Leontius

ON SAINT LEONTIUS, BISHOP OF SAINTES IN GAUL.

SIXTH CENTURY

Leontius, Bishop of Saintes in Gaul (Saint)

[1] The ancient city of Saintes among the Aquitanians is adorned with an Episcopal See, in which several Bishops inscribed in the tables of the Saints are found, among whom Saint Leontius flourished in the seventh century of Christ, mentioned by Antoine de Mouchy (Demochares), Jean Chenu, Claude Robert, and the Sainte-Marthe brothers in their Catalogues of the Bishops of Saintes, and honored by them with the title of Saint. The title of Saint Saussay adorns him with this eulogy in the Gallican Martyrology: "Among the people of Saintes, of Saint Leontius the Bishop, successor of Saint Palladius, famous for the friendship and imitation of Saints; who, having formed his Clergy with outstanding morals, adorned churches with excellent buildings, and led his flock into the paths of salvation by the examples of a holy life, rich in merits, gloriously passed to heavenly joys." His celebrated memory is observed in the Church of Saintes, in whose Breviary, printed at Poitiers in the office of the Marnesius brothers in the year 1538, Ecclesiastical Office. the feast of Leontius, Bishop of Saintes, with nine Readings is noted on the fourteenth before the Calends of April; six of the readings are largely drawn from the Life of Saint Maclovius or Machutus, or Macutus, Bishop of Aleth in Brittany, to be given on November 15, in whose Life no certain mark of time appears, and which is perhaps to be aided by the dates of the Life of Saint Leontius, who buried him and attended the Synod of Reims held under Bishop Sonnatius in the year 624 or the following, as we have shown at length in book 4 of our Diatribe on the Three Dagoberts, Kings of the Franks, chapter 1. The following Prayer is also read on his feast: "O God, who adorned Blessed Leontius, your Confessor and Pontiff, with a praiseworthy life on earth, Prayer. and exalted him with eternal glory in heaven: grant, we beseech you, that by the support of his merits, our life may be commended to you." And the Readings for the Life are as follows:

[1] Readings for Matins. In the same century, among the people of Saintes, Macutus and Leontius, the Pastor of the city of Saintes, were conspicuous for the perfection of all virtues. Leontius was distinguished by the lineage of his ancestors, and still more distinguished by faith, piety, and charity, as the deeds of his episcopate testify.

[2] He, recognizing the virtues for which Macutus was celebrated among his own people, generously gave him a certain estate of no small revenue to inhabit, and fruits with which he and his monks might be nourished.

[3] And the inhabitants of his estate and village gave the same Macutus a donkey, which he might use for carrying wood for his own needs; and when a wolf caught and devoured the unwary animal, the ravenous wolf was ordered to succeed to the donkey's duty, fitted with a packsaddle and girded with straps; which the wolf, willing and gentle, performed for as long as he lived.

[4] Afterward, Bishop Leontius begged Macutus to deign to visit his diocese with him, parish by parish, abundantly and village by village. Macutus obeyed Leontius. And when in visiting they came to a village named Brya, through the prayers of Macutus a twelve-year-old boy was raised from the dead.

[5] Afterward, when Macutus had reached 133 years, he departed by a happy death; and Leontius reverently honored his body with a pious funeral and buried it in a church consecrated to the same Macutus, near the walls of the city of Saintes, on the western side.

[6] Then at last Leontius, after he had most strenuously discharged his duty, full of many years and still fuller of virtues, sensing that the last day of death was imminent, migrated to the Lord no less cheerfully than happily, and his body was interred in the monastery of Saint Eutropius.

ON SAINTS LANDOALDUS THE ARCHPRIEST, AMANTIUS THE DEACON, ADRIAN THE MARTYR, JULIAN, VINCIANA, AND ADELTRUDIS, AT WINTERSHOVEN AND GHENT IN BELGIUM.

SEVENTH CENTURY.

Preliminary Commentary.

Landoaldus, Archpriest, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (Saint). Amantius, Deacon, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (Saint). Adrian, Martyr, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (Saint). Julian, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (Saint). Vinciana, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (Saint). Adeltrudis, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (Saint).

[1] The deposition of Saint Landoaldus is celebrated on March 19 with an Ecclesiastical Office among the people of Ghent and in various ancient Martyrologies; of these, the Trier manuscript of Saint Martin and the Utrecht manuscript of Saint Mary add only the title of Confessor. Greven in the Supplement to Usuard calls him a Priest, Sacred cult of Saint Landoaldus, and the Tournai manuscript of Saint Martin calls him Archpriest. Longer encomia from the Acts are found in the Brussels manuscript of Saint Gudula and the manuscript Florarium of the Saints. Galesin joins a companion to him with these words: "At the port of Ghent, of Saint Landoaldus the Priest and Amantius the Deacon." Of the same, the following is read in today's Roman Martyrology: "At Ghent, of Saints Landoaldus, a Roman Priest, and Amantius, of Amantius, who, sent by Pope Saint Martin to preach the Gospel, were after death made illustrious by many miracles." Saussay has a long eulogy of the same in his Gallican Martyrology. Molanus in his Additions to Usuard joins several companions with these words: "At the port of Ghent, the deposition of Saint Landoaldus, Confessor and Archpriest. He nourished Blessed Lambert the Bishop in his boyhood and instructed him in sacred letters. Likewise the birthday of his holy companions, Amantius the Deacon, Adrian the Internuncio, and the rest, who rest with him at Ghent in the church of Saint Bavo." of Adrian the Martyr, Canisius in his German Martyrology celebrates Saint Landoaldus with his companions but with their names suppressed; but Baldwin Willot names these companions: Saints Amantius, Adrian the Martyr, and the holy Virgins Vinciana, his sister, and Adeltrudis. of Vinciana, Adeltrudis, and Julian, To these Molanus in his Birthdays of the Belgian Saints adds Saint Julian, and appends the eulogy of each mainly from the Acts. He adds that Saint Landoaldus, because he was Archpriest of the Roman Church, is painted as a Cardinal -- just as Saint Jerome the Presbyter customarily is, according to popular judgment. That Saint Adrian is honored among the Martyrs of Christ and painted with a rural staff and letters in his hands, as a messenger. He furthermore notes that Saint Adeltrudis is asserted by some to be a daughter of Saint Bavo, Was Adeltrudis a daughter of Saint Bavo? whom Abbot Theodoric, in his Life to be examined on the first of October, says was raised to the heights of the highest perfection. Of her, the following is found in the manuscript Florarium on February 25: "The birthday of Saint Angletrudis the Virgin, daughter of Saint Bavo the Confessor." In the metrical Life of Saint Bavo she is called Agletrudis. But Saint Vinciana, the sister of Saint Landoaldus, also has a special cult on September 11; just as Saint Landrada the Virgin, whose sacred bones were translated to Ghent at the same time, is honored on July 8. Her Acts will be published then.

[2] The celebrated Translation on December 1. The same Molanus in his Additions to Usuard treats of these Saints on the first of December with these words: "In the village of Wintershoven, the translation of Landoaldus the Confessor and his companions, which was performed by Saint Florebertus, Bishop of Liege." Canisius also mentions it in his Martyrology, but without naming the companions; March 5, the rest is read below in the Life, number 7, where at number 12 a certain Translation made on the third of the Nones of March of Saints Landrada, Adrian the Martyr, and Julian is mentioned, which Saussay inscribed in his Gallican Martyrology. But the most celebrated of all elevations is celebrated on June 13, and June 13. on which day the Tournai manuscript Martyrology of Saint Martin records: "At the castle of Ghent, the elevation of the body of Saint Landoaldus the Confessor"; Molanus adds "and of his companions," namely (as expressed in Canisius) Amantius, Adrian, Vinciana, and Landrada. On which day also among the people of Ghent this elevation or translation is celebrated with an Ecclesiastical Office.

[3] The Acts of these Saints were contained in an ancient booklet, but one which is said to have been consumed by fire through the carelessness of its guardians during the incursion of the Hungarians around the year 954, as stated below at number 9 in the Life and history of the Translation, The first Acts perished: which Bishop Notger of Liege composed, or at least published, at the request of the Abbot and monks of Ghent. For, as is read in the Chronicle of Ghent at the year 981, "the miracles of Saint Landoaldus and his companions, truthfully published by order of the Lord Notger, the distinguished Pontiff, were collected and others written by Hariger at Notger's command: by the Lord Hariger, his teacher and one skilled in the art of music, were described briefly indeed but with sufficient discretion and in a lucid style, and were confirmed by the authority of the Bishop himself and strengthened by the impression of his seal, and were faithfully sent to Abbot Womar of the Ghent monastery and to all." Which is more precisely explained below in the History of the Translation by a monk of Ghent at number 14:

namely, that in a full Synod the miracles of these Saints were proved before the Bishop, and at his command collected, and by the Lord Heynger, as we said above, described, etc. This Heynger, who is called above Herigerus and by others Harigerus, seems to be the one who inscribed the prooemium to the Deeds of the Bishops of Tongeren, Maastricht, and Liege, which he published under the name of the same Bishop Notger, to Werinfrid, Abbot of Stavelot; as those are read in an old manuscript preserved at Liege at Saint Martin's, and it is added that he collected not only the times and deeds of Saint Remacle but also of the other Bishops of that See, which could be scraped together from anywhere. Miraeus also, in his Scholia on Sigebert of Gembloux's On Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 137, asserts that the same Harigerus wrote the Life of Saint Landoaldus and his translation in two books, not Bishop Notger, to whom Molanus ascribes them. Harigerus died as Abbot of Lobbes in the year 1007.

[4] We separate from the second book the Appendix, as we note there, because it was excerpted from the History of the Translation which we give from a Ghent monk as author. The History of the Translation is given from manuscripts. We found that history in a very ancient Ghent manuscript and another manuscript of the monastery of Corsendonck near the town of Turnhout in Brabant. We have the earlier history appended to the said Ghent manuscript with this heading: "The annotation of Notger, Prelate of the holy Church of Maastricht, on the Translation of the holy Confessor Landoaldus the Archpriest and his companions." But that this history or Life of Saint Landoaldus by Notger, or rather by Harigerus, was written first, is clear from number 11 of the later history, where miracles are omitted because they had been accurately narrated in the earlier account. Various abridgements. In the manuscript codex of Rouge-Cloitre, only the first two chapters with the Appendix were present, as we note there. We also have sufficiently copious manuscript abridgements of all these from the codices of Corsendonck, Rouge-Cloitre, and a certain third one whose name was not affixed. Other abridgements have also been printed by Zacharias Lippeloo, Francis Haraeus, and Bartholomew Fisen in Latin; in Dutch by Heribert Rosweyde, in French by Jacques Doublet, William Gazet, and others. But above all others, the one customarily recited in the Ecclesiastical Office among the people of Ghent would be praiseworthy, were it not for some errors interspersed.

[5] The chronological marks of the period in which they flourished we discussed on February 6, in the Life of Saint Amandus, The arrival of these Saints in Belgium in the year 651, especially section 12, page 833, where we demonstrated that Saint Amandus undertook his third journey to Rome in the year 650 to Pope Saint Martin, when in the Acts below he is said to have gone to Rome a second time; then, returning the following year, having obtained privileges in January, he brought back as companions Saints Landoaldus, Amantius, Vinciana, Adeltrudis, and seven others. Bartholomew Fisen places these events in the year 634. But at that time, Saint Martin, who sent them, did not yet preside over the Church, having been created only in the year 647. After the abridgement of the Life contained in the Corsendonck and Rouge-Cloitre manuscripts, a "Notation of the years of the Lord of the death, Translation, and Elevation of these Saints" is added, and in the first place the following is read: "The deposition of Saint Landoaldus, Vice-Prelate, Archpriest and Cardinal of the holy Roman Church, buried at the aforesaid village of Wintershoven, in the year of the Lord 646." Which, excerpted from there, is recited in the Readings of the Ecclesiastical Office among the people of Ghent. But in that year he was still living at Rome, and Saint Lambert, whom he instructed as a boy, is not yet believed to have been born; the elevation of relics in the year 735, indeed, Childeric had not yet been born, from whom as King he afterward received daily necessary provisions, which we believe to have happened around the year 670. How long he lived afterward in the small monastery or church of Wintershoven built by himself is not clear. From the prescribed notation we more readily accept the following: "The Elevation of Saints Landoaldus, Vinciana, Amantius, Adrian, and other Saints by Saint Florebertus, Bishop of Maastricht, in the church of Blessed Peter at Wintershoven, solemnized on the first of December in the year 735." Saint Florebertus held his see from the year 727 to the year 746 and is honored on April 26. That the arrival of the holy Relics at the city of Ghent and the monastery of Saint Bavo the translation to Ghent in the year 980. occurred in the year 980 on March 25, and that their elevation there took place in the year 982 on June 13, is certainly established from the Acts of the Translation.

LIFE

Written by Harigerus at the Command of Bishop Notger of Liege.

From various manuscripts and Surius.

Landoaldus, Archpriest, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (Saint). Amantius, Deacon, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (Saint). Adrian, Martyr, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (Saint). Julian, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (Saint). Vinciana, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (Saint). Adeltrudis, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (Saint).

BHL Number: 4700, 4701, 4702, 4703, 4705, 4706, 4709, 4710

BY HARIGERUS THE ABBOT.

PROLOGUE.

Notger, whom, though unworthy, they proclaim Bishop of the servant of Saint Mary and Saint Lambert, to Womar, venerable Father in Christ, and to the Brothers of Ghent and all the faithful everywhere situated, The ancient Acts perished: who will read these things with an unbiased eye: perpetuity of the heavenly life. You have not hesitated, most reverend Fathers, to request -- indeed to exhort -- the little faculty of our small ability, that from the wonders which must be proclaimed to all ages and nations, and which in our days, though we are unworthy, have been manifested to us and moreover bestowed upon you, revealed in the translation of Saint Landoaldus the Archpriest and his companions -- since, having been taken from our diocese, they have, by God's preordination, yielded to your jurisdiction -- we should, as far as fame has been able to carry them to us, satisfy the petition of all, or rather of yourselves. A just petition indeed and a worthy exhortation, which, according to a certain wise man, is joined both with the honor of the present undertaking and the utility of the future age. For if the deeds of those had not been lost through the negligence of our predecessors, they would still suffice for us today. But "what we have heard and known, and our Fathers have told us" -- those things, namely, which our memory still retains -- we commit to writing at your request, lest we too be condemned by the posterity that follows. Being placed in doubt on these matters, because among you the art of arts is known and believed to be the episcopal office, silence weighed upon our suspended mind, and that poetic line, "Carry not logs to the forest," striking our soul, introduced a measure of diffidence. But because "the soul that never escapes itself is at fault," the torpor of diffidence yielded, your demand prevailed -- except that haste, which according to Socrates makes a favor more welcome, compelled us to hasten more than the matter required. For it had been said before us: "The strength that inexperience denies, charity supplies," and "the beginning alone is needed; the matter will work out the rest." We have therefore undertaken the task, lest we seem to flee from your authority. Whence these substituted. For authority is given to one who presumes, when he believes that the one he asks can accomplish what is asked; and conversely, for one who knows how to obey, the glory is equal with the one who commands. But if any future detractor should not fear to file these things with a biased eye and should presume to poison them with dark hatred and venomous biting, for his satisfaction we call Jesus and his holy Angels and the future judgment to witness that we have placed here little else than what we either heard from the Priest Sarabert (swearing this solemnly, and as he himself reported, strongly adjured by you and by the merits of these Saints) or found faithfully recorded in the writing delivered to us by you -- except only those things which, drawn from our bishopric, seemed to be suitably prefixed to this document in chronological order. Farewell. Given on the thirteenth before the Calends of July, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 980, the eighth Indiction, in the reign of the Lord Otto, in the eighth year after the death of his father, in the ninth year of our episcopate.

BOOK I.

The Deeds, Translations, and Miracles of Saint Landoaldus and His Companions, Performed at Wintershoven.

CHAPTER I.

Apostolic Men Under the Franks in Belgium. The Arrival of Saint Landoaldus and His Companions.

[1] The kingdom of the Franks, indefatigable from its beginning, seemed to flourish above all its neighboring kingdoms especially when it deigned to bow its neck to the yoke of the Lord's faith, Under the ancient Frankish kingdom. and wished henceforth to adore what it had burned, and to burn what it had formerly adored. The holy Church of God received its greatest increase and firm standing under it when King Clothar, the fourth by just succession from this point, was singularly ruling the monarchy of three kingdoms, and was in his fortieth year, which the Emperor Heraclius, who brought back the holy Cross, was in his fourteenth. This king suffered no scepter of any surrounding ruler to challenge his own; but whatever Gaul and Germany contained of kings and peoples, he strove to restrain with his reins. He had set his illustrious son Dagobert over the Austrasians and had joined the kingdom of Germany to his domain. In their most happy time, the title of Christianity so abounded everywhere that scarcely any church is found even today on this side of the borders, rare or none, that does not display the patronage of some Saint of that time. But to pass over innumerable others in the meanwhile, the holy men Eligius and Audoen were beginning to toil in Palatine cares; Blessed Arnulph with Romaric were already then participating in royal councils; and Saint Amandus was illuminating Aquitaine with the auspices of his birth. Among many Saints was Saint Amandus, While he was still a boy, he left his homeland and parents and sought the island of Oye, situated to the west of the Ocean Sea. There he was received by the spiritual Brothers with great joy; and because he had learned the sacred letters, he burned daily with greater desire in the service of God. After this, older in age but more fervent in the intention of his soul, he sought the tomb of Saint Martin at Tours, and there prayed for the assistance of his intercession, that he might beseech the Lord to grant him the grace of pursuing the course of pilgrimage for his whole life. He rose from prayer, had the hair of his head cut off, obtained the honor of the clerical state, and surpassed all in the clergy in every grace, though still as a pilgrim. He then went to Bourges, lived most holily with Blessed Austregisilus and his Archdeacon Saint Sulpicius, and devoted himself to the strictest life in a cell built by himself for fifteen years.

[2] An Apostolic Bishop for the conversion of the Gentiles: Then, having returned also to Rome and warned by Blessed Peter in a vision to return to Gaul for the sake of preaching, at last compelled by the King and the priests, he was ordained a Bishop for preaching, as was the custom at that time. For since the error of the Pagans still prevailed all around, it was necessary for both such religious Princes and the Lord's Priests to send others

to ordain others to announce the word of the Lord and to baptize and confirm the people. That this may not seem doubtful to anyone, Toxandria is a witness, freed many years later by Blessed Lambert from the root of idol worship. Brabant also, entangled by many errors of the pagans, was in part corrected by his successor, Saint Hubert. Almost all of Germany, too, was newly not only converted but also illuminated and enriched with new bishoprics and churches. Of these, we know that some persisted in preaching until death, others were afterward substituted for vacant bishoprics or abbacies, and others established new bishoprics for new churches. Blessed Amandus indeed strenuously fulfilled the office he had assumed and announced the word of the Lord to those situated round about (reaching even beyond Gascony, that is, Vasconia, and the Danube), until, seeing that his own strength was insufficient for so arduous a task, he resolved to go to Rome a second time.

[3] Pope Martin was then administering the universal Roman Pontificate. [From Pope Saint Martin he obtains as helpers Saints Landoaldus, Amantius, Vinciana, and Adeltrudis,] To him Blessed Amandus revealed his desire, on account of which he had come, and asked that reinforcements be sent to him for carrying out this work. Several helpers, whose names have been lost, were assigned to him, among whom were Saint Landoaldus the Archpriest and Amantius the Deacon; they were also accompanied by the holy women Vinciana and Adeltrudis, with seven other men and women. About the same time, Blessed John, happily governing the Pontificate of Tongeren and Maastricht, died. King Dagobert, who had auspiciously succeeded to power upon the death of his father, summoned Blessed Amandus and had him preside over the See of Maastricht. For three years he went about the villages and towns, announcing the word of life; but seeing that he was accomplishing nothing, and grieving that priests and Levites moreover insulted him, he afterward departed to other places. It is then unknown for how long an interval of time the people of Maastricht were without pastoral blessing until Blessed Remacle, except that by report reaching even to us, we have learned that Blessed Landoaldus remained there and for nine years administered the duties of a bishop.

[4] What easily brings us to assent to this opinion is that the same Blessed Landoaldus, our special patron, is reported to have nourished namely Saint Lambert from earliest boyhood. On account of this, the illustrious man Aper, father of the same boy, granted him the estate named Wintershoven, [Saint Landoaldus is believed to have instructed Saint Lambert, and to have drawn forth a spring by the sign of the Cross,] situated upon the river Archa, in perpetual right, for dwelling and for building a church; and he arranged for the same boy to remain with him, to be imbued with divine teachings. When workmen were there intent upon the building and disdained the water as turbid from the marshes, Blessed Landoaldus, with the boy Lambert, having invoked the name of Christ, with the extension of the Cross and the impression of his staff, caused a most limpid spring to bubble up for the use of all -- which bears witness to the truth even today.

[5] At another time also, when fire was needed and seemed to be lacking, the boy was called by the holy man and ordered to bring fire. The boy began to resist the command and openly confessed why he had not immediately satisfied the one giving orders: "You see, Lord," he said, Saint Lambert obediently brings fire with his garment unharmed, "that there is no vessel at hand by which fire can be conveniently brought, and how do you order it to be brought? My spirit is indeed ready to obey you, but the very lack of a vessel compels me to seem to oppose your wishes." But the pious Father, when he perceived the hesitant boy's state of mind, said: "Is it pleasing, son, that a delay be made to a father's command, when fire can be quite conveniently brought in the garment with which you are covered?" Moved by this rebuke, and moreover compelled by the example of obedience, the boy complied with the Father's command and, going a little way forward, hastened to find fire. When at last he found it and saw that nothing was at hand to carry it more conveniently, he opened his lap to burning coals, unhesitatingly placed them inside, and thus carried them to the Father with his garment unharmed. Then the holy man did not hesitate to consider more deeply within himself the novelty of the miracle and to compare the merit of the blessed boy even with the virtues of the perfect: in which the burning element either feared to display its nature or was utterly compelled to conceal it. And when the fresh miracle reached the ears of the people, the boy was extolled by all, and the deed divinely performed was ascribed both to the merit of the obedient one and to the command of the one who ordered. Thus from the sanctity of both, the same virtue is believed to have been accomplished. Christ also worked many other miracles there through their merits.

p. Dagobert had already died on January 19, 644, three years before Saint Martin was created Pope. Saint Amandus was Bishop of Maastricht during the reign of Saint Sigebert among the Austrasians.

q. One error being posited, several follow. Saint Remacle immediately succeeded Saint Amandus, as is clearly demonstrated in his Life.

r. The instruction of Saint Lambert. The earlier writers of the Life of Saint Lambert, Godescalcus and Bishop Stephen of Liege, do not mention this instruction; but the things reported as said were later affirmed for certain by Canon Nicolas and the monk Reinerus in his Life. We said in the Life of Saint Amandus, page 833, near the end, that Saint Lambert does not seem to have been born before the year 650 and was consecrated Bishop in the year 677, and that Saint Landoaldus could have been numbered among the wise men by whom Godescalcus and Stephen report that Saint Lambert was educated in sacred letters.

s. Wintershoven. Wintershoven, in the Salic Law enacted there, is also read as Windohaim or Widohaim; it is still a village between the cities of Tongeren and Hasselt, somewhat distant from the river. Nicolas, Reinerus, and Aegidius describe the following without mention of a river.

CHAPTER II

Various Translations Made at Wintershoven.

[6] Stirred by the fame of these things, King Childeric, who then had his seat at Maastricht, Saint Landoaldus is supported by King Childeric: moved by compunction, sent him the necessary provisions daily. But on a certain occasion, a man named Adrian, the same blessed man's messenger to the King, being believed to be carrying excessive weights of gold and silver, was intercepted by robbers and achieved martyrdom in the middle of the road, at a place called Villari. Blessed Landoaldus, completing the course of his present life, after Saint Adrian was killed having obtained rest in a good old age, put off the man and received the prize of the everlasting crown, buried in the church which he himself had built and dedicated in honor of Blessed Peter on the first of December. He died, moreover, on the fourteenth before the Calends of April. He dies, But also the companions of his pilgrimage, named above, summoned from this light in their own times as it pleased Christ, his companions afterward buried near him. were entombed around him in the same church. Only the Blessed Amantius, blessed in name and merit, was content to be buried in the same coffin with him because, as report has it, he was his son in baptism.

[7] The bodies are translated by Saint Florebertus: Then, after many years had elapsed, Saint Florebertus, governing the Bishopric of Maastricht or Liege in the third place after Saint Lambert, having heard of the multitude of miracles there and equally prompted by the responses of visions, translated them from there with worthy reverence and ordered their tombs to be adorned as far as his means allowed. This translation was performed on the first of December, the same day on which we said above that the dedication of the church was commemorated. The honor, cult, and reverence toward the bodies of the Saints continued until the fierce nation of the Northmen, not content with their own territories, disturbed nearly all of Gaul; and for fear of their eruption, lest the tombs of the Saints be violated, they were committed to the earth by the faithful. Present at this reburial was a certain Frangerus, a man most aged in our time, who for nine years before the infestation of the Pagans had been the steward and bailiff of that same estate. On account of the Norman incursion they are committed to the earth. Hildebrand the Priest also, whom Sarabert, likewise a Priest, the most faithful reporter of this information, had buried with his own hand a few years before, related that he had heard these things from the same Frangerus, with many attesting, and had likewise seen a booklet about their life (which, because he mentions it was written in an archaic hand and nearly soaked by the dripping of wax, we know that its reader was very rare); but the things we have briefly touched upon so far, he said he had gleaned from there, and that very recently, in the incursion of the Hungarians, through the carelessness of the guardians, the same booklet had been destroyed by fire along with other things. But enough of this.

[8] After the Norman repulsion, a certain man named Tietboldus first received from the Count of Flanders, The sepulcher of the Saints was for some time neglected, who held the Abbey of the holy Confessor of Christ Bavo, the place mentioned above where the bodies of the Saints were deposited, by right of benefice; after him, Adelgandus. These men, thinking more of the things of the world than of the things of the Lord, thought it of little account that any remnant of reverent worship of the Saints should remain as an honor; wherefore it gradually began to be held in contempt. But when Aper, near to our own time, obtained the place itself by precarious right with his sons, the fear of God itself being now set aside, the church was not only emptied of the honor due to the Saint, but of its own every ornament. Wanboldus afterward succeeded to the lordship of the same estate, where he also received

the place of burial; for whose interment his son

Lambert was afterward touched with devotion of heart,

so that he should cultivate this place, and at the same time was roused by the admonition of the miracles

that were being performed there.

For when the Lord was then claiming the estate for Himself,

and the neighbors were at variance, certain enmities having preceded,

the household of that estate, taking refuge in the church, cast their cloth and other garments divine punishment afflicting the guilty: upon the tombs of the Saints; the Priest Sarabert, on the contrary, threw them off from there.

But when these were carried back again by the household to the same place,

and the Priest was frightened from resisting them further, night

came on, and the household arranged themselves around the place to sleep.

In the morning, awakened, they beheld unexpectedly and without

any injury to themselves that the cloth and what they had deposited had been burned.

[9] There is, moreover, a phylactery, which is truly said

to have been the personal possession of Saint Landoaldus, [those who perjure themselves upon the phylactery of Saint Landoaldus are punished,] upon which whoever presumes to commit perjury

does not depart unpunished. The household of more than twelve

men and women was bound by an oath upon that phylactery,

belonging to the brothers Witger and Lambert,

that they would not flee: which oath, counting it void, and moreover

stealing the treasure hidden in the same church belonging to their lords

by breaking in and carrying it off, they fled; but in the morning, sought round about

by pursuers in vain, they were found upon their return

sleeping under a tree near the church,

with the treasure safe. A certain other man, truly accused of a certain

crime, perjured himself upon the same phylactery; and that very

night the wretch was burned to death along with his house and only son.

Other miracles also happened to occur there, which I now

forbear to relate.

[10] Wherefore the same Lantso humbly approached

our venerable predecessor, the bodies of the Saints are elevated, namely Lord Euraclus,

entreating that the bodies of the Saints be translated either by him personally or by his

vicars, and that they be elevated from the place where

they had been deposited before the Norman infestation.

By repeating this petition frequently, he at last

obtained his request; and the Archdeacon Bono, with two

Archpriests, namely faithful men, Thietbold

and Whodo, and also with others from the monasteries

of Saint Trudo, Bilsen, and Tongeren, came thither,

and with a solemn litany they raised them from the tombs in which

they had lain in excessive neglect. They found,

moreover, several caskets; but there was one in which Saint Landoaldus

the Archpriest and his Deacon Amantius were covered

together. There was also a stone at their heads,

inscribed with their names. Other caskets contained

Saints Adeltrudis and Vinciana, which was indicated by a certain

small silver cross they are washed while a little bird circles the bier, found upon the breast of Saint Vinciana.

These having been both laid aside and brought back, while the bodies of the Saints

were being washed with wine and water together, a certain little bird

flew in through the window onto the bier of the Saints, and at the same time

importunately dived several times upon those who were present at this office,

and at other times flying down into the pit

from which the bodies of the Saints had been raised, it struck all those standing by

and watching with wonder and at the same time

with awe. For it was of a color of diverse beauty,

but one never seen before; and its cry was indeed of a sweet-flowing voice,

but one never before heard. Although it could have been seized by those standing by,

no one presumed to molest it. As if with certain

flutterings of joy and a whistling of its voice, flying

hither and thither, and again alighting on the bier of the Saints,

it did not cease from its course until all things were completed

with the proper rites.

[11] On the same day, a certain blind woman from the village of Hasbina,

which was in the vicinity, a blind woman receives sight: when the report spread that the bodies of the Saints

were being brought forth, hastened thither quickly with a candle.

Then waiting for two days, and ceaselessly beseeching the patronage of the Saints,

on the third day she departed seeing clearly.

[12] In the following year, therefore, the wife of the aforementioned Lantso,

named Sigeburgis, Sigeburgis, dropsical, was so afflicted with the disease of dropsy,

and her legs with her feet had so swollen, that

for nearly an entire year she had not entered even the church unless

she was conveyed in a sedan chair, nor had she shared the bed of her husband

or a banquet, had loathed all food,

and abhorred all drink except water. She,

half-awake in the dead of a certain night, was seized by a sudden vision

and admonished in these words: "Since

you have raised our Lords and Ladies from the earth, why

do you allow us, their faithful, to lie hidden in the mud? I

indeed am Landrada, admonished in a vision about the elevation of three bodies of the Saints, Adrian the Martyr and Julian

also are of our company." She revealed this vision

to her husband, and asked that either the Bishop or the authority

of the Bishop be summoned for their elevation.

He had spent so much on provisions in the past year during the elevation of the others

that it seemed to him excessively arduous to undertake this again by his own hand.

After some days, when the same vision appeared

again, she was rebuked by the same nun as before, according to the likeness,

for her negligence, and confounded for her contempt. "And you," she said, "who have spent so much and so many things

on physicians, and have not deserved to be cured: if you would raise us

from the mud, you would already have deserved to be healed." "And where," the woman said,

"shall we find you?" "Your sedan chair, by which you are carried to the church,"

she said, "irreverently presses down upon our graves; and the chest

placed behind is exceedingly burdensome to us. And if

you object that you do not have the Bishop or his vicars at hand,

you have at least the Priest Sarabert nearby,

and other faithful men to accomplish this." In the morning,

therefore, as she was deliberating what must be done about these matters, there appeared

through these same signs; she was then living

in the village of Guodenghoue. But Sigeburgis,

her mistress, to whom these things were shown -- from whose

sworn and attesting mouth we have gathered these accounts --

still lives; she lives, I say, and in the present light, healthy and

unharmed, enjoys life; a noble person, from an ample house;

those who faithfully seek the matter she does not allow to remain hidden. With all

haste she sent to summon the Priests she arranges for the elevation, who might carry out

these things; meanwhile she herself, unable to rest in her quest for the recovery of her

health, had herself carried to the church,

and meanwhile gradually dug up the earth from the place indicated.

And they had scarcely dug half a foot of earth when behold, the coffins of the Saints

appeared almost at the very surface.

The Priests also arrived, whoever had been summoned,

and when the tombs of the Saints were uncovered, they found their names

expressed on small labels. And while they fulfilled as best they could whatever was fitting

for the translation, the said matron herself,

who was attending the work most attentively, suddenly turned around

and saw that streams of poison and foul pus, to the measure of a sextarius,

had run out from her legs. Marveling at this

and rendered more joyful at the recovery of her health, she returned home

on foot, prepared a lavish banquet for guests and household,

sat among them herself, neither loathing any food

nor now abhorring any draft of wine or other beverage.

