Cyril

ON ST. CYRIL, THIRD PRIOR GENERAL OF THE ORDER OF BLESSED MARY OF MOUNT CARMEL IN THE HOLY LAND.

AROUND THE YEAR 1224

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Cyril, Third General of the Order of Blessed Mary the Virgin of Mount Carmel in the Holy Land (St.)

[1] Many illustrious men of the Order of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel are found enrolled among the Saints, to whom we most willingly dedicate our labors, and wish to illustrate their Acts as diligently as possible. One thing meanwhile we lament, that we cannot obtain the Acts of all that were once written, nor safely enough employ our industry: as was possible to accomplish concerning the Life of St. Peter Thomas, which we first inserted

into our work on the Acts of the Saints under the twenty-ninth of January, Many Saints in the Carmelite Order. and afterward, polished with a second revision, published it separately, and dedicated it to the Reverend Fathers of the Order of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, assembled in Provincial Chapter at Mechlin in the year 1659: indeed we later obtained other Acts of the same St. Peter, composed by another contemporary author, and offered them to the said Fathers for publication. When this Order, after the Holy Land was recovered by Christians, the first three Generals, flourished in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the said region, it received its Priors General, of whom the first three, enrolled among the Blessed, are honored with Ecclesiastical worship: the first, Bertholdus, on the twenty-ninth of March; the second, Brocardus, on the second of September; the third, Cyril, on this sixth of March, whom we now treat; St. Cyril, the third of these, and as we did on the twenty-fifth of February for the Life of St. Avertanus, a Lay Brother of the same Order, and as we know met with approval, so now we shall first produce the more ancient and more certain testimonies.

[2] The most ancient mention of St. Cyril is found around the Ecclesiastical Office ordered for him in the General Chapter held at the Convent of Silvae in the Province of Tuscany in the year 1399, honored with Ecclesiastical Office in the year 1399 whose decree is produced by John Baptist de Lezana in the Annals of the Carmelites under the year 1224, in which he believes St. Cyril departed this life, and it is of this kind: Likewise they ordained that in the same manner every year, the Office of St. Cyril, Doctor of Mount Carmel and Confessor, whose feast is celebrated * on the seventh day before the Ides of March, that is, on the sixth day of the same month, should be held, commanding the Provincial Priors that they should cause the said feasts (namely of SS. Elisha and Cyril) to be inserted in the Calendars of their Provinces. Lezana adds that the same was ordained in the General Chapter at Bologna in the year 1411, and consequently in a very ancient Breviary of the Order, written on parchment and preserved in the Transpontine Library, the feast of the same St. Cyril is found. Indeed in similar Missals, Breviaries, and Calendars of the Carmelite Order, both manuscript and printed, these words are almost invariably noted at the sixth day of March, as we have learned from the Fathers themselves of this Order: Of St. Cyril, Priest of Mount Carmel, third General of the Order.

[3] At the time when the said General Chapters were held, John Grossus flourished, elected in the year 1389 as General by that part of the Order which followed the Antipope Clement VII: and afterward in the year 1411, the schism having been removed, Encomium written by John Grossus the General before the year 1430 constituted Prior General of the entire Order by unanimous consent, he continued in that office until the year 1430, and after resigning it, he lived some years more. By his industry there survives the Garden of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, divided into two parts: the first is on the Origin, Progress, and Priors General of the said Order; the second on the Holy Fathers and devout men and some more illustrious writers. In this second part, among the Saints of the Order, there is an encomium of this kind: St. Cyril was a Priest of Mount Carmel, a Greek by nation, the third Prior General of the Order. While he was celebrating the solemnities of the Mass for the revered commemoration of Blessed Hilarion the Abbot, together with Brother Eusebius, his most dear Companion, and had reached that place of the Canon where it is said: This oblation therefore, etc., a thick cloud stood by him. A divine Oracle brought by an Angel While he himself stood amazed, an Angel of virginal aspect, standing two and a half cubits from the altar, appeared in the cloud itself, with golden and curly hair, adorned with two wings, clothed from top to ankle in golden sandals, and shod with red shoes, bearing a lily-topped staff and two silver tablets inscribed with Greek letters, and said: When you have completed the Sacraments, transcribe these writings on parchment, and melting the tablets, form them into a chalice and a thurible, for making libations and burning incense at the altar of the morning sacrifice. The Angel remained at the altar until the thanksgiving after Mass. Descending then to the table of the lower pavement, he set down the tablets, and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Ascending to the libation, the Angel was disclosing this to him: Crown yourself with seven stars and two tablets.

When therefore this Saint had transcribed those tablets and melted them down, he sent that transcript through the monk Telesphorus to Abbot Joachim, a holy and enlightened man, urgently entreating him that, on account of its great obscurity, he would compose a certain commentary upon it, by which the hidden things might be brought to light, and the dark cloud of the most profound utterance might be converted into the shining sun of the clearest understanding. This Abbot Joachim did not hesitate to do at the urging of St. Cyril, writing him a letter: in which, among other things, he calls St. Cyril himself a star remaining in the order of holiness, in the pattern of integrity, in the nest of fewness, and illuminating the dark, deformed, and squalid world with virtues, informing it with morals, and adorning it with examples. Nor is this a wonder, because with his virtues he illuminated the world's darkness, with his morals he informed its deformity, and with his examples he adorned the world's squalor. On the sixth day of March, on Mount Carmel, the holy mountain, the most fruitful mountain, St. Cyril, poor in the superfluous riches of this world, which is good, but rich in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is best, departed from this light: whose glorious body rests on the aforesaid mountain, shining with many miracles, to the praise of Almighty God, to whom is honor for ages of ages. Thus far Grossus in the second part of the Garden concerning the Saints of his Order. We have obtained a double copy of this, both transcribed from an old manuscript codex, one from the Convent of Frankfurt, the other from Mechlin, copied in the year 1484: where by libum in the distich is indicated a libation and the sacrifice of the Mass. We shall treat of the miracles below.

[4] Two manuscript copies of the divine Oracle brought to St. Cyril were found by Lezana in the Vatican library, and he sent them transcribed to Philip of the Most Holy Trinity, a Discalced Carmelite, found in manuscripts who obtained two other copies, one unearthed by Gilbert the Englishman from the library of Cluny, the other he himself saw in Paris in the illustrious Abbey of St. Victor, and published it at Lyon in the year 1663, with the letter of St. Cyril to Abbot Joachim prefixed, in which he himself sets forth the manner of the Angelic apparition, described by John Grossus in the encomium already given in almost the same words. Then to the Oracle itself is appended the response of Abbot Joachim to St. Cyril with a compendious interpretation of the Angelic Oracle. Both letters were also published by Lezana under the year 1192 and the following. Abbot Joachim afterward published a commentary or interpretation of this Oracle somewhat more extensive, which Lezana does not dare to transcribe, because he found that it contains some things which could give occasion of scandal to some, at least to the weak. and illustrated by the commentaries of various authors. He asserts, however, that it is contained in the Vatican and Transpontine libraries. Gilbert, a Cistercian monk, and John de Rupescissa, a Franciscan, also interpreted that Oracle. But John Erghon, an English Augustinian Hermit, collected it into one body with others and entitled it Compilations of Prophecies. Telesphorus of Cosenza, a priest and hermit, in his book On the Great Tribulations and the State of the Church, reports many things about it, as does Bartholomew of Pisa in the Book of Conformities of the Life of St. Francis: which authors the said Philip of the Most Holy Trinity cites, adding his own very ample Commentary, which the curious reader may consult. We return to the ancient testimonies of the writers.

[5] Among other handwritten books on the Acts of the Saints, we have had a codex from the Church of St. Savior in Utrecht, in which Lives of the Saints, but generally abridged, are contained, by an anonymous collector, whom we believe to have lived in the fifteenth century after the time of John Grossus. From this we give the following, previously transmitted from the same manuscript to John de Lezana and published by him under the year 1174, number 9. There was a learned man, erudite in the sciences of Sacred Letters, very devout to God, Summary of the Life from manuscripts. named Cyril, who lived in the Holy Land, then possessed by Christians, in a holy and pious manner, established in the order of the Priesthood. Who indeed, on account of his contemplation of wondrous holiness and purity of life, came with great affection to that same Mount of the Brothers dwelling on Mount Carmel and offering their grateful service to Almighty God and to his glorious Mother the Virgin Mary, day and night, in austerity of penance and renunciation of property. For that Mount is indeed most pleasant with verdant pastures, most abundant with a spring of flowing water, which the Holy Father Elijah and Elisha and many other sons of the Prophets are said formerly to have inhabited. There St. Cyril was associated with the devout Brothers in dear fraternity and sweet companionship according to their manner of living, leading a celibate life, frequently consoled by an Angelic vision, often illuminated by divine revelations. The rest concerns the divine Oracle related above from Grossus: which here is described in somewhat more ample words throughout. There followed various things about the deeds of illustrious men of the Carmelite Order: from which it seems probable that the author was someone from the same Order.

[6] Lezana under the year 1224, numbers 5 and 6, attributes much to Peter de Natalibus: who, if he had written anything about St. Cyril, would necessarily have to be placed before the authors reported thus far, Nothing about him was written by Peter de Natalibus, since he began his Catalogue of Saints on the feast of St. Barnabas in the year 1369, and completed it in the year 1371, on the sixteenth day of May, having been created Bishop of Equilo: whose archetype, written in the author's own hand, was obtained by Antonius Verlus of Vicenza, who had it printed at Vicenza in the year 1494, and at the end of which, the register of quires having been counted, he appends the following. After we have, God willing, reached the end of the book, it seemed to us that it would not be useless to append the deeds of certain Saints An encomium appended by another hand in the year 1494 which, from their histories, we have excerpted as concisely as we could, imitating the author of this work, etc. Which passages were omitted and replaced in later editions with these words: On the Saints most recently Canonized. There in chapter 3, on St. Cyril the Confessor, these things are found: Cyril, Confessor, formerly a Priest, having become a companion of the hermit Brothers, with so devout a heart and pure a mind gave himself to contemplation, that he was frequently cherished by an Angelic vision and illuminated by divine revelations; and having related in a few words the divine Oracle about which we have already treated, he adds: From that time, excelling in holy works, he died. His feast is celebrated on the day before the Nones of March.

[7] Before this supplement to Peter de Natalibus, some Martyrologies had already celebrated St. Cyril. Among these, to be preferred is the ancient Martyrology of the Order, which we have printed on parchment in these words: commemorated in sacred calendars: On the day before the Nones of March, on Mount Carmel, of Blessed Cyril the Priest, the mellifluous and golden most devout Hermit of Carmel: to whom God, as to a faithful and familiar friend, revealed many things about the future state of the world in a manner unheard of by all. The same things are read in the Martyrology or Hagiologium of John Guillemannus, a Regular Canon of the Rouge-Cloître near Brussels, who died in the year 1487, and somewhat more concisely in Hermann Greven, a Carthusian of Cologne who died in the year 1480, in the additions to Usuardus. In the following century, Molanus and Canisius followed. In the Martyrology appended to the Golden Legend

printed at Cologne in the year 1490, as also at Lübeck in the same year, but with the Doctrinal of the Clergy, only these words are found: On the same day, of St. Cyril, Priest and Confessor, of the Order of the Carmelites. In the manuscript Garden of Saints these things are contained: On Mount Carmel, of Blessed Cyril the Priest, the mellifluous third Prior of Carmel. He wrote many things profitable for future ages, and by glorious miracles procures glory for God and astonishment for the world. He died in the year 1205. Werner Rolewinck, in his Fasciculus Temporum, has nearly the same, but under the year 1224. Francis Maurolycus, Abbot of Messina, and Constantius Felicius who followed him, record these things: Likewise of St. Cyril the Carmelite, to whom many things were divinely revealed in two silver tablets inscribed in Greek. In the present Martyrology of the Carmelite Order, inserted in the Ordinal or Ceremonial printed in the year 1616, some things are handed down from Palaeonydorus or Bostius, about which we shall treat below.

[8] Some adduce the testimony of James Philip of Bergamo in the Supplementum Chronicorum, book 12, under the year 1199. But that is absent from the Brescia printing of the year 1485, having been inserted by later hands in the Paris edition of the year 1535, an encomium inserted in Bergomatis in the year 1535. where the reader is warned that some celebrated in the memory of the ancients have been added, and concerning Cyril these things are read: Cyril, a Greek by nation, Prior General of the same Order of Mount Carmel, was himself also at this time very distinguished for both learning and prophetic Spirit, and being very learned, he wrote certain works of his genius: to Abbot Joachim on the Angelic Oracle, one book, which begins: In the time of the years of Christ. Also on the Progress of his Order, one book, and several letters to various persons. But these works had already been narrated earlier by Trithemius in his book On the Praises of the Carmelites and On Ecclesiastical Writers, with this encomium: another of Trithemius. Cyril, Priest and monk of Mount Carmel and its third Prior General, a Greek by nation, as they say, a holy man and illuminated by the prophetic spirit, to whom Almighty God is said to have revealed his will by the ministry of Angels, while he was honored with silver tablets inscribed by the finger of God. Trithemius is cautiously copied by Possevinus in his Sacred Apparatus: If, he says, he is to be believed in this matter. Daniel of the Virgin Mary, already a second time Provincial of the Carmelite Fathers in Belgium, the book On the Progress of the Order, manuscript from the year 1446. a most religious and most diligent man, published the book on the Progress of the Order in the Vineyard of Carmel, and asserts that it exists in old manuscript copies, among which the most carefully written was in Paris, in the College of Navarre, in the year 1446, by John Simonis of Terra Nova, and is preserved in the Convent of Ghent. Therefore at least forty-six years before Trithemius published his book On Ecclesiastical Writers. Let others discuss the rest concerning these writings.

[9] Two Belgian writers of the Carmelite Order were familiar to Trithemius, at least through correspondence: namely Arnold Bostius of Ghent, Life written by Bostius and Palaeonydorus in the year 1497. who died in the year 1499, and John Palaeonydorus, a Hollander from the town of Oudewater, which in Greek sounds παλαιὸν ὕδωρ, whom Trithemius says died in the year 1507, at the age of 74. By this man there was published at the Mainz press in the year 1497 a three-part book of ascents and panegyric, On the Origin and Progress of the Carmelite Order. This book was reprinted under the title Antiquity and Holiness of the Hermits of Mount Carmel at Venice in the year 1570, at the arrangement of John Baptist Rubeus, Prior and Master General. From book 3, chapter 4 of this work, we give the Life of St. Cyril, which Bostius wrote in virtually the same form in book 7 of his hitherto unpublished Historical Mirror, indeed often in the same words, so that one seems to have borrowed from the other, or both to have composed it by collaborative effort. About three hundred years had then elapsed from the times when those things which are narrated about St. Cyril by them were done, and in verse by Mantuanus. things so illustrious and remarkable that they deserved to be confirmed by the writings of the ancients. Next to these came Baptist Mantuanus, who died in the year 1516. He published the Life of the same in heroic verse in the third book of his Fasti, where at the end he celebrates his pilgrimage to the Medes, Parthians, and Armenians, as we observe in the Notes below. The rest is entirely similar to what we have published thus far.

[10] The Carmelite writers who followed afterwards, and who trace the affairs of the Order, transcribe as established history what Palaeonydorus and Bostius hand down: more recent writers of the Life. they also arranged for the sacred Lessons, which are read at the second Nocturn in the Ecclesiastical Office, to be inserted under this sixth of March. Separately, the Life of St. Cyril was written by Peter Thomas Saracenus in the Menology of the Carmelites, Alegreus in the Paradise of Carmel, Philip of the Most Holy Trinity before the Oracle illustrated by him with Commentaries, Aegidius Leo Indelicatus in the Garden of Carmel published in Italian, and Manuel Ferrera among the Lives of the Saints of this Order written in Portuguese, Segerus Pauli in a particular treatise not yet published. John de Lezana inserted the same in the Annals of the Carmelites; Daniel of the Virgin Mary cites various things in the Vineyard of Carmel, to whom we refer the reader curious about new narratives.

* Indeed, on the day before the Nones.

EPITOME OF THE LIFE

By John Palaeonydorus

Cyril, Third General of the Order of Blessed Mary the Virgin of Mount Carmel in the Holy Land (St.)

BHL Number: 0000

By Palaeonydorus.

[1] Cyril, born of illustrious parents at Constantinople, educated in all divine and human letters, when he had heard that the Sultan of Iconium desired the sacred books of the Christian religion, taking the codices by whose reading he estimated the Sultan's mind could be most easily imbued, ^c he came to Iconium. Therefore in a short time, by admonishing and persuading, he so prevailed Deeds at the court of the Sultan, that he made him a Catechumen, and dipping him in the bath of baptism at the Paschal solemnity, begot him in Christ. Meanwhile Cyril was being compelled by a Legation from the Emperor Manuel of Constantinople to Pope Alexander the Third of Rome, ^d for reuniting the Roman Empire which had been previously divided. and before Pope Alexander III Ambassadors were sent along with Cyril, who promised great things if the Pontiff would agree to his proposal. To whom the Pontiff replied that it was not easy to join into one what his predecessors had designedly disjoined. But when he learned of the Sultan's desire from the report of blessed Cyril, he wrote to him saying: Alexander, Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God, to the Sultan of Iconium, greeting: To acknowledge the Truth, and to guard what has been acknowledged, etc. Having received these letters, and the Legation having been faithfully accomplished, Cyril returned to Constantinople. After this, the controversy regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit ^e was revived between Cyril and the Patriarch of Constantinople, and a schismatic Patriarch: and by the Greeks, who wished to overcome by injuries what they could not by reason, Cyril was expelled from Constantinople and yielded to malice. For he turned over in his mind that Greeks and Latins could scarcely agree in one Catholic opinion, since he saw that the Greek codices had been corrupted by the cunning of the schismatics, and he resolved to abandon them entirely.

[2] As therefore he was turning such things over in his mind, the following night a certain image of venerable age and light, of a virginal aspect, addressed him, as it seemed, saying: Do not fear: if you wish to escape the errors of the Greeks, and cast them far from you, and labor for yourself, take up the life to be shown you in the wilderness of Mount Carmel: for in it you will be saved. Having heard these things, Cyril responded: O Lady Virgin Mary, rejoice: Calling to the religious state: you alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world. You are my consolatrix and my teacher. I must set my foot on a publicly trodden path, and hoping for higher things, take up the way marked by the footsteps of very few. Therefore Cyril, distributing all his temporal goods to the poor, and also leaving worldly things to the world, sailed toward Syria. At length he arrived in the Holy Land, and in Jerusalem, by God's arrangement, he met the aforesaid Brocardus: who, seeing Cyril dressed in a Greek and philosophical garment, said: Hail, good man. What business have you? Cyril, rejoicing to hear the Greek and Attic tongue, replied: I have no business except a ready will to offer myself wholly to God. Wherefore Brocardus, thinking that such a Doctor had been sent to him by God, taking him with himself to Mount Carmel, said: The habit taken on Mount Carmel: From this Mount all religion originally flowed. This Mount gave to others of whatever habit the norm of living, statutes, and a rule, and all things which are known to have been approved by any founder. On this holy Mount the most kind Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, is said by the Fathers always to have been frequently present with the Brethren, and to have called the Hermits then dwelling here her brothers. But when Cyril had taken bodily rest, the most sacred Virgin Mary appeared to him, saying: Here you will be safe. On the following day, invested with the habit of the sacred Order by Brocardus, they conversed daily together about the Sacred Scriptures and the Life of the Holy Prophets Elijah and Elisha, and of their successors.

[3] Thereafter, clinging to God with a pure heart and humility, Cyril was deemed worthy of both divine grace and divine revelation. For after some interval of time, he saw in a certain night a man venerable in aspect, standing near him, his head adorned with a mitre, and saying: Do not fear, Cyril, for I am Basil, once a Hermit of Mount Carmel, ^f Pastor of Caesarea, coming to declare these things to you from God, that going to Armenia, The Word of God preached to the Armenians: you should preach the Word of God there, and light the lamp of Christ. Having made this vision known to the Prior, with his permission, together with Brother Eusebius, sowing the seed of God in ^g Armenia, with God cooperating and signs following, he converted all Armenia to the faith of Christ. From that time, at the persuasion of Cyril, the King of Armenia with all his Bishops and subjects, in the Year of the Lord 1181, ^h submitted himself to Pope Lucius III. Hence Cyril, after ^i ten years, returning from Armenia to Mount Carmel, The Oracle brought by an Angel: had consolation from the Angelic vision and speech, and from frequent divine revelations. For in the venerable commemoration ^k of St. Hilarion, the Hermit of the Carmelite religion, while he was celebrating the solemnities of the Mass, an Angel of virginal aspect appeared to him in a cloud, holding in his hand a lily-topped staff and two silver tablets inscribed with Greek letters, and said: ^l The Almighty God has sent you these tablets, as to a familiar friend. In these was written a certain compendium, divided into eleven chapters, which he gave to Abbot Joachim of the Order of the holy Father Benedict to explain. The beginning is as follows: In the time of the years of Christ, from 1254.

[4] Moreover, after the death of St. Brocardus, ^m in the Year of the Lord 1197, he was made the third Prior by the election of all the Brothers. But Pope Celestine in the Year of the Lord 1191, in his first year, having heard his fame, urged him to accept the Patriarchate of Jerusalem: The Patriarchate of Jerusalem offered: which he utterly refused, writing back thus: To the Most Blessed Father Celestine, kisses of the feet, Cyril, servant of Christ. It suffices for me to carry the Treasure of my Lord, that is, the soul, for which that great merchant came, pouring out his own blood, in this vessel of clay. For in the monastery of Carmel I have found earthly Angels, whose conversation is truly in heaven.

[5] When on a certain occasion he had given alms to a blind man,

The blind man applied the coin to his eyes, and immediately saw. a blind man given sight: Then, illuminated also in mind, he asked to be received into the Order. But Cyril, on account of the absence of Father Brocardus, deferred accepting him. And it happened after three days that the man thus illuminated breathed his last. But when on the fourth day Brocardus arrived, while the Brothers were occupied with the funeral rites, the dead man rose to life and said: a dead man raised to life: Through Cyril I have been raised from death, by whose merits I was previously freed from blindness of both mind and body. Informed by divine revelation that, because of the sins of Christians, the Carmelite Order would be uprooted from the Holy Land, Cyril, with most devout prayers, begged the most pious Virgin Mary to preserve the flock of Carmel. Nor was divine consolation lacking to the zealous lover of the Mother of God. For he was divinely taught that men of various regions would profess the Religion of Mary, who would most abundantly transplant it into their own regions.

[6] At last, replete with the adornment of all virtues, after three years of the care of his office assumed, as his illness grew worse, death: having ordered all the affairs of the monastery of Carmel and the Order, and having devoutly received the Sacraments of the Church, in the Year of the Lord ^o 1200, he migrated to Christ. He was buried next to the bodies of SS. Bertholdus and Brocardus, where the holy Trinity, attested by miracles, await the day of resurrection in peace. ^p In the same month of the death of St. Cyril, while sailors were sailing from Cyprus, a certain man who had died on the ship was cast upon the shore of Mount Carmel. The body, collected by the Brothers, while it was being carried to burial, was placed upon the tomb of St. Cyril, a dead man raised to life. until a grave could be prepared. Immediately the dead man rose, saying that he had been reserved by Blessed Cyril for a better life. Whereupon, having taken the habit of the Order, he survived twelve years, and laudably fell asleep in the Lord.

^a He is called a Greek by nation by Grossus and Mantuanus; Trithemius adds, as they say. But Bostius in book 7 of the Historical Mirror, chapter 4, asserts that he was born in the city of Constantinople to most honorable parents, where the rest is narrated in almost the same terms.

^b Lezana refers these events to the year 1168 and the following. Baronius from Matthew Paris indicates the conversion of the Sultan in the same year 1169, The Sultan's conversion. number 42, and at number 43 inserts part of the letter of Pope Alexander, published by our John Busaeus along with the books of Peter of Blois, and afterward at number 44 adds that it is unknown to him whether Alexander sent, as he promised, men to catechize the Sultan, and whom he sent: so that he seems either not to have read Palaeonydorus, though reprinted at Venice, or not to have sufficiently esteemed his authority. In the Vineyard of Carmel, number 716, from Segerus Pauli, it is said to have been done in the year 1181, because Robert of Monte in the Supplement to Sigebert reports that the Sultan, by the will of his dying mother, erected a Cross.

^c Iconium, the metropolis of Lycaonia, is well enough known.

^d Lezana refers that legation to the year 1170, in which same year Baronius from the deeds of Pope Alexander treats of a similar legation, without any mention of St. Cyril.

^e Lezana from Palaeonydorus and Bostius has these and the following under the year 1172 and following, when the Patriarch was Michael Anchialus: yet Lezana confesses that nothing certain is established as to whether this dispute was with him. Baronius treats of Michael in the year 1160, number 41.

^f St. Basil is honored on the fourteenth of June; from his Life or Writings this habitation of his on Mount Carmel would need to be confirmed.

^g Otto of Freising, book 7 of his Chronicle, chapter 32, treats of the Legation of the Armenians to Eugene III, made in the year 1145, which Baronius also published under the said year, number 23. Saracenus in the Life of St. Cyril joins both legations together; Lezana distinguishes them.

^h Lucius III was created on the twenty-ninth of August of the year 1181 here cited. Mantuanus in volume 3 of his Fasti, in the Life of St. Cyril, celebrates some labors of this kind as follows:

But you, venerable Father, through the kingdoms of the Medes, Through the Armenian cities, and through all the Parthians, Having scattered everywhere the Seeds of the divine Word, Worn out by the weight of age, the weight of labors, You migrated to the appointed joys of everlasting life.

^k Grossus above says of Blessed Hilarion the Abbot. Where this Oracle is treated more fully.

^l Grossus, from the letter of St. Cyril to Abbot Joachim, describes the Angel's words better.

^m Lezana places the death of Brocardus twenty-four years later, at the year 1221, and asserts that Palaeonydorus errs in the chronology of the times. On the contrary, in the Life of this man, Philip of the Most Holy Trinity writes that he was made General in the year 1173.

^n Lezana accepts these things as true under the year 1191, number 7.

^o Here is another chronological error: Bostius comes nearer to it, when he records that he died in the year 1203. Lezana assigns the year of his death as 1224.

^p Bostius adds in Lezana: When a certain lame man touched his body, he obtained perfect health.

ON BLESSED AGNES OF BOHEMIA, VIRGIN, OF THE ORDER OF ST. CLARE, PRAGUE,

IN THE YEAR 1282.

Preliminary Commentary.

Agnes of Bohemia, of the Order of St. Clare, Prague (Bl.)

§ I. The age and monastic life of Blessed Agnes.

[1] We present on this sixth of March two Virgins consecrated to God in the Seraphic Order, outstanding for the holiness of their lives and the power of their miracles: of these, the first is Blessed Agnes, daughter of the King of Bohemia, both born on earth and reborn in heaven at Prague; the other is Blessed Colette, born at Corbie in Picardy of a father who was a carpenter, Bl. Agnes and Bl. Colette of the same Order, dead on this day, and who put off mortal life at Ghent. The former, having received from the monastery of St. Damian five nuns sent by St. Clare, was the first to begin in transalpine and northern regions the most strict manner of living, which, though she petitioned the Supreme Pontiffs in certain arduous difficulties to have it adapted to the Bohemian nation, and obtained what she sought; yet she herself, as one most devoted to poverty, wished to retain nothing for contingent needs, even when the faculty was offered. The latter, on account of poverty even relaxed by the authority of Pope Urban, restored the same Order to the original rule of life of St. Clare, and was therefore considered its reformer. Very many monasteries of Clarisse Virgins were founded by the example of both, who lived most holily in imitation of them. We shall treat of Blessed Colette below; now we must treat of Blessed Agnes, who flourished about two centuries before her.

[2] Bl. Agnes born in the year 1205, Blessed Agnes is reported to have been born in the Year of Christ 1205, and having been imbued as a young girl with the most pious morals in monasteries, she never afterward deviated from the most holy way of life she had begun. After her father Přemysl Ottokar the King died, and her brother Wenceslaus was administering the kingdom, the marriage that her father had arranged for her with the Emperor Frederick II, after the death of her father, she rejected by imploring the patronage of the Supreme Pontiff, and at the encouragement of the Friars Minor, who had established a residence at Prague under King Přemysl, she turned her mind to the monastic life according to the institute of Blessed Clare, and distributed the patrimony left to her by her father for pious uses. The Acts below at number 25 record that she herself as Foundress completed the sacred buildings for the Franciscan Fathers at immense cost. from her patrimony she founds monasteries: Moreover, out of the impulse of piety and compassion (these are the words of Gregory IX, who then presided over the Church), she built and endowed a hospital for the work of the sick and the poor. Finally she built a monastery for herself and other nuns: for both of which Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia, granted the site, and the Bishop of Prague with the Chapter of the Church added full liberty. These are confirmed by the Apostolic Letters of Gregory IX, which, published by Wadding in volume 1 of the Annals of the Minors under the year 1234, number 5, we here reproduce.

[3] Gregory... To our most dear daughter in Christ, Agnes, sister of our most dear son in Christ, the illustrious King of Bohemia, etc. Recently perceiving with joy the sincere fervor of your soul and the fragrance of your devotion, we were delighted in this, as in the odor of a full field which the Lord has blessed; beholding in the second Agnes a charity which many waters could not extinguish: for which we rise in praise and thanksgiving to the bestower of all good things, who mercifully inspired this desire in you, that, joined with the wise maidens, you might await his unforeseen coming, secure, with your lamp alight. For Agnes, imitating Agnes, you have in no way allowed yourself, though delicate and young, to be deceived by the blandishments of the world, worldly allurements rejected, or seduced by temporal power or glory: but accounting as nothing the favors of the world and the abundance of earthly things, you have compelled the flesh to serve the spirit, so that, having renounced all transitory things, you chose to serve the heavenly Spouse in the religion of the enclosed poor in purity of heart and body: dedicating yourself to him by solemn vow, and desiring to become the handmaid of him who, humbling the height of his divinity and taking the form of a servant, exalts the humble unto salvation. Whence our most illustrious son in Christ, the illustrious King of Bohemia, your brother, piously considering that you are strengthened from on high by the power of the Spirit, she clings to Christ. and enkindled by the ardor of charity in Christ, and restraining the affections of brotherly love, concurring with gracious kindness in your divinely inspired purpose, granted the ground for building a monastery with a hospital near Prague in honor of Blessed Francis, in which you have determined to enclose yourself with other Sisters, to the Roman Church; and he himself and our Venerable brother the Bishop of Prague, Diocesan of the place, with the consent of his Chapter, both donated both places to full liberty out of the impulse of piety; as is more fully contained in their letters transmitted to us. Since, therefore, the affection of a devout mind is to be embraced, and more assiduous human care ought to be applied to the new plantings of sacred religion, so that they may bring forth abundant flowers and fruits of holiness; we, inclining to the prayers of the said King, Bishop, and Chapter, take the aforesaid monastery and hospital into the right and property and guardianship of the Apostolic See... We further decree that the divine Office shall be celebrated there according to the manner of the Roman Church, except for the Psalter, which you may say according to the Gallican custom... Given at Spoleto, on the third day before the Kalends of September, in the eighth year of our Pontificate. So far the text. But four days later, in letters sent to the Bishop of Prague, he recommends that he not permit the said monastery to be molested by anyone. Those letters are presented by the said Wadding in the Pontifical Register, number 23. The eighth year of Gregory IX corresponds to the year 1234, because he was created on the twentieth day of March of the year 1227.

[4] Meanwhile Blessed Agnes accomplished what she had determined, the monastery having been built as far as possible. Albert of Stade in his Chronicle assigns the year 1236 with these words: she takes the habit of the Clarisse, in the year 1236. In the same year, on the day of Pentecost, the sister of the King of Bohemia, the Lady Agnes, at the encouragement of the Friars Minor, surrendered herself to the Order of the Poor Ladies of the Rule of Blessed Francis at Prague, having scorned on account of Christ the Emperor Frederick, who had previously sought her in marriage. The said Albert then flourished, having been created Abbot of Stade in the year 1232: and having resigned the Abbatial dignity, he entered the Order of St. Francis in the year 1240 and spent the rest of his life among the Friars Minor. Others relate that Blessed Agnes entered some years earlier, and on the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Mary. The Pontiff had commanded

by letters sent to John, Minister of Saxony, and to Brother Thomas, Custos of Bohemia, that they should, by Apostolic authority, appoint Agnes as Abbess of that monastery, by the command of Gregory IX, she is made Abbess: and he wrote to her with this title: Gregory... To the Abbess of the monastery of St. Francis of Prague, of the Order of St. Damian. Since, having left the vanity of the world, you have exchanged human frailty for perpetual stability, and having been made from a Queen willingly the handmaid of God Almighty, you have entered the way of perfection in the holy religion to which you have devoted yourself forever, reckoning all your joy and comfort in the divine service, especially when the most holy body of Christ is offered at the altar: inclining to your supplications, we grant to your devotion by the authority of the present letters, that five times a year you may hear the solemnities of the Mass in the choir of the monastery and behold the Priest celebrating. Given on the second day before the Nones of April, in the eleventh year, that is, of Christ 1237. But in letters given on the fifth day before the Ides of April to the nuns of the same monastery, she arranges for moderation to be applied to the rule: he gives the Abbess the power, on account of the excessive cold of that region and the inclemency of the air, to dispense, concerning the obligation to fast on certain days on bread and water according to the Rule, and concerning the use of shoes and furs, on the advice of the Visitor, as she shall see fit. Again the following year, on the third day before the Nones of May, he granted that during Lent on Sundays and Thursdays they might eat twice and refresh themselves with dairy products. On every Easter, however, and on the solemnities of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of the Apostles, and on the feast of the Nativity of the Lord, and also in time of manifest necessity, such as sickness, no one should be bound to fasting. Furthermore, when according to the Rule they are bound to fast on bread and water, let them have their meal in all things as on other Lenten days. Finally he grants permission to have two tunics, scapulars, and a cloak with furs, and shoes, and to use mattresses filled with hay or straw, as well as pillows.

[5] Meanwhile, most devoted to poverty, she admitted no revenues offered by her brother the King, and wished no rights to any possessions or any property of her own to remain for the Sisters: she rejects all possessions, which is especially clear from the letters of the same Pope Gregory to the Master and Brothers of the Hospital of Prague of St. Francis, which we add here. Our most dear daughter in Christ, he says, Agnes, the sister of the illustrious King of Bohemia, and the Convent of the enclosed handmaids of Christ of the monastery of St. Francis of Prague of the Order of St. Damian, have humbly entreated us, that we should take care to accept the free resignation of the Hospital of St. Francis of the same place, even the right to the hospital: which she had formerly ceded to them, together with its rights and appurtenances, and which the Apostolic See through them had granted to the aforesaid monastery. We therefore, having received the said resignation, concede that same hospital, which, being the right and property of Blessed Peter, we grant to you and your successors to be freely possessed in perpetuity, and we decree that it shall remain in perpetuity under the protection of the Apostolic See, etc. Given at the Lateran, on the fifth day before the Kalends of May, in the twelfth year, that is, of Christ 1238. In letters to Agnes and her convent, on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of May, he moreover grants that they cannot be compelled against their will to accept possessions.

[6] Two things in the course of time held Blessed Agnes perplexed: one, that the precept of obedience was expressed at the beginning of the formula of regular life, she seeks an explanation of the rule: the other, that in the same formula, in Apostolic letters, the Rule of Blessed Benedict was said to be given to them for observance. She therefore asked the Supreme Pontiff that those two clauses be removed. Innocent IV, in the first year of his Pontificate, that is, of Christ 1243, replied in a lengthy letter sent to her, that the Rule itself does not bind the Sisters of her Order to anything else than obedience, renunciation of property, and perpetual chastity. Furthermore, that the mention of the Rule of Blessed Benedict was added so that through it, as the principal among the approved rules, the religious institute might be rendered authentic: without, however, any necessity thereby imposed of observing it. We omit other letters sent to her by Gregory IX: in one, when she had asked for a certain form of the rule, condensed by herself, to be confirmed, the Pope dissuaded her with a mild and kind exhortation, adding another in which he invites her to the holy way of life and to lofty virtues. Both are presented by Wadding, numbers 12 and 13 of the year 1238.

§ II. Acts toward obtaining the Canonization. The Life as written. Her name inserted in the sacred calendars.

[7] she dies in the year 1282. That Blessed Agnes lived until the year 1282 we shall show below from the Life, and that she then died on the sixth of March, the twenty-fourth day of Lent and a Friday of the week. That she shone with very many miracles after death is indicated by the petition for her Canonization: concerning this, Francis Harold in his Epitome of the Annals of the Minors under the year 1328, number 16, has the following. Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia and Poland, undertook a laudable cause this year, the Canonization is urged. to act urgently before Pope John for the canonization of Blessed Agnes, a Clarisse Virgin, daughter of Ottokar, King of Bohemia, and her grandmother, at this time most illustrious for many miracles, buried in the monastery of her Order that she had built at Prague: and to promote this cause she also enlisted as intercessors leading persons from the Clergy and people: from whose letters to the Pontiff on this matter, the author I follow, Wadding, here produces those which the Judges and Universities of the cities of Prague, Kutná Hora, Čáslav, and Kolín composed. So far from him, in which Blessed Agnes is called grandmother, because she was the great-aunt of Queen Elizabeth: whose great-grandfather was King Wenceslaus, the brother of Blessed Agnes. By her patronage, the Queen had been freed as a woman in labor from the danger of death, as also her son, still a small child, later the Roman Emperor Charles IV. These things are read below in the Acts of this Virgin.

[8] Moreover, from those things which were formerly done to obtain the Canonization of the same Blessed Agnes, we give the following, transmitted to us from a book entitled Chronicle of the Royal Court, from the library of the distinguished man Marquard Freher, Counselor of the Palatinate. There on page 63, under the Year of the Lord 1328, these things are found: For the Canonization, Queen Elizabeth acted in the year 1328. In this year, around the feast of Blessed Martin, Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, inspired by the spirit of devotion, on account of the very many works of virtue which the Lord had deigned to display at various times around the body and sepulcher of the Venerable Virgin Agnes, buried at St. Francis in her own foundation at Prague, convoked the entire Clergy of Prague and the leading men of the people, and there set forth her devotion and intention regarding the Canonization of the said Virgin. She also obtained letters of intercession to the Lord Pope John for the same business, from both Prelates and citizens, which she dispatched to the Apostolic Lord together with her own letters. The tenor of the letters of the citizens was this.

[9] To the Most Holy Father in Christ and Lord, the Lord John, Letters of the citizens of Prague to the Roman Pontiff: Supreme Pontiff of the Sacrosanct Roman and Universal Church, Nicholas of Prague, Hermann of Kutná Hora, Henslinus of Čáslav, and Gotzlinus of Kolín, Judges, and the Universities and Communes of the same cities, with due reverence of subjection, kisses of the feet of the Blessed. A great joy of salvation, a great mystery of divine piety, has the Lord God of Gods hitherto declared in the kingdom of Bohemia, of which we are inhabitants. For he inspired this devotion and grace in certain Kings and kingdoms, and in certain other sons, inhabitants, and children of the same kingdom, that ascending by steps of virtue to the summit of perfection, they were advanced to such an eminence of holiness that, their merits demanding it before the Most High, their names being written in heaven, they were enrolled in the catalogue of Saints at the excellence of the heavenly host of Clerics: by whose worthy and God-pleasing intercessions, the inhabitants of the same kingdom have felt and feel the pious and efficacious aid of their help, and in tribulations and necessities a timely remedy. But because the immensity of divine bounty sets no limit to its munificence, nor does the generosity once bestowed produce weariness, to those whom he had already given that kingdom as Fathers and Patrons, he gave also a Virgin, innocent as a lamb, and by the appellation of her name, Agnes, who, the daughter of the Lord Přemysl, or Ottokar, former King of Bohemia, of happy memory, sprung from royal stock on both sides, so clothed the flower of her youth with the beauty of virtues, that from the very beginnings of her tender age she seemed to hasten toward the heavenly fatherland. Living at length in a most holy manner of life in the Order of St. Clare, she completed the course of her life in such a way that she consummated more happily what she had happily begun. Upon which laudable perfection of life the Lord conferred such grace and power, that in life and in death and after death she shone with such brilliance of miracles that the signs of her holiness were and are daily evidently manifest. This lamp, however, because of the variety of Lords who succeeded in the kingdom of Bohemia after the death of the Lord Wenceslaus of happy memory, King of Bohemia and Poland, was so hidden under a bushel in the same kingdom that the life and holiness of the Virgin did not come to the notice of the Apostolic See and of Your Holiness. But now, the stability of dominion having been granted in the kingdom itself by divine mercy, the Father of mercies has aroused the spirit of the Illustrious Lady, our Lady Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia and Poland, and has so kindled her heart in love and honor of that Virgin, who was indeed the grandmother of the said Lady Queen, that she would supplicate at the feet of Your Holiness, the holiness of the said Virgin having been set forth, and petition that Your Holiness's kindness would deign to place that venerable, holy, and God-pleasing treasure, long shining in heaven, upon the candlestick of public and universal recognition in the world, by enrolling that Virgin in the catalogue of the Saints. Which we also, prostrate at the knees of Your Holiness, implore by the urgency of our humility. So far the text. The Pontiff was then John XXI, called XXII, who reigned from the year 1316 to the year 1334.

[10] In order that the aforesaid petition might have a happy outcome, it appears that at the direction of Queen Elizabeth, the more illustrious Acts and miracles were sought from all quarters, and from these a double Life of Blessed Agnes was composed, one of which was written in Latin, the other in Bohemian: the former is given from an old codex unearthed from the Church of Prague, a copy of which exists in the Clementine College of the Society of Jesus in the possession of Father John Tanner: and we had intended to give this one alone, omitting the later Life, which, transcribed from two other old codices, was rendered into Latin by the learned George Crugerus, also of the Society of Jesus. But when we compared the two with each other, we found that illustrious circumstances of events were added together with various miracles, and since it has also been hitherto unpublished, we judged it too to be worthy of the press, and to be added to the former. Of these manuscript codices which Crugerus used, one is called the Crumlov codex, the other the Velislav: indeed the author of one is believed to have been a contemporary of Blessed Agnes, and the following words reported below at number 18 are to be understood of him: These things I have from an old manuscript of a contemporary author, which

I should briefly note concerning the extraordinary virtue of the royal maiden before the sacred convent. Moreover, as is clear from what has been said, in order that obscure points might be explained, the aforesaid Crugerus here and there interposed a few words. Commemoration in Martyrologies: Concerning the same Blessed Agnes, those who treat of the affairs and persons of the Order of Friars Minor, or the deeds of the Kings and Saints of Bohemia, commonly speak: and Arthur du Monstier in the Franciscan Martyrology, where he adorns her with this encomium, under this sixth of March, cites very many of them: At Prague in Bohemia, of Blessed Agnes the Virgin, daughter of the King of the Bohemians, who, having spurned royal pleasures, professed the monastic life, and shining with poverty, chastity, and signs, ran to Christ her Spouse. The same author has similar things in the Sacred Gynaeceum, and our Laherius in the Menology of Virgins. We here append two summaries, Two summaries of the Life. one from Bartholomew of Pisa, book 1 of the Conformities, fruit 8, part 2, and one from George Bartholdus Pontanus, book 4 of Bohemia Pia: whom the rest almost all copy, or from whom they excerpt even brief encomiums. In Pisanus we follow the edition of Marcos of Lisbon published in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and French, and Valerius the Venetian Capuchin in his Italian treatise on St. Clare and the illustrious Clarisses, who retained the typographical error by which the city of Plangensis is read in place of Pragensis in Pisanus, and transcribed it as città di Plagena. Before these we set four letters of St. Clare to Blessed Agnes, which John Tanner, a Priest of our Society, transmitted in his Latin renderings.

§ III. The Clarisse monastery built, alienated, and restored. Bones found in the year 1643: are they Blessed Agnes's? More recent miracles.

[11] Acts transmitted from Prague. When I had prepared these Acts for the press with appended annotations and the part of the Preliminary Commentary so far given, and yet was not fully satisfied with my own work, I sent letters to Bohemia to the Reverend Father John Possmurnius, former Supreme Provincial of our Bohemian Province of the Society, then Rector of the Academic College at St. Clement's in Prague: whose outstanding kindness I had experienced at Rome in the year 1661. He committed this entire care to the industrious men of his college, the Reverend Fathers John Tanner and Tobias Hlawitius, who indicated the following concerning the monastery of the Clarisses itself and its changes, concerning the relics unearthed and the miracles, and concerning the effort expended to obtain the Canonization, and certain other matters.

[12] The first monastery of these nuns was built in a corner of the old city of Prague near the river Moldau, at a distance of about two streets from the Jewish quarter. The site and jurisdiction of the monastery: That outer part of the territory of the Old Town of Prague has a magistracy separate from the rest of the Old Town and its own laws: and the whole of it is still subject to the jurisdiction of the Abbess of this monastery. The church formerly under the name of the Savior. Both sets of Acts to be given below indicate that the church was built by Blessed Agnes under the name of the Savior. The authority of Daniel Veleslawinus is added by Tanner as witness, which is held in great esteem in Bohemian affairs. Hlawitius suggests the same is recorded in the Bohemian Historical Calendar: hence by later generations a painting placed on the high altar in the upper position represents the Savior himself. Meanwhile it has often been designated under the name of St. Francis. then of St. Francis, But these names being virtually abolished on account of the memory of Blessed Agnes, the title was imposed by the people, and the church is commonly called that of the Saint, Holy, or Blessed Agnes. There now stands in the same Old Town of Prague, on the other side, not far from the Jews, a church of the Savior, after Blessed Agnes, known by that name: a most recent work, begun around the year 1616 or the following years, which does not pertain here, except that the Reader should be advised that it is entirely distinct from the ancient Church of the Savior, even in its location.

[13] The nuns of this monastery of the Savior or of Blessed Agnes, as well as all the rest, when the Hussites prevailed, the nuns expelled under the Hussites, were forcibly removed and compelled to live together in one monastery of St. Anne, which was that of Virgins serving God in a holy manner according to the institute and rule of St. Dominic, crowded together, at least four hundred in number: which is recorded as having happened around the year 1420, when the Žižka wars were raging, around the year 1420. when the monastery of these Clarisses is said to have been largely destroyed, and to have remained vacant, with no nuns returning to it. Then, after a hundred and more years had elapsed, the monastery given to the Dominican Fathers, Emperor Ferdinand I, King of Bohemia, in the year 1555, donated it to the Reverend Fathers of the Order of Preachers in exchange for the ruins of the monastery of St. Clement at the Bridge, which he gave to our Society, where there is now an illustrious Academic College: in which both human and divine sciences are taught to our own members and to outsiders with great benefit to the entire kingdom. But afterward, under Ferdinand II, after the victory obtained at the White Mountain, the excellent parochial church of St. Giles was given to the Reverend Fathers of the Order of Preachers, and the monastery of Blessed Agnes restored to the Clarisse Virgins, was restored to the Franciscan Fathers, by whom the nuns were brought back there: but when all of these died of the plague in the year 1627, other Clarisses were substituted for them, who, from the town of Týnec, six miles distant from Prague, because those Virgins could not safely live outside during the military tempests, having left that monastery vacant, migrated here, and to this day live laudably there in the greatest poverty, nineteen in number.

[14] Blessed Agnes was buried in the chapel of the Virgin Mother of God, which was built on the right side of the church of the Savior itself, in which in the year 1643 a certain buried body was found, A body found in the year 1643, doubt whether it is Blessed Agnes's. and immediately it was assumed by the hope and belief of all, and the rumor spread by fame flying far and wide, that it was the sacred relics of Blessed Agnes, especially because, as soon as the bricks covering the sepulcher were removed, a very sweet odor was exhaled. The sepulcher was not moved, however, but was again closed up with doubled boards: until the Most Eminent Cardinal von Harrach, Archbishop of Prague, having been informed of this matter, gave his consent. Commissioners were immediately appointed by him to examine the whole matter more carefully, an examination instituted before the Commissioners: namely the Most Illustrious Lord Joseph, Baron von Zollego, at that time Supreme Prefect of the Archiepiscopal Court; the Most Reverend Lord Andreas Clemens Kocher von Kockenberg, Dean of the Metropolitan Church of Prague and Official of the Archiepiscopal Court; the Most Reverend Lord Nefestinus de Koberowicz, Dean of the Royal Chapel of All Saints in the castle of Prague, Archiepiscopal Secretary. These, on the sixth and tenth days of June of the said year 1643, employed the customary diligence in such examinations, and strictly under oath examined three kinds of persons as to what they had seen and observed around the body that was found: of these the first were six consecrated Virgins from the monastery of Blessed Agnes: Anna Clara Staniczska of Bystřice, Mother Abbess; Ludmilla, who now lives as Mother Abbess, Clara, Magdalena, Salome, Dorothea: then three Priests of the monastery of St. James of the Conventual Friars of St. Francis, the Reverend Father Master Stephen the Pole, Guardian, Father Didacus, Confessor of the said nuns, afterward Provincial, Father Master Honorius: finally, from the secular persons, Balthasar Dietrich, painter and citizen of the New Town of Prague, and Henry Ernest. I omit the ages of each, and in the case of the former, the year of the assumption of the monastic habit.

[15] These, therefore, since they were all present at the finding of the said body, were questioned. Why they had dug, what signs had preceded, the cause of the digging, and what they had found. The Mother Abbess replied, above the rest, that the cause of the digging she had arranged was that they had hoped to find a treasure for the extreme need of the monastery, since she had heard that flames had erupted at that place: which signs are customary indicators of hidden treasures. When this became known, the Father Guardian, because he too had heard that where flames erupt, treasures lie hidden, declared that he had given permission for the digging: which digging the Virgin Salome had very urgently pressed for the same reason. But two nuns, Clara, a septuagenarian, and Ludmilla, afterward Abbess, had seen the erupting flames: the former, in the evening while the Abbess Anna Clara was praying in the church; but she did not think they were real flames, but a certain illusion: the latter had seen at the time of Compline a light erupting like a burning torch. preceding signs, Other signs were added which had preceded the digging, namely that at the time of Matins a certain completely unknown nun had been seen, who both looked into the choir and observed the nuns at prayer, and afterward vanished. Furthermore, disorderly and horrible cackling laughter had been heard frequently and by many, and Dorothea was so terrified that she fell into a certain illness. Also that the Mother Abbess had ordered that some Canticle of the Holy Spirit be recited every day. Finally, that the horrible voice was reproduced in the presence of the Commissioners.

[16] When these things had been discussed, inquiry was made as to what noteworthy things had appeared around the sepulcher that was found, a wooden coffin found, and first almost all replied that the coffin in which the body was found had been wooden and indeed rotten, except for the middle boards around the head and feet: in it a Cross, then that next to the body there had appeared a black Cross lying against the thigh, a veil, bones: which, when it sustained touch, immediately dissolved into ashes. A veil was also shown, of the kind the nuns themselves customarily wear; but it vanished like a spider's web: a sweet odor spread: the cranium, moreover, the chin, and the teeth had attracted the notice of all, but what had especially moved them to astonishment was a desirable and sweet odor spread everywhere when the sepulcher was opened: so that Father Didacus, the Confessor, afterward Provincial, inquired whether anyone had aromatic substances on their person, but no one had anything. Also that the Virgin Ludmilla, afterward Mother Abbess, had been so overwhelmed by the odor that she was compelled to remove her habit, and said she could not endure so powerful, strong, and sweet an odor: and that the very bricks covering the sepulcher also gave off a pleasant odor: indeed the gloves with which Balthasar the painter had touched the coffin still breathed a grateful and sweet odor on the fourth day. And these are approximately the things which the above-named persons confessed and deposed under oath before the Lords Commissioners; but lest the reader be wearied, we have neglected to indicate separately how each one responded. When the examination was finished, the Lords Commissioners descended to the church, and (having inspected the sepulcher to see whether, the coffin displayed: as before, it was closed and duly guarded) they had the coffin displayed, the bones enclosed in a small chest, placed in the sacristy. and committed the care of the bones (which had been placed in a certain small white wooden chest and sealed with the seal of Thomas Javornický, the so-called Chancellist of the Archbishopric) to the three Franciscan Fathers named above and to their Provincial, and in their presence had it carried to the sacristy, where it remains in fact to this day.

[17] Afterward, on the thirteenth day of June, at seven o'clock in the morning, in order to investigate the truth of the matter, the Most Eminent Cardinal von Harrach descended to the said church and monastery of Blessed Agnes with almost his entire court, together with the aforesaid Lords Commissioners, The same examined before the Cardinal Archbishop: and having received the white chest in which we said the bones of the body that was found had been placed, he ordered the seal to be removed, and the chest to be opened by the Father Provincial. The nuns were also summoned and again ordered to respond to several questions. But since nothing new occurred to be added, they were dismissed from the sacristy. All the bones placed in the chest were carefully examined and shown also to two Capuchin Fathers. When these things were done, the chest was sealed with the Most Eminent's ring seal in the presence of all, and committed to the care of the said Father Provincial, and enclosed in a larger chest in the sacristy: to be preserved there until a further resolution should be reached. When this question was raised, an inquiry was made whether any records existed of an ancient translation of the bones of Blessed Agnes, since it was said by tradition that the flesh had been consumed not long after death, and the bones had been transferred to a new chest. An old booklet about the death of Blessed Agnes and the deposition of the bones had been preserved, an old booklet consistent with these findings. but it is believed to have perished during the Swedish war in the possession of a certain noblewoman. The aforesaid Javornický, Archiepiscopal Chancellist, afterward Secretary of the Venerable Consistory, and indeed Distinguished Orator at the Tables of the Kingdom, had seen it previously, and testifies that it agrees especially with the recent findings, particularly as regards the chest. The Reverend Father John Tanner in his letters to us writes that he has seen some of the said bones and sensed their fragrance, and is decidedly inclined to believe that they were bones from the body of Blessed Agnes.

[18] Another inquiry was made by command of the Most August Emperor Ferdinand III. For after His Sacred Imperial Majesty, By command of the Emperor Ferdinand III. having received full information about the body that was found, but being uncertain whether it should be considered that of Blessed Agnes or not, had deigned to resolve and most graciously to order that, with expenses furnished from the Chamber of the Kingdom of Bohemia, diligent search should be made a new excavation begun whether another body, and perhaps that of Blessed Agnes, might be hidden there; the Most Reverend Lords Commissioners appointed for this business were: the aforementioned Lord Andreas Clemens Kocher von Kockenberg, who had been present at the prior examination, Lord Francis Thomas Visenteiner, Father Ferdinand Veghuben, Provincial Minister of the Order of Conventuals, and Lord Adam Raab, deputized from the Chamber. These therefore set to work on the fourteenth day of October of the said year 1643, but neither on that day nor the next was anything accomplished that needs to be inserted into this account. Then on the sixteenth of October a sepulcher was found, made of squared white stones: a sepulcher found, whose length was three ells and three quarters, width one ell and a quarter: which, on account of the depth and narrowness of the trench, was extracted in parts, just as it had also been constructed. When this was done, the altar of the chapel was partly demolished and partly removed, and they searched for what might appear in the white marble rising under the altar in the form of a sepulcher. That white marble, moreover, was by its very form fashioned into a sepulcher, of a length of three ells with three quarters, width of two ells with a quarter, depth of one ell and a half without the upper stone; in which, among earth and stones, a rotten wooden chest of about one ell was found, fastened with a double iron clasp: whose upper part had collapsed from decay. When these things were seen, Lord Visenteiner immediately entered that sepulcher, and ejecting earth with his own hands for more than the space of one hour, fortunately found these things noted below. and in it various bones: A cranium, an arm bone, a leg bone, two jawbones with four teeth, a piece of the spine, and certain other small fragments. All of which, together with the rotten parts of the chest and certain iron fittings, were carefully deposited in a chest in the sacristy under the seals of two Commissioners until the following day, the seventeenth of October; when, after hearing Mass, the said Lords Commissioners examined and recorded what they had found the day before, and finally had it placed in the chest and the chest sealed. Thus far the principal things from the Acts of the Venerable Consistory, or of another person? and nearly in their contracted words. Father John Tanner suspects that this second body, found in the month of October, is that of some Empress or Queen buried or deceased in that church: since many such had lived there. But he adds that the most certain truth cannot be discovered unless God reveals it by some manifest miracle.

[19] Meanwhile, greater devotion of the people of Prague toward Blessed Agnes was aroused, which was also confirmed by some miracles: among which these three were indicated to us, A paralytic is healed, the first of which occurred in the year 1642, only one year before the said discovery. A certain Sister, a paralytic, was bedridden in the monastery, deprived of all use of her hands and feet. She, inwardly urged, asked to be carried to the place of the sepulcher of Blessed Agnes: she was carried there, and with the help of the Sisters cast herself upon the ground in the form of a Cross, also asking for the auxiliary prayers of her companions. They complied, and prayed for the health of the afflicted one. With scarcely any delay, the dislocated Virgin arose most firm, and she who before could not stand on her feet, now without any support returned to her duties with the rest, as if she had not been ill.

[20] The Virgin Ludmilla Catherine Kozlowska, afterward Mother Abbess, was in the year 1657 given up by the physicians in her illness. a dangerously ill person, But when she had offered a candle and the prayers of the virgins to the Blessed Virgin Agnes, she immediately improved.

[21] In the year 1663 (in which year these things were sent to us from Prague), on the twenty-first day of September, Elizabeth Rossleriana, a citizen of the New Town of Prague, brought to the monastery of St. Agnes a little daughter suffering from desperate dysentery, one suffering from dysentery. and asked that she be clothed in the monastic habit, dedicating the child to Blessed Agnes. The Virgins agreed to the petition, and the little daughter recovered the following day.

§ III. FOUR LETTERS OF ST. CLARE TO BLESSED AGNES.

I. To the Illustrious and Venerable Virgin Agnes, Daughter of the most powerful and ever invincible King of Bohemia, Clara, unworthy handmaid of Jesus Christ, and servant of the virgins dedicated to God in the monastery of St. Damian, offers her spiritual services, and with the most humble reverence beseeches eternal happiness and glory.

[22] Hearing the fame of your holy way of life and irreproachable life, which has reached not only us but has already pervaded almost the whole world, I greatly rejoice and exult in the Lord in hearing of your glory; She praises her for choosing Christ over the Emperor as Spouse, and not only I, but all those who do and desire to do the will and service of Jesus Christ. For it is known how, when you could have enjoyed above all others the honor and glory of this world, and could have married the most August Emperor, as befitted your and his Majesty, with your whole heart's affection and inmost desire you have rather chosen holy poverty and the mortification of the flesh; having chosen in marriage a far nobler Spouse, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He will always keep your incorrupt and unstained virginity inviolate, whom when you shall have loved, you will always remain chaste; when you shall have touched, you will become more chaste; when you shall have received, you have remained a virgin. His power is stronger than all power, his grace more gracious, his appearance more beautiful than all others, his love singular, exceeding all delights. For the embrace of this Spouse you have been chosen, who has adorned your breast with precious stones and your ears with priceless pearls, and has wholly encircled you with chrysolite; and has crowned you with a golden crown, engraved with the sign of holiness. Wherefore, most beloved Sister, and indeed Venerable Lady, for you are the Spouse and Mother and sister of my Lord Jesus Christ, and his extreme poverty, gloriously adorned with the standard of incorrupt virginity and holy poverty, be strengthened in the holy service which you have begun by the example of the poor Crucified Jesus with fervent desire; who for us all endured dire torments on the cross, and snatched us from the power of the Prince of darkness, by whom we were held captive through the sin of our first parent, reconciling us to God the Father. O blessed poverty, which bestows eternal good things on those who love and embrace her! O holy poverty, to which those who possess it are promised the kingdom of heaven and eternal glory, and a blessed life is bestowed without doubt! O lovable poverty, which the Lord Jesus Christ, who governed and governs heaven and earth, who spoke and all things were made, has singularly embraced! For he himself says: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man, that is Christ, has nowhere to lay his head, and bowing his head on the cross he gave up his spirit. Wherefore so great and so mighty a Lord, entering the womb of the most pure Virgin, willed to come into this world in every way needy and poor, so that men, who were poor and lacking in heavenly food, might become rich in him, and lords of the heavenly kingdom. Rejoice therefore and exult greatly, and be filled with spiritual joy; since you have chosen rather the contempt of this world than its honor, poverty rather than temporal riches, and have preferred treasures in heaven over earthly ones, which is the surest way to attain salvation because you are deemed worthy to be the sister, spouse, and mother of the most high Son of God, and of the glorious Virgin Mary. I am certain that you believe and know with the firmest faith that the kingdom of heaven is promised only to the poor, nor is it conferred by the Lord on any others but the poor; for while the things of this world are loved, the fruit of love is lost. We cannot serve God and mammon: for either we shall love the one and hate the other, or we shall serve one and despise the other. You also know that one clothed in garments cannot contend with one who is naked, nor can one adorned with garments fight with the world; for he who has in himself something by which he can be seized is more quickly dashed to the earth. To live splendidly in this world and to reign with Christ in the other is difficult: for a camel will pass through the eye of a needle more easily than a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore you have cast off your garments, that is, the riches of the world, so that having wrestled with its deceits you might vigorously conquer, and enter the heavenly kingdom by the narrow way. Happy indeed, and worthy of all praise, is the transaction: to leave earthly things for eternal ones, to merit heavenly things through worldly ones, to receive a hundredfold for one, and to possess a blessed life without end. and she adds courage for perseverance, Wherefore I have determined to beseech your Highness and Holiness with the most humble prayers, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, that you be strengthened in his holy service, and always grow from good to better, from virtue to virtue: so that he, whom you serve with your whole heart's affection, may deign to adorn you with the most abundant grace. I also ask you in the Lord, as much as I possibly can, that you deign to commend me, your servant, though most unworthy, and the other devout Sisters who are with me in the monastery, to the Lord in your holy prayers, so that aided by your prayers we may merit the mercy of Jesus Christ, and together with you be deemed worthy to enjoy the eternal vision. Farewell in the Lord, and pray for me. Alleluia.

II. To the Daughter of the King of Kings, the Virgin of Virgins, the most worthy Spouse of Jesus Christ, and therefore Queen Agnes, Clara, useless and unworthy handmaid of the poor virgins, greeting, and the happiness of always living in great poverty.

[23] I give thanks to the giver of grace, She congratulates her on her outstanding progress, from whom we believe every good gift and every perfect gift comes, who has adorned you with such virtues, and brought you to such perfection, that having become an imitator of the works of the perfect Father, you were worthy to become perfect, lest his eyes should see anything imperfect in you. This is that perfection by which the heavenly King will unite you to himself in eternal joys, where he sits in glory on a starry throne. You, who have despised the height of the earthly kingdom, and spurned the delights of an Imperial marriage, having become a lover of holy poverty, and in the spirit of great humility and fervent love have clung to the footsteps of Jesus, were found worthy to be joined to him in marriage.

And because I know you to be most abundantly filled with all virtues, I do not wish to burden you with many words, although perhaps nothing superfluous in those things from which some consolation might come may seem so to you. I insinuate but one thing, because it is necessary, and exhort you through the love of him to whom you have offered yourself as a sweet-smelling sacrifice, that you remember your vocation, that, like another Rachel, always looking to your beginning: hold what you hold, do what you do; and never stop, but with a swift course, a meek imitation, with a nimble foot, lest your step contract any dust from it, she commends obedience, secure and joyful, advance on the way of such great blessedness: trusting no one, assenting to no one, who would tear you from this purpose, and place an obstacle in your path as you run in the way: run in that perfection to which the Spirit of God has called you, that in it you may render your vows to the Most High, and more safely walk the way of the Lord's commandments, and follow the counsels of our Reverend Father, Brother Elias, Minister General of the entire Order, and place those counsels above all other counsels to be followed by you, and esteem them more precious than every other gift. But if anyone shall have said or suggested anything to you that is contrary to your perfection, that would obstruct the calling of God, even if you could be exalted and honored above all men, do not follow his counsels: but a poor virgin, embrace the poor Christ; behold him who was made contemptible for your sake, and follow him, having been made yourself also contemptible for him in this world.

Behold your Spouse, more beautiful in form than the sons of men, and the imitation of the suffering Christ. made for your salvation the most deformed among men, his whole body torn with scourges, and expiring on the cross in the greatest pains; behold him, O illustrious Queen, and burn with your whole affection in imitation of him: if you suffer with him, you will also be glorified; if you grieve with him, you will rejoice; if you die with him on the cross, you will obtain heavenly dwellings with him in the light of the Saints: your name will be written in the book of life, to be glorious for ages of ages: for the transitory things of this world you will receive eternal goods, and live blessed without end. Farewell, most beloved Sister and virgin, blessed because of your Spouse, and deign to commend me with my Sisters (who rejoice greatly in the good things communicated to you by God) in your holy prayers diligently to the Lord God.

III. To the Virgin Agnes, to be honored above all others in Christ Jesus, and beloved above all mortals as a Sister, Daughter of the most serene King of Bohemia, and now Sister and Spouse of the supreme King of heaven, Clara, humble and unworthy handmaid of God, and servant of the poor virgins, the saving joy of the author of salvation, and whatever is best and desirable.

[24] For your happy health, your state, and your constant progress in what was well begun, She testifies to her joy at her progress in which I understand you to persevere cheerfully in attaining the heavenly reward, I am filled with vehement joy in the Lord: because I recognize that while you imitate the poor and humble Jesus Christ, you supply the defects of me and my other Sisters in this precious imitation. Truly I can rejoice, and no one can rob me of such great joy: for what I desired under heaven, you already possess: since I see you, surrounded by the wondrous prudence and grace of God, overcoming that cunning enemy, pride and vanity, which destroy and lead into foolishness the hearts of men, and I behold you embracing the treasure hidden in the field of this world and in human hearts, by which such things are purchased from him by whom all things were created from nothing — the humility of virtue, faith, and poverty; and to use the words of the Apostle, I declare you an assistant of God himself, the sustainer and raiser up of the falling members of his ineffable body. Wherefore who would forbid me from rejoicing in such great goods? Rejoice, you too, most beloved, always in the Lord, and let no bitterness whatsoever seize you.

O Virgin most dear in Christ, the joy of Angels and crown of Sisters! Place your mind in the mirror of eternity, place your soul in the splendor of glory, place your heart in the figure of the divine substance, and transform yourself wholly through the contemplation of God into the image of his Deity; that you may experience she exhorts to the love of God what his friends experience, tasting the hidden sweetness which almighty God has kept from the beginning for his beloved, and for all those who, being in this deceptive world, which seduces its blind lovers, abandon it: love him with your whole being who offered himself wholly for the love of you, whose beauty the sun and moon admire, whose reward is in its magnitude and abundance without end; I mean this Most High Son of God, whom a Virgin bore, and after childbirth remained a Virgin: cling to his most sweet Mother, who bore such a Son whom the heavens could not contain, yet she herself carried him in the little chamber of her virginal womb, and reclined him in a virgin's bosom. Who would not be moved to indignation by the deceit of the enemy of the human race, who through quickly passing things and vain glory strives to reduce to nothing what is greater than heaven itself?

It is already established for me by the grace of God with certainty that the worthiest creature, the soul of the faithful human being, is greater than heaven; to be esteemed above all things. since heaven with all other creatures could not contain the Creator: but the one faithful soul alone is his dwelling and his seat, and this through charity, which the impious do not possess, the Truth saying: He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and we will come to him, and we will make our dwelling with him: just as the glorious Virgin of virgins carried the true God and man in her virginal womb, so you too, by imitating her in humility and poverty, can always carry the same Lord spiritually, containing him by whom all things are contained: whom then you and others who spurn the riches of this world will contain more fully. John 14:23 In this some Kings and Queens of this world are deceived, whose pride, though it ascends to heaven and whose head touches the firmament, in the end will perish like dung.

I come now to those things which you asked me to make known to you, namely what ^e feasts those are on which we are allowed to use a variety of foods. These I transcribe for your devotion, as our holy Father Francis admonished us particularly to celebrate them. She declares on which Feasts one need not fast. So then it is as follows: Apart from the weak and the sick (whom he admonished and commanded to be given whatever foods with all solicitude), it is not permitted for any of us who is healthy and strong in body to use other than Lenten foods, whether on a weekday or a feast day; but one must fast every day, with only Sundays excepted, as also the days of the Nativity of the Lord, on which one may eat twice a day; likewise Thursday at the customary times, such that whoever wishes need not fast, nor is anyone compelled to do so. But we who are well fast every day, except Sundays and all the days of the Nativity and the Resurrection, as the Rule of our holy Father Francis teaches us. Also on the days of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the holy Apostles we are not bound to fast, unless perhaps they should fall on a Friday; and as I said above, those of us who are well and strong always use Lenten foods; because, however, our body is not made of air, nor is our strength the strength of stone, but we are weak and subject to bodily infirmities, I most urgently beg you in the Lord to abstain from the excessive rigor of abstinence, which I have come to know you practice: that living and hoping in the Lord, you may offer him a reasonable service, and your holocaust may be seasoned with the salt of prudence. Farewell in the Lord as you yourself desire, and commend me and my Sisters to your holy Sisters.

IV. To the half of my soul and the singular sanctuary of my deepest love, the Most Serene Queen Agnes, my most beloved Mother and Daughter beloved above all others especially, Clara, unworthy handmaid of Christ and useless servant of his handmaids who dwell in the monastery of St. Damian, greeting, and with the other holy Virgins to sing a new song before the throne of God and the Lamb, and to follow the Lamb wherever he goes.

[25] O Mother and Daughter, Spouse of the King of all ages; How united to Christ do not wonder that I have not written to you with the frequency that your soul and mine would have wished, and do not persuade yourself in any way that the fire of love with which I burn toward you has been in any way diminished; for just as the bowels of your mother loved you, so do I love you: only this intervened: the scarcity of messengers and the great dangers of the roads. Now, however, having found an opportunity to write to your charity, I co-exult with you, and congratulate you in the joy of the Holy Spirit, O spouse of Christ: for just as the first holy Agnes was united to the immaculate Lamb who takes away the sins of the world, so has it been given to you, O happy one! to enjoy the heavenly union of that bond which astounds the hosts of heaven: the desire of which draws all to itself, the memory of which satisfies, the goodness of which fills with every sweetness, the fragrance of which raises the dead: whose glorious vision makes blessed all the citizens of the supracelestial Jerusalem, which is the splendor of glory, the light of eternal light, and the mirror without stain: inspect this mirror daily, O Queen and Spouse of Jesus Christ, and in it contemplate your face more often, so that you may adorn yourself within and without with the most varied flowers of virtues, in him, she should gaze as in a mirror, and clothe yourself with those garments which befit the daughter and spouse of the supreme King. O most beloved, in gazing upon this mirror it will be permitted for you to delight yourself with divine grace. Approach and see, first in this mirror, Jesus reclining in the manger, in the greatest poverty, wrapped in vile swaddling clothes. O admirable humility! And astonishing poverty! The King of Angels, the Lord of heaven and earth, placed in a manger. In the middle of this mirror, behold the blessed poverty of holy humility, on account of which he endured very many hardships for the redemption of the human race.

At the end of the mirror, behold at last the ineffable love by which he willed to suffer on the wood of the cross, and even to die an infamous death upon it. and excite love toward him: This mirror, placed on the wood of the cross, admonished those passing by, saying: O all you who pass by the way, attend and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow: let us respond to him who calls and groans, with one voice and one spirit: With memory I will remember you, and my spirit will be anxious within me. Burn with this fervor of love, O Queen, and at the same time remember the ineffable delights, riches, and eternal honors of the heavenly King, and sighing with immense desire from the depths of your love, cry out: Draw me after you, let us run in the fragrance of your ointments, O heavenly Spouse: I shall run and not cease, until you bring me into the wine cellar, until your left hand be under my head, and your right hand happily embrace me: kiss me with the kiss of your mouth.

Placed in this meditation, remember your poor Mother, and know that I have inseparably written the happy memory of you on the tablets of my heart, holding you most beloved of all. What more? and commends the memory of herself, Let the tongue of the body be silent in loving you, and let the tongue of the spirit speak, O blessed Daughter: for the love which I have toward you, the corporeal tongue cannot express. Wherefore receive graciously and kindly what I have written insufficiently, and at least perceive the maternal love with which I burn daily toward you and your daughters. Commend me diligently to your daughters, and our most worthy Sister Agnes, to your daughters in the Lord. Farewell, O most beloved, with your daughters unto the throne of the glory of the great God, and pray for us. These messengers sent from us, our most beloved brothers, Brother Amatus, beloved of God and men, and Brother Bonagura, I commend to your devotion as much as I possibly can.

SUMMARY OF THE LIFE

written by Pisanus.

Agnes of Bohemia, of the Order of St. Clare, Prague (Bl.)

[26] There was another most distinguished in this Order by birth and holiness, namely St. Agnes of Bohemia, daughter of ^a Ottokar, King of Bohemia, ^b married to the Emperor Frederick II, although she was not taken by him. Bl. Agnes, having rejected the Emperor's nuptials, For when this Agnes heard the fame of St. Clare, who was still alive, and this ^c from those who came from Rome and Assisi, inspired by the heavenly spirit, ^d sweetly addressing her father, she besought him to permit her to serve the heavenly Spouse and not an earthly one. But when her father delayed giving his assent out of fear of the Emperor, to whom she had been promised as a bride, the handmaid of God promised her father that he could safely give his assent, because Jesus Christ himself would help in this very matter. At length, having obtained her father's consent, the virgin of God, Agnes, assumes the habit of the Clarisses: sent for the Friars Minor, who were already in Mainz, who coming to her, and consecrating her to the Lord with many other Princesses and distinguished Ladies, imposed upon her the habit of the religious life, and instructed her to live according to the Rule given by the Apostolic See to St. Clare and her Sisters. And when her father King Ottokar wished to designate great revenues for her and her Sisters, she refused; but she wished, as long as she lived, to subsist on the alms which the Brothers acquired for them: and thus to ^e this day, in the city of Prague, where the said Agnes was a nun, those Sisters, although they are most noble and many in number, have no possessions or revenues, she admits no revenues: but live on alms alone, acquired for them by the Brothers. When the Spouse Frederick the Emperor heard of the worldly renunciation made by St. Agnes herself, he was somewhat troubled, but recognizing her as espoused to Christ, he was consoled, saying: That since she was married not to an earthly man but to the Lord God, it was pleasing and acceptable to him, because she had not scorned him for the sake of a man, but for the sake of God. When Blessed Clare heard the fame of this Blessed Agnes through the messengers whom Agnes herself had directed to St. Clare, she praised the Lord her God, she receives gifts sent by St. Clare, and sent certain things to the said St. Agnes, namely a Pater Noster, a veil, a bowl in which St. Clare used to eat, and a cup and certain other things: which were received with the greatest devotion by St. Agnes herself, through which God performed many signs through the merits of Blessed Clare. All of which things, adorned with gold and gems, are preserved in the said monastery. When her fame resounded through Germany, monasteries began to multiply, and many daughters of Dukes, Counts, Barons, and other nobles of Germany, forsaking the world, by the example of Blessed Clare and Agnes were united to the heavenly Spouse, serving him without reproach. This Agnes indeed, illustrious in life and signs, she dies, renowned for miracles. after she had gathered many Sisters in her monastery and had led a celibate life in the present, going to her Spouse Christ, was glorified by many signs through Christ himself: for to this day she shines with the greatest miracles. She freed the Emperor Charles the Fourth, of the Romans and King of Bohemia, ^f twice from the jaws of death, Charles IV Emperor solicits for the Canonization. and entrusted to his son King Wenceslaus that he should labor with all his might for her canonization; but he, occupied and hindered by other things, did not ^g fulfill this wish of his.

^a Indeed, of Přemysl Ottokar.

^b Only betrothed, as is also read below.

^c Rather from the Friars Minor, who were living at Prague.

^d Her brother Wenceslaus the King should be substituted for the father, who died in the year 1229; as is clear from other Acts in the following passages.

^e For one hundred years after the death of Blessed Agnes. Pisanus died in the year 1401.

^f Once as an infant, around the year 1317, which the other Acts also mention: perhaps a second time after those Acts were written. He became Emperor in the year 1355; he died in the year 1378, and Wenceslaus then succeeded him.

^g Namely, while these Acts were being written with that Emperor. His Imperial dignity was taken from him in the year 1400, and he lived thereafter until the year 1419.

ANOTHER SUMMARY

written by Bartholdus Pontanus.

Agnes of Bohemia, of the Order of St. Clare, Prague (Bl.)

[27] Blessed Agnes, daughter of Přemysl, King of Bohemia, whom her father understood in a dream would be a saint, Bl. Agnes, brought up in holiness, from the habit shown her of St. Clare, and who often in her cradle would fold her little arms in the manner of a Cross, and likewise her feet: she, trained in pious exercises, fasts, alms, prayers, and the offices of Christian piety in the monastery of Třebnice, repudiated the marriages of the Emperor Frederick and the King of England, because the Emperor's Legate was taught in a dream, when he saw her lay down one crown and put on another more glorious. From Pope Gregory the Ninth she obtains the habit of St. Francis, and many privileges both from him and from the Emperor. She founds a monastery in honor of St. Francis, which she dedicated to the Order of the Cross-bearers with the Red Star, she founds monasteries, so that the poor of every kind might be nourished there. Afterward she also liberally established a cloister for the nuns of St. Clare, where she served as the handmaid Martha, to whom St. Clare, having heard her fame, sent congratulations, sending the rules confirmed by Innocent IV, which Agnes also asked to have confirmed anew by Alexander IV. And when she was admonished by ^a Cardinal John, she wishes to retain nothing for herself: Legate of Gregory X, to keep something of her own for contingent necessities, she replied that she had left all things to the world: yet she donated one part to the Churches, another to the Sisters, and a third to the sick. When in need for the Sisters on a certain Friday, God miraculously supplied bread, she receives bread and small fish from God, as on another occasion, gudgeon fish. Otherwise she was much given to fasting and mortification of the flesh and to flagellations, likewise to rougher garments and more frequent prayers than the Sisters were accustomed to. She recalled the daughter of her brother the King from death by her prayers, she raises her niece from the dead: who, however, weary of human life, gradually returned whence she had been called. Hence she wonderfully meditated upon and venerated the Passion of Christ, and received Holy Communion separately; she visited the sick Sisters and supplied what was needed. ^b She obtained victory for Přemysl against the Emperor Rudolf by her prayers. She also saw by divine gift Angels and the flame of incense around Bridget of the Order of St. Clare, when the latter wished to die: she sees Angels: and she herself died on the sixth day of the month of March, at the hour which was that of Christ's death, with great brightness, fragrance, and the tears of all, she dies, renowned for miracles. and was buried in the church of the most blessed Virgin Mary, where she frequently prayed, displaying very remarkable miracles for the sick and the dead.

^a This is Cardinal John Caetano Orsini, a noble Roman, a man distinguished for the majesty of his morals; who, having been created Pontiff on the seventh day before the Kalends of December in the year 1277, in veneration of St. Nicholas (whose Basilica he had been Cardinal Deacon of) took that name, being the third of that appellation.

^b There is some error on the part of the author: it should be written that she obtained victory by her prayers for her brother Wenceslaus against Frederick, Duke of Austria, which she also predicted for him. But Přemysl, his son, was killed in an unhappy battle against Rudolf.

LIFE

From a manuscript codex of Prague.

Agnes of Bohemia, of the Order of St. Clare, Prague (Bl.)

BHL Number: 0154

From Latin manuscripts.

CHAPTER I.

Birth, education, and life led in the world.

[1] Proem. Intending to write the deeds of the Lady Agnes of Prague, my most flourishing fellow citizen and most faithful spouse of Christ the Best and Greatest, before I seek my starting point from the place where it is necessary, I rightly present to her this nuptial hymn for the convent of virgins.

Let us all recount the life of the radiant Virgin, the Patroness of our homeland, With songs, with sistrums, with cithers, and with lyres Along with ten-stringed instruments.

She, fleeing the earthly bedchamber, Married the eternal Spouse with modesty, Celebrating her nuptials before a great Company of heaven.

[2] ^a Agnes, the illustrious Virgin of Prague, Daughter of Přemysl Ottokar, the most warlike King of the Bohemians, Bl. Agnes, born in 1205 of a royal line, and of Constance, Sister of Andrew, King of Hungary, Father of St. Elizabeth; was brought into the light in the Year of the Virgin's Delivery one thousand two hundred and five, at Prague. The singular splendor of living which she put on when more mature, she declared by signs running ahead at the very threshold of her life. For her mother, while carrying her in the womb, saw in sleep, among her gold-embroidered garments, a certain grey, rough cloak with hempen cords, and wondering, with a preceding omen, she learned from a voice addressed to her that the child she was about to bear would wear this kind of garment. Not long after she gave birth to Agnes, whom she found more than once in her cradle lying with feet and hands arranged in the form of a Cross, and she conjectured not vainly that she would be a handmaid of the Cross. When she was three years old, and already betrothed to a certain distinguished Duke of Poland, her parents sent her with a governess of morals and a not unbecoming retinue to Poland. she lives in a monastery: She, dwelling in the monastery of Třebnice among sacred virgins for three years, was maturing in piety as in age. The most religious Princess Hedwig of the Poles

powerfully amplified her religious efforts with her own training, as long as her betrothed clung to life. For when he had been released from this life by human death, she too, freed from the yoke of the future marriage, flew back to Bohemia, already six years old, and in the monastery of Doxany, among chosen Virgins devoted to the service of Christ, she shaped her life and understanding, partly by their example and partly by the refining of the Scriptures, throughout the year's cycle, so that when restored to the Royal court of her parents, she commended herself greatly to all by the brightness of her soul and the innocence of her life. And now Bohemia could not contain her, who, her fame's splendor having crossed the Hercynian forests, had shone so brilliantly even in the palace of the Emperor Frederick, that his son, lest she, being marriageable, be snatched away by another suitor, was sought by an ambitious embassy. at nine years old she is betrothed to the son of the Emperor Frederick: And the Kings of Bohemia admitted the entreaties of so great a supplicant. Forthwith therefore the Royal Virgin, bound by betrothal agreements, was pledged to the Emperor's son: in which matrimonial proceeding they relate that the unusual thing happened that not one from the company of groomsmen or attendants could speak the Virgin's name, so that it might be attested that Agnes was being reserved, promised to some more excellent spouse.

[3] Already called the bride of the Emperor's son, she was conveyed to Austria, to the Duke of that place, taken away to Austria, surrounded by a retinue of select maidens, to be both polished by him and indulged with the amusements suited to a more tender life. But she, banishing far from her mind every enticement of frivolous pleasures, spent the entire course of that time in which we commemorate the Lord's coming in the flesh, not in the flesh nor in feasting (as was the custom of that nation) but on bread alone and wine, she fasts strictly in Advent and Lent: a maiden of nine years. Entering upon the Lenten fast shortly after, while the sons and daughters of the Duke of Austria were partaking of dairy foods, she observed the same hard rule I have described above: meanwhile most ardently imploring the Mother of God to deign to make her an imitator of her virginity: for which reason she honored with special veneration and attention of mind to understanding its mysteries the feast on which the Virgin received the saving message by the Angel's voice. she commends her virginity to the Mother of God: All these works, however, redolent of divine love, together with generous distributions to the needy, she performed so discreetly that, with only her governess knowing, and a few most trusted virgins aware of her deeds, she revealed her pursuits to no one, she returns to Bohemia: for the sake of cutting off human praise. Hence it happened that the wedding, appointed for a certain day, was postponed indefinitely, and a suitable opportunity for Agnes to return to Bohemia was offered by this delay.

[4] But neither at home was Agnes long free from nuptial cares. For no great interval of time having elapsed, she is sought by the King of England: both Imperial and British royal legates were present at Prague, demanding Agnes as wife for their lords. But Christ declared that she was to be reserved as a spouse for himself alone by a vision given to one of the Imperial party (though he interpreted it wrongly). He seemed to see a crown distinguished with the most brilliant gems being placed on Agnes's head, she is seen crowned from heaven twice in a dream: and this shortly being removed, and another of inexplicable beauty being placed upon her: which omen, referring to himself and his colleagues, he confidently claimed victory over his British competitors. But in truth the mystery of the vision pointed to this: that not a fleeting and momentary glory, but a heavenly and eternal one, awaited Agnes. And indeed all the thoughts and efforts of the royal virgin inclined to this, that she might be able to love a life greater than the human one. Wherefore, when her father died, and Wenceslaus, after the death of her father, the brother of Agnes, was governing the affairs of Bohemia, she had fenced herself with these rules: that, having changed her attire, attended by her most trusted companions, at dawn she would make her way through many churches, and piously venerate the relics of the Saints, in changed attire she visits churches: however much her feet, burned by the cruelty of the cold, might drip with blood. Returning home, as soon as she had revived herself with warmth, she would go down to the nearest sacred building, with her entire virgin retinue following and speaking only of God, and attending to numerous sacrifices, she would now offer prayers for her own errors, now present the appointed Psalms for the dead to Christ. she puts on a hair shirt: On the outside she shone with purple attire, within she was pressed by the roughness of a hair shirt: she sleeps on a hard bed: her bed was adorned for appearance with precious coverlets and hangings, but she never weighed it down, secretly supported on something harder.

[5] The ^b fifteenth year of her life was now passing, when the Emperor, roused by the remarkable fame of her piety, undertook to hasten the promised marriage of his son with Agnes, by dispatching to her brother Wenceslaus a distinguished college of ambassadors. lest she be forced to accept the Imperial marriage, Nor did Wenceslaus presume to derogate in any way from the decree of his father Ottokar by his own refusals: rather, lest the Bohemian name, tenacious of its promises, be stained with the mark of inconstancy, he told his sister that he would support her if she would not contrive delays in such a matter. Here Agnes, seeing snares again being set against her resolve of eternal virginity, she takes refuge with Pope Gregory IX: directing secret couriers to Rome to Gregory the Ninth, begged that he would deign to favor the cause of Christ rather than of men, and not pronounce as ratified that marriage which had never grown together by the consent of her own mind: that marriage could be counseled for her by her relatives, but she could not and should not be compelled to it against her will by Christian law. The Pontiff, moved by the speech of the perfect and wise virgin, readily subscribed to her wish, and by his letters encouraged her to the pursuit of perseverance in this storm of life: and indeed, as a true father, he heaped upon his daughter many spiritual consolations. she informs her brother the King of her mind: Exulting wonderfully at this kindness of the Supreme Priest, the virgin informed her brother King Wenceslaus of her liberty, and joyfully presented the Pontifical diploma, by which she could repel, as with a battering ram, the entreaties of all suitors of whatever kind. The King, troubled, hastened to signify to the Emperor that what his sister had accomplished by her own private counsel was done entirely without his knowledge, and that all fault should be shifted from the ignorant to the knowing party. The Emperor at first gnashed his teeth, she is praised by Frederick and was roused to vengeance with boiling anger: but the storm of his spirit being dispelled, having become more serene, he pronounced this sentence, worthy of a Christian Emperor, concerning Agnes: If Agnes had preferred any outstanding man to his son, then indeed he would have driven off so great an insult with avenging arms: but since she had preferred the Son of God, whose servant he considered it an honor to be, to his own son, no just cause for resentment was offered him. Wherefore he urged the Virgin by letter to be of good heart, and to honor Christ's sacred chamber purely and firmly: this persistent ardor of her virginity was very pleasing to him. Let her therefore take the bones of the Saints which he was sending her, which, as pledges of his benevolent favor toward her, she might enjoy. ^c

^a The things that should be annotated here, we shall say for the most part at the other Life.

^b Rather, at the death of her father she had already almost completed twenty-five years.

^c Not for his son, but for himself, then a widower, the Emperor was seeking her. For his son had in the year 1223 taken as wife Agnes, daughter of the Duke of Austria.

CHAPTER II.

The monastic life of Blessed Agnes.

[6] Now, the flesh of Agnes having been subdued in several conflicts, she immediately bore down heavily upon the world in this way. She learns the institute of St. Clare: For having summoned discalced men living according to the rule of St. Francis, she learned from them that the summit of the better life, which Blessed Clare, a sister of that same Saint, zealously pursued, consisted in voluntarily assumed destitution, she establishes a hospital, and in the contempt of bodily pleasures, and in the subjection of one's own judgment to the wishes of another. Wherefore she did not delay in distributing that precious feminine finery among the poor: she established a hospital at the imitation of St. Elizabeth, her kinswoman, endowed with perpetual revenues, under the name of St. Francis, near the Bridge: then she ordered other sacred buildings to be raised within the circuit of the walls of Old Prague to the same Saint. sacred buildings, For the Virgins of St. Clare also, wishing to confirm themselves through contempt of all things, a monastery of the Clarisses, she fashioned a very spacious building under the name of the Savior, piled high with every ornament of a temple: and into it she introduced five Virgins, companions of Blessed Clare, sent to her from Italy by the authority of the Supreme Pontiff. sent from Assisi, She herself, not much later, together with a choir of seven Bohemian virgins illustrious for their nobility, in the presence of seven Bishops and her brother the King and the Queen, and enters it with seven others: and an almost innumerable crowd of spectators of every age and rank, exchanged her golden garment for a grey one, her hair having first been shorn, and was consecrated to Christ. When this became known, very many girls of the highest distinction in Poland, trampling the world after the example of Agnes, began to find their way and eagerly hasten to this Order.

[7] What manner, moreover, and how perfect a rule of life Agnes wove throughout all her years in the monastery, out of humility, can be enumerated rather than explained. For she appeared so worthless to herself that she always wished to be below all; she so regarded others as superior to herself that she judged it most fair that anyone should be set over her. From this root it is no wonder if these fruits pleasing to God came forth: that Agnes always shunned every excellence of office, that she heated the rooms for the Sisters of the same institute, she performs the most menial tasks: that she sweated diligently in the least labors of the kitchen, that she cooked the more delicate foods herself, so that she might distribute them to men who had fallen ill throughout the monasteries, that she cleansed the chambers of her companions of filth, that she both mended the foul and discharge-soiled clothes of lepers and other squalid persons pressed by sickness, brought to her at her own command, and washed them herself so frequently that, the acrimony of the filth spreading to her hands, she was forced to carry them about both cut and chafed. she receives from St. Clare rules of living, approved by the Pontiffs: At which St. Clare, having heard, was exceedingly glad, and gave thanks to God, the author of such great works in Agnes, and encouraged Agnes by letter to endure in the progress she had begun toward heaven: she also transmitted to her from Assisi her own rules of living, ratified by the power of Innocent IV. Agnes eagerly received them, and to make them more firmly established and more commendable to her own Sisters, she strengthened them with the approval of Alexander IV, the Vicar of Christ.

[8] But we have received her as so devoted a lover of voluntarily assumed poverty a lover of poverty, that she could not be compelled by any arguments of the Cardinal Caetano, the Guardian of her Community, to bind herself to certain fixed and particular possessions on account of the difficulty of the times. The most precious gifts of her father and of Princes she assigned partly to Christ for the adornment of churches, partly to herself, and partly for the benefit of the poor afflicted by disease. When her brother died, having twice fallen into the extreme want of all things, she endures hardships with joy: while others were mourning, she herself, though in poor health, was carried away with the greatest delight of spirit, giving thanks to God that he had deemed her worthy of the experience of the poverty she had desired. Which, however, Christ soon mitigated with the purest bread and with gudgeon fish, on which she enjoyed eating when ill, deposited at her threshold and found by the door-keeper.

[9] She was so hostile to her body in the first period of her conversion that she sustained it with no cooked foods at all, she fasts strictly: only a single raw onion, or some cloves of garlic, and sometimes a few fruits. On all the fasts prescribed by the Church, and on all Wednesdays and Fridays,

ferial days, along with the four vigils of the feasts of the Blessed Virgin, and that entire period from St. Martin's day to the Nativity of our Lord, she puts on a hair shirt: she sustained her life throughout her entire age on bread and water. To these penances she added a horrible hair shirt woven from horse-hair, with which, as though protected by a breastplate, she would lull the assaults of the flesh. This she bound so tightly to her body that the cord wore a kind of groove for itself in her very flesh, she chastises herself with scourges: into which it might sink. And also very often with scourges made of leather thongs she cruelly lashed herself.

[10] Besides the customary and communal prayers of her household, in her private oratory she strove toward God with such fervor of heart and mouth that her face was moistened with tears, fervent in prayer and by that radiance with which she was suffused while praying, she dazzled the eyes of the Sisters who turned to look at her. She was found in that place by the Virgin Benigna surrounded by a shining cloud: enveloped in a bright cloud, greater than the human condition. A male voice was heard, giving responses to her as she prayed. On the day when the Church celebrates the solemn Ascension of the Lord into heaven, while she was chanting psalms in the garden between the Virgins Benigna and Prisca, she is rapt into ecstasy: snatched from the midst of them, she was scarcely returned to them within the hour, and when asked about her absence, she indicated nothing except a becoming and gentle smile. While she was praying that verse over the fresh corpse of her deceased younger sister: "You who raised Lazarus," etc., a wondrous thing! the body began to receive life and to move, she raises her sister from the dead: and to chastise the Sister for having tried to cast her out of her joys. The Virgin ceased to pray, and the one restored to life hastened to die again. At the sight of these things, the demon gnashed his teeth with envy and began to unfold the snares of his malice. Wherefore, as she was coming out of the oratory, he overthrew her on the steps so that in falling he dislocated her arm from the shoulder, and caused her atrocious pain. Which injury she bore with so calm a spirit that, concealing the pain, she treated herself with secret remedies.

[11] from a revelation she learns she will be the last of her relatives to die: Once when ill and partaking of the Body of Christ, she learned from Christ hidden therein that she would not die before all her blood relatives had perished. When she had entrusted this under the seal of faithful silence to a certain man dedicated to God, it came to pass exactly as she had predicted. To Sophia, a noble Matron, wife of the Knight Conrad, who after childbirth was in danger of her life, she heals a sick woman with an apple, Agnes offered through the hand of the husband an apple she had longed for, by eating which she was immediately restored to firm health, and when her husband died, she became an imitator of Agnes and renounced the world. This apple, together with two others, Agnes had called forth by the sign of the Cross from a tree that had been barren of fruit. produced by the sign of the Cross: Nor is it surprising that she accomplished great things through the Cross, who for the worship of the Cross and of Christ who had been fastened to it, persisted groaning beneath it every Friday until the ninth hour. The Virgin Elizabeth, who had followed the same way of life as Agnes, she removes a headache: she cured of an inconsolable and intolerable pain by wrapping her own head-covering around her. At another time, the weakened Agnes, supported by the hands of the Lady Virgin, she puts the devil to flight with the sign of the Cross: beheld the devil, leaning against a piece of wood with a hideous face: at whose sight the Lady cried out in terror, but Agnes, opposing the sign of the Cross to him, put him to flight from the oratory. The same enemy afterward, in the form of an owl, striving to bar her entrance to the oratory with his tail, she rendered powerless with the same arms.

[12] Concerning her kindness and courtesy toward the afflicted and those destined for death, I think only this need be said, kind toward others, that she was accustomed to bestow benefits on all in such a way as if she had given birth to them all: and to admonish the Sisters who had transgressed in such a way that after the admonition, if perchance she had gone somewhat beyond measure in this task, she would not disdain to seek pardon from them, prostrate at their feet. even those who transgress: A certain Virgin, from among the excellent apples presented to Agnes, diverted one to herself, captivated by its appearance; soon, her conscience laboring from the fault, she returned the apple and completed the number. To whom Agnes cheerfully gave two excellent apples, declaring that it was better to eat ten according to the rules than one with the bond of voluntary poverty loosened; thus Agnes is shown to have been present to those who were absent.

[13] On a certain day, while Agnes was processing in a company of Virgins preceded by the Cross, King Ottokar ^b her father was presented to her in a vision, in a vision she perceives that King Ottokar has died, as if wounded, supported on either side by two warriors: when she had recounted this to the same Virgins, and supposed it to be a mockery of demons, she at length discovered that that vision had truly been a manifestation from God. For on that very day her father, who had fought in battle against the Emperor Rudolf, had perished by the treachery of certain men. When a Virgin, entreating God with the most secret and most fervent pleas, was imploring that God would grant her something, Agnes with a rather severe countenance ordered her to desist from such a petition, affirming that the thing was unworthy of God to bestow. Nor was it surprising that she should know the hidden counsels and aspirations of one person, she perceives the thoughts of others, who clearly perceived, God illuminating her understanding, both the punishments and the merits of all her companion virgins. And indeed it has been noted that nothing was ever predicted by her and their merits and punishments, which did not come to pass exactly as she had declared. It is remarkable that a certain woman who had while living detracted from the fame of Agnes, after death could not be freed from torments by any other means, another woman detained in torments after death, unless she were granted pardon for the crime committed by Agnes. But Bridget, another sacred virgin, who had in good conduct honored Agnes while mortal, was seen by Agnes to be borne up to heaven among the ranks of Angels, freed from the body. another seen being carried up to heaven.

^a Monasteries: so Philo the Jew calls it οἴκημα ἱερόν ὃ καλεῖται σεμνεῖον καὶ μοναστήριον, a sacred house, which is called Semnium and monasterium: σέμνος means chaste, religious.

^b Indeed, not her father, but her nephew Přemysl Ottokar, of the same name as his father. His death is established from the other Life and from all the historians of that age.

CHAPTER III.

The illness, death, and burial of Blessed Agnes. Miracles after death.

[14] Having begun the strict Lenten fast, When the great fast of forty days was approaching, during which she, as if to fast with Christ in the wilderness, withdrew not only from external people but even from her own Sisters. During that time she did not cease to pray to God, that he would mercifully grant her pardon for her lapses and faults. While she was doing this, she shortly began to fall ill, and as the illness increased, she felt that her life was coming to an end: ill, she receives the last Sacraments: then, breathing heavily, she soon made herself a partaker of the Body of Christ, and was anointed with holy oil. When this was reported to the Virgin Catherine, who for ten years had been unable to stand on her feet, she, cut to the heart with immense grief, asked to be carried into the sight of the dying virgin. while dying, she heals a lame woman with the sign of the Cross: Having been carried there, she implored Agnes with the most earnest prayers to vanquish her ailment with the divine sign of the Cross. Agnes, out of a sense of lowliness, hesitated, and turned her speech to softening the other's heart. Catherine, sensing that the virgin was about to depart and that she would be left in her affliction, seized Agnes's hand and impressed the heavenly sign upon her own feet, and quickly, saved, she sprang up on firm footing. Agnes, however, grew worse and gradually wasted away in body, yet nevertheless, even then, did not cease to redouble her dense prayers, she exhorts the Sisters: to console her companions, to raise them to the hope of divine aid, and earnestly to commend to them the love of God and neighbor, the love of poverty, and submission to the Roman See, and to fix these things deeply in their hearts, and this throughout that entire evening and the night that followed.

[15] Around the ninth hour, however, she seemed to shine with greater brilliance, shining with light, she dies, and to gleam far and wide with the most radiant rays, and at the beginning of the sacrifice that had been commenced, she departed this life, in the year of the world's Savior one thousand two hundred and eighty-first, ^a on the sixth day of March, having run her course in the monastery for forty-six years in a holy and religious manner. To see her body, which was neither rigid nor discolored, throngs of every age and rank came in multitudes for many days, and they counted themselves thrice blessed who could touch the members worthy of heaven with their rings, or necklaces, or belts. At length the body was enclosed in a wooden sarcophagus, enclosed in a sarcophagus, which, bound with solid iron plates and nails, protected it lest it be dismembered and torn apart. Meanwhile the Lady Scholastica of Šternberk, a lover of Agnes and beloved by Agnes, arriving, earnestly prayed, even presenting a Pontifical diploma, which opened of its own accord, that she not be deprived of the last sight of her dearest virgin. While the virgins of that place were deliberating whether they should satisfy her requests, the divine goodness did not deliberate, and so loosened the iron joints of the sarcophagus that Scholastica could freely venerate the desired treasure with her eyes. she is buried in the chapel of the Virgin Mother of God: She was buried in the chapel of the Holy Virgin, not by Bishop Tobias, nor by the nearest Priests of that rank, who declined the proffered duty, but by a certain, as she had forewarned, barefoot friar called Bonagratia. a sweet odor is breathed forth: From her sacred bones, the virgins dwelling there perceived not infrequently that divine fragrances were spread, which Agnes revealed happened because of the presence of the Blessed spirits visiting her body, to a certain Sister who had fallen asleep in prayers at her sepulcher.

[16] Margaret, her great-granddaughter, is healed, Judith, Queen of Bohemia, wife of King Wenceslaus, placed her little daughter Margaret, of desperate health, on the sepulcher of Agnes, with the sacred vestment, and received her back in good health. Queen Elizabeth, wife of John, King of Bohemia, called upon once and again at night to seek the prayers of Agnes, her fellow citizen, to avert the present misfortune that threatened her, obeyed, and sought a certain Agnes living in the monastery of St. Francis, and when Blessed Agnes appears to the Queen, whom she waited for before the doors when she had learned from the door-keeper that she was present. Meanwhile Agnes, of heavenly aspect, presented herself to the Queen through the lattice of the place, and inquired what she wished to be done through her. And when she heard that prayers were being sought, she withdrew as if displeased. The Queen, however, more earnestly pressing on her knees, called upon the virgin who had turned away. Who, turning toward her as if now softened by her words, promised that she would do what was asked. And shortly after word was brought to the Queen, her son: that her only son in the castle of Loket, who in everyone's judgment was about to die, had revived. Sensing that this was accomplished with God through the agency of Agnes, she adorned her dwelling with splendid gifts. The same Queen, worn out by extreme weakness after childbirth, had lost consciousness, and by the judgment of the physicians devoted to certain death, she recognized herself as healed by the implored help of Agnes.

[17] an infant, doubtful whether he lived: The boy Martin, son of the Prague citizen Margaret, doubtful whether he was alive or dead, was committed by the midwife to the sepulcher of Agnes, and was brought back in good health. The sacred Virgin Dominica, who had been taken for dead, a dead nun. was covered by a Sister with the cloak of Agnes, at whose touch she reported that a new light had dawned for her, which both dissolved her in laughter and freed her from pain.

[18] The Sisters were commending to God by their prayers the soul of the Virgin Varacia, who was struggling with death. But she, a dying woman is freed: having conceived a vow of three sacrifices in the name of Agnes, rose up perfectly healthy; but soon, having relapsed into sickness while praying, she would have

perished, had she not hastened by her own diligence to fulfill the vow that had been suspended through the negligence of the Priest. another from fever, Then the Sisters treated Ludmilla, struggling at the extremity with a fever, by pouring over her wine in which the bones of Agnes had been washed. To Pribico, a man of servile condition, another in a fall, who had fallen in the church as if lifeless, they poured into his mouth the water in which they had moistened some hairs of Agnes, and they soon saw him restored to his senses. A girl called ^b Mala had fallen out of the boat which she was driving on the Elbe, and, having swallowed not only water but also enveloped in sand, was perishing. another in danger of drowning: But she was snatched from destruction by raftsmen who happened to come upon her. For she was borne toward Agnes (retaining some of her hairs in her possession) with half-dead sighs.

[19] another from a dangerous illness, Christine also, having vainly tried human help in a pernicious illness, as soon as she had bound herself by a vow to Christ under the name of Agnes, recovered, and as one bound by her vow, dedicated herself to Christ. A woman of Prague, for many days almost driven out of her mind by the pain of labor, a woman in labor, when she had girded herself with the belt that had touched the body of Agnes, escaped the shipwreck of death. another from pain of the thigh, Dobroslava, a woman of Slaný, long tormented by a dire pain of the thigh, having drunk the wine in which the bones of Agnes had been soaked, both suppressed and relieved that part of her body. from an abscess, The nobleman Tasa, besieged by an abscess in the throat, having drunk the water which had washed the hair of Agnes, and having applied it to the afflicted part, lifted that unwelcome siege of his throat, and discharged the vow which he had taken on that account, together with not a few gifts to the poor. The Abbot Hinco, afflicted with the same but graver disease, from frenzy while thrusting out his tongue with a horrible appearance, having sucked the wine in which they had dipped the bones of Agnes, was freed from that malady.

[20] Wenceslaus, a secretary of a certain Knight, bore all the passages of his throat so obstructed by viscous humors, from an abscess in the throat: that he could scarcely draw breath, much less swallow food. And when he had been dipped and anointed with water tinged with the hair of Agnes, he first uttered a bleating sound, similar to the cry of a sheep, then a clear voice praising God. from fever, It is certain that Constantia, who had succeeded the Holy Agnes in the office of governing the convent, was, after offering her prayer at her sepulcher, snatched both from a burning and from a long-lasting fever. Agnes Gizica, a virgin of the same monastery, having been brought by the assistance of another Sister to the sarcophagus of Agnes, from weakness of the elbow. immediately received her former strength in her powerless and stiff elbow. The Lady Scholastica of Žerotín, burdened with an incurable abscess on her side, from an abscess on the side, when during the embrace in which she clasped the dead Blessed Agnes, she had pressed her own afflicted side to her side, rapidly recovered.

[21] from a flow of blood, The story is known to all concerning Maladata, wife of a nobleman of Litomyšl, that she was relieved of a flow of blood by a vow made to Agnes. The sacred Virgin Domca, about to hang a cauldron on a hook, she fell into the fire, fell into the flames of the hearth, and having invoked Agnes in her fall, rose up whole from the fire. This also was accounted a miracle, that the seat of Agnes, when the house in which it was preserved burned down, was not touched, only marked by the flames on one side. When the flooding Moldau had burst into the church where the Holy Agnes is interred, she fell into the water. the Virgin Elizabeth was hastening to take up the bones of the sacred virgin, and handling the matter in haste, she fell into the deeper waters. But rescued by the Virgin Zdinica, she appeared completely dry, by the benefit of Agnes.

[22] The Virgin Judith, moved by an immense love of Agnes, had pulled off a nail from her foot, so that she might have some memento of the virgin she loved, to console herself. But an immense quantity of blood erupting from that wound, Blood flowing from the nail heals diseases. so soaked the virgin's veil, with which she was laboring to dry it, that it could no longer absorb more. Then the virgin, fixed to the ground, sought pardon for her offense, and the blood was stanched.

[23] From that blood thereafter the health of many was abundantly restored. And for us, O Virgin, who bear you in our eyes and have consecrated this labor of ours to you, will there be no reward? You know what we ask, you know what we most need: Epilogue. receive from your Spouse and give: unless you give, may it not be said that you are more a lover of strangers than of your own citizens.

^a Indeed in the year 1282, as was said above.

^b In the other Life, the name Parva Small is given to her.

ANOTHER LIFE

Composed from Bohemian manuscripts by George Crugerus of the Society of Jesus.

Agnes of Bohemia, of the Order of St. Clare, Prague (Bl.)

From Bohemian manuscripts.

§ I. The year and day of birth, parents and relatives of Blessed Agnes.

[1] The year one thousand two hundred and five was turning when Agnes, a royal infant, Bl. Agnes, daughter of the King of Bohemia, first saw the light of heaven at Prague; that no one else should be marked by the name of a Saint than Agnes, the day following her birth brought about. For since she had come forth into the world on the eve of that feast, the Bishop ^a Daniel rightly on that account named the royal infant Agnes at the sacred font. Her parents, moreover, nature had bestowed upon her: ^b Přemysl II (who is also ^c Ottokar I, the Third King of Bohemia) and ^d Constance, the daughter of Béla III, King of Hungary; but however distinguished both were with the royal scepter, the most holy virgin surpassed them both by her modest contempt of royal things, for she afterward shone more brilliantly in the religious cloak of St. Clare than if she had glittered as a Princess and Heroine in purple and gems.

[2] Moreover, Agnes had brothers as well as sisters from the same parents; to whom fortune, not entirely adverse, bestowed particular favors. For ^e Wenceslaus, the first among Kings, ruled as the Fourth King of Bohemia, distinguished by both his piety toward sacred things and his military success; ^f Přemysl III, another brother, the Margraviate of Moravia sustained him respectably as a Prince for some time, she had a King and a Margrave as brothers, until death led the celibate man to the grave in his first years of manhood.

[3] The first sister, ^g Borislava, Ulrich, the first Duke of Carinthia, took as his consort in marriage; from which union Ulrich II and Philip I, the last lords of Styria and ^h of Pordenone, were begotten. sisters: Borislava married to the Duke of Carinthia The latter, first ^i Provost of the Vyšehrad Chapter at Prague, then ^k Archbishop of Salzburg, and finally ^l Patriarch of Aquileia, lived; but Ulrich II, even though he had taken a wife, since he had no heir, transferred his hereditary lands to ^m Ottokar III, the Fifth King of Bohemia, his cousin, partly by sale and partly by liberal donation. ^n Anna, the second of the sisters, was married to Henry II, the Duke of Wrocław, celebrated for his integrity; but she ^o lost him, though after several children, at ^p Legnica, when the Tartar inflicted a memorable defeat on the Christians there around the Year of the Lord 1241: and Anna, married to the Duke of Wrocław: she herself received the last wound common to humanity at Wrocław in the Year of the Lord 1265. And so she found her rest there, at St. Clare's in the convent of sacred virgins of the same institute, which she herself had once raised from the foundations.

