Conon Or Conus

CONCERNING ST. CONON OR CONUS, MONK OF THE ORDER OF ST. BASIL, AT NASO IN SICILY.

YEAR 1236

Conon or Conus, Monk of the Order of St. Basil, at Naso in Sicily (Saint)

Naso or Nasus, a town of Sicily in the diocese of Patti and on the northern side of the island toward the Tyrrhenian Sea, situated on a high hill, is written by some as Naxos, but this once-famous city was on the Ionian Sea on the eastern coast of Sicily, destroyed by the tyrant Dionysius. In the said town of Naso was born St. Conon, the temple of St. Conon to some Conus: whose body, first buried in the sanctuary of St. Michael the Archangel, is consistently reported to have been preserved there for many years, until in his paternal house, which on the side of the sanctuary in which he was born and raised, a temple has been established by a grateful posterity for Conon, which is situated above a cave in which his relics are preserved with the highest veneration: relics, sacred veneration in which place he is venerated no less gloriously than he had ended his life, with distinguished offices from the citizens, on the 5th before the Kalends of April, the day on which he departed to Christ, and on the Kalends of September, on which after death he began to perform miracles: but in the church of Palermo his relics are honored on the 3rd of the Nones of June. As the said words of Octavius Caietanus testify in his Observations on the Life of St. Conon. The same author in his Sicilian Martyrology at this 28th of March has the following: In the town of Naso, St. Conon, monk of the Order of St. Basil. 28th of March Francis Maurolycus relates the following: At Naxos or Naso, a town of Sicily, St. Conon, a Basilian monk, distinguished for abstinence and holiness, in the time of Roger II, in the year of Salvation 1236. The same is read in Molanus in his additions to Usuard and Felicius. Ferrarius mentions him in the General Catalogue, and with a longer encomium in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy. 1st of September But on the Kalends of September the said Caietanus has the following: At Naso, the solemnity of St. Conon the monk, because on that day his miracles began. Caietanus is followed by Ferrarius, but in his Notes he says he flourished around the year of Salvation 1190 under Tancred, whom on this day he had said flourished around the year 1236. Again on the 3rd of June he assigns to Palermo St. Conus the Abbot, 3rd of June and doubts in his Notes whether this is the same as Conus or Conon, monk of the Order of St. Basil, who is venerated at Naso, since he had not seen the Acts: but Caietanus, who lived at Palermo and examined everything, asserts that Ferrarius is mistaken, and that it is one and the same Conon, and is called Abbot by some.

The Life of St. Conon was first written in Greek by an anonymous monk, which was rendered into Latin by Francis Maurolycus, and inserted into volume II of the Lives of the Sicilian Saints by the aforementioned Caietanus, but with the diction slightly polished, as he says in his Notes, the Life and adds that the others drew from this and enlarged it, and these are Julian Montefusco of the family of the Friars Minor Observants of St. Francis, Joseph of St. Julian of Naso of the Capuchin Order, John Aragona, and James Muccioni of Naso, a Priest of our Society. From these Caietanus drew some miracles, which he appended to the Life, and which we give from him.

LIFE

By a Basilian monk, translated from Greek codices.

Conon or Conus, Monk of the Order of St. Basil, at Naso in Sicily (Saint)

[1] Conon, born of a military and noble father, was born at the town of Naso Born of noble stock under Roger, King of Sicily: when as a young man he heard from the Gospels, He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: moved by that saying, he took the monastic habit of St. Basil. Matthew 37, 38 While engaged in prayers in the church of St. Michael, he resolved to undertake a pilgrimage to the city of Jerusalem he takes the habit of St. Basil and the adjacent places consecrated by the footsteps of Christ the Lord. While he was staying at Jerusalem, when he saw a serpent at the throat of a certain religious man, and received a voice saying "Tighten and strangle," he immediately went to the man at Jerusalem and warned him, recounting the portent that had appeared to him. That man accused himself of having amassed much money from hearing confessions. Here Conon, reciting those words from the Gospels: he corrects a greedy Priest Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where rust and moth destroy, he urged and persuaded the man to give freely to the poor however much money he had collected and received for free. Matthew 6:19 Then Conon, having returned to Sicily, when he found his parents had died, distributed his entire patrimony to the poor: and mindful himself of the divine saying, In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread, he lived by the cultivation of fields; and at the same time with the fruits he had gathered, he sustained the poor. Genesis 3:19

[2] Meanwhile a certain girl, pregnant by an impure youth, falsely accused by a pregnant girl driven by torments from her parents, at the instigation of the devil, cast the blame on the innocent and unknowing Conon: and the Governor of the town ordered the accused Conon to be beaten with rods. As the lictors were stripping Conon, when a worm fell from his iron girdle (for the flesh beneath it had rotted and bred worms), bending down he picked up the fallen worm and placed it back in the place from which it had fallen. When they asked what he had done, he replied: I restored my flesh to its own place. Seeing this, they contemplated the harsh manner of Conon's life, and reported the matter to the Governor: who sent Conon back to his cell, and the woman who had accused the man of God, seized by a demon, he frees her from a demon cried out: She could not be freed except through Conon: but she was being tormented on account of the insult which she had falsely cast upon Conon. Therefore she was brought to Conon and freed by him. The son of the Governor of the people of Naso, he removes apoplexy seized by apoplexy and madness and brought to Conon, was cured by him, a worm the size of a palm being extracted from his ear. The parents immediately went to Conon and gave him thanks.

[3] Moreover, when God wished to reward Conon's labors with prizes, He sent His Angel, he is carried to heaven by an Angel who visiting Conon in his cell, carried his spirit to heaven. When he died, the bells in the town of Naso, with no one impelling them, produced sound of their own accord. The townsfolk, terrified by the prodigy, rushed to Conon to consult him about the matter: as the bells ring they found him already dead: but from the dead man the sweetest fragrance was exhaled. In his hands was a tablet, with inscribed prayers by which Conon begged God for the liberation of Naso from all fury and tyranny: he takes up the protection of Naso that those who, afflicted with earache, invoked his aid might be healed: that those who visited his church and relics might be freed from the dominion of the demon in this life and in the world to come. He died in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and thirty-six, on the fifth before the Kalends of April.

MIRACLES

Collected by Caietanus from various sources.

Conon or Conus, Monk of the Order of St. Basil, at Naso in Sicily (Saint)

[1] Susanna Cardona, a noble Princess, Countess of Collesano and Lady of Naso, was detained at Naples with a sick body: The Lady of Naso, seized by a grave illness the year was one thousand five hundred and fourteen from the birth of the Virgin; in which she sailed to Messina in Sicily, whether for domestic business or for a change of climate? Here she found no relief for her disease, indeed it afflicted her more severely each day. At that time Conon, famous for his miracles, was celebrated throughout Sicily: by which Susanna, raised to the hope of recovering her health, having made vows for her well-being, hastened to Naso to the tomb of the Blessed Conon: but the labor of the journey had so increased the force of the illness, that after she arrived at the town, the woman was unable to leave her house to visit the church of Conon. The physicians soon despaired of her health. But Susanna, although weak in bodily strength, was strong in hope toward God. Therefore, aware of her danger, and the more ardently turning to those around her, she begged that since she was not permitted by her pains to venerate the relics of the divine man in person, as was her desire and duty, they should endeavor to have them brought to her with fitting honor: let this comfort be given to the dying: nor would Conon disdain the confines of her house. Immediately what the most noble lady sought was granted, and her piety merited. The sacred head was brought, with a distinguished escort and preceding torches: at the bringing of the head of St. Conon which when she saw, the sick woman burst into weeping; and between kisses and tears, with wonderful confidence, she addressed Conon: Bring help to the wretched, she said, aid the one in peril: strengthen the hope of your client with powerful intercession, which you have with God. she is suddenly healed Wonderful to say and to see! She was instantly restored, and rose in joyful health. There still remain remnants of precious garments, displaying the wealth and piety of the Countess, with which she adorned the church of the Blessed Conon, mindful of the benefit.

[2] Moreover, the series of miracles of the most blessed man Conon is immense: The homeland is preserved from plague I will select those by which the people of Naso esteem and venerate their Patron as the guardian of the town, the expeller of the homeland's dangers, by whose patronage it was freed from plague, war, and famine. For in the year

(it was the year one thousand five hundred and eighteen) a foul plague afflicted Sicily, devastating almost entire towns and cities, while Naso remained untouched. But an immense fear had seized the people of Naso on account of the proximity of places burning with the evil: when to an honest woman praying for her homeland, Conon appeared during the night, and addressed her thus: Let her cast away fear: let her certainly announce that the homeland was free from pestilence by the gift of God: let her bring glad tidings, full of joy, to the citizens: and the oracle was true for other years as well, in which the plague raged through Sicily.

[3] Worthy of remembrance are the glories of that distinguished warrior. The most violent wars between the Spaniards and the French were raging in Europe, during the Turkish invasion equally destructive to the conquered and the victors, and by bad example augmented by the forces of the East, with the tyrant Suleiman enlisted in an alliance by Francis, King of France. The year one thousand five hundred and forty-four afflicted Italy with a severe wound: for the fleet of Suleiman, having confirmed the conditions with the Frenchman, sailed from Constantinople against the Emperor Charles V, King of Spain and Sicily, under the command of Hayreddin, the cruelest of mortals: who was to devastate the shores of Italy, and the cities and islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Hayreddin therefore, that treacherous deserter, having entered the strait with a powerful fleet, destroyed Reggio: then sailing past the coast of Italy, and over the breadth of the sea as far as Toulon, he stormed Nice, a city of Narbonne. Returning, he ravaged the coast of the Neapolitans, then turned his anger toward the Islands, sacked Ischia, and took Lipari on the Kalends of June in the year one thousand five hundred and forty-five by surrender, or perhaps by treachery: from there thirty triremes were dispatched and sent against Sicily, to burn Patti: they soon sailed to the nearby Agathyrsum, and disembarking the soldiers, they marched on Naso. Already the Turks had reached the walls and were assaulting the gate, daring to storm it: when with suddenly changed spirits they fled, Naso besieged rushing headlong through the forests and groves, struck with immense terror. suddenly released As fear came upon the barbarians, courage returned to the townspeople. The gates were immediately thrown open for the besieged, who, blazing with a kind of divine and superhuman fervor, charged the backs of the barbarians: pursuing the scattered ones they cut them down, overwhelmed them with a shower of projectiles, drove them confused and terrified to the shore, until they could reach their ships. The cause of the enemies' flight was unclear to the townsfolk. After the enemy was driven off, they returned rejoicing, and from deserters and captives they learned that the Turks had seen, sitting in the very gate they were attacking, a monk in a black habit, of terrible appearance, with a threatening face, holding in his hand a banner shining with abundant light: terrified by the sight of the man, as if struck and driven away by thunderbolts. St. Conon appearing at the gate When they considered the miracle and the garb and the face, it was discovered that the Blessed Conon had accomplished this: that he had turned the terror from the besieged upon the besiegers; that he had sat upon the walls, defending his homeland.

[4] I attempt the final miracle. The people of Naso had an inauspicious year, one thousand five hundred and seventy-one. scarcity of grain A premature winter had increased their cares, with rains so continuous and severe that grain could not be transported into the town: the sea also swelled with adverse weather and winds. Therefore the town was pressed by famine, besieged and shut in by storms on land and sea. Already the citizens, as a last resort, sought help from Heaven, approached the temples, prayed to Conon, begged for the support and protection of the homeland against dangers: and indeed help came sooner than they had hoped, and it was proved how much their prayers availed with Conon, and Conon's with God. Immediately Conon descended from heaven to the Hot Springs of Himera, a famous granary of Sicily on the Tyrrhenian Sea: here a ship loaded with grain had been prepared for Patti, and was awaiting winds and sea. Conon courteously addressed the shipmaster: the sailors stirred up by St. Conon let him grant him this favor, to sail to Agathyrsum. The man, divided in mind, now reverencing the extraordinary appearance and speech of the man (for he was venerable both to see and to hear), now terrified by the angry sea: finally, cautious in acting and fearful of the sea, he blamed the untimely navigation: nor would he recklessly expose himself to winds and waves, a plaything of the waves, prey for fish. But from the mouth of Conon flowed a speech sweeter than honey: he soothed the shipmaster, wiping away his fear: he bade him be of good courage and make the ship ready: let him transport the grain where he was ordered, and not fear the savage storms: the voyage would succeed well: he himself would be present to him as he sailed well. Here he vanished, and at the same time there entered the timid soul of the sailor a love of obedience, and firmness against dangers: and the sailors' ardor followed as well. Therefore the ship was loosed from the shore (for there was fear lest by delaying they would anger the weather), and not without the aid of Heaven, by the swiftest voyage it reached Agathyrsum. And not so much the speed of the voyage as the sight offered again astonished the sailors: he is removed for Conon, presenting himself spontaneously to the ship as it reached the shore, addressed them: O men, how is it going? Are you happy and cheerful? Give thanks to God. Having said these things, and having crowned the joy of the sailors, he was taken from their sight. And the people of Naso, restored by the aid of their Patron, praised God, and gratefully extolled the honors of Conon.

CONCERNING THE VENERABLE WIDOW AND VIRGIN MARY OF MAILLE, LADY OF SILLY-GUILLAUME, AT TOURS IN GAUL.

YEAR OF CHRIST 1414

Venerable Mary of Maille, Lady of Silly-Guillaume, Virgin and Widow, at Tours in Gaul (Saint)

[1] Mary, born of the most noble stock of the Lords of Maille among the people of Tours, and betrothed to a young man of equal nobility, Robert, Lord of Silly-Guillaume, among the people of Le Mans, was called indiscriminately by both names while she lived, and for fifty-two years altogether survived her husband, called Saint and Blessed by various writers even in former times but after death among writers of the Franciscan Order of a later age, Gonzaga, Wadding, and others, she is designated only by her married title. But neither this nor the former name drawn from her birth matters so much to us as the praise of outstanding holiness, celebrated by the constant testimony of posterity up to the present times, on account of which she is not only commonly called Blessed by the people of Tours, but also in the obituary book which is in the choir of the Friars Minor, she is pre-titled and written as: The Noble Lady, the holy Mary of Maille, buried in the habit. From both appellations, of Blessed and Saint (although either can be sustained by the prescription of so much time, saving the edict of Urban VIII concerning such matters) we think we should nevertheless abstain, until by the authority of the Apostolic See it shall have been restricted to that meaning which is now commonly understood to underlie those same titles: and we consider it sufficient to insert Mary into our work on account of the veneration which is publicly exhibited at Tours to her image and sacred relics from a time exceeding the memory of the one century defined by the Urbanine law, to which the Pontiff wished nothing derogated, so that it should henceforth be perpetual.

[2] And first indeed the image of Mary is publicly seen in the church of the said Friars, adorned with a diadem such as it is only permitted to adorn the heads of the Blessed: she has her image in the temple crowned with a diadem and the same is on certain occasions also placed on the high altar: as the Reverend Father William Quirini of our Society saw and venerated it when placed there, when he had gone to the said Convent to inquire on what basis Arthur du Monastier had numbered her among the Blessed of his Order on this day, on which she died, both in the Franciscan Martyrology and in the Sacred Gynaeceum. Of this image two copies were said to exist, one in the city of Le Mans, the other with one of the almoners of the Queen, about which nothing further occurs for us to add. The veneration of the body before the high altar was so great among the people from the very time of her death, the body held in great veneration that the Guardian of that Convent, who was also the Confessor of the said Mary, and Procurator in the name of the Convent of Tours for instructing the legitimate informative process for Canonization, Brother Martin of Bois-Gautier, says in his dedicatory letter to James, King of Hungary, Jerusalem, and Sicily; that it was visited with watchful care by the peoples of diverse regions, and shining with innumerable miracles there from day to day, was venerated by all with due reverence. And this reverence endured among the people up to the unhappy times of the Calvinists raging against all sacred things, as the most evident argument is the violation of the venerable tomb, performed by the hands of the same sacrilegious men, who burned and scattered with fire the relics of St. Martin and other Saints of Tours, which had until then been most religiously preserved.

[3] For those destroyers of sacred things raged against the tomb of Mary with equal violence, dug up and scattered by the Huguenots not only do the people of Tours know from common report: but not more than twenty years before, the Guardian of the place came to know with his own eyes, when he had ordered the tomb to be opened and the earth carefully dug out, to extract the venerable bones, to be thereafter more decently and religiously preserved: for he found nothing besides some vertebrae and smaller bones (which evidently could have escaped the fury of the heretics who were not particularly careful in their search) and a head covering of the woman, not without a miracle preserved uncorrupted for two centuries under the earth. With these then, truly relics of the body, the Guardian thus made use of them: of which certain relics were then honorably elevated he left some particles in the sepulcher, lest the faithful, accustomed to piously visiting it, should venerate it entirely empty: the rest he transferred into a small wooden casket, painted red and variegated with golden rods: which he then placed elevated in the middle of the nave of the church within a cabinet inserted into a wall hollowed out for this purpose: and for preserving that cap which we mentioned, because it is sought by many as beneficial from the experience of many for those with fevers and headaches, to be placed on the heads of the suffering, the piety of certain faithful persons had a silver pyxis made, which is also not rarely displayed on the altar for public veneration.

[4] Moreover, of this venerable widow, and what is more, also a virgin, as one who was of the Third Order of the Minors, shining with miracles Arthur makes mention in the above-cited books: Gonzaga moreover, part 3, and from him Wadding at the year 1288, speak of her thus: In the year 1413, on the 5th before the Kalends of April, the pious and holy Lady Mary of Silly fell asleep in the Lord, buried in the habit of our institute there, opposite the high altar, to this present day distinguished by many miracles: as is clear in her legend. Arthur testifies that this was printed in Latin and French in the year 1644 at Angers: the Confessor wrote the Life in Latin we received it in both languages from Tours, with the aforesaid William Quirini arranging it. And the French one indeed, as it was found in manuscript among the Cordelier Fathers, was said to have been written by Father P. le Heurt: who, following the tenor and almost the very words of the older Latin text, reports among other things that her Confessor had left in writing, signed, what we have at number 7 about three orphans brought home by Mary's husband, that he had heard from the mouth of the Lady Mary: and in the process at number 27, John Tennegotti, Canon of St. Martin of Tours, testifies that he had many times urged the said Brother Martin to commit such things to his writings.

The Latin text, to be sought from the Minim Fathers (I do not know whether they kept it in print or manuscript), the year 1507 appended at the end indicates it was then copied from the original: and that it was composed some time after death is gathered from that final clause, and shining to the present day with almost infinite signs, virtues, and miracles.

[5] I would believe it was the Confessor's design that what he knew privately about Mary, intending to supply what was lacking in the Process and could not insert into the informative Process itself, since as Procurator constituted in the cause (whom it is decreed should not be admitted as a witness, in the chapter Romana, concerning Procurators, in book 6, final law, of the Digest, concerning Witnesses) he would supply by this writing, and satisfy the wishes of others requesting such a thing: whence it happened that he barely and sparingly touched upon what could be read in the said process as confirmed by sworn Witnesses, especially the miracles; and so he left room for one who might wish to compose a full history of her life in an orderly fashion from both sources: to which task, while we write, Father Canaye of our Society, a Priest, is said to be devoting himself at Rouen. For the author who composed the French Life which we mentioned, from which we subsequently illustrate the Latin one, for some time lost says these words related at number 29 of the Life: The witnesses of this matter survive almost innumerable; he thus expands. A general examination of cures of this kind was conducted from the proper inquiry by Master Peter de Bruyere, Apostolic Notary, after the death of the said good Lady: in which many noble and trustworthy persons and irrefutable witnesses were heard, and deposed, as they knew in their conscience, that they had seen and heard of the admirable deeds and words of this Blessed Lady: as is contained in the said examination, now lost through the injury of the times.

