Thirty-five Martyrs at Caesarea in Palestine

CONCERNING THE HOLY THIRTY-FIVE MARTYRS AT CAESAREA IN PALESTINE.

YEAR 363.

Thirty-five Martyrs, at Caesarea in Palestine (SS.)

[1] Caesarea, the metropolis of Palestine, is celebrated both for various events and for very many Martyrs and other Saints: of whom we commemorate various ones in the month of March, and have already reported on this day SS. Timolaus, Dionysius, Pausis, Romulus, Alexander, another Alexander, Agapius, and another Dionysius, crowned with the palm of martyrdom under Diocletian. Besides these, thirty-six others who suffered under Julian the Apostate are reported in the manuscript Greek Menologion, which was published by order of the Emperor Basilius the Younger in the tenth century of Christ: in which this eulogy concerning them has been composed.

[2] And these holy thirty-five Martyrs of Christ lived at Caesarea in Palestine: who, after the decree by which all were commanded to deny Christ and worship the gods of the Gentiles was promulgated by the impious and wicked Julian, not only could not be induced to do so; but also, assuming a noble liberty, going about through the whole city, they said in a loud voice: Let Christ, as the true and certain God, alone be honored and worshipped: but let the gods of the Gentiles, who did not create heaven and earth, perish with all who worship them. They were therefore seized by the worshippers of idols and shut in prison, and brought before the wicked apostate Julian, who had deserted the faith and Christ. Then by his command they received the sentence of death with eager magnanimity, and with their heads cut off they flew to Christ, whom they had desired from infancy and never denied: and thus they obtained the reward of immortality.

CONCERNING S. PIGMENIUS THE PRIEST, MARTYR AT ROME,

YEAR 363.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Pigmenius the Priest, Martyr at Rome (S.)

[1] The genuine Martyrology of Bede is silent for this day. But the author of the Dijon supplement, for March 24, has only this: At Rome, of Pigmenius, Priest and Martyr. Nearly the same is found in the Vatican manuscript of the church of S. Peter, the Centula of S. Richarius, the Milan of S. Ambrose, and others. In the very ancient Roman of Rosweydus are these: Sacred veneration. At Rome, of Pigmenius, Priest and Martyr, buried in the cemetery of Pontianus. In the present-day Roman Martyrology these are read: At Rome, the passion of S. Pigmenius the Priest, who under Julian the Apostate, for the faith of Christ, was cast into the Tiber and put to death. Bede, Usuard, Ado, and others are cited in the Notes. Concerning the genuine Bede we have treated: in what was printed under the name of Bede, the eulogy was taken from Ado: that of Usuard is briefer, which Baronius did not dare, as he usually does elsewhere, to present in full, although he had found it in the Martyrology of Bellinus, according to the custom and usage of the Roman Church. Ado, Notker, and others add more; but of suspect reliability. For, as Baronius adds in the same Notes, The Acts were formerly corrupted: his deeds are contained in the Acts of S. Bibiana, although these are exceedingly corrupted. S. Bibiana is venerated on December 2, on which day in his Notes Baronius again states that her Acts contain some things that need correction; such as those that are superadded concerning Pigmenius and Julian the Apostate. Again Baronius writes concerning the martyrdom of Pigmenius in the Ecclesiastical Annals at the year 362, number 253: At this time Pigmenius, a Priest of the Roman Church of the title of the Pastor, remitting nothing under the impious Emperor of the vigor of spirit in detesting the gods of the Gentiles, as he had done under Christian Emperors, was cast headlong into the Tiber by the violent hand of the Gentiles, and obtained the crown of martyrdom he had long desired on the ninth day before the Kalends of April: on which day his memory, inscribed in the Ecclesiastical records, remains intact: but his Acts of martyrdom appear to be somewhat corrupted.

[2] First (as Baronius has it in his Notes on August 7, on which S. Donatus, Bishop of Arezzo and Martyr, is venerated) those things are displeasing which are narrated about the education of Julian at Rome under Pigmenius together with Donatus. in those things the education of Julian is wrongly attributed to him, For where Julian as a boy lived together with his brother Gallus in Cappadocia, where as a youth he was educated at Athens, and where finally in Gaul he was placed in command of the armies, is sufficiently established from the ancient records of the Greeks and Latins, and especially from the epistles of Julian himself. So says Baronius there, who pursues these matters more extensively from Sozomen, Eunapius, Ammianus, and the epistles of Julian himself, at the year 337, number 55, and following. Hence those things were omitted in the Roman Martyrology which in Usuard, the printed Bede, Ado, Notker, Bellinus, and others are thus expressed: He nourished Julian from boyhood and instructed him in sacred letters. Which in the corrupted Acts are variously amplified, and the aforesaid S. Donatus is added as a companion in studies, and it is said that S. Pigmenius promoted this one together with the same Julian to sacred Orders, and that Donatus was made a Lector and Julian a Subdeacon. It is indeed true that Julian was initiated into the Clergy, but in the East with his brother Gallus, as is established from the first oration of S. Gregory Nazianzen against Julian.

[3] It is also entirely contrary to all reason (these are the words of Baronius in the same Notes on August 7) that in the time of the persecution of Julian, who did not reign for an entire two years, the same S. Donatus is said to have been a lector, and thence consecrated Deacon, and after many years ordained Priest, and finally, still during his reign, on the death of Bishop Saturus, to have been appointed in his place; moreover, that while the same Julian was still living, he was crowned with martyrdom. Similar are the things that are read in the corrupted Acts concerning S. Pigmenius, and some of them are inserted into the following eulogy in Ado in these words: Julian, made Emperor, after he abandoned the worship of piety, a fabricated dialogue with the same Julian at Rome. having heard that the bodies of the holy Martyrs who were killed by him were buried by the same Pigmenius, commanded him: Go wherever you wish: for here your life will not prosper, yet I render payment for your services, not to you. Then S. Pigmenius departed to Persia, where having stayed four years, he became blind. Thence he was admonished in sleep by the Lord to return to Rome. And after four months, having returned, as he was ascending the hill of the Sacred Way with one boy, begging for alms, it happened that he encountered the Emperor Julian sitting in a golden chariot: who, seeing Pigmenius from a distance, ordered him to be called, and said to him: Glory to my gods and goddesses, that I see you. To whom the man of God, Pigmenius, immediately replied: Glory to my Lord Jesus Christ the crucified Nazarene, that I do not see you. At this word the enraged Julian ordered him to be cast from the bridge into the Tiber. So says Ado, and nearly the same is read in Notker, and has also been inserted into the third edition of Surius: but the times and places at which the Emperor Julian lived, especially after he abjured the faith of Christ, are obstacles. After Constantius died on November 3 in the year of Christ 361, Julian, who was not Emperor there. who was then in Illyricum, flew to Thrace, and on December 11 entered Constantinople: and he who in the said year had still celebrated the feast of the Epiphany in the Christian rite according to custom, opened the temples of the gods previously closed, and publicly abjuring the Christian religion, had himself inaugurated as Pontifex Maximus in the ancient rite and sacrifices. The following year, about to make war on the Persians, he departed from Constantinople

to Nicomedia, thence he sought the city of Pessinus in Galatia, to venerate Cybele, the great mother of the gods: thence he came to Antioch, and there spent the winter. After this, in the year 363, having led forth his forces against the Persians, on June 26 he was pierced by a javelin and perished in the midst of battle, having reigned for only one year and about seven months after the death of Constantius. Behold the time during which the persecution of Julian against the Christians lasted, and during which the Emperor himself was always in the East. For the rest, the governors whom he himself had appointed at Rome, in accordance with his intentions, did not cease to harass the Christians, whose deeds, because Rome itself was the seat of the Roman Emperors, were attributed to Julian: indeed because many in that persecution had obtained the palm of martyrdom, he was believed to have reigned for many years after abjuring the faith of Christ. Various persons were also deceived because he had been made Caesar in the year 355, having married Helena, the sister of Constantius, with the administration of Gaul.

[4] We have obtained various Acts of S. Pigmenius, but plainly corrupted and unworthy The beginning of the Acts, of being inserted into this work. Some of these we copied at Rome in the Vatican library from codex 1193, with this beginning: In the time when Constantine, who founded Constantinople with his own name, held the Roman Empire, there was in the city of Rome a certain Priest, Pigmenius by name, of the title of the Pastor, venerable for his virtue and worthy of esteem among his fellow citizens for his learning in the liberal arts: to whom the people of Rome were accustomed to come: and while they were receiving from him the rudiments of the liberal arts, many, wholesomely washed in the saving font, with the heavenly Teacher dictating, flocked to the fold of Christ through his zeal. The same beginning is in the manuscript of Rouge-Cloître, where the rest is more contracted. Constantine the Great died in the suburbs of Nicomedia on the very day of Pentecost in the year 337, after which time S. Pigmenius lived for nearly twenty-six years, having been martyred in the year 363, ordered to be cast from the bridge into the Tiber. His body was collected by a certain matron named Candida, and the end concerning the martyrdom and burial, and was buried in a crypt in the cemetery of Pontianus at Ursus Pileatus on the twelfth day before the Kalends of May, as is read in the same Acts.

[5] In the manuscript Acts of the monastery of Böddeken in Westphalia, it is said he was cast from the greater bridge: whose body was collected and buried in the cemetery of Pontianus opposite the palace, on the twelfth day before the Kalends of March, or February 18, on which day S. Pigmenius the Martyr is recorded in the Reichenau, Aachen, and other manuscripts. In the supplement of Greven to Usuard, Pigmenius is called Priest and Martyr at Rome. But on the twelfth day before the Kalends of May, or April 20, no mention of S. Pigmenius is found anywhere: but on March 18, Pigmenius, Priest and Martyr at Rome, is commemorated in the Barberini, Utrecht, Aachen, and other manuscripts. in the cemetery of Pontianus, The cemetery of Pontianus was situated on the Portus road near the Tiber, at Ursus Pileatus, also called the cemetery of the holy Martyrs Abdon and Sennen, not far from whom S. Pigmenius is read to have been buried, in Ado, the printed Bede, and Notker. Consult Aringhi, book 2 of Subterranean Rome, chapter 19. Among the Relics which the Emperor Charles IV donated to the Metropolitan Church of Prague, Relics at Prague and Bologna. there is a part of the head of S. Pigmenius the Martyr, as we said in the Appendix to January 2, page 1084. Masinus also in his Sacred Bologna records that there, in the temple dedicated to All Saints, are Relics of S. Pigmenius or Epigmenius, Priest and Martyr. But whether they belong to this S. Pigmenius or to some other S. Epigmenius is not established.

* otherwise of the Salarian Way.

CONCERNING SAINT ZACHARIAS THE RECLUSE AMONG THE GREEKS.

Zacharias the Recluse among the Greeks (S.)

The Greeks in the great Menaea and in Maximus Cytheraeus celebrate this Saint in a few words, with no place or time indicated in which he lived. On the same day, they say, Saint Zacharias ended his life in peace. More fully the Turin manuscript of the Duke of Savoy: Memory of our holy Father Zacharias, a monk, who became a recluse and served God immovably. In the Menaea this distich is added:

Made like unto God in strength, O Father, Departing earth, you become co-heir of the life of God.

Many most holy men bore the name Zacharias, and, to omit Martyrs, there is Zacharias the Prophet, and another, the father of S. John the Baptist: the Greeks venerate the latter on September 5, the former on February 8, and his discovery on May 16. There is also Zacharias, Patriarch of Jerusalem, whose sacred day is February 21, and Zacharias the tanner, who preserved virginity in matrimony, and is commemorated by the same Greeks on November 17: from all of whom this one is evidently different. In the Lives of the Fathers there are various Zachariases, to whom the surname of Abbot, monk, disciple of Moses, or of Silvanus, or of Serapion is given. But which of these might be venerated on this day, who could divine?

CONCERNING S. MARTIN THE THEBAN AMONG THE GREEKS.

Martin the Theban among the Greeks (S.)

Among other cities, two celebrated ones called Thebes, adorned with episcopal dignity, exist in Greece itself: of these, one is in Achaia under the metropolis of Corinth, another in Thessaly under Larissa: from one of these we believe this Saint was born, of whom the Greeks in the Menaea and in Maximus Cytheraeus have only this: On the same day, Saint Martin the Theban or Thebanus ended his life in peace. This distich is added in the Menaea:

Nourished most beautifully in beautiful old age, O Martin, Dying, you are joined to the departed Fathers.

CONCERNING SAINT DOMANGART, BISHOP IN IRELAND.

SIXTH CENTURY

Domangart or Douengard, Bishop in Ireland (S.)

[1] As certain as the veneration of this Saint among the Irish is, so uncertain are all the things which the memory of that nation has preserved concerning him: for these are entangled with parachronisms and other errors; but of the veneration, a distinguished testimony is rendered by the Tripartite Life of S. Patrick, part 3, chapters 63 and 64, where the birth of S. Domangart, and the events concerning both his parents, S. Patrick against the tyrant Eochodius. while he was still enclosed in the womb, are narrated as follows: The King of Ulster in the time of Patrick was Eochodius, son of Muredach, a man illustrious by birth, sprung indeed from the distinguished and very ancient family of the Dalriada; who nevertheless by his own crimes brought rather a stain than an increase to the splendor of his lineage: for he refused to believe in the true God, and persecuted those who believed. He also commanded two devoted virgins, who had consecrated their virginity to the Son of God, to be bound in iron and given to the waves of the Ocean to be drowned, because they refused at his insistence to be bound by an earthly marriage or to worship idols. Hearing this, however, the holy man, moved in the bowels of piety, went to the King and interceded for the release of the Brides of Christ. But after multiplied prayers, he could accomplish nothing with the inexorable tyrant: who had further gone so far in unbridled madness that he struck his own brother, Carillus by name, who was giving good counsel, with the staff he carried in his hand.

[2] Because of these things, therefore, the blessed man, justly indignant, hurled upon him a most deserved sentence of malediction, He cursed him, imprecating and in imprecating certainly predicting that no one of his posterity would ever hold the scepter of the kingdom, and that they would not be in such numbers as to be able, in days of war or at a place of public assembly, to form any band of men or force of soldiers; but that they would be always scattered and dispersed through distant places, and that he himself would be stripped of kingdom and life within a short time, and extinguished by an evil death. Then turning his face to his brother Carellus, a pious and devout prince who obeyed the counsels of the man of God in all things, God revealing his own preordination, he said: Upon he blesses his son Domangart. this your brother and his progeny, who was obedient to God and to me, the scepter of your kingdom shall be transferred: and his posterity shall rule over your seed, and shall hold the throne of the Kingdom of Ulster from generation to generation. But the wife of Eochodius, understanding the crimes of her husband and the curse upon the seed in the parent, bathed in tears, begged pardon from the man of God, and asked that she and the offspring she carried in her womb be spared, and that the crimes of her husband not be imputed. The man of God assented, and blessed her together with the offspring not yet born. This offspring was that most holy Domangart, afterwards most celebrated among the Saints of Ireland, and a disciple of Saint Patrick: whose death is reckoned uncertain, and hence he is reckoned as living perpetually.

[3] Jocelin narrates the same things more briefly in number 112, and to the Patrician blessing he adds, as also predicted with a prophetic spirit, that the offspring which the Queen was about to bear would be most holy, Much concerning him uncertain or fabulous: whose death would be ambiguous and whose tomb undiscoverable: then he adds: For this man was most distinguished in holiness and miracles, concerning whom many and great wonders are reported by the Irish. As to his age, from the native Annals and the Acts of S. Patrick, Colgan has consistently determined that he who was born posthumously to his father after the year 460 while still living, and who was distinguished by the episcopal grade and famous for the great praise of virtue, could not have died in the year 506, as some have written: nor could he have been raised from the dead by S. Patrick while the latter was at the Roman Curia, as is read in the prayer taken from the proper Office. Would that that Office and the Acts (which Colgan was told exist) had ceased to be hidden, The Acts are hidden: we would perhaps have found in them the solution of certain difficulties concerning this Saint. For the claim that he was the brother of S. Muran (he who composed the Acts of S. Columba in verse) from the same mother he is believed to be the brother of S. Muran, is not so clear as to be beyond suspicion of falsity: nor can it stand with truth, unless the truth of the Irish Genealogy is denied (as we saw on March 12, when we treated of Muran), which removes Muran's father Feradach five degrees from Eugenius, son of Niell, and thus makes him born only around the middle of the sixth century. The death of Eochodius also would have to be deferred to the last years of Patrick beyond the year 455 from the birth of Christ, and it would have to be said that his wife was left so young that she who had borne this first offspring to Eochodius in Ulidia, would thence after forty or more years, carried off to the peninsula of Eugenius by a second marriage, to Feradach, at most a grandson, not (as the Genealogical series has it) a great-great-grandson, of the aforesaid Eugenius, would have borne both other sons and S. Muran: who, at an advanced age, at the hundredth year or near it, would have written about S. Columba at the beginning of the seventh century.

[4] Since these things are quite forced, I would easily go over to the opinion of one who would deny that Muran and Domangart had the same mother; and would believe the cause of the fiction to have been given from the fact that which is more plausibly denied.

Muran's mother had two husbands: of whom the other, much younger than the father of Domangart, bore the same name Eochodius; and perhaps whose son the Tamlacht and Marian Martyrology numbers among the Saints on this very day, Lugadius of Cluain-Laoigh or Cluain-laodh in Tirconnell: which Eochodius the Genealogical Sanctilogium cited by Colgan, Appendix 4 to the Acts of S. Columba, chapter 9, number 74, makes the son of Islandus, son of the often-named Eugenius. But if these things are said, nothing will compel us to defer the birth of Domangart beyond the year 455, his death beyond 530; or to give Muran more than a hundred years of life, at the end of which he would have written about Columba around the year 600: but he could have been born around the middle of the sixth century, and in the very flower of his age committed to writing concerning S. Columba those metrical compositions which are cited.

[5] But setting aside these matters, which are everywhere uncertain, let us bring forward concerning his veneration from Colgan what, by his testimony, can be held as sufficiently certain: first, Veneration from churches, that there exist in the region of Iveagh and the diocese of Dromore two churches consecrated to him: one at the foot of a very high mountain, overlooking the sea to the east, anciently called Rath-murbhuilg, today Machaire-Ratha; the other on the summit of that very lofty mountain, far from all human habitation; which nevertheless, even during the raging and cruel persecution of the heretics, has been accustomed to be frequented with a great concourse of people and continual pilgrimages in honor of this marvelous servant of God, who shines there with many signs and miracles. Whence that mountain, called by ancient writers Sliabh-Slainge from a certain hero named Slainge, Proven by Relics and Records: the son of Bartholanus (who is imagined to be one of the first inhabitants of Ireland), is today commonly called from this saint Sliabh-Domhangaird, that is, the mountain of Domangart; as Giraldus Cambrensis also observed in his Topography of Ireland, distinction 3, chapter 2, more than 470 years ago. Second, that in the already mentioned Church of Machaire-Ratha, in place of precious Relics, a bell is preserved in great veneration, which once belonged to this Saint, commonly called Glunan, and one of his shoes, encased in a precious covering of gold and silver. Third, that his feast is celebrated festively each year in the aforesaid Churches on this day, March 24, as the domestic Hagiologies everywhere record, His father resisted both Patrick and S. Maccarthenus: the Tamlacht, that of Marian Gorman, and the Cashel Calendar, which may be seen in Colgan: this one thing being disapproved by us, that he necessarily thinks the Eochodius, father of Domangart, to be different from the one whom he had mentioned when treating of S. Maccarthenus on this very day from a fragment of our Salamanca Codex: in which it is said that Maccarthenus governed the Church of Clogher at the time when Eochodius held the scepter of the kingdom, and was afflicted by him with many troubles and injuries. For why should we say that Eochodius, King of Ulidia, was hostile to Patrick, but to Maccarthenus another, not a King, but a private magnate of the same kingdom? since neither in time, place, name, nor in the very evil will of impeding the Gospel is any distinction found, and the King is designated in a similar phrase in both cases.

CONCERNING S. HILDELITHA, VIRGIN AND ABBESS OF BARKING IN ENGLAND, WITH A COMMEMORATION OF THE NUNS AFTERWARDS KILLED BY THE DANES.

AROUND THE YEAR 720.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Hildelitha, Virgin and Abbess, at Barking in England (S.)

Nuns killed by the Danes, at Barking in England

BHL Number: 3942

§ I S. Hildelitha, Teacher of S. Ethelburga, Abbess of the monastery, dear to S. Aldhelm.

[1] In the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, the city of London with its Middlesex was under the Kings of the East Saxons, and had as its fourth Bishop S. Erconwald, concerning whom Bede in book 4 of his Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, chapter 6, writes these things, which must here necessarily be indicated: This man, before he was made Bishop, had built two famous monasteries, one for himself, the other for his sister Ethelburga. Both of which he had excellently established with regular discipline: for himself indeed in the region of Surrey, by the river Thames, in the place which is called Ceortesei, that is, the island of Ceort. But for his sister, in the province of the East Saxons, In the Barking monastery, in the place which is called Barking: in which she herself might be the mother and nurse of women devoted to God. She, having received the government of the monastery, showed herself in all things worthy of her brother the Bishop, both by living rightly herself and by governing her subjects in a regular and pious manner: as even heavenly miracles bore witness. So it is there. S. Erconwald is venerated on April 30, and S. Ethelburga on October 11, in whose manuscript Life these are read: When the monastery at Barking was built, and S. Ethelburga had determined to take the monastic habit, S. Erkenwold summoned from across the sea a Virgin learned in regular discipline, She instructs the Abbess S. Ethelburga, Hildelitha by name, to whom he entrusted his sister Ethelburga to be trained in manners: who, in a short time surpassing all the Sisters in holiness and manners, with many Sisters gathered, was made their Abbess and Mother. So it is there. Barking or Bercingum is in the County of Essex near the river Thames, not far from London, in which, until the most unhappy times of Henry VIII, King of England, a most celebrated monastery flourished, whose first Abbess was the said S. Ethelburga, to whom succeeded she who is here called her teacher, S. Hildelitha, concerning whom we now inquire, from what region she seems to have been born.

[2] Bede, book 3, chapter 8, speaking of these times: Not yet, he says, when many monasteries were built in the land of the English, many from Britain were accustomed to go to the monasteries of the Franks or of Gaul for the sake of monastic life, summoned from Gaul for this purpose: and also to send their daughters to be educated there and united to the heavenly Spouse, especially to the monastery of Brie and to Chelles and to the monastery of Andelys. So says Bede on the occasion of S. Earcongota, daughter of Ercombert, King of Kent, who lived in the Faremoutier monastery, built in the place called Brie: as has been said more fully in her Life on February 23. But the monastery of Chelles was founded by S. Bathildis, Queen of the Franks, and she entered it around the year 670. We gave her Acts on January 26. It seems that S. Hildelitha, having gone to Gaul on a similar occasion, and now recalled by S. Erkenwold, lived in the Barking monastery under S. Ethelburga the Abbess; whose meanwhile she was also the teacher of the other nuns: whose virtues, and the happy death of many, Bede narrates in the said book 4, chapters 7, 8, and 9, and ends with the most blessed departure of S. Ethelburga, then in chapter 10 relates the following.

[3] After Ethelburga, the successor in the office of Abbess was a servant devoted to God, named Hildilid, she becomes Abbess, who for many years, that is, to extreme old age, most vigorously presided over the same monastery, both in the observance of regular discipline and in the provision of those things that pertain to common use. When it pleased her, on account of the narrowness of the place in which the monastery was built, that the bones of the servants of Christ, both men and women, who had been buried there, should be taken up and all transferred to the church of the blessed Mother of God, and honored in one place; how often there appeared a brightness of heavenly light, how great a fragrance of wonderful odor, and what other signs were shown, whoever reads will find in that very book from which we have excerpted these things. So says Bede, and from him Capgrave in the Life of S. Hildelitha, Virgin and Abbess, in the New Legend of the Saints of England, printed at London in the year 1516, whose beginning is:

[4] The monastery of Barking is known to be a shrine of many Saints. For very often over this place heaven seems to be opened by a certain special regard, and the brightness which souls possess in heaven adorned with every kind of virtue, seems to pour itself out in some measure upon the bodies to be glorified. To the great glory, therefore, of the blessed Mother Hildelitha does it pertain that she alone among so many heavenly ones is received as a most precious gem, she alone among her stars is shown forth as the most brilliant, she alone after Blessed Ethelburga is solemnized with the title of sanctity. Some things are interspersed, as we shall say below, and then these are added: She was so full of divine charity that she was the teacher and model of all virtues, in vigils, abstinences, kindness, clemency, and the sum of other virtues: so she provided for both the souls and bodies of those in need, that she walked before God and men without complaint. But the rest of the life or merits of Blessed Hildelitha are hidden from our times, in which we believe that testimonies of miracles were not lacking, although sanctity is to be proven more by faith, which works through love, than by miracles. Yet we believe that all her sacred deeds are described in heaven, so much the more brilliant there, the more obscure here: whose life, hidden with Christ, will at length appear more brightly with him in glory. So says Capgrave: with whom we lament that the book from which Bede had excerpted what he related has perished.

[5] How long S. Hildelitha lived, or how many years she presided as Abbess over the monastery of Barking, is not sufficiently established. S. Ethelburga is said in her manuscript Life and in Capgrave to have died around the year of the Lord 676. when she was made Abbess. Perhaps these things are taken from Florence of Worcester, who treats of the episcopate of S. Erconwald at the year 675, and the two monasteries made by him, and his two successors in the episcopate; and then adds: Furthermore, Hildelitha succeeded Ethelburga, the sister of S. Erconwald, to whom S. Aldhelm wrote his book on Virginity. After Hildelitha there was Wulfhild, Abbess in the time of King Edgar: two hundred and fifty years having elapsed, but added on account of the sanctity of her life. She is venerated by some on May 30, by others on December 9. Concerning those three, Malmesbury asserts several things in book 2 of his Deeds of the English Bishops. The monastery of the sister of S. Erkenwold, he says, is called Barking, situated on the side of London at eight miles' distance. There she, called Ethelburga, had as her close companions in holiness and piety, Hildelid as her immediate successor, to whom there exists a book on the praise of Virgins composed by the most blessed Aldhelm; and Wulfhild, almost a modern, who preceded by a few years the times of King Edgar, and who compensates for the antiquity of the others by the grace of her holiness, and I would almost say anticipates it. So it is there.

[6] S. Aldhelm dedicates to her and her nuns his book on Virginity But S. Aldhelm thus dedicated the Prologue of his book on Virginity to them: To the most reverend Virgins of Christ, and to those to be venerated with every affection of devoted kinship, and to be celebrated not only for the renown of bodily chastity, which belongs to many, but also to be glorified for the grace of spiritual purity, which belongs to few: to Hildelitha, Mistress of regular discipline and monastic life, and likewise to Justina and Cuthburga, and also to Osburg, my kinswoman: to Alfgida and Scholastica, bound by the ties of kinship, to Hidburga and Berngida, Eulalia and Thecla, who in the reputation of holiness harmoniously adorn the Church; Aldhelm, a slothful Christian and a suppliant servant of the Cross and the Church, wishes an enviable salvation of perpetual prosperity. Concerning Cuthburga and some others we shall treat below, where we give the beginning of the Prologue to those nuns: which is of this kind: Already long ago, setting out for a Pontifical Council, accompanied by fraternal bands of companions,

receiving the writings of your Holiness brought to my mediocrity quite willingly, with palms raised to heaven, I took care to render immense thanks to Christ, rejoicing for your well-being. By which pen not only the Ecclesiastical covenants of promised vows, but also the honeyed studies of the divine Scriptures were revealed in a most sagacious series of discourses. And as I recited the individual texts of the Epistles, with an illustrious encomium, examining them with the swift glances of my eyes, and contemplating with a certain natural curiosity of hidden things (as is said to be innate in me), and greatly admiring the most abundant eloquence of words and the virginal urbanity of expression: Behold, I said, with ineffable rejoicing does that Ruler of celestial Olympus and Governor of heaven exult, when he sees Catholic handmaids of Christ, indeed adoptive daughters of regenerating grace, begotten from the fertile womb of ecclesiastical conception by the seed of the spiritual word, educated through maternal solicitude in divine doctrines, and exercised as sagacious gymnosophists under a most skilled trainer in the gymnastic disciplines and gymnastic arts in the gymnasium: who industriously obtain the crown of the laborious contest and the triumph of the Olympic struggle by the most difficult efforts of their own exercise. And a little later: All these things which we have described as being exercised among gymnosophists in the disciplines of secular schools, in the industry of your discipleship are conducted not by the manners of the outer man, but by the gestures of the inner man, etc. Near the end of the work, or chapter 30, he commends himself to their prayers. Pray, he says, recruits of Christ, he seeks their prayers. that the rare recompense for the present little work may be the frequent reciprocal offering of your prayers, and that the support of your intercession may be the buttress of my labor and sweat... so that in the holy assembly, when the venerable company of the monastic order shall have concordantly offered melodious burnt offerings of prayers on bended knees to the Creator of all things, it may deign to remember my contemptible person, according to what your devout vows have promised... May the nourishing Trinity, one substance of the Deity, and threefold subsistence of Persons, governing the monarchy of the whole world, deign to watch over your Blessedness, praying for us, continually from the high summit of heaven. Farewell, O flowers of the Church, Sisters, nurslings of the monastery, pearls of Christ the Scholar, gems of Paradise, and participants of the heavenly fatherland. Amen. These things S. Aldhelm, a most learned and most holy man, first Abbot of Malmesbury, afterwards around the year 705 made Bishop of Sherborne, dedicated to S. Hildelitha and her nuns with great evidence of her sanctity and regular life.

§ II The instruction of S. Cuthburga. Acquaintance with S. Boniface. Sacred veneration. Commemoration of the slain nuns.

[7] Among the nuns named above was Cuthburga, concerning whom Malmesbury relates the following in book 1 of the Deeds of the English Kings, chapter 2. She receives among her own S. Cuthburga, King Ina had sisters Cuthburga and Quenburga. Cuthburga, given in marriage to Alcfrid, King of the Northumbrians, but not long after separated from the marriage, first at Barking under the Abbess Hildelida, then herself the Mistress of the rule, led a life pleasing to God at Wimborne. It is now an insignificant village, but at that time notable, in which a frequent choir of Virgins, having castrated earthly desires, sighed after heavenly loves. To the zeal of holy celibacy was added the reading of the books of Aldhelm on Virginity, dedicated indeed to the name of the Barking community, but of value to all who aspired to the same profession. Alcfrid, above mentioned, was the illegitimate son of King Oswy, a boy at the time of his death, having left the marriage with King Alcfrid, and succeeded King Egfrid, his brother, as a young man, perhaps eighteen or twenty years old, plainly different from Alcfrid, the firstborn of King Oswy, whom we said died before his father on March 6 in the Life of SS. Kineburga and Kineswitha, §3. To the younger Alcfrid, therefore, S. Cuthburga was given in marriage, and bore him an heir to the kingdom and successor, Osred, born around the year 697, so that when Alcfrid his father died in the year 705, he would have completed eight years of age. The Anglo-Saxon Chronologist, an ancient author, published with Bede at Cambridge, around the year 700, asserts that Cuthburga was separated from Alcfrid while he was still living, out of zeal for the monastic life, which we judge to have happened around the year 700: and then she lived for one or two years at Barking under S. Hildelitha the Abbess, when S. Aldhelm dedicated his book on Virginity to them.

[8] Meanwhile the Wimborne monastery was built by her brother King Ina: in which the same S. Aldhelm, having been made Bishop, wrote in the year 706 an epistle concerning the liberty of their own election, then Abbess of the Wimborne monastery before the year 705. granted to all congregations constituted under his governance; which from a manuscript Register of the Malmesbury Abbey was published by Alford in the Annals of the English Church at the said year 705, number 18, in which this subscription is read: To this due petition of my monks, especially the servants of God, I most willingly consented: and in the monastery which is near the river called Wenburnia, over which the sister of our venerable King, Cuthburga, presides, with the desirable consent of the most famous King Ina, and with the devout assent of the most reverend brother and Co-bishop Daniel of the presented promise, I confirmed the most fitting petition of the servants of the Lord with the sign of the holy Cross. So it is there. But who would not wonder that Alford afterward, citing no authority for himself, says that this same Cuthburga was married to Osred, the son of King Alcfrid, whom at the death of his father in the year 706 Bede and all others write was a boy of eight years? not married in the year 713 to King Osred. But he was driven to that conclusion while he considered the Alcfrid who was the firstborn of Oswy and this illegitimate Alcfrid to be one and the same, more plausibly born after the death of the former. Alford has these things at the year 713, number 11. We gave the Life of King S. Ina on February 6, and in §I we treated of S. Cuthburga and her Wimborne monastery, as also on February 2 in the Life of S. Hadeloga, who was also called Thecla by some, which we there corrected; and from the Life of S. Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, written by Othlon, we showed that religious women had been summoned by him from England to Germany, who are there named Chunihilt, the aunt of S. Lullus, and her daughter Berathgit, Chunidrut and Thecla, Lioba and Walpurgis, sister of Willibald and Wunibald. Whether from these, Berathgit and Thecla are those whom S. Aldhelm mentions in his dedication as having lived under S. Hildelitha with S. Cuthburga, may be doubted, since from the Life of S. Lioba which we shall give on September 28, it is clear that some came from the Wimborne monastery, to the establishment of which they could have departed with S. Cuthburga from the Barking monastery. S. Thecla is venerated on October 15.

[9] This conjecture is supported by the acquaintance which S. Boniface formed with S. Hildelitha, as is gathered from his epistle 21 in Serarius, written to the Abbess Eadburga, she narrates to S. Boniface the vision of one raised from death in whose beginning he writes thus: You asked me, dearest Sister, to intimate and transmit in writing the marvelous visions of that man who recently died and came back to life in the monastery of the Abbess Milburga, which were shown to him, as I learned from the report of the venerable Abbess Hildelitha. And having narrated that vision at length, he thus concludes the epistle: But these things, which at your diligent request I have written, he set forth in common hearing with three religious and very venerable Brothers: who are known to be faithful witnesses corroborating me in this writing. So it is there. Eadburga, surnamed Buggan, is believed to have been Abbess in Kent, and to have died on the sixth day before the Kalends of January in the year 759, and inscribed in various Martyrologies for July 18. Several epistles of S. Boniface to her survive. But the vision discussed in the cited epistle was among other things about the damnation of Ceolred, the most libidinous King of the Mercians, who died in the year 716, the eighth of his reign: at which year Baronius and Alford place that epistle in their respective Annals. around the year 716, or following years. In which same year Serarius observes that S. Boniface returned from his first pilgrimage to Frisia to his homeland and his monastery, when he could have visited S. Hildelitha, and learned from her the history of this vision, at least before his departure from England, which the same Serarius records happened in the year 718.

[10] We said above from Bede that S. Hildelitha reached extreme old age, so that she seems to have attained perhaps ninety years or more than eighty. died around the year 720: If she were born around the year 630, she could have been thirty-four years of age when she was summoned from Gaul by S. Erkenwold to instruct his sister S. Ethelburga in monastic matters, to whom she afterward succeeded on her death, and thus she would be said to have lived to the year 720, having reached extreme old age as a nonagenarian. Alford places her death at the centennial year 700, because Trithemius, Wion, and others said she flourished or lived around that year. But at whatever time she departed from this life to the immortal, this is chiefly to be observed, that, just as in her most holy life she provided and instilled examples of virtues for others, so after death she merited worship and veneration. Moreover, in the Life in Capgrave, these are read: But the blessed Hildelitha is presented as most glorious among the glorious. held in veneration: For this holy Virgin was not only celebrated with worthy veneration by Dunstan, Ethelwold, and Alphege, but also her sanctity was proclaimed by many ancient saints. And if on account of the fault of our negligence, or on account of the reward of her faith, the miracles or the evidence of writings have failed us, those who knew her by her resounding virtues without doubt, who before the burning of the sacred volumes throughout the entire island by the Danes, exalted her in the lamp of all, and decreed her day to be most holy. Then one miracle is added, which is narrated in the same words in the Life of S. Ethelburga, and is of this kind: Three blind women, coming together at the same time to the patronage of the three holy Virgins, illustrious for miracles. were individually illuminated by individual saints. One indeed by S. Ethelburga, another by S. Hildelitha, the third by S. Wulfhild, above called Wulfhid and Wulfheid: where we treated of them from Malmesbury, who praises their intercession with God. For nothing, he says, does the suppliant ask in vain, provided he does not lack faith. By whose prayers, I truly confess, that place was never entirely destroyed, and now even in the time of the Normans, like most others, has been raised to the highest in the number of its nuns and the beauty of its buildings. The above-mentioned Bishops Dunstan, Ethelwold, and Alphege were eminent champions of the monastic life and restorers of monasteries: S. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, is venerated on May 19, S. Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, on August 1, and he who ordained these as Priests, S. Alphege, likewise of Winchester, on March 12, unless he is Alphege II, from Bishop of Winchester made Archbishop of Canterbury and Martyr, who had previously been Abbot of Bath, and is venerated on April 19.

[11] The day on which S. Hildelitha departed this life is indicated above from Capgrave as having been decreed most holy by sanction, Inscribed in the Martyrologies of more recent writers on December 22, but what day that was is not added. Trithemius treats of her in book 3 on the Illustrious Men of S. Benedict, chapter 121, with no day indicated either.

day. Hence Arnold Wion reported in his Appendix to the Monastic Martyrology that the birthday is unknown, and has this eulogy: S. Hildelidis, Abbess of Barking in England, after S. Ethelburga shone with innumerable virtues and miracles. She lived in the year 700. Using this occasion, Wilson chose a day convenient for himself and empty of any other English Saint, namely December 22, on which he inscribed her in his English Martyrology. Ferrarius in the General Catalogue soon followed, as did Edward in the Trophies of the English Congregation of the Order of S. Benedict, of the more ancient ones, March 24. Menard also and Bucelin. But over all these prevails the authority of the English Martyrology, which Richard Withford, a monk of the Order of S. Bridget, a man of outstanding piety and learning, wrote in the monastery of Sion, not far from London and the Barking monastery, printed in English at London in the year 1526: in which for this March 24 the following is read: In England, in the monastery of Barking, the feast of S. Hildelitha, Virgin and next Abbess after S. Ethelburga, who was a woman, as Bede writes, endowed with singular virtues and illustrious for many miracles. So says Withford, concerning whose Martyrology and other pious works that were composed, Pitsaeus may be consulted on the Illustrious Writers of England. The words of Withford are confirmed in an ancient parchment codex, which under the name of the Martyrology of Usuard exists at Rome in the most illustrious library of the Duke of Altemps, in which on this same day is inscribed the sacred memory of S. Hildelitha, Abbess in the monastery of Barking. She is also reported there on March 23 and is called Hilda, and in another manuscript Calendar of the Order of S. Benedict, Edihildis, Virgin and Abbess in England, is reported on this day.

