; and now again faithfully restored to Latinity, from the Italian manuscript of the archive of the nuns of St. Raymund at Placentia.
Raymund Palmarius, confessor, at Placentia in Italy (St.)
BHL Number: 0000
BY RUFINUS, FROM THE ITALIAN MANUSCRIPT
THE ANCIENT DIVISION OF THE LIFE.
The author's preface to the poor of the hospice of Raymund Palmarius.
The Life and miracles of B. Raymund Palmarius.
Chapter I. On the homeland, origin, condition, and first exercises of B. Raymund.
Chapter II. How B. Raymund, his father being dead, resolved to go to Jerusalem with his widowed mother, and by visiting all the holy places to satisfy his desire.
Chapter III. How B. Raymund began to fall sick in the ship, and how the sailors wished to cast him, now near to death, into the sea; and by what means he was delivered.
Chapter IV. How his mother, after they had already disembarked from the ship, departed from this life, the pilgrimage not yet finished.
Chapter V. How B. Raymund departed from the place where his mother had been buried, and came to Placentia; and whence he was called Palmarius.
Chapter VI. How B. Raymund, at the exhortation of his kinsmen, took a wife, and returned to his first craft; and how he practiced it.
Chapter VII. On the manners, dress, and conversation of B. Raymund after entering marriage; and how several children were born to him; and how these all died in a single year.
Chapter VIII. How B. Raymund exhorts his wife to continence, and by divine providence then received one more son; and how he offered him to the holy Crucifix at Placentia, at St. Bridget's.
Chapter IX. How B. Raymund again deliberates about leading a chaste life; and how God permitted his wife to fall into an incurable sickness, and from it to die.
Chapter X. How B. Raymund, his wife being dead, committed his little son to the care of his father-in-law and mother-in-law; and told them that he desired to return to his pilgrimage; then how they tried to retain him in his homeland.
Chapter XI. How B. Raymund visited the bodies of the most famous Saints in the western parts, and then, admonished by a divine revelation at Rome, that he should return to Placentia, to undertake the care of the poor, to reconcile peace among those at variance, and to exercise himself in the works of mercy.
Chapter XII. How B. Raymund returns from Rome to Placentia, clothed in the habit shown him by the Savior, and opens his purpose to the bishop; by what reasoning it was approved: how also he visited his father-in-law and mother-in-law.
Chapter XIII. How B. Raymund chose his dwelling near the canonry of the Twelve Apostles; and how he set about his office of providing for the poor, and how in it several devout persons assisted him.
Chapter XIV. How B. Raymund separated the men dwelling with him from the women, and placed these in another location.
Chapter XV. How B. Raymund defended the cause of the poor against the magnates; nor feared to reprove judges and governors, and other princes.
Chapter XVI. How B. Raymund reconciled those at variance, rebuked the factious, entered as a mediator between two hostile battle-lines, and invited them to peace; and was cast into prison by the Cremonese.
Chapter XVII. How B. Raymund hindered the festive contests of lancing horsemen and other games, in which quarrels, wounds, and slayings of men were wont to happen.
Chapter XVIII. How B. Raymund visited those held in prisons, and especially those condemned to the ultimate penalty; and, when he knew of their amendment, obtained pardon for them; how many of these became religious in the canonry of the Twelve Apostles.
Chapter XIX. How the Lord God set an end to the labors of His Servant, and granted him a happy passing. Likewise how his son gave his name to religion in the canonry of the Twelve Apostles.
Chapter XX. How the whole city flowed together to gaze upon and venerate his holy body; and how it was buried in the canonry of the Twelve Apostles; and after the funeral his son took the religious habit in the said canonry.
Chapter XXI. How after the burial of B. Raymund the Christian faithful, natives and foreigners, began to visit the holy sepulcher: and it began to work miracles; and so great were the offerings that they sufficed to feed all the poor of the hospice: and how the rectors of the city decreed that that hospice should be called the Hospital of B. Raymund, to his eternal memory.
Chapter XXII. A narration of some singular miracles to confirm the sanctity of B. Raymund.
The conclusion of the whole work.
The author's preface, and the dedication of the work.
To the humble servants of Jesus Christ, the poor of the hospice of our most blessed father Raymund Palmarius, I Rufinus, least of masters in the canonry of the Twelve Apostles, greeting.
My most beloved sons in the precious blood of the only-begotten Son of the most pure Virgin, Rufinus, at the desire of the intimates of St. Raymund, I cannot sufficiently praise your desire and your most ardent prayers, by which you have long since roused me, and almost compelled me, to collect and set down in writing the beginning and course of the life of Raymund, your most holy father and mine, his happy and most commendable end, his admirable virtues, his stupendous miracles; and this the more, both because my own eyes have contemplated how glorious the most merciful Lord God was in this blessed Father of ours; and because many of you, most dear sons, as his intimate familiars, c have most clearly proved to me the piety, the unspeakable toils, the rough journeys, which our most pious Father endured day and night to succor the poor and sick of his most devoted hospice.
[2] and at last complying with the prayers of his very son, But although all these incitements should have broken through my lukewarmness and slowness; yet since I reckoned myself unworthy of a work of this kind, and reasoned thus within myself concerning it: By what means will it be able to be worthy of the praise of so holy a Father, when my manner of composing is so inept, and especially since I am a sinner?—I abstained up to this time; nor would I have dared to begin even now, had not most urgent goads and effective arguments compelled me to it, which our beloved brother and spiritual son, brother Gerandus, d subdeacon in our canonry, and the only son left by our blessed father Raymund, brought before me. Whence I would have you know, most beloved sons, that when I once lay sick, seized by a sharp fever, the aforesaid son of our father Raymund came into our narrow chamber with a mind altogether anxious; then, as if he distrusted our sickness, cast himself down with tears before our little bed; and began to say:
[3] he resolves to write the Life of the Saint, if he recovers from the fever. Alas for me! Dear master, if it should now happen that you die, who would ever leave a testimony in writing of the happy and holy life of my beloved Father; who was, as is very well known to you, to this whole city of ours, Placentia, a most bright mirror of every virtue, an untiring refuge for the poor of the hospice, and a most diligent provider for those who were to come after him, and finally an example of all goodness, and especially of patience, humility, perseverance? I beseech you, my dear master; do not defer the matter further. Consider, that perhaps divine justice has afflicted you with this disease for this reason, that you may acknowledge your negligence. Do not reject my admonition, proceeding from filial love; nay, by that love of yours so ardent toward God, toward my blessed Father, toward me, his unworthy son, I adjure you to resolve seriously to set your hand to the holy work, as soon as you shall have been freed from this sickness: and I trust that the most abundant merits of my holy Father will be a help to you.
[4] [and how, soon restored to health, he carries it out without delay, with the greatest fidelity.] Overcome indeed by so just an entreaty, I lifted my mind to the Lord, and to blessed father Raymund, resolving within myself that, if the burning fever should release me, I would without any delay commit the sacred business to execution. And thus, restored to health after three days, I confirmed my resolve. Receive, therefore, this writing of ours, in which I have set myself this, to proclaim, and to make known to all, the blessed father Raymund. But lest I could be charged with rashness, as if concerning a simple, candid, and unlettered man, such as blessed Raymund was, I had dared to write things almost incredible, I have been unwilling to touch anything at all except those things of which I am partly myself a living witness, partly you were, partly others, and indeed sworn with hand laid upon the sacred Gospels. Let us begin, then, in the name of the Lord, and divide whatever we describe by proper chapters. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
St. Raymund's homeland, parents, condition; his father's death; his pilgrimage with his widowed mother to the Holy Land, and his return.
Blessed Raymund, as regards his homeland, was a Placentine, born in the city of Placentia itself. a He had parents neither illustrious in origin, nor very base; The Saint's homeland, condition, constitution of body and mind. but private citizens, and these, if you consider their domestic estate, neither poor nor wealthy. The blessed Father was of middling stature, slender in body; agile, however, and quick in action, however lean and thin he was. He had a shrewd wit adorned with genuine prudence, tempered as it were with a marvelous candor, which one may call a dove-like simplicity. As he shrank from suspicions and cavils, so he knew neither cunning precautions, if he dealt with anyone, nor dissimulation, a man of good and sincere faith; concerning whom you might rightly pronounce that saying of the Gospel: Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile. His speech was rare, but weighty; his affection and love most kindly; his compassion toward the afflicted and the poor was great, upon whom he dilated, as will be told in the course of the narrative, the bowels of his mercy as much as he could.
[6] His mother educated and governed the infant at her home; but when he had grown to the age of about twelve years, At twelve he is set to a craft: he was placed by his father with a certain craftsman, not that he might give his effort to letters or learning; but that he might practice his servile and ignoble art, and in it learn to conduct trade. What this craft was, could not be ascertained by certain evidence: there are those who would have it to have been that of a cobbler, led by opinion, not knowledge. This, however, is true, that, whatever that art at last was, it displeased the excellent young lad not a little; as one who was born for greater and more useful things, as will appear below: the boy meanwhile, and placed under his father's power, had to endure it; that thus he might obey the command of the Lord, enjoining by the divine law honor toward parents and obedience.
II.
[7] B. Raymund had now reached the years of puberty, or adolescence, which takes its beginning from the fourteenth year of age, [his father being dead, he thinks of Jerusalem, if only his mother should consent:] when his father passed from this brief life to the heavenly country. Then indeed the holy young lad, considering himself to be free, resolved to bid farewell to that obscure craft, not that he might pursue idleness, or prostitute himself to vices, as the crowd of youths is wont; but that he might cleave more closely to his Savior, through a life consecrated with his whole heart to the divine service. Nay more, that he might be wholly inflamed with the love of the blessed Jesus Christ, he determined to make a pilgrimage to His holy Sepulcher, and to visit the sacred places, both those which are at Jerusalem and those which lie round about. Yet he was unwilling to set out before his widowed mother had consented, and had prayed well for him. Having found her, therefore, one day, and having entered the chamber with her alone, he approaches her in this manner: My dear and most loving mother, I give infinite thanks to my Creator, who has put this mind into me, that I should leave tedious matters and profane arts to profane men, and, embracing the cross of the sweet Jesus, my Savior and yours, depart from my homeland; and, having bidden farewell to all friends and kinsmen, visit the Sepulcher of the Lord as a pilgrim. My care for you alone, dearest parent, troubles me, because you are alone and a widow, and have no other consolation or refuge besides me, your only son. But weigh this, I pray you, which is said in the holy Gospel: He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of my grace. Do not, therefore, mother, I beseech you, be the cause why I should lose the grace of my Savior; but dismiss me with your kind leave and blessing.
[8] but she resolves even to accompany him. Hearing these things, the most pious mother, bathed in most abundant tears, embraces her Son, and breaks forth into these words: O my dear and only light: O staff of a wretched and widowed mother! Far be it that you should torment yourself on my account: for you never said to me a thing more welcome, especially at this time: for I too, when I now saw myself freed from the bond of marriage, and to have no other son but you, long since grown up and no longer a boy; but that I am mature in age, had altogether resolved to spend all the rest of my life wholly in divine services and in visiting sacred places: and I begged so much grace to be granted me by my Creator, that I might imitate that most holy widow Anna, who did not depart from the temple of God at Jerusalem even by night. Be therefore of good cheer, my Son; we will go together to the most holy Sepulcher, from which b death alone will be able to tear me.
