ON BL. BONAVITA, A BLACKSMITH, OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS, AT LUGO IN ITALY.
IN THE YEAR 1375.
CommentaryBonavita, a blacksmith, of the Third Order of St. Francis, at Lugo in Italy (Blessed)
[1] Lucus, commonly Lugo, is a town of Flaminia in the diocese of Forum Cornelii, or Imola: which in his time Leandro Alberti writes was a very respectable fortified town, abounding in all things for life, at Lugo, in the diocese of Imola, and had splendid buildings, although it was by no means girt with a wall and ditch. There is there a monastery of the Order of St. Francis, in which (as Luke Wadding testifies, volume 4 of the Annals, at the year 1399, number 48) Blessed Bonavita of Lugo lies under the altar of St. Anthony of Padua. Blessed Bonavita honorably buried,
[2] Arthur du Monstier inscribed him thus in the Franciscan Martyrology at the Kalends of March: "At Lugo, a town of the diocese of Imola in Romagna, of Blessed Bonavita, Confessor, a Tertiary, of the third order of St. Francis, glorious for holiness of life and frequent miracles." He then reports in the Notes, from Wadding, that his Life, written at length, exists among the people of Lugo. From the town of Lugo itself we received this Synopsis of his deeds, transcribed from the archive of that town: for they say that among the Franciscan Fathers there nothing about him has been committed to writing. Further, that Synopsis runs thus.
[3] a blacksmith, "Blessed Bonavita of Lugo, sprung from Tardotius, a blacksmith by profession, most ardent in prayer from tender years, most fervently commended his spirit to God in praying: for walking and sitting, working and at leisure, devoted to piety from tender years, within and without, he was so intent on contemplation, with so great an excess of devotion in spirit, that he did not at all know what was being done outwardly around him. For it happened at Lugo that a violent fire was burning very many houses with a dire conflagration, so much so that from the houses of the Tebaldi to the house of those of the Zanelli nothing at all was seen unharmed: he extinguishes a fire by the sign of the Cross: a multitude of both sexes was flocking in a tumult to the deadly spectacle, and they were laboring most vigorously to put out the fire. Hearing this, he came without delay: and when he saw the conflagration, he could not keep himself from tears: and, the sign of the Cross having been held out by him, the whole blaze, wholly swallowed up, vanished, so that no one could have lit a candle.
[4] "Once by his prayer he escaped safe from the danger of a rapid river, he is divinely snatched from the danger of drowning, and crossed the channel with dry foot. He was also a zealot for the poor: he buried the dead, like another Tobias, and visited the prisons of captives. A certain poor beggar at Lugo before the doors of the church of St. Francis, numb with cold in the middle of winter, he covered with his own garment: he relieves the poor: and when the young men saw him half-naked, they shamefully insulted him with stones and cries: but the servant of the Lord, broken by no injury, bore all things patiently. Another time he gave to a needy man the boots which he had newly made for himself.
[5] he miraculously heals a wounded man, "A certain godfather of the Rossi cut his arm mortally: whom he so healed that not even a trace of a scar remained. A certain deaf woman received her hearing through the merits of Blessed Bonavita. A certain merchant of Pesaro was freed from shipwreck at the invocation of Blessed Bonavita. likewise a deaf woman: he frees one from shipwreck: At length, when Blessed Bonavita had been cruelly scourged by demons (God permitting), he was comforted by God. Then a light shone from heaven, and, the miseries of this life having been completed, that most holy soul, loosed from the flesh, he is scourged by demons: was swallowed up in the abyss of divine charity. His body was carried into the church of the Friars Minor, the bells ringing of their own accord, with no one pulling them, and at once it shone with miracles. he dies holily: The neighbors hold his cord in great veneration: and his venerable head is laid up in a certain vessel at the Friars' at Lugo in Flaminia." he shines with miracles, These things from there; which Pietro Ridolfi of Tossignano, Bishop of Senigallia, also, having received them, as it seems, from the same place,
[11] For the rest, to finish at once, the blessed Pontiff Roger, while he was held among the people as most illustrious among others for learning, religion and notable holiness, he dies at ninety, and was already ninety years old, worthy of heaven, snatched from the earth, was translated by Angelic hands to immortal triumphs. And when about to die he ordered his wealth to be given to [m] boys who were students, having first bequeathed his goods to students: and that his body should be buried in the monastery of Les Ternes: but since, certain hindrances supervening, it could not be carried there, it was buried in the [n] Cathedral church with the greatest veneration and celebrity. his tomb becomes famous for miracles, To his tomb, on account of great miracles, not only citizens but also country people flock in troops, bringing fleeces of sheep or other offerings in testimony of his holiness. These verses are read on his tombstone: and he is honored with gifts.
