Nicholas the Pilgrim

ON ST. NICHOLAS THE PILGRIM, AT TRANI IN APULIA.

IN THE YEAR 1094.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY. Concerning his cult, and the writers of the Life, Miracles, and Translations.

Nicholas the Pilgrim, at Trani in Apulia (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

Tranum or Trane, commonly Trani, an ancient and maritime city of Apulia, on the northern boundary of the region of Bari, is believed to have had in the third century of Christ the Bishops Redemptus and Magnus, substituted in turn; of whom the latter, a glorious Martyr in the persecution of Decius, is venerated as a Saint on 29 August; the other, from the Acts of his successor then to be illustrated, In the Archiepiscopal church of Trani, only became known. But Trani is celebrated by the Provincials, says Ughelli in volume 7 of Sacred Italy, "because it is the Presidial See of the whole Province of the land of Bari, and here is held the Royal Audience, or College of the Royal Judges." Nor only this; but it was also made an Archiepiscopal city in the eleventh century: with which title the first, at the end of the 11th century, comes forth Bizantius the elder; the same who received St. Nicholas, a Pilgrim from Greece, at Trani, and on the thirteenth day after entombed him when he died, and, becoming famous for miracles, took care to have him canonized four years afterward by Urban II. But this was managed with no great effort: since not even then was there need of any other celebration, than that by which about the year 993 St. Udalric, Bishop of Augsburg, had been canonized; as Patron received from the year 1098, namely that in the Lateran Synod the Archbishop, rising, recited some miracles of the venerable man Nicholas, set forth in writing before the whole Council; and most instantly demanded that the same man of God be numbered in the Catalogue of the Saints; to whom soon by a special Brief the Pontiff committed, that what should seem to him, the Lord revealing it, he should determine by more mature deliberation. But he himself did this immediately on his return, and laid the foundations of the new Metropolitan Basilica; which, after forty years completed under the other Bizantius, and consecrated with the title of the Mother of God assumed, venerates St. Nicholas, his body being brought there, as chief Patron, as Ughelli testifies; as it still does today.

[2] by miracles, written soon after his death, Nicholas had begun to become famous: The writing, to be recited before Pope Urban, Adelferius had composed by the order of his Archbishop: which, because it touched the life of the Saint in Greece, and his arrival in Italy, with scarcely a few words; Bizantius the Younger resolved, while Bartholomew, a Greek Monk, and companion of the Saint going into Italy, still lived, that some of the many virtues and wondrous acts of the said holy man, which had not yet been impressed in the figures of lines, should also be committed to writing; and how, and how honorably, the translation of his sacred body was celebrated. The first who provided this, did not care to express his name; but had enough at numbers 17 and 28 to indicate that the aforesaid Monk related to him the things to be written, the Life was then written from certain hearing, restrained in word and truthful, as partly he extorted many things from the Saint himself with much imploring of prayers and prudence, partly saw with his own eyes. The latter Amandus the Deacon completed; not he who afterward succeeded Bizantius II in the Archbishopric, and in the Lateran Council of the year 1179 is called Amantius; then the Translation by Amandus the Deacon of Trani as Ughelli suspects; but whom he himself says was present at that same Council with the title of Bishop of Vigilia, the second of that name. For he in the Prologue to the Translation of SS. Sergius, Maurus, and Pantaleon, to be illustrated on 17 July, testifies, that he writes, "as," he says, "long ago, at the most noble city of Trani, we recall that we wrote the Translation of Blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim, Confessor of Christ." Doctor Antonio Pauli, Vicar General of Trani, in the Prologue of the Life published by him in Italian in the year 1617, afterward Bishop of Vigilia. thought, that the former little work too, about the earlier life of the Saint, was composed by Amandus; and this the Prologue of the latter writing seems to imply: but the contrary is persuaded by the very diverse style of each writing; and perhaps that one alone did not have the use of the Greek language, so that he could deal by himself with the guest.

[3] These three anciently collected in one Codex, Archbishop Caracciolo, in the year 1596 sending to Rome transcripts of all three of those writings (in which the first place holds that which in time was second), testifies, that "in the archive of his Metropolitan church of Trani is preserved a certain most ancient book, written on parchment, in which the life, death, and translation of Blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim is contained": from which book, by his mandate and order, a copy was made, which we found in the Vallicellan Library of the Fathers of the Oratory at Rome, and took care to have transcribed; another similar one, taken immediately from that very ancient book, we obtained at Naples, from our Father Nicolò Beatillo; and a third likewise at Rome given to us by Ferdinando Ughelli. But we suspect, that the aforesaid Amandus had the care of writing all three thus together: which however we should prefer to be able to confirm, from some Prologue common to those three Parts, such as is not found; but mutilated in one point; but only in the Prologue of the third Part does Amandus say, that the Archbishop, whom he addresses, ordered him, his Deacon and servant, to commit to memory the things which sought to be formed into writing. However it be: either he himself, or another curator of that collection, seems to have ordered to be omitted near the end of the first Part the immediate cause of the illness and death, namely the blows inflicted on the Saint at Trani; and thus to have rolled all the odium of that inhumanity onto the Archbishop of Taranto, by whose command also before the Saint had been beaten. But of this cannot be understood, that the Saint, about to die, forgetful of the injury, had him called to himself: for this must be taken of the one at Trani; whom this very thing the more stimulated, to honor the recognized sanctity of the pilgrim boy the more readily, the more unclemently he had held it unknown.

[4] From those Acts thus tripartite, a notable epitome, in not inelegant Sapphic meter, and they were contracted into compendious hymns. Francesco Cameno of Perugia composed, which from an old Manuscript after his Italian Life Antonio Pauli gave; together with a twofold Hymn at Vespers and Lauds, from ancient Manuscript Breviaries, asserting, that in the same are also had Lessons of the Life, confirming not only the second and third, but also part of the first Acts. These however were abrogated, after Archbishop Andrea de Franchis offered new ones, collected from the writing of Adelferius alone, to be approved by Clement VIII, which the Sacred Congregation of Rites, Cardinal Cesare Baronius reporting, judged could be permitted to the people of Trani under an Office by way of a Double with an Octave, in the year 1603 on the 3rd day of June. Adelferius alone too Petrus de Natalibus had before his eyes, in book 5 of the Catalogue of the Saints, chapter 78; Paolo Regio, Bishop of Vico Equense, in part 2, page 348; Other Epitomes taken from the writing of Adelferius alone. who (by I know not what author) calls him Niceta or Nicholas; and Filippo Ferrari, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on this day. Nor is this wonderful; because his little book alone, read and approved by the Roman Synod and the Pontiff, soon began also to be referred among the Legends of the Saints, many years before the other two Parts were written: and such a Legendary, says Antonio, is still kept, written perhaps from the time of Bizantius the Elder. Of whose name, recurring twice within half a century, you will marvel less, if you see in Ughelli among the Bishops of Vigilia a donation of the church of St. Margaret made in the year 1197; to which subscribed, "Bizantio Bishop of Vigilia, Bizantio Archdeacon, Bizantius Priest and Primicerius, with Leo the Archpriest": so that among four Ecclesiastics subscribing (for the other two there subscribed, Falco Imperialis, and Damarus, Judges of the Royal Curia, were laymen) three were of that name, which therefore must have been very frequent in those parts.

[5] The second Translation of the year 1611 Antonio Pauli wrote, This said in passing, I return to the Acts, which from contemporary Authors either by mouth or by pen we have tripartite: a fourth, of small authority, in those things which are newly added, and concern the Finding of the sacred body, and the second Translation, made in the year 1611, the aforepraised Antonio Pauli, Archiepiscopal Vicar, an eyewitness, adds; after the Life, from the three aforesaid Latin Parts rendered into Italian, and in the same year printed at Naples, with a Dedication to the author of that Translation, Fr. Diego Alvarez, Archbishop of Trani and Salpi, signed on the 10th day of December. This Part therefore being rendered into Latin, whatever I here publish I call the quadripartite Acts, from the monuments of contemporary Authors; and to the fourth Part, by way of Prologue, I prefix a letter of the same Archbishop Diego, offering the aforesaid Life, reprinted at Trani in the year 1617, together with a particle of the Relics, to Philip III King of Spain, on the 10th day of April. I add finally an Appendix, from the Panegyric History of the life and miracles of the same Saint, very recently, that is in the year 1686, and Agnello Bruni supplied the Appendix in the year 1687. published at Naples, by the author Father Agnello Bruni of the Society of Jesus, at the instance of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Paolo Ximenes Alessandro, Archbishop of Trani and Salpi; and through him on the 22nd day of February dedicated, to the Most Excellent Lord Gaspar de Haro y Guzmán, Marquis del Carpio etc., Viceroy and Captain General for the kingdom of Naples. Which Father Agnello two years afterward perished at Naples, overwhelmed by the collapse of part of our most beautiful church there, and by his death did a great loss, greater than great, to the city, to which he was very dear. But all old and new things being thus collected, I judge that there is scarcely any Saint in this work a little more ancient, of whom it can be said with equal right, except that he has been brought by us of the first note and certainty; In the German Martyrologies he is referred to 30 May nor anything either superfluously repeated, or with detriment to the history omitted.

[6] The most blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim died in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand ninety-four, in the second Indiction, on the second day of the month of June, on a Friday. So, all the marks cohering excellently among themselves, for a year having the Dominical letter A, Adelferius the eyewitness: and because in the same year Easter happened to be celebrated on 9 April, it happened also that that death fell within the Octave of Pentecost. Meanwhile the knowledge of that St. Nicholas, carried across the Alps into Germany, and propagated as far as the Baltic sea, was as if he had died on 30 May. This is taught (which however I do not know whence I should judge it taken) by the Martyrology, printed under the title of the Doctrinal of the Clergy at Lübeck in the year 1490, where that day is thus ended: "In Apulia, of St. Nicholas the Pilgrim, famous for miracles." A Manuscript Florary and the Viola of the Saints printed at Hagenau in the year 1508 weave a more prolix elogium for him; the Florary indeed beginning thus, "In the territory of Apulia the deposition of St. Nicholas etc."; but the Viola thus; "Likewise of a certain St. Nicholas." Then they commonly proceed and add; "by surname the Pilgrim, who entered Apulia; and carrying a Cross in his hand, like a simple and upright man, with a more prolix elogium from the Life. ran about simply, blessing God: he gave also apples and similar things to boys and others, that with him they might praise God." For which in the Additions of Greven to Usuard, it is thus read: "He, led by dove-like simplicity, desiring to fulfill the precept of the Lord about taking up the Cross, carrying a wooden Cross in his hand, sounding Kyrie eleison; leading after him innocent boys, who cried these things with him, ran through the places of the town: at last rested in peace, famous for miracles." The same Canisius refers to his German Martyrology; but so that he indicates that the Life was also read by him, when he moreover mentions his Greek origin, and cheap garb. But the Doctrinale and the Florary thus end the elogium. "Him the Archbishop, and others who seemed wise to themselves, despised; and with blows affected, they cast away as refuse. At last it was made clear who he was, because both in life and in death he shone with miracles, and deserved to be the Patron of those, whose mockery he once was."

[9] The Saint is held at Trani, expressed in an old painting; but Agnello thinks a statue more like the Saint himself, also ancient, of which at number 97; and in both places he says, A statue made at Trani, that the hair is expressed slightly curly; but in the statue the nose, as well as the face, is more becomingly extended in length than it is contracted in the painting: from this in turn is supplied, what the statue could not give, namely the color of the eyes, splendidly and gracefully blackish. Moved by such an indication I asked that the lineaments of that statue be transmitted from Trani, which engraved in copper I should give, and I received them, by the care of the Reverend Father Niccolò Partenio Giannettasio, who has happily imitated the Bucolics and Georgics of Virgil in his published Piscatory and Nautical poems. But it is to be made of so much the more value (and I should judge that Agnello regarded this) because the Saint, appearing to a certain excellent sculptor at Naples, another at Naples happily likened to the Saint appearing. who hesitated to fashion a like statue, ordered him to consider more diligently the lineaments of his countenance and habit. But it is said below at number 97, that this being done, the work so succeeded for the artist, although he had never been at Trani, nor had received any other idea thence, than received by his ears from the mouth of those who had beheld it; that all swore it was most like the one at Trani. The lineaments taken hence therefore receive, rather than from the painting.

QUADRIPARTITE ACTS From the monuments of contemporary Authors.

Nicholas the Pilgrim, at Trani in Apulia (St.)

BHL Number: 6223, 6225, 6226

PART ONE. On the life of St. Nicholas in Greece. From the account of Bartholomew, who accompanied the Saint.

FROM A MANUSCRIPT.

CHAPTER I. How the boy, divinely instructed, began to walk, crying Kyrie eleison: and what for that cause he suffered in his fatherland.

[1] Virtue constitutes a firm, useful, sufficient, and true substance … How great therefore is this Saint who is set before us … Nicholas: who from his infancy full of the grace of God, A boy of great sanctity, contained in himself all virtues, and through them as if treading the very paths of heaven, burning with the fire of hope, strove greatly to become heir of the kingdom, that without the stain of crime he might come to Christ. For of him it can be said, "Blessed is the man who is found without stain, and who has not gone after gold, nor hoped in treasures of money: who is this, and we will praise him? for he has done wonderful things in his life."

[2] This venerable boy, drawing his origin from a certain village of the region of Hellas, which is situated near the celebrated monastery of St. Luke of Stiris, and is under the power of the same monastery; born near Stiris in Achaia, born of parents weak according to the dignity of the world, namely farmers and poor, was not taught the discipline of letters or the industry of any art. But, when he was now about eight years old, he was sent by his mother to pasture sheep through various parts: which he kept for a short time. For kindled by the splendor of the Holy Spirit, and prevented by the blessing of divine grace, changed into another man, he suddenly began on a certain day to cry, "Kyrie eleison," with a very high voice; and the work once begun, namely to invoke divine mercy, with devout heart and voice perseveringly to the end, according to what Christ in visible form suggesting taught him, completing it day and night, at eight years old he begins to cry Kyrie eleison; he deserved to come to the great summits of virtues, and increases of grace.

[3] From this therefore his mother, grieving most vehemently, began harshly to compel him with threats and blows, desiring to recall her son from such (as she thought) folly. wherefore driven from home at twelve; But when she recognized that she could not draw him from the course begun, when he was now made twelve years old, she drove him from the house; and with bitter mind protested that he should not dare to enter it any further. He, with peaceful heart withdrawing from the village, ascended a certain very high mountain, near the village: on whose side he found a cave, in which a bear horrible to look at dwelt. Into which when he wished to enter, the bear, growling and angry, rising up, rushed impetuously to him. he withdraws into the cave of a bear: Seeing which the holy man, with magnanimous heart, fortifying himself with the sign of the Cross, said securely to the bear: "I command you, in the name of Jesus Christ, that you presume not to enter this place." Which heard, obeying the disciple of Christ, it yielded the place, and disappeared from all that region. But he himself dwelt there, feeding only on raw and wild herbs, and day and night, "Kyrie eleison," with eyes and hands lifted to heaven, acting confidently, with devout heart cried.

[4] This man of God acting without intermission, a certain Monk suddenly stood by him on a certain day, venerable in aspect, with a long beard, naked in body, grey-haired; whom his mother, thinking possessed, and saying "Ave" to him, and calling him by his proper name, incited him to the love of virtues; and exhorting him in many things, when he had fully instructed him, bidding him farewell, swiftly fled into the desert. After these things his mother, anxiously seeking him with affection, when she had solicitously learned the place of his dwelling, a price being given, had her son seized. Who, suspecting that he was agitated by a demon, offered him to the Monks living in the aforesaid monastery of St. Luke, which is called Stiris, as is the custom; thinking that he would be freed by the virtue of the Saints: where afflicted for a long time, hands over to the Monks of Stiris to be cured: for the sake of his cure, he bore innumerable evils from the aforesaid with thanksgiving. But what evils did this noble athlete not suffer from the Monks? For first, suspecting him vexed by a demon, after many blows and beatings, they cast him out of the church. Who expelled, persevering before the doors of the church, the scourges which he had so patiently borne, and praying by crying Kyrie eleison, he referred to God.

