Fina

ON ST. FINA, VIRGIN IN ETRURIA.

YEAR 1253.

Preliminary Commentary.

Fina, Virgin in Etruria (Saint)

[1] Not far from the western bank of the river Elsa there is in Etruria a very respectable town, formerly under the jurisdiction of the Sienese, as Leander attests, but now of the Florentines; distant from the latter by twenty-five thousand paces, The town of San Gimignano in Etruria, from the former by only fifteen. It takes its name, more illustrious than the one it is claimed to have formerly held from Silvius the Roman, from St. Geminianus, Bishop of the city of Modena — whether truly or falsely is in doubt. That its ancient name was Silvia is a local tradition; was it formerly called Silvia? which Theodore Ferroni of Cutigliano, of the Augustinian Order, to be cited shortly, follows, tracing its origins all the way back to the times of Catiline; and maintains that the reason for the change of name was taken from the illustrious benefit by which the said Saint placed the inhabitants of the town in his debt, repelling Totila, who was breathing ruin and slaughter, by visibly appearing above the gate called "of the fountain." The memory of this benefit is preserved by a marble statue of the same Saint placed above the said gate, in the posture in which he was seen putting the barbarians to flight, with his right hand raised to form a cross — which is why the inhabitants now venerate the finger of the same Saint among their sacred relics.

[2] Leander, cited by us on January 31 in connection with the Life of St. Geminianus, At what time was it founded and given this name? says it was founded by Desiderius, King of the Lombards, as an alabaster tablet inscribed in Lombard letters at Viterbo teaches. I would readily believe that Desiderius, delighted by the beauty of the place which he himself had adorned with buildings and walls, transferred some particle from the body of St. Geminianus there, imposed a name on the previously obscure and wooded hill, and that any greater antiquity from any other source is sought in vain. For the miracle attributed to the rout of Totila is similar to that which is found in the Life of St. Geminianus, performed against Attila when he was pressing the people of Modena with a siege — on account of which an annual celebration is held at Modena on February 18, called the Victory of St. Geminianus. For thus we see it almost always happen that the origins of all more famous places are either obscure or mixed with fables; and it was easy from the statue so placed for an occasion to arise among the people of San Gimignano for someone to be found who would persuade his fellow citizens that the dead had done in this place what the living had done at Modena, and who would confuse the names of Attila and Totila, differing by scarcely one letter — whose times are separated by less than a full century, and whose barbarism was nearly the same.

[3] Whoever wishes to see the sacred and profane buildings, ornaments, and extent of this municipality more fully described, let him read the first chapter of Theodore Ferroni, with which he begins the Life of St. Fina, which he published in Italian at Florence in 1644, dedicated to the Most Serene Duchess and composed in the manner of a panegyric: Writers of the Life of St. Fina: drawn word for word from that which James Manduccius of Pisa had published in Italian print for the second time in the year 1598, transcribed from the original Latin text of Friar John of San Gimignano of the Order of Preachers, about whom Sixtus of Siena says in his Library: A man well-deserving of letters, distinguished by his knowledge of very many things, not mediocrely skilled in scholastic theology and the sacred Scriptures, and an outstanding preacher; he flourished in the year 1310. He wrote a notable work on examples and similes of things in two large folio volumes, printed at Venice in the year 1499; books of Sermons on the times, on the Saints, on the work of the six days, funeral orations, etc. Sixtus does not mention this Life, however, because it lay hidden in obscurity within the walls of that Hospital, for whose Rector it had been privately written upon request in his native town.

[4] The same Life, translated into Italian by the aforesaid James Manduccius, was possessed by Silvanus Razzi when writing about the Saints of Etruria. The same is cited by Philip Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, published at Florence in 1598; and the eulogy composed by Ferrarius was woven by Abraham Bzovius into his Annals, without naming the author — which Bucelin did likewise in his Benedictine Menology, except that to these words of Ferrarius: "Living in her father's house as if in a monastery," Was she Benedictine? he added on his own: "she seemed to follow the strict rule of our Recluses" — for either an opportunity had to be found or fabricated by which she might be claimed for the Benedictine Order, although that Order, abounding in its own glories, needs no borrowed ornaments. The text of Ferrarius was rendered into French by Francis Lahier in his Menology of Virgins. Arthur in his Gynaeceum, content with a briefer eulogy, was satisfied to commend St. Fina for her remarkable patience and perfection of life.

[5] The people of San Gimignano, besides the day of March 12, which (as is stated in the Acts, number 23) they religiously observe as free from servile works, The cult of the same among the citizens, have also dedicated to her the first Sunday of August, as we shall see from Theodore Ferroni. From the same we learn that in the Collegiate church of the aforesaid town there is a notable and by far the most distinguished among the rest chapel; where an altar erected from white marble chapel, supports a precious urn, the repository of the virginal deposit. Seraphim carved from the same material weave a crown around it — for Fina is a name abbreviated in the Etruscan manner, like that of her brother Ciardi for Guicciardo, and although more probably derived from Rufina, it could also seem to have been taken from Seraphina. The head of the same Saint is enclosed in a precious reliquary, Relics, with a white and delicate cloth for a veil and a rich crown for an ornament; and thus twice a year it is exposed to the veneration of the local people, who also gather in their soil white flowers flowers. which they call "St. Fina's violets" — similar to those which had sprouted from the board to which the putrefying flesh of the living girl had adhered. Nor are there lacking, as the same Theodore attests, burning lamps frequently alight before the altar, and very many votive testimonies of obtained benefits around it, and frequent throngs of peoples coming as pilgrims to venerate the Saint.

[6] The Latin Acts in the original style were furnished to us, while we were in Florence, by a parchment codex of no small antiquity, From where the original Acts were obtained, found in the most excellently equipped library of the Most Illustrious Senator Carlo Strozzi, filled with both sacred and profane documents; who, informed of our arrival by letter from the Most Reverend Abbot Ferdinando Ughelli, was the first to come to us as we were recovering from our journey, and, inviting us to peruse his manuscripts, furnished no contemptible material for our work — in which we might usefully occupy ourselves while access to the Laurentian Library of the Grand Duke and the opportunity to copy were being obtained through friends. Cantalycius, an Italian poet printed at Venice in 1493, saw these Acts and rendered them in eighteen strophes of Sapphic verse with no less elegance than brevity and clarity, in book 2 of his epigrams addressed to Polydorus Tibertus; and the same author in book 7 composed a double epitaph for Blessed Fina, one in elegiac, the other in Phaleucian meter — all worthy of being inserted in this work, if after the discovery of the primary source there were anything in them of new authority. We append to the Prologue the old division of chapters, so that we may follow our own arrangement.

LIFE

By Friar John of San Gimignano, Order of Preachers.

Fina, Virgin in Etruria (Saint)

BHL Number: 2978

BY JOHN OF SAN GIMIGNANO.

PREFACE

To the devout man in Christ, Brother Goccio, ^a Rector of the Hospital of St. Fina ^b in San Gimignano, Brother John of the same place, a useless Brother in the Order of Preachers, sends greetings and wishes for him to happily follow in the footsteps of the Saints.

[1] Occasion of the writing, Your Fraternity has long requested of me with insistence that I should labor to compose a brief Legend in a suitable style concerning the most blessed Virgin Fina, whom our fruit-bearing land produced as a most precious fruit for God — collecting together at once both those things about her life which were verbally narrated by certain elders ^c, and also her miracles, which were written on certain notebooks and slips of paper. Although I am inadequate for this, yet trusting in the intercession of the Virgin herself, and moved by love for her, and also yielding to the prayers of your charity, to which I gladly assent, I will satisfy your pious desires. Order, Behold, I gladly offer the work you requested, compiled briefly in a rough but truthful style. Since, moreover, things that are written in order are learned more easily and better retained, I have comprised both the virtues by which she shone while living and the miracles that appeared after her death — with headings for each set forth first ^d — under the order of certain chapters. I have endeavored to maintain a mean in all things as far as possible, so that neither the roughness of the language may diminish the nobility of the history, nor excessive ornamentation may create suspicion regarding the truth. Reliability. This I solemnly declare to my readers: that whatever I have set down in this work about the blessed Virgin Fina was diligently examined, and everything was confirmed by the trustworthy testimony of those who had either seen with their own eyes or at least heard from those who had seen. May your dear Fraternity therefore accept what it demanded, and may all the inhabitants of our homeland venerate with praises and imitate with their deeds the most happy bride of Christ, Blessed Fina, resplendent with miracles and examples alike, to the honor of her Spouse and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who made his Saint fruitful in merits and crowned her with eternal rewards in heaven.

^a A diminutive, from Hugo: Hugoccius, and by the removal of the first syllable, Goccius.

^b This is, in the testimony of Theodore Ferroni, the foremost of the three hospitals in that town, built for those laboring under any kind of disease, under the invocation of this St. Fina, who was most patient in illness; while the other two serve either for receiving pilgrims or for nurturing foundlings.

^c Since the author flourished at the beginning of the thirteenth century or even considerably earlier, he could have seen not a few survivors who had known St. Fina when living.

^d That is, with a table of contents for the chapters, which we append.

Chapter I. On the origin and name of Blessed Fina. II. On the propriety of her conduct in girlhood. III. On her illness and patience. IV. On her joyful poverty. V. On the death of her mother and the vision of the serpent. VI. On the revelation made to Blessed Fina about the day of her passing. VII. On the passing of Blessed Fina and the fragrance of her body. VIII. On her miracles before burial. IX. On her burial and her miracles in general. X. On crippled, broken, and paralytic persons freed. XI. On demoniacs freed. XII. On those freed from prisons. XIII. On those freed from drowning and perils of the sea. XIV. On fire being extinguished. XV. On the cure of a certain fistula and abscess. XVI. On animals cured. XVII. On the healing of a certain wounded man. XVIII. On the resurrection of a dead boy.

CHAPTER I

The virtues of St. Fina: her long illness: miracles after death.

[1] ^a After the Sun of Justice, Christ, covered with the cloud of the flesh, appeared to the world and made fruitful the dry and barren earth — namely human nature — with the most generous rain of his grace, Saints in the Church, in the substance of our mortality, which, like soil subject to a curse, was sprouting thorns of vice and thistles of passions for us, flowers appeared — that is, men most pleasing to God, blooming with the various colors of virtues and sweetly fragrant with the odors of their examples. as flowers in gardens: Among these, Virgins shone like snow-white lilies with the brightness of a wondrous purity; and holy Martyrs, like purple roses, gleamed red with the blood of their martyrdom; while the humility of the blessed Confessors, like fragrant violets, refreshed us with the lovable fragrance of its scent. Furthermore, in the last times, which Blessed Paul commemorates as having come upon us, in the flourishing castle of San Gimignano, which is in the homeland of Tuscany called Valdelsa, 1 Cor. 10:11 among whom Blessed Fina. a certain Virgin named Fina, pleasing to God and fragrant to men, arose like a new lily of purity. Who was also like a most pleasing rose, lacking neither the honor of sacred virginity, nor the vigor of penance worn away by prolonged labors, nor the fragrance of holy reputation. For with her interior purity she was surrounded by virginal grace, and with the faithful guardianship of humility she was fortified by the strength of marvelous patience.

[2] Her parents, The carnal father of this maiden was called Cambius, who, although despised on account of his poverty, is said to have drawn his origin from the lineage of nobles ^b. Her mother was called ^c Imperiera. The Virgin of Christ also had a brother named Ciardus, who lived so praiseworthy a life for a long time on the island of Sicily that he was venerated as a Saint, not only while alive but also when dead, by all. ^d The aforesaid parents of the Virgin, having received this happy offspring, decided, as if by some presentiment of the future, that she should be called Fina from the very font of sacred baptism.

For the common usage of the vulgar multitude, which the wise men of the world say should be followed in naming things, seems to have universally established that whatever obtains an excellent or optimal degree of goodness is commonly called "fine" or "finest" in the vernacular. Wherefore the holy maiden was rightly called Fina, and the reason for the name: since she merited to preserve the optimal degree of continence — virginity. For although marital propriety is good, widowed continence is said to be better; but virginal purity is judged the best. Abstinence from marriage is an imitation of the Angels; and as much as an Angel is superior to a human being, so much is virginity more honorable. She was also rightly called Fina, as one who attained the end, because, advancing through the various degrees of merit even to the end of life, she finally and happily attained the ultimate end of blessedness. ^e

[3] This most beloved bride of Christ, therefore, rising like the dawn, The maiden's modesty, to leave behind the darkness of the night of guilt and to advance into the perfect brightness of the day of grace, when she was of a girlish age, did not mingle herself in childish games but utterly avoided the wantonness of young women. For in order to preserve the purity of heart, which is the foundation of all virtues, and the treasure of holy virginity, in the earthen vessel of her body, she willingly remained at home, avoiding outings as much as she could, and abhorring the immodest gazes of men. If ever she was compelled to go out, lest the exterior gaze infect the interior chastity of the mind, chastity, she had made a pact with her eyes that they would look not to the sides but at her feet, and her eyelids would always precede her steps. And although she was lovely of face and beautiful in her whole body, yet she abhorred outward adornment and devoted herself to the interior composure of the mind — desiring to please not the outward glances of men but the eyes of the heavenly Bridegroom. But lest a servant nurtured delicately rebel against the master — namely, the flesh against the spirit — she afflicted her body with fasts, and like Blessed Cecilia she subdued her members with a hair shirt. penance, And lest through the sluggishness of idleness she lie open to the enemy's snares, she applied herself frequently to the manual works of women — not so much to alleviate her poverty as to avoid the malice of idleness. diligence. In which, indeed, she was following the example of the Queen of Virgins, the Mother of God, about whom Blessed Jerome attests that, working with distaff and needle, she daily earned her suitable sustenance.

[4] But since virtue is perfected in infirmity, in order that the Lord might bring her to perfection, A grave illness while she seemed most robust and healthy, he struck her with a most grievous affliction of the body. For suddenly, with her whole body incapacitated except her head, she was so completely contracted that she could not only not rise from bed but could not even turn or move in any way. This the Lord is known to have done so that the handmaiden of God might be rich not only in the merits of her works but even richer in the merits of her sufferings. Although, however, she was so infirm, she nevertheless lay not upon the softness of a bed but only upon a bare board. ^f But with one side of her body filled with vehement pains, and prolonged for a period of five years she always lay on the other side, never allowing herself to be turned or moved otherwise by anyone. Wherefore, the board beneath her having rotted from the moisture of her flesh, the flesh also adhering to it putrefied, so that that part of her side swarmed with worms. Mice also, running to her — if no one was present to drive them away — gnawed at her putrid flesh. Incredible endurance. Whence many trustworthy persons, who had frequently come to visit the handmaiden of God, testified that they had seen those mice coming forth from the cavities of her body which they had made by gnawing.

