Veronus at Lembeek and Mons in Hainaut

ON SAINT VERONUS AT LEMBEEK AND MONS IN HAINAUT.

NINTH CENTURY

Veronus, at Lembeek and Mons in Hainaut (Saint)

[1] What can be known about St. Veronus was chiefly collected by Olbert, who as a young man was imbued with letters and monastic discipline under Abbot Hariger of Lobbes, and sent to Paris for the sake of his studies, he was a student of Fulbert of Chartres: but returning to Lobbes, he held the public school for monks, in which he had Burchard as a student: who, as Sigebert of Gembloux asserts in his Chronicle, having been made Bishop of Worms in the year 1008, produced a great volume of Canons, the miracles and translations were written by Olbert, Abbot of Gembloux: with Abbot Olbert, a man most learned in every way, collaborating with him in this work. Olbert was ordained Abbot of Gembloux in the year 1012, as the same Sigebert testifies, a man to be compared or even preferred to good and learned men in character, religion, and twofold learning. In the same year the Translation of the body of St. Veronus from Lembeek to Mons in Hainaut is believed to have taken place, with which the history of the deeds of this Saint concludes, which Olbert wrote around that time, at the request of Count Rainer of Hainaut, the fourth of that name. Olbert was afterwards also made the first Abbot of the monastery of St. James at Liege, where he died on the twelfth of July in the year 1048. This history of St. Veronus, written by him, was published, with notes added by himself, in the year 1636 by George Galopinus, a monk of the monastery of Cella of St. Ghislain, using a manuscript codex of his own library and another copy published by Galopinus: preserved in the church of St. Waltrude at Mons among its sacred relics: of which, however, a portion is customarily displayed with great veneration in the Church of Lembeek. Galopinus dedicated this his work to William Richardot, Count of Gamarage and of the free city of Lembeek: whose generous munificence and liberality toward the sacred church of Blessed Veronus he praises, because he deigned to adorn it with exquisite gifts and precious ornamental furnishings: and by this to attract and inflame the natives and foreigners, who flock there to obtain his patronage, to a more ardent piety and devotion. Lembeek is situated on the borders of Brabant and Hainaut, concerning whose jurisdictional rights there was a serious discord in the year 1182 between Count Baldwin of Hainaut and Godfrey of Louvain, as Molanus writes in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium after the eulogy of St. Veronus published by him. The said Godfrey, the third of his name, was Duke of Brabant, commonly called "in the Cradle," and was the father of St. Albert, Bishop of Liege and Martyr. And Baldwin, surnamed the Magnanimous, the fourth of his name, Count of Hainaut, died in the year 1195, leaving behind his son Baldwin, Count of Flanders and Hainaut, and afterwards Emperor of Constantinople.

[2] There exists in a manuscript codex of Rouge-Cloitre near Brussels, in the first part of the Hagiologion of the Brabantines, the Acts of SS. Veronus and Verona: the Life of the twin Saints Veronus and Verona, descended from the stock of the Carolingians. The same Life we have transcribed under the name of St. Verona from a copy of the Pastor of the parish of Berthem, between which and Lefdaal there is a chapel of St. Verona, which is also called the basilica of the Holy Cross. In these Acts they are said to have been descended from Louis, King of Germany, brother of Charles the Bald, and various less authentic things are inserted. Autbert Miraeus once sent this Life to Mainz to Nicolaus Serarius, because St. Verona is reported to have been very well known at Mainz in his own and later ages, on account of having freed the city from destructive fire. But the said Serarius, a writer on the affairs of Mainz, replied that he and other learned men of Mainz had never heard of anything of the kind, and therefore it was not credible. Olbert indeed admits that he lived in the times of the Norsemen, but adds that his genealogy and life are unknown. things of little probability are omitted: We therefore set aside the other Acts until August 29, on which St. Verona is venerated, whom we scarcely dare to call the sister of St. Veronus for lack of sufficient proof, although this is done in the Lessons that are recited at Matins at Mons in the Collegiate church of St. Waltrude, as they appear in the Proper Offices composed in the year 1625. We have an ancient Breviary written on parchment of the same Church of St. Waltrude, in which, as in the printed Proper Offices, he is venerated by solemn rite, the Lessons customarily recited at Mons: both on January 31 for the invention of his body, and on this March 30, the day of his death; and six lessons in the said manuscript Breviary about a mute and deaf man healed, are related in the words of Olbert, as they are found at number 8. There are also Antiphons for Lauds and Vespers and Responsories, but taken from the same Acts, without any mention of a sister or of Germany or of his parents: and this prayer is added: together with Antiphons and Responsories: Be propitious, we beseech you, Lord, to us your unworthy servants, through the glorious merits of St. Veronus your Confessor, that by his pious intercession we may always be protected from all adversities. Through our Lord, etc.

[3] The memory of St. Veronus is inscribed in the manuscript Florarium at March 30

with these words: his memory in various fasti: At Lembeek, on the border of Brabant and Hainaut, the deposition of St. Veronus, Confessor, of the stock of the Carolingians, whose propalation is on the day before the Kalends of February: on which day the translation or propalation of the body of St. Veronus, Confessor, is commemorated in the same Florarium. He is commemorated on this day by Greven and Molanus in the Supplement to Usuard, by Canisius, Ferrarius, Gelenius, Willot, and others; and at greater length by Molanus in the Birthdays of the Saints of Belgium, by Miraeus in his Belgian Fasti, by Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology, and by Bucelinus in the Benedictine Menologion; the last two of whom make him a grandson of Louis the Pious, who, having left behind the pomps of the world, enclosed himself in a monastery he had built, where, shining forth with outstanding virtues, he attained the rewards of eternal blessedness. His body, together with the body of St. Verona his sister, a partner in the same religious purpose, was first buried at Lembeek and afterwards translated to Mons in Hainaut. So say they, and perhaps they were the first: whether by mere conjecture or taught by some revelation, let others inquire.

[4] Arnold Rayssius in his Hierogazophylacium, page 456, asserts that at Mons in Hainaut, in the noble collegiate church of the Lady Canonesses of St. Waltrude, the sacred body of St. Veronus is deposited and preserved in a shrine relics at Mons: fashioned from skillfully wrought bronze; and on page 263 he says that at Lembeek a portion of the relics of St. Veronus is kept, at Lembeek: which is carried in a casket on the Monday of Pentecost to Tubize. And these are, according to Galopinus, the sinciput, an arm, and some bones. Finally, on page 281, among the relics of the monastery of Liessies, Rayssius lists some of St. Veronus: at Liessies: concerning whom, in the Annals of Hainaut published in French in the year 1531, volume 2, folio 78, and the following, various things are found, but condensed from Olbert: which we also preserve in Latin translation.

HISTORY OF THE INVENTION, MIRACLES, AND TRANSLATION. By Olbert, Abbot of Gembloux.

Veronus, at Lembeek and Mons in Hainaut (Saint)

BHL Number: 8550

BY ABBOT OLBERT.

PROLOGUE.

To Count Rainer, most noble of Counts: Olbert, Abbot of Gembloux in name not in merit, offers the munificence of devoted prayer and faithful service.

I rejoice, most noble of Counts, in your benevolence, which shines in you, divinely kindled: these things were written at the command of Count Rainer: for surpassing your age in character, and bravely shaking off the burden of worldly cares, you embrace with devotion those things that belong to ecclesiastical religion. Good, my Beloved, is your intention, which aims to overcome evil with good: and therefore I dare not refuse the burden of your command, by which in asking you command me to commit to writing the miracles of St. Veronus. In undertaking this task, it was not the presumption of knowledge that impelled me, but the following trepidation: I feared it would be a sin to conceal in silence so many benefits of the Lord, and I feared to be a scorner of your commands. Let any reader, examining these things justly, not be angry with me (I pray) when he finds good things badly described. For these things, even if they can be nothing else, will be able to serve as nourishment for the memory of the wise who will one day write them better. Farewell, most venerable of Counts. a

CHAPTER 1. For what reasons it happened that the life of St. Veronus was not preserved.

2. Concerning the admonition of St. Veronus and the vision of the Priest Humbert.

3. How both the name of the Saint and the day of his death were discovered.

CHAPTER I.

The occasion and manner of the discovery of the body of St. Veronus.

[1] The Creator and Redeemer of the human race, grieving that those whom he had recalled with the triumph over death to the heights of heaven were being dragged back to the underworld by the devil's deceit, by the inexpressible governance of his disposition, daily pours the oil of gentleness and the wine of adversity upon the ailing world. Now according to the quality of life he cheers it with joyful things, Belgium was afflicted: now saddens it with sorrowful ones. Hence it is that, as a figure of this rule, he commanded Moses to place the manna of sweetness together with the rod of severity in the ark of the covenant. Whence he who frequently afflicted Gaul, Belgium, and Germany, which at the devil's instigation often strayed from his ways and kicked against him, and permitted it to be trampled by foreigners; willed to inflict upon it in this world the sentence of his chastisement: so that holy men, purified like gold, might receive the splendor of everlasting light; through the incursions of the Huns and Vandals: and the unjust, dried up like the grass on rooftops, might undergo the fires of eternal death. This scourge of affliction he exercised through the a Huns and Vandals, sent by just judgment not only for the destruction of men but also for the destruction of many cities. Who, on account of sins committed irremediably against God and against his Saints, overthrew nearly all of Gaul and leveled its cities, most famous from antiquity, to the ground: they burned in fire the annals of the ages and the lives of heavenly men, and removed from the world the records of many. Whence now we see only the ruins of the greatest cities, and scarcely hold their names in memory: we experience the miracles of the Saints, whose birth and lives we believe known only to God. Nor after a long interval of time, the Gallic nation, abusing the most patient Lord's patience, by which he was provoking their hearts to repentance, then through the civil wars of the Franks: on account of the scars of their sins increased beyond measure, again sustained the iron of divine chastisement. For after the civil and internal wars b of sedition, waged between Rainfrid and Charles, son of Pippin by Alpaïde (during which the venerable records of holy churches and holy men were destroyed), the c Norman nation, flying from the North, savagely invaded the borders of the aforesaid Gaul, and the incursions of the Norsemen: undermined cities and towns, devastated congregations and churches: the Saints hid without glory in whatever retreats they could find, and were buried without memorial inscription. So once the Assyrians, by the permitting justice of the Lord, destroyed the walls of Jerusalem: so they scattered many memorials of Kings and righteous men, whose absence the holy Church now laments. 4 Kings 25: Among the aforesaid tempests of Gaul, therefore, many most holy men flourished, whose life and death were precious in the sight of the Lord, whom slack antiquity did not commend to us in writing (as would have been fitting), or whose commendation the occasion of envy snatched away. In these times (as may be conjectured) there lived a holy man, called Veronus by name: whose genealogy and life, because some envious occasion destroyed them, when St. Veronus lived: the Lord commended him to us by special miracles; so that if the written word is silent, he himself might cry out through miracles, wonderfully displayed at his tomb. Nor do we consider it proper to pass over in silence the miracles which the Lord willed to show through his merits, whose life is unknown: lest we too be found guilty of silence and laziness, which we impute as a crime to our predecessors.

[2] Therefore, when by the disposing of divine providence, in the time of the Holy Emperor Henry: d Henry, the kinsman and successor of Otto III, had received the kingdom of the Austrasians, e Lotharingia began to be endangered by various calamities. A most severe f famine weakened it, a powerful contention of Princes wore it down, the lowliest of men, the g Morini, rose up against it, and of Baldwin the Bearded, Count of Flanders: led by h Baldwin, who subjected Valenciennes to their dominion. But the Lord, the most benign inspector of human misery, opened to it the gate of his mercy, and granted it remedies of some consolation. In the district of i Brachbant (which the Normans had almost completely devastated), there is a considerable town situated on the river k Senne, called Lembeek by its neighbors. St. Veronus appears to Humbert the Priest: In the church of this town Blessed Veronus had long lain, indeed shining with many miracles, but not honorably treated according to the merits of his life. Here, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand and four, he deigned to manifest himself in this manner. There was in that place a Priest named Humbert, not despicable according to the life of modern men: to him, frequently appearing in a vision, at last he pointed out the place of his tomb, and ordered him to make it known to others: but he, not readily believing, he shows his tomb: did not quickly lend an obedient ear. Again and again the Saint repeated his admonition, but his obstinacy had hardened his mind. At last, one Sunday night, while he kept vigil alone in the church and continued his sighs of prayer, praying to God that he might show more certain signs of his Saint, he was seized by an intolerable vision: for the whole church gleamed as if with the light of lightning, so that it seemed to him to be set ablaze from heaven. And a certain chest (commonly called a l butica), of great size, which stood above the tomb of the blessed man, full of grain, with no one visibly putting a hand to it, a chest is moved of its own accord: sprang far from the tomb. The Priest was astounded by the m vision, and his voice catching in his throat, all his hair stood on end. At daybreak the citizens entered the threshold of the church, finding the Priest barely alive, his voice not yet fully restored. They marveled that so large a chest had been moved far from its former position, and placed elsewhere without damage to itself. When they tirelessly inquired as to the reasons, the Priest related everything in order: he repeated the visions he had often had, and the revelations of the holy man which he had previously concealed. Thereafter they began to venerate the tomb, which they had previously thought little of and trodden upon with their feet.

[3] On account of military disturbances: Meanwhile, as the tumults of Lotharingia intensified (which we briefly touched on above), the aforesaid King Henry, accompanied by a great army of his own, entered Lotharingia itself to suppress the unruly movements of certain men. At whose approach, the people, fearing that the body of the holy man might be mistreated, dug away the mound of earth from the surface of the tomb, so that more readily and easily (if necessity should arise) they might carry it to safer places. the tomb having been dug up: The aforesaid Priest was present (to whom the Saint had predicted the same thing in a vision, that within the boundaries of his tomb he would find his name and the day of his burial), and silently observed the matter and desired the fulfillment of the promise. And looking more carefully into the interior of the tomb, he saw a small tablet lying beside the bones of the blessed man, on which he found inscribed the name of St. Veronus and the day of his death are found: that he had been called Veronus, and that he had departed from this world on the third day before the Kalends of April; and by the propitious mercy of the Lord (who always magnifies his Saints with inexpressible glory), the King's n army did not pass through those places: and therefore the bones of the holy man remained there undisturbed. The report spread everywhere, and the miracles performed by the Lord through him continued on the lips of the people. There was a gathering of diverse persons, and especially of those afflicted by some infirmity.