[5] by whom he is shut bound in a tower; Then they shut him with diligence in a high tower, rolling a great stone over the door of the tower. Who placed there, when he ceased not continually to praise the Lord; about the middle of the night, he himself crying Kyrie eleison, suddenly a thunder was made, and with the thunder the stone was removed from the door of the tower. Who going out, went to the church, and in his accustomed manner cried with a high voice Kyrie eleison. Therefore held by the Monks, again bound with a chain, he is thrust into a certain cell. But the mystery of the sacred Mass being celebrated, he himself praying in his accustomed manner, the chain, dissolved like a spider's web, fell to the ground. Who, the chain being taken, went to the refectory, where the Monks had gathered for dinner: and thence, the chains being loosed, going out he is beaten, and praying Kyrie eleison, he placed it before their eyes. But again he is cast out of the monastery, as insane. But repulsed, by divine virtue, while he prays, he is lifted above the rays of the sun; and carried within the walls of the monastery, and to the dome of the church, in a wonderful manner he ascends, praying Kyrie eleison in his accustomed manner. Which heard, the Monks, who after dinner were resting in their cells, run hither and thither. One of whom, by the command of obedience, ascending to him with a heavy staff, beating him grievously and harshly, made him descend from the dome of the church, with much haste and fury.

[6] But after this against the Saint the Monks, nay rather the destroyers, took counsel, that they should plunge him into the depth of the sea, and decree to suffocate the innocent one; because by the aforesaid crying, according to what they had wished, they could not change him. For what they wickedly decreed, and is plunged into the sea: they at once strive to put into effect: and seizing him by stealth, they placed him in a ship; and his hands and feet being bound, head downward, they submerged him in the deep of the sea. But the God of mercies did not neglect his servant in so great a peril: for a fish, which is called a dolphin, taking him from the deep, and with its mouth loosing the bonds of his hands and feet, carried the Saint without injury to land. Who climbing upon a great stone, cried with a high voice Kyrie eleison, giving thanks to God, who by his benignity had freed him. But suddenly a storm of wind rising up, stirred up a tempest in the sea. And when the Monks, who had immersed him in the sea, themselves were almost submerged; with humble heart, and forgetful of the evils which they had shown against him, but freed even from this he saves his persecutors from death. he cried to them from the land saying; "Cry, Kyrie eleison": which doing with devout mind, they were by the prayers of the holy man freed from the peril of death. Who saved, from then dismissed the Saint in peace. But he withdrawing from them, and fleeing the cohabitation of those to whom he had been brought unwillingly, returned to his mother: and taking from the house a hatchet, an axe, and a knife, he ascended the mountain; where staying for some time, he cut cedar wood; and making from it Crosses, he erected them in inaccessible places, crossroads, and precipices; and thus praising the Lord, he did on individual days.

[7] Clothed with Angelic fervor and at the same time purity, this wonderful boy burned with sweet charity: he erects Crosses in various places; and moved by pious zeal, he thought to keep with himself in the name of God his only brother, younger than himself, named George, whom he had. Separating him from his mother, he carried him to a certain very solitary place of the mountain, and said to him: "Here, I beseech you, most dear brother, persevere unanimous with me, and until three days let us continue watchful in prayer: for I hope that the Lord, who according to the counsel of his providence disposed the future over us, he draws his brother to himself: will provide for us out of his mercy and goodness, which he will soon show. Pray therefore that you may be glorified with me, and your name be glorified through him." But George staying with him, in the appearance of a fiery column, whose top reached to heaven, an Angel of the Lord stood by him; and took them and carried them to a high place, which is named Orachus; and said to him: "This place will be glorified through you until the end of the age, Nicholas."

[8] But George, held by sleep, and this one returning to his mother, slept heavily: but when the holy Angel of God had withdrawn, he asked and said, "In what place are we, O brother?" To whom Nicholas answered, "We are in the place of God, which is called Orachus." To whom George: "Was it not enough for you, O brother, to hold a solitary life in this place, unless you also compelled me likewise to stay with you? How do we leave our mother desolate, having no comfort or help besides me and you?" To whom the Saint said: "The Father of mercies, who bears the care of all, will guard her from all evil, will protect, and defend her; consoling her and saving her in this age, and also in the future." But George, the Saint's exhortation and salutary counsel being spurned, chose worldly solicitude and care; and withdrawing from his brother, flew back to his mother as quickly as possible. Whence indeed the prophecy says? "He loved cursing, and it shall come to him; and he would not the blessing, and it shall be far from him." Ps. 108:18 he alone perseveres on the mountain, But the Saint, remaining in the place where the Angel had carried him, cutting wood, fashioned himself a little hut; and there too making Crosses from cedar wood, he erected them through the desert in his accustomed manner.

[9] Not after many days returning home, led by the spirit of God, having tried in vain to recall his brother. with anxious charity he sought, if in any way he could keep his brother George likewise with him in the service of God, and instructing him in the good way of the true life, besought him to leave all things, seeking with his whole heart his salvation, bringing in certain Gospel words and wholly effective for salvation: and he said to him: "Come, and let us walk together and stay, and at the same time let us, soliciting nothing, serve Christ, our God and Lord: but what our Lord Jesus Christ himself said to his disciples, 'Be not solicitous what you shall eat, or for your body what you shall put on.' Luke 12:22 Therefore, brother, be not at all solicitous about our mother: let us hope in him who made heaven and earth, and he will not despise our entreaty, but will hear us in whatever things and whenever we shall invoke him." Who would not at all hear him. The Saint therefore withdrew, and again ascended the mountain, in which he had prepared himself a cell, and dwelt there.

NOTES BY D. P.

CHAPTER II. The Saint's eremitic life; and his various trials in it: a calumny wiped away.

[10] In a dry place he is refreshed by water divinely shown: When that holy boy, continually praying, laboring, and watching, and crying Kyrie eleison; persevered in the above-written place, in wonderful gladness of heart; one of the days an Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said, "Ave, Nicholas": and brought in after these things words of this kind, saying: "Why have you done this work without utility?" Who answered, "Whatever my Lord wishes, let it be done." But the Angel said to him: "Since you say and desire the will of God to be done, surely you do well: but not having water here, how will you be able to dwell in this place?" Who said, "I hope in the mercy of the merciful God, that here too he will prepare water for me by his goodness." But the Angel of the Lord, withdrawing a little thence, showed him a certain place, and said: "This place, which I have shown you, you shall dig, and in it you shall find water flowing: but the men of this place will not allow you to stay here." And the Saint; "If they do not wish me to stay in this place, may the Lord turn his countenance away from them."

[11] After these things one of the days the man of God wished to ascend to the place which is named At Zerichia: whom seeing from afar the Abbot of that place, Theodore by name, crying Kyrie eleison in his manner; placed on a fierce horse, wishing to test him, said to his Monks: "Come, let us place him upon a most fierce horse; that we may know, if he is truly a holy man." But he praying in his accustomed manner, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said; "Act manfully, Nicholas, and trust: for the Lord is with you." Whom the Monks seizing, placed him upon the horse and let him go. But the horse, all its fierceness laid aside, although it was unbridled and headlong to run, immediately by the Saint's virtue was converted to all gentleness, it makes it tame, and thenceforth was made milder than a sheep or lamb: which the Monks seeing, recognized, that truly the Lord had affected him with his holy grace. The night therefore coming on, when the Saint had slept a little; behold the accustomed Angel of the Lord stood by him, and taking him carried him to the mountain, where he showed him a cave full of light. Which entering, they found in it three images, namely of Jesus Christ our Lord, and of the glorious virgin Mary his mother, he learns in a vision that Trani is to be glorified by him: and of John the Baptist the Forerunner of the same Lord: before which three images, three lamps full of light hung; and they adored them. But the Angel of the Lord took him up: and into the parts of Lombardy, to a place situated near the sea which is called Trani, he transported him, and said to him: "This place will be glorified through you until the end of the world, Nicholas: because the men of this region will expel you, that you may not stay with them, or tarry longer with them."

[12] Who waking, sought the place of the aforesaid cave with the utmost diligence very often: for this had been foreshown to him by the Angel of the Lord in an ecstasy. Passing through therefore the place of the mountain frequently and seeking, when he could not find the cave seen, he returned to the place which is called Orachus: where cutting cedar wood, and making Crosses from it, according to what seemed to him, he erected them in fitting places. But a certain man, named Petronius, from the village whence he himself was sprung, who pastured cattle on the mountain; on a certain day took from him the hatchet, the axe, and the knife, and carried them secretly into his house. But the Saint, foreknowing and recognizing these things through the Holy Spirit, found them, and said to him: "Brother, by the Lord, restore to me the iron tools which you have taken, with which I worked the service of God." Who immediately denied them to him. But the Saint said to him: "Do you not have them laid up in your house, in a corner?" Who, not even thus openly refuted, would not acquiesce. The Saint said to him: "Do you wish me to go to your house, and find them?" Who said: "Go." Who immediately without delay departing, found them in a corner of the house, laid up in a basket, according to what he had said: and taking them up, hastily returned to his own cell.

[13] But the man of God did not cease to labor and toil assiduously for the Lord: and as he labored a certain Monk met him sitting on a horse, named Maximus, the Steward of the monastery of Stiris: beaten by the Procurator of Stiris, who was an unkind and harsh man in words and acts: whom the Saint humbly and reverently saluting addresses in this way: "How, venerable Father, do you ill-treat your subject poor men, unjustly oppress and afflict them, and without mercy compel them to act and work above their strength?" And when the Saint had sweetly uttered these words and other similar ones; the Monk Maximus descending from his horse, the old hatred being recalled to his heart, taking material from the aforesaid words, beat the Saint with the staff which he carried so cruelly, that he broke his feet and legs entirely, and thus left him half-dead and shattered. Lying therefore the Saint, filled with blows and pains, giving thanks to God, snatched by sleep, saw in his sleep St. Luke, the founder of the monastery of Stiris, standing by him and saying: "Act manfully, Nicholas, and let your heart be strengthened, for the Lord is with you": and fortifying him with the sign of the Cross, he is healed by St. Luke the Stylite immediately healed him. Who rising, went to Zerichia, where the Monk who had struck him was sleeping; and crying Kyrie eleison with a high voice, woke him. Who troubled, calling some, together with dogs, ordered him to be pursued: who handling him with their hands, by a divine miracle knew not how to hold him. But the Saint climbing a certain tree, having well purchased his own safety, leaped out of their hands.

[14] Withdrawing thence, he went to the sister of his mother, named Irene, carrying his garments with him: to whom certain passers-by gave some quantity of vegetables. But he dividing the vegetables, gave Irene half the part, saying; "This part you shall eat, To his aunt, mute on account of disobedience, he restores speech: and the other untouched you shall bring back to my mother." Who taking it, ate of the part which the Saint had ordered to be kept: which being done, immediately she lost her voice and speech. But the Saint, knowing what had happened, went; and marked with the sign of the Cross restored her to health. But after these things on the first day entering July, in the monastery of Pharos the metochion, which is called Stirisca, situated by the sea, the solemnity of the glorious Martyrs Cosmas and Damian, whom they call Anargyroi (the moneyless), coming on, and the Abbot of Stiris with his Monks there keeping the annual feast, all running together in joy, he endures repulse from holy Communion: the Saint came likewise with them. When therefore he assisted at the divine Mass, wishing to receive the sacrosanct Body and Blood of Christ, by the Abbot, as an anathema, with insult he is ordered to be expelled from the church. The Saint saddened over this and weeping a little, again entered the church: and after three days, the solemnity being performed, he proposed to go with them to Rome.

[15] a girl secretly received into his company, And coming to a certain neighboring village, he began in his accustomed manner to cry Kyrie eleison. In which while he stayed, again the malignant devil, contrary to the salvation of men, prepared snares against the Saint, and again stirred up the perplexity of temptation against him. A certain young woman of beautiful face, observing a fit time, prostrated herself before the Saint, beseeching with tears, that he would tonsure her; and her habit being changed, make her a companion of his pilgrimage, and thus she would follow him wherever he went. Hearing this the man of God, marveling simply over a fervor shown only as far as the face, and instructing her becomingly from the heart of faith, according to duty, the form of life being briefly shown, dismissed her. Agitated therefore within by a vehement impulse, she laid aside her womanly garments, and clothed herself with monastic garments; and having entered a certain neighboring church, the Saint cut off her hair, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, all things being observed which according to custom are said in the assumption of the monastic habit.

[16] This woman therefore accompanied the Saint as a companion: and when they had come to another village, he suffers a calumny, they cried Kyrie eleison. Whom some of the household and kinsfolk, looking at her more attentively and recognizing her, seized: by whom being questioned, she asserted herself blameless and innocent in this matter; but laying all the blame on the Saint, she said that he was a seducer and a fool and a pestilent deceiver; and composing certain other very many words of accusation and calumny, full of lies, by defaming the Saint: on account of which, affected with injuries and beaten with blows, he was grievously beaten by the aforesaid. Very many therefore of the girl's kinsmen coming up, but innocent he is proved. the Saint appealed to the Prince of the village, demanding that he should make an inquiry about the false crime imposed on him. But the Prince, seeking out the woman not negligently, asked her, whence or how the cause of her tonsure and change of habit had arisen. But the woman, having her own conscience accusing her, at once confessed it on the truth of the business; that she herself had been the root and cause of this matter, but openly manifested and said that the Saint was innocent of such a vice and business.

NOTES BY D. P.

CHAPTER III. The Saint, having crossed into Italy, not without miracles came to Lecce.

[17] Therefore the Saint withdrew thence, and went into the land which is called Nepactum; where a certain Monk, named Bartholomew, clung to the Saint with some others, Some companions being taken at Naupactus, himself also given to pilgrimage: which Bartholomew related to us all things about this wonderful man, according to what is noted above, which he himself heard from him, or extorted with much imploring of prayers and prudence: but what follows he saw with his own eyes, from that time at which he was a companion to the Saint on the journey. From Nepactum therefore wishing to cross over, while they stayed on the shore, he completes and accomplishes a useful, fitting thing worthy of a miracle. For having entered the sea he wore drawers, and whether standing, or sitting, or walking, or doing anything else, he solicitously and devoutly cried Kyrie eleison, led by his accustomed habit: but those who together proceeded and made pilgrimage with him, he comes to Otranto, with dry foot through the sea; desired to submerge and suffocate him. But he not long after, leaping out of the ship, cast himself into the deep of the sea: whence, the virtue of God protecting him, drawn out, he is transported to the land which is called Otranto: but compelled by Bartholomew the Monk to relate the cause and manner of his safety, he said: "A certain Lady, descending from heaven, having seized me from the deep of the sea, carried me here." But those who crossed the sea with the Saint, likewise put in at the castle of Otranto.

[18] But there was then at Otranto a certain very large ship, [and he makes the ship put in, prevented by a contrary wind from entering the port.] which for many days had remained outside the port, the wind opposing, nor could they bring it to land. But the Saint said to the rulers and masters of the ship: "If you wish that the ship come to the port, fulfill and do what I shall tell you." Who said to him, "Tell us, Father." Who said: "When I shall be in the ship and shall nod to you, then draw the ship." Who said to him, "See that you do not perhaps mock us, Nicholas." Who lifting his eyes to heaven, and making his accustomed prayer Kyrie eleison, said with a loud voice to those who remained outside, "Take, draw." Then the ship by itself immediately began to move, nor did it stop until it came to land. From this the inhabitants of Otranto learned, of what virtue and direction this holy boy was, who taking his cross and amulet with faith, were cured of vexations and infirmities. For the Lord did not cease to do healings and wonders, by the merits and sacred prayers of the Saint: but he himself without intermission with the boys cried day and night, Kyrie eleison.

[19] There begun to be honored as a Saint, There began therefore both males and females to recognize and feel virtue in the man of God: therefore as suppliants they said to him: "We know, O Father, that everything which you ask from the Lord you immediately obtain: therefore have mercy on us, interpellate the Lord for us, that from the perpetual captivity of the barbarians we may be freed by your prayers; and our parents, who are held captive, through you may share and obtain liberty." But the Saint said to them: "Trust, brothers, and believe with all your strength, that our Lord Jesus Christ in his holy Gospels said, If you have faith as a grain of mustard, everything which you ask shall be done for you." Luke 17:6 Therefore after the Saint's death, according to what he had foretold, it was done. But it was a custom for the citizens of Otranto to carry the image of the glorious Virgin, with a procession with psalms and hymns, from church to church, asking indulgence for their sins and those of all. One day therefore, when the Litanies were celebrated, and the Saint following the procession sang Kyrie eleison with the rest; he met a certain old man, he takes upon himself the opinion of madness. whom adoring, he said to him; "Hail, my brother and lord, of one maker with me and of like making," and embraced him. But the Christians who were present said to him; "See, who adores and salutes the Jews." And placing the image of the Virgin Mother of God before him they said; "Abba, adore our Lady, the Mother of God." Who would not acquiesce to their words. But they struck him a little, and said to him, "Adore, Abba." Who said, "I will not adore her." But when he had received from them many strokes and blows, suddenly rising from the ground, he began to sing hymns, thanksgivings, and praises to her; and with eyes lifted to heaven cried: "Glory to you, Lady; glory to you, Lady of the world and Queen: because, on account of your super-praiseworthy name and glory, today my soul has been glorified."

