Sibyllina of Pavia

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.