CHAPTER II

The blind healed, a mute and deaf man, the crippled. Other benefits bestowed.

[4] There was in a town called a Felluy a certain young girl, deprived of the light of her eyes from the very cradle, who, brought by the hands of certain people to his tomb (carrying what offerings of candles she could prepare), drew long sighs before the tomb of the holy man. a blind girl receives sight: Then he who always readily lends an ear to those who ask from a faithful heart did not turn away from her prayers: he restored the sight of light to the sockets of her eyes, which she sought, calling upon Veronus night and day: and also the candle, which she held in her hands, she saw divinely lit without any spark of earthly fire, shooting forth flame-bearing rays. In one and the same moment the candle lit of its own accord: the Lord glorified his Saint with a double sign. A great cry arose in the church from the people, who had come from various parts and were assembled there. For it was the third day of the Rogation Days, on which nearly the whole town had gathered for the service of the Mass, and beating their breasts with their fists, they gave praise to God in the highest, who is always wonderful in his saints. They laid the foundations of a larger church, which might seem fitting for the merits of so great a man: aid was contributed by many seeking the patronage of the blessed man. And as fame, bearing both true and false report, ran this way and that, these things were reported to b Erluin, then the Bishop of the See of Cambrai; Erluin, Bishop of Cambrai, recognizes that miracles are being performed: who, diligently investigating the matter, found it to be not the fantastic delusion he had supposed, but the magnificent majesty of the Lord in his Saint. While these things were being arranged under divine auspices,

The annual cycle was completed with the months elapsed.

The devotion of the people was increased daily, taking growth from the frequency of the miracles.

[5] A man also came from a town called c Couillet, whom his kinsmen called Rangarius, and not alone from his household, but accompanied by a company of six women carrying candles. six candles lit of their own accord: They entered the threshold of the church devoutly, they fell prostrate at the tomb of the aforesaid Saint most devoutly; and while they continued the sighs of their prayers, shaken by sobs and scarcely able to express their words, they saw the candles, held in their hands, emit flames divinely sent. They contemplated one another and each rejoiced to have what they marveled at in another: nor was it necessary to point such things out to the bystanders, since they had seen the very same things with frightened eyes. By such signs the holy man shone forth on the very Kalends of April.

[6] In the aforesaid district of Brachbant there is a town not far from the aforesaid Lembeek, called by the ancients d Maffles, in which there were twice two women, deprived of the light of their eyes from various accidents. four blind women are given sight: These, hearing of the holy man's miracles, agreed to go to seek his mercy: and guided by the hands of their relatives, they struck the tomb with their blinded brows, repeating thus in prayer:

O Father Veronus, than whom none is sweeter, Shake off the nocturnal shadows from our darkened faces, And make the blind windows of our brows shine bright.

While they repeatedly recited this and watered the tomb with bloody tears, they rejoiced that the light they had sought with tearful prayer had returned to their brows. With joy they announced to the bystanders that day had dawned upon their faces. For a considerable crowd was present, since they were free from work on holy Pentecost; and having rendered their praises to God, with no one leading them, they returned to tell these things to their own households.

[7] Meanwhile the Nativity of St. John the Baptist arrived, on which many are known to rejoice. Many, born from various regions, gathered at the tomb of the oft-mentioned Veronus, and especially those burdened with bodily weakness. a most miserably crippled man is healed: A certain poor man was also brought, with his limbs already dead, scarcely alive, and with his joints loosened and his mass dissolved, he was nearly dead: whose shrunken shins had adhered to his hips, and the sinews of his limbs had withered in nearly his entire body. While he kept vigil at his tomb for a long time, calling upon his mercy with incessant weeping, he received the effect of divine medicine. For when the sun was already declining toward setting, and the evening office had called the people together in the same church, his shins began to be pulled away from his hips, and blood began to flow again through his long-withered limbs, and each limb began to be raised up in its proper place: seized by nearly intolerable pain, he uttered loud cries and groans. Summoned by these, the surrounding people stood around, stupefied at the sight: and beating their breasts with their fists, moistened with tears, they repeated with continuous voices, God have mercy. They marveled at the tall man, whom before they had pitied as so contracted in all his limbs: they praised the Lord, and embraced with the arms of piety the tomb gleaming with such great signs. But if this seems incredible to anyone, he can receive an indication of the truth from Asceric, who had always previously supported him with alms, in whose service he still remains prostrate, called Thietled by name.

[8] Now the burning sun was scorching the Lion, and had brought the Kalends of August to the peoples, on which day (as is known to many) the solemnity is celebrated when St. Peter is said to have been divinely rescued from the hand of Herod. a mute and deaf man: On the night of this solemnity, the Lord deigned through his Saint to show the following miracle. A pitiful man had come thither from the regions of Hesbaye, deprived of the functions of certain senses: for he could not absorb any sound, however loud, through the receptacles of his ears, nor could he express any speech through the instrument of his tongue. He spent the aforesaid night with the Priest keeping vigil in the church, drawing long sighs from his breast amid his groans. And when at midnight he raised his tear-soaked eyes toward heaven, he saw two small birds flying within the precincts of the church, one of which approached him so closely that he could catch it with his hands: and indeed touching it with his hands, he was seized by the impulses of divine power, and with the bond of his tongue divinely loosed, he cried out with a loud voice, God have mercy. The Priest, awakened by so great a cry, ran to him with the utmost haste; he asked whether he had emitted so great a cry, and whether he had uttered the little speech that had been heard. He, his hearing restored and hearing the Priest, said: I, I uttered the little speech, I by the merits of St. Veronus experienced the divine remedy: having recovered my organs, I can temper the melodies of speech; with the barriers of my ears opened, I can receive all voices. When day broke, he who had been mute the day before exulted in the praises of God, and greeted those who arrived with new voices. Our e Brothers now congratulate him on being well, whom they had long known (as we said above) to have been infirm.

[9] While such things were being done by divine power, their fragrance also reached places far away. When a certain man, contracted in all his limbs, named Engramnus, sustained by the alms of those dwelling around the region of the river Sambre, had heard of these things, another cripple: he sighed with all his wishes toward the tomb of the oft-mentioned Saint. Relying on a carrying-chair and the conveyance of certain people, he was able to celebrate the most sacred solemnity of Easter in the long-desired church of St. Veronus. Where, drawing long sighs amid his incessant prayers, and often raising his eyes to heaven while calling repeatedly upon Veronus, he received the exchange of the long-desired health. For when, in the middle of the Easter solemnity, he had devoutly heard the solemnities of the Masses together with many others, and had received with attentive ears the Gospel of that day, he felt the gift of divine mercy. Indeed, after the reading of the Gospel, nerves long wrinkled began to stretch out, and badly twisted bones began to straighten. Placed in distress, he began to emit uncontrolled groans, and to continue calling upon Veronus with clamorous voices: and when silence fell from amazement, all who were present held their mouths intent upon him, and beating their breasts with their fists, watered their faces with tears: and as the mercy of God continued, they marveled at the man standing upright and tall, whom they had just been pitying as rolled up in the shape of a ball. They praise God on high, and extol Blessed Veronus with great praises. one bedridden for six years from illness:

[10] There was also in the district of Brachbant, in a castle called f Marche, a certain man named Otger, buried (so to speak) in his bed for six continuous years with a nearly intolerable illness. He, hearing from many that the oft-mentioned Saint was shining with such great miracles, and himself seeing some returning from his tomb with bodies divinely healed, began especially to demand of his household that they should arrange to carry him thither. His household obeyed, setting him down before the long-desired tomb on the Kalends of August. He continued the duties of prayer, shaken by sobs and scarcely able to utter his pleading words: and his cry reached the ears of the Lord, by whose love he had come, borne up by merits. Without delay, the interior of his belly began to be disturbed, which had been the receptacles of his long suffering; and as if from a draught divinely consumed, he began to vomit forth the causes of his own affliction; and immediately after the vomiting, he rose from his bed healthy in his whole body, and joyfully gave praises to God together with others.

[11] There was also in a town commonly called g Asse, a certain man named Abbo, almost abundantly endowed with temporal goods: a paralyzed servant girl: who had a servant girl very dear to him, but burdened no little by the disease of paralysis. Leading her with other members of his household on the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, not without gifts, he visited the tomb of the oft-mentioned Saint. Where, when they had lingered for some time, and had redoubled their prayer vigils, the woman, who had arrived nearly dead in almost her entire body, divinely received the desired benefits of health: and she who had just been carried in the arms of strangers, rejecting outside help, rejoiced to be able to go on her own limbs, and stretching her newly reformed hands with her eyes toward the stars, she rendered new songs of praise to the Lord and his Saint. The master of the household rejoiced with his servants, and joyful with the joyful woman, was returned to his own home. this healed woman remains immobile: But when the circle of the solar year had revolved, and now the heavy sign of Cancer under the rays of the sun was restoring the day of the Nativity of St. John to the world: the aforesaid master of the household returned to the aforesaid tomb with the aforesaid servant; and having completed the prayers for which he had come, he prepared to depart from the church, accompanied by the same servant girl. But the omnipotence of heavenly justice impeded the path of the departing servant girl: for she stuck to the ground with her feet in such a way that, although pulled by many, she could in no way be torn away from it. The master thought this happened more from the pretense of a servant girl

unwilling to return, than out of consideration for divine justice: he presses with words, he presses also with blows: he pulls alone, he pulls also with many helping: but (as the divine word says, There is no wisdom, there is no counsel against the Lord) having come to himself at last, he repented of having enslaved for his own service until she is handed over to the service of St. Veronus: one whom St. Veronus had freed from an illness near to death. Proverbs 21: He therefore handed her over to St. Veronus, so that she might always be devoted solely to his service: and this done, her feet were torn from the ground as easily as if they had barely adhered to it at all.

[12] With things being thus, and the Lord glorifying his Saint with so many lights of miracles, a blind woman received sight: many began to flock in, oppressed by various infirmities. There was also a woman in a town called Wesclar, named Alwera, who had long desired to visit the threshold of St. Veronus, but the desire conceived over a long time could not achieve its effect. For she lacked the function of sight, without which no one can direct a straight path alone, and she lacked the assistance of anyone to guide her because of her extreme poverty. But provoked by the desire to see, she began to make her way to Lembeek alone, through trackless and rough terrain, badly straying from the path, and with the shepherds of flocks kindly offering their guidance, she arrived at the long-desired body: where she poured forth groans and prayers, and from her darkened brow she emitted abundant streams of tears, praying to God with continuous prayers, that through the merits of his Saint he might shake off the darkness from her extinguished eyes. Nor was the divine mercy long delayed, which makes itself never distant to those who seek from a sincere heart. For when she devoutly heard the service of the Mass together with others, and more devoutly listened to the words of the Gospel, she received the remedy of divine mercy: for indeed, after the reading of the Gospel, she was divinely given the gift of sight. She began to see openly the faces of bystanders, even those unknown to her, and to penetrate with the keenest gaze all things placed around her: she exclaimed to all with a most joyful voice that by the merits of St. Veronus she had received the function of sight. Thus the Lord conferred his aid upon one singularly placed in tribulation, to whom her fellow servants, because of her extreme poverty, denied all comfort.

CHAPTER III

Various sick persons healed. The body translated to Mons in Hainaut.

[13] There was likewise in the district of Brachbant a town called Soumagne, a certain woman, a frenzied woman is healed: named Ollendis, who by the onset of certain afflictions had been so alienated from her rational senses that no more humanity seemed to remain in her than her human form. She lacked the governance of human reason, and entirely frenzied or possessed, she was carried wherever her madness drove her. She was brought by her parents, who greatly pitied her, to the tomb of St. Veronus, and was commended to his mercy with tearful voices; and as we gather by conjecture from what followed, the Saint of God was grieved that a human being had only bestial senses. For when she had been detained there for a few days, he restored the understanding of her mind to her by holy prayers: and she whom even her relatives had formerly been afraid to approach, now even strangers counted it a great thing to bestow upon her the communion of friendship: and so, having recovered her senses, she returned healthy to her own people, she who had come lost in a horrible infirmity.

[14] In the district of Brachbant also, in a town adjoining the castle of Gislenghien, and a man lame in one foot: there was a man named Saruguard, whose foot had withered from a paralytic infirmity, who, fashioning a foot from wax in the likeness of that same foot, with such a gift arrived (as best he could) at the seat of St. Veronus. Where, intent for some time upon tearful prayers and torturing himself with continual fasts, he received from heaven the remedy of divine mercy; his long-dead foot began to revive and to receive unfamiliar blood through its dried-out sinews: the man began to mark the unfamiliar ground with steps, and casting aside his supporting staff, to rest equally on both feet: he returned swiftly to his own home on both feet, he who had come slowly, limping.

[15] From the regions of Flanders a certain man came to Nivelles for the sake of prayer, wax from a vow not offered: and having completed his vow, he promised that he would return through St. Veronus to his own home: where he hid in his pouch wax bought for a denarius, promising to offer it in the church of St. Veronus. But (at the suggestion of the devil, the most savage persecutor of human salvation) he thought little of his vow and brought the wax into his own house, so that he might use it for other purposes: it is turned into earth: and entering his house, he prepared to remove the wax from his pouch, intending to store it where he could retrieve it in time of need: but when he looked at it carefully, he found it transformed into earth. He was stupefied, his voice stuck in his throat, salt sweat moistened his limbs, and beating his breast with his fists, he shuddered at the crime he had committed, and with the swiftest step came to the tomb of the oft-mentioned St. Veronus: and confessing the false speech of the vow he had made, he showed to all that what had been wax, which he had wickedly withheld from St. Veronus, had been changed into the appearance of earth, and touched with grief of heart within, he shed tears of repentance with groans. At last, cleansed (as we hope) by the dew of his tears, leaving the earth there as proof of the holy man's miracle, he returned to his own home.