[20] From then he withdrew from Otranto, and went to a certain village which is called Sugiana, which is under the same city: Departing thence. and entering the church of St. Nicholas of Myra, he said to the men standing by: "This place will be glorified until the end of the world." And staying there for many days, he did many miracles: and withdrawing thence, he turned the course of his journey to the way. But there met him in the monastery of St. Lawrence, which is beside the way, a certain man for a long time agitated by a demon. But the Saint, understanding this on account of the spirit of Jesus Christ dwelling in him, said to him: "Brother, open your mouth." Who opening his mouth immediately, he frees a possessed man. after the threefold impression of the Cross made for him by the Saint, was freed from the demon. Who entering the castle which is named Olympium, outside the city, cried Kyrie eleison in his accustomed manner. But entering the church of St. Zacharias, about the first hour of the day, with the boys crying Kyrie eleison, he enters the city. But there met him a certain man, whose name was John; who, when he had seen the Saint doing such things, glorified the Lord, and said; "I give you thanks, Lord Jesus Christ, because I have seen a man, He becomes known as a Saint. giving thanks to your name with his whole heart"; and he accompanied the Saint a little. And behold a certain other man, meeting them, said to John; "Cleave to him, because it is to be that you will be with him, and glorify the Lord together all the days of your life." But John marveling said; "Truly the Lord bears care of me, because he wishes me to be blessed together with this Monk." Learning the same thing from another, he was astonished over the things which were said to him; and fearing his parents, he said within himself; "How, following this man, can I be hidden from my parents? for they will altogether forbid me to do this": but he followed him secretly.

[21] But when he had been there many days for the sake of prayer, Coming to Lecce he is beaten as a fool: having set out to the neighboring Bishopric, he began to cry Kyrie eleison early in the morning. Whom Bishop Theodore seeing doing such things, having seized him beat him cruelly. But he, as immovable, manfully enduring and bearing the blows and strokes, is removed from the church; and withdrawing into another part, cried Kyrie eleison in his manner. But there were there two brothers, of whom one was called John and the other Rumtibert: these one morning seizing the Saint, his hands and feet being bound, placed him shut in a chamber of their house: with whom withdrawing, a great light shone in the house; and the bonds being invisibly loosed, but here too he is recognized. and the closed and sealed doors being opened, crying Kyrie eleison, he went out powerfully from the house unharmed. Who seeing the Saint so quickly led out, without injury from the house; seizing him again inquired, who had loosed his bonds and opened the doors. To whom he answered: "My God, coming invisibly, freed me from the bonds of your prison." And so he did many miracles and healings in that place: but all were consoled, and praised the Lord, saying; "Glory to you, Lord, because we have seen wonders of your servant, this boy and minister Nicholas."

NOTES BY D. P.

CHAPTER IV. After various miracles, the Saint goes to Taranto; and thence to Trani, where he dies.

[22] He therefore one of the days, entering this same city, and coming to the gate, met a certain very powerful Prince of the city and ruling the land by office, who rode with his servants: and stretching his hands to heaven, His striker, divinely punished, he heals by his prayers: he cried Kyrie eleison. The horses took fright at the sudden voice and the stretching of the hands; and those who were sitting, turning back, fell to the ground: but one of them struck the Saint with not a few blows. The soldiers therefore taking their way, suddenly he who had struck the Saint, falling from his horse, all his entrails were scattered, and his legs broken; and the hand, which had struck the Saint, was made withered; and for many days he lay miserably as if half-dead. To whom the Saint, being called, was moved with mercy. But it happened that the Count, on account of the royal tribute, held two brothers in prison, because they would not pay the royal due. For this cause he is asked by the kinsmen of the aforesaid, to go to the presence of the Count, and to supplicate for those who were held in prison: to one guilty of homicide, and therefore blinded, which the Saint hearing, went crying Kyrie eleison. But there met him the first of the Count's household, who falling down before the Saint gave him a cape and sandals, asking that he would receive them for the Lord's sake. Which the Saint receiving, and walking a little with the aforesaid man, met a certain blind man. Whom when the Saint saw, he was wholly turned to tears, and bowed on his face, fell at his feet; and prostrate prayed the Lord, that he would remit the blind man's sins, and deign to make him a partaker of penance. But the blind man falling down said, "Father, pardon me."

[23] This blind man had had a certain companion and partner in trade: with whom while he once went to trade, lying in wait for him he killed him, and took away the money which he carried. After these things, not many days having elapsed, he restores sight: the Prince of the city hearing this, seized and held him and blinded him. But he, understanding and recognizing his sin, grieving besought the Lord, that he would propitiously pardon him. But the Saint, thus cleaving to a certain column, and weeping bitterly for the blind man, asked the Lord, that he would have mercy on the blind man: and interpellated the Lord Jesus Christ, saying; "Assure me, Lord Jesus Christ, if this blind man is worthy to find pardon with you for his sin." Who while he thus prays more attentively, is transported to the top of a certain tower. But certain ones were to keep him that day for dinner, in the house in which he was lodging. But the Angel of the Lord approached and said to him: "Trust, Nicholas, the Lord has had compassion on you." But he signed himself with the sign of the Cross. The Angel therefore said to him, "Your prayer has been heard, and the blind man's sin is forgiven: and I am sent to announce this to you; and do you illuminate him." Who glorifying the Lord, descended from the tower with the Angel safe to the ground: and coming to the blind man, the place of his eyes being touched, immediately wonderfully repaired both his sight and his eyes.

[24] But certain ones holding him, led him to the church of St. Demetrius the Martyr; and his feet and hands being bound, left him in the church. But others, coming to him, said; "How, Father, did you descend safe and unharmed from the tower?" To whom the Saint answered, "Wholly the virtue of the Most High overshadowed me, and kept me from harm": but they left the Saint shut in the church. bound and shut in the church of St. Demetrius. But he did not cease to entreat and glorify the Lord, giving thanks over those things which he gloriously worked through him. And behold about the middle hour of the night, an Angel of the Lord stood by, and a great light shone in the church: and the bonds being loosed, crying Kyrie eleison, he was wonderfully led out of the church: and entering where the bells hung, he began to ring the bells. But those who were near there, holding him asked, "Who loosed you from the bonds? there he leaves his cloak, thence famous for miracles; or who opened the church for you? or how did you, coming at such an hour of night, enter here?" Who said to them: "My Lord and God did this in me." But the Sacristan held him, wishing to manifest the glorious miracles, which the Lord had powerfully wrought through his Saint. But the Saint, hanging his cloak before the image of St. Demetrius the Martyr, said; "Let not the Lord cease through him to do prodigies and miracles in those who are sick until the consummation of the age." Which is done even to the present day: for all, as many as approach with faith and touch, are freed, the Saint interceding and mediating, from whatever infirmity they are held.

[25] But the Saint persevered in the church. But a certain woman, wishing to test him, clothed herself in male habit, and remained with him: but he was ignorant of the cunning of the adversary. In his accustomed manner therefore the Saint continued nearly the whole night in prayer and vigil; and wishing to sleep a little, placed in the midst of them the precious Cross of the Lord, which he carried. That woman the temptress then saw a fiery column, which irradiating reached from the heavens to the head of St. Nicholas. Which when the woman had seen, made sober, going out she narrated all the wonderful glorious things which she had beheld of the Saint. warded by the opposing fiery column: These and similar things the Saint did not cease to do in Lombardy: for a certain boy, about eight years old, whose name was Pulexetus, who was the son of the chief and noble of the city, the Saint signed with the life-giving sign of the holy Cross; and from then the boy began to do miracles in place of the Saint, to expel infirmities, he confers the grace of miracles on a boy, to cast out demons, and to heal all languors.

[26] From then the Saint withdrawing thence, went to the castle of Evectum, distant a journey of one day from the aforesaid city, crying Kyrie eleison in his accustomed manner; where staying in the house of a certain poor widow, he blesses the poor widow. through certain devout men, lovers of Christ, he strove to minister to her whatever was necessary. For carrying wood on his own back, he brought it back to the lodging, and said to her; "Woman, the Lord providing, in this house there shall not be lacking to you, through me his servant, the grace and mercy of our God." But in this castle, just as in the other villages, cities, and castles, he ceaselessly cried Kyrie eleison. he preaches penance: Thus this Saint, singing Kyrie eleison, cried, "Do penance, all Christians"; just as to the impious Jews the glorious Forerunner of Christ cried. Therefore certain mockers, seizing the Saint of the Lord, tonsured in the manner of the Cross, made him a Deacon in derision: but God established him in deed in the Order of the Diaconate.

[27] But going out thence into another city, named Taranto, he came crying, Kyrie eleison, and "Do penance." At his cry therefore the Bishop of the city was troubled: but it was night: but the day dawning, he had many vehement blows inflicted on the Saint. The same doing at Taranto he is beaten, For they beat him so inhumanly and dreadfully, that his blood tinged the ground round about. Who departing thence, came to a city named Trani; his body torn by the unbearable and many blows of the aforesaid, feeling exceedingly ill, he fell into a painful and grave infirmity; whence at Trani being sick, and called he lay down before the doors of the church of the holy Virgin Mother of God Mary. Where an unspeakable and ineffable light shone around him from heaven, and foretold him a pilgrimage from the body to the Lord Jesus Christ. To this the holy man, innocent, caring nothing about the offense, calling the Bishop who had struck him, demanded to receive pardon from him. Indeed the Bishop remitting, gave pardon to the Saint; but, there he learns that he is to die. on account of the offense which he had done to him, he more truly received it himself. But in his last moments the Saint, as if breathing his last, did signs and wonders. For in his last moments, still living, he did such a miracle as the Savior did at the wedding. For asking for water, and drinking a little of it, he gave the rest to one of the bystanders: he changes water into wine, who taking and drinking it, it was not water, but sweet wine, fragrant and pleasant, much more delightful than ours, and far distant from it.

[28] All these things the Monk Bartholomew narrated to me; who was a humble and altogether affable man, and a conqueror of demons, restrained in word and truthful. But this Saint never had or saw a phantasm of demons; except that once, sleeping on the shore, and a tumult being made on it about the middle of the night, waking, he thought he saw a certain ship going out from a certain bay, full of a multitude of Agarenes, and carried against him with vehement impulse: but he, crying Kyrie eleison, immediately destroyed it. But he asserted that he had been clothed, as if in play, in the monastic habit by the Monks of Stiris; whence they accomplished nothing according to the custom of those renouncing the world. But by contemplating and living well, he more becomingly and honorably adorned it; after a life lived most rigidly, and to the end, simply and innocently, without stain and offense, he kept himself. Thus therefore this blessed Nicholas living, and showing such conversation and institution from the cradle and youth, as a good man and gathered to the Lord, demonstrating works and virtues pleasing to him, taken from earthly labors, passed to the lovable and desirable goods; that he might enjoy the goods laid up for him by his Beloved, and be satisfied with their perennial pleasure, and pray for us to the Lord, he piously dies. that we might be made partakers of the eternal goods, by the grace and mercy of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit is glory, honor, and dominion, forever and ever. Amen.

NOTES BY D. P.

PART II. On the Saint's arrival at Trani, and death, and the miracles following it, by the Author Adelferius, an eyewitness in several things. From three Manuscripts and Ughelli.

BY Adelferius FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

PROLOGUE.

[29] It is fruitful and convenient and profitable for posterity, when the memory of the Saints, handed down by literary study, forms the hearts of readers or hearers to the model of the heavenly life. This therefore noticing will be very necessary to not a few, The Author excuses his slenderness: most reverend Pontiff Bisantius, and cultivator and teacher of the divine law, you command me Adelferius, the servant of your sanctity, to relate concerning the life and miracles of the most blessed Nicholas, by surname the Pilgrim, what more certain things I shall have learned. Which assuredly I would lovingly pursue, did not the consciousness of my ignorance confound my mind. But when I behold a sea of such great depth, returning into myself, with what oars I might be able to overcome it, I do not find: and I am afraid to wrench the rope from the port: lest, shaken by the stormy waves, I should suffer shipwreck, and reach less the bosom of the calm sea. For which cause, in so great an abundance of the most learned; why you should choose me especially, venerable Father, supported by the prerogative of no skill, marveling I am astonished: to whom both the weakness of nature and of age is an obstacle.

[30] But since, not unmindful of the divine precepts, you are the most diligent procurator of the Churches of Christ and of the Saints; I will try to obey your commands (because I would by no means dare to resist) not by the temerity of audacity, but by the devotion of obedience: for I trust, that if obedience follows the precept, the effect will also follow obedience. The miracles therefore of the most blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim, Confessor of Christ, with which the blessed times of your Archbishopric and Synkellate flourished, which namely, learned by me by the account of no one, but known by my own eyes' beholding, he writes the miracles seen by himself. I undertake to explain piecemeal: undoubtedly believing, illustrious Prelate, by your merits and prayers, to obtain the patronage of almighty God and his Mother and most glorious Virgin Mary, and of this Saint, whose affection I bear; that, what my mind faithfully desires, my tongue may express.

NOTE BY D. P.

CHAPTER I. His life holily lived. His pious death.

[31] When the second most glorious Prelate of the Roman See, Urban, mighty in work and doctrine, Nicholas, Greek by birth, and overflowing with the fountain of eloquence, following the footsteps of the Apostles and the Apostolic men, and intent on pastoral care, happily governed the rulings of the Churches; and Alexius the most excellent Emperor, and cultivator of the Catholic faith, supported on the Constantinopolitan throne, held the reins of the Roman Empire; a certain young man, Greek by race, Nicholas by name (who afterward, from the event of his pilgrimage, was surnamed by us the Pilgrim), lived in the monastery of St. Luke: crossed over to Italy. He indeed in the monastery of St. Luke at Stiris, which is situated in the parts of Greece (as they say), having long stayed, lived an Angelic life. And when he solicitously turned over in his mind the Lord's precepts, which command the cross to be taken up, and so the Lord to be followed; not only in spirit, but with carnal hands embracing the cross with ardent desire, he departed from the monastery; and, that he might be able to follow Christ, condemning secular pleasures, he set out abroad. Who when he put in at the city of Otranto, having stayed there a little, he deserted the people not knowing him, and undertaking the journey came to Taranto: he goes to Otranto, where staying for some time, he wrought certain (as they relate) wondrous things, and on that account was held in honor by almost all the common people. But because the supreme Majesty had resolved, to adorn the city of Trani with so great a Patron and to enrich it with a precious corpse, on account of the merits of the just; bidding farewell to Taranto, walking through the maritime cities, which I have thought superfluous to enumerate, and from Taranto, came to Trani on 20 May; on the thirteenth of the Kalends of June he at last arrived at Trani.

[32] Having entered therefore the city, and carrying the cross of Christ, as was customary to him among the common people, he gathered a multitude of boys: with whom going before through the various places of the city, always kindled in the praises of God, he never ceased to cry Kyrie eleison: and he exhorted the boys following, that they too should answer what he sang before, enticing the boys, with them he cries Kyrie eleison: in the Argive tongue. Whom, that they should not desert him, but that more and more many should follow, he sweetly coaxed with the fruits of various apples. For if he received any coins from alms, not allured by tenacious ambition, he did not strive to bring them afterward to be kept in his purse; but from them to distribute apples bought to the boys. Which the people of Trani, struck by the unusual business, thought to be of an insane man: and him (alas! relating it I shudder) very many held in illusion and contempt as a madman. But some, who had a deeper sense, contemplating works of this kind more perspicaciously, constantly asserted that he was of the merit of wonderful sanctity (as a little afterward became clear in the open): and yet venerated him, although far otherwise than was fitting: of whose life and morals it is easy for no one to set forth all things; not if Tully the most illustrious orator should now revive from the dead, and be present here. For who is of such eloquent loquacity, that he could express his spirit, never relaxed from prayer? Indeed even if sometimes he seemed to be silent, in that very (so to speak) silence he was at leisure, whispering inwardly of divine grace.

[34] So great was the frugality of his abstinence, that through each day passed he remained fasting; nor at any other hour, except only the evening, was he wont to take a little bread and water, not for the sake of satiety, but lest he should fail from a longer fast: to whom yet not, as is wont, from the assiduity of fasts came leanness; but, as if he never abstained, fatness fell. he lives on bread and water: Who, since he was of youthful disposition, and given to continence with the new flower of down clothing his cheeks, fleeing the wicked stain of the world, with which this age is wont to be polluted, he shuddered. Clad in poor little rags, he always walked with bare feet. But in vigils he so passed the night, that mostly at night he prayed standing. O man worthy of all veneration, whose honey-flowing voice sounded with the sweetest eloquences! moderate in clothing and sleep: who showed himself of such great efficacy, that he kept dove-like simplicity, and did not lack the prudence of the serpent! But behold, while I have tried to show the individual merits of the most blessed Nicholas the Confessor of Christ; I have proceeded farther and higher, and seem to have said almost nothing to the quantity of his virtues. Now I turn my pen to the order of the narration.

