Amadeus

ON BLESSED AMADEUS, DUKE OF SAVOY, AT VERCELLI IN PIEDMONT.

IN THE YEAR 1472.

Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, at Vercelli in Piedmont (Blessed).

Savoy has had several Princes of this name, content with the title of Count, up to the year of the Christian era 1414, when the Emperor Sigismund, seeking the counsel and conversation of Amadeus VIII, declared him Duke by letters signed at Chambery on the 19th, of Amadeus the Peaceful: which Samuel Guichenon on page 252 of the Proofs displays after the Genealogical History of the Savoyard family published in 1660, convicting by that public document of error those who thought otherwise. This Amadeus, the first Duke of Savoy from a Count: truly called the Peaceful, when he had begun to tire of human affairs, having transferred the care of governing the provinces to his son Louis, the world saw and marveled at a humble hermit, occupied only with God and himself in the retreat of Ripaille, which he had founded in 1430 for the Augustinians; until the Fathers of the Council of Basel, having deposed Eugene IV contrary to right and justice, agreed upon the election of Amadeus, and in the year 1440 under the name of Felix created him Pontiff. He abundantly demonstrated that he had taken this dignity upon himself not from a lust for ruling but from a necessity of obedience, as he supposed, then elected from the hermitage to the Papacy: when he voluntarily ceded it to Nicholas V, who had been legitimately substituted after the death of Eugene; worthy that God should also illustrate with miracles him who had returned to his hermitage and died most piously at Geneva on the 7th of January 1451.

Not through him, however, but through his grandson of the same name, born of his son and successor Louis, his grandson Blessed Amadeus: the title of Saint or Blessed began to be read among the titles of the Princes of Savoy: which, although the solemn judgment of the Roman Church has not yet approved it by enrolling him in the Canon of Saints; the constant devotion of his subjects toward the bones and memory of their most holy Prince, and the tacit consent of the Roman Pontiffs, have established him to be venerated with the public and solemn honors of the Blessed from the time of his death. That this need not be demonstrated more at length here is evident from the virtues and miracles, diligently collected by Peter Francis Maletus, whose virtues and miracles are given from Maletus: a Canon Regular of the Lateran Congregation: whom Maurice, then a Cardinal of Savoy, impelled to write and publish them in print in the year 1613; the same who in the year 1621 of the same century sent Maletus to Rome to promote the business of the requested Canonization; as we shall see below in the appendix, drawn from the manuscript process of Vercelli, to supplement those things which the curious reader certain other things from manuscripts: might desire concerning the elevation, translation, and cult of the sacred body. The process was, moreover, when these materials were sent to us, already completed, and only the sentence of the Bishop, the Commissarial Judge appointed by the Apostolic See in this cause, needed to be added, so that it might be carried to Rome together with another similar process completed at Turin; expected to bring the final decisive moment to conclude the matter.

Moreover, because Maletus's compilation, although it bears the title of Life, Acts of the Life from Samuel Guichenon: in no way pursues the acts of his life in historical order; but touches upon them only insofar as they could serve the end proposed for his writing, namely for proving the sanctity of his extraordinary virtues by signs; therefore from the aforesaid Samuel Guichenon, who most diligently scrutinized the public records of decrees, conventions, and treaties, we premise a chronological synopsis of the life which Amadeus led on earth: lest many annotations be needed to recall Maletus's occasionally straying pen to the right path, and to uncover and correct historical errors: which, with the Acts before one's eyes, will be self-evident. We omit, however, the names of those who were present as witnesses, arbitrators, or otherwise participants in the events, because their lengthy series could delay the reader hastening toward holier matters: and they can be found in their source and in the proofs indicated in the margin of the aforesaid Genealogical History, and to be sought in the second volume of the work.

ACTS OF THE LIFE

From the French of Samuel Guichenon.

Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, at Vercelli in Piedmont (Blessed).

FROM GUICHENON.

[1] At Thonon, which is the capital of the Duchy of Chablais on Lake Geneva and close to the retreat of Ripaille, Born in 1435: Amadeus was born on the 1st of February 1435, and from the very cradle was promised to Yolande, betrothed to Yolande of France in 1436: the three-year-old daughter of King Charles VII and Mary of Anjou, in a contract legitimately celebrated at Tours in the year 1436 on the 16th day, and at Ripaille confirmed by the boy's father and grandfather on the 28th day of the same month, in the same year. When somewhat older, his parent appears to have granted him that he should style himself Prince of Piedmont, and so he signed his promise in the year 1451 already mentioned, at Chambery on the 13th of March, by which, to Louis the Dauphin, who was taking Charlotte, Amadeus's sister, as his wife, married 1452: he himself bound himself by reason of reciprocal kinship to his services and the support of his cause: where, already calling Yolande not his betrothed but his wife, he gives rise to the suspicion that the marriage, concluded so long before, had already been celebrated: although it appears to have been consummated only in the chief city of the Faucigny district in the following year; when on the 27th of October Duke Louis assigned to his son the dotal lands, in letters signed at Cleppé, who afterwards, at the intercession of his father-in-law the King, increased the revenues of Amadeus through the donation of the Lordship of Bresse, confirmed on the 13th of December of the year 1456.

[2] To Bresse, therefore, now belonging to her husband, Yolande passed with her husband after July of the year 1456: thence residing mostly in Bresse:

and there likewise they dwelt for the most part, Amadeus being wonderfully pleased with that region, because it was more remote from the bustle of the court: although he continued even then to be called Prince of Piedmont. The chief city of Bresse is Bourg: on his father's death he enters upon the government in 1465: in this city, together with the Duchess his wife, upon the death of his father Louis, he exacted and received the oath of fidelity from his subjects on this side of the mountains, and sent to Turin for those beyond the mountains, that the same might be rendered in his name: and soon on the last day of February of the year 1465 he moved to Chambery, for the Estates of Savoy and Piedmont convoked on the 25th of March. In this assembly, the ambassadors of Louis XI, King of France, on the one hand, and of Philip, Duke of Burgundy, on the other, were heard, urgently requesting contrary things in the cause of John, Duke of Bourbon, whom the King was soliciting the Savoyard to attack with arms, while the Burgundian begged him not to do so. He, however, although he desired to offend neither, and attaches himself to the cause of the King of France: was nevertheless at length persuaded by Yolande to join the party of her brother the King, to the extent that he granted passage through his territories to Galeazzo Sforza, Count of Pavia and son of the Duke of Milan, commander of the royal forces, for the siege of Villefranche in the district of Beaujolais: and added to him from his own court some men of the first rank: who, peace between the King and the Duke of Bourbon being shortly composed, were of great use to the King in that battle which was fought against Charles the Bold, Count of Charolais, in the month of July.

[3] Meanwhile, in March of the year 1466, Francis Sforza, Duke of Milan, died: and so Galeazzo, hastening to return and not considering it safe enough to pass openly through the territories of Savoy, disguised his person, he releases Galeazzo, apprehended in Piedmont: but was detained at Novalesa, on the descent of Mont Cenis, by Augustine, Abbot of Casanova in Piedmont, and by Hugoninus Allemand, Lord of Arbent in Bugey: but he was soon released, Amadeus disapproving of the act of his men. About the same time, Philip, Count of Bresse, released from French captivity, after having pledged his faith to the King as firmly as he could that he would keep it to Duke Amadeus his brother, he allots a hereditary portion to his brothers: went to Aosta with Janus, Count of Geneva, another brother of his: where each received his own inheritance under the oath of fiduciary allegiance from Amadeus. Who then, continuing his journey to Piedmont, arrived at Pinerolo, and there on the 8th of October confirmed the privileges of the citizens of Turin, he crosses to Piedmont in 1467: and there, on the first day of the following year 1467, he donated to his wife the lordship of Villafranca in Piedmont.

[4] Since nothing was more desirable to this excellent Duke than peace and concord, he willingly lent his efforts to its promotion whenever he could: and he strove uniquely to bind by bonds of friendship the Princes related to him either by blood or by territories, through ever new ties. he makes treaties with Burgundy, the Duke: Such was the treaty which in the aforesaid year, on the 25th of March, he entered into at Chalon through his envoys with Philip of Burgundy and his son Charles, which is then found to have been signed at Bruges in Flanders on the 4th of April. Likewise with the Duke of Calabria on the 29th of May, with Francis II, Duke of Brittany, on the 6th of August, and with Charles, Duke of Normandy, likewise on the 6th of November. and others: Meanwhile, however, he was compelled to take up arms against William, Marquis of Montferrat, arms raised against the Marquis of Montferrat: who refused to observe the agreements made by his father John: and when he had placed his brother Philip at the head of his army, the latter indeed moved his forces into enemy territory; but the Marquis, seeing himself unequal, looked to Galeazzo of Milan; who immediately came to his aid with large forces, and so provoked Amadeus, who had voluntarily interfered in another's cause, to demand that he restore Valenza, Occimiano, and other fortresses and towns which his father Francis had seized from the house of Savoy. peace being made, they are laid aside: Eventually, however, peace prevailed, after a war waged for several months, and on the 4th of November an agreement was reached between the parties, that on the Count's side everything should be left in the state it was before the war: and his sister Bona is joined to Galeazzo: Galeazzo, however, should restore whatever he had taken in this war, and thereafter faithfully observe the treaties of peace which his father had signed with Duke Louis twelve years before. To strengthen these, a marriage was contracted with Bona, Amadeus's sister, and celebrated in the castle of Amboise on the 9th of May of the following year.

[5] This was the year 1468 of the century, when James and Philip, Amadeus, having gone to France, is honorably received in 1468: the latter Count of Bresse, the former Count of Romont, brothers of Amadeus, and another brother, John Louis, Bishop of Geneva, embracing the party of the Duke of Burgundy against Louis, King of France, gave Amadeus an occasion to go to France, to declare himself uninvolved in his brothers' counsel and steadfast in the King's friendship. He was received with the greatest honors everywhere on that journey, and meeting with the King at Meaux, was sent by him to Paris to take his place in lighting the public bonfire on the night before the feast of St. John the Baptist. The King also wished that at his entry into the city of Paris all captives should be released from the prisons: which honor is customarily shown only to Kings. On the 6th of August of the same year a treaty was made with the Venetians, by which the Duke and the Republic bound themselves in mutual defense, he forms an alliance with the Venetians: that each on their own part should continually have under arms, in time of peace four thousand cavalry and fifteen hundred infantry; but in the event of war, they should double that number. In October, moreover, Hugolinus of Montefalcone, Lord of Flaxieu, was sent to Milan to Galeazzo in the name of the Duke and Duchess, to deprecate his making any move against the state of Savoy, contrary to what he had promised the King and the Duke of Burgundy in establishing peace in Italy.

[6] Meanwhile the illness of the Duke was increasing, and the frequency of seizures was rendering him almost useless for government: and so, by the common consent of the peoples, magistrates, he commits the government of the provinces to his wife in 1469: and nobles, the government was transferred to Yolande, a most prudent woman: and her brother the King of France, bound by a new treaty, also promised his protection and assistance against any enemies whatsoever by letters signed at Gaure on the 15th of June, writing from Amboise on the 11th of March of the year 1469: but since the Duchess made much use of Antelme of Miolans, Louis of Grillac, and Anthony of Orbiac, lords of noted fidelity and experience, Savoyard nobles, the Counts of Geneva, Romont, and Bresse, the Duke's brothers, secretly entered into a conspiracy to usurp the government in the Duke's name, and each in their own territories began to raise soldiers: against her, although supported by great alliances, in 1471: which they could not keep so hidden that the Duchess, having got wind of the matter, did not take counsel for herself, first by removing the Duke to the castle of Montmélian, then by requesting assistance both from the King her brother and from the Duke of Burgundy, which the latter amply promised by letters signed at Utrecht on the 20th of February 1471: the same was done by Galeazzo when asked, and he signed at Mirabella on the 13th of July: but the Bishop of Geneva also pledged to him and Yolande complete security and perfect union on his part.

[7] These things notwithstanding, however, Philip, bursting into Savoy with an army and his brother the Count of Romont, reached Chambery without impediment, the Duke's brothers raise arms: and spreading the word that nothing else was being sought by him than that the favorites, as they are called, who under female rule were administering everything at their pleasure, should be driven from the court, he took by force and pillaged the city of Montmélian, defended by no one: and by deceit bring him into their power: then besieged the castle itself. Meanwhile the arriving Count of Geneva, Janus, under a certain appearance of concord, compelled the Dukes to promise that they would remove seven designated nobles from the court, who were to render an account of their administration before the Estates. But these agreements in no way restrained the conspiring brothers from seizing the castle, appointing a Prefect, William de Baume, taking the Counts of Intermontium and Montmayor captive, the Duchess escaping by flight: and leading the Duke, reduced into their power, away to Chambery: not, however, the Duchess, who, eluding their force by artifice, took refuge by flight in the castle of Aspremont, and thence directed Hugolinus of Monfalcon to the King her brother, to request help.

[8] The King was moved, as was right, by so atrocious an injury done to his sister: she is freed from the siege by the French: and immediately ordered the governor of that province to collect from the Dauphiné as many forces as possible to come to the aid of the besieged woman: and he placed at the head of the army Charles, Prince of Piedmont, whom he had at his side, under the command of the Count of Villars, and sent him to his mother's aid. But an untimely death took this tender blossom at the very outset of the undertaking on the road: and only the Governor of the Dauphiné, whom I mentioned, joining to himself the forces of the Bishop of Geneva, besieged Aspremont, intercepted it, and carried away the liberated Duchess with her children to Grenoble. Then new and greater forces being sent from France, they came into sight of the enemy, and augmented by forces she extorts a peace: around Chambery, whose suburbs the conspirators had occupied: and there, before it came to blows, with the mediation of the envoys of Berne and Fribourg and the arrival shortly after of a French ambassador, peace was concluded between the parties, on those conditions which may be read in the very instruments thereof, signed in the month of August.

[9] Amadeus crosses to Piedmont in 1472: Then indeed, with Savoy pacified and the Dukes restored to their full rights, Amadeus crossed the mountains, to see whether a change of air might avail anything to relieve his illness: and there on the 5th of March he bestowed the lordship of Montcaprel in Piedmont upon his wife, for her great merits toward himself and his subjects, and dies at Vercelli: and with his health gradually declining for the worse, he met his death at Vercelli on the day after Easter, in the year 1472, in the 37th year of his age: and was humbly buried, as he had ordered, under the steps of the high altar in the church of St. Eusebius, and only had his solemn funeral two years later, his epitaph: with the principal Princes of the House of Savoy and the prelates of the churches assembling for it: and this epitaph had been composed for him:

[10] I am enclosed in this tomb, I who was the Imperial Prince, Duke Amadeus: whom a noble house bestowed, born of the royal stock of Alexander from Saxony; from the Empire he drew for me the Progenitors of the Princes.

The sacred day of Easter, celebrated on the fourth before the Kalends, deigned to justify the humble Duke.

He expires on the third, is mourned before the Kalends; the first of gentle April entombs him.

Here is the honor of piety, a divine lover of peace, and he was a most bountiful father to the poor.

One thousand four hundred with seventy-two composed the year when he sought the heavens.

[11] The praises of this excellent Duke have been composed by all the Savoyard historians and many foreign ones: his eulogists: but he was celebrated in particular opuscules by Francis Ranzo, Peter Francis Maletus, Cardinal Bellarmine, Stephen Binettus of the Society of Jesus, Blessed Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Brother Camillus Balliani of the Order of St. Dominic, Inquisitor of Turin, and Francis Codretus of the Order of St. Francis de Paul of the Observance. Thus far Guichenon, his motto: weaving from the said authors a brief eulogy of the sanctity

of Amadeus, whose straying pen we have corrected in conjoining the day of death with the vigil of Easter, and from his eulogy, which ends with the motto, we have learned the device chosen by Blessed Amadeus, which represented a sepulcher with three keys and a crown of thorns and this inscription: Here I devoted my soul and body. A motto indeed befitting his piety: which we append more fully described from Maletus, who made sole use (as those who have read testify) of the manuscripts of the aforesaid Lawrence Ranzo. The others named above praised him only in passing, as Bellarmine in The Christian Prince and others in other opuscules: of which we have not yet seen the last two.

VIRTUES AND MIRACLES from the Italian of Peter Francis Maletus, Canon Regular of the Lateran Congregation.

Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, at Vercelli in Piedmont (Blessed).

FROM THE ITALIAN OF FRANCIS MALETUS.

CHAPTER I.

The pious youth of Blessed Amadeus: the praise of his extraordinary gentleness and fortitude.

[1] Louis, Duke of Savoy, son of Amadeus the Peaceful, Born of Louis and Anna of Cyprus in 1432: renowned in war and peace, in the year of Christ 1432 married Anna, daughter of Janus, King of Cyprus; who bore to her husband, in the third year of their happy marriage, on the first day of February, at Thonon, her firstborn. That birth was received with the great joy of all orders, and for good omen the boy was called in baptism by the ancestral name of Amadeus. While still at the breast, Yolande, daughter of Charles VII, sister of Louis XI, Kings of France, was assigned as his betrothed; and so from the very cradle he began to be regarded and loved as a pledge of peace and concord by his parents, who were weary of the troubles that wars and discords produced. What his boyhood was, although no one has set forth in writing, may nevertheless be recognized from his subsequent years: for the love of God that the boy bore by his name, as an adult he strove both to practice himself and to teach others by word and example. And first he devoted much zeal to praying to God; never undertaking any matter, great or small, without first conciliating Him through prayer; He fosters the love of God by frequent prayer: preceding all the business of the day by the sacrifice of the Mass daily, and interspersing his very prayer with frequent elevation of the mind to God, whether when he would recite the canonical office of the Hours with devout hymns and psalms, or when walking alone through the garden, with frequent genuflection he adored the Deity and recalled the mysteries of the suffering Christ, or even when he would spend sleepless nights (which he did frequently) in prayers. Moreover, so that he might come to pray to God more apt and pure, he purged his soul with frequent confession, making use of a man from the Franciscan Order, most learned and pious, Master John Fausoni of Mondovi.