[4] Not only through these royal marriages of brothers and sisters did Agnes become famous, but she also counted among her foremost distinctions her kinswomen or relatives most illustrious for the fame of their holiness. ^q Hedwig, the mother-in-law of Henry the Valiant, the husband of her sister Anna, her kinswomen Blessed Hedwig and St. Elizabeth. Silesia still remembers what kind of Duchess she was in virtue. ^r Likewise Elizabeth, the daughter of Andrew, the brother of Constance, Agnes's mother: what prodigies did not make her famous in Hesse? And hence it should perhaps not seem surprising that from so close a blood of holy women, some drops of virtue also flowed down to Agnes, and thus the examples of her kinswomen contributed greatly to her rare holiness.

^a Daniel, Bishop of Prague. When Henry, who was both Bishop and Duke, died in the year 1197, Daniel the Second of that name succeeded him, and lived until the year 1214, when upon his death Andrew, previously Provost of the same Church, was elected.

^b Přemysl, King of Bohemia When Henry, Duke and Bishop, died, his brother obtained the Duchy, whom Přemysl, son of King Vladislaus II, drove out by force of arms, and in the third place among the Kings of Bohemia was crowned by Bishop Daniel in the year 1200.

^c Called Ottokar, He is said to have been called Ottokar or Ottischgar, because he adhered to Otto, Duke of Saxony, elected Emperor, against Philip, the son of Frederick Barbarossa, assumed by others after the death of his brother Henry VI: and thus in the German language Ottogaris means, as it were, wholly devoted to Otto.

^d Having repudiated Adela, daughter of the Margrave of Meissen, he married Constance, daughter of Béla, King of Hungary, in the year 1202. So says Hagecius, Queen Constance who adds that the prior divorce had been lawfully made by Pontifical authority. Dubravius, book 15: He contracted marriage with Constance, daughter of Béla, King of Pannonia, with the assent of the Roman Pontiff. In the other Life, Constance is called the sister of Andrew, King of Hungary, namely the one then reigning, after her father Béla, when his brother Emeric in the year 1200, and his son Ladislaus the following year, had departed from life and kingdom. It is surprising that Thomas Jordan, writing on Dubravius, Wadding under the year 1234 number 4, and Arthur in the Franciscan Martyrology, should raise doubt and have recourse to Constance, widow of King Emeric, then married to the Emperor. See below under letter r.

^e It is recorded by Hagecius that Wenceslaus was born in the year 1206: whom, elected King by the will of his Father, the Emperor Frederick II confirmed by a diploma signed in the year 1216, on the seventh day before the Kalends of August, Indiction 4, in the fourth year of the Roman Empire. See Goldast in the Appendix of Documents of Bohemia, page 23. Then in the year 1228, the Kings Ottokar and Wenceslaus of Bohemia attested that they should be consecrated and crowned by the Archbishop of Mainz. Ibid., page 26.

^f This Margrave of Moravia Přemysl, together with his mother Queen Constance of Bohemia, founded the Cistercian convent of nuns in Moravia, named Porta Coeli, commonly Tišnov, in the diocese of Olomouc: Přemysl, Duke of Moravia. where at the high altar the marble tomb of the said Queen Constance appears. The foundation charter was published by Gaspar Jongelinus in the Catalogue of Abbeys of the Cistercian Order in the Margraviate of Moravia, page 47, signed at Znojmo in the year 1234 on the day before the Kalends of November. Constance died in the year 1240, under which year Hagecius mentions this foundation and the building of another monastery. These things needed to be confirmed against the errors of Dubravius and Aeneas Silvius and others, who make this Přemysl either the son of King Wenceslaus, who in the charter is called his brother, or at least say he lived after the death of Wenceslaus and became his successor in the kingdom.

^g Born the eldest of all the children in the year 1203.

^h Pordenone Pordenone, a city of Friuli: that the Archdukes of Austria afterward wrote themselves Lords of it, we noted on January 14 in the Life of Blessed Odoric of Pordenone, also of the Order of Friars Minor, page 983.

^i Vyšehrad is a royal castle at the end of the New Town of Prague, where the Moldau approaches the city, Vyšehrad said to have been built in the year 683, and afterward adorned with thirteen churches: but the Provost of the chief church was exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishops.

^k Philip, Archbishop of Salzburg. Hundius

in his Metropolis of Salzburg places Philip as the thirty-fifth Archbishop, created in the year 1249, where he asserts that his father (but calls him Bernard), Duke of Carinthia, died in the year 1256, and that his son Ulrich succeeded him.

^l When Gregory de Montelongo, Patriarch of Aquileia, died in the year 1259, Patriarch of Aquileia. Philip occupied the See and endured many difficulties both in this and in the preceding See.

^m When Wenceslaus the father died on the twenty-third of October in the year 1253, Přemysl Ottokar succeeded him as King of Bohemia, to whom Ulrich, Duke of Carinthia, was a cousin, Přemysl III, King since the latter's mother Borislava was Wenceslaus's sister.

^n Anna was born between Borislava and Blessed Agnes, in the year 1204.

^o This Henry is surnamed below the Valiant, son and heir of Henry the Bearded, Duke who died in the year 1238, and of St. Hedwig.

^p Legnica, in others Lignicia, a ducal city of Lower Silesia. Concerning the slaughter inflicted on Christians there by the Tartars on the said year 1241, the ninth of April, in the week after the Octave of Easter, and concerning the courageous spirit of Duke Henry fighting to his last breath, The Tartars invade Silesia. one should read Matthias of Miechów, book 3 of the Chronicle of the Kingdom of Poland, chapter 39. His body was buried by his wife Anna in the church of St. James, which he, with the attached convent, had built for the Friars Minor around the year 1236.

^q She was not only the mother-in-law of Anna, the sister of Blessed Agnes, but also the designated mother-in-law of Agnes herself; as will be said below.

^r St. Elizabeth was the cousin, or rather the cousin-german, of Blessed Agnes. Pope Gregory IX, in a letter of commendation concerning the praises of St. Elizabeth to Queen Beatrice of Castile, addressing St. Elizabeth thus says concerning Blessed Agnes: St. Elizabeth, cousin of Blessed Agnes. You have also intoxicated with the cup of this vessel Agnes, the handmaid of Christ, a virgin, daughter of the King of Bohemia, your Sister, in whose tender age we experience the signs of heavenly conduct in harsh matters, so that fleeing the offered heights of the Imperial summit as if they were venomous reptiles, and naked seizing the triumphal standard of the Cross, she now proceeds to meet her Spouse with lighted lamps, accompanied by a choir of sacred Virgins. The full letter is presented by Wadding under the year 1235, number 14. But because he had seen "Sister" written, when she was only her cousin or cousin-german, he thought that Constance, the mother of Blessed Agnes, was not the sister but the daughter of Andrew, the father of St. Elizabeth; and then Elizabeth would have been the aunt of Blessed Agnes. But because this Virgin was born two years before Blessed Elizabeth, perhaps she should be established as even older than her own mother, since Andrew, after Gertrude, the mother of St. Elizabeth, had two more wives after the prior ones had died.

§ II. Signs of the future holiness of Blessed Agnes before birth or in infancy itself.

[5] It is not by chance or from any quarter that heaven selects great souls for itself, for before they are enclosed in bodies, the heavenly powers reveal for whom they are destined, lest anyone extend an impudent hand toward delights, a robber of the divine, and then perhaps lead away such dainties further from God by an innocent or at least imprudent diversion. According to this observed law, therefore, similar things happened regarding Agnes, not yet born, or while still merely an infant in her cradle. First of all, her mother Constance saw in her sleep, while carrying the holy burden in her womb, in her royal wardrobe, among the purple and garments adorned with gold and gems, a certain grey cloak of entirely rough workmanship with hempen cords being mixed in, and set apart in the first place, as if it were an august garment. While she hung in suspense at this unusual garment, and wondered at every aspect of its form and color in this new attire; By a portent, the future Clarisse is indicated before birth: a voice from heaven, with clear speech, explained the mystery, solemnly predicting that the child whom she was already carrying in her womb would one day wear this kind of garment. The vision, and its voiced explanation from heaven, was afterward confirmed by the event itself around the Year of the Lord 1234, when Agnes, the daughter of Constance, gloriously cast aside all purple and other royal and indeed imperial garments below the ^a habit of St. Clare, and in that cloak, as a vestal virgin, however modestly, yet solemnly, triumphed over the feminine world, namely the golden and gem-adorned trappings of feminine beauty.

[6] Born, moreover, and placed as an infant in her cradle according to custom, although she did not yet know what she was doing, yet by her very posture and the arrangement of her hands and feet, the infant lies with hands and feet crossed. she most beautifully signified whose Spouse she wished to be, and under whose guidance she would run the course of her life. For when either her mother or her nurses allowed her hands to be free and her little feet unbound, the royal infant usually formed her virginal limbs in the manner of a Cross, with hands crossed and little feet bent, and thus most sweetly rested, as if already at that time lulled to sleep by the love of the Crucified. That posture turned the pious suspicion of most into an omen: nor did Agnes disappoint the sacred auguries, since, as long as she lived, she did nothing more than prove, in imitation of Jesus, tested by love of us in every way in the torment of the cross, her own fortitude in adversities and her contempt of injuries, to an extraordinary and astonishing degree of virtue.

^a St. Clare was shorn and consecrated as a sacred Virgin by St. Francis in the year 1212, that is, seven years and more after this vision was shown to Constance. Moreover, this vision, and what is handed down about the crossed hands and feet, are also noted in Pontanus's Bohemia Pia and commonly by others.

§ III. The holy education of Blessed Agnes in the monasteries of Třebnice and Doxany.

[7] The anxious love of Princes courts heirs even in their infancy: hence to secure unions of this kind in a timely manner, even before ages suitable for marriage, such anxious inquiries are earnestly conducted: scarcely any cares of Kings are greater than to establish, before the mature age of children, harmony with future spouses, and to induce love; both of which, then stabilized by a solemn marriage, would labor with childbirth for the quasi-perpetual possession of crown and scepter, and would be strengthened by frequent offspring. Who therefore would wonder that similar hunters, intent on the royal girl, though not yet in time for marriage, had flown to Bohemia, and had sought for the ^a son of the Princes of Silesia the most beautiful little Agnes in union? At three years old, betrothed to a Prince of Poland, The royal girl had not yet been born more than three years, when her royal parents sent her, betrothed to ^b Boleslaus, Prince of Silesia, with a governess of morals and a distinguished retinue of noble virgins and the rest of the household, to the parents and relatives of the groom in Silesia. They, according to the holy custom of those times, enclosed her among sacred virgins at Třebnice in a famous convent, two leagues from Wrocław. Meanwhile they were not at all afraid she lives in the Třebnice monastery, that the royal virgin, however remote from the torches of the Bridegroom Prince, would turn aside to the nearby loves of Christ. For most pious Princes either frequently wished many of their daughters to die in the service of Christ as virgins without posterity, or else sought Christian wives for the marriage bed from no other source than those who had preserved their virginal flower in a monastery. In the convent of Třebnice, therefore, the little virgin Agnes, among the sacred virgins, most sweetly drank the milk of Christ, by which indeed she herself, once also sacred, would one day nourish a hundred companions to the Savior: and she was most tenderly learning that piety through the continuous exercise of virtue, by whose example she would not only inflame the nuns for forty-nine years, but also the citizens and all subjects for fully seventy years and more, into the love of God and the Saints in a preeminent way. Moreover, this education lasted three years, under Blessed Hedwig: in which this also happily contributed to Agnes's happiness, that the most religious Princess Hedwig, and although a royal widow, yet the leader in virtue of the sacred virgins, took more particular care of this little nursling; whose holy endeavors were especially encouraged by the most holy woman for two reasons: because as the mother of Henry, through his marriage with her sister Anna, she was more closely bound to Agnes's parents, and because Hedwig herself of her own accord wonderfully inclined toward Christian piety and virtues worthy of heaven.

[8] But indeed Christ had selected Agnes as his Spouse from eternity; after the death of her betrothed, she returns, hence Boleslaus the Prince never attained to the love anticipated by hope. For the three years at Třebnice having passed, lest the betrothed should one day divert the insufficiently innocent delights of God to himself, before his time yet in time he was removed from the number of the living to the immortals by death. On this account the virgin Agnes, now ^c six years old, was recalled by her parents to Bohemia; nor did she begin her growth in virtue anywhere in her homeland other than where she had laid the foundations. She emigrated indeed from the Cistercian convent of virgins at Třebnice when she left Silesia; but returning to Bohemia, she entered a convent once more, but the Norbertine one at ^d Doxany, and there among the choicest heroines of Christ drawn from the Bohemian nobility, she dwells in the Doxany monastery: by the reading of Sacred Scripture on one hand and by examples of heroic virtues especially on the other, she advanced from her seventh to her ninth year in such a way that, brought thence into the court of her parents, she greatly commended herself everywhere to Přemysl and Constance, her grandparents, by the rare innocence of her life; and also drew her inferiors into veneration, not so much by the title of royal dignity as by the prerogative of Christian virtue, extraordinarily outstanding beyond the usual custom.

^a Henry the Bearded and St. Hedwig were Dukes of Silesia and Wrocław, Boleslaus assigned as Agnes's betrothed. who had three sons: Conrad, Henry, and Boleslaus. Conrad, to whom the daughter of the Duke of Saxony had been betrothed, was killed in a hunting accident from a fall from his horse in the year 1213. That this third Boleslaus died before this event is recorded by Długosz in book 6 of the History of Poland, page 550. We have already said that Anna, the sister of Blessed Agnes, was married to Henry. Joachim Cureus treats of these three sons in part 1 of his Silesia, page 59, and Jacob Schickfusius in book 2 of the Princes of Silesia, chapter 3, and they assert that Boleslaus died while still a young bachelor. The same are treated in the Acts of St. Hedwig, October 15.

^b Třebnice, commonly Trebnitz, of the Cistercian Order, founded in the year 1203 by Henry the Bearded and St. Hedwig: Třebnice monastery. whose foundation was sufficient for maintaining one hundred persons, as Miechowiensis records in book 3, chapter 30, where he describes at greater length the possessions donated, adding that the nuns were brought from the monastery at Bamberg, and that the first Abbess was the German virgin Petrussa, the second Gertrude, the daughter of Henry and St. Hedwig. There, after the death of her husband, St. Hedwig spent the rest of her life, and full of pious and good works, died on the fifteenth of October in the year 1243.

^c Around the year 1212, when Boleslaus, the future betrothed, died.

^d Doxany monastery. Henry, Bishop of Prague, who died in the year 1197, had chosen the Doxany monastery for his burial. He died at Cheb, having previously buried his mother there. Hagecius records that it was devastated in the year 1278. The town of Doxany itself is situated in the territory of Litoměřice, where the river Ohře empties into the Elbe.

§ IV. Blessed Agnes is sought by the Emperor Frederick II as a bride for his son Henry, but the attempt fails.

[9] This rare and unusual virtue in a royal virgin, as we have said, not only illuminated the innermost recesses of our Hercynian forests,

but its brilliant rays penetrated even the ^a Imperial court of the Emperor Frederick II: hence he more ambitiously sought Agnes for his son, with a thoroughly solemn legation, professing that in Prague, at the court of Přemysl, King of Bohemia, there were to be found delights She is betrothed to Henry, son of the Emperor Frederick II, by which the Roman majesty could be uniquely honored on earth. Wherefore, as was fitting, the parents of Agnes recognized their good fortune, and neither omitted anything by which they might most effectively persuade their daughter to love a mortal spouse. But what was Agnes to do, she who was otherwise serious, and always outstandingly dutiful toward her parents? She resisted nowhere, broke the suitor's hopes with no word, and confirmed with prudent consent the efforts of her family in all things: and so she allowed herself in the meantime to be bound by betrothal ceremony to the great Emperor's great son, the will on both sides being formally obligated for future love. But then this extraordinary thing happened, not without wonder, that when the Imperial groomsmen and attendants were celebrating the nuptial act for Frederick's son, none of them inserted the name of Agnes in its proper place; her name not written in the nuptial tablets: so that when it was most needed, they could remember neither her name nor that of Henry the betrothed: this mutilated and defective result in so distinguished an action made it clearly apparent what outcome the ceremony would have, who would court Agnes as bride instead of Henry, and how, when the human loves were eluded, a suitor from heaven would most chastely love the virgin.

[10] After the ceremonies, Agnes, designated as the bride of the Emperor's son, was led into Austria, taken to Austria, which was greatly indebted to the Emperor Frederick on account of the great prerogatives granted to the Princes of that province, accompanied by a retinue of virgins selected from the nobility, so that she might be instructed there meanwhile in German customs, and be entertained with amusements suited to a more tender age. But all those dainties of adolescence were in vain: the royal maiden treated nothing less than the enticements of the flesh of that kind, and spent that entire time especially which we distinguish by the famous name of the Lord's Advent, she fasts strictly in Advent with a memorable abstinence to which she had become accustomed in the convents, not yet more than nine years old Agnes, with nothing more than a small allowance of bread within the day and a small measure of wine, beyond and apart from all other mitigations of hunger and thirst whatever. When Lent followed shortly thereafter, however much the Dukes of Austria, the free Princes, and in Lent. were duly eating dairy products by permission, she nevertheless, mindful of the strict piety among the Bohemians (which she had seen to be in force not only in the monasteries but also in her father's court) solemnly continued those forty hunger-days not only without the permissible, indeed also without the indulgence sometimes necessary for youth; but again, insolently excluding all food, she admitted nothing except bread and a small amount of wine.

[11] But before the more distinguished feasts, on which we annually celebrate the benefit of the Incarnate Deity and the designation of the admirable Mother and likewise Virgin, that she might preserve her virginity, that is, especially on the vigil of the feast, Agnes burned with the desire of preserving her virginity: and so at the very solemnity itself, the light which had shortly before arisen from heaven illuminating her most chaste soul more and more, certain at last, although already betrothed, of marrying no man at all, she implored Mary, she implores the help of the Mother of God: the Leader of heroines of this kind and the champion of vowed chastity, among the most ardent sacred rites, and begged heavenly aid, that all things might be thrown into confusion lest human love plunder so great a treasure. And that the heavenly powers might thereafter wholly second this vow, she toiled anxiously day by day, partly through her own prayers, partly through generous distributions to the needy, partly also through others. Moreover, no one knew of her efforts to preserve her virginity except the Prefect of the court and some virgins: of whom the former, with outstanding piety toward God, and the latter, with a similar resolution of life, wonderfully encouraged their Lady Agnes in her purpose. Nor did Agnes fall short of the hope having returned to Bohemia which she had seriously conceived of heavenly assistance being sent. For the invoked Princess of Virgins, Mary, was present in time, together with the other heavenly beings, who prevented the nuptial celebration with unusual favor: whence the marriage, already previously postponed for whatever reasons I know not, was delayed. she is freed. Hence the opportunity for the most joyful virgin to return to Bohemia was offered by this postponement.

^a Frederick II, summoned from Sicily against the Emperor Otto of Saxony in the year 1210, leaving there his wife, the daughter of the King of Aragon, Frederick II, Emperor. and his small son Henry, came to Rome. So writes Conrad, elected Abbot of Ursberg in the year 1215.

^b Henry was taken by his father Frederick as associate in the Empire, and was crowned at Aachen in the year 1221, and in the year 1223 took as his wife Agnes, the daughter of Duke Leopold of Austria. So says the Urspergensis. This therefore is the reason that, the Bohemian Blessed Agnes having been set aside, unless it is said that she was not sufficiently distinguished from Agnes of Austria, Henry, the son. and the things that pertain to the father the Emperor, as will soon be said, are partly transferred to the son: in the other Life the matter is dealt with erroneously concerning this son alone.

§ V. Blessed Agnes is betrothed to Frederick the Emperor himself, in preference to King Henry of England.

[12] In place of one, two far more powerful assailants of the royal maiden's chastity came forward, dispatched on behalf partly of the ^a Emperor and partly of the ^b King of Britain, and solemnly honored the metropolis of Bohemia, Prague, with a distinguished retinue of magnates of both nations. Their arguments and truly royal gifts fought most powerfully before Přemysl and Constance, the parents of Agnes, to storm the modesty of the royal virgin. She is sought by the Emperor himself and the son of the King of England. The Briton turned the aversion of the Emperor's son's mind chiefly to his own advantage; saying that this royal bride was destined not for the Emperor but for King Henry, from heaven no less: and that he was soliciting Agnes's love not with an empty name or an elective majesty alone, but that the most powerful King of England, for the princess born queen, was freely and generously offering the scepter and crown of Britain as hereditary gifts. The Emperor Frederick, for his part, easily outweighed, as it seemed to him, the royal earnest money with the Imperial majesty: adding moreover that, if the bride and her parents were wise, they would not hesitate to prefer, over Britannia, She is given to the Emperor. a single portion of Europe, the Empire of the world and the diadem of rule over the globe. But since Agnes was little moved on either side, however specious these were, her parents were certainly moved greatly and inclined toward the Emperor as son-in-law; to whom also a heavenly vision seen in sleep, one of the envoys designated the royal bride for the Emperor, as by divine counsel, but wrongly. He had seen in a dream a crown, not uncommon in its competition of gems and gold with art and price, or indeed frequently worn on the heads of Kings and Emperors: this, having fallen from heaven, occupied the head of Agnes with a becoming placement. But this coronation was altogether brief She is seen in a dream crowned twice from heaven, and nearly momentary: thereupon, the former being removed, another, far more distinguished beyond all rivalry, adorned the same head with a majesty unfolded for an altogether longer time. Hence the vain augur drew from a dream, though not a vain one, a false omen for Frederick II over Henry III. That is, the first crown was supposed to indicate the ambition of the Britons, who, after trying everything, would by no art, at no price, be able to obtain Agnes for their sovereign. The more august one, moreover, lingering on the royal head even longer at the end — whom would it indicate, if not the Emperor Augustus? And so he would soon return to Frederick with the most happy tidings and the betrothal documents, a blessed groomsman.

[13] These dreams, thus cast about, and the additional commentaries of the Emperor's Legates on the matter, finally brought the marriage to the hoped-for conclusion: She is betrothed to the Emperor against her will: but by a better outcome this rashness was afterward corrected by heaven, favoring not the Emperor but God with the virgin. For that first crown, whether of Henry III or Frederick II, signified the marriage with kingdom and empire, which the more august second crown — that of Christ the Spouse, of course — confounded without any opposition; when it removed the head of the sacred virgin from every human adornment, and reserved it for the honor of the divine diadem alone in perpetuity. And indeed Agnes, when her parents by their authority were forcing her to promise her love to a mortal man, mindful of course of her own vow or resolution, was in no way moved by betrothal gifts or the enticements of the future marriage chamber. Moreover, she openly shrank from her betrothed, though he was even an Emperor, as a rival of the deity, because she now wished to please no other than Christ, the most beautiful of the sons of men.

[14] Meanwhile her father ^c Přemysl was removed from life around the Year of the Lord 1230, subject also to the common fate: whether his daughter felt grief from his fatal departure, or rather joy as the Spouse of Christ, I would not easily say: she is bereaved of her father. nature had doubtless compelled Agnes moderately to grief, though within the bounds of virtue; but the memory of a removed obstacle — the paternal authority previously exercised in arranging the marriage — poured in a fullness of joy. Nor would Přemysl perhaps — indeed without doubt he would not easily — have ever relaxed his daughter's power to preserve her virginity without marriage, had not death, with its customary infamy of parsimony, cut short his life in a just though natural sense.

^a Frederick the Emperor, after the death of his wife from Aragon, took a second wife, called Iola or Yolande, daughter of Brienne, King of Jerusalem, in the year 1222 or the following. Frederick, betrothed of Blessed Agnes. She afterward died in childbed after giving birth to a boy; some assign the year 1227. The Emperor remained a widower until the year 1235, then married Isabella, sister of Henry III, King of England, the betrothal having been made on the day of Pentecost, the sixth day before the Kalends of June. So says the Westminster chronicler.

^b He was Henry III, King of England, who in the same year 1235 contracted marriage on the twenty-third of November with Eleanor, daughter of the Count of Provence. Henry III, King of England. That both these marriages, of the Emperor and the King, were rejected by Agnes, is also written by Pontanus in Bohemia Pia, Wadding, and others.

^c It is read in the sepulchral inscription that Přemysl, King of Bohemia, died on the tenth of December. King Přemysl dies. Hagecius in his Chronicle places the year at 1230. But because Wenceslaus his son counts the Year of Christ 1234, with Indiction 7, as the sixth year of his reign, and indeed on the twelfth day before the Kalends of April, he seems to have succeeded his father in the year 1228. The complete letters were published by Wadding in volume 1 of the Annals of the Minors in the Pontifical Register, number 24. But the investiture of the kingdom was granted to him by the Emperor Frederick in the year 1231, Indiction 4. The diploma is found in the cited Goldast, page 24. Whether in Wenceslaus's letters it should be the fourth year in place of the sixth, let the Bohemians investigate.

§ VI. Virtues of Blessed Agnes up to the year of her age of about 31, in the secular state.

[15] After the death of Přemysl, his son Wenceslaus, already previously crowned, happily took up the royal scepter as the Fourth King among the Bohemians: whose Sister, the aforesaid Agnes, was meanwhile making most beautiful preludes to the life she had designated for herself, and was greatly accustoming herself by sacred exercises to a virgin's Christian solitude. She puts on a hair shirt and iron hooks. She, the daughter and now also the Sister of a King, shone with gold and gems on every side, and with that splendid allurement she usually detained curious onlookers, indeed even hunters for a Queen, when she appeared in public: but

beneath the purple (who would believe it) iron hooks and rough hairs lay hidden. And so while outwardly she refreshed the eyes of others with her attire, the maiden, most nobly reared among royal delights, was inwardly torturing her concealed little body from ambush. Likewise her bed was adorned daily with precious coverlets and hangings brought also from elsewhere, altogether worthy of magnificence in appearance: she sleeps on a hard bed: there lay pillows stuffed with the softness of swans, the linen displayed the whitest snowy gleam, and the coverlets, covered with silken fabric and mostly interwoven with gold and silver thread, displayed nothing that lacked value, nothing that lacked even Phrygian artistry: but beneath these extravagantly eye-catching delights of royal comfort, there lay hidden in concealment and by design the diversions of uncomfortable pleasure; here on pointed stones, there on rather hard fragments, without anyone's knowledge, Agnes was ineptly but throughout the entire night disturbed.

[16] She who thus treated her whole body, and indeed most skillfully, how would she indulge it through food or drink? she conceals her fasting: Among the royal banquets she was usually hungry, and among the exquisite wines she was thirsty, even after she had drunk: so sparingly did she admit water even in extreme necessity. Moreover, on Friday, the day on which Christ our Savior expired amid torments for us, and on the seventh day, celebrated for the worship of the Mother of God, and on other Vigils, Agnes ate almost nothing, as if forbidding herself food and drink, and in short, continuing the abstinence begun in childhood at Třebnice and Doxany among the sacred virgins. Nor did her brother Wenceslaus find these so austere pursuits of an unusual virtue at court troublesome, because the virgin maiden, intent on this one thing daily, that she might piously deceive people, however much amid sumptuous feasts she merely looked at the dishes, and indeed even when she ate, scarcely tasted: so successfully did she, with the most beautiful artifice of virtue, elude perhaps bold eyes, or eyes mostly not attentive, as if she had lunched or dined most lavishly.

[17] But as hostile as she was to her body, so great was her friendship with God himself. She would descend to her knees for whole hours; now here and now there, wherever the ardor of her soul had pressed her down, she would become a suppliant to God: now she would implore divine mercy for her own lapses and faults and indeed non-faults; at other times she would beg all blessings for her brother the King and the related Princes and the whole kingdom, she pours forth many prayers: and entreat each of the heavenly Saints to be propitious to each; moreover, she especially wished well to the dead: and so for the good of souls, not only did she herself more frequently pray the prayers and Psalms decreed by the Church, but she also procured through others, and especially through men consecrated to God, the same duties, and above all, sacrifices. These pious transactions with the heavenly Spouse Agnes had not only at home and within the private walls of her palace; but she especially exercised her piety in the sacred buildings themselves and at the relics of the Saints: so that, by the example of the Lady, the subjects themselves might more easily and effectively be publicly drawn to studies of this kind. Hence on many days, in the midst of a numerous retinue of noble virgins, she would usually go on foot in the morning to many churches, and indeed with such modesty of countenance and of her entire body she hears sacred services: that, had we seen the sacred virgins walking, we would have been held in suspense by the sweet spectacle of virtue. If any conversation happened to occur on the way, all of it was taken up into the praises of God and the memory of heavenly things: then she would stand by not one or two Priests offering sacrifice at the altar, but for the most part from dawn until noon, amid continuous sacred services, she would hold her ground even on the bare floor, without royal cushions, with great example; and with the same devotion from noon again, she would most piously continue Vespers and sacred rites of that kind until night.

[18] But Agnes was not the only one, nor the first, to undertake such exaggerated pursuits of piety: many heroines of royal blood shone with a similar prerogative of virtue, and even now many later women have merited equal fame by their sacred exercises. What I shall now append, however, was practiced in Bohemia before Agnes by none except the Martyr Wenceslaus; in changed attire she visits churches: and after her we know it has not yet been reproduced by anyone in salutary imitation. At that age, born a Queen of Bohemia, and indeed already betrothed to the aforesaid Emperor Frederick, and about to become shortly the Empress of the world, having laid aside the purple and dressed in nothing but a citizen's clothes, attended by a few most trusted virgins, in the still uncertain light and before the sun had fully risen, with heaven still dark, she would traverse many churches, and falling prostrate at the shrines of the Saints everywhere, after she had sufficiently and more than sufficiently venerated their sacred relics, at last when the day was now brightening, she would return home in secret, the fame of her unusual deed being suppressed by the still somewhat dark day and the unusual attire. But at what cost do we think this early morning pilgrimage through the sacred buildings and to the relics of the Saints stood for her? The stones, often very often moistened with royal blood, confessed that it had cost Agnes much, walking barefoot in the bitterest winter: but she, deterred by neither this immense burning of the cold nor the sharp wounding of the stones, suppressed the pain with a heroic spirit. But when she had returned home, having wiped away the blood in secret, and revived herself with a little warmth, she would descend again to the nearest sacred building, but now as Queen in attire and retinue, and would repeat with the same devotion the things I described above, with piety not concealed but public. These things I have from an old manuscript of a contemporary writer, which I should briefly note concerning the extraordinary virtue of the royal maiden before the sacred convent; it will not be surprising, I believe, if greater things follow after these preludes, in a more mature and indeed sacred age. For such beginnings are usually matched by the final gifts of divine grace, both in virtue and in miracles: heaven will make Agnes outstanding in both, as we shall see, and we shall endeavor to do the same: as we shall shortly commemorate in nearly ten paragraphs, on both sides, both the heroic life and the illustrious privileges from heaven, in the style at our disposal.

§ VII. Having rejected the Emperor Frederick II, Blessed Agnes dedicates herself to Christ her Spouse in the Order of St. Francis.

[19] Against the bonds of the Emperor, The twenty-eighth year of Agnes's life was now at last turning, and the year of Christ 1233, when the Emperor Frederick II, most eagerly wished the virgin, now nubile and at last mature for marriage, to be brought to him; moreover, the fame of her rare virtue, widely and eminently spread through Germany, especially hastened the sight of the so often sought bride. And so the choicest magnates from the Empire were selected to solemnly maintain the Majesty of the Roman Emperor at Prague, before Wenceslaus the King, Agnes's brother, for the purpose of taking away the wife from Bohemia. Without delay, Frederick's envoys were dispatched with great pomp and a distinguished retinue of noble men and women. When these arrived at Prague, having first presented the salutation of the Roman Emperor, they did everything to take away Agnes, pledged according to the promises of her father Přemysl, to the Empire: so the groom willed it, so all rights commanded on behalf of the Emperor. The legation having been received with due honor, and the assent of her brother the King, King Wenceslaus did nothing less than to impede the agreed marriage: indeed he pressed the more eagerly, because henceforth, as the Emperor's father-in-law or at least kinsman, he would be heard with great glory. But the virgin already shrank from a rival of God, from whom, because of his unchaste life, the most chaste Agnes could otherwise recoil. For Frederick, with grievous injury to Christian virtue, had made himself a love life during his widowhood that was utterly promiscuous; and although he had at home more than one prostitute of his honor, he still infamously went roaming abroad. But by what way could the prey, fleeing so powerful a hunter already clinging to her in Prague itself, escape, and especially when her brother was also pushing his sister into the nets of marriage? But where human industry failed, divine providence came to the rescue. For those very envoys of the Emperor Frederick, while they were carefully preparing everything for the journey, so that the Emperor's bride might be magnificently led away, had suggested to Agnes the occasion for somewhat delaying the departure in secret. The wise virgin therefore meanwhile advised through her agents ^a Gregory IX, the Supreme Pontiff of that time, of her heroic counsel, she implores the help of Pope Gregory IX: and asked in every way that he would at last prevent by his authority the marriage that was nearly completed: for she, however much her parents' wishes had preferred the Emperor as son-in-law, had always hitherto preferred God as Spouse over any man: moreover, her brother Wenceslaus was pressing, and approved some sort of propriety in his father's agreements; that she herself, unwilling and even forced, could have her modesty overwhelmed, but would never consent to marriage a second time, having already once pledged her nuptials to God.

[20] a Papal Nuncio being sent, Far from weakening the heroic character of the most dear virgin by any subterfuge, the excellent Pontiff rather strengthened it against all the schemes of the flesh, having praised it and endowed it with wonderful graces and paternal indults. Wherefore Gregory IX dispatched a Papal Nuncio to Bohemia outside the ordinary course, and committed to him above all in his instructions that in a timely manner, while nevertheless prudently avoiding the indignation of the Emperor and the Kings, if possible, he should by every means divert Agnes from the marriage with Frederick; so that the virginity of the unwilling virgin, who preferred Christ alone and therefore in this matter freely dissented from her parents as far as she could, might be nobly safeguarded.

When this man arrived in Bohemia and had approached the Queen and set forth everything in order and on behalf of Agnes, the intention was and by a declaration to her brother that the sister should at last approach her brother as a supplicant, and having shown the Pontiff's diploma, should ask nothing else by all the blood between them than that he not attack her through marriage with the Emperor: for it had long since been resolved for her to marry none but Christ, and she had already seriously thought of carrying her flesh to the grave none other than a complete virgin. Let him beware, therefore, lest, if he continued to compel his sister, besides offending the Roman Pontiff, he should also offend a more august rival, by the vindications of modesty appropriated by heaven. Greatly and unexpectedly shaken by this serious declaration of Agnes, Wenceslaus hesitated, not knowing how he might both keep his sister a Virgin and extricate the Emperor, already bound by solemn promises, from the marriage; at last, as the matter stood, he informed Frederick in time through his agents, and wisely distanced himself, entirely innocent, from all intercession in the marriage. she is freed,

[21] The Emperor ^b gnashed his teeth at first, and was vehemently indignant that his delights were being snatched from him, and so more sharply investigated everything, and with an iron spirit against those who stood in the way, planned and clearly devised some sort of vengeance. first from the angry Emperor, But since innocence fought on all sides for Wenceslaus, Agnes's brother, and the Emperor's victory was broken from no other quarter than from a virgin, who sinned against Frederick only in this: that she preferred God to man, as was right; at length, as his anger subsided and his love yielded to such great rivalry with the Deity, he magnanimously, with a sentence altogether worthy of a Christian Prince, though pronounced against himself, at last liberally absolved Agnes from the marriage confirmed even by solemn documents, and magnificently condemned — if it was condemnation — then reconciled, a virgin going to preserve her virginity, which the Emperor himself so extravagantly praised by Imperial letters.

Now the formula of the Imperial decree was of this kind: If Agnes, having spurned the Emperor, had perversely sought the love of any other man, the written formula concluded, and had burned with desire for any mortal husband other than himself, Frederick, then indeed he would not have been undeserving in repelling so outstanding an insult with avenging arms against both parties. But since she shunned not so much his own pleasures as, being betrothed to Christ, preferred immortal ones, there remained for him in the end no occasion for justly taking offense at her most excellent endeavors. Therefore let her continue, as she had begun, to burn with love of Christ, and not pollute the flames of so great a lover with the flames of another. He, who until now had been troublesome by reason of his father's agreements, would henceforth be also a defender of her virginity consecrated to the Godhead.

[22] Words so solemn, and moreover magnificent gifts, but especially from sacred Relics, confirmed this. For Frederick added that she, now virtually a sacred virgin, should take She is given sacred Relics. from the sacred treasury of relics, gifts undoubtedly preferred to gold and gems, and enjoy these as pledges by which the Emperor wished the very best for her who was once his bride, but now more worthily the bride of Christ. Freed from this last and indeed most troublesome snare of the flesh, Agnes, now entirely free from the world, began thenceforth to deliberate seriously about a sacred convent, where she might be the sole delight of Christ, and in turn be most chastely loved by the most beautiful of men.

^a Gregory IX was elected on March 20 of the year 1227, sat for 14 years, and died on August 22, 1241.

^b That she spurned Emperor Frederick on account of Christ, who had sought her in marriage, is written by Albert of Stade, cited above. That she fled the offered heights of Imperial dignity was written by Gregory IX, as we have reported above. The same is written by Dubravius, Bartholomew of Pisa, and many others passim.

SECTION VIII. Blessed Agnes, freed from mortal cares, dedicates herself as a bride of Christ, authorized by the rule of Saint Clare.

[23] It happened most opportunely that soon after, Clare, the illustrious offspring of Francis, She inquires into the manner of life of Saint Clare. and the sole wonder of her sex, was teaching tender young virgins at Assisi in Umbria by her own example to do those things that we admire in many men but very few of us actually imitate. This most austere manner of life, and the extreme poverty that she introduced into her Order, although it could very well have diverted the royal virgin from the institute of Clare, by a singular call of God choosing this bride for Himself, most sweetly drew her to this very thing from all the delights of the world and the usual softness of persons of that rank. Therefore, partly from Bohemian nobles who had once traveled to Rome for religious purposes and subsequently on occasion had visited Francis and Clare at Assisi, and partly also, more intimately, from the very religious men of the Franciscan institute, after she had thoroughly examined everything and had first engaged in mature deliberation with herself, she finally, with this same austerity, began a life of truly rare example with great eagerness (while her brother the King interposed no obstacle whatever to her most holy endeavors; indeed, together with his sisters and kinswomen, nephews and nieces, he warmly praised the extraordinary nature of the deed). Moreover, she distributes her garments among the poor, lest she not seem to have left all things and distributed them among the poor according to Christ's precept, she distributed everywhere among those in need of food and clothing her costly and truly royal feminine wardrobe, with which human majesty had until now adorned her unwilling and groaning self — or rather had tormented rather than adorned her.

[24] But since this was, as it were, a daily liberality, so that it might endure for ages, she erected a magnificent hospital at the foot ^a of the bridge of Prague, in Old Prague. ^b In this hospital, with perpetual endowments, the health especially lost by the sick, she erects a hospital, or even the well-being of fortune destroyed by whatever misfortune, was, as it were, restored in full through daily sustenance with the affliction halved, or at least was assisted in some part. This place thenceforth — whether considered as a hospital or likewise as a church — received the surname of Saint Francis, because a woman of the Franciscan institute had built the sacred edifice at princely expense. ^c Moreover, men signed with the Cross by the Foundress herself, some of whom undertook the administration of the work and others the care of the sick, first proved their service admirably in Bohemia; and shortly afterward at Wroclaw, at the Hospital of Saint Matthias, the second hospital, built with equal opulence for the poor by Anna, wife of Henry the Pious ^d and Agnes's sister, they administered with similar praise. And from both places, ^e spreading through the surrounding regions, as her sister did at Wroclaw by her example, they served the afflicted with great commendation of mercy not only in Bohemia and Silesia, but also in Poland and Moravia. The Prague Hospital, as it had been the beginning of the sacred Order, so likewise retained the primacy of the dignity of the Mastership over those placed under it. ^f Moreover, that noble hospital for the sick, or rich receptacle for the poor, was completed around the year of the Lord 1236.

[25] Shortly afterward, other sacred buildings, begun two or three years earlier, for Franciscan inhabitants of both sexes, extending to the very bank of the Moldau, she builds monasteries for Franciscans yet within the enclosure of the walls of Old Prague, the sacred Foundress erected as a magnificent building at enormous expense. To the church of Saint Francis, ^g the men authorized by the laws of the same Founder, after they had come from Mainz, were the very first to become celebrated in Bohemia for their fame of holiness, the roughness of their garments, and the bareness of their feet. Close by, at the sacred church of the Savior, the Poor Clare virgins, contiguous to the Franciscan religious men, conspicuous for equal austerity of life and no less fame of holiness, and for the Poor Clares, shortly afterward took up their abode with Agnes as their leader. Indeed, although the men's monastery was being furnished on every side with royal magnificence, with the help of her brother the King, Wenceslas her brother, having voluntarily joined in the partnership of this most pious work, had moreover wondrously adorned the convent with buildings and laid out gardens, so that the noble virgins, otherwise extremely poor for Christ's sake, might have somewhere to dwell comfortably and might somewhat interrupt their sacred exercises with a diversion in the garden, lest the weaker sex be enervated sooner than usual by unaccustomed rigor. Moreover, Agnes the Foundress had most magnificently enriched the sacred church of the Savior with sacred gifts and ecclesiastical furnishings for the altars; for so much had the daughter of a King acquired by inheritance, and consequently her suitors — who were either Kings or outright Emperors — had heaped upon the royal Virgin these riches of golden and bejeweled liberality. The example of Princes of this sort was wonderfully effective in stirring the hearts of their subjects. And so everyone, whether from the nobles or from the citizens, was eager to help both constructions with their own resources. But the Princes, eager above all for God's glory beyond their own, at last by a stern edict sufficiently and more than sufficiently restrained this kind of liberality among both parties, as though it might prejudice the royal magnificence. and the workers refusing wages. But who could drive from the buildings the daily laborers, without whom the Princes simply could not exist, if those workers continued to be generous? For after they had done everything, they wished to accept no payment at all; and when they feared trouble from the overseers and were even compelled to accept payment, by hastily finishing the prescribed work, they most dexterously escaped payment by fleeing at the beginning of evening. Hence it was easy for Wenceslas and Agnes to bring even enormous structures to excellent completion in a short time, with such workers, and to furnish the most sacred buildings for hundreds of persons through such pious labor of their subjects.

[26] She enters the monastery. Now the year from Christ's death celebrated as the one thousand two hundred and fiftieth completed both buildings of the Franciscan Order. But already before, under the year 1234, there were sacred inhabitants on both sides. Franciscan men summoned from Mainz inhabited the men's monastery; while five sacred virgins from Italy, the first companions of Blessed Clare, sent by the authority of the Supreme Pontiff, first inhabited the convent. These Agnes soon after magnificently inducted together with seven Bohemian virgins, all of illustrious blood and sprung from an ancient stock of nobles. This number thenceforth, and indeed of purely noble virgins, despite such great austerity of life and unaccustomed contempt of wealth and pleasure, nevertheless grew to such an extent that, besides several royal daughters or granddaughters, with a hundred noble virgins following, the full number of one hundred was either reached or even surpassed while Agnes was still living for some years yet. So effective was the previous example of the royal virgin in so unusual an order for moving even tender virgins to the most austere undertakings, and I know not what obligation of following they, the noble subjects, thought they incurred when their Lady preceded them with such great virtue toward the religious life.

[27] The year of Christ 1235 was then turning when Agnes, with those seven most illustrious virgins, by a great example, she is inducted before the King, Queen, and nobles, was beginning her extraordinary life with a solemn ceremony. For this most beautiful spectacle (unless the old records deceive us), the day of March 25, notable for the Annunciation ^h of the Incarnation of the Godhead, had been chosen, so that on the very day on which the sacred nuptials of Mary with the Heavenly Spouse were celebrated, they might be betrothed under the most auspicious omen. Would you like to know the order and arrangement of the procession? Her brother the King and Queen Cunegunde, daughter of Emperor Philip, were present, elevated on the royal throne and, in a rare spectacle, crowned with the very crown of Bohemia. Together with the King and Queen sat the related Princes and kinsmen, Dukes from Carinthia and Silesia; the last place, but standing at the sides and below the royal thrones and the benches of the Princes, was occupied in great number by the nobles, especially those who were distinguished by public dignity in the kingdom. Then other Barons, then innumerable Knights, of old and entirely pure Czech blood of those times; and finally every kind of attendant above and below packed the sides of the nobles on every side. Then all around citizens, and finally a great crowd of common people, pouring in from every direction, pressed upon the sacred precinct of the church of the Savior.

[28] The ninth hour before noon had already sounded when several Dukes who were relatives or otherwise kinsmen led Agnes — all golden and bejeweled, clad in royal purple, like a bride (and she was, because she was being betrothed to Christ) — and then the seven illustrious heroines from her family or from the leading nobles, to the principal altar, amid the resounding blare of trumpets and the symphony of most sweet music. There, before the Apostolic Nuncio, who served as Pro-Pontiff in this ceremony, surrounded by — besides ^i John XXI of Prague — seven Bishops of other churches, she is vested by the Apostolic Nuncio and Bishops, with the seven other Virgins, she herself first offered her hair to be cut while kneeling; then she removed her golden garment, and finally fitted to her royal body the grey mantle that had been cast upon it, and kissing it most sweetly with tears, and covered with the sacred veil by the ^k Pro-Pontiff, she proceeded with wondrous joy, because at last, after so many unsuccessfully attempted marriages with the world, these final nuptials with Christ had happily succeeded. In entirely the same rite and order the other virgins completed all things; nor was anything singular left to the Lady in her rejoicing — so much had hatred of the flesh seized them all for many years already, and they had long been yearning with the Queen for equal nuptials with the most chaste Lamb. When Agnes was marvelously praised together with her companions, Cajetan, as is customary, by his authority publicly granted a plenary Indulgence to the now sacred virgins, to complete the work. after the sermon John, the Bishop of Prague, also added a brief but elegant commendation of this most beautiful deed in the Bohemian language, by which he moved the King and Queen, the related and kindred Princes, amid the solemn festivities (who would have thought it?) she communicates at the Sacred rite to abundant tears. Then at the altar, with the seven Bishops assisting in magnificent procession,

the Pro-Pontiff celebrated; from whose communion shortly afterward Agnes and those seven virgins were refreshed with the sacred Body of Christ according to custom. And this extraordinary festival held spectators of every kind until the second hour past noon, which was at last solemnly concluded amid congratulations and festive applause, the blare of trumpets, and musical harmonies. From the church they then went to a banquet in the convent, prepared as well as permitted: which the King and Queen on one side, together with the related and kindred Dukes of Agnes, and additionally the kinsmen from among the nobles of those seven virgins, she is entertained at a royal banquet with the others, and on the other side the Papal Legate, and eight Bishops besides Agnes and the heroines recently betrothed to Christ, graced. The second and third tables were occupied by foreign and domestic Prelates, then nobles and leading Knights, either distinguished by public offices in the kingdom or connected to the nuns by illustrious lineage, admitted with a singular prerogative of honor. Then others above or below others, in innumerable number, ate as each one's nobility or age warranted; nor were those who most needed them — the poor — excluded from the festivities. Tables were therefore spread everywhere in the courtyard of the monastery; not merely hundreds were fed, but a total number such as these tables, repeated ten times and again as many times, are accustomed to accommodate.

[29] And indeed this act, so heroic, of Agnes did not suspend the admiration of hearers and spectators for only one or two days, or even a week or a month; but it celebrated the extraordinary nature of the deed for one year and another, nothing else being more frequent on the lips of mortals than that a woman born a Queen and the sister of the reigning Wenceslas, and shortly before the bride of the Emperor and nearly his wife, had been able to hold all these things, which are so highly valued by men, in such utter contempt, and to prefer supremely the sacred love of Christ alone in extreme poverty to the love of so many suitors. But beyond fame, which is of no such great account, there were the examples of princely heroines who took their beginnings from the occasion of so glorious a betrothal of Agnes with God. For when the account of this most beautiful deed had been dispersed throughout Germany and especially Poland and other neighboring and distant kingdoms, by her example she draws others to the same Religious life, thenceforth a great number of heroines of royal blood began to desire the same choice of life, however austere, and to be inflamed with equal ardor for triumph over contempt of the world and the flesh, and finally, in this extraordinary institute of Saint Francis so unusual for persons of their kind, to express by serious imitation the example of Agnes who had gone before them. For this reason, most of the monasteries of the Poor Clares everywhere in the world arose by the example of Bohemia, not only with sacred buildings but above all with the outstanding pursuit of rare virtue. So much can the endeavors of even a single person accomplish, if they are undertaken with a great spirit, and when skill everywhere fails and human industry has nothing more to offer, God strengthens those who labor and raises up rivals for the emulation of a glorious work.

^a The manuscript records of the Order of the Crusaders with the Red Star, which Theodore Moretus, a priest of our Society, transmitted to us from Wroclaw, have "at the front of the bridge."

^b The monastery and hospital, for which Blessed Agnes obtained from her brother King Wenceslas and his wife Kunigunde a property with rich possessions. The Prague Hospital. So state the said manuscript records.

^c These Crusaders, or Bearers of the Cross, had come from Palestine to Europe and, having adopted the Rule of Saint Augustine, had founded many hospitals in various places. Crusaders with the Red Star. Among other things, in Bohemia, in the village of Porzick not far from Prague, they acquired lands, built a hospital for the poor, and erected a church dedicated to Saint Peter. From this Hospital of Saint Peter, Blessed Agnes arranged for them to be brought to Prague, and so that these Crusaders might be distinguished from others of different kinds who were then wandering about, at the prayers of Blessed Agnes, Innocent IV ordered a star to be added to the Cross. So the said manuscript records state at greater length. That church still stands with a beautiful tower, enclosed within New Prague near the Porzick gate, under the jurisdiction of those Crusaders, who also administer parochial duties there. So Hlavvitius and Tanner write in their letters to us.

^d Indeed, she was a widow after her husband was slain by the Tartars in 1241. She built the church of Saint Elizabeth and the Hospital of Saint Matthias at Wroclaw with great endowments added, together with her sons, and with the consent of Bishop Thomas, The Wroclaw Hospital. handed them over to the Crusader Brothers. Innocent IV confirmed the donation by an Apostolic diploma, and by another commanded the Bishops of Prague and Olomouc not to permit the Rector and Brothers of the Hospital of Saint Elizabeth of the Stellate Crusaders of Wroclaw to be unduly molested. So the said manuscripts state at length. Indeed, that the Order of Crusaders was confirmed by the same Innocent in the first year of his Pontificate, the year of Christ 1243, Ciaconius also observed after others. But Gregory IX asserts in the Regesta cited at number 58 that the Canonical Order according to the Rule of Blessed Augustine was instituted by him in the Prague hospital.

^e The hospitals afterward erected in the cities of Bohemia render obedience to the General Master at Prague, namely those at Slatov, Mys, Pont, Hospitals subject to them. Litomerice, Aust, Eger, and Znojmo in Pottinberg. But to the Master of Saint Matthias at Wroclaw render obedience the hospitals erected at Kreuzberg, Swidnica, Legnica, Boleslav, and Munsterberg, and in other places, as well as in Poland and Lithuania. So the said manuscripts state.

^f Crugerius observes that the Archbishops of Prague have held the supreme Prefecture there for some time.

^g Dubravius, in Book 15 of his History of Bohemia, writes that King Premysl erected two monasteries at Prague, one under the title of Saint Clement, the other under the title of Saint Francis, and into both he transferred members whom Francis himself or Dominic had planted. Martin Boregh has the same in his Bohemian Chronicle, page 200. Convents of the Order of Preachers and Friars Minor at Prague. But that the Convent of the Friars Preachers in honor of Saint Clement was begun in the year 1222 by Blessed Ceslaus, sent to Prague by Saint Hyacinth, Maluenda in the Annals of the Preachers and Bzovius at that year report from ancient records: which we shall examine more fully at his Life on July 15 and at Hyacinth's on August 16. Therefore the Friars Minor seem to have arrived at Prague at about the same time, at whose urging Lady Agnes gave herself to the Order of Poor Ladies of the Rule of Blessed Francis, as Albert, who from being Abbot of Stade became a Minorite in the year 1240, reports in his Chronicle.

^h The same Albert assigns the day of Pentecost and the year 1236.

^i John, surnamed Scholasticus, praised by Hagecius and Pontanus for his piety and devotion, is said to have presided from 1228 to 1236.

^k The author noted by this word, more remote from common usage, that the person understood is he whom the Roman Curia calls a Legate a latere, commissioned to represent the person of the Pontiff himself before foreign Princes.

SECTION IX. The rare and heroic virtues of Blessed Agnes living among the Poor Clares.

[30] In the convent of the Holy Savior, from the year 1235 until the year 1281, Agnes led her religious life for a full forty-six years, with great virtue and — without any affected reputation — yet with remarkable renown. And so from her entrance until her death she lived in such a way that all that followed most beautifully corresponded to those most noble earlier preludes. Those were like a foundation upon which these later things of the greatest example and extraordinary virtue would rest. But in so great an abundance of the best things, what incredible task would I undertake if I wished to embrace with a particular style Agnes's virtues and her other manifold generous character and religious nature? It will therefore be enough for us to have woven a catalogue of only some of them, and to narrate more briefly here what she possessed at great length. Let submission of spirit lead the way, Before all, humility, which exalted Agnes by a rarer miracle, the more she among mortals, greater by fortune's favor, could have despised according to custom those very women to whom she so greatly submitted or even subordinated herself. she refuses to preside over the monastery. A great proof of her humble spirit was, above all, that she fought so greatly, so often, and so seriously against being placed over the convent. Although the Superiors of the sacred Order were moved to confer the governance of the monastery both by Agnes's royal character and by her great benefactions, and the Sisters, looking to nothing but virtue and accordingly all willingly promising submission and subjection without any dissent, they were nevertheless never able to bring the matter to the point where Agnes might be distinguished even by this singularity. For she would resist and fight in every way, here alone seeking intercessors, elsewhere generously complying in all things, begging and entreating, finally being afflicted in spirit and even falling ill in body, and not recovering her health or being fully herself in spirit again until people desisted from these extravagances, abandoned all thought of the Prefecture, and took no account of Agnes whatsoever. ^a

[31] From this virtue, moreover, it came about that one born a Queen and so eagerly sought for marriages with Kings and Emperors would cast herself below all the sacred Sisters, even her own she esteems herself inferior to all, subjects (I say), never placing herself before anyone in word or deed, admiring in all others greater prudence and other gifts of mind and virtues, but finding in herself absolutely nothing of all those things by which she could be compared to others, let alone preferred. What would you have done with this humble handmaid of Christ? Would you have spoken more kindly about her in her presence? She would immediately collect herself, and the blush of her face seemed to be confounded even with tears. Would you have compared her to some familiar or the least of the Sisters? She, thus compared, would blush even more vehemently, and would confess that each one, even the least, was an instruction to her in virtue. Would you perhaps have resisted her in a word and seriously turned aside from what she had judged? Then indeed she would in no way display unseasonable authority, but courteously either keep silent at objections or speak little, as it were condemn her own views, and with the lightest countenance go entirely and migrate into the contrary opinion with hands and feet. Would you, either unwittingly or carried away by anger, have heaped abuse and mockery upon this most humble virgin? she bears contempt with equanimity. Then indeed you would have delighted one who sought contempt from every quarter, and you would have filled her modest spirit, unconfused by any injury of that sort, with truly remarkable joy.

[32] With such self-abasement, what wonder if she devoted herself to the more menial tasks? You would have seen her, the daughter of Premysl III, King of Bohemia, preparing fires for the Sisters in the early morning; her, the sister of Wenceslas IV, King of Bohemia, cleaning the filth of bedchambers; her, the bride of Emperor Frederick II, she performs the lowliest services, toiling in the kitchen like a despised maidservant. And when she did all these things, she did not condemn them with a somewhat stern face and a confused countenance, but, radiant with joy, showed the spectators of her new example, suffused with heavenly sweetness, for Whom she labored so greatly as a servant of Christ. Nor did this modesty, so extraordinary, extend only to the healthy: also among the sick at home she most willingly and gladly bestowed these same services upon those afflicted with ill health. For them she would make their beds softly, laboriously remove everything that offended eyes or nostrils in the room, prepare food with her own hands, and by whatever skill or industry contrive that it should please the taste — in short, doing everything and carefully concentrating her strength to this end: that with the afflictions of illness relieved and pains diminished, and sickness finally driven away, everyone's former health might be restored. These were the exercises of her humble spirit within her own convent,

but neither could the sacred virgin, enclosed within walls, be prevented from admirably exercising her charity toward the sick, especially religious men, throughout all Prague. For them, since it was the one thing she could do to lessen the burden of their illness, and to outsiders, she liberally provided — through pauper's dainties and delicacies of food exquisitely prepared by herself — even though she was absent. But the following was truly singular among the few Saints commended for this virtue: that our Agnes, not once or twice but very often, raised her spirit, accustomed to royal delights, in imitation of her most illustrious kinswoman Elizabeth. She would order garments infected with foul filth and the discharge of lepers to be gathered from every hospital and infirmary throughout the city; she washes and mends their garments. When they were brought to her in the convent, admitting no one else's help, Agnes alone would wash them thoroughly, dry them and clean them completely with all diligence, and finally, if any needed mending, she would sew them at last and repair them excellently in every part. Hence that discharge did not smell altogether sweet to her; yet Agnes preferred this stench to all perfumes. Hence her sacred hands, corroded by the acidity of the foul filth and horrifying to others, struck terror into them — yet to Agnes alone they brought delight. She bore the pain indeed, but complained of it to no one, and concealed it as much as was possible, and sought no praise among men for this most noble deed, but solely for the sake of God's grace — let men say and do what they would — she heroically triumphed over nature in this victory.

[33] When the report of these most excellent exercises of Agnes's virtue had been carried to Assisi, to Clare ^b who was still surviving and dwelling among the living, she is encouraged by letters of Saint Clare, the first Foundress of this new austerity leapt for joy, and was filled with gladness, when she learned how firmly the royal virgin held to the fitting virtue. She therefore wrote a most gracious letter to Agnes, in which she wonderfully animated her on the path she had taken toward heaven, and so that she might run more happily by a hastened way, having avoided dangers by a certain shortcut, she also transmitted the rules ratified by the authority of Pope Innocent IV. ^c rules approved by Innocent IV At the urging of her Superior, the otherwise swift virgin — why would she not be driven still more vehemently in the course she had begun? And with what joy did she not receive the prescribed instructions for a holier life? But so that those laws might be more firmly established and thereby observed more intimately and tenaciously by the Sisters, she sent envoys to Alexander IV ^d and herself sought anew those aforementioned laws, she arranges for them to be confirmed again by Alexander IV, modestly indeed, yet most earnestly and intensely asking that they be strengthened by the Pontiff's authority and adorned with graces and indults.

[34] But indeed, besides that principal virtue — without which, unless one has excelled remarkably, feigned holiness usually deceives the rest of mortals — other great and heroic qualities also wonderfully distinguished Agnes among the Poor Clare virgins. After submission of spirit, you would easily call poverty the chief of these. devoted to strict poverty Hence the clothing of that royal daughter, sister, and then aunt of Kings, although clean, was of extreme cheapness; her bed was poor, and then in place of it even the bare ground; her food was simple and lightly prepared. In a word, although she was above all others, she made herself equal to everyone in the convent, and indeed usually conducted herself among the lowest in food and clothing and other necessities, not with feigned gentleness but with the greatest zeal for affected poverty. Wenceslas II, King of Bohemia IV, Agnes's brother, having built both monasteries, intended this one thing: she does not accept revenues offered by her brother the King, that beyond the sacred building itself and the churches dedicated to the Savior and Saint Francis, being wonderfully generous also to his sister and the other virgins, he might create for himself an eternal memorial through eternal revenues. But Agnes fought even more vehemently against this; she prevailed in the end so that no munificence of this kind, otherwise well-known and customary, would harm the poverty of the Poor Clares. Nor was even Cardinal Cajetan, ^e who had been appointed by the Pontiff himself as Guardian and Protector of the recently erected monastery, able to persuade her by his authority or indulgence that, at least in the most difficult times, rights to certain properties or small domains of their own should remain with the Sisters. Whence, by a memorable surname lasting until the very destruction of the monasteries, that monastery of sacred virgins at the Savior was celebrated as the "monastery of the poor Ladies." For they called them "Ladies" because they knew all were sprung from illustrious families; but they diminished the splendid title with the added adjective of "poverty," because they saw that these same virgins were distinguished from other nuns by an unusual prohibition of wealth and certain fortunes.

[35] Nor did Agnes want anything of her own for her Sisters or for herself; but she did not long retain even what was granted and permitted for use by the poor. she spends jewelry on sacred things Therefore she removed from herself as far as possible toward God or the poor the most precious gifts of her father and brother, and indeed the betrothal gifts and the gems, purchasers of so many rival Princes and marriages, as being hostile to this virtue. A great part she magnificently spent for Christ at the altars in his church, or on chalices and crosses, or for the use of the poor, or on the very coverings of altars and priestly vestments; or else from the remainder she converted into money, with which she primarily corrected the illness or extreme poverty of very many.

[36] But Christ sometimes approved this liberality further, when after the death of her brother, her nephew Ottokar III, ^f King of Bohemia V, valued not only his aunt's virtue but not even her blood so highly as to relieve her extreme want with modest subsidies. under Premysl III she patiently bears the utmost want. For Premysl was entirely occupied in wars, by which, gloriously concluded, he had hung up many trophies throughout the world. And so, more eager for money, he did not so much distribute as scraped together from every quarter such assistance — justly or unjustly? — as is customary. Hence Agnes, in addition afflicted with extreme illness and reduced to equal destitution, found absolutely no help among humans. Meanwhile most of the Ladies subject to her or Sisters wept for their plight; yet they alleviated the calamity only moderately with that grief. But the virgin, having dismissed unseemly lamentations as of no account, did nothing less than dignify the inconveniences of the time and the desertion of her own with any grief. Thus while others bewailed human misfortunes or anxiously sought help, Agnes, poured out entirely toward God, hoped that He might wish to aid her; if not, she gave thanks ever more often for the noble opportunity presented for testing her virtue.

[37] Moreover, an outstanding contempt for human affairs and fortune was accompanied by remarkable enmities against her own body. she afflicts herself with fasts and abstinences On account of these she indulged the flesh not at all, but wherever she could, she disturbed its comfort in every way. Who would believe it? In the first years in which she had entirely turned to Christ, the young woman, accustomed to royal delicacies of this kind, ate no cooked food nor meats, but only a single raw apple or several other fruits and a small crust of bread — not more often than once during the day — with water from a fountain. And with this austerity of drink and food, once customary among the ancient dwellers of the desert, she barely sustained life. She then observed her fasts not only with the above-named abstinence, but with a far greater deprivation of food and drink, unbearable I would say not merely for a woman but for any person. Nor did she keep the usual manner of subduing the body only through customary fasting; but in addition on Wednesday and again on Friday, and thereafter on the four days preceding feasts of the Most Blessed Virgin, and finally from Saint Martin's Day until Christmas, she sustained life on nothing but bread and water. Amid so stunning an oppression of the body, there was added also another cruelty of the sacred virgin, by which she had entirely conquered the flesh. A horrific hairshirt of horsehair she put on entirely, with a horrible hairshirt, with which at last, as with a breastplate, she preserved the flesh against every improper movement. Moreover, she bound this so tightly to her body that its cords, as it were, dug grooves into her flesh in which to embed themselves. And by this sacred self-torture, finally even her bones were singularly tormented with a singular kind of suffering. But Agnes, that extraordinary enemy of the body, concealed the pain, and spurning all palliatives, with only her Confessor aware of the deed, she courageously continued the noble victory as long as she lived. Besides this extraordinary armor, she had yet other weapons with which the virgin might fight against the extraordinary enemy. with vigils, genuflection, and scourges She conquered most nights with vigils and tears; she spent six or seven hours kneeling in prayer; from time to time she even struck her body with blows. Yet even after the most severe punishment of the scourges, she found nothing that would have been worthy of that punishment.

[38] Through these studies of such persistent penance, she soon so wasted herself she contracts illness that all beauty and grace had departed from the very recently most robust virgin, and scarcely the strength necessary for retaining her soul remained to her. Therefore, with her body worn down and ruined in nearly this fashion, she could not but approach the dangers of final illness, and once or twice she nearly deceived the outstanding services of the Sisters competing to help and the extreme skill of the physicians, with death almost following. But she stood by the counsels of her Superiors at that time, and carried out most exactly all that she was commanded, as was otherwise her custom. But as soon as she recovered from the illness, upon convalescing she resumes her penances, she quickly resolved in her mind to return to her habit and to continue regarding as trifling the dangers of exercising the body once more. Thus, several times having granted, as it were, truces to her dangerous penance during her illness, she fought now with her body, now with death, always victorious; until around the year 1281, after so many unhappy conflicts, as we shall say later, death at last stripped from Agnes, but only the extremely emaciated spoil of her body, ingloriously.

[39] From this fierce enmity with her own flesh, however, a powerful intimacy between God and Agnes arose, with fervent prayer, which she renewed, besides the customary and common supplications of her religious order, also in her private oratory very frequently with most humble prayers interspersed with tears. And there were times, especially in the final years of the sacred virgin's life, when Bohemia needed a Moses of this kind; and had not this virgin perhaps stayed the arm of the Godhead extended in vengeance, on account of those innumerable disasters that followed the death of Ottokar, perhaps one would have to ask whether any Bohemians existed at all, she preserves Bohemia, so much had all the elements conspired together with men toward the destruction of the Bohemians. But Agnes especially revealed the fruit of her intimacy with God where she had to do or endure the greatest things for love of Him, even contrary ones. For besides various illnesses and the customary inconveniences of unusual want occurring two or three times, the Sisters also through imprudence, or the sacred Superiors themselves deliberately, excellently tested her. But all these trials always stood most beautifully within the bounds of virtue. she bears all injuries. Those adversities wrung from her no laments, only thanksgiving to God; no injuries, however impudently inflicted, drove her to just complaint except about her own faults before the image of the Crucified. The more anyone assailed her with injuries, the more gloriously Agnes vindicated herself against him with benefits, in heroic imitation of Christ.

^a Blessed Agnes, Abbess. Pope Gregory IX, in letters sent to John, Minister of the Friars Minor in Saxony,

and Thomas, Custos of the same in Bohemia, commanded that by Apostolic authority they appoint Agnes as Abbess of the monastery. Wadding cites from those letters at the year 1234, number 6, and the Pontiff in his letters to her addresses her as Abbess.

^b Saint Clare died in the year 1253. Her Rule was published by Wadding at the year 1244, number 1.

^c Innocent IV sat from the year 1243 to 1254. Various indults were given by him to the Poor Clares in the year 1246, and he confirmed the Rule of Saint Clare in the year 1253, three days before his death.

^d Alexander IV succeeded Innocent, and very many grants by him to the Friars Minor and the Poor Clares can be seen in Wadding, volume 2. He died in the year 1261.

^e John Cajetan Orsini was created Cardinal at Lyon in the year 1224 at the General Council. In "Pious Bohemia" by Bartholomew Pontanus it is said that John the Cardinal, Legate of Gregory IX, admonished John Cajetan, Cardinal her to keep something of her own for contingent necessities, but Agnes replied that she had left all things to the world; nevertheless, she had given one part to churches, another to the Sisters, and a third to the poor. Cajetan was later created Pontiff and called Nicholas III. Gonzaga, part I, lists among the Protectors of the Order the fourth as John Cajetan Cardinal.

^f Premysl III, also called Ottokar, succeeded his father Wenceslas in the year 1254.

SECTION X. Visions of heavenly and infernal beings experienced by Blessed Agnes.

[40] By these most excellent virtues, Agnes so attracted heaven that it confided its most secret things to her, and she so extremely afflicted the demons that they left nothing undone to trouble Agnes. But she held these in utter contempt, and as long as she lived she yearned most vehemently solely for heavenly things, even glimpsed from afar through a shadow. But she despised the feeble terrors of the demons as though the efforts of cats or dogs. Now of the most delightful spectacles — although most places exhibited a heavenly scene — nowhere, however, could she more behold God and the Most Blessed Mother and other heavenly beings with her bodily eyes than when in her private oratory, separated from all other mortals, she was most sweetly absorbed entirely in heavenly things amid prayers and tears. She is rapt in ecstasy. For then indeed Agnes would lose her senses and for a long time, no different from one buried except that a very slight beating of the heart betrayed that she was alive, she would perceive nothing at all of the movements of the Sisters or other motions of that kind. But her face would be especially illuminated with an extraordinary light, and with that brilliance she would strike a certain divine awe among the sacred virgins who watched, and win for herself extraordinary veneration with the greatest effect. Among the wonders, though they were almost daily, one was singular, which another sacred virgin saw on a certain occasion when, for some reason, she boldly entered the sacred chapel during the hour of prayer with her usual confidence. Agnes was fixed in prayer, raised entirely above the earth, she is elevated into the air, and lifted more than three or four spans from the ground, she was borne in the air. And now not only her face coruscated as usual, but the very room itself was full of divinity from the encircling bright cloud; moreover, a voice greater than human gave responses to the praying virgin, as once from the tabernacle. she is honored with a cloud and a voice But though she could not clearly understand them, yet under the uncertain perception of them, she was shaken with an extraordinary tremor at the majesty of the present God.

[41] But on the day of the Ascension of the Lord, that vision was far nobler, to which the manuscript codices attest that Prisca and Vratislava, sacred virgins there, were witnesses. On the Ascension of the Lord, conversing in the garden, The aforementioned Sisters were chanting psalms with Agnes in the garden of the convent and were observing the solemn feast with private devotion all the more, as the departure of the heavenly Savior into the heavens from time to time further provoked gratitude. Neither place nor time hindered their piety; they had risen from dinner a little before and, as I said, were walking about among the thick groves and the carefully tended and wonderfully fragrant flower beds while chanting divine psalms, when Agnes was suddenly lifted from the earth on high, and borne upward by no visible but by a hidden support even to the clouds, and finally escaping all eyes, she migrated into the very heavens. Meanwhile Prisca and Vratislava, their psalms broken off by the extraordinary spectacle, she is elevated into heaven, stood transfixed, and though they wished to, they could not utter a word; but confused not only in body and face but even in mind, they were torpid, and as though suspended in continual wonder, they gazed ceaselessly at the heavens and recalled Agnes with only their tears. For a full hour longing held them anxious; then Agnes appeared again in their midst. When the sacred virgins more closely inquired into her absence, after an hour she returns, they extracted nothing at all except a becoming and gentle smile, by which the remnants of heavenly delights were noted. For the most beautiful bride of the most beautiful of men had seen things that she could safely confide to no mortal; she had heard the secrets of God, knowledge of which she was not permitted to divulge to anyone. Hence the most modest virgin, and lest any account be taken of herself, most assiduously concealed the heavenly visions, though so thoroughly revealed.

[42] Nor is what happened to Agnes during a sacred procession in the church of the Savior in the year 1278, on the sixth day before the Kalends of September, any less memorable. The Poor Clares, preceded by the Cross as was their custom, were processing through the sacred church while chanting psalms and anxiously commending to God the unfortunate expedition of Ottokar, King of Bohemia V, against Rudolf ^a of Habsburg. during a procession When Agnes began to grow pale with changed color and to betray an unusual fear in her entire face, to stop in her tracks, and finally to be moistened with uncertain tears. The other virgins, ignorant of the cause of the sudden change, halted and questioned Agnes about this matter, and finally also asked her what it meant, that she should not hide it from them but narrate everything in order and proper sequence. she sees and narrates the defeat of Premysl III, The most modest virgin did not defer the Sisters' prayers, but briefly disclosed what she had seen: that King Ottokar, mangled in his entire body, propped up by two warriors, had first induced her pallor by the pitiful spectacle, then had caused the stupor that followed, and finally had drawn out tears. Therefore let them note the day and hour: by such a vision nothing but something fatal and grievous was portended (would that she herself were wrong). She had spoken, and her words shortly afterward found confirmation: for on the same day and hour the aforementioned King, in that one unhappy battle at the Lava, ^b had destroyed so many previous trophies, and although not unavenged, had finally fallen too through the treachery of his own men. Who drove the sword into Ottokar's throat is not yet designated by certain report. ^c

[43] Now how illustrious was that spectacle in which she so often beheld souls departing from bodies seeking heaven? Brigitta, ^d one of the seven virgins sent from Italy, she sees the soul of a dying Sister borne to heaven by Angels, was the foremost among the Poor Clares at the Savior, of no ordinary holiness as long as she lived. After she had most excellently revealed her great virtue to the Sisters chiefly through her illnesses, she at last surrendered her soul to the Creator amid ardent sighs toward heaven. Agnes was accompanying the departing one together with the Sisters' pious suffrages, according to her customary piety toward the dying. While the others could not bear the loss of the excellent virgin and so expressed their grief even with tears, Agnes alone, having condemned all mourning, proceeded with joy. Compelled to give a reason for this untimely gladness, she at last modestly revealed what was: that she had seen Brigitta ascending into heaven amid the ranks of Angels, full of light, entering the light otherwise inaccessible. She therefore exhorted the Sisters to set aside their useless grief, to give thanks to God individually, and to congratulate the Sister received into so excellent a place with all their prayers. Nor was it difficult to persuade the nuns of these extraordinary things about Brigitta, because the earlier and middle examples of excellent virtue, as I said, easily persuaded everyone to faith even in the final ones.

[44] But the enemy of the human race, despite all that has been narrated thus far, could not be restrained from expressing his hatred toward Agnes and from threatening her now with empty terror and now with terrible blows, yet without any loss of virtue. Here is one or two examples of terrors overcome. Agnes had risen from illness, and not yet having recovered her strength, she was being supported while walking by Dominica, a sacred virgin. Suddenly a demon rushed upon both of them, hideously clad in various forms. by the sign of the Cross she drives away demons seen under various forms. When Dominica glimpsed him even slightly, a fearful figure leaning on a piece of wood, she immediately raised a cry and, her voice already broken with fear, called for help in a dying tone. But Agnes, not at all frightened by this infernal specter, neither feared the demon, more horrible than an Ethiopian in blackness, nor cared at all for one dressed in the guise of dogs and cats, but dismissed from her sight with the single sign of the Cross, with the greatest ease, any form representing the foulness of any beast. With equal ease at another time, when before the oratory the demon assumed utterly deformed and most hideous spectral images with noted mockeries, and finally counterfeited a foul owl, and with its horrible tail blocked every entrance, the virgin Agnes drove away the feeble enemy with the cross. Once, however, by God's permission, having grown more impudent, he attempted to afflict her not in an alien guise; but more audacious beyond that infernal horror, he also flew upon the virgin as she was leaving the oratory. And so he violently dashed her to the ground, so that in falling he dislocated a joint from her shoulder. The atrocious pain that followed this disorder of the limbs extremely tormented Agnes. But indeed this fury raged against the virgin in vain: she, beyond the injury, even when harmed by them, revealed the pain to no one, and gave thanks to God that He so mercifully punished her errors, when she judged herself worthy of even the most extreme punishments from His servant. After the hidden defect of the shoulder was corrected, since the demon was neither diminishing virtue by wounding nor by striking, he thenceforth abstained from these worst outrages. Yet, so that he might not obscurely confess his hatred against Agnes, he often displayed from afar his weakness in various shapes, but without causing terror.

[45] Besides heavenly beings or infernal specters, Agnes sometimes beheld, imbued with a most sweet sense of piety, souls from the fires of purgation either imploring help or already helped. Among similar visions, not the least was that of a certain Sister, also a Poor Clare there. While she lived, this Sister, prompted indeed by an evil spirit, bore everything about Agnes more heavily, and even twisted deeds done according to virtue mostly toward the border of vice, or condemned them as transgressions against the rules by a perverse observance and austerity of the institute. she helps the appearing soul from purgatory. Agnes heard these things from time to time, but this virgin, so great in age, did not repress the injuries of the lowly virgin even by a word; indeed sometimes, when others were preparing vengeance, she even deflected it, thinking that the one most knew how she ought to be treated, and as it were she wonderfully repaid gratitude for benefits everywhere to her detractor. But heaven had a different judgment about the deeds of the most modest Agnes, and the impudent nun did not bear so easily what she had said or done while alive. For having been removed from the living, she felt how often her indiscreet tongue had given offense. Carried down to the purgatorial fires, she incurred extreme punishments for having treated Agnes's words and deeds more unfavorably; nor could she be freed from those torments until, appearing to Agnes during prayers, she obtained pardon from her for such offenses. The most gentle

Agnes could not bear the pitiable plight of this otherwise good Sister, but she doubled the benefits she had once bestowed on her while living, having easily granted pardon for her errors. When she obtained this, the soul of the deceased immediately left the fires, and hastening on her way to heaven, through Agnes's work she passed, happy, into perpetual joys and immortal delights, while Agnes herself watched.

^a Rudolf received the Roman Empire in the year 1273; previously he was Prefect of the court, or Marshal of King Premysl. Sifrid, a priest of the Bishop of Minden, who flourished at the time of Emperor Albert, son of Rudolf, asserts that solemn envoys with much money and gifts were sent to Pope Gregory by the King of Bohemia, because he himself aspired to the Empire. He had occupied Austria, Styria, and Carinthia and other places, which Rudolf recovered by arms.

^b Lava or Laba, a town of Austria on the borders of Moravia.

^c Crugerius observes that the Bohemian historians designate the traitor as Milota the Moravian.

^d It is remarkable that the name of this Brigitta is not inscribed in the Franciscan Martyrology or in the Sacred Gyneceum of Arthur of Monastier.

SECTION XI. The spirit of prophecy in Blessed Agnes and predictions of future events.

[46] These and many other things of the kind could be commemorated, had we not resolved, having selected a few, to pass over most of them, lest we incur tedium through prolixity. And indeed Agnes herself attributed so little to these things that, although she overflowed with these heavenly delights or was honored with the visions of blessed souls, she never counted them among the testimonies of sanctity; but on the contrary, by a memorable modesty of spirit and contempt of self, and by her diligence in prayer and skill in governing herself, she measured true and genuine virtue in herself and in others. Although it cannot be denied that since Agnes had excelled remarkably in these latter things, she had also been greatly commended to men by God through those things which are illustrious in the mouths of men. She predicts victory in war for her brother the King. But these she diminished by her characteristic modesty, since they were so frequent and conspicuous around her. Moreover, renowned for prophecies, she foresaw and predicted many things before they happened. Under the auspices of Emperor Frederick II, Wenceslas her brother was marching against Frederick, Duke of Austria, with an army gathered around the year of the Lord 1246. Few promised a happy outcome for the military expedition, but most, like timid augurs, were making gloomy predictions for the finest youth of Bohemia. Agnes alone exhorted the King publicly and added courage from heaven too: let him go forward and advance his standards against the rebel Prince of the Empire; and from this let he himself expect certain victory from God, let the soldiers expect spoils, and let the Emperor expect submission. Nor did so magnificent a promise fail in any of these things. Duke Frederick, wise at last at his own cost, acknowledged the Emperor; the soldiers returned home laden with immense plunder from Austria, with glory. ^a Wenceslas at last, besides a solemn victory, also took Vienna, which he then finally restored only when the Duke, rather than by arms, ingloriously redeemed it with much gold.

[47] Then around the year 1269, when Agnes lay dangerously ill, and not only the sacred Sisters but the physicians themselves said they were vainly exhausting all their skill in correcting her illness, although she was abandoned by men, after she had nevertheless prepared herself for the last journey of mortality with the final Viaticum according to custom, dangerously ill, she predicts that her remaining relatives will die before her, she not only immediately began to recover, but also learned by a clear voice from the Lord present that she would not depart from human affairs before all the remaining Princes related to Agnes had preceded her on the path common to humanity, to the grave. This secret, uniquely confided at that time to the holy man who was her confessor, was solemnly revealed by the truth only in the year 1281, when from the Premyslid line only one survivor, Wenceslas III, ^b King of Bohemia VI, outlived Agnes; all the other Princes of both sexes, having been carried off at different times, inhabited their burial tombs.

[48] Now the things about herself and her family that she had penetrated so deeply as to predict them with certainty long before they happened — how could she not also foresee even smaller things in the sacred convent? There was at the Savior a virgin whom they called Eriganda. she recognizes that another is asking God for unworthy things in prayer This woman had been frequenting the church for some days, indeed even nights, continuing other prayers besides the common ones, wearying God with tears and weeping; yet she confided to no one what she wished to accomplish, nor did she consult anyone's cooperation in her extraordinary devotion. The persistent secrecy displeased Agnes, and being moreover informed by the Godhead that nothing worthy of so many prayers and such great sighs was being asked by the indiscreet virgin, here, with a somewhat forced severity of countenance, she said: "Why do you not desist from prayers by which you may sooner provoke God to anger than extort by them what you so earnestly seek, unworthy as it is, to your own detriment and perhaps to contempt of the Godhead?" Eriganda could not bear the unusual severity of Agnes, who was otherwise the most modest, but since the one thing she could do was blush — having been caught — she threw herself at her feet and obtained pardon for her admitted imprudence only when she removed that untimely desire from herself by a salutary abstinence.

[49] At another time, another vestal, whose name the old records concealed, learned by her own experience how much the absent Agnes could see, after committing a theft. Some apples of remarkably fine appearance and intrinsic quality were lying in the room with the permission of the superiors, which illustrious matrons would occasionally send to their Agnes as small and very humble gifts, since she would accept nothing else. Why would the virgin not be attracted by their beauty? another to have stolen something. She therefore diverted one to herself, intending when convenient to satisfy her hunger or thirst with it. But soon, as the memory of violated poverty kept recurring and pricking her conscience sharply again and again, she returned the stolen apple and, the number being completed, as it were, she buried and hid the theft anew, without Agnes's knowledge. But Agnes, having summoned her as if for another reason and having detained her long enough, finally offered her two of the finest apples, and with a smiling face, not at all concealing the deed, said: "It is better for you to eat even ten according to the rules than, in contempt of the vow of voluntary poverty, to appropriate them against the prescriptions." The guilty virgin understood what this addition of gifts meant, and having deprecated the deed, she thenceforth bound her greater spirit to poverty even in this small desire. Agnes, quite content with the blush and honest confession, absolved her with the easiest pardon. She foresaw, moreover, and predicted very many such things, as we have said, so that Agnes was never deceived in future events. But having dealt with her prophecies, before we proceed to her death, let us append a few things from many that were done by her beyond human power.

^a Dubravius, Book 16, and Hagecius at the year here related, 1236, treat of this expedition and the capture of Vienna.

^b He was then a youth; afterward in the year of Christ 1286 he married Judith, daughter of Emperor Rudolf: concerning whom more is said below at number 64.

SECTION XII. Miracles performed by Blessed Agnes during her life.

[50] Agnes became renowned after death, as we shall see a little further below, for remarkable miracles; but no less, and indeed no fewer, were those with which God distinguished her life from heaven. Most of them, however, the negligence of the ancients either failed to record, or the Hussite disturbances destroyed. among other miracles Therefore only three or four will need to be mentioned, of which the old records expressly make note. Other miracles, indeed famous, but hitherto dispersed only by uncertain rumor, we shall omit, their credit resting meanwhile on old tradition, until some codex or the monastery's records confirm them. In the first place, her command over unhappy spirits was eminently conspicuous, who could not be restrained either by her virtues or by other heavenly signs from expressing their hatred against Agnes very often. she restrained demons But how much Agnes was permitted against the infernal powers we have already touched upon; now let us reveal one or two proofs of her lesser dominion over diseases and even death itself.

[51] Elizabeth, a virgin living the same manner of life as Agnes, bound to the institute of Saint Francis in extreme poverty, had given proofs of excellent virtue by a religious manner of life, and was held among the sacred Sisters as of entirely the first rank in example. she removes a headache But this most excellent virgin's outstanding exercises and other virtue of the institute were extremely disturbed by a very sharp pain in the head, and though human skill labored greatly to remove it, all herbs and other medications accomplished little more than nothing in correcting her condition on several occasions. Despairing of human remedies, she at last conceived the idea of hoping in divine assistance: they therefore went to prayers, and wearied the saints in the usual manner, but without the customary diminution of the ailment. When Agnes, pitying the lot of her most afflicted Sister and full of trust in God, with the veil of her own head, removed the sacred veil from her own head and gently covered the head that had been so wretchedly treated, and as it were compressed the pain, invoking the name of God over Elizabeth, until all the disease at last departed from the afflicted woman. Great crowds then gathered around the freed nun, congratulating her on the removal of the disease; thanks were offered everywhere to Agnes the healer, and the restored health of the virgin was proclaimed with one voice as accomplished through her work. But the most modest virgin blushed indeed, because they were attributing to her things which in her own estimation pertained in no way to her own virtue; she urged, however, that they should praise God alone, who by a memorable proof had shown how highly He valued the sacred veil of religion, by restoring health beyond nature.

[52] Nor was Agnes esteemed for great benefits of this kind only within the convent; even among outsiders, through her intercession, pains were overcome and illnesses of every kind were forbidden from bodies, to the astonishment of despairing nature. Among others, more illustrious was Sophia, wife of the Knight Conrad, who after childbirth, when she had vainly tried to avert impending death with all remedies and had therefore given up all hope of recovery, she frees a woman in childbirth from danger of death was awaiting the final hour with her most sorrowful husband. Yet at last, lest she seem to have tried only human means, she ran to Agnes for help, as if stealthily, so as not to offend the modesty of the most humble virgin if she implored her openly, making supplication through her husband. He, as if doing something else, first at great length described to Agnes the illness of his wife Sophia, then added that nature and skill were moreover powerless, and finally said that unless God alone conquered the force of the disease, shortly his wife would be not a wife but a corpse to be mourned with tears. Agnes groaned amid these things, and turning in every direction to see if she could by any means avert the final lot, she said at last: "Let us implore God further; for your wife has not been brought to that point from which she cannot be recalled to life." "Why then," added Conrad, "if you can, will you not gratify my wife, who craves an apple, with this last delicacy?" For Sophia had earnestly commanded her husband, when he left, that this was to be obtained from Agnes; thinking that from food which the hands of a Saint had touched, perhaps all the violence of the disease would be happily consumed. Nor did Agnes refuse so small a gift, but the domestic orchards, though the virgin was otherwise generous, deceived her, however anxiously she searched throughout the convent for an apple. having procured apples by the sign of the Cross, She nevertheless came upon an orchard near the convent, and at a season other than summer or autumn — namely wintertime — from a dry tree she produced three and indeed most excellent apples by the Cross of Christ.

When Sophia had eaten one of these, with the merits of Blessed Agnes interposed, she dispelled all the force of her illness and at last seriously recovered her former health, for which shortly before all remedies, however serious, had nevertheless come too late. Her husband did not long survive the receiving of so signal a benefit; therefore, freed from marriage, Sophia — in order to repay God and Agnes in some part — spurned the world, distributed her ample fortune among the poor, and having been enrolled among the Poor Clares, she excellently honored extreme poverty for many years with great example and outstanding virtue. Now let no one especially wonder that the trunk of a barren tree poured forth those three apples for Agnes at the single making of the sacred sign of the Cross, because with that same sign she prodigiously corrected not only trees but all other members in human bodies, when the need arose. This power she was believed to have wrested from her spouse Christ Jesus for this reason especially: that besides other exercises of devotion toward the holy cross, every Friday from early morning until the ninth or even the tenth hour, she was completely alienated from her senses, and thus, for the most part absorbed in the sufferings of her Savior, she persisted amid tears and sighs. These portentous cures of limbs more than sufficiently declared Agnes's dominion over every infirmity. There remains a single prodigious proof of triumph even over death.

[53] The youngest daughter of Premysl III, already deceased, had died — a sister of Wenceslas Ottokar, King of Bohemia IV, and of Agnes the Poor Clare, ^a about fifteen years of age — whom the sacred virgins at the Savior had until then been raising in the convent with the usual education once given to royal children, still uncertain of her definite state, and had excellently trained in every virtue. her sister Ludmilla, dead, And the royal girl had given unmistakable signs that, if only her brother and the rest favored Agnes, she would pass her virgin years nowhere but in the monastery with her sister Agnes, for as long as she lived. And perhaps this desire moved the Heavenly Beings to hasten the blessed departure of Ludmilla, since otherwise a longer life in the sacred convent, because it suited her brother and other relatives, would with all certainty have been despaired of. Lest therefore the now marriageable virgin be dragged, unwillingly, to earthly nuptials, she was, beyond all expectation yet not without the enormous grief of all her relatives, carried off from mortals by some disease, around the year 1244, and lay on her bier in the church of the Savior, to be interred — an outstanding, because royal, example to spectators of human vicissitude. And already the sacred virgins were carrying out the funeral rites, as they are called, with the solemn prayers for the dead according to custom, when Agnes, unable to bear the loss of her Ludmilla and grieving for the plight of her relatives, silently sought this supreme grace with great vows from God: that He would allow the laws of mortality to be temporarily broken against custom, and that her sister, already kindled among the immortals, by her prayers she raises her from the dead, might, if it so please Him, be restored to the number of mortals by a privilege unheard of for the Kings of Bohemia until then. With no one aware of this most extraordinary indult, after Agnes while praying had reached that verse, "Who raised Lazarus from the dead," etc., the prayers began to show themselves not in vain. For what had until now lain as a corpse — the little body of Ludmilla — immediately began to receive life and gradually to move in all its limbs. And then the royal girl, no longer dead but fully alive, raised herself on her elbow, and finally sat up decorously on the bier and looked around at those present with her eyes.

[54] Meanwhile the holy virgins were shaken with fear, they broke off their prayers, and all began to look around in flight from the specter with headlong steps; but Agnes intervened among the frightened, bade them be of good courage, and taught them that nothing was to be feared from that maiden whom they had previously so greatly honored as a royal infant or loved in every way as practically a sacred vestal. but complaining that she is called back from heavenly joy For Ludmilla was alive, without danger to their eyes, and having returned to mortals, she was greeting her virgins in a friendly manner. But then the recalled sister interrupted: "See, Agnes, how perversely you have interrupted my joys with your prayers. Christ the Virgin had already received me as His bride, and I had begun to be no small part of that number which few maintain with inviolate body; when you, troublesome to the Godhead, obtained indeed what you wished, but from me — what a great injury! — you unwittingly snatched away delights and with them all happiness. Why not rather dismiss these desires, and attend not to what benefits you for a brief time, but to what benefits me eternally? Come, restore me again to the immortals as a mortal, and let me enjoy uninterrupted the joys that heaven had granted when your untimely prayers broke in. The time will come when you too will not wish to exchange a similar rest for any other." Ludmilla had spoken, and eagerly awaited what Agnes wished should be done with her; but Agnes noticed that she was discovered before all, and therefore blushed more vehemently than usual, and as though it were no concern of hers that Ludmilla had returned to the living, she seriously excused the benefit (or misdeed) of the survivor. Finally, however, she dropped all this as superfluous, and having heard the just complaints of the recalled virgin, she condemned her own prayers; she permits her to die again. and all that life which Ludmilla so greatly abhorred, she too rejected and deeply abhorred from her heart. Therefore, when Agnes had said, "Let her return where God wishes her," having obtained pardon elsewhere from mortals to immortals, Ludmilla once more composed herself in the bier, while the remaining virgins were struck with sacred awe, and modestly laid down upon the bier the body that had been upright until now, as though overcome by sleep. After this movement all sensation departed, and what until then by a great and second prodigy seemed to be a living, moving, and feeling body was once more a corpse. Thereafter the remaining prayers were suppressed as superfluous, since it was established by Ludmilla's own confession that she had been received into heaven, and the sacred remains of that blessed soul were buried with great veneration in a certain place not far from the principal altar in the very church of the Savior. Agnes also, however much she tried to cover or conceal everything, was from this time esteemed as greater than human. Her modesty in subsequent years was by no means able to prevent heaven from illustrating her holiness with notable graces, contrary to her own opinion.

^a In Pontanus's "Pious Bohemia" she is called the daughter of King Wenceslas, the brother of Blessed Agnes.

SECTION XIII. The death of Blessed Agnes and certain singular events preceding it.

[55] ^a In the year 1281, at the age of 76 The year 1281 was turning, and after the winter had largely passed, the first spring was opening, when Agnes, a virgin now greatly advanced in age — for she was seventy-six years old and had spent forty-six years in the sacred institute of Saint Francis with distinguished fame for virtue and holiness — began at last, she yearns for heaven, sated with age and life, to hate human things from the heart and to yearn with continual desires for immortal ones. For it grieved the excellent virgin that her body, although partly wasted by religious austerity and partly by the relentlessness of continual ill health, nevertheless confined like a prison her free spirit, which continually aspired to heavenly things; and thus, though frail, it daily presented a great and intolerable barrier to her delights. But especially as the solemn forty-day fast of the Church approached, Agnes was more than usually seized with longing for heaven and with yearning, through every prayer and sigh and lamentation of her soul, to commend herself to the heavenly Spouse for the hoped-for nuptials with the Virgin Lamb, in Lent she fasts, purchased in holy season and moreover by so many labors. Hence, however much the sacred virgins opposed her decrepit age and continual illness, she nonetheless, no less than before, with her customary austerity and an extraordinary abstinence from food, barely took anything each day: a morsel of bread and water from a fountain. From time to time what she consumed showed she was human, since on other days, from morning until evening, she tormented the flesh — now no longer flesh but mere bones — with extreme fasting without even these necessities. Meanwhile, as the body thus voluntarily lacked its usual nourishment, her eyes did not lack the extraordinary showers of tears, nor her royal back the servile lashes. With these Agnes, withdrawn from mortals and hidden away in the last corner of the sacred convent, that she might the more express her heart to Christ, she mourns her errors, day by day copiously mourned her whole life, and in it — since she could not find vices — some unknown faults, most gravely. But why would Agnes not bear this solitude more lightly, since Angels undoubtedly frequented it? Why would she nearly lose her eyes, when the Heavenly Beings usually compensated them with heavenly joys? Why would she even accuse her life of the sins of some unknown fault, when Christ, visible to her, absolved it with certain and so often repeated joys?

[56] ^b Now half of Lent and somewhat more had already elapsed since Agnes had been treating her body singularly badly, when her strength began to give way to such great rigor, and her advanced age began to decline — no longer gradually but precipitously — dangerously ill and to bear this kind of austerity in so strict a religious life all too heavily, and plainly to succumb. Life was finally being diminished with great losses, and death was approaching with its final steps — not indeed unexpected for the virgin and beyond her age, but yet more rapidly than usual because of these austerities. The physicians, moreover, since virtue so poorly suited the body, promised no help; they even somewhat impiously reproached her piety, imprudently demanded prudence, and finally in vain seriously condemned these misguided hatreds of the body in Agnes, with all hope of recovery abandoned. What would the most holy virgin do amid such extreme measures of desperate mortality? Then at last she began to hope from the heart for eternal happiness, when human nature had entirely failed. Therefore, as the body's illness increased with great increments, she turned herself entirely to propitiating the Godhead. she is fortified with the Last Sacraments. Having then summoned the holy man who had been her confessor, when the innocent virgin had reviewed her entire life, not without tears and a sharp detestation of sins, she prepared herself with the divine Body of Christ, as the final Viaticum, to run the last course of the journey to immortality properly and securely, according to the custom of the Church. She wished moreover to be piously and Christianly fortified also with sacred oil in the customary ceremonies, so that she might contend more strongly and happily with the final enemy, whom she had until now even held in contempt, for the imperishable crown.

[57] Meanwhile a cry arose throughout the entire convent, with all hastening to her, that Agnes was no longer caring for mortal things, and so, as her strength was gradually and imperceptibly fleeing from her body, she was hastening with her entire soul toward heaven. Therefore the sacred Sisters, groaning for their own plight, some wept, others tried to delay the one already running toward the final hour, with prayers and last vows; all in short left nothing undone by which, either by divine help or human effort, a longer life might be prolonged for their Agnes. At the same time, Catherine, a sacred virgin who had been deprived of the use of her feet for ten years by the malice of disease, asked whether she might find her alive: whether she might greet her once more, or also receive health from her? And so she begged her attendant to carry her, with the sign of the Cross formed by her hand, since she could not stand on her feet because of weakness, to Agnes's chamber. When she had been brought there,

she did everything possible to obtain from Agnes the grace of signing her with the sacred sign of the Cross according to her custom, and thereby to overcome the old malice of the disease. But the virgin, ever most zealous for self-abasement, somewhat stunned by so magnificent a petition, condemned the solemn vows of the Sister even on her deathbed with an extreme blush, and begged only that she, the lowest of all mortals, not be perversely honored with such a prerogative, which pertained in no way to her. But Catherine could not or would not be dissuaded by so humble a refusal. And so she persisted once more in seeking the benefit by entreaty, and from Agnes, now at the very end of life, she eagerly expected nothing but a single Cross for her final comfort. Agnes nevertheless resisted and defended herself by her own unworthiness, and finally, as her health worsened further, she made no response at all. Wherefore the other sick woman, lest Agnes perhaps pass her by not only in virtue but the dying one now also in death, full of trust in God, seized Agnes's right hand by force and with it signed her feet, where the affliction was greatest, with the sacred sign of the Cross. she heals the lame woman. From this pious violence the disease immediately departed from her feet completely. Catherine, who until now could not even stand on them, thenceforth also walked firmly. Thus God exalted Agnes's modesty, and the virtue she had so greatly concealed, He revealed by a solemn miracle even in her final hours.

[58] But after Catherine, as we said, had begun from this touch to be not merely somewhat better but perfectly well, everything for Agnes on the contrary was at its worst: nature was giving way everywhere, and a certain horror and failure of her limbs heralded the final dissolution. Amid these lapses, the cheerful patient — because she was ever closer to heaven — was either mostly breathing forth most ardent sighs to her Spouse, or also sometimes, though more rarely, she gives her final admonitions to her own, addressed the Sisters gathered around her. The brief summary of her address was this: Let them cast their thoughts upon the Lord; let them fix their hope on heaven, whence certain help would always be present in time. Let them cultivate virtues, but none more than charity above all. All things were fleeting and transient except God: Him let them love above all things. Let them believe that the sinews and bones of their religious life were poverty, and therefore let them cultivate and preserve it to the utmost. Finally, let each and every one render to the Roman See the lowest subjection and the highest veneration. And now the last day had finally arrived, all the more welcome to Agnes because the Savior of the human race Himself had expired on Mount Golgotha some centuries before. illuminated by heavenly light The ninth hour had moreover sounded, when Agnes began to fail utterly at last and to struggle in extremity with death. But what a wondrous transformation! At the very same time a certain heavenly light began to make her face more radiant, and the more the light faded as it rose, the more the splendor increased all around, and with its most brilliant rays it filled the entire chamber and everything nearby, striking the virgins with sacred awe. The most holy virgin then at last gave up her soul at the tenth hour of the day, at the beginning of the sacrifice being offered, at the very same time at which the sacred scriptures declare that Christ expired on the cross, she dies. so that it might be clear, I believe, how similar Agnes had lived to the one nailed to the cross — she who also died most happily on the same ^c day, indeed at the same hour as He.

^a The year 1281, if it is reckoned from Easter, which fell in the following year 1282, as is clear from what follows.

^b That is, on the 24th day of Lent, if the day of death is to be marked.

^c Blessed Agnes dies in the year 1282. On the Friday before Laetare Sunday, to speak in ecclesiastical terms. For in the said year 1282, with solar cycle 3, lunar cycle 10, and Dominical letter D, Easter fell on March 29. Which dates do not agree with the year 1281, or with 1283, which Wadding, Arthur, and others assigned.

SECTION XIV. The burial of the deceased Blessed Agnes at the Savior in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and afterward certain deeds beyond human power.

[59] From March 6 until the tenth day of the same month, the sacred body of Blessed Agnes was publicly displayed for the devotion of visitors. Because it appeared neither rigid nor discolored, it was already at that time, by the judgment of all, considered to have been honored from heaven by a prerogative proper to the Saints, the body appearing more illustrious even after the departure of the blessed soul. And rightly so: for what harsh virtue had, while she lived, made horrible and dried out through fasts and other austerities of life, now that very body, as though it had acquired color and vigor from death, with an appearance far above the human, publicly displayed, and with a form entirely similar to what immortality usually grants to Saints even after the fatal hour, refreshed the eyes of the spectators with an intimate sweetness of the divine spirit. with the veneration of those who came running. Hence on those intervening days, crowds of people of every age and rank made pilgrimage in extraordinary throngs to the place where the sacred corpse lay exposed. And even after they had detained their eyes for several hours with that sacred spectacle, they were not sufficiently sated; but they wished to bend their gaze upon the same sight again and again, and repeatedly to fix their vision anew, and always to refresh their spirit with new pleasure from this pious curiosity. Others likewise, to continue the memory as long as possible, would approach the body itself more closely, and by whatever authority or force penetrate to Agnes herself, venerate the sacred limbs on bended knee and kiss them most sweetly, touch them with rings or necklaces or finally belts and precious veils, and thereby, as it were, draw from the dead and formerly dried-out body I know not what vivid moisture and a truly medicinal virtue for driving away diseases. Nor did they do these things with vain hope and no result: for an admirable wonder above human powers, by which the Godhead from heaven wonderfully illustrated the holiness of His beloved virgin, had, besides other living merits of the still living Agnes, extraordinarily excited the pious multitude to this extraordinary devotion. Would you like a brief account of the event?

[60] While Agnes was still alive, there had been lying gravely ill from an incurable abscess on one side a heroine of a very illustrious family among the Bohemians, who had rendered the greatest services to the fatherland — Jerotima, whose baptismal name was Scholastica. The disease was beyond all medical art; all remedies had fallen to no avail in driving it away. She herself had spent lavishly, an abscess is cured, with absolutely no resulting remedy or even alleviation of the most serious illness. Rightly, then, while Agnes's sacred corpse still lay exposed so that it could be conveniently handled by devout hands, Scholastica, full of trust in God, had her attendants bring her to the place, and there, after she had humbly implored the divine mercy on her knees, with the merits of the blessed virgin interposed before God, she cast herself reverently upon the sacred corpse, and in a most pious embrace she pressed her sick side tightly and closely against the side of the deceased Agnes. Nor did God, at Agnes's intervention, delay the hoped-for help in this most desperate illness. Immediately upon touching the sacred body, the abscess burst, dispelling impending death, and prolonged for many years the life of the heroine who had come devoutly to the tomb, by a signal miracle.

[61] But this so numerously thronging devotion, which this miracle had been the greatest incentive for (since it was growing excessive and seemed of its own accord to tend toward some kind of violence), was disrupted by the indiscreet tearing of a single nail from the sacred body by a certain sacred virgin, and thereby the running crowd, however great, was as it were checked by the usual barrier of the sealed tomb. Now the account of what happened was noted by the records of a contemporary writer. The sacred body of Blessed Agnes was lying on a poor cot, as was the custom of sacred virgins professing the poverty of Saint Clare, on account of a nail being torn off so that it might for some time satisfy the pious curiosity of both the domestic Sisters and also the external benefactresses of the convent, and console the longing they had conceived from the departure of so holy a soul. When behold, one of the sacred Sisters dared a deed — the virgin's name was Judith — she dared, I say, something that, unless excessive love for Agnes excused it, should altogether have been punished. She tore a nail from the big toe of the right foot with her tender hand, thinking she would have some memorial of the virgin she loved, to console her absence. copious blood flows out But an immense quantity of blood bursting from that wound immediately condemned the piety inappropriately attempted — since the sacred corpse had already lain for some days without a soul, and otherwise Agnes, dried out by fasting and other afflictions of the body, scarcely had in her entire body as much blood as had flowed from that wound after death. Frightened by this portent, the virgin Judith — lest she be discovered — tore the sacred veil from her own head and dried the blood; but since it was so soaked that it could absorb no more, and since nothing availed, she threw herself on her knees before the sacred corpse and piously begged pardon for her apparent temerity with prayers and tears. The blood thereupon stopped, revealing that the otherwise most gentle Agnes had been appeased toward Judith. and it removes diseases. Nor did the blood rashly shed from the rash wound moisten the veil further; yet lest it seem to have been shed for nothing, it thereafter restored with certain healing the afflicted or damaged health of many.

[62] After this so celebrated act of violence, lest anyone dare something worse and perhaps under the pretext of piety extend a profane hand to the sacred remains, the sacred Virgins thenceforth enclosed the body of Blessed Agnes, which until now had been freely exposed for veneration, in a wooden sarcophagus; and since even this did not sufficiently provide for its safety, they also most firmly secured it with solid iron plates and heavy nails against all temerity. a wooden sarcophagus fortified with iron plates Thus, with Agnes enclosed in a wooden tomb and furthermore armored in iron, there arrived later than the rest a woman of a very illustrious family among the Bohemians, who was indeed most eagerly desirous of inspecting the sacred body once more; but cautiously uncertain of obtaining the benefit, she had prudently and in time, before approaching, obtained a diploma from the Papal Legate by which access for the admirer and venerator of Blessed Agnes was liberally granted without any difficulty. But intending to use this only as a last resort, and indeed only if she were rudely refused, she first humbly begged the sacred Virgins to bear so small a trouble and, having opened the sarcophagus, to grant her merely the final sight of Agnes. They could not, she said — knowing themselves intimately — be unaware that some grace of this kind was owed to her above all others, since she had venerated the living Agnes more obsequiously and had in turn been honored by her above others. Let them therefore grant this favor to her and especially to Agnes. it opens of its own accord. But the sacred Virgins, scarcely moved at this point, offered some sort of scruple by which they asserted they were firmly prevented from opening the sacred body. Here the Heroine Scholastica Steinberg (for that was her name) produced the Papal diploma, removed every scruple by supreme authority, and no longer requested a favor but pressed her due claim all the more vehemently. And as the Virgins ran this way and that, still hesitant, and were at last not without difficulty beginning to consent to the opening, God anticipated their forced liberality with an unexpected grant: for by His work, with no one approaching the casket, the iron bindings were so loosened

of their own accord, so that Scholastica could freely venerate the desired treasure with her eyes. Then the sacred Virgins were ashamed of their tardiness and their somewhat boorish scruple, by which they had so greatly prevented so illustrious a heroine of Bohemia from beholding the beloved virgin. But she all the more thanked the Vestals, whose pious reluctance had given heaven the occasion to reveal Agnes's sacred face to her once more by so remarkable a sign.

[63] On the tenth day of March, since Tobias, ^a the twenty-second Bishop of Prague, excused his absence for some reason, and the priests next in rank below the episcopal dignity — though they too were mitred in their own Church — deferred the assigned duty of the sacred carrying, perhaps because they thought it unbecoming for a woman to be borne out by Prelates, she is buried in the chapel of the Blessed Mary, or even refused to attend the funeral rites for reasons or non-reasons, at last the most humble virgin — as she herself had predicted — received this kind of final grace from an ordinary religious, though a man of no ordinary holiness among her Franciscans. And indeed he did not seem to have been carrying around the name "Bonagratia" ^b rashly, since so good a grace was granted him from heaven that he alone, in preference to the Bishop (otherwise a holy man) and the other Prelates, was appointed for Agnes's funeral by the judgment of God and at the will of the Saint herself. However much the sacred Virgins had carefully hidden the body of Blessed Agnes in wood and iron, and indeed also in the earth itself, in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin before the Marian altar, nevertheless shortly afterward, once the flesh was consumed (which was indeed scarcely any even at death), the dry bones at last broke through all these obstacles. it is wafted with a sweet odor And not once but very often they honored the pious nostrils of venerators with a heavenly odor — and what wonder? — a most sweet one, by divine favor. When the Sisters were sometimes astonished at the unusual fragrance, Agnes at last appeared visibly to one of them, while she was sleeping during prayers at the tomb, and removed all doubt, declaring that the place was solemnly honored with this prerogative of odor by the blessed spirits visiting her body. Nor did this favor of the Saints adorn only the bones lying hidden underground in the tomb; but thereafter also several times, when the earth had been dug up and they lay on the altar, it manifested itself in great wonder in honor of Blessed Agnes.

^a Tobias was made Bishop in the year 1279 and died in 1296.

^b There was then the General of the Minors, Bonagratia, Bonagratia. who in the same year 1282 celebrated the General Chapter at Strasbourg. Whether it is about him or another that is being discussed here, let others inquire.

SECTION XV. Benefits from Agnes, born a Queen of Bohemia and now received into heaven, toward the Kings and Queens of the same kingdom.

[64] Since Kings and Queens hold the foremost place among mortals, why should we not first commemorate the liberality exercised from heaven toward them? The royal infant Margaret, Margaret, her great-niece, is healed, who was to become the future wife of Boleslav, Duke of Wroclaw and Legnica, the daughter of Wenceslas III, King of Bohemia VI, and Judith of Habsburg, was considered by the physicians as beyond hope. For however much her parents tried everything, the disease had overcome all art. And so they were looking at the bier and designating a place among the royal mausoleums for so small a body. The mother alone, since no hope shone from earth, turned her eyes to heaven, and having become a suppliant of her kinswoman Agnes, recently placed among the Saints, she preserved the offspring, utterly despaired of by all, through great acts of grace. For when the Queen had placed Margaret, dressed in the Poor Clare habit, on the tomb of Blessed Agnes, and had earnestly prayed that the propitious aunt would will and command that her great-niece be safe and well, immediately the royal infant began at the same time to come to herself, to improve, and finally to feel no vestiges of the disease. The grateful parents fixed a votive offering at the tomb of their heavenly healer. The royal offspring, saved from death, filled not only the parents but the entire court with joy, and the fame of the present patronage wonderfully attracted the city and all Bohemia to honor and affection toward Agnes.