[9] Marked, therefore, by the bishop with a red cross, both depart. Who here could attain by thought the joys either of the mother or of the young Son, when they recognized their mutually conspiring zeals for so pious a purpose? Each gave as many thanks as he could to the Lord God, who had drawn them away from worldly love and affection, and inflamed them with a spiritual desire. Then, about to fulfill their vows, they arrange the things necessary for the pilgrimage; and after having dutifully saluted friends and kinsmen, approaching the most reverend bishop of the city of Placentia, c they addressed him thus: Most reverend father and pastor, we have determined to go hence on pilgrimage to the holy Sepulcher; with our hands therefore composed in the form of a cross, we ask that which pilgrims of this kind are wont to ask. When the holy prelate understood the fair request of the mother and the Son, he placed a red cross on their breast; and, Behold, he said, the sign which will protect you from every peril. May the most merciful Savior lead you forth and bring you back unharmed. But while you pray, remember your homeland. d
[10] All things being arranged, they depart not without many tears of kinsmen, At Jerusalem they piously venerate the sepulcher of the Lord: neighbors, and friends: and, having passed partly by land, partly by sea, with great labor and frequent perils, they at last reached the longed-for harbor. While they gaze on the most holy city of Jerusalem, both weeping abundantly from a most tender sense of piety, they contemplate in mind the obstinate cruelty of the perfidious Jews, who were so far blinded that they put to death the Author of life. They also recall the immense charity of the eternal Father, who, to redeem sinful servants, had permitted His own Son and the Son of the most pure Virgin to be led to the cross. When they came to the sacred Sepulcher, and beheld the place of the most holy cross, with sobs bursting their breasts, with sighs, and most copious tears, they besought most fervently to about this effect: Forgive us, O Lord, who for our crimes didst die and wast buried in this place. We beseech Thee, sweet Savior; receive our souls in peace, and permit us not to be detained longer in this valley of miseries: for this whole world is smoke to us, nor will anything of it be able any longer to delight our senses, after we have perceived with our eyes and mind that sweet and spiritual consolation with which the glorious place of Thy death, burial, and divine resurrection has affected us.
[11] After they had thus visited as suppliants the shrines of Jerusalem, [thence, having visited Bethlehem, the valley of Josaphat, Bethany, they prepare their return.] and had kissed them a thousand times and oftener, they proceeded to the town of Bethlehem, to venerate the palace of the Son of the most chaste Virgin, the sacred crib, I mean; e at the sight of which so religious and adorned a place they languished, carried away by an inner sweetness of spirit, and, holding for nothing all the sumptuous places that are displayed throughout the world, they were wholly engaged in meditating on the goodness of the Lord of all, who had not deemed it unworthy to lower Himself to such abjection. Thence they went to the most holy and most precious tomb of the glorious Virgin, placed in the valley of Josaphat; f and further from there into Bethany, to the house of the beloved Magdalene, whom they reckoned most fortunate in this, that, sitting at the feet of her sweet Master, she had heard His divine and most wise words. Meanwhile, not a few days having passed, when they had now gone around all the sacred places, they thought of returning to their homeland; that they might share whatever marvelous things they had seen with pious and religious men, and kindle with divine love the cold hearts both of secular men and of women. And so, after having again visited the shrines and sprinkled them with warm tears, they return to the sea, that they may seek Italy again by ship, and at last revisit their native soil.
III.
[12] B. Raymund had indeed suffered very many things in such long pilgrimages, from the discomfort of food and drink, from prolonged vigils, from the labor and weariness of the journey, and finally from heat and cold; to these, in the very ship in which he was returning to his homeland, two other miseries were added, which at last brought upon him a grave sickness: and the first came from the bilge, As they sail back, St. Raymund falls into a mortal fever; which exhaled so intolerable and putrid a stench that it infected all the surrounding air; the other was brought on by the rains, a huge quantity of which the most patient Father, placed in the ship, and protected by nothing, received. These evils, joined to the former, and also the divine providence, which willed the tested patience of Its Servant, brought upon him a burning and continual fever, and in a few days so great a weakness that nothing remained to him but his last breath.
[13] [and he would have been cast into the sea as ballast, had not his mother resisted,] The sailors, when they saw him now nearly dead, resolved to cast him into the sea, lest he should expire within the ship: for they superstitiously believe
that, if anyone dies in a ship, the voyage will not be free from peril, lest both all be drowned, and the ship itself be driven into the deep. Having therefore taken counsel, they were now about to set upon so cruel a deed, when the poor, widowed, pilgrim mother, noticing it, cast and spread herself upon the body of her Son, and, not without most bitter tears, began to cry out thus: Do not, cruel men, deprive a poor little widow of her only light; do not take from me the pillar of my life; do not tear the bowels from me, from my womb. Either leave me my Son, or hurl me down together with him into the deepest waves. But if it pleases you to lighten the ship, begin with me, who burden it with so many tears. Do you not see that my eyes have been turned into a fountain of most bitter tears? Trust, sons, in the sweetest Jesus, for whose love both I and my Son have endured such grave things, and pour out prayers with me with sure confidence: for I hope that we shall be heard by the divine goodness.
[14] until, suddenly recovering, he escaped this peril. The sailors, bent to compassion by so many tears and by words so sweet, and prostrate, pray in this manner: Thou, O Lord, art the protector of poor pilgrims, the consoler of widows, the harbor of sailors, the health of the sick; Thee, O Lord, we beseech, that Thou receive our vows, and restore Thy servant Raymund to health; lest we resolve anything so cruel against the wretched mother. Scarcely had they finished their prayer, when the good Father began to speak, and, weeping, to say: The Lord God has chastised me with this disease, and has given death no power over me. Hearing which words, the mother and the sailors praise the Lord together, saying: Blessed be Thy name; blessed be our Savior, who does not forsake those who invoke Thee with sincere faith. And so the good Father, after not many days, completely recovered.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The mother's death; the Saint's marriage, his zeal for Christian doctrine; the death of his five sons; his love of continence; the receiving and offering of his last little son; the death of his wife.
IV.
The difficult and perilous voyage being finished, and a landing having been made in Italy, they had not yet reached Placentia, The voyage finished, before they had reached Placentia, when the wretched parent, tossed by so many cares, wearied by so many labors, fell into a sickness. But when she now felt herself to be little distant from the end of her toilsome life, addressing her Son, she said: Dear Raymund, my sweetest son, I see that that time is now close at hand, in which my Creator invites me hence to rest, and to the longed-for reward of the labors which I have borne: I pray you, therefore, that you receive it not with a sad mind: for you know that to live was for me Jesus alone the blessed; but to die will be an eternal gain. I do not forsake you, Son; but I go, that I may prepare a blessed place for you.
[16] The excellent Raymund lowered his eyes, and, hiding his tears, restrained his weeping, both that he might not sadden the happy passing of his beloved mother, the mother falls sick; dies, and is buried by her Son; and that he might not offend the divine kindness; which indeed he was not ignorant cooperates in all things unto good for its beloved ones. He answered, then, to this effect: Sweetest mother, the Lord God has shown Himself our companion in every pilgrimage: we have fulfilled our pious vows: now, if it pleases His majesty to separate us, what else is to be said, but that His most just will be done? Yet I beseech you, holy parent, when you come to your Savior and mine, that you signify to Him in my words that I am now held by a weariness of this life. Nay, to live without you, dear mother, is to me an intolerable torment. Plead therefore with the Lord, that He soon gather my spirit in peace. Thereupon the mother, having received the Sacraments of the Church, within a few days ceased to live. The pious Son closed the eyes of his beloved parent, and then most religiously performed the funeral rites amid many tears. a
[17] His dear mother buried, the excellent Raymund, considering that he alone now survived, Raymund therefore returns home alone; and whence he was called Palmarius. turned his mind to the Lord God; and weeping, Alas, he said, wretched me; for my father and my mother have forsaken me! But I hope in Thee, O Lord, that Thou wilt take me up. Be Thou, I beseech, O Lord, my father and my mother: for I have my hope placed in no other thing, except in Thee; and relying on it, I now revisit my homeland. Thus the good Raymund sets out on his journey, clad in the habit of pilgrims, and bearing the tokens which those returning from the holy Sepulcher are wont to use; namely a red cross on his breast, and in his hand a branch plucked from a palm, from which he also received the surname Palmarius. There are those who would have it that his family was called that of the Palmarii; but of this matter I have found no clear testimony. b Having at last entered Placentia, before he turned aside to his own house, he wished to visit the greater church, and to present himself with the aforesaid signs to the most reverend bishop. Then, having given thanks to the Creator for the benefit obtained, and having received the blessing from the bishop, he betook himself to his home, not without the company of kinsmen and friends and the services of singular goodwill.
VI.
[18] Some days having passed after his return to his homeland, his kinsmen began to suggest these things to Raymund: Marriage being entered, he resumes his craft, Brother Raymund, if you go on to live thus celibate and alone, you will labor much; since you have no one to care for your affairs. Let us therefore advise you to take a wife, and to consider that married people too can serve God; since marriage was instituted by Him. The good Raymund allowed himself to be persuaded of these things, the divine goodness permitting it also, that His Servant might experience what miseries those joined in marriage suffer in governing a wife, in feeding and instructing children, in administering domestic affairs. When he was married, understanding that his patrimony did not suffice for supporting a family, he returned to that former craft (of shoemakers, as is believed) which he had learned by his father's command: in which indeed he engaged most uprightly, without deceit, without avarice; only that he might feed himself, his wife, and his children, and might have wherewith to bestow alms on the poor.
[19] stealing what time he could, to acquire Christian doctrine; But since that art did not please him, as one that called away his mind from his spiritual purpose, in the spare hours which he could gain by pressing his work, and especially on feast-days (as he was stirred by zeal for knowing the divine law and the sacred Scriptures), he took pains to converse with religious men, conspicuous for uprightness and learning. By this he advanced so far that, even without letters, yet not without the gift of divine wisdom, he appeared most knowing in those things which pertained to God and the Catholic religion. Moreover, that he might turn profane men, and especially those who professed the same craft with him, away from wanton conversations and vain games, he himself on feast-days too chose for himself a certain workshop, where with great ardor of charity he might familiarly preach to his companions the true doctrine of the holy law of God, and teach them the manner of performing works according to the divine precepts, and above all of pursuing virtues and fleeing vices.
[20] Not long after, the fame of the excellent Raymund became so widespread which he then shares with others with great fruit. that on feast-days, as soon as they had learned in what house or workshop he was then engaged, very many ran together to it to receive his ardent words. Some even exhorted him to hold discourses in a public place, and indeed in the marketplace itself. But the humble Servant of God said he would not do this; declaring that this was the office of priests and learned men; but that to himself, who was not cultivated in letters, errors could creep in. He was therefore unwilling, knowing himself, to acquiesce in counsel of this kind. Yet by those domestic and humble exhortations of his among those whom he had as companions in the same craft, he effected so much that they resembled a certain religious order, and had recourse to the good Raymund no otherwise than to their father and spiritual leader.
VII.
[21] The Servant of God ordered his life and works according to the example of holy Tobias, By a most holy example he trains his household to virtue: most sparing in food, assiduous in almsgiving, unwearied in fasts, in prayer, in the divine Offices. He repeated the confession of his sins both often, and with a wholly contrite mind; as also the sacred communion, which was accompanied by showers of tears. But however much he lived in body on earth, yet he strove to dwell with his whole mind in the heavens. He used modest dress. He reproved and taught his wife as a daughter, loved her as a sister, revered her as a mother. From her he received several sons. c These, as each was washed in the sacred font, he was accustomed to offer to the Lord God, the author of all good things, and to say: These, O Lord, bear Thy image; Thou hast bestowed them on me; to Thee I here present them, as created by Thee: in Thy hands are their death and life.