[10] Wherefore they soon paid the penalty of so great ingratitude, a lamentable vengeance having been sent upon them from heaven. [l] For in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1353 a devouring flame of fire consumed the city of Bourges (only the Cathedral church and the Episcopal house being spared): who are punished by God with the burning of the whole city and lest it should be doubtful to anyone that this was the vengeance of the divine judgment, when one part of the city had been wholly consumed by the fire, a vehement wind, by the violence of its blast turning the flames of the fires back to burn the intact part of the city, left no house at all untouched. Which done, afterwards he rebukes the wicked more harshly: the most blessed Father Roger, by reproving and more harshly rebuking those hard of heart and sinning publicly, admonished them that, since they had been unwilling to fear God and keep his commandments in abundance of all things and tranquillity of the times, they should at least after the scourges come to their senses salutarily from their iniquities. It has been permitted, then, to hand down to history that by the just judgment of God and a necessary correction the people of Bourges felt the Divine hand.
commemorates in the same words in the Historia Seraphica, page 146. his relics are honored.
[6] Wadding presents another epitome of his Life under the year 1375, shorter indeed, but explaining some things more distinctly. Another epitome of his life, Thus he writes in number 42: In this year, on the Kalends of March, at the town of Lugo, in the diocese of Imola in Romagna, Blessed Bonavita died, born there of humble origin; who, addicted from his earliest age to works of virtue and penance, assumed the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis. No one was more continent than he, no one more humble, no one more generous to the needy according to his condition. He at last reached such perfection of life containing his virtues, that by the sign of the holy Cross he healed very many sick, put to flight evil spirits from the possessed, crossed the river flowing by Lugo, divided into two parts by the sign of the Cross, on dry foot, together with the oxen which he was driving, and miracles: exhibited food divinely provided for the poor, and gave other things in abundance without detriment to his prior substance. he divinely obtains food for the poor: He extinguished by the sign of the Cross a fire that was devouring the town of Lugo and the village of Caudalunga; and he performed many other miracles, through which he obtained a great name of piety and sanctity. He died in the thirty-seventh year of his age, honorably buried under the altar of the chapel of St. Anthony, His relics are made illustrious by miracles, which afterward more frequently received its name from him, where he shines with many miracles. His head is preserved in the sacristy in a beautiful gilded reliquary, and is exposed for public veneration on feast days, and was accustomed to be carried about in the processions of the Rogation Days and of Corpus Christi. and publicly honored.
[7] So says Wadding. The river which he writes was divided by the sign of the Cross by the blessed man and crossed on dry foot by himself and the oxen he was driving — others relate that the wide and deep gulf of the river Senio was divided by the sign of the Cross, providing a path for certain men, just as once the Red Sea for the Hebrews. Certain matters discussed concerning this latter synopsis of his Life. As for the fire that the holy man extinguished, it had broken out in the village called Caudalunga, in Italian Codalunga, not, as the same Wadding has, Laudalunga. The altar of St. Anthony of Padua, under which Blessed Bonavita was buried, is the second one that presents itself to the right to those entering the church of the Friars Minor at Lugo. The reliquary in which his sacred head is enclosed and preserved in the inner sanctuary of the sacristy, we have learned is silver-plated, not, as Wadding writes, gilded — unless perhaps some part of it is overlaid with gold. It was indeed accustomed to be carried about in the public procession instituted on the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist, April 25, and called the Greater Litanies, and in those held on the Rogation Days and the solemn feast of Corpus Christi. But that devotion has now fallen into disuse; whether because he was not solemnly enrolled in the registers of the Saints, it has been provisionally abrogated by the authority of the leaders of the Church, or because the piety of many has grown cold and been voluntarily discontinued, we have not yet ascertained.