ON B. JOHN THE SPANIARD,
CARTHUSIAN PRIOR IN SAVOY.
The Acts of his Life, Elevation, Translation, whence received.
1160.
PrefaceJohn the Spaniard, Prior of the Charterhouse of Reposoir in Savoy (B.)
THE AUTHOR BEING D. P.
[1] Near Gaillon in Normandy, there is a noble Charterhouse, called Bourbon from its Founders; whence after our return from Italy through the Gauls, [Notices of the Charterhouses, begun to be collected in the year 1667, are desired:] I have several times received letters, from a man most studious of the affairs of his Order, Fr. Leo Vassorius; who, when he sent us the life of the above-titled Blessed one in the year 1667, most kindly signified that he had in hand a work, whose title was, Notices of the Charterhouses, divided by Provinces; To which, says he, with a fairly happy endeavor I have heaped up ample material; and in each Province I shall describe the monasteries of our Order, the history of their foundation, the charters, bulls, diplomas, and other things of this kind; then I shall recount the men who illustrated those Houses by sanctity or doctrine, with the series of Priors added. I understand the work is now finished and published in two volumes: yet I have not yet been able to obtain it, but greatly require it; meanwhile the Life of John is given, because of the blessed men of that Order, if ever we have to treat, we can scarcely bring forth anything distinctly, destitute of such help; while we cannot with certainty define either places or times.
[2] Nevertheless concerning the House of Reposoir, which B. John as Prior ruled, we can say from his Life, that it was accepted into stable possession by the Order about the year 1151. having its own little chapel, For he died about the year 60 of the same century, on the 7th of the Kalends of July 25 June, having governed nine years the Priorate of his House, for the building of which he had been sent, as is said in the Life at number 7. The same year and day of his death were also read inscribed on the little chapel built over his tomb in the year 1649; when Charles Augustus de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, nephew of S. Francis through his brother Louis and his third successor, and translated in the year 1650. visited the place, recognized the ancient cult of John, and raised the body from the first place of burial: which in the following year, the General of the Order and the Roman Congregation of sacred Rites being consulted, he raised to a more decent place, for the greater devotion of those running thither, and obtaining frequent benefits of healings: and this certain examples of miraculous curings, sent in French, here to be given in Latin for an Appendix, prove. The instruments of the Elevation and Translation we had ourselves found, and copied for ourselves in the Greater Charterhouse.
[3] But now we have again sent letters thither for obtaining a delineation of a most ancient image, which, with the head girt with golden rays, His effigy painted with SS. Bruno and Hugh. was found in the church of Reposoir by the above-praised Prelate; and was said to represent the Blessed one himself to the life, but we received the answer, that it was neither most ancient, nor believed to represent the Saint to the life. And rightly. For since the same picture represents likewise S. Bruno, who had died in the year 1101 on the 6th of October; with S. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, who is venerated on the 17th of November, and stands at the right of the holy Founder, having died in the year 1200, and afterward in the year 1220 placed among the Saints: B. John standing on the left, dead half a century earlier; it might seem much, if that picture has an age of 300 years. Let it be enough, then, to have praised that tablet here, as a mute witness of the ancient cult of John, brought, as a Saint, among the Saints.
[4] The House of Reposoir is situated, as far as we can hitherto know from the instrument of the Elevation, in the province of Faucigny; for this the Bishop was visiting, when he was invited thither. But that is a region in Savoy, on this side of Lake Leman, commonly le Fossigny or Faucigny, where I should rather place the Focunates of Pliny, than in the Tridentine Alps with Simlerus. Pignonius certainly calls it the County of Falciniacum. Of old it adhered to the Dauphiné; but from the year 1355 it ceded to Savoy in exchange for certain places, which it held here in the Dauphiné, the title of Barony being added. In the same region there is a double Cluse, on this side and across the river Arve, this ascribed to the diocese of Geneva, that attributed to Savoy in the more recent miracles. But I scarcely doubt that the Lord of the place, called Aymo de Fulciniaco in the Life at number 5, drew his name hence. Nor is it permitted me hitherto to define more distinctly the situation, because it is not found expressed in the topographic maps; as neither any of the houses which are here noted, so that for that reason the work promised by Vassorius is the more to be desired by us.