[2] While these things made him most pleasing to God, so his courtesy and supreme affability, and magnificence without ostentation, made him lovable to men, fair of form: together with a singular beauty of form; which was enhanced by an honorable stature, a florid complexion, a youthful face always clean-shaven, a spacious forehead, moderate ears, dark and sparkling eyes, appropriately prominent cheeks, and a chin that was square rather than round. You would have called him an angel, had not his epileptic disease indicated him to be a man and subject to human infirmities: to which since he had been liable from his tender years, he acknowledged, speaking of it, that it was a gift from God, given to him out of fatherly love, lest he should be lifted up in pride, he suffers from epilepsy: being a firstborn in such an eminent fortune, amid the flattery and blandishments that accompany such a condition of courts: indeed he also said that with an infirm body he was nearer to God, and that the assaults of the recurring malady served him as spurs to the exercise of good works.

[3] Meanwhile the year of the Christian era 1452 arrived, the 17th of his age, in the course of which he married Yolande, who had long been betrothed to him; not driven by the ardor of lust but by the zeal of paternal obedience. And so he drew to himself the entire love of his bride without difficulty, having married Yolande: nor was he less ardently loved by his father for the merit of his respect and piety: in consideration of which he received from him the government of Piedmont, committed to him with the title of Lieutenant General, and Lord of Bresse and Vaud: so that those appear to have fallen into error who think that on his father's death Amadeus, unfit for government on account of infirmity, immediately transferred it to his wife. For when the seizure passed, he was firm in mind as well as in body, which he sufficiently showed he becomes governor of Piedmont: by visiting most of the places of his dominion himself, more frequently than any other of his ancestors; and not rarely even sojourning in foreign regions; as when he accompanied his father Louis and mother Anna on their journey to Auvergne, taking his wife as companion in attendance upon his parents: and he rendered the same service to his father when traveling to St. Claude: wherefore there was no reason for his father to hesitate to commit the reins of government to his son.

[4] But so great a prerogative of love and dignity could not but kindle the tinder of envy in the hearts of his brothers, of whom one, Philip by name, indulged his uncontrolled passion to such a degree he frees his brother Philip, captive for taking up arms against him: that he did not hesitate to raise arms against his brother, while their father himself looked on, and by that insolence deserved to be, at his father's instigation through the King of France, confined as a captive in the castle of Loches. But so far was Amadeus, the most loving of his brothers, from having any part in this, that immediately after his parent's death he approached the King as an intercessor for freeing Philip, and became the author of arranging for him a marriage with Margaret, daughter of Charles, Duke of Bourbon; and heaps benefits upon him: voluntarily bestowing Bresse upon him, and adding to the gift the honor of Lieutenant General. These could and should have sufficed for Philip both to understand that he was loved and to wish to love in return: yet having incurred his brother's displeasure by a second offense, he not only did not experience it, but found Amadeus so pious toward him that he could almost boast of being preferred to his beloved wife. besieged by the same: For not content with the honors given him, he aspired to enter the Ducal court and administration itself, and could not bear Lord Meolani, Lord Grilli, and other Savoyards to attend constantly upon the Duke. Wherefore, as if this were just cause for a most unjust war, he did not hesitate to raise soldiers and suddenly bring a siege against the castle of Montmélian, into which his brother had retreated with his wife.

[5] But he did not repel arms with arms, nor at least bar the enemy by gates and walls: he mollifies him with gentle speech: but invited him inside for conversation, and so softened him with gentle words that he struck shame into one so signally impious, and broke and conquered his obstinate spirit: although Yolande, not equally long-suffering, openly dissented from her husband on this account, and meditating revenge, demanded soldiers and arms from the King her brother. But the most gentle husband bent even her, and by his own and Christ's example taught her to forgive an offense. He showed himself similar to many others, whom the Duke's modesty in food and clothing, his reverence for sacred and divine things, his mercy toward the poor, and other virtues most worthy of a Prince, had caused to scorn him with proud disdain, those plotting to depose him from the Duchy: to the point that their insolence carried them so far as to despise Amadeus as a man of degenerate and base spirit, more fit for the cowl than the purple, and to conspire secretly for his deposition and abdication. To recall them from their plan, which he had learned by a more secret way, he began to treat them even more kindly than others, and took them with him to the King of France; he gently corrects them: showing the latter that they were dear to him; and giving them an opportunity to learn in what esteem he was held by the King: and so he brought it about that they repented of their enterprise, corrected by that silent admonition, and the offenses, which others would scarcely have believed could be washed away without bloodshed, were buried in deep oblivion.

[6] No less worthy of remembrance is what he did with Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan. The house of Savoy had suffered his father Francis as a professed enemy, Galeazzo, Duke of Milan: until Duke Louis entered into some arrangement of concord, after whose conclusion Francis died while Galeazzo was absent in the Dauphiné: and when the situation itself called him to take possession of his paternal territories and the journey could not conveniently be made except through Savoy; an enemy and ingrate: conscious of what he had deserved, not only by his father's but also by his own injuries against the Duke of Savoy, he disguised his person, attached himself to the servants of Antonio, a Placentine merchant, and traveling with him to Milan, was recognized at Novalesa and detained by the Abbot of Casanova, and captured by Hugo Allemand: who immediately sent messengers to Amadeus, expecting to report a most welcome success. But Amadeus received it otherwise and immediately ordered Galeazzo restored to liberty. He, however, unmindful of the benefit received, not only returned no gratitude, but did not even care to observe the conditions his father had agreed to. he conciliates him through marriage alliance: Wherefore Philip, the Duke's brother, more incensed against him, wished to restrain the insolent man by arms, and would have done so, had not the Duke, most devoted to peace and most averse to taking revenge, wished to protect himself and his possessions by an entirely different way, choosing the King of France as arbiter of making peace and closer friendship, and joining his own sister Bona to Galeazzo as his wife.

[7] similar gentleness toward others: What shall I now say of the gentleness which he showed toward John, Duke of Bourbon, who was trying to usurp certain castles of Bresse: or toward the Marquis of Montferrat, William, against whom, although Philip had waged a just war to vindicate his violated jurisdiction, Amadeus not only did not approve the act, but committed the entire controversy to the arbitration of Duke Galeazzo, by one and the same counsel showing honor to his kinsman and extorting the friendship of his enemy? Nor could such mildness be imputed to a mean and abject spirit: for when not his own but God's and the Church's cause was at stake, he emulated the zeal of Moses and Phinehas, sparing no expense or danger. Thus when the sad news of the capture of Constantinople was brought to him, fortitude against the infidels: he ordered military forces to be conscripted and armed in great number and dispatched to the Peloponnese, to prevent the advances of the barbarians against the Christians. And when Pius II, planning a war against the Turks, summoned a congress of Princes at Mantua, Amadeus was among the first to go there and wished to enroll himself in the common alliance, promising arms, soldiers, and money in the year 1459.

[8] His magnanimity shone forth wonderfully when James, the illegitimate son of the King of Cyprus, Bishop of Nicosia, and against James, the invader of Cyprus: having laid aside the mitre and pastoral staff, seized the scepter, and, intending to defend his unjust invasion of the kingdom by even more unjust arms, swore an oath of fealty to the Sultan of Egypt, adding an insult to God and Christ to his treachery against the legitimate heir of the kingdom, Charlotte, who was married to Louis of Savoy, his brother. For putting on a spirit worthy of his cause and of his birth, he was wholly intent on a sacred expedition, by which nothing less was at stake than the preservation of that kingdom for Christ and for his brother. Such as he was toward enemies of his own people and of God, he was also strong and robust in governing his subjects and correcting public vices; and so he merited the love of all, yet never relaxed the rigor of justice on account of that love, often having on his lips that saying of David:

God will scatter the bones of those who please men, the rigor of maintaining justice: they are put to shame and cannot stand, because God has despised them. Being accustomed to look solely to this, that he might please God, he nevertheless joined to the person of the Prince the affection of a father, the vigilance of a helmsman, the prudence of a physician, and the care of a pastor. And because he placed the utmost importance of preserving the state in the concord of Princes, he arranged that a treaty for mutual defense should be concluded in his name with Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and the Venetian Republic.

CHAPTER II.

Blessed Amadeus's courtesy and liberality toward the poor, rigor of life, children, pious death.

[9] But to those matters we have spoken of he did not give, but merely lent his attention, as if unwillingly sustaining a role foreign to himself; but with the poor he was so devoted that, most loving of the poor: wholly fixed in that occupation, he appeared to have no other care, no other delight. He served them himself as they sat at table, and brought them the foods prepared for himself: he rejoiced to be and to be seen in their company, rejecting none, showing disgust at no one, however ulcerous or ragged he might appear. And since there were not lacking those who would impute so great a humanity of their Duke to baseness, and on that account presumed to reproach him and admonish him to see that he did not abase himself too much below his dignity and thereby become contemptible to his own people; he himself would reply: Permit me, I ask, and do not wish to defraud me of the merit which can be greatly accumulated by such works of Christian mercy according to the teaching of the Gospel. To his counselors, however, he calls them his soldiers: who wished to restrict the generosity of his alms, when they said that by such prodigality an immense sum of money was being spent, which ought to be used for repairing the fortifications of cities and castles, for the pay of soldiers, and for rewarding the services of noblemen; lest, these being neglected, he remain naked and unarmed and vulnerable to any hostile violence; he would reply that he knew no firmer fortifications, no stronger soldiers, no more faithful courtiers than the poor, by whose protection he confidently judged all his territories to be safe. And so he called the poor his fellow soldiers, sometimes bestowing upon them garments taken from his own body, and sometimes sitting down familiarly with them at table.

[10] It happened once that, being asked by a certain foreign ambassador whether he had any hunting dogs, he answered that he would show him the next day a great number of them. and his hunting dogs: But when the man returned at the appointed hour and no dogs appeared, he led him into an adjoining chamber, from which there was a view down upon the level ground of the court: there he showed the astonished man a long table, filled with foods of every kind, and many beggars sitting at it, saying: These, my friend, are the dogs with which I hunt heaven in this life. To which, when the ambassador said among other things that dishonest men are often found who feign poverty and prefer to live by begging rather than by working with their hands: I should not wish to inquire into that too anxiously, said the Duke: for if God should inquire into our actions with equal curiosity, and wish to punish us every time we stray from what is right, he praises poverty: He would not so lavishly and generously bestow His benefits upon us. And when the Duke alleged many other things in defense of the poor, confirming them with various passages and examples from Scripture, the ambassador, interrupting, said: If all Princes had this disposition, more would aspire to poverty than to riches. And there would be more also, replied the Duke, who were wise and rightly looked after their own interests. For the companions of riches are most commonly pride, insolence, arrogance, rashness, injustice, and rapine: but modesty, sobriety, justice, and the other virtues attend upon poverty.

[11] This he said on that occasion: nor can it be passed over in silence what happened on another occasion at Vercelli. warned by the complaint of a commoner: A rope-maker was plying his trade in sight of the castle, when the Duke's ministers approached the man and warned him about paying a newly imposed tax: but he, in desperation at finding the money, began to break out into blasphemous words, with such a clamor that they compelled the Duke himself to look out through the window, and when summoned to him, to ask what he was suffering. He set forth his poverty, which would soon be greater, with the scanty possessions he had being seized in payment of the tax. The Duke, consoling the afflicted man with gentle words and advising him to place his hope and trust in God, took from his purse a sum of money to hand over to the tax collectors when required. The man, emboldened by his success to make requests, proceeded to ask similar help for others who would likewise not be able to pay. he orders the tax collections moderated: The Duke, thinking this should by no means be neglected, and not wishing the common people to be burdened beyond their means, asked his counselors how just the cause of that new tax was: and learning that it could not be excused, on account of the present impoverishment of the treasury; he took from his neck the collar of the Order, which he always wore, and ordered that, its value being converted to money, they should provide for the present need, but spare the poor common people.

[12] Amadeus demonstrated his magnificent liberality furthermore by erecting hospitals, generous toward pious places: such as the one seen at Conflans; by repairing churches, as when he laid a new pavement in the churches of St. Mark and of the Carmelites at Vercelli; by relieving monasteries of debt, which he did at Aosta among the Franciscans; by enriching sacristies, notably that of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, where chasubles donated by him, most precious in material and workmanship, he visits the threshold of the Apostles once: are preserved. All these works of piety he crowned especially when he went to Rome as a pilgrim for the sake of religion: for not content with alms liberally distributed along the way and at holy places, he endowed the basilica of St. Peter with the rarest and most precious gems he could find in his treasuries. Moreover, since he had in his own State the most precious relic of the Lord's Shroud, he often visits the holy shroud on foot: he frequently came to venerate it, and indeed on foot, and by his example drew also Yolande, his sweetest wife, as a companion in this pious labor, with singular edification of the faithful subjects. To these he added other means of mortifying the body for God: but above all a rare abstinence from food and drink, so that it was believed that by this one medicine he had greatly mitigated the troubles of his epileptic ailment, with which he would otherwise have been further burdened.

[13] Yet both at home and abroad he was splendid: In this abstinence from delightful things and such great neglect of bodily comforts, however, he did not forget his dignity: but all the offices and stipends that pertain to a Ducal court he had so splendidly and numerously ordered that he yielded nothing to the greatest Princes even in secular pomp: and this not only at home but also abroad, whenever he was staying as a guest in foreign lands: as was evident on his first visit to the King of France. The King, wishing to honor his sister's husband in every way, delegated to him his own place in lighting the bonfire, which, in honor of St. John the Baptist, was to burn on his Vigil in the forum of Paris, the King himself being accustomed to apply the torch, surrounded by all the grandees of the kingdom. Amadeus did this in such a way that he merited to be honored by God in that act even more than he had been honored by the King, imparting health to many sick, lame, and debilitated persons who had come to the festival. From his court, however, he cut out all superfluous luxury, he removes superfluous luxury from the court: nor did he tolerate anyone living in it who had not persuaded themselves to compose their manners from virtue, even imposing exile on those whom he learned had blasphemed the name of God. With such ministers, therefore, who followed the virtues and life of their Lord, it was easy for him gradually to fill the treasury, which he had found exhausted; to provide his Brothers with subsidies suitable to their station; to find dowries for three sisters; and furthermore to feed so great a crowd of the poor, without the imposition of any new tax; and indeed even to redeem possessions mortgaged by his ancestors.

[14] He was therefore dear equally to men and to God, especially because to the virtues mentioned he added the utmost care for justice, rendering to each his own. he begets six sons: As from men he received praise, so from God he received a manifold blessing: of which no small part was his happy and numerous offspring from his wife, who bore her husband six males and three daughters: namely Charles, born at Claremont in the year 1453, who died at Grenoble in 1476: Philibert, brought into the world at Chambery in 1465, and removed from it in 1482; Bernard, born and dying at Pinerolo in the same year 1467: John Charles, whose birthplace was Carignano in the year 1468, and who met an untimely death in the year 1490 of the same century; John Louis, who reached the thirteenth year of his age, that is, the year of Christ 1485; and three daughters: and Claude Galeazzo, who accompanied his dead father from the cradle to the heavens. The daughters moreover were Anna, betrothed to Frederick, King of Naples; Mary, married to Philip, Marquis of Ausperg and Rottelin; and Louise, who after the death of her husband Hugh of Chalon as a widow embraced the monastic life.

[15] The chief cause of sorrow for the father among these and occasion for exercising and showing endurance was he who had been first in birth, he compares his poor to the dogs of Galeazzo: Charles, a young man of great promise, who had already begun to be employed in managing certain affairs: after whose death, a few months having elapsed, Galeazzo of Milan came to Vercelli to visit his kinsman the Duke, bringing many dogs in his retinue: for whom Amadeus devised a witty counsel for advising better things, ordering a greater number of poor people to be gathered to accompany him: unless we prefer to say that they were gathered not so much to chastise the vanity of his kinsman the Duke as to prepare the heavenly mansion, to which he was himself to pass in not many days, being in the 37th year of his age. A comet, appearing in the greatest brilliance for four days, always growing larger than before, seemed to have forewarned the people of this: he makes his testament: but he, when he felt himself seized by a lethal illness, elevating his mind to God, submitted himself to the divine will; and marking the hour of his departure for those around him, first he chose for his burial a place as humble as possible, under the steps of the high altar of St. Eusebius of Vercelli: wishing to be trodden underfoot beneath the ground by those through whose ministry of offered sacrifices he hoped to be carried above the heavens: then he appointed his wife Yolande as guardian of the children, and having piously received the last Sacraments, before his wife, children, and the chief ministers of the public administration, he left his final will testified in few words, saying: Do judgment and justice, and love the poor, and the Lord will give peace in your borders.

[16] Thus prepared for his departure, the Duke, released from all human cares, and piously deceased: returned his blessed spirit near the dawn of the penultimate day of March of the year 1472, with all taken by surprise, as Dominic Machaneus of Milan says in his manuscripts found in the Ducal library of Savoy; who also asserts that, among other most truthful witnesses, a most grave man, the Magnificent Stephen Capriscolo, formerly General of Savoy, reported to him that he had observed the aforesaid star with wonder on successive days: and in the chief city of Augusta of Turin, while supplications were being held

by the venerable Bishop John de Campesio, at Turin a light is seen in the sky: with thirty thousand people, in white garments and bare feet, accompanying in procession for the health of the Duke's mind and body, a circle of wondrous beauty was seen around the sun, and the Blessed himself in it: like one sitting on a throne; who the more he was gazed upon the nearer to earth he appeared: which very words are found in the chronicle of Martin, printed at Turin in the year 1477, under the Pontificate of Sixtus IV in the 6th year: where it is also said that this sign occurred at the death of the Duke. So that these litanies, instituted outside the ordinary with such fervor at the first report of the danger of death threatening the Prince, may appear to have been connected with the sign itself, which some say was seen at the very hour and moment when Amadeus died: others add the singing of Angels and heavenly odors perceived at the body.