[65] But what obligated the Bohemians far more to the great Virgin was the fact that by her intercession Charles IV was saved and escaped impending death. Had he been taken, all those royal honors through which Bohemia had especially become famous in Europe would have been lost. Therefore that we first saw an Emperor in Bohemia, Charles IV, Emperor, that the Carolinian University was established, that the Kings of Bohemia have a crown with which they are solemnly crowned, that finally so many sacred Relics of Saints — and magnificent basilicas erected for those same Saints — mark an august piety: all this Bohemia owes to Agnes, the Savior of Charles; and would that she acknowledged it with some worthy veneration and also professed publicly that she was indebted. But let us examine this outstanding benefit a little more fully. ^a Charles IV, named Wenceslas in baptism, ^b while in his cradle in the royal castle, having reached only his second year — as that age is open to all diseases on every side — was not far from counting the year of the Lord 1317 as the last of his life. still an infant For some noxious humor had so dissolved the most tender body of the royal infant that it could not be dried or dissipated by any medicine or warmth procured at whatever cost. Meanwhile the royal attendants and the infant's guardians had blocked every avenue lest any troubling rumor reach the ears of the Queen, ^c and thus more vehemently torment — or outright devastate — the woman, already afflicted by marital dissensions: so that afterward Bohemia might grieve two funerals at once at the most inopportune time, and be deprived of an heir — if indeed that lamentable sequence repeated — and also of all hope of posterity from Bohemian blood.

[66] When earth failed in keeping faith, heaven preserved it; and however much the ministers at Elbow concealed the son's illness, the Heavenly Beings nevertheless, Blessed Agnes appearing to his mother the Queen, though ambiguously, revealed the danger of the certain misfortune. For to Elizabeth, who was sleeping and resting in the King's chamber, a clear voice sounded from heaven: let her rise from bed and avert the impending calamity, and what she herself could not do, let her deflect in time through the prayers of Agnes her fellow citizen. Every delay was full of danger; let her therefore go in haste and implore the intercessions she was commanded to seek. The Queen obeyed, as was fitting, the heavenly monitor, and fluctuating between hope and fear as to what misfortune was signified by that voice, she descended to the sacred convent of the Blessed Savior; for she knew that among the sacred virgins there was also an Agnes, whom on account of her celebrated reputation for virtue she believed to be the refuge pointed out to her from heaven. While Elizabeth waited for this advocate before the gates of the convent, before the Nun could approach the Queen, Agnes appeared, the one foretold from heaven, with an appearance more radiant than human and moreover surrounded by light, so that the sacred awe would persuade another mortal to veneration. But to Elizabeth, who did not dare speak, the Saint herself addressed her most sweetly, asking what she was doing in that place and to what end she sought her help. The Queen, having been warned only of some uncertain calamity, replied that she needed nothing but prayers. Then Agnes, as though somewhat indignant that she had mentioned only prayers without specifying the calamity — as though she herself could do nothing more than a mere human — was withdrawing from the Queen's sight. But Elizabeth, more frightened than usual and believing that all was lost unless she won her over, immediately fell to her knees and detained the departing Agnes with a humble supplication. At last, after many sighs and tears mingled with prayers, as though now softened by Elizabeth the Queen's entreaties, she finally took upon herself whatever Elizabeth had anxiously sought from her: all things to come that concerned her welfare would come to pass, provided she trusted in God and did not doubt the outcome on any account. Nor did Agnes say more magnificently than she did. At almost the same moment of time, the Queen's only little son revived beyond all expectation, and Elizabeth received letters from Elbow at the same hour, signifying that Charles, destined for death, had been snatched from it beyond human powers. Hence the Queen extended her greater liberality not only to Agnes's tomb, but also to the very sacred church and the convent of the Poor Clares. ^d

[67] By this act of gratitude toward the Saints, Elizabeth not only made amends for her son but further provoked Agnes to her own personal benefits as well. the Queen herself is also freed from death. For when after the birth of her daughter Judith, who later became the wife of John of Valois, King of France, she was expecting the final hour from an extreme failure of strength, and having lost consciousness — according to the opinion of the physicians — no human remedies remained by which she might be saved from death, Agnes, invoked once more, appeared and so happily suspended the funeral bell for her great-niece that the final hour did not sound for her until twelve years later. Elizabeth therefore came to herself, and gradually recovering her strength, she turned everyone's fear into hope; and with modest assistance applied, she was perfectly healed, and with royal treasure she pursued anew the renewed munificence of her heavenly kinswoman, and continued, as long as she lived, the veneration of her great Patroness with solemn worship and royal gifts. ^e

^a Elbow, in Czech Loket, in German Elbogen, on the Eger River.

^b Charles IV was born in the year 1316, on May 14.

^c Elizabeth, daughter of Wenceslas and Judith, and sister of Margaret — of whom we have already spoken — and the last heiress of the ancient royal family, married to John, son of Henry VII, Emperor of Luxembourg. He was crowned King of Bohemia on February 2, 1311. Elizabeth, mother of Charles IV.

^d Crugerius observes that the robberies of the Hussites, having destroyed the convent and despoiled the virgins, shamefully squandered that liberality.

^e On account of this benefit granted to Elizabeth, mother of Charles IV, perhaps Wadding at the year 1283, number 4, and at the year 1378 (in which Charles died), number 11, wrote that he was twice freed from the jaws of death: Arthur copies Wadding; Pisanus, cited above, preceded them. Unless this happened after these Acts were written.

SECTION XVI. Domestic patronage, or benefits toward the sacred virgins of the same convent.

[68] No one among mortals was closer to Agnes A nun resurrected from death. than those virgins who, authorized by the laws of Saint Francis, had held the world in utter contempt. So what wonder if she was even more bountiful than usual toward them from heaven as their companion? One of them, whom they called Dominica, after she had ceased to live, received life again at the touch of the mantle that Agnes had been accustomed to use while living. For when another Sister, out of longing for Dominica, had placed that sacred covering on the corpse, the dead woman quickly began to change her deathly pallor, to put on a lively color, to move limbs that had been numb and stiff, to open eyes that had shortly before been no eyes at all, and finally to raise a tongue until then mute, and to persuade those — scarcely believing her because of the novelty of the thing — that she was seriously alive. Moreover, Dominica said that from that supreme hour a mass of darkness had pressed upon her; but as soon as the sacred mantle of Agnes had covered her corpse, a new light had immediately arisen for her, by whose aid all pain had departed and a vicarious succession of joys and gladness had occupied her mind.

[69] Then to Varacia, a virgin of no ordinary virtue, a dying woman is healed. likewise enrolled among the Poor Clares at the Savior at Prague,

though without a funeral, yet shortly before death, an equal benefit of preserved life was bestowed by Agnes. The sacred Virgin lay on her deathbed, her case desperate despite the exhausted efforts of the physicians' art; and already, as the final hour of mortality approached, she was gradually and imperceptibly losing the remnant of strength that disease had spared, in the fatal struggle. Meanwhile the sacred Virgins gathered around the bed, as was their custom, aided the struggling soul with prayers — the one thing they could do — when she, not yet certain of dying, having somewhat recovered herself, raised her eyes to heaven and said: "Agnes, once the leader of our convent and now glorious among the Saints, if you will grant that I live through your intercession, I shall honor God three times at the sacrifice of the Mass." She had scarcely spoken when, with the vow indeed ratified, the health restored completely astonished the surrounding Sisters, who at last, when they had recovered themselves, together with Varacia prostrated themselves at the tomb of the healer and with joyful profession publicly hailed her as the Conqueror of death. But indeed the priest who should have offered the sacrifice three times for the preserved nun, having delayed the execution of the vow, she relapses but is healed again, having suspended the time of the Sacrifice with blameworthy delay, very nearly completely destroyed the heavenly benefit by the recall of death. Hence Varacia, having relapsed into a lethal illness and pressed again by the same straits of impending death, begged the priest by all things sacred and profane, and finally even adjured him by Agnes, not to let her be destroyed by this negligence, and thus delay the benefit of the Saint. When the priest was persuaded by these words, and also terrified by heavenly punishments if he did not act immediately, after he had offered the Sacred Sacrifice three times at the altar, the sick woman rose by a doubled miracle and happily eluded the threatening death for the second time.

[70] The Virgin Ludmilla, dying of fever, having professed the religion of Saint Francis in the same monastery, was overcome by a daily and not simple fever, and had made presages of approaching death — her tongue already swelling, her eyes receding and troubled, and all other signs appearing. At last the Sisters remembered their Agnes and washed the sacred bones — which they had already felt to be healing several times — in wine, sprinkled the dying woman with it, and indeed also gave her drink of it, bidding her hope well: Agnes, who had so often done good for outsiders, would not fail a deceased Sister. A great marvel! At that very moment of time the fever was disarmed, Ludmilla's mind and voice returned from exile, and her eyes, corrected to their former cheerfulness, changed the grim omens of death. The sacred Virgin therefore rose from her bed, marked with no vestige of fever; and she for whom only half an hour before they were already preparing a bier lived for some years yet after so celebrated a cure of the heavenly physician, a famous proclaimer of Agnes's virtues.

[71] dangerously ill unto death Another Virgin of the same community, whose name was Constantia, the second Abbess after the blessed Agnes herself had died, was dangerously feverish for a considerable time; and what aggravated the malignity of the disease was that in this danger all the resources and efforts of physicians had abandoned the patient. But Agnes, recently assumed among the Saints, did not abandon her Sister and, as it were, her own successor as head of the monastery. And so when Constantia at last prayed more frequently at her tomb in fulfillment of a vow, Agnes dispelled all that feverish heat with a heavenly hand; whence the resulting health, to the great wonder of the physicians, easily persuaded them that there was more power in a single intercession among the Saints than in all their art from the entire medley of herbs.

[72] Agnes Gysica, likewise a sacred Virgin of the same institute, rigidity of the arm is cured, was not suffering from any pestilent fever, but the force of disease had stiffened her elbow with no less pain; and so she carried around one arm, like a useless stump, in a pitiful spectacle. Much human skill had been attempted to revive the sluggish elbow of the afflicted Virgin, but by no artifice could that stiffness be diverted or moved. Hence at last, when human means could do nothing, they turned to divine assistance through the intercession of Blessed Agnes, by the common decree of all the Sisters. They therefore brought Gysica to the place where the sacred body rested, and having poured out a humble prayer full of confidence to the Saint, their Sister who had so often been a healer, they ordered one of them, who stood nearest to the patient, to assist her and apply the stiffened elbow to the sarcophagus of her Sister. Meanwhile Gysica, not hesitating at all, was to importune Agnes with all her vows for the recovery of her arm's use, if it so pleased God. Scarcely had the former persuaded and the latter done so, when that defect began to be corrected from heaven. The elbow having been softened beyond human power, the arm was thereafter easily capable of every necessary movement.

[73] Christiana, moreover, though not yet enrolled among the sacred Virgins, and an abscess, yet preserved by Agnes with a benefit equal to theirs, had occasion thereby to flee the world, and beneath Christ she took sacred vows as a Virgin there. The brief account of Christiana's preservation is this: Whether it was an abscess or pleurisy is uncertain, but a serious and dangerous illness had brought the virgin to extremity. The men consulted and entreated were to no avail; the malignity of the disease overcame all their efforts. Pious necessity at last prompted her to try heavenly aid, since all human means could do absolutely nothing. And so that Agnes might be more obliging, she vowed an offering — something she knew would be equally pleasing to the sacred Virgin: if her bodily health were fully restored, having abandoned and spurned the world, she would devote herself wholly to the service of Christ at the Savior. Christiana felt that this was most pleasing from the very moment of the vow. For the previously incurable force of the disease spontaneously remitted at once without any medicines, and gave the now fully healthy virgin the opportunity to fulfill the noble resolve of absolving the obligation of her solemn vow to Christ. And so Christiana, enrolled in the convent, was especially solicitous for two things as long as she lived: to remember that she owed her life chiefly to Agnes, and to continue that same life only for Christ, in imitation of her Savior, with heroic virtue. Nor indeed did Agnes merely correct the maladies of diseases in the bodies of her Sisters; she also preserved them from perishing amid reckless and chance misfortunes.

[74] Dominica, one of the sacred convent, assigned at times to kitchen duties, Virgins are preserved unharmed in fire, while about to hang a cauldron on a hook — whether the load diverted her hand or her foot slipped — fell forward into the middle of the burning area and the embers heaped up in great quantity. The innocent virgin would have suffered no small harm from the heedless element, had she not, in the very fall, invoked the power of Agnes against the savagery of the flames. For however much the fire blazed on every side, and Dominica did not immediately extricate herself from the flames after she had fallen, no trace of harm was noted — not only on her body, but not even on her hair or clothing. She therefore arose completely whole without any burn, the fire having utterly changed its nature at Agnes's command.

[75] and from drowning. I add her power also over water. When fish reservoirs had burst open from some cause, such a great mass of water had gathered into the Moldau that the banks, however high, were insufficient to contain the river, and it overflowed everywhere through the streets and alleys, especially of Old Prague. Meanwhile one of the sacred Virgins, whom they called Elizabeth, since the unbridled Moldau had also burst into the sacred church where Blessed Agnes's body lay buried, hastened with concern for the sacred bones, and unless I am mistaken, she carried the exposed relics of Saint Agnes — or those enclosed in a small casket — to safety. But her foot slipping near the relics themselves, she tumbled into the waters, which rose above her body by more than a cubit. What was she to do? She called out more intently upon that very Agnes whom she had gone to save at such risk to her life, in her very fatal fall, not to desert her in her manifest danger but to preserve her unharmed amid the whirlpools of water. Nor did Agnes neglect the danger of the Virgin who was so concerned for her; Elizabeth was extracted in time, and indeed perfectly dry, as though she had never been in the water. After the heavenly assistance, the instrument of the miracle was the virgin Zdinica: she, with Agnes invoked, pulled the fallen woman — who had been floundering in the deep — out of so great a vortex of the raging element without any difficulty, and indeed, as I said, without any dampness. Moreover, this too should be noted here: that inanimate objects which Blessed Agnes had used while living her chair unharmed by fire also remained immune from such misfortunes. An entire house had collapsed into ashes from an accidental fire, and yet the chair on which the Saint had once reclined neither was consumed by the common calamity nor even suffered notable damage. Only on one side it retained slight marks of having been touched by the flames, from which it might be noted that divine interventions had been made on its behalf. But let us now turn our pen from domestic to external patronage: for equal and sometimes even greater prodigies occurred concerning these.

SECTION XVII. Heavenly assistance of Blessed Agnes toward outsiders, both in Prague and throughout Bohemia.

[76] Lest faith lose itself rashly and without order among these prodigies, we shall produce in first place those snatched from death, then those cured from various illnesses and rescued from incurable diseases, A boy is freed from death, and then afterward, with a second century of years already elapsed since these were wrought from heaven, and perhaps even a third or fourth decade, as best we can from old testimonies. To the little boy Martin, son of Margaret, a citizen of Prague, nature had granted scarcely one year of life when adverse health abruptly cut short a longer age by the violence of disease. The loss tormented the parents all the more because they had enjoyed so brief a delight, a boy when they had marked in him a long-lived heir for themselves. But when the midwife, not having entirely given up hope of life, asked meanwhile that the final mourning be suspended until she herself returned from Agnes's tomb, with the child either alive or dead, the most sorrowful parents obeyed, and while the midwife carried Martin out, they suspended the final lamentation, and restrained, as best they could, their tears that were rushing forth of their own accord. The midwife, however, full of trust in God, placed that lifeless little scrap of flesh on the tomb of Blessed Agnes, and with both prayers and tears she sought the final help of the virgin who had so often been a healer, and pledged her own and the parents' patience as bound by a vow to everything. For perhaps half an hour or somewhat more the woman had importuned Agnes, when the little boy, about whom until then it had been doubtful whether he was alive or dead, proved by an unmistakable movement that by heavenly assistance he was for the time being kept from the grave for some years. And so the midwife, full of joy, carried little Martin — not only alive but free from all that malignity of disease — back to his parents, who had been suspense about the outcome, accompanied by a most joyful retinue of spectators. They, as was fitting, visited the tomb in turn, and having given thanks, hung up a wax image as a monument of the divine deed and of the miracle.

[77] The second place among those snatched from death is held by Pribico, another man, a man of servile but nonetheless free condition, who, from what disease is uncertain, had fallen to the ground in the very sacred church of the Savior, resembling one without life, with great force; and after many things had been tried, nothing else remained at last but to carry him from there to the nearest cemetery. And now

someone had already begun to act as gravedigger and was imploring aid from the neighbors for the transport of the corpse; when the sacred Virgins halted the funeral proceedings for a time, and having brought water with which they had moistened several hairs of Blessed Agnes, after all that multitude which had surrounded the corpse awaiting the outcome had poured itself into prayers, they sprinkled that man Pribico, and having invoked the aid of Blessed Agnes, they also poured the same water into the mouth of the dead man. Immediately from this moistening and infusion, he who had long been stiff began to soften, and as the cold dissipated, he moreover grew warm, and finally, having recovered his vital functions, he even rose, and beyond all this, as though nothing had ever happened to him, he was strengthened far more vigorously than before. When all praised the mercy of God, Pribico, since it was the one thing he could do, placed his gratitude at the virgin's tomb in lieu of a votive offering. All who had been present at the miracle, returning from the tomb, wonderfully magnified the account among the citizens by spreading it, yet within the bounds of truth.

[78] The third victim of death would have been a girl, to whom they had given the surname "Parva" because of a notable diminutiveness to come, had not Agnes, invoked at the very moment of drowning, been present in time. This girl was living with her parents and, for some reason, was crossing the Elbe River — dangerous in certain places because of its depth — in a domestic boat, when by an imprudent movement she so depressed the vessel beyond her intention that by that reckless tossing she herself was finally thrown into the water. Here, since she neither knew the skill by which she might extricate herself by swimming from the deep to the nearest bank, nor could anyone spot her even from a distance who might bring the utmost help for so great a danger in time, and the hostile waters were cutting off all breath on every side, and moreover the shifting sand entangled her, threatening immediate death — despairing of human aid, she turned to the divine, and with her final voice and a lamentable cry she implored Agnes, already known to her by fame. And indeed some hairs plucked not long before from Agnes's sacred head gave her courage, which the girl had received as a gift while she was serving the virgins at Prague. And so she all the more earnestly sought help because she had until then carried these about, full of trust in God, as a pledge of future salvation should she ever need rescue. Nor were her prayers, though she was by now nearly dead, in vain: sustained for some time without any hope, she at last, beyond all expectation, noticed some boatmen whom she had vainly called upon, and with their assistance she barely emerged from the waters at last. Having immediately given thanks on her knees to her savior, shortly afterward the pious girl also discharged herself of her vow at Agnes's tomb in Prague through sacred devotions.

[79] Having dealt with those whom Agnes had snatched from nearby death, we shall now review in their proper order those who, an Abbot is freed from madness, though their calamity kept them at a greater remove from the immediate danger of the grave, were nevertheless suffering grievously from a persistent and incurable illness of the body, barely tolerating the losses of their afflicted life. Of all of these, as Hinco surpassed in dignity, so he also played the leading role in the malignity of his disease. He was, moreover, besides being in a sacred institute, also the Abbot of a celebrated monastery; but of what place, the faithful but careless compiler of the old manuscript history omitted through damnable forgetfulness. The vehemence of his disease had deranged his mind, and so, while he was perfectly capable in other respects, he acted in all things foolishly, and easily compelled not only his own household but also outside spectators to remember with tender feeling human calamity through his pitiable folly. But what excited terror in the bystanders beyond mere commiseration was that he displayed his very tongue, protruded with a horrible appearance during lengthy contortions, amid discordant roars, and thus seemed to provide an example, according to tender judges of such gestures, of I know not what divine vengeance. Meanwhile his people implored every possible aid; they exhausted the ingenuity of physicians, both by the authority of so great a man and by the magnificence of their expenditures. But all was in vain. Despairing therefore of nature's remedies, it occurred to them to solicit Agnes — whose liberality in calamities of this kind was especially proven — with their last vows. Therefore, while some poured out prayers at the sacred tomb in her honor and others offered the sacrifice at the altar, where so many men, and with them all of human skill, could do absolutely nothing, one virgin — but one already received into heaven — accomplished a great deal. For having drunk the wine in which the Poor Clares had dipped Agnes's sacred bones, the Abbot both retracted his tongue and had it remain patiently in its place, and recovered his mind, and at the same time felt his body free from all disease. Worthy thanks for so great a benefit were then rendered to the healer, and a lasting monument of the event and of grateful memory was fixed at those bones from which such great well-being had flowed.

[80] A Knight's throat abscess, Now let nobility, prodigiously aided, occupy the next place after sacred rank. For Tasa, a man of illustrious lineage and ancient stock among the Bohemians, a Knight, a pestilent abscess had erupted within his throat, and it so tightly besieged the passages of his jaws that not only food and drink but even air itself could barely find access. And this interception of breath threatened his life all the more dangerously because it could not be dislodged from its position by any force of medications or from the ambush of herbs. Having therefore neglected human remedies, the noble man resolved thenceforth to fight with nothing but divine aid. He accordingly bound himself by vows to the Godhead: if He would free him from the troublesome abscess through the intercession of Blessed Agnes, then he would liberally make donations both to the sacred tomb and to the poor, as might be hoped from his fortune. God trusted his serious promise and hope, and by the timely removal of the abscess He wonderfully increased the fame of Agnes, already famous for her miracles. For when he had drunk the water which had washed Agnes's hair, and had bathed his affected members wherever he could with the same water, immediately that pestilent siege of the throat was lifted, and the entire malignity of the abscess, having dissipated, retained absolutely no power to harm the body further. Having recovered his health by so signal a miracle, the gratitude of the now healthy Knight aimed at nothing more than to be truly — not merely to appear — eminently liberal toward the tomb and the poor.

[81] With an entirely similar disease, though of a different type, Wenceslas, the secretary of a certain Knight, was suffering. For certain thick and noxious humors had so badly affected his throat that the constriction would not transmit food, and barely a thin and very harsh breath moderately preserved his life. likewise another. In an equal manner, the same medicine availed. The Vestal Virgins honored the water with the sacred hairs; when Wenceslas washed his throat with it, he first produced a bleating, similar to the sound of a sheep, but then a purified voice praising God, and he expressed himself in completely sound health. These benefits were bestowed upon men, but Agnes, also generous toward her own sex, extended her beneficent hand as well.

[82] a woman in childbirth is aided. A woman among the foremost of Prague (whose name the writer's negligence has lost) was laboring in childbirth, and for many days she continued the unsuccessful effort. Despite trying everything, neither the delivery nor the child would follow, but beyond that torment her mind at last also began to be disturbed, and so the wretched woman began to grow very ill and to experience the worst at last. Where therefore all human power deserted the unfortunate woman, there the divine, through the merits of Agnes, vindicated her from destruction. After her body was tightly bound with the belt that had touched Agnes while she lived as a mortal, she immediately recovered her disturbed mind and the mother gave birth to a healthy child. The family rejoiced effusively and meanwhile began giving thanks to the Saint, which the now safe woman — to whom the gratitude especially pertained — abundantly continued with her offspring at the tomb, in words and gifts.

[83] ^a Nor did Agnes exercise her extraordinary liberality only in Prague, one city — albeit the kingdom's capital — Saint Anthony's fire is removed, but she also frequently bestowed heavenly benefits with great commendation of herself in other places, though within Bohemia. Dobroslava, a matron of Slany, was afflicted by a most holy — though impiously — fire, and it had ravaged one of her thighs with a malignant pestilence, and was believed shortly to be about to assail her life without restraint. But she, having been brought to Prague, cast herself at Agnes's tomb and prayed for help for some time; she soon felt it granted after such long-lasting pains. For having drunk in addition the wine in which Agnes's bones had been soaked, Dobroslava's thigh was immediately corrected without any human hand, and the pestilent fire was thereupon extinguished.

[84] ^b and a hemorrhage. Finally, let the noble woman Maladata, also the wife of an illustrious man at Litomysl, conclude the solemn record of Agnes's generous hand. This woman, unable to stop a hemorrhage either with the expenditure of her fortune or with the help of so great a man, finally stopped it by the patronage of Agnes. For when, stationed ten miles from the city, she had made a promise of one visit and other gifts to be hung at the very relics, immediately after the vow was made she felt better, and she fulfilled her vow at Prague with great piety shortly afterward.

^a Slany, a town of Bohemia, whose territory extends along the left bank of the Moldau River as far as Prague.

^b Litomerice, a town with a very large territory on both banks of the Elbe, contiguous to Meissen.

ON BLESSED COLETTE, VIRGIN, REFORMER OF THE ORDER OF SAINT CLARE, AT GHENT IN FLANDERS, IN THE YEAR 1447.

Preliminary Commentary.

Colette, Reformer of the Order of Saint Clare, at Ghent in Belgium (B.)

BHL Number: 1876, 1877

SECTION I. The era of Blessed Colette. Writers of her Life. Monasteries constructed.

[1] Ghent, the capital of Flanders, as it is a very large city within its walls, so it contains very many illustrious churches and monasteries of both men and women. One of these was built for nuns living according to the strict observance of the Rule of Saint Clare, when Blessed Colette established it according to her new Reform in various places. [A monastery of Saint Clare built at Ghent according to the Reform of Blessed Colette.] For when the faculty of erecting some monastery in Belgium, within the Dioceses of Therouanne, Cambrai, or Tournai, had been granted to her by Pope Martin V in letters signed June 26, 1426, and the executor of these was designated the Abbot of Bergues-Saint-Winnoc, that good fortune befell the city of Ghent, which was then subject to the Bishop of Tournai. The site for building the monastery in the Parish of Saint James was offered by a rich and noble matron named Helena Sclappera, widow of John Vorhout, who possessed a property in Minestrata in the parish of Saint James. with the help of pious persons. The principal helpers named are John Hotus, John Kerberg, Daniel Warenewut, John Weven, James Basseneld, and John Onrius, from whom and from another twelve or twenty citizens, when the monastery had begun to be built, a great sum of money was collected, as we ourselves excerpted at Ghent from the old records.

[2] There were not lacking obstacles to impede the well-begun work. and of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. Abbeville, in his French Life, says that fourteen or fifteen years elapsed because of these before the building of this monastery was brought to due completion; toward which Philip the Good, Prince of the Belgians and Burgundians, and the supreme Senate of the city itself, contributed greatly. When the monastery was built, the name Bethlehem was given to it. in the year 1442 The Anglo-French war, which was raging most atrociously, for some time prevented the introduction of consecrated Virgins. Blessed Colette finally brought them there in the year 1442, on August 3, in it Blessed Colette dies in the year 1447. a Friday,

and afterward in the year 1446, she returned to visit on December 6, the feast of Saint Nicholas. While she remained there that winter, she fell into a fatal illness, and at last in the following year 1447, on March 6, the Monday after the second Sunday of Lent, at the eighth hour of the morning, she migrated from this mortal life to the heavenly and most happy one, as is noted below in the Life, number 193, and correctly. For in the said year the solar cycle is 28 and the lunar cycle 4, with Dominical letter A; Easter fell on April 9, and Ash Wednesday, or the beginning of Lent, on February 22. She had reached the completion of sixty-six years of age, as is written below at number 190. born in the year 1381. In the old records of Ghent and in Judocus Clichtoveus's brief Legend, she is said to have been born in the year 1381, on the day of the Octave of Epiphany, a Sunday. Thus, dying, she would have lived beyond sixty-six years by fifty-two days. Wadding, following James Fodereus, refers her nativity to the year 1380, where at number 12 he discusses her at greater length. But he erred more when, at the year 1419, treating of the monastery of the Poor Clares in which the body of Blessed Colette rests, he placed it near Ghent in Belgium: for those who dwelt there are the Rich Clares, called Urbanists because of the milder Rule accepted from the dispensation of Urban IV, who later came to the city during civil disturbances and built a monastery in the street of Saint Lievinus.

[3] Nowhere in Belgium can such varied and illustrious records about any Saint be found as at Ghent about Blessed Colette, asserts Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium. We ourselves inspected all of them there in the convent of those nuns, Records concerning her Life, and whatever we found suitable for our purpose, we excerpted there and publish here. Concerning Blessed Colette's birth and life spent for some time at Corbie in her homeland, there is an authentic Instrument made at Corbie: to which we subjoin the faculty of Cardinal Chalant, the Apostolic Nuncio, by which she was permitted to leave the reclusory at Corbie, the execution of which was performed by the Bishop of Amiens. Five letters written by Blessed Colette to various persons are preserved there as well: and letters. in the largest of these the recently erected convent at Hesdin is discussed. There are also two letters addressed to Colette herself, one from Reverend Father Henry de Balma, her Confessor, and the other from Blessed John of Capistrano, the appointed Commissary, of which we give only the latter here. The Life of Blessed Colette was composed in the French language by Peter de Vaux, The Life written in French by Peter de Vaux, her Confessor, commonly called Peter de Reims, for many years her Confessor: a copy of which, on parchment, was ordered to be most carefully written and adorned with the most artistic pictures or miniatures for each chapter by Margaret of York, sister of King Edward of England, widow of Charles of Valois, Duke of Burgundy; and she donated it to the Convent of Saint Clare at Ghent, subscribing in her own hand in French with these words: "Your faithful daughter, Margaret of England: pray for her and her salvation." She died in the year 1503 and was buried in the choir of the Friars Minor at Mechelen. How highly this Life should be valued, the authentic instrument to be presented below at section 6 will show, which we ourselves also copied at Ghent, where we also saw the manuscript codices mentioned therein.

[4] The same Life, translated into Latin by himself at about the same time, was published by Stephen Juliacus, in Latin by Stephen Juliacus, a Doctor of Theology of the Sorbonne at Paris, from the same Order of Saint Francis. Laurence Surius reduced this in a changed style to a compendium, which was inserted passim by Luke Wadding into the Annals of the Minors, and copied or abbreviated by Mark of Lisbon in the Chronicle of the Minors and others. The said compendium of Surius was translated into French by Michael Notel, a Religious of the monastery of Fidemine at the sources of the Sambre, and that translation exists in manuscript at Ghent, from whose prologue we shall give below certain details regarding the elevation of the body in the year 1536. The same compendium seems to have been followed by Brother Valerius of Venice, a Capuchin, rendering it into Italian after the Lives of Saints Clare of Assisi and Catherine of Bologna, published at Venice in the year 1610. We give here the complete Life in its original style, found in four manuscripts, found in four manuscript codices, namely the Utrecht one of Saint Savior, the one of Rougevallee near Brussels in the second part of the Novale Sanctorum, the Corsendoncanese near Turnhout in the fourth part of diverse Legends, and the Louvain one of Saint Martin: of which the three latter places belong to Canons Regular. Also at the same period, the aforementioned Life was translated from the Latin of Stephen Juliacus into the Belgian or Flemish language by a venerable man, in Flemish by Oliver de Langhe, Master Oliver de Langhe, Prior of the monastery of Saint Bavo of the Order of Saint Benedict, to whom Blessed Colette appeared and gave thanks, as is more fully contained in the authentic Instrument by which we have said the Life was approved, below. The original copy of this Life, written in the hand of the said Oliver, we ourselves saw at the nuns' convent at Ghent; a copy of it is at Ghent in the Library of the Society of Jesus. This translation was completed, examined, and corrected in the year 1451, as we remember finding expressly noted among the Ghent records. A compendium was then subsequently made from it, of which a compendium was rendered into Latin by Judocus Clichtoveus, which from the Belgian language into Latin was translated and published at Paris by Judocus Clichtoveus of Nieuwpoort, in France a Doctor of the Sorbonne and Canon of Chartres. From whose brief Legend, Molanus asserts he drew the principal part of the eulogy he published in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium. But it suffices to have indicated these things. To the Life written in Latin by Stephen Juliacus we subjoin various miracles: various miracles first those which the Abbot of the Ghent monastery of Saint Peter attested had been performed while Blessed Colette was still living; then those which occurred after the death of Blessed Colette, both at Ghent among the nuns themselves, where her body was buried, and the history of the elevation, and at Arras and Hesdin, where convents of the same Order had been built.

[5] Among those on whose most trustworthy testimony Peter de Vaux compiled the Life of Blessed Colette, the first place is owed to Sister Petrina, who, being sixty-six years old the first of all, she had dictated what she knew about the Blessed One and having lived in close familiarity with the blessed Mother for about thirty years, seems not long after her death to have dictated point by point and in the form of an attestation to Brother Francis des Marez, Confessor of the Hesdin convent, whatever she herself had seen as an eyewitness, or remembered having heard from the Blessed One's own mouth, or had received from her Confessors and more senior Sisters, who were reliable reporters of things certainly known to her — especially from Father Henry de Balma, her uncle, Sister Petrina de Balma, who first undertook the business of the Reform with Blessed Colette and vigorously promoted it, and who, after the death of the first Confessor in the reclusory, served as her confessor. Of this commentary or attestation — perhaps formed immediately before the Life was written, for the instruction of its author — the authentic copy exists at Ghent under this title: "le cahier de Soeur Perine," that is, the notebook or writing of Sister Petrina; which at our request the Very Reverend Father Francis van Huele, Provincial Minister for Flanders or the Province of Saint Joseph of the Order of Minors, arranged to have translated into Latin by Reverend Father Anselm de Beyl, a priest and preacher of the same Order. Having read through this translation and compared it with the text of the aforementioned Life, we found many things which Peter de Vaux had passed over, or had treated more briefly and less explicitly, detached from circumstances by no means to be despised. We therefore judged it worthy this, rendered in Latin, we give to subjoin it as an excellent confirmation of the principal Life (since it establishes individual points with their own authors and witnesses). But since the very simple style of the faithful attestation, tediously repeating at each section or article these or similar formulas — "I, Sister Petrina de Balma, testify," "Likewise I, Sister Petrina, heard from Father Henry," etc. — would have produced an unpleasant nausea for the reader, we thought it fitting to omit them and to link all the articles together (as far as could be done while preserving their substance and order) in the manner of a more continuous narrative. In doing this, since we did not scrupulously bind ourselves to preserving the translator's phrasing, which rendered word for word, after the Acts of the elevation in the year 1491, perhaps some elegance of purer style has been added, but nothing of the truth of the matters has been lost.

[6] We preface, moreover, various items connected with the elevation of the body and the Relics, carried out in the year 1491 and following. As a conclusion, we subjoin certain benefits of more recent memory granted to those who invoke the Blessed One, then more recent miracles, which we partly copied from the aforementioned archive of the nuns of Ghent, and partly from the Life compiled most recently in the French language by F. S. Abbeville, a Capuchin, and published in Paris in the year 1628. This author, dividing his work into three parts (the first of which treats the life lived in the world, the second the enclosure at Corbie, the Life composed by Abbeville and the third the course of her religious profession, divided into six books), carefully preserved the chronological order, and described the entire progress of the reform and the convents erected by Blessed Colette, following as his principal guide in these matters, besides the documents to be presented by us, especially Reverend Father James Fodereus, who besides the Life of the Blessed One, which he briefly described in French and printed among the Lives of Holy Virgins and Martyrs published at Lyon in 1609, seems to have written another history either of Colette's Life or of the Reform, from the aforementioned documents and James Fodereus which has not until now come into our hands, containing descriptions of the Convents either reformed or newly erected by Blessed Colette. If we could have seen this, and also the documents of donations and public records from which individual matters must be drawn and established, we could have woven a particular section about this matter as well. Now, with such an abundance of principally authentic materials, it is not pleasant to wander off to other sources, relying on the testimony of a single author, and one to be read within another, with the danger of error if any perchance have crept in through the fault of typesetters or have arisen from elsewhere, which might later be refuted from more certain records. Meanwhile, lest we omit this: that the aforementioned Fodereus was a most devoted son of Blessed Colette, it is pleasant to recall from Abbeville, page 474, preserved by the aid of Blessed Colette, that while once traveling he was so overwhelmed in a certain river that, thrown three or four times from the horse on which he was sitting, he would never have escaped alive had he not humbly invoked the Blessed One for her protection — as he himself narrated to the Sisters then found at the Poligny convent when he visited it as Visitor, and they recorded it in their annals.

[7] Luke Wadding, after relating the death of Blessed Colette in the Annals of the Minors, adds that her reform spread far and wide, and enumerates the monasteries: Gandia in the Kingdom of Valencia, monasteries listed by Wadding, Lisbon and Setubal in Portugal, Besancon and Poligny in Burgundy, Ghent and Bruges in Flanders, Arras and Hesdin in Artois, Cambrai in the province of the same name, Amiens and Peronne in Picardy, Rouen in Normandy, Pont-a-Mousson in Lorraine, Nantes in Brittany Minor, Die, Dauron, and Seurre in Dauphine, Chambery and Annecy in Savoy. So says Wadding, who except for three monasteries which he reported from Mark of Lisbon, described the rest from the Belgian and Burgundian Records of Aubert Miraeus, though without making any mention of them. Abbeville the Capuchin, in his French Life of Blessed Colette, criticizes the said catalogue for mixing together monasteries built before and after her death, some more correctly indicated, for omitting very many of them, and for including others of which no trace can be found elsewhere — namely Die, Dauron, and Seurre in Dauphine — for which we think should be substituted Decize in the territory of Nevers, Auxonne in the Duchy of Burgundy (of which mention is made in the Acts), and Seurre on the Saone under the jurisdiction of Chalon, where the town of Seurre, commonly called Bellegarde, now stands. To this place, so that Blessed Colette would agree to accept a convent, came James Bourg — the future founder of this convent — to her while she was staying at Auxonne. The Duchess of Burgundy transferred to him the faculty granted to her by Pope Martin of building some monastery of this reform, the execution of which was committed to Theobald, Archbishop of Besancon. In the same manner, among the monasteries listed by Wadding, those begun after the death of Blessed Colette are: Bruges, others founded after her death, Arras, Cambrai, Peronne, Rouen, Nantes, Chambery, Annecy, and especially the first three built in the Kingdom of Valencia and Portugal; to which could be added many others built since then in Spain, France, and Belgium.

[8] But upon dying, Blessed Colette left eighteen monasteries of her reform: of these, those listed by Wadding are Besancon, Poligny, in the Life, eighteen in all, Ghent, Hesdin, Amiens, and Pont-a-Mousson, with three others wrongly attributed to Dauphine, which have already been discussed. To these therefore must be added those built at Moulins in the region of Bourbon, Aigueperse among the Auvergne, Le Puy in Velay, Castres in the Albi district, and Lezignan near Narbonne; then near Lake Leman in the territory once of the Duke of Savoy, now of the Swiss, at Vevey, and further toward the north not far from the Lake of Neuchatel, at Orbe; all of which are mentioned below in the Acts; then at Beziers in Occitania, and at Heidelberg in Germany — though this last was abandoned after the death of Blessed Colette because of arising difficulties. All of which agrees excellently with the catalogue that the Abbess of Ghent found in a very old manuscript and communicated to Abbeville while he was writing, of which here is the tenor translated from the French: the convent of Besancon, Auxonne, Poligny, Seurre, Decize, Moulins, Aigueperse, Vevey, Orbe, Castres, Lezignan, the old reformed convent of Beziers, Le Puy, Hesdin, Amiens, Ghent, and Pont-a-Mousson — omitting for the reason we have stated Heidelberg, which would complete the number of eighteen convents. As for the monasteries of men destined for the service of the Colettine sisters, the same for men's monasteries, conforming to their reform — of these we have nothing in the Acts except about that of Dole. Clichtoveus asserts that seven in all were established by Blessed Colette; that their number was already great not much later can be gathered from a certain bull of Pius II in the year 1458, which counts ten in the provinces of Saints Louis and Bonaventure alone, as Abbeville notes. But these, subject to the common General of the Order among the Observants from whom they had arisen, gradually reverted to them; the vigor of the houses of nuns who received their institution from Blessed Colette perseveres, and this also in those places to which after the Blessed One's death new colonies were led — about which Abbeville also treats.

SECTION II. Sacred worship. Written Constitutions.

[9] Since she shone with many miracles after death, thought began to be given to promoting her canonization before the Supreme Pontiffs, and ambassadors were sent to Rome by Charles the Bold, Action was taken for Canonization before Sixtus IV, Duke of Burgundy and Prince of the Belgians, to Sixtus IV, assumed to the Pontificate from the Order of Minors, to ask that he deign to inscribe the Virgin Colette, dead for twenty years, in the Register of Saints, both because of the sanctity of her life and because of the illustrious miracles wrought by God at her invocation. But because the Pontiff had already resolved to admit Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church from the same Seraphic Order, to the Catalogue of Saints, the Blessed One's cause was postponed, and recorded in the Consistorial register, the Supreme Pontiff professing his sentiment in these words: "I would consider it a great favor if I could canonize such a great virgin as you say is a Saint. I declare her to be Blessed and Holy" — as is noted at the end of the petition then presented. The same cause was later resumed under Alexander VI in the year 1494, Alexander VI, Julius II, Pius V, and under Julius II in the year 1508, the same canonization was again sought with the greatest efforts. But because of the tumults of wars and the iniquities of the times, nothing was completed. If anyone wishes to know more fully by how many persons of both sexes and of the highest dignity the petition was made, and with what diligence and urgency it was twice pursued at Rome, let him read Abbeville from page 510 to 521, who treated these matters most carefully. At length Gericus, a celebrated Theologian and preacher, as the above-cited Molanus reports, while conducting certain Belgian business of his Order at Rome, again requested from Pius V, on behalf of all the Colettines, that they might celebrate her feast, bringing forth many praises of the virgin. To which Pius, the excellent Pontiff, responded: "Let me have some documentation of the things you say, and I shall willingly satisfy your desire and that of the sacred virgins in this matter." And so many documents were collected and, signed with his seal and the secretary's hand by Cornelius Jansenius, Bishop of Ghent, were transmitted to Rome; which, however, arrived there only after the death of the said Pontiff. Hence the matter was not concluded.

[10] Finally, Clement VIII, by a diploma given in the year 1604 to the Abbess of the Ghent monastery of Saint Clare, granted Office and Mass granted by Clement VIII that they might freely and licitly recite the Office in honor of the same Blessed Colette from the Common of one Virgin on the anniversary day of her death each year, and on the same day have a Mass celebrated in their own church in her honor, also from the Common of one Virgin — to the Ghent community as those words stated in the said diploma contain. Which Paul V repeated and confirmed by a diploma signed in the year 1610, and extended the said license to all monasteries of reformed nuns of the Order of Saint Francis in all provinces of Belgium, and to others in Belgium, where there are monasteries of the same Order of Saint Clare existing. The complete diplomas are given by Miraeus in his Records and by Wadding at the cited year 1447, numbers 60 and 61. Abbeville adds that the same license was later granted for monasteries built at Pont-a-Mousson, Besancon, to some in Lorraine and Burgundy, to the Amiens community, Poligny, and Auxonne, but does not state in what year this occurred. But by a diploma given on September 20, 1622, he indicates that the nuns of Amiens obtained the same faculty from Gregory XV; which was at last granted to the Parisians dwelling in the monastery of the Passion on October 1, 1625, to the Parisians, by Urban VIII, who in the following year, at the request of the Queen Mother of France, granted the same to the entire Order of Minors and the whole kingdom of France, as Arthur of Monastier reports in the Franciscan Martyrology. to the Order of Minors. In the common Breviary of the Order, her feast, to be celebrated by the Poor Clares, was inserted under the rite of a semidouble, with the Office of the Common of one Virgin. So states Harold in his Epitome of the Annals at the year 1447, number 18.

[11] The name of Blessed Colette is inscribed in various sacred calendars, as in the manuscript Florarium Sanctorum at this sixth day of March in these words: Her name in the old Records. "In Flanders at Ghent, the burial of Colette, Virgin of the Order of Saint Francis and reformer of the Poor Clares, in the year of salvation 1447." Hermann Greven, who died at Cologne in the year 1480, in his additions to Usuard, writes: "At Ghent, Colette of holy memory, a nun, the first reformer of the Poor Clares." Others followed, among whom Molanus is prominent, who likewise in his additions to Usuard celebrates her thus: "At Ghent, the death of Colette of Corbie, of holy memory, in the year one thousand four hundred and forty-seven, who instituted the Colettine Poor Clares." in Molanus The same author, in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, runs on at greater length in her praise, and among other things: "I do not recount here," he says, "how many dead she raised, and with what other miracles she was distinguished; but the discipline of the Order is to be commended, which she observed with her Sisters in the first house at Besancon and those that followed. They were living in the rigid austerity of Regular discipline, in true poverty, possessing no revenues or certain goods either individually or in common. Likewise observing a perpetual fast throughout the entire year, never eating meat, always walking barefoot in summer and winter, separated from the crowd of men by the strictest enclosure. She overcame many tribulations both from men and from unclean spirits. While visiting her monasteries, she spent the last winter at Ghent, where on the sixth day of March she surrendered her spirit to God with the greatest devotion. After her death, although many wonderful things occurred, the body was nevertheless, as she had requested, buried in the cemetery without any funeral pomp."

[12] So says Molanus; somewhat his senior, Marcus Warnewicus testifies in Book 4, Chapter 49 of his Belgian History, that this monastery of Poor Clares surpasses all the others at Ghent in severity of discipline. and others. The name of Blessed Colette was inscribed at the same March 6 in the Martyrologies by Peter Canisius in the German one, by Saussay in the French, by Willot and Miraeus in the Belgian, in the General Calendar by Ferrari, in the Marian Calendar by Balinghem, in the Menology of Virgins by Laher, and by Arthur of Monastier in the Sacred Gyneceum and Franciscan Martyrology, where in his Notes he praises her reform, by which she restored her monasteries — having driven out from them all ownership of property — to their original purity and poverty according to the mind of Saints Francis and Clare, and furnished and fortified them with most holy constitutions; Constitutions of Blessed Colette all of which, together with many others published by him, the Most Reverend Father William de Casale, Minister General of the entire Order of Minors, reduced to sixteen chapters and prescribed to the aforesaid reformed Sisters as inviolable laws to be observed by them. Wadding published them in the Annals of the Minors at the year 1435, numbers 23 and following, to which is prefixed a letter of the Minister General, addressed to "the religious Sister in Christ, Colette, Foundress of very many monasteries of Ladies of the Order of Saint Clare and Minoresses of modern times, built in the parts of France, and to be built under the same manner and form, and to the Abbesses, Sisters, and all of the same, present and future." Wadding adds that those constitutions were first discussed and approved by the Cardinals Nicholas of the Holy Cross and Julian of Saint Angelo, approved, and by other Fathers in the Council of Basel while it still obeyed Eugene.

[13] Celestine Telera, in his History of the Holy Men Illustrious for Sanctity of the Celestine Congregation, published in Italian at Bologna in the year 1648, reviews the Life of Blessed John

Bassandi, divided into twenty chapters, and in chapter 16 he narrates that the death of this man among the people of Aquila was revealed to Blessed Colette, The death of Blessed John Bassandi is revealed to Blessed Colette. who, then at Amiens in her monastery, was rapt in ecstasy while praying and saw, as though it were present before her, the happy passage of the said John Bassandi to the heavenly triumph, which she perceived on this occasion to have been performed with greater solemnity. Whence, exulting with joy, having returned from prayer to her Sisters, she said to them: "Know that my most beloved Father, John Bassandi, of the Order of Celestines, through whose work God deigned to call me to His service, has today in the city of Aquila, having been stripped of this mortal body, gone to heaven to enjoy eternal glory, and his funeral is being prepared by the citizens, who revere him as a holy man." That day was observed, on which they later learned that Bassandi had died. It was the twenty-sixth day of August, in the year 1445. The same account from the aforesaid Life, then not yet published, was given by Abbeville, page 653. Aquila is an illustrious city in the Kingdom of Naples and the chief city of further Abruzzo; in it the body of Blessed Bernardine of Siena is kept with the greatest veneration, The Reform of the Poor Clares by Saint Bernardine. who from the Order of Minors at the same time, by the example of Blessed Colette, reformed very many monasteries of the Poor Clares in Italy. He died in the year 1449, on May 20. On this matter one can read the first chapter of the Life of Blessed Colette, which Valerius of Venice, a Capuchin, wrote in Italian in thirty chapters and published at Venice after the Life and Rule of Saint Clare. Abbeville, page 431, and Gonzaga, cited by him, and Mark of Lisbon — whom the said Valerius principally copied — make mention of the same Italian reform. We direct readers to the source of all, to Stephen Juliacus, namely, a contemporary author, whose rough style anyone who is a solid lover of sincere truth will excuse our reproducing. To him it will perhaps also not be unwelcome to understand The name Colette is a diminutive for Nicolaa. that the name Colette (for those writing and speaking in French it is Colette) is a diminutive for Nicolaa — by the ordinary French termination of such feminine diminutives, as Mariette, Henriette, etc. — and by the no less common truncation of the first syllable, as for Nicolaus they say Colas, which for the Belgian Germans, with further contraction, is uttered in a single syllable, Claes.

SECTION III. The Instrument of Corbie concerning the deeds of Blessed Colette, especially in her youth.

[15] In the name of the Lord. Amen. By this present public instrument let it be clear and known to all that in the year 1471 from the Incarnation of the same Lord, Indiction 1, in the first year of the Pontificate of the Most Holy Father in Christ and our Lord Sixtus, Pope IV by divine Providence, on the sixth day of the month of March, Witnesses of Corbie. in the presence of me, the undersigned public Notary, and of the witnesses written below, there were personally present the discreet and honest persons named below: James Guiot, Clerk of the spiritual Court of Corbie, a sworn Notary, aged seventy-six years; and Agnes de Vaudemont, wife of the deceased John de Vaudemont, aged eighty-four; and William de Baisieu, aged eighty-four years; and Roberta de Baisieu, aged seventy-eight years, residing at Corbie; who, at the petition and request of Brothers Baldwin Christiani and Anselm Regis, in this capacity Commissioners or Proctors of the Father Visitor of the Poor Sisters of Saint Clare reformed by Sister Colette of good memory, Blessed Colette born at Corbie, said, acknowledged, deposed, and asserted that they had known by sight, name, and outward acquaintance, during the times of their infancy or youth, the late Sister Colette of the Order of Saint Clare, an express professed member.

[15] Which Sister Colette, as they said and truly know, drew and took her origin in Corbie in the street of Calceye, from both parents procreated in and of legitimate marriage; whose father was named Robert and mother Margaret. In their house, during her infancy, she was of good disposition, devoutly consecrating the beginnings of her childhood, piously educated, humbly obeying those same parents, and meditating continually on the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ by the exhortations and examples of her mother. For the love of whom she despised the allurements of the flesh and the deceitful joy of the world, and dedicated herself totally, as far as that age permitted, to the divine service and holy meditations and continual prayers. Then, when she had reached the years close to puberty, desiring to come to a better way of life and to avoid the defilements of this world, she transferred herself to the dwelling of the Beguines, in the Beguinage for one year, and there, leading a praiseworthy life and conversation, visiting churches and pious and religious places, hearing Masses and divine services daily, she stayed for the space of one year. During which time, many citizens and other devout persons diligently attending to her reputation and celebrated manner of life, and consenting to her holy desires, especially Lady Guillerma Gamelina, wife of the late John le Seneschal, formerly Provost of the town of Corbie, together with certain other inhabitants, with the license and permission of the Lord of Corbie, had a small house erected in a sacred or blessed place, between the cemeteries of the Blessed Virgin Mary she lives as a recluse for three years, and of the Blessed John the Evangelist, parish churches of Corbie: which house or reclusory she entered with the license and consent of the said Lord of Corbie, her Prelate at the time, and stayed and dwelt there for the space of three years, and persevered there with all devotion.

[16] In which reclusory the said James Guiot, frequently visiting her at the order of Lord John Guiot of good memory, pastor of Saint Martin, his brother and Confessor of the said Sister Colette, so that he might be attracted to virtue by her holy advice and examples, taught her the psalter. using as Confessors Brother John Pinet and Lord John Guiot And there Brother John Pinet, of the Order of Minors and Custos of the same Brothers in the Custody of Picardy, frequently visited her and diligently instructed her in the Regular life; and he was her first and principal Confessor, and in his absence the aforesaid John Guiot managed the praiseworthy care of her soul. And in the same place she advanced in so great a richness of conduct that, with the odor of her virtues and celebrated fame spreading throughout the whole town and various other surrounding places, many, both citizens and foreigners, Regular and secular of both sexes, attracted to divine love, flocked to her to hear her holy advice diligently and to become more fervent in faith and charity and divine worship by her exhortations. All of whom the humble handmaid of Christ consoled in the depths of charity, and fervently exhorted by word and example alike to the observance of the divine commandments.

[17] Having therefore been devoted to divine worship in the same place for three years, preceded by many revelations, and urged by the Spirit, mindful of the generous King and poor Christ Jesus our Savior, and dedicating to Him her virginity of both mind and body, in order to obey His will, and by the counsel and likewise the consent of the venerable Brothers John Pinet and Henry de Balma, professed members of the Order of Minors, proven in conduct and learning, having obtained the license of the said Lord of Corbie, her Prelate, thence she departed for Rome, she left the aforesaid reclusory, with the assistance and protection of the noble and powerful Lady de Brisay, of Burgundian origin, who had come to Corbie by divine direction to provide the aforesaid protection to the said Sister Colette. She went to the presence of the Supreme Pontiff, and having completed the business for which she had undertaken the journey, with the aforesaid Lady always accompanying her, she returned to the parts of Burgundy. she founded various monasteries. And there, and in the parts of France, Picardy, and Flanders, what and how great signs of virtue she performed is testified to by her most holy conduct and examples and most celebrated fame. Concerning all and each of the above-stated matters, the said Brother Commissioners or Proctors requested of me, the public Notary, that one or more public instruments be made and delivered to them. These things were done in the town of Corbie, in the Diocese of Amiens, in the year, Indiction, Month, day, and Pontificate aforesaid, in the presence of the venerable and prudent men John Sonache the younger, lieutenant of the Bailiff of the County of Corbie, and John Sonache the elder, citizens and burgesses, and Peter Guiot, Bachelor of Decrees, residing at Corbie, witnesses specially called and asked for this purpose, approving the erasures and interlinear corrections existing in this present public instrument. Cross mark. Gerard Guiot, Notary.

SECTION IV. Faculty given to Blessed Colette to leave the reclusory.

[18] John, by divine mercy Bishop of Amiens, specially deputed by Apostolic authority for the matters written below, to all, etc. Know that we have received, on behalf of the devout Colette Boilet, letters of the Most Reverend Father in Christ and Lord, Lord Anthony, Deacon Cardinal of Santa Maria in Via Lata, The Bishop of Amiens, commonly called de Chalant, Nuncio of the Apostolic See, sent with full power of a Legate a latere to the kingdom of France, presented to us, containing the form which follows.

Anthony, by divine mercy Deacon Cardinal of Santa Maria in Via Lata, commonly called de Chalant... by mandate of Cardinal Chalant, Apostolic Nuncio, To the Reverend Father in Christ, the Bishop of Amiens, eternal greeting in the Lord. A petition presented to us on behalf of Colette Boilet, dear to us in Christ, stated that she had formerly, moved by the zeal of devotion, vowed in the hands of the Venerable Father, the Abbot of the monastery of Saint Peter of Ancient Corbie, of the Order of Saint Benedict, of your Diocese of Amiens, in no way pertaining to the Roman Church, to lead a perpetually solitary life and to remain enclosed in a certain place situated near the parish church of the Blessed Mary of Corbie, arranged and chosen by her for this purpose, in which place she remained living in solitude for about four years. But since, as the same petition added, the aforesaid Colette cannot remain in the said place any longer with peace of mind and clear conscience, on account of certain reasonable causes, and desires to serve the Lord of virtues with religious women dedicated to God, whether enclosed or not, and of an Order approved by the Apostolic See, and to choose her dwelling there for the salvation of her soul; therefore on behalf of the said Colette it has been humbly entreated of us that we deign mercifully to provide for the salvation of her soul. We therefore, who with burning desire seek the peace and quiet of souls and the salvation of all the faithful of Christ, as much as we can with God, commit and command by these our writings to your circumspection — since we do not have certain knowledge of the aforesaid matters — that you act and also dispense regarding all the aforesaid, as you shall see expedient for the salvation of the soul of the said Colette. Given at Paris, the tenth day before the Kalends of August, in the twelfth year of the Pontificate of our Lord Pope Benedict XIII. Thus signed: John de Previo.

[19] After the presentation of which letters, we were urgently required on behalf of the said Colette to proceed to their due execution.

We therefore, wishing to execute diligently the mandate so directed to us, as we are bound, the matter fully examined, since we could not conveniently have the presence of the said Colette, we sent our Vicar to her for obtaining more certain information about the causes and motives of the requested execution of these letters. And having heard the report of him and of many other trustworthy persons, and deeming the purpose and intention of the said Colette to be holy and just, and judging that sufficient and legitimate causes for dispensing with her according to the tenor of the said mandate were present, we pronounce and declare, he grants the faculty of leaving the enclosed place, insofar as it is granted to us by virtue of the said mandate and by the authority with which we are invested, that — the vow and promise made in the hands of the Venerable Father, the Lord Abbot of the monastery of Saint Peter of Ancient Corbie, of our diocese, of leading a perpetually solitary life and of remaining enclosed in a certain place near the parish church of Corbie arranged and chosen by her, and other things notwithstanding — she may freely leave the same place and town, and of living in a monastery. and may enter the religion of the holy nuns of the Order of Saint Benedict, or of the Order of Saint Francis called the Minorites, in some monastery or house of either of the aforesaid religions and orders in the Province of Reims or of Bourges, and may freely profess that order; any other difficulty being removed, we have dispensed with her, and by these presents we dispense, and we relax the aforesaid vow and promise to this end, and absolve her from the same and from each of them. Given at Amiens under our round seal, on the first day of the month of August, in the year 1406.

Thus signed: M. Bonnaert.

SECTION V. Letter of Blessed John of Capistrano to Blessed Colette.

[20] To the devout Sister in Christ Colette, of the Order of Saint Clare, our dearest daughter in the Spouse of Virgins, Brother John of Capistrano, of the Order of Minors, Commissary from the Apostolic See and from the Most Reverend Father Vicar General in the Cismontane Provinces, greeting and eternal peace in the Lord.

Desiring with paternal affection to console you in the Lord, I ratify and confirm by these presents, and decree ratified and confirmed, all the graces granted and approved to you and to your Confessor Brother Peter de Vaux, as well as to the Confessors of the Convents of the Sisters built or to be built by you, by the Most Reverend Father Ministers General. Moreover, I grant to you and to your said Confessor by the same tenor The faculties are extended for choosing Visitors. that you may nominate one or more Brothers of our Order of proven life and good reputation for exercising the office of Visitation over both the Sisters of the said convents and the Brothers dwelling in the said convents. To which Brother or Brothers so nominated I grant by the tenor of these presents, and declare to be granted, the same faculty and power which the aforesaid Ministers General had previously granted to the Visitors of the aforesaid convents, commanding by salutary obedience the Brother or Brothers so nominated to reverently accept the office of Visitation and to exercise it diligently and devoutly once accepted. Farewell in Christ Jesus and pray for me. Given at Besancon on the eighth day of the month of November, in the year of the Lord 1442.

SECTION VI. The Life of Blessed Colette as written, approved by various testimonies.

[21] The credibility of the Acts of this Blessed One is confirmed by authentic testimonies inserted in public Instruments; in which the form of law and statutes has been observed so fully and carefully with all the rigor of judicial proceedings that on this account too Molanus may be believed to have said, and could truly have said, that about no Saint can such illustrious records be found as at Ghent about Blessed Colette. For legitimately attesting to the truth of the first and principal Life, two documents serve, of which here is the tenor:

William, by divine permission Abbot of the monastery of the Blessed Mary of Tronchiennes, of the Premonstratensian Order, and Cornelius Voet, Dean of the Collegiate Church of Saint Pharaildis of Ghent, in the Diocese of Tournai, to all who shall inspect, see, and hear our present letters, greeting in the Lord.

[22] We make known that the Venerable and discreet religious Lord Richard de Zadeleere, a professed monk of the monastery of Saint Bavo near Ghent, of the Order of Saint Benedict; and Sister Joan de la Vent, and Aleydis de Sanchines, of the Order of Saint Clare, of the reform of the handmaid of God Colette of blessed memory, of the convent or monastery situated within the boundaries of the parish church of Saint James of Ghent; and John Plouvier the elder, a married Clerk of the said Diocese of Tournai, have publicly and solemnly attested before us in the church of the said convent before the enclosure or iron grille, and in the word of truth have asserted, in the manner, form, and order which our other letters or Instruments drawn up about this matter more fully and extensively explain, The truth of the Legend of Blessed Colette, proven. that all and each of the things contained in the one hundred and nineteen folios immediately following have been written according to the pure and unadulterated truth, and nowhere deviate from that truth. In testimony of which we have ordered the present letters to be drawn up and inscribed herein, and have ordered and caused them to be fortified with the affixing of our seals on green leather cords, pierced through the present book. Done and enacted at Ghent in the aforesaid convent and place, in the year of the Lord 1494, on the fifteenth day of the month of May, in the presence there of the Venerable and circumspect men, Lords and Masters Michael Dullaert, pastor of one portion of Saint John's, John Doelage, pastor of the other portion of Saint James's, parish churches; Anthony de Vlinderbeke, temporal Lord of Aelbeke; Martin Plouvier, Chaplain of the church of Saint Pharaildis; John Martelare, a Religious of Tronchiennes — all Priests; and Lawrence Dullaert and Martin Wuitendale, Clerks of the Diocese of Tournai, witnesses specially called and asked for the aforesaid. So it is. John de Fine, Notary, asked for the aforesaid. So it is. Hubert de Critsche, Notary.

[23] The letters drawn up regarding the aforesaid attestation of truth, in the manner of a public Instrument, by authentic letters, and strengthened by the seals of two Prelates and the signs of two Notaries, for the verification of the Life or Legend of Blessed Colette — which the Sisters call the Greater to distinguish it from others — are of the following tenor, except that for the sake of avoiding prolixity we have cut out the longer formulas, which contribute nothing to the substance of the matter, substituting ellipses. William, etc., as above... We make known that the Venerable Father Brother James de Saint-Quentin, of the Order of Saint Francis, Confessor of the Poor Ladies of Saint Clare of Ghent, and the Venerable Sister Barbara Boens, Mother Abbess of the same Order and convent, have informed us... how... Father Brother James Bernardi, of the said Order of the Observance... Visitor in the Province of France... requested that the principal works and miracles... which the Lord deigned to work through... the Virgin Colette... be put into authentic form. Wherefore the said Confessor and Abbess... asked that we, repairing to their Convent... deign to hear and receive... the above-narrated attestation...

[24] Two nuns who had lived with Blessed Colette for twenty years, In response to whose prayers... going to the said convent... the aforesaid Abbess produced for examination... two Sisters of venerable old age... regarding the aforesaid; namely Sister Joan de Laveur, otherwise de Salieres, and Sister Aleydis de Sanchines, both from the parts of Burgundy; who for many years and in various places and provinces lived with the same handmaid of Christ Colette... whose attestation reads as follows: I, Sister Joan de Laveur, approximately eighty-two years of age, and having been in the Order of Saint Clare... for nearly the sixty-ninth year... I was in the Order during the times of the aforesaid Mother for about twenty-three years; and I, Sister Aleydis de Sanchines, having more than seventy-seven years of age and approximately sixty-six years in the Order, and having professed the said Order for almost twenty years during the times of the aforesaid Mother, from their own and others' knowledge they testify that the Legend is true, we attest... that the Legend of the said handmaid of Christ Colette is in its entirety and in all its parts sound, good, and trustworthy, and nowhere deviates from the truth, as we have heard, seen, and discovered by true experience; as also we have learned from the truthful report of various Brothers and Sisters affirming the same... of whom some were present from the very beginning of this Reform.

[25] We also attest that she performed various other remarkable works of perfection and prodigies which are neither inserted in this Legend nor commemorated in writing. But lest... the process of the present attestation should be thought suspicious because of the variety of books, but rather be founded on certain books known to us and bearing the appearance of truth, we have therefore had the registration of these books inserted in this writing. Of which one... is in the French language... the other is recent... already written, corrected, and collated by a Notary and witnesses from the aforesaid original... When this article was read through, the aforesaid Sisters handed over to us these two books for examination... And since the testimony is strengthened by the multiplication of witnesses, we therefore make known that the aforesaid Brother James, Confessor, and the Abbess produced before us... other attestations from Sisters of venerable old age from the Hesdin and Arras convents, as other Hesdin and Arras Sisters also testify, who have attested the aforesaid article together with the above-narrated registration...

[26] They further attest... under the same form as Sister Joan and the aforesaid Aleydis above, The writer Peter de Vaux was her Confessor, that Brother Peter de Vaux, whom they commonly called the venerable Father de Reims, advanced in age to sixty-six years and a quinquagenarian in the Order of Saint Francis, first composed the aforesaid Legend in the French language, and was for many years the Confessor of this aforementioned handmaid of the Lord; who, Brother Peter aforesaid, while he was still living among humans, making a solemn attestation of all those things which he had written about this aforementioned handmaid of God, called God to witness, swearing on his word as a Priest, that he had not written this Legend and its prodigies and miracles otherwise from certain knowledge, than as he had truly seen in his own person and heard from her, and had found and discovered by experience to be so, and as had come to his knowledge through truthful and sufficient witnesses. That furthermore he had committed nothing to writing about her that he did not believe to be the pure and unadulterated truth, asserting moreover that various other works of perfection had been performed by the same Sister Colette, of which the aforesaid Legend makes no mention. This attestation was thus performed by the same Brother Peter at Ghent, in the monastery of Saint Bavo of the Order of Saint Benedict, before the venerable man of good memory, Master Oliver de Langhe, Prior of that monastery while he lived, in the presence of certain other Religious.

[27] Which attestation, because the aforesaid

Prior had first heard it, attentively applying himself to it, Oliver de Langhe translated it into Flemish from the Latin, he took care and diligence, giving credence to the attestation of the said Brother Peter, and the Legend which previously he had been hesitant and unwilling to translate, he now wished to translate. And in fact he translated the said Legend into the vernacular Flemish from the Latin, as can clearly appear by inspecting the said Legend, which the same Prior wrote, corrected, and drew up with his own hand; which to this day has been kept in firm custody and more diligently preserved in honor of God and in reverence for the aforesaid Prior... Moreover, the aforesaid Sisters testified to the aforesaid attestation of Brother Peter from his own account, who, having made the attestation of this kind in the aforesaid monastery of Saint Bavo, returning to the convent of the same Sisters, where he stayed for some days, repeated the same... before them again. Furthermore... Lord Richard de Zadeleere, Priest and professed monk of the aforesaid monastery of Saint Bavo, and... John Plouvier the elder... asserted... that they had heard from the account of the same Master Oliver, as aforesaid. The same Master Oliver also inserted the same attestation, as it had occurred in his presence... at length in the preface of his German Legend... which attestation Lord Richard and the witness John, declaring that they had known and still knew the extension of Master Oliver well, affirmed to be truthful.

[28] And continuing, the said Sisters Joan and Aleydis their aforesaid attestation consequently said: And when the oft-mentioned Priest Master Oliver had completed this translation... he went in person to the same Sisters and their aforesaid Convent, asserting that this aforementioned handmaid and Virgin of the Lord, Colette, had appeared to him in the cell of the dormitory of the same monastery of Saint Bavo, to whom Blessed Colette, appearing, gave thanks, and had given him immense thanks for his many cares and various labors in honor and love of God in translating the aforesaid Legend. Which Venerable Sister Colette promised and said that she would pray for him, because he had by no means labored in vain, and his reward was great. From which apparition the same Prior, filled with joy and exhilarated, became forgetful of past labors and miseries. Which Prior also, before he reached the end of the same translation, had endured many pains and various temptations, and had fallen into serious illnesses. This same apparition of this humble handmaid of the Lord, Colette, made to the person of the Venerable and devout Master Oliver, was also attested by the aforementioned Lord Richard... who was present when the aforesaid Priest, Lord John Drooghemont, then Subprior of the same monastery, narrated the entire series of the apparition: how, namely, after the morning office had been said, the aforesaid handmaid of the Lord appeared to him, giving thanks and promising rewards.

[29] Concerning all of which, Brother James de Saint-Quentin and Sister Barbara, the aforesaid Abbess... asked that public Instruments be made for them. We therefore, William Abbot and Cornelius Dean... These things were done at Ghent in the said Religious Convent, An Instrument was made concerning these matters. commonly called Saint Clare's, before the iron grille, with the curtains or veils openly drawn back as required for this public attestation, where inside the aforesaid Mother Abbess, Sister Barbara Boens, was present with the community of her subject fellow-Sisters and Religious of the convent, and outside the grille was their Sisters' Confessor, Brother James de Saint-Quentin, accompanied by a Religious of the same Order and Observance, Brother Roger de Fraxino, in the year of the Lord's nativity 1494... in the presence there of... Michael Dullaert and the others named above...

[30] The Commentary on the Life and Miracles of Blessed Colette, For the other commentary on the virtues and miracles of Blessed Colette, which is entitled the "notebook of Sister Petrina," to be supported with equal authority, an Instrument of similar form was made which was drawn up at Hesdin and transmitted to Ghent, together with an authentic copy of the aforesaid Commentary, collated by two public Notaries who were also Priests, Reginald Leurin and James Gargan, against the original itself, and fortified with their signs in the year 1494, on the sixteenth day of the month of April. The words moreover of the Hesdin Instrument, drawn up on parchment by the hand of the same Reginald Leurin already mentioned, are as follows:

To all who shall inspect these present letters, Baldwin Thorel, Licentiate in Decrees, Cantor and Canon of the Collegiate Church of Saint Martin of Hesdin, in the Diocese of Therouanne, greeting in the Lord.

[31] in preparation for a preliminary inquiry, Since on behalf of the devout and religious man Brother Oliver Testor, of the Order of Saint Francis, Confessor of the convent of Saint Clare of Hesdin, it was set forth to us that he had received orders from his Superiors to inquire, by way of a particular preliminary inquiry, concerning the life, virtues, and miracles of Sister Colette of happy memory, devoted to God, in the said town of Hesdin and thereabouts; requesting that we deign and be willing to direct this matter with him and bring it to effect. To which supplication, having acceded no less eagerly than willingly, we make known that in the year 1494, on September 17, in the second year of the Pontificate of Alexander VI, before us (with the aforesaid Brother Oliver, Confessor of the said convent, and a public Notary and the witnesses named below assisting), there was personally present the Venerable Mother Guillielma Chrestienne, Abbess of the Sisters of the Order of Saint Clare, the Abbess and three Sisters of Hesdin testify, together with three of her Religious Sisters, namely Mary Maguier, Matthea Parmentier, and Matthea Naye, who attested and under oath and the vows of their Religion affirmed that they firmly believed that all and each of the things contained or written in the present copy contain sincere and pure truth. Whose affirmation and declaration they requested to be inscribed here in their proper form and maternal language (namely French; which the same Brother Anselm de Beyl who rendered the rest into Latin also rendered) in this manner.

[32] In testimony of the truth of all the contents in this book or copy, collated against the book written by Brother Francis des Marez, written by contemporaries of Blessed Colette, at their dictation, Confessor of the place, at the request of Sister Guillielma Chrestienne, Abbess, and the other Sisters of the said Convent, also with the help and assistance of Sister Petrina de Balma, niece of Father Henry de Balma, who was the first and principal Confessor of the good Mother Colette from the beginning of the reform; with the additional testimony of Sisters Agnes Tinghiere, Mary Estoquette, and other Sisters who had lived longer with the said Sister Colette in various Provinces and Convents, interred here after death. When the originals, from which this copy was extracted, were being completed, the aforesaid Sisters testified in the word of truth, that it is truthful, before the entire community and in the presence of the Visitor Father Andrew and the Confessor of the place, that everything written herein is most true, and entirely free from any doubt; knowing that they had not reported or testified more than what was in truth of the matter.

[33] Hence I, Sister Guillielma, the above-mentioned Abbess, born about sixty-seven years ago, and fortified by indubitable testimonies, of which I have spent fifty-three in the Order of Saint Clare under the reform of the glorious handmaid of Christ Colette; and I, Sister Mary Maguier, fifty-three years old, and Sister little Matthea Parmentier, fifty-four years old, and Sister little Matthea Naye, thirty-seven years old, we all testify before God and all who inquire, under the testimony of truth and the vow of our Religion, that everything contained in this handwritten book is true; some of which we have seen, some we have heard both from the senior Sisters and from the Confessors and other most trustworthy external persons. Indeed, in the presence of all of us, Sister Petrina de Balma confirmed the truth of these things at the point of death; and we have a most certain memory of everything without any doubt, whence we are more strongly inclined to testify to this, lest the truth remain hidden any longer. Hence for greater certainty, and likewise the copy transcribed from it, to this copy, containing sixty-nine pages, collated by the Notary Master James Gargan in the presence of several witnesses and other notaries, on the last page of this copy we have appended this attestation. Concerning all and each of the aforesaid matters, the aforesaid Mother Abbess, in the name of her Community and of all whose interest it is, was, or could be, has requested from us a public Instrument, which we have appended here.

[34] These things were done at Hesdin, in the Diocese of Therouanne, in the said Convent, before witnesses, before the iron grille, with the curtains opened by special grace as required for this public attestation; in the year, month, day, and Pontificate aforesaid; in the presence there of the prudent and discreet men and Lords Nicholas Bouqueri, Canon of Saint Martin at Hesdin, John Bernars, Vicar of the parish church of the said Saint Martin, Solomon Jumel, a notarial clerk of the Diocese of Therouanne, Philip de Blangij, Priest, and James d'Arques, Clerk, citizens respectively of Hesdin, of the Dioceses of Therouanne and Amiens, witnesses equally called and asked for the aforesaid. And I, Reginald Levrin, Priest, and Notary. of the Diocese of Amiens, public Notary by Apostolic authority and sworn Notary of the venerable Court of Therouanne, because I was present at the aforesaid attestation, narration, presentation of the present copy, inspection of the folios, and all and each of the other aforesaid matters, while they were thus being done, said, and performed, as written above, together with the aforesaid Lord Cantor and Father Confessor and the aforementioned witnesses; and saw, knew, and heard the same to be so done: therefore to these present letters, drawn up in this public form, together with the seal of the Chapter of the Collegiate Church of Saint Martin at Hesdin, I have affixed the sign of my Notariate, subscribing myself here, in testimony of all and each of the aforesaid, having been required and asked.

It was signed

Levrin.

LIFE

from the French of Peter de Vaux or de Reims, Confessor of the Blessed One herself, rendered into Latin by Stephen Juliacus, Doctor of the Sorbonne, of the Order of Saint Francis.

From four manuscript codices.

Colette, Reformer of the Order of Saint Clare, at Ghent in Belgium (B.)

BHL Number: 1869, 1870

By Stephen Juliacus, from manuscripts.

PROLOGUE.

[1] The Only-Begotten of the Most High Creator, co-spirator with the same as one principle of the supreme Spirit, looking down from the heights of the heavens and from royal seats upon these lower realms — now miserably and foully fallen into the precipice of the abyss — and making His mercies manifold in wondrous ways, with inestimable sweetness of piety, according to what He had disposed from eternity, deigned to visit the world. By the wondrous providence of God, various ranks of men and women in the Church. And therein indeed, by the infallible providence of the same, He so disposed those who were called, predestined and elect from eternity, to be justified in a wondrous manner: that He would make some Prophets, others Apostles or Evangelists, some Martyrs, others Confessors or Doctors of the Law — not without the lilies of sacred Virgins — wondrously adorning the body of His most holy Spouse, namely the sacred Mother Church. But through an absolute and ineffable abundance of all virtues and graces, He wondrously joined to Himself one chosen out of thousands, elected above all and before all, as a most fruitful Mother and most beloved Spouse and most faithful Daughter, shining with all purity — He who is the brightness of eternal light and the spotless mirror of the divine majesty. Then at last, with certain cycles of years intervening, when the state of both sexes had become foully entangled in fatal dangers, He is known to have renewed it splendidly through His own champions and most valiant warriors, fully irradiating and rightly correcting it. But finally, when the vigor of the aforesaid had weakened, a new militant arose who, holding a sword in one hand to defeat the enemy, extended the other to the hoe, for continually cultivating the vineyard of the supreme Father of the household. All of which is recognized to have been done and completed manifestly in the most fruitful Mother of the cultivation of every virtue, among these Saint Colette was chosen, of beauty of manners and of unspeakable and unheard-of merits through the ages, by name Colette, the most devout handmaid and Reformer of all Evangelical perfection of the supreme King, as though divinely brought forth from both supreme poles of the heavens for this purpose, so that with holy Judith she might say in the eleventh chapter of her book: "I am your handmaid and I worship God." In which words we can contemplate four Prerogatives of excellence of the aforesaid, most beloved mother and handmaid of Christ: whose four prerogatives are, namely in the first, the preeminence of her spiritual virtue singularly demonstrated, when it says "I"; secondly, the condescension of cordial humility dutifully offered, when it adds "your handmaid"; thirdly, the maintenance of integral fidelity radically solidified, when it says "God"; fourthly, the abundance of visceral piety incessantly expanded, when it concludes "I worship."

The first is led forth by her wondrous sanctity surpassing others, on account of which it says "I." The second is brought forth by her mystical lowliness subjecting herself in spirit, wherefore it adds "your handmaid." The third is induced by her pure and salvific firmness casting aside errors, whence it adds "God." The fourth is produced by her peaceable liberality looking in both directions, whence it concludes "I worship." On account of the first, that passage from the Song of Songs 7 is fitting for her: "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine." On account of the second, she could say that from Ruth 3: "I am your handmaid." To which the response is: "Blessed are you of the Lord, daughter." On account of the third, she deserved to hear that from Apocalypse 21: "He who overcomes shall possess these things, and I will be his God." On account of the fourth, she virtuously strove, so that she began to worship God and established among His servants sacred rites and sacrifices. Wisdom 14.

[2] And although the so illustrious and resplendent, so many and great miracles performed by this most glorious Mother — more worthy of every praise than capable of imitation (which would seem utterly incredible to many, were it not that a manifold and most evident effect firmly and undoubtedly confirmed them) — my poor speech, The Author writes the Life, received from trustworthy witnesses, my rough style, and my very dull intellect are recognized most certainly to be much more capable of obscuring than of elucidating: nevertheless, having been requested by notable persons whom I determined it was in no way proper for me to refuse, the things concerning the inexhaustible praises of the aforesaid Mother which I have learned ^a from the most trustworthy testimony of experts in this matter, I shall attempt to compress under a certain number of articles or chapters, namely twenty. Of which the first Chapter will be about the state of her wondrous infancy, notably endowed with the knowledge of God, and the various gifts of charisms and graces ^b gratefully bestowed by God on her parents. The second Chapter, about the depth of her virtue and outstanding humility. divided into twenty Chapters. The third Chapter, about the readiness of her submission and obedience, and her calling to the state of perfection. The fourth Chapter, about her diligent passive as well as active observance of the divine precepts, and especially about the cultivation of Feasts according to the ordinance of the holy Church of God. The fifth Chapter, about a certain showing of a terrible vision portending that she was given, though unwilling, to the Reform of the Order of Saint Clare. The sixth Chapter, about her approach to the presence of the Supreme Pontiff, and how she was received by him to the Religious life and to profession, and at the same time instituted as Abbess. The seventh Chapter, about the beginning of the Reform of the Order of Saint Clare, and about the persecutions inflicted upon her. The eighth Chapter, about her cordial love of most holy poverty. The ninth Chapter, about her perfect chastity and pure virginity. The tenth Chapter, about the pursuit of holy prayer, most acceptable to God and most profitable to creatures. The eleventh Chapter, about her fervent love and reverence and likewise devotion toward the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ; with the miracles accomplished by her merits through the saving sign of the holy Cross. The twelfth Chapter, about her great devotion and worthy reverence toward the most precious Sacrament of the Eucharist, and her not a little admirable reception of the most sacred Body of our Lord Jesus Christ. The thirteenth Chapter, about her austerity toward herself and about her humanity and sweetness through compassion toward others. The fourteenth Chapter, about the grievous pains and torments most patiently endured by her. The fifteenth Chapter, about the gift of prophecy, with full and clear knowledge miraculously bestowed on her by God. The sixteenth Chapter, about the severe persecution of malignant spirits. The seventeenth Chapter, about the renewal of spiritual graces of the Saints and friends of God in her. The eighteenth Chapter, about the virtue of her true patience, which she maintained without delay in all her persecutions. The nineteenth Chapter, about the completion of her days and the falling asleep of bodily death. The twentieth Chapter, about her miracles, shining both in life and after death.

[3] Here begins the brief and succinct extract of the most perfect and most holy life of the Venerable and most devout Religious of good memory, named Sister Colette, the first Reformer and Restorer of the Order of Saint Clare below on earth; and as is undoubtedly to be believed, the glorious co-ruler with Christ in heaven. Saint Colette is called the little handmaid of Christ. In which extract — containing the wondrous deeds of her holy life less than adequately because of her excellence and my very great weakness — this should be noted: that the said Mother is often called therein "Ancillula," that is, the little handmaid of our Lord Jesus Christ, for this reason: because it is established with certainty that before God she was many times so named.

^a This or a similar word was missing, supplied by us.

^b So in the prefixed title; other manuscripts read "most gratefully" and "to most grateful parents."

CHAPTER I.

Concerning the state of her wondrous infancy, notably endowed with the knowledge of God, and the various gifts of graces and charisms gratefully bestowed by God on her parents.

[4] It is convincingly shown that the gift ^a of knowledge pertains not a little to the worship of boundless Majesty and supreme Deity, and especially of the supreme good, which is the first principle and last end of all things, and its infinite and most eminent exemplar of all resplendent things, from which, through which, and in which all things subsist, shine forth, and are ordered — most pure, She receives knowledge of God, immutable, simple, and eternal. Of which the distinguished Doctor Aurelius Augustine deservedly confesses in the first book on the Trinity: "The supreme good," he says, "is found only by the most purified minds. For the weak gaze of the human mind is not fixed in so excellent a light, unless it is nourished and strengthened through the justice ^b of faith." For this reason, in the Soliloquies, he humbly asks the supreme bestower of graces, God, to grant him this more generously, saying: "Lord, give me the grace of knowing You." This grace of limpid knowledge, especially about Himself, the most liberal Giver Himself deigned to confer not inconsiderably, in His infinite goodness, upon His glorious handmaid Colette, of worthy memory, deservedly to be recalled — not only at a mature age, but even at a tender or childish age, which is commonly called infancy. at four years of age, For precisely when she was about four years old — which is quite extraordinary by common or natural usage — she began to have her mind so continually elevated to the knowledge of God that no expert could doubt in any way that this had been supernaturally and divinely inspired in her. For just as we read of the Precursor of Christ, John the Baptist, like Saint John the Baptist, that after many pieces of knowledge about God had been divinely imprinted upon him, in his tender years, fleeing and despising the crowds of the world's citizens, he sought the caves of the desert, choosing solitude: so in like manner the glorious handmaid of Christ of whom we now speak, having divinely received the manifold grace of divine knowledge, while still in her childhood years, as stated above, began to flee all youthful games and curious and dissolute childish pursuits, she despises worldly things, and to despise the vanities and worldly applause. And although she did not personally go to places of desert or solitude, under the pretext of the feminine sex which would have opposed it, she nevertheless chose as far as possible, by her own will, the solitary state in the very house of her parents. For in the same house she first, by her own prompting — she establishes an oratory for herself, or rather by divine inspiration — chose for herself a certain tiny place, separated from the rest, in the manner of an oratory, where diligently occupying herself with good meditations, in the divine fear and love and His holy service, with frequent and devout prayers, she would never leave it unless rarely, and then only when compelled and unwilling.

[5] She was moreover exceedingly venerable and extraordinary in the sight of secular and worldly people, not only in her youthful age but also throughout the entire span of time during which she lived among humans. Whence whenever she was compelled to go out for the needs of religion or for any other cause, she flees the society of men, whether outside the cloister or outside her private oratories, even in the presence of any or however private a person, she was suffused with the blush of modesty, always seeming in her own estimation to be blameworthy, reprehensible, and confused; nor did she ever, according to her own estimation, do or say anything as good in public or before people as she was confident of having progressed while remaining alone before God in secret. Sometimes when girls or young women of her own age visited her and diligently sought to lead her to worldly games and amusements, she not only utterly refused to consent, even of girls her own age, but also many times, sensing in her spirit that they were going to come, she would absent herself as best she could and hide in the recesses of the house, such as under the bed or elsewhere, until she was certain of their departure.

[6] Now she was small in body and young in age, but she was aged with the fervent desire to love God her Creator perfectly, she devotes herself to the love of God, and to fear Him and to serve Him faithfully and to obey Him diligently, ^c wishing that He might be known by all and feared, and likewise loved above all things by all. She was young in age but old in good morals, in honest manner of life with total mortification of sensuality, with her senses entirely closed and restrained from whatever was harmful to her most pure conscience. to purity of conscience and modesty, Her manner of life appeared more heavenly than earthly, more angelic than human; so composed in her gestures and ordered in modesty and all virtuous manners that no vanity or levity could be perceived in her from any source. All her thoughts, words, and deeds consisted in purity and fidelity of conscience, to fulfilling the commandments of God, striving for nothing else than to fulfill

with all her might the divine good pleasure, to the fulfillment of the commandments of God, and to edify her neighbor by her example as best she could.

[7] It seemed to certain persons beholding such things in the love of God and likewise in fraternal charity, that she was a certain new and precious treasure of virtue and grace, which God for certain causes, though unknown, had deigned to send anew into the world, according to the estimation of many trustworthy persons endowed with no few devotions — after the likeness of the aforesaid most worthy Precursor of Christ Jesus, namely the most holy John the Baptist, she is compared to Saint John the Baptist, sent from heaven before the first coming of the same Savior, to announce that He would come in the near future and to preach repentance. In like manner, this most holy handmaid of our Lord is undoubtedly thought to have been sent beforehand, for continually exhorting and admonishing poor sinners to prepare their hearts and purge their consciences, in admonishing sinners, for appearing more securely before the sight of the supreme Judge at the final and most strict judgment, which will be the second and last coming of the same. And just as the same John, while still at a youthful age, led an austere life through rigorous penance and continual abstinence in the desert, so proportionally, according to the measure of her small capacity, this handmaid in her aforesaid solitary little place continually wasted and mortified her most tender and youthful little body — in mortification and penance, namely by nourishing herself soberly and strictly, sleeping hard on wooden planks and roughly, with only a single covering of ^d mats, and wearing next to her tender flesh rough and knotted cords.

[8] Besides this, because she had received an abundance of graces and virtues inwardly in her spirit, it pleased the Most High likewise to confer upon her many becoming graces outwardly in her body, endowed with excellent gifts of soul and body, such as bodily beauty, a pleasing gracefulness, and a most welcome lovableness. For she was lovely in face, well-proportioned in body; she was seen to be in all things most pleasing and a most beautiful daughter — although throughout the entire time of her life she judged and considered herself, both inwardly and outwardly, to be a most vile and ugly creature. She appeared facially adorned with two colors, namely whiteness and redness, fair and ruddy, of which the first could most fittingly signify the purity of her conscience and the cleanliness of her innocence; the second, namely the redness, the most perfect fervor with which she was borne toward God; by prayers she obtains the removal of the red color, whence it is evident that she was always inflamed. This bodily beauty she bore for a long time unknowingly, nor did she suppose in any way that she was resplendent with such brightness, until it was made known to her from without. Whence, becoming sad and grieving, she turned to God for more conveniently obtaining a suitable remedy. And immediately, when the prayer was completed, that red color departed, and only whiteness remained in her, both in face and in hands and in the whole body, for the entire time of her life. She was nevertheless pleasing to the eyes of all and desirable to be seen by all, she remains equally gracious, sweet and lovable to hear, accepted indifferently by both good and bad, with many notable persons marveling with great astonishment at the visitation of divine grace, with such great magnitude of a virtuous life, shining in so small and young a body of so little a girl.

[9] In particular, ^e her father and ^f mother, distinguished by the honor of a virtuous life, observing God's commandments as best they could, continually exercising themselves in works of piety and mercy, Her parents were pious, when they more attentively perceived their only daughter to have begun to lead so holy a life and to continue so excellent and perfect a gravity of manner, they rejoiced greatly with no small amazement and were filled with the greatest consolation. But neither were they found ungrateful to God for so great a grace liberally bestowed upon them by Him, they rejoice in the holy life of their daughter, as for a noble treasure communicated to them by Him. Indeed, giving thanks and manifold gratitude and worthy and multifarious praises from their hearts to the supreme Creator, they took inestimable delight from the holy conduct of the girl, from her words and good works, with the firmest hope that through her mediation and her virtuous meritorious works they might more easily acquire the abundance of divine grace. And at last, in effect, by the power of the sacred teachings and frequent exhortations of their so devout, sweet, and beloved daughter, they unanimously resolved to do better than had otherwise been their lot in living — and they themselves resolved to live holily, that is, carefully avoiding divine offense, preserving their consciences and souls in purity and cleanness, continuing perseveringly and constantly advancing from virtue to virtue.

[10] The divine goodness did not permit the aforesaid parents of this His most devout handmaid to be defrauded of their hope or most holy desires; indeed, He wished to show them a singular sign of love, namely by conferring singular graces on both. Among which, to the father himself, who was by nature a sweet and amiable person, the most benign Bestower granted the grace of pacifying or reuniting the discordant and divided: the father excels in the grace of making peace, which grace he deserved to exercise so diligently and efficaciously that, immediately upon learning the truth with certainty of any discord, division, or quarrel of anyone, wherever it might be, setting aside other business, he would go there and labor unceasingly until he had fully restored those discordant and divided persons to perfect and complete union. Furthermore, to the same father was granted the grace of sweetness and heartfelt piety, as regards the affection of compassion toward the poor members of Jesus Christ, as well as of helping and caring for poor dissolute women who had strayed from the way of purity and honesty; and of reclaiming dishonest women to virtue, for whom, once reformed and converted by the merits or admonitions of his daughter, the handmaid of the Lord our God, the same father had arranged and freely granted one of his houses for receiving, comforting, and providing for all necessities of those reformed women, the aforesaid poor members of Christ. No less were undoubtedly many singular gifts of charisms reported to have been conferred on the natural mother of the same humble handmaid of Christ: for she was a woman of great devotion, loving and fearing God most perfectly, the mother was endowed with the said virtues, leading her life in strict frugality, exercising herself with many and various penances. For once at least, or more often, confessing each week, she most devoutly received the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, she confesses and communicates each week, and both together, as though inspired by God, sweetly permitted their little handmaid of Christ, sweet and humble, to freely do whatever might be divinely inspired in her. For this reason many persons, ungrateful for the benefits of divine goodness, seeing the youth and smallness of the girl, judging by diabolical instigation with perverse speech, declared that such things should by no means be tolerated in so small a girl by prudent parents. Hearing which, her father constantly responded many times, saying: "I believe that my daughter will do nothing but good."

[11] The girl, however, considering what was frequently objected to her father on account of her smallness, was grieved. Whence on one occasion, being with devotion at a gathering in the church of certain Saints, given to prayer before God, not unmindful of the Saints, she said humbly and devoutly among other things: "Alas, Lord God, does it please You that I should always remain in so tiny a stature?" Growth of body Colette obtains by prayers. And immediately, when the prayer was made, she recognized herself to have grown in bodily size, and to be larger when she returned than she had been at the time of her divine pilgrimage. Nor did this profit her only in growth of body, but also, having perceived this, she grew in spirit, constantly resolving to manfully carry out the grace of divine knowledge bestowed on her by God, so much so that many girls or virgins of good character and notable women, with her consent, began to visit and frequent her likewise, by pious conversations she incites other women to virtue, with whom, having cast aside buffoonery or foolish talk or idle words, she conferred incessantly about matters pertaining to salutary doctrine — such as the most perfect love of God, the most profound humility of the most benign Savior, and the most grievous bitterness of His passion and death — diligently and effectively exhorting them to serve God devoutly, faithfully observing His commandments, carefully avoiding mortal sin, fleeing worldly joys, abhorring carnal delights, and abominating any bodily pleasures. even dissolute girls and widows. In which virtuous teachings very many profited greatly, as certain virgins and widows testified, who, having left all things possessed and to be possessed, devoted themselves to divine service by entering sacred religion; while others, already bound by marriage, as well as married women, repairing their lives by the change of the right hand of the Most High, faithfully and salutarily preserved their state.

^a The Utrecht manuscript reads "of conjunction."

^b The same reads "of God."

^c In most manuscripts, "because."

^d Much about these has been written by Rosweyde in the onomasticon to the Lives of the Fathers, second edition; to which I add Mat. that the word is still in very common use in the Germanic language for a woven rush covering.

^e Below, at number 253, he is called Robert Bolgleti, and by trade a carpenter; by which name, though derived from making carts, the French call all woodworkers.

^f The mother is asserted to have been named Margaret in the Corbie Instrument; Abbeville states she was surnamed Moyon.

CHAPTER II.

Concerning the depth of her virtue and outstanding humility.

[12] As the distinguished Doctor, namely Blessed Augustine, testifies, humility is the root of all other virtues, because just as from the root proceeds the life, vigor, and beauty of the entire tree, such that without it the tree cannot survive, so likewise the virtuous life of a person springs from the root of the virtue of humility, From the virtue of holy humility so that without it the other virtues lose the name of virtue and signify nothing for the soul before God. But all the excellence and perseverance of a virtuous person proceeds from the said root of humility. Whence Gregory says: "He who gathers other virtues without humility does as one who carries dust in the wind." in the explanation of the third Penitential Psalm. If anyone diligently examines the depth of the rootedness of this sacred virtue of humility in the heart of the most glorious handmaid of our Savior, Sister Colette, and the shining of the same virtue in her words and deeds throughout the whole course of her life, it will clearly appear that she was in this present life pleasing and acceptable to God, and now in heaven blessed, happy, exalted, and glorious. For Bernard says: "He who is truly humble does not seek to be proclaimed humble, but to be considered vile by all." she considers herself more worthless than all sinners. Although this most pure Virgin was, from the first state of infancy, distinguished by the wondrous purity of a virtuous conscience, she nevertheless, throughout the entire span of her life, by her own judgment considered herself vile, sordid, and abominable before God and the world, asserting herself to be worse than all the sinners of this world. Sometimes, when the excessive offenses of certain sinners, which had been perpetrated at the time, were recounted to her, she would respond that such offenses were nothing in comparison

to her own offenses; she claims to have deserved the greatest punishments of hell for the sufficient punishment of which she judged and asserted that hell was not big enough. But neither, because of such defects, did she consider herself to be a true Religious or worthy of being in the Religious life. Yet out of love for the Lord our God, she desires to serve devout women, who through His exceeding humility made Himself our servant, she fervently desired to devote herself to the service or ministry of certain good and devout Ladies, faithfully and purely serving God. For the execution or fulfillment of which purpose, while still wearing the secular habit, she personally transferred herself to a certain monastery of Religious Ladies, whom she judged to be before God according to her desire, sweetly and humbly offering herself to their service. But He she is forbidden by God to enter any monastery, whose providence in its disposition does not fail — because He had foreordained her for a state of greater perfection — deigned to show her that such a stay was by no means according to His good pleasure in the said monastery, compelling her to leave quickly, with further entry denied to her.

[13] Yet for this reason her fervent desire to humbly serve, as aforesaid, was neither extinguished nor diminished, but rather increased, so much so that although she knew herself to have been requested from God through the glorious and most holy Father Francis for the reform of his Orders, and likewise granted, as will be declared below, she nevertheless firmly resolved in her heart that, because of the unworthiness and insufficiency she found in herself, she would by no means give her assent, but rather on the contrary determined in her mind to go personally to the presence of the Supreme Pontiff, She approaches the Supreme Pontiff, humbly imploring His Holiness that he might deign to attend to the reform and restoration of the aforesaid Orders, and that she might obtain from the same Supreme Father license to render service to the reformed Religious women of the Order of Saint Clare, which is the second among the Orders of the aforesaid Father, namely the most holy Francis; and that for this purpose she might more fully and freely devote herself, and that by the consent of the said Lord Pope she might have a small ^a chamber next to some of the aforesaid reformed monasteries, for diligently attending to the useful, convenient, and honest services of the said Religious Ladies. Nevertheless, as to these matters, the divine will — which no one can resist, and rightly so — was finally and in effect fulfilled. For in the sight of His humble handmaid, the aforesaid, both in fact and in name, was entitled in an Apostolic Bull as Lady, [She is written as Abbess and Lady of the reform of the Order of Saint Clare without her knowledge,] Mother and Abbess of the aforesaid reform, and in such a degree or title the aforesaid Supreme Pontiff instituted and ordained her — though she herself was entirely ignorant of this, as will more fully appear in what follows. But the condescension of divine goodness did not on this account permit the humble handmaid to be defrauded of the merits and effect of so virtuous a desire; indeed, for the entire time of her life, both in word and in deed, she calls herself a useless servant, an unworthy supplicant, etc., she considered herself a servant and called herself the handmaid and subject of the entire Order. And this in manifold ways and many modes, as will appear below; and first in letters which she wrote, in which she was always accustomed to subscribe with such a title: "Useless servant and unworthy supplicant." Likewise we read in the ordinances compiled by her ^b for the Sisters, for the more secure observance of the purity of the Rule, that she always called herself Sister Colette the little, and handmaid, and unworthy servant of our Lord, a poor and useless Religious of the Order of Saint Clare. Nor did she ever in the days of her life permit anything to be said or written that would redound to her praise or commendation. For at the beginning of the reform of the aforesaid Orders, both Brothers and Sisters, in certain prayers which they poured out to the Lord on her behalf, as was fitting and lawful, were accustomed to address her under the name of Mother. Which the handmaid of Christ perceiving, she does not wish to be called Mother, would by no means permit it, but simply commanded that she be named under the title of Sister.

[14] Among the other virtuous assistants whom the mercy of the Creator sent and granted to His aforesaid handmaid around the beginning of the said reform, she had a certain venerable Father, called Brother Henry de Balma, a man of great religious observance and honest life, virtuous in all things, who knew many things beyond others about the secret gifts and charisms and special graces of the oft-named Mother; about which he secretly composed a little book, lest they perhaps be consigned to oblivion. But this book, made according to the writer's judgment and known to God alone and to himself, was by no means hidden from her about whose deeds and praises it treated; but seeing clearly in spirit all things that were being done, in spirit she learns that her life has been written, she summoned the aforesaid Father, and having truthfully related all the contents of the aforesaid book, she harshly rebuked him for such writing in her commendation, affirming that she was precisely to be considered and ought to be reputed a great sinner, so defective as to be worthy of every reproach or confusion. And finally she had the said book brought to her, which, she burns it, immediately throwing it into the fire, she caused to be entirely consumed, lest any memory of the contents therein should remain. Furthermore, the supreme Truth, who is God, presented to her many revelations and pieces of knowledge about secrets many times, all of which she fully declined, saying out of humility: "Lord God, it suffices me, nor do I require anything more than simply to know You, together with knowledge of my defects, offenses, and sins. And if Your benign clemency has decreed to confer upon me any further gift, desiring to know God and her own sins, I ask for indulgence and remission of those defects."

[15] Once the Most Reverend Father ^c General, the Head of both aforesaid Orders, had composed certain ordinances at her request, beautiful and useful for the entire Religion, in which he mixed certain things in her commendation, so that they would be better and longer observed. And although they were then and are very useful and very necessary for the entire Religion, she never took pleasure in them. Even when it was necessary for those ordinances to be read or recited for the common good of the entire Religion in her presence, she is grieved at being called Mother of the others, when they came to the passage where mention was made of the aforesaid commendation — because she was named therein as Mother of the others — she bore it with difficulty and could not hear such a thing without desolation. In this, however, she proved herself a most perfect imitator of the Lord the Savior, who, after performing the miracle of cleansing the leper, said: "See that you tell no one." Matt. 8:4 And elsewhere, forbidding the unclean spirits, He did not allow them to speak, because they knew that He was the Christ; but He was domestic and familiar with poor sinners, receiving, comforting, and helping them. Mark 1:34 In like manner, His humble handmaid, although she supremely abhorred sins or offenses committed against God, benign toward sinners, nevertheless never shrank from nor abominated sinful persons, whether Religious or of any other state, diligently observing and piously recalling how our most benign Savior descended from heaven for the sake of sinners, of whose number she considered herself, holding herself on their side; treating such persons humbly and always comforting them in the Lord, and helping them sweetly and humbly with great charity. For which reason many poor sinners came confidently to her presence, revealing to her very many enormous excesses of sins, never before disclosed to anyone else; whom she, receiving them most humbly and hearing them sweetly, so effectively and kindly admonished them that she led them to the knowledge of God and the recognition of their own guilt, and finally to true repentance; she leads them to true repentance. never ceasing to labor until she brought them out of the chains of sins and the nets of the devil and led them to God's mercy and saving grace.

[16] When moreover she learned of the good pleasure of the Supreme Pontiff, that according to his constitution she ought to exercise the office of Abbess — although at first she had no convents, appointed Abbess by the Pope, and after she had them, the required enclosure and many other things were lacking, offering occasion for easily falling into transgression, which they did not find at the beginning — nonetheless she, with the Lord cooperating, so diligently and sagaciously exercised the said office, to the praise of God and the salvation of souls and the advancement of Religion, that without confusion or disorder all things succeeded laudably and prosperously. she asserts that the good of the Religion is being dissipated by her. Yet for all that, then and daily thereafter, she asserted that she had never done anything good, but had rather consumed and dissipated the good of the Religion — all of which indicated her profound humility.

[17] But wherever she ought to preside, as in chapter or refectory or elsewhere, she was absorbed by so powerful an abyss of fear and trembling, as though she were seeing the supreme Judge with her own eyes; in whose presence she did not think herself worthy to stand, she always chooses the last place, nor in His absence to exercise any presidency. But in every place, both in community with the others and in private and sequestered places, she always chose for herself the lowest and last ^d stall; and when she was alone, she almost always remained on bended knees, or sitting on the ground, and scarcely ever, unless compelled — sometimes forced — was she willing to take her meal in an elevated position, though it was meager and poor. If she was sequestered, as she usually was, she took it sitting on the ground with such weeping and groaning that both the food and she herself were seen to be drenched with tears. Sometimes, on the pretext of weakness or illness coming upon her, she would take the help of a Religious woman for saying the Divine Office or other devotions; in saying the Office she seeks the more humble parts, and then, from the depth of humility, considering herself the lowest, least, and least worthy of all, she would rather choose a novice than a professed nun, and a simpler one than a more learned one, and did not presume herself to be worthy of beginning the Office or saying the prayers; but she willingly and gladly recited the versicles or lessons in Matins or other similar things that indicate humility. The assistant Religious woman, however humble, simple, or a novice she might be, she would compel to begin the Divine Office and finally to conclude it. Moreover, this handmaid of God, from the depth of humility, before assuming the Religious habit, most humbly gave aid to the needy, kind to the poor, and consolation to lepers, diligently communicating various alms to them with her own hands. For even while still in her father's house, even if she was sitting at table with her parents, upon hearing them she would rise at once, and familiarly and charitably serving them from the better dishes, she would willingly eat and drink with them, casting aside every horror or disgust. she washes their feet. Furthermore, when the opportunity arose, she would willingly wash their feet and wipe or cleanse their ulcers, especially if she was alone with such persons and separated from the tumult of others, firmly believing that she was rendering service

to Christ by humbly ministering to the poor, miserable, and despised persons.

^a Some manuscripts read "bull."

^b The Corsendoncanese and Rougevallee manuscripts read "coupled."

^c William de Casale, as stated above, died at Florence on February 2, 1442.

^d Stallus. A stall is properly a place or station in the choir assigned to individuals, hence "to install" means to induct into possession; from the Germanic "stellen," meaning "to place," in which language animal stables are also called stalls.

CHAPTER III.

Concerning the readiness of her submission and obedience, and her calling to the state of perfection.

[18] Obedience, as Augustine says in Book 4 of the City of God, is in a certain way the mother and guardian of all virtues; and he adds in the book On the Work of Monks: "Because the one prayer of the obedient is more quickly heard than ten thousand prayers of the contemptuous." This obedience, moreover, as Blessed Gregory says in his Morals, is to be observed not with servile fear Most ready in obedience, but with the affection of charity, not from fear of punishment but from love of justice. Book 12 Whence a certain holy Father says: "Obedience is a precious treasure through which the kingdom of heaven is acquired." With this treasure the glorious handmaid of the Lord our God, Colette, was wonderfully enriched: for after the manner of the holy Apostles, called by the mouth of Christ to follow Him, she was called by the same mentally and in spirit to the most holy state of Evangelical perfection; like the Apostles, and just as they were ready and swift to follow Christ at the hearing of one voice, so she, at the first inspiration divinely infused into her mind, was ready to assent, to embrace the said Evangelical state. And since some of them, like Blessed Andrew, were stirred by a threefold calling — first to the knowledge of Christ, secondly to His intimacy, and finally to perfect following and true imitation — excited by a threefold calling, so proportionally was she: first she was mentally elected by God through the conferring of the grace of knowing God, while still in infancy, as said above; secondly to divine intimacy, through an interior direction to the Evangelical counsels; finally through the showing of a most evident sign of the divine good pleasure concerning her, namely that she should assume the Regular and Evangelical state by entering Religious life.

[19] And since the said Evangelical state is recognized as principally containing two things — namely precepts, whose obedience and full observance no one of sound mind is unaware is necessary for all who expect the salvation of their soul, provided they have sufficient age and discretion; and secondly counsels, which are voluntarily embraced, because, excluding all compulsion or coercion, we freely bind ourselves to them by vow and promise — she embraced the Evangelical counsels, to these this Mother was divinely inspired and called. Although before the vow they are free and voluntary, after the vow they are obligatory or necessary, like precepts. And these counsels are twelve in number, but are reduced to three: obedience, poverty, and chastity. And these are the foundations of the entire religious life, to which, together with enclosure, the aforesaid Mother willingly bound herself, assuming the Third Order of our most blessed Father Francis, having assumed the Third Order of Saint Francis, first enclosing and restricting herself in a certain small dwelling or ^a reclusory near a certain church, in which she could hear Masses and receive the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.

[20] she dwells enclosed. But for the more convenient execution of the things to be done, a certain Religious ^b of the Order of Friars Minor was sent to her by God, a man truly good and of honest life, endowed with great prudence and distinguished in the knowledge and understanding of God, she is directed by a prudent man, a true observer of his Rule, though few or perhaps none such could be found at that time in that land; because there were then not in that province, namely of France, reformed convents of the Order of Friars Minor, as they were later recognized to have been. That religious man indeed first introduced, or had introduced, the aforesaid handmaid of Christ with solemn ministry into the aforesaid reclusory, to whom he had long since rendered virtuous assistance, many times through manifold consolation, very many and very useful counsels, discreet and secure alike, in all the business to be transacted by her, with most beautiful teachings, which never departed from her special memory throughout the entire time of her life. Nor should it be passed over, I think, that the goodness of the Most High wished to manifest to the aforesaid man the grievous pains and grievous labors with excessive sorrows divinely taught about her labors in the reform of the Order which His humble handmaid was enduring for His fear and the salvation of souls — showing him a certain most beautiful and pleasing Virgin who was painfully and sorrowfully occupied in cultivating a certain vineyard, uprooting what was unfitting and repairing what was suitable. And at last it was signified to the same man that the aforesaid vineyard designated the state of Religion, to the restoration of which the said handmaid of Christ did not cease to occupy herself effectively and virtuously with continual exercise for the entire time of her life, as her works testify and clearly demonstrate. And in like manner, she foresees his death, while remaining in the said reclusory, she foreknew and foretold the death ^c of that Father. The oft-mentioned Father, each year, by God's grace, appeared once to the same handmaid of Christ, and is visited each year by him appearing to her, wherever she might be, manifesting himself as most beautiful and very glorious, whence she was rendered and made most joyful and comforted in the Lord.

[21] And finally the aforesaid handmaid remained in the same reclusory for a ^d period of four years, progressing virtuously and fruitfully profiting four years enclosed, both for herself and for others who willingly directed their attention to divine love and the salvation of souls. But how the handmaid of God Colette led her life in that most strict prison, I think is worth recalling not without admiration: where, living soberly and dwelling in excessive austerity, she lives very austerely, she was clothed in a rough and utterly inhuman hairshirt, girding her tender body with three iron chains, cruel indeed and painfully injuring her pure and most innocent flesh; sleeping for the time on the bare ground, having only a piece or block of wood precisely for a pillow. With such great austerity of penance she wasted her body so that it could be rightly judged that all vicious desires with perverse inclinations in her were, as it were, utterly extinguished she subjects the flesh to the spirit or completely mortified; because her body with all its exterior senses was readily seen to obey the spirit without any rebellion, not only in precepts sensibly expressed outwardly, but also in mental perceptions and interior inspirations, cordially impressed by God.