[5] To the Life sent to us this title was prefixed: The Life of Blessed John the Spaniard, the first Prior of the Charterhouse of Reposoir: above whose tomb a sick man is healed of a fever. In another copy there was besides added, The Life from a manuscript. "studiously preserved in the ancient traditions of the aforesaid Charterhouse." Of which words if the sense is this, that it must be understood, not the writing,
but the knowledge of the thing more recently written, was preserved by the ancient traditions; it would have been to be wished that the Author had added his name. But if the writing itself is old, it will be a wonder, that none of the old miracles is found ascribed in particular: but not so that the Author used only the title of Venerable, abstaining from every more religious one, which would otherwise befit a Saint or Blessed already commonly known and venerated. Meanwhile Tamayus and his followers, so desirous of multiplying their native Saints, that on that account we are often compelled to contradict them, have hence a genuine Saint of their nation; concerning whose native city, however, not distinctly enough expressed by the writers of the Life, we desire to be more certainly taught.
LIFE
From the Manuscript of the House of Reposoir.
John the Spaniard, Prior of the Charterhouse of Reposoir in Savoy (B.)
BHL Number: 4407
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
[1] John, by nation a Spaniard, was born in a certain city named Almanceps, of parents not ignoble, yet plebeian citizens. Born in Spain. He, from the earliest time of his boyhood, was given by them to literary studies. For he was of an elegant and subtle genius and tenacious memory; so much that the capacity of his understanding surpassed the genius of all his companions. And when he grew in body, and advanced in understanding; burning with the desire of learning, his parents being left, and one companion being taken with him, in the thirteenth year of his age, going out from his own, he set out to a foreign country. And coming to a certain castle which adjoins the parts of the Rhone Province; b and tarrying there also about one year, by the desire of studies he crosses into Gaul: at last he came to Arles. But after a few days, he betook himself among other scholars; and began to converse with them. Among whom, when the Doctor of the scholars suddenly beheld him; forthwith he began to inquire of him, who he was and whence, and for whose sake he had come? For he saw a most illustrious youth, an adolescent of good disposition, cheerful of countenance, and adorned with all elegance. To whom soon he answering, professes himself a Spaniard by nation, and for what cause he was present. Which heard, the aforesaid Doctor, weighing the labor of so great a journey, and that an exile solicitous with the zeal of learning had come into foreign lands; forthwith promises to teach him, and that he would much profit him; and besides to seek some one of the noble citizens, who would bestow on him with a cheerful mind whatever was necessary for food and clothing.
[2] These things being thus done, it happened, as often is wont to happen, he is pressed by want; that he had not yet the promised benefit of lodging; and the money (although he had brought a fair amount from his country) he had spent on long-continued expenses. And so, surrounded by many straits of miseries, and beset by much anguish of wavering thoughts; at last he began to be in want. Which I reckon was done by divine providence, that him whom it had already resolved to set over many, it might first permit to feel a little of calamity; that from his own want he might learn how he ought afterward to rule those subject to him. he is received into the house by a rich man; But suddenly regarded by the same divine clemency, a certain one of the number of notable citizens, God so disposing, received him into his house; furnishing him abundantly whatever was necessary for food and clothing: and so great was the grace, both with the aforesaid man and toward his wife, that they not only did him the above-said benefits, but would even adopt him as their only son, if he himself wished. He remained also with them almost two years, being very pleasing to the faces of all who saw and knew him round about.
[3] From whom when he departed, they being sad and weeping (for his companion compelled him to return to his country), yet he by no means returned thither: but proceeded to a certain place, by name of S. Basil: c in which he had lately heard that one true Religious dwelt, having confessed to a certain pious solitary, he cleaves to him; who for many times was frequented there. To whom approaching, that he might earnestly seek from him penance for certain unlawful things, as is the custom of many scholars; (for the time of Lent was at hand) it happened indeed that, admonished by a few words from him, and illustrated by divine grace from above, very learned both in divine and human letters, he put on the same Habit of sacred Religion. In that place he is reported to have been of so great fervor, and so great regular strictness toward himself, that through the excessive exercise of fasts, and the frequency of abstinences, he conceived in himself a grave disease of the breast, which is called "Defecit" the "Failing" by the physicians. For very often that man, of whom we made mention above, when he saw himself often surpassed by him in the exercise of Religion; and beheld him very often refusing the eating of flesh, which yet he himself enjoyed; said to him, Brother John, while we eat, you abstain: whence I judge that you will hereafter work virtues.