[6] Those times, namely, in which the rabid Huguenots endeavored to abolish throughout all of Gaul every memory of sacred antiquity: and afterwards recovered yet God provided that, distributed through various hands, the most illustrious monument, whether the original itself or an authentic copy of equal authority and antiquity, should come into the hands of our most dear friend and most zealous preserver of such documents, Mr. Wion d'Herouval: with whom, since Arthur wrote in the Gynaeceum that he had read the same at Paris, we immediately sent to obtain it, but we received only one quire, which perhaps had not come into the hands of the said gentleman, when, as he writes, he gave whatever he had about this Lady to the most intimate of his friends, Father Vignier of blessed memory, a Priest of the Oratory: which therefore would now have to be sought from his brother and sole heir, Mr. Vignier, Governor of Richelieu for the Most Christian King. Meanwhile the Franciscans of Tours found another copy and handed it to Father William Quirini for transcription: whose fidelity could be estimated from so old a fragment, apparently written by the hand of a public notary.

[7] This examination was begun with the permission and consent of the Most Reverend Father and Lord in Christ, which began to be formed immediately after death Lord Amelius, by Divine permission Archbishop of Tours (who was indeed the closest blood relative of the said Mary and probably her nephew through a brother, as we observe in the Life at number 22, note c) in the year 1414, on the 11th of April, fifteen days after the death of the deceased. For although she is said to have died in the thirteenth year of the century, this must be understood according to the custom of the French of that time, who numbered years from Easter, which then fell on the 8th of April: and this is clearly evident from the very context of the Process, both elsewhere and at number 14, where a witness, heard on the 27th of July, says that the said Lady departed from this world on Wednesday before Palm Sunday, namely on the 28th of the month of March most recently past. The last testimony was received in the year 1415 on the 20th of May, and was concluded the following year when Amelius had already departed from the living (since his successor James Gelu is found on the 4th of December immediately preceding to have sworn the oath of fidelity to the King), when likewise James of Bourbon, himself also closely joined to Mary by blood (in whose sole name as Count of La Marche, John de Pontelevio, appointed Procurator in this cause, had requested the process to be formed), being joined to Queen Joanna of Naples in second marriage, with her either dissimulating or even indulging beyond the nuptial agreements, was writing himself, and permitting others to write him, King of Hungary, Jerusalem, and Sicily, as happens in the dedicatory letter by which the already concluded Process was sent to him, to be further pressed at the Roman Curia.

[8] But the fortunes of the excellent Prince, soon changed, did not allow him to attend greatly to the cause commended to him, or to have suitable authority when free: and commended to the King of Naples, a blood relative for in the year 1417 he was given into custody by his wife, and escaping the following year, he fled to France, where, weary of worldly vanity, he took the habit of St. Francis at Besancon, and in that humility and poverty, more secure and joyful than in the Kingdom, he lived until the year 1438, having died eight years before the death of Blessed Colette, near whose body (if it should happen that she died before him) he had arranged in his testament, which he ordered to be written three years before his death, that his own body should be buried, and is summarized by the Sainte-Marthes in book 24 of the Genealogical History, chapter 9. By the misfortune of this man, then, and the death of the Archbishop, the cause, deprived of such supports as could be hoped for from such closely connected persons, it had no effect and falling into the most difficult times of the Church divided by schism, had no success; nor did that of the Blessed Colette, whom we have already named: yet for that reason the faithful did not cease to venerate either her or Mary as Blessed, to whose custom, as approved by the silence of the universal Church, we willingly conform.

LIFE

By Brother Martin of Bois-Gautier, Confessor of the Venerable Lady and Guardian of the Friars Minor of Tours.

Venerable Mary of Maille, Lady of Silly-Guillaume, Virgin and Widow, at Tours in Gaul (Saint)

BHL Number: 5515

BY BROTHER MARTIN THE CONFESSOR

CHAPTER I

The outstanding virtues of Mary in her early age and virginal marriage.

[1] In the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and thirty-one, on the fourteenth day of the month of April, Born of illustrious lineage at Roche-Saint-Quentin in the diocese of Tours, a certain noble girl was born, who in baptism was called Joan, and from Confirmation was called Mary. Her father was Hardouin, Lord of Maille, and her mother Joan of Montbazon, formerly a daughter of Mary of Dreux. For this girl, illuminated by heavenly grace, despised the world with its flower. signs of future piety For when she was six years old, as if foretelling her own holiness, while gathering flowers with girls of her own age, she presented them not to herself but to the images of the Saints; and garlands of roses that were brought to her, she kindly offered to the image of the glorious Virgin. Sometimes, while engaged in playful activities among her companions, and voluntary poverty, she shows signs she would take off her own precious and delicate garments and put on the tunics of the daughters of the poor. The young woman assigned to her service and care, admiring this, would very often say: This daughter does not foretell herself to be a queen. She frequently did these and similar things in her childhood years, so that they were rightly considered as certain signs of her future poverty.

[2] At this age she was instructed in letters, and in a short time made such progress that within ten years she could read books written in the vernacular most fluently and distinctly, taught letters, she reads only pious things and shunning vain books, she read holy books for comfort. Her parents bore this with difficulty, and drew her to the vain joys of the world, reproving her: and afflicted her not only with harsh words but also with very many threats. But she, having confidence in the Lord, spending what furtive hours she could in prayers, most devoted to prayer at age 12 fervently begged the glorious Virgin to make her blessed Son propitious and merciful and placable to her. When she was eleven years old, at the Nativity of Christ, while the solemnities of the Masses were being celebrated, and she was adoring devoutly on bended knees, she was lifted above herself and filled with divine consolation, she enjoys divine consolations not moderate but inestimable and indescribable. For flesh and spirit were borne harmoniously toward God; and with the weariness of the flesh now removed, all the members of the body served the spirit without rebellion or fatigue: for this divine consolation was great and wonderful, and lasted for a long time. Not long afterwards, intent on prayer as usual, she merited divine consolation similar to the first, but somewhat shorter. At that time the Mother of God, the Virgin, appeared to her in her dreams, holding her Son Jesus Christ, and having in her right hand a censer of drops of the precious blood of Christ her Son, and is imbued with love of the Passion of Christ with which she seemed to incense her. Nor was she lifted up in human glory on account of this, but tasting the most sweet sweetness of the divine Passion, she felt herself more perfectly confirmed in the love of Jesus Christ. And so that the memory of the Lord's Passion might be fixed in her heart, she carried an image of the Crucified painted on parchment, hidden between her breast and her tunic, and sometimes raised up in her hands.

[3] After a short time had elapsed, she was seized by a grave illness, for which no aid of physicians could provide relief: Miraculously healed after a vow to St. James but when her mother made a vow on her behalf to St. James, thinking she would die shortly, she was soon restored to complete health. Seeing this, the most famous physician, Master Nicholas Chesne, said to all who were listening: This girl has done something good, or will do so in the future. And he speaks well from the Holy Spirit when he says "in the future": which we now see with our own eyes to be fulfilled. Having recovered her bodily strength, her father having already died, her father having died she prepared herself to imitate the footsteps of Christ. For she became meek and humble and patient beyond human measure. For when she was mocked by maidservants with insulting words, enduring all things for Christ, she passed by as one who was deaf. Solicitous about hearing the word of God, not forgetful of what she heard, because she was of ardent wit and lively memory, she stored everything in the little cabinet of her heart. Her mother kept a Confessor of the Order of Minors constantly in her household, who frequently strengthened the said girl, from diligent hearing of the word of God with the Lord cooperating, in her holy purpose through the means of Scripture: and because he was learned and upright, when asked even after the bodily meal, almost every day in the hall of the Lady, before men and women, he would recite something from Sacred Scripture: and the girl Mary, out of reverence for the word of God, sat on the ground, listening to his word; not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work: she wonderfully progresses in piety therefore she shall be blessed in her deed. For she, in the flower of her youth, attending to fasts, vigils, prayers, and supplications, glorified the Lord in hymns and confessions, keeping herself

unspotted from this world.

[4] After twelve years, when her parents and relatives were discussing her marriage, it came to her ears, through the care of her maternal grandfather but prudently concealing her intention of preserving her virginity, she commended it to the Lord with most humble prayers, imploring the aid of the glorious Virgin and all the Saints. Nor did her grandfather Bartholomew, Lord of Montbazon, keep silent about this, for he loved the girl more than all others: and since he was upright and devout, with God's help he accomplished so much that the said Mary chose the Lord Robert of Silly as her husband. betrothed to Lord Robert of Silly Nor is it surprising that she accepted him with whom she had been raised from infancy, for whom she had prayed to the glorious Virgin while still stammering, whom the Lord had also freed from the danger of drowning in a pond at the prayers of the said girl, whom also the said Mary had foreknown would be the guardian of her virginity, as had been revealed to her by God. But the day of her betrothal in the face of the Church was not one of joy but of sorrow: because her grandfather died on that day, and he who had been most anxious about the marriage above all others, overtaken by death, was unable to see the wedding.

[5] On the night in which she entered the secret silence of the bedchamber with her husband, whom she persuades to likewise preserve virginity she began devoutly to recount the lives and examples and miracles of Saints and holy women: and it happened, the Lord cooperating and directing her, that both, having abandoned the couplings of marriage and despising the propagation of children, resolved to attach themselves perpetually to the Spouse who is in heaven. In the newness of her marriage she became consumptive, phthisical, and dropsical, and languishing for a long time, she sought health not from earth but from heaven; and was healed rather by the power of God, who wounds and heals. But lest the virtue of patience become idle in her, new matter for the exercise of virtue befell her. In a certain war with the King of France, her husband was atrociously wounded, she is exercised by various adversities by which wound he was lame and incapacitated for three years; and after the capture of the said King in Poitou, a harsh war was stirred up against the Viscount of Beaumont, from which many evils arose. For the castle of Silly was captured by stealth, and the land of the Lord was devastated all around, and what is most to be mourned, forty-six feudal and noble men from the said Lord's land were killed.

[6] When King John of France was taken captive to England, the English invaded France; her husband captured by the English devastating cities, towns, castles, townships, churches, monasteries, and other holy places, they led many captives to their fortresses. For they held Robert, Lord of Silly, captive in the castle of Gravelle, and for his liberation demanded belts of gold and silver and precious pearls and great horses, to the value of three thousand florins. Mary, his wife, with a bitter soul and a sad heart, sought counsel and help from her relatives and acquaintances: but because of the excessive delay, her husband was shut up in the narrowest dungeon, and by Captain Robin Quenelle an oath was sworn for his death, with all food denied to him. For nine days he tasted nothing except his own urine: she obtains his freedom by prayers but at the prayers of his devout wife Mary, the blessed Mother of God the Virgin visited him with consolation, and freed him from prison: and thus, snatched from the hands of his enemies, he returned to his own home joyful and unharmed. In those days, on a certain occasion, while she was praying, Christ appeared to her, alive and affixed to the Cross; divinely gifted with contempt of the world who with His right hand lowered from the Cross touched her left eye and closed it with His fingers, efficaciously impressing upon her heart the contempt of worldly things. And this apparition was not without mystery: for she made herself poor and a beggar for Christ in this world, as the outcome of the affair plainly declared after many years.

[7] After the abovementioned adversities, the Lord Robert and Mary his wife, living praiseworthy lives, loved the Lord with all their strength, together with her husband she devotes herself to works of charity keeping His commandments, and they began to distribute generous alms to the poor from their means, and they extended a helping hand to everyone who asked. For it is reported in that country that on a certain day the multitude of the poor was so great that the loaves that had been prepared and more than ten times over would not have sufficed for them, even if each one received only a little: but the ancient miracles of God were renewed, so that all the poor were satisfied, and the provisions of the house remained. They visited widows and orphans in their tribulation with affection: for from the mouth of the Lady Mary I heard that her husband unexpectedly found three abandoned and unknown orphans of the same age, as their stature and faces indicated, at a crossroads, one under each armpit and the third carried in his arms, and bringing them to his castle toward orphans and captives and giving joy to his wife, he presented them to her: and the holy Mary gladly received them and raised them as a mother, as long as they lived in this world. Moreover, the noble man, not forgetful of his own captivity, was merciful to all the afflicted and captive, paying the ransom for many: and, as is reported, lest a certain poor captive be killed by the English, he freely paid forty livres of Tours for him, without hope of future reward. Mary rejoiced in such works, giving thanks to the Creator, who by His generous goodness had willed to join her with so faithful a husband.

[8] This soldier, so distinguished in birth and character, adorned with merits and virtues, the widow is expelled from her husband's house died in the year of the Lord one thousand three hundred and sixty-two: buried in the College of the Blessed Mary of Silly, whose praiseworthy fame endures to the present day. When the obsequies of this Lord were completed, Mary his wife was ejected from his castle, stripped of all her husband's goods: and one of her maidservants took her in, in a certain hut: and not having a napkin on which to eat her bread decently, she borrowed one from the maidservant. But the maidservant took it back too soon and with severity: and Mary, being humble, returned it patiently and kindly, yet not without embarrassment.

CHAPTER II

By what exercises of virtue Mary adorned her widowhood.

[9] After a few days of her mourning had passed, being about thirty years of age, Having returned to Maille to her mother she returned to her mother at the castle of Maille, and occupied herself with her in every good work, and from her she learned the method and art of making ointments: but nevertheless she did not relax her spirit from prayer. She entered the church of St. Peter, situated near the castle, very frequently for the purpose of prayer: she is visited by St. Ivo and on one occasion, while she was praying in it, the Blessed Ivo of Brittany appeared to her, appearing in a white garment, and said to her: If you wish to leave the world, you will immediately feel the joys of heaven: and taking her by the arms he raised her from the ground, and in that rapture she had no small experience of the joys of paradise. While she was still young and of proven goodness, she rejects second marriages many nobles and powerful men of the world sought her for marriage, with her mother not objecting: and her brother brought her to his castle of Maille, thinking he could incline her mind to marriage above all others. But Mary, already anticipated by another lover, Christ Jesus, despising the transitory things of the world, fleeing the works of the flesh, in no way consented to the bland words of her brother.

[10] She moves to Tours Having found an opportunity, she transferred herself to the city of Tours, intending to devote herself to pious works there: and lest any frivolous occupation retard her from the Canonical Hours, she arranged to have her dwelling near St. Martin's. Indeed during the nighttime, as she went to the church or returned home, lest she stumble, a certain wonderful light, prepared for her by God, very often went before her here and there. In the said church she chose the chapel of the Blessed Anne as her oratory. and wonderfully inflamed with the love of God One day when she was meditating on the goodness of God, and was anxious about how she might reach the summit of divine love and be inflamed with the fire of the Holy Spirit, while she was praying earnestly to God about these things, a ball of fire fell upon her, whose inestimable heat spread wonderfully through all her limbs. Feeling therefore the great power of God in herself, she put her hand to strong things: for she strove to minister to Christ in His poor with Martha, yet no less did she show herself attentive with Mary to the sweetness of the word of God. Certainly in the city and outside it she devoutly attended preaching without ceasing, she ministers to those occupied for the salvation of souls sitting humbly on the ground at the feet of the preachers. To those occupied in study for the salvation of souls she provided food from her own means: and those whom she knew to be weak in constitution,

electuaries, confections, and other things suitable for the restoration of nature she prepared for them with generous charity: and for those to whom she could not provide these, she offered the greatest affection.

[11] For she prayed for them with fervor of spirit, and frequently said: she prays efficaciously for those about to preach Put, O Lord, your words in their mouths as you promised, saying: It will be given to you in that hour what you shall speak. For this reason very many, trusting in the efficacious power of her prayers, readily accepted unexpected sermons from evening to the following day, with only a night intervening. Indeed a certain Religious man of Tours, on the vigil of the Holy Cross, at the insistence of the Abbess of Gatianae Sainte-Croix of Poitiers, promised to preach on the next feast day; the holy Mary also suggesting this to him: to whose prayers that virtuous Friar had very often most humbly commended himself; and supported by such great aid, he preached so laudably about the Cross that all who heard him were amazed and glorified the Lord. Wonderful! He who before was thought to be unprepared and of moderate learning was suddenly illuminated with no small knowledge at the prayers of this Saint. How acceptable to God it is to pray for those who evangelize the kingdom of God, the Lord deigned to demonstrate by this example. For the holy Mary was praying one night for a Religious who was shortly to preach the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ: and in the very fervor of her devotion, given to no drowsiness, she saw our Lord Jesus Christ affixed to the Cross, whom that Friar was tightly embracing between his arms and devoutly. O how worthy, how noble is that labor, for which Jesus Christ our Lord allows Himself to be embraced by His servant so kindly!

[12] This holy woman did not eat her bread in idleness: she devotes herself to works of corporal mercy certainly from morning to evening, devoted to divine services, she hardly or rarely left the church, unless she had first been disturbed by the custodian of the church: and when she returned to her little dwelling, she would invite the poor and needy whom she saw wandering along the way to dinner: and she supported the weak and infirm by the hand, leading them to her house, pouring water for them to wash their hands. And when they took food, she, like Martha, ministered, not only as servants and handmaids serve their masters, but humbling herself before them even to the ground, even on bended knees, and she called the poor themselves her lords: and to become more despised in her own eyes, she often reserved for her own meal the fragments and crumbs of bread that remained from the table of the poor. She received poor pregnant women in her house, and raised their children from the sacred font, and carefully served those women lying in childbed.

[13] Among the other poor, one, tall in stature, with long hair and a long beard, she receives an Angel among the poor handsome in appearance, entered her house: who looking around on all sides, standing before her, spoke not a word. She, wondering and fearing some malicious fraud, said to him: If you are a Christian, make the sign of a Christian. Hearing the word, he raised his hand powerfully and signed himself with the sign of the Cross, and having received refreshment, left the house and appeared no more. The Lady went out and stood looking around, but saw no one: and inquiring of the neighbors where the man had gone, they confessed they knew nothing at all: and the holy Lady returned to her house, and on this account did not desert the poor: but choosing the most abject, she turned to the lepers, frequently visiting their houses with hands not empty. And one time, coming to the lepers, she found one among them more horrible than the rest, she cares for a leper abandoned by all because as the disease increased, a stench came from his ulcers that was almost intolerable and very dreadful to all. Therefore that poor man, placed among the brambles and thorns in a small hut, lay separated from the other lepers. Mary served him most humanely, ministering to him necessities every day: and he, as to his mother, would familiarly and securely reveal all his miseries and pains and anguish of heart: and among other things he said to her: Because my belly is blocked, my infirmity is more severely aggravated. Hearing this, she prepared an ointment and placed some on the palms of his hands: and shortly his belly was softened and opened, and worms came out almost innumerable, and immediately he began to recover: finally that leper was healed and restored to complete health. She very often gave thanks to God for the cure of this leper.

[14] This Lady, so noble, not only reduced herself to the service of the poor, she mortifies her body with penances but also chastised her body with harsh penance: for she wore an iron girdle fortified with a double row of teeth, and over it a hair shirt of horsehair woven against the bare flesh, fasting on Monday and Wednesday and Saturday: and on Friday, out of reverence for the Passion, she was well content with a little brown bread and cold water. Not omitting the fasts of the Church, she fasted one Lent in honor of the glorious Virgin, and another in honor of the Angels, and a third in praise and glory of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ: and the vigils of all the Apostles and Evangelists and many other Saints she devoutly observed with similar abstinence. After this Mary, the humble and devout handmaid of Christ, not wearied by boredom or labor but shaken by severe illness, sick unto death lay in her bed: and the gravity of the illness was so great that, having already lost the power of speech and the light of her eyes, they were discussing only her burial. But she was saying inwardly in meditation: Lord, only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who having assumed a human body deigned to be born of the Virgin, who willed to be wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger between two animals, who taught your disciples evangelical poverty by word and example, and maintained it unto death, she obtains not to die before she has divested herself of everything hanging naked on the Cross for us sinners; do not allow me to depart from this world burdened with temporal dominion and earthly possessions. Thinking these things silently in her heart, the bond of her tongue was immediately loosened and she received sight, and at once she asked for the meat of a rabbit to be given to her, and having taken food she was strengthened and restored to her former health.