[12] There is added, both in the Acts in Capgrave and in the Martyrology of Withford, a crown of Virgins, Commemoration of the nuns slain by the Danes. afterwards killed there in hatred of the faith and religion. And those Acts relate: But to pass over the merits of posterity, at the time when Blessed Edmund suffered martyrdom for Christ, the whole congregation of holy Virgins with their Mother was consecrated in this holy church by the Pagans. O how memorable the piety, where that Mother of the divine family, as the lead of the burning monastery poured down, raising both hands to heaven and comforting all with tears, said: Endure, most beloved daughters, this transitory fire, by which we hasten to the everlasting prize. Already heaven is opened for us: already the palm of martyrdom and eternal glory is purchased by a momentary pain. For these virginal Martyrs together with the above-mentioned Virgins, like a starry people, are commemorated in one commemoration without a specific night vigil by name. So it is there. The memory of all the Sisters, together with the Abbess killed by fire by the same Danes who had slain S. Edmund the King, is also attached to S. Hildelitha in Withford. Ingulf, Abbot of Croyland, having narrated the slaughter of King S. Edmund, adds: Thus having obtained and occupied all of East Anglia, they remained there throughout the whole winter. But "they remained for a whole two years" is read in the Peterborough Chronicle, around the year 870. part of which is inserted in the English Monasticon, page 70. In Wilson's English Martyrology it is added that the monastery of Barking was then burned by the Danes. S. Edmund the King was killed on November 20 of the year 870.

CONCERNING S. SEVERUS, BISHOP OF CATANIA IN SICILY.

AROUND THE YEAR 800

Severus, Bishop of Catania in Sicily (S.)

[1] Octavius Caietanus in volume 2 of the Lives of the Saints of Sicily, page 32, prefixes for himself this title: Several Saints in Sicily, Confessors, Bishops, Abbots, monks, of uncertain age. And then writes: Before the Saracen domination and the island of Sicily laid waste by their wicked sword and fire, very many Sicilians excelled in the fame of sanctity, not all known, but very few, unearthed from the darkness by me with much labor: Name in the Sicilian Records, nor is it certain under which reigning Prince they shone: which is the more bitter, that a kind of widespread fog obscured so many stars, removed them from our eyes, and we have only bare names and feast days from the sacred Latin or Greek records, which is evidence that divine honors were formerly rendered to them. S. Severus the Bishop is celebrated at Catania on the ninth day before the Kalends of April. So says Caietanus there, who in his Sicilian Martyrology cites only the Menologion of Cardinal Sirletus and records this: At Catania, of S. Severus, Bishop and Confessor. The words of the cited Menologion are these: Menologion of the Greeks On the same day, of our holy Father Severus, Bishop of the city of Catania in Sicily. We add also the authority of the most ancient manuscript Menaea, which we examined in the library of Cardinal Mazarin, in which the following was contained: and manuscript Menaea. Memory of our holy Father Severus, Bishop of Catania.

[2] Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy fashions this eulogy for him: Ferrarius's eulogy. Severus, on account of his singular virtues, was called to govern the Church of Catania, and so discharged the episcopal office that, while living, he obtained the highest praise, and on his departure from life was counted among the Saints. He departed to the Lord on the ninth day before the Kalends of April, celebrated among the Greeks. So says Ferrarius, citing only the Menologion of the Greeks. Rocco Pirro, book 3 of Sacred Sicily, first Notice, establishes him as the fourteenth Bishop of Catania and adds: S. Severus governed the Church of Catania under the Emperor Nicephorus, image. whose memory is recalled at Catania on March 24. There is a very ancient image of our Severus on a panel of the baptismal font of the Catanian cathedral, dedicated to S. Mary of the Alms. But Ferrarius in the General Catalogue, citing also the Tables of the Church of Catania, says he lived under Constantine and Irene around the time of Charlemagne. time of his See. Irene was married to the Emperor Leo, son of Constantine Copronymus, in the year 769, and when he died in the year 780, she reigned with her son Constantine; when he was killed in the year 797 and Irene was deported to Lesbos in the year 802, Nicephorus ruled; and so S. Severus could easily have held the See of Catania under all of these. Ecclesiastical Office. The Ecclesiastical Office of S. Severus is celebrated in the Church of Catania under the double rite, and everything is recited from the Common of Confessor Bishops, the Mass, "The Lord established for him." So the Order of the Divine Office printed at Catania for the year 1628.

CONCERNING S. BERNULF, BISHOP OF ASTI, MARTYR, PATRON OF MONDOVI, IN PIEDMONTESE LIGURIA.

NINTH CENTURY

Bernulf, Bishop of Asti, Martyr, Patron of Mondovi in Piedmontese Liguria (S.)

[1] Ferrarius in his General Catalogue thus begins this day: At Monte-Vici in Liguria, of S. Bernulf, Bishop and Martyr, Patron of that city: and notes that Monte-Vici, which is also called Mons-Regalis, commonly Mondovi, is a city by no means obscure in the Piedmontese region, S. Bernulf the Martyr once celebrated for its Academy, I add, and from the year 1388 adorned with an episcopal See. Ferrarius admits, however, that it has not yet been possible to know of which See S. Bernulf was Bishop. Ughelli, volume 4 of Sacred Italy, column 1519, discourses admirably on the origin of Mondovi, and at column 479 establishes S. Bernulf as the eighth Bishop Bishop of Asti of Asti in the same Piedmontese region, in these words: S. Bernulf, whom the city of Mondovi venerates as its patron Saint, was in the opinion of some a Bishop of Asti, and died for Christ at the hands of the Saracens, who then held Fraxinetum and other neighboring places, while he was visiting his Church: whose sacred relics rest under an altar in the church of Mondovi, although the manner of his martyrdom or the time at which he suffered is not established: it is established, however, that the Saracens flooded that region. Ughelli places S. Bernulf between Evasius II and Eilulf, of whom the former subscribed to a donation of the Emperor Charlemagne made to the Novalesa Abbey in the year 810, the latter countersigned a donation of a certain Priest named Dettoardo in the month of March in the sixth year of the Emperor Louis the Pious, that is, the year of Christ 819. His successor is said to be Roserius, of whom Ughelli has the following: the Saracens raging in the ninth century In the year 835, Roserius, when the Transpadane Bishops were preparing an expedition against the Saracens who had occupied Fraxinetum and vexed the Province with perpetual raids, having mustered forces from the territories of his Church, brought aid, and being more powerful than all, rendered the principal service in routing them. Returning thence to Asti, when he learned that Savona was being besieged by the same Saracens, he proceeded there with his men and liberated the city, but worn out by labor and age, he departed this life on the very return journey. Philibert Pignorius agrees with this in his Augusta of Turin, page 24, reporting the following: In the year of Christ 825, the Saracens so ravaged the shores of Italy with hostile incursions that even the Bishops were compelled to go to defend them; and among the rest, Claudius, Bishop of Turin, at the beginning of spring, hastened to drive them away with an armed force of Turinese, and was no less zealous with the sword than with the pen. So says Pignorius from the writings, indeed the very words, of Bishop Claudius himself: whom the writers of his time — Jonas, Dungalus, Strabo, and others — attacked as adhering to the iconoclasts. Meanwhile the times are shown in which the Saracens were raging, by whom S. Bernulf could have been captured and killed in hatred of the Christian faith, killed. especially if Roserius was made the tenth Bishop of Asti around the year 836, whose successor Stauratus would then conveniently be substituted, to whom the Emperor Louis II at Pavia granted ample privileges in the year 862, as the diploma published by Ughelli records. But the year 858 is given by Francis Augustin of the Church, Bishop of Saluzzo, in his Chronological History of the Piedmontese Region, chapter 11, but, which we find surprising, S. Bernulf is placed by him as the third Bishop of Asti, whose body lies in the Cathedral of Mondovi, formerly of the diocese of Asti. But the former account is supported by the Acts of the martyrdom of S. Bernulf, collected from various sources and written with great judgment by Philip Malabayla, Visitor General of the reformed Congregation Acts of martyrdom written. of S. Bernard of the Cistercian Order: whose Congregation's Abbot General was then Joannes Bona, born at Mondovi, and Consultor of the Sacred Congregation of the Index, a man celebrated for his learning, prudence, and humanity: by whom we too were aided in many things, both at Rome and after our return thence to Belgium.

ACTS OF MARTYRDOM

By Philip Malabayla.

Bernulf, Bishop of Asti, Martyr, Patron of Mondovi in Piedmontese Liguria (S.)

[1] That a Saracen fleet in the ninth century after the birth of Christ sailed from Spain to the coast of the Ligurian Sea, The Saracens occupy part of Liguria: and having made a landing, stormed the town of Fraxinetum near the city of Nice, and having established their headquarters there, held that same Ligurian coast and the sea itself in terror for a long time, is established by the testimony of many historians. But in what manner the same Saracens advanced into the interior of Liguria, and for how long they raged there, the martyrdom of S. Bernulf, of which we have undertaken to treat, seems to require that we explain briefly. Fraxinetum was a town having behind it a harbor of considerable length and safety, and above it a mountain or cliff on which S. Hospitius had led a hermit's life. Whence a fortress placed on the mountain was called Saint-Hospitius, but after the Saracens had been defeated and expelled, because in that conflict the multitude of those who had fallen furnished new material for tears and sighs, it was commonly called San-Sospir:

and the town itself is no longer called Fraxinetum but Villefranche. From this place, therefore, which besides other advantages was made safe by a vast forest, the Saracens not only ravaged the nearby villages or strongholds, but also Nice itself, Sospello, and the other places between the sea and the Apennines, first plundering them, then allured by the sweetness of plunder they sought Tenda, situated at the foot of the Apennines: from which, through the Alps, by the road called the Col overhanging them, observing that a passage into sub-Alpine Italy lay open, strengthened by new reinforcements and having crossed the Col itself, they descended into the plain of the Ligurian Vagienni below.

[2] There, with the Kings of Italy occupied elsewhere, and the peoples without a leader daring nothing, in the place of the city now of Mondovi they became so powerful that, having passed beyond the river Ellero, by which the foot of that mountain is washed on which four centuries later Mondovi was founded, near the little river Poliola, about a mile distant, they established a garrison for their new nation; that is, having built a fortress there so large that it could continuously hold at least five hundred soldiers; they build a fortress: and so strong and fortified that it was equal to any attacks of enemies and to sustaining a long siege. In the middle of this, for a watchtower and last refuge, they raised a very high tower, which, when the fortress itself was finally stormed by the neighboring peoples, roused at last by the continual disasters and perpetual sacrileges, and the Saracens slaughtered to a man, remained intact, as evidence of the matter rather than for any use, whence it is still called the Saracen Tower.

[3] From that fortress, therefore, they continually raided the surrounding region for many years: hostile above all to men and sacred things, and not only devastated nearby places with plundering and fires, by these the Novalesa monks were killed but sometimes inflicted the same destruction on more remote ones. For having reached the Novalesa Abbey, they made Martyrs of Christ of all the monks who had remained (for most had hastened to flee to Turin with the more precious furnishings). They also so devastated the city of Alba the city of Alba devastated, that, since its Bishop was compelled to cultivate the earth with his own hands to obtain his livelihood, Pope Benedict VI, so that that Church might rise again to its former state, united it to the Church of Asti.

[4] By these enemies of Christ, therefore, S. Bernulf was crowned with martyrdom, as the constant tradition of that region attests: S. Bernulf killed with others, according to which some other faithful were also killed for the name of Christ by the same Saracens: whose names have been lost. But the bodies, together with the body of S. Bernulf himself, were at that time buried in a certain chapel, constructed near the same little river Poliola. bodies in a chapel; But when very many citizens of various cities of Cisalpine Gaul, in order to avoid civil discords and the perpetual disasters arising from them, as well as inhabitants of some neighboring places, joined together into one people at that mountain, then called Vici, afterwards Regalis; the same sacred bodies were translated to the principal church at that time, one day to become the Cathedral, then placed in the altar of the church. and placed under the high altar; with only the head of S. Bernulf stored away in the sacristy with other relics, to be displayed on appointed days and shown to the people approaching to kiss it.

[5] Not content with this, the people of Mondovi built and dedicated a new church under the invocation of S. Bernulf himself: a church erected to him. at which especially his solemn feast would be observed, as of the Saint whom they had chosen as their special Patron: and this not only because they possessed his Relics as a firm pledge of hoped-for patronage; but also because, while as a good Pastor of that region he visited his flock, he had consecrated their land with his blood. his feast celebrated on March 24: That this happened on the twenty-fourth day of March the Calendar of an ancient Breviary indicates: in which on that day his feast is appointed to be celebrated annually, as of a holy Bishop and Martyr.

[6] That he was a Bishop of Asti should be held for certain: the Bishopric of Asti, for the city of Mondovi itself with its entire diocese, up to the year thirteen hundred and eighty-eight, was subject to the Church of Asti, both in spiritual and temporal jurisdiction and dominion.

[7] Imitating the example of their ancestors in venerating S. Bernulf, their descendants, a silver statue in the church of the Blessed Virgin of Vico. when the Blessed Virgin at the same part of Vico (for its buildings or blocks are not in close proximity but are inhabited in scattered fashion), which is properly called Vico, exhibited her image, celebrated and venerable throughout the whole Christian world for the unheard-of frequency and magnitude of its miracles; they had a silver statue of S. Bernulf himself, of nearly life size, skillfully made, and with a particle of the Relics of the same Saint, and with a silver statue of S. Donatus also, of equal height (because their Cathedral is dedicated to God under the name of this Saint), they offered it to the most Blessed Virgin of Vico: so that by this pious offering they might earn the favor of both these holy Bishops, their particular Patrons, and of the same most sacred Virgin, the common Advocate of Christians.

CONCERNING SAINT ALDEMAR, PRIEST AND CASSINESE MONK, AT BUCCIANO IN THE HITHER ABRUZZI.

ELEVENTH CENTURY

Aldemar, Priest and Cassinese Monk, at Bucciano in the Hither Abruzzi (S.)

[1] Among the illustrious writers of the sacred archmonastery of Monte Cassino is Peter the Deacon, Chartulary, Scriniarius, and Librarian of Monte Cassino, who died not long after the year 1140, leaving behind very many monuments of his genius: the index of which he himself wove together and inserted into book 4 of the Cassinese Chronicle, which he wrote in its entirety, and a supplement to book 3, beginning from the year 1086, where Leo of Ostia had left off, which he continued up to the year 1138. Life written by Peter the Deacon of Monte Cassino, In that book 4, chapter 48, therefore, he mentions a book composed by himself on the Origin and Life of the Just Men of the sacred monastery of Monte Cassino, which is kept in that monastery under the strictest guard, written in ancient Lombard letters. Of which we have a copy, and in it the Life and death of S. Aldemar, Priest of Monte Cassino. Which same Life Cardinal Baronius had received from Constantine Caietanus, a Benedictine Abbot, published from manuscripts: and we copied it at Rome from the volume lettered O, preserved in the Vallicella library of the Fathers of the Congregation of the Oratory. The same, but with altered phrasing and here and there a few things inserted or omitted, we found at Naples among the Clerks Regular, in volume 2 of the Lives of Confessor Saints, which Antonio Caracciolo, a man known for his published books, had there collected: who had communicated this Life of S. Aldemar to Michael Monachus, Canon of Capua; compared with another edition published in the Capuan Sanctuary. and he published it in the Capuan Sanctuary from page 166, omitting the Prologue, which is not worth appending to the other Prologue: but a few things from the rest of the Life we observe in the Notes to the former Life.

[2] The day of death is not indicated in the Life. Gaspar Bucelin inscribed him in his Benedictine Menologion for this March 24, citing besides Peter the Deacon, Name in the Benedictine Menologion, Constantine Caietanus, and Mauro Marchesi, his assistant and successor, and cites a long eulogy from the Life with this beginning: At Monte Cassino, of S. Aldemar, monk and Confessor. He, in that most sacred and most fruitful mountain of Saints, raising himself like a cedar in Lebanon to the height of perfection, shone with the outstanding example and merits of his life, etc. He was buried at Bucchianico in a monastery built by himself. Ferrarius in his Appendix to the Topography in the Roman Martyrology asserts that it is a town of the Marrucini in the Abruzzi near the city of Chieti, and Ferrarius's Topography. distant from it five miles to the south, as the topographic maps show it between the rivers Lenta and Foro. Ferrarius adds that Aldemar, a monk of S. Benedict, is venerated there, citing the records of the monastery of Monte Cassino, which we give here. Concerning the other places traversed by him, we treat below in the Life.

[3] The only marker of the time in which he lived is the construction near the Capuans of the monastery of S. Lawrence, over which he first presided as Rector, granted by the Cassinese Abbot to the wife of the Prince of Capua. Time of his life. Concerning which Michael Monachus observes the following in relation to this Life: The church with the monastery of S. Lawrence was built by the Princess Aloara, the widow of Prince Pandulf, surnamed Iron-Head, while she held the Principate with her third-born son Landenolf, namely from the year 982. She then in the year 986 obtained from Adenolf, the Archbishop of Capua, a privilege of exemption for the aforesaid church and monastery: the diploma is preserved today in the monastery of S. Lawrence in the city of Aversa, to which this church of S. Lawrence of Capua was long since annexed. He therefore governed the monastery built before the year 986 by Aloara, who did not survive to the year 992. The beginning of the said diploma is exhibited by Ughelli in volume 6 of Sacred Italy, page 361, under Adenulf, Bishop of Capua: where he also mentions S. Aldemar, whom he calls Aldemarrus. Michael Monachus rightly corrects from this the beginning of the Life of S. Aldemar published by him, which begins thus: In the year of the Incarnation of the Lord approximately the one thousand and seventieth, the most holy Aldemar himself, an outstanding worker of miracles, distinguished for the merits of his virtues, shone upon the world. Which things are absent from the genuine Life composed by Peter the Deacon, and were absurdly inserted, since he was not even alive then, having died from a wound received in a fall, not from old age. For the rest, from the Life of S. Nilus the Abbot in the same Michael Monachus, page 340, we add: After the death of Pandulf, who was Prince of Capua, his wife, called Aloara, presided over and ruled the entire region no less than if her husband were alive.

LIFE

By Peter the Deacon of Monte Cassino.

From manuscript codices and Michael Monachus.

Aldemar, Priest and Cassinese Monk, at Bucciano in the Hither Abruzzi (S.)

BHL Number: 0251

BY PETER THE DEACON

PROLOGUE.

[1] To write the deeds of the Saints stands as the greatest adornment of the Church, and to propagate the lives of those who, enjoying kinship of the flesh, flourished with diverse miracles, to our successors: He is to be praised among other Saints, so that they may strive more diligently to serve the Lord, having heard those things which He deigned to work through His faithful ones. Having no ambiguity that they would receive from Christ a recompense for their service, they who, spurning luxuries, subdued the body with constant abstinence, and setting aside the allurements of all perishable things, which entice vain minds, strove to serve the Creator of every creature, the most certain Rewarder of good works; whence they obtained the gift of perpetual blessedness, enriched with the rewards of eternal life, and placed in the mansions of heaven, giving thanks to our Creator, the Giver of such happiness to those who love Him. Among whom the most blessed Confessor of Christ, Aldemar, rejoices that he has been appointed by the Lord, both by the merit of his works and by the grace of heavenly gifts. For he, Aldemar illustrious for all virtues. while he suffered in the time of the flesh, excelled in holy works, and beyond what it is in the power of our ability to elucidate, was free from the contagion of all vices. For he was chaste in body, endowed with piety, generous to the poor, always needy for himself, filled with charity, and moreover replete with the possession of all virtues. Wherefore he so pleased the Lover of sanctity that he merited to become a companion of the heavenly citizens, and enrolled in heaven. and was appointed heir of the flower-bearing seats. Let us therefore attempt to compose the life of so great a man, as is within our ability, and to arrive at his miracles, which, with the Lord providing aid, we may be able to fittingly explain.

CHAPTER I.

Education, Cassinese monastic life, habitation at Capua and Boviano. Miracles.

[2] In that time, therefore, there lived a certain man of most venerable memory, Obtained by the prayers of his parents, he is born: a perfect cultivator of the Christian religion, born of a middling family. Dwelling at Capua, who was called by the name John, he enjoyed a chaste and religious wife, who was not undeservedly called Mira, for she shone with wonderful deeds: of whom the supreme Possessor of the heavens, earnestly besieged by frequent prayers (for they had heard Him saying in the Gospel, Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you), conferred on them the reward of most blessed offspring, who afterward, having utterly spurned all things pleasing to the enemy of the human race, lived most constantly in the service of Him by whom she had been granted to her parents: to whom, immediately reborn in the water of baptism, the parents gave the name Aldemar. Whom they took care from the time of his boyhood to hand over to the study of letters, he devotes himself to both learning and virtues: in which he began so quickly to excel that he thoroughly surpassed all his peers in learning. For when the teacher was absent, his companions playing among themselves, as is the custom of boys, he was accustomed to go to a secret place, so that no one would provide him with any impediment. Whence he was rightly given the name of the Wise One by the students of that place: for he sought wisdom by frequent studies. His parents therefore rendered gifts of praise to the Lord for the gift of so great an offspring, which in tender age flourished with the maturity of virtues: for humility had founded a home in his breast, which rejoiced to have the fellowship of virtues. free from all impurity, His breast, therefore, protected by such defenders, remained immaculate throughout all the time of his life, and free from all impurities: which, endowed with such purity, merited to be filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, which always shuns a contaminated dwelling.

[3] And so the most holy and most pleasing to God Aldemar, not yet having passed through boyhood, but strengthened in the service of Christ like an old man, he becomes a monk at Monte Cassino: was eager to seek the monastery of Benedict, beloved of God, which is established on the mountain called Cassino; despising parents and friends, not unmindful of the Lord's command, which thus speaks in the reading of the Gospel: If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross, and follow me. Where, joyfully clothed in the monastic garment by the Abbot of the above-mentioned monastery, he was eager to please the King of Kings with vigils and prayers. Wherefore, by the disposition of God, whose dominion rules over all, he merited to receive the grade of the Levitical honor: concerning whom the fame of sanctity began to fly, he is ordained Deacon, for the lamp could not be hidden under a bushel. When this was heard, a most noble woman, namely the wife of the Prince of Capua, went to the Abbot, under whose governance the most blessed Aldemar was living, and began to ask that Aldemar be given to her. When he was granted to her request, she appointed him Rector of a certain monastery of hers, which she had built in honor of S. Lawrence: where, having been established, he began more earnestly to devote himself to the service of the Savior. For he wore down his flesh by the constancy of fasts, he is made Rector of a monastery at Capua, by the perseverance of vigils, by the poverty of garments. For he bestowed new garments on the poor, retaining for himself the torn and inferior ones, by which the cold could in no way be warded off. Wherefore he so pleased the Almighty that he merited to be powerful with various miracles. Seeing which, the Cassinese Abbot wished to bring S. Aldemar back to the Monte Cassino monastery entrusted to him, in which he had received the habit of holy life: he shines with miracles, but the aforesaid Princess began to contend with an obstinate spirit.

[4] While they were quarreling among themselves about this for a very long time, the most holy Aldemar had it in his heart to leave the boundaries of that place, so that no further disputes would be held on his account: he flees to Boviano, and going out, with all who remained with him unaware, he sought the city which is called Boviano, where, with divine grace bestowing it, he shone with twofold miracles. For three brothers lived within the walls of that city, among whom there was an enormous dispute about a certain church: one of whom gave his part of that church to Aldemar, Confessor of Christ, with the others unwilling and opposed: who frequently threatened to kill him with blows of their hands, unless he hastened to depart from there as quickly as possible. But he, trusting in Him whom he served, disdaining all their threats, counted them as nothing: wherefore they were more inflamed with anger. On a certain night, therefore, while the man of God went to sing psalms in the church in the usual manner, they did not hesitate to enter there with weapons, the arm of one trying to kill him stiffens: although it would be an abomination. The morning praises having been begun, one of them, with weapon raised, wished to strike the friend of God, but by divine Providence his arm stiffened so that he could in no way bend it. Seeing, therefore, that he who directed the weapon was seized with present punishment, he strove to kiss the feet of the man of God, falling to the ground, imploring him to deign to have mercy on him. But holy Aldemar, engaging in acts of charity rather than hatred, brought salvation to him who had wished to bring him death.

[5] It happened, moreover, in those days in which the servant of God Aldemar was residing there, that a Canon of that same city fell ill, whom, an incurable disease cured by the sprinkling of water blessed by him: weakened by a great illness and deserted of the use of all his limbs, no physician could cure. It was revealed to him in a vision that, if he wished to send to the servant of God Aldemar to bless water for him, he would immediately be made well by its sprinkling. He quickly found a messenger and directed him to the servant of God, to bless for him the creature of water. Hearing which, the most holy Levite Aldemar began to reply to the one who had brought the message: It is by no means within my right, brother, to confer a blessing upon the creature of water, because I do not possess the dignity of the Priesthood: therefore cease to importune me further in this matter. But the messenger in no way acquiesced to him, but, as he had been instructed, began to pray more insistently that he would not disdain to do what he had been asked. Seeing, therefore, the most chaste Levite his most ardent faith toward him, he did not delay longer to bless the water: which, carried to the aforesaid sick man with swift speed, conferred on him such a gift of health that no traces of illness remained upon him. Aldemar, therefore, being celebrated for such deeds, was honored by all the citizens: he is ordained Priest. but he was compelled by the prayers of their clergy to deign to accept the holy Priesthood. He, believing that the prayers of his own supplications availed more with God, accepted the grade of the Presbyterate.

CHAPTER II.

Life spent in the Hither Abruzzi. Death.

[6] Not long after having remained there, he went to the monastery of the most holy Liberator, which is situated at the foot of a certain mountain, which was called Magellus for its size: For the monks of S. Liberator he writes an Antiphonary: where he found certain monks utterly ignorant of the art of music, and lacking the books by which the service of God would be performed. Residing there for a time, therefore, he undertook to write a certain antiphonary: which having been written, it came to mind of the Blessed Aldemar not to remain there any longer, but to return to his own monastery of Monte Cassino, where he had been ordained a monk. When a certain man named Adam, who greatly loved his presence, learned of this, he took away his horse, so that he would not have the means to go where he desired. From there, however, the man of God was directed to another place, where he built the monastery of S. Euphemia, and accepted the grade of Abbot at the supplication of all. he builds the monastery of S. Euphemia: Whose tongue now would have such power of eloquence as to be able to narrate all the places of the monasteries which the man of God afterward strove to build, and which would not fail in the expression of speech? For having left the monastery of Blessed Euphemia, he directed his journey through many towns of the provinces of Chieti and Piceno, and others, where he never ceased from the construction of monasteries. Finally, with divine Providence leading him, he arrived at a certain town called Bucchianico: in which place, having found a small church, he conceived that he could build a monastery there. Placing, as he was accustomed, his trust in the Lord, he began to lay the foundation of a not inconsiderable monastery, which he completed with the help of a certain most noble man named Tresidius, then at Bucchianico, who held the primacy of those parts in the town, and who had tried to retain him on many occasions when he wished to go elsewhere. And so he gathered there a multitude of many monks, of whom, compelled by the aforesaid friend of God Tresidius, he accepted the pastoral office of governance.

[7] It happened, moreover, that on a certain day, as the fame of his sanctity spread, a poor woman came to him who had lost the use of her hands through an onset of illness. She therefore began to importune the most holy servant of God with continual prayers, the lost use of a hand that he would deign to seek the indulgence of the Almighty on her behalf, so that He might restore the weak part of her

body to its former health. He, moved by pity for her tears, which he most certainly always bore in the depths of his heart, did not refuse to acquiesce to her petition, but immediately, having offered the sacrifice of the Mass clothed in priestly vestments, he hastened to offer the gift of sacrifice for her health, truly heard by God at once, as the outcome afterward declared. The Mass having therefore been celebrated and thanksgiving rendered to the Redeemer, the man of God, raising his eyes upward and gazing at heaven while pouring forth tears, and prayers having been offered and holding the hand of the aforesaid woman, uttered these prayers: O eternal God, whom all creatures serve, both heavenly and earthly, and all elements obey, created by Your most excellent word, from whom all good things proceed; may the clemency of Your piety deign to come to the aid of this woman detained by illness, so that all the faithful may now recognize that You do not despise the prayers of those who invoke You with a devout mind. he restores it: And when the most blessed Aldemar brought this prayer to an end, the hand was restored to its former health.

[8] It happened in those same days that he set out for a certain monastery, he falls ill in the monastery of S. Mary: which is entitled in honor of the holy Mother of God, where, a grave illness detaining him, he stayed with the Brothers of that same monastery for a very long time. But after a very long time, when the gift of health had been restored to him, he returned to the monastery over which he presided, and left behind there a certain chest of his own, which innumerable bees, entering through the hole where the key was usually inserted, with the greatest swarm, composed no small amount of honey and enormous honeycombs inside. he takes care not even to disturb the bees: But when the manly Confessor returned there not many days later, he opened the chest which I mentioned above, now sealed, and recognized what lay hidden within. But the most pious servant of God, not wishing to bring disturbance to the bees, took care to depart quickly from there, lest through him they be deprived of the domicile they had chosen. O admirable piety of so great a man! O praiseworthy example to be imitated by all the faithful! How great a charity do you think he displayed toward men, who took care not to bring disturbance even to brute creatures?

[9] Returning again from here, the most steadfast soldier of Christ to the monastery which is situated on the banks, driven by charity, arrived to visiting his relatives, visit his kinsmen brothers. Where, at the space of midnight, as he was accustomed, rising from his bed, so that he might be found watchful in the service of the Lord, and might seem to devote himself to prayer for God alone; with the enemy of the human race impeding, he fell to the ground so severely that he even lost all the strength of his thigh, and incurred the punishment of a most grave illness. injured from a fall, he falls ill: As this illness grew worse, he ordered himself to be carried to the walls of a certain town, which is called by the name of S. Martin. By divine disposition, seized there by the battalions of fevers, he dies in the town of S. Martin, he suddenly returned his most precious soul in a glorious end: and He whom he had rendered most frequent service on earth, placed him, with the choirs of Angels rejoicing, in the palaces of heaven, where, joined to the assemblies of the Saints, he will rejoice in the long-suffering of everlasting happiness forever. The inhabitants of the aforesaid town, desiring to bury him, took innumerable mattocks, where the inhabitants strive to retain the body. eagerly competing to dig the earth. But immediately, as they were digging, as the Lord's will had decreed, a certain small stone was found there: which they striving to extract, and laboring in vain for the whole space of the day, fruitlessly consumed enormous labor upon it.

CHAPTER III.

The body of S. Aldemar translated to Bucchianico. Miracles.

[10] After long quarrels the body Hearing therefore that their Pastor had departed from the flesh, the monks over whose governance he had presided hastened to go there, in order to convey the Confessor of Christ to the monastery whose pastoral governance he had held. But the inhabitants of the above-mentioned town, attempting to forbid them from doing this, began to raise the quarrel of sedition, saying that they would in no way allow the most holy body to be removed from there. Moreover, they even wished to wound the servants of God with blows of their mattocks, who had come for this purpose, to carry away with them the most glorious gem of the deceased body. is carried to Bucchianico: But with the inhabitants of that town resisting, they sought the lord who presided over that land, and scarcely able to speak, with the sobs of sighs and tears permitting, they began to ask him to cause the body of their Pastor to be returned to them. And he, acquiescing to their prayers, returned the body to them, which they received with the crowd rejoicing amid innumerable praises, and rendering ineffable thanksgiving to the Redeemer of all, they placed it on the comely bier which they had brought with them: and carried it to the monastery over which, as was already said above, he had presided, with wonderful honor: with all the surrounding inhabitants, men and women alike, giving praises to God on high, who deigned to bestow upon them such and so great a Patron.

[11] When, therefore, the gem of the precious body had been brought back, and placed in the oft-mentioned monastery with hymns resounding on both sides, so that it might be given a most reverend burial, and a woman freed from leprosy and other diseases, and worthy obsequies might be rendered to it; behold, it was thus revealed in dreams to a certain poor woman, coming from other regions and imperiled by leprosy and the affliction of other diseases, in that same town: Rise up as quickly as possible and go with swift course, as fast as you can, to the monastery where the funeral rites are being prepared: for by his prayers you are to be restored to health, whose immaculate body rests there. She, hearing these things and not knowing what body lay in the church, immediately took care to make known to her host how she had been admonished in her dreams: who, revolving in his heart from what body these things could be commanded, immediately recollected that the Blessed Aldemar lay in the church. Therefore, setting aside all doubt (for through him, while he was still living in the flesh, he had considered diverse miracles to be done), he directed his hostess to the monastery, and admonished her with these words: Go quickly, and as you were admonished in your dreams, earnestly beseech the servant of God Aldemar; for he is the one whom the Lord deigned to reveal to himself this night: so that, when you shall have been restored to health through his intercessions, it may without doubt be manifest to all nations how great the grace by which he is exalted and enriched before God, the Lover of virtue. The woman, however, as she was eager for health, ran to the monastery without any delay as best she could; and with the prayers of the Blessed Aldemar intervening, she was so restored to her former health that no signs even of scars seemed to remain. Seeing which, all those standing around rendered very many thanks to the Lord in hymn-singing voices, who deigns to reveal His faithful ones through such miracles. When, therefore, such a miracle had been performed at his funeral rites, with the reverence of the most devoted honor, with the choir of monks joyfully singing psalms, he is buried. and the organ sounding sweet melody, with the jubilation of both great and small, the man of the Lord was placed in a new sarcophagus, outside the walls of the oft-mentioned church.

[12] It happened, moreover, that on the fourth day after the deposition of the aforesaid Father, one of the Brothers of the monastery fell into illness, A fever patient is healed who on a certain day, greatly wearied by fever, went to the tomb of Blessed Aldemar, where a most placid sleep overcame him, and he slept there for a little while: who, afterward awakened, was immediately found to be as well as if he had never been wearied by any kind of disease. When this fame was spread throughout that whole province, all the disabled suffering from various illnesses hastened to flock to the blessed Aldemar: and other sick persons, by whose merits and intercessions they were immediately freed from whatever illnesses held them.

[13] Meanwhile a certain man, a native of the province of Piceno, had a daughter whose feet were contracted, who, having passed three years, gave no signs of walking; whom the father took with him and coming to the tomb of the man of God, a daughter with contracted feet and there persisting in tears and prayer, did not cease to beseech the servant of God Aldemar with earnest and frequent vows, that he would deign to bring the remedy of health to his contracted daughter. But after two days, now almost despairing of his daughter's health, he decided to return, sad and mourning, to his own home: and he, sorrowful and with grief and a flood of tears, returned home and placed his daughter on a seat, as he was accustomed. She, sitting, addressed her mother thus, saying: Give me a staff, mother, by which I may be able to support my journey. Her mother, hearing this, hastened to provide her with a staff immediately. Having received the staff from her mother, she immediately began to walk with a steady step, as if she had used it for many years as a matter of course. In which matter it is assuredly to be understood that the blessed Confessor of Christ, Aldemar, was moved by such tears: who, as long as he dwelt in the lodging of the flesh, is most clearly known to have been refreshed above all by the zeal of piety. The daughter being therefore well, the aforesaid father did not delay to seek the man of God: but placed his recently cured daughter before him on the neck of the horse, with whom he hastened to arrive at the tomb of the aforesaid Confessor of Christ: where he so devoted her that, as long as she lived in the flesh, she would not cease to offer there each year the gift that his means could afford.

[14] A certain leper, a native of the town called Ripa, from the earliest time of his life, was so covered with ulcers a leper over his whole body that no empty space was found in all his members; he came to the tomb of the servant of God, by whose assisting merits he was so cleansed from leprosy that he could scarcely be recognized by his parents. Afterward he stayed there for a time with the Brothers of the monastery: but because he was his father's only son, he declared that he could in no way remain there any longer. and again on account of departure On a certain day, however, he set out on a journey and revisited his father, who was staying in the aforesaid town: who was suddenly seized by so great a leprosy that he seemed to have lost the entire form of his body: seized, he is healed. but in a nocturnal vision these words were spoken to him: Rise quickly, and seek again the man who first restored you to health; for unless you return there, you will never be freed from this infestation by which you are held: and on whatever day you attempt to depart from there, you will immediately be subject to such chastisement. Admonished by these words, the leper did not delay his return: who, having returned, was found entirely cured of the afflictions of all ulcers. But whenever, as had been predicted to him, he tried to depart from there, he was immediately seized by the same infestation. By these and other wonderful signs the tomb of the most holy Aldemar is continually adorned, to the praise

and glory of almighty God, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

CONCERNING BLESSED BERTA, ABBESS OF THE VALLOMBROSAN CONGREGATION IN TUSCANY.

YEAR 1163

Berta, Abbess of the Vallombrosan Congregation in Tuscany (B.)

[1] Among the twelve Churches, which Florence believes were established by Charlemagne with as many colleges of Canons when it was rebuilt, it counts one very ancient church consecrated to S. Felicitas: From the monastery of S. Felicitas to which a monastery of sacred Virgins had long since been attached, but which, through the negligence of certain Bishops of Florence, had been destroyed, and was restored by himself while he still held that episcopal See, by enrolling a college of noble nuns, as the most lucid witness is Nicholas II in a diploma, restored through Nicholas II, which in the first year of his Pontificate, the year of Christ 1059, on the sixth day before the Ides of January, he directed to Theiberga, Abbess of the monastery of S. Felicitas, situated near Florence, and to her successors who would remain in their holy purpose in perpetuity, for its stability and security. The diploma itself is found in Ferdinand Ughelli's Sacred Italy, volume 3, column 91, and its very title compels us to doubt whether from the beginning the said church and monastery of S. Felicitas, as the Florentines persuade themselves, was numbered among the urban churches, and was not rather afterwards counted among them, together with the rest of the suburb across the Arno; and whether, with the public state changed under Charles V, it was enclosed within the walls, being situated near the old bridge.

[2] Whatever the case, since its restoration coincides with the beginnings of the Vallombrosan Order, and entrusted to the Vallombrosans, she was chosen under which the Rule of S. Benedict began to reflourish throughout Tuscany, we not unreasonably suspect that the spiritual care of the Virgins collected under the same Rule there was entrusted to the Religious of this Congregation: and we are more confirmed in that opinion because from that monastery was taken Blessed Berta, who was to reintroduce the discipline of regular observance into the Caprilian monastery, which all the authors who have written about her attribute to the Vallombrosan Order or Congregation. Above all of these, we would wish that a history of her Life survived; which Hieronymus Radiolanus, as widely known in his time, eulogy from the manuscript of Hieronymus Radiolanus. mentions in the eulogy he inserted into a little work on the Saints and Blessed of his Order, composed by him around the year 1500 for Lorenzo de' Medici and found by us in the Medicean library: which alone the remaining writers, both Florentine and Vallombrosan, appear to have seen and followed, as is easily apparent from what they report about her: and that eulogy is as follows.