[17] Then a funeral was ordained by the widowed Duchess, the funeral is held: to which such a multitude of people flocked as was never seen at Vercelli at one time. The funeral was accompanied by one hundred Senators and ministers and feudal vassals of the Ducal court, all dressed in black garments, and then a great multitude of the poor clothed in white garments; so that it was noted that the sorrow conceived at the death of the Duke was mixed with joy at his glory: and to show that there should be no doubt about this, three Bishops who had followed together with the clergy, those of Tarentaise, Turin, and Vercelli, so arranged their services that the last sang of the Holy Spirit on the first and ninth day, the second of the Blessed Virgin, and the first for the Departed faithful in general.

CHAPTER III.

Benefits of healing obtained for various persons, especially those afflicted with hernias, fevers, diarrhea, and madness.

[18] The popular veneration, moved by these signs which had made illustrious the death of the blessed Duke, Galeazzo's jest about the miracles of Amadeus: immediately began to experience a powerful patron from heaven, and to be confirmed by frequent miracles in the opinion it had of the sanctity of its Prince: of which the infinite votive offerings hung at the place of burial at Vercelli are witnesses. When there was talk about these to Galeazzo Sforza, seizing the occasion for a jest hardly worthy, he said to his wife Bona that her brother had become an apothecary and a wax-chandler. But immediately finding himself immovable in his seat, he is punished: he recognized his fault at the indication of his wife, and invoking the patronage of the one he had mocked, he recovered the customary movement of his body. Moreover certain of the miracles performed at the invocation of Blessed Amadeus are reported by the aforesaid Dominic Machaneus in these words.

[19] A certain man of Biella was immediately healed of a prolonged fever: some reported summarily by Machaneus: another of Novara from a little bone lodged in his eye with the greatest pain; Ruffinus too, not a superstitious man, failing from a three-day fast and finding no remedy from nature: Ardichinus of San Germano from deaf became hearing; the noble Antonia was healed of dropsy. The good Grammarian was freed from insanity: James Boiera of Turin immediately formed scars over his wounds upon invoking Amadeus: William of Pinerolo was freed from gout; John Ossolanus of Turin obtained the same benefit, and Bartholomew Mota the integrity of a broken arm. Nicholas of Vercelli, a gate-keeper, when a horse fell upon him, immediately made a vow and remained unharmed. That all these things are most true is proved by the vows made and offered at the cenotaph erected in the middle of the choir of the chief church of Vercelli. And lest I write here the individual names of persons of both sexes, which are reported in the books of miracles by grave men; the Republic of San Germano, with an offered candle, testifies to having warded off from that little town Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, threatening with a vast army and formidable war engines.

[20] The stunned are healed: These things he relates briefly: the rest are more extensively arranged in alphabetical order, which the individual or at least the principal members of the human body have in the Italian language; which order we did not think it worthwhile to preserve in the Latin language as well, so as to invert everything on that account. The following, therefore, are a faithful translation of what confirmed the sanctity of Blessed Amadeus. Henry Vinealis, a wool-worker of Ivrea, stupefied and immobile in all his limbs, had lain in bed for the third month: who, as soon as he devoted himself to the Blessed, broken arms: not only felt his vigor gradually returning, but, wonderfully, came sound within a few days to the sepulcher and fulfilled his vow. Agnesina, wife of Uberto Nigro of San Germano, falling from a high room while attending to some domestic work, had a broken arm from the fall: and having made a vow to offer a wax arm at the sepulcher, she rejoiced that the fracture was consolidated without the use of medicines or the assistance of physicians. Agnesina of Peter Cavallo of San Germano carried a badly affected arm, useless for every action: but as soon as she invoked the Blessed and promised a candle, she felt herself free from all pain. John Bartolina of Motta dei Conti, running carelessly, broke his arm, which his mother merited to have consolidated without any other remedy, vowing a candle of the child's length. John Lia of Montecravello, falling under the cart he was driving, received an arm crushed by the passing wheel in three places: and remembering how prompt a help those who invoked it reported from Blessed Amadeus, he too turned his hope to him, promising a wax arm; and soon felt it whole and shortly afterwards free also from pain.

[21] a swelling head: Julius of Mulegio of Vercelli, from an unknown cause, swelled up so much in his whole head and face that he could see nothing with his eyes, and suffered torments that were utterly unbearable. On the fourth day of his illness he turned his vows to Blessed Amadeus, promising a wax image, and suddenly, without any medicine, the swelling subsided, and within two days he fully recovered. Nicholas, the constable of the gate of St. Andrew of Vercelli, returning from the mountain, fell from his horse so unluckily that he lay under it for a full hour, with the greatest danger of being completely crushed, and danger from being crushed: especially in the head: and fearing this and seeing himself deprived of all other help, he vowed that if he were rescued from there he would offer a wax head at the sepulcher of the Blessed together with some candles: and soon the horse rose up, and he himself leapt to his feet, as whole as if he had not fallen.

[21] John de Nigris was healed of a ten-year hernia by the invocation of Blessed Amadeus within two days, having used no medicine at all. John Christopher of Milan, suffering from the same infirmity for two years already, vowed a candle of equal length with the sepulcher to the Blessed, likewise several hernia sufferers: and receiving health within eight days, fulfilled his vow. To Ioannino of Pratolo of Vercelli a son was born herniated from his mother's very womb: who, when he was completing his second year of age; his father, feeling compassion for the boy, promised a candle of three soldi, and immediately inspecting the place of the infirmity, he found it entirely removed. By a similar vow of two pounds of wax, Andreinus of Monteformoso, although fifty years old, merited to be instantly healed of a long-standing rupture. Agnesina, wife of Bertone of Larizate, obtained the same grace for her sons, one five years old, the other seven, promising a candle of four soldi to be offered at the sepulcher, so that health followed the vow, in one indeed suddenly, in the other shortly afterward. Dominic Costa of Carezana, in the fiftieth year of his age, carelessly driving a cart, when it overturned, lay under it and incurred a hernia: from which he was freed by going around the sepulcher of the Blessed in fulfillment of his vow, carrying a burning candle in his hand. Catherine, daughter of James Rosa, vowed to do the same for her little son, similarly dangerously afflicted, and when he recovered at that very moment, she cheerfully fulfilled the vow. Benvenuta, wife of James of Carezana, for a son suffering from a hernia and afflicted by fevers for eighteen months, bound herself by a vow of two candles to be carried to the sepulcher if he were healed: and, being bound by the vow, she fulfilled it. Ruffinus Volpe of Vercelli, wishing to help his nephew, herniated for six months, resolved to offer a wax candle to the Blessed for his health, and obtained what he had sought.

[22] The teeth of the wife of a certain Anthony Legnana were so enormously loose, teeth made firm: that they seemed likely to fall out at the slightest touch: he made a vow for his wife and promised a wax head at the sepulcher, and she soon felt her teeth growing firm. Christopher Vardello of Chivasso, seeing his wife overwhelmed by immense pains and so afflicted that, fortified with the last Sacraments, she expected death at any hour, pains of the whole body removed: promised the Blessed one Mass of thanksgiving to be celebrated at the sepulcher with the offering of a candle: and he testified that his wife was soon healed, when he fulfilled his vow. Anthony, son of Raynald of Voghera, seeing his mother tortured by similar pains and unable to bear it, vowed a pound of wax for her, and obtained instant health; as testified by his brother Gregory, offering the wax bought at Vercelli at the sepulcher.

[23] Leonard Bay of Candelo, on the eighth day of his illness, had lost the use of his tongue and eyes: speech to the dying: he inwardly made a vow to visit the sepulcher of the Blessed if he were healed, and on the same day he recovered his speech and the ability to recognize those who came: and afterwards fully restored to health, he came in person to give thanks. Anthony Mondella of Biella, after three weeks of illness, abandoned as incurable by the physicians, lay for two full days without speech, and only by a slight warmth around the heart gave an indication of latent life: but his wife, at the urging of the religious who were present to assist his soul, knelt down and promised to see to it that her husband would visit the sepulcher of the Blessed and arrange a Mass to be celebrated in his honor with an offering of candles. And behold, she heard an unexpected groan from her husband, and speech restored to the mute: who, as if awakened from a deep sleep, came to himself, took food, and shortly recovered. Catherine Bassini of Blaise of Ivrea was in her twelfth year mute: and when her relatives, taking compassion on her, had vowed to offer a Mass and a wax image on her behalf, she suddenly began to stammer; and as the faculty of articulating her voice gradually increased, she at last had her tongue as free and unimpeded as before. Peter Zaninus of Piverone in his youth incurred such an infirmity that instead of human speech he seemed to emit bellowing, and could scarcely be understood by anyone: and afflicted by this, he invoked Blessed Amadeus, and what he could not promise with his tongue he promised in his heart, namely a wax image, if he should recover his speech, as indeed happened on that very day.

[24] fevers dispelled: Ruffinus Carenci of Stroppiana, around the feast of St. Michael attacked by a most severe fever, after one month of enduring the disease was reduced to the point that for three full days he lay without food, drink, or speech. When his friends commended him to the Blessed, with a vow to offer several candles, he suddenly recovered so much strength that in the very same week in which he had tasted nothing, he was able to come in person to Vercelli to fulfill his vow. Dominic, son of the late Ruffinus of Colobiano, vowing a pound of wax, drove away from himself a most troublesome fever by the aid of the Blessed. Eusebius, son of Bartholomew of Curino, was freed from tertian fever at the very hour when he vowed a wax image, as he testified when bringing it to the sepulcher.

Agnesina of John of Motta dei Conti, on the day preceding the paroxysm of her quartan fever, vowed a wax image, and so prevented the malady from returning. Francis, son of Francheschino Centori of Vercelli, felt the feverish burning diminish as soon as he commended himself to the Blessed, with the intention that, once healed, he would offer a wax image; and at last, fully restored, he carried out his resolve. Anthony of Novara, a mason by trade, for his two sons, one suffering from tertian, the other from quartan fever, vowed two candles and had them well. Simona, wife of Louis Furnari, for her son afflicted with continual fevers, vowed a candle and saw him well on that very day. In the year 1609, in the month of May, Amadeus of Alexandria of Turin, laid low by a continual fever and other infirmities, was reminded by his wife of the vow she had made for him if he recovered, to visit the image of the Blessed in the church of St. Dominic and offer a wax effigy there: and when the husband ratified this, within two days, marveling to find himself free from all fever, pain, and dizziness of the head, he soon faithfully fulfilled the vow.

[25] Anthony Guinati, Doctor of Laws, citizen of Geneva and Master of the chapel of the Duke of Milan, diarrhea checked: languishing from fever and diarrhea, lay given up by the physicians. His wife vowed on his behalf to visit the sepulcher of the Blessed at Vercelli, to offer there three pounds of wax, and to arrange for three Masses of the Holy Spirit, of the Blessed Virgin, and of the Departed: and the sick man was soon somewhat relieved, so that he could understand the vow made by his wife and confirm it by nodding: after which, with no further medicines applied, he began to be healed, and gratefully acknowledged his full health as received from the Blessed. Bartholomea, wife of the noble James Ayazza of Vercelli, had a little son wasted for five months by a hepatic flux: and she devoted him to the Blessed, intending to carry a candle to the sepulcher as soon as the infant should recover his health. And indeed he did receive it, but when the mother delayed in fulfilling the vow, the infirmity returned; or removed together with the fever: and for four hours the sick child lay as if dead: until the father, realizing that this was happening through his wife's fault, resolved to double the former offering, and immediately saw his little son well. Ottina, wife of Lanfranc Donna of Vercelli, was distressed that her little daughter, entrusted to a wet-nurse, was suffering at that time from a flux and fever, when she could have no help from the nurse, who was herself also feverish: she therefore commended both to the Blessed, vowing a candle to the sepulcher, and obtained the hoped-for grace for both. Catherine, widow of Anthony Cara of San Germano, having used many medicines for three months to stop the flux, implored the help of the Blessed; and what she could not obtain from physicians, she obtained from him, and within two days she fulfilled her vow of the promised wax. Another Catherine, wife of Anthony de Cazola, seeing her husband in extreme weakness from the combined infirmities of diarrhea, stomach ailment, vomiting, and weakness of the legs and arms, vowed a Mass to be sung in honor of the Blessed: and on the same day he who had lain at death's door rose from bed well.

CHAPTER IV.

Those afflicted with madness and badly affected legs and limbs are healed by the invocation of Amadeus.

[26] Lawrence Furione, a Senator of Vercelli, thrown from his state of mind by a violent fever, various persons restored to sound mind: ate nothing for two full days: and when the physicians were accomplishing nothing in his treatment, his wife had recourse to a better helper, and when she had vowed a wax image to be offered at the sepulcher of the Blessed, Amadeus appeared by night to the sick man himself, comforting him and promising assistance in a difficult passage. But he, as if delivered from a great labor, felt sweat breaking forth from him on all sides, and that he was free from disease: wherefore, being told by his wife of the vow made, he ratified it and promptly fulfilled it. Michael Aymonis of Turin, driven to madness by a violent fever and given up by the physicians, obtained just enough of a lucid interval as sufficed for invoking Blessed Amadeus, and vowed three pounds of wax: and immediately, bound by the vow, he rose from bed and betook himself to Vercelli to fulfill it. The good Furnari, a schoolmaster of Vercelli, reading with harmful curiosity a certain book of necromancy, saw himself surrounded by a crowd of demons, and was stunned and beside himself and was believed to be mad for two years: until his father commended him to the Blessed, and the sick man recovered the use of a sound mind: who therefore gave thanks to God and Blessed Amadeus for the grace received.

[27] Catherine Reda of Novalesa, uncertain whether her son was suffering from madness or was being troubled by demons, vowed three Masses to be said at the sepulcher of the Blessed for his health, and the sick man was soon restored to the health of body and mind. Christopher of Brusinengo, seeing that his son Nicholas had spent two months already in insanity, remembered Blessed Amadeus and vowed to bring his son to his sepulcher with the offering of a wax image: and not four full days had passed before the sick man was in his right mind, and on the eighth day he came with his father and fulfilled the vow. Anthony, son of Martin Quaglia of Castelhengo, whether from dementia or from some other unknown cause, answered nothing aptly when questioned, nor was he willing to admit sufficient food for his body's need, either within or outside the customary hours of meals. In this the mother, wearied for seven weeks to no avail, commended him to Blessed Amadeus: and immediately saw herself consoled in both respects, and not long after, perfectly well, he came with his mother, devoutly giving thanks to the Blessed.

[28] Rainerius Signori of Burolo, touched by such great pain in his side, pleurisy sufferers healed: that he could scarcely draw breath, vowed three pounds of wax to the Blessed, and, bound by the vow, at that very moment sent his son James to fulfill it. Elizabeth, wife of Beltram de Vardello, was languishing from a certain infirmity, troublesome especially to three parts of her body; namely the side, the breast, and the foot, and when she had vowed wax reproductions of these to be brought to the sepulcher of the Blessed, she recovered from all. Stephen Vicenti, a Genoese merchant, had brought to the Vercelli market a supply of hides, a theft recovered: of which twelve were stolen, and when they seemed discoverable by no evidence, he bound himself by a vow in honor of Blessed Amadeus, and on the following morning he learned that the thief had been a certain Bertone, who had deposited the stolen goods with an innkeeper, from which the said Stephen recovered his property without difficulty.

[29] The first to bring the promised votive offering to the sepulcher of the Blessed pains in the leg are healed: was a certain Aloysius of Biella. On a certain occasion, when returning home and on the road toward Biella, fearing that the most atrocious pains which he was suffering in his leg would daily increase, destitute of human help, he sought heavenly help and said: Amadeus, if you departed in the grace of God, and if you obtain for me from Him the health of my leg, I will, in honor of the divine Majesty and of St. Eusebius and of you, offer a wax leg, and (if I am permitted) I will hang it at your tomb. He spoke, and feeling himself nimble in a moment, continued his journey with a brisk step, a nearly severed leg: and in fulfilling his vow, he publicly acknowledged the grace he had obtained. James Bonerius of Turin, having gone outside the city, fell among four robbers, who, having gravely wounded him in the chest, nearly amputated his leg, so that it was hanging only by a little flesh. But after he invoked the help of the Blessed, men came upon the scene, by whom he was carried back to the city for treatment; and so he recovered that he did not even limp, the incision being perfectly healed: wherefore he gratefully commemorated the benefit done to him before all who had likewise come to visit the sepulcher.

[30] Dorothy, wife of Anthony of Blandrate, had a daughter whose leg was so badly formed others healed in their legs: that those who touched it thought the bone was missing: she vowed a wax leg, and the daughter received firmness of leg. The wife of Eusebius Marescalco of Vercelli, deprived of sleep for many days and nights on account of incurable torments in her leg, was relieved by a similar vow, and shortly afterwards was completely well. Eusebius Cotta, an Ultramontane, suffered similar pain in his badly affected leg, which left him no share of rest day or night, since the leg seemed to be torn and gnawed by canine teeth: for whom his father-in-law Peter, making a like vow, soon saw his son-in-law fall asleep, and shortly saw him sound and well. Margaret, wife of Eusebia Laineta, to have the pains she suffered from her leg removed, promised to go on the following Sunday to the sepulcher of the Blessed and carry around it a candle, lit in his honor: but when the pains were immediately removed, she also forgot the vow, and as soon as Sunday had passed, she deserved to experience the same pains again; and thus reminded of her negligence, she repeated the vow, and giving thanks for the benefit obtained, she also confessed her error.