[15] Not ungrateful for so wonderful a grace, and well mindful of her desire, she binds herself by a vow of chastity she prepared herself to imitate Christ more perfectly with all the effort of her mind, and going before the presence of the Reverend Father the Archbishop of Tours, the Lord Simon Renulph, she solemnly vowed and promised in his hands to observe chastity for the whole time of her life. And so that she might render her vows to the Most High, she avoided all things adverse to chastity, rejected the softness of her bed, contenting herself with hard straw, fleeing the company of worldly people, absolutely declining vain gatherings and curious glances; and she restrained the sensual motions of the flesh with such great frugality of drink and food that at all hours, night and day, in prosperity and adversity, the virtue of imperturbable temperance could be seen in her. she applies herself to pious reading And lest the time entrusted to her should flow away in vain, in the Bible, which Mary of Brittany, formerly Queen of Sicily, had lent to her with her kind charity, and in the Legends of the Saints and other sacred books, she read very often.

[16] But because she had heard that reading instructs while prayer purifies the soul, at the bidding of the Mother of God she changes her garments therefore she devoted the greater part of her time to prayer. One day while she was praying, the Mother of God the Virgin appeared to her, and in familiar conversation told her to assume more humble garments, and demonstrating the manner and form of the habit to be assumed, with her most pure hand touched her face, and thus cleansed by prayer she was acceptable to God and the glorious Virgin, and merited to be instructed and taught from the mouth of the Virgin herself. She did not delay to obey the command given to her: she immediately changed her garments, and for Christ, who humbled Himself taking the form of a servant, she reverently assumed a humble and despised habit, as it had been shown to her in the vision, and so distinct from worldly people that by many who saw her she was believed to be a hermit: whence very many mockers with their vain cries frequently called her a "hermitess." But she, not heeding words, daily revolved in her mind what she might do to rouse her neighbors to the praise and honor of the glorious Virgin. Finally, for the quiet of her heart, she had three images carved in the likeness of the Virgin: she has three images of the Blessed Virgin placed in churches one she placed in the choir of the Canons of St. Martin of Tours in the upper part: another at the exit of the choir to the West, above the altar commonly called the altar of the Sluggards, and she wished and asked that this image of the Virgin be called "Our Lady of Sweet Consolation": the third image she had humbly carried by a devout man to the chapel of the hermitage of the Blessed Mary of Planche-des-Vallees: for the bearer and she herself walked barefoot, not considering the ditches full of water, the muddy roads, the thorns and thistles, they passed through as smoothly as a ship on the sea, so that they rightly seemed to have flown rather than walked.

[17] desperately wounded by a stone thrown at her back Having returned to Tours, she strove to increase the talent entrusted to her: but that ancient serpent, who does not rest from envying good works, everywhere lay in wait for her. Certainly one day, while she was praying in the church of the Blessed Martin before the altar of the Passion, behold Satan was near her: for a certain demented and furious woman took up a very large stone of excessive weight, which she hurled cruelly, at the devil's suggestion, upon the back of the one who was praying. Thus struck, she immediately became insensible, and for about an hour she was believed dead by all who were present: she was carried by her devotees to her lodging, and by a most skilled surgeon, sent to her by Queen Mary of Sicily, she was diligently and carefully attended with kindly spirit: but the strength of her kidneys having been shattered and the joints of her bones having been found dislocated, he declared such an injury to be irremediable and entirely incurable. But what nature could not do, nor surgical art restore, He who can do all things perfectly restored and healed by His wonderful power: she miraculously recovers in a short time walking so erect as if she had never been injured before. Nevertheless, with the heavenly Physician permitting it, so that the truth of the miracle might be perpetually clear, until death the spine of her back remained twisted, and in the place of the blow there was such a concavity that an egg of a hen could easily be placed in it. But on account of this her slender and erect stature did not lose its former agility, as those who saw and touched it bear witness to the truth.

dd. The same French Life adds: nine days before Pentecost and thirteen before the feast of All Saints.

CHAPTER III

The extreme poverty of Mary, and her lodging sought by begging and frequently changed.

[18] The holy desire for keeping evangelical poverty could not be torn from her heart. The castle of St. Quentin, her birthplace and dower For from the beginning of her widowhood she freely and willingly gave up the dowry and the inheritance designated by her deceased husband, without hope of receiving it back. Not long after, for the increase of divine worship, following the footsteps of the Saints who fortified churches with temporal goods, and leaving a good example to posterity, she donated and relinquished her house at Roche-Saint-Quentin to the church of Liget of the Carthusian Order, she transfers it to the Carthusians fully transferring the lordship and possession of that place, with its appurtenances and dependencies, to the Religious of that house by authentic letters, and she greatly rejoiced at being entirely stripped of that lodging for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, in which she had come forth naked from her mother's womb. What more? So that she might perfectly become the handmaid of Christ, she left not only her mother, her brother, and divests herself of all property and rights and her sister by blood, but also what she possessed in this world, for the sake of God. Truly, in the presence of her brother, when she was giving up her paternal inheritances, one of the Knights of the paternal line said to her: It is not enough to leave the present goods unless she also renounces future successions. And she replied: He who gave me the grace of leaving these present perishable goods will by His generous goodness take from my heart the will of desiring such things henceforth.

[19] At Tours she lives in rented quarters Having said these things, from the castle of her deceased father, in which she had been raised delicately, she departed in disgrace and abjection. And because all her friends had despised her, she set out toward Tours, and directing her steps on the way of the Gospel of peace, she crossed the river with the staff of voluntary poverty, not sad but joyful, because in the Apostolic manner she was following the Lord Jesus Christ the Redeemer. Thus truly poor and truly a beggar, she was thereafter unable to have a house or lodging either rented or leased: for as charity grew cold, iniquity abounded, and her rivals, the devil arranging it, spoke with her host: who, intent on gain, whence expelled forgetful of all compassion, ejected her from the house rather harshly, in which she had remained for many years honestly and devoutly. Thus freed from worldly cares, she visited churches as she had begun, visiting the places of Saints, to obtain Indulgences. Between vespers and sunset, still fasting, she humbly asked alms for her sustenance, not from the rich but from the begging poor at their doors; promising, when it should please God, to help them in a similar cause. Her acquaintances and other citizens closed their gates and doors against her, asserting that out of fear of her relatives they did not dare to receive her in their houses: and thus having no place to stay where she could lay her head, under the window of a ruinous building, she uses only a chance shelter where pigs and dogs had sometimes lain, she placed herself secretly many times, continually praying for the salvation of the people: and commending herself devoutly to the divine disposition, in all these things she appeared patient and modest, kind and humble; not afflicted but cheerful, as was read upon her face.

[20] But the man who by deceit and fraud had driven her from the house until her host was divinely punished in which she had once been received quite gratefully, was struck by God and became black as a sack of sackcloth, and tormented by a demon he cried out with terrifying shouts that he would be damned in the future unless the Lady of Silly would deign to help him. Mary, hearing this, forgetful of the injury, visited the desperate wretch carefully, and with soothing words, sacred exhortations, and devout preceding prayer, thirsting for his salvation, she induced him to penance as best she could. Finally, armed with the weapons of penance, he departed from the world, the blackness remaining: so that it might be clear to all how harsh and severe is the divine vengeance upon those who inflict injury and harm upon His Saints. The poor Lady was again recalled to the former lodging and now dying he orders her to be received again from which she had been indiscreetly expelled: to whose humble company a certain nun of Beaumont attached herself, whose name was Joan, religious, faithful, and devout: and she was very attentive to her, where Joan the Nun joins herself as her companion and from the portion or provision received from her own monastery, she partly sustained the want of the noble Lady. And it was necessary that she be provided with so sweet a companion, since in those days few visited her: for on the holy day of Easter, after Compline had been said, she had received nothing in her house to eat, and although very many at that time in the city were abounding in feasts, no one was found who was mindful of her need.

[21] She devotes herself to converting prostitutes Not at all anxious about bodily food and now inflamed with zeal for souls, she could no longer contain the flames of inmost charity within her breast: but through the streets and squares, snatching unchaste women from the hands of young men, she rebuked them most harshly with fervent spirit; and declaring the gravity and eternal horror of their crimes with penetrating words, many of them, struck with compunction of heart, burst into tears, abandoning the works of their former life. The Lady, giving thanks to the Creator, led them by the hand without delay to the Penitentiary. she renders useful service Among the rest, one named Isabella was taken by a young man as his wife, and he brought her to Bourges to dwell: but she, not forgetful of so great a grace, once every year came to Tours, to see and venerate her as a mother and mistress. Another sinner she found in bed dying and without the availability of a Priest, who, deprived of the use of her tongue, had already expelled worms through her bowels. But she who was feared for both the salvation of her soul and body, at the prayers of this Lady was called back from the jaws of death to life, and immediately cried out: A bath, a bath! And striking her breast, she said in a loud voice: I will purge this conscience most fully, God granting. Thus the Lady Mary, like a good shepherd, solicitously carried the wandering and lost sheep back to the Lord's flock on her own shoulders.

[22] The patience of this devout woman was in no way broken, but in adversity and prosperity she showed the same joy, as will be clear in the examples noted below. After the death of her Confessor and companion The Lord John Hiemis, who regularly heard her confession, and the Religious Joan of Beaumont, her companion, by whose welcome aid she was sweetly sustained against various events, departed from this world at almost the same time: but not doubting about the salvation of their souls, she could not weep for their death, but greatly rejoiced. And lest she remain solitary and without comfort, with God being propitious to her, she goes to the hospital to minister among the servants she was received in the hospital of St. Martin along with the serving women, and as one of them she humbly served the poor and the sick. There was one sick person there who craved grapes: she, having only a penny, ran without delay to the crossroads: and while she was buying grapes like a servant, the Lord of Maille, her own brother, recognized her from afar, but turning away his face lest she recognize him, he passed on with his retinue. she is despised by her own brother The humble Lady, dear to God, seeing herself despised, was filled with inestimable joy and gave Him thanks who for the salvation of the human race willed to become the reproach of men and the outcast of the people: and returning to the hospital, she offered the grapes to the sick person, and they served him as useful medicine: for his belly being opened, he soiled the bed, and offended the women of that hospital not a little.

[23] Expelled even from there, she begins to spend nights in churches Moved by this, the lowly serving women in their jealousy sent the handmaid of Christ out of the hospital, deprived of comfort: and not knowing where to go, she was greatly perplexed: but she heard a voice behind her saying to her: O dearest daughter, do you wish to distance yourself from me? She, not doubting the voice and now trusting in heavenly help, henceforth spent her nights most safely in churches. In St. Simplicius of Tours she prolonged a long stay day and night, praying, reading, and continually meditating on the deeds of Christ and the Saints. And it happened on the evening of the night preceding Good Friday, that taking up the codex of the Gospels to recite the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, before Good Friday, reading the Passion saying: Jesus went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden: she was caught up in the spirit, and she clearly knew herself to be outside, near the paradise of pleasure, looking at the tops of the trees: and she heard the voice of the Lord, most harshly rebuking for his sin. That magnificent and wonderful voice appeared dominant and terrible. The gravity of Adam's sin, and his expulsion from paradise, and the consequences of sin, and the damage inflicted on the human race she clearly saw: the flood and its causes she recognized: she is caught up in ecstasy and so greatly was her mind illuminated by divine revelation, that the great works of God which are contained in the Old and New Testament she saw clearly and also recognized with certainty. At dawn, having returned to herself, she found her gaze directly fixed upon these words: Jesus went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, and she read through what she had begun, until she completed it.

[24] Received at the Nuns of Beaumont At that time she avoided certain persons, as the Mother of God the Virgin had commanded her, fleeing their company with pious caution: but they, bearing it indignantly, stirred up troubles, insults, and indirect persecutions against her. She therefore, to make way for malice, left the city and transferred herself to the monastery of Beaumont, intending to stay for some time. And it happened that once while she was praying, the Blessed Virgin and the Angel Gabriel appeared to her, repeating before her the mystery of the Lord's Annunciation: for she heard the Ave spoken by the Angel, and the gracious response of Mary; and in a wonderful way,

feeling the greatest warmth in her body and the fervor of devotion in her spirit, she recognized the great and wonderful sacraments of the divine Incarnation. This vision, wonderful and divine, was very long, She is consoled by a vision of the Lord's Annunciation and had so occupied her mind that she neither knew nor could move from the place or think of anything else. She greatly rejoiced at so pleasant and indescribable a vision: but a compassionate piety provoked her to no small weeping. She was unable to wipe or restrain the tears bursting from her eyes in any way. The Abbess, seeing the poor Lady weeping with such great bitterness, and considering the wonderful flow of tears, moved by piety, gave the noble tearful Lady a head-covering to wipe her face and eyes. When the vision disappeared, she remained with a peaceful mind and a gladdened heart; Jesus Christ and His mother Mary appearing to her: who consoled her many times both here and elsewhere.

[25] Having left the monastery, she went far away, fleeing the city to remain in solitude, She withdraws to the chapel of St. Valerian and crossing the river Loire, she reached the chapel of St. Valerian of Champ-Chevrier, and remained there for not a few days: and whatever of worldly conversation she had contracted in that dwelling or elsewhere, day and night she endeavored to expiate with tears and prayers. When she was hungry, she was not ashamed to beg alms from the inhabitants living near the chapel, who had known her from infancy, nor to receive what was offered. For the swineherd and his wife, who alone remained in the said dwelling, and there she lives by begging among rustics sometimes invited her to eat with them: yet showing themselves less courteous, they made her sit in the more despised place at the table. The groom of the horses that once carried the carriage of her mother received her in his house in a similar manner. The humble Lady, seeing herself considered the least among the servants and handmaids of her forebears, constantly and joyfully glorified Him who emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.

[26] At that time she went to the hermitage of Planche-des-Vallees, and staying there a long time she led a most austere life, At the hermitage of Planche-des-Vallees, she falls ill eating barley bread and pears from the forests, and tempering the ardor of her thirst with swamp water. Having become very weak and thirsting for wine, there was no one to relieve her poverty: but what human compassion could not or would not do, the piety of the Creator fulfilled. For insipid water, already near her mouth, was immediately turned into the purest wine: she is strengthened when water is turned into wine by which she became vigorous by the gift of God, and walking back to Tours in the strength of that wonderful drink, she came to the place of the Blessed Mary the Rich (for there she desired to remain with all the affection of her mind) and sitting in the church, she began and fulfilled the forty-day fast in honor of the Angels according to her custom. As the feast of the most glorious Prince Michael approached, in whose chapel she was hospitably lodging for free, the governors of that place were striving to expel her. Ordered to leave the chapel of St. Michael at Tours Anxieties were on all sides for her, because she knew her expulsion was near, and she had no refuge, nor did she know any except God alone, who is the refuge of the poor, the helper and strength in tribulations. Placed in mental conflict, she heard a voice from heaven saying to her: Come to the tabernacle of the Body of Christ. To which she immediately went reverently and devoutly: and Christ Himself personally appeared to her twice that night, comforting her. Christ in the Eucharist consoles her That visitation was so wonderful and so joyful that it could not be expressed in word or writing: but lest she remain ungrateful for so great a benefit, the following day she summoned the Friars Minor, who celebrated a sung Mass in the said church at her intention. Seeing that the Lady dear to God was being compelled to leave, she begged the same Friars that for the love of Christ they would deign to take her in as a poor woman in some little hut of their convent: She is received at the Franciscans who, with the Provincial Minister consenting, gave their assent to her pious request.

CHAPTER IV.

Exercises of piety, esteem among the great: future events foreseen, sacred places adorned.

[27] When the fame of her holy life was spread abroad and her irreproachable conduct recognized by many, She stands sponsor for the son of the Duke of Anjou Louis, Duke of Anjou, and Mary of Brittany his wife, were moved by pious devotion toward her, to such an extent that a son begotten from them, by the Duke's command, she herself raised from the sacred font: and she was very solicitous about the salvation of the little boy. From his cradle and before the years of boyhood, while he was still not capable of guile, as a faithful godmother she very often recited holy words in his presence. she instills piety in the boy One evening, while she was speaking about the glory of the Saints and the joys of paradise, the noble infant was kicking his feet with joy and clapping his hands: one of the women said to him: Lord, it is time to go to bed. And he asked his godmother what she would prefer, to sleep or to be in paradise? And she replied: I would prefer to be in paradise. Then he said: Paradise is not obtained by sleeping. Thus Mary, the faithful handmaid of Christ, through the honeyed words of her little godson, was outwardly touched in her hearing, while within the Holy Spirit was present, touching and teaching the little one.

[28] In the fifty-fifth year of her age, She lives on alms deprived of the support of her relatives and parents, long since stripped of earthly possessions, she was received in the convent of the Friars Minor of Tours, as she had wished, to dwell there: and leaving vain things to the vain, she exchanged her own seal, which she had used before, for another, figured with the arms of Christ and signed with the signs of the Lord's Passion. Thus sitting and placed among beggars, she lived as a beggar from the alms of the faithful: and if any delicate foods were sent to her, she distributed them to the sick and elderly, to pregnant women and the weak. She ate brown bread, raw herbs, and other insipid things. she devotes herself to frequent prayer She attended all the Canonical Hours, nocturnal and diurnal: and on solemn feast days she kept vigil in the church before the Body of Christ, continually devoted to devout prayer: and when her body was tired, after the departure of the Friars, she slept a little on the stone step of the high altar. In prayer, prostrate, she placed her mouth in the dust: in Confession she put earth upon her head, and from the earth she made the sign of the Cross on her forehead: and always on bare knees upon the ground. And she did this for so long a time that her knees seemed to have been turned to the hardness of camels, as became known to some who were more familiar with her, when on one occasion, compelled by necessity, her feet and legs were humbly washed. she communicates most devoutly In communicating she maintained the aforesaid manner. Before receiving the Body of Christ, from excessive mortification of the flesh she appeared pale and almost dead, and perhaps from filial fear: but having received the Body of Christ, like a rose in May, her face grew red: for inflamed with divine love, then tears burst from her eyes, then she uttered the sweetest songs and unheard canticles with praises, as was known to many from the many quires written by her own hand, and many had seen this many times with their own eyes.

[29] she ministers to the sick poor Not forgetful of her accustomed compassion, turning the infirmities of the poor which struck horror in those who looked on, and the ulcerous sores of lepers, back upon herself with wonderful compassion, she considered that she was doing nothing unless she helped them with all her strength in such necessity. Therefore gathering various medicinal herbs in fields and gardens and forests, she prepared ointments, and humbly begged resin, wax, oil, and other liquids suitable and useful for this purpose among those whom she knew by certain experience to be established in the fear of God. To these ointments God conferred such power that those who were anointed with them became well. The witnesses of this matter survive almost innumerable. This woman, so famous, strove to recall the erring not only by word but also by her devout prayer. she stops the flight of two Novices by praying While she was staying in the convent of the Friars Minor of Tours, two Novices of the Order, fleeing from the cloister, went out indiscreetly without removing the habit: hearing which, the devout Lady, prostrate on the ground, prayed for them. And her prayer was of such power and efficacy that those wretched young men, walking all day along the shore, as if terrified by an Angelic encounter like cattle, while many were crossing the brook of St. Anne before their eyes, they were unable to proceed further. Returning in the evening, the Lady met them, and out of reverence for her they were kindly received by the Friars.