[22] But the kindly Creator of all, since He knew that His Servant could not with his whole heart apply himself to the pursuits of the spiritual life, all his sons dying in one year, inasmuch as he was bound to servitude by the bond of marriage and the care of children, took pity on him, and willed to grant him some part of liberty: for He took all his little sons out of this life in a single year: which thing indeed at once afflicted the Parent; yet, by reason of his innate love, moderately; but soon, considering that the divine will so ordained, he acquiesced altogether, using with holy Job that saying: The Lord gave; the Lord has taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord. I shall certainly henceforth be more conveniently freed from profane cares.
VIII.
[23] The death of his sons had extinguished in blessed Raymund all the desires of this life. He exhorts his wife to mutual continence; but in vain: Desiring, therefore, to consecrate himself wholly to God, he began to exhort his wife to keep mutual continence between them thenceforth: for the time was now at hand in which both must at last transfer all their love to God, and no longer give effort to procreating children. But she, little devoted to heavenly things, quite impudently said: When I shall be a nun, then I will obey these admonitions of yours: now, since I have been taken by you in marriage, it is certain that I will act as a wife, not as a widow or a nun. The prudent Servant of God, seeing the imperfection and peril of his wife, was unwilling to press her more importunately; that they might henceforth live peaceably between themselves and without sin.
[24] So it came about by divine providence that he again begot another son. d The little son again received he offers to God for the religious life. This one the good Raymund, when he saw himself brought back to servitude, one day, his wife being then absent, took into his arms swaddled in bands as he lay in the cradle; and carried him to the church of St. Bridget at Placentia, where he himself was accustomed to attend the Mass and the divine Offices before the image of the Crucifix; e and, lifting the little one on high as much as he could, he prayed thus: My Lord and Savior, who, that Thou mayest receive all who flee to Thee, dost spread out Thy arms, I pray Thee that, just as Thou didst draw my five sons to Thee at a tender age, adopting them as coheirs of eternal blessedness; so also Thou wouldst deign to receive this little son of mine, given to me by Thee beyond what I had hoped. Grant, I beseech, my Savior, that he be not separated from his brothers. But if Thou shalt have decreed a longer life for him, keep him chaste and pure for the holy religious life, to which I both desire that he be at some time enrolled, and now offer and dedicate him. His prayers finished, he secretly carried the infant back into the cradle, and indicated nothing of what had been done to his wife.
IX.
[25] After the little son had been offered to the sweetest Savior, the desire of pursuing, as far as in him lay, perpetual continence was more deeply fixed in Raymund's breast: His wife dies. yet he was unwilling to impel his wife to it, because he doubted whether she would consent. But the Lord God, in His wisdom, opened another way to his purpose: for He permitted the woman to be so afflicted with an incurable disease that she was by no means fit for the conjugal act. And so the Servant of God, without any injury to his wife, without sin, was made master of his vow. This grave languor lasted many days and months, nor did it bring little trouble to Raymund himself; who nevertheless with assiduous compassion encouraged his wife, repeating these words: On my account, my sister, this evil has befallen you: I will bear it, and gladly. f At last it pleased the Lord God to transfer His Servant, taken out of servitude, to nobler and more useful pursuits, and at the same time to free his wife, now wholly exhausted by so long a sickness, from her torments. He granted, therefore, that she, with a rightly disposed mind and a perfect patience mastered, might depart from this life. Thus the good Raymund, now loosed from the marital yoke, confirmed his purpose of perpetual chastity and continence.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
All things left behind, he undertakes sacred journeys; until, bidden by Christ to return, he spends himself wholly on the works of mercy according to the manner prescribed by Him, in his homeland.
The Servant of God, when he saw himself unburdened of father, mother, wife, children (if you except this last little one), at once resolved to shake off also the pursuits of fleeting things, and all cares whatsoever. [He commits his little son to his parents-in-law; he himself resolves to make a pious pilgrimage,] And since he was not ignorant that the only thing that could be a delay to him was the upbringing of the little son, by divine instinct he approaches his parents-in-law, carrying the little one in his hands; and having set him down before them, he said: To you, dear and honorable father-in-law, and to you, my mother-in-law, I offer and commit this little son, born of me and your daughter. Take care, I beseech you, that he be rightly reared and educated, and imbued with good letters, and so at last become a religious, upright and useful; to which end I have offered him to the blessed Jesus Christ. All my goods I consign into your hands. Spend these for the benefit of my son and yours. It is fixed and settled for me to renounce the world, and to visit the chief shrines where the bodies of the Saints are honored, especially Rome, the church of St. James in Galicia, of St. Anthony, a and the other more famous places. I shall not return here again, nor will you see me henceforth. I will suffer myself to be detained nowhere for long; but I will go on to spend what remains of my life in continual pilgrimages. This one thing I ask to be granted me by my Savior, that it may fall to me to finish my course there where His most holy body, born of the most pure Virgin, was buried.
[27] When the parents-in-law had heard these things, both rushing into his embrace, the parents-in-law wishing in vain to retain him. not without tears they answered thus: Beloved son-in-law, that you bring the little son here, and commit him to our care, this indeed is most welcome to us: for since you have no one at home who can care for him, he will surely be reared and educated here more conveniently: but that you wish to abandon us, to abandon your homeland, that, like unhappy and desperate men, who have no rest anywhere, wandering hither and thither, you may pass your life in miseries, this indeed we will by no means endure: for it would be to us no less grievous than ignominious to you. Nay, come rather, and live together with us: leave the care of your son to us; do you attend solely to your duties of piety: you will do us a most pleasing thing. And why cannot you serve your Creator even in your homeland, so enriched with sacred relics? To these things B. Raymund indeed gave thanks from his heart; but he refused to comply with the counsel of remaining in his homeland, saying that he had for this reason been restored to liberty by the Lord God, that he should not remain; that this was inspired in him from on high; that, far absent, he would bring more benefit to their souls than present. Thus, after a few days, all things being arranged as if he were soon to die, he departed secretly from Placentia, lest anyone should meet him and be troublesome, well understanding that the counsels of kinsmen and worldly friends are not salutary to the soul.
XI.
[28] Having set out from Placentia, B. Raymund did not cease to go forward before he had reached St. James in Galicia, b He goes to Compostela, returns through Gaul and Italy, stops at Rome; living meanwhile on alms with great patience and lowliness of mind. Thence, having saluted the body of the most holy Apostle, returning into Italy, he turned aside to the relics of the most holy Magdalene, and the harsh place of her penance not far from Marseille. Then he traversed Provence, and visited the bodies of the three Marys, and of Saints Martha and Lazarus. c Then he hastened to St. Anthony's, and likewise to St. Bernard's. d Having next entered Italy, he venerated every pious place there, and especially the remains of holy Augustine among the people of Ticinum (Pavia). e In this manner he went on even to Rome; and there, when he had spent some days in visiting the sacred remains of the Princes of the Apostles and of the most holy Martyrs, Virgins, he resolved to visit Jerusalem again, and at last to await his last day of life in so holy a place. But behold, while he awaits the opportunity of crossing the sea, he received an admonition from our Savior; as we shall presently relate.
[29] [where he is warned by Christ not to go on to Jerusalem; but to return to his homeland,] B. Raymund was at Rome, and like a poor pilgrim was sleeping under a certain portico by the basilica of St. Peter, when the blessed Jesus Christ appeared to him, clothed in the appearance of a pilgrim, as once He accompanied His two disciples to Emmaus, and thus addressing him: My servant Raymund, so pleasing to me have your prayers been, that I have hearkened to your pious desires of pilgrimage up to this hour, and for that cause have freed you from the servitude of wife and children. The sacred places which pleased you most you have now visited all; nor does anything remain to your desires, except that you should return to my most holy Sepulcher. This counsel does not please me; because I wish you occupied in things more pleasing to me, and more useful to you, namely in the works of mercy. And do not think that I shall hold pilgrimages and exercises of that kind as chief at the time of judgment, when I shall say: Come, blessed of my Father; possess the kingdom of heaven: for I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you redeemed me. I do not wish, therefore, my son, that you henceforth wander through the world: but seek again your homeland, Placentia; where so many poor, so many forsaken widows, so many sick and those oppressed by various calamities implore my mercy, and there is none to help. You shall go, and I will be with you, and I will give grace, whereby you may be able to bring the rich to almsgiving, the discordant to peace, and the erring—and especially straying women—to a right rule of living.
[30] The faithful Servant of God answered with lowered voice: Lord, I am not equal to undertaking so great a matter, and there apply himself to mercy and peace,
a man indeed rude, without letters, without industry in acting, full of sins. Do not, I beseech Thee, O Lord, send me to those citizens of mine: for Thou seest how hostilely they are divided among themselves, how discordant. They will not hear me; I shall labor in vain: I know their manners. Then, didst Thou not Thyself assert, O Lord, that a man is not accepted in his own homeland? To whom the Savior said: There is no reason, Raymund, why you should distrust: for the hearts of men are in my hand; wherever I will, I will incline them. I will add such power, spirit, and grace to your words, such prudence to your governing, that no one will be able to contradict you.
[31] You shall therefore return to Placentia, and shall begin your pious office with these insignia: be clothed in a garment of an ethereal (sky-blue) color, in the habit of body, and the manner here assigned him. hanging down even to the middle of the shins, with loose sleeves, without a hood. Carry always my cross placed upon your shoulder, and in its name and power perform all works of piety. Let a pious place be established by you for the needy and for pilgrims: and this, distinguished by your name, shall stand firm to the perpetual memory of its founder. Rise, act; do not distrust: leave Rome, where you waste time and effort, and set out for your homeland. I will bring it about that you be received as my servant and messenger. Yet before you enter your city, you shall clothe yourself in the manner already stated, and, my cross being lifted onto your shoulder, you shall present yourself to the bishop, to whom you shall indicate the office which you resolve to exercise in my name. I meanwhile will show him favorable to you. After B. Raymund knew that this was the mind of his Savior, he only subjoined these words: Thou art my Lord; and I Thy servant: Thy will be done. Thus the heavenly vision vanished.
XII.
[32] B. Raymund, setting out on his journey from Rome toward Placentia, when he came to the village of Taro, g put on the garment Thus he is kindly received by the bishop of Placentia; which he had been ordered to wear; then he made himself a wooden cross, two cubits long, and of proportionate breadth. His head he covered only with the cap customary for travelers; on his shoulder he placed both the holy cross and a huge sack, in which he might store the alms destined for the poor. Thus at last entering Placentia, he astonished all who beheld him by so unusual an appearance, a great number of whom followed him even to the cathedral church. He meanwhile addresses no one, answers no one; but keeping his voice and eyes modestly lowered, he came to the bishop; h whose blessing having been sought, Most reverend father, he said, when I had it in mind not to return again to my homeland, my Savior exhorted me to return; and, with your favor, to spend myself wholly on gathering alms for the needy in the name of Him and of the most holy cross, on collecting poor pilgrims, on reconciling the discordant. But none of these things shall I be able to do without your goodwill: I therefore adjure you, most reverend father, by the command and words of my Savior, that in a work so holy, to which I profess myself altogether unequal, you extend helping hands.
[33] The most reverend prelate received the Servant of God with the greatest joy, and having saluted his parents-in-law in passing, and, Blessed, he said, be our Savior always, who destined you hither! I will help you, and by whatever means I can I will protect you. Thus departing from the bishop, he was unwilling to go to his own house, as if he were still its master; since he had already before, that he might provide for his little son, transferred all his goods to his parents-in-law. Many offered him lodging; but he chose to turn aside to none of them. Yet, revisiting his parents-in-law, he salutes them thus: Poor I departed; poor, not by my own will, but by that of my Savior, I return; I wish to lead a poor life, and to serve the poor. Then he opens to them the whole reasoning of his purpose. But they, lest they should oppose the divine will, did not dare to advise the contrary.
XIII.