[3] There was also another most blessed woman (he had previously treated of S. Verdiana, whose Life, Piously educated from her tender years, Berta, written by Blessed Atto, Bishop of Pistoia, we gave on February 1), Bertha by name, whose origin was from Italy, from the Counts (he calls them Locatella of Ravenna), with a father named Lothair: who as a small girl kept what some young women fail to observe (namely modesty and domestic seclusion: for the sense seems to lack a word or two, which may have fallen out from the scribe copying the original more neatly into a cleaner copy). Not drawn by the loose sports of girls, and intent only on divine things, not lured out by the wantonness of others to a public spectacle: but docile to be trained in every virtue and to be instructed in good arts, to go to church together with her parents, and to contain the distinguished beauty of her body at home, she bore with no annoyance of spirit. She listened with a thirsting breast to the divine word, and, like the most holy Agatha, always bore the Gospel of Jesus Christ in her breast, and suppliantly and with frequent prayers most fittingly worshipped Jesus: not as is accustomed to happen in churches in this our time by many, who disgracefully employ their hands, eyes, and all the gestures of the body.

[4] When by these practices she had reached the nubile age, resolving to follow only virtues and divine precepts in her spirit, she becomes a nun at Florence, she meditated upon things above and heavenly: and finally, desiring to abandon those things that are held first among mortals, she decided to enter religion and lead her life in the monastery of S. Felicitas at Florence: and when there, being most careful and most observant of doctrine, she progressed daily in the highest grace of Jesus Christ, in example and good morals, and the number of nuns in that monastery grew greater; by the counsel of the Abbess, with all the others desiring it, she went to the monastery of Capriola, now ruined and deformed by bad examples, then Abbess at Caprilia: and there she restored and renewed the true way of life and the zeal of the religious life, which had already been pulled apart through wicked examples. And so, ordering her life in that monastery chastely and holily, the Lord Jesus celebrated her with many miracles, as clearly appears in her history. Passing over all of these, she shines with miracles: we shall be content with one, which happened in our own memory: which indeed we received not only from Dom Angelo, then Rector of that monastery, but from all who even at the present time inhabit that town of Caprilia.

[5] For in the year of our redemption one thousand four hundred and sixty-six, a boy who fell into the waters a certain woman of that same town, Vanna by name, when she was going to the mill because of the need to grind wheat, as sometimes happens, brought her small son with her; and when she let him go freely wherever he wished while the wheat was being ground, the foolish woman, suspecting no harm could come to the boy, who was not yet able by reason of his age to avoid misfortunes; and as the boy wandered incautiously here and there near the water channels, he slipped and fell most wretchedly among the spokes of the wheels: which the miller discovering, took care to inform the mother immediately. She, in the manner of women, raging excessively, tearing out the hair of her head, wailing with amazing cries, calling upon the powers above and below to turn their destruction upon her, and finally, hindered by excessive grief, having no counsel, nothing moderate.

[6] Roused by these cries, those who were around hastened there, and learning the matter from the miller, and commended to herself they exhorted the woman to commend herself to the Virgin Mary and to Blessed Berta; and to trust in God that her son could escape from such danger. While, therefore, they were discussing these things among themselves with troubled spirit, suddenly an unexpected miracle arose: for the boy, by divine mercy still alive, was tossed here and there by the whirlpool and impetus of the waters. Therefore amid sighs and bitter grief, while the mother with the rest on the bank of the stream repeated again and again, crying out: Virgin Mary, and you, Blessed Berta, bring help to the boy: she restores him unharmed to the land. finally, before all who were present, wonderful to say! the wave cast him behind his own house, so unharmed and whole as if no evil had befallen him. At this, all turned to admiration, and began fervently to praise Jesus and the Virgin Mary his Mother, and to extol Blessed Berta to the heavens: then all with the greatest devotion went to the church of the Mother of God and ever Virgin Mary with the boy, and gave great thanks both to her and to Blessed Berta, both for the liberation and safety of the boy, and also for the reverence and honor of that very place, where through the glorious Virgin God deigned to work such prodigies.

[7] I shall also briefly describe her death, because it was glorious. having spent Lent in holiness, For when from the beginning of Lent she saw the end of her most blameless life approaching, she easily obtained by her prayers from Jesus Christ that she might at least persist in this fragile flesh during this Lent, by this grace, that in these holy days she might instruct her nuns in the accustomed manner to live well and blessedly, and arm herself with spiritual weapons, as the precepts of the Church command. Which time, running through devoutly with the help of the Virgin Mary, on the Thursday of Passion Week of Christ Jesus, imitating Jesus himself, she washed the feet of her disciples: on Good Friday, moreover, she wept most abundantly and for the longest time over the impious tortures of Christ Jesus and the cruel cross: she dies on Easter night itself. on Holy Saturday, after the example of John Gualbertus, her most holy Father, she gave a sermon on charity and the bond of union before all, and at midnight of the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, having devoutly received the ecclesiastical Sacraments, commending her spirit to Jesus, she happily breathed it forth.

[8] Capriola or Caprilia (for Hieronymus wrote both) or according to the common pronunciation of today's people, Cauriglia, is a place in the Fiesole diocese of the upper Arno Valley, Ancient veneration at Cauriglia as Silvanus Razzius says, but so obscure that it is entirely passed over unnamed in the chorographic map of the Florentine territory. Locatellus, weaving a catalogue of monasteries at the end of his history, once subject to the Vallombrosan Abbot, counts among them the Priorate of S. Mary at Cauriglia: which, like many others, we suspect to be alienated, and to retain only the title without the substance, the monastery being extinct; where we have wished more than once to learn in what state the body and veneration of Blessed Berta now are, but no one in Florence could tell us. Yet we are persuaded that it was great, and of such a kind as is found everywhere throughout Italy in the public cult of other truly Blessed persons celebrated with popular devotion, from what we have reported on the faith of the aforesaid Hieronymus, certainly a diligent writer; and from the concordant testimony of Ambrose Locatelli and Silvanus Razzius, concerning her veneration there, enduring to their own times. But whence they derived that the death of Blessed Berta occurred in the year 1163, we confess we do not know: this assertion, however, rests on the fact that the Vallombrosan Tables, cited by Arnold Wion, record her memory on this day: because that year was a Paschal one.

[9] Wion was followed by Philip Ferrarius in his general catalogue of those Saints name in more recent hagiologies: who are not in the Roman Martyrology: In the monastery of Cauriglia, he says, the deposition of Blessed Berta, Abbess of the Vallombrosan Order. From these, therefore, her name passed to the great Menologion of Virgins by Laherius, and the sacred Gynaeceum of Arthur, as well as to the Benedictine Calendar of Dorgani, and the Menologion of the same Order compiled by Gabriel Bucelin: who, weaving a long eulogy for Blessed Berta, took from Locatelli that she was appointed Abbess of the Caurilians by Gualdo, the Vallombrosan Abbot: and from Raissius, he reported as doubtful whether she drew her origin from the Counts of Vernia or of Ravenna. family uncertain. But here, as he neither admits nor rejects either, he shows that neither is asserted on any great foundation: and if she were truly born from the Counts of Vernia, it would follow that she was wrongly inserted into the Bardi family of Florence: since that County did not come to them until more than a hundred years after the Blessed woman's death; whereas previously the title and possession of that castle had been in the hands of a certain Count called Alexander Alberti. Ferdinand Ughelli without hesitation gives her the surname of de Bardi, and with no mention made of Cauriglia, asserts that she restored some monasteries of Benedictine nuns throughout Tuscany to their former way of life.

[10] With these things already prepared for the press, we are informed by Andrea Cavalcanti,

the noble Florentine, The Life was begun to be written in the year 1623: a man most devoted to letters and especially to our work; by whose assiduous study and, when occasion demanded, companionship, it was our good fortune to inspect whatever in Florence pertained to sacred or literary matters (on which account we confess ourselves greatly indebted both to him and to Antonio Magliabechi, at that time his inseparable companion) — we are reminded, I say, by the aforesaid Andrea, that in the monastery of S. Felicitas there exists a book, under the title Memorial of matters pertaining to this monastery, in which, after a certain commendation of S. Bertha drawn from the Life of the seven Blessed Florentine Founders of the Order of the Servants of the Blessed Mary, printed at Florence in the year 1575, the following may be read: In this present year, which is from the Nativity of Christ 1623, the Most Reverend Father Franciscus Maria Gualterotti, a Florentine Canon, has begun to write the Life of this Blessed woman, and it is hoped that he will shortly bring it to light. Concerning that Life, however, whether in manuscript or in print, Cavalcanti writes that he has been able to find nothing up to this time, we have from another source, and so he approached Father Master Tiberius Petraccius, who, being most experienced in the affairs of his Order, from the Vallombrosan Decades recently composed by him and prepared for publication, furnished the following notice.

[11] That Blessed Bertha was descended from the Counts of Verni, In the year of our salvation 1153, when Blessed Gualdus Galli was General of the Vallombrosan Order, and the monastery of the nuns of Caprile, situated in the upper Arno valley, in the diocese of Fiesole, at the twenty-fifth milestone from the city of Florence, had departed from regular observance, the aforesaid Gualdus found it necessary to bring forth from the Florentine convent of S. Felicitas one woman, proven in character and virtue, who would preside there. And the one chosen for this excellent work was Lady Bertha, daughter of Count Lothair of Verni, who, tracing his lineage from the Counts Alberti, was the son of Uguccio, and he of William, who was the son of Lothair, and he in turn of Kadolus and Gemma, most noble Counts in Tuscany. It happened by error, however, that because the Bardi family succeeded to the County of Verni a hundred years after these times, Blessed Bertha was ascribed to that family. At that time the Vallombrosan General held supreme authority over three Florentine convents of nuns of the Benedictine Order, namely those of SS. Felicitas, S. Peter Major, and S. Pancratius, inasmuch as all of them had adopted the Vallombrosan reform: moreover, the Caprilian monastery had been built in the year 1066 by the noble matron Gisla, descended from the Ricasoli, Lords of Verni and many other castles.

[12] the monastery of Caprile built around the year 1066, For this woman, having veiled four daughters in the Florentine monastery of S. Peter Major under Lord Peter, the Catholic successor of the Simoniac Peter and disciple of S. John Gualbert, after having handed over to that same monastery a great part of her possessions (as is clear from the documents preserved in Ughelli, volume 3 of Sacred Italy, column 98), withdrew to her castle of Caprile, and there from another part of her possessions built a convent of nuns of the Vallombrosan institute under the governance of Blessed Lætus of the Counts Guidi, Abbot of Passignano, while S. John Gualbert was still living; and there she ended her days around the year 1080, leaving behind her the fragrance of outstanding virtue. appointed in the year 1153: To this monastery, then, after seventy years, Abbess Blessed Bertha was sent to restore it to the former rigor of discipline: and having discharged that governance with praise of great sanctity for a full decade, she departed this life on the feast of the Lord's Resurrection in the year 1163, on the 24th day of March; she was buried in the same monastery: which, after the castle of Caprile was destroyed around the year 1350 through the conflicts between the Florentines and the Sienese, was transferred to S. Victor in the diocese of Volterra: but with the nuns transferred elsewhere, but from there too, compelled to depart within a few years on account of the same wars, the nuns transferred themselves and their possessions to the town of S. Gimignano: where, having obtained the oratory of S. Jerome to adapt for their use, they built a convent, which survives to this day and is subject to the Vallombrosan Order.

[13] it is not sufficiently established where the body now is. Where, however, the body of Blessed Bertha may be, remains unknown even now. For the people of Caprile say that it is still in their possession, under the high altar in the church of S. Mary: and there they celebrate her feast annually and daily obtain many benefits from heaven through her invocation. On the contrary, however, the nuns of S. Gimignano believe that it was translated to S. Victor and left there: and they support their opinion with this argument, that those who now inhabit the monastery, which has been converted into rustic hovels, having attempted more than once to drive cattle for stabling under a certain vault there, found the same animals dead the next day: whence they wish to conclude that either the body of the Saint or some part of it is preserved there: Saint, I say: for thus, not Blessed, all the surrounding people have called her from time immemorial.

CONCERNING S. SIMON, A BOY KILLED BY JEWS AT TRENT.

YEAR 1475.

Simon, a boy killed by Jews at Trent in the Alps (S.)

[1] As we were about to cross from Germany into Italy in the year 1660, we were detained at Trent for a full eight days, first by rains, then by the Adige swollen from the rains to such a height that it promised no passage for boats or rafts under the bridges with which it is spanned. Lest this delay should vex us too much, as we hastened to the Roman libraries and archives, the hospitable charity of the Reverend Father Joseph Feurstain, Rector of our college there, made it bearable: and lest it should be entirely fruitless, we ourselves endeavored to make it useful, the Mausoleum of S. Simon in the church of S. Peter, by piously and curiously visiting all the sacred places of that city. Among these the most celebrated in fame is the Mausoleum of the holy boy Simon, which at S. Peter's has been raised in white marble to such a height that the altar, destined for the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass before the venerable relic, requires no other adornment; and from the rear side it has a stairway, by which a spectator, raised from the ground, can contemplate with his own eyes the monument of Jewish cruelty, namely the incorrupt body of the infant of about a year and a half, pitifully lacerated with flesh torn from the right cheek and right shin, and the entire skin pricked with needles.

[2] For in that marble Mausoleum of which we have spoken, after it rises to two or three cubits, within the outermost joints of the four corners a square space opens up and is placed beneath a casket elegantly wrought of ebony, above which the remaining portion of this structure, splendidly fashioned into a peak, is so suspended from the said four corners that through the gilded lattices with which the open sides are covered, the casket itself can be seen, and within the casket, fitted with transparent crystals, the body of the holy boy can be observed most fittingly reclined. Around this work, moreover, a chapel is built in elegant construction and circular form, tastefully adorned with plaster carvings, both on the wall and on the rounded vault that covers the entire chapel: which indeed must be entered from the left side of the choir, through a spacious and square atrium of similar construction, always open to the worshipping public as long as the church is open: while the latticed doors of the chapel itself are customarily opened only at the time of the Sacrifice or on greater feasts.

[3] The Church of Trent first undertook the veneration of the Saint, moved to this by divine miracles: the name inscribed in Martyrologies on March 24 and 30, whence the report having spread into Germany, his memorial is found inscribed in the Martyrology of Usuard, augmented and printed at Cologne in the year 1490, in these words: In the town of Trent, the passion of S. Simon, Boy and Martyr. But also in the Calendar of the Missal according to the use of the Roman curia, printed at Venice in the year 1487, one reads at March 30: The Passion of Blessed Simon of Trent, and it is reported in Molanus and Canisius. Then Gregory XIII, substituting the Baronial for the Martyrology which the Roman church had previously used, in the year 1584 approved the commemoration of Blessed Simon being proposed to the universal Church in it, to be made on the 24th day of March, which commemoration James Christopher, Bishop of Basel, having the Basel Martyrology reprinted according to the revision made in the Roman one, in the same year in which the Roman one had appeared, inserted into the calendar of his Church on the same day and in the same formula: adding that more had been reported about him at the 12th day before the Kalends of April, where these words are read: At Trent, of the boy Simon, not yet three years old, also in the Basel one on the 21st, whom the Jews in the year of salvation 1475, cruelly cutting with knives and scissors and piercing with styluses, killed in contempt of the Christians, who paid the penalty of their crime when caught, by the evidence of the corpse found in the river, which being magnificently entombed became illustrious through miracles.

[4] What occasion the people of Basel may have had for reporting this to that day, on which the deliberation among the Jews about committing the crime is said to have first begun according to the Acts, feast at Trent. rather than to the 9th before the Kalends, on which it is established the crime was committed, we cannot divine. This is certain: only the day of the passion was observed by the people of Trent, and was thereafter venerated with special devotion: when, one hundred and thirteen years after the killing, Cardinal Madruzzo, Bishop of Trent, obtained from the Pope the faculty of proclaiming a feast throughout his entire diocese with its own Office and Mass.

[5] We present the Acts divided into two parts: the first from a double manuscript collated with the edition of Surius, Acts partly from a Latin manuscript, namely one from Rougevallee of the Canons Regular near Brussels, the other transcribed by our John Gamansius from the Franciscan Fathers at Eger in the kingdom of Bohemia: and this part has as its author John Matthias Tiberinus, a Doctor of medicine, the one who by order of the Bishop inspected the body of the slain infant, and being interrogated about the kind and manner of death, was obliged under oath to deliver his opinion; moreover he wrote to the Senate and people of Brescia the sequence of events, partly from an Italian printed work: as he himself learned it, while the guilty were still being held captive. We took the second part from an Italian account, printed at Trent, when the feast was celebrated for the first time by Papal indult; and reprinted after five years in the year 1593: which, because it is composed from the Public Acts concerning the examination and confession of the accused, rightly deserves to be held of great trustworthiness, even though it bears the name of no author: and since it also adds notable circumstances from time to time to the things Tiberinus wrote, we have also used it to illuminate the first part.

[6] Furthermore, as Janus Pyrrhus Pincius of Mantua transcribed the first part, not indeed word for word but almost entirely in the same sense, in Book 4 of the Lives of the Bishops of Trent, at times rendering it more ornate: other works derived from these. so from that Italian account from which we took the second part, a more recent German version was derived, printed at Innsbruck in the year 1628 and sent to us by the aforesaid Rector of our College at Trent: in which we justly wonder that no mention is made either of the chapel and mausoleum described above, or of the subsequent miracles, which we do not doubt could have been noted in great number.

ACTS OF S. SIMON KILLED BY JEWS.

Simon, a boy killed by Jews at Trent in the Alps (S.)

BHL Number: 7762, 7763

BY JOHN MATTHIAS TIBERINUS

PART I OF THE ACTS.

Containing the history of the passion by John Matthias Tiberinus, Doctor of medicine.

From manuscripts and Surius.

CHAPTER I.

The Jews deliberate about the killing of a Christian boy: Simon is captured.

[1] John Matthias Tiberinus, Doctor of the liberal

arts and of medicine, Author's Prologue. to the magnificent Rectors, the Senate and people of Brescia, greetings. I write to you, magnificent Rectors and most illustrious citizens, a most momentous matter, such as no age has ever heard from the Passion of the Lord to these present times: which recently in these past days our Lord Jesus Christ, graciously taking pity on the human race, provoked by so great and so horrible a crime, has at last brought to light: so that our Catholic faith, if it is weak in any part, may become as a tower of strength; and the ancient rage of the Jews may be wiped from the entire Christian world, and their memory may utterly perish from the land of the living. Hear, you who rule the peoples, this unheard-of crime, and in the manner of faithful shepherds keep watch over your peoples. Let the inhabitants of the earth awaken, and see what sort of vipers they nourish in their own bosom. The cruel Jews not only consume the goods of Christians with their ravenous hunger for usury, but conspiring against our very lives and destruction, they feed upon the living blood of our children, whom they afflict with atrocious torment in their synagogues, and slaughter after the manner of Christ with cruel death.

[2] Recently in the city of Trent, which toward the North separates Italy from Germany, with the Lavisio river flowing between, in that district The Jews in Holy Week, which, receding from the bridge over the Adige, extends toward the castle on the left, three Jewish families were settled, whose heads were Tobias, Angelus, and Samuel: with whom was a certain bearded old man named Moses, whom they proclaimed as one who knew by a prophetic spirit the time and hour of the coming Messiah. These, in the week which we Christians call Holy, on Tuesday, the twelfth day before the Kalends of April, in the year of the Incarnate Word one thousand four hundred and seventy-five, assembled in the house of Samuel, where the synagogue and their temple is, for the purpose of inspecting a live calf which had been brought to them that day from the village of Leuigi. And while they were conversing among themselves on various matters, Angelus poured forth this utterance from his raging breast: they deliberate about killing a Christian boy, On this Good Friday we have meat and fish in abundance: only one thing is lacking to us. Samuel replied: And what is it you lack? Then casting glances at one another, all silently understood that he was speaking of immolating a Christian infant, whom they atrociously slaughter in contempt of our Lord Jesus Christ, and feeding on the blood drained from him in their unleavened bread, they preserve themselves by Christian blood from the stench with which they grievously smell: and this they call their Jobel, that is, Jubilee. But they agreed that the matter must be discussed more cautiously on account of the servants, who, occupied with various duties because of the approaching Good Friday, were running back and forth.

[3] On the following day, however, when all had assembled in the synagogue, they consulted as to where they might more conveniently kill him. for which they designate the house of Samuel; Tobias and Angelus refused to have it done in their own houses on account of their narrowness, because in a small space it would be difficult to hide so great a crime from the children: but on account of the convenience of everything and the spaciousness of the place, they affirmed it would be better at Samuel's house. But when they had so decreed, they debated by what device they could steal a male infant. And while they contended among themselves with diverse opinions, Samuel ordered his servant Lazarus to come to him: before whom, when he had immediately presented himself; the servant refusing to commit the kidnapping; Lazarus, he said, if you have the courage to steal a Christian boy and deliver him to us, we will immediately give you a hundred gold Philippics. To this the servant briefly replied thus: This matter, venerable Fathers, is one of the utmost danger: I utterly refuse to attempt it. And immediately leaving the temple, having gathered up his belongings, he migrated to other lands.

[4] On Thursday, however, all assembled in the synagogue said to Tobias: We observe that no one can better satisfy our wishes they commit the crime to Tobias: than you: for you deal daily with the Christians, and nearly all are familiar to you. You can easily intercept one: because no one notices you when you walk about the city. We will see to it that many good things shall always come to you from us. Tobias refuses, and assigns many reasons for the danger in the enterprise. But they bind him with their curses, and unless he obeys, they bar him from the synagogue forever. Tobias therefore, seeing that all had conspired against him, and that a reward would now be set before him, seized with a blind greed for gold, said: I will gladly undertake this task, Fathers. But as you know, who walking about the city, I am a poor man, and my trade is not sufficient for comfortable living. I also have many small children; I commend them and myself to you alone. All answered: Bring the boy here, for no ingratitude toward you will ever be found in us. Then the traitor, turning to Samuel, said: Let your doors not be locked with any key, so that if anyone should conveniently come my way, I may easily push him inside. And when evening had passed, he went out and began to walk about the entire neighborhood alone: and crossing through the street which the common people call the Fossatum, he quickly made his way all the way to the square. But when he found no one conveniently, he quickly turned his steps and at the same time retraced his observed path.

[5] After he had reached the place which the inhabitants call the Fossatum, he finds Simon unguarded, he spotted before the door of his father's house a remarkable boy sitting upon a piece of wood, named Simon, who, not yet twenty-nine months old, was so beautiful in every respect that nothing could be found in him that could justly be criticized. And approaching, he observes that no one is watching the boy: Tobias, being affable, extends a finger to the infant. The beautiful boy, being gentle and trusting as he was, softly takes the index finger with his white hand: he proceeds, and the boy follows with unequal steps. And when the traitor had passed beyond the father's house, with his savage right hand he seized the most beautiful hand of the infant, and now dragged him, now pushed him by striking his soft back with his knees. Then the boy, looking back, began with tears to raise pious cries, and to sweetly call upon his mother's name. The traitor, immediately terrified, drew out a silver coin, and carries him off: and offering it to the infant, calmed him with gentle words. After the executioner had reached the end of the street, carefully surveying everything, he noticed a cobbler sewing on the left. There, terrified, he immediately stopped his steps, until at last the craftsman turned his eyes elsewhere. Then, seizing the opportunity, crossing the street with swift pace, he thrust the infant into the house of Samuel.

[6] Here Samuel, like a tiger waiting for blood, snatching up the boy, the delighted Jews receive the boy, carried him more swiftly into his own chamber. I pass over here what great joy those dragons felt: for they were howling like ravenous wolves with dry throats over Christian blood. And lest the boy, frightened in an unfamiliar place, should cry out, some offered grapes, others apples, others other things by which infants are usually delighted; until, with the boy silent, the day joined with the night. Meanwhile his mother Mary, when she saw the boy was absent, and did not find him as usual among the neighbors, beating her breast, the anxious parents search, together with her husband Andrew, searched for the infant throughout the entire city. But all the boys, from whose lips the Holy Spirit often speaks, asserted that he should be sought among the Jews: for it would happen, they said, that the Jews had snatched him and would hang him on a cross in reproach of the Christian faith. And had not night suddenly stolen the day from their midst, they would have turned their way to the Jews. Whence, driven by the fallen darkness, weeping bitterly, they returned home.

l Surius: of the way.

CHAPTER II.

The cruel butchery inflicted upon S. Simon.

[7] It was the time when first rest refreshes human hearts, The boy is stripped for the slaughter, and the voices of men and dogs were at rest. Then the cruel Moses, together with the remaining most savage Jews, carrying that innocent infant, entered the vestibule which adjoins the front doors of the synagogue: and there, sitting upon a bench by the fireplace, he received the boy upon his knees. Then all standing around, they pulled his garment down to the navel and up to the elbows in reversed order, and gathering the flowing tunic, they girded it to his side, which Moses begins, so that from the thigh down to the ankles, with his stockings pulled down, he was stripped bare; and Samuel, taking a cloth that hung from his belt and wrapping it around the boy's neck, compressed it so he would not cry out, while others held his hands and feet. Then Moses, unsheathing a knife, pierced the tip of the infant's member: and seizing a pair of forceps, began to tear apart the right cheek near the chin, and placed the piece of flesh cut off in a basin prepared there. and the rest imitating him, The bystanders collected the sacred blood, and passing the forceps in alternation, each one cut off a morsel of living flesh for himself. Thus all the chief ones did, until the wound far exceeded the roundness of an egg. And whenever the boy, with the noose slipping, made noise with his throat, they frequently brought their hands to his mouth, cruelly suffocating him.

[8] slowly completes it, When Moses had thus cruelly completed this, he immediately raised the right shin of the infant, and setting it upon his knees, proceeded to tear apart the outer part, which lies between the ankle and the calf muscle, similarly with the same blade: and seizing the forceps, in turn they lacerated the living flesh with the living blood. Afterwards that most savage old man, the ringleader of so great a crime, raising the half-dead infant, asked Samuel to sit down beside him on the boy's left: and both violently extending his most holy arms in the manner of a crucifix, urged the rest to pierce that sacred body with hard needles. All therefore gathered around, beginning from the crown of the head

down to the soles of his feet, they pierced him with dense blows, saying: Tolle Jesse minaelle parichiefelle passusen pegmalen: which is: Just as we killed Jesus, the God of the Christians, who is nothing, so may our enemies be confounded forever. the boy expires amidst the torments: Already for more than an hour the pitiable boy had endured the terrible torment, and with the vital spirit cut off, his strength failing, he was collapsing: and raising his heavy eyes to heaven, he seemed to call upon the Powers above as witnesses, and bowing his head, he rendered his holy spirit to the Lord,

As when a crimson flower, cut by the plough, Languishes in dying, and as poppies with drooping neck Let fall their heads, when perchance weighed down by rain.

Then Moses and all the rest, raising their eyes and palms to heaven, gave thanks to God that they had offered both vengeance and sacrifice against the Christians: and leaving the body there, running with applause and great clamor over the rooftops, they showed that they had received ineffable joy. the body is hidden in a cellar: And going down to supper, Samuel ordered the servants to conceal it under the wine casks: for they feared the proclamations of the Bishop, and the rumor that was growing more and more against them, lest, seized by the fury of the people and slain, they should suddenly be dragged to torture.

[9] it is displayed in the synagogue for viewing, On the next day, which recalls the Passion of the Lord to the memory of all who believe in Christ, with the rivers flowing into the city held back, the parents of the infant, together with the praetorian cohort, searching everywhere, did not find him. But on Saturday the Jews, assembling in the synagogue, in the sight of all extended the corpse upon the Almomor. For the Almomor is a certain table before the altar, where they chant psalms, antiphons, and hymns, and after completing their prayers, they again placed the body in the same spot. But on the third day, which had brought the holy Passover to the faithful of Christ, when the Jews perceived that nearly everyone's thoughts were fixed upon them, having taken counsel and weighed the opinions of many, they said: Let us cast this clothed body into the river which flows beneath our house, and going to the Bishop let us say, it is thrown into the water, that the water brought it into our house, and being held by the iron grate it could not flow away with the stream. For upon seeing such things, no one will believe that the Jews killed the boy. The proposal pleased everyone: and the traitor, ascending to the Bishop, disclosed the sequence of events in the order in which he had been instructed. drawn from the water it becomes illustrious through miracles. Then the Bishop, rejoicing, ordered John de Salis, the Praetor, and James de Sporo, Prefect of his city of Trent, to accompany him to the place where the boy lay. And descending at once, they found the corpse in the water wrapped in clothes: which they immediately extracted, and having carefully noted its wounds, they placed it in the basilica of S. Peter: where, with a great throng of people and sick coming together, it shines forth daily with many and great miracles.

m Surius: instructed.

CHAPTER III.

Concerning the rage of the Jews against Christians and the punishment of their patron.

[10] Behold, Christian, Jesus crucified again among robbers. Behold what the Jews would do, The rage of the Jews against Christians is set forth if they held power among the faithful of Christ. Glorious Simon, Virgin, Martyr, and Innocent, scarcely weaned and whose tongue did not yet sound human speech, was stretched on the cross by the Jews in contempt of our faith. Hear, you who tolerate so cruel a race of men in your cities. The Jews have decreed by an eternal statute that the divine Eucharist and the Blessed Mary ever Virgin should be cursed daily: asserting that all words are polluted with sin, except those which are known to tend toward contempt of the Roman Church. Likewise in the third book of the Talmud (for the Jews prefer this code to the books of Moses and the Prophets: and Christ: and to make the Talmud more believed, they add fables to fables, saying that God studies the Talmud) therein it is perpetually decreed by law that three times every day, in that prayer which they consider more efficacious than all other prayers, all the faithful of Christ should be cursed. This prayer, too, standing with joined hands, directing their attention to nothing in the world, the men pour forth in Hebrew, the women in whatever language they learned from their early years. The Levite alone chants it in a loud voice, with all the rest responding, Amen.

[11] The words of the prayer sound thus: For the converts let there be no hope, and let all suddenly be scattered: their blasphemous prayer to God: let the little ones be diminished in their mothers' wombs, and let them rise no more: and let all the enemies of your nation Israel be destroyed, and let the kingdom of wickedness of the Christians be uprooted and confounded. Do, Lord, do, fulfill what we ask, in our days swiftly: because you are the blessed God, who puts enemies to flight and destroys the wicked. And in the second book of the Talmud they affirm that our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, suffers the greatest torments in hell. the age of the boy killed, It is not surprising, Christians, if Christ afflicts us with war, famine, thirst, hail, and frost: if he allows us, his people, redeemed by his precious blood, always to slip toward worse things: since we suffer his enemies to reign among us. What, I ask, is this other than, having despised the most sacred faith, to cling to its perpetual enemies? Simon, of whom we speak, was born on Friday, the 6th before the Kalends of December, in the year from the saving birth of the Virgin one thousand four hundred and seventy-two, of Andrew and Mary, parents of the poorest condition, under the happy rule of Lord John Hinderbach, fourth Bishop and Lord of Trent. For which reason all the Jews, from the greatest to the least, have been confined in prisons and chains, not to depart thence before they pay the penalties due. Farewell. At Trent, the Nones of April, 1475.

[12] Thus far John Matthias, as it is found in Surius and in the manuscript of Rougevallee. The Eger manuscript, omitting the closing "Farewell" etc., adds the following.

MIRACLE

Sait, the defender of the Hebrew cause, having undertaken it, While the wretch sits, here sleep comes upon him: vengeance taken on the Jews' patron. The place, unable to bear him, hurls the wretched man into the fire; Seeking help, he grasps the brass vessel with his hand; He immediately buries his head in the boiling waters, And with his skin consumed, blind, he lacks the light. The land of Roveredo, witnessing the greatest miracles, Gives you, holy Boy, this seat deservedly.

The great miracles and wondrous signs which God works around this blessed boy, because they grow daily more frequent to the confusion of the Jews, will be recorded in another booklet after the due penalties have been exacted from them.

PART II

Acts after the passion of S. Simon from the Italian printed source.

FROM THE ITALIAN ACCOUNT.

CHAPTER I

The investigation made into the missing boy. The vain attempts of the Jews to conceal the crime.

[13] The body washed After the blessed boy breathed forth his soul, those cruel beasts washed the bloody little body in a basin with clean water, with which they then sprinkled their houses, in the manner in which we Christians are accustomed to purify ours with holy water: and each counted himself fortunate who could wash his hands and face in the same water. The aforesaid basin is preserved to this day in the convent of S. Bernardino of the Observant Fathers, a few steps outside the city of Trent. it is hidden in the hayloft.

Furthermore Samuel, who had stripped the boy, clothed him again in his own garments, and his servant Vitalis, at his master's command, carried him to the hayloft to be hidden under the straw. The holy body lay there from the very night of his

martyrdom until the evening of the following Friday. Meanwhile the boy's parents, weary from searching and wasting away with grief, went to the Bishop: who, understanding the matter, immediately commanded The father seeking his son that the lost boy be publicly sought throughout the entire city, with a penalty of death imposed on whoever in any way knowing something should fail to reveal and report whatever he knew.

[14] Instructed by these mandates, the most afflicted father and mother go to the palace, meet with the Praetor, who at that time was John dalla Sale, with his bodyguard he knocks on Samuel's house, a Doctor of laws and noble citizen of Brescia, and having set forth the will of the Prince, they obtained from him the Captain of the praetorian cohort as a companion, so that under his leadership and public authority they might freely enter anywhere to search for their son. And since they left no place unexplored, they finally reached the house of the wicked Samuel. When they unexpectedly knocked on the doors of the man who was cheerfully dining, and he had resisted for some time the bodyguard requesting entry, he was at last compelled to admit them, greatly distressed that his Passover should be disturbed at such a time, and that the sanctity of his house should be polluted by the contact with Christians, forbidden at that time by Jewish superstition. Yet he did not keep far from them, but both he himself and his wife Brunetta and his son Israel accompanied those who wished to search through every room of his house. and searches the house and canal in vain. When nothing was found in these, and no one suspected anything about the hayloft, they all departed together. Then, since no other place remained which they might search by investigating, it was decided to examine the waters themselves, in case perchance the boy might be found drowned in them. Therefore the father caused the canal to be blocked — which through an underground channel passes through many houses, extends beneath Samuel's very dwelling, and not far from there pours its entrusted waters into the Adige — through Cyprian da Borme, and then searched the entire canal with him for the one he mourned as lost.

[15] When evening came, Samuel called Bonaventura his cook, from the hayloft into the cellar, and ordered him to take the corpse from the hayloft and carry it to the wine cellar and hide it there, lest the returning soldiers, wishing to search this place they had passed over, should find it there. The servant obeyed and hid the boy under the wine casks; not, however, so much to his own satisfaction that he could rest easy. Therefore, taking it up again without his master's knowledge, he carried it to the stable, and there in a corner, thence to the stable, where the ground was slightly hollowed out in the manner of a pit, he threw the slain boy. Then covering that place with straw and transferring there the pile of wood that happened to be at hand in that spot, he turned a wine barrel against the corner itself, and thus closed off the entire place. So until the dawn of the following Saturday the innocent Martyr of Christ lay hidden, finally the body is carried to the synagogue whom at daybreak Samuel brought back to the synagogue, and kept there until the sunrise of the following day, venerable for the Lord's Resurrection: when the Jews, assembled together, because they perceived that they were being pointed out by the eyes and hands of all as the authors of the crime, deliberated on what they should do in this matter.

[16] Here there were various opinions with discordant minds: there were those who thought the corpse should be thrown into the Adige; but others objected as the Jews deliberated that the Christians, intent on their every movement, could easily observe if they carried anything out to the river; and therefore they did not dare to leave the house. To some it seemed more prudent, having dug a pit within the cellar, to bury their crime with earth: but this too, the earth being recently disturbed, seemed likely to arouse the suspicion of the soldiers and to reveal the crime, if they attempted to dig out the soil. While they were thus caught in this dilemma, Bonaventura, directed by his master's nod, took the corpse from the synagogue, the servant throws it into the canal, and carrying it back to the cellar, threw it into the water flowing more freely through the canal in that part where, uncovered by any vault, it passes under the houses. Then ascending to the kitchen, he announced to his mistress Brunetta, with the other household women listening, that he had seen something white in the water, and announces the find to his mistress, which he himself suspected to be the body of a boy; and perhaps of that one whom the Christians were seeking throughout the entire city with such great clamor, and whom the water had carried there drowned.

[17] But she, carefully dissimulating her conscience, lest she arouse any suspicion about herself among the servants and maidservants, she tells the Jews: went to the synagogue and reported to Samuel and Tobias, whom she found there, what she had heard from Bonaventura. From these, Tobias immediately followed her to the cellar, and seeing that the body could not be kept under the water, however much he tried to push it down with a long pole, and others threw stones upon it to make it sink weighted down, he returned to the synagogue maddened with rage. Where, having changed their plan, it pleased all that Tobias should go to the Most Reverend Bishop himself, who send Tobias to the Bishop. and report that a boy had been brought by the water to Samuel's cellar, perhaps the one whose parents had been searching for him as lost during those days. For the criminals believed that if they were the first to report the find, they would be farthest removed from suspicion of the killing: especially since the boy had been sought in vain in their house.

[18] He goes, and as he had been instructed, so he speaks to the Bishop. The latter, glad at the information, He comes takes with him the Praetor John and the Prefect of the City James de Sporo, and following Tobias with a great multitude of people, finds the body floating on the water and immediately orders it to be drawn out and presented to him. But when he beheld the monstrously lacerated limbs and examined each wound, moved to the depths of his being, he exclaimed: It is impossible that anyone other than an enemy of the Christian faith devised this crime. I therefore call you as witness, Jesus Christ, who, crucified and buried, are commemorated as having risen today, and promises vengeance: that I will by no means allow this impiety to remain unavenged. And to you, innocent Blessed one, I promise that whoever has stained his hands with your blood will receive from me the penalty due to his cruelty. Having said this, he departed and ordered the Praetor to institute a diligent investigation of the entire matter and to report the findings to him. Moreover it seemed admirable to both him and the others present others marvel at the incorrupt corpse that the tender flesh had not yet putrefied and did not yet emit any foul odor: and this was indeed the more to be marveled at, because in the cellar, the stable, and the water itself — places liable to induce putrefaction — the condition of all the limbs had persevered so intact, as if the killing had been recently committed.

[19] Many citizens were present when the corpse was lifted from the water: and its foul butchery. and when it was stripped of its garments, they attentively examined the wound inflicted on the head and the foully lacerated right cheek; then on the naked body they saw a similar mutilation of the right shin, and the punctures of needles driven through all the limbs: such as usually result from the stings of bees. The boy's father Andrew was also summoned, and recognized this as the body of his lost little son: the flowing blood points to the Jews. and it was the clear and unanimous judgment of all, and they so asserted before the Jews themselves, that this was their savagery: and that they ought therefore to be tortured with equal torments. For in addition to the other most evident proofs, it happened that suddenly, at the approach of the Jews, blood began to flow from every limb, which was reverently received by the bystanders and wiped with cloths, and held in great veneration. Indeed, in various places throughout the house the floor was found stained with blood, and especially in that place where the rabid dogs had carried out their butchery.