[30] At another time, as the feast of St. John the Baptist approached, whose glorious nativity had previously been presented to her eyes in a vision through a wonderful appearance, divinely taught about things to come to the Kingdom of France she went out of the city at the Angel's prompting; not in carriages or on horses as her nobility required, but with the staff of poverty, carrying a sack at her neck, like a poor woman, a stranger and a pilgrim: and taking with her two Religious of the Order of Minors, she went to the hermitage of St. Mary of Planche-des-Vallees out of devotion: and there, after the urgency of many prayers, illuminated by the prophetic spirit, she clearly saw many things to come to the Kingdom of France, and foretold to her familiars that the King of France would come to Tours, naming the gate through which he would enter. After many years had passed, she deals several times with the King himself when the King came to Tours, the whole people and the colleges with crosses went to meet him at the eastern gate, not at the one Mary had affirmed. But the King, approaching the city, suddenly changed his plan, and leaping across the fields, took the road to the western gate, and entered through it, just as the Holy Spirit had foretold through the mouth of His handmaid Mary. Urged by her conscience, she sought opportunities to make known to the King what she had received from God, not keeping silent. Through the mediation of the Duke of Orleans, in the royal castle of Tours she spoke secretly and at length with the King. When three years had passed, she again had access to the King in the church of the Celestines at Paris: and another time in the royal house called St. Paul, she had a more prolonged conversation with the King. But what she said, the King alone knows after God.

[31] But it is true that she

devoutly offered to the King a particle from the cup of the Blessed Martin of Tours, which she had received as a gift from Marmoutier, humbly supplicating that it be placed honorably with other Relics in the chapel of his palace. she gives him something from the Relics of St. Martin And because she was very solicitous about the honor of the most glorious Bishop, it was the will of God that what she had fervently requested should be speedily fulfilled by royal command: and she saw this with her own eyes, for which she very often gave thanks to the Trinity. She had done a similar work before, when she wished to place honorably Relics of St. John the Baptist and of St. Stephen the Protomartyr in vessels of gold and silver, adorned with precious stones. With the help of devout persons assisting her, she caused not only the abovementioned Relics but also those of very many other Saints, she arranges for other Relics to be adorned Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, and Virgins, to be honorably wrapped in silver vessels. But what is most to be commended, for the praise and glory of the Lord's Passion, she had many crosses of silver, gilded on the surface, made, and in each she had enclosed a small piece of the Wood of the Cross of Jesus Christ, procured by her humble prayer from nobles devoted to her. The churches to which the crosses were given bear witness to the truth.

[32] After this, therefore, let us recall to memory that vessel, fabricated by divine revelation for the memory of the Body of Christ, and sumptuously adorned from the gifts of the faithful, in which vessel the saving Host is reverently placed on the feast of the Sacrament, also a tabernacle for the Body of Christ and is carried processionally by the Friars on that day: which the devout Lady, most loving of Christ, decreed should be done annually and perpetually. Moreover, for the adornment of divine worship, she demanded silk and gold vestments from nobles, the Lord inspiring them; and thence she arranged and often sewed with her own hand vestments for altars, sacred garments, and the restoration of the chapel at Planche-des-Vallees and other things fitting and suitable for the honor of the church: distributing them to needy churches, to each as the spirit suggested to her. Certainly she desired not only to decorate churches with ornaments, but also to repair those that were in ruins. For the chapel of the Blessed Virgin of Planche-des-Vallees, already very near to utter ruin from excessive age, she renewed entirely from the foundations, and composing the walls from cement and stones that iron had not touched, she wished the doors and windows to be built and completed of squared stones: and she changed the wooden roof, now decayed, to one of stone, which they call slates.

[33] Meanwhile, taught by Him who is called our altar, and the erection of seven altars for the glory of the Trinity and the memory of the Lord's Passion, and desiring also that the banners of Christ the King be venerated by the faithful, she built three altars of stone slabs, and in the foundations she placed the first stones. Concerning the Nativity of the oft-mentioned Lord, out of reverence for the Protomartyr Stephen and the holy Confessor Ivo, she caused three more altars to be built. And because the number seven represents universality, in honor of all the Saints she began and completed a seventh altar, and adorned it with various colors and many pictures: in whose foundations, on bended knees, she placed a triangular stone, mystically signifying and saying with her own mouth: He is the Three and One, who created all the Saints, and is wonderful in His Saints, and blessed and praiseworthy and glorious forever.

b. Of Christ, 1386.

CHAPTER V.

Meditation on the Passion, patience under human contempt, the efficacy of her example and prayers, especially with the wretched and desperate.

[34] Continually intent on meditating the Passion of Christ Occupied outwardly in these works, her charity burned no less inwardly, for she loved God in all things and above all things. The wounds of Christ and His saving death; the holy Cross, adorned with the precious blood of the Son of the most high King; the spitting, the nails, the lance, the bruises, the red flesh, the vinegar and the sponge and the crown of thorns, the gall, the reed -- these were constantly before the eyes of her mind: and she had all these things painted on parchment, to arouse others to the memory of the Passion. The Gospel passage, "The Lord went out across the brook Kidron," in which the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is commemorated, she read every day with her own mouth: but in the time of grave illness, another read it before her, and she in her sighs and groans mourned the death of Christ. She called the anguish and pains of her own body "sweetnesses" and very often said: she pierces her head with a thorn May the five wounds of God be my medicine. Certainly from her youth to old age, the death and glorious Passion of Christ was present to her mind. But at the time when she had adapted herself entirely to evangelical poverty, in the week of the Passion, when she was mindful of the anxious death of Christ and the crown of thorns, struck with excessive compassion and desiring to suffer something for Christ, she fixed a certain long and sharp thorn in her head between the flesh and the skull: and on Thursday of the following Holy Week the thorn fell before her eyes. Wonderful! Remaining so long in the head, it did not cause pain to the flesh, and leaving the body it left no scar.

[35] The precious death of the Saints was forever fixed in her heart: She reads the Lives of the Saints studiously for she seriously commended their examples and miracles to her memory, and about whatever matter she was asked, in her response she would cite something from the Lives of the Saints relevant to the topic. Certainly the living and efficacious word of God in her mouth edified those who listened not a little, but in such a way that, renouncing worldly desires, they lived soberly and piously in this world; and putting aside precious garments, many of them entered religious life. At that time when the handmaid of Christ was residing in Paris for the purpose of obtaining an Indulgence, frequenting the chapel of the royal palace, she patiently endures contempt of herself in the royal chapel in which the banners of the Redeemer are adored by the faithful, a certain young man from the royal retinue was present, who, looking at her state and not recognizing her noble birth, on account of the humble habit she wore, greatly despised her with insulting words, asserting that she was worthy of burning. The humble and kind Lady, forgetful of the injury but well mindful of the Lord's Passion, prayed for the one who injured her after the example of Christ; and not offended by the words, she gave thanks to Almighty God on bended knees for the injury. While her maidservant was weeping, a certain Knight arrived, who in the manner of nobles reverently saluted the poor Lady, fervently rebuking that impious scoffer.

[36] and in her approach to the Queen At the same time, summoned by the King's order, she prepared herself as is fitting for the Saints of God, to greet the Queen in her house, and she spoke peacefully with the porter about entering the lodging. But he despised her words and her person; and just as she was unknown to him, so also she seemed useless: therefore he drove her away, striking her with a stick: and he would have repeated it many times, but the cruelty of the gatekeeper was restrained by someone sent by God. Having been introduced inside, and the severity of the gatekeeper being recognized, Mary was asked whether she had felt any harm: to whom she replied: Neither did the man's severity frighten me, nor did the blow of the stick cause harm: for the Lord Jesus Christ sweetly protected me. She found favor with the Queen she stays fruitfully with her for seven days and remained with her for seven days. Nor did those days flow by in idleness, because the most proven conduct of that woman, her words and speech flaming with divine fire, so struck the hearts of many that they shortly abandoned many vanities and false insanities. In those days the nobles and powerful utterly rejected that extremely long pointed shoe, which they called a poulaine: among whom a certain Knight named Reginald, with leg and foot extended, permitted and wished and ordered it to be cut from his shoes: and this in the house of the Queen, that it might hereafter pass as an example to others.

[37] She anxiously lamented all who spoke indecently about the glorious Virgin accustomed to rebuke blasphemers or the Saints, or about the precious Blood of Jesus Christ, as ungrateful to the Redeemer: and such persons, as blasphemers and deviants, she endeavored to lead back by arguing, beseeching, and rebuking. Many at her word repented, striking their breasts: but others returned evil for good, and hatred for her love. At Tours, for this cause a certain robust young man threw her to the ground and trampled her with his feet: and from that fall she was ill for a long time. She was urged by many to seek the deserved vengeance, but she said: she refuses to avenge the injury done to her Vengeance is the cause of perdition for the wicked: and immediately she narrated wonderful words about the mercy of God and the patience of Christ, asserting that injuries and adversities patiently received for Christ are useful and greatly profitable for salvation. Efficacious in words From a certain excessive charity infused divinely proceeded a burning zeal for the salvation of souls, not moderate but wonderful, so that with compassionate piety she mourned the faults of her neighbors as her own:

and those whom she knew to be far away or desperate about their own salvation, she soothed them with sacred eloquence and kind words and induced them to compunction, promising them pardon if they truly repented, not omitting due confession.

[38] a jealous woman who was despairing To give examples of these: at Tours a certain woman, tormented by the spirit of jealousy, troubled her husband every day, and afflicting herself excessively, with a heart too anxious, she conceived sorrow and brought forth iniquity: wherefore she fell into the detestable vice of desperation, and horribly despising the Sacraments of the Church, with a blasphemous mouth she spat most shamefully upon the Cross of the Lord. Hearing this, the Lady Mary entered the house of the desperate woman, with a sweet and humble voice, in the Apostolic manner, saying: The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon this house: and prostrate on the ground when she prayed, she perceived that the wretched woman was already near death. she leads her back to penance Rising from prayer, she sprinkled the place and the house and the obstinate sick woman with holy water: and by divine power the demon being driven away, the desperate woman, who by the deception of the evil one had lost the covenant of salvation, seeing the light of faith, humbly acknowledged her Creator, devoutly adored the Cross, and with a contrite heart reverently received the Sacraments of the Church; the assembly present weeping for joy: and not long after, armed with the weapons of penance, at the prayers of the said Mary she departed to the Lord.

[39] At Tours a certain man named Thevenin, seduced by the fraud of demons, another who had sought death by starvation attempted to kill himself in many and diverse ways many times; but restrained by his friends, he was unable to carry out so great an evil. On this account, moved by indignation and filled with bitterness of heart, he refused to taste food thereafter, so that by hastening his death he might immolate himself to the demons. At last, weakened by hunger, he cried out plaintively: I am damned and I will be damned: I already see the fire of hell. Demons, come to me, and take me, wretched me, with you. This desperate man was visited by Mary, and she did not leave him until death, and while she gave him counsels of salvation, he listened silently to her words and ceased from his cries. When she was briefly absent, repeating his cries he would say: Return, demons, return to me: you ought not to leave the one bound to you. Seeing that the horrible vexation of the demons greatly disturbed all who were present, Mary asked that the wretched man be transported to the church of the Blessed Mary the Rich: she orders him to be carried to the church for there he was sprinkled with holy water by all who came. Immediately, the cries having ceased, a very hoarse voice was heard: I am exceedingly burdened, and you are burdening me greatly: and immediately in a low voice, at the devil's suggestion, he denied God and the Saints, but he was unable to deny the glorious Virgin. The faithful Mary, anxious about the salvation of the desperate little sheep, prayed without ceasing: whose prayers the Almighty Lord heard swiftly and kindly. Wherefore suddenly that wretched man, who was believed to be lost, and who had become hoarse from excessive cries, cried out in a loud and joyful voice: I see the image of the glorious Virgin: and immediately he said: Confession, confession I seek: I wish to confess: I choose my Parish Priest, the Lord ... of Clancher, as my Confessor. Indeed so great was his contrition that he revealed his sins in a public confession; nor was he ashamed to disclose the more serious ones. Therefore, having completed the sacred rites in the church and fortified with the arms of penance, he happily entered the way of all flesh. But lest any doubt should arise about the salvation of this man, the Lord wished to show signs of His mercy in the deceased: for his face and body, which before had been black as a raven, were suddenly turned to the whitest color, and a certain unusual splendor emanated from his flesh: and all were amazed and said: The ancient miracle of Theophilus has now been renewed.

[40] On account of the excessive charity with which she loved her neighbors, thirsting for their salvation with fervent desire, she devoutly induced men and women to make a complete and pure confession: she helps many to make their confession but lest they be impeded by human fear or shame or the gravity of the offense, she sent to the Roman Curia on their behalf, to obtain triennial or quinquennial faculties for them, satisfying each one as was fitting from the alms given to her. The charity of this Lady continued to grow increasingly without ceasing: for she humbly begged alms for the excommunicated poor, to satisfy both the Church and the creditors on their behalf: and such persons, exiled to a distant region by a published sentence, she endeavored to lead back to the fellowship of the faithful, desiring them to become participators and sharers in the suffrages of the Church, eager and anxious about the salvation of souls from excessive charity. She devotes herself to the conversion of fortune-tellers and witches Certainly, inflamed with zeal for the faith, she refuted diviners and sacrilegious persons and other evildoers with more fervent spirit, and had their errors reproved by learned men in public preaching, and moreover she called those contaminated with the vice of such errors to penance with sweet exhortation, after a faithful confession. Many who heard her words, on account of the holiness of her life, repented, abandoning their errors. At Tours there was then a certain old woman, a fortune-teller and rebellious, named Philomena, who refused to comply with the pious admonitions of this Lady. The Lady Mary, summoning the Lector of the Friars Minor, said: If this woman enters the church, she will not go out unless she has first repented and confessed. And so it happened: for entering the church, this sorceress looked upon the Crucifix, and immediately groaned, saying: I wish to confess. And having made her confession to the Lector, she immediately despised and cast away the herbs and powders, characters and other things which she had intended to use for sorceries; and leaving the city, she ended her days at Angers.

CHAPTER VI

Help given to captives, the condemned, women in childbirth, and children: the pious death of Mary.

[41] This Lady, so proven, observing the laws of widows, devoutly visited those detained in prisons, Merciful toward captives and consoled them as a mother, diligently ministering the necessities of sustenance. She cut their hair with her own hand, and lest they be broken by weariness, she frequently recited to them as they listened the Lives of the Saints and examples of good men, to more strongly encourage them to endure sufferings: promising them with sure hope that the mercy of God would be at hand in the near future and liberation from prison, if they firmly resolved with God to amend their character and life and to persevere in the good. And truly at her prayers the doors of the prisons were opened many times by divine power, and the captives were freed unharmed. she obtains the release of all from the King This Mary, beloved of God, sorrowfully considering the groans of the captives, humbly begged King Charles of France, then residing at Tours, that for the love of the Savior who loosed the bonds of death, he would deign by his gracious clemency to release the imprisoned whom he held, and on account of his joyful arrival restore them to full liberty. The benevolent King, not doubting the holy fame and goodness of the said Mary, gave his most grateful assent to her most humble prayers, committing all captives, criminals, and those condemned to death to her disposition, and shortly after, at the end of January, the aforesaid King took his journey toward Paris. and when the ministers delay But what he himself had nobly granted, his servants and subjects sought to diminish. Mary went to the region of Poitou, not forgetful of the captives, continually praying for them. Whose prayers the Lord heard, and on the holy day of Pentecost He openly opened the doors of the prisons, and the captives freely and securely took refuge at the church of the Blessed Martin. she opens the prison by a miracle And so great was their security that one of them returned to the prison to recover his book, in which he daily recited the Hours of the Blessed Virgin: and again he returned to his companions at the place of St. Martin: and thus the purpose of the King and the desire of Mary, the Prince of the Kings of the earth fulfilled by His invincible power.

[42] Before the eyes of the mind of this good Mary those words were very often present: She obtains life for various persons about to be executed As a sheep He was led to the slaughter. And that: Deliver those who are led to death. Therefore a certain compassionate piety toward those who were being led to a shameful death was innate in her: for she obtained many to be brought back from the gallows by her prayer. At Tours, on the Saturday before Palm Sunday, a certain young man was being led to hanging, whom Mary met as she was leaving the church of the Blessed Mary the Rich: whom the young man, seeing her, sitting in the cart bound, said: Lady of Silly, please pray for me. She immediately, pierced by a certain piety within, returned to the church and prayed for him so fervently that the executioners of justice were unable to find their own ladders; and for one indeed not without a miracle shorter ones were insufficient, and longer ones kept breaking. There was excessive and prolonged dispute among them, and meanwhile at the base of the gallows, like an untamed beast, the poor young man had been tied with a muzzle. However, at sunset he was led back to prison in chains. And on Palm Sunday and during Holy Week, Mary did so much with the Lord Canons and Judges of St. Martin that the shameful death was entirely pardoned and remitted for that wretched man.

[43] This Lady, following the footsteps of the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, strove to show diligence to pregnant women,

She helps pregnant women and she procured for many from God the ease of delivery by her devout prayers, as women assertively reported. Among them the most illustrious Lady Mary of Brittany, Duchess of Alencon, acknowledged that she had received the grace of easy delivery through the merits of the said Lady. She mourned sorrowfully over aborted and little children who died without baptism, she obtains life for the aborted for baptism because she knew they had perpetually lost the beatific vision: and because she did not rejoice in the perdition of the dying but wept, God wished to console her somewhat in these matters. At Tours, when the son of a certain powerful noble was being carried to baptism, to whose company the Lady Mary had been invited, when they had arrived at the church under the cover of curtains, the infant was let fall by the young women: and when he gave no voice or cry above the font, nor had given one before, Mary understood that he was dead: which thing could not be torn from her heart. Then she groaned in spirit, sighed, and prayed: and while she prayed, that boy was baptized alive, and was returned to his illustrious mother, and lived for many years. At Angers a certain pregnant woman lay dead in her house from her pains, the fetus not having been delivered. Mary was called to the pitiful funeral, and she brought with her a certain Knight, named Inhel de Alvagorio, who at Mary's urging opened the dead woman in the side. The infant having been extracted from the womb, Mary washed him as is the custom and cleansed him: and having received fresh water, she baptized him: who immediately showed signs of life, because by his own motion he crossed his arms over his breast in the form of a cross, and he appeared alive to those present, who had previously appeared dead to them: and shortly after he expired. The friends rejoiced at the salvation of the little one, and therefore bore the mourning for the dead mother more easily.

[44] This Mary loved innocent infants and those sucking the breast with pious love, and she seemed to share a maternal compassion for them. and to a desperately ill boy she obtains health On Holy Friday in the church of the Friars Minor at Tours, a certain man and his wife offered their own son, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laboring in extremis, to the said Mary, devoutly begging that she would deign to pray for the boy's health. The humble Lady sweetly looked upon the infant and touched his head, lifting it up: who immediately, gazing at her with a joyful clapping, because he could not speak, began to laugh at her, and was carried home healthy, from which he had gone out a short time before emitting the gasps of death.