[5] O truly wondrous patience and to be preferred before all miracles, which found a manly spirit in the fragile female sex: whereby the Virgin of God, Serenity of mind and countenance, while tormented on one side of her body by such dire pains, and gnawed on the other by worms and mice, yet remained with so cheerful a face and tranquil a mind that she never showed a sign of sadness on her countenance or uttered a complaining word with her tongue. Therefore the murmur of impatience did not resound in her mouth, but always thanksgiving and the voice of praise. On account of which she seems to have been a Martyr without sword and flame, amid the greatest pains; whom, even though the sword of a persecutor did not take away, yet the prolonged torment of manifold pains afflicted — which she endured not with sadness of mind but with joyful patience. Moreover, that she might increase, like Joseph, in the land of her poverty, she bore the extreme want she suffered with so joyful a mind that she seemed no longer to be in the straits of poverty and in extreme poverty but to abound in immense riches. For knowing that the kingdom of heaven is promised to the poor in spirit, bearing her poverty with a cheerful soul, she made voluntary what necessity had imposed. The prudent Virgin, lucidly perceiving that for glorying in the want of poverty the glory of heavenly abundance was to be rendered, generosity toward the poor. received with fear and tears the gifts of piety and alms which merciful men and women sent — and as if saddened by large alms, she rejoiced more abundantly in small gifts. Reserving nothing from her daily food, so as not to be anxious about the morrow, whatever was left over from what was given her she bestowed on the poor.

[6] However, when the ancient serpent was tormented with envy at her virtues, her mother is suddenly killed. the pestiferous venom of his wickedness, which he could not breathe upon the handmaiden of God, he poured out upon her mother. For it happened one day that the Virgin's mother, mentioned above, having returned from outside and crossed the threshold of the house, suddenly fell by a slip, as if she had been thrown to the ground by someone's violent push. And while she lay thus immobile, the Virgin of the Lord, Fina, who was staying in the upper room, began to call out with crying and urgency to a certain respectable woman named Bonaventura, who had long served her by seeking alms out of a sentiment of piety, and who at that time was standing there: Rise, sister, go down and find out what has happened to my mother. At her word, when she went down to her, she found her not only prostrate on the ground but utterly deprived of life. Then the woman, raising her voice, cried out loudly, saying: Alas, alas! What will you do, Fina, since your mother is dead on the ground? She sees a serpent upon the roof: Hearing this mournful voice, the Virgin of God, when she raised her eyes to the ceiling, beheld a monstrous serpent stretched upon a certain beam, gazing at her with terrible eyes. She at first, from the dove-like simplicity that was in her heart, thinking it was not a diabolical portent but a real serpent, from whose bite her mother had died, cried out again to the aforesaid woman whom she had sent: Come, Bonaventura, come here, and see this venomous beast that has killed my mother. And after these words she added further, saying: Go, sister, quickly, go, call here Master Guineldus, to set up a ladder and climb to the roof and strike and kill this poisonous animal that bit my mother. When therefore Guineldus, who was a certain neighbor, came at the summons of the aforesaid woman, the handmaiden of God pointed out to both of them — both to the woman and to him — with her finger, that terrible serpent which she herself saw with her eyes, saying: See it, see it, which killed my mother. But when they said they could see no such apparition, and puts the demon to flight with the sign of the Cross. the Virgin of Christ understood more clearly that what she saw was not a living serpent but a portent of the most wicked enemy, who had deceived the first parents through the appearance of a serpent. Whereupon, immediately making the sign of the Cross against it, it vanished from her eyes. The handmaid of Christ therefore perceived from these things that this kind of death of her mother had come not so much from the wickedness of the demon as from the judgment of the hidden divine dispensation. Wherefore, giving thanks to God, she bore the hard event not with sadness but with an equable mind.

[7] From St. Gregory she learns, At length the time came when the Lord determined to reward her for her labors and to crown her after the trial of a long contest. That which the holy Prophet once humbly requested, saying: Make known to me, O Lord, my end — Ps. 38:5 this the holy handmaid of the Lord merited to obtain as a special gift of God. For about eight days before the hour of her death, the holy Pontiff and Doctor Gregory, toward whom she, beloved of God, had held a singular devotion, and to whom in her prolonged illnesses she had been in some way conformed, appeared to her from above, resplendent, saying with a most sweet voice: Be ready, daughter, for on the day of my solemnity you are to come to our company, to remain eternally with your Bridegroom in glory. Comforted by his sight and refreshed by the hearing of this most sweet promise, that she will die on his feast day: she raised her hands to the Lord and, with eyes directed upward, rendered devout and humble thanks to the Redeemer, who had deigned in his clemency to invite his handmaid, so abject and humble, to so sublime and ineffable a glory. Then, as best she could, reverently inclining her head to the holy Pontiff, she commended herself more devoutly to his grace. When this was done, the vision disappeared, which the handmaid of God herself afterward revealed with great humility to certain women familiar to her and joined to her in spiritual intimacy. All of which the said women related to many after her sacred death, just as they had heard from the handmaid of the Lord; and about this they were afterward solemnly examined and confirmed under the pledge of an oath the very thing they had previously said.

[8] and at last failing, From that day, therefore, on which, as has been said, the handmaid of the Lord received the heavenly revelation, her body, now nearly consumed, began to fail more and more from weakness and to be tormented by a painful restlessness of the head. Wherefore a certain praiseworthy woman named Beldia, who with praiseworthy affection of charity and holy devotion had borne the care of her for a long time, took pity on her, and held the Virgin's head raised with her hand and arm for so long that her hand swelled violently, so that she could neither close it nor move it without great pain. At last, when the day of the aforesaid solemnity of the most blessed Doctor Gregory was at hand, on which the most holy soul of the Virgin, according to the promise made to her from heaven, was to be released from her body — sensing her end near, she recollected her entire most devout spirit toward the Lord, awaiting the coming of the Bridegroom and his call, at which, going out to meet him, she would enter into the heavenly nuptials with him. But the most prudent Virgin, having received the Sacraments, she dies, so that she might be found prepared at the hour of her departure, having first made a general confession, she asked for and received with the sweetness of wondrous devotion the Sacrament of the Lord's Body and finally the Extreme Unction. After these arms, made secure about the battle of death, she joyfully awaited the struggle. And while she commended herself to the Lord with continual prayer, amid the very words of prayer she rendered her immaculate spirit to the Creator, in the year of the Lord 1253, in

the month of March, on the day of the feast of Blessed Pope Gregory.

[9] In the very hour of her passing, the aerial powers, seeing that they had been unable to detain her spirit — inasmuch as they had no right or power over it — withdrew in confusion and fury and stirred up in the air so violent a tempest of wind and rain that people in those parts were not a little terrified. The board to which the putrid flesh had adhered, The sacred little body, which had already been worn away by prolonged torments, remained so attached to and incorporated into the wooden board upon which she had long lain, on the side of the putrefied flesh, that it could by no means be separated from it intact. In this, indeed, the most beloved bride of Christ imitated the passing of her Bridegroom Christ, who commended his Spirit to the Father, with the body, tormented by suffering and fixed to the wood, remaining. Moreover, the parts of putrid flesh which had remained adhering to the aforesaid board, separated from the rest of the body (as many who saw them afterward testified in truthful report), produces flowers. were by no means horrible to look at or foul to anyone's smell, but remained full of the whitest flowers breathing an odor of sweetness. The whole board was also covered in flowers on that side to which the flesh had adhered, and was fragrant with a wondrous scent. Whence one of those flowers, which someone had plucked from the board, when he had carried it farther away to show to those who were absent and had proved by placing it under the noses of many that it obviously breathed a fragrance, returning to the aforesaid board, reverently replaced the flower he had taken in the place from which he had taken it. The remaining virginal body also, the body of the deceased gives off a sweet odor, which had been left lacerated on the side where it had adhered to the board, where also not a few gnawings and burrowings of the mice appeared, was fragrant with a similar sweetness of odor. For it was fitting that the virginal members, which, worn away by the most grievous ailments, had spiritually given off a sweet scent to God, should also corporally give off a fragrance to the world — and from that part especially where they had been most struck, like spices which, when crushed in a mortar, more fully spread their scent around.

[10] Nor should there be passed over in silence the miracle which, at that time widely publicized, the spontaneous ringing of bells, was found for certain to have occurred at the death of this Virgin. For before her body was brought to the Church, the bells of the main church and of all the others began to ring of their own accord, pulled not by the hands of men but by the power of Angels. There was therefore a divinely caused concourse of many peoples to the body of the most blessed Virgin, so that even after it was carried with reverence and fitting honor to the said main church, the crowd clamoring prevented the Clergy from committing the sacred body to burial, and at first for some days it remained placed upon a bier in the choir of the said Church. During which time this remarkable miracle is reported to have occurred before the eyes of many: the miracle of the healed hand: two days after the Virgin's death, when her guardian and nurse Beldia, about whom brief mention was made a little above, like the inseparable companion of the Virgin — not only when alive but also when dead — had sat beside her bier and had confidently prayed to Blessed Fina for the healing of her hand, the Virgin, though lying dead, raised her arm from the bier and with her own hand, before the eyes of all, grasped the swollen hand of the nurse and squeezed it three times, carefully exploring each of her fingers. And it happened that after the triple touch, having returned her hand to the bier, to the astonishment of all who were present, she released from all previous pain and swelling the hand she had squeezed, leaving it completely free.

[11] A swollen knee is cured. Also at the same time, before the body of the Virgin was enclosed in the tomb, a certain girl named Melina, daughter of Guidialdus, whose knee was horribly swollen with an injury to the bone from a certain fall, on account of which she could not walk even with a limp without great pain — when she had been brought to the holy body, having grasped the hand of St. Fina and applied it over the swollen place, she departed and returned to her home completely free. A certain man also named Saladuccius, and a fleshy growth. in whom flesh was growing again in a certain part of his body, which had to be cut away annually — from which incision, whenever it was performed, he suffered such vehement pains that he almost always became sick unto death — when he first heard the death of the Virgin announced, having made a suppliant vow to her that if the Lord would free him by her merits, he would always fast on bread and water on the vigil of her feast, and also that he would annually encircle her tomb with a wax thread, he immediately obtained the fullest health.

^a This river, rising in Sienese territory, empties into the Arno between the towns of San Miniato and Empoli, at the place from which the distance is nearly equal — to Pisa on one side and to Florence on the other.

^b From the most noble Ciardi family, says Ferroni, perhaps because he found that Fina's brother was named Ciardo.

^c Which means "Empress" to the Italians. The printed Italian edition prefixes to it the letter M, doubtless following the original text; which the describer and compiler of the Florentine codex omitted because it was not understood by him. I believe, because I similarly find it prefixed to all other women's names in the same edition, that it stands for "Madonna," that is, the honorific appellation "Lady."

^d He is nevertheless unknown to Octavius Caietanus, who most diligently investigated the Saints of Sicily.

^e See our other conjecture about the origin of the name in the Commentary, number 6.

^f Ferroni pretends it was of oak wood, to have an occasion for playing on the family name "de Rouere" of Giulia Vittoria, wife of Ferdinand II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and daughter and heiress of Frederick, last of the Dukes of Urbino, to whom he inscribes his little work.

CHAPTER II

Miracles after burial.

[12] The tomb of St. Fina devoutly frequented, After this, the most blessed Fina was buried in the land of her origin, in the parish church of the above-named castle of San Gimignano, within the said parish church, with joy and praises and great veneration of both Clergy and people. After which, all peoples began to flock with admirable devotion to her most sacred relics, and in throngs not only from the aforesaid castle but from all the cities of Tuscany — from which many came with banners and musical instruments, visiting the glorious tomb of the Virgin and offering copious gifts and presents there. Where also, by divine power, innumerable miracles began to shine at the invocation of the Virgin and at the touch of her holy relics. For by her merits the omnipotent power of God restored complete health to the crippled and ruptured, shining with miracles. restored sense and motion to the paralyzed and those who had lost the use of their bodies, drove demons from possessed bodies, powerfully rescued those imprisoned in dungeons, brought those who were submerged unharmed from the waters, granted a harbor of safety to the shipwrecked, extinguished blazing fires, cured abscesses and fistulas with wondrous speed, freed animals from many infirmities, and finally restored those lethally wounded to perfect health, and — what is greater than all — recalled the dead to life. But all those miracles which we have touched upon in a general enumeration are to be specified in turn and in the same order through the examples of individual signs.

[13] A certain woman from Monte Voltrano ^a named Benefacta, Three crippled persons cured, who was crippled in hands and feet, when she had been brought to the tomb of the Virgin with fitting devotion and had commended herself to her merits, carried away from there the remedy of fullest health. Another man also, who because of his complete contracture in hands and feet had been carried on a donkey to the tomb of the Virgin, was set free by the merits of the same Virgin to whom he had reverently commended himself, and departed on his own feet, totally freed — going and giving thanks to God and blessing all the people of that land. Another man, who from his mother's womb had a twisted and contracted arm, so that he could neither bend it nor do anything with it, obtained the health he devoutly sought before the aforesaid tomb, fully restored by the merits of Blessed Fina. Another man, called Bertinus, whose arm an venomous animal had bitten and which from that bite was lost and contracted, having sought the protection of Blessed Fina, obtained through her merits complete health.

[14] Likewise a mute man, A certain man from the County of Pisa and the place called Alica ^b, named Benaffare, who was crippled in hands and feet and was moreover mute, was carried to the tomb of the Virgin bound on his donkey; where, having poured out his prayers to her, he obtained at will the benefit of health for his cure ^c. Another man also, named Galganucius, so crippled that he could not walk without the support of crutches, a debilitated man, which are commonly called "croccie," having poured out a devout prayer to the Virgin, fully obtained the grace of health. A certain infant still nursing, while being washed one day by his mother, suddenly suffered a rupture of the belly, through which the internal organs were visible; a ruptured child, and when they began to flow from the belly, after a vow was made by the mother to the Virgin, he was healed with a wondrous consolidation. And a paralytic, A certain paralytic and trembling man, who could not support himself on his feet but whenever he was released immediately fell trembling to the ground, when he had been brought with the help of others to the tomb of Blessed Fina and had reverently sought her intercession, having received health through her merits, returned to his home on his own feet, unharmed. Many other people also, held by the same infirmity, coming with reverence to her venerable tomb, the most merciful bride of Christ mercifully set free.

[15] A certain Bertellus ^d from the village of Campiglia, which is in the district of the Castle of ^e Colle, cruelly tormented by a demon, when he had been led, as it were by force, to the tomb of the handmaid of God, and a certain ring ^f, which Blessed Fina had held on her finger, was placed on his finger by someone, the demon that tormented him, a demoniac freed: for the space of fifteen days during which he held that ring, ceased from vexing him. But when the ring was returned to the one who had lent it, the demon immediately returned to him, vexing him more strongly; on account of which he was again brought back to the Virgin by his people, and through the Virgin the evil spirit began to cry out, saying: Why do you torment me, Finucia? Behold, I will depart from this man, since you do not allow me to be here. And when the bystanders asked what sign of his departure he should show, the wicked spirit answered, saying: I will snatch a ^g cap from the head of one of those standing here, and I will break one of the lamps of this church by striking it. The truth of his words was immediately confirmed, as he had said, by the outcome of the event. For immediately the evil spirit, going out from the man, fulfilled both signs as he had predicted — both with the cap and with the lamp. Likewise two demoniacs, Another demoniac woman also, who was led from the imperial castle of San Miniato to the relics of Blessed Fina, having given a sign that in his departure he would break a lamp, was, after the demon was expelled and the sign concerning the lamp fulfilled,

immediately freed by the merits of the same Virgin.

