Anselm

ON SAINT ANSELM, BISHOP OF LUCCA, AT MANTUA IN ITALY.

In the Year 1086.

Preliminary Commentary.

Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, at Mantua in Italy (Saint)

Section I. The homeland, veneration, and Life written of Saint Anselm.

[1] Two illustrious cities of Italy are seen, Lucca and Mantua: the former, in Tuscany, under its own government constitutes a free republic; the latter, in Cisalpine Gaul or Lombardy, flourishes on the river Mincio under the Most Serene Dukes of Gonzaga. The people of Lucca number and venerate among their holy Bishops Saint Anselm, Saint Anselm is venerated at Mantua as Patron, whom, when expelled by schismatics, the people of Mantua received and cherished, and when he died piously and was enrolled among the Saints, they chose him as Patron of their city, and annually on March 18 celebrate his feast with a solemn Office, even if it falls on the second, third, or fourth Sunday of Lent, of which then only a commemoration is made. If it occurs on Passion Sunday or Palm Sunday or the days immediately following, the Office is transferred, but Mass is solemnly celebrated in the Cathedral Church, and his sacred body is publicly displayed: which is preserved intact to this day with the greatest veneration in the main altar of the Cathedral Church, And his body is preserved: and is venerated with great devotion of the people: as prescribed in the Proper Offices of the Church and Diocese of Mantua, printed in the year 1626 by order of the Bishop of Mantua.

[2] Among the people of Lucca, in the episcopal archive, certain authentic instruments are seen, At Lucca some of his writings survive: written in the hand of Saint Anselm himself, which are to be preserved as sacred relics and serve to recall his memory. In the ancient library of the Canons scarcely any monument of him survives, except a few words which, in a very ancient codex, while the Translation of certain holy bodies of that church is treated, are appended thus: That Alexander, He was the nephew of Pope Alexander II, who is also called Anselm (the reference is to Pope Alexander II), to whom his nephew Anselm succeeded, who glorified the Church of Lucca by faith and works as long as he was permitted, until a storm separated him from this place. These were unearthed by the most distinguished Francesco Maria Florentini in his learned study on the life of Matilda, the great Countess of Italy, whom Saint Anselm, the subject of this account, attended as Counselor. And together with him, a Milanese: That Alexander II the Pontiff, previously called Anselm de Baggio, was a noble Milanese, distinguished for learning and integrity of life, the son of Anselm, a man formerly prominent in that city, is recorded by Panvinius, Ciaconius, and others: and that Saint Anselm himself was a native of Milan and of noble lineage is manifestly stated in the Life at number 14, whence the assertion of Panvinius and Ciaconius is also made more probable. We can also conjecture, with not improbable reasoning, that Saint Anselm grew up under the discipline of his uncle, who from the year 1056 had been created Bishop of the Church of Lucca, and was cultivated in every kind of knowledge and virtue. Ciaconius and some more recent writers add that he was also created a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church by Alexander II: from which title the contemporary author of the Life and domestic witness entirely abstains, and with him Baronius, Florentini, and other more accurate writers, nor does Panvinius enumerate him among the Cardinals created by Alexander.

[3] He was, however, designated Bishop of Lucca by the same, and consecrated by his successor Gregory VII in the year of Christ 1073, and then in the year 1086, on the fifteenth day before the Calends of April, or March 18, called from this mortal life to the heavenly one, he shone with very many miracles. Life written His deeds and miracles were written within two months of his death, concerning which the author in number 43, in the Epilogue, has this: These things concerning our most blessed Father and Patron Anselm... I, B., a sinful Priest, By B., a Presbyter consecrated by him: his servant in Penance, I do not say his son, but his servant, promoted by him to the same order with many tears, have devoutly explained for you who reverently requested it. Cardinal Baronius had these Acts and inserted not a few things from them into volume 11 of the Ecclesiastical Annals: the same were afterwards sent by Petrus Consolinus, Provost of the Congregation of the Oratory at Rome, to our Jacobus Gretser, who gave them to Sebastian Tengnagel, the Imperial librarian at Vienna, by whom they were published at Ingolstadt in the year 1612 among the Ancient Monuments Published at Ingolstadt. written formerly against the schismatics in defense of Gregory VII and certain other Roman Pontiffs. Appended at the end of these Acts was a note of Don Constantino Gaetani, from which it was established that the copy had been taken from an ancient manuscript parchment codex, which he adds survives in his own museum. Arnold Wion in his Notes for March 18 asserts that the same Life (of which he cites the same beginning), seriously written by a contemporary, From an ancient manuscript codex. is found in manuscript in the monastery of Saint Benedict at Polirone. That monastery was liberally endowed by Countess Matilda and is situated in the territory of Mantua, in which, having left the Episcopate, as is read in number 4 of the Life, he was made a monk and subjected to the rule of Saint Benedict. Meanwhile, we are greatly surprised that the Bishop and Canons of Mantua did not know that the Life existed in the said monastery, and that, leaving aside the authentic and complete document, they had to collect from the Annals of Cardinal Baronius the lessons to be recited at Matins, although they were scattered here and there. We have a compendium of the Acts of Saint Anselm taken from the manuscript of Saint Salvator at Utrecht, which we omit.

[4] The name of Saint Anselm is inscribed in the present Martyrology

in the Roman Martyrology and that of Galesinius in these words: At Mantua, Saint Anselm, Bishop and Confessor. His name inscribed in the sacred calendars. But without mention of the place, it is reported in the manuscript additions to Usuard, by Witford in the Martyrology published in English, and in the Calendar of the Roman Missal printed at Venice in the years 1487 and 1508. A Suffrage or Commemoration of Saint Anselm, Bishop and Confessor, is prescribed to be said in the Breviary of Worms of the year 1576 and of Meaux of the year 1640, with Antiphons and Prayers taken from the Common Office. But in the Calendar of the Breviary of Meaux the name of Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, is indicated, as also in the Calendar of Felicius. In the manuscript Florarium these things are read: On the same day, of Anselm, Bishop of Vélice, and Confessor, in the year of salvation 1150. Which seem to need correction, and should be written: of Anselm of Lucca, and in the year 1086. Gelenius inscribes it in the Cologne Calendar and calls him Bishop of Mantua, following the error of many: but he is entirely silent as to how he pertains to the people of Cologne. He writes in Book 3, chapter 78, that the upper part of the head of Saint Anselm is preserved among the Carmelite nuns, but since the feast of Saint Anselm is celebrated there on April 21, the Archbishop of Canterbury seems to be meant. He is inscribed with greater foundation in the Benedictine Martyrologies of Wion, Dorgan, and Ménard in approximately these words: At Mantua, the deposition of Saint Anselm, Bishop of Lucca and Confessor, a man of the greatest humility and learning. Bucelinus appended a longer eulogy, who writes that he was Mantuan by birth and was first buried in a monastery and thence translated to Mantua: which, along with certain other things, would better be absent.

Section II. Various eulogies of ancient writers concerning Saint Anselm and his written works.

[5] Among the ancient monuments collected against the schismatics, together with the Life of Saint Anselm, Tengnagel published two books of poems on the Life of Countess Matilda by the contemporary author Donizo the Priest: Testimonies concerning the holiness of Saint Anselm, from which Baronius with great praise of the writer cites various passages in volumes 11 and 12 of the Ecclesiastical Annals. This poet in Book 2, chapter 3, has the following concerning the death of Saint Anselm:

When the month arrived which began first in order, On its eighteenth day, the Lord Reigning in the heavens carried Anselm to the skies: Of Donizo, the contemporary poet. Like unto him, I believe, no one existed in this time. Fulfilling the double office of monks and pontiffs Night and day, he mortified his body as an enemy; Catholic, celibate, pious, and equally sober: For whose death the faithful truly grieve, The schismatics rejoice: but he was opposed to these, Whom the Countess, committed to her through Gregory, As was fitting, worthily buried, sorrowful and kind. Mantua interred the limbs of Anselm in the earth: What was desired of him, you showed, O Christ, to Matilda: For by your power he performed many miracles. This servant of yours was one of the Saints, A sign, as it were, of weakness to the Catholic party, Whence the Countess rejoices, triumphing by prayer. For she thinks she is aided by the prayers of this Father, And when the tomb of the Saint was giving many miracles; So that it might be shown to many in ages future after us, The cultivator of justice ordered them partly to be composed, Which, together with the Life of his Chaplain, they dictate to her: The third from him, the Bishop of Lucca, exists, and that Rangerius the Ruler composed it for her in verse. He recently composed a second fine book, Which defines the dispute about the staff, and sent it to her.

Thus the text. The second Bishop of Lucca after Saint Anselm was Godfrey, whom the aforesaid Rangerius succeeded as the third from Saint Anselm, who in the year 1098 was present at the Roman Council. But the poems which he wrote, whether concerning the life and miracles of Saint Anselm or concerning the nature of Investitures, Tengnagel thinks have either perished or are still fighting with dust, decay, moths, and worms somewhere. He prefixed to the said poem of Donizo, as he had found it, the Account of the Treasury of the Church of Canossa transmitted to Rome: of which Account we give the first part here on account of the celebrated memory of Saint Anselm, [Of another, concerning the treasury of the Church of Canossa offered to Gregory VII,] and it is as follows:

[6] In the year of the Lord 1082, Countess Matilda with Bishop Anselm, who was also the Vicar of Pope Gregory VII in those days in Lombardy, requested the treasury of the Church of Canossa from Abbot Gerard, who then presided over the aforesaid Church, for sending to the Pope for the defense of the Roman Church, which at that time was suffering great persecution from the heresiarch Guibert. And so the aforesaid Abbot, together with the congregation of the Brethren, having faithful love and affection for Blessed Peter and the Roman Church, eagerly offered the treasury to his Vicar at the request of the Countess, which consisted of twenty-four crowns... At length, when the treasury was transmitted to Rome by the assent and will of the Pope, who had received from her a charter of offering of all the estates of the aforesaid Countess; the above-named Vicar, who was also then governing this Episcopate by command of the Pope, at the request of the Lady Countess for some small restoration of the treasury that had been taken away, placed two Chapels at Filma and one at Casula under the Church of Canossa. Afterwards Bishop Heribertus, lovingly Catholic toward the Roman Church, praised the deed of Bishop Anselm and by praising confirmed it, and consecrated the Church of Canossa. Concerning Canossa, by others Canosa, the Life below treats in number 13; it is nine miles from Reggio nell'Emilia; it now has its own Count, who holds other domains in the Duchy of Modena. But the Episcopate which Saint Anselm governed is that of the said city of Reggio, whose Bishop Heribertus, called Aribertus below in the Acts in number 33, was present at the burial of Saint Anselm; in Ughelli he is called Eubertus, and is incorrectly placed as having died in the year 1081.

[7] Among the Transalpine writers who mention Saint Anselm, Bertold of Constance can be considered the first, who in his Appendix to Marianus Scotus, extended to the year 1086, presents the following for the year 1082: Blessed Anselm, Of Bertold of Constance. formerly Bishop of Lucca, in the very same year of his deposition began to shine with innumerable miracles: who after the death of the venerable Pope Gregory VII, while still living in the flesh, greatly incited the faithful of Saint Peter against the tyranny of Henry; but much more after his own death, shining with miracles, he strengthened them to persist against the same: whence the party of Henry began to fail from day to day; but the Catholics did not cease to advance in the fidelity of Saint Peter. Next to Bertold is Sigebert of Gembloux, who inserted the following into his Chronicle for the same year: Of Sigebert of Gembloux, Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, the tireless collaborator of Pope Hildebrand, dies in exile at Mantua, who published treatises on Jeremiah and on the Psalms, and confirmed the doctrine of Hildebrand with a splendid book: whose holiness was declared by miracles.

[8] Somewhat younger than these, Paul of Bernried in the Life of the said Hildebrand or Gregory VII, which he wrote in the year 1131, has this: Here there seems to be introduced the principal follower and heir of his virtues, namely Blessed Anselm, Bishop of the Church of Lucca: Of Paul of Bernried, who before all things always had this study, to imitate him in all things, to such a degree that he wished in no way to differ from him in anything. Then whatever was in him, he always attributed to the merits of that man. For Gregory was, as it were, the fountain; Anselm flowed as a stream and irrigated dry lands. The one, as the head, governed the whole body; the other, like a diligent hand, accomplished what was enjoined. The one, like the sun, illuminated all things; the other, like its splendor, declared each individual thing. Of old, Elijah, about to depart from the cohabitation of mortals, left his mantle to Elisha, the instrument of the prophetic office; similarly Gregory also, about to depart from this mortal life, sent to Anselm the insignia of pontifical power, namely the miter of his head; by this indeed with God's cooperation, that just as the former inherited the prerogative of Prophecy through the mantle, so also the latter should obtain sacerdotal eminence through the miter. Indeed the resemblance proceeded so far that just as Elisha demonstrated signs of virtues through the mantle of Elijah; so also Anselm exhibited certain great works through the miter of Gregory. For, to bring forward one of many that is more widely known, the reverend Bishop Ubaldus of the Church of Mantua, who for many years had been most severely afflicted with disease of the spleen and ulcerated over his whole body, especially in his legs, so that he could scarcely stand in any manner, scarcely even lie down or sit, who had also spent much on physicians and had profited nothing, when the same miter was applied where the greater pain pressed, was restored to his former health. It is pleasing to extract a few passages from the Treatises of the same Anselm on the Psalms, and to show more clearly what pious affection he had toward the holiness of his Teacher Gregory. He speaks thus in the treatise on the second Psalm: The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together against the Lord and against his Christ. The kings of the earth, namely the members of him who reigns over all the sons of pride, not only came but also stood fast, and with their army besieged the Roman Church, and the princes of the priests, conspiring, met together against Saint Peter and against his Vicar Gregory, indeed against him who said: Who touches you, touches me: who despises you, despises me. They crucify again the Son of God... Of how great holiness the author of the Treatise was, we perceive partly from reading his holy deeds, partly from the account of religious Brethren, who testified that they had been invited by revelation to come from afar to his tomb, and that they had been freed without delay from serious and prolonged illnesses.

[9] To the said Writers should be added Conrad, Abbot of Ursperg, who in his Chronicle, extended to the year 1230, treats of the letter of Saint Anselm to Wigbert at the year 1080, and after citing some passages from it, adds this: These things were written by Bishop Anselm, And others. a man most excellently learned in letters, of the most acute talent, outstanding in eloquence, and, what is greater than all, most renowned for the fear of God and holy conversation, to such a degree that both in life and after death he is reported as famous for miracles.

[10] There could be added those who composed Catalogues of Ecclesiastical Writers: the aforementioned Sigebert, Trithemius, Sixtus of Siena, Arnold Wion, Antonio Possevino, Robert Bellarmine, Philippe Labbé, Aubert Miraeus: but since they drew their encomiums from the said authors or from the Life shortly to be related, we do not wish to heap up similar things. Concerning his principal writings, the matter is treated below in chapter 5, to which Possevino and Wion add others which the Reader will be able to see in them, and a more accurate judgment would be rendered if all were collected by the Mantuans and published together in print.

LIFE

By a Domestic Presbyter and Penitentiary B.

Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, at Mantua in Italy (Saint)

BHL Number: 0536, 0537

BY A CONTEMPORARY DOMESTIC AUTHOR.

PROLOGUE.

[1] We are urgently compelled by the devout prayers of certain persons to explain in a compendious work the life of our most holy Father, the Lord Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, which we saw with our own presence and faithfully received from those dwelling together with us: The author narrates things seen by himself or proved by faithful witnesses: which certainly shone forth, illustrious with so many and so great virtues, that we are by no means sufficient for so great a task imposed upon us. And yet, while we consider their venerable desire, although we are insufficient, we nevertheless begin as best we can what they request: since for all the faithful it provides a foundation of faith and a horn of salvation; but for the excommunicated, confusion,

shame, detriment, and ruin.

CHAPTER I.

The learning of Saint Anselm. The Episcopate of Lucca. His monastic life.

[2] How he lived from boyhood we pass over, both because we do not fully know, and because we judge it better to remain silent about it for the present. We have learned, however, as he himself frequently related, that even then he was studious in reading scholastic books; Saint Anselm splendidly educated, which the outcome of the matter also clearly proved, because he was skilled in the art of Grammar and Dialectic. When, however, he now seemed suitable, namely worthy by his merits, character, and learning to be raised to the honor of the Episcopate, he was sent by the Most Reverend Pope Alexander to the King, with the religious Bishop of Santa Rufina named Meginard given to him as a companion. But because he had already perfectly begun to hate the practice that sacred Ecclesiastical Orders should be given by secular powers, He is designated Bishop by Alexander II. by whatever occasion or reason he could, he departed without the investiture of the dignity; although the Lord Pope had sent him with that intention. And no wonder: for he whom God afterwards worked many things through, He reserved for a Catholic election. The King, however, grieved as if slighted, and deplored it as a great detriment to the royal Empire.

[3] When the aforesaid Pope Alexander had died, while the most holy Gregory VII, at the instigation of the Holy Spirit and by the common vote of Clergy and laity, had been elected, long resisting, as Roman Pontiff; He is consecrated by Gregory VII. so that this man might follow him in all things, he too was elected Bishop of the Church of Lucca, and was afterwards religiously consecrated by him. Therefore, while he stayed for some time, not once or twice but very often, with that most religious Ordainer of his, he considered his life to be ineffably wonderful and wonderfully ineffable. Because, He imitates his virtues; when from all and every part of the world there was a concourse to him, he rightly satisfied all: truth and justice never failed from his mouth; indeed, what is more wonderful, even in secular business he frequently went beyond himself in mind, his spirit being exhilarated by heavenly contemplation; who, if sometimes he was alone, was also gladdened and strengthened by divine revelations. While he fervently desired to follow in his footsteps, I say, he began to forget the world, and with all the powers of mind and body, day and night, to sigh toward God, committing himself not only to assiduous reading but also to continuous affliction. And having searched through books of various authorities, he began to consider his life as one of the most complete damnation, and to think of the dignity of the ministry received as a grave peril of burden, not a joy of honor. He grieves that he had gone to the Emperor for investiture: But fearing before all things that after his Catholic election he had received the ring and the pastoral staff from the hand of the King; he judged utterly invalid whatever he had done, as if by the authority of that abominable investiture: but also the Lord Pope only once reproached him for this.

[4] He therefore resolved to visit certain shrines of the Saints for the sake of prayer, and unknown to his relatives and faithful who were with him, He becomes a Benedictine monk he suddenly became a monk, subject to the Rule of Saint Benedict. Not long after, he was recalled against his will by the Most Blessed Pope Gregory: into whose hand he also returned and renounced whatever he had received from the King, and every royal gift in him was annulled: he himself, however, was restored to the fullness of his dignity, He is recalled by the Pope: the monastic habit scarcely being left to him: for the Lord Pope even threatened to take that from him. How great, therefore, was his religious devotion from that time on, neither tongue can relate nor hand express in writing. He endeavored to fulfill the life and order both of a Monk and of a Canon: he strove also in every way to be a prudent and faithful servant, so as not to be found idle in the harvest of the Lord, nor to hide the money of his Lord: but so as to be able to meet the returning Lord with confidence, saying: Lord, behold your mina has gained ten minas.

[5] He becomes therefore an outstanding preacher of the word of God, an eminent instructor of religion, An outstanding preacher, he loves the Clergy reverently and teaches them wisely, and instructs all the people fittingly: and to conclude briefly, he became all things to all, He instructs all, especially the Clergy, that he might gain all. He diligently makes the circuit of his Diocese, he yearns to learn the life of all, especially of the Clergy, and paternally admonishes and greatly desires that every Clerk should be worthy of his name. For thus the most learned Doctor Jerome, describing the life of Clerics, says that a Clerk is so called from the lot of God; namely, that having cast aside the impediment of this world, he should seek nothing besides God as his lot. First, therefore, in the city of Lucca, he most gently approaches the Canons of the major Church, which is dedicated in honor of the most holy Bishop and Confessor Martin, And the Canons: he admonishes, cajoles, and persuades them to practice in deed what they are called by name. For a Canon is said to be, as it were, a Regular: and he studiously preaches and prays that they should lead a regular life. And when he had pressed them for a long time and frequently urged the same, they were at last indignant and answered far too rashly. But he, like a pious and gentle Father, receives all things kindly, and not only does he not wish to be overcome by evil, but strives to overcome evil with good. He promises finally, He pledges to lead a common life with them. like another most religious Bishop Augustine, that he will lead a common life with them. He wishes to have nothing of his own apart from them, but to have all things in common with them; he wishes to become poor, so that he might make them rich in Christ: by every possible effort, both spiritually and temporally, he strives to attract them.

CHAPTER II.

Aid rendered by the Marchioness Matilda. Calumnies and ejection from the Episcopate.

[6] At length he invites as an assistant to his endeavor the Marchioness, Lady Matilda, He receives the Marchioness Matilda as his helper: most noble in character and lineage, who, spiritual and most religious in secret, led a secular, or to speak more truly, a military life in public: yet she so maintained both the spiritual and the secular that she did the one in Christ and the other for Christ. The secular life, however, was for her a source of greater anxiety and labor; but also, I hope, of much greater reward: for the former was of her own will, the latter indeed of obedience. Therefore, whatever talent she had, whatever wisdom or counsel; she poured forth cheerfully in this business. Accordingly she addresses the aforesaid Canons, sometimes collectively, sometimes individually: she incites, urges, strengthens them, and promises the increase and honor of the Church; and advantage for them too, both in the future and in the present. She also promises their parents riches and honors; so that she might thus attract their wills. But they, blinded by a wicked age, reject everything: they choose rather the water of anguish unto damnation than the wine of gladness unto salvation. They prefer to be poor servants of the devil than rich servants of Christ.

[7] But the aforesaid Bishop and most diligent Pastor, not wishing the sheep committed to him to perish; attacks them now with threats, now with blandishments. He presses the decree of Leo IX. When they resisted him and contradicted as much as they could; I believe he would now have ceased, excessively but vainly wearied, had it not been that the Blessed Pope Leo IX had established under a decree of anathema that the Canons of the same Church should lead a common life and live regularly: whenever he saw or remembered the command of that decree, he was terrified and did not dare to be silent. It happened therefore that the most holy Pope Gregory VII came to the same city; He is aided by Pope Gregory present there, and the same matter was brought before him: who immediately began to admonish them first with paternal affection, and to say: that it is not permitted to disregard the decrees of the Roman Pontiff. He asks them and kindly persuades them to obey the most salutary decrees and to carry out the will of the Most Reverend Father: and not once or twice, but often and much, sometimes with the same holy Bishop, sometimes without him, he addresses them, now harshly, now gently, bringing forth the sacred Scriptures and authentic authorities. But they, although they sometimes feigned to hear the blessed admonitions humbly, nevertheless when absent they perverted everything.

[8] They are finally summoned to the Apostolic See, and there they are detected as conspirators against their own Bishop and plotters. Therefore, when the Canons were brought forth and the Chapter of the holy Martyr and Bishop Fabian was read, The rebels condemned in a Council, who ordered that conspirators and plotters against their Bishops be handed over to the Court; by the judgment of the whole holy Synod they too are handed over to the Court. Then the faithful and prudent Marchioness Matilda, calling those men servants, summoned them to the servitude of the Court: for which reason, sad beyond what can be believed, they caused as many as they could to conspire even against her. Very many Bishops therefore assembled again at San Genesio, a castle not far distant from the city of Lucca, among whom the most reverend Bishop of Albano, named Peter Igneus, acted as deputy of the Lord Pope: who together with the same Bishop of Lucca, Saint Anselm, and with all the rest, excommunicated those conspirators: And with the pseudo-Bishop Peter established, whence they, grieving and indignant beyond consolation, maliciously stirred up the whole city, and relying on the aid of a most abandoned man, the aforesaid so-called King Henry, they drove the most religious Bishop from the city: and they also became completely rebellious against the aforesaid Lady. The head and prince of this conspiracy was a certain man named Peter, a false

[9] This man, finally, not long after, when Henry came into Tuscany with the heresiarch Wibert, about whom we shall treat more fully afterwards, since he seemed suitable for the present madness, because he had neither fear of God nor reverence for man, he was imposed as Bishop of error on the same city of Lucca: He lives as a private person in a castle: who, having joined to himself the most wicked men of the whole land, namely perjurers, robbers, fornicators, and adulterers, invaded the land of the Church, and by force, fraud, or money attracted to himself castles and men. Only one castle remained for the venerable Bishop, which even that tyrant, because it was close to the city, almost daily ravaged with raids, fires, and murders. But he, the meekest of all, joyfully endured all things and desired poverty for Christ; who, content with two Chaplains and a few servants, remained humble with the most reverend Matron whom we have mentioned. And so, that that adversary might put on the entire tunic of every curse, he was at last, I do not say consecrated, but execrated by the heresiarch Wibert: so that like might imitate like in all things. For just as the one defiled the Roman Church by invading it, while the most holy Pope Gregory VII was still living; so the other did the same to the Church of Lucca while its most religious Bishop was still alive. And so, to use the words of the most blessed Martyr Cyprian: neither one nor the other is anything: because neither is the successor nor the predecessor of anyone: both are parricides, both the most wicked violators of their mother Church.

[10] While therefore that expelled man desired to sit securely with Mary, almost all the Bishops and Princes became, I do not say merely disobedient, but completely rebellious against the holy Roman See; and the Duchess and Marchioness Matilda alone was found remaining in the faith, He obeys Matilda, commended to him by the Pope: having the zeal of God, obedient to the Lord Pope Gregory. Because, when she recognized the most holy life and the ardor of his religion, she delivered herself entirely to his direction, hoping to be freed from the burdens of this world by such obedience: to whom on the contrary it was given, for the remission of her sins, that like another Deborah she should judge the people, wage war, and resist heretics and schismatics. And lest she should fail as if alone, she is commended to be guarded by the aforesaid Bishop of Lucca, Saint Anselm; she is commended, I say, with all diligence and affection of charity, commended by the most blessed Master to the most faithful disciple, just as on the Cross Christ commended his Virgin Mother to his Virgin disciple, saying: Mother, behold your son: and to the disciple: Behold your mother. And so, while each endeavors to escape the whirlpools of the world and to devote themselves to contemplation, they are entangled in the greater affairs of the world. Therefore the most holy disciple, while he strives and hastens to attend to her guardianship, and to burn with all the zeal of holiness more and more from day to day; we can most certainly affirm of him that the Lord filled him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding: and he was the Angel of great counsel. For since the above-written Lady Matilda, devout handmaid of Lord Peter, had many secular judgments to make; he himself by his counsels so caused her to perform all things He instructs her excellently: that she observed both the precepts of the Gospel and the institutes of the Canons and the rights of the laws; which in human minds and talents is rarely or never found. But he himself had so learned from his Teacher, the Most Blessed Pope Gregory; and the Holy Spirit had filled both of them.

CHAPTER III.

The Excommunication of the Emperor Henry IV. The embassy of Saint Anselm to him is impeded.

[11] Then therefore in an incredible manner the Roman world raged and went mad against itself: for Henry, son of the Emperor Henry III, Henry IV Emperor. exercised great enmity against all Catholics: who when from his very infancy, his Father being already dead, he had received the governance of the kingdom, A disturber of the Church what was said through Solomon was fulfilled: Woe to the land whose King is a child. For committing himself to childish counsels, trained in every kind of filth, he soon did not blush to confound all religion and every right, and devoted himself to his lust in every kind of turpitude. In that time indeed no one could be a Bishop or Abbot or Provost unless he had the greater sum of money or had been a partaker and supporter of his filth. The good life or conduct of no one was inquired into; indeed, all religion and truth and justice were held abominable. That Priest was more praiseworthy whose garments were more elegant, whose table more copious, whose concubine more splendid: nor was a soldier called glorious unless he had been three or four times perjured. Pope Gregory admonishes through Legates, When the Most Blessed Pope Gregory, grieving and sad, considered this, desiring to restore the holy Church to ecclesiastical use and canonical laws, he sent to him frequent kindly embassies, now paternally admonishing, now even more sharply reproving. His mother the Empress, and Bishops: And when he perceived that he was making no progress even in this way, he at last directed to him his own most religious mother, the Empress Agnes; and with her two most reverend Bishops, of Praeneste and of Como, in whose presence; having carefully heard their counsel, he feigned penance, vowed obedience, and promised amendment of all things.

[12] But when they returned, he reverted to himself, made worse than before: for then with unheard-of audacity and astonishing pride, Arrogating to himself authority over the Pope he gathered together accomplices of his crime, men not to be called Bishops, in the city of Worms, and holding a conciliabulum they proscribed the Bishop of the First See, which has never been heard of since the beginning of time. He then sent a legation to Italy, affirming the same presumption through schismatic Bishops who were his accomplices. The bearer of this legation was a certain man named Eberhard, a Teuton by birth, a son of the age, a hook of the devil, the inventor of almost every lie. He went around and traversed the land, to infect all with the schismatic contagion. Many indeed who had ceased from the divine office on account of the interdict of the Lord Pope, he himself, being interdicted and bound by the bond of perdition, with unheard-of rashness and pride reconciled: and on behalf of his Lord the King, he ordered them to celebrate the Office as before. He excommunicates him: When therefore the Apostolic could no longer dissimulate the malice of so great a crime, he excommunicated both him and all his supporters, and interdicted him from all royal dignity, and absolved those bound to him by oaths from every debt of fidelity: And interdicts his royal dignity, because, what is even shameful to say, besides the heretical guilt which we have mentioned, his messengers were present in the holy Council, daring to bark thus: Our Lord the King commands that you leave the Apostolic See and the Papacy, as being his own, and that you no longer obstruct this holy place. O horrible! and o execrable rashness of a most unhappy man! Behold, he says it is his own, what Christ the Lord committed to the Prince of the Apostles Peter alone: nor did he commit it suddenly indeed, but three times before committing it he asked: Simon, do you love me? Not as though he himself did not know, but to provide a sign for future times, lest the care of souls should be quickly and precipitously committed to anyone. To him therefore, after the third and certain pledge of his love at last: Feed, he said, my sheep: he excepted no King, no Emperor, or any condition of the Christian profession, except him who would deny himself to be his sheep. Therefore, him whom the Lord reserved for the judgment of himself alone, this man dares not only to judge but even to call his own and, as far as in him lies, to condemn: for which reason the whole holy Synod, rightly indignant, proclaims and confirms anathema upon him.

[13] Therefore, not long after, the same Most Reverend Pope, through whom all canonical rights, almost entirely abolished, began to be restored, is asked by very many Princes of the kingdom, especially strengthened by Countess Matilda, who then governed the greatest part of Italy, About to go into Germany, to deign to descend into the Teutonic regions for the common necessity of Mother Church. For they, because of his insolence and the anathema, had deposed Henry as their King and Lord: who also, equally coming together, compelled him, having repudiated his counselors of iniquity, to remain privately in a certain castle, lest he contaminate many with the leprosy of his anathema. For they had decreed among themselves that, having humbly summoned the holy Pope Gregory to the city of Augsburg, they should also bring him before the Judge of all Christendom in a common council of the whole kingdom: desiring that by Apostolic authority they might either recover him amended and absolved; or with him justly rejected, elect another in Christ. But he, with his conscience accusing him, He absolves the Emperor who comes as a suppliant did not wait for the holy assembly but came to meet the Lord Pope at the town of Canossa, humbled even to his feet; and having given security to the Lord Pope by oaths, as he deigned to prescribe, in the presence of Bishops and Abbots and Countess Matilda and Adeleida and many others, on the third day he was finally absolved; but he was not restored to the kingdom.

[14] And so he returns again to his former counsels, to the perverse gatherings of the excommunicated; and what he had promised on oath he observed only for a brief time. For within fifteen days, as I think, when the blessed Bishop Anselm was bringing the legation of the Lord Pope together with the most religious Gerardus, Bishop of Ostia, to Milan, they were impeded by his soldiers, and the Bishop of Ostia was captured; By this relapsed man the legation of Saint Anselm is impeded. but Saint Anselm they in no way dared to touch, because

he was a native and of noble lineage. He himself, moreover, voluntarily pressed to be taken captive, saying that he would not depart from his companion of the Legation: either, he said, let them release him, or let them hold himself captive together with him. But since they did not presume to do this, he departed sadly, wishing, if he could, to lay down his own life for his brother. For this is the perfection of charity, this the sum of love, that one should lay down his life for his friends. Others in so great a necessity are accustomed to feign and dissimulate many things, some to lie and very many to perjure: but this man did not wish to dissimulate anything by even a single word of dissimulation: which he well could have done, as we afterwards heard from those very ones who were captured. By these things indeed and many similar, the oaths of the aforesaid sometime King Henry were made void.

* Perhaps "was eager to indulge."

CHAPTER IV.

The illustrious deeds of Saint Anselm in the schism of Wibert the Antipope.

[15] Meanwhile in the Teutonic lands Duke Rudolph is elected as King to defend the unity of the Catholic Church; With the Emperor Rudolph dead, for which reason Henry, more and more indignant, spurning the counsel and aid of the Lord Pope, rages wickedly against all Catholics. When King Rudolph died in the Catholic faith, he dares what the most powerful Emperors of old, whether they were heretics or apostates or even pagans, never presumed; he dares, I say, The Antipope Wibert is elected: having convoked some heretical Bishops, while Pope Gregory was still living, to whom he had even made himself obedient by oath, without holding any universal Council, without judgment; he dares indeed to elect as Pope Wibert, formerly Bishop of Ravenna, but then already excommunicated for many years; of whom we have made some mention above, but briefly. But who was so suitable for this as one who from his very cradle, filled with the spirit of pride, A proud man, meditated nothing but exaltation and pride? For this man, as we ourselves saw, showed all obedience and subjection to our Lord Pope Gregory; and he himself received him with honor and love as a guest in the holy Lateran Palace, and held him next to himself on his right in the holy Council, and first in all things in which it was fittingly appropriate, hoping that what the most lost man dissimulated was true. A perjurer, a parricide: But that man not long after fell through pride into disobedience, becoming equally perjured, and at last a wicked parricide: because he persecuted the holy Father even unto death. Such a man, I say, so just, so holy, Henry with his supporters elevates as Pope. Rome is not consulted, neither the Roman Clergy nor the people. One man indeed was present, Hugo Candidus by name, but blackest in mind, once a Cardinal, but already long since justly excommunicated and rejected for his crimes: this condemned man praises the condemned, this perjurer the perjurer, this parricide the parricide. In a place indeed horrid and most harsh, in the midst of the snowy Alps, where there is continual hunger and cold almost always constant, the place itself is a village instead of a city, which is called Brixen, surrounded by the highest crags, where even the very name of Christianity is scarcely maintained: With every right trampled upon, here the privileges of the principal Church, here the rights of the supreme Priest, here the institutes of the holy Fathers, here all canonical decrees are annulled. Indeed, if anyone were to ask him to impose another God upon the heavens, as far as was in him, I think he would have done so and confirmed it: for it is not at all a new stratagem that he practices; from his boyhood indeed he so learned.

[16] For indeed while the venerable Pope Alexander had once been canonically elected, he elected his own Pope, Cadalous, Bishop of Parma, in the Teutonic regions, Just as had formerly been done when the Antipope Cadalous was assumed: and sent him to Rome; who committed prolonged discord and many wars. His mother the Empress Agnes herself was present at this nefarious presumption; who, moved by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, afterwards made confession before the same Pope Alexander and received penance. On which account this was especially enjoined upon her: that she should remain in Rome, and there satisfy Saint Peter with vigils, prayers, and fasts, and benefit the Church with her counsel and aid as much as she could. But he, persisting in his detestable obstinacy, worshipping the Wibert demon, is again admonished by the Apostolic with paternal affection, sending to him the Bishops of Albano and Padua. And when he is not reformed, he is again most dangerously excommunicated.

[17] He then, as if with a new stratagem of tyranny, began to distribute to his soldiers both the estates and almost all the treasures of all Churches; and he bound them all to his party except the very few whom the Lord reserved for himself, that they should not bend the knee before Baal. Therefore, having gathered an army, he marches on Rome, and at the very first entry turns all his fury against the aforesaid Lady Matilda; he burns estates, destroys castles: she, however, with divine mercy protecting her, did not sustain excessive damage. The Countess Matilda in that persecution Then, I say, you could praise the talent and wisdom of the man, namely the holy Bishop Anselm. For even if a ship is strong and well built and the sailors prudent; yet it easily perils unless the helmsman is wise and valiant. Saint Anselm consoles and aids her. He was solicitous for the piety of the mother, he meditated the art of governing: she exercised authority, he governed: she gave the command, and he gave the counsel. Yet he excelled in all things, because both she and all her people obeyed his holiness; but she more than all. And no wonder: for he so providently and wisely counseled each individual in each matter, that against the aforesaid sometime King and all the greater and lesser men, the house of that one woman alone resisted almost all of Italy, vindicated the injury of God and her own, maintained her honor, and did not lose the grace of God. Indeed, by his merits this was obtained, that that praiseworthy and glorious woman was proclaimed even through foreign lands. And why not? For she acted nobly and magnificently, in a manner unusual for women, more indeed, I say, than manfully, fearing scarcely any danger. What powerful man ever led his army as she led hers? Yet very many of her people withdrew from her and went backward. They separated from us, I say, because they were not of us: for certain Angels too fell from heaven, while others were so strengthened He strengthens others, that they could no longer fall. Those too who remained were strengthened, both by the sweetness of Pastoral wisdom and by the benevolence and cheerfulness of so desirable a matron. For that outstanding Pastor and Doctor was present to them day and night with spiritual teachings and admonitions: emphasizing especially among other things that they should keep themselves from the excommunicated: since if anyone had communicated with the excommunicated, unless he had first received penance and been absolved, he could have no communion with the rest. With perfect hatred indeed he hated the excommunicated; Or converts them: whence by his teaching he made many anxious, prevented very many from such tyranny, converted some even completely, He admonishes the Emperor and the Antipope by letters: and finally he dictated a warning to the aforesaid sometime King himself; and he admonished the heresiarch himself, the invader of the holy Roman See, Wibert, with salutary writings.