[45] This Mary was always a benevolent exhorter of all good works: for at the time of the most wicked and excessively prolonged schism, for the union and peace of the Church of Christians, in colleges, in monasteries, and in religious places, she arranges for prayers to be offered during the schism she arranged for prayers, supplications, suffrages, and processions to be held, arousing the whole people to pray for the aforesaid. She fervently directed both sexes and every age to the way of salvation with her most holy words, and she had so induced children to praise the Creator that from wherever she came, they would run to her, clapping their hands and saying: Praised be the Lord our God, and they would genuflect. she teaches children to say everywhere, Praised be God Infants who were still stammering, not yet knowing how to fully form words, seeing her from afar, were eager to speak and cried out "Loue, loue." Certainly no one was as eager as she was for the praise of the Maker: therefore she invited not only humans but also little birds and creatures without reason to the praises of the Creator. When once she was staying in the oratory of the Blessed Virgin of Planche-des-Vallees, a magpie was offered to her: and immediately Mary, desiring the things that are God's, began to address it, saying: Praised be God. she teaches the same to a tame magpie And repeating it often, that little bird moved its head looking at the speaker, and followed her here and there, and with its chatter tried to utter the said words. Wonderful! That magpie with other little birds flew by turns through the forest and again returned to the Lady. Behold in how many ways Mary provoked the faithful to the praises of the Creator.

[46] Meditating on the stoning of St. Stephen The words of this holy woman pleased great and middling and small alike, and the meditation of her heart was always in the sight of the Lord. For when in her meditation fire burned, the glorious passion and precious death of the Saints was daily before the eyes of her mind: therefore she burned with inestimable desire for martyrdom. It happened one day when she was mindful of the stoning of the Protomartyr Stephen, and wished, if it should please her Creator, to end her life in a similar way, that invisible stoners suddenly appeared, stoned by an invisible hand, she becomes a sharer in the suffering who harassed her with innumerable blows for so long that from excessive pain she emitted sweats instead of blood, and seemed almost to faint. This happened in the church of St. James in the town called Chateauherault. Rightly therefore should she rejoice with the Saints and be a sharer in their glory, who while living desired with all the affection of her mind to be a companion in the reproach of those Saints.

[47] In the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand four hundred and thirteen, the aged body of the happily deceased on the twenty-eighth of the month of March, a Wednesday, between the first and second hour after midday, on the 5th before the Kalends of April, before Palm Sunday, after the feast of the Lord's Annunciation; the distinguished Lady, filled with good works and innumerable merits, after the labors and toils of this miserable life, having trampled upon and vanquished the prince of darkness, with a virginal, indeed a triumphal laurel, happily departed to Christ, receiving from Him the eternal reward which she had always desired, and for which she had fought so manfully against the enemy, always conscious of happy victory against whatever assaults of temptation: and when the soul had departed from the body, a slender cord was found on her, much thickly knotted, with which she had been very tightly girded: and the marks and traces of the knotted cord appeared in the red and concave flesh.

[48] is reformed as if she had been a young girl But immediately after, the body of the said Lady was miraculously restored by God as if to a youthful age, and signs of holiness, as of a future resurrection and renewal of youth, appeared on it. And the said body appeared clean, white as alabaster and ivory, and seemed like the body of a young girl: and all the members were reformed to the measure of youth without any superfluity or deformity: and the virginal seal was found intact, uncorrupted, and untouched. And all who saw this dead woman were amazed, saying it was the greatest miracle that a woman of eighty-two years should appear in the stature, form, and appearance of a young virgin: especially since in her life she was macerated and consumed by penances: as was attested by many trustworthy witnesses who saw and touched this. Yet it is not surprising that she was found a virgin intact, to whom such grace was granted by the Lord that she had betrothed a husband who was the witness, indeed the guardian, of her virginity. On the following Thursday afternoon she was buried in the habit of St. Clare in the church of the Friars Minor at Tours, she is buried in the habit of St. Clare before the high altar of the said church: in which church she had maintained an almost constant presence, from the fifty-fifth year of her age until the eighty-second and last year of her life, and to the present day shining with almost infinite virtues, signs, and miracles, she gleams to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ: to whom be praise and glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit and the whole heavenly and triumphant court, through eternal ages. Amen.

INFORMATIVE PROCESS

for the Canonization

of LADY MARY OF MAILLE,

From the manuscript of the Convent of the Friars Minor of Tours.

Venerable Mary of Maille, Lady of Silly-Guillaume, Virgin and Widow, at Tours in Gaul (Saint)

BHL Number: 5514

FROM THE NOTARIAL MANUSCRIPT.

DEDICATORY LETTER.

To the Most Serene and Most Powerful Prince and Zealot of the Orthodox Catholic Faith, the Lord James, The Guardian and Convent of Tours by the Grace of God King of the Kingdoms of Hungary, Jerusalem, and Sicily; your humble and devout religious and your prayer-makers, the Guardian and Convent of the Friars Minor of Tours send greetings, with all humility, reverence, obedience, and honor.

[1] Although the glorious God glorifies all His ministers, adorns them with lofty honors, offer to James, King of Hungary, etc. and makes them possessors of heavenly beatitude: yet, to render worthy things to the worthy, He raises with greater insignia of dignities and follows with a richer retribution of rewards those whom He recognizes as more worthy, and whom a greater excellence of merits commends. So also our nourishing Mother the Church, following His sacred footsteps, led by a praiseworthy example, is accustomed and has been wont to honor all those established in the heavenly kingdoms with solicitous efforts, and to extol them with resounding praises. And therefore to the deeds and wonders of Your Royal Dignity, which the Lord God Almighty Himself has deigned to work for and at the prayers of the Lady Mary of Maille of blessed memory, we strive to bring back to memory with our strength, so that for her worthy merits, through the grace and good prosecution of Your same Dignity, she may be able to be numbered and inscribed in the catalogue of holy Virgins.

[2] For the Lord Almighty Jesus Christ Himself, through the interventions, prayers, and merits of the said Mary miracles of the Venerable Mary (as is inserted below, and through the depositions of trustworthy witnesses Your Nobility will be able to clearly perceive) healed lepers, gave the power of walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, and restored to their former health other faithful of Christ laboring with various diseases. Indeed, how great the merit of the same Lady Mary was shown at her death; she who, living in the flesh, clothed in a hair shirt, nourished on the hardest foods, reclined her limbs, wearied by vigils and prayers, on straw and sackcloth: but at her sacred passing, her face and body shone so greatly that in the purest flesh she appeared like a young girl of fifteen years. manifoldly glorified by God Whence, as we piously believe, hope, and trust, she is now associated with that most holy flock which always accompanies the Lamb without spot. O how wonderful and praiseworthy is the Lord Jesus Christ, our pious and propitious consoler, in His servants! Who, as is piously believed

and hoped, willed not only to place His said servant Mary of Maille with Him above the high stars of heaven, but it pleased Him to so honor her, already glorified in heaven, on earth that her fame should be widely spread in many ways, and her venerable body, existing in our house or church in the city of Tours, should be visited with watchful care by peoples of diverse regions, and shining with innumerable miracles occurring there from day to day, should be venerated by all with due reverence.

[3] Since therefore we have been and are certified of the true and sincere love, devotion, and affection which, both in life and after death, and her blood relative you bore and unceasingly bear toward that venerable Lady, both from the affection of blood relationship and of devotion, to the Serenity of Your Royal Sublimity, so that our Lord the Supreme Pontiff may deign to grant a commission and commissioners to the regions, for inquiring and examining witnesses of both sexes concerning the deeds and miracles which the Lord God Almighty has deigned to work at the prayers of the said Lady, with the intervention and mediation of Your Serenity, we have taken the boldness of having recourse. For which reasons we most devoutly and from the inmost affections of the heart humbly beseech the same Serenity, formidable to us, that he might solicit her canonization through these means to deign to extend the aim of your benevolence to the aforesaid, to show the depositions of the witnesses written below to our said Lord the Supreme Pontiff to move his Holiness, and to beseech him, as is fitting and expedient: that he may be willing and deign to piously grant a commission and commissioners, so that the said Lady Mary may be able to be aggregated and inscribed in the flock or catalogue of holy Virgins (which she assuredly worthily merited). So that through these and other goods which in this transitory life Your Royal Sublimity, with the Lord cooperating, shall procure for the said Lady, you may be able to merit, through the merits and prayers of the same, grace and eternal life, which the Son of God, who is blessed forever, may deign to grant you. Amen.

CHAPTER I

Summary of what the Procurators chosen for this cause intend to prove.

[4] In the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and fourteen, on the eleventh day of the month of April, Two Procurators before the Notary John de Pontelevio, Procurator and in the name of the Most Excellent and Most Powerful Lord, the Lord James of Bourbon, Count of La Marche: the illustrious and religious and honest man Brother Martin of Bois-Gautier, Custos or Guardian of the Friars Minor of Tours, both for himself and in the name of the said Minors: in the presence of John Golin, John Charrestier, and Ralph Morion and many others: set forth to me, the undersigned Public Notary, that the late Mary of Maille of good memory had recently departed from this world: [they ask for witnesses to be heard about the life and miracles of the Venerable Mary] her body had been reverently committed to Ecclesiastical burial in the church of the said Friars Minor, and that both after the death of the said Lady and during her life (whose life is approved and well known by all) the Lord God Almighty had wonderfully worked, and at her prayers and supplications had deigned to perform very many miracles: which miracles the said Procurators desired to be brought to public notice. And therefore they urgently requested me, Peter de Brueria, as Public Notary, to examine and interrogate all witnesses concerning the deeds and wonders which God had worked at the supplication, prayers, and request of the said deceased during her life, and deigns to work after death, and to reduce their testimonies to writing in the presence of trustworthy witnesses; so that they might be able to inform our Lord the Supreme Pontiff and thence proceed as they saw fit.

[5] The prudent man John de Pontelevio, otherwise Johanchim, Burgess of Tours, Procurator of the Most Illustrious and Powerful Lord, by the mandate of James, Count of La Marche the Lord James of Bourbon, Count of La Marche, who, led by a pious and charitable purpose, intends to prove the wonderful deeds which our Lord God Almighty Jesus Christ has deigned to work through the intervention of the prayers of the Lady Mary of Maille, in her life and after death, lest through negligence in writing they be lost, but brought to the notice of the faithful of Christ, as many as can be found through trustworthy witnesses and their depositions in public and authentic form, by the permission and consent of the Most Reverend Father and Lord in Christ, and by the permission of Amelius, Archbishop of Tours the Lord Amelius, by divine permission Archbishop of Tours, and the Venerable and circumspect men the Lords Dean, Treasurer, and Chapter of the church of the Most Blessed Martin, pertaining to the Roman Church without any intermediary, and other Ordinaries, he proposed to have them compiled; and proposed to certify our Most Holy Lord the Pope with authentic writings about this matter, that he may be willing and deign to kindly grant his letters of commission to the regions, to have the inquiry made and conducted by his authority, according to all and each of the articles written below.

[6] And first, that the said Lady drew her origin from noble parents, and was divinely inspired from infancy: because when she was six years of age she began to lead the contemplative life and established herself to remain in it: according to the 10 articles written below as she continuously and tirelessly remained until her death. II. Likewise, that when the Lord of Silly, her husband, was released from the bonds of the flesh, the same Lady, then being in her thirtieth year, continuing the same contemplative life and dedicating to God the purpose of her widowhood, utterly banished idle and otiose words from herself, and macerated her body with vigils and prayers from that time until the day of her passing. III. Likewise that the said Lady, following the Evangelical Doctrine, although Baronies, castles, and great and notable estates pertained to her by hereditary right, and she possessed them; nevertheless, totally dedicating herself to God, she left all that she possessed, and assumed the yoke of poverty, repairing and rebuilding churches and other holy places of God every day, which she adorned with jewels, gifts, and most precious Relics. IV. Likewise, that our Lord Jesus Christ, at the supplication and prayers of the said Lady, while she was still living, restored hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, sight to the blind, walking to the lame, and freed and healed other impotent persons and those detained by various diseases and infirmities, restoring to health others vexed by demons and unclean spirits, the demented and the foolish. V. Likewise, that the same Lord Almighty, at her supplications and prayers, raised the dead, freed pregnant women without pain and sorrow from their deliveries, and restored them to their former health. VI. Likewise, that the Lord Almighty, at her prayers, restored lost things to many persons who invoked the help of the said Lady, granting rewards to the upright. VII. Likewise, that the said Lady, while in her cell or oratory, praying to God in her accustomed way, was visited many times and repeatedly, day and night, by God Himself and the glorious Virgin Mary, and was many times raised up and elevated by Angels to the height of two cubits. VIII. Likewise, that while she lived in the flesh, certain persons, after they had departed from this world, appeared to the same Lady while she was living: some saying and rendering thanks that they had been saved through the intervention of her prayers; others begging her to pray more devoutly to God for their salvation. IX. Likewise, that our Lord Jesus Christ with the Blessed Mary Magdalene and the Blessed Stephen and John the Baptist appeared to her several times and accompanied her. X. Likewise, that while she lived in the flesh, on account of penance and the mortification of the body, she was so diminished in her body that she had nothing but skin and bones, and was almost entirely dissolved in her members: but after she rendered her spirit to God, her face and body shone so greatly that in the purest flesh she was displayed to all present.

CHAPTER II

Examination of the first three witnesses produced.

[7] Which requisition having been thus made, I, the undersigned Notary, acceding to the wishes and requests of the said Procurators, diligently interrogated the venerable and discreet man, Guido Gurandi, 12th April the Lord Guido Gurandi, Canon Priest of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter-the-Maidens of Tours, produced before me by the said Procurators, on articles I, II, and III and the rest, namely in the aforesaid year on the 12th day of the month of April. The said Lord Guido, diligently interrogated under his oath, deposes that he had many times and almost daily visited and been accustomed to visit the late Isabella, relict of the late Martin of St. Peter, Burgess of Tours, indeed devout to God, who during the times of her life, as she could, had often frequented and frequented the said late Lady Mary of Maille and loved her much: and that on Wednesday after Judica me, after the singing of the great Mass in the said church of St. Peter-the-Maidens, this witness went to the house of the said Isabella, his godmother, [he testifies that the death of Mary was announced to Isabella, her intimate friend] whom he found sick in bed: and that after some consolatory words which are usually said to the sick and infirm, this witness said to the said Isabella his godmother, that she should pray to God for the said late Mary of Silly, and that she had departed from this world. But then Isabella herself, as if placed in an ecstasy, gave no response: and after a brief interval said: Certainly, godfather, I could not grieve for the death of that Lady, adding that God would have her soul, and therefore she did not weep. And then this witness departed.

[8] Afterwards, namely on the Thursday following, the service having been performed and completed in the said church of St. Peter-the-Maidens, this witness again went to the house of the said Isabella his godmother, that he had found her certain of her salvation to console her in her infirmity: and having entered the chamber of the said Isabella, when he asked the said Isabella about her infirmity and how she was, the said Isabella told this witness that during the immediately preceding night she had heard a melody of song, to which organs or any other instruments could not be compared: and that on account of the modulations and sweetness of the song and chant that she had heard, on account of the Angelic song heard on the first night after the death she was totally rejoiced and consoled in body: and that she well knew and firmly believed, hoped, and trusted that they were Angels who were carrying the soul of the said late Lady Mary to paradise: and that she well knew that the said late Lady did not wish her to have sorrow over her death. And further, that she well knew and was certain, as she said, that she would live only a little while after the said Lady, and that she would shortly depart from this world. And then that witness asked the said Isabella,

how and in what way she spoke these words, and that perhaps those things she had said could have appeared to her in a dream, and that perhaps she was sleeping. And then the said Isabella replied that she had not dozed or slept the entire night.

[9] Asked whether the said Isabella lived long after the death of the said Lady or not, who also said she would soon follow he said that she lived only eight days after the death of the said Lady: because the said Lady departed to Christ on the aforesaid Wednesday, as is stated above; and the said Isabella died between Holy Thursday and Good Friday around midnight. He deposes nothing more on all the articles diligently examined, except that he believes the said Lady to be sanctified by God and joined to the company of the heavenly citizens. Done in the cloister of the church of the Blessed Martin of Tours, namely in the house of habitation of me, the undersigned Public Notary, in the presence of Ralph Morion of the diocese of Vannes and John Chancelet of the diocese of Tours, Clerics, Public Notaries, witnesses specially called and requested for the foregoing.

[10] Colinus Richardi, Cleric, parishioner of St. Stephen of Tours, about 50 years of age, Colinus Richardi testifies on the 25th of July witness received, sworn and examined on the 25th day of the month of July in the year 1414, diligently examined on all and each of the articles, deposes under his oath that about twelve years have elapsed since the Lord Peter Sedac, Priest and plaintiff, had appointed the same Colinus as his procurator to conduct, manage, and prosecute his case before the Official of Tours against the Lord John Jamnin, Rector of the Blessed George on the Cher, defendant, in the diocese of Tours. And that the said plaintiff, for the protection and defense of his case, had given to this witness a certain promissory note for six shields, written in the hand of the said defendant, making mention of how the said defendant owed the said plaintiff the sum of six shields: which note this witness had produced and exhibited before the said Lord Official for the purpose of the said plaintiff among the acts. And that the venerable man Master John Dallee was the advocate and counselor of the said plaintiff in this case. that his twelve-year-old son This witness sent through his late boy, Richard his son, about twelve years of age, of good character, who had greatly loved the said Lady of Silly while she was living, to the Lord Master John Dallee certain proceedings had in this case, for their review, together with the aforesaid promissory note.

[11] But the young man, proceeding to the house of the said Master John, after the loss of a promissory note he was carrying for his father not taking care of the said note, kept the proceedings but not the note: and the note fell from his hands while he was unaware, on the public road, namely between the gates of St. Stephen and St. Vincent of Tours. The young man gave the said proceedings to the said Master John Dallee, believing that he had similarly given the aforesaid note, wrapped in the said proceedings: but when the said young man had returned to look for the said proceedings in the house of the Lord Master John Dallee, and having obtained them, brought them back to this witness; the said witness asked the young man where the aforesaid note was. And then the young man replied that he had left it with the Lord Master John Dallee. And immediately the young man ran to the house of the said Lord Master John Dallee to ask whether he had the said note or not. He asked the said Master John for the note. And when the young man had received the reply from the same Master John that he did not have the said note; he runs in fear to Mary frightened and terrified, out of fear he did not dare to go to the house of this witness, his father: but going straight to the house of the said Lady of Silly, he wept bitterly before the said Lady, explaining to her that he had lost a promissory note, and that he would not dare to return to the house of this witness, his father, unless he could recover the said note. Immediately the said Lady said to the aforesaid young man: My friend, do not fear, for you will recover the said note. after she had prayed And having said this, the said Lady prostrated herself in prayer and prayed to God for the said young man.

[12] Then on the next day, after the said young man had lost the aforesaid note, a certain Lady came to the house of this witness, the note was brought back the next day who was indeed sad about the loss of the said note, since she would have had to pay the sum contained in the said note: and she gave it over, saying that it had passed through the hands of children and she had recovered it, but did not know what it was, utterly amazed as to why it had not been torn up by the said children. And then the wife of this witness sent quickly to find this witness, who was then at the Court of Tours, where he was expediting the cases of his clients: and the witness came immediately to his house, and found the said good Lady with his wife, who were examining the said note: and recognized and received with great joy and falling down he took the said note: and recognized that it was the note he was seeking: whence he was joyful in heart and mind, and gave thanks to God, sending to his said young son to go to the said Lady, to render most humble thanks for the recovery of the note he had lost. Who, quickly going, when the young man rendered thanks to her; the said Lady replied that the thanks did not pertain to her but to God Almighty, and she prostrated herself on the ground, giving thanks to God. He deposes nothing more, except that he firmly hopes and believes that the said articles contain the truth, and that the said Lady is sanctified before God: as can clearly appear through the miracles which the Lord God performed at the prayers of the said Lady in times past and performs daily. These things were done in the above-designated house of my habitation, in the presence of John Charrestier, Ralph Morion, and John Chancelet, Clerics, residing at Tours, witnesses specially called and requested for the foregoing.