[35] When the most blessed Nicholas, persisting in the divine offices, often went around the walls of the city with a band of boys; He renders to Archbishop Bisantius an account of the deed: Bisantius, the illustrious Archbishop and not mediocrely endowed with the industry of letters, moved by the rumor of the common people, solicitously inquired what it might be. To whom when it was related that a young man sprung from Greece had put in at the city, knowing not how to do anything else, except to cry Kyrie eleison; he orders him to come to him at once. And when the man of God was led and stood before the presence of the Prelate; being asked by him, why he did these things; with serene countenance, with mild addresses, he gave this answer: "Lord," he said, "from whom no Gospel commands are hidden, it is by no means hidden from you, how our Lord Jesus Christ commanded, that, if anyone wished to go after him, he should take up his cross, and follow him: and you know that he again said to the disciples, that unless they were converted, and made like little children, they would not enter the kingdom of heaven. Luke 9:23, Matt. 18:3 These things therefore being observed, I have not blushed to bear the sign of the Cross within and without, and to proceed under the form of a little child, nor have I avoided the illusions of men. Whether it is fitting to do this, I leave to your judgment: for with you, unless it displeases you, it is my will to stay; if otherwise, I will of my own accord set out from this city." When the most sagacious Archbishop heard the most blessed Nicholas conversing with this, and other things joined with the highest reason; he understood, that he was a servant of God, and of great merit: and then he uttered words of this kind: "Since by your discourse," he said, "I have learned, that by divine precept you have undertaken such great things, why then should I bid you depart? I prefer indeed that until the solemnity of the most blessed Apostles Peter and Paul you stay here, not deserting your accustomed praises; and what is necessary for your sustenance, I will of my own accord grant you, coming assiduously."

[36] he repeats Kyrie eleison with the boys: Such things being said between them, the athlete of Christ Nicholas, moved by heavenly instinct, left the Archbishop, wishing to say more, in the middle of his speech; and saluting him, withdrew quickly from his sight. Whom, long awaited, when the band of boys perceives, all rejoicing rushed to obey. Glad therefore he too, when he had seen the boys, with swift gait as was his wont, with cheerful countenance, and fervent spirit going before, with melodious voice filled the places of the city: for the boys following (whom he coaxed with the gift of apples) answered with consonant voices. You might see the whole common people now desiring to see him. For who would not desire to be satisfied with the sweetness of his mouth, whose address was to be compared to the Angels? But because of the anguish of my genius from poverty, it is not of my power to unfold piecemeal all things which occur. Therefore I proceed hastily to the outcome of the matter.

[37] The most blessed Nicholas therefore, when he had stayed at the city of Trani for three days, and surrounded by boys ceaselessly demanded the mercy of God, on the fourth day at last, seized by languor, lay down on the little bed of a certain host (Sabinus by name), and began to be acutely feverish. Which when it was known to the people of Trani, so great indeed was the concourse of all, the sick man is visited by many, but especially of women, who burning with too great love, desired to visit him, that the house in which he lay scarcely held them. No female grade was omitted, which did not flow together to him for the sake of visiting. The very choir of virgins, because it could not be present by day, awaited the darkness with all intention and desire, that, the evening ascending, they might hasten to him. At no moment of time was the house empty: but from the abundance of visitors full in the daytime, fuller in the night hours, it was frequented by a manifold people: standing around the little bed, they suppliantly besought that he would bless them. The boys too, whom he cherished with paternal affection, it is established grieved very much; and surrounding the bed, as if bereaved of a parent, tearfully complained. To whom the man of God, of gentle breast as he was, speaking softly, for the sake of comfort handed over the Cross to be carried, to those about to sing the accustomed praises round about. But when almighty God wished his servant placed in labor to rest, and to demonstrate to the world the merits of his virtues; that the city of Trani, illustrated by his rays, might always shine, he deigned to invite him to the banquets of his feast. On the second day therefore of the month of June, the debt of the flesh being loosed, he rendered his spirit to heaven.

[38] he dies on 3 June, How great and how venerable was his preceding sanctity, here now shone more clearly. Namely, as if an Angelic trumpet sounded with great blare, so swift fame suddenly struck the whole city; and the news of the blessed man's death filled all the people: who immediately, as if it were divinely inspired, and admonished by a divine oracle, ran together rejoicing to the blessed obsequies of his funeral. Plainly no one anywhere remained in the city, who declined this spectacle; neither men, nor women, nor were young girls lacking, nor were infants lacking. But the whole city gathered into one (wonderful to see) flowed together vying. No official duties detained anyone: but in a wonderful manner, all things being set aside and little valued, his body honored by the concourse of all, they ran together there; whither also the honorable order of the Clergy, never elsewhere more copiously and devoutly, hastened. Which that it was the first and greatest of the miracles, let no one doubt: when at the funeral of a stranger and pilgrim, no sign yet shown through him, so great an abundance of both sexes was gathered: which I think was done for this, that the marks of the miracles might have more witnesses.

[39] he is carried to the church of Blessed Mary: But after they had completed the funeral exequies, the most glorious body being placed on a bier, with a populous frequency of those going before and following, to the church of Blessed Mary, not without divine power, they honorably carried it. But the church being filled, the greater part stood outside, because, excluded by the people, it could not enter. And when Blessed Nicholas was placed in the middle of the church, all the people most devoutly went to kiss his hands and feet. All rejoiced to behold him, and to kiss him limb by limb: and if anyone perhaps, hindered by the impulse of certain ones, lacked the kiss of the Saint, he was affected with great sadness. How great indeed was the access of those kissing, the breaking of the bed indicates: whose frame, the people rushing in, was loosed piece by piece. O the unspeakable benignity of the Redeemer! Whom no one had seen doing prodigies, they already venerated as a Saint: he is famous for miracles. indeed those carrying any sick also laid them upon the body of the Saint in hope of restored health: nor did that matter hold them deceived. For when, the bier being completed, a most brilliant place which is beside the altar held, by the command of the Archbishop, the most bright members of Blessed Nicholas, and little remained of the Missal Office; thenceforth innumerable virtues were shown through the same servant of Christ: which not only at this time, when the blessed faith of the Christians is flourishing; but at the beginning, would have sufficed for the edification of the Church.

NOTES BY D. P.

CHAPTER II. Miracles done before and after the burial.

[40] A certain girl, native of Trani, whose name is Mundella, desiring the light, which she had lost for the space of three years; Before the burial a blind woman is illuminated; anxious with the rest of the throng had come to the church, where the Saint was kept, hoping to be able to obtain health, although the fame of the Saint had not yet filled the neighborhood. Who when she rushed upon the venerable body, us standing by, beheld the bright day. Which thing was the beginning of the miracles, and a witness of the life of Blessed Nicholas, and raised the hearts of the sick to the greatest hope. This sign therefore compelled another woman, named Bisantia, standing close by, whose arm had long ago withered, to approach nearer: who scarcely breaking through the density of the surrounding multitude, at last came to the desired body. there are healed two sick women And when, kissing, she clung, she was restored to her former health: and moved the minds of the spectators to break forth into the praise of Christ. A certain woman too, named Alva, wearied by the excess of pain, had long suffered a knotting of the body. And when, led to the church, she had been poured over the Saint, the sacred body at once loosed the knot of her body.

[41] When these and very many other miracles were wrought through the most blessed Nicholas, and now the day was inclining; The body is given to burial. Bisantius the Archbishop of Trani, and Augustal Synkell, illustrious in race, more illustrious in eloquence, and second to none, coming with all the Clergy, reverently took up the venerable body; and into a certain corner of the same church, leading it with praises and due honor, There are healed gave it to worthy burial: glorifying God, who had enriched the city of Trani with so great a treasure. The sacred body therefore being laid away, not only did the great deeds of virtues not cease, but more abundant ones were done, as the following discourse will insinuate. 2 Contracted persons, A certain boy native of Trani, since from the age of infancy he was contracted, had now failed from the long labor of sickness. He therefore, the opinion of Blessed Nicholas being received, desiring to be unknotted from his contraction, brought quickly to his tomb, obtained the wished-for benefit. A certain young man, named Petracca, born of noble race, whose limbs, destitute of their proper office, a continual contraction had knotted, when he stood by the venerable body; what he had desiringly asked, the people standing by, he obtained as a gift.

[42] These things therefore being performed, the fame of the most blessed Nicholas running about everywhere, not only the neighbors, but the distant, various ones coming from elsewhere; summoned to the city of Trani. Who roused by an unexpected awe, devoutly carried the sick laboring with various ailments to the holy body. Moreover the abundance of the ailing surpassed number, of whom health restored allowed very many to return to their fatherland. A certain man of Bisceglie, named Desigius, whose limbs, held by assiduous torture, had long ago grown knotty and torpid; a contracted man, when he learned of the wonders of Blessed Nicholas, came desiringly to his ark: who a little afterward, stretched out, returned home on his own feet. Meanwhile a certain man, an inhabitant of Calabria, hearing the innumerable virtues, which through the servant of Christ Nicholas in the city of Trani were continually displayed, came to his sarcophagus with believing hope, with the confidence of recovering the light, a blind man, which he needed. Who after a little, the grace of clear sight obtained, departed rejoicing to his own home.

[43] Meanwhile a few days having elapsed, a certain woman of Terlizzi, who was called Maria, whose whole body was bound with knots, so that the individual members might be free for their offices, is led to the holy tomb. But she having entered the city of Trani, terrified those watching her entrance: indeed because she could not sit on a donkey, she was carried in a basket in the manner of a ball. And when she lay down before the tomb of the Saint, another contracted woman; it is incredible to relate how easily she received her former soundness.

[44] A little time having elapsed, when the celebrated name of the most blessed Nicholas had grown more widely through the climes of all Italy; it happened that a certain Fleming, the possessed: one man, named Andrew, whom, besides the dryness of his right arm, the wickedness of a demon had enslaved, set out to the Church of Trani, to pray for the Saint's help. He therefore standing near the venerable body, added fright to the watching people; for, where the unclean spirit had more troublesomely infested, prostrate on the ground he, half-alive, quivered. I pass over indeed that he struck the marble pavements with his head, and that the foam of his mouth besmeared his mouth. Yet on a certain day standing near the altar, where the Saint had before lain; suddenly made whole, he raised both palms, many seeing it, to heaven unharmed; and rejoicing that the demon, by the intervention of Blessed Nicholas, had departed, gave immense thanks to the Almighty. This indeed glorious miracle was hidden from no one of the people of Trani; for staying long in the Curia of the most benign Archbishop, at last by his command he went to Jerusalem glad.

[45] About the same time a certain woman, named Anastasia, from the town of Mutila, whom a most wicked spirit rushing upon her cruelly vexed, her hair bloody, and her mouth torn, came panting to the refuge of the most blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim: two women: whom she at once felt an eager helper: since falling asleep before his tomb, she was freed from the demon. Who, awakened, to those asking her how this had happened, answered; that she had heard a voice saying to her: "Rise, woman, for you are made whole etc." After much time, the wife of a certain fellow-citizen of ours, by the vernacular name Rossula, held by a demon, is led to the tomb of the Saint. And when the most wicked demon vexed her insistently; and spoke many execrable things through her mouth, and brought forth even some things about Blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim; many being present, he departed from her. Whom before the sight of the illustrious Archbishop her lord gave to liberty.

[46] likewise two bedridden persons. At the very time at last a certain boy, named Urso, whom the knotting of his limbs had compelled to keep his bed, sought the help of Blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim, whose name he had received, and in the present obtained the effect of his petition. Since in the same hour, loosed from infirmity, he hastened with very swift steps where the Saint rested, very many accompanying. This therefore done, a certain woman, whose name was Gemina, enervated by the magnitude of her infirmity, for the course of four years was so destitute of the office of her members, that she could not even bring her hand to her mouth. She indeed lying on her little bed at home, poured out prayers to Blessed Nicholas, of whom she had heard many and great things. Who without delay being heard, rose up unharmed; and to the tomb of the Saint, a great crowd accompanying, walked with very swift steps; giving thanks to God, who through his servant Nicholas the Pilgrim had mercy on her.

[47] These things about the miracles of the most blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim, Confessor of Christ, only a few, The Epilogue excuses the brevity. and likewise briefly touched, I have summarized; thinking it the best deed to avoid prolixity: since I could pursue neither all things, nor in all respects, as they were done, whom time will desert, but never abundance. For the sufficiency of knowledge therefore I judge it abundantly said to the sagacious reader, to whom from these, how great and of what sort a Blessed Nicholas was, will evidently appear. And so, the port being reached toward which my course was, it is timely to cast anchor, and to make fast the fleet. Let Trani therefore rejoice, and exult, which at the end of the ages deserved to see so many miracles. Let it rejoice, I say, always, to which the most blessed virgin Mary granted so great a Patron. Let it rejoice, which, irradiated by the splendor of such great virtues, among the cities of Apulia will shine like a lamp with eternal light. Let us commit ourselves therefore to the help of the same most blessed Nicholas, that by the prayers of his benignity he may ask for us a saving remedy, and by his continual protection fortify us against present and future adversities; and may he who is worthily celebrated and venerated by us, be our perpetual intercessor: that, as he himself, one of the number of the Angelic host, perennially jubilates in the heavens, so he may grant us too to be partakers of eternal joy. O most blessed Nicholas, look upon the vows of your suppliants, and attend to their prayers: and propitiously aid all the people of Trani; especially Bisantius, the illustrious Archbishop of Trani, and also imperial Synkell, with all the Clergy committed to him; who, the most desirous founder of your celebration, commanded me Adelferius, the lowest of his servants, these things to be written for the praise of your name; that, you protecting, the commander and the writer may be perpetually guarded. But the most blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim died in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand ninety-four, in the second Indiction, on the second day of the month of June, on a Friday. Our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, who with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns God, through all ages of ages. Amen.

[48] Although I am not of such worth, venerable Prelate Bisantius, nor good at composing, yet you add the burden. Obeying your precepts by the exhortation of mind, I will try to write, though the very labor be hard. There came to these parts one who knew these arts, Epitome. to proclaim: "My God, do you have mercy." His right hand bears the cross, he excels in the praise of Christ. Him the people laugh at, when they see his deeds. For he goes around the places of the city, with crowds of boys: whom he placates with apples, yet is not empty of mouth. He proceeds glad, rejoicing, and witty in heart, the Spirit breathed and given from heaven, crying too in the marketplace, while he went with melodious mouth; joined to languor, behold it befell him to die. Drawing out grief the whole people rushes from everywhere: rightly they seek him, and carry him to the church. Here at last dense virtues were shown; which the people marvel at, and astonishment is given to it. For the blind see, and the lame how well they walk, how many goods are given by him, I cannot number. Let Trani therefore rejoice, on which a lovable morning has shone: which deserved to retain so good a gift. I ask you to defend the people of Trani, blessed Nicholas, and your Pontiff, and his Alferius. To the All-seeing, the Almighty, be glory, who in Deity remains Three and One. Amen.

NOTES BY G. H.

PART III. On the Canonization and Translation of St. Nicholas. By the Author Amandus, Deacon of Trani. From Manuscripts and the edition of Ughelli.

BY THE AUTHOR AMANDUS

PROLOGUE.

[49] A conception of pure will, from which, procreated from the seed of the Holy Spirit, it grows up, at the opportune time seeks egress to the light, is nourished by honorable imitation, is perfected and strengthened. When therefore, Bisantius, venerable Archbishop of the holy Church of Trani, by your innate benignity you bent your mind, By the example of the former little book, that you might solemnly and festively translate the Body of Blessed Nicholas, to the house built in his name; not only for the execution of this so honorable purpose, divine grace, your innate goodness, the honorableness of the business, the reverence of the holy man armed you; but also the solicitude and zeal of your predecessor of blessed memory Archbishop Bisantius (who from your boyhood instituted you in the sacred Orders, and educated you in the Ecclesiastical doctrines) toward the same most blessed man incited you, that you might perfect with worthy effect the thought of your heart; and, the work which he himself with great devotion began, being perfected by you, you might more devoutly put the last hand to it. But since by the command of the piety of the aforesaid Archbishop your predecessor, it was committed to writing, that in the passing of the same most holy man a manifold indication of divine virtue appeared; you equally resolved that there should also be committed to writing certain things, of the many virtues and wondrous acts of the said holy man, which at that time had not yet been impressed in the figures of lines; and how, and how honorably, the translation of his sacred body was celebrated. Indeed in the footsteps of your pious Father, a pious son and excellent heir of the Episcopal dignity, you strove to lean.