[22] And beyond the aforesaid, at certain hours, having completed her prayers and meditations, she devotes herself to prayer, she was accustomed to devote herself to charitable operations and occupations toward the poor, the defective, and sinners who were in need of counsel or saving assistance, laboring effectively through exhortations and salutary admonitions to bring such people out of the dreadful prison of vices and out of the snares and chains of the ancient enemy, the infernal demon, and to restore them to the knowledge of the supreme truth and the perfect love of infinite goodness, she exhorts sinners to contempt of the world, showing clearly that nothing in this world, however worthy or precious, can be compared to the treasure of charity or divine love, because the world is transitory with all its concupiscences and belongings, having nothing besides vanity and vexation of spirit, according to the saying of the Wise Man. Eccl. 2:17 In all her exhortations, moreover, she first treated of the divine precepts and those of holy Mother Church, which must be observed diligently and firmly; and the observance of the commandments of God and the Church, and this method was rooted in her heart from the earliest time of her youth, which, always budding with glorious fruit, persevered unfailingly to the end.

[23] In like manner, before entering religious life, she asserted that the precepts of Superiors must be firmly and strictly observed, both in word and deed. she exhorts to perfect obedience. Persuading obedience in all lawful things and correcting by example, and also after entering Religious life, she untiringly admonished that Prelates of the Order must be firmly obeyed as holding the place of God. And this is clearly apparent to anyone diligently examining the ordinances she made regarding the Rule, she now being a Religious, especially on these words: "Let the subjects remember that they have denied their own wills for God's sake." especially her own Religious. Where she says: "My Sisters, you ought to pay very careful attention, so that whenever anything is commanded or forbidden you by your Superiors, you should by no means rely on your own judgment or your own will or your own counsels; but rather promptly and willingly, for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who while remaining among us below on earth did all things in conformity with the will of His heavenly Father. You must therefore obey and submit yourselves to the will and determination of your Superior. For it is better to leave one's own judgment and one's own will and one's own counsels for the love of God than to acquire all the riches of the world with one's own judgment and will retained. Nor do I believe there is any wider way, or one that more easily leads to eternal damnation, than one's own will; nor any shorter way, on the opposite side, to eternal life, than spontaneously to renounce it. Wherefore I exhort and admonish you, out of reverence for our Lord Jesus Christ, who in this valley of misery, from the beginning of His life until the end of His most bitter, sorrowful, and harsh Passion, wished to obey His heavenly Father unceasingly, that you be willing to obey your Superiors promptly and freely, without any display of displeasure, rebellion, contradiction, or excuse whatsoever."

^a Reclusory: a similar place is also called a reclusorium, and the person who dwells in it a recluse or reclausa, as Gregory of Tours says in Book 1 of the Miracles of Saint Martin: "For he was everywhere shut in," that is, he did not leave his cell. Reclusagium. Abbeville, from the Corbie Instrument, relates that this reclusory of Blessed Colette at Corbie was built at the expense of Guillerma Gamelina, a widow, and also adds other helpers of the pious work. Petrina mentions only the Abbot. An oratory was later made there, and an image of Blessed Colette placed in it, to which a concourse of pilgrims is still reported to be made — as the miracles and benefits to be presented below prove.

^b John Pinet, Custos of Picardy, as Abbeville states; he is discussed in the Corbie Instrument. But Petrina says more distinctly that the Abbot performed the office of introducing her, and John that of preacher.

^c He is said to have died in the year 1405.

^d These years are reckoned from 1402 to 1406, and it is said that she left this solitary life half a year after the death of her Confessor John Pinet.

CHAPTER IV.

Concerning her diligent passive as well as active or virtual observance of the divine precepts, and concerning the spiritual cultivation of Feasts according to the ordinance of the holy Church of God.

[24] She inculcates the observance of the commandments of God, Following the testimony of the supreme Doctor Jesus Christ,

His humble handmaid, who says in the Gospel: "If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." Among all the things about which she wished those willing to enter Religious life to be instructed, she principally strove that they be more fully informed about the commandments of the Lord, as about the things most necessary for salvation, and the observance of the Lord's Day and Feasts, and that they be more fully observed. Matt. 19:17 Among other things, she supremely desired and worked as best she could that Sundays and other solemn Feasts be fully celebrated, not only by her Sisters but also by all true Catholics, without any violation.

[25] on those days she does not allow food to be purchased, With respect to her convents or monasteries, she never in her time wished to consent that food necessary for the sustenance of life of the Brothers or Sisters be purchased in any way on Sundays or even on feast days mandated by the Church. And although she freely consented that on such days alms for the love of God might be humbly sought for the said sustenance or, when offered, received, she does not allow donated goods to be transported, she could not bear that on such days goods so obtained or freely offered be in any way transported or conveyed from place to place. And although at times the law and custom permit that for the building or repair of the poor, of churches, monasteries, wood and stone may be brought as alms, hospitals, or similar structures, aid or assistance may be given by the faithful Catholics as alms (even on feast days, though not solemn ones) by carrying or conveying wood, stones, or other necessities for the aforesaid, she, with the aforesaid zeal, never wished to allow that for her convents, monasteries, or other buildings to be constructed or repaired — however much they might need such assistance — anything be carried or conveyed in the aforesaid manner. But it once happened she is extremely grieved by a similar act that for the repair of a certain convent's church, on a certain feast, though not a solemn one, through the inadvertence or indiscretion of those who managed the business, some necessities for that repair were provided, though for God's sake and charitably. Which deed, after it came to her notice, so disturbed her with grief and vehement sadness that the place was almost believed to be about to be destroyed, or overturned by a lightning bolt, she orders the necessities to be procured the day before, as a sign of her wondrous zeal. For this purpose — namely that solemn feasts be most devoutly celebrated — she wished that on Saturday and on the Vigils of solemn Saints provision be made of necessities for the sustenance of life, both for Sundays and for the aforementioned solemn days.

[26] In many cities and notable towns, moreover, the custom and practice — or rather abuse — had been introduced of holding fairs or markets and commercial gatherings on Sundays and on the solemnities of the glorious Virgin and the holy Apostles. Which having learned, she bore it with difficulty; and grievously pained in her heart, she arranges for markets held on feast days to be moved to weekdays, she labored so effectively, both through preaching that she arranged to have done and through humble requests and supplications personally presented by her to the Lords and Rulers of those towns or cities, that the said fairs or markets were transferred to weekdays and lawful days. Likewise she similarly and so fervently induced certain rich and powerful merchants, she urges merchants to observe feast days, who were accustomed to send servants and agents to famous fairs or markets of various regions, by her salutary exhortations to this, that when Sundays or other great feast days occurred, those traveling on the road or on a journey already begun would halt their progress and stop in those same places, and devoutly celebrate the aforesaid solemn or Sunday feasts, with their animals resting and the entire household likewise doing the same.

[27] She herself personally, whenever she brought her Sisters to newly built convents, or those she had arranged to visit that were previously built, in whatever country or at whatever time, on Sundays and Feasts she halts on her journeys, whether winter or summer, peace or war, when the aforesaid Sundays or feast days occurred, she would remain there, however small the place or town might be; and this she did so that the said solemnities might be more devoutly celebrated. And many times she heard three or four Masses, sometimes even having them celebrated ^b with music, devoutly receiving with her Sisters at times the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. But to relate one instance from many: it happened once that on her return from the visitation of one of her convents situated in distant parts, she arrived at a certain tiny village containing scarcely twelve dwellings or habitations, on a certain Saturday, to remain there for two days, because of Sunday and because of a certain solemnity to be celebrated continuously on the following Monday. During which two days, even a small village was divinely protected, although that entire country was fully occupied by armed men on account of the dissension and wars of that region, who were constantly running about and harassing the said little village, no one at all during this interval came any closer, nor inflicted any trouble on the little village, although they were continually seen going and coming everywhere and all around — as though it had been divinely protected, with the handmaid of Christ remaining there.

[28] Nevertheless, certain notable merchants, who absolutely resolved and firmly executed their resolution that all the profit which happened to come to them from their merchandise on feast days or Sundays, she refuses alms from profit acquired on a feast day, they would freely distribute to the poor for the love of God. And although many things of such a nature, very necessary both for her and for her own, were many times presented to the handmaid of Christ by way of alms, she was by no means willing to consent to receiving such things, but constantly refused all things acquired by such profit, asserting that they were not justly or reasonably acquired.

^a Otherwise Mercadae, Marcatus, and Marchatus: see Vossius, Book 3, On Defects of Speech, chapter 25, Marcatus. who cites the Laws of the Lombards and letters of Otto III.

^b That is, with singing.

CHAPTER V.

Concerning a certain showing of a terrible vision, portending that she was given to the reform of the Order of Saint Clare, though unwilling.

[29] In the testimony of the most sweet confession of the most benign Savior Christ Jesus, who says: "I confess to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to little ones" — Luke 10:21 In a vision an efficacy manifold and by no means to be denied is to be found. A certain wondrous and at the same time terrible vision was divinely shown and revealed to His handmaid Colette: in which indeed she had clear knowledge of all the states and conditions of men, of whatever kind they might be, and in whatever part of the world they might exist, and also of their governments and administrations. Consequently moreover — she understands the sins of every estate, and what is stronger and not a little to be wondered at by all the faithful — she was clearly and fully certified therein concerning all the defects, sins, and offenses committed by the aforesaid estates, both greater and lesser, against the divine majesty and His most holy good pleasure; and the punishments owed to them, and also concerning the horrible punishments and more grievous torments with which each of them was punished or ought to have been punished, according to his demerit or the gravity of the offense. Whence not undeservedly, having seen so many torments and punishments, she fell into so most vehement a trembling and terror that she continually thought, for the space of eight days, that she was about to fall headlong into those same most cruel torments and atrocious punishments. When the said vision ended, from terror she grips an iron bar with her hand, and at last having returned to herself, she found a shaft or iron bar or rod in the middle of the small window of her little dwelling, which from the vehemence of the aforesaid terror she was firmly gripping; she had so seized it from fear of the said horrible fall that she could scarcely remove her hand from it after a long space of time. But no less firmly rooted and impressed in her mind was the memory of the said vision, never to be effaced throughout the span of her life, whenever she recalled the said estates, offenses, punishments, and torments; afflicted with the greatest sadness, by reason of all of which, seen therein — and especially the defects or offenses committed in great prejudice of the divine Majesty — she conceived in her heart for a long time a certain most vehement sadness and excessive grief; on account of which, day and night, fervently and humbly she continually poured out special prayers and petitions to God she prays for the conversion of sinners for the conversion of the poor offenders and sinners; in which devout prayers and petitions, by the supreme goodness, grace, and mercy of God, she finally deserved to be heard by Him.

[30] For it was revealed to her from heaven that the desired correction of sinners, according to her wish, would at last be fulfilled through the Reform of the Orders first instituted by the Father Saint Francis; for which reform of the said Orders to be duly committed to execution, it is reported that at their very beginning it was shown to certain devout persons in a spiritual vision that the glorious Virgin stood sweetly and humbly before her most worthy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, when — because of the excessive multitude of sinners enormously and beyond measure reigning in those days, by Saint Francis, with Saint Dominic, especially in pride, carnality, and avarice — strongly brandishing three lances, He was preparing to hurl them at the entire fabric of the world to utterly destroy it. To whom the said most sweet Mother of Christ, having most sweetly persuaded Him, presented the said most blessed Father Francis with his faithful companion, namely blessed Dominic, as two good captains and virtuous warriors, effective preachers against the aforesaid vices for the correction or conversion of sinners. chosen for the correction of sinners. In like manner, the same glorious and most holy Francis, in the presence of the said most glorious Virgin Mary and the blessed Angels, presented the humble handmaid Colette to the same Christ, humbly requesting her from Him to be given to him for the reform of his Orders, [she is obtained through the intercession of the Virgin Mother of God for the reform of the Order,] and further for the aforesaid poor sinners and offenders whom she had seen from all estates in the prior vision; and that she would be the first and principal one in carrying out all the aforesaid things. Which presentation was most pleasing and acceptable to God, who, benignly condescending to the request and petition of the most holy Francis, freely and gratefully granted all that was asked. Concerning all of which the handmaid of God, fully certified by revelation, was made exceedingly joyful at the future reform and correction already foreseen; but not a little sad because she was entirely considered the principal and primary one both by God and by the glorious Virgin and Blessed Francis, and judging herself insufficient and unworthy for this, she could never be pleased with it at all, she does not dare to give her consent, nor did she wish to fully apply her heart to full consent regarding the said primacy; although the divine good pleasure about this had been intimated to her in her devout prayers — at times excusing herself because of her great

ignorance, by which she asserted herself to be a simple daughter and utterly unlearned; at other times, on account of the vow already made of not leaving the reclusory; and also greatly doubting that demonic illusion or deception lurked in the aforesaid showings.

[31] For which reasons, being not a little perplexed, she resolved to have recourse to the assistance of the prayers and perfect counsel of holy persons she consults learned and holy men whom she knew by report to be perfect in devotion, distinguished in knowledge and true conscience, fearing and loving God equally; from all of whom she sought to have counsel about the aforesaid matters and their deliberation. All of whom, by the grace of God, uniformly said and judged that she ought freely to consent. And for greater security of the divine good pleasure about this — that the said reform and correction ought to be accomplished through her mediation — the goodness of the Most High added a most evident and manifold sensible sign in the following manner. For first, for three days, she is rendered mute, after the likeness of Zechariah, the father of Saint John the Baptist, she was entirely deprived of speech and remained mute; then for another three days she was blind, and blind, seeing nothing at all, until she gave her consent to the divine grant until she consents made concerning her; which being given, she recovered the sight she had lost, and likewise her speech.

[32] Furthermore, a sign of no less admiration followed the preceding ones. a beautiful tree having sprung up in her cell, For in her small and strict reclusory, by the action of divine grace, suddenly there came and promptly grew a certain tree, very pleasing and of wondrous beauty; whose leaves, well-formed, were vigorously in bloom; its tawny flowers were resplendent with a golden splendor; and a truly delightful and very comforting fragrance emanated from it. Under it sprouted many small trees, beautiful and very pleasing, yet unequal to the larger one. fearing illusion, she casts it out. When she saw these things, so pleasing and most welcome, she began to doubt that it was an illusion of the infernal demon, who was conferring very many impediments upon her and did not cease to trouble her in manifold ways. Wherefore she uprooted the said tree with its adherents from their very base and manfully cast them out of the reclusory. seeing many trees substituted, But after a few days, by the divine will, similar trees in all respects, with other adherent ones not different from the first, were reborn, and in the form first shown to her. And beyond this, the aforesaid trees seemed to be apparently transferred from place to place. she understands that the principal tree designates herself. And having experimentally perceived the three aforesaid signs, she clearly recognized that it was the work of God; and by a further greater elucidation she more fully understood that the principal tree designated her own person, and the rest designated the others, men or women, who through her mediation would have to attain the desired summit of reform and perfection. But the manifold local transfer of the said trees portended her various departure, her virtuous building, and useful advancement into many regions.

[33] And then, gathering the forces of her mind and considering the wondrous and terrifying vision shown to her, having maturely weighed everything, as well as the request made concerning her by the most holy Francis, with God freely granting, together with the counsel of notable persons virtuously given to her, revolving diligently in her mind furthermore the signs of the loss and subsequent recovery both of sight and of speech, as well as the uprooted and suddenly reborn tree — she began to fear that she might offend the reverence of God she gives her consent if she delayed further to consent according to His good pleasure. And humbly commending herself to God in her holy prayers, she gave her assent, resolving with her whole heart to devote herself as best she could, according to the grace given or to be given to her by God, to the said reform; with the reservation, however, that in this matter she would by no means willingly be the principal one. [she is divinely endowed with the knowledge of all things necessary for the reform.] And immediately after the aforesaid consent to fulfilling the divine good pleasure, there was divinely infused in her a perfect knowledge of all the necessities and things necessarily required for more fully attaining the due end; concerning which necessities, I say, she immediately composed a small ^a scroll and thus briefly wrote, that ^b for each matter precisely one single memorandum or brief clause was marked. Then quite soon, by the provision of divine mercy, there came to her many ^c people of this kind, very suitable for conferring worthy assistance. Among whom, for the governance of her conscience and the salvation of her soul, there was divinely sent to her the venerable Father, of whom it was said above, Brother ^d Henry de Balma, a Professed member of the aforesaid Religion and Order of Saint Francis, a man truly of great perfection, she is helped by Henry de Balma, a Minorite, loving and fearing God from infancy, utterly ignorant in transitory and temporal matters, but discreet and prudent in spiritual and divine things, moreover pious and merciful toward the poor and sinners. For which reason the glorious handmaid of God frequently bore testimony about him: that never had a sinner, however far removed from God, departed from his presence without a remedy of consolation. But how many sinners, male and female, he converted to the way of salvation a holy man. and led to the renunciation of the world and the entrance into sacred religion is believed to be countable by God alone. For his mouth was almost always overflowing with divine words. Very many times also he is known to have conferred full health on the sick of various afflictions by the sign of the Cross alone; likewise to have cast the evil spirit out of some who were possessed. What more? For his manner of life on earth seemed to all more heavenly than earthly, and more divine than human, so that he could confess with the Apostle what is written: "Our citizenship is in heaven." Phil. 3:20

^a Rotulus. Rotulus, for others Rotula, in German "rodele," and for the Belgians and English, with contraction made, "rolle"; a codicil, catalogue, because the ancients used to roll up their writings as though into little scrolls, and especially laws and public constitutions.

^b The Corsendoncanese manuscript reads "for each."

^c This is a Gallicism: "plusieurs des tels gens," that is, many such persons. So below at number 42, "all kinds of people" is said, in French "toutes sorts des gens": all kinds of men, or men of every condition; and at number 44, "from all estates of people"; and at number 53, "men at arms," that is, soldiers, "gens d'armes."

^d He was for thirty-four years the Confessor of Blessed Colette, from the year 1405 to 1439, in which year he is said to have died on February 23 at Besancon, Henry de Balma. and buried in the chapel of Saint Anne in the presence of Blessed Colette, and inscribed on that day in the Franciscan Martyrology. About him Abbeville narrates that while passing through Avignon and visiting Sister Mary Amenta, a celebrated Recluse there, he was advised to convert his plan of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (which he was contemplating) into service to the Recluse of Corbie, destined by God for doing many and great things with his help. Very many things narrated by this Confessor, her uncle, to herself and to others, about the virtues and miracles of Blessed Colette, are reported by Sister Petrina de Balma, the niece of Henry, as we shall see below.

CHAPTER VI.

Concerning her approach to the presence of the Supreme Pontiff, and how she was received by him to the Religious life and to profession, and how she was instituted as Abbess.

[34] Since, as the distinguished Doctor, namely Blessed Ambrose, attests, "The grace of the Holy Spirit knows no slow endeavors," His work in this His handmaid Colette cannot be doubted to have been continually present; by whose aid wonderfully provided, she proposed to the aforesaid venerable Father that in her heart she was thinking of personally transferring herself to the presence of the most holy Father the Lord our Pope for the execution of the said reform. She resolves to go to the Pope. With him, however, aiding outwardly who was illuminating her mind inwardly, for greater security and a more honorable success in all things, the Most High sent the knowledge of the aforesaid — namely of her life or holy desire — aided by the Baroness de Brisay, into the heart of a certain powerful ^a Lady, a Knight's wife and Baroness, the widow at the time of a noble and powerful man, the Lord de Brisay, daughter of a no less noble Lord de la Roche Cohardi. This Lady, moved by divine instinct and by her own sweet goodness, personally came to the reclusory of the aforesaid handmaid of Christ, situated in the place of Corbie. Whence having received many devout conversations touching the divine love and the salvation of the soul, with much edification and consolation alike, the aforesaid Lady was manfully animated by her, and resolved with her full power to provide favor, assistance, and help to her for finally fulfilling her purpose and holy desire; and immediately she began to labor so effectively to this end, with helpers sent to her by God, that in a short time, both by Papal dispensation and by other convenient and opportune remedies, she fully procured her free departure from the said reclusory — notwithstanding the impediments, so many and so great, procured by the malignant enemy or inflicted by his own powers. Moreover, the said Lady, perceiving that the matter was being accomplished concerning the aforesaid business by the hand of God, in view of the various conditions and oppositions now overcome that had appeared insuperable by human forces, with all the so many and great impediments excluded and nullified, humbly and charitably presented herself to accompany her personally with her own household and servants, and with her as companion, as well as with beasts of burden and temporal goods, for safe conduct and return to the presence of the ^b Supreme Pontiff, the Lord our Pope. Which benign and charitable offering the aforesaid handmaid of the Lord, recognizing it as proceeding from the divine good pleasure, willingly accepted and humbly assented. For which reason the said noble Lady conceived in her heart great joy, thereby esteeming — and rightly so — that a most singular grace had been bestowed on her by God. And at last, with the supreme goodness of God cooperating, she undertakes the journey, she comfortably and wholesomely conducted her to the presence of the aforesaid Pontiff, and subsequently brought her back, conferring upon her together with the rest of her retinue the services of very great charity and kindness with much devotion. And in the aforesaid journey, all the companions were so comforted, preserved, and consoled by God that they rejoiced to be in the presence of the aforesaid handmaid, as one who was an example of all holiness, shining with the fullest teaching, for inflaming their hearts to the most perfect love of God, truest fear, and His most humble service — to the flight from sin at last, and to the observance of the divine commandments — with honest gestures and a heavenly manner of life, so that she seemed more an Angel than an earthly person.

[35] riding a horse, she devotes herself to meditation. Sometimes, out of pious compassion for her tender youth, they would compel her to ride; where, as it were never idle but accustomed to be incessantly and always occupied with good things, immediately after mounting the animal she would fervently and vividly dedicate herself to divine meditation, until, entirely rapt in spirit and transformed in mind, she was so elevated in God that she was utterly unaware of what was being said vocally or done around her, as if

she had been entirely dead; nor on this account did she seem to waver to the right or to the left, but held herself constantly and firmly and immovably, believed to be sustained by Angels on the way, as though she were sustained by Angels (as is undoubtedly believed). At other times, walking on foot along a hard, difficult, and rough road, she seemed to onlookers not to be touching the ground, but rather flying in the air or elevated in the air, traversing a great space with a small delay of time, scarcely to be overtaken by others walking briskly.

[36] she sends a woman ahead to the Pontiff. For many days moreover, before they arrived at the presence of the aforesaid Supreme Pontiff, she had a certain notable and discreet woman go ahead, to inform the same most holy Father of the cause and intention of her progress toward him. But the preceding woman was so horribly harassed or persecuted by the cruel and envious demons, deprived of the use of reason by demons, hostile to the interception of laudable good, that having lost her senses she became foolish, lest she might arrive at the desired destination at all, nor obtain an audience, nor consequently might the said most holy Father be able to give credence to her words. And for a greater impediment and more confusing rejection of the entire good accomplished or begun in the most holy business aforesaid, the demons by their illusions compelled her to disorderly, dishonest, and horrible gestures, so that no one dared to approach her. For she went about insane and completely stripped, and so afflicted and fiercely persecuted, with extreme difficulty and vehement grief and not without bitterness of heart, she arrived at the city of Nice, ^c where the aforesaid Lord Pope was then residing. To whose ears rumors arrived quickly enough about the arrival of a certain woman in the same city who, having lost her senses, was fervently seeking to come to the presence of the Supreme Pontiff for certain matters committed to her to be communicated to him. But it pleased the Most High to so effectively inspire the heart of His Vicar that he immediately commanded the aforesaid woman, first provided and adorned with decent garments, to be brought to his presence. but healed upon seeing the Pontiff. Wondrous to tell! For immediately, after she was brought to the presence of the said Father, having fully recovered her senses with no sign of their loss remaining, she began to declare very prudently and discreetly the cause of her coming, and also of the handmaid of the Lord following her and soon to arrive; whom the same most holy Father, willingly listening, gratefully received all the things she had planned to explain to him about the aforesaid matter. Which matter having been more fully examined, he conceived in his heart no small consolation, openly recognizing that mystery to be a divine work, especially from the sudden change of the aforesaid woman, who, deprived of her senses, as soon as she began to recount the affair of the handmaid of the Lord, was so prospered and the fraud of the ancient enemy was so wonderfully defeated. For what he had fraudulently devised for the disturbance of the holy business had finally turned out to its praise, assistance, and commendation.

[37] After the aforesaid Lord Pope had been sufficiently informed, both by the testimony of a living voice and by evident sign, of the cause for which the oft-mentioned handmaid of God was hastening to come to his presence, a few days having intervened, she with her party arrived at the said city. Which being known, the Supreme Pontiff took care to arrange a suitable place and convenient time at which she might approach his presence for favorably obtaining an audience. having first offered prayers, Then she, recurring as was her custom to the sacrifice of prayer, commending herself and her affairs with all her might to the Lord, set out on her way with simplicity of heart and confidence, with lowered eyes and great humility, she approaches the Pontiff, but with her heart totally elevated to God, with the said Father and the noble Lady aforesaid, and many other notable persons of her retinue. After she came to the presence of the Most Holy Father, with him gently raising his eyes and wishing to look kindly upon the said handmaid and to greet her benignly, at whose sight he falls to the ground, divine Providence swiftly interposed a sign of no small admiration. For the said Vicar of Christ, sitting in his high chair, at the first sight of the aforesaid humble handmaid, suddenly fell to the ground; and nonetheless in the said fall he divinely perceived in an instant who the aforesaid handmaid was and what she was seeking — not a little terrified thereby, although he was mentally consoled in spirit. And immediately rising, he went of his own accord to the girl, taking with his own hand a certain little ^d purse hanging from her cord, containing the scroll in which she had written the subjects of the business to be conducted, through the briefest memoranda, as was noted by the Brothers. And ^e having unrolled the said scroll and reading through each memorandum, with God as teacher, he clearly recognized all the necessities for the Religion or its reform. Consequently, having obtained grace with the good will of the Supreme Father, she gratefully began she sets forth the causes of her coming to open her heart to him and to make known the cause for which she had come, although he was not unaware of it, and she humbly explained all that she had planned.

[38] Among which she principally requested two things. First, that it might please His Holiness that she might be received, by his permission, to the Evangelical life — namely to the Second Order instituted by the most blessed Father Francis, which is commonly called the Order of the Poor Ladies, of which the most glorious Virgin Clare is said to have been the first member. she asks to be admitted to the Order of Saint Clare, The Rule of which Order is called Evangelical, just as the Rule of the Friars Minor. Which two Rules of the said Orders, namely of the Friars Minor and of the Poor Ladies, first instituted by the said most holy Father Francis and likewise inspired by the Holy Spirit and ordained for a similar and equal state of perfection, namely the Apostolic and Evangelical, similarly begin in this manner: "The Rule and Life of the Friars Minor is this"; and "the form of life of the Sisters is this, namely to observe the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ," etc. Secondly, she requested the restoration of the aforesaid Orders, previously instituted by the said blessed Father Francis. and that both Orders of Saint Francis be reformed. Which requests, although they appeared reasonable and just according to the judgment of the said Lord the Pontiff, he nonetheless decided to defer his assent somewhat because of the diversity of judgments and opinions; for to the majority of the council or those assisting it seemed that she was a young and tender girl, and the state requested was austere, strong, difficult, and of great perfection. Wherefore, according to the judgment of the aforesaid, it was not easy for the Supreme Pontiff to condescend to her, which he did not do immediately — at least outwardly — although in his heart the matter was welcome and feasible or easy, and he truthfully believed that it was the work of God according to the secret revelation shown to him by God. And although he prolonged the matter, by God's permission, for more fully ascertaining the holy desire of the virtuous girl, questioning her many times about many secret things, he was very content and edified by her prudent and discreet responses, yet he was always determined to give his gracious consent.

[39] with the opponents removed by plague. During the space of this prolongation, while the assent of the Holy Father was awaited, there supervened in the said city a very serious and terrible plague, so lethally infecting some of the principal opponents that they quickly expired; whence those capable of good counsel were compelled to think that such people had been punished because of the impediment they had given to the aforesaid handmaid of God. And shortly afterward the aforesaid Most Holy Father, considering the wonderful things that were being demonstrated daily as the works of God, resolved no longer to prolong the matter. she obtains both petitions. Rather, he most liberally granted her those two aforesaid things for which she had humbly supplicated His Holiness, recognizing most certainly the divine good pleasure about this, which he did not think it worthy to oppose, since he was the Vicar of Christ on earth. And so the handmaid of God was summoned personally to his presence with her retinue, as well as many other persons, both ecclesiastical and secular. After a solemn sermon had been given in commendation of the Evangelical or Apostolic state to be assumed by her, with humility and worthy reverence the Supreme Pontiff himself personally received her to the Religious life and to the aforesaid Order of Saint Clare, she is received into the Order of Saint Clare, and admitting no interlude or delay, he admitted her to the holy profession she makes her profession of the said Religious life, placing the veil upon her head and girding her with a cord according to the custom of the Order, commending to her the full observance of the Rule of the most blessed Clare, and consequently there blessing and consecrating her, she is consecrated as Abbess, he instituted her as Mother and Abbess of all Religious women thenceforth to be reformed or entering or who would enter the aforesaid Order. And all these things he performed so humbly, devoutly, reverently, and fervently that to very many in amazement she seemed to be an Angel of God; so much so that many Cardinals and secular Lords, together with the Father General of the aforesaid Religion of Saint Francis, who were present, bore witness that they had never seen the said Most Holy Father celebrate any of his acts or offices more solemnly, or perhaps even equally solemnly.

[40] When all these things had been finished and concluded, the said Father spoke to the aforesaid Handmaid with much affection, diligently exhorting her to act prudently with discretion, and to truly, perfectly, and faithfully keep the Rule and the vows she had promised, having received an exhortation to constancy, continuing perseveringly from good to better unto the end. Furthermore, most charitably he offered himself for her help and encouragement, and the liberal communication of all things necessary for her honest and opportune affairs; affectionately requesting her to be willing to transfer herself to his native land, to be charitably and sweetly treated, received, and provided for there by him. After this moreover he most dearly commended her to her Confessor who had come with her, directing him by no means to leave her. Then he urgently asked the aforesaid Lady, her faithful guide, to bring her safely back to her native land. And then, looking at the others, he said in a loud voice, and blessing, she is dismissed, intelligible to all: "Would that I were now worthy to seek or procure bread for the food or sustenance of the present Religious woman." And having received the holy blessing, they departed from the presence of the said Father.

[41] ^f Not long after, she perceived that greater than usual honor was being shown to her by certain people, especially because she was being called Mother; she grieves at the honor given to her, from which she wished to know what this meant and whence it proceeded. And when the response was given — namely that the Most Holy Pope had blessed her and instituted her as Mother and Abbess — she bore it with grief and was exceedingly desolate, never being able to incline her heart's assent to such preeminence, however much she was persuaded about this by her own people; but she believed herself to be only a simple Religious, not having the office of Abbess. But it pleased God she asks to be freed from the title of Abbess. that she should be entirely ignorant of having been made Abbess until she found herself to have been so made. But after she was certified of the truth, she endeavored with all her strength to send envoys or messengers back to the said Most Holy Father the Lord Pope, humbly supplicating and with vehement feeling

requesting that he would render her entirely absolved from such a dignity or office. To whom he replied: "What has been done is done, and what has been done shall remain done."

^a Isabella, a Burgundian by birth.

^b This was Benedict XII, called XIII, Antipope in the long schism, successor of the Antipope Clement; Benedict XIII, Antipope. whom Saint Vincent Ferrer, of whom mention is made below at number 84, defended — a man illustrious for his learning, sanctity, and miracles. Theologians and historians treat of that schism passim.

^c Nice, a city. Nice, a maritime city, annexed to the Piedmontese region since 1388, belongs to the Duke of Savoy. The charter of convention was published by Guichenon in the Proofs for the Genealogical History of the House of Savoy, pages 224 and following.

^d The Utrecht manuscript reads "morsel"; but a "bursellula" is a small purse or pouch.

^e This is a Gallicism, by which the French say "desployer" for "to unfold, to spread out"; so at number 50, "to employ" is taken for "to expend," which the French render as "employer."

^f Abbeville testifies, from a certain letter of Sister Catherine Rufina, that this conflict between humility and obedience lasted from the feast of the Conception of the Virgin, December 8, until the day of Saint Luke, October 18. He states that the aforesaid Sister was a contemporary of Blessed Colette.

CHAPTER VII.

Concerning the beginning of the reform of the Order of Saint Clare, and the persecutions inflicted upon her.

[42] And since, as the Apostle says to Timothy, "All who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." 2 Tim. 3:12 And the Wise Man: "Son, when you come to the service of God, prepare your soul for temptation." Sirach 2:1 The humble handmaid of Jesus Christ, Colette, after she had returned from the presence of our Lord the Supreme Pontiff, by whom she had been instituted — though unknowingly — in the office of Mother and Abbess of the said reform, began diligently and earnestly to think about and fervently to work toward the execution of so virtuous a business By diabolic instinct, committed to her care. But the malignant Satan, the adversary of all good things, unable to bear that so much fruit should come through her mediation, as he saw the mercy of the Savior beginning for the salvation of poor souls, attempted to inflict upon her, both through himself and through his accomplices, terrible and unbearable persecutions — so much so that all sorts of people and all estates, even those known and acquainted who had previously been friends, strove with all their might to attack her, reproaching her with being a sorceress or enchantress or invoker of demons. she suffers the insults of the envious. And they attempted to drive her, multiply heaped with execrable reproaches, into so shameful an infamy that no one dared to receive her in their own home at all. And so at last, by manifold atrocious persecution, they compelled her to leave her native soil quickly and to go forth into a foreign ^a and alien region and a distant country, an exile from her homeland, in which the Most High consolingly provided for her through a certain most noble and most pious Lady Blanche, ^b then Countess of Geneva. Who, very happy and congratulating her on her arrival, she is kindly received by Blanche, Countess of Geneva, benignly received her with very great charity in her own house, and profited greatly by her merits and teaching in the knowledge of God and the relief of her own conscience — so much so that from that time, with all those connected to her, she scarcely ever wished, or never, to be separated from her. And thence she granted her, both for herself and for her retinue, half the castle called Balma, ^c in which the said Lady was residing. at the castle of Balma she lives according to the Rule of Saint Clare. And there the humble handmaid of Christ first began to exercise her office, diligently observing and causing to be observed the Order and Rule of Saint Clare.

[43] And she remained in the same place until ^d she was notably provided for by the Apostolic See with the convent of Besancon, ^e or rather that convent was provided with her person. from there she is led forth to Besancon. To which convent the said Lady Countess, together with her niece, ^f who was afterward to become ^g Duchess of Bavaria and Countess Palatine of the Rhine, honorably conducted her with a solemn retinue as befitted the occasion, and devoutly; and there they remained with her for quite a long time. In the said retinue of those conducting her to the said convent of Besancon, there was a certain noble man, a squire of the said Countess, virtuous, loving and fearing God, who asserted with certainty that he had seen a certain wondrous brightness or luminous splendor around the aforesaid handmaid — she appears illuminated by a certain splendor, not just once, but whenever he turned his eyes to look at her. Then the noble Lady aforesaid decided, as due reason required, to absent herself bodily from her, after the possession of the said convent had been received and the personal installation completed; although mentally and by affection she was never to be separated, but throughout the entire span of her life she was joined to her by the bond of perfect love and affection. For which reason she ordained in her testament she is parted from Blanche the Countess, that wherever she might depart from this world by natural death, her body or corpse should be carried to some convent of the aforesaid Handmaid. then buried in a convent of Saint Clare. Which was done. For after her death she is known to have been honorably buried in the Convent of Saint Clare at Poligny, ^h in a certain chapel built from the ground up by the said Duchess of Bavaria, her niece.

[44] After the aforesaid noble Lady had departed with her retinue from the company, not a little virtuous, of the handmaid of Christ, she, at peace sweetly with her spouse Christ, began to manfully continue the holy Observance of the Evangelical Rule, namely of Saint Clare, at Besancon she admits many nuns, already begun in the castle of which it was said above, of the aforesaid Lady. And since she did not yet have Religious women except a few or in small number, very many noble, perfect, and devout women immediately flocked to her from everywhere, humbly beseeching — impelled by the Holy Spirit — the habit of the holy Religion. Having diligently examined them, she gratefully received those she found suitable; and so in a short time her holy company grew to a large number. And although she had previously been an Abbess without Religious women and Sisters, consequently, because of the abundant multitude of persons affectionately seeking entrance to the Order, it was necessary to multiply convents and monasteries of both Sisters and Brothers. For just as in that terrible vision divinely shown to her she had known the divine mercy to be seriously offended by every estate, for reconciling it with all estates, men and women, ecclesiastical and secular, ceaselessly besought to be admitted she sees many monasteries reformed or built, to the aforesaid reform or correction through her mediation, not only in one Order but also in the three instituted by Blessed Francis — as is apparent in the convents and monasteries built or reformed through her mediation, both of Brothers and Sisters, and in diverse nations and in lands or places, namely in France, ^i Germany, Burgundy, Savoy, and in ^k Languedoc. And granted that the number ^l of the said reformed convents of both men and women, Brothers and Sisters, is rather small in comparison to so many estates and so many ecclesiastical and secular persons, nevertheless from nearly all such estates or conditions of people, some arrived at this small congregation. For some entered, personally and actually assuming the habit; others, legitimately impeded for just cause as to such entrance, are no less joined to it in spirit by the will of a willing heart. Of such a kind are all who have conferred favor and assistance upon the said reform with no little effectiveness, and do not cease to confer them still: Kings and Princes and others contribute necessities, such as many Kings and Queens, Dukes, Counts and Barons, Knights and Citizens, in both estates or sexes, Merchants and other Lords, Ladies and young noblewomen alike, and very many noble persons, who or which with singular devotion and cordial affection came to the said handmaid of Christ for the said reform; some building from the foundations, partially or entirely; others founding notable convents according to their vocation; others helping in many ways out of pure charity, for more easily obtaining God's mercy. Many noble Ladies and young noblewomen, moreover, the habit is assumed by illustrious persons, came personally, fully renouncing their nobility with its honors and riches, desiring to embrace the way of the Religious life and correcting their own defects. And what is more, from all other Religious orders, some embracing this one, even of other Orders, such as those of Saint Benedict, Saint Augustine, Saint Bernard, the Carthusians, Celestines, and Canons or Canonesses, and many of similar standing, resigned their own state, and with due license and dispensation transferred themselves to this state under the pretext of greater perfection in the said reform.

[45] Which reform, I say, how useful it is for those who embrace it and how pleasing and acceptable to God, He deigned to show to His handmaid by a certain evident sign. For when once she was conferring with a certain Father, her Confessor, about the necessities, she receives a white cord fallen from heaven, suitable and opportune things for the said reform, in the sight of the Father who was present, there was sent from heaven, descending between her arms, a certain ^m cord, artfully and wondrously composed or made, as white as snow, visibly and suddenly descending. Which she reverently and humbly received, immediately doubled, yet manifesting nothing by word or sign to anyone. In which it can be noted that the cord signifies the state of the reform, of those bearing cords of both sexes, as a most favorable omen, namely Brothers and Sisters; and by the whiteness, the cleanness or purity of heart and body and of a clean conscience, which ought to shine in them. But by the descent from heaven is suitably designated the divine acceptance of both the reform and the Reformed; and especially of the Reformer, through whose mediation all things are carried out justly, holily, and piously.

[46] Nor should it be passed over that all, both Brothers and Sisters, who or which had been personally admitted to the bosom of the said reform, whenever they were called by the Lord from this present world, by revelation she knows all those dying everywhere in her monasteries, in whatever region they might be, distant or near, always manifested themselves clearly to the Reformer at their ^n passing, as long as she lived in this world; and it is no less to be believed that they now present themselves to her in heaven. To whom, however, she conferred very many aids for the remedy of salvation and the relief of souls. Wherefore moreover — and this is not a little to be admired — whenever for the conveyance of Religious women or men, she obtains all necessities from God, the multiplication of convents or the building of monasteries, any funds or necessary revenues were lacking or seemed in any way to be deficient, what human frailty could not obtain, the divine goodness wonderfully provided, sending her fully the entire sum of money necessary for the completion of the business already undertaken,

even money better than any other. and this in the purest gold, many times — namely the sum of five hundred gold pieces, perfect in amount, weight, and singular beauty. With which she was accustomed to dispatch business better than she could with any other amount of similar money humanly acquired or procured, even if it were double the amount. And as long as the aforesaid coins, divinely sent, remained separate from the rest, they were preserved in their beauty and goodness; but when they were joined or mixed with others, they became in all respects similar to them.

^a She was led by the aforementioned Henry de Balma, her Confessor, outside the Kingdom of France to the castle of Balma, and received in the home of Alard de la Roche, brother of the said Henry, whose daughter Odilia assumed the institute of Blessed Colette. So James Foderetus and from him Abbeville.

^b Geneva, Geneva under its own Counts, or Gebenna as the writers of that age call it — which the ancients called Geneva — a city known to the world on Lake Leman, and the seat of several ancient Burgundian Kings, also had very many Counts of its own, of whom among the last was Amadeus IV, who from Matilda of Boulogne begot many children in whom the male line of so ancient a family of Geneva completely failed. The last was Robert, who succeeded his brother Peter (who died without issue in 1392 or the following year), being already then Antipope Clement VII, and when he was taken from the living in 1394, his nephew from their sister succeeded, Imbert de Villars; and when he too died in 1400, his uncle Odo de Villars was substituted, who the following year sold this County of Geneva to Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy; then under the Savoyards. the charter of which sale the previously cited Guichenon published, page 249. But Blanche is called Countess at that time, that is in the year 1407, perhaps because she alone survived of the said Amadeus's children. Mark of Lisbon calls the Countess "of Besancon," but later corrects himself in chapter 28.

^c Of the name Balma Balma there were many places in those parts, some on Mount Jura among the rocks and caverns, where Saint Romanus, Abbot of the Jura — as was said at his Life on February 28 — built a monastery for his sister and other nuns; two other places of the name Balma we indicated on January 13 at the Life of Saint Euticius the Abbot, of which the more celebrated is Balma on the Doubs River between Besancon and Montbeliard, on account of its convent of Virgins, commonly called Baume-les-Nonains. But what seems to be understood here, because of what follows about burial in the Poligny convent, is Balma of men, in the territory of Poligny, not far from Geneva; and below at number 88 it is said to be situated in the land of Geneva.

^d The Pontifical Bull was signed on January 26, 1408, beginning with "When we consider with attentive meditation." Abbeville, page 141.

^e The convent was of the Urbanists, who had consented to this reform except for two, who by the said Pontifical Bull were permitted to live in the old custom with the necessities assigned. The revenues of the Urbanists, by the authority of the Apostolic Legate and Archbishop Theobald of Besancon, support two Priests who celebrate Mass among the Colettines.

^f Matilda, daughter of Amadeus, Prince of Achaia and Piedmont, Matilda of Savoy, and of Catherine, daughter of Amadeus Count of Geneva; she was the maternal aunt of Blanche.

^g She married Louis III, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, surnamed the Bearded; whose marriage contract, signed November 30, 1417, was also published by Guichenon in the said Proofs, page 128. married to Louis the Palatine.

^h Poligny, a city of the Free County of Burgundy, where the third convent was built in 1415, with Margaret of Bavaria, Duchess of Burgundy, wife of John the Fearless, providing the funds; from whom Philip the Good was born.

^i Germany, in the French manner, is taken for all of Germany, and is understood principally of the Heidelberg Convent endowed by Duchess Matilda.

^k Languedoc, commonly called "Languedoc," because there they assented by the particle "Oc," as the French do by "Oui." Languedoc. It is, moreover, separated from France because it was only under Saint Louis and later Kings that it was attached to France.

^l During Blessed Colette's lifetime there were eighteen women's convents, enumerated by us above.

^m Cordula. Cordula, as though a small cord, from the word "chorda"; whence the Religious of the Order of Saint Francis are in various places called Cordularij.

^n Among these were Sister Joan de Jouv, who died at Auxonne and appeared at Besancon; Brother William Tureal; and a certain Abbess burdened for seven years with chains that clanked by their mutual collision. Abbeville, pages 186 and following.

^o The Corsendoncanese and Rougevallee manuscripts read "sufficere," perhaps to be read "non sufficere."

CHAPTER VIII.

Concerning her cordial love of most holy poverty.

[47] Before all other virtues which the Son of the Most High God, our Lord Jesus Christ, brought into this valley of misery — that is, the fabric of the world — from the secret mystery of His most blessed Divinity, He is recognized to have chosen, both in word and deed, the love and observance of the highest poverty: To Poverty, in imitation of Christ to be born of a poor Mother, to choose poor disciples; He decreed to begin His sermon in the presence of all, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And in the same, Matt. 5:3, and of Saint Francis, as the first foundation of all perfection, our most glorious Father Saint Francis determined to found his First and Second Orders, which we call Apostolic and Evangelical by reason of the conformity they bear to the life of the Savior and the holy Apostles; and in this they differ from other Orders by a certain supereminence of singular and virtuous most strict poverty. This most holy poverty, she embraces and strictly observes it, as the summit of religiosity, the most prudent Virgin Colette always cherished and strictly observed from beginning to end. For which she left father and mother, having fully distributed all her possessions to the poor; never after her calling to the Evangelical counsels, until the last moment of her life, content with a simple tunic and small mantle, not even for any freezing cold, was she willing to have for the covering of her body anything more than precisely a poor and ^a patched habit, and a single ^b simple tunic, not doubled, and content with a simple ^c mantle. Nor did she ever wear the said habit entirely new, but sewn from old cloth in part or entirely, of old cloth, and many times already worn by others and partly consumed or torn. But it happened once that, because of the excessive cold of the season, the Sisters, moved by piety, doubled the sleeves of her tunic without her knowing. Which having perceived, after the first time she put on the aforesaid tunic again, she abhorred what had been done, took off the tunic, and refused to put it on again until that doubling had been entirely cut away.

[48] Moreover, she used no footwear at any time, whether winter or summer, she walks barefoot, nor in any place, inside or outside, whether healthy or sick, but always and everywhere she walked with bare feet. And — what seemed more remarkable — she never applied herself to the fire for any harshness of cold, she does not come to the fire, nor could she see or feel fire, except a candle. She used humble, simple, and poor veils and ^d headcoverings, preferring those that were more patched above all others. she sleeps on straw. She used a small amount of straw for a bed, covered above with a certain simple covering, with a sack filled with chaff for her pillow. These precisely were the bedding she was accustomed to use, although she seemed to rest there little or not at all. Whatever necessity or serious illness might trouble her or ceaselessly afflict her, she never wished to use a bed or a feather pillow. dying, she refuses a feather pillow. Indeed, in her last illness in which she surrendered her spirit to God, for the relief of the unbearable suffering by which she was more vehemently pressed, a small feather pillow was placed under her head; which, although she had her eyes totally closed, she sensed in spirit, openly indicating by a sign that it should be removed.

[49] The oratories which she commonly used during the day, for hearing Masses and receiving the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, she loves lowly oratories, she wished to be small, very poor, most restricted, and low; if they were otherwise, she was never consoled there. In many convents, moreover, the aforesaid oratories had been so constructed that she could scarcely stand upright or raise herself in them, and they seemed more like ^e huts or sheds for poultry or geese than dwellings of rational persons, in which she more willingly stayed and was gladdened by more abundant consolations. And according to the feeling of her own conscience, the grandeur and abundance of buildings greatly displeased her. and poor little buildings and places. For about their smallness she never complained; rather she would judge such a place to be too beautiful and fine. And she would say in exhortation that, after the likeness of the most benign Savior, who had nowhere to lay His head, the Sisters ought to be content with poor and simple dwellings for necessity only, with every curiosity cast aside; and she would more willingly stay in small convents and in small towns or places than in large, spacious, and ample ones. While traveling, she would not willingly lodge in a high or spacious room, but rather she was frightened or timid there, scarcely daring to raise her eyes on high. But when arriving at a certain newly built convent, if she noticed anything there contrary to poverty, she could not bear or endure it unless it was entirely destroyed.

[50] The Lord God from infancy had conferred upon His handmaid the most noble virtue of mercy and generosity toward the poor and needy, merciful toward the poor, which, growing with her from infancy, lasted until death. For in her youthful age, while attending school, in her parents' house she was accustomed to give them her breakfast, what was presented to her by her parents for breakfast she freely distributed to the other children. Likewise, she communicated to the poor and needy things fit for eating that she found secretly in the house, insofar as it could be done without reprimand. or other food. Moreover, having distributed the resources belonging to her and quite ample from her paternal or maternal inheritance, she never afterward wished to retain anything for herself or for her own use, except only what was necessary for the strict covering of herself, in the monasteries she procures necessities for others from what is her own, or for devoutly reciting the Divine Office. If at any time she noticed Brothers or Sisters suffering need of any good given to her, she very charitably granted it to them, whether it was a habit, tunic, mantle, breviary, or ^f collectary, and so with similar things — so much so that she often unsewed the sleeves of her own habit and handed them to the one in need. And sometimes, from cloth quite different from the tunic or habit, by sewing or rejoining, she thus provided for strict necessity: diligently taking care to be present when the habit, tunic, or mantle of the Brothers or Sisters was cut, in the clothing of others she attends to both charity and poverty, both from the love of charity, by which she desired to provide for them, and from the zeal of poverty, which she feared would be in any way injured by the length or breadth of the said garments. The small little pieces of cloth

that remained she would diligently collect or have collected, to be employed for needs as they arose; from which she would patch her own habit, so that sometimes nearly a hundred such little patches appeared on the same garment — as was evident in that habit which she was wearing at her final death.

[51] And while she above all things desired and pleasingly accepted having the necessary books for the divine service — for which reason she had them sought out in various regions she procures books for the Divine Office for her Sisters and requested them for more perfectly fulfilling divine worship — nevertheless, when they came into her hands, those received for her own personal use (which happened many times from the part of powerful Lords and other notable persons), she shares those given to her with others, she liberally shared and fully donated such books, even when they were very necessary. And thence she was necessarily compelled to borrow from elsewhere for saying the Divine Office. That this happened is proven at the very end of her life. Many notable persons of various estates, moreover, in view of her great and arduous labors, for the reverence of God and the salvation of their souls, contributed many things for the building of convents, according to their greater and lesser means, she reserves nothing from the alms for herself, some gold, some silver, some cloths or ^g jewels and similar things; of which she never retained for her own person so much as the value of a needle, whether the donations were of great or small quantity. For she would rather have died than have permitted alms freely granted for God's sake to be otherwise employed or distributed than for the purpose for which they had been given. Those things, however, that had been granted in favor of her own person, she put up for sale, converting everything generally into the repair and adornment of the holy Church of God, as a perfect lover of most holy poverty, retaining nothing for herself. For she was more eager for this most precious pearl, after the manner of Saint Francis, than any man in the world has ever been for riches.

[52] And sometimes, having expended everything and retained nothing for herself, the Most High, taking compassion on her and being the pious Provider for His Elect at the time, sent her money suited to her necessity — she receives money by the wondrous providence of God, namely, as aforesaid, the sum of five hundred gold crowns of precious and optimal value and most sufficient weight; which sum she was accustomed to find near her upon returning from prayer. And keeping it diligently and strictly, she does not spend except when commanded, she took care completely that it should not be spent except for just and legitimate purposes. And if she was unwilling to appropriate anything at all for herself from the other aforesaid goods, all the less did she presume to take anything at all from such money for herself in any way, however small; but as one having nothing, considering this very having nothing to be a great dominion and a worthy power, and wishing to ascribe to herself nothing except the commission, fatigue, distribution, solicitude, and the trouble of preserving or administering, according as the Holy Spirit dictated within her. Nor was she ever, when placed in extreme poverty and penury, distrustful in any way of the divine goodness, in necessity she trusts God, which would provide for her and her own abundantly with necessities; and this if they faithfully observed the vows of their holy Profession — which happened many times, confirmed and proven by certain experience.

[53] It once happened in the parts of Languedoc that a not inconsiderable multitude of armed men, inflicting injuries and dangers there far beyond measure, had arrived, so that no one could or dared to leave ^h the forests, towns, cities, or castles. Because of which the Brothers who administered the needs of the Poor Sisters of the Order of Saint Clare in the convents situated there, while soldiers were raging around the convent, loaves are brought from heaven, although they were in extreme need of necessities for the sustenance of the common life of both, because of the terror of the aforesaid armed men, could not and dared not go out to beg for alms. Both Brothers and Sisters, however, trusted, according to the teaching of the handmaid of Christ, in the divine mercy that would never fail those who fully observed their state and vow as best they could — which teaching indeed then deserved to be verified from above. For immediately there came a man dressed in white, unknown to all, carrying a sack completely filled with the most beautiful and whitest loaves, which were wonderfully good and savory; from which the entire convent was sufficiently provided, until the supreme mercy added another opportune remedy. And just as it was not known where the aforesaid man had come from, so neither could it be known, nor was it known, where he went; for he immediately vanished from their sight.

[54] At another time, while the handmaid of Christ was staying in the territory of Nevers, ^i there was such a great scarcity of grain or ^k wheat there that, since she had with her Sisters sufficient for the provision of two convents, on account of the excessive number of persons in that convent, both inside and outside, they were subjected to such necessity in a time of grain shortage, that the flour for their needs and sustenance being entirely consumed, they were compelled to make bread from crude and entirely unsuitable material, even unfit for the consumption of any person or rational creature, bread of vile material tastes excellent, namely from bran. From which loaves all were comfortably and sweetly and savorily refreshed, so much so that they knew themselves to be more fully satisfied than from wheat bread. Furthermore, certain Religious women collected grains of wheat that had fallen under the bins or chests, while cleaning legumes and vegetables, or had been otherwise scattered, from which they were accustomed to prepare food as best they could. Which, mixed with water and a little salt and then cooked, they used for food and ^l side dish, marveling with great astonishment because they found in them such flavor and comforting nourishment that they seemed never to have found a similar or greater sweetness of taste in any foods, even those lavishly prepared and exquisite. And what is more, certain of them who had been very delicately nourished in the world firmly asserted that they had never tasted a more savory or sweeter meal in the world.

[55] On one occasion the dispensatrix of the convent, named Sister Joan ^m Rabardela, had gone to procure a small amount of wine for certain needs. While she was drawing the said wine, it happened that Mother Colette summoned the said dispensatrix to her in haste by the sound of a little bell. The dispensatrix, hearing the sound, ran quickly, carrying the stopper of the vessel or the spigot in her hands by forgetfulness; and so all the wine was spilled out on the floor of the room. And when she had spoken with the Mother, seeing the said stopper in her hand, she was at once stunned and ran to the cellar, finding that one and only barrel totally emptied and spilled out. On which account, not a little saddened and with a desolate heart, she went to the Mother and humbly acknowledged her fault. When the handmaid of Christ saw her heartfelt grief, she piously calmed her and said: "Go safely, do not doubt, Daughter; draw me some wine." When she responded that nothing of the wine remained, she said again: "Go in the name of Jesus Christ; go confidently." The vessel from which all the wine had flowed out is divinely refilled. And immediately obeying, she found the vessel full and overflowing with wine. It was truly wondrous, because it was so excellent and perfect that according to the judgment of those who drank it, it surpassed in taste all other good wine they had ever drunk.

[56] In like manner, for the greater evidence and security of the Divine Providence, which never fails those who faithfully observe their vows, on one occasion the aforesaid humble handmaid had arranged to have a new habit cut for a certain Brother who was quite in need of one. And for this purpose she called another Brother, Andrew, skilled in the art of tailoring, presenting him with the cloth that she believed could be sufficient for completing the habit. But the Brother tailor, having considered the quantity of cloth, found that the cloth could by no means suffice for such a habit, even if an additional full ell were added. The deficiency of cloth for making a habit is divinely supplied. He therefore returned to the little handmaid of our Lord Jesus Christ and began to demonstrate clearly the insufficiency of that cloth and the impossibility of making such a habit as she was asking for. She then, as though smiling, confidently replied: "Go, Brother, and pray to God; and afterward return; you pull on the cloth from one side and I from the other, to see if it can be stretched." The Brother returned, the cloth was cut in the presence of the Mother, and by her merits, with the Lord cooperating, the quantity of cloth not only sufficed but superabounded after the habit was completed — not only according to a suitable measure but exceeding it, so that it was necessary to recut that habit because of the excess of length and breadth beyond the due and common custom, in which it was inconsistent with holy poverty.

^a Petia and repetiare. Repetiatum, in French "rapiecee," from the word "piece," by which a part divided from the whole is understood; hence below at number 101 "petia," and at number 50 "parva petiola" for a similar cut-off part; and "petiare" and "repetiare," when it is joined together from multiple parts.

^b Tunicella is here taken for tunicula. A Bishop uses a tunicella and dalmatic in the solemn sacrifice; Tunicella. a tunicella is also called the minor dalmatic of the Subdeacon.

^c Mantellus is taken for a small cloak. Arnobius against the Gentiles, Book 2, said "mantele," Mantellus. and in Matthew Paris, Richard I, King of England, is said to be dressed in a "mantea." Catholicon: Togilla, a small toga; Togilla mantile. In Belgian and English, Mantel; in French, Manteau.

^d Capitegium. Capitegium, commonly called Caputium, because it covers the head.

^e Turtegetes: the Utrecht manuscript reads Curtegetes; perhaps as though coverings or mats of towers Turtegetes or courts, that is, shelters, or as is explained, hovels for birds living in towers and courtyards?

^f Collectarium: from which the prayers called Collects were customarily recited. Collectarium.

^g Jocalia: jewelry and gems. So Pope Pius IV issued a Bull against those who retain jocalia, Jocalia. and later it speaks of precious jocalia taken away.

^h Foresta and forestis for forest; and Forestarij, those who were in charge, is read on February 1 in the diplomas of the holy kings Sigebert and Childeric, page 235. Foresta. Forestum is read in the Lombard Laws and elsewhere.

^i Decesia. Namely in the convent built at Decize at the confluence of the Arou and Loire Rivers, by Philippa of Artois, widow of Philip, Count of Nevers, in the year 1419. In Surius it is erroneously read "in the territory of Murnensi."

^k Bladum. Bladum for wheat, as we have frequently noted.

^l Pitantia. Pitantia: a side dish, or any additional bread allowance. So also already Caesarius, Book 8 of Miracles, chapter 11, writing about a fish sent by the Abbot, says: "all the pitantias set before them were refused." In French, "Pitance."

^m The Utrecht manuscript reads Rebardella. Mark of Lisbon reads Radella.

CHAPTER IX.

Concerning her perfect chastity and pure virginity.

[57] Chastity is a lovable virtue, full of joy, rendering the soul close to God, a friend of holiness and an aid to charity, without which the gifts of graces — whether of wisdom or knowledge, of prophecy or eloquence, nor the grace of healing or of working miracles — profit little. For as Gregory says: "A good work is nothing without chastity." With which she was not inconsiderably adorned, blooming and resplendent in mind and body alike,

sweet handmaid of Christ throughout the entire span of time in which she lived among mortals. She lived with the most chaste custody of the exterior and interior senses: For she, fleeing and bearing a great hatred for all kinds of vices, especially abhorred and abominated carnal sins, against which she placed diligent guard over the exterior senses of the body, as being the doors or windows through which the wicked plague of death easily enters. For which reason, closing them most strictly, she barred them so that never, from the first moment of awareness until the end, did any consent to vain pleasure or carnal concupiscence wound her soul; but rather from infancy she dedicated her whole heart to the love of chastity and the precious treasure of virginity, so that no sign of any base or shameful thought could ever be perceived outwardly by anyone. Nor did any light or indecent word ever issue from her mouth. And no wonder, for whatever overflowed from her heart all reflected purity and the splendor of cleanness; and consequently nothing proceeded from her mouth except words of entire decency and holiness, of heavenly conversation and salutary edification. On account of which purity or cleanness, always diligently observed by her mentally and bodily, and fervently loved and faithfully guarded, she was made a temple of Christ and a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit: she may worthily be called a temple consecrated to our Savior Christ Jesus, and also a sanctuary and a pleasing dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit, since her interior purity was manifestly indicated by her exterior purity. And if it be lawful to say so, after the most glorious Virgin Mother of the Savior, she was one of the purest and cleanest creatures of the female sex, all things considered, who can be found. For her precious body, A Virgin held to be among the purest, was so fashioned from pure matter, lacking every blemish or deformity, beautiful and radiant outwardly throughout the whole course of her life, because virginal purity most truly shone forth in her together with childlike innocence or simplicity. And although she was most prudent in regard to all things touching the divine honor and the salvation of souls, she was nevertheless simple and innocent like little children in regard to carnal and worldly things. and plainly innocent:

[58] For which reason she imitated the aforesaid innocents and little ones in the graces and virtuous gifts that belong to them, namely purity and cleanness; and in that they are without sin, they willingly see one another, are familiar among themselves, and are timid and fearful — not only of rational creatures and those of great size, but also of irrational ones and those of small stature. In like manner, from the conformity she bore to the said little ones in purity of body and cleanness of mind, [gladly seeing little children on account of their purity, whom she strove to imitate:] she gladly looked upon them and showed herself familiar with them in sweet and playful conversations. And she was rendered similar to them in dread and fearful timidity, principally in all difficult acts and arduous affairs, placing the fear of God above all things, doing nothing whatsoever, spiritual or temporal, without prior examination — first before God, then in her own heart, and finally by the counsel of many according to common estimation; and what is more, even in things shown or inspired by God, she required the counsel and vote of many for greater security. she undertakes nothing rashly:

[59] Nor did she exhibit due fear only with respect to great and large things, but also with respect to feeble and tiny creatures, she shrinks from unclean small animals: those that exhibit some impurity or uncleanness, such as flies, slugs, and ants — at the sight of which she was terrified and recoiled greatly with much abomination. But with respect to clean creatures, and those that suggest chastity, she delights in clean ones: such as lambs, turtledoves, and the like, she took supreme delight, gladly looking upon them, loving and embracing them. As a sign of this, a certain small lark was once brought to her, to which she was devoutly attached on account of its purity and cleanness, especially the lark, because it is named from the praise of God, since it sings chirping the praises of God; and also because of its sustenance without provision, befitting evangelical poverty, it greatly pleased her, and she gladly looked upon it and accepted it as a companion. Wherefore the same little bird played wonderfully with her as she took her small meal, with which and other birds she ate and drank: taking her up in its claws, eating and drinking with her, privately, familiarly, and securely, just as it would have done with birds of its own species. And several similar beautiful or gentle little birds came to her oratory, chirping sweetly and melodiously, taking their food familiarly and securely — more than they would have done with others of the same nature. Moreover, on account of her said affinity with the aforesaid animals in purity and cleanness, and for her consolation, many such were sent to her by God.

[60] she loves a lamb that genuflects during the elevation at Mass: Once a certain small lamb was offered and presented to her out of devotion, which she gladly accepted both on account of its cleanness and as a sign of the most sweet Lamb, free from the stain or blemish of sin. By which she was manifoldly consoled, because whenever that lamb was present at the elevation of the most precious Body of Jesus, prompted by no alien effort or urging whatsoever, it would humbly bend the knees of its forelegs or shins until the said elevation was completed, and when it was finished, it would rise.

[61] At another time also, for her consolation, a certain tiny creature, white as the whitest snow, exceedingly beautiful, was wondrously and imperceptibly sent to the said handmaid: which, like no other and otherwise entirely unseen, did not remain continuously with her as the lamb did, but alternating its visits, sometimes showed or offered itself to her visibly, as in the morning or evening or at similar hours, and at other times disappeared. [she has a certain little creature familiar to her, which, when others wished to touch it, vanished.] It was, moreover, very pleasing and delightful to behold, on account of which many Religious women fervently desired to handle it or touch or hold it with their hand, which they could in no way obtain, though they ran after it. For before they could reach it, it vanished, or hiding somewhere, absented itself from them. Once it happened that the Mother and her daughters ran together chasing the aforesaid little ^a creature, where the said Mother, running ahead with the aforesaid little creature, vanished together from the eyes of the same daughters, who were entirely ignorant of what had become of either. No one can doubt that the aforementioned creature prefigured some divine secret, representing her bright purity, both exterior and interior, shown forth in its whiteness and beauty — which spiritual brightness the Divine goodness wished to manifest by a special grace, not only by the visible sign of the said creatures, but even more by the overflowing outward radiance of her body, which appeared so wondrously that her precious body was most fragrant, emitting a most sweet odor, as if planted with various flowers. Moreover, the food received by her for the sustenance of the body often came out as clean and beautiful as it had entered, without any foul odor. And furthermore, by a grace more excellent and never before heard of, she was always and entirely preserved from the natural infirmity common to all women, and was altogether free from many other impurities. immune from the womanly infirmity: And although the foul odors and impurities of others greatly burdened her because of her own cleanness, she nevertheless bore such odors sweetly and benignly for the sake of Him who willingly endured the foul odors of our sins.

[62] For she is known to have been endowed with two special graces, above all others, attesting to her purity. First, in whatever state — her body emits no foul odor, that is, of sickness or health, prosperity or adversity — no foul or other bad odor could be detected by anyone emanating from her body, however curious or fastidious, nor from the place of her dwelling nor from any of its circumstances; but rather from her bright person and from the place of her residence there was continually diffused a most sweet and gentle fragrance, but rather a sweet one: restorative to all who drew near to her. Whence on one occasion, as a certain Sister named Margaret de Belhoue was ministering to her while she washed her hands, she preserved the wash-water unbeknownst to the Mother in a certain vessel; and for seven years it was found most clear and perfectly clean, in testimony of the aforesaid purity. From which wash-water the said keeper of it, often drinking, diseases are driven away by the water in which her hands were washed, found manifold remedies for her infirmities, both spiritual and bodily, coming to her therefrom. Similarly, a certain Religious novice was suffering gravely in her stomach, fearing lest on this account she might be prevented from the Profession she so desired. For which reason, once ministering water for the said Mother to wash her hands, she piously and devoutly resolved to preserve and drink the water in hope of obtaining health — which she also did, secretly. Whence she was entirely relieved and perfectly restored to health.

[63] The second grace, no less than the first, granted to her in testimony proclaiming her most pure virginity, is reported to have been this: for although she was frequented by manifold people, small and great, good and bad, and although she was venerable and illustrious of face, sweet of appearance, pleasing and delightful to behold, nevertheless, just as she never improperly desired anyone, so neither could it be known or heard from anyone that she had been lustfully or wickedly desired. And what is more, those who visited her, previously damnable inflamed with the fire of carnal concupiscence, by her appearance she draws others to chastity: after beholding her pure and bright presence, were rendered cold and chaste. For the greater confirmation and manifestation of the said purity, she honors the state and times of virginity: she judged that the state and times of virginity, during which those virtues were maintained and preserved, should be honored with special reverence.

[64] Similarly, she deemed that persons who vowed the said virtues and observed them after their vow should be embraced with great love and honored with reverence. For which reason, the time and state of the Old Testament, and those who vowed chastity: in which the exercise of the aforesaid virtue did not flourish, she esteemed less worthy of reverence than the time or state of the New Testament, in which the Prince of virginity, together with His most glorious Mother and many other most special friends of His, approved, exalted, honored, and manifoldly praised the aforementioned virtues. And consequently, among all others, she loved with special devotion and sweeter affection the beloved friend of Christ, John the Evangelist, [as, after Christ and the Mother of God, she especially loved Saint John the Evangelist,] whom the prerogative of virginity had made worthy of a greater love, and she wished especially to have him as her intercessor before God, for the safer custody of the precious treasure of virginity in the earthen vessel of the human body.

[65] For the faithful preservation of which treasure, at the very beginning of her earliest youth, she resolved with deliberation she petitions the Pope for a Bull that only Virgins be admitted to the Order: to dwell among pure and innocent virgins, in order to avoid any consolations — not only shameful or indecent ones, but even matrimonial or conjugal ones, on account of the impurities mixed therein. For the accomplishment of which she obtained from the Lord Pope, fully certified of her desire, a leaden bull containing among other things a prohibition that no woman of whatever state should enter the Religious Order of Saint Clare to be reformed by her, unless she were a girl or virgin. Which was consequently carried into execution, so that no widow, nor anyone otherwise laboring under ill repute, was in any way received or permitted to be received. And although, God for the better dispensing according to the merits of such persons, certain noble and virtuous women who had previously been bound in marriage but were then widowed were received into the said Order, they were never as intimate and familiar to her as those who excelled in virginity; nor could she incline herself so readily and joyfully to the reception of married women as to the reception of virgins or maidens.

[66] And finally, in attestation of the most pure purity and most excellent virginity which the same glorious virgin, the noble handmaid of Christ Colette, decorously adorned and excellently beautified, merited to faithfully preserve as a most precious treasure pleasing and delightful to God, God Himself, supremely good, incomprehensible, and most liberal rewarder of virtue, deigned to fortify her with a certain gift of singular love and unheard-of grace — ^b espousing her to Himself as a true and most faithful Spouse, joined to Himself by the bond of most perfect love and the vow of virginity voluntarily promised to Him, often, willingly, and most devoutly, especially at the hand of His Vicar on earth, in a manner most worthy of admiration that follows. For that most sweet John the Evangelist, the most holy Apostle, was sent by God, from Saint John the Evangelist she receives a ring, conformable in the same prerogative of virginity, and brought to her a certain golden ring on behalf of the supreme King, presenting it to her and placing it on her finger as the finger of His Spouse — He who is the Prince of virginity and cleanness, counting the same pure Virgin as His inseparable and specially beloved Spouse. She received the ring humbly with great fear, diligently preserving and reverently honoring it. For its more worthy keeping, she arranged to fortify it with gold or silver; to which no casing can be fitted: but what the hands of goldsmiths and silversmiths had not originally made or fashioned could in no way be reinforced, nor could gold or silver be applied to it in any way by their hands. This ring many Fathers and Brothers, Confessors, and very many other persons saw with their eyes and handled with their hands, whence they remained manifoldly consoled. When she had decided to send the aforesaid Brothers to distant regions by dangerous routes for the sake of God or for expediting their affairs, she grants it to her own, that they may complete their journey safely: she would confidently and secretly give the said ring to them to carry upon themselves for the avoidance of dangers, with which they could suffer no impediment contrary to her intention, but freely completed the entire journey begun, both going and returning.

[67] Moreover, on account of the excellence of her most pure purity, just as she was more attached to the New Testament than the Old on account of the said reason, so too in the same Testament she was borne by greater affection and greater reverence toward the truly beloved friends of God she loves more those Saints who cultivated chastity: who faithfully wished to maintain and observe the said virtue, than toward others who did not observe it. And furthermore, among married persons she was more pleased with those who had been joined in a single marriage than with those who had been united in two or more. And what is more, to her own carnal mother, who had contracted a second marriage, she is reported to have said on a certain occasion, with some displeasure but in good simplicity: "My mother, I would prefer that you had been married only once." To which her mother sweetly replied: "Daughter, you would not have been born into the world if I had not married a second time." She replied: "God almighty would have permitted me to be born as the daughter of some one of our relatives, if my father had not been joined to you in a second marriage."

[68] At the beginning of the reformation, of which mention has often been made above, in the arduous affairs that came upon her she had recourse in her devout prayers to the Saints of God, especially those who had observed virginity. For which reason she had less recourse, or none at all, to seek aid from Blessed Anne, the mother of Saint Mary. On account of which, in fervent prayer before God, the most holy Anne appeared to her on one occasion, she is visited by Saint Anne with all her progeny: in glorious adornment, honorably leading with her all her noble and glorious progeny, namely her three most worthy ^c daughters with their most noble sons. The first of whom was the most excellent and most sacred Mother of Christ, the Virgin Mary, Queen of heaven and Lady of the earth, of all Angels and all creatures, holding by her hand the most dear and most glorious infant, the Lord Jesus, our most loving Redeemer and most glorious Savior. The second daughter following was Saint Mary of James, holding in her hands four glorious sons, namely James the Less, Simon, Jude, and Joseph the Just. The third was Mary Salome, likewise holding by hand her glorious offspring, namely Saint James the Greater and John the Evangelist. And in this apparition, the said glorious one, namely most holy Anne, manifested to her that although she had been joined in marriage many times, nevertheless the universal Church, both militant and triumphant, had been adorned through her illustrious progeny and celebrated with honor. From which manifestation the most sweet handmaid of Christ was wonderfully consoled, considering herself inexpressibly obligated to the aforementioned most glorious Anne, mother of Mary, conceiving toward her a most special devotion, and most humbly beseeching her that from her superexcellent grace she would be pleased to intercede for her with her most worthy progeny, together with all the Saints, that they might deign to take compassion on her and her poor little family, salutarily conducting her to the appointed end of the reformation divinely committed to her. And finally, gratefully recognizing the special grace she orders a church to be built in her honor: by which the most holy Lady, namely Anne, mother of the Mother of the Lord and Savior, had so fittingly shown herself to her, in some of her ^d monasteries she caused a church to be principally founded and consecrated with great devotion in honor and reverence of the aforesaid Saint. In a singular manner, however, she is shown to have done this in her original convent, namely at Besancon, granted to her governance by the Lord Supreme Pontiff, building and consecrating there a solemn chapel in honor and reverence of the same, in which many of her special friends in the Lord Jesus Christ rest in burial — to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

^a To the Italians this word signifies a little sheep; that it was also used by the French in the previous century is gathered from this passage. Pecorella.

^b These or similar words are missing.

^c That Saint Anne was married to only one husband, Saint Joachim, and only after long barrenness gave birth to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God, free from all stain of original sin, Saint Anne. is the common and most certain opinion of nearly all authors; and accordingly these other Marys appear to have appeared together as related to her family and joined in marriage — which the author of the Life did not sufficiently distinguish. This is to be more fully explained in the Life of Saint Anne on July 26. This genealogy is omitted by Mark of Lisbon.

^d Among these is the convent of Lésignan, of which mention is made below at no. 205; it is called Saint Anne's, on account of the church there consecrated in her honor. Consult Gonzaga on the Origin of the Seraphic Religion, part 3, in the Province of Saint Louis.

CHAPTER X.

On the zeal for holy prayer most acceptable to God and most useful to creatures.

[69] Blessed Augustine testifies that prayer is the refuge of the soul, the consolation of the good Angels, a torment to enemies, a service pleasing to God, the glory of perfect religion, complete praise, sure hope, and health without corruption. Therefore the principal occupation of the glorious Mother and humble handmaid, the Lady Colette, throughout the entire span of her life was chiefly devoted to the praise and glorification of God through fervent and devout prayer. For wherever she might be, inside or outside, standing or sitting, She is frequent in prayer: walking or resting, waking or sleeping, her meditation was always raised up to God — praying mentally or vocally without interruption, or at least doing something good, which is commonly called real prayer.

Among the other graces radically impressed upon her heart was her fervent desire that God should be diligently served, and the same service humbly rendered with purity of heart, fear, and due reverence. she instills it in others, From which divine service she wished no Religious women to be exempt, but rather that before the beginning of the said service or Divine Office, all should gather in the church to prepare their consciences, so that they might render a service well-pleasing and acceptable to the Most High. with a worthy preparation for it: But if any one of them bore something in her heart against any of her Sisters, she wished and commanded that before she offered the sacrifice of holy prayer, she should first be reconciled with the same through a humble request for pardon.

[70] And although she was feeble and exceedingly burdened by the sufferings that she continuously endured by God's permission, she is present at common prayers, by which she could blamelessly absent herself from the common divine service, her desire and pleasure was nevertheless to be present there day and night, the first to arrive and the last to depart, until by divine dispensation she was compelled to conduct herself otherwise. And if, by God's permission, she was freed from those unbearable sufferings, even with great bodily pains: she immediately hastened joyfully and promptly to the said common service, as if she had never been afflicted by such most grievous sufferings. Many times, when she was about to come to the Matins Office, she was previously seen by the Religious women or Sisters in the seat where she was accustomed to sit, waiting — a certain beautiful and gentle lamb. she is helped by a lamb: And especially with her heart, body, and all her strength she strove to offer Him humbly and eagerly an acceptable office, raising her voice with the jubilation of her heart, so that above all other voices she was heard resounding sweetly and wonderfully. she is heard up to a league away: And it was certainly wondrous that at the beginning of the reformation, when she was reciting the Divine Office with the others, she is reported to have been heard by a special divine grace for the space of one great league.

[71] At the same time also, she was not a little perplexed about the manner of reciting the said Divine Office in common, because the form of life or Rule contained the provision that the Sisters should perform the Divine Office without singing, by reading. On which account she decided to consult ^a her Father Confessor, Brother Henry de la Baume. He being summoned, after many conversations they both decided to have recourse together to the sacrifice of prayer. she divinely receives the method of celebrating the Divine Office: While they were praying, imploring the grace of knowing the manner in which they could worthily perform the said Office to the praise of God, the salvation of souls, and the edification of their neighbors, there was suddenly heard in the midst of the two of them a certain pleasing and melodious voice, seemingly entirely angelic, setting forth the due and fitting manner befitting the said Sisters for the performance of the Divine Office. Which voice they gladly heard, and diligently attending to the manner, according to its sweetness and most sweet prolongation,

they ordained that the Divine Office should be performed by the Sisters.

[72] It once happened in the convent where she was staying, on account of a most grievous plague then prevailing there, that many Religious women had entirely died, and others remained sick for a long time. She never allows the Divine Office to be interrupted by any obstacles: Among them the glorious Mother herself was burdened with no small infirmity. Nevertheless, she was unwilling on that account to absent herself from the Office, nor to diminish anything from the same Office on account of the fewness of the Sisters; indeed, with two or three she herself performed precisely all the Canonical Hours entirely, solemnly, and devoutly. And it seemed probable that holy Angels had descended from heaven to provide her with aid, assistance, and solace, to the increase of devotion and the admiration of all who heard. And what is more wondrous, the aforesaid glorious Mother, while performing the Divine Office, never conceived any weariness or labor. And when it was longer or more extended, in prayer she never suffers tedium: then she was more pleased; and if she happened to be somewhat desolate before, then as soon as the Office began she was comforted and rendered peaceful, singing in the fervor of the spirit sweetly, as if she always saw the face of the supreme King in person. And then she commonly appeared with a beautiful face glowing and shining brightly, she appears with a shining face: so that she very often dazzled the eyes of the Sisters who looked upon her, so that on account of the excessive brightness they could not look upon her face. But when she was sometimes impeded from the frequentation of the Divine Office by the excessive sufferings that frequently troubled her, she would sigh piously and sweetly exclaim, saying: "Alas for me! How blessed are those who are able to be unceasingly present at the divine praises!" — grieving more over the aforesaid absence than over the sufferings and labors and troubles endured therefrom.

[73] When, therefore, during the visitation of a certain convent, she once found a Religious woman who, burdened by a grave infirmity, had entirely absented herself from the Divine Office for the space of eight years — because on account of the said infirmity her voice failed, and she could say or do nothing in the said Office, although she was not a little afflicted and desolate because of this — the handmaid of the Lord, having called her, sweetly addressed her thus: "Why, dearest Daughter, have you absented yourself so long from the Divine Office?" To which question she replied, interposing as her excuse the entire impediment, namely the impossibility of doing or saying anything therein. To which the glorious Mother added: she sends a sick woman to Matins and heals her: "Go in the name of the Lord, and be at Matins on this following night, and do therein diligently according to the grace given or to be given you by the Lord." This being done, the aforesaid Religious woman found her voice apt and capable, better than she had ever had before. Then consequently she performed the said Office equally well or better, just as any of the others who had always been healthy. she recites daily various prayers besides the Divine Office: The Mother herself, moreover, beyond the Canonical and obligatory Hours, infallibly and daily recited the Office of the Our Father according to the form of the Lay Sisters, and the Hours of the Cross with double Vigils of the Dead — some of nine Lessons, and others of three only — and this at a minimum. She had most dear bead-strings of the Our Father, carrying them with her night and day, reciting from them without number or measure. Many times, moreover, vexed by most grievous sufferings, so that she was totally unaware of where she was, oppressed by pains, she is healed by touching the beads of the Rosary: by touching the same bead-strings of the Our Father she would return to herself, resuming her awareness. Among her vocal and mental prayers she bore a singular devotion especially to the Psalter and to the seven Penitential Psalms with the Litanies, and never from youth through old age, notwithstanding any occupations whatsoever, did she omit saying them. When, moreover, she had reached the end of the Psalter, humbly and reverently genuflecting before God, she would present that small offering, earnestly beseeching that He would receive it as pleasing and acceptable.

[74] And then, among other prayers, the ancient enemy was accustomed to inflict upon her very many impediments to virtue when she was reciting the Psalter. during prayer she suffers the molestations of demons: For at night, while she was reciting, he would very often extinguish the candle and pour out the ^b lamp and oil. On a certain occasion among others, the lamp being frequently extinguished and on the other hand relit by her for completing the Psalter already begun, the aforesaid enemy, intent on disturbing her, overturned the aforesaid lamp full of oil and poured it entirely over the book from which she was reading — rendering her not a little troubled, from them the book is ruined by the spilled oil, both on account of the loss of the book and on account of the unfinished prayer. On the following day, having piously complained to her Father Confessor about the aforesaid desolation, she gave him the book, which she thought consumed and lost, asking if it could be repaired in any way. she finds it divinely intact: Which book the said Father found by heavenly grace entirely unharmed, by which she was wondrously consoled.

[75] On another occasion, after she had been occupied in devoutly reciting the said Psalter, two terrible and bloody demons appeared to her in horrible forms, irreferably inspiring fear and impediment, she puts two demons to flight with the sign of the Cross: so that she could not present to the Lord the customary offering of devout prayer. Seeing them, she securely, confidently, humbly, and reverently fortified herself with the sign of the holy Cross, and offered her oblation in the customary manner — and they immediately and entirely vanished.

[76] In all adversities also and arduous affairs that occurred, and in tribulations or afflictions foreseen as coming, she trusts greatly in the Litanies recited in affliction: she decreed that recourse should be had to the refuge of humble prayer, by saying or having said by her Religious women the holy Litanies, in which she placed great faith and bore a singular devotion. For at the time when throughout the kingdom of France there prevailed such great dangers of cruel and deadly wars ^c that no one or very few dared to leave the fortresses or fortified towns — although the said Mother was exceedingly timid according to the condition and sex of her state — through roads infested by enemies she travels safely by reading the Litanies: she nevertheless undertook and resolved, for the love of God and the salvation of souls, to proceed through diverse and distant regions; and in her manifold progress, for a more secure safe-conduct, she resolved to devoutly hear each day before departure from the Office the Mass of the Epiphany of the Lord. And immediately after the beginning of the journey she would begin the holy Litanies, and consequently, by the grace of God and the merits of the Saints invoked therein, she escaped safely all dangers, however terrible, and often judged worthy of the loss of life — of which some shall be appended.

[77] For when the aforesaid glorious Mother went out with many of her Religious Sisters in a certain foreign region, whose language she entirely did not know, and as they were making their way through a certain passage reputed and proven to be very dangerous, robbers in the forest attacking, there came upon them fierce men armed with arrows and crossbows at the ready, who with deliberate minds set an ambush, desiring to plunder that most holy and simple company. And although she testified that they were poor little women living on alms from begging, yet because of the length of the journey and the roughness of the roads and feminine frailty, it was necessary for them to be carried in wagons with a rather large appearance. Those terrible men suddenly came, showing the malice of their perverse will, prepared for every evil, and began to speak rudely, the Litanies being read, terribly, and entirely indecently. Then the humble handmaid of our Lord Jesus Christ had devoutly recited the holy Litanies, and the foreign language being divinely understood, and in apostolic fashion, by the grace of God, she perceived all languages, and began to respond to them kindly, sweetly, and prudently. They, having suddenly heard her voice wonderfully, were changed from the cruel will of their malice to pious love, sweetness, and charity — not only sparing her and her company from the malice they had resolved to exercise, but also charitably offering a safe and secure escort to whatever region or place they might wish to go. For which offer, giving most humble thanks to the aforesaid armed men, by her gentle speech she changes them for the better. they mutually departed without any violence.

[78] On another occasion, when she was personally leading a certain humble band of Religious women to a new convent or monastery that had been built, passing through a certain forested and foreign passage, sensing in the spirit that some danger was imminent, she commanded the Sisters to devoutly present the holy Litanies to God. A certain man, noble indeed by birth the Litanies being read, but horrible in heart, by the suggestion of the devil was a barrier and strong adversary to the holy works of the same Mother, and maliciously ordered that she be tracked for a long time through some of his servants. Which malicious satellites, by the aforesaid command, caused the said Mother with her company to be arrested there, [she avoids those plotting against her chastity, their horses being rendered immobile:] until the aforesaid nobleman with his accomplices should arrive at that place. He, finally hastening to the same place, outwardly manifested the malice of his heart by uttering carnal and entirely indecent words. After she responded humbly and decorously to these indecent words, the horses of the aforesaid malicious satellites remained immobile, unable in any way to approach the carriage, as if their feet were tied to the ground, although they were light enough to retreat and apt to run.

[79] On yet another occasion, when the aforementioned glorious Mother was returning from placing Religious women in some newly built convents, and she and her companions thought to proceed by a safer road to more fully avoid the perils and dangers of this kind, it happened that she came upon worse and more cruel men, far more in number — or at least so close that they could easily inspect the carriage in which she was riding — seeing other robbers, who had deliberately resolved to plunder her entirely. For which reason some of the worst of them separated from the rest, to more quickly achieve the accomplishment of the said malice, approaching her. She, immediately perceiving this in the spirit, commended herself to God, she begins the Litanies, the Litanies being hastily begun. This being done, the malicious fighters were struck with such terror that, as though most violently put to flight by adversaries, they retreated, and puts them to flight: willingly joining themselves to the line of the rest, never to return to her again.

[80] Furthermore, in like manner, when once for certain necessities she was going to visit some of her convents and was compelled to cross the borders or extremities of diverse territories in which a numerous, terrible, and strong multitude of armed men were encamped, recognizing in her mind that disturbance was coming for her and her companions, again reading the Litanies, commending herself to God, she commanded the said Litanies to be recited. And shortly after she met more terrible and more perverse men from the aforesaid group, who spoke most insolently to her and her Brothers and companions, threatening to kill some, to cut off the ears of others, and to plunder horses or other things from others. Having heard these threats, the humble handmaid of Christ, fully trusting in the divine mercy and the merits of the Saints — she who, as pious, sweet, and charitable, would rather die than allow her Brothers and companions to suffer any disgraceful harm (after the manner of the Savior Lord saying to His persecutors:

"If you seek Me, let these go") the others being sent ahead, — she had all the Brothers and companions go ahead, exposing herself alone to death, and remained with the Sisters, prepared to die alone for all. John 18:8. And then God preserved her wonderfully, conferring upon her such vigor and boldness in her heart that she feared nothing would happen; and such fervent eloquence in her mouth, she is delivered, that they inflicted no evil or reproach upon her or upon her Religious Sisters; but finally, begging pardon, they restored the horses and all that had been entirely taken. Although the Lord, who is the avenger of those who persecute His faithful friends, took such vengeance that within the space of eight days, for other crimes or offences committed, they were hanged on the gallows, publicly confessing and acknowledging that of all the evils they had committed, none so burdened their consciences the robbers shortly after being hanged: nor displeased them as much as the disturbance they had caused to the handmaid of Christ Jesus, judging moreover that this was precisely the reason why the supreme Judge had willed to punish them with such a death.

[81] Still on the same subject, it should not be passed over that at the time of the great dissension or war of the kingdom of France, she was dwelling in a convent of Sisters in a certain small town that was greatly burdened on account of the aforesaid situation, always in danger of capture and destruction, unless God through the merits of His handmaid had provided a remedy. For many times warlike men came secretly in great force, again reading the Litanies, she preserves the place from plunder: having made a firm pact to take the said little town by stealth or trickery. But she immediately sensed in the spirit the plan or approach, and straightway, standing, she would begin or have begun the Litanies. Once these were begun, the aforesaid evildoers, thinking that a greater force of opposing or hostile people was coming to make resistance, hastily retreated; and so the aforesaid town was preserved by her holy merits. For which reason the memory and common report persists there that the prosperity and preservation of the aforesaid town proceeds from and endures through her merits. For, as has been said, when the vocal prayer was finished, the mental prayer followed, and so always praying she was pleased and consoled, asserting that without prayer no one can make progress, and thus she exhorted the Sisters to be always occupied in the sacrifice of holy prayer.

[82] In the aforesaid mental prayers, in which she was frequently occupied, she drove away all useless cares or solicitudes outside herself and collected all her sensory and bodily powers and natural faculties, she gathers all her powers before prayer: applying them to thinking perfectly about God and to praying fervently with the most vehement affection, so that she was wholly caught up and raised into Him, sensing and perceiving nothing bodily, she is caught up in ecstasy, as if completely dead to all external things that were happening around her. for many hours, And sometimes she remained in such a state for the space of six hours, sometimes for ten or twelve, sensing nothing of external things, as has been said; but finally, returning to herself, she believed or supposed that she had been there for only a short time. or an entire day: Although it has been found that sometimes she persisted in such a rapture for an entire day, and very often for the greater part of the night; and so she prayed mentally and did not sleep with bodily sleep except very little, so that sometimes in eight days she scarcely slept for a single hour. For after reciting the Psalter vocally with the Canonical Hours, the remainder of her time, whether inside or outside, was occupied in mental prayer. Coming to the lodging from the road, while others rested, she sleeps little, she kept vigil for the refreshment of the body, weeping and groaning and fervently praying to God without sleep.

[83] ^d Of how great virtue and efficacy were the fervent and heaven-penetrating prayers of the aforesaid handmaid, even while traveling: it pleased the Most High to show to some of her Sisters through special grace by wonderful and evident signs. For it seemed to them while she prayed, a fiery torch was seen proceeding from her mouth up to heaven, that they truly saw a certain fiery torch, bright and resplendent, proceeding from her mouth and ascending so high that it seemed to touch the heavens — as a sign that the aforesaid prayers, being most worthy of acceptance, merited to arrive before the sight of the Divine Majesty. And sometimes it appeared to them that during her most fervent supplication, her oratory seemed to burn entirely as if set on fire; and if anyone approached to extinguish the suddenly appearing fire, the oratory seemed to be on fire: it immediately disappeared. Once, however, her veil was found burned, although no fire had been there. the veil is found burned: Similarly, one of the aforesaid Religious women on a certain occasion entered the place of the oratory inadvertently while she was fervently praying before the Lord, and suddenly saw her gleaming with such beauty and such splendor the body shines: that she immediately fell to the ground, as if rendered lifeless. Seeing her in such distress, the handmaid of Christ came to her, reproving her for the intrusion, and afterward sweetly comforting her, she also regained her strength. A certain Religious woman also, called Sister ^e Colette de Plancoudray, once saw, while the Mother was in the fervor of prayer, a certain great and resplendent sun, a sun is seen proceeding from her mouth: illuminating the entire oratory, proceeding from her mouth. And moreover, with the elevation of heart and spirit in her most fervent prayers to God, she was many times seen by the aforesaid Religious women to be bodily raised so high into the air, she is raised into the air while praying: that their sight was entirely frustrated, as she vanished from their eyes. Whence for certain reasons she was compelled by God to reveal that she had also many times been so raised in her own experience during the said prayers that it seemed to her that if she had stretched out her arms, she could have touched heaven with her hands.

[84] Among the other requests and supplications that she made to God, she pours out prayers for sinners, she principally prayed for the poor, for sinners, and for offenders, that they might be converted. And similarly, among the many revelations that God by His most pious grace deigned to make manifest to the distinguished Doctor and excellent preacher both in word and deed from the Order of Preachers, Master ^f Vincent of revered memory, there was notice of the aforesaid Mother, whom he saw in the spirit humbly genuflecting in the presence of the supreme Majesty and Divine Goodness, revealed by God to Saint Vincent Ferrer: fervently and devoutly supplicating for the sins and failings of her most poor people. To whom the merciful Father seemed to respond: "Daughter, what do you wish Me to do? For daily I suffer injuries and insults from them, and I do not cease to endure them. Daily they tear Me apart, and unceasingly they rend Me to pieces, as meats in a slaughterhouse, blaspheming and denying Me and transgressing My commandments." And on account of this vision and illustrious showing, which God willed to intimate to the aforesaid Doctor, he visits her: he transferred himself from the regions of Aragon to the French region, and especially to the Duchy of Burgundy, to visit her in person. In which visitation they had mutually useful conversations together and received from the divine goodness many spiritual consolations. At another time, when the aforesaid Mother was fervently imploring the most glorious Virgin, the Mother of the Lord and Savior, entreating the Virgin Mother of God, that she might deign to intercede with her most dear Son that He might mercifully spare His most poor people, there was presented to her a certain dish filled with small pieces of flesh, in a vision of cut flesh, as if they were those of a small infant, with a response in this manner: "How shall I beseech my most dear Son on behalf of such people who daily, by their offences, injuries, and horrible sins committed — as far as it lies in them — tear Him to pieces more minutely she recognizes that the flesh of Christ is thus torn by sins: than these meats that you see in this vessel have been torn apart?" On account of which she bore in her heart great sadness and grief for a long time.

[85] after the Divine Office she has the Commemorations said: Among the Suffrages and Commemorations that she performed with singular devotion, these were: namely, of the Passion of the Lord and Savior, of His Annunciation, and of All Saints. Whence without fail she daily said after the Divine Office, and caused to be said throughout all the convents, for the Commemoration of the said Passion the Antiphon: of the Passion of Christ, the Annunciation, "Christ was made obedient for us," etc., and the Prayer: "Look down, we beseech You, O Lord," etc.; and for the Commemoration of the said Annunciation the Antiphon: "The Angel Gabriel," and the Prayer: "We beseech You, pour forth Your grace." And for All Saints the Antiphon: "Angels, Archangels." The Prayer: "Almighty and everlasting God, who has granted us the merits of all Your Saints." And together with the aforesaid Commemorations, for a long space of time, beyond the canonical Divine Office, which is obligatory, and All Saints, she solemnly recited the regular Hours of All Saints. or the Office of All Saints, When, moreover, she stayed in the convent at Besancon, after Compline she had the aforesaid Commemoration of All Saints sung by the Brothers in the chapel of the most holy Anne. And the reason why she more willingly besought the Office and the aforesaid Commemorations rather than others was this: prompted to this by a vision of Saint Anne. For after the most holy Anne had appeared to her in her own person with her most noble progeny, to whom she cordially commended herself and all her affairs, in a certain rapture of hers — the divine grace cooperating — it was revealed to her concerning the diligent solicitude that the same Saint bore for the execution of her affairs. And furthermore, the aforementioned most holy Lady was shown to her joyful and glorious, clothed in a certain most luminous and brilliantly shining garment, imploring the patronage of the Saints. carrying with her a vessel or dish full of the purest gold, in which vessel she begged and continually procured from the glorious Saints and holy women of Paradise suffrages of charity and pious prayers to the Most High Himself, that He might deign to be propitious to His handmaid, so that her holy desire might be fulfilled and the commission divinely made to her, and also begun by her, might achieve a fruitful outcome.

[86] How, moreover, her fervent and humble prayers benefited many creatures is apparent from the following. For in the town of ^g Aigueperse in the territory of Auvergne, a certain man and his wife, of abominable and execrable life, were A married couple condemned to death on the gallows for grave crimes, sentenced to death by the hand of justice for their offences; for the execution of which they were being led to the gallows. And although it was commonly said that they had well deserved it, nevertheless many had compassion on them — not only for the loss of bodily life but also for the dispensation of eternal damnation — inasmuch as they showed themselves to have no knowledge of God or of their own failings, nor did they wish to respond to any exhortations or admonitions and obstinate in evil, that could be made to them; indeed they uttered detestable words, entirely subject to diabolical

despair or perpetual damnation. And since among the onlookers of the quite horrible event there was a certain holy hermit who, out of devotion, had visited the glorious Mother, he, attentive to the bodily and spiritual perdition of the two wretched persons, immediately genuflected before the ministers of justice, after the hermit's prayers, humbly beseeching them to wait, deferring the aforesaid execution until he could return from the desired recommendation. Which being done, she immediately raised her heart and hands to God, devoutly saying with tears and weeping the Psalm reciting Psalm 50, "Have mercy on me, O God," etc. Before she had even finished the aforesaid Psalm, those malefactors conceived a wonderful knowledge of God and of their enormous sins, she obtains a happy death: over which they were displeased and grieved vehemently, and they recognized that they had deserved death — for which reason they received it in perfect patience, and all who were present were greatly edified, having thence great hope of their own salvation.

[87] At another time, a certain Lady, Religious indeed and of good life and holy conversation, desiring from her heart to confess certain quite enormous sins that she had committed while living in this world, [she obtains the grace of making a good confession for another who did not dare out of shame:] could not bring herself to do so. For whenever she came into the presence of a Priest for confessing, she was anticipated by the malicious enemy, who cast such great shame before the eyes of her heart that she dared not speak of the aforesaid matters, but returned just as she had come; and so she remained for the space of six years, not a little sad and very desolate. Finally, however, she asked to be commended fervently and humbly to the sacred prayers of the humble handmaid of Christ. Which being done, immediately approaching the Sacrament of Confession, the blush of shame being put aside, she confessed fully and entirely all her sins without difficulty. she obtains the grace of confessing well: On which account she found herself greatly relieved in conscience and consoled in spirit.

[88] At the beginning of the oft-mentioned reformation, while the humble handmaid of Christ was still dwelling in the castle of La Baume in the territory of Geneva, in the same town there was a certain noble house whose inhabitants piously and charitably conducted themselves toward her, freely offering themselves and their goods to her and her Religious women, and freely sharing them. On which account she deservedly held them specially commended in her sacred prayers. a family most benevolent to her, Which mutual charity the envious, fierce, and cruel enemies could not bear, and they stirred up persecutions against the said household, attacked by malicious enemies, procuring and inflicting upon them the gravest damages. But the virtuous side prevailed; for by the merits and intercessions of the same Mother, both the faithful friends themselves and their dwellings and goods were preserved from all misfortunes. For their benign protection, Angels visibly descended from heaven to preserve them from dangers in prayer and to resist the adversaries and enemies striving against them with the most savage malice — as was evidently shown to the glorious Mother and to some of her Sisters. For she herself first saw, she sees them protected by Angels, around the hour of midnight, a certain most brilliant light around the said house, and in that light a multitude of Angels preserving and defending the said inhabitants against all diabolical infestations. Afterward she saw a golden ladder situated upon the same house and touching heaven, descending by a ladder and Angels ascending and descending by it, who were presenting to God the devout prayers of His humble handmaid, as well as the beautiful alms and other works of charity and offering prayers and alms to God: that the aforesaid benefactors daily brought to her and her Religious women. And then she called one of her Sisters, and she arranges for it to be seen by another nun: manifesting to her the same charity and vision — who could in no way attain to seeing these things until the Mother's prayer had preceded it; after which she perfectly merited to see that brightness and vision. Which wonderful and indescribable thing more fully demonstrated how her prayers and devout supplications, as well as the works of charity bestowed upon her, were mercifully pleasing and acceptable and welcome to God.

[89] In a certain convent of hers in the town of Poligny, the Religious women at first suffered great want of water, because it was necessary for them to seek it entirely outside the monastery, in a shortage of water, since water could in no way be found inside, nor was there a suitable place for digging a well, although many experts had principally been engaged for this purpose. And finally, on the Friday after the middle of Lent, on which day the Gospel is sung in the Roman Church after prayers had been offered, making mention of the well beside which the true Savior of the world asked water from the Samaritan woman, after the most pious sacred prayers of the same Savior had been said, the humble handmaid commanded the earth to be dug in a certain place. And immediately water came forth abundantly, most beautiful and equally good or better than any that could be found she obtains it: in the entire aforesaid town and even in the entire region.

[90] Likewise, in a certain other town in the territory of ^h Albi, a certain young woman joined in marriage, of quite honest life and beautiful conversation, who had a certain small infant from the aforesaid marriage, by divine permission fell into so grave an infirmity a woman fallen into delirium, that she totally lost her senses, so that she recognized neither God, nor any creatures, nor her own infant in any way. And furthermore she was so disordered that she went about publicly naked without any shame, using such detestable language that to all words spoken to her she never responded except through the infernal enemies. It happened, moreover, that a certain Ecclesiastical man, a good and venerable Priest, known to the glorious Mother and having knowledge of her holy virtues, moved by compassionate piety toward the poor sick woman, after a little while humbly and earnestly commended her to the sacred prayers of the same Mother, who was in a distant region. by prayers And after the said recommendation, returning a second time from the presence of the same Mother, he charitably visited the said sick patient as before, touching the head of the sick woman with a certain cap or veil of the aforementioned Mother. This being done, she quite quickly spoke rationally, asking above all things for the Sacrament of holy Confession, and by the touch of a veil, she is healed: and in a very short time she merited to obtain health, as if she had previously sensed nothing wrong.

[91] Likewise, at another time, a certain famous merchant, of whom mention was made above, was about to travel through the dangers of lands and various perils on account of the flooding of snow and waters, necessarily compelled by business concerning his merchandise. a merchant about to travel abroad, commended to her prayers, After a most cordial recommendation of both his person and his entire expedition to the sacred prayers and worthy supplications of the humble handmaid of God, he immediately set out on his way. And walking through fields full of waters and snows covering the earth, as has been mentioned, he labored unceasingly until he was totally unaware of where he was. And at night he reached a certain very dangerous passage, so that however little further he might have gone, he could not have escaped without peril of death. For he would have inevitably fallen into a certain very deep abyss, entirely filled with waters and snows. Nevertheless, at the point of such a deadly necessity, he remembered the most glorious Mother, appearing in danger, again devoutly commending himself to her holy prayers. This being done, he immediately saw the aforesaid Mother guarding that dangerous passage and making a sign to him with her hand she preserves him from falling into a precipice: not to proceed further but to turn back — which he did without delay. On which account he clearly recognized that by the merits and prayers of the same Mother he had escaped the peril of death.

[92] Moreover, a certain man of great name and fame, known to and familiar with the same Mother, had a most dearly beloved daughter, legitimately begotten, whom he proposed to devote to the holy service of God — that is, in the state of Religious life. For which reason he presented and gave her to the aforesaid Mother, who gladly received her as one well disposed for observing the said state of Religious life. And shortly after, the aforesaid man, grieving over his daughter whom he now considered lost and displeased with what he had done, demanded her back insistently and rigorously. a girl admitted to the Order, On which account the humble handmaid of Christ, not a little saddened, reluctantly returned her to him, and afterward turned to the refuge of holy prayer, groaning and weeping before God over the girl thus lost. A wondrous thing! That father was then so hardened and taken away by her father, after prayers were poured out, that in order that his daughter might entirely lose the memory of Religious life and never be able to return to it, he was already taking her to a distant country. But when she had been taken there, when he reached the middle of the journey or thereabouts, the horse on which the aforesaid girl was riding fell completely three times, the horse being blinded, he receives her back: and in the last fall the aforesaid horse was completely blinded — and so, like a dried-up piece of wood, was afterward useful for nothing, of no worth or value. Perceiving this, the father of the said girl, recognizing the hand of God against him and seeing the works of God wonderfully accord with the merits of His handmaid, returned to her, humbly begging pardon and earnestly requesting that she be pleased to take his daughter back to the state of Religious life. To which supplication she willingly and kindly condescended.

[93] Finally, another noble and very powerful Lady, the Countess of Valentinois, with long-standing desire and great devotion wished to enter the sacred Religious Order so often named. another Countess seeking entrance into the Order, For which purpose she wished to test herself, living for a long time harshly and in austerity, wishing to know whether she could bear the burden of the said Religious life. And consequently she humbly requested the glorious Mother to deign to condescend to her desire and bring it to effect. The Mother, perceiving her fervor and devotion and holy desire with perseverance, granted what she asked, assigning a fixed day for the reception. But the ancient enemy, adversary of all good things, sensing the approach of that day for the attainment of so great a good, endeavored as much as he could to procure an evident impediment. the horses being healed by prayer, For all the horses were suddenly found so feeble and sick that they seemed unable in any way to rise from the ground. Having heard these things, the Lady, sad and utterly desolate, did not know how to provide a suitable remedy. Then she resolved to devoutly commend herself with the entire matter to the worthy prayers of the same Mother. she admits her. This being done, preparing herself before departure, she was immediately consoled. For all the aforesaid horses were found healthy, robust, nimble, and ready for everything. At which the said Lady joyfully and gladly set out on her way and reached the desired end, which the humble handmaid of Christ received her into Religious life with heartfelt affection and spiritual joy. In which Religious life the aforesaid Lady lived devoutly with great perfection until death, virtuously serving God, whom she now enjoys gloriously. To Him be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

^a The MSS. of Corsendoncq and Rooklooster read "demandare" — a common Gallicism; just as "seruitium" for the Divine Office is a similar idiom, as he said a little earlier "per prius" for "antea" (in French, "par-avant"); and below at no. 92, "de post" (French: "depuis").

^b Crucibulum — a lamp, a mortar. So says the Catholicon; it seems, however, to be a diminutive from the unused "Cruca," Crucibulum. which to the Germans and French, "cruyke" or "cruche," signifies an earthen vessel.

^c This refers to the war of the English, who, having made an invasion in the year 1415 and slaughtered the French, The Anglo-French War. widely dominated as victors, having taken the Burgundians into their alliance of war; who in the year 1435 were reconciled to Charles VII, King of France, who thenceforth, gradually expelling the English, began to prevail.

^d By Mark of Lisbon she is called Colette de Apella-curte. By Abbeville de Haplin-courte, and he asserts this happened at Poligny.

^e "Oratio" or "supplicatio" — in French "request," from "requirendo" (requesting); also a petition presented to a Prince or Magistrate. Requesta. Hence in the Life of Adrian VI, "Master of Requests," who is appointed for receiving and transmitting them.

^f The Acts of Saint Vincent Ferrer, and in them his manifold revelations, will be given on April 5. He died in the year 1419.

^g Aquapersa, commonly called Aigueperse, a town of the Auverni in Limagne near Montpensier, Aquapersa. where the convent was begun to be built by the Duke of Bourbon in the year 1423.

^h Albiga or Albia, commonly Albi, in Upper Languedoc on the river Tarn.

CHAPTER XI.

On her fervent love, reverence, and devotion toward the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, together with miracles wrought and accomplished through her merits by means of the saving sign of the holy Cross.

[94] As the mellifluous Doctor Saint Bernard testifies, in Sermon XLIX on the Canticles, "Nothing is so efficacious for healing the wounds of conscience From her own mother the young girl drew her devotion to the Passion of Christ: and for purging the eye of the mind as the assiduous meditation on the wounds of Christ." The fervent devotion and love that she bore toward the sacred Passion of Christ, the humble handmaid of Christ Colette, still in her youthful age, began by drawing the first impression from the mouth of her natural mother, a woman who loved and feared God. Who indeed every day, weeping and groaning, would make a prayer concerning the said Passion, grieving at the injuries, blows, and torments endured by Christ Himself for the redemption of the human race. Which prayer, uttered with sorrow of heart and bitterness, the little handmaid of Christ diligently attended to and so impressed upon her memory word by word that it could never, as long as she lived, be erased therefrom by forgetfulness. For which reason, each day at the noon hour, at noon, about to think of it, at which the Savior was crucified, she felt a most vehement anxiety and intense sorrow of heart for the most bitter Passion of the most benign Lord and Savior. For the more secret and devout endurance of which, at the aforesaid hour she gladly withdrew from other persons, she withdraws from the company of others: and then, remaining thus in private, she strove to apply all the powers of her mind to meditating on the injuries, persecutions, reproaches and insults, and the terrible and shameful death that He deigned to suffer sweetly and patiently out of desire for our salvation. And very often, after that devout meditation, she was alienated from the use of the exterior senses, she is often caught up in ecstasy: sensing nothing at all of external or outward things, but was entirely caught up and transformed into God through the most ardent desire and fire of love. Especially, however, on Fridays, [on Fridays, intent on the torments of the Savior, she does not eat before the sixth hour after noon:] from the sixth hour after Matins, having heard holy Mass, until the sixth hour after noon, neither eating nor drinking, so vividly and fervently she devoted herself to the heartfelt meditation and tenacious remembrance of the most sacred mystery of the Lord's Passion, that both in heart and deed, pierced by the sting of most vehement grief, she considered herself so wounded that many times in her hands and feet and side it seemed to her that she was being pierced through with nails and a lance. she senses the pains bodily, Who, I say, could sufficiently express the abundance of tears, the most pious weeping, the anxious groans especially in Holy Week: that she endured throughout the entire most holy Greater Week, recalling the excessive endurance and the most bitter pains that He Himself suffered?