[13] Isabella la Jaudee, wife of the prudent man Jaude, Burgess of Tours, about 35 years of age, Isabella testifies on the 27th of July witness received, sworn, and examined on the 27th day of the month of July, diligently examined on the said articles, deposes under her oath that she had many times heard it reported and publicly professed by many notable persons that the late Lady Mary of Maille, Lady of Silly, was sanctified by God, on account of the life she led on earth, indeed holy, honest, and acceptable to God: and that at her prayers our Lord Jesus Christ had deigned to work wonderfully in the persons of many, whose names she did not remember. And that when the late Lord Duke of Orleans made a passage through the town of Tours on his way to Bourges in Gascony, that witness was very much dreading the danger and severity of the men-at-arms in the retinue of the said Lord Duke: that her house, commended to Mary, had been immune from billeting and lest any of those armed men, whose violence she feared, should be billeted in her house, she commended herself to the said Lady, and after the commendation no one billeted himself in her house, notwithstanding that the said Lord Duke had been lodged in the house of the King of Sicily, near the house of this witness. Moreover she deposes that the doors of her neighbors were completely broken by the said armed men, and that all the neighboring women came for refuge into her house.

[14] Moreover she deposes under her oath that the said Lady departed from this world on Wednesday before Palm Sunday, and that she had viewed the body of the deceased namely on the 28th of the month of March most recently past, at one hour after midday: and while she was living, she had almost mortified her flesh with fasts, prayers, and penance. And that, when this witness went and entered the place where the body of the said Lady, not yet buried, was, she found it well mortified, to such an extent that there was nothing but skin and bones only. But after a brief interval, almost in a single moment, examining the said body, restored to a youthful form she saw that the face, hands, arms, thighs, and legs had been changed, as if they were those of a girl of eighteen years: and that the flesh had been entirely changed, as it seemed to her, into that likeness, and it always remained in that state until she was buried. Whence a certain Simonetus, a servant of this witness, whom she had brought with her, told this witness, who helped in burying the said body, that after the body had been prepared for burial, it had been anointed with balsam and other most precious ointments: although no ointments had been applied to the body. And, as it seems to this witness, the face, hands, and feet of the body of the said Lady, after it had been prepared for burial, resembled very well polished and arranged white marble or alabaster. She deposes nothing more, having been diligently examined, except that she believes the aforesaid articles contain the truth, and that the said Lady is glorious before God and sanctified. Done in the house of habitation of John Jehanchin, the aforesaid Procurator, in the presence there of Ralph Morion, Cleric of the diocese of Vannes, Public Notary, and Joanna la Quarree, relict of the late William Regnault, witnesses specially called and requested.

CHAPTER III

Deposition of one of the Canons of St. Martin on individual articles.

[15] The venerable and discreet man Master John Tennegotti, Licentiate in Both Laws, John Tennegotti, Canon, testifies on the 5th of August Canon of the church of the Blessed Martin of Tours, about 55 years of age, witness produced and examined on the fifth day of the month of August, diligently examined on the first and second articles, says and deposes under his oath that about thirty years ago he was a student in the city of Angers in the faculty of civil law, and was maintaining his domicile near the Friars Minor of Angers, that he had known Mary about 30 years ago at Angers whose company, among other Religious, he greatly loved, and he conversed there most frequently. And he saw in those times that the said Lady of Silly was living and had her dwelling in the house of the said Friars Minor: and at that same time also the Lady of Mayenne, Countess of Thouars, was then staying in the same house of the Friars Minor. And the said Lady of Silly was staying in the said house at that time chiefly by the favor of the said Lady of Mayenne, and so that she might always invite the said Lady of Mayenne to prayers and supplications before God, as it seemed to this witness: since from that time and since she had been and was continually contemplative, and had tirelessly led a holy and contemplative life: celebrated for the fame of sanctity as this is notorious and manifest, and experience taught and had taught all who wished to observe, in her bearing and habit. He says further that the said Lady of Silly served God day and night with vigils and prayers and supplications, and macerated her body with fasts and penances.

[16] Asked how he knows this and can depose about it, outstanding in works of charity he says that he had neighbors and friends, compatriots, serving in the house of the said Friars Minor under the said Lady of Mayenne, and daily seeing and perceiving the contemplative life of the said Lady of Silly: and how she conducted herself in works of charity toward the poor and the weak: whom she frequently visited in hospitals and leprosaries, devoutly exercising such works of charity toward them: and that she exposed her own patrimony for sale, and what she received from it she spent in part on the ornaments of the church and distributed the rest to the poor. His said neighbors reported all these things to him, and similarly the Friars of that place, with whom he had great acquaintance. All of which he says was sufficiently notorious in the town and city of Angers and the surrounding area: because divine worship greatly flourished in that place, on account of the presence of the said Ladies: whence the devotion of the people was greatly increased, and the inhabitants of the said city of Angers, namely scholars, burghers, and others of both sexes, more often came together at that place than elsewhere for the divine offices.

[17] Moreover he deposes that from that time he knew, related by blood to the chief persons of the highest nobility as was notorious and manifest, that the said Lady had taken her origin from the most noble parents. Asked how he knows this, he says that the said Lady had been the consort and wife of the late Lord Robert, Lord of Silly-Guillaume, indeed a great Baron, who while he was living was famed, considered, and reputed for his holy and contemplative life. And, as is reported, during their marriage they additionally led the contemplative life, living chastely, justly, and piously: and that she was of illustrious birth he learned from his aforesaid noble neighbors: especially and particularly through the noble and powerful Lord, the Lord Inhel, Knight of Angers, and his children and many others. And recently he saw, after he had become a Canon of the said church of the Blessed Martin and resided in it, that the Kings and Princes, Dukes and Barons, who came out of devotion to visit the threshold of the Blessed Martin, showed great honor to the said Lady, and in the manner of nobles received her with a kiss, like the King of Sicily, the Count of La Marche, and many others, who called her their parent and blood relative: as this is sufficiently notorious among good and serious persons. And she was the aunt of the Lord of Maille and of another of the greater Barons of Touraine.

[18] Diligently examined on the third article, he considers and asserts this article to be notorious: that she adorned many churches since she had enriched many churches and holy places with the most noble jewels and most precious Relics, as can appear to anyone who looks, especially she donated to the church of the Friars Minor of Tours very many jewels and most precious Relics to the praise and honor of God, and adorned them most richly with gold and silver and precious stones. And similarly to the churches of the Blessed Martin and the Blessed Mary the Rich of Tours she respectively donated gilded silver crosses, adorned with the Wood of the Holy Cross, to the praise, glory, and honor of God: and she had the chapel of the Blessed Mary of Planche-des-Vallees, in the diocese of Tours, rebuilt in honor of the Virgin Mary, and she decorated those same churches with images and other honest and fitting things, from the goods and alms granted to her by God: as experience, he asserts, taught him.

[19] Diligently examined on the fourth and fifth articles, he says that he believes the contents of the articles are likely true, that he had seen letters of the Countess of Alencon testifying on account of the just fame and holy conversation and devotion of the said Lady, which the faithful of Christ without distinction had toward her. And he further deposes that he saw, held, read, and touched certain letters on paper, written in the hand of the noble and powerful Lady, the Lady Countess of Alencon, as appeared at first sight; since they had been approved at the end by an authentic notary of the Court or Castellany of Argentan, called Colin Cervain, of whom this witness had knowledge: in which many wonderful things are inserted, as can be drawn from the tenor of such letters. For the said Lady relates in the aforesaid letters about a criminal freed from the gallows through Mary that a certain criminal had been condemned to the ultimate punishment by the justice of the said place, and that when the preparations had been made for hanging him by the noose, the said Lady commanded the one about to be hanged to devoutly commend himself to the said Lady of Silly: which he did: and immediately, after his vow was made, the Bailiff and other Officials departed, and suddenly released the criminal, and finally the same criminal, by the grace of the Lord Count, escaped the punishment and the prison.

[20] Likewise she relates in the same letters that when she was gravely ill and suffering, about the eased delivery of the Countess herself and because the fetus or offspring was positioned crosswise in her womb, and had moved in her belly about two months before the time of delivery, whence more was expected of her death than of her life: but that she remembered the said Lady of Silly, to whom she devoutly vowed herself with her fetus or offspring, and humbly commended herself. And immediately she gave birth easily and almost without pain: and after giving birth she found herself healthy and well; which happened the day after the passing of the said Lady. about her jaw and eye healed Likewise she relates in the said letters that she had an infirm and swollen jaw, and also at another time an eye gravely deteriorated and infirm, to such an extent that she could see little with it: remembering that she had in her possession a certain ointment compounded by the hands of the said Lady of Silly, she anointed her jaw and eye successively with that ointment, in honor of the said Lady of Silly, and also the eyes of her son healed and immediately received health in both eye and jaw. Likewise concerning her firstborn son, who was tender in his eyes, and from rheum or water descending from the brain his eyes were becoming dim, and he had been in this infirmity for a long time, nor could he be healed: but the said Lady of Alencon, remembering the aforesaid Lady of Silly, anointed the eyes of her said child with the aforesaid ointment, and immediately he recovered his health.

[21] Likewise she relates that a certain man was imprisoned in the prisons of Argentan and detained for half a year, and the prisoner lost his hearing, sight, and speech: about hearing, sight, and speech restored to a certain captive whom the said Lady of Alencon went to visit, and persuaded the imprisoned man by signs to commend himself to God and the said Lady of Silly: who also, as far as could appear from external signs, commended himself to God and the said Lady of Silly. Immediately the said Lady anointed the same prisoner around the throat with the aforesaid ointment, and at that instant he recovered sight, hearing, and speech. Finally she relates that she accompanied a certain young woman, about jealousy removed by her invocation whose husband was very jealous, while making a pilgrimage to the Blessed Mary of Montfort, who was very sad and almost desperate, because her husband was plotting against a certain other person of whom he was jealous, to kill him. She commended the young woman to the said Lady of Silly, and comforted her as best she could: and immediately the said husband came, who showed a good face to the said young woman his wife, and thereafter treated her better and better, and they lived together peacefully, without dissension, hatred, and rancor, as good spouses are accustomed and ought to do.

[22] The certainty of this deposition He believes these things are likely true, on account of what he has stated about the said Lady of Silly: and also because he was a Rector of a Parish Church in those parts, in which he resided for some time and especially in the last Lent, and also because he had been for some time the Official of Seez: and finally because he knew the said Lady of Alencon by origin, and her life and character, both by experience and by the testimony and report of trustworthy persons: whose life, character, and conduct are greatly approved by all who have knowledge of her. Giving the reason for his statement, he saw and heard while in those parts during the aforesaid last Lent, and learned from many trustworthy persons, the gratitude of the Countess toward the deceased that the said Lady of Alencon with her firstborn son, in the manner and form described above, received health from the aforesaid infirmities: nor could the said son have been otherwise cured, although he had been for long periods in the hands of physicians, who brought no help. Whence the said Lady Countess, wishing to render praises and thanks to the said Lady of Silly for such great benefits, sent a notable candle, adorned with her arms, to the tomb of the said Lady, and had it placed there in memory of the aforesaid, as it still is. And this witness firmly believes that the said Lady of Alencon would more willingly have brought the said candle herself and placed it with her own hands upon the tomb, if she had had the free choice of making a pilgrimage or going there.

[23] Diligently examined on the sixth article, he believes the article to contain the truth, The same testifies that certain letters stolen from a man named Francis from and because he heard it reported by a certain Francis, a devout man, originally from the diocese of Lucon, that some time ago many sets of letters, of great importance and containing a great effect, to be carried to diverse places, parts, and persons, had been given to him by Brothers William Teste-d'oye and Henry, of the Order of Minors, Confessor of Sister Nicole, Abbess of Besancon,

of the Order of St. Clare, to be carried to several Brothers of the said Order of the dioceses of Poitiers and Lucon; which had been maliciously stolen from him by a certain William of the Third Order of St. Francis, then residing at Tours in the chapel of All Saints, with whom he had been hosted for three or four days, around the feast of St. Martin in winter. And when he wished to depart, he asked the said William for the letters he had deposited with him: who maliciously refused to return them. Whence, not knowing how else to provide, he had recourse to the said Lady of Silly, after Mary had prayed for him and bearing faith and firm hope that through the prayers and admonitions of the said Lady he could and would recover the letters thus lost; he went to her, and related in detail to her how the matter of the lost letters stood. And immediately the said Lady prostrated herself in prayer, praying God for the said Francis, that he might recover what was lost. After her prayer she told the said Francis that he should not grieve for what was lost, since he would certainly recover what was lost. Immediately after she rose from prayer, it was the will of God that she should soon encounter the man who was fraudulently detaining the aforesaid letters, and she spoke with him in the chapel of the Blessed Mary in the said church of the Friars Minor with exhortatory words and charitable admonitions, beyond hope they were restored that he should restore the letters he was concealing. And after the said Lady had spoken with the said William, she told the said Francis to go with the said William: which he did. But when both were walking through the great street of Tours, the said William pretended to be ill: and proceeding further to his house, he opened his chest, in which he knew the letters were not: and he had a candle lit, to be able to cover up his frauds: and when it was lit, the letters were found.

[24] Diligently examined on the seventh article, he said and deposes that she was devoutly devoted to the Passion that the said Lady of Silly while she was living had her heart very much in the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and the mystery of the holy Cross, as it then seemed to this witness. And the said Lady willingly revealed to this witness in secret the things that had happened to her, not for her own ostentation, but for the praise, glory, and honor of Almighty God, exhorting this witness to maintain silence and render praises to God and pray to God for her. And among other things, when this witness inquired how the Priest celebrating the great Mass approached the high altar of the Blessed Martin, a particle of the Holy Cross she narrated to this witness that some time ago God had provided her with a certain portion of the Wood of the Holy Cross: whence she had then proposed to divide this wood into two pieces, and to place them proportionally in two gilded silver crosses which she had had made, she ordered it to be divided into two, and blood flowed from it namely one for the church of the Blessed Martin and another for the church of the Blessed Francis of Tours. The crosses therefore having been made and fabricated and in her possession, as she had proposed, she wished to divide the aforesaid portion of the Wood of the Holy Cross, in the presence of Brother William Gourmer, then Lector of the Friars Minor of Tours, who was very familiar to her. And when she had the said portion of the wood divided with a small knife by the said Gourmer upon the altar of St. Francis in the said church of the Friars Minor of Tours, blood immediately flowed out: which she collected and placed in both crosses, wrapped with the wood itself, and afterwards presented the said crosses to each of the aforesaid churches, with what reverence and devotion she could; requesting the Lord Canons of the Chapter of the said Church of the Blessed Martin that whenever the Priest approached the altar for the celebration of the great Mass, he should carry this cross in his hands in memory of the Passion: which she arranged to be enclosed in silver crosses which the aforesaid Lord Canons of the Chapter most willingly granted her, and then so ordered it to be done. Whence the said Lady, recalling the foregoing, whether the aforesaid blood, otherwise placed with the Wood of the Holy Cross therein, was present in the same; she said to this witness, earnestly requesting him to inquire about this, as she had many times begged this witness about this: but this witness replied to the said Lady that such matters pertained less to him, since he was neither the Procurator of the fabric nor had the care of the jewels of the said church: but that he would willingly inquire about it.

[25] [that she was divinely admonished about caring for the altar of St. Stephen in the church of St. Martin] Likewise, in the penultimate Lent, the said Lady was gravely ill, to such an extent that in the presence of this witness she received Extreme Unction from the ministry of Brother Martin of Bois-Gautier, her Confessor, by the permission of the Curate of St. Vincent of Tours, and there was no hope that she would not pass from this world: and a brief interval before she received this anointing, she called this witness (all others then present having been withdrawn apart from the said Lady) and sorrowfully related to this witness the following things, namely that the said Lady of Silly had long borne a devotion to the most blessed Stephen. And while she was in the church of the Blessed Martin, near the altar of the Holy Cross next to the pillar where the altar of St. Stephen now is, she heard a voice saying to her: Tell the Lords of this church to build an altar in honor of the Blessed Stephen at one of the pillars of this church. And then she revealed this to the then-deceased Lords Cantor and Subdean of the said church: who narrated the matter to the other Lords of the said church in Chapter, and thence they had an altar built, which was for a long time without images and painting.

[26] Afterwards, when she was praying on another occasion before the said altar, that Mary narrated she had been divinely admonished a certain young man appeared to her, very beautiful of face, holding in his hand a note on which was written in large letters the name CHRIST: in which name she distinctly saw and read and inspected all the things she would do out of reverence for St. Stephen, in the said church of the Blessed Martin and in the church of the Friars Minor. And subsequently the said Lady had spoken about the said matter with several individual Lords of the said church of the Blessed Martin: but the matter had not yet taken effect. Whence the said Lady grieved and had remorse in her conscience, and therefore she begged this witness and the others above-named, de Blabayo and Roberti, that if she should die of this illness, they should meanwhile procure that the said image be made and placed at that altar, to the honor of God and the Blessed Stephen. and for that piety freed from danger of life Likewise she said that she had previously told him that on a certain occasion while she was praying before the said altar of the Blessed Stephen, there was a certain rack, in French ratteau, suitable for placing candles around the bodies of deceased Canons of the church of the Blessed Martin, indeed large and heavy, propped against the pillar directly in front of the said altar. This fell upon the said Lady while she was praying, and almost entirely crushed her body, and lacerated her to such an extent that she was almost forced to expire. But with the grace of God cooperating, the said rack was erected in its place, and from the said blow she felt no pain: indeed she departed healthy and unharmed from the same: from which blow the cloak of the said Lady was torn from the shoulders to the feet.

[27] Afterwards the said Lady recovered from this illness: and desiring with all her strength to fulfill the will of God she finally accomplished it and of St. Stephen, she went before the Lord Canons of the said church assembled in Chapter, this witness being present with them and voting, and as best she could, not entirely revealing such visions, she humbly and with all humility begged them with charity, that to the praise, glory, and honor of God and the Blessed Stephen, they would have an image of the said Saint made and arranged. The said Lords of the Chapter, acceding to the wishes of the said Lady, had an image of the Blessed Stephen, in the manner of how he was stoned, carved in sculpture and arranged in various colors at the altar, as can appear to anyone who wishes to look. and she obtained the founding of a chaplaincy there After which things, done miraculously, as this witness piously believes, the Lady Isabella de Clisson, Lady of Ramefort, from the goods granted to her by God, endowed and founded a Chaplaincy at this altar, and decorated it with a Chalice, Missal, and other necessary ornaments. This chaplaincy is served each week with three Masses: and on account of the honor of the Blessed Stephen and in memory of the said Lady, many in this place invoke his help and aid. All of which being most attentively considered, he believes this article VII to contain the truth: and he says that the said Lady revealed to him very many other miracles familiarly, which he did not commit to memory, from and because he considered himself less worthy, and also because he believed that they would be reduced to writing by those more familiar with the said Lady; since he had many times urged the said Brother Martin to commit such things to his writings.

[28] likewise, that in her illnesses she greatly edified those who came The aforesaid witness further says, who studied for a long time in the faculty of Theology, that the aforesaid Lady seemed to him to be wonderfully instructed and exercised in the divine law. He says further that he many times saw the said Lady laboring with various infirmities, in which she was greatly consoled: to such an extent that she wonderfully refreshed those present and arriving in spirit and body, just as is read of the Apostle and the Blessed Lawrence and others, who gloried in their infirmities. Finally he deposes that many from distant parts, who were many from various regions on account of the devotion they bore toward the said Lady while she was living, came together to her out of devotion. And he saw and knew many from the parts of Normandy, Anjou, Brittany, and Berry, of whom he had acquaintance, who had come to Tours for that reason, to see her, especially on account of the fame of her holy conduct and praiseworthy life. He also says that not only in the kingdom of France did the name, fame, and conduct of the said Lady flourish, but also throughout many places and kingdoms: and that it is clearly established that her fame was spread through foreign kingdoms. For that witness knows that the King of Cyprus humbly wrote to the said Lady, asking that she keep him and his kingdom commended in her prayers, since it had been almost entirely devastated by a plague of locusts.