[50] The Author, being ordered, writes the following. With the same ardor of divine charity therefore you ordered me Amandus the Deacon, although an unworthy servant of your fatherhood, to commit to memory the things which sought to be formed into writing, tempering the burden of labor with the gift of honor. Wherefore, because I never refused to execute your command in any business by my office, as far as my strength allowed; I dared by no means to contradict this so illustrious desire: although the matter is arduous, and to be handled by a more practiced genius: lest, if in any way I should decline so beautiful an office, either a crafty simulation of ignorance might seem, or simulation might slip to the precipice of disobedience. To use therefore the eloquence of a certain wise man: the most difficult refusal of your command becomes for me the excuse of an audacious undertaking. But since this little book namely flees to the protection of so great a censure; it vehemently demands, that you defend it from the bites of rivals with the shield of authority, being officious to the Confessor of Christ, prone to your command, zealous of brevity, about to profit many: hence to the advancement of virtues and the appetite for heavenly things, hence to the detestation of vices and the contempt of earthly things.

CHAPTER I. The Canonization of St. Nicholas the Pilgrim, a church built. Miracles wrought.

[51] Divine piety therefore, when it gave to Blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim, Confessor, free egress from this light to the heavens; his sacred body being placed in a corner of the church, Bisantius the Elder, Archbishop, treats of the Canonization, and adorned from heaven with wonderful signs; it seemed it would be worthy of justice, suitable to humility, useful to posterity, if the miracles of the man of God, which now lived in sacred writings, should be numbered in the catalogue of the Saints, supported by the mandate of Apostolic authority. This, I say, the venerable Archbishop, of whom mention was made above, turning over in his mind, and on that account the Clergy and people of Trani being gathered; whether, what he himself foresaw would have to be done, the assent of all should reckon ratified by common favor, with modest voice, with venerable gravity, he inquired. When it was shouted, that it pleased all; as if confirmed by a divine oracle, with excellent men of the Clergy and people, he sought a Synodal council, which at that time at Rome Urban II of happy memory, supreme Pontiff of the Roman Church, was celebrating. But when first, before the sacred assembly of the Lord Pope, and proposes the matter in the Roman Council: the means of speaking was given; after the affection of salutation and the kiss, the same Archbishop briefly (as he was) with modest mouth, expressed the life of the holy man and his passing declared by miracles; reckoning this too to pertain to the glory of God, and the praise of the holy man, and the prosperity of the city of Trani. Which matter was attentively heard even by so great an assembly of sacred men, and accepted with faith following the words; and that God is glorious in his Saints, was praised in common by all.

[52] Soon the miracles of the blessed man, as they had lately been impressed on paper, were presented to the sacred hands of the Lord Pope. Which being eagerly read through, by the common Counsel of the Brothers, the Roman Prelate answered them (as he was) with that gentleness; where the Miracles read are approved, that he and the whole venerable assembly had devoutly drunk in, and believed whatever about the holy man, by so great a testimony he had learned: and that he gave assent to his honorable petition, and committed the whole of what he asked to his will, withholding credit from no part of the deeds. But the Reverend Archbishop instantly demanding, the supreme Prelate ordered the sentence uttered by his sacred mouth to be formed into sacred letters, and (lest any place of ambiguity remain) to be marked with a leaden seal. and the Canonization is granted, And lest oblivions could harm the sacred history; the Apostolic letters were laid up in the cupboard of the Church of Trani; whose sentence, to be set forth to the knowledge of all, you ordered me, venerable Archbishop, to insert here.

[53] Urban the Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the clergy and order, the Bull being published by Urban II. the nobles and the people dwelling at Trani, greeting and Apostolic benediction. When, the Lord granting, lately with a great frequency of Bishops and Abbots, we held a synodal council; our venerable brother Bisantius, the Archbishop of your city, recited before the whole council some miracles of the venerable man Nicholas (who among you is surnamed the Pilgrim), set forth in writing; and most instantly demanded, that the same man of God, by our authority, be numbered in the Catalogue of the Saints. We therefore committed the matter itself to the same our Brother; hesitating nothing indeed about his probity and knowledge, that what shall seem to him, the Lord revealing it, he may determine by more mature deliberation; to the praise and glory of him who by his free mercy is wont to gratify his servants wonderfully.

[54] But the aforesaid Archbishop, returned to his Church, A church is built: the Apostolic commission and benediction accompanying, began a church in honor of Blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim; deeming it worthy of the veneration of so great a man, that he who had already received a seat from God in heaven, should also deserve from men on earth the honor of an oratory: in which gentle he might be present to those suppliantly asking; in whose foundations he placed the first stone with a blessing, that he might both show his own devotion, and incite the desires of the people. But from that time, how many and to whom of his faithful almighty God, by the merits of the same holy man, restored the state of former health; Miracles are wrought. and how many oppressed by perils he freed; the human tongue does not suffice to relate. I however, venerable Father, obeying your command, trusting in the help of the same man of God, have chosen certain things from the innumerable, leaving very many of this kind untouched.

[55] At a certain time therefore, while the servant of a certain man, Peter by name, was being led in a little boat, given to the exercise of fishing; a demon invaded him, and expelled his former mind, and ordered the man to yield to him with his whole breast. Then madness betrayed itself by foam: and that he was possessed by the dire conveyor, his bites and the gnashing of his teeth made plain. He is said to be constrained at home, who, those whom he cannot harm with hands or bites, he provokes with words. Trembling seizes those seeing, divine vengeance brings all to the knowledge of themselves, and exhorts to the correction of morals. At last by salutary counsel, he whom the demon possessed (as he was, his hands and neck bound) is led before the tomb of the Confessor of Christ. Which when the crafty enemy and dire invader perceived; as if now already he were constrained by eternal torments to be damned; you might see him resist with the utmost effort; and those, whom, his bonds being constricted, he could not harm, with a horrible voice, with the fremitus of his mouth he wished to terrify. When at last the vexer sees his snares proceed in vain, nor foresees a way of escaping, he predicts that he will be urged from his house by the merits of the man of God, and within the watches of the night will leave the vessel which he had invaded. The place he is freed, and becomes a Monk: in which was he whom the demon infested, the frequency of the citizens of both sexes had made celebrated: that prayers be poured to the Lord by common vow, the groans of the bystanders taught; all with one voice besought the man of God. When suddenly, about cockcrow, the man of God was present to those praying, cast out the unclean spirit, and made plain by a vomit of blood that the creature of God had been freed from the invader. O how great then was the exultation of men: how great and how many praises of God were celebrated! who willed thus to glorify this Saint, thus to be praised in his glory. Then that man, whom the Saint of God had freed, loosed also from the right of servitude, for a long time devoted himself to the service of St. Nicholas. But afterward he took the habit of sacred religion, and very many of ours saw him live a religious life in the monastery of St. Benedict (which is at Salerno).

[56] Very many also consigned to prisons found the help of this blessed man in their miseries. captives are saved, For certain ones, when they were more tightly pressed in prison by iron fetters, the help of this man of God being suppliantly asked, the bolts being removed, the iron of their feet being loosed by divine virtue, found him a propitious giver of liberty, and a guide of their journey. How often too, the various ailments being driven away, soundness was restored to those seeking his oratory, very many shapes of waxen images, and silver forms indicate: which pledges of vows, on the heights of the temple of the man of God, to the honor and glory of God, are hung. Often, when they touched the sacred threshold, those whose belly or arms iron rings had encircled by the name of penance, to the testimony of divine virtue, the iron breaking, obtained the health of body and soul.

[57] How great benefits are easily bestowed on laboring ships no one is worthily sufficient to explain. likewise those fearing shipwreck, For when a certain ship, laden with those seeking the holy man's tomb, now held the deep of the sea; a horrid storm moved the waters, cast the companion ships, tossed even to the cliffs of the Dalmatian shore, and besides the shipwrecks of the ships a great part of the shipwrecked perished. But that ship, which from the sign of a lion was called the ship Leo, when at the pleasure of the storm it was led committed to fortune, set upon a certain rock in the middle of the sea, is assailed by storms here and there, now already it is invaded, the rising wave threatens the peril of death, for skill of art and strength had abandoned the steersmen and sailors, safety was now almost exhausted; when all the sailors and pilgrims besought the help of Christ's soldier Nicholas the Pilgrim. Then the Pilgrim Nicholas came to the aid of the pilgrims seeking him, benignly bestows singular help, is present to those acting in extremity. A wonderful thing! In that appearance, in which he walked through the city, he was seen to stand ready at the helm, St. Nicholas appearing and steering the ship; freed the ship from the rock and from the peril; carried it to a certain port, through the midst of the storm and the dense darkness of night, the tempests being unwilling. This, many narrating it, deserved credit: and lest anyone with malign mind should derogate from God, because through his Saints he works until the consummation of the age; for the memory of the deed wrought, a waxen ship, with all its rigging, still hangs in the same church: and the Confessor of Christ Nicholas, at the helm of the same ship, as he appeared, stands forth: which indeed the steersman of the ship, as he had vowed, rendered.

[58] But the miracle which I now narrate I learned by eyewitness faith. When a certain ship, laden with Palm-bearers, was returning from Syria, in which I too with the rest was present; likewise others with the writer himself, the wind from the Southern point at first gently moved the air, a little afterward vehement it rushed: closed the sky with darkness, stirred up the forces of the sea: the ship is driven with rapid course; with the bosom of each sail swelling, it is snatched with unusual swiftness. When the fury of the wind suddenly bent the swollen sails of the prow, the bosom being turned to the opposite part, lays them back, and wound them around the mast: for in the manner of a cross that ship led down the arms of each mast. Pressing fear had taken away the hope of safety and the use of reason; the ship more and more threatened destruction: the force of the sea and the gale increased. Then imminent dread had closed the way of voice, and imminent death with leaden color had infected the faces of each. New vows were found by the new fear: for it was the vow of the sailors, that the mast should break through the middle, that by a lighter inconvenience they might be rescued from a greater peril. When suddenly one of the sailors from the stern, invokes the help of Nicholas the Pilgrim with very loud voice, saying: "St. Nicholas, whose feast is held today, help us perishing": for on that day the birthday of the same man of God was being celebrated. At this voice the mouths of all the pilgrims were loosed, saying; "St. Nicholas the Pilgrim, help the pilgrims." Immediately the force of the wind was turned back, and the sail to the rightness of its position, all being astonished, stood, that they had been freed by the intervention of the man of God from imminent peril, by whose help also we reached the shore of Otranto on the same day.

NOTES BY G. H.

CHAPTER II. The Translation of the body to the new Church: Miracles done.

[59] But when now the time approached, in which divine piety wished the Relics of the blessed man to be translated to their own house; For the translation of the Relics the same Blessed Nicholas persuaded certain religious persons through dreams, that they should announce that he wished his Relics to be placed in the place prepared for him, and that it ought not to be deferred further. To the time therefore of your election, venerable Prelate, was reserved, what in past times was not granted to others. For this you formerly vehemently desired, this you busied yourself to fulfill: for executing this the long affection of your vows rendered you most worthy. For what is more pleasing to God? what more worthy of the heavenly reward? what more honorable in this life? than to serve the soldiers of Christ, to honor them with worthy cult, and to show them due reverence? When therefore the time seemed opportune, in which both the disturbance of Apulia had been calmed: and if divine grace wished, to its own grace and glory, and the honor of its soldier, to show miracles, the multitude gathered from everywhere might be witness of them; it pleased your prudence, many Bishops, Abbots, Monks come together, to invite both neighboring and distant Bishops, that a sacred assembly of Bishops might bestow service in carrying the sacred body to its own oratory, and place it honorably. Abajalardus therefore Archbishop of the Church of Brindisi, illustrious as much in brightness of race as of morals, a man of great knowledge, to whom the one of Trani was present; the Bishop of Ostuni and the Prelate of the Church of Ariano; the Bishop of Rapolla, the Bishop of Andria, with other Bishops, and a dense College of Abbots and Monks came together. Moreover almost all Apulia was roused.

[60] In this too the great virtue of the Almighty appeared: For in troops each city, village, or town of Apulia, and the people of Apulia, sent its peoples to the honor of the holy man: for so great was the concourse of men, that the space of the city scarcely held them. Who then so iron, having experienced no signs of the holy man as yet, from the sole devotion of so great a multitude, would not judge this man perfect in virtues? would not understand that this man had pleased God in all things? would not pray to him for himself? Namely, would not proclaim him truly holy, who for the honor of his translation emptied so many houses of cities, so many villages and castles? One was the vow of all, one was the affection, of those awaiting signs to be shown from heaven: for they perceived those injured by the varieties of diverse diseases to have come together with so great a frequency. Who would suffice with words to explain, how great the exultation, how great the hope of the sick? so that there was now an indication, with health near, that they would return to the state of soundness by divine help.

[61] The silence of the night therefore being seized, to which the Lord's day succeeded, when the first rest of living things cherished their limbs by enfolding them; that place, where the most holy body rested, accompanied by a few religious Priests, venerable Archbishop, you enter: to the sacred tomb not without great fear you approach; you modestly open it. When suddenly you behold a treasure, gleaming with the glorious brightness of the sacred body: you marvel at the novelty of a most sweet odor; his bones, as they were, shining with rosy color, intently you behold. That corporeal thing, into which his most holy flesh passed (for I dare not call it earth, or dust) by the appearance of novelty holds the eyes of those marveling fixed. Then fear and reverence, lest you touch the sacred Relics, retard you: to certain of your companions you commit this office, under the right of obedience. The Relics are placed in an ark: Wherefore compelled by command they do it; which while they do, they are afraid. That treasure therefore in a cypress ark, which had been prepared for this, with the utmost reverence they place; they mark it with a seal; they commit it to the keepers of the church to be guarded that night.

[62] they are carried to their own church, Scarcely had the sun loosened the lands with light, when a populous multitude filled the circuit and the courts of the church. The Priests of Christ come together, sing hymns, sound praises, the mouths of all are loosed to the praises of Christ. The Bishops go under the sacred burden: who afterward related, that never in a thing of the same measure had they experienced so great a weight: for the gravity and constancy of his morals is gathered to his bones. But while the Relics of the holy man, the Bishops carrying them, are borne to their own house; when no cloud anywhere hindered the serenity of the air; suddenly two columns of clouds, honored by 2 columns of clouds: raised from the roof of that church to heaven, were seen to stand, the whole multitude which was outside the church beholding them. The soldiers of the Temple of the Lord too, who were distant a little farther from the city, beholding this; said, that that astonishing miracle indicated the translation of the sacred body. For they were suffused with a certain light, by a straight course touching the air: through which, as I think, was the descent of the heavenly citizens, to the honor of their fellow-citizen. The body of the man of God therefore being placed, those cloudy columns left the keenness of sight. But of that which had remained in the tomb of the man of God through the sacred bones, certain Bishops took with them, and by drinking it helped various infirmities. But how many and how great signs of virtues have been shown and are done daily, they are famous for miracles. I confess that I fail to write of them. Which however I will commit to writing, I have known by most true reasoning. For these things, which the present discourse keeps, I have drawn with eager breast from the mouth of Lord Russo the venerable Priest, who is the keeper of the same sacred body, and Primicerius of our church: and therefore he has more perspicaciously experienced many things about the holy man, and certain things sought with great zeal he has found.

[63] A certain man of Cornetum, so deprived of the office of sight, that a continual night took from him the differences of things; The blind are illuminated, the man of Cornetum, amid the frequency of the people was led before the altar of the Confessor of Christ: and leaning on one of the columns, lest by any impulse of the people he should be moved away, with tears he asked, he hoped for, the help of the man of God; when he felt the unforeseen help of the man of God; the cloud being removed, he obtained sight. Wonderful to tell, what was more wonderful to do. The light being beheld, by himself he approaches the altar, presents himself to the Priests, gives innumerable thanks to God, praises Blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim with great devotion, loosens the mouths of the people to celebrated praises; in the mouth of all nothing resounds, except the praise of God and Blessed Nicholas. Not dissimilarly divine piety looked upon a certain man of Salpe, the man of Salpe, unhappy for a long time with the inconvenience of light taken away. For when he came with the rest to the church of the blessed man, by a sudden vision he is illumined from heaven; he sees and walks without a guide, whom a guide had drawn with him to such holy spectacles.