[18] What then? The tyrant invades Rome, as he had begun, attacks it for three years, which at last, perjured, he conquers more by money than by strength or wisdom, and the holy Church of Blessed Peter becomes a den of impious robbers. Against the rebel invader of the City, But he did not yet conquer all Rome: since in the castle called the Castle of Crescentius, the most reverend Pope Gregory remained. Certain nobler Romans also remained, neither corrupted nor deceived nor conquered, desiring to obey God rather than a heretical man. Therefore, as the impious persecution of the heretics increased, Robert, Duke of Apulia, summoned, frees them from these: the Duke of Apulia and Calabria, Robert, was invited by the Apostolic Man and hastened to Rome; before whose arrival Henry, having left the City, fled, and in a single day the Duke boldly conquered it by armed force, and brought the Lord Pope from the confinement of the tower to the breadth of the holy Lateran Palace with great triumph and glory. And so, having spent some days there, they went together to Salerno, where the most holy Pope departed to Christ. For the miracles Pope Gregory dies, famous for miracles: which the Lord worked through him, some indeed we saw, others we heard from suitable witnesses, of which this is not the place to speak.

Henry therefore having been driven from the city into the Teutonic regions, he immediately returned, having first stirred up almost all the Lombards against the aforesaid Lady and against her holy guardian, but also against all Catholic unity. And not long after, behold, Bishops and Marquises with many others assembled, Against very many rebels who with great fury suddenly invaded the land of the same Countess, thinking to subjugate the whole of it immediately to their dominion. Then therefore they assembled and

our men were indeed few, since they had been forewarned scarcely a single day before. Nevertheless, they were exceedingly strengthened, because our Lord Saint Anselm the Bishop had directed his blessing to them through our humble person: Saint Anselm encourages the few with his blessing: especially commanding us in his instructions that, if any had communicated with the excommunicated, we should first absolve them, and then equally bless them all with Apostolic and his own authority: instructing them in what manner and with what intention they ought to fight; and thus commit the peril of the impending battle for the remission of all their sins. When the engagement was joined, the enemy very swiftly turned their backs, soon making them victors in battle. and the Bishop of Parma was soon captured, along with many nobles, and of the lesser sort without number: and the number of the dead was not found. Of our men, however, three died, and few were wounded. In which matter all the faithful can recognize the glory of God and the virtue of the blessing of the most Reverend Bishop. For from that time the assemblies of the heretics were confounded, and their exceedingly lofty insolence was brought low: but all the Catholics rejoiced and were strengthened, especially that house which our holy Father Anselm the Bishop afterwards guarded unconquered and preserved persevering in the Catholic faith.

CHAPTER V.

Episcopal inspection throughout Lombardy by Saint Anselm. His virtues and manner of living.

[20] And he who had once been the Bishop of a single city, though innocently expelled, He is appointed Vicar throughout Lombardy: became the magnificent prelate of many cities: for the Lord Pope committed to him his authority and his own office throughout all Lombardy, wherever Catholic Bishops were not to be found, who at that time were assuredly very rare. Therefore all who have zeal for the Catholic faith hasten to him from every part of Lombardy.

There Catholics receive his blessing, and the excommunicated who have returned receive absolution: there they seek Chrism, there sacred Orders; there the desolate find comfort, the uncounseled find counsel, the counseled find joy: with him whatever is anywhere in doubt is wisely determined: he is always found of the same gravity and reverence, and is corrupted neither by bribes nor by entreaties. He helps all who flee to him: Many often came to him, sometimes nobles, sometimes common folk, poor and rich, who, while they wished to acquire something from the aforesaid Countess or to hold more securely what they had acquired, sometimes promised him great gifts, and others promised still greater; to whom he, although poor himself and all his people destitute, responded angrily, spurned the gifts, He spurns bribes: refused his assistance; for if they had asked freely, they would certainly have obtained it more quickly. For he said: if what they seek is unjust, I shall be a participant, indeed the author, of their injustice: but if it is just, I shall be guilty if I have sold justice. If any of perverse mind, perhaps divinely blinded, or perniciously entangled in the avarice of the world, resisted the Catholic and Apostolic decree, when they began to reason among themselves, they suddenly fell quite silent: because they could not resist his wisdom, indeed they marveled at the man's eloquence, so great and so reasonable: He knows Sacred Scripture and its interpreters: for he knew nearly all of Sacred Scripture by heart; whatever individual or all the holy expositors thought about any question, he would answer as soon as you asked. We learned that many things from the Sacred Scriptures had been divinely expounded to him, some of which we have in writing from him, some we retain in memory: He publishes books: he wrote many small books with his own hands: he compiled one Apologetic work from the diverse volumes of the Holy Fathers, with which he defended the Lord Pope's decree and all his acts and precepts with canonical reasoning and approved them with orthodox authorities. On the Lamentations of Jeremiah he composed a most lucid exposition: he also expounded the Psalter most brilliantly at the request of the most blessed handmaid of God, Matilda, briefly indeed but usefully, up to that place where it says: "We have blessed you in the name of the Lord." For there he ended both his life and the exposition, He converts or confounds schismatics: and like another Patriarch Jacob he blessed us all; whose blessing, as is known to all, descended upon all Italy. For in him and through him some heretics and schismatics are converted, others are confounded: whose teeth are thereupon broken, while with the Lord's own words it is promised to them: the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the mute speak.

[21] But what shall I say about his abstinence? He held almost all foods in loathing, even the most delicate: those which his aforesaid daughter in Christ often sought out for him, I do not say he did not eat, but he scarcely tasted. All the blandishments of the world and the delights of the body, in which men rejoice, he turned for himself into torment, abominating each one as if it were poison. Also the foods set before him, when he was sometimes compelled by those sitting around him to eat, he honestly feigned illness or a vow or some other excuse; Wonderfully abstinent in food and drink, so that he might both observe his desired purity and not cause sadness to his fellow diners. Wine, as the Blessed Jerome says, he fled almost as poison. I saw, I say, what I also silently noted, that a morsel taken into his mouth he would not chew with his teeth, as is the common custom of men, lest he take any sweetness from it; but having softly touched it and briefly wrapped it, he swallowed it. Throughout an entire meal he often did not drink, but if thirst ever pressed more ardently, Even in drinking water, perhaps around vespers he privately drank a little water. For even in water itself, as he often spoke with me, he judged there to be the gluttony of the throat, feared a snare, and therefore tasted more sparingly. If the necessity of nature did not compel, I think he would have remained sleepless at all times. And in taking sleep: Throughout the whole night he either read, or wrote, or prayed; and if sleep pressed more heavily, he slept standing: and if more indulgently at times, he slept bowed down upon his knees. In bed indeed most rarely, unless compelled by the utmost modesty or necessity; and not for extended hours, but as if for moments. He had already almost conquered nature itself, so that he no longer seemed a body, but as if entirely spirit. Truly we could recognize in him this Gospel saying as if bodily, that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God: for while he withdrew from himself nearly all food, yet he labored more than all. He performed very many acts of penance at night, or, if he could, privately during the day. He stood very frequently until the third hour.

[22] In consecrating churches or altars, as if full of the spirit, he trembled entirely; Fervent in ecclesiastical matters; because with ever fervent love of devotion he performed whatever was ecclesiastical. We all marveled at the unconquerable powers of his subtlety: because while we were utterly and completely exhausted, he alone labored. But when it came to the solemnities of the Mass, he immediately flowed entirely with tears. Wherever he found a book, he immediately strove to examine it most diligently: and whatever he gathered as if in passing during the days, that he ruminated upon more fully at night. If ever he was on campaign, as very often, or on a journey, although very fatigued, he nevertheless neither took food more lavishly on that account, nor rested in bed. His greatest delicacies were fruits or herbs. He concealed his whole life and conduct as much as he could: Even on a journey, whether he was with the army in the field or privately at home, he surrounded his bed with a small curtain, so that there alone he might either read or write. From the middle of the night always, as the Prophet says, he rose for the morning Office, unless he rarely spared the weakness of the daughter entrusted to him, namely the glorious Lady Matilda: for discretion, the mother of all virtues, reigned in him. O happy she to whom such a provident pedagogue always attended, not as a provident man, but as an Angel of provident counsel: never, I think, while he stood by, was she defrauded or deceived.

[23] He piously instructs soldiers and other members of the household: It is wondrous to marvel at: while he sometimes stood the whole day with secular men in many and diverse councils, his mind was not alienated, but he always inwardly pondered something divine and contemplated heavenly things. The soldiers of that house, although excessively worldly, all looked to him, fearing him more than their natural Lady. In campaigns and in chambers, amid all conversations or counsels, he either preached or spoke good words of any sort. As many as faithfully followed his counsel, as he predicted to them, so it very often happened. If he did not convert all outright, he preserved the more faithful for God and their Lady. Indeed he restrained all from many crimes, made them stand against the heretics, except for very few sons of darkness. He venerated all religious as Fathers: He venerates the religious: he rebuked the erring; and a heretical man, corrected a second or third time but not reformed, he avoided. Throughout every church in all the often-mentioned Lady's land, he established the regular life of clerics

or monks: indeed he said that he would prefer that in the Church there be no cleric or monk at all, rather than one irregular, so to speak, and irreligious. In what affection and contrition he was in the divine offices, I am not able to set forth.

[24] He permitted nothing to be read in the Church except the writings of the Orthodox Fathers, He regulates the ecclesiastical reading, as holy authority prescribes. He strove to observe order and harmony in both chant and readings, as the holy Fathers had established. He did not receive any apocryphal works in the office of the Church, as the most Blessed Pope Leo had decreed: yet he did not entirely reject them for private reading at meals or at collation. And the chant: He commanded that we sing the Psalms carefully and meditatively, and otherwise he rebuked sharply. God knows that I sometimes seemed to myself as if full of the spirit from his very appearance, and as if forgetful of myself, he seemed to me like an Angel.

[25] During the divine mysteries he never or rarely sat. He never completed the solemnities of the Mass, as far as we could perceive, without tears. He imitates Gregory VII. Above all he always had this intention, that he might first imitate his Master, Pope Gregory, in all things, so much so that he was wholly unwilling to differ from him even in anything. He always attributed to his merits whatever was in himself. When he recalled the monastic and solitary life, which he often lamented having lost, he was consoled in this same Master, because he had been made obedient to him even unto this. That one was the fountain, this one flowed from him like a good stream and irrigated the arid land: He is given his miter: that one as the head governed the whole body, this one as a diligent hand carried out what was enjoined: that one like the Sun illuminated all things, this one like a splendor made known each thing: that one, dying, sent to this one the miter of his head, as if his own power of binding and loosing, and, I believe, of working miracles also. For not long after, as all of us knew, Renowned for miracles, through his counsel and great faith, God worked certain illustrious wonders through that same miter. For among other things, the most reverend Lord Ubald, Bishop of Mantua, having been very gravely afflicted with a disease of the spleen for many years, ulcerated over his whole body, especially in his legs, so that he could scarcely stand in any way, and could scarcely even lie down or sit, and who had spent much on physicians and profited nothing: when the same miter was applied where the pain was greatest, he was restored to his former health.

[26] The most blessed Master, so great and so wonderful, worked many miracles both living and dead: the good disciple also worked them as Master, I say, in God: the disciple in God; and in the most blessed Master, the disciple, as is said, works even more. Nor is this surprising: for Peter did more than Christ; not indeed by his own power, but because denying himself he followed Christ, and as this venerable Father of ours, because he imitated his pious Master in all things, works many virtues. For there are many, By his example he works miracles: whose life we know to be most holy, and who truly obtain eternal rest; but they have not displayed the power of miracles. This man, however, not only because he led a religious life, but rather because he carried out faithful obedience, also hating with perfect hatred the party of the excommunicated and loving and defending the unity of Catholics, he confirmed by miracles what he taught by word. Therefore all you who have hitherto obeyed the precepts of the Lord Pope Gregory in Catholic unity, rejoice and exult; and to those who have gone backward and abandoned the footsteps of truth, tell them, so that they may now believe by deeds, what they once refused by words.

CHAPTER VI.

Miracles wrought during the life of Saint Anselm. His death and burial.

[27] We who were present saw in his lifetime his Subdeacon, named Tento, who always had weak eyes; who, if he watched beyond his custom or perhaps drank wine, could scarcely see anything for a long time the next day, Eyes are healed by the water from the washing of his hands, and for some time could not read at all. Therefore he took the water with which the Lord Bishop had washed his hands after the sacrifice, washed his eyes, and had healthy ones thenceforth: he was able to watch and read no less than the rest of us. Similarly also his Priest Wido, suffering from fevers, And fever is removed. received the water from the washing of his hands, drank it, and recovered.

[28] A Deacon is healed, Likewise his Deacon John, while he was ill at Milan, hastened to send word to him, adding this in the message, that as soon as he heard of his suffering, he wished to feel in himself the power of his blessing; and it was done as he believed: for he immediately felt it, and shortly after fully recovered, and the same Lord Bishop afterwards ordained him Priest. He also healed by his blessing alone the aforesaid daughter entrusted to him, namely the most noble Lady Matilda, Matilda very often: from various infirmities on many occasions; and, as she was accustomed to relate to us, she frequently felt virtue going out from him, so that at his touch every then-pressing illness fled.

[29] He sometimes clearly knew the thoughts of men, even as they were thinking them. Thus and thus, he said, He knows the thoughts of others, at such an hour and in such a place you were thinking. God is my witness that I do not lie; for when I was once conferring with him about my sins, as I was often accustomed to do, I confessed and told him of a certain temptation with which the evil spirit was then more fervently striving to assail me; and he said, You speak the truth: because even in the very ministry of the altar it sometimes occurs to you. When I heard this, I immediately was terrified, and from then on I strove to restrain myself from every wicked thought, especially in his presence. During the holy celebrations of the Mass he was especially accustomed to see such things: and he always had this practice, that he would celebrate Mass daily. But if on some day he did not celebrate, which very rarely happened due to some impediment, he was sadder that whole day and exceedingly heavy: just as he also deplored that night as heavy and restless when, compelled by excessive vigils, he slept a little.

[30] He also very frequently saw revelations worthy of remembrance; some of which it is pleasing to touch upon briefly. For at a certain time, while in the church of Saint Paul in the territory of Mantua, He saw the Virgin Mother of God appearing, near the Bishop's residence, he was consecrating a certain altar in honor of Saint Mary, he saw her with his bodily eyes at that same altar during the very solemnities of consecration. At another time also, on the Purification of the same glorious Virgin Mary, when he came rather late to the church, while the Clerics were already singing the Invitatory, where it says, "Going to meet her God," he saw Christ coming to meet him, Christ come to meet him as he entered. On yet another occasion, while with great compunction of heart and tears he was chanting Psalm And inclining toward him. 81, that is, "Incline, O Lord, your ear"; he felt the Lord inclined toward him, and as if applying his ear to listen. Indeed he did and saw many other things, which we now pass over in haste.

[31] Finally, how happy an end he made, many Bishops and Clerics and nobler laity who were present saw. He did not make a testament: because he had nothing from which to make one: On his deathbed he makes no testament, imitating also in this his Master, whom we knew to have died poor and in exile, who also in his last moments, as we learned from his religious Chaplains, said: "After all things, I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile." Indeed, what the Master and disciple taught in their life, this they also confirmed as if by testament in their death. He commends the doctrine of Gregory VII, That one, those whom he had blessed while still living as obedient to him, dying also he commended to the Lord by his prayers; but the Henricians he utterly and completely rejected, unless after a great conversion and penance. This one, in our presence, commanded in the word of the Lord that we should remain in the faith and doctrine of the most blessed Pope Gregory; which he also enjoined upon us with his blessing and commended it for the remission of our sins.

[32] Present at this blessing was a certain matron named Berta, noble by birth, nobler in the character of her mind and the devotion of her soul, wife of the most illustrious Count Bernard, who was suffering from an unusual infirmity in her head: for she was afflicted with such great coldness at the crown of her head that she could sometimes think ice had been placed upon it; He removes an unusual infirmity of the head by his blessing: which she often tried to dispel with furs or pillows warmed at the fire: but having sought out many physicians, she obtained no health. And if cold or wind ever touched her there, when she perhaps slept carelessly without her head well covered, she was tormented by violent pain, so that she feared her eyes were rolling or starting out, and as if the sinews of her neck were contracted, she could not bend her head. This woman, I say, had come during that Lenten season to the city of Mantua to the Countess Matilda, in order to hear the holy and daily Office of so venerable a Bishop: whence it happened that in his last moments she hastened to the blessing which we described more quickly than many others. When she most devoutly sought the blessing from him, he placed his hand upon her head, and when the incurable cold was immediately expelled, she received a most healthful warmth: and with sweat and some matter issuing through her ears, by the octave of Easter every occasion of the infirmity was removed. How many most illustrious signs God worked through him thereafter, what need is there for me to say, when it is established that very many saw all things in person?

[33] He asked therefore, as long as he lived, that he might be committed to burial in the Chapter of the monastery of Saint Benedict, which is on the bank of the river Po, under the obedience of the holy monastery of Cluny, whence he himself was a brother and monk. He desires to be buried in a nearby monastery, And when, with the Bishop and the Countess and all the others consenting, the body was already being carried to the monastery, there suddenly appeared a Bishop of Sutri named Bonizo, whom the Holy Spirit also raised up, so that he might cry out He is buried in the Bishop's residence, that it was fitting for a Bishop to be buried in the Bishop's residence: Such a great lantern, he said, it is not fitting that it be hidden. He himself while still living humbled himself as unworthy: but we ought to exalt, as truly worthy, a man whom we know to have been most holy. The same was immediately acclaimed

by all, and the body was seized from the care of the monks and carried to the Bishop's residence, and there venerably buried. We marveled at this as if it were a first great miracle, not knowing that what was to follow would be still more marvelous. For we also noted at that time that many Bishops and Cardinals, and also a great multitude of soldiers, had come to that same city on the day of his death. For there was present the Bishop of Maguelone, named Godfrey, and Benedict the Bishop of Modena, and Aribert the Bishop of Reggio, In the presence of several Bishops, and the Bishop of that same city, namely the Bishop of Mantua, called Ubald; but also Damian, Cardinal of the Roman Church, who was also Abbot of the monastery of Nonantola. All these, as they and other Catholics had often been accustomed to come, had arrived. The Bishop of Sutri had also departed only the day before, but soon, after his passing, on that same day he was opportunely present. These, And Cardinal Damian, I say, and very many others, greater and lesser, were present, who both witnessed his passing and recognized the clear miracles after his death in person.

[34] Therefore in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ 1086, in the thirteenth year of his episcopate, Indiction 9, when the seven years of the excommunication of Henry the sometime King had already ended, nine months and twenty-three days after the passing of the most blessed Pope Gregory VII, He died in the year 1086. the Venerable Lord and our Father Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, fell asleep in the Lord on the tenth of the Kalends of April, in the city of Mantua, with the most reverend Bishop Ubald presiding, and the most noble Duchess and Marchioness Matilda ruling there.

CHAPTER VII.

Miracles wrought after the death of Saint Anselm.

[35] On the third night after the venerable repose of the most holy Father, a certain woman with contracted limbs, A woman with contracted limbs is healed, who always crept rather than walked on one hand and on her hindquarters, and who had remained for one year and two and a half months in the house of the Bishop's nephew, was raised up healthy at the tomb of the aforesaid Father by his merits, in the first watch of the night. On the following day, around the third hour, as it seemed, A blind woman, it is reported that a certain woman blind from birth was there illuminated, whom we then heard was an inhabitant of the county of Brescia. A bent man, On that same day, around the sixth hour, a certain poor man who had been maintained for some time by alms in the hospice of the poor of the aforesaid Bishop of Mantua, bent from the loins down, praying at the sepulchre of the same holy Father, suddenly raised himself up healthy. When such miracles had been spread far and wide, A blind woman, behold, a certain woman from the castle called Capitellum, who had entirely lost her sight, began to beseech her husband to lead her to the body of the holy man. When he refused, her brother, moved by mercy, having yoked oxen to a cart, began to carry her. When she had gone two miles, she began to see trees and the cart and the oxen and all other things: giving thanks to God and His Holy Confessor, making a vow from her poverty, she returned home.

[36] On the ninth day there was in the same castle another woman with contracted legs and loins, A woman with contracted limbs, who could not leave her bed on her own for any need. She obtained by her prayers from a certain citizen of Mantua who had come there, that he placed her on his cart, brought her to the city, and carried her on his shoulders to the tomb of the holy Bishop: and after making some prayer, shortly afterwards she rose up healed. On the eleventh day, also in a castle called Goudium, A blind woman, a woman who had been deprived of her sight for twenty months, fasting for two days and staying near the holy body, received the former clarity of her eyes. On the fifteenth day, another woman from a castle called, as it is said, Lazese, A woman with contracted limbs and epilepsy, with a contracted hand and foot, a twisted mouth, most grievously afflicted with epilepsy, there enduring for some time, recovered full health.

[37] A blind woman, On the sixteenth day, while we were standing together with the most glorious Lady Matilda and singing psalms on the holy day of Good Friday, a certain woman came from a place called Coloniola, who had lost her sight, weeping and wailing, most devoutly making prostrations, and after a while rising up; she wiped her eyes on the cloth covering the sepulchre and received her sight. On the eighteenth day, also a certain well-known woman of that same city, Tormented by pain of teeth and bowels, was tortured by pain of the teeth and bowels: fleeing to the sepulchre of the aforesaid Confessor, she was immediately made well. Another woman from a town Bedridden from illness, called Castellucule was so ill that she could not rise from bed in any way. Hearing of so many miracles, she made a vow, and shortly after recovered, and on the eighth day coming on her own feet to the tomb of the holy man, she herself fulfilled the vow.

[38] On the twenty-first day, moreover, there was a citizen of Mantua who had lost the sight of one eye when a film came over it. Blind in one eye. Spending much on physicians and accomplishing nothing, he fled to the true physician of salvation through the merits of the most holy Bishop mentioned above, and recovered his sight. On the twenty-third day after this, a boy from a village Deprived of the use of his arms, called Vadum-ferratum, whom arthritis had deprived of the use of his arms, was brought to the same oratory and received his health. On the twenty-fourth day, another boy from Burbassic, Blind and dropsical, deprived of the light of his eyes and suffering as if from dropsy, admonished often in his sleep, finally fled to the patronage of the most holy Father and recovered.

[39] On the thirty-first day there was a Priest from the bishopric of Brescia, from a castle named Garelengo, from whom the disease that men call "good" by antiphrasis had taken the light of one eye: who, hearing the fame of such great signs, Blind in one eye, hastened to the holy sepulchre. Having made his prayer there, he returned: and, being irritated by some itching while on the road, he rubbed his eye with his finger, and when his eyelids were soon opened, he saw clearly. Returning therefore to the city, he gave thanks before all to so pious a patronage. A paralytic woman, On the night following the thirty-first day, a certain woman came from a castle named Maratica, near the port of Lignacum in the county of Verona, having her left hand closed, and that whole side ruined by paralytic gout. On the thirtieth day after the death of the same holy Bishop, praying at his tomb, she rose up healed. A lame man: From the county of Milan also, from the parish of Resade, a certain lame man had come, who, thus contracted, went about seeking health at many shrines of the Saints. Falling prostrate at the holy tomb and making his prayer, he was immediately made well.

[40] On the thirty-ninth day it then happened what was joyful and wonderful in the eyes of many: for during the Litanies called Gregorian, A doe willingly allows itself to be captured: when an innumerable multitude of people was flocking to the aforesaid city of Mantua, certain people from a village called Fornicata and another called Blittolo, coming with banners and relics as is the custom, and seeing a large doe beside the road, admonished by one of their Priests, began to invoke the omnipotence of God, that through the merits of his most holy Priest, to whom they were devoutly proceeding, he would grant it to them unharmed; and so it was done. For, as if fixed to the spot, it stood quiet. And they, casting a small rope around its neck, And it is led to the sepulchre of Saint Anselm: led it most gently all the way to the sepulchre of the venerable Confessor. And so there was an inestimable rush of the crowd: some snatched its hairs as a sign of the truth; others only wished to see it: but all marveled with equanimity. But because it was pregnant, Its flesh drives away diseases, it could not endure such pressure; it reached the sepulchre, however, and there succumbed, and shortly after, since it could not live, it was killed: its flesh was divided into various parts as a blessing, and it certainly restored their former health to many sick people. But what follows is no less praiseworthy and glorious.

[41] For as they were returning after completing their prayer, they came to a certain body of water which they could not cross except by boat: but that the works of God might be made manifest, the boat had been taken to the other side. Therefore waiting a long time and somewhat sad, A boat comes of its own accord to the other bank, because they were fasting and fatigued, remembering the earlier miracle, they again invoked God, that through the merits of his holy Confessor Anselm he would give them a way to cross. The prayers were scarcely completed when, behold, a boat broke free and came to them without any rower. Therefore giving thanks to God and to his most holy Confessor, they all crossed safely, and from the wood of that boat very many were healed of various pains.

[42] We also wish your holy desire to know what we learned from no other source, A man made insane from a wound in the head: but rather saw ourselves and did ourselves. The venerable Countess whom we mentioned was at the siege of a certain castle, where a certain German was wounded in the head by the blow of a stone: who three days later was brought into our lodging, so that there he might have better tranquility than among laymen. Then a stroke, which physicians call paralysis, attacked him so cruelly that he was rendered utterly insane, so that he felt nothing rightly and recognized no one. Finally we also were summoned: so that having imposed penance upon him, we might give him Communion.

But we could not make him understand what penance was. Finally, we could not even make him recognize what God was, or invoke God or any of the Saints. We were quite certain that he had a demon. For he cried out, as the insane are wont to do, with a loud voice shouting many incongruous things; and unless he were held by force, he would have torn apart not only his garments but even his limbs. A clamor was heard on every side, many ran up, some lamenting, others marveling. We also heard in the chamber of that Lady the lamentable voice of her who, moved by divine impulse, said to me that I should wash the ring that had been Saint Anselm's in water, He is given water to drink in which the ring of Saint Anselm had been immersed, which the Blessed Pope Gregory had also worn for some time, and offer it to him to drink: hoping that by their merits he would be freed. Rising therefore, having taken the ring, I went to him, whom I found crying out in a marvelous manner and tearing himself apart. For although five strong men held him — two by his legs, two by his arms, and one at his head — yet he struggled with his chest and belly more than I would have believed, had I not been present and seen it. Having therefore taken water, we placed the ring in it in the name of the Lord, and having opened his mouth with great force, with a spoon we barely managed to give him a little to drink at first. Not long after, he called me by name and began to recognize my voice, He is healed. and being admonished he immediately invoked Saint Anselm; and, to say it briefly, after one hour, as I estimate, by the merits of the holy Confessors, who used the same ring in the divine Office, he rested most gently and spoke correctly. To this miracle indeed many were present, who saw and heard in person, and glorified the mercy of God in his holy Confessors.

[43] These things about our most blessed Father and Patron, the holy Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, very few indeed Epilogue. in comparison to his merits, but, I hope, profitable to your pious desires, I, B., a sinner, his Priest in Penance, not his son, I say, but his servant, promoted by him to that same order with many tears, have reverently set forth for you who devoutly requested them. I beseech you, pray for me.

CHAPTER VIII.

Other miracles added shortly after, inserted from the letters of the Bishop of Mantua, and also written by a certain Hugo.

[44] On the forty-ninth day after the holy man's passing, with the sun already setting, the Lord deigned to show this miracle also through his servant. There came to the tomb of our most holy Father a certain woman from the bishopric of Cremona, from that region called Cancer, A nearly blind woman is healed, from whom a film on one eye had entirely taken away the light: and the other eye could barely see during the day. Persisting in prayers for some time, by the merits of the holy Bishop, she received the clarity of the blinded eye: and the other, for which midday had previously scarcely sufficed for seeing, now the twilight of night suffices. A great multitude had gathered at the city of Mantua for the veneration of the holy man, from the city and bishopric of Brescia, among whom were some under the pretense of religion, indeed for the sake of pretense: to confound whose unbelief and to strengthen the faith of the believers who were present, A man deprived of the use of his feet. the Almighty Lord showed his mercy. For a certain old man of the household of Manfredus, from a place called Pigognata, on account of an incision in one knee, with gout also affecting the other, by reason of this incision had lacked the use of his feet for three months: who by the merits of the most Blessed Anselm was restored to his former health, on the fiftieth day of his death.

LETTER I.

[45] To the Lady Matilda, Ubald, Bishop of Mantua, sends joy and gladness. With immense desire we write to you the longed-for gladness. There was a certain woman from Capriana who walked on hands and feet like an animal, Three people with contracted limbs are healed, whom Almighty God through the merits of our most holy Father raised up and granted to proceed on foot alone, as human nature requires. A similar remedy He deigned to confer also upon a certain man from the Island of Parma, which is near the head of the Parmula, who was similarly bent. Moreover, a certain boy from Monte Chiaro had a contracted hand and foot, and God restored both to proper use through the prayers of the most blessed Bishop. Also to a certain woman from the place called the Island of Ogerius, who had a withered hand, the desired health came through the intercession of our same Patron. He also restored sight to a certain boy from Ripalta. Similarly a woman from the bishopric of Verona, A woman with a withered hand, when she was already approaching our city, received the clarity of her eyes. Also a certain man from Plevazano, whose heels adhered inseparably to his buttocks, Two healed, was restored to his former health; whom we showed to the Lord, the religious Archbishop of Lyon, A man with heels adhering to his buttocks, and pointed out the place where the heels had been joined. Many from the bishopric of Brescia and Verona and from various other parts, who had gathered for the veneration of the man on the vigil of the Ascension of the Lord, seeing these things done, were converted to the Lord, renouncing the devil and his followers, and promising that they would sooner come to the shedding of their blood, should they be brought to that point of danger, than fall away from this faith. All these things were done on the vigil of the Ascension of the Lord and on the following night: and many other things, which we could not ascertain because of the multitude; which, if we find them, we shall describe to you.

[46] There was moreover a certain woman from a castle whose name is Gudiciole, who, unable to touch the ground with her foot because of a contraction of the knee, Miserably lame, walking bent over with two sticks, barely sustained her weak limbs. After some days she obtained the health-giving remedy for her infirmity by seeking the mercy of the holy Bishop. There was likewise a certain nobleman named Adecherus, Bleeding from the nose for two days; who with blood bursting from his nostrils for two days, as if from a vein struck by iron, was already thinking only of the expectation of death. But when no care applied by physicians could restrain the breaking blood, appealing to the holy Bishop and vowing to come to his body, he escaped the danger of imminent death, by the merits and prayers of the most holy man.

LETTER II.

[47] Certain miracles either consigned to oblivion or previously unknown, but now discovered, I wish to present to your knowledge. The people of Brescia, remaining with joy, about whom I recently wrote to you, when they had come to the ford which is a little above Godium, finding no boat, bore no vexation in their hearts, placing all their trust in God and Saint Anselm. While they tarried, A dying horse, seeing a certain horse on the other side of the river, which, dying and gasping, without food and drink, had lain there for three days, one of them without hesitation asked God and Saint Anselm that it might rise and carry them all across: and it immediately rose and offered itself to transport them. Behold how magnificent the merits of our Father: behold how imperious his power. The law of death is broken; its own rights are lamented as altered: one subject to death is snatched away: granted to life, restored to life, that he might serve the servants of God; It recovers for a time, and he who could not carry himself prepared to bear a burden, offering himself so servantly to obey, as if he did not lack reason. He seemed to want to say, if nature permitted: Why do you not mount me? Why do you not employ me in your service? I have been granted life for no other purpose, snatched from the jaws of death. Meanwhile, certain boatmen seeing them standing by the bank, came with a boat to ferry them across, hoping to receive payment from them: they entered that boat and crossed safely. See how the horse was laboring to show itself obedient: and how it strives that the will to serve might be manifest. But what it does not speak with its mouth, Having rendered service, it dies. it professes by the gesture of its body. For as the boat crossed, it crossed too; and when that returned, it also returned. Finally, when all had been ferried across, it went to the place whence it had come, and there shortly after ended its life.

[48] A boy with a withered hand is healed. There was a certain boy from Cremona, brought to the tomb of the holy man by many of his neighbors, who had a withered hand. They reverently and confidently, and out of great confidence almost threateningly, sought his healing, saying: Most pious Bishop, Saint Anselm, Confessor of God, hear us who pray for your servant: if we merited anything from you in life, if we faithfully received your preaching, if we preserved our faith uncorrupted, if we constantly resisted those who contradicted you, hear us, help him and free him: you healed many for unbelievers, grant at least one to the faithful, lest perhaps enemies insult us, objecting: Now it appears how grateful, how faithful you were to him in life. If he had loved you in life, he would have honored you also in death: but because he judged you unworthy, abominable, contemptible, he has made you strangers to such grace. Repel from us, most pious Father, this reproach, and quickly bring forth our joy. Show yourself propitious to us, on whom we have always looked, whom alone we set before ourselves as a mirror to contemplate, Likewise another: from whom we seek aid. As they prayed so devoutly, the health they sought was obtained by their prayers: which also a certain Hermann of Scorzariolo, who similarly had a contracted hand, obtained.

[49] Moreover, a certain woman who always looked at the ground bent over, and could not walk unless supported by a stick, was raised up at the tomb of the aforesaid Father, with many watching. A woman bent toward the ground: I did not note her place of origin, because she could not be found on account of the multitude. On the third day preceding the Ascension of the Lord, two wonders were performed. For a certain woman from the bishopric of Cremona, from a place called Casa-anserij, A blind man, received the light she had lost for eight years, through the intercession of the most holy Patron. On that same day, A bent woman, a certain woman from the Abbey of Leone, having a withered right hand, which with contracted sinews of the arm she always held nearly at her shoulder, and with a contracted knee on the same side she barely touched the ground with the tips of the toes of her foot, found healing for both afflictions at the tomb of our holy Father.

[50] Among those things which on the Ascension of His Son God magnificently wrought through His servant, I eagerly make known to your desire the power of his virtue, afterwards declared to me by the same man to whom the author of our salvation conferred his medicine. For there was a certain man from your village, which is near Rosina, named Ciliano, who grieved not so much that straightness of knees had been denied him as that the strength of his hands had been wholly taken away: for the gout pressing upon him so savagely that he trembled, Deprived of the strength of knees and hands, he could do nothing and hold nothing. To him therefore the Lord revealed through a vision that if he reverently vowed to come to the tomb of the most holy Anselm, he would immediately rejoice that he had obtained health from both infirmities. He therefore, waking up and thinking about the vision,

not knowing what to do, uncertain what to believe; incredulous of the revelation, yet desirous of health; had certain good men of his neighborhood summoned to him, and having narrated the vision, received counsel from them to make a vow, and having made the vow, he immediately recovered. Likewise a certain woman from Fossa-capraria, A bent woman, bent at the knees, deprived of the service of her feet, and long using the aid of sticks in their place, when she had already come to the tomb of our Father, with the sun already setting, suddenly received health from so grave and varied an infirmity.

[51] What a certain honorable matron, the mother of John of Persico, related to me, I thought should be reported to you also. She, full of faith, perfected in the love of God, instructed in the teachings of the most holy Anselm, spurning the ministry of her own Priests on account of excommunication; one day, when she asked those standing about where she might find someone worthy and suitable to celebrate Mass; a certain man from Casale Maggiore standing by said: Why do you despise the ministry of your own Priests? On account of the love and preaching of Saint Anselm, she said, for whose merits the Almighty Lord daily works wonders. He said: Now I beseech you, pray to him with all your heart; One who mocks miracles becomes lame with violent pain: that if he has raised up anyone, as you believe, let him make me a cripple: or if he has given light to anyone, let him take my sight away. Scarcely was the prayer finished when he felt the vengeance of God was present; and immediately bending to one side, he began to limp greatly. But she, seeing this, began to pray God more intently to increase the punishment upon this son of unbelief: and immediately the pain grew so great that he could barely make it to his lodging, and was left as if dead. When therefore this matron came to give thanks to God and Saint Anselm, a certain man from Monticelli-Guiberti, well known to her, meeting her as he was already returning from the city, narrated to her a great miracle that had happened to him. A bucket lost in the river is recovered: One night, when he had gone to the river Oglio to draw water, and having extended his hook, since the bank was high, the current of the water took his bucket away from him, and the torch being lost, since the night was dark, when he saw it being carried off by the swirling of the river, he asked Saint Anselm to return it to him. When the prayer was made and he had lowered his hook barely two arm-lengths near the water, the handle of the bucket immediately lifted itself up and attached itself to the hook.

[52] Through the merits of the same most holy Father of ours, a certain nun from the regions beyond the mountains, A woman blind in one eye is healed, from a village called Gamudium near the castle of Cisne, received the light of one eye, and by the grace of God now sees more clearly from the other, from which she had seen only a little. A certain woman from the bishopric of Cremona, A boy contracted from birth, from a castle named Benengo, which is situated near Iovisalta, had a boy of twelve years; who from the days of his birth, with contracted sinews, had never known how to walk. His mother, therefore, desirous of his health, full of devotion, perfect in faith, vowed to carry him to the venerable sepulchre: and carrying him, already weary from the burden, when she reached the Marcha Regia, she set him down; and by her faith and devotion he immediately found the health which he had always lacked. Moreover, a certain woman from Wartalda, forewarned in her sleep, believing the revelation, came to implore the saving aid of our holy Father. A woman with dropsy. She was so afflicted with the disease of dropsy that she could not support herself: for her body had swollen so much that she could barely contain herself from bursting: nor was it to be called a body any longer, but rather a trunk; nor was any human form to be seen in her, but she was wholly deformed and presented a certain face of death: for the joints of her hands and feet had become solid. But although her form and the sockets of her eyes had perished, and death rather than life was pressing upon her, she did not despair of health. It was worthy, therefore, that the most holy Anselm should grant the grace of health to this woman, from whom she expected such great healing, which she rejoices to have obtained the following night.