[31] Peter of Brusinengo, a man of full age, had suffered from his leg for a full twenty years and lying in bed, likewise others: could be helped by no art: but with the malady increasing, having suffered more gravely even in the last four years than in the earlier ones, he vowed to offer a wax leg and a candle at the sepulcher if he were healed, and he faithfully fulfilled the vow. Thomas of the borough of Lavezzaro, a poor man of Vercelli, with no apparent sign of illness, bore a hidden infirmity in his leg; and happening to run into a protruding piece of wood, with new pain added to the old, he placed all hope of recovering his health without great expense; and since he was not equal to bearing such expense, he asked the Blessed for free, and soon approaching the sepulcher, he testified by a wax image to the grace obtained. Petrinus, son of John Cossia, born in the village of San Germano, despaired of the health of his leg, because the flesh, being utterly withered and dead, admitted no medicine: but having made a vow to offer a wax leg, through the Blessed he obtained what he could not have through men.

[32] Anthony Duranti of Candelo, confined to bed for forty-two days, and others: could not even be moved on account of unbearable torments in his leg: and when all the flesh was wasting away, he desired to have his leg amputated in order to keep the rest of his body healthy: but admonished by one of his sons to seek the intercession of the Blessed, he vowed two candles and a Mass to be arranged in his honor: and the devotion of the suppliant was so efficacious that, soon turning to those around him, he said: Pray for me, because I seem to be free from every ill through the merits of Blessed Amadeus: and indeed he was, as he testified, giving due thanks. John Puelotto of Valesia, a resident of Casale Monferrato, for eight years was impeded by the ailment of one leg swelling with dropsy from walking freely wherever he wished, not without the addition of immense pains: no longer bearing the severity of which, he promised certain alms if he were healed within eight days; and he was healed. But unmindful of his promise, he relapsed into his former infirmity, and thus chastened, to his first vow he added another, to go around the sepulcher with a burning candle: and soon, falling asleep, he saw the Blessed himself before him, consoling him and promising health. Nor was that vision vain: for he recovered, and visiting the sepulcher and fulfilling his vow, he declared that he was so firm on his feet that he felt he could walk all the way to Rome.

[33] Martin dal Corno, of the village of San Germano, from an ulcerated leg for twenty years dripped a bloody humor, and also ulcerated legs: and so foul-smelling that it was unbearable to all who were around him: but having made a vow to the Blessed to arrange a wax leg, he obtained health. Gilbert of Pinerolo, having endured for two years the diligent treatment of physicians, in hope of healing his leg, from which foul and corrupted blood was flowing; after having implored in vain the patronage of various Saints, at last he turned to Blessed Amadeus, promising certain fasts and other pious works; and he was heard. For the Blessed appeared to him while sleeping and gave him hope of health: and awakened suddenly by an unbearable itching, he removed the medicines out of impatience, and scratching the affected part with his nails, he added new wounds to the old, and again fell asleep. But when awakened again from sleep, he felt neither pain nor itching, and shortly saw himself perfectly well.

[34] or otherwise weak: Lawrence of Mortigliengo for eighteen years bore a leg swollen beyond belief, and being thereby prevented from walking, was compelled to lie in bed: but vowing a candle the length of his leg, he acknowledged the grace obtained. Henry of Zubiena had the same part withered and ulcerated, and it was healed by a similar vow. Likewise Dorothy, wife of Master Bartholomew of Laco, despairing of a remedy for her badly affected leg, because neither swelling nor bruise nor any other external sign pointed to the cause of the hidden malady. Margaret Topaccia obtained for her granddaughter the ability to walk by making a vow: and the girl, who until then had been bedridden with useless legs, rose up. Helen, wife of John Peter Prevostini of Vercelli, seeing no hope of her two-year-old daughter walking, not without suspicion of sorcery, because the legs were becoming more and more dried up as the child progressed in age; she vowed to carry her for nine days to the sepulcher of the Blessed and to remain there while a solemn Mass was sung; and feeling herself heard on the fourth day, on the ninth day she brought her daughter back walking on her own feet.

[35] Bernardino, a goldsmith of Vercelli, a mature and prudent man, needed a walking stick to aid his step on account of a long-standing infirmity: or needing a walking stick: and since this was most troublesome to him, he vowed a wax leg to the Blessed, and on the same day, casting aside the crutch, he began to walk, and within eight days, perfectly well, he fulfilled the vow. Andreotta, wife of the late Andrew of Serravalle, was prevented from her usual work by pain in her leg, which gave no outward sign of itself: she vowed to carry a candle to the Blessed, and immediately felt the pain taken away, and within three days she fully recovered. Matthew, a miller of Vercelli, on account of an inflamed and ulcerous leg, as if suffering gangrene in it, endured pain and inconvenience, unable to take a step without a walking stick, with blood gushing out every time he tried to set his foot down. Since the physicians admitted there was no hope of healing this ailment, he vowed to attend for nine days a sacrifice of the Mass to be celebrated at his sepulcher, and began to fulfill the vow supported by his staff: and gradually, to the great astonishment of his people, he was able to walk nimbly.

[36] Freilinus of Balocho, for two months having a leg swollen beyond imagination, vowed a candle its length, and, as he testified, was soon well. John Fassina of Casale Volone, or enormously swollen: needing the assistance of others to walk, after commending himself to the Blessed, received vigor and health in his legs. The same benefit was acknowledged by Anthony of Bergamo, when carrying two candles to the sepulcher of the Blessed, having obtained it for his wife, whose leg, with the skin eaten away by a swelling, and the long duration of the affliction, had brought great pain and finally the inability to walk. Finally in the year 1609, in the spring, Francisca Corona of Milan, living in Turin, from a five-week fever had legs so afflicted and weak that she could walk only with difficulty: and when she had attended a sacrifice of the Mass celebrated at the altar of the most holy Rosary in the church of St. Dominic, with the pains not ceasing, she turned to the image of Blessed Amadeus, celebrated for miracles in the same church, promising a wax image and a Mass to be arranged there; and immediately, with the pain removed, she returned home cheerful, and afterward fulfilled her vow.

[37] Peter Mascarpino, a cheese-maker of Vercelli, for a full year had his knee under the butchery of surgeons, affected knees: which, open with three wounds, was continually oozing pus: and finally, seeing the condition worsen, he promised to offer a wax image at the tomb of the Blessed, and soon beginning to be healed, he was fully well by the time he completed his vow. John of Ossola, living in Turin, tormented by gout in the knee for fourteen years and having tried all other remedies in vain, had recourse to the help of Blessed Amadeus, and rejecting medicines, recovered his health within three days; testifying that before he placed his hope in the Blessed, he had often despaired of recovering. Eusebius Arales of San Germano, and two arthritic persons: weighed down by arthritis and confined to bed for the third month, by a pious prayer to the Blessed with the intention of offering a wax image, merited to receive instant health, and went to the church to give thanks. Peter Francis Beluisio of Vercelli, in the year 1605, suffered especially from arthritis in the arm, and the torment was so great that, with medicines availing nothing, he would run like a madman through the streets and squares, wailing and crying out, and at last he looked to the Blessed Virgin, Blessed Amadeus, and Blessed Roch, and vowed to arrange for their images to be painted before his house, in that place where, in the year 1500, the effigies of the pierced Virgin and Blessed Amadeus were painted: and immediately healed and moving his arms without pain, he ordered a chapel to be built, and taking care of it, testified under oath to the many benefits which the devout had received there from the Blessed. Stephen Villata, suffering from scrofula, asserted that he was healed by a vow made to the same.

CHAPTER V.

By the aid of Blessed Amadeus various sick persons, especially epileptics, and many at the point of death recover their health.

[38] Antonia, wife of John Peter of Caresana, swelling with dropsy to the point of the physicians' despair, had scarcely fervently invoked the Blessed, the dropsical is freed: with a vow of several candles, when she felt herself being healed, and within a few days was restored to full health to the great wonder of her family. Augustine Sappino of Vercelli had a son Andrew, and two demoniacs: who in his eighteenth year began to be suspected of harboring a demon, so offensive were his disorderly movements and foolish words to the eyes and ears of all: the father therefore vowed four pounds of wax to be carried to the sepulcher of the Blessed, and testified that he was afterward of sound mind and body. Margaret, daughter of Boacia of Vercelli, fell suddenly into such a stupor that, deprived of judgment and spitting blood, she was thought to be possessed by demons: but when her mother had vowed a one-pound wax image, before eight days had passed from the making of the vow she recovered the health of both mind and body.

[39] The wife of Dominic of Cavaglia, regarding her fifteen-day-old son as given up, a dying boy is healed: because for three full days he had taken no mother's milk, vowed three wax heads, and as she finished the words the boy began to suckle at the breast and grow strong. Indeed even Benedict, son of James Francis of Siglia, obtained the health of a dislocated shoulder for his ox, which he used to support his family, by invoking the Blessed. Margaret Nazari of Vercelli likewise had an ox badly affected in the throat, and two oxen: and was advised by her son, who claimed to have been frequently admonished in his sleep that the ox would be healed if commended to the Blessed; she obeyed the suggestion, and having been made partaker of the sought-for grace, she offered a wax ox of four pounds. Tomena, wife of Ioannino Vairaro, an Ultramontane, and likewise two with spleen complaints: suffering for twelve years the most acute pains in her spleen, and troubled besides by quartan fever and other ailments, had recourse to the Blessed: and felt herself freed from all distress, vowing a wax image of the spleen. Eusebius Nazari of Vercelli suffered similar torments for six continuous years from the same cause, and testified by a similar vow that his health had been restored.

[40] then epileptics: Catherine, wife of Anthony Refini the butcher, made a vow of a wax offering in the form of hands for her son Bertino, so gravely epileptic that, falling to the ground twelve or even twenty times on some days, he had a swollen and immobile neck and hands, and was abandoned by the physicians. But when the vow was made, the swelling subsided and the disease vanished: wherefore both devoutly fulfilled the vow, and the son testified that for four years afterward, robust and vigorous, he had never from that hour been troubled by this ailment. Bartholomew Grana, an Ultramontane, offered a wax image at the sepulcher for his son, who had been freed from the same disease after he had devoted him to Blessed Amadeus. Catherine, daughter of Aymolo the innkeeper, not only grieved that her newborn daughter suffered from the falling sickness three or four times a day, but also that she herself was lacking in sufficient milk to nurse the infant: and she received a remedy for both troubles through the intercession of the Blessed. By the same intercession, his mother obtained health from epilepsy for her son Anthony of Mondella, residing at Vercelli, making a vow on his behalf.

[41] others: To Facio of Legnana, a young man living at Vercelli, this ailment returned so frequently and without any pattern that he was never safe from falling and was unfit for making a journey: and so when on a certain day he was sitting on a horse, he fell from it to the stony ground and struck his head so grievously that he feared he would die. With his heart, therefore, since he could not with his mouth, he commended himself to Blessed Amadeus, and suddenly, with no one helping, he rose, and mounting his horse, happily completed the rest of his journey, never experiencing the same afterward. Augustine, son of John Peter Blanchini of Vercelli, liable to epilepsy from boyhood, so that once or twice a week he would collapse, was freed by a vow of a wax image. Anthony Sella of Andorno, suffering the same more frequently at a mature age, likewise testified that he was freed by a similar vow.

[42] Francis Tizzoni, a nobleman of Vercelli, had an epileptic son who also suffered from pestilential fever, and others: and when he had vowed a candle for his health and obtained a remedy for both ailments, he sent both a candle and a wax image to the tomb of the Blessed. To Donato Bongello of Ivrea, in the fourth year of his marriage, a son had been born; who, having passed eighteen months, was felt one night, while between him and his wife, to be lifted from the bed by an invisible hand, and though sought throughout the whole house with great diligence could not be found: a vow therefore was made by him and his wife to Blessed Amadeus: and soon, with no one seen who had brought the boy back, they found in the bed the one they were seeking. When, however, they delayed in fulfilling the vow, the boy became epileptic: and warned by this new calamity of their error, the parents again confirmed their former vows, promising that if he were freed they would carry their little son to the sepulcher of the Blessed, where they would arrange for one solemn Mass to be sung and other private Masses to be said: and they were made partakers of their vow.

[43] Comina Morgia of Nonsecho, occupied with domestic tasks, stumbled useless hands healed: and fell upon her hand

so unluckily that, with the nerves of that arm injured, she feared her hand would be weak and useless henceforth, with remedies applied for fifteen days availing nothing: wherefore she vowed to carry a candle of one pound, and within two days, well, she fulfilled the vow. Catherine, wife of Martin Gatto of Vercelli, had two sick daughters; one dropsical, the other in danger of losing her hand according to the physicians' judgment: for these the afflicted mother prayed to the Blessed; that he would obtain from God either health for the girls, or, if it so pleased, a swift death for them: and being granted her wish, before the second day had passed, she had one well and carried out the other dead.

[44] For Antonio, a Milanese furrier, after a grave illness there was no hope of life remaining, life preserved for various dying persons: and he had already been fortified with the last Sacraments, when his closest friend, Peter Cazzamo of Vercelli, commended him to Blessed Amadeus. Without delay the sick man began to improve, to recognize those around him, to speak freely, and with the household's sadness turned to joy, he shortly so recovered that he came with his friend to Vercelli to give thanks to the Blessed at his sepulcher. Jerome Signori of Buronzo had a son John so gravely afflicted with illness that, destitute of the use of all senses, he was taken for dead by everyone: when behold, Elizabeth his mother, taking compassion on her son, turned to Blessed Amadeus and vowed as much wax as her son weighed: after which the son recovered, and she took care to fulfill what she had vowed. James Francis, born at Siglia, exhausted by a prolonged illness, was in such a state, given up, that the religious present were commending his departing soul to God. Meanwhile it occurred to his household to seek the intercession of their holy Duke, and on that same day the state of the illness was notably changed, and shortly, fully and completely healed, he gratefully acknowledged the author of the benefit.

[45] The daughter of the wife of Ubertino Varrotto, seized by a sudden spasm, when she was believed to be dying, likewise others: was also suddenly restored to herself after her mother had invoked the Blessed. Michael of Cazolo, a public messenger of Vercelli, while weaving cloth, fell backward from his chair to the ground in the presence of his wife: who, thinking him dead, made a vow of one candle, and immediately saw her husband standing on his feet. Augustine, son of Ruffino of Frango, suddenly collapsed as if dead and remained insensible: his mother vowed an image for him, and at once the infant began to move and to suckle at the breast. Patientia, wife of Anthony Nizzola of Sigliano, while she had with her a three-month-old son, was caught in such a terrible storm that seven animals were killed in that very place; and before she could get under a roof, the little one was so reduced that he seemed to be dying. The mother had recourse to the Blessed, and at that very moment vigor returned to the dying boy, he suckled at the breast and showed himself well. Margaret, wife of Bartholomew Avogadro of Quinto, having fallen from a balcony, was also believed to be dead. But she, whom she could not invoke with her voice, she invoked in her heart, Blessed Amadeus, vowing a pound of wax; and soon, as if she had suffered nothing, she rose to her feet and paid her vow.

[46] John Thomas, son of Paul Aemilius, a furrier of Turin, in the year 1609 in the month of July, and others: in the fifth year of his age, was attacked by a continuous fever with great and dangerous symptoms for fifteen days: in this state abandoned by the physicians and commended by his parents to various Saints, he was not in the least relieved; until Antonia, his maternal grandmother, vowed a Mass to be celebrated in honor of Blessed Amadeus in the church of St. Dominic and an image to be placed there: for on that same morning, after the invocation and having heard Mass, informing her daughter and son-in-law of her devotion, she learned that the boy was doing better: wherefore she immediately brought the promised image, pains removed from the eyes: and shortly saw, well and whole, him whom all had considered dead. Iacominus, a carpenter of Novara, caught a duck in hunting, and while cutting off one of its wings with a knife, a splinter of the severed bone flew into his eye, with such pain that, the pain continuing for seventeen days, he believed he had lost the eye: he therefore vowed a wax eye, and soon the harmful fragment fell of its own accord from the eye and freed him of pain. Francis Cigna of Vercelli, taking no rest day or night on account of a dreadful torment of his eyes, after several weeks of endurance approached the sepulcher of the Blessed, and piously invoking him, before he wished to leave the church, he felt himself well, and gratefully hung a wax eye there.

[47] Alesina, wife of Stephen, a carpenter of Vercelli, recovered sight for her husband, who had been blind for three months from no apparent cause, the blind are given sight: when she had vowed a wax head to the Blessed. Augustina, wife of Christopher of Rubbio, a resident of Vercelli, recovered health for her eyes, with which on account of pain she could scarcely see, by a similar vow, praying at the sepulcher of Blessed Amadeus. Elizabeth, wife of John of Blanzago, living at Vercelli, had a son who had remained blind for five months from smallpox: and so she vowed a wax head, and gradually the boy's sight returned. The same happened to Bartolina Fini of Sigliano, who similarly could see nothing out of one eye for three months, being of advanced age; for she too had vowed a wax head. Catherine, too, wife of John of Ossola of Casale, fearing from a certain accident that she would be blind forever, vowed a wax image, and not long afterward fully recovered. Another Catherine, wife of Bartholomew of Mosso, merited that her daughter Mary be freed both from a grave pain of the eyes (from which one had already been rendered useless) and from the torment arising from a twisted foot, through a votive offering of a wax eye and foot. Helen of Blandrate, wife of Anthony Caligaro, with a catarrh flowing into her eyes, could scarcely use them; but as soon as she went around the tomb of the Blessed in fulfillment of a vow, she felt herself well.