Moreover, the report of many, both before us and at the present time, holds that this blessed woman, and is instantly healed, while serving as Prefect over the

nuns stationed at Bilsen, plucked the sweetest fruits

of heavenly contemplation, and trained the most holy virgin

of illustrious nobility, Amelberga, in holy

morals and pursuits. This translation was performed on the fifth of the Nones of March.

b. There exist

diplomas of Childeric signed at Maastricht, where he seems to have frequently been. His seat

and that of the other Austrasian Kings was chiefly the city of Metz.

by the Norman incursion, when the Abbot Elias died at Laon in the year

895 and was buried there in the church of Saint Vincent. Saint Gerard, Abbot of Brogne, afterward

gathered the monks and rebuilt the monastery around the year 940.

in Chapeaville, chapter 47, treats of him and calls him Eraclius, or, as other manuscripts have it, Eueracus and Euraclus. He held office from the year 959 to the year 970. In the Ecclesiastical Office of the people of Ghent, it is said that he wrote the life and translation of Landoaldus in a proper book, which we do not read elsewhere.

CHAPTER III

Miracles Performed at Wintershoven.

[13] That miracle also in the memorable glorification of the Saints

we think should by no means be passed over in silence,

which is equally magnificent by the stupendous novelty of itself. [Lantso, desiring to carry away portions of the relics with the authority of the Bishop,]

For when the aforesaid illustrious Lantso had come into possession of the basilica and

estate of the most sacred repose of the aforementioned Saints

by succession after several owners, being well aware within himself,

by the determined course of reason (for the terms of the charter

had fixed the limit of possession upon him), that the offspring of his stock

who would succeed him would be deprived of the aforesaid

estate, he resolved to look out prudently for himself, with the intention

that, being deprived of the rural estate, he might at least not be

cheated of the solace of the Saints' relics. For, seeking the magnificence of the Bishop

of the same diocese, he revealed to him the secret

of his great devotion. Forthwith, distinguished by his blessing

and strengthened by his authority, he approached the repository

of precious treasures, selecting from the sacred

bodies such portions as he judged fit. But behold,

in the very chief joy of the Paschal feast, with the necks of the bearers bowed,

they undertook the costly labor

of the journey, and hastening, arrived even at the doors of the sacred building.

But -- marvelous to tell -- utterly unable

to cross even those doors, fixed unexpectedly

by sudden steps, they stood fast; and though striving with every effort, having labored long

in vain, at last they understood that they were restrained by divine power;

and thus unwillingly yielded to the difficulty of their shame.

But the illustrious Lantso was by no means deterred from his purpose. his servants, rendered immobile, are repeatedly impeded:

Rather, continuing that day and the following night

with generous distributions of alms and frequent

importunities of prayers, on the following day he was again frustrated

as before; nay, during all the remaining days of the entire week,

the same attempts were daily followed by a similar

repulsion at the threshold. Therefore, since this had not succeeded,

on the eighth day likewise at dawn, he did not hesitate to undertake

another approach. For although he had by no means profited

from so many prayers previously poured forth, then, accumulating

heartfelt vows with every effort of virtue, and promising

the most abundant services, he assigned to the very basilica of their repose

the ninth part of his produce, since

the tenth was known to belong to another church. having assigned a portion of his inheritance to the church, he obtains his vow: And to that place

where he was striving to bestow the fruit of his devotion,

he bestowed, along with other generous offerings, no small

possession from his inheritance. And thus at last, by the intercession of the Saints,

he merited the kind regard of a merciful God,

and, having obtained his vow and gained his desired hope, he made light of

the losses of his former difficulty, having obtained by the magnificent

mercy of the Lord the gains of his desire.

[14] A cripple is healed. Subenmenha is the name of an estate, from which a certain man,

Manimius by name, crippled in every strength of his sinews,

could not raise his hand to his mouth for the sake of taking food, nor proceed even to the necessities of nature unless carried by another. He was indeed conveyed in a cart to the patronage of the Saints; but when they bestowed upon him the fullest health, he returned home on foot and well. In the village of Leuua, held in benefice from the Bishop of Liege by a certain leading man named Hubert, there was a woman called Geyla, but filled with a legion of demons, which afterward became evident; for when she was led by her kinsmen through the various monasteries of the men of God, namely those of Saints Gervasius, Lambert, Trudo, and Gertrudis, and could nowhere be cured, she was brought there in desperation; for the Saints, about to be newly glorified, awaited from the enemy a fuller triumph of praise. She, having been placed in a tub overflowing with blessed water from the font, a demoniac is freed: immediately began to call out terribly the name of Blessed Landoaldus, and to emit from her mouth a great swarm of flies; and in the middle of Paschal week, she merited to be cleansed.

[15] Another woman, a handmaid of Saint Bavo, a blind woman sees, who had until then been dwelling at Andresburg, was punished with the loss of her eyesight for having neglected the census over many years. Already succumbing to blindness for the fourth year, she promised amendment for the future, brought a candle to the luminaries of the Saints, restored the neglected census, and departed immediately healed and with her sight restored. There is also another village called Zubleua; there a certain woman suffered from the disease of dropsy for a period of six years. She saw in a nocturnal vision that she was being led thither with an offering and was returning with her health recovered. Upon waking, she immediately carried this out, a dropsical woman is restored: ordering herself to be conveyed thither in that cart; and after she recovered her health, having been handed over by her lord Hildrad to the jurisdiction of the Saints, she then departed.

[16] A certain man named Hildico, utterly dissolute in all his conduct, repeatedly clearing the woodland belonging to the church, was finally rebuked one day in the name of the Saints to at least desist; a sacrilegious man is punished by a horrible death: but when he moreover vilified his admonishers along with the Saints with base words, going forth the following day to do the same, the proud fellow immediately climbed a beech tree with his axe, and straightway, falling headlong, he dashed his fluid throat, which had breathed blasphemy, and thus ended his wretched life with a fitting death. The Priest Sarabert had lost a horse, which was stolen by thieves one night under cover of darkness; discovering this in the morning, he ran to the well-known refuge, and hastened to make a candle. When he brought it to the Saints and poured forth the vows of his prayers, he found his horse returned and standing at the doors.

[17] Thus, the copious miracles which the Lord has deigned to work through their merits, the stolen horse returns, we, shuddering at the tenacity of sluggish silence, to gird ourselves, have recorded things indeed memorable, though with a somewhat extended prolixity. But in the present time there are still very many further deeds accomplished among us, which, commending them likewise to be confirmed by our authority, you have asked to be briefly inserted into this document. We, however, consulting the relief of readers or the affection of hearers, and lest the magnificent benefits of the great Lord be compressed into too narrow a space, Epilogue of the first book, have judged that this discourse should be closed at this end, with the following matters deferred, so that, with our energies meanwhile refreshed through silence, what remains, since it is recognized as requiring its own volume, may be more conveniently and more conspicuously prefaced with another beginning.

BOOK II

The Translation of the Relics to Ghent.

[1] As we are about to relate the wondrous works of the Lord Almighty, by which He has deigned to reveal His beloved Confessor of His name, Blessed Landoaldus, and his companions, magnificently in our own times, Wintershoven having been restored to the monks of Ghent, we think it worthy and not superfluous to set forth first the memorable joy of the translation of these same Saints, through which both some of their miracles shone forth, and your place or region merited to be happily distinguished by the presence of their favor. Therefore, when the course of days had been completed, and as the inscrutable determination of mortal life so required, the aforesaid illustrious Lantso, namely the designated possessor of the aforementioned estate, paid the common debt of all the living, and left the succession of his offspring without the inheritance of that possession. But by the moderating clemency of the Imperial Serenity (which, by a laudable vow of devotion, led its naturally benevolent mind to look out generously for the interests of the servants of God), the same estate, without any obstacle of opposition, was consigned and yielded to the authority of your power, namely of the Prelates of the saintly, pre-elected soldier of Christ, the illustrious Confessor Bavo.

[2] Therefore, since the wise man always acts wisely, surveying with sagacious diligence what had been restored to your jurisdiction, the sacred relics are transferred to Ghent: you understood by a loftier counsel that the honorable deposit far outweighed the estate itself in every way, and that the casket of so precious a treasure should not be concealed by so small a measure in that place. Upon which matter, after long deliberation of mutual conference weighed among you, and moreover with the concurrence of Archprelates and Bishops and prudent men, you decreed that the relics of the Saints' remains be transferred to your more eminent place. But during the journey, while the fulfillment of that holy devotion was at last being celebrated, and the most precious relics of the Saints were being transferred over no small distance of the road, it happened, as was fitting, that very many of the neighboring people were seized by the report of so fortunate an opinion.

[3] Among a certain number of the hearers, therefore, a certain sick woman learned of these things, who, weighed down by the burden of her illness, was kept to her bed, a sick woman suddenly recovers: so that for many days she had not risen from it except when carried. But with this welcome joy of the rumor she had heard, she was at once raised to good hope, and was faithfully made more confident of recovering her lost health through the assistance of the Saints. Whence, without delay, through her devoted spouse at her side, she begged that a small gift of a candle be quickly presented to the merits and presence of the Saints. He consented faithfully, and hastened to undertake and fulfill the holy service of faith. But behold -- wondrous to tell -- the sick wife left behind experienced the sudden aid of the Saints. Immediately she sent men to recall her husband, who had been sent ahead, from his approach to the Saints, since she herself was soon to follow and seek the presence of the Saints and offer in person what she had been sending. But since the narrowness of place or time prevented any delay of the Saints' departure, the bearer of the little gift humbly presented himself in the presence of the Saints' mercy, and before them, to the knowledge of all who were present, he testified and proclaimed the works of piety displayed in his wife, to the praise and glory of the Almighty Lord.

[4] Furthermore, since the convenience of the journey so demanded, a ship was hired with its crew to serve the pleasant conveyance of the Saints. a hired rower rashly withdraws himself, But behold, one of those assigned to the oars, to whom a certain misfortune had occurred not far off, spurred by the loss of his domestic affairs and wearied by the labor he had undertaken, the wretched man presumed to steal himself away from so holy a service before the appointed expense of the journey was completed. But because the biers of the Saints were not to be despised, nor subordinated to private advantage, he perceived this without tedious delay. For, having voluntarily and inexcusably torn himself away from the ministry of God's elect, he not only failed to profit from his planned advantage, but rather suffered a fitting rebuke against his will. Thus departing, he traversed no great distances of road, nor reached the desired spaces; he is deprived of the vigor of his limbs, but, alienated from the integrity of his mind and also deprived of the former vigor of his limbs, barely stumbling with his steps upon the hedge of the nearest vicinity that presented itself more quickly to him, he collapsed there, and there was struck down in a stupor. Moreover, spending the remaining portion of that day and the entire course of the following night paying the due punishment, he lay there stunned. Worn down, therefore, for some time by so great a scourge of correction, repentant, he is healed and returns to his duty: and at last, by the pious intercession of the Saints whom he had despised, visited by the kind regard of a merciful God, he himself understood to his very marrow the offense of his guilt. Therefore, as soon as a tardy though genuine repentance penetrated the windowed chamber of his mind, vigor revived in his body likewise lulled to rest; and, setting aside the biting cares of his former intention, burning now eagerly with the sole desire for the service of the Saints he had formerly neglected, he retraced with hurried steps the distances he had traversed in reverse, so that at last, rejoicing, he might present himself in their presence. Indeed, the chastisement of his recent scourging and the conversion of his true penitence had rendered his steps swift; nor did he rest until, having obtained the desired object of his vow, he gloriously achieved in person the merits of the Saints, and before them and a great multitude testified to the chastisement and mercy he had experienced in himself.

[5] On that very day, that is, two blind women receive their sight, the eighth before the Calends of April, on which they entered the aforesaid monastery with those same relics, a certain woman named Lenekin came ahead and received the sight she had long lost, on the Ides of April, that is, Tuesday of Paschal week. A certain blind girl from the village of Ostholta arrived, named Teudsmudis; waiting while the Brethren celebrated the Vesper synaxis, she returned seeing clearly, and no longer seeking a guide for the road.

[6] In the same village there was also another girl, so debilitated within the years of infancy that for a year she could neither walk on her feet three paralytics are healed, nor even rise from her bed. Her mother, stirred by the aforesaid miracles, in the early morning took her up in her arms out of doors and made a vow to the Saints for her recovery, namely that she would come with her child, and likewise bring with her a devout offering. When she had fulfilled this, the girl, gradually raising herself to her feet, stood, grew strong, began to walk, and went away. In the same place there was also another woman, called Leuuich, likewise weakened in all bodily strength; and when she had almost despaired of life, upon hearing the report of the miracles that were happening there, she vowed a candle to the luminaries of the Saints. As soon as she sent it thither, she merited immediately to have the strength of her entire body restored. Wechtre is the name of a village; there was a woman there called Riberta, afflicted by various ailments and deprived of nearly every function of her limbs; she devoutly approached their memorial, resolved to linger for some days, and departed having obtained her health.

[7] A blind man and hunchback is made well. Moreover, a certain woman came on the thirteenth before the Calends of May to intercede for her son. Her son had been left at home, named Adelger, deprived not only of the light of his eyes, but also hunchbacked all over from the rheumatic motion of his head and body. His mother prayed for his recovery and made a vow; out of fear for her son, whom she had left in a desperate state, she returned more quickly; when she arrived home, she found her son seeing and joyfully received him, rejoicing in certain good health. After this, on the seventeenth day before the Calends of June, a blind woman is healed, a handmaid arrived, called Egerin, who had suffered whiteness or blearedness in her eyes for many years; having obtained health through the merits of the Saints, she returned to her home rejoicing and exulting without a guide.

[8] Then, on the fifth before the Calends of June, a woman from the village of Rothen, a poor woman called Adalmudis, then another: having become blind from excessive infirmity, and hearing the fame of the Saints, desired to reach their patronage; but while she could barely crawl with her swollen legs, and was neglected by her own people on account of their poverty and not led thither, and was wasting away excessively from this despair, when night came on she gave herself to sleep, and recognized Saint Landoaldus and Vinciana standing beside her in most splendid attire with lighted candles; awakening, she perceived that the restoration of her entire body was at hand, and learned that the pain of all her infirmity had departed; on the next day, now certain of the restoration of her sight, not doubting of her remaining health, she attempted on her own, with many other admirers, to visit the threshold of the Saints, and did not cease to render thanks as best she could. On the next day, that is, the fourth before the Calends of June, a certain woman, Frethunara, also blind, then a third: was approaching the threshold of the Saints for the sake of prayer, seeking to obtain her health; but on

the very road she had not yet arrived there, and behold, having received her former health, she went on her way rejoicing.

[9] Then at last, on the holy day of Pentecost, which

is the second before the Calends of June, a certain Theodoric, contracted in the sinews

of his entire body for many years,

in the presence of many truthful witnesses, a cripple, then again a blind woman, obtained complete

health. Then on the third of the Nones

of July, on Thursday of that same week, a blind

woman from the district of Brabant, having invoked the Saints

for their aid, and having prepared a candle to be brought to them as best she could,

without delay she also received the light of her eyes.

From the same district there was also another woman, who,

afflicted by an excessive pain of the kidneys, for the space of nearly one year

was unable to rise for any service, as she herself avowed.

When she learned that the relics of the Saints had been brought thither, one afflicted with kidney pain, and knew that marvelous things were being wrought through them there,

she vowed a candle for the recovery of her health; she prayed

that they might have pity on her in so great a pain; immediately restored

to her former health, devoutly offering the candle to the Saints,

she also brought forth a belt, and for the health she had obtained

she rendered immense thanks to God through the merits of the Saints.

c. Surius reads Schult.

it is clear from what follows, where Thursday is joined with the 3rd of the Nones of June, and

by a new error July was printed, when the writing had been completed on the 13th before the Calends of July.

APPENDIX

A Repeated Translation of the Relics to Ghent.

[10] It is believed useful, for arousing the sluggish minds,

to bring forth the hidden miracles of the Saints for a new

hearing; miracles excite devotion, whose proven virtue is sufficient to set ablaze

the course of a hastening soul toward the heavenly realms.

For who, upon hearing the praises of Blessed Landoaldus,

does not immediately fly with a better mind to God, unless one whom

neither hope nor will stirs toward the heavenly Jerusalem?

His merits are well known, and most celebrated by so many miracles, which,

since the East cannot contain them on account of their greatness, are extended

even to the farthest West. For besides those things which

he did while still living, who does not marvel that at his tomb

as many miracles are performed as there are sick who come? These,

although most well known to all, are held to be more celebrated

at Wintershoven, where, divulged among the rest,

the signs are proven by the witness of sight.

[11] Since therefore the deaf and lame, and those of every kind of

infirmity, round about acknowledged the merits of the Saint, the Ghent monks, stirred by the miracles,

it was considered unfitting that the relics of the Saint should be kept

in a humble church, venerated with still rare honor, and that the divine

office should be performed by a small assembly of Priests.

All these things so stirred the souls of the Brethren in the Ghent monastery

that they believed it would be a matter of peril to themselves

that relics long neglected should still be venerated with rare honor.

[12] Therefore, having summoned Abbot Womarus, they unanimously

beg him to consider what should be done, Wintershoven having been received back from Otto II, and they would easily have prevailed upon him to transfer the relics,

had not certain impediments obstructed the sound undertaking. For a certain Cleric

of Otto the Younger, who ruled the Franks as Emperor,

presumed to claim the aforesaid estate of Saint Bavo for his own jurisdiction,

and when asked to relinquish it, preferred to keep it as his own.

The Emperor, when admonished to oppose this injustice,

freely consented, being all the more devout because he had recently been received

into the fraternity of the Brethren, and shared also in their prayers.

Thus, with the Cleric's presumption overruled,

Saint Bavo recovered his property. Then the Emperor, when entreated to lend his support

for the transfer of the relics, first deigned to bestow upon the place

the privilege of his name in honor of Saint Bavo,

and then began to burn with equal devotion to carry out the desires of the Brethren. and authority to transfer the relics. Thus, having received that same privilege,

and moreover with authority given by Pope John, a considerable number

of the Brethren set out all the way to Wintershoven,

and what needed to be done was weighed by the judgment of the more prudent.

[13] In that same expedition there was a certain Priest,

than whom no one present knew the matter better, they consult the Priest Sarabert, Sarabert

by name, all the more experienced in the miracles of the Saints there

inasmuch as he venerated them more attentively. They sent a

messenger requesting him to be present, asking that the Saints be made known to them, and that he reveal

the very many signs of which he knew. Sarabert

replied: "The signs divinely performed here are considered so great

that they exceed the belief of those who hear them, except

that a sound faith believes nothing impossible with God.

For to corroborate the series of miracles, there are at hand certain

proofs: the crutches of the infirm, the little boards of those who crawl.

But since you have come to learn of the relics that are in our keeping,

behold, there are three caskets in public view: what you desire

to hear from me, rather weigh for yourselves by the witness of your own sight. they ascertain the situation of the relics:

If, however, it pleases you to bring forward what I have learned from my predecessors,

know that in that casket

which rises higher, the entire body of Blessed Landoaldus the Archpriest

together with Blessed Amantius his Deacon

is enclosed. In the second, adjoining it, is contained

his sister, Blessed Vinciana the Virgin, from earliest youth

most pure, who, spurning the blandishments of the world,

followed the footsteps of her beloved brother from Rome to this very place.

That casket somewhat more remote contains Saint

Landrada, who, joined to her immortal spouse,

having completed the course of her life, received

the crown of her virginity."

[14] When he had finished his words, the Brethren burned with even greater

desire to approach the caskets, to open them carefully, they examine them: and to know by their own sight what he had narrated. And approaching,

they found the epitaph of the most worthy Confessor,

carefully inscribed on most precious marble at his head;

which, however, they could not read through in its entirety,

on account of the fire of the Pagans made long ago,

by which it appeared to have been partially broken.

Therefore, they gathered the life of Blessed Landoaldus in a brief epitaph,

and discovered the other virgins beloved of God

by their proper names. Then, judging that counsel was

needed, they called in the aforesaid Priest and others

suited to this work, they carry them out with solemn pomp, and deliberated by their prudence how the Saints

might most honorably be transferred.

When counsel was given, and preparations made for transferring

the relics, the people of the surrounding area hastened together, put their shoulders

beneath them, and with cheerful countenances, though very many were groaning,

they bore the Saints to the vicinity of a certain small field.

At which place, while the ancient miracles of these Saints were being recalled to memory,

this was considered by most people to be the more celebrated event,

which the very place itself now urges us to unfold as it occurred.

And so I shall dispatch the event in a few words.

[15] There were certain men of crazed mind, laying waste all the surrounding

region with fire and sword, uncertain in their course, from that place whence they could not formerly be carried away by marauders, greedy for slaughter, barely restraining their treachery from human blood,

who, having plundered several buildings of the citizens,

since they spared neither churches nor saints, also carried these Saints away from the aforesaid place

to take them with themselves. And when, having progressed further,

they arrived at this place, with stiffening step

and their entire bodies immobile, they could proceed no further;

whereupon, seeing that no effect yielded to their illicit enterprise,

they cursed themselves, rebuked their unjust undertaking, and unwillingly restored the Saints

to the place; then, having humbly entreated the Saints,

they hastened to depart, to head elsewhere as quickly as possible,

lest their limbs be drawn in punishment for their deed,

and their eyes be condemned to darkness. When the people now recalled

these events of old to memory, vain resistance of the local inhabitants,

it seemed good to them to invoke the Saints on account of a similar event,

to see whether they would deign to reveal by some sign

whether they preferred to be carried back rather than transferred.

With faces cast down to the earth, some began to beat their breasts, others to shed tears;

very many, however, for whom it was more grievous to be bereaved

of the presence of the Saints, began to groan more deeply. When the prayer

was finished, therefore, the Brethren, who wanted a swift journey, rebuked

the delay in proceeding, and commanded the relics to be taken up and

carried forth. They put their shoulders beneath them again, and

since in carrying the Saints no labor yielded to the burden, they are easily borne forth: it was proclaimed by all,

and soundly believed by all of them, that the Saints wished

to be transferred.

[16] And when they were already some distance from the monastery of Saint Trudo

(for there they had chosen their first lodging),

the first of the Brethren, they are honored with various gifts along the way: who had gone ahead further for practical reasons,

came to meet them, and a very great concourse of old and young

brought diverse gifts to the Saints. Some,

who lacked a supply of metal or ornaments of precious clothing,

offered candles or provisions fastened to their sides;

others, who had none even of these, gave themselves

in contrition of heart. Those who appeared wealthier

sent from that which they had in abundance,

none the less equaling those who, although they gave little,

nevertheless retained nothing for themselves. Meanwhile

it seemed necessary to linger in that same small field,

both on account of the gifts of those arriving, and because the occasion demanded

that the word of God be preached to the people. And when

the names and pious merits of the Saints reached the hearing

of those present, they shine with miracles, all who had sick persons,

not hesitating about their salvation, brought them. You might have seen

the crippled raised up, the blind illuminated, the deaf receiving

their hearing, and various sick persons obtaining their health.

And lest these remarkable miracles should seem to be lost

to the posterity of those who would follow, they erected in that place

to future generations.

[17] Now it happened that one boy, who was running about with the others around

the holy place, a sacrilegious boy, tormented by a demon, is healed, seduced by greed,

stole and carried off the candles and other things which the faithful had contributed

with great devotion. For this reason, without

delay he was miserably possessed by the ancient enemy, and

utterly deprived of sound mind. Thereupon the parents of the same

boy, doing penance with excessive weeping, and

approaching the place with the boy, and restoring the stolen goods,

obtained through the merits of the Saints the most perfect

health. But I commit these things to be more fully described by those

who have also merited to receive portions of the relics, and

in the border of whose small field those and many other miracles,

with the Lord's help, were performed.

[18] When, therefore, these things were accomplished, and they were hastening to convey the relics they had received

to the monastery of Saint Trudo, they are received in the monastery of Saint Trudo:

not only a crowd, but also a robed procession of monks,

with candles and ornaments of that kind, rushed to meet them,

to receive them honorably, and then hastened to bring them within the monastery

with the greatest devotion.

When the crowds gathered on the following day, a few things about

the Saints were narrated for the edification of those present; and when

to the church itself, they set out for the village which

they call Andesbrucken. There they visited a certain matron

named Sigeburgis, who had long held the place of those same Saints

in precarious tenure, and they conferred much with her

both about the Saints and about their mutual advantage. Then

she said: "What I have experienced in my own person concerning these Saints,

I shall briefly try to unfold, a fever incurred through irreverence is removed: if indeed you have the mind

to attend to brief matters. For in the former elevation

of Saint Landoaldus, when I had shown myself less than willing,

I was seized by fevers and lay ill for some days, and as the disease

grew worse day by day, I feared the offense of the Saint rather

than the danger of death. Having been made more cautious by that misfortune during the elevation of Blessed Landrada, I rendered myself entirely devoted to that Virgin, and by her merits interceding, I recovered the health which I had deservedly lost.

[19] She had scarcely finished these words when behold, a certain soldier of that matron hastened from the bank of the river Thila to address the Brethren thus: a cup-bearer, cast out, is restored upon offering a candle, "I come forward as a fitting witness to the praise of these Saints, and I cannot be silent about their benefits toward me as long as I live. For when by a certain unfortunate turn of events I had incurred the wrath of my lord Lantso and his wife Sigeburgis, I did not know what to do or which way to turn. And when in my anxiety I had come to the point of deliberating whether to flee from the very fatherland itself, I went one day to the Priest Sarabert, tossed by the excessive solicitude of this kind of care, and endeavored both to consult with him about what I, now in despair, should do, and to make once more a complaint of my miseries. He, not hesitating at all, bade me have confidence, and urged me to prepare the price of one candle, that this might be brought to Saint Landoaldus. Immediately I carefully complied with this counsel, he obtains his former position, and most devoutly carried out what he had commanded. A wondrous thing then occurred, and one greatly beneficial to me; for when I approached the blessed memorial of Saint Landoaldus, and faithfully asked him to be my intercessor in my distresses, behold, my aforesaid lord Lantso, coming after me, himself unexpectedly entered the basilica to pray. I began at once to grow pale at the sight of him and to tremble exceedingly, lest, upon seeing me, he should immediately inflict death. But far otherwise than I had supposed, with Saint Landoaldus intervening, it turned out; for he spoke nothing at all of ill to me, but commanded me to perform my ministry as before; for I had formerly been his cup-bearer. So from that day until now I have remained secure from my former distress. By such signs, therefore, and miracles similar to these shown through him, it is certain to me that he is numbered among the Blessed."

[20] the bier of Saint Landrada draws back out of reverence for Saint Landoaldus: When he had spoken these things, the Brethren departed, laden among other things with immense gain, and thus entering the ship, with great prosperity and the Lord's power leading the way, they set forth from there with great joy. After this, while the sailors were diligently navigating, when they had rested and stopped in one place, it happened that the bier in which Saint Landrada was contained gave a leap in the sight of all, and removed itself from Saint Landoaldus, marvelously rendering to so great a Priest the reverence and fitting honor.

[21] other miracles performed. That miracle, indeed, which was performed not long afterward on the same journey concerning a certain sailor, and likewise that which happened concerning the man who, through the merits of the Saints, received back his lost heart and mind through their mercy, it is not necessary to recount more fully in this place, since it has been diligently described elsewhere. When these miracles had thus been accomplished, as we have simply related for the sake of those who do not know, on the most sacred day of the Annunciation and Incarnation of the Lord, they arrived, God willing, at the monastery of Saint Bavo, which is most rightly called the Ghent monastery. And when all the faithful from every direction were streaming together to the blessed relics with exceeding exultation, the relics are received in the monastery of Saint Bavo, a certain woman, led by the hands of others, was immediately illuminated through their merits. The most devout Brethren, indeed, were deservedly filled with great joy above all others at the arrival of the Saints, and accordingly, vested in the solemn manner, with the entire ecclesiastical adornment and an infinite throng of peoples streaming together from every direction, coming from afar singing psalms to meet them, they joyfully received those most holy relics upon their shoulders and brought them into the basilica with great exultation, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord nine hundred and eighty, to whom is honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

b. The following

were connected in the Rouge-Cloitre manuscript with chapter 2 of the first book, with

chapter 3 of the same book and chapter 1 of this book omitted according to our division.

What is contained in this chapter appears to have been afterward

appended, with altered phrasing drawn from the Ghent manuscript, which we subjoin, where the remaining matters are explained.

HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE RELICS TO GHENT,

and the Elevation of the Same.

By a contemporary Ghent monk,

From the Ghent and Corsendoncano manuscripts.

Landoaldus Archpriest, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (S.)

Amantius Deacon, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (S.)

Adrian Martyr, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (S.)

Julian, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (S.)

Vinciana, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (S.)

Adeltrudis, at Wintershoven and Ghent in Belgium (S.)

BHL Number: 4707, 4708

FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER I.

Translation of the Relics from Wintershoven to Ghent.

[1] In the perpetual reign of our Lord

Jesus Christ, Wintershoven having been restored to the monks of Ghent by the Emperor Otto, and governing all

the ages, namely in the year

of His most sacred Incarnation

nine hundred and eighty, Indiction

VIII, and also in the times of the lord Otto

the Younger, most illustrious Emperor: when he had with the most benign spirit

restored to our place many things formerly taken away by faithless men,

and had accordingly eagerly obtained for the fraternity of the monastery of the citadel

of Ghent the property called Wintershoven,

which a certain Palatine Cleric of his,

though a wicked one, had seized without his knowledge;

without any delay, after he had learned of it, he restored it by his powerful

command. Then, when we Brethren unanimously had learned about the relics

of Saint Landoaldus the Archpriest and his companions,

we began to entreat with constant prayers the Lord

Abbot, who was then Provost and a most solicitous

steward of our place, that he should not long defer

to strive to transfer the bodies of the aforementioned Saints, who until then

had been placed in that location in neglect and without the due service of Priests,

to our place with the honor due to them. And when, after

very many entreaties, we had obtained this with God's favor, those sent who might carry away the bodies of the Saints from there:

our brothers were sent from the Lord Abbot Womarus

with the Lord Provost, namely the Lord Dean

Trudgaudus, to the aforesaid place, and two other

brothers Robert and Folioldus, with the authority of the Lord

Apostolic John of worthy memory, and likewise with the privilege

of the Lord Emperor Otto the Younger, who at that

time was seen to have obtained the fellowship of our fraternity.

And when they arrived at the place to which they had been heading,

they began to deliberate carefully with one another how

to carry out cautiously and prudently the holy undertaking which

had been entrusted to them by all the Brethren.

Then they also began diligently to seek and more carefully

to investigate what they might be able to find there concerning the true relics.

They found there three caskets properly placed

on high, and the bodies of the Saints elevated and most carefully

sealed by Bishops and Priests.

[2] Then, after prayer, approaching and opening one of the

caskets with the seals broken, they found

the most sacred remains of Blessed Landoaldus the Archpriest, they discover the chests of Saints Landoaldus, Amantius,

together with Blessed Amantius his Deacon. At his head

was the epitaph of the most worthy Confessor, carefully inscribed

on most precious marble; which, however, they could not

read through in its entirety on account of the fire

of the Pagans made long ago, by which it appeared to have been

partially broken. Then, opening another in the same manner,

they found the nourishing sister of Saint Landoaldus, named

Vinciana; and likewise opening a third

urn placed below, this also contained the sacred Landrada.

Meanwhile, having examined these with diligent scrutiny, they conferred

among themselves at great length, Vinciana, Landrada: as to what

would be better for them to do concerning these. But since they did not yet

fully know the merits of the Saints, and for this reason

were agitated by biting cares, one of our Brethren,

who had the greatest eagerness to carry forth the heavenly treasure,

urging them on, they sent for the most faithful

Priest Sarabert, so that they might avail themselves of prudent

counsel in all things, as was fitting. they consult the Priest Sarabert: When he had come

hastily and reported the glorious merits and many miracles

of the Saints, as he knew them best,

they were kindled with equal souls in holy desire

to transfer the most precious bodies of the Saints.