[16] In the port of the same Flemish people also, named Ghent, a headache is cured: there was a certain Cleric who had long suffered irremediably from a considerable headache. He, hearing from many the many miracles of St. Veronus, determined to reach his threshold: and on the Wednesday of Holy Week (which is before the Lord's Supper), with whatever offerings he could have, he arrived at the long-desired tomb of the Saint. Where, offering himself through fasting and vigils of prayer for three days, on the night of the Lord's Resurrection he received the remedy of health: and he himself deigned to cure the Cleric from the disease of the headache on that very night, on which, despoiling the underworld, he willed to lead his own from the prisons of darkness and restore them to the joys of paradise.

[17] The Lord also heaps joys upon joys, and he who, rising from the dead on that very night, an enormous swelling of the leg: magnified his Saints with the double crowns of soul and body, honored his Saint Veronus with indescribable miracles. For with the above-mentioned Cleric a certain layman had come, named Heribertus, coming from the same regions as the Cleric: one of whose legs had swollen to such an extent, with the madness of the disease growing stronger, that if at any time (which was rare) he wished to lift it from the ground, with the entire effort of his body, he would be distressed for a long time from the excessive weight: and the remaining parts, joined to the dead part, suffered with useless health. But because he had heard that various people burdened with various ailments had been healed through the merits of the oft-mentioned Saint, he presumed to hope for salvation from him, from whom he had heard no one had returned frustrated in his wish. And so on the most holy night mentioned above, arranging the wax luminaries of his devotion, he kept vigil before the presence of the Saint with the obsequies of both his hand-held lights and his heart. But that Morning Star, emerging from the darkness of hell, ignorant of the darkness of distrust, but rejoicing in the light-bearing faith of those who hope in him, who on that same night, with the darkness and their prince destroyed, was radiating the light of his own shining heart, on account of the celebration of his Saint, deigned to look upon both the lamp of the said man's hand and of his faith. For suddenly his swellings, with the skin loosened, began to subside, and like something deflated when the wind by which it had swollen was released, with the plague emptied out, the flaccid skin began to return over the bare bone. Thus he who was formerly pitiable, now already, through the prayers of St. Veronus, made wonderful by the Lord's mercy, who on his arrival had barely dragged the useless weight of his leg with prolonged effort, on his return, fully strengthened in his whole body upon it, went back to his own home with a health impatient of slowness.

[18] Thus the Lord, by the merit of his soldier, having made manifest to mortals on the night of his Resurrection, [one who gathered herbs on a feast day is punished, the herbs sticking to her hand:] also on the day that followed that night (which is a day of glory in heaven and on earth), did not wish him to remain without glory among men. For on that very day, as populous crowds flowed together to his seat, both for the joy of the long-desired solemnity and for the spectacle of the power made wonderful in infirmities, a certain girl had come thither from a port called Brussels, whom the following plague had invaded. On a certain day that was to be kept as a holiday, when it is not lawful for anyone to perform servile tasks, she had gathered for herself some herbs: and as she plucked them, clasping them together, she was astonished and grieved that they had stuck to her hand, as if the herbs, which she was unlawfully consuming, taunted her with these words of injury done to her Creator: Because on the solemnity of your Lord (to whom you should have submitted) you did not wish of your own will to be free from his command, now at least unwillingly, from the annoyance of us herbs, which ought to be subject, learn to be idle. Certainly since, having spurned the worship of his reverence, you abuse our service, we who ought to serve are now permitted in turn to dominate. This, however, is believed to have happened to her not only for the illicit deed committed, but also for the glorification of St. Veronus, as the outcome shows. Seized therefore by such a plague, standing before the Saint with the people watching, she is freed at St. Veronus's tomb: she both confesses her offense and begs for pardon. Nor is she frustrated by God of the fulfillment of her vow, she who before him assumed as her sole plea the appeaser of wrath and mediator of mercy. For when she stretched out her hand to the aforesaid Saint of God, hoping and asking to be cured by him, suddenly, as if the Saint's hand healed hand with hand, the grip of her fingers sprang apart, the little herbs that had long lingered in the pocket of her sin fell out, and they who had dishonored her when she dishonored God now honored her as she honored him. Immediately the girl, having experienced the Saint's merit in her healing, compelled the people to praise, whom she had previously moved to grief.

[19] When she had been healed in the manner described and had returned to her own region, a withered hand is cured: in the same region there was another woman, whose withered right hand had condemned the corresponding part to numbness: for with the blood withering she was tormented by the plague of paralysis. But having heard the reputation of this Saint, and gaining faith from others by the cure of both her neighbor, that is the one just mentioned, and of other sick persons, she also conceived hope for her own salvation: and having prepared a poor little gift, but a rich vow, on the octave of Easter she presented herself at the oft-mentioned place. On that day, with tearful brow, mournful cry, and importunate prayer, she besought the Saint's aid: immediately the mercy of the King of Kings, glorifying his beloved soldier in all things, through his worthy merits heard the woman's entreaties: and sending medicine from heaven (namely the command, by which alone he curved the heavens, bound the earth, and poured forth the seas), he commanded the cold palm to grow warm again. Without delay, released from the rigidity of cold, it was loosened into the functions of salutary warmth. The healed woman therefore praises God the Creator, crying out to the bystanders: Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name in the many wonderful things which he does through his Saints. Having then rendered thanks as best she could

to God and his Saint, she returned to her own home, rejoicing in her restoration to health.

[20] With these things thus wonderfully accomplished by the Saint's merits, whoever came burdened with any kind of disease and the burning fever of Count Ratbod: was swiftly restored to health through him. A certain Count, named a Ratbod, was tormented by a panting fever, whose life was burning amid its cold perils, and alternating heat was cooking a lethal chill: who, in the same week which we described above, betook himself to the threshold of the Saint, where, tortured both by the besieging heat of his disease and slain by his voluntary groaning, he bent the pious ear of the Saint to his prayer. What more? After he earned so great a Patron, why should there be any doubt about his health? Therefore, as his petition reached the Saint, and the Saint's reached the Lord, the fiery heat departed, and with the flame extinguished throughout all his marrow, the violence of the fire fell by a spring of hidden water. Thus he who formerly labored with daily fevers did not feel even rare ones afterwards. This, however, was the reason, kind Reader, why I took care to record the names both of the sick and of the places why the author here wrote down the names of the sick and the places: from which they came: because I did not doubt that there are certain followers of the Pharisees, who take care always, out of envy, to invert certain good deeds, either saying they did not exist at all, or twisting them to a bad interpretation; and members not separated from their head the devil, whose miracles they ought to venerate with the highest honor, they seek to disparage with venomous mouth. And therefore, so that the caviling of these people may be easily repelled, I have confirmed each miracle of this Saint with the guarantee of proper names. And having briefly run through these (as with all others), let us turn our pen (though poorly sharpened) back to the thread of the narrative.

[21] Therefore, as the years rolled on, the devil was disturbing the state of peace, and was wickedly sowing wars and seditions among the Princes of Lotharingia; and it happened by his instigation that the regions of Brachbant also had to endure intolerable oppressions of seditions: and the fury of the seditious, at the devil's suggestion, had grown the body is transferred to Mons in Hainaut: to such an extent that they would not withhold their hands even from the very sanctuaries of holy churches. Pondering these things in his mind, Count Rainer, the son of Count Rainer likewise, the beloved nephew of Robert King of France through his b sister; began to fear with provident mind that the oft-mentioned St. Veronus, so magnified by the Lord, might be trampled upon by the madness of such rabid men. (For the town of Lembeek, in which his tomb was, had no defenses of fortification, and was accessible to the raging foes.) And he feared the unspeakable judgment of the Lord, who, to the accumulation of their damnation, even hands over his Saints to the impious to be trampled upon, so that they might run through all crimes and suffer all punishments. Therefore, having taken counsel from wise men, he resolved to bring the aforesaid Saint into a monastery, which, honored by the presence of St. Waltrude, is situated on the hill of Castrilocus. Having summoned to himself Clerics learned in knowledge and religion and others in whom he knew the zeal of religion to burn; with feet unshod in the greatest cold and retaining only woolen garments, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of February c he entered, more humble than the humblest, the threshold of the church to the noble Collegiate Church of St. Waltrude: in which the bones of St. Veronus lay: which, handling with the greatest veneration and honorably placed on coverings, he endeavored to carry to the hill of Castrilocus. As they approached, a procession of Clerics, religious women, and laypeople came out to meet them, devoutly acclaiming the praises of the Lord. They exulted at the coming of so great a Father, they praised God for his wonderful deeds. Each sought to outdo the other in honors and generosities, and beating their breasts with their fists, they praised God with humble devotion. Thus the Lord's Saint Veronus was honorably placed in the monastery, where the mercy of the eternal Godhead illuminates him to its own praise by miracles, reigning and governing all things through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

ON BLESSED DODO OF HASCHA, OF THE PREMONSTRATENSIAN ORDER, IN FRISIA.

YEAR 1231

Dodo of Hascha, of the Premonstratensian Order, in Frisia (Blessed)

[1] Utrecht, a spacious and powerful city, contains illustrious churches, among which the Cathedral of St. Martin and the Collegiate Church of the Holy Savior, which was also called that of St. Boniface, are preeminent. The Canons of this Church were formerly diligent and solicitous to obtain the Acts of any and all Saints, the Life is given from a manuscript of Utrecht: most of which they condensed, thinking them thus more suited to their use. We have many of these extracted from manuscript codices, and among others is the Life of St. Dodo of Hascha, honored there with the title of Saint for nearly three hundred years. The same Life exists in a manuscript codex of the Charterhouse of Cologne, from which George Colvenerius obtained it, a Doctor of Sacred Theology at the Academy of Douai, from whom Hyacinth Choquet obtained it, collated with another: and published it, but in polished style, in his book On the Saints of Belgium of the Dominican Order, chapter 26, and he acknowledges the author as anonymous. We give it collated with this. Jean le Paige, in book 2 of the Library of the Premonstratensian Order, page 532, prefixes this title: Life of Blessed Dodo, Canon of the monastery of the Garden of St. Mary, then hermit at Bakkeveen and Hascha, from that which exists in manuscript in the libraries of the Charterhouse of Cologne and of George Colvenerius, Chancellor of the University of Douai, and which is found in Thomas of Cantimpré, book 2 On the Bees, chapter 1, part 15, Martin Hamconius, and Abbot van der Sterre in the Hagiologion and Birthdays. The same Life was inserted into the Ecclesiastical History of Belgium at the year 1231 by Dionysius Mudzart of the Premonstratensian Order. his memory among writers: Rosweyde in the Belgian Ecclesiastical History, Gerard van Herdegom in book 1 of the Blessed White Virgin and Patron of the Premonstratensian Order, page 105, Maurice du Prein in the Brief Annals of the Premonstratensian Order, Peter de Waghenare on the Persons of the Premonstratensian Order Illustrious for Holiness, page 206, and others also remembered him.

[2] Three places in Western Frisia are distinguished by the dwelling of Blessed Dodo: places of his dwelling: the Garden of Blessed Mary: the first of these is the monastery of the Garden of Blessed Mary, commonly called Mariengaarde, built two leagues toward the ocean from Leeuwarden, the capital, in the year 1163 by Abbot Frederick: whose Acts we illustrated on March 3. The fifth Abbot of this monastery was the most holy man Siard, whose sacred relics are held in great veneration partly in the Abbey of Tongerlo in Brabant and partly in the Abbey of St. Foillan at Roeulx, a town of Hainaut. We shall illustrate his Life on November 13, written by his successor Sibrand, the sixth Abbot: Bakkeveen: who reports that he founded an estate situated near Trent in the heath and gave it the name of the Grange of St. Mary at Bakkeveen. Sibrand Leo adds that the Sylvans, captivated by love of this man on account of his reputation for holiness, voluntarily offered him the most extensive fields at Bakkeveen: whither, having gone, he established a new chapel called Mariengaarde. This was the second residence of Blessed Dodo, there leading the hermit's life. Bakkeveen is situated in the third part of Frisia, called the Wooded or Sylvan region, in the small territory of Opsterland, and Hascha: adjacent to the territory of Groningen and Drenthe. The third and last station was Hascha, in the same part of Wooded Frisia, toward Westergo and the town of Sneek, where both New Hascha, Old Hascha, the Convent of Hascha, and the small territory of Haschaland are named, and he himself took the name of Dodo of Hascha.

[3] he died on March 30: He died there in the year 1231, on the Sunday after the Annunciation of Blessed Mary, which in that year fell on the Octave of Easter or Low Sunday, and the thirtieth day of March, when with the Lunar cycle 16, Solar cycle 8, and Dominical letter E, the feast of Easter was celebrated on March 23. At the said March 30, the Abbot van der Sterre has this in the Birthdays of the Saints of the Premonstratensian Order: inscribed in the fasti: At Hascha in Frisia, the Birthday of Blessed Dodo, hermit and Confessor of the Premonstratensian Order: who, having been made a Canon of the white Order in the monastery of the Garden of Mary, and an outstanding disciple of Blessed Father Siard, afterwards by his consent instituted a solitary life with a wonderful rigor of penance. The fame of his holy manner of life became widely known, and besides many miracles with which he was honored by God, he also had the sacred five stigmata of Christ miraculously impressed upon him. he is honored with an Ecclesiastical Office: That his feast is celebrated on this day among the Spaniards in the Premonstratensian Order with the rite of a double is read in the Order of reciting the Divine Office, printed at Madrid in 1636 and 1646. Saussay in his Gallican Martyrology adorns him on this day with the following praise among the Pious: On this very day in the Diocese of Utrecht there died Dodo of pious memory, Canon of the Garden of St. Mary of the Premonstratensian Order, who by assiduous preaching, which his remarkable piety recommended, made such progress among his Frisian nation that he greatly softened them from their fierceness and adorned them with Christian manners. Blessed Dodo once lived under the Bishops of Lower Utrecht or the jurisdiction of Utrecht, but now the indicated places would be under the Bishops of Leeuwarden, if the orthodox faith flourished in Frisia. Martin Hamconius, in his Frisia, or On the Famous Men and Affairs of Frisia, page 80 in the second edition, says this about the fruit of his preaching: the praise of Hamconius:

Moreover, pious Dodo performed wonders in the hermitage of Bakkeveen, Driving away diseases and even defiant demons: Here, working great things in the forests bordering Hascha, He extinguished that grim custom by divine power, By which the Frisians were accustomed never to consign a slain man to the earth, Unless death had first been avenged upon the perpetrator, Or a brother, or some others joined by blood to the perpetrator.