[64] A certain rich and noble Gaul, while he sought Syria, by chance lost the light of his eyes entirely, so that he could in no way discern either the colors of things, or the alternations of light and darkness. Who returned, and a rich Gaul, heard the fame of the blessed man, inserted himself into the throng, by the leading of his servants came to the church, held out two lamps with each hand before the sacred altar; with continual prayer, tears flowing, he supplicates Blessed Nicholas; with heart, with mouth he cries to God. When at last he beholds the faces of men, now long unaccustomed, by divine clemency, he renders due thanks to God, extols the blessed man with praises to heaven; lastly turned to the throng of those marveling, and praising God in such great virtue, he manifests the vow of his heart in speech, saying; "To God and Blessed Nicholas I devoutly promise, that as soon as I return, I will found a church in honor of Blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim, and endow it with so many estates and revenues, who returned home builds a church for the saint: as may suffice for the use of three Clerics." Who then would not flow with tears for joy? who would not bless God? who would be able sufficiently to marvel at the power of divine virtue? in whose mouth would the name of St. Nicholas not resound? Virtue exhibited in deeds offers hope to the wretched, to the weak and sad of obtaining the wished-for health.

[65] A certain boy of Ascoli therefore, when he was held by the dire affliction of paralysis, led to the house of the man of God, returned to the state of soundness. And likewise a certain man of Potenza, who labored with a similar peril, escaped by the similar help of the man of God. A certain girl lived at Trani, two paralytics are healed; who was so destitute of the office of moving from the breast downward, that, the greater part of her members being half-dead, she seemed to live only by the use of her head and arms. Who, as soon as near the sacred altar of the man of God, under the appearance of a kind of ball, she was set down by the hands of her kinsmen; by the intervention of the blessed man divine virtue looked upon her; many seeing it she rose, stood, and walked. Which miracle when it was divulged through the people, the concourse of all fills the church. likewise a third, A wonderful thing. They see the members live in her, which before they had learned to have been dead; they behold her walking, the sinews being loosed for the use of moving, whom they had known to have pressed only with a knotty and almost stony body. Who therefore could worthily express, with how great frequency of praises they filled the circuit of the church, with how many voices they struck the air: for deservedly in the benefits of the Saints God is to be extolled, who alone does great wonders. Not otherwise a certain girl of Ruvo, deprived of the motion of her members from the shoulders downward, and two other women, deserved not dissimilar help of Blessed Nicholas. A similar event from a similar peril, in a certain boy of Bisceglie, by the help of the man of God, became known to many.

[66] A certain ship returning from Syria, almost now held the wished-for things, was now passing Leucada, seen and recognized, when Circean storms, by a sudden motion of the sea and air, take away the sight of land. he succors those fearing shipwreck by appearing as a Saint: The ship is led by the force of the wind, the art of the steersman deserts it: for twice two days and nights, the helm being lost, it is shaken by winds and waves: all beseech the help of Nicholas, his aiding and accustomed protection they seek with heart and voice. When the man of God was present to those praying; he assumed that form and habit, in which he was wont to walk through our city; shown to the steersman and the palm-bearers, he fortifies the ship, sets in order the disordered. Soon gradually that ship overcomes the threats of the sea, by which before it was overcome. When the steersman inquires of the pilgrims, whether they had ever otherwise beheld that young man, thus clothed in the Greek manner. Who answered that they had never seen him except just now, and believed that by his help they were rescued from the peril. Soon, neither by the art of sail nor of oars, but by the sole help of the man of God, they were carried to Trinacria, holding the port of Syracuse. This last, this notable miracle I heard from the mouth of the same steersman.

[67] But since this little book now reaches its goal, let us all in common entreat the end with vows and prayers. O Blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim, whose help weak and laboring bodies feel, who is invoked, heal our souls, repel the diseases of vices by your intervention, calm the motions of carnal concupiscence, strengthen the state of the mind, bring help to the wretched; be present to those invoking you, rule the sailors, steer the pilgrims, O Pilgrim; protect the city of Trani; defend the Archbishop Bisantius, wholly devoted to your cult, from every harmful assault; protect the Clergy and the people of Trani; and keep me your most humble servant, trusting in your help: and all whom you make glad twice a year by your feast, raise to eternal joys and continual feasts by your example and imitation; the mediator our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

[68] and he is translated in the year 1143, on 4 October. But the Translation of the holy and most blessed Nicholas the Pilgrim was celebrated, from the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the year one thousand one hundred forty-three, of the sixth Indiction, on the fourth of the Nones of October, Innocent II Prelate of the Apostolic Church holding the rights of the whole Catholic Church; and Roger the magnificent King of Sicily; peacefully obtaining the power of the See of the Duchy of Apulia, and the Principate of Capua; our Lord Jesus Christ granting it, to whom be honor and glory, forever and ever. Amen.

NOTES.

p Leucas, a promontory of Epirus, almost opposite Italy and the Otranto domain.

q By the twofold feast I understand the day of death, this 2 June; and the day of translation, from 4 October, hindered by the feast of St. Francis, by ancient usage translated to the 5th, as we shall see below.

r When the Saint died, in the year 1094, the beginning of the year was taken by the people of Trani from the Kalends of January, as the concurrence of Friday with 2 June proves. But here, either it must be said that the beginning is taken from 25 March, nine months earlier; or the text must be corrected, and it must be written in the year 1142: for in the month of September of this year the sixth Indiction began, and in the following October Innocent II was still living; who did not see the October of the other year, but died (as said above) on 24 September. Antonio, and Agnello following him, that they might retain the year 1143, and not lose the Sunday, and adapt themselves to the anniversary commemoration, for the 4th of the Nones wrote the fifth day of October, as if Amandus had said the 3rd of the Nones.

Thus far the Trani Codex; whence the Vallicellan transcript was taken (that very one, I believe, which had been sent to Rome, to obtain the license of reciting a proper Office) has subjoined to it the attestation of the transcribing Notary, in this form: "I, Giovanni Battista Petruzzi, Priest and Canon of the greater Archiepiscopal Church of Trani, public Notary by Apostolic authority, by the order and mandate of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Giulio Caracciolo, Archbishop of Trani, from a certain most ancient Codex written on parchment, kept in the Archive of the said greater Church of Trani, drew out and copied the present copy of the Life, Death, and Translation of our glorious Confessor and Protector Nicholas the Pilgrim, with my own hand, word for word, as it lies: and a diligent collation being made it agrees: yet a better one always reserved. Therefore for the faith and at the request of the one above, the Notary, here I have placed my sign, which I use in public matters, being asked and requested." To this testimony the Archbishop himself then attests, his Secretary, Vincenzo Dethio, subscribing besides himself. But this Archbishop, created in the year 1593, signed that testimony in the year 1596; and in the following year translated to the church of Castro, made room for Andrea de Franchis, who himself too, after obtaining the concession of a proper Office, in the year 1603 passed to the Metropolis of Acerenza.

Moreover the Office of St. Nicholas did not first begin to be made then; for whose Matins by ancient usage the Lessons were probably taken from the aforepraised old Codex. For at the end of each Italian life soon to be praised there are two Hymns, for Vespers and Lauds, together with shorter Lessons found in the old Manuscript Breviaries of the church of Trani. Another likewise longer Hymn, by Francesco Cameno of Perugia five hundred years ago, and so before the year 1117, was published, and perhaps immediately after the Canonization before the end of the 11th century: which could have served for the Sequence at Mass. This therefore it pleases, because it contains an elegant compendium of the life, to subjoin here; and then the two lesser ones from the Breviaries, as most splendid arguments of the old cult and patronage.

A MOST ANCIENT HYMN, Composed by Francesco Cameno of Perugia.

O star of Heaven, Nicholas, shining, great protector of the people of Trani, give (I pray) strength to one singing your illustrious wonders. Born in Hellas of a Greek parent, and shepherd of a flock you called upon the Lord, in the manner of the Mystics, always crying "Lord, have mercy." Breathing higher, the sheep being left, you choose the cave of a reclining bear: which you put to flight by the sign, and by the command of the Lord, at which the world trembles. Here an old man of venerable form, a Monk, stood by you naked, grey of face; and confirms you with salutary admonition, then flees away. At last anxious you are taken at your mother's bidding, struck you are held in a citadel, but by a thunder made from heaven you go out, the barrier being broken. Again in vain they restrain you with chains: you are always loosed by the hands of the Thunderer, and above the rays of the sun you are lifted with melodious mouth. Restored to the lands, a wicked throng secretly plunges you bound into the deep sea: a dolphin receives you, the snares being cut, and carried you back. Soon seeking again the salutary desert, you erect from cedar the gracious signs of the Cross; and you lead your brother: he sees a wondrous column of fire. An Angel, radiant, carries both: you however constant endure in the cave whatever the holy teachings of high Christ admonished. Hence you deserve to be snatched alive so many times, and now you behold radiant images of the Saints in a bright grove, suppliant, with a triple lamp. Here the messenger of heaven shows Trani, soon to be your perennial title, even to the last generation of this world, by a sacred shrine. How many penalties do you undergo for the merits of heaven? How often undeserving did you bear blows? At last wounded the heavenly ones heal you, by the supreme Deity. While the sailors prepare to contrive death for you in the waves, the pious Virgin carried you safe to Otranto: and you drive away various plagues there. Walking to the people of Taranto, you shed your blood, O Saint, grievously beaten: thence you migrated to the celebrated people of Trani, a welcome guest. Here safe you cry "have mercy, Lord," and a band of boys follows you: for you asked for a like concert, by the gift of an apple. With bread and water you refresh your little body, clothed in a wretched tunic; and always with bare feet you walked, with suppliant tongue. Here still breathing, thirsting for water you ask a cup, you drink; but the moisture left is nectar, as once Christ Jesus did. Who could fully tell your praises, Nicholas? Who could number your great wonders? You by the sign of the Cross redeem speech, O Saint, for your sister. How many walk by your help who limped, how many of the blind see? the suppliant multitude moves before you the contracted limbs, now nimble, on every side. You drive demons from the wretched bellies, you loose fetters and manacles for many, ships shipwrecked enduring storm, and the weapons of the enemy. O Saint, still the calm sea for the sailors; O Saint, watch for our safety: that we may enjoy the eternal rest of heaven, with a safe course. Be honor to God the Father, and to the Son, let us equally venerate the Holy Spirit: Three and One God is everywhere through perpetual age. Amen.

TWO OTHER HYMNS From the Manuscript Breviaries of the Church of Trani.

Let heaven exult with praises, the earth shines with virtues, Mother Church keeps the solemnities of Nicholas. Chaste from his tender years, and the prosperities of the world being spurned, made poor for the poor Christ, he is enriched with heaven. Departing from his familiar home, a new emulator of Abraham, he travels through cities with troops, devoting himself to prayers. In the praise of the Cross he jubilates in mind, which he bears with his hand: the virtue of the Cross is glory, praise, and its victory. Like Jacob taking up the staff, he crosses the little ford of the Jordan: the athlete despised the perfidious enemy, and laid low the world. O standard-bearer of the supreme King, Nicholas quite celebrated; pour out prayers for the people, living in peril. Grant, unbegotten Father, with Jesus and the sacred Flame, that by the merits of Nicholas we may enjoy the good heavens. Amen.

Jesus our redemption, love, and life of the poor; in the praises of Nicholas admit the prayers of the suppliants. He, fed with manna from heaven, gentle of heart, Angelic; was sweet in address, eager in obedience. At the modest setting of the sun he feeds himself with bread and water. Hunger does not affect, nor gluttony weigh down. Joseph cast off his cloak, striving for the prize of life; by following Christ the Lord, he puts to flight the throngs of Demons. Filled with the sacred Flame, and surrounded by a band of boys, with assiduous mind he speaks the great deeds of God. Here naked he follows the naked one, embraces his Cross, naked he attacks the enemy, rich he enters heaven. Grant etc.

PART IV. From the Life published in Italian by Antonio Pauli. On the second translation of the sacred body.

FROM THE ITALIAN OF A. PAULI.

PROLOGUE OF THE ARCHBISHOP. To the Catholic Majesty of Philip III the King, our Lord, his most devoted Vassal and Chaplain, Fr. Diego Alvarez, Archbishop of Trani.

The Bishop to the King, as to the lord of the estate, Among almost all nations, most powerful King, it has been a law inviolably observed, that whenever any treasure was found, an indication of it should be given to the Prince of that place. But this it is fitting to be done especially then, when things of great price are found, and such that they can do much for the conservation and amplification of the whole Kingdom, or the dilation of the holy faith, of which your Majesty is so zealous, by the example of the Catholic Kings, your predecessors and progenitors.

[69] Let your Majesty therefore know, that for more than five hundred years, in this Archiepiscopal church of Trani, with the greatest solemnity, and the concourse of many Prelates, before a great multitude of strangers, he indicates the treasure found by him; the venerable body of the glorious St. Nicholas the Pilgrim, Patron and Protector of this Metropolis and Diocese, was deposited: whose sepulcher for many years was visited and honored, not only by the people of Trani and the neighboring cities, but also from far-removed kingdoms; the fame, both of the Saint himself, and of the great miracles, attracting frequent pilgrims, by which the blind were illuminated, who, once held in the highest esteem, the lame were raised, and the sick of every kind were cured. Hence such large alms were conferred from everywhere, by those who, on account of benefits received from heaven, professed themselves witnesses of the favors, obtained through his intercessions; that from them a new Archiepiscopal church could be built, so beautiful and so sumptuous, that to all beholding it it is itself too as a miracle; and evidently declares the reverence, which the builders of so great a work had toward the Saint himself.

[70] But in the course of time such religion greatly cooled: whether the wars by which the Kingdom was often shaken did this, or the civil discords growing within the city itself, or finally other causes known to God, then long neglected lay hidden: whose most secret judgments the weakness of human understanding cannot penetrate. But this defect proceeded so far, that the memory was even entirely lost of the place, containing so great a treasure; although no one doubted, but that it was still held in the Archiepiscopal church: inasmuch as it was established that it had been brought there, from that which today is called St. James's, and formerly was the metropolitan one. Wherefore very many Prelates of Trani, and namely Don Talsa and Don Caracciolo, which, sought in vain by his predecessors undertook to seek it studiously: but with vain effort. More fortunate than they was Don Andrea de Franchis, who, using greater diligence, as will be said in the progress of the history, found certain of his bones from the knee downward; the greater and chief part of the body remaining unknown: until it pleased your Majesty benignly to choose me to the Archbishopric of this Church of Trani, to whom not seeking it it fell by a happy chance to find that too; that the Saint himself could use that Prophetic saying, "I was found by those not seeking me: I appeared openly to those who did not ask after me." Rom. 10:20

[71] Wherefore your Majesty can glory, and reckon yourself most fortunate, that of the three glorious Saints of that name, whose bodies divine providence willed to be reverently kept in Italy; two, now revealed the King can glory; namely St. Nicholas of Bari, and St. Nicholas the Pilgrim, are held within your Neapolitan kingdom; but the third, which is St. Nicholas of Tolentino, although honored elsewhere; yet pertains as if radically to this Kingdom, since he was obtained from sterile parents, a vow being made to the first. Nor only glory, but your Majesty can also live secure: because the venerable bones, both of those Saints, and of others to be found throughout the Kingdom, are to the cities and towns themselves where they are kept as a most firm and most minute citadel … especially where due honor is kept for them.

[72] This indeed your citizens of Trani experienced. For while the memory of their holy Patron and Protector flourished among them, For through him Trani once flourished, and his body was visited and honored by the peoples; this city was seen to abound in spiritual goods as well as temporal; adorned with public and private palaces; copious with families, outstanding in nobility; full of citizens, conspicuous for prudence and gravity; frequented by foreign merchants, bringing there for sale precious wares of every kind. But the fame of our glorious Pilgrim was so diffused, and so great had grown the number of feasts decreed for him, and the magnificence of the processional pomps, with which his birthday was kept; that when a certain notable admiral of Trani, commonly called Count Martin, had safely conducted a certain very numerous fleet of King Alfonso the first of this name; and could ask for himself and his posterity any other thing whatsoever in place of reward; he would ask nothing else, than that there should be established for himself and them a perpetual prerogative, of carrying to those processions the banner, blessed under the name of that saint. But as soon as, with the memory of the place where the body was, the old devotion toward the Saint too languished; likewise the number of inhabitants began to fail, the frequency of Nobles, the abundance of resources, the beauty of the buildings; but with him neglected it declined, and the squares of the city, as if planted with thorns and brambles, to bear before them rather the appearance of some desert than of human habitation: so that what was said of Jerusalem in Isaiah chapter 5 suited it excellently; "Many houses deserted, great and beautiful, without inhabitant"; and what follows in the same at chapter 32, "Upon the soil of my people thorns and brambles shall come up; how much more upon all the houses of joy of the exulting city."