[4] He remained, at length, there for the space of two years and a half, pleasing both God and men; until there was reported to him the fame and fervor and worship of the religion of a certain House, namely of Montrieux, which is consigned to the Carthusian Order: then at Montrieux made a Carthusian, to which also when he came in haste, and the affection of his heart and the purpose of his will became known to the inhabitants of the same House; he was received by them indifferently and honorably. But not much time after, the Prior of the said House, seeing him in all things which pertain to the worship of the aforesaid Order to be very solicitous, and honorable in morals and life; attempted to impose on him the office of sacristan and the care of the whole church. Who in the ministry received exercised himself so modestly and orderly, that, almost six years being passed in the cell; in the seventh too, God being pleased, he ascended to the governance of the whole House. Moreover it delights to hear and subtly to investigate, how the House was disposed by him, or how very many of the buildings of the houses, either were newly built, or the old ones renewed. But also the roads, which flowed into the bounds of the aforesaid House, infesting it, with several other disturbances, God helping, he corrected and quieted. To the writing and emending of authentic books, he gave great zeal: and also to the nuns of Prébayon he published, in a noble style, the customs which they asked of him.
[5] But the ancient enemy, envying his happy acts, stirred up against him a certain man, Thence he passes to the Charterhouse whom he had given to drink of the poison of his dire wrath. But the discreet man, fearing more the detriment of his recent disciples, than dreading the provocation of the stirred wrath of the perfidious one; and according to the Lord's word (If they persecute you in one city, flee into another) the Priorate being prudently administered for two years and a half, departed thence and came to the Charterhouse: whose Governance at that time S. Anthelm held, and to whom he had before already been known: by whom he was then kindly and humanely received, remaining with him for some time, lovable both to him and to all. afterward to the House of Reposoir; But afterward, when the aforesaid Prior, and his Counselors, had begun to treat among themselves, what they could do for him and his companions; suddenly Aymo de Fulciniaco, a man powerful in riches and glory, sent legates to the Charterhouse; desiring and humbly beseeching, that to a certain hermitage (which lies in his territory, and is contained under the power of the Prelate of Geneva) to be inhabited by his aid, they would transmit cultivators of their order; because it had anciently been given by him to other inhabitants of this Religion; but, possessed by them for a little, it had remained empty. Whose prayers being heard, knowing that the matter itself was done by the counsel of God; they gave assent to his petitions, and to the said men imparted very many benefits of garments, money, and books, to inhabit this desert.
[6] That place, indeed, which the venerable man went to build, is a certain deep valley, which then deserted and poor, situated among the mountains; and, to say this, as befits the order, very wintry; utterly devoid of all fruit-bearing wood, nor abundantly enough fruitful: in whose middle, beside the streams of waters, lies a very moderate plain, on which the buildings of the houses sit: but round about, with great mountains of very high rocks rising, on which most beautiful groves of firs and other woodland trees are planted: on the summits of which rocks there are everywhere the best pastures for feeding animals. Hither when the venerable man with his companions entered on the 11th of the Kalends of February 22 January (for at such a time the aforesaid hermitage began to be inhabited by him), he found scarcely a few bodily nourishments in it, and certain old little houses, and these too composed in a sordid fashion. Whence indeed, those who entered, being compelled, on account of the want of food and drink, led too austere exercises of Religion: to whom oaten bread was then sweet, and itself festive.
[7] Thenceforth the man began to be known, and by all who knew him to be held in great reverence; to build houses, to enlarge narrow places, in a short time augments it in manifold ways, to cultivate the soil. For under his governance, all the buildings of the upper and lower house, which are today seen, were almost built. In his time too, by his counsel and disposition, the aforesaid House deserved to find and obtain a great increase both of men from God, and of other benefits. To the writing and emending of divine books, also, he retained the same manner which we have foretold. But also a history, which he had himself written with his own hands, an excellent one, to the aforesaid nuns, God inspiring him, before his death he bestowed. But what he was toward those subject to him, it seems difficult to be able to be narrated; whose morals, of each one, whether great or small, whether strong or pusillanimous, he thoroughly knew. and after 9 years dies in it. There was in him wisdom and grace itself, whence the great were the more highly enriched, the small grew and were amplified, the strong were the more strengthened, the pusillanimous, lest they utterly fall, were propped: for to himself he was sleepless in prayer, in discipline too cruel, in fasts more austere, in correcting severe, but in enduring meek. Nine years, then, the Priorate of the House of Reposoir being governed; when from his conversation the twentieth, but from his birth about the thirty-seventh year was passing; the aforesaid Prior, on the 7th of the Kalends of July 25 June, making an end of good studies and pious acts, commended his happy spirit to the Lord, about the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and sixtieth.