[4] and of Cantimpré: Thomas of Cantimpré is cited in the margin, who in the edition prepared by George Colvenerius writes these things: I also saw another blessed man of the same Order, advanced to a very great age, named Dodo, a Frisian by nation: who by assiduous preaching made such progress among his Frisian nation that he greatly softened them from their fierceness. For from the most ancient time the Frisians had this most monstrous custom, that when a man of one community was killed, the body of the slain man was not buried by his own people from the other community, but was hung in a coffin and dried in a house, until from the opposing kindred, in vengeance for the slain man, the adverse kindred slaughtered several or at least one in vicarious death: and only then did they first commit their own dead man to the due burial with great solemnity. This most cruel and unheard-of custom the said Brother removed from that nation, and promoted it to a milder state by frequent exhortation. unless this should be understood of another Dodo: So that passage. Colvenerius had four manuscript copies and three printed ones, and asserts that he restored this example about Blessed Dodo, which had been omitted, from the manuscript of the monastery of the Holy Sepulcher in Cambrai. Hence, because the example about Brother Aegidius, the Dominican preacher of Ghent, precedes, and because Blessed Dodo is said to be of the same Order, Colvenerius thought him to be a different person from Blessed Dodo the hermit, or the one whom the Premonstratensians celebrate. But since that praise is produced from a single copy, it could easily have been placed out of its proper position, or perhaps other praises are missing.

Why indeed should there not be missing the praise of Blessed Siard, who died only one year before Blessed Dodo, to whose Life that of Dodo could have been appended and he said to be of the same order? Choquet, having said much in favor of his own Order, which largely falls apart from what has already been said, leaves the judgment to others in this obscure matter, nor can we determine whether the one mentioned by Cantimpré and the one we treat of here are one and the same person.

LIFE

From the manuscript of St. Savior's, Utrecht.

Dodo of Hascha, of the Premonstratensian Order, in Frisia (Blessed)

BHL Number: 2206

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT.

[1] When Dodo was still a layman in the house of his father, from youth devoted to piety and virtues: he was a man of good conscience, very charitable toward his neighbors, kind toward the poor; he frequented the church a great deal, prayed, fasted, and was obedient to his parents, and energetic in all the works of God. After his father's death he was compelled unwillingly by his friends to contract a marriage: he contracts marriage under compulsion: after a few years he applied himself to the religious life, fleeing the world as Lot fled Sodom. He joined himself to the Brothers of the Garden of St. Mary together with his wife and mother, there serving God day and night in fear and reverence. After this, desiring a more secluded place, where alone he might better and more perfectly serve God alone, he asked the Abbot with his wife and mother he becomes a religious: to send him to some place where, sequestered from the crowd, he might more conveniently serve God. Whence he was sent to Bakkeveen, the place so named, and there he built he seeks solitude: a small cell for himself, in which he led a solitary life for many years: for there he endured many and diverse infestations from evil spirits day and night.

[2] On one occasion, going out from his cell through a small door into the church to pray; he is troubled by demons: having completed his prayer, when he was returning, he found the door shut and could not gain entry. At length, with force he threw himself against the door, and so the entry opened, and he heard the evil spirits fleeing with great clamor and laughter, who had barred his entry. A certain matron possessed by a demon came to him, to intercede for her to the Lord God, that he might cast out the demon from her, by which she was greatly vexed: but when he could not do so, after many adjurations, the evil spirit answered: Neither you nor anyone in the world will cast me out of this unclean vessel, but I will remain in her until three days before the day of her departure: a and this came to pass. This demoniac predicted to him many things that afterwards followed: he comes to Hascha: and she told him that he was going to depart from that place to this place of Hascha, which also came to pass.

[3] He led a harsh life there in food and clothing and on a hard bed: he tamed his flesh by fasting, he lives austerely: keeping vigil, scourging himself, in genuflections and beatings of the breast, in weeping and inconsolable lamentation, groaning and praying for himself and the entire holy Church of God. Each day content with one meal, on alternate days fish and beer, in food: on alternate days bread and water: on Friday he ate nothing. His clothing was as follows: first, seven iron circles girded his flesh around his sides, two around his arms, clothing: over this was a hairshirt, then he put on an iron coat of mail, and lastly he had two woolen tunics and over them a scapular, and so he remained day and night without change of clothes. His bed was hard, without the softness of a pillow: bed: for indeed he had a mat for his bedding, at his head a hollowed piece of wood, and in that hollow a garment placed under his head with a cushion, after the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was wrapped in cloths and placed in a manger. in vigils, prayers, and genuflections: At midnight he was always accustomed to rise for Matins, and afterwards without any rest he extended the night until the time of the Masses, praying, disciplining his body, and making genuflections of various kinds. Five hundred genuflections each day and night, and often more, he performed. His knees had become hardened in the manner of a camel, and because he was a true worshiper of God, the Lord performed many miracles through him.

[4] The aforesaid Brother Dodo came by divine revelation to the aforesaid place called Hascha, when it was still uncultivated and there was no structure there except a small sanctuary: the image of the Crucifix speaks to him: in which stood two old images, one of the Crucifix and the other of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Then on one occasion, standing before the Crucifix, when, called by his companions, he wished to depart, he heard a voice as if sounding from the image of the Cross: Why do you hasten so? For you are to remain in this place for a longer time. Likewise a certain possessed person predicted to him, while he was still enclosed in his cell at Bakkeveen, that he was to pass from that place to this one. Likewise while he was still there, on the Vigil of All Saints and on the Vigil of the Nativity of the Lord, water at his table, when the sign of the Cross was made, was changed into the flavor of the sweetest wine.

[5] Afterwards, when many years had been completed, he was called to this place of Hascha by a certain great and notable Cleric of pious memory, Lord Wibrand of Hascha. water is converted to wine: He came here therefore around the feast of Blessed Andrew, when there was a frost of one night, and he crossed all the ditches on the ice of that night, so that all who heard it marveled. Then he grew so much in virtues the ice of one night bears him crossing: that the fame of his holiness was spread throughout the whole land, and the sick, burdened with various infirmities, began to flock to him, various infirmities are driven away: of whom he cured very many.

[6] A certain girl was brought before him who had the falling sickness, who was healed by his prayers. A certain Cleric from distant parts came to him with swollen skin, the falling sickness: so that from every part of his body he appeared as if leprous: leprosy: and he was healed through him. The daughter of the Priest Pipperid of b Gersloote, who was paralytic, was restored to health by his prayers. A certain sick man from c Westermeer was brought to him bound hand and foot: paralysis: who, overcome by extreme illness, being as if out of his mind and insane, was healed through the image of the Blessed Virgin and his continual prayers: insanity: so that he who had come to him bound in a boat, on the return journey steered the boat himself; who, as soon as he arrived home, sent back to the aforesaid Brother a white and choice cow in honor of God and the Blessed Virgin. Another man from the same region was suffering from a similar disease, who through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and his prayers was similarly cured: who, giving thanks to God and the man of God, sent back a cow in honor of the Blessed Virgin.

[7] On the night of the Lord's Resurrection, after midnight, while Brother Dodo was lifting up the Cross, as is the custom of the Church, the Cross is lifted from the ground of its own accord: and carrying it around the outside of the church; when he had come to the eastern part of the cemetery, he saw a cross ascending from the ground and proceeding a little distance to another place, and it soon vanished from his sight. This meanwhile was seen by several who were with him at that time. At another time two women saw the same vision as if in the same place.

[8] In the year of the Lord 1231, therefore, Brother Dodo, a man of good conduct and approved life, he dies crushed by the collapse of a roof: on the Sunday after the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was crushed and killed by the collapse of the walls of the old structure: he who had previously led a monastic and solitary life in the same place for five years, serving God and the Blessed Virgin day and night, with the greatest affliction of his body, and so, as it were martyred, he ended his life with God and for God. When therefore he had been crushed by the stones from the collapse of the sanctuary and was dead, the wounds of Christ found expressed on his body after death: they found open wounds in his hands and feet, and in his right side, in the manner of the five wounds of the Lord, which perhaps he had borne for many years in compassion with the Crucified, so that he could truly say with Paul: I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ in my body. But before the day of his death no one knew of this except God alone, who knows all things.

[9] After his death, the Lord Wibrand of Hascha, of good memory, the foundation at Hascha: gathered to himself two Clerics with their families, the Lord Siricus and the Lord Sifrid, and a few laypeople: who, all of one mind, renouncing the world and offering themselves and their possessions to God as first fruits, founded this place, namely Hascha, for serving God and Blessed Mary and all the Saints forever and ever. Amen.

ON BLESSED MORICUS, OF THE ORDER OF CRUCIFERS AND FRIARS MINOR.

YEAR 1236

Moricus, of the Order of Crucifers and Friars Minor (Blessed)

[1] Philip Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, published in the year 1613, refers at this March 30, among other Saints, to the praise of Blessed Moricus of the Order of Crucifers and Friars Minor, he is celebrated with an Ecclesiastical Office: and notes that the Crucifer Brothers celebrate him on this day with an Ecclesiastical Office, but does not know whether by concession of the Apostolic See. Meanwhile, in his General Catalogue published in the year 1625, he again celebrates him with these words: At Assisi, of Blessed Moricus, of the Order of Friars Minor. he is called both Saint and Blessed: Silvester Marulus or Maurolycus, in book 1 of the Ocean of All Religious Orders, page 48, describes the Origin of the Crucifers, and on page 51 enumerates various Saints of the same Order, and among them counts Saint Moricus, who, divinely moved on account of a miracle which the Seraphic Francis worked in his person, assumed the habit of his Order. Nicolaus Brautius, Bishop of Sarsina, in his Poetic Martyrology concerning St. Moricus of the Order of Crucifers and Friars Minor, sings these lines:

A Crucifer, falling ill and healed, enters the cloisters of the Minors, And from them goes blessed to the stars.

Again, concerning the austerity and length of life of the same Saint Moricus, he adds:

Girt with a shirt of iron, living only on herbs, He led a robust life and died an old man.

[2] Francis Gonzaga, in the first part of the Seraphic Religious Order, among the Blessed whom he enumerates there, says: Blessed Moricus the Little, and companion of Blessed Father Francis, who, laboring with a grave illness in the hospital of the Walls near Assisi, first professed the Order of Crucifers, then, content with a single tunic, led a poor life: he died at Orvieto, and there he rests. But St. Bonaventure in his Life of St. Francis provides more with these words: At that time a religious man of the Order of Crucifers,

named Moricus, was suffering in a certain hospital near Assisi from an illness so grave and so prolonged healed by St. Francis: that he was already judged close to death by the doctors; he made supplication to the man of God, urgently requesting through a messenger that he deign to intercede for him with the Lord. The blessed Father kindly consenting, after offering a prayer, took crumbs of bread and, mixing them with oil taken from the lamp that burned before the altar of the Virgin, transmitted a kind of electuary through the hands of the Brothers to the sick man, saying: Carry this medicine to our Brother Moricus, by which the power of Christ will not only restore him to full health, but will also make him a robust warrior and join him steadfastly to our battle line. As soon as the sick man tasted that antidote, he is joined to him: prepared by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he rose up healthy and obtained from God such vigor of mind and body that shortly after entering the holy man's religious order, and covering himself with but a single tunic, beneath which he long wore a coat of mail against his flesh; and content with only raw foods, he lives austerely: herbs or vegetables and fruits, he did not taste bread or wine for many periods of five years, yet persevering strong and healthy.

[3] So says St. Bonaventure, whose words Tossinianus then copied verbatim in book 1, chapter 4; Mark of Lisbon, Wadding, Ferrarius, and generally others also follow them. Bartholomew of Pisa, in book 1 of the Conformities, fruit 8, part 2, reports that the following conversation took place between St. Francis and Moricus: To this Brother Moricus, he disputes about food on the Nativity of Christ: he says, when the Nativity of Christ fell on a Friday and there was a question about eating meat, and Brother Moricus said that they should not be eaten because of Friday (and this was before the confirmation of the second Rule), Blessed Francis said: You sin, Brother Moricus, in calling Friday a day on which the child Jesus was born for us. I wish that even the walls would eat meat on such a day, if it were possible, or at least be smeared on the outside. So that passage. Arthur du Monstier in the first edition of the Franciscan Martyrology had referred him to August 27; afterwards in the second edition he also celebrated his memory on this March 30 with these words: At Orvieto, of Blessed Moricus, Confessor, disciple of the Seraphic Father St. Francis, who shone forth notably for his wonderful abstinence and austerity of life. he is reported to have been born at Assisi: Louis Jacobilli, writing On the Saints of Umbria, investigates various things about him and asserts that his homeland was Assisi: that this is read in many manuscript Chronicles and is reported by Mark of Lisbon, Felix, Bini, and others: nor could he, according to the statutes of this city, have been admitted otherwise to the said Hospital, which he says was called that of St. Savior of the Walls, and is now called that of the Lepers. he was called "little": Furthermore, he says Blessed Moricus was called the Little or Small, and another Philip, a disciple of St. Francis, was called the Tall, from each one's own stature. He says that Ambrose of Massa was a disciple of Blessed Moricus, about whose life and miracles an authentic investigation was made by command of Gregory IX. teacher of Ambrose of Massa: Finally, he says that Blessed Moricus in the last years of his life resided in the convent of Orvieto, he died in the year 1236: and there, renowned for the holiness of his life and the power of his miracles, he departed to the heavenly homeland on March 30 of the year 1236.