[3] Therefore, having swiftly prepared what seemed necessary for this work, the bodies are placed upon biers and carried away: and having taken up what belonged to the Saints that was outstanding in holiness, and with the relics of the Saints placed upon biers, they set forth from that place with a few men of the same village. And when they had arrived not far off, namely at the boundary of the lordship of the same estate, with the immense weeping and grief of those men who were dwelling there, they set down the sacred burden, and could not proceed any further in any direction. Indeed, they proclaimed with tearful voices: the relics are sent back to the inhabitants of Wintershoven, "O Blessed Landoaldus, holy Priest of the Lord God, show now also, we beseech you, your power; for when formerly faithless men sought to carry you elsewhere, they halted in this very place, and could by no means proceed any further." And when they were causing delays in the journey by these and other manifold objections, the Lord Dean, at last moved by these lamentations, prudently separated them, commanding with forceful and repeated orders that the deposited burden be lifted and carried on its way. Then, with the Lord's clemency attending, they began from that point to travel with wondrous speed, they carry them toward the monastery of Saint Trudo: and to hasten to the monastery of Saint Trudo; for there they had chosen to have their first lodging.

[4] And behold, our remaining Brethren, who had set out not far away on a practical errand, quickly came to meet them, and a most beautiful little band was formed with the Saints of God. on account of the concourse of a multitude of people, When the neighbors on this side and that had learned of this by spreading report, men and women, old and young, rich and poor, rushed from every direction to meet them with candles and diverse offerings. And when all had drawn near, they threw themselves down with faces to the ground, bowing their heads in greeting to the Saints; then after these came others and still others, and innumerable companies of the faithful people. Therefore our Brethren were made deservedly and vehemently joyful, who saw so great a people hastening with incredible devotion to meet the Saints. Whence also one of our number proclaimed with exceeding exultation of heart: "O," he said, "happy are you, Lord, they exult for joy: fortunate and now worthy of eternal life, because you conceived so great a good, and because, by God's will, you merited to accomplish this concerning the Saints." But what tears, by God's inspiration, burst forth on all sides, or how much spiritual joy came to our people, even the most eloquent could not explain in words. For what King, however powerful, has ever merited anywhere so great a reverence and a glory magnificent in the praise of the Lord?

[5] But when they were approaching the above-mentioned monastery, the caskets were separated somewhat, the biers are set down: in which the relics of the precious Saints were being conveyed. But this also, as was afterward most evidently clear, was done by divine

will; for those who at that time happened to be carrying the bodies of the Saints out of devotion testified that they had never sustained any weight in carrying any burden. Wherefore, marveling at the virtue of the Saints, in that same place, with garments spread out, at God's command, they set down their burden. where at a Cross erected there, many miracles occur: But now some things must be said about that same place. For devout men dwelling round about set up a Cross there in memory of the Saints, and, continually invoking the Saints for their needs, gave themselves to prayer. And with the Lord's clemency assenting, heavenly miracles were not lacking there either. For many, approaching in faith, were freed from various infirmities there by Christ's favor; and candles were also divinely lit, and blind persons likewise illuminated. Whence also the peoples dwelling round about brought candles and other diverse offerings to the same Cross out of reverence for the Saints.

[6] Now it happened on a certain day that one boy who was running about with the others around the holy place, and a sacrilegious boy, tormented by a demon, is healed: seduced by greed, stole and carried off the candles and other things which the faithful had contributed with great devotion. For this reason, without delay he was miserably possessed by the ancient enemy and utterly deprived of sound mind. Thereupon the parents of the same boy, doing penance with excessive weeping, and approaching the place with the boy, and restoring the stolen goods, he merited to receive there the most perfect health through the merits of the Saints. But I commit these things to be more fully described by those who also merited to receive portions of the relics, and in the border of whose small field those and many other miracles, with the Lord's help, were performed.

[7] When therefore the biers were rejoined and the precious relics taken up from there with a very great multitude, they were swiftly approaching their first lodging and the monastery of Saint Trudo, as I said above. The monks of Saint Trudo come to meet them, they receive the biers: When the Brethren of that same monastery learned of this, they went out unanimously to meet the Saints with lighted candles, with texts of the Gospels, with Crosses and with every fitting honor, and when an antiphon concerning the Saints was intoned by the Precentor, they placed them in a distinguished location within the monastery with the greatest veneration. Then how much charity and what kindness the Brethren showed to our people, and what bodily necessities they bestowed with cheerful heart, benevolent toward the Ghent monks: no one could worthily narrate in words. For the charity of God, which surpasses all understanding, was most fully poured out by the Holy Spirit in their hearts. But when morning came, and a multitude of the people was again gathered in the church, and moreover a most-desired blessing of relics was given in the sacred place, with the Lord prospering their journey, they set forth on the way of salvation.

[8] When therefore the Saints of God, as they had arranged with God's will, were being conveyed on a prosperous course from the aforesaid lodging toward what lay ahead, they arrived briskly at the village which is called Andelbrucken. There at that time the noble matron Sigeburgis happened to be staying on her own estate, who had long held the place of those same Saints in precarious tenure. When the Lord Abbot, who was then Provost, and who, as we have mentioned, had been sent for the bodies of the Saints, learned of this, taking with him some of the Brethren, he went to speak with the aforesaid matron, leaving the Lord Trudgandus, who was then our vigorous Dean, with the sacred relics. But the venerable matron, upon seeing the Brethren and hearing the reasons for their journey, was greatly rejoiced in the Lord on account of the Saints. an illness incurred through irreverence is removed: And when she had related many great things about the Saints in conversation, she also added this one last thing as fearful for herself, saying that she had most certainly incurred a very great infirmity of the longest duration under her husband for no other reason than that in the earlier elevation of Saint Landoaldus the Archpriest she had had no willingness whatsoever; yet she had been miraculously healed in the elevation of Saint Landrada.

[9] While they were lingering there somewhat amid these words, there came also a certain soldier of that matron, and proceeding thence he stood upon the bank of the river Thila, where the most holy relics, which were hastening toward other places, were close by. And he, drawing long sighs from the depths, thereupon spoke thus with tears welling up: "O how little," he said, "do you realize what you have received, or what it is that you possess, and of how great a price and heavenly treasure the talent is that you strive to carry away from these borders. Furthermore, I say to you boldly, and I declare the truth to you" (he was speaking to the Dean): "that unless it had perhaps been possible for you to carry with you the most precious body of the Apostle Saint Peter himself, who by right holds the Principate among the Saints at the Lord's command, you could by no means have greater relics than what you now have, by God's favor, in the ship." When the said Lord Dean had heard these things with gratitude, he was rendered most joyful, and inquired how he might know this by any proof. And the soldier most firmly professed what he knew of the miracle of Saint Landoaldus in himself, saying: "I, the cup-bearer cast out, my sins demanding it, once most grievously incurred the offense of my lord Landso and of his lady Sigeburgis, who is well and nearby, to such a degree that I dared not present myself before their sight at all. What then should I do, which way should I turn, I did not know. For I could acquire the intercession of no man, however rich, who might restore me to my former favor. upon offering a candle, he obtains his former ministry, And when in my anxiety I had already come to the point of deliberating whether to flee from the very fatherland itself, one day I endeavored to approach the Priest Sarabert, tossed by excessive solicitude of this kind of care, both to consult with him about what I, now in despair, should do, and to make once more a complaint of my miseries. He, not hesitating at all, bade me have confidence, and urged me to prepare the price of one candle, that this might be brought to Saint Landoaldus. Then I was willing to obey this counsel with swift compliance, and most devoutly carried out what he had commanded. A wondrous thing then occurred, and one greatly beneficial to me. For immediately when I approached the blessed memorial of Saint Landoaldus and faithfully asked him to be my intercessor for my distresses, behold, my aforesaid lord Landzo, coming after me, himself unexpectedly entered the same basilica to pray. I began indeed at once to grow pale at the sight of him and to tremble exceedingly, lest he should suddenly inflict death upon me when he saw me. But far otherwise than I had supposed, with Saint Landoaldus interceding for me, it turned out. For he spoke nothing at all of ill to me, but commanded me to perform my ministry as before; for I had formerly been his cup-bearer. So from that day until now, in the reconciliation of his Saint, I have remained secure from my former distress. By such signs, therefore, and miracles similar to these shown through him, it is certain to me that he is to be numbered among the first of the Saints."

[10] When these things were spoken by him, behold, the Lord Provost with his Brethren was departing, honored with immense gain; and thus entering the ship with great prosperity, the bier of Saint Landrada draws back out of reverence for Saint Landoaldus, with the Lord's power leading the way, they set forth from there also with great joy. After this, on a certain day while the sailors were navigating briskly, when they had rested and stopped in one place, it happened that, when the biers of the Saints, which had been properly placed in the ship close together by the Brethren, the bier in which Saint Landrada was contained gave a leap in the sight of all, and entirely removed itself from Saint Landoaldus, marvelously rendering to so great a Priest the reverence and fitting honor.

[11] That miracle, indeed, which was performed not long afterward on the same journey concerning a certain sailor, and likewise that which befell the man other miracles performed, who mourned his lost heart and mind or sense through the merits of the Saints, but was afterward mercifully restored to health, it is not necessary to recount more fully in this place, since they have been described more diligently elsewhere. When these miracles had thus been duly accomplished, as we have simply related for the sake of those who do not know, on the most sacred day of the Annunciation and Incarnation of the Lord, they arrived, God willing, at our monastery, which is most rightly called the monastery of the citadel of Ghent.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and our Savior, here begins the arrival of Saint Landoaldus the Archpriest and his companions at the citadel of Ghent, which is celebrated on the eighth before the Calends of April.

CHAPTER II

The Deposition of the Relics and the Solemn Elevation Afterward Performed.

[12] When all the faithful from every direction were streaming together to the blessed relics with exceeding exultation, after a woman was healed,

healed through the merits of the Saints. The most devout Brethren, indeed,

were deservedly filled with great joy above all others at the arrival of the Saints,

and accordingly all, vested in the solemn manner in white robes, the biers are carried into the monastery with solemn pomp, with thuribles of incense and

the bright light of four silver candelabra,

moreover with Crosses and sacred Gospels,

coming from afar with an infinite throng of peoples streaming together from every direction,

singing psalms to meet them,

joyfully received those most holy relics upon their shoulders

and brought them into the basilica with great exultation,

celebrating the solemn day no little in a double manner.

These, therefore, dearest Brethren, are the solemnities of this day,

these the great joys of today's festival, on which we have merited

to receive, by the Lord's bounty, such and so great

Patrons and fitting intercessors for our offenses.

And although we have briefly and simply

touched upon these things for the sake of those who were not then present,

we wish also to repeat the rest with the same simplicity,

the things that were done concerning the Saints, as God shall grant,

in part; lest so great a thing, worthy of all memory,

be utterly consigned to oblivion. Nor let anyone

reprove us with annoyance, saying that we speak of these events by chance;

for to tell the truth is not to whisper by way of slander.

[13] in vain certain people scoff. Therefore, at so great a joy, now briefly touched upon in compendium,

bestowed by God, certain malicious persons, and if it be permitted

to say so, envious ones, then bearing it ill, stood not far away

at that time in more elevated places, with oblique

gaze beholding so great a people exulting most devoutly in the reception of the Saints, they proclaimed with the faithless Jews that indignant saying from the Gospel: "Behold," they said, "the whole world has already begun to go after them." John 12:19

Then they caused a swift rumor to fly through their gossipmongers, as if not the relics of the Saints but the bones of wicked dead men had been vainly brought to us; certain ones even, filled with a yet worse madness, judged that the bodies of the Saints should be tested by fire in a furnace. O most faithless of mortals, you who had vomited forth these insults in derogation of the Saints: perceive at last, though late, that there is no counsel, no human wisdom against God. Did not many of the Saints arrive at the starry kingdoms after being consumed by fire? Have you not heard, most foolish one, infected with envy, that the body of Saint John the Baptist, although it was burned by the Pagans out of envy and scattered through the fields, nevertheless, as the Truth itself attests, "among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist"? Or will his body therefore not be most holy, because this is reported to have been done to it? It is clear indeed that, if the means were at hand, you would have wished to do these very same things to our Saints in the manner of the Pagans. O blind deceit that sees nothing, to which the brightness of the eternal sun is always injurious; but we give thanks to the Lord God of all, because the more studiously you wished to tear away the devotion of the most faithful people from the Saints, the more in every way you amplified their honor. Therefore, for your reproaches we return to you no reproaches at all. For, as it is written, the Lord has done whatsoever He has willed. Psalm 113:3 But we also, for the sake of peace, have wished to make no one public, have named no one here expressly; it suffices that the instigator of so great a perversity should blush, though late. For if he is angry, he will himself confess that he was the author of the malice; since we may perhaps have held such sentiments about some other stranger. For the Lord has decreed to glorify His Saints, and who shall be able to weaken His will?

[14] Therefore, most salutarily, with God willing and the Lord Abbot commanding, it was decided the relics are placed in the crypt that the relics of the aforesaid Saints should be placed apart in a modest location, where an altar gleams beneath the honor of Saint Mary, in the crypt, until they might be able to know more certainly what they might afterward do with them. Meanwhile, our Lord, not unmindful of His Saints, began to glorify the relics, recently deposited and without due honor, with many miracles, and to make manifest to all that these were not false, as the malicious asserted, but true relics of the Saints. they shine with many miracles: For the blind there received, with the Lord's assent, their sight, the lame their walking, the maimed their restoration, and those oppressed by various ailments the most perfect recovery of heavenly medicine. Then the most Christian people, whether situated near or far, hearing and seeing these things, came with candles and various offerings from every direction, and continually presented their vows to God before those relics. Say therefore, whoever you are, envious one; say, if you can, impious one, what has it profited you to have wished to act against the counsel of God? Behold, the glory of our Saints remains without end in Christ. Look at the followers of Christ, how joyfully they run to the renowned patronage of the Saints.

[15] But the Lord Abbot, seeing such great benefits, rendered thanks to Almighty God; some are sent to the Bishop of Liege, and not long after, at the Lord's inspiration, for the precaution of the future, and, what is truer, for the greater glory of the Saints, he took care to send our aforementioned senior members to the venerable Bishop of the Church of Liege, with a humble entreaty requesting that he investigate through his Clergy whatever was worthy concerning the relics of the translated Saints, and report to them the truth about all these things in writing, which, with the Lord granting, was immediately accomplished. For the Priests and Clergy streaming together from every direction, questioned in a full Synod, the earlier miracles are collected in a Synod, recounted before their Bishop with one voice how many miracles they had heard and seen performed concerning our Saints. At the command, therefore, of that same distinguished Bishop, the miracles which they had divulged were collected there, and through the Lord Heriger, a scholar and one skilled in the art of music, were described briefly indeed, but quite eloquently and in lucid discourse, and moreover were confirmed by the authority of the Bishop himself, additionally sealed with the impression of his seal, and faithfully sent to the Lord Abbot and all the Brethren of Ghent.

[16] Furthermore, the rivals of our prosperity briefly mentioned above, which, like the other acts, are confirmed by the Archbishop of Reims, whose once-broken forces of their malice by no means failed, what they could not accomplish at close quarters in the derogation of the Saints, they attempted to carry out with the Archbishop of the Church of Reims. But, so that the Lord might be able to glorify His Saints in these parts as well, prudent elders, skilled in speech, were sent from our monastery all the way there, who brought with them in writing an irrefragable authority and the testimony of very many Priests concerning the miracles recently performed through the patronage of the Saints, and moreover also destroyed by words the false opinion about the Saints before the Supreme Pontiff. Indeed, the venerable Archbishop, having seen these testimonies and heard them in his most full Synod, yielded to the truth together with seven other Bishops, and confirmed the writings that had been brought with his own authority and that of the other Bishops and many Priests, and the elevation of the relics is granted: and publicly praised before all his Synodal members that they should be most worthily raised up within the Holy of Holies. For behold, here by the grace of the Lord the machinations of the rivals fell, and our Saints, with God's favor, remained glorious against the wish of the envious.

[17] Then our envoys, gloriously made victors against the malevolent venom of blasphemy through the patronage of those same Saints, and more swiftly seizing their journey thence, approached a young man of fine character, recently adorned with the Pontifical mitre, Lindulph, Bishop of the city of Noyon; and with humble prayers they asked that he proceed as quickly as possible to the noble monastery of Ghent, Lindulph, Bishop of Noyon, invited, in order that he might by his own authority and in person raise the sacred relics from the obscure place in which they had been put, and, as was fitting, elevate them to a more exalted position within the chancel. To these prayers he most willingly gave his assent, and moreover designated to them the day when he would most certainly come to us. We have indeed briefly and simply touched upon this thing gloriously accomplished concerning the Saints, which we have judged to be most beneficial for our newer and dear foreign brethren, advancing toward better things, lest they utterly consign worthy events to oblivion, but rather adorn their memory by more devoutly paying service to them. For all things which the enemy of the human race was preparing against the Saints for their destruction, our Bishop always, on the contrary, turned to their more eminent adornment, for which let there be to him thanksgiving, praise, and exultation without end. For at the command of the Lord Abbot, that he might place them in precious caskets made for the purpose, although in inferior material, out of the great devotion which we had toward the Saints, craftsmen had most fittingly prepared three new caskets, covered with pure gold and silver, from the offerings of the most Christian people who were streaming together; and all the Brethren were rejoicing, and awaiting the desired day on which we mentioned that he was to come and he had promised to come to us.

What more? For he came not long after, as he had predicted, with a most beautiful retinue of his Clergy and Priests, and not far from the sacred oratory itself, he arrives: he received his lodging in quarters prepared for him with care. But now, with the merits of the Blessed ones interceding, it behooves us, as best we can, even with a rustic pen, to set forth the most sacred elevation of the Saints performed in such a manner on the following day.

[18] After the pre-dawn hour, therefore, rest was shaken from drowsy limbs, and leaving behind our sluggish beds, we ran unanimously to the sacred building; and immediately we saluted with prostrate prayers the Supreme and Sincere One, at daybreak, without whom no one merits light from light. While the dawn still paused under the saffron mantle of the bright sun, the Brethren resounded songs to Christ in triumph, and it is a joy to praise eternally the One who is ever mighty. When these hymns had been duly arranged, the aurora of the morning brightness immediately departed, the moistening shadows were dispelled, and the meadows on all sides dripped with dew; and now golden-haired Phoebus unveiled the world with his most brilliant rays, and the day of so great a celebration shone upon the earth, a day to be most reverently celebrated and observed by us forever. Then the Priests of our order, attentive and purified by sacred petitions, immolated an unblemished lamb to God in honor of the Saints, thus beating upon the pious ears of the Lord with prayers, lest perchance, on the contrary, malignant deceit should be able by murmuring to diminish so great a glory to come for the Saints and for us. But neither in vain nor fruitlessly, by taking precaution, did they accomplish this with the Lord's assent. For at that very time of daylight, when the Bishop of the Lord who had arrived was already preparing himself to proceed, behold, again the serpent, debilitated in creeping, appeared, though with his scaly neck battered, the obstacles of the malevolent are rejected, doubly striving at last to raise his thrice-dashed head and secretly to pour forth the venom of his wickedness against the Saints of God. But this the Priest of God, with the Lord revealing it, prudently perceived by taking precaution, and at the same time cautiously avoided the lethal draught offered by the faithless, spurned it and mocked it with derision, and crushed it by treading it underfoot. Finally, he removed the detractors and whisperers far from himself, and most certainly announced that our prayers would be fulfilled on that day; and he proclaimed himself prepared and most devoted to the service of such great Saints from this time forward and forever with all his people.

[19] Then, with our Priors having swiftly prepared with the greatest exultation whatever seemed suitable for this work, the Bishop arrived after Prime with Abbots, Clerics, and most devout monks, to the ashes and bones of the pious Father Landoaldus the Archpriest and his companions. Here you might have seen almost innumerable people rushing to behold, he raises the relics with solemn pomp: whom the fame and the name of the illustrious Patron had stirred. The crowds filled the places; and then, first to the urn of the Archpriest with Litanies, as was fitting, most reverently, and then to those of the others, the Bishop, having gone ahead, adorned with the Pontifical mitre, spoke over the distinguished remains, then took them out from the basin in which they were held, and placed them in caskets of silver, covered with burnished gold. Now candles shone brightly, set upon silver candelabra, and an immense fragrance, sweet as of aromatics, filled the nostrils of those standing round about; while around the sacred bodies there resounded the murmur of heavenly song. At the end, when this office was sent forth in due order, the doors of the crypt were opened, and the band of monks, yielding, amid a great accompanying tumult of peoples, pressed to rush through the remaining passages. For the Priests and Levites, at the nod of their Bishop, took up three caskets, which the people of Ghent carried outside the building and under the open sky in their arms, in praises of God and hymns; and as they proceeded, the heavens echoed with tuneful roars, and the voices of the singers flew along the neighboring shores. And when, barely breaking free from the crowd, they sought the gates in a set formation and long order, the Bishop stood ahead waiting at the doors; where, when the prayer was finished, he intoned on high a Responsory, most fittingly composed in praise of the Saints. When this was completed, again in the very choir, adorned with painted tapestries, the Angelic hymn was sung in a lofty voice.

[20] Meanwhile, those who were carrying the sacred treasure divinely gathered and granted already held the place prepared by the Lord, higher than the altars themselves and supported on their shoulders. he places them above the altar.

To these the Bishop, drawing near with worthy reverence, lifted it out with his own hands while the people watched with the Clergy, and placed it upon the prepared altars. Then, when this service was also completed, he himself, standing before the altar with devout mind, began the melody of an Antiphon of the most blessed Confessors. This was immediately followed by the emotion of the Clergy, singing in the highest voices with the exultation of all: the musical song, that is, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel," and the entire canticle of Zachary. O what a pious spectacle! Twice and thrice blessed! To see, namely, with such great devotion of the faithful, the Lord, who is wonderful in His Saints, being praised, and the recent glorious work of the Lord. Then a roar goes forth to heaven and the cry of proclamations strikes the golden stars; and no less the crowd is mingled with groaning amid the abundance of joy, and with tears welling up they filled their bosoms from the gladness of their hearts. Truly, a pious joy arises for the inhabitants of the earth. He celebrates Mass. Then a Mass is most solemnly chanted by the Bishop in honor of the Saints. After this, the same Priest, resplendent in a golden cloak, ascended the ambo with slow steps and related the lofty miracles of virtues, by which the plagues of the limbs fell away, and upon countless sick persons health flowed, immense and unforeseen. He announces the miracles: And finally he ordained that this entire day, most joyful for all the inhabitants of this land, be observed as honorable and festive by all in future years. Furthermore, the Pontifical blessing is bestowed upon the place, and thus, when all things were rightly performed, the entire people is commended to God and to perpetual peace. He institutes the feast.

[20] June 13. This most sacred translation was performed, most pleasing to God and to men and most grateful in all things to the holy Angels, on the Ides of June by Lindulph, most venerable man, Bishop of the city of Noyon, with the inexpressible spiritual joy of many Clerics and monks, and also with an infinite assembly of the faithful peoples, in the year of the Incarnate Word nine hundred and eighty-two, year 982, Indiction ten, and also the third year since the arrival to us of our most glorious Saints. Behold, the consoler of the poor and the hope of the needy, the supreme and life-giving Lord of all, how He glorifies His holy and precious Landoaldus with his blessed companions, who a little before had been so humiliated by the insults of detractors. Truly wonderful and a hundredfold praiseworthy is God in His Saints, freely bestowed upon us though unworthy, who, against the wish of the most wicked and the will of the envious, has deigned so beautifully and nobly, namely by miracles and all other most worthy services, to lead the relics worthy of God to their rest even bodily. Therefore, dearest Brethren, celebrate this day joyfully in the praise of the Lord and of the Saints, a day full of every fitting veneration, perfect, so that together with you and with us they may acquire the fellowship of the citizens above. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, God, three and one, both now and for ever and ever. Amen.

son of Godfrey, Count of the Ardennes, was created Archbishop in the year 968,

died 989, having two years before anointed Hugh Capet as King of the Franks.

CONCERNING SAINT ALCMUND, MARTYR, AT CHESTER AND SHREWSBURY IN ENGLAND,

YEAR 800.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Alcmund, Martyr, at Chester and Shrewsbury in England (S.)

[1] The kingdom of the Northumbrians in the latter

part of the eighth century was entangled in various

tragedies of its Kings, filled with compassion

and the indignity of events and times.

Before them had lived the holy

Kings Ceolwulf, many Kings of the Northumbrians either expelled or killed, and his successor Egbert, both having left their

kingdom and begun the monastic life among the monks of Lindisfarne,

Ceolwulf in the year 737, Egbert in the year

758. To him then succeeded his son Osulf, who held the kingdom for one year, lost it, and perished, wickedly

killed by his own household on the ninth before the Calends of August. In the following year, therefore, 759,

Ethelwald, who is also called Mollo, began to reign on the Nones

of August. But in the year 765, Ethelwald lost the kingdom

of the Northumbrians on the third before the Calends of November,

and Alcred, sprung from the lineage of Ida, the first King of this nation,

as some say, succeeded to the throne, and

in the year 768, King Alcred took Queen Osgearnan, King Alcred, father of Saint Alcmund, expelled in the year 774,

from whom he begot Osred, afterward King, and Alcmund,

of whose martyrdom, feast day, and veneration we must here

treat. Their parent, King Alcred, therefore, in the year

774, by the counsel and consent of all his people,

destitute of the company of the royal household and

Princes, exchanged the majesty of his rule for exile.

He withdrew first

to the city of Bamburgh, afterward to the King of the Picts, named

Cinaed, with a few companions in his flight.

Ethelred also, the son of Ethelwald, received the kingdom in his place,

but in the year 779, when he was expelled and driven into exile,

Elfwald, the son of the above-mentioned King Osulf, received the kingdom

of the Northumbrians. He was a pious and just King. But

when a conspiracy was formed by his patrician, named Sicgan,

he was killed on the ninth before the Calends of October in the year 788,

and after his burial Osred, the son of Alcred and brother

of Saint Alcmund, reigned. But in the year 790, circumvented by the treachery of his Princes, as was King Osred, brother of Saint Alcmund, in the year 790, and captured and deprived of his kingdom, he was tonsured

in the city of York, and afterward

was compelled by necessity to seek exile. But Ethelred, freed from exile,

was again enthroned on the royal seat, by whom in the year

791 the sons of King Elfwald, Oelf and Oelfwine, were taken

from the city of York and led away from the principal church by

false promises, and were miserably slain.

And in the following year, Osred, formerly King, brother of Saint Alcmund,

was killed by order of King Ethelred, killed in the year 792, on the eighteenth before the Calends

of October. And he was buried in the monastery of Jarrow at the mouth of the river

Tyne.

[2] But Ethelred himself, the King, was also killed in the year 796

on the fourteenth before the Calends of May. And Osbald the patrician

was established in the kingdom by certain Princes of that nation, King Eardulf created in the year 796: and after twenty-seven days was destitute of the company of the entire royal household and

Princes, put to flight and expelled from the kingdom,

and withdrew to the island of Lindisfarne

with a few, and thence reached the King of the Picts by ship

with some of the Brethren. Then Eardulf,

the son of Eardulf or Earnulf, was called from exile and raised

to the royal insignia, and consecrated on the seventh before the Calends of June;

by whose command Saint Alcmund was killed. Against this

King in the year 798 a conspiracy was formed by the murderers

of King Ethelred; Duke Wada had begun war,

and when very many on both sides were slain,

Duke Wada and his men were turned to flight, and King Eardulf

royally won the victory over his enemies. Thus far

nearly all things have been drawn from Simeon of Durham's Deeds of the English Kings, and most of these same things are read in the same words

in Hoveden in the first part of his Annals. Concerning these same Kings,

Turgot of Durham writes conforming things in Book 2 of his History

of the Church of Durham, chapters 4 and 5. Turgot is the earliest of the rest;

we treat of him more fully in the history of the Translation of Saint

Cuthbert on March 20. From him we supplement the remaining Kings of the Northumbrians,

of whom he relates the following: When Eardulf was driven from the province

in the tenth year of his reign, to whom ten others succeeded, Aelfwold held it

for two years, then Eanred, the son of King Eardulf,

reigned for thirty-three years. Eanred was succeeded by

his son Ethelred; when he was killed, Osbertus succeeded to the kingdom

around the year 850. But when he was driven out around the year

862, Aella succeeded; and both he and Osbertus, reconciled

during the irruption of the Danes, in the year 867,

on the twelfth before the Calends of April, fell in battle. When they

were killed, the Danes established Egbert as King; Simeon of Durham treats of

these three in the said year 876,

and asserts that Egbert reigned beyond the Tyne for six years, and dying in the year

873 -- having been expelled -- had as his successor

Resig, who reigned for three years; when he died, in the year

876, a second Egbert reigned

beyond the river Tyne, until the year 926, and in the year 883 Guthred,

the son of Hardecnut, succeeded him and reigned over York,

dying in the year 894. Afterward, from the Danes

Sihtric reigned, dying in the year 926, whose

kingdom, when his son Guthferth was expelled, King Athelstan

added to his own dominion. So says Simeon of Durham.

[3] On the other hand, William of Malmesbury, in Book 1 of the Deeds of the English Kings,

chapter 3, establishes Ethelred, killed in the year 1296 [sic], as the last King of the Northumbrians, Malmesbury omitted twelve Kings: by whose command King Osred,

brother of Saint Alcmund, had been slain. "After Ethelred,"

he says, "no one dared to ascend to the throne, while

each one feared for himself the fate of his predecessors, and preferred

to live safely in inglorious ease rather than to reign

hanging in uncertain peril; for most of the Kings of the Northumbrians

had departed life by what was almost a familiar death." "Thus, with the ruler ceasing,

for thirty-three years that province was an object of mockery and prey

to its neighbors... When those thirty-three years had passed,

King Egbert obtained this region in the year of the Lord's Incarnation

827." So he says, with an enormous error of a hundred and

more years, during which there were proper Kings of the Northumbrians; and he wrongly says the kingdom was added to the Saxons in the year 827, whence it is not surprising that little can often be known about others,

even Saints. It was not, therefore, Egbert, King of the West

Saxons, who joined this kingdom to the rest, but his great-grandson

Athelstan; nor before Egbert was there any interregnum

of thirty-three years, but other Kings continuously succeeded their predecessors,

and among them, as has already been said, Eardulf

was reigning in the year 800.

[4] Saint Alcmund was killed by order of King Eardulf: son of Alcred. With these points established, we gather the meager gleanings that remain

about Saint Alcmund amid so many irruptions of the Danes; and first,

Simeon of Durham, at the said year 800, relates the following:

"In the same year Alcmund, the son of King Alcred, as some say,

was seized by the supporters of King Eardulf,

and by his command, together with his fellow fugitives, was slain."

These things the Worcester chronicler indicates briefly thus: "Alcmund,

the son of Alcred, King of the Northumbrians, is killed." And

earlier, at the year 765, he treats of the father in these words:

"Mollo relinquished the kingdom of the Northumbrians,

and Alcred, the son of Eanwine, succeeded, who was the son of Birnhorm,

who was the son of Bosa, by others called Alcred's who was the son of Bleocmann, who was the son of

Ailric, who was the son of Ida." But the Westminster chronicler, at the said

year 765, calls the father King Ealred, the great-great-grandson

of King Ida, Ealred's, and says he reigned eight years; and at the year

873: "Ealdred," he says, "King of the Northumbrians,

departing this life, had Ethelred as his successor."

But that he went into exile has been shown above. Concerning

the death of Saint Alcmund, the same Westminster chronicler has the following at the

year 800: "In which year also Alcmund, the son

of King Ealdred, was seized by the supporters of King Eardulf of the Northumbrians, Ealdred's, and by his command, together with his fellow

fugitives, was slain." Ranulph of Chester, in his Polychronicon,

which we have in manuscript, Book 5, chapter 25, has the following: "Mollo, King of the Northumbrians, relinquished the kingdom. Alcred succeeded him for nine years, and that Alcred had two sons: Osfred (by others called Osred), who reigned in the third place after him, and Saint Alcmund, Alcred's, who was afterward killed in a battle of the Mercians against the West Saxons."

[5] The Polychronicon as cited is quoted by Harpsfield in his History of the English Church, century 8, chapter 21: he did not fall in battle. "His son (that is, Ethelbert's) was Alcmund, who, when he had come to the aid of Ethelmund, sub-king of the Mercians, fighting in battle against the Wiltshire men, who were a people of the West Saxons, was there slain." Harpsfield assumed this more easily from the Chester chronicler, who, following Malmesbury, had written that the Northumbrians at that time lived without a King and were afterward subjected to King Egbert. Moreover, he makes Alcmund the son of King Ethelred, by whom we have said his brother Osred was killed, not of Alcred, whom he had called Alcred. Therefore, he was not killed in battle, but was seized by the command of King Eardulf, and unjustly slain, perhaps because he was the son of King Alcred and the legitimate heir to the kingdom.