CHAPTER II.

The punishment exacted from the Jews after a thorough investigation of the case.

[20] The Jews examined When these things had been so done, the Praetor ordered the innocent body to be carried to the hospital of S. Peter, and forbade its burial without his consent: but leading Moses and the remaining Jews aside, he examined each one separately, asking how and when the child's corpse had been brought there. And perceiving that they all did not answer in agreement with one another, and that they did not maintain composure with a countenance betraying their inner agitation, he immediately signaled to his bodyguard that all should be seized and bound and carried off to the castle, each to be committed to a separate custody: they are sent to prison: lest, instructed and emboldened by mutual conversations, they should unanimously conspire to deny the crime under torture. Meanwhile Brunetta, suspecting the soldiers would return, hid the blood collected, as has been said, in the dish inside a cupboard: which was afterwards found and poured into a glass vial, and placed in the church of S. Peter, in the same place where the body of the holy Boy is kept, and shown to those who devoutly approach.

[21] The Praetor, however, so that the matter might proceed more swiftly in so great a case, ordered Archangelus Balduinus to be summoned, physicians consulted a Tridentine physician; John Matthias Tiberinus, a Brescian, illustrious no less in the poetic and oratorical faculty than in medical skill; and Christopher de Fatis of Terlago, a most celebrated surgeon; so that, having diligently inspected the corpse and examined the wounds, they might declare under oath what they thought about the matter. They, carrying out what they had been ordered, unanimously pronounced that the boy had not died in the water, they answer that he was not drowned, and this for these reasons. Because the bodies of those suffocated in water are usually found swollen, and emit water through the mouth, nostrils, and other passages of the body, the more corrupt and foul the longer they have been submerged. The same are always found with gaping mouth, wide open throat, pale and livid color, and without a wound, except such as may have been inflicted before they fell or were thrown into the water; moreover the blood does not even then flow from a wound, but sits cold within the veins, and all the limbs grow stiff. Here, however, everything was found to be the contrary; no swelling in the body, but that the boy was killed. no moisture appearing from it: the mouth closed, the throat tight, the color of the flesh ruddy, no bruise or blow: but wounds inflicted with cutting and piercing to the head, cheek, shin, member, and all the limbs, flowing with entirely fresh blood, just as if the body were alive, and all the joints having likewise full mobility.

[22] After the Praetor understood these things, he requested from the Bishop, his Prince and Lord, that some skilled Doctor of laws be added to him, an assessor is added to the Praetor: whose counsel he might use in so difficult a matter: and the City Prefect, already named above, James de Sporo, was chosen for this, a most learned man and a most praised zealot of justice. While they deliberated and conferred among themselves, there was a great concourse of people arriving from everywhere to see the pitiable spectacle: among whom there was no one who was not deeply moved and prayed to God that he might deign to reveal the authors of so great a cruelty. The wretched mother also rushed forward, the mother approaches her son's corpse: and filling everything with wailing and lamentation; as soon as she had access through the parted crowds to her son's body, and beheld it so foully lacerated, she could not satisfy her grief with mourning, but overcome in strength she fell to the ground, and among the hands of the weeping neighbor women was not led but carried home. Throughout the entire city voices were heard of those crying out that the Jews were guilty of the boy's death and demanding their punishment. In order that the Praetor might learn the reason for this opinion spreading among the common people, he summoned a certain John,

[23] He replied, as was the case, that the Jews were accustomed to prepare their unleavened bread on the Wednesday of the holier week, learns they customarily use Christian blood, and to mix into it the blood of a Christian child; which they also use at their Passover in the evening, that is, on Thursday, and likewise on Friday, mixing it with wine: and that to the customary blessing of the table they add curses against Christ and the Christian faith, asking God to send upon the Christians all those plagues with which he scourged Pharaoh and his kingdom for their obstinacy in retaining and oppressing the people of Israel. I remember, moreover, he said, that as a young man I often heard from my father that in the city of Tungguch in lower Germany, they committed a similar outrage elsewhere. about forty years ago the Jews conspired and slaughtered a Christian boy, whose blood they used at their Passover: of whom, when the crime was detected and they had confessed, more than forty-five were condemned to the flames, but my father, having escaped by flight with some others, came to these parts.

[24] With such evidence, confirmed by so powerful a presumption, the Praetor girded himself for conducting the interrogation of the prisoners: The Jews tortured who at first steadfastly denied the deed and complained that they were being tortured though innocent: then, turning to their customary frauds, they lied that a certain Swiss neighbor of theirs, a poor man named Gianzarum, seemed to be implicated in this crime: who, having previously been hostile to the Jews and having made threats, they contrive a calumny against the poor Swiss man, had committed this murder, the blame for which he would divert onto them by throwing the body into the water, knowing it would be carried to their houses. And they adorned this calumny with such colors that the innocent man was seized with his wife and thrown into chains, and was only freed by a miracle, which will be narrated below. Finally, when the Bishop had commanded the Praetor not to interrupt the investigation on account of any festival, however great, but to press the accused continually toward confession, their stubbornness was at last overcome, and the wretches revealed the entire order of the deed they had committed.

[25] The fame of the accused's confession soon spread throughout all Italy and Germany: those who confessed the crime wherefore the Jews, anxious for the safety of their brethren, whom they now saw could be freed by no frauds, pooled their counsels and monies for corrupting the administrators of public justice: and when they saw that nothing could be accomplished with the Praetor and Prefect, they so increased the collected sum that they were confident of overcoming either Bishop Hinderbach or Sigismund of Austria for the liberation of the captives. others tried to exempt them from punishment: But they found the hands of these also closed to gifts and their ears to prayers. Therefore, so that they might at least delay the pronouncement of the sentence and gain time in which they might find an opportunity, by prayer or bribery, by force or deceit, to contrive something in favor of the criminals, they sent from the city of Padua the most skilled Doctors of laws, to defend the case whether by right or by wrong, and to entangle it by every means, so that the sentence could not quickly be rendered. But their effort too was vain, God being unwilling that so great a crime should go unpunished for the accused.

[26] For a long time, however, it was debated with what penalty and punishment they should be chastised. a worthy punishment is sought, Some wanted them variously torn apart and thrown into the river; some wanted their heads cut off and the bodies dragged about and thus scattered so that they could by no means be gathered; others said they should be strangled with a noose, others hanged by their feet with a dog, which being unable to bear the pain would unleash its rage and teeth upon the malefactors: finally some pronounced that they should be burned alive. At length sentence was passed upon both Bonaventuras, that their limbs should be broken on the wheel and their bodies consumed by flames: but since they asked to be baptized, so that they might die as Christians, the Praetor mitigated the rigor of the sentence and ordered them to be beheaded and then burned. Tobias was placed on a cart and led through the city, which is exacted from all, torn with pincers before he suffered the breaking of his legs on the wheel and was finally burned alive. Moses, decrepit with age, escaped the punishment he had deserved by dying in prison, either from poison administered by friends, or from the severity of the torture, or even by a violent death which he inflicted on himself in despair, as is the more common opinion of many: the corpse of the dead man was tied to a horse's tail, dragged through the city, and left on the wheel for dogs and vultures. Samuel and Angelus, after their limbs were torn with pincers, were likewise placed on the wheel and burned: which same fate, except for the torment of the pincers, was suffered by Vitalis, Mohar, Israel, Ioph, Solomon, and other guilty Hebrews, and the goods of all were confiscated.

CHAPTER III

The religious veneration decreed and instituted for S. Simon: some miracles.

[27] A chapel is erected on the site of the killing: After the Jews had paid the deserved punishments, thought began to be given to honoring the innocent Martyr. And first indeed, in the very place where he had been so cruelly killed, the buildings having been demolished, a church was built and consecrated to his memory. Then by public decree of the city it was provided that no Jew should be permitted to establish a dwelling at Trent. Finally, as miracles grew more frequent, pilgrimages from every region began to be made to visit the holy little body: whence various blind persons were illuminated, the body becomes illustrious through miracles: many were freed from dangerous illnesses, very many women were either delivered from difficult childbirth or freed from the distress of prolonged barrenness, through the interposed intercession of this saint: which also the boy's mother Mary felt to be efficacious toward herself in many ways, having been made a widow within a few years through the death of her husband, and from then on being loaded with the greatest divine benefits.

[28] By all of which it was brought about that Gregory XIII ordered Blessed Simon the Martyr to be inscribed in the sacred calendar of the Roman Church on March 24 in these words: the name is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology: At Trent, the passion of S. Simeon, an innocent boy, most cruelly slain by the Jews in hatred of Christ, who afterward shone forth with many miracles. Which in the later revision of the Baronian Martyrology are read somewhat more abbreviated. After this, in the year 1588, Pope Sixtus V, at the supplication of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Cardinal Madruzzo, Bishop and Prince of Trent, granted a feast is decreed; that the feast of the aforesaid Saint might be celebrated throughout the entire diocese of Trent with its own Office and Mass: with a plenary Indulgence added in perpetuity for all those who, on the said feast day, after receiving the Sacraments of Penance and Eucharist, would visit the church of S. Peter; where the body of the holy Martyr, resting with all the precious instruments of his passion in its own altar, is religiously visited not only by citizens but also by foreigners passing back and forth through these borderlands of Italy and Germany.

[29] a procession is ordered for March 23 The most joyful news of this Pontifical decree, brought to Trent, soon stirred the spirits of all to celebrate the first solemnity of the new Saint with the greatest possible display. Therefore by decree of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lords, the Canons of Trent, first the church of S. Peter was hung all around with the most precious tapestries, and in the midst of it a couch was erected with much silk and golden cloth, to receive the sacred body of the Martyr. This was reverently placed upon it around midday of the day which preceded the feast itself, namely the 23rd of March, and remained there for the consolation of all running thither from everywhere for the sake of indulgences, visible for at least two hours. At the hour for chanting Vespers, with the Chapter of Canons the entire Clergy was present, in which the body was carried around through the city. also gathered from the suburban parishes, together with the assembled communities of all religious: by whom, after a period of common prayer, in which the propitious favor of God himself and of the Saint was sought, a solemn procession was organized, with the sodalities of the Confraternities going before in the customary manner, with their Crosses, banners, and candles; and among these two hundred little boys most elegantly adorned, with a banner and image of their fellow young Saint: then the secular and religious Clergy followed the Canons, carrying lighted torches in their hands. With the entire procession thus proceeding, the Parish Priests of the four parishes of Trent received the venerable relic upon their shoulders, taken from that rich and beautiful platform, and placed it on an elegant bier within a silver cradle, adorned with many gold and silver necklaces and jewels, and so arranged that the body could easily be viewed by those walking around.

[30] Above the body thus being carried, four principal Doctors bore a rich canopy, The order of this procession, fashioned with golden fabric: whom the Illustrious and Very Reverend Lords, the Dean and Archdeacon of the Church of Trent, followed immediately, divided onto either side, after whom likewise two Very Reverend Provosts processed, one of S. Michael, the other of Gries, both pontifically vested in mitre and cope: and finally the Most Reverend Lord Bishop Suffragan of Trent, having a most splendid mitre on his head, attended by eight priests wearing handsome tunics: besides whom two Levites with silver thuribles continuously honored the sacred Relics with the smoke of burning incense. This principal part of the entire procession was followed by the Lords Councillors, Doctors, and Nobles of the city and diocese assembled to honor the solemnity, and as many others of the male sex as had gathered. Last came the women in the greatest number, intermingled with most finely attired young girls. All, moreover, both men and women, carried burning candles in their hands: and the general opinion of most was that there were in all about thirteen thousand.

[31] The order of the advancing procession was this. From the church of S. Peter to the church of the Most Holy Trinity, its manner, from there to the Cathedral basilica of S. Vigilius, thence it proceeded to S. Mary Major: with the procession pausing at each place, and musical harmonies being chanted over the body reverently placed there. Finally the return to S. Peter's was begun, and on the return, in the street called Cantone, the entire history of the aforementioned martyrdom was represented to the life, and this so aptly that not only was the spectacle praised by all, but the people testified that they had been wonderfully moved to a feeling of devotion by it. After, moreover, all had returned to the place whence they had set out, conclusion. with the customary hymn of the Church on such occasions, Te Deum Laudamus, solemn Vespers of the Saint were sung. On the feast day itself the Suffragan Bishop celebrated Mass pontifically, and the ordinary preacher of the Cathedral church delivered a splendid oration to the people on the merits and miracles of the holy Boy. The following miracles, a few out of many, are here recorded.

[32] Innocent captives are released: Gianzerus the Swiss with his wife was imprisoned in the castle and bound with chains, because accused by the Jews of having, either himself or with his wife's knowledge or assistance, dragged the body of Blessed Simon into the canal; when he directed his prayers to God and to this glorious Innocent, that through his merits his innocence might be made manifest, the chains were suddenly broken and the fetters loosened. Nor did the ministers of justice delay in restoring to liberty those innocents so proven by so evident a

miracle.

[33] one suffering from fever is healed, Lord Gaspar Martinengus of Brescia, suffering from a continuous fever, made a vow to visit Blessed Simon, and upon fulfilling it immediately recovered his health, in the presence of Lord Matthias Tiberinus, the Brescian physician, and the reverend Priest Zuane, and Lord Stephen Nodar of Caden, in the year 1475.

[34] Laurence Jodicus of Innsbruck, deprived of the light of his eyes for an entire year, a blind man, approaching and kissing the place where the body of Blessed Simon was kept, was instantly illuminated, in the presence of the reverend Priests Lord John of Florence and Lord John of Enno, inhabitants of the city of Trent, in the year 1475.

[35] At Sacheta in the territory of Mantua, John de Soldo of Brescia had been mute for eight years, a mute man, from a blow of a beam that had fallen on his head: this man, when he heard of the wonderful prodigies which God was working through Blessed Simon, knelt down and received his speech, in the presence of Lord Cominus and Master Balthasar of Brescia.

[36] Vincent Andrew of Rendena, attacked by seven men rushing upon him and mortally wounded, one wounded unto death, when having received the Sacraments of the Church he was believed about to expire, devoted himself to Blessed Simon, and falling into sleep, found himself completely healed the following day.

[37] At Pomarolo in the Lagarina Valley, Catherine, daughter of Zeno from the said town, paralyzed and stricken with palsy, a paralytic, having made a vow to Blessed Simon at Trent, had herself carried in a cart, and being brought to the church of S. Peter, as soon as she devoutly touched the casket of the sacred body, she received the health of all her limbs: in the presence of the Vicar of Bolzano and Rompelanza, shield-bearer of the Most Reverend Bishop of Trent.

[38] Andrew, an innkeeper at the sign of the War-Flower in Verona, sick unto death and given up by the physicians, a patient given up by doctors, remembering to make a vow to Blessed Simon of Trent, as soon as he acted on this thought of his, fell asleep: and the following morning, rising healthy, he began to set out for Trent to fulfill what he had vowed.

[39] Francis of Peschiera (a most strongly fortified town at the outlet of Lake Garda), residing at Verona, a blind man, fell into an illness by which, having entirely lost the use of his eyes, he remained blind for fourteen years: at last, having made a vow to the Virgin of Loreto and to Blessed Simon, he was illuminated by the mercy of God.

[40] one disabled in the feet, Margaret of Arbizzano from the Pubesella valley in the Veronese territory, so infirm that she could in no way walk on her own feet, was healed after making a similar vow; and for the sake of fulfilling it she came on foot all the way to Trent, on the twelfth of April of the year 1475.

[41] In the parish called Banal, of the Lord's Judicature, the daughter of Dominic Mazza had been hunchbacked for seven years and so bent over hunchbacked and curved; that she could only move about anywhere on her hands and feet equally pressed to the ground. This girl, brought to Trent, as soon as she entered the church of S. Peter and touched the sacred platform, being lifted by her mother to see upon it the little body of the glorious Martyr, recovered her health so perfectly that she began to walk without impediment; in the presence and sight of Master Anthony Prato and Girold the Stationer.

[42] James Concius of Ossana from the Val di Sole made a vow for his son who was already dead; a dead boy is raised and for the life miraculously restored to him, he offered to the Saint a silver image of eleven pounds: which is seen to this day.

[43] At Lavis near Trent, Barbara, daughter of the tailor Bald, fell into the Lavisio river and was not drawn out by her parents until dead; who, turning their trust to God, called upon Blessed Simon in their vows, and received their daughter alive and well. Many other things could be added to these: but for the sake of brevity they are omitted, and a drowned girl. so that the ending may be in that prayer which the Church of Trent recites as proper to S. Simon under this antiphon. Intercede for your homeland, Blessed Simon; may your merits help us, by whose prayers and invocation many who despaired of health have been made well. V. Rejoice and be glad, Church of Trent, R. Enriched by the glory of so great a son. Prayer for S. Simon. Prayer: O God, restorer of innocence, for whose name Blessed Innocent Simon was slain by the perfidious Jews with the torment of a most cruel death; grant us, we beseech you, that by his interceding merits, undefiled by the contagions of this life, we may deserve to reach our heavenly homeland.

Bishop of Galese, says the Italian text: but what this bishopric in partibus infidelium is (for from these the titles of Suffragans or Chorepiscopi are usually taken) we have not yet been able to divine.

CONCERNING S. JOHANNETTUS, A BOY KILLED BY JEWS IN THE DIOCESE OF COLOGNE. By Aegidius Gelenius.

Johannettus, a boy killed by Jews in the diocese of Cologne (S.)

Seligenthal is a monastery of Conventual Franciscans, a thousand paces distant from Siegburg, Captured near Siegburg, following the bank of the Sieg river toward the East. Here a boy sent for the purpose of learning good letters (Johannettus was his name) was intercepted on the way by the Jews and killed in hatred of the faith with knives; killed by the Jews, one of which, resembling a pen-knife, enclosed in a silver box, is preserved in the church of Siegburg, formerly dedicated to S. Michael by S. Anno, Archbishop of Cologne. They believed they would conceal their crime by covering the innocent body with turf near the castle called zur Mühlen, which the family of Gebertshagen now possesses. But pigs, digging with their snouts, uncovered it, it is dug up by pigs; which the swineherd reported to the mother. She was preparing to place it on a cart to carry it to the cemetery at Troisdorf for customary burial; and would have done so, had not the horse, having come closer to Siegburg, at that road which still retains the boy's name, being called die Kindtsgass, reared up and refused to go further, by no force to be compelled to cross that hill. When this held the mother and her companions in astonishment, the horse halting and a hand extended, they began together to beseech God that he would deign to signify to them what that strange immobility of the balking horse portended: and soon they saw from the gaping coffin the boy's hand extended toward the left, toward Siegburg. Therefore they ran to the Clergy existing there and led the procession organized on the spot to where they had left the body. The horse carrying it it is brought to Siegburg: no longer had to be pulled and led, but going ahead of the procession of its own accord willingly, it began to lead those chanting psalms, until the Relics were carried into the church in triumphal fashion and placed in a tomb beside the old sepulcher of S. Anno. Where Johannettus became illustrious through great miracles, and the hand extended from the coffin, enclosed in silver, remained incorrupt until the Swedish devastation: especially the finger which his mother, desirous of Relics resplendent with so many miracles, had cut off, but was compelled to restore, because she could not set foot out of the church of S. Michael until, having revealed the theft, she had appeased her son. where he became illustrious through miracles, The chief grace by which this holy Innocent flourished, namely of obtaining offspring for barren marriages, has been a constant tradition even to these times, and the sequence of events is somehow taught by ancient paintings and monuments which the barbarity of the Swedes left at Siegburg. For the Relics of the sacred body, like other venerable remains, were scattered by heretical enemies; from whom the hand, redeemed together with the aforementioned instrument of martyrdom, is religiously preserved by the Most Reverend and Most Illustrious Lord Bertram von Bellinghausen, Prelate and temporal Lord of Siegburg. until the Swedish incursion.

The ancient veneration of him is attested by the chapel surviving in his name, A chapel dedicated to his name, in the place where the balking horse gave warning that they should not proceed further. Which chapel the possessors of the castle of zur Mühlen diligently repair, although they are heretics: for if it is neglected, the deaths and funerals of the leading persons among them are often observed to follow.

These things were sent to us in the year 1643 by that most diligent man, historiographer of the Archiepiscopal Church of Cologne and also a great admirer of this work of ours: the name is referred to this day. since religious veneration and worship, surviving in some degree to this day, is abundantly attested; nor is any day known that was specifically dedicated to this Saint, nor are any chronological indicators of the time when he suffered to be found: we believed he could most fittingly be reported on this day, and his memory joined with that of S. Simon of Trent, killed by similar barbarity: until more light may be brought from elsewhere.

CONCERNING S. CATHERINE OF SWEDEN, DAUGHTER OF S. BRIDGET, AT VADSTENA IN SWEDEN,

YEAR 1381.

Preliminary Commentary.

Catherine of Sweden, daughter of S. Bridget, at Vadstena in Sweden (S.)

§ I. Feast day, sacred veneration, memorial in the Martyrology.

[1] Catherine, distinguished by her piety toward her living mother, and by her reverence toward her after death, and to be set before all daughters as an example in both duties, could also serve as a proof of faith that the reward for both merits would be divinely received. For she set aside the love of a most dear husband and homeland for her mother's comfort and assistance, For piety toward her holy mother, as a companion of her holy pilgrimages and labors for twenty-four years; and she spent all the remaining years of her life in so great a zeal to amplify the honor of the deceased, that she died in the business of promoting her canonization, and seemed to have departed this life so that she might more efficaciously accomplish from heaven what, with the affairs of the Church in turmoil, she had almost despaired of on earth. The same was made a participant in the graces divinely bestowed on her mother, both in life and as sole heir in death: she merited to become illustrious in virtue and miracles, and she found God equally wonderful for the glorification of his name, as she herself had been zealous to bring to light the great deeds by which the same God had wished it to be proven that S. Bridget should be numbered among the saints. For here he wisely provided that for writing the Life of S. Catherine, while those who had known and accompanied her in life were still living, a suitable writer should be obtained even by miracle; and when enough time had already elapsed since Bridget was solemnly enrolled among the Saints to firmly establish her veneration throughout the entire North, around the year 1474 she is proposed for canonization: after the middle of the fifteenth century he began to glorify the name of Catherine with such wonders of miracles, that the Council of the Swedish nation, celebrated at Arboga around the year 1474, decreed that the Roman Pontiff should be petitioned for her canonization.

[2] That Pontiff at that time was Sixtus IV, under whom we dare not conjecture that any progress was made in the cause. But his successor

Innocent VIII, Innocent VIII grants the Brigittines her feast, who, created Pope in the year 1484, held the See until the year 1492, granted to the Religious of the Order of S. Augustine, under the name of the Holy Savior, instituted by S. Bridget and established by her daughter Catherine, the faculty by a special Bull, that throughout all the kingdoms and bishoprics in which monasteries of the said Order existed, her feast should be celebrated with the Office and Mass such as are customarily recited for Holy Virgins: as the author is Fr. Hilarion of S. Anthony, a Discalced Augustinian, in the Italian Life of this Saint, which he published at Naples in the year 1641, treating the deeds of mother and daughter together at great length. He adds, moreover, that in the two monasteries of this Order which are the only ones among the Italians, the feast is celebrated on different days. as they do on March 26, on which she was buried; For at Florence indeed, in the convent called Porta Paradisi, it takes place on March 26; which is established as the day of her deposition, inasmuch as it was the day after the Annunciation of the Lord: but at Genoa, where the convent is called Scala Coeli, on the 25th of July: which the same Order follows in Belgium; and July 25, which we suspect was the day of the solemn elevation of her body, and, since the former was more frequently impeded by the mysteries of the Lord's Passion or Resurrection to be commemorated, was deemed more opportune.

[3] In the Appendix indeed to the Acts soon to be given, at number 68, her bones are said to have been elevated, some years after her death having passed, on account of laying the foundations for the pillars of the church; on which perhaps they were elevated, but regarding the day on which the elevation was made, as is commonly known, nothing is said there: which, if it was done solemnly, the translation of those same sacred bones must have been even more solemn, after the building of the new structure was completed. And perhaps neither was left without an annual commemoration. or translated: For in the Proper Offices of the Kingdom of Sweden, at the petition of the Most Serene Sigismund III, King of Sweden and Poland, recognized and approved by the sacred Congregation of Rites with Apostolic authority, and permitted to be recited throughout all of Poland also, which we have published by the Plantin press in the year 1631, the Commemoration of S. Catherine of Vadstena, daughter of S. Bridget, is prescribed to be made on August 2: elsewhere the commemoration is on August 21. but the principal feast under the rite of a double is proposed for March 23, with proper lessons drawn from the Life, and this prayer: O God, who adorn your Church with the illustrious merits of Blessed Catherine the Virgin, and gladden it with glorious miracles: Feast on March 23, Office, grant to us your servants, that we may be reformed for the better by her examples, and protected by her patronage from all adversities.

[4] We have a most ancient Votive Missal, printed around the beginning of printing without year or place of printing, which the index of Masses for new Saints shows to belong to the kingdom of Sweden: and in a Swedish Missal, the first of which is for the Patrons of the kingdom or province or diocese in common, for whom the Sunday nearest after the Octave of the Apostles is commonly held as sacred: and this Mass is followed by ten others for the proper Saints of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway; among which S. Bridget occupies the eighth place, and has her name on the 7th of October in the Calendar, as having been canonized already from the year 1391: but after the honor of the Ecclesiastical Office was communicated to her daughter Catherine, there was added at the end of the book, a proper manuscript Mass. in an ancient hand and character attributable to the times of Innocent VIII, a proper Mass under this collect: Lord Jesus Christ, who out of the abundance of charity wondrously declared Catherine, beloved by you, as an example to the faithful by the holiness of her manner of life: by her merits and intercession, make us serve you with devout conduct and pleasing behavior. Then after the Epistle a Gradual is subjoined, such as is customarily recited for the Common of Virgins outside the times of Lent and Easter, and this Sequence.

[6] The first to inscribe the name in the Martyrology was Molanus: She began to be inscribed in Martyrologies by Molanus on the 22nd, but when he had read in her Life this conclusion: The Venerable Lady Catherine died in the monastery of Vadstena in the year of the Lord 1381, on the 11th day before the Kalends of April, a Sunday, namely on the eve of the Annunciation of the Lord, and on the morrow of the same was honorably buried. When, I say, Molanus had read these things, he did not observe that from the two most certain indicators of the day of Sunday and the eve of the Annunciation, an evident slip of the pen became apparent, by which the 11th was written instead of the 9th day before the Kalends of April; and following this erring number, in his additions to Usuard on March 22 he thus wrote: Of Catherine the widow, daughter of Blessed Bridget, but afterwards more correctly on March 24. whom Urban VI canonized, adding in the annotations that the Life had been printed at Rome with the revelations of her mother Bridget: but having read the deeds of both more carefully, he corrected the errors of this first edition, and in the second of the year 1573 he thus rewrote at March 24: In the monastery of Vadstena, of S. Catherine, Abbess, daughter of Blessed Bridget.

[7] Surius committed the same error of inadvertence; and Baronius, following Surius alone, whom he cites without further examination, wrote in the Roman Martyrology at March 22: In Sweden, of S. Catherine, daughter of S. Bridget. Urban VI did not canonize her, Neither Baronius nor those who edited later editions of Surius inspected the second edition of Molanus, nor did Fr. Hilarion and other authors, who understood the last words of the first edition as though Molanus were saying that S. Catherine had been canonized by Urban VI: whereas Molanus should be believed to have directed those words to Blessed Bridget, for whose canonization he had read that her daughter Catherine had pleaded at length before the same Pope; and perhaps he believed that even after Catherine's departure the business had been completed at Rome by the same Urban: although in fact he did not accomplish the matter; but left it so arranged and prepared that, once the republic was at peace, Boniface IX could easily proceed to it. In the time of the latter, moreover, when the care of all the Orders was for the mother to be exalted with fitting honors, it does not seem that there was yet any thought of writing the Life of the daughter, however holy, much less of collecting and receiving miracles performed at her invocation, even compelled to dismiss the cause of S. Bridget itself: since they were then either nonexistent or rare. Moreover, how could it seem probable that a Pontiff, from whom a recent schism arising in the Church had taken away all leisure from deciding the cause of the holy mother, who had died so long before and was more familiarly known to him; that the same Pontiff in the cause of the daughter, recently deceased (if indeed any report of her death reached him at all), should have wished to prejudge anything before it was duly investigated by the Bishops of Sweden and brought before his tribunal?

[8] Setting aside Urban VI, therefore, we can more safely believe Fr. Hilarion in that which he says about Pope Innocent: namely that this Pontiff, What prevented Innocent VIII from doing this? having learned of the cause of S. Catherine, in the same year in which it was presented to him, promised that he would canonically define it on Christmas Day. But with the Romans pressing that he canonize Blessed Frances of Rome and that he give her precedence over Blessed Catherine; both this one and that one were set aside, and nothing else was done beyond what we said about the feast being permitted to the Swedes and the Order: for with these agree both the time of the miracles authentically collected for that end, and what we reported at the Life of S. Frances of Rome, number 182, from the monuments of the Vatican library, that under that very Pope in the year 1487 all things had been prepared for the canonization of Blessed Frances, to the point that even the order to be observed by the ministers of the Church and Curia in that solemnity had been described.

§ II. The Acts and miracles of S. Catherine written down.

[9] What Molanus asserted about the Life of S. Catherine, printed at Rome after the Revelations of her mother, is an edition entirely unknown to us Life, whether printed at Rome before the year 1568: of which he speaks: for the most ancient Nuremberg edition, at the press of Anthony Kobergum in the year 1521, entirely lacks it. It was also unknown to Aloysius Lipomanus, collecting and publishing the Lives of Saints in Italy and even at Rome around the fiftieth year of that century. Indeed Lawrence Surius, in the very year in which Molanus had his augmented Usuard printed, 1568, having the Lives of Saints of March printed, and among them this very Life of S. Catherine (rendered by himself somewhat more compendiously, to avoid prolixity and lest the rather crude style offend the learned reader), seems to have been unaware of such an edition, as also was Baronius, writing at Rome in the year 1584. Finally Gonzalez Durantus, Bishop of Montefeltro, who in the year 1628 published the same Revelations given from the edition of the year 1628, in two volumes, recognized from Vatican manuscripts and illustrated with notes, declares in the last of them that there have been added the Lives and many miracles of SS. Bridget and Catherine her daughter, published by Blessed Bridget, which have been lacking in the printed codices up to now: however since only the miracles can be understood to have been lacking hitherto, we do not wish to undermine Molanus's credibility on this point, as long as the earlier Roman edition lies hidden, that some such edition had appeared before being rendered plausible to that extent by the cited words of Gonzalez, insofar as it is credible that the revelations were printed not only at Nuremberg but also elsewhere and especially in Italy.

[10] Whatever the case, we give the Life from the Gonzalez edition: which we found to be the same in Part 2 of the Legend (as Molanus calls it, in respect of that which is commonly called the Lombardic history) also existing elsewhere, printed at Louvain in the year 1485; but with a few lines omitted at the beginning, with this beginning: Concerning this Virgin Catherine it is said that while she was still in the cradle of this mortal life. In the same way also begins the manuscript codex of the Wilhelmites of Hubergen near Berg aan Zoom, formerly of the Convent of Porta Coeli of 's-Hertogenbosch, written around the same times. In both an appendix of some miracles is added, but different from that which is found in the Roman edition, with an appendix of few miracles: and also from the much more prolix Holmian one, whence we give it here, augmented from the Roman by the last miracle, and in the annotations collated with other codices: so that we may show that it seems to have been written by several persons, or at least at different times, and by a different person than the one from whom we have the Life, praised by Surius as not by a very certain author, but nonetheless faithfully written.

[11] So that this author might be certain and known to us, John Vastovius the Goth, Canon of Warmia, accomplished this in his work, its author Ulpho, published at Cologne in the year 1623, to which he gave the title Vitis Aquilonia, comprising the Lives of Saints who illustrated the kingdoms of the Goths and Swedes by their deeds: among which he has the Life of S. Catherine, contracted from that of Surius, and after other things about Ulpho, a monk of the Order of S. Bridget, subjoins the following from the authentic

codex, of which more below; Ulpho, when as a young man he had undergone a shipwreck, together with John Gerechini (afterwards Archbishop of the See of Uppsala and a glorious exile on the Icelandic island for ecclesiastical liberty, and indeed according to some a generous Martyr in the year 1432), and had clung to a plank for forty days, saved by a miracle, tossed by the waves and destitute of all food; he vowed that if his life were preserved, he would enter the Order of S. Bridget at Vadstena.

[12] After the vow was made, a certain fisherman of Copenhagen in the kingdom of Denmark is warned by a voice sent from heaven to go out to catch fish, and by his vow becomes a Brigittine monk, specially reserved for him. He immediately leaping into his boat, obeys the divine instructions: and behold, the vessel having been drawn a little way from shore, he sees from afar two men sitting upon a certain piece of the ship, and being tossed here and there by the winds: and the thought came to him that these were the very fish singularly reserved for him, according to the voice divinely made to him. Ulpho therefore, having been preserved in life, mindful of the saying, "Vow and render," betook himself to Vadstena and gave his name to the Religious life. Having put off the old man and put on the new, he was most observant of monastic discipline, fought incessantly with the weapons of prayer, protected by the shield of faith against the lurking enemy.

[13] It happened not long after that a certain nun of Vadstena, Benedicta daughter of Gunno, obliged by a similar vow to write, was detained by a grave illness for many years, and was often fortified with the Sacrament of Extreme Unction when near death. She, not unaware of the purity and sanctity of Ulpho her Confessor, earnestly asked him to make some vow for the recovery of her health. Ulpho vowed that he would diligently collect and write the life and miracles of S. Catherine of Vadstena, if through her intercession the sick woman should be somewhat relieved of her illness: upon which being said, without delay the force of the disease abated. But Ulpho, although he perceived what had happened; yet by some negligence, not sufficiently mindful of his vow, was thinking of anything rather than of the Life and miracles of the Saint: wherefore the illness began to grow worse in the Virgin more than usual, until Ulpho, recognizing his negligence, fulfilled the vow he had made with full sincerity of will, wrote the Life and miracles with the utmost fidelity, and the sick woman was restored to her former health; and having been made Abbess, she presided over that same monastery for twenty-five years.

[14] and long after dies a holy death in the year 1433. But Ulpho, relaxing nothing of his accustomed austerity of life, set an example before all: for sixteen years he never rested by lying down, but in a certain seat, religiously preserved in his memory to our times, he spent the time necessary for sleep by sitting: so great a man of spirit and contemplation was he. By devoting himself to prayer he merited to see choirs of Angels, and at the elevation of the Host he often confessed to seeing Christ in the form of a child. Now mature in age, when he celebrated the first conventual Mass on Christmas night at cockcrow, the day of his death was divinely revealed to him: which he also predicted before certain of his fellow ministers and spiritual friends; and so he most happily completed the race of life, in the year of salvation one thousand four hundred and thirty-three, on the Saturday of the Ember days in Advent, that is the 19th of December, the Dominical letter being D.

[15] How, moreover, S. Catherine herself deigned to encourage her writer to the continuation of the work he had begun will be read in the appendix, but he wrote from the account of contemporary witnesses where the aforementioned miracle of the healed nun is described more fully, and that with such modesty of words as to suggest that the author himself, thinking and speaking humbly of himself, wrote those things: although we do not doubt that other parts of the same appendix were added by another hand: for that that Brother (namely Ulpho) is said to have taken pains to investigate the Life and miracles, and thus long before the appendix was written: and especially about the persons who had adhered to her familiarly in the city of Rome: and writing down what he had heard at discontinued intervals, for nearly two years having indulged the sluggishness of his mind, had delayed completing the history of the glorious Lady Catherine: by the last words indeed is given to be known the humility of his soul, candidly acknowledging its faults: but by the former it is signified that the Life was written before certain miracles related in the appendix occurred, namely at that time when many were still living who had been familiar to the Saint herself while she lived.

[16] among the contemporaries was Catherine the Tartar. Among whom without doubt was that Catherine who, born of pagan parents and brought to Naples as a slave, and given by the Queen as a gift to S. Catherine of Vadstena, received her name in baptism, and being led by her to Vadstena, there under the monastic rule she became illustrious with manifold ornaments of virtues: until she exchanged earthly things for heavenly, in the year of the Lord 1414, on November 20: when the priest Catilbernus, a man of upright life, saw her soul, like a most brilliant star, ascending to the heights; warned in spirit that this one whom he saw being carried to heaven was the daughter of a Prince of the Tartars, a glory that had befallen no one else in those parts. So Vastovius, page 141, from the authentic codex, as he says, of the examination of the Life and miracles of S. Catherine of Vadstena, which is preserved in the royal library of the castle of Cracow, and for which to be transcribed for us we acted through letters with the Superior of our House there, most devoted to studies and our work: but we received the answer that a very recent incursion of enemies had caused nothing of that library to be found any longer in the said castle.

[17] To the Life written by Ulpho we subjoin the miracles, for whose reception, nearly ninety years after the death of the Saint herself, Miracles authentically collected after 90 years when the Supreme Pontiff was to be petitioned for the canonization of the same Saint, Bishop Henry of Linköping appointed Commissioners; the commentary composed by whom, together with all the other authentic attestation, was found printed at Stockholm after the Life, and was transcribed from there in the year 1634 by Fr. Paul Holstein, a Brigittine of Marieholm, and offered in the year 1647 to the Fathers and Brothers professing the Order of the Holy Savior at Montesolis or at Aquae Marianae: from whom the document itself reached us, which we here faithfully present.

[18] The last to write the Life of S. Catherine was the already mentioned Fr. Hilarion: Italian Life, who, ending the second part of it with miracles, thus concludes: Nor do I wish to omit here that which happened to me myself and rightly seemed to have some appearance of a miracle. When I had applied myself to writing this history, I gave it the title which it still retains: The Miraculous Life and Death of S. Catherine. When this had soon been printed and I began to review the first pages, a just scruple entered my mind, lest perhaps that title should not agree with the truth; since in the course of the composition itself I had found few miracles up to that point. Therefore fearing a just censure on this account, and afraid lest the title should seem improper to anyone, I began to ask the Saint herself to furnish me with whatever knowledge of herself and her marvels she could. in which miracles from the Process of Canonization. And she did: for soon from the Reverend Mothers of the monastery of Scala Coeli in Genoa, divinely inspired perhaps, at whose request I had undertaken the writing, I received an old manuscript which they kept in their archive, containing the process formed and approved for the canonization of the Saint: in which Francis Patalamius of Padua, Doctor of both Laws as well as of Theology, Auditor of the causes of the Sacred Palace, proves by eight most solid arguments that she is worthy of such honor: and among these miracles hold the last place, which I took care to render faithfully into the Italian language. So says he, whose information having prompted us, we endeavored to obtain that very Process from Genoa: but from there too we received the answer that no memory of the said manuscript remained there; so that it is likely it remained with Fr. Hilarion, through the excessive simplicity of those Virgins, who did not know how greatly such authentic documents should be valued, destined as they are to carry credibility above all other writings even after the passage of many centuries.