[53] As I have just learned from Count Guifredo and from Sigefredo of Beredo, his soldier, I write to you. While you and the Abbess of Saint Paul of Parma were staying at Mantua, his soldiers, having heard of many signs from the holy man, wished to go to his venerable tomb for the sake of prayer, and asked a certain man named Alberic, the son of Alberic of Palmia, One who scorns Saint Anselm, to go with them to seek pardon for his sins. As, he said with a foolish and envious mouth, I would go to a donkey, so I shall go to him, unless perhaps for the sake of mockery, to seek his help. But they, rebuking him and heaping reproach upon him, finally compelled him to come with them. On the last day, there was a certain man with contracted limbs, whom they desired to see prostrate at the tomb, and they approached; and reverently praying and kissing the stone of the tomb, they returned rejoicing. But he, wishing likewise to approach in order to see the one who had been freed, was prevented from the sepulchre, as one unworthy and blasphemous, by about two paces, his feet sticking heavily and sluggishly. He cannot approach the sepulchre: He, thinking his shins were bound by wrappings, removed them; and finding that this had not hindered him, he entered again, unable to go beyond the same boundary. He, grieving that he had been repulsed so many times, When a blind man is illuminated, went out with shame, wondering and astonished at why this had happened to him. Meanwhile a certain blind man was illuminated. He therefore recognized his own foolishness, and repenting of his curse, wept bitterly. Finally, returning from Saint Andrew's with the Canons to render praises, with many tears shed before the door of Saint Peter's, he merited to approach the tomb of our Father, just as the others. The penitent approaches. He kept silent about this, lest his companions should cast it as a reproach against him: but now, to the glory of God and the most holy Anselm, he preaches everywhere what happened to him.

[54] When some citizens of Brescia had come to venerate the tomb of our Father, they met a certain poor man similarly coming from the bishopric of Como to seek his health, A lame man is healed, from the Valtellina: who, bent over, could not walk unless supported by sticks. They took him with them and for the love of the most holy Anselm gave him provisions. To confirm their faith and increase their devotion, the Lord through the intercession of the aforesaid Father, on the 10th of the Kalends of June, with night already approaching, raised this man up and granted him to walk without the support of sticks. Moreover, to a certain boy, deaf and mute from the days of his birth, shortly after the passing of the most holy Anselm, A deaf and mute boy, by his merits, without our knowledge, He restored his hearing. And on the second day of the entering month of June, around the ninth hour, He loosed the bond of his tongue, according to that which is read in the Gospel: "He has done all things well; he has made the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

CHAPTER IX.

Other miracles from the writing of the same Hugo to the Bishop of Mantua.

[55] Another miracle also, which I learned from the report of Brother Vitalis, a Priest of the Church of Brescia, a man of religious life, and from many others, I, Hugo, was not reluctant to write to your Paternity, venerable Father, Bishop of Mantua, as you commanded. A lame and mute girl is healed: In a village whose name is Murana, which is seven miles from the city of Brescia, there was a certain woman who had a daughter so deprived of the use of tongue and feet that, unless carried by another, she could in no way rise at all; who, when she was carrying her contracted daughter outside the house as usual, sighing at the tedium of her daily labor, said: Most pious God, through the merits of your most holy Confessor Anselm, having pity on my tribulation, either restore this wretched half-dead girl to health, or by removing her from this present life, free me from such labor; otherwise I leave her here to you. Do what pleases you: because I shall suffer no labor for her henceforth. Having said this, she immediately departed, the daughter left behind, as she said. But after a short interval of time, returning home, she found the one whom she had left to the most holy Anselm to be well. And the one who shortly before had been bound of tongue, she heard speaking words fluently: which deed the woman, marveling and rejoicing, rendered praises to the Lord and the holy Bishop for the health received for her daughter.

[56] Also by the narration of the Priest Otto, a man of praiseworthy life, and with the attestation of the citizens of Cremona, I learned of another miracle, which should by no means be passed over in silence. On a certain day, when some of the citizens of Cremona were riding outside the city, they began in varied conversation among themselves to relate certain miracles which the Lord works through the merits of the most holy Confessor Anselm. And while they were discussing these things among themselves, a certain one of them, being of a faithless mind, reproachfully asked them whether they believed such vanities; or that God displayed miracles through him. One who does not believe in miracles, When they answered that he was undoubtedly a holy servant of God and glorified by many signs of miracles, that perfidious man said: If he is, as you say, holy, or if he has restored anyone's gait, let him now make the horse on which I sit lame. And so it was done. For having gone forward a little, the horse on which he sat immediately stood still with contracted limbs: and the aforesaid man, overtaken by infirmity, labored for a long time, He is punished by the horse being crippled and his own illness: until he resolved to go humbly to the holy body.

[57] What also I learned from my mother narrating about herself should not be consigned to oblivion. One day, when a stroke suddenly came, Pain and a discharge of the eye are healed, it so covered the light of one eye with blood that she could not even look at the ground with direct sight. Pressed therefore by the pain of the eye, she fled to the tomb of the holy Confessor, humbly seeking relief for her pain with these words: Most holy Confessor, confer upon me a healing medicine: for I seek no physician but you: for you are able to confer a saving remedy for my infirmity. Having therefore rubbed her eye against the stone which covers the casket of the holy body, as she was returning home:

"Of this I am a witness: soon the noxious humor receded."

[58] By the report of Brother Vitalis, a Priest of the Church of Lodi, in the hearing of many, as also the other things, I learned a thing worthy of memory, who was present at this deed. His faith and life, long tested in the things of God, undoubtedly demonstrate that credence should be given to his testimony. Arialdus, the brother of the most holy Confessor Anselm, has a certain daughter of five years, whom the force of fevers was afflicting: and furthermore, from the opening of her ear, from a discharge which they call a fistula, Fever with a discharge from the ear, a certain putrefaction continuously dripped drop by drop: which also generated disgust in those who came near her. The parents of the aforesaid girl, having washed a small piece

which they had of the wood of the boat (the miracle of which was noted above), they gave the water of its washing to their daughter to drink, invoking the most holy Confessor to come to the aid of his niece; and when she had drunk it, the aforesaid girl was immediately freed from both infirmities.

[59] The matter which I now relate I learned under the narration and testimony of the Lady Matilda the Countess; to whose attestation we know credence should undoubtedly be given, from her proven faith and religious character; which also became known to me equally by the assertion of the same girl to whom this happened. One night, a pain suddenly came, as often happened, acutely tormenting the girl named Athelasia, the daughter of the Marquis Azo, who was in the chamber of the aforesaid Lady, in the part of her belly, and compelled her to give great cries. When the aforesaid Lady inquired what was the matter, the answer was given A torment of the belly, that she was frequently invoking Saint Anselm to her aid. And when, by the command of that same Lady, the cushion on which the holy Bishop while living had been accustomed to sit was placed upon that part of the body where the pain was pressing, the girl immediately cried out that she was freed from all pain.

[60] By the assertion of a certain man named Constantius, I learned moreover a thing to be committed to memory. An illness coming upon a boy, Suffocation of the voice, the squire of a certain soldier, had so suffocated his voice that he could scarcely be heard by those even a little distance from him. And because he could not call his Lord by the cry of his choked voice, he had a horn, by whose sound he indicated to him where he was. This boy, therefore, with the aforementioned Constantius, devoutly seeking a remedy for his suffocated voice at the tomb of the holy Confessor, obtained such full health of voice that he can now be heard even by those quite far away. The aforesaid Constantius, having devoutly completed his prayer, took with him dust scraped with reverent devotion from the stone of the sepulchre of the holy Confessor and reverently received from the custodian; which, mixed with water, he gave to drink to a certain woman greatly suffering from the force of fevers, Fever, invoking the aid of the most holy Bishop: and as the woman drank the draught of water, all the affliction of fever was put to flight, and she immediately recovered.

[61] A certain man, a citizen of the city of Mantua, called Oddo of Martinus Canevarius, was constrained by the anguish of so great a pain Anguish of the chest, that frequently his whole body was covered with the water of sweat from the pain. And because he was tormented by the intensity of the excessive pain, he said that he could be healed by this medicine alone: if, with his garments cut open, he were permitted to split open his chest with a knife. When, however, he was already thinking only of the expectation of death, there was brought the cushion on which the holy Bishop had sat while in the flesh: and when it was placed upon his chest, with the name of the holy Bishop invoked, immediately all pain departed.

[62] By the report of Guido and Vitalis, Priests of the bishopric of Lucca, men of honest life, and equally under the testimony of Allucio, a noble man of the city of Lucca, I learned the thing I narrate, who were present at this miracle. A certain man had a hand contracted near his arm, A contracted hand. to whom the brother of the aforesaid Allucio out of piety ministered the necessities of life in his house for a long time. The aforesaid Priests, and likewise the already-named Allucio, trusting greatly in the mercy of the most holy Bishop, led the man with the contracted hand to a certain church in which the aforesaid Priest Guido had deposited certain vestments of the holy Bishop for reverence and honor. When therefore they prayed unanimously and sought with much devotion that God, to confound and overcome the wickedness of Peter the heretic and invader of the Church of Lucca, would declare the admirable glory of the most holy Bishop in this man, the man whose hand was contracted was healed. The aforesaid Priests, therefore, beholding the joy of so illustrious a deed, lest the mighty works of the Lord be concealed, by the precept of obedience commanded the healed man to hasten with the Cross raised into the city of Lucca; so that the crowds of people, beholding this man miraculously made whole by the Lord's mercy, whom shortly before they had known to be crippled, might at least thus repent, because they had expelled the holy Bishop, who preached the way of holiness, from his own see without cause: so that those who had been unwilling to believe his words might at least believe such evident works. But Peter the heretic, who, even laying his hand upon the Lord's anointed, did not fear to presume to expel the holy Bishop from his own see and wickedly to seize it for himself; with hardened heart, having seen signs and wonders, still perseveres in the cruelty of his wickedness. Considering then, that wicked man, that this had happened to his confusion and detriment, he attempted to thrust the healed man into prison, wishing to conceal the sign of this matter by such perfidy. But because the word of God is never bound, fearing the people aroused against him on this account, he was confounded and permitted the one he held imprisoned to depart.

[63] Under the testimony of the same men, I also learned another miracle, wonderfully worthy of wonder. The men of a place named Castellonium, digging a well for a long time and deeply, could find a vein of water by no skill or ingenuity. And when, already wearied by long labor and despairing of finding water, Water is obtained in a well, they wished to abandon the fruitless work, they began to exhort one another, saying among themselves: By the insistence of prayers and the generosity of almsgiving, let us unanimously beseech the Lord that through the merits of the most holy Bishop Anselm he may grant us to find water, for the finding of which we have long labored in vain. When therefore they were distributing the charity of almsgiving to the poor, suddenly a boy arrived announcing that an abundance of water had been found in the well.

[64] In a letter of the Archdeacon of the Church of Treviso directed to the Lady Matilda, and by the report of the messenger who brought it, this matter became known to me and likewise to many others. There was a certain man named Lanzo the Judge, of Milanese birth, a resident of Treviso, whom the disease of figs burning violently and the affliction of gout severely striking his feet, A man with gout and the disease of figs is healed, had deprived both of his gait and sleep was given him not at all. And because, his strength now failing, he could scarcely turn himself over in bed, a rope had been tied above the bed, by whose aid he moved himself to either side. On a certain day, therefore, drawing sighs and shedding tears, he began to pray with these words: O God, through the merits of Saint Anselm, whose admirable glory I hear, show in me also the clemency of your power. Holy Confessor, remember the familiarity which joined us as companions in school: may the words of friendship, most pious Bishop, which I very often exchanged with you, profit me. I will come to your venerable tomb, if you grant the joy of health. And so the whole following night, seized by the drowsiness of sleep, he rested until the next day. When morning came, feeling that he was already recovering, he immediately began to walk confidently, and thus freed by the mercy of the holy Bishop, he now rejoices that he is perfectly well.

[65] Moreover, a certain young man had been deprived of the faculty of hearing and speech from birth: Deaf and mute from birth, who, remaining with us for more than two months, had given us and many others certain knowledge of his infirmity. Four times in his sleep he saw the holy Bishop at the holy tomb, and his ears being opened as he prayed, and the bond of his tongue likewise being loosed. Coming therefore, as he had been forewarned, to the holy body, moaning and beating his breast, he devoutly sought with all his strength the aid of the most holy Bishop. Persisting therefore for some days in prayers, he obtained both the joy of hearing and the full capacity of speaking distinctly: which we who were present saw, and nearly the entire population of our city.

[66] Moreover, there was a certain woman long deprived of light, whom, when gout came upon her from time to time, so great a pain of the head tormented, A blind woman with pain of the head, that in her frenzy she gnawed her own limbs from the anguish. This woman, led to the tomb of the holy Confessor by the encouragement and assistance of Opizo of Gonzaga, was both freed from the anguish of the gout and likewise obtained the joy of light. Of her past infirmity the aforesaid Opizo is a witness, who out of piety long provided her with the sustenance of the body in his house. On the property of the Canons of Blessed Peter, in a place whose name is the Village of Saint Lawrence, there was a certain woman Disfigured by a swelling of the nose, whose nose had horribly swollen, and a burning color within emitted pus. She, devoutly beseeching the holy Bishop, obtained the desired health.

[67] Likewise a certain boy from Sacciula had been deprived of the joy of light, who, returning from Cremona, was hastening to the tomb of the holy Bishop, from which he had departed a few days before. Hastening therefore thirstily to return to the body of the Saint, he very frequently struck his feet against small stones, Two blind persons, being a man who could in no way see what was adverse before him. Grieving therefore and groaning, he humbly implored the holy Confessor to deign to look upon so great a calamity. To him thus praying on the road while he was coming, the remedy of the desired light came. Likewise a certain man from the bishopric of Treviso could not open his eyes for his own use: he also, coming to the venerable tomb, received the joy of longed-for gladness.

[68] There was likewise a girl in a village upon which common usage had bestowed the name Mairana, Mute with some paralysis, not far from the city of Brescia: from her the use of her tongue had been taken, and some of her limbs, except the right hand, could not perform their function. Her wretched mother, beholding her half-dead, devoutly vowed to carry her to the mercy of the most holy Confessor, as another Canaanite woman about to plead for her daughter. According to the promise of her vow, therefore, with her parents carrying her, the girl on the road received both the use of her tongue and the use of all her limbs; whom we saw giving thanks to God near the holy sepulchre, and her father giving testimony of this matter. When many were gathering at the holy body And a contracted person. to obtain a remedy for their infirmity, a certain man also from a place named Carpum, situated beyond the Adige, near the port of Lignano, was coming: who, having a contracted hand and an arm weakened by withering, received the benefit of health on the very journey.

[69] Likewise we learned a thing worthy of memory, narrated about herself by the Lady Matilda, the venerable Countess, The Countess Matilda is freed from fever, to whose testimony her most proven faith and life equally full of religion gives credence. The aforesaid Lady had labored exceedingly with fevers for many days, and a violent pain of the head had wearied her: From pain of the head, when on a certain day she was present as usual at the solemnities of the Mass, striving to stand on her feet while the Gospel was being read, she soon fell, overcome by her infirmity. There was near her, out of reverence, in the chapel of the Bishop, a wooden board placed, on which, after the spirit had departed, the holy body had been washed for the funeral rites: humbly therefore seeking the aid of the holy man, and drawing her forehead across the aforesaid board, she was immediately freed from the pain of the head. From scabs, Not many days later, fractures of no small scabies had savagely filled the hands and nearly the whole body of that same Lady. When, however, she had in her hands the episcopal ring which the Bishop of God had used in the celebrations of Masses, she began to reflect within herself that the merits of so great a Bishop could come to her aid even through the touch of the ring with which he himself had offered so many sacrifices to God; and so placing the same ring upon the fractures, from that day she was healed from

that same infirmity. From dimness of sight: A few days later, the sharpness of vision of the aforesaid most Christian Lady had been so disturbed that she feared to give herself to reading at night as was her custom. During the solemnities of the Mass, however, while she held in her hands one of the prayers which the holy Bishop had written for that same Lady with his own hand, for her use in prayer, she placed the paper on which the aforesaid prayer was written upon her eyes and wiped them; and thenceforth, having received the clarity of light as before, she did not fear to persist in reading by night and day.

[70] A certain man of French birth named Everard, a Priest by Order, Gout is removed: was with us: upon whom gout suddenly coming had rendered both his smaller fingers of one hand rigid, and had seized the palm likewise and the joint where the hand is connected to the arm, so that he could not bend it for the use of any function. And because the strength of his whole arm had also failed, a strap tied around his neck supported his suspended arm. While he was dining with his companions, a certain poor woman came, seeking alms to be given to her in the name of the charity of Saint Anselm; and he, offering her broken bread with his hand, was immediately healed from the aforesaid infirmity.

[71] Let no one of perverse mind presume to contend that what I now intend to narrate is fictitious or fabulous. The witness of this matter is present: he himself, who, with chains of no small size broken, was miraculously freed from the anguish of prison by the aid of the most holy Confessor Anselm; the broken chains also bear witness. In the presence of Bishops, with the people listening, he has preached and preaches the miserable distress of his captivity and the praiseworthy joy of his liberation. As the tempest of violent persecution grew, as is known throughout all lands, against the holy Gregory VII, the worthy Apostolic of the Roman Church, for his preaching of truth and justice, and likewise against the Catholics of the whole Roman Empire; the most Christian Countess, the Lady Matilda, labored with all her strength for the defense of the Church. Ubertus, the son of Arditio, In the war of Matilda against the schismatics, was one of the aforesaid Lady's captains; and so that in this disturbance the same Lady might undoubtingly rely on his fidelity and service, among many other promises of fidelity, he compelled all to whom he had entrusted the custody of his strongholds to swear that they would freely hand over the fortresses of the strongholds they guarded to the power of the above-named Lady and would thenceforth remain in her fidelity, if the same Ubertus should do anything unfaithful against that Lady, When others defected from her, or treacherously plot anything. After Ubertus was captured for the wickedness of his infidelity, his men, against the pledges of their oath, did not fear to do whatever they could injuriously against that same Lady. From their number, a certain man named Lanfrancus de Piola, a soldier by office, Lanfrancus, faithful to her, is captured, because he refused to adhere to their perversities, was captured by their ambushes and treacheries, and from the month of August until the eighth of the Kalends of April was afflicted with harsh imprisonment and bound with chains of no small size. Those same malicious men were also plotting how they might take his life, yet they did not wish it to be known that it had been done by their contrivance.

[72] When, constrained by so many anguishes, he was expecting only death, on the Vigil of the holy Bishop Anselm, seized by sleep, it seemed to him that the most holy Bishop was walking before him, in the garb in which he was still accustomed to walk while in the flesh. Crying out immediately to him, he said: Saint Anselm, when I served you usefully on many occasions, you often promised me that you would well reward my service. Behold, look upon my sufferings: He is comforted by the appearing Saint Anselm, who promises liberation, and because you are able, bring aid: and since you were never deceived, now fulfill your promises. You could never more fittingly repay the gift of my service than now: at least restore me to the Church, which they forbid me to enter. To whom the most pious Bishop of God said: Do not fear, I shall restore you to the Church. Then it seemed to him that he was led by him into a certain church and signed and blessed. To whom he immediately said: Behold, you have been restored to the Church. To whom the man said: I rejoice enough that I have been returned to the Church: but I still implore your help, Lord. The holy Bishop, piously consoling him, said: On the eighth day from today I shall both send you my knife and render the necessary assistance. And so, on the eighth day arriving, With chains cut, there came to him a certain man of the city of Reggio, previously unknown to him, carrying with him a very sharp file: which, having been given, with all watching and none of the guards who were present contradicting, he quickly cut through the shackles and chains. But while he hesitated to go out because of the guards, suddenly the most holy Confessor appeared, and the Lady Matilda appeared to have arrived, He exits unharmed. with a multitude of men following. And when she said to him: What are you waiting for to go out? Do not delay; rise confidently: he arose in the sight of the guards and went out unharmed.

[73] The miracle of the present narration was made known to us in the hearing of many, by the narration and testimony of the same woman to whom it happened. In the summer just passed, a certain woman from Ripalta had gone out into the fields to the labor of harvesting as was customary, leading her little daughter with her; at that time, however, the plague of wolves had so increased A girl snatched by a wolf is restored to her mother. that they did not even fear to snatch children from the sight of their parents. When, as I said, she was in the fields, a wolf suddenly snatched her daughter from her. When the wretched mother saw her daughter being carried away, torn by the beast, she called upon the most holy Anselm with whatever voice she had, to bring aid to her and her wretched daughter. Immediately upon invoking the name of the most pious Bishop, that rabid beast cast the girl from its mouth, no longer daring to touch her, and watching her from afar. But the anxious mother, trusting however in the aid of the most holy Confessor, hastened to help her daughter: and as she was leading her away, the wolf followed both of them. Often crying out for the aid of the holy Bishop, finally the hunger of that beast was restrained, and both women were freed from its bites.

[74] A woman with contracted limbs is healed, What we saw in person, we have by no means thought should be passed over in silence. A certain woman, contracted with her legs twisted beneath her, carried her whole body on her hands and buttocks. She, long seeking the aid of the holy Bishop, was raised up at the venerable tomb: whom we knew to have been previously sustained by alms, and many of our citizens as well. The son of the Archpriest of Colurnio, named Ubald, is still present with us, who has related, and when often asked relates again, the narration of this matter. While he was in our city engaged in the study of the art of Grammar, showing no devotion, no reverence to the holy Confessor, he detracted from his holy virtues. But on a certain day, seized by a violent pain of the head, And another is punished with pain of the head for his unbelief. and believing that he was near death from the pain, he invoked the aid of the holy Bishop, promising that once freed he would thenceforth be a believer and would preach the glory of his virtues, as he had previously spoken perversely about him. Wearied therefore the whole night, around the hours of the morning time, seized by a gentle sleep, in his dreams he saw the holy servant of God place his hand upon his head and bless him with the sign of the holy Cross. When the vision had passed and he awoke, he found himself freed from the torment of that pain.

[75] On the day of the Ascension just past, a certain woman from Godi, named Richilda, well known to many, for an entire year and more, as much as is from the Epiphany...

The rest is lacking in the manuscript codex.

ON BLESSED BARTHOLOMEW OF ANGLARI, OF THE ORDER OF SAINT FRANCIS OF THE OBSERVANCE, AT EMPOLI IN ETRURIA.

IN THE YEAR 1510.

Bartholomew of Anglari, Priest of the Order of Saint Francis of the Observance, at Empoli in Etruria (Blessed).

[1] Not far from the Tiber, which even now as a slender stream divides Etruria from Umbria, Anglari is the homeland of Bartholomew, where, when Saint Francis was once making a journey (for Mount Alverna is only a day's journey away), he is said to have planted a Cross in the road, At Anglari where Saint Francis planted a cross, which was long held in veneration by the people, and finally gave occasion to Brother Anthony of Puppi to build two small cells for lodging the Brothers who came there, as was done in the year 1494. Five years after this, two were sent there, this Blessed Bartholomew and Bernardinus, both of Anglari, A church begun to be built in that name in the year 1499, who would be present with their work and counsel to their fellow citizens, inclined to increase the veneration of the place by building a temple: for the testament of Zenobius de Biliaffis had already been opened, who had bequeathed his land and revenues to be applied to such a construction, appointing as executors of his last will those who were the Rectors of the Confraternity of Saint Mary. But when in the year 1507 they transferred that entire care to the Franciscans (perhaps because it was involved in no small difficulties, and the sum of money required for the work was not readily available), the matter remained with the two I mentioned, proceeding so slowly that it did not seem a sufficient reward for the labor to occupy both of them. Therefore Bartholomew was sent to the convent of Empoli, where he rested in a blessed end, and becoming famous for miracles, aroused the spirits of his fellow citizens to wish to press on more seriously with the work he had begun.

[2] A pious sodality of lay men, established there under the invocation of the name of Jesus by Brother Bernardinus, aided in the same cause: After the death of Blessed Bartholomew it is promoted, who himself, dying on the 14th of May in the year 1514, was the first to dedicate with the deposit of his body the place where he had dwelt, called the Hospice of Saint Francis up to that time and for long after. After this some change followed, and the place which up to the year 1520 had been subject to the diocese of Città di Castello was attached to the bishopric of Borgo San Sepolcro by Leo X, who changed the abbatial title of the Holy Sepulchre into an episcopal one: It is completed in the year 1534, and finally in 1534, with public funds decreed, the roof was placed on the church, and the remaining interior decoration was added before the end of the following year. And so the title of the Holy Cross, which had belonged to the old chapel, was transferred to the new church: yet no convent was attached to it: but it pleased the people of Anglari more to put the Friars Minor in possession of the newly built convent and church of Saint Mary of Combarbio, And after the year 1540 a convent is added: which, with the approval of Cosmo the First, Grand Duke of Etruria, they entered in 1540. Afterwards, the Hospice of the Holy Cross was considered for conversion into a convent of nuns. But whether the place was not equally suitable for the Brothers, or for whatever other reason, not wishing to be alienated from the former, and having left the latter, they migrated back here again; and from that time the Convent of Anglari of the Holy Cross began to be counted among the convents of the Order, and to support sixteen religious.

[3] Where, after the Life written by Brother Marianus, We have traced these matters so that we might ascertain by a more plausible conjecture at what time the Life of Blessed Bartholomew was written: for the one we now have from the manuscript of Francesco Redi, a patrician of Arezzo, elsewhere also mentioned by us with praise, bears this title: Life of Blessed Bartholomew Magi of Anglari, of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance, written in the year of the Lord 1510. That there is an error in this number through the carelessness of copyists is evidently proved from that passage where it is said of Brother Marianus that he afterwards wrote the life of this Saint and of other Tuscans. For if this

Life which we give is posterior to another which we do not have, written by Marianus; it follows that a good many years had elapsed after the death of the Blessed Who died in the year 1537, before this author rendered in more polished Latin what Marianus had recorded in an entirely simple style: very likely none other than the one whose brief chronicle, under the surname Florentinus, is so often praised and cited in the Annals of Luke Wadding, and who, besides the Lives of Lay People, Tertiaries, and women illustrious for holiness who professed to live according to the rule of Saint Francis, also composed a history of Mount Alverna, in which he must have interwoven the deeds of both this man and many other Tuscans of his Order: which history is here indicated, or another work entirely different from all these and hitherto unknown to the collector of the Franciscan Library. He died in the year 1527 at Florence in that great plague, the savagery of which, raging against the lives of very many, Scipio Ammirato describes.

[4] An Anglarian wrote this. We learn from the opening that the author of this second Life was from Anglari: and that he did not write until after the establishment of the convent of the Holy Cross seems to be inferred from the fact that in number 6 he says that Bartholomew remained for some time in his homeland to inaugurate the beginnings of the convent of the Holy Cross there. For it is clear from the foregoing that the first authors of the cells and church to be established there did not think of a convent at all, and therefore that he who did not use the well-known and established name of Hospice wrote after its erection: so that perhaps not without reason the correction of a single digit might amend the error, and instead of 1510 Perhaps in the year 1550. one should read 1550 or something similar, as Francesco Redi thought: he who from his own manuscript had this Life transcribed for us and collated with another manuscript that exists at Anglari in a headless state among the heirs of Lorenzo Talleschi, a man commendable for his diligence and constant writing: who also wrote the annals of his homeland, whence the above-praised Francesco transcribed for us the entire history of the convent of the Holy Cross.

[5] From this Life, moreover, or from what the earlier Marianus Florentinus wrote, Who else has mentioned Bartholomew? those must have drawn whatever they wrote about Bartholomew: Marcus of Lisbon, Gonzaga, and others; and from these, Arthur of the Monastery and Luke Wadding in the Annals, and again from the latter, Harold in their epitome: at whose end we have a copious index of Provinces, Custodies, and Convents, compiled in the year 1516: where the twenty-second Convent of the fourth Province, which is that of Tuscany, is listed as that of Saint Mary of the Angels and Saint Francis near Empoli, where Bartholomew of Anglari is buried. The pious devotion of the townspeople had not yet claimed for him the title of Blessed by long usage, Solemn translation of the body of the Blessed, when this catalogue was compiled: but the benefits obtained at the body of the deceased gradually confirmed him in that regard among the people; and the Roman Church ratified it when it not only permitted the body to be buried under the high altar, but also allowed it, once removed from there, to be returned to the same place in a most solemn procession before the end of the previous century: at that time, indeed, when the greatest caution was being exercised lest anything be done in the case of those not yet canonized contrary to the opinion of the Council of Trent and the Roman Church: which we are persuaded was also consulted for permission to establish that solemnity, given the presence of the Grand Duke Ferdinand himself and the entire Florentine Court.

[6] Empoli is, moreover, a notable town of the Duchy of Florence, on the southern bank of the river Arno, Empoli, perhaps May 25, situated between the capital of the Duchy, Florence, and Pisa, at unequal distances, less than thirty miles from the one and more than fifteen from the other: near which is the aforesaid convent of Saint Mary, as Arthur and others have it, but assigned to the day of the 25th of May; whether by his own judgment, as he often does elsewhere when he did not know the day of death, or because on that day the solemn translation we mentioned took place, we leave to another to divine: we, while other documents are lacking, follow the day expressed in the Acts, and append to them the translation itself, made at the beginning of this century, At the beginning of this century. when Ferdinand I held power in Etruria, the grandfather of him who now most happily rules as the second of his name, and who was then still of boyish age, as the above-mentioned Francesco Redi wrote back to us from everyone's opinion, who supplied us with the account of this translation together with the accompanying miracles, found at the end of his older codex in more recent handwriting and in the Italian language: from which a not improbable conjecture could be formed that this volume once belonged to the Empoli Convent itself.

LIFE

From the Manuscript of Francesco Redi

Collated with another Anglarian Manuscript.

Bartholomew of Anglari, Priest of the Order of Saint Francis of the Observance, at Empoli in Etruria (Blessed).

BY A CONTEMPORARY AUTHOR.

[1] Although it was a most ancient custom among the Romans to prefer that their own good deeds be praised by others Preface of the author rather than to celebrate the deeds of others; nonetheless I thought it beyond doubt that he would be worthy of praise who by his labors does not allow the deeds of the well-deserving to be buried by sluggish oblivion and gradually obscured by the tenebrous darkness of time. It is further added that while I hand down to the memory of posterity the distinguished qualities of Bartholomew's soul, I am held by a certain noble desire for fame: for he himself shines forth as the bright star of Anglari, not to say its sun. I also embrace the public cause: for if the monuments of our ancestors and forefathers had survived, the name of Anglari would not be unknown; and as great as its fame for antiquity is, so great would be the glory of its distinguished deeds; and very many men would be counted from the founder Brennus to the present day, to whom many whose name is followed by admiration would perhaps yield their place.

[2] In the town of Anglari, therefore, of the diocese of the Church of Arezzo, Bartholomew is born at Anglari, second to none among the other most ancient towns of Etruria in glory, Bartholomew was born of the honorable and noble Magi family. His father was Francis, his mother Francesca (as if by a certain presage that they would be devoted to religion with the wonderful piety of Francis of Assisi), they obtained their name, being born to a better life in the sacred waters. From pious parents, And that they might imitate the Magi Kings of the East, they offered the gifts of three sons to the Lord: of whom Bartholomew, illustrious for the holiness of his works, was like incense; Jerome and the other brother bore the appearance of gold and myrrh. But how great the sanctity of Bartholomew would be appeared from his earliest years: for when one day a certain Cherubinus of Spoleto, a Father celebrated for the holiness of his life, was making a journey along that road by which we travel to Borgo San Sepolcro, By Brother Cherubinus nearly the whole populace flocked to him (so great was the religion of the people of Anglari at that time) to at least touch the garments of the passerby, or to behold him from afar with their eyes, begging with repeated prayers that he would bless them with his hand. He, wrapped in a heavy silence amid the thronging crowds, uttering no words, was advancing with swift step. The future sanctity of the boy becomes known: Gazing only at Bartholomew, and with his eyes penetrating to the depths of his heart, as if prescient of the future sanctity of the little boy, he placed his hands upon his head; and murmured certain things not well understood by others: which was done not without wonder, why among so many men, illustrious in letters and adorned with the candor of their morals, Cherubinus had looked to that little boy: and many hoped that something great would happen to him.

[3] From that time the most foul enemy of the human race did not cease to set in motion machines of force and cunning, He bravely repels obscene loves, to either frighten Bartholomew, who was meditating to direct his course toward the ways of heaven, or at least to delay him, so that it might not be permitted to the youth now coming of age to enter the harbor of religion beyond the storms of the world: for he incited a girl of outstanding beauty with the goads of hell to take an opportune occasion to inflame Bartholomew's breast with the fire of desire. But he, having perceived the adversary's fraud, did not turn aside from the constancy of his resolution to preserve his virginity. A rigorous guardian of chastity. In which conviction he remained so firm throughout the entire course of his life that he never aroused any suspicion of himself, not in words, much less in deeds: indeed it was the one voice of all that nothing purer than Bartholomew, nothing more abhorrent of the allurements of the senses, could be seen: as was also said of Jerome, As was also his brother Jerome, his brother by blood and religion, though scarcely second in holiness of morals, even if not so famous for miracles: for the third brother, snatched away by a too swift fate, was extinguished as soon as he appeared.

[4] Both therefore entered the sacred house of the divine Francis, which has taken its name from the Observance; two lights to shine amid the solitary horrors of the holy Mount Alverna. Enrolled in this militia chosen to despoil hell of its trophies, With whom he enters the Franciscan Order, Bartholomew served for twenty-nine years with the utmost obedience and utmost humility: so great a lover of poverty for Christ's sake that he never thought anything should be taken for himself at any time unless the Rule prescribed by the founder Francis commanded it, lest by pursuing a stricter life he appear an innovator. On his journeys he did not use a staff, Most tenacious of poverty, nor a sun hat: he thought there was no need for handkerchiefs; but he wiped his nose with torn woolen fragments of others' clothing: often saying with Jerome that it was unbecoming for one who professes poverty to affect cleanliness. He showed to all an example and model of humility: Zealous for humility, he refused to undertake no difficult or lowly task; and he sought the humbler places, and confessed himself unequal to completing all things; though he would be judged capable and knowledgeable in the opinion of anyone. For whoever he had spoken with even once, he immediately reported certain knowledge of that person's character and inclination of soul.

[5] In the art of grammar he was one among the few, yet (such was his zeal for avoiding boastfulness!) he was never heard to use the Latin language. Fleeing praise and distinction. He also rejected, indeed despised, all the titles and every pinnacle of dignity in the Order of Friars Minor: yet it could not be avoided that he be put in charge of the discipline of novices: which duty he embraced with an equable mind, since he saw that a way had been opened for him to cultivate patience in the utmost trial, ever remote from all indignation, which scarcely merits belief. He bore patience so much in his eyes Supreme in patience that he was never seen to open his mouth with any complaints or to part his lips with any sighs, especially when afflicted by poor health from a chronic disease of spitting, as the Greeks say, and from the scars of fistulas with which he was tormented with the greatest pain for many years: during which time he did not discontinue his abstinences, he frequented his vigils, he did not cease from prayer. Only when death was approaching, by the command of his Superior, he withdrew from this restriction; taking food at the latter's discretion, which he consumed with such discipline that nothing of taste tickling the palate, nothing of harm did he receive from it.

[6] He burned with such charity that, serving the sick, he omitted no office of piety, Extraordinary in charity, no proof of benevolence, no argument of kindness. He was held by a wonderful love of solitude, and withdrew far from the Brothers, let alone from the men of the world; avoiding even the conversation of his own blood relatives. Wherefore it should not be passed over in silence that, while he was staying in his own homeland to inaugurate the beginnings of the convent of the Holy Cross there, A severe despiser of the world, one day while begging alms in the name of Christ, he came to his own house, overflowing with no small wealth, which the lover of poverty had left. All the household rushed

headlong to the door, and among others the wife of his brother Paul, who began to entreat him most earnestly with the greatest prayers He refuses to enter his brother's house: that he would not be reluctant to stop there for the comfort of his soul, and that he would not refuse out of brotherly love to enter the house. But the holy man replied with those words, by no means to be translated from his own tongue: As once alms have been given to the Brothers, they are sent away in peace: and with that said, he departed.

[7] This also happened and should be recorded. One day, with the most cunning enemy enticing him, he desired to eat beef, An appetite for beef, but by no means did the snares escape Bartholomew's notice: wherefore he asked one of his men to give him a piece of it, which he hung by a nail in his room: whence he did not take it down until it was utterly filled with the most foul rot and worms exciting nausea. Then at last looking upon the hideously reeking thing, He tames it by presenting the now putrid meat. Behold, he said, most greedy belly, behold with what delicacy you desired to be filled. He never abandoned that watchful guard of his mouth, restraining himself not only from rich foods, but also taking care that no idle word should flow out, nor be armed with biting words against others: He sharply rebukes a slight detraction: indeed he was a severe punisher if he noticed anyone sharpening hostile teeth, or even suspected someone departing from the path of charity. For which reason, when Brother Marianus (the one who afterwards wrote the history of this Blessed and of other Tuscans) returning imprudently and without thinking had narrated that a certain Priest had denied him lodging, and even refused to lend a Breviary for paying the Divine Office to God: it could scarcely be expressed in words what this man of God said, what he did; how often he accused them of fault, very often rebuking him with the harshest words for having besmirched the reputation of a Priest, before the host at whose house he had lodged, and before the brothers with importunate garrulity, repeating this: so that it was necessary for Marianus to accuse his fault more than once, with Bartholomew even threatening to have him expelled from the Order if he ever turned to such a crime again.