[16] A similar miracle concerning another young woman who had recently taken a husband was wrought by a similar miracle in Apulia, the Lord deigned to perform through his handmaid in the Port of St. Vitus of Polignano, which is in Apulia in the region of Bari ^h. For when a certain merchant named Cinus, a native of the land of the same Virgin, had put in at the said port in a ship and, descending from the ship, had gone ashore, he found in the Abbey of the aforesaid St. Vitus, which is in that place, the said young woman possessed by a demon, troubling not a little all who were present there with her cries. The said Cinus, approaching her, began to adjure the demon that was vexing her with words of this kind: I adjure you, O demon, by God and out of reverence for St. Fina the Virgin of San Gimignano, to immediately depart from this young woman whom you have possessed. At his voice the evil spirit, responding with a great cry, said: Do you think you can drive me out of here? Certainly, if I can resist, I will by no means go out. And when he had adjured him again under the same words, the demon cried out, saying: Give me at least a brief time in which I must depart; and then you will see a clear sign of my exit and of this woman's liberation. And after these words, after a brief silence, the wicked spirit went out from her, and as a sign of what he had promised, he broke a certain lamp that hung on high with a great crash. But the oil spilled from the lamp, when it fell upon the solid pavement of the church, appeared condensed like earth — black indeed, but not at all greasy; on account of which it neither stained those who touched it nor adhered to them. There too they begin to invoke the Blessed one: The aforesaid young woman, giving thanks to Blessed Fina, departed, with the spirit expelled, completely freed. The Abbot of the aforesaid place, having seen so great a miracle, had the image of the aforesaid St. Fina painted in the church, to which great reverence is shown to this day by the natives of that place, and many miracles have been displayed there through the merits of the same handmaid of God. Many other persons also, both men and women, possessed by unclean spirits, coming to the venerable tomb of the Virgin, departed thence with those spirits expelled, and having left garments or hair there as a sign, returned to their homes completely freed.

[17] Four men placed in prisons and bound with the strongest fetters, Four men freed from prison: when they had more devoutly commended themselves to Blessed Fina, by not human effort but divine power, with the shackles removed from their feet, were miraculously led out of that prison. Wherefore, coming more devoutly to the tomb of the Virgin and paying due thanks, they left their chains there as testimony. Many others also at various times came to the relics of the holy Virgin, bearing fetters and chains, from which they asserted they had been freed by her merits when their prisons were broken.

[18] A certain merchant, crossing a great and turbulent river, A merchant swept away by a river, when he entered not the proper ford of the river but a deep place, was dragged by the water into the deep and completely submerged. There, already beginning to be suffocated by the waters, with a vow of the heart, as fervently as he could, he invoked the aid of the Blessed Virgin Fina. When this was done, he felt a certain hand drawing him by the hair upward, and thus by the protection of Blessed Fina he was brought safely out of the raging waters. Whence, afterward coming to her tomb with gifts and offerings, he faithfully related the miracle that had occurred and there paid due acts of thanksgiving for the benefit received. Another merchant also, from San Gimignano, named ^i Lotharingus, related in a trustworthy account and another fearing shipwreck is aided: that when a certain ship was at sea, in which he was sailing together with many others, and the very dense darkness of the night covered them, the vessel was so violently tossed by winds and waves that all considered themselves close to shipwreck. Wherefore the aforesaid merchant, fearing the danger of imminent death, sought with a devout mind the help of Blessed Fina; nor was he disappointed in his confidence. For immediately, while he looked outside upon the sea, near the ship an immense light appeared, like fire, by whose shining the air was made serene, the winds and waves fell silent, and every tempest immediately departed.

[19] A similar miracle also happened to another ship battered by a most severe tempest of winds and waves: Others saved from a similar peril: for when those who were in it feared the intolerable fury of the sea, at the urging of a certain man who was present, who knew the name of the holy Virgin, invoking her with a common vow as supplicants, they immediately, by her help, obtained a wondrous tranquility of the sea when the tempest was calmed. Whence some of them, not ungrateful for so great a benefit, afterward came to her tomb, recounting the grace they had received from the handmaid of God and leaving there, with thanksgiving, an image as a sign of the miracle performed. Four similar images of ships at various times were also brought to the tomb of the handmaid of God by certain persons asserting that the blessed Virgin Fina had stood by them with salutary help in perils at sea — so that from these things what is read of the Bridegroom might similarly be admired in his bride, saying: Matt. 8:27 What manner of woman is this, that the winds and sea obey her?

[20] A fire extinguished, When in the parts of a certain village a fire had been cruelly kindled, and the flame, driven by the winds, was spreading far and wide on all sides, so that an irreparable conflagration of the whole village was feared, the Priest who was Rector of the church of that village — having a piece of cloth from a chemise that had been St. Fina's (which he preserved with great devotion as a dear relic) — seeing the inextinguishable flames of the fire, hung the cloth of the aforesaid chemise from the top of a pole, and as if with a banner erected, trusting in the power of the said holy Virgin, boldly advanced against the fire. A wondrous thing, but wrought by him who alone does great wonders. For immediately the fire drew back into itself and advanced no further, as it had begun, as if it had been an animate thing that, seeing the banner of an enemy, had retreated in terror; indeed, moreover, after a short space the fire was extinguished of its own accord. In which sign indeed the miracle of the Blessed Virgin Agatha ^k seems to have been renewed, whose veil, carried against fire, forced the conflagration to retreat and also finally extinguished it.

[21] Abscesses healed, A certain man for whom the disease of fistula had caused an incurable ulcer, when he had earnestly sought the mercy of Blessed Fina with pious prayers for his liberation, soon obtained from her the grace of health. In this place there should be inserted the benefit of another similar healing which the Virgin of God, Fina, bestowed upon a certain woman named Bonaventura, the daughter of her nurse Beldia, whom we have mentioned several times above. For when the said woman was suffering a certain horrible abscess in her breast, which in the physicians' judgment could by no means be cured without the pain of a more severe incision, she, dreading such an incision, sought the aids of a gentler remedy; for fleeing to Blessed Fina, the beloved and companion of her mother, she sought with all her heart the help of her assistance. The Virgin of God, hearing her mercifully, immediately made her well without any medicine.

[22] Animals cured: Moreover, by the power of him who saves not only men but also beasts, the handmaid of God, Fina, showed the force of her power even in the very beasts and animals. For when the oxen and donkeys and horses of many men were seized by the most grievous infirmities, and their owners had implored the grace of the same handmaid of Christ for their healing, she cured them with wondrous speed. In which deed the holy Virgin of God bore the likeness of Blessed Blaise ^l, Martyr of Christ, who is known to have shone with a spiritual gift of grace in curing animals of this kind. For she who followed his patience, it was indeed fitting that she should also obtain his grace.

[23] In the healing of wounds also, the Virgin of God exercised admirable surgery. As punishment for neglecting the feast, For since the day of her blessed death is observed annually in San Gimignano as especially festive and celebrated, so that all generally abstain from servile works, it happened once that on such a day a certain man named Cambius, urged by the prompting of his wife, set out with an axe to the forest to cut wood — because of the cold that was threatening at that time and especially that year. When he had begun to chop vigorously at a piece of wood, at the second stroke he inflicted a cruel wound not on the wood but on his own shin. Moved by the sharp pain and vehemently reproaching himself for not having observed the solemnity of the venerable Virgin, the wound received is healed for the penitent. he nevertheless sought her mercy with a suppliant vow to kindly grant him the aid of timely help in such sharp pain. The Virgin of the Lord, immediately hearing him, healed him with so wondrous a consolidation that not even a trace of the wound appeared thereafter. He also testified about himself and is aided in wars. that when he had been in eleven wars, in which always one side — and his more often — had been defeated, placed often in the greatest and almost inescapable dangers, because he had always devoutly commended himself to this handmaid of God, he escaped from those dangers unharmed — where his companions, who seemed more able to escape, remained dead. Whence, considering the circumstances of the events, he had no doubt that this grace had come to him through the merits of the handmaid of Christ.

[24] Finally, against that which the Philosopher asserts to be the most terrible of all things, A boy raised from the dead, and calls the end of everything — namely bodily death — the Virgin of God also powerfully extended the hand of her strength. For the son of a certain Lombard who at that time was living in San Gimignano, in the quarter ^m of the hospital which is now called St. Fina's, being of a childish age, was brought to extremity and closed his last day. When his anxious mother, bathed in tears, saw this, with great confidence of mind, having made a vow to the Virgin and sought her aid, she soon received her son restored to life and health alike. This great miracle was attested by many who with their own eyes saw the boy first dead and then restored to life. Other signs. Many other signs indeed the Lord deigned to work through his handmaid, even though they are not comprised in the compendium of this little work. These things, however, have been written briefly, not only to extol the praises of the holy Virgin, but also for the admonition of readers — so that, following the example of her life, and obtaining the aid of her grace, they may finally happily deserve to arrive at her company, with the favor of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God forever and ever. Amen.

^a It is a village to the south of San Gimignano, about eight Roman miles from the town and three from Volterra.

^b About halfway on the road between Pisa and San Gimignano, a place about twenty Roman miles distant from each.

^c You have the lawful proof of this miracle specifically below in number 26.

^d All the Italian versions have Benellus.

^e About an hour's journey away between east and south, distinguished by an episcopal title, to which the town of San Gimignano is subject, taking its name from its situation.

^f Ferroni thinks this was worn by the Virgin as a betrothal ring.

^g That is, a small cap. It seems to be a diminutive from birrhus, whose memory is found among sacred vestments already from the time of St. Cyprian; the origin of the name is from a dark red color, Cap, πύῤῥον the Greeks say, but the Latins use b.

^h The city of Bari is situated on the Adriatic coast, famous for the relics of St. Nicholas of Myra; fifteen miles to the east is the town of Polignano, and west of it, near it, is the monastery of St. Vitus.

^i Lattaringus in the Italian texts, and below among the witnesses, Ser-Luiteringus.

^k See this in our first volume of February, at the fifth day.

^l And for this too see the same volume, at the third day.

^m That is, a district or quarter of the town; in the broader and more genuine signification, however, to the Italians it means a district or territory, Contrata. as if called "conterrata" from many villages and towns (which the same Italians call "terrae") together; just as Commarca is a similar collection of villages and towns within the same boundaries or limits.

SUBSCRIPTIONS OF WITNESSES.

[25] In the name of the Lord. Amen. The following are the names of the witnesses deposing attestation of the aforesaid miracles. Which names are written in this book for the perpetual memory of the matter, individually and distinctly. First:

Lord Napoleon, Priest, formerly of the noble Lord ^a Ranuccio, of the sons of Rodulph of Monte-Grossoli, and an ancient native and citizen of the Castle of San Gimignano. Names of the witnesses.

Lady Benvegnuta, wife of the late Master Martin of San Gimignano.

Cinus Montancolli of San Gimignano.

Cambius Rustichelli of San Gimignano.

Lady Dirindescha, wife of the late Becchalesso, and now wife of Bandellus, Count of ^b Corlegarli, and daughter of the late Dirindone of San Gimignano.

Bonnome Nicolai of San Gimignano.

Priest Benintende, formerly of Fortis ^c, of San Gimignano, Rector of the Church of St. Lucy of Catignano.

Lady Benvegnuta, wife of the late Simon of la Santia of San Gimignano, and daughter of the late Lady Beldia, nurse of the aforesaid St. Fina.

Priest Thomas, formerly of James Giangalli.

Joannellus Ranerii of San Gimignano. ^d

Saladuccius Beni of San Gimignano.

Lady Melina, daughter of the late Guidialdus of San Gimignano.

Lady Bonaventura, who dwells in the castle of the old court of San Gimignano.

Ser-Luiteringus Beninati of San Gimignano.

Cinis Bonachursi of San Gimignano.

[26] Of the miraculous healing, In the name of the Lord. Amen. This is a copy of a certain public Instrument, whose tenor is as follows. In the name of God. Amen. By these public letters let it be manifest to all that Priest Scholaris, Rector of the Church of St. Mary of Alica, of the parish ^e of St. Gervasius, Diocese of Lucca, of his own proper and free will, testifies and says under oath that he saw and knew Bonaffare, son of the late Bonacursus, of the same place, healthy in all his limbs and speaking correctly, and afterward, for about ten years, saw him paralytic and saw him continually without speech, as it pleased God. Wherefore the said Bonaffare, going to San Gimignano, to the place where the body of Blessed Fina is said to rest, was there freed by divine grace bestowing, through the merits of the same. And he says that concerning all these things there is public report in the aforesaid parish.

Dardus, son of the late Sinibaldus, having sworn, testifies and says the same thing as the above-written Priest. Sworn witnesses.

Bertus, son of the late Bernard of Alica, having sworn, testifies and says the same thing as the above-written Priest.

Vitalis, son of the late Uguccione of Alica, having sworn, testifies, etc.

Martinus, son of Upecinus ^f of Alica, having sworn, testifies, etc.

Corsus, son of the late Chartho of Alica, having sworn, testifies, etc.

Gaitothus, son of the late Marchannus of Alica, having sworn, testifies, etc.

The aforesaid witnesses were received and examined by me, Lupardus, Notary, by the word ^g of the abovesaid Priest, at Forculum in the marketplace, in the presence of Bartholomew, Notary, son of the late Bonalbergus, and Matthew, son of the late Ildobergus, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1254, ^h Indiction 11, on the day before the Ides of May.

I, Lupardus of St. Gervasius at ^i Forculum.

^a Understand "son," and so this passage is interpreted by James Manduccius.

^b Manduccius reads Corlegalli.

^c That is, "son."

^d In our MS the father's name is badly transcribed; here we restore it from Manduccius, in whom all the things that follow are lacking. He concludes, however, with the erection of Bernardinus Mainardi, which occurred in his own times.

^e It is common among Italians to call both parishes and the churches of individual parishes "Plebes" (Pievi); Plebatus, which is here rendered plebatum, and below plebeium.

^f It might seem to be taken from Lupicinus; I believe the name Cinus, recurring several times above, is used from one or the other by the removal of the first syllable.

^g That is, "by the word, speech, or assurance": Italian parola, Spanish palabra, for parabola — both from this origin, by the omission of one syllable; and parlare as it were parabolare.

^h Rather Indiction 12; or if we wish to retain 11, in the year 1253. Whichever you take, it appears these things happened within two or fourteen months from the death of St. Fina; from which we might not unreasonably suspect that this Life was written not many years after her death, or we must say that because of the frequency of miracles no further account was taken of them after the solemn cult of the Saints was legitimately decreed for the Virgin. Certainly Manduccius seems to have found nothing further written up to his own times; he adds what follows from his own testimony and memory.