LIFE By Ulpho, a monk of the same era and of the Brigittine Order in the monastery of Vadstena.

Catherine of Sweden, daughter of S. Bridget, at Vadstena in Sweden (S.)

BHL Number: 1710, 1711, 1712

BY ULPHO

CHAPTER I

Catherine's education, her virginal marriage, her remarkable humility.

[1] Daughter of S. Bridget and Ulpho The venerable and God-beloved Catherine was the daughter of the noble man Lord Ulpho Gudmarson and his wife Bridget, whose praise is proclaimed in the Church. These from their holy marriage begot not only for the world but for God eight children. Catherine (of whom the narrative is undertaken), the fourth in order of birth, divine providence, as the middle one, more eminent than their other children in virtues and the integrity of her character, brought into this light. While she was still in the cradle of this mortal life, she refuses to nurse from an unchaste nurse: divine grace showed signs of her future sanctity and purity. For being handed over to a nurse's office, she abhorred nursing from her breasts on account of her unchaste and wanton life (as is probably conjectured): but she drank without horror from the breasts of her holy mother and of certain continent women: rejecting the milk of the incontinent like wormwood, with tears and wailing. For it was fitting that she who was wholly to be dedicated to divine service should, in the manner of the Nazarites, not eat anything unclean from her mother's womb.

[2] After she was weaned, therefore, her holy mother, anxious about the education of her daughter, entrusted her to a certain Abbess of devout and holy reputation at Riseberg, to be raised in holy ways. entrusted to the Abbess of Riseberg But the devil, persecutor of innocence, who always strives to extinguish good beginnings, attacked the sleeping girl, while the Abbess was keeping vigil in devout prayers, in the form of a charging bull, and hurling her from her bed with its horns, left her half dead on the pavement. But the Abbess, hearing the girl's dreadful groaning, ran with all speed and placed her, as though dead, in her bosom. To whom the devil, appearing again in horrible form, said: How gladly I would have killed her, if I had been permitted by God! In the seventh year of her age, indeed, she began the demon attempts to kill her: on a certain occasion, led by her peers, to engage in playing with dolls, and lest the vanity of such games, which in most young people subverts the stability of the mind, should also dissolve her innocent spirit; by the permission of the merciful God, who allows every son whom he receives to be scourged, it happened that the following night, after she had engaged in such play, she saw in a dream many unclean spirits entering her bedroom in the form of dolls, who, throwing her from her bed, beat her with scourges, she is deterred from the vanity of play. so much that the next day she appeared bruised all over her body. Whence afterwards, with the cooperation of his grace who with the temptation provides also the way of escape, she perfectly abandoned all occasion of dissolution and the vanity of games: no longer mixing herself with players of any kind, indeed conducting herself with a certain maturity against the slack and wayward tendency of that age.

[3] Moreover, attaining marriageable age, with the confidence which she always had in God and the glorious Virgin Mary about preserving her chastity, married to Egard obedient to her father's will, she consented to marriage with the noble man Lord Egard. When the day of the nuptials came, and in the secrecy of the bridal chamber

they remained alone, that virgin devoted to God and the Blessed Virgin, by her holy exhortations bent her spouse to a vow of chastity; with the cooperation of him who is the infuser of all purity and chaste counsel into the minds of the elect. And so, the vow of perpetual chastity between them having been confirmed with oaths, she leads him to vow chastity; tenderly loving one another in the Lord, under secular display they deceived the enemy of purity with a certain holy cunning. And how pleasing to God their vow was, is clear from the following indication, worthy of being related. For while her husband, always devout to God, was hunting a certain doe with hounds in the manner of nobles, it happened that the Lady Catherine was by chance being conveyed by vehicle along the road of that same wood on her own business, to whom the doe, exhausted in its headlong course before the hounds, how pleasing this was to God is shown by a miracle, setting aside all wildness, as though to a singular refuge, most meekly reclined its head in the lap of the chaste woman, who had cut off bestial impulses in herself. And when the aforesaid Lady Catherine was asked by her husband and others pursuing the beast, she showed it hiding under her cloak, humbly supplicating for it, that he would grant her captive (meaning the beast) its liberty. When he readily agreed, the beast made for the woods, and they for their part rejoiced greatly in the Lord and were consoled, giving thanks to him who tames wild beasts and makes them gentle.

[4] And lest the domestic enemy, namely the flesh, should rise up, after nocturnal vigils in devout prayers and genuflections, Both live in great austerity they were accustomed to sleep on the floor of their chamber, having one covering blanket and a pillow under their heads; in no way altering their abstinence in wintertime; because the more comforts they abandoned for God's sake, the more they were warmed by the fire of divine love. For that venerable Lady often endeavored with words of exhortation to instill in the mind of her devout husband the maternal exercises of virtues and penance: which she as a young woman had seen in her mother S. Bridget, and had learned from others, and abstinence, desiring to be likewise conformed in these. Hence they joined fasting to vigils and holy prayers, so that they might flourish in all the virtues of the soul, so that the flesh, subjected to the soul, might fittingly serve as a handmaid to her mistress. They therefore embraced equally, for the love of God and their own salvation, abstinence, which is very commendable; restraining themselves not only from unlawful things, but even from lawful and permitted ones: knowing that abstinence prolongs life, preserves chastity, appeases God, vanquishes demons, illuminates the understanding, strengthens the mind, subdues vices, overcomes the flesh, and draws and inflames the very body toward the love of God.

[5] Happy, therefore, was this marriage, which not the wantonness and lasciviousness of the flesh had made two hearts one, a wonderful example of conjugal chastity: but the love which is in Christ Jesus had bound them with chaste embraces by the glue of charity. Happy their marriage, who strove as far as possible to imitate the most holy virginal marriage of Mary and Joseph, out of regard for and love of divine mercy. For in their days they were like two lilies, sweetly fragrant in the Lord's garden and in the matrimonial state, having the splendor of chastity before the Lord, the inspector of all, and before their neighbor, through the examples and exercises of virtues, most sweetly redolent with the reputation of good fame. in which detected by her brother Charles Whence certain members of their household, unfamiliar with such unusual abstinence and spiritual life, detracted them as vain and superstitious before Lord Charles, the brother of Lady Catherine. Who, having seized the opportunity, secretly entering their bedroom, found them not as spouses pursuing carnal delights, but like devout Religious clothed in woolen and rough tunics, sleeping separately on the floor, having left the delicate bed. Upon which the aforesaid Lord Charles, being less wise in the things of the spirit, they patiently endure his mockery. reproached Lord Egard and his wife, his own sister, as superstitious and foolish. But they, enduring the descending rains of rebukes, the coming floods of detraction, and the blowing winds of mockery with equanimity, did not in the least fall from their foundation of the resolution of chastity and abstinence; for they were established upon the stable foundation of holy perseverance.

[6] Catherine is studious of humility But because purity of the flesh does not suffice unless purity of the mind also follows, with true humility to the glory of God (for just as purity of the flesh is immunity from the pollution of men, so humility is immunity from the pollution of demons; for demons mingle with souls and corrupt them through pride, just as men corrupt bodies through lust) therefore this venerable Lady strove to have the safeguard of humility for her chastity. She also began gradually to set aside garments distorted from the ancient and praiseworthy custom of the country, she puts aside womanly adornment: in which especially the noble women of modern times are accustomed to indulge; nor did she desist from the observance of humility and the honest custom of her country on account of detraction and mockery. By her example many noble women, her companions and relatives, abandoned their showy garments and superfluous ornaments of the country.

[7] Among whom was a noble Lady, the wife of her aforesaid brother Lord Charles, which Charles's wife also imitates, who, although she at first stubbornly resisted her counsels and examples, was yet by a special oracle of divine visitation converted to a better order of life. For it happened in the city of Kalmar, in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin, while the Venerable Lady Catherine was standing in prayer together with her brother's wife before an image of the Blessed Virgin; it happened, I say, that that Lady, the wife namely of the aforesaid Lord Charles, fell slightly asleep: and it seemed to her reproved by the Blessed Virgin that the Blessed Virgin regarded Lady Catherine, her husband's sister, with a cheerful countenance; but inspected her with stern eyes and an angry face. Greatly disturbed by this vision, she began with tears to pray to the Blessed Virgin, saying: Why, my Lady, do you look upon me so terribly? because she would not obey Catherine: To whom the Virgin replied: Why do you not obey the counsels of my beloved Catherine? If you shall correct your dress and manners by her counsels and example, I shall look upon you cheerfully by my grace. She, awakening, not ungrateful for such admonition, immediately putting aside the ornaments of pride, strove to conform herself to humility and to the ways of Lady Catherine.

[8] Whence her husband, the aforesaid Lord Charles, still wholly worldly, perceiving the change of dress and devout gestures in his wife, how much she fled to be praised. said with a troubled mind, reproaching Lady Catherine his sister: Are you not content that you have made yourself a beguine, but you must also make my wife with you a beguine and a laughingstock of the people? She therefore bore patiently reproaches and mockeries for the Lord, greatly abhorring being commended for virtuous works, beseeching those who commended her, by the mercy of Christ, not to say or think such things about her. For she very often reproached with tears her special confidants, because out of reverence for virginal chastity, and because she, still inviolate, occupied the marital bed, they called her blessed, adjuring them not to mention such things anymore.

CHAPTER II

Catherine, having gone to Rome, is commanded upon her husband's death to remain as companion to her mother; she overcomes the temptation to return.

[9] A brief time, then, having elapsed after she was given in marriage by her parents, her father Lord Ulpho Gudmarson, Her mother having set out for Rome Prince and Lawgiver of Nericia, having died in a good old age, was honorably given burial in the monastery of Alvastra. After whose death Blessed Bridget, mother of Lady Catherine, according to the Lord's command, set out for Rome. And being anxious about a person who would assist her more familiarly in difficult affairs and be a comfort to her in the land of her pilgrimage, she is inflamed with a great desire for pilgrimage, she received the answer from Christ not to be troubled about this, because he would send her a person who would be a faithful co-worker in the affairs divinely committed to her; whom he would also anticipate with the special grace of his blessing. After about five years had elapsed, therefore, since Blessed Bridget had come from her homeland to Rome, Lady Catherine began to burn with such a great desire to go on pilgrimage to Rome that she appeared almost languid from her sighs and the daily increases of her affections. and after some delay

[10] Which her husband, devout to God, perceiving, inquired the cause of such sighs and unusual feeling. She, trusting greatly in so kind and God-devoted a husband, opened the secret of her heart. But her prudent husband, because of the stability of life which he had experienced in her, presumed that this impulse was being directed by the Lord, and therefore, although he loved her most tenderly, did not dare to contradict: but from that point he feared she at last obtains permission from her husband; lest to so elegant and young a person, being namely eighteen years old, some adversity should occur on the way of so long a pilgrimage. Whence he delayed giving his consent for some time: but at last, overcome by the fear of God, who dissuades from resisting the divine will, he yielded to the importunate prayers of his wife. Meanwhile the expenses necessary for her and her household on the journey were prepared, provision was made for an honorable retinue, and not terrified by her brother's threats in vain and now only the departure from the homeland was awaited.

[11] But that old persecutor of virtues (who strives to extinguish all holy and good resolutions, if he can; if not, at least he tries to hinder them) incited the mind of Lord Charles, the brother of the same Lady Catherine, to indignation against her, so that he wrote to Lord Egard her husband under threat of death, not to permit his sister to go on pilgrimage outside

the homeland. But that letter, while Lord Egard was away from his own home on his business, came into the hands of Lady Catherine: who, suspecting something of the sort, opened the letter, and having learned the course of the threat, brought the matter to her uncle Lord Israel, a powerful man and of complete devotion and prudence. she is encouraged by her uncle. Who, piously consoling her in the Lord, urged her not to fall from that holy resolution because of her brother's threats; and at the same time assured her that he would ward off his threat against Lord Egard her husband: and thus, having greatly consoled her, not only with words but also with gifts, he encouraged her toward a swifter departure from the homeland. Without delay, together with Lord Gorstag Thunasson, Marshal of Sweden, and with two other Ladies of the Kingdom of Sweden, she boarded a ship.

[12] Having crossed the sea with great difficulty, Having arrived at Rome, accompanied by the aforesaid persons, through the lands of Germany and Italy, she arrived at Rome in the month of August. At that time, moreover, her holy and God-worthy mother Blessed Bridget, at Bologna in the monastery of Sarpe, at Christ's command was staying for some time for the correction of the Abbot and community of that place, with the venerable Father, her spiritual director, Lord Peter Olai, and a few others of her household. Lady Catherine, however, with her retinue, was anxiously seeking her mother, because she could not know where she had gone. she finds her mother's Confessor; Meanwhile Lord Peter, Blessed Bridget's Confessor, felt certain wonderful movements and impulses of certain affections in his soul, agitating him so much to cross over to Rome that, from their vehemence, he could neither sleep nor eat until he should set out on the journey toward Rome; and being dismissed by Blessed Bridget, although reluctantly, he quickly reached the city, and meeting Lady Catherine and her retinue in the Church of S. Peter, he received them with great joy; knowing truly that the Lord had hastened his journey for their consolation.

[13] On the following day, indeed, to visit Lady Bridget, by whom she is led to her they returned together with Lord Peter to the aforesaid monastery. Received reverently by the Abbot of that place, on account of the devotion of Lady Bridget, by whose holy exhortations he had already been converted to a better life, they stayed there together for some days. But at the counsel of Blessed Bridget, coming again to Rome, they very humbly completed their pilgrimages through the Stations and the shrines of the Saints. And having spent some weeks at Rome, she returns to Rome with her, Lady Catherine prepared to return to her homeland. But when Lady Catherine was already on the point of returning to her homeland, she was asked by her mother S. Bridget, by Christ's command, whether she wished to remain in Rome with her for his honor, and consents to remain there: and to endure labors and adversities of every kind for Christ. Wholly inflamed in spirit, therefore, she replied that she was willing gladly to leave behind not only her homeland, friends, and relatives, riches and pleasures, but even her husband, whom she loved more than her own body, if it pleased Christ.

[14] Her consent to remain having thus been given, promised to her mother by Christ as a helper, Christ revealed to her mother Blessed Bridget, saying: Your daughter Catherine is the person whom I promised as a faithful co-worker in the affairs divinely committed to you: for she is a beautiful seedling, which I myself wish to plant under my right arm, so that it may grow into a fruitful tree. And because she needs the moisture of grace, I will water her with my wisdom. Advise her, therefore, to remain with you for a time, because it is more useful for her to stay than to return. For I shall do with her as a father does with his daughter: who is loved by two and sought in marriage: of whom one is poor and the other rich, and both are loved by the girl. The prudent father, therefore, sees the feeling of the Virgin and that the poor man is loved by her: he gives the poor man clothes and gifts, but joins his daughter to the rich man: so I wish to do. She loves me and her husband: therefore, because I am richer and the Lord of all, I wish to provide for her from my gifts, more useful to her for the soul: because it pleases me to call him: and the illness from which he is suffering is the sign of his departure. For it befits one tending toward the Most Powerful to have his accounts in his hands, and to be free from carnal things. Her, however, I wish to lead and bring back to her own, she is filled with divine wisdom: until she becomes fit for the work which I foreknew from eternity, and to show her what pleases me.

[15] From that day, therefore, so great a grace of eloquence increased in her that among Princes and the wise she spoke confidently about the testimonies of God. Whence the Lord Pope Urban VI himself was so amazed at her wisdom that when she once spoke in his presence and that of the Cardinals, he said to her familiarly: Truly, daughter, you have drunk of the milk of your mother. And so, some time having elapsed after she had vowed to remain with her mother, she learns that she has been made a widow: shaken by a certain horror of an unaccustomed life and mindful of her former liberty, she anxiously asked her mother for permission to return to Sweden. While her mother was at prayer concerning this temptation, Christ appeared, saying: tempted about returning to her homeland, and seeking a remedy, Tell that Virgin, your daughter, that she has now been made a widow, and I advise that she remain with you, because I myself wish to provide for her. And although she humbly embraced the good pleasure of the divine will, she was nevertheless compelled to revolve in her mind the delightful native soil of her homeland, which indeed she rejected by will and the vigor of reason. Whence she began to ask her kind mother that, if she knew some remedy according to God, S. Bridget orders her to be beaten with rods. she would apply it to her so affected.

[16] Her venerable mother, already triumphant over all such temptations, provided a salutary remedy for her daughter, wounded by carnal affection, calling the master, her Confessor, asking humbly and devoutly that by a beating of rods he should drive out the ailment of mind, and Lady Catherine herself was urgently requesting the same remedy. And sometimes when she was being beaten by the Confessor, she said to the master: Do not spare me, but strike harder, because you do not yet reach the hardness of the heart. And so, with the master continuing the stripes, on one occasion she said with a cheerful countenance: It is enough for me: for I feel my heart changed, and all movement of that temptation to have entirely departed.

[17] At that same time, moreover, the Lord Pope with his Curia was residing at Avignon. Forbidden to visit the Stations Whence many sons of Belial, taking boldness from the impunity, grew powerful in the city against public justice, exercising insolence and violence with impunity in the streets of the city, so that pilgrims and simple folk did not dare to visit the Indulgences and Stations because of such incursions of evildoers. But especially upon young women were grievous annoyances inflicted by those pestilent men. For this reason Lady Catherine was also forbidden by her mother the earlier temptation returns not to go to the Indulgences without a large and powerful retinue. Whence, remaining at home for many days with the maidservants, while her mother and the Confessor visited the Stations and Indulgences, she once began to be agitated by certain bitter thoughts, which were as follows. Here I lead a miserable life, with a most grievous sorrow, others make progress and gain benefits for their souls, they visit the holy places, they attend the divine mysteries: but I am brutishly sequestered from all spiritual goods. Ah, my kinsmen, my brothers and sisters, in my homeland they serve God with all tranquility, why have I come into this misery? Would it not be better not to exist than to live thus uselessly in both, namely in body and soul? She sat consumed by sorrows, inwardly filled with excessive bitterness.

[17] which she reveals to her mother, And while, thus afflicted, she was tossed about by her thoughts, her mother arriving with her Confessor Lord Peter, asked the cause of her sadness: but she, from the vehemence of bitterness and grief, was unable to answer. Her mother, however, requested a reply by virtue of holy obedience, and Lady Catherine herself, at the word of obedience, as though from the depths of her breast, said: My Lady, I am unable to speak. For she was like one dead, with a pale face and eyes distorted from the violence of the importunate thoughts captivating her mind. On the following night, however, it seemed to her in a dream that the whole world was burning, and that she was placed in the middle of the fire on a certain small plain, and greatly fearing and trembling and despairing of being able to escape that fire.

[18] and reproved by the Blessed Virgin in her sleep, Then the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, appeared to her, whom she addressed supplicatingly, saying: O my dearest Lady, help me. To whom the Virgin replied: How can I help you, since you so fervently desire to return to your homeland, to your friends and relatives? You neglect the vow made to your God, having become disobedient to him and to me, your Mother, and to your spiritual Father. To this Catherine said: O my most kind Lady, I willingly embrace whatever you may impose upon me. And the Virgin to her: she promises to adhere to her mother. Be therefore obedient to your mother and to your spiritual Father on my behalf; this I wish you to do: know this to be pleasing to me. Lady Catherine, awaking, hastily came with all humility to her mother, kneeling before her, supplicating that she would forgive her the fault of her obstinate disobedience, by which she had grievously offended God, the glorious Virgin, and herself. The vision of the night having been fully explained to her mother, she then promised to be willing to obey her gladly until death, and to remain steadfastly with her in the exile of her pilgrimage. Her mother, congratulating her on the conversion of such a miracle, said: This is the change of the right hand of the Most High: blessed be he who makes all things work together for good for those who love him.

an army with a desire for martyrdom against schismatics and idolaters, and to have steadfastly refused the offered crown of the kingdom, when the flight of King Magnus Smek had put it in jeopardy: and to have died in the year 1348: which, if it be proven by any ancient document, it will be more certainly established that Catherine set out for Rome in the same year or at the beginning of the following.

CHAPTER III.

S. Catherine, anxious about guarding her chastity, is variously assailed.

[19] She vows obedience to her mother's Confessor. Blessed Bridget therefore, wishing to bind her daughter more tightly under the yoke of humility and obedience, lest from the indulgence of maternal compassion she should live more remissly in the way of holy penance, summoned her master Lord Peter, a man proven in spiritual governance and surrounded with the gifts of all sanctity and virtues, earnestly requesting of him that he would accept obedience from her daughter. When Lord Peter at last consented to the wishes of one so reasonably and piously beseeching, Lady Catherine humbly promised obedience and kept it so effectively that she would not presume to do even the smallest thing without his permission: knowing that the virtue of obedience fights for the truth, directs a person's steps in discipline, and merits the grace of holy conduct.

[20] Armed therefore with this virtue, she advanced into the service of spiritual exercise, Fearing for her chastity, restraining her body with the continence of chastity, lest it should be swept away by deadly pleasure. And although she had lived in virginity, even in marriage with her husband, she nevertheless feared the downward condition of youthful fragility, and was afraid lest the enemy, contriver of all iniquity, should by his cunning overturn the foundation of her holy resolution. She therefore set the Most High as her helper, she asks God for a guardian most devoutly praying that he would grant her strength and fortitude to resist the wiles of the enemy. Whence on a certain Saturday, when she was about to receive the Sacrament of the Body of Christ and approached the altar, with the Priest himself hearing, she prayed within herself, saying: O most bitter Redeemer, who took this Body from the inviolate Virgin and on the gibbet of the cross, with nerves and veins torn apart, most bitterly willed to be stretched out, I, an unworthy sinner, beseech you through your ineffable mercy to deign to preserve me lest I fall into sins. And because by your grace I had an excellent mortal soldier as the guardian of my chastity, being now freed from his marriage, I beg through grace for another zealot of my chastity, S. Sebastian. that most noble soldier, the propagator of your most holy precepts, Blessed Sebastian, to whose custody and care, most loving Jesus, deign to commit me. Saying these and other things devoutly, she received the Body of Christ as a pledge of salvation and preservation from the temptation of the enemy. The sacrifice of which prayer and commendation was so efficacious that from that day it is established that she was divinely preserved from many dangers, not without great prodigies, as will be made clearer below.

[21] This venerable Lady, therefore, having been widowed by death from her husband, She institutes a religious life in imitation of her mother, and standing at Rome with her mother S. Bridget, began to live as though in a monastery under the care of her mother, whom she knew to be illuminated by the Spirit of God and adorned with the gifts of divine virtues. She had as her teacher Master Peter, her mother's Confessor, whose counsels, doctrines, and salutary advice she, as a truly obedient woman, humbly conformed herself to entirely. She always regarded the life and manners of her mother as a spotless mirror, desiring to direct her own manners and actions after her example, and to imitate her in holy exercises of penance. For from her she learned to observe silence at certain times, she keeps silence, knowing that the virtue of silence confers peace of heart and the cultivation of justice, and nourishes and guards peace among neighbors. For unless a person applies a guard to his mouth very diligently, the gratuitous goods which he has he will quickly dissipate, and will fall into many evils. She responded when questioned with reasonable and few words, but ones that were edifying, dealing with the will of God and his precepts. She spoke to all, especially to the poor and pilgrims, familiarly and humbly, observing that saying of the Wise Man: Let all your discourse be of the precepts of the Most High.

[22] Whence, while she was at Rome, she warmly cared for the poor and pilgrims, she studiously instructs the poor. and refreshed many coming from her homeland not only with alms but with sweet and familiar conversation: exhorting them to patience and the love of Christ: frequently impressing upon them that they should especially maintain a continual remembrance of the most bitter Passion of Christ and observance of God's commandments. Of one I make mention, a poor pilgrim whom she at that time called several times into her chamber, reading the Gospel to him and explaining the Lives of the Saints and God's commandments, she earnestly urged him to avoid the seven deadly sins. This man indeed, returning with her to the homeland, as a lay brother in the monastery of Vadstena, fighting the good fight of Christ, was accustomed to recount to the Brothers many praiseworthy things about her sanctity.

[23] When, moreover, this praiseworthy Lady Catherine was at Rome while her mother Bridget was still living, although she was young, being namely about twenty years old, Solicited for marriage she constantly refuses: she was yet notable for the gravity of her manner, and having grey hairs of understanding, and beautiful of bodily appearance, which infects the hearts of many. She was also gracious in the eyes of all: whence many magnates desired to be matrimonially joined to her, declaring their wishes, now in person now through others, to the same Lady, promising great and precious things by way of dowry, if she would consent to a conjugal union with them. To whom she constantly replied that she had vowed the celibacy of perpetual continence, and was not willing to enter into marriage again with a mortal spouse. snares are set for her on this account, But they, captivated by blind love, what they could not obtain by promises and blandishments, strove to extort by threats and violence. They therefore set snares on the public roads in the narrow parts of the streets, to carry her off once captured, lest, strengthened by the holy counsels of her mother, she should deny them consent.

[24] Whence on a certain feast it happened, while her mother was occupied with other business, that but with the ambushers turned elsewhere, while Lady Catherine was going with many noble matrons of the city of Rome to S. Sebastian outside the walls for the Indulgences, a certain Count with a great retinue was lurking among the vineyards, watching whether Lady Catherine might perchance be on pilgrimage there with the other matrons. And when he learned that she was in their company, he ordered his men to be ready to seize her. They hastened from their hiding places to snatch the innocent one; but in vain did they stretch the bow of their iniquities: for the counsel of the Lord prevailed, who always protects and defends those who hope in him. When therefore those wicked men made their attack, behold, a stag came running swiftly toward them, and while they were occupied with its capture by God's direction, Lady Catherine with the other matrons, with quickened step, withdrew into the City, free she returns to her mother who prays for her, snatched like a doe from their hands, and like a bird from the snares of the fowler. When she came to the house, Blessed Bridget her mother, knowing in spirit the danger from which she had been freed, said: Blessed be the stag which today has mercifully freed you from the snares of the roaring adversary, just as the glorious Mother of God deigned to show me while I was at prayer. Whence with that loving spouse she could say: Flee, my beloved, be like a roe or a young stag upon the mountains of spices. Cant. 8:14 and from then on she stays at home. From that day she did not presume to go openly through the Stations, but only visiting a church near her house, she seldom wished to be seen in the streets: for she chose to stand in her house on her own feet, because the feet are firm upon the soles of a stable woman.

[25] At God's command she goes out with her mother to S. Lawrence She in no way presumed to go outside the walls of the City of Rome unless she had been fortified beforehand by a divine oracle, lest her presumption should make the enemy rejoice over her. When, however, she was assured by her mother through a divine revelation, she did not hesitate to go for the Indulgences. It happened indeed, as the solemnity of S. Lawrence was approaching, that Blessed Bridget said to her daughter Lady Catherine on the vigil of the same: Tomorrow by the grace of God we will go together to S. Lawrence. To whom Lady Catherine responded: My Lady, I greatly fear that on the way I may be violently seized from you by that Count whom you well know. And her mother to her: I firmly hope and trust in the Lord Jesus, that he himself will by his mercy free us from his hands and guard us from all danger. On the day of S. Lawrence, going out of the house, they fortified themselves five times with the sign of the life-giving Cross, committing themselves to the five wounds of Christ and the custody of S. Lawrence. Fortified by such protections, they arrived safely at the church of S. Lawrence.

[26] But that Count with his servants, while it was still night, a certain man about to seize her is struck with blindness; had hidden himself near the road in a vineyard, so that, springing from his hiding places as the day dawned, he might seize her unawares. But in his own snare, which he had hidden, God humbled him: For when the sun had risen, and a great part of the day had passed, the servants, weary with boredom, said to the Count: My Lord, why do you delay here? The Count replied: We are indeed waiting on account of that Lady whom we planned to capture for ourselves today. To this the servants said: It is a long time since she passed by, and she has long since reached the church of S. Lawrence. And the Count asked them whether it was already day. They answered him: Certainly, my Lord, the bright daylight shines all around, and the sun is high. Then first the Count recognized the hand of the Lord extended against him, as his iniquity demanded, and opening his eyes he saw nothing, but at his command he was immediately led to the same church of S. Lawrence: and acknowledging his fault, where, when he had come, he asked his servants whether they could see S. Bridget and her daughter there: and they, searching among the multitude of those arriving, reported to him that they were there.

[27] He immediately ordered himself to be led to them, and when he had been brought before them, he prostrated himself in their midst with

great weeping, at her prayers he receives his sight. recognizing in his afflictions his own malice, and humbly seeking forgiveness, that they would pardon his fault for God's sake, promising God that he would never again attempt such things: adding also that he would be, to the best of his abilities, their defender and helper, and would stand ready as a benevolent and willing promoter of whatever pleased them. And so immediately, with them praying for him, he received the light of his eyes. From that day he began to hold them in great reverence and honor, conferring very many benefits upon them. Moreover that Count narrated the grace and miracle done to him before the Lord Pope Urban V and the aforesaid Cardinals, proclaiming the great works of God.

[28] Whence I think it should not be left untold with what assaults the adversary of the human race, through his supporters, attacked her chastity dedicated to God, Having set out with her mother for Assisi and the Lord of hosts, Christ, the King of glory, mercifully freed her from these. It happened, moreover, that S. Francis appeared in a vision to Blessed Bridget, inviting her to visit his chamber. And when she immediately, as one devoutly obedient to S. Francis, prepared to go to Assisi, to the church of the same Saint which is called the Portiuncula, she was commanded by Christ that Lady Catherine should follow her, because she was greatly desirous of making a pilgrimage there. Christ also assured her that he would mercifully preserve them in the impending dangers of the journey, and that they should not be afraid: because although the adversary had raised up many ambushers, he would nonetheless wondrously rescue and save them from their hands. Setting out on the journey, therefore, with a suitable retinue toward Assisi, she scarcely finds lodging, it happened once that, with the day already declining, they could not reach a respectable inn; but wandering among thickets and pathless mountains, they finally came at twilight to a certain poor little tavern: where, scarcely received by the innkeeper, they placed themselves among the narrow recesses of that hovel, so that they might be somewhat sheltered from the rain showers and snow.

[29] And behold, in the dead of night, a great troop of robbers arrived there; they light a fire, which when robbers enter by night are scattered by a sudden terror: they examine the faces of each one, and, captivated by the beauty of Lady Catherine, they cast amorous words. What fear assailed her innocent mind, who can express, when the terrible voice of roaring lions was redoubled. Now all human aid was lacking; they begged only for divine protection with suppliant devotion. Blessed be God, who delivers those who wait upon him. When therefore, inflamed with the torches of lust, they prepared to rush upon her, suddenly there arose a great tumult as of an approaching army: the clashing of weapons was also heard, and the shouting of those urging the capture of the robbers. Those wretched sons of destruction, hearing these clamors, were thrown into confusion and fled, not daring to revisit that lodging that night (for a sudden and unexpected fear had come upon them), the same, lying in ambush along the way, are prevented from seeing her. and so, fleeing, they believed that armed camps of strong soldiers had arrived there. But Blessed Bridget and Lady Catherine her daughter, with their retinue, remaining in that place that night under the protection of their God, in the morning set out on the routes of their pilgrimage toward Assisi. But those criminals, terrified during the night by the Guardians of Israel, that same day prepared ambushes along the way, stationing themselves on both sides of the road along which Lady Bridget and Catherine with their household were to pass; so that even in this way they might extend their hands to iniquity. Those women, trusting in the Lord, proceeded along the public road, seeing the robbers on both sides of the road prepared for evil: but they themselves were not at all seen by them, because upon them alone was placed a heavy night and an image of darkness, although all around the whole world was illuminated with bright light. And so they escaped their hands, in the name of the Lord, completing their pilgrimage to the shrine of S. Francis, where, greatly refreshed by divine consolations, they returned to Rome with great joy, praising the great works of God.

CHAPTER IV.

The virtues of humility, prayer, charity, poverty, and meekness in S. Catherine.

[30] Considering thenceforth the divine charity and goodness in the benefit of her preservation, this venerable Lady Catherine, as a grateful daughter of God, S. Catherine devotes herself to profound humility, laid the foundation of humility in her heart, which renders persons pleasing to God, and draws to itself the clemency of God, and preserves the other virtues in their vigor and obtains their primacy: knowing that when the human mind relies upon humility, it is indeed inflamed in the love of God and of heavenly things. Whence she not only had the humility by which she truly despised herself, but she also wished to be despised by others and to be considered worthless. She was indeed great in the merit of her life and pleasing in the eyes of God: but yet she wished to be called by others not holy but a sinner. She strove therefore in the spirit of humility to serve the Lord more closely, always inwardly depressing herself in her own estimation, outwardly humbling herself before people in words and sighs, in dress and in all her deeds. She greatly abhorred being praised for any deed of hers: whence she sharply reproached a certain one of her maidservants who commended her for the graces bestowed on her, saying: By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I adjure you never to say or think such things about me again; since I am a worthless and unworthy sinner: but may he himself be blessed by every creature of his, who works all good in all.

[31] to frequent prayer. How great in charity also and divine fervor she was in the divine service, it would take long to relate: for from her infancy she daily read the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, the seven Psalms, with many private prayers. And how great her fervor was in private prayers can be estimated from the following. For before sleeping, for four continuous hours in genuflections and beating of the breast, with many tears, on account of the remembrance of the most bitter Passion of Christ, every evening she offered herself wholly to the Lord as a holocaust; in bed, gathering her limbs, wearied by the labors of day and night, she took but little sleep: always rising before dawn for prayers in silence, she performed the daily sacrifice, neither when questioned, nor without evident necessity did she desist from her holy occupations before noon.

[32] But how efficacious and acceptable to God were her prayers, which she offered for others in the spirit of devotion and compassion, A pilgrim woman seeks her prayers for her dead brother's wife, is clear from many remarkable miracles. For while her pious mother S. Bridget was still alive and she was staying with her at Rome, one day, as Lady Catherine lay prostrate in prayer before the altar of S. John the Evangelist in the greater church of S. Peter, a certain pilgrim woman appeared to her, dressed in a white tunic, girt with a belt, and wearing a white veil on her head, covered with a black mantle, who with swift step was approaching Lady Catherine, greeting her by name, humbly asking that she would pray for the soul of Norica. Lady Catherine, raising herself, asked her where she was from. The pilgrim woman answered that she was from Sweden and that the wife of Lord Charles her brother had died. Lady Catherine therefore began to invite her to the house of her mother, but that pilgrim woman began to excuse herself, saying that she did not have time to stay, visible to her alone: again repeating her earlier words, namely: Pray well for the soul of Norica; for soon you will have a messenger from your homeland, and good support: because Norica has bequeathed to you the golden circlet of her head, and immediately she disappeared. Lady Catherine, therefore, wondering, turned to the maidservants who stood near her and asked where the person who had been speaking with her had gone. But they answered: We indeed heard you speaking with someone, but we saw no one.

[33] Lady Catherine, therefore, astonished, reported what she had seen and heard to her mother S. Bridget. whom she understands to have been the soul of the deceased, To whom, praying about this, it was divinely revealed that Lady Gydha, the wife of Charles, had died, and her soul, seeking suffrage, had appeared to her. Nor long after came Ingevald Amundsson, a familiar of Lady Catherine, from Sweden, announcing the death of the aforesaid Lady Gydha, bringing to them the testament, namely the golden circlet or crown which she had been accustomed to wear while living according to the custom of her country. For the said Lady Gydha was descended from the nobler stock of the Noricans. The crown, moreover, was of such great value that with its price Blessed Bridget and her daughter, with their entire household, were competently provided for as to provisions for an entire year. and receives the crown bequeathed by her. In this it probably appears how acceptable the sacrifices of her prayers were, since from divine clemency a soul existing in purgatory was granted to seek her intercession for its liberation. The custom of this venerable Lady was, at the time of prayer, to seek a secret place and to flee tumult, so that she might render a worthy sacrifice and service to God; believing herself to be heard the more quickly, the more she cried to the Lord from the innermost depths of her breast. And if the tongue of flesh was silent, yet the purity of her life, together with pious exercises and works, did not cease to supplicate the Lord.

[34] How great in compassion and love toward her neighbor this venerable Lady was, From infancy she was accustomed to accompany her mother to the sick, can be considered from this: that from her infancy compassion for the poor and sick grew together with her. For her most holy mother Blessed Bridget was accustomed to bring her, young and tender, with her to the hospitals, where her mother herself devoutly handled with her own hands without horror the wounds and ulcers and injuries of the sick, conferring many benefits and consoling words upon them: showing her, still young, an example of how she ought to do similar things for the poor and sick for God's sake in every age to come. And if sometimes certain people reproached the pious mother of this venerable Lady because she brought her tender daughters with her to the houses of the poor and sick, she puts on a tender feeling toward the poor, fearing that they might somehow be infected by the stench of the sick; she kindly replied to them, saying that she brought her daughters to the houses of the sick so that they might learn to serve God in the poor and sick. Whence it is quite credible concerning this venerable daughter of S. Bridget that, as her age increased, compassion for the sick and poor persons grew with her, visiting them diligently, offering words of consolation, and relieving their needs with pious alms, devoutly imitating, as far as she could, the footsteps of her holy mother in these things.

[35] Moreover, the words of her mother S. Bridget which she had heard, and the works of piety which she had seen in her mother, had pierced her heart with compassion; and also exercises it toward her mother. so that she was greatly compassionate in her whole heart toward the poverty of the poor, and condoling in speech with those who grieved, and generously bestowing benefits in works to help them. For when her mother herself was sleeping on the hard floor, out of pious filial compassion, she secretly rose at night, placing her hood under her ribs and loins, tempering the hardness of the pavement.

O what pious compassion full of love! which, although it showed little in effect, yet displayed the greatest love in affection, as befitted a good daughter toward her mother. Happy, therefore, the mother who propagated such a daughter for the world in the flesh, but much happier because she spiritually begot her for Christ, the Lord of all, by her holy examples and the sanctity of her life, and fitted her for his holy service.

[36] And since the greatest impediments to devotion and prayer are the desires of the world and the flesh, Having purged the love of the world, she strove greatly to alienate these from her mind as a deadly poison; desiring voluntarily to embrace poverty and the abjection of life for God's sake, so that she might more freely deserve to follow Christ, who became poor for her sake: whom she truly followed, renouncing the riches of the world and the pleasures of the flesh, which torment and trouble their lovers. She loves poverty; She held the glory of the world in contempt and trampled it underfoot in spirit, so that she might enlarge the glory of God: and so that she might make greater progress in the way of God, she subjected herself to another's will through obedience; esteeming it a great glory to be poor for the Lord and to be despised by the world. She entirely sequestered from her mind the possessions of the world and the comfort of brothers and relatives, loving exile over homeland, so that she might more firmly fix the intention of her soul in Christ, her beloved, and in eternal goods. Whence that benign rewarder, who for those who love him exchanges all unworthy things assumed for his sake into their glory and honor, which God honors, not only in the future but also in the present, exchanged the poverty and abjection of this venerable Lady Catherine into praise and beauty.