ON BLESSED PETER REGALADO, OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR OF THE OBSERVANCE, AT AGUILERA IN OLD CASTILE.

YEAR 1456

Peter Regalado, of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance, at Aguilera in Old Castile (Blessed)

[1] The noble town of Aranda in Old Castile derives its surname from the Duero, on whose northern bank it rests, and at nearly an equal distance of about twelve leagues in whichever direction of the compass the inhabitants might turn, looking out upon one major city of that kingdom; having near Aranda del Duero: Osma or Uxama to the East, Segovia to the South, Valladolid or Pincia to the West, and Burgos or Auca to the North. Adjacent to this Aranda del Duero lies the village of Aguilera, and to the village a monastery of Friars Minor, of those who now bear the name of the Observance; but before they joined the Observants, the convent of Aguilera: known only by the name of Minors of St. Francis, they had undertaken to maintain, beyond the Observance of the Rule of the same Saint, an even greater austerity of life recommended by the Seraphic Father in his last testament, leading a nearly eremitical life; which all those who dwell there and in other convents designated for the voluntary recollection of longer or shorter duration still lead to this day.

[2] The governance of these after Father Peter of Villacreces, the first reviver of such strict discipline, unknown until then to Spain, was assumed upon the master's death by the choicest disciple of the same Villacreces, this Blessed was their Vicar: Blessed Peter Regalado, with the title of Vicar: concerning whose Life, virtues, and miracles, Father Anthony Daza, Provincial Minister of the Province of the Conception (formed from the union of the Villacrecian and Santoyan families), and also general Chronographer of his Order, spared us the labor; for in the year 1627, by the Valladolid press of Juan Lasso de las Peñas, he published a booklet in the Spanish language on these matters, and inscribed it The Excellences of the City of Valladolid. This booklet therefore, omitting the preambles whose life was written in Spanish by Daza: that properly concern Valladolid as Peter's homeland, we considered it sufficient to render into Latin: inasmuch as the Judges and Commissioners appointed by the Apostolic See for the reception of testimony and miracles were content with it. Certainly the Auditors of the Rota, examining the Processes and presenting their judgment on the canonization of Peter to Pope Urban VIII in the year 1630, adduce no other Life in testimony than this one.

[3] collected from authentic manuscripts: It was moreover collected from older manuscripts and public documents preserved in the archive of Aguilera: among which there is also a double Life of this Blessed, one by Brother Andrew de la Costa, the longer; the shorter perhaps by Brother Jerome Roman of the Order of St. Augustine, both contemporaries of the Blessed himself: which Lives therefore, and especially the first, written in that simple and ancient style, we would have wished to have, if we had believed it possible at so great a distance of places, and without very great and uncertain trouble, to obtain it from that convent. There is also preserved there an authentic book of miracles, itself worthy of being required word for word, were it not that, being written in Spanish like the aforesaid Lives, it created a lesser desire for itself. We append to the Life to be given by us that part of the Roman Report we give it with part of the Roman Report: which seemed more conducive to proving a legitimate and ancient cult: for we have often learned ourselves and warned the reader that we cannot safely trust the Franciscan Martyrology of Arthur du Monstier alone. But now, relying on such foundations, we do not hesitate to bring forth from it the eulogy, which is found composed in these words:

[4] At Aguilera, not far from Aranda del Duero, a town of the diocese of Osma, of Blessed Peter de la Regalada, Confessor: who, being one of the chief Founders of the Regular Observance among the Spanish, shone forth with so many virtues and merits that both in life he was endowed with the spirit of prophecy, and in death he was illustrated by nearly innumerable miracles.

[5] and we demonstrate that it pertains to March 30: So he says, and rightly: but at the last day of March: in which, we cannot agree with Marietta, who cites and follows the Ecclesiastical History of the Saints of Spain, book 17, chapter 21; and others who wrote the thirtieth day, charging them with error in his annotations. For to say nothing of the manuscript Life, whose authority ought to be greater, and other arguments which Deza alleges below; Marietta himself is the indicator of his own error, when he refers the day of Tuesday to the last of March in the year 1456, which could only have been the penultimate, since with the Dominical letter C, Solar cycle 9, Lunar cycle 13, Easter fell on March 28. From which is evident both the refutation of Marietta and Arthur, and the understanding of the ancient Inscription carved on his tomb thirty-six years after the death of Blessed Peter, when it says that he put an end to the labors of the flesh on the second day of the Resurrection of the Lord, 1456: it is evident, I say, that the second day, counted exclusively from Easter itself, was the Tuesday of the Paschal week, namely the day of Tuesday, as is expressly stated in the miracles at number 75.

LIFE

From the Spanish of Father Anthony Daza.

Peter Regalado, of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance, at Aguilera in Old Castile (Blessed)

FROM THE SPANISH OF ANTHONY DAZA.

CHAPTER I.

The homeland and birth of Blessed Peter: the beginnings of the reform and the Convent of Aguilera under Peter of Villacreces.

[1] The homeland and parents of our Blessed were set forth by Brother Lopez de Salazar y Salinas, Founder of the monasteries of the Custody of St. Mary Minor, born of noble parents: and his companion and friend for fifty years, concluding a certain apology to be offered to the Royal Council in these words: With greater rigor the Holy Villacrecian master trained me and my holy companion Brother Peter de Costanilla, son of Peter Regalado and Lady Mary de Costanilla, inhabitants of the city of Valladolid. The same things are confirmed from the manuscript Life, which together with the aforesaid apology is preserved in the convent of Aguilera, composed in a simple style, as the genius of that age allowed, by Brother Andrew de la Costa, with this beginning: The holy Brother Peter Regalado, who is also surnamed de Costanilla and Vallisoletano, was the legitimate son of Peter Regalado, from the noble and ancient family of the Regalados, and of Lady Mary de Costanilla: whose Christian character and virtues were so great, called partly Regalado and partly de Costanilla by them: and their generosity in distributing alms so liberal, that, though they abounded in temporal fortunes, they seemed not lords but procurators and dispensers of them. Their homeland was Valladolid, and their fathers, grandfathers, and all ancestors were descended in undoubted line from the ancient Christians, ever since the Catholic faith was first brought into Spain, etc.

[2] Similar things may be read in an ancient manuscript taken from the concordant deposition of twenty-three witnesses, on September 15 of the year 1562: from his homeland he is called Vallisoletano: all of whom were from the elders of Castro Mocho, and each had passed the seventieth or eightieth year of their age. Finally, in an ancient tablet hung on the tomb of the Blessed himself, the same testifies, and it is held for certain, that he was born in the street called Costanilla, in the house now called that of the Octave; and reborn through holy baptism in the parish of St. Savior. He had from the same parents a sister called Isabella: who in the aforesaid town of Castro Mocho married the Bachelor Orejon, and bore him three sons and as many daughters, from whom an honorable posterity remains to this day. Peter himself is called Regalado by some, de Costanilla by others: but he himself, content from the humble usage of religious families to be named only from his homeland, called himself nothing other than Vallisoletano: as is clear from an instrument of a certain appeal to Pope Nicholas V made in the year 1453 and preserved in the archive of the aforesaid convent: nor do I find him called otherwise in the Bulls of the Prelates of his time, as many as make mention of him.

In those times there flourished Brother Peter Vallisoletano, son of the Regalada woman: who is said to have performed many miracles in life and after death. He is called the son of the Regalada woman, because his widowed mother retained this name from her prematurely deceased husband, and the boy could hardly have known his father by reason of age, and therefore owes his entire upbringing to his mother alone. Yet usage prevailed, after the father's death, that he should be called simply by the paternal surname Regalado: which was perpetually observed by those who compiled the informations collected for his beatification. When his pious mother, accustomed to the frequent use of the Sacraments, brought the boy with her to the convent of St. Francis, he receives the Franciscan habit: to be offered to the Lord after the pattern of Samuel, the thought was divinely put into his mind to request the habit there, and he obtained it, and after completing his probation he professed, in the fourteenth year of his age, which the Canons at that time still permitted.

[4] While Peter was there and made outstanding progress in the spirit, a new light began to rise upon the world through those who proposed to restore the observance of the Franciscan rule, Villacreces desirous of restoring the Observance: extinguished by Papal dispensations, and to hold to the summit of Evangelical perfection, withdrawing to solitudes and forests, far from the convents from which poverty had been excluded: whom the Council of Basel called Observants, taking their name from the situation. The first reviver of this movement in Spain was the blessed Father Peter de Villacreces, brother of Don Juan de Villacreces, Bishop of Burgos, by birth a Vallisoletano, as they say, and there (unless my conjecture deceives me) he professed the Franciscan Order, a man of outstanding learning and holiness, and on that account most dear to Kings and Princes. Who, desiring the original poverty of St. Francis to be observed without any dispensations, first expressed in himself what he wished to see perfected in others, and with the permission of his Superiors withdrew into a certain cave, for twenty years he inhabits a cave as a solitary: remote from human use among the mountains, near a village called San Pedro de Arlanza, in the territory of the town of Covarrubias.

[5] Here he spent fully twenty years, becoming a rare example of penance and abstinence, then the hermitage of Salceda: and with incessant prayers and tears begging God for the reformation of the Order: but going forth entirely different from what he had been when he entered, retaining nothing of a man except the outward form, being in all other respects spirit, and burning with an incredible desire to share with Brothers the incomparable treasures which he rejoiced to have found and discovered in that retreat, he diligently sought a place in which, with others also gathered together, he might join the eremitical life to the conventual and found the regular Observance in its original purity. There offered itself to him opportunely the hermitage of Our Lady of Salceda, between Peñalver and the town of Tendilla, in the district of Alcarria, recently founded by certain Knights of St. John; who, divinely inspired, willingly ceded the place to Villacreces, about to begin his reformation with the permission of the Minister General. It is not known how long the holy man lived there: it is only certain that the Conventual Fathers of Toledo added this hermitage to the Custody of Toledo, whether already abandoned by Peter or to be abandoned for that very reason.

[6] But God did not abandon his servant, nor did he frustrate such holy efforts of his with failure, then a place marked by heavenly light near Aguilera: but provided him with another place near Aguilera, a town between Aranda and Roa of the diocese of Osma, right where a few days earlier the inhabitants had seen at night very many luminaries and heavenly fires, and thinking the area, full of brush, was being cleared by fire, they considered it a miracle and an indication that God was destining that place for some hidden purpose. They therefore reported to the Bishop, who, after a preliminary examination, found the matter to be certain, and at his own expense built a hermitage on that very spot which the heavenly splendors had marked by illuminating it, where a church was also later built, and now stands the chapel of the distinguished reliquary of the Dukes of Peñaranda. Then the Bishop he obtains it from the Bishop of Osma: placed there a Cleric of exemplary life and holy conduct, adding also a companion to assist the one offering the sacrifice. The fame of the new miracle immediately reached the ears of Father Villacreces: who, seeing how well suited the solitude of the place was to his purpose, asked for it from the Bishop, who was, as they say, his kinsman, and without difficulty obtained it for himself.

[7] Meanwhile, while he was negotiating this business, before taking possession of the hermitage, he arrived at the convent of St. Francis at Valladolid with a companion, and at Valladolid he gained Regalado as a companion: and was an object of wonder to all: for whom the sight of Friars Minor, barefoot and most poorly clad, was novel, such as they had never seen since the times of St. Francis. The fruit of this spectacle was greater among the Brothers: for there were among them those who lacked only an example to put into practice the love of holy poverty which God had infused into their hearts together with knowledge of the rule. Such above all was Peter Regalado, who had recently professed his religious vows, and was reflecting on how great an obligation he had taken upon himself in being enrolled among the sons of St. Francis; after he learned from others the manner of living that Villacreces maintained, and that he had the faculty from the General to recruit companions who voluntarily offered themselves for the hermitages he was about to found; he received him as an Angel from heaven destined for his salvation, and with many tears most humbly asked to be admitted into his discipline.

[8] The holy man acceded to the pious wishes of the most pious young man, and took him with him to the hermitage of Aguilera, where the two good hermits were waiting for him: he clothes the hermits found there with the habit: who immediately deferring obedience to him, received the habit of the order from his hands, and then professed their vows among them. Whether this was done by prearrangement, there is no history that reports: this we know, that Villacreces, leaving Peter there with the two novices already mentioned, returned to the Bishop, and reported to him everything as it had been done: who greatly approved the deed, and sending him back to his hermitage, enlarged the dwelling place somewhat, so that it might be suitable for twelve Brothers, content with a narrow space: for Villacreces did not wish more than twelve to live in the hermitages he founded. He also had three cells fitted in the very choir, more like tombs than bedrooms, in which those might dwell for whom the desire to live so close to the holy place had made those narrow quarters desirable.

[9] This was done in the year fourteen hundred and four: the name of the church that had first been given because of the miracle of the luminaries was retained, in the year 1404: so that it should be called the House of God; but among the common people the name of Aguilera prevailed, taken from the village next to which it stood. The church was consecrated by the Bishop much later, in the year fourteen hundred and thirty-seven, on the most auspicious feast of St. Francis, at the request of St. Regalado, then Vicar of the hermitages. This House of God was therefore from its very beginning a hidden theater of such severe penance and the beginning of such a holy reformation, to which men were to be gathered who went barefoot, but even more estranged in affection from every appearance of worldliness; who were to tread upon ground full of the bodies of Saints: which when those who were digging the earth for burying religious people came upon, they found them intact and fragrant: but replacing the earth, they covered them again, lest the matter becoming public should stir up a multitude that would inconvenience the quiet of the Brothers.