[8] Furthermore, whenever he heard the Brothers reporting in their assembly anything new that had happened, He forbids narrating secular rumors: he admonished those who were addressed to himself not to bring the affairs of the world into the house of God; for it was unbecoming for those enrolled in religion to receive messengers with attentive ears, unless someone emerging from the whirlpool of the world had taken refuge in the harbor of Religion, so that he might be received with the applause of all voices and thanks might be given to God; or if one of their own had departed to a better life, that they might benefit him with the unbloody sacrifice of the Body of Christ and prayers kindled by piety. He spoke few words, but overflowing with usefulness; and he encompassed very much in a brief compass. Great efficacy in correcting the erring. If ever the time demanded that Bartholomew be compelled to correct someone's vices, he would take as his starting point things that had been committed long before: and God had taught him to do it in such a way that the person whose wounds he was treating, about to bring healing, would lend his ears with equable and willing spirit, and thence would depart reverently and fearfully, about to receive himself to a better way of life. For since he appeared like an unblemished mirror, and seemed rather sent down from heaven than born of men, he was feared by all, and no one was ever found so lost in morals that in his presence he would not either speak honestly or at least consign his tongue to silence.

[9] Attention in the sacrifice. He did not fail to offer the Sacrifice with the greatest piety: and although he was very often afflicted by illnesses, he never approached so great a ministry unprepared, or without his mind being free for divine things. His attention in performing the Office was wonderful: diligent in carrying out confessions, And the Office, he explained the circumstances briefly without any circumlocution. He derived some fruit from every reading of books: and whatever was read at table had been excerpted by him, to gather honey from it after the manner of bees: indeed he immediately converted profane learning into nourishment of the spirit. Fervor when conversing about divine things. He willingly conversed about the words of the Lord, and his face, suddenly blazing with the flames of charity, displayed signs of his inward ardor. And so when Brother Gaspar of Barga had gone with him into the forest of the holy Mount Alverna in the afternoon hours, conversing about divine things, they remained until the same hour of the following day, noticing nothing of time passing, and anxious about neither food nor sleep, so separated from mortal flesh in that very conversation that they were believed to be living the life of Angels: then at last understanding how long they had remained there, when upon returning to the choir they discovered with the greatest wonder that the same feast day was not being celebrated.

[10] Frequent rapture during prayer: He was frequent and fervent in prayer and in the contemplation of divine things, in which he sometimes tasted heavenly sweetnesses: he was also more often observed, raised aloft from the ground and intent upon the heavens, which happened in the wood of Castiglione, where a certain man observed him on bended knees more than two feet from the ground: who, coming to the Brothers as an informant, was a witness of the truth. More often, however, in the main church of Mount Alverna, before the image of the Savior fixed to the Cross, placed above the choir in what was then the middle, Angelic service through the night: the same thing was done, and many marveled at his elevation. When he was living on the same mountain and was going to pray at the chapel of the sacred stigmata, and there encountered another of the Brothers, he turned back to head for the chapel of Blessed John, and since the path was slippery and the darkness of night had stolen away all light, the holy man fell to the ground. Then two of the heavenly spirits bearing torches were at hand, who accompanied him as guides of the way to that very chapel: which a certain Brother observed and published to the wonder of all.

[11] In the name of God he also conquered the powers of diseases and restored the bodies of the sick to health. The grace of healing in the wife of his host, Many therefore have reported that a certain woman, the wife of the Procurator of the convent of Saint Mary at Ripa in Empoli, when she was tormented by a most violent headache, the blessed Father being by chance a guest in her house, along with the Custodian of the same convent, had commended herself to his prayers: and he, touching her head with his hand, immediately freed her from all pain; and when she fell down in amazement, Bartholomew commanded that she should speak of this to no one as long as he lived among the living. When a certain boy near the same convent had a head infected with the disease And pronounced upon a boy with scabs, which the Tuscans call "tigna," signing him with the sign of the Cross he immediately beheld him cleansed. The boy, returning home, revealed the matter to his mother, who was utterly stupefied; and so, God so willing, these things came down to us: for otherwise he so avoided the possibility of his deeds being proclaimed by men, lest thereby an appetite for praise should creep in and ruin his humility, that everything would have been entirely unknown.

[12] Finally, when he had reached the last period of his life, He dies piously, seeing the reward being prepared for him, fortified with the sacred remedies, on Friday, the day adorned by the death of our Savior, he called his brother Jerome to himself, with whom he wished to take the last meal together. Therefore saying farewell to all in the Tuscan words, "Addio," as if indicating that he was going to God, with the dawn approaching, as if desiring to call back the sun as a spectator for Bartholomew about to make his way to heaven, He is placed under the altar. he returned his spirit to the Lord, in the year 1510, on the 15th of the Kalends of April. The body, however, having been transferred to the church, could not be placed in a tomb until nightfall, since the people were hastening from every quarter to seek a kiss. When the physician who had treated him for two years had done so, returning home and embracing his children, he said: Before I undertake any other task, I wish to kiss you with the mouth with which I touched the body of that Saint. Then, hidden beneath the high altar, he rests in the same sacred building of Saint Mary.

That is, Borgo San Sepolcro, five miles distant from Anglari across the Tiber: Borgo San Sepolcro, which, although it is a city of quite recent origin, as can be seen in Ughelli volume 3 of Sacred Italy, nevertheless the levity of would-be scholars has persuaded itself that it is the ancient city mentioned by Pliny in the interior of Etruria: whence in the curia an inscription is read with this beginning: "Here where ancient Biturgia has obtained a new name." Perhaps this conviction was also aided by the understanding that the ancient city of the Bituriges in France is called by its modern name Bourges.

TRANSLATION OF THE BODY.

And miracles wrought after it.

From an Appendix in Italian Manuscript.

Bartholomew of Anglari, Priest of the Order of Saint Francis of the Observance, at Empoli in Etruria (Blessed).

[13] The Brothers, fearing lest so precious a pledge be taken away by theft from beneath the altar, It is returned to the same place, removed it thence and brought it back to the sacristy; afterwards, however, having changed their plan, permission was obtained to restore it to the same place with a solemn procession. The Most Serene Duke of Etruria, Ferdinand, and other Princes and Magnates honored that festivity with their presence: Emitting a sweet fragrance: in whose presence the bones were again placed beneath the high altar, breathing forth a sweetness of odor beyond nature: and many miracles followed to increase the common joy, among which are these which we append here.

[14] The sky, which for many days had been stormy and cloudy, at that very moment when the procession of supplicants was to be arranged, suddenly appeared The clouds from the sky, serene and tranquil. He drives away pains of the head. Michael Zerini of Empoli, tormented for a space of many days by a severe headache which left him no place of rest, immediately experienced relief as soon as he commended himself to the merits of the Blessed.

[15] A twelve-year-old girl, named Catherine, daughter of Michael del Biancone of Empoli, suffering from a quartan fever, asked her mother to take her to that procession. He cures a quartan fever, The mother showed herself reluctant because of the then more severely pressing paroxysm: but the confidence of the daughter prevailed, and induced the mother to bring her forward to touch the casket of the sacred body. But scarcely had she touched it when she exclaimed with a joyful voice to her mother that she was healed, as indeed she was.

[16] Magdalena Silvestri, a Bolognese woman residing at Empoli, was on that same day freed from a demon, He frees a demoniac, by which she had been tormented for some years, when she had commended herself to the merits of Blessed Bartholomew. In like manner, Elizabeth, daughter of Anthony Tognetti, from Bassa near Empoli, was freed from epilepsy. A girl of no more than six years, by a vow made through her father, also obtained a remedy for headache.

[17] Among the miracles wrought by Blessed Bartholomew can also be numbered He stirs the virtue of Jerome Magi by his example. that by the example of his most holy life he so inflamed Jerome Magi, a knight preeminent in nobility in the Republic of Venice, most adorned with the arts of war and peace, that leaving his wife and tender children, he transferred himself and his military spirit and industry to Cyprus, intending to check the Turkish advances there: where around Famagusta he is said to have inflicted memorable slaughter upon the infidels in the defense of the holy Faith: and finally, having fallen into their hands, after various torments and having his skin flayed while still alive, he is said to have obtained the laurel of martyrdom by capital punishment.

ON BLESSED SALVATOR OF HORTA, OF THE ORDER OF SAINT FRANCIS OF THE OBSERVANCE, AT CAGLIARI IN SARDINIA.

1567.

Salvator of Horta, of the Order of Saint Francis of the Observance, at Cagliari in Sardinia (Blessed).

[1] When the Templars were entirely suppressed under Clement V, Supreme Pontiff, Horta, a town of the diocese of Tortosa in Catalonia, formerly belonging to them, A church of the Blessed Virgin near Horta erected by the Templars, was transferred to the sacred Military Order of Saint John: and a more ancient chapel, in memory of the most holy Mary of the Angels, at a thousand paces from this town, on the more elevated part of a certain mountain, built by the aforesaid Templars, passed into the jurisdiction of certain secular Priests, and afterwards of the Friars Minor of the Province of Catalonia; for whom the townspeople also built a rather elegant monastery from public funds. And when this chapel and monastery, having been for a time under the Recollect Fathers, had been abandoned by them for certain reasons; through the intervention of the Emperor Charles V and King of Spain, Transferred to the Recollects, and especially at the insistence of the people of Horta, they were reassumed by the same. These things are related by Francesco Gonzaga, Bishop of Mantua, in his work On the Origin of the Seraphic Religion, part 3, Province of Catalonia, convent 15; and he adds: Of this sacred house, which twelve Recollect Brothers inhabit and most faithfully serve God Almighty day and night, there was once a resident, a man of extraordinary holiness, the blessed Father Salvator Alphonsus.

[2] The name Blessed Salvator gave him; The name Alphonsus is added here because the Provincial Minister had wanted him to have this name instead of his former name of Salvator, when he sent him away from Horta, wishing to abolish all memory of his suspected sanctity and to have Salvator thenceforth live obscure and unknown to men. But because God did not cease to manifest him by wondrous prodigies, nor did the common people cease to call him by his own name, with the surname "of Horta" added: from that place, namely, from which the fame of his virtue and sanctity first spread through all Spain, and roused from every quarter the sick and those held by whatever infirmity to the hope of health, to be obtained from the most Blessed Virgin Mary through the merits of this blessed religious. For which reason Whose body rests at Cagliari, the previously obscure town and monastery acquired great celebrity; yet not the perpetual and principal patronage of that same Saint. For this happiness was reserved for the convent of Cagliari, where he spent the last two years of his life, and having been consummated by a blessed end, awaits the resurrection of the Saints in his body, which was still incorrupt when, at the beginning of this century, it was solemnly translated into a new and proper chapel, and a canonical inquiry was begun into his life and miracles, for the purpose of inscribing him in the catalogue of Saints.

[3] With the veneration of the Blessed. Although this was not immediately obtained, the Apostolic See, from the judgment of the Cardinals presiding over the sacred Congregation of Rites, granted that proper veneration of the Blessed be rendered to him and that it be permitted to paint his image with rays and the display of miracles wrought by divine power: one of which is said to have immediately appeared at Rome, but has not come to our knowledge. Another smaller one was later engraved to be prefixed to an Italian Life reprinted at Milan in the year 1624: And engraved images with miracles, in which the same Blessed is seen amid poor people, the infirm, the lame, the blind, kneeling round about, raising his right hand to impart a blessing to them; turning the beads of a rosary with his left: above whose head, encircled with rays, the Holy Spirit seems to descend in the form of a dove; and on the right in the clouds the Virgin Mother of God appears, to whose power he was accustomed to ascribe all the benefits of healings that he conferred upon the wretched. Beneath the image itself this prayer is read, or rather a blessing to be made over the sick with the invocation of the Blessed. And its own invocation. "May the power of God the Father, the wisdom of God the Son, the virtue of God the Holy Spirit, through the merits and intercession of Blessed Salvator, free you from every fever, tertian, quartan, continuous, and from every evil. May Blessed Salvator pray for you and bless you in the name of the Father ✠ and of the Son ✠ and of the Holy Spirit ✠. Amen."

[4] The author of this life is not named in the title of the whole booklet: but is indicated in the title of chapter 5 with these words: The author, that is, The author of the life is Dimas Serpi. Fr. Dimas Serpi, Provincial of Sardinia, lest he weary the reader by relating in minute detail miracles of every sort, refers the reader to the memorial presented to the Pontiff, and passes to the more illustrious and noteworthy ones. Namely, it was not he himself, but some other person, who had made Italian the material arranged by Dimas in the Spanish language, adding from his own inclination a marginal summary and division and titles of chapters. We may suspect that this interpreter was none other than Barrezzo, for whom that life seems to have been compiled by the author, to be inserted in part 4 of the Chronicles of the Order of Friars Minor from chapter 42 of book 5 to the end thereof: which he himself published that part at Venice in the year 1608: from which the Life of Blessed Salvator, having been accepted, read again, and approved, was reprinted at Milan in the year 1628 by Giovanni Battista Cerri, and two years earlier by someone else at Naples, as far as we gather from Arthur, who cites a booklet printed there in the year 1626.

[5] Before this one, which we have translated into Latin, divided in our custom into chapters and paragraphs, The same was earlier published three times more briefly in Spanish. with the marks of the old division noted in the margin: before this Life, I say, three others were published, which are briefer and do not contain a tenth part of the miracles to be adduced from the authentic processes. The first of these appeared at Barcelona, in the same year in which the process was formed there, 1600, in the same format as the remaining Chronicles of the Saints of Sardinia compiled by the said Dimas Serpi, as a continuation to the fourth part of the same Chronicle, distinguished into four chapters, each with its own theme drawn from sacred letters, in the manner of sermons to be read to the people. This Life then, with some additions at the beginning and end, was expressed in continuous discourse by Anthony Vincent Domenech of holy memory, but made shorter by omitting most of the miracles, in a general history of the Saints of Catalonia, part 2, which treats of Saints not canonized according to the order of the Religions of which they were members. This work appeared in the second year of this century: in which same year, but before the work of Domenech was published, the aforesaid Dimas Serpi had compiled another life of the same Blessed, fuller and more distinct than the former, and had it printed in a smaller format, so that it would by itself constitute a booklet, to be distributed among the devout faithful.

[6] From these three Lives we have taken those gleanings which we have thought should be appended at the end of the fuller Life, because Whence the Gleanings are taken, besides a more accurate account of the birth of the Blessed and some miracles, they also contained the instruments of the authority given to Brother Dimas to form the processes we mentioned in Sardinia and Spain, not without an illustrious testimony of the public veneration already then paid to Blessed Salvator by the pious faithful. The same is treated under a distinguished eulogy, both in the place we cited above and in another where he describes the convent of Cagliari, by the aforementioned Gonzaga. The other authors who in any manner touched upon the praises or miracles of this Blessed His feast is on Sunday 2 after Epiphany, and among the Genoese. are laboriously enumerated by Arthur of the Monastery in his Franciscan Martyrology, and he adds: At Cagliari his feast is celebrated by permission of Pope Paul V on the second Sunday after the Epiphany: and it is publicly celebrated with the greatest devotion at Genoa, in the church of our convent of Peace, in the suburb of that city; at whose invocation frequent miracles are seen to occur, in testimony of which innumerable painted tablets are hung, displaying various benefits received from heaven through him: all of which, he says, I saw in the years 1616 and 1620, while I was staying there.

[7] With these things already prepared for the press, we are informed by Father Francesco Harold, the most worthy successor of Luke Wadding in writing the history of the Order, An image painted at Rome in the church of Saint Isidore. that at Rome, in the convent of his Order assigned to Irish Recollects and called Saint Isidore's, on the Gospel side near the high altar, a large image of this Blessed is painted, with raised hands beseeching the Mother of God for the lame, blind, etc., subjected to him. At Naples also, in the year 1651, twin images of the same, printed in rough art, are held at the head of a page, Other images printed at Naples with a Responsory, of which the smaller and simpler one has beneath it a Responsory, Antiphon, and Prayer as follows: Responsory. This man from his youth merited to heal the sick: the Lord gave him great renown, to illuminate the blind

and to put demons to flight. Behold a man without complaint, a true worshiper of God, abstaining himself from every evil work and remaining in his innocence. To illuminate the blind and to put demons to flight. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. To illuminate the blind and to put demons to flight. Antiphon. From Horta a light has risen, Antiphon, by which all Spain has shone, especially Catalonia, and likewise also Gaul; extinguished in Sardinia after innumerable miracles, he prays for us to the Lord. V. Pray for us, Blessed Salvator. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Prayer. Let us pray. O God, who wonderfully manifest your omnipotence in the humility of your Saints, and who have deigned to adorn Blessed Salvator of Horta, your servant, with admirable simplicity and the grace of wonderful healings: grant, we beseech you, that all who implore his aid may obtain the saving effect of their petition.

[8] With miracles. The same words are read beneath the larger image, which shows the most Blessed Virgin Mary, carrying the child Jesus in her arms and descending through a white cloud to the Blessed: at whose feet a crowd of the poor and sick awaits his aid, with this caption beneath: "A multitude of the ailing came to him," Luke chapter 6. And a Spanish hymn: On both sides, moreover, is read a hymn, or, as it is put in the title, a jubilus, composed in Spanish verse by a certain Observant Brother, and accustomed to be chanted daily in the chapel where the sacred body is kept, together with the aforementioned Responsory, Antiphon, and Prayer. The said hymn consists of eight strophes of eight verses each, in which his birth, virtues, miracles, death, and veneration at Cagliari are contained: and it is notably expressed that through his capuce, reverently preserved in the sanctuary of the Cagliari convent, All of which are sung daily at Cagliari at his body. many favors are obtained: and finally the Blessed is invoked as a special helper of women in childbirth. At the head and end of the aforesaid hymn, a shorter strophe is placed in nearly the same words in both places:

Since your great favor Comforts our spirits, Pray for us to the Lord, Blessed Salvator of Horta.

The last two verses may be repeated at each strophe, and the fifth and sixth verse always end in "or" and "orta": the first four, moreover, are so composed that the first verse has a common ending with the fourth and the second with the third.

LIFE

By Dimas Serpi, Provincial of Sardinia and Commissioner for seeking canonization.

Salvator of Horta, of the Order of Saint Francis of the Observance, at Cagliari in Sardinia (Blessed).

BY DIMAS SERPI.

CHAPTER I.

The beginnings of his life, and first miracles at Barcelona, Tortosa, and Horta.

[1] This Blessed Brother, a Catalan by nation, had a humble and small birthplace, Born in the diocese of Gerona, named after Saint Columba of Farnesia, in the diocese of Gerona; the son of a poor man who, having charge of a hospice, provided nighttime shelter for the poor, having his wife as a companion in the pious work, and from her this fruit of their mutual charity. Their names are neither expressed in the processes nor could they be learned in the aforesaid place: only about three men of approximately ninety years came forward to testify that they had shared a common upbringing in their childhood with Blessed Salvator, As certain surviving contemporaries testify, whom they used to call "little Salvator of the Hospital": but that after his parents died, they had never heard anything about the small boy before that year when he came to stay at the convent of Horta: for then the fame had reached the inhabitants of the place where he was born, that in that convent there was a Brother who worked many miracles, and that many frequently went there: to those who came seeking to recover their health, he revealed himself, saying: I am that little Salvator, the son of your Hospice-keeper: in this way, then, he was recognized by them: and when he later stayed in the same place of Saint Columba, he was seen to work great miracles: and nothing other than what has just been said is held in memory.

[2] As far as can be known from a calculation of times drawn from the Acts of the processes, Around the year 1520, Salvator began to see this light around the twentieth year of the sixteenth century: and having entered the twentieth year of his age, he entered the Seraphic religion of Saint Father Francis in the convent of Saint Mary at Barcelona, most well known for the praises of extraordinary observance. After 20 years he takes the habit at Barcelona; There the Brother who tended the kitchen, a man of rare sanctity, received Salvator as a companion of the laborious and lowly office, to be exercised in the works of obedience: to which he applied himself with great effort, attending to the fire, washing vessels, scrubbing dishes with diligent care; and keeping his spirit always fixed on God, he was scarcely heard to say anything other than "Jesus Mary." In his whole life pure and simple, he seemed utterly estranged from this world and so removed from its concerns that he could be thought born for religion alone. Every night he raged against his own body with violent flagellation, whence his master and the other Brothers judged that he would someday illustrate his Order with extraordinary holiness.

[3] The preparation of a solemn dinner. After this, God began to honor the virtue of his novice with manifest miracles. The feast of the Circumcision of the Lord was at hand, from which this convent had received its name, and which accordingly was usually celebrated there with great solemnity: which the Chancellor of the Kingdom, a most pious and religious man, wishing to augment by his munificence, sent some rams and other provisions to the Brothers, ordering them to be prepared for a dinner which he would take together with them in the company of many persons of the first dignity and nobility. The Guardian therefore commanded the cook what was to be done: but he, feeling in the middle of the night that he was seized by a very severe fever and was unfit for carrying out his duty, summoned Salvator to him and gave him the keys, saying: Go to the Father Guardian and inform him that I, being gravely ill, send these keys, Forgotten during prayer, so that he may commit to someone else the care of preparing the dinner for the Brothers and Lords who are coming. Having received the commission, the Brother went to the church, to be present for the nighttime psalmody, and persevering the whole night in prayer, around dawn, having first carried out his customary bodily scourging, he received the sacraments of Confession and Communion, and said not a word to the Guardian; on account of the fervor of his continued prayer, utterly forgetting what had been commanded to him.

[4] Meanwhile the time of dinner was approaching, and the Guardian, anxious that everything be done properly and in order, He is scolded by the Guardian; went to the kitchen and finding it still closed, ordered the cook to be summoned to him: who through the Brother sent to him excused his illness, and reported that the keys had been sent by him through Brother Salvator in the middle of the night; moved, as it seemed to him, by just indignation, and understanding from those he had sent to find Salvator that he was in the church, quietly praying, intent solely on divine things, he went straight there and heaping many insults upon him, called him a fool: But he finds everything prepared in the kitchen. and threatening to send him far away for the injury done to himself and such Lords, he immediately snatched the keys from his hands, and opened the kitchen, expecting nothing less than to find everything properly prepared in that place where all testified that no one had entered the whole night and day; nor had it even been seen open by anyone. And this is the first sign which we could recognize God as having worked on his behalf, using the ministry of Angels or some other means unknown to us, to supply the deficiency of His servant, who was intent on most devout prayers.

[5] When the annual period of the religious novitiate had passed, Salvator was admitted to the solemn profession of the three vows, Having professed his vows, he moves to Tortosa, and having pronounced them, was led by the Provincial Minister to the convent of Saint Mary of Jesus in the city of Tortosa, where the discalced Brothers were living in great austerity of life and rigid observance of their reform. Here the Blessed began to pursue the way of life which he had begun in the novitiate and thenceforth constantly maintained; daily chastising himself with the whip, and after confession of sins refreshing himself with the Sacrament of the Lord's Body: which was the reason that he was immediately considered a Saint throughout the whole city, and anyone who could even once kiss his garments thought himself blessed. And heals an infant with kidney stones: It happened there that a certain nobleman, having a small son so burdened with the mass of calculous matter that whenever urine was to be passed, the child would collapse to the ground nearly dead, had tried all remedies in vain: who, when one day he had caught sight of Blessed Salvator passing through his gardens for the sake of seeking alms, threw himself at his feet and implored him to have pity on his little son and pour forth prayers for him to God. The pitiable sight of the suppliant moved the tender heart of Salvator to such affection, and he immediately placed his hand on the head of the sick child, and with his eyes fixed on heaven, recited the Angelic Salutation, and departed unexpectedly. When evening came, however, and the parents were about to administer the usual medicines to their little son and had stripped him of his garments, they found him sound and well: and never thereafter did the infant suffer any difficulty of urine or trouble from the stone: which the nobleman, ascribing it to a manifest miracle, immediately spread throughout the entire city.

CHAPTER II.

[6] One day when Salvator was sent out to collect alms, He stops a fleeing mule by his prayers, the Guardian had yoked a mule to carry whatever the liberality of the faithful contributed: but having found an open field, it took to flight in a gallop toward the convent, with the companion of Salvator vainly pursuing it and trying to stop it. He, seeing that nothing was accomplished by himself, turned back to call for the help of Salvator; who fixed his knees to the ground, and at that same moment the mule stood still and offered itself to be seized by the Brother: and to him, now closer, Salvator said with a smile: What a subject for laughter among the Brothers this mule would have given us, if he had returned home without us. This innocent remark moved bile in his companion, so that he hurled back some rather harsh words; to which he replied in his gentle voice, as was his custom: Forgive me, Brother: for this was entirely my fault: for am I not more senseless than if I were a beast of burden, I who trusted a mule not endowed with reason? But from now on put aside your fear, and allow him to walk freely, certain that he will not run away again: which indeed he did not. And so they came to a place named Galera, where there was a little girl long afflicted with quartan fevers; He cures a quartan fever. and she was freed from them as soon as the Blessed, having cast his Rosary around her neck, recited the Hail Mary.

[7] From that same convent so celebrated a fame of his miracles spread throughout the whole kingdom that the good Brothers, wearied by the frequency of mortals flocking to him from every quarter, asked the Provincial to consult their peace by taking Salvator elsewhere. Transferred to another convent near Horta. The Minister heard their supplication; and lest any rumor of his plan should reach the inhabitants of that city, he secretly led the Blessed away to another convent, named after the Virgin of Horta, situated in the most rugged mountains, two miles from Horta, where Brothers of most religious life permanently resided

(as is recorded in the chronicles) and Salvator, leading a harsh life with fasts, whips, and prayers, was betrayed by his own light, He warns the Consuls of the coming multitude, or rather by God, who did not wish his virtue to remain hidden: and shortly the aforesaid Consuls of Horta arrived, supplicating that he would commend that place to God through his prayers. To whom Salvator, admonished by divine inspiration, said: Let them see to it that a sufficiently large house be equipped with many beds, and that a great supply of the necessities of life — wheat, oats, oil, veal, and mutton — be at hand: for it would come to pass that in this place the divine omnipotence would magnificently display itself and, taking pity on its creatures, would most gloriously manifest the honor of its Mother.

[8] They departed upon hearing these things, divided by the fluctuation of various thoughts: He reproaches those who neglect his warning: for some thought faith should be given to his words, others denied that they could grasp their meaning: all finally neglected what they had heard. And so when Salvator later went out toward the town for the sake of alms, meeting the same men near the city, he said to them: You indeed did not wish to believe me: but I tell you that within a few days you will see that the prediction was true. When these days had passed, an immense multitude of about two thousand appeared — the hunchbacked, the contracted, the paralytic, the blind, the deaf, the mute, the feverish, the dropsical, That multitude arrives, about 2,000: and they are healed. the herniated: since the one voice of all was asking where that holy man dwelt who worked such great miracles at Tortosa. And when the monastery of the most holy Queen of heaven was pointed out to them, they directed their course straight there and sought to obtain a remedy from him for their ills. He commanded them all to go to the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion, and finally, having imparted his blessing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he dismissed them: divine virtue immediately working upon them and freeing them from all the infirmities by which they were held.

[9] Among them, nevertheless, there was a certain paralytic who had no share in the common grace and joy: Except one paralytic, all the sick are healed: and when his companions were preparing to carry him away, placed on his beast of burden, in the company of the rest, the blessed man came forth to inspect that very great multitude of men, and admonished them not to forget to render due acts of thanks to God for the benefits obtained through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To whom the paralytic said: But I, Father, why was I not healed equally with the rest? Because, the Blessed replied, you neglected the Confession prescribed for you, nor were you brought here with the same faith as the others. Then the paralytic said: I repent of having offended God, But he too, being penitent, obtains health. and firmly resolve to confess my sins. Then the Blessed said: Arise therefore and descend from the horse, and go quickly to the Confessor; then give thanks to the glorious Lady, that she may restore to you the desired health. And at that very moment, healed, he promptly performed all that had been commanded. From this time, since that multitude of the healed proclaimed everywhere the power wrought in them, and some continually drew others to the Blessed by the experience of benefits received, that influx of people coming from every quarter lasted for many years, With such a great influx lasting for many years, so that there was no day on which several thousand people did not converge; and in Holy Week the number grew to four thousand: indeed on the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin it reached fully six thousand; so that, since the public inns could not hold the crowds, all had to spend the night scattered under trees and tents placed throughout the mountain, like soldiers led out into the field.

[10] And in this God displayed both his power and mercy; for although the multitude was so great each day, Yet food never fails the multitude, no one was found wanting in necessary food, but from everywhere throughout the whole kingdom and from the nearest regions especially, edibles of every kind were brought for sale. It was, moreover, deemed especially worthy of note, and was also recorded in the processes, that a certain man who had sold the head of one ram for a royal sum was told by him, after a sharp reproof of his avarice and cruelty, that no one of his family would enjoy the goods he had accumulated: and so it happened, his family together with his estate utterly vanishing within a short time. Seeing therefore that the prediction of Blessed Salvator had been true, the aforesaid Consuls ordered that many necessary goods be transported toward the monastery; But a great abundance is brought from everywhere. and they further affirmed that, besides what the vendors spontaneously brought from every quarter, no fewer than a hundred cart-loads of wheat made into bread were sent there daily: so that not only on working days but also on Sundays and feast days and on Easter Day itself the bakers had to work at the ovens, lest food fail the multitude.

CHAPTER II.

Many miracles wrought at the Horta convent.

CHAPTER III.

[11] Of the indigenous elders of the town of Horta, the following give testimony to the miracles in this way: on account of the passage of a long time, they confess that the names of many of those to whom these things were done have escaped their memory: The sworn elders of Horta testify, the more so because the greater part of those whom they remembered as having been healed beyond the powers of nature were foreigners brought from remote regions. As, however, they recall having seen with their own eyes, they narrated as follows and confirmed them to be true by an oath taken upon the holy Gospels of Christ. A young man, paralytic in his right arm, side, and leg, was brought to Blessed Salvator, who, having gone to confession as ordered A paralytic healed, and received the holy Eucharist, was signed with his blessing and favored with the imposition of hands and the rosary, and immediately arose healthy, and giving thanks to God and his most blessed Mother, departed. Michael Salimas, from a town in Aragon called Carinegna, A man with contracted limbs, contracted in the knees, needed only the blessing of the Blessed to cast aside his crutches and walk away on firm steps. John Penar d'Aranda, from the same town, paralytic for six years, had lain completely bedridden for fifteen full months, so that he could never be lifted from it: he had himself carried in a litter to the church of Saint Mary of Horta, Another paralytic, and having thus covered more than a hundred and fifty miles, stood before the feet of Blessed Salvator; and having confessed his sins and been refreshed with the Body of Christ, after the latter's blessing he rose to his feet, joyful in his recovered health.

[12] Peter Ales, from the town of Pauls, A blind girl, had brought there his little daughter named Magdalene, whom his wife had borne blind to this light, about two years before around the Christmas feasts of the Lord: and as Salvator blessed her, the infant opened her left eye. So they returned home then quite happy, although with only half the benefit: but in the following March they returned to the Blessed, asking and beseeching that he would complete his benefit and obtain also the use of the other eye for their little daughter. He heard them, and placing his hand on the darkened eye, made this one also able to see the light, and endowed the girl with the full faculty of sight. Barbara Cabelli, from the town of Alcagnis, paralytic in one arm, having made confession of her sins as commanded by Blessed Salvator, Likewise two paralytic women. departed from him healthy and cheerful. Martin de Giara, from the town of Luizio in the diocese of Pamplona in Cantabria, had lost the use of one eye to blindness and the motion of his arm to paralysis; both were restored by the blessing of Blessed Salvator devoutly sought and received: which the same blessing did for a paralytic woman from the kingdom of Navarre, who left behind as a sign of her recovered health the crutches by which, attempting to walk, she had supported her body. Thus also a boy brought from Valencia to Horta was cured of a severe hernia. And one afflicted with hernia. A man from the town of Monzón in Aragon, of great dignity, called Lord Escalara, suffered the same ailment; for whom to be blessed by the Blessed and for the rupture to be healed were one and the same.

[13] Before 2,000 people a mute man receives speech from the Blessed. There was a time when more than two thousand people had filled the mountain on which the monastery, then the domicile of Blessed Salvator, stood: who all confirmed under oath that they had seen with their own eyes how a man mute from birth, standing before the Blessed, was commanded by him, moved to compassion, to recite the Hail Mary. When he could not at the first or second command resolve his tongue into words at the voice of the one commanding; at the third time the Blessed inserted his fingers into his mouth, and grasping his tongue, said: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, say Hail Mary. And immediately the mute responded, Hail Mary, and ran through the rest of the Angelic Salutation in order, together with the Our Father: and thenceforth persevered endowed with the free faculty of speech. On that day Blessed Salvator performed many other miracles, the abundance of which caused their memory not to be preserved in writing.

[14] He predicts a harmless firing of a gun. A certain man called James Amargos commended to Blessed Salvator the life of his brother; against whom certain outlawed enemies were not obscurely plotting destruction; and the Saint said: They will indeed discharge their guns at him, but will inflict no wound, since the Blessed Virgin, to whom he is very devout, protects your brother. He heals various people, And so it happened shortly after, when, caught in a convenient place, he was struck by a lead ball from his enemies; but it passed through his clothes only, harmless to his body. A boy paralytic in his left arm received health from the blessing of the Blessed: similarly a certain blind man obtained sight: another girl, her whole body paralyzed, was likewise fully healed throughout her whole body and raised herself to her feet. There was a young man of twenty years, Likewise a mute man. he too mute from his birth: whom, prostrate at his feet, the Saint commanded to recite the Hail Mary, and dismissed him to speak perfectly thereafter. An old woman was crawling on the ground with her hands and feet: and after the Blessed began to pray well for her, she raised herself up before him and left behind the supports on which she had leaned to move herself from place to place.

[25] Another woman of forty-five years, having long

lost her faculty of speech, was mourning: He commands a mute woman to confess, to those pleading on her behalf the Saint replied: She committed a great sin, and on the very day she committed it she was deprived of the use of her tongue, and will not recover it until she has confessed her crime. When, moreover, they urged that he himself should draw from her the confession of the committed crime: In the name He commands her confession, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, come now, he said, tell us whether it is true that you committed some grave offense! It is true, she replied. Therefore confess it before all, said the Saint. Then she said: Driven by an excessive desire for temporal goods, I struck my father a blow. Then the Saint restored all her speech to her, and having ordered her to seek sacramental absolution from a Priest for her crime And dismisses her healed: and to beg her father's pardon as a suppliant for the injury inflicted, he dismissed her perfectly healed, having wrought a double miracle in one woman at the same time. One day Salvator saw a boy of fifteen years He raises a crawling boy to his feet. crawling on his hands and knees, and pitying him, praying well for him, he took him by the hands and stood him on his feet, and said: Go and give thanks to the most Blessed Virgin, who has freed you from so great an evil.

[26] He gives speech to 4 mute persons: At another time, four boys were brought to him who had been deaf and mute from the very hour of their birth: the Saint commanded them to say the Hail Mary: but they remained without speech. Again therefore, but with the customary invocation of the Holy Trinity through the sign of the Cross made first, Now, he said, say the Hail Mary. And immediately all four began to speak fluently. A girl recently betrothed to a man had been seized by a demon and was being grievously tormented: He frees a demoniac: her four brothers therefore brought her bound to the Saint and asked that he have pity on her. Nor were prayers needed, since he was most tender in the disposition of compassion: and so he immediately commanded the demon to leave the body it had wickedly occupied, and by a repeated command with the invocation of the most holy Trinity, he compelled it to depart. When it obeyed, the girl remained free indeed, but destitute of all her strength. The Saint therefore said: Go, and render thanks to Mary your liberator; and in doing so she also received her former bodily strength.

[28] He heals a mute man, To a mute man also, brought to him and signed with the Cross, he recited the Lord's Prayer for him to follow, and had him obediently following, to the admiration of all who were present at so sudden a cure, and praising God. At another time they brought to him an infant whom his mother had borne blind into the light, and asked that he, having pity on the tender creature, would open his eyes, Likewise a blind infant. which were so closed that not even the smallest part of them could be seen: the Blessed made a prayer for him and obtained from God what was sought, and sent the boy's parents home happy with their seeing son. Now, since the abundance of miracles could weary the reader (the summary of which can be read at the end of this chapter of the Life), henceforth it will be enough for us to set forth some of the more notable ones.

[28] He heals 20 paralytics. It happened once that twenty paralytics at the same time came to Blessed Salvator and humbly and insistently begged him for health: to whom he said: I promise that I shall entreat the most holy Virgin for you: you also, for your part, be contrite for your sins and recite the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic Salutation with me with all the affection of your heart. When they had done this with the Saint leading, he turned to them and blessed them all with a loud voice, saying: In the name of the Father, etc., and immediately all were given complete health, and leaving behind their crutches and other aids for moving the body, praising God and the Blessed Virgin, and giving thanks to the holy Brother, What a great supply of bread was needed for the pilgrims. they departed. Francisco Alos, a citizen of Horta, testifies that various men were chosen by the Consuls of that place to see to it that grain would not be lacking for making the bread necessary for the multitude coming together each day: and that he himself, when he was among their number, during six months of exercising this duty had sold to the people three thousand seven hundred rubos (a measure of which, taken four times, fills one quintal of flour), while others appointed to the same duty had sold a greater quantity of grain, besides that which was brought in from elsewhere by bread merchants and bakers from other parts.