[34] But since he judged that, for rightly discharging his office, he needed some pious and capacious place, it seemed best to choose a dwelling near the canonry of the Twelve Apostles; i He undertakes the care of the poor, a hospice being founded; which was granted him by the canons themselves, most spacious indeed, and most suitable both for storing alms, and for receiving into hospitality the poor of both sexes, whether they were pilgrims or sick. This, then, being obtained, the good Raymund began to seek out through the city the needy, whom either honorable shame or disease did not allow to beg; and having gained due knowledge of certain ones, to collect alms for them openly throughout the whole city, and, bearing the cross on his shoulder, to cry out with earnest voice: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy: woe to you, avaricious rich, because the supreme sentence shall be pronounced against you! By which words both the good and liberal were kindled, and the avaricious and hard were terrified; and so he obtained abundant alms from both. Yet he did not accept any but voluntary ones; because he wished them to gain merit from their givings. These, moreover, carried home, he distributed with the utmost fairness among the poor, the sick, and the bashful, reserving the smallest part for himself.
[35] wonderfully moving the rich to mercy: A great crowd of beggars too flowed together to him, demanding some part of the collected alms; to whom the good Servant of God said: Go, and, as you are wont, ask openly yourselves: for you are neither sick, nor do you know how to blush. They cry back: We do indeed beg; but we obtain nothing. When B. Raymund heard this, he burned with charity, and roused himself against the hardness of the wealthy, and, snatching the holy cross onto his shoulder, and bidding the wretched follow him, going through the crossroads, he kept crying: Help, help, O cruel and hard Christians; for I am dying of hunger, while you meanwhile abound. Struck by this cry, the citizens, and especially the women, some at the windows, some, the door being unbolted, rush forth into the street, and, Come, they say, Raymund, come and eat, do not torment yourself so greatly. But he, going forward, said: This is not one mouth I have, which indeed I would not unwillingly suffer to be afflicted with hunger; but there are as many mouths as you see here, perishing of hunger. By this most holy cross, therefore, I adjure you, have mercy on the poor of Jesus Christ. Saying this, he lifted the blessed cross into the air. When so great a charity of the Servant of God was beheld, all, stirred to piety, kindly succored the wretched flock of beggars. And the esteem of blessed Raymund grew so much in a short time, that all the afflicted, the sick, the poor both hidden and public, held him in place of a father and guardian. Nay, several pious men, leaving their houses, migrated to him, that in an office so holy they too might contribute their labor, both in collecting alms, and in ministering to the sick, and especially to the pilgrim guests received there.
XIV.
[36] Moreover, when B. Raymund had observed that not only was mercy to be exercised, [He separates the women from the company of the men; not turning away even the unchaste,] but that the lodgings of men and women were moreover to be so arranged that no occasion might seem given either for disturbances, or for sin and infamy; he resolved to separate the former from the latter in habitation; which he also did, assigning to the women a peculiar lodging, more adorned indeed, but even more enclosed; yet near to the canonry of the Twelve Apostles. Hither he admitted not only pilgrim women, but also poor citizen-women, destitute of all help. Nay, if any came forth from dishonorable hiding-places, provided they repented of their sin, and wished henceforth to lead a chaste life, these B. Raymund both did not hesitate to receive, and, committed to the custody of most chaste matrons, he directed by a mature and most upright example.
[37] but leading them to an honest life. Then, when as much time had passed as his prudence required, he inquired of them what kind of life they chose. Some said that the conjugal state was more approved by them, that they might be able more safely to persevere in the purpose of an honest life. Their desire he himself provided for, a dowry being collected for them from upright men. Others asserted that they wished to cultivate chastity as long as they lived; whom he took care to have admitted into honest and enclosed monasteries, well aware how arduous it was to preserve a virtue of this kind unimpaired in the world, especially for those who had long been accustomed to shamefulness. There were also those who fell away from chaste counsels to their former disgraceful deeds: which, as soon as the excellent Servant of God perceived, he chastised them with most kindly words, and with great spirit exhorted them to modesty; Consider, he said, daughters, how unhappy your state is; if you return to your filthiness, you utterly prostitute your honor, you destroy your souls, you are the slaves of infamous men, and at last you will die wretchedly. I beseech you, daughters, by this most holy cross, by the most pure Virgin, by Him who deigned to die for you, Jesus Christ; have pity on your souls, and be not unmindful of so great a benefit of His. To such ardent goads some yielded, others on the contrary hardened themselves: and these indeed he secretly expelled, lest they should infect the more upright by the contagion of a shameful example.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER IV.
His charity toward widows and orphans, toward the discordant, toward captives, and toward abandoned infants and the sick: likewise his most holy death.
XV.
Sincere sanctity begot for B. Raymund so great an esteem, that poor widows, orphans, and others, if ever, being unjustly harassed by others, they could not obtain their cause before judges and magnates, fleeing to him He conducts the causes of widows and orphans as to the common parent and guardian of all the wretched, would cry out: Servant of God, help us: for we lack the means to supply the expenses of a lawsuit, and to contend in judgment with our adversaries. At the denunciation of injuries of this kind, he himself, inflamed in spirit, like another Elijah, received the lamenters thus: Remember, sons, that blessed
are they who for the love of their Creator endure adversities. Have therefore courage and good hope: my help will not be lacking to you. This said, prostrate before the most holy cross, he prayed in this manner: Thou knowest, O Lord, that the poor man is left to Thee: Thou hast promised to be his helper: by the most holy cross, therefore, I beseech Thee, my Savior, that Thou supply me with such strength, whereby I may be able to defend Thy poor against unjust judges.
[39] before iniquitous judges: Then, rising from prayer, the cross placed on his shoulder, and rapt with his whole heart into God, he proceeded to the tribunal; where, grasping the cross with his hand, he thus pleaded before the unjust judges: Love, and toward the needy preserve, justice, O you judges who judge the earth: remember that with what judgment you shall have judged, with the same you also shall be judged by Him who for you expired on the cross: remember that after this life you will not be judges, but will be judged. And so greatly did the sanctity of his life add power and weight to his words, that he was heard most willingly both by the magnates and by the prefect of the city; and by being heard he obtained this, that by his counsel very many affairs were transacted by them. Nay, if any difficulty or peril befell the city, these same men consulted B. Raymund as a prophet, and often decided what was to be done according to his judgment.
XVI.
[40] Peace, as that without which he knew nothing could be preserved, he held in such esteem that, when he had detected some discord and hatred among certain persons, private feuds, he would not rest before he had recalled them to concord, being wont to use this discourse: Do you not know, sons, that the very Son of God descended from heaven to earth, and laid down His life on this most hard cross, to reconcile man to God? Then why do you wish to be enemies one to another? Those who have enmities have no rest; they are in continual peril, since they mutually plot ambushes against one another, they are deprived of the grace of the Savior, since He Himself commanded them to love one another. Led by such pious admonitions, not a few referred the cause of their dissensions to the good Raymund to be settled; whom he, endowed with the gift of prudent counsel, soon restored to favor.
[41] and public factions, The factions and parties, into which he saw his city everywhere torn and cut apart, he could by no means endure: to avert them, he both persisted in assiduous prayers before God, and spared no industry with the most reverend bishop, when he would suggest such things to him: Do you not see, father, how dispersed your sheep are? Come, then, show yourself a good shepherd; bring them back, and gather them into one; that there may be one flock only, and truly one city. To whom the most reverend prelate said: The wound, my Son, is inveterate: to restore that concord belongs to the omnipotence of God alone. Then indeed the good Raymund, in public places, when he noticed those accursed factions tumultuating and clamoring among themselves, laden with his cross and weeping, was wont to cry out: Woe to you, seditious Placentia! for now God has prepared a scourge with which to strike you. You shall be plundered, and you shall be set on fire: you shall lose your fortunes, you shall lose your life; because you are a body dissipated, and do not revere God. How true this prophecy of the Servant of God was, the Placentines learned by experience after his death. a
[42] But in the times of B. Raymund not only was Placentia torn by domestic hatreds, nay, he even strives to settle wars, but cities were also armed to mutual destruction by foreign wars, armies being gathered on both sides for battle; which the Cremonese especially did against the Placentines. b He, therefore, as soon as he had learned that such armies had been mustered, immediately, leaving Placentia, flew thither, fortified with the most holy cross; and going through both battle-lines, with a tearful voice he kept crying: Behold, brothers, Him who, that you might not die, did not Himself refuse to die. Why do you hasten to death, either to undergo it or to inflict it on your neighbors, and that for fleeting riches or for an injury in things by no means lasting? Come, remember that you are Christians, and imitate your Savior. Forgive, forgive, and make peace. Commit the whole matter to me; you shall call me a most just reconciler. Thus running now through this army, now through that, he strove for concord; and to the Placentine leaders indeed it was not displeasing; but the Cremonese drove off the Servant of God both with threats and sometimes with blows.
[43] He bore these things patiently; but he also modestly reproached them, for that cause enduring both blows and prison: when he said: Because I seek peace, you repay me with these insults: but this cause of mine and yours my Savior will judge. At which word the Cremonese, more enraged, that he might no longer be troublesome to them, dragging him off to Cremona, forced him into prison. There indeed Raymund raised cries to heaven, which no one passing that way did not hear, and said: My Savior, I commend Thy poor to Thee: for I fear lest they perish of hunger, while I am here held bound. As for me, I am indeed ready to undergo not only the discomforts of imprisonment, but even death; provided Thou compose in peace the hostile minds of both these peoples. Forgive the Cremonese, O Lord, who have cast me into this place; for they know not what profits them. Scarcely had the citizens of Cremona heard these things, when, the extraordinary sanctity of B. Raymund having been ascertained, they took care to send him back free to his own, begging pardon for the injury inflicted: because they dreaded the present vengeance of God: which terror of divine judgment clung to those who had thrust him into prison, so far that they visited as suppliants the tomb of B. Raymund, now departed this life, to seek pardon from him: for they feared him more dead than alive; not being ignorant that God is wonderful and terrible in His Saints.
XVII.
[44] As often, too, as it happened to B. Raymund that he saw a gathered multitude of horsemen, either now preparing to exhibit the Trojan game, he assails and hinders gladiatorial games: or other games of that gladiatorial kind, in which quarrels, wounds, and homicides are by no means rare, he himself, as much as he was averse from those ludic contests, so much stirred with his whole spirit, thus rebuked them: Our Savior does not wish that, like huge beasts, you should exercise yourselves in games provoking fury, but in honest, peaceful, civil ones, established for refreshing minds from weariness: nor does He wish that, from a desire of some vain glory, the head be brought into danger, but that provision be made either for the safety of the homeland, or for the authority of the divine law. If, therefore, any love of your Savior touches you, if any care for saving your souls and bodies, put away such pernicious contests. Thus he; but, because gatherings of this kind are generally of young men, whom both the fervor of blood and the greed of glory incite, he admonished in vain. To the most reverend bishop, then, and to the magistrates of the city he was wont to have recourse, nor to depart before he had brought them along with himself to the place of contest, and by such intervention broken up and dispersed the game; esteeming it little, namely, that he should displease the unstable and inconsiderate youth, provided he had averted, together with sin against God, also the occasions of sinning.
XVIII.
[45] B. Raymund was moreover assiduous in visiting captives, bringing with him those things he feeds and consoles the accused in the prisons, which he had collected as suitable for tending the bodies of the wretched, that thus he might prepare them to admit also the tending of their souls; which, after they had recovered their strength, he wholly applied in these words: My sons, the end of this life is not the same for all; one dies in his bed, another in war, another at sea, another in solitude; this one by a natural death, that one by a violent one: do not, therefore, on this account cast away hope and courage, and Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; but Fear Him, as my Savior says, immolated for you on this most hard wood, who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell. Resolve, sons, to change your life and morals for the future; place sure confidence in the mercy of the Savior; I, as far as I shall be able to do it, will not suffer you to be forsaken.