[6] Concerning his veneration, Harpsfield adds the following: "His body was interred at Whitchurch, the body held in veneration, at Derby, then reburied at Derby, where a church was built in his memory, which is celebrated on account of the miracles wrought by him there after his death." In the English Martyrology at March 19 the following is found: miracles, "At Derby, the feast of Saint Alcmund, Martyr, who was the son of Alcred, King of Northumbria, wickedly killed by the Danes in battle against Wolstan, Duke of Wiltshire. His body immediately began to shine with miracles; wherefore it was translated to Derby and buried with great veneration, a church where afterward an excellent church erected in his honor still stands today at Derby, at Derby, commonly called Saint Alcmund's, to which very many pilgrims formerly used to come on account of the miracles performed there. He suffered around the year of Christ 800. At Shrewsbury also, another church of notable form, surviving to this very day, is seen, dedicated in his name." and Shrewsbury: These are most well-known cities, the capitals of their respective provinces or counties, Derby and Shropshire. But whence did Wilson, the author of this Martyrology, draw the claim that Saint Alcmund was killed by the Danes? Perhaps because he believed him to be the son of Alcred, not Alcred, he was not killed by the Danes, he supposed that the reference was to Alfred, the most famous King of the West Saxons, whose Acts were written by Asser of St. David's, who is cited -- I know not by what error -- with the Chester chronicler in the margin of the page in Harpsfield, where he treats of the death of Saint Alcmund, and the year 801 is alleged, although Asser began his history from the year 849, in which Alfred of Wessex was born. Of him we treat more fully on March 20, in connection with the Translation of the body of Saint Cuthbert; and his victories against the Danes are related there.

[7] But what is said about the battle of Wolstan is thus related at the year 800 by the Worcester chronicler: nor in a battle of the Mercians. "In the same year it happened that Duke Ethelmund went forth from Mercia with his men and crossed the ford which in the English language is called Kempsford; when his approach was learned, the Duke of the Wiltshire men, Weolhstan, marched with the Wiltshire men against him. And when a fierce battle was joined, many on both sides fell, and both Dukes fell slain; but the Wiltshire men had the victory." So it reads there, without any mention of the Danes, who were not even raiding anywhere in England at this time. Moreover, that battle in no way pertains to Saint Alcmund. For it should be noted that four things are narrated by the Worcester chronicler at the said year 800, which are plainly unrelated to each other: the first concerns Charlemagne's journey to Rome and his winter spent in the City; the second concerns the death of Brihtric, King of the West Saxons, and the succession of Egbert. These are followed by the battle already mentioned, and in the last place is reported the killing of Alcmund, son of King Alcred of the Northumbrians, whom Simeon of Durham and the Westminster chronicler report was killed by the command of King Eardulf of the Northumbrians. The same Ferrarius inscribed him in his General Catalogue of the Saints in these words: "In England, of Saint Alcmund, Martyr." In what sense he is considered a Martyr. Moreover, what we said on March 18, in connection with the Life of Saint Edward, King and Martyr, who was unjustly killed by the command of his stepmother, concerning the term "martyrdom" taken in a broad sense, seems to be applicable to this Saint and can be read there.

[8] Alford, in his Index of the Saints of England at the end of the third volume of his Annals of the English Church, has the following: "Almund, at what age he was killed, a royal boy and Martyr, was the son of Alcred, King of Northumbria. When his parent was expelled from the kingdom, he was driven from life. He is venerated as a Saint and proven by miracles. Two churches are built for the Martyr. He is honored on March 19." The year 800 is cited in the said Annals and the number 16. But either through the carelessness of the printer or for another reason, everything after number 8 has been omitted. He establishes with us that the father Alcred was expelled from the kingdom in the year 774; but Alcmund, twenty-six years having elapsed afterward, was slain not as a boy, but as a man of about thirty years.

CONCERNING BLESSED ANDREW DE GALLERANI AT SIENA IN ETRURIA,

YEAR 1251.

Preliminary Commentary.

Andrew de Gallerani at Siena in Etruria (Bl.)

Section I. Ancient cult; a Life written by an author of a near-contemporary age.

[1] The city of Siena in Etruria, most ancient,

and also a fertile fatherland of Saints,

and dignified by the special patronage Andrew died at Siena on this day,

of the Virgin Mother of God, who brought forth

the author of holiness to the world, with prerogatives

not to be despised, gave to heaven on two consecutive days this month two illustrious worshippers of the same Virgin: namely, Blessed Andrew and Blessed Ambrose, each having received from their fatherland the surname of Sienese, each renowned for miracles, and each buried in the same church of the Order of Preachers under his own altar.

Andrew was first in order of days, just as he also preceded in dying, according to a marginal note in an ancient original parchment, added by a different but nevertheless old hand, in these words: "This Saint attained heavenly things, reverently fortified with the Sacraments of the Church, in the year 1251, on March 19, 1251." From which it is clear how Saint Ambrose of Siena survived Saint Andrew by thirty-six years and one day.

These are confirmed partly from the context of the Life itself, where the character of the Lord's Day made his death notable, and partly from a clause appended after the Life in the same hand: "In the year of the Lord 1251, on a Sunday, in Lent, on Sunday after Vespers, he departed to the Lord."

[2] That this Sunday was Palm Sunday was the conviction of the man who translated the Life from Latin into Italian and annotated it, namely Father Raimund Barbi, not Palm Sunday, a Dominican Prior in the town of San Gimignano, who in the year 1638 submitted it to the public press of that city of Siena; but he was persuaded of this because the Monday following this Sunday had been accustomed, until the times of Pius V, for the Sienese people to observe as festive in veneration of Blessed Andrew, as if it necessarily followed that this was the day of deposition, and that the day of blessed death. But since in that year, and in many preceding and following years, Easter never fell on March 26, the Palm Sunday that preceded it could not have fallen on March 19. Indeed, March 19, 1251, was a Sunday, the dominical letter being A; but it was the third Sunday of Lent, since Easter fell on April 16. Therefore, the feast was deferred until Holy Week, but the third Sunday of Lent, if the cause must be sought by conjecture; since it does not seem very likely that the body remained unburied for three entire weeks (for how would the Life not have reported something so remarkable as the preservation of a dead body beyond the powers of nature?), it does not seem entirely incredible to us that, as the miracles multiplied at the invocation of Blessed Andrew, perhaps elevated the day after Palm Sunday, his body was solemnly elevated from the earth after some years, on such a day, and that the Life we present was already written, and that this celebration was afterward seen to be renewed annually.

[3] That not very many years had elapsed from the death of Andrew to the institution of that feast is taught by the authentic testimony of the Indulgences, proposed after twenty-three years, and speaking of it as already often celebrated. Raimund produces this from the archives of the Sienese convent, and we here transcribe it from him, since it excellently confirms the public cult of this Blessed one. It is, therefore, of this kind: "Bernard, by the divine mercy humble Bishop of Siena, to all the faithful of Christ, both Clergy and Laity, established throughout the city of Siena and diocese, to whom the present letters shall come, eternal salvation with blessing. Since, Romans 14:10 as the Apostle says, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to give an account of our own deeds, whether we have done good or evil, it behooves us to anticipate the day of the final harvest with works of mercy. when it is celebrated with a feast year, Since, therefore, we embrace in the heart of Christ the beloved religious Brethren and Convent of the Order of Preachers of Siena, and that same Order, and we are greatly obligated to them in God for the benefits bestowed by them on us and our Church, and which are bestowed daily, we wish and desire to fulfill with grateful zeal what we bear in our mind. Hence it is that (as has been made known to us by those same Brethren, and we ourselves have seen many times) the same Brethren and also the entire city of Siena, out of reverence and devotion for the venerable man Andrew, formerly their noble fellow-citizen and our brother, whose body rests at the church of those same Brethren, concerning whose life and passing a praiseworthy testimony is borne among both citizens and foreigners, on the first Monday after the feast of Palm Sunday, not undeservedly celebrate solemnities with fitting honors and festivities, in the memory and honor of so great a Father. We, therefore, wishing not only to maintain that solemnity, and adorned with Indulgences, but also to add spiritual profit upon it, trusting in the mercy of Jesus Christ and of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary His Mother, and also in the patronage of the holy Martyrs Crescentius, Ansanus, Savinus, and Victor, we mercifully release in the Lord, annually at the aforesaid solemnity, one year of the penance enjoined upon all who shall approach the aforesaid place on the said day for the sake of devotion and shall leave there of the goods bestowed on them by God, provided they have been truly contrite and confessed of their sins. Given at Siena, 1274, Indiction II, the second day before the Calends of April."

[4] This Bernard, by Ferdinand Ughelli in volume 3 of his Italia Sacra, is called by the customary diminutive of that age, Bandinus, by Bishop Bernard in the year 1274, and is said to have been raised to the Sienese see in the year preceding the issuance of the aforesaid Bull, and was still alive in the year 1277 or the following, when he signed a Bull in favor of the Hospital of which we speak below; but a little afterward, when he had disdained to summon the Gaza family, which was always accustomed to assist the Bishop at sacrifice with a certain prerogative of honor, when about to offer sacrifice, by that same family, taking up arms, the injury done to the Guelph faction,

as they supposed, avenging the injury done to the Guelph faction, he was killed at the altar, and would have had Blessed Ambrose as his successor, says the same Ughelli, had not the latter, out of moderation of spirit and love of private life, disdained to undertake the burden conferred upon him by the Pontiff. while Blessed Ambrose Sansedoni was still living. From the lifetime of this Blessed Ambrose, the Italian Life's author Raimund perhaps not unreasonably adduces another indication that this Life was written not many years, as we have said, after the death of the blessed man; because, namely, at number 19 there is mention of Brother Ambrose preaching the miracles of the man of God; and from the time of the founding of the convent, which was in the year 1226, for a hundred and fifty years no one is found who bore such a name except Blessed Ambrose Sansedoni; who, if he had not still been alive when these things were being written, would without doubt have been addressed more reverently, since after his death he began publicly to be venerated as Blessed, with the Apostolic See itself aware and wishing to proceed to his solemn canonization.

[5] This argument also seems to us most efficacious, if that author had said more expressly the Life was written before that year, that there had survived from those fires, which he deplored, the catalogues of those years which had elapsed since the death of the Blessed one, exhibiting the names of the religious; and although we do not deny this, we think it sufficient to confirm the antiquity of this writing that the author, after commending the multitude of miracles in general, says at number 16 that examples seen and heard in each species by trustworthy report seem not undeservedly to be added. Nor does he say this only of miracles which might be thought to have been performed long after death; but in the very entrance of his preface he states that he is undertaking a discourse about one whose praiseworthy life not only those who lived with him bear witness to, but also the miracles which shone forth more frequently before and after his death and do not cease continually to flash, attest the merits of his extraordinary holiness. likewise the miracles. Having, therefore, the testimony of those who lived with him, the author could not have written long after the death of the man of God; but in reporting miracles he excused himself at number 15 for using a more concise style, because he was leaving their fuller declaration to the booklet where these things had first been compiled at greater length -- by those, namely, who received the individual cases as they were brought and corroborated by sufficient testimony of witnesses, into notebooks; which in the year 1531 or 1576, when the church burned together with the sacristy, probably perished, if indeed they had survived until that time.

[6] The fortune of the parchment codex in which the transcribed Life was contained was better; to be published from ancient parchments, for although this too was at first reported to have recently perished, nevertheless, by the Reverend Father Brother Antonino Accarigi, in this year 1665 in which we write, Prior of the Convent of Saint Dominic at Siena, it was more diligently sought at the urging of our Fathers, and at last was found, and from it the requested Life was transmitted, under this, as follows, attestation of authenticity: "These have been faithfully extracted from a certain Codex, written on parchment by Brother Constantine, in which are the Legends of Blessed Dominic, Blessed Catherine, Virgin and Martyr, Blessed Peter Martyr, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Blessed Andrew of Siena, Saint Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, and Blessed Macarius of Rome, existing in the archive of the Convent of Saint Dominic at Siena; and the said and above-written things were faithfully collated by us, Brother Isidore Ugurgerius of Siena, Master of Sacred Theology of the Order of Preachers, and John Rocchigianus, Cleric and citizen of Siena, in the year of the Lord 1665, according to the Ecclesiastical reckoning, Indiction III, on the second day of March." This is the Life twice translated into Italian which, translated into the Italian language in the year 1528, was published by Bartholomew son of Giovanni Battista Naccarini, and Silvanus Razzi, in Part 2 of the Saints and Blessed of Tuscany in the year 1601, professes to have followed it as printed. The remaining documents and authors who spoke in any way about Blessed Andrew are enumerated by the aforementioned Raimund at the end of the Life composed from those same sources, from which we have collected the following two paragraphs as some supplement and ornament to the more ancient Life.

Section II. The Gallerani family of Blessed Andrew; the Society of Mercy begun by him.

[7] The lineage of their ancestors and the illustrious surnames of their families, which the Saints, Blessed Andrew called Sienese from his fatherland, while they lived, had spurned as vanities, the simplicity of earlier centuries did not think should be restored to them even after death, since for them the title of holiness was a virtue more worthy than all nobility that had merited it; but it judged it more useful if they were understood as having been set before their fellow citizens more particularly as an example, when by the addition of a surname from their fatherland they were distinguished from other Saints of the same name. And so in the title of the Life, Blessed Andrew is simply named "of Siena," and elsewhere he is called nearly everywhere "Saint" or "Blessed" Andrew. Nevertheless, since those who have been made public, however much, do not cease to press more closely to imitation those who, having obtained a common origin with them, are illuminated no less by their praises than by the military exploits of their ancestors, therefore the practice of later centuries cannot be condemned, from the Gallerani family, which added to Blessed Andrew in public Acts the family surname "de Gallerani," which will appear from what is to be produced and cited below, and which we have followed in our title.

[8] Moreover, that the Gallerani family is of ancient nobility is proved not only by the military glory of Ghezzolino, his ancestors were of ancient nobility, who was the father of Andrew, but can also be shown from the offices which his ancestors held for the republic and the rewards they received from it. For from the public Acts, which still survive in the archives today, it can be known that in the year 1186, on account of their outstanding military exploits, the Gallerani family was given the right to build towers (which at Siena was the chief mark of nobility): one in the very paternal home of Blessed Andrew, in the parish of Saint Peregrine, which the Ballatori family possesses today; the other in the buildings directly opposite, which the Bindi now inhabit, in the parish of Saint Peter in Banchi. In no way degenerate from this generosity of his ancestors, our Andrew and he himself won praise by slaying an enemy commander; also bore arms as a young man, by no means unsuccessfully; for as is attested by Don Bartholomew the Carthusian and Gregory Lombardelli the Dominican, who testify they read it written in a certain manuscript Diary of those times, which is preserved in the Cathedral church: "The Orvietan men in the year 1219 marched against Campiglia, inflicting great damage there; and when this was understood at Siena, they went to meet the enemy, and in the battle that ensued, Lord Andrew Gallerani, a noble of Siena, killed Lord Andrew Martinelli, the chief Captain of the Orvietan men; and they, despairing of victory, retreated."

[9] He is believed to have acted with equal fortitude of spirit, but in a dissimilar cause, not yet having learned Christian meekness, then, having killed a blasphemer, when he committed that homicide on account of which he had both to flee his fatherland as a fugitive and felicitously fell into the hands of God. For although some wish that some quarrel had preceded, more people say that Andrew's anger was aroused by nothing other than what can and ought to move the inmost heart of every good Christian: the injury of a blasphemous mouth against God. The deed was done in the quarter of Camollia, before those steps which lead from the customs house to the palace today called the Salimbeni's; where at the very corner of the buildings meeting crosswise, two stones can still be seen, placed there as a monument for posterity where each of them had stood, as they say: one five palms high, the other shorter. However it was, it was not safe for Andrew to remain in the city, he is compelled to go into exile, which the Lord Ventrilius, Viscount of Pisa, was governing with the title of Podesta, sending out his constabulary in every direction to search for the author of the killing; therefore he betook himself toward the Maritime coast, where the Gallerani family is said to have possessed strongholds called Piscaria.

[10] Thus far Raimund, contracted into a few words, collects these things as gleanings from transcribed or traditionally preserved documents, he institutes a society of mercy, and things passed over by the ancient author as contributing little to the holy life which was to be written. More notable is the fact that both he and his predecessor Giovanni Battista Naccarini make this same Blessed Andrew the founder of that society which flourished at Siena under the name of Mercy until the year 1308, when, with the brothers who had been caring for the poor being removed, the estates and revenues were applied to the larger hospital called della Scala; and the place was adapted for the use of a public Academy, until then not attached to any fixed location for a century and a half and more, under the title of the Sapienza; in whose archive all the instruments concerning the said place are still preserved, and they prove that a hospital was established there, and Brothers to serve the poor and infirm under the name of Oblates and Brothers of the Mercy of Christ's Poor, around the year 1240, wearing a garment of fawn color, to which was sewn at the shoulders a badge of the letter M supporting a cross superimposed, indicating what they professed. admitted to communion by the Dominicans: They did not, indeed, belong to the Dominican Order, as some have supposed, because formerly lay brothers in that Order also used a mantle of this color; but they were admitted by it to the sharing of all spiritual goods through Brother Stephen Bisentinus, the eighth General of the Order, and a decree signed on August 10, 1292, is found, by which the Preacher Brothers are commanded to commemorate the day of the death of each of the said Oblates in their Chapters, as if they had been of their own body.

[11] Commonly, however, it was called the Salimbeni hospital, because it had been built in that very extensive area the tradition and monuments concerning this matter: of which that most ancient and at the same time most powerful family once had complete possession. That it was founded by Blessed Andrew himself, his resources having been contributed thereto, although the author of the Life says nothing about this, as being too commonly known, a sure tradition is held among the Sienese, which not only the historians of that city, Orlando Malavolti and Giugurta Tommasi, have followed, but a title engraved in stone and inserted into the wall confirms, near the altar of the Most Blessed Virgin in the church of that place, in this formula: "In the year of the Lord 1347, on the 8th of June, in the time of Master Agnolo Gucci, Rector of this house, it was decreed by the Community of Siena that the feast of Blessed Andrew, who was the head and beginning of this holy House, should be observed on Holy Monday each year in perpetuity: to the glory of God and his honor, who departed this life in the year 1251." With which agrees the inscription placed beneath the image of this Blessed one, as it is seen in the great hall of the Curia, called the Mappa Mundi from the geographical chart displayed there; and it is as follows:

"Here was the saintly Andrew Gallerani, a poor patrician, patron and helper to the good: For since he built for all the poor a refuge, the scholarly crowd learns sacred arts therein."

[12] Yet, as we have proved in the Acts of Blessed John of God, after Andrew's death, Procurators were appointed from among the citizens: he had indeed gathered companions for the exercise of mercy toward the poor, but they did not receive permanent

stability until after his death; so also we think the same must be said of these, and that they had nothing firmly established so long as Blessed Andrew was alive. For how would he have chosen burial elsewhere than in a chapel or church erected by himself? After his death, therefore, the solicitous city, lest with the removal of the author of the pious work, the institution itself, which had been established with such great public benefit, should dissolve, decreed that Rectors should be successively chosen from the number of the citizens, who together with the Brothers should administer affairs there; then in the year 1280 it decreed that the Bishop, the Prior of the Dominicans, the Guardian of the Franciscans, and the Rector of that Society should have the right, by concordant votes, to choose six citizens, through whom any contracts whatsoever concerning the goods of that hospital might be legitimately executed, excepting those which testators had not wished to be alienated from their bequests.

[13] All of which things Brother Latino Malabranca, of the Dominican Order, Bishop of Ostia and Velletri, Apostolic Legate, privileges given and confirmed, when requested through delegates sent by the Republic, ratified, signing the Bull at Imola on June 17; which is still preserved along with another of Pope Martin IV, signed two years later at Montefiascone, by which the power of collecting alms for the conservation of the place and of possessing real property is confirmed -- having already been granted by the Bishops of Siena and confirmed by Bishop Bernard in the month of February of the year 1277 or the following (for the character of the sixth Indiction added to the year of the Christian Era creates a doubt and convicts one or the other number of error). On this matter there exists in the archive of the Sapienza at Siena a notable Bull, which Raimund Barbi exhibits in Italian in chapter 23, directed to Brother Bartholomew Hildebrandi, Rector and Governor of the House of Saint Mary of Mercy and of the Poor of the city of Siena, and to his fifty-seven companions named expressly, and thus taking turns in succession in ministering at the said hospital; among whom is also Peter Pettinarius, with two of his eight companions, Blessed Peter Pettinarius numbered among the 57 companions, named in his Life to be presented in the month of December with the title of Blessed; in which Bull all the immovable goods granted to the said house by the pious faithful up to that day are also individually expressed, and both the house itself and the aforesaid Brothers are declared exempt from all jurisdiction of secular power and immune from bearing any public burdens whatsoever.

[14] But above all, their society is declared to have been legitimately erected in the form of a true college; which the Bishop then calls a Pious and religious Order, which he wishes to be promoted by them to posterity; just as at the beginning he had professed that it was the duty of his ministry to bestow the aid of ecclesiastical help upon those who choose the religious life. This, however, is not to be understood as though they all served God simultaneously under one roof, serving the hospital by turns, under the obedience of one Superior in all things, with the profession of three solemn vows; but each of them individually, having spurned the vanities of the world, remaining in their own home and condition and trade, devoted themselves by turns to the ministry of the poor, as is more clearly understood from the said Life of Blessed Peter Pettinarius; for thus, after the eight names of his companions have been listed, it is said: "All these had despised the world for the love of Christ, and devoted themselves to nothing else than prayers and works of mercy. On each feast day, five of them were gathered in the hospital, deliberating how and by what plan they might in the following week relieve the needs of the poor; of whom four, having divided the ministries between themselves in pairs, performed them under the direction of one fifth, while during the same week the other four devoted themselves to contemplation with Magdalene."

Section III. Honor paid to the body: the altar, images, a Confraternity erected at Siena under the name of Blessed Andrew.

[15] It is established that the body of Blessed Andrew was buried in the church of the Dominican Brothers. The body was buried in the church of the Preachers. That was at the time the ancient parish of Saint Gregory, granted to the Dominican Order, and occupied much less space than it does now, before Blessed Ambrose Sansedoni, then Prior, arranged for the old church to be demolished so that a new and larger one might be erected; which, begun in the year 1282 and quickly advanced far enough for use, at last received its final completion around the year 1449. "Therefore," it is elevated and transferred after the Life was written, says Raimund Barbi in chapter 21, "it is not known in what part of the old church the sacred body was first buried; but it is believed to have been interred until the brilliance of subsequent miracles persuaded its elevation." We have conjectured this to be the cause of the annual feast that began to be celebrated on the Monday of the holier week; and we have accepted the deep silence about it in the Life as an argument for the great antiquity of that Life, and its proximity to the times of the Blessed one himself. Otherwise it would necessarily have been mentioned in it on what occasion the body was either elevated from the earth or transferred from the old to the new church. Raimund continues: "When the structure was in part completed and dedicated, the chest, guardian of the precious treasure, was placed upon a certain altar, whose patronage the Gallerani family shortly afterward assumed; and to the chest this inscription was added:

HE WHOM PIOUS DEVOTION RAISED TO THE ALTAR,

ANDREW GALLERANI --

PIOUS MERITS HAVE RAISED TO HEAVEN.

A.D. 1251." and placed in his own altar.

[16] In this state things remained until Francis, son of Giles Bossi of Milan, formerly Bishop of Perugia, elected Bishop of Novara, came to Siena as Apostolic Visitor for Tuscany by the authority of Gregory XIII, and (as appears in the Book of Visitations of Bossi for the year 1575, folio 82, existing in the Archiepiscopal Curia of Siena) visited the altar under the title of Blessed Andrew Gallerani of Siena, which is a brick altar, covered with a wooden table, and had three cloths with a sacred stone, which he ordered to be leveled and fixed to the said table. inspected by the Apostolic Visitor in the year 1575. There were two brass candelabra, and a frontal of white damask silk, and a new and becoming wooden predella. Upon this altar was an icon of the image of Blessed Andrew, with various miracles performed by him painted most beautifully and elaborately on panels in the finest detail; to which icon there was an iron grate, and behind it was a gilded wooden casket in which the body of the abovesaid Blessed Andrew was deposited. And because the said casket was open and free access to it was possible, he commanded that two keys be made for the said casket, and that it be kept continually locked, and not easily opened, nor the body of Blessed Andrew easily shown. This altar belongs to the Gallerani family, and is endowed, and has the obligation of chanting a Mass on the Monday after Easter of the Resurrection, which they said they fulfilled. For Pius V had decreed that the sorrowful commemoration of the Lord's Passion, attached to Holy Week, should not be disturbed by the more joyful festival of any Saint; and this had been the reason for transferring to the Paschal ferias the feast which is observed to this day.

[17] In the fifth year after the said Visitation, the image of the Blessed at the altar, in the year of Christ 1580, Captain Julius Galleranus commissioned the marble ornamentation of the said altar, on which occasion the painted image of Blessed Andrew himself, which had long stood there, was removed -- having been executed around the year 1327 by the elegant brush of Anthony Laurati, which was surrounded by depicted scenes of various miracles, and which some hold was taken from a likeness rendered from life -- and it was placed above the altar which belongs to the Petrucci family on the sacristy side, where it remained until the year 1620, when the altar of that family was adapted for the image of Blessed Ambrose, to be brought from the place where the chapel of the most holy Rosary now is. another new one painted in the year 1630. And the image of Blessed Andrew himself, restored five years later, obtained a place nearest to the altar where it had first stood, where, as also everywhere else, it is honored even today with the frequent light of candles. Above the altar itself a new image of him is seen, painted in the year 1630 by Stephen Volpi, at the behest of the noble Venturi family, which happily succeeded the Gallerani through the adoption of Lord Julius, the last of his line through the male lineage. This panel exhibits Blessed Andrew kneeling before the Blessed Virgin and receiving the announcement of his happy passing, as described in the Life at number 12. There are also to be seen several other icons of this holy man throughout the pious places of the city of Siena, which Raimund lists in chapter 28, and it is not necessary to mention each one.

[18] A Confraternity instituted under the name of Blessed Andrew. We come to the Confraternity instituted under the invocation of Blessed Andrew, and accustomed to meet in the oratory which is beneath the dormitory of the convent of the Preacher Brothers. It had its beginning in the year 1344, on the Calends of May, as attests an ancient collection of Chapters written on parchment and preserved by the said sodales. Taking as its special badge and principal object of pious religion Jesus Crucified, it had Him most devoutly depicted upon its banners it bears him on its banners, and above the oratory's altar; and likewise Blessed Andrew, as its mediator to Christ. And so at the beginning of the said Chapters or ordinances concerning the aforesaid confraternity, in the aforesaid year, the Chancellor of the Oratory uses this exordium: "In the name and reverence of our Lord Jesus Christ crucified, and of His most holy Mother, the Virgin Mary, and also of the Blessed Lord Saint Andrew." And again, in a new book of similar constitutions, on March 13, in the year 1518, when the Sodales are found to have numbered one hundred and twenty voting, the scribe began thus: and invokes him as Saint and Blessed: "In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity, and of the glorious Virgin Mary, and of Blessed Andrew de Gallerani." Elsewhere, moreover, in the same Chapters, they honor him with the title of "our Blessed Father," and acknowledge him as Patron and protector of their confraternity; and they command that candidates be instructed concerning the particular veneration to be shown to him, and that after three recitations of the Our Father and Hail Mary, following the invocation of the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin, they add the versicle, "Pray for us, Blessed Father Andrew," with the Prayer, "O God, who by Blessed Andrew Thy Confessor," etc.

[19] These Sodales had the right of burial beneath those vaults it had the right of burial beneath the church of Saint Dominic, upon which the church of Saint Dominic was built; of which fact, in a place now fortified according to the laws of defensive warfare, some indications still survive, and this evident testimony in the necrology of the said convent: "John... died on March 2. He was buried in the sepulcher of the Disciplinati of the Society of Saint Andrew in the year 1369." This right they held until the year 1569; for then the oratory was transferred to the vaults beneath the church of the Sapienza, suitably cleaned out, and in it there flourishes the fervor of the first institution in both the number and the nobility of the illustrious Sodales; it flourishes in the number and dignity of the Sodales, stimulated and honored by many privileges and indulgences granted in perpetuity by Gregory XIII for both sexes; and honored by the judgments of the most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lords Ascanius Piccolomini, Archbishop of Siena, and Scipio Tancredi, Bishop of Montalcino, and of the most Noble Barons and other men distinguished by titles, from the most Illustrious German nation residing at Siena, who all did not believe it beneath their dignity

to have their names read inscribed in the Roll of the Sodales.

[20] When this same Confraternity, according to the pious custom of the city of Siena introduced in the year 1567, had been drawn by lot to organize the procession on Low Sunday, it carries the body of its Patron in a celebrated procession in the year 1603, at which thanks are given to God for the success of the prayers made each year, being drawn first in the year 1603, and when it was being deliberated which Saint's image or relic should be carried about in that sacred display, the Knight Ugo Benzius, deputed to that assembly from the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary, proposed that they should decree that the body of Blessed Andrew Gallerani, either whole or in part, be carried forth; which, received with common congratulation, and with the permission of the Most Reverend Barzellinus Barzellini, Vicar General of the Cardinal of Treviso, of Avignon and Archbishop of Siena, was carried into execution on April 6, the venerable head of Saint Andrew having been received for this purpose. This was then brought back with great solemnity to the church of the Dominican Fathers, and again in the year 1636, and for a full eight days, under a remarkable canopy, it remained exposed in the middle of the church for the public veneration of the citizens. This was again done with similar magnificence and ceremony in the year 1637; while on the Saturday preceding the Sunday, when the sacred skull was being lifted from the casket and placed in an elegant tabernacle, there were present, in addition to several most illustrious men, the Archbishop Ascanius himself whom we have mentioned. The skull itself was then, nine days later, with an innumerable people flocking together and their piety making the proceeding more extended, placed back into its casket, which had itself been brought to the middle of the church, and likewise returned above its altar, with a great number of candles shining before it.

[21] The ancient manuscript was distinguished by certain headings, which here, with the Life divided into three parts, we set forth separately beforehand, having taken them from thence:

Here, concerning the piety of compassion in the heart.

Here, concerning the kindness of one who aids in deed.

Here, concerning the constancy of prayer.

Concerning the love of God and neighbor.

Here, concerning the excellence of holiness.

Here, concerning the humility of life and the exaltation of death.

Here, how he freed many from diverse and various ailments.

Concerning the restoration of sight.

Concerning the repair of hearing.

Concerning the restoration of speech.

Concerning the obtaining of the power to walk.

Concerning liberation from contracture.

Concerning the recovery of the use of reason.

Concerning liberation from demons.

Concerning liberation from prison.

Concerning the calming of those tossed about.

Concerning the raising of the dead.

Concerning a certain noble girl miraculously preserved from death.

Concerning a certain novice lay brother freed from temptations to leave the Order.

Concerning the testimony of the holiness of Blessed Andrew.

Concerning the same.

Concerning a certain woman, crippled, freed in a dream.

Concerning the guardian of his tomb.

Concerning a certain man wishing to make an offering on his feast.

LIFE

By a writer of a near-contemporary age,

from the manuscript of the Convent of Saint Dominic in Camporegio at Siena.

Andrew de Gallerani at Siena in Etruria (Bl.)

BHL Number: 0450

FROM THE SIENESE MANUSCRIPT.

CHAPTER I.

Synopsis of his entire life and virtues.

[1] There was in the city of Siena a noble man,

Andrew by name, Andrew, a Sienese nobleman, distinguished in morals and

integrity, who drew his origin from the noble

lineage of the Gallerani;

whose praiseworthy life not only

those who lived with him bear worthy testimony to,

but also the miracles which shone forth more frequently

before and after his death and do not cease continually

to flash, attest the merits of his extraordinary holiness.

When this man was publicly exiled by the Podesta of Siena

for a homicide he had committed, an exile for a killing he had committed, at about nighttime,

while coming from the Maremma with his brother, he saw

which, snatching him with the horse upon which he sat

from the sight of his brother, bore him through the air

for a distance of nearly three miles, while his brother

followed, crying out with sorrowful and anxious groans at so great

with the salutation of the Virgin, never ceasing

to salute her most devoutly, so that by her merits

he was at last restored unharmed to the earth.