[37] For it happened once, while her mother S. Bridget was still living, that certain nobler matrons of Rome bestowing on others, asked her to go outside the walls with them for recreation, because she was much loved by all for the manifold graces bestowed on her by God. For she excelled in the principal quality of devotion and gravity of manner, shone in the beautiful bearing of her body and her commendable conduct. Her mother Blessed Bridget, considering their remarkable probity, permitted her daughter Lady Catherine to walk outside the Roman walls, not from the carelessness of levity but for the sake of recreation. Going out of Rome, therefore, they came to the walls of the vineyards: and certain of them, seeing grapes overhanging above the walls, asked Lady Catherine, because she was of tall stature, to pick for them the clusters extending beyond the vineyard. And since she had, on account of the poverty she had chosen, sleeves that were worn out and patched, her bare arms appeared richly covered, among such great Ladies she was not ashamed to be considered poor and lowly. With her arms extended beyond her bosom to gather the fruit of the grapes, to all the Ladies her arms appeared most excellently clothed in hyacinth and purple. Whence greatly astonished, one by one they touched and examined those sleeves, gleaming with precious purple, and said to her: Lady Catherine, who would believe that you would ever wish to wear such precious clothing and attire? The household that was then present testified to this, and Master Peter, her Confessor, of holy memory.

[38] At another time also, while Lady Catherine, her mother still living, lay sick in bed pressed down by a grave illness, and her sick-bed of humble condition, a certain special friend of theirs, a noble Roman Baron named Ludovico, informed Blessed Bridget that he wished to visit her sick daughter. Their household, hearing this, was inwardly embarrassed that so great a Lord should see her lying in so poor a bed. For she lay upon a straw mattress, having one small pillow under her head, covered above with an old and mended cloak. But the Lord Jesus Christ, who by his poverty exalted the need of his poor with glory and honor, also distinguished the worthlessness and abjection of this voluntary poverty of hers with the riches of his ineffable grace, in the sight of the powerful and rich Lord Ludovico. it appeared richly furnished; For when that Lord, accompanied by many, came to where the sick woman lay, her bed seemed to him excellently furnished with the finest coverings, having above it a golden and scarlet covering. Greatly marveling, he said to the servants following him: These Ladies are considered poor by everyone, whence they often borrow money for necessities: it would be better for them to sell the purple and that noble furnishing of such great value which we saw in their house for necessities, than to be pressed by the want and scarcity of food and clothing.

[39] How much, moreover, her voluntary poverty pleased God and the glorious Virgin Mary, was revealed to Blessed Bridget, praying in sweetness of spirit, in these terms. O my dearest Lady, I beseech you by the charity of your beloved son, [and that she was praised by the Blessed Virgin for this virtue, as told to S. Bridget.] to give me help to love him with all my heart. I feel myself weak to love him with so ardent a charity as I ought. Therefore I beseech you, Mother of mercy, to deign to bind his charity upon my heart, and draw it to your son, completely separated from all carnal love with the whole effort, and the more violently draw it, the more weighty it may be. To whom the Virgin Mary answered, saying: Blessed be he who inspires such prayers in you: but although my conversation seems sweet to you, go nevertheless and sew the tunic of your daughter Catherine, who rejoices more in an old and repaired tunic than in a new one: who has more desire for grey coarse cloth than for silk or other precious garment. Blessed is she who has thus freely left worldly things: she left her husband with his benevolent consent, whose body she loved more than the bodies of both of them. She also left brothers and sisters, relatives and friends in body, so that she might help them spiritually, and she did not care for the possessions of the world. Now for the abandonment of blood relatives, all her sins have been forgiven her. Let her henceforth stand firm, because for earthly possession the Kingdom of heaven shall be given her, and Jesus Christ himself for a husband: and all who love her for God's sake shall profit because of her.

[40] And although she was encompassed on all sides with a variety of virtues, redolent to all with the reputation of good fame and sanctity, yet among her household she was particularly commended for patience; Among her household she sets forth an example of patience, because she diligently considered that the mind, when it does not resist its own disturbance through patience, even confounds whatever good things it may have done with a tranquil mind: and by an unforeseen impulse destroys what perhaps it had long built by provident labor. For it is very easy to have a contemptible garment and to walk with bowed head: but true patience in the face of injury shows the truly humble person. For just as ointments cannot exhale their fragrance more widely unless stirred, so this venerable Lady Catherine became more widely fragrant in the virtue of patience through the persecutions and injuries unjustly inflicted upon her. For she occupied herself entirely with a threefold exercise of the virtue of patience: for from her neighbor she suffered damages, persecutions, insults, and detraction with the greatest patience. Often also reproved by maidservants and household members, she bore offenses and injuries with equanimity; loving her offenders in a spirit of gentleness, as though they were benefactors.

[41] A certain Religious woman and nun of blessed life at Vadstena reported concerning this virtue of patience of hers, she was never seen to be indignant. Margaret daughter of Charles, who served Lady Catherine herself for five years, that she never heard a word of impatience from her, nor could she perceive signs of indignation against those who offended her. Whence it is greatly to be lamented and is reprehensible in some who, for a small insult, or even for some sign or word, so abandon charity that for many days they are unwilling to speak, or to show friendship or signs of friendship toward their neighbor, or to do good things. The Martyrs and the rest of the Saints could not be separated from the love of God by horrible torments: but (alas) we sometimes, by idle gossip, and often for the slightest insult, indeed sometimes for some sign of levity, we abandon the charity of God and neighbor. How great were the temptations she endured from the adversary cannot easily be described: since the life of the just is nothing but warfare upon earth. Bearing gladly the scourges of the Maker with thanksgiving, she in no way broke forth into the excess of murmuring: for she considered that whoever desires the rewards of the future life must bear with equanimity all the evils of the present life.

CHAPTER V.

S. Catherine transfers the body of S. Bridget her mother from Rome to Sweden: she presides over the convent of Vadstena.

[42] Moreover this venerable Lady not only diligently exercised herself with the virtues described below throughout the whole time of her life, The constant companion of her mother's pilgrimages, but also in other exercises of good works. While she was at Rome for twenty-five years with her mother, S. Bridget, to be named with all reverence (whose inseparable companion she had been during the aforesaid time in her pilgrimages), not only the Stations of the churches in Rome for Indulgences, but also with her she visited as a pilgrim various shrines of the Saints, existing in various places and kingdoms, and the sepulchre of the Lord in Jerusalem, in great labors, burning with desire for God. Having traversed, therefore, the holy places, in holy Jerusalem her mother S. Bridget began to be sick with a fever, Bridget, returned from Jerusalem, which lasted until they both arrived at Rome, where the Lord Jesus revealed to his holy Spouse the day and hour of her death, and other things to be done, all of which she communicated to her Lords the Confessors and to Lady Catherine, as had been revealed and commanded to her by Christ.

[43] The debt of death of her mother S. Bridget having therefore been paid at Rome, she buries her at Rome: and the body committed to burial, according to the arrangement of her will, in the monastery of Panisperna; this venerable Lady Catherine, just as she had shown herself to be a most faithful co-worker to her living mother in promoting the affairs committed to her by Christ, so also to the deceased she rendered due execution in all things according to the arrangement of Christ's will. For Christ had revealed to her mother that the body should be deposited at Rome and afterwards transferred to Sweden,

which she diligently carries out with the Confessors of S. Bridget, and the flesh having been quickly resolved, a period of five weeks having elapsed. In the time, therefore, written above, after her death and in the same year, the translation was begun, but not without remarkable prodigies concerning the resolution of the flesh from the bones wondrously accomplished, nor without miracles done on the way, and was completed, and transferred to the monastery of Vadstena, as has been more fully written elsewhere. And when this venerable Lady was carrying the Relics of her mother S. Bridget, with the sacred bones, noble and common matrons came to her, venerating and kissing the sacred Relics out of devotion. To those coming to her she gave counsels of salvation, that, having set aside the displays of perishing worldly luxury, they should burn more ardently with desires for future goods. At her salutary admonitions, many noble men and matrons, filled with compunction, came to their senses, becoming, with the cooperation of God's grace, followers of a better life.

[44] She arrives at Danzig, At length she arrived with the sacred Relics in Prussia, and at the city of Danzig, where two of the leading citizens, who had followed her from the City of Rome with the rest of her household, praised the grace of God's power in the holy woman: and there she boldly rebuked the transgressions of the Teutonic Knights, and, wholly inflamed with the Spirit of God, set forth the terrible threats divinely revealed to Blessed Bridget against them; everywhere she acts effectively against vices; not fearing their secular power, so that she might truly say to that eternal Judge and faithful witness: I spoke of your testimonies in the sight of Princes, and I was not confounded. For astonishment seized them, on account of the wonderful eloquence full of divine wisdom, whence at her words all iniquity stopped its mouth, nor could the wisdom of the world oppose the truth. Then she left the city of Danzig, and having landed in Sweden, boarding a ship with the sacred Relics and her household, sailing to Sweden. And when they had sailed, they arrived at a port of Sweden not at all anticipated, with a star leading and shining more brightly than the sun at midday, and afterwards they put in at the port of Söderköping in Östergötland, with all their possessions safe.

[45] When her long-desired arrival was known, there came to meet her from all parts of Östergötland an innumerable multitude of men and women, with the Relics, nobles and commoners, Clergy and Religious: conducting her and the sacred Relics of the blessed mother Bridget, and of other various Saints with which the mother and daughter had been honored by great persons, the Queen of Naples, Cardinals, Barons and noble Roman matrons, and many religious, with special devotion and no little joy, S. Bridget's virtues being proclaimed by Peter, all the way to the monastery of Vadstena. The venerable Peter, Prior of Alvastra, of the Cistercian Order, of happy memory, who had followed Lady Catherine from Rome, in this conveyance of the holy Relics, from Söderköping all the way to Vadstena, frequently preached to the people thronging in the cities and towns; explaining how great things the benign God had deigned to work with her, and with what stupendous prodigies he had glorified her mother Blessed Bridget in the parts of Germany, Italy, and Spain, she is received honorably by all orders. and in the regions beyond the sea. Nor do I think it should be passed over with what great reverence and devotion Lady Catherine, coming to Linköping with the sacred Relics, was received by the Venerable Bishop of Linköping, Lord Nicholas, of holy memory. For he went out to meet her with Clergy and Religious, in a solemn procession, with the people of the city following: the bells were rung, the organs resounded, a voice of jubilation with a canticle resounded in the Clergy, blessed be the God of gods in Zion, who glorifies his Saints on earth.

[46] The venerable Lady Catherine having at length been conducted with the sacred pledges to the Cathedral church, she admonishes the Bishop about moderating the rigor of his penance, and the sermon being finished, she privately summoned the Lord Bishop and his Chapter; and having narrated the affairs that pertained to her, she addressed the Lord Bishop with all reverence concerning certain fasts and abstinences that were less than discreet. For he had secluded himself for a long time, devoted solely to God, in fasts, vigils, and prayers, with pastoral solicitude neglected. For he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ; not on account of the restlessness of labor and solicitude: but because with evils multiplied in the kingdom of Sweden, he could not, without harm to the Churches and his Clergy, set himself as a wall for the house of the Lord; the zeal for the house of God consumed him, and the reproaches of those who reproached the privileges of the Church fell upon his heart. But having heard the counsel of the holy woman, seasoned with spiritual wisdom, with remarkable benefit to him. he chose to be afflicted with the people of God, esteeming it riches to bear the reproach of Christ with longsuffering and patience. In him was verified that saying of the wise man: Give, he says, the wise man an occasion, and wisdom shall be added to him; teach the just, and he shall hasten to receive. Prov. 9:9 From then on the holy Pontiff greatly venerated her, seeing that the wisdom of God was in her, whose lips consider things pleasing to God, and whose tongue sounds prudence like chosen silver.

[47] She is received at Vadstena: Finally arriving at the monastery of Vadstena on Wednesday within the Octave of Peter and Paul, she was received with immense joy by the whole congregation of Sisters and Brothers. For she embraced all the Sisters with maternal affection, rejoicing greatly at their well-being and the progress of their devotion: and so, having held a conference with the Brothers, enclosed with the Sisters, with all the spirit of devotion she offered to God the sacrifice of praise, where she explains the Rule of the Savior: rejoicing that she had safely escaped the dire whirlpools of this fluctuating world. She therefore began at that time to preside over the Sisters and to demonstrate to them the Rule of the Savior, which she had learned over twenty-four years, while her mother S. Bridget was still living, in the spiritual life, in vigilant study of holy conversation; offering herself as a conspicuous exemplar of all things contained in the Rule. And therefore whatever was reprehensible in holy conversation, such as detraction and other insults, she greatly abhorred. Whence she is reported to have once said to her niece Ingegerd, then a young woman, afterwards the first consecrated Abbess at Vadstena, she most greatly abhors detractions, when she was once doing some needlework, as is the custom of young women: My daughter Ingegerd, what are you embroidering with a needle in that work which you hold in your hands? She answered: My Lady, here I am depicting two biting each other's backs from either side. But the venerable Catherine, drawing deep sighs from the bottom of her breast, burst forth into these words of supplication, saying: Most kind Jesus, through the most worthy intercession of your most loving Mother, turn away from this Order, dedicated to your Virgin Mother, the pestilent bites of detractors. For she considered the saying of a certain Saint, that the detractor and the willing listener both carry the devil on their tongue.

[48] The entire Congregation of Sisters and Brothers, therefore, saw in her, as in a mirror, she becomes an exemplar of every virtue to her subjects. the pattern of all integrity and sanctity: and how fervent she was in the divine service, and patient in tribulations. They regarded her as the brightness of the sun on a mountaintop, which by the refraction of its rays illuminates the valleys. In her, finally, divine charity claimed dominion for itself, which in the gathering of all virtues is acknowledged to be the more solid firmament. For by the mastery of this excellent virtue, the venerable Catherine became wonderful in reputation, gentle in humility, sweet in kindness, compassionate in piety, steady in patience, affable in conversation, cheerful in the giving of alms, and composed in all integrity of manners. After her Hours, indeed, and prayers, she would read the Psalter with some Sister: calling the Sisters to her now one by one, now all in turn, she urged them to the observance of the Rule with a sweet and maternal affection.

is accustomed to call the feast itself the first of the Octave, the fourth day of the Octave would have been not July 3 but July 2. Moreover, with July 5 it is fully consistent that (as the Continuator of the manuscript chronicle of Marianus Florentinus supplied to Durantus through Wadding) in the year immediately following the burial of S. Bridget, just as she herself had ordered while living, half of her bones were translated to the monastery which she herself had founded in Sweden, on the 12th of July. For the solemnity of the Translation, to be concluded on the eighth day, could have surpassed the magnificence of the first day by such splendor, that those who wrote about this matter to Italy deemed it worthy of honoring that day, as the principal one, with the title of Translation.

p That Rule is found printed in volume 2 of the Revelations from page 251 and following.

q Hence the author of the Italian Life thinks Catherine should be called the Foundress of the entire Order, as though only then, with her introducing it, the Rule of the Savior had begun to be observed at Vadstena: all of which seems harsh to us: granted that the holy mother was not clothed by Christ in the habit of the Order she had founded until a little before her death.

r Brother Charles is recorded as having begotten only twin offspring, Charles and Bridget: therefore this girl was from one or the other of the two sisters whom the authors mention as happy mothers from noble marriages; from Merita, alias Martha, or Cecilia.

s Therefore Catherine never bore the title of Abbess, but governed the monastery as Superior without consecration: but after her death the title designated in the Rule began to be used.

CHAPTER VI.

Catherine, sent to Rome to obtain her mother's canonization, spends five years in that business.

[49] It happened, therefore, that after the venerable Lady Catherine had transferred the holy Relics of her holy mother S. Bridget As S. Bridget's miracles grew more frequent, from Rome to Sweden, to the monastery of Vadstena, they began to shine there with many miracles. And the fame of the sanctity of Blessed Bridget, having been published everywhere throughout the world, many came from diverse parts to Vadstena, praising and magnifying God for the miracles and prodigies which he deigned to work abundantly through her merits. The glory of which miracles having inflamed the King and Prelates and Nobles of the kingdom and the Clergy, they decreed, with the unanimous consent of the entire congregation and the same monastery, that Lady Catherine should cross over again to Rome Catherine sets out for Rome from obedience, for the business of the canonization of her mother S. Bridget. In the following year, therefore, after the glorious body of the holy mother Bridget was deposited in the monastery of Vadstena in Easter week, with all the expenses for so arduous a business prepared, and when she was already about to set out on the morrow, she said to her household: God knows, the most faithful witness of all secrets, that I desire with all the longing of my mind to be wearied for this holy business and to spend my very life, so that it may obtain its due effect: but I so love obedience that if my master should say to me with a single word, "you shall not leave this monastery until you end your present life," I would most readily acquiesce in his will. For she knew that obedience is rightly preferred to sacrifices, because through sacrifices another's flesh is slain, but through obedience one's own will is sacrificed.

[50] At length, under God's guidance and with all safe, she came again to Rome, where, with the business of the canonization proposed, with the miracles of S. Bridget, and the humble and devout petitions of the King of Sweden, the Lords, and the Prelates of the kingdom, and finds the minds of the courtiers favorably disposed: all the members of the Pope's Court, both Cardinals and the rest, who while S. Bridget was alive had always been devout and supportive of her, were likewise inclined to promote this holy business. And when the fame of the sanctity and good reputation of Lady Catherine had reached the ears of the Romans, they remembered her prayers are sought by various people. how efficacious her devout prayers were with God while her holy mother Bridget was still living: whence very many nobles humbly sought the suffrages of her prayer for themselves and for the conversion of their people, as will appear more clearly from what is written below.

[51] There was therefore a certain Lady, the widow of a certain Baron, To a noble and pleasure-loving widow leading her life in secular pomp outside Rome in her castle, a sister of Latinus, a noble Roman Baron, many times admonished by her brother and spiritual men to live more continently in the state of widowhood, setting aside vanity: who, despising the counsels salutary to her soul, gave herself more and more to pleasures. At length her brother Lord Latinus, by much insistence, prevailed upon her to come to Rome to stay with him. She came to Rome with great pomp, not for the purpose of gaining Indulgences; and there she began to fall gravely ill, dangerously ill at Rome, to the point that she was given up by the physicians. Her brother, the aforesaid Lord Latinus, always anxious about the salvation of his sister's soul, urged her through himself and through other devout persons to confess her sins purely: but she, with a hardened mind, always answered that she had confessed sufficiently. Whence the same Lord Latinus, trusting greatly in the sanctity and devotion of Lady Catherine, asked her to deign to visit his sister, now near death, and to advise her to make a true confession before death.

[52] Lady Catherine, always kind to the consolation of the sick, Catherine being summoned, fruitlessly urges Confession, coming to her, strove by devout exhortations to induce her to make a full confession of her offenses: but that sick woman, as before, said she was sufficiently confessed and was unwilling to confess further. Whence Lady Catherine, understanding her hardened heart, asked all those present to pray for the salvation of her soul and for the obtaining of the grace of contrition, and kneeling down she gave herself to prayer. And suddenly it seemed clearly visible that from the river Tiber there was ascending a certain smoke blacker than soot, but as she prayed a storm suddenly arose, spherical in form but in size like a wagonload of hay; which, lifted up on high above the house in which the sick woman lay, hung suspended. In which house such darkness was created that no one could see another there on account of the density of the shadows. That dark whirlwind, moreover, which had inwardly darkened the mind of that sick woman, also prefigured the outer darkness shortly to be upon her, unless help had come to her by the remedy of penance through the grace of God, and that, as is piously believed, on account of the devout prayers of Lady Catherine.

[53] For that dark whirlwind destroyed to the ground the house nearest to the room in which the aforesaid sick Lady was lying: it bends the mind of the obstinate one. at whose immense impact and crash the sick woman, terrified, called for Lady Catherine, and with tears promised to do whatever she would advise for the salvation of her soul. Whence Lady Catherine, giving immense thanks to the Lord, who always regards the vows of his humble ones, advised the sick Lady to confess her sins fully. A Confessor was immediately called: and what she previously could not hear without mental horror, now filled with compunction, she fervently sought with groaning of heart and sorrow. And so, confession having been made several times, the following morning, having received the Sacraments, she fell asleep in the Lord. This grace is believed to have been truly obtained by the prayers and merit of Lady Catherine, as all those present testified, praising the clemency of the Savior, who heard the prayer of the poor and makes many mercies for those who love him.

[54] The sincerity of her devotion will also be evidently known to all from the following divine benefit. There was, moreover, a certain Lady at Rome, To a pregnant woman accustomed to miscarry, who had borne seven stillborn children to her husband, for which reason she was less loved by her husband. And when she was now pregnant, she feared she would as before bring forth a dead child. She therefore went as a suppliant to Lady Catherine, knowing her to be holy and worthy of God, and explained her remarkable case to her. Whence Lady Catherine gave her a small piece of the clothing of her mother Blessed Bridget, exhorting her always to carry it with her until the time of birth: relics of her mother being applied, she also promised her that she would be present when she gave birth. The woman, therefore, trusting in her sanctity, devoutly fulfilled what was enjoined upon her. When the time of birth was at hand, she called Lady Catherine, that she might obtain for her by her holy prayers before God the delivery of a living child: nor did she delay in coming to her, as she had promised: whence, coming quickly to her, already in the pains of labor, adding her own presence she procured a happy delivery. she humbly rendered the due care to the pregnant woman, not ceasing to pray and beseech until the woman gave birth to a living girl, whom she named Bridget out of devotion to Lady Catherine. For she truly believed that she had obtained this kind of grace through the presence, merits, and prayers of the venerable Lady Catherine. This deed was spread abroad in the City and held as a great miracle, and all who heard of it praised the Lord together, who through the merits and devotion of Lady Catherine had conferred the benefits of salvation on mother and child in their danger.

[55] It also happened at Rome while she was staying there, that once the Tiber, overflowing excessively (so that the flood of waters passed over the Lateran bridge and the monastery of Blessed James and many other surrounding buildings), the Romans, fearing the destruction of the City on account of the excessive flooding, The dangerously overflowing Tiber, having taken counsel, came to the house of Lady Catherine, asking that she deign to go down with them to the course of the flooding waters, to pray to the Lord about these troubles. She, however, a nursling of humility, deeming herself unworthy, began to refuse with tears. But when they saw that they were gaining nothing by the urgency of their prayers, they used force, leading her out of the house, and cast her before the oncoming floodwaters. A wondrous thing, the ancient miracle returned. cast before the waters by the Romans, For as in the time of Joshua the Jordan was turned back; at the touch of her feet the torrent returned with all speed, seeking its channel, and the floodwater fled at the approach of the holy woman. All were astounded, and the Lord of immense power was praised, who through his Saints works wonders even in the waters. Whence the venerable Father, she restrains the waters. and of holy memory, Brother Peter, Prior of Alvastra, of the Cistercian Order, present at this spectacle, calling the household of Lady Catherine to witness, addressed them with these words: Keep carefully in memory the marvels you have seen today, because concerning these and her other miraculous deeds and virtues, which God has deigned to work through her, testimony will be required in future times.

[56] Then when this venerable Lady Catherine crossed over to Naples, To a noble widow troubled by an incubus, and tarried there on account of the aforesaid business of canonization, to write and collect miracles which the Lord had deigned to work through S. Bridget her mother, both during her life there and after her death, the fame of her sanctity was celebrated. Whence a certain great Lady according to the dignity of the world came to her, explaining to her with tears how her daughter, widowed from her husband, was most grievously tormented by a nocturnal demon, and did not dare to reveal such shameful disturbances to any of her relatives; but seizing the opportunity on account of the reputation and fame of her sanctity, she disclosed the troubles of her daughter to her. Lady Catherine, hearing of

their horrible affliction, asked by her mother, Catherine, she sympathized with them from the depths of her being; and reading one Hail Mary softly, as she always used to do when consulted on spiritual matters, she gave them most salutary counsel: first, that they should make a pure confession of all their sins, because on account of unconfessed sins such illusions frequently happen to many; and that they should go with bare feet, without linen shirts, with all humility to the church of the Holy Cross, for eight consecutive days reading seven Our Fathers and Hail Marys before the Crucifix in reverence for the Passion of Christ: and that she would gladly pray for them; gives salutary counsel, although she humbly considered herself unworthy to obtain anything, yet from the spirit of compassion she most humbly promised.

[57] The said Ladies, acting according to her counsel, on the eighth day returned to her, praising God, because he had already done great mercy with them, on account of her salutary counsels and prayers. For that monstrous demon appeared to the same young woman in the silence of the night, terribly threatening and saying: and sends away the demon. Cursed be that daughter of Bridget who has separated me from you; I shall never return to you again. And so the prayer of the holy woman shut out the pursuing enemy and bound the demon in the desert of infernal Egypt. Whence on account of these and other signs of her sanctity, Lady Catherine, when she was after the death of her mother at Rome, Naples, and in various other parts of Italy and Germany, was reputed and held as a great Saint and without doubt accepted by God: so that many, placed in necessities, fled to her for counsel and for obtaining help from God, taking away grateful remedies for their troubles, through her glorious prayers and merits.

CHAPTER VII

The death and burial of S. Catherine, with the prodigies attending both.

[58] The business at Naples having been completed, and the records of the miracles of her holy mother Bridget, Having returned to Rome the venerable Lady Catherine returned to Rome and continued the process of canonization which she had begun under Gregory XI: but as the business of canonization required, it could not have its due effect, because the Pope was prevented by death. Whence that entire business of canonization had to be begun from scratch and devolved not indeed with the business completed, upon Urban VI, the immediate successor of the same Gregory. Which Urban indeed, having had knowledge of Blessed Bridget while she was still living and experience of her sanctity, attempted her canonization, but did not complete it, on account of the various incidents that occurred in the Church in those days and the schism then newly begun. Therefore the venerable Lady Catherine, having thus spent five years at Rome for the aforesaid business in great and heavy expenses, when, on account of the dangerous schism that threatened, there was no hope of being able to attain the due end of so arduous a business as was fitting; using the sounder counsel of the Prelates, she deposited at Rome the life and miracles of her holy mother Bridget, written up with their attestations under many public, authentic instruments and seals of Cardinals, but with the business of canonization fully prepared, Prelates, Lords, and Ladies in various parts of the City and the world, all giving true credence, committing that holy business to divine disposition and providence for the future.

[59] And when she had obtained from the aforesaid Apostolic a Bull, in which is contained the Rule of the Savior in the third person, and other privileges for the monastery of Vadstena, she prepared to return to her homeland; She obtains a confirmatory Bull of the Rule leaving to all then residing at Rome a celebrated memory of her name and fame of sanctity. Lord Eleazar the Cardinal, moreover, bestowed upon the same Lady Catherine the solaces of devotion and benefits of affection, counsel and assistance in procuring whatever business of hers, by the favor of Cardinal Eleazar, on account of the eminence of her life, singularly and devoutly. For that Cardinal had from his youth a singular grace of devotion toward S. Bridget, both living and dead, because while she was alive he devoutly and humbly conformed himself in the way of God and life according to her holy counsels and salutary admonitions. and also a letter of recommendation for the journey The Supreme Pontiff Urban VI, moreover, together with the sacred College of Cardinals, receiving her with singular favor of love, gave her, with the Apostolic blessing, an exhortatory or travel Bull, to the Dominions, cities, and castles at which she might happen to stop, for protection and security on the way. Whence he ordered a man of great authority from the curia to accompany her through the parts of Italy with a safe conduct all the way to the Alps.

[60] With what fitting honors, therefore, on account of the grace of the Lord Pope and his Bull, she was received on which account she is everywhere honorably received; by the leading citizens of cities, by Dukes and Princes, both of Italy and Germany, the pen would be drawn out at length if all had to be narrated. One thing, however, I deem necessary to say, that everywhere to all who came to her she gave salutary advice, which not only the sincerity of her holy life confirmed, but also the novelty of miracle commended. It happened in Prussia, a servant crushed under a wagon when on the journey, greatly fatigued from labor and illness, she was being conveyed by wagon, that one of her household, sitting on the wagon, fell asleep, and from the shaking of the wagon fell headlong between the feet of the horses; and the succeeding wheels so broke his ribs that he could scarcely draw breath and was lifted into the wagon. To whom, as she was always accustomed to all the sick and afflicted, compassionately, reading a Hail Mary, she gently touched his broken side and fractured ribs with her hand. But where the hand of the holy woman touched the fractured ribs, she heals by touch. the divine power solidified them, the pain ceased. And he who could scarcely breathe because of the immense torture, that same day ran about happy and entirely healthy: rendering praises to God and Lady Catherine for the benefit of his recovered health. For he considered that in the touch of this Lady's hands there was a salutary medicine suitable for his pain, and not in a poultice, which is obtained from physicians at great expense.

[61] At that very time, moreover, when she departed from Rome, she began to be weak in body on the way, She herself, since leaving Rome, begins to fall ill and the languor grew stronger from day to day; yet the strength of her soul and the devotion of her mind in the Lord never withered in her. Nor did she seek the remedies of physicians, because with all the desire of her heart she longed to be dissolved and to be with Christ. From the time, moreover, when she returned from Rome to the kingdom of Sweden and the monastery of Vadstena, until her death, namely from the Octave of the Apostles Peter and Paul until the feast of the Annunciation of the Lord, she grows weaker day by day. she labored with the continuous, various sufferings of bodily infirmities. But the weaker she was in body, the more vigorous she was in mind, knowing that virtue is perfected in weakness, and steadfastness hastens to the crown.

[62] Nor were the signs of miracles lacking to so great a sanctity, one fallen from a height because a city set on a hill cannot be hidden. It happened, therefore, that a certain member of the monastery's household fell headlong from a certain high building upon stones and timber, but having suffered this violent fall, with the ribs of his right side broken and shattered, as is usual, he could scarcely draw breath with difficulty. When this was reported to the pious mother of the monastery, Lady Catherine, she herself, sympathizing with the suffering one, descended to the door of the monastery, and having first prayed, touched the injured limbs, and at her touch the divine power consolidated the broken limbs, and the injured man, made healthy and whole, she heals by touch: immediately returned to his labors, magnifying God, who gave such power to human beings. That man, moreover, knew that poultices of ointment and plasters were suitable remedies for his injury: but he judged the touch of this holy Lady's hand to be far more excellent than all these, and proclaimed to all that the power of God was present in her hand.

[63] she confesses daily, With the illness of the venerable Lady Catherine growing daily, she strove to fortify herself frequently with the Sacraments. From fervent devotion, even after she had undertaken the pilgrimage with her mother, she made Confession daily, in contrition of heart: and sometimes she approached the bath of confession humbly two or three times. For she knew that Confession is the salvation of souls, the scatterer of vices, the restorer of virtues, the vanquisher of demons, and that it shuts the mouth of hell and opens the gates of Paradise. The Sacrament, moreover,

of the Body of Christ, and communicates spiritually: on account of the sufferings of her stomach, she did not dare to receive during this final illness, but venerating the most sacred Body of the Lord with gestures of devotion as best she could, and with eyes raised to heaven, for a long time with the tongue of her heart (because the tongue of her flesh had already become mute) saying something known to God alone, with the Sisters standing by and commending her departure to God, she happily fell asleep in the Lord.

[64] Immediately prodigies from heaven, testifying to her sanctity, appeared to certain devout persons. a star is seen over the house of the dying woman For a star was seen standing above the house in which her lifeless body lay, for days and nights, until the body had been committed to burial. When the body was carried for burial, the star seemed to move from its place, as though about to render service to her funeral: and when the bier was placed in the church, during the solemnities of the Masses, the star remained as though suspended above the bier of the dead body; but when her body was buried, the office of that star ceased. She was indeed fittingly honored by the service of a star, who while she lived was said to have been bright in purity of life and firm and persevering, shining in her holy resolution as a commendable exemplar of conduct with all integrity of manners. also lights before the bier. Certain devout persons also asserted with oaths that they had seen wonderfully radiant lights carried in the air before the bier while she was being carried to the church for burial: but by whom those lights were carried they were unable to see.

[65] On the day of her deposition, moreover, very many Prelates, Archbishops, Bishops, and Abbots had assembled at Vadstena, She is carried to burial by all orders from the kingdoms of Sweden, Gothia, Denmark, and Norway, as well as from the secular power Lord Eric, son of the King of Sweden, with many Princes, Magnates, and Barons, and a copious multitude of those of lower estate, both Clergy and laity. There were no small sighs with lamentations from each one, especially of the enclosed Virgins, who celebrated the obsequies of their kind mother with groans and tears. The aforesaid Lord Eric with the Princes of the kingdom carried her dead body for burial, and there was a great press of people, and they were scarcely able to carry the sacred body to the sepulchre, because the whole crowd was seeking to touch that precious pearl. The Lord Nicholas, Bishop of Linköping, of blessed memory, with Archbishops and Abbots assisting him, and a numerous multitude of Clergy and religious, tearfully performed the due office of burial.

[66] Among these was present a certain master of great authority and learning, Tordo, Bishop of Strängnäs, a solicitous and devout minister at her obsequies; Bishop Tordo's hand is clasped by the dead woman, who, on account of the devotion and familiarity which he had had toward her while still living, was touching the hand of Lady Catherine by feeling it, commending himself to her intercession before the eternal Judge. Wonderful to tell, the Bishop felt his hand strongly held and pressed by the hand of Lady Catherine, as is accustomed to happen between friends and pledgers, who strongly clasp each other's hands as a sign of greater love and firmness. For she herself, while at Rome, had labored greatly on behalf of the same Bishop, as though reminding him of her promise. who had come to the Apostolic See for the confirmation of his election, before the Lord Apostolic, the Cardinals, and the Officials of the Curia. In this act of clasping the Bishop's hand, it was given to understand that just as while alive she had exhorted him to remember the pledge he had made to God, for whom in a certain way she had stood surety before the Lord Pope for his confirmation; so, freed from the burden of the flesh, standing before the eternal Pontiff, she admonished him to keep the faithfulness of his promise, as though pressing upon him that saying of the Wise Man: If you have pledged yourself for your friend, you have bound your hand to a stranger, you are snared by the words of your mouth; therefore do what I say, and deliver yourself. Prov. 6:2

[67] The venerable Lady Catherine died, moreover, in the monastery of Vadstena, in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and eighty-one, * the eleventh day before the Kalends of April, on a Sunday, namely on the eve of the Annunciation of the Lord, and on the morrow of the same she was honorably buried. At whose tomb and sacred memory many benefits are granted to those who devoutly ask, by the gift of him who is praiseworthy and wonderful in his Saints forever and ever. Amen.

* Indeed the ninth. Day of death and burial.

APPENDIX.

Miracles of healings granted to the sick at the invocation of S. Catherine.

[68] A boy fallen into a torrent Concerning her miracles after death, which the glorious God grants for the sake of her merits to the faithful, let some be set forth on this page for those who wish to know. Some years having passed after her death, on the day when her bones were being raised on account of laying the foundations of the pillars of the church, in the parish of Molaby a certain little boy, an infant not yet three years old, fell from a bridge into a swift torrent, and was sought by his parents as drowned for two days: but on the third day they found the infant, against all hope, alive, clinging to the post of a certain mill. The father and mother questioned the infant, who previously spoke unintelligibly, as to how he had clung to that post. preserved for two days by S. Catherine appearing to him. The boy answered, now speaking clearly: When I fell from the bridge into the torrent, a certain Lady, dressed in white garments, received me clinging to the post under her cloak, so that the waters did not harm me, and she said she was called Catherine of Vadstena: and she encouraged me to come to Vadstena: but when you lifted me from the water, that Lady disappeared. His parents therefore came with the boy to the monastery of Vadstena, to the tomb of the venerable Lady Catherine, with their offerings, reporting with oaths the grace done to them through the merits of Catherine, and so, having fulfilled their vows, they returned to their own home.

[69] A nun in the monastery of Vadstena, detained by a grave illness for many years, A Confessor asked to make a vow on behalf of a sick woman to the extent that having received Extreme Unction and the other Sacraments many times, she was wholly despaired of for life and seemed destined for the death of the flesh: with the intense pains somewhat alleviated at intervals, she asked a certain Brother, her Confessor, to make vows to some Saints, so that by their merits she might be restored to such health that she could read the Hours and attend to devotional prayers to some degree: for she despaired of being restored to full health. To that Brother, deliberating what acceptable vow he should make for her, he conceives a vow to describe the Acts of S. Catherine, the memory of Lady Catherine came to mind, namely that he should write her life and collect her miracles, if by her merits some relief from the illness might be granted to her. When such a vow was made, the sick woman began to fare more mildly. But as time passed, that Brother, forgetful of the promise made, neglected to write the life of Lady Catherine and to collect her miracles: whence the illness of

the aforesaid nun began to grow worse than usual. Wherefore that Brother, recognizing his inertia and negligence, to fulfill which he is encouraged by a vision, feared that punishment and judgment were imminent for him because he had delayed fulfilling his reasonable vow. And so he renewed the former vow with full will, even with an imprecation of God's vengeance. A few days having passed, when that Brother had begun to write her life, he saw in a vision of the night that he entered the refectory, and it seemed to him that Blessed Bridget was sitting at the head of the table, where the Confessor usually sits: he also saw other persons sitting beside her, but who or what kind they were he could not understand. At the table Lady Catherine seemed to be serving, who met that Brother in the middle of the refectory, and thus within two years obtains health for the sick woman. offering him her hand: which she applied to his hand, signifying to him that if he fulfilled the vow he had made, that sick nun would recover her health. And this vision was repeated on consecutive nights twice. Whence that Brother took pains to investigate her life and miracles; and especially about the persons who had familiarly adhered to her in the city of Rome, in the parts of Germany, and in the kingdom of Sweden until her death; and writing down what he heard at discontinued intervals, for nearly two years having indulged the sluggishness of his mind, he delayed completing the history of the glorious Lady Catherine: and throughout the entire intervening time the aforesaid nun, although slowly, labored under the troubles of her illnesses: but with her Life and holy acts written down, she was restored to her former health.