[46] and obtains pardon for them, and inspires holy counsels: Of this discourse, as flowing from most ardent charity, such was the power, that no one was found among those accused of so obstinate a mind in disgraceful deeds that he did not turn himself to piety and patience. But of those whose repentance, God inspiring, Raymund understood to be so serious, and their purpose in good so solid, that they would be useful to the people of God both by illustrious examples and by holy works, begging absolution for them before the judges and magistrates, he said: Lord judge, I have begotten a spiritual son, who will bring much benefit to the Christian commonwealth: I pray, by this most holy cross, which, that He might give us true life, the Son of the most pure Virgin adorned by His death—I pray, I say, that you pardon this one for me. Let me only act; I promise, it will not be regretted; nay, hence the consolation of the whole city will arise. The judges, moved both by the known sanctity of the Man, and by the voice of God speaking through him, assented to his requests without reluctance. And several thus absolved, when, steadfast in virtue, they had more attentively weighed with themselves the perils of secular life, at the exhortation of B. Raymund embraced the religious institute in the canonry of the Twelve Apostles, and in it most faithfully served God.
XIX.
[47] But if I should wish to pursue the virtues of B. Raymund, if all his labors, he carries abandoned infants and the sick on his shoulders to his hospice: if all his works of piety one by one, a whole year would not suffice. Wherefore I hold it enough to have touched on these summarily, both for the glory of God and of His Saint, and for the example of those who now live, and of those who shall live hereafter. I will not say, therefore, how often he found illegitimate infants secretly cast away here and there; whom, lest they should wretchedly perish, often embracing two at once, one on each arm, weeping with compassion, he carried to his hospice, to be fed by his care: how often he carried on his own shoulders even sick persons, especially foreigners and pilgrims, destitute of all help in the midst of the streets; these things, I say, I pass over, that I may proceed to describe the praiseworthy end of his life and his most blessed departure.
[48] The time now being at hand which the divine kindness had appointed for ending, and largely rewarding, the toils and straits of His Servant, and, the Viaticum received, he commends his poor to his companions. behold, a most violent fever seizes him; which, since it grew worse day by day, the Blessed one perceived that his passing was now close at hand. He asks, therefore, that the last Sacraments be conferred on him; which he at once obtains at the hands of upright priests. Thus fortified, he resigns all the care and solicitude of his hospice to his companions, who had faithfully lent him their labor in pious works and in cherishing the poor of Jesus Christ for twenty-two continuous years; c and thus he addresses them, summoned to his chamber: My brothers and companions in pious labors, fix my most holy cross before
my eyes, and hear me. First I give thanks to Thee, my Savior, and to Thee, most holy cross, that I now see my pilgrimage and the course of my laborious life brought to the end long desired: then also to you, O faithful comrades; who did and endured so much with me for feeding and preserving the poor, whom I brought forth in the spirit of charity. But now (which I adjure you by that most holy cross, in which I have always placed all my hope) do not grow cold, or be frightened by the labors hitherto undertaken. I leave you my place and office, commending at once my needy ones, at once this most holy cross: place your confidence in it; and nothing will be lacking to your holy endeavors. It is now near at hand, when I shall return to my Savior; from whom, relying indeed not on my own merits, but on His infinite kindness, I await an everlasting reward.
[49] The faithful comrades, bathed in tears at so sad an announcement, whom he animates to their office, foretelling the future: Holy Father, they say, do not forsake us wretched ones: for without you we are nothing: never through us, however much effort we give, will so pious an office be able to be long sustained. You are our leader, you our support, you our counsel. Holy Father, do not abandon your poor. You see how wicked men now are, how hard, how tenacious: as soon as you are gone; both we shall be kept off everywhere from the doors, and your poor shall be dispersed. This discourse moved B. Raymund inwardly; he therefore subjoined: Do not, I beseech, afflict my soul at its longed-for departure. Trust, because I have overcome the world, however unmerciful; and doubt not that I shall be more useful both to you and to my needy ones after my death than while surviving; so that you shall provide for them not only more conveniently but even more abundantly. With this answer the dear comrades acquiesced, as with a divine oracle; though they grieved most bitterly that so great a Father was torn from them.
[50] B. Raymund was now yielding up his soul, when his son, dying, he urges his son to embrace the religious life: who was then present there, came into his mind; and, Come here, he said, son; give me your right hand and the kiss due to a parent; then promise that you will do what I shall say. He agreed; and, with eyes streaming with tears, kissed his Father. Then B. Raymund: If you wish me to die content, renounce the world, and embrace the religion to which I once offered you in the church of St. Bridget, before the image of my Savior, taken up out of the cradle. I have often already admonished you of this; yet you have not yet satisfied my desire. Do not defer any longer, my son. Consider that the figure of this world passes away, and that death does not threaten with slow step. Do not trust the blandishments and riches of the world: think rather of the true riches; and d that those abound in these who pursue voluntary poverty; but that all those are here altogether beggars, who are avaricious rich. My son, may my Lord bless you: but do you close my eyes. This said, turning to the most holy cross with a most serene countenance, he said: In Thy arms, e in Thy name and power, I pass from this world to my Savior and Creator. And thus that most holy soul departed, holy angels leading it forth.
[51] he dies in the year 1200, on the 27th of July. When the son perceived this, cast down on his knees, with the utmost reverence he closes the eyes of his blessed father; and the rest of the companions who were present, prostrate with equal veneration, kissed that sacred body, which breathed forth an odor, not any earthly one, but heavenly. Then, turning to lamentation, Alas for us, they cried, unhappy ones, who henceforth must live without our Father! Remember, O holy soul, your servants; remember your faithful promise. Such was that happy death of B. Raymund Palmarius of Placentia, in the year one thousand two hundred, f on the twenty-seventh day g of July, but in the sixtieth year of his age. h
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER V.
The honors and funeral rites of the deceased body; the conversion of Gerard; the concourse to the sepulcher; most frequent miracles.
XX.
Scarcely had that most holy soul departed, when the report was spread through the city that B. Raymund had migrated from this life. A three-day concourse to the body of the deceased, There fly at once to his dwelling the leading men in the city, nobles, venerable matrons; not to mourn, but to venerate the deceased, and to commend themselves to the Servant of God, in their opinion now blessed and prevailing by the greatest merits before the Savior. It was a thing more admirable than you could attain by thought, to behold the princes, counts, and nobles of the city cast down before the body of this poor little man. Each vies for himself with incredible affection of piety, this one to touch and kiss his hands, that one his feet, another to obtain a particle cut from his garment. And this concourse indeed lasted the whole three days; when at last it was decreed by the rectors of the city that, laid in a precious sarcophagus, he should be placed in the canonry of the Twelve Apostles; a yet in an honorable place, where he could be venerated and approached as a suppliant by the faithful: b for they did not doubt that our Creator would illustrate the merits of His Servant, as indeed happened, with huge prodigies.
[53] But before he was carried out, his poor guests and the domestic wards of both sexes exhibited a spectacle worthy of compassion: and the laments of the poor: for they groaned wretchedly, and with joined hands, weeping, cried out before the sacred body: O holy Father! O our Shepherd and Ruler! What at last will become of us poor wretches? Who will feed us; who will train us to virtue? Do not, holy Father, dismiss the memory and care of us; for we have no hope save in you alone. To these were added the women, first brought by him to an honest life, and then partly placed in marriage, partly (as we noted above) enrolled among nuns; who themselves too lay prostrate on the ground with such emotion of mind that it could not be satisfied in commemorating the praises of their Father, but also with intolerable grief that it was not permitted them, at least for the custody and service, to remain in that place in which his sacred deposit was to be buried.
[54] At length, all things being prepared which such funeral rites required, the most reverend bishop came with all the clergy, illustrious funeral rites: the conversion of his son to the religious life: c who, transferring the most holy body with the greatest solemnity to the said canonry, so laid it there that it was convenient for anyone to venerate his sacred tomb on bended knee. d After the celebration worthy of so great a funeral was finished, his son came forward into the midst before the most reverend bishop and the reverend Prior of the canonry, the whole clergy and the nobles of the city standing by; and with his knees lowered to the ground, Most reverend father, he said, it is at last time that I fulfill the pledge given to my blessed Father (although my vices prove me unworthy of the name of his son); I therefore seek the religious habit, and pray that I be enrolled in this holy canonry, and at the same time for the custody of my father's sepulcher: this is my only desire; that by his merits I may be able at some time to attain to eternal felicity. Both were granted: for, clothed in the garb of religion, he was appointed custodian of the sacred relics, and the name, as we said in the preface, of Brother Gerandus e was imposed on him. He it is by whose counsel, and indeed by whose most urgent prayers, I undertook to arrange and describe this uncultivated Legend, altogether unequal to the sanctity, however great, that shone in B. Raymund. f
XXI.
[55] After the sacred body had been placed, as we have just related, in the said canonry, most frequent visitation of the sepulcher with so many offerings, a huge crowd of Christians, both citizens and foreigners, deprecating either diseases or other evils, flowed together thither; nor were most evident miracles wanting, by which the Lord demonstrated the sanctity of His Servant. Stupendous especially was the abundance of goods, coins, and votive statues, which were offered there day by day; so that the rectors of the city, seeing this, thought they should choose upright and pious men, and especially the dear comrades of B. Raymund, on whom they might lay the burden of expending those offerings for the support of the poor of his hospice; which was also done. And those offerings were so many and such that for that purpose they alone sufficed. Then indeed there came back to memory what B. Raymund had lately declared to them, namely, that dead he would bring more benefit to his poor than alive.
[56] so that they abundantly suffice to feed his poor: Some days after this, when the magistrates of the city had observed that both the piety there and the greatest abundance of gifts continued, they decreed that the hospice founded by him should thenceforth be called the Hospital of St. Raymund (which title it keeps even today); and this both that they might thus please the poor, by assigning them a Patron and Guardian, and that the memory of the Servant of God might endure eternal. Furthermore, to his tomb ran not a few Cremonese, who, as was said before, g had punished the Servant of God with calumnies, blows, and prison, when he invited them to peace: these now, provided with abundant offerings, and beating their breasts with their fists, implored pardon; fearing, namely, lest the Blessed one, invoking the avenging hand of God upon them, should say: Avenge, O Lord, the injuries and oppressions of Thy Servant.
XXII.
[57] So many and so great are the signs and prodigies which the divine power showed through the merits of His servant Raymund, very many miracles; of which a few, but certain ones, may be subjoined. in healing the sick, in freeing the possessed, in succoring those in peril at sea, in rivers, in war, in prisons, on journeys, and finally in the various calamities to which this life is exposed; that not even the most excellent industry of anyone can be equal to narrating them all, much less mine. And so I think I shall do enough if of the many I commemorate a few, both to prove the sanctity of B. Raymund, and to foster and delight the piety of the faithful; that they too may have wherewith to proclaim and persuade the sanctity of the Servant of God to their posterity: But I would have all who are about to inspect this Legend know that I have here written no miracle, except what had before been proved to me by the sworn testimony of mature and trustworthy men. h
[58] In the extreme parts of Italy, which they call Piedmont, A fragment of bone, swallowed, is vomited up, the Saint being invoked: there was a certain German named Ogerius, who on the feast of the Lord's Nativity i was eating cabbages cooked with beef. But it happened unluckily that some fragment of bone, mixed in with the cabbages, lay hidden. And he was eating these with such voracity that he swallowed that bone together with the cabbages. This descended even to his breast; and sticking fast there, for many days tormented the wretched man, the physicians being ignorant of the cause of the ill. Meanwhile it happened, while he was tormented with these pains, that some fellow-countryman of his came here to Placentia, and visited the sepulcher of B. Raymund, and saw his stupendous prodigies. He then, returning to Piedmont, recounted to the aforesaid Ogerius what he had both seen and heard concerning B. Raymund; who, at once conceiving a vow, promised that, if only he should escape safe, he would go to Placentia, and visit the tomb of the Blessed one not without a pious gift. Scarcely had he promised, when he vomited the aforesaid bone into his hand; and bringing it here with him, after he had exhibited due veneration to the sacred sepulcher, he ordered it to be hung up on high, to give proof of so remarkable a miracle.