[2] And because all things work together for good for those who love

God, and he resolves to renounce the world, in this the holy man understood the beginning of his calling,

namely that he should withdraw his mind

from earthly things and transfer himself to the contemplation of heavenly things,

devoutly serving Him who had called him out of the darkness

of this world into His wonderful light. Which indeed

he fulfilled with provident and simple eagerness; for from that time,

renouncing the world and its pomps, and thenceforth begins to shine with virtue, he dedicated himself

entirely to Christ, shone with virtues by which, governing himself

and attending to the welfare of Christians, he happily

directed himself toward God -- fleeing death, thirsting for life,

not fearing to enter upon the way of life. For he was compassionate

in piety, helpful in kindness, constant

in prayer, preeminent in love, perfect in holiness,

humble in lowliness.

[3] The holy man was therefore very compassionate, and bore

pious feelings toward the afflicted, compassionate toward the afflicted, so that the affliction

of the miserable tormented him more than the affliction

tormented the miserable themselves. Whence once he encountered

putrefied, and who on account of the lack of money could find

no surgeon. When the man of God understood this, he applied

completely healed. By which God manifestly showed that although

He suffered the pain of the afflicted, He was unwilling to suffer the affliction

of His beloved, who was so great a refuge of the afflicted.

He sought out the sick and afflicted more diligently,

visiting and consoling them, he serves as midwife to a woman in labor, admonishing and exhorting them to patience.

Whence also, on a certain day, while returning from the countryside,

finding a woman alone in labor, moved with piety,

he stood by her in the place of a midwife and perfectly

ministered in all things.

[4] It also happened that his brother, out of indignation,

threw a certain key at a window, he preserves medicine bottles from breaking, where there were

flasks in which the holy man was carrying syrups of various kinds

to the sick; from which throw the flasks

were utterly shattered. When the holy man learned of this,

he was not in the least disturbed; but proceeding to the window

he found those flasks without any damage. By which God

manifestly showed how greatly He accepted the efforts of

his piety. For while the blessed man humbly and devoutly

devoted himself to the works of mercy as much as he could, it often

happened that, being occupied in the service of the poor, when he returns home late,

he could not return to his own home before the third

ringing of the bell. On which account all those of his own household

were angered, and were unwilling to open for him when he returned

so late; the doors open of their own accord, but he, as one truly devout and patient,

bore this humbly, and, as his maidservant reported,

he merely prostrated himself in prayer, and though the doors were closed,

afterward, following the example of the Savior, found them open. And

because true compassion of piety exists when it shows itself in works

of alleviating misery, ready to do good, therefore to the first point

the second follows fittingly, namely the kindness of one who helps.

[5] Secondly, he was helpful in his kindness; for his

continuous effort was this: to bring aid to the wretched

and to help the needy. from one measure of flour, Whence also, on a certain evening, he brought

home one measure of flour for the poor,

and having heated water in the middle of the night, he called the maidservant

lest he should miss Matins. When she had risen and was making bread,

and the man of God was putting away and arranging, the dough

did not diminish, he obtains many loaves, although otherwise so many loaves could never

have been produced from three measures; from which the woman,

wearied, asking and learning from him that it had been

one measure of flour, understood that this had come about

through the merits of the man of God. at another time he prevents wine from running out, Also, the wine which he had specially prepared

for the sick, when the maidservant wanted to send it as he was accustomed,

she found it completely exhausted; which when Blessed Andrew

heard, he went to the cask, and making the sign of the Cross,

drew abundantly, with the cask divinely replenished, from which for a long

time he sustained the poor. This also happened many times with bread,

because when the bread-box was empty, or obtains bread,

and the maidservant could find nothing to give to the needy, when he went there

it was divinely refilled.

[6] Also on a certain day, when it was the hour of dinner and

the weather was provoked with rains and snows, going out somewhere on account of charity, the man of God said to his household:

"Prepare, and I am going to Santa

Petronilla to bring them sustenance." And while they wondered

and dissuaded him, he went, and before they had completely

prepared he returned, and seeing and touching his garments,

which were in no way wet, he often returns dry under a rainy sky, they understood that an Angel had

led him back so quickly and unharmed from the rain.

A similar thing also happened many times when he went on the same errand

to Montecelsi and to other places by divine

inspiration; from all of which God wished to make known

how greatly He accepted his works of mercy. And because

through the active life one comes to the contemplative, most devoted to prayer, there fittingly

follows the third point, namely the constancy of prayer, in

which his spirit flew from the field of action to the summit of contemplation.

[7] There follows, therefore, the third point, namely the constancy of prayer;

for he applied himself to prayer with such eager

attention of mind that, with all cares trampled underfoot, he yearned

for this alone, being constituted in the body, to contemplate

the face of his Creator, he engages in it eagerly and ardently, where he poured forth pious and pitiful

groans, not only for his own offense if ever

he had sinned against God, but also for the perdition

of the human race which he beheld, and also from

love of the Fatherland which he eagerly thirsted for.

For the rivers of his eyes burst forth as an acceptable sacrifice to God,

so that in the place from which he rose from prayer, the earth

was found wet, as if water had been poured forth in abundance. not without a copious flow of tears. Whence

also he so sowed in tears that afterward he reaped

in exultation. Moreover, between day and night he always

devoutly said five hundred Our Fathers and as many Hail Marys,

whenever he could; so that, if the occupation

of the poor would permit, he would more fervently add three times five hundred.

And so that he might pray more attentively and devoutly,

he would hang his hair on a certain cord, lest sleep

should interrupt the fervor of his prayer with any interruption.

[8] Also, exposing himself with singular devotion and reverence

to the service of the glorious Virgin, piously devout toward the Blessed Virgin, out of the love

he had conceived, he always called her "Lady" in his salutation.

For whose merits the Virgin responded not only at home but also

on the way, when she appeared to him.

For the women who dwelt opposite the holy man

often, when they rose for Matins, saw

the place where he was praying shine with an immense

splendor; which, reporting to the maidservant of Blessed Andrew

in amazement, in much light, and asking why so great a light was made at night,

the said maidservant, reporting herself ignorant of this matter,

carefully attended to what was said; and at the hour which

they had indicated, rising the following night and beholding immense

lights, she enjoys her conversation, she saw a most beautiful Lady in white

sweetly conversing with the holy man -- about which on the following

day, demanding from him whether it had been the glorious Virgin,

he answered: "Yes," admonishing her that before his death she should by no means relate this to anyone. And because in prayer the intellect is illuminated, sincerely loving, for the apprehension of which the affection is inflamed, therefore there fittingly follows the fourth point, namely the love of charity.

[9] There follows, therefore, the fourth point, namely the love of charity, by which he loved God and neighbor with the sincerity of affection; God and neighbor. for with what affection did he love his neighbor, who spent himself entirely in the service of his neighbors? He urged upon all the counsels of holiness, showing himself in all things as a mirror of integrity. O with what purity he loved God, whom nothing delighted besides the memory of God! He languishes with this divine love, for whose desire his spirit burned; for while he is joined to God by love, nothing is loved by him besides God. And because it is fitting that the Beloved should visit His lover, once Christ came to him in the guise of a pilgrim, he receives Christ under the guise of a pilgrim, urgently asking to be brought into lodging; and despite his brother's resistance and great indignation at this, he placed him in his own room, with the door firmly closed. But in the morning, when he wished to lead him out, opening the room he found no one; from which he understood that it had been He who said: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and We shall come to him and make Our abode with him." John 14:23

[10] Sought by ambush for death. Also on a certain day, when certain men were laying an ambush for him as he was going to Matins in order to deliver him to death, the audacity to attack him as he passed through the midst of them utterly failed, while the one who was the ringleader in the crime cruelly exhorted them to the assault. Perceiving this, Blessed Andrew humbly prostrated himself at his feet, saying that he should freely do to him whatever he wished; at whose words not only did he withdraw from the conceived wickedness, he is divinely freed from danger, but also humbly begged pardon for the things he had done. From this it became clearly known that God could not suffer His holy man to be harmed by those near him, who poured forth upon his neighbors so great a grace of piety and charity. Also on a certain day, while still in exile, when he had secretly entered the city and was hiding in a certain tower, this did not escape the Podesta, who immediately sent his constables to apprehend him; when they sought the key to the said tower, the door opened of its own accord without any key, likewise at another time from the danger of capture, and the man of God going out unseen by anyone, escaped unharmed before those standing by; for God had foreseen this minister of His election and His most worthy Confessor as soon as possible. And because the Holy One of Saints is loved only by the holy, on account of which He Himself says, "Be holy, because I am holy"; therefore there rightly follows the fifth point, namely the summit of his holiness. Leviticus 11:45

[11] There follows, therefore, the fifth point, namely the summit of his holiness: perfect in an extraordinary degree of holiness, for he was holy because he was entirely devoted to the divine service; holy because firmly established in the law of God; holy because freely cleansed from all impurity. For he directed himself toward God with such rectitude that, conforming himself to the divine will in all things, he brought all his works to that rule. He was also strengthened with such great constancy that he could be impeded by no temptations from his good resolution, and provoked to impatience by no adversities, insults, or injuries. and pure from every stain. So perfect was also the cleanliness of his purity and simplicity that he abhorred not only committing unclean and fraudulent things, but even thinking them.

[12] And because holiness is freedom from impurity and perfection in immaculate cleanness, and each thing is perfect when it already attains its final end, therefore the Blessed Virgin recalls the man perfected in holiness to be joined to her Son in the Church of Saint Christopher. The Blessed Virgin admonishes him of his death: For when one day in the Church of Saint Christopher, before the altar of Blessed Blaise, with the doors closed, he was praying more devoutly, the Priests and Clergy who were in the sacristy heard a delightful conversation being held with him. And going out to look up at the one speaking, they saw a Lady shining with immense splendor, who immediately vanished. Whence the man of God, returning home, was soon seized by a fever, and calling his maidservant to cover him, he predicted that his death would come on Sunday at Vespers, whose hour he announces, just as the Most Blessed Virgin had revealed to him; which the subsequent event proved true. For it was worthy that he should give us so sure a sign of his holiness, by which the fame of his virtues would shine forth, and we, kindled by devotion thereby, might through his merits obtain pardon and grace in the present and glory from the Lord in the future. after the highest pursuit of humility throughout his entire life. And because the higher the degree of perfection, the more dangerous the fall threatens -- whence pride is born the more frequently (which, just as it is the root of all vices, is also called the destruction of virtue) -- therefore there fittingly follows the sixth point, namely the lowering of humility.

[13] There follows, namely, the lowering of humility: for by this virtue, by which the others are preserved, he shone above all. Utterly despising the world and worldly vanities, he scorned no one except himself, even despising this: if he were scorned by others. Whence he devoted himself more eagerly to works that were open to contempt and lowliness, not desiring to be served but rather to serve. And this because he was founded in humility, following the footsteps of his Savior, who humbled Himself; and also of the glorious Virgin, in whom, as Bernard says, humility pleased the Creator more than virginity. He humbled his body as much as he could with fasts, putting on vile and despised garments.

CHAPTER II

Miracles after the death of Blessed Andrew: various ailments cured.

[14] The face of the dead man And because it is said by the mouth of Truth that "whoever humbles himself shall be exalted," it was very fitting that he who had so greatly humbled himself in life should be exalted by worthy and new wonders in death. Whence it is reported not without considerable admiration that at the very hour at which he predicted he would render up his spirit, shines, besprinkled with flowers. his face was found as white as snow and covered with fragrant flowers. By which God manifestly showed how He loved him in the sweetness of fragrance, because he had shown himself a fragrance of praiseworthy fame while he lived. Also, while his body was being carried to the place of the Preacher Brothers in Camporegio, the eyes of one watching the funeral are healed: where out of devotion he had chosen burial, a certain soldier from whose eyes humors had long and continually flowed, looking from his palace through a certain window, was through his merits completely healed.

[15] miracles of every kind are performed after the burial, But the other miracles, by which the Lord glorified and exalted His Saint and does not cease continually to exalt him, the tongue fails to narrate, and the hand is insufficient to commend to the pen of memory. But let us consider a few out of many in order. And although a matter to be reported is more diligently and clearly examined through its circumstances, yet because prolixity of speech burdens and wearies not only the minds of hearers but also of readers, I shall touch upon these things briefly, leaving their declaration to the booklet which are briefly reported, where these things were first compiled at greater length. It must therefore be noted with the greatest devotion of the faithful how many and how great miracles are manifested through the merits of this Saint; for he restored complete health to many who were weighed down by diverse and various ailments: to the blind, sight; to the deaf, hearing; to the mute, speech; to the lame, walking; to the contracted, the ability to work; to the demented, the judgment of reason; to demoniacs, the help of liberation; to the imprisoned, release; to the storm-tossed, a tranquil refuge; and to the dead also, he many times bestowed the gift of life.

[16] And to each of these, examples seen and heard by trustworthy report are not undeservedly appended. Fevers are healed: continuous fevers, A certain man named James, suffering at death's door from a continuous fever and a hard constriction of the chest, so that he was utterly believed to be dying that evening, when a vow was made on his behalf by Lady Mary, his grandmother, to Blessed Andrew, was soon completely healed through his merits. Another man named Bartholomew, suffering from a continuous fever with an abscess, when a vow was made by his mother to Blessed Andrew, immediately spat out the abscess and was completely freed from the fever. Also a certain boy named Albrizinus, while suffering at death's door from a continuous fever, and almost believed dead, when a vow was made by his mother to Blessed Andrew, was completely restored to health. A certain woman also, named Benvennuta, while suffering from a tertian fever, when she once felt herself growing hot, tertian, upon making a vow to Blessed Andrew, the fever immediately departed, leaving her completely freed. A certain woman named Bilia quartan, suffered from a quartan fever for seven months, and upon making a vow to Blessed Andrew, was completely freed. A certain woman also, named Olliente, while she had long suffered from an abscess in the breast, which finally turned

into a fistula, an abscess in the breast, she was abandoned by the help of physicians; but upon making a vow to Blessed Andrew, she was freed, and the piece of millet stalk which had remained there on account of the medications immediately jumped out.

[17] a swelling of the belly, A certain woman named Boccabella, suffering from a swelling of the belly for six months and thereby deprived of bodily strength, upon making a vow to Blessed Andrew, was completely freed. A certain woman named Gilia, having suffered daily fevers and a tertian for twelve weeks, prolonged fevers, upon making a vow, was restored to her former health through the merits of the holy man before his tomb. A certain man named Bellinus, suffering an intolerable pain for six years, upon making a vow to Blessed Andrew, a headache, was restored to complete health. A certain woman named Sobilia, afflicted for three months with a headache and other infirmities throughout her entire body, paralysis: by which in the judgment of physicians she was called paralytic, laboring in despair, humbly made a vow to Andrew, the Man of God, through whose merits she soon obtained health in all respects. A certain man named Bartolutius, hemorrhage, suffering a continuous flow of blood from the mouth for seven days, upon making a vow to Blessed Andrew, was immediately completely freed. A certain boy had his bladder so inflated hernia, that he was said by the physicians to be ruptured; therefore, when a vow was made by his mother to Saint Andrew, he obtained full health. epilepsy. A certain woman named Lombarda, suffering from the falling sickness for already a year, upon making a vow to the holy man, was completely freed.

[18] Brother Oliverius, a lay brother of the Order of Preachers, before he entered the Order, a wound of the foot, while guarding the tomb of the man of God, accidentally struck against a nail, which pierced his foot from the lower part to the upper in a sinewy area; and humbling himself in his prayers to the Man of God on this account, that same evening he was completely freed. A certain woman named Clarissima involuntarily and compulsively shook her head; tremor of the head; poison drunk, and upon making a vow to the Saint of God, she recognized that she had been freed through his merits. A certain woman named Gemma had taken poisoned food; and sensing herself already near death on account of this, upon making a vow to Blessed Andrew, she was immediately freed. A certain man named Francis, afflicted with an almost intolerable pain in his side, torment of the intestines; imminent suffocation, upon a vow made by his grandmother to Blessed Andrew, obtained full health. A certain little boy, out of childish levity, had put a certain fragment of an earthen vessel into his mouth, which so stuck in his throat that from the anguish of pain he was utterly believed to be about to expire without any remedy. Seeing this, his mother Parrofina fell to the ground half-dead; but the neighboring women vowed him to Blessed Andrew, and immediately he expelled the fragment, restored to his former safety.

[19] a pain of the throat. A certain man named Bulliettus, distressed for twelve days by a pain of the throat, so that he could neither speak nor take food without great difficulty, was carried to the tomb of Saint Andrew and was completely restored to health. A certain nun near Grosseto was paralytic, paralysis, but the Abbess was keeping some small particle of the garments of Blessed Andrew as relics; and by the rubbing of these, the said nun was restored to health. A certain girl, on Monday of Holy Week, just as her mother had dreamed the preceding night, a fall from a balcony, fell to the ground from a balcony at a height of twenty arm-lengths; and a certain neighbor woman, seeing this, commended her to Blessed Andrew, through whose merits she was in no way injured. A certain man, while driving a stake in his vineyard, ran into another stake with his face, so that he saw his eye torn out and thrown to the ground; an eye knocked out, and upon making a vow to Blessed Andrew, it was soon placed back in his head as at first. A certain woman, hearing in the sermon of Brother Ambrose hernia, the miracles of the man of God, vowed to Blessed Andrew her son, whom she had long left ruptured in bed, and returning she found him completely freed.

[20] A certain man named Ghibertus, detracting from the holiness of the man of God, was suddenly deprived of sight; blindness inflicted for unbelief: and repenting of his malice, with compunction he returned to his heart, and humbling himself to Blessed Andrew, he sought pardon; through whose merits he completely obtained the gift of seeing. A certain man named Bonamente, long infirm in his eyes, likewise two blind persons cured, had already completely lost his sight for three months; and upon making a vow and visiting the tomb of Blessed Andrew, he was completely freed. A certain man named Paul could see nothing from one eye and little from the other; and upon making a vow, he completely obtained the gift of seeing. A certain woman named Griffolina, long suffering from deafness, two deaf persons, upon making a vow to Blessed Andrew, completely received her hearing. At the Bath of Vitriol, a certain man named Panerius Rustici, deaf from birth, had this vision at night (without having made a vow): that Andrew, the man of God, came to him, and taking spittle, put it in his ears; and in the morning he found himself completely freed. likewise mute persons, A certain man named Matthew had lost his speech for eight months, but spending the night before the tomb of the man of God, he soon received his customary use of speech. A certain man named Cambius could not speak for three days; but upon a vow made by his brother to Blessed Andrew, he spoke as before. A certain woman named Romana, and two disabled persons, suffering in her knees, legs, and feet, could not walk; upon making a vow to Blessed Andrew, she received complete health. A certain man named James, contracted in his legs, could not walk; but when carried to the tomb of the Man of God, he immediately grew strong and was at length completely freed.

[21] A certain woman named Scialinga had been contracted for five years, likewise a contracted person, so that she could in no way walk except a little through the house, crawling on her hands; and upon making a vow to Blessed Andrew, she was so freed that she visited his tomb without a staff or any aid. A certain man named Matthew had pains and gout so violent, afflicted with gout, and moreover had his hand so contracted that he could not work; but upon making a vow to Saint Andrew, he obtained health in all respects. A certain man, enormously hunchbacked, visiting the tomb of the holy man a hunchback, and devoutly remaining there for his restoration, was completely freed from that deformity. A certain woman named Adalascia, twisted in her arms, upon making a vow to Blessed Andrew, obtained complete health. two contracted persons. The nephew of a certain man named Marchigiares was contracted in his arms, legs, and feet; but upon a vow made by his aunt to Blessed Andrew, he was completely restored to health. A certain woman named Berta became demented; and coming to the tomb of the Saint of God, likewise demented persons, she soon began to improve and was at length completely freed. A certain man named Guido became utterly demented; but upon a vow made in the evening to Blessed Andrew, in the morning he began to improve and finally obtained complete health.

CHAPTER III

Other miracles at the invocation of Blessed Andrew.

[22] A certain woman named Cittadina, cruelly tormented by a demon, from a woman was set free before the tomb of the man of God. A certain man also, tormented by a demon, was devoutly keeping vigil at the tomb of the man of God; and a man, demons are expelled. but the demon, departing unwillingly, said that at least the bells should by no means be rung at his departure in exultation at the miracle, because upon his departing, the bell-beam would be utterly broken; which the outcome of the event afterward proved, for tearing the man and releasing him free, it broke the said beam in fury. A certain man named Peter Baroni, captured in the siege at Montalcino, making a vow for his liberation to the Saint of God, that same evening saw a certain man coming to the one who had captured him, two captives freed, and asking whether he was leading him to prison; and when the man replied "Yes," said to him that he should by no means do this, and so released the captive, believing and recognizing that his liberator had been wholly a holy man. A certain man named Uguccione de Ischia, while he was in prison, making a vow to the man of God, soon found a key with which he broke open the prison; but since the weather was calm, so that he would not be detected, he prayed for stormy weather; and the weather became tempestuous, so that with no guard perceiving it, all escaped from the prison entirely.

[23] A certain man, placed in desperation amid the stormy waves of the sea, freed from a storm, recalling the miracles and merits of the man of God, most devoutly commended himself to him; at whose vow the tempest was utterly annulled, God working. Certain men sailing, when danger threatened from stormy waves, so that, with one plank of the ship already broken, they were beginning to be submerged from the inrush of water and the dangerous surges of the winds, heard a voice exhorting them to commend themselves more devoutly to Blessed Andrew. Having heard this, all tearfully invoking his aid, they soon saw the man of God standing at the top of the mast and holding in his hand a lighted candle; at whose appearance the tempest ceased, and having a favorable wind, in that night they sailed four hundred miles, arriving at a most-desired port. But when they returned, the ship, placed in a harbor, was attacked by eight galleys of pirates; and all who were in it were bound in the lower part, and from pirates, while the Saracens were above; but the captives, mindful of the benefit they had received, vowed themselves again to the man of God, and upon making the vow their bonds were loosened, and ascending above they found the said Saracens weighed down by the heaviest sleep, all of whom they killed, obtaining their goods together with their galleys completely.

[24] A certain man named Baroncellus had closed his last day, but upon a vow made to Blessed Andrew by Landa, his wife, and Ganna, his daughter, for the raising and liberation of the deceased, he raised two from the dead, he was restored to life and health through the merits of the holy man. A certain man named Ceccus, from grief for his brother whom he was watching die, gave up his spirit and was judged dead both by physicians and by others; but his mother, most devoutly commending him to Blessed Andrew, soon received him alive through his merits. two others aided at the very point of death: A certain little boy had already lost sensation and motion and appeared entirely dead; but upon a vow made to Blessed Andrew by his mother, named Imelda, he immediately opened his eyes and vomited up a long red worm having two heads; and when this was vomited up he began to rise and was completely freed. A certain young man was atrociously trampled by a horse running in fury, so that he was believed dead or about utterly

to die shortly; but upon a vow made to Blessed Andrew, at the very moment of the trampling, by someone who witnessed it, he was entirely restored to life and health.

[25] There was a certain noble Lady in the city of Siena who obtained a great benefit through the prayers of Blessed Andrew. as also a noble girl who fell from a height. She narrated that on the night of Palm Sunday she had had the following dream: for she dreamed that her little daughter would suffer a fall from the window of a certain house. When she had awakened from sleep, terrified with fear, she most devoutly commended her daughter to Blessed Andrew. On the very day on which the feast of the most blessed Confessor Andrew begins to be venerated by the faithful with veneration, while the daughter of the aforesaid Lady was in a certain very high house, it happened that she fell through the window of the same house and plunged to the ground, the dream having been brought to fulfillment. While she was thus falling, a certain woman, seeing her plunge, began tearfully and in a loud voice to invoke the patronage of Blessed Andrew, saying thus: "Saint Andrew, Saint Andrew, help her!" A wondrous thing! When the girl reached the ground, she fell so lightly and so gently and through the invocation of the Blessed one is unharmed, that no injury to her body could be found by a physician or by anyone else. Whence by divine dispensation it was brought about that the fall should happen in such a way as a testimony to the holiness of Blessed Andrew, so that he who had been an imitator of the Master through the merit of his life might also be an imitator through the aid of miracle, to the glory and honor of Him who miraculously raised the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue from death.

[26] There was a certain Novice, a lay brother in the Convent of the Preacher Brothers at Siena, a Novice freed from a grave temptation, who was pressed by the enemy of the human race with such powerful temptations that he was entirely disposed to leave the Order. Whenever he devoutly looked upon the dust he had taken from the tomb, upon which had stood the casket containing the body of the blessed man, which he kept carefully tied up in a certain cloth, all the harassment of the enemy and the temptation to leave the Order immediately departed; and he, regarded by divine mercy through the prayers of the glorious Confessor Andrew and confirmed in the Order, merited in his very novitiate to be freed from the burden of bodily frailty, to the praise of Him who does not suffer His faithful to be tempted beyond their power, but giving them increase, makes them manfully overcome the contests of temptations.

[27] There was a certain Smith in the city of Siena, in the third of Saint Martin, the holiness of Blessed Andrew is proven by fire: who was utterly incredulous concerning the holiness of Blessed Andrew. Wishing to test the testimony of his supreme holiness, he cast a certain fragment of his garment into the fire, so that, if it should happen not to be burned by the blaze of the flames, he would no longer hesitate in the least about the holiness of the blessed man. A wondrous thing! He did this three times, and the fragment remained as unharmed as if it had never touched burning coals. The unbeliever firmly believed in his holiness and related the aforesaid miracle to many, to the honor of Him who by His power preserved the three youths unharmed in the furnace of burning fire.

[28] To this is added what is proven to have happened to a certain soldier named Guelfo, the brother of the man whom Blessed Andrew had killed. the same acknowledged by his enemy. This man had been strongly indignant that the body of Blessed Andrew should be buried with veneration in the church of the Preacher Brothers, inasmuch as he had so manifestly committed homicide. Weighed down intensely by this indignation, he was seized with divine fear; for he came to the church of the Brothers, and with his own belt wrapped around his neck, and moreover with bare feet and knees bared upon the ground, proceeding from the choir of the Brothers to the tomb of the holy man, he is acknowledged and honored. he exhibited such humility and reverence toward him that he excited a wonderful stupor of devotion in the hearts of those standing by, to the glory and honor of Him who converts the enemies of His faithful to peace.

[29] When the Blessed appears, a crippled woman is healed. There was a certain woman who through the merits of Blessed Andrew experienced in herself a wonderful great benefit of health. For when she was severely contracted in her hands and feet, she was urged by a certain woman to implore the patronage of the blessed Confessor Andrew; and at her counsel she devoutly vowed herself to him. While sleeping, she saw in a dream Blessed Andrew, clothed in a green cloak, coming out of his own tomb and coming toward her, and covering her with that cloak, and then departing. When she thus saw in her dream Blessed Andrew departing, she nevertheless began to cry out in her sleep, saying, "He is departing, he is departing." While she was thus crying out, she was awakened and found herself completely freed.

[30] Senese, the guardian of the tomb of the blessed man, while placing the wax images offered in honor of Blessed Andrew and the guardian of the tomb is injured, and testifying to his holiness through miracles upon his tomb in a high position, slipped with his foot and it happened that his hand was pierced by a certain nail from the lower part to the upper; and upon making a vow, he began to doze off clinging to the tomb. To him as he slept, Blessed Andrew appeared, exhorting him to take diligent care of the poor, and impressed upon his hand the sign of the holy Cross. He, afterward being awakened, found himself entirely freed, with no deformity remaining in his hand, to the glory and honor of Him who miraculously healed the hand of the leper by the touch of His most pure hand.

[31] likewise a broken arm A certain man came to the Church of the Preacher Brothers on the feast of Blessed Andrew, intending to offer his small gifts with devotion. On that very day, with a great multitude of people rushing most devoutly to his tomb, the aforesaid man, fearing to be crushed by the crowd, stretched out his hand at length, opposing it to the multitude coming before the tomb. But while he wished in this way to defend himself from the pressure, at the tomb of the Blessed one, it happened that his hand was broken at the joint, the crowd pushing most forcefully. Sensing intolerable pain, half-dead from excessive pain, he stirred the bowels of wondrous compassion in the hearts of those standing by; and coming to himself, making a vow and begging for the benefit of health, as soon as he completed the vow his hand was restored to its former soundness. Epilogue of the miracles. Many other miracles indeed were known to have been performed both during the life of this glorious Saint and after his venerable death, which have not been designated by the pen; these have been briefly noted for the confirmation of his holiness and for the edification of the faithful, to the praise and glory of Him who alone has done great wonders, who, God three and one, lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

In the year of the Lord 1251, in Lent, on a Sunday after Vespers, he departed to the Lord.

CONCERNING BLESSED JOHN OF PARMA, SEVENTH MINISTER GENERAL OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR, AT CAMERINO IN UMBRIA,

YEAR 1289, MARCH.

John of Parma, Seventh Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, at Camerino in Umbria (Bl.)

[1] The Franciscan Order, immediately after the death of its holy Patriarch, was shaken in many ways through his vicar and then successor in the Generalate, Elias, on account of the relaxation of the Rule introduced by him, of Blessed John, in a most turbulent time, and the praiseworthy effort in the contrary direction of others zealous for its strict observance; nor was it able to be so quieted by the prudent zeal of Brother Haymo that it did not relapse into the same storms, six years after the last deposition of Elias, through the negligence, as they hold, of Brother Crescentius, who had succeeded the deceased Haymo. To bring some remedy to these evils, Pope Innocent IV decreed a General Chapter to be held before him at Avignon, in which Crescentius was absolved from office (whether willingly or unwillingly let others inquire), and John of Parma was created Master General, General of the Franciscans, the seventh in the Order, on account of John Parent and Albert of Pisa, who had been substituted for Elias on both occasions, to go against the perverse attempts of Elias and restore the collapsed discipline; as these things can be read more fully in the most lucid Annals of the Seraphic Order, composed by Luke Wadding, up to the year of Christ 1247, which was the fortieth from the heavenly calling of Saint Francis, from which they begin to count the years of the Religion.

[2] His Acts, faithfully inserted in the same Annals, according to the ancient accounts of near-contemporary authors or the authentic instruments of Pontifical documents, Acts collected from the Annals, we have extracted thence in a continuous thread of narrative, with a few words changed, so that the connection might be more suitable and the discourse less broken. Nor, however, have we thought it necessary to note laboriously from which place we have taken each part, since the Annals themselves are at hand, and what we narrate chiefly concerns three years -- namely, of the Generalate assumed and relinquished and of the blessed passing -- most of which either pertain to these or are referred to them by the author, or are drawn from the Pontifical Register, appended to each volume of the Annals according to the dates at which each Bull was issued. Rather, the reader should here be forewarned by what right, when no

saints' calendars received by the Church, nor even in the private catalogue of Ferrarius containing the Saints and Blessed of Italy, legitimate cult of the body, we should here report one not inscribed therein; especially since from the older writers of the Order no one is adduced who expressly named him Saint or Blessed, so that the present consensus of more recent authors regarding this title for him cannot have much weight, unless it be proved that they both used and could use this word, which formerly allowed itself to be taken more broadly, in the stricter signification of modern usage.

[3] This indeed, in the absence of ancient documents which we know to exist, containing the history and proof of miracles divinely performed and a body elevated by legitimate authority, cannot at this time be proved more certainly than from the state in which the Pontifical Visitors found the degree and manner of his veneration -- Visitors of whom mention has been made more than once in this work, and most recently in the Acts of Blessed Andrew de Gallerani. That they found matters thus we gather from the fact that they judged nothing should be abolished or antiquated; and their judgment was confirmed by the subsequent decree of Urban VIII, allowing all things to be considered legitimate which could be proved to have been customary before the memory of a hundred years, concerning the veneration of relics or of Blessed ones, even those not publicly canonized. Therefore, although we nowhere find it written how the body of John was treated in the old church until the beginning of the preceding century, at which time, by the command of Alexander VI, the Brothers migrated elsewhere -- because, however, it is established that when the Brothers moved to the new building, the body of Blessed Peter of Moliano, who had died only eleven years before this translation was made, proven from the translations: was solemnly transported in a processional display, in which his holiness was proved by a new miracle before all the people, the Clergy, and the leading citizens of Camerino, as Gonzaga relates in his description of the Convent of Camerino; and because we have learned that the body of the already-named Blessed one is now preserved within the same chest together with the body of Blessed John, from a special rescript of the people of Camerino to us; and that both are customarily shown together when the inhabitants of Moliano approach processionally and the chest is opened, not without the splendor of burning lights and other appurtenances customarily employed in the display of canonically approved relics -- we cannot consequently doubt that the aforesaid Visitors found those proofs by which they demonstrated that this could and should be continued.