[8] At the same time also, in which the said venerable man governed the aforesaid Priorate, Because the bodies of two oppressed by the snows, such a misfortune is reported suddenly to have happened, that on the rocky alps, with a vehement and unexpected rush, from the summit of the very high mountains, snows flowed down in such quantity with velocity and impetuosity; that two of the number of the shepherd servants, from the place which is called Aroz, f where then the flocks of animals remained, approaching the House of the Monks, to carry necessary victuals with them, suddenly, suffocated under those snows, breathed out their spirit. Which tribulation, for the proving of his patience (as is read of Blessed Job) and the amplifying of his merit, we piously believe happened in the times of his governance. he had had buried outside the cemetery, A not small space of time, then, having elapsed, and the snows being resolved into melting, the bodies of the dead being found he caused to be brought to the place of the Monastery, to be given over to honorable burial. He disposed, however, by no means to inter them in the cemetery, lest perchance they had been bound by some knot of a sentence which he could deservedly be ignorant of: but in a place contiguous to the church, almost about the middle, he caused, as is the custom in the Order, their bodies to be buried honorably, although by the Professors of that Order it was by no means customary, as regards strangers, at their places.
being found he caused to be brought to the place of the Monastery, to be given over to honorable burial. He disposed, however, by no means to inter them in the cemetery, lest perchance they had been bound by some knot of a sentence which he could deservedly be ignorant of: but in a place contiguous to the church, almost about the middle, he caused, as is the custom in the Order, their bodies to be buried honorably, although by the Professors of that Order it was by no means customary, as regards strangers, at their places.
[9] Wherefore, when by his superiors, as is reported, he was reproved, although he had done this with several intentions and a just and excusable cause; he commanded himself also to be buried outside it when he had come to his extremity, he wished to mulct and punish himself; not dreading the confusion of this passing world, that he might deserve to escape the future vengeance of the last judgment, if there had been fault. He adjured, therefore, all his Brothers, that beside the bodies of the aforesaid, outside the cemetery, after his death they should render the earth of his body to the earth, after the example of B. Marcellinus h the Pope, who for a certain offense under anathema forbade that his body be given over to Ecclesiastical burial. In which place, indeed, in the process of time, by divine prompting, a Chapel with an altar in it, with a beautiful panel, came to be most adorned; where, a chapel being built above where very many seized with fevers, not only light but even grave, approaching with faith and devotion, when they have slept upon his tomb, returning to their own, by his merits and prayers suffraging, bring back without doubt the benefits of healings. Much more is he to be believed to apply spiritual medicine to wounded souls, obtaining from God indulgence and grace, if the faith and devotion of those humbly asking require it. he cures fevers. But of what merit he was in his conversation while he lived; after his precious death the pious Lord Jesus, whom he faithfully served in life, deigns mercifully to make plain by bestowing benefits of healings even to this day, to the praise and glory of his most holy name, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns God, through all ages of ages. Amen.
NOTES OF D. P.
THE ELEVATION OF THE BODY
From the authentic Manuscripts of the Greater Charterhouse.
John the Spaniard, Prior of the Charterhouse of Reposoir in Savoy (B.)
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
[1] Charles Augustus de Sales, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See Bishop and Prince of Geneva, In the year 1649 the Bishop visiting the people of Faucigny, for the perpetual memory of the matter. We make known and manifest, that, God willing (who, since he is wonderful in his Saints, of whose joining together he prepares for himself an eternal dwelling, disposes all things sweetly to his glory), after some visitations of our diocese performed, when we were in the province of Faucigny, about immediately to return to our ordinary residence; the Reverend Father D. Joannes Baptista de Bely, Presbyter and Prior of the devout House of Reposoir of the Carthusian Order, asked us, that for blessing a chapel, newly built beside that House in honor of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary the Compassionate, we would deign to turn aside hither. To whose petition immediately assenting, since the Venerable Prior himself, he comes to the Reposoir for the consecration of a Chapel: with the family entrusted to him, and the whole Carthusian Order, we deservedly pursue with singular love; we came to this monastery yesterday, the 7th of September: and today, amid the solemnities of the Masses, which we celebrated in Pontificals, there came into our mind the fame of the Venerable servant of God John the Spaniard, the first Prior of this House; whom by many curings of the sick God long since rendered celebrated; and whose sepulchre is frequented with much devotion of the peoples in this same house.