[59] In the county of Lavagna, of the diocese of Genoa, a woman, a possessed woman is freed from a demon: whose mother was called Sophia, her father Hugo, k was possessed by an evil demon, whom her parents committed to exorcists to free her. But when these could extort nothing from her, except this voice of the infernal guest: Raymund will easily expel [me]; the demon, being asked who, or where, that Raymund was, replied that he was a new Blessed one among the Placentines. This understood, her parents soon bring their daughter to the glorious sepulcher with great labor; which, as soon as she touched it, the demon began to cry out thus: Raymund, Raymund, accursed be you indeed, who force me to depart hence. Thus he let go free her whom he had before so greatly vexed.
[60] In the same county a certain noble, Bernard de la Turre, one contracted for two years is healed: and his wife Gelasia, l had a daughter, named Mabilina, from whom a contraction of all the sinews had for two years so taken away the use of her limbs, that she could neither raise her body by herself, nor stand erect on her feet. It happened then, by chance, that it became known to her mother how B. Raymund had restored to herself the possessed woman of whom we were just speaking. She too, therefore, vowed for her daughter a waxen statue, which, if she obtained her vow, she would destine to his tomb. On the fifth day from then her daughter felt herself so healthy and vigorous that she both rose, and stood, and walked no otherwise than if she had never been contracted or impeded. And the mother fulfilled what she had promised, by an offering worthy of herself and consonant with her condition.
[61] At Ticinum (Pavia) a certain woman, named Berta, m most well-known throughout the whole city, three demons was by divine judgment permitted to the power of demons, who, invading her body, often cried out these things, one indeed: I am Tralinus; another: I am Capicius; another finally: And I am Carincius. n By these the wretched woman was so tormented that she was sometimes believed dead; so that she gave no sign of either sense or motion: so that there were those who inserted fragments of reeds and needles between her fingers and nails, and yet she did not feel it; some even poured liquid and burning wax over her face, and she did not stir meanwhile. Now they so agitated her that not even two of the strongest young men sufficed to restrain her: now they threw her up on high even to six cubits, then let her fall headlong like a corpse: now they inflated her so that she swelled to the size of a cask.
[62] expelled from the possessed woman: Certain lettered men used to come to her, to chant before her some verses, which they call those of St. Maurice: for such power was then believed to be in those verses, that, when they were chanted, they could expel demons from possessed bodies, and not rarely had expelled them. But she, though ignorant of letters, indeed repeated the same verses in song; but with no profit at all. She was also led about by her sister and other neighbors to various churches and monasteries, especially those famed for the relics of Saints: but neither there did she obtain what she hoped. Namely, divine providence had reserved this prodigy for B. Raymund, that his glory might become illustrious from here even to those placed afar. To his tomb, then, she was at last brought, not without great force: where scarcely had she knelt down, when the demons began to howl like dogs and to say: Cursed Raymund! We depart to an evil end. Thus the body of this woman, cleansed by the merits of our Blessed one of all diabolical filth, was thereafter a dwelling of honesty.
[63] In the county of Placentia, and in the village which is called Ripa, a certain Giraldus Vitalis o had contracted such a hernia, as we commonly call it, a dreadful hernia is removed: that his intestines, as if fallen into a sack, swelled up, and neither allowed the man to walk, nor to do any work. His wife exhorted him to have recourse to B. Raymund by a vow: but he refused to do this; for he could not yet be persuaded that Raymund was a Saint. Then the wife, with the most sincere faith she could, herself performed his part; secretly, however, and indicating nothing to her husband: she promised, I say, that she would bring a wax candle to his tomb with some coins, and would see to it that a solemn Mass be chanted. This vow made, she begs her husband to be willing at least to accompany her to the Saint's sepulcher. He obeyed; but hoping for nothing good at all. Meanwhile the wife's piety and confidence were so great, that, when they had come to the church, and the husband had knelt down as a suppliant, he at once felt himself better, and his bowels restored to their former place. And within not many days afterward he so recovered that he could bear any labor in doing work. Then at last the wife revealed to him the vow she had made; which, when he heard it, he confirmed, and, henceforth honoring the Saint with a peculiar devotion, he assigned two measures of wine every year to the poor of his hospital, to be paid steadily at that time when the curators of the same almshouse were wont to go about seeking wine by begging.
[64] a bent woman is set upright: A Venetian woman, named Maria, [p] had for thirty years been so bent, or, as it is commonly said, hunchbacked, that she could neither walk without supports, nor raise her head as much as was needed to look at the sky; but bore it so lowered that you would have called her a quadruped. When she heard of the miracles of B. Raymund, she came to his tomb, not without grave weariness: there at last, weeping and a suppliant, she prayed B. Raymund to free her from this misery; and at last obtained it; and so, leaving there her under-arm staffs to testify the prodigy, she returned home upright without anyone's support. Seeing which, those who had known her magnified the Lord in His Saint.
[65] In the territory of Acqui a certain man, whose name was Lomellus, a hernia-sufferer, a paralytic healed, &c. labored under a hernia so difficult that his intestines had to be restrained with an iron belt. But having himself also been taught the illustrious miracles of B. Raymund, he vowed, if he were healed, to go on foot to the sepulcher of the Blessed one. But at the same moment that he vowed, at that moment he was made master of his vow, that iron chain, lest the prodigy could seem doubtful, falling to the ground and broken into many parts. So wonderful an event was beheld by his wife, fastened to her bed for a whole year now from a contortion of her sinews and joints; when she too at once promised that she would go as a companion with her husband to the sacred tomb, and was restored to health. And so both together came here, furnished with gifts according to their means, to testify each miracle. [q]
And let these few prodigies be narrated to confirm the virtues and merits of B. Raymund; for as to the others, which are most well-known throughout all Lombardy, neither would my childhood suffice for recounting them, nor my memory for embracing them, nor finally my hand or pen for writing them. Those things, therefore, which exceed my strength, I have thought should be left to others, most eloquent orators, among whom I am the least.
ANNOTATIONS.
THE AUTHOR'S EPILOGUE.
This Life and the miracles were written by Rufinus in the year 1212. This scanty little work I have composed and written for your sake, most dear brothers. a Receive it, I beseech you, with as great charity as I composed it; and pray to our Father at once, and the Servant of God, that he intercede for us and for the whole city before the blessed Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Here ends the treatise on the life and miracles of B. Raymund Palmarius of Placentia, composed and arranged by master Rufinus, Canon of the Twelve Apostles, in the year of salvation one thousand two hundred and twelve. b
ANNOTATIONS.
APPENDIX I
Of the miracles of St. Raymund, from the manuscript of the archive of the nuns of the same Saint, at Placentia.
Raymund Palmarius, confessor, at Placentia in Italy (St.)
BHL Number: 7068
FROM MANUSCRIPTS
CHAPTER I.
Miracles proved by authentic documents of the churches of Cremona, Genoa, and Placentia.
In the year 1209 an obstruction of urine, In the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and nine, in the twelfth indiction, on the Lord's day, on the eighth [day] of the ending of May, a in the bishop's palace, before the lord Sicard, bishop of Cremona, and also Homobonus, and John de Luzartis, and the priest Dianus, and Ghirardus, b canons of the church of the Twelve Apostles of Placentia, and Crussus Mazaferrata of Placentia, and Egidius Lancetta, and Leonard Sorricus of Cremona, Bartholomew, son of John Bonicapelli, a citizen of Cremona, who was of the age of five years, was sick unto death, because he could not urinate: for he had gone for five days, and more, without being able to urinate; whence he was swollen from the belt downward. Wherefore day and night he cried out strongly on account of * the pains which he had. Whence, because he was believed to have a stone, some said he should be exposed to the hands of physicians, that he might be freed from the sickness; which his grandmother also forbade, hesitating at first about the sanctity of blessed Raymund. Wherefore she said that she was secure regarding the sickness of the boy. c
[2] Things remaining thus, it seemed to a certain co-godmother of hers, d St. Raymund being invoked, she is proved healed: named Gixila, in a dream, * that she heard a voice saying to her: Why does your co-godmother not vow her grandson to God and to blessed Raymund, that he may be freed from the pressing sickness? The voice heard, it seemed to her in the same dream that the boy's grandmother had vowed him to the aforesaid Saint; and that he had urinated, and had been freed. Morning come, she narrated the dream to the boy's grandmother: which done, the grandmother vowed the boy to God and to blessed Raymund; namely, that she would give a waxen statue, if he were freed from the aforesaid sickness. She vowed; and led him, freed, to his sepulcher. Which indeed the aforesaid women protested, in the presence of the said lord bishop of Cremona, that they would swear to. And the lord bishop, seeing that they were of good repute, and had said the aforesaid things in the power of the Holy Spirit, remitted to them the oath.
[3] Likewise Rubus de Nichafura, a citizen of Cremona, said on oath [and likewise the deliverance of a certain man from the waters; likewise a hernia and epilepsy removed;] that, when on a certain night he was going by vow to the sepulcher of blessed Raymund, he could not cross a full stream that met him, because the waters had flooded the land: whence, believing it not to be so wide, he leaped; but not beyond; nay, to the bottom, laden with the sum of twelve imperial pounds, clothed, and shod with greaves. Whence his companion, grieving, believed him to have perished. But this man, while he was under the water, recalling with tears to memory the aforesaid Blessed one, hoping to be freed, at once leaped to the top; and thus freed, he immediately brought his votive offering to his sepulcher. And Nicholas the baker, a citizen of the same city, narrated, saying that he had been ruptured e for fourteen years back; for the relief of which sickness he had paid out much to physicians; and they had availed him nothing. Despairing of the physicians, he vowed to God and blessed Raymund that, if by his merits he were freed, he would offer him a waxen belt. The vow made, and freed, he offered the aforesaid belt. Likewise Peter, son of Ribald of Crema, a citizen of Cremona, having a son who very often fell from the falling-sickness, f with his wife, who had vowed him to God and blessed Raymund for his deliverance, carried him to his sepulcher; and there he was at once wholly freed; and this, before the aforesaid lord bishop and the above-written witnesses, he affirmed on oath.
Subscribed in the original with a flourish: g I, John de Lege, notary of the sacred palace, was present at the aforesaid things, and being asked, wrote this document. h
[4] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand two hundred and forty-six, i in the fifth indiction, on Friday, the eighth … k at Placentia, in the palace of the lord bishop, before Albert archpriest of the parish of Vinda, dom Bartholomew, as is clear from the authentic document, recognized at Placentia in 1247. monk of St. Savinus, … of the parish of Varxium. The lord Albert, by the grace of God bishop of Placentia, ordered me, James de Cumo, notary, to take the aforesaid document from its original, and to publish and authenticate what was taken; so that it may obtain the standing and force of a public document, and firmness.
Subscribed in the original with a flourish: I, the aforesaid James de Cumo, notary, faithfully took the aforesaid document from the original, and, taken, published and authenticated and wrote it by the command of the below-signed lord bishop.