[4] Indeed, we suspect that these very Visitors, whom we said were sent by Pius V to regulate Umbria, as mentioned on March 13 in the account of Blessed Eric, why was it joined to a much more recent Blessed one? or even later ones sent with similar authority by the successors of Pius, were the authors of this joining; since Gonzaga says that through the said translation the body of Peter was indeed honorably placed in the altar of the Immaculate Conception, while for John a stone sepulcher was placed beside the altar of the Crucifix, somewhat more prominently. For it is easy to think that they wished to strengthen the deficiency of antiquity in the veneration displayed to Peter, which was nevertheless proven by miracles and episcopal assent, by joining to him one of much more ancient prescription as a Blessed one, namely this John; and to honor both together more greatly by ordering the chest to be placed upon the altar. Or if this last transposition of both relics more closely preceded or followed the Urbanian constitution, then indeed we shall be compelled to believe that under the very eyes of the Roman See, which at that time was most attentively watching lest any new cult should anywhere be introduced by popular consent, nothing at all was done without the special indulgence of the See itself, consulted and petitioned thereupon.

[5] Nor should anyone be disturbed that Bartholomew of Pisa, in his Book of Conformities, approved by the General Chapter at Assisi on August 2, 1399, Book 1, fruit 8, part 2, listing the General Ministers of the Order, does not prefix the appellation of Blessed to the name of John; praises of authors concerning the same. for in that place he likewise abstains from such more sacred titles even when naming the founder of the Order, Francis, and the Seraphic Doctor, Bonaventure. Nevertheless, he composes such a eulogy for John that it gave occasion to William Eisengrein, who was writing his Witnesses of Catholic Truth a hundred years ago, to call him absolutely "Saint"; and to Gonzaga, Mark of Lisbon, Wadding, and other writers of the same Order in this last century and a half, to call him without hesitation "Blessed." For he wrote thus at the place cited: "John of Parma, a man preeminent in doctrine and holiness, with all the Fathers consenting and the Holy Spirit cooperating, was designated as General, and, renowned for miracles, returned his spirit to the Most High." So that Arthur a Monasterio deservedly gave him the first place in his Franciscan Martyrology (which we otherwise would not dare to trust without proof of legitimate cult) after Joseph, spouse of the Most Holy Virgin, with this encomium: "At Camerino, of Blessed John of Parma, Confessor, who, on account of his eminent learning and religion, was elected Minister General of the entire Franciscan Order; and then, sent by the Supreme Pontiff Innocent IV as Legate to the East for the reunion of the Greeks with the unity of the orthodox faith, when he had accomplished many illustrious things, he flew to eternal rewards, celebrated by the glory of miracles."

LIFE

From the Annals of Luke Wadding.

John of Parma, Seventh Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, at Camerino in Umbria (Bl.)

FROM THE ANNALS OF WADDING.

CHAPTER I.

The Election of John and his Virtues in the Generalate.

[1] In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord one thousand two hundred and forty-seven, a General Chapter by the orders of Innocent IV, Pope Innocent, the fourth of that name, serving likewise his fourth year of the Pontificate, professing that he was stirred and led, by the affection of that devotion which from the consideration of pious reflection he bore toward the Franciscan Order, to attend to the advancement of that same Order with the more earnest care, inasmuch as with more attentive desire he wished it to be expanded with the benefits of special favor and grace among other Orders; he judged that it would be manifoldly expedient for the whole body of the Brothers of the said Order that a General Chapter should be celebrated in these days in his presence, and he decreed it for the third of the Ides of July (at which date, having been created in the month of June, he would have already entered the fifth year of his Pontificate) at whatever place he might happen to be at that time; for the disturbance of affairs and times did not allow this to be determined so far in advance.

[2] Now it happened that the Curia had then moved to Avignon; held at Avignon, and when the remaining Fathers had gathered there, Brother Crescentius, the General, excused his age and insufficiency, alleging chiefly his lack of eloquence, for which reason he had also withdrawn from the Council recently held at Lyons; yet he sent to both the Council and the Chapter his Vicar, Brother Bonaventure of Jesi, a prudent and discreet man. When the insufficiency or, as others prefer, the proven demerits of Crescentius were established, he was absolved from office, or, as some say, received the sentence of deposition. Crescentius deposed. For there had been no lack of those who traduced the man and proved him useless to the common good, whether through the defect of age and negligence, or through his own example and not only his toleration of evils but even his introduction of them. After being absolved from office, he lived thenceforth in the first humility of his calling. He is said to have been elected Bishop of Assisi; but the election was annulled by Innocent, who substituted for him his own Confessor, Brother Nicolas the Breton, of the same institute.

[3] When Crescentius was deposed, Brother John of Parma, of the Province of Bologna, succeeded by common vote, the chapter elects John, a zealot for discipline: who was presiding over the Theological schools at Paris, a holy man and an ardent champion and follower of regular discipline; whose election restored peace to the Order, and so great was the exultation of all at it that they asserted the spirit of the Blessed Father Francis had revived, especially the then surviving companions of the Blessed Father. When Giles first greeted him, he said: "Welcome, Father; but you come late" -- implying that many things had crept in which had no remedy. Once in office, he first devoted himself to restoring peace and discipline; he paternally consoled by letters the exiled zealots of the Rule, holy men; he praised their zeal and devotion to observance; relaxing the sentence of his predecessor, he recalled each one to his own province.

[4] Immediately also from his election, John took care [who obtains that Prelates may not employ Brothers without the consent of the Provincials,] to look out for the safety of his Order by obtaining opportune privileges from his friend the Pontiff; hence there exists in the Register a Bull signed at Lyons on the Ides of August, by which the Pontiff established that no Legate, unless from the Side, or any Prelate, under the pretext of Pontifical letters, should be able to take any of the Brothers for managing his own or Church affairs or to remain with him, except those whom the General or Provincial Minister himself should see fit to assign to him as suitable and discreet; and he wished these also to remain subject to the discipline of the Order. Then another Brief, issued there on the fourteenth before the Calends of September, at the request of the same General, grants to the Provincial Ministers that each of them in their respective provinces may appoint suitable God-fearing men who, for the needs of each place, may freely request, sell, exchange, alienate, administer, spend, or barter by Pontifical authority whatever things are granted or to be granted in the future to the Order that convents be permitted to have Procurators for temporal affairs, (concerning which, since they pertain to the property of the Apostolic See, the Brothers neither can nor wish to dispose), and convert them to the use of the Brothers, according to the disposition of those Provincials, for the necessities or conveniences of the same, as shall seem expedient for the place and time; and they may also remove those so appointed, substituting others, as often as they see fit. And again, on the fifth of the Ides of October, likewise at Lyons, since it was said that he had granted to certain Brothers sent by him to foreign nations that those sent abroad may not admit others into the Order: that they might receive into the Order as Brothers those wishing to assume the habit of the Friars Minor religion, and establish new provinces, and appoint Ministers, he kindly revoked this concession, by which he had intended to procure the honor and advantage of the Order, having been instructed by John that it would, contrary to his intention, redound to the detriment of the same Order.

[5] Moreover, John visited the entire Order on foot during the first three years, content with one, or at most two, companions; he visits the Order in the most humble habit, and he went about in a single tunic so humble that in many convents he remained unknown for several days and securely explored, without suspicion, the life and conduct of the Brothers both within and without; he then revealed himself when the Brothers least expected the General to be present. But if he found anything worthy of correction or otherwise of reproof, he by no means concealed it; he recalled all the rest to the norm and their former state, sometimes removing Prelates who were less vigilant, sometimes removing Brothers who were causing offense; and he took care that the fame of his arrival or office should not run ahead before he himself had been present to experience the state of affairs. a contemner of comforts. The Canonical Hours, however often wearied by the journey, he recited standing and with bare head, imitating the Blessed Father. He admitted no choice of foods, but, as befits a true poor man, having no delicacy, whatever was first offered he accepted with thanksgiving for necessary sustenance.

[6] Nor should what the supplement of Marianus

writes: the ready aid of divine protection for those who with confidence implore His help in distress. Wandering at night with his companions in the forests. When the holy General was visiting the provinces beyond the mountains, it happened in the winter season that, by an error of the road, he had strayed all day long and endured the onset of night in a wilderness and in the midst of the forests. His companions warned him of the danger and hardship, or rather anxiously asked what was to be done. He replied calmly that they must have recourse to divine help; that they should trust confidently, since God had never failed those who hoped in Him; and that the Virgin and the Blessed Father Francis must be implored. He therefore first began the antiphon "Benedicta tu"; and with the companions responding, the Blessed Virgin having been invoked, he continued with the three psalms of the first Nocturn of the Office of the Blessed Virgin, and in place of the Versicle he added: "Hail Mary, full of grace," etc., then the Lord's Prayer, the Absolution, and the rest, except that in place of the Lessons he recited: "Holy Mary, Virgin of Virgins," etc., and then the "Te Deum laudamus," and "Hail, Queen of the Heavens." When these were finished, turning to the Blessed Father Francis, he intoned Psalm 76: "I cried unto the Lord with my voice," with the Antiphon "Hail, holy Father," and the customary versicle and prayer; and he added: "Let us bless the Lord: to Thee is due praise, to Thee is due hymn."

[7] When these things were said, they heard a bell being rung; stirred thereby the more to the divine praises, they proceeded toward the sound, in a monastery that appeared, he is well treated by monks, along a muddy and difficult road, until they arrived at a neighboring Abbey. When they knocked at the door, several monks were ready to meet them, as if by arrangement expecting them, and they promptly received their guests: they led them to the fire, washed their feet, dried their garments, set out supper, and prepared beds; they ministered all necessities, as it seemed, with great cheerfulness. After the first watch, the General rose for prayer, and hearing the bell by which the monks are called to the Divine Office at night, he joined them in the choir, leaving behind his companions, who were held by sleep and fatigue.

[8] The hebdomadary, about to begin the Office, used neither the customary ceremony, nor the order, nor the versicle "Domine, labia"; who at last declare they are demons, but abruptly and with disturbance began from that verse of Psalm 35: "There have they fallen who work iniquity." The Choir responded: "They have been cast out and could not stand." The same was repeated a third time, which aroused suspicion in Brother John. He therefore commanded, in the virtue of the Passion of Christ and of His most holy name, that they declare at once who they were. He who seemed to preside in the place of the Abbot replied that they were all angels of darkness, who by divine command had been sent against their will to minister to him and his companions: "By the prayers," compelled by God to serve him: he said, "of the Mother of God and of that Standard-Bearer, your Father." When these words were said, everything that was seen to be built there vanished, and the General found himself with his companions in a wooded cave on the bare ground. Having awakened his companions, they kept watch for the rest of the night until dawn, which was already approaching, and rising they continued their journey and arrived at a convent of the Order. The holy General then spread those same prayers through the whole Order under the name of the "Benedicta," whence the Office of the Benedicta originated, giving them this appellation from the antiphon, in honor of the Most Blessed Virgin; and he commanded that on ferial days after Compline the Brothers should recite them in choir, with the addition of Psalm 66, "God be merciful unto us." This Office has still retained the name of the "Benedicta" and is recited in many places by praiseworthy custom.

CHAPTER II

After arranging affairs in the Order for two years, John is sent to Greece to negotiate the Union.

[9] The Pontiff intent upon the reunion of the East. At this time Brother Lawrence was occupied in the East, sent by Pope Innocent, who was most zealous for the return of schismatics to the unity of the Church, as Legate through Greece, Iconium, and Turkey to all the Greeks, both in the kingdom of Cyprus and in the Patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem; and likewise to the Maronites, Nestorians, and Jacobites. While he was vigorously pressing on with the business he had begun, and signifying by letters the willingness of both the Emperor and the Patriarch for concord, it was brought about in the year 1249 that the Pontiff appointed the General Minister John himself as his Legate to Greece for the purpose of completing the union; he sends John to Greece; writing letters both to John III, Emperor of Trebizond, and to Manuel II the Patriarch, in which he commended John under the name of Angel of Peace. John, uncertain about his return and the success and length of the journey and the delay to be endured abroad, who, having celebrated a General Chapter at Metz, seems to have had just cause for convoking the Fathers earlier than is otherwise prescribed by the institute, which commands assemblies to be held only every three years. That these were held this year at Metz is attested by Rodulph, although Marianus defers them until after the General's return from Greece.

[10] Meanwhile, to Brother Thomas of Celano, who had previously, by the command of Crescentius, composed from the Life of the Blessed Father Francis that portion of the Legend he orders the miracles of Saint Francis to be written down, which manifests the manner of his conduct, he gave orders to complete the narrative he had begun; and so a second treatise was added, which contains the account of the miracles which God was performing everywhere through the intercession of His servant. Furthermore, because, as Brother Bernard of Bessa writes, there were some Brothers who, under a certain pretense of devotion, were pursuing the singular melodies and styles of seculars or of other Religious, and were thereby neglecting and, by varying and mutilating, disfiguring the Divine Office, John wrote sharp letters to all the Prelates of the Order in Tuscany, where this evil seemed to be spreading, which Marianus presents as follows:

[11] "To the most dear Brothers in Christ, the Minister, Custodes, and Guardians constituted in the Province of Tuscany, and having learned that some were changing something in the Office, Brother John of Parma, Minister General and servant of the Order of Friars Minor, health and peace.

"Because, as I have indubitably learned, certain of the Brothers presume to change the Divine Office, which by our Rule we ought to celebrate according to the order of the Holy Roman Church, sometimes in the text, but especially to vary it in the chant -- not sufficiently considering that they clearly place a stain upon their glory, when they abandon their own things, published by the Holy Fathers and venerably approved, and, thrusting doubtful foreign things among their own certain things, are notably convicted of begging for things foreign with shame -- therefore I have thought it right by these presents strictly to enjoin upon your discretion, which ought not to tolerate such things by dissembling, he forbids departing from the use of the Roman Breviary and Missal, that, beyond that alone which the Ordinary of the Missal and the Breviary, corrected by the pious study of Brother Haymo, my predecessor of holy memory, and confirmed by the Apostolic See, and moreover afterward approved by the General Chapter, is known to contain, nothing at all in chant or text, under the pretext of any feast or devotion, in hymns or antiphons, or proses or lessons, or any other things whatsoever (excepting only the antiphons of the Blessed Virgin, by adding anything, which are sung at different seasons after Compline, and the Office of Blessed Anthony, until it is better arranged concerning him), should be allowed by you to be sung or read in choir (unless perhaps in some place the deficiency of our books may compel it) or to be written in the books of the Order, before they have been received by the General Chapter.

[12] or by changing. Furthermore, do not permit the chant or melody of our hymns to be varied in any way, or to be sung to any note other than according to our Breviary, or the custom approved by the General Chapter, to be altered henceforth; restraining your subjects more strictly from novelties of this kind. As for the special feast days of the Saints, which are to be celebrated in diverse ways in diverse regions according to the tradition of the Ordinary, on the occasion of particular feasts: cause them to be celebrated according to our custom and Breviary only with the Common of Saints, adding nothing from elsewhere; yet so that the solemnity and manner of such feasts among us should not exceed a semi-double Office, however solemn they may be judged by others. Provided that, with the Translation of any Saints whatsoever being utterly excluded (except that of Blessed Francis), no Office or solemnity should ever be introduced by anyone for any Saint whose feast is not commonly celebrated in the country or town where the Brothers reside, nor should it anywhere be celebrated by the Brothers.

[13] In the celebration of Masses also, teach that uniformity is to be observed by all the Brothers as far as possible, he prescribes the same concerning the rite of the Mass, namely, that they place the Host to the left of the Priest, and the chalice to the right, across the altar, according to the rite of the Holy Roman Church. Let them arrange the corporals and the pall (which must be placed upon the chalice separately by itself) and let them break and consume the Host as is contained in the rubrics of the Missal which we have from the Curia. Finally, command that after the conventual supper the psalm 'Praise the Lord, all nations' be sung by all the Brothers in the refectory, under grave threat, and that the present page be read without delay in the Chapter in each place, and copied, so that no one may find a place to hide himself in the darkness of ignorance, fulfilling my command in this matter entirely with diligence; so that I may be able to commend you for solicitude, without which the office of prelate limps shamefully; and that I may not be compelled again to reprove your Brotherhood with sharper words for sleeping, and to set straight with the staff of discipline those who decline from the foregoing. Farewell in the Lord, etc."

[14] When these and other things were established, the holy man, crossing into Greece, discharged the office entrusted to him with such satisfaction that, as Angelo Clareno testifies, he was held in such reverence his acting with great authority among the Greeks, by the Emperor, the Patriarch, the Clergy, and the people, and in such high estimation of holiness and wisdom, that they thought they were beholding one of the ancient Fathers and a true disciple of Christ. He had as companions holy and learned men, of whom one, Brother Gerard, was among other marks of holiness endowed with a prophetic spirit. For at the very hour in which, in the year 1250, the holy King Louis fell into the hands of the enemy, Brother Gerard, who was delivering a sermon to the people in the forum at Constantinople and was pursuing the Word of God in the fervor of the spirit, fell into an ecstasy of mind; his companion Gerard learns of the captivity of Saint Louis; but afterward, returning to himself with weeping and wailing, he said: "Just now, at this very hour, the eagle has been captured." When the people, astonished and suspended, did not perceive what he meant by the name of the eagle, he explained more clearly: "Now," he said, "the most Christian man of God, Louis, King of the Franks, has been captured by the Saracens with his army." Those present noted the day and the hour, especially the Lord Bishop

of Bondinicea (so the manuscript reads), who was then present, and who, as Fr. Clarenus himself testifies, related these very things to him on many occasions; and the truth of the revelation was confirmed by the careful observation of the event's outcome.

[15] It should also not be passed over that when the same Fr. Gerard, sent by commission of the General (who was still in Greece) as Visitor of the province of Romania, had boarded a ship, the sailors, holding their course with a favorable wind toward Italy, had forgotten their agreement and alleged danger and loss as reasons not to put in to shore and set down the man of God. He obtains a contrary wind for the sailors. But he, immediately taking refuge in prayer, obtained a contrary wind; wherefore, even compelled against their will, they kept their promise, and having lowered him into the skiff, brought him to port. Turning to the sailors, he said: "Hasten to the captain, urging him to continue the voyage; the wind was contrary by God's will so that I might be free to fulfill the obedience of my Superior; henceforth it will be favorable." And so it happened, just as those same sailors and Raphael Natalis related to us, says Clarenus, as though it were a miracle, while we were sailing together in that same place.

Meanwhile the holy General promoted the business of union to such a point Causes of the unsuccessful embassy. that the Greeks — both the Emperor and the Patriarch — on two different occasions sent a solemn embassy to Pope Innocent; but the envoys, stripped of their goods on the journey by the malice of the devil, were compelled to halt, and at last returned to their own people with the business unfinished, since the disturbed times did not permit access to the Pontiff. Moreover, the death, not long after, of both the Pontiff and the Emperor cut short the desired outcome of the matter and the expectation of completing the union.

p. Here "Italy" seems to mean what lies beyond Cisalpine Gaul (to which Romagna is reckoned) — taking the name of Italy in its stricter sense.

q. In the year 1254, December 13.

r. In the year 1255.

CHAPTER III

John, having returned, obtains various privileges for the Order.

[16] How much time was spent on this embassy no one records, Innocent IV provides for the immunity of the Order. nor in what year the General returned from Greece; yet it is inferred that he returned before the end of 1251 from a Bull dated the 6th of the Kalends of January of that same year, by which, at the request of the General himself, the Pontiff safeguards the liberties and immunities of the Order, granting that no prejudice should be caused to them by a constitution he had earlier published, by which he had decreed that exempt religious, however great the liberty they enjoyed, might nevertheless, by reason of an offense, contract, or matter in which proceedings were brought against them, be lawfully summoned before the local Ordinaries, who might exercise their jurisdiction over them in this regard. [He grants the Provincials the power to absolve their members from censures incurred before entry.] Then in the following year, the same Pontiff, wishing the Seraphic Order — which with a most honorable testimony he calls a mirror of upright life and an example of salutary conduct — to prosper from good to better, decreed that if it happened that Friars were elected or postulated as Bishops (as often happened), they should not dare to consent to an election or postulation made in their regard, nor should any Archbishop or whatever other Prelate, or even a Legate of the Holy See, presume to promote or ordain them to bishoprics or other dignities outside the Order without the permission and consent of the General or Provincial Ministers, or a special mandate of the Apostolic See — declaring null and void whatever might be done contrary to this prohibition — on account of scandals generated in the Order by similar occurrences, concerning which the General John had humbly petitioned the Apostolic See to provide. This he willingly did by a Brief dispatched from Perugia on the 10th of the Kalends of May.

[17] With the same promptness he renewed the Privilege which, during the General's absence in Greece, he had granted to the Order on the Nones of April in the year 1250: by which he granted to the Churches of the Franciscan Convents that they should be called and be Conventual — that is, that as regards the right to reserve the Eucharist, to bury deceased Friars, to have bells, and other similar matters, they should enjoy equal rights with Collegiate churches — just as Gregory IX had universally ordained in the year 1231 regarding the churches of monasteries, against the molestations and burdens which these same churches were suffering from Prelates who wished them to be treated like hermitages in this respect and to abstain from all the aforesaid. He forbids the Preachers from receiving Franciscans. Furthermore, perceiving in that same year that the heavenly love of the fatherland had so attracted to itself the minds of the holy General and the Provincial Ministers under him that almost this alone gave them delight — whatever was pleasing to the divine will and conducive to the salvation of souls — under this preface he caused a Brief to be dispatched on the 5th of the Kalends of December, by which he granted that those wishing to be aggregated to their community who were bound by sentences of suspension, interdict, or excommunication might be given the benefit of absolution according to the form of the Church and received as Friars; as well as those who, after assuming the habit, remembered that they had been bound by such sentences while in the world.

[18] After these things it happened that in the months of June and July of the year 1253, the aforesaid Pontiff was at Assisi, [He exempts the Order from the burden of paying the canonical portion from legacies made to it.] where he is recorded as having signed various letters, and especially one Brief for the benefit of the whole Order, under the date of the 12th of the Kalends of August: "Wishing to fortify your peace" (he writes to the General and all subject to him) "with the protection of Apostolic favor, since you are humble and assiduous professors of peace, having removed the disturbances of external agitation, we strictly forbid that the canonical portion be deducted by anyone from those things which are bequeathed to you or your houses by last will."

[19] Alexander IV likewise succeeded Innocent IV, having been created on the 21st of December in the year 1254; from whom, while he was residing at Naples in the first year of his Pontificate, Alexander IV confirms the privileges of the Order. John petitioned and obtained that the privileges granted to the Order by his predecessor Pontiffs be confirmed, concerning which there exists a Brief signed on the day before the Kalends of May. On the 11th of the Kalends of June, the same Pontiff, wishing to provide for the security of both this and the Dominican Order He forbids the Preachers from receiving Franciscans. against discords that might mutually undermine them if not met head-on, wrote to the Master General of the Order of Preachers (who was then Fr. Humbert), strictly forbidding that he or any of his should further presume, as they had often done before, to receive into their religious order the Friars Minor or those obligated to their Order, in any case whatsoever — declaring null and void whatever might be done to the contrary. Moreover, the Generals of both Orders, desiring that the bond of charity should be drawn even more tightly among their members, Both Generals exhort their members to concord. wrote a letter in their common name, to be read in all convents everywhere and also to be explained in the vernacular to the lay Brothers, by which

they commanded that the primitive charity of both Orders be preserved inviolate and that whatever was opposed to it be removed, explaining and recommending the necessity and observance of this union in the most effective words — a letter which is certainly worth reading in its entirety in the Annals.

[20] The Curia, together with the Pontiff, departed from Naples to Anagni shortly after; where the same Most Holy Lord, again petitioned by a new supplication of the General John on the Ides of July, He gives the Order the right to punish apostates. granted full power to seize, imprison, and otherwise subject to the rigor of discipline apostates from the Order, in whatever habit they might be found. On the 11th of the Kalends of August, he added that when the General himself and his religious happened to come to places under Interdict, and of celebrating during an Interdict they might, with the interdicted and excommunicated excluded, celebrate the divine Offices in a subdued voice and without ringing the bells. And four days later, that is, on the 7th of the Kalends of August, he forbade that any of the Prelates of Churches should presume to take any of the Friars, without the permission of the General or Provincial Minister, to dwell with him or to promote his own affairs — He forbids Prelates from taking Friars as companions at their pleasure, etc. a provision which we have seen Innocent had already ordained.

[21] At the same place, Anagni, the rest of the privileges which the same Pontiff granted to the Seraphic Order in the first year of his Pontificate were signed, at the request and petition of John, who looked after the welfare of his subjects in every way. He grants the Provincials power in reserved cases of the Friars. Thus, on the 7th of the Ides of October, considering that men devoted to contemplation should, in favor of their religious life, be restrained from traveling about, yet that some of them, due to the infirmity of the human condition, might happen to transgress in cases in which the sentence of excommunication and the mark of irregularity are incurred — for which they would be obliged to go to the presence of the Pontiff — he granted to the General and Provincial Ministers the power to absolve them and to dispense with those in need, according to the form delivered by the Apostolic See to Archbishops and Bishops. Likewise, three days later, that is, on the 4th of the Ides, learning from the holy General He forbids those expelled from or fleeing the Order from preaching, etc. that some were being expelled from the sacred communities of the Order as their faults demanded, while certain others, rashly casting off the burden of obedience, wished to lead their lives like wild ass's colts without a yoke; and that these same men, wandering outside the cloisters of the Order, presumed to exercise the offices of preaching, hearing confessions, and teaching, to the detriment of their own souls and the scandal of many — he wholly forbade this, unless by his own or the General's permission they had passed to another Order.

[22] Then, so that the sacred and illustrious Order, just as it excelled in the loftiness of its religious life, He forbids Prelates from compelling Friars to publish censures. might also shine with a special privilege through the grace of the Apostolic See, yielding to the supplications of the aforesaid General, he decreed there on the 17th of the Kalends of November that no Archbishop or Bishop or any other Ecclesiastical Prelate, or their Vicars or Officials, should have the power to compel the General himself or any of his Friars to carry letters or to execute or publish sentences against secular Princes, communities, peoples, or any benefactors of the Order. Likewise, that Friars to be ordained might be presented to whatever Catholic Bishops He grants that those to be ordained may be presented to any Bishop. the General himself or the Provincial Ministers preferred; and that those so presented should be promoted to Orders by those same Bishops without any examination to be conducted by them and without any promise or obligation on the part of those to be ordained. And five days later, that is, on the 12th of the Kalends of November, he granted to the entire Order that when it happened that Friars were transferred from their places to other locations, and that those migrating may take or sell everything with them. they might also transfer both the buildings or all building materials which they were leaving behind (churches alone excepted) and books, chalices, and vestments, and sell the same through procurators appointed for this purpose, and convert the proceeds to the building or other uses of the places to which they were transferring.

[22] [He commands those promoted to the Episcopate to leave all previously held property to the Order.] Finally, Pope Alexander, having returned to Rome, issued a decree on the Nones of December at the Lateran Palace, in which he prescribed that whoever among the Friars had been or would hereafter be promoted to bishoprics or other dignities should be bound to resign to the General or their Provincial Ministers all books and whatever else they happened to have had or to have at the time of their promotion, or would hereafter happen to have — inasmuch as these things neither belonged nor had belonged to those who were not permitted or had not been permitted to have property before their promotion. And these things, indeed, whose record is found in the Pontifical register, He defines that Generals have the care of souls. are found to have been granted and conceded at the procurement of John the General — among which by no means has escaped, but has been purposely reserved for this place, one obtained at Anagni on the 4th of the Nones of October in the first year of this Pontiff: by which it was not only established that future General Ministers, after they have been elected according to the Rule, should by that very fact fully have and freely exercise the care of souls of the entire Order, and should be able by their own authority to bind and loose them; and that they can be deposed by the General Chapter. but also that both John himself and his successors could be removed from office by the Provincial Ministers and Custodes assembled in a General Chapter.

[23] Since this point is expressly stated in the Rule, and had been carried out once and again in the case of Fr. Elias, according to the Rule. and not so long before in the case of John's predecessor Crescentius, it is easy to judge that some, led by zeal for preserving discipline, had begun to plot something to the contrary — since they clearly foresaw that by this way the most certain hope of retaining it would be taken away, which they had placed in John against the machinations of those seeking greater laxity. But he, being most humble and most devoted to peace, wished by this renewal of the aforesaid constitution to take precaution Why did John take care to have it confirmed on this point? lest the way of sometime departing from the burdens of office should be closed to him. How this was indeed granted to him not long after, we now proceed to narrate.

CHAPTER IV

John abdicates the Generalate.

[24] During all the time which John had spent in the Generalate after his return from Greece up to the year 1256, Out of zeal for restoring discipline he had cared for nothing more than to rekindle the tepid primitive fervor of the Order in many by the fan of frequent exhortation and to restore its former splendor by every means. For he saw that, during his time in the remote parts of the East, certain things had crept in that were not entirely consonant with regular observance; and when he wished to remove these, he applied every effort, pressing on now with words, now with deeds, sparing no one who was at fault, and adding the measure of stripes according to the measure of the fault. And indeed, to religious men who had the good of the Order at heart, his zeal for restoring observance was very pleasing; but to others who had adopted a more relaxed manner of life, it was hard to mortify their flesh, to give up soft comforts, and to follow more rigorous ways. He incurs the hatred of those seeking laxity. Among these were not a few of the more powerful and learned, who, abusing their authority, disregarded the counsels of the excellent Rector. He absolutely wished to exact obedience, to chastise the erring, to leave no evil unpunished, and so to ensure that the bad example of certain men would not become a snare and scandal to others. Hence secret murmuring, frequent secret meetings, then a determined conspiracy against the man, and having entered into a conspiracy which went so far that they accused the upright man of many things before the Pontiff.

[25] The heads of the accusation were noted by Bernard of Bessa, the companion of Bonaventure. He is accused of opposing those who interpret the Rule. First, he says, they charged that he was accustomed to speak against the interpreters of the Rule and to confound them by various harassments — those who praised the declarations already made either by Pontiffs or by Doctors, or who sought other declarations besides the one Testament of the Holy Father Francis — saying that besides this, for perceiving what is supremely intelligible, no other declaration was needed. Second, that he led the Friars to the observance of the Testament, asserting that the Testament and the Rule were one and the same thing, He wishes the Testament to be held as the Rule. and that therefore it should be held in the highest reverence — especially since St. Francis had dictated it when he was already adorned with the wounds of the Lord, and the Spirit of God had here inspired nothing contrary to the Rule. Third, that he seems to prophesy certain things as though the spirit of prophecy were in him, he predicted to the Friars that the Order would be divided into two kinds of men — pure Observers of the Rule and those who would procure privileges and declarations — but that a twofold battle of words would precede this division; and that afterwards there would arise a congregation of the poor, to be enriched by the dew of heaven and the blessing of God, which would perfectly tread the paths of regular observance.

[26] Fourth, which was more serious, they said that on certain matters he had not held quite right views concerning Christian doctrine, and that he favors the condemned doctrine of Abbot Joachim attributing too much to Abbot Joachim, whom he defended even in those things which he wrote against Peter Lombard. Fifth, they confirmed this unsound doctrinal position from the writings of his companions; the first of whom, Leonard, in one or two sermons written by himself, praised beyond measure and tastelessly both Joachim himself and his entire doctrine; while the second, Gerard, of whom we have spoken elsewhere, introduced in another sermon all the words of Joachim which served to commend St. Francis or his institute, and also all those which seemed to indicate the change, corruption, and restoration of the same society — criticizing in many respects the principal Rectors of the Order.

[27] Alexander, seeing that minds were stirred up and that the principal men of the Order had conspired against the man, and that they could neither be bent nor calmed, The Pontiff orders a General Chapter. wished all those to be summoned to a general assembly by whose votes matters should be transacted and a successor chosen. He also warned John that he should by no means allow himself to be confirmed in his position by the electors, even if they wished it. When the Friars were therefore assembled on the feast of the Purification of the Virgin in the year 1256 at the monastery of Ara Coeli, with the Pontiff himself present and preaching, and by his secret admonition John, alleging his incapacity, weariness, and age, abdicated his dignity, while many cried out that the resignation should not be admitted. He, however, insisted that he be released from the burden, asking them not to think of re-electing him. Nevertheless, since what the Pontiff had previously discussed with the man remained hidden, they hesitated for two full days about reassuming the same man, until the Pontiff decreed that they should proceed to the election of another. So narrates Peregrinus of Bologna, who was present at the assembly and was also a mediator, as he himself relates, between the Ministers and John, and received everything from his own mouth.