[2] We esteemed this thought to be an inspiration of the Holy Spirit: wherefore, which performed, he treats of seeking the body of B. John. the matter being weighed and deliberated with some pious and learned Priests assisting us, the Lord Prior himself also being called, and with his Religious taken into counsel; by our opinion and theirs, it seemed worth the trouble, first to visit the sepulchre and Relics of the servant of God himself, according to the form of the Apostolic Constitutions: since concerning the fame of the sanctity of the servant of God himself it is established abundantly enough, and he is of the number of those who, before the space of a very long time, with the odor of sanctity migrated to the Lord, and accordingly are left to the cognizance of the Ordinaries.
[3] Therefore on this present day and at the noon hour, on the 8th of September with the Religious and witnesses the underwritten witnesses and the Chancellor of our Episcopal court, a public Notary, being employed, the Venerable Fathers led us toward the sepulchre of the said servant of God, namely D. Joannes Baptista de Bely the aforesaid Prior, and the Lords Antelmus Philippus the Vicar, Petrus Feris, Joannes Doncieu, Nicolaus Juliard the Sacristan, Antonius Bigouche, Philippus Mercier, Placidus Bremoud, Ambrosius Fontaine, Carolus Emmanuel Jacques the Procurator, Ludovicus Bally the Coadjutor; proceeding to the chapel contiguous to the church, all Priests and professed Religious of the same Carthusian Order, constituting the Family and Chapter of this House of Reposoir. With whom, from the lower part of the choir of the church, we entered into a certain chapel, beside the walls of the church itself to the North, which is part of the Gospel side, built with a vaulted and painted work: on whose wall, which is common to the church itself, is read in Roman capital characters an inscription of this kind, namely: In this chapel lies Blessed John the Spaniard, the first Prior of this House, above whose sepulchre a sick man is healed of fevers. He died in the year 1160, the 25th of June.
[4] Immediately the aforesaid Prior showed us the sepulchre of the said servant of God; he looks within it, which is almost in the middle of the chapel itself, before the altar near the grating, of walnut wood: above which is a cover or little door, of similar walnut wood: which is marked with an emblematic work and a solar circle, having in the middle a white cross, and in the four angles as many stars. But at the altar itself, between four wooden columns gracefully painted, are three images at full length in oil work upon canvas; namely in the middle, S. John the Baptist; on the right, S. John the Evangelist; and on the left, the servant of God John the Spaniard himself, in Carthusian habit, holding in his right hand a palm, and in his left a book, with his head surrounded by rays. and considers the old marks of sanctity: And for the greater confirmation of the fame and esteem of his sanctity, the above-said Religious led us into another lower chapel adjoining, dedicated to S. John the Baptist and S. Anthony the Abbot: to whose chapel's wall is affixed a most ancient image upon canvas, representing three Blessed ones of the Carthusian Order; namely, S. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln; S. Bruno, the initiator of the same Order: after whose names is read a subscription of this kind, namely, B. John the Spaniard, the first Prior of Reposoir: likewise at full length as above: who, holding a palm and a book, also has rays of gold on his head: and this image is said to represent him to the life, which representation is of much advanced age.
[5] And so, returning into the first chapel, we ordered to be called by the voice of the Lord Prior himself the devout Brothers, then he orders the sepulchre to be opened: Franciscus Faure and Jacobus Diuletupetit, Donates of this house: and the doors being immediately closed, we ordered by them the above-said sepulchral door, two feet long and wide, to be opened. And we ourselves descended by a ladder into a pit five feet high, two feet and six inches wide, and eight feet long, built with vaulted work and whitewashed; whose pavement was nothing else than earth well compressed; but the vault and walls were wet with innumerable little drops. which being broken through, This structure being well inspected, by the said Donate Brothers we ordered the earth to be dug out and carried away to the height of three feet. After which digging, there were found square stones, badly compacted and disjoined through excessive weight, and so resting upon the firwood coffin, wholly rotten, that they had broken the body lying beneath, especially about the breast and legs: whence also the head, imprudently too struck with the iron mattock, was divided into many parts. We asked the Lord Prior himself and the other Religious, whether that earth had ever been dug out, and that sepulchre opened. Who answered unanimously, that they had never heard (and that then for the first time) it had been opened, nay always closed, from the time of the death of the said servant of God.