[48] A hard abscess, collected under the left ear of Leona, wife of Dominic Gazami, an abscess healed: the physicians had softened by their art and had suggested that the incision should be made the next day: but she, fearing the surgeon's hand, invoked Blessed Amadeus, vowing a wax head, and slept peacefully that night. But when awakened at dawn and feeling the tumor with her hand, when she felt none and it seemed to her that she was healed, not trusting her own experience, she ordered two nieces who were present to assist her to inspect the place: and when they found not even a trace of any malady, she rose cheerfully, and anticipating the arrival of the physicians, left behind at home the girls through whom they might learn of the outcome, and hurried to the church to give thanks for the benefit. In the same way, invoking the Blessed, Ardichinus Birotta of San Germano, who had been so deaf that he could understand no one unless they shouted at the top of their voice, the deaf are given hearing: recovered his hearing. Moreover, Anthony Lucas of Viverone had been completely deaf, and for a long time: yet without any medicines applied, by the sole invocation of the Blessed, he received back the use of that lost sense.

[49] The same happened to Anthony de Fortibus, a citizen of Vercelli, after a most violent fever a paralytic healed: which had taken away his hearing, when he came to the sepulcher of the Blessed: for while there, devoutly praying and promising a certain quantity of wax for obtaining the grace, before he raised his knees from prayer, he was granted his wish. In the year 1609, in the month of May, John Baptist Cassina of Turin had fallen into paralysis; the Sacristan of the church of St. Dominic, visiting him, began to urge him to make a vow to Blessed Amadeus: which he indicated he was doing by squeezing the Brother's hand, and shortly afterward he felt himself relieved and soon well too, and hung a silver tablet as a token of gratitude at his image.

CHAPTER VI.

Aid brought by Blessed Amadeus to pregnant women, women in childbirth, captives, and others in misery.

[50] Bartholomew of Bergamo, a citizen of Vercelli, feared the danger of miscarriage is dispelled: that his wife would bear a dead child, because as the time of delivery approached, the pregnant woman said she felt no movement. And so he vowed to the Blessed as much wax as the infant would weigh, if it should come into the world capable of baptism: and having been granted his wish (for the woman gave birth to a most beautiful and healthy boy), he offered fourteen pounds in fulfillment of his vow. In similar fear after four miscarriages, Mariotta, wife of Bartholomew of Colobiano, already pregnant for the fourth time and vowing a wax image of the newborn if she should bear a living child, paid her vow glad and cheerful.

[51] difficult labor is eased: In the year 1609, in the month of March, Isabella Biolata, wife of the Lord of Sauz, tormented by the most bitter pains in labor for two full days, when she was in extremity and the physicians believed the child to be dead from the mother's excessive agitation, a purgative potion was prescribed: but before the patient took it, both she and Laura Picca, who was most devoted to her, made a vow to Blessed Amadeus, and merited that a healthy son should soon be born to her. For the mother in labor, however, being of the tenderest age and constitution, a fever remained from the torment endured: for which a remedy was sought from the same Blessed, with a vow of a Mass to be arranged in the church of St. Dominic, and today a silver tablet is seen hanging there, a witness of every grace that was sought and obtained.

[52] Catherine Guittiera de Arce, a Spanish woman, wife of Don Alfonso de Rapis, treasurer of the former Most Serene Infanta of Savoy, sick women in childbirth are healed: in the aforesaid year in the month of May, four months pregnant, because she felt no movement in her womb for three full days, suspecting something sinister, she vowed a wax effigy of the infant to be offered at St. Dominic's; and when the conceived child soon moved, she rejoiced that her prayer had been heard. During the Lent of the same year, also at Turin, Iacomina, wife of Louis Balbo of Turin, had a miscarriage, and when her Confessor urged her to invoke the Blessed, who was present for the woman who, from fever, catarrh, and pains of the sides, lay dying after the physicians' vain treatment, she vowed a nine-day devotion and a tablet as a token of gratitude if she should recover; and being heard, she fulfilled the vow.

[53] Margaret, wife of Anthony Centori of Vercelli, persevering in the pains of labor for two days, as soon as she vowed a wax image, she rescued her own and her child's life from danger. For Lucia de Erris, after childbirth, pains continued for three days and took away all use of her senses, but the Blessed was her aid when invoked with a similar vow by her husband Galeazzo. The same pains after childbirth had afflicted Ludovica, wife of Archangelo Cernusci, a merchant of Turin, in the year 1609, for a longer time, and had produced a continuous fever; by which, brought within three weeks to extreme peril, the woman was admonished by a Confessor summoned for the dying woman to have recourse to Blessed Amadeus. She obeyed, and shortly recovering, she brought to the church of St. Dominic a tablet testifying to the benefit. Ioannina, wife of Jerome Roveri, a painter of Turin, four months pregnant, was held for some days by a pain of the side, and at last one night was so afflicted that her husband, fearing for mother and child, thought he must have recourse to heavenly help, promising a wax image in the church of St. Dominic; and soon not only the pain of the side but also an inveterate stomach ailment of two years' standing was attested by the woman to have been removed, and she devoutly fulfilled the debt contracted by her husband.

[54] The Lady Margaret, Duchess of Savoy, already nearly forty, acknowledged that she was aided by the Blessed, both in

conceiving and in bearing her only son, a barren Duchess is made fruitful: who now lives and reigns, Charles Emmanuel: for Sister Leona, a lay sister in the monastery of the Annunciation, seeing the Duchess to be barren, conceived a vow before her to the Blessed, that he might obtain a son for the Duchess from God: but fearing lest the Duchess might not be equal to bearing the pains of childbirth, she offered herself to share in the labor, if it so seemed to God, and was in all respects granted her vow. For before the Duchess departed from Vercelli, she conceived offspring, and at the very moment when she bore her son with little labor at Rivoli, in the year 1562, on the night beginning the 12th of January, Leona felt the most atrocious torments; so that it was necessary for the Abbess and all the Canonesses to rise to her aid. But as soon as the most joyful news of the Prince's birth was brought, and the times of the Duchess giving birth and of Leona suffering were compared, it was also recognized with what success the Blessed had been invoked.

[55] In the same year in which Blessed Amadeus died, a most grievous pestilence ravaged Piedmont and especially the little town of Gassino: a pestilence is quelled: whose leading citizens, having heard the fame of the miracles performed through the holy Duke, bound themselves by a public vow to send to Vercelli a candle of one hundred pounds and to keep a vigil of one night: immediately upon the making of the vow the plague ceased, and not only was none of the healthy stricken, but also of the twenty-five then ill not one died, as the messengers sent to Vercelli reported. The same benefit was reported by the inhabitants of Montecranello, among whom the contagion had infected many houses; and their attestation was accepted, offering a candle of equal weight in the company of many designated for this purpose. And this was perhaps their reason for painting the image of Blessed Amadeus in the church of St. Peter Martyr.

[56] Simon of Ponderano, in the County of Monferrat, a parish priest, was held by such weakness of the nerves a debilitated priest is healed: that he could not walk on his own feet, and the infirmity had already lasted three years, and his parishioners had asked their superiors that another priest be provided for them: when it occurred to him to have recourse to the Blessed and to vow a candle of two pounds to be offered at his sepulcher: and when this was done, satisfaction was also given from heaven to the desire both of him and of the people, so that the latter, recognizing divine power in their pastor, henceforth wanted no other in his place, and the former conveniently performed all his functions. Louis Blanco of Malausene, and an asthmatic: a village in the County of Nice in Provence, feeling himself pressed at once by a most severe fever, a stabbing pain, and the greatest difficulty of breathing, and already lacking the ability to speak, rest, and expectorate, ceased to hope for recovery from physicians, and fortified with all the last Sacraments, he transferred all his trust to Blessed Amadeus. Knowing moreover that this was the anniversary of his happy death and passage to heaven, he promised a sacrifice of the Mass to be arranged at the church of St. Dominic of Turin: and making that intention of his known as best he could, he soon felt himself notably relieved, and within two days felt so well that he did not hesitate to rise from bed and to visit the image of the Blessed in the aforesaid church.

[57] Lawrence of Curino sought his freedom from prison, and vowing a wax image to be hung at Vercelli, he obtained it on that very day, the gates being opened to offer the captive the opportunity to depart. two are freed from prison: When Galeazzo of Milan was waging war against Yolande, the widow of the deceased Amadeus, John of Crema, a resident of Vercelli, was captured as a spy and held in custody to be reserved for capital punishment. Escape seemed impossible, to one of whom the Blessed appeared: because the place was elevated, and the wretch, confined in stocks, was watched by ten men imprisoned along with him: he nevertheless invoked Blessed Amadeus, who appeared to him, comforting him and promising liberation the next night. And behold, when the guards, bound by a new order of the Duke, should have kept the most vigilant watch, they all fell asleep, the keys dropped from the hands of one of them, and the light went out: but the captive, breaking his bonds as if they were paper, seized the keys, and when a certain person, awakened by the noise of the keys being thrust into the locks, began to shout, he was knocked to the ground by a slight push and was stunned into silence.

[58] John, however, seeing the doors open, lest he waste time looking for stairs, leapt down to the bottom, and punished for his escape: and leaving Garlasco two miles behind, he hid the entire following day under a certain heap of straw; until, believing the diligence of those searching for him to be exhausted, he set out on the road toward Vercelli; and having taken no food for two days and nights, he arrived nevertheless healthy and vigorous, and publicly announced the prodigious manner of his escape. When moreover the indignant Galeazzo imposed a large monetary fine on the people of Garlasco, and they made excuse that the captive had escaped by miracle, he replied: remedied by the death of Galeazzo: If my kinsman is so holy that he could free my captive, he will not find it difficult to make you whole. This, said in jest, was taken seriously by God, and to the envoys who were bearing the imposed fine, it was announced on the road that the Duke had died: wherefore they took back to their people the money entrusted to them.

[59] Tomena, wife of Ubertino Brusa of Motta, could neither stand nor lie down, pains of the kidneys are healed: tortured by unbearable pain of the kidneys: which when she had endured for one year, she vowed an image to be carried to the sepulcher of the Blessed, and recovered her health. A certain daughter of Mary Bertoni of Larizate was also so infirm in her loins that already at three years she could not even stand on her feet: but commended to the Blessed by her mother, she was strengthened in a moment. and pains of the stomach: Ioannina, wife of John Villani of Biella, tortured by stomach pain for two years, having obtained health by a similar invocation, gratefully brought the candle she had vowed. John Giafus of the diocese of Geneva, not bearing his wife's infidelity, took the injury so hard that he feared he would lose his mind, and it availed nothing to have changed his residence and moved to Vercelli: and excessive grief: wherefore he made a vow to offer certain candles annually, if he should receive consolation in this affliction: and not long afterward he learned by the reliable report of faithful friends that the woman, changed in her ways, was living most honestly.

[60] likewise hernia: Bartholomew Francheschino of Rubbio, struck by a stone in the lower abdomen, was so gravely injured that his intestines flowed into the scrotum: and at the very moment he promised to offer a pound of wax, he recovered full health. Suffering the same inconvenience from the same cause for a full decade, Aemilian Buiz, a wool-worker of Vercelli, as soon as he made the same vow as the former, obtained the same grace from the Blessed. For Benedict, son of James Francis of Sigliano, certain hard coagulations like a fist in the belly, which could be felt by touch, were causing great pains: and having promised a wax image when medicines failed to help, he was healed. intestinal worms: The wife of Ioannino Erri of Vercelli, Contesina by name, pleading for her little son, whose bowels were being eaten by worms, which had brought on a fever and had taken away the ability to eat and drink for four days, obtained health for him. John Thomas Canella of Vercelli, having at his house John Francis Cusano, a three-year-old boy suffering similarly and incurable by any medicine, made a vow to visit the sepulcher of the Blessed, and within eight days saw him well, and for that reason hung a tablet, testifying to the benefit obtained, in the chapel of Vercelli. Finally Dominic Cavaglia, who could never pass urine except with pain and difficulty, difficulty of urination: professed that he had received the relief which physicians could not provide from Blessed Amadeus, having made a vow.

CHAPTER VII.

The enduring tradition of the sanctity of Blessed Amadeus in Piedmont and Savoy.

[61] Popular tradition: From miracles I pass to another argument by which the happiness of Blessed Amadeus, glorious in heaven, remains undoubted to the present time in all the cities, towns, and villages of Piedmont and Savoy, which would be long to enumerate individually: since there is no place so humble where the popular tradition does not flourish, handed down from grandfathers and great-grandfathers to grandchildren, that Amadeus the Third is a Blessed: and if other proof of this is required beyond what is sought from the conscience of all the natives and inhabitants, behold the antiphon and prayer which at Vercelli in the church of St. Eusebius, as well as among the Scholars of St. Nicholas of Tolentino, used to be publicly recited.

[62] it is found in the formula of prayers used at Vercelli: ANTIPHON. Troubled on earth by bodily infirmity, the holy Duke Amadeus the Third was an example of patience and sanctity to all, whom we believe to enjoy the things of heaven. ℣ Pray for us, Blessed Amadeus. ℞ That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. LET US PRAY. Almighty Creator, eternal God, who by the glorious prayers of Blessed Amadeus, Prince and third Duke of Savoy, hast preserved from the plague those who have recourse to him and healed those already stricken, hast freed prisoners from their dungeons, hast raised the dead, hast extinguished fires, and by other miracles hast illumined the city and country which was deemed worthy to have so great a Prince, through him: preserve us from all sins, from infirmity, from temporal and eternal evils; and also deign to grant us patience, humility, chastity, fortitude, discretion, and the other virtues necessary for the complete salvation of our souls and bodies, and to make us partakers of the merits of the most holy Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, through Thy grace. Through the same, etc.

[63] From ancient tablets and codices respectively found in the parish church of the place of Arve, of the Duchy of Aosta Pretoria; and a hymn displayed in various places: in the hospital for lepers of the place of Conflans, of the Archdiocese of Tarentaise; and in the city of Annecy, of the diocese of Geneva, among distinguished and pious men, this hymn is also found.

O potent, nourishing Creator of great Olympus, who with Thy sacred scepter dost press down and lift up whatever this heaven covers and the deep abyss contains;

With what piety dost Thou afflict us wretches? We who spurn Thy salutary counsels given to us: but Thou in mercy sparest each who asks.

Thine only-begotten Son Thou gavest us, who might free us, wretches given over to guilt, to darkness, to the stain of our parents, by the shedding of blood.

in which the miracles of Blessed Amadeus are praised: And lest the mighty hosts of diseases should tear apart our defenseless age, Thou hast willed a Prince to be for us an everlasting refuge.

Whose name was ever Lover of God, and the Duke willed a hidden triumph, preserving rights, and cherished faithful Poverty.

The lame, the blind, the one with varicose veins and whoever is deceived by his nature, and pressed by his own troubles and the various storms of the world, let all flow hither.

Sorrow and sickness, labor and pain utterly cease in our chapel, the wretched fulfill their vows, praying with pure heart.

Great praise to Thee, honor and triumph, who grantest us the age above, and hearest the prayers of the Duke, and repellest diseases from every side.

and various prayers: ℣ Pray for us, Blessed Amadeus. ℞ That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. LET US PRAY. Almighty and merciful God, who mercifully admittest the prayers of those who hope in Thee, pour out upon us Thy mercy for the sake of Thy only-begotten Son's Passion, and grant that by the intercession of all the Saints and by the prayers of Blessed Amadeus, freed from all bodily ailments and harms of the soul, we may be able to rejoice eternally with Thee. Through our Lord, etc.

[64] ANTIPHON. Now let Savoy exult, whose Prince

Amadeus, after despising the joys of the world, is placed among the heavenly ones. Remember Thy suppliant people, O blessed Duke, that we may merit to obtain the glory of paradise. ℣ Pray for us, etc. LET US PRAY. O God, from whose gift it comes that in the unstable turmoil of this world a multitude of peoples is led peacefully and faithfully under one pious and just Duke: grant by the pious prayers of this our most blessed Duke and Thy Confessor Amadeus, and grant that all who implore his aid, freed from all infirmities of mind and body, may be happily led in glory to Thee, the guide who rightly guidest all things. Through our Lord, etc.

[65] And these things concerning the enduring tradition of the faithful people regarding the true and certain blessedness of Amadeus reigning in heaven. likewise from the agreement of writers: The testimonies of all writers and learned men of that century and those following are consonant with it. Among these, Donatus Bosius, in the Chronicle of memorable events from the creation of the world to the year 1492, the twentieth from the death of Blessed Amadeus, wrote thus: among whom Donatus Bosius: In the year of the Lord 1472, on the 7th of January, a great whitish comet appeared, and eight days later another smaller one: of which the former was seen for fifteen days, the latter for nearly forty. At the end of March the Duke of Savoy died, and illustrious with many miracles, was enrolled among the Saints, leaving two small legitimate sons, of whom the older succeeded to the rule. Peter Caro, ambassador to Alexander VI in the year 1493, speaking in public consistory about the most Serene Charles, grandson of Amadeus, said: Peter Caro: He had a grandfather, the holy and divine Prince Amadeus, resplendent with prodigies and miracles: to whom all with one voice confess and proclaim that temples and altars are owed.

[66] Peter Leoni: Peter Leoni, Canon of St. Mary of the Stairs at Milan, in the year 1521, composing an epithalamium for the nuptials of the aforesaid Charles and Beatrice of Portugal, asks who had so drawn Amadeus, whose body shines with innumerable miracles in the city of Vercelli, from the administration of the empire, that he gave himself wholly to the worship of the heavenly beings. the author of the manuscript Chronicle of Cuneo: In the manuscript Chronicle of Cuneo, from the year 1120 to 1484, these things are read: The most illustrious and renowned Prince, full of good works and most devout, our Lord Amadeus the Duke, departed from human affairs in the city of Vercelli: whose body, deposited in the church of St. Eusebius, shines with miracles. Simeon Maiolo of Asti, Bishop of Volturara, Simeon Maiolo: in his Centuries addressed to Sixtus V for the defense of sacred images, printed in Rome in the year 1585, proclaims that Amadeus was enrolled among the Saints on account of the sanctity of his life: which Bernardino Corio in his History of Milan, Corio: continued up to the year 1503, also attributes to the greatest miracles; asserting that he was honored as a Saint. Dominic Machaneus of Milan, in a certain manuscript book in Italian addressed to Duke Charles, writes: Machaneus: The Peaceful Duke was succeeded by Blessed Amadeus, a pacific and most religious Prince: whose miracles I do not presume to narrate, because I am certain that Your Serenity has read them in the little book in French, which was lent to me by the most Illustrious Blanca. I cannot however keep silent... about the grace which he bestowed on a certain one of his bodyguards, who, after having hung from the gallows at Trino for several days, was released alive and well by a broken rope. The Community of San Germano also told me that as soon as it offered a candle to Blessed Amadeus, Galeazzo lifted the siege of the place, compelled by no external force.