^i I find Monte Foscoli in the geographical tables, about one league's journey closer to Pisa than Alica is.

GLEANINGS FROM THE ITALIAN TRANSLATORS.

[27] Legs that had been withered for many years, By no means inferior to the aforesaid were the miracles which we know to have been performed at successive times, from the votive images and tablets and other offerings brought to the aforementioned church and hung around the chapel of the Saint. Specifically, however, in our own times a certain boy named Bernardinus, son of Bernardinus Mainardi, deprived of the use of his legs, which had withered, carried them hanging from bands tied around his neck above his shoulders — he who should have been carried by them. Having invoked St. Fina The chief care of him was borne by a certain sister of his, by whom he was sometimes carried to a chair designated for natural necessities. When he was already seventeen or eighteen years old and noticed his sister murmuring within herself from the weariness of her prolonged labor, as soon as she withdrew, he began devoutly to pray to God, through the merits of Jesus Christ and the martyrdom of St. Fina, so patiently endured by her, to grant him either death or release from that infirmity. And continuing his prayer, he said: If I am unworthy to obtain the grace, you, O Virgin and Martyr Fina, intercede with your prayers and bring it about that I may no longer live as a burden to anyone and utterly useless for divine service. He had scarcely said these things when, with the bonds suddenly loosened, the legs fell downward; blood ran into the veins, vigor ran to the sinews, and everything began to perform its function. She restores his limbs to their function, Meanwhile Bernardinus saw no one laying a hand to these things; he only felt his eyes dazzled by the flash of a sudden great brilliance, and immediately rising to his feet, he took certain candles affixed to a domestic image of the Virgin Mary and, going out of the house, invited his contemporaries, who used to visit him, to accompany him now to the church, to give thanks likewise to St. Fina for so manifest a miracle which she had wrought in him. And the aforesaid Ser-Bernardinus lives ^a today, healthy and free from all infirmity, especially of the legs, and having been made a Priest, celebrates Masses; and he gives full assurance to anyone who asks of those wondrous things which he professes to have experienced.

[28] In the year 1631, a pestilential plague, following the Mantuan War, had invaded many cities of Italy; She liberates her homeland from the plague. and among these had so infected the town of San Gimignano that it threatened death to all and solitude to the houses — since there was scarcely a house that did not count its dead or dying. The citizens, destitute meanwhile of human remedies, took refuge in the often-tested patronage of their most merciful patroness; they brought out the head of the Blessed one, and carried it about in a processional ceremony as supplicants. That the confidence had not been vain was declared by the evil being soon dispelled; for it was observed that on that very day — which marks the first Sunday of August, dedicated by the citizens of San Gimignano to the honor of this Virgin — all contagion ceased so completely that even the very garments of those struck down by the dire plague were believed and found to be harmless; and after forty days commerce was restored to the town by the surrounding cities and towns, which had been suspended out of fear of the disease.

^a That is, in the year 1575, when this Life was first printed; Ferroni, however, who saw only the second edition, expressed the year 1598; and what follows he added from his own time.

ON BLESSED JUSTINA, RECLUSE AT AREZZO IN ETRURIA.

YEAR 1319.

Preliminary Commentary.

Justina, Recluse at Arezzo in Etruria (Blessed)

[1] It opportunely happens that after the Acts of St. Fina, produced from the Strozzi manuscripts and the praised humanity of the Most Illustrious Carlo Strozzi, Florentine Senator, Through whose effort, the Life of Blessed Justina of Arezzo should be presented, and the services of the Most Illustrious Francesco Redi, Patrician of Arezzo, toward us should be commemorated — so that the name of both may be joined on one day, whose one and the same zeal it was to promote the honor of the Saints by helping us. For not content with the favor he enjoyed with his Princes, which was supreme on account of his rare expertise not only in the medical art and natural philosophy but also in all the more refined disciplines and in the Latin and Greek languages (not to mention the Tuscan), and his by no means ordinary knowledge — not content, I say, with having spent that favor on our behalf in introducing us to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand, and obtaining the most ample permission to use the manuscripts of the Laurentian Library — the Life was received, he also wished to have copied at his own expense, from his literary treasury, whatever pertained to the Saints of Arezzo; among which this Life of Blessed Justina, taken from a very old parchment codex marked 114, and at his direction collated with another more recent manuscript which is preserved together with the body of the Blessed one among the Benedictine nuns of the Holy Cross at Arezzo.

[2] The same man taught us everything else that pertained to properly illustrating the aforesaid Life and understanding the ecclesiastical honor legitimately bestowed upon the same Blessed one; and notice of the cult, and in the first place, from the public documents of the city of Arezzo, he pointed out the following instrument to be found in the manuscript book of the nuns of the Holy Cross, and of the feast established shortly after her death, in this tenor: In the name of God. Amen. In the year of the Lord's Nativity one thousand three hundred and sixty,

^i A town fifteen miles distant from Arezzo to the northeast, not far from the Tiber river.

^k That is, of obtaining freedom, in a phrase proper to Italians.

^l Understand as the little membranes growing over the pupils.

^m From the property of the Italian language, meaning "he caused to be carried."

^n Thus also the French say du soir, that is, in the evening.

^o Perhaps contracted from Gregorio? Among our Belgians it would be Georgius.

^p That is, the customary labor.

^q Mutola in Italian signifies a mute woman.

^r For Maffeo.

^s That is, Francisca: whose diminutive is Ceccolella: by which name we learn from her Life at March 9 that St. Frances of Rome was customarily addressed more familiarly by her kinswoman Vannuzzia.

^t That is, Ioannes, which the Italians write as Iovanne.

^u We saw

that relic displayed for viewing to the innumerable people from the ambo along with the other relics of the Vatican Basilica, on the Monday after Easter in the year 1661.

ON THE VENERABLE DENIS THE CARTHUSIAN, ECSTATIC DOCTOR, AT ROERMOND IN BELGIUM.

IN THE YEAR 1471

Preliminary Commentary.

The Venerable Denis the Carthusian, at Roermond in Belgium

[1] Returning from Italy to Belgium, we arrived by way of Savoy at the city of Grenoble, and from there we turned aside to the Carthusian archmonastery situated in the neighboring mountains: where among the sacred relics of various Saints exposed for the veneration of the household members upon the altar of the inner chapel, we found several bones of the Venerable Denis the Carthusian, At the Grande Chartreuse, the bones of Denis are venerated: which the Venerable Father Prior Joseph Raymundi had sent thither from Roermond as a token of gratitude, when he had received from the Most Reverend General of the Order and Prior of the Grande Chartreuse some part of the jawbone of St. Bruno, Founder of the Order. Roermond is an episcopal city of the Duchy of Guelders on the Meuse river, into which the smaller river Roer empties at that very place, from which, as it were the mouth of the Roer, the city takes its name. In the Carthusian monastery of this city the Venerable Denis lived until the very last period of his life, he lived at Roermond, and as Miraeus writes of him in the Supplement on Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 479, he illuminated the books of all of Sacred Scripture, and left so many writings on various subjects for posterity to read, that he seems to have been able to read nothing by other authors amid so many daily and nightly monastic exercises, and yet to have previously read more than could allow him leisure for writing. an ecclesiastical writer, In the Carthusian house at Roermond there used to be preserved one hundred and fifty volumes of books composed by him and written out in his own hand: some of which have been conveyed to other monasteries out of honor and reverence. Most of them survive in printed and reprinted editions.

[2] He died in the year 1471. Denis served Christ in the Carthusian order for forty-eight years, and at last in the year 1471, on the feast of St. Gregory the Pope and Doctor of the Church, March 12, he passed to the blessed life, as Theodoric Loërius a Stratis, a monk and Vicar of the same sacred Order at Cologne, accurately records in his Life, first printed at Cologne in the year 1532: Writers of his Life. which we give here arranged in our customary manner and illuminated with annotations. Bartholomew Fisen of the Society of Jesus also published a Life of the same Denis, divided into thirteen chapters, in his Flowers of the Church of Liège, in whose diocese he is said below in no. 1 to have been born, and the city of Roermond, while he himself was alive, had not yet obtained its own bishops but was subject to the Bishops of Liège. Peter Sutor, Peter Dorlandus, and other writers on Carthusian affairs also treat of the same.

[3] Arnold Havensius, Prior of the Charterhouse of Ghent, in his Commentary on the Erection of the New Bishoprics in Belgium, book 3, chapter 10, describes the zeal of Henry Cuyckius, second Bishop of Roermond, in finding the relics or bones of the Venerable Denis, and relates the following: Furthermore, he undertook a work no less worthy of a Bishop, Henry Cuyckius, Bishop of Roermond, greatly esteems his sanctity: in a manner imitating St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, who, admonished by God through a vision, sought out, found, and raised with due honor the sacred bodies of SS. Gervasius and Protasius, and translated them to the basilica which they call the Ambrosian... Similarly, God put it into the mind of our Bishop of Roermond that he should seriously consider and devote every effort, applying himself to prayers and other pious works, so that God might deign by some sign to reveal the bones, which still lay hidden, of Denis Rickel of blessed memory, a man indeed most illustrious for the sanctity of his life and his learning, a Carthusian of Roermond, so that they might be elevated and canonization obtained from the Apostolic See. He desires to elevate the bones: For the most prudent Bishop judged his merits to be so great and so distinguished that such an honor was rightly owed to him, for the increase of the glory of God and for the honor of our Carthusian Order, of which he himself is most zealous; and therefore he sent letters to our Reverend Father, General Minister of the whole Order, urging him to undertake and perform all offices of piety throughout the entire Order: so that we might obtain from the Divine goodness this very thing which he himself intends and desires with the greatest vows: that is, that the bones of the holy man might be found as soon as possible by some divine sign...

[4] [He dedicates an altar in honor of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, and in his memory:] And so the Most Reverend Cuyckius, coming to our Carthusian monastery in the month of October, caused that altar, at which Denis of blessed memory had formerly been accustomed to celebrate the sacrifice, and which through the injury of time and the tumults of war had been neglected and destroyed, to be renewed and restored, and on the feast of St. Bruno, the first Founder of the Carthusian Order after Christ, with a new and whole stone placed upon it, he consecrated it anew with a solemn episcopal blessing, so that upon it the most sacred offering of the Body and Blood of Christ might be more frequently offered to God the Father, and the divine office might be performed in memory of St. Dionysius the Areopagite as well as of Denis Rickel, with that intention indeed, that his sacred bones might be found and elevated for the greater glory of God and the increase of the sacred Order. This the Bishop himself first did on the following day, and thereafter decreed to do more often, so that he might achieve his vow and desire, on account of the singular love and devotion with which he is affected toward so great and so distinguished and excellent a man, adorned with singular sanctity of life and exquisite learning. And indeed this was the beginning of the investigation of the sacred relics of the holy man, as he also sent letters to those whom he trusted to be given to piety and to be powerful with God through their prayers, that they might earnestly commend this pious undertaking of his to God in their petitions to Him.

[5] What has been related thus far occurred in the year of Christ 1607: but how the bones themselves were found and elevated the following year is read in chapter 11 of Havensius as follows: Moreover, how much progress the Most Reverend Lord Cuyckius made in investigating and finding the bones of our blessed Father Denis Rickel can become manifest from the following letter or copy thereof, he writes to the General of the Order: which he himself sent to our Reverend Father General, that is, the Prior of the Grande Chartreuse, in this year 1608, which reads as follows.

MOST REVEREND FATHER PRIOR. The Carthusian Fathers and Brothers seem not to have prayed to God without fruit for the finding of the bones of D. Denis Rickel. The senior Priest who had survived until now in this Charterhouse of Roermond, Brother Henry Kerckenus, having passed his fiftieth year in the Order, used to indicate the place of rest of Rickel in a certain area, as he had received from his elders; but very recently, that is, on the twenty-second day of the month of March, in the year 1608, he fell asleep in the Lord. On the occasion of preparing a burial in the year 1608, Prudently seizing this opportunity, the Venerable Prior of this Carthusian family ordered the place indicated by Kerckenus as the burial site of Denis to be opened and investigated, so that he might inter Kerckenus (who had also inhabited Denis's very cell until death) in the same place which he had said was Denis's: and this was opposite that altar at which Denis in his lifetime had been accustomed to celebrate the sacrifice: since fifty-four years earlier, when nearly the entire city of Roermond together with the monastery and its church was consumed by fire, it had been cracked, broken, and profaned: until in the same place six years before, on the day of St. Dionysius the Areopagite and Martyr and in his memory, another altar was erected and consecrated by us. When therefore on the twenty-second day of March (which by the old style would have been the day of the death of both great Gregory and Rickel) Kerckenus had departed this life, the Prior fixed two poles or stakes in that place the body is found, where the bones of Denis were believed to rest: to which, after a very deep excavation (the rubble from the fire seems to have provided the occasion, so that the cemetery was now much higher and more elevated than it had been before) the skull and the soles of the feet of Denis corresponded directly below: the remaining bones also of the entire body, in order and in their natural position, after one hundred and thirty-seven years had passed, were still neatly arranged, and when all of these had been extracted, Brother Henry Kerckenus was buried in Denis's place. It is extracted, The calvaria of Denis and the remaining bones present the appearance of a tall and most robust man, and bear the mark of a man who stammered, on account of the protruding front teeth of the jaws: with which defect Denis is attested to have suffered by the author who wrote his Life, Theodore Loërius of Straten. These bones therefore are now reverently preserved in the Carthusian house at Roermond, reverently preserved. until the Divine goodness shall cause them to shine forth with more illustrious miracles: so that they may be more honorably elevated for the greater glory of God, with the intervening authority of the Apostolic See. For the rest, I pray the most merciful God to augment all the Charterhouses, spread throughout the entire Christian world, with His gifts, and to make me a sharer in all their merits. Roermond, April 10, in the year 1608.

[6] Thus far the letter of Henry Cuyckius, Bishop of Roermond: to which Havensius adds: Moreover, our Esteemed Master, Doctor Peter Pollino, Dean of the Cathedral Church of Roermond, related to our people that the head, to which a special honor has been reserved, the head emits a fragrance, most beautifully adorned, also gives off a notable fragrance of scent. And indeed it is wonderful that, when the body was unearthed after the rubble had first been removed with great labor, it was found intact, still cohering in its members for the greater part, after the one hundred and thirty-seven years during which the holy man had slept in the Lord, the thumb and index finger are especially intact: and especially the thumb and index finger, the two instruments most necessary for the writing of books, which he used for the benefit of the Church and the salvation of many, were found more intact. Thus far Havensius, whom having cited, Arnold Raissius in his Supplement to the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium provides a summary of it on March 12 under this title: He is also called Blessed: Appendix on the Elevation of the Body of Blessed Denis Rickel the Carthusian: but him whom Raissius dignifies with the title of Blessed, Havensius had called only "of blessed memory" and "a holy man." He is also inscribed at March 12 in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium of John Molanus, in the Belgian Fasti of Aubert Miraeus, in the German Martyrology of Canisius, in the Marian Calendar of Balinghem, in the General Catalogue of Saints of Ferrari, inscribed in sacred fasti: in the Gallican Martyrology of Saussay and the Gallo-Belgian Martyrology of Willot, and other similar Fasti: and he is generally held to be of blessed memory, conspicuous in sanctity, or venerable,

with which title alone we honor him. Furthermore, the bones of the venerable relics are at this time preserved at Roermond behind the altar, placed in a decent casket and enclosed in a chest: the bones deposited behind the altar. various parts of them, however, have been distributed and shared with others.