[5] In the same year 1209 is noted In the name of Christ: l when the daughter of the late Roland de Reza, of the parish of Lavagna, m of the diocese of Genoa, had come before the presence of the lord Otto, archbishop of Genoa, n before him and the below-written witnesses she professed that she had once been vexed by a demon, on account of the signs which, as is found in Sacred Scripture, are wont to occur in like cases. When she was vexed, as the girl herself confessed, the demon said that he would not go out thence, except through Raymondinus, saying thus: Raymondinus must expel me, Raymondinus must expel me. The demon being asked where that Raymondinus was, replied: At Placentia. (For his name remained entirely unknown to the aforesaid afflicted woman, and to her mother Sophia, and to her husband Hugo, as they confessed.)
[6] the deliverance of a possessed woman, This heard, the aforesaid mother, with the husband of the afflicted woman, and a certain other, named Andrew Gaidurus, led her to the sepulcher of Raymund of happy memory at Placentia, by the merits of whose life and honest conversation some miracles are believed by the faithful to shine forth. When the aforesaid possessed woman was being led thither, the demon, vexing her, greatly disturbed her conductors on the way, greatly wearying them, and thus also often saying: Raymondinus, may you have ill fortune! On which day she arrived, the vexation of the demon, as is believed, wholly ceased by the intercession of the blessed Man. All which the freed woman herself, with the rest aforesaid, asserted on oath to be thus true. Moreover a certain priest, named Hugo, of the bridge of Lavagna, said under oath that he had many times seen her vexed, and most certainly believed her to be possessed, and that from the time she departed from the burial-place of blessed Raymund, he neither saw her vexed, nor heard from another that she was vexed.
[7] and the healing of a girl, Likewise immediately, in the presence of the aforesaid lord archbishop and of the below-written witnesses, a certain noble, named Bernard de Turre, of the parish of Lavagna, of the same diocese, confessed that he had a daughter, named Mabilina, who for the space of two years and more remained so contracted that she could in no way raise herself, nor stand on her own feet. Wherefore the mother of that little child, named Adalasia, vowed her to the aforesaid blessed Man, as the same Bernard, who learned this very thing from the same Adalasia, his wife, the girl's mother, reported: for she said and promised that she would go to his burial-place with her daughter and a statue of wax, if the Lord, by His mercy and by the prayers of blessed Raymund, should free her from the threatening sickness. The vow made, within the fourth or fifth day the girl went out of the house by herself without another's help, and now continues entirely sound. All which the aforesaid father affirmed on oath to be true, for himself, and in the soul of his aforesaid wife, and by her leave, as he confessed.
[8] Moreover a certain Thedaldus, servant of the above-mentioned Bernard,
who at that time * remained with him more than two years, who had been contracted for two years. saw her for the whole said space contracted in the legs and in one of her arms, so that she could in no way move the said limbs for human activity. He was not present at the vow, however, because at the end of the second year he had been separated from his master; but two months after the vow had passed, he saw her, as he said, sound. And today she continues entirely healthy; and that it is thus true, he affirmed by his own oath. Witnesses: Bartholomew, canon of St. Mary of Castello, Brother John de Lavania, Crussus Mazaferrata, Ghirardus the priest o and canon of the church of the Twelve Apostles of Placentia, John Saccus, and several others. Done at Genoa, in the place which is called Castellum, in the front gallery of the aforesaid lord archbishop, in the year of the Lord's Nativity one thousand two hundred and nine, in the eleventh indiction, [p] on the second day of October, between the first and the third hour.
Subscribed in the original with a flourish: I, Atto of Placentia, notary of the sacred palace, wrote this by command of the aforesaid lord archbishop; who had his seal affixed to the present page. [q]
[9] In the year [r] of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand two hundred and nine, in the twelfth indiction, on the Lord's day, on the seventh [day] before the Kalends of August, In the same year 1209 a blind woman recovers her sight. at Placentia, in the cloister of the greater church, before the chapter of the greater church, namely the lords Fulco the archpriest, Aimericus archdeacon of the church of Placentia, master Albert de Pado, the priest Lanfranc, the priest Otto, Peter Cappo, Placentinus Cacia, master Ferrus, canons of the said church, the priest Gerard, and Gerard, [s] canons of the Twelve Apostles, Crussus * de Mazaferrata, and many others; when Arimburga, a woman from the parts of Burgundy, namely from the archbishopric of Besançon, together with William her husband, who testified that he was from the same parts, had come before the aforesaid chapter (because at that time the lord bishop of Placentia [t] was absent, namely because he had visited the Roman curia), the aforesaid woman testified, they hearing, that, when she was in the bishopric of Placentia, where she had stayed for many years, she, having become blind for seven weeks, so that she saw nothing, vowed herself to God and blessed Raymund; that, if by his merits she were freed, she would bring to his burial-place two oil-jars [v] of wax. The vow made, his burial-place visited, she was given sight. Which, in the presence of the aforesaid chapter, she with her aforesaid husband asserted on oath to be thus true.
Subscribed in the original with a flourish: I, Carmangiarius, notary, was present at this, and being asked, wrote it thus.
[10] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand two hundred and two, [u] In the year 1202 a bone fixed in the breast is vomited up. in the sixth indiction, on Tuesday, on the third [day] before the Kalends of May, at Placentia, in the chamber of the lord bishop, before the archpriest of Brona, the priest Otto, and Arnald a clerk of the same church, John Provost of the Twelve Apostles, Fredentius canon of St. Antoninus, John Nicholas, John Bianus; Ogerius Zermanus protested by an oath, made by him in the presence of the lord Grimerius, bishop and count of Placentia, that, when he was eating cabbages with beef at dinner in his house on the lately past feast of the Nativity, without his knowing it a certain bone was fixed in his throat, and the said bone stayed in his throat until the Lord's day; then it descended even to his breast; and there it stayed for one month, two or three days less; and when he had learned, through a certain man of his city who had come from the city of Placentia, of the miracles which almighty God was working by the merits of blessed Raymund, he vowed that, if at the intercession of blessed Raymund Christ should show him the cause of his sickness, and free him from that sickness, he would give to his sepulcher one candle according to his own height/statue. Which done, a short time having elapsed, he vomited that bone into his hands, and brought that bone to the sepulcher of blessed Raymund with the candle which he had vowed to give; and when there, in the presence of the same witnesses, he showed the aforesaid bone, he said that this was the bone which he had vomited, and which he had brought to the sepulcher of blessed Raymund.
Subscribed in the original with a flourish: I, Carmangiarius, Notary of the sacred palace, was present at this, and being asked, wrote it thus. The authentication of the preceding documents made in the year 1247.
[11] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand two hundred and forty-six, [x] in the fifth indiction, on Tuesday, on the eleventh [day] before the Kalends of March, at Placentia, in the chamber of the palace of the lord bishop, before dom Gerard, abbot of the monastery of the Holy Sepulcher, dom Bartholomew monk of St. Savinus, the priest William canon of the church of the Twelve Apostles, witnesses summoned, the lord Albert, by the grace of God bishop of Placentia, ordered me, Dondedeus Buxius the notary, to take these documents from their originals, and to publish and authenticate what was taken, so that they may obtain the standing and force of public documents, and firmness.
Subscribed in the original with a flourish: I, the aforesaid Dondeus * Buxius, notary of the sacred palace, faithfully took the aforesaid documents from their originals, and, taken, published and authenticated and wrote them by the command of this lord bishop.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
Continuation of the miracles from the authentic documents of the Placentines.
In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand two hundred and seven, a in the eleventh indiction, on Friday, In the year 1207 a hernia and a paralysis healed. on the fourteenth of the month of March, at Placentia, in the confessio (crypt) of the greater church, before John Provost of the Twelve Apostles, John de Arena canon of the greater church, John Ostiarius, Obert Bastus, Crussus Mazaferrata. When Lomellus, of the bishopric of Acqui, b and Maria his wife, of the bishopric of Acqui, had come before the lord Grimerius, bishop and Count of Placentia, the same man said and protested that it was about the space of eighteen years that he had been gravely sick, namely ruptured. Whence, hearing the miracles which the supreme almighty Creator was working at the intercession of blessed Raymund, he vowed himself to him, and said that, for the vow which he made, at the intercession of that blessed Raymund, and by his merits, he was wholly freed from such sickness; and the iron, which he had by reason of that sickness, with which he was bound, broken, as if rotten, fell to the ground. And the woman protested that she was paralyzed c in all her limbs, and entirely disabled, except in her hands; and could in no way help herself; and that it was about the space of one year that she was so sick. Whence, when she had vowed herself to blessed Raymund, hearing the miracles which almighty God was working at his intercession, by his merits she was entirely freed from that sickness. And in the presence of the said lord bishop they affirmed on oath that they were healed, and that it was thus true.
[13] A contracted boy is restored in the year 1208. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand two hundred and eight, in the eleventh indiction, on Thursday, on the fourteenth [day] before the Kalends of October, at Placentia, in the confessio (crypt) of the greater church, before the lord Aimericus, archdeacon of Placentia, master Albert de Pado, Peter the Count, canons of the greater church, the priest Peter Caccia, and Gerard the son of blessed Raymund, canons of the Twelve Apostles,
master Ugo de Arcellis, and many others, when there had come before the presence of the lord Grimerius, bishop and Count of Placentia, the lady Agnes, formerly wife of Gerard Ferrarius, a noble citizen of Placentia, and the lady Greca, her daughter-in-law, they protested on oath that they have a certain little child of theirs, named Albertinus; who formerly had his arms and legs entirely contracted, so that he could in no way move either his legs or his arms, nor sit; but, with his shoulder fixed to the ground, dragged his whole body. And when he had endured a suffering of this kind from the Kalends of April to the Kalends of August, they carried the same little child to the sepulcher of blessed Raymund; and understanding the miracles which almighty God was working at the intercession of blessed Raymund, they vowed that, if the Lord by the merits of blessed Raymund should entirely free the aforesaid little child from the aforesaid suffering, they would give at present a statue of wax, and every year a candle to the measure of the little child, as long as he lived. Which done, they carried the aforesaid little child home; and before a month passed, the aforesaid infant was entirely freed from the aforesaid suffering.
[14] The authentication of the preceding document made in the year 1247. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand two hundred and forty-six, d in the fifth indiction, on Tuesday, on the eleventh [day] before the Kalends of March, at Placentia, in the chamber of the palace of the lord bishop, before the lord Gerard, abbot of the monastery of the Holy Sepulcher, dom Bartholomew monk of St. Savinus, the priest William canon of the church of the Twelve Apostles, witnesses summoned, the lord Albert, by the grace of God bishop of Placentia, ordered me, Dondedeus Buxius the notary, to take these documents from their originals, and to publish and authenticate what was taken, so that each of them may obtain the standing and force of a public document, and firmness.
Subscribed in the original with a flourish: I, the aforesaid Dondedeus Buxius, notary of the sacred palace, faithfully took the aforesaid documents from the originals, and, taken, by command of the aforesaid lord bishop published and authenticated and wrote them.
[15] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand two hundred and eight, in the twelfth indiction, on Friday, In the year 1208 a man suffering from a hernia is healed, on the sixth [day] before the Kalends of October, in the Placentine palace of the lord bishop, before the lords Fulco archpriest of the greater church of Placentia, Aimericus archdeacon of Placentia, Vicedominus provost of Placentia, master Albert de Ruugotius canon of the greater church, master Albert de Arcellis canon of St. Antoninus, master Ugo de Arcellis, the priest Peter of the Twelve Apostles, master Simon the physician, and many others; Gerard Vitalis de Ripa protested, in the audience of the lord Grimerius, bishop and Count of Placentia, that for about the space of six years he had endured such a sickness; namely because he was ruptured so far that his intestines came out of his body, and he, placing his hand beneath and lifting them, they made a sound, as if he were handling the intestines of a pig: and when he had heard of the miracles which almighty God was working at the intercession of blessed Raymund, he came to his sepulcher, asking and beseeching the Lord that by the merits of blessed Raymund He would free him from such a pressing sickness: which done, he departing, within one month he was entirely freed: whence afterward he felt no pain nor grievance whatever: and, being freed, he vowed that he would give, as long as he lived, to the poor of his (the Saint's) hospital yearly two sestaria of new wine.