[29] He says moreover that to the person of this witness himself, during the time of division, many dangers to his own body, and that he believes he obtained various benefits and health through her

of his friends and goods had occurred. Also in the last Lent he was so ill with a grave infirmity that it was reasonably believed and expected more of death than of life: but he trusted and always trusts in the said Lady, who always held and kept him highly recommended, and toward whom he bore firm hope and confidence. And he firmly believes that by the intercessions, prayers, and merits of the said Lady he was freed from these adversities: since the said Lady had Masses celebrated for the recovery of this witness, and in her last moments had memory of him, as he knew and learned from those who frequently conversed with the aforesaid Lady. Done in the house of habitation of the said Master John Tennegot, in the presence of the discreet men Aegidius de Mondo, Priest, and Ralph Morion, Cleric, witnesses specially called and requested for the foregoing.

[30] The religious man Brother Francis Bigoys, originally from the diocese of Lucon, of the Order of Minors, witness produced, sworn, and examined on the seventh day of the month of August, Another witness about the procured restoration of letters diligently examined on all the articles, said and deposes under his oath that some time ago many sets of letters of great importance and containing a great effect had been given to him to carry to diverse places... etc. as above at number 23. And moreover he deposes that he could never have recovered the said letters except through the intervention of the prayers of the said Lady, considering the malignity of the fraud of the aforesaid William. And this is what the said Francis deposes: however he believes the foregoing was done miraculously. Done in the canonical house of Master John Tennegotti, the above-written witness, in the presence of the discreet men Aegidius de Mondo, Priest, and Ralph Morion, Public Notary, witnesses specially called and requested for the foregoing.

bb. It is certain that this is to be understood for the embryo: for the offspring, concerning which letters exist dated the last day of June of this year, was not posthumous to the father, killed only the following year on the 25th of October in the Battle of Agincourt. This offspring, however, seems to have been Mary of Alencon, who died, an infant of two years, as the Sainte-Marthes write in the Genealogical History, book 21, chapter 5.

CHAPTER IV

Deposition of another Canon about the life and miracles of the Lady of Silly.

[31] The venerable and circumspect man Master John Roberti, John Roberti, Canon, testifies on the 12th of August Canon of the church of the Blessed Martin of Tours, about 60 years of age, witness produced, sworn, and examined on the 12th day of the month of August, diligently examined on the first and second articles, deposes under his oath concerning the contents of the said articles, that the said Lady of Silly was born and descended from a noble family, and, as he believes, was inspired by God: since during the time she was living she had been and was very contemplative, and led a holy and contemplative life: and also from the time he had knowledge of her until the day of her death: about the outstanding fame of sanctity even beyond the kingdom with whom from the aforesaid time, namely from twelve years and since, he had frequently conversed. And he knew her to be just, holy, and pleasing to God, and without reproach: since she visited the poor and weak in hospitals and leprosaries, exercising works of charity toward the same poor and weak, most devoutly visiting churches and other holy places: and she exercised many other holy works, which would be long to enumerate one by one: as he saw and heard, and public fame spreads concerning her and her holy conduct, throughout the entire kingdom of France and beyond.

[32] Asked how he knows that the fame of the said Lady was spread beyond the kingdom; which he confirms by the letters of the King of Cyprus he says that from many coming from diverse parts to implore the help of the said Lady: and especially through letters of the illustrious Lord King of Cyprus, who (about two years have elapsed) wrote letters to the said Lady, written in his own hand, as appeared from the letters: since the said King by his letters testified that they were written by his hand. In which it was effectively stated that the said King commended himself, with his wife the Queen and his entire kingdom, to the prayers of the said Lady as one most dear to God. Among other things explaining through the said letters that all the fruits or nearly all of his said kingdom had been devastated and consumed by locusts, to such an extent that the inhabitants of the kingdom had nothing to live on: and on account of the lack and scarcity of such fruits, thus consumed as is said, it was necessary for the inhabitants of the kingdom to beg outside the kingdom and to seek provisions. Also plague in the said kingdom was wonderfully raging, in men of both sexes and brute animals, therefore he commended himself to the prayers and intercessions of the said Lady, that she might deign to pray the Lord Almighty for him, the Queen, and the country, and to pacify His hand, and there follows the text of these letters of the King of Cyprus in this form:

[33] To my dearest and beloved Lady of Silly, Janus, King of Cyprus, etc., who at all times commends himself to your good prayers. who praising her holiness Most humble and obedient Servant of God, I pray sweet Jesus that my letter may find you well and in his grace, as your humble heart desires. And truly he is healthy, rich, and powerful, who knows his soul to be on the way to paradise, who feels himself poor in the goods of this world, who sees himself saved and guarded by his Creator. Which things, although they are impossible for us, who are entirely simple and sinful creatures, because we have neither the age nor the virtue nor the possibility for acquiring such great goods as the love of God produces, unless He Himself bestows them by His grace: nevertheless they are possible through the good love which, made perfect by the aggregation of all goods, He lavishes upon His creature, which we can well enough see when He deigns to assume human flesh and to dwell among us miserable sinners, teaching us the way of our salvation, enduring death and suffering, shedding His blood upon the earth for our redemption, and thus washing us with the precious water of His side from the sin in which we were and through which we were serving death. Since therefore, most humble and obedient Servant of God, from the report of my most beloved wife commends himself and his people to her prayers the Queen, I have in some measure learned of your good life, I have decided to write to you, praising God who acts so kindly toward His creatures when He exalts them to such great glory as having His grace is. Indeed I am affected with a special joy, praying Him to preserve you always in it, advancing from good to better, and to make you see His gracious face on the day of judgment. And so I beseech most urgently that I and my said wife may be commended to you when you pray to God, and that you may commend us, however unworthy, to His holy grace together with all the people of Cyprus, who suffer and shall suffer the greatest evils unless God provides a remedy. and the kingdom devastated by locusts For after wars, plague, and famine, such a multitude of locusts has come upon us, devouring and destroying our substance, that the necessity lies upon us to seek the means of life elsewhere. I believe indeed that God loves us, and therefore wishes to chastise us, not according to our greatest sins, but according to His mercy: yet I make these things known to you, that your efficacious prayers may be able to bend the will of God toward us in all clemency, that He may not judge us according to our great evils, but according to the great love and mercy which He has toward His creatures. Nothing else, most humble and obedient Servant of God, occurs to me to write at present, except to commend myself to your pious prayers, beseeching sweet Jesus Christ to hold you in His protection, and to grant you joy in the glory of paradise. Written in my own hand on the 26th of September.

[34] He further deposes that at the same time and on the same day the said Lady Queen, commending herself to the prayers and intercessions of the said Lady of Silly, also from letters of the Queen requesting her ointment also wrote to her, that her ointment, compounded by the hands of the said Lady, which she had brought with her when she left the regions of France, had been totally consumed in pious works and had benefited many for their health: asking the said Lady to be willing to send her some of this ointment. Asked how he knows this so as to be able to depose about it, he says that because he saw, touched, and heard read both letters. Asked in what language the said letters were written, he says they were written in good French: adding that the said Queen commended the Lord King her husband and herself and the aforesaid kingdom of Cyprus with its inhabitants to the suffrages of the said Lady.

[35] Diligently examined on the third article, he says that he believes the contents of the said article to be true. The same testifies about the voluntary poverty of Mary Asked the reason why, he says that she had left her patrimony, to serve God better and more devoutly: and he says he knows this, because the said Lady begged, and led a poor life while she was living, and many faithful of Christ gave her alms every day, and distributed to her from their goods for her sustenance: of which alms, before she ate, retaining the smaller part for her sustenance, she distributed the entire remainder

to the poor, and she greatly macerated her body with fasts, vigils, and other things, as he could perceive from her appearance. He moreover deposes that the said Lady adorned churches and other holy places of God with jewels, gifts, and most precious Relics. the rigor of her penance Asked how he knew this and could depose about it; he says that the said Lady donated to the aforesaid church of the Blessed Martin her generosity toward sacred places a most beautiful gilded silver cross, in which there are many Relics, namely of the Wood of the Holy Cross and of many other Relics: which cross he saw and held many times. She also donated many jewels to the church of the Friars Minor of Tours (in which she placed many Relics), indeed notable and very beautifully adorned: which jewels he also held, saw, and touched. She also did many good things for many other churches and holy places, as he heard reported.

[36] miracles Diligently examined on the fourth, fifth, and sixth articles, he says that he believes those articles contain the truth, on account of the fame and holiness of the said Lady: and he heard it reported by many persons that God Almighty had worked many miracles for the said Lady, of which he does not remember. And that among other things he heard narrated one miracle by the late Lord Hugh de Cosnac, once Doctor of Laws, and a leper healed Provost of Blalayo and Canon during his lifetime of the church of St. Martin, as a prudent man of praiseworthy life and honest conduct and without reproach: who narrated to this witness, and named the place where the Lord Jesus Christ, at the prayers of the said Lady, healed a leper or restored him to health by a single kiss. He deposes nothing more about the contents of the said articles, not remembering anything else at present.

[37] Diligently examined on the seventh article, he says he knows nothing except by hearsay. the sight of heavenly beings Asked from whom he learned, he says he heard from those who knew the secrets of the said Lady: namely Brother Martin of Bois-Gautier, Guardian of the Friars Minor of Tours, Confessor of the said Lady, and some others who had acquaintance with the aforesaid Lady while she was living.

[38] On the eighth article he says he knows nothing except by hearsay, and of faithful souls that some reported to him that the late Theophania de Stella, once a maidservant of the said Lady, after a period of four months, after she had departed from this world, had appeared in spirit to the said Lady, and had rendered thanks to her, because through the intervention of the prayers of the said Lady she had been saved. Similarly he deposes having heard from many that the late Lady of Mongeron after her death had appeared to the said Lady, and had humbly begged her to pray the Lord for her salvation: and after a little time she had again appeared to the said Lady, and had given her thanks, since through the intervention of the said Lady's prayers she had been saved.

[39] Diligently examined on the ninth and remaining articles, Likewise, that in the year 1411, in the presence of himself and two others he deposes that in the year of the Lord 1410, on the day of the Lord's Supper, and after Easter and quite near the feast of Easter in the year 1411, the said Lady was gravely ill, to such an extent that she believed she would depart from this world, and therefore wished to make known to her special friends the things that had happened to her. And therefore the venerable and discreet man Master John Tennegoti, Licentiate in Both Laws and Canon of the said church of the Blessed Martin, who had visited her, told this witness that if the late Lord Provost of Blalayo, then living, this witness, and the said Master John, should go to visit her, perhaps she would reveal more of her secrets. And then this witness and the other two above-named assembled and chose the following day to visit the said Lady: who went together: and when they entered the chamber where she was ill, while visiting her in her illness she narrated and were standing before the said Lady, then lying sick in her bed, the said Lady, after rendering thanks for their visit, with all humility related to the aforesaid Lords, that on a certain night, of which this witness did not remember, she narrated to them certain visions and graces and divine benefits done to her: among which, around the times when she had renounced all earthly possessions, with fear and reverence of God striking her breast, considering herself unworthy of such benefits, which she proposed to explain to the praise, glory, and honor of Almighty God, she most devoutly exhorted them to render worthy praises to God for such benefits.

[40] For she said that in the almshouse of the church of the Blessed Martin, where she was lying in those days, one night the Blessed John the Baptist and the Blessed Stephen the Protomartyr appeared to her, lying on the ground, and she humbly encouraged them to rise. When they were raised into the air, the Blessed John the Baptist made her a sermon on the contempt of the world, how, divinely admonished and afterwards they vanished from her eyes. And some days having passed, she came to the church of the Friars Minor of Tours, and asked Brother Martin of Bois-Gautier whether there were any Relics in the said church of the Friars Minor. And when the said Brother Martin replied that there were, he immediately showed her some Relics of the Blessed John the Baptist and Stephen, [she had the relics of SS. John the Baptist and Stephen sought at the Friars Minor of Tours] indecently stored in the sacristy, under a certain wooden altar. Which relics, less decently stored as was said, had been found miraculously, as she firmly believed: from whose discovery she was happy and joyful. And this witness believes that the discovery of these Relics was miraculous and corresponding to the aforesaid vision.

[41] She narrated to this witness and the aforesaid others that around the said times the said Lady went to the castle of Silly in the diocese of Le Mans: and found others of the same at the castle of Silly and when she had entered the said castle, she asked the then Lord of Silly, and his mother and wife who were then there, to show her the relics they had in their possession: which they denied, pretending they were in the city of Le Mans, and that in previous times when she had come to the said castle for a similar purpose, they had given a similar response: but on this third occasion she told the aforesaid Lady mother and wife that they should show her the Relics, and she would ask nothing from them. And then they brought the said Relics and placed them upon the high altar of the Collegiate church of the Blessed Mary of Silly: among which were found two teeth of the Blessed John the Baptist and bones of the Blessed Stephen the Protomartyr. Her Confessor was absent, elsewhere in a meadow of the church, she was forbidden to request a share, but received them voluntarily whom she sent to fetch so that he might see the Relics, hoping that he would ask for something of them, which he did not do: and thus with the caskets closed they were carried back to the castle, and the said Lady remained in the church. And suddenly the mother of the Lord of Silly and her son had the Relics brought back, and placed them as before upon the said altar. And then the mother said to her son: I greatly desire that your aunt should have one of the teeth of St. John the Baptist and a particle of the bones of St. Stephen the Protomartyr: and the son replied that he also wished this. And then they gave her one tooth of the Blessed John and a particle of the bones of the Blessed Stephen the Protomartyr: which Relics she received gladly and humbly on bended knees.

[42] Likewise the said Lady also narrated and revealed to the said Lords gathered together, likewise from the Queen of Sicily two teeth of St. Stephen that she had gone to the late Lady Mary, Queen of Sicily: which Lady Queen gave and donated to her Relics of St. Stephen, namely two teeth, together with crystal pinnacles, for making a small vessel for honorably storing the aforesaid teeth, and she had had a gilded silver image of the Blessed Stephen made, holding in his right hand the said vessel, from goods given to her in alms by the faithful of Christ: for which she had a silver statue made which image together with the aforesaid Relics she gave to the Sacristan of the Friars Minor of Angers to be kept. And while the said Lady of Silly had proposed to depart from the city of Angers to come to Tours, on one Saturday before the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed John the Baptist, in the year of the Lord 1388, the Lady of la Hunaudaye lent her carriage or cart with horses and a driver: but on her return to Tours, these along with certain other small items and on her departure she separated the aforesaid image of the Blessed Stephen and the aforesaid vessel, lest they be damaged by the motion of the cart or carriage, which she placed in two small caskets, together with certain pieces of gold and silver, rings, pearls, and precious stones, together with a certain silken purse with gilded silver knots and a piece of the hair shirt of the Lord Charles of Blois: into the wallet of her Confessor which caskets she placed in a certain wallet or bag of her Confessor, the aforesaid Brother Martin, in which was the said Brother Martin's Collectary, with a little bread and cheese.

[43] And afterwards the said Lady mounted the said carriage or cart: and the said Brother Martin placed the said wallet, with the aforesaid Relics thrown into it, placed in them near the said Lady. And with these things done the said Lady departed, heading toward Tours: and having made the crossing at the port of Sorges, while the carriage or cart with horses was being driven through the meadows of Belle-poulle, with the motion of the carriage or cart the said wallet fell in the aforesaid meadows, the said Lady and others present with her being entirely unaware. And the said driver drove the carriage to a certain inn above the embankment opposite the monastery having fallen from the cart: for which when she had prayed of St. Maur on the Loire, on the other side of the river Loire. And when that Lady, among other things that had been in the said carriage or cart, could not find the said wallet, she was greatly perplexed, and the said Brother Martin was not a little sad at heart. And immediately the said Lady prostrated herself in prayer: and when the prayer was completed, the said Lady told Brother Martin not to grieve so, and that the Lord through His mercy would comfort them. And afterwards on the following Sunday the said Lady wished to cross the said river Loire and visit the said monastery of St. Maur; which she did, and in the same monastery she ordered the said Brother Martin to celebrate Mass.

[44] When the solemnities of the Mass were completed, and they had returned in the evening to the place where they had been lodged, shortly after, two Religious of the aforesaid Order of Minors, proceeding from Bourges

to the General Chapter of the Friars Minor, perceiving by the cart standing outside the house that the said Lady was lodged there, a messenger arrived about the same items being found notified the said Lady that the Relics of St. Stephen, which she had lost, were not lost, and that the Sacristan of the Friars Minor of Angers had them in his possession: whence the said Lady immediately rendered praises and thanks to Almighty God. And when the said Confessor of the said Lady said that he wished to return to Angers to recover these Relics, the said Lady replied to him that he should not go without her, and that he should return to Angers with her. The said Lady with the said Confessor returned to Angers, and they entered the church of the Friars Minor. And when they entered, they met the Sacristan of the said Friars Minor, who told the said Lady and the Confessor that they should not grieve, that the Relics of the Blessed Stephen had been found: which a certain Advocate of the secular Court had brought to the said church of the Friars Minor, and that he would restore them to the said Lady safe and entire.

[45] The said Lady and the Confessor earnestly asked the aforesaid Sacristan to explain to them how the aforesaid Relics had been recovered: and brought to the Sacristan of the Friars Minor of Angers and the said Sacristan replied that a certain Advocate of the secular court had secretly and privately placed these Relics in the chapel of Credonio on the altar in the said church of the Friars Minor, hoping they would be found by one of the Friars Minor. Having left them on the said altar and proceeding to his house, he was so stirred in his spirit that he was compelled to return to the said church, thinking to himself that these Relics could be lost, and it would be better if he gave them to the said Sacristan with his own hand. When he returned to the church, he found the said Relics on the aforesaid altar, just as he had placed them; which he took up and gave and delivered to the said Sacristan, telling him that he was donating these Relics to the church of the Friars Minor. And when the Sacristan perceived that they were Relics of the Blessed Stephen, which he had formerly had in his custody, he asked the said Advocate where was the silver image of St. Stephen, which had held these Relics in its hand, and said that these Relics belonged to the said Lady of Silly. Then the said Advocate was frightened and terrified, saying that he did not have that image nor had he seen it.

[46] And then the said Lady of Silly, having learned of this, sent a messenger to the house of the said Advocate, and by that evidence the rest were also received asking him to come and speak with the said Lady: but at that hour he was not at his house, but rather outside the city of Angers at Brain near the Authion, where he was holding court or assizes: and the messenger was answered that he would come in the evening, and so he came to his house. At the hour of vespers the said Lady again sent a messenger to the said Advocate: and the said Advocate, at the Lady's command, came to the church of the aforesaid Friars Minor, where she then was. And when she earnestly asked the said Advocate to restore the remainder of the other things which he had in his possession, and to relate how he had found them, a description of the said goods having first been made by the Confessor in order for the said Advocate, the said Advocate narrated the manner of finding the aforesaid things. Namely, that while riding through the fields or meadow of Belle-poulle near Angers, he had found two small caskets in which the following things were placed: namely, the vessel with the Relics; a beautiful purse interwoven with gold, a piece of gold for gilding, with certain rings, pearls, precious stones, and a certain other reliquary: but that he had given the purse and the aforesaid caskets to two of his relatives: and he returned the said piece and rings and pearls, and in place of the purse he returned another purse.