[7] After these things had been written and prepared for the press, John Bollandus, the principal author of this vast work on the Acts of the Saints, was called, as we trust, to the most loving embrace of the Saints by the supreme Lord of life and death: who out of his affection and reverence for the Venerable Denis had piously and reverently preserved some of his relics for forty-six years. John Bollandus preserved some relics, He had taught the art of Rhetoric at Roermond, from which, when in the year 1619 he was being sent to Antwerp by Reverend Father Charles Scribani, then Provincial Superior of the Flandro-Belgian Province of the Society of Jesus, where for the following two years he taught the precepts of the same oratorical faculty; he received the said relics sent to him as a gift from the Carthusian house at Roermond to the College of the Society, together with an accompanying letter, which, having been found together with the said relics after his death, we add here. It is as follows.

[8] To the Venerable Master Bollandus, his most intimate and dearest friend. JESUS. In the same, Venerable Sir, I send to Your Lordship as a farewell gift and wish for a prosperous journey a memento of the relics of our Blessed Father Denis, with a letter from a Carthusian of Roermond. which will always be able and ought to testify to my love for Your Charity: for I would not give such a holy gift except to a singular friend. Behold, Your Lordship has my handwriting a second time; send also your own, impressed upon a card or image, as a keepsake, and may you fare most well in the Lord Jesus and live most happily, mindful of me. From the Charterhouse, etc.

Your Lordship's humble Brother and Friend, Fr. Servatius Mostet, Carthusian.

LIFE

By the author Theodoric Loërius a Stratis, Carthusian of Cologne.

The Venerable Denis the Carthusian, at Roermond in Belgium

BY THE AUTHOR LOËRIUS

CHAPTER I

Birth, Studies, Books Written. The Carthusian Life.

[1] Denis, a son of the Carthusian Order, a man illustrious for great sanctity, sublime in contemplation, copious in erudition, Denis born in Hesbaye: wonderful in talent, singular in memory, incomparable in piety, flourished around the year of the Lord 1450, as useful to the world as he was dear to God. His homeland was the village of Rickel in Hesbaye in the diocese of Liège, distant not less than twenty stadia from the town of Sint-Truiden. He had parents of the most honorable kind, of no mean fortune according to worldly standards, upon whom the ancestral family conferred the surname de Leuwis.

[2] By these parents, while still a boy, he was sent away from his homeland to be instructed in letters. There was in him an incredible desire for learning, so much so that even at night (as he confesses in the book On the Munificence of God) he would very often rise, roused by the light of the moon, diligent and successful in acquiring knowledge: intending to go out to school, and would have thought it was day, had he not found the doors of the house barred. He was also endowed with an admirable memory, by which he retained without great labor whatever he had once read. Whence it came about that by both the felicity of his talent and the assiduity of his study, in a short time, not without the admiration of many, he became so learned that he could be counted among accomplished philosophers.

[3] But because in this young man of the best character, not only knowledge but also piety had grown with age; what he had meditated upon from infancy, he resolved to submit the neck of his innocence to the yoke of the Lord. He burns with desire for the Carthusian Religious life, For he desired to leave the world before he might be ensnared in the world's traps. For this reason, burning with desire for the Carthusian solitude, he did not know what to do or how to obtain it: for he had not yet reached his twentieth year, which age that Order requires in admitting a novice. Moreover, to remain in the world and to swim safely through the shipwrecks of chastity seemed scarcely possible. And so, with his love for the Carthusian institute growing daily, it seemed fitting, although he was still too young, to try by pressing his suit at two Carthusian houses, to see whether he might merit being joined to their fellowship and institute. He therefore hastens to the Charterhouse of Mount St. John the Baptist at ^a Zeelem near Diest. From there he proceeds to Roermond, which is a town of Guelders; in both places offering his prayers, but in both he is rather deferred than refused by the Fathers of those houses, because his age did not otherwise permit. And so Denis, frustrated in his desire for the time being, did not on that account abandon what he had begun in his heart, but rather deferred it to a more opportune time.

[4] Nevertheless, while he began to consider what he should do in the meantime, and how he might safely impose upon the world and render himself more fit for Carthusian solitude, it came to his mind that after those exercises of the spirit affective toward God, which are practiced especially in that Order which he was about to enter, nothing would be sweeter to him, nothing more profitable, than the understanding of the Scriptures: therefore without delay, he betook himself straightway to Cologne, where he knew there was the most celebrated university in Germany, At Cologne he studies Theology: and there, applying himself to the study of Theology, he devoted all his effort to becoming most learned: how great he became there is testified by the book which he wrote On Being and Essence immediately after obtaining the insignia of the master's degree: his other books also testify to this, which he wrote subsequently in the Carthusian Order, always praised by the learned, especially on the pages of both Testaments, and other works various and almost innumerable: so much so that in the Church of God, one who labored as much in writing, who produced so many books filled alike with erudition and piety, has had no equal. Although the ^b Abbot of Sponheim places only Augustine above him, he wrote very many books, whom we too prefer, if the contest be about the erudition and piety of writers, it is nevertheless most certain that of those whom he himself reviews in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers, none wrote as much as this Denis the Carthusian. Whence I conjecture that the Abbot of Sponheim had not seen all of Denis's books: whose number is indeed so great that even if the world swore to it, I would not believe it possible that so many books had been produced by the same author, among which there are many large volumes, unless I had observed throughout the very same talent and style, hand and character, of the one Denis. For he himself wrote his books, reread them, corrected them, and illuminated them with rubrication. All of which his very well-known singular hand and character attest. And this indeed we leave as established. Whence I have heard no one who saw this man's labor without astonishment, who did not agree with me that without a great miracle it could not have been possible for one man to have written so many books, considering how little time he himself must be judged to have had — indeed (to speak more truly) considering how incredible it seems that even any other person, free from all duties, could even read them. although impeded by great occupations: For to say nothing of his other occupations by which he was delayed from writing, certainly in that Carthusian Order, from whose Divine Office, which is sufficiently lengthy, he was never absent, in which he discharged the offices of Procurator and Prior for some time, withdrawn from his monastery by the Lord Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, Legate of the Supreme Pontiff, he served the affairs of the Church for a considerable time. Moreover, he was most devoted to contemplation and prayer in a singular manner. Furthermore, he was almost continually engaged in reading and study, as is most clearly evident in his books. In addition, from nearly all of Germany innumerable persons flocked to him for counsel, so that he was almost never free from giving advice and writing letters. Finally, there is the fact that in his monastery at that time he did not have the books he needed and used. Hence an immoderate occupation was created for him in procuring codices from elsewhere.

[5] But these things concern the multitude of his books, in which, if the reader be diligent, if not an envious observer, he will equally find cause for wonder: for they are so full of erudition, so copious in variety, so replete with piety, that nothing could surpass them. to be admired also in the quality of his books, You will plainly see how nothing that was clear to others escaped him: how many things moreover which you would not have sought, which you would not have hoped for, he provides for your delight and according to your desire. In his lucubrations, however, he everywhere concerns himself with the text of Scripture, nor does he admit any occasion for self-display by which he might digress from his subject. There is added moreover to the praise of Denis that in his books nothing is found that is contrived, nothing inflated, nothing alien to pious morals, but, as I said, learning as lucid as it is abundant: so that nothing remains for you to desire in his books, except perhaps elegance of words and a more graceful style. In which, however, he can be excused, since he wrote in his own age, for the people of his own time, and in that period when the Latin language, especially the more polished variety, was neither in use nor in esteem among the learned. For if he had fallen upon our times, if he had obtained literate teachers and Latin books, since he himself was most desirous of letters, we would believe that even in more polished matters he would hardly have been second to anyone. But I beseech those who will read these things, by Christ, not to think that I wish so to exalt Denis as to diminish others, or to prefer him to those above whom he should not be placed. Each retains his own preeminence, which is not surpassed by others. In like manner it must be granted to this Denis of ours that something singular preeminent in him should be recognized, which is wanting in others. This man, O reader, and his erudition, both the Carthusian Religion and the entire Catholic Church rightly ought to acknowledge as owed to the University of Cologne, in which, having begun his studies, he became so great that even in the Carthusian solitude he afterward became known to the world and was held in high regard by all, both learned and pious. praised by Pope Eugenius IV: For even the Supreme Pontiff ^c Eugenius is reported to have said of him, when he saw one of his books offered to him: Let the Mother Church rejoice, who has such a son.

[6] Therefore, that we may proceed to narrate the condition of his life, departing from Cologne, At Roermond he entered the Carthusian Order: he went to Roermond, there returning to the desired Charterhouse, and setting aside all else, he consecrated himself a monk to God. Where as soon as he took the sacred habit, he lived so religiously and so uprightly that he showed even to perfect men something worthy of imitation in himself: for he so withdrew himself from love of the world, so restrained himself from idle conversation, so abstained from immoderate use of creatures, so did not occupy himself with useless things, so completely offered to God a soul naked and free from vices, that, drunk with the sweetness of divine love, he frequently suffered transports of mind to God, and was continually illuminated by divine consolations. Indeed, in prayer he was very often rapt to God and stood motionless without sensation for three or more hours, the powers of his soul being abstracted into God. What more? He became so dear to God in solitude, he excels in every kind of virtue: that God deemed him worthy of heavenly revelations, and showed to the world as well how greatly his merits and prayers availed before Him. The desolate and sorrowful felt the power of his prayers, as did the powers of hell: but the former found cause for joy, the latter for envy.

Moreover, whether he spoke or wrote, although he was endowed with slender eloquence, he nevertheless excelled with a singular grace of erudition. To prayer he applied himself with such fervor that, besides the prayers which that Order has in abundance, he very often recited the entire Davidic Psalter on the same day.

[7] He was of a tall and robust body, most patient of labors and vigils. Whence, according to the ancient rigor of his Order, after singing Matins with the Brothers, whatever remained of the night he gave not to rest or sleep, but to studies and prayers. Sometimes he was even found to have kept vigil through entire nights in prayer. And when others marveled at this in him, he is reported to have replied: I have an iron head and a brazen stomach. It is indeed certain that he was endowed with excellent and robust natural powers, which out of humility and modesty he attributed to a difficult and singular manner of living. Nevertheless, the grace of devotion in him was far more powerful, especially in devotion, humility, and abstinence, which drove him with great fervor to these and many other things, perhaps not possible for others. He was also wonderfully humble, inasmuch as while all esteemed him highly, he despised himself. Nor was he content that he thought meanly of himself; he desired also to be held as vile in the eyes of others: therefore, accusing himself gravely for even the most trifling faults, he humbled himself both publicly and in secret. Nor did he bewail slight transgressions, in which most people are accustomed to glory, otherwise than others bewail great ones. The study of interior recollection was always his concern: therefore he strove, dwelling with himself, always to keep sabbath for the Lord. Whence it came about that the delight of the senses was almost dead in him: for even those things which others can scarcely look upon without nausea, he took as food. Butter putrefied with worms, cherries and other things of that sort tasted beforehand by slugs, he did not refuse to eat: saying that this kind of worm has nothing of lethal poison, and that there is nothing to fear in taking the same food with them. If herrings were ever too salty, he ordered them to be immersed in water and hung up in the air, and he did not eat them until they had filled his cell with their stench. When admonished not to eat them, he said: I prefer to eat putrid food rather than salty. For he had long since renounced all choice in food, and on account of the fervor of his spiritual exercises, he very often passed the day until midnight. For he was so assiduous in reading and writing books, so fervent in prayer, that on account of these things he would sometimes postpone his dinner, and very often made use of cold food. Always also, whether he was dressing or undressing, or doing any other task, he was nonetheless praying. His abstinence in food and drink was admirable, and not to be imitated by many.

^a The Charterhouse of Zeelem was founded in the year 1328 by Gerard, Lord of Diest, and Castellan of Antwerp, together with his wife Joanna, daughter of the Count of Loon.

^b Trithemius.

^c This is Eugenius IV, who reigned from the year 1431 to the year 1447.

CHAPTER II

A Jew Converted. Two Women Rescued from Devils.

[8] But what need is there to proclaim the man in our own words, when his illustrious writings commend him to us abundantly enough? The integrity of Denis is proclaimed far more clearly from his books than from our speeches. Whence it once seemed fitting to the Fathers of his house, on account of the man's skill, that he should be placed in charge of the office of Procurator. Although he was more suited to contemplation than to action, nevertheless, lest he seem more tenacious of his own will than of obedience, he undertook the province of this office. Made Procurator, he converts a Jew. But his concern for gathering souls was greater than for money. For with great zeal he then converted a Jew and brought him to the orthodox faith and sacred baptism. On this account the Jew, lest he seem ungrateful to the zeal and fatherly solicitude of Denis, had the name of his spiritual Father given to himself in baptism; for he was called Denis of Denis. This man is believed to have given both the name and posterity to the family of the Dionysii in Roermond, which is seen to have spread to this day.

[9] However, because his generous spirit could not bear the distractions of transitory and temporal affairs, he left the office and was restored to the most devout exercises of his cell, to the writing of books, and to his longed-for solitude. In which, however, he could not lie so hidden pleasing to all, that Popes and Princes, and others of lower rank, did not flock to him from everywhere, write to him, send messengers, and eagerly seek his counsel. For there was no one among them who, having once been in his presence, was ignorant of how great was the sincerity of Denis and how great his merit before God, he stays with the Cardinal de Cusa: no one who did not long to return to him. Whence it came about that the Most Reverend Lord Cardinal de ^a Cusa, exercising the legation of the Apostolic See in Germany, when he had discovered this man's erudition and sanctity, drew him out of his cloister and attached him to his own household for the benefit of the Church. But Denis, not idle, turned this opportunity given to him to the profit of souls. For established in the household of the Lord Legate, as he also writes of himself, he reforms monasteries: he visited many monasteries of both sexes for the purpose of reform, and at that time he also published a most useful book on the reform of nuns.