[95] For there had been conferred upon her around the time of her virtuous youth a certain special grace concerning the aforementioned mystery: because once, after a certain deep and fervent meditation on the sorrowful Passion, from Christ appearing, she learns all that He suffered: the Savior Himself, Jesus Christ, deigned to appear to His handmaid, familiarly showing her the manner and form in which He suffered. Further revealing to her how in each of His most holy members He unjustly suffered individual special pains for the love of our salvation; and thence she conceived a most vehement grief and anxiety in her heart. And nevertheless she was inflamed with a certain ardor of devotion and love for the said Passion, so that many times, after the recollection of the aforesaid vision and the cruel and horrible pains that she had seen in the most precious body of our Savior, she remained entirely exhausted of strength, completely insensible, and transformed into another state. On account of which, as has already been touched upon, in that Greater and Holy Week she was enriched with many graces worthy of remembrance. For when the Passions were read at the Masses in her presence, as is the custom, while the Passion of Christ was read at Mass, all the pains and torments that the Lord Jesus suffered in His most holy body were so renewed in the heart and in the body of His sweet and humble handmaid that apparently ^a never did any woman labor so much in childbirth all the torments are renewed in her heart: as she did in compassion. And as a sign of this, at the aforesaid hours she lamented with such most anxious irremediable tears and indescribable groans that no heart, however hard, perceiving such things, could refrain from being softened to piety and compassion. Whence for a long time she remained thus inflamed with the ardor of charity and anxious with the most heartfelt grief for Christ's Passion and death; and in whatever manner, whether by reading or otherwise, the aforesaid Passion was brought back to her memory, it so occupied her entire intellect and all her powers concerning the same mystery that sometimes for six hours or more she thought of nothing else at all, nor understood, nor sensed anything outwardly. Once, residing in the convent at Besancon in the aforesaid Greater Week, she so vividly applied her heart to the meditation of the sorrowful Passion of Christ that for the space of three days and continuous nights she was caught up in God. Nor during that time did she return to herself, she is caught up in ecstasy for three days: nor did she speak anything, nor drink, nor eat.

[96] On another occasion, on the holy day of Good Friday, from the morning hour until the hour when the Sisters were returning from Chapter, she was so occupied in meditation on the most grievous suffering on Good Friday of the Lord, that the same Christ endured in His body, that she suffered there such an exceedingly harsh torment that the Sisters coming out of Chapter, meeting her, after meditation on the Passion she appears with a changed face, gazed at her as at a miracle. For it seemed that her precious face had been so violently struck with rods that nothing at all remained except skin and broken and crushed bones, with a twisted or distorted nose. Nevertheless, as the Sisters watched, the appearance of her face gradually returned, and her nose was straightened, until it was restored to its former state. And after the said conversation with the Sisters, she is caught up in ecstasy: fearing that they had perceived some sign of what had happened, she suddenly returned to the oratory and was immediately caught up until nightfall.

[97] Likewise, on Palm Sunday, being with humility and great devotion among the other Religious women in the holy procession, on Palm Sunday, which represents the coming of the Lord and Savior to the holy city of Jerusalem to endure death and passion, carrying there a holy palm branch according to custom with the others, she so deepened her heart in thinking about the aforesaid coming she carries a palm branch, that it seemed to her that she was so near to and joined with the same Lord as if she were bodily touching Him and also the donkey upon which He humbly sat. Which donkey, sensing the greenness of the branch that she was carrying in her hands, so approached the same branch the branch vanishes, as if eaten by the donkey: that with its teeth it took it from her hands. And thence the said branch vanished, as if it had been eaten by the donkey, and was never again seen or found.

[98] The sacred places overseas, wondrously endowed and made holy or blessed by the most holy presence of the Lord and Savior, she held in her heart with great devotion and reverence — especially the place and city of His Passion and death. For although she was feeble and delicate, and the perils and sea crossings were not a little difficult, she was nevertheless most desirous of gladly setting out on the way, she desires to travel to Jerusalem: and devoutly visiting and offering or sacrificing her life to God, and dying there or ending her life for the sake of God; and she would indeed have put this into effect had she found counsel agreeable to her and sufficient permission for this. Among the other Relics, moreover, that the holy Church of God, our Mother, worthily venerates, she was borne with the most singular honor and worthy reverence toward the wood of the holy Cross, on which Christ Jesus, the most benign Savior, deigned to be crucified and die. [she receives from heaven a portion of the holy Cross, such as she had often desired:] On which account she most affectionately desired that some small portion be communicated to her. Nor was it fitting before God that the aforesaid Mother should be defrauded of her desire. For a certain small golden cross was sent to her from heaven, within which a certain portion of the true and most holy Cross of Christ was ^b enclosed or contained, which she devoutly and reverently kept, and many persons saw and held it. She moreover asserted and said for certain that the aforesaid Cross had not been fabricated by human hands. And just as she affectionately revered and honored the true Cross of Christ, so in a similar manner she was singularly devoted to the sign of the holy Cross. Through the power of which sign, by the merits of His humble handmaid, the Lord deigned to manifest very many miracles, some of which are written below.

[99] For at the beginning of the above-named reformation, very many children were brought or presented to her, burdened with various infirmities, she heals sick children with the sign of the Cross, and by a subtle and obscure method not revealed to her, the friends or parents of those children tried to induce her to touch them with her hands and fortify them with the sign of the most holy Cross. This being done, they were rendered perfectly healthy. In a certain convent of the same Mother, one Religious woman was vexed by such a headache a Religious woman from a most violent headache: that she believed herself near death from the intolerable pain. What more? She resolved to approach the Mother, revealed her burden to her, humbly requesting that the sign of the holy Cross be imprinted upon her head

with the touch of her hand. To which the most pious Mother, greatly compassionate, placing her hand upon her sick head, impressed the sign of the Cross. This being done, the pain vanished and full and perfect health was present.

[100] When once the handmaid of Christ was attending to certain affairs to be completed for her holy Religious Order, she arrived with her simple company at the bank of a certain deep river. she crosses a river with her companions; Where, no boat or boatmen being found for crossing, the aforesaid humble handmaid, trusting in the Divine goodness, made the sign of the Cross before her and asked her Confessor to do the same; and so she confidently attempted the dangerous and deep crossing, and having attempted it, ran it confidently and without difficulty with all those of the aforesaid company — some of whom were on foot, others on horseback, and they all easily got through. And shortly after, a line of many men on strong and powerful horses, presuming to cross at the said passage and disrespectfully mocking the poor simple people with such words as: "If ^c Bigards and Hypocrites crossed safely, why should we hesitate to cross?" — others who mocked them being drowned: finally entering the river, they remained drowned there.

[101] On another occasion, as the glorious Mother was traveling from one convent to another, her carriage fell into a certain deep pit filled with water; and then one of the Sisters, her companion, had in her custody a certain piece of unicorn horn, quite dear to the aforesaid Mother, that had been entrusted to her. Which piece happened to fall into the aforesaid pit and into the depth of the waters. as a nun trusting in her merits is preserved: Whence, that Sister being rendered not a little sad and desolate, she confidently commended herself in her heart to the sacred prayers of the oft-named Mother; and having made the sign of the Cross, she confidently entered the same pit filled with waters, and without any assistance from any creature except a certain small branch like a vine shoot or tendril, she sought, found, and retrieved the said piece of unicorn horn, floating in the midst of the waters; nor was she herself wetted, except very slightly, and that only on the sole of her foot.

[102] Another miracle of no less admiration followed. For in a certain monastery of Religious Ladies, there was one among them, a Religious woman afflicted by a certain madness, of praiseworthy reputation and honest life, who by God's permission had incurred such a horrible infirmity for the space of five years that every day she fell gravely to the ground at least once, foaming indecently through her mouth like a wild boar pursued by hunters, and this abundantly. And afterward she remained as if rabid, having lost her senses, as if possessed by a demon. And although she was strongly and tightly bound by many strong persons and held bound, she could not on that account be restrained, but in spite of them she would shamefully rise up and leap to the beams, vomiting from her mouth the most foul heat like a furnace, and also emitting a powerful wind like lightning, and she persisted in such a state for a long time. Whence the other Religious women of the aforesaid monastery were greatly burdened and afflicted in many ways, entirely not knowing what they should do for a suitable remedy. But finally, remembering the virtues of the humble handmaid of God Colette, she liberates her by sending her Confessor, they affectionately commended her to her sacred prayers. Who indeed, moved by piety, charitably sent one of her Father Confessors to visit her. And he, as a faithful messenger trusting in the merits of the same Mother, devoutly fortified the sick woman with the sign of the holy Cross; and the sign of the Cross having been made. and immediately the sick woman was freed from such a great infirmity, no sign at all remaining or ever again appearing of such an illness.

[103] Once a certain Religious woman among the daughters of the same Mother, she heals another sick woman by the touch of her hand: called Sister Joan de Lazarree, was tormented by a severe pain in her hand, not knowing what she should do. Finally she thought to approach the same Mother, to ask sweetly and humbly that she might imprint the sign of the Cross upon her sick hand. And when she presented herself for obtaining the aforesaid blessing, the humble handmaid, sad and grieving and as if indignant, repelling the sick hand, touched it from behind with her own hand; from which contact, made through indignation, she was fully and suddenly restored to health.

[104] Similarly, a certain Religious woman among her daughters who was sick was gravely distressed, another by eating bread blessed with the sign of the Cross: for three days eating and drinking almost nothing. The pious Mother, remembering her, inquired how she was. The answer was that she was gravely vexed and was thought likely to die shortly. Then she took a certain piece of coarse bread, made the sign of the Cross there, and sent it to the sick woman, commanding that she eat it immediately. This being done, she knew herself to be healed, and so much so that on the following day she left the infirmary.

[105] When the handmaid of Christ once resided in a certain convent in a region of scarcity, especially as to grain and wine, there was nothing there for the healthy and the sick except a small portion of wine, which was so spoiled that it caused disgust to all who ^d tasted it. Of which the said Mother commanded a little to be brought to her in a small vessel; she renders foul and spoiled wine sweet-smelling by the sign of the Cross: and having made the sign of the Cross over it, it immediately lost all its infection and foulness — not only the wine that was in the vessel brought to her, but also all the wine contained in the main vessel, in such a manner that whenever wine was brought for the refection of the Sisters, before the blessing of the table the wine was foul and tasteless, but after it, by the power of the sign of the holy Cross, it was sweetly fragrant and was good, savory, and delicious wine.

[106] Once a certain small and beautiful ivory tablet was given to the handmaid of Christ, which she especially loved on account of certain devout paintings of the Passion of the Savior ^e painted upon it, which by the instigation or contrivance of the malicious spirit was broken. a broken painting of the Passion of the Lord, Wherefore she, grieving, complained to her Father Confessor, who comforted her, promising to have the said tablet repaired. And in fact, receiving it, he set out to carry it to a master who could repair it. But when on the way he wished to look carefully at the said tablet, which he signed with the sign of the Cross, she receives it whole by the sign of the Cross. opening it he found it whole without any break, as if it had always stood unharmed.

^a See the truth of this passage confirmed by a remarkable miracle in the collection of more recent miracles below at no. 6.

^b To encase — formed from the French and Belgian word "Casse," by which word is indicated a box, Incassare. case, or chest; to enclose is to encase.

^c Bigards or Beghards or Beguards, who at the General Council of Vienne in the year 1313 had been condemned for heresy along with the Beguines, Bigards. professed a monastic life but were imbued with various errors; hence other Religious were contemptuously called Bigards.

^d "Sentire" in French signifies both to smell and to give off odor, which is how it is taken here a little below.

^e In the same French, "pourtraire" (to portray) is the same as to paint; whence an image expressed from life is called a "pourtrait" (portrait), as if "drawn forth."

CHAPTER XII.

On the great devotion and worthy reverence that she bore toward the most precious Sacrament of the Eucharist, and the not a little wondrous reception of the Lord's Body.

[107] Toward the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, the sweet handmaid of Christ Colette was moved by wonderful devotion and the greatest reverence. And no wonder, because according to the opinion of Augustine, thence is drawn all contemplation; therein is found spiritual consolation; and there sweetly savors fervent meditation; through it eternal blessedness is bestowed. With these things in mind, wherever she might be, she most devoutly heard the most holy Mass every day with an abundance of tears, For greater preparation for hearing Mass, she confesses more often: in which the precious Body of our Lord is consecrated. For hearing it more devoutly, she frequently strove to prepare her conscience through humble Confession. When for necessary reasons she was compelled to hear Masses outside the convent publicly with others, she heard them secretly, allowing no one with her at that time except the celebrant and the one who ministered to her, lest perchance they should reveal the spiritual graces then divinely sent to her. And although she heard them most devoutly in public, much more so when she was in her secret place.

[108] she is especially devout at the time of the elevation: When the elevation of the most precious Body of our Lord Jesus Christ was reached, she adored it with the most profound humility and vehement trembling, abasing, vilifying, and annulling herself, weeping and groaning such that she seemed entirely dissolved in sobs and tears, crying out so loudly in the anxiety of her heart that she wonderfully drew all who heard and perceived to compassion and immense admiration. And nevertheless she so wonderfully sensed and clearly knew the glorious mysteries of the said Sacrament — its loftiness, power, magnitude, and excellence, its worthy and glorious presence — that those present truly believed that the Savior Jesus Christ manifested Himself to her by a special grace in some form known only to her, according to His good pleasure, sometimes glorious, she is believed to have seen Christ often: sometimes pious or sorrowful. And after the said adoration, she very often remained kindled with the fire of divine love and more fully raised up in spirit and perfectly united with God, so that it seemed to her that she was entirely transformed into God and wholly caught up above nature, she is caught up in ecstasy: so that all her natural senses entirely ceased from the exercise of their offices. And it was certainly wondrous, for very often at the aforesaid elevation of the Body of Jesus Christ she clearly knew the state of conscience of the one celebrating the Mass, she knows whether the one celebrating the Mass is in a good state: namely whether he was in a good or bad state. But lest the graces specially conferred on her by God be revealed, for the good of the celebrant's conscience and to provide a suitable remedy, she prudently and secretly brought the deficiency of such a celebrant to his notice, yet revealing nothing of her manner or way by which she had come to the aforesaid knowledge.

[109] she knows in spirit the presence of Christ: And with regard to the said Sacrament, by a singular grace she could never hesitate or fear, however briefly it was shown to her, that it was the true Body of Christ, with perfect knowledge of its magnitude, magnificence, and worthy presence — not only intellectual but also sensory. Nor could it be shown to her so suddenly, as commonly happens in the communion or reception of lay Brothers or devout seculars, which sometimes took place in her presence, without her immediately adoring it, being suddenly changed to tears and groans. For greater evidence of this, when she was once in a convent situated in a certain region in which the celebration and consecration is more commonly performed with white wine rather than red, and when the one administering, thinking the water to be wine, in fact offered water to the Priest in place of wine, and when water had been offered in place of wine, with which Priest was celebrating in the presence of the Mother — when it came to the adoration of the Body of the Lord, she adored it with the customary humility, reverence,

tears, and groans; but when it came to the adoration of the Blood, sensing in spirit that the true Blood of Christ was not there, she knows that in the chalice there is not the Blood of Christ: she did not adore the chalice according to her usual manner.

[110] Moreover, many Religious or secular persons many times desired and in fact labored to be personally near to or inside the oratory from which she heard Mass, for obtaining experiential knowledge of the fervent, most humble, and devout adoration of the most precious Body of the Lord as performed by her, by her devotion in adoring Christ she draws all into admiration: as well as for hearing the sorrowful groans and pious outcries that she made in the glorious presence of Christ. Which, however, she would in no way permit, especially unless they were very spiritual or singularly familiar to her. And if perchance some such persons, unable to approach or enter openly, were hiding secretly in places near her oratory to experience such signs, this did not escape her spirit: for what the creature tried to conceal, the Creator revealed to the same Virgin. And she had as much knowledge of those hidden and absent as of those standing by and clearly seen present; and therefore, desolate about such persons, she piously complained to her Fathers and Brothers, because she could not adore her God according to her consolation, sensing near her such traps on the part of those desiring to discover the secrets of her heart. When asked, moreover, why she gave such loud cries and groans at the aforesaid elevation, she cannot help but groan aloud during the Elevation: she sweetly replied that sometimes she could do nothing else, even if the entire world were then present. For she sensed the magnitude and power of the King of Kings, in comparison with whom the entire world is nothing. Nevertheless, when she heard Mass in public, whether inside or outside, although she sensed equally, the divine good pleasure, wonderfully dispensing in this with her, she did not show her piety outwardly as she was accustomed to do in private or secret.

[111] Concerning the reception of the most precious Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, about to receive the holy Eucharist, with what devotion she conducted herself toward it, I deem should be considered as indescribable admiration, since those who were accustomed to personally minister to her could scarcely explain it sufficiently. For although she shone with the purity of a clean conscience and with the fullness of grace and with very many virtues, she nevertheless, in the presence of the most holy Sacrament, crying out in a loud voice, debased herself inexpressibly and considered herself vile, unclean, and abominable, unworthy of life and of association with others, she first offers acts of humility, however wicked, and this on account of the innumerable offences that she confessed herself to have committed before the divine goodness and majesty. Whence she was supremely saddened with such grief and displeasure, and of contrition: weeping irremediably, that her heart seemed to be split asunder; and her two eyes were seen to be fountains flowing continually and vividly, because of the tears emanating not drop by drop but in the manner of rivulets; whence she remained entirely drenched and completely soaked, groaning, grieving, and exceedingly anxious, like a woman in childbirth or any person sentenced to death. On which account those who administered and heard were often wonderfully astonished and, confused in themselves, were greatly terrified. But immediately after the humble and devout reception of the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, after Communion she is caught up in ecstasy for many hours: she was entirely caught up into Him and remained immobile and as if dead for twelve hours, sometimes for ten, at least for six, in which she sensed nothing external. When, however, she returned to herself, she showed a face entirely angelic, beautiful and luminous, pleasing and agreeable to behold, as if heavenly and alienated from all earthly things. then she appears with a clear and luminous face: Her words, moreover, were sweet, profound, and celestial, commending the most perfect love of God, leading all to the perfect knowledge of Him, and also to a fervent desire for spiritual and eternal goods, and with this to the contempt and disregard of the transitory life, she inflames others with her words: variable and very changeable, instigating against its vanities and inordinate concupiscences.

[112] In arduous, great, difficult, and obscure affairs that frequently occurred, in difficult matters she has recourse to the Eucharist: she had her entire recourse to the aforesaid most holy Sacrament, the reception of which she continued unfailingly in the above-described manners — sometimes for an entire year, sometimes for forty continuous days, and sometimes for thirty — yet omitting nothing of the conditions expressed above. When, moreover, the Divine Clemency had decreed that something arduous or worthy of great commendation should be brought to effect or completion through her, she does not give assent to inspired things, while she through her profound humility refused to work on such praiseworthy things, lest perchance it might be thought that some virtue or spiritual grace of God was somehow hidden in her, the Divine grace, nevertheless, through the medium of this Sacrament, compelled her as if by force to pursue such things — and this in such a form, because the species of this Sacrament she could in no way swallow of themselves until she gave free assent to the inspiration, for otherwise it remained whole in her mouth. Whence it sometimes happened from this kind of necessity that she was so impeded, she is unable to swallow the sacred Host: because she feared to give assent, that being unable to swallow the Body of the Lord, she was obliged to go to her Confessor for salutary counsel; and when by his counsel she assented to the matter, she immediately swallowed without impediment.

[113] It once happened that on a certain feast day, desiring with great devotion to receive that most holy Viaticum, she told her Confessor that she wished him to minister — that is, to consecrate — one Host for her at Mass. The Priest omitting to consecrate a Host, Which he, not understanding or not sufficiently attending, entirely omitted. And although he was doubtful about the aforesaid instruction, he dared not return to her for confirmation, lest perchance he might disturb her from her devout prayers. When, however, the hour of reception was reached, according to the usual custom, the said Confessor perceived the tears and great groans that the said Mother was accustomed to express at such an hour of reception. Whence the Confessor was not a little astonished, since he had not consecrated for her, and he soon judged that this had happened to her not without a great mystery. After the Office was completed, and after special prayers, the Confessor asked her whence it came about, what he had heard. But she humbly replied that our Lord Jesus Christ had communicated her with His own hands, from Christ she receives Communion. ministering to her His most precious Body. Having heard these things, the worthy Confessor remained consoled, truly knowing that the supreme Priest, together with him, had conferred upon His handmaid so excellent a grace that He had sacramentally given Himself to her by His own hand.

CHAPTER XIII.

On her severity toward herself, and on her humility and sweetness through compassion toward others.

[114] Since austerity of life with the mortification of the flesh guards the senses and hearts and preserves the body in all purity, therefore the aforesaid handmaid of Christ, Colette, always, from the first flower of youth until the last term of life, strove to reduce her body to spiritual health, leading a wonderfully austere and harsh life, From childhood given to fasting, she does not taste meat: continually fasting, from childhood never tasting meat whatsoever; indeed, not even for any bodily infirmity or weakness breaking her fast in any way, nor on that account in any way increasing or relaxing the substance of nourishment necessary for bodily life. Moreover, going to school at a childish age, lest perchance she be compelled by her parents to break the fast, at the time of lunch — that is, at the noon hour — she never or rarely ate, she fasts until evening: until after vespers she returned home. If anyone in the city where she was born wished to perceive the sobriety of her eating and moderate fare, he would most certainly conclude that she had led a life more divine or angelic than human. For what I confess, I myself am amazed. For after the manner, or for forty entire days, sometimes on bread and water: so to speak, of the Lord and Savior, for forty days and as many continuous nights without the intake of any food or drink, she was found for certain to have fasted, God's grace assisting her. Moreover, many times she completed Lent fasting on bread and water, although she was greatly burdened thereby by excessive bodily weakness. And if sometimes, for refreshing nature, she put a little wine in the water, she nevertheless put in so little that the wine was rather transubstantiated into water than the reverse. When, moreover, by the divine dispensation she had to endure some grave suffering, as very often happened, then during its duration she took neither bread nor wine nor anything else, because in nothing created did she then have more taste than in earth. And if she was sometimes compelled to take something for restoring nature, then she scarcely took food comparable to the feeding of a little bird. And sometimes without any intake of food or drink she was sustained by the food of others whom she saw dining in her presence.

[115] After, however, the supreme physician disposing, she had escaped the said sufferings, for her entire meal she required only one piece of bread, she is refreshed by bread alone as a great delight: of a medium color between white and black, from which at lunch she was so sweetly refreshed and consoled that it was delightful even to the beholder. And it appeared evidently that the children of Israel never tasted manna from heaven as deliciously as she did the aforementioned bread. And then with sweet words she would say that the foods of meats and great fishes and the like should be despised, asserting that they were not as clean as bread. Moreover, as has been said, she never tasted meat from childhood. She gladly looked at small fish; of which, being freely offered to her for her consolation, she was sometimes compelled to eat by the entreaties of those offering them, to whom she yielded, though unwillingly, having the head and tail cut off from them, and thus taking a small amount ^a. Once, moreover, when from Palm Sunday to Holy Thursday in Holy Week she eats only on Holy Thursday: she had admitted absolutely no food, nor similarly on the said day of Holy Thursday until the feast of Easter, on which a certain small hen was sent to her by God, as is piously believed, which immediately laid a small egg beside her, from which she was so abundantly and amply refreshed on the said feast day that afterward consequently for three continuous days she ate nothing at all.

[116] And although she was so austere with herself, she was nevertheless liberal and charitable to others affectionately, desiring and wishing she is liberal toward the Religious women, that her Sisters and the Brothers who ministered to them should be provided for competently and reasonably, according to the manner of holy poverty without superfluity, never distrusting the divine goodness and mercy that it would provide them with necessities if they faithfully observed their vows or promises. In many cities and notable towns in which

her monasteries were situated, what is sent to her by outsiders she distributes in common: some charitably sent her bread or wine specially for God's sake and out of respect for her venerable presence, or other more precious foods — of which she never wished to touch or taste anything by herself, but immediately sent them to the sick or others in need, or to all in common. If, however, sometimes on account of excessive weakness she was obliged to take something special for her restoration — which was so little that it could not be divided among the rest in common — she took it unwillingly with sadness of heart and tears. For all the edible things that were presented to her she distributed so generously and abundantly to the Religious women that they appeared to grow and multiply in her hands, so that what little was received and distributed by her sufficed abundantly for many. Moreover, to the outside Brothers or administrators of the monasteries who visited her out of devotion, or who were returning from collecting alms, or to other persons who came to her in whom she perceived some need for refreshment or consolation, she is kind toward guests and the poor: she so sweetly and charitably presented food or drink, filling their little vessels, that sometimes some of them touched the liquid with her beautiful virginal fingers — from which contact they were more satisfied than from a cup of wine.

[117] If, moreover, she perceived someone in need and want, and had nothing from which to help them, she was saddened and grieved with a desire for the means to supply such need. Whose affection the Most High beholding, He would often stir the heart of some devout person she unexpectedly receives things to distribute: to bring an alms to the Mother, so that she in turn might relieve the needy person. For on one occasion, residing in a certain convent situated at that time in a famished region where grain and other edibles could only be found with great difficulty and were very expensive — whence the poor populace was greatly afflicted, and she herself, the handmaid of Christ, was exceedingly distressed both for her own and for others out of compassion — suddenly and as if unexpectedly, by the grace of God alone, there was provided for her a certain beautiful sack and a sack of wheat lasting longer than usual. filled with the purest wheat, delightful to behold. She had it secretly distributed to the poor and needy and those suffering want; whence she relieved the poverty of many, and it lasted longer than could be believed. Moreover, from the aforesaid goods sent or conferred upon her by God, after a fitting distribution had been made to the poor and needy, she retained absolutely nothing for herself, even if something remained over; rather she would preserve it for the arrival of needy persons and those suffering want. And many times it was proven by experience that the aforesaid goods, often distributed, had lasted the whole time without diminution. Eggs given to her she distributes to the poor without their number decreasing: For once, out of reverence and love of God, a certain quantity of eggs was given to her — in a region, namely, where few were to be found — of which, gladly received and enclosed in a certain chest, she freely communicated to all who asked, both for the healthy and the sick, and yet they did not decrease — which she clearly perceived, yet did not open her mouth about it. Similarly, wine that was sometimes given to her for God's sake wine offered to her she distributes without diminution: she kept a long time to be given to the poor, and sometimes for long periods without any diminution, and without any loss of goodness or flavor. For on another occasion, to two Brothers sent on the business of the Religious Order in harsh weather by a dangerous road, she freely gave a certain ^b small flask of wine for the refreshment of their spirits on the desolate journey. Who indeed used the wine at opportune times, finding it singularly good, restorative, and sufficient for completing the entire course of the journey without diminution.

[118] And although in regions where there is a fertility of vineyards wine was abundantly presented to her, and in those where there is a scarcity or total absence of wine it was presented competently and graciously, she nevertheless, she drinks almost only water, or mixes in little wine: where there was an abundance of wine, took no more for herself, and when she did take it, she mixed in so much water that the wine could be said to be transubstantiated into water. In those regions, however, where there was scarcity, she wished to take nothing at all unless compelled by illness; and her full refreshment was in a cup of water. And just as good drinkers apply their efforts to discerning wines, so she was a master in discerning waters — from which, however, she often restrained herself entirely, lest she should taste according to her own pleasure. And if it sometimes happened to be in places where the waters are poorly distilled and coarse, then she had them boiled in glass flasks for the sake of health. she mortifies herself in drinking water: The ancient enemy, however, offended by the perfection and austerity of her life and bearing it ill, and despising the fruit she was bringing to Christ — then when once the virgin of Christ was afflicted with intimate thirst, and her water was boiling on the fire in a flask, and no other was available — he struck the flask imperceptibly with a thick club, so much that he shattered it into more than a hundred fragments. She, however, most patiently endured it, praising God; she repairs with prayers a flask of water twice broken: whence a wonderful thing of no small account occurred. For just as we read of ^c Saint Donatus, that he, having collected the fragments of a shattered chalice, restored the chalice to its former form, no sign remaining, similarly the fragments of the flask, diligently collected by the handmaid of Christ and her eyes and heart raised to God, it was immediately restored whole and beautiful as before. And so, twice broken through the malice of the enemy, it was twice repaired through the humble and pious and holy prayer of the handmaid of Christ.

[119] Likewise, on another occasion, a certain Religious woman among her daughters, going for water for the said Mother, took with her a book assigned for the Mother's use, which she inadvertently allowed to fall open into the water; which was so soaked and so destroyed that it could no longer be considered of any value. The Daughter herself, very sad and grieving and trembling at the Mother's distress, did not know what to do. a book fallen into the water, Finally, pale with fear, humble, prostrate, she told the Mother what had happened and showed her the book. The pious Mother, seeing her so stupefied and fearful, compassionating her with sweet affection, said to her: "Do not fear, Daughter, for the book will not be lost." And immediately she took it in her sacred hands, entirely consumed and soaked; she renders it clean by her touch: from whose immediate touch the book was made entirely clean, beautiful, and wholly unharmed, except for a certain mark that remained on the side of the book as a sign to commend so great a miracle to memory.

[120] Similarly, on another occasion, a certain Brother was bringing her water in an earthen vessel whose length exceeded the size of the small window she receives a vessel of water through a window divinely diminished. through which it had to be introduced, nor could it be tilted in any direction. Wondrous indeed! As soon as the vessel was placed against the window, it was found so proportioned and shortened to the window that scarcely a straw could have been placed between it and the vessel.

^a That this happened at Poligny is related from the Ghent Legend and others by Abbeville, p. 225.

^b Boticella — a small box or case or vessel; in common French "bouteille," from the French word "boite" — a cask, a chest.

^c Saint Gregory in Book 1 of the Dialogues, chapter 7, relates that miracle of Saint Donatus, Bishop of Arezzo, whose feast day is August 7.

CHAPTER XIV.

On the grave sufferings and torments most patiently endured by her.

[121] Since, as the Prince of the Apostles says, "Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow His footsteps," it is clear that nothing can be found in the present life more pleasing to God or more salutary to the creature than willingly suffering and patiently enduring pains and torments for His love. 1 Peter 2:21. For by this one is rendered supremely similar and conformable to Him together with His true friends. By the example of Christ. For God Himself and the Savior Jesus Christ, throughout the entire span of His life unto death inclusive, willed to endure grave pains and labors for our love. By which endurance His humble handmaid, according to the measure of her capacity, merited to be not a little similar and conformable to Him. For throughout the whole course of her life she most patiently endured grave, continuous, and mutually succeeding pains, her whole life she patiently bears grave sufferings, and often doubled. Besides the various pains that God frequently inflicted upon her (for she suffered almost continuously), He conferred upon her one as a certain exercise together with an increase of virtues — namely, a continuous swelling, unceasingly growing or diminishing, burdening her not a little, a continuous swelling, which she nevertheless bore patiently and very sweetly. Beyond this continuous infirmity, she was variously vexed and afflicted in other ways — and this was sometimes in the body only, sometimes in the soul, and sometimes in both at once she was distressed by the most grievous pains. infirmities of body and soul: The infirmities, moreover, that arose from natural causes and principles she bore patiently and kindly; but those that were specially sent by God beyond the course of nature she was necessarily bound to endure according to His good pleasure, nor was it in her power for the matter to be otherwise. For with that common infirmity she labored almost continually with some other particular one, by which she was sometimes so harshly and for so long a time troubled that scarcely in the space of eight days could she breathe freely for one entire hour.

[122] And her custom was wondrous and worthy of compassion, because in places and times when others are refreshed and rest, she on the contrary was increased in labor or affliction. For in bed, where all classes of people, sick or healthy, commonly rest, she was more violently afflicted. especially in bed, For although she sometimes wished for the nocturnal rest of her chamber because of prolonged labors, she could never find any rest there whatsoever; indeed, immediately after entering her bed or cot, she was agitated with new labors and tormented with painful distresses, lasting throughout the entire night until morning, and sometimes until noon inclusive and without ceasing. Nor was such anxiety present in her only once or twice in a week, but on every night without exception. Similarly, on Sundays and feast days and on great solemnities, and on Sundays and more solemn feast days: on which all estates of men and women, secular and religious — although occupied with spiritual matters — rest nevertheless from bodily labors, she incomparably suffered greater burdens of sufferings than on other weekdays. And the more solemn the days, the more grievous were the pains, which commonly began for Sunday at the vesper hour of Saturday and lasted until after Compline of the Lord's Day, and sometimes until Matins

of the following day. And similarly on feast days the special pains began at the Vespers of the Vigil and ended after Compline of the same feast days; but on great solemnities, such as the Nativity of the Lord, His Resurrection, Pentecost, and other similar ones throughout the year, the beginning of the said pains was at noon of the Vigils and they were prolonged until the end of the said solemnities, and they were harsher and more painful than the rest, the greater the feast days were — and so they increased both in intensity and in duration, as the solemnities did.

[123] When, moreover, beyond the already mentioned vexations and pains, it pleased the Most High to add some additional ones, far more excessive and more burdensome than the rest, which she was necessarily compelled to endure — which He actually did — if some person arrived to whom she could not deny her presence, [when speaking with other persons she does not feel the pains, but afterward suffers them doubled,] when she decided to present herself or speak with such persons, the aforesaid pains immediately ceased and stopped entirely while the conversation lasted, nor did she feel any burden for the time being; but the endurance of labors was not thereby diminished. For immediately after the departure of such persons, the aforesaid pain was increased twofold or more for as much time as it had ceased for the cause already mentioned. And then she was so vehemently tormented by such great affliction that very often she vomited blood through her mouth. For which reason the aforesaid persons, had they known the fact and her condition, would deservedly have compassionated her. And it should be known, for greater testimony concerning this, that the said pains were not natural, and above nature, nor from natural or human causes, but rather supernaturally or divinely inflicted — for the reason that they always began suddenly and also ended in an instant. And moreover, considering the weakness of her person against the gravity of the pains, if they had been natural, it seems impossible that they could have ceased so rapidly and in an instant, so that nothing at all of them remained. and inflicted by God: This is a most evident sign of the divine power, inflicting pain for exercise and conferring patience for merit, and suddenly adding a perfect cure for consolation and remedy, leaving no trace of any languor, death, or infirmity, as if she had never felt any evil. Wherefore she would sometimes say: she feels herself often completely free, "I am unaware of having suffered anything," although a little before she had been entirely bent or inclined from the violence of the pains, and her tongue had been completely pierced; moreover, her head seemed to be a certain pot boiling over a fire. But with the pain ceasing, she was fully straightened, with her tongue whole, her head tempered, along with the rest of her members. And it was certainly wondrous, then suddenly vexed by extreme heat or cold: for if she was affected by any heat, she was so inflamed that by all the water or whatever cold thing, she could in no way be cooled. And if she grew cold, the cold was similarly so intense that by all the warmth in the world she could not be warmed or heated.

[124] What more? For if any person can be found in this valley of misery who through the endurance of horrible pains and grave torments was a true imitator of our Lord Jesus Christ, as being truly similar and conformable to Him, of this woman among others (saving all due respect) it may be affirmed. For as I have learned from the testimony of those worthy of trust and experienced in such matters, all the cruel torments of the holy Martyrs she suffers the pains and tortures of the Martyrs in her own body, that each one individually bore in their bodies for Christ, she alone endured simultaneously and successively — whose anxiety and pain was increased in her by the long-drawn-out duration: because the duration of the torments of the rest scarcely extended beyond ten, or at most twenty or thirty, or at the very most forty years, but she valiantly endured such things for more than fifty continuous years. For which reason she thus testified to her Father Confessors who were experienced in the aforesaid matters: "The Most High granted to the glorious Martyrs, who possess immense glory in the kingdom of God, grace and ^a a good bargain — for in the briefest time, roasted or boiled, or with heads cut off, or by similar means, they migrated to heaven." at least equal to them in virtue: And it was something very wondrous: since no week passed in which she did not experience one or two martyrdoms truly in herself — such as the fire of Saint Lawrence, namely, that sometimes she was tormented by fire, like Blessed Lawrence. And although the fire was not there really and formally as to substance, it was nevertheless there by divine dispensation virtually, as to its operation and efficacy. For just as the primary cause, which is God, withdrawing His cooperation, fire, which is the secondary cause, is deprived of its operative power — as is evident in the three youths unharmed in the midst of the flames — so the primary supplies the role of the secondary. By Himself, therefore, He can do whatever it could do through its medium; and that martyrdom commonly extended for the space of one entire night. Sometimes she was tormented like Saint Vincent, the torments of Saints Vincent, Bartholomew, etc., sometimes she was crucified, sometimes she was flayed like Saint Bartholomew, sometimes she was ground to pieces, and at other times she was boiled. Nevertheless, sometimes it seemed to her that her heart was opened and then, having been sprinkled with salt, closed again. Sometimes it seemed to her, and she sensibly experienced, that within her womb she had a burning ember totally inflaming her; at another time, that in the roots of her eyes she had a glowing coal inflaming them and entirely consuming them; at other times, that with the sharpest instruments she was pierced through the middle of her entire body and all her members from one extremity to the other.

[125] And similarly, of the other most atrocious torments by which the glorious Martyrs were put to death individually and singly, she was tormented conjointly and universally or even greater, because consolation was withdrawn: or successively — although not inflicted manually by an external persecutor, yet wonderfully sent and inflicted by God, and experimentally and really endured by her; and sometimes more vehemently and harshly in her than in the rest, for the reason that she was without the sweetness and refreshment that was conferred on the aforesaid holy Martyrs by God or by the holy Angels in those same sufferings, while to her it was not — excepting only that in her infinite sufferings and pains (when, on the occasion of nocturnal rest, the Sisters who commonly or familiarly visited or attended her had departed she receives Angels ministering to her: and she remained sequestered from all), then the heavenly Angels would visit her, sweetly ministering to her, covering and helping her, and conferring the other services that faithful servants can render to the handmaid or spouse of the supreme King.

[126] And beyond the things already said, she suffered in her individual members individual burdens or singular passions, one after another in order. Among which principally in her most beautiful and gentle eyes she experienced a certain infirmity she is tormented by a grave pain of the eyes: that she supposed had come about naturally. For which reason she arranged to provide a suitable remedy by the application of medicaments of such potency and harshness that they would suffice not merely for completely destroying any delicate human power of sight, but even for a rough asinine or equine one. And therefore she provided especially more for the eyes than for the other senses or members, she applies medicine so as to be able to behold the sacred Host, because she would rather lose the use of all the other members than the sight of her eyes, by which she was able to behold the most precious Body of Christ in the Sacrament of the altar, and also the sacred texts in books for more devoutly performing the divine service. and to read sacred books: Nor did the said provision entirely stop the labor and vexation of her eyes; indeed, she was so incurably afflicted in them, God permitting, that wherever she looked, from both sides there appeared to hang two shining ^b small globes, or two little stars, which wherever she turned, they likewise turned — not, however, without great vexation to her. Nor on that account did she omit anything of her prayers, nor did she fear to look at books on that account.

[127] And beyond this, a very great pain was added for her: for once, going to visit one of her convents, because of the grave sufferings she had endured, her tongue seemed so retracted her tongue retracted to the throat, she remains as if mute: that it had descended entirely to the middle of her throat, so much that she could in no way pray or speak vocally, nor could she even barely breathe. And as she was actually languishing with this grave affliction, a certain young and most sweet girl came to meet her, notable for her beauty and of excellent kindness, joyfully greeting the humble handmaid of Christ, and finally approaching her so familiarly that, after embraces, she kissed her sweetly. she is healed by the kiss of a certain girl, who then vanishes, On account of which kiss the sick tongue was completely healed and fully restored to its proper place from where it had descended; and immediately the aforesaid young girl of such great beauty, sweetness, and kindness vanished. Concerning whom the above-named Father, the Confessor of the same handmaid of Christ, believed to be the Virgin Mother of God. Brother Henry de la Baume, conscious of her secrets and familiar with them, testified that she was the most glorious Virgin Mary.

^a That is, He graciously granted that they might buy at a low price, which the French call "a bon marché" and the Italians "bon mercato."

^b A diminutive from "amphora," formed by French idiom, for a bubble.

CHAPTER XV.

On the gift of prophecy, with full and clear knowledge, wonderfully conferred upon her by God.

[128] According to the aforesaid saying of the Lord and Savior, lofty mysteries, secrets, and divine things are often hidden from the wise of this world and concealed from the prudent of the world, but they are revealed to the simple and to little ones and manifested to the humble little servants of Jesus Christ. Wherefore this handmaid of His, Colette, was simple and quite ignorant in regard to worldly things, but very keen and discerning and exceedingly skilled in the knowledge of heavenly things. She possessed little or almost no learning endowed with supernatural knowledge, that had been humanly acquired, but she superabounded in knowledge supernaturally and divinely infused, which is recognized to be the excelling grace of the Holy Spirit — by whose radiance she most clearly knew hidden past things, likewise secret present things, and also future contingent things. For greater confirmation of this, it should be noted that there was a certain Religious of the Order of Saint Francis, a Professor of the Sacred Page, solemnly lettered and ^a graduated at Paris, who out of devotion was greatly attached to her from the beginning of the reformation of the Order of Saint Clare, which through her hands the clemency of the Savior deigned to work. To whom there came a grave and mortal infirmity at the time she approaches one sick in both soul and body, when the said Mother had arranged to visit some of her convents, passing near the place where the aforesaid Master lay sick. She, sensing in her spirit that such an infirmity was dangerous — not only for the first death, but also for the second — in order to provide benign assistance favorably in the case of such great

necessity, she decided to enter that convent and visit the said sick man with her venerable presence. She found him at the threshold of death, his feet already cold as if lifeless, and as he himself afterward related, she fortifies him with the sign of the Cross and exhorts him: on the road to perdition. And calling him by his proper name, and humbly and reverently making the sign of the Cross over him, she said: "Take good heart, firmly hoping in the infinite divine goodness," together with some other brief exhortations; and immediately she departed. And the said sick man understood her words attentively, fully recognized her, and by the grace of God remained greatly comforted, and through her merits he rather quickly arose afterward healthy and well from his first illness, she frees him first from bodily infirmity, recognizing the received benefit. And seeking a remedy also for his second illness — namely, the spiritual one — he came ^b to her presence, gratefully offering to remain in her service for the whole span of his life, which he said he had obtained through her. she admits him to her service: To which offer she willingly condescended — not for the service she hoped from him, but solely for the hope of the salvation of the soul of the said Brother, which she fervently desired, and which he no less entirely needed. And to obtain this she sweetly exhorted him to confess fully and purely for his complete purification of conscience, concealing or retaining nothing at all, and for this she assigned him a suitable and consoling Confessor. she sends him to a Confessor: To whom he confessed somewhat, but from forgetfulness or shame kept silent about some of his worst sins and concealed them; and finally, returning to her, he asserted that he had confessed fully and entirely. she indicates the grave sins concealed. To which she responded, saying that it was not so, and recited to him many great sins committed in past times and never confessed. Whence, and not without reason, he was greatly astonished, recognizing the truth of the matter, which he had thought known to himself alone after God. which he does again: And returning to the Sacrament of Confession and coming back to her presence, he asserted that he had fully confessed — which she denied, explaining to him some sins no less enormous than the rest, in which he had still remained entangled. And so three times she sent him to the said Sacrament before he was completely freed. she is acknowledged to have preserved his body and soul: On which account he thenceforth knew and publicly asserted that through her agency he had obtained life of both body and soul, greatly growing in affection and love for her, and nevertheless in such great fear and apprehension concerning her she is feared as one who sees all things: that he neither did, nor said, nor thought anything without always thinking that she was present and seeing everything.

[129] On one occasion, two most noble and powerful Princes, under the pretext of charity and devotion, visited the handmaid of our Lord Jesus Christ. she gives two Princes instructions of salvation and has them read to them: To whom, after many teachings, she had her Father Confessor read in their presence certain notable writings. To which one of them paid less attention, applying his heart to certain indecent and carnal meditations, thinking vain things, although outwardly he showed nothing of them in any way. But adding to the said shameful thought, he was already beginning to accumulate damnable pleasure, persevering in the same matter. And then the handmaid of Christ, knowing this, turned her venerable face toward that Prince, emitting a most vehement cry with a wonderful voice she reveals the shameful thoughts of the other: over him — which cry so penetrated the heart of that Prince that it seemed to him then, and still seems, that she saw and clearly knew whatever he bore in his heart, namely the shameful meditations and thoughts, as well as he himself did or even better. Which he immediately renounced, outwardly expelling them entirely through the merits of the handmaid of Christ, and corrects him: redirecting his intellect to attentively perceive the sacred words that were being recited.

[130] Likewise, on another occasion, a certain other notable Prelate, a prudent and discerning man, Bishop of the city of ^d Castres in the territory of Albi, descending into the same city, out of humility visited the said handmaid of Christ, she reveals to a Bishop his aspiration to a higher rank, who was then staying there, conferring with her about many good things touching the honor of God and the salvation of souls. Whom finally she touched upon two things she had foreknown truly in him. The first, that he was not content with the benefice conferred upon him but aspired to a greater and higher dignity, and that he should attend diligently and sagaciously lest for transitory dignities he should lose eternal dignity. The second concerned the brevity of his life, and his imminent death: advising him to be always ready and prepared for whenever it should be God's pleasure to call him. Concerning the first he was greatly astonished at the revelation, because he was secretly working to become a Cardinal; and what he kept privately to himself, the Holy Spirit was showing her openly. And shortly after he set out ^e for the Roman Curia, intending to fulfill his desired plan; but soon, being overtaken, he ended his days according to the Mother's foreknowledge.

[131] Likewise, on one occasion among others, a certain most noble and most powerful Prince, the ^f Count of La Marche, bearing a singular love and devotion toward the same handmaid of Christ, sent a certain Priest of his to visit her, she warns a Priest to confess on account of imminent danger: named Master John de Molis. Which Priest, before he departed from her presence, was forewarned by her to faithfully and sincerely confess and dispose his conscience for the safety of his soul, especially in view of the dangers about to come upon him shortly — namely, in the near return that was to follow. This being accomplished, after his departure from the presence of the said handmaid, within three or four days, at a league and a half from the city of Auxerre, cruel and terrible armed men met him, who pierced his left side with a lance and wounded his head, so cruelly wounding him with various sword blows gravely wounded, that neither the barbers nor the surgeons of the aforesaid city, to which he had been carried, dared to lay their hands on him at all, but judged it entirely impossible that he could ever be healed. He then, seeing himself bound in such perilous necessity, healed by the prayers she was asked for: deemed it worthy to have recourse to the refuge of the handmaid of Christ, humbly commending himself to her holy prayers and devout supplications. This being done, he firmly and confidently told the aforesaid surgeons to apply their hands without hesitation. And within the space of forty days, by the merits and intercessions of the aforesaid handmaid of Christ, he was restored to complete health.

[132] In the city of Besancon, a certain noble man named John de Colonia, a burgess and citizen of the same city, she foretells imminent death to a merchant in good health, and an honorable and famous merchant of fervent charity, who considered himself healthy and in as much prosperity as he had ever been, foreknew from the glorious Mother the brevity of his life and the nearness of his end. And having called him sweetly and amicably, after salutary admonitions she especially spoke to him among other things about the security of his conscience and the certainty of death, she foretells his imminent death: finally encouraging him to prepare his conscience and to order his goods wisely and well. He, promptly consenting and also putting his consent into due execution without any delay, took to his bed, immediately burdened with illness, and according to the Mother's prognosis, closed his final day.

[133] Similarly, in the parts of Burgundy there was a certain noble and powerful Lord, distinguished in learning and commended in justice, who together with many of his relatives had eminent knowledge of the deeds of the handmaid of Christ, and bearing a singular love and great confidence toward her in their affairs, she knows while far away of the imminent death of another, they charitably provided her with many aids and various consolations. Which Lord, thinking himself healthy and sound in body, was little concerned about God. And while she was dwelling in a certain distant region, the brevity of the life of the said Lord became more fully known to her, along with certain dangerous impediments before God that she recognized as lurking in his conscience. For the removal of which she sent to him some of her Religious, and warns him by sending Religious: bearing a secret message and intimating the truth of the matter. To which he gave credence, providing for the said impediments with a salutary remedy; and so warned by useful counsel, he closed his final day.

[134] At another time also, a certain notable burgess woman of the city of Chalon-sur-Saone, familiarly known to her, she advises a noble woman to confess her sins, out of devotion visited her in her convent at Poligny. Whose approaching death she foreknew, and for the greater security of the said Lady's conscience she warned her to make a full confession there. This being accomplished, departing from the handmaid of Christ, foreseeing her death: she humbly commended herself to her both in life and in death. And returning soon to the aforesaid city, burdened with illness, she ended her life according to the Mother's foreknowledge.

[135] She knew things done in her absence equally as clearly as if she had seen or experienced them in person — especially when she desired to know such things for some good purpose. For once, one of her Brothers went to Rome for certain affairs of hers, she reveals to a Religious of hers things done secretly in Rome: where he transacted and accomplished certain secret things that he believed were known only to God and himself, hoping however that he was doing well. Nevertheless, immediately after his return to her presence, she related to him the whole of what he had done and the entire manner of it, saying to him: "Why did you do such and such a thing?" Whence the aforesaid Brother, very ashamed, most certainly knew that nothing could be hidden from her at all.

[136] Concerning the governance of her monasteries or convents, when it seemed to her fitting to know something specially about them, she was equally easily informed about distant and very remote ones as about those in which she resided. She would intimate the failings committed there, secretly to the failing persons or publicly to the visitors, so that a suitable remedy might be provided. Whence it was very wondrous: no misfortune was ever about to happen in any of the said convents she knows future events in her convents: without her sensing something of it — although she did not specifically know what or of what kind or where it was going to happen. Wherefore, having had the aforesaid foreknowledge, she was not a little saddened, but grieved exceedingly in her heart; and therefore, after the event had occurred, her grief and sadness were mitigated. Many people, of both great and small estate, came to her many times, both out of devotion, and for obtaining salutary counsels, and also for receiving perfect exhortations. Of all of whom, for the greater part at least of those and the reasons of those visiting her, who came for the purpose of profiting, before they entered her oratory it was known to her who they were and what they sought, and what

or what kind of response should be given to them. Moreover, her Father Confessors and Brothers, fully certified of the limpid knowledge divinely and wonderfully conferred upon her, the failings of her own, even of the Confessors, feared her as much wherever they were and however distant, as if personally established in her presence — because if they committed anything worthy of reproof, immediately upon coming to her presence she sweetly and kindly demonstrated it to them. interior desolations of the Sisters, Likewise, many times when the Sisters were sustaining some secret desolation in their hearts, she would call them to herself, sweetly touching upon something of the matter or cause for which they were so desolate, kindly comforting them on the same matter or cause. Wherefore they more clearly experienced that she had certain knowledge of the secrets of their hearts and of their meditations. For on a certain occasion, a novice was tempted in her heart to leave the monastery, the temptation of a novice against her vocation, and dared not reveal her will to anyone. The Mother had her called to her, revealing to her what she had been thinking and what she herself had foreknown — to such a degree that the aforesaid novice immediately acknowledged her fault before God and before the Mother. And thence she conceived great devotion and resolved entirely to profess the Religious life.

[137] the danger of despair of a certain Religious woman, On another occasion, a certain Religious woman residing with her in the same convent was supremely desolate from the burden of conscience, nearly falling entirely into despair. But the handmaid of Christ knew it in her spirit, called her, and spoke so sweetly to her, usefully and vividly demonstrating to her the danger of her temptation and leading her to fortitude and constancy against the aforesaid temptation, that she never afterward fell into it, nor was she even reminded of it, because of the very great sweetness and charity shown to her by her, and how much she had been consoled in spirit. Likewise again, the infernal enemy procured division and discord between two Religious women, discord between two Religious women, which each kept in her heart and did not outwardly manifest. The Mother, calling both of them individually, so beautifully admonished them that those who were fully pacified clearly perceived that the Mother had had knowledge of each of theirs; whence, greatly frightened, they thenceforth conceived toward her a great fear. Likewise, on another occasion, while she was with the other Sisters in the choir at the far end of the other choir, distractions in prayer of various women: a certain Religious woman during the time of the Divine Office was occupied with wandering and foreign meditations. Which the handmaid of Christ knowing, she sent word to her through another Religious woman to cease until after the Office — who, having been corrected, resolved to set aside any such thoughts. Moreover, on another occasion in one of her convents, she being present at the Office of God, a certain Sister who was holding the book for her was meditating on evil and vain things. Which the handmaid of Christ clearly knowing, she several times gestured to her to cease from such meditations. When she did not perceive this, she pushed her behind her back, taking the book from her quite roughly. Wherefore that Sister, realizing that the Mother saw and knew whatever she was thinking, began to think about God in her heart; then the handmaid of the Savior, turning to her and kindly smiling, returned the book to her.

[138] Sometimes many Clerics and Masters in Theology, she resolves lofty theological questions: as well as other worldly wise men, inquired of her about many difficult questions and subtle matters. Concerning which, although unwilling on account of humility, she nevertheless — when she sensed in the spirit that the matter was not done from curiosity — responded so profoundly and clearly elucidated them that all were amazed and more greatly edified, asserting that lofty mysteries and divine secrets were revealed to her by the Holy Spirit.

[139] Likewise, in those days in which a very great dissension seemed to prevail in the kingdom of France, two parties assembled against each other with armed soldiers, like ordered battle lines prepared for entering combat, foreseeing a pernicious conflict, the handmaid of Christ foreknew that the future conflict would be pernicious on both sides unto death and through the greatest shedding of blood, and — what was worse — liable to the perpetual damnation of many souls. Whence she conceived in her heart great sadness and grief; for which reason, humbly commending the entire matter to God, with an abundance of tears she took action, sending exhortatory letters to the principal leaders of both sides not to attempt war, and consequently she sent some of her Brothers to both sides, by prayers, letters, and sending Religious, she prevents it: declaring the dangers to both bodies and souls that would arise therefrom. By which exhortations and salutary declarations the decision was intercepted and interrupted, and so they escaped the danger of the perdition of their bodies.

[140] On another occasion she foreknew that there was going to be a certain dangerous fire in a certain town in which there was a convent of her Sisters. she foreknows a great fire: She informed them that they should be diligent and guard their fire well. And immediately that horrible and damaging fire occurred, so closely approaching the said convent that the Religious women greatly feared being burned, but by the merits of the handmaid of Christ they were preserved.

[141] Another certain very powerful and great Lord was devoutly attached to the aforementioned Mother, desiring to build her a convent in his territory or domain; for which reason he sent to her a certain Ecclesiastical man to make known his wish to her after consent to build a convent was given, and also to obtain her kind assent — which he obtained for the love of God and the reverence of the same Lord. But immediately on that same day she foreknew that another great misfortune was going to happen in the same territory or domain, and especially in the town in which the said convent was to be built. Therefore she sent to the aforesaid Lord, asking and requesting him she defers the construction, foreseeing devastation: to please defer the aforesaid building for a little while. And shortly after, the entire region was filled with armed men committing innumerable evils; among which they completely destroyed the aforesaid town in which the convent was to have been built.

[142] Likewise, at the beginning of the construction of the convent at Poligny, a certain novice there was falling mortally ill, on which account the handmaid of Christ instructed one of the Sisters to keep such diligent watch over her she wishes to be called to a novice at the point of death: that she should not die alone, and that she should call her at the death of the aforesaid novice, at which she wished to be absolutely present. And after this it happened that the Sister guarding the sick novice, because of the burden of labor or through negligence, fell somewhat asleep, and in this interval the sick novice died. At which death the handmaid of Christ was very desolate, because she had not been present at the said death according to the desire of her heart. Therefore, reproving the Sister who had been negligent in signaling to her according to the precept given by her, she foreknew and foretold to her her own approaching final end, [she foretells a proximate and similar death to the negligent one who failed to summon her:] saying thus: "Because you presumed to transgress the command I enjoined upon you, be certain that you will die alone with no one present." And after a short time, a very grave illness befell her, in which she lost her speech for the space of six hours, and it was no longer hoped that she could speak again, [she obtains for her the use of her senses so that she might receive the last Sacraments:] and she had not yet received the Ecclesiastical Sacraments. Then the handmaid of Christ visited her in her accustomed manner, and having pious compassion on her thus disposed, she had recourse to the sacred sacrifice of prayer, most devoutly beseeching the divine mercy to deign to restore her speech, by means of which she might receive the most holy Sacraments. And immediately when the prayer was finished, she suddenly spoke and fully confessed and devoutly received all the Sacraments — although the Mother's prophecy was not made void, because in the end, with no one present, she ended her life alone.

[143] Once, being in the monastery of ^g Vevey, she knew for certain the final end of the life of a certain noble and devout young Lady, she foreknows that a certain Matron will shortly die: residing in the town of Poligny, who was called Joan de Vannato, and was believed to be well and in full prosperity. And the Mother indicated to her that she would gladly have seen her, and that she would never more see her or speak with her in this world. Which came to pass; for shortly after this she fell ill and died.

[144] On another occasion, a certain upright Religious man, among the number of the Brothers deputed to assist holy poverty in the convents of the same handmaid — a Priest who had gone to a distant region on the business of the Religious Order — [she knows that a Priest in remote parts is near death and cannot receive the Viaticum,] from which he was necessarily compelled to pass through a region in which plague was raging severely; infected thereby, he was rapidly snatched toward death before he could receive the Sacrament of the Viaticum with due disposition. And then the handmaid of Christ foreknew the truth, although she was in remote parts, and she resolved that he should absolutely be helped, especially in such great need; for before his final departure, she herself, having called her Confessor, prepared and disposed her conscience and for that dying man received the most holy Sacrament of the altar, lest he pass without the fortification of such great consolation against the dangerous snares of the malicious enemies at that narrow passage. Which, which she receives on his behalf: by the grace of God and the worthy merits of His handmaid, may be believed to have been most useful to the dying man.

[145] A certain other Religious Priest, who had very usefully and charitably labored at the beginning to a Priest who had departed from her service, when he had entered the Religious life, for the convents of the same glorious Mother — finally, moved by diabolical suggestion, departed without permission. Going, moreover, to distant parts to take up residence there with certain other Religious, making little progress there, he fell into a grave and mortal illness. Which the handmaid of Christ foreknew, although locally very distant from him, and she had recourse to the aid of holy prayer, humbly entreating the Lord with all her might that through His most pious mercy He might deign to have compassion on the soul of that most poor Brother in such great necessity. she procures contrition for the dying man while absent. And immediately that Religious man conceived such great contrition, sadness, and displeasure over his sins, and especially over the aforesaid service of the said convents from which he had departed, deceived by diabolical suggestion (as was afterward proven by those who were present), that after his death he presented himself to the aforesaid Mother, and after death she saw him appearing to her: as the rest of her family were accustomed to do, as was touched upon in the seventh Chapter. On account of which representation it is piously to be believed that by the prayers and merits of the aforesaid handmaid of Christ, that Brother was brought back to the way of eternal salvation. no. 46

[146] The very often mentioned handmaid of Christ, through the gift of Prophecy, knew the thoughts and secrets of hearts, not only of persons present to her but also of those absent; and sometimes she knew when, how, and in what manner they were to end their days. Whence to many persons, both secular and Religious, acting in remote places,

according to the ^i knowledge of their affairs made known to her by God, she provided or caused to be provided solace and help according to the suitability of the desolation, adversity, and contrariety of those persons. And she also knew and foretold the ends of the days of many. And among other things, a certain noble and powerful Lady [she forewarned a woman concerned about her granddaughter's marriage that she would die first:] was making great efforts to marry her granddaughter in high honors and great riches, and with this it seemed to her that she was acting too negligently concerning the salvation of her soul. For which reason the aforesaid handmaid of Christ expressly told her: "My Lady, you are applying great diligence for the marriage of your noble granddaughter; nevertheless, you should think more carefully about yourself — and so do, because never in the days of your life will you see her married." Which was eventually verified, because before the granddaughter married, she was overtaken by death.

[147] she knows about certain persons whether they die in the state of grace: How, moreover, secular or Religious persons were to end their days — whether, that is, in the hatred or love of God — she often foreknew. And among others, once being present at the death of a certain Religious person who was vehemently distressed by the pain of death, she said to her: "Go confidently to the Lord, and fear not." At which word, the soul was immediately separated. But the Mother at once said to the bystanders thus: "She will suffer much, but finally she will not be deprived of eternal happiness."

[148] A certain young girl of beautiful appearance and sweetest modesty, very well disposed according to appearance for the Religious life, came to the handmaid of Christ so that she might be received into the Religious life, humbly and devoutly supplicating and requesting this — to which she would in no way consent on account of a certain secret sign she unwillingly admits a girl as a novice at the request of others, that she recognized in her. When, however, her Father and Confessor and many others, seeing her so apparently and so fittingly disposed, most urgently asked the aforesaid Mother to receive her, she replied thus: "You force me by your prayers and entreaties to receive her; nevertheless, know that she will never be received into the Religious life at Profession." Which was subsequently verified; foreseeing that she would not reach Profession: for in the first year of her probation completed, she could not and should not be admitted on account of her ignorance of the Divine Office; but in the second year she incurred so many and such great temptations, and especially about leaving, that she fell into a certain madness, entirely asserting that she could in no way observe such a Religious life. And in accordance with the foresight or ^k prognostication of the handmaid of Christ, she did not merit to reach Profession but was entirely expelled from the Religious life.

[149] On another occasion, a certain novice stood at Mass near the said handmaid of Christ, [she knows a certain woman praying devoutly outwardly so as to be considered such,] thinking in her heart, moved by diabolical instinct, while saying her prayers, that the Mother should think of her that she was a good and devout daughter. But the Mother herself, after Mass, called the Mistress of the aforesaid novice and said to her: "You thought that this novice was a good and devout daughter, but she contains no devotion." Having heard which, the said novice remained completely ashamed, knowing that the Mother knew her most foolish thought. Likewise, on another occasion a certain Sister burned with a great desire to ask for a certain image from the oft-mentioned Mother; for which reason she came to her presence, but out of shame she dared not say anything according to her desire. another's desire of receiving an image: Which the handmaid of Christ seeing, she foreknew her entire wish, and smiling said to her: "Go, go." After whose departure she immediately sent her a certain most beautiful image, commanding her to send it to her mother, just as she herself had resolved and wished to do.

[150] On another occasion, the aforesaid Religious woman had borne a vehement desolation in her heart, believing herself to be in no way pleasing to God, nor able to be saved in any way, but that she must be damned. Greatly afflicted by this desolation, she resolved to approach the handmaid of Christ; and if she showed her a favorable countenance and a sign of love, it seemed to her [she brings a remedy to the same, greatly anxious whether she was in the state of grace:] that she was not in the hatred and indignation of God and that she should hope for salvation. While the aforesaid Sister was thinking these things, the Mother called her and spoke to her sweetly and amicably, saying: that she loved her as much as any of the Sisters who were in the entire Religious Order. Finally, in her presence she commended her to the Mother Abbess of the convent, asserting that she was her beloved daughter. On account of which the aforesaid Religious woman remained consoled in the Lord, believing with certainty that the handmaid of Christ fully knew the secrets of hearts along with other external and foreign things.

[151] ^l A certain Religious woman of her convents knew for certain that the handmaid of Christ knew the hearts of people and searched out the secrets of their thoughts, she reveals the intimate secrets of the heart to another: which that one had not yet believed. It happened afterward, when the handmaid of Christ was speaking to the same Religious woman, the handmaid revealed to her that she indeed knew her thoughts, conferring with her and precisely touching upon certain very secret things that had been fixed in her heart. It happened at another time, when Sister Colette was in another convent, she made known to the same aforesaid Religious woman certain secrets that she had hidden in her conscience so secretly that, except for God and herself, no one in the world knew them — at which that Sister was greatly stupefied, and having experienced this in herself, she recognized that nothing at all could be hidden or concealed from the said Mother.

[152] In the territories and many places of certain powerful Lords and magnates, a report tedious to the inhabitants was spread — and these tidings were especially related to the principal friends and officials of the said Lords, both in the spiritual and temporal estate, not without their distress: when the subjects believed a certain Lord had been captured by enemies, namely, that the aforesaid Lords had fallen into the hands of their enemies, by whom, as they said for most certain, they had been taken and captured and plundered, and also compelled to ransom themselves — whence the entire territory was deservedly sad and grieving. It happened that by chance some of the principal officials and friends of one of those Lords were passing through a certain town in which for the time the handmaid of Christ, Colette, was dwelling in her convent. They, immediately visiting her with reverence but with sorrow, indicated to her all the aforesaid tidings; for which reason they commended their Lord and that entire territory to her most heartily with every affection of the heart, as much as they could. But the humble handmaid of Christ, looking upon them with a compassionate eye, so sad and terrified, said, comforting them: "My Lords, do not give credence to such tidings; for truly it is not as you think." They replied: "We know indeed that these things are true, she indicates that he is free and in a certain place. and we have been fully informed thereof by trustworthy and notable persons who saw him a prisoner." Then she assured them more, saying to them: "I assure you truly, for your Lord is now in such a place of his own, and in his own territory, where he rejoices with a cheerful countenance without any danger, distress, or harm. Moreover, know that within six days you will have most certain news of him." And so it came to pass in all things as she had prognosticated to them — whence those officials and the entire territory were filled with the greatest joy and struck with no small amazement.

^a Peter Psalmon by name, a Master in Theology — now we say Doctor; those who receive that title or rank are said to be "graduated" (magistrari); while to "magistrate" (magistrare) is to discharge the office of a master: Magistrare. which you may read not only in these later centuries, but also in Spartianus; and "magistratio" (magistration) in the Code.

^b Orbe, on the river of the same name not far from Lake Neuchatel, concerning which more will be said below. Abbeville, p. 349.

^c The Utrecht MS. reads "meritum."

^d Castres, or Castrum, or Castrena — a city on the river Agout; a portion having been detached from the Bishopric of Albi and its revenues, it was adorned with episcopal dignity by John XXII in the year 1317.

^e Whether this was Raymond Maiorosius, from Bishop of Tricastin made Bishop of Castres and created Cardinal by Martin V in the year 1426, Castres, a city. who died in Rome the following year?

^f This is Bernard of Armagnac, Count of La Marche and of Castres, and founder of the convent at Castres.

^g Viviacum. Viviacum, in French Viviers or Vevey, situated on Lake Geneva on the side of the Swiss, by whom that city with neighboring places was taken from the Duke of Savoy. That the convent of Blessed Colette was built there by Amadeus the Pacific, with permission granted by Martin V on November 13, 1425, is reported after others by Guichenon in the History of Savoy under that year. The Poor Clares now dwell at Aquiano.

^i That is, the knowledge divinely infused into her; now, however, that word is used by the French in the sense of judgment or opinion.

^k From "prognostic" signs the French derive "prognostiquer" — to predict the future from some sign.

^l The following to the end of the chapter we give from the sole Corsendoncq MS., and they are also read in the French MS. codex.

CHAPTER XVI.

On the grave persecution of the malicious spirits.

[153] The ancient enemy is of such a nature that the more he sees someone approaching God and progressing more, the more he strives to persecute, trouble, and impede that person, to inflict grave sufferings and to multiply afflictions. But those whom he peacefully possesses, he cares little or nothing about impeding. For which reason, attentively perceiving she strives to serve God most perfectly: that the handmaid of Christ was joined to God and inseparably united to Him through the most perfect love, leading a celibate life in high perfection, he strove as much as he could and as much as he knew how to impede her, inflicting every kind of persecution and troubles — not only from her youth but perseveringly throughout the entire span of her life even to the end, both in the secular and Regular state, and in all the places and regions to which she went for the love of God or for the salvation of souls. For when, as a young woman, she resolved in her heart to love God affectionately and to serve Him diligently, every night for many years, when she began her prayers, a certain malicious spirit would come to her she cannot be hindered by devils, and standing in a nearby place, would emit a wonderful voice and pious lamentation, in order to impede her from her holy prayers. But although she was young in age, she was nevertheless advanced in perfect behavior and in faith; for she so strongly trusted in the Lord that she feared nothing whatsoever from without. Wherefore she showed no sign and uttered no word to that spirit,

and so, overcome by weariness, it would depart. But when she reached her middle age in the state of Religious life, even beaten with clubs, they often attacked her, striking her harshly with rough and thick clubs, cruelly and for a long time, so that her most tender and feeble members were entirely broken or crushed, and black bruises remained for a long time. For once among other times they beat her so cruelly and for so long that her shins were so swollen that they equaled the thickness of the middle of her body.

[154] On yet another occasion, when she fervently and devoutly desired to present a certain special prayer to the Lord, she is not frightened by their appearing in the forms of foxes, many such enemies, striving to impede her, attacked in the forms of foxes, attempting to strike her severely. But the Lord gave her the heart and vigor to resist and fight them, so much that, taking each other by the arms, they strove entirely to commit a duel against one another; and so those enemies, put to shame, withdrew, and she remained victorious. And after the said duel she was found by the Sisters to be very fatigued. For the malicious spirits, perceiving that her prayers were very useful to creatures and supremely pleasing to God, seemed among themselves in a great multitude to have entered into counsel and established a firm decision to find subtle malices and manifold stratagems for inflicting upon her all possible impediments in all the virtuous acts ^a undertaken or to be undertaken by her; and to this end they strove to strike fear and terror into her. Which, however, by the grace of God they could in no way achieve. Indeed, rather, in all places and times, whether alone or with others, she always remained strong and animated, not fearing among them. For which reason they presented themselves to her in diverse ways and appearing to her in various terrible forms — of red men, sometimes in the forms of completely red men, and sometimes likewise in the form of a certain terrible and most foul statue, of such stature that it seemed somewhat to touch the sky. of a stature touching the sky, On a certain occasion a demon appeared to her in the form of a certain malicious and horrible dragon, who after the apparition departed, passing over the walls of the convent. Among other beasts that she saw with displeasure, of a dragon, she was more indignant at seeing venomous reptiles, such as serpents, toads, spiders, and the like; of serpents, and on this account the malicious spirits, not unaware of such displeasure, would show themselves to her in those forms or figures with their accomplices. For at the beginning of the oft-mentioned reformation, which was in the convent at Besancon, many times when she had resolved to devote herself to prayer or had begun to pray, the place or cell of her residence seemed to be filled with the most foul toads; of toads: and she would quite quickly recognize the wiles of the adversary of good things and would have recourse to the Lord her God, and then suddenly all the delusions entirely vanished.

[155] Likewise, a certain abominable and horrible disturbance was inflicted upon her by the same malicious enemies, [corpses of hanged men brought by demons into the oratory; she commands them to take them away:] who many times brought within her oratory the corpses of dead hanged men, infected. To which she immediately commanded them to carry those corpses back to the place from where they had taken them; and soon (not, however, without great displeasure) they obeyed her orders. For once, speaking to one of her Religious women who was inexplicably fearful of the aforesaid illusions, she asked her whether she would greatly fear such enemies if she saw them. When she responded that she would, to the point of utterly dying, she added that if she saw all the enemies of hell, she would fear nothing at all — ^b because the malicious spirits have no power over creatures except what is conferred on them by God; and so she wonderfully comforted her.

[156] In the same convent at Besancon they persecuted her in manifold ways in her later age. And first, just as we read of our holy Father Francis, with Saint Francis she reluctantly sees ants: who did not gladly see ants because they live by provision, contrary to evangelical poverty — and similarly, after the pattern of the same Father, the handmaid of Christ also saw them unwillingly or under compulsion. Which the impure enemies, noting, frequently tried to persecute her in the forms of those ants, under their form she is harassed by demons, and many times they converged upon her in beloved things, such as in books or in special places and in her oratory, in such great numbers that there seemed to be more than thousands of them. At their actual sight she was vehemently saddened in her heart and conceived such a wonderful displeasure from it that it was very wondrous; bringing thousands, soon vanishing: and suddenly after the aforesaid manifestation they entirely vanished. Sometimes, so that the exercises sent or permitted by God might be secret and not manifest, she would pretend that such things happened on account of the places in which she lived, for which reason she would have those places cleaned, removing whatever could give occasion for the arrival of similar creatures. But it profited nothing; for immediately when one appeared, a hundred thousand or more were simultaneously present, and all vanished simultaneously.

[157] In the territory of Languedoc he persecuted her in the form of flies, converging upon her oratory in such great and copious a multitude that it was inestimably desolating and burdensome for her, she is infested by a multitude of flies, both from the stinging and from the rapid flight over books and over her hands, and from the distressing tumult for conferring the strongest impediments upon her. And from this she was so vexed and affected with tedium that she sometimes had them chased out or cast outside, and they immediately flew back as before. And on a certain occasion there was one, larger than all the rest and more aggressive, inflicting upon her the greatest tedium in her prayers, [she commands the departure of one larger one in the virtue of the obedience of Saint Francis,] and finally, on account of the unbearable disturbance thereby most vehemently inflicted upon her, she did not dare on her own authority to command or order it, but she resolved to command it to depart in the virtue of the holy salutary obedience in which the most holy Father Francis was accustomed to command — which she also did, and drives it away: and it immediately departed from her, but went to inflict impediment upon one of the Confessors of the same Mother. And he immediately came to her, who well knew the entire matter.

[158] In the parts of Picardy the aforesaid enemies showed themselves to the handmaid of Christ in the form of slugs or snails, she is harassed by demons in the form of snails or slugs, which converged upon her oratory and upon her chamber, and the more she had them removed from there, the more they increased; and when she was preparing to kneel for prayer, five or six or more would present themselves to her sight. Since, moreover, she above all others abhorred such creatures, they converged more frequently. Sometimes around the chamber where she was earnestly praying to God, they would have brought impediment had not the divine goodness resisted them. and other reptiles, Not only this, but also in the forms of many other horrible reptiles and abominable creatures they attempted to vigorously persecute her, and more excessively than any other person, however holy or perfect — at least from hearing or from reading books. Nor from the Lives of the Fathers or from the Legend of any Saint or elect of God can it be understood more than is read as having happened to any Saint, that such great persecution was exhibited by demons to any other person as to this handmaid of Christ. From which it evidently appears that the most excellent holiness of her life and the loftiness of her perfection, among all the sons and daughters of adoption of the supreme eternal Father, and it is suggested that she was of greater perfection: as well as among the perfect friends and beloved spouses and friends of God — having carefully considered and seen that all the persecutions that the malicious spirits inflict upon the true friends of God proceed from divine permission, and the more perfect they have been and the more deeply rooted in the love of God, the more often and more harshly He wills and permits them to be examined or more vehemently approved.

[159] Among the aforesaid grave persecutions, one more horrible and desolating lasted for seven years before her glorious death: [in the last seven years she is more grievously troubled by the apparition of every kind of creature,] for whenever she wished to devote herself to vocal or mental prayer, there immediately occurred to her a multitude of demons like flies flying in the air, and the number of figures of the said enemies equaled their number; and there appeared diverse species of cruel beasts — namely wolves, leopards, lions, and the like — as well as figures of the vilest and foulest crawling things, such as snakes, serpents, and toads; and many figures or species of horrible beasts of diverse statures, and similarly various forms or figures of rational creatures, such as men or women, which seemed more foul and atrocious than the rest. also of foul persons, or beautifully adorned ones. And among them appeared some quite decent and beautiful small ones, and in the forms of men or women quite beautiful, with long and large and well-combed hair. And all the aforesaid figures presented themselves to her simultaneously, nor could she raise her eyes for a moment without seeing them. At the sight of which she immediately conceived such sadness in her heart and anxious grief that she could in no way have endured greater or more intense; and she was so afflicted and desolate therefrom that she could in no way return to herself for the space of ten or twelve hours.

[160] It was, moreover, very wondrous that when, according to the divine good pleasure, the figures were seen by other persons, they inflicted upon no one any pain, her presence frees others who see them from terror, sadness, or terror except upon the handmaid of Christ; nor were they seen by all who were principally present when they were seen by her, but only by those to whom the Most High deigned to show them. But those who saw them nonetheless believed with certainty, in her presence, that if they had similarly seen them in her absence, they would have incurred such great fear and terror that they would have been out of their senses and entirely mad.

[161] Many of her Religious women saw those figures, but especially one who was familiar and secretary to the said Mother, very experienced both concerning her and concerning her affairs: especially a Religious woman who was her secretary, who had many times seen and most certainly known the excessive grief and sadness that she endured after the aforesaid vision. For which reason, out of the piety of compassion, she heartily desired to be able to sustain in herself the entire grief and pain who strove to prevent the distress from being caused to her: that the handmaid of Christ was enduring. And therefore, when those horrible figures appeared, she would diligently interpose herself between them and the Mother, so that the Mother herself could not see them and the entire resulting grief and pain would be converted to her, saying: "Come to me, come to me; leave my Mother alone." And when they were in

an exceedingly copious multitude, she would take a little branch with which she would draw the figures and make them retreat behind the back of the handmaid of Christ. Which indeed she would never have dared to attempt except on account of the presence of her most virtuous Mother.

[162] Sometimes, for certain reasons known only to God and herself, she decided to show the aforesaid horrible figures to some of her Confessors, which she also did. she arranges for them to be seen by the Confessors: Having seen them, they conceived no fear or grief on account of the security of her presence; but after the aforesaid vision and showing, they believed themselves to have been in great danger of losing their senses, had they seen such things in the absence of the Mother. The first time she showed the aforesaid figures to one of the aforesaid Confessors, figures of a small lion, he saw a certain small lion entirely black, first silent and without motion, then walking. On the second occasion, he saw a single large serpent, foul and horrible, standing between the Mother and the Confessor himself. And again the same serpent was changed into the form of a certain sulfurous candle. [and of a great serpent changed into a sulfurous candle: by gradually closer approach she suffers these temptations of the demons,]

[163] And it should be known that the aforesaid terrible demonic figures first appeared to her on the walls of the oratory or of her little room without descending, and so they did for a long time; and afterward they descended to the lower parts of the aforesaid cell or oratory, yet not approaching her; and finally they completely filled the entire oratory, above and below, on the walls and in the air; and approaching her, they came upon her habit and upon her book and upon her hands and upon all parts of her body, reaching even to her eye, which among all the other members she loved on account of sight, by which she was singularly comforted in her vocal prayers and in the vision of the most precious Body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which they grievously damaged, as has been said, so much that she judged she had lost it or was about to lose it shortly, sensing grievous pains for a long time afterward. and the tumults excited by them, Very many other persecutions also the malicious spirits inflicted upon the handmaid of Christ, which it would be far too long to narrate. But among others, at the beginning of the reformation that God was accomplishing through her, in her oratories where she prayed to God continuously, salutarily and devoutly, they very often came to disturb her in her devout prayers, inducing a violent and impetuous or tempestuous tumult, striking with thick clubs upon the aforesaid oratories, and sometimes upon her; at other times lifting the oratories entirely on high and into the air. Nevertheless, neither on account of the tempest nor on account of the blows inflicted was she in any way moved from her diligent and devout prayers. especially in the last days of her life. And similarly in her last days they came many times to the said oratory in a copious multitude, inflicting terrible harm with a great tumult, striking as above with thick clubs around the circuit of the oratory, and shaking it like lightning, so much that few Religious women dared to remain there to keep the Mother company — except the aforesaid Religious woman, who, often trusting in the merits and virtues of the aforementioned Mother, would go to see what was happening — finding, however, nothing except clubs, the malicious spirits then vanishing by divine power and leaving the said clubs upon the ground as a sign.

^a In French, "entreprendre" is used for undertaking something to be done, which the translator expressed with this barbarism.

^b By a similar idiom the French say "pour tant que" — meaning "because."

CHAPTER XVII.

On the renewal in her of the special graces of the Saints and friends of God.

[164] God, whose mercies are without number, by His supreme and infinite goodness has at all times deigned to send into this valley of misery from among His Saints and elect, especially of the male sex, for the salutary conversion of poor sinners; but in our days, which may be judged as the end or completion of the latter age, He deemed it worthy to send in the female sex one of His most beloved and pre-elected daughters, namely His handmaid Sister Colette, She shines, endowed with the virtues of other Saints, as a true illuminator and perfect guide for those walking in the shadows of vices and in the shadow of death, to lead them back to the salutary way of the commandments of God, and to provide for all classes of people in every state the light and example of perfection and holiness, of total devotion and mortification, and of every kind of virtue. For the real execution of which with effect, He decreed to recall in her the excellence of life with the eminence of graces and virtues of His Saints and special chosen friends — and if not in whole, nevertheless in great part: namely, in solitude with abstinence and many other graces of the ancient Fathers, in the clear knowledge of the Prophets, in the voluntary poverty of the Martyrs, in the fervent charity of the Confessors, and in the bright purity of the Virgins.

[165] As for solitude, it is certain that few Fathers with the holy Fathers she loves solitude, who are specially commended therein, observed a similar or equal one as she did — who for the space of fifty years remained continuously enclosed and confined, not within an enclosure or within a convent in which there can be wide spaces or gardens with other appurtenances, enclosed for fifty years in the narrowest cell, but only in a certain narrow cell that was contained in each of those convents, to which the name of prison or tomb was more fitting than any other habitation. For the aforesaid cells were so narrow, small, or low that she could scarcely stand upright, turn, or raise herself — as is evidently apparent in many convents, especially at Vevey, where her cell contained no more than six feet in length and no more than four in width. And besides this, the aforesaid Fathers, who had much longer and wider cells than these, could nevertheless walk about through the desert and refresh themselves after prayers, labors, and sufferings, and indeed they did so in fact. from which she does not go out to refresh herself, She, however, never left the appointed oratory for her own refreshment on account of any painful or horrible suffering. And beyond this, even when the aforesaid cell was situated next to a garden — which was only a step away — she would in no way go out. When, moreover, she was necessarily compelled to leave the convent for making a visitation or otherwise, arriving at any lodging she kept the aforesaid solitude and enclosure, in lodgings she makes a similar cell for herself: keeping herself in some small corner, enclosed with cloths or coverings as if she were immovable, and she would not move from there at all until it was time to depart.

[166] Many also of the aforesaid Fathers, dwelling in rocks and caves, performed various abstinences and long vigils, devoting themselves to devout and prolonged prayers. she fasts most strictly, during Lent without any food: But the handmaid of Christ was of such admirable abstinence that, after the manner of the most sacred fasting of the Lord and Savior, for forty days and as many nights she ate and drank absolutely nothing — which, humanly speaking, was impossible or against nature, but only divinely and supernaturally, for nothing is impossible with God. Concerning the rest of her abstinences, enough has been said above. For who has experienced such vigil? she does not sleep for an entire year: Since she persevered in watching without sleep for the entire space of one continuous year, by a special grace conferred upon her from heaven.

[167] Moreover, among the singular prerogatives that are commonly read as granted by God to His Saints and elect and faithful friends through an outward manifestation of worthy commendation, was when it pleased Him to prolong the day and arrest the course of the sun, as is found in the Old Testament concerning Joshua warring against the Gibeonites, and is read in the New Testament concerning Saint ^a Copres, who wished to come to his sick brother before sunset, at whose prayers the sun prolonged its course. But it seems to have been of no less commendation to shorten the day by her prayers she makes the day shorter than usual: and to advance or hasten the course of the sun at the prayers of some special and most beloved spouse of His — which the Most High wished to show at the instance of His handmaid Colette, who in manifold ways, for the honor of God and the salvation of souls, exposed her temporal life to destruction many times and her honor to shame, unless God had preserved her by sheer grace. For as has been said, at the time when mortal wars and dissensions or divisions prevailed so greatly that few could be found who dared to leave fortresses or fortified camps, she deliberated she exposes herself to various dangers: and in fact began to visit and frequent the divided regions indifferently, notwithstanding the perilous dangers interposed. When she was in one of the divided regions, the opposing side vehemently suspected her of favoring the other side — the malicious spirit being at work. Similarly when the other side acted thus when she arrived there — God alone knowing by what desire she was borne toward the good of each side, the divine honor being placed first — and how many devout prayers she poured out and caused to be poured out through all her convents, and how many tears she shed and caused to be shed similarly therein.

[168] On one occasion she came newly to a certain ^b town, rather burdened on the aforesaid account and diligently guarded, in which she had a convent of Sisters. In which, immediately after her arrival, the secular people began to murmur that she was favorable to the other side. And immediately after, the enemy contriving, there followed the arrangement of a certain very great mishap in the following manner. For the Sacristanness of the convent, who was supposed to ring for Matins around midnight, was awakened between the ninth and tenth hour, and thinking that it was midnight, the bell rung for Matins by chance several hours earlier during the night: she actually rang for the said Matins. But the watchmen and guards of the town, hearing the bell rung before the due hour, suspected treachery and judged the aforesaid ringing or tolling to be a signal for the enemies to come from the opposite side for the seizure of the said town. lest the Religious women be killed as conspirators with the enemy, For which reason they were stirred up and not a little disturbed, and also determined to inflict upon the said Religious women the greatest and unspeakable evil — namely, to kill them or utterly destroy them. For which reason they all gathered armed, wishing to make the attempt and to carry out the conceived evil according to their resolution. But as they approached the convent, the Father of mercies by His sheer grace, the merits of His humble handmaid requiring it, deigned to provide a suitable remedy — namely, by shortening that night and conforming the time, likewise that hour and the clock, according to the mind and intention of her who believed she was ringing at the midnight hour for Matins. Thus manifesting that shortening publicly, and the clock, she obtains that the night be divinely shortened: which was accustomed to sound in a rather low or hoarse voice when it was to strike for the tenth hour, then loudly and clearly, for all to hear

in the town, it struck only for the first hour. Which striking the fierce armed men particularly hearing, running together to the said convent, they recognized their malice, and especially the more discerning among them, restraining themselves and the others, said thus: "We are wicked people, because we suspect wrongly and unjustly against those poor Religious women, good and devout, who with obedience and diligence strive to serve God and to guard us better by their holy prayers than we ourselves do by our vigils and arms." And so they returned, grieving and sad at the evil they had attempted to do to them unjustly. And it should be known that the aforesaid shortening of time and night was done not only with regard to the clock striking the nocturnal and diurnal hours, but also in fact with regard to the time: for the dawn of day was seen equally as soon after the ringing as if she had rung at midnight — whence the Religious women were greatly astonished when they perceived what had happened.

[169] As for the knowledge and spirit of prophecy, as was said above, with the Prophets she knows absent and future things: she clearly knew past things and absent things as present, as well as future things. For she was often desolated by the superabundant knowledge that she had from God, especially concerning the affairs of others. She also knew and foretold the departure from this world, the time and hour of death, of the most holy Lord Pope ^c Martin the Fifth, while then dwelling in Languedoc or in the Low Country. she foretells the death of Pope Martin V and the division of the Church: She knew and manifested the ^d division of the holy Church, our Mother, and the end of the Council of Basel, and the election of the Antipope — she knew and predicted these more than three years before they happened, whence she grieved and was saddened greatly in her heart.

[170] In particular she took pleasure in little children because of their conformity to her in cleanness and purity, which is exhibited in them. she wishes for a little child that he die before he should gravely offend God: Once a certain noble and handsome little boy, born of notable parents, was presented to her, whose end and perdition she foreknew, although she gladly looked at him first. And she said: "Since this boy, if he lives long, will commit something on account of which he must be deprived of the divine vision, I humbly beseech the Most High to deign to call him shortly from this world." When he was carried back in some measure of health, just as he had come, quite soon after his return he began to fall ill and died. On which account the parents of the boy were wonderfully desolate and came inquiring at the convent of the Religious women whether they knew anything about the aforesaid event, to whom the words spoken by the handmaid of Christ were made known; on account of which they remained very much consoled, fruitfully conforming their wills to that which can never fail.

[171] A certain very noble and powerful Lady, having legitimate children and a foundress of some convents of this Mother, was a widow, whose territory and entire patrimony plunderers were consuming — not fearing her, because she was a woman, nor her children, because they were small. Being sought for a noble marriage, she resolved to consent, both for the defense of the said patrimony and also for the hope she had of legitimately begetting offspring. For which purpose, to proceed more securely, she decided to consult the handmaid of Christ, to whom she is reported to have given this response: she foretells to a woman about to marry that she will have no offspring: "My Lady," she said, "do as you please; nevertheless, know that you will never bear offspring from your Lord husband." And indeed, quite soon after the marriage was completed, she departed this life, no progeny having followed, just as had been foretold to her.

[172] Likewise, on another occasion, one of her Religious Sisters was anxiously concerned about how she could make a full confession, whom the Mother called, sweetly saying to her in this manner: "Daughter, you must confess very securely and doubting nothing, she reveals to an anxious Religious woman the way of confessing her sins: for God is merciful and benign and pious" — and saying thus and thus. Whence the poor daughter remained ashamed, perceiving that the Mother knew her meditation and her sin. Likewise, once sitting at table for taking bodily nourishment with many other Religious women of hers, she was so carried away by some spiritual and heavenly recollection that she had to rise from the table; and she immediately went to the oratory to collect herself and meditate on the aforesaid meditation. And then she said to one of the ^e Religious women accompanying her: "What would you say if you saw nine Abbesses at table?" She had foreknown that nine of those who had been sitting with her at table would subsequently become Abbesses in some of her convents. She foreknows that nine of her nuns will be future Abbesses: Which was afterward verified and fulfilled, just as she had foreknown.

[173] Concerning the perfection of the Apostles, moreover, and how it was fulfilled in her, is sufficiently apparent. For the Apostles are called chosen and sent by God; she is compared with the Apostles: and she was singularly chosen and likewise sent into this miserable world for leading poor sinners from darkness to light and from perdition to salvation. chosen by God for the conversion of souls, And as a sign of such a mission, she was conceived by the grace of God and specially beyond the course of nature, inasmuch as she was conceived of a mother who had passed the time commonly apt for conceiving offspring. Likewise, the glorious Apostles divided themselves, going about diverse regions to exalt the name of God and to preach the Catholic faith. she travels through diverse regions: In like manner, for the space of forty years she did not cease to run through diverse regions and lands, building or causing to be built convents, for the commendation and exaltation of the most holy name of God and for the salvation of souls — through heat and cold, through waters and lands, through divisions and wars, exposing herself and her own to persecutions and afflictions of every kind, for relieving poor souls from the jaws of the infernal enemy and for leading them back into the hand of the Lord God, our Savior and most pious Redeemer.

[174] The Apostles were perfect in life and abounded in graces more than the rest. In which perfection of life indeed, together with the singular imitation of the Lord and Savior, she was a true evangelical or apostolic woman, living according to the holy Gospel; and as truly apostolic, renouncing all things, she attained evangelical perfection and exhorts her followers to it: retaining absolutely nothing for herself, neither as her own nor in common. Wherefore, when once in a great fervor of spirit she was speaking to her Sisters, assembled in common, about the most perfect life of our most benign Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and also His most profound humility and great poverty, which He willed to observe together with His glorious Mother the Virgin and with His holy elect Apostles as long as they lived in the present world, the twelve Apostles appearing and sitting nearby, exhorting and teaching them to imitate and follow by the right path of the aforesaid perfection — while she was so speaking, suddenly by the principal working of the divine will, the twelve Apostles were present, manifestly showing themselves and sitting humbly beside her upon the ground, and they were also seen by many of the Religious women in the likeness of twelve persons of magnificent and reverently pre-eminent honor, in whom simplicity, humility, and poverty shone forth; and they were all uniformly clothed in white garments, as a sign of holiness and perfection of life, and also to show the conformity that she bore to them and to their most holy life. And they remained in her presence as long as the words of the aforesaid teaching lasted; she is seen elevated into the air with them: which being completed, by many of the said Religious women they were seen ascending into the air until they reached the heavens; and she likewise together with them was seen by those Religious women elevated into the air, so high and for so long that they lost sight of her as they did of the rest.

[175] Many other graces besides, as to the holy Apostles, were wonderfully conferred upon her by God — such as the grace of healing from all infirmities endowed with the gift of miracles, and the raising of the dead, as will be apparent below. Similarly, the holy Apostles drove out and cast out demons from creatures in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ — which she also did. For she restored many who were rabid, completely out of their minds, or demonically possessed, to perfect health through the power of the name of Jesus. For in her time there was a certain Religious woman in a monastery of many Ladies who was entirely rabid and out of her mind, a most miserable demoniac, who was greatly tormented and vexed by the demons themselves, and beyond this she suffered from the falling sickness so horribly that the other Religious women of the said monastery were very fatigued and inexpressibly burdened night and day. For it was often necessary that she be held by six or more persons, and sometimes by all of them; for otherwise she would have inflicted great and irreparable harm both upon herself and upon the rest. And it was wondrous, because for one entire year she always incurred that most foul frenzy at the time of the Divine Office or the time of Masses, whence the other Religious women were greatly desolated. For if she happened to be quiet from the time of Compline to Matins, then she would tear herself so horribly that many were compelled to remain away from the Divine Office to hold or restrain the said sick woman. Similarly, from the first ringing of Prime until the end of Mass, and also at all the Canonical Hours, although she might be bound, it was necessary for her to be held. And sometimes for two or three days she remained silent on the bed, afflicted with wondrous diseases, completely rigid in all her members, like a dry stick, so that her arms would sooner have been broken than bent; her mouth remained so horribly open that a whole ^f round loaf of bread could easily have been placed within it; her eyes were shown horribly open and large, and she remained without speech or awareness, eating and drinking nothing, making no sign except a plaintive and funereal wailing, in which she seemed to use two voices. And sometimes she was so tormented by the said frenzy that she could in no way be bound and held; eating and drinking whatever she could find — namely, whole eggs, large pieces of wood and stones, and shells of nuts, plums or cherries, and other similar things by the handful. She would bend iron like a green twig of a tree, crying aloud with a voice not apparently human; nor by the sprinkling of holy water, nor by the impression of the most sacred sign of the Cross, nor by any prayer said over her, could she in any way be silenced. Sometimes, moreover, that frenzy so tormented her that, beyond the aforesaid, as if without her senses, like some irrational beast, she would bleed through her eyes and through

her cheeks, through her ears and through the crown of her head, and through all the members of her body — in short, so that it was horrible to see. Finally it pleased the Most High that the Religious women, her companions, remembered the handmaid of our Lord Jesus, then dwelling in distant parts; and having taken counsel, they informed her by letter of the entire matter, asked by letter, humbly asking that she might deign to take pious compassion with her most sweet kindness on the poor Religious woman so suffering — namely, that she would hold her commended in her sacred prayers. Wondrous indeed: for immediately upon the sending of those letters, that horrible and terrible infirmity began to decrease; and consequently, once the letters were received by the Mother, it was much further diminished; she liberates her by her prayers: but afterward, when prayers were poured out by her to God, through a process from good to better, quite soon after this she was fully liberated and restored to complete health through her merits and prayers.

[176] The Apostles spoke in various languages and perceived all idioms. she knows various languages: In like manner, she perceived all idioms — namely Latin, German, and the rest. Also to the glorious Apostles of Christ, such a grace is reported to have been conferred that if they drank deadly poison, it did not harm them. To the same end, the handmaid of Christ actually drank twice a potion intoxicated with deadly poison, which she endured in the name of the Lord without harm. she drinks poison unharmed: Nevertheless, having been certified about the persons who administered such things, she willingly and kindly pardoned them.

[177] The endurance of the Martyrs, moreover, is no less recognized to have been renewed in her; she is compared to the Martyrs, for even if she did not endure it through the shedding of blood, she nevertheless endured the pain and equal grief — not of just one, but of many — namely, great and most immense torments. For if she had been plunged a hundred times into a vat of boiling water or oil, or had been burned or roasted or flayed as many times, and had her head cut off, she suffered various torments she would not on that account have endured so painful or grievous a martyrdom as she actually bore — for fifty years: not merely for the space of three or four years, but continuously for fifty. And besides this she was a true Martyr through the fervent desire of offering her little body as an oblation and sacrifice unto death for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, the most pious Redeemer, desiring to die for Christ, who endured a most bitter death for us on the altar of the Cross. And further, she may be called a Martyr by work or deed: for in walking or going about diverse regions for the honor of the Lord and the exaltation of His most holy name, she had a broken arm, she sustained and bore such great endurance of wounds, shedding blood abundantly, because she had a broken arm, not without great pain, from which she was rendered permanently incapacitated for the rest of her life; and a crushed head: and moreover she also had her head crushed and battered, so much that when she turned, she heard the bones striking against each other.

[178] Concerning the fervent charity of the Confessors, by which together with sincere faith and luminous knowledge they were borne toward God, completely absenting themselves from the world and also sequestering themselves from all worldly and secular things, more fully occupying themselves with those things she is compared to the Confessors. that pertain to the most perfect love of God — His handmaid was so inflamed and so fervently ignited that for some time, on account of the most excellent love she bore toward Him, whenever something of the divine, glorious, mellifluous name was spoken to her or she could hear anything of it, immediately all her senses lost the exercise of their functions, together with her intellect and the other faculties of the soul, hearing the name of God she is caught up in ecstasy: and so she was most perfectly joined to Him that she was entirely caught up into God. For which reason, those wishing to speak with her had to guard themselves carefully not to touch upon anything pertaining to the excellence and perfect love of God, for she would immediately be entirely caught up, and no one could speak with her for a great space of time. Together with that most perfect love by which she was borne toward God, she was wonderfully moved toward her neighbor with heartfelt charity: benevolent toward her neighbors, for she was so fervent and solicitous about the spiritual good of every person that she could in no way rest with tranquility of spirit unless she helped, assisted, or provided for the need of such persons according to her calling and ability. For she would gladly have obligated herself to succor the need of poor neighbors — as she is also proven to have sometimes done. For a certain noble person had through misfortune fallen into disgrace and necessity, so that he could not properly come to terms with his creditors even in temporal necessity: nor satisfy them without great peril. She, however, by her fervent charity so arranged the matter that through the medium of certain goods that had been entrusted to her, without loss, that person was entirely freed.

[179] And although she was borne with fervent charity toward the living in this mortal life, she incomparably more desired to help the dead with pious kindness. For her desire to help or alleviate the most grievous pains she is greatly moved for the souls in purgatory, praying for them: with which the poor souls in purgatory are afflicted was wondrous, concerning which, out of compassionate affection, she would say that she would gladly personally endure the aforesaid pains for them. Wherefore, beyond the spiritual offices, she took care that every day except the three days before Easter the Sisters in the convents should say the Office of the Dead in community. There was, moreover, a certain Religious man of no small dignity, of noble birth, but of rather lax conscience and likewise scant in devotion, who singularly trusted in her prayers above all the creatures of the entire universe, placing in them the principal hope for the salvation of his soul. Nor was he deceived therein: for she, remaining in distant parts, she knows that someone is being severely punished in purgatory, sensed in the spirit the approaching death of that Religious man, as well as the horrible pains and dire torments that he was going to suffer according to his demerits. She knew, moreover, that although he was to be so severely punished, he would not thereby lose the glory of the heavenly kingdom. For the shortening of which pains she did not cease to pour out prayers for him incessantly and for a long time, until she was fully certified of his complete deliverance and everlasting glorification. and freed by her prayers:

[180] And when it happened in the convents where she was staying that some Sister or some Brother was approaching bodily death, if it was a Sister, she would personally go to her in the infirmary; if a Brother, she would order him to be brought to the grille of the Church before her, she wishes to be present at the death of her own, so that she might be present at his passing and the danger of the extreme necessity of his end, in which she applied herself with all her strength through the grace of prayer conferred upon her by God, for the succor and solace of those so dying — now by fervent and heartfelt prayers, suppliantly invoking the most benign mercy and most pious grace of God; now exhorting the dying person to firm constancy of faith, to procure a happy death: fortifying him through true hope against all illusions and the fraudulent or evil representations that could possibly be induced or contrived for him by the malicious enemies at that last instant and final hour; and sometimes driving away or commanding such enemies to depart. By which helps the dying person, poor and indigent, could much more easily acquire grace before God, and likewise make peace with Him and escape everlasting punishment.

[181] The cleanness and purity of the sacred Virgins, moreover, was specially renewed in the handmaid of Christ: for virginity is a most lofty virtue of heavenly conversation and the attainment of the holy Angels, with the holy Virgins, through which many holy persons were pleasing and acceptable to God — of whose number the principal and first in rank merited to be the Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ Jesus, whom the Son of God deigned to choose above all others and the Mother of God, that from her He might take a virginal garment from the most precious portion of her body. Which virtue, indeed, is most nobly proven to have been renewed in the little handmaid of Christ, Colette, on account of her excellent cleanness and purity of heart and body, which she designedly wished to maintain and preserve by the vow of chastity solemnly pronounced in the hand of the Vicar of the Lord Jesus Christ. she lives most chastely: Having faithfully observed it, the Son of God Himself deigned to adopt her as a friend and beloved Spouse, as is sufficiently apparent above in the chapter on chastity. The love of which virtue was so rooted and impressed in her heart that she could never utter a light or indecent word, nor in any way hear one without sadness and desolation.

[182] For it once happened that a certain dissolute and carnal man, outwardly showing forth what he contained within, found the pure and clean handmaid of Christ — still in secular dress — in a certain monastery, devoted to prayer. He impudently assailed her with indecent, base, and shameful words, speaking indecently, as if suggested by the devil. To whom she sadly responded that she wished the Most High would deign to grant him knowledge of those things that he was saying. she gently reproves him, Nor was there a long delay before it was clearly evident to him what evil he had done by so foully attacking the chosen handmaid of Christ, soon to be Spouse and friend. For wishing and intending to leave the said monastery by the main door, which was open to all, he could in no way pass through, punished by God, any more than if the said door were blocked with walls. Wherefore, not undeservedly, immediately stupefied and terrified, as often as he tried to go out he was always compelled to retreat; nor did he know what to do except to lose his senses — until he somehow recalled that he had uttered the vilest and entirely indecent words against the pure and bright handmaid of Christ. Judging that he had incurred such a fierce, unusual, and dreadful case by those words, he hastily went to her presence, acknowledging his fault and humbly and devoutly asking pardon. she helps him with prayers: To whom she sweetly replied: "May God, by His holy mercy, deign to pardon you." After which, he went out without difficulty.

[183] Her purity, moreover, was of such power that many who frequented her company, previously overly inclined toward levity or toward some impurity, her presence renders others chaste: after her bright presence remained entirely freed and also strengthened to constantly observe pure chastity. Among whom there were some Religious who familiarly manifested to her certain very dangerous temptations, humbly commending the entire matter to her. And it was truly wondrous: for immediately they lost the ability to carry out the aforesaid temptation, so that even if they had wished they could not; and consequently they were freed both from the will and from the ability. Likewise, in France there was a certain most noble, generous, and very powerful Prince and among them a Prince addicted to vices: who, before he saw the aforesaid handmaid of Christ, was worldly, carnal, ^g pompous, and most given to delicacy. Which

Prince's worldliness was converted through the agency and help of the same handmaid into religious devotion, his pomposity into profound humility, his carnality into spirituality, and his self-indulgence into hard and austere severity. And the same Lord, after the reception of the most precious Body of Christ, many times, with many notable persons hearing, asserted that he had never incurred a carnal temptation after beholding the face of the same handmaid of Christ.

[184] Similarly, in the same kingdom of France there was a certain very powerful and most noble Lady, of praiseworthy and good life, of great name and fame, commended for her virtuous piety and the virtue of mercy, having many noble children of both sexes — one of whom, who resided almost continuously at home, had contracted such familiarity, at the instigation of the malicious spirit, with a certain young woman, fixing his heart and affection upon her through inordinate love, a young man ensnared by the allurements of the flesh, that after many sins committed both in vain conversations and in illicit and indecent looks and touches, they deliberately and mutually agreed to consummate the sin. Nor did anything restrain them except that there was no opportunity of place or time at which they could secretly commit the deed. While they persisted in that damnable resolution, there came a certain Religious man whom the noble Lady had sent to visit the aforesaid handmaid of Christ, whom she venerated with singular devotion and loved with heartfelt affection, through whom she sent to the said Lady a certain girdle — namely, one cord that she herself was accustomed to wear over her habit — which the same Religious man presented to the said Lady in the presence of her said son, who was vexed by the temptation mentioned above. Whence it was truly very wondrous: she corrects him by sending her girdle. for after he saw that cord, he was immediately and entirely changed from the evil will he had, so much that he was necessarily compelled to flee entirely and abandon the place where the aforesaid young woman was present. And if he was necessarily constrained to look at the young woman — as, for instance, when she was in the company of his aforesaid mother — he was greatly saddened and abhorred looking at her and bore it with displeasure. And so it was provided by God through the merits of His handmaid that the young woman was joined in a fitting marriage with her body intact, and the two who had been tempted together were freed from damnable perdition, and that entire noble household similarly remained preserved from reproach and shame.

^a In the Lives of the Fathers, Book 2, by Rufinus, chapter 9, it is about the Priest Copres and Patermutius; of these, the latter is narrated to have had the sun stand still so that he might walk at night, which is wrongly attributed here to the former, Copres, called here "Coopercius." Others of these Saints, Patermutius and Copres of Alexandria, suffered martyrdom under Julian on July 9.

^b Petrina in her account names Décize in the territory of Nevers, who came to Décize in that same year.

^c Pope Martin died on February 21, in the year 1431, and his successor was appointed on March 3 — Gabriel Condulmer, called Eugene IV.

^d Pope Eugene, in order to abrogate the Council of Basel, convoked another to Ferrara, and thence, on account of a raging plague, to Florence. The Basel fathers pronounced sentence against Eugene and elected Amadeus, Duke of Savoy (whom Blessed Colette, while at Vevey, had summoned to her and had long since warned not to accept), called Felix V, in the year 1439, Felix V, Antipope. but who, after the death of Eugene, voluntarily abdicated and was enrolled by Nicholas V, Eugene's successor, in the rank of Cardinals.

^e Clare Labour, one of the seven novices in the convent of Poligny. So Abbeville, p. 218, where from the account of Petrina he assigns the names of persons and convents.

^f "Torta panis" — in French "tourte," a flat round bread loaf. Torta.

^g Pompous — vain. Saint Augustine on Psalm 33: "What kind of death could there be in purple and fine linen? How sumptuous? How pompous?" Caesarius of Arles, Homily 14, writes of "pompous dress." Arator, Book 2 on the Acts of the Apostles, writes of a "pompous buskin." Sidonius, Book 4, Letter 9, of a "pompous gait"; and Book 9, Letter 9, of many things "pompously written." Pompositas. "Pompositas" is also read in Peter of Blois, Letter 18.

CHAPTER XVIII.

On the virtue of her true patience, which she observed unfailingly in her persecutions.

[185] The virtue of patience is the root and guardian of all virtues: for just as the root bears the plant, branches, leaves, and fruits, so all contrarieties, adversities, tribulations, and afflictions are usefully and fruitfully endured through patience. The exercises, moreover, that we endure in the virtue of patience come either from the Creator or from a creature, or from the enemy or adversary. * For, as Blessed Gregory says, some things we endure from God, others we bear from our neighbor, and others are inflicted upon us by adversaries. For we have scourges from God, persecutions from creatures, and temptations from adversaries. As for the afflictions and scourges that God sent upon His handmaid, it is clear she asks that afflictions be sent by God: that from the beginning — that is, from her first devotion — she greatly desired them when absent and loved them when present. For which reason she was more comforted and made more similar to her Savior, who never had in this valley of misery anything but sufferings and afflictions, for the love of God. For the honor and glory of the spouse is said to be her likeness to the spouse; for how many and what kinds of infirmities and painful sufferings, spiritual and bodily anxieties, and what cruel martyrdoms she willingly and patiently wished to endure for the name of the Lord, she patiently bears those sent: it would be lengthy to relate — for which, however, she never showed a sign of perturbation or impatience. Sometimes when those perceiving her grave anxiety and her intrinsic and extrinsic grief compassionately said: "Alas, Mother, what sufferings you have borne!" she would respond: "I am accustomed to bewail small things." she does good to evildoers, And to all who inflicted upon her or procured for her persecution, damage, or tribulation — of whatever state or condition they might be — according to her calling she wished, as far as she could, to return good for evil, willingly offering herself on their behalf, sometimes charitably providing for all their necessities throughout her entire life.

[186] Concerning the persecutions inflicted by creatures or by the infernal enemies, it should be known that the persecution of creatures proceeds from the malicious enemy, which he procured through acquaintances and familiars, sometimes through strangers, sometimes through the rich, sometimes through Clerics, and sometimes through nobles. she gently corrects familiar persons who are adversarial, For through those who should have been her familiars and friends, they brought her many dangers; for whose extraction from the vice of ingratitude, she piously called them to her and had them placed in her convents, and exhibited such diligence for the salvation of their souls that by her holy prayers some of them were rescued from many misfortunes prepared for them — namely, from the road of perdition of body and soul prepared for them by diabolical temptation — while also conferring upon them all bodily and spiritual consolations according to her ability, humbly and charitably. Although, indeed, they inflicted upon her many ^a disturbances of affliction, they would have done worse had not God preserved her. she is most afflicted by offences against God: But she was more saddened by the offence to God and the harm to the consciences of those who so maliciously inflicted such things than by all the persecutions that could be directed against her. Finally, however, such persons returned through the knowledge of her merits and were saddened by the malice they had shown.