[73] Namely all these things came upon it, because St. Nicholas the Pilgrim was not at home, and now revealed it is as if revived, or rather thus he was as if he were not. He was, because in truth his body was kept in the church; he was not, because his knowledge and veneration had flowed away. But from the time that it pleased the divine goodness, that he should be revealed by me by that chance which I insinuated above; we could say that St. Nicholas was at home. For not only thence did the use of the Sacraments begin to be more frequent, the spirit more fervent, the churches more adorned; but also there appears manifestly an increased popular frequency, the number of noble families grows, wealth advances, the buildings are restored; and the whole city finally, as if drawn out from the depth of miseries, rises gradually to its former fortune; so that it is to be hoped, that, if God continues in this way to pour over it the divine dew of his graces, in proportion as it advances in devotion toward the Saint, it will shortly recover its former splendor entirely. This therefore is the treasure, most powerful King, whose finding I judged it of my duty to signify to your Majesty: of which that you may be more certain, [Therefore is sent with a particle of the body the Life, reprinted in the year 1617,] I send a particle of the Relics, and the Life of the Saint himself; trusting in your notable religion and piety, that you will hold each most welcome, about to take from each the fruit of the sweetest pleasure; especially when you will see that, he being scarcely yet found, so many advantages have thence accrued: which may God turn wholly to his own praise, the exaltation of the holy Catholic Church, and the glory of your Majesty, whom may he keep for us most happy for many years. Thus I vowed, in your most faithful city of Trani, on the 10th day of April, 1617.

[74] offered to him by his Vicar in the year 1611, This Letter was followed by the Dedicatory of the Author himself, directed to the Archbishop, who had ordered the History to be written in the vernacular tongue, such as had been printed in the first edition of the book, on the 10th day of December 1611; for whose composition the Author confesses that he used a twofold very ancient Codex, the one indeed where among the Lives of other Saints the writing of Adelferius was contained, such as was offered to him to obtain the Canonization from Urban II; the other, in which Amandus the Deacon embraced the Life of the saint from beginning to end and the translation of his body. But these two little works he did not so much take up as the argument of a new writing, as he made them word for word from Latin into Italian: but the certainty of the latter he confirms, first from a Greek tablet, which in the church of St. Nicholas himself is still seen, and is believed to have been painted soon after his death, whence here are given the last Finding and Translation. representing his venerable effigy with many miracles round about, explained in the same little work of Amandus; and from two old Manuscript Breviaries many centuries old, where the Lessons and Hymns taken thence are found; and these indeed I have exhibited above. But after Antonio faithfully explained all that taken up, in chapter 14 he describes the most august fabric of the most ample Basilica, erected by each Bisantius in the name of St. Nicholas, on which in the proem he had said that more than two hundred thousand ducats were spent; an immense sum at that time: then he proceeds to Chapter 15, whence will be made for us the beginning of the following Chapter.

CHAPTER I. The Finding of some parts in the year 1603, and of the rest of the body in the year 1611.

[75] Time passing, the religion of the people of Trani toward the Saint so cooled, that neither was it known where his sacred body was, Archbishop de Franchis, nor was his chapel held in any honor; which now had rather the form of a cemetery than of an oratory. But at last the Archbishop of Trani, Don Andrea de Franchis, the son of that Vincenzo, who not only illustrated the age with his learned books, but also with a happy offspring of noble Prelates and Jurists; came into this thought, after the fabric of the church was restored, and the workshops for the Fairs built, on the right side of the way leading to it, the Sacristy and the Archiepiscopal table enriched, from a Subdeacon, conscious of a long-kept secret, not without the expenditure of some thousands of scudi; came, I say, into this thought the Lord Archbishop de Franchis, to revive the memory and veneration of St. Nicholas, by seeking his body. He therefore ordered the pavement to be dug up in various places of the church: but finding nothing, he ordered to be summoned to him Don Giovanni Vincenzo Barachia, now a prebendary Canon, then Subdeacon of the said church; because there was a report that the desired place was known to him.

[76] He, variously sought out and questioned, when he revealed nothing; at last began to be bent, the Archbishop saying, that it was decreed by him, the knowledge of the place being extorted, he used it, in the year 1603, to dig up the whole pavement of the choir around the chief altar: which that it might not happen with so notable a detriment to the church, he at last confessed, that by his uncle, Don Pietro Barachia, at the last article of his life, it had been told him, that the Relics of St. Nicholas the Pilgrim lay buried, in a corner of the church, on the Epistle horn of the Major altar; and so by a successive revelation of more than four hundred years, wont to be made at death, he received it from him. On that very day therefore, namely 4 May of the year 1603, after Vespers, the Archbishop betook himself to the church, his Vicar General, the Archpriest, and some Canons accompanying him; and ordered a mason brought there, to dig the earth in the place which the Subdeacon had indicated: who after pressing the mattock several times, uncovered two white marbles, and under them a little case likewise of marble of varied color, in the manner of a base, with its lid likewise of marble, a palm and a half long, one wide. But the lead by which the lid of the ark was joined being dissolved, there were found within small human bones, of the fingers and knees, and some longer ones, with part of the liver wrapped within white linen. he finds some parts of the Saint's Body and dies. No writing indeed appeared, which made faith that they were St. Nicholas's: yet faith was had by all the people, as soon as it was established about such a finding; on account of very many concurring indications, explained in the Process drawn up thereon. Those Relics were entirely dry, and approached much to whiteness: for the place was entirely dry: but their fragility proved them most ancient. So found, the Archbishop ordered them to be replaced in the sacristy, with the intention of declaring their truth to the people, as soon as, Pope Clement VIII being consulted thereon, he should have a response; which he did not have, prevented by death, not without the grief of the whole city.

[77] Diego Alvarez the successor, The See was vacant after Don Andrea for three years, and meanwhile the whole business languished, until to govern this Archbishopric was elected Don Fr. Diego Alvarez, of the order of Preachers. He, impelled by the same zeal as his predecessor, for the people of Trani, desiring nothing more ardently, than that the aforesaid declaration should be proceeded with; when, having set out to Rome to the thresholds of the Apostles, he had narrated in order to the Most Holy Lord Pope Paul V what had been done, and no doubt of any moment occurred to those examining, which suggested a longer delay; he received a response from the Pontiff, that, according to the form prescribed by the Council of Trent, he should act. in the year 1610 he re-examines the acts, This being settled, the Archbishop returned to Trani, in the year of the Lord 1610, in the month of December: and commanded his Vicar General Antonio Pauli, to re-examine as diligently as possible the Processes drawn up under Archbishop de Franchis, and to pursue the begun examination of the senior and more trustworthy citizens. Then indeed a diocesan Synod was convened, on the Kalends of September of the year 1611; in which, besides the Dignities of this Metropolitan church, and of the churches of Barletta and Corato, there came together more than two hundred Religious, Theologians, Canonists, Doctors, and others of the chief of this city. To all these the Archbishop set forth the cause which was being dealt with; and in the year 1611 proposes the cause to the Synod: and the relation of the Processes being made, and several arguments adduced by the Vicar General, by which the declaration to be made was urged; it was agreed unanimously and without controversy in that sentence, which without hesitation decreed, that those were the true Relics of St. Nicholas the Pilgrim, and that as such they should be brought into his chapel.

[78] which approving, it is decreed that the Translation should be made, That he should do this, the Archbishop being immediately asked by all, with great solace of his soul, throughout the whole Province and the surrounding regions, had published a new Translation, to be made on the 5th day of October; namely on that on which from time immemorial the first had been wont to be celebrated, with a solemn procession and plenary Indulgence, granted at the instance of the Archbishop himself by Pope Paul V. Moreover the same Prelate commanded, that the lower church of the Saint, which was squalid in the likeness of a cemetery, being cleaned and restored, should be furnished with new windows and gratings. Which being done, there was also brought there a great tomb of white marble, on which the little ark, found by Archbishop de Franchis, should be so placed, for which end, those digging up the altar, that, placed under the altar of St. Nicholas, and covered with several marbles and stones, it could not be furtively removed by anyone. But on the last day of September, when for that end the ground behind the altar of the Saint was being dug up; it appeared that the counsel would proceed with difficulty, of placing the aforesaid tomb there. For, immediately at the beginning of the work, there was found a mass of harder cement, encircling the altar itself: which altar, since it is wholly composed of tablets of precious marbles, the workmen feared, lest, removing and replacing it, they should break it in some part.

[79] But the Saint disposing all things for his own finding, it happened that on that same morning a most skilled mason came to Trani: a more solid frame of marbles is met with, who promised to remove and replace the altar without any injury, with so much the greater joy of the Archbishop, that he had already begun to suspect that the body of some Saint lay hidden under that altar. This therefore being removed, there was first found a marble tablet with a hole of oval figure: in which hole the Canons related that they had seen in past years, soldered, that a little bronze tablet had clung, of similar figure, with the sculptured effigy of St. Nicholas the Pilgrim, which at that time Don Giovanni Antonio Ventura, the Prior of that chapel, kept at his house. That bronze tablet therefore being brought, and recognized by the Prior himself, and placed on the oval hole, it was found to fit it. Then that very large marble being removed, there came up a most hard mass of cement work and reddish mixture: which with the greatest labor being broken little by little with iron wedges, uncovered two stones of Greek marble, so firmly clinging to the marble steps of the altar, that it was necessary to break them with larger iron hammers.

[80] Among these things the Archbishop came, his brother Father Master Fr. Damian Alvarez accompanying him, and some Canons. But seeing how with difficulty, and with how great blows of the hammers, those marble tablets were broken; he began to think, that it could be, and under them a wooden ark hidden, that under them the rest of the body of St. Nicholas might be found: and into the same opinion many others too came, the effigy of the Saint himself, once placed above the hole of the first marble, as was said, making it probable. Wherefore, the Archbishop commanding, that by digging it should be proceeded even to the very foundation of the altar; at last with much effort it came to this point, that something empty began to resound: and there was found a firm frame of bricks and smaller stones, which being loosed on one side, a wooden little case was uncovered. This being seen, the Archbishop commanded, that all the material of lime and stones round about the case be removed: which being carefully considered by all, yet he would not open it before, having contemplated all things with the utmost care, and not without tears and a tender sense of devotion, he had offered it also to be considered by the Dignities, Canons, the Syndic and the Elect of the Town; who then were, of the Nobility indeed, Francesco Mondello, Dionisio Sifola, Angelo Liazario, and Giovanni Luca Staffa; but of the People, Muzio de Luca, Claudio Palumbo, Francesco Ventura, and Cesare Campilia, summoned there for that end.

[81] and being unlocked, They saw therefore that it was a cypress case, three palms long and two wide, anciently provided by Archbishop Bisantius, such as even now is seen painted in the old tablet. When two Priests had reverently opened this, standing in a place somewhat deep and encircled on every side by living rock; torches being brought there they saw the greater part of all those bones, by which one human body is made whole, of color between red and ruddy, which on account of their age and the humidity of the place were very fragile; as also the case itself: there appear the bones of nearly the whole body, wherefore when the Priests wished to lift it, it went into pieces. Therefore the Archbishop himself, put the sacred Stole on his neck; and kneeling, with his own hands drew out the individual bones; and placed in three basins, ordered them to be brought into the Sacristy, where the other Relics were kept. Then there was openly beheld the head, although not whole; the jaws with the teeth, the breast, ribs, shoulders, and they are translated into the Sacristy. the spine of the back, and many other fragments of bones: likewise certain fragments of a red garment, of a wallet and a cord, which the Saint was wont to wear when he lived, with five little coins of that age, which it is credible that he received by way of alms: finally a ruddy dust of ashes, a seal pressed on the case, all the signs finally, apt to prove, that from the time of the first translation they had been so composed.

CHAPTER II. The Translation is celebrated on 5 October, the Sanctuary is restored, into which also other Relics are brought in the year 1616.

[82] At the report of this finding the whole city was filled with jubilation; all unanimously affirming, that the Saint did not wish his members to be venerated separately, The report of the matter being spread, but wished all to be kept together: since, on the occasion of a few of his Relics to be placed under the altar, all the rest were found. From the city the same report, spread widely through the surrounding regions, called forth many more, to bestow their presence on the future Translation: nonetheless there were invited by name, the Most Reverend Lord Saluzzo Bishop of Ruvo, and Lord Bovio Bishop of Molfetta; and a diocesan Synod was proclaimed for all the Clergy of Trani, on the anniversary day of the first Translation. On this day too the church was adorned from top to bottom with various hangings, not only Italian, but also Flemish, variously fashioned; so that all confessed that never in this province had a church been seen so splendidly adorned; to which on the very day of the solemnity by the more common reckoning are to be judged to have come together up to eight thousand strangers. But the first Vespers were most solemnly sung by the Archbishop, sitting in his throne, and the aforenamed Prelates sitting opposite in another.

[83] The following morning, before it was proceeded to the church, where on 5 October a diocesan Synod being gathered, a Synod was gathered before the Archbishop in his Palace; to which, besides the Prelates already named, there came the Dignities of the Church and Diocese of Trani; then the Archpriest and Cantor of Bitonto, the Archpriest of Ruvo and the Primicerius of Molfetta, with many Doctors and persons honored in the city. Before these the Archbishop set forth the business which was in hand: and asked, whether to the aforenarrated finding could underlie any scruple or doubt. The two Bishops already mentioned began therefore, with very well-founded reasoning, to demonstrate, and evidently proved, that the Relics, both the first, which Archbishop de Franchis found; and those recently found, were to be held as true and certain Relics of St. Nicholas the Pilgrim; on account of the manifest and above-related indications, the efficacy of each of which is more diffusely explained in the Process. the truth of the found Relics was declared: They moreover declared, that the new finding in no way derogated from the prior; because the bones compared with one another, by the judgment of skilled physicians and surgeons, were of the same proportion among themselves; and all being accurately numbered none was found superfluous, or incongruous to the constitution of one and the same body; only the Arm being lacking, which was contained in a silver reliquary of most ancient work, and marked with the image of the Saint; wont to be kept above the sepulcher, in the sacristy of the same church. They added also and proved, that it was by no means new, that within one and the same church, the Relics of one and the same Saint should be had in various places, partly buried, partly otherwise composed; nay that this very thing is commonly found to have been done, on account of the perils of wars and thefts.

[84] These and other things being duly weighed by the aforesaid Prelates, the whole Synod approved their sentence; which toward evening being carried around in procession, with other reasons also added, by virtue of which the declaration decreed and written, according to the statutes of the Council of Trent, was published amid the solemnities of the Masses; and for the same day a solemn Translation was proclaimed, to be made after Vespers: and for this end both Relics were composed within an ark, covered with red silk, so that they could more easily be carried around. But after the twenty-third hour the procession began to proceed from the church; which they extended into a very long series, not only Religious gathered from the whole Province, but also Confraternities, brought from Barletta and Vigilia (Bisceglie), and the Diocesan Clergy: and among these were reckoned three choirs of musicians, singing praises and hymns to the Saint; but after these followed the Canons of this Metropolis, ordered to lend their shoulders by turns to carrying the sacred ark; and finally the procession was closed by the Archbishop of Trani, and the Bishops of Ruvo and Molfetta, clothed in Pontificals. In this order the procession was led around through all the chief squares, a circuit of more than a thousand paces, in the space of two and a half hours; and the Relics were set down at four regional Seats, at which stood as many very splendid altars; but everywhere were discharged cannon, little mortars, and muskets, variously disposed; festive fires also shining, artfully composed into the forms of dragons, pyramids, and giants: so that the City, although so greatly burdened, seems here to have wished to exhibit a specimen of its old magnificence.

[85] The procession finished, the three aforesaid Prelates, with their hands lifted the Relics out of the ark, they are deposited in the new tomb; sealed within a green silk veil; and placed them above the altar of St. Nicholas, within a marble tomb, wholly of a single stone; and ordered to be placed above it three marble tablets, and the altar to be reduced to its former form and situation. But of the Relics themselves, besides the arm anciently separated, it pleased the Lord Archbishop that there should also be kept outside the Head, the Shoulder, and the Jaw, with a few fragments of bones, to be laid away within their proper reliquaries for the common solace of the peoples: which and other things of greater moment and price designated in honor of so glorious a Saint, may God cause to be carried into execution. besides a few to be kept separately. But that he will do so, we can hope: because already now the devotion of the people toward his church and chapel has so greatly grown, that no day passes by, on which very many do not flow there, not only citizens, but also foreigners, not without votive offerings and lights, to be offered in testimony of the favors received, conferred on the sick. Nor here will I omit, for the conclusion and confirmation of the aforesaid, to subjoin, that on account of the fame of the immense miracles of St. Nicholas, his marble statue was at Naples, a most noble city, An old Statue at Naples. anciently placed at the right side of the major Archiepiscopal gate, above the capital of one column, among the images of the Saints Januarius, Agnellus, and others: where he himself is seen in the Pilgrim's habit, with this motto: "St. Nicholas the Pilgrim, Protector of Trani."