[28] But St. Antoninus gives a different account in these words: The same General John, with the most persistent importunity, alleging incapacity, John lays down his office entirely of his own will. obtained his release from the general Ministry, and, refusing to acquiesce either to the General Chapter's vehement insistence or to any persuasions of the Supreme Pontiff or Cardinals about resuming office — assigning not contempt but incapacity for executing the office as his reason — he most humbly yielded, though he was reverently admitted to the proceedings of the Chapter nonetheless. The same things are recorded by Angelus Clarenus,

Marcus of Lisbon and Peter Rodulphus.

When therefore a new Rector had to be chosen, and he elects Bonaventure as his successor the God-fearing men and principal electors unanimously asked that he be the first to cast his vote and say whom he judged to be the most suitable and worthy successor. He did not need to deliberate long, since he had thoroughly tested the virtues of Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, and therefore he proposed this man alone before the assembly; and all easily agreeing upon the same person, they elected him who was then lecturing at Paris, in the thirty-fourth year of his age and the thirteenth of his religious life.

CHAPTER V

The proceedings conducted against John and his companions.

[29] When the assembly was dissolved, the Pontiff bestowed many favors upon the departing Fathers: he granted to those present and absent the customary remission of sins; The Pontiff grants various favors to the Minors: whatever defects of authority in the Sacrament of Penance administered by them, he supplied from the fullness of his power by granting a new authorization; he permitted that the feast of St. Clare, recently canonized by himself, ^a should be solemnly celebrated under the double rite; and, as Bernard of Bessa, an eyewitness, attests, he was instrumental by counsel and example in causing many Cardinals to show themselves benevolent and beneficent toward the Friars. Finally, on the twentieth day of February, at the urging of certain rivals of the man of Parma, who pretended that necessity and utility would come from it, he renews the Exposition of Innocent: he confirmed the Exposition of Innocent IV, inserted within his own letter, ^b which not only did the man of Parma take hard, but also all the pious zealots of the Order, who by no means accepted what was discordant with the purity of the Rule, nor did those who came after them ever approve it.

[30] Another concern of the adversaries of the man of Parma was that the old Legend of Thomas of Celano — which, concerning the words and intentions of St. Francis regarding the observance of the Rule, he had faithfully added, Bonaventure begins a new Legend of St. Francis: as an ear- and eye-witness, at the urging of Generals Crescentius and the man of Parma, to the first one he had published — should be superseded by a new history of the deeds of the same Holy Father; about which they afterwards dealt with the new General, and did not desist until he himself took this task upon himself. They also immediately warned Bonaventure, summoned from Paris, he permits the companions of John to be brought to trial that inquiry must be made into the man of Parma and his companions, whom they pressed as having held wrong views on the faith. The pious man was slower to admit or believe this, but at length they prevailed by importunate insistence that proceedings should be taken against the companions: whom they bound by oath, as Angelus Clarenus, an author of that time, reports, to answer faithfully and sincerely to whatever questions were put to them. Many articles were brought forward, collected from certain little treatises ^c of theirs; but when all had been prudently examined, they were found to have offended the faith in nothing.

[31] At length the matter came to the chief point of all the accusations, and they were asked what they thought about Abbot Joachim or his teaching. who, as if too much devoted to Abbot Joachim, Here they held firm more tenaciously, praising Joachim and maintaining that he had written nothing contrary to the decrees of the Holy Fathers or the Councils concerning the unity of the essence or the trinity of the Persons, about which he was especially accused; and that the Lateran Council had merely established what earlier Councils had already determined, and that no new definition was needed — this they defended. Harder in these matters was Gerard, and more ready to object against the adversaries or to refute what they proposed; for he was more learned, having professed Theology for some years. When the Fathers noticed him slipping away on this side and that and defending the doctrine of Joachim in everything from every angle, and asking them what they themselves believed or wished to be said in this question, they objected to him those words of the Council ^d: "We confess with Peter" (that is, Peter Lombard) "and we condemn the booklet of Joachim." But Gerard immediately replied: "And I confess with the Church and with Peter the Apostle all that the sacred Doctors and the holy Councils define concerning the aforesaid question and all others."

[32] When at last the judges saw them obstinate in defending Joachim and rather refuting Lombard — though in this they always revealed themselves somewhat obscurely — they are condemned to perpetual imprisonment they condemned them to perpetual imprisonment, as men of corrupted or damaged faith. They went rejoicing, and on the threshold of the prison Gerard said: "In a place of pasture, there He has placed me." In that prison he remained patiently for eighteen years without complaint, until Bonaventure freed him toward the end of his own governance. Leonard, however, died in that confinement. Thus three eyewitnesses, or at least contemporaries, relate these things: Bernard of Bessa, Bonaventure's companion; Peregrinus of Bologna; and Angelus Clarenus — so that it is astonishing whence Rodulphus received a different account, who less accurately relates that these two companions contended with each other and rose up against their master, the man of Parma.

[33] With the companions cast into chains, they went further to mortify this man who was indigent, a beggar, and contrite of heart; nor did they desist until the Minister General Bonaventure appointed judges A case is also instituted against John to examine the acts of the man of Parma. He designated as the place of judgment the monastery of Castrum Plebis ^e in the province of Tuscany, where he ordered prudent, discreet, and grave men to assemble to examine the whole matter. The Pontiff also assigned John Caetano Orsini, Cardinal Deacon of St. Nicholas in Carcere Tulliano, son of Matthew Rosso the Roman, who was afterwards created Protector of the Order and Supreme Pontiff Nicholas III. When the examination was made, no iniquity was found in him and though innocent except that he had leaned too much toward the doctrine and defense of Joachim; and this very thing he humbly retracted before the Cardinal and the Fathers, as write Bessanus, Bonaventure's companion, James of Tundo, ^f and St. Antoninus. Hugolinus of the March ^g adds that, when those who rebuked him and dealt harshly with the man, he answered with few and gentle words — which, as happens, further irritated minds already stirred.

[34] There was one who judged that he should be consigned to perpetual imprisonment as a heretic. yet he would have been treated more harshly The more painfully did he bear that anything heretical should be imputed to him: rising to his feet and lifting his face toward heaven, he began to say in a louder voice: "I believe in God the Father Almighty," and all that follows in the Apostolic Creed. This greatly displeased the assessors: therefore, after many interrogations and serious disputations, they were resolving, with the consent of the Cardinal president, to hand the man over to prolonged custody — and indeed they would have done so, had not letters arrived opportunely from Otto Bono of Genoa, nephew of Innocent IV through his brother, Cardinal of St. Adrian, later Adrian V, who was most favorably disposed toward the man of Parma, who was very close to him. He sent two letters, to the Cardinal and to the General, and in both he wrote, among other things, these words: "I have heard with sorrow of the proceedings against John of Parma, General of the Order, and that he is accusatorily charged with heresy. I have long since tested his faith together with his holiness, even before I was raised to the Cardinalate, unless the letters of Cardinal Otto Bono had intervened and I have not known any man more holy or more faithful. Therefore I would not hesitate to say that his faith is my faith. I would most affectionately ask that proceedings not be undertaken rashly or out of partisan zeal against a holy man. Whatever you decree to be done against him, you do against me: his injury will rebound upon me: his person is my person: in whatever you condemn him, you will also condemn me, and I wish to be with him." The letter moved the Cardinal, and so it was managed attesting to his sincere faith: that under placid and general terms they dismissed the accused from the assembly, and the General gave him the choice of dwelling wherever he wished.

[35] For my part I would judge that the zeal of factious minds greatly prevailed here, and that the companions of the man of Parma were not entirely free from all blame — at least in that they did not more openly explain themselves and more gently bring their judgment, while it was permitted, to the decision of the graver Fathers. to which the most weighty authors also bear witness; But concerning the man of Parma himself, because of the sinister reputation he suffered, ^h I have judged it necessary, beyond what we have said above about him, to subjoin the assessments of good authors. Angelus Clarenus calls him a man outstanding in knowledge and holiness: he reports that the companions of St. Francis — Giles, Masseo, Angelo, Leo, ⁱ and others then surviving — rejoiced at his assumption to the Generalate; and beyond those words of Giles already cited above, they said that St. Francis

had risen again in this man, and also to his extraordinary humility and that a man of light and virtue had been sent to them, to set them right and illumine them in the paths of God's commandments.

[36] He writes that he was content with a single tunic or habit of rough serge to the very end of his life: that he never used any kind of mount, piety and went about so despised and humble that he was not suspected by passersby, nor was he held in such esteem by the Friars in many monasteries as to be thought capable of being Minister General. "He recited the Canonical Hours," he says, "so devoutly that he would never sit, recline, lean against a wall, or cover his head while he performed his duty. He accepted the first dish set before him; the rest he either tasted and sent to others, or had them taken away altogether untouched. mortification He so bridled his tongue that in speaking he erred rather by deficiency than by excess, and on his deathbed he himself said that he feared more for the things he had kept silent about than for those he had spoken." How prudently he acted concerning the union of the Greek with the Latin Church, beyond what we have already said, the outcome proved at the Council of Lyons, ^k which by the most just right should also be attributed to him as the most effective agent of peace.

[37] So great was the reverence of both Orders, ecclesiastical and secular, toward him among the Greeks, prudence so great the esteem of his holiness and divine wisdom, that they did not think they saw merely some prudent and learned man, but one of the ancient Fathers or Doctors, or one of the disciples of Christ. St. Antoninus calls him a man illustrious in learning and religiousness, a supreme friend of poverty and humility. The testimony of the ancient author of the Chronicle of the Twenty-Four Generals is the same. Marianus uses almost the same words, and moreover calls him a virtuous preacher, of a most holy life and sublime contemplation. I omit naming the more recent writers — Bartholomew of Pisa, Marcus of Lisbon, Peter Rodulphus of Tossignano, William Eisengrein, Paul Lang, Antonio Possevino, Henry Willot — because through the weighty testimonies we have produced from so many and such ancient men, the pious deeds of this holy man have been made abundantly credible.

a August 12.

In clear words, I say, what is condemned here is not Joachim himself but the booklet or treatise presented to the Council, as Honorius III expressly declared when writing to the Archbishop of Cosenza and the Bishop of Bisignano. But it is not so clear whether Joachim actually wrote that booklet — or, if he wrote it (finding fault with something in Lombard, from which the essence seemed to be inferred as a thing distinct from the Persons), it is not altogether certain that the text presented to the Council and destroyed was genuine: for there are those who assert that it was maliciously corrupted. And indeed in the book entitled the Psalterium Decachordon, he speaks so clearly that, although in some places he offers examples of analogous unity, he nevertheless professes that he does this in a matter entirely dissimilar, and teaches the Catholic truth most distinctly and expressly. Moreover, those who defend this cause show that he predicted, as he did many other things, both the corruption of a certain book of his and the condemnation that would follow from it. Therefore, since the condemned booklet was nowhere extant, while other books of his, entirely orthodox, were extant, it is not surprising that judgments about Joachim's teaching were so contradictory: and accordingly, although Leonard and Gerard were guilty of excessive hostility, their judges were not entirely without blame either, bringing prejudiced minds to the case. One may consult Bivarius, section 6 of his Apologeticus for Lucius Dexter; Wadding for this year from number 7 to 13; and the defender of Joachim, Gregory Laurus.

CHAPTER VI

How all the foregoing things were divinely revealed when John was elected; the rest of his life and his holy death at Camerino.

[38] The trouble which he endured through his rivals, his resignation from office, and the appointment of Bonaventure as his successor — all this Blessed James of Massa ^a wonderfully saw by divine revelation at the very threshold of the Generalate. A most beautiful and shady tree was shown to him, whose root was golden, [To James of Massa there is shown in a vision the tree of the Order of Friars Minor] whose many branches and fruit were the Friars Minor. The number of the principal branches was distinguished according to the number of provinces, and each branch bore as many fruits as there were Friars in the designated province. So clearly and distinctly were these things set before him that he saw and recognized all the Friars of the entire Order, with their state, age, merits, and defects revealed to him. The man of Parma, then recently elected Minister General, he beheld at the summit of the uppermost branch rising from the trunk itself, to whose summit John was raised and at the tops of the surrounding branches, the Ministers of the individual provinces. Then, sent by Christ, who was seated on a high and shining throne, Francis, accompanied by two Angels, came to give his Friars to drink from a golden chalice of the spirit of life which he held in his hand. From this chalice, when the man of Parma and very many others drank abundantly, they shone like the rays of the sun; others, who did not drink, were blackened beyond charcoal; some drank part and poured out the rest, receiving an intensity of the spirit's brightness in proportion to the measure.

[39] The man of Parma, higher than all, as if from a lofty watchtower, saw from afar a great whirlwind about to rush upon the tree; foreseeing the coming storm, he descends to the lowest point and to guard against it, he descended humbly to the trunk, to sit in safety. Thereupon Friar Bonaventure was immediately transferred to the top from which John had descended, and he was given iron claws, like the edges of razors that scrape away hairs. He, moving from his place, wanted to rush upon Friar John. But when John cried out to the Lord, someone was sent to cut the claws from the one who would have torn John apart. and he is divinely protected Then the whirlwind shook the tree, and those who had neglected to drink the spirit of life fell from it, while the rest were translated to the region of eternal light. The truth of this vision is proved by the foregoing narrative. Moreover, that James remained in this vision for three days, deprived of sense and motion, so that the Friars thought him dead, Hugolinus cited above writes. The credibility of this narrative When Friar Matthew, then Minister of the March or Piceno, a pious, gentle, and prudent man, who through the force of obedience had obtained that the secret vision be explained, had received the entire account of the matter, he went to the seer himself, to be more fully informed about everything and about the future state of the community; and he says that the holy man, though importunately pressed, fully disclosed to him the wondrous visions made to him concerning the principal matters of Holy Church and the vicissitudes of the Christian world — to which visions credibility is also lent by the holy life of the man, his piety, and his spotless religion, commended by the best authors.

[40] As to why Bonaventure attacked the man of Parma, a man so pious and holy, What reasons compelled Bonaventure to act more harshly? and dealt more harshly with him — this the accusers demanded, together with the duty of office and the purity of faith, earnestly commended by Francis in his last testament through these words: ^b "If any Friars should be found who are not Catholic, all the Friars, wherever they may be, are bound by obedience that wherever they find any such one, they must present him to the nearest custodian of the place where they found him. And the custodian is bound by obedience to guard him firmly, as a man in chains, day and night, until they present him before the Lord ^c of Ostia, who is the Lord, Protector, and Corrector of this Fraternity." Nor is it so strange and unheard-of that men, however holy, should disagree and contend with one another: these are battles of the intellect, and each thinks himself to be championing God's cause.

[41] John, then, according to the permission given him, as we have said, to choose his dwelling, went away to the most devout place of Greccio, ^d and in that little hut he lay hidden for thirty-two years, embracing the secure retreat of solitude and the excellent refuge of humility, John in the hermitage of Greccio leading a life more angelic than human, wholly intent on divine meditations. There he also produced many salutary little works, through which, beyond the reputation of a holy life, he aroused in all a desire for him — namely: On the Benefits of the Creator, and On the City of Christ, which is kept in manuscript in the convent of Milan; likewise, two books On the Conversation of Religious, he composes pious treatises and a treatise entitled The Sacred Commerce of St. Francis with the Lady Poverty; and finally, the Office of the Passion of Christ, which begins "Christ the King Crucified" ^e — to say nothing of the four books on the Sentences which he wrote while lecturing on Theology at the University of Paris, whence he was raised to the Generalate.

[42] Amid these studies of letters and piety, while he was passing his life most holily, devoted to himself and to God, and had reached a great age, his apostolic spirit was once more kindled, and he sought from Cardinal Aquasparta ^f permission to return to the Greeks, so as to hold in the faith they had promised those who were falling away from the union decreed at the Council of Lyons, as an octogenarian he seeks again to be sent to Greece and to invite the schismatics to the same. The Cardinal therefore dealt with Pope Nicholas IV, to whom it was as pleasing that someone was thinking about the union of the Greeks — by now almost despaired of — as it was astonishing that a man now eighty years old, setting aside the quiet of the hermitage of Greccio which he had holily enjoyed for the course of thirty and more years, should wish to journey to them. Nevertheless, he acceded to the pious man's wish, knowing that the authority of one whose piety and learning the Greeks had already tested and approved would carry great weight among them.

[43] Already he had girded himself for the long and perilous journey by land and sea, and prepared for the journey and with his companions had visited all the sacred places of the city of Assisi and the shrines of the saints along the way, until he reached Camerino: where immediately upon entering the city he was divinely warned that the time for the laying down of his tabernacle was at hand. Turning to his companions at the very gate of the city, he said: "This is my rest; here I will dwell forever and ever." But what was wonderful was this: He dies at Camerino although he arrived very early in the morning on a stormy and harsh day, and no one had given any advance notice of his coming, the citizens of Camerino were at once roused by the voices of children saying: "The man of God has come! The holy man John of Parma has come!" — and in crowds they made their way to the dwelling of the Friars to see and venerate him. He himself began to be ill on that very day, and after a few more days had passed, he gave his holy soul back to God ^g on the 13th of the Kalends of April, in the year from the Nativity of Christ 1289.

[44] Immediately after he breathed his last, God willed that his funeral should be honored with many miracles and illustrious with miracles and his holy life commended: for very many dead were recalled to life through his merits; others were rescued from the peril of death; women were delivered from the imminent danger of childbirth; the blind, the mute, the deaf, the crippled, and the withered were fully cured; and many in various needs were wonderfully heard. Those who had unjustly detracted from him and attacked him without cause, convinced by so many miraculous signs, came as suppliants to his tomb, to beg pardon for their unjust calumny, according to that word of Isaiah 60: "They shall come to you who detracted from you, and they shall adore the steps of your feet." He was laid in an honorific tomb and then transferred to a new monastery outside the city walls, to which it was necessary for the Friars to migrate, he is honorably transferred since Alexander VI commanded that where their first dwelling had stood, a fortress for the city should be built. His stone mausoleum, on the left as one enters from the principal door of the church, near the altar dedicated to the Most Holy Crucifix, stands somewhat more prominently than the altar itself; the body is seen to be intact and is venerated with the greatest devotion.

CONCERNING BLESSED SIBYLLINA OF PAVIA, SISTER OF THE PENANCE OF ST. DOMINIC, AT PAVIA IN ITALY.

IN THE YEAR 1367.

Sibyllina of Pavia, Sister of the Penance of St. Dominic, at Pavia in Lombardy (Blessed)

[1] God in some measure consoled the fallen and prostrate majesty of the once royal city of the Lombards through Galeazzo Visconti, the second of that name, Lord of Milan: who both completed the magnificent citadel begun by his grandfather and adorned the city with public buildings, An ornament of the rising homeland and among other added benefits established a studium generale, as it is called, by summoning the most skilled masters from all of Italy in every discipline, and obtaining the greatest privileges from the Emperor Charles IV in the year 1361. Yet a greater felicity for this most ancient city was to have had at the same time this most holy Virgin, who, though lacking the light of her eyes and enclosed within the darkness of a tiny cell, nevertheless illumined the same city by the light of her singular virtue while she lived, and also after death made it illustrious by the light of great miracles — concerning which, as Michael Pius writes from Borsellus, authentic documents are preserved in the convent of the Order of Preachers there. illustrious with miracles after death The same Seraphinus Razzius, an eyewitness inspector of those same documents, asserts the same, professing to omit them solely for the sake of avoiding prolixity. In the index of Blessed women of the Order printed after the Roman Martyrology in 1616, she is adorned with this praise: "Sister Sibyllina is celebrated at Pavia with great devotion by the Christian people: for she was a Virgin of most illustrious holiness, which the many miracles which the Lord worked through her have made still more illustrious."

[2] We ourselves, passing through that way in the year 1662, having visited the other sanctuaries of that city, also went to the church of St. Thomas, which the same Order holds there, she is preserved incorrupt above the altar and having been most kindly received by the Reverend Father Master Peter Angelo de Augustinis of Forlì, then Prior of the Convent, we were led to the sacristy, in which a most ornate chapel of the Holy Rosary had an altar of equal beauty, and upon the altar the incorrupt little body of this blessed Virgin, clothed in the habit of the Dominican Order, and wholly visible from the front through transparent crystals. The feast of her death on this day is celebrated every year on the first Sunday after the Resurrection of Easter, venerated on the first Sunday after Easter because on such a day our Lord, through the merits of the said Blessed one, conferred great graces on many of her devotees, freeing them from various infirmities — as says Donatus Lagus of Fiorenzuola at the end of the Life which he himself translated from Latin into Italian in the year 1599 The Life rendered into Italian in 1599 and dedicated to two illustrious Isimbardi sisters, Paula Bottigella and Leonora Salerna, apparently under that title because the aforesaid altar had been built by the ancient and illustrious Bottigella family, into which one of them had married, for the more decent housing of this sacred body and many other relics. The same Razzius incorporated this same Italian Life into Part 2 of his work on the Lives of the Saints of his Order.

[3] What those graces or miracles were, neither Donatus himself says, nor were we then able to ascertain, nor could the aforesaid Prior's kindness suggest anything other than the epitome of the Life described on a tablet and hanging in that same chapel. the ancient Latin is found in manuscripts Having therefore been content to copy that text, and having found the Italian version of the fuller Life mentioned above, we departed for Milan, where we found both other very fine monuments of the Order and the Latin Life we had been seeking in the Codices of Friar Ambrose Taegius, whom we shall have frequent occasion to mention, in his work On the Insignia of the Order of Preachers, Book 3, Distinction 8, folio 193, comprising the Lives of illustrious women of holiness who adorned by their virtues the most praiseworthy institute of St. Dominic called the Sisters of Penance: What sort of institute was the Sisters of the Penance of Blessed Dominic the plan and history of which institute is also woven there at length, and its by far greatest ornament is considered to be Blessed Catherine of Siena, most celebrated throughout all Italy at this very time. That institute continues even now, both in other Provinces and especially in Belgium, where very many virgins and widows — either two or three together, or individually in their paternal homes — serve God with a resolve or simple vow of continence under the direction of the same Order, just as others do

under the religious of other Orders — with this distinction: that in Italy fewer of them use a form and color of dress almost similar to that of nuns, if one excepts the veil, which alone they do not wear; but in Belgium, very many of them dress only in black of a more modest form, and — if one removes the vanity of ornament — in common dress, at least outwardly and in public. We commonly call them "Devout Women"; the Spanish call them "Beatas."

[4] The summary of the Life, which we mentioned above, is as follows: Blessed Sibyllina of the city of Pavia, Summary of the Life from the tablet hanging in the chapel born of her father Albert de Biscossi and her mother, who was called Honor de Vecis, when she was twelve years old lost her bodily sight. Deprived of this, under the care of certain venerable ladies of most exemplary life — namely, Sisters of the Penance of Blessed Dominic, Patriarch of the Order of Friars Preachers — she devoted herself more attentively and continuously for three years. On a certain occasion, when she had more fervently prayed to the Lord for the recovery of her sight, so that she might earn her livelihood by working with her hands, she was drawn in a vision from her cell through the air toward the cathedral church by Blessed Dominic, whose help she implored with constant prayers for obtaining this end. He showed her certain things at first so dark and horrible, then certain things so joyful, splendid, beautiful, and fragrant with an inexpressible loveliness, that from what was then shown to her she held cheap all these perishable visible things, and found that the desire to see them any more had entirely fled from her, giving innumerable thanks to God and to Blessed Dominic, her patron. In the fifteenth year of her age she entered a cell, from which she departed only twice in her life. In this cell, for the first seven years after her entrance, she performed a penance more to be admired than imitated: for she mortified her little body with prolonged vigils, prayers, tears, and scourging even to the effusion of blood, which often congealed her knees to the pavement; she used no fire in winter, nor any other clothing than what she wore in summer; she refreshed her weary limbs with the briefest sleep on a short wooden board which she always used for a bed; she drew her mental consolations from conversations with the servants of God, though she was weary with immense pains. She was distinguished by the spirit of prophecy, revealing certain secrets and certain future events. At last, in the sixty-fourth year from her entrance into the cell, and in the eightieth year of her age, which she had not completed, on Friday, the 19th day of March 1367, as a Virgin of the Lord persevering and full of good works, she migrated to her spouse, the Lord Christ, illustrious with very many miracles both in her life and after her death.

LIFE

By Friar Thomas de Bozolasto

From the manuscript of Friar Ambrose Taegius of Milan.

Sibyllina of Pavia, Sister of the Penance of St. Dominic, at Pavia in Lombardy (Blessed)

BHL Number: 7699

BY THOMAS DE BOZOLASTO, FROM THE MANUSCRIPT

PREFACE OF TAEGIUS.

Blessed Sibyllina of Pavia, Sister of the Penance of Blessed Dominic, a most pure Virgin, was illustrious for her signs and virtues in the city of Pavia. She was blind in body but illumined in mind by divine light, and her body is still seen to be intact and incorrupt in the convent of St. Thomas in the said city of Pavia, of the Order of Preachers. The illustrious deeds of this woman were compiled by the Venerable Father Friar Thomas de Bozolasto, ^a of the Order of Preachers, in a plain and domestic style.

That this man was the Blessed woman's Confessor — certainly a contemporary and intimate — is entirely gathered from these words at number 13: "I think, however, that if I remember rightly, she then had a companion." He is speaking about a certain grace from God given to her, which humility would scarcely have allowed to be entrusted to anyone other than a Confessor.

Moreover, because we divide the Life into fewer chapters according to our custom, here are the chapter headings of the old division consecutively from the manuscript:

Chapter I: On her lineage and the interpretation of her name.

II: On her simple obedience and the loss of sight in her early age.

III: On her initial progress and her holy meditations.

IV: On her entrance into the cell at the age of fifteen, and the harsh penance done there.

V: On the consolatory visions and the kindling of the spirit on the day of Pentecost and on many other days.

VI: On the spirit of prophecy, by which she sometimes revealed secrets and sometimes foretold the future.

VII: On her delight and eagerness in hearing divine words.

VIII: On her eloquence, by which she appeared discreet in uttering secrets and effective in converting sinners.

IX: On the benefits which, while still living, she divinely obtained for her benefactors.

X: On her happy passage to the heavenly court and her honorable burial; and on a certain Provost freed from the evil of kidney stones by touching her unburied body.

CHAPTER I

The blindness of the young Sibyllina, and the beginnings of her piety.

[1] She was born, then, at Pavia, and had as her father Uberto de Biscossi, and as her mother one named Honor ^a de Verio, Honorably born both of honest and praiseworthy manner of life. She was called Sibyllina, as if "a little Sibyl": for she, like a Sibyl, knew and foretold many things by the spirit of prophecy, as we shall say more fully below. She was rightly seen to have been born of Uberto ^b and her mother Honor, she who did not cease for eighty years or thereabouts to produce abundantly fruits of honor and honesty, persevering as a Virgin of the Lord.

[2] As a small child she considered it a sin to omit a certain number of Pater Nosters and piously educated which she had been taught to say daily by a devout matron, in place of the Canonical Hours. In the twelfth year of her age she lost her bodily sight, so that she might see more clearly in spiritual things. After some time, when she grieved that she had lost her sight, she becomes blind at twelve she grieved only from this cause: that she could not earn her livelihood by working with her own hands, as she desired; which she had attempted by spinning, but could not live by it, because being blind she spun thread too clumsily.

[3] Therefore, inflamed with a vehement desire to recover her sight, she began with constant prayers to invoke Blessed Dominic she prays to Blessed Dominic for the recovery of her sight as her special Patron, that he might obtain sight for her from the Lord through his merits. When she had continued this for many days and months insistently, the feast ^c of the aforesaid St. Dominic arrived, on which day she infallibly expected her sight to be restored. When she had not recovered it at Matins of that day, with great faith she believed she would receive the grace of seeing in the morning; praying in vain and when she had not received it at Terce either, her faith still not weakened, she extended her hope to Vespers. When at last that whole day had passed and the grace of seeing had not been obtained, she dared piously to complain to her patron Blessed Dominic, saying: "Is this how you have tricked me, ^d Blessed Dominic? Have you not deluded me, in that I petitioned for so just a cause, fervently enough, with such great faith? Give me back my prayers and my praises and the other things which I offered you in vain."

[4] After this, the same Blessed Dominic appeared to her in a vision, drawing her from the cell through the air toward the cathedral church, not very far distant; by a heavenly vision she learns to despise all transitory things and he showed her briefly certain things at first so horrible and dark, then from another direction certain things shining with joyful light, so beautiful and glad and fragrant with such inexpressible loveliness, that from what was shown to her in that vision, holding cheap all these perishable visible things, she found that the desire to see those perishable things any more had entirely flown from her. And thus, giving immense thanks to God and to her Patron, she was (if I may say so) reconciled to him, as one better heard through him in those things she had seen.

[5] After her twelfth year, then, as has been said, deprived of bodily sight, Living for three years among the Sisters of Penance she began more attentively to lend her ears to holy preaching, frequenting the church of the Friars Preachers. Now at Pavia at that time there were certain venerable ladies of most exemplary life, dedicated to the Order of the said Friars Preachers — namely, Sisters of the Penance of Blessed Dominic — who, persevering in their church, devoted themselves constantly to meditations and prayers, she is instructed in the manner of praying attending Masses and hearing sermons. Under their care and in their habit she spent three years, intent on hearing the Divine Word, which, eagerly gathering like seed of future fruits, she carefully stored away. Meanwhile the aforesaid ladies diligently instructed her in the manner and perseverance of prayer, in purity of mind and conscience, and in assiduity in meditating on the works and benefits of God, especially the Lord's Passion.

[6] This she afterwards began to meditate on regularly out of love, She meditates more devoutly on the Lord's Passion running through the individual points of the pains and insults which the Lord endured. She rendered, devoutly sympathizing with each pain of the Lord, individual pangs of bitterness; and, as she revealed to a certain Religious under the seal of intimate confidence, when meditating in this way she came to the passage where the Lord was stripped of His garment — clinging as it was to His most holy flesh, which had been lacerated in many ways by the scourges — her soul was as if liquefied by a singular compassion and a most sweet devotion: for by that one act of stripping or separating the garment from the flesh, with which it had become glued by congealed blood, all the wounds of the scourges were renewed with their pains — which she was seeking by most devoutly recounting. Is this not what is left for us to think, although it is not so expressly stated in the Gospels?

c August 4.

CHAPTER II

The enclosure, penances, and visions of Blessed Sibyllina.

[7] Having entered the cell As has been stated above, then, having been taught about the aforesaid and other fitting matters, when the said three years had passed, at the age of fifteen she entered the cell, ^a situated quite near the said church of the Friars Preachers, accompanied by one companion. When this companion died after three years, Blessed Sibyllina remained alone in the said cell for many years, from which she departed only twice in her life: once to receive Holy Communion, and another time to visit a certain nun in the monastery of Josaphat.

[8] She cruelly lacerates her body with scourges In the first seven years from her entrance, she performed a penance more to be admired than imitated. The disciplines, in which she experienced a singular sweetness, she received daily in the harshest manner, and to such a great effusion of blood that the blood often ran down to her knees, which touched the bare ground. In winter sometimes, when she rose from the discipline, wanting to lift her knees, she found them so frozen to the ground by the blood and cold that they could not be torn free except by force, pressing her hands against the floor.

[9] Wonderfully patient of cold And because she used no fire in winter, nor any other clothing than in summer, she was accustomed to warm herself solely by the labor of prayer, with prostrations and genuflections

repeated with fervor of spirit. Because her hands were not warmed by this exercise, she had them so swollen, mortified, and as it were putrefied from the cold that from them, when she broke hard bread, matter sometimes flowed out.

[10] After prolonged vigils, during which she spent the night in disciplines, prayers, prostrations, tears, and the like, After seven years she mitigates the rigor of the scourges she refreshed her weary limbs with the briefest sleep on a short wooden board, which she always used for a bed. Indeed after the seven years which she spent thus, being excessively wasted and weakened — resolving thenceforth to exercise the spirit more and the flesh less — she tempered her bodily penance. And from this she made her companions and intimates cautious, so that they might attend more to charity in the spirit than to flagellation in the flesh.

[11] The first vision, to be told in brief words, filled the mind of Blessed Sibyllina with no brief joy. The Child Jesus appears to her, wonderfully refreshing her Christ once appeared to her in the figure of an exceedingly small child, yet surpassingly beautiful: who, gleaming with indescribable radiance, emitted rays of the most brilliant light on every side. When she tried to embrace Him, she could not: for immediately, in a way she did not understand, He slipped from her hands. But she did not despair on that account; rather, the desire to embrace Him kept enticing her more and more — yet always frustrating her efforts, though she repeated them many times. From this divine and sweet play she conceived such great joy that she could never remember this apparition without being filled with new joy each time, as if He were appearing anew. Hence this memory was always for her like a singular seasoning of her penance and solitude.