[10] Here St. Regalado, putting off the old Adam, put on the new Francis; where also Regalado at the age of 15 professes the observance: having dismissed his shoes and the conventual habit, content with a poor sack: here he made a new Profession between the hands of his blessed Master: here, ordained a Priest, he offered his first sacrifice: here he grew in age and holiness: here finally he terminated the days of his mortal life with a happy end. From which it is clear that Gonzaga erred most gravely, part 1 page 9, asserting that the convent of Salceda was founded by St. Regalado and Blessed Villacreces: since when the latter went to Aguilera with his companion, in the fourth year of the fifteenth century as stated, he was recently professed and had not yet passed the fourteenth year of his age. But Gonzaga himself admits, and it can be proved from the chronicles of the Order, that the convent of Salceda was erected in the year thirteen hundred and sixty-six, that is, twenty-four years before Regalado was born.

[11] In this House of God, moreover (for it did not bear that name in vain), many men illustrious for holiness and religion thereafter flourished: among whom, after the very Founders, the blessed Brother Lopez de Salazar y Salinas deserves to be mentioned first, and afterwards many lived there distinguished for holiness: of whom some mention is made in this book, who was the Founder of the Custody of St. Mary Minor, which is now the holy Province of Burgos, and a disciple of Blessed Villacreces and companion of St. Regalado, a most learned man, a notable zealot for the reformation, and so holy in his conduct as his own Life, written by various authors, declares. No less than he was Brother Alfonso Vallisoletano, the immediate successor of St. Regalado in the vicariate, to whom he was also related by blood and most similar in virtue. Brother Anthony de Aguilera and Brother Juan de Castro among the first Vicars of this convent also deserve no small mention, as does Brother Philip de Santander, a contemporary of St. Regalado, a man of much prayer and penance: Brother Anthony de Cornaga of the same period, and Brother Andrew de la Costa, who wrote the Life of St. Regalado, as it is preserved handwritten in the archive of the convent, who is known to have been a religious man of outstanding holiness, and furthermore an eminent Theologian and Grammarian, and a preacher of Apostolic zeal: who, to benefit others also by writing, compiled Cases of Conscience into a Summa.

[12] and of outstanding dignity: To the commendation of the same convent it contributes that the Kings of Spain drew distinguished men from it for their service, and that men praiseworthy on many counts presided over it as Guardians: namely, Brother Buenaventura de Santiváñez, equal in virtue to the first founders: who was later General Commissary for Spain, and Confessor to Lady Anne, Queen of Spain, united to Philip II: Brother Andrew de Soto, likewise Confessor to the Most Serene Infanta of Spain and Princess of the Low Countries, and there in Belgium General Commissary of the Order. Brother Francis Barroso, a religious man of much prayer and penance, and of such abstinence that until about the age of seventy he ate nothing but bread, water, and a few raw herbs, and that only once a day; he died in the convent of St. Francis at Olmedo, leaving behind a great reputation for holiness. Brother Andrew Velasco, General Commissary of the Indies, Confessor to the Most Serene Infantes and to the Prince of Spain. Brother Francis Ramirez, who after visiting many provinces barefoot as Visitor with great profit of example, finally governed this province with the title of Provincial. And finally he who lives today, Brother Francis

Fernandez, Confessor to Lady Anne of Austria, Queen of France. The rest who enriched the same convent with the examples of their virtues and the remains of their bodies, I pass over: because it would be lengthy to enumerate them all.

CHAPTER II.

The foundation of the hermitage of La Aguilera: Observance of the Rule: constitutions written.

[13] The hermitage of La Aguilera is founded in the year 1415: Having spent eleven years in the hermitage of Aguilera with his blessed Master, St. Regalado, imitating the Angels in the assiduity of prayer and contemplation, and the Seraphic Father Francis in humility and the rigor of penance, in the year 1415 went forth with his same master to found the hermitage of El Abrojo, in a certain garden of Diego de Villacreces, a kinsman, it may be believed, of the Blessed himself, who gave it to him on account of the obligations which he acknowledged owing to him, and so that he and his Brothers might pray for him, on the condition that once an oratory and other suitable buildings had been erected there, neither Villacreces himself, nor the Superiors or other Brothers could sell or alienate the place by any means whatever. If, however (God forbid) either the Brothers themselves should at any time abandon the place, or it should be taken from the power of the same Brothers by any other circumstance, he wished its administration to reside with the Council of Laguna in the meantime, until the same Brothers should wish and be able to return there, with no right left to anyone of introducing another religious order. All of which was transacted and signed at Laguna in the said year before the Notary Diego Perez.

[14] The poverty of the first inhabitants of this place was so great in the utmost poverty: that when there was no book for singing the sacred offices, Villacreces would say to his religious: If they could not sing the Mass, let them weep over it, as exiles from their homeland. And when the oil was lacking that would give light before the most holy Sacrament: Let poverty, he would say, shine there, more sweetly fragrant than any balsam. When the church of this holy convent was consecrated, and it is called Scala Coeli: it obtained the name of Scala Coeli (Ladder of Heaven), to express the office and purpose of those dwelling there, so that just as in the mystical ladder of the Patriarch Jacob there were angels ascending and descending, so here there should never be lacking those who ascend to heaven through contemplation and descend to earth through charity for the benefit and salvation of their neighbors. Much about this place and the holy men buried there would doubtless have to be said by us, had not, on April 8, 1624, the Monday after Easter, two hours before midnight, by the hidden judgment of God, together with the adjoining Royal Palace, the convent burned the same was destroyed by fire in 1624: in a fire so violent that the very stones were reduced to ashes: whose loss, however, was less than that of many important manuscripts and documents, which I had deposited there as if in a place most secure from all danger, when I departed for Rome in obedience to a command.

[15] This disaster afflicted the entire surrounding region, and from everywhere great numbers of people of every age, sex, and condition came running to help, if there had been any room for it, with the persistent wind fanning the flames: which, while they held all things as conquerors, only the Venerable Sacrament and the image of the Blessed Virgin were saved: yet they could never penetrate to the most holy Sacrament and the image of the Immaculate Conception, although they had burst into the chapel nine times, nor could they even blacken the walls of the sacred building with soot. And here the admirable affection of all toward the afflicted shone forth, with alms contributed in competition, by which within two years a new convent was raised from the foundations, with the King himself above all others contributing six thousand ducats. Indeed he was following the examples of his predecessors, who had been piously devoted to this place ever since the time of the most glorious Emperor Charles V, restored by royal generosity: accustomed to retire here during the days of Holy Week, where, lest he inconvenience the tranquility of the religious, he had built a magnificent palace beside the convent. The same, wishing to restrain the excessive greed of certain conquerors of Mexico, sent to New Spain with the title of Protector of the Indians the Guardian of this convent, who was afterwards made Archbishop there and departed from life with a reputation for holiness and miracles.

[16] In the same convent, for many years as subject and Superior, lived Brother Bernardino de Arévalo, an outstanding Theologian and preacher of the divine word, but so zealous for humility that, renouncing the Archbishopric of Toledo, many illustrious men flourished there: he merited many delights from heaven, to whose full enjoyment he passed from the convent of St. Francis at Valladolid. Not less than he in learning or holiness was Alphonsus de Spina, author of the book entitled Fortalitium Fidei, also divinely ennobled by prodigious works, and of wonderful efficacy in preaching. There also lived Brother Juan Merino, to whom angels ministered more than once as he offered sacrifice. Brother Juan de Calahorra, who merited the grace of working miracles by great fervor of prayer and the practice of afflicting his body. Brother Diego Enriquez, son of the Admiral of Castile and a close relative of Ferdinand the Catholic. There too Brother Bartholomew de Cabrera, the brother of the Countess of Modica, married to the Admiral Lord Luis, shone forth in humility and poverty.

[17] The Guardians who particularly distinguished this convent are: Brother García de Castello, companion of blessed Brother Bernardino de Arévalo, a man of great prayer, learning, and merit; Brother Francisco de Herrera, and the Guardians of that convent were: author of a Manual on the Rule of the Minors; Brother Juan Enriquez, a close kinsman of the Admiral of Castile, honored in life with many revelations, and the day before his death made more certain of his salvation by divine warning, not without the fame and praise of miracles wrought through him, and of the abdicated bishopric of Calahorra; Brother Andrew de la Iglesia, Confessor to the Most Serene Infantas, daughters of King Philip II; Brother Peter de Castro, surviving to this day in Belgium, as Confessor to the Most Serene Archduchess there; Brother Sebastian de Salazar, Provincial Minister of this province, whom God took from the convent of St. Francis at Soria three months after his election in the year 1623, about to depart to the heavens without the experience of purgatory, as became known through a trustworthy revelation. Among the lay Brothers who dwelt there, Brothers Juan del Campo and Lawrence were renowned for miracles, as well as Brother Juan Bautista, an ecstatic man, always absorbed in the exercise of continual contemplation, unless commanded by the precept of obedience to return to his senses. also certain holy laypeople: Moreover, two illustrious Martyrs stayed there for some days, one at Cairo in Egypt, the other in Japan, and Martyrs: Brothers Juan de Zuazo and Francisco de la Parrilla, who from this place entered the arena of glorious combat.

[18] But let us return to the holy Founders, to whom it seemed too little to have founded the said two convents Villacreces departs for the Council of Constance: in such holiness and observance of the poverty prescribed by the Rule, unless they also provided for them laws by which it would remain safe and stable. And so Villacreces, although broken by old age and penances, leaving St. Regalado at El Abrojo, went to the Council of Constance, where, when the schism which had vexed the Church for forty years was extinguished and Martin V was created on November 3 of the year 1417, he brought back from him two Bulls, suitable for establishing his reformation in the hermitages of Aguilera and El Abrojo: by which it is ordered that in the said hermitages the Constitutions be observed which St. Francis made for the convent of St. Mary of the Angels near Assisi (which is the principal point of the entire reformation), through the observance of which, as the Bishops of Porto, Mantua, and Sinigaglia noted, Villacreces especially wished his followers to be distinguished from the other Brothers of the Franciscan Order; and the sum of all is reduced to the poverty of buildings, the recollection and perpetual silence of the Brothers, as well as abstinence from meat, as is more fully reported in book 2 of the Conformities, fruit 18.

[19] The same Bulls provide that the said two hermitages may have a church, bells, and workshops, just as the other convents of the Order; that in each only twelve Brothers may dwell (for thus Blessed Villacreces had established, and obtains confirmation for the two hermitages: but after his death St. Regalado obtained a dispensation in this matter); that the same Brothers must live solitary, enclosed in their cells, and may not leave them or change their place unless for the sake of some great and evident usefulness; that no one may enter their enclosures, even if a Brother of the same Order, except the Minister General, the Provincial, or their companions, and the local Lords themselves; that the faculty of leaving one's cell or admitting anyone into it should not be granted except for the most just cause and approved by the greater part of the convent; that the houses themselves and the Brothers remaining in them enjoy all the privileges of the Order by the same right as other convents; and that finally, after the death of Father Villacreces, the hermits of Aguilera together with the other three of El Abrojo may elect another Superior, who should govern them with the title of Vicar and with the same authority over those Brothers of his that belongs to Provincial Ministers in their Provinces. The House of Aguilera, moreover, should always be considered and be the head of the entire Vicariate.

[20] Not content with these Apostolic constitutions, those holy religious men, to which he adds constitutions concerning: for the greater firmness of the same, conceived others under this title: Memorial of the active and contemplative offices of the Friars Minor, which could be called a Mirror of Religious for the doctrine it contains, of which I shall here weave some compendium, with the ancient words simply rendered from the Spanish, so that the fervor of the religious of that time might be better known, and the spirit in which this province was founded. First, we assign six hours within the day and night to sleep, the divine office: and seven hours to the common performance of the Divine Office, but eight on greater feasts. And so that this may be done more becomingly and better, we have Clerics ordained for this purpose, who never leave the house, according to what St. Francis prescribed. Furthermore, we have an hour and a half designated for mental prayer to be done in common: and if anyone desires a longer time for praying to God and lamenting his sins, he shall not lack the faculty through his Superior, when he is asked and judges it will be useful. sacred furnishings: We use vestments of wool, diverse in color according to the diversity of the seasons, and of white and clean linen, backed with cloth made of the same material, without gold, silver, silk, or any other costly workmanship or ornament. Nor do we accept other things donated under the name of alms, lest under that pretext we open the door to opulence entering our houses.

[21] We have glass cruets, bronze thuribles; and the cross which we carry in procession is made of wood, abstinence from meat: so that it may have a greater resemblance to the true cross of our Lord. We wish chalices to be of silver, but small, flat, clean, and only two in each house. We maintain a perpetual abstinence from meat, in order to observe the constitution of the General Chapters celebrated at Paris and Lyons, and those which were enacted under the General Bonaventure: and to imitate more closely St. Francis and the first Fathers of our religion, who were not accustomed to eat meat: and this observance greatly helps us both for interior recollection

and the external custody of chastity and poverty. and wine: We do not drink wine: we do not accept funerals of outsiders nor any temporal benefits from the deceased: we do not store up wheat or wine in August for the needs of the entire year.

[22] We fast from the feast of All Saints until Easter: and if meanwhile God provides fish for the Brothers, they are given to them on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. On Friday during Lent we fast on bread and water: fasts: but the days of Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday on fruits, greens, and legumes. On Sunday we break the fast, each with a piece of bread at supper. Condiments, garlic, and pepper do not belong to the perfect life. A piece of bread of whatever kind distributed at the door, whether white or black, hard or soft, dry or fresh, ought to be of equal value to a Friar Minor: but cooked foods should be simple, namely legumes and greens: so that oil and herring are counted as great delicacies. Our ordinary foods are bread, a dish of greens, herrings or sardines, and one or two of these are given to each if available: or a small portion of fresh fish, if God provides it: if not, we have patience.

