ON BLESSED BARTHOLOMEW OF ANGLARI, OF THE ORDER OF SAINT FRANCIS OF THE OBSERVANCE, AT EMPOLI IN ETRURIA.
IN THE YEAR 1510.
PrefaceBartholomew 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.
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 hworms 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 iMarianus (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 kGaspar 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 lCastiglione, 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 mchapel 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 nTuscans 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.
AnnotationsThat 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.
[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.