[10] On account of these and many other things by which Denis zealously promoted the glory of God and the salvation of souls, he provoked the devil to persecute him. For thence the enemy of all good plotted many things to render Denis hated and despised by the world: for the envious one perceived what great numbers of souls were being daily led away from his camp through Denis. I shall therefore relate something unheard of in previous ages, wonderful to posterity, and which today also no one would believe, unless he were convinced by the truth and the fact itself. A certain woman named Gebula (for that was her name), consenting to the devil, having made a pact, A woman bound to the devil by a pact, did homage to him, and so that she might be led further from the hope of recovering salvation, persuaded by the devil, she wrote a document in her own blood. And so this wicked woman, long allied to this most foul incubus, was led to the most remote parts of the world, and wherever in Asia or in Africa public games or spectacles were exhibited, there, with the devil as her guide, she was immediately present. She fought with a lance; indeed, engaging in whatever kind of arms or combat was demanded, she conquered. The tender woman unhorsed armed men, and secretly aided by her lover, she thus long deceived the world. But what is more profound than divine mercy? What is more inscrutable than His counsels over the children of men? She at last, having come to herself, by the advice of the man of God, when the Most Reverend Lord Cardinal de Cusa was present, whom (as I said above) Denis was already accompanying, fled to the remedies of penance. Indeed, strengthened by the admonitions and prayers of Denis, neither her own crimes, nor her sacrilegious promises, nor the written document, nor finally the threats of her lover now turned enemy, could deter her from hope in divine mercy. But after innumerable sins, after the most foul abominations, after the most sordid commerce with the devil, he converts her: breaking the sacrilegious pact, the weeping sinner ran to the bosom of divine clemency. O the zeal and wisdom of Denis! O the faith of the woman! O the infinite mercy of Christ! Who would believe that she, already swallowed by the jaws of the devil, could ever emerge? Who would hope that she, who had given herself to the devil, could return from his alluring debauchery, by which she had been defiled, to the adoption of the children of God? But what seems impossible to men is most easy for the most benign Creator. And so she, bathed in tears, was brought to the Cardinal. There, renouncing her lover the devil, she devoted herself again to Christ, and having made confession of her crimes to him, and being bound to no small labor of penance, she was absolved from all her sins and from the pacts with the devil. And although she was thus reconciled to Christ, she was not, however, entirely freed from the vexation of the most wicked incubus: by divine justice, I believe, permitting this, so that she who had once voluntarily consigned herself to him for sin might now through him, even unwillingly, be afflicted for punishment. And so that shameless one, frequently coming to her, either announced future events or in whatever way he could, impeded her from the pursuit of piety. Whence the Venerable Father Denis (because at that time he was staying outside his monastery with the Cardinal, and desired to serve Christ with the freedom he enjoyed), when he would visit his Brothers at Roermond, he is assailed by calumnies from the demon: also very often visited this penitent woman to comfort her. But the devil, holding Denis in hatred because he had been despoiled of this noble prey and of many others through him, when he perceived him approaching, running ahead to Gebula, said: Behold, der Taterbeck vnde wijnsuper comes to visit you. Which in Latin means: The man of impeded speech, and the wine-guzzler, approaches to visit you. He said these things, striving either to provoke Denis to indignation through insults, or to turn the woman from reverence for him: for in truth Denis had a less ready and less eloquent tongue. He was also then using wine for the refreshment of his body, weakened by the labor of his studies and other exercises: on which account the devil was striving to construct a calumny against him. But nonetheless the man of God feared the devil's calumnies little; indeed he strove all the more to do those very things which the devil would calumniate. Concerning this woman, Denis relates in the second book which he wrote on the Sentences that he himself saw the scar from which she had drawn blood when she was about to write her homage to the devil.

[11] The matter now requires that I relate another deed of his virtues similar to this one, though not performed at the same time. There is a castle of Horn, built not far from Roermond across the Meuse, over which ^b the noble Lord Godfrey of Vlodorp, both a friend and benefactor of the Charterhouse of Roermond, once presided. To this place Denis, while returning from 's-Hertogenbosch (where he had for some time presided over the Charterhouse that had begun to be built), turned aside out of friendship, as if on his journey. It happened then that the wife of the Prefect, Lady Catherine, seized by a grave illness concerning a dying woman: and soon about to die, was turning herself this way and that in her bed with horrible signs and movements, as if seeking some protection of flight or defense. For she was struck with excessive fear and almost overcome by desperation. He sees demons flying about: When Father Denis was brought in, as soon as he entered the chamber, seeing a multitude of dreadful spirits, no differently than a swarm of bees flying about and awaiting the soul about to depart, he cried out in a loud voice: Little children, what do I see? Without delay, I beg you all, hasten, make haste, and bend your knees in prayer; this place is as full of demons as are the rays of the sun with specks of dust. Saying this, when he wished to leave the chamber, the sick woman, with whatever strength she then possessed, seizing the garments of Denis, held him and he resists by prayers. cried out: Alas, Father, do not abandon me; by your faith save me today. Denis turned and stood, and armed with his accustomed faith against the demons, pouring forth the most ardent prayer he could to God, he fought with the force of devotion and charity. At his prayer the divine power immediately arriving routed that entire troop of unclean spirits: for the demons, no longer able to endure the violence of his prayers, cried out: Alas, alas, what violence we suffer from this cowled old man! his staff snatched from him, And snatching the staff on which he was leaning from

his hands, they hurled it far away. And while all the rest who were standing by (although none of them could see the demons) were awaiting the outcome of the matter, the infernal spirits gave the praying Denis a violent blow on the face, and having struck him a blow, he routs them: exceedingly severe, of whose marks and scar he seemed never to be free while he lived. Yet at this injury Denis was not at all moved, but persisted in prayer: and the evil spirits, terrified by his patience, fled, abandoning the woman. And so in the meantime she who a little before had been struck by desperation and expected nothing other than to be immediately swallowed up by the infernal pit, returned to hope of pardon and became more courageous. For she had been in life no less abounding in vices than in wealth: she had also served love of the world, and other vanities, and indeed the allurements of the flesh, too much occupied. Nevertheless, fortified by the prayers of Denis, as I said, with the ministers of darkness put to flight, he secures the salvation of the dying woman: she was restored to tranquility of mind and good confidence in God. Then Denis said to those standing by: Praise, dearest ones, and magnify the bowels of mercy of our God, who has granted salvation to this soul. The woman also, strengthened with great contrition and hope of pardon, soon rendered her spirit into the hands of her Creator. After this, Denis descending from the castle, met Lord Godfrey, the husband of the deceased, coming toward him. Gently seizing and pulling his ear, he advises the husband to depart: he said: What are you doing here, my son? It is not expedient for you to remain here longer. Hasten to depart hence, lest worse things overtake you. He obeyed the commands of the man of God and immediately changed his location.

[12] Let these few things be said from many, lest it seem strange why the devil persecuted the man of God Denis with hatred: for a continual struggle was waged between them, whose aims were contrary. For the devil was plotting to scatter souls, he is impeded by devils in the writing of books: Denis was striving to gather them: the one was wounding, the other was healing: the one was slaying, the other was raising the dead to life through the grace of God: and therefore the devil envied not only the holy prayers and exhortations of Denis, but was troublesome to all his pious endeavors. But he especially bore it ill that Denis constantly devoted himself to writing pious books and elucidating the Holy Scriptures: for from this he feared a greater loss of his spoils for himself. Wherefore sometimes by terror, sometimes by noise, at other times by knocking at the door of the little cell where he was writing, he strove to drive the man of God to impatience or weariness, or to make him cease from writing. But Denis, fortified by faith, always despised him. Once even, when the demon's impudence was pressing so hard and was more troublesome than Denis pleased, the man of God rose up and, confronting the devil, thrust himself forward, saying: What has possessed you, wicked one, to disturb with such presumption a servant of God and to impede him with your assaults and annoyances? You pretend to be bold, when you are a bubble and nothing: but to us God has given courage and power to despise your deceptions. Go hence quickly therefore, and henceforth, never to return, desist from this madness of yours. The devil obeyed, though unwillingly, and was no longer troublesome to Denis as he wrote.

^a Cusa is a town on the bank of the Moselle, whence Nicholas of Cusa was born, Nicholas of Cusa. created Cardinal by Nicholas V in the year 1449 from being Archdeacon of Liège, and Bishop of Brixen, sent as Apostolic Legate to the Emperor Frederick, he departed this life in 1464.

^b Hence he is next called Prefect, not Lord. Concerning the lineage of the Nobles and Counts of Horn, consult the Belgian Donations of Miraeus, book 1, chapter 128.

CHAPTER III

The Solitary Life Praised. A War Averted. The Death of a Bishop Who Spurned His Warnings.

[13] Perhaps someone will say that he was useful to the world while he stayed among men outside the monastery, either summoned by the authority of the Cardinal or appointed to offices by the Superiors of his Order: but not useful while he sat alone in his cell. By no means. Rather, he must be believed to have borne far more abundant fruit in solitude The solitary life is to be preferred, than if he had lived in the turmoil of the world: since then both his soul could be purer toward God and his prayer could be more fervent. For who does not know that wanderings, labors, cares, conversations, and finally all efforts in difficult matters were very often vain, until the fervent prayer of some man beloved by God, poured out to God even from afar, gave them strength and fruit. Let someone say, I ask, what the prayers of Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and Daniel (to review a few ancient examples from many) were worth to the world, that is, what they contributed to freeing the afflicted, what harm they did to overcoming adversaries, what benefits they obtained for the world, what evils they removed, how many times they reconciled the world to God: and he will find that external cares and labors, by which the mind is distracted, fall far behind prayer — that prayer, namely, which is poured forth with the fervor of devotion and purity of heart. This prayer indeed is aided and supported especially by solitude, silence, bodily chastity, continence of the senses, and the other institutions both of the desert and of monastic life. For this prayer, being pure and fervent, immediately penetrates the heavens, does violence to the Almighty: compels the Unconquerable: and the efficacy of prayer in it, and bends the unchangeable God from justice to mercy. And therefore, those who devote themselves to prayer and contemplation in this way are by no means idle in the Church of God, but most useful, even if they have been enclosed in the most hidden places. Let these things be said against those who, while they waste their days in trifles and gossip, or pursue human vainglory, dare, as if they themselves were occupied, to calumniate the holy leisure of contemplatives. And even if many without ill intent complain with Martha about these things, it is not fitting to be offended by their words, which Christ once refuting, preferred the part of Mary, that is, the office of contemplation and prayer, to action. For this reason our Denis loved his Rachel and preferred her to Leah: nor could he bear with equanimity if anyone seemed to think less worthily either of the monastic state he demonstrates against its despisers: or of the Religious life. Wherefore, writing to a certain Doctor who was hostile to the monastic Religious life, he charged him with rashness in these words: Grieve for such presumptuous and perilous judgments, nor be inclined to judge Religious. O how little you recognize what the Most High works in true solitaries; whom He hides in the secret of His face from the disturbance of men, and protects them from the contradiction of tongues; whom He leads into solitude, that He may speak to their heart; whose minds He illumines, and leads them to the joys of silence, to the day that is without tumult, to the region of immense light, to mystical visions, and the sincerity of contemplative theory, to rapture and ecstasy; so that, plunged into the abyss of the holy Deity, of eternal truth, they gaze upon the supernatural truths of faith and the order of things to be believed and of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, ineffably more clearly and more certainly than can be discerned from scholastic knowledge. Is not the light of grace stronger than that of nature? Illumination than exercise? Supernatural inspiration than scholastic disputation? Certainly, as it is stated in the statutes of our Carthusian Order, the baptisms of tears, the fervor of prayers, the ecstasies of contemplation, are aided by nothing more than solitude. Therefore do not despise the writings and admonitions of such men. Thus Denis. By which words he truly testified to nothing other than what he had experienced in himself: for even while enclosed in his cell, it was established that through his prayers he had protected people and various places unknown to him. Of which, lest I seem to pass over everything in silence, it will suffice to have recalled one or two instances.

[14] A certain most illustrious ^a Duke, whose name we suppress for the sake of discretion, sent a messenger to ask Denis to petition the Almighty for a revelation to be made to him, a war between father and son, and instruction concerning the end and outcome of the war which he was preparing against his rebellious son Adolph, and at the same time to pray that God might grant glory to the war through the father's victory: for it had already become public that Denis could accomplish much with God through his prayer, and was deemed worthy of revelations. And so, having received the messenger, the holy man replied that he would by no means do this, nor could he aid with his prayers this impiety between father and son of which the devil was the author. He prayed, however, through nearly the entire night, striving to avert this most unfortunate impending calamity and the miseries of war that would follow, the destruction of souls, and finally the miserable devastation of the homeland. For he judged that not what the Duke had asked should be prayed for, but what was worthy of God and salutary for the homeland. He prayed, therefore, that God would not allow such horrible evils, by prayer, slaughter of bodies, perdition of souls, nor so many injuries and affronts to His glorious name. He prayed that the father's hands would not be polluted with the blood of his son, or conversely that the son would not pollute himself with his father's blood. As he thus prayed and wept, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared, who, if the Princes did not come to their senses for peace, by the instruction of an appearing Angel, and unless the common people together with the Clergy turned to the laments of penance and amendment of life, foretold to Denis in order all the future evils. He taught moreover how he should forewarn the Princes who were obstinate in their fury, and how the homeland itself might render God, long since offended by its crimes, propitious to it once more. a letter written, At this Denis, without delay, wrote a letter to the Dukes, not sufficiently polished, yet full of power and spirit. And he sent the same to both the father and the son. Meanwhile, he begged the Lord that their hearts might be softened. The Princes obeyed the monk, equally humble and holy, and received from him whatever he admonished, as the commands of God — as indeed they were. Certainly much and often had been previously attempted through Princes, through Nobles, through Doctors, and by all the means that could be devised by human effort, he successfully averts it: so that not only open persecution but also any ill feeling being extinguished, father and son might not violate the bonds of nature. But every counsel was excluded, and nothing remained except that they stain their impious hands with blood. But Denis — rather, the divine power in his servant Denis, whom He had determined to glorify before that nation — by praying and exhorting, restored an end to the war, friendship to the Princes, and peace to the homeland. All marveled and rejoiced with new gladness that the hostile preparations for war had by a happy omen been suddenly changed into peace. Nor could the author of the peace long remain hidden from the inhabitants of the country. Wherefore, turning to the veneration of the man of God, they called him in their rustic manner the man who speaks with an Angel.