[23] In the times when we do not fast, we eat milk, cheese, eggs, one or two for each, sometimes even three when they are available. ordinary fare: At supper nothing is brought that has been set on the fire, except bread and cheese. The drink in summer is clear water, in winter water boiled with fennel. All go barefoot and are clothed in coarser cloth, such as the common people use, at a price of four or five maravedis per yard, as it commonly sells at Aranda. The church should be suitable for fostering devotion, small, and well built. The Most Holy Sacrament should always be kept in a more preciously adorned and more honorable place. The house, cells, and workshops should be made of wood shaped only by the axe, without moldings and carvings: the walls should be built of earth and bristles, as should the walls of the gardens; and if stones are used, they should be rough, and joined with good clay, not with lime or any other elaborate material. And so it will be provided that the houses, the construction of buildings: though poor, will yet be firm and keep out the cold, and the Brothers will not need to repair them every day, with a loss of time that should be given to prayer.

[24] We observe the enclosure which St. Francis established for his hermitages and for the convent of St. Mary of the Angels, enclosure: as Martin V granted us by his bull. For the attainment of humility of heart, we are accustomed to make a confession of faults whenever we leave the choir, or enter the house from outside, and to accept penance for our offenses, more often and willingly stripping ourselves to receive the discipline. We also beg alms through the refectory, and on that day we eat nothing else but what the Brothers have left over as superfluous to them. No one who seeks preferments, preaching, confessions, or sacred Orders do we advance, but rather we remove those who strive to procure such offices. humility: In seating at table we are all equal, nor do we recognize there any distinction of greater or lesser: just as we do not in the discipline performed on various nights, the collecting or carrying home of firewood, and all other labors whatsoever. Excepted, however, are the sick and elderly, and the comforts of the sick: especially those who have reached their sixtieth year: whom we regard as being in the infirmary, and when their need is manifest, we excuse them from fasts and permit them to use meat and wine and poor or esparto-grass sandals.

CHAPTER III.

The life and death of Peter de Santoyo: the history of the reform introduced by him.

[25] There were in the holy convent of Aguilera the illustrious men Villacreces and Regalado, Peter de Santoyo: when God brought to them another man similar to both in name and virtue, Father Brother Peter de Santoyo, who gave the beginning of the name of Regular Observance in Spain. These three Peters were the foundational and solid rocks, upon whose firmness and holiness God founded the holy Province of the Conception. God drew that blessed Father, born in Santoyo, one of the nine Campanian towns, to himself with so vehement an impulse that on the very day he was about to sing his first Mass, before he approached the altar or bade farewell to his invited friends, he fled to the convent of St. Francis de Castro Xeriz, where having taken the habit and afterwards professed his religious vows, since he desired to observe the rule of St. Francis wholly and without dispensations or revenues, and one night was deep in prayer in the convent of Valladolid, he was admonished by a divine revelation to reduce his life to the pure observance of the rule and to help with the reformation of the Order. Strengthened therefore by this divine invitation and desiring to obey it, he professed the Observance at Aguilera: he immediately betook himself to the convent of Aguilera, and there, bound to a new profession under the discipline of Villacreces, having duly pronounced the same, he set out on foot, and indeed barefoot, to the Holy Land, visiting the holy places of Jerusalem with many tears.

[25] Gonzaga therefore also erred here when he said that Peter de Santoyo contributed his collaborative effort to the founding of the convents of Salceda, Aguilera, and El Abrojo together with Blessed Villacreces. under the discipline of Villacreces: For as was said above about St. Regalado, Peter de Santoyo was not yet born when, thirty-eight years before the founding of the convent of Aguilera, the blessed man began to reside at Salceda: and in the year 1415, when the founding of El Abrojo is noted, Peter de Santoyo was not in Spain, but in the preceding year he had departed for the Council of Basel. Gonzaga himself seems tacitly to have acknowledged this error of his, since when treating of each convent in particular, he nowhere mentions this Father. With similar carelessness he attributes to him the foundation of the Custody of St. Mary Minor in the Province of Burgos, and another of convents established in the lands of the Count of Haro. For, not to say that he himself perhaps was never there, it is certain that the founder of the said convents and the custody was the blessed Brother Lopez de Salazar y Salinas, as Gonzaga himself attests where he treats of the convent of St. Mary Minor in the Province of Burgos.

[27] While our pilgrim piously and devoutly visited the sacred places of the Holy Land, he visits from the Holy Land: the Lord clothed him with that zeal and fervor of spirit needed for undertaking the reformation of the Order: and so, instructed and burning with the desire to fulfill the divine will, he went to Rome, and there communicated his plans with St. Bernardino of Siena: from whom he received much light and very useful advice for obtaining the intended reformation: at Rome he obtains the power to introduce the reformation throughout Spain: and returning thence with bulls and Pontifical letters obtained for that purpose, so that he might found poor convents and also bring others already founded back to the observance and purity of the Rule, he came to Spain, and in a solitary place half a league from his native town of Santoyo he founded the convent of Our Lady of Grace at Villa-Silos and having founded the Santoyan convent in the year 1409: in the year 1409, in such poverty and observance of the rules that Father Lopez, who at that time administered the holy Communion to him, says that he surpassed his master Villacreces in the rigor of penances and the total nakedness of poverty.

[28] In this place the holy man remained until he learned that the Council of Constance had been convoked: thinking that he should make use of this opportunity to achieve his desired end, he went there, and brought back from the Fathers of the Council a Bull in favor of the poor reformed convents, and furnished with new Bulls at Constance: with the faculty of founding new ones and reforming those already founded, and of receiving novices and Brothers who would voluntarily embrace the reformation. Furnished with this faculty, he began to reform some of the old convents, although he suffered the greatest difficulties on that account and suffered them for the rest of his life: all of which he regarded with equanimity, strengthened by the love of God, and not retreating a hair's breadth, he strenuously continued the work he had begun, aided by several leading men, ecclesiastical and secular, whose hearts God moved, and through them the heart of King John II to lend him their support: and through his intercession Bulls were obtained from Popes Martin V and Eugene IV, giving Peter the same power as we said had been given by the Council, for the kingdoms of the said Lord John.

[29] He had already founded the convent of Our Lady of Grace at Villa-Silos, but then by the force of the new Bulls, he erects more reformed convents: he founded another, called Our Lady of Consolation, in the territory of Calahorra near the village called de las Ribas, in such poverty as the surviving walls, constructed of clay and bristles and plastered with lime, manifest to our own times: and I myself also saw the roofs in some places woven from brambles and thorns. In the same poverty the convent of Our Lady of Hope at Val de Escopez was founded by him, about one league distant from Medina de Rioseco; and the convent of Our Lady of Mercy near the town commonly called Paredes de Nava. but he reforms old ones: Furthermore, he introduced the reformation into many old convents: the first among which was the convent of St. Francis of Valladolid, from which the restoration of regular observance spread to many other convents of the Spanish and Indian provinces. And there, among the greatest labors, he ended the days of his life, destined to rest eternally, having received the Sacraments amid his own and the bystanders' copious tears, also distinguished by many miracles, on account of which his body was transferred and placed in a stone monument he died on April 6, 1431: raised above the ground next to the main altar: above which monument his statue carved in stone is seen, with an inscription indicating that he departed this life on the sixth day of April of the year 1431.

[30] Those two reformations, however, the Santoyan and the Villacrecian, the difference between the Villacrecian and Santoyan reformation: which some ignorantly confuse, were very different: for Blessed Villacreces first began his reformation in the convent of Salceda, which did not spread beyond it, but was extinguished when he moved away and left the place to the Conventuals, who, as has been said, annexed it to the Custody of Toledo. Then, as it were on a second occasion, he began the reformation together with St. Regalado in the convent of Aguilera, whence both of them together extended it to El Abrojo, later augmented with various convents by the disciples of both, as we shall see below. But the blessed Father Peter de Santoyo began his reformation a few years after the foundation of Aguilera, which, once spread out, was of the foremost and most lasting fruit throughout all Spain. And its author was not Villacreces, as others would have it, but this blessed Father, as the words of the blessed Father Lopez de Salazar y Salinas, a contemporary of Santoyo himself and educated under the discipline of Villacreces, will clearly prove, in the response which he gave to the Council of King Henry IV, to the fifteen articles which the Observant Fathers opposed to the Villacrecian hermitages. The words

his from the ancient Castellan are of this kind:

[31] You ask, Fathers, why we are not under your

jurisdiction, and under the Vicars General or Provincial

of your Observance: and the distinction of both from the Observants: why likewise we do not join with you

and be called equally Brothers of the Observance.

To this article I respond that this does not happen for several reasons. First, because the first reformer in this province of Castile was, as you know, that distinguished Father and Master, Fr. Peter of Villacreces, most celebrated for his virtue and learning, and this by joining the claustral and eremitic life, and by fleeing convents built in cities and towns themselves, although Benedict XIII had given him ample authority to reform them. He himself moreover many times impressed upon the holy Brother Peter of Costanilla and the rest of his disciples, that we should never depart from those narrow confines in which he was leaving us, nor should we allow ourselves to be aggregated to the Observants, who were beginning to flourish, now that nearly forty years had already passed. Indeed Fr. Peter of Santoyo himself for the same reason for many years refused to join the said Observants, until they submitted themselves to his governance, until they submitted themselves to Peter of Santoyo: with the support of the Lords Peter Manriquez, President, Lord Gutierre the Archbishop, the elder Admiral, and the Count of Benavente. He never, however, presumed to exercise any jurisdiction over the houses founded by our said master. Wherefore, since from that time when he himself founded us at Aguilera, we have not passed hitherto into another's jurisdiction, nor did the Father who begot us ever consent to this, nor have we to this day assumed the name of the Observants or had it attributed to us by the common people; but simply we are called and are Friars Minor of St. Francis from the discipline of Villacreces, just as you are and are called Observant Brothers founded by Fr. Peter of Santoyo, although he too lived at Aguilera for one year under Villacreces: for these reasons, I say, and because we are prior to you, established before your observance was born, it is not fitting for us to pass to your jurisdiction or to consent to those who wish to bring this about by force.

[32] It is clear therefore from what has been said that the reforms we have mentioned were distinct: but because both were reduced to unity, and at length the Observants and the Villacrecians coalesced into one province: and from them was born the Province of Santoyo, which they call the Province of the Conception, the first in the Order under the title of the Observance: and because its founders, although they gave the beginning to the reform by different paths, which flourishes so remarkably in Spain, the institution of the Observance is attributed equally to all three: so speak the historians of the Order, especially the three Bishops, of Porto, Senigallia, and Mantua: of whom the last, namely Francis Gonzaga, concerning the origin of the Seraphic religion, part 1, folio 10, speaks indiscriminately of Villacreces, Regalado, and Santoyo in this manner: These are the first authors and distinguished founders of the Regular Observance among the Spaniards. Then at folio 98, composing a catalogue of the Blessed, he says thus: Blessed Peter of Regalada, a Spaniard, a man of wondrous sanctity and author of the Regular Observance among the Spaniards, distinguished for his virtues, rested most holily: while of Villacreces he only says that he was the master of the former, and of Santoyo, that he was most zealous for evangelical poverty.

* Peter de Luna

CHAPTER IV

The virtues and death of Villacreces: the vicariate of Regalado: the growth and finally the union of the reformed, with the establishment of the Province of the Conception.

[33] Villacreces was a mirror of rare penance and abstinence, Villacreces distinguished for his virtues: and for a full twenty years intent first on reforming himself rather than others in that cave of which we have spoken, then with great courage, zeal, prudence, and piety undertaking the work committed to him by God, he always shone forth in the virtue of humility. He was indeed a distinguished preacher and had been created Doctor of Sacred Theology at the University of Salamanca: yet very frequently he sighed and grieved that he had unworthily received that degree, and would say that he would be happier if he were a poor old woman with charity and the love of God and neighbor than if he knew all the theology of Augustine and Scotus. How much more, he would say, has the little that I learned weeping within the darkness of my cell profited me, than the much to which I devoted my studies at Salamanca, Toulouse, and Paris!

His miracles, life, and glorious death were written in summary (as I believe) by St. Regalado, and prefixed as a prologue to the constitutions: which, although they are composed in very few words, convey sufficient knowledge of his extraordinary sanctity, and for the veneration of their author deserve to be rendered into Latin as simply as possible from his very own words.

[34] Here begins the memorial of the active and contemplative offices of the Friars Minor according to the teaching of the blessed Father and famous Master and most useful preacher, around 60 years of age: Fr. Peter of Villacreces of blessed memory, first Reformer of the Order of St. Francis in the Province of Castile: who lived in this world for about sixty years, and served God most perfectly in religion for approximately forty-six years. He built three hermitages, namely Salsedan near Penalver, the House of God near Aguilera, and the Ladder of Heaven in the garden of Abrojo, and ended his holy life at a certain Provincial Chapter in the monastery of St. Francis of Penafiel: which when he entered sound and well, he said to his companions at the very doorway: This is my rest forever and ever. And so, falling ill at the very beginning of the Chapter, before he gave up his soul, receiving the most holy Sacrament, he gave thanks to God with the most tender affection for the great and many benefits by which he acknowledged himself to have been heaped in this life; and especially that He had granted him to preserve his virginity unblemished.

[35] He was a most bitter enemy of gluttony and a perfect imitator of St. Francis, following his footsteps in the rigor of abstinence and penance, died in the year of Christ 1422, shines with miracles: in the loftiness of prayer and contemplation, and in zeal for eremitic and solitary recollection, in the observance of enclosure and silence, in total poverty, humility, and good example, training his disciples to the most perfect obedience, innocence, and abnegation of one's own will: and so he led many by the hand to heaven, to which he also sent his own spirit when the reading of the Chapter was concluded in the year of the Lord 1422: whom all the Fathers of the Chapter followed, intoning in a loud voice, We praise thee, O God. And he began immediately to shine with miracles, and remained in all his limbs so comely and flexible that each one could be bent in any direction at will. In such a state the holy body remained for a full three days exposed for the veneration of all in the church; whence, as many people reported many benefits, a great throng of people assembled to see him and to carry away relics if they could. Among these a certain person, striving to cut off and carry away his right hand, felt his own seized by a violent spasm, and publicly confessed the crime he had planned. In life also he performed various works beyond the powers of nature. He was then buried and placed in an elevated position against the wall, and thence translated to a new vault, built of lime and cut stones, where he rests in peace in an alabaster sepulcher.