[29] Two mute girls, A girl who had come into this world deaf and mute was brought to Salvator when she was six years old, and healed by the sign of the Cross alone, she immediately recited the Hail Mary commanded her in a clear voice and departed joyfully. Another of fourteen years labored from exactly the same defect, likewise from birth: and signed in the same manner, she required a third command and the placing of fingers upon her inert tongue before he loosed it into the prescribed words. On another day a woman was presented to the Blessed, possessed by an evil spirit: whom as soon as Salvator saw before him, In the name of the Father, he said, etc., I command you, devil, to depart from this body. I shall depart, A woman possessed by a demon, it replied, provided I am permitted to depart through the mouth or nostrils or eyes. But the Blessed said: In the name of the most holy Trinity and of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, none of these shall be allowed: but through those most filthy parts that befit you and your kind, you shall depart: and at that very hour the demon departed, with such a crash and roar that the sky seemed to thunder: and the woman, freed from her most wicked guest, striving to fulfill the feeling of gratitude by giving thanks to God and the Virgin and to Blessed Salvator himself, at last went home cheerful.

[30] Paralysis of one leg, A certain man who, in addition to paralysis of one leg, had his knee so swollen and inflated that it equaled the size of a basin: who, having undergone confession of sins as prescribed by the Blessed and been signed with his blessing, went home expeditiously without crutches. Ludovico Pilliur also, a citizen of Horta, Long-standing blindness, had lost the light of his eyes through a long illness and had lived blind for many years: until at last he went to Blessed Salvator, and having first made sacramental confession, asked him to restore his sight also for the love of God: which he also obtained, having received his blessing. On the same day a deaf and mute man brought to the Blessed, after the sign of the Cross was impressed upon him, was commanded to say the Hail Mary: he said it; A mute and deaf man are healed. and thenceforth could speak and hear without difficulty.

CHAPTER III.

Continuation of other miracles: in which two dead persons are raised.

[31] A certain Navarrese nobleman had his twelve-year-old daughter, deaf and mute from birth, A deaf and mute daughter: carried to Blessed Salvator, and asked him to heal her out of charity. The Blessed replied: Go and, having confessed and been refreshed with the holy Eucharist, remain for eight days in this church, persisting in vigils and prayers before the Virgin: and before you leave from here you will have your daughter speaking readily and hearing. The afflicted father did what was commanded: and when the eight days had passed and he saw that his daughter was no better than before, despairing of the promise made to him and sad, Alas, wretched me! he said, Brother Salvator, to whom when you promised me that I would have my daughter healed before I left this place, The father obtains health, though doubting. I have not merited to see the fulfillment of either my vow or your promise. To whom the Blessed said: And yet, as I said, so it shall be. Nevertheless the nobleman went out sadly from the convent and returned to the town, loaded his beasts of burden and vehicles to return to his home: having done which, taking his daughter by the hands, Alas, he said, again wretched me, daughter, who have not been able to obtain the grace hoped for from the man of God. But the girl, gazing fixedly at her father, replied: Do not weep, dear father, for the holy man has given me the faculty of both hearing and speaking. Hearing his daughter speak, he embraced her with joy and, crying out Miracle, miracle, he immediately pulled the shoes from his feet, and barefoot hastened with his daughter to return to the Saint, to give thanks to him: who ordered them to remain there another eight days, so that in that same church he might render due thanks to the Blessed Virgin; and when these were faithfully and piously completed, he returned joyfully to his home with his daughter, hearing and speaking. And on that same day a paralytic woman was healed by the application of the sign of the Cross.

[32] The use of the Catalan language is given to another. A similar calamity was lamented by a certain Cantabrian man and his wife regarding their daughter, now eight years old: whom when they had offered to the Saint and obtained his blessing upon her, they were ordered to remain eight days there and faithfully pray to the most blessed Mother of God for the obtaining of their daughter's health: For, he said, after this your daughter will speak. On the fourth day the girl began to speak with the natives of the town of Horta in the Catalan language, and while all were crying out Miracle, miracle, the parents alone were saddened because they neither understood their daughter speaking nor were understood by her in turn: all who were present marveling exceedingly at the strangeness of this wonder. They therefore went back to the holy man, asking that the Cantabrian, not the Catalan, language be given to their daughter: to whom By a miracle given, the Blessed said: The most Blessed Virgin willed it so, that all the natives of this place might hear her speaking in their own tongue: continue the prayer you have begun, and I shall pray with you that the grace you seek may be granted her. The remaining four days, therefore, the supplication was continued: after which, blessing the little girl, Salvator said: My friends, the most holy Virgin has willed that your daughter use only the language of the Catalans while she is within their borders; after you have left these, she shall speak the Cantabrian tongue. Those who heard this — many — accompanied them to the borders of the kingdom of Aragon, since they were only two miles away, in order to witness the new miracle in person: It is turned by another miracle into Cantabrian. and as soon as they crossed the river, the girl began to speak in the speech of her native land.

[33] The above-mentioned Francisco Alos testified under the bond of an oath that two men had chosen his father's house for their lodging, having with them a boy cruelly tormented by a monstrous rupture on both sides, The Blessed, invoked, heals a rupture. so that he never ceased wailing, constantly crying out: O Saint Salvator, when will the longed-for day dawn when I shall come before you to be healed? O holy man, hear, I pray, my laments, look upon my torments, that you may have pity on me. And while he was saying these things, he suddenly beheld the boy healed before his eyes, retaining no trace of his former illness. Joanna Escudir, also born at Horta, A gaping wound of the chest, testifies with similar faith that she came into the light with her chest split in two parts,

and so reached the tenth year of her age, subject to many grave ills and pains on account of that opening, for which no remedies were of any avail. At length her mother resolved to bring her to Blessed Salvator, who, blessing her in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ordered her to go and render thanks to the Mother of God for the health restored to her. Joanna the aforesaid swore, moreover, that from that day she felt no pain in her chest: and even today, in memory of that miracle, an image of the girlish chest is displayed, showing similar signs of the fissure. The same woman testifies that in her father's house many afflicted with various infirmities were received as guests — the hunchbacked, the paralytic, the blind, the deaf, the mute, and the contracted — upon whom the Blessed conferred health by his blessing.

[34] Bartholomew Zoig of Horta, like the others, himself swore that he saw a paralytic brought on a bed, Various infirmities, and when the Saint blessed him in the name of the Holy Trinity, that man rose up healthy and departed: that he saw likewise on the same day an infant deprived of both eyes brought in, and it received sight as soon as Salvator prayed for it. John Uquet with the same religious obligation of oath affirmed it to be true that when Blessed Salvator, standing on the steps of the church, was blessing more than two thousand people spread over the mountain and around the church, a certain woman, holding a little daughter in her bosom who was blind from birth, stood in the crowd: A blind girl: and when the daughter suddenly opened her eyes and looked at her smiling, the astonished mother fell to the ground, unable to bear the force of the sudden joy: from which it happened that from every side others ran together to witness the miracle. He also swore that it happened to his father, then living, that he went to the Saint to pray for his son, The return of a runaway son, who had fled from home: who replied that he should go to the church and there pray before the altar of the Virgin. While he was doing this, the Sacristan arrived and rang the bell. The Blessed foretells and obtains it for the father. The Blessed then said to the father: Be of good cheer, our Lady has already ordered your son to be called; and you will see him return on such and such a day: as indeed happened, and the father, having received him, brought him to Salvator: who asked where he had been and who had persuaded him to return. He replied: I was on such a day in a town of the kingdom of Valencia called Cabanar, and there I heard the sound of a bell similar to that which they ring in this monastery, and listening more attentively, I judged it was undoubtedly the same one; although I could not see how this could be, since I was so many miles distant from here: and at the same time I felt an immense desire inspired in me to revisit my father and to come to this holy monastery. All therefore who heard him narrating these things recognized that the thing had been done at the very time when, with the Sacristan ringing the bell, the Blessed had prophesied the boy's return.

CHAPTER V.

[35] While these things were happening, and wearied by the multitude of people flocking to him, he did not cease to debilitate his own body also by the rigor of severe penances; He falls ill: using prolonged fasts, the harshest disciplines, no bed, no shoes; he finally fell into a severe fever, on account of which the physicians judged that his vein should be opened and his blood diminished. When this was done and it became known among the people, the Brothers could not prevent the crowds from bursting into the monastery and penetrating to where the bowls containing the blood were, And the blood of the opened vein is eagerly seized: in which many dipped their cloths and linen strips, intending to carry away with them the blood collected in this manner as relics: some dipped their rosaries in it. Indeed there was a woman, gravely ill, who, seizing the dish, licked it clean with her tongue, and suddenly felt herself healed. Many, having returned to their homes, brought present aid to the sick, placing upon them the rosaries or small cloths that they had consecrated by dipping them in the blood of the blessed man.

[36] Matthew Zuiz, a noble Valencian, Major-domo of the Duke of Maqueda, A boy suddenly dead, in the year 1539 had a son of twelve years, named after his father: who, while one day walking about through the city of Valencia, fell dead in the very street, struck by sudden death; and all the physicians who were immediately called together to examine the body brought back to his father's house testified that he was dead, declaring that the remedy of patience was the only one that could be hoped for in this case: for in their art no recourse remained. The mother, most devoted to this son, wept inconsolably, and so tormented herself at the sight of the dead boy that the household servants removed him from her sight and carried him to another room, And sewn into a burial shroud, where they prepared the funeral as was the custom of the region, wrapping the corpse in Dutch linen and sewing him into it so that no part of him could be seen. On the following day, when everything was already prepared for the funeral procession, the mother could not be restrained from breaking in where the sad corpse of her son lay: and collapsing upon it, she said: O Brother Salvator, holy man, you know how well disposed I am toward you; He is raised, and led to the Saint, you often said in this house of mine to me that you would always pray for me: now indeed the time demands that you extend help to this most afflicted mother: and I promise that I shall send him from here to visit you in your house. While she was saying this and repeating it, she felt her son, sewn into the linen, moving his arms, and immediately crying out, she said: Come, hurry quickly, and cut this shroud open for me, for my son lives. And so the boy came forth alive, and was brought by his father to the servant of God and offered to him. And when the Saint advised them to render acts of thanksgiving to the Virgin Mother for that benefit (of which they later gave ample testimony), they remained there for eight days; and finally, having taken leave with a blessing to return, the father and son set out on their way, not only freed from death but also He is cured of hernia. from the hernia which he had suffered until that time when the Saint signed him with his blessing.

[37] A certain woman named Sperantia Fontanes, a citizen of Tortosa, still has a son alive in the year 1603, named Michael; who in the year 1559, a twelve-year-old adolescent, fell into the Ebro A boy drowned in the Ebro, and was submerged. By chance, Sperantia's brother was passing that way, heading for a certain vineyard of his, and under the branches of a certain leaning tree observed something resembling a bundle of cloths. He therefore ran to find a stick curved at some point in the manner of a hook, and drawing closer to the ground what he had found; first he discovered it to be a boy full of water and swollen, then, considering the features more attentively, he recognized it to be the son of his sister. Having therefore extracted him, he placed him upon a large stone lying there by chance, and hastened to his sister; who, dissolving into tears and laments at the sight of her beloved son, His mother invoking Salvator, began to say: O holy man, Brother Salvator, hear my laments and weeping, and raise my son to life for me: and I promise that I shall come with him to you and to that church of yours in which you work so many miracles, and shall remain there for a full eight days. She had scarcely said these things when the boy, opening his mouth, began to pour out all the water He revives, he had taken in, and thus resuscitated she led him to the man of God: to whom, before she said a word herself, he was the first to speak thus: O imprudent woman, why did you so badly guard this son of yours that he was drowned in the river? Therefore confess that life has been given back to him by the Virgin, and give her thanks for the benefit. You counsel rightly, she replied, my Father: but know that since he was raised to life, he suffers such a troublesome spasm around his chest that I must embrace him tightly with both arms, And healed of a spasm, otherwise he would die. The Saint, however, placed his Rosary upon his head with the invocation of the most holy Trinity, and from then on he suffered nothing similar. The aforesaid woman then added: I have also brought here this little daughter of mine, As well as his sister from a foul ulcer. who for the past two years has had an open ulcer on her head that does not cease to send forth a great quantity of pus. To her likewise the Saint placed his Rosary upon her head, and taking from the girl the linen veil that she held in her hand, placed it upon her head with his own hands, and having tied it firmly, said: See that you do not undo it within eight days: for the Mother of God will soon heal her. And truly, after eight days had passed, the little girl was found completely healthy and freed from that foul disease.

CHAPTER IV.

Miracles performed for those invoking him in his absence: and again other miracles wrought at Horta.

[38] Brother Stephen, Vicar of the Convent of Friars Minor of the Observance in Alicante, The Vicar of the Friars Minor in Alicante, had an ulcer beneath his very genitals, of such a nature that he could only pass urine by the same route, not any other. Various remedies had been tried in vain, and having finally despaired of their effect, he resolved to go to Horta, and indeed on foot, because this very infirmity prevented him from riding a horse. Each day seemed to him his last, such severe pains he was suffering; Sets out on foot to Horta, until, being only one day's journey from the monastery and despairing of being able to reach it, he threw himself under a tree, expecting death as imminent on account of the intolerable pain; and sadly began to speak thus: O Brother Salvator, since it cannot be my good fortune to come to you, at least pray now to God for me, that he may mercifully receive my soul. He spoke, and overcome by pain, fell asleep: and shortly after, waking, he was no less surprised than delighted that with his sleep all his disease had also departed, and vigorously continuing the journey he had begun, He is healed on the road from an incurable ulcer. he went to the Blessed and began to give him thanks. But the Blessed admonished him to give thanks to the most holy Virgin, who had freed him from disease and death. That Stephen himself had so affirmed under sworn testimony in the year 1559 is clear from the process.

[39] In the same process, Andrew Zecca, from the Catalan village of Trix, affirms that as a seven-year-old boy he fell from a staircase, and striking his mouth on one of its steps, A boy with teeth knocked out, lost all the teeth of his entire mouth: and seeing every day a great crowd passing toward Horta for the sake of health hoped for from the holy man, he asked his father and mother to take him also to the Saint: to whom they replied that the Saint did not free anyone from the ailment of the teeth by his miracles: nor could they ever be induced to take the boy where he wished. Indeed, when on the following day his sister also fell and broke her leg, and on that account they had set out on a journey to the man of God, carrying their daughter with them, they gave the same reply to their son who again asked them at least now to take him along. Therefore the poor little boy was left sadly at home, Forbidden to go to the Saint, and when they had departed, taking a Rosary in his hands, he began to say the prayers he knew, and to commend himself even from afar to the merits of the Saint, saying: O Brother Salvator, holy man, help me, and remove from wretched me this intolerable pain from the knocked-out teeth: and do not fail to have pity on me, because my father would not bring me to you. Having said these things, he went to bed and slept, and the next day upon waking, he felt not only no pain in his mouth but also all his teeth in it: At home he receives them back: wherefore, filled with joy, he began to cry out, Miracle, miracle. Neighbors and acquaintances rushed at his cry and recognized that he was indeed as he said. He, moreover, going out of the house, took to the road by which his father would be returning, and spotting him from afar, ran to meet him: he cheerfully asked whether the Saint had healed his sister; His sister's and when the father affirmed it, he said: Broken leg is healed. And the same Saint freed me from the ailment of my teeth, when he restored them to me this night: and he showed them to his father, and said that he had them healthy and whole to this present day of the year 1603.

[40] Sebastiana de Mestram, from the Catalan village of Vil-alba, affirms that upon completing the fourteenth year of her age, with a kidney stone impeding her, she suffered such difficulty in passing urine that each time it had to be done, Another likewise forbidden to go to him, she would collapse to the ground as if dead. She, moreover, asking her father to take her to the Saint, could not persuade him to do so: because he said that the Saint did not cure such ailments. Saddened and overly afflicted by this reply, she began every day to pray to God and His most holy Mother, reciting the Rosary: Difficulty of urination is removed. and having finished it, she would say: Ah! Blessed Brother Salvator, pray for me to the Mother of God, that I may be freed from this grave infirmity. And having done this often, on a certain occasion, pressed by the need to urinate, she did so without difficulty: just as she does even now, having passed the sixty-fourth year of her life: and from that moment onward she has suffered no difficulty in this matter.

[41] A certain woman from Horta, named Martina Arti, The Blessed removes a cancer from the nostrils, had her nostrils eaten away by cancer, dripping with much pus: she sought a remedy for this ailment from Blessed Salvator and received the command to confess and communicate, and to pray to the most holy Virgin; thus it would come to pass that she would send a physician to her house, by whom she would be healed. She did as she was ordered, and having returned home and on the following night lying in bed, she suddenly saw her room filled with splendor, Appearing at night to the sick woman. and in it Blessed Salvator, who, forming the sign of the Cross, said: In the name of the Father, etc. She wished to spring from her bed and to run to kiss his hands: but soon the vision vanished from her eyes; she herself, however, remained entirely well. In the morning, moreover, she went to him, and he said: See that you tell no one of the vision, and give thanks to the glorious Virgin Mother of God: for she herself healed you.

[42] A certain man from Castile, a paralytic, had himself carried to the holy man, and when he had arrived at the town of Fuentes in Aragon, he was told that the servant of God had been sent away from Horta, He heals a paralytic when invoked. and would not be found there anymore. Saddened therefore by that news, he ordered himself to be carried to the church of the said town, and there, bemoaning his hard fate, said: O holy man, Brother Salvator, have pity on me, and wherever you now dwell, hear my prayer; praying for me to the Virgin Mother of God, that I may be restored to full health. Without delay, he fell asleep in the same place, and when released from sleep, he felt his sinews, which had been loosened, had been made firm, and fully healed, he returned home cheerful.

[43] Lady Eleanor of Saint Angelo of Saragossa from the kingdom of Aragon had a three-year-old son, Likewise a herniated boy who was being carried to Horta. Don Francisco by name, suffering from a most severe hernia: by which ailment of his the most illustrious lady was exceedingly afflicted, and she herself set out for Horta together with her little son. When, however, she had arrived at the town of Alcañiz and her son was doing worse than usual, she began to say in prayer: O Blessed Brother Salvator, grant me at least this much grace, that I may arrive at the place where you dwell with this son alive, and I trust that the benefit of full health is to be obtained for him through you. But she obtained more than she had asked: for from that hour the little boy was healed. When, however, she came to him, before she spoke any word herself, she heard him voluntarily saying: Since you have obtained what you desired, do not fail to receive the Sacraments you had come to receive, and to give thanks to our Lady, through whom that health was obtained: obeying which command with the most ready will, and glorifying God and the most glorious Virgin, she returned home joyful.

[44] Finally, all testify that from whatever direction Horta was approached, Many signs of cures conferred on the road: everywhere hung from the trees signs of diseases driven away — crosses, staffs, bandages, and bindings: by which all who traveled those same roads were both reminded and moved to hope that they too would obtain from Blessed Salvator a remedy for similar ailments for themselves and others. It is established, moreover, that from the very temple of the Mother of God, near which the Blessed was residing, six full carts were removed of such instruments, supports, or bandages which those who had recovered their health had left there, as well as many stretchers and litters on which paralytics and bedridden people, otherwise desperate, had arrived. Frequency of votive offerings: And so even during his lifetime, certain verses composed in the Catalan language were circulated throughout that entire region and were commonly sung by the mouth of the people: which it seemed good to translate into the Latin language, to prove that the fame of his holiness and miracles was very well known in those places.

[45] The Virgin Mother of God at Horta Shines forth, to be celebrated with mighty signs, Whenever Salvator, asked, sends Prayers to heaven.

By the merit of him praying, the faculty Of seeing is restored to closed eyes: If true repentance release the bonds Of grievous sins,

Nor faith be lacking in the prayers, each one Receives the favors sought. Bodies are raised up From whatever disease at last holds them Weak and ailing.

The Hymn circulated during his lifetime. The feeble, the lame, and the crowd Crippled in various limbs, and burning fevers— Each day this place sees them bear away The longed-for cure.

Therefore no people remains in the Spanish lands That does not direct its steps to the Blessed, Aptly named for giving health To the wretched.

CHAPTER VI.

[46] While the servant of God remained in this convent of the divine Virgin of Horta, Blessed Salvator converses familiarly with Christ, he gave himself almost entirely to constant prayer, so that he did not cease from it even at night: and on one occasion he was heard by the Brothers speaking with Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Chapter Room, and saying: My Lord, you promised to grant me such and such a thing: but I beg that you not repent of your promise. What the Lord replied to him, however, they could not understand. Then, rising to his feet, he said: How, my Lord? You will not now grant what you promised? Your promises cannot be void: do it therefore, I beseech you, for the love of your most holy Mother. And again, being silent for some time (as one who was listening to the Lord responding, but in a voice that no one else could perceive), he seemed to approach nearer to the venerable icon and to say to it: You promised, Lord, and you must do it. With the Mother of God and Saint Paul. After which he was caught up in ecstasy. In a similar manner he was very often heard conversing with the most blessed Mother of God, whose most devoted servant he always lived, and also with the blessed Apostle Paul, as is found in the processes.

[47] A foot useless from a fracture. Eulalia Bassa of Barcelona, when she was only in her eighth year of age, fell from a staircase and broke one foot: which, foully swollen, with the inventions of surgeons and physicians availing nothing, remained useless, the sinews having contracted; so that the greater evil was paralysis, and the girl could not stand on her feet; having meanwhile suffered more than seven times the burning and cutting of red-hot iron, by which several fragments of the shattered bone were extracted. She was being tormented into her tenth year, when Brother Salvator came to Barcelona: and when it was heard that he worked many miracles, this girl was brought to him, and having obtained his blessing, was carried back home. A good many days had passed, and yet the wretched girl had not obtained the hoped-for health: wherefore she went again to Brother Salvator, having first made Confession and received Communion, and said to him: I beg you, Brother Salvator, to pray to our Lady, that she may restore to me the full soundness of my utterly ruined foot. Now indeed, the Saint replied, you begin to pray rightly: for the reason you were lately disappointed in your desire He heals the foot and bone through the intercession of the Mother of God. was that you believed it was I who worked miracles: but now that you recognize the true source of divine benefits and turn yourself where you ought, I shall pray for you that you may be healed. To whom she said: I beseech you, Father, to deign at least to touch my foot. But he said: Go, daughter, and trust: for I shall also pray to Saint Paul for you, who today in this very place healed two broken ribs of a certain man. She departed therefore, encouraged by such words, and doubting nothing gave herself to sleep, from which the next day she rose healed: and although many fragments of bone had been removed from her foot, she was nevertheless able to walk with a free and straight step, and did walk thenceforth, never ceasing to give thanks to God and the most holy Virgin for so signal a benefit.

[48] Likewise feet hideously distorted. A ten-year-old girl, deformed from her mother's womb with distorted feet and deprived of the faculty of walking, her parents had decided to carry her, now ten years old, to the man of God: but on the way, seeing a cobbler's shop, she said to her mother: Come, buy me a pair of shoes here, so that when I have been healed by this holy man, I may put them on. The daughter's so firm confidence moved the mother to comply with her request: and when she came to Blessed Salvator and he, having invoked the most Holy Trinity, prayed well for her,

Put your daughter's shoes on, he said to them; for she is already healed. The mother was astonished at this command, and turning her eyes to her daughter's feet, she saw them straight and sound, and returning home, she glorified God and proclaimed the great charity of his servant to all her acquaintances.

CHAPTER V.

Other miracles wrought by Blessed Salvator at Horta.

[49] When the fame of the miracles of Blessed Salvator was spreading throughout all Spain, a certain knight named John, treasurer of the Duke of Medinaceli, had a daughter named Beatrice, whose face, enormously twisted toward her back, offered a pitiable spectacle to all, A head enormously twisted, and this for the twelfth year of her life: he, moreover, hearing of this fame, ordered his daughter to be brought to Horta to the Saint (for so Salvator was called by everyone), and arriving there, he asked him to cure her. He said: Trust, and having confessed, take the sacred food of the Eucharist with your daughter, and pray likewise to the most holy Virgin, and then return to me. The man did what the Saint had prescribed in that same place, and having returned to him, fell on his knees before him. Then the Blessed raised his hands and eyes to heaven and said: O Queen of heaven, hear these devout servants of yours: and turning to those standing around, All of you, he said, say the Our Father and Hail Mary for this monstrously disfigured girl: then pronouncing In the name of the Father, etc., He bends it like wax to its proper position. he took the girl's head in his hands, and twisting it, as if it had been made of soft wax, he restored it to its proper position, no trace of the former deformity remaining.

[50] A certain Inquisitor in the kingdom of Aragon, passing through the town of Alcañiz, and seeing the mute, the deaf, the lame, the paralytic pass by, An Inquisitor of Aragon comes to inspect his miracles, and shortly after return cured, ordered them to be brought before him and, having put them under the obligation of an oath, wished them to declare by what means this Brother performed so many miracles. When they said that he had prescribed for them that they should confess their sins and communicate with the Lord's Body, and having done so he had given them all his blessing and immediately dismissed them healed, he himself resolved to investigate the matter with his own eyes; and to remain hidden under a foreign guise, he put on the clothes of a poor Priest, likewise changing the garments of his servants, and proceeded to the monastery where the Saint was staying. He saw moreover the whole mountain filled with a great multitude of people, whose number he believed to be about two thousand, and withdrawing himself to a certain corner of the church, Even in changed clothing he is recognized, he waited for the Saint to come forth to perform the miracles. When he appeared, all immediately fell on their knees, believing that he had come out to bless them. But he (with God and the Virgin Mother of God, by whom he was uniquely beloved, revealing the whole matter to him) ordered them to rise and give way to one passing through; and went straight to the Inquisitor and, having kissed his hand, knelt and said: Your Lordship has come here to see the stupendous works and mighty miracles that God performs through his most holy Mother? To whom he said: You are mistaken, Father, for I am a poor little Priest and do not merit this honor from you. Not at all, replied Salvator, but you are the Inquisitor of Aragon, And becomes an eyewitness of them. who asked those whom our Lady had cured here how the miracles were done here, and you have come here to know the matter more certainly. Come therefore with me; and taking him by the hand and leading him to the rails of the high altar, he turned to the people and said: Repent of your sins, all of you, and ask God for their remission. In the name of the Father, etc. And at that very moment all who were present were healed — the hunchbacked, the paralytic, the herniated, the mute. Astonished beyond measure by this, the Inquisitor humbly begged pardon for his presumption, and remained many days in the company of the man of God.

[51] A paralytic, Michael Gariera by name, a knight of the first rank, was carried from the city of Gariera to the Saint in a litter, to be healed by his prayers. A paralytic miraculously saved from the waters. When he was crossing the river in the boat of Saint Andrew near Barcelona, the mules carrying the litter began to kick, so that the rear one fell into the river, while the other remained in the boat with the litter hanging over the extreme edge; and no one doubted that the overturned boat would hurl the paralytic and all who were aboard into the river, and they would be suffocated by the waters. All therefore began to cry out with a loud voice: O Blessed Salvator, extend the hand of your help to your devout servants: for we have set out on our way for the sake of visiting you and honoring our Lady at your side. And suddenly they found themselves freed from that peril, and the boat unharmed applied to the bank. When therefore they had reached the place, the paralytic, having duly received the Sacraments, ordered himself to be placed near the principal altar, and Brother Salvator, coming to him, said: How many years have you lain paralytic in bed? Sixteen, said the other. Then the Saint said: In the name of the Father, etc., arise, for your health is restored to you by the Virgin Mother of God. Health is restored, Doubtful whether he could rise, the Saint voluntarily took him by the hand, and leading him to the altar said: Here give thanks to God and His Mother, who has restored your perfect health: and so he continued healthy, having returned home with great joy. And a contracted arm is healed. Don Abdon Masderi, a Priest of the Cathedral Church of Gerona, testifies that he brought into the world at his birth a left arm so contracted that thereafter he could neither raise it nor bring it to his mouth or place it upon his head. When, however, hearing of the wonderful works of God through His servant, he wished, upon reaching his twelfth year, to be carried to him, and was healed by his blessing alone and was present at the aforesaid miracles of the boat and the paralytic.

[52] Likewise a breast eaten by cancer: Eleanor de Garbina, a noble woman of Gerona, having one breast infected with cancer, had ordered surgeons to be summoned from France: and when they had continued their treatments for twelve years without accomplishing anything, she had herself transported to Barcelona to the convent called Our Lady of Jesus, where in those days Brother Salvator had arrived; and there she found more than twenty thousand people, partly citizens, partly foreigners, who had flocked there either to recover their health or to see the Saint: and when she too had arrived in his presence, falling to her knees she began to entreat him to heal her also: to whom he said: Fast for three days, daughter, and having confessed and been refreshed by the sacred banquet, pray to the Virgin for the obtaining of health, and after three days return to me. She went, did as she was told, and returned, as she had been commanded: and he, taking hold of her breast, pressed out all the pus from it, and making the sign of the Cross, said: Go, daughter, you are now entirely well: and she discovered to her amazement that this was so.

[53] A merchant of the same city of Gerona, surnamed Campollerus, But not the injured leg of a certain avaricious and unbelieving man. was lame in one leg, and when all advised him to go to Horta, certain to be healed, he mocked the miracles which he heard the holy man was performing. Finally, when the aforesaid paralytic Knight returned healed, and he could no longer resist the importunate urgings of his friends, who kept pressing him to seek the same medicine, he said: I shall go, but if I return without my leg being fully healed, you will heal my purse for me, restoring the money which I shall have spent in vain on the journey for your sake. He went therefore and with many others placed himself before the Blessed, who was blessing each one, saying: In the name of the Father, etc. When he came to this man, however, he said: Your leg indeed shall not be healed: but soon you shall be healed of the disease of the purse. Hearing this, the man rose up indignant, saying: This little Brother undoubtedly has some devil who reported my words to him, which I spoke a hundred and twenty miles from here: and so he returned home, exploding with mockery and ridicule at the miracles that were said to happen: but extinguished by a swift death, which the ruin of his whole family followed, he proved the truth of the prediction about the end of his purse.

CHAPTER VI.

The gift of prophecy in Blessed Salvator declared by various examples.

CHAPTER VII.

[54] A certain man blind from birth, named John, came to Blessed Salvator; and when he had arrived at the village of Arenes near Horta, A blind man cast down from his hope by an impious Priest, he met Andrew Calaps, who asked where he was going. To the devil, replied the blind man. God forbid, said Andrew, do not say that. Then the blind man said: Does it not seem to you that I have sufficient cause for despair, I who have completed a journey of more than two hundred miles for the sake of visiting a certain man whom they said was a Saint; and now a certain Priest from the village of Calaceite told me that he is by no means a Saint, but an impostor, and a worker of false miracles; so that there was no need for me to make the journey to him:

I therefore am not far from closing off my throat with a noose. Can I, said Andrew, know the name of that Priest? You can, replied the blind man, and gave the name; which, on account of what will shortly be said, is here omitted lest infamy be created for his relatives. He then said to the blind man: Go, He returns to the same at another's persuasion, dearest brother, and with great faith visit the Saint of God, for whose sake you have come here, not doubting that you shall obtain the hoped-for light of your eyes. For I affirm to you under oath that in my presence he gave sight to many blind persons, and to the deaf and mute, hearing and speech. I saw the possessed healed by him; I saw many, while I was there, miraculously healed by him daily. When, moreover, you yourself have been healed and returned, come back this way and lodge with me: and he also told the blind man his own name, so that he might remember it. He went, now better encouraged, and arriving there was ordered to confess and communicate, and to place certain faith in God, And receives his sight: that he was going to be illuminated through His Mother. Having done these things, he returned to the Saint, who bestowing his blessing upon him, said: Open your eyes, and look at me. He opened his eyes: to whom the Saint said: Do you see me? I see, replied the one who had been blind: and having been told to give thanks to the Mother of God, he did not delay to return joyfully to Andrew, and to announce to him gratefully the happy outcome of his counsel. Nor did many months afterwards pass The heretical Priest is detected. before that Priest was discovered to be a heretic, and having been reported to the Inquisitors, would certainly have been captured, had he not forestalled those who were to seize him by flight to France; from where, whatever became of him, was never afterwards heard.

[55] John Charles and his wife Susanna, from the village of Bezet, seeing that none of the children born to them remained alive, The Blessed predicts offspring to childless spouses, decided to go together to the Saint, and coming before him they said: Holy Brother, intercede with God for us unhappy sinners: for all the children we have begotten so far have died around the sixth month from birth. To whom Salvator said: Go and receive the Sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist, and in the name of the Mother of God, who works miracles, I foretell to you that you will beget two sons, whom you will see brought to mature age. Then turning to the wife, I further predict to you, And other future things: he said, that they will serve your old age, and you yourself will receive great joy from them; tacitly implying that her husband would die before her: the rest, however, as he had predicted, so they came to pass. For both sons are alive to this present day, that is, the year 1603, and they serve their mother with great obedience and respect, and show her every honor and love.

[56] The Lady Helena of Cardona, a most noble matron of the city of Cagliari in Sardinia, A matron desirous of offspring: many times asked this holy Brother to obtain a son for her from God: to which petition he never replied with a word. And so on a certain day, becoming somewhat annoyed, she said: What, Brother Salvator, do you not reply to my petition? Because, said Salvator, you ask for a thing that will cost you dearly. Whatever it costs me, she replied, I care not, provided I may have a son. Then the Saint said: Come, I agree: Destined to die in childbirth, you will have a son: but see that your accounts with the Lord are well settled: for this son will cost you dearly. And so this most devout matron of the Mother of God conceived a son, bore him alive, and the name of Joachim was given to him at baptism, and on the very day of the birth, toward evening, she died.

[57] The Catholic King of Spain, Philip II, residing with his court at Monzón, The Admiral of Naples, had ordered to be summoned to him the Lord Admiral of Naples, Raymond Folch of Cardona. He was in his village called Belpuig, when this news brought to him not a little dismayed his spirit, knowing that the King had been moved to some indignation against him and fearing that the summons boded ill for his honor and advantage. Since, therefore, the Blessed Brother was at that time serving as cook of the monastery in that very place, and although not famous for miracles was nevertheless held in great esteem for holiness by everyone, the Admiral had him summoned, and taking him aside said: Brother Salvator, the King has ordered me to come to him: Fearing ill for himself at court, and I greatly fear that because of affairs conducted at Naples, His Majesty at Monzón may show himself somewhat offended with me: but I beseech you, pray to the Lord for me, that He may render him propitious and peaceable toward me. Trust, he replied, in the Lord and His Mother, because not only will nothing adverse happen to you there; but great honor will be bestowed upon you. And when the Admiral pressed further, begging him to indicate for what reason the King had ordered him to come, the Saint replied: Your affairs will seem to be in a difficult place until that point of time when you enter to the King: and at that same hour all things will be turned for you into full joy and no less honor: and remember that this has been told you by me.

[68] Beyond expectation he will be honored there: Excellently encouraged by these words of Salvator, the hero hastened undaunted to the court: where there were not lacking those who, as is wont to happen among the great, being ill-disposed toward him, openly boasted — and one even said to his face — that nothing other than his head was sought by the King, and that he had been summoned for that reason. He nevertheless persisted with an undaunted spirit, trusting in the promise of Salvator, and fearlessly entered to kiss the royal hands, with the noble retinue anxiously awaiting the outcome of the conversation in the atrium: whose beginning was made by the King as follows: You arrive here at an opportune time indeed: for only two hours have elapsed since I received certain news by couriers about the siege of Perpignan begun by the French: wherefore, with all delay set aside, and with as many soldiers as can be suddenly collected from the provinces of our kingdom gathered from every quarter, hasten thither, and what we trust of your valor, carry out vigorously and promptly. The Admiral, joyful at such honorable commands, having kissed the King's hand, while his friends rejoiced and congratulated him, came out into the courtyard of the palace; and having called the royal trumpeters to himself, ordered them to proclaim that for whoever wished to come to raise the siege of Perpignan, pay was ready from the Admiral of Naples out of his own funds, according to each man's rank. And having mounted his horses, he departed hastily to his village of Bellpuig, and there, having summoned Brother Salvator to himself, commended him to all as a Saint, who had predicted all things that were to happen to him.

[69] The perpetual blindness of an obstinate sinner. A certain old man of Cagliari was once presented to the Saint, that he might receive the sight of his eyes: but to those praying for him, Salvator replied: This man will never obtain the desired grace, because he will never give up a grave sin, which has been habitual to him for a long time. Which indeed proved true: for however much a certain relative of his pressed him to be willing to expiate whatever it was by a spontaneous confession, he could never persuade him to anything for the benefit of his soul, and so he also remained blind in body as long as he lived. The Lady Hieronyma of Cardona, Abbess of the most devout monastery of Petra-alba at Barcelona, testifies that she saw with her other nuns how Brother Salvator restored sight to a blind man: and added that she, moved by that success, had spoken to him and asked that he would be an intercessor with God for two of her kinsmen who had set out for the Gerbis expedition. He knows the outcome of the Gerbis expedition: He replied: The one of them, Frederick, holds his reward with the Lord; the other, John, is being held captive at Constantinople; and shortly (that this care may not trouble you), he will be ransomed, and will be held in as great honor by King Philip as any other of his men. Therefore, she continued, my kinsman is dead? To whom the Saint said: Do not call him dead: for those who, laying down their life in the service of the faith, already possess their reward with the Lord, are not to be called dead. And having said this, he turned and departed. After a month, however, a messenger arrived bearing news of the defeat of our army, in which Frederick was slain and John captured: and he was thereafter so dear to King Philip that to this day he governs Navarre with the title and authority of Viceroy.

[70] Angela Taragona of Barcelona affirms that from childbirth a paralysis had been left to her, The future services of a newborn son toward his mother, from which, having herself carried to be healed, she was brought to the Saint, who said to her as she pleaded: Be of equal mind, for God wills that you persevere in this disease: but this son whom you have borne will make you live a happy old age, your husband dying before you. And it happened exactly as Salvator predicted: and to this day she is honorably served by her son. It has been more than forty years since this happened, namely up to the day on which she declared this in the process formed before the Bishop of Barcelona. In the monastery of Saint Clare of the city of Gerona, Sister Hieronyma Camps, contracted in her hands, summoned the Blessed, who, grasping her hands, made the fingers straight and sound. Death imminent for another. To a certain old woman suffering a severe headache and asking to be freed from it, he said: O sack of earth: go, for soon you shall be free from this pain — dead, as the outcome taught. Another woman, subject to more than one punishment and torment, when she similarly sought health, he replied to her: Since you are of so irascible and difficult a disposition toward all your household, it is much better for you to remain as you are: for if you recovered, no one could live with you. Therefore bear your pains for a little while, and you will be blessed for eternity.