[15] It should not be thought irrelevant, since we have made mention of Princes, if we also continue the narrative of history concerning the Bishop of Liège. This man of whom we wish to speak (for it is not fitting that he be named in reproach) was a man suited indeed to the world, but one who fulfilled less than was fitting in a Bishop. This man instituted spectacles, tournaments, A Bishop is warned not to exhibit spectacles at Roermond, and other military games of that kind in that pious Roermond. For so it pleases, and not without reason, to call that town pious, which has hitherto been celebrated as more suited to devotion than to vanity: nor do I think it is today so filled with arms as with learned and pious men. And so, while he himself was waiting in the town for the nobles summoned from every quarter to this Roermond, and was providing the necessities for

these theatrical games, this ecclesiastical man, it happened that in the meantime he went to the Charterhouse: where, after he had discussed various matters with Denis, whom the reputation of holiness had made great and celebrated to many, he was not ashamed to boast of the great expense he was lavishing on these military games, and of how he was devoting himself to receiving and magnificently entertaining the nobles. Denis, groaning, said: O Most Reverend Father, he admonishes him at length: although these things may be permitted for secular Princes, they are entirely unfitting for ecclesiastical men, and especially for Bishops. It is most unworthy and utterly unjust that you squander the patrimony of Christ on these theatrical uses. Spare, I beg, your reverence, Father — you are a Bishop; spare clerical propriety; spare at least your money, and entirely desist from this madness. To this the Bishop replied: I know myself to be a Bishop, to whom these profane spectacles have long since been forbidden by the sacred canons. But you must also admit that I am a Prince, a Duke, a Marquis, and a Count, whom arms adorn, and to whom temporal judgments and commands belong: their duty is what I must now discharge. To which Denis said: You were not made a Bishop for this purpose, Father, that you might play the Prince or Duke, but so that you might be held a more eminent and worthy Bishop, and so that you might be more formidable to the wicked and more powerful in defending the laws of Christ and the Church — for this purpose the Prince's sword and honor have been given to you by the Church. He inculcates the duty of a Bishop: Therefore your duty is to care for the Lord's flock, to rescue souls ensnared in the devil's traps, to feed the sheep committed to you with the Word of God, to lead back those that have strayed, to compel to the fold those unwilling to repent, to prove yourself the Vicar of Christ; not to act as a hireling, but as the Shepherd of souls; to show the sheep examples of holy conduct, as a path to follow; to go before them with the fragrance of good repute; and, to say many things at once, to lead the flock committed to you into heaven, not thrust it down to hell. Among all these things, moreover, when you have done all well, know that the Lord calls you an unprofitable servant. Whence you must be on your guard, and we must greatly marvel, since your solicitude will render account for each soul committed to you lest even one perish, how through your negligence you can, as if unconcerned, even dare to think about military games and spectacles. What, I ask, Father, will you answer to God for the souls that you yourself meanwhile scandalize by this diabolical business? With what face will you dare to appear before Christ the Judge, he sets forth eternal damnation: from whom you are leading away souls redeemed by His precious blood and delivering them to eternal death; from whose milk and wool you have taken what you need, while you live in delights? Why do you squander the goods of the Church, which you ought to dispense for the poor and for divine worship, on these theatrical spectacles, to the reproach of Christ, to the detriment of the Church, to the perdition of souls, for your luxury? But if you utterly refuse to do what is worthy of a Pontiff, at least spare the sheep: since with lesser expense and labor you alone can procure eternal torments for yourself.

[16] ^b The Bishop, hearing these things, departed as full of indignation as he was obstinate in his purpose. To him, already withdrawing, Denis said: We have asked you, Father, since you have been placed as an example of religion, not to carry out these vain spectacles for the ruin of souls, but you despise listening. I will ask a more powerful Lord, to whom you too (whether you will or no) must be subject; he predicts that he will prevent it by prayer: He will hear me; He will prevent your senseless endeavors, even against your will. The Bishop rose and, muttering something to himself in anger, leaving Denis, was working to complete what he had begun. But Denis, on the contrary, hastened to forestall him. Indeed, turning to the Lord, he employed the same weapons both against the devil and against the Bishop, namely tears and prayer. Why delay? The inflated power profited the Bishop nothing, nor did his accelerating industry contribute to completing his plan: Denis prevailed more by prayer. For the Bishop, as soon as he had departed, before he could reach his house, was seized with the most violent pains of gout, and his feet hurt him so much gout inflicted upon him: that the games and tournaments which he had previously refused to interrupt when asked, he was now compelled not to carry out, even against his will. And so, after a useless expenditure of a great sum of money, after the mark of infamy, everything the Bishop had prepared, everything he had arranged, everything he had begun, was abandoned and ceased. He himself, however, after the pains had somewhat abated, as soon as he was able to recover the use of his feet, he is rebuked by the same man, full of wrath, approached the Charterhouse and, complaining that his undertakings had been frustrated by the prayers of Denis, and that he himself had been afflicted with pains and ignominy on that account, he chastised him with rather harsh words. But Denis bore these things with equanimity, even rejoicing that he was deemed worthy to suffer insults even from Bishops for the glory of Christ. Would that there were many such men as Denis today, as there are found Pontiffs too similar to this Bishop. But if they would attend to the miserable fate of this man after his death, and would not acquiesce in the flattery of courtiers, they would perhaps change themselves for the better as soon as possible. For this Bishop whom we have mentioned, after his death (when Denis was praying for him in his cell, keeping vigil after Matins on the feast of the blessed Virgin Catherine), after death he sees him appear, cruelly tormented. he saw brought before him by two most loathsome spirits of gigantic form, and surrounded by burning flames: who said: Behold, the one for whom you pray, your Lord. Denis, looking at him carefully, saw around his belly and genitals an immense host of serpents and toads, which were gnawing at the wretch. For in life, besides other vanities unworthy of a Bishop, he had been a violator of women and a defiler of virgins in his lusts. The holy man was vehemently terrified, admiring the equity of the judgments of God: and reflecting that the powerful will suffer powerful torments, he perceived that he was damned. For the wretch sought no intercession for himself, no prayer, and was suddenly snatched from the eyes of the beholder by those blackest Ethiopians.

^a This is Arnold, Duke of Guelders, who was captured by his son Adolph and held for some time in prison: whose deeds Bockenbergius describes at length in the Dynasties of the Egmonds. Dorlandus records the very letter of Denis to both in book 7, chapter 13, but without any date.

^b Bartholomew Fisen, himself also of Liège, acknowledges this story and ascribes it to John of Heinsberg, and no other Bishop died during the time when Denis the Carthusian was alive. Heinsberg was consecrated in the year 1420, three years before Denis became a monk, and when he resigned the bishopric in the year 1455, Louis of Bourbon succeeded him, who was killed in the year 1482, eleven years after the death of Denis. Meanwhile Heinsberg is praised by Suffridus Petri, Zantfliet, and others, as one who discharged the episcopal office successfully. But Cratepolius says he displayed his magnificence with two hundred white horses: which seems to agree with this admonition. Dorlandus in chapter 16 has the same story and attributes it to the said John of Heinsberg.

CHAPTER IV

Help Given to Souls Appearing to Him.

[17] Moreover, because we have here made mention of one deceased person, this must be held in general concerning the spirits of the dead: that they appeared to Denis very frequently, and also sought remedies for their punishments, He is often visited by souls seeking prayers, which that man, tireless in spirit and body, most generously bestowed. When once asked by Brother Charles, his attendant, very dear to him and devoted to God, whether the souls of the deceased had often appeared to him, he replied: Indeed: a hundred times and more. A certain novice, born not far from the town of Sint-Truiden, came to the point of death at Roermond in the Charterhouse from illness; to him Denis promised to read two Psalters after his death, which that novice, had he not been overtaken by death, would have been obliged to fulfill. He is rebuked for prayers promised but then delayed, But because at that time the doubts and scruples of conscience of many persons were continuously being brought to Denis from various places, to which he had to respond without delay, it happened that Denis, thus occupied, deferred what he had promised. The deceased novice, therefore, because he needed suffrages, returned to Denis: and reproaching him for his tardiness, rebuked him harshly. At this, when Denis thought he would produce a just excuse, he suddenly became so rigid at the rebuke of this novice that he dared not even open his mouth. And so understanding that the suffrages owed to the dead must on no account be deferred, he himself afterward took care against tardiness and warned others to do the same.

[18] A certain Brother of his house, of the profession of those whom they call Donati, long since buried, he found in his cell after Matins burning with flames. When he asked who he was and what he wanted, he heard: I am your Brother, lately departed from this life. He is warned to rebuke the monks about this: I complain that the Brothers deal with me more negligently than is right: for not only do they not come to my aid with overflowing charity, but also, with laziness prevailing, they do not pay what they owe me by obedience to the Order, deferring it instead. Wherefore, unless they correct themselves, they will pay their own penalties as well as mine. The Brothers, corrected by the exhortation of Denis, more quickly bestowed the suffrages upon the deceased.

[19] A certain spirit was troublesome to a venerable ^a Priest, then a novice in the Carthusian Order, in his cell: for by noise and knocking the spirit was disturbing the Brother from his rest and sleep. The complaint was brought to the man of God, Denis. Who, answering, said: Tell the novice to command the spirit in this manner: Go to Brother Denis. A wondrous thing! The novice obeyed Denis, and the spirit obeyed the novice. For leaving the novice, he came to Denis: he frees a soul: but Denis, sensing his presence, immediately scourged him with such fervor of prayers that the spirit no longer cared to trouble either the novice or Denis: but departing, freed from all his punishments, he flew away to God.

[20] Denis was once seized with a great desire to know how the soul of his father, long since deceased, fared. Therefore, strengthened by the confidence that a certain familiarity with God had produced in him, concerned about his father's salvation, after Vespers one day, prostrating himself in the oratory of his cell, he prayed to be informed where his father's soul was. But when he had persisted long in prayer with this desire, he heard a voice answering him: Why does the curiosity of knowing torment you so concerning your father's soul? Is it not pious to pray for the dead? Pray therefore for your father, who if he is in punishments and departed this life in the grace of God, will be refreshed by your prayer: if not, the prayer will return to your own bosom. Having received this response from heaven, Denis persevered, praying nonetheless for his father: not, however, as before, by investigating the secrets of God, but that rest might be granted to the deceased. Meanwhile, one night while he was held in light sleep, he saw his father held between two spirits blacker than Ethiopians, and crying out to him with a strong voice: Most loving son, have mercy on me, and help your father with your prayers. He saw him being tortured: This word as soon as he uttered it, he was snatched away by the demons and cast into a burning furnace, beaten and scourged with iron rods. Although Denis saw these things in sleep, to which kind of visions he never considered it safe to give credence, and he persists in praying for him, he nevertheless did not doubt the truth of this one. Wherefore he did not cease praying for his father, until the latter ceased to be wretched.

[21] Many other things he learned from the spirits appearing to him, and he also bestowed upon them many of his labors and prayers, which he made known to no one. For he was silent only about those things which necessity did not compel him to reveal. For it was often necessary that certain persons be informed why particular souls of the dead were being tormented, so that the living might both repent of their own negligence and bring aid to the dead. Wherefore it is worth relating further concerning Master ^b John of Louvain, whose misery after death Denis was not permitted to conceal from all. A very good man, This man was in his time venerable, a man of good and upright life, a guardian also of sobriety, propriety, and chastity, a lover of religion, steadfast in justice, and (what is most rare) one who greatly preferred the public good to his own. I review his praise here for this reason, that it may be learned by what merits he escaped the dangers of eternal damnation. For unless such distinguished virtues had been found in him, but holding many ecclesiastical benefices, unless he had also departed the world with such great contrition and penitence, he would not have escaped the eternal punishment — which many today do not dread — on account of the ecclesiastical benefices which he had possessed in great number. And although he had spent the money accumulated from his benefices on the most pious uses (for he built and endowed a ^c monastery of Canons Regular at Roermond, and colleges of St. Jerome at Cologne and Deventer), after death he was nevertheless long and severely tormented with the punishments of purgatory. For since he had been buried in the choir of the Carthusians at Roermond, an anniversary for the salvation of his soul is celebrated each year by the Fathers of that place. And so, while his first anniversary was being celebrated, and in the Office of the Dead they had come to the Canticle of Zechariah, Denis with waking eyes beheld above the sepulcher of the deceased flames of fire gathered together in the form of a bier, which were horrible to behold with the darkness of their smoke and the stench of sulfur. Denis, terrified, for two years at the anniversary he perceives him being tormented: pushing the Brother who stood next to him, understood it to be the mystery of a spiritual vision, and grieved vehemently, recalling the sobriety and integrity of the deceased. He wept especially because he did not know whether this vision signified the fires of purgatory or of hell. The anniversary day returned the following year, and just as in the previous one, Denis beheld the appearance of fire near the monument of the deceased, but the flame was more thin, brighter, and milder. Moreover, in the third year, Denis, rapt in ecstasy of mind, now not as before with bodily eyes, he recognizes he will be freed. nor by an imaginary vision, but by an intellectual (so to speak) vision, he learned of the future salvation of the deceased, seeing at the same time the wonderful, hidden, and inscrutable judgments of God, and certain other things which it was neither lawful nor possible to utter. Wherefore ^d he wrote to a certain person who should have attended to and executed the will of the deceased, admonishing him to hasten the suffrages for the deceased, all delay being set aside.

[22] I would wish here to narrate more things for the edification of readers, from those which were done through the man of God concerning the souls of the dead; except that I would fear the weariness of some on account of prolixity: although besides these there remain other things, almost innumerable, not only concerning the dead but also concerning the living, which God revealed to him, he remains humble in his visions. always concealed by him and entirely hidden from us. For he made known only those things about future or even present matters which he had received a command from the Lord to make known. In the revelation of which things, however, it is wonderful how humble he was, attributing nothing to himself except vileness: which he himself also dreaded, admiring the counsel of divine providence, which was pleased to use him, unworthy and ignorant of all things pertaining to worldly prudence, as a minister for the edification of the Church.

^a He is called Hermann of Lüne by Dorlandus, chapter 21.

^b Dorlandus, chapter 23, says he was Provost of Xanten.

^c From this monastery and its revenues the Episcopal See of Roermond was erected.

^d Dorlandus exhibits this letter in chapter 22.

CHAPTER V

Ecstasies: Groaning Over the Calamities of the Church.

[23] He was very often rapt in ecstasy of mind for many hours, which, as long as he could, he concealed. But when in the presence of some of his Brothers or a gathering he had been abstracted to God and had remained as if dead and motionless to human things, he grieved, and his embarrassment could not be hidden. What, however, he felt in the meantime, what he learned, what was revealed to him, he disclosed to no one, or to very few, and that most rarely. He is often in ecstatic rapture for many hours: Whatever things also were revealed to him, whatever was shown, were not conveyed through likenesses, not through images of things or sensible visions, but he was taught in a nobler manner, more sublime and more pure. For his intellect was illuminated by the divine light, and his mind, departing from itself and absorbed through love into God and united with God, learned whatever the ray of divinity wished to teach him. He was helped moreover — indeed (to speak more truly) even when resisting he was rapt — by whatever external occasion was furnished, from which his mind might be raised to the contemplation of heavenly things, or to the admiration of the inscrutable wisdom of God, or to the love of His goodness. Wherefore sometimes, when the Canticles of the Church were being begun, such as Veni Sancte Spiritus, or Suscepimus Deus misericordiam tuam, and other things of that kind; sometimes when he was in crowds and the company of men; at other times in castles before nobles (who were greatly delighted by his conversation, erudition, and counsels) — while speaking of God, he was himself rapt into the region of inaccessible and immense light, while the others who were present were meanwhile left here amid their human affairs. Sometimes also, like a second Elisha, while he heard the sweet melody of organs, with the spirit of God coming upon him, he aspired to the harmony of that celestial melody. Hence suddenly his mind, because it could not be contained within itself, departed to the taste of those things for which it burned with longing: and departed so completely that for several hours it remained fixed and did not return.