[12] On another occasion, in a certain vision Nor should it be passed over in silence that on a certain occasion, when she had sent a woman to bring her some cherries, meanwhile she sat beside the window of the cell from which she answered visitors, and gave herself to holy meditation. And behold, opposite her on the wooden board, slightly raised from the ground, on which she was accustomed to lie, there appeared to her three very venerable Religious, who when asked by her who they were, answered that they were the Greater Brethren. The middle one of them, she receives a most beautiful apple holding in his hand a most beautiful apple, said that he was called "the Zealot of God." When she asked him whether he would give her the apple, he replied graciously that he would, and saying this he threw the apple at Blessed Sibyllina, striking her on the cheek. And immediately the woman who brought the cherries came and called her; at the voice of this summons, those Friars suddenly disappeared, and when she had opened the window and the woman looked at her, she asked who it was that had struck her in the face — for the most evident marks of the blow were visible. ^b

[13] Since she was accustomed to expect a special consolation of the Paraclete Spirit on the feast of Pentecost, She was accustomed to prepare herself more carefully for Pentecost to earnestly implore it, and commonly to obtain it, on a certain occasion she received no sweetness of devotion on the first day of Pentecost, neither at Terce nor at None — although she had carefully disposed herself and more fervently stirred herself for this. Wherefore, as if weary and desolate, while she sat thus in her seat beside her window, Toward Vespers her prayer is answered between None and Vespers, someone passed by, knocking and saying: "May that fire which today came upon the waiting Apostles set you ablaze." I think, however, ^c that if I remember rightly, she then had a companion; so that at the voice of the passerby, both she and her companion immediately began, through the reception of the Holy Spirit, to be vehemently and sweetly inflamed with the desired grace.

[14] Similarly on another occasion, when she had been in a similar expectation for a longer time, on another occasion, on the octave day until the last day of the Octave of Pentecost: on that octave day someone appeared calling her; and when she had opened the window to him, it seemed to her that he offered her fire that he was carrying. He cast such a heat into her face that she suddenly uttered plaintive cries. After which, a new spirit having been immediately received, a greater and sweeter fire of ardor followed in her mind than had been in her face.

CHAPTER III

On the spirit of prophecy, by which she sometimes revealed secrets and sometimes foretold the future.

[15] Since it belongs to the prophetic spirit equally to behold present secrets and to foresee future contingencies, She recognizes the presence of the Body of Christ, though blind she was shown to be a true prophetess, a true Sibyl, in both ways. For at the Masses which five devout Religious and secular Priests, visiting her reverently, celebrated at a certain altar within the cell, although she did not use bodily sight, whenever the Body of the Lord was elevated, she perceived the presence of the Savior through a certain spiritual sweetness infused into her: by an interior taste which she also perceived when the same Body of the Lord was being carried through the nearby neighborhood to the sick for Communion.

[16] When it failed her at the passing of a Curate Whence it is known to have happened that when a certain Curate priest, asked to bring the Eucharist to a certain sick parishioner of his, not having a consecrated host, chose by a nefarious perversity to carry an unconsecrated host to him rather than be rebuked for the said negligence. When he passed by, Blessed Sibyllina, at the signal of the little bell, adored devoutly as was her custom; but when she did not feel the usual sweetness of spirit, she began to wonder and to be greatly saddened. She determined to send to the said Priest, humbly requesting that he deign to come to her. When he had come, having expressed the anguish into which she had fallen at the passing of the one carrying the host, she nevertheless presumed, though with great trembling, to inquire she recognizes that the host was not consecrated whether he had carried the true Body of the Lord. At these words he was amazed, and seeing himself discovered, he confessed the crime of his abominable deception, and recognized how greatly he had sinned, being most prudently rebuked by her.

[17] Another secret was also revealed to the same woman, which should be joined to the preceding divine sign. She learns the truth about a particle of the Cross For when a small piece of wood from the true Holy Cross had been given to her, before she wished to adore it she placed it against her heart, devoutly asking God that He would deign to show her by a notable sign whether it was truly wood from the Lord's Cross. placing it against her heart Immediately her heart seemed to be moved with an unusual and wonderful motion in reverence for it; and certified by this sign, she both adored the wood without hesitation and, having been heard, blessed the Lord from her heart.

[18] Furthermore — if it does not weary you to hear — I shall relate another secret that she saw, although it may seem humorous. A certain matron very familiar to her, She sees from afar the nocturnal fright of a friend quite eager for prayers and nocturnal vigils of devotion, but — as is natural for some — excessively fearful at night, was praying while sitting in bed at night. Startled by the sound of a woman running about, she suddenly covered her head with a fur covering, trembling. Blessed Sibyllina, as if she had been present, saw this and laughed. And the next morning, when the same woman came to visit her, she said to her, as if joking, whether she had been overly frightened the night before. And when the other was amazed, because she had revealed this to no one except her Confessor, to whom she had confessed it that very morning, she added: "Did I not see you when you covered your head with the fur out of fear?" From this matter it is shown that God granted her much more the grace of seeing hidden things in serious matters, since He also granted it in humorous ones.

[19] Of John de Pepoli Not only did she search out secrets, as has been said, but she also prophetically foresaw and foretold many future things, the Lord revealing them, and by foretelling them foresaw them. Among these is the matter of the noble and distinguished man and knight, Lord John de Pepoli, once ^a Lord of the city of Bologna, and at that time Councilor of the exalted Lord Galeazzo, Lord of Milan. For he had been sent by the aforesaid Prince to Avignon, to Pope Urban V, to negotiate great matters, ^b as was hoped. When he was about to go, Lady Beatrice, wife of the aforesaid Lord John, envoy of the Duke of Milan to the Pope went to Blessed Sibyllina, praying that she would beseech the Lord on behalf of her husband Lord John. She humbly promised that she would do so. After the departure of the aforesaid Lord John, the said Lady Beatrice sent again by messenger to Blessed Sibyllina, asking her to be mindful in her prayers of her husband's journey. She foretells his happy return The handmaid of the Lord replied through the messenger that she should not fear, for it had been revealed to her that her husband would suffer many and contrary things on the journey, but would finally return to her safe and sound. And so it happened: for on the journey he was oppressed by a grave illness, so that his head swelled; at length, freed and having laudably completed his embassy, he returned home healthy and unharmed.

[20] She also saw with her inner eyes the deaths of many distant friends. Master Dionysius, ^c formerly Prior General of the Order of Friars Hermits of St. Augustine, not a little devoted to Blessed Sibyllina, She announces to the Augustinians the death of their General when he had died in a place very distant from the city of Pavia — she, having seen his death, endeavored to inform the Augustinian Friars so that they might celebrate the due obsequies for their General. After some days the news was reported that he had died on the very day and hour that had been foretold by Blessed Sibyllina. Moreover, when she herself offered prayers to the Lord for his soul, she saw after a few days his soul being gloriously borne to the heavenly homeland.

[21] She foresaw long in advance the death of the Venerable man Friar Peter Zurigali of Lodi, She warns others to prepare for approaching death of the Order of Preachers; for when the said Father was very close to Blessed Sibyllina, she sent to him to come quickly from Milan, where he was then serving as Lector, to her at Pavia, because it was necessary for her to reveal to him certain important secrets. When he came, she told him to prepare and ready himself well, since it had been revealed to her that in that year he must render his account to God. When he fell ill that year and lay sick, he frequently repeated these words: "Quickly, quickly your troubles will be ended." He was speaking to his own body, from whose burden, according to the prophecy told to him, he was hastening to be freed — which happened through death soon enough. It is known that a similar thing happened in the case of two other Friars of the Order of Preachers.

of Milan, for whom and afterwards for his nephew Matthew Visconti, John Olegius was appointed governor; but when he had seized the tyranny and lost it in battle, Bologna returned to the Church in the year 1360 by the valor of the Legate Cardinal Giles Albornoz, with no regard paid to the Visconti of Milan, because they had not kept their agreements. In the service of these, however, the Pepoli brothers John and James lived until the year 1367, in which both are recorded as having died by Pompeo Vizani in his History of Bologna.

CHAPTER IV

The conversations of Sibyllina on divine matters and her holy death.

[22] She eagerly listens to those speaking of divine things It was Blessed Sibyllina's custom, when any Religious or otherwise exemplary person came to visit her, first, following the counsel of the Apostle James, to be swift to hear, humbly lending her ear and expecting some edifying word, or one provocative of devotion, or one stimulating to the ardor of charity. If such a word was uttered, as she expected, she listened to it attentively, eagerly repeated it within herself, and savored it and firmly committed it to memory. and savors what she has heard For which a single example will suffice to relate. When a certain Religious who was accustomed to visit her reverently once adduced, among other edifying things, that verse of the Psalm: "Upon my back sinners have wrought," and exposited it with this gloss, saying that upon the back of the just, as upon an anvil, the crown of glory is fashioned for those same just ones — she heard this with such savor, as was her wont, that she had it repeated many times with the greatest eagerness; and when visited by the same man some months later, she asked with avidity that it be repeated again, and heard it with a relish of no less delight. Psalm 128:3

[23] But if from any visitor from whom she had hoped for an edifying word she did not receive one, finding other conversations tedious she was somewhat slow to speak, lest she lose time suited to divine conversation — from hearing or uttering which, on account of the pleasure she took in such things, she could not refrain. Rather, she opened her mouth and abundantly poured into the ears of those standing by the honeyed words of God, such as she had first expected from them. And so she acted that if her ear happened to be idle against her wish, she herself is the first to introduce a discussion of divine things at least her tongue would not be idle from God. For which an example should also be given. The same Religious, on another occasion, visited Blessed Sibyllina when she was lying ill with a certain sickness which was aggravated by speaking, out of kindness. He was then warned by Sister Beatrice, Blessed Sibyllina's companion, not to talk much himself, nor to let her. But when they sat thus, and she did not hear divine things according to her custom, she herself began to speak of divine things. When she was drawing the discourse out at length, divinely inflamed, she was warned by the aforesaid Sister even during an illness in which speaking was harmful not to talk so much on account of the ailment she had. To which Blessed Sibyllina said: "Do you want me to abandon the consolation of my soul for a bodily ailment?" In this we can weigh how greatly she delighted in divine words, from which she could not be restrained by any sufferings whatsoever.

[24] What was wonderful and appeared worthy of great veneration in her words was this: expressing divine meanings with marvelous facility that an unlettered woman spoke so abundantly, so readily, and sometimes of such mysteries in such apt words about divine things that, as a certain Religious said during her lifetime, if she had attentively read the Meditations of Blessed Bernard or the Soliloquies of Blessed Augustine, she ought not to have abounded more in sentences of divine words and choice vocabulary, suited to the matter, in the skilled use of which she was notable. When she was uncertain about some word expressing something divine, she asked to be taught by the learned — although she uttered much by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In converting sinners she was very zealous: and effective in moving sinners for when she knew of a certain notorious sinner who either did not confess or persevered in sins, she sent for him and gave him the words of salvation — now soothing, now sharpening — setting before him the divine mercy and justice and the like. Whence she induced many to do public penance.

[25] A certain man named Zanino ^a sent to Blessed Sibyllina one brenta ^b of wine as an alms, and sold the rest of his wine. Generous toward Sibyllina When he counted the price of the wine, knowing perfectly well how many brentas he had sold and how much he had received for each, he found that the price of one extra had accrued to him. And when he found that none of the buyers had been cheated or had given more than was owed, he carefully concluded that the price of the donated wine had been returned to him by a miracle. Wherefore, with doubled devotion, the following year he offered to the same holy virgin two brentas: he divinely receives back what he had spent and he received back the measure of the offered wine not only doubled, but even far more than he himself or others had hoped.

[29] Therefore in the eightieth year of her life, which she had not completed, and the sixty-fourth year from her entrance into the cell She dies in her 80th year (during which time she went out only twice, as has been said), having devoutly received all the Ecclesiastical Sacraments and full of good works, she flew to the heavenly homeland on Friday, ^c the 19th day of March, in the year ^d of the Lord 1367. There is a concourse at the body When her body had been carried to the church of the Friars Preachers and not yet buried because of the throngs of people streaming in, the distinguished doctor of laws Lord Francis de Salerno and Casanninus de Cassinis ^e prevailed upon the Venerable man Lord James Cazanata, ^f Provost of the Church of St. Michael the Greater of the city of Pavia, to come devoutly to visit the body of Blessed Sibyllina, to pray that through her merits he might be cured of the intolerable infirmity The Provost of St. Michael is healed of kidney stones of gravel or kidney stones which he was suffering. He, persuaded by the celebrated reputation of Blessed Sibyllina's life, began to come as best he could; but as the pains took on increase from the motion of walking, he was nearly collapsing at the entrance of the church of the Friars Preachers; yet reaching the sacred bier and touching it with whatever devotion he could, he returned to his home fully healed, magnifying God.

CONCERNING BLESSED MARK OF SANTA MARIA IN GALLO, OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR OF THE OBSERVANCE, AT VICENZA IN ITALY.

IN THE YEAR 1496.

Mark of Santa Maria in Gallo, of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance, at Vicenza in Italy (Blessed)

Section I. The sacred cult of Blessed Mark: an epitome of his Life and deeds from Wadding and others.

[1] Outside the walls of the city of Vicenza, the Friars Minor, surnamed from the stricter observance of the Franciscan Rule, once had a convent erected under the invocation of St. Blaise. The Convent of St. Blaise at Vicenza This convent, lest in wartime the proximity of a more elevated site should endanger the security of the city, the Most Illustrious Republic of Venice decreed in the year 1530 to be demolished to its foundations, and another to be built within the city walls at public expense. When this was done, the Friars, transferring both the title of St. Blaise and the body of Blessed Mark into the city, the body of Blessed Mark is transferred there in 1530 — him whom Gonzaga calls "of the March" by his homeland, while the citizens of Vicenza and the Friars call him "of Santa Maria in Gallo" — for which surname we can easily find no explanation, unless by supposing that the convent of Santa Maria in Valle, four miles from the town of Fabriano, was commonly called "in Gallo" in the vernacular, and that this Blessed man wished to be surnamed from it, remembering the religious formation he received in that place, so desolate amid the rocks of the Apennines in terms of human comforts, yet so rich in examples of outstanding virtues left there by the Blessed Fathers Bernardine of Siena, James of the March, and John of Capistrano — of whom the latter two were perhaps not much older than Blessed Mark, and were familiar with him, especially James, to whom Mark was an inseparable companion, as Gonzaga and others say.

[2] The synopsis of his Life was inserted by Luke Wadding at the year 1495 into his Annals, who, having joined his wife to the Poor Clares translated into Latin from Marcus of Lisbon, in these words: "In this year died Mark of Santa Maria in Gallo, of the Province of the March. He was a doctor of medicine and married, when, having conceived the desire for a better life, he resolved to bid farewell to the world. His wife, by an equal vow scorning human things, wished to join the Poor Clares at Ascoli; made a Franciscan and he joined the Observant Minorites at the hermit-like convent outside Fabriano, wholly devoted to prayer, contemplation, and fruitfully preaching the Word of God. While he served as Guardian of the convent of St. Severino, praying early in the morning, he perceived this heavenly voice: 'Friar Mark, preach charity.' Thenceforth, wholly set aflame with the ardor of charity, divinely admonished to preach charity he displayed this virtue everywhere by word and deed. Traveling through all of Italy, he ardently commended the works of mercy, both spiritual and corporal, and erected Monti di Pietà for relieving the miseries of the poor. In the city of Camerino, when a plague was raging with great slaughter of men, having compassion on the perishing people, he went there and roused the entire population to weeping and lamentation for the wiping away of sins, pledging his faith that the pestilence would cease if only they repented — and indeed it was found to have happened just as he predicted."

[3] After he had sowed the Word of God for forty years, in this year at Vicenza he stirred up the people to better gifts and the observance of the heavenly commandments. after 40 years, preaching at Vicenza During the first fifteen days of Lent he distributed the ten commandments of the Decalogue and the fifteen precepts of the Church, inculcating with the greatest fervor and fruit the keeping of the divine and ecclesiastical law. Often during his preaching he said that he would leave them something most dear to himself; and indeed, when half of Lent had passed, toward evening of one day he gathered his books and belongings into a small bundle, as if he were going to depart at dawn the next day. He foreknows his own death That night, around the eighth hour, he began to be afflicted with quinsy or inflammation of the throat; and as the swelling increased greatly, he told those standing by that he would die on the following Saturday. Having fallen ill in the city with the Conventual Fathers, he asked that as soon as he died his body should be transferred to the church of St. Blaise, belonging to his fellow Observant brethren

outside the city, and he foretells it and that he should be buried without any more solemn funeral pomp, in the manner of the other Friars.

[4] Having duly received the Sacraments, he besought his companions to stand attentively by him as he died, to repeat the name of Jesus, and to read the Passion of the Lord Christ. and he dies piously He listened most attentively to the reader, his eyes fixed on heaven, until those words: "And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit" — and immediately he expired, on the 19th day of March, a Saturday, on which fell the feast of St. Joseph. Thus far Wadding, in almost the very words of Marcus of Lisbon; what follows from that same source, unchanged, is this: The concourse of the people rushing suddenly to him was like a miracle, buried at St. Blaise's though no one knew anything of his death, all vying eagerly to touch him reverently and to pluck from his garments something to keep as a relic. Then a great dispute arose about the burial, with the citizens wanting to bury him within the city, and the Guardian resisting — who at last obtained what he was seeking, but on the condition that the body not be buried with the other Friars in the common cemetery of St. Blaise, but in a separate place and a more elevated tomb: and so it was done.

[5] On the following day, which was a Sunday, the people and all the nobility rushed to the monastery of St. Blaise, to which the body had been carried, he shines with miracles visiting his tomb with great reverence and devotion. Nor was this in vain: for God worked many miracles and conferred many graces on that people. He died in the aforesaid year, on the 19th day of March. Later, when the aforesaid convent was moved from its former location into the city, they built a stone vault for Blessed Mark in a certain chapel, he is transferred with the convent beneath which he rests today, surrounded by offerings and votive gifts which are hung there daily — tokens of the benefits obtained from heaven by those who religiously commend themselves and their needs to this Blessed one. Francis Barbarano de Mironi adds in his Ecclesiastical History of Vicenza, Book 2, Chapter 78, from a certain Vicentine Chronicle written for the memory of the present and future time, that the year of death was 1496, when he had preached during Lent in the church of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and that Mark died in the hospital of St. Marcellus, at about the age of 60, fifteen days before Easter, on a Saturday — which time-marker matches the said year, Easter falling on April 3, but not the preceding year, in which Easter was April 19. From the same manuscript Chronicle, the same author relates that after the honorable translation of the body to the monastery of St. Blaise, a certain woman from the village of St. Felix, touching his monument, recovered the health of a hand that had been useless until then. Finally, he testifies that the occasion for transferring the body together with the monastery was given on account of the wars in the year 1523, and that it was placed in a stone chest within a chapel of the new church with this inscription: in the year 1522

"Here lies Mark the Blessed, from Monte Gallo, First founder of the Monte di Pietà in this city. Mark, by your prayers, guard us, Blessed one, from diseases, And as Protector preserve and prosper the people of Vicenza. Blessed Mark died on March 19, in the year 1496."

After this, says the same Barbarano, the chapel in which the blessed body lay — which the piety of the faithful, acknowledging the heavenly benefits obtained through Blessed Mark's intercession, had adorned with many votive offerings and tablets — was destroyed for the purpose of providing more space for the renovation of the neighboring altar, and these sacred relics were placed behind that same altar on the Epistle side, where they can also be seen and touched to this day.

[6] We ourselves also visited the aforesaid church in the year 1660, and with the Guardian of the Franciscan Friars there — whom they commonly call "of the family" — the most kind Reverend Father Friar Livio leading us, and he is now preserved behind the altar we saw, within the bases of marble columns which on either side enclose a rather elegant altarpiece of one of the lateral altars on the right side of the choir, a bronze door skillfully made; which, when drawn back, revealed the casket of the sacred body decently stored behind the altar, through which, opened only modestly and to the measure of the said door, only the sight of the head was offered to the eyes of the venerating. Nothing else was available that they could present to us in writing when we inquired about him. On the other side of the same altar, that is, on the Epistle side, there was a similar door, beside which another place is designated for Antonio Pagano for the viewing of the same vault behind the altar from that direction; which is kept for storing the body of the Venerable man of the same Order, Father Antonio Pagano of Venice — that is, when his canonization shall have been completed, for which proceedings are being conducted at the Apostolic See, as Arturus a Monasterio reports from a booklet printed at Naples in his Martyrology, meanwhile bestowing on him the title of Blessed under July 10; from which those who led us to the other side of the choir to read the sepulchral stone — inscribed with verses containing his deeds and fenced with certain wooden railings lest it be trodden by profane feet — more prudently abstained. That he was Secretary of the Order when Gonzaga served as Minister General is also stated by Arturus; from which it is clear that he did not live long before the beginning of this century.

[7] The Monte di Pietà erected at Vicenza through the efforts of Blessed Mark, 1485 As to the Monte di Pietà erected at Vicenza through the efforts of Blessed Mark, we have an illustrious testimony from the aforecited Vicentine chronicle, from which Barbarano writes that in the year 1486 Blessed Mark, preaching at Vicenza and exhorting the people to this pious foundation, so effectively persuaded his hearers that in a single day more than two thousand gold pieces were collected for that purpose; and many citizens loaned great sums of money without any interest, reserving only the right to recover the principal at will. Rightly therefore in the hall of the aforesaid Monte, which looks out on the nearby square, his image is seen hanging with this inscription: "Blessed Mark of the March, Order of Friars Minor, founder of the Monte di Pietà in this city, under Pope Innocent, in the year of the Lord 1486." following the model of the first one, founded at Perugia in 1470 By what officials and laws this pious work is administered, and how around the year 1470 the first Monte di Pietà was established at Perugia by Friar Barnabas de Terrena with the help of Friar Fortunato de Capolis — from a most celebrated Doctor of both laws who became a fervent Minorite after the death of his wife — and was defended by them and approved by the Supreme Pontiffs against the arguments of its opponents, the aforesaid Barbarano at length recounts from Wadding's Annals, chapter 79, and names James Trento and Jerome Schio, Doctors, as envoys sent by the people of Vicenza to the Most Serene Doge of Venice, with whose consent the business was completed; to which a great increase afterwards accrued when Blessed Bernardino of Feltre preached there. Although in the year 1555 this treasury of the poor was plundered, the damage was nonetheless repaired, with the permission of Pope Julius III, so that money borrowed with the obligation of paying four coins annually for every hundred could be distributed to the poor at a charge of five coins — by which means it has come about that experts estimate that more than four hundred thousand scudi have now been collected, according to the same Barbarano. Jerome Ioannino, a Dominican, in his additions to the Itinerary of Italy by Francis Scotti, counts only one hundred thousand scudi — which is itself a quite ample sum. The author of the Franciscan Martyrology, Arturus a Monasterio, therefore rightly adorned the founder of so great a work, on account of other distinctions as well, with this eulogy: "At Vicenza, Blessed Mark of Santa Maria, Confessor, an outstanding preacher, who, shining forth in erudition, virtues, and zeal for souls, was also resplendent with the gift of prophecy and wondrous signs."

[8] The hospice and Monte di Pietà at Fabriano Among the works of this Blessed man, the hospice at Fabriano and the Monte di Pietà erected in the same town for relieving the poverty of the poor would rightly deserve to be counted, about which Wadding writes at the year 1470 — were it not that Gonzaga, more careful in this matter, writes in Province of the March, Convent 35, that the Monte di Pietà was erected through the efforts of the Venerable Friar Antonio, companion of Blessed Father Mark of Santa Maria in Gallo (the same, certainly, whom Wadding mentions as a different person under the name Montanino, derived from the foundress, formerly the wife of John Fogliani of Fermo); but that the famous hospice in honor of the Most Holy Mary of Jesus was constructed at the instigation of Blessed Father James of the March in the year 1456, in the time of Calixtus III — when this Mark had hardly begun to be heard in the pulpit; indeed, he was still in his novitiate these are less correctly attributed to him if you would reckon the years of preaching which Marcus of Lisbon mentions as also being years of religious life. The title inscribed on the front portico of the Church for the perpetual memory of the matter, without any mention of Mark, does not allow one to doubt the time and author — so that Wadding seems to have confused him with Blessed James just as easily as he had previously confused him with his companion Antonio, and to have taken two very different foundations for one, namely a Monte which was called "of Santa Maria di Gesù" and for which its founder gave rules distributed in 24 chapters and approved by public authority. These and many other things we suspect were wrongly transferred by him from the hospice to the Monte — as we shall say more fully on the 28th of November, when we shall have to treat of Blessed James aforesaid.

Section II. The Acts of Blessed Mark described in verse by a contemporary author.

[9] Concluding his narrative of Blessed Mark, Wadding writes: "There circulates While Blessed Mark's wife was still living a rhythmic hymn in his praise, containing his Acts and many eulogies, with an ecclesiastical prayer appended at the end; of these Gonzaga makes mention, where, presenting the first part of that hymn, he says it is from the many poems that adorn the tomb of the Blessed one." That it was composed by a contemporary author is evident both from many other passages and especially from the fact that it introduces Blessed Mark's wife as still living. We give it here in its entirety from Bartholomew Cimarelli, Volume 2 of the Minorite Chronicle, Book 2, Chapter 36:

O star lately shining forth from the seats of paradise, A Hymn composed O bright and gleaming light, risen for all peoples, By which the wandering sinner, wretched, miserable, reprobate, At your exhortation, might reach the Lord above.

At San Severino the Virgin revealed to you What she wished to be preached to the Christian people; praising the zeal of the preacher And at the divine command your soul obeyed, And what was revealed, she taught in the streets and in the temple.

Seeking all men constantly, you unfold immense rewards; You called all equally to the joys of Paradise. You exhort us eagerly to relinquish all things That hold us in mortality and lead us to vanities. Let us faithfully store up what is in the glory above; Let us swiftly seek the great gifts of the Cross of Christ.

By which you shone, showing to all how needful is its star, O gracious herald of piety, whom you cherish with a pious heart. The Monti shine through you in the illustrious cities of Italy, Which you traversed, grieving to see them burned by Jewish usury; You establish Monti di Pietà for helping the poor.

You seem to your hearers a flaming Seraph, Setting hearts of men ablaze, pouring fire into minds; You reveal the mysteries of heaven: nothing is more vehement than you. The hearts of those who address you desired nothing more ardently. You calmed the minds of citizens, than which nothing burned more fiercely; Now each one pursues the Lord more fervently through you.

Great was your burning desire to die for Jesus, desire for Martyrdom And ardent too your longing for the salvation of souls. Your food and refreshment was frequent prayer and fasting; All food and provisions you gave to the company of the poor.

[11] O how many bands of young men you directed to the Lord, Who in the Order of Friars Minor flourish like the rose and lily. ornament of virtues O gem of chastity and of all temperance, Clear trumpet of truth, man of wondrous prudence, Father of all probity, model of justice. O mirror of humility and great innocence, New light of poverty, example of patience, Vessel of sincere purity and holy obedience, Splendor of exemplary life and of integral sanctity. From your tenderest years you desired martyrdom, And straightaway as a boy you announced to your parents That you declared yourself to be already one of Christ's dear servants, And by the greatest miracles you prophesied to the Bishops. He sets forth the prophecies made about him You began to preach the sweet Jesus almost as an infant. Who could begin to tell what wondrous things you then accomplished? James the Fervent of Gallo proclaimed you; A nun whom the Holy Spirit once inspired Adorned you with a star that bears the gift of charity; Then she pointed to heaven, showing her the company of Angels.

[12] Growing, full of understanding, you were wise beyond the elders; At Perugia and Bologna you imbibed the good arts. studies of letters in adolescence At your marvelous progress all were amazed; In wisdom and spirit none were like you, Which was done by God's will so that you might be a light to the world, That by your example and exhortation you might give light to the perishing. Become a physician of bodies, illustrious, learned, and noble, You preferred to heal all the stains of souls. After your illustrious father's death, you freed yourself from the bonds of marriage. Whence, a rare and concordant pair, you chose the religious life; his and his wife's entrance into the Order She to imitate Clare, you to imitate Francis — you agreed; Invoking the sweet Jesus, both of you took up the cross. She, a virgin and holy, leads a pure life on earth; You have flown to the court of the heavenly King with the Angels, Where you have now received the worthy crown for your merits.

And you foretold it as revealed from heaven. Often you announced to the people: "I shall leave you a dear gift"; You repeated your sermons so they might be held more firmly, And afterwards you asked all to observe them thoroughly. At the judgment you promised to be the advocate of souls; Finally you left your peace to all who were weeping. Then you returned home with your limbs still strong, last admonitions to his companions You arranged your books in the presence of your astonished companions, And you besought them to bear it more gently, And you begged them not to take the labors too hard. You declared to them the approaching end of your passing: "On Saturday you will end such great labors, my sons, And you will make a solemn feast for the Lord and for me. But remember, O dearest companions, To serve Christ with the charity of a most pure heart. Then remember me, that Jesus, the best, may always be mine, Whom I have loved from my earliest years above all things of the world."

You foresaw things to be done for you by your dear Vicenza. You forbade a grand procession and an honorable coffin; You preferred to go in poverty to enjoy the glory above. Lastly you asked your companions to read the history Of the Passion of Jesus Christ — a pious and welcome remembrance. Then, with hands stretched toward heaven, you gave signs of joy; You heard from the Angels speaking to your soul: "Come, faithful servant, come, come, hasten, With us, the citizens of heaven, with Jesus and the sweet Virgin." Whereupon, when Jesus bowed His head and gave up His spirit, You, with mouth slightly open, migrated to the Lord.

O how happy and joyful was the departure of that pious soul, When all the harmonies of heaven rang out more sweetly; This God showed more clearly to a certain holy soul. A companion cried out to you: "Make me go with you, Father, O most pious Lord, do not abandon me here." Whence immediately through the city a rumor ran, by divine inspiration, That that holy man had been released from mortal bonds; And at once all rushed to the lodging. They knocked at the door of the chamber, desiring the blessed body. To none of his companions did you yet appear dead, But joyful beyond measure you shone and appeared radiant.

[16] When your pious citizens of Vicenza reached you, Each strives to cut a piece of the blessed man's habit, The fervent eagerness of the Friars to obtain him To snatch the cords and insignia with the birettas, And to carry off other precious things of the servant of God. Some would guard the body lest the Friars carry it off; Others declare to them how gravely they would offend: All the saints would be displeased if they should now take it. Then they permitted the Friars to receive you unto themselves, Since your companions reported that you had thus bequeathed yourself to the Friars. O wondrous concourse and fervor of the Vicentines! his honorable burial When the whole people followed with lamentations. Like an Apostle of God you were kissed by all, And placed in the sacred church you shone at once with signs. Before the body was buried, great miracles occur; The sick immediately receive the proofs of your holiness. By touching the blessed body you put diseases to flight; And when the pious rite of the sacred honors was performed, The leaders of the city would not suffer you to be laid in the ground: They chose a fitting place, worthy of your presence.

Which God's providence has adorned with the greatest gifts, With the felicitous presence of so great a blessed body, Which while preaching many times he had promised while still in health. O celebrated Vicenza, beloved of God exceedingly, What you possess in your church is a priceless treasure. O heavenly preacher, reformer of hearts, Splendor of the angelic life, summit of all the saints, Outstanding splendor of virtues, greatest glory of the Minors, Last honor of the people of the March, keen remover of heresies, Whom in the kingdom of eternal life the Angels sing as glorious. By my vow, O Seraphic Martyr, pray to the Lord for us; Blessed Mark, renowned, beg for us a happy end. he piously invokes him From all evils deliver us now and hereafter, That with your help we may continually avoid the shipwreck of the world, And under the protection of the Virgin may we seek Christ, the Best. Glory be to God the Father and to the Only-begotten Son, And to the Paraclete Spirit, world without end. Amen.

[18] After this, the following Antiphon with its Prayer is given by the aforesaid Bartholomew Cimarelli, the use of which, together with that of the hymn itself, seems to have vanished through the negligence of later generations:

"The Lord sent a new star of charity, to set the peoples aflame with love for Him. V. Pray for us, Blessed Mark. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ."

Prayer: "O God, who through Blessed Mark announced to the peoples the reward of Your charity and the observance of Your commandments, so that they might burn with love of You and of their neighbor: we beseech You that, always endowed with these virtues, we may be helped in all our needs by the prayers and merits of Your glorious servant, whom You exalt with miraculous signs. Through Christ our Lord. Amen."