[67] Finally, John Botero of Bene, in the second part on Christian Princes, John Botero: composing the eulogy of this blessed Duke in Italian, says thus: I would be too lengthy if I wished to relate the many graces and various miracles done at his intercession. It will suffice to say that at the time when I was dictating these eulogies, John Stephen Ferrero, Bishop of Vercelli, sent to Duke Charles Emmanuel a book containing one hundred and thirty-eight graces and miracles, partly the one and partly the other, performed by this Saint, and extracted from the archive of St. Eusebius of Vercelli, written with great faithfulness and gravity.

[68] and many others: Whoever wishes for more of this kind may read Philibert Pingone in Augusta Taurinorum, and more at length in the Family Tree of the Princes of Savoy; Raphael Volterrano, Book 3 of the Urban Commentaries; Jacobino de San Giorgio, in the treatise On Fiefs, published while the Most Serene Charles, son of Blessed Amadeus, was still living; George Fabricius of Chemnitz, in Book 4 of the Origins of the Most Illustrious House of Saxony, folio 502; Jerome Henning, in Parts 2 and 3 of the Genealogical Theatre, in the Fourth Monarchy, and in the Genealogy of the Counts of Savoy, printed at Magdeburg in 1598; Hector Pinto the Portuguese, in Part 2 of the Dialogues, dialogue on the tranquility of life, Chapter 18, under the title of the flight from self and the praises of almsgiving; Lambert vander Burch, Dean of St. Mary of Utrecht, in the History of the Dukes and Princes of Savoy; James Philip of Bergamo, in the Supplement of supplements of the chronicles at the year 1462; Hartmann Schedel, in the Great Chronicle printed at Mainz in the year 1494: all of whom wrote with praise of Amadeus as a Saint and Blessed and illustrious with miracles: and these all in the Latin language: for those who wrote in the vernacular, Gaspar Bugato, John Nicholas Doglioni, Marco Guazzo, Jerome Bardi, all flourishing before this century, I pass over.

CHAPTER VIII.

On the images of Blessed Amadeus representing him as a Blessed.

[69] The paintings of Blessed Amadeus, expressed with rays or splendors or a diadem, such are various ones: constitute a third testimony of the blessedness believed of him among men, and all the more solid and efficacious because icons of this kind, in churches upon the altar and in other pious places destined for the prayer of all or many in common, publicly exposed for the veneration of the faithful, have existed since long ago and still exist. Such are those which are found in the Carmelite church at Vercelli: the first, at the entrance of the smaller door, above one column on the right side, at Vercelli, in St. Eusebius: whose antiquity the inscription itself declares, which above the head reads thus: Blessed Amadeus, Third Duke of Savoy: and at the feet is this: Master Abraham of Mosso, a shoemaker, had this made in the year 1477 on the 5th of July. Another presents itself to those entering through the main door, likewise on the right side, at the column to which the holy water font is attached, exhibiting the same title of Blessed with this inscription below: This work was had made by Master Peter of Mondino in the year 1499. Outside the church already mentioned, however, in a chapel newly added to it around the year 1606, the good Duke Amadeus is seen depicted together with the Blessed Virgin and other Saints, and close to him are hung some votive offerings, as a sign of grace obtained through his merits. Peter Francis Beluisio indeed, at whose expense, with the additional piety of certain others, that structure was erected, testifies under oath that he was freed from a most grave infirmity upon invoking Blessed Amadeus.

[70] A similar image was painted on the front of the church called St. Savior at Vercelli, and elsewhere: in the year 1603, at the arrangement of Peter Gabauone, a nonagenarian: and there are few churches at Vercelli that do not have some such image of this Blessed, since it is seen in the churches of St. Victor, of the Graces, of St. James, of St. Agnes, of St. Mary Magdalene, likewise outside the city in the church of St. Luke of the Canons Regular, in the cloister of St. Agatha, and in the Public Palace of the city and the place called Lanino. In the church of St. Catherine also, to the left of the altar, one has been painted since the year 1536, and adorned with hung votive offerings. And Bartholomew Larina, after his daughter Anna Isabella was healed from an incurable infirmity of the foot by a vow in the year 1608, had another placed in the chapel of Our Lady which is in the church of St. Mark.

[71] Now for those going around through the diocese of Vercelli, paintings of this kind would be found in great numbers. and through the diocese there are more: At Quinto in the parish church of St. Philibert, at Colobiano in that of St. Victor, at Lessona in St. Lawrence, at Gattinara in St. Peter, in the parish church of San Germano, in St. Eusebius of Moncravello, and there also in the church of St. Peter Martyr of the Dominican Fathers, where on the right side of the choir there is a chapel, and in the chapel above the altar a panel having depicted the Virgin Mother of God, St. Peter Martyr, and Blessed Amadeus, with this inscription: This work was had made by Dominic de Casanova of Montecappello in the year 1478, the 5th of April. At Pezzana also, by the public vow of the community, one was placed sixty years ago above the main altar of the parish church: and a hundred years ago another at Sigliano in the Parish church. That which is in Motta Alciati in the church of Sts. Fabian and Sebastian was placed in the year 1500: but in St. Mary of Buzzolina one is so ancient, having a boy genuflecting at the feet, that the inscription can no longer be read: while those at Sandigliano in St. Anthony and at Biella in St. Dominic bear the date 1488.

[72] The city of Ivrea has a similar image in the church dedicated to St. Odoric, likewise in the diocese of Ivrea: above the altar of St. Albert, with the title: Blessed Amadeus, Duke of Savoy. He was depicted there in the year 1488, and there is also another painting above the main altar in the same place. At Rivarolo in the diocese of Ivrea, two are seen at the Franciscan Fathers, and at Aosta, in the tribunal of the Bishop's table, the image of this our Blessed is seen in the middle between St. Gratus and St. Jucundus, Bishops, as well as in the church of St. Francis there and in the suburbs in the church of St. Ursus. Above all, however, the image which is exhibited at Turin at the Dominicans deserves mention: and at Turin: since so many offerings and votive tablets are brought there, and so many Masses are arranged there in consideration of benefits hoped for or obtained. Among the Canonesses Regular, likewise, in the church of the Holy Cross, there is one altar having a panel brought from Vercelli by the very foundresses of the monastery: and the Franciscans of Turin, to demonstrate the antiquity of such a custom, can show half-corroded panels of paintings already almost obliterated, which once served to adorn some altar.

[73] At Avigliana, at the Carthusians, in the church sacred to the Most Holy Trinity, at Avigliana: an altar dedicated to daily Masses was on the right hand for those entering, having a most devout image of the Crucifix, with St. Jerome on one side and Blessed Amadeus genuflecting on the other. An altar at Susa in St. Francis served a similar daily use, at Susa: having as its ornament the images of Sts. Anthony, Sebastian, Lucy, and Blessed Amadeus. Nor is it unworthy of mention here the one which is at Pinerolo in the hall, at Pinerolo: although secular, of Matthias Merlano, a witness of the virtues of Blessed Amadeus, declared by this inscription: In the year 1472 and in the month of February, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, came to Vercelli and visited Blessed Amadeus, the Third Duke of Savoy, to whom he showed a great

pack of dogs, and he showed many poor people.

In the same place, in the church of Sts. Dominic and Anthony, at Barge: where once the altar of St. Blaise stood, and in the chapel of the Confraternity of St. George, images have been honored for sixty-four years. The inhabitants of the land of Barge also venerate such an image at the second pillar on the left side of the church of St. Francis.

[74] I had almost passed over the people of Rivoli in silence, because the chapel which must be crossed by those going from the forum to the borough, at Rivoli: nearly collapsed from the injuries of time, holds the image of the Blessed without honor. But what cannot be done here amid the ruins is more than compensated for in the chapel of St. Andrew, which belongs to the right of patronage of the Counts of Montmayor; for the image that is there is frequented with the great veneration of all, and has many miracles painted around it. at Piozzasco: But I return to more ancient times, and at Piozzasco I find in the choir of St. Peter, next to the main altar on the epistle side, Blessed Amadeus painted in the year 1473, on the 20th of May. At Caraglio indeed, in the church of St. Paul, in the chapel of St. Bartholomew, the martyrdom of the same Apostle is seen depicted on the altar panel, and on the outside, on the Gospel side, St. Maurus the Abbot, at Caraglio: and on the epistle side Blessed Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, with this inscription in ancient letters: This work was had made by the Venerable Lord Bartholomew de Bussanis in 1489, the 21st of August. And in the parish church of the castle of Pie, called St. Stephen of Lirano, an image of the same blessed Duke has this writing in his hand: Do judgment and justice, etc., and the patron is expressed: This work was had made by James Coraschi in 1489.

[75] At Cavour, in the parish church of St. Peter in Chains, Blessed Amadeus is painted together with the Princes of the Apostles and the Mother of God, and there this title of the chapel is read from the year 1488: at Cavour: This chapel was had made by Lord Andrew of the Simeoni, of the Lords of Cabuzzeto, Pavarolo, and Montalto. at Villafranca: At Villafranca, in St. Stephen, under the vault of the chapel of St. Maurice, a certain person is depicted on his knees adoring the painted Amadeus, and likewise a young man in a similar act prostrate before the Blessed is represented at Altezzano in the church of Sts. Agatha and Libera, at Altezzano: and it is added: This work was had made by Anthony Guari. And in the chapel of the castle, which once served for the celebration of Mass, there is an image at Caselle: signed in the year 1512. At Caselle, in the parish church of St. John, on the left side of the altar, a sculpted image of the blessed Duke is seen: and in the parish church of St. Maurice the same is found in three chapels; namely those of Saints Joseph, Martha, and Sebastian: none of which is inferior in antiquity to one in the parish of St. Salvarius at Gassino: at Gassino: for since from the colors, although faded, it is clear that it was made in memory of the plague extinguished there through his invocation, I would dare to assert that it was placed there before the year 1500.

[76] The people of Mondovi have Blessed Amadeus depicted in the painted window of their choir together with St. Anthony of Padua; at Mondovi: and in St. Francis of the Observants together with other Saints in a most ancient painting above the altar: as also in the church of Our Lady of the same Observants, formerly above the main altar, now at the altar of the Holy Rosary, a gift of the Morozzi family. But there is also a most beautiful painting of the Virgin Mother of God in the small borough there, having on one side St. Nicholas of Tolentino and on the other Blessed Amadeus: who is also depicted in St. James of Piamfeis within the walls of the said city, and likewise on the outside wall of the house of the Duzio family between the forum and the plain of Bra, before the memory of all citizens now living. And since we have passed from churches to private houses, I do not wish to be silent about Peter Villa, who shows above the threshold of his house, and through the diocese: by the piety of his ancestors, Amadeus painted with rays and the title of Blessed. Returning, however, to the churches of the diocese of Mondovi, at Valderi and Andronio in the parishes, and at Villanova in the country church of St. James, I find most beautiful images of Blessed Amadeus.

[77] There is a Castelletto in the territory of Guneo: there among many Saints, Amadeus is painted on the pillars of the choir, at Castelletto: and this title is read for the memory of posterity: This chapel and the adjoining sacristy, begun by the predecessors of the distinguished Vincentius Tardoni, were completed by the same distinguished Vincentius in the year 1488. At Morozzo moreover, in the church of St. Mary, at Morozzo: at the third arch from the entrance, the Virgin Mother of God herself is painted, fondling her Son in her lap; and having St. Bernard on one side and Blessed Amadeus standing on the other: and in the same place in the choir it is noted: The Reverend Doctor of Sacred Theology, Fr. John Fauzzoni, Provost of this Provostship, had this church painted in the year 1484: whence an irrefutable testimony is drawn, since the said Fr. Fauzzoni was the Confessor of the Blessed himself. Similarly, in another church at Morozzo, the Blessed is seen depicted together with other Saints.

[78] at Cuneo: At Cuneo in St. Francis, not only an image of this kind, but also an altar was once erected to the same Blessed: which, although it was later destroyed because, adhering to one of the columns, it was detrimental to the beauty of the church itself, the image was nevertheless preserved and translated to the choir, and thence to Turin, so that the Most Serene Duke Charles Emmanuel might contemplate its antiquity. At Carmagnola, in St. Augustine, at Carmagnola: opposite the pulpit, there is an image so distinctly expressed that the freshly shaved beard can be recognized: and at Savigliano: and a similar image was seen at Savigliano in the chapel of the Sereni at St. Dominic, as well as in the house of Francis Sereno, a nobleman of sixty: who testifies that from his father, who died after his seventieth year, he had heard that the said image was painted partly out of devotion and partly out of the obligation of his family toward the Blessed, who had lifted one of their members from the sacred font while alive.

[79] Now, having crossed the mountains, let us see the Blessed honored also in Savoy by the religious genuflecting worship shown before his images. likewise at Conflans: Conflans is a place in the diocese of Tarentaise, where in the church of Sts. Mary Magdalene and Lazarus, around this Blessed, four biers are depicted, as a sign of the same number of dead raised there: and so great was the devotion of this people toward their Prince before the last wars that few were found who did not frequently visit his image and recite the prayers described above, at Chambery: and there posted on the appended tablets. At Chambery moreover, in the church of St. Francis, one is adored, adorned with miracles depicted around it, within the chapel of Sts. Cosmas and Damian. at Annecy: At Annecy also, with the same use of the prayers proposed above, an image was frequented, placed in the chapel of Consolation at St. Dominic: and in the same place there is a residence of the Benedictines called after Our Lady, furnished with painted glass of fine workmanship, which among other Saints also display Blessed Amadeus: indeed by authentic testimony it is established that in this very town of Annecy a Mass used to be said in honor of this Blessed.

[80] Not only in churches but also on the fronts of houses the image of Blessed Amadeus may be seen depicted: and at Seyssel: and so at Villa-Ugine of the Duchy of Savoy it is seen among other Saints before the house of Lord Martod and frequently elsewhere. To make an end here of speaking about images, I conclude with those which the inhabitants of the village of Seyssel and the church of St. Augustine possess, not only an ancient one in the choir, but also another in a chapel, the more worthy of mention here because around it are depicted stupendous miracles performed at the invocation of Blessed Amadeus; concerning various persons led out of prisons and others pressed by calamities; and in particular concerning a boy raised from death, who by an unhappy accident had fallen from a height and impaled himself on a sharp stake and expired.

APPENDIX FROM MANUSCRIPTS.

Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, at Vercelli in Piedmont (Blessed).

FROM MANUSCRIPT INSTRUMENTS.

§ I On the Elevation, Translation, and Chapel of Blessed Amadeus.

[81] In the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. By this series of this public instrument let it be manifest to all Charles, Duke of Savoy: that the Most Illustrious and Most Excellent Prince, Lord Charles, Duke of Savoy, etc., and Lord of Vercelli, being in that same city of Vercelli, led by the zeal of devotion and forewarned by the Venerable Lords, the Canons of the Church of Vercelli, and other distinguished citizens, concerning the many and memorable miracles which Almighty God had performed at the intercession (as is piously believed) of the Most Illustrious Lord Amadeus, of revered memory, Duke of Savoy during his lifetime, his uncle, whose relics rested in that same church before the main altar; on account of the frequency of miracles: on account of which no small reputation of holiness of the same Most Illustrious Lord Amadeus had grown in the city itself and neighboring places, and had spread even to the most remote parts: he decreed that these relics, which were buried under the ground, should be placed in another more honorable location, so that if in the future he should be enrolled in the number of Saints, which is piously hoped, the relics themselves might be found whole and clean.

[82] after prior consultation: Having therefore held a diligent consultation with the reverend Fathers, Lords John Baptist de Advocatis of Valdugia, Doctor of both Laws, Canon of Vercelli, and Vicar General of the Most Reverend Father in Christ and Lord, Lord Augustine Ferrero, by the grace of God and the Apostolic See Bishop of Vercelli and Count; Bernardino de Advocatis, Archdeacon of Casanova, John de Gromis, Archpriest, Andrew Ferrero, Provost, and other Canons of the said Cathedral Church of Vercelli, he approached the tomb reverently, and had the case in which the lifeless body lay opened; from which the individual bones were extracted one by one (none indeed was missing) and by the Reverend Father in Christ, Lord Claude de Seyssel, by the grace of God and the Apostolic See Archbishop of Turin, present there, and other Priests of the said church, extracted from the said case, he had them raised and cleaned, he orders the body to be elevated and placed in another case: and placed in another wooden case, wrapped in a clean cloth. Which new case, by the consent and arrangement of the said Lords, the Vicar, Archdeacon, Archpriest, Provost, and Canons, was placed in the treasury of the same church. The old case, however, with the entrails and other things remaining from the said body, was placed again in its former location from which it had been extracted.