[187] And among others there was a certain person familiar to her who, by diabolical contriving, for some time so desolately persecuted her by a friend turned into an enemy, that he perverted all his former love into hatred, so that he could neither hear good about her nor approach her; and sometimes coming from outside and approaching the boundaries of the convent where she was staying, he conceived such great sadness that he often turned back, disdaining to come to her venerable presence; and he was so blinded by the temptation that he asserted that the grace of the Holy Spirit in no way dwelt in her, but the good that God had arranged to do should be done through another person, she endures grave things whom he himself considered to be of great merit before God — which person was in reality an ignorant person both in sense and intellect. And with this he also caused her to be cruelly and roughly treated with disciplines, sometimes even to the shedding of blood, and to be inhumanely persecuted. Which persecution, although very grievous to her — especially through compassion toward the inflicters of evils — she bore sweetly and patiently without any resonance of her voice, with the greatest patience, however little it might betray impatience. For she was much more saddened and grieved by the injury to the consciences and the harm to the souls of those inflicting these evils upon her than by the pain or sufferings continued upon her body. And just as the most benign Savior, praying for His persecutors, was heard for His reverence, in like manner, in her own way, she so humbly and efficaciously prayed for the aforesaid ones she brings him to repentance by her prayers: that she merited to be heard according to her desire. And they clearly recognized the diabolical temptation and their own blindness, brought about through his cunning and the perdition of souls they had incurred; and thence for the entire span of their lives they conceived contrition and great displeasure.

[188] From very many outsiders also she suffered various persecutions — especially from one man of great name and fame, whose works did not correspond to his name, who both secretly and publicly did not cease to speak against the true handmaid of Christ, she suffers outsiders gravely harming her, vehemently impeding her and troubling her in many ways, and inflicting reproach, asserting by word of mouth that he would utterly destroy her and her entire enterprise. To whom she humbly replied: "I confidently hope in the divine goodness that it will preserve those things that have been done through Him." She was also troubled by some Clerics, among whom there were two residing in the same city, in which she was impeded in many ways by many adversaries and agitated by various persecutions. she is accused of heresy by two Clerics, Of whose number were those two, and the chief above all, who falsely and with unspeakable malice composed very many articles against her and against her entire enterprise, alleging that she was a heretic and held wrong opinions concerning the Catholic faith, and that she consented to the opinions of the ^b Hussites of Prague, together with many other abominable and detestable articles — which they published before all to inflict greater impediment on her holy acts already begun. But concerning whatever insults spoken and injuries inflicted upon her, she never opened her mouth to make any complaint, but suffered all sweetly and patiently. Nevertheless, if the Saints and elect of God are silent in their persecutions, the just judgments of God are no less to be feared: for one of them, seeing himself frustrated in his evil desire, presumptuously departed from the said city, hoping to take up residence elsewhere; soon punished by God with death: but quite soon afterward he ended his life. The other who remained was gravely ill, tormented by various pains, many times piously crying out the name of the handmaid of Christ — as if to

say that because he had persecuted her unjustly, therefore he was punished — and so in the anxiety of his pains he ended his years.

[189] Certain worldly rich men also, ignorant of the virtue of her holiness and evangelical poverty, were sometimes seen to defame her, she is slandered as possessing gold and riches, denigrating her reputation in many ways, saying with injurious words that she was a most wealthy woman, filled with gold, riches, and silver, lending at usury and maintaining three or four and conducting exchange business: exchange houses — namely at Paris, Bruges, and Ghent — lying falsely and unjustly about her, because her heart was so fixed and fervent in the love of holy poverty that she would sooner have allowed herself to be flayed alive than to have given consent to such a thought. Many nobles and powerful men also, at the instance of certain persons of less good disposition, attempted to inflict upon her vexation and unbearable tribulation on account of a certain dwelling that they wished to be applied to other uses in danger of losing her domicile, than should have been done. For which reason they assembled many things against the little handmaid of Christ Jesus our Lord — who deigned to provide for His own in such a way with a suitable remedy, to the praise and honor and glory of His name, that the principal instigators died within a short time. Which persecutions and other almost innumerable ones she is divinely helped, the instigators being dead. she bore and endured sweetly and patiently, like a lamb led to the slaughter, for the love of that simple and innocent Lamb without the stain of sin, who endured more for us in a single day than we could bear for Him in all the days of our lives. To Him be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

^a In French, "destoubiers" — impediments and delays thrown in the way of things to be done.

^b The Hussite heretics were occupying and infecting Bohemia and in it the royal city of Prague at that time.

* Homily 35 on the Gospels.

CHAPTER XIX.

On the completion of her days and the falling asleep of bodily death.

[190] After the humble handmaid of Christ, Colette, had reached the completion of her sixty-sixth year, Aged, with broken strength, in order that she might merit to attain the crown of most perfect perseverance — although she was very feeble and slight of body, both on account of old age and infirmity, and on account of the grave sufferings she had endured and was daily enduring according to the divine good pleasure — she was nevertheless immediately ready to begin anew to do good, as if she were strong and powerful, and as if she had never accomplished anything of perfection. she strives to labor like a young girl: She never refused to do anything; nor, however fatigued by labors and diverse sufferings, did she cease to be ready to gather her strength and to devote herself entirely to affairs touching the divine love and the salvation of souls. Many times, when she was about to depart from some convent for completing or undertaking the works of God, she appeared so feeble that she could scarcely support herself, nor did she seem transportable to a quarter of a league without expiring. Nor, however, did she on that account cease to assume pains and labors for the love of God, asserting that she was entirely prepared to die according to the divine will, whether in the fields or in towns indifferently. And when her traveling companions were so fatigued from the excess of labor that they could scarcely breathe, she alone persisted vigorous, vigilant, and constant, and laboring indefatigably for God's sake, as if entirely fresh. And throughout the entire span of her life she did not cease to cultivate the vineyard of the Lord — that is, the Church Militant — in whose public square is situated the holy Religious Order, like a certain very fruitful plant.

[191] How diligently and perseveringly she labored indeed, until she reached her most noble end and final death — which death she previously announced and predicted. she foreknows her death, For first she said that she would not live for two years, which she did not; subsequently she said on another occasion that her life would not be long; and for nearly the space of three weeks before the said death, she said definitively that she was tending toward the Lord her God. And she convoked the Sisters, exhorting and admonishing them most cordially and affectionately she exhorts her followers: to be true and perfect Religious women, fearing and loving God above all things, observing the Rule and its declarations, faithfully rendering to Him whatever they had vowed, together with many other salutary admonitions. Which being completed, she foretold to them the manner of her definitive consummation, saying thus: "Do not expect me to say anything to you at my passing, for I shall neither say anything nor speak to you."

[192] After these things she said to her Father among other things, one thing previously disclosed to her by Him — namely, concerning the reformation of the Religious Order of our Father Francis, to which the Lord had bound her, as is apparent above in the fifth Chapter. Whose words were these: "My Father," she said, "whatever I have done, I have done on God's behalf; and although I am a great sinner and entirely defective, if I were still about to do it, I do not know how I would do it differently than I have done." On the twenty-sixth day of the month of February, she confesses and receives the holy Eucharist, February 26: which was a Sunday, in the morning she confessed and received with the greatest devotion the most precious Body of our Lord Jesus Christ at Mass. Finally, on the following night she was most specially visited by the same Lord; after which visitation she was reduced to a state of infancy and, as it were, of innocence, and was not concerned about any worldly things except about God, she is visited by Christ; praying to Him vocally or mentally. And afterward there befell her an unusual weakness, on account of which the said Confessor feared that she would depart to the Lord; and for this reason he administered to her the Sacrament of Extreme Unction. Afterward he read to her the holy Passions, at the end of which he perceived that the end had not yet come, and therefore he withdrew from her presence. more seriously ill, she is anointed:

[193] On the following day, Monday, the said Confessor went to her oratory, about to celebrate Mass in his customary manner before her, and he found her very well disposed to hear it, for the next six days she hears Mass daily: according to her custom in times of health — marveling greatly how she had been so quickly restored in such a short time (which could not have happened without a special grace of God). The said Mass having been celebrated and most devoutly and very reverently heard by her, and the most precious Body of Christ adored with an abundance of tears — similarly also throughout the whole week until the Mass of Saturday, which she heard more devoutly with a greater abundance of tears — and that was the last Mass she heard, namely on the fourth day of March, the Saturday of the Ember Days of Lent. And it should be known that after the aforesaid visitation she had four things especially worthy of remembrance: first, a certain grave and unusual suffering that lasted for her until her final breath; second, that she wished all her time to be occupied with the sacrifice of prayer and wished to attend to nothing else; third, that on all those days she heard holy Mass unceasingly with great devotion and reverence; fourth, that although she did not leave the oratory, she clearly knew everything that was happening in the entire convent, just as she would have if she had been present at everything. For the aforesaid Confessor and his companion, she knows that the Confessor and his companion have arrived: not wishing in any way that she should yield up her spirit in their absence, entered the monastery but did not come immediately to her presence; but she soon knew, and plainly said, that they were inside. On the evening of Friday she spoke sweetly and consolingly to the Brothers. On Saturday after Mass she humbly took leave of them; and after her prayer was completed, she went quite soon to her bed, signing herself with the sign of the holy Cross, which she had loved so dearly, and said: "Behold, the last bed," placing herself upon it clothed just as she was accustomed, after taking leave she enters the bed for the last time: covering her head with the black veil that she had received from our Holy Lord the Pope as the covering of her head, when she was clothed and professed by him and instituted as Abbess. In the manner she had foretold, so she fulfilled it — she soon closed her mouth and her eyes, never to be opened again. Nevertheless, she fully knew all that was happening, as has been said. For by way of consolation they brought her a certain pillow of feathers, which she immediately recognized and rejected it.

[194] For forty-eight hours she remained upon the aforesaid bed, speaking nothing and seeing nothing, making no gesture or ^a manner or sign, motionless for forty-eight hours, neither in her face nor in her other members, except for complete decency and holiness without change of color, in the suffering that God had conferred upon her at that moment. On the following Monday, which was the sixth day of March, she dies in the year 1447, March 6, Monday, at the morning hour, in the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred and forty-seven, at the eighth hour before noon, in the presence of all the Religious women of the convent at Ghent and her Father Confessor with his companion, she ended her days humbly and virtuously. Whose most holy soul sweetly departed from her precious body, tending by the straight path to God her Creator, to be gathered on high by the hosts of Angels and, as we undoubtingly believe, to be crowned in perpetuity with the crown of heavenly glory.

[195] She remained in the color in which she had departed for twelve hours after her passing. But then suddenly that body was transformed into a wonderful beauty. For it was the whitest, like snow, and the veins appeared through the midst of the whiteness like pure ^b azure, and all her members were most beautiful, clean and also pliant, tractable at will, wonderfully fragrant and diffusing the odor of sweetness, the body rendered more beautiful after death, as fully representing the state of innocence, of total true cleanness and purity. On which account more than thirty thousand persons visited her, some out of devotion, others out of admiration. On the third day after her passing, visited by thirty thousand people, that most beautiful and virginal body was committed to ecclesiastical burial in the manner she had commanded, without alteration. For she wished that, after the manner of the Lord and Savior, who as a pauper deigned to die for us in the open air without covering, she is buried: so in like manner she should be buried most poorly, simply, and without covering, and without a bier, but only in the open air — namely in the meadow of the cloister — and that her body should be returned to the earth, its mother, from where it first came, adding nothing more.

[196] her death announced by singing Angels; In some convents, moreover, especially beloved by her on account of the special prerogative of holy poverty singularly shining in them, at the hour of her passing there was heard a multitude of Angels sweetly resounding with unheard-of melody. Among whom a single angelic voice was heard by some, saying: "The venerable Religious Sister Colette has departed to the Lord."

she appears three times to a Religious woman reciting one hundred Our Fathers, Likewise, in a certain other of her convents, there was among the rest a certain devout Religious woman who above others was attached to her — to whom, at the time of her death, remaining in a distant region, before midnight, namely while saying one hundred Our Fathers, she appeared three times most gloriously, showing her entire person visibly, very beautiful and resplendent. Nevertheless, she could not see her face on account of the excessive brightness, radiating splendidly like the sun at the crown of her head. Which vision indeed happened in this manner: for the aforesaid Religious woman was staying in the dormitory near a certain window that she could easily open. Through which window she saw the handmaid of Christ showing herself to her in the place of her former oratory, with the luminous brightness already mentioned, while the aforesaid Religious woman was reciting the said one hundred Our Fathers.

[197] similarly to another, reciting six thousand Hail Marys, In like manner, in a certain other convent, quite distant from the place of her passing, a certain Religious woman fervently wished to see her, for which she continually poured out prayers to the glorious Virgin, that she might deign to impress upon her heart the desire of visiting that convent in which the said Religious woman was continually dwelling. And among other prayers she presented to her six thousand Hail Marys, because she had never seen the Mother. And it seemed to her that if she had seen her for the space of one hour, it would always benefit her. And by the divine goodness, through the intercession of the most glorious Virgin Mother, she was not defrauded of her devout desire: for on the night when the handmaid of Christ died, after Matins she heard three knocks at the oratory of the said little handmaid — such that she was entirely awakened — and she heard the door of the oratory actually open and then close again. she appears in the oratory first, And after these things she beheld a certain most beautiful and venerable Religious Lady, of the most becoming stature and of such pleasing beauty that she could not describe it, because she shone wonderfully and brightly; and her face was entirely luminous, like a certain crystal clarity against the sun. Which venerable Religious woman, walking three times through the oratory, manifested herself to the same. And afterward she saw behind her a single most beautiful small child, with a most beautiful child, likewise shining in face, who said and repeated: "Behold Sister Colette! Behold Sister Colette!"

[198] After the Religious woman, thus awakened, heard such a voice and saw her whom she so desired to see, rendered exceedingly glad and consoled in mind, she wished to cry out to the other Sisters, saying: "Look! Look!" And she could not open her mouth. For which reason she then began to think that her Mother Colette had then decided to visit that convent, as she had previously heard said about her when she was still a novice — because although she did not visit convents bodily, she did visit them spiritually. On which account she supposed that she was making a visitation; and after she came to the door of the dormitory, she entirely vanished. On the following day, moreover, the aforesaid Religious woman, to whom the vision had been shown around the hour of Terce — which was indeed the very hour of the death of the glorious handmaid of Christ — alone decided to enter the church to present devout prayers before the Lord. And immediately, then in the church, in the sweetest music: as soon as she knelt, she heard in a great multitude loud and clear voices, which seemed more angelic than human, and with this they were sweet, pleasing, and most perfect, delightful to hear, so that it seemed to her that sweeter voices could not be heard in the world. And raising her face on high and directing her eyes to heaven, she saw the luminous and resplendent face of the venerable Religious woman she had seen after Matins, which face, as it seemed to her, stood in the midst of those so melodiously singing. And although she knew nothing of the aforesaid events at that time, she nevertheless considered and piously believed that that was the radiant soul of the venerable Religious Sister Colette, whom the holy Angels were joyfully bearing to the kingdom of Paradise.

[199] Likewise, in a certain one of her convents there was a Religious woman who, at the time when the said handmaid died, was occupied in prayers and saw in spirit a certain venerable, gentle, and devout procession: [she appears to a third in the company of Christ, the Mother of God, and the Saints,] where with the person of our Lord Jesus Christ and of His glorious Virgin Mother there was a wonderful multitude of Angels, Patriarchs and Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, and Virgins, and a great abundance of Friars Minor and Sisters of Saint Clare, very composedly arranged and most richly adorned. Who all together sang joyfully and so melodiously that never in her judgment had such or a similar melody been heard. In the midst of which procession there appeared the soul of the sweet and humble handmaid of Christ, pre-eminently bright and most beautiful, much more luminous and splendid than the sun, whom all the aforesaid were leading with indescribable joy and unspeakable reverence to the joys of Paradise. And quite soon after the aforesaid procession there followed another certain multitude of men and women of all estates, followed by souls who seemed to have been detained or captive or imprisoned, walking with joined hands and humbly bowed heads. Among whom the said Religious woman saw her own carnal mother, joyful and happy, from whom she asked how she was. To which her mother replied that she was very well, recounting how the first procession was being held on account of the soul of the handmaid of Christ, whom they were so joyfully and reverently conducting to the kingdom of heaven; freed by her from purgatory: the second likewise was of souls previously detained in the pains of purgatory, who had been freed by the merits and intercession of the same handmaid of Christ. Of whose number she herself, who was speaking, had been — and all of whom were following her to everlasting joys.

[200] Moreover, a certain other most devout person, of great penance and austerity a fourth sees her being borne to heaven by Angels. and also of praiseworthy perfection, in her rapture saw a great multitude of Angels joyfully and melodiously bearing her glorious soul swiftly to the kingdom of Paradise. May the blessed Jesus, Son of God, deign to make us participants thereof by the merits and intercessions of His glorious handmaid — He who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns in the most perfect Trinity, one God, true, eternal, almighty, the most high Lord, through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

^a Saint Bernard, Letter 39, uses this word for a manner of speaking; concerning which see Vossius, On the Vices of Speech, Book 3, chapter 23.

^b Azure. Azure — a blue color, formed from the French word "azur."

CHAPTER XX.

On the miracles.

[201] To the praise and glory of almighty God and of the most glorious Virgin Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ the Savior, there are to be recited here subsequently some of the miracles that the Most High deigned to work through the agency of His handmaid, Sister Colette, while she was still living in the present world: first, of the dead raised through her merits; In her lifetime she is renowned for various miracles: second, of those freed from the danger of death; third, of those imprisoned and nearly freed or comforted in prison; fourth, of women freed from the danger of childbirth; fifth, of eyes restored to their former health when sick; sixth, of those rabid and demonically possessed, vexed by the malicious enemy and led back to full recovery; seventh, of diverse illnesses rejected and driven away.

§ I. On the dead raised through her merits.

[202] According to the opinion of the distinguished Doctor Augustine, it is a greater thing to free souls from the death of sin than to raise a body from natural death. Both, however, consist in the power of God alone, without which nothing such can in any way be done — who by His most benign mercy has deigned to impart His grace by both of the aforesaid modes to many, through the prayers and merits of His Saints and elect, both male and female. Among whom and which He deigned to condescend to the devout prayers and most holy supplications of His humble handmaid, Sister Colette, many raised from the death of the soul: raising many souls from the death of sin, leading them back to the spiritual life of grace, which is greater than natural life. And although the principal and greater of these — namely, the raising from the death of sin or from the stain of crime to the spiritual life pleasing to God — can be proven to have been done through her agency in many notable and diverse persons, the lesser, namely the bodily one, four from bodily death. is now recounted as exhibited through her merits in precisely four cases. The first of which was a girl from the city of Besancon, who, born initially dead, was carried to the church by her parents with a certain confidence that she would revive. 1. A girl dead before baptism, It having been ascertained, however, that she was entirely dead at the baptismal font, she was immediately carried back without baptism. She, thus dead, being cordially commended by prayers and merits to the humble handmaid of Christ, and carefully and diligently wrapped in a certain veil or head-covering of hers that had been procured, she was confidently carried to the church and found living, and by the grace of God and the merits of His handmaid was regenerated in the sacred font of baptism and likewise named by her name — as an adult, received into the Order, namely Colette. Subsequently, at the proper age, she was humbly and devoutly presented to the sight of her godmother for entrance into the Religious life, and favorably received afterward and professed, she persevered in a praiseworthy life while the Life was being written, she was still alive, by the prayers and merits and teachings of the aforesaid mother up to the present day, and is called Sister Colette de Pruceto.

[203] The second person similarly who merited to be raised by her holy intercessions was a certain young man named John Burseti, of the same city of Besancon, 2. John Burseti, also a living citizen of Besancon: now a surviving notable burgess and citizen there. Who acknowledged and asserted together with his relatives and acquaintances that by the merits and holy prayers of the little handmaid of the Lord he had been resuscitated. And it is well known to the Brothers and Sisters, although the manner is not so well known to me, for which reason I am unable to write about it with certainty. The third one raised, however, was an infant who died before being baptized, and was thus buried without baptism. 3. An infant buried without baptism, About which the handmaid of Christ grieved not a little, and she accomplished so much that the said infant, buried in unconsecrated ground, was exhumed and brought to her presence, and by her most holy prayers was brought to life, and consequently reborn in the font of sacred baptism, he lived thereafter for half a year. For which reason a certain noble Lady, a knight's wife, decided to nurse him as a sign of so great a miracle. revived for half a year:

[204] The fourth was a certain Friar Minor, called Brother ^a Francis Clareti, who for thirty years and more remained with her, 4. Francis Clareti, a Friar Minor, cordially and charitably providing very many aids, spiritual consolations,

and assistance or useful services both to her and to her convents. Who indeed fell into a grave infirmity in a certain town of ^b Lons-le-Saunier, so much that he was considered entirely dead and afterward considered himself as such. After which death, according to the judgment of his conscience, it seemed to him that he was being led before the judgment of God to obtain grace and mercy; drawn before the judgment in the presence of the Saints, consequently he was led before the glorious Virgin, then before the holy Apostles, then before the Martyrs, afterward before the holy Confessors, and finally before the holy Virgins. And all uniformly adjudged that he should be returned to the little handmaid of the Lord, Sister Colette — by reason of whose humility, supplication, and acceptable intercession, the soul of the said Brother returned to the body and he rose again. He was also quite well restored to full health afterward. with two others, still alive: Of which four raised from the dead, three are still alive and well and testifying that they were resuscitated by the merits of the handmaid of Christ.

^a From the testimony of this man, Petrina drew very many things, as will be apparent below.

^b Lons-le-Saunier — in the French MS. of the Life it is called "Lyon le Sauvelier," but the location is not indicated.

§ II. On those freed from the danger of death.

[205] Freed from the danger of death, Very many through the merits or intercessions of the same handmaid of Christ, pleasing and acceptable to God, were freed from the danger of death. Among whose number was the reverend ^a Father, of whom mention was made above in the fifth chapter: no. 33. A Priest in the convent at Castres, who, being in the convent at Castres in the territory of Albi, incurred a most grave mortal infirmity. Of which infirmity, and also of the end of his days — unless God provided a remedy — she, remaining in the convent of ^b Lésignan, which is situated in the Low Country, not a little distant from the other, had full knowledge in the spirit. Whence, rendered very sad, grieving, and afflicted, having first exercised the diligence possible to her in providing necessities for the health of the said Father — although the weather was unfavorable — she hastily had herself transferred to the said convent at Castres, where he lay sick, in order to more easily help him in such extreme necessity. She found him at the point of finally yielding up his spirit. And immediately she had recourse to the supreme physician through devout and efficacious prayers, applying her strength to the utmost of her power, so much that on the first day the aforesaid Father began to recover, and so continuing through the second and third day, going from good to better, thence sent to Lésignan: he was rendered so healthy that she brought him back with her, rescued by her sacred merits, to the aforesaid convent of Lésignan.

[206] Likewise, a certain Religious man deputed to the service of the aforesaid Mother, another Religious man, on account of the grave plague then prevailing at that time, fell into a deadly infection and infirmity, so that no confidence remained that he could in any way escape death. And furthermore, two notable Doctors most skilled in the science of medicine, one of whom was the Dean of the same faculty at the University of Montpellier, going to visit a certain very powerful and excellent Lord in that region — who was at that time very sick — moved by devotion, made a stop at the place where the handmaid of Christ was residing, at whose instance they visited the aforesaid man who was so sick and infected. Having inquired diligently through all possible avenues according to the art and aforesaid science, given up by two physicians, the end of his life being indicated, they in fact judged it impossible that he would survive, assigning him a fixed term within which, according to the course of nature, he must necessarily die. To which she responded that God is above nature; they said that this was true, but unless God Himself specifically worked, it was impossible for the sick man to pass beyond the pre-assigned term. Wonderful to tell! For the aforesaid sick man quite soon, through the merits and prayers of the handmaid of Christ — although adjudged to death by the physicians — fully recovered. The physicians themselves, however, were detained by a grave illness, so that one of them also died; the other, languishing for a long time, afterward escaped and conceived a great devotion toward the handmaid of Christ.

^a Henry de la Baume, her Confessor.

^b Lésignan — by others Lézignan, in Lower Languedoc, which is here called the Low Country, in the diocese of Narbonne, Lésignan. where the convent erected by James of Bourbon in the year 1431, and its church dedicated to Saint Anne, we mentioned above.

§ III. On those freed from the danger of waters.

[207] The noble and most powerful Lady mentioned above, the Countess of Geneva, the Countess of Geneva freed from the danger of drowning, who had very charitably received the handmaid of Christ in her persecutions, once making a crossing through a certain very dangerous and unavoidable passage on account of the flooding of waters, through the imprudent guidance she attempted the said crossing from a less suitable place, so that the horse on which she sat carried her into a body of water so deep, strong, and dangerous that, completely snatched from the sight of her companions, she entirely vanished and was considered drowned together with the horse, nothing of either being visibly apparent. But the humble handmaid of Christ, who could in no way fail her in such a necessity, moved by pious kindness, raised her heart to the Lord through the fervor of prayer, commending the one shipwrecked to the mercy of God — by whose benefit, through the merits of the glorious Mother, the said Lady reached the bank without damage or harm.

[208] On another occasion, when she was going to one of her convents, the waters had risen so wonderfully — especially the river called the Doubs, which passes through Besancon and Dole — that a certain honorable man, leading a Religious woman across on his horse, was so deeply submerged at a certain most dangerous passage a man on horseback with a Religious woman: that on account of the violence of the water they were being swept along tumbling through the water and were considered by the onlookers to be completely drowned. Then the handmaid of the Lord cried out in a loud voice, suppliantly beseeching divine help, so grieving and wailing that she merited to be heard by God. For the water carried both of them safe to the bank, and by her prayers they were freed from the danger of drowning.

[209] Furthermore, on a certain occasion, that Theologian Doctor a Doctor of Theology, of whom mention was made in the chapter on the gift of Prophecy, entered a certain ^a riverbed and proceeded so far that he came into a deep abyssal pit together with his horse. The more he tried to get out, the deeper he sank, so that no suitable remedy appeared to him except that he recalled the merits of the good Mother, whose help and aid before the Lord he confidently began to suppliantly implore in such a mortal necessity — which did not fail him. For immediately, by the mercy of God, both he and his horse came safe and free to the bank.

[210] A certain noble man, born in the territory of Burgundy and devoted to the handmaid of Christ, Colette, a noble Burgundian: while crossing a riverbed, unexpectedly fell into a certain deep pit together with his horse, so much that he thought he would certainly be drowned. Commending himself affectionately to God and to the merits and prayers of His humble handmaid, he immediately found himself likewise entirely freed and placed outside the water — whence, not undeservedly, he conceived thereafter a greater devotion toward her.

[211] ^b Another miracle for the same purpose happened after her death. For after the passing of the same Mother to her God, a certain most noble and very powerful Prince, namely the Lord Count ^c of La Marche, was sending to the town of Ghent a certain Priest of his, who was called Master John Moulines, who had often visited her when alive on behalf of the said Lord; and he arrived at a certain town, called in French ^d "Moneton sur Cher" — where the river was so high a Priest sent by the Count of La Marche to her, now dead. that it was overflowing entirely beyond its banks, nor did anyone dare to cross there without great fear of impending danger. The aforesaid Priest, unaware of this, attempted to enter, easily thinking he would reach the bridge; but overtaken by the rush of the overflowing water, he was violently swept toward the main arm of the said river. Having fully recognized this, he let go of the reins, and immediately with his horse, tunic, cloak, spurs, sword, and boots, he found himself in the deep. He immediately began to invoke the glorious handmaid of the Lord, bursting forth into these words: "O my glorious Mother, since I am now coming to visit you after your death, must I die here?" Whence a wonderful event: for upon these words being uttered, he immediately found beneath his feet a small mound of earth, which had never been found there before, suitably large and sufficient for supporting and preserving his person with all his belongings from drowning. On which mound he held himself until a certain boatman came to him with a boat — who firmly asserted that that small mound had never been found there before.

^a The same word is repeated at the following number, and it is sufficiently indicated that it does not mean the river itself, riparia which at full flow rolls along deeply — which some in barbarous times also called a "riviera" — but the sinuous tract within the banks, which is now filled, now emptied by abundant or deficient water, usually harmless for those wishing to cross as a shortcut and convenient for watering horses.

^b The following miracle was so placed in the Utrecht MS. that in the MSS. of Rooklooster and Corsendoncq it was at the end of chapter 19, after number 100.

^c La Marche is a wide district annexed to the territory of Limoges, over which we noted above that Bernard of Armagnac was then Count.

^d Moneton sur Cher. So the Utrecht MS.; it is a village in Berry on the river Cher, which the French call "Cher," rising from Limousin, between Villefranche and Chartres. The other MSS. erroneously had "monetho-sortier."

§ IV. On those imprisoned and fully freed or comforted.

[212] Among others freed from prison or comforted there by the handmaid of Christ, Colette, was a certain notable ^a Religious man of the Order of Friars Minor, supremely desiring to exalt the holy Catholic faith, a Friar Minor imprisoned by the Saracens, for which he fervently wished to offer himself as a sacrifice to God through martyrdom, if he should find a suitable opportunity. For the execution of which he diligently went to the parts of the infidel Saracens, by whom he was eventually captured, cruelly bound, and consigned to a dreadful prison. In which terrible prison, he is visited by Blessed Colette and understands he will be freed, as he himself afterward asserted, the aforesaid handmaid of Christ consolingly and kindly visited him miraculously, manifesting to him that shortly he would be freed from that prison safe and sound, and also that God was preserving him for another work, greater than that which he so desired.

[213] Another miracle. In a certain town near a certain convent of Sisters of Saint Clare, daughters of the handmaid of the Lord, Saint Colette, there was a certain terrible and horrible prison, inhabited and frequented by infernal demons, irresistibly afflicting the poor captives imprisoned there and inflicting upon them

unbearable desolation, demons infesting the captives, especially from the twilight of night until that hour at which the bell of the said convent was pulled for Matins. But immediately after the aforesaid Religious women rang that bell for performing the divine office, the demons were put to flight with terror and ceased to vex the poor detainees in the prison. they are put to flight by the sound of the bell of Blessed Colette's convent; For which reason the captives of a foreign nation inquired what bell it was that conferred upon them such great refreshment and consolation; and having received the answer that it was the bell of the Religious women of the handmaid of the Lord, Colette, praising God, they called it the bell of blessing.

^a Abbeville, Book 3, chapter 6, adds that this man afterward lived at Poligny and was the paternal or maternal uncle of Peter de Osiac, Visitator of the reformed convents, of whom mention is made below at nos. 230 and 239.

§ V. On women freed from the danger of childbirth.

[214] In the city of Besancon, a certain noble woman was greatly distressed, Freed from the danger of childbirth: a noble woman of Besancon, laboring excessively in childbirth, and there was no hope that she could deliver with her life preserved, but both she and the child were in complete peril. Thus vehemently and intolerably afflicted, the woman was affectionately commended to the prayers of the handmaid of Christ, Colette, who so fervently applied herself with all her strength to praying to the Most High that by the grace of God and her prayers and merits the mother, safe and sound, gave birth to a living infant, and he, regenerated by the sacred font of baptism, lived on.

[215] In a certain other notable town in the territory of Burgundy there was a noble burgess Lady who had many times conceived children, a noble Burgundian woman, that she might bear a full-term child: none of whom she had brought to the due term on account of a certain special infirmity, and death preceded birth. Whence, excessively grieving and sad, she came to the notice of the handmaid of Christ, Colette, and came to her, intimating the matter to her and cordially commending herself to her holy prayers — by whose power she merited to obtain the grace of God, such that thenceforth her children completed their due time and were born alive and received holy baptism; whence she conceived a great love and devotion toward her and often visited her. She moreover gave one of her sons the name of our most holy Father Francis.

[216] In the territory of Auvergne, and at the place of Aigueperse, there was a certain young woman laboring greatly in childbirth, in no way able to be delivered, more certain of death than of life according to both her own and others' judgment, an Auvergnat woman, both for the mother and for the child. Which woman in labor had a brother who was a Priest of honest conversation and good life, the Priest brother having recourse to the merits of Blessed Colette: who with great confidence commended her to the Lord Jesus and to His most glorious Mother, the Virgin Mary, humbly supplicating and beseeching that through the virtuous merits of His glorious spouse, Sister Colette, his poor sister might be freed from such great danger — and she was soon salutarily delivered.

[217] Likewise, a certain woman named Stephana, wife of John Coraldi of the town of Poligny, was once laboring in childbirth with great pain; whose aforesaid husband went to the presence of the most holy Mother, Sister Colette, another at Poligny, then residing there, affectionately supplicating that she might pour out prayers to the Lord for the delivery of his wife in labor. the husband running to Blessed Colette: While he was thus speaking, a messenger arrived requesting him to come quickly. For the child about to be born was so disposed crosswise that where the head should have been emerging, an arm was appearing. For which reason it was judged necessary that the mother be cut open lest the child perish, and a surgeon was actually summoned for this purpose. After the aforesaid John returned home and experienced the calamity of the situation, placing his hope in the prayers of the aforementioned Mother Colette, he again returned to her, not without grief, explaining everything to her. She sweetly comforted him, saying that he should go to his wife and send her some person, trusting in the Lord — which was done. And in the meantime she offered devout prayers to the Lord for the said delivery, and soon she called the woman sent to her by the said John, one of his relatives, saying to her in this manner: "My friend, depart, for God has already shown His mercy to the wife of John Coraldi, who has given birth to a beautiful son" — and so it was. For after being baptized, he survived for five months and more.

[218] On another occasion, the said Stephana incurred a grave infirmity of the head, brought to such a state that she appeared entirely stupid, the same woman freed from a most grave headache, indeed entirely rabid. Seeing which, her husband John had her brought to the presence of the glorious Mother, the Virgin Colette, who, upon seeing her, began to rebuke her, asserting that because she had not confessed, she had fallen into that infirmity. And she had Brother Henry de la Baume called, arranging that she should confess to him, while she herself meanwhile prayed most devoutly for her. This being accomplished, she was fully restored to health.

§ VI. On sick eyes perfectly healed.

[219] As is apparent in the preceding text, among all the members of the body the glorious Mother loved her eyes most, on account of the sight of the most sacred Eucharist and the sacred Scriptures, Blessed Colette is freed from injury to the eye: in which she suffered innumerable pains and grave injuries — so much that one evening one of her eyes seemed entirely lost, and it seemed impossible that she could ever see through it. Whence the Brothers and Sisters, beholding this, were very sad and desolate. Wonderful to tell! For on the following morning the said eye, which in the evening had been so sick, was found as beautiful, clean, and whole as it had ever been. Then those who had previously been sad were greatly joyful.

[220] A certain noble boy, struck through a certain imprudence, was injured by a certain sharp iron pen, and a noble boy, so deeply driven through his eye that, being entirely covered in blood, it was judged that he would never see from that eye. the sign of the Cross having been made by her: He was finally brought to the Mother's presence, and the sign of the Cross having been made by her over the said eye, he was immediately healed.

§ VII. On those rabid and demonically possessed, vexed by the malicious enemy, and restored to full health.

[221] That noble woman whom the handmaid of Christ had sent ahead to the presence of the Lord Pontiff those who were rabid are freed, to announce her coming, as is apparent in the preceding, was so vexed by the malicious enemies with harsh persecutions that she remained entirely rabid and out of her senses. a noble woman, And on her return she came to meet the handmaid of Christ, who was supremely saddened by the horrible plight of her familiar and beloved friend. Seeing her in such a state, she piously commended her to God, and immediately she remained well and healthy.

[222] Similarly, a certain noble Lady, one of the principal ladies of the city of Besancon, had incurred rabies and had lost her senses, for whom the humble handmaid of Christ, Colette, greatly compassionated. another of Besancon, Wherefore she commended her most affectionately before God, and finally, through her prayers and merits, she was restored to complete health.

[223] Likewise, a certain other young woman of the territory of Savoy was so possessed by demons, as if suffering from rabies, that she could scarcely be held, another demoniac of Savoy, however much bound, without entirely breaking the strongest bonds. But finally, through her most devout prayers and most worthy merits, she was perfectly healed.

[224] In a certain monastery of Religious Ladies, there was one among the rest whom the demons so horribly vexed both internally and externally that from within they induced such a temptation in her a Religious woman who in her madness considered herself worthier than others, that she considered herself worthy of every reverence and every pre-eminence above all others and of every audience; for which reason, as if she were the greatest, she wished to be honored and feared or respected. With this, moreover, beyond the stupid imagination by which she was vexed internally, sometimes the enemy would come to her imperceptibly, speaking vocally externally, giving her to understand that it was as she thought, and that all the others were bound to obey her and likewise to revere her — which was heard by many Religious women, who were greatly terrified thereby. Finally, when she perceived that such honor as she was seeking was not being given to her, she conceived from this such grief and excessive sadness and rendered rabid. that she completely lost her senses and fell into extreme madness, so that it was necessary to confine her in iron shackles and constrain her with the strongest bonds. Notwithstanding which, she could scarcely be held, and she called the infernal enemies by their proper names, and sometimes spoke irrationally and very indecently; at other times, however, she spoke so profoundly about the holy Trinity that she seemed to be a certain most learned Doctress in sacred Theology. At times, moreover, it seemed that she knew all languages — whence the other Religious women were supremely desolate and saddened, as if half-dead. But in the end they remembered the humble handmaid of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom they signified in writing the grievous and miserable state of the aforesaid Religious woman, very charitably commending the entire matter to her holy prayers with the most vehement affection, according to the exigency of the case. And soon the poor patient so appeared, and was in fact fully liberated, that she said the Divine Office with the other Religious women devoutly, as if she had never been sick.

§ VIII. On diverse illnesses rejected.

[225] Likewise, a certain noble woman from the town called ^a Orbe, familiar with and affectionate toward the glorious Mother Colette and toward her monasteries and Sisters, Freed from the falling sickness: the son of a noble woman, had a certain son gravely ill with the falling sickness, who fell terribly and often to the ground, foaming horribly and indecently, laboring painfully and vexing his body irremediably. Whence the poor Mother, inexpressibly afflicted, was immensely desolate, entirely not knowing what she should do. But when certain Brothers were passing that way and going to Besancon to the glorious Mother, she humbly commended to the most holy prayers of the same Mother, through those Brothers, the most grievous case of her poor child. This being done, she remained wonderfully consoled in her spirit, firmly trusting in the Lord that her boy would soon be saved. Which trust was not long after, by the grace of God and the merits of His handmaid, followed by a salutary and complete effect — the boy being entirely freed from that illness.

[226] A certain most noble man in the parts of Burgundy, of honest conversation and life, and a noble Burgundian, was gravely ill with the aforesaid falling sickness, so horribly afflicted and for a long time — namely for the space of ten years — that he could receive no suitable remedy. For which reason not only he himself but also all of his relatives were, not undeservedly, very saddened. Finally he was most affectionately commended to the handmaid of Christ, Colette, who most fervently before God in her prayers resolved to hold him commended. And

as his relatives assert, never after the said commendation did he fall again into the sickness, but remained safe and sound in complete health.

[227] ^b A certain devout Religious woman, by divine permission, was vexed by such a grave infirmity that, having lost her senses, she remained rabid; for which reason it was necessary to bind her tightly another rabid Religious woman: and guard her diligently. For which reason the other Religious women living with her in the same monastery, very sad and desolate, informed the handmaid of Christ, humbly and devoutly commending her to her holy prayers. On the very night following the said commendation, she appeared to the said sick Religious woman, presenting to her a certain most beautiful small apple, persuading her to eat from it. Which, having been tasted with wonderful flavor, she was immediately rendered healthy. On the following day, moreover, when the guardians visited her, they found her in her right mind with complete health, and as the first thing she asked of them, saying: "Has our Mother, Sister Colette, come to the convent?" To which they responded that she had not, but that she was in Besancon. She then related how the said Mother had visited her and presented to her a certain most beautiful apple, upon tasting which she had immediately recovered her health.

[228] At a certain time, when the handmaid of Christ, Colette, was leading some of her Religious women to a newly built convent, many Religious women of another Order came to meet her out of devotion, they are cured of leprosy, whom she received graciously, greeted kindly, and sweetly congratulated. Among whom there was one quite notable, but leprous; on which account she had a foul, consumed face, and therefore she was ashamed to approach her, nor consequently did she dare to kiss her along with the rest. by the kiss of Blessed Colette: Which the kind Mother Colette observing, she sweetly drew her to herself, humbly kissing her — by the power of which humility she was quite soon healed of that contagious disease.

[229] Likewise, once in the convent where the handmaid of Christ, Colette, was staying, a certain Religious woman had incurred a most grave infirmity, a very foul swelling, namely, a very foul swelling from the sole of her foot to the crown of her head. On which account her face was round and also her head swollen like a ball, so that she could see nothing at all. From the said swelling, moreover, there proceeded humors of intolerable stench, unbearable to the other Religious women. For this reason, physicians judged the said swelling to be leprosy. To which the good Mother kindly compassionated and began to visit her frequently. Although the sick woman could not see her, by the sweet odor of her visitor: she nonetheless sensed her entering the infirmary, because although both she and the infirmary were full of those foul odors, at her entrance they were pervaded by the sweetest fragrances. Like a chamber of spices, or like choice myrrh, she gave forth the sweetness of fragrance — whose sweetness the aforesaid sick woman, sensing it, was immensely consoled, and through the continuation thereof she was completely freed in a short time and restored to full health, the foul odors, swelling, and leprosy being driven away, as she herself afterward frequently asserted.

[230] Brother Peter Golerij, residing in the monastery of Saint Clare at Besancon, was gravely and fatally ill, so that there was no hope at all of his being able to escape except through death, which he expected by the following morning. an abscess of one near death, For he had a certain swollen abscess around his throat, whose violence seemed to be strangling him at every moment. When, according to the divine good pleasure, Brother Peter de Osiac arrived — the Visitator of such monasteries — who, finding the said Brother suffering and in such close disposition to death, nearly desolate, and wishing to help him, recalled that he was carrying with him a small portion of the hair of the good Mother, Sister Colette. Taking these together with the Rule of Blessed Francis, which he also carried with him, he signed the said sick man with the sign of the holy Cross, placing them upon him. the hair of Blessed Colette being applied: And immediately that abscess burst, and the abscess having been vomited out, he remained healthy.

[231] On another occasion, a certain Religious woman of hers was greatly distressed by a severe illness in the infirmary, a grave illness cured by her visit. whom the pious Mother, the other Sisters having been withdrawn and sequestered, visited secretly, saying to her consolingly that she should not fear but hope in God, for He did not wish that she should yet die. And just as she had come secretly, she similarly departed, and the woman immediately remained healthy. And leaving the infirmary, she went to the community with the other Religious Sisters.

[232] Two other Religious women were similarly ill fatally, so that no remedy could be found: two others, one of whom was called Sister Adelina, the other Sister Jacoba — tasting nothing at all and unable to support themselves from weakness. The handmaid of Christ, Colette, arriving, just as nurses are accustomed to feed little children, having taken a morsel of bread chewed by her: so she would take a crumb of bread and, chewing it with her own teeth, would humanely administer it into the mouth of each of the aforesaid sick women. Which, being swallowed, they were immediately and wonderfully restored to health.

[233] A certain other Religious woman was greatly burdened by a certain contagious disease in one of her jaws; a disease of the jaws, nor could she taste anything for the sustenance of her body, nor could she be helped in any way. But the handmaid of Christ, Colette, was then visiting that convent having applied the vessel from which she had drunk: in which the said Religious woman so ill was staying. She then took the vessel from which the Mother drank and placed it upon her diseased cheek or jaw with confidence, and immediately she experienced that she had been perfectly healed.

[234] A certain Religious woman of the family of the aforesaid glorious Mother, Sister Colette, was greatly afflicted by a headache, and especially by the affliction of ^c migraine, a headache, so much that from the force of the pain she was affected as if furious, nor could she help herself in any way. But from confident devotion she secretly took a certain handkerchief of the same Mother, entirely soaked with tears, and placed it upon her sick head, having applied her handkerchief: and immediately she felt herself well and healthy.

[235] Another Religious woman of hers similarly suffered such that whatever she took for the sustenance of her body she again emitted through her mouth in the form of blood, a continual vomiting, as if the other passages were closed. Which the handmaid of Christ, perceiving and compassionating, said in this manner: "Alas, what is this that you are doing! I do not wish that you should do such things any more." Then at that hour she was so completely healed by her command: that no trace of the previous infirmity remained.

[236] A certain noble man who was the ^d Bailiff of the town of Aigueperse, when the handmaid of Christ, Colette, came to found a convent of Sisters of Saint Clare there, a quartan fever, came to meet her, both for honor and for devotion, showing due and devout reverence. This being done, he who for an entire year had been suffering from quartan fever healed by his reverent meeting: found himself completely healed and freed from the aforesaid infirmity. Likewise, when once on account of the excessive infirmity she had endured she was compelled to allow herself to be washed, various diseases by the water of her washing: the water of the same washing was secretly preserved, from which many persons afflicted with various infirmities drank and thereby obtained full health.

[237] A certain noble and most powerful Lady, of whom mention was made above, a pain of the sides, was gravely afflicted by a pain of the sides, nor could she find any remedy, until she recalled that she had a certain cord that the handmaid of Christ had worn girdled over her habit, and with devotion she decided to gird it whenever she sensed the said infirmity. But immediately when the said cord was girdled, the pain ceased entirely — which she continued in such a manner until that cord was completely worn out; nor did she ever again feel any pain in the said sides. by her cord:

[238] Among the familiar Brothers of the handmaid of Christ, Colette, was a certain notable Father, called Brother Peter de Osiac, Visitator of the convents of the Sisters of the same Mother, of whom it was said above, who for an entire year and a half was tormented by a headache, a migraine, namely the affliction commonly called migraine, so that he could in no way take bodily nourishment without the affliction of a horrible and inexpressible pain. For he often rose from the table, walking through the garden, wailing and lamenting pitifully, unable to attend to those wishing to speak with him on account of the excessive affliction of the pain — which, when night came, was doubled, and he was compelled at every moment to rise from his bed, running through the house, through the garden, or elsewhere, nowhere finding comfort, and everywhere terrified and vexed inexplicably. But by the grace of God, enduring all things patiently, he fervently implored the divine help and of the glorious Virgin, that through the merits of His little handmaid Colette she might deign to impart some relief to him, for otherwise he could not exercise his office. It happened, however, on a certain night, while he was in the convent at Besancon, healed by a vision of Blessed Colette appearing after her death: that he saw a vision in which it seemed to him that he was in the chapel of the convent of the oratory at Ghent, where he had formerly celebrated Mass before the said Mother while she was still alive — that she was sweetly calling him in her accustomed voice, form, and habit, and with this she was most beautiful, luminous, and most joyful, consoling him kindly, sweetly, and charitably — so much that, awakened from sleep, he found himself entirely healthy, well, and joyful; nor did he ever again suffer the said pain, neither much nor little.

[239] Likewise, in a certain convent of hers, there was a woman rather well composed or well-mannered according to outward appearance, an administrator or domestic of the said convent, who fell into an illness so very grave and severe a disease of body and soul that by all who beheld her she was judged and considered as if dead. And what was worse, she was more sick in soul than in body, for there lurked in her conscience certain cruel wounds of vices that had never been cleansed by the medicine of holy Confession. Of all which the handmaid of Christ, Colette, had clear knowledge, but she conceived therefrom a most vehement grief and sadness. For which reason she had recourse to the sacrifice of devout prayer, fervently praying without ceasing, until the life of both body and soul of the poor patient was granted to her by God. by her prayers: For through her prayers she obtained bodily health, and immediately through true contrition and sacramental Confession, having been purged, she diligently devoted the remainder of her life to holy and virtuous labors and worthy occupations, and to honest conversation and a perfect life, loving God intimately, fleeing every evil and diligently embracing every good — for which reasons she ended her days laudably and gloriously. How, moreover, she confessed and received the Sacrament on behalf of a certain Brother overtaken by plague and disease, although very far distant, see above. Similarly, for a certain Brother who had departed from her company, she fervently prayed in the case of his death, and he was led to compunction and penance — see above.

[240] A certain devout Religious woman, called Sister

Anna, arthritis was so gravely ill from gout that, afflicted from the sole of her foot to her head, she could neither sit, nor stand, nor turn in any way. Once, on the holy day of Pentecost, after receiving the Eucharist, being greatly afflicted a commendation having been made to her: and judging herself unable to bear any fruit in the Religious life, she had recourse to the Mother, humbly asking that she might deign to mercifully compassionate her. And it was truly wondrous: for as soon as the aforesaid commendation was made, the sick Sister felt herself entirely relieved, no trace of the previous infirmity remaining.

[241] After the death of the glorious Mother Colette, a certain noble citizen of the city of Troyes in Champagne the falling sickness and a broken arm had a young son who fell from the illness commonly called the falling sickness. And from this he once fell so hard that he completely broke his arm — for which reason the parents remained very sad and desolate. But for consolation they remembered the same glorious Mother, whom they had previously received at their home out of devotion, when she had come to visit some of her convents. having implored the help of Blessed Colette, then dead: Therefore they had recourse to her, humbly imploring the clemency of God and of His most blessed Virgin Mother, that through the merits of His most sweet and humble handmaid Colette He might deign to impart the grace of health for the poor boy so vehemently afflicted. The supplication being completed, he was immediately and wonderfully healed. Afterward it happened that a house quite close to the house of the aforesaid citizen was being burned by fire; and a danger of fire averted: for which reason he, fearing for his own — and not without reason, because it was a matter of the total loss of his temporal goods — hastily had recourse to the handmaid of Christ, Colette, addressing her thus: "Glorious Lady, Sister Colette, you who labored for the health of my son, I humbly ask that you might be willing to help me in this necessity." At which words, the fire immediately began to diminish and quite soon after was extinguished without any damage to him.

[242] A certain Religious woman was suddenly overtaken by a certain fever with excessive heat, a fever, by the touch of some object of hers: so that it seemed to her that she must be burned and consumed in her entire body, and she expected nothing but death. And for this reason she commended herself to the merits of the good Mother, placing upon herself out of devotion something that had touched her. This being done, she was immediately cooled and most fully restored to health.

[243] Another Religious woman of hers similarly had been afflicted for the space of four years, so that at night before Matins, when she wished to rest, she was awakened by something of which she did not know whence it came or who it was, but she suspected it was the malicious enemies. nocturnal terror excited by the devil, For sometimes it would seize her hand, as if wishing to strangle her. After this, however, she had recourse to the aid of holy prayer, beseeching the Most High that through the prayers and merits of His sweet and humble handmaid Colette He might deign to show her what this was, and in such a form or appearance that she should not lose her senses afterward. On the following night the said enemy appeared before the bed of the said Religious woman — namely in the form of a dog, set on fire, horribly emitting fiery flames through its mouth. Whence she, not a little shaken with fear, signed herself with the sign of the holy Cross and consequently said boldly in this manner: "Away, bloody beast! having implored her merits: I conjure you by the merits of my glorious Virgin, Sister Colette, that you come no more to vex me." Which immediately vanished, nor was it ever seen again, nor did it inflict any further annoyance upon the said Religious woman.

[244] On another occasion, a certain Religious woman, the Sacristanness of a certain convent, likewise another: was walking through the church at night, preparing to ring for Matins, and she heard a multitude of demons crying out and howling foully and most terrifyingly, so that she was nearly compelled to lose her senses. Making the sign of the holy Cross and invoking the most holy name of the Lord, she devoutly asked of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself that through the most blessed merits of His humble handmaid, Sister Colette, He might deign to provide her with help. Which request being made, those monstrous voices immediately ceased, and the malicious enemies vanished as if put to flight.

[245] A certain noble burgess woman from the town of ^e Brioude, accustomed to bearing her children with excessive pain, once being near to childbirth began to be distressed, and thus sad and vehemently grieving she most humbly commended herself to the glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ, and to His little handmaid, Sister Colette. This being done, she immediately gave birth to twin offspring — namely one son and one daughter — of whom one, a girl born dead, namely the son, was alive, but the other, namely the daughter, seemed dead, and such she was. For which reason both she and her husband were saddened and desolate. Finally, however, they came together, most affectionately commending the aforesaid dead child to the most holy merits and most devout prayers of the aforesaid handmaid of Christ. Quite soon after the commendation was made, she revives through her merits: it showed itself to be alive. For which reason the sadness of grief was turned into joy and gladness, and the girl was regenerated in the sacred font of baptism, having been given the Mother's name — namely Colette — who was still alive when these things were first written.

[246] A certain upright man of the Viscounty of ^f Carlat, from the place called Le Puy, was so gravely and incurably ill that he was judged by physicians to be impossible to recover by the natural way; and in fact many times a blessed candle was given into his hand, a lethal swelling of the belly removed, presuming that he was about to die, because like one dropsical he was swollen in the belly and had thin and dry legs, and had nearly lost his natural senses. Moreover he had a swollen belly as if he had a thick log or obstruction placed crosswise inside. With the consent of his wife — who was the nurse of certain infants of the most noble and most powerful Lord, the Count of La Marche — with a noble vow of worthy promise, having implored her help: she commended him and had him commended to the glorious handmaid of Christ, Colette, and to her holy and devout prayers, and quite soon after he was restored to full health through the same woman's merits.

[247] A certain respectable woman of the said Viscounty of Carlat, laboring in childbirth, had toiled in excessive anxiety for six or seven days a difficult delivery of two infants, and could not be delivered. Indeed, it was judged by the midwives to be impossible that she could deliver and live. A certain most noble Prince, having been certified of the truth of the matter and moved by piety, had her visited out of compassion through a certain Ecclesiastical man, who carried with him certain holy Relics, among which was something of the relics of the handmaid of Christ, Colette, to whom she was most devoutly commended with a notable vow. The laboring woman, after she had touched the abovesaid Relics out of devotion, by the relics of Blessed Colette. immediately gave birth to two healthy and living infants, who were consequently regenerated in the sacred font of baptism, through the merits and intercessions of our most glorious and most holy Mother Colette, the noble handmaid of our Lord Jesus Christ. ^g To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

^a Orbe. Orbe or Urba, situated in Switzerland, whose prefecture is subject to the people of Berne and Fribourg. The convent there was built by Joan of Montbéliard, wife of Louis of Chalon, Prince of Orange, to whom Orbe was then subject. The bull of approbation of Martin V is dated at Rome in the year 1427, on January 15. When the monasteries of Orbe and Vevey were destroyed by the heretics, the nuns migrated to Aquiano.

^b These miracles are placed in the French MS. with other cases of rabidity, but as we found them in the Latin MSS., we have deemed it best to leave them.

^c Migraine. Migraine, reported again at no. 239, for a headache: it is a species of hemicrania, which is also called in French "pomme grenade." In the French MS. of the Life it is called "la goute migraine."

^d Bailiff. Bailiff or Baillivius — in French "Baillif," is the supreme magistrate of the judicial authority. On its various significations among the Franks, Henry Spelman treats at greater length in his Glossary.

^e Brioude. Brioude, by others Brivatae, a city of Auvergne, concerning which there will be occasion to treat, especially on August 28 in the Life of Saint Julian the Martyr, companion of Saint Ferreolus. Abbeville says the parturient woman discussed here was the wife of John Haudon.

^f In the Corsendoncq MS. "Carledesij" — as also again in the following number. In the French Life it reads "Viscontée de Carlades."

^g Having omitted this clause, there followed in two MSS. the following miracles from no. 250 to the end; the two intervening miracles were intruded out of place after no. 200; which we give together by way of an appendix, because from the Ghent MS. we know them to be by the same author as the rest.

Certain Other Miracles,

from the MSS. of Rooklooster and Corsendoncq.

Colette, Reformatrix of the Order of Saint Clare, at Ghent in Belgium (B.)

BHL Number: 1871

By Stephen of Julliac, from MSS.

[248] In the city of ^a Le Puy ^b of Auvergne, there was a certain child of six years, who on account of excessive infirmity of the eyes had lost his sight, nor could he see anything further, and he despaired of recovering his sight. His mother, moreover, excessively grieved and afflicted, sight for a boy brought him to the convent of Saint Clare there, that she might commend him to the prayers of the Sisters. Wondrous indeed: by the touch of the relics of Blessed Colette, all those Religious women individually and singly began to think that it would be good and expedient to touch him with the relics of the handmaid of Christ existing there. When one mentioned this aloud in common, all the others confessed that they had thought the very same thing. The Relics having been brought, the eyes of the aforesaid child were touched. He was asked during the touching whether he firmly believed that he could be healed. He answered: "Certainly not. For I do not hope ever to be able to see" — and so, lacking faith, he departed just as he had come, unhealed. Not long after, however, the aforesaid mother presented him a second time to the Sisters, grieving and desolate. when faith is applied to them, Touched again by those holy Relics and asked whether he trusted that he could be healed by the merits of the handmaid of Christ, he responded: "I certainly trust and believe that I can see." And on that very day he began to see; shortly after he was perfectly healed, it is granted: and he saw most clearly, and his eyes were so beautiful and fine that they seemed to have been bestowed supernaturally rather than otherwise.

[249] A certain noble and devout Religious woman had fallen into such a very grave infirmity the strength of a sick Religious woman, and one who had nearly despaired, that she was deprived of the vigor and strength of all her members, to such an extent that she considered herself useless for enduring the harshness of the sacred Religious life for the entire space of her life. And on account of this she afflicted herself excessively in her heart, and she was enveloped in such great sadness that she feared she would entirely lose her senses. Finally she humbly implored the help of Mother Colette, that she might deign to come to her aid in such great danger

and such extreme necessity; and with great confidence she seized something in her hand with some object made sacred by the touch of Blessed Colette, that had already touched the little handmaid of Christ, and applied it to her own head. And immediately and in an instant she was entirely freed there and perfectly restored to bodily strength, and she fully recovered her intellect and the use of all her senses through the merits of the handmaid of Christ. they are restored.

[250] ^c On a certain occasion, the handmaid of Christ, traveling with many of her daughters to establish newly built convents, one of them, danger in a fall under the carriage, named Sister Francisca, fell with dangerous force under the carriage, so much that nearly all thought her mortally wounded. The handmaid of Christ, however, moved by piety, as soon as the accident happened, humbly raising her heart to God, averted by her prayers: prayed earnestly for her — and she was so heard that the Sister rose from under the carriage and wheels unharmed.

[251] On another occasion, while the handmaid of Christ was in the convent at Vevey together with her Religious women, one of them was suffering a most grave and very dangerous infirmity, a dangerous illness. which had so often and so greatly troubled her that she thought she would entirely fail in it and would have to end her life. It happened that the said handmaid of Christ rang her little bell, with which she was accustomed to summon her daughters to her. Hearing which, the said sick woman — since no other person happened to be present at that time to help the Mother — she, although with the greatest pains and difficulty, went to the Mother. The pious Mother, regarding her with a compassionate eye so afflicted, sweetly comforted her, saying: "Daughter, have a good and firm heart in the Lord Jesus, and place all your hope in Him: He will indeed free you, nor will you be burdened any more by this infirmity." At which word, immediately spoken, by her admonition: she was restored to her former health.

[252] Likewise, another Religious woman among her daughters, very familiar to her, happened to fall upon a pan full of embers, a hand and foot burned, by which she was greatly lacerated and burned in one hand and one foot. And coming to the Mother's presence and showing her wounds and burns, the handmaid of Christ, deeply compassionating her, by her gaze: looked upon her with a compassionate eye and, asking her what this was — at that very word she found herself healed, both in hand and foot, and free from all burning or combustion.

[253] While the handmaid of Christ was still of youthful and tender age and in secular dress, through inadvertence she cut her own shin with the axe of her father, who was a ^d carpenter named Robert Boigleti. And she, as she related many times, her own shin nearly cut off: cut it to such an extent that on the bone of the shin, placed crosswise, only a small amount of skin remained intact. Which, however, she did not wish to reveal to her parents, being moved by fear, and she bound her shin as best she could, commending it to Almighty God.

[254] At a certain time, when the air was corrupted by the plague, many were dying infected thereby. For which reason a certain Religious woman, greatly abhorring that plague and fearing to die from it, had it made known to the glorious Mother, then absent, and intimately commended herself to her holy prayers. the plague, The Mother responded that she would by no means die of such a death. Shortly afterward, however, it happened that the said Religious woman was infected by the contagion of the plague throughout her entire body, by her letters: and the physicians and surgeons judged her condemned to death on account of the said infection. She herself, sensing that she was about to depart, received the saving Viaticum together with the other Sacraments. Nevertheless, fully recalling and trusting in the words of the Mother, she again sent a letter, devoutly requesting that she might deign to pray to the Lord for her — which being done, she was soon healed.

[255] A certain Religious woman of the said Mother, while she was still in the state and dress of the world, suffered a grave illness of the head a headache, that so vexed her that her parents did not dare to beseech the little handmaid of Christ to receive their daughter in the Religious life. It happened that the said Mother, together with many Sisters, was passing through that city in which the aforesaid daughter was living, in order to establish a newly built convent. Which the daughter, perceiving, soon came to meet her, greeting her dutifully, humbly, and kindly, and kissed her hand. by her kiss: After which kiss, within a short interval of time she was restored to perfect health and was then presented to the little handmaid of Christ for the service of God and accepted.

[256] On another occasion, when the oft-mentioned Mother arrived at the convent of ^e Auxonne for the purpose of a visitation, seven Religious women in the said convent who were sick seven sick women, at her entrance: were all equally freed at her entrance.

[257] In the convent at Poligny, a certain Religious woman was very ill, whom the handmaid of Christ visited after Matins and gave her a small amount of the herb wormwood to taste, by her encouragement, a sick Religious woman, and cheerfully comforting her, said: "Have a good heart, because certainly you will not yet die." Which God confirming, on the following day He rendered her entirely free and healthy by the Mother's prayers.

[258] In the same convent there was another Religious woman, named Clara, who for twenty years and more had been the Abbess of the convent at Vevey, and an Abbess: who suffered such a languor of the head that her eyes from excessive pain were turned awry in her head. Which was immediately reported to the Mother — that the Sister was lying about to die. But the Virgin, the handmaid of Christ, hastily visited her and spoke to her such divine and sweet-sounding words that she was soon entirely healed by them.

[259] In a certain city there was a notable married woman, named Margaret, who suffered many illnesses that had gravely troubled her for three years. Who, on account of the good reputation and name of this humble handmaid of Christ, Colette, spread far and wide, was brought by her parents and friends, a woman suffering from vomiting, together with a certain solemn Master of sacred Theology of the Order of Friars Minor, in her sick state to the handmaid of Christ. Her first illness was that whatever she consumed she rejected by vomiting; the second, that sometimes four or five times within the space of one day and night, while standing upright, a backward fall, she fell backward onto the ground prostrate, and there for half an hour she conducted herself terribly and inhumanely, performing horrible, frightful, numerous, and various gestures. Her third illness was that commonly every four days for two hours before noon or thereabouts she was afflicted with a hectic ^f or gouty fever, so that all her sinews seemed to be retracted, especially those of her arms. And this infirmity she usually endured for three or four hours, and a contraction of the sinews, during which a certain strong woman, embracing her most tightly with her arms, held her on the bed. Moreover, she was girded around the middle of her body with a very strong band, the ^g ends or extremities of which band two women were pulling, one on this side, the other on that. And before the full onset of this infirmity, four women, two and two, would firmly seize her bare arms, and by pauses and surges they would pull her with all their might — two from the front and two from behind — as had been arranged for them. Which women were very often so exhausted that it was necessary to call men to help them. While the said Margaret was thus standing before the handmaid of Christ, that Master of Theology began to explain to her the various infirmities of the said Margaret. The handmaid of Christ, having heard such things, remained stupefied, fearing lest any of her symptoms might attack her in her presence. For which reason she had her enter her room together with her mother, brother, and two sisters. Whom, as soon as she entered, that illness by which she was accustomed to fall backward fiercely attacked. The handmaid of Christ, deeply compassionating both the said Margaret and those who were with her, immediately said, consoling them: "Trust in the Lord, after three prayers of Blessed Colette, Daughter; for I hope through His grace that you will be healed." And going out of the room, she entered the oratory, and having finished her prayer, she returned to the room with a tearful face and sad countenance, and immediately asking the sick woman how she was, she answered: "I sense that the infirmity is seizing me again." But she said: "If you are willing to trust rightly, I hope that you will be healed." Having said this, she went a second time to pray as before, and returned sadder than before. ^h She went also a third time and prayed for a shorter time than before, and quickly returned to the said sick woman with a joyful and happy face, and said to her: "My friend, and health restored to her, through the medium of your faith the Lord has deigned to restore you to your former health. Be careful, then, not to speak of this, for you have been healed by the faith you had in the Lord." Seeing then, the handmaid of Christ, that she wished to attribute this to her and to her merits, sent to Saint Lupus, she immediately asked whether in that region there was no church in which ^i Saint Lupus was venerated. She received the answer that there was — at a distance of six leagues from the said city. And immediately the handmaid of Christ directed that Margaret should within a fortnight visit the said church on pilgrimage, which she humbly accepted. And the handmaid of Christ said: "It is altogether necessary that you have a cart in which to be carried, because as soon as you enter the territory of Saint Lupus, all your infirmities will suddenly attack you, and you must then have strong and numerous women to hold you. And further," she said to her, "the cart must move quickly, and you must not allow it to stop until it enters the city and the cemetery of the aforesaid Saint Lupus, because in the said cemetery all your infirmities will cease, and they will never return." in his cemetery she is fully healed. All of which things, just as the handmaid of Christ had directed, she strove to fulfill to the best of her ability, and finally in that cemetery she was perfectly healed, nor did she ever after feel anything throughout her entire life. The aforesaid miracle, moreover, was immediately known throughout the ^k city and throughout the surrounding territory; whence many persons sick with various infirmities came to her, both from the city and from the territory. Among whom many demoniacs and others who were rabid returned to their homes healthy and well through the merits and prayers of the handmaid of Christ, Colette, with God's help.

^a Le Puy. Le Puy is understood; in French "le Puy," which, signifying either meaning, led the translator to wrongly follow the more common signification by its ambiguity. Formerly it was called Anicium; and now it is commonly called, from the mountain on which it sits and on account of the celebrated veneration of the Mother of God there, "Mons Virginis" (Mount of the Virgin); where, with the permission of Pope Martin V, the construction of a convent was begun in the year 1425.

^b Podium is on the borders of lower Auvergne, to which it is here ascribed, and of Velay, of which it is the chief city.

^c Here in the said manuscripts there was appended the miracle which is reported above at no. 211.

^d Thus the French call all woodworkers Charpentier: although the word in its stricter meaning is derived solely from the making of carts. Carpenters.

^e Auffona, Auxonia, here Axona according to Thuanus, a city of the Duchy of Burgundy on the river Arar, Ausona. a convent

begun to be built there in the year 1412, and it is the second, whence to Besancon

the Virgins were introduced on 28 October, by the faculty granted by Pope John XXI, on 25

September.

^f Very dissimilar diseases: for arthritis, which they commonly call gout, affects the nerves and joints; hectic fever, by which those who suffer are commonly called Ethici, wastes away and destroys with a gentle consumption those who are hectic or (to use the Latin word) habitually ill.

^g In French les coings, which properly signifies wedges: but it is commonly used for a corner, Wedges. and universally for the angular extremity of any square thing.

^h Perhaps abitum departure.

^i There are

three illustrious holy Bishops of this name in Gaul, also

inscribed in the Roman Martyrology: St. Lupus of Troyes on 29 July, St. Lupus

of Sens on 1 September, and St. Lupus of Lyon on 25 September.

^k Abbeville calls it Besancon, in

which he had said before that Blessed Colette was then dwelling: and this is proven by the village of St. Lupus, six leagues distant from Besancon toward the west, as was said above.

MIRACLES PERFORMED DURING HER LIFETIME.

Confirmed by the Instrument of the Abbot of St. Peter's of Ghent, in the year 1471.

Colette, Reformer of the Order of St. Clare, at Ghent in Belgium (B.)

BHL Number: 1872

FROM PUBLIC MANUSCRIPT ACTS.

To all who shall inspect the present letters, Philip Courault,

son of the late John

Courault, burgher of the town

of Poligny, in the County of Burgundy,

of the diocese of Besancon, formerly ^a Abbot of the monastery

of St. Peter near Ghent, immediately

subject to the holy Apostolic See,

of the Order of St. Benedict, diocese

of Tournai: but now, the Lord God

granting my wishes, free and discharged

from the care and solicitude

of the same monastery,

eternal salvation in the Lord.

[1] Since according to the saying of the holy Archangel Raphael, it is honorable to reveal and confess the works of God; therefore, mindful of the holiness of life and the praiseworthy deeds which in my times the wonderful almighty God wonderfully wrought in this world through His chosen Virgin, Sister Colette of the Order of St. Clare, I have thought it right to set them down truthfully in writing — both what I knew and saw of her magnificent deeds and works, and what I received from trustworthy persons. Job 12:7. For it is commonly known The wonderful works of God that the aforesaid Sister greatly enlarged the said Order, in so many monasteries built and filled with holy women: with God's help, in many and various parts of this world, and built and erected convents; she brought in many women and virgins to serve God most devoutly therein under the strict observance and the Regular life, which could not have been done without a divine and singular gift of God: and from her infancy to the end of her life she lived and persevered in true poverty and voluntary contempt of temporal things.

[2] When these things were brought to the notice of my aforesaid late father (who, before he had knowledge and familiarity with the aforesaid Sister Colette, was a man quite wealthy in temporal goods, not only able to live sufficiently from the income of his own revenues according to his station, the parents of the Abbot, by the advice of B. Colette but also quite intent upon trade and certain secular practices in order to abound more richly), he resolved in his mind to approach Sister Colette herself and to visit her, for the sake of devotion or of obtaining some salutary instruction from her, as he did and obtained. he relinquishes trade, At length, through the holy conversations and salutary counsels of this Sister Colette, being as it were changed into another man, he cast off from himself all trade and worldly practice, content with the income of his own revenues alone: from which he also distributed more than usual in generous almsgiving and works of piety. And although he was generous to the needy, he was nevertheless sparing toward himself, and in a way austere, and lives more holily: intent upon many abstinences, fasts, and devout prayers; assiduously frequenting the church, he guarded against customary oaths and used words of truth and sobriety. Wherefore my father, perceiving that he was visited by God through the merits and prayers of this Sister Colette, visited her more and more, and especially while she was dwelling in the monastery of the said town of Poligny, which, with the cooperation of my father, she had built under strict observance.

[3] Then my same father decided to go to each of those with whom he had previously had communications and transactions or agreements in various places, so that, putting a due end to their former common business affairs with them, he might serve God more freely and devoutly. he is freed from the danger of drowning: It happened, however, to my same father that a certain river, through which he was about to cross with his servant, had so risen from the abundance of rains that it seemed a raging torrent. Therefore my aforesaid father, entering the same river with his horse, immediately fell into the depths: and so both he and the horse were submerged, to such an extent that his servant lost sight and view of both, utterly despairing of their escape. My father faithfully commending himself as best he could in this necessity to the merits and assistance of the said Sister Colette, then still living, was freed by her prayers and merits, with God's help: which was afterward related by him to many with thanksgiving.

[4] Likewise I recall another thing which happened while I, Philip, was still a youth, in my parents' house: that my late mother Stephana fell into so grave an illness and languor, the mother of the Abbot is healed from sickness and danger of death, that nothing was expected from that violent illness except imminent death. Wherefore my father, greatly grieving and afflicted over so grave an illness and the danger of death of his wife, had recourse to the same Sister Colette, in whom he had special confidence, explaining to her the danger and languor of his aforesaid wife, humbly begging that she herself would pour forth prayers to God for the help of his wife. The said Sister Colette, kindly consoling him, sent him back to his house: where she sent after him a certain Religious, named Brother Henry of Baume, of the Order of St. Francis, the spiritual Father of the same Colette; and when that same Brother Henry, in my sight, had entered the room of the house in which my very sick Mother was lying, and the Brother approached the bed and stayed there for some time, and before he left, in the presence of my father and me, the aforesaid mother at once fully recovered, ascribing this to the prayers and merits of Sister Colette herself.

[5] Likewise I recall another thing: that while I was still of youthful age, yet of competent sense and understanding, my oft-mentioned late mother incurred a most grievous languor and pain of her head, from a grave pain of the head: to such an extent that she seemed and was thought to be as if alienated from her senses. When her husband, my father, perceived this, he had her led to the above-mentioned Sister Colette, then dwelling in her convent at Poligny; and the aforesaid Sister Colette, rebuking her somewhat salutarily, commanded her immediately to confess to the above-named Brother Henry of Baume: and indeed my mother, after holy sacramental Confession, with the aforesaid Sister Colette devoutly pouring forth prayers to God for the health of the aforesaid mother, was at once fully healed and perfectly freed from the languor of her head.

[6] Likewise I testify to another thing: that while I was in my above-mentioned parents' house, at the age of about twelve years, as I estimate, it happened that my mother, again in childbirth from the danger of death; named Stephana as mentioned above, then pregnant, labored so much in childbirth and was afflicted with pain beyond the usual measure and with difficulty in giving birth. For the infant could not emerge from the womb in the customary manner, in the judgment of the midwives then assisting: because the infant about to be born was coming forth from the womb not straight but crosswise, and only one of its arms appeared externally from the opening of the belly, with the entire remaining body of the infant remaining in the maternal womb. Whence in this so great danger both of the dying mother and of the imperiled offspring, without the conception of spiritual regeneration, and still corporally alive, a master skilled in the art of surgery was summoned and brought, so that if the mother should die without giving birth, her body would be quickly cut open and opened, so that the infant might be baptized. Furthermore my oft-mentioned father, being extremely distressed, personally approached the above-mentioned Sister Colette, then present in the monastery, built by her with the Lord's bounty, in the town of Poligny, where my oft-mentioned parents were inhabitants. Therefore my father, coming to the said Sister Colette, greatly trusting in her merits and prayers, and knowing from much experience that her intercessions were great and singular before God, explained to her the necessity and danger of his wife and perishing offspring, and the aforesaid lamentable case; humbly beseeching Sister Colette herself that she would deign to intercede before the Divine clemency for the relief of both wife and offspring, placed in such necessity and extreme danger: with Blessed Colette praying, where no human provision seemed able to help. The Sister then, kindly consoling him, advised the same father to withdraw for a little while to his house and afterward to return to her: which he did. When therefore, having quickly returned to her, he pressed for divine help to be obtained through her; and indicating the successful outcome of the birth to the father: she said to the same father that he should return joyfully to his own house, and there he would find that his wife had borne the child and that she had been freed from all danger and anguish. Again my aforesaid father, trusting in the words of the same Sister Colette, returning to his own house, perceived that it had happened just as the Sister herself had asserted. For he found his aforesaid wife perfectly freed and healed, and the boy was baptized, and afterward lived a long time, and likewise the mother. This so great miracle I heard solemnly recited with thanksgiving by my aforesaid parents, namely father and mother.

[7] Likewise I further testify that when I was about thirteen years of age, on a certain day, as I heard from my above-mentioned late father, he personally visited this Sister Colette at Poligny in his marriage, and she then asked him about the number of his sons and daughters: to whom my father, in response to her request, told the truth and declared the number of his children. To whom Colette replied that she wished to see them all. having seen all the children, When my aforesaid father heard this, he caused all to come into the presence of Colette herself, except me, who

I testify was the firstborn. And when his children were brought into her presence, Colette asserted to my father that not all his children were there present. To whom my father replied that one more of his children remained in his house, who was his firstborn, excusing himself for not having brought him to her presence: because he was keeping him for himself as his firstborn, the future staff of his old age. Colette nevertheless absolutely wished that I be brought into her presence: by her disposition whence my father immediately sent for me to come to her, which I did. Philip Therefore I was at once brought before her together with my other brothers and sisters, and she, directing her word to my father, upon seeing me, said to him: that he ought to give to God the first of his fruits. Having heard this word, my aforesaid father was inwardly touched, so that he committed not only his firstborn but also all his other children to the same Colette and her disposition, that she might dispose of them as she pleased: and she disposed that I should be a Religious of the monastery of ^b St. Stephen of Dijon, and that another brother of mine, he becomes a Canon Regular, named Peter, should be a Religious of the Cluniac monastery, which was done. For the devout Sister sent me to the monastery of Canons Regular of St. Stephen of Dijon, the brother becomes a Cluniac monk, and assigned me as guide a certain devout and well-known and familiar Religious to her, who was called Brother John Foucault, and with the Lord God directing, I was received into the Religious life there: my other brother, according to the direction of the same Colette, entered the Cluniac monastery. At that time she also led a certain young sister of mine to her Order of St. Clare, a sister becomes a nun of St. Clare: who persevered devoutly in the Religious life for a great length of time and departed laudably from this world.

[8] Likewise I testify that at a certain time, while I was in Paris with my lord ^c the Abbot of the said monastery of St. Stephen of Dijon, the Abbot himself sent me to the aforesaid monastery for his and the same monastery's business. When these were completed, I passed through to the town of Poligny, distant one day's journey from Dijon: and I made this passage both to see my parents and to visit Sister Colette, then residing there in her monastery, and to commend myself to her prayers, and particularly because a grave and very dangerous war was then raging in France ^d around Paris, to such an extent that scarcely anyone could pass through without danger of capture, heavy ransom, imprisonment, or bodily death. And since by the command of my said lord I had to return immediately to him in Paris, I considered, for my safer passage, not only to commend myself to the prayers of Colette; Philip, having received her letter but further to obtain some letter written by her own hand and to carry it with me as a kind of safe-conduct. I moreover asked her to be willing to grant me some letter of recommendation, written by her own hand, to certain notable persons, which she at once agreed to. Therefore, having received her letter, I set out on the road to Paris, trusting that I would be preserved from imminent dangers, which evidently and wonderfully was done and came to pass. For I came to a certain port, from which entry is made by boat into a river that flows all the way to Paris; in which port, called ^e Cravant, there were some small boats loaded with various merchandise, and especially casks of wine destined to be brought to Paris, one of which I boarded with many others and sat down there, intending to go to Paris with them. Therefore, while sailing along the aforesaid river, it happened that we approached a certain forest near the river, captured by enemies, he is freed, around a certain fortress, called in the vernacular Malesherbes: in which place we were attacked by adversaries and enemies, and all were taken captive there. Then I, remembering the letter of Sister Colette mentioned above, which I had with me written by her hand, began at once to invoke her for my help: and immediately, I who had already been bound, was loosed and completely freed, and by the Captain, named Use, all things which had already been taken from me by the robbers were restored to me. The Captain himself promised to grant me a safe-conduct, by means of which I could proceed more safely to Paris, where I was headed. But when, in order to obtain the aforesaid safe-conduct, I was following the said Captain not without great difficulty; and among the robbers, unharmed: since he was on horseback and I on foot, I was forced to return to the place where the aforesaid boats were standing: during which return it happened that I encountered two of the enemy robbers quite close to each other, through the midst of whom I passed free and without impediment, and they did not notice me: and so I arrived in Paris, giving thanks to God and to His chosen Colette, my liberator, as I firmly believe.

[9] Likewise I testify to another thing: that the aforesaid Sister Colette, solicitous for the salvation of my soul, frequently caused to be said and revealed to me through her Father Confessor, through her he is warned about secret matters: a Religious and discreet man, who was called Brother Peter of Rheims, certain things which I thought were known to God alone: and through this truthful revelation I was salutarily warned and instructed to do many good things for the salvation of my soul.

[10] Likewise I heard from the aforesaid Father Confessor of Sister Colette herself, that the devil, tormenting her with many and various temptations, corpses and beasts brought in by the devil, removed by him at her command: frequently placed in the cell or oratory of the same Virgin the bodies or corpses of dead and hanged men: and sometimes that tempter brought venomous beasts, such as toads, serpents, and other such things of various kinds into the same cell, which the devil was compelled, at her command, to remove and carry away.

[11] Likewise I heard from my aforesaid father that once, while he was traveling with Sister Colette herself to the monasteries which she had caused to be built, Blessed Colette rapt in ecstasy, and she was being conveyed in a cart, she was so rapt in spirit from her exterior senses for a great space of time that she was thought dead by those then present: but at length, returning to herself and directing her gaze and face to the aforesaid Father, she said these words, translated into Latin from French: O John, how beautiful a thing it is to love God and to serve Him.

[12] Likewise the spiritual Father of the same Sister Colette, Brother Peter of Rheims, a man of great learning and devotion, also related to me that the aforesaid Colette always knew of the death of her spiritual Daughters and Sisters and likewise of the Brothers who ministered to them; she knows the death of her absent members. although they resided in distant parts in the convents which she had built; and she reported to Brother Peter himself by name, and the same Brother Peter used to say that the souls of the dead after their death often appeared to the same Colette and passed before her.

[13] Likewise it should not be passed over in silence that the same Confessor very frequently affirmed that the malignant spirit once thrust the said Sister Colette into a certain very narrow window, freed from being wedged in a window by the devil. and so fixed and pressed her in it that it was not possible to remove her from there in any way unless the window were broken: which a certain Brother Peter Durran Hutschier broke, and so Sister Colette herself was freed. Blessed be God for ever and ever. Amen.

[14] In testimony of all and each of the foregoing things, I, the above-named Philip, have requested that the present letters or this present public Instrument be made and drawn up, and be subscribed and published by the public Notary written below: and I have strengthened it with the affixing of my seal together with my manual sign. Given and done in the said monastery of St. Peter near Ghent of the aforesaid diocese of Tournai, Approval signed. in the year of the Lord 1471 ^f according to the manner of writing of the Gallican Church, Indiction V, on the 24th day of the month of March, in the Pontificate of the most holy Father in Christ, our Lord, Lord Sixtus, by divine providence Pope IV, year I, in the presence of the said witnesses specially called and requested for the foregoing.

Philip, former Abbot of the monastery of St. Peter near Ghent.

† Sign of John Schulen, Notary.

^a Created

around the year 1444, in the year 1471 he transferred the burden to his nephew, of the same name and surname, reserving for himself the castle of Zwinaard with an annual pension of 300 pounds, and the first place in the choir and monastery: he died in 1475. So Sanderus in his Ghent.

^b It is

an Abbey of Canons Regular: whence, by the favor of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy and Count of Flanders, he was transferred here to Ghent to the Blandinian monastery of St. Peter, although of the Benedictine Order, with the power of ruling as Abbot.

^c At the time

when Philip could have been living in the said Abbey, according to the Sainte-Marthe brothers, it was held by Abbots John Soardi, already known from the year 1418 by a privilege of Martin V, who died in the year 1427: and Alexander de Pont-Scisso, to whom in the year 1454 Nicholas V granted the right of the mitre, staff, and ring. The former is said to be a man of great learning; the second of great nobility: which nobility, and the greater age and authority of Philip under him, make it probable that he, dwelling at that time in Paris, made use of him as a companion and agent for conducting affairs.

^d The wars are indicated

by which, with France divided into factions and the most unjust murder of his father Charles being avenged, Philip, allied with the English, caused the status of the most flourishing kingdom to nearly collapse: which lasted until the Peace of Arras, confirmed in the year 1435: after which, in the following year, Paris and neighboring places were recovered from the English. The town of Cravant.

^e A town a few leagues

above Auxerre on the river Yonne or Iona, which, having traversed the territory of Sens, mingles with the Seine and thus leads to Paris by a navigation of three days. This town was made famous in the year 1423 by the notable victory of the Burgundians and English over the French and Scots who were besieging it: which Meyerus describes.

^f That is, of the common Era, beginning the year from the Kalends of January, 1472, coinciding with Indiction V; which, already begun to be counted from October of the prior year, had not yet reached the beginning of the Gallican year 1472, to be reckoned only from Easter, then falling on the 29th of March: which usage still prevailed in the previous century even in Gallican Belgium, but not in Teutonic Belgium.

MIRACLES AFTER DEATH

Juridically recorded at Ghent

From F. S. Abbeville, Part 3 of the Life, Book 5, ch. 14.

Colette, Reformer of the Order of St. Clare, at Ghent in Belgium (B.)

FROM PUBLIC MANUSCRIPT ACTS.

[1] In the same year 1471, in which the aforesaid former Abbot of St. Peter's of Ghent had these miracles described in a public Instrument, [By order of the Bishop of Tournai, an inquiry into miracles is conducted at Ghent in the year 1471] the Bishop of Tournai, William Fillastre, from being a monk of St. Peter of Chalons and Abbot of St. Thierry of Rheims, and thence Bishop of

Verdun and Toul, as well as Abbot of St. Bertin of Saint-Omer, promoted to this See in the year 1441, wished that the miracles which were said to have been performed at Ghent through the invocation of Blessed Colette be juridically investigated: having deputed for this purpose Father Nicholas Jacquier, Doctor of Theology of the Order of St. Dominic, and the Dean of the Bourgeois, by whom a similar Instrument was likewise drawn up; which, although it has not come into our hands, may nonetheless be drawn from the French epitome of Abbeville, where the following things are found attested.

[2] a woman healed from the plague by drinking Colettine water In that pestilence which took the lives of so many mortals at Ghent, two years before this investigation was undertaken, a certain woman named Joanna Doignez, feeling herself also touched by the mortal plague, had recourse to the intercession of Blessed Colette, with whom she had been most familiar while alive: and she asked her custodian Stephanetta to give her some water consecrated by the dipping of the Relics of her advocate: and having taken it, she was immediately healed. But and healed from a lethal illness. as the same year drew toward its end, she fell into another kind of disease with such danger to her life that she had arranged for a Priest to be summoned, by whom she might be anointed with the last unction for the agony. While he was arriving, she herself remembered that water whose power against the pestilence she had experienced, and she still preserved some remains of it: and having likewise taken it, she was so suddenly restored to health that someone had to be sent to tell the Priest not to trouble himself by coming in vain.

[3] dust from the tomb removes incurable pains: William Bier had been tormented by convulsions and intestinal pains, drawn out over a full six-year period, for which the careful expertise of three physicians had been able to find no remedy; moreover a tumor that had arisen in his leg had for two full years discharged a great quantity of pus through ten ulcers: in the healing of which four surgeons had labored in vain, to such an extent that the disease was judged incurable and close to a lethal erysipelas. For both infirmities a more effective medicine was to crawl as best he could to the tomb of Blessed Colette, at whatever opportunity he found, and to hope for health from the contact of that tomb and the sacred dust around it.

[4] hairs provide constancy under torture. A certain benefactor of the Convent of St. Clare, through the machinations of his adversaries imprisoned and accused of a capital crime, having received certain hairs of the Blessed from two Friars Minor, drew such confidence from that pledge that, having constantly endured the rigor of the torments by which he was pressed to confess a crime of which he was innocent, he departed from the trial fully justified and restored to his former liberty and honor.

[5] offspring obtained from a sterile marriage: Two spouses, of whom one, a Licentiate in Law as they call it, was named Germanus, and the other Catherine, had lived in a sterile marriage for twenty years: therefore, to obtain through the prayers of Blessed Colette what they could not hope for by human means, they came to the church of the Convent of St. Clare, dedicated to the Archangel St. Michael, to be consoled: where their prayer was heard, after which the woman conceived and bore a female child: to whom the name Colette was given at the sacred font out of gratitude, and it remained.

[6] a fire suppressed: Margaret Mundette testified that while she was dwelling at Tournai, her room and the modest furnishings in it remained unharmed by the fire which, consuming the houses of neighbors, had also seized those buildings of which she inhabited a part: and this because she had commended herself to the protection of the Blessed of Corbie, to whom she had been joined by some familiarity during her lifetime.

[7] two hernia sufferers cured by a piece of the veil, The hernia of the son of the spouses William Boucher and Elizabeth was healed by a piece of the veil which the Blessed had used, applied to him, and by drinking the water mentioned above: and by a similar remedy, the son of Jodocus Faber was freed from a not dissimilar infirmity.

[8] and one madman: Peter Leace, driven into madness and rage, was held bound in a room until, touched by the veil of Blessed Colette and sprinkled with dust collected at her tomb, he fell into a sleep which he had not taken at all for a full six weeks: and when he awoke from sleep, he found himself at the same time freed from his former infirmity, and from then on he had sound use of his brain.

[9] a demoniac, drinking from the cup, is freed: The hellish guest possessed the wife of John Cretacli: but it was compelled to give way after she was brought, on the advice of Brother Daniel, to the convent of the Poor Clares and, commended to Blessed Colette, drank from the cup which the holy Reformer had used during her lifetime, along with dust taken from the tomb, and she suffered no further molestations from the invader thereafter.

[10] those who had lost their way are led back to the road: Two Religious of the Order of Friars Minor, Peter Rosee and William Connotel, wandering in the forest of the Ardennes, feared that, being ignorant of the roads, they would have to spend the night in the open or under the shelter of a spreading tree: therefore, as the darkness increased, they implored the help of Blessed Colette: who by no means disappointed the confidence of those who invoked her. For a man unknown to them appeared, and leading them out of that fearful wood, brought them safely back to the road from which they had strayed. They would have thought him a man, had he not so suddenly vanished from their eyes that they could not judge him to be other than a guide sent from heaven, such as had once befallen Tobias when about to set out on a journey.

[11] a hernia removed by the placing of the mantle. To these let us join another miracle, excerpted from the Ghent records. In the year 1541, a certain citizen of Bruges, called John Moyart, came to the church of the nuns of St. Clare, suffering great discomfort from a hernia. He saw the Confessor of the place bring out the mantle of Blessed Colette, to be placed upon a pregnant woman with a pious wish and invocation of the Blessed, according to the pious custom of the city of Ghent. He therefore approached and requested that it also be placed upon him as a remedy for a certain infirmity of his: and at last he obtained what he asked, the Confessor's reluctance being overcome by the insistence of the petitioner, who at first had refused to do it. But as he received the sacred garment upon his shoulders, he felt the protruding intestine being drawn back into the abdomen: not indeed without pain, but not without the perfect health that followed: of which matter he left a testimony signed by his own hand with the Sisters, inhabitants of that house called Bethlehem.

OTHER

Miracles in the Convent of Ghent.

Established by Public Instrument.

Colette, Reformer of the Order of St. Clare, at Ghent in Belgium (B.)

BHL Number: 1873

FROM PUBLIC MANUSCRIPT ACTS.

[1] In the name of the Lord, Amen. ^a ... After the passing from this world of the Virgin Sister Colette, around the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and forty-eight, a certain young girl, called Dionysia Bricelle, originating from the parts of Hainaut, was presented to the convent of Ghent, where the body of the same Virgin Colette rests, to be received into the Order: and because in that place girls are not received to the habit of Religion unless they are twelve years old; the parents of the same girl, when questioned about her age, asserted that their daughter was twelve years old, although it was afterward discovered that she was then only eleven years old. A nun deprived of the use of her body and oppressed by the greatest pain, When, however, the aforesaid girl had been received into the Order, after some space of time had elapsed, it was discovered that she sometimes had a terrible bodily seizure, and when that seizure seized her, she suddenly became rigid in body, like an image lacking the use of the exterior senses, having her eyes fixed without movement, neither hearing nor speaking; and after she had stood thus for some time, she sometimes fell to the ground. As that seizure grew, not only in its continued recurrences but also in its severity, it finally happened on a certain day that this seizure attacked her more fiercely than usual, to such an extent that from the violent seizure her face became very deformed: for her eyes became extraordinarily swollen, so that they seemed to be coming out of her head; her mouth was open and twisted to one side with foam, presenting a horrible sight to those who looked on: and because she then endured this seizure for a longer time, motionless, the Sisters feared for her imminent death, and they transported her to the infirmary of the same convent: where, as the aforesaid girl's seizure increased, one of the Sisters, moved by compassion, covered with the coverlet of B. Colette, she recovers: remembering the merits of Christ's handmaid, the Virgin Colette, quickly and confidently went to the place where a certain linen cushion cover, which Christ's handmaid Colette had been accustomed to use for placing her books upon, was kept: which, bringing it and placing it upon the head of the aforesaid girl thus afflicted, as soon as it was placed upon her head, the girl recovered, and from the terrible seizure which she was suffering she was completely freed, nor did she suffer it afterward.

[2] Likewise another. In the same monastery, after the burial of the Virgin Sister Colette, beloved of God, when Sister Catherine Sumench, another, most gravely injured from a fall, originating from the town of Ghent, one of the Sisters there, had climbed a ladder to a great height to close a certain window, she fell down through inadvertence and unexpectedly: from which fall she was so gravely injured that she completely lost the use of her senses and limbs from the injury. When they found her fallen as aforesaid and deprived of the use of her senses, the Sisters of the same convent carried her to the infirmary, reasonably fearing that death was imminent for the said Sister Catherine, or a long deprivation of her limbs. In which place, after some space of time, when she had somewhat recovered the use of her senses, and was in such vehement weakness of limbs that if fire had consumed the bed in which she lay, she could not have moved herself, and she continued without food or drink for a whole day; she was strengthened by the merits of the glorious Virgin Colette. When, at the hour at which Matins was customarily rung by the Sisters, she thought to rise up for her necessity and comfort, and found herself destitute of all bodily strength; at the end of Matins, not deluded by dreams or oppressed by sleep, but being in perfect and full awareness, she saw Christ's handmaid Colette, in the habit and mantle such as she had been accustomed to wear during her lifetime, and in a very venerable person, resplendent with immense brightness (so that at that hour, which was in wintertime around the second or third hour of the night, the brightness of midday appeared in the said infirmary), approaching toward the bed in which she was lying; and very solicitous and occupied around her: which, gazing at her closely, she obtained therefrom the greatest and inexpressible joy, refreshment, and consolation, which she also retained in spirit for a long time afterward. by the appearing of B. Colette, she is healed: It was not necessary for her, as she declared, to ask the said handmaid of Christ, the Virgin Colette, who she was: whom she knew most aptly and truly, whom she had also seen, and with whom she had lived during her life and at her death. In which place of the infirmary the same handmaid of Christ Colette remained from the said hour of her arrival until the fifth hour before the office of Prime, at which hour she disappeared. After which the aforesaid Sister Catherine found herself perfectly healed, and cured of both pain and inconvenience entirely, with only scars of black and varied color, witnesses of the most grave fall and injury, remaining without pain. And although the grace of this recovered health, which the aforesaid Sister Catherine obtained by the grace of almighty God through the merits of His handmaid the Virgin

Colette, is very great; she nevertheless confessed that she had received many other graces as well, for which she renders humble thanks to the Most High, through the merits of the aforesaid handmaid Colette, to the praise, glory, and honor of Him who lives forever.

[3] Likewise another. Sister Elizabeth of Bavaria, sister of the Count Palatine, having a most grievous infirmity and pain in the middle of her head, another, the sister of the Count Palatine, oppressed by pain of the head, arising from the coldness of her feet, to such a degree that from the slightest cold of her feet the said most grievous pain of the head would seize her, so intense that it seemed to her that her brain was being scattered, and a certain part of the head extended to her ears, so that she seemed deaf and deprived of hearing: it also seemed to her that she could bear and suffer from the magnitude of the pain if that part of the head could be pierced with a red-hot iron: for the alleviation of which pain she needed three or four times each day to place a heated linen cloth upon that part of the head. But as the condition and the aforesaid suffering increased daily, she was compelled to ask for a dispensation for herself; that contrary to the custom and observance of the other Sisters and Religious women of the said Religious house and Order, she might be permitted to walk shod: which she obtained and did with vehement sorrow of heart and sadness for the space of nearly three years. At length, turning and having recourse to the merits of the same Sister Colette beloved of God, with humble prayers seeking her help and relief, on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, trusting in the merits of the same Virgin Colette, she took off her shoes, and made a procession around the circuit of the monastery with prayers: after which day she needed no further dispensation, she felt no pain in her head, she placed no heated linens upon her head, and from then on she walked with bare feet like the rest of the Sisters, and bore the cold without the difficulty of the aforesaid suffering, aided, healed, and freed by the grace of God and the merits of His said beloved handmaid, the Virgin Colette.

[4] Likewise another. Sister Cornelia vanden Walle, originating from the territory of Bruges, part of the County of Flanders, suffering for four years a most grievous illness in her limbs, a continuous and very great trembling, another, laboring with a very great palpitation of the limbs, so that while sitting in church in her stall, by the motion of her limbs she made whatever was near her move: approaching before the iron grate or grille to confess, she made the grille itself move: while at the table, the table; in bed, the bedding, and she compelled whatever was near to motion by her own motion. This infirmity and trembling seemed to her to proceed from the agitation, however slight, of her heart, as from fear, compassion, sorrow, or any other cause: nor could she sustain herself upright because of the severity of this suffering, or wear the mantle which they use; but she frequently fell to the ground. This suffering also afterward increased for the same Sister Cornelia, so that it could scarcely be believed by those who did not see it that so violent a motion could be naturally endured in the body: the whole body was lifted by the motion, her legs jumped, and were so raised and depressed by this motion that the bedding seemed to be breaking: and when one of the stronger Sisters of the said convent thought to relieve her in this motion, she placed herself upon her legs; yet she could not impede or restrain the motion, but when force was applied to suppress and restrain the motions, she was more distressed. After she could not be cured by the natural method, with the advice and art of Physicians applied and every means tried, but the illness worsened, finally, by the counsel of the Mother Abbess and many Sisters of the same convent, with the greatest desire and full confidence, the said Sister Cornelia turned to the Virgin beloved of God, Sister Colette, and commended herself to her help: and approaching the place of burial of the same, she rubbed her limbs with earth and wool from the Relics of the same Virgin, and on that very day, through the grace of almighty God and our Lord Jesus Christ and the merits of His beloved Colette, she obtained and recovered full health: she also obtained other consolations, and spiritually, twice having grave afflictions and sadness of spirit, she obtained relief from the same Virgin Colette immediately upon approaching her tomb; notwithstanding that on one occasion she approached the said place without hope and confidence of obtaining consolation, but as a desolate person, not knowing what she ought to do: in which place, however, before she had perfectly begun to pray, she received relief and perfect grace through the merits of the same Virgin beloved of God, Colette.

[5] Likewise another. When around the feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the winter season, a Sister, another, bedridden from an injured foot from a fall, Blanche d'Haut, one of the Sisters of the same convent, originating from the parts of Normandy, was carrying a large burning piece of wood or a blazing torch; the slipperiness of ice impelling her, the said Sister fell, and the falling wood or torch most gravely injured and crushed her foot, so that she could not support herself on that foot. She was therefore brought to the infirmary, where, lying ill for six weeks from the said injury, her foot became gravely swollen; surgeons were summoned, to whom the care of the said foot was entrusted, who, with many medications applied, profited the foot in nothing, but the injury worsened, and the foot became so swollen and red that it could scarcely be believed. Seeing the increase and worsening of the injury, where she expected remedy and health from the surgeons' work, she resolved to have recourse to our Lord Jesus Christ and to the merits of His virgin and handmaid Colette for healing and health, firmly resolving, having rejected the arts of physicians and surgeons, to entrust the care of the said injured foot to her alone, sending to the tomb of the same Virgin for earth from her sepulcher, which, wrapping in a cloth and placing upon her foot, immediately after the placing of that earth she received the perfect and complete health of her foot; she walked without impediment as before the injury, and afterward she never felt pain in the same foot.

[6] Likewise another. After Sister Elizabeth la Bue, originating from the parts of Brabant, having entered the Order of St. Clare in the aforesaid house, another, vexed with an intolerable pain of the head: had begun the year of probation for about three months; there came upon her a most grievous infirmity and an intolerable and inexpressible pain of the head, continuous and lasting three or four days, and while suffering the same, it came to her mind with great desire to seek the help and aid of the beloved handmaid of Christ, Sister Colette. To carry this out, she approached the tomb of the same and poured forth the most fervent prayers for obtaining remedy and health: and lest she be impeded, which she most vehemently feared, from completing the year of her said probation. After these prayers, when she intended to withdraw from the said place of the tomb, feeling no alleviation or remedy, to go to collation; she thought within herself that if she were to place some of the relics of the same Sister Colette upon her head, she would recover full health; and persevering in this same hope through the time of collation and Compline, after the said Compline, having made her prayer, she took the veil or linen head covering, and some of the hairs of the same Virgin Colette, and placing them upon her head, without any delay or interval of time, she was completely freed from the said illness or violent pain of the head. Which pain she never felt after that time: but when on the following day she wished to remove and take away the said relics from her head, the greatest fear seized her of relapsing and returning to her former infirmity and pain. Wherefore she left the said relics placed upon her head for the following four or five days: which, when she afterward removed them, she feared relapsing as before, but with a fear not so vehement: nevertheless she never afterward felt even the least pain, suffering, or illness, but remained perfectly healed and freed.

[7] Likewise another, which the said Sister Aleydis deposed as having happened to her own person, and was solemnly attested as truth, as stated above. another, as she herself testified, About a year after the death of Christ's handmaid Colette, the aforesaid Sister Aleydis Chanchina, then dwelling and professed in the aforesaid convent of Ghent, fell into a certain long and most grievous infirmity, by which she was held for the space of thirteen years: and the said infirmity began in the manner of a most violent and continuous fever, she labored with fever, with great pain and immense suffering of all her limbs: and in that manner she languished for nearly a year. Afterward she fell into a more severe debility, through which she lost the power and use of walking: and her body became as if entirely dead from the middle of her body and navel downward to the sole of her foot: she could not move herself, and she was so powerless that if fire had burned one part of her bed, she could not have pulled herself to another part of the bed. She was also so emaciated from the increasing illness that nothing remained in her body except skin and bones alone: her legs were dried out like a stick, entirely emaciated, and the skin around them hung so loosely that the bones could have been wrapped in it as in a piece of linen: the blood of the veins was so dried up that for a long time she did not seem to have a drop of blood in her legs: and the place of the veins appeared empty and hollow, of which traces still remain visible: and her belly seemed to adhere to her back. For which reason the Sisters of the same convent, wishing to help her, judged incurable by eight physicians: placed her under the care of expert physicians, who were eight in number: and all uniformly judged her infirmity to be incurable, and that she could not be relieved from the said infirmity by natural means: and moreover that the multitude of diseases was so varied that it could scarcely be believed.

[8] Among the other diseases, the first was a great and continuous pain of the head: on account of which it frequently seemed to her that the back of her head was boiling like a ^b pot placed over a fire; and from the great anguish it seemed to her that her eyes had come out of her head, filled with fire; from an intense pain of the head. and that she could not retain the use of her senses unless the grace of God supernaturally assisted. The second disease constricted her terribly in her ribs, so that it was impossible for her to express by word or writing how it might be fully understood by anyone. Another disease held her sometimes with so great a pain in her heart, constriction of the ribs, that it seemed to her that her heart was being compressed as an apple is compressed between the hands to squeeze out the juice: and the physicians judged that there were humors together with blood ascending to the heart: and they said it was miraculous anguish of the heart, that she did not die: and in this so grave pain she often remained for a space of four or five hours, and during that

anguish she cried out so loudly that she seemed about to end her life. On one occasion, however, because of the excessive pains, she became so weak that she seemed without aspiration or respiration, and neither pulse nor breath could be detected in her: and lying in such a state she was sometimes cold, cold, rigid, as if she were a dead body, sometimes rigid through all her limbs, which seemed more likely to break than to be bent or folded, sometimes she was in excessive heat and ardor, and sometimes so pliable and soft, hot, soft: that she seemed to have absolutely no bones, and her whole body could have been folded into a round shape. And because of her excessive weakness, sometimes for a space of fifteen days or three weeks she could not be moved from her place: nor could her clothes, with which day and night she was dressed according to the accustomed manner of the Order, be changed; notwithstanding that because of the infection of the illness, all the cloth wrapping her body, and tunics and ^c half-garments, however new, doubled, tripled, or quadrupled, in fifteen days or three weeks completely rotted and tore apart, with the rotting of her garments: as if they had been gnawed and ground by beasts: which putrefaction proceeded from the infection of her illness, especially from the navel upward around the heart and above the head: and notwithstanding that this itself was an intolerable suffering for her, yet it could not be remedied, however thick the garments placed over her. Another suffering of hers was in eating with immense pain and so little, that scarcely anyone would believe it unless they had seen it. she scarcely eats anything: Sometimes she went for a space of one month or six weeks without eating a drop of pottage, and sometimes in three weeks not a single crumb of bread entered her body without anything else, and this for 13 years, unless perhaps she had consumed a tiny quantity of fruit. All of her said illnesses together with the difficulty of eating lasted for her thirteen years.

[9] And since the said Sister Aleydis from the very beginning of her infirmity always had great trust in the prayers and merits of the glorious handmaid of Christ Colette, on account of her affection toward B. Colette. it seemed to her that if she could sleep in her oratory, she would be healed: but she could not reach that place, however much effort she applied, until the time approached in which the Lord wished to extend His grace to her. For as the thirteenth year approached, on the very day on which Christ's handmaid Colette had departed from this world, the said sick woman then resolved to drink for certain days from the water of the Relics of the Virgin Colette: she drinks the water of the Relics: and when the water which had touched the said Relics had been prepared and brought to her, notwithstanding that the Sister who was bringing the said water was still far from her, she nonetheless felt so great and sweet an odor emanating from the said water that it seemed to her that the odor filled all her interior with a certain comforting sweetness: strengthened by the odor, for which reason she received perfect faith in her soul that Christ's handmaid, Sister Colette, would help her, and with great hope of health she drank many times from the aforesaid water. In those days as well, in which she was continuing her begun devotion by drinking the water which had touched the Relics of the Virgin, it happened on a certain occasion, while she was lying before the tomb of the said Virgin, thinking to say in that place certain prayers which she had resolved to pour forth there in honor of the Virgin Colette, that the same Sister Aleydis was weighed down with a heavy sleep: and notwithstanding that she resisted, even unwilling and strongly opposing, she was compelled to sleep, which had never before been able to happen to her, as was said above: in which sleep or slumber she saw the Virgin Colette, beloved of God, in sleep she receives hope of health from her appearing: who, as it seemed to her, showed her a joyful face and the entire manner of her healing and full restoration, and that she would bear the individual burdens of her community and the Religious life she had assumed, how she would go to the Office and fulfill the individual penances of her Religious life: and she saw the great consolation that the Sisters would have at the recovery of her health; and she saw the place where she should sleep in the dormitory near a certain window, through which she could, even at nighttime, see the oratory in which the body of the Virgin Colette lies buried.

[10] Awakening from her sleep, she found herself completely changed, so that for some space of time she could not speak nor knew how, and shortly after this time, on the very Sunday on which the Sisters were accustomed to receive the precious Body of our Lord Jesus Christ at the convent Mass, it seemed to her within herself that she was impelled to raise herself piously impelled, and to place herself on her knees, and when the Mass was finished, at the hour when the Sisters communicate and receive the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, she was again impelled and compelled in spirit to raise herself and to go alone to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Which she did with great trembling, all trembling and shaking from excessive fear of falling: alone she rises, approaches the church: nevertheless she approached and returned with confidence, without any human assistance, and when the Masses were completed she left the Church, descending alone from the steps of the dormitory without any bodily help: and so she came to the oratory to pray before the tomb of Mother Colette, praying more earnestly to the Lord that He would deign to honor and exalt His handmaid, and would manifest how great her merit was in the sight of the Lord, and would show how those wondrous things which she had done in her life were approved and as it were accomplished with God's cooperation, just as the aforesaid Virgin had predicted, without any subtraction or addition. And before her prayer was finished, the aforesaid Sister Aleydis heard with her bodily ears a voice from above, three times she heard B. Colette speaking: very reverend and loud, of Christ's handmaid Colette, such as she had been accustomed to have while living, which said to her: God will hear your prayers. When the aforesaid Sister Aleydis had heard this voice, she was so stupefied and astonished that she doubted whether she could obtain what she still proposed to pray for. Wherefore she debated within herself for some space of time whether she should finish the prayer she had begun, or repeat it again; and because of the amazement of her mind from the voice she had heard, she does not know whether she finished it or not. She does know, however, that she repeated the said prayer a second time: and when she came to the same point at which she had heard the said voice, she again heard the same voice: God will hear your prayers. And this time she completed the prayer: and a third time she similarly prayed in the same words and in the same place as before heard the said voice, in the same form and manner as before: which done, the said Religious remained joyful and much consoled in the firm hope of her health. On the following day, she is healed, which was Monday of Passion week and the Vigil of the Annunciation of our Lady, she began to fast, and from that time to the present she has borne the fasts, penances, labors, and the other austerities of the Religious life as easily as she had done formerly in her youth.