[86] Nor did the fervor and diligence of the Archbishop Don Fr. Diego Alvarez stop there; The Sanctuary of Trani is adorned with new work, but rather his zeal was kindled more and more, desiring to spur on the devotion of his flock toward the Saint with new and new incitements. Wherefore he took counsel of translating all the Relics, which were above kept in the sacristy, into the chapel of the Saint himself, as into a common sanctuary. For since neither the place, nor the manner in which they were there kept, was such, that they could be more frequently honored by the people; those sacred bones seemed to be destitute of due cult and veneration. He ordered therefore to be built of elegantly worked walnut four little-columned doors; of which two, even while they stood closed, should yet give a view into the lesser choir, where on each Saturday Compline is sung with music, two feigned on each side should serve only for ornament: but all with their posts and lintels, excellently sculptured from the same wood, should reach a height of seven palms, and sustain a cornice running over the whole work, two palms higher than the altar of the Saint itself. From here the wall begins to be hollowed into repositories, interspersed with eight columns of Corinthian work, and perpendicularly overhanging the posts of the doors: but over these again another cornice is led around, on which rest as it were four frontispieces, each corresponding to each door: and those four repositories are closed with as many large glasses. and is fitted for placing 44 reliquaries, Moreover the two lateral repositories, are each divided into ten niches; of which seven are capable of a just half-body statue, the rest are left for smaller reliquaries, in this order, that the lower niches each have a height of three palms, a breadth of two; then two others rise above these, two palms high, a palm and a half wide; but the highest place is occupied by three niches, a palm and a half high, a palm and a quarter wide; among which for the ornament of the work three others are hollowed in a semicircle, for the smaller reliquaries which I mentioned. Hence follow two windows, leading above the doors to the choir; and among the repositories themselves, the middle place above the altar holds a fifth repository, fashioned in the form of a Cross, three high and about two palms wide. But above the second cornice are led around in the manner of little windows four repositories, fitted for half-statues; but in the center of the frontispiece itself are hollowed three smaller niches, partly for the sake of ornament, partly designated for placing smaller reliquaries; so that this whole Sanctuary numbers in all forty-four niches, in a most beautiful order. for as many reliquaries to be distinctly and orderly arranged. Moreover this Sanctuary is closed with four doors, sculptured of walnut; of which each is secured with three most beautiful locks; that an access lying open indiscriminately may not diminish reverence, but the little columns of the enclosure, with which the upper part of the doors is adorned, may not exclude the view: but between the doors, and the columns which flank them on each side, sustaining the walnut cornice, behind the lowest enclosure rise from iron long shafts, ending in a gilded lily.

[87] The Sanctuary being adorned in this manner, the Archbishop instituted again within the chapel of the Saint, Of these, translated in the year 1616, one, in the year 1616, on the 5th day of October, a general procession: in which all the aforenoted reliquaries should be carried around through the city: about which Relics it will not be out of place to relate something. The first and most memorable is a piece of flesh, into which the Eucharistic Host was miraculously changed, and which, to the astonishment of all, is kept hitherto uncorrupted. But there is a most ancient tradition among the people of Trani, that God did that miracle, when a Jewish woman had the purpose of frying that sacred pledge in a frying-pan: and it is still shown where it happened, after the lapse of many centuries. But this Relic is kept in a silver tabernacle, which out of special affection the noble man Fabrizio Cornei fabricated. To this are placed two particles of the Lord's Cross, of which one is enclosed in a silver Cross, three palms high, with this inscription at the foot: "Don Fabrizio de Lagni, Knight of St. James of the Sword, a miraculous particle of the Cross, and Camilla de Franchis, spouses, from a bequest this work in the year 1600." But beneath are found noted these words: "From the ancient tradition of the Canons and townsmen, this sign of the holy Cross, encircled with gold, while taken away by theft and held in someone's breast, the girdle being torn fell to the ground of the Metropolitan church. Andrea de Franchis, Brother Archbishop, ordered this to be noted here, in the year of the Jubilee of the same."

[88] others contain other notable Relics, There also is kept the Arm of St. Febronia the virgin Martyr, still clothed with its flesh; part of the Shoulder of St. Blaise, Bishop Martyr, whence a continual fragrance emanates, to the astonishment of all perceiving it; part of the Arm of St. Leucius, Archbishop of Brindisi and Protector of Trani; likewise another Bone from his body; a Bone from the body of St. Peter the Apostle, three Fingers of St. Cosmas the Martyr, part of a Rib and a Finger of St. Agatha Virgin and Martyr; a Bone from the body of St. Stephen Pope and Martyr; a Finger of St. Robert; a Bone from the body of St. Christopher the Martyr; a Finger of St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan; the Arm of St. Philip the Apostle; a Bone from the body of St. Barnabas the Apostle. There is there also a silver case, full of precious Relics, given to a certain church of St. Mark among us by the Venetian republic, among which are named as more notable some parts of the bones, of SS. Julian the Martyr, James the Apostle, Margaret Virgin and Martyr, Philip the Apostle, Catherine Virgin and Martyr, and Agatha, besides smaller particles of very many Saints, whom it would be long to name individually. There is found also in the same Sanctuary the Arm of the glorious St. Nicholas the Pilgrim, to which are added certain singular ones of St. Peregrinus. from the year 1143 in the first Translation held separately; and also a silver case, within which Archbishop de Franchis of good memory placed part of the Liver of the same St. Nicholas, with those four pence corroded by age, which we said above were found within the wallet of the Saint; and the iron seal of the old cypress ark, within which was found the greater part of the sacred bones. There is there finally a half-body gilded statue of wood, with a silver head, by the liberality of the aforepraised Archbishop Don Diego Alvarez: who within it laid up part of the Head and Jaw with some Teeth of the Saint himself, who may bring a remedy to the public and private calamities of this city, and help to our souls, that with him we may deserve to be made partakers of eternal glory in heaven. Amen.

APPENDIX On the Churches built in honor of St. Peregrinus. From the other Life, published in Italian by Agnello Bruni.

Nicholas the Pilgrim, at Trani in Apulia (St.)

FROM THE ITALIAN OF A. BRUNI.

[89] This Author, later than the former by a full seventy years, devotes Chapter 28 of his Panegyric History to the Basilica of Trani; yet he does not take it up to be architecturally delineated, as Antonio had done, with a greater accuracy, than that anyone could patiently read in this work so minute a description and measurement of the individual parts: but he praises it rhetorically and summarily, and with a style more apt for us. When therefore he had said, that in elaborating that vast mass, the piety of the people of Trani vied with magnificence, so that in all Italy, A description of the Metropolitan church of Trani, few others are to be found equal in magnitude and elegance; "It is situated," he says, "in the highest part of the city, on the shore of the sea; that the Saint, thence presiding both over this and over that, might have it as a theater of beneficence to be distributed on each side; and his church might serve the one as a guard for a citadel, the other as a lighthouse for security; by which titles indeed it will be aptly adorned, both on account of the firmness of the walls, feeling no injury from time at all in fully six hundred years; and on account of the eximious sublimity of the work, wrought with most firm work, rising almost to the very clouds, I might say. Yet it cannot be called one temple, which in truth is threefold; not indeed with three buildings joined laterally, distinct in place; but one built above another, after the likeness of the heavenly spheres, or rather of Paradise, whose foundations are described as equally precious as the walls.

[90] with a triple substructure, of which the first is raised above the ground, In the first church, which greater than the rest extends over the surface of the common ground, the eye fails in contemplating; and several times it must be directed, that it be well considered; so much does it exceed the measure usual among the common people, divided into three naves, which on each side are sustained by arches, supported by a double order of twenty-eight columns on each side, all of one solid marble; to which in the middle nave corresponds a higher order of as many columns, which is to it, rising more augustly beyond the others, as a crown. All the rest of the fabric, both of the frontispiece and of the walls, rises from squared stones in such a way, that as solid is their connection, so it is also orderly, with lines equally drawn, as if they reflected the texture of one cloth. But now the two churches sunk below the ground, entered by steps, scarcely differ at all from the upper one nor among themselves, except that the second church is supported by columns, but the lowest by square pillars, solid like towers, and of immense size. But the fabric so noble, in our memory was even more adorned, two others in the foundations, under that part of the work which lies beneath the tribune of the highest temple, which we are wont to call by the ecclesiastical word the Confession, where the body of St. Nicholas is kept; and which in the foregoing we named the Sanctuary. But this new work Don Francesco of Andrea of Trani, Priest and Metropolitan Canon and Prior of St. Nicholas, caused to be made. This part, which can be called a Treasury, twenty-eight columns sustain; and they divide it into vaults four times repeated; but the walls round about, under arches halved through the individual intercolumniations, have a most elegant confession and Chapel of the Saint, are clothed with paintings, formed by a most skilled hand, and relating part of the life of the Saint; from which hang the images of the Protector Saints and Bishops of this city, who seem not only to adorn the place, but also to do the same on earth for St. Nicholas, which they do in the heavens; that is, to receive and to pour back mutually the splendor of glory.

[91] The altar where the tomb is, the keeper of the sacred body, how beautifully and at the same time preciously it is wrought, tongue or pen can scarcely express; and the altar, wholly with mosaic work as they call it, distinguished with such wonderful variety of precious stones, that you might doubt whether the matter surpass the work, or the work the matter. Yet that which to this Sanctuary, in my judgment indeed, confers the chief ornament, is the frequency and devotion, both of citizens and of pilgrims, running there: without which the multitude of candles and lamps continually burning there would be nothing else than mere darkness. But on each Friday (since on such a day the Saint departed from this mortal life) and on the fifteen days preceding the day of his death (of which three he stayed sound, and twelve sick at Trani), so exaggerated a religion of those running there is seen, that each could seem as many greater festivities; especially because to the visitation of the holy Body is mostly joined Confession and sacred Communion: although those very fifteen days could only be named a Vigil, in respect of the things which are done on the second day of June, the Saint's Birthday. [where on all Fridays, and the fortnight before the feast, frequent use of the Sacraments.]

[92] Hence Agnello passes, in Chapter 29, to the wonderful change of the sacred Body, placed in this, that Amandus, the writer of the first Translation, at number 60, addressing the Archbishop Bisantius the younger, says, "His bones, In what state the Bones and flesh were found. as they were shining with rosy color, you behold more intently; for that corporeal thing, into which his most holy flesh passed (for I dare not call it earth or dust), by the appearance of novelty holds the eyes of those marveling fixed." But Agnello says, that that sacred body, although it lost the form of a living man, was yet not changed into earth or ashes, but into a quasi-fiery matter; in which at the time of the finding the flesh was discerned from the bones: and those indeed were red, like corals; but this equaled in color the masses of roses, but in fragrance far surpassed them. Let the reader take this paraphrase as he will, and presume (if it please) that the Panegyrist found something of more distinct notice in the Archive of Trani, than the words of Amandus the Deacon, obscure enough, declare. Certainly he could have drawn it from no other source, than from the process of the year 1613, which Antonio passed over in silence, and which he asserts in Chapter 31, that Giovanna Sifoli and Anna Bellarbore, most devout virgins, The Saint seen above the bell-tower, testified with an oath; that at the time at which Archbishop Alvarez was thinking of the translation of St. Nicholas, the Saint himself was seen by them above the bell-tower of the new church, surrounded by splendid light, in a beautiful garment, and of gigantic stature. Moreover that, when the same Archbishop, in the same year, had given to the Bishop of Minervino in a pyx a particle of the holy Body, and its bearer, Luca Petri-Angeli, wished to carry it to Minervino, on 28 March, very rainy (whether because then rains are not feared in Apulia, or from a certain necessity of hastening his return), and went together with several others holding the same road; a rain followed him, The bearer of the Relics untouched by rain. continuous through the whole journey, which drenched all from head to foot, except the bearer of the sacred treasure. But he testified moreover, that he walked as if under a crystal canopy, into which the falling drops seemed to fall around him, that the miracle might be more certain, which had as many spectators and witnesses, as many as were the companions of the road.

[93] A church built at Otranto, Hence follows Chapter 32, before it comes to the summary of the miracles narrated above from Amandus; which Chapter is inscribed, "On the other churches built for St. Nicholas in the kingdom of Naples; and the honors shown to him in this metropolis and elsewhere," which are thus woven. The city of Trani indeed made the beginning of building a church for its holy Protector; but it did not always hold alone the praise of that devotion. The first imitator of it in this part (as far as I have been able to learn) was Otranto, which also first of the Italian cities received him into hospitality. This was followed by the city of Lecce, the capital of the province: where among several other things is an illustrious church, built by William the Good King of Sicily for the Saint, on account of the health recovered by his intercession in that city. For falling sick there, so that healing seemed to be hoped from heaven alone, he made a vow for it to him; and being heard, he was, not only to himself, but also to the whole Kingdom, who esteemed his safety to depend on the King's life. But in everlasting memory of that benefit, the most pious Prince gave to the same church one castle, which from the abundance of the best honey coming thence, is named Lyciense Meledunum, as if Mellis-donum (gift of honey). That castle in the course of time (as it happens) translated to other lords, is now numbered among the older and more noble Baronages, which in this Province the Lord Counts Lezzanelli, of the most illustrious family of the Paladini, hold.

[94] But the honor shown at Otranto and Lecce to St. Nicholas, has nothing to that, with which the Neapolitan city deigned him; At Naples a stone statue, inasmuch as he is reckoned only one degree inferior to the supreme. For that Metropolitan and Royal city placed a marble statue of St. Nicholas among the other statues of the Neapolitan Patrons, in the frontispiece of the Archiepiscopal Church. Three miles thence is distant a most ample town, called Casoria. In the ministry of this place and church when in the year 1662 Don Francesco of Andrea was engaged, the same who at Trani had amplified the cult of the Saint, by adorning his sepulcher; At Casoria a silver one, he made the Saint become known there, by relating what he knew of his life and virtues. This seed, as if cast by chance, took such deep roots in the minds of the people of Casoria, that they seemed to vie to be first in venerating Nicholas, by fabricating for him a silver statue; and this being badly lost, by substituting another of like metal and greater price. The same Casoria, with incredible apparatus, celebrates the anniversary day of Nicholas as if it were one of the chief solemnities of the year: and a Sodality of boys, and instituted to his honor a Sodality of little ones, wont on his Birthday to proceed, each with his Cross in his hands, after the example of St. Peregrinus: by which name many there are named in baptism, because as Protector universally he is venerated there.

[95] and a Relic: The report of this matter came to the ears of Fr. Francisco de Sarria, of the Order of Preachers, Archbishop of Trani: who impelled by the desire, to behold also with his eyes what he had perceived by hearing; from Naples, where he then stayed, went to Casoria, in the year 1663 on the 17th day of May; and finding that the report was less than the truth, and praising the piety of the inhabitants toward the Protector of Trani, deigned to confirm the same, a particle of the Relics being granted. Nor did the Saint do less, to demonstrate how welcome to him such affection was: which indeed I could prove by several examples of various favors granted to those invoking St. Nicholas there: but all those being passed over, it will suffice to have related one, which contains a more singular demonstration of paternal affection toward the people of Casoria; and affirmed by sworn testimonies, is found written in the archive of the Archbishopric of Trani, in words to this effect as to substance.

[96] likewise a copy of the statue of Trani, There was desired at Casoria a copy of the statue, venerated at Trani, formed of clay; according to which afterward should be modeled the statue of St. Nicholas, which was then being procured, and afterward was made of silver. The care of this matter was committed to a certain Andrea Falcone, excelling in that art: who indeed promised the work to be done, but prevented by several other things, found not the manner and time of fulfilling his promise. Now the 17th day of April had passed, and Andrea thought no more of the statue, than if no one had ever spoken to him about it: nay, having gone out of Naples for the sake of some work, he was staying secure in the house of the Fathers of the Pious Workers, having its name from the Mother of God of the Mountain. Here, on a certain day, as he was resting from work and taking his midday repose, St. Nicholas offered himself to be seen in the Pilgrim's habit; and said: "Rise, come, and see that my statue be completed as soon as possible." He, thinking it to be a dream, gave himself back to taking sleep. When behold again Nicholas appeared to him, again rousing him, and reproving his sloth, and finally commending, that he should make it as like himself as possible; and to that end he said, "Consider me more attentively"; and at the same time showed himself more conspicuous to him, impressed on the imagination of the sculptor by the Saint. and disappeared. Andrea awakened, doubted not, but that that dream was from heaven; because he found the image of the Saint, so vividly impressed on his imagination, that he could not believe it to be the effect of a simple and natural dream. But the statue, formed according to that second idea, demonstrated it to be true. For when he had received the lineaments of the sacred countenance, commended to him only by a rude compass of words; yet that being compared with the one at Trani, which is believed to be expressed from the living countenance, appeared so similar, as if both were by one hand.