CHAPTER VIII.

[71] There came once to the man of God Stephen Pasqualis, a Priest of Gerona, having a sore full of pus on his face, and he had been laboring with that ailment for ten years: The hidden excommunication of a Priest. and taking him aside privately into the monastery, he secretly warned him that he was living outside the communion of the Church, and therefore was suffering this deforming disease; from which he would be freed as soon as he had sought to have the bond of excommunication loosed: and having exhorted him to request this benefit from his Bishop, he persuaded the man to comply with the right admonition, and thus he obtained the desired health. There was less delay in healing a certain woman, He heals a great abscess, whose name was Joanna, from a large abscess that had occupied her face: for hearing in the village of Aulot where she lived of the wonderful works of the man of God, she set out on her journey to him and departed healed by his blessing alone. With equal promptness in the city of Gerona he healed the tongue of a certain man, which was so large that it could neither be contained within his mouth nor was suitable for forming speech: And a tongue unfit for speech. for having formed the sign of the Cross over it, he grasped it and so compressed it that, reduced within its proper measure, it thenceforth served all its purposes, and especially the rendering of thanks to God for the benefit received through His servant.

[72] Salvator had at some point withdrawn to Lérida, there to perform the duties of cook,

Blessing a certain young man, when a young man of Gerona was staying there, called John Ornos: who, having completed his studies at that university and been honored with the Doctoral laurel in Law, before returning to his homeland, went to the Saint to commend himself to his prayers. He, praying well for the young man, added: Go happily, my son, and be always devout to the Virgin Mother, for you shall experience her favor: but carry one thing hence with a mindful spirit; namely, that when you return to Gerona and pass through the public square of that city, carefully observe the windows of the houses, in one of which you will see a girl dressed in gray, who is to be your wife. The young man Doctor departed with thanks and, having entered his city, began to carefully observe the windows, especially in the marketplace, and found them all closed, because a very strong wind was blowing that day: He indicates who will be his future wife. and so while he began to doubt within himself about the prediction of Blessed Salvator, he heard the sound of an opened window and, turning toward it, saw a girl dressed in gray, the daughter of a noble merchant, Nicholas Terra: from which sight, agitated by the waves of various thoughts, he never again wished to pass by that way, although he had himself greeted the maiden he had seen and had received from her a like service of courtesy: but he resolved within himself to do nothing, and rather to wait to see in what manner that marriage might at length be concluded. After some time, therefore, certain noblemen came to him and explained that, having considered his virtues, they had chosen a wife for him, both wealthy and beautiful, the daughter of the Nicholas we mentioned, with whom and with the girl's mother the matter of those nuptials had already been discussed, unless he should refuse. When the young man recognized that these things proceeded from the prediction of Blessed Salvator, he gratefully replied that the proposal pleased him and that he wished to accept and ratify whatever had been done by those in whose benevolence and prudence he had the greatest trust. And so the matter was brought to a conclusion, and the bridegroom remained most devoted to the Saint, being accustomed to cheerfully narrate the sequence of this prediction to his friends.

CHAPTER VII.

Various diseases miraculously healed by Blessed Salvator.

[73] He heals elephantiasis: Catherine Oliveri of Gerona was suffering from elephantiasis, and when she was brought to him, and having been prepared by confession and holy communion, he healed her with his customary blessing. Peter Sabatir, a Priest of the village of Zivissa, testifies about himself that in his boyhood he suffered a serious ailment from scrofulas growing around his neck: for the removal of which, when the applied medicines availed nothing, he was led by his father to the Saint: who, having fortified him with the customary formula of blessing in the name of the most holy Trinity, said to the father: Take this son of yours to a Confessor, for he is twelve years old; and order him to go through the rosary three times; so he will be healed. Scrofulas of a stubborn boy. But the boy, indignant that health had not been conferred on him immediately as on the others, would do nothing of what had been commanded, and returned home full of anger. But after two months, encountering the boy in a street of Barcelona, Salvator said: Because your faith was small, you were not healed. The boy replied: Now I am going to France to the King, Father, to obtain my health through him. Neither will you see the King, He predicts that he will be healed not by the King of France but by himself: the Saint replied, nor will you be healed by him, but you will return to me to be healed. The boy went nevertheless to Paris, and approaching the city, met a body of soldiers dispatched to prevent disturbances throughout the kingdom, from whom he heard that the King was dead, from whom therefore he had vainly hoped to be healed. Recognizing therefore the truth of the prediction made to him, he returned to Blessed Salvator, who healed him perfectly with his blessing.

[74] He heals an arm contracted by paralysis; Lazarus Bruels, a Priest of Gerona, deprived of the use of his right arm from the third year of his age, so that he could not raise it above his belt, in his twentieth year went to the man of God; who, grasping the arm with his hands, raised it up to his head (which he had never before been able to do), and saying In the name of the Father, etc., and extending the arm that had been contracted until then, said: See how long you have it, and designate with it the sign of the Cross: which he immediately did, and used it freely thereafter, and was even ordained a Priest, on account of the love of this Saint and the affection of gratitude toward God. And scrofulas. Hieronyma, a nun of the Vicariate of Gerona, while she was still twelve years old, had a neck full of sores and foully swollen with the disease of scrofulas, until she was brought to the Saint, and freed by his blessing from all ailment, she thenceforth gave thanks to God for the gift.

[75] A paralytic woman while being carried to the Blessed, Elizabeth Ribera, born of a noble family of Tarragona, having entered about her eighth year, fell into paralysis, and thenceforward lay fixed to her bed, tormented by the most intense pains throughout her whole body, so that she never ceased to wail. When her father had for a long time spent a great amount of money on her, having finally despaired of any remedy of human art, he turned to divine aid, and sent her with her mother and the necessary retinue to the servant of God, crying along the way and saying: O Blessed Salvator, help me. It was necessary to ascend a steep and excessively precipitous ridge of a mountain: and while the mules were laboring up it, the litter slipped backward from them; When the litter slips, and neither the mother nor the other son who was there with the servants doubted that they would carry back the sick girl dead from such a heavy fall. They therefore turned to weeping and wailing: and she, seeing them thus afflicted, raised her eyes to heaven and said: O Blessed Salvator, help me now in this peril, that we may all together reach you. Ah, holy man! how can it be that we climb the summit of so steep a mountain unless you bring help? And having said this, the girl, who for many years had not been able to bring her hand to her mouth, leapt out of the litter and ran to embrace her mother, saying: Come, mother, take courage: for you see that I am already healed by Blessed Salvator. She rises to her feet: Come, let us likewise climb this mountain on foot: give me your hand as I go up. All who were present stood astonished, especially the most grieving mother: then, with sorrow converted into joy, they completed the rest of the way cheerfully, and only sought the blessing of the holy man. Who said to the girl: Go and give thanks to the most holy Mother, who healed you on the road when the litter fell; which she, joyful and healthy, did before she returned home. When, however, they returned home, Her head is also restored to its proper position. the husband rebuked his wife for not having also presented the girl's head to him for straightening, which had been bent for a long time toward the right shoulder, while she was with the Saint. And so when some months later Salvator happened to pass that way, they again presented Elizabeth to him: upon whom, invoking the holy Trinity, without any feeling of pain, he raised her head, as was proper.

[76] As he was passing through the same city, a girl was presented to him, named Joanna, to whose throat a peach pit had so adhered The Blessed frees one about to be suffocated, that she could neither swallow it by any means nor bring it out, whatever measures were applied: and since it was now the fifth day, her life was rightly thought to be over. But the Saint gently smiling said: O how greedy you are: and adding In the name of the Father, etc., he lightly slapped her cheek and said: Come now, spit it out into my hand: which she did immediately without any labor at all, and escaped death. John Mistre testifies about himself that he was born with his whole body contracted, He heals a contracted man. so that with his hands placed upon his knees he barely learned to walk: he says he was five years old when he was carried by his father to where he was to be healed by the blessing of the servant of God: in recognition of which benefit he wished to be initiated in sacred Orders, and was duly ordained a Priest.

[77] Equal graces were conferred through the Saint upon the citizens of Tortosa. He calms pains of the bowels. Among these was Francisco Cristóbal, exercised for many continuous years by pains of the bowels for which no remedy was found; until, namely, he went to Horta, where after commanding Confession and Communion, the Saint imparted his blessing to him, and sent him away suddenly restored to health. Peter also, a poor man there, crawled on hands and knees

on the ground: and yet managed by this means to crawl to Horta and reach the Saint. Who, moved by the pitiable sight of the boy, He confers the faculty of walking: gave him his blessing and raised him to his feet, which he then always used properly. To these let us add Monferranda Pasqual, from the village of Xerta in the diocese of Tortosa, whom her husband, Antonio Armengot of Tortosa, suffering for five years from incurable dropsy, had brought to Horta to Brother Salvator. He removes dropsy, Who, after the customary remedies of Confession and Communion, gave her the sign of his blessing and at the same time perfect health.

CHAPTER IX.

[78] God willed to declare the holiness of His servant also through other wonderful signs, as is evident from the process formed before the Bishop of Tortosa. The descent of three torches from heaven. For on a certain day, one hour before noon, when before the door of the church of Saint Mary of Horta he was bestowing his blessing upon more than two thousand people, three torches appeared above the three crosses placed on Mount Calvary: and the multitude, moved by this and crying out Miracle, miracle, part ran to the Saint, tearing bits from his habit to preserve as relics; part to the crosses themselves, likewise taking pieces from them: and many healings divinely obtained followed that apparition. A cloud carrying the Blessed from the mountain: On another occasion, when an equal number of people were present, having come either to be healed themselves or to bring or carry others to be healed, and the Blessed was not found in the monastery — being accustomed to come out twice to sign the assembled crowd with his blessing — but was occupied in prayer on a very high mountain that adjoins the Horta monastery: with all crying out in a loud voice, O Lady and our patroness Mary, cause your servant to be found; a very white cloud was seen in the sight of all to descend from the mountain: and when it touched the ground, it indeed disappeared, but left Blessed Salvator there visible to all: who, blessing all, performed many miracles on that same day. This is recorded from the aforesaid process, and is confirmed from many sources, that intent on contemplating divine things he was often caught up beyond the use of his senses: Frequent rapture. to the extent that on one occasion, with all watching, kneeling before the altar of Blessed Mary of Horta, he was raised from the ground more than two cubits.

[79] John de Rosis of Tortosa, paralytic from early boyhood, He heals a paralytic, was brought to Blessed Salvator and, having been ordered to say the Our Father and Hail Mary three times and then signed with his blessing, received the unimpeded use of his limbs. Born in the same place, Candida Sessa had been unable to see with one eye, and when she came to him and obtained his blessing, the film that had covered that eye disappeared, A woman blind in one eye, and she thenceforth used both eyes clearly. A girl possessed by a demon was also brought to him, for whom he first prayed, then making the sign of the Cross said: A woman possessed by a demon: I command you, malicious spirit, to depart from this creature of God and afflict her no more: and the demon obeyed the one commanding, without any hesitation. On that very high mountain which we mentioned above, finishing a prayer to which he had been devoted, he summoned a boy equipped with a mallet to himself and ordered him to strike the rock which he pointed out; He draws a spring from a rock: promising that water would be divinely given from the rock: and at the blow of the mallet it immediately gushed forth, and does not cease to flow to this day, for the comfort of many sick people, who, devoutly drawing it, are freed from their infirmities. When the Marchioness Armagetta of Tortosa was a fifteen-year-old girl, her arm was so enormously dislocated He heals a dislocated arm: that the physicians, unable to devise any method of restoring it, judged that it should be cut off: but it seemed better to have recourse to Blessed Salvator, who, having ordered her to confess and communicate, soon healed her with his blessing.

[80] He calms a storm raised by the devil, About two thousand people had gathered on the Horta mountain, the town not being able to contain such a great multitude: and when the devil was plotting to drive them, terrified, into flight, the Saint, stationed in prayer, recognized what was being plotted, and going forth, he saw the crowd above measure dismayed, because with the sky dark beyond measure, thunders roared around with a dreadful noise and very frequent lightnings flashed: to whom he said: Fall on your knees with me, all together, and having recited the Our Father and Hail Mary, put to flight the enemy who is trying to strike fear into you by his arts. When this was done, the sky was immediately cleared, and the longed-for light shone upon all, and there was no one who doubted that the holy man had seen the demons mixed in with the storm. Violante Falcona, born at Xerta, A growth of flesh on the face, had a monstrous hanging piece of flesh from her forehead down to her mouth that disfigured her whole face, and being brought to the Saint by her mother, she was freed from that troublesome appendage by the sign of the Cross alone. John Sche of Tortosa, in the tenth year of his age, was so swollen with internal water that he looked like a small barrel, and receiving his blessing, he heard from him: Go now, And he removes dropsy, give thanks to the Virgin, because henceforth you will live healthy: and at that same hour, with the swelling receding, he appeared perfectly healthy to all.

CHAPTER VIII.

Miracles wrought at Maella.

[81] In the town of Maella in the diocese of Saragossa, there was a girl of twelve years, The Blessed heals scabs of the head, whose whole head a foul scabies had covered, Elizabeth Comas by name: and having despaired of curing the ailment, her father brought his daughter to the Saint, and by the mere imposition of hands and sign of the Cross, brought her back entirely cleansed and perfectly healed, together with a small son, whose hernia the same Saint healed with his blessing. In the same town, Michael Catalanus, a twenty-year-old adolescent, with leprosy covering his entire body, incurable despite long and futile attempts at remedies, Leprosy of the entire body: sought healing from the Blessed. Who said to him: You should have thought first about spiritual leprosy rather than bodily: go therefore and wash away the filth of your sins by confessing them, then refreshed by the sacred banquet, return to me: and when he had done so, and the Saint had signed him with the sign of the Cross and ordered him to trust in the Virgin Mother of God, all the scales and crusts of dried pus fell from his body, and fully cleansed, he returned to his home. The same Michael, moreover, affirmed juridically in the same process A contracted hand, that when he was being cleansed of leprosy, there stood beside him a little girl whose one hand was foully contracted and whose fingers were entirely consumed: whom the Saint, taking her, restored to her proper straightness and complete health, with all who were present watching.

[82] Pain of teeth, These women also, whose cures we append, lived in the same town: the first indeed was called Susanna Matthei, who, afflicted with a huge torment of the teeth, brought her foully swollen face to the Saint, and having received the blessing with the sign of the Cross, she spat out the putrefied tooth without injury and departed freed from all pain. Then Elizabeth Costa: to whom, brought by her father, the Saint healed the right eye by imposition of his hand and his blessing from a fistula innate since the eighth year of her age. Two blind from birth: While this was happening, the same woman remembers that a girl blind from birth was brought: and when Salvator blessed her in a similar manner and placed his hand upon her eyes, Now, he said, open them and look at the Lady who is on this altar. The girl immediately opened her eyes, and when asked what she saw, she said: I see the most holy Lady, embracing her little son in her arms. Go therefore, the Saint added, and render the thanks due to her: for it was not I, but she who healed you. Similarly another man born blind was brought before Catherine Miravelle, a native of the aforesaid town, to Blessed Salvator; who, when she begged him for the obtaining of sight, said: You believe, my son, that I can heal you, and you are deceived: rather you must pray to God with firm faith, that through the intercession of his most kind Mother he may grant you the light of your eyes. I believe this also, replied the blind man. Therefore, let all recite the Our Father and Hail Mary, said the Saint: and when the prayer was finished he continued to say: In the name of the Father, etc., and immediately the blind man was given to see the light which he had never used with his own eyes.

CHAPTER X.

[83] Certain pilgrims from Navarre had also come to Maella, Likewise a blind girl healed on her very way to the Blessed. and with them they carried a ten-year-old girl, she too blind from her birth, but otherwise very beautiful: and when all the people were present there, they saw the girl's father and mother bend their knees in prayer before the image of the most Blessed Virgin, which was then placed above a certain old gate, now transferred to the marketplace of that town: and they said to their daughter: Bend your knees here, daughter, where the image of the glorious Mother of God is adored, and let us pray to her to make us come to the Saint of Horta, who will give you the light of your eyes. Scarcely had the beautiful little girl inclined herself when she began to say to her father: Ah, father, how beautiful is the little child that our Lady holds on her arm! To whom her mother, astonished with joy, said: Do you then behold him? I behold him indeed, she replied: and as they cried out Miracle, miracle, all the natives of that place ran together to see the girl thus recently and suddenly illuminated. Her parents, however, did not on that account omit going to the Saint, who admonished them to render devout thanks to the most holy Virgin, which they did.

[84] Gabriel Tolquerius, a Priest of the aforesaid town, lay ill unto death, A dying Priest, when Salvator passed through his house collecting alms; wherefore, being earnestly asked by the relatives of the dying man to enter and bestow the final blessing upon one passing to the other life, he complied with their request, and approaching the bed, he formed the sign of the Cross over him, then said: Give me your hand, Gabriel. And when he extended it, he added: Come now, give thanks to the Virgin of Horta, that she has freed you from the present danger of death: for tomorrow morning you will rise from here: and immediately the fever left him, and on the following day he went in the company of Brother Salvator himself to the convent of Horta, where the Saint lived. Scarcely, however, had he arrived there when he saw a boy blind from birth presented, A blind boy. and soon, the sign of the Cross having been made, given his sight and departing.

[85] By the contemplation of a pomegranate. On the very preceding day, when Salvator was begging alms at Maella, he was invited to lunch by Antonio Vughet. He placidly assented that he would come when his begging was finished: and there, among other dishes, a platter full of pomegranates was brought in, and taking one and dividing it with a knife, he said: O God, if you have arranged all the parts of this your creature in such beautiful order, how well ordered will be the sight of your heavenly palace, where

Angels and blessed spirits will burn more ardently contemplating your face than these grains glow, arranged in a most beautiful series. Having said these things, he extended his arms in the form of a cross, The Blessed is carried into ecstasy. and caught up in ecstasy, was raised high from the ground: which when the aforesaid Antonio saw, he leapt from the table and summoned many to be spectators of so great a wonder.

[86] A swollen knee is healed. Dominic Mirauet, an inhabitant of the same place, affirms in the above-mentioned process that when he was a boy, a thorn entered the joint of his right knee, which he, disregarding it, went to the river to wash. But soon his knee swelled up like a pot, and for a period of three years no surgeon or physician could apply any useful medicine to it: indeed the tumor grew, and the flesh growing over it was dead and without feeling. For when the same man was splitting a piece of wood upon that same knee so swollen, And a deadened knee, the axe entered into the flesh to the depth of one finger, and yet no blood flowed out at all. Meanwhile Brother Salvator came to Maella to beg alms, and the sick boy's mother asked him to heal her son. He therefore made the sign of the Cross over the swollen knee and said: I wish to see how quickly you can run. And immediately the boy rose up healthy and began to run through the streets. Then the Brother said to the mother: Go and give thanks to the Virgin of Horta: for she herself has made your son well.

[87] A purulent wound of the side, John Andrea, also a citizen there, had a son whose open side discharged much pus, and the remedies applied by surgeons and physicians, even the use of red-hot iron, had availed nothing. The boy was therefore brought to Horta to the holy Brother: and when they arrived, they found the Saint blessing an infinite multitude of people. Then the mother, seizing the boy and wishing to show the wound to Salvator, and uncovering the boy for that purpose, saw that the linens had adhered to the wound: and pulling them off, she also removed at the same time a piece of putrefied bone adhering to them; which, at the general blessing given to all, had come out of the body and left the boy entirely healthy: and as they came to him and wished to give thanks, Salvator sent them to the most holy Virgin. About 30 sick persons; Michael Fustor, also a native of Maella, testifies that his father, in a town called Caritas in the diocese of Tortosa, saw more than twenty blind, deaf, mute, lame, contracted persons, etc., all going to Horta at the same time, and shortly after returning thence whole and healthy after receiving the blessing. Elizabeth Abas, likewise born there, affirmed A deaf and mute girl. that in her presence a little girl was brought to the Saint, both deaf and mute: for whom the Saint ordered all who were present to recite the Our Father and Hail Mary once, and making the sign of the Cross, he ordered the little girl to pronounce the Hail Mary: which she did and remained healed.

[88] A prolapse of the womb is healed, Catherine Squaneglia, also of Maella, testified that in her thirtieth year of age, after childbirth, her womb was so loosened that, falling downward, it hung to her knees; and in that state she persevered for three full years, not without the most intense torments and a great expenditure of money on doctors and medicines: which, however, availed nothing toward recovering her health. And so she resolved to go to Horta with two little sons afflicted with hernia, and arriving there with them, she fell before the feet of Blessed Salvator, asking health for herself and her sons. Then the Saint commanded that after Confession and Communion she should return to him and place great trust in the Blessed Virgin, the effectrix of miracles. When she had done this and returned to the Blessed, she wished, as she says, to declare her affliction in his ear. To whom Salvator replied that the nature of the ailment was already known to him, and having placed his hand upon her head and said In the name of the Father, etc., A boy's hernia. From now on, he said, both you and this son of yours are healed; go and give thanks to the Virgin. Then she said: My other son also labors with the same ailment: and heal him too, I beseech you. To whom the Saint said: The Lord healed the one whom it pleased Him to heal: acquiesce in His will, and bear patiently what remains. The aforesaid Catherine affirms, moreover, that at that very hour she felt her womb restored to its place, and thenceforward bore no discomfort in that part: and that her son was also perfectly cured of hernia, who now was present and assisting as a witness at this her deposition, vigorous and healthy.

[89] Michael Carbonellus, from the town of Massaleone in the diocese of Saragossa, A swelling of the neck, testified that at the age of eight his neck was swollen like a dish: with the ailment long eluding the efforts of physicians and the hope of his family; and that at last he was brought to Blessed Salvator, and signed by him with the sign of the Cross, he felt the swelling gradually resolve and finally entirely vanish. To the same man, John Galcerbri was carried in a litter from the village of Fatorella, a paralytic: to whom, after commanding him to communicate and confess, the Saint said after the sign of the Cross: Come now, arise: Paralysis, for you are healed. He, moreover, feeling himself confirmed, suddenly leapt up, and as he was ordered, ascribing the miracle to the Virgin Mother of God, he rendered thanks to her and to God. In a similar manner, to a fourteen-year-old girl brought to him, Lameness, who limped badly because one leg was contracted and therefore one was much shorter than the other, he bestowed his blessing and said: Now extend your leg, for you are healed: and she, immediately standing equally on both feet, experienced that the length of both legs had been made equal through the prayers of the holy man.

CHAPTER IX.

Power over demons, prediction of the future, other miracles.

CHAPTER XI.

[90] The presence of Blessed Salvator was exceedingly grievous to the demons, Demons hostile to Blessed Salvator, nor were the troubles that he in turn suffered from them any lighter: whence at a certain time, when at Horta, performing the office of gardener, he had asked a certain farmer named Michael Gueram to come the next day in the morning with his mules to lend him a hand in sowing legumes for the use of the Brothers, and the man came as agreed and wanted to yoke the mules to the plow, they turned against their master, repelled him with their hooves, and as if seized by the devil, fled up the mountain. And the mules brought to cultivate the garden, Salvator came, and having understood the whole matter from the farmer, turned around; and saw demons sitting on the yoke that the mules had fled from: turning to them he said: Is it here that I find you, malicious ones? Then to the farmer: We have good merchandise indeed here in the garden. And again to the demons: I command you that from this hour henceforth you never return to this garden. And to the farmer: Go and bring back your mules: They are ordered to leave. for those wicked ones wanted to prevent you from carrying out the work of charity promised to the Brothers. Then he formed the sign of the Cross, at which the demons disappeared, and he said again: Bring your mules here; you will find them in such and such a place (which he indicated): but fear nothing; for the devil whom I have expelled from here is gone. The man went and found his mules gentle as lambs, and brought them back to the work that he had undertaken in favor of the Brothers, marveling at the extraordinary virtue of Salvator.

[91] Bernard Calez, from the village of Aroyns in the diocese of Tortosa, [The same demons troublesome to the daughter of the knight who hosted the Brothers,] whose ancestors for a hundred and fifty years had always been hosts of the Friars Minor who came there, affirms of his father-in-law, whose name was John Mestre, that his only little daughter, whom this witness later had as his wife, whenever the Brothers entered the house, would hide her face and weep profusely, and sometimes be stunned as if struck to death. This matter moved the parents, otherwise excellent people and most devoted to the Brothers, to ask to be excused for a time from the duty of receiving the Brothers in their house, in order to look after the health of their daughter. John therefore went to the monastery, where he would find Salvator digging the garden (for out of reverence he did not dare announce to the Guardian himself what he had come to say), and asked him to excuse him before the Guardian, that, compelled by the love of his only daughter, he wished the Brothers to be absent from his house for a while: since their presence seemed about to bring death to her. At the promise of Blessed Salvator, Salvator was astonished at this, and raising his eyes to heaven for some time said nothing; then at last, turning to the knight, he said: The devil gravely persecutes this Order, and has now entered your house, to rob us of hospitality and you of the merit of exercised charity: and therefore at the entrance of our Brothers he presents himself to your daughter in so horrible a form that, breaking out in laments, she is compelled to testify to her dread and dismay. But from now on be of good cheer, and leave the whole matter to me: I know all the snares of that most wicked beast. So expect me at your house tomorrow, and see that your daughter is not absent. Stupefied at these words, and no less persuaded of the truth of his words, John returned home: and the next day, as he had promised, Salvator came, and having first made the sign of the Cross, I command, he said, malicious spirit, not to enter this house any more, which belongs to Saint Francis and his sons. They are driven out by him: Then he ordered the little girl to be brought to him, though her mother resisted and feared things similar to the past: yet she brought her, compelled by her husband's repeated command. Salvator, however, calling the child by her own name, that is, Susanna, offered her a double apple: which she, smiling sweetly at the Brother, accepted. The Blessed further forbade them to fear that the demon would enter there, and all recognized with what absolute authority against those most wicked ones the Saint was endowed.

[92] Joanna Arnens, from the village in Castile called Espinosa-de-los-Monteros, suffering from epilepsy, When invoked, he heals epilepsy, wished to be carried to the Saint, although he was more than three hundred miles distant, continually invoking his name along the way, and in the meantime never suffering the usual infirmity: and when she arrived there, and went to the Sacraments of Confession and Communion, presenting herself to Salvator to be blessed, she heard from him these words: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Mother of God has already made you well, on account of the faith that drew you all the way here. Barbara Pastor, from the village of Caretes, had a breast so inflated and hardened that the physicians had concluded that fire should be applied to it: Swelling and hardness of the breast. but on the very day when the wretched woman was to undergo the torment, Salvator arrived seeking alms; and although his sanctity was not yet known there, he was nevertheless asked to go up to the sick woman, still bedridden from her first childbirth. He did what was asked, and casting his Rosary around the neck of the sick woman,

he recited the Our Father and Hail Mary once; then turning to the woman in childbed, he said: Do not despair, daughter, but trust in the most holy Mother of God: for this night you will sleep well, and on the morrow you will be freed from all evil: and exactly as he said, so it came to pass.

[93] He recognizes a woman possessed by a demon. When Blessed Salvator was once in the church of Saint Columba of Farnesia, his birthplace, he said that a demon had occupied the body of a certain woman present there: which matter, being new to all who did not know which of them was indicated by the Saint, proved true when, after the Saint left, one of them manifestly showed herself to be possessed. Brother Anthony of Saint Salvator, of the Order of Capuchin Friars Minor of Saint Francis, He gives the faculty of walking: testifies in the process formed before the Bishop of Barcelona that while at Saragossa he had known a poor man who, dragging his wretched body along the ground, used to move about: but that after some years he had seen the same man walking on his own feet soundly and cheerfully; and had asked whether he was the same man he had previously seen crawling on the ground. The man affirmed that he was the same: and when asked by what means he had received the faculty of walking, he replied thus: Having gone to the Saint of Horta, I was ordered by him to confess and communicate: then when he bestowed his blessing upon me and said In the name of the Father, etc., I felt myself healed, such as you see me at this very hour, to the greater glory of God.

[94] Salvator was also staying at Horta when the wife of a certain public Professor of Laws at the University of Lérida, named Rubios, came to him, He promises offspring to a matron who would abstain from gambling, seeking by the suffrage of his prayers to obtain some offspring from God: to whom Salvator said: You are so addicted to gambling that unless you give it up, you will never have your wish fulfilled. She promised not to gamble any more and not even to take playing cards in her hands. Then, having confessed her sins and been refreshed with the sacred Body of Christ and equipped with his blessing, he sent her home, saying: Come now, go assured that you will bear a daughter: He predicts a daughter will be born, but remember what you have promised: for she will not live longer than you abstain from gambling. She returned home joyfully: and having conceived immediately, in due time she gave birth to a daughter, which she had announced to the Saint, and in turn received from him a repeated command to avoid gambling if she wished to keep her daughter alive. Then, three years after this, the aforesaid matron brought her daughter herself to Horta, and the Saint said to her: Know, daughter, that the same limit of life has been divinely appointed for you which will be the beginning of your mother's resumption of gambling. To which the little girl replied: Do not fear, Father, my mother will never resume gambling, dreading for my life, which she dearly loves. So two more years passed, after which, invited to play in the company of other matrons, the mother But when she breaks faith, the daughter will die. cast from her mind the salutary warnings she had once received: but she did not long enjoy that game. For her daughter, coming upon her and seeing her mother occupied with gambling, began to cry out that she was utterly dead and lost: and that very evening she was seized by fever, and not long after was extinguished by a premature death. The bereaved mother therefore sent a messenger to the servant of God, who would pray that he obtain for her a son or another daughter by divine power: but before he said a single word, Salvator said: I already know that your mistress's daughter is dead; for the rest, announce that nothing will be obtained henceforth; and so he sent him back without consolation.

[95] A notable but hidden deed of a religious woman. In the monastery of Saint Mary of Petralba in the city of Barcelona, the Lady Magdalena of Torrelea was living, a religious woman of extraordinary virtue and great age, being eighty years old: who, when one day she was commending herself to the prayers of Blessed Salvator, he said to her: Be certain that great favors have been prepared for you by God on account of a certain notable merit of yours, by which you have singularly obliged His divine majesty to you. To whom she said: Indeed I recognize myself to be a useless sinner, and utterly unworthy for God to grant me any favor except from the pure indulgence of His grace. But Salvator, on the contrary, said: Remember, He makes it public, he said, how in this very place your father, speaking with you secretly, showed you a Pontifical Brief by which he was granted the power to take you out of the monastery, and you, having torn the Brief into pieces, gave them to the flames, answering your father in these words: May God and Saint Clare forbid that I, abandoning this monastery, should retract the vows I have duly made to God. You added moreover that you would see to it that no knowledge of such a Brief would reach any mortal. The most religious woman was astonished at these words, as were all her companions who were present, And he predicts that she will be rewarded with a singular favor: struck by the novelty of a thing never before heard, and all the more so because Magdalena herself confessed that the matter had indeed happened so, but much earlier than Salvator had come into the world by being born: and thenceforth she persevered with great spirit in the pursuit of the religious life she had begun, understanding that her act had been pleasing to God: on account of which also the same Blessed asserted that Saint Clare daily stood as an intercessor before God for her: and so finally she happily completed the course of her mortal life in the aforesaid monastery.

[96] The Lady Isabella Pugados of Saint Clement, of Barcelona, in her childhood years lay sick unto death; Likewise a girl given up by physicians, with the physicians despairing of prolonging her life beyond that night: at whose sad announcement the parents of the sick girl asked Blessed Salvator to come and sign her with his blessing. But he replied to them: Tell the physicians that since they have not spoken with God, they were too bold to pronounce with certainty that the girl will die this night: and to the mother and relatives announce that it will come to pass that they will see her joined in marriage, He predicts life and posterity: and children born from that union: let them therefore give thanks to our Lady, who has so quickly restored health to the sick girl. And immediately the fever left the girl; who thenceforth lived healthy, and having grown up, bore children from a lawful marriage, and in this year 1604 still lives. Andrew Fabius of Saint Columba of Queralt in Catalonia, tormented by an incurable asthma and seeing no remedy left in human means, sought it from Blessed Salvator, He heals asthma, and through his blessing, with confession and communion preceding, obtained it. Brother John Oliva, from the convent of the Friars Minor of the Observance at Barcelona which is under the name of Jesus, was suffering a troublesome abscess in his right ear; and having likewise found it incurable by any remedies of human art, And an abscess. he also turned to Blessed Salvator: who by his touch and blessing alone perfectly healed the affected ear.

CHAPTER X.

The secrets of hearts and the future declared by Blessed Salvator on various occasions.

CHAPTER XII.

[97] On a certain day, when the blessed man stood in the courtyard of the Valencia convent of Saint Mary of Jesus, more than ten thousand people came to him, Despised by his own Provincial, citizens of that city, together with the Viceroy, the Duke of Segovia, the Duchess, and all the nobility, for the sake of visiting him and receiving his blessing: to all of whom, having knelt together, Salvator blessed them, In the name of the Father, etc. Meanwhile the Provincial Minister of the Order, Francisco Zamorra, came up and, his spirit moved, said: How frivolous are these Valencians, who pay such great honor to a single lay brother! These were his words: but God, who glorifies His servants, took care to glorify Salvator, despised by his own Superior, He is honored by all the people as a Saint: even more: for when, four days later at the election of a new Provincial, a truly holy and religious man, the Brothers proceeded together to the cathedral to give thanks to God, and an enormous crowd of both sexes surrounded them in the courtyard, Blessed Salvator was violently dragged out from their midst, and with the people vying to tear a piece from his tunic, he was left nearly naked in his undergarment alone, so that it was necessary to lead him aside into some nearby building for the sake of modesty, even then the popular fervor not ceasing, but with continual cries demanding that the Saint be brought forth, who would drive away all their diseases: and indeed many were the miracles wrought through him on that day, as can be seen in the processes.

[98] In the city of Gandia in the diocese of Valencia, there was a most devout convent of nuns of Saint Clare, The convent of the Poor Clares at Gandia, whose spiritual progress the devil, envying them, began to be troublesome to them in every way, daily presenting himself in horrible forms to the timid sex, and making a tremendous noise throughout the whole house: and when the customary exorcisms of the Church availed nothing to ward off these molestations, the Most Excellent Duke Francis, who later became General of the Society of Jesus, and who had heard much of the extraordinary sanctity of Blessed Salvator, having obtained permission from the General, wished to bring him there. While he was doing this, however, the demons, driven to fury, seemed about to turn everything upside down, so horribly were they creating a disturbance everywhere with their noise: and it was not far from the nuns, driven to despair, leaving the place in which they could have no peace. But when Salvator arrived and consecrated all the places of the monastery by forming the sign of the Cross on the walls, everything ceased, He frees them from the infestation of demons: and he, turning to the nuns, said: Be secure, and be anxious only about this, that you serve God perfectly: for I promise you in His name that you shall never again be troubled, nor shall you hear Gorrosita (for so the demon was called there), whose only purpose in presenting such hideous spectres and causing such discordant noise was to disturb the religious discipline and divine worship of this house. Now remain in peace, and pray to the Lord for me. As he was departing, moreover, he was asked to bless certain sick Sisters, who were immediately restored to health.

[99] Anthony Massipus testifies about himself, while still a layman, that he had visited Blessed Salvator for the sake of kissing his habit: He predicts the priesthood who said to him: You will be a Priest. And he had indeed laughed at those words, since, having been enlisted among the nobles of the Duke of Segovia and Cardona, he had thought of nothing less up to that hour than of the Priesthood. Nevertheless, after a few months, the impulse of God inviting him to that state was so strongly impressed upon his mind that he could take no part of rest night and day: and so he gave in and surrendered, the more easily because he remembered this had been predicted to him by the Saint: and to this day, in which he testifies these things and we count the year 1600, he lives as a Priest, and remembers that he had replied to the Saint, who was foretelling what we have said, To an unlettered young man. with a smile: I do not believe it, Father; for I am not sufficiently instructed in the knowledge of letters. To which the Saint had replied: In the house of the Lord a pure conscience is worth more than much knowledge, without which you will obtain the Priesthood: and when this has happened, remember to pray for me also.

[100] John Ximenus, a Priest of the town of Fulset in the diocese of Tarragona, A herniated Priest's was suffering from hernia and a severe rupture on one side; but when his fellow Priests urged him to go to the holy man to be healed, he refused, saying that he could not believe in his miracles. Overcome nevertheless by the importunity of those urging him, he promised to go, since they so wished. But he added: If it helps, let it help; if it does not help, let it not help. When he came to Blessed Salvator He reproaches his small faith: and knelt before him awaiting his blessing, the Blessed said to him: O you of little faith, of little faith: if it helps you, let it help; if it does not help, let it not help. The Priest rose and departed indignant, and to those inquiring about the outcome of the journey, he said: This Brother is either a Saint or has a devil: for when he was blessing the others, turning to me he uttered the same words that I spoke here: from which all recognized the Priest's small faith and the gift of prophecy communicated to the Saint.