[70] The Vicar of Vadstena is freed from a terrible headache, Furthermore, concerning the frequent and almost daily miracles at her tomb, through the generosity of him who is always wonderful and praiseworthy in his Saints, I have taken care to add some things, lest the lamp of such great beauty, hidden under a bushel, be extinguished by the torpor of forgetfulness. A certain priest called Peter Kraaka, Vicar in the parish church of Vadstena, was so oppressed by a headache that he could not move his jaws or tongue, or open his mouth to take food. Therefore, deprived in this crisis of all human aid, he turned himself with his whole mind and devotion to the help of God and the Saints, indicating by signs and nods that vows should be made to some Saint on his behalf. Whence it pleased some of his friends that a vow and offering should be made at the tomb of Lady Catherine, that by her merits he might be relieved of this most grievous affliction. others making a vow for him. This vow having been made, on the following day, his strength being now exhausted, that sick man, placed as if in an ecstasy, saw two reverend Matrons entering toward him, of whom one said to him: Since you directed your vows to me, I would gladly come to your aid, but you are very impatient; yet know that I have come to help you. And he, having come to himself, felt the pain diminished, and his mouth, tongue, and the rest of his senses restored to their natural function: and he who for seven continuous days had wasted away without food, drink, or the faculty of speech, having taken the comforts of nature, proclaimed with a cheerful mind the great works of God shown to him through the merits of Blessed Catherine; offering a head of wax at the tomb of Lady Catherine, in testimony of his health fully recovered.

[71] A certain nun named Bridget suffered so vehement a toothache Another freed from an intolerable toothache that her jaw swelled so much from that pain that she could not see with one eye. On a certain night, with the pain somewhat allayed, when she was sleeping, Lady Catherine appeared to her, saying: Do you wish to be made well? She answering said: My Lady Catherine, with all my heart I desire to be saved from these pains. Upon which that venerable Lady, gently touching that swollen jaw with her hand three times, shook her hand each time: once and when she awoke, she felt the pain mitigated and in her eye she received some sight: but within a few days she fully recovered, giving thanks to God and Lady Catherine, by whose merits she knew herself to have been healed. and again freed. Likewise on another occasion she suffered such a vehement toothache that the pain seized her brain and her right ear, so that she feared she would lose her senses: but having used better counsel, she asked for the Relics of Lady Catherine to be brought to her: which being brought, she touched her ear and jaws with them, and the pain vanished within a few days.

[72] I considered it worthy not to omit how in the year of the Lord 1448 a certain nun was cured by her merits of the disease of paralysis: Also a paralytic for it happened that she received a bloodletting in the veins of her hands on Tuesday of Pentecost, and after dinner she was deprived of the function of her tongue to no small degree. On which account, for the purpose of obtaining a remedy, on Thursday, to obtain sweating and the dissolution of the matter of this weakness, she entered a bath: from which on the following days she incurred such disability that she could not speak, nor take food, nor move any of the limbs on her right side: her mouth and right eye had an obliquity, and her tongue a thickness with whiteness: the other limbs also were deprived of their strength, showing signs of the disease of paralysis on the right side. And while she thus lay in the infirmary as though half dead, brought to the point of death she could give no signs or answers, being totally alienated from her senses. The Sisters, fearing death was imminent for her, called the Confessor to fortify her with the Sacraments as she labored at the doors of death. When he came to her, she could not speak or open her mouth; he anointed her with holy oil. Which done, on the following night one of the infirmary Sisters, an infirmary sister making a vow for her, devoutly considering her languor, greatly compassionate toward her with a pitiful eye, it occurred to her mind to supplicate Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, for the recovery of the sick woman. And immediately, with knees bent, she prayed Lady Catherine to mercifully come to the aid of the sick woman by her merits and prayers before God: making a vow that, if she recovered from this illness, she would make her offering at her tomb in memory of this event. She immediately on the following day began to bring forth words, not completely, in the manner of infants: but within the next six days she gradually recovered fully in all her limbs, making an offering of wax at the tomb of Lady Catherine, by whose merits she believed herself restored to health, giving thanks to God, who glorifies his Saints and shows them glorious in his presence by their merits.

[73] In the year of the Lord 1454, a maidservant of Lord Andrew, a Clerk in Wezendra, a swollen and ulcerated hand is healed: Ingredis by name, had a hand swollen for three weeks with the greatest pain and ulcerous, so that she could perform no domestic work with it. Though many medicines were applied, no remedy came to her. On a certain day, coming to the monastery for the first Mass, she read her customary prayers. While she was thus praying, the memory of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, came to her mind, to approach her tomb for the recovery of the health of her hand: which she immediately did, vowing to offer a wax hand to her if she obtained the health of her hand by her merits. The vow having been made, before noon all that swelling vanished, and the hand was fully restored to health.

[74] A certain woman in the parish of Linderaas, having been poisoned, wished to vomit a serpent from her mouth, also a poisoned woman. but by no means could she: then those who stood by her, seeing death imminent for her, because she could not breathe, vowed to Lady Catherine that they would make an offering for her if, with life preserved, she vomited the serpent. The vow having been made, she ejected the serpent, and immediately after the ejection there followed fourteen toads: and she was made well this time and made an offering at the tomb of Lady Catherine, by whose merits she trusted she was saved.

[75] Since the aforesaid benefits, or miracles, are many, various, and admirable, and most worthily comparable to the virtues and merits of other Saints, Lake Vättern, in wintertime namely in the cure of all kinds of necessities, illnesses, diseases, and possessed persons; it is sufficient to have recourse to those things which, by the finger of the right hand of God, she worked both abroad in her pilgrimage and at home in her most excellent and most virtuous way of life. One therefore of the many, more stupendous than the rest, which occurred in her most frigid homeland, shall here be inserted. Adjacent to the monastery of S. Bridget in the kingdom of Gothia or Sweden is a certain lake, called Vättern, sixty Italian miles in length and twenty in width; which is of such a nature that when it has been frozen by a stormy wind, and that wind has subsided, and the time of thawing is imminent, customarily dissolving dangerously, with a most violent rumbling it begins to boil and churn in its depths, and to burst forth with great violence into the small cracks or fissures that form in the ice; and these it makes very wide in a short space of time, even though the ice at that point may have been more than one or two arm-lengths in thickness; and then, with the upper force cooperating, all the ice is divided into many pieces, so that many who are upon them are more often (unless they find protection by God's help and the invocation of the Saints) drowned. S. Catherine being invoked People caught in this strait with their beasts and vehicles, seeing the horrible collision and dissolution and chasm of the ice and death imminent, with great groaning invoke God and S. Catherine, or her Mother, or both, that they may be saved. she releases them unharmed. Nor does this usually happen in vain: for not only is the part of ice on which the distressed remain strengthened, or they leap from one to another; but also against the tempest and the force of the winds they are carried safely to the shore by a twofold miracle, with the ice dissolving into water in almost a momentary space.

circumstances, and is found in the Holmian edition alone.

MIRACLES

Juridically received by Episcopal Commissioners, from the Holmian printing.

Catherine of Sweden, daughter of S. Bridget, at Vadstena in Sweden (S.)

BHL Number: 1713

FROM THE PUBLIC INSTRUMENT.

CHAPTER I

The tenor of the letter of commission of the Reverend Father and Lord, Lord Henry, by divine providence Bishop of Linköping, concerning the miracles of the Lady Catherine of happy memory, daughter of S. Bridget, to be received and collected.

Henry, by the divine compassion Bishop of Linköping, to his beloved sons in Christ, It is prescribed to the Commissioners Lords Benedict, Parish Priest of the church of Hazhaby, and John of Aby, John Ormeri, and Lawrence of Straa, Altarists in the monastery of Vadstena, eternal salvation in the Lord. Although the examination of miracles, by which the glorious God glorifies and exalts his Saints in this world, is one of the greatest causes which pertain to the Supreme Roman Pontiff alone, or to him to whom he may see fit to commit and delegate it: nevertheless, so that the nations may know and declare the wonderful works of God, and that all flesh may bless his holy name, who alone does great and wonderful and inscrutable things without number; we have deemed it necessary, for the instruction of the ignorance of human frailty, that such exalted and wondrous powers of God be substantiated by the assertions of trustworthy witnesses. Since indeed we have not only received from many, but have also truly learned from the experience of events, that the miracles of S. Catherine, which is the teacher of all, that our formerly beloved daughter in Christ, the noble person Lady Catherine, by carnal descent the illustrious daughter of Blessed Bridget, our most renowned patroness, widow of the late noble man Egard, a knight of our diocese of Linköping; leading a life exemplary to all and notably and singularly acceptable and devout to her Creator and to all, having entered the way of all flesh, migrated to the Lord for her virtuous works, and her body was buried in the monastery of Vadstena of our aforesaid diocese; where after her departure from the present life, he to whose devout service she totally devoted and dedicated herself deigns to show many signs to the faithful of Christ in testimony of her Blessedness, and to bestow them wonderfully and generously: which ought not to lie hidden under a bushel, but, as though placed upon a candlestick, to be made known and published to the Church of God. Wherefore to your discretions, in whom we have and hold full trust in the Lord in these and other matters, by the tenor of the present letter we commit and command, and to each of you individually, in virtue of holy obedience strictly enjoining, by ordinary authority we direct, that with all reverence and mature and careful circumspection, they should authentically collect them, and also with the fear and love of God due and fitting, concerning all things whatsoever which are reported as shown or done to the glory and exaltation of the aforesaid Lady Catherine by the Author of wonders, which God for the praise of his name deigns in any way to work through the merits of the same, with the complete substance and legitimate, necessary, and opportune circumstances of the same, through trustworthy witnesses, with the administration of a due oath, by the authority, commission, and mandate to you and each of you individually, as is premised, specially made, committed, and enjoined, you should take care to collect and write down, all of you together or one of you who shall then be present: so that the infirmity itself, the manner of the cure, the name of the person, the village, town, and parish or city and diocese in which such persons around whom any miracles may have occurred reside, should be expressed separately and specifically: and also three or four of the more respectable and better known witnesses who were present and actually saw the miracle take place, with their proper names and towns and diocese expressed, should similarly be inscribed immediately after the person then cured. And this writing, at the same time, after the description of the miracle then done and declared, should be recited to the said witnesses being present and diligently listening: to serve in the instruction of the process. so that if the Apostolic See should not be content with those things which have been collected and written on its behalf, or which have been directed to it; but should decide to send one or more Prelates from the kingdom or from parts outside the kingdom to the place itself at Vadstena, for a more diligent investigation and more ample and more exact examination to be made, required, and conducted: then such witnesses already received, collected, and inscribed may be cited for making and bearing full witness, and opportunely convoked according to the needs of the business, and seriously and specifically required and examined. But concerning the premises to be diligently and faithfully observed and carried out, we burden your consciences under the attestation of the divine judgment. Done and given at Vadstena, in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and sixty-nine, on the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, with our seal affixed to the present document.

There follows the instrument of the commissioners appointed for the examination and reception of witnesses.

The glorious God, who gives power and strength to his people, They, with a preceding eulogy of the same Saint, who graciously raises up and enriches with happy increases his rational creature, happily united to himself through the Holy Spirit and made a participant of his divinity: who also with tranquility judges and with great reverence disposes all things, graciously coming with his ineffable wisdom to us, dwelling in the remotest ends of the earth, namely the kingdom of Sweden, found a woman of great price, namely the venerable and holy memory Lady Catherine, daughter of S. Bridget, very strong in the arms of virtues against vices, as is more fully declared in the book about her Life: whose glorious body rests in the monastery of Vadstena of the diocese of Linköping, and not only while she lived on earth did he illumine her, excellently adorned with the gifts of graces, with the rays of divine wisdom: but also now, snatched from the labors of this present life, he glorifies her among his Saints with various prodigies and signs of miracles, and makes her celebrated in fame among men, and shows her glorious in merits. Therefore for this purpose, that the praiseworthy name of the divine magnificence may be exalted all the more fervently by devout children, and that every age may recognize how great a glory the wonderful God in his Saints signifies his aforesaid handmaid, Lady Catherine: they profess to have collected only the better attested, by the command of the venerable Father in Christ, and our dearest Lord, Lord Henry, by divine compassion Bishop of Linköping and local Ordinary, through his open letter sealed with his seal, we Benedict, Parish Priest in Hashaby, and John of Aby, although unworthy Priests, residing in the monastery of Vadstena of the diocese of Linköping in the aforesaid kingdom of Sweden, have applied what diligence we could to writing, with witnesses and the names of persons and of the places in which they live, some miracles by which the virtuous God glorifies the same his handmaid: but by no means all. For many very stupendous things are reported to us, which (because we cannot have the names of the persons for these, or see with our own eyes the persons with whom they were done, or have suitable witnesses) we do not care to write. many others being omitted: We also truly believe that many wonderful things are done through her which are never reported to us: which is apparent from the many pilgrims here, and those hanging wax in various forms, who come and depart in such a way that they say nothing whatsoever to us. It should also be known that there are many in these parts who have no surnames: such persons, therefore, we name from the towns in which they live. Likewise it should be noted that some come not remembering to tell us precisely the day on which their illness began or ended. The day and year, therefore, on which they come to us, we record, and that they had noted the time at which it was reported. perceiving from most of them that immediately upon the end of their suffering they set out on their journey: some of whom attempt this while still very weak, and arriving at the place of Vadstena itself, rejoice that through the merits of the venerable Lady Catherine they had tasted in advance the antidote of perfect healing on the journey. Those miracles, however, which have been brought to our presence and examination, by the mandate of the venerable Father and Lord aforesaid, according to the form given us in the letters of Commission, we have written down as best we could, and they follow in this manner.

CHAPTER II.

Four dead persons restored to life by a vow made to S. Catherine.

[1] In the year of the Lord 1441, not only by chance but rather by divine grace so arranging, an Official of the monastery of the holy Mary and Bridget of Vadstena came for the purpose of resting, A three-year-old girl killed by an accidental wound, named Porsse (a man truly worthy of trust and of great devotion, who afterwards became a monk and entered the Carmelite Order), to the house of a certain man while conducting the business of the monastery, and there he found the head of the household with his wife and their friends mourning and lamenting: and wishing to ease their grief, he asked the cause of their sadness. To him the man of the house and his wife said: We mourn our own daughter, who a short while ago ran here in the manner of infants, playing, and playing with a hatchet, with which she pierced the membrane dividing the thorax and the viscera, which is called the diaphragm, and she immediately expired. The aforesaid Porsse, however, withdrawing to the bench where the body lay, with the parents and others present and persevering in weeping, at the urging of the monastery's Official, said: Dearest ones, do not grieve or despair, because the power of God is immense, and his mercy is at hand in every place and at every time. For it must not be thought that God despises the prayers of his friends, and

especially those who always assist him in serving. For at Vadstena there is a certain blessed Lady called Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, by whose prayers almighty God works wonders throughout the world. If therefore we invoke her name and aid, we shall see wonders today, that is, the resuscitation of this infant. The father and mother with all those standing by most humbly knelt upon the ground, and inwardly touched with grief of heart, commended to S. Catherine by the parents, they began to pray to Lady Catherine with great devotion and urgency, making a vow of pilgrimage with an offering, that if Lady Catherine would obtain life for the dead girl, the father and mother with their dead daughter would make their way on pilgrimage toward Vadstena without delay. With the prayers and vow of each thus completed, after a short interval the dead girl, she is resuscitated and brought to Vadstena. as though waking from sleep, rose alive, to the no small joy and astonishment of all those present and of others who later heard of it. The mother, wishing to fulfill the vow, came with her resuscitated daughter to Vadstena in the locutory of the Sisters at the sixth hour of vespers or thereabouts, calling for Sister Benedicta Gudmari, who was then Abbess: to whom, coming with some Sisters listed below in testimony of the foregoing (namely Catherine Petri the Abbess, Ragnhild Nicolai a Senior, Catherine Ergei a Senior, Merita Petri a Senior, Ingeborga Suenonis a Senior, Margaret Nicolai, Christina Caroli, who was then expecting admission to the Religious life, and was carrying the infant in her arms outside the monastery), she narrated the benefits of God done to her through the intercessions of Lady Catherine, in the manner and order touched upon above, which they subsequently reported to the other Sisters who were not present, some of whom are still alive with the same, namely the Sisters Anna Pauli the Prioress; Bridget Olavi a Senior, Catherine Joannis a Senior, Bridget Alberti a Senior, Iliana Matthiae, Ingeborg Nicolai. The name of the resuscitated girl was Christina, about three years old.

[2] A certain woman of nobler birth, from the parish of Wanga, the town of Sattaïn in Östergötland, of the diocese of Linköping, had a small daughter named Ingrid, about three years old: who was seized by so grave an illness that she was judged dead by all those around for three hours, because she lay stiff and cold. Another three-year-old girl dead from disease, Her father, returning from a distant place, entered the house where the dead girl lay, and standing beside the corpse said: What is this? Those present answered: Your daughter. He therefore, commanding that no one touch the body, prostrated himself with flowing eyes, praying the Lord from the depth of his heart that he would deign to show his mercy and the sanctity of his handmaid Lady Catherine in his now deceased daughter. The prayer being finished, therefore, and a vow made to Vadstena, after a Mass of the Holy Trinity was offered, where the Relics of Lady Catherine rest, he went to the church to have a conference with his Parish Priest in this matter. And when he had reached him, he most humbly asked him to celebrate one Mass of the Holy Trinity, in honor of that same supreme and undivided Trinity and of the venerable Lady, his handmaid Catherine, and to pray for his now deceased daughter. When the Mass had been said, returning to his own house, he found his daughter alive beside her mother, and praising God above all things, she is found alive by her father. as is most fitting, in great joy he fulfilled the vow he had made, sending the mother with her daughter to the tomb of Lady Catherine, by whose merits and prayers she was restored to life. The mother, moreover, being at the tomb of Lady Catherine, with trustworthy witnesses publicly proclaimed to all who wished to hear this great miracle, not without wonder and congratulation. The name of this girl's father was Peter Frenderus, very famous: names of the witnesses: Lawrence Nicolai and Haakon Joannis with many others.

[3] In the year of the Lord 1471, after the Octave of Corpus Christi, Lawrence Nicolai, A young man drowned while fishing, living next to a mill called Holm, in the parish of Motala, in the territory of Askacherade, sent two sons to fish for salmon: and when at night they were drawing their nets, they were suddenly swept into the depths of a certain channel or whirlpool, where the younger remained drowned, while the older was freed with God's help: who quickly ran to the nearest neighbor, so that with his assistance he might find his dead brother. Having heard of such a sad and tearful misfortune, the said neighbor followed to the channel where he had perished: and when they arrived there, they saw one hat floating on the water, and there they began to search: and carried home dead, and soon finding him, they brought him to the shore: where, leaving the corpse with the boat, they hastened to the father, telling him what had happened. When the father had heard this, not without the greatest sorrows he hurried to the place of the deceased, and transferring him from the boat with the help of others, he placed him on a board prepared for that purpose: and the aforesaid father, the body being firmly fastened with ropes, carried him to his house and placed him on the floor of the heated room, and in this vehemence of grief he began to hope in the power of God, who holds the key of life and death, and in the suffrages of his Saints: and especially he began to invoke Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, saying: O blessed Lady Catherine, if you are as holy and powerful with God as public voice and fame declare, share with me of your mercy, and give me back my son alive, who here lies dead: by a vow made by the father he returns to life: and he vowed him, that if he should come back to life, he would visit the tomb of Lady Catherine at Vadstena, with offerings of wax and other devout exercises. Which done, the dead son first extended one leg: which the father and all the others present who were watching this saw, and cried out more loudly for the help of the said Lady Catherine: and so he extended the second: then his arms and head, and thus the whole body: so that in a short time he fully recovered, and came to Vadstena in person to the tomb of Lady Catherine. His father, moreover, fulfilling everything according to the requirement of his vow, gave thanks to God and Lady Catherine for so great a gift graciously given to him. Witnesses: Lawrence Petri, the nearest neighbor, who drew the drowned man from the water, and Nicholas Laurentii with his father and many other neighbors.

[4] In the same year, John Olavi, from the parish of Norenbosa, the town of Schonaberg, in the diocese of Linköping, a boy crushed under a falling sack of grain, having completed his business, around the feast of John the Baptist at Vadstena, got on his wagon with his son to ride back to his home: and when he had come to a certain village called Granby, on a certain descent of the ground, the horses pulling the wagon violently left the road by a rapid course, running among the thickets, and the boy, falling from the wagon, and a sack full of three measures of grain was entirely crushed upon him, and so for three hours he lay utterly lifeless. The father, seeing this, nearly dead himself with grief, having silently considered the fame of the sanctity of Lady Catherine, resuscitated by a similar vow of his father, made a vow to the same Lady Catherine, that he and his son, if she would deign to obtain life for him from the Lord, would visit her tomb with offerings by which they would please God himself in his beloved. And from the most ardent charity he implored the help of the said Lady Catherine, that his son might be given back to him alive. Which done, the boy, who had been dead, began to move and raise his eyes on high: on account of which he was received by his father with immense joy, to be carried to the nearest village, and afterwards in a very short time he was fully restored to his former health, and both together, father and son, most joyfully fulfilled the vow they had made with true humility and thanksgiving. Witnesses: Stephen in Fingstadha, Magnus Joannes, Magnus Nigelli, Magnus Olavi, and Canute, the tax-collector in Byristada, near Finitstada in Alkahanrat, and five of their neighbors there. Note that these three who were resuscitated, in the same year as above, and with the two earlier ones are exhibited to the people. on the day of S. Peter in Chains, were at Vadstena. And when a sermon was delivered to the people of innumerable multitude, they were there raised up before all, so that they might be seen by all: and when they saw them, they burst into strong cries, praising and glorifying God in his chosen virgin Catherine, by whose merits and prayers he deigned to do such wonders, for the exaltation of his holy faith and the honor of the homeland.

CHAPTER III.

Various miracles done in the year 1470.

[5] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain courtier named Peter Joannis, in the war of Västergötland, was lethally wounded, A head fatally wounded by an arrow suddenly healed. so that the arrow which entered through his mouth appeared penetrating the back of the head on the outside, and having lost his speech he lay in bed for six weeks, so that no one hoped for his life: but rather all and sundry despaired. At length, with divine grace inspiring, his friends came together, invoking the mercy of God and imploring the help of God's handmaid, Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, at Vadstena; and they made a vow that he would visit her tomb with an offering of wax, if he were healed. Immediately upon the vow being made, he began to speak, praising and glorifying the great works of God, who by the merits of Lady Catherine restored him to his former health, to such an extent that after a short interval he personally fulfilled his vow, and eagerly and devoutly showed to both literate and illiterate how mercifully he had been dealt with. Witnesses: all the servants of Stephen Benedict, a knight.

[6] In the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and seventy, A girl snatched from the straits of death, Peter Laurentii of Linköping sent his daughter around the twilight of one day outside the city into the field to bring back his geese: and she was

suddenly struck by so grave an illness that she lost the use of both reason and senses as well as speech. And there was no hope for her life, because the signs of death appeared most evidently: on which account her father, with her mother and other friends, bending their knees, prayed the Our Father and Hail Mary in honor of Blessed Bridget and Lady Catherine her daughter, and made a special vow that the child, if she escaped death healthy, would visit the tomb of Lady Catherine with her offering and wax. When these things had thus been done, the child began to move, then to speak, and after a little while she recovered perfectly, and came with her offering to the tomb of Lady Catherine, proclaiming to all the mercy of God done to her through her prayers and merits. The truth of this miracle is known to very many, both at Linköping and at Vadstena, and especially Lawrence Ulphonis and his wife, and Thelseca his mother.

[7] likewise another rescued from a similar danger. In the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and seventy, Nicholas Petri of Vadstena was seized by a sudden illness in a certain forest called Warpawidh, so severely that he felt death was imminent. Then with whatever urgency and devotion he could, he turned to God and Lady Catherine, pledging this to that Lady Catherine: that if by her prayer he were snatched from so great a peril of death, he would present his offering to her. Which done, he was made healthy from that illness, and returned on horseback to his house, magnificently praising God in his handmaid Lady Catherine. Witnesses: Olaus Brynolphi, Matthias Joannis Braske, citizens of Vadstena, and Olaus Petri in Raasleth.

[8] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain man of Vadstena, with many other merchants of Linköping, Söderköping, Skänninge, Merchants rescued from the hands of pirates. Vadstena, and Skara, sailing from Germany to Sweden, bore testimony to the truth that the enemies of the King of Sweden had organized five hundred pirates to seize them tyrannically with their ship and goods: which they rather ardently desired, as the outcome of the affair showed. For they invaded them so closely that by natural skill or strength they had no way of escaping. Fearing greatly in this very situation, they called upon God with loud voices, and especially upon God's handmaid Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, vowing their devotions to her, with offerings of wax and candles for the veneration and honor of her tomb. Immediately upon the vow being made, God gave them a favorable wind through the prayers of his beloved, and they raised sail on high and were torn away from their tyranny with a prosperous course. A wonderful thing! The pirates pursuing through larger and smaller ships were sailing around them with the same wind, but could not harm them, and so by the merits of Lady Catherine they rendered praise and glory, fully fulfilling their vows as they had vowed: Witnesses: Peter Caroli, Chief Magistrate of Linköping; Lawrence Stwnt, Consul of Söderköping; John Onstins Augustini, Consul of the same; Lawrence Dynies, that is, of Dionysius, Consul of Skänninge.

[9] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain man called Wittecop, a servant of Lord Trotto the knight, An eye-pain cured by vow, suffered such a vehement pain in his eyes that blood issued from them and he could find no rest. He vowed two wax eyes to Lady Catherine and was healed. Witnesses: Nicholas Ebbonis and Ulpho Torstani.

[10] a sudden collapse, In the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and seventy, a certain man of Vadstena named Andrew the tailor, while sitting at the table of Lord John Ormeri, was seized by a sudden illness so grave that he was believed by those present to be inevitably about to die: and vowing his devotion with an offering to Lady Catherine, with all delay entirely removed, he deserved to be restored to the desired health. Witnesses: Lord John Ormeri and Lord Benedict of Zwillinge, Priests.

[11] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain priest named Sueno, of Sorckhem in the diocese of Skara, wishing to travel to Uppland, where the wedding of his sister was to be celebrated, a horse's swollen foot. when he came to Skänninge, the foot of his horse together with the leg swelled to a wondrous size, so that it could in no way move. And he fled to divine help, since human help was not available, praying on bended knees to God and Lady Catherine, and vowed his service and offering to the same Lady Catherine: which done, he mounted the horse and completed his journey without any difficulty that same hour. Witnesses: Lord Benedict of Zwillinge and Brother Nicholas, one of the four familiars of the monastery of Vadstena.

[12] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain young man from Tiwst, taken captive in his father's house, A captive youth was placed in the tower of the castle called Stekaholm, not for a just cause but the contrary, and there he was detained from the feast of S. Lawrence until the feast of S. Bridget. And then he was let out into the courtyard to labor, splitting wood, and other things as it pleased those commanding; and lest he should be able to escape, a certain long and thick iron shackle was placed around his leg: escapes by a vow made, and because he was deprived of all hope of human relief, he raised himself on high, invoking God, Blessed Bridget, and especially her daughter Lady Catherine, and promised her himself and his offering, to be offered at Vadstena. Immediately upon such a pact being made and being confirmed in this resolution, with a small stone he attempted to break the said shackle, the iron easily loosened and at the first blow it was loosened, and he was freed, and afterwards he escaped the hands of the wicked: and he came to Vadstena, fulfilling his vow, and there, leaving the shackle next to the tomb of Lady Catherine as a sign of the miracle, he preached the name of the Lord, of Blessed Bridget and Lady Catherine, to be praised forever and ever. Witnesses: Lord Nicholas the Chaplain and Brother Nicholas, a familiar of the monastery.

[13] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain nun, Sister Christina Ammund by name, Paralysis dispelled, from the monastery of Skänninge, while she was whole and healthy in her entire body and strong in all senses and powers, suddenly there fell upon her from the left side of her body a most severe disease of paralysis, to such a degree that her left leg with her arm hung as though a cloth, and from the eleventh hour until the third hour she spoke not a word. But then she began to speak a little, urging the Prioress herself and many Sisters with her to vow to Lady Catherine, a vow made for the sick girl by the nuns: daughter of Blessed Bridget, one nun of wax: who, kneeling on the ground, prayed to the Lord with devotion, doing what the sick woman desired. When all things had now been done at her bidding, strength returned again to the limbs of the left side, so that she raised her arm above her head, and on the morning of the following day she walked, improving day by day in accordance with her vows, glorifying God and Lady Catherine, by whose merits she obtained health. This happened on the day of the Commemoration of Souls, when after the sung None she went out of the church into the dormitory. We testify to this, who were present: I, Sister Catherine Petri, Prioress; Sister Ragnhild, Sister Bridget, Sister Christina the Sacristan, with one part of the convent, and two religious women, Helena of Söderköping and Christina Olavi.

[14] In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain woman of Vadstena, the mother of Lord Peter Olavi, suffered such headaches that she greatly lost her senses, and had absolutely no rest. two women freed from headaches: She vowed one head of wax to Lady Catherine, and was immediately made well. Witnesses: Lord Peter Olavi and Lord John Ormeri, Prebendaries of the monastery of Vadstena.

[15] In the year of the Lord 1470, the wife of Nicholas the Crossbowman of Vadstena, Elisabeth by name, suffered intolerable headaches for three weeks, so that she was deprived of all comfort and joy, both day and night: she vowed one woman of wax to Lady Catherine, and immediately, with all sorrow and languor departing, she was filled with joy, magnifying the power of the Savior, who by the merits of his handmaid Catherine restored her to her former health. Witnesses: Lord John and Peter the cobbler.

[16] another freed from an enormous swelling of the body. In the year of the Lord 1470, the body of a certain woman of Wisingroo swelled to the size of a very large barrel, so that many doubted more of her death than of her life; she made a vow to Lady Catherine that she would devoutly bring wax with an offering to her. Then immediately the swelling ceased, and the flesh returned to its natural form and state. Witnesses: Nicholas the cutler and Magnus Joannis.

[17] A poisoned woman In the year of the Lord 1470, a certain married woman in the parish of Renna, in the village of Jernstat, the sister of Ulpho Torstini, named Christina, had been poisoned, but when or where she was utterly unaware. Harmful guests were growing within her, so that their voice was heard, as it were, from the whole parish in the woman's belly: whence her pain increased daily. Her husband said to her: I will send you to Vadstena to your brother, so that you may receive some remedy there. The woman, coming to the basilica of S. Bridget, during High Mass wished to refresh her soul before the general Confessor; by S. Catherine appearing to her but because the Confessor was occupied somewhere, she could not have speech with him: therefore she withdrew to the tomb of the venerable Lady Catherine and made a vow, that if the Lord by her merits would confer health upon her, she would have an image of a woman made, according to her means and in demonstration of the miracle: and she prostrated herself before the tomb of the said Lady, praying humbly and devoutly that the Lord would have mercy on her: for she was very weary: she fell asleep: and to her as she slept appeared a woman unknown to her, of elegant form, who said to her: she is sent to the tomb of S. Bridget, Go to the altar of my mother Bridget, and go around it on bare knees, and you will feel the effect. The woman, awakening, began to think about the dream vision, went to the altar of S. Bridget, as she had been commanded, and bending her knees, she went around it once with bare feet; further she could not, but placed her garments underneath, and went around a second time: and then the custodian of the church rang the bell for all to leave, and then the woman also left the church and walked around the cemetery: coming to the place of Calvary, she could go no further, because then a vehement pain rushed upon her. A wonderful thing! There she vomited three serpents, which were, according to the woman's estimation, in length of a double ell: one of them had various colors. and after repeated vomiting Again, having somewhat recovered her strength, she walked further through the cemetery, and when she came to the gate which leads to the city, then also a most vehement pain seized her; and there she vomited a second time a horrible mass, like a ball or knot. A certain pilgrim came upon this miserable spectacle, who said to the woman: Daughter, you have evil guests: the pilgrim began to stir the matter, and there appeared more than twenty heads. Again,

having somewhat recovered her strength, she entered the cemetery of S. Peter: she vomits various things ingested by sorcery. then she began for the third time to feel the most grievous distress, and there for the third time she vomited horrible blood of various colors, and that blood appeared poured out there for a long time. Again after this, having regained her strength, she hastened to her lodging, fearing however that some remnants might remain, and had a certain potion prepared for herself, which she also drank; and then for the fourth time she vomited pure blood, as a sign that she was totally purged. Then they began to restore her and she recovered immediately, and remained at Vadstena for some days, praising the power of God: and she gave thanks to the daughter of Blessed Bridget, who had appeared to her so gently and predicted and obtained health for her; nor did she neglect the mother, who comes to the aid of all. Witnesses: Lord Magnus of Ruglorsa, Olaus of Harrjtestada, Lord Lawrence of Strar, Lord Ulpho the Knight.

CHAPTER IV.

Others of the year 1471.

[18] In the year of the Lord 1471, a certain bell-ringer, seized by madness, so that he entirely lost his senses; A madman restored to sound senses; his friends, bending their knees, made a vow that he would visit in person the tomb of Lady Catherine with gifts and other pious works. Not without the wonderful and praiseworthy grace of God, which knows no slow measures: the weak things yielded, and the strong returned, bringing perfect and much-desired health: he set out on the journey, directing it to Vadstena, and brought it to a praiseworthy end: and now, with everything carried out according to the vow, he returned to his home exulting and rejoicing. Witnesses: Lawrence in Betestadha, Gudmund and Magnus, his neighbors.

[19] In the same year, a certain woman of Motala in the diocese of Linköping lost her hearing, a deaf woman restored to hearing, hearing absolutely nothing: she made a vow to honor Lady Catherine and to recover the integrity of her senses, that she should go to Vadstena to the tomb of the same Lady, with wax and other works of mercy: when she had arrived at the place, the deafness having been wiped away, she received what she had asked, and then fulfilled her vow. Witnesses: John Nicolai and Hemming Haquini, her nearest neighbors.

[20] In the same year, a certain woman of Lundby, in the province called Zyrstrinzxherradhe, a stillborn child resuscitated: in the diocese of Linköping, gave birth to an infant who was dead for two hours after it came from the womb into the world. The women present, however, who were watching this pitiable spectacle, made a vow to the distinguished handmaid of Christ, Lady Catherine, namely that they should offer her a boy of wax with other devotion. Immediately upon the vow being thus made, the vital spirit from the fountain of life entered the dead one, with all turning to wonder and congratulation. Witnesses: Siwrdus and Thomas, his neighbors.

[21] In the same year, a certain man called Lawrence Prijdem, those healed who fell from a height, from the mountain called Ashwidaberg in the diocese of Linköping, working in the mines, fell into a pit which was twenty-four cubits deep, and was entirely crushed, the knee being broken through the middle, so that it was held together only by the skin: and he was then extracted with the greatest difficulty. And when he was carried onto the flat ground as though dead, those who were present vowed him with his offering to the tomb of Lady Catherine, and shortly after the one who was vowed came in person, leaping and rejoicing, to the said place, and fulfilled everything that had been promised; glorifying the power of God, who by the merits of Lady Catherine freed him. Witnesses: Magnus Joannis, Prefect of the same mountain, Matthias called Anchamman, with many others.

[22] one brought to extremity, In the same year, a certain man named Nicholas Laurentii, from the parish of Hedha in the diocese of Linköping, suddenly seized by a most grievous illness, lay in bed for twelve weeks, and there was no hope for his life. In this desperation, kindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit, who wishes his beloved Lady Catherine to be made known to the world, he directed himself to her, hoping through her merits to be healed and saved. And he made a vow to visit her tomb in person, intending to offer her one man of wax. Which done, he immediately felt relief, and health increased for him day by day, until he set out on the journey: and all that he had promised he faithfully and devoutly fulfilled, praising God and Lady Catherine with a joyful heart and willing spirit. Witnesses: Lawrence Nicolai and Magnus Hudz with many of his parishioners.

[23] In the same year, a certain man named Benedict the Goldsmith of Vadstena, a dying boy, having with his wife Bridget a seven-year-old child suffering from excessive illness, who once lost his natural color, an alien color came upon him, appearing now blue to those standing by, and foam proceeding from his mouth in great quantity covered the area around his mouth. Lying in this condition for an entire hour, he was believed by all to be dead: but the father together with the mother and other friends, trusting in the power of God and his Saints, turned especially to the aid of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, humbling himself on his knees and praying, vowing his gifts to her with other works of piety. Which done, the foam was suppressed, and he who was thought dead revived, and in all his limbs recovered a decent color and form in a short time. Witnesses: Lord Nicholas, Chaplain of the Church of Vadstena, and Ervastus the goldsmith of the same place, with many others.

[24] a mother suffering from a lack of milk, In the same year, a certain man of Vadstena, called Peter Petri, with his wife had already begotten thirteen children, and their own mother, with her milk failing, was unable to rear any of them at her breasts: but the father was continually compelled to have them raised through hired wet-nurses or caretakers. Whence he conceived great indignation against her, despising her with reproachful and insulting words. On which account, much troubled, she began to think about Lady Catherine, whose sanctity is held to be celebrated throughout the world on account of the miracles which God works through her, and she said within herself: O holy Lady Catherine, if you are truly holy, as you are considered by all Christians, help me, that I may be able to nurse my child with the milk of my own breast, and at least through this my husband will be pacified. When she was revolving these and similar things in her soul, she added a vow, saying: If in this necessity, O Lady, I perceive you to be effectively my benevolent helper before the Lord, then to the honor of God's name and yours I will offer at your tomb two silver breasts: and I furthermore entreat you to urge your most illustrious mother, Blessed Bridget, to pour out prayers to the Lord for me, a sinner: for I promise myself a debtor of daily service to you both until death. having signed her breasts in the name of S. Catherine: When these things had been done from the deepest devotion of her heart, she signed her nipples with the sign of the holy Cross, then giving them to the infant to suckle, and immediately the infant began to suckle, and the mother both by sight and touch felt the milk flowing and benefiting him for growth. At this novelty the husband was called, and what had long been desired was now revealed to him. For the woman explained to him at length, in order, the grace done to her through the merits and prayers of Lady Catherine: who, unable to contain his tears from the immense jubilation of his heart, together with his wife, likewise weeping, prostrated himself on the ground, giving thanks to God and Lady Catherine for the mercy done to them, and fulfilled the vow with all reverence and glory. Witnesses: Lawrence Siggonis, Matthias the cutler, and other inhabitants of the same town.

[25] a certain woman freed from arm pain: In the same year, a certain man named Lawrence, a tailor of Vadstena, had a vehement pain in his left arm, as though the hand should be separated from the arm from the intense pain. At length, coming into the church, he wandered here and there until he approached the tomb of Lady Catherine, where he was illuminated by a certain supernatural light, and spoke in his soul, saying: Perhaps here you will have a remedy? And he placed his hand upon the stone, and in that instant he felt as though one hand were touching his hand. Which done, the pain of both arm and hand vanished. Witnesses: Lord Lawrence in Straa and Eric in Sandby.