[83] Concerning all and each of the above-written events, and placed in the treasury: both the Most Illustrious Lord Prince himself and the said Lords, the Vicar, Archdeacon, Archpriest, Provost, and Canons, ordered a public instrument to be made by me, the undersigned Notary. These things were done at Vercelli in the church of St. Eusebius, in the year 1518, June 11: in the current year of the Lord 1518, Indiction VI, on the 11th day of the month of June, in the 5th year of the Pontificate of Our Most Holy Lord Pope Leo X. Present were the Most Reverend Father in Christ, Lord Urban de Miolano, Bishop-elect of Valence and Perpetual Commendatory of the Abbey and Monastery of St. Stephen of the citadel of Vercelli of the Order of St. Benedict; Claude de Belaysone, Baron of San Germano, Counselor and Chamberlain of the same Most Illustrious Prince; Francis de Bosco, Lord of Persiac, Master of the household; Louis Galieni, Lord of Brevet, Primary Ducal Chamberlain;

and the Venerable religious, Professor of Sacred Theology, William Rodulphi, of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance, Confessor, witnesses called, known, and requested for all and each of the above.

And I, John Thomas de Ferraris, son of the late Lord John Augustine, citizen of Vercelli, public Notary by Imperial authority and Secretary of the Episcopal Curia of Vercelli, being present at all the above... have here subscribed myself, etc.

[84] Thus far the very words of the authentic instrument: what follows, concerning the Translation made in the following century, had to be rendered from Italian into Latin.

In the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. In the year from His nativity 1609, Indiction VII, On the occasion of a new construction: on the 25th day of July, about the first hour of the night, it was done in the Cathedral Church of St. Eusebius and in the chapel described below, situated on the north side, which formerly served the Chaplains of the same church as a sacristy; before the distinguished Lords Eusebius Dionysius and John Augustissimo of the Lords of Ronsenda, citizens and collegiate Notaries of this city, witnesses called for the below, known and suitable. When on the occasion of a new choir to be constructed in the said Cathedral of St. Eusebius, the old choir necessarily had to be demolished, and consequently among other things the place commonly called the Treasury from the Treasury: (in which until then the sacred Relics, with which this church was endowed from ancient times, were kept with much honor and reverence, and likewise the body or bones of Blessed Amadeus, Duke of Savoy: which together constituting a true and most precious treasure, gave the place its fitting name), both the said relics, made more adorned and more accessible, and the body of Blessed Amadeus itself, were deposited in the sacristy.

[85] Although from that time the thought had been conceived of properly erecting a suitable place for those sacred bones, which had always been in great veneration, formerly translated into the sacristy: not only for this city and diocese but also for many other peoples and provinces, on account of the great and frequent graces which many in various places acknowledge as divinely obtained when, committing their vows to Blessed Amadeus, they confidently seek his intercession; because, however, while the work of the new construction was going on, everything was in upheaval, the venerable body was left in the same sacristy, until, several years having elapsed, for greater safety and for the sake of greater reverence and security, it was provisionally placed in the same location where the body of the glorious Martyr Eusebius had much earlier been deposited, with the intention of afterward solemnly translating it: which, however, most serious causes hindering, has not been done to this day.

[86] The Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Stephen Ferrero, by the grace of God and the Apostolic See Bishop of Vercelli and Count, meanwhile while the Translation of St. Eusebius is deferred, lest the piety of the people be longer impeded: considering it by no means suitable to his particular devotion toward Blessed Amadeus that his sacred bones should remain any longer in that place as if hidden; decreed to satisfy his own and many pious persons' desire, by placing them in a more conspicuous location, free from the noise of the construction workers, where they could more quietly and expeditiously be honored, and where recourse could be more freely had to the most efficacious intercession and protection of the same Blessed, continually invoked with the greatest fruit.

[87] Wherefore the Most Illustrious Bishop aforesaid ordered the Reverend Chapter of the Most Reverend Lords, the Canons and Beneficiaries of the aforesaid Cathedral, to be convened: in the year 1609, July 25, into a suitable chapel it is transferred: and at the first hour of the night, with the doors of the church closed, he went processionally to the above-indicated place: and thence had the aforesaid sacred bones removed, as they were placed in a walnut case and locked, by four of the more dignified Canons, namely the Illustrious and Most Reverend Lords Louis Capello, Archdeacon, John Baptist Gattinara, Archpriest, Philibert of the Lords of Buronzo, Provost, and John Dominic Avogadro, Canon Priest, while Psalm 33 was being sung, I will bless the Lord at all times, etc. And the aforesaid case was carried into the chapel recently fitted out and cleaned, for this sole reason that it served the Chaplains as a sacristy in the northern part of the church; where a white silk canopy was suspended, beneath which, within a new walnut case, much larger and to be locked with a key, the former smaller one, just as it was closed, was placed, and covered with a red silk veil, distinguished by a white cross through the middle.

[88] Present at this action were the Most Reverend Father Master Fr. Ambrose Barbavara, by the Bishop of Vercelli before many witnesses: Inquisitor of this city; the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Vespasian Ayazza, Abbot of St. Mary of Abundance; the Illustrious Lords Bartholomew Gattinara, Prefect of the Doctoral College; Jerome Ugaccio, Podesta; Alexander Ayazza, one of the Lords Deputies; John Comazzolo, and John Baptist Tizzoni, Solicitors of this city; likewise the Illustrious Lords, the Knight Flaminio Avogadro, Christopher Salamon, Count of Serravalle, Marius Olgiato, Advocate of this city, the Knight Rhadamantus Ayazza, Paul Bernardino Alciato, John Anthony Nigro, citizens and decurions of this city, with some other leading men of the same city. Concerning all of which, by order of the Most Illustrious, I, Peter Scaramuzza of Candelo, citizen of Vercelli, Notary and Secretary of the Episcopal Curia, received and signed this instrument written by another's hand.

[89] These things at Vercelli: at Turin, however, ten or twelve years later, around 1620 of the Christian era, the Most Reverend Father Fr. John Baptist Ferreri of the Order of Preachers, at Turin in the church of the Preachers the image of the Blessed: Confessor of Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy, and afterward created Archbishop of Turin, considering that the image of Blessed Amadeus in the church of his Order at Turin, painted in colors on one of its pillars, for at least a hundred years already, which was mentioned more often above in the Life, was held in such singular honor by the faithful and daily adorned with so many votive offerings; conceived the plan of transferring it to a certain chapel, and indeed had the section of the pillar itself which bore the aforesaid image of the Blessed cut away without any damage to it and transferred to the chapel which is seen in the middle of the right side-aisle; translated from the wall to a chapel in the year 1620: with the Duke Charles Emmanuel himself and his whole Court present, with a great multitude of people, whose devotion toward the Blessed thenceforward so increased that, however capacious the chapel may be, votive offerings had in a short time covered it entirely.

[90] And now the aforesaid image remains covered, and is only revealed for the people's inspection on the feast day of the Blessed himself, with the silver statue that is customarily placed before it being temporarily removed. it is devoutly venerated: On the same feast of the 30th of March, all the Orders of Regulars, parishes, and confraternities come processionally to the said image and altar; and having prayed, they sing the hymn Iste Confessor, with the antiphon and prayer from the Common of a Confessor. On the same day the Duke with his whole Court is accustomed to come and attend a solemn Mass sung of the Most Holy Trinity: and indeed Indulgences are proposed there on that day by the concession of Paul V to all who visit the church of St. Dominic at Turin, with the cause of that concession kept silent, however (because Amadeus has not yet been duly canonized).

[91] Thus was it reported to us this year 1667 by Francis de Malinis, Rector of our Society at Turin, other images are engraved in copper: by whose kindness we have obtained both these and the instruments that follow: as well as various images of the Blessed engraved in copper: among which one, principal and larger than the rest, fills a page and shows the Blessed in the ducal habit of his Order, extending its collar to the poor: and the same, dedicated to Cardinal Maurice of Savoy at Rome, is surrounded by a wide border, which the heraldic spirals of the Order of the Annunciation, distinguished by seven roses, fill in such a way that the open circle of each rose encompasses some illustrious action of his life. Other images, differently sketched, show in the hands of the Blessed Duke the truly golden words of his last will, to be imprinted on the minds of all Christian Princes, to be read: Do justice and judgment, and love the poor, and the Lord will give peace in your borders.

§ II Acts for the Canonization of Blessed Amadeus.

[92] The daughter of Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy, and Catherine Michaela, Infanta of Austria, Mary of Savoy, of the Third Order of St. Francis: born eighth among ten children, was Mary: who, having embraced the Third Order of St. Francis, lived a religious life for a long time at Bologna; thence going to Rome, she died there in her sixtieth year, in the year 1656; and at Assisi in the church of St. Francis, as she had determined while living, she was buried when dead. While she was at Rome, in her own name and in the names of her brothers, Maurice and Francis Thomas, Princes, at Rome, Procuratrix in this cause: she undertook the business of Canonization, which had often been attempted and interrupted before, to be promoted with all diligence. What had been done in the cause up to that time she set forth in detail in a petition, which we received from Turin, offered to the Cardinal presiding over the Roman Rota: but without an expression of the year in which it was offered: which year we suspect to have been one of the six or eight last years which the Infanta Mary spent alive. The aforesaid petition, however, omitting the proofs here and there, with the summary of the life (which is prefixed) interspersed, is as follows.

[92] Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord.

The servant of God, Blessed Amadeus, of the Most Serene dynasty, third Duke of Savoy, was born he sets before the Roman Rota the sanctity of Blessed Amadeus: in the most ancient town called the town of Thonon, of Louis II, Duke of Savoy, and Anna, daughter of Janus, King of Cyprus, joined in legitimate marriage, on the 1st day of February, in the year of restored salvation 1435. Washed then in the sacred font of Baptism and piously raised by his parents, still in his tender age, for the reconciliation of peace between Charles VII, the Most Christian King, and his father, in the year 1452, he was joined in marriage with Yolande, daughter of the same King. from his boyhood: In the same tender age he gave a specimen of future sanctity, devoting himself to prayers and works of piety, hearing the sacrifice of the Mass daily, reciting the canonical Hours, helping the needy, settling discords, and the like...

[93] Arriving, however, at more mature years, from these beginnings and eminent preludes, the Most High accumulated the blessings to more advanced years: with which He had deemed His servant worthy, and with the increases of virtues growing with age and the same being solidly confirmed, despising all worldly and perishable things, he took the greatest care to attain only eternal things. He was most observant of the Catholic faith, most loving of religion: remarkable for his zeal for virtues and peace: a most diligent guardian and promoter of peace and unity among his subjects, among his brothers, among Princes. He cultivated all virtues, but remarkably pursued charity both toward God and toward his neighbor with such fervor that he would distribute the greater part of his income to the poor, relieve them in their necessities; for his charity toward the poor: help and serve them in their infirmities with his own assistance, counsel, and hands: bestow clothing, his golden collar, and whatever he had for feeding and clothing them: and divide among them, as among dogs for hunting heaven, as among soldiers for guarding his garrisons, wages and rewards.

[94] The servant of God restored monasteries of religious men and women and other pious places and built new ones, for his liberality toward holy places: and was most generous toward them. He endured bodily infirmities and especially the epileptic disease, from which he was most frequently afflicted, with great tranquility and constancy of spirit, and was accustomed to reply to those who pitied him that they were sent by God for the preservation of his humility. He frequently made pilgrimages to the Holy Shroud, to the threshold of the Apostles, to other pious places, incognito, in humble garb, on foot; and he lavishly bestowed gold, silver, and precious gems upon their churches and ministers. He patiently endured persecutions from enemies and from his own brother Philip, and pursued them with benefits and munificence. Bearing the tongues of detractors magnanimously, for his long-suffering: he would say to those who reported it that they were free, and he overcame them by constancy and greatness of spirit alone...

[95] The dissensions that had arisen with Galeazzo Sforza the servant of God, born for peace, extinguished by the bond of peace, for his zeal for the faith: giving his sister Bona to him in marriage. With a more religious zeal he aided the faithful, after the death of Constantine, the last Emperor of the Greeks, and Constantinople's capture by the infidels, with auxiliary forces. At the urging of Pius II, he supplied arms, soldiers, and money against the Turks. To subdue the apostasy of James, the natural son of the King of Cyprus and Bishop of Nicosia, he raised soldiers. He always employed God-fearing men in his household and in their offices; instilled religion, the fear of God, and devotion to the Mother of God and the Saints in them and in all his subjects, and always kept them in piety and justice...

[96] Almighty God moreover, to confirm the virtues and sanctity of His servant, and by miracles in his lifetime: wrought various miracles, even during his lifetime, through his merits and intercession. For at Paris, when he was lighting the woodpile in honor of St. John the Baptist in the King's name, many sick and debilitated persons came running, who immediately carried away health from their ailments and infirmities. And when during his final illness, as he lay in the city of Vercelli, public supplications were being celebrated in the city of Turin for his health: at the very hour of his departure, as if sitting beside the sun, the servant of God appeared most luminously to many thousands of people. for his piety in the face of death: He endured the agony of his infirmity and death most constantly: he predicted death itself, and composed himself for it most peacefully. He chose burial under the steps of the Cathedral Church of Vercelli, so that he might be trodden underfoot by all: he fortified himself with the most holy Sacraments; and to his wife Yolande, the guardian of his children, and to the nobles of the kingdom, as a kind of last testament, he impressed those words, afterwards inscribed on his images: DO JUDGMENT AND JUSTICE, AND LOVE THE POOR, AND THE LORD WILL GIVE PEACE IN YOUR BORDERS. And then with his eyes fixed on heaven, he migrated from earthly to heavenly kingdoms on the 30th day of March, in the year 1472; being about the 37th year of his age...

[97] and the faith of his blessedness that followed it: When moreover the fame of his sanctity and miracles was spread abroad with his death, to the church of Vercelli the Archbishops of Turin and Tarentaise and the Bishop of Vercelli and a hundred Priests came together with a vast multitude of people, and for nine days they celebrated a funeral mixed with joy and tears; grieving indeed at the bodily loss of the Prince, but rejoicing at his blessed (as they firmly believed) patronage in heaven. The Masses on those days, having acquired confidence in his sanctity, they celebrated partly of the Holy Spirit, partly of the Blessed Virgin, and partly for the Departed in general. The poor also, accompanying his funeral, clothed themselves not in black, as is customary, but in white garments, and various sick persons hastened to his sepulcher, and professed that they had received graces and benefits through his intercession, and as a sign of thanks they hung votive offerings, candles, tablets, and such votive objects.

[98] The fame of the sanctity of the servant of God increased daily and the miracles grew more frequent: by frequent miracles: whence at the instance of Philibert, Duke of Savoy, the son and immediate successor of the servant of God, the Canons and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of Vercelli, having taken information on the aforesaid, collected one hundred and forty miracles, wrought by God from the year 1472 to the year 1482 through the intercession of the servant of God for the benefit of those invoking him: and from then on he began to be commonly and publicly invoked, venerated, and honored as a Saint and friend of God; by the cult of images: and images of him with rays and splendors, even in churches and on altars, began to be painted and placed: so much so that in the course of time, in the Duchy of Savoy alone, more than three hundred images exposed to veneration were found; and finally, with the tolerance of the Bishops, various hymns and prayers, even in the Divine Office and the sacrifice of the Mass, were recited in memory and honor of the same servant of God. Authors and writers also, both of that century and those following, writing about him, always made mention as of a Blessed and Saint, by the agreement of writers calling him Blessed: celebrated his virtues and miracles, and called him Saint and Blessed. Whence in the articles of the year 1614 given to the Sacred Rota for this cause, thirty authors are enumerated: among whom certain enemies of the Catholic Church, convinced by the evidence of the fact, support this truth of ours: and nevertheless for a more diligent investigation other writers also could be found, besides those who have written from the aforesaid year 1614 to our own times.

[99] On account of these things, therefore, there has always been a great concourse of citizens and foreigners at the body and sepulcher of the servant of God in the Cathedral Church of Vercelli, by the concourse of citizens and foreigners to the sepulcher: including Princes; and ecclesiastics, including Bishops and Visitors, among whom St. Charles Borromeo, who reverently venerated it. And not only did people come individually, but also in crowds and by publicly proclaimed and conducted processions: and this for the giving of thanks for benefits obtained from God through the intercession of the servant of God: as a sign of which, as well as at his images, many and great offerings were made, by the elevation and translation of the body: and innumerable tablets and other votive offerings, as we said, were appended. With devotion growing ever greater with the increase of time, in the year 1518 his body together with the relics was translated and deposited in the Sanctuary where the relics of the Saints were preserved, with prior consultation of Prelates, the Episcopal Vicar, and other religious: which afterwards, in the year 1609, by the authority of the Bishop of Vercelli, was placed in a chapel recently restored and adorned, where it rests today.

[100] At that time the preparations for the solemn canonization of the servant of God began to be made: Likewise that in 1609 informative processes were made: whence in the same year 1609, through the Episcopal Vicar of Vercelli, an informative process, as it is called, was made for the perpetual memory of the matter, concerning his life and precious death, concerning his virtues and miracles, and concerning the veneration of his relics and images, with a description of the same images which were preserved with cult and veneration in various places, and with various attestations concerning many miracles, not only ancient but also those wrought daily. And in the same year a similar process was made also by the Vicar General of Turin, and various others by Andrew Clarello, appointed Commissioner, by the Bishop of Tarentaise, by the Bishop of Ivrea, by the Vicar General of Aosta Pretoria, by the Bishop of Mondovi, by the Bishop of Saluzzo, by the Vicar of the Abbey of Pinerolo in the diocese of Orleans, in the city of Susa of no diocese, in the city of Fossano: and as a crowning touch, also by the authority of the servant of God Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva.