[101] A girl possessed by a demon, on account of the excessive ferocity of the demons inhabiting her, bound with ropes and chains, A woman possessed by a demon, was brought to Horta by force: but no violence was sufficient to compel her to enter the church. Salvator was therefore asked to go out to her himself. Meanwhile the demons broke all the bonds, and leaving the torn garments in the hands of the men who had seized her, they snatched the unfortunate woman from their sight and view, so that she could not be found by those searching, until the Saint, coming upon the scene, showed them where they would find her hidden He recalls by his command one who had escaped in flight, under a pile of very large timbers. They could scarcely persuade themselves that she could have been hidden under so many great beams, and that they should undertake to remove such a mass with so much labor: yet they obeyed, and found her naked between two beams, and as they had been commanded, they said: Brother Salvator commands you to come to him, and indeed in the name of the most Blessed Virgin he commands. And so they led her back, obedient and dressed. At her sight the Blessed expressed the sign of the Cross and said: Depart from this creature, unclean spirits: I so command you in the name of the most Holy Trinity, And frees the liberated woman and warns her of a hidden sin. of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. They replied they would not obey: but constrained by a repeated command, they departed, causing an immense crash in the air. The girl herself, free indeed but incredibly weakened, and more like a dead than a living person, remained: but having received the Saint's blessing, she rose: and he ordered food to be given to her, and said: Now, daughter, attend to how you serve God henceforth: and never again commit such a thing, if you do not wish the malicious invaders to return: and so he dismissed her from him healed.

[102] He predicts his own departure to Sardinia, A certain nobleman named Master Garcias, Secretary of the Holy Inquisition, was speaking with Blessed Salvator in the monastery of Barcelona, Saint Mary of Jesus, and among other things said to him that the courtyard of the monastery seemed to him to be beautifully adorned, on account of the image of the most Blessed Virgin placed above the doors of the church. To whom the Saint said: It is beautiful indeed, and within a short time it will carry me across the sea, to another convent bearing the same name as this one, where a similar image of hers is seen above the door. Which matter, seeming incredible at first, was shown by the event itself to be most true, when Salvator was transferred to Cagliari in Sardinia. While, however, he was still staying at Horta, he devoted many nights to prayer on the mountain which is the highest there; And at Horta, and going there through the small garden, which is situated after the larger garden, he found some Brothers there engaged in rather merry activity, of whom one said: Is it true what I heard, that you are going to sail, Brother Salvator? It is true, he replied. But where? To a region, he replied, whose chief city, girded by the most beautiful walls and notably fortified by bronze cannon, stands on a hill: there God is going to do great things for me. Many Brothers were being sent at that time to the Indies for the sake of preaching the faith; those who were present therefore supposed that this most beloved servant of God was also being sent there, and so they further asked him whether his journey would be toward the East or the West. He shows it by the sign of a star. Then he said: Look to the sky. They looked, and saw a star of extraordinary brilliance moving with great and swift motion toward the East, but they could not note where it came to rest. He himself said: I must hold a similar course. And not long after the truth of the prediction was made clear: when a man of rare sanctity, Brother Vincent Ferri, came to lead the Brothers away to Sardinia, according to the exchange that had been decreed between the Transmontane and Cismontane families, and asked Salvator whether he too wished to accompany him. He replied: Indeed: for this is what God wills, and there He has a great good destined for me.

CHAPTER XIII.

[103] Moreover, in whatever place the Blessed was staying, he daily received the Sacraments of Confession and Communion, Though ignorant of letters, he shows the place sought in the Missal, with singular pious devotion, and this at the first morning Mass. It happened, however, on one occasion that the marker, which indicated the Epistle to be read that day, had been moved from its place, and the Priest, who himself affirmed this, was no little disturbed at being occupied for some time in vainly searching for it: and Blessed Salvator, who was about to serve at the Mass, observed this, rose from the place where he had been kneeling, took the Missal and opened it and pointed with his finger to the place that was to be read, and without uttering a word, returned to the place whence he had risen. The same Priest, moreover, confessed that, marveling not a little at the unusual nature of the deed, since he knew that Salvator had learned no letters at all, he was also relieved of the doubt that had been troubling him not slightly concerning his miracles: so that thenceforth he held him in greater honor and reverence. James Villala, a citizen of Barcelona, He cures hernia, testifies that he had a ten-year-old son whom the Saint healed of hernia and rupture with his blessing. Raphaela Pazi, a noble woman of Gerona, He predicts offspring. commended her sister, who was beyond measure desirous of obtaining offspring, to the prayers of Blessed Salvator, and he replied: Be of good cheer, for your sister will bear twin offspring: which came to pass; and both are alive in this year 1603, one male, the other female.

[104] Sister Hieronyma Campos, a novice in the monastery of Saint Clare at Gerona, The persons of two paralytic women lay paralytic in her entire body: and Blessed Salvator was asked, having come there, to visit and heal her. He went therefore to the church, and standing before the iron grating, ordered the sick woman to be brought to him: but instead of her, the nuns brought another who was similarly paralytic. Whom when he saw, he said: It was not this one I requested, nor does she have the faith necessary for receiving health: bring here the other one, And faith he discerns. on whose account I have come. The sisters therefore brought Hieronyma: and the Saint, opening the small window through which holy Communion is customarily given to the nuns, inserted his arm with the Rosary, and placing it upon the sick woman and saying In the name of the Father, etc., he immediately added: Arise and give thanks to our Lady, and transfer yourself to the service of this sister who could not be healed on account of her defect of faith: which she performed constantly and lovingly until her very death. Among the other nuns, moreover, there was thenceforth such great reverence for the Saint that, fearing lest he perhaps reveal the interior state of their souls, they were afraid to come under his gaze. In the same monastery there was another Religious who had long endured a hidden hernia, not daring out of modesty to reveal her ailment to any physician: He heals hernia: whence, since she was suffering the most severe and daily increasing pains, she revealed it to the servant of God conversing secretly with her, and immediately received health through the impression of the Cross.

[105] He predicts a future tribulation for one, The same man, speaking with another nun there, Sister Isabella Pingi, said to her: See that all things between you and the Lord are right, daughter, and do not fall in spirit: for He Himself will help you in the tribulation that most gravely threatens you. And that forewarning availed many years later, when what the Saint had predicted happened to her. Finally, another Sister of the same monastery, named Mariana, He predicts another's liberation from scruples. led a life troubled by scruples: which she once explained to Blessed Salvator, asking him that she might merit to be freed from them by the Lord through his prayers. He, however, promised that she would soon be freed, and that all the anxieties of her conscience would be driven away by a certain devout Confessor, in whose hands also she would happily consummate the course of this mortal life. And this soon came to pass upon the arrival of a new Confessor, by whom she professed to the other Sisters that she was thoroughly relieved: nor did many days pass thereafter before she departed, called by the Lord, as we piously believe, to the joys of eternal life and perpetual peace.

doves, which after flying away through the wall of the church, he afterwards asked the one who had celebrated whether he had seen those two doves, by which he himself had been admonished about the journey across the sea.

CHAPTER XI.

Ignominiously sent from Horta to Reus, Salvator becomes known through great miracles.

CHAPTER XIV.

[106] But let us finally leave aside the miracles which the processes formed before the Archbishops and Bishops exhibit in countless number, The Brothers seeking their peace to be disturbed, and which are in part enumerated in the catalogue appended at the end of this little work: let it suffice for us to say with our chronicles that God gave him the grace of wonderful healings. When therefore he was being glorified by God in this manner at the monastery of Saint Mary of Horta (which name thenceforth permanently adhered to him), the Provincial Minister came there for a religious visitation, and the great multitude of sick people of every kind around that monastery was not at all pleasing to him, which had also long been burdensome to the Brothers staying there: and so they had asked the Provincial to remove this din of promiscuous crowds along with the Blessed himself. Indeed the Minister himself had a certain dread lest perhaps this humble Brother was not so much a Saint that God would wish to work such great and manifold miracles through him. Salvator is sharply rebuked by the Provincial, Therefore he resolved to test his virtue at the touchstone of patience; and having convoked the Brothers in Chapter, he summoned Salvator, and when the latter was on his knees before him, said: I had thought I would find this convent in complete peace, which on the contrary I find most disturbed and disquieted, because in it there lives a certain wicked and restless man, and the cause of the greatest turmoil. It is you, you I address, Brother Salvator, and I ask, by what plan have you begun this way of life that you follow? Are you not ashamed to hear everyone saying: Let us go to the Saint of Horta, when it would be better to say: Let us go to the devil who disturbs the Brothers at Horta? But you, Fathers, do you not see what a mark of infamy he brands upon you all, when he alone presumes to work miracles, as if you were not equally Saints as he? I shall see to it indeed, Brother, that your name is heard no more, and that when these miracles of yours cease, the concourse of peoples flowing here from all Spain shall cease also: and I now order that a discipline be given to you, And changing his name, and that henceforth you be called not Salvator but Brother Alphonsus; and that having received these letters, you depart from here in the middle of the night with no one seeing, and go to the monastery of the town of Reus.

[107] Having said these things with much anger, he gave him the letters and changed his name: for which reason in the Chronicles of our Order he is called Brother Alphonsus, as was proved in the process formed before the Bishops of Barcelona, He departs secretly from Horta in the middle of the night, Gerona, and Tortosa. He himself, however, hearing such grave insults with an utterly undisturbed mind, made his sanctity most evident to all: and departing thence to the church, he prostrated himself in prayer before the altar of the most Blessed Virgin, dedicating and consecrating himself to her as her most faithful servant, until around midnight a lay Brother came, who was to be his companion on the commanded journey (with whom the author of this Life later personally spoke), and advising him that it was time to depart, he immediately had him as an obedient companion. For having first made reverence to the most holy Sacrament, then to the most Blessed Virgin and to the Suffragant Father, both went out of the monastery and passed through the midst of the ranks of an infinite multitude, He is salutary to many even when absent, which had occupied the mountain, waiting for the dawn, around which time it would receive his blessing and health at the same time: which he indeed, keeping silence, imparted to all tacitly in passing: but in the morning, having been waited for in vain, when he was nowhere to be found, it is incredible to say with what emotions of spirit that absence was received: with various people being healed at his invocation just as if he were present, while others despaired of their health. Nor was it a slight miracle, in my judgment, that the Provincial and the Brothers of the convent, after his departure, entirely forgot about the decree by which they had resolved that all the insignia of miracles performed there, left by the healed sick people, should be removed from the church; with God taking care that what they were doing might not cause the memory of Blessed Salvator to be endangered among posterity or fall into oblivion.

[108] Along the road, moreover, walking barefoot over the rough rocks of these mountains, He prays and suffers ecstasy on the road, he finally reached a clear spring of living water: whose pleasantness, when it had invited his companion to take some rest there, he himself, as if affected by no fatigue, withdrew to one side and, with knees bent upon the rocks and hands stretched toward heaven, set about praying: where he was immediately caught up in ecstasy, until his companion reminded him about resuming the journey. Who, marveling at such great cheerfulness of countenance in him, Nor does he show any disturbance of spirit. said: Surely, Brother Alphonsus, you seem to me stolid and senseless, whom so sharp a reprimand from the Father Provincial does not move. But he said: I would have been dealt with in a truly wretched manner if the severity of his reprimand had equaled the measure of my crimes: now, bearing a punishment much lighter than the crimes themselves, why should I be sad? Do you not know that the heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord, and He inclines it wherever He wills? Do you not know that not a single leaf falls from a tree without God willing it? And the sworn companion affirmed that on the whole of that journey he had been intent on perpetual prayer, and unless he himself had interrupted, no words came from his mouth other than the sweetest names of Jesus and Mary.

[109] At last, before nightfall on the second day, both arrived at the designated monastery; where the Guardian, He is received contemptuously at Reus, having received and read the Provincial's letter, ordered all the Brothers to assemble in Chapter: and having ordered Salvator to kneel in their midst, he spoke before all as follows: My Fathers, the Father Provincial has sent here this restless Brother and disturber of the convent of Horta through his miracles: and he commands us all henceforth to address him by no other name than Alphonsus, so that those seeking him may more easily be eluded. And you, he said, turning to the Blessed, I shall hide in a place where you can cause no disturbances among the people: now, however, before everything else, I order you He is shut up in the kitchen: not to speak to any lay person. On the next morning, before dawn, the Guardian rising sought out Brother Alphonsus and found him in the church, where he had spent the whole night in prayer. From there he led him to the kitchen, and locking him in, bolting the door behind him, said: Here you will remain to cook food for the Brothers, and, if you wish, to work miracles among the pots and pans.

[110] The Saint remained in the kitchen joyful at this command: meanwhile, as the day dawned, the whole populace of that town began to hasten to the monastery, and especially the sick, But sought out by the people, divinely informed, crying out with great clamor, beseeching God to have mercy on them; and pitifully begging the Brothers to allow the servant of God, brought from Horta by the favor of Heaven, to come out to them, so that by his blessing all might be made whole. These were about two thousand people. And so the astonished Brothers, not understanding by what means the knowledge of the new guest's arrival had reached them, ran to the Guardian and tremblingly reported to him what a great multitude of people had occupied the church, threatening to break down the doors and burst into the convent unless Brother Salvator was brought out to them. And as if the author of disturbances, he is rebuked by the Guardian, The Guardian, indignant at this, rushed immediately to the kitchen and expostulated with him in insulting words, charging that not content with the disturbances he had stirred up at Horta, he was plotting new ones here, making his arrival known to the people. Now at last it appeared what spirit he was of, and how turbulent and restless, since he who was utterly wicked and evil had dared to contravene so recent a command of his Superior so quickly. Salvator humbly threw himself on his knees, neither excusing nor pleading anything, until the Guardian left, once again firmly locking the door. But this was in vain: for the crowd, breaking through the wooden gratings, opened the monastery gate by force and rushed into the convent: He is brought forth, and when the Brothers could no longer keep them out, the Guardian came running and promised to bring out the one they sought, on condition that they would all quietly withdraw into the church.

CHAPTER XV.

[111] When they had returned to the church, he himself went again to the kitchen and ordered Salvator to come out: at whose presence, like that of a heavenly Angel, the exulting people heard Salvator himself speak as follows: And he heals very many sick people, having admonished them about penance, Little children, that God may hear your prayers and free you from your infirmities, do penance for your sins, and seal it with true contrition of heart, with the firm resolution of duly manifesting them in the sacred tribunal of Confession: and I, on His behalf and on that of our most holy Lady, bless you, In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Having said these things, he turned his back on them and, as the Guardian had commanded, returned to the kitchen. Of the crippled and other sick who were then in the church, many were healed; as was evident from the multitude of crutches, staffs, and bandages left there. At the sight of which the indignant Guardian said: Do you see with what filth this Brother has filled this church and turned it into a stable for beasts: and he immediately wrote to the Provincial how much turmoil the man, sent to him from Horta, had stirred up there on his very first arrival. Thenceforth he remained unknown at Reus for a long time. On the next Friday he summoned Brother Salvator to Chapter and ordered him not to speak to any lay person without his permission: and so the Saint remained unknown there for a not inconsiderable space of time, until it pleased God to bring him again into the public light, in the following manner.

[112] There was in the monastery at Reus a certain religious named John Serra, A Brother there at the point of death: who had demoted himself from the Priesthood to the order of lay Brothers: and he was then so gravely ill that the physicians said he would die that same night. The Preacher of his Convent, Brother Ferdinand Soler, remained with him to administer the last rites to the dying man. When around midnight he saw the sick man in his death agony, he went to seek Blessed Salvator, and finding him praying in the choir of the church, asked him to please come with him and bestow a final blessing on the sick man. Salvator replied that the other should go ahead, and he too would soon be there: and he was, and having formed the sign of the Cross over the sick man, he asked him what ailment he was suffering. But when the sick man said nothing in reply, he returned to the choir and there beat himself with a harsh whip, and prolonged his prayer for one hour: and while these things were happening, the sick man, freed from fever, began to speak and said: I am well, by the grace of God. He heals him suddenly by his prayers, Some Brothers were keeping vigil with the man who, as they believed, was about to die: and hearing the voice of one speaking, they hastened to call the Guardian and the others to come, to be witnesses of so unexpected a matter: these, however, thinking it to be some final delirium of one in his death agony, hesitated in uncertainty; wherefore

he who a little before had lost all his strength seized a chair that was near the bed and lifted it with his hand, saying: Do not doubt, my Fathers, that I have been truly healed by the grace of God and the prayers of Brother Salvator: who a short time after came, and said to the sick man: Brother John, give thanks to the Virgin Mother of God, who has restored you to health: And he admonishes him about doing penance: then strive to lead a better life in the future than you have led until now, since you had merited that God would now wish to cut it short: but use the time granted for penance, and be of good cheer. Moreover, the physician arrived early in the morning and asked the porter at what hour Brother John had died. Died? replied the porter: on the contrary, he is healthy and vigorous. That what the porter had said was most true, the physician learned with the greatest amazement in person, hurrying to the room of John.

[113] In those same days a certain little boy had been brought to the point of death in the same town; A similarly dying boy, and the physician said to the afflicted father: My lord, very little now stands between your son and death: and I know of no remedy left to help him, unless you go to the monastery of the Brothers and try, through one of them, to gain entrance to the garden, where you will find a Brother picking vegetables or legumes for the use of the kitchen: pray to him for the health of your son. The man obeyed, and finding Salvator, said to him: Father, great necessity compels me to have recourse to you. Salvator did not allow him to say more, He keeps him alive, but said: Go, your little son is well, for which you owe thanks to the Mother of God. And exactly as he said, so the man found it when he returned home: the boy not only well but also cheerful. From these miracles the fame of his sanctity, having spread, And thus made known, he helps very many. soon aroused such a great crowd of people returning to Salvator that their number could in no way be counted: and from among them, many blind, leprous, and paralytic people were healed, as is clear from the Processes. Especially, however, there should be named here a little boy, named Paul Serra: to whom, as the Saint was blessing him and holding his hand above his head, he said to those standing around: This child will be one of ours. And at that time indeed no one paid much attention to those words: but afterwards, when the boy himself at a fuller age put on the habit of the Seraphic Order, they understood that they had been spoken in a prophetic spirit.

CHAPTER XII.

He migrates to Barcelona, thence to Cagliari: various predictions of his there.

[114] Migrating from Reus, After some time it seemed good to the Provincial to send Brother Salvator to Barcelona, and going there he passed through Tarragona, where it is proved in the Process that he worked many miracles. Then when he was at Villafranca, two blind men were brought to him, to whom he said: Little sons, go to the Virgin of Montserrat, since you are so near to that place: and trust, because she will heal you: and I shall shortly be there with you. When both had departed thither, Salvator said to the people: Of those two blind men, one will be healed on account of the merit of extraordinary faith; He sends 2 blind men to Montserrat, the other will remain blind for the defect of the same. On the road, however, the one said to the other: That Brother was indeed foolish, who if he could give us sight, had no need to send us so great a distance through these rough mountains. I believe indeed that we who have not been healed here will not be healed there either. To whom his companion said: But I believe that everything he told us is true, and I trust that I shall receive my sight: and this happened to him after confession, as he was about to communicate, when it was said, "Lord, I am not worthy": Of whom one is given sight: the other, who had neglected to go to the sacraments and had no confidence of recovering his sight, persisting in his blindness. After Salvator arrived at Montserrat, he said to the sick who came to him: We are in the church of the Mother of mercy: go to her and you will obtain your health: and many of them were healed, There he was not praying in vain for many. with Salvator praying to the Mother of God for them.

[115] It would be impossible to narrate the miracles, how many and how great, that he worked upon arriving at Barcelona, in the name of God with the application of the sign of the holy Cross; He shines with miracles at Barcelona. since daily an immense multitude of people came to him: from whose number many were healed, and some of them have been mentioned above, while others will be mentioned here. First of all there was a boy, mute from birth, to whom the said sign of the Cross gave speech: then Eulalia Palau, who having used for many years the fruitless efforts of physicians to be freed from a great headache, went to him, and he voluntarily placing his hand on her head, said: Your head aches: and from that time she affirms she has felt no pain. Finally a certain deaf and mute young man, at his command after the sign of the Cross had been made, recited the Our Father, and thenceforth used his tongue freely.

CHAPTER XVI.

[116] Sailing to Sardinia, Around this time there arrived at Barcelona a Commissioner destined for Sardinia by the General of the Order, who asked the man of God to come with him, as Bishop Gonzaga describes at length in the chronicles, treating of the convent of Cagliari, in which this Blessed was adorned with many miracles, after his extraordinary sanctity became known in the following manner. While he was sailing, a foul storm fell upon the sea, so that all believed their lives were over: but the Saint, recognizing whence these things proceeded, He calms the storm. making the sign of the Cross, commanded the demons to take themselves at once to the infernal regions and no longer molest their ship: and immediately, to the amazement of all, the storm ceased, and they happily reached a place called Pula, thirty miles from the city: in which he was received with the greatest joy of all, and shortly, when a concourse of inhabitants from all parts of the island coming to him was made, he was glorified by the following miracles, some of which we shall relate here.

[117] He predicts many more illnesses for a dying woman healed by him, Isabella Morana, placed at the point of death after a long and severe illness, was visited by Blessed Salvator at the urging of her relatives, and freed from danger and from the disease itself by the sign of the Cross: turning, however, to the Blessed, she said: Dear Father, I feel so weak that I seem about to die shortly. To whom Salvator said: You will not die, believe me, before you have been ill twenty-nine times: but be of good cheer, for a happier life awaits you in heaven. She gave thanks to her healer, for she immediately felt herself confirmed in strength, as she swore in the process, after having endured the twenty-eighth illness since the time of the prediction: now weary of this life and cheerfully expecting by the next illness, which she knew for certain would be the last. He predicts a happy delivery for another. When Salvator happened to be passing that way collecting alms where a woman was being pressed by the pains of childbirth but could not give birth despite whatever remedies were applied, he said to the maidservant who was giving him alms: Go, tell your mistress that she will shortly bear a son, who will be a member of my Order: let her therefore give him my name: all of which things were fulfilled in order.

[118] At another time, passing through the marketplace, he stopped before a place where certain soldiers were gambling, and began to cry out in a loud voice: Likewise he predicts the collapse of a house because of blasphemies. Out, out: quickly, quickly. While some attributed this shouting to madness and others to an unusual fervor of spirit, and he did not desist from it, the soldiers finally also came out, to learn why he was so crying out: to whom he said: Penance, penance. And when they laughed, he said again: I say to you again, do penance for the blasphemy you have just uttered, and even irrational creatures feel it. And as he said this, the room in which they had been playing collapsed, by which, as the Saint said, they would certainly have been crushed to death in their impiety, if they had not come out: and the portent availed to cause all, struck by holy horror, to throw themselves at his feet and promise a serious amendment of their past life.

[119] He summons little birds to be fed, Performing the duty of porter there, he saw a great number of little birds sitting around the courtyard, and by their mournful song lamenting, as it were, the continuous rain of those days: pitying them, he ran to the refectory and brought bread, and expressing the sign of the Cross, he said: Come, creatures of the Lord, whom I see hungry: accept the alms which I bring you wretched ones. They, equally obedient, flew onto his head, onto his shoulders, onto his arms, and received bread from him; which he also broke with his teeth and held out to those whose beaks he knew to be weaker. While he did this, he saw two crows flying past: whom he also invited to share the alms; And among these two crows. and that they perched upon his arms, those who saw it swore. And when they wanted to snatch at the crumbs that he had broken for the more tender ones, he said: Be quiet; for to you, who have stronger beaks, I shall give larger pieces: and having received these, they were ordered to go and flew away; with all who were present marveling and recognizing his rare holiness from such a sign.

[120] He foresees the impenitence of a certain blind man; Asked by certain pious persons to restore the sight of a certain blind man: Go, he said, and tell your friend to confess his sins and expiate them with a three-day fast, then let him come to me. But when they had departed, he said to the rest: This man will neither wish to confess nor to fast: and therefore he will remain blind: and so it happened, with the Saint warning the others with these words: God does not wish to confer special benefits upon His enemies: wherefore if you wish to obtain such a thing, it is necessary to do penance, and then your prayer will be heard. A certain woman, He indicates to a mother her lost son, most eager to see Brother Salvator, about whom such prodigious things were being told, came to the church, which then happened to contain two thousand people, with her little son; and seeking him lost in such a multitude, she went to the Blessed, and before she said any word, she was told by him to put aside her worry; for the boy whom he pointed out and whom she herself was seeking was present: which, understanding with a mixed sense of joy and admiration, and seeing it was true, the mother gave thanks to him and cheerfully brought her little son home.

[121] He promises help to the Guardian anxiously worried about the next day. In the same church Salvator was engaged in prayer together with other Brothers, and hearing the Guardian sighing, he said: Neither the present place nor time requires that food be given to the body, but to the soul. The Guardian, marveling at these words, said: He promises him help, Truly God has revealed my thought to him, for I was anxiously turning over in my mind what I should set before you to eat tomorrow, the pantry being completely exhausted.

Tomorrow, replied Salvator, the Lord will send you an ample alms, my Father: and such as he had said, the Porter himself brought the next day, and it could not be discovered from where or from whom: and the Guardian and Brothers he told: Serve the Lord and He Himself will nourish you. In the same place the aforesaid Guardian was asking God He resolves another of his worries: to deign to indicate to him His will concerning the office of Commissioner of the Inquisition, which was about to be conferred upon him: and when the prayer was finished, Brother Salvator came to him and said: Father, attend to saving your soul: but the office, which is ill-suited to you, do not accept. And the Guardian recognized that his mind had been divinely revealed to him, and so he resolved to follow the answer directed to him by divine goodness: and on the next day, taking him as his companion, he went to a certain noble matron, He treads upon burning coals without harm: and was speaking with her privately about the great sanctity of his companion. She, listening with no small wonder, summoned her maidservants and ordered a brazier with coals to be brought to warm his feet, which in that cold season he had bare. But he placed both feet upon the burning coals: and to the matron, who upon seeing this was dismayed and crying out loudly forbidding him to burn himself, Salvator replied: Since you praise mortal creatures, full of many imperfections, it is right that the immortal Creator be praised by me in these shining creatures. But this fire of your praises will not burn me, by the grace of God: and they saw that neither his feet nor his garments had been harmed by the fire placed beneath them.

[122] He predicts to a mother the imminent arrival of her son. Another noble matron, having her son in the war at Malta, Don William Serbelloni, was extremely fearful lest he had been killed, and so went to the Saint and asked him to pray to God for his soul; to whom Salvator said: Go and prepare supper, and expect him this very night. She went, and not doubting that the prediction was true, she told it to everyone she met: who, although they did not believe credence should be given to it, she nevertheless continued to prepare the supper; and her servants ran to the walls of the city to see whether they might catch sight of some ship arriving. Around the hour of Compline, however, they saw one coming from afar with the most favorable course: and when it had put into port, they both recognized their master in it and brought joyful news of his arrival to their mistress. He silences a gluttonous companion by a miracle: Another woman of equal nobility had given Brother Salvator a fresh wheat bread by way of alms; and when he had hidden it in his sleeve, his companion said to him: My Father, give me this bread: for I know that you yourself are not going to eat it. He then, extending his arm, said: Take it. But upon putting his hand into the sleeve, instead of bread the companion found a rose and flowers. To whom, utterly astonished, Salvator said: Thus are gluttons deceived: but upon returning home, he found a famished poor man at the door, and to him, begging for alms, the Blessed drew the same bread from his sleeve, saying to his companion: Because this man had need of it, you could not find it. He foresees the approaching death of a newborn child; Also seeking alms at a certain house where a noblewoman had recently given birth, he said: Let me see my compatriot. And having been led into the bedroom and taking the infant in his arms, kissing it tenderly, he said: O happy soldier of my Lord: this one is among those who will obtain one of the heavenly seats. And when the infant died within a few days, all recognized the truth of the prediction that had been made. He tells one bidding farewell that he will see him in the same place,

[123] At the high altar of the church of Cagliari, Salvator was serving a Priest celebrating Mass, when a certain Religious came to him and said: My Father, bless me for the last time as I depart: for I am now sailing to Naples, since you did not wish to heal the ruptured vein in my chest. To whom the Saint said: But I told you that God willed you to bear it patiently, and that it was quite beneficial for you to tolerate this infirmity; afterwards, however, you will be healed. Thereupon the Religious said: Please do not cease praying to God for me, whom you will never see again henceforth: for as soon as I am healed, I must leave for Spain. Remember, the Saint replied, that in this very place, As indeed when he dies shortly after, where you now see me, you shall see me again. He went, and in the same year, on the eighteenth day of March, Salvator died. When that Religious learned this, he said: Now all the faith I used to give to Brother Salvator has failed me: for behold, upon my departure, as I was saying farewell, he predicted that I would see him again in the same place: but how can that come to pass, since he is now dead and buried? Twelve years passed after this: then that Religious needed to travel to Genoa, and boarded a ship making sail for Spain, which, forced by an adverse storm to enter the port of Cagliari, set down the aforesaid Religious there. It happens to him after 12 years when the body is exhumed. He, moreover, entering the church of the monastery before anything else for the sake of prayer, saw the sepulchre opened, and the body of a Brother placed upon a bench, the rest having gone away to take their meal. Somewhat frightened by this spectacle, he went to the Guardian in the Refectory, to offer him his obedience as was customary: and when dinner was finished, he saw an innumerable multitude of people, running together to see the body, uncorrupted after twelve years underground and in its bricks, in the same habit in which it had first been buried, nowhere decayed, and he marveled at the prophetic spirit of Salvator.

i. Namely, 1567.

CHAPTER XIII.

Miracles wrought after the death of Blessed Salvator.

[124] Foreknowing his own death. Having glorified His servant in so many ways, God, wishing to repay the reward of his labors, revealed his death to him a few days before he underwent it; as is known from the process made before the Archbishop of Cagliari and the Apostolic Legate over the causes of all religious of that kingdom: after which revelation, from the certain hope of a nearer blessedness, he was of a more pleasant and cheerful spirit and countenance, and was observed to rage more harshly in his daily scourgings of himself, and to receive the sacred Mysteries of Confession and Communion more fervently, and was entirely fixed in the care and thought of preparing for death. Asked by a certain woman piously devoted to him what she should do to render a pleasing service to God, he said: Frequent the Sacraments, and keep the senses of the body clean from every stain: He predicts it as if invited to a wedding, for God rewards such works with a generous hand: and remember to pray for me, one invited to most splendid and most joyful nuptials. The woman understood the words but not the meaning of the speaker: she asked, therefore, in what place these were to be celebrated. In the house, he himself said, of a certain great Lord, exceedingly wealthy and powerful and magnificent. Which reply she grasped no more, and continued to ask curiously about the time of the nuptials he spoke of. On the vigil, said Salvator, of that feast which the church celebrates for the great spouse of the great Virgin. And being asked again whether he would go alone: Alone, he replied; but after me seven others will follow.

[125] So the woman departed, thinking that Brother Salvator had spoken of the nuptials of some Count or distinguished Knight: And he dies most religiously. but on the tenth day after, having received all the Sacraments of the Church, in the presence of all the Brothers standing by and aiding his passing from this life with their well-wishing, with his arms composed in the form of a cross before his breast, and his hand clasping the image of the Crucified, after sweet conversations with Christ and Mary, the dying man uttered these last words:

Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit, and soon he fell asleep most peacefully, on the eighteenth day of March of the year from the Lord's birth one thousand five hundred and sixty-seven. After his death a horrible storm arose in the sky above the city, On account of the storm that was stirred up, so that the entire aerial region could seem full of unclean spirits: and by this means the citizens were prevented from immediately converging to pay the fitting honors to his holy body, as soon as the report of his holy death was spread. The Archbishop, however, considering these to be the machinations of the demons, forbade the body to be buried until he had declared his own wishes concerning it.

[126] The burial is delayed for a full three days: For a full three days, therefore, the body was left in the church, guarded by a faithful guard of armed men; and whoever came, detained by whatever infirmity, to kiss his hands or feet or garments, returned home healed. After three days, the Archbishop with the Canons and all the Clergy, the Viceroy with the Magnates, Counts, and Knights of the whole kingdom, and an innumerable people were present, and in their presence the funeral rites were performed; Which is performed splendidly, in which a certain Father of the Society of Jesus, surnamed Pagna, spoke to a packed audience of both orders. And at last the body was buried, illustrious for the many miracles that through the negligence of the Brothers were not recorded in writing, until Brother Dimas Serpi of Cagliari, holding the Provincial Ministry of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance, and seeing the mighty miracles that were happening daily, persuaded the Archbishop of Cagliari And he shines with miracles. to decree that processes should be formed concerning him. And the body, first inspected by physicians and surgeons, was found to be prodigiously incorrupt, with the intestines also, as the sworn witnesses affirmed, free of all putrefaction.

[127] He had scarcely been buried when a paralytic woman was brought from a nearby castle to the tomb, A paralytic woman is healed, and she rose from the sepulchre as healthy as if she had never suffered any ailment. To a noble matron, after three days of labor in the effort of giving birth, the fetus died in the womb: and when no skill could extract it, Two women in childbirth by the capuce, the mother, fortified with the last Sacraments, herself also died together with it. Afterwards, however, when everything was prepared for the funeral rites, the capuce of the Blessed was brought and placed upon the belly of the deceased woman, and immediately it caused the putrid corpse of the abortive child to come forth, and restored the mother herself to life, in which she perseveres to this day. Another woman, having been in a similar crisis for two days, whom blood drawn from her arms according to the advice of physicians had disappointed in the hope of facilitating the delivery, as soon as she felt the same capuce placed upon her belly, gave birth to a living and handsome son. Also to one girl, A mute girl by the touch of the cord, who had lost her speech and was despairing of her life, the cord of the Blessed, honored with a devout kiss, restored both speech and health.

[128] Dropsy had brought Isabella Manzana to the point of despair for her life: And a woman with dropsy: but the announcement of the translation of the blessed body raised from its sepulchre encouraged her: to the casket, at which she prayed for nine days imploring the Saint's prayers, and having placed her belly upon the casket, she found her health. Don John Columna, the son of the Viceroy, the Count of Elda, Two dying men are raised up, having lost the faculty of speech, was striding rapidly toward death: but he was called back from it and miraculously freed from all fever and ailment at the very moment when the casket containing the holy body was brought into the house of the sick man. The same happened to the Marquis of Sorris, Don Hilarion of Alagon Requesens and Cardona, given up by the physicians; when, at the request of the Marchioness, the sacred casket was similarly brought to him.

[129] Michael Fornellus went from the city of Urgell all the way to Horta, where praying in the church he said: O Saint Salvator, Hernia is healed, even today when you dwell in heaven, remember that in this place you freed my brother from hernia: I also beseech you to free me from the same: and he swore that he had been immediately healed. The habit of the Blessed, moreover, placed upon the face of Margaret of Fonte, of Barcelona, removed from her all the swelling together with an intolerable pain of the head and teeth. Swelling of the face, Brother Peter Martyr, of the Order of Saint Francis, had been kept in bed for eight months by an inflated shin, the same having been treated in vain with exquisite remedies, cauterized six times with fire, and pierced through from one side to the other. Of the shin, When on a certain evening he placed upon it a piece of the habit worn by Blessed Salvator with an invocation of the same, on the next morning he found himself fully healed and rose from his bed without difficulty. Brother Joseph Homs also, suffering from an incurable ailment of the neck, was suddenly made well when the same habit was placed around his neck. Of the neck.

[130] The matron Bonaguerra of Barcelona, a woman possessed by a demon, was brought bound to the church of Saint Francis by her people: Similarly a demoniac is freed by the touch of the garment, and when various relics of the Saints, the spirit not being moved at their presence or touch, had been applied in vain, Brother Dimas Serpi, Commissioner for the Canonization of the Saint, came and placed upon the head of the sick woman the Relic of the Blessed that he had with him, and commanded the spirit, In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and of Blessed Salvator, to depart: and it immediately left the woman perfectly free. The same woman was also freed from a dangerous swelling of the breast and a severe fever as soon as a portion of the habit of Blessed Salvator was placed upon her. Cyprian Flaquer, a Catalan, seeing that his ship, of which he was Captain, Fever is healed, those in peril from pirates are helped; would certainly be captured by two English ships pursuing it, drew from his bosom a piece from the habit of the Saint and, bending his knees, said to his fellow sailors: It is now impossible for us to escape the enemy's ships: therefore let us all pray together to Blessed Salvator, that he may deliver us from this danger. They obeyed; and while they recited one Our Father and Hail Mary, they saw the enemies driven back farther by an adverse wind, and ascribing their freedom to Blessed Salvator, they rendered him due thanks.

[131] A certain Sardinian, setting out for Rome, carried with him a piece from the habit of Blessed Salvator: A demon is expelled. passing along the road, he heard a great tumult in a nearby house; and entering it, he found a Brother of his Order laboring with other Priests to expel a demon by the sacred exorcisms. Since therefore other Relics had been applied by them in vain, and he himself, wishing to test the power of his Saint, applied the said piece to the demoniac: through whose mouth the demon immediately began to cry out that they should take away, take away that cloth, which was causing him enormous torments. The Brother asked who was the cause of those torments: Salvator, said the demon, Salvator. Then the Brother said: Therefore in the name of God and of this Salvator who torments you, I command you to depart from this body, malicious spirit. Without delay the spirit departed and the woman remained free from her affliction.

[132] Peter Tessifone of Gerona, An eye is restored; in the twelfth year of his age, having one eye completely ruined, received it sound upon the application of a piece from the ribs of the Blessed. Also a boy born at Gerona a year and a half before, named Peter Vignes, ruptured in the third month from his birth: A boy with hernia, but carried by his mother to the sacred chapel dedicated to this Blessed, after prayers were poured forth there for his health, he was found healthy and whole. Margaret Unies, from the same place, having given her son born to her the name of Salvator in honor of the Blessed: he, however, at four weeks of age, was abstaining from suckling milk for the fourth day: And another dying child are healed. for which reason the mother, despairing of his life, had ordered everything to be prepared for the funeral. Meanwhile she came to hope that he could be saved through the merits of the blessed Patron, and with great trust said: Hear my prayers, O Blessed Salvator, out of love for whom I gave this name to my son: now I humbly beg that he may continue to live. And as she herself said these things, the infant, his eyes already nearly closed in death, opened them; sucked the breast, and lives healthy to this day.