[11] Likewise another concerning the same. It happened moreover, some time later, she falls into a fever, that our Lord sent the aforesaid Sister Aleydis a certain fever: which, as she believes, was done for her greatest benefit, for a greater confirmation of the grace of health which she had received, as aforesaid: because notwithstanding that the said fevers had been prolonged and strong, she never on account of them broke the fast nor was separated from the community of the Sisters. The Abbess, however, and the other Sisters, feeling compassion for her, wished to compel her to enter the place of the infirm. Whence the same Religious was greatly saddened in her heart, fearing lest on this account an occasion might be generated in some for thinking about the aforesaid healing, by the patronage of B. Colette, she is not forced to enter the infirmary: that it had not been true and complete, the opposite of which she herself had known: from the other side, however, she feared to contradict their admonition, avoiding disobedience; and so, perplexed in mind, she turned with her whole heart to praying to Christ's handmaid, that if it were pleasing in her sight, she would not enter the infirmary, and would deign to inspire the Mother Abbess with such a will that she would no longer speak to her about this: and never afterward did she speak a single word to her about entering, notwithstanding that the Religious Sisters frequently pressed the Abbess about it: but almighty God had ordained otherwise to happen. After these times the Reverend Father Visitor came and entered the convent: where the Sisters, moved by piety and compassion, asked the said Father to be willing to command the said Sister Aleydis to enter the infirmary if she should happen to fall again into similar fevers. And the said Sister Aleydis, much doubting about this, fled to the oratory of Mother Colette for help, beseeching her for consolation in this matter, which pertained to her exaltation and honor, and that she would deign to be present in her help if the Father Visitor should order her to be summoned and called before him: and at that same hour, after thus pouring forth her prayer, she perceived a great and wonderful odor, which continually grew more and more. As the hour approached at which she was called to attend the Reverend Father Visitor, she sees B. Colette: rising from the oratory she withdrew with the said odor, hoping to be consoled, although she did not know the manner. Coming thus before the door of the church, she saw with her bodily eyes Christ's handmaid Colette entering before her in the same reverend and venerable form and stature and habit as she had been in life: after whom the said Sister Aleydis, entering the said church, in one moment saw her standing before the iron grate or grille in the very presence of the Visitor and the Sisters, with her whole body erect, and having her face turned toward her, so that she clearly and completely saw her venerable and most beautiful face, bright and white, and her beautiful, sweet, and pious eyes looking upon the same Religious very sweetly, and she remained standing until the aforesaid Sister had come from the door of the church before the said iron grate or grille, and had settled there, placed on her knees. From then she also saw her inclined, yet in such a manner that she always had her in view, and this vision lasted the entire time during which the said Reverend Father Visitor made his sweet and devout exhortation, which was quite long: at the end of which he said to Sister Aleydis, at the insistence of the Sisters, that she should go to the infirmary if such a fever should attack her: concerning which the said Sister conceived great sadness in her mind, on account of the reason expressed above,

namely that the miracle which God had performed through the merits of His handmaid Colette could be annihilated, and be held as not done or regarded as quasi not done. And then Christ's handmaid Colette raised herself she hears her speaking: and said to her in a loud voice: Do not fear, nor doubt, because God will be your helper. And immediately the sadness and pains of her heart vanished and departed from her; and so, disposing to give her thanks, she suddenly disappeared: and from that hour she lost the fevers and all the infection from which they were generated. What joy was hers then, He who is the searcher of hearts knows, she is healed from the fever: because it would be difficult for her to narrate. Nevertheless concerning those things which she had seen and heard she made absolutely no mention, believing and firmly judging that the Visitor and the Sisters had seen and heard the same things, and she persevered in this opinion for the space of one year; and she was amazed that the Sisters were so silent, and said nothing to her about it, and she thought the Sisters had remained silent before her because the matter concerned her person: nor did she herself dare to say a word. Finally, however, she told her Prelate, as conscience dictated, who commanded her to make the same known to the honor of Christ's handmaid, Mother Colette.

[12] Likewise after the aforesaid things, on one occasion it happened to the above-said Sister Aleydis, through some inadvertence, that she fell into a ^d cauldron of boiling water: and from this she had both feet totally burned together with a part of the leg, having fallen into boiling water, which seemed almost entirely cooked: and very many medications were applied, but the pain always prevailed no less, so that she seemed to faint from the pain. she is healed. Finally the water of the Relics of the Virgin Colette was applied, and immediately all that pain, burning, and injury ceased and departed, notwithstanding that previously the nerves had been contracted so that she could neither walk nor stand on her feet, and all the weakness of heart departed, and she was immediately restored to her former health.

[13] Likewise the same Aleydis on another occasion attempted to pull kitchen vessels out of a boiling cauldron, which had fallen from her hands into the cauldron with such force that the boiling water splashed again sprinkled with hot water, and struck her in the face and into her eyes, so that she thought she had lost her eyes and that her face was disfigured: and immediately she fled to the tomb of the Virgin, praying that she would deign to protect her so that she would not lose her eyes, and she took some of the water of the Relics, applying it to her eyes and upon her face, and she was immediately freed from the pain and burning, so that no traces remained, except a certain small blister, left as a sign.

[14] Likewise another miracle, which Elizabeth de Chamergi, a Sister of the same house or monastery, in the forty-second year of her age, another testifying about herself, and about the twentieth year of her Profession made in the said monastery, being examined in her own person upon this matter, deposed as having happened and occurred, and affirmed as truth, as stated above, and in the same manner as the other prior deponents, and was solemnly attested, and is as follows. Elizabeth de Chamergi, originating from the parts of Burgundy, a professed Religious in the said monastery for twenty years already, before she had disposed herself for this Religious life and entered or accepted it, dwelling as a familiar companion and table companion of the most noble Lady, the Lady Margaret, sister of the King of England, the widow of the most illustrious Prince of blessed memory, the Lord Charles, Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, etc., was accustomed to suffer at least once a month a grave and very bitter illness of the head with the greatest pain thereof, which the physicians call hemicrania; from which she had not been able to be freed by any art of physicians: with which illness also her entire parentage of progenitors was and is afflicted and affected. that she had been laboring with hemicrania, When, however, she petitioned to be received into the aforesaid Order, being interrogated by the Mother Abbess and others of the same house according to the custom of that Religion, since on account of the austerity of the Religion they were not accustomed to receive the sick, the ailing, or the defective, whether she labored with any disease or suffered any defect, the same Sister Elizabeth confessed until her admission into the Order. that she had always been accustomed to suffer the said illness: nonetheless she hoped and trusted that by the grace of almighty God and the merits and intercession of Sister Colette, beloved of God, the Mother Reformer of the same Order, she could be freed from the same infirmity: by which hope and confidence also, notwithstanding the defect and infirmity aforesaid, the said Abbess and convent of the same house, being encouraged, admitted the said Elizabeth to the Religious life and received her as a Sister, and poured forth humble prayers to almighty God and the said Virgin Colette: and the said Elizabeth was from the suffering, illness, and violent pain of the head, which, as stated above, she had always been accustomed to suffer once a month, after this time completely freed: which she did not endure from then until the present day, etc.

[15] Concerning and upon all and each of the foregoing things, the aforesaid Brother James, Confessor, in the name of the said venerable Father Visitor and of all whose interest it is, shall be, or could be in any way in the future, asked and required that one or more public Instruments be drawn up, made, and delivered to him by me, the public Notary undersigned, invoking the testimony of the persons present. These things were done before the iron grate or grille of the same monastery of St. Clare of the said town of Ghent, of the diocese of Tournai, in the year, indiction, month, day, and Pontificate aforesaid, in the presence there of the honorable and discreet men and lords, Lord William vanden Caute, Vice-Curate, and Master Martin Plouvier, Priests, Chaplains of the Collegiate Church of St. Pharaildis of Ghent of the said diocese of Tournai, trustworthy witnesses specially called and requested for the foregoing, and on the left side was affixed the larger sign, the Notarial mark of the said Notary: at the foot of which sign was signed and subscribed Crytssche with his smaller signature or sign, also affixed there, and further toward the right hand or side were written the following ^e

And I, Hubert, etc.

^a We omit for brevity's sake the long prologue according to the formulas of law: the substance of it is that in the year of the Lord 1493, on October 2, a Wednesday, before the Notary and witnesses, the Confessor of the Ghent Convent, Brother James of St. Quentin, with his companion Brother Roger de Fraximo, set forth how the Venerable Father Brother James Bernardi, Visitor General of all the convents of Sisters of St. Clare of the said Order in the Province of France, had sent letters commanding that the miracles which are said to have been performed at Ghent through the intercession of the same Blessed Colette be authentically collected and written: wherefore the Abbess of the monastery, Sister Barbara Boons, brought before the same Notary to be heard and examined: Sister Aleydis de Chanchinez, a Burgundian, formerly Abbess of the house, aged 74, professed 64 years. Sister Joanna de la Vut, likewise a Burgundian, aged 80, professed 68 years. Sister Joanna de Renghersvliet, a Fleming, aged 72, professed 48 years: who, having taken an oath, affirmed that they had seen, known, and heard the accounts of those persons to whom the miracles had happened, and believed them, as follows.

^b Thus the Belgians and French call a pot or vessel, made of clay, bronze, Pot, Pottage. or iron: and the thin soup cooked in it from herbs, milk, or otherwise liquid, pottage: which is found below at the end of this number.

^c The French say à moitié, Half-garments, and many Walloons say à moustié, which in Latin means half: whence we suspect that these nuns called either woolen undergarments, covering half the body nearly to the knees, amustias: or a cloth woven with a woolen warp and linen weft, which the Italians would call mezzo-lana: for from this are made the undergarments which our Franciscans call stamineae, Stamineae. from the material called stamyn in the vernacular by the Belgians: which kind of undergarments, although the Colettine reform rejects them, yet nothing prevents it from being believed that they were granted to a Sister so ill, or at least cloths of such a weave, by which the consuming plague might be received with less detriment to the garments: and which the usage of that century among the Walloons may have called amustias, because they were only half woolen or linen.

^d In French Chaudière, Caldaria. in Spanish Caldera, in Italian Caldaia: Caesarius uses this word in book 4, chapter 65, and Gregory of Tours in De gloria Confessorum, chapter 98: where he narrates as a great miracle that a certain hermit used a wooden one as if it were bronze, and cooked legumes in boiling water in it: at which passage Vossius, book 2, De vitiis sermonis, chapter 3, confused Caldaria with Caldarium or thermodote: whereas Caldaria is a vessel formed from thin bronze sheeting; but Caldarium is either a room equipped with a hypocaust, or a wooden footrest transmitting the heat of a fire beneath to the person sitting above.

^e Namely

the countersignature of the Notary Hubert de Crytssche, making attestation in the most ample form about the manner and form of this his writing: and the verification of the Notariate of the said Notary; signed by the Vicar of the Bishop of Tournai, Lord Cardinal Antoniotti Pallavicini of the Holy Roman Church, Bishop of Palestrina.

MIRACLES PERFORMED AT ARRAS.

Colette, Reformer of the Order of St. Clare, at Ghent in Belgium (B.)

BHL Number: 1874

FROM PUBLIC MANUSCRIPT ACTS.

Confirmed by a public Instrument.

[1] In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Through this present public Instrument let it be evidently clear and known to all that in the year from the Incarnation of the same Lord, reckoned according to the Gallican manner, 1493, Indiction XII, on the 24th day of the month of October, in the Pontificate of the most holy Father in Christ and our Lord, Lord Alexander, by divine providence Pope VI, year II: in the presence of me, the undersigned public Notary, and the undersigned witnesses specially called and requested for this purpose, there personally appeared the venerable and Religious man, Brother John de la Croix, At Arras a Priest, expressly professed Religious of the Order of St. Francis, as Father Confessor of the venerable Religious women or Sisters of the venerable convent of St. Clare of the city of Arras, who on behalf of the Venerable Father Brother James de Bernard, well versed in Sacred Scripture, and General Visitor of all and each of the convents of Sisters of St. Clare of the said Order in the Province of France, set forth: how certain Princes and Magnates or temporal Lords, moved by devotion and affection for the honor of Our Lord Jesus Christ, a legitimate inquisition is established and also for the praise and exaltation of the glorious Sister Colette, a professed Religious of the same Order of St. Francis and St. Clare, intend with God's help, at their own costs and expenses, to have the body of the aforesaid glorious Sister Colette canonized through the aforesaid most holy Lord our Pope or the Roman Curia, and to procure it, on account of the great multitude of miracles performed and manifested through the same glorious Colette both during her lifetime and after her death throughout the whole world in various places: and since for obtaining or accomplishing such a meritorious work,

it is necessary that the aforesaid Holy Lord our Pope or the Roman Curia be instructed and informed by clear testimonies, and the aforesaid Lord John de la Croix offers, on behalf of the aforesaid venerable Father Visitor, to inform the aforesaid Holy Lord our Pope or the Roman Curia about a certain miracle which occurred about sixteen years ago in the aforesaid Convent of St. Clare of the city of Arras in the person of Sister Catherine de la Verdure, a professed Religious of the said Order in the aforesaid Convent, demonstrated through the assertion of the Reverend Mother Abbess and certain Religious women or Sisters of the said Convent listed below, who were residing in the said convent at the time of the said miracle: and he asked and required in the charity of Christ that I should transfer myself to the said convent and examine the undersigned Religious women or Sisters about the aforesaid miracle, and also reduce their assertions to authentic form. Wishing to accede to which petition or request, as being just and consonant with reason or equity; on the day of the date of the present Instrument, in the presence of me the Notary and the undersigned witnesses, there personally appeared in the aforesaid church or convent of St. Clare of the city of Arras the venerable and Religious Mother, the testimony of the Abbess and 5 nuns heard: Sister Laurentia du Monchel, Mother Abbess of the said convent, aged 62, who had been a Religious of the said Order for a space of 44 years; Sister Joanna de la Vits-ville, Vicaress, aged 72, who had also been a Religious of the said Order for a space of 48 years; Sister Joanna le Vasseur, aged 60, who had also been a Religious of the said Order for a space of 40 years; Catherine Sino, aged 54, who had been a Religious of the said Order for 30 years; Margaret Chapelle, aged 50, who had been a Religious of the said Order for 24 continuous years; and Maria de Druay, aged 48, who had likewise been a Religious of the said Order for the preceding 24 years.

[2] The said Mother Abbess and all the above-named Religious women, adjured under the vow and profession of the said Order, said, recited, and asserted as the truth to be testified, and each of them said, asserted, and affirmed that she had seen the aforesaid Catherine de la Verdure, while she lived, a professed Religious of the said convent of St. Clare of this city of Arras, A nun vexed by diseases for five years. then dwelling there, being about fifty years of age, who had been held or oppressed for a space of five continuous years by so great an infirmity, lying in her bed with all her limbs so weakened that she could not go to the church without the help and support of two Sisters of the said convent. And moreover, because the aforesaid Sisters have the custom of commemorating or making memorial of the day of the death or passing of the same glorious Sister Colette, including through the Octave in the month of March, in which the same glorious Sister Colette died, the aforesaid Mother Abbess and the other aforesaid Sisters asserted that around the end of this space of five years they had seen the same Sister Catherine de la Verdure in the said church of St. Clare, in the Octave of the death of B. Colette in the Octave of the Commemoration of this glorious Sister Colette, come in the morning at the Hour of Prime in good health, without any help of any Religious, to the Divine Office to be sung with the others; and from then on she had lived in good health in the said convent for a long space of time, she is suddenly healed sustaining all and each of the burdens of the said Order until the day of her death or departure, which was now fifteen years ago or thereabouts. The said Abbess and the other above-mentioned Sisters, when they finally saw Sister Catherine de la Verdure thus coming among them with a quick step, without any help or support, and standing healthy among them and singing; marveling at so great a thing or convalescence, they asked her what this was, that in the evening she could not be moved from her bed without help, and in the morning such health had come to her that she had come among them healthy without assistance? To this she replied and confessed that this had happened to her through the merits of the glorious Sister Colette, her patronage having been invoked: whom on the preceding night, after she had read her Matins and Office while lying in her bed, and then had most devoutly petitioned the glorious Sister Colette to deign to obtain health from our Lord Jesus for her; she had suddenly found herself totally well, etc.

[3] Omitting the clauses which need not be repeated here and can be sufficiently understood from the lengthy preamble, let us add here other things submitted from the same source, from Abbeville, book 5, chapter 15. There was in this place a Religious woman catarrhs disfiguring the face are suppressed. to whom continuous humors flowing from the brain not only caused great pains but also foully swelled her entire face, infecting it also with a repulsive discoloration: nor could they be checked by any remedies. When, however, the catarrh was at one time causing her greater torment than usual, the memory of Blessed Colette came to her mind, and she applied to the affected part a small bone taken from the body of the blessed Mother. Without delay she fell into a salutary sleep: and with the sleep all the swelling and discoloration departed from her face, and the troublesome flux was never seen to return to that place. Another had for a long time sorrowfully had a leg ulcerated with many wounds: an ulcerated leg healed. all of which were healed after she applied to them a salutary poultice, namely a piece of the silk floss with which the caretakers of the exhumed body had used in washing the sacred bones. When you hear mention of bones, you understand also that both miracles occurred after the year 1491, to which the exhumation pertains.

[4] While these things were being written from Arras, a copy was likewise submitted of the process, as we are accustomed to say, a verbal record formed at Corbie before the Lord Official Adrian Turbain, likewise leprosy on June 18, in the year 1545, in which Matthew le Cat, from the village of Caules, not far from Compiegne in origin, testified under oath that, being a leper and declared such by Daniel Noel, a physician of Beauvais, he had heard much about the little chapel at Corbie, within which Blessed Colette had lived as a recluse, and about the frequent pilgrimages of the faithful to it: whence he too, having conceived hope of recovering his health, made a vow to go there: which he fulfilled not without the greatest difficulty, on account of his badly affected and swollen feet. The fruit of his votive pilgrimage, however, was this: by visiting the chapel at Corbie. that the ulcers and pustules disappeared in many parts: from which, after a repeated journey to the same place, he returned entirely free and cleansed. The truth of this miracle was testified to under a similar oath by Philip de Estaues, who said that he knew the said Matthew very well: and there subscribed as witnesses Lord Fremin de Re, Vice-Regent in the church of the Blessed Virgin of Corbie, Eustace le Clerc and Simon Blec, Priests, Anthony Soullart, Peter Donaux, and many other trustworthy persons.

MIRACLES AT HESDIN

Colette, Reformer of the Order of St. Clare, at Ghent in Belgium (B.)

BHL Number: 1875

Established by the Instrument of the Sisters of St. Clare.

[1] To all who shall inspect the present letters, Baldwin Thorel, Licentiate in Decrees, Cantor and Canon of the collegiate Church of St. Martin of Hesdin, greeting in the Lord. Since on the part of the devout and Religious man, Brother Oliver Textor, of the Order of St. Francis, Confessor of the convent of St. Clare of Hesdin, it has been set forth to us that he has received a mandate from his Superiors to inquire, by way of a preliminary particular investigation, about the life, virtues, and miracles of the devout Virgin of blessed memory, Sister Colette, in the said town of Hesdin and its environs, petitioning that we should deign and be willing to direct and bring to effect this business with him. To which petition, as we have assented no less eagerly than willingly, we make known that on the date of the present document, before us, in the presence of the aforesaid Brother Oliver, Confessor of the aforesaid convent of St. Clare, and the public Notary and witnesses named below, by many trustworthy persons concerning the aforesaid matter and things relating to it, many things worthy of record were said, recited, declared, and affirmed, which we have faithfully put into writing and caused to be put into writing, as follows below.

[2] A certain John, son of John de Henneueu, when he was a small child of about four years, holding in his hand a sharp awl and playing childishly, by chance struck it into his left eye at the extreme edge of the pupil, and the eye was so injured, the white membrane bursting, that he could no longer see. His father, exceedingly anxious on account of this, brought his son to Hesdin to seek a remedy: Sight is restored to the injured eye, when he arrived there, not only by the advice of friends but moved by his own personal devotion, he approached the convent of the Sisters of St. Clare and sorrowfully explained the accident. When they heard it, they advised him to turn his devotion to the venerable Virgin Colette, imploring her help, which he also did with a devout mind. And they gave him some of the relics of the same Virgin, so that he might make washings from them, with which he would wash with firm faith the eye of his son, thought to be extinguished. When he and his wife did this with equal faith and devotion, and continued for about eight days, the son's eye appeared pure and whole, similar to the right in its light, with scarcely any trace of a scar remaining. These things the father and son recited and affirmed in the word of truth; the father indeed now aged; the son about twenty years old, firmly believing that they had found grace and healing through the merits of the venerable Virgin Colette.

[3] A certain Petrina, wife of Peter le Hardy, now a parishioner of Caueron, near Hesdin, around the year of the Lord 1480, had weak, bleary, sickly, red, dripping, dim eyes; likewise the very badly affected eyes of another: who, having heard of the above miracle, turned her devotion to the venerable Virgin Colette; to whom the aforesaid John the Father, about whom in the preceding chapter, had handed over the Relics which he had obtained at Hesdin; and having made washings from them and washed her eyes; not long afterward she was cleansed from every eye disease, as the aforesaid John de Henneueu recited and affirmed above, in the presence of us, the undersigned Notary, and the discreet men, Master James Gargan, Graduate in Arts, Lords John Destrees and Lawrence Part, Priests, and many others.

[4] A certain woman named Philippa, wife of the late John de Leanne while he lived, used to recount often and indeed with reverence that some time before, when she was dwelling at Hesdin, having heard the fame of the sanctity of the devout Virgin of God, Colette, she wished to give her on a certain day a cloth garment: for she then had cloth quite suitable for this purpose, but too short and narrow. Therefore having consulted a tailor, when he replied cloth for a garment of B. Colette grows under the tailor's hand: that a large garment could not be made from so small a cloth, the woman began to grieve: but at length, from a certain rushing confidence in the potent virtue of Sister Colette, she ordered the tailor to cut and sew and do what he could. When he began unwillingly, he cut nevertheless, and

sewed: and, as though the cloth had grown under the needle and shears, he completed the garment perfectly, so ample, wide, and full that he would not have dared to begin a similar one from a much larger cloth: not without the admiration of many who then saw the whole course of this event, and believed that it had happened thus by the virtue of the venerable Virgin Colette. This was recited in the word of truth and affirmed by John d'Auredoing, a married Cleric, scribe of the aldermen of Hesdin, who had heard this many times from the aforesaid Philippa, his grandmother.

[5] A certain John Faulcon, burgher of Hesdin, around the year of the Lord 1480, was languishing from a long and fierce fever; at length his wife Joanna came to the aforesaid convent of the Sisters of St. Clare of Hesdin, a fever is cured, in which she had heard that the above-mentioned venerable Virgin Colette had resided for some time; and there she obtained from the Sisters of that convent washings from the Relics of the same Virgin, or from the little spring which she was said to have dug out there, and brought them to her husband: who, having drunk from them two or three times, was made healthy and whole, freed from all fever. About eight years later the same Joanna saw in the market of Hesdin the servant of a certain ^a tenant farmer, whose name she did not remember, gravely ill, pale, trembling, again, and fiercely feverish: whom she, looking upon him mercifully, brought into her house and for some time took care of him, and recounted what had happened regarding her husband's fever, and persuaded him to obtain the aforesaid washings — indeed she herself obtained them for him and gave them to him as a drink: and immediately, the fever having left him, he fully recovered his former health. These two things the aforesaid Joanna recited and affirmed in the word of truth. The same thing was likewise asserted by a certain Colinus Leporis, dwelling at Hesdin: namely that through the virtue of these washings of the Relics of Blessed Colette, and in others frequently, or of her spring, the fever had been calmed many times in himself and his family.

[6] In the year of the Lord 1466 or thereabouts, Mary, now the widow of Gasselin des Molins, had a small daughter close to weaning, laboring with a fierce fever together with jaundice: fever and jaundice. moreover there had been in this year at Hesdin a violent flooding of the waters, which had compelled the entire convent of the Sisters of St. Clare of Hesdin, over which the aforesaid venerable Virgin had presided, to leave and change their quarters for some time. Whence, with the enclosure opened, the aforesaid widow entering, at once came upon the oratory of the aforesaid Virgin: gazing upon the image of her, she burst into devotion, and kneeling down and praying, she made and paid vows, earnestly begging for the health of her daughter; and to this her devotion she added the aforesaid washings, which she also gave as a drink to her daughter, who was by now nearly at the point of death: who, when she had drunk, was immediately freed both from the jaundice and from all fever whatsoever. The mother of the girl recounted this and affirmed it. When these four accounts were recited and affirmed before us aforesaid, there were present the discreet men, Master James Gargan, Lords Nicholas Boucqueri and Peter Vincent, Priests, all Canons of St. Martin of Hesdin.

[7] In the year of the Lord 1463, when in the convent of the Sisters of St. Clare of Hesdin, a certain Sister Margaret Goddeffroy had made her Profession on the twentieth day of May, about five weeks afterward her eyes began to darken and grow dim, and she gradually lost her sight to such an extent that around the feast of St. Francis she could not recognize any of the Sisters by sight: blindness and whenever she tried to look at the persons of the Sisters, or trees, or similar things, she could discern nothing, but only thought she saw great shadows. And her Sisters then clearly perceived that she had eyes covered and clouded with a film, and they applied certain medicines on the advice of physicians: but whatever human aid was applied to her eyes did more harm than good. Seeing that in this matter only divine help was needed, they persuaded her to turn to the Lord God and to the glorious Virgin Colette, His handmaid, which she devoutly did, and with great confidence. Therefore the Mother of that same convent, who to this day is still alive, took her and led her into the oratory of Blessed Colette: where, after they had completed a prayer together, the same aforesaid Mother again took her thus blinded and reclined her in her lap, and touched her eyes with the hairs of the aforesaid Virgin Colette three times in the form of a Cross. Rising up and raising her joined hands to heaven, and looking through the window into the garden, she began to exult and to say joyfully to her Mother that she could see the herbs of the garden. And so her blindness was wiped away, and on that same day she performed the Evening Office; and on the following day at the Morning Office she saw clearly and read both in her own book and in others; and from then on she had clearer and stronger sight than she had ever had before. The aforesaid Mother of the Sisters, Guillerma Cristienne, now also Abbess of the said convent, and the Sisters Mary Mangniet, Matthea Parmentier, and Matthea Nay, long since professed in the same convent, recount this and testify that they saw it.

[8] Some time later the same Sister Margaret was feverish for about six months; and after invoking the patronage of many Saints, fever. at last she directed herself to Blessed Colette and made a vow to serve her until the end of her life: and she took from her Relics and made washings from them: and when she used them as a drink, the third time she was restored to complete health.

[9] Another certain Margaret Bayne, a professed Religious of the same convent for a long time, labored for eight months with a fever, namely that which is called quartan; and while she was detained for a long time in the infirmary, quartan fever and did not see or hope that such a disease could quickly depart, she preferred to return to the community. Having returned, therefore, she began to be devout toward Blessed Colette and to drink from the washings of her Relics, from which the first time she felt the fever change, and the third time she felt herself freed entirely from the fever. On those days, however, on which the fever had previously been accustomed to torment her, a wondrous bodily weakness held her, to such an extent that she would break into this utterance, in the manner of one anxiously suffering, saying: Our glorious Mother has cured me, yet this great bodily weakness torments me no less than the fever. On a certain night following, however, when because of this bodily weakness she could not rest, she clearly heard our Lady Colette speaking and rebuking her, saying thus: and weakness. Do you think nothing of the fact that I took the fever from you? Do you think nothing of it? For you said that you would rather have the fever than this weakness: you said this, my friend; but you shall see that I will take away both the fever and the weakness. Go therefore to Matins, and you shall be well. Having said these things, the aforesaid Sister immediately rising, found herself restored to perfect health, and came to Matins, and could not sufficiently marvel at such good health after so long an infirmity; nor did she doubt that the glorious Virgin Colette had procured this for her: whose life and virtues and sanctity and merits she had known during many days while she was still living in the body. These things she herself reported and affirmed to her fellow Sisters at that time, of whom those who are named above recounted them thus to us and asserted them in the word of Religion.

[10] Sister Clara de Hestius, a professed Religious in the said convent of Hesdin, when at about the age of thirty years she was laboring in her deathbed; about five hours before the departure of her soul, while her senses and intellect were still vigorous in her, she was suddenly placed in an ecstasy, so that she was thought dead by those standing around: who, after some delay, returning to herself, said: a dying woman aided by the appearing of St. Colette: Mother and my Sisters, praise the Lord with me for the grace which He has deigned to bestow upon me. For I was as if in ecstasy, seeing nothing of this world: and then it seemed to me that this whole infirmary was dark and gloomy and full of demons; who, that is, were trying to provoke me to despair. But immediately there seemed to me to enter a certain procession of holy Angels, at the end of which was also our Mother, Blessed Colette, bright and luminous: and the Angels bore all the insignia and ornaments of the procession, which seemed to me to be golden. Our holy Mother then took the aspergillum of blessed water and, sprinkling throughout the whole infirmary, drove away the demons and made the place bright and luminous: who after this, approaching me, brought back to memory certain things I had forgotten, about which she admonished me to make my conscience clean and to confess. These things having been thus revealed, the aforesaid Clara, having summoned her Confessor, who was then Brother Francis des Marets, humbly and devoutly confessed, and immediately afterward, with the Father Confessor still present, she began to tend toward her end: and he, having heard the aforesaid revelation and knowing that she had had a singular devotion and veneration toward the same Blessed Colette, showed the image of her to the dying woman, saying: Look, dear friend, behold our glorious Mother Colette. She, pointing with her hand, said: Behold, I see her much more beautiful. Whence those present certainly believed that the glorious Mother stood by her dying daughter, who had always devoutly honored her, even to the end. These things we learned from the faithful account of the aforesaid Religious women.

[11] But also another certain Sister, Joanna des Mestres, long since professed in the said convent of Hesdin, before the aforesaid Mother and Sisters, and us also above-named and to be named below, recounted and affirmed: that when she was dwelling in the town of Lille, in her father's house, as a young woman of about eighteen years, on a certain day, when she wished to draw water from a spring the danger of drowning is avoided: called by the name of St. Martin, she fell in; and was raised three times from the bottom upward, and fell back down from the top of the water, and was at last cast to the very bottom. The spring, moreover, is about eighteen feet wide and about ten deep. She remained so long in this submersion that meanwhile three women washing there went up three times the eighteen steps by which one descends to the same spring, intending to bring help to the drowning woman who was crying out with a great shout. Three times also they descended to inspect whether she was entirely submerged. She herself, however, as she says, was truly drowning: when this meditation came into her mind: Glorious Virgin, who, having made the sign of the Cross over the waves, escaped the danger of drowning with your daughters in Christ, free me, I beseech you, from this danger of instant death; that I may be worthy to see those good Sisters who saw you with their own eyes and served our Lord under you and knew your life and virtues; and to arrive at their holy company, intending to serve the Lord God and to return thanks to you. While she was meditating on these things, the water was suddenly and violently disturbed, and carried her upward to the side where the three aforesaid women were, and raising her hand, she was immediately pulled out by them, in the sight of a great multitude of people, since they had long despaired of her life, saying: It is over: she has perished: it is impossible for her to escape alive.

Yet she, thus extracted, returned with firm steps to her father's house and afterward felt no ill effect from so great a danger. She therefore believed and acknowledged herself to have been so miraculously freed by the merits of the invoked Virgin: for she did not at that time know the name of Blessed Colette; yet she had often heard from a certain paternal uncle of hers, Germanus des Mestres, now also a Religious of St. Francis in the aforesaid convent of St. Clare, about the life and virtues of the Virgin Colette: but being ignorant of her proper name at that time, she called and invoked her as that blessed Lady who had calmed the surging waters with the sign of the Cross. Mindful of her vow, she discharged the promise of Religious life and perseveres devoutly to this day in the aforesaid convent. These things were recited and affirmed before us and the undersigned Notary, in the presence of the aforesaid Mother and Sisters and the discreet men and Lords Nicholas Boucqueri, Peter Vincent, Lawrence Part, Priests, witnesses called and requested for the foregoing: in testimony of which we have appended the seal of our Cantorship, at least as an accommodation in its absence, to the present letters. Given at Hesdin in the year of the Lord 1493, Indiction XII, on the 10th day of the month of February.

[12] A certain Petrina le Blond, wife at present of Peter le Gay, a parishioner of St. Martin of Hesdin, seeing and considering that she had persevered conjugally with her said husband for six years and already nearly half, and had produced no living offspring; but only miscarriages and indeed four of them, and therefore mourning and grieving, having heard the fame of the merits and virtues of the blessed handmaid of Christ, the Virgin Colette, The happy delivery of a little infant procured: she turned to her with great devotion; and feeling herself to be pregnant of about seven months, she offered a wax image in the form of an infant before the representation of the aforesaid Virgin; beginning the devotion which is commonly called a Novena, and pouring forth prayer on each day. At length, while she was praying in the church of St. Clare before the aforesaid representation, on the last day of February of this year, she felt pains as of one about to give birth, and having almost finished hearing the High Mass there, she departed for home and gave birth: meanwhile her husband was praying in the aforesaid church. When she had given birth, the attendants asked among themselves how the matter stood: for they saw the midwife was sad; one of them responding said: She has given birth, as with the others, that is, a miscarriage. To whom the midwife said: Be quiet: we shall find grace before God: and she laid the infant on a little straw near the coals; which the mother, trusting in the Lord and the merits of Blessed Colette, looking upon it, saw it move, and its little chest palpitate, then open its mouth and breathe. And immediately one of them came to the Mother Abbess and Sisters of St. Clare to announce these things: who all prostrated themselves in prayer, and after about half an hour's space the little infant began to cry after the manner of a wailing child: upon hearing whose crying the attendants carried him to the font of holy regeneration. Baptized, he lived many days and still lives; through the merits, as they firmly believe, of the aforesaid glorious Virgin. These things Joanna, wife of John le Blond, Margaret, wife of Henry Bruchet, Jacquetta Bellarmer, and Joanna Leurin, who were present, depose and assert in the word of truth. These things were done at Hesdin and affirmed before us aforesaid: and there were present Master John de Honnignouel, Graduate in Arts, William Malart, and Lawrence Part, Priests of the diocese of Therouanne, witnesses specially called and requested for the foregoing. Given at Hesdin on the 8th day of the month of March in the year and Indiction aforesaid, under the seals of the aldermen and of the Chapter of St. Martin of Hesdin. † And I, Reginald Leurin, Priest of the diocese of Amiens, public Notary by Apostolic authority and sworn Notary of the venerable court of Therouanne: because I was present at all the above-written things when they were narrated, recited, and affirmed in the word of truth, together with the aforesaid Lord Cantor and Father Confessor and the witnesses named above; and I saw, knew, and heard all and each of these things narrated as stated above: therefore I have subscribed to the present letters, drawn up in public form, the sign of my notariate, together with the seal of the aforesaid Lord Cantor, in testimony of the truth, having been required and requested.

[13] Sister Anna de Piennes, a Religious of St. Clare, confesses that around the day of the Epiphany of the Lord of the present year 1493, she labored with a grave disease that grew worse daily: and when she had labored with this disease from that day until the end of the following month of September, a prolonged disease removed: and then had heard her Mother Abbess discoursing about the virtues of Blessed Colette, she directed her vows and prayers to the same Blessed Virgin; and not long after, while she was pouring forth prayers in the oratory of Blessed Colette, which is in the convent of Hesdin, finishing the Collect and saying, Through Christ our Lord, she fell face down upon the ground, and after a short while she felt herself perfectly freed from the aforesaid disease, nor did she afterward feel any traces of it. She herself attested this, with Mary Crestienne, now also Abbess of the said convent, Mary Mangniet, Mary Parmentier, and Mary Nay, Sisters of the said convent, concurring and approving, with the aforesaid Lords, the Cantor, Father Confessor, and Nicholas Boucqueri, Peter Vincent, and Lawrence Part, Priests of the diocese of Therouanne, being present there. Done at Hesdin in the year of the Lord 1493, Indiction XII, on the 10th day of the month of February.

† And I, Reginald Leurin ... because I was present at the aforesaid attestation (which ought to have been inserted above after the chapter of Sister Clara de Hestius, before the attestation of Sister Joanna des Mestres) together with the aforesaid ... I have therefore affixed for a second time to the present letters my sign together with, etc. ...

[14] In the name of the Lord. Amen. By this present public Instrument let it be clear and known to all that on the 24th day of January, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1493, Indiction II, in the Pontificate of our Holy Lord Alexander, by divine providence Pope VI, year 11, before me the public Notary and the witnesses named below, specially required and called for this purpose, there personally appeared John de Parenti, dwelling in ^b Desurene, in his rank an Alderman, Auditor, and Procurator of the King our Lord in the Bailiwick of the said place, about fifty years of age, who swore and solemnly testified that about twenty-eight or thirty years ago (for he does not precisely remember the time), while he was dwelling as a ^c Clerk and domestic servant in the house and household of John de Gargan, of blessed memory, From a grave illness: then Quaestor of the city and territory of Hesdin: he remembers that the aforesaid John of blessed memory had been afflicted with a grave infirmity, arising from the sense of injuries done to him by a certain Peter Herry, who called himself a relative of his wife Agnes de Boffle. On account of this long-lasting infirmity he emitted so copious a quantity of blood through the privy that on a certain occasion he was believed dead by all for an entire day: and therefore his face was covered with a cloth by very trustworthy persons; and he was shown to others coming as though dead. believed dead for an entire day, When this matter was reported to his wife, then lying ill on a bed made on the floor in a neighboring room, she, carrying solicitous care for her husband's soul, immediately sent someone to report the aforesaid death to the Mother Abbess of the good Sisters and devout Religious women of St. Clare in the aforesaid city of Hesdin, namely Sister ^d Guillerma Christiana. She convoked all the Religious women and admonished them to pray to God for the soul of the aforesaid John de Gargan: and as they did what they were commanded and invoked the help of their good Mother Colette, the former reformer of their Order and foundress of many convents, taken from this world about forty-seven years before (whom, both on account of the extraordinary sanctity of the life she led and on account of the very many miracles performed by the same before and after death, the aforesaid John de Parenti believes to be living gloriously in heaven), he certainly knows that the above-named John Gargan was restored from that disease by the prayers and intercession of the said Sister Colette; restored to life and health: and, returned to his former health, survived for a space of many years (namely ten or twelve) and thereafter dealt with the same witness on many occasions. The same John de Parenti above also makes certain and testifies that at the time when John Gargan was everywhere believed dead, many notable persons of the same city saw him with him, among whom he specifically recognized Peter de Ruit and James de Helon: of whom the latter, namely Peter de Ruit, was the father-in-law of the above-named Peter Herry, and had come for the purpose of inspecting, so that he might send a certain message about the death of John Gargan to his son-in-law, who had shortly before gone to Brussels to Duke Philip of Burgundy, with the hope of obtaining the office of the quaestorship of Hesdin, which the deceased had administered. The same John de Parenti above likewise confirms public fame of the sanctity of B. Colette. that at the time when he was dwelling with the aforesaid John Gargan and his wife Agnes de Boffle, it was commonly said that the aforesaid good Mother Sister Colette had led a plainly holy, austere, and solitary life: and that was the public reputation throughout the city of Hesdin. Concerning which matters the same John de Parenti requested and asked me, the public Notary, to draw up a public Instrument. Done in the said place of Desurene, in the presence of John Musart the younger and Peter Mareschal, on the day, year, and Pontificate aforesaid. ^e

† Sign of Nicholas Musart.

^a From the annual payment of money, to which an emphyteusis usually obligates; lands given in emphyteusis are called Censae by the French, and those who hold them under that condition, Censarii: Censa, Censarius. which words usage then extended to any fields leased out with a similar burden, and their lessees.

^b A village midway between Boulogne and Therouanne, four French leagues distant from each.

^c Desurene. By common Belgian usage, anyone who performs the office of scribe, whether public or private, or even of a secretary, is called a Clerk: because the knowledge of letters was formerly almost solely in the possession of Clerics Clericus. destined for the service of the Church: hence it is found so often above, a married Clerk.

^d The same woman,

admitted to the Order in 1438, after the death of the Blessed, being Abbess around the year 1474, had the charter commonly called that of Sister Petrina written: and testified to its truth in the year 1491; as we saw in the Prolegomena, being then 67 years old.

^e This

Instrument, separately written on parchment in the French language, we transcribed from the original furnished with its seals, and believed it ought to be appended, rendered in Latin, to the Instruments sent from Hesdin.

SUMMARY

OF THE VIRTUES AND MIRACLES

From the French of Sister Petrina of Baume, her companion and contemporary.

Colette, Reformer of the Order of St. Clare, at Ghent in Belgium (B.)

^a

BY PETRINA FROM THE FRENCH MS.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. There follows the declaration of those things which I, Sister Petrina of Baume, counting sixty-six years of age,

^a The French manuscript codex is commonly called le cahier de Soeur Perine, the writing or document of Sister Petrina, Sister Petrina of Baume. whose surname de la Roche came from her father; the more common name de Basme, in Latin de Balma, adhered from her homeland. Abbeville calls her Mother Perina: which would signify that she had been an Abbess. She was certainly among the first plants of the convent of Hesdin, founded around the year 1443.

CHAPTER I.

The holy childhood of Blessed Colette, and her remarkable zeal for humility.

[1] At four years of age she is gifted with a great knowledge of God, First of all, I, Sister Petrina as above, currently dwelling in the monastery of Hesdin of the same Order, testify that I heard from our glorious Mother Colette that she was only four years old when she began to have a wonderful knowledge of her heavenly Spouse Christ: whence it happened that from that time she not only let go of everything by which an infant age is captivated; but also strove with perfect solicitude to avoid all the vanity and delights of this world. For she was most fond of solitude, and a lover of solitude: and even while living in her father's home, she had sought out a place removed from all human commerce, where, before a piously constructed little altar, as in an oratory, she frequently lingered; anxiously pondering how she might please Christ her spouse and show him the most perfect service and love. I saw that in all affairs, whenever she had to deal with a neighbor, she displayed a certain holy modesty with the most becoming composure of her whole countenance.

[2] Frequently invited by girls of her own age to take part in games, plays, dances, she avoids the company of her peers, and other amusements of that age, she not only never acquiesced; but also whenever she sensed their approach, she more carefully hid herself until she knew they had departed. So that it is most true what I frequently heard affirmed by her Confessor Father Henry, by Brother Peter of Rheims, and Brother Peter of Lyon; that her manner of life in her tender age was heavenly rather than earthly. modestly grave, For no vanity or frivolity was observed in her words or manners: but directing her thoughts, words, and deeds always with the most upright intention, in purity of conscience, toward God, she strove to please His eyes alone: whence it came about that, the splendor of inward grace already shining forth, she was esteemed by all who beheld her as a treasury of virtues and graces, sent by God into this world as a common consolation and example for the faithful.

[3] I also heard from Father Henry and a certain pious old woman, ^a whom Colette herself was accustomed to call her Mistress, that at so small an age she macerated her tender little body with voluntary fasts and other afflictions, as best she could: she macerates her tender body with penances: always either lying on the ground or upon bare boards and covered only with a rush mat, having rejected the soft feather mattress which her parents had prepared for her. She also girded her undergarment with knotted cords, usually made of such rough yarn that for this reason she was often rebuked by her mother, who ordered her to remove it, fearing lest the childish body succumb to excessive labor. There was at Corbie an honest citizen, named Adam ^b, who, living next to her house and cherishing the girl with a singular affection of pious love, at night she goes out to pray, was a great support and help to her so that she could carry out in deed whatever holy and pious thing she had conceived to do in her mind. And so when her father, lest she go out of the house at night, rising to pay the Matins praises to God, had banished her to the uppermost part of the building, the aforesaid Adam would let down Christ's handmaid, bound with ropes, through the windows. Moved by the constancy of his daughter, her father erected an oratory for her in his house, where at her own discretion and the convenience of time she could indulge her pious religious devotion.

[4] I heard moreover that amidst such exercises of piety she always thought and spoke of herself most abjectly and humbly: she detests the beauty of her form. and although she excelled in the beauty of bodily form, displaying a rare beauty of countenance and a singular elegance of all her limbs (of whose wonderful persistence amid so great an austerity of life I was a spectator and admirer for about ^c thirty years), yet she herself did not know this about herself for the longest time. But on a certain occasion, when her beauty had by some chance been shown to her, she was so grieved that she pleaded with many prayers to God that it be removed from her. And she was in part made the recipient of her wish: for, with the rosy blush removed, only a whiteness remained in her face and limbs, and she retained that color for the rest of her life, always pale throughout her whole body. Her pious parents comply with their daughter's piety: So pious and constant a will of the daughter toward divine things and the exercise of Christian virtue was a wondrous joy and delight to her parents, who were themselves devoted to piety: accordingly they allowed her to do as she wished, or rather as she was inwardly moved by the Holy Spirit moving her: firmly persuaded that a great resource for attaining salvation and perfection had been established in her prayers and salutary counsels; so that they might more easily obtain from God the remission of their sins, and walk more readily in the way of God's commandments, and arrive at a sincere love of God.

[5] And indeed I recall that it was narrated to me by the Blessed herself that her father, a gentle and peaceful man, the virtues of both: had a singular grace for removing disputes, settling lawsuits, banishing quarrels; binding neighbors and friends in the bonds of charity through the mutual forgiveness of offenses, if any had arisen. He had also been effusely merciful to the poor, according to the condition of his station: especially toward women whom, having been recalled from the sordidness of a less chaste life to within the limits of honesty by the exhortations of his daughter Colette, he received and sustained in a certain house of his, diligently relieving and consoling whatever necessity they had. Equal was the mother's love of virtue, who both raged against herself with various modes of penance, and every week purified her soul with the Sacrament of Confession, and was willingly and frequently occupied with all other exercises of our Religion: by which she also seemed to have obtained the grace of conceiving and bearing this daughter in the extreme old age of sixty years, having been barren until that time, as I often heard from the Blessed herself.

[6] Since both, then, were of such character, the father, brought to the final boundary of life, was visited by the ^d Abbot of Corbie out of honor and love: commended by her dying father to the Abbot of Corbie, to whom the dying man commended his daughter Colette with the most tender affection he could. He should take upon himself the care of this young plant, who in this first flower of her age seemed to give such great hope of a fruit most pleasing to God and most useful to men. The benevolent Abbot promised what was requested: and pledged that as long as he lived she would be the object of as great a care as God and his own conscience would dictate; and indeed he performed no less than he had accepted, delighted by the innocence of her life and the amiability of her character — though not always equally in accordance with the Virgin's wishes. For she told me that he had often tried to give her in marriage to certain leading citizens of the town of Corbie, had she not constantly and perpetually resisted such plans, she fosters the resolve to preserve her virginity. desiring to serve only her heavenly spouse and to consecrate her soul and body to Him as a clean and immaculate offering. ^e Her first care, therefore, after her father's death was to seek a convent in which, secure from dangers and freed from earthly business, she might serve her God: and the matter had already been brought to the point where she would be admitted among the Damsels professing the Rule of St. Benedict, for whom she had wonderfully proved her devotion to virtue, animated by a zeal by no means common: but when she happened to approach the altar and beheld upon it an image of St. Francis, she learned, admonished by a visible sign, that there was no place for her there, and so she departed.

[7] I, Sister Petrina of Baume, testify that the humility of our glorious Mother Colette was so profound, Thinking most abjectly of herself, that unless I had known it by my own experience, I would never believe that a human being could arrive at so sublime a degree of perfection in it. I experienced the same, however, in seven different monasteries, to which she went, either to build or to reform, intending to stay for a longer time and to live with me there. I thus saw and heard how she despised herself in all things, considering herself vile and abominable before God, and a greater sinner than all sinners. And if ever the enormous crimes of other men were narrated, such as were being committed in the world at that time, she made almost nothing of them in comparison with her own (as she judged them) most grievous faults, for the expiation of which all the punishments of hell would by no means suffice. Hence she never seemed to herself to be a true Religious: but she most ardently desired to be subject to all the Sisters, whom she genuinely believed to be such, and to minister to them as to persons far more worthy than herself, she devotes herself to lowly duties, Indeed, while still wearing the secular habit, she betook herself to a monastery of Poor Clares, ^f which was built near the bridge of St. Maximin: for the place greatly pleased her, and the self-abasement which she could exercise there in lowly ministries. But the Lord inspiring her not to remain there longer, she indeed left the place, yet never abandoned the desire to serve everyone: and this desire, once she had become a Religious, she at last put into practice and effect.

[8] For at Poligny in Burgundy, acting as Abbess, she so lowered herself even as Abbess: that anyone would have judged her one of the subjects who saw her washing the dirty kitchen vessels, cleaning pots, and performing the lowest services of the convent. During which, lest her mind be idle from prayer, she would run through the seven Penitential Psalms, now the Litanies, and other vocal prayers by heart. In the instruction of novices, moreover, this was her first and principal admonition: that they should serve God and fear Him with all humility and perfect purity of body and soul. I never read any of her letters she tolerates no praises of herself: that her humility had not marked with its own peculiar character; when she would write herself an unworthy handmaid, a useless intercessor. Whatever statutes or rules she prescribed for the monasteries erected or reformed by her for their convenient governance, she addressed herself in them in no other way than as Sister Colette, the little and humble handmaid, and the unworthy servant of Christ, the poor and useless Religious of St. Clare. That anyone should write or say anything that could in any way be turned to her praise and honor, she absolutely refused: and so when at the beginning of the Reform the Religious addressed her with the title of Mother in a certain prayer composed in her name, she forbade that she be called anything other than Sister Colette.

[9] She had at the same beginning of the reform a Confessor endowed with great knowledge and prudence and no less

sanctity of life, She burns a writing of her Confessor about her virtues: Brother Henry of Baume, my uncle: to whom, since the distinguished virtues and remarkable prerogatives of graces with which the most merciful God had anticipated His handmaid and daily enriched her more and more were known, he secretly composed a little book about them, to serve his own memory and as an example, and likewise to serve others when she had departed this life. When she learned of this by God's revelation, she took it very badly, and having severely rebuked him, she compelled him to bring forth what he had written, and inflamed with great fervor of spirit, she immediately consigned everything to the flames to be destroyed: saying that nothing worthy of praise was to be found in her, who was most stained with sins. she is confounded at being called Mother, It also happened that the Minister General of the entire Order, at the instance and supplication of Colette, drew up certain most useful ordinances to be observed by the entire Religious family: to which, in order that greater strength and weight of authority might accrue, he addressed Colette honorably with the title of Mother. Therefore, when these were being read aloud to the Sisters, and they had reached that passage, she was seen to be wonderfully desolate and afflicted by that small commendation of herself, which she judged herself utterly unworthy of, being inwardly confounded with a sense of shame.

[10] The Roman Pontiff had given her the faculty of speaking with any secular men or women, she has wonderful efficacy of words: who from every age and condition flocked to her in great numbers, to console and strengthen them in spirit: yet she never presumed to approach them without having obtained the faculty of conversation from the Mother Abbess of the convent in which she happened to be staying at the time. Having obtained this, she used the greatest modesty of words together with efficacy, whether the sad were to be consoled or the doubtful strengthened in faith or virtue: indeed she softened the most obstinate minds of the most hardened men to repentance, and led them to a better way of life by her holy and pious exhortations. one who had not confessed for 30 years, It happened that at Poligny there was a knight who had never confessed his sins to a priest for a full thirty years: when she learned this, she effected so much by praying to God alone that his sins were revealed to her. From which, seeing the most imminent destruction threatening that lost soul, moved by the magnitude of the danger, she herself approached her Confessor, she brings him to repentance set forth before him, as if under the Sacrament, the sins she had come to know, undertook and fulfilled a suitable penance: and without delay, that knight laid aside his former obstinacy, and with great sorrow of soul, attested by many sighs and tears, he himself duly confessed his transgressions and willingly paid the penalty imposed: as my uncle, the common Confessor of both, namely Father Henry, reported to me.

[11] Indeed nothing could be more pleasing to Colette than to advance as many as possible to the knowledge, fear, and love of God, She seems to herself to accomplish nothing: incited by her counsels to adhere constantly and faithfully to God's commandments. And yet when she was doing these things, and every day performing so many wonderful and great things for the good of her Religious family, indeed of the entire Christian commonwealth, she herself seemed to have accomplished nothing, as I frequently heard from her own mouth. If, she presides over others timidly: for her office of Abbess, she had to preside over the Sisters in the Chapter house or refectory, she assisted so timidly and with such great trepidation that all clearly and evidently recognized her as one placed in the presence of God the Judge: and when freed from that office as from a burden, she continually returned to the last place, desiring to be considered the least of all. If she took food alone, she never took it except from the ground: and in all things she practiced such profound humility that she seemed the lowest and most abject of the entire convent: accustomed to say, when she sometimes saw the offices of humility and charity performed rather negligently, that she was and had always been so affected by them, even before she became a Religious, she commends the exercises of humility. that she would gladly have expended her whole self in caring for the sick, the paralyzed, the weak, ready and prepared to complete her life in that ministry: as I learned more than once from Brother Francis Claret.

^a Below at no. 13, citing as a witness the pious Mother Agnes de Vaulx, whom Colette used to call her spiritual Mistress: was she perhaps the Sister of Father Peter of Vaux or of Rheims, the last Confessor of Colette, and indeed older in age? Below at no. 92 she is the Abbess of Auxonne.

^b With the surname Mannier, according to Abbeville, who writes that the Blessed received from him a knotted cord for girding around the body under the undergarment, in place of another taken away by her Mother.

^c Abbeville is the authority that Alard de la Roche, who is said to have first received Colette when she was brought to Baume and entertained her, Age of Petrina. received as the reward of his pious hospitality the easy childbirth of his wife, who was then perhaps giving birth, in which Petrina was born around the year 1408, the dictator of this writing: from which two things would follow: first, that this 30 years of familiar acquaintance, which must end in the year 1447, when the Blessed died, should begin from the first years of discretion, that is, the eighth or ninth year of Petrina; second, that she, being in the 66th year of her age when she dictated these things, did so around the year of Christ 1474.

^d Radulf de Roye, as the Sainte-Marthe brothers have it, assumed from the Abbot of St. Lucian of Beauvais in the year 1391, when Colette was about seven years old: and died in the year 1418.

^e Abbeville adds from a certain old manuscript that she was greatly accustomed to delight in mingling pious conversations with Lord John Bassand, the first Prior of the Celestine Fathers of Amiens, who had been her Confessor and had persuaded her to preserve her virginity. He is discussed as a Blessed in the Prolegomena, no. 13.

^f In the Corbie Instrument she is said to have transferred herself to the habitation of the Beguines, and to have stayed there for the space of one year: Abbeville says she passed from the Beguines to the bridge of St. Maxentius, where there was a convent of the Urbanists, as they are called.

CHAPTER II.

The Corbie enclosure; observance of feasts: the beginning of the reform, approved by the Pope and by God.

[12] She is persuaded to serve God in enclosure, I also heard Colette narrating that while in the world she loved the Religious life above all things: but finding nowhere a place suited to her purpose and spirit, she could determine nothing certain about the condition of her life to be established, until she encountered a Confessor from the convent of St. Francis of Hesdin: to whom having confessed, and instructed by frequent and pious counsels from him, she received the advice, toward which she also inclined of her own accord more at that time, to give herself over to the strictest enclosure and devote herself solely to God and to meditating on divine things. To this end, having diligently entreated the Abbot of Corbie, she obtains the faculty from the Abbot: to whose guardianship she had been committed by her father, that this might be permitted to her with his good will, and having been repulsed once and again; she believed that stronger means must be employed, and, seizing the favorable moment when, amidst a large gathering of dinner guests, the Abbot seemed more cheerful and easier to entreat, she again sets forth her desire with the most ardent affection she can, heaps up prayers, interposes the reverence of the Lord's Blood and Passion, implores the support of the guests present: by all of which it was at last brought about that the Prelate, who had been certain to refuse what was asked, even unwillingly conceded and yielded to the great insistence of the petitioner and the favor and authority of so many interceding for her. ^a

[13] The Abbot therefore had a small reclusory built ^b as soon as possible, in which she could, while remaining there, attend the Divine Offices from nearby, and enters the reclusory, and behold Christ offered to the Father during the solemnities of the Mass, and be refreshed by the divine banquet of the Eucharist, destined to enjoy the most delightful embraces of her Spouse. When the dwelling had been built adjacent to the sacred church, a celebrated preacher from the Order of Friars Minor, Brother John Pinet, gave a splendid oration on the contempt of the world to those present, and when it was concluded, Colette received the habit and Rule of the Third Order of St. Francis, under the vow of poverty, obedience, chastity, and perpetual enclosure: and thus, in the ^c eighteenth year of her age, the Abbot with the monks and the Father with a distinguished retinue of many honored persons led her into the reclusory: in the habit of the 3rd Order of St. Francis. ^d Moreover, I recall hearing from Father Henry and from the pious Mother Agnes de Vaulx that the death of the aforesaid Father was revealed to Blessed Colette. She herself was then in her reclusory at Corbie, She knows of the death of her Confessor while absent: and the Father was expiring at Hesdin, when Colette said with sighs to certain pious women near her cell: Alas! My good Father, Brother John Pinet, has died at this hour, and I saw his soul ascending gloriously to heaven. Indeed I myself heard her assert that the said Father was accustomed to appear to her every year on the recurring day of his blessed passing, wherever she might happen to be: and among other things he once said: Colette, Colette: where now is that fervor which you had at the beginning of your enclosure? and she is visited by him annually, Furthermore, the above-named Agnes de Vaulx, whom Colette used to call her spiritual Mistress, testified to me besides that Colette had been accustomed to wear a chain, wound around her breast in the form of a cross, from which no slight discomforts were caused to her.

[14] Her chief care was always to observe God's commandments herself and to teach others to observe them: Most observant of feast days, this was the first and last thing she impressed upon novices: this she most assiduously urged upon secular men and women. From this care arose that immense solicitude concerning the celebration of feasts to be observed under Ecclesiastical precept: so that she would not even allow food to be brought in for the Sisters that had been bought or in any way procured on a feast day: and she was unwilling even to admit wood or iron tools and other things necessary or useful for the building of the convent that had been brought on such days, even under the title of alms. Whence when on one occasion she prevents all servile work, building materials were being brought, through ignorance, to the convent of Poligny, where I was then staying with her, during the Paschal feasts; she was oppressed with such grief that the Sisters feared the building would be demolished as punishment for the deed: indeed she also frequently commanded that on the Vigils of greater feasts and on Saturdays, food should be cooked that would be needed the following day: and she exhorted all preachers of the divine word to incite the Christian people to the religious observance of feasts, demonstrating their greatest obligation to this and the danger of damnation incurred by violators of the precept given on this matter.

[15] When she found that in various towns and cities of many regions, the wicked custom had been introduced that public markets were held on Sundays and feast days; she urges that markets not be held, she dealt more than once with the magistrates of such places and adjured them by the love of God to remove so grave an abuse from their midst, and thus to avert the wrath of God from the people entrusted to them, not slightly provoked by that transgression. And if she had to migrate from one convent to another with her Sisters, she was unwilling to begin or to continue her journey on such days. Nor did such piety go unhonored before God:

she halts on a journey already begun: for when on one occasion, out of reverence for the conjunction of a Sunday with the following feast day, she remained for two whole days in a small, fortified neither by art nor nature, town, which was on all sides surrounded by a great multitude of soldiers, constantly going in and out on their own business: it was observed that no one from so great a number attempted to go out or come in during those two days, although they could be frequently seen from the walls.

[16] On the same subject, the Mother Abbess of the convent of Besancon, where I was then living, narrated to me about a certain merchant of that city, named Hannequin (which the merchant's daughter herself also confirmed to me), that he had been persuaded by our Blessed Colette, a merchant does the same at her advice, however busy he was, to abstain from making journeys on sacred days: and it happened that when, traveling to the markets with fourteen companion merchants, they were overtaken in mid-journey by a day that was both Sunday and a feast day. And so, while the others, having heard the sacrifice of the Mass at dawn, set themselves on the road, he remained with four others whom he had drawn to his opinion by his example. God showed that this was pleasing to Him: for those who had departed, eight of them, were seized by robbers on the road, his companions being despoiled, stripped of their merchandise and money, beaten, and carried off in chains; they even confessed, forced by fear of death, that some others besides were following from their company, who would pass that way after the feasts were over: which also happened. For the merchants likewise set out on the road, and the robbers went to the place of ambush: which since they could not avoid, they entered trusting in God; and they heard voices by a miracle he escapes the hands of the robbers. of those shouting: To death, to death! And soon they also saw robbers mounted on horses: but these, however much they were urged by spurs, could not be moved from their place. And so the aforesaid merchants arrived safe and sound at the place to which they were heading, commemorating the divine protection toward them with thanksgiving.

[17] I, Sister Petrina, living in the convent of the Poor Clares of Poligny, heard from Brother Henry She learns in a vision all the sins of the whole world: that a terrible vision had once been divinely shown to Blessed Colette, in which, beholding the entire state of the whole world, both Ecclesiastical and Political, all sins, both the least and the greatest, which were being committed at that time were simultaneously presented to her, as well as the punishments prepared for them. From which spectacle such horror seized her that she could scarcely release from her hand the iron rod which she had seized, trembling, lest she fall to the ground: and she wished from that time that after the Office was recited in choir, the Angelic salutation should be repeated three times by each, against three sins which were then most prevalent, and in remembrance of three vows diametrically opposed to them. I heard the same things narrated by Brother Peter ^f of Rheims and Brother Francis Claret: who also asserted to me, as Brother Henry had at other times, and learns that she is destined for the reform of the Poor Clares: that Blessed Mother Colette had been offered to God by our holy Father Francis for the reformation of the monasteries of the Order of St. Clare: indeed Brother John Tourseau told me that Christ, appearing visibly to her, declared that He had chosen her for the same purpose. And she once confessed to me that it had been sensibly indicated to her that she was being called from her reclusory for the good of this Religious family and the salvation of very many souls. In which matter, fearing to be deceived by a diabolical illusion, she commended herself to faithful souls, hoping through their intercession to be illuminated by God, so that, obedient to the judgments of learned and prudent men, she might be able to know what she should do in so important and so arduous a matter.

[18] Furthermore, with my own ears I, Petrina, heard from Blessed Colette herself how, a Baroness of Brisay joins herself as a companion for the journey to the Pope; when she had already resolved and determined to go to the Papal presence for the business of the reform divinely entrusted to her: of her own accord and without any invitation, a noble Lady, the Baroness, widow of the Lord of Brisay, daughter of the late Lord of Rochechouart, came to her; offering herself prompt and ready, solely out of regard for divine love, to follow and escort her and to assist her with all necessary subsidies until she should succeed in her holy desires. There indeed presented themselves most grave impediments to this departure from the reclusory, and especially the Abbot of Corbie denied by every argument the permission to leave that was requested: yet the clemency of God overcame all things, and leaving the place, she set out on the journey, accompanied by the aforesaid Lady Baroness, the pious Brother Henry, and many others. The journey lasted many days: after which, when they began to approach the place where the Pontiff was, access is obtained. the Blessed sent ahead from her company a prudent woman, who would prepare access for her and declare to the Most Holy Lord the reason for her coming: which indeed turned out according to their wishes. For having entered Nice and been introduced to the Pontiff, she accurately set forth the whole matter to him.

[18] The Pope marveled at a spirit in a woman that was by no means womanly, Colette is kindly received, and weighing the magnitude and usefulness of the matter proposed, he eagerly awaited the very author of so bold a plan: who, when she came before him, the Pontiff saw a small purse hanging from her belt, and opening it found in it a note containing the main points of those things which she had resolved to propose to His Holiness. He, having read it, declared that he greatly rejoiced at so illustrious an undertaking of the holy virgin. Moreover, I learned from her own account that the principal points of her petition were two: first, that she might be permitted to enter the Order of St. Francis, which they commonly call that of the Poor Ladies, intending to live therein under the rule of Evangelical perfection, the norm of which St. Clare had formerly prescribed for her followers: and against those opposing her second, that she might be permitted to do this in some reformed convent. Although these two things seemed holy and just, the Pontiff nevertheless was unwilling to confirm them immediately with his assent: both because a considerable portion of the Cardinals disapproved of the plan, and because the matter seemed too arduous and the austerity of life which the Rule prescribes by no means tolerable to human weakness.

[19] aided by one of the Cardinals, But, as Father Henry reported, and set forth in the hearing of me and all the Sisters before the iron grille at Poligny, a certain one of the senior Cardinals presented a petition to the Pontiff and showed him that so just and holy a request should not easily be rejected, which contained nothing other than that it be permitted to follow the Apostolic and Evangelical norm of living. Moved by which, both the Pope and the rest of the Cardinals kindly assented to those things which had been requested: and the Pontiff himself admitted Colette, in the presence of all who were there, that is, the Cardinals and his ministers, the Pope praising the matter and the companions of the Blessed in this transaction, to the state of Evangelical perfection; and received her Profession in the Order of St. Clare, placing the blessed veil upon her head and girding her with the sacred cord: after he had extolled in a preaching manner, with great efficacy of words, the Apostolic life and the resolve to follow it in Colette. While these things were taking place, Colette stood by with such reverence and devotion she is confirmed in her resolve; that, according to the testimony of Father Henry, she seemed not a woman but an Angel. And when everything had been duly performed, the Pontiff followed the departing Colette with many blessings, seriously admonishing and exhorting her that, showing herself a wise and prudent Virgin, she should faithfully and constantly fulfill what she had just promised: he also offered his favor and assistance, so that the handmaid consecrated to Christ the Spouse by such solemn ceremonies might be conducted safely and unharmed back to her homeland.

[20] to Father Henry, Father Henry also told me that the Pontiff had commended to him with great solicitude that he should take care of the holy virgin, and should not desert her for any reason or necessity, but should always protect her with his prudence and protection: and bestowing upon him the Apostolic blessing under that same title, he added also an embrace, and kissing the Father's shoulders, said: Blessed are the shoulders that shall carry the bread on which a person of such rare holiness shall feed. and to the Lady of Brisay she is commended: Then, suffused with tears, he added: Would that I might be found worthy to beg bread for her from door to door. And turning to the Lady of Brisay, he fortified her also with his blessing, earnestly commending that she bring Colette back to her ^g native soil as quietly as possible. Meanwhile Colette, to whom nothing could happen more grievously than to be praised and honored by men, hastened to withdraw from this assembly. But when she understood that the Pontiff, while blessing her, had conferred upon her the title of Abbess, such grief invaded her soul that she seemed to admit no consolation, or to be able to be induced by any argument to accept the office imposed: for she would rather minister than be ministered to. she is ordered to be Abbess. When, therefore, understanding that it was the certain mind of the Pontiff, she left no stone unturned to remove this burden, the Supreme Priest was obliged to declare in writing that nothing was to be changed in this his will: let her meanwhile accept a token of his paternal affection, a very beautiful Breviary, for the proper discharge of the daily duty of the Canonical Hours. Which Breviary I and other Sisters after me received to be preserved.

[21] she is received by the Countess of Geneva at Baume: Having returned from the Roman Curia, Colette directed her journey to the town of Baume, where she was very kindly and benevolently received by the Lady Blanche, Countess of Geneva, wonderfully delighted at her coming. For she, having a thorough knowledge of Colette's virtue, had committed to her the governance of her own conscience: and lest she depart from that place, she had yielded to her and her companions one half of the Castle of Baume to inhabit. Here, establishing a more perfect life under the Rule of St. Clare, she began to devote herself more diligently to the exercise of every virtue and to profess the complete observance of the most illustrious institute, remaining there until the monastery of Besancon was granted to her by the Pontiff through a special bull; she is brought to Besancon: to which the aforesaid Countess and afterward her niece, the Duchess of Bavaria and Countess Palatine of the Rhine, escorted her most honorably. For the Lady Blanche was borne toward Colette with such affection that she was most reluctantly parted from her, and did not wish to be entirely separated from her even by death: and therefore she commanded her body to be buried in the nearest convent of the new reform, wherever she might happen to die: as indeed was done, a burial place having been prepared for her among the Sisters of Poligny, in the Chapel which the Duchess of Bavaria, the niece of the deceased, had taken care to have erected at an expense worthy of her birth.

[22] I also heard from Father Henry that on a certain occasion, while conversing with Christ's glorious handmaid about things pertaining to the advancement of her Religious family, she receives a cord fallen from heaven. he saw a cord fall from heaven, beautiful and whiter than snow; which Colette received with the greatest humility of soul in her hands. Whence she was frequently accustomed to say, with me also listening, to the Sisters, and to repeat these words, with which she strove to stimulate all minds to the perfect observance of their vows: My Sisters, my Sisters, know for certain that this Religious life is neither Sister Colette's nor Brother Henry's: but Jesus Christ's, who, descending from heaven, reformed it Himself. she testifies that the reform is the work of God.

And indeed this was manifestly evident in the erection of the convents, about which I frequently heard Brother Francis Claret assert to the pious Mother Agnes de Vaulx; that as often as anything necessary for advancing the building was lacking to Colette, just as often it was supplied divinely without any human assistance; the benign divine power providing liberally for all those houses, to which God Himself, moving hearts, caused a great daily number of noble girls, desiring to follow the Apostolic life, to flock.

^a Abbeville adds that he saw the written and signed consent of the year 1402, September 17, at the house of Mr. Vrayet, the Curate of Corbie.

^b Not however at her own but at the pious citizens' expense: as is clear from the Corbie Instrument.

^c Abbeville writes from the manuscript memoirs of the Sisters of Vevey that Jacquetta (whom he calls la Grande) who had been a companion of the saint in her place of solitude (he means the Corbie reclusory) came with her to the convent of Vevey, and died there after many years of service in the office of Portress: we wonder, if Abbeville interprets this document correctly, that Petrina nowhere mentions this Jacquetta.

^d Below at no. 25 it is said that the name Stephanetta was given to her by Colette, and the death of the father is narrated, by no means corresponding to such good beginnings.

^e Which she also related in the Life, no. 29.

^f Abbeville understands the same as the homeland of Benedict, Arragonta, where he was very influential: as if she had wished to lay the foundations of her reform there: which we do not admit. He also adds that there was present another General of the Order of Friars Minor, who appointed Colette as his Vicar for those who would accept the reform; and that this is found in the memoirs of the Sisters of Vevey.

^g The text, at least of my translator, had Rome here and below at no. 23: but he had already said before that the Pontiff was to be visited at Nice: nor do we have anything elsewhere about a Roman journey. But it will not be surprising that the woman erred in making these distinctions, since we shall also see men putting Rome for the Roman Curia, then at Viterbo, in the Life of Blessed Ambrose Sansedoni, March 20.

CHAPTER III.

Exercise of extreme poverty, and attentive prayer, and pious solicitude for sinners.

[23] Most fond of poverty As to the extraordinary poverty of the holy Mother, I, Sister Petrina of Baume, heard first of all from her own account that when both her parents had died, she reserved nothing from their goods for herself: but distributed everything to the poor. Indeed when she had traveled to the Roman Curia, she had so completely stripped herself of all things that she had not left herself even a farthing for the necessary expenses of so great a journey. she pursues it in building convents. I indeed, as long as I knew her in the Religious life, always found her most fond of poverty and most zealous for it in all things and through all things. Hence it came about that she wanted oratories, destined for pouring forth prayers to God and for receiving holy Communion, to be small, poor, and humble: to such an extent that in many places they scarcely equaled the height of a man standing upright and seemed more like goose pens than the dwellings of Religious virgins. Hence no convent could be built without seeming to her eyes more beautiful and expensive than it ought to be; as I remember seeing and hearing as long as I lived with her. Hence she preferred to stay in needier convents rather than well-appointed ones, and in small towns rather than great cities: but if splendid palaces of the great received her while she was traveling to promote the business of Religion, she could scarcely bear to lift her eyes upward, detesting all pomp and extravagance in buildings.

[24] generous toward the poor, She was meanwhile toward the poor not merely merciful but also, if she had at hand something to bestow, effusely generous from the very beginning of adolescence, indeed even from childhood. For, as I know from her own confession, while she was still a young girl attending elementary school, she distributed to the needy whatever she carried from home for food. And at home she kept her hands from no thing that could be of use to the poor and come into her power: reserving no more for herself than what was sufficient to cover her nakedness. Therefore, even when she was a Religious, just as she tolerated nothing in the convents contrary to her beloved poverty, so neither could she see Sisters or Brothers suffering the want of anything, and toward Religious without promptly helping those in distress: yet in such a way that here again she was mindful of poverty, especially in garments, whether in mending torn ones or making new ones. And so she preserved with the greatest care the scraps of cloth cut for such uses, and did not allow any of them to perish. She kept back for her own use nothing that was sent from anywhere, not even Breviaries: but having scattered these with a lavish generosity upon the Sisters, she was usually forced to borrow one she reserves nothing for her own use: from which to recite the Divine Office. And yet she was very solicitous and particular in procuring these and having them sought out with great care from ^a Germany: while, that is, she intended that the praises of God should be celebrated everywhere and by all her subjects with the utmost reverence, day and night, without any default. she orders that donations be distributed according to the will of the givers:

[25] While many persons of every kind and condition, having experienced the labors which she undertook in God's cause for His glory and the salvation of souls, offered gifts with great liberality — gold, silver, precious jewels — the pious Mother so accepted them and wished them to be accepted by her subjects that they should plainly be spent according to the will of the givers; she herself privately would accept nothing. In those things, however, which pertained to the necessities of her subjects, she relied upon an immense trust in God, from whom she knew that she and her own would be paternally cared for, provided all diligently rendered to Him to whom they had vowed what they had promised. Of this trust in God, the convent of Hesdin had a clear experience, she obtains an increase of shorter cloth by prayer: where Blessed Colette, intending to procure a new habit for Father Peter of Rheims, having heard from the lay Brother Andrew the tailor, ^b whom she had summoned to her, that the cloth offered for cutting fell short by at least one ell's length: Let us ask the Lord God, she said, and let us both pull it firmly from either side: perhaps it will become longer from that. The tailor obeyed; and behold the wonderful thing: the cloth, which had been shorter before and would by no means suffice for the intended garment, became even longer than was needed, and a notable portion remained over, which I preserved reverently for a long time afterward in memory of the event.

[26] she seeks the judgments of others: How scrupulous of conscience she was in all things was evident from the fact that she was accustomed to do absolutely nothing without the counsel both of the Brothers and of the Sisters, even the novices: lest she imprudently sin against God and the proper rule of conscience. Moreover, being herself most innocent, she especially delighted in those things that represented a more express image of this virtue. Hence (as I learned from Sister Martinetta) a lamb that had once been brought she loved most tenderly: she delights in a lamb. especially from the time she noticed that, at the consecration of the Lord's Body, it bent its knees, and, taught by no one, venerated God its Creator with this semblance, such as it was, of adoration.

[27] Above all devoted to prayer, The principal exercise and refuge of Blessed Colette in every affliction was prayer, whether that which is conceived in the mind or that which is directed to God by the movement of the lips. One thing certainly among the more outstanding gifts of divine munificence, gratefully bestowed upon her, must be considered the desire, which she fostered most greatly in her breast, that the worship due to the majesty of the supreme God should be faithfully rendered by herself and her followers, with the most profound humility, chaste fear, and sincere purity of heart. Wherefore she herself was never absent from the divine praises, nor did she allow any other to be absent with impunity, except in the case of the gravest and most evident necessity. with an affection even overflowing into the body; For the same reason she advised and wished that all the Sisters should hasten to church somewhat earlier than the time when the Office was to begin, to prepare their hearts for the Lord, to offer Him the sacrifice of praise acceptable in His sight. And although Christ's handmaid was exceedingly frail, and was afflicted and weakened by the labors and troubles of many illnesses; yet her delight was to be present with the Sisters at the Office and other prayers: during which her spirit moved with such alacrity that the interior sweetness, bursting forth, overflowed also into her limbs, and no one would have believed her weighed down with sufferings to be sad: by which spectacle she wonderfully refreshed the eyes and minds of the Sisters fixed upon her, and excited them to be borne with their whole heart toward God, whose praises they were singing with their lips; and to present themselves as a perfect holocaust to Christ their Spouse.

[28] the manner of reciting the Office How the daily obligation of the Canonical Hours was to be discharged to God, an anxious solicitude long held the pious Mother; because their Rule bound the Sisters to the divine praises, to be pronounced indeed without singing, yet in a distinct and clear voice. She therefore called her Confessor, Father Henry, from whose account I received these things, intending to determine by his counsel what should be established on this point: while both weigh the matter more maturely and exchange pious conversations as the situation required, it seemed best to have recourse to God through prayer. Both did this attentively, asking God to indicate to them what in so important a matter would be more pleasing and acceptable to Him. taught by a heavenly voice: And behold, a slender voice strikes the ears of those praying, most pleasant and plainly ^c angelic, leading the way in the pious and humble manner of pronunciation which was to be prescribed for all to follow: as was done, and is observed to this day.

[29] Concerning the external composure of the body, which the pious Mother always kept most becomingly everywhere, with what reverence but especially during the divine praises with particular care, what is the point of writing? I never saw her leaning against walls, or drowsy, or showing any signs of weariness, however prolonged the Office might be: indeed it rather seemed to her that the greater the length, the more pleasing and delightful it was to recite. If any annoyance, assailing her mind, had made her appear rather sad before the Office, her countenance was at once brightened as soon as the singing was to begin: and with such ardor of devotion and attention of a mind fixed on this one thing she pronounced, intoning the first words of the sacred songs, that none of the Sisters could doubt that she had set the living God before herself by the most vivid contemplation. and assiduity she attended it: Whence gradually her face was filled with such brightness that the eyes of those gazing could scarcely sustain it, and I myself often saw and heard the Sisters amazed and wondering at that spectacle. But if some accident of most grave illness or of business admitting no delay forced Colette to be absent from the Office: then indeed she would groan, and sighing deeply would say: Alas, how happy are those for whom that happiness can be obtained, that they may be present in choir day and night, occupied in singing the divine praises! The sorrow conceived from such a forced absence, moreover, usually tormented her more than any other external or internal torment.

[30] By no means content with the daily obligation of the Canonical Hours, she also recited daily the Office of the Lay Sisters: her other vocal prayers: then the other Office called that of the Holy Cross,

and what we call the Vigils of the Dead; and those double ones, the first of nine lessons, and the second of at least three. Meanwhile carrying her Rosary day and night, how by the Rosary and praying through it when she had leisure from other things, she derived such fruit from its use that she would sometimes say that when she, not seldom suffering a fainting of the soul from the magnitude of the pains she bore, had no more efficacious remedy for sustaining her failing strength and recalling her spirits than the touch of those sacred beads. The chief and the Psalms she was affected: joy, however, among all the prayers she was accustomed to recite was given her by the Psalms of David and the formula of the Litanies, prescribed for invoking the Saints in order: which when she had completed, she often, in my sight, prostrated herself on her knees, beseeching God to deign to accept those prayers.

[31] the demon trying to disturb her From these things no one can find it surprising if (as I had it from the accounts of Father Henry and Father Francis Claret) she suffered the most hostile demon while singing, importunate in many ways; especially when he repeatedly presumed to extinguish the lamp lit in the darkness. On a certain occasion, however, as they said, when not even this had succeeded to his satisfaction in disturbing Colette's mind; the lamp so often vainly extinguished and each time relighted by her without loss to her prayer or patience, the insane demon snatched it up high in a fury and poured it out over the book of the one singing: his often vain attempts: and so he drove the grieving one to tears and wailing, because she had been prevented by the most unjust violence from the course of her prayer, and saw her beloved book completely ruined and spoiled. When on the following day she complained of this to her Confessor, as if anxious over the loss of her psalter, he asked to see the book. It was brought, as it was, anointed with oil: but when opened, it was found sound and whole, as if it had just come fresh from the book workshop. At other times the same Fathers narrated to me that when she was devoutly reciting her psalter on one occasion, two monstrous specters appeared to her, so horrible in appearance and inspiring such terror in her soul that it was absolutely impossible for her to finish the prayer she had begun, or in any way to endure the sight of them; one of which had stood at the right and the other at the left of the one singing: but she armed herself with the sign of the Cross, and severely rebuking the demons, she boldly ordered them to depart far away.

[32] She called upon the help of prayer in all affairs, especially when something adverse had occurred or a more serious temptation was feared: in which, distrusting her own powers, prayer averts many dangers she also employed the auxiliary prayers of the Sisters, having commanded the recitation of the Litanies. And in this combined supplication of many she placed so much hope that, when all France was burning with wars and everything was shaking with military terror, she would not relax anything of her custom of visiting convents: but would set out on the road, however circumstances stood. For having first heard Mass most devoutly and recited the seven Penitential Psalms with the Litanies, she very often escaped the greatest and most evident dangers, aided by this joint supplication: which it is delightful to confirm by example. There was a time when I and many others were being led by her through a foreign region, and makes a band of robbers gentle: of which none of us knew the language: here, as we were passing through a place full of terror and covered with forest, a sudden band of soldiers or robbers, who had been lying in ambush, presented themselves; and surrounding the cart (the use of which the weakness of the Mother and her daughters had necessitated), they attacked us with great violence and confused shouting. Colette had recited the Litanies as was her custom: therefore, as if having been endowed with the Apostolic gift of tongues, she addressed the attackers in their own language, and by the most gentle words recalled even the unwilling to gentleness, to such an extent that those who had rushed up to despoil us offered themselves as companions and protectors for the rest of the journey: such was the great change of manners into their opposite! And as she held nothing dearer than the continual exercise of prayer, she impresses the zeal for prayer upon the novices: so nothing did she more frequently impress upon the novices being formed for the Religious life: more often admonishing them that no mortal had ever made any notable progress in Religion who was not devoted to continual prayer. And she herself applied herself to it so fervently that when praying, no thought of any other thing occurred to her, as she herself confessed: indeed, as others experienced, she was often rapt into an ecstasy of mind, sometimes for six hours, sometimes for twelve; her frequent ecstasies, I add, sometimes for a whole natural day deprived of the use of her senses; especially when through the nocturnal silence she had begun to apply herself more quietly to mental prayer, for which she took a generous amount of time, indulging in only very little sleep, as long as I lived with her. And as she passed no time empty of prayer, so no variety of places impeded its practice for her, whether she walked or was conveyed through fields or through the midst of cities; never less idle than when she seemed to be doing nothing. Given such great assiduity in praying, we cannot wonder if her strength was weakened beyond measure and afflicted; especially if we consider how great were the sighs, groans, and tears — themselves almost perpetual — that accompanied her prayer, by which she strove to win God's mercy both for herself and for sinners.

[33] Nor did sleep seem to her to be taken without prayer: for I heard from the Mother Abbess of the convent of Seurre heavenly portents seen above her while she prayed. that she had perceived a beautiful and blooming rose upon the mouth of Colette as she rested a little from her labors. Many Sisters also in the convent of Besancon narrated to me that they had there seen blessed Angels spread over the sleeping Colette a most beautiful veil or cloth, which was afterward shown to the Mistress by the same Colette. The fervor of Colette at prayer was also indicated by flames bursting from her mouth, which Sister Colette de Haspelain-court, of the same name, testified she had seen while secretly observing the Mother; so that the whole oratory was illuminated with a miraculous light: which same thing many others also professed to have seen and were ready to testify. Nor would fewer be found who could affirm that they had seen her rapt and lifted up; if the testimony of Agnes de Vaulx alone were not abundantly sufficient, and she herself had not sometimes been compelled, for certain reasons, to confess this frankly about herself before many.

[34] Praying more solicitously for sinners She was accustomed to say, moreover, that nothing more pleasing could happen to God than if we frequently strive to win His mercy for sinners by our prayers. For the souls to be purged in purgatorial fires, although most worthy of any help, need it less, because placed beyond all opportunity of meriting well or ill, they are entirely certain of their salvation. Thus to St. Vincent shown to St. Vincent Ferrer; (as Father Henry reported to me at Poligny), the famous Doctor and most celebrated preacher of the Order of Preachers while he lived, while in Aragon, Colette was shown in a vision, prostrate on her knees before the divine majesty, with the greatest humility and the most intense urgency of prayers, supplicating for the salvation of sinners: to whom Christ the Lord responded: What do you wish that I should do for them, Daughter? Behold, by their daily injuries I am assailed, by their blasphemies I am struck, and I am as it were torn to pieces by all through the multiplicity of their various sins. This was for that most holy man the occasion to travel, eager to see Blessed Colette, from Aragon to Burgundy for this one reason, where he exchanged many conversations about heavenly things with her, then present in the convent of Poligny, and, instructed by his own experience, he recognized how great a treasury of spiritual gifts enriched her soul. The same Father Henry also narrated to me and she has a striking vision of the Blessed Virgin. that while Colette was once fervently praying and interceding for sinners through the merits of the Most Blessed Mother, and beseeching her to be willing to act as intercessor with her Son for them, there was presented to her a large dish full of the cut flesh of a tender infant floating in its own blood, with this response: How do you wish me to intercede for those who every day cut up my only-begotten Son with horrible crimes into more pieces than this bloody dish shows you? Which the humble handmaid of Christ understanding, conceived an immense sorrow of soul, lasting her whole life.

[35] she obtains for a certain Sister the freedom to confess; How great was the efficacy of Colette's most pious prayers, the following examples which I shall adduce will demonstrate. It is known to all in the convent of Besancon, as I heard there, that there was among the Sisters one, honest in character, religious in her manner of life; who, while she vehemently desired to set forth to a Confessor certain more serious sins of her life led in the world, still gnawing at her conscience by some scruple, could yet express nothing of them: but always with a futile attempt, having completed her ordinary confession, she would return from the Priest. This struggle lasted for her for six years: until, desolate and excessively afflicted, she at last commended herself to the prayers of Blessed Colette, from which she received such great encouragement that, opening to the Confessor all the causes of her perturbation, she received complete tranquillity.

[36] she obtains water for the convent of Poligny by prayer. I was in the convent of Poligny when the Sisters were miserably exercised because of the scarcity of water, accustomed to be fatigued by carrying it fetched from far away into the convent: and the labor of artisans trying to remedy the inconvenience by channels had hitherto been in vain. Therefore on the Friday before Laetare Sunday, when the Gospel is read about the Samaritan woman asking Christ for better water, Colette, applying herself to fervent prayer, commended the need of her family to Christ, and ordered workmen to dig the earth at a designated place; where a most beautiful and clear and most delightful-tasting water was soon found, such as neither that place nor the entire surrounding vicinity has: which was no less a benefit than a consolation to the Sisters serving God there.

[37] The Sisters of the convent of Besancon, and especially Sister Joanna Fancresse and the kinswoman of Blessed Colette herself, narrated to me she returns from ecstasy at the nod of obedience. that the Mother had there been in ecstasy for fifteen continuous days, not without anxious fear of the Brothers and Sisters that she would certainly return to herself, as they gazed upon her as if dead: therefore her Confessor, Father Henry, using the precept of obedience upon her, commanded that she return to her senses: and she obeyed him, to the amazement of all, as if, in the free possession of her sensory faculties, she had suffered nothing from divine action.

^a It is in Germany around the last years of Blessed Colette that the art of printing was invented, and there is no doubt that it began to be applied first to Breviaries and similar codices of daily use: but the passage can also be understood of Manuscripts, which were brought in abundance from the frequent monasteries there that devoted much time to writing.

^b This man himself, with his name suppressed, appears in the Life at no. 56.

^c Surius rashly added melodious and musical: which would have been beside the point, since it is certain that nothing of the sort was instituted by St. Colette.

CHAPTER IV.

Piously affected toward the Passion of Christ, she performs many wonders by the sign of the Cross: she suffers various ecstasies: she miraculously helps those in trouble.

[38] Constant in meditating on the Passion of Christ, She once confessed to me that from her earliest age, a tender feeling of compassion toward the memory of Christ's suffering had grown up with her: for this she had drunk in from her pious Mother, who was most devoutly devoted to the Lord's Passion,

and accustomed to ruminate upon it in her mind and to recount it in words. Therefore whatever work she was engaged in, whether washing cloths or mending by sewing, this thought returned to her, and often drew deep groans from her breast and usually most abundant tears from her eyes. Many times, however, she would separate herself from the company of others and, alone, shut up in the oratory, would indulge in weeping and lamentation, recalling the torments of her most beloved Spouse, especially on Fridays, when from the sixth hour of the morning to the sixth hour likewise after noon she would apply herself to this holy meditation. So I, an eyewitness, affirm: but I cannot explain in words with what abundance of tears and vehemence of sighs she would pass the sacred days of Holy Week, more attentively recalling the wounds of her Christ. especially on Fridays and in Holy Week, On which occasion I saw her rapt into a three-day ecstasy in the convent of Besancon, without any food or drink, and not even uttering any words. It happened there also that on a certain Friday the Sisters, returning from Chapter after Matins, saw her face, as she was treating the most bitter Passion of Christ with a more vivid apprehension of mind, squalid and as it were livid from the blows of clubs and slaps, but gradually restored to its former color as they spoke to her: who, fearing lest her Daughters should come to know of this secret, withdrew from their eyes, retreating again into the oratory, where I saw her remain thus rapt outside herself until evening.

[39] By many indications I also discovered that the blessed Mother greatly loved those places overseas which the most sweet Savior of men marked with His footsteps, His sweat, His blood: especially the city of Jerusalem and Mount Calvary, upon which He endured death on the cross. Hence, although she was weak and infirm, she wishes to visit the sacred places of Palestine: and many great dangers presented themselves to those who would undertake such a pilgrimage, she nevertheless desired with the most ardent wishes to go there, and reverently visiting each place, to consecrate her life there to God where God Himself had laid down for the salvation of men a life so much more worthy. Nor would her love have stopped at wishes, if only, as she herself told me, she could have hoped for the permission to do this from her superiors, or if God had revealed to His handmaid some way to carry such plans into effect.

[40] From the same affection proceeded her immense esteem, above all other Relics, for particles She greatly values particles of the Cross; which, received as from the very wood of the Holy Cross, the pious devotion of the faithful venerates: these therefore she both desired vehemently to acquire and, having acquired them, she embraced them with a wonderful feeling, full of the most liquid consolation: the greatest portion of which she received when a golden cross was brought to her, ^a containing a portion of the true Cross, which she preserved with wondrous solicitude and always venerated with the most profound reverence. Many saw that Cross, and judged it to be made not by human but by Angelic hands: Father Henry testified that it had fallen from heaven. With equal reverence, confidence, and love, and works wonders by the sign of the Cross, Colette employed the sign of the Holy Cross, to be formed by the movement of the right hand, being often the worker of extraordinary miracles by the power of this life-giving sign: among which, at the beginning of the reform, I discovered from those who had been present the most frequent bestowals of health upon children brought to her and suffering from manifold diseases, conferred by the sole sign of the Cross. Indeed, good Father Brother Peter de Leudresse, afterward Confessor of the same convent, asserted to the Sisters of the convent of Poligny that more than a hundred infants, dead before they were born, had been restored to life by her in this way, raising more than 100 children from death, as Sister Mary Dorman and other Sisters narrated to me.

[41] A similar virtue of the Cross formed by Blessed Colette showed itself upon a certain devout Brother of most holy life, removing a pain in the sides, named Theobald: who, distressed for fifteen years by an excessive pain in his sides, could neither raise himself properly nor turn, until the blessed Mother (who made much use of his service and had decided to send him to a distant place to promote the reform) signed him and, full of living faith, said: Go and set out, hesitating not at all: for from now on you shall be fully healed. He confessed to us with his own mouth that from that moment of time he felt absolutely no pain. making a crossing through an impassable river, The same Colette, when on one occasion, returning from business undertaken for the Religious order to her convent, she had approached a certain river and found no means of crossing it, either by bridge or boat; raised her confidence in God, and she herself signing the waters with the Cross, encouraging and going ahead, all who were in her company, whether on foot or horseback, crossed the aforesaid river. When others who followed behind on horseback saw this and approached the same place where Blessed Colette with her companions had crossed, they said to one another in jest: If those hypocrites crossed so happily here, why should we not hope to cross too? And saying this, they gave free rein to the horses, and all alike were swallowed by the waters and perished, in the presence of Blessed Colette's own kinswoman, from whom I heard this matter narrated and confirmed. I myself was once present recovering a thing lost in the water. when, similarly making a journey from one convent to another, and the cart having overturned into a pit full of water, one of the Sisters lost a piece of unicorn's horn, which the Blessed valued greatly and had entrusted to her for careful keeping: but she, trusting in the merits of the pious Mother and signing herself with the formation of the Cross, boldly entered the pit; and no less happily recovered what was lost, and returned joyfully to the cart, her whole body dry, except that the soles of her feet were very slightly damp.

[42] I return to the raptures of our blessed Mother, which I, Sister Petrina, saw so frequently She suffers frequent raptures, that I cannot reckon their number or account: I recall, however, that I received her thus alienated from her senses, while being carried with her in one cart through the fields, in my arms, and held her for the entire time the rapture itself lasted: which recurred for her almost as often as she had approached to partake of the mysteries of the Lord's Body and Blood: toward which, especially after Communion; burning with incredible love, in receiving them I heard that she had neither groans nor cries in her power, and hearing even the joints of bones and sinews as it were crackling apart, I then saw her remain ecstatic from Lauds after Matins were recited until the hour of Prime the next day. For on account of the innumerable occupations by which she was engaged, immediately after the singing of the Matins Office she would approach the sacred banquet: which I know she did daily for an entire year, and this with all interior reverence of soul and exterior reverence of body, which she testified by prostrating herself three times upon the ground, and as I often heard from Father Henry, saying with the greatest humility of mind: My God and my Creator, and my Judge.

[43] Sometimes she would open the small stains of her faults, confessing them to a Priest in the convent of Seurre, at other times while confessing, when suddenly, rapt outside herself, she deserted the Confessor, so that, thinking her dead, he hurried to the gates of the monastery to announce the death of the good Mother. The Sisters were summoned running from every direction, and one of them, at a loss for what to do, bit one of her toes quite hard, with Colette always motionless and feeling nothing; although the marks of the teeth remained in the flesh for a long time and were distinctly visible. At another time, when the Church was offering the customary Vigils preceding the feast of St. Peter in Chains, and on the feast of the Chains of St. Peter, from the first stroke of the bell calling to Vespers, she remained rapt outside herself until the middle of the following week, and at length, returning to herself, she said: This is the hour at which I left my reclusory. In this ecstasy her color changed many times: but on returning to herself she would groan, weep, and lament: not only then, but whenever, rapt in mind to the heavens, she was restored to herself: after, namely, the Sisters had washed her hands and feet with cold water, on almost every occasion regarding her as dead. Hence on a certain occasion the same Sisters, persisting in their error, a physician marveling, summoned an experienced physician, Lord Henry Picotel, who, having contemplated and marveled at her thus ecstatic, fell to his knees and said: O how happy you are, Sisters, who have such a Mother among you! and nothing more. She returned a short while later to herself, and as she was entirely ablaze and burning with divine love and immense zeal, she began at once to narrate certain things she had seen and felt (as if not knowing what she was saying), when she saw St. Anne: and this especially, that she had seen Blessed Anne with her most beloved daughter running through all the seats of the heavenly court and begging favors from all the Saints, to be bestowed upon the holy women of her Order: in which same fervor I heard her thus addressing the Sisters individually: You, Sister N., ask this virtue from God; you, N., that one; you, NN., those: here, receive what you ask. And this in the presence of my uncle, Father Henry, the Blessed's Confessor.

[44] The same Confessor was present when, setting out for the monastery of Auxonne being built, Blessed Colette, likewise on the journey toward Auxonne, in the company of some Sisters taken from the convent of Besancon (as one of them, our Mother Agnes de Vaulx, reported to me), was sitting on a donkey, and rapt outside herself, seemed to all to shine wonderfully with her face raised to heaven: as also Father Henry, walking alongside, was seen with his eyes also raised to heaven. The matter was of the greatest consolation to all who beheld it, and peasants came running from all sides from the fields and, prostrating themselves on the ground with the greatest devotion of soul, counted it a place of great happiness if they could touch even the hem of her garments. Meanwhile she was carried along, unaware of all that was happening, when near Dole she was received by the Brothers, until, approaching the city of Dole, they received lodging in a small house situated before the convent of the Friars Minor: who, knowing of her arrival, were so delighted that they came out in procession to meet her with canticles and hymns, and received her and led her into the church: in which, while they expected to enjoy her heavenly conversations, Colette was again rapt into ecstasy, from which, having returned to herself and entirely inflamed with divine love, they more urgently ask her to be willing to come with them to the Chapter. She obeys and complies with those asking, and having entered the Chapter house with the company of Sisters and Father Henry with which she had come, she sat in the middle, and beginning to speak, she spoke to them, she spoke so fervently about the nobility of the Religious state, Evangelical poverty, and all-embracing perfection, that while she swept the hearts of all into the love of God, she herself also was carried away from her senses. After which, restored to herself, she bids farewell to the Brothers, and demons dreaded her coming: and commending herself and her Sisters to their prayers, she returns to her lodging. The next day the journey is resumed, and again the Daughters contemplate their ecstatic Mother, until they arrived at Auxonne, where the convent was being built. Here, however, at her presence, many persons distinguished by rank and piety, as Sister Agnes aforesaid reported, testified that they had seen demons

horrible in form, rabid with anger, and tearing one another apart, while they clamored with a monstrous shriek that they were being driven in flight from that place. And so that all these things might be better attested, others also subscribed as follows. I, Sister Guillerma, unworthy Abbess of the Convent of St. Clare of Hesdin, testify that I heard from Sister Agnes de Vaulx what has just been related: and the same do Sister ^b Mary Estocquette, Sister Agnes Tinghiere, at another time, in ecstasy, she fills all with a wondrous fragrance, Sister Margaret, etc.

[45] Colette was furthermore rapt into ecstasy in the convent of Hesdin on a certain Good Friday from Vespers until Matins, and on her way to Matins after her senses had been restored, she emitted from herself so sweet and pleasing a fragrance that no one who has not experienced it could conceive it in his mind, let alone express it in words. And this most pleasing odor filled not only the very choir to which she had come, but also the entire convent; meanwhile, during the Matins Office, burning with a wondrous fire of devotion, she was entirely dissolved in tears. When the Office was concluded, she withdrew to the oratory, where, shut up until the Vespers of the following day, she persevered fixed in the contemplation of the Passion of Christ: what she suffered then, however, and with what great knowledge of the divine mysteries she was gifted by her Spouse from above, since she herself studied to conceal it from us, we cannot narrate. On another occasion, on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, and learns of impending adversities, having suffered a similar rapture in the same convent, she learned of certain tribulations about to come upon her little flock; whence, drawing incredible sorrow, she spent three whole days in tears, and remained afflicted until the feast of Corpus Christi, when, again snatched from her senses, she received that consolation which outwardly also manifested itself, noticeable in her entire countenance and in her every action.

[46] She once admitted to the Religious life a girl whom all the Sisters disapproved of as less suitable: for she had known that that virgin, if she had returned to the world, would most certainly be in danger of losing eternal salvation. When, therefore, that girl had pronounced the vows of her Profession, She admits a girl whom she knew would be damned in the world, Colette solicitously asked God to deign to reveal to her how long this new Religious would remain in His grace: and she heard the voice of Him responding that she would persevere in grace as long as she did not sin through disobedience. After this many years passed: the poor woman fell into a lethal illness and was suddenly deprived of the faculty of speech. The Confessor rushed to her: but, as if in a desperate case, withdrawing, he was greatly distressed that he could bring no help to the poor woman. Therefore recourse was had to Blessed Colette, then present in that convent, who, hastening to the infirmary, called the woman by her name three times, saying: Maria, speak to me. And behold, the dying woman turned to Christ's handmaid, and constantly assists the dying woman, began to speak freely, narrated her whole life, made a salutary Confession of sins, and when it was completed was reduced to her agony; with Blessed Colette prostrate over her and praying with tears and invoking God's help until, breathing her last, she expired. Then, gladdened in the Lord, Colette, rising in the presence of all, said: Come, our Sister, delivered from great torments, walks securely the paths of salvation.

[47] I was also present in a certain convent when another Sister there fell ill and was judged by physicians to be laboring with a contagious disease, she heals one laboring with a contagious disease, and therefore, separated from the company and common dwelling of the Sisters, she had been ordered to migrate for treatment to a small house near the convent. She remained there for the space of one year: at the end of which, Blessed Colette coming there and speaking publicly about the sick woman, she learned that she was living sequestered from the rest outside the convent because of the danger of contagion. The most pious Mother felt her bowels of compassion moved: therefore she hastened to the small house, and the woman, pouring forth tears and falling at the Mother's knees, as I and many others with me beheld, was told to be of good courage; and taking a small flask of water and bringing it to the mouth of the sick woman, she did not remove it until it was drained. At once full health returned to the wretched woman, to whom Colette, turning, said: Take up your bed and return to the convent: which she did, praising and magnifying God, with all of us following with a similar feeling.

[48] Blessed Colette's arm is dislocated, Blessed Colette was coming to Hesdin, intending to found a convent there; when, falling from the cart, she so injured her arm that the bones, dislocated from their position, left it useless and caused great torment to the Blessed. Meanwhile the pious memory of Father John Pinet, who had formerly been her Confessor while she was a recluse, and who had died piously in the convent of Hesdin, appeared to her: and said: Why do you delay so long in turning to me? I would have healed you already long ago: restored by the appearing of her Confessor: and having said this, he left her completely healed. The Sisters — namely the pious Mother Agnes de Vaulx, Sister Mary Lorman, and I, Sister Petrina of Baume — marveled at the unexpected event; and moved by filial affection, we insistently asked to be told whence so sudden a change had come, or who had restored her arm to its place: to whom she said: My good Father John Pinet, having deigned to visit me, at the same time restored my health and at the same time rebuked my laziness, by which I had forgetfully delayed so long in imploring his help.

[49] a leper is cleansed by Colette's kiss, Having set out for the convent of Vevey in Savoy, we Sisters — of whom I, Sister Petrina, was one — accompanied Blessed Colette and Father Henry, who faithfully adhered to her; when we had to pass not far from a convent of Virgins Religious of the Order of St. Dominic, who, having learned of our arrival, came out to meet us in procession, and when the holy Mother was giving the pious kiss of peace to all, one of them held back at a greater distance out of shame for the leprosy with which she was infected: Colette nonetheless invited her to come, and the Confessor urged and encouraged her to approach without fear: and when she did so and received the kiss, she received full health and returned with the Sisters, completely cleansed, praising the divine power bestowed upon His holy one. These things I saw with my own eyes: the Abbot of Corbie appears. yet with no less faith I believe and testify as true what I knew by another means: namely, that the Abbot of Corbie, of whom mention was made above, appeared to her in the seventh ^c year after his death, with much crying out and a horrible clanking of chains: whom Colette, trembling through all her limbs, ordered to depart from her. Likewise that all the Sisters dying anywhere used to appear to her, as I very frequently heard from Father Henry.

^a Abbeville describes this cross in the following manner, from letters of Clara Puget, Abbess of Besancon, given in the year 1624: It is golden, and The Cross of B. Colette fallen from heaven, on one side externally it has Christ fixed with four nails: four gems adorn it at the four corners: and at each of its extremities are individual precious stones, with a fifth gem hanging below: and it is kept in a little silk purse of violet color embroidered with gold. Sister Elizabeth of Bavaria writes that she venerated and kissed it many times at Besancon, and left it there when she departed.

^b Guillerma, Abbess of Hesdin. Namely the same women at whose request this little book is said to have been first written, in the authentic Instrument in the Prolegomena, no. 32. Abbeville believes that Guillerma was the first Abbess appointed at Hesdin: she would therefore have persevered in that office, or resumed it at intervals, from about the year 1443 beyond 1491, in which year, being 67 years old, she had the aforesaid Instrument drawn up: and thus she would have been appointed to govern the convent at the age of 19: which no one would say.

^c But do not hence infer that he was damned: rather he seems to have been permitted to solicit the suffragies of his ward in that pitiful form.

CHAPTER V.

The fervor of prayer and penance: knowledge of absent things: and benefits bestowed on various persons.

[50] Meanwhile her humility was so profound that it transcends human belief how any woman could have arrived at it, to whom such singular prerogatives of divine favor were being granted. B. Colette's extraordinary virtues, Faith also was surpassed by her inexhaustible charity, except among us who had experienced it. To these virtues was added a continual zeal for prayer, to which she devoted herself with an angelic rather than human fervor. I myself heard her praying day and night, and seeking mercy for sinners, for the souls being purged, and for her Religious family. I heard her very often through entire nights weeping and wailing before the feet of the Crucified, sleep granting her this opportunity, which she took either none of or very little. Indeed I often traveled with her from one convent to another: but it frequently happened and fervor of prayer, that when we were weary from the journey she sent me and others to bed to rest; but she herself, keeping vigil through entire nights, poured forth prayers with tears to God: during which I sometimes heard her, weeping and groaning much, say to the Crucified: Who are You, Lord, and what am I? Since, then, her prayers were such, they must also have been efficacious before God, which was notably evident in the convent of Lezignan: by which she obtains the necessary means of sustenance, where, when bread was lacking, Colette said to Father Brother Peter d'Aisi: Go, and prepare yourself to beg for bread. But the good Brother said: It is a feast day, Mother: therefore do you pray from here, and we from there, that God may provide for us by another way. The Mother acquiesces; prayer is undertaken with such good success that soon before the convent there appeared a cart loaded with all those things that would serve the need of God's handmaids: and lest there be any doubt by whom it was sent, as soon as the loads were removed, the cart disappeared, as Colette herself narrated to me.

[51] I, the same Sister Petrina, testify that the blessed Mother Colette was of wondrous and great austerity throughout her whole life, and so accustomed to eat sparingly that she seemed to have consumed much when the quantity of bread consumed equalled the size of an egg. rare in food She scarcely tasted any side dish, but what was set before her she usually ordered to be distributed to the poor, out of her remarkable charity toward them. While rigid toward herself, she was lenient toward the Sisters: she desired them to be treated generously and permitted them to take a full meal once a day; and rigor in clothing, lest by continual fasting the body should be so weakened that the spirit could not unceasingly devote itself day and night to the divine service, according to the manner of our vocation and Religious life. Colette was never seen to approach the fire for the sake of driving away the cold: her bed was a straw sack thrust into a corner of the oratory, furnished with no other bedding than a single and very poor blanket. Her habit, moreover, was always worn and previously worn by other Sisters. I know besides that Blessed Colette used an iron ring for so long that, as her virginal flesh grew over it, the good Father Henry, moved by the grave danger she was incurring, she uses an iron ring. compelled her, driven by the precept of obedience, to remove it. When she attempted to take it off, in order to comply with her Confessor's command,

such force was needed that a not inconsiderable part of the adhering flesh followed the iron, as Father Henry frequently narrated to me: I myself both saw the ring many times and handled it with my own hands.

[52] I can testify the same about the ring with which St. John the Evangelist espoused her to Christ, as both I and many other Sisters learned from Father Henry, her Confessor, and Father Peter of Rheims, who had carried the same ring to Rome. She is espoused by a ring through St. John the Evangelist. I was also present with Blessed Colette when she narrated to Brother Francis Claret, one of her Confessors, about the trees which had suddenly grown up at Corbie before her reclusory and were transferred from place to place at will: and specifically about that one whose leaves resembled the leaves of pomegranates. Similarly, the good Sister Mary Dorman, Abbess, asserted to me Trees sprung up before the cell. that the Lady Marchioness of Brisay had told her that she had seen with her own eyes a tree sprouted upon bare stone in the window of the aforesaid reclusory.

[53] Sister Agnes de Vise-melle also told me that she had been present in the convent of Vevey when the glorious Mother addressed the Duke of Savoy She is divinely compelled, and the brother of the most Excellent Lord of La Marche, who had been elected as Antipope, in the presence of Father Henry and Father Peter of Rheims alone: ^a the manner, moreover, in which God compelled her to do this and to persuade the Duke to refuse the Pontificate offered contrary to the laws, was this: that as long as she refused to obey the divine will, excusing herself to the aforesaid Fathers for her own lowliness and for the condition entirely unsuitable for addressing so great a Prince in so grave a matter, she could not enjoy the Communion of the Lord's Body in the manner she was accustomed to: wherefore, with the aforesaid Fathers encouraging her, she at length consented to the inner impulse of the divine will, and immediately she could receive and swallow the sacred Host most comfortably, as she was otherwise accustomed. Therefore, clearly understanding that what she was being compelled to do was from God, to persuade Amadeus of Savoy not to accept the antipapacy. she fearlessly admonished him about the will of God, who did not wish His Church to be rent: but in vain; for, obstinate in his resolve, he accepted the antipapacy and usurped it for three years; and at last, yielding to better counsels, he laid it down. When, however, he accepted it, Colette, having been informed of the whole matter in spirit, said to the Sisters then present: At this hour the Antipope has consented to his election, to the grave prejudice of the holy Church.

[54] I was living in the convent of Besancon when the Countess of Valentinois was received there into our Order by Blessed Colette, The Countess of Valentinois received into the Order, with an outstanding example of fervor and devotion. She had tested herself for a long time before entering: but when she was about to come to us, and this greatly displeased the demon, by his arts it was brought about that all the Countess's horses, seized by a sudden torpor, could not advance even a foot on the journey. Therefore, desolate, she sent someone to report the matter to Blessed Colette and to seek a remedy from her prayers. As the messenger returned, health and movement returned to the horses, she heals the horses: and the Countess set out on her journey to Besancon, where, admitted to the number of Religious women, she made extraordinary progress in virtue; using mostly tasteless bread for food and the poorest clothing for dress, with immense joy of her soul, as if foreseeing that her sojourn among mortals would not be long: for, surviving only a short time, she departed from these to the immortals: her holy life. concerning whose happy death Father Henry, speaking in my hearing to all, declared that no one should pour forth prayers for her soul, saying that he had learned by divine revelation that she had been received into heaven.