[26] In the same year, certain merchants of Skänninge were in Västergötland on business of trade, Goods lost in a river and when they were already on the return to their own, they proposed to cross a certain river; one of them drove his horse together with merchandise of great weight onto a structure made of timbers, commonly called a fluuta, and was submerged with horse and goods. Various persons watching this, with the greatest efforts freed the man with his horse; but the goods, which were bound together according to the customs of the country and are commonly called Klyff, they could not at all find. Among them, moreover, was one smith named Torkil Simonis, who fabricated iron instruments for investigating what was lost: and he together with others labored for nearly two natural days around the feast of John the Baptist; but all in vain. Therefore, despairing of further success, they left them, and asked a certain old man to make the attempt himself. While he was going down to investigate, the above-named smith remembered that the Lady Catherine of Vadstena, daughter of Blessed Bridget, had done many and great miracles,

recovered by a vow made. and he urged his companions to bend their knees, which they also did, invoking the patronage of the said Lady Catherine; and they vowed to her a mass of wax in the likeness of the lost goods, according to their means, for greater evidence of the miracle. They had scarcely completed the words of prayer before the old man who had been sent to investigate cried out: at whose cry all running quickly found the long-desired goods in his hands. But not without astonishment and a great wonder: because when the same old man fixed his eyes on the water where the aforesaid goods had been submerged, they rose up to his hands as compactly bound together as they had gone down. Praise and honor be to almighty God, who had done this and infinite other miracles, and does so every day at the prayers and merits of his beloved Lady Catherine. Witnesses: Lord Harold, Vicar of the church of Vadstena, and Lord Olaus, Parish Priest in the parish of Haridzstadha, to the above and to the completion of the vow.

[27] In the same year, certain merchants crossing the sea from Germany were pursued by pirates without hope of escape: then one of them, called John Craff of Söderköping, urged his companions to invoke the suffrage of Lady Catherine, and they, agreeing with him, unanimously made a vow of abstinence from meat until they should come on foot to the tomb of the same Lady. merchants freed from pirates by a double miracle: Immediately upon the vow being made, there came a wind consoling and strengthening the worshippers of God and Lady Catherine, and driving back and entirely withdrawing their pursuers from their harassment. And now, as though secure from all dangers, they hastened to the desired port, which on account of the density of the atmosphere overtaking them they could not find, although at the same time and moment elsewhere the light of day shone more brightly. Blessed therefore be the goodness of God, which on account of the merits and prayers of his handmaid, the said Lady Catherine, for the second time freed them from other pirates hunting in the sea, who were lurking in the very port which they so ardently sought: therefore they were led by the mercy of God into a port they had not desired, where they learned more fully the truth of the matter: on account of which they glorified God in his handmaid Lady Catherine. Witnesses: Lord Lawrence of Söderköping and Nicholas the cobbler.

[28] In the same year, Sueno Nicolai, of the village called Haghaby, parish of Helbon, province of Gorstrinsxharade, a hard swelling of the neck and chest healed: in the diocese of Linköping, lay in bed for three weeks with an illness of the neck and chest: because both were horrible to the sight of those looking and more horrible to the touch of the patient himself, on account of the thickness and hardness, which generated from itself the hardness of the hardest trunk, and whoever saw him quickly predicted that death was imminent. But his wife, fixing her hope in the power of God and trusting in the aid of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, turned herself with her friends to her, bending their knees humbly and devoutly, and solemnly made a vow that if she obtained for her husband his former health, the husband himself would visit her tomb in person with offerings and other pious works. Which done, he obtained a change in the illness: the sore opened and the pain ceased: and health was restored to him: on account of which he fulfilled with cheerfulness of spirit the vow which his friends had pledged for him. Witnesses: Brother Benedict Stephani, Sueno Nicolai, John Jacobi, citizens of Skänninge.

[29] One with his chest transfixed by an arrow In the year of the Lord 1471, Torstan Laurentz of Ilesthada in the diocese of Skara was shot with an arrow in the chest, where it was hardest and thickest, and the arrow fixed itself behind between the shoulder blades: from which he contracted a grave illness, so that he hoped more for death than for life. At length Lord Torkil of Hwalstadha came, who under the guise of reconciliation and consolation addressed the man with such words and similar: Lady Catherine of Vadstena, daughter of Blessed Bridget, works many and great wonders with those who invoke her devoutly and humbly: do you also show her some reverence, imploring her, and you will be freed from this illness. To whom the sick man assenting, makes a vow and recovers his health. he vowed his pilgrimage with gifts and sacrifices of prayers to the tomb of the said Lady Catherine: which done, the illness began to cool and to change, so that hope was now had for his life, both by the sick man himself and by others standing around: and shortly after, to the astonishment of many, by the merits and intercession of Lady Catherine he earned complete health, and fulfilled his vow in his own person as devoutly as he could; offering wax and other devotions in the honor of God and his most beloved handmaid. Witnesses: Lord Torkil in Hwadstadha, and John Germundi, and Sueno Beronis.

[30] In the same year, Nicholas Biorus, in the parish of Askersund in the diocese of Strängnäs, An illness of the stomach rejecting everything is removed. suffered a most grievous illness of the stomach, so that he could retain nothing of the food taken, but immediately after taking it he rejected it. He lay in bed for half a year, and was so exhausted that he bore true signs of death and not of life. He vowed many things to many Saints, namely pilgrimages and other things; but nothing availed. At last he turned his desire finally to Lady Catherine, and he himself as well as his friends made a vow that if she would grant him aid in this necessity, he would make his pilgrimage with the deepest devotion to her tomb, bringing an offering with him. This vow having been thus made and confirmed in his inmost heart, the vomiting ceased, and asking for food and drink he ate and drank: and whatever he took in from that hour he retained, recovering day by day. And when he was now made well, he came to Vadstena and most devoutly fulfilled the vow which his lips had spoken, magnifying God, who by the merits of his beloved Lady Catherine freed him. Witnesses: John in Ullauo, Olaus Joannis, Andrew Olavi, his neighbors.

[31] From a demon appearing to her, In the same year, a certain woman named Catherine, in Sortenij, parish of Aby, in the diocese of Linköping, on the Vigil of the Nativity of the Lord, while she was crossing over to draw water, was blown in the face by a malignant spirit whom she encountered. Whence, greatly frightened, she began to languish and take to her bed: then her head and face swelled so much that neither eyes nor nostrils could be seen. And from the most vehement pain and swelling the head opened, so that the brain was plainly visible, and she was as though dead, and was judged by all who examined her to be impossible to survive. Her husband, Olaus by name, vowed her to many places and Relics of the Saints and nothing availed. At last, by divine instinct, together with his friends he cast lots, a woman strangely bewitched, and the lot fell to Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget. And by the judgment now as though fallen from heaven, all those present prostrated themselves, praying humbly and devoutly, and pledged a vow that the sick woman would make her pilgrimage to Lady Catherine of Vadstena. Which done, she is rescued from the danger of death: she began to move her head here and there, blessing God and his beloved Lady Catherine: and shortly after she rose from her bed; the opening which she had in her head, together with the illness, entirely vanishing. Furthermore, completing the vow with sincere devotion through pilgrimage and other works of piety, healthy and joyful, she came to Vadstena, extolling the name of the Lord and Lady Catherine immeasurably. Witnesses: Peter Beronis, Peter Laurentii, Harold Petri, her neighbors.

[32] In the same year, Peter the Smith of Västergötland, from the city of Lidköping, sight is restored to a blind man. had not seen the light of day or the sun for four years: and on account of his lack of sight he made a vow to Lady Catherine of Vadstena with wax and a devout offering for the recovery of his health. When, moreover, he came to the tomb of the said Lady, he received his sight, and returned to his home without a guide, glorifying God in his handmaid Lady Catherine. Witnesses: Lawrence, Notary of the town of Vadstena, and Olaus the cobbler of the same place.

CHAPTER V.

Miracles of the year 1472.

[33] A boy long missing, In the year of the Lord 1472, a certain man from Värend, Haakon by name, of the province of Alboharat, parish of Slatha, lost his grandson, the son of his daughter, aged one and a half years, for whom he did not cease to search, both by himself and through others, though in vain for a long time. At length, by God's direction, he unexpectedly cast his eyes into a deep well which he had on his property, and there he found the one he sought, feet up and head down: whom with his mother's help he himself extracted, and at last found in a well by his grandfather, and placing him in his mother's lap, he turned and turned him, to see if he could find life in him: but it was not found, because he was completely cold and stiff. And now the joy of the mother and grandfather was turned to sorrow, and there was none found on earth who could console them: because there is none who returns the spirit once released except the Creator of the spirit, who is in heaven: who at the prayers of his Saints always works wonders on earth, as at the prayers and merits of this Blessed Lady Catherine, to whose prayers and merits they submitted themselves with tears and sighs, revived by a vow made. most humbly beseeching her to deign to obtain life from God for their dead one: making also a solemn vow to her of wax and pilgrimage toward her tomb, if the dead one should be given back to them alive. Which done, he who had been dead came back to life in the sight of all present, and recovered day by day: and the joy, not without the greatest astonishment, was acquired by those desiring and deserving such a spectacle, and especially by the mother grieving for her lost son, above whose sorrow there is no sorrow, which was fulfilled with the greatest joy because of the vow made. Witnesses: Peter Mule and Nicholas Sweningi.

[34] In the same year, a certain man named Haakon Petri, in the parish of Vreta, in the diocese of Linköping, One pierced by an arrow is healed: province of Sutberchsharide, shot through both jaws by an arrow, having abandoned the art of physicians, turned to the grace of God and the Saints, to recover the grace of health. To whom the Spirit of God inspired that he should present himself to Lady Catherine, to beseech her to fulfill his desire: which was also done. For at the direction of the divine inspiration he vowed to the said Lady Catherine

his pilgrimage to her tomb, and without much pain he received his former health, and fulfilled his vow humbly and devoutly according to his promise. Witnesses: Nicholas Magni in Bro and Arvid in Holgha, his neighbors.

[35] In the same year, a certain man named Magnus Thoreri, of the diocese of Växjö, parish of Bjornschken, captured and bound through both legs with a strap and a strong fetter by the enemies of the kingdom of Sweden, captured by enemies as a spy, as a spy while he was on pilgrimage toward Kotnaby; when he sat in chains full of sorrow and expected no human aid, he began to meditate on the sanctity of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, with whose good and sweet fragrance the world is now full: he vowed to her that if he were saved from so great a danger in which he was, and from tribulation unharmed, he would visit her tomb with his offering and other pious works. With the vow thus made, not without worthy admiration of divine power, the following night when he had fallen slightly asleep, around cockcrow the chains with which he was bound were loosened, and immediately fell from his legs to the ground. And when he had awoken and recognized himself freed, his fetters loosened at the vow made, he gave thanks to God and Blessed Catherine, and taking the fetter in his hand, he set out on the journey to his home: and through armies and watchmen who kept the night watches he passed so securely that he could be detected neither by men nor by dogs. And from then on for two natural days he joyfully completed his journey, he returns to his own through the midst of the guards. during which he suffered no one meeting him or pursuing him: but peacefully he arrived at his own house, freed from the hands of cruel men: and not only to himself a cause for joy, but also to all who perceived this grace done with him, a cause for astonishment. And not procrastinating on the vow he had promised, he prepared himself anew, setting out on the journey toward Vadstena, and completed everything according to what was promised above. Witnesses: Lord Magnus of Rogxlosa, Lord Peter Braske, and he personally swore upon the holy Gospels that it was true.

[36] In the same year, a three-year-old girl, the legitimate daughter of Nicholas and his wife, named Bethwi, of Gotland, the town of Visby, A girl dead from a precipitous fall, while she sat playing upon a certain window of a high house, the window fell and hurled the girl down onto the hardest pavement, laid with stones, and she expired. While she thus lay lifeless, the Prefect of the castle came and lifted her from the ground and carried her to her mother inside the house. The mother, however, inestimably distraught, seeing her daughter dead and miserably surrounded with blood, embraced, handled, felt, turned, and turned her again for the space of nearly three hours: yet the spirit, separated from the body, did not at all return: therefore she ordered the corpse to be carried to a private room, as is the custom. When these things had thus been done, unexpectedly, but taught and led by the Spirit of God, as is believed, for the present occasion, a certain young man by occupation a writer came; who, understanding what had happened, began to confer with those present about the sanctity and fame of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget of Vadstena, persuading them to invoke her help. To whom the parents of the deceased humbly assenting, inwardly touched with grief of heart, and commended to the Saint by her parents with a vow, they invoked, standing on their knees with streaming eyes, with great devotion and urgency, the said Lady Catherine, and making a vow of pilgrimage with an offering, that if the same Lady Catherine would obtain life from God for their dead daughter, they would make their way on pilgrimage with their daughter toward Vadstena. The vow having scarcely been made, they contemplated from the face of the dead girl the soul beginning to breathe, she revives. the eyes opening, and yawning. Then shortly after she was most perfectly restored to her former life and health, so that the mother, wishing to fulfill everything she had vowed, came to Vadstena with her daughter, praising the Lord God in his handmaid Lady Catherine beyond telling. Witnesses: Haakon Joannis, who first carried the dead girl to her mother, and John pridempridz with many others.

[37] Likewise a youth suffocated and crushed under a collapsing heap of hay, In the same year, a certain youth named Tozerus, about ten years old, the son of Peter Laurentii, from the parish of Eeckbyborne in the diocese of Linköping, according to the duty assigned to him by his father, namely to bring fodder to the beasts, ascended by a certain ladder to pull from a certain great heap of hay, amassed from many cartloads. As soon as he began to pull, the hay came loose, separating itself from the wall and threatening to fall on the boy. The boy, standing leaning on the ladder, seeing that he could not escape, threw himself backward upon the ladder, laboring as much as he could to avoid the danger. But nothing availed, because together with the ladder he fell, and the hay, easily numbering ten or twelve cartloads, followed upon him and completely suffocated him, and crushed him severely by the pressure of the ladder. And when he was extracted from there, he was found between the ladder and the wall, as though placed in a press, utterly lifeless, his eyes driven out of his head, his eyes torn out, hanging down to his cheeks. His mother, however, seeing this lamentable spectacle, was stunned with astonishment at so miserable a misfortune and trembled all over: nevertheless recalling to memory the holy reputation of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget of Vadstena, whose fame spreads itself through the world in miracles and wonders, she burst forth into these words, saying: Almighty God, Creator and Redeemer of the world, if it is true what is believed about Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, who reigns with you in heaven crowned, and you by her prayers and merits do such great wonders on earth, show mercy to me also, that by her prayers you may give me back my son alive and whole. For I will make a vow to visit her tomb at Vadstena together with my son and offerings. a vow made by the mother and many others, Likewise all those present, bearing faithful testimony to this miracle, vowed: whose names are these: Suno in Asmumstadha, Sueno Caroli in Warberghon, Peter Joannis in Korby, Olaus Danielis in Torpom, and the boy's brother Charles Petri, who together with the mother brought him out dead from the hay, wishing to carry him off to be wrapped in a shroud and buried. Immediately upon the vow being made, the dead boy opened his eyes and rose up healthy, and with every scar removed, the eyes returned to their places: and the mother joyfully fulfilled the vow, alive, he is exhibited to the people of Vadstena. leading the boy to Vadstena to the tomb of Lady Catherine: and on the second day of Pentecost the said boy, during the high sermon, before the people, who were then present in great numbers, was raised up three times in testimony of the foregoing: with all praising God, who is always wonderful and glorious in his Saints.

CHAPTER VI.

Miracles of the year 1473.

[38] In the year of the Lord 1473, a certain man called Olaus Magnus, living in the parish and town of Styra, in the diocese of Linköping, in the territory of Boharozk-baridh, Amid festivities, from the Sunday within the Octave of Blessed Martin, had invited his friends to the celebration of a baptism, and with them, as is the custom of the generous, rejoiced greatly until vespers: but as the sun was already tending toward its setting, he began to grow faint and to fail in bodily strength, so that he was compelled to leave the festivity of the joyful guests and take to his bed. The guests, hearing this, judged by rash judgment that he was doing this out of excessive parsimony, although it was otherwise: for before midnight the illness had so increased that, suddenly seized by illness, with the Parish Priest called, who was one of the dinner guests, he could barely make his Confession. Which, however, having been made with great difficulty, he was judged by all present to be about to die immediately: because he bore with him all the signs of death. While he was thus in his agony, his wife and his brother Nicholas Magnus, with knees bent and tearful eyes, invoked the patronage of Blessed Catherine, that she might obtain for him from God so much time of life that he could receive the Sacraments and make his will. and soon brought to extremity, When this had thus been done, they sent a second time for the Parish Priest: who coming without delay, was asked with many urgencies to go to the church to bring the Sacraments. To whom the Priest said: It is already too late, because he labors at the last point of death: nevertheless he performed everything requested according to their wishes. At length, returning with the Sacraments, a candle was held in his hands, and scarcely could the vital spirit be recognized in him: upon which, a vow made, his brother, as before, and the wife of the sick man herself, now for the second time vowed to Lady Catherine a pilgrimage to her tomb, and to the commendation of her honor their best horse, if she would obtain life for him from the Lord, who holds the key of life and death, at least for so much time that he could have the reception of the Sacraments. the ability to receive the Sacraments, When all these things, as has been said, were promised and completed, he who was as though dead began immediately to come forth from the doors of death to life, and by the merits of Blessed Catherine, in which the vow-makers trusted, he was restored to full health. And as everyone can attest, he very cheerfully commended the aforesaid Lady, then he receives complete health: who had obtained such mercy for him from the Lord: in great joy he performed and completed each and every thing according to the nature of his pledge. Witnesses: Lord Martin, Parish Priest of the same place, who sent the present miracle under his seal according to the aforesaid Order to our monastery of Vadstena; Nicholas Magnus his brother; Magnus Petri; Magnus Laurentii in Gothalom; John Asteri in Vinberghom; Nicholas Magni in Karlaby; and his own wife.

[39] A certain youth from the parish of Hobergha in the diocese of Skara, seized by a sudden illness, immediately expired, and thus remained dead for eight hours of the natural day. dead for eight hours he revives: Those present, however, attentive to this lamentable spectacle, kindled by the Holy Spirit, with knees fixed on the ground, made a vow for him to Lady Catherine. The vow scarcely made, the dead man without delay rose again, and all things that were promised for him he faithfully fulfilled. Sworn witnesses: John Petri in Sathene, Sueno Tordonis in Falahe, and Lawrence Petri in Hobergha.

[40] A certain tailor from the parish of Dingetuna, Andrew by name, a javelin hidden within the body of the injured man, when on a certain Sunday he was visiting the church and was now near the threshold of the cemetery, a certain armed man came toward him, commonly called Stock, having a taut bow and above it a javelin prepared for evil: for as soon as he caught sight of the aforesaid tailor,

he released the catch of the crossbow, and the javelin, once fired, first penetrated the neck of the same tailor: then lower down it lodged itself within the viscera, where for eight days it remained so firmly fixed that it could be extracted from there neither by force nor by skill. Which a certain one of those present considering, advised the wounded man to test the sanctity of Blessed Catherine of Vadstena, by a vow made it exits. vowing his devotion to her: to which he assenting, did as advised. Therefore by the merits of Blessed Catherine, that same following night the aforesaid javelin began gently to exit from the left side, after whose exit he was perfectly and completely healed, and immediately performed his vow according to his own pledge, by visiting Vadstena. Witnesses: Lord Peter Olavi, Lord John Henrici, Prebendaries of the monastery of Vadstena, and a certain virgin of the household of the monastery of Vadstena, named Cecilia.

[41] In the same year, a certain student of Stockholm named John Nicolai, of the diocese of Uppsala, suddenly seized by illness, Speech restored to a mute man: lost his speech for four days: and while he thus lay despaired of this temporal life, a certain pilgrim came, who had recently been at Vadstena, and urged all those present to vow the aforesaid student to the tomb of Blessed Catherine of Vadstena, which was also done. Therefore at the prayers and merits of Blessed Catherine, the mute spoke directly, as before, and confessed his sins, and thereby recovered his full health: and cheerful and rejoicing he came to Vadstena, faithfully carrying out all things according to his promises. Witnesses: two respectable matrons of Stockholm, Anna and Margaret Ergei, and James Henrici of the same place.

[42] to a girl given up after a three-month illness, A certain knight named Gregory Benckters, with his legitimate wife named Christina, of the diocese of Uppsala, province of Samingiahundar, from the parish of Wadha, the manor of Benhamer situated beyond Stockholm, had one only daughter, and she was tormented for three months by a most grievous illness, and around the end of the third month no hope of surviving was seen in her: but because she was the only one, she was therefore most tenderly beloved, and lots cast to various Saints brought no remedy. Likewise they promised many vows and promises, but all in vain, until Lord John, their Chaplain, came, saying: It appeared to me in a dream that you ought to vow the child to Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget: she asks for a vow to her and thus she will be saved. her life is preserved, a Mass having been celebrated in honor of the Saint. To which the knight and the Lady assenting, with knees bent, vowed the child to Vadstena with offerings and other devotions. Then, after a Mass celebrated by the said Chaplain, the pain began to be mitigated, and hope of life appeared in her, and day by day she grew stronger: the parents themselves fulfilling the vow, as is premised, with great cheerfulness of spirit, of which one offering was an infant of silver and another of wax. Witnesses: Lord John the Chaplain, Magnus Finwidi, and Magnus the Goldsmith, citizens of Vadstena.

[43] The child of Lawrence the scribe of the castle of Stockholm, which he has with his legitimate wife, on the day of S. Mark the Evangelist, A paralytic infant healed, was seized by a pitiable seizure, so that he was made mute and paralytic, and totally alienated from his senses. Lots were cast, and the lot fell to Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget. Which done, they humbly bent their knees to the ground, vowing, not without showers of tears, their pilgrimage to the tomb of the said Lady Catherine. And immediately the infant recovered his senses fully, and greater signs of recovery than before appeared in him, and he was strengthened from hour to hour until he was perfectly healed, and they faithfully fulfilled the vow they had made. Witnesses: Lord Ivar Axillis, a knight, Lady Magdalena his wife, and Martin Jacobi.

[44] likewise a blind and disabled man: John Michaelis, in the parish of Malbak, province of Vestrahardh, in the diocese of Linköping, completely exhausted of all bodily strength, having become blind, could not move himself anywhere without two sticks. Therefore he was entirely useless both to himself and to everyone else. In such affliction, his Parish Priest persuaded him to invoke the help of Lady Catherine of Vadstena, and to make a vow to her with the greater devotion which the clemency of the Savior would assign him: which he also did: he came to Vadstena to the tomb of the said Lady Catherine with the support of the said sticks in the greatest labors, and there he was restored in his whole body to his former health, leaving the same sticks there as evident testimony of the miracle: and after this he returned to his house with great joy, giving magnificent thanks to God in his beloved Lady Catherine. Witnesses: Lord Conrad, Chaplain of the church of Vadstena and public Notary, and Giord Laurentii, Chief Magistrate of Vadstena.

[45] Olaus Joannis, a citizen of Arboga, was seized by such an illness that, from the madness of his head, he was completely alienated from his senses, a madman restored to reason: and so he remained demented for eight days. His friends, however, afflicted with sorrows and tribulations, vowed him to make a pilgrimage to Vadstena to the tomb of Lady Catherine, and to offer the image of a man in wax, if by the merits and prayers of Blessed Catherine the power of making the pilgrimage were granted him. A wonderful thing! Immediately in the same lunation, after the invocation of the said Lady Catherine, the senses returned fully to the demented man, and his limbs received perfect health according to their natural disposition: and having been made well, he devoutly completed all things according to the order of the premises, praising and glorifying the great works of God in Blessed Catherine, through whose patronage he was made whole. Witnesses: John Jacobi and Nicholas Joannis, his fellow citizens.

[46] an infant dead soon after birth, Andrew Olavi, from the parish of Skrukrabij, province of Gorstringsxheridh, in the diocese of Linköping, with his legitimate wife begot a male child, who, when he was born into the world, was for three hours pronounced entirely dead by three matrons of respectable and good reputation who were present, because no signs of life appeared in him. They humbled themselves from great compassion on their knees, imploring the help of Lady Catherine of Vadstena, promising her the image of one boy of wax with other pious works, if in such necessity she would come to the aid of the said dead one, obtaining life for him. The parents, moreover, of the same dead boy, pledged such a vow that they would not eat anything that had suffered death, resuscitated by a vow made. before they had completed their pilgrimage to the tomb of the said Lady Catherine. With the pacts thus promised and confirmed by oaths, blood was seen to flow from the eyes, mouth, and nostrils of the dead infant, and afterwards to breathe and revive. Then he obtained the grace of Baptism, and was strengthened in the Lord, and now was making daily progress in health. The mother of this infant, when these things were thus being done, by the vow made, as already said, was made well. And each and every thing they had promised they fulfilled with full jubilation of their hearts, praising the power of the Savior and the mercy of Blessed Catherine. Witnesses: John Haquini and Nicholas Olavi, living in the same parish.

[47] A boy swallowing a grain spike, Lawrence Andersson, from the parish of Kalvesteen, village of Fronberghom, in the diocese of Linköping, province of Aslaheridh, had a boy of one and a half years with his wife: which boy, sitting in the heated room, secretly, with no one noticing, swallowed a certain spike of great size made of rye, from which he suffered such distresses, and for five weeks was often so tormented that no one could recognize any vital spirit in him. The father and mother, seeing this and lamenting more than can be believed, made a vow with all humility, namely an image of wax, to the tomb of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget: and not without the great mercy of God, which at the invocation of Lady Catherine was present, he is freed, on the third following night the spike came out through the nostrils, and the boy was freed from his long languor: on account of which the aforesaid parents of the boy devoutly and cheerfully completed each and every promise. Witnesses: John Nicolai and Berger Joannis, his neighbors. A certain man from the parish of Birckeberga, in the diocese of Linköping, a dying horse is healed. placed his horse, tied by a certain halter or rope, in the pastures, healthy and without any ailment, vigorous; and without delay it threw itself on the ground, tossing itself up and down as though about to die. The owner of the horse vowed to Lady Catherine, daughter of S. Bridget, one horse of wax: which done, it was immediately restored to its former health. Witnesses: Lord Benedict and Lord Birger.

[48] A certain boy named James, from the parish of Birnista, in the diocese of Västerås, while suffering from a lethal illness unto death, A Parish Priest's paralytic, with all hope of life removed, became mute and paralytic, so that in half of his body he was completely destroyed: and in these afflictions he was grievously tormented for three months. For whose cure the faithful of Christ, sympathizing with him, made a vow to the tomb of Lady Catherine of Vadstena, with offering and pilgrimage: which done, he soon obtained a change in the illness, and within a short time recovered so much that he personally and faithfully fulfilled all that had been promised. Witnesses: Lord Lawrence, Parish Priest of the Church of Straa, and Lord John Henrici, Altarist of Vadstena. A certain woman named Regnhild, in the monastery of Söderköping, a woman endangered by being trampled, on the feast of Blessed Lawrence, when she was making a pilgrimage there for the sake of Indulgences, was so pressed and trampled by the people that she was carried outside the church, as though dead, in a certain covering or woolen cloth: for the recovery of whose health her friends and acquaintances made a vow for her to Lady Catherine, with wax and other devotions; and she immediately received her former well-being, and fulfilled each and every thing that had been promised with great joy. Witnesses: Haakon in Sandkollom, of the parish of Rinna, and Magnus the furrier, of the parish of Windistadha.

[49] A certain man named Bondo Siuatti, in the parish of Fagz, province of Wadzbo, in the diocese of Skara, at the time of pestilence, struck by a most grievous ulcer, a man freed from a pestilent ulcer, was most violently tortured, so that his right hand was contracted upward all the way to the shoulders, and the art of medicine was not expected to confer any remedy upon him. Therefore, turning to the aid of the Saints, he began to invoke the patronage of Blessed Catherine, attaching a vow of pilgrimage toward Vadstena with the greater reverence that he could. And from his long languor he was immediately freed, and all things he had vowed he fulfilled in full in his own person. The witnesses are named in the following miracle. The wife of the aforesaid Bondo, afflicted by a sudden swelling, his wife from a swelling of the whole body. was tormented throughout her entire body, from the crown of her head to the sole of her foot, with inestimable pain, and all who saw her said that they had never before seen such an illness in any person, and each one despaired of her further well-being and life. In this despair, therefore, of human aid or counsel, they made a similar vow for her as for her husband, that they should make a pilgrimage to the tomb of the said Lady Catherine. Which done, that sick woman without delay merited her former health,

the swelling entirely vanishing, glorifying God in his holy Lady Catherine. Witnesses to these two miracles: Lord John in Fazhro and Lord Benedict in Fazhro.

[50] Worms spread over entire fields, A certain man of nobler lineage, Tordo Pappason by name, of the diocese of Skara, province of Wartophzaridh, parish of Tidatorpa in Faradal, when he went into his field, found it full of worms which had covered the entire face of the earth, devastating everything: for they had devoured the crops and herbs, and when he came to the meadow, a similar misfortune met him. These worms indeed, descending from the clouds in a certain rain, had eight feet on each side: and when they first came, they were small of body, but in the briefest passage of time they grew in length to the likeness of a human finger: in running also they were very agile. Whence the owner, seeing such intolerable damage in his property, by a vow made by the owner, and that still more intolerable damage was imminent, was utterly at a loss where to turn for comfort and remedy. But placed in such fear, on a certain evening he felt a certain impulse tickling his mind, through which he began to recall how wonderful and stupendous things God does in his beloved Lady Catherine in the world. Whence, emboldened, he fixed his knees on the ground, with humility and devotion adoring the said Lady Catherine to come to his aid, that she might obtain for him from the Lord God deliverance from such a peril: and he vowed that if he escaped this plague, he would offer her one living cow with other pious works. With such a vow made in the evening, the next day, when he rose in the morning, driven away the next day, he went around again his field and other places, to explore whether he had been heard before Lady Catherine. And truly it was so, that Lady Catherine had obtained from the Lord for him what he wished: because where before going to bed he had seen the whole land covered with worms, as with dust, together with the remaining lands, there now he could not find even one, not even the smallest. Having surveyed the field, therefore, he entered the forest, and by chance was led to a certain deep lake, where he saw a mass of worms heaped together, and found dead together in one pit. which according to human estimation three larger barrels could scarcely contain, however great their capacity might be: on account of which he was greatly cheered in his spirit, and praised God in his holy Lady Catherine with all his heart: and he afterwards fulfilled his vow with all possible joy of heart, and many others in the same province, following his example, pledged similar vows to the aforesaid Blessed Lady Catherine, that she would mercifully free them by her merits and intercessions from such plagues and misfortunes. Witnesses: Lord Arvid, his Parish Priest, Lawrence Torkilli in Tidhatorp, and Magnus Laurentii of the same place.

e April 25.

CHAPTER VII.

The remaining part of the miracles, and the commissioners' subscription.

[51] In the year of the Lord 1471, a certain woman of Stockholm, A worm tormenting a woman's ear, named Bridget, was inconsolably tormented on account of a certain worm which had violently entered her ear, which she was unable to expel. Therefore her illnesses and pains were increased daily, and especially for a month lying in bed, she was entirely deprived of the use of reason and senses. Her husband, however, and respectable women sympathizing with her, cast lots upon her to many Saints, and the lot fell to Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget of Vadstena. On that account, both the husband and the other respectable women then present humbled themselves upon their knees, removed by a vow of pilgrimage: praying the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic Salutation in great devotion: and with the same devotion they vowed the said sick woman and one silver head with her to the tomb of Lady Catherine at Vadstena. Which done, she soon obtained the comfort of sleep, and refreshed by sleep, she awoke in the integrity of her senses and reason, and shortly thereafter she was most fully restored to health: and now healed, she came on pilgrimage with her husband to the tomb of Lady Catherine at Vadstena, most devoutly fulfilling her vow and glorifying God in his handmaid Lady Catherine in manifold ways. Sworn witnesses: Lawrence, a caster of pitchers, the husband of the same, Peter Cap the smith, and the women present.

[52] In the same year, Sueno Bondonis, a servant of Lord Henry, Bishop of Linköping, was wounded in the head so dangerously a most grievous wound of the head healed, that one hand could easily be placed between the head and the ear, and bones were extracted from his head: moreover he was pierced internally between the shoulder blades to the length of one palm, from which he fell into a most grave and incurable illness, so that by all who saw him he was judged to be departing without escape: but by divine instinct, some attempting to care for him conceived a sounder counsel by seeking the benevolence of Lady Catherine, that she might pray for him; and they made a vow to her, that if he should escape death, he should personally go on pilgrimage to her tomb at Vadstena with his offerings. The vow scarcely made, he felt relief immediately, and health increased for him from hour to hour until he was perfectly cured, and what had been promised he fulfilled with great devotion, glorifying God. Witnesses: Bero Longius, Andrew Finno, with many other familiars of the Bishop.

[53] In the same year, Andozus, of the parish of Hellestadha, living near the church, province of Wadzbo, likewise a neck illness, in the diocese of Skara, fell ill in his neck so severely that he was judged by all to be approaching death and by no means able to escape; but his wife with friends, lots having been cast to various Saints, the lot fell to Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget of Vadstena, and this three times, according to the attempts: for this reason and for the judgment of the same Virgin's sanctity, humbling themselves on their knees, they vowed the sick man to the tomb of the said Lady Catherine at Vadstena: which done, the ulcer was broken, and the illness yielded to health, and he who was made well faithfully fulfilled what had been promised for him, according to the manner of the promise. Likewise the wife of this man, secretly burdened by the temptations of the enemy, especially from hardness of heart and impurity, vowed a certain secret and perpetual service, and a hidden temptation. likewise secretly, and to the same Virgin Catherine and Lady, and was immediately freed. Sworn witnesses: Helgho Arffuidi and Sueno Laurentii, his neighbors.

[54] In the same year, Algothus, in the parish of Erigxbergha, province of Gansenekrande, in the diocese of Skara, sent his wife to the pastures with the flocks: A boy lost for three days in the forests, who took with her her five-year-old son. When they had come to the interior of the forests, the boy from weariness lay down and fell asleep: but at the customary time, with the flocks returning to the folds, the woman followed somewhat behind, thinking the little boy was going ahead with the flock. But when she came to the house, not seeing her son, she told the father about the absent son: the father, dismayed at the unexpected misfortune, gathered the neighbors and relatives to investigate the lost son. They, greatly distressed, on the first, second, and third day until noon, began to search through the forests and fields, near and far, but accomplished nothing. Therefore those who had helped in the search, weary, were preparing to return to the houses of their dwellings. The father, however, considering this and inwardly afflicted with grief, with many prayers obtained from them that they would accompany him in searching until the evening: after invocation of the Saint, first, however, a vow having been made to Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget, kneeling, in this manner: that if the boy were found again, then the father himself together with his son would make a pilgrimage to the tomb of Lady Catherine at Vadstena, with wax and other offerings. The vow, therefore, having been made, they began to search again until the evening, and then they found the boy walking obliquely, where no passage of men was customary. Upon which the father's heart rejoiced, and likewise all rejoiced who had not labored in vain, magnifying the great works of God in his holy Lady Catherine, to whom, as was promised, he is found unharmed. payment was duly and rightly made. Sworn witnesses: Arson and Gustavus, with those who were searching with him.

[55] In the same year, Bridget, from the parish of Olmistadha, province of Rydhneck, in the diocese of Linköping, A woman infected with poison is freed: was infected with poison, for whose remedy she invoked Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget of Vadstena, and vowed to her that she would go on pilgrimage to her tomb, with an offering of wax and other devotions, if she were restored to her former health: the promise having been made and fulfilled, she expelled the poison and was freed, and most devoutly completed her vow. Sworn witnesses: Magnus and John Caroli.

[56] In the same year, the wife of Peter Nicolai of Warn, parish of Motala, province called Askaharade, another three-year-old boy. in the diocese of Linköping, following the herds of cattle in the fields and forest pastures, brought with her her three-year-old son, and the boy, weary of walking, lay down, and sleep immediately overtook him. The mother, however, neglecting her son, followed the cattle wherever they went, until in the evening they returned to the folds: only then did she remember the son left behind in the forests, and approaching her husband, not without vehement sadness, she told him what had happened: who, overcome by excessive grief, without delay entered the thickness of the forests to search: but that day he accomplished nothing, likewise on the second, by a similar vow, although he had procured many helpers to search with him. On the third day, however, in great tribulation and anxiety of mind, he placed himself on his knees, vowing that he would make his pilgrimage to the tomb of Lady Catherine, daughter of Blessed Bridget of Vadstena, with offerings: and from the inmost affection of his heart he beseeched the same Lady Catherine to grant him

aid in finding his lost son: found by his father on the third day. when these things had thus been done, he returned with his friends to the forest to try once more whether the boy would be returned to him. And when they had already passed the day, around evening they found him where he lay, languishing and trembling on the ground, and the father received him into his bosom and with joy returned him to his mother to be restored: the mother, moreover, with maternal affection and compassion, nurtured him, so that in a short time he was totally refreshed. Witnesses: Olaus Laurentii and Olaus Hemmingi in Biscops-mothala.

Instrument of the Lords Commissioners.

Let all know, whose interest it is or may be in any way in the future, that we, John of Aby and John Ormeri, [The Commissioners testify that all and each thing have been ascertained by suitable witnesses,] Prebendaries in the monastery of Vadstena, acknowledge and declare, according to the commission and mandate given to us in this matter by the venerable Father and Lord, Lord Henry, by divine compassion Bishop of Linköping and local Ordinary, as the letter or tenor of the letter composed on this matter and inscribed above in the present booklet declares, that all the miracles written in this booklet after the said tenor of the commission have been written, received, and examined by us, except a few received, examined, and written similarly by the honorable man Lord Benedict of Haghaby, prevented by death, and together with us by the same Lord of Linköping appointed for this purpose, and inserted into this present booklet. Which miracles indeed, so that they might carry credibility, with their complete substance and opportune circumstances, through trustworthy witnesses, with the administration of a due oath being collected, we applied the utmost diligence in the same. others less attested being omitted. We also acknowledge and declare that we received and wrote down many other miracles, which, because the names, villages, and parishes of the persons with whom such miracles were done are unknown to us, and not having suitable witnesses and therefore not carrying credibility, we have not cared to insert here. In witness and testimony of all and each of the foregoing, we have subscribed here with our own hand, appending our seals, which we use. I confess this to be so, I, John Nicolai, Prebendary of Vadstena. I confess this to be so, I, John Ormeri, Prebendary of Vadstena.

And I, Benedict Pauli, Clerk of the diocese of Uppsala, public Notary by Imperial authority, Subscription of the Notary. because I was personally present at the presentation, reading, hearing, examination, and discrimination from article to article of the present book, and finally at the appending of seals, and at all other things both collectively and individually done and transacted in the holy Council of Arboga in the diocese of Västerås, and saw and heard them so done as is aforesaid: therefore I have inscribed my customary sign together with my name in this present book, asked and required by the Religious men Brother John, General Confessor, and Brother Rodker, Conventual of the monastery of Vadstena in the diocese of Linköping, in witness and testimony of all the foregoing, in the presence of the venerable men and Lords Eric Andreae, Provost of Uppsala, and Simon, Doctor of Decrees and Cantor of Linköping, witnesses summoned and asked for the foregoing. Printed at Stockholm.