[133] Anna Eulalia, a native of the same city, twelve years old, Multiply injured from a severe fall, having fallen from a roof onto a street paved with large stones, broke both arms — one in one place, the other in two — and was severely injured in the chest, forehead, and head, vomiting a great quantity of blood: and when all the remedies that could be devised had been applied, the physicians said to the afflicted father of the poor girl that she would certainly die within a few hours: for a little body, broken and bruised in so many places, could not be healed. She persisted, however, in that state the whole night and the morning part of the following day, She is kept alive by the touch of the garment, when two Brothers, entering the house to commend her soul to God, one of them carrying a piece of the habit of the Blessed, devoutly placed it, having first said the Our Father and Hail Mary, upon the dying girl. Who was soon seen by all, to their wonder, to extend both arms, the three fractures having been healed; her forehead also, which had been terribly pushed back into her head, was raised and restored to its proper form. Then, when she began to speak, those who stood by said: Say, daughter, Blessed Salvator, help me. Which words, as she was told, she readily repeated, and thenceforth remained entirely and completely healthy. By the same means, James Gottardus of Barcelona, Likewise another dying man, given up by the physicians and close to death, was kept alive. John Comas also, from the diocese of Gerona, rose to his feet from the bed Paralysis is healed, where he had been lying paralytic, as soon as he received from his brother a piece from the same habit and said: Blessed Salvator, I beg you to deign to help me: and he rendered many thanks to the same.

[134] Susanna Violalis, from the town of Horta, having for three months a swollen breast, hard as a rock, And a swelling of the breast. and finding no help in the art of physicians, ordered a bowl full of water to be brought, and having dipped a small cloth in it, she placed it on the affected part, saying: O Blessed Salvator, I pray you to extend help to me in this my affliction, from which, if I do not die, I vow to visit your monastery nine times, in which one of your ribs is preserved. After which, going to bed, she fell asleep; and waking in the morning and looking at her breast, she saw on it a tiny blister the size of a chickpea, and found it doubled in size on the second day, and finally opened on the third: and when a great quantity of putrefied blood and pus was expressed through it, she rejoiced that she was completely healed. Magdalena Comas of Casetas in the kingdom of Aragon had a little daughter of eighteen months, on whose head and around whose neck spreading crusts, And a purulent infection of the head. excessively large, oozed with much pus. And so she went to the Virgin of Horta, where she understood by report that a rib of the Blessed was preserved: which she faithfully kissed, and asked that it be placed in a basin, and catching the water with which it had been soaked in cloths, she placed them on the neck and head of her daughter, asking help from Blessed Salvator: and on the very next morning she affirmed that she could find not even a trace of the former disease in her daughter.

[135] From the same place, Joanna Sellent had a son named Augustine, who, having fallen from a tree, broke both his hips.

Hips likewise broken from a fall, Thus debilitated, she brought him to Horta to the church, beginning to pray thus: O Blessed Salvator, wherever in the world you now dwell, I beseech you to hear my prayers and make my beloved son well. Salvator had already died at Cagliari: yet her prayers were heard, and the boy was restored to perfect health. John Pelliciarius was from Horta, and was gravely ill from an acute fever: Acute fever, but he rose from his bed healthy, invoking Blessed Salvator, and came to honor his Relic in the monastery with acts of thanksgiving. Joanna Gonora, also of Horta, with her neck enormously swollen, was enduring severe pains: Swelling of the neck, but after reverently kissing the sacred rib and pouring forth prayers for her health, she did not desire the same beyond the following day. Colic pain, Kissing the same Relic, Don Dionysius of Loris and Graudesa escaped free from a colic attack that was thought likely to bring death. John of Genoa, also of Horta, paralytic now in one arm, now in one foot, Various paralysis. now in one shoulder, after making his prayer to the Blessed, took up a piece from his habit to wear, and quickly found himself healed. A certain Brother had a similar piece from the capuce of the Blessed, and being asked to enter the house of John Alis to make a prayer over the sick man, he placed it upon him; and called upon the prayers of Blessed Salvator for the same: and at that very moment the intestines that had been dangerously hanging outside the body were drawn back in, And hernia is healed. and John recognized the efficacy of the invoked aid.

[136] In this year 1607, when Brother John of Caprerola was at Rome in the convent of the Ara Coeli, President of the Penitentiary at Saint John Lateran by the command of Pope Paul V, he fell so ill there that he lost all use of his senses: Two dying Brothers are healed by the touch of the capuce, and lest the physicians leave anything untried for his healing, they also applied a cautery to his head: and when the said Father appeared not to have felt its impression by any means, the physicians judged that his health and life should be considered among the desperate. At the same time the Provincial of Sardinia, Brother Dimas Serpi, was staying in the same place, having with him the capuce of Blessed Salvator; and devoutly having recourse to him through prayers, when he had commended the sick man to God, to the Blessed Virgin, and to Salvator himself, he went to him and placed the said capuce upon his head: and immediately the sick man, having come to himself, began to speak, felt the pain from the cautery, and appearing to be continuously better, soon recovered fully.

[137] In the same convent Brother Thomas of Massa, formerly Provincial of the Marches, began to fall ill, At Rome in the Ara Coeli. and was brought by the violence of the disease and the most intense pains to a state where nothing seemed to remain but death. But the health despaired of by the physicians was granted by divine goodness, propitiated by the prayers of the Blessed Virgin and her servant Salvator, at the application of the aforesaid capuce, placed upon the sick man by the same Father Dimas: for immediately, with the pains removed, the sick man recovered and rendered the thanks that were fitting.

CHAPTER XIV.

On the veneration of Blessed Salvator and the acts for his Canonization.

[138] The miracles that God works daily at Cagliari, where the Blessed died, through the invocation of him and the most holy Virgin, The body illustrious with miracles, it is impossible to enumerate by writing; since scarcely a day passes without his garment or capuce being carried to various places for the dangerously ill or women in childbirth; to all of whom present help is likewise brought. He has there in the church of Saint Mary of Jesus a chapel dedicated to him, In his own chapel, in which his sacred body rests in a casket, inwardly lined with red damask cloth, upon a mattress made of cloth of the same color, and stuffed with cotton. The casket is outwardly covered with black silk, distinguished by gilded nails, Kept in a fine casket, and secured by a double lock; of which the Archbishop keeps one key and the Guardian the other. The same casket is furthermore enclosed in another iron one, to be opened with three keys; of which two are in the hands of the Consuls of the city and the third in the power of the Guardian. His feast is on Sunday 2 after Epiphany. This Saint is venerated with a solemn feast on every second Sunday after the Epiphany in the aforesaid church; when a sermon about his miracles is delivered to the people during the Mass that is sung of All Saints: at which the Clergy and all the people converge, to honor their physician and common Patron, for whom many devout persons adapt the customary Responsory for Confessors with its prayer: in the manner in which the same are read above in the preliminary commentary. Where the same things are said to be customarily chanted daily at the tomb of the Blessed.

[139] For the Canonization of the same, processes formed by the command of our Most Holy Lord, Pope Paul V, have been presented to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, The letter of the Catholic King to the Pope, together with a letter of the Catholic King of Spain, Philip III, and a brief memorial concerning the Life and miracles of the said Blessed: the tenor of the letter is as follows. Most Holy Father, I have written to the Duke of Escalona, my Counselor and Ambassador, to speak with your Holiness about the Canonization which the Franciscan Brothers and the natural ministers of the Crown of Aragon say is owed to Brother Salvator of Horta, a lay Brother of the same Religion, from my Principality of Catalonia: whose body is found today in the church of the monastery of Jesus, in the city of Cagliari, in my kingdom of Sardinia. I beseech your Holiness to give full credence to everything to be reported to you in my name by the aforesaid Duke about this matter, and to grant him every necessary favor and grace opportune for this purpose. For besides the fact that this matter tends to the service and glory of God and of our Lord and of His Saints, I too shall derive a singular fruit of joy from it, and shall acknowledge the grace done to me by your Beatitude, whose most holy person may our Lord guard, and make prosperous for the governance of his universal Church. Given on the 17th day of January in the year 1604.

Your Holiness's most humble and most devoted son, Don Philip, by the grace of God King of Castile, Aragon, León, both Sicilies, Jerusalem, Portugal, the Indies, Navarre, etc. I kiss your holy feet and hands.

[140] There were two parts of the memorial: the first of which concerning his Life comprised these points. Every night he chastised himself with a harsh whip even to blood. A summary of the virtues is offered to the Roman Curia, Every morning he confessed and communicated at the first Mass. He never had a room or bed, but remained the whole night in the church. Throughout his whole life, whatever the season of the year, he walked barefoot. He was a man of continual prayer: for whether he was employed in the service of the kitchen or garden, or wandering about seeking alms, no voices were ever heard from him in receiving the commands of obedience other than Jesus and Mary. He performed the greatest penance, fasted frequently, and was of singular charity toward the sick. He was sometimes seen during prayer raised two cubits above the ground, and was often caught up in ecstasy. He conversed with Christ, the most holy Virgin, and Saint Paul, to whom he was singularly devoted. He was endowed with a prophetic spirit concerning past, present, and future things. When he was once blessing more than two thousand people, three lighted torches appeared above his head at full midday. One night he appeared to a woman who had a breast eaten by cancer and was imploring his help, and healed her with the sign of the holy Cross. He was seen descending from a very high mountain in a white cloud. The same, impressing the sign of the Cross on a certain rock, drew water from it, which, flowing to this day, is salutary to many sick people. His body, incorrupt and breathing a sweet fragrance, survives at Cagliari to this day. Tossed by great persecutions, he bore them all with singular patience, and was never on their account seen with a sadder countenance. He always showed himself affable and easy to all, and compassionate toward the afflictions of the sick. Often when he was speaking with someone, he would say: My son, confess such and such a sin. He ordered all who came to him for the sake of obtaining health to confess and communicate: and if anyone had not made his confession rightly, he would say: Go, my son, and state this sin also. Most chaste in all his life, always a virgin, and of the greatest simplicity. In the convent of Cagliari a most beautiful chapel is seen, in which the body of this Blessed rests, to whose veneration an immense multitude of people converges, marveling at the frequency of the very many and very great miracles, And of the miracles of Blessed Salvator after death, by which the divine majesty amplifies his glory more and more each day.

[141] The second part of the memorial exhibited a summary of the principal miracles performed by the same Blessed Salvator, comprehended in the following points. He raised two dead persons, of whom one had already been placed in the coffin, the other drowned in a river. Likewise a woman killed when the fetus died in her womb: whom the touch of the capuce of the same Blessed, having expelled the putrid corpse of the abortive child, recalled to life. He freed and frees daily from the danger of imminent death very many who reverently kiss his habit: and by name he preserved Don Hilarion of Alagon Requesens and Cardona, Marquis of Sorris, in his death agony; and Don John, son of the Count of Elda, And in life, who recovered when the casket of the blessed body was brought to him. Similarly the Viscount of Sellari, placed at the point of death, received health when the habit of the Blessed was placed upon him. By the sign of the Cross he healed one hundred and twenty-three paralytics. He gave the use of their ears and tongue to thirty-five people deaf and mute from birth.

He freed innumerable demoniacs: but only eleven are named in the proven processes. It is established from the processes that he gave sight to thirty-one persons blind from birth, although he did the same for many others. To a twelve-year-old girl whose face was twisted toward her back, he restored it to its proper state by first making the sign of the Cross: and by the same sign he removed a monstrous appendage from another girl's forehead that hung down to her mouth. It is certain from the processes that more than twelve thousand reported that rupture or hernia had been cured through his merits. The number of those whom he freed from the ailments and diseases of arthritis, scabies, scrofulas, cancer, and other incurable maladies is also infinite. Nor were those with dropsy fewer, although only fifteen are named in the processes. He healed burned arms, legs, or other members of at least three thousand. By the sign of the Cross he healed a girl who was blind and also mute and deaf from her very birth. Likewise a leprous little boy, and innumerable others. Likewise another whose side gaped with a large wound. Furthermore, a woman whose womb had been hanging outside her body for three years. He also extracted a dagger from the wounded chest of a certain man and made him well by the sign of the Cross. Finally, he has mercy and every day succors the needs of those who, afflicted by fever or other pains or infirmities, commend their health to him. He is inscribed in the catalogue of the Blessed.

[142] When the aforesaid letters and memorial of King Philip had been duly offered and accepted, and the processes had been examined in due form at the Roman Curia, permission was granted to print the image of Salvator with the title of Blessed and with miracles displayed around it; as was done for the honor and glory of God, the Blessed Virgin, and the Franciscan Order: and we are confident that the Church will refer him to the catalogue of the Saints itself by canonizing him. Meanwhile, reader, rejoice in the reading of his holy and admirable Life, and venerate him devoutly: mindful above all of this counsel, which he used to employ familiarly: that the soul must first be cleansed, and then whatever is asked will easily be obtained.

GLEANINGS

From Vincent Domenech

and the Lives published by Dimas Serpi

In the years 1600 and 1602.

Salvator of Horta, of the Order of Saint Francis of the Observance, at Cagliari in Sardinia (Blessed).

[143] The Blessed Father, Brother Salvator of Horta, was a Catalan by origin, The parents of Blessed Salvator, from comfortable fortune, and his parents were prosperous farmers, tenants of the parish of Bruñola in the diocese of Gerona, and possessors of a certain tower or estate called Masdauall, which today is seen destroyed and desolate upon a small hill, and has entirely reverted to woodland. These servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, by divine disposition, fell into extreme poverty and grave illnesses, to be tested like the just Job. Which calamity brought them the necessity of resorting, for the sake of treatment, to the Hospital of Saint Columba of Farnesia; Reduced to the hospital: where, having recovered from their illnesses, they so commended themselves to the Bailiff and the officials of that place that they asked them to remain there and undertake the care of the Hospital and the poor who came there. Which condition, compelled by poverty, they cheerfully undertook, exercising themselves in that duty after the likeness of the great Abraham, with a charity so great that God seems to have approved it, bestowing upon them the fruit of blessing — this Blessed Salvator, that is — whom they raised in a Christian and careful manner.

[144] The local tradition about him holds that around the sixth year of his age, tending a flock like David, when he wished to water it, He himself is rescued from the waters by a miracle, he slipped into the very bed of the brook, and by the force of the water rushing to turn the nearest mill, was swept along to its very channel. Through which they supposed he would be dragged under the mill wheel, those who had seen him falling from a distance: but running up, they found him splashing the waters with his palms and playing innocently in them, and they drew him out, having no doubt that he had been preserved by a miracle. When older, he was taken with a little sister of his to Barcelona, He is taken to Barcelona with his sister, and both were placed in the service of a certain master. There his sister, named Blasia, married an honest man called Master Antonio Trauer, who sold copper and iron wares in the market that the Catalans call "del Blat." She was, moreover, as the process records, a woman of honest life and reputation, and lived and died without children.

[145] Salvator, however, having been put to the cobbler's trade, after he had learned his craft, Where he takes the habit of Saint Francis, at God's inspiration he sought and obtained the habit of the Seraphic Order, admitted as a lay Brother on account of the gift of rare simplicity, which gave all great hope of future sanctity. And this appeared far from vain, even during the period of his novitiate, when, while he was praying in the church, everything in the locked kitchen was found ready for a dinner lavish beyond the ordinary, which Salvator had forgotten on account of the fervor of his prayer: and he was furthermore by no means suited to prepare the same, since he was little skilled in that ministry, even when the customary meals were to be prepared. When the year of his novitiate was completed, however, and his vows pronounced, having been inserted into the Religious life, he added to his other exercises of virtue a great charity toward the poor: And is appointed porter, wherefore, having been appointed to the office of porter, he distributed the most ample alms he could to them. Observing this, the Guardian, fearing lest he empty the entire pantry, ordered the storerooms to be locked and took from him the power of entering them. And so he tried from other sources to provide for the needs of the poor, He is most generous toward the poor: for which he had a great facility: since, being lovable to all on account of the example of his most innocent life, friends and pious people sent him baskets full of bread. Whence it happened that the Guardian, seeing him proceed thus loaded to the poor, said to him: Consider, Brother, that we too are poor, and it is fitting first to provide for those at home rather than strangers. But he replied: It is not given to me for this purpose, Father, that I should give to those who have; but to the poor, who do not have: God already takes care of the Brothers, and I have never seen anyone die of hunger.

[146] Let this be an example of singular meekness. Salvator was once sitting by the fire, Doused with boiling water, he is not harmed: and the cook, stirring it up to burn more brightly by piling on logs, overturned a cauldron full of boiling water upon the feet of the one sitting by. He, not at all disturbed, said with a modest laugh: Now, Brother, you will have to work again to boil fresh water: why do you not pay more attention? Those who were present, however, ran to see how seriously the water had burned him. To whom he replied: Nothing bad has happened: indeed, since it has been a long time since I washed my feet, it was convenient to have them washed at least this way: may God reward the charity. God, moreover, honored His servant with more evident miracles of healings. A certain woman, contracted from childbirth, had not been able to move from her place for eight full years, He shines with the grace of healings: when Salvator, collecting alms, passed by her house: and invited inside to cure her, he said: Confess first of all, daughter; then I shall return, and trust in God that He Himself will heal you. On the same day, having summoned a Confessor, the woman, having been absolved, received the Sacrament of the Eucharist: and immediately all saw Salvator enter the room, admonished by no one, and he said: Daughter, because you have commended yourself to God, He Himself heals you from this infirmity: and he formed the sign of the Cross over the sick woman: who immediately rose from her bed and went out of the house to give thanks to God for the health conferred through the merit of His servant.

Another time a man was brought to him who had a dagger stuck in his chest, which the physicians forbade to be extracted, lest he die before having confessed his sins: Salvator, however, extracted it by hand and dismissed him free of danger; and the wound itself was soon healed.

[147] One day, observing his own Guardian downcast because the Brothers lacked bread, Salvator said: Father, you have little faith: trust in God: for soon what is lacking will be brought to us most abundantly. He provides the Brothers with bread, He had spoken, and behold there was a knock at the door, and the Saint, going out, returned and called the Guardian to come and see four baskets full of excellent bread. To whom Salvator said: Do you see, Father, how God provides for us? But from where this bread had been brought could never be discovered: for no one ever appeared who would reclaim the baskets. And he also shone with the spirit of prophecy: for I remember (says Brother Dimas Serpi) that my father once brought me to him and said: He foreknows the future, Pray to God, Father, that he may make this boy His servant. He, moreover, blessing me, said to my father: See that this boy studies; take care not to withdraw him from his studies. And indeed, after having attended rhetoric, I had abandoned my literary studies, for in Cagliari neither Philosophy nor Theology was taught: but my father, complying with the counsel of Salvator, sent me away to Valencia, where, having completed the course of studies, I put on the habit of the Seraphic Order, and then, having been made Provincial of Sardinia, I devoted my efforts to bringing his wonderful works to light; and now I have come to Spain as Apostolic Commissioner, attending to the process for his Canonization, all of which I believe he foresaw at that time.

[148] In the year from the Virgin Birth 1559, when the fame of his sanctity was spreading from the small monastery of Horta through all Spain, He works miracles at Horta, which God wished to be attested by many miracles, when very many gathered to him to obtain their health, the parents of a certain girl named Beatrice, who had contracted a monstrosity from her mother's womb (for as she walked, she bent her head toward her back to the wonder and pity of all), came among the rest, praying that he would free her from such a deformity: which they also obtained: for by the merits of so great a man the girl was miraculously freed from the aforesaid deformity. Also to a certain son of Alfonso of Mena, a Baeotian, mute and deaf from birth, speech and hearing were restored. James Pallares, through the intercession of this Saint, recovered his lost sight: and four or five men were freed from paralysis. Concerning which and other things, when he had once and again reported to Sixtus V, the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Francesco Gonzaga, Archbishop of Mantua, Approved by Sixtus V. the Pontiff held that report ratified and approved through a Brief that begins: "Since, as you recently set forth to us," etc. Given at Rome at Saint Mark's, under the ring of the Fisherman, on the 3rd day of September, in the year 1586, the second year of his Pontificate.

[149] Amid all this, Salvator preserved such humility of spirit that when a certain nobleman once said to him: He does not fear vainglory, Brother Salvator, watch yourself, lest some thought of vanity creep in from the fact that the world pays you such great honor, and people, when the sign of the Cross has been made by you, depart freed from their infirmities; he replied: Bless God who created you: but know this, that I am like a sack of straw, which feels itself equally honored whether it is placed in the highest or lowest parts of the house, or even in a stable. In a similar manner, having been summoned to Madrid for an audience with His Majesty and Queen Isabella, at his first address he said to them: May God your creator bless you. Jesus, Mary, why did you have me come here? Who would labor to see a poor cook

of the holy Father Francis? He humbly replies to the King and Queen of Spain. The King, however, said: I have heard of the admirable works that God performs through you: and I desired to see you, that you may remember to commend us to the divine majesty, that we and our kingdoms may be preserved in the purity of the holy faith and its service. Then the Blessed said: God is so good that He will fulfill desires so pleasing to Himself through the intercession of the Queen of heaven; for through her hands we ought to expect whatever graces: but in me there exists no merit, by reason of which, when I pray for such things, He should hear me. This, however, He does through this vile instrument, just as you too, who often use a bad servant for the benefit of your kingdoms.

[150] Meanwhile a cushion was brought for him to sit on, upon which the simple Brother, with his feet muddy as they were, stood, He frees the Queen from a fever: and left dirty marks upon it. The Queen, moreover, as is narrated by ancient tradition, was struck by a violent fever, and finding no swift remedy, wished that same cushion to be reverently placed upon her body, and invoking Blessed Salvator, she remained free from the troublesome fever. The memory of this visit to the court survives in a certain reply letter to Don Yvon Hornos, given before he departed from Barcelona, in this tenor: Jesus, Mary, etc. If it shall please the Lord that I go to Castile, I shall take account of you. For the rest, place your trust in God, that He may sustain you with His hand and bestow His blessing upon you. From Jesus, Barcelona, on the feast of the Holy Cross. Brother Salvator, unworthy.

[151] Such was the fame of his name throughout all the kingdoms of Spain, which the persecutions stirred up against him could not extinguish but rather made more illustrious, Brought before the Inquisition, whether at Horta, where he predicted that someday they would rejoice to have possessed him whom they were then casting out; or at Reus. To these a much graver persecution succeeded at Barcelona, where he was ordered to appear before the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition: and to that court, as it seems to have been divinely given the ability to distinguish good from bad, so it was not difficult to prove the innocence and sanctity of the blessed man: and when this was recognized, the Inquisitors themselves, dismissing him, said: Father Salvator, pray to God for us. Returning from there, moreover, he performed two illustrious miracles, restoring sight to a blind man and hearing to a deaf man. It happened, however, that the very same man He is made illustrious by miracles. who as Guardian at Reus had so notably exercised the holy man's patience with his harshness, was placed in charge of the Barcelona convent, and being established in greater authority, provided his subject with a greater occasion for endurance. God nevertheless continued to render him famous and conspicuous to all by so many miracles that it was impossible to reckon their number, and the more deeply his Superiors strove to bury this treasure, the more evident was the light in which divine goodness placed him.

[152] Finally, in the year 1565, to avoid popular acclaim, he crossed over to the same island with a certain Commissioner of Sardinia, Brother Vincent Ferri, Transferred to Cagliari, he falls ill, and having found a dwelling in the convent of Cagliari, there also he became known and renowned in a short time through many wonders, until he fell into the last illness that he had foreseen and foretold: in which the extraordinary veneration of all toward him manifested itself. For neither the Viceroy nor the Archbishop nor anyone established in a higher rank of dignity or nobility thought it should be left undone to commend themselves to the prayers of one whose soul they held for certain would be received into eternal blessedness immediately upon its departure from the body. They say, moreover, that, bearing an angelic cheerfulness over his whole face, he replied to all with these words alone: Jesus, Mary, what shall I do? And when his illness pressed him more closely, about to exact the final debt of mortality, And amid pious sighs he dies, clasping the Crucifix most tightly and pressing his lips to the wounded feet, he was dissolved in the affections of love and said: O my Spouse! O my Lord! O all my good! I am entirely yours; receive me among the ministers of your house: forgive me, merciful one, that I have not served you as I should have, and have responded poorly to such great benefits as you have conferred upon this vile creature of yours. Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit. In these words speech left him; yet he moved his lips again and again. Some therefore, bringing their ears closer to his mouth, heard him, with his voice entirely failing, pronouncing those names so dear to him as they were familiar: Jesus, Mary. And thus he returned his soul to his Creator, on the eve of Saint Joseph in the year 1567.

[153] After three days, his body was committed to burial; in the meantime, however, and afterwards, many miracles were performed at his invocation: A woman placed on the tomb receives the ability to walk: among which notable is the healing of a certain rustic woman, who, deprived of the faculty of walking, was brought by her husband in a cart, thinking that he would find the Saint still alive: but hearing that he was dead, with great indignation he lifted his wife from the vehicle and, carrying her to the church, placed her upon the sepulchre of the Blessed, and went off to care for his oxen. She, however, so insistently and with such tears commended herself to the Saint that she merited to rise from there healed and to return home on her own feet. Indeed his garments also were a protection to many in various needs. I myself was present, says Dimas Serpi, A dying man is helped by a piece of his garment, when a certain Religious, agitated for eight days by a most dangerous hiccup, so that he could neither eat nor even breathe comfortably, was freed from that ailment, about whose remedy the physicians had despaired, as soon as a piece from his garment was placed upon his mouth.

[154] Against a demon occupying the body of a certain woman, the sacred exorcisms had availed nothing: but when the capuce of Blessed Salvator was obtained from the monastery, The capuce frees a demoniac, and the Religious entered the house with it, the demon began to cry out that they should throw out those who were entering. When the same had come closer to where the demoniac was held bound, it said to them: Go, run, Brothers: because at this very point in time your Sacristan has fallen from a ladder while hanging certain cloths in the church. But the Religious, having imposed silence on the demon, unfolded the capuce and placed it on the demoniac woman, who, immediately free from the demon, said: Jesus, Mary: loose me. And having been loosed, she came to where the venerable body was and offered acts of thanksgiving. But since during those days she was as if dazed, she returned another time and asked that the sacred body be shown to her: and she placed her head inside the casket: and reverently kissing the arm (for the hands and feet had been carried away by the pious theft of the faithful) — the arm, I say — she rose as healthy as she had appeared on that day when she testified to this, and lives much devoted to Blessed Salvator.

[155] On another occasion, in the presence of many (says the same as above), I was present with a demoniac woman who was furious beyond measure, Another one freed by another relic of Blessed Salvator. and I placed the small rib of the Blessed in her mouth, not without great labor, on account of the incredible force with which she resisted me, saying: Take this one away from me: for on account of him I did not wish to enter here: and she repeated this quite often, meanwhile raging with such fury that the wretched woman did not even recognize her own husband. I, however, in the name of God and of Blessed Salvator, adjured the demon to tell me whether there was one or more occupying the woman. And when they responded that they were three in all, I commanded in the name of the most Holy Trinity and of Blessed Salvator of Horta that they depart from there; and I placed the Relic on the mouth of the sick woman: upon which the unseen guests departed, and the woman said: O Blessed Salvator of Horta, help me. I asked, moreover, whether she was free. She herself said: I am free, Father, but they are waiting for me until the Relic is removed from me. I therefore left her a piece from the habit and also a little flesh torn from the rib, and the demons, disappearing, left the woman entirely free. On the following day I returned to visit her, and she herself told me that the demons had again appeared to her and had said: Cast those pieces far away, and we shall do what we wish. But she had pressed the Relics all the more closely to her breast and had said: O Blessed Salvator of Horta, help me. And immediately the enemies had disappeared, and were thereafter seen no more.

OTHER MATTERS

On the preliminaries to the Canonization.

From the same sources.

Salvator of Horta, of the Order of Saint Francis of the Observance, at Cagliari in Sardinia (Blessed).

[156] The miracles already related clearly appear to have been done after that time After 12 years, the sepulchre is opened, when the body, dug up from the ground, began to be held in public veneration: and this occasion was given for that exhumation. After the sacred pledge had lain hidden underground for some years, a certain Judge of the Rota died, exceedingly devoted to the Blessed; who provided in his testament that he should be buried next to Blessed Salvator. And when they opened his sepulchre, they found the body of the Blessed so close to the very floor of the pavement The body is found at the surface of the ground. that it was scarcely covered by a small amount of earth in between: which was a cause of no small wonder to all, with those who had buried him testifying that they had buried him quite deeply, as is the custom for burying others. Which cannot be believed to have happened for any other reason than that men might recognize in how great veneration God wished the body to be held, which for the love of Him had been so greatly mortified and afflicted. Having therefore been removed from the ground, it was placed inside one of the more precious chapels of that most beautiful church, And is transferred to the chapel of Saint Peter. which had been built not far from the walls of Cagliari in the year 1508 with public and private alms. The chapel, moreover, was consecrated under the invocation of Saint Peter, in whose wall is enclosed the casket, the guardian of the precious deposit, at which God continued to work many miracles: moved by which, the above-mentioned Archbishop of Mantua twice reported on them to the Supreme Pontiff, Sixtus V, who through the Brief, as we said, given in the year 1586, wished account to be taken of the information received: yet no further progress was made in that matter.

[157] Meanwhile, with the miracles increasing and the devotion of the people toward Salvator growing, there came to Sardinia Apostolic Visitors, sent by Pope Clement VIII in the cause of all the Religious; Apostolic Visitors in Sardinia, who, having reverently venerated this treasure in the church of the Brothers, judged by Apostolic authority that a Commissioner should be appointed to take charge of gathering the information to be collected in preparation for the processes preliminary to the Canonization, in the tenor of the following letters. Since in the visitation of the aforesaid kingdom, in the city and castle of Cagliari, in the church of Saint Mary of Jesus, of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance, in the chapel under the invocation of Saint Peter, near the high altar, we found a casket elevated above the ground, in which the body of the Venerable Father, Brother Salvator of Horta,

lay incorrupt: They appoint a Commissioner to prepare the processes: which venerable Father, honored by the prayers of all the faithful of Christ of both sexes of this city, Almighty God caused to shine with many miracles both in life and after death. We therefore, that we may praise glorious men and that God may be glorified through them, have committed and by the tenor of these presents do commit to the aforesaid Father Dimas Serpi (formerly Provincial Minister of this Province), an honest and pious man, the investigation of the religious life, integrity of morals, penance, holiness, pious conduct among the people, and also of all the miracles, both in life and after death, wrought by the same venerable Father, both in the present city and castle of Cagliari and also in the kingdom of Catalonia... so that we may present the same to the Roman Pontiff and supplicate for the beatification and declaration of sanctification of so great and venerable a man: that he may pray for us in heaven, whose memory of miracles we seek on earth.

[158] The aforesaid Dimas Serpi immediately set his hand to the work committed to him, and at the same time God moved the spirit of the Most Illustrious Count of Elda, A new chapel is built, Viceroy of Sardinia, to have a new chapel built for him in which his body would be preserved, enclosed in a casket lined inwardly with red damask, but outwardly with black silk, distinguished by gilded nails and fringes of the purest gold. When these were duly prepared, the Archbishop of Cagliari instituted the inspection of this sacred body, in the chapel of the high altar upon a damask carpet, before the more illustrious inhabitants of the city of Cagliari; and he saw and felt that body after thirty-four years to be incorrupt, The body is inspected by the Archbishop, and so flexible in its neck, arms, and knees as if it were alive. Which also appeared when, set upright on its feet, its head fell forward upon its chest as that of a living person: and what is even greater than these things, I explored by touch, says Dimas, that it was entirely free of corruption, feeling and examining all the intestines and all the viscera one by one: all of which the sworn physicians affirmed could not have been preserved intact without an evident miracle. After the sacred pledge was placed in its new casket, everything was prepared for the solemn translation to its own chapel: And is transferred; the day of which the Archbishop then magnificently celebrated at his own expense; and after the sacred rites performed pontifically, he transferred the sacred body into the aforesaid casket: which stood conspicuous on a handsome platform adorned with golden cloth, in the middle of the church, for that entire day. In the evening, moreover, the Archbishop, the Viceroy, the city magistrates, and the entire city again converged for a procession, by which the Relics were solemnly carried about and brought into the new chapel; where God does not cease to render aid, often miraculous beyond the powers of nature, to those who piously invoke Blessed Salvator.

[159] It remained, after all things that could be done in Sardinia had been diligently performed, either for honoring the relics of the Saint In the year 1600 by the same Archbishop, or for proving the sanctity of Salvator to the Roman Curia, that the Commissioner should cross over to Spain: and for this purpose the Archbishop equipped him with these patent letters: We, Don Alfonso Lasso Sedeño, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See, Archbishop of Cagliari, Bishop of the Unions, Primate of Sardinia and Corsica, Standard-bearer of the holy Roman Church, Prior of Saint Saturninus, Lord of the Baronies of Suelli and Saint Pantaleon, and of the island of Saint Antioch, of the Council of the Royal Majesty, etc. To all and each who shall inspect these present letters, we certify that we personally attended in the church of Saint Mary of Jesus, of the Order of Saint Francis of the Observance, to review and inspect the body of the venerable Father Salvator of Horta, which we found incorrupt: and having assembled for this purpose Doctors of Medicine and Surgeons, they affirmed with one voice that the aforesaid body could not be preserved, On the incorruption of the body, as it now is, except miraculously. Therefore, at the petition of illustrious men and the people (who affirmed that they had been freed from the dangers of death, infirmities, and ills by the prayers of the same venerable Father Salvator of Horta, to whom they had commended themselves), that the memory of so great a religious and holy man may not perish, to the praise of Almighty God, we chose pious, honest, and learned men, namely John Thomas Caldentey, Doctor of Sacred Theology and of the sacred Canons, Dean of our holy Church of Cagliari, Vicar General of our Archbishopric; And the miracles attested to, and the Reverend Father Brother Dimas Serpi of the Order of Friars Minor of the Regular Observance, formerly Provincial Minister of this kingdom, to make an inquiry into all the miracles which Almighty God has deigned to work through the merits and intercession of the said venerable Father Blessed Salvator of Horta. And, as we have learned from them, through an instrument drawn up by an Apostolic Notary, God manifested His glory in him through many miracles, by which He made him illustrious both in life and after death. For which things to be obtained more perfectly and from their origin, The Commissioner is sent to Spain: the aforesaid Reverend Father Brother Dimas Serpi, whose fidelity we have tested, is sent to the kingdom of Catalonia at our wish by the Reverend Apostolic Visitor Fathers; to whom our Most Holy Lord, the Lord Clement, by divine providence Pope VIII, committed all things to be done in the said visitation of this kingdom of Sardinia. Given at Cagliari in our Archiepiscopal palace, on the 5th day of the month of February in the year 1600.

[160] When Dimas, having arrived in Spain, presented these letters to the Bishop of Barcelona and explained his petition to him, By whom and another appointed at Barcelona: requesting one or more pious, learned, and prudent men who would inquire according to the decrees of the Council of Trent into the life and miracles of Blessed Salvator, the most Reverend Don Francisco Olivon, Doctor of both Laws, Archdeacon of Saint Mary of the Sea, Canon of the Cathedral of Barcelona, Abbot of Saint Lawrence of the Mountain, and Prior or Perpetual Commendatory of Saint James of Fortinya, who today (says Domenech in the year 1602) is the Inquisitor of this Principality, was designated for that purpose by the Bishop. To him was added Brother Dimas himself, Apostolic Commissioner for the same purpose: who both, The process is formed, having employed all diligence with witnesses legitimately cited and examined, formed the process, afterwards confirmed and consigned by the Bishop in the following diploma.

[161] We, Ildefonso of Coloma, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See, Bishop of Barcelona, By the Bishop of Barcelona, of the Council of the Royal Majesty, to all and each who shall inspect these presents, greetings. The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, greatly loved by Christ, planted beside the running waters, cannot but daily bear precious fruit; especially since the Apostle says that if the root is holy, so are the branches. Romans 11:16 And since the root and foundation is Christ, and according to the same Apostle, no one can lay another foundation besides that which has been laid; hence it happens that the elect, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, as those chosen before the foundation of the world, shine forth by various works of holiness; left to us as an example and as a new shoot, that we may be provoked to imitate their footsteps. 1 Corinthians 3:11 And indeed, since among others who flourish in this vineyard, the venerable Father Salvator of Horta, of the Order of Saint Francis, It is approved, as to his life and miracles. was a branch of the tree and a stone of the foundation (as we piously believe), of extraordinary holiness and great purity; he is rightly to be praised and venerated by all. Reviewing his process, we have observed him to have been illustrated by God Almighty with many prerogatives and gifts: since those things which Paul enumerates appear in him; namely, the gift of wisdom in the renunciation of the world, of prophecy in the revelation of secrets, the grace of wonderful healings in healing those who came to him; 1 Corinthians 12:8 whom he received with a glad countenance and cheerful spirit and incredible charity: and what should not be consigned to oblivion, how extraordinary a follower of his vocation he was, and of his Seraphic Father's prayer, penance, disciplines, fasts, an admirable imitator of abstinence, of admirable humility, simplicity, and patience in persecutions, a most perfect imitator, and a lover of spotless purity. All of which things in the above-written process, drawn up by our command, presented to us and reviewed by us, appear more fully. Wherefore, lest so great a light and such wonderful works, shown to us in His humble servant, be hidden under a bushel, but may become known among men; so that by imitation of this venerable Father, having renounced the allurements of the world, they may strive to serve God, from whom all these things emanated: by the tenor of these presents, because we judge all things contained in the said process and the oaths received to be consonant with truth and piety, therefore in this our city and diocese, where the aforesaid venerable Father Salvator of Horta shone by so many wonderful works performed in the name of the Cross of Christ, we grant them to be proposed, read, and if necessary also printed. Given at Barcelona on the 30th day of August in the year of the Lord 1600.

Ildefonso Coloma, Bishop of Barcelona.