[6] Whence we ordered it to be opened further: and then for the first time were drawn out the bones of the head, on which about the teeth flesh still clung with skin, all the bones are drawn out one by one, and the teeth themselves were most firmly fixed. Successively were drawn out the bones of the arms, which were crossed in the manner of a Cross; and around them was found a little strap, of black leather, and, as it seems, of ox-hide, of the length of about six inches; and besides many bones diminished and small. Then were drawn out the bones of the legs and shins; on which flesh still clung with skin. The other bones were mixed with the moistened earth, which we wiped off: and, placed in a chest, are carried to the sacristy; but the bones themselves, which we numbered as sixty-six; and with the jaws the teeth, which we numbered also as twenty-four, we reverently replaced in a little case or chest of plane-wood, one foot and six inches long, one foot wide, ten inches high; incised with some Gothic characters, most difficult to read, with a like sliding cover: and we committed them to the Lord Prior, to be faithfully and reverently kept in the sacristy of the said church; until, after the mind of the Reverend Father General of the said Carthusian Order be received, and if need be, of the Apostolic See, it be otherwise provided. And the Lord Prior himself, with all his Religious, taking the case or chest,
promised that he would so faithfully and reverently keep it.
[7] In faith of all which things we have subscribed to these presents; and confirmed them with our seal, an instrument being drawn up thereon. and ordered them to be counter-written and subscribed by our Secretary and Episcopal Chancellor and public Notary. But these things were done in this house of Reposoir of the said Carthusian Order, on the 8th day of September in the year 1649, in the 2nd Indiction, in the 5th year of the Pontificate of our most Holy Lord, by divine Providence Pope Innocent X, in the presence of witnesses specially called and asked for this; the Reverend D. Petrus Maguin, Doctor of Sacred Theology, Canon of our Cathedral church, and our Vicar General and Official; the Reverend D. Renatus Sauvage, Doctor of Sacred Theology, Presbyter of the Congregation of the Mission; the Venerable Nicolaus Carrat, and Joannes Philippus Chappet, our Presbyter Chaplains; and Jacobus Mermaz, a Clerk of our household; witnesses, as above said, called and asked: who all signed in the original, remaining in the archive of the Bishopric.
It was signed, Charles Augustus, Bishop of Geneva …
And I Amadeus Flory, public Notary and Episcopal scribe, subscribed this transcript of the act of the matter done, and signed it with my accustomed sign, by the mandate of the Illustrious and Reverend Lord Bishop and Prince of Geneva. And here it is signed, Flory.
Note that after those words "with skin," which are had in the preceding column at the asterisk, I read also in the first copy, brought to the Charterhouse, these words; namely: And on the bone of the knees there remained a notable part of skin: which are not had in the second authentic copy, from which the present copy was transcribed.
Note also, that in that first copy it is reported at the end, that all the Religious of that House, together with the Venerable Lord Prior, subscribed in the register.
THE TRANSLATION OF THE BODY
From a like public Manuscript Instrument.
John the Spaniard, Prior of the Charterhouse of Reposoir in Savoy (B.)
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
[1] Charles Augustus de Sales, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See Bishop and Prince of Geneva, The same Bishop in the year 1650 being asked to all whom it shall concern, living and posterity, and for the perpetual memory of the matter, we make testified and manifest, that, since by the sacred Letters the Holy Spirit pronounces the friends of God exceedingly honored; we ought to omit none of those things which pertain to the greater glory of the Saints. And although by our praises and honorific actions we cannot, as is enough for our wishes, promote it, since it is so great with God; yet we are bound, for our office and as a testification of our mind studious of their cult, to take care of the things which make for their greater honor. Moved by these reasons, on the solemn and sacred feast of the Nativity of the Most Blessed Virgin of the year just elapsed, the Relics of B. John, at the request of the Reverend Father D. Joannes Baptista de Bely, Prior of the Charterhouse called Reposoir; when we had come into that same Charterhouse, for the blessing of a chapel newly built in honor of the most blessed Virgin Mary the Compassionate at the doors of the said monastery, and had performed that blessing; the sepulchre of the Venerable servant of God John the Spaniard, the first Prior of the same monastery, celebrated and frequented with the devotion of many, not only neighbors, but also of the surrounding peoples, for benefits obtained at the prayers of the same servant of God, by the assent and counsel of the same Reverend Father Prior, and of his Religious, and of some pious and learned Priests assisting us, which he had ordered to be dug up the prior year, God inspiring, according to the form of the Apostolic Constitutions we visited, in a chapel of the church itself placed to the North: and in it we took care to have dug up the Relics of the said servant of God, as is more fully had in the act, which we ordered to be made by our Notary: and so the venerable Relics of the same servant of God we reverently laid up in a case, and that case, duly closed, we committed to the same Reverend Lord Prior to be diligently preserved, until otherwise it should seem, by the order and command of the Reverend Father General of the Charterhouse or of the Apostolic See consulted on these things, for exhibiting greater honor to the same Relics.