[24] 's-Hertogenbosch is a most noble town of Brabant, in which is found the church of the Blessed John, adorned in a wonderful manner. Indeed nothing in it is seen to be neglected; nothing is wanting that pertains to piety, devotion, and the furthering of recollection of spirit. Into this church Denis happened to enter, because the music was then being played on the organs for the divine service; at 's-Hertogenbosch having drunk in the sweet melody through his ears, immediately his heart began to melt, his countenance and mind to change, to depart from himself, and, gathering the powers of his soul, to go entirely into God. There was with him then the Abbot of St. Martin's in Cologne: who, understanding what was about to happen, drew him into a chapel that was nearby, where he remained rigid and motionless for nearly three hours. This, however, happened to him at the time rapt for three hours: when the Charterhouse had begun to be built outside that same town in honor of ^a St. Sophia: over which the same Denis, though now an old man, had been appointed initiator and Rector on account of his sanctity. It had been revealed to Denis long before that in the place where it is now seen to have been built, a Carthusian monastery was to be constructed, where souls would be sanctified for God and divine praises would be sung. Moreover, the sanctity of Denis, widely known, gave great occasion for the building of this monastery. For this reason, the founder of the monastery obtained him from the head of the Order as Rector for this new establishment. He began a Charterhouse: But as long as Denis stayed there, ^b Philip the Great, that Duke of Burgundy, held him in great veneration, and summoned him to his side and consulted him on great, difficult, and secret affairs. Pleasing to Philip the Good: However, because this new building distracted his mind, and being now old he was exhausted in strength, having obtained the consent of his superiors, he at last returned to the house of his profession.

[25] They report that at the time of his return, the choir of the church of the Charterhouse of Roermond was illuminated for several nights during Matins by a light poured down from heaven. The monks, not knowing what this portent was, stood astonished: some went outside and gazed at the sky: but seeing nothing to behold, he is adorned with heavenly light: they at last understood it to be the return of Denis (who was the light of the Order and of the world). Denis himself also often saw, after Matins, white spirits accompanying the monks as they returned to their cells, and entering their cells with them, whom he did not doubt were their guardian Angels.

[26] He sees guardian Angels: At that time, Mehmed, King of the Turks, ^c took Constantinople and all the territories of the Eastern Empire from the Christians. Whence the Christian faith almost completely collapsed in Greece, and a great fear and grief arose among all Christians, he mourns the capture of Constantinople: especially the man of God, Denis, who day and night, now an old man, wept that the worship of God was being abrogated and insult was being done to the Christian name. He saw moreover in the West the Church degenerating from those ancient holy ways, and the peril of the West: and growing tepid from the warmth of faith and charity. For this reason he feared the wrath of God coming also to those places that obey the Roman Empire. Against these evils his one remedy was prayer. With this he strove to avert wrath from the Church; with this, amid the calamities of the Church, he sought to console himself. ^d God had revealed to him that the sins of Christians, especially of Prelates and Clergy, could no longer be tolerated by His justice with impunity, on account of the morals of the Prelates and Clergy: but that one of two things must necessarily come about: either the Prelates and Clergy would correct themselves, or they would be ignominiously chastised by those who would show no reverence or deference to the Clergy. When Denis in their name promised amendment to God, and more vehemently in this way pleaded for mercy, he heard: According to the measure of your amendment, the censure of My justice shall be tempered. And the Lord added: Concerning the amendment which you promise in the name of the Prelates, hold this: Even if they swear in My name, "The Lord lives," by that very act they will swear falsely. In this revelation moreover, concerning future evils and the calamities of the Church, he tries to rouse them to amendment: he learned some secrets which it was not lawful to disclose. He sent, however, letters to Popes, to Princes, to Prelates of the Church: and whomever he could, he invited to a more correct life. Nor content with his own prayer alone, he exhorted all by whatever means he could to amendment of life, and to deprecate the wrath of God from themselves. There were then, though few, among the leaders who, believing his admonitions, betook themselves to a better life: the rest, although the revelations and counsels of Denis had been reported even to the Supreme Pontiff, heard them with deaf ears and a hard heart. Nor is this a wonder, since today also, although last year at Rome and in Germany for several years now the Clergy suffers not only calamity but even expects almost total destruction, few are corrected. For how many are there today in monasteries or colleges of Canons who, from the persecution of the Clergy and the other evils by which the world is afflicted, have become better? Evils multiply; profane power presses upon us; violence persecutes; and nevertheless our vices persist. But we leave these things to greater men to preach; we must return to our Denis. ^e

^a Because Constantinople and the principal church of St. Sophia in it had been occupied by the Turks, he wished the house and church to be called after St. Sophia. And it is the fifteenth monastery of Belgium or Lower Germany according to Miraeus in his

Carthusian Origins, where he reviews its principal founders. After the exercise of the Catholic religion was driven from the city and territory of 's-Hertogenbosch, the Carthusians migrated to Antwerp and there erected a new monastery.

^b Philip the Good departed this life in the year 1467. Charles the Bold succeeded him, who in the year 1471 approved the foundation.

^c Constantinople was captured in the year 1453.

^d These revelations are narrated at length in Dorlandus, chapter 8 and following: received on the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Mary, on Passion Sunday, and on the third Sunday after Easter.

^e The letter sent to the Prelates is found in the same work, chapter 11.

CHAPTER VI

Illness, Death. Illustrious Men of the Order.

[27] Here, amid such studies, the discomforts of old age came upon him, which were thereafter increased by the frequent annoyances of infirmities. For he was tormented by continual pains from paralysis, stone, and the bladder. There were added moreover ulcers which had eaten away both legs. But amid these things the patience of Denis must not be passed over in silence, who although he was gravely and not seldom (as happens) hurt when the bandages were being either loosened or tightened by his attendant, nevertheless never uttered a word or groan: but as if insensible to pain, he continued praying or writing nonetheless. He was then in his forty-seventh year from the time he had been initiated into the Carthusian institute, Most patient amid various illnesses; and had not yet ceased to write, although his body was weak and nearly spent: for it had been consumed by vigils, abstinences, infirmities, and the continual exercises of the spirit: as the afflictions increased daily, he himself bore the hand of the Lord patiently. At these things also exulting, he gave thanks to the Lord, who, what He bestows upon all His friends, had not denied him: to be corrected and chastised, to do good and to suffer evil. And so in the last year of his life, he prepared himself so that at midnight he might go out to meet the coming Bridegroom and enter with Him to the wedding feast. And then he also ceased to write: for the last of his books was the one he entitled On Meditations: at the end of which, after innumerable other books already published, after immense labors, aspiring to rest, he closes with these words, saying: This little work of my meditations, which I have not so much as I ought rightly to have, receive gratefully, dearest Brothers, and pray unceasingly for me: he writes his last book in the year 1469. who for the rest intend to transfer myself to the port of secure silence, and to prepare for a secure departure (as the Lord shall grant) more than usual, especially because the powers of my body are greatly failing, and I finish this little work in the sixty-seventh year of my life, in the year of the Lord 1469.

[28] From that time forth Denis, because he knew death was near to him — which indeed he had always meditated upon as if it were present — like a swan singing, joyfully awaited it. Whence, knowing most certainly that he would die this year, amid the infirmities by which he was pressed, he frequented three Canticles, and now repeating one, now another, when sick he rouses himself with three Canticles: he consoled his spirit by singing. The first of these, which was habitual to him, was: Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. For he aspired above all to this lot, that he might enjoy the blessedness of eternal light. The second, by which he was stirred to devotion, was: Mary therefore anointed the feet of Jesus, and doubtless recalling the devotion of Mary toward Jesus and in turn the sweetness of the heart of Jesus toward His beloved, he contemplated thence their mutual love, by which they wounded each other. And he himself also intermingled the love of his own heart toward them, placing himself, as it were, as a third between the two. The third canticle which he was accustomed to sing was: The saints who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall take wings as eagles; they shall fly and shall not fail. By this he roused his spirit and nourished his confidence, having attained what he had desired for so many years, for which he had striven, labored, and expended all his strength.

[29] On March 7 he receives viaticum, And so, as the illness increased and he felt death was not far off, on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas he was led to the chapel of St. Denis, where he had been accustomed to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass to God for a long time. There, with his accustomed most ardent devotion, having heard Mass and received the life-giving Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, as though already fortified with viaticum, he girded himself for the journey on which he was to see the salvation of God. Brought back to his chamber, he said to the Brothers standing by: The time has come, dearest Brothers, which I foretold, which I desired, which at last I awaited. If I live longer, it will be necessary for me to be led by the hands of others, and I will be a burden to the brothers. After this, rejecting all food, as the illness grew worse and his strength failed ever more, he came to the final extremity of life. Therefore, on the feast of the Blessed Gregory, Denis, full of virtues and merits, he dies on March 12 in the year 1471. around the twelfth hour, having overcome all the miseries of this life, rendered his holy soul to God, in the year of the Lord 1471, after he had served Christ in the Carthusian order for forty-eight years.

[30] These things concerning the life of the blessed Father Denis, a man most illustrious equally in knowledge and virtue. [The author reproaches the Carthusian Order for not publishing the books of this man.] Why his writings have hitherto lain hidden, I vehemently wonder: for he labored in writing almost more than all others in the Church of God; his books abound also with most copious erudition, and so lucid, that in his age he was held to be most learned and plainly admirable. Wherefore, as I said, I am amazed that they lie hidden; since meanwhile the works of other writers are offered to us from every quarter: whose talent and erudition, however, amount to nothing compared to this Denis. But this is due to your carelessness and negligence, O Carthusian Order, which has had innumerable men both most learned and most pious, and the Lives of others, of whom a good part shone with miracles both in life and after death, and the rest, excelling in learning, gave to posterity the immortality of their name — if it were permitted by you, that is, if you would bring their books into the open. And so you conceal these within your bosom, as if they had lived only for you or for one monastery alone, not also for posterity and for all mortals: or as if it were piety to hide what pertains to the honor and benefit of the universal Church. But why do I remonstrate here on behalf of Denis, when you have done the same even to your Founder, the Blessed Bruno, the first Carthusian, indeed even of St. Bruno the Founder: and to almost all the rest of your sons? For this Bruno, whom all of Calabria (for there, fleeing the court of Pope Urban, whose teacher he had formerly been, and at the same time the burden of the Pontificate, he met his final day) venerates — so much so that they circle on bended knees even that court which he had watered with the tears of penance and love, and kiss it — him you have hitherto kept so unknown that outside that country, who Bruno was, or who was the founder of your Order, the world has been almost ignorant. Whence it has come about that not a few, ignorant of the truth of history, have ^a falsely believed that the very Doctor who after death in Paris revealed himself as damned, held to be the damned Doctor, terrified by whose judgment Bruno together with six others ^b instituted this manner of living which is called Carthusian, was Bruno himself. He was so far from being esteemed a Saint on this account, that they even impiously said he was both damned and entirely estranged from God. Meanwhile you considered it sufficient that miracles proclaimed your Bruno to be alive, and you did not notice what the world was ignorant of. What? — that you would never have brought his most illustrious works into the light, especially on Paul, the Psalter, and some others, had not the sagacity of scholars imposed upon you and prudently enough snatched them from your hands.

[31] Add now those two most holy Bishops, the ^c Hugos, of whom the one, of Grenoble — unless Innocent of his own accord — and the other, of the holy Hugos of Grenoble and of Lincoln, unless at England's insistence, Honorius III, now Pope, moved by the eminence of their miracles, had declared Saints even while you were indifferent, whose examples of sanctity, I ask, would edify anyone today? I pass over now ^d Guigo, Basil, and the other Priors of your first Charterhouse, of Guigo, Basil, who hitherto governed you with a great reputation for sanctity, many of whom were as illustrious for miracles as they shone in learning? — whom, however, though innumerable, no one knows except you. I pass over Lord ^e Bernard, Prior of Portes, of Bernard, whom the dead returning to life proclaim while you are silent; and the other many miracles which the Lord worked through him praise his sanctity. To him St. Bernard of Clairvaux scarcely had anyone whom he loved so much as a ^f peer. For at his request he expounded the Song of Songs, and he earnestly urged the Roman Pontiff, as his letters also attest, that Bernard should be drawn from the monastery to the episcopate. I omit ^g Stephen, a Bishop of wondrous sanctity, of Die; ^h Anthelm also, Bishop of Belley, whose sanctity, besides other miracles, was attested by lights kindled from heaven at his funeral. of Stephen, Bp. of Die; Anthelm, Bp. of Belley: Time would fail me if I wished to review the several legions of other illustrious men, conspicuous for sanctity, preeminent in erudition: whom, while outsiders rather extol with praises, you have hitherto kept silent about your sons as though hidden in your bosom. But I know what you would answer: That for the sake of guarding humility, you wish your members to be displayed with no glory, exalted with no eminence. But what kind of humility is this, what kind of piety, to hide burning torches under a bushel, lest they give light to those who are in the house: to withdraw light from the eyes, lest either the beauty of the place be seen or one may walk without stumbling? Not unjustly a certain most erudite man (may I say it with your leave) might convict you on this point, that piety lies hidden in you; and lies so hidden that it can scarcely be discerned. You keep hidden away with you the books of the most holy and most learned men, treasures of souls, and do not bring them forth, so that many might rejoice from you, many might be refreshed. Wherefore (as the Wise Man admonishes) Let your fountains flow abroad, and distribute your waters in the streets.

[32] The author has narrated only certain things. But let me have said these things with your leave, and indeed more diffusely than I had intended. To be sure, I had undertaken to narrate the deeds of Denis alone. From which, however, I have gathered here only those things which I found to have been both done and written with the most certain truth. For certain other proofs of his sanctity are reported, no less distinguished than astounding: concerning the truth of which nothing at all is doubted; but because they were conveyed to us by narration alone, I decided they should by no means be inserted here ^i.

^a Concerning this story, which we ourselves learned in the Charterhouse is not approved, there will be need to treat it on October 6.

^b A verb is missing: "assumed," or something similar.

^c The one of Grenoble is venerated on April 1; the one of Lincoln on November 17.

^d Dorlandus treats of these in book 4, chapters 3 and 14.

^e Concerning Bernard and the monastery of Portes in the diocese of Lyon, the same Dorlandus treats in book 4, chapter 9.

^f The letters 11 and 153 of St. Bernard should be read.

^g St. Stephen is venerated on September 7. John Columbus examines the years of his See in his Bishops of Die, page 105; his deeds are in Dorlandus, book 4, chapters 10 and following.

^h The Life of St. Anthelm is to be given on June 26.

^i Revelations and a catalogue of books were appended: to have indicated this is sufficient.

March II: March 13

Encyclopedia of Saints

as USB stick or as DVD

Support for the Ecumenical Encyclopedia of Saints

Page optimized for printing

Our travel blog:

Travels to the places where the Saints lived and were venerated.

Send recommendation to friends

Comment on article / Report error

Questions? — our FAQs provide answers!

Search in the Encyclopedia of Saints

Imprint - Privacy Policy