[55] I testify moreover that I was there when the daughter of a certain man called Hannequin The daughter abducted from the monastery, was enrolled by Blessed Colette in the number of her Daughters: but the Father, overcome by immoderate love for his daughter, shortly afterward wished her to be returned to him, which the pious Mother did, not without a great sense of sorrow, to avoid disturbances. She nevertheless girded herself for prayer, lamenting before God over the lost daughter; since the Father's obstinacy had reached the point that he had a fixed and determined plan to place her on a horse and carry her away from her native soil, so that no hope would remain for her ever to return to the convent. But behold, as the Father set out on the journey with his daughter, the horse, otherwise strong and vigorous, collapsed three times dashed to the ground: and at last, with him relenting nothing of his wicked will, the horse became as if withered, rendered unfit for all further use. Here the Father began to recognize his error, to return to Colette, forced by the misfortune, the Father restores her: to offer his daughter with tears: who, kindly received, was given the name Stephanetta by the pious Mother. The Father, however, God as avenger permitted to be mocked by the demon with many and various phantasms; and when it seemed to him that a Crucifix was speaking to him, he came to Blessed Colette, affirming that it had been told him by the same that all the Brothers and Sisters were being disturbed by the most grievous temptations. That announcement could have greatly afflicted the good Mother, she herself understands that all her followers are in God's grace had she not, turning to the remedy of prayer, understood that all without exception stood in God's friendship and grace, and that the Lord promised them help and protection in whatever dangers. The said Hannequin died after these things and appeared to the blessed Mother in a horrible form, raising an immense howling and crash, with great consternation of Colette and all the Sisters present: as I heard from many Sisters who had come from the convent of Vevey to that of Besancon.

[56] I myself, gazing more curiously and considering the countenance of Blessed Colette with fixed eyes, she suffers wondrous pains: observed that her teeth seemed as if burnt, on account of the immense pains she was suffering: similarly I frequently discovered that her feet had the color that toasted things would have. And truly she sustained such great burning sensations in them that she frequently asked for cold water to cool them. Brother John Croquoison, who had long dwelt at Hesdin, she knows of the death of one Sister, narrated to me that when he had gone to Blessed Colette in the parts of Burgundy, she told him that Sister Catherine Annette of Ghent had died at Hesdin and, appearing to her, had presented a note inscribed with these words: Pray for me, Mother, because I have died: which was afterward found to be true. It was the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, and Christ's handmaid was sitting in her cell; she is vexed by the demon: when the devil, envying her successes, dashed her to the ground by pulling away her seat: which he also hurled far away, breaking one of its feet and ruining it. Thus, while I contemplated the Mother sitting on the ground in amazement, I hear her saying to me: Do you see, Sister, what the devil has done to me? He is often troublesome to me in this way.

[57] She also related to me in narrating that it had happened to her that in the convent of Auxonne she was ringing a little bell for some necessary service: she restores wine spilled from a barrel: the Sister Joanna Rabardelle, who was then engaged in drawing wine, ran to the sound, forgetting to stop the flow of the running wine, by inserting the spigot she held in her hand into the tap. And so, finding the entire vessel empty afterward, she runs to the Mother, weeping over her fault as well as the loss: but the Mother said to the grieving one: Return, and see again how it stands. Wonderful to tell! The barrel, completely empty, the obedient Sister found full of the most flavorful wine: she preserves one crushed by a collapse, whose virtue the miracle was accordingly attributed to by Colette, while she herself attributed it to the merits of the blessed Mother. At the time when the monastery of St. Clare was being built at Pont-a-Mousson in Lorraine, two collapsing walls crushed Father John Deschaux, who was intent on watching the work: but he remained unharmed amid the ruins, happily protected by the prayers of Blessed Colette (who was seeing the whole affair in the convent of Hesdin in the very manner and time it was happening): and had he been killed there, she herself afterward affirmed to Brother Francis Claret that he would have been found in most certain danger of eternal salvation.

[58] A most grievous pain of one arm had invaded me while I was stationed in the convent of Poligny, Petrina's badly affected arm, depriving me of all sleep and the ability to take food; on account of which I carried the arm wrapped in cloths and hanging from a bandage for a full fifteen days: until, overcome by the severity of the pain, I hastened to the blessed Mother, who happened to have just arrived there. While I was washing her feet, not without a sensation of the sharpest pain, she, understanding from my face that I was unwell, asked what was troubling me. My arm, I replied, is very badly affected. Then the Mother said: Put away all those things quickly, and you shall be well. I put them away, and behold, instantly well, then she cures another infirmity: I felt absolutely no torment. At another time, in the convent of Hesdin, when I was laboring with a grave infirmity, I received health from her by a similar favor: for when she saw me ill, she said: Go, Petrina, lie down in the place where I have lain. I went, I lay down: she herself followed soon after, and ordered me to return to my duties and perform the office of Secretary and make my bed in the dormitory. Nothing more was needed: at those words I immediately rose, healthy and well.

[59] She was performing the office of Abbess in the convent of Poligny ^b when, rising from the table and turning to Sister Clara Labeur, she said: What would you say she predicts that nine of those dining together will be Abbesses. if we had had nine Abbesses sitting at table with us? That question was based on knowledge drawn from divine sources, as the event declared, although many of those dining were still novices: for all nine were in the course of time elevated to the Prelacy, and the first indeed, Sister Clara, became Abbess of Vevey in Savoy; the second, Sister Joanna Leon-Sanguier, governed the convent of Auxonne; the third, Sister Mary Dorman, presided at Hesdin; the fourth, Sister Agnes Wise-melle, was appointed Abbess of Seurre; the fifth, Sister Stephana du Tarte, was placed over the convent of Vevey; the sixth, Sister Mary du Pois, was the head of three convents in succession; the seventh, Sister Joanna of Corbie, governed the monastery of Ghislenghien; the eighth, Sister Mary Herenguier, presided over the Sisters of Moulins in Bourbon; the ninth and last, Huguetta du Tarte, governed the monastery of Hesdin.

[60] ^c The Sister who was summoned appears dead to B. Colette. The solicitous Mother had sent us to bring five or six Sisters from the convent of Auxonne to the convent of Besancon, in which she was then staying: while they were preparing their departure, one of them died, named Sister Joanna de Jou: the rest came with us to the Mother, together with Father Henry, and we announced to her the death of the aforesaid Sister, commending the soul of the deceased to her prayers. But Colette said: I know, and I knew before you reported her death to me: for coming to me and calling three times: Mother, she said, Mother, Mother: behold, I come at your command. I, however, thinking it was someone else, imposed silence: a broken tablet God restored to her intact: but turning completely I recognized perfectly who she was, although she appeared whiter than snow. The pious Mother greatly loved an ivory tablet on which the mysteries of the Lord's Passion were depicted: when this fell and was broken through the middle by accident, the grieving Colette commended it to Father Henry, to have it repaired. He undertook to do what the Blessed asked, and carrying the broken tablet away with him, when he happened to want to inspect more closely the manner of the break

and had uncovered the tablet for that purpose, he found it solid and perfectly whole, with no trace of any break appearing: as he solemnly affirmed to me, Father Henry, in whose hands the miracle occurred. Sister Joanna la Serree told me that when she was suffering immense and continuous torments from one of her hands being badly affected, an ailing hand cured by her touch. which deprived her of all rest, and other remedies had been applied in vain, she asked Christ's handmaid Colette to at least form the sign of the Cross over the affected part: but she, not bearing the Sister's so magnificent an opinion of her, as if indignantly pushed away the supplicant, thrusting her hand upon the other's hand: and the woman was rightly amazed that by that touch she was suddenly healed.

^a Peter himself discusses this matter in the Life, no. 112: but with the business concealed, for which God intended to extort consent by preventing her from being able to swallow the sacred Host before she gave it.

^b Abbeville sets forth from manuscript memoirs, fol. 207, what instructions she gave to form the Religious there. Among these was: that in mental prayer they should not pursue higher things, but should persist in meditating on the Life and Passion of the Lord and in self-denial: She teaches those praying humility and reverence for sacred things: they should flee idle words: they should treat divine things reverently. And so when one of the Sisters was playfully carrying an image of the infant Jesus, Colette took the girl by the hand and led her to the mistress, ordering that she be assigned the penance of taking the discipline. This image the Sisters afterward placed above the door of the place destined for conversations with outsiders, so that its sight might remind those entering to use words sparingly and circumspectly.

^c On the occasion of this prediction, Abbeville relates, fol. 120, that to a certain Lucas from the household of the Duke of Burgundy, she predicts that a delay must be interposed against a pious plan. induced by the exhortations of Colette to embrace the Rule of St. Francis, she predicted that however much he might strive to fulfill his pious vow as soon as possible, he would not achieve it before seven years: who then, serving the Sisters for 25 years, testified to this.

CHAPTER VI.

Devotion toward the Eucharist, grave illnesses, knowledge of hidden things.

[61] That the glorious handmaid of Christ, Colette, was always most devout toward the most august Sacrament of the Eucharist, She hears Mass with the greatest sense of piety, I saw and heard many times: certainly she never attended the sacrifice of the Mass without a copious effusion of tears and deep sighs: and she heard Mass daily, whether she was in the convents or traveling outside them: and that she might do so with greater purity of soul, she purged the slightest stains through humble and frequent Confession. She rejoiced moreover most especially when, without witnesses, alone, she could attend the divine mysteries and watch the Priest officiating at the altar: for she desired her Sisters not to come to the knowledge of the graces which she was at that time receiving from God, especially during the elevation she often beheld Christ present: of the most holy Body and Blood of the Lord: when her groans were so great and her tears so copious that they moved the greatest feeling of compassion in all who beheld her. Nor is this surprising, since (as Father Henry and Brother Francis Claret sometimes testified to me) while adoring her Spouse under the Sacramental species, she very often beheld Him with her bodily eyes, visible in His own proper appearance: whence her spirit was borne toward God with such ardor that, repeatedly rapt into ecstasy, it would leave the feeble body deprived of sense and motion.

[62] Indeed, from Father Peter de Osiaco and Brother Theobald I learned and at the elevation she inspects the consciences of the celebrants. that at the elevation of the most sacred Host, Colette knew the consciences of the celebrants; and if they happened to be held bound by the guilt of a more serious fault, she employed such means that both the guilty one would have an occasion for correcting himself, and those present would recognize that something hidden was being done — yet neither would understand whence she received such knowledge. I know, moreover, that persons of every condition desired to come to behold her in this act of adoring her Jesus and to hear her groaning and sighing: but she was unwilling to permit this except to very spiritual and familiar persons. She complains of being observed by the curious Wherefore those who could not obtain the fulfillment of their desire from her willing consent would occupy hiding places, whence, being piously curious, they might observe her even unwilling: which hiding places, however, were by no means hidden from her, who knew any secrets by a more divine light. Wherefore she very often declared to Brother Francis Claret and Brother John Millon that it displeased her that some were hiding themselves to furtively and curiously watch her weeping. For she said that the tears were not in her power, whether she was alone or in the presence of others, whenever she considered the majesty of the heavenly King. But what her affection was, what stupendous signs were noted in her when she was made a partaker of the divine banquet, no speech suffices to explain; it was ordinary for her to be rapt outside herself: and the rapture lasted until mealtime, usually often until evening, and sometimes even longer.

[63] As for the illnesses and most grievous torments which she bore most patiently as long as I lived with her, and which she related to me all in a familiar way; one of them, and not the least, was a certain swelling of the whole body, which, She labors with a perpetual swelling of the body: now increasing and decreasing, now remaining in the same state, caused her no small pain: yet pleasing and dear to her in consideration of Him who, innocent, suffered such dire and monstrous things for us: by whose indulgence also it happened that she was sometimes miraculously relieved of her illnesses. For I heard from Father Henry that, while returning from the audience with the Supreme Pontiff, Colette fell into a most grave disease on the road, so that, judging it fatal, she prepared herself for a pious death: since by the violence of excessive heat, her tongue having been retracted into her throat, in a lethal fever she is healed by the Mother of God. she had lost the faculty of forming speech and had almost entirely blocked every pathway even for breathing itself. Her traveling companions stood by the bed, with Father Henry and the noble Lady of Brisay, testifying their sorrow with tears and awaiting her imminent departure from life: when a young woman appeared, of distinguished beauty, of extraordinary whiteness beyond the usual, and displaying the face of a chaste virgin: she asked for a pair of eggs, and receiving them with one hand, with the other opening Colette's mouth, she drew back the contracted tongue with her fingers to its proper position; and having done this, having embraced and kissed the sick woman, she disappeared, and together with her all the symptoms of so dangerous an illness. Neither she herself nor Father Henry (from both of whose mouths I had the story) doubted that the Blessed Virgin Mary had been the bestower of that sudden health.

[64] Similarly, on another occasion, she seemed to be tending toward death, lying ill in the convent of Besancon: against the Saints who desire her company, and so she began to commend her departure to God solicitously: but raised in ecstasy she saw before the Lord sitting on His throne, the most holy Virgin prostrate at His feet together with St. Mary Magdalene and St. Clare, humbly asking that Colette might at last be united to their company and that her labors might be ended by death: but St. Francis, kneeling on the other side, was praying the divine majesty that this should not happen: St. Francis obtains a longer life for her. Ah, my Lord, he was saying, did You give her to me on this condition, that You would lead her out of the world so suddenly? Let her, I beseech You, survive still among the living, whose presence You know to be so necessary for the reform of my Orders. And God seemed to have accepted Francis's supplication: for she recovered and, rising healthy, exclaimed with a groan: Alas! That good and most holy man Francis does not wish me to die and to go by dying to my God: woe is me! how great a torment comes to me from this! Thus those who stood by narrated to me: Father Henry, Brother Peter of Lyon, and Brother Francis Claret. how she unknowingly narrated her visions. Moreover, that she herself disclosed such revelations and visions to others did not proceed from any vanity: but because, filled with the influx of divine graces, she had neither her tongue nor the other faculties of body and mind in her power, and so she did not know what she was saying or narrating to others, until, fully restored to her senses, she noticed that those present had come to some knowledge of the divine secrets being wrought in her: which once known, she would begin to upbraid and vilify herself, speaking and thinking of herself as abjectly as she could.

[65] Knowledge acquired by industry and study Colette had little or none: Knowing absent and future things but by knowledge infused from heaven she knew very many things, both past and future, without any created teacher: of which various examples could be adduced, distinctly remembered with their certain authors. Thus, at the report of Sister Mary de Pois, I, Petrina of Baume, learned that there was from the Order of St. Francis a Religious, and at the same time a Doctor of Theology and adorned with the title of Master at Paris, called Master Peter Psalmon, who from the beginning of the reform was much devoted to Blessed Colette; and he fell into a disease that physicians judged to be lethal. The Blessed was then setting out by chance to visit certain convents, and was passing not far from the monastery in which the aforesaid man lay bedridden. She, knowing with certainty that impending death would bring not only the loss of his body but also of his soul, she heals a Religious who would otherwise be damned, visited the sick man and found him in his last agony. And so she called him by his name, saying: Be strengthened in the Lord, Peter, and be strong. An amazing thing to tell! The dying man heard the words of her speaking, and was so strengthened that soon he rose healthy in body before all: and that he might also be cleansed from spiritual leprosy, he immediately cast himself at the Blessed's feet, then, not having confessed fully, humbly offering himself for the service of her and her Sisters for the rest of his life. She did not at that time need such ministry, yet she willingly accepted what was offered, so that she might thus provide medicine for the struggling soul: and so, summoning him privately, she admonished him to purify his soul with a full Confession, such as she knew he needed; at the same time she named a Confessor for him, a grave and upright man. He indeed obeyed to the extent of going to the Confessor: but whether an untimely shame prevented him or forgetfulness of the sins committed, he did not confess fully. she sends him back to the Confessor once and again: Therefore, when he reported that he had been cleansed according to her prescription: Not so, said Colette, and she enumerated certain enormous sins which he had silently passed over. He was struck dumb, and fully conscious to himself of what she said, he returned to the Confessor and to his Confession, and coming back to the pious Mother said: Now at least I have confessed everything. But God's handmaid Colette, having enumerated other faults, taught him that he was not as pure as he claimed, and sent the wretched man for a third time to the same place, until he had emptied out the entire bilge-water of his sins.

[66] a man and woman at her warning prepare for imminent death: Likewise at Besancon there was an honest and prudent man, John of Cologne, a citizen there and very wealthy merchant, and equally generous and pious toward the poor, and therefore excellently commended among all. The Blessed knew that this man would depart from life within

a short space of time: wherefore she summoned him to her, informed him of his impending death, and at the same time told him to be secure about the state of his soul: yet if he wished to do something pleasing to God before his death, he should prudently set his house in order, certain of his approaching departure. He obeyed, made his will, and with all things well ordered, fell ill and died. That I heard this I need not say here in vain; since the matter is commonly known to everyone. Thus also at Poligny, to a certain matron from the city of Chalon, who had devoutly come to Poligny for the sake of visiting her, she indicated the nearness of approaching death: and so that woman, forewarned and not doubting the truth of the prediction, purified her soul by Confession: after which, a short time having intervened, she fell ill and ceased to live.

[67] Father Peter of Rheims told me ^a that while he had gone to Rome on certain business of Blessed Colette, she admonishes her Confessor about something done secretly: he did something that he believed was known to no one except God: he returns meanwhile, and standing before the blessed Mother, after a harsh rebuke he secretly learns what he had committed on the road: from which the good Father realized that nothing was hidden from her which pertained to the spiritual state of her Brothers and Sisters. And indeed she would report to the Visitors not only the hidden faults of those present but also of those absent, so that they might duly attend to them. I also heard her say: I declare to you, my Sisters, at age nine she fully knows the institute of St. Francis: that by a singular gift divinely granted to me, I had as clear and certain a knowledge of the Order of St. Francis in the ninth year of my age as I had in the thirtieth or fortieth. She also once confessed to me that it was rare for anyone to come to her, whatever his condition, whether he came for the sake of counsel or consolation or under the pretext of any other necessity; she knows most of the secret things of her followers. without her having foreknown the visitor's coming, the reason, the intention, and other things, so that she might not respond unprepared. Therefore she was observed with wondrous reverence by all the Brothers and Sisters and even by her Confessors themselves, well knowing the rare gift of knowledge she possessed: and they revered her no less when absent than when present: my witnesses for this were the aforesaid Father Peter of Rheims and Brother Francis Claret, already often named.

[68] she corrects a planned departure, There was in the convent of Besancon a Novice who, succumbing to a diabolical temptation, was seriously contemplating leaving the monastery, revealing her wound to no one. Colette, divinely informed, summoned her to herself, and having obtained an express confession of her fault, so encouraged her that with her will changed for the better, she thereafter progressed with greater fervor in her undertaking of the Religious life than she had begun. In the same place, while she was attending the Divine Office, a voluntary wandering of the mind: one of the Sisters was being distracted by vain and dangerous wanderings of mind from the attention of prayer: the Mother was far away in the choir; yet she knew what was revolving in her mind, and sent a Religious who would order her to let go of those trifles and guard herself against the demon lying in ambush: which she also did without any delay. she prevents a battle from being joined. So much does an opportune admonition proceeding from charity avail: as also was evident in matters of greater importance. For when wars were raging throughout all Gaul, and a large army on both sides had gathered for a battle to be joined on a set day, Colette was admonished in spirit that copious blood would be shed in that battle and that many souls would be yielded as prey to the enemy demon. Grieving, therefore, and striving to reconcile both sides, she sent Brother John Millon with admonitory letters to the commanders of both armies, in which, declaring what had been revealed to her, she so prevailed that, with their minds changed and the plan for battle laid aside, on that very spot negotiations for establishing peace began to be entered into.

[69] She warns a negligent caretaker of a dying woman Likewise, in the convent of Poligny, she had entrusted the care of a certain Novice who was laboring unto death to another Religious, solicitously admonishing her to summon her to the dying woman as quickly as possible. The good Sister was prevented by sleep from doing what she was commanded, as it crept upon her eyes, fatigued by a longer vigil and the labors of the preceding day, while meanwhile the Novice was dying. Awakened therefore, she found her dead: and soon heard the Mother severely rebuking; who, greatly grieving that her Daughter had died in her absence, predicted to the negligent Sister that it would come to pass that no one would be present at her own death. she predicts that she will die with no one present. Nor did it come to pass less gravely than she had predicted: the pious Mother was, however, present in the same convent when that Sister, seized some time later by a final illness, not yet having received the Christian Sacraments, lay speechless: therefore, hastening in tears and mingling fervent prayers with tears, she obtained from God that the wretched woman, restored to her senses, should both recover the faculty of speaking and be opportunely fortified by the assistance of the Sacraments: after which she died, as had been predicted, with absolutely no one of the Sisters present.

[70] she also warns another of her death: While the Blessed was staying in the convent of Vevey, she learned in spirit of the imminent death of a certain young lady of Poligny: and wishing to enjoy her presence at the end, she summoned the absent woman to herself by letter and then warned her that she was about to die: which that she had truly predicted, her death, following shortly after, proved. In a similar manner she knew and predicted other things, equally remote from human knowledge, as the hour of anyone's own death is unknown to all. A certain young girl was seeking admission into the Order, whose wonderful amiability of manners added to the grace of her beauty had won the favor of everyone — the Sisters, I say, and the Confessor: she says another will not persevere. who, marveling at the rare gifts of nature and grace in her, opportunely and importunely pressed the resisting Colette toward her admission, because she had perceived with her spiritual eye a hidden wound of the soul. Overcome therefore by the desires of those pleading: You force me, she said, to receive her: yet know that it will never happen that she perseveres until Profession. So it turned out: the wretched girl was overwhelmed by so many and so grievous temptations that the Rule seemed impossible for her to observe, and she returned to the world and to her vomit.

[71] I heard that the glorious Mother Colette, speaking to Brother John Foucault, Why she gave the convent at Dole to the Brothers. told him that at the beginning of the reform of the Order of St. Clare, the convent of the Friars Minor at Dole in Burgundy had been given to her by the Supreme Pontiff, so that, having reformed it, she might establish there either Brothers or Sisters at her discretion: but she, seeing that there were no monasteries of her reform in those provinces, and that many Brothers were flocking from all sides desiring to live in newness of spirit, and that it could contribute not a little to the common good of the Sisters if somewhere a kind of seminary of Brothers excelling in probity, prudence, learning, and Religion were established, from which they might be distributed through the convents that greatly needed such men: considering these things, I say, she assembled such men there, who, having been greatly advanced there in their progress, afterward filled all the monasteries with the best examples of virtues.

[72] Others from the same Order of Friars Minor pressed who, lest it be taken from her reform, there, by no means destined by God for the support of this spiritual edifice, that the convent, which Colette had destined for the Brothers of her reform, should be awarded to them by the local magistrates. The Sisters, however, seeing a repulse prepared for them, sadly turned their prayers to God, which were promptly heard, as the event showed: for a certain one of the magistrates, Master Stephen of Magnavalle, a prudent and good man of great authority in the Parliament, seeing most of the senators leaning toward the side of the Brothers who were so vehemently insisting, lest he be forced to see the convent awarded against the Sisters, set out on a journey in sadness, by sending a patron back to the senate, she accomplishes it. intending to report to Christ's blessed handmaid the desperate state of that business. But behold, unexpectedly, the glorious Mother appeared to him in the clouds, coming to meet him, and signing with her hands that he should not proceed, she added in a clear and intelligible voice: Go back, Master Stephen, go back, for you have prevailed. Obeying her command (as he himself often told others, and Father Henry told me from his mouth), he returned to the Parliament; where the vote hung in equal balance on both sides, but, propelled by the opportune arrival of Stephen's vote, given in favor of the Sisters, it awarded the desired convent to them.

^a Peter himself speaks of these things about himself more covertly in the Life, no. 135.

^b Was Brother John Focault an adversary of Colette? Concerning the Dole convent, Petrina does not express this clearly enough here, but Abbeville proves it clearly: yet among the chief adversaries of the Colettines he names the said Brother John Focault, in which matter he clearly followed a not sufficiently certain conjecture, as is evident from the Instrument of the Abbot of Ghent, in which at no. 7 he is called a Religious devout toward, known to, and familiar with the Blessed herself: so that he appears to have been rather one of the Colettine reform itself than of those opposing the Blessed.

CHAPTER VII.

Infestations from the demon, the gift of Prophecy, death and the visions that followed it.

[73] I come to the machinations of the demons envying her virtue, which she suffered many of from the very beginning of her conversion and gloriously triumphed over: By the boring through of the reclusory, for while she was still in her reclusory at Corbie, the devil once came through the chimney (as Sister Agnes de Vaulx and Father Henry narrated to me) and made such a hole in the wall as could be sufficient for a man to pass through: but Blessed Colette, placing against the hole an image of the Mother of God, painted in colors on a panel, shortly afterward found the wall so restored as if it had never been violated by any malice. and specters, the demons are hostile The demons also assumed various forms to impede her pious prayers and to overthrow her pious intentions and holy purposes: and when little or nothing was accomplished by these, they come to blows: the most impudent spirits came to blows, and sometimes so battered her with clubs that the aforesaid Sister Agnes sometimes saw her livid over her whole body and disfigured with a repulsive blackness, as Father Peter of Rheims and Father Henry and Sister Jacoba le Grand affirmed to me.

[74] She herself also told me once that on a certain night, while intent upon paying her prayers to God in the oratory, she was most fiercely received with blows: they wedge her into a narrow space to suffocate her: nor were the demons content with this; they wedged her thus bruised into the narrow space of a small window with such violence that she could neither speak nor breathe except with the greatest difficulty: and she remained in that place until the sixth hour of the morning, until one of the Sisters arrived who, finding the Mother in such a state and trying in vain to bring help, finally summoned a lay Brother named Reginald: who, seeing that his own efforts were also in vain, cut through the window and freed her from the narrow space, from which she could not otherwise have been extracted alive. This happened in the convent of Besancon. But these were private inconveniences: the following stratagem of the enemy demon assailed the public and common peace and safety of the entire convent of Decize, and would have involved both the Mother and the Daughters in ruin, had not God in a wonderful way come to the aid of His struggling ones.

[75] The pious Mother had come to the aforesaid convent at that time by the untimely ringing of a bell when the town itself was burdened by a great multitude of garrison soldiers, and because of the military movements in the province, everything was under suspicion; especially of those

who came from the territories of the enemy, as Blessed Colette was coming, although there was nothing to be feared from anyone of such great purity of heart, which served both sides. The devil, however, seized the occasion and, awakening the sacristan, whose duty it was to give the signal for the Matins chanting at midnight, between the ninth and tenth evening hour, impelled her to ring the bell in its customary manner at the wrong time; they render the Sisters suspected of treason: at the same time he also led the enemy to bring ladders against the walls. That untimely ringing astonished the night sentries on the walls, who, detecting the enemy's attempt at the very same moment, first indeed prevented those about to ascend: then, having no doubt that the Sisters had given the signal to the enemy for invading the city by ringing the bell, with their minds exceedingly disturbed, they threatened the most terrible things against the innocent Sisters, caught, as they indeed believed, in manifest treason. Therefore they rush furiously to the convent: but behold, while they approach its gates, and having broken them down plan to slaughter and destroy everyone, whom God frees by changing the course of the clock with the Lord protecting His handmaids and repeating ancient miracles in their favor, the public clock of the town, which according to the true reckoning of time should have indicated the eleventh hour, indicated the first by its stroke; and that not with a small sound as always before, but with a sound extraordinarily loud beyond its nature, so that, having been distinctly heard by all, it also turned the minds of all away from the planned crime, and by the early rising of the day. and the soldiers and townspeople alike, reproaching themselves for having been carried away by too hasty a fury, withdrew having done no harm, and silently commended themselves to the pious merits of the Sisters, to whom it could be attributed that at the hour when they had risen to pray, the sentinels, roused by the same nocturnal ringing, had driven the enemy from the walls. In this matter, this also happened more wonderfully: that although two hours were taken away by this miracle, the dawn nonetheless appeared no later than it should have been expected if the bell had been rung for Matins at the middle of the twelfth hour, as was customary, as the Blessed herself and the other Sisters reported, praising the power of God.

[76] She foreknows a future schism. The blessed Mother showed the grace of prophecy with which she was endowed in this: that while in the parts of Languedoc, as Father Henry and Sister Agnes de Wisemelle reported, she predicted the death of Pope Martin and the birth of a schism in the Church and the end of the Council of Basel, as well as the election of the Antipope Felix; and this at least three years before they were proved true by the event: from which foreknowledge she conceived immense sorrow of soul. On another occasion, when a little boy of extraordinary beauty was brought to her, the little son of Lord John de Couraut (for the sight of little children was most pleasing to her, representing to her the state of primal innocence), beholding him, Colette knew that he would be damned if he survived: she therefore obtained by her prayers to God that he be extinguished by a premature death. she obtains a swift death for a boy who would be damned if he grew up: And behold, he who had arrived healthy and well was brought back sick and died. The astonished parents, at the unexpectedness of the swift death, sent someone to announce the grievous event to the Sisters: but they, mindful of the words they had heard from the mouth of their Mother, ordered these things to be reported back to the grieving parents: for whom it was no small consolation to understand in how many ways that death had been desirable for their little son, and they did not find it difficult to submit their own will to the divine good pleasure and their natural love to the choice of the truly prudent virgin Colette.

[77] pious solicitude for helping the dead, The desire of the Blessed to help souls detained in the pains of purgatory was so great that if God had permitted, she would gladly have borne alone all the punishments due to the sins of all of them: she therefore poured forth many prayers to God destined for their aid, and she established that all the Sisters should recite on three days of each week, except the major one, the Vigils of the Dead with three lessons. With equal solicitude she hastened to dying Sisters, for the dying, expending upon them whatever graces she had received from God; suggesting salutary counsels to the dying and fervently imploring the Divine mercy for them. She pursued with similar charity also those from whom she suffered any inconvenience: and these were persons of every condition, domestic and external, for enemies, noble and ignoble, Religious and secular: but however dire the persecutions she suffered from them, she never indicated by any sign or word that she was offended: but rather she strove to promote the salvation of all, and especially of these very ones, both by words and deeds. She herself confessed to me that she had been poisoned twice ^b, and was not ignorant of the agents by whom this had been done: yet she mercifully forgave the guilty and showed no sense of injury, just as she contracted no damage to her health from the malice, with the divine right hand protecting her.

[78] for sinners; Since such was her gentleness, it was easy through her for many men, even of the most perverse life, to be converted to God and to good ways: but those of them who remained hardened in wickedness, she grieved over more than over all the inconveniences and torments that came to her from illnesses and other causes. For although the labors and hardships by which she was exercised even to her extreme old age were manifold and most bitter, she bore them all, however, with such spirit that she would have refused nothing to endure all the same and even greater ones again for the glory of God and the salvation of her neighbors. without any care for her own health. Often when she had to travel from one convent to another, she was in such feeble and broken health that she did not seem able to complete even a quarter of one league without risk to her life, and yet with great courage she set herself on the road, saying it mattered not whether she met her end in the fields or in the cities, provided it were her lot to die in God's service according to His good pleasure. Therefore she spent the entire span of her life most usefully: for as long as I lived with her, I know she was occupied in labors, vigils, voluntarily undertaken penances, and frequent prayers, both privately and in common, for the sake of God or her neighbor.

[79] She forewarns on what day and hour she will die: She also foreknew her death and predicted it in the convent of Hesdin, on the feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mother, that she would not survive beyond two years. ^c I heard, moreover, from Father Peter of Rheims, from Sister Mary, and from other Sisters of the convent of Ghent, who had been at Arras three weeks before her passing, how the blessed Mother, foreknowing the day and hour on which she was to die, revealed the same to all whom she had convoked: admonishing and exhorting them to be always pious and fearing God, to observe the Rule most exactly and their own constitutions proper to her reform, faithfully rendering to God whatever they had vowed to Him: ^d for the rest, they should not expect many words from her at that final time, but should let her attend to her affairs with God, to whom she had bound herself with her whole mind. On Sunday, She receives the Sacraments: having heard Mass and received the Eucharistic bread, she was observed to enjoy a special divine visitation: after which, as if beside herself, she took no further care of anything at all except her Spouse, adoring Him and sighing for Him. Meanwhile she suffered a fainting spell, and was fortified by her Confessor with the Sacrament of extreme Unction for the agony. She received, however, in the aforesaid divine visitation four remarkable favors: of which the first was that, after the example of the suffering Christ, she felt the most grievous torments, she is honored with 4 gifts at death: which lasted for her to the very last breath; the second, that for all the remaining time she was never torn from the contemplation of divine things; the third, that she always heard the holy sacrifice of the Mass being said; and the last, that although she was not present to the community of her Daughters, she nevertheless knew so clearly and distinctly whatever was being done by all everywhere, as if each thing were being done before her, as I heard her Confessor narrate.

[80] she knows of the entrance of the Confessor: He and his companion wished to be present at the death of the dying woman; and therefore they had entered the convent, waiting until they should understand that the final hour had come: she herself knew this by God's revelation, and therefore ordered them to be summoned to her, and having addressed them with gentle words, she dismissed them: for this day was a Friday, and not destined for her death. On the following Saturday, however, after making her prayer, she told her Sisters that she would now rest for the last time, and, lying down as she was clothed, she covered her head with the veil with which she had been veiled by the Pontiff when she was constituted Abbess, she composes herself for death. and, having asked pardon from those around her for her failings, she remained motionless, with her mouth and eyes closed, amid the most bitter pains drawn out for forty-eight hours, until Monday; which was then the sixth of March, of the year one thousand four hundred and forty-seven, when around the first hour from sunrise, in the presence of all the Sisters and the Father Confessor and his companion, she happily closed her last day at Ghent. The holy little body was left on the bed upon which she had expired for twelve hours: after which it appeared to all who beheld it so beautiful the appearance of the uncorrupted body. that each of the limbs seemed whiter than snow, in which the intermittent veins had taken on an entirely hyacinth-like color. Moreover, all parts were pliable, and breathing a certain sweet odor, so that even from this sign those who had flocked to this spectacle — more than thirty thousand persons, partly out of devotion, partly out of curiosity — would have the innocence of her life sufficiently beyond doubt. ^f On the third day after death, the body was buried without any pomp, as she herself had ordered before death, and the Father Confessor confirmed to me at Arras.

[81] Her death is announced to Orbe by Angelic song. God did not wish the death of His handmaid to be left unknown and unhonored by other regions without testimony: therefore at the very hour at which she departed, there was heard in the convent of Orbe in Savoy, which the pious Mother had greatly loved during her lifetime, the sweetest melody of angelic harmonies, and among the rest one voice more sweet than the others, which, clearly understood by all the Sisters, sang these words: The venerable Sister Colette has departed to God. she appears three times to her attendant, resplendent with wonder: On the same day she herself appeared to a certain lay Sister, Cecilia, very devoted to her, who had ministered to her for some time during her lifetime. This woman was in the convent of Castres, very far distant, at midnight engaged in her accustomed prayer, when she saw Colette in the brightest light, emitting such rays of splendor from her eyes that she was forced to avert her own no less than at the light of the sun, and could not gaze fixedly: and the same spectacle was presented to the pious Sister three times, leaving her filled with immense consolation.

[82] Furthermore, from Father Peter of Rheims I heard that there was a Sister in a certain distant convent, and to a Sister who had long desired to see her, most desirous of beholding Blessed Colette, whom she had never seen, who had many times wished for that happiness, and had indeed already six thousand times recited the Hail Mary, so that through the interceding suffrage of the Most Blessed Virgin she might obtain this grace from God. The Lord heard her pious wish: for on the night immediately preceding the death of the Blessed, she heard in the oratory

the pious Mother's triple knock, and roused from sleep by that knock, she also heard the door of the oratory open and again close. She therefore rises and goes to the place; where she saw a Religious shining with wondrous brightness, as crystal is wont to shine when exposed to the sun: then she heard a voice saying to her: It is Sister Colette, it is Sister Colette. She, amazed at the novelty of the thing and marveling that she could see her whose sight she had so long desired in her prayers, prepared to raise a shout to make other Sisters share in her joy, but could not. She was therefore content to follow the departing one, then to many others, who soon vanished from the eyes of the marveling woman. Then she hastened to the Sisters and explained what had happened to her: and while they silently marveled, behold, a plainly heavenly song was heard, and lifting their eyes to heaven, they saw the aforesaid Religious, clothed in glory amid the chorus of those singing, being carried upward into the sky. ^g

[83] The same Father Peter of Rheims related that in another convent there was a Religious, a company of Saints escorts her going to heaven: most devoutly devoted to divine things, who herself, at the very hour when Colette was dying, being piously intent upon prayer and rapt outside herself while praying, saw a most orderly procession, which was composed of Christ present with His most holy Mother, and the glorious companies of Patriarchs, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, and Virgins, as well as a very great multitude of Friars Minor and Sisters of St. Clare: and in the midst of them all, the soul of Blessed Colette was being triumphantly escorted to heaven, the souls freed by her from purgatory follow, gleaming with wondrous glory and splendor. This most glorious pageant was followed by another devout and humble procession of very many men and women of every condition and age, with hands joined together and necks inclined: and in this the pious Religious recognized her own mother, joyful, and asking how she fared, she learned that very well: moreover, the first order of those proceeding was of the Saints who were leading the soul of Blessed Colette into the eternal tabernacles; and the second, of the souls of the faithful who, snatched from the purgatorial flames by her prayers and merits, were following their liberator, of whom she herself also was one, and a companion to the heavenly glory. There was also another person of the greatest austerity and much penance, who in a similar rapture saw the soul of Blessed Colette being transferred to Paradise by the Angels.

^a This is the man whose son once wrote the Instrument of the Abbot of St. Peter, given in the first place after the Life.

^b That this was done not by the malefice of witches but by poison administered in a drink, the Life seems to indicate at no. 176.

^c Abbeville adds, fol. 413, from the deposition of Sister Elizabeth (for she was the daughter of the Duke of Bavaria) that in the same place, in the year 1446, on the feast of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, having been restored to herself from the ecstasy she had suffered, she exclaimed: Happy are those who die first and will not see the days of tribulation. Other predictions of B. Colette about her death. In the same place: a Novice Sister, intent upon kitchen duty, struck her eye upon a very sharp stake so that she lost the power of seeing from it. The Sisters wished to dismiss her as being henceforth useless: but Colette, who was preparing her departure for Ghent, said this was not permissible: because the illness was not natural but accidental, the wound of the eye cured, and contracted in the service of the Religious life. When this reasoning had little effect: Come, she said, I am going to Ghent to die, and this one, whom you reject, I shall take with me. She did as she said: but on the way she restored health to the injured eye. Similarly when Brother Arnold of the Order of St. Augustine had offered himself for the Order of Friars Minor, the habit designated in which she would be dressed after death: and when Colette had wished a garment to be prepared for him, admitted around the feast of All Saints, so that he might be clothed in it before her departure; she then changed her mind and ordered it to be deferred. She herself then went to Ghent, where, when the said garment was presented to her by a certain Religious, she said it would serve not Brother Arnold, who was to be sent to Burgundy, but for wrapping around her own body after death: as indeed happened, the Abbess, entirely ignorant of this prediction, so ordering, because no other was more ready at hand, and the regard for the people coming to see required that the dead woman be seen in a more decent habit. Blessed Colette departed from Hesdin on December 1, and passing through Courtrai, where there was a great fame of a certain Recluse as if she lived without human food, she received the Recluse's Confessor, sent to greet her out of respect, in such a way that she scarcely permitted him to speak of his penitent's Angelic life, studiously diverting the conversation elsewhere. To her companions who marveled at what she had done, she said that the Recluse, foully deceived by the demon, was secretly feasting in dainty fashion: hypocrisy exposed. which was found to be true shortly after, the imposture having been detected. Thus far Elizabeth in Abbeville, fol. 417.

^d The same adds from the Ghent memoirs that, speaking to Sister Odette, then Abbess there, she shortly after exclaimed: Alas, I have undergone so many labors for the reform of the Religious life, which will not last long: [She foresees the relaxation of the Reform through the indulgence of the Confessors,] and this on account of the excessive familiarity of the Religious women with the Brothers and the latter's connivance toward them; in whose favor they will introduce new opinions colored with the pretext of piety, and in the exposition of the Rule, opinions contrary to the truth. At another time, having entered upon the same topic: It would suffice, she said, the way I showed them, for I neither did nor commanded anything that I did not know with certainty to be the divine will. Indeed I wish the Religious men to be honored by them and cherished with charity: but what is this practice, that the Sisters summon them after Compline, and the excessive familiarity of the Religious women with them. and reveal the secrets of the monastery to them? — from which I warn them they will receive more desolation than consolation. And to this end she adduced the words of St. Bernard, addressing his followers at the end of his life: As long as you keep the way I prescribed for you, you shall call upon me and I will hear you, and in your afflictions I will be your helper: which he indeed performed, as long as they kept the observance of the Rule. But afterward, not so; and that he had this reason for abandoning them, the holy Founder declared, appearing to a certain one in a vision. These words, however, do not yet apply to the Convent of Ghent, in which the first fervor from the bodily presence of Blessed Colette still flourishes, along with the most complete poverty and modesty, as we know from the certain testimonies of great men, and we were partly able to judge for ourselves.

^e Abbeville observes from Foderius that Colette died at the same hour, day, month, and year in which Nicholas V was created Pope at Rome, by whose prudence it was effected Election of Nicholas V. that the Antipope Felix V should yield his pretended Pontificate: and thus the schism was ended, after which none has ever again torn the unity of the Church, nor, as we pray, will it: which the Ghent manuscript, attributing this to the merits of Blessed Colette, then received into heaven, expatiates at length here, says Abbeville, p. 428.

^f The same, fol. 421, narrates that to more easily satisfy popular piety, a platform was erected, to which one ascended by twin staircases: the first of which faced the door of the church, Rosaries touched to the body emit a sweet odor. the other the choir of the Religious: and the wall, by which the garden was enclosed, was opened with a large hole for the crowd to pass through. Among the rest there was a certain Licentiate, named Germanus, who, following the example of others who were touching their rosaries to the holy body, himself applied his out of religious devotion, with such success that from that touch it contracted a certain sweet and quite unusual and wonderfully persevering odor: so from his own deposition it is found in the ancient manuscript.

^g To these may be added from Abbeville, citing the manuscripts of Moulins, fol. 423: Joanna Carmona, who by the prediction of the Blessed had become a Religious at Moulins, made a vow to greet the Virgin Mother of God with the Hail Mary recited a thousand times: and on three different occasions she merited to see the Reformer of the Order.

CHAPTER VIII.

Miracles performed before and after death.

[84] The eminent sanctity of Blessed Colette was confirmed by miracles, A stillborn infant is restored to life, both those which she performed while living and those which followed her death: for in the city of Besancon, a girl, dead before she was born, was carried by her parents in vain to the church, trusting in God's mercy, and at last was offered with tears to Blessed Colette. The Sisters, touched by a sense of humanity, took the veil which their Mother had been accustomed to use, and wrapping the little body of the deceased in it, they ordered it to be carried back to the church. There, by the merits of our most glorious Mother, the life of the little girl was restored, and she was baptized and called by the name of Colette: who, when she had reached a suitable age, was offered to the Sisters and received, and professed the Religion of St. Clare among us; afterward she also governed the convent of Pont-a-Mousson as ^a Abbess; and this miracle was very well known throughout all Besancon. A citizen of the same city and an outstanding benefactor of our convent, John Boisoit, likewise restored to life by a similar favor, frequently confessed the marvel performed upon him, and many sworn witnesses affirmed the same, as a matter everywhere certain among all. The third in this same type of miracle was the often-named Brother Francis Claret, likewise a citizen of Besancon, who had humbly rendered faithful service to the blessed Mother for thirty years. After a grave illness, having died in the city of Lyon, and Brother Francis Claret. he seemed to himself to be brought to judgment, and for the sake of obtaining mercy to be sent first to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, then to the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, and Virgins: but when all judged that he must be presented to Blessed Colette, by her intercession his soul was restored to his body, and so he revived and afterward enjoyed the most complete health, as he himself affirmed to me.

[85] No less than these are those which she performed while living in mortal flesh: She obtains a longer life for her Confessor: for I testify that I heard from Father Henry that while he was in the convent of Castres in the Albigensian region, with Blessed Colette staying in the convent of Lezignan, he fell ill unto death: which danger, the pious Mother having been informed in spirit of her most beloved Father's peril and being greatly afflicted and grieving over it, she transferred herself to Castres, visited the dying man, and having poured forth prayers to God, obtained from God a longer life for him, who therefore, gradually recovering, was restored to his former health. I also testify that there was a Religious of another Order who, desiring to lead a more amended life, and for a recently admitted Religious, both nearly dead, with the permission of her Superiors, transferred to the Order of St. Clare, and insistently asked to be assigned to that convent in which Blessed Colette was staying. And she indeed obtained what she wished: but shortly after, having fallen into a grave illness, she was brought to the point where, since there was no doubt about her imminent death, a grave had already been dug for her burial, which I myself saw. But the holy Mother, considering how small a portion of her holy desire the dying Sister had achieved on account of the very brief time granted to her, asked God for a delay for her to bring forth worthy fruits of penance: and what she asked she fully obtained: for the Religious recovered

and survived for twenty years: of which matter there can be as many witnesses as there were Sisters then dwelling at Poligny. ^b

[86] I also testify that I was told by Sister Matthaetta, a kinswoman of Blessed Colette herself, and likewise by the outstandingly upright man John des Bees, some are freed from the danger of drowning, as a matter publicly known in the convent of Besancon, that on one occasion, while Blessed Colette was traveling for the sake of visitation, the waters had swollen so copiously that the aforesaid John, wishing to carry one of the Religious across on his horse, was swept away by the violence of the waters together with the horse and the aforesaid Religious; so that he believed it was over for his life and hers: but with Colette crying out to God, they were snatched from destruction and safely returned to the bank, he said. Similarly concerning Master Peter Psalmon, of whom mention was made above, I recall being told by many that when he had slipped with his horse into a deep pit full of water, with no hope of safety remaining for himself or the horse, remembering in such a crisis the wonderful works which God was performing through Blessed Colette, he implored her help and was soon amazed to find himself miraculously freed.

[87] A certain excellent architect named Jaqmont had undertaken the care of building the convent of Vevey in Savoy, others from shipwreck: while Blessed Colette was staying there; when on one occasion he was at the shore of the Lake ^c with some companions bringing material needed for the building, the waters suddenly swelled so much that the danger of shipwreck was present for all. The pious Mother saw in spirit those laboring in that crisis and wailing, having lost hope of life: and so she called out to her Confessor and asked him either to form the sign of the Cross over the waters: which when he promptly and obediently did, the storm was immediately calmed, and the craftsmen arrived safely at port: while I observed and noted that the Blessed had, without anyone's prompting or information about the danger, commanded what I have described. I knew a most religious man from the Order of Friars Minor, she visits a captive among the Saracens. who had added to his outstanding zeal for perfection such a singular zeal for propagating the Catholic faith that, desiring to testify to it by the shedding of his blood, he went to Jerusalem; where, captured by the Saracens, he was cast into a foul prison: in which he saw Colette visiting and consoling him, as he himself afterward confessed to me when freed from his chains: and the blessed Mother was predicting to him a near liberation, because Christ had destined his labors for certain other things more conducive to His glory.

[88] The sound of Colette's bell restrains the demons. It was publicly known both to the Sisters and to the secular inhabitants of Poligny (from whom I testify that I heard it many times) that the demons, who disturbed the prison of the place near the convent with nocturnal disturbances and terrors as soon as the sun had set, causing no small trouble to the wretched prisoners, were accustomed to disappear as soon as the Sisters rang the bell for Matins, with all commotion ceasing: therefore those wretched prisoners inquired what bell that was so very effective in restraining the demons: and learning that it was the Colettines', they praised God in those holy and pious souls. In the same place, the wife of John Maillard, in a dangerous childbirth, women in childbirth are aided by her prayers: sent her daughter to Blessed Colette, through whom she might commend herself and her offspring to her pious prayers: she had scarcely received the message (as those who stood by reported to me) when, raising her eyes to heaven, she replied to the girl: Come, return home, and you will find that your mother has given birth.

[89] The wife of John Courrard, a citizen of the same town, in a much greater crisis, he almost considered a hopeless case: for the midwives denied that she could come to the delivery except by cutting open the belly, in which the fetus, lying crosswise because of the mother's excessive agitation, could find no way to emerge. And he had indeed already summoned physicians and surgeons to his house to perform the operation: but it occurred to him first to ask for the prayers of Blessed Colette, then present at Poligny: therefore ordering them to wait until he returned, he hurried to the convent; explained his wife's need; begged for prayers: which she poured forth to God without delay, brief indeed but efficacious: for to the sad and anxious husband as he returned from them she said: God has shown mercy to your wife: go, and she shall bear you a son. Nor did it happen otherwise than she had predicted: the woman gave birth, and nourished her surviving child for a full five years: her eyes and those of another are cured: thus I faithfully attest having heard from Sister Matthaetta, a kinswoman of Blessed Colette. The same and other Sisters told me, which I also recall hearing from her herself, that on one occasion, greatly grieving over the nearly lost use of her eyes, she received them, through prayers poured forth to God, immediately as clear and healthy as she had ever had them. And the reason the Blessed loved these above other members was that through them she delighted to contemplate Christ hidden under the sacred Host. I also saw the eyes of others cured with equal ease by her, when at Besancon Sister Catherine de Mansie had recourse to her in a similar case, and for Colette to inspect and cure her infirmity was one and the same thing.

[90] A wealthy matron of Poligny, at whose expense the convent had been erected in that place, the danger of madness, driven away by Confession. had incurred a dangerous illness which, attacking the brain, had nearly cast her from the state of sound mind. When other remedies had been applied in vain by the grieving husband, she was at last sent by him to Colette, who, severely rebuking her, taught her that this was happening to her by divine vengeance, because she had not for a longer time than was right purified her soul through Confession: then she summoned her Confessor, Father Henry of Baume, and while the woman confesses to him, she herself prayed so efficaciously that from the completed confession the woman rose safe and sound. In the convent of Besancon, moreover, I had almost all the Sisters as witnesses that there had been there a Brother named Eustace, who while begging had so gravely injured one of his legs that the physicians believed the wound incurable: but the medicine which he could not hope for from physicians he received from Blessed Colette, having been brought into her presence: who, after she had commiserated with him and commended the matter to God, the good Brother soon felt himself completely healed. There was also another Brother, an abscess in the throat, cured by the application of hairs, as Father Peter de Osiaco testified before all the Sisters, including me listening, whose name was Peter Goullier, assigned to the service of the Sisters of the same convent; and in addition to a dangerous illness, a troublesome abscess in his throat was nearly cutting off his breath. When the aforesaid Father Visitor pitied him yet did not know by what remedy he could relieve him; at last, remembering a few hairs which he had from the sacred head of Colette, he placed them upon the sick man and, as it were signing him with them like a Cross, restored him to full health.

[91] Two nuns of the Order of St. Clare, sick unto death, to whom no medications were of any use, two nuns healed by the living Colette: and who could no longer swallow even a crumb of bread, were granted health by the pious Mother, placing a morsel of bread chewed by herself in the mouth of each: one was named Edelina, the other Jacquetta: and I was present when both, immediately upon swallowing the bolus that was given, rose up. Similarly, from Joanna of Corbie, portress of the convent of Seurre, another preserved from being crushed under a cart: I heard that one of the Sisters, having fallen under a cart during a journey, and in everyone's judgment dead and crushed, rose so healthy at the prayers of Colette that she is seen to this day: and the aforesaid portress knew of the miracle from the driver who was then driving that cart. Likewise in the convent of Besancon, Sister Catherine de Mansee, who, having fallen into a fire, had gravely burned her hands and feet; after she approached Mother Colette, was healed in both by a single compassionate gaze of hers fixed upon her.

[92] From her herself I heard, in the presence of many Sisters, how while still a young girl in her father's house, likewise her own leg, splitting wood, with the stroke going astray, she struck the axe into her own leg so that she nearly severed it, ^d yet she had kept the wound hidden from her parents, and having bandaged it, commended it to God, and on the next day found it completely healed. seven sick women, Sister de Vaulx, moreover, told me that in the convent of Auxonne, when she herself was acting as Abbess, she had seven Sisters dangerously ill, all of whom were healed by Blessed Colette when she arrived there for the purpose of visitation. In the convent of Poligny there was a Sister named Clara, a headache, who, having suffered an intolerable headache for twenty years, already had her eyes hideously distorted: who, when Colette hastened to the infirmary and after many words of holy conversation, felt herself freed from all torment: as she herself, who received the benefit, an ailing hand is healed. declared to me at Vevey. At Besancon, moreover, I know that Margaret de Cayeux, a Religious of our Order, had an incurable wound in her hand, from which she was cured when, having accidentally seized the hand of Blessed Colette, she applied it to the wound. ^e

[93] Nor were miracles performed only in her presence, but also in the favor of the absent, the benign God worked many things beyond the powers of nature: Her letters confer health upon others; such as that which I recall having heard from Father Peter of Rheims, namely that Sister Margaret Blauvais, having received a single consolatory letter from the Blessed, suddenly rose from a disease that was judged lethal by all. Rightly therefore did those who could obtain any letters of hers esteem and preserve them as precious jewels. There was one woman who, carrying many of them collected in a bundle in her bosom and drawing water, dropped them into the well: in another case, they are drawn from the water unharmed: but when extracted on the third day, since they were fouled with mud on all sides, they were again immersed in water and, as if they were cloths, washed and dried, and are still preserved, as whole and fresh as if they had never been moistened.

[94] Furthermore, I testify that I heard from Father Peter de Osiaco and Father Peter of Rheims that the said Father Peter de Osiaco, Visitor of the convents established by Blessed Colette, Father Visitor freed from headache, labored for a year and a half with so grave a pain of the head that, being unable to eat or walk or sit or stand without discomfort, he was rendered absolutely unfit for the exercise of his office. He therefore implored the merits of the Virgin Mother of God and of her handmaid Colette, in whose honor he was laboring: and the following night, being in the convent of Besancon, he seemed to himself to be at Ghent in that oratory in which he had often been accustomed to celebrate before Blessed Colette; and there to hear and behold her using the same tone of voice and habit as she had been accustomed to while living: and she said that her words were of such great consolation and efficacy that all the pain departed from his head, nor was it ever troublesome afterward.

[95] Father Peter of Rheims also narrated that at Troyes in

Champagne there was an upright man, spasms removed, once the host of Blessed Colette when she passed through there, whose little son, subject to spasms, on a certain occasion fell so unfortunately that his arm was broken in the fall. The grieving father, therefore, remembering the glorious Mother to whom he had once shown hospitality out of charity, prayed to God to kindly succor his little son through her merits: and behold, as the father finished his prayers, the son appeared healthy with his arm whole and sound, and remained free from spasms thereafter. Afterward it happened that a house next to the same man's building was consumed by an inextinguishable fire: a fire extinguished. wherefore he, seeing that his own house would most certainly be seized by the same flame, conceived new hope from the past benefit: and said: O glorious Lady, Sister Colette, who healed my little son, help me in this danger: and preserve my home, your lodging, from the fire. Wonderful to tell! The flames diminished, and the fire, spreading dangerously, was quelled without any damage to the neighborhood.

[96] I, Sister Petrina of Baume, testify with what humility and purity of heart I can, Protestation of Sister Petrina. that all the things written above are true according to the form in which they are set down to be read: for I always recall having said less than the excellence of the things to be narrated required.

^a The surname de Pruceto is added in the Life, no. 202; the dignity of Abbess is not mentioned: whence we gather that this miracle occurred long before the death of the Blessed: thus in the Life, no. 90, we have an account of a sick woman cured by the veil of the Blessed from far away.

^b One who had died in sin. From the memoirs of the same Sisters' manuscripts, Abbeville narrates, fol. 214, that when a certain Religious died there, it was revealed to Colette, who was setting out for Besancon, that she had died in mortal sin: and therefore she expressly commanded the Sisters not to bury the body until her return, so that the wretched woman, restored to life, might confess her sin: which she also obtained. The resuscitated woman therefore disclosed her Confession and exposed the crime sacrilegeously concealed: and afterward, having given thanks to the Mother, Colette raises her to repentance. she peacefully fell asleep in the Lord. In memory of which event the Religious women had an image painted, which is still seen in the common infirmary. So he says.

^c Of Lake Leman, to which, as we said, Vevey is adjacent, opposite Geneva.

^d It was added: so that it seemed to adhere only to the skin alone: which manner of speaking the author of the Life followed at no. 253 (in that part which had been lost from two manuscripts: and even from this it is clear that it is also the work of Peter of Rheims) for he says: she cut it so deeply that only a small piece of intact skin remained crosswise on the bone of the leg: but either this is a great hyperbole, or a miracle of sudden and extraordinary healing. Abbeville prudently was content to say that the wound was very deep.

^e To these may be added from Abbeville, citing the manuscripts of the convent of Vevey: Sister Clara Labeur, whom Colette, sending her to Vevey to act as Abbess, healed when she excused herself on the ground that because of migraine pains she was unfit for that office, by impressing on her the sign of the Cross, ordering her to go there boldly: where she then lived for 30 years: so he says, p. 285.

HISTORY OF THE ELEVATION OF THE BODY.

From the French Manuscript.

Colette, Reformer of the Order of St. Clare, at Ghent in Belgium (B.)

BY PETRINA FROM THE FRENCH MS.

[1] For those about to deal with the renovation of the sepulcher of our holy Mother Colette, it will be fitting to explain what the state of the commonwealth was around the time of the said renovation. In the year after the birth of Christ 1492, Flanders was pressed by a grave ^a war, In the year 1492, after a grave war in Flanders, and especially the noble city of Ghent, enclosed on all sides by enemy cities: so that the Visitor, distrusting the danger-filled roads, did not dare to undertake the visitation to be conducted at Ghent: until at last, as the year was inclining toward summer, it pleased the Divine goodness, which had chosen this time for the aforesaid renovation, to wonderfully change all things and to convert this unhappy and calamitous war into a joyful peace. The city of Ghent had been tested and attacked many times with an effort no less great than futile: therefore the enemies, turning from open force to stratagems, decided to attack the city with a threefold division of forces, at the time when nothing of the sort was feared and they knew there would be fewer sentries than usual on the walls. and the siege of the city of Ghent, And so, having prepared everything necessary for this expedition, on the 15th day of June, falling on a Friday, before dawn they arrived: two parts of them indeed where the waters were less deep, to bring themselves unexpectedly into the city, while the third, through another quarter and its interception prevented, which seemed more opportune for setting fires, having entered, would spread flames widely and divert all the people thither, who would rush to extinguish the fire. The plan was succeeding as they wished: when behold, one of the sentries, having heard the somewhat obscure noise of those approaching, although he saw no one, directed a cannon toward the place from which the sound struck his ears, and struck the very head of the entire expedition with so fortunate a shot that the unexpected death of one man struck terror into all the rest: struck by which, as if an immense army had suddenly appeared, they immediately took to flight, leaving behind the machines and hurdles prepared to facilitate entry into the city, which on the following Saturday were brought into the city by carts. Nor were there lacking those who left their boots and shoes in the mud, and some even their lives: others threw away their bows, clubs, and other weapons: all at length confessed that God had fought for the people of Ghent that night: and therefore thanks were given to Him by all, when the news of the event, brought at the time of the sermon, reminded the people of the great danger they had been in that night.

[2] And that it might be more evidently apparent that this was the work of God, shortly afterward a herald arrived from the adversaries to seek peace: after peace was concluded, which was concluded, and without any difficulty the Visitor arrived at Ghent, to begin the visitation ^b that had been interrupted for many years, through the renovation of the aforesaid sepulcher, as he had previously agreed with the other convents before arriving here. From which we piously believe that the city was defended from enemies through the intercessions of our holy Mother, at the Visitor's command, and that peace was obtained from God; for this purpose especially: just as we also read in her Life that enemies were averted from other cities through her prayers. The name of the Visitor was Brother James Bernardi: he commanded the Reverend Mother and Abbess of this convent, Barbara Boens, to take care that the earth heaped over the sacred body be removed: and she, promptly obeying the command, with two spades, six baskets — both new — procured for this ministry, the sepulcher of B. Colette is uncovered on September 10, on the 10th day of September, within the Octave of the Nativity of the Virgin, a Monday, accompanied by several Sisters, entered the chapel above the sepulcher of the blessed Mother, built within a few years after her death. Here, the boards with which the floor was laid having been removed, the spades were applied to dig the earth, and they soon uncovered the hair, the bones entirely intact, with even one eye still hanging in its socket. On the following day care was taken that a lead chest be made for receiving the sacred relics, about three feet in length, one in width and depth, which the man who made it, John Drabbe, brought in the evening.

[3] On that and the following day the Visitor conducted the public visitation before the grille: the next day, Thursday, that is, the vigil of the Holy Cross, the 13th day of September, together with the Confessor Brother James of St. Quentin, himself also vested in the sacrificial habit, except the chasuble — namely the Amice, Alb, Stole, and Maniple — he entered the convent shortly after eight in the morning to complete the visitation. And first indeed they approached the chapel, after 45 years of burial, on September 13 the body is found: to inspect what of the sacred body had already been uncovered: thence to the church and dormitory and other places according to the prescribed formula of such an inspection, and returning again to the chapel, both descended into the pit in which the holy Mother had lain humbly and deeply buried for forty-five years and twenty-seven weeks, to be counted from the eighth day of March, falling on a Wednesday, when she had been entombed around the twelfth hour of noon, to the ninth hour of the present day. Then, with Sisters crowding around from every side, the aforesaid Reverend Fathers, removing the remaining earth with spades, uncovered the bones of the whole body, the bones are placed on a table in a cloth, all adhering at their joints, and so sound as if they had lain for scarcely five years in clean and dry ground, contrary to what could have been expected from the nature of the low and damp ground, and indeed after the passage of so many years. From here, therefore, lifting up each limb, they placed them in a clean white cloth, and setting them upon a table prepared for that purpose, they also filled four baskets with earth that had been nearest to the sacred bones: they are cleaned with wooden knives: both because, with the flesh and blood of the Blessed having been dissolved into it, it deserved to be held in veneration, and so that the smaller bones, especially the joints of the feet which had fallen away, might be more conveniently preserved. These being found, they began to clean each bone, and with wooden knives formed for that use, to scrape away the earth adhering to them: which, reverently collected in wooden vessels, would be distributed among the Sisters and friends out of religious devotion. This activity continued until the eleventh hour, with the Sisters standing around watching without weariness, not without a singular jubilation of piously exulting soul, and the sweetest tears, witnesses of their inner feeling, with which they also moistened the sacred head, reverently carried around to each one for kissing, as they had requested: which was then wrapped in a silk cloth and placed in the lead chest, they are carried to the altar as were the rest of the relics: and having closed it with a likewise lead cover, they transferred it to an altar erected in the Chapter house, while the grave pit was being prepared in the manner that had been agreed upon.

[4] When these things had been done secretly and with almost no one aware, the Visitor and Confessor left the cloister of the monastery: and the Visitor announced to the Brothers before his departure the matter as it had been done (since it had turned out beyond hope happily, as they had feared finding little or nothing of the desired body in the damp ground). The names of the Sisters then serving God in this convent were as follows: Barbara Boens, Abbess; there were besides the Abbess 23 nuns, Mary de Salieres alias de la Vent, Aleydis de Sanchines, Joanna Rense-vliet, Mary de Ghandt, Christina vanden Brouke, Vicaress; Pirona Blome, Mary de Berghes, Portress; Mary Barts, Sacristan; Catherine Adornes, Adriana van Koye, Isabella de Samergi, Mistress of Novices; Margaret de Monts, Mary Coerins, Livina vanden Bosch, Isabella vander Mote, Mary vander Poorte, Margaret vanden Brouke, Isabella Schrijvers, Joanna de Brederode, Catherine Rums, Margaret Ghelas, Ursula Bruns, Jacqueline Petite, admitted in the year 1491. With these the entire convent of Religious women consisted, and 6 Religious men to whom the Brothers James of St. Quentin, Bartholomew Lamartyn, Roger vanden Essche, John Stubbe, John Bolle, and Bavo vanden Ackere ministered.

[5] On the 17th of September, Monday morning, the necessary supplies were brought into the convent for a new sepulcher to be built in the same place as before: and in the afternoon of the same day the master mason, Baldwin Doerischlage, was admitted into the same, together with the servant of the convent itself, who would lend his service for the necessary ministries of the construction. By these, having laid a suitable foundation, a new tomb is built, the tomb was built of such length, width, and depth that the chest placed in it would not touch it from any side, but would be distant on every side from its floor and walls by half a quarter of an ell; and from the stone with which the sepulcher was to be covered, also by half an ell. The interior floor of the sepulcher was paved with bricks coated with lead paint, and the sides on every side were covered with the same, through which four iron rods, coated with tin, were run, on which the chest was to be placed: the same number of windows were formed in the sides of the tomb, which rose one foot above the pavement of the chapel, each a quarter of an ell wide in a square shape, except the one at the head, which was half an ell long, closed with a brass grating: and the thickness of the tomb on three sides was half a brick; but at the head one whole brick in addition: because that part was so built that from the very foundation upward there was left a certain square and paved hollow, having at the bottom a stone in the very place where the traces of the sacred head had remained impressed in the earth when it was exhumed. At the same part was built a well of three or four feet square, with a well on which was placed the earth found near the body: itself covered above with an iron grate: in which was deposited that earth which, because it had lain nearest to the sacred bones, we said was carried out in four baskets. First the earth was deposited which had necessarily been removed to form the space of the sepulcher: then also that which we said was set apart in four baskets. This earth the Visitor said he held in the same esteem as he would hold the flesh of her, if it had survived; as having been mixed with this earth after its dissolution: wherefore from the same he gave something to all the Sisters, and he himself carried some part of it away with him to be distributed through other convents.

[6] While the new burial place was being built in the manner we have described; while the chapel itself was being paved with bricks and these covered with planks laid over them; while on the same occasion other walls were also being repaired in the monastery, six or seven days devoted to manual labors passed; and already the middle of the following week's Wednesday had passed, when, with the entire work completed, the place was cleaned and the necessary preparations were made so that the sacred body could be re-committed to the earth the next day. That day was the 27th of the same month of September, sacred to St. Elzear: when, after the Office was completed, the Sisters carried the venerable pledge around the circuit amidst the singing of the Litanies, The bones, enclosed in the lead chest, are placed in the tomb on September 27: as they call them; and when they had come to the chapel, with the same lead chest in which it had been carried around, placed on the ground, two of the Sisters received it, and using ropes lowered it into the tomb upon the iron rods we mentioned, to rest there; on the same day of the week and at the same hour at which it had been taken out of the earth the previous week. And provision was thus made that, raised from the floor of the tomb by the chest, it could not be wet by water in winter, and yet would lie within the earth, being somewhat higher all around than the uppermost surface of the chest itself; until, after the Canonization was completed, the solemn elevation of the sacred relics should be performed according to the practice and prescription of the Church. The stone which was to close the sepulcher had not yet been prepared: therefore a wooden cover was placed over it, the very same which had previously covered the sepulcher of the holy Mother, so long and wide as to conveniently cover the new tomb with the adjacent well containing the earth of which we spoke: cut through the middle, so that the parts could be more easily pulled back and brought together on either side, to be joined to one another by iron hooks.

[7] There remained only the sepulchral stone, in procuring which no diligence that could be applied was omitted, so that the sepulcher might be closed as soon as possible: while the sepulchral stone is being sought, and yet nothing could be advanced in that business. An agreement is made with one, then with another stonemason about completing the work: various ones are approached within the city of Ghent, to find the most suitable stone: letters are written to Mechelen, letters are also written to Tournai to various persons. But neither to God nor to the most blessed Mother did it seem that the holy Relics had been perfectly attended to, and therefore a stone was being sought in vain to close the sepulcher, as the outcome of the matter proved. The fame of the event spread to the convents of neighboring cities: and having reached Bruges, it came also to the hearing of Sister Catherine Rufina, a suggestion is offered about washing the bones more cleanly: a worthy companion or attendant of the Most Blessed Mother Colette during her lifetime: who immediately sent word by letter to the Sisters of Ghent that the bones, which had lain so long in such a ground, did not seem sufficiently cleaned with those wooden knives: but that they absolutely ought to be washed both inside and outside and more carefully cleaned from every trace of adhering earth. The advice did not displease the convent of Ghent: but the Visitor's consent had to be awaited. It happened in the meanwhile that the Bishop of Cambrai, ^c Henry vanden Berghen, who had not been in Ghent for many years, passing through on a journey, visited his sister Mary, Vicaress of our convent, and, ignorant of the affairs and plans that were being pursued, among other things narrated: how not long before, returning from the Holy Land and passing through Basel, where his own grandfather, returning from the same place, had once been buried, he had ordered his bones to be exhumed, and having cleaned them and washed them with Rhine wine, enclosed them in a suitable box, and transferred them to Bergen, ^d and presented them to his Father ^e as a welcome gift, to be laid to rest within the family monuments in the principal church of that city. The aforesaid Sister directed her attention to that narration, and determined that the rite used by the Bishop in cleaning his ancestral bones should also be observed by herself toward the blessed Mother, according to the suggestion of Sister Catherine: all the more so because at this very time a small cask of Rhine wine had been sent as a gift to the convent by the Princess, the widow of Duke Charles, Margaret of England: so that she could scarcely doubt that these things had been done by divine counsel, and that no progress was being made in procuring the sepulchral stone until the bones had been duly cleaned of the earth in which they had lain for so long. And indeed that this was by no means a vain thought was evident shortly after. For as soon as the Sisters determined that it should be so done, a certain merchant of Tournai presented himself at Tournai to the stonecutter to whom this task had been entrusted, and, having taken the measurements of the required stone, promised to send it to Ghent within a few days: which, although it happened more slowly than we wished, the delay nevertheless brought no small convenience: and in the meantime various things were attended to that were quite fitting for the perfection of the work, which otherwise would have been omitted.

[8] At length, when all things had been so opportunely completed that it could scarcely have been desired that they be completed either sooner or much later, the Sisters wrote to the aforesaid Visitor for the faculty to obtain what they intended: in the year 1493, after the Visitor recovers from illness and returns to Ghent, for he had forbidden in the previous year, when the lead chest was closed, that anyone should thereafter approach it. He read the letters very kindly, and not only approved the pious plan but also promised himself as a helper in the work, as soon as he should recover from the illness that had confined him to bed at Rouen; which, although nearly everyone thought it would be fatal to him, the divine grace and the merits of our blessed Mother, however, dispelled it so quickly that within a short time, having recovered his strength, he also hastened to return to Ghent, as soon as his affairs permitted, to continue the visitation, a year having now elapsed since the prior inspection. So at the same time he set himself on the road and the stonecutter, unaware of the approaching Visitor, began his work: for neither any Brother nor any Sister believed him to be so near, on account of the intense heat at that time. He was present, however, after the middle of August, and entering the cloister on the feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, the bones are washed with Rhine wine, together with Brother James the Confessor, he washed the venerable relics with Rhine wine, just as we recall the Bishop had washed his grandfather's bones; and this was repeated a third time, until namely the appearance of the wine, no longer turbid, taught us that all the earth had been removed (which, since it was not inconsiderable, showed how appropriately that washing had been instituted). After this the bones were reverently placed in a clean place until they dried, and leisure was given for procuring a wooden casket made of ^f strong and nearly dry fir wood, to which the lid was to be fixed with eight wooden nails, inscribed on the inside with these words: RELICS OF BLESSED COLETTE. On September 9 they are placed in a casket, The sacred head was also enclosed in red silk, and finally on the 9th day of September, the day after the feast of Our Lady, a Monday, before noon, together with the rest of the parts of the venerable body, it was placed within this fir casket, lined with a white Damascene cloth, which the devoted affection of Lawrence Dullaert for the honor of the blessed Mother had donated for that purpose, in the presence of the Visitor and Confessor at the grille, directing the Sisters in what was to be done. The stone was then brought to the convent on the 23rd of the month and placed between the two gates, and in the afternoon it was rolled toward the chapel by ten of the stronger Sisters. On the following day the Sisters carried the aforesaid casket around the circuit and on September 24 they are placed in the tomb, with the same rite with which we recall the lead chest was carried around the previous year: to which the casket was now brought, now placed within the sepulcher, and set upon four bars of ^g the thickest glass, one inch wide and eight long, laid crosswise inside the chest, to serve as a support and protection for the casket, lest it suffer anything from the immediate contact of lead from any side. The chest itself, after its lead cover was placed on it following the stowing of the casket, was supported by a low stool not exceeding half a foot in height, closed with the stone placed on top. expressly made for that purpose from solid oak, and placed upon those four iron rods about which we spoke more fully before. Finally the stone was placed upon the tomb and, properly fitted, closed the sepulcher, until almighty God shall be pleased, after the Canonization has been performed, that the same may be opened for the solemn translation of the Relics: which we most earnestly and especially desire to happen as soon as possible, to His honor whom Blessed Colette so faithfully served.

[9] It remains for us to briefly indicate what the carving of the sepulchral stone is and what its inscription. And this is composed in the French language to this effect: Here lies the body of the holy handmaid of Jesus Christ, Sister Colette, the first Abbess and Reformer of the Order of St. Clare, on which various words about her Life are carved, who died in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1447 on the 6th day of March, who in this place chose a humble burial in the very earth; in which her holy bones were preserved intact through the grace of God for the space of 45 years and more: as was evident when the same were reverently enclosed in lead in her honor by the Reverend Father, our Visitor, and the Confessor of this convent, on the 13th day of September, and placed under this tomb in the year 1492. Around the margin, where the thickness of the stone is visible on every side, a scroll runs, inscribed with the following two Latin verses:

Sweet handmaid of God, blooming rose, fair star, Be mindful of me when the hour of death shall come.

[10] Between these verses, on that side toward which the feet point, the form of the seal which Blessed Colette used during her lifetime is carved, one and a half inches high, one inch wide, with this inscription around it: as well as her seal. † MY SISTERS, THINK OF DEATH: IT IS NECESSARY TO DIE. Within this inscription, as if proceeding from a cloud, there was a hand, clasping a Cross with three nails and a lance: as if, wishing to impress the memory of death, she commended to her followers the cross of penance; so that, as it were affixed to it by the three nails of their three vows, they should resolve to persevere in the same until death, which is denoted by the lance: and thus they might hope to arrive at heavenly glory. a small axe, The measure of the seal, as expressed here, encompasses four inches in height and two and a half in width. After the second verse was the figure of a small axe, indicating that our Mother was born of a carpenter father, such as her Spouse Christ had deigned once to call His father: He, the names of SS. Francis and Clare, I say, with whom there is no regard for family and persons, but only the merits of virtue are esteemed. The first side of the aforesaid margin displayed the carved names of SS. Francis and Clare: between which the stone was hollowed out in an arch to transmit light into the tomb itself, so that those who applied their head to the brass grating could more easily behold the lead chest through the little window: which hollow, adorned with a special carving, had a long cross set into a small mound, of Jesus and Mary, below which the sacred names of Jesus and Mary could be read. All of which was written by one who saw, was present, and assisted by hand and counsel: and is found to have been written in the year 1510.

[11] There exists in the Archive of the nuns of St. Clare a letter of a certain Sister to a certain Mother Abbess of another convent, the chest anointed with Chrism. containing the order of Psalms and prayers formerly sung in the chapel of Blessed Colette after the Relics had been carried processionally through the cloister. In the same letter it is indicated that the lead chest was anointed with Chrism and blessed by a Suffragan Bishop, at the completion of which Benediction the same Suffragan raised the sacred head from the chest and offered it to all the Sisters to be kissed, and then granted all an Indulgence of forty days: and concerning that matter letters are said to have been given to all the convents: but the name of the writer and the date of the letter are missing. Nevertheless, the name of the Suffragan Bishop who arranged the said elevation, and the time of the event, were indicated to us by Michael Notel, the French translator of the summary found in Surius: in whose manuscript prologue, after the narration of the translation of the year 1492, these things are read: The sacred Relics, thus re-interred, rested until the year 1536; when on the 25th day of May, Nicholas, Bishop of Sarepta, Suffragan of the Most Reverend ^h Bishop of Tournai, The sacred bones elevated in the year 1536: caused them to be elevated thence, after a Mass celebrated with Pontifical rite and ornament in the Church of the Sisters, on the day of the Ascension of the Lord. In which matter this notable thing happened: that when the tomb was opened by the Bishop, it was seen to drip with large drops of water on every side, yet so that none of them fell upon the sacred body: but when it was removed, the drops immediately falling, the entire floor of the place was wet with water on all sides: the wonder of which so seized the Bishop that he protested that without any other miracle the sanctity of the Virgin beloved of God was sufficiently attested by this prodigy for her Canonization to proceed. Thus Sister Livina Neuens, then Abbess of that same convent, instructed me by a letter given on the 10th day of March in the year 1594: adding that the white silk Damascene cloth in which these sacred bones had been wrapped for so long a time in a damp place was found entirely intact, a particle of which I have as a gift from the same Abbess and reverently preserve. on what occasion?

[12] The aforesaid Michael adds that after the relics were removed from the tomb, a chapel was built above it: and presumes that there had been no chapel before in the place of burial; but only a tomb built in the form of an arch, of such size that the Suffragan Bishop could descend under it: all of which is otherwise than stated, as is clear from the above writing: in which it is asserted both that the tomb was modest and that a chapel was built over the body of the holy Mother, humbly buried under the ground, a few years after her death. Wherefore I suspect that on the occasion not of building but of renovating and repairing the chapel, the venerable relic was removed from it; or for the sake of duly inspecting the Relics themselves to promote the Canonization of the Blessed, which the calamity of the times that shortly followed prevented. For certainly in the year 1577, with the iconoclast heretics devastating everything at Ghent, the Religious women were compelled to flee from the convent (as the same Michael says) in the year 1577 they were carried to Arras, on the feast day of the Apostle St. Bartholomew, and they also carried with them the remains of their blessed Mother: and as we were afterward told by the Religious women, having been divided into three groups, those who were going to Arras carried them thither, not without the presence of the Saint herself visibly appearing to some and accompanying the precious relic. Which happened according to the prediction of Blessed Colette herself, as Abbeville asserts, fol. 418, from the manuscripts of the convent of Arras. For when the founding of that convent was being discussed and she was asked whether she would be willing to go there to give the beginning to the new colony; with her eyes raised to heaven she said: I will go, in the following year they were brought back. if not alive, then at least dead. In the year 1586 on January 14, the Sisters, having returned from exile, replaced the relics in the same place and manner as before, having restored the chapel which the heretics had demolished.

[13] The same Religious women reverently preserve the mantle and tunic of the Blessed, The mantle, tunic, and utensils are preserved, which they are accustomed to place upon pregnant and sick women who hope for a happy delivery and health through her patronage. They also keep certain glass utensils which she used in her final illness; and a piece of the blessed candle which she held in her hand when dying: as well as two black veils which she used: a finger joint, and also a piece of that veil which was seen to catch fire entirely while she was rapt in ecstasy. Also the longer joint of the middle finger, decently enclosed in a larger silver reliquary, is preserved for kissing and veneration, other particles, and in three smaller reliquaries (such as could be worn around the neck) that eye found in the skull during the first exhumation of the body, divided into three parts. There is also present her signet ring of black horn, a seal, and a smaller bronze seal, two inches long and one wide, having a cross carved on it, pierced by three nails, with a crown of thorns hung from it: that other seal, about which mention was made above, seems to have been lost: with equal reverence is kept the Agnus Dei an Agnus Dei, which she used during her lifetime, enclosed in an ivory circle, and an entire text of Sacred Scripture in manuscript, and a Collectary likewise written by hand, books, which she while living sent to Sister Agnes de Vaulx as a memorial of herself, as the autograph of the blessed Virgin at the end of the book indicates. All of which were exhibited to us on the 10th day of October in the year 1663, together with a cloth woven with silver threads, the veil of the mother of Charles V. easily seven ells long, which served as a veil for the Princess Joanna, Mother of the Emperor Charles V, at the time when she felt at the tomb of the Blessed that she was carrying a living fetus: in testimony of which benefit she wished to leave it there; and at the same time a saddle-cloth of white Damascene fabric, with which the horse she was then riding was covered, of the same or more ells in length and one in width, not inelegantly painted with gold.

^a After the Peace of Tours, composed in the year 1489, by which Maximilian of Austria was also admitted by the Flemish to the guardianship of his children, the native historians, very meager about these times, have nothing memorable: hence, however, it is probable that the people of Ghent did not rebel against the Archduke: but that these were as it were the remnants of former rebellions, on account of which private rivalries of rival cities of Flanders blazed up into this conflagration; with the Prince, because he could not prevent it, looking the other way.

^b Flemish tumults before the year 1492 Perhaps already from the year 1482, when the people of Ghent, with the consent of the Flemish, scorning Maximilian who had been bereaved of his wife Mary, arrogated to themselves in the name of the States of Belgium the guardianship of his children Philip and Margaret, with the Princes detained by them against their father's will; whom afterward in the year 1488 the people of Bruges, conspiring with the Ghentians, held Maximilian captive: which things, although they were once and again settled by peace treaties, yet throughout the whole decade Flanders was never without disturbances until this year, around which Philip, with peace established everywhere, was inaugurated as Prince and received the reins of government.

^c From being Abbot of St. Denis of Mons and Chancellor of the Knights of the Golden Fleece, appointed in the year 1480, died in 1502, as the Sainte-Marthe brothers have it, who also mention his journey to the Holy Land: more fully Raissius in his Bishops of Belgium, p. 170; who writes that he set out with ten Counts in the year 1487 and returned in 1491.

^d Bergen on the Zoom A most strongly fortified city of Brabant on the Zoom, from which this family takes its name from the County raised to the title of Marquisate by the Emperor Charles V; it came under the power of the federated States in the year 1578.

^e Raissius calls him John of Bergen.

^f bois de spier In French de spier, by which we do not believe is meant Speyer, the city on the Rhine in Germany famous as the seat of the Imperial Parliament or Chamber: but spars, in Flemish speeren, which are obtained from fir forests: and are brought in the greatest quantity from Denmark to Belgium: fir trees moreover, which have no proper name among us, are now commonly called mastboomen: because from the larger ones masts are made, just as from the smaller ones spars.

^g We sometimes doubted whether by error verre glass had been written for fer iron: but we laid aside the doubt, considering that iron, being subject to rust, could more easily cause harm to the outer wooden chest than lead, from which the inner chest was made: and glass placed beneath completely kept it safe from harm. Similarly shortly after, by placing an oak stool under the wooden chest, care is taken that the chest not directly touch the iron rods running across the tomb, which would corrode it with their rust.

^h Of Charles de Croy, from being Abbot of Affligem in Brabant, whose epitaph, found in Arnold Raissius, Belgian Christianity, fol. 271, indicates that he presided over that Church for 40 years from the year 1524.

ANALECTA

Of the More Recent Miracles of Blessed Colette.

From Abbeville, Book 5 of the Life, and the Ghent French Manuscript.

Colette, Reformer of the Order of St. Clare, at Ghent in Belgium (B.)

BY PETRINA FROM THE FRENCH MS.

[1] Fire at Poligny In the year 1521, in that general conflagration by which a good part of the town of Poligny was consumed, and the church of the Dominican Friars was reduced to ashes — with the sole exception of the high altar, which the sacred Host resting upon it preserved from the flames — the convent of the Colettine Religious women there faced immense danger, and as the surrounding houses burned, the fire also struck it; about to consume the whole, had not the pious Mother Colette protected her own work. For the sacred Virgins, seeing that destruction was imminent for them as well, gave themselves equally to prayers; all indeed invoking the Saints for help, but with special urgency three Patronesses, namely St. Clare, St. ^a Agnes, and Blessed Colette. seen to be suppressed by three Religious women. And behold, to the astonishment of the citizens looking on, three Religious women appeared in visible form, and extinguished the flames rushing with great force into the monastery, and before they departed, blessed both the town and the grieving Sisters with their blessing. It was agreeable to believe that these were the very ones whom the nuns had more studiously invoked; and from that time the Clergy of the collegiate and parochial Church of St. Hippolytus, in memory of the benefit received, every year on the feast of St. Clare arranges for a solemn Mass to be sung in the church of the Poor Clares, with great devotion of the people flowing abundantly.

[2] documents then believed to have perished On the same occasion, the notable beneficence of Colette in protecting those devoted to her shone forth upon John Guidonis, the Syndic of the aforesaid convent. His house had burned to the ground like the others, and he had not had time to carry out any of his possessions: therefore he came to his spiritual Daughters, hoping to find some consolation in so great a misfortune, especially grieving that the titles to his properties and other writings of that kind, which it was very much in his interest to preserve, had been consumed by the devouring flames. Then the Sisters, sympathizing with the grieving man, inquired whether perhaps he had not placed some of what he was seeking in the little chest which he had sent to them for safekeeping. Here he asserted that he had done nothing of the sort, and had not even thought of it: and even if he had thought of it, he would have been foolish to have chosen that place for keeping his most precious things, which the fire threatened above all. The Sisters nonetheless persisted in their assertion, and producing the small chest gave proof that it had been brought by a young man unknown to them, who had said: Keep this diligently for John Guidonis, your benefactor. carried to safety by an Angel. He could not doubt that the young man had been a good Angel, and that this grace was being returned for the services rendered to this convent, after he recognized in that chest all the documents he had been grieving over, in perfect order. Remembering, moreover, that in that common calamity of the citizens and his own private one, he had prayed to Blessed Colette with special devotion and commended himself and his belongings to her; he attributed the benefit received to her, and in the church of the Religious women, dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God under the title of Mercy, he had a chapel built at his own expense, with a stipend added for a secular Priest to celebrate Mass there.

[3] At Auxonne a nun preserved in a fall, In the year 1550, in the convent of Auxonne, the devout Sister Adriana Pielley received a notable benefit: for when the floor of the place where she was standing collapsed, and she saw herself close to falling and drowning on account of the river flowing beneath, she felt prompt help from Colette, fervently invoked at such a moment, and she saw a Religious woman who freed her from both dangers: as many daughters of the same house testify, who heard her narrate this many times.

[4] The Abbess of Auxonne, The Abbess Mother of the same house, Sister Martha Thaboureta, in the year 1576 testified that she had been preserved not without a miracle from death, at the same time as she gave legitimate testimony to the earlier benefit bestowed upon Adriana. Intending to decorate the altar of Blessed Colette on the very vigil of her feast, in order to extend a canopy over it, she had climbed a ladder: which, when it sprang apart, deposited the nun upon a stone with a heavy fall, against which one of her temples was so struck that the physicians had no doubt the wound would have been fatal, had not Colette, invoked while falling, wished to show how certain a help she can provide to those devoted to her.

[5] and an eight-year-old girl. To these two let us add another from the Reverend Father Fodere. Anna, the eight-year-old daughter of the noble Lord N. de Bessey, had ascended with her mother to the top of a tower, then nearly completed by the workmen in the fortress: and wanting to look down into the depth from it, she tumbled headlong into the moats, without any rupture or dislocation of any limb, entirely unharmed — indeed she was found sitting peacefully and refastening the loose pins of her clothing — through the merits, as was believed, of Blessed Colette: to whom, wishing to be grateful afterward, she devoted herself to her institute in the convent of Auxonne, where she led a life for a long time commendable for singular holiness.

[6] In the year 1625, the Mother Abbess of the monastery of Le Puy, Sister Louise Ferriol, submitted the following miracles, legitimately attested before the Lord Official and Vicar General of the Most Reverend Bishop of that place (he was Justus de Serres, assumed from being Abbot and Baron of Montbourg in Normandy), on the 26th day of February, at Le Puy of which these are the summaries transcribed from the original. It has been nearly four years since the Life of Blessed Colette was being read at table in the refectory: and the point had been reached ^b where it is said that the Blessed, one incredulous about the Life of the Blessed recalling the mysteries of the suffering Christ during Holy Week, suffered such great pains that they surpassed the torments of any woman placed in difficult childbirth. Sister Joanna Fayet, the Portress of the house, heard this, and forgetting herself, rashly let loose her tongue and clearly declared that she did not believe it. But she had scarcely uttered these words when she began to be tormented with immense intestinal pains, for which the physicians found no remedy, until, acknowledging her fault, she made herself her own medicine with salutary penance and humble supplication of her whom she had violated with a rash utterance. is punished, and after a Novena is healed: To which end she began to perform various works of devotion voluntarily assumed in the oratory which we have in this monastery dedicated to the Blessed; and the rest of the Sisters, joining their efforts, each undertook to visit the aforesaid oratory for nine continuous days, and before these were finished, the aforesaid Religious, freed from all pain, lived henceforth most devoutly toward Blessed Colette: of which matter four witnesses still survive alive.

[7] Around the same time, a certain Novice, called Sister M. de Chorde, fearing to reveal an illness that had been afflicting her legs for three weeks, a hidden illness cured: lest she be sent back to the world on that account, resolved to have recourse to Blessed Colette by imploring her help and frequently visiting the oratory: nor was she disappointed in her expectation: but without any human medicine she so recovered that, fit for pronouncing her Profession, she today instructs the Novice Sisters as their Mistress.

[8] The Mother Sacristan of this convent, Sister Louise Pillet, while preparing a general Confession, a document recovered from the water after 3 months: intending to dispose herself for solemnly professing the vows of the Religious life in the year 1595, had allowed the paper on which she had written her sins to accidentally fall into the well: and when this loss was distressing her, she sought and obtained a remedy from Blessed Colette: for after nearly three months, drawing water from the same well, she pulled up in the bucket her little document, entirely unharmed by the water after so long a time.

[9] Then in the year 1623, the Novice Sister Gabriella de Prat, a tumor removed: carrying under her fist a small growth for four years like a chestnut in size, frightening because of its perpetual increase, received the advice to invoke the Blessed: and within a few days, which the girl spent on her devotion in the oratory, she rejoiced to report that the troublesome tumor had entirely vanished.

[10] Let the last be this: that the Religious women, both those who preceded us and those who are now living, have been accustomed an odor customarily perceived around the feast of B. Colette for seven or eight continuous days following the feast of our blessed Reformer, to perceive in the oratory of Blessed Colette and in other places of this convent a certain fragrance that is by no means natural, such as is the scent of violets in March. In the year 1624, moreover, one of the Novices, now professed, going to the aforesaid oratory out of devotion, drew in there an incomparable odor of aromatic incense on the Thursday of Holy Week.

[11] At Poligny, the vehicle and blanket of the Blessed, The convent of Poligny, which was one of the first founded by the blessed Reformer, in memory of her reverently preserves the vehicle which she used on her journeys; as well as the blanket which she used for covering her body during brief rest, both made famous by miracles, of which the following few are reported. Stephen Rosseaux's eighteen-year-old son, named John, miserably wasted for four years by the disease of dysentery, was barely dragging out his life, which give health to one with dysentery, and thereby causing his parents great troubles both night and day: but when he happened to accompany his father and uncle into the cloister for the purpose of constructing a certain oratory in honor of St. Charles Borromeo, the Sisters, touched by compassion at the sight of him, urged him to commit himself to the patronage of Blessed Colette, and they made him climb into the cart; which he had scarcely touched when he was entirely healed, and give life to a dying girl. and from then on lives healthy and robust. The same Stephen, seeing his daughter close to death, commended her to the Confessor of the Poor Clares, the Reverend Father Nicholas: he came and visited the sick girl not yet three years old, bringing with him the aforesaid coverlet, by the mere touch of which she suddenly recovered who had been believed about to die.

[12] in the same cart a feverish person is cured, The two sons of Lord Laxant and his wife Veronica Parregaut were in very poor bodily condition: for one of them was held by a continuous fever, and on the fifteenth day already past had brought him nearly to the gates of certain death; the other had been made lame by his bent knees: both their parents sent them in the year 1623 to the convent of Poligny, to be placed in the cart of Blessed Colette, a lame person, and each was freed from his infirmity and preserves so recent a memory of the benefit received that, at the prompting of these boys, many of their contemporaries come to seek a remedy for their diseases in the same cart. Of similar age was Claudina Baretta, a demoniac, namely eight years old, when she was brought to the monastery by her grandmother to be freed from the demon possessing her: which was done after she had been placed in the cart by the Religious women, who were forced to use no small violence against the resisting Satan.

[13] and a madman Nor was this cart salutary only for children, but also for adults: for in the year 1611 a certain madman, who was accustomed to run furiously through the streets of the town and fill the air with horrible shouts, having put aside his ferocity for a moment, approached the gate of the monastery, and cautiously and modestly asked the Portress to open it for him. She, thinking the man unknown to her was bringing something under the title of alms that was too large to be passed through the turn, opened the door, and quickly seeing herself deceived, marveled at the speed with which he, rushing headlong into the cloister, flew straight to the aforesaid cart, intending to seek health there: but the restless evil by which he was oppressed did not long allow him

to remain there: therefore having begged the Sisters who had rushed to the commotion with the added vow of a Novena. to entreat the Blessed on his behalf, he leapt out and began to run through the very cloister, shouting horribly, nor could he be persuaded to allow himself to be led out. The Sisters therefore applied to him certain Relics of Blessed Colette and vowed a nine-day supplication for obtaining his cure: the efficacy of which is shown by this very fact, that the man now, to the amazement of all, shows himself healthy in the town, most devoted to our Order.

[14] dangerous childbirths are resolved by the blanket and relics. The Lord Remaudot, acting as Magistrate of the same town, could find no help for his wife laboring in a desperate childbirth: but the Sisters of St. Clare, informed of the danger, sent the above-mentioned blanket to be placed upon the sick woman: at whose touch the woman in childbirth was strengthened and bore a daughter, to whom the name Claudia was given at baptism: and the parents, to preserve and venerate the memory of their benefactress, had her image expressed in colors upon a panel. A similar benefit was experienced in the county of Carladez by an honest matron, in a similar danger adjudged to certain death by the midwives, who despaired of the delivery, and by the other matrons present: to whom a reliquary, containing something of the relics of Blessed Colette, sent by a most noble and powerful man there, was of help, so that she bore twin male offspring, who through the salutary waters of baptism were soon enrolled in heaven and among the blessed, with the mother remaining safe.

[15] At Hesdin Besides those miracles which we have reported elsewhere as having been performed at Hesdin in the same century in which the Saint lived, some of a more recent character are found, from which I select the following two. It is about forty years since Sister Joanna Thoret had her skull so affected in her head a gap in the skull that within the skin and the affected part she felt whistling winds: when she indicated this to Sister Magdalene Warnet, she led Joanna to the oratory of the Blessed, intending likewise to seek help there, and she applied certain Relics of the same to the sick woman: at whose touch she felt the disjoined sutures of the skull come together, and she remained healthy from that time on. and madness are cured: In the same place, Sister Jacqueline du Mesnil, in the fifteenth year of her age, fell into a madness so severe that it was necessary to confine her: but Blessed Colette, appearing to her, seemed to place her holy hand upon her, and left her healthy in mind and body, until a year and a half later she expired with her judgment intact, having been fortified with the Sacraments of the Church by Father Philip Garnier three or four hours before her death.

[16] odors sweet beyond nature are perceived. It is of long standing that at intervals of time the Religious women of the house of Hesdin perceive certain sweet odors superior to the natural order, which they are accustomed to call the Visitations of St. Colette: a few years ago, however, one woman lamented that it had never happened to her to experience anything of the sort, and she drew this into a certain argument of her own reprobation. At last it pleased the divine mercy to free her from that most troublesome and no less dangerous error: for when the time of the aforesaid Visitation recurred, one of the Sisters invited the afflicted woman to accompany her to the place where that fragrance was customarily perceived. She refused, fearing to go in vain; but compelled to obey the one insisting more importunately, she had scarcely advanced two paces in walking when so great and so vehement an odor struck her nostrils that, nearly deprived of her senses, she would have fallen backward, and could rightly have taken up that saying of the Bride: Draw me after you, we will run in the odor of your ointments: and could have applied to Blessed Colette that verse of Ecclesiasticus: Like cinnamon and aromatic balm I gave forth a fragrance: like choice myrrh I gave a sweetness of odor. Cant. 1:3. Sir. 24:20

[17] In the convent of Amiens, many benefits were divinely bestowed upon the Sisters, At Amiens, various benefits of health bestowed upon various Sisters: of which we report these as more noteworthy. One of the nuns, making a ten-day prayer in honor of the Blessed, had a vision of her, and by her touch was cured of an illness, hidden indeed but most troublesome. A hernia, from which the intestines descended, was also healed in the same woman, after she had suffered it for four months. Sister Judoca, deprived of the use of one arm, faithfully applied to it a linen cloth dipped in Colettine water, and received health as the reward of her work: as also Sister Margaret Huimart, using the same liquid to cure paralysis that was dissolving the nerves of all her limbs, but especially her hands.

[18] The usefulness of the same water was experienced by Sister Colette Ringart, in removing a tumor that had grown upon her knee and seemed curable only by incision. The exercise of the nine-day devotion freed Sister Agatha Chevalier from a hernia and restored the voice to Joanna Boileau. Sister Mary of Vienna attested that she had obtained the cure of many ills, enumerating a burning swelling, a dissolution of the stomach unable to retain any food, erysipelas in the leg, and finally a most troublesome affliction in the throat that so impeded the ability to form speech that the Priest could receive her confession only with the greatest difficulty for two whole years. And not to pass over the Mother Abbess, Sister Catherine Brabant, she too acknowledges having been cured of both a hernia and a troublesome abscess above the knee by the favor of Blessed Colette; and what is far more to be valued, having recovered the lost use of her voice by a similar favor for celebrating the praises of the Lord.

[19] I pass to external persons, upon whom benefits conferred were recorded and noted, by order of the Most Reverend Bishop of Amiens, Francis le Fevre de Caumartin (whose distinguished acts over 35 years, as Abbot of St. Quentin de l'Isle and Dean of St. Quentin in Vermandois, Fevers healed: are enumerated by the Sainte-Marthe brothers in vol. 2 of Christian Gaul, and whose death they refer to the year of Christ 1652), by Lord le Roy, Official and Vicar General of the Bishop, according to the forms of Law, in the year 1624, on September 18, from which I excerpt the following chief items: and first I observe that in the first article of this investigation ten persons are named who asserted that they were freed from fevers through a Novena instituted in honor of Blessed Colette: and in the second article there comes forward James Harle, born at Noyon, whom the liquid of Colettine water, applied after a vow was made, freed from a similar disease. In the very year in which the investigation was accepted, in the month of July, Charles Gorguet, Knight and Lord of Bus and royal Counselor, testified that he was dismissed from a fever after he had kissed the sacred relics of Blessed Colette and thrice drunk water blessed under her invocation, although the physicians had judged that the disease would be long-lasting.

[20] Mary Framezel, various infirmities driven away and the son of Peter Joly and Antoinette Baie, were freed from hernia through the invoked merits of Blessed Colette. Jacqueline Testu also, impeded in her left arm for two years, received movement and use of her arm through her patronage. William Lalloier, brought to the extremity by a grave illness, having conceived a vow of visiting the little chapel of Corbie, felt himself relieved, and having fulfilled it, returned fully healthy. Nicholas Caron, laboring with a desperate pleurisy, found a remedy in Colettine water within the first three days of a Novena begun in her honor. When a certain Religious of St. Clare had instituted a similar Novena for a certain honorable person who for the space of two years had been gravely vexed by the demon or by a prevailing melancholy, continually suggesting that she should end her life by jumping into a well; all those clouds of troublesome thoughts were dispersed by a spirit that cleared the mind, and the ability to lead her life without disturbance was obtained for the one on whose behalf the pious virgin was anguished.

[21] women in childbirth aided A pregnant matron had been thrown from the possession of a sound mind by an illness which was believed to be fatal both to the mother and the child; the Relics of the holy Mother Colette were applied to her, and she immediately expelled a two-month fetus — alive, remarkably, until it was brought to a better life by the waters of baptism: and she herself, restored to her senses, exclaimed that a great grace had been given to her by Blessed Colette, and had a candle offered before the image of her liberator in thanksgiving. Finally, Joanna Placet declared on September 13 that she had been delivered from a desperate childbirth after she had vowed a sacrifice of the Mass to be offered in memory of Blessed Colette: the same declared that she herself had been happily born into the world when, placed in a similar crisis, her mother, Mary de Canchie, had applied the tunic of Blessed Colette to herself. Thus far Abbeville, in various chapters of Book 5 of Part 3, prevented by respect for the weary reader from producing more testimonies of similar trustworthiness: and we too, wishing to spare the same, conclude with those things which we found to have happened or been noted at Ghent in the present century, and which we have translated from French to Latin.

[21] At Ghent I, Sister Francisca de Villers, unworthy Religious of this holy house of Ghent, testify before God, whom I have just received in the Sacrament, on the Vigil of the Assumption of Our Lady in the year 1642, to the greater honor of God and of His glorious handmaid and our Mother, Blessed Colette: that after the sacrifice of the Mass I had come down, a corrupted medicinal potion intending to drink water decocted from broom flowers against pains of the stone, and having found too small a quantity of it, I requested from the dispensatrix the flask committed to her keeping: but found in it the aforesaid water so corrupted and foul-smelling that it could be of no use: wherefore I also began to pour it out. But being admonished by an interior impulse to carry it under the tomb of our blessed Mother, I obeyed, having first introduced into the flask a small amount of water blessed with the invocation of our blessed Mother. placed under the tomb, it becomes good. And while I placed it under the tomb, I immediately perceived that the stench which I had previously sensed was notably diminished, and on the third day I removed it from there as good as it had ever been. Blessed be God: so with me testify Sister Paula de Blois, Abbess; Sister Quintina Balce; Sister Gertrude Rym.

[22] Before me, Louis Sluyzeman, public Notary of the city of Ghent, in the presence of the witnesses to be named below, there personally appeared Anna de la Haye, being about the forty-sixth year of her age, born at Valenciennes, and testified to the glory of God and of His blessed handmaid Colette: by whose merits and intercession the aforesaid Anna walks healthy without anyone's help, The power of walking, lost for 20 years, is restored. which had been impossible for her for twenty years past. This happened to her in the following manner. An immense desire seized her of seeing the body of the aforesaid Colette, which is preserved with great veneration in the convent of the Poor Clares erected by her, in which she also died. Therefore she was conveyed to Ghent against the advice of her physicians and friends, all of whom judged that she was exposing herself to evident danger of death; and not without great labor of the woman who assisted her, she was led to the very door of the church of the convent, where she felt a wonderful sweet fragrance, which she also testified to in words, saying two or three times: O how sweet is this odor! Having entered the church, she knelt toward the choir, asking Blessed Colette to obtain for her from the divine grace whatever was expedient for the salvation of her soul: for she never asked for anything else. Then she approached the Religious women to receive

from them the mantle of Blessed Colette, which she received through the turn, wrapped in green cloth. When the cloth was removed, she seemed to see nothing but gold, and immediately suffering a fainting of the soul and such a failure of all her strength that she believed herself about to die, she did not feel when or how the mantle was placed upon her or removed from her. When, however, she had somewhat recovered her breath, at the touch of the mantle and relics, a little blessed water was offered her to drink, and bread sanctified by the contact of the Relics of Blessed Colette: by which somewhat strengthened, she received into her hands a certain Relic of the aforesaid Blessed and her veil upon her head: from which she received great consolation of soul, which she attested by the tears she copiously shed, and was greatly grieved that because of her excessive bodily weakness she could not remain on her bent knees. Soon, having returned the Relics, she went out, supported by no one's help, while those who accompanied her marveled: and when she had reached the bridge, somewhat distant from the convent, fully restored to herself, she asked where she was: to whom her companions made a sign with the hand that she should hurry: as is customary with children. These things happened on July 23 in the year of the Lord 1642, on which same day the aforesaid Anna departed to visit the Crucifix at ^c Deinze, and to the Beguinage, having thereafter used firm steps: with a fragrance beyond nature. which the Medical Doctors also confirmed by their testimonies. A year later, when she had returned to Ghent to give thanks to St. Colette and had again received the same Relics into her hands, she again perceived the same fragrance which she had previously perceived at the door of the church, on the 30th day of the month of July in the year 1643. Done on August 8 of the same year, before the Reverend Father Constantinus de Herde, Confessor of the monastery and Definitor of St. Joseph in the Province of Flanders, and the honorable man Christopher vander Haghen, witnesses summoned and requested for this purpose. The same was confirmed by the testimony of Francisca de la Haye, then present when her sister Anna was healed in the manner narrated.

Signed: L. Huizeman.

[23] In the year 1642, December 15, a certain woman at ^d Destelbergen, Catherine de Beuke by name, wife of Adrian van Somerghem, laboring in childbirth for six days now, a woman in childbirth freed from the danger of death with evident danger of death both for herself and for the offspring — the midwife attesting that out of a thousand and more at which she had assisted, she had never seen one so wretchedly affected — was suddenly delivered of her child happily at the touch of the Relics of Blessed Colette. Mary van Belle, wife of James Verbus, a soldier of the rank of corporal, being gravely afflicted because, having been pregnant three times, she had hitherto been unable to produce a live child, another woman in childbirth aided, and fearing the same fortune in her fourth pregnancy, came to have the mantle of the Blessed placed upon her: and from the confidence conceived therefrom, she bore a daughter on May 2 of the year 1643, to whom the name Livina was given; having suffered the pains of childbirth for scarcely two hours: whereas she had formerly been accustomed to suffer continuous pains for up to the fifth and sixth day: which benefit she, attributing it to the merits of Blessed Colette, signed the whole account with her own hand.

[24] In the year 1642, a certain young lady from Brussels came to give thanks to Blessed Colette because, after seven days of childbirth pains, a third having made a vow to visit the Relics of the Blessed, she had been happily delivered. A certain woman of this city, Isabella by name, wife of Daniel Tysebaert, a fourth had always had a dead child that had to be extracted by cutting the uterus: when she had come here to ask that the mantle of the Blessed be placed upon her, she bore twins in the year 1630, on August 17. When on another occasion, being pregnant, she had neglected to do the same, it was again necessary to use an incision, and the fetus extracted was entirely putrid and so foul-smelling that the fetid odor infected even the neighborhood.

[25] In the year 1643, a certain matron of Ghent, five months pregnant, fell into such a great infirmity that the physicians judged delivery impossible: but when the mantle of the Blessed had been placed upon her bed, a fifth she immediately produced a fetus, surviving for half an hour until it was baptized, to the great astonishment of the physicians present and attesting to the miracle. In the same year, a certain girl named Adriana van Oran, so affected in all her bodily limbs that she could move none without great pain, the ability to walk is given: came with great difficulty at last to the convent, and having received the mantle of the Blessed upon her, was immediately restored to full strength and gave thanks to God. A similar benefit was experienced by her sister, who was pregnant and vehemently fearful for her fetus on account of various adverse things that had happened during the pregnancy. When therefore her strength was failing her, she asked a certain lay Sister a woman in childbirth aided: to put on the mantle of the Blessed on her behalf and to arrange for one sacrifice to be offered for her intention: and when this was done, she felt the sadness of her soul dispelled; and she who usually labored for nearly three days in childbirth very quickly then bore a daughter, to whom she gave the name Colette at baptism.

[26] pain of the stone and of the sides removed Magdalena Carlier testified that, tormented by an intolerable pain of the sides and the stone, as soon as she sought the intercession of Blessed Colette she was freed from all distress. Sister Colette, now in the sixth month as a Novice of this convent, felt her knee swell beyond measure with the greatest pain: and since she had seen one of her companions recently dismissed for a similar cause, swelling of the knee. fearing a similar misfortune, she indicated her grief to her Mistress: who sent her to the chapel, directing her to sign the swollen knee with the relics of the same Blessed: and when she did so, she felt herself relieved of that ill, and within two days was restored to perfect health: for which and many other benefits of the Saint toward her, she obtained that the name Colette be given to her in the solemn Profession of vows, which was done in the year 1630.

[27] I, Bernardina de Smet, a Religious of St. Clare at Ghent, in the year 1646, on December 21, filled a flask with water drawn from the well which is in the chapel of Blessed Colette: I preserved it until the year 1652: and so I found it pure even then, without any blessing, as if it had just been drawn. The same water, water preserved without corruption, once in the year 1658, on January 26, and again in 1660, on October 8, our Reverend Father Confessor, Father Dominic van Gemmert, Definitor of St. Joseph of the Province of Flanders, tasted with many Religious: and with great amazement on his part found it entirely flavorful.

[28] and again preserved. In the year 1660, Lord Francis Gruloos, dwelling at Oudenaarde, came to us seeking the water of St. Colette, asserting that he had also previously sought the same, which he would give as a drink to the sick who were devout toward the Blessed, and that the same had remained with him for five years without corruption. The same man, in the year 1661, three or four months before his death, professed that he had experienced manifold relief in his pains since he had begun to read the Litanies of Blessed Colette, miserably affected as he was by the arthritic disease.

[29] Many persons, drinking from the same water, experienced singular comfort in their ills: and among others, the young lady Mary Tucschap, wife of Lord David vander Vinck, Pharmacist of Ghent, who, oppressed by a grave disease one night, asked her household for the water of Blessed Colette: it is distinguished from other water. and since they did not have it at hand, they offered her other common water: which she immediately recognized by the very taste, and therefore in the morning she came to request the very water of Blessed Colette: which when she had drunk and felt herself strengthened, she affirmed that by the sweetness of flavor and odor alone, which was as it were that of violets, she could distinguish that water from common water without any danger of error.

^a Not the famous Virgin and Martyr who is honored on January 21, but the Bohemian of this same Order of St. Clare is understood, whose life we have given on this same March 6: as the apparition of three Religious women, following upon the invocation of the pious Sisters, indicates.

^b In the Life, no. 96, it is said: that apparently no woman ever labored so much in giving birth as she did in suffering compassion.

^c A town of Flanders on the river Lys, three hourly leagues from Ghent on the road to Courtrai. Deinze.

^d A village to the east of the city of Ghent, at a distance of one league or a little more. Destelbergen.