[2] When, therefore, this year, proceeding in the visitation of our diocese, to place them more decently; the same Reverend Lord Prior had made us more certain that it seemed good and was approved by the Reverend Father General of the Charterhouse, in letters given to him on the 7th of September just elapsed, that the same Relics of the Venerable servant of God be placed in a more honorable place, and that this was answered by the Consultors of the sacred Congregation of Rites; that the peoples, coming to honor them and to ask benefits of curings, might be more and more kindled to their greater cult and the praise of God, by the glorification of the aforesaid servant of God; the same Reverend Lord Prior earnestly asked us, he comes thither on the 5th of October: that we would deign to betake ourselves to the same monastery for the translation and more decent placing of the same Relics. To which petition most gladly assenting, for the greater glory of God and the cult of his servant of God, on the 3rd of the Nones of October 5 October of the year one thousand six hundred and fiftieth above, to carry out the requests of the said Reverend Prior, the same one being our companion, we ascended to the aforesaid Charterhouse of Reposoir: and on the following morrow, dedicated to S. Bruno, founder of the Order of the said monastery, for the translation of the said Relics we proceeded, as follows.
[3] and on the very feast of S. Bruno, Therefore on the same day, at the ninth hour before noon, at the high altar of the church of the said monastery, clad in Pontifical vestments, at the instance of the said Reverend Prior, requesting the same aforesaid translation; we ordered the Act drawn up by us concerning the visitation of the said sepulchre, and the digging up and replacing of the Relics, to be read by our Notary in an intelligible voice. Which being read through, we ordered the case in which we had laid up the aforesaid Relics to be exhibited before us. Which, immediately exhibited to us, we duly recognized, with the seals impressed upon it by the same Reverend Father Prior, to be the very same in which we had decently laid up the aforesaid Relics. Which afterward we opened, and diligently inspected all things contained in it; the case being unsealed before the venerating people, and we found them, as they had been laid up by us, all unchanged and the same. To the opening of which Relics no small multitude of people, although we dwelt in the mountains far from villages and cities, came to us; offering crowns and rosaries, to gain for them dignity from the touch of the said Relics.
[4] To whom when satisfaction had been abundantly given, with solemn rite we blessed a new little chest, cunningly, splendidly and decently prepared and adorned; he transfers the bones into a new chest: and in it we laid up the aforesaid Venerable Relics with due honor; and that chest we placed at the side of the altar, while we celebrated a Pontifical Mass of S. Bruno. In which, after the sacred Communion, granted to the Religious and some of the people, and the solemn Benediction given, with a solemn procession also the same Relics (which the same Reverend Lord Joannes Baptista de Bely with the Reverend Lord Martinus Symonnes, Vicar of the monastery of Mélan, carried as a most welcome burden) through both cloisters of the same monastery, a great number of Priests and Laymen accompanying, and then in the place of the chapel prepared for it, with candles and tapers lighted, we adorned: and the procession being performed, we laid up the same in the said chapel, in a cupboard most ornately prepared at the side of the same chapel, and fortified with iron grates; and we granted an Indulgence of forty days, in the accustomed form, to all the bystanders.
[5] Of which our Process we took care to have this Act made in the same monastery an instrument being drawn up on the matter done, duly signed, by our Notary: to which we subscribed with the Reverend Lord Petrus Franciscus Jaco, Doctor of Sacred Theology, Archdeacon and Canon of our Cathedral church, our Vicar General and Official; and the aforesaid Reverend Father Prior, and the Reverend Religious of the same monastery, and in the presence of the Venerable Lords Nicolaus Carrat, and Joannes Philippus Chappet, our Chaplains; the Reverend Lord Petrus de Lisle, Doctor of Theology, Plebanus parish-priest of the church of Cluse; the Reverend Lord Humont, Presbyter of the church of Siouzire, Chaplain; with witnesses, the discreet Jacobus Mermar, Clerk of the Parish of Ugny, our household member; Claudius des Turches, of the parish of S. John the son of Tholomaeus in Faucigny; and the excellent Agnes Symonnes, of the place of Sauville near Motta in Lorraine; witnesses called and asked to the premises: who all signed in the original, remaining in the archive of the Bishopric. Thus signed, Charles Augustus, Bishop of Geneva.