[16] For the freeing of Gerard, Litelda, his wife, who had handled his sickness and had seen it, after the vow of his wife in honor of St. Raymund. vowed, as she testified, without her husband's knowing, that she would give a candle girdling him * with three denarii to the sepulcher of the aforesaid blessed Raymund, if the Lord by the merits of that blessed Raymund should free him from such sickness; and that she would have a Mass celebrated in his honor: and, he being freed, she fulfilled the aforesaid vow. All which the same man and woman affirmed on oath to be thus true. And that the aforesaid Gerard so suffered, Bernard de Franduinus, of the same place with him, bore such testimony on oath; namely that, when the same Gerard was often with him at farm-work, e he saw the aforesaid Gerard lifting up onto cloths, with his own hand, the bowels which came out of his body, and they made such a sound, as the aforesaid woman testified.
[17] Immediately, before the same witnesses, the lady Curtumsonium said and protested, in the presence of the lord Grimerius, In the same year a certain [woman testifies that sight was restored] bishop and Count of Placentia, that, when a certain blind man, named William, who for the space of two months had stayed in a hired house belonging to blessed Raymund, next to the hospital in which blessed Raymund lived, had three times dreamed that, if blessed Raymund should sign his eyes, he would see, she led him to blessed Raymund; and, telling him that he had dreamed thus, as is said above, he scarcely signed [him], saying thus: Go in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; so that the Lord may enlighten the darkness both of your heart and of the eyes of your head: which done, he was at once given sight; and he cast himself at his feet, saying that he saw. Whom he forbade to tell anyone: and he placed him in a more secret part of the house, until he privately conducted him outside the city, for fear of the temporal wind (worldly reproach). * Which she asserted on oath to be true.
[18] But that fuller credence may be had concerning the aforesaid miracle, the lady Galitia, a lay-sister of the hospital of the aforesaid blessed Raymund, and the lady Sclavia thus professed on oath, that they had seen him blind, by the living B. Raymund, who once signed his eyes. when he walked with a staff as guide, and seeing when he went without a staff. Of whom one, namely the lady Galitia, saw him several times striking against the door; and they heard from him several times that B. Raymund had signed him; and that by his merits he saw: and they affirmed on oath that it was thus true.
[19] The authentication of the preceding document made in 1247. In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand two hundred and forty-six, * in the fifth indiction, on Tuesday, on the eleventh [day] before the Kalends of March, at Placentia, in the chamber of the palace of the lord bishop, before dom Gerard abbot of the monastery of the Holy Sepulcher, dom Bartholomew monk of St. Savinus, the priest Guilerna canon of the Twelve Apostles, witnesses summoned, the lord Albert, by the grace of God bishop of Placentia, ordered me, Dondedeus Buxius the notary, to take the aforesaid document from the original, and to publish and authenticate what was taken, so that it may obtain the standing and force of a public document, and firmness.
Subscribed in the original with a flourish: I, the aforesaid Dondedeus Buxius, notary of the sacred palace, faithfully took the aforesaid document from the original, and, taken, by the command of this lord bishop published and authenticated and wrote it.
[20] In the year 1208 a woman formerly bent offers herself upright, In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand two hundred and eight, f in the twelfth indiction, on Saturday, on the fourth [day] of the month of October, in the Placentine palace of the lord bishop, before the lords Aimericus archdeacon, and Vicedominus provost of the church of Placentia, Bertollus archpriest of the Chaplains, the priest Thedaldus of St. Simon, Otto, and John, and Ruffinus, and many other witnesses, when there had come before the presence of the lord Grimerius, bishop and Count of Placentia, Maria a woman of Venice, in his presence she protested on oath, that, though she was more than thirty years [old], she did not recall having been anything but bent, always walking with two small crutches from the time when she began to walk; who, exhorted to visit the sepulcher of blessed Raymund, came for the cause of imploring mercy, visited [it], made a vow, and was set upright, her crutches being left there in testimony of the health received; to which these witnesses were brought forward, namely Gerard de Algarda of Vurzano, Ribald de Isachis of Ottoë, and de Lai, of the same place, who declared there on oath that they had many times, over a long space of time, seen her always walk thus, and not otherwise; but some of them, seeing her walk so laboriously, wishing to discern whether she did this deceitfully or not, could in no way perceive her walking otherwise.
[21] In the year 1217 a possessed woman is freed. In the year one thousand g two hundred and seventeen, in the fifth indiction, on Wednesday, on the seventh of the month of June, at Placentia in the church of the canonry of St. Mary of the Twelve Apostles, before the chapter of the same canonry, namely dom John, provost of the same canonry, the priest Peter Caccia, Gerard the son of the late St. Raymund, Ruffinus Gualdratus, Ruffinus de Montanea, canons of the same church, and Obert Bastus lord and minister of the hospital of the aforesaid church, and of St. Raymund, Gandulf de Montepelloris, the lady Berta Dulzana, the lady Imelda, and the lady Frixia, and the lady Supercla de Castro Arquato, Brother and Sisters of the hospital of the aforesaid canonry, and Maria de Andito, and Aidilina, poor servants of the aforesaid Hospital, professed, in the power of the Holy Spirit, that they had been present at the cleansing of Berta Natona (or "by nation") * a Genoese, but nourished and reared at Pavia, who obtained help by the mercy of the Lord, in which the whole world exults, and by the merits of the venerable and blessed Raymund, to whose protections the aforesaid Berta had run to implore them: for since we had before seen her vexed in various and diverse ways, as the custom of such cases requires, and that she was able neither to be present at the divine Offices, nor to do or receive other things which the vexed are wont to avoid, she was cleansed, in our presence, on the Lord's day, on the fifth [day] before the Kalends of June, h with much crying and howling and vomiting of blood, and, as this lady Imelda says, with her hair torn out, in the same church, next to which the venerable body of the aforesaid Saint rests, while the solemnities of the Masses were being celebrated there. Whence, seeing afterward in her no signs of vexation, as far as human frailty can perceive, we believe and say that she was cleansed of the demons: for she does and receives all things on the contrary, whatever she before refused to do and receive: she hastened at once to confession; she kissed the cross, and at last reverently received the Body of the Lord. On the same day, in the cloister of the above-written church, and before the same chapter, Peter de Monte Regio, a lay-brother of the aforesaid hospital, confessed that he had been present at the aforesaid things.
Subscribed in the original with a flourish: I, Bonus Joannes Gualdratus, notary of the sacred palace, was present at this, and at the request of the above-written persons, wrote this document of profession thence.
[22] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand two hundred and forty-six, in the fifth indiction, on Tuesday, The authentication of these made in the year 1247. on the tenth [day] before the Kalends of March, at Placentia, in the chamber of the palace of the lord bishop, before the lord Gerard abbot of the monastery of the Holy Sepulcher, dom Bartholomew monk of St. Savinus, the priest William canon of the church of the Twelve Apostles, witnesses summoned, the lord Albert, by the grace of God bishop of Placentia, ordered me, Dondedeus Buxius the notary, to take the above-written documents from their originals, and them
taken, to publish and authenticate, so that each of the two may obtain the standing and force of a public document, and firmness.
Subscribed in the original with a flourish: I, the aforesaid Dondedeus Buxius, notary of the sacred palace, faithfully took the above-written documents from their originals, and, taken, by the command of the above-written lord bishop published and authenticated and wrote them.
ANNOTATIONS.
APPENDIX II
Of the miracles of St. Raymund, from a manuscript of the same archive.
Raymund Palmarius, confessor, at Placentia in Italy (St.)
BHL Number: 7069
FROM MANUSCRIPTS
Thirty-six miracles, Here begin the miracles of blessed Raymund. A certain woman of Potentiano could not see: she made a vow to blessed Raymund; and she was given sight. Azo Bocardus, suffering an ailment in his shoulder and left arm, made a vow; and he was freed. The daughter of James Staferius, unable to rise from the ground by herself, vowed; and now she walks. A certain girl, of the neighborhood of St. Antoninus, limping in one foot, vowed; and she was freed. The son of the late Anselm the Blind, having his neck twisted over his shoulder, vowed; and he was freed. A certain boy, who, contracted in his whole body, was drawn about on a cart, a vowed; and he walks upright. Agnesia of Campremoldo Sultano, unable to see, b vowed; and now she sees. The wife of Gerard Ferrarius vowed her grandson, paralyzed in his hands; and he was freed. Ardicius the host, suffering great pain in his eyes, vowed; and he was freed. A certain boy of the Gate of Albara, suffering pain in his eyes, made a vow, and was at once freed. The squire of the lord Francis, suffering an abscess below the navel, vowed; and he was freed. Ottolina of Pavia, walking bent, vowed; and she was freed. Two lamps at different times were kindled over the sepulcher of blessed Raymund. c
[2] summarily noted, A certain man of Pavia, perishing with his ship near the Gate of Albara on the Po, vowed; and he was freed. Certain Cremonese, one a monk, and the other a soldier, sick unto death, vowed; and they were freed. A certain woman of Vixirano, possessed, vowed at his sepulcher; and she was freed. Fulco Coridanus of St. Hilarius, unable to see with one eye, vowed; and he was given sight. The lady Orata of Parma, walking bent, vowed; and she was set upright. The lady Beatrixia of Parma, suffering pain in her head, vowed; and she was healed. The horse of Malisapellus, not allowing itself to be shod, a vow having been made, was made tame. The wife of Baiardus, of Vicus Caninus, of the neighborhood of St. Domninus, having a certain bone in her throat, vowed; and she was freed. Paganina, daughter of Bonus Acto Rusticonus, walking bent with a crutch, vowed; and she was set upright. Lanfranc of St. Christina, whose eye had burst, vowed; and it was restored. Obert of Bagnara, made blind for three months, vowed; and he was given sight. The co-godmother of a certain Cremonese woman, having a son unable to urinate, vowed; and he was freed. d Ubert Blancafugatia, of Pavia, imprisoned with three companions, they vowed; and they were freed.
[3] A certain woman of Asti vowed her son, paralyzed and swollen; which [things followed a vow made in honor of the Saint.] and he was freed. The wife of Albertinellus, of the Borgo of St. Domninus, bent in her knees, vowed; and she was set upright. The same woman, having a certain son, and while she was coming to the sepulcher of blessed Raymund, her son fell into a certain pool, and stayed there a long time, and was drawn out of the pool as if dead and broken; but by the vow made he was at once healed. Admirata, wife of Hugo, son of Martin de Casanova, possessed, vowed, and was healed. Peter Bonettus, of the Borgo of St. Michael de Clussa, blind, vowed, and was given sight. A certain boy of two years, son of William, of the neighborhood of St. Mary de Bigolis, swallowed a grain of "cravis sepneus," e and stood as if dead: the nurse, the mother, and the grandmother vowed him, and he vowed * that grain, and was healed. Peter, of the bishopric of Montegrande, had been blind for two years; he vowed; and he was given sight. Peter the Cremonese de Rubeis, of the parish of St. James, who was paralyzed from the breast downward, vowed, and was freed. Peter, son of Ribald of Crema, who dwells at Cremona, vowed a certain son of his who fell from the rheum (epilepsy), and he was freed. Opico de Festo, of Cremona, bent, unable to go without crutches, vowed, and was freed.