[101] With things thus arranged in those parts, the Most Serene Prince Maurice of Savoy, then Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, and that Cardinal Maurice of Savoy petitioned for the Canonization: also in the name of his Most Serene Father and of the entire Clergy of the cities and State of Savoy, through Peter Francis Maletus of the Order of Canons Regular of the Lateran, made an instance before Paul V of holy memory for the canonization of the servant of God: who referred the petition to the Sacred Congregation of Rites: and the same Sacred Congregation, having maturely discussed the business, judged that, if it should please His Holiness, it would be possible to proceed to an inquisition in general and in particular by Apostolic authority. and therefore that in 1613 the cause was committed to the Auditors of the Rota: At the instance, therefore, of the aforesaid in the year 1613, the cause was committed by the same Paul V to the Most Illustrious Lord Archbishop of Damascus, Lieutenant of the Sacred Rota, and to the Most Reverend Lord John Baptist Conino, Dean, and Alfonso Manzanedo de Quinones, senior Auditors of the Rota, after whose remissorial letters for an inquisition in general: by a commission signed by His Holiness and presented in the acts of Vincentius Remerius on the 11th of July. Which delegated Lords, having reviewed the mandate of the procuracy and having observed the other things to be observed by law, on the 15th of January 1614 decreed and issued remissorial letters for making an inquisition in general, directed to the Most Reverend Lords Charles Brolia, Archbishop of Turin, and James Goria, Bishop of Vercelli, so that each might inquire in his Archdiocese and Diocese respectively with the appropriate faculties.

[102] and the processes thence made: These letters were presented to the aforesaid subdelegated judges, and two processes were compiled and concluded by them in the month of May 1615; and shortly afterward transmitted together with the letters of response to the Rota: which, presented, opened, and recognized at the Rota in the month of June, and successively seen and discussed by the same Auditors, from them in the month of December it was declared that there was established fame of sanctity and miracles; and therefore that the general inquisition was satisfied, and it was possible to proceed to an inquisition in particular. The articles in particular having therefore been presented by the Procurator, and interrogatories having been given ex officio by the same Auditors, as was then customary, other letters were issued for an inquisition in particular: remissorial letters in particular were granted, directed to the same Archbishop of Turin and Bishop of Vercelli, which in the month of February 1616 were delivered to John Anthony Qualia, a Priest of Vercelli, the appointed bearer, who was to carry them to the regions and present them to the aforesaid judges.

[103] But when, on account of wars breaking out, those letters could not be carried into execution, and finally, new judges having been obtained in 1621: and meanwhile the Archbishop of Turin had died and the Bishop of Vercelli was found absent from his church in the Roman Curia: therefore in the year 1621, through the aforesaid Maletus, a petition was made for a new appointment of Judges, and after various consultations on these Judges, the Sacred Rota finally appointed the Apostolic Nuncio, then and now the Archbishop of Turin, so that he might proceed jointly to the execution of the letters and the inquisition in particular. But since at that time the Archbishop of Damascus, namely the Most Illustrious Sacratus, was promoted to the Cardinalate, lest any difficulty arise concerning jurisdiction, by Gregory XV of happy memory James Cavaliero was substituted in his place, and letters concerning this substitution were transmitted to those parts: which, however, on account of wars breaking out and

other inconveniences in those parts, and on account of the most recent decrees of Urban VIII, were not carried into execution.

[104] Today, on behalf of the Most Serene Lady Mary, Infanta of Savoy, both in her own name and in the name of those specially constituted as Procuratrix in this matter, the cause is resumed by the Procuratrix: an instance is made for the commission of the resumption of the cause: which seems just and equitable and consequently to be granted. For since three things are required for a cause of canonization to be committed, namely a mandate of procuracy, the instance of Princes, and the fame of sanctity and miracles; all of these are at hand in the present case... Wherefore, etc. Thus far that petition: and that it should not achieve the desired effect seems attributable to the death of that Most Serene Procuratrix herself, and cut short by her death: rather than to the lack of any diligence that could have been applied in that business: which, now resumed again by mandate of the Most Serene Charles Emmanuel II, happily reigning, is being vigorously pressed, with new processes concerning the particular actions, virtues, and miracles of Blessed Amadeus having been instituted and completed: of which the first, that of Vercelli, was completed in the month of August of the year 1666 (when we were inquiring about these matters), in the year 1666 it began to be pressed again: but had not yet been signed by the Bishop, impeded by illness: the other, that of Turin, brought close to completion, was still awaiting the final hand: and both were hoped to be sent to Rome within a short time. May God add to the remaining happiness of this excellent Prince this crowning achievement, that he may finally be able to celebrate, accomplished in his own times, the canonization so long desired.

§ III Acts of the latest visitation of the Chapel and Relics of Blessed Amadeus.

[105] In the year 1661, the 12th of the month of February, at Vercelli in the Episcopal Palace, before the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Jerome de Ruvere, the Bishop of Vercelli, requested by the Procurator: Remissorial Judge in the cause of Blessed Amadeus... the Illustrious Count and Abbot de Cabureto, Procurator in the same cause, appeared, requesting and urging that the said Most Illustrious Bishop would deign to go to the Cathedral Church of St. Eusebius and to the chapel in which the bones of the servant of God Amadeus, third Duke of Savoy, are deposited, and there to visit the said chapel, the sepulcher, the votive tablets, the gifts, and do whatever else might seem right, and administer justice and provide testimonials... He offered himself ready to do what might seem to be of his office, and so doing, he betook himself to the said Cathedral Church, and entering it, having first prayed before the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, he goes to the chapel of Blessed Amadeus: and proceeding directly past the main altar... he saw, at the beginning of the fifth aisle, which extends on the right side of the same church, a chapel dedicated to Blessed Amadeus, into which there is entrance through a square door, which has a wooden door, composed of two leaves, the upper half of which has iron bars, and the other lower half is all of wood, and is closed with a lock and iron bolt. It also has two lateral windows, which are fitted with iron bars in the form of the door, with openings so wide that those who are outside can conveniently see into the chapel, and prayer may be made and the altar placed there may be adored.

[106] Above the said door is the coat of arms of the House of Savoy, namely a tall cross on a red field: and there he finds, above the altar, an image of the Blessed: and the door itself is adorned above and on the sides with paintings and foliage with its borders and flowers mixed with fruits, which are commonly called festoons. At the head of the same chapel he found an altar prepared... which has a tabernacle, placed upon two gilded steps... and upon the same altar there stands a wooden icon, on which is painted the image of an upright and beardless man, with long hair down to the ears, his head adorned all around with golden rays: whose face is turned to the left side of the chapel, with a doubled surplice, presenting brocade on the outside and extending to the middle of the legs, on the inside representing a white skin spotted with black, with a golden collar around the neck adorned with Solomon's knots, from which hangs before the chest an image of the Most Holy Annunciation: and he is clothed in a green tunic with golden borders, holding in his right hand a straight rod or scepter, and under his left hand a tablet resting on the ground; on which in capital letters these words are written: DO JUDGMENT AND JUSTICE: LOVE THE POOR: AND THE LORD WILL GIVE PEACE IN YOUR BORDERS. BLESSED AMADEUS THE EIGHTH, THIRD DUKE OF SAVOY. And he has black stockings with black shoes... The painters, Lords Frederick Guazio and Caesar Lanino, when asked what they thought of this image, replied, upon their oath, painted around the year 1620: that the work appeared to be that of a certain Ceridone, who flourished around the year 1620, and whose style they knew very well from his many works found in that city and neighboring places.

[107] The chapel itself is entirely adorned with silk hangings of various colors, and above the altar there is a canopy made of the same colors with silk fringes: the furnishing of the altar and the lamp from the gift of Mary of Savoy: which furnishing and canopy were offered by the Most Serene Infanta Mary of Savoy, and sent from Bologna to Vercelli together with a silver lamp weighing three and a half pounds, hanging from the inner ceiling of the said chapel: so testifying Canon John James Raspa, who upon his oath taken on the Holy Gospels deposed that he had offered them by mandate of the said Most Serene Infanta to Blessed Amadeus. In the said Chapel on either side there are two repositories, which are said to be one of Charles, surnamed the Good, and the other of the Most Serene Duke Victor Amadeus, most recently deceased.

[108] In the said chapel there are hung around its walls twenty-six tablets, several silver votive offerings: with a background of black velvet, partly gilded and partly black... and they contain various silver votive offerings weighing about three pounds, representing many persons genuflecting, hands, eyes, hearts, legs, arms, and children, to the number of one hundred and thirty-eight, before various images of the Blessed Mary Virgin and of Blessed Amadeus, likewise in silver. And on the right side of the ornament of the said icon there is hung a silver cross and a silver tooth: which tooth Lord Archdeacon Albert Montonario testifies under oath was offered by the Lord Provost of the town of Blandrate of the State of Milan, about five years ago, on account of a grace received through the intercession of the said Blessed Amadeus, when he was troubled by a most severe toothache. On the Gospel side of the said altar there stands an ancient iron candelabrum, a large candelabrum for votive candles: of almost a man's height... having iron rings and other similar ornaments as if sprinkled with wax: from which it clearly appears that wax candles had been placed upon it: and the Lords Canons of the Cathedral present, and the Lords Paul de Advocatis, Referendary, and James Anthony Dionysius, testify upon their oaths that they saw in the time of their remembrance various candles offered and burning in honor of the said Blessed Amadeus, and this annually on the feast of the same Blessed Amadeus.

[109] And when the wooden altar had been removed (which is painted with golden flowers on a white field with fringes of the same color, the case of the sacred body: in the middle of which stands an image of Blessed Amadeus), measuring eleven inches in height, a wooden case was seen, measuring in height on the front side one foot and half an inch, and on the back one foot and three inches, in length two feet and seven and a half inches, and in width one foot and four inches, fitted with two locks: in which the Lords Referendary Paul de Advocatis and Theseus Raspa testify upon their oath that the holy bones of Blessed Amadeus are deposited: and that the said wooden case is the same one, about whose translation from the sacristy of this church to this very place, they had previously deposed as having occurred in the year 1609, on the 25th of July... In the sacristy he finds:

[110] In the aforesaid year and month, on Tuesday the twenty-fifth day of February, at the twenty-first hour, at Vercelli in the Episcopal Palace and in the hall of the usual audience, before the Most Reverend and Most Illustrious Lord Bishop, Remissorial Judge in the cause mentioned above, with the Lords Sub-promoters present, and myself the Notary and the witnesses written below, the Illustrious Lord Abbot de Cabureto appeared, who, reproducing the citation legitimately ordered and executed against the Sub-promoters, requests and urges that Your Most Illustrious Lordship deign to go to the smaller sacristy of the Cathedral Church of St. Eusebius, for the purpose of visiting the tablets, votive offerings, gifts, and all other offerings made in honor of the servant of God Amadeus, third Duke of Savoy, and preserved in the same as being more precious, and to do whatever else may be right, and to administer justice and provide testimonials. And the Lords Sub-promoters of the faith, the Reverend Lord Mark Anthony Clericheto, the Reverend Lord Prior, and Lord John Angelo Toseto, protest that nothing be done except with all due formalities observed, and as to the nullity of anything done otherwise, without their presence: and other protests, etc. Having heard these, the aforesaid Most Illustrious Lord Bishop and Remissorial Judge betook himself to the smaller sacristy of the Cathedral Church of St. Eusebius, accompanied by the Sub-promoters of the faith appointed, the Notary and witnesses as above, and there he visited and inspected the place designated for the preservation of the relics of the Saints. When it was opened there was found a votive tablet, surrounded by black, a votive work of gold: with a wooden base, fashioned with golden ornaments, with golden knots or Solomon's signs superimposed, interwoven with roses into which precious stones are set: the background of which tablet is covered with a thin plate of gold, on which is sculpted an adorned bed, in which lies an elderly man, sitting up in the same bed with hands joined, looking toward a certain image fashioned at the top of the said tablet. The image itself is of an upright man among clouds to the knees, showing a young man, with long hair, with rays and splendors around the head, with a golden collar hanging from the neck, to which adheres at the center of the chest an image of the Annunciation: below moreover, and on the lower part of the tablet, there is sculpted the coat of arms of the House of Savoy. The plate itself is eight inches wide and six inches high, and weighs eleven ounces: the whole tablet is nine and a half inches wide and eight inches high.

[111] When questioned, the Reverend Lords Petrino Goria, Archpriest, Francis Jerome Cagnolo, Dean of the Canons, and Anthony Beltrafio, which questioned witnesses testify: as to what is represented in the above-described image, replied, first Lord Archpriest upon his oath... and then Lord Canon Cagnolo... and lastly Lord John Anthony Beltrafio... that the image of the one sitting in bed is the image of the Most Serene Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy; and the image placed in the cloud is that of Blessed Amadeus, likewise Duke of Savoy: and that after the year 1614 the same Most Serene Charles Emmanuel sent this golden tablet or votive offering from Turin to Vercelli to the altar of Blessed Amadeus, to be that of Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Savoy: to be offered

in thanksgiving for the health restored to him by God through the intercession of the said Blessed Amadeus, after a grave illness into which he had fallen. And when the said tablet was offered, it was placed in this location, healed by Blessed Amadeus in the year 1614: as a more precious item, to be guarded, and lest it be carried off by the rapacity of thieves; as happened with many silver objects offered to the same Blessed Amadeus.

[112] Likewise there was extracted from a wooden chest, in which are kept very many silver vessels for the adornment of the same Cathedral, a large silver case: a silver case, twenty-seven inches long, fourteen inches wide, twelve inches high, with a pedestal likewise of silver: which is fashioned all around with various figures and ornaments. Above the said silver case there is a sculpted effigy, likewise of silver, representing Blessed Amadeus as a young man, seven inches in height, who has long hair down to the ears, offered by the same in the year 1618: a royal mantle, and upon his head a diadem with rays: the left hand holds a plate on which are written these words: DO JUDGMENT AND JUSTICE: LOVE THE POOR: AND THE LORD WILL GIVE PEACE IN YOUR BORDERS. On either side of the said image there are four other figures representing in feminine dress the four Cardinal Virtues: below the said image the coat of arms of the House of Savoy is sculpted on both sides. Before and behind the said silver case, on a silver escutcheon, these words are sculpted: BLESSED AMADEUS, THIRD DUKE OF SAVOY. Above the escutcheon the said words are contained. On the front, on another escutcheon, these words are sculpted: WHOSE GLORY OF SOUL THE SANCTITY OF HIS LIFE OBTAINED. On the left side of the said case, on a lower silver escutcheon, are these words: THE SPLENDOR OF THE SUN MADE MANIFEST. On the upper one these words: IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD 1618 AT THE RESTORATION OF VERCELLI. On the right side of the same case, in the upper part, on another silver escutcheon, are these words: CHARLES EMMANUEL, DUKE OF SAVOY, WITH HIS MOST SERENE SONS, PIOUSLY ARRANGED FOR THE RELICS TO BE DEPOSITED. On the lower part these words: THE SUPREME PONTIFF APPROVED.

[113] on account of the restoration of Vercelli to him: The Lord Canon Cagnolo, when questioned how the said case came to be there, replied upon his oath: I know and I saw this case personally offered to Blessed Amadeus, and placed upon his altar, by the Most Serene Charles Emmanuel I, after the present city of Vercelli had been restored to him from the Spaniards, in thanksgiving for the said recovery, which he acknowledged to have received from God through the intercession of the said Blessed Amadeus: and after the offering it was sent to the Chaplains of this Cathedral, to be kept for the purpose that in its proper time the holy bones of Blessed Amadeus might be placed in it and more fittingly preserved. Which offering took place in the year 1619. Lord Canon John James Raspa, questioned about the same afterward, replied upon his oath: I, being sixty-seven years old, know that when the present city was first recovered from the hands of the Spaniards by the late Most Serene Charles Emmanuel, the same Most Serene Duke in the year 1619 offered this case to Blessed Amadeus, and ordered it placed upon his altar, asserting that he acknowledged the restoration of the present city from Almighty God through the intercession of Blessed Amadeus: and he ordered it to be deposited here until the holy bones could be placed in it so that they might be more fittingly preserved.

[114] and within it another wooden case: From the silver case itself there was extracted another wooden case, covered and lined inside with red velvet with golden and silk ornament, sixteen inches long, seven inches wide, and five inches high: which has two iron locks with their gilded keys, and two iron handles superimposed on the case, likewise gilded, for extracting it more easily from the silver case: in which the aforesaid bones of Blessed Amadeus are immediately to be placed. The silver case itself weighs one hundred and forty and a half pounds, and has a wooden pedestal silvered and adorned.

[115] Likewise in the chest where the furnishings of the aforesaid Cathedral Church are kept, the following are found, offered to Blessed Amadeus: namely one pallium, and also various gifts of other Princes of Savoy: whose background is of yellow cloth of silver, fashioned with flowers of silk and silver, of black and sky-blue color, with its silver and golden ornaments, offered by the Most Serene Infantas Maria and Catherine, sisters of Savoy. Likewise another pallium, whose background is composed of silk and silver cloth of various colors, with its silver ornaments commonly called brocade, with its fringes all around and silver bands across, with a double coat of arms on the sides of the House of Savoy and of France, offered to Blessed Amadeus by the Royal Highness of Christine of France, Duchess of Savoy. Together with chasubles matching the said pallia respectively, and with a cushion of the color of the first pallium.

[116] And subsequently the aforesaid Most Illustrious Lord Bishop ordered the Lords Sub-promoters to be cited for the following day to be present at the continuation of the visitation of the images in the churches and places of the present city. Present were the Most Reverend Lords Jerome Bosco and Charles Greggio, members of the household of the same Most Illustrious Lord Bishop. Done at Vercelli as above.

[117] A similar inspection of the images of the Blessed is here omitted: There followed a similar visitation of the images of Blessed Amadeus in the churches and places of the city of Vercelli, instituted in a similar manner and form; but these seemed sufficient to the Abbot, Procurator of the entire business, who was excerpting from the Vercelli process, at the request of the aforesaid Father Rector, those things that were relevant to our purpose. And they are indeed more than sufficient, since the rest was carefully collected by Maletus, which can only be had at very great length from the processes. Indeed from these very excerpts we have omitted much marked with dots, and above all in this last paragraph the most careful descriptions of the individual objects described here as to their height and width, which made the narrative twice as long, and could not be described through measured feet and inches without the reader's weariness.