And I Amadeus Flory, public Notary and Episcopal scribe, and by the Notary. subscribed this transcript of the Act of the matter done, and signed it with my accustomed sign, by the mandate of the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Bishop and Prince of Geneva. Thus signed, Flory, with the Episcopal seal hanging below in the fold, and joining both Acts with two silken fillets, red and blue.
APPENDIX.
Certain more recent miracles described in French.
John the Spaniard, Prior of the Charterhouse of Reposoir in Savoy (B.)
FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
[6] By tradition it is held, that when this Blessed one wished to drink of a certain spring, which is on the road to Reposoir, among the same mountains; Water turned into wine, the water was turned for him into wine: which spring is thence named the Spring of S. John.
[7] It is about forty years, that a certain Religious of the Order of S. Francis of the Observance, a demoniac cured, of the Convent of the town of Cluse in Savoy, possessed by a demon, was brought to S. John, by the Reverend Father Guardian and some Brothers of the said Convent. These, when they had had a solemn Mass celebrated there, for the liberation of the said Religious; shut him up alone in the cage which is beneath the tomb of the Blessed one himself: upon whose door they placed a great stone, and so went off to take their meal. But after two hours, returning, they found the man walking in the chapel, sound and safe, who afterward lived many years, without the sense of any discomfort.
[8] A certain servant of the Charterhouse of Vallis-sancta, likewise an epileptic laboring with the falling sickness, received from the Venerable Father D. Raphael Guilielmus, then Prior, a phylactery, composed in the form of an Agnus Dei, in which he had enclosed something of the sepulchral earth of B. John: by whose virtue he obtained entire health. Concerning the age of this Prior, the Lord Carolus le Coulteux, being asked in the year 1691, while at the Greater Charterhouse he was giving his work to collecting the Annals of the Order, wrote back, that in a certain list of the Priors of Vallis-sancta it is noted, that he ruled it from the year 1210 to 24: but that the miracle seemed to him more recent than that it could rise to so great antiquity: and therefore that here rather is to be understood Lord Nicolaus Raphael Guilielmus, Prior of Reposoir from the year 1624 to 32, when, freed from office, he returned to the beloved solitude of the Greater Charterhouse which he had professed, and in it died in 1634, on the 1st of April, nor is it ever known that he presided over Reposoir; whose title however the Lord Carolus says he found, Raphael Guilielmus added, in his manuscript more accurately re-read, in these Latin words: The Venerable Father D. Raphael Guilielmus, then Prior of Reposoir, gave to a servant of the Charterhouse of Vallis-sancta earth excerpted from the sepulchre of the Blessed one, wrapped in the manner of an Agnus Dei: by whose virtue he was healed.
[9] Claudius Hudry, of the village of Cluse of the dominion of Geneva, nine years now elapsed, and a possessed woman: brought his wife to celebrate a novena, by a vow with which he had bound himself to B. John, if by his merits she should be freed from the evil demon by which she was possessed, as indeed she had soon been freed.
[10] A certain man, dwelling near Menton in Savoy, had lost his mind: a madman also for whom, when his kinsmen had vowed to bring him as a pilgrim to Reposoir; they carried out their vow, and he returned to sound senses: I believe fourteen years are now elapsed.
[11] A little girl, struggling with a vehement fever, was commended by her mother to B. John; and a girl laboring with a fever. a boy being sent to Reposoir, who should there take care to have a Mass said, for the recovery of the little girl's health. He, his errand being performed, delivered to the mother something of earth, which he had taken from the sepulchre of the Blessed one: but she hung a particle of it on the neck of her daughter, who then by chance was trembling from a paroxysm: and forthwith the trembling ceased. But when by a chance fall the amulet had dropped off, the paroxysm immediately returned. When the mother had noticed this, and that the sacred earth had fallen from her daughter's neck, she immediately refitted it to her: and at once she had her daughter healed, and free of all fever. That woman was of the town of Cluse in Savoy; but the matter happened at the time when the Venerable Father D. Irenaeus Dournais ruled Reposoir as Prior.
[12] And these things indeed are not found written, yet they are true, When these things were written. as appears. But how did this appear? I believe from the recent and sure attestation of those who had been present and were living, when these things were written there: which time can somehow be known from the time of the last-named Prior, whom we understand to have presided over Reposoir from the year 1625 to 33; and three years after to have been constituted Greater Prior: from which office when he had likewise sought to be released in the year 1643, in the same year he departed from the living.