[47] And when the said Confessor asked the said Advocate where his wallet was, with a certain Collectary, bread and cheese placed inside it; which were likewise lost the said Advocate denied having found the said wallet. And then almost suddenly a certain merchant came, who returned the aforesaid wallet, in the same context as they were speaking about it, with the contents, and gave it to the said Confessor, saying that near the port of Sorges, when he had withdrawn to the side for bodily relief, behind a bush he had found it: and that the sailors crossing the river of Authion, going and coming, told him that it belonged to the said Lady of Silly; and that on the previous day her people had been searching in the meadows and around the port: and that if he returned it, he would do well: which he did as has been said. Whence the said Lady was joyful and glad with her whole heart: this witness firmly believing that the foregoing was done miraculously and at the prayers and supplications of the said Lady by Almighty God. Done in the gallery of the church of the Blessed Martin of Tours, in the presence of the discreet men Peter des Aubuis, Priest Vicar of the said church, and Ralph Morion, Cleric, Public Notary, witnesses specially called and requested for the foregoing.

p. Otherwise Glannofoliense, a most ancient monastery of the Benedictine Order in Gaul: concerning which we treated sufficiently in the Life of St. Maur on the 15th of January.

q. Commonly Bourges en Berry; and therefore having a direct route through Touraine. Of this General Chapter, however, Wadding nowhere makes mention; because, held during the time of the schism by those who called themselves of the obedience of Clement, it was not considered legitimate, and perhaps was not known to Wadding: meanwhile, perhaps while others beyond the mountains, adhering to the true Pontiff, were holding a General Chapter at Cologne in 1392, after a similar Chapter had been held by the Cismontanes at Mantua in the year 1390.

r. A town at the confluence of the Couaesnon and the Authion, near which lies another in the maps called Andori.

s. That is, a judicial sitting, from assire, to sit.

t. In French pre means meadow, and hence prairie.

u. Now called by the more usual name the Diurnal of the Canonical Hours.

x. That is, a river; in French riviere, said from the banks by which it is contained.

CHAPTER V.

Deposition about various apparitions of Christ and the Saints made to Mary, and familiarly revealed to a certain person.

[48] The venerable man Peter des Aubuys, Priest Vicar in the church of the Blessed Martin of Tours, about 38 years of age, witness produced, [Another testifies on the 16th of August about the same letters of the King of Cyprus] sworn and examined on the 16th day of the month of August, on the first and second articles deposes under his oath about the contents of the said articles, that the said Lady of Silly was born and descended from a noble family, and as he believes was inspired by God, etc., in exactly the same words throughout as the deposition of the prior witness was taken, except that the span of years in which the witness had known the Lady of Silly he says was from his infancy, namely from thirty years: and that from the aforesaid time, namely from nine years and more, he had frequently conversed with her. The letters of the King of Cyprus are not inserted again into this deposition, but this witness refers to the preceding one with these words: as is more fully contained in the letters of the said most illustrious King of Cyprus inserted in the deposition of the Venerable man Master John Roberti immediately above. On the third article this witness also responds the same as the prior one.

[49] Interrogated on the fourth, fifth, and sixth articles, he deposes under his oath likewise that Mary, compelled to leave the chapel of St. Michael that he believes the contents of the said articles to be true, on account of the holy and contemplative life of the said Lady and her good reputation, about which he has deposed above: and he says he knows this, because the said Lady revealed to him many times that in the year of the Lord 1386, around the feast of the Blessed Michael on Monte Gargano and long before, she had chosen to lodge out of reverence for the Virgin Mary in the church of the Blessed Mary the Rich of Tours, in the chapel of the Blessed Michael: and there she spent the night every day: and meanwhile she was molested by the Chaplains of the said church, to take her lodging elsewhere for the night. And so when the Vigil of the said feast of the Blessed Michael arrived, the aforesaid Chaplains compelled the said Lady to vacate the said chapel, on account of the pilgrimage of the people who were accustomed to flock there on the day of the said feast. Whence it happened that on the night of the vigil itself,

when she was perplexed about what to do, she was visited by God she turned to prayer. And then while praying, a white dove descended upon her head, which with its beak circled her face: whence she was greatly comforted in her sadness. Afterwards, almost at the same moment and hour, she heard a voice sent to her from heaven, saying to her thus: Come to the tabernacle of the Body of our Lord. And immediately rising she went before the tabernacle where the Body of Christ was kept: and invited to the tabernacle of the Eucharist and there she prayed and stood the entire night, until she sent for her Confessor, Brother Martin of Bois-Gautier: who celebrated Mass before the said Lady on the same feast day, and afterward by the permission of her Parish Priest administered the Lord's Body.

[50] Moreover he deposes that around the year 1385 the said Lady, having no place where she could lay her head, that at another time she saw Christ hanging on the Cross came to the almshouse of the Blessed Martin of Tours, and lodged herself there. And when one night after her first sleep she rose to pray, and was prostrate on the ground, and was meditating on the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, she found herself upon the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ: and she saw wounds in His hands and feet and His whole body lacerated with blows, and in the condition in which our Lord Jesus Christ was when He hung upon the Cross. And almost suddenly she found herself at the wound on the right side: and shortly after she saw the same Lord Jesus Christ standing before her in the state and garb in which He conversed with men on earth: and He said certain words to the said Lady, which the Lady did not reveal to this witness: and afterwards our Lord Jesus Christ vanished from her eyes. and the mystery of the Annunciation This witness further deposes that the said Lady told him that on a certain day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she went to the monastery of Beaumont near Tours, and before the image of the Blessed Mary at the head of the church of the said monastery she prostrated herself in prayer; and while she prayed she saw the glorious Virgin Mary and the Angel Gabriel greeting her, and the whole manner of the Angelic salutation and the response of the Virgin Mary. Whence she entered into such great contemplation that she was bathed with torrents of tears: and the Lady then Abbess of the said monastery, perceiving the said Lady weeping, gave her a headcovering to dry her tears, and the headcovering was thereafter entirely soaked.

[51] Likewise this witness deposes that the said Lady told and revealed to him, that around the feast of the Presentation she was very ill that around and before the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the year 1389, the said Lady was gravely ill, to such an extent that she could not help herself with her own limbs: whence on the vigil of the said feast of the Purification, on account of the devotion she bore toward the Blessed Virgin Mary, she was greatly affected to attend Vespers: but she was so weak and powerless from that illness that she could not raise herself from the straw on which she lay. And that in some fashion she had risen from the said bed, and walking to the windows of her chamber, looking toward the church of the Friars Minor, she went there; and there she heard Vespers, being unable afterwards to return to her bed without the help of her said Confessor: who carried her to her bed and left her there. And afterwards the said Confessor visited her after Compline and divinely healed and after Matins: and finally when the said Confessor visited the said Lady at dawn, the said Lady invited the same Confessor to say Te Deum laudamus. The said Confessor, acceding to the Lady's wishes, and the said Lady on bended knees, said Te Deum laudamus together in a low voice. Which having been said, the said Confessor likewise asked the said Lady to be willing to reveal to him the cause of this praise. And then the said Lady told the same Confessor that our Lord Jesus Christ had appeared to her, and had poured ointment upon her head, whence she had recovered her health, and therefore she had rendered praises to God Himself. And that afterwards, on the said day of the Purification, healthy and unharmed, she took part barefoot in the procession with the Friars Minor: she saw Christ being offered by His mother in which procession she saw the glorious Virgin Mary, carrying her Son in her arms in the procession. And when the procession was finished, during the great Mass, she saw how the Virgin Mary presented her Son in the temple and offered Him: and afterwards the said Lady of Silly found the little Jesus Christ between her own arms.

[52] He further deposes that the said Lady revealed to this witness (he does not remember the day and year) that she was led by devotion to go to Loches in the diocese of Tours, then at Loches the girdle of the Blessed Virgin to visit the girdle of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is preserved in the Collegiate church of the Blessed Mary of Loches. And when she had arrived at Loches, she lodged in the house of the Friars Minor outside the town: and while spending the night in the said church praying, the said girdle was shown to her in a vision, and she saw and visited it. And on the day following that night she went to the said church of the Blessed Mary, and had the said girdle shown to her: and when she had seen it, she remembered how it had been shown to her during the preceding night, and that the one she had seen was similar to the one being shown to her in the said church of the Blessed Mary: whence the said Lady rendered praises and thanks to God.

[53] He subsequently deposes that the said Lady revealed to him (he does not remember the year and day) that the said Lady in the year 1393, led by devotion, and at Neuvy the Sepulchre of the Lord together with her aforesaid Confessor, took the route of pilgrimage to Neuvy-Saint-Sepulchre in the diocese of Bourges, bearing a singular desire to visit the sepulchre of the said place, which had been constructed after the model of the holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. And when she had arrived and entered the said church of Neuvy, she humbly asked the custodians of the said sepulchre to show it to her. But because they saw her poor and not well adorned in garments, they refused to grant her request. And when the said Lady could not obtain to see the sepulchre, she asked the said custodians to be permitted to spend the night in the church of the said sepulchre for the love of God, and the Crucified Himself which was granted to her with difficulty. And after she obtained from the said custodians permission to spend the night in the church, when she was devoutly making her prayers to God in her usual manner, the said sepulchre, in the form in which it exists in the said church, was shown to her. And shortly after, when she was giving thanks to Almighty God for so great a vision and grace, which God had granted her so that she might merit to see the said sepulchre, immediately and almost suddenly she saw our Lord Jesus Christ brought to her hanging on the Cross as if in His humanity. And when He was being brought, she told the bearers not to offer Him to her, but to carry Him to the altar: but nevertheless the bearers set Him down before her, and our Lord Jesus Christ, fixed on the Cross, was before her for a long time. and Brother Bonencontre, who had died in holiness Immediately after this vision there appeared to the said Lady a certain venerable Religious of the Order of Minors, while he was living conspicuous for holiness and universal honesty of conduct, surnamed Bonne-encontre: who almost suddenly appeared before the same Lady, and addressed the said Lady thus, saying: If there is anything I can do for you before God, I will gladly fulfill it. And when the said Lady asked him who he was, he replied that he was Brother Bonne-encontre of the said Order of Minors: and having given this answer, immediately the said Lady recognized him and then he disappeared.

[54] Likewise this witness deposes that the said Lady told and revealed to him (it is about three years ago, as it seems to him) that at that time she had been gravely ill with a grave infirmity, likewise that she saw Christ in the Mass streaming with blood to such an extent that she could not help herself. And when one day while she was ill, Mass was being celebrated in the chamber where she was sick, and she was praying to God that she might merit to drink His chalice, she found her mouth full of blood. And immediately the Priest celebrating the Mass, who had proceeded to the elevation of the Body of Christ, when he raised the Lord's Body, the said Lady saw the same Lord Jesus Christ in the form of a small infant, emitting blood from various parts of His body, wounded in the side, hands, and feet, to such an extent that blood flowed in great abundance. By which the said Lady perceived that her prayer had been heard. Likewise he deposes that it was revealed to him by the said Lady that the said Lady in the year '92, around the feast of Corpus Christi, and His footprint at Poitiers with her said Confessor, desiring to visit the threshold of the Blessed Radegund, went to Poitiers: and when she had entered the church in the monastery of the Holy Cross of Poitiers, where is the holy footprint of Christ's foot, out of humility, considering herself unworthy to approach the aforesaid footprint, she prostrated herself in prayer in the lower part of the said church, far from the same footprint. But while thus praying she was suddenly transported to the place of the aforesaid footprint; and there she saw the foot of the wounded Christ, and the glory of St. Radegund and she saw a face on fire, which burned inflamed from foot to head: and further she saw a ladder erected, by which St. Radegund was ascending to heaven, and through this she understood that St. Radegund had ascended to heaven by the steps of humility.

[55] likewise SS. Martin and Gatian Likewise he deposes having heard from the said Lady that the said Lady was in the church of Tours, where the body of St. Gatian rests, on the feast day of the same in May: and during the singing of the great Mass, while she was praying over the caskets of the Saints resting there, the most blessed Confessors Gatian and Martin appeared to her, adorned with Pontifical vestments and other insignia with miters, and on their shoulders gems and precious stones shone in great abundance. And through this it was given her to understand that the merits of these Saints are great and wonderful. Likewise this witness deposes that the said Lady also revealed to him that on the holy day of Pentecost in the year 1387, when the said Lady was in her garden the Blessed Virgin and St. Francis between the church of the Friars Minor and her chamber, and was praying; the most Blessed Virgin Mary and the most Blessed Francis appeared to her in the air, both praying for the salvation of the people: and the vision of the said Blessed Francis continued for her for forty days, during which days she unceasingly saw that most Blessed one.

[56] He further deposes that the said Lady told this witness

that the said Lady, in the year 1410, on the feast of the Blessed George, again the Blessed Virgin praying was lying in her bed gravely ill, in the chapel of the Blessed Mary of Planche-des-Vallees in the diocese of Tours, which the said Lady wished to rebuild. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared, and passing by, said to the said Lady in these words: Hasten to pray. And when she hastened to pray, she saw in the air the most blessed Virgin Mary, praying for her aforesaid Son: and then she cried out and said: O glorious Lady Virgin Mary, you do not wait, but are always the first to pray. Likewise he deposes that the said Lady revealed to him likewise at another time when she was only six years old that while she was six years of age, and was with the late Joan of Montbazon her mother, at night, while she was in an ecstasy of mind, the most blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her, who gave her incense and censed her: by which she understood that the incense was composed of drops of the Blood of Christ. And at that time she had her heart fixed on the Passion of Christ.

[57] Likewise he deposes that the aforesaid Lady revealed to him that the Lady of Baussay had in her possession one of the heads of the Eleven Thousand Virgins, that she recognized a head from the company of St. Ursula to be that of a man which a certain Bishop of the Order of Friars Preachers had given her, and which she had had placed in a small silver vessel: and the said Lady of Baussay desired that the said Lady be present when the said head was presented to the church of the Friars Minor of Loudun in the diocese of Poitiers, to which she had arranged to donate it. Therefore she had sent for the aforesaid Lady of Silly: who at the command of the Lady of Baussay went with her said Confessor. And while the said Lady of Silly was spending the night in the chapel of the castle of the said place of Baussay, and the aforesaid holy head had been placed on the altar of the chapel; while the said Lady of Silly was praying, the aforesaid head was taken from the altar and presented to the said Lady Mary: which head she kissed in her accustomed manner, and then there appeared to her a certain young man, who on bended knee before her kissed her. And thence she understood that the aforesaid head was that of a man: but she did not ask his name, nor was it revealed to her.

[58] that in spirit she washed the Lord's feet with Mary Magdalene Moreover the same witness deposes that the said Lady of Silly revealed that on the feast day of the Blessed Mary Magdalene, the College of Tours was accustomed to go in procession to a certain chapel founded under the name and title of the Blessed Mary Magdalene: in which procession the said Lady participated, and when the great Mass was being solemnly celebrated by the said members of the College in the same chapel, the said Lady, prostrate in prayer, saw our Lord Jesus Christ reclining as in the house of the Pharisee; and Mary Magdalene was holding Him by one foot, and she herself was holding the other foot with a great effusion of tears. And when the solemnities of the Masses were completed, after the said procession had departed, the said Lady remained in the said chapel, and through her said Confessor she had a Mass celebrated, who administered to her the Body of Christ. And then, departing from the said chapel and coming to the church of Tours, the vision of our Lord Jesus Christ did not leave her until she reached the said church of Tours, and before the Sepulchre of the Lord in the said church it disappeared.

[59] Likewise this witness deposes that the said Lady told him that at the time when she was staying in the cemetery of St. Clement of Tours, that she detected a demon lurking under the appearance of a hermit there was a certain hermit in the city of Tours who greatly desired to have a conversation with the Lady: but because by divine instinct she knew him to have been and to be a false pseudo-hypocrite, although she was asked by many to speak with him, and it was asserted by many that he was good and just before God, she refused and constantly declined to have a conversation with the said hermit. Thence it happened that the hermit at nightfall approached the door of the said Lady, who had already retired into her house: and the said hermit said in these words, namely that God is the devil, and that God would have his soul and the devil his body. And then the said Lady went out and rebuked the said hermit for saying such words, namely for saying that God was the devil. And concerning the soul and body, the said Lady replied that whoever had the soul would have the body. And then when the said hermit showed the said Lady his tunic, and said that the devil had lacerated it, it was established to the said Lady that he was a devil: and then horns appeared on his head, and he appeared no more.

[60] Likewise this witness deposes under his oath that about six or seven years ago, finally, that he was healed by Mary appearing to him in winter around the beginning, he was very ill with fevers, and he suffered this illness for three-quarters of a year. Then another much more serious illness followed; and he suffered so greatly that it seemed to him that his nerves and arteries and veins were being corrupted; and he endured such great pain that he believed he would die and could no longer live. Seized by a light sleep, he saw in his dreams the said Lady of Silly, speaking with him and comforting him. Thereupon, waking from sleep, he found himself healthy and well: which he believes was a miracle, and he told the aforesaid Lady of Silly, still living, that she should render thanks to the Most High for this. And this witness further said that he firmly believes, hopes, and trusts that the things narrated above and revealed to him by the said Lady are true and supported by truth, on account of the holy, praiseworthy, and commendable life of the said Lady before God and men: whose fame is spread throughout the entire kingdom of France and beyond, as he has deposed above. Done in the cloister of the said church of the Blessed Martin, namely in the house of habitation of me, Peter de Brueria, the undersigned Notary, in the presence of John Garrestier, Ralph Morion, and John Chancelet, Clerics, Public Notaries, witnesses specially called and requested for this.

Founded by the same Saint, who is said to have appointed her own sister Agnes as the first Abbess there, and it is now of the Benedictine Order.

This was the first Bishop of Tours; his memorial in the Martyrologies is commonly noted at the 18th of December: Saussay also has the Revelation of his body on the 19th of September. His body was shortly after these times translated to Arras, on account of the continual wars between the English and the French.

CHAPTER VI.

Three witnesses examined in September and November.

[61] Brother James Huas, Priest, Prior of the Carthusians of the house of the Park in Chargina, The Carthusian Prior testifies on the 12th of September in the diocese of Le Mans, about 44 years of age, witness produced, sworn, and examined on the 12th day of the month of September in the year 1414, diligently examined on the first, second, and third articles, deposes under his oath that the Lady Mary, Lady of Silly, of whom mention is made in the articles, drew her origin from noble parents on both sides: and that the said Lady, while she was living, had been and was very devout, about the holy life of Mary and led the contemplative life, frequenting churches and basilicas and serving God most devoutly; and she led such a life in the flesh that her fame and holy life were and are spread throughout the kingdom of France and beyond, and especially in the parts where this witness lives, to such an extent that her life served as a good example to all who saw her. This witness was and is greatly edified before God by the conduct of the said Lady. And he further said that he had never seen a person who attained to her in holiness and perfection. Asked how he knows this and can depose about it, he says that at the time when he was in the Court of the Lord Baron of La Val, whose son he was governing in discipline, both in conduct and in learning, he saw for many days and on many occasions the conduct of the said Lady: who at every meal, at dinner and supper and at other fitting and opportune hours of the day, and her habit of speaking about God always spoke about God and His goodness: edifying her neighbors and those present, and exhorting them always to utter some good word about God and to His praise. And also through the familiar conversations which this witness frequently had with the same Lady: and that the said Lady, following the Evangelical Doctrine, left the great possessions, patrimonies, and other temporal goods which she possessed, in order to adhere to God, and kept Evangelical poverty.

[62] On the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and remaining articles, diligently examined, likewise about the spirit of prophecy he says and believes those articles to contain the truth, on account of the holy life of the said Lady, her merits, and the fame of the many miracles which God worked at the prayers of the said Lady. Moreover he believes her to be of such merit that God would perform many miracles for her, and the reason is that he believes she had the spirit of prophecy. Asked how he