[36] After the death of Blessed Villacreces, the Brothers of both hermitages gathered to elect a successor to so holy a Father according to the Bull of Martin V; in his place Regalado is elected Vicar by the Aguilera and Abrojo communities: and considering the prudence and other virtues of the holy Brother Peter Regalado, since like the sun among the stars he shone forth among them all, they elected him their Vicar. He certainly showed himself worthy of such an election: for he was pious and merciful toward the weak and humble, strong and severe against the rebellious and contumacious, whom he said deserved punishment for that vice more than for any other offense whatsoever. He governed his subjects by the best example: never traveling except on foot and indeed barefoot, fasting continually, preserving and defending the hermitages against those who were violently attempting to subject them to their own jurisdiction: and for this reason he endured great injuries and persecutions, with such equanimity that it truly appeared to come from the Spirit of God. For both he and his blessed master had so much trouble in protecting the two poor hermitages they had founded, that they could not be effectively solicitous about spreading the discipline.

[37] But what they did not do by themselves during their life, they did through their successors after death: who after his death were greatly increased: when other convents were gradually joined to those two, all of which together obtained the name of the Aguilera family, with such growth that Pope Pius V ordered it to be a Custody on its own, under the name of the House of God of Aguilera and the Ladder of Heaven of Abrojo, by a bull dated the 14th of March of the year 1481, still to be found in the archive of that same convent: which others, expressing it in summary and naming it the Custody of Abrojo, gave Gonzaga occasion to think that the convent of Abrojo had obtained the title of Custody by itself, while that of Aguilera had been incorporated into the Custody of Palencia, they form their own Custody: both far from the truth: for those two convents remained joined, until they were equally incorporated into the Province of the Conception: as is clear from various Bulls of the Supreme Pontiffs, and patent letters of the Generals and Provincials, as well as from the instrument of concord entered into between the said hermitages and the convent of St. Francis of Valladolid. For indeed from the very beginning the Aguilera community presided over the Abrojo community and over the entire Custody named after it, which also had under it these convents: St. Francis of Aranda, St. Dominic of Silos, Our Lady of the Twentieth, St. Bernardine of Herrera, Corpus Christi and St. Francis of Soria, St. Louis of Gormaz, St. Francis of Almazan, St. Francis of Atienza, St. Stephen of Gormaz.

[38] But at the same pace as the number of convents and religious grew, the Santoyans however also a Province: rivalry and discord also grew between this Custody and the Province of Santoyo (which is the ordinary fruit of division, however much it may be cloaked by the appearance of greater sanctity and reform), until it pleased God that, all the convents being joined into one, the Province of the Conception should be formed: to which, before the Santoyans were united with the Villacrecians, the name of the Cismontane Custody belonged, because it was on this side of the mountains separating Old and New Castile; and it had such great and happy growth that in certain constitutions made by a Chapter celebrated in the convent of St. Francis of Ayllon in the year 1450, all these were numbered under it: St. Francis of Valladolid, by the number of convents: Palencia, Segovia, Medina del Campo, Arevalo, Olmedo, Cuellar, Penafiel; St. Dominic of Silos (although this later yielded to the Custody of the House of God by certain agreements), and Palenzuela, St. Mary of Graces of the town of Silos near the town of Santoyo, St. Mary of Consolation near Ribas, St. Mary of Mercy near Paredes de Nava, St. Mary of the Hope of the Valley of Escopez near Rioseco, St. Mary de la Hoz near Sepulveda, St. Mary of Izarosila in Biscay near the town of Bermeo, St. Mary of Abaldo

near Bilbao, St. Sebastian of Barrieta, St. Sebastian

of Ano, St. Mary of Hibernalo, St. Andrew of Muga,

Murcia, Lorca, Orihuela, Belmonte, and St. Mary of

Murcia.

[39] Then, a few days after those constitutions were drawn up and the aforesaid number begun, [and by the fruit of the observance also transmitted into other provinces, most renowned:] the Custody of St. Mary of the Minors of the Province of Burgos joined itself to this Custody with all its convents, as is evident from the Bull of Pius II, dated in the year 1459 on the 17th of April, which is in the Archive of Valladolid. The Brothers of this same Custody reformed the convents of St. Francis of Salamanca, Benavente, Coruna, Zamora, and Cabeza de Alba: and so great was the number of those receiving the reform that, since this one Custody could not govern them all on account of the distance of the places, Custodies of Observants were formed from them, and to this day they remain principal Provinces. After which, Sixtus IV, learning by certain report of the remarkable holiness and multitude of convents of this Custody, raised it to the title of Province in the year 1477 on the 19th of November, giving it the name of Santoyo in honor of its holy Founder, which was the first of all those that bear the name of the Observance: and the original Bull exists in the aforesaid convent.

[40] In this state that Province remained until the year 1518 when on the 16th of July, by a Chapter celebrated at Lyon in France, the Custody of the House of God of Aguilera and the Ladder of Heaven of Abrojo was joined to it, which in the year 1518, with the Villacrecians added: and from both together was made one Province under the title of the Conception of Our Lady: under whose protection and heaven-sent growth, it advanced in the number and sanctity of illustrious and eminent persons: for nearly all the most praiseworthy men whom we reviewed in the preceding chapters existed after the union was made, so that such fruits are to be attributed chiefly to this union. The instrument of this union with the decree of the General Chapter of Lyon, signed by two Ministers General, the Province of the Conception was formed: of whom one was Fr. Christopher of Forli, already then a Cardinal and departing from office, the other Fr. Francis of Licheto entering upon the Ministry: and another Brief of Clement VII, dated in the year 1525 on the 5th of July, confirmatory of the same union; together with the authentic instruments of obedience tendered by the aforesaid houses of the Villacrecians to the Provincial of the Conception, are preserved in the Archive of St. Francis of Valladolid.

[41] Moreover, the reasons that moved Blessed Villacreces not to wish for this union, just as we now do not know them, so we believe they were proper to those times, and just as well, for the great public good: but have now entirely ceased: since experience teaches that this union was an extraordinary work of divine goodness, for communicating many goods to both sides, of which they had previously been destitute: and above all for substituting peace and concord for quarrels and rivalries, and this so perfectly that now there is contention only in charity and zeal for observing the rule and attaining greater perfection. To this end, for the establishment of recollection, the convents of Abrojo, Aguilera, Villasila, Valdescopez, and Calahorra were commonly designated: and to these three others were later added, and by the fervor of recollection: namely Our Lady of the Conception near Villalbina, Our Lady of the Angels near Castromocho, and St. Francis of Lerma. Now this designation of convents destined for recollection was a truly divine invention for reviving in the Order the spirit of the first Fathers and the perfect imitation of St. Francis.

[42] Those who voluntarily withdraw to these convents, as they do so under no compulsion of necessity, for whose particular exercise certain convents were selected: so with great ardor they devote themselves to the exercises of penance, mortification, silence, and enclosure. When, however, they are prevented by age or infirmity from persisting in such rigor of life, they are sent back without any mark of disgrace to the other convents of this Province, in which the discipline is thoroughly religious but less harsh; and these are within cities and towns, while those others of the Recollects are almost within solitudes, and thus more suitable for observing the Franciscan rule to the letter, according to the declarations of Nicholas III and Clement V. Here therefore perpetual enclosure and silence prevail, nor does anyone speak to another without the permission of the Superior: the clothing of all is of rough cloth, the feet bare and supported by wooden soles: they devote three hours and three quarters to mental prayer, in the highest rigor of the rule they are frequented by those who wish it: which is done by all assembled together, and by the younger ones even more at length: they fast for the greater part of the year, and very frequently on bread and water: during Lent they scourge themselves daily, but at other times three times a week: the younger ones, however, with their master twice on any day. They have about seven hours each day occupied in most devoutly reciting the Divine Office. They receive nothing under the name of stipends for Masses, but apply everything in common for their benefactors. Without any distinction, superiors and subjects wipe, sweep, wash, and whatever else that is lowly and humble occurs among the duties of the convent, they commonly perform with no one excepted: which, since they are works of obedience and voluntary abjection, contribute much to the accumulation of other virtues.

CHAPTER V.

The virtues of Blessed Peter Regalado, declared by miracles performed during his life.

[43] The virtues and miracles of the Saints are the tongues by which God manifests to the world the sanctity hidden within: the rare virtues of Blessed Regalado: and those which He works through this Saint are so many and so prodigious that from this alone it sufficiently appears that the Lord wills that the Apostolic See be implored for the canonization of this His servant. The splendor of his virtues is equal, and indeed flourishing from his earliest childhood: for devoted to the divine service from his tenderest years, he always preserved himself a virgin: he frequently suffered raptures and ecstasies: and it not rarely happened that others saw him, while placed in prayer, raised into the air, and surrounded by such splendor that those who beheld it from afar believed the convent of Abrojo to be on fire and came running to lend their hands and labor to suppress the blaze. The same thing happened to him in the convent of Aguilera, and more than once the inhabitants of the town, which is called Gumiel de Mercado and is half a league distant, came running, thinking everything at Aguilera was ablaze. To these was added the gift of frequent and copious tears, for the wiping of which he always carried about with him in his sleeve a handkerchief kept ready.

[44] He lived always most devoted to poverty, mortification, and humility: observance of nine Lents: even in extreme old age walking with bare feet: when sick he used the poorest sandals, which are preserved to this day with his other relics. For many years he observed the nine fasts of St. Francis (they call them Lents): the first from the feast of All Saints until the Nativity of the Lord, by the prescription of the rule in honor of so great a mystery; the second from the second day of the Christmas feast until the feast of the Epiphany. The third is called that of the Blessed, because St. Francis imparted his blessing to those who would observe it from the day of the Epiphany for the following forty days, after the example of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The fourth is common to the whole Church, from Ash Wednesday until Easter. The fifth, from the third Easter feast until Pentecost, serves those preparing their soul for the coming Holy Spirit. The sixth, from the third day of this feast in honor of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, is kept until their feast. From then until the Assumption of Our Lady follows the seventh, to be observed in honor of the Most Blessed Virgin: to which, after five days, on the 20th of August, the eighth succeeds until the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, instituted for honoring all the Angels: and from the day after the said feast until the solemnity of All Saints, the last, likewise dedicated to venerating them. To these add many days throughout the year which the holy man had prescribed for himself by particular devotion to be spent on bread and water: using for his ordinary food bread and legumes, fish rarely, wine never, when he was in health. He had forbidden himself supper in perpetuity except on Sunday, when in its honor he broke his fast with a double morsel of bread.

[45] constancy amid persecutions: Nor was there lacking in this Saint that tolerance of evils which so pleases God, concerning which Fr. Lopez wrote thus to their authors: The adversities, attacks, temptations, condemnations, annoyances, and injuries which your predecessors directed for a full forty years against the saint who raised me, my master, and my companion Fr. Peter of Castanilla, a good and holy man; and against me and these poor houses: then what you in your times have plotted against us, you yourselves well know. In all these things we have this one consolation, that since all must shortly die, God, St. Francis, and the truth will never die. From these and other words, to be gathered here and there through the letters of the Generals and Provincials directed to the Saint himself and preserved in the Archive of Aguilera, to the same effect, it is sufficiently known that the Saint was never free from such things, as long as he governed those two hermitages of his as Vicar. The ancient manuscript book of his life asserts that he always endured many and grievous persecutions with equal patience. I pass to the miracles.

[46] Lord Sancho de Rojas, Bishop, governed the Church of Palencia, he who was later Archbishop of Toledo: Regalado heals a cripple: his cousin was Diego Gomez de Sandoval, deformed and crippled from birth, so much so that, propped on two crutches, he was forced to use them for moving himself, and could take food only by another's hand; because his hands, being curved and scabby, were utterly useless to him. The Bishop therefore, seeing how great things God was working through His servant, decided to bring his cousin to him. The Saint commanded the sick man, having confessed his sins, to receive holy Communion, which he himself also conferred upon him, after he had sacramentally absolved him as he so wished. When the sacrifice under which these things were done was finished, a cold sweat broke out from the sick man's whole body, accompanied by most intense pains, which made him most like one dead: but shortly the power of the Most High was revealed: for soon, in the presence of all, he cast aside his crutches, and rising up sound and beside himself with joy, he leaped about in exultation. The Bishop gave thanks to God and His Saint, and for the devotion with which he was affected toward him, requested his habit, and having obtained it, stored it to be preserved in the majorat of the Denia family. This miracle was so celebrated that it is found approved in two official investigations, and Queen Isabella the Catholic wished it carved on the alabaster sepulcher, to which his sacred body was translated.

[47] Another no less memorable event befell the same holy Father as he was traveling from Aguilera to Abrojo, [he knows by miracle that the habit of the Order was given to one buried in a white shroud:] which demonstrated his faith, hope, and prophetic spirit to all the people in a place called Lower Quintanilla. Here a young man approached him, humbly and devoutly requesting the habit, so that the Saint, moved and deferring his wishes until his return, commanded him meanwhile to consider himself a Brother, enrolled in the Order and under his obedience from that very moment in time. On his return, however,

he learned that the young man had died, and said to his relatives: He is a Brother of my Order. But they replied: He wished to be, but he never put on the habit. To whom the Saint, knowing how pleasing to God his will had been, said: Open his sepulcher and you will find him clothed in the habit. They went, opened it, and in place of the burial linen in which they had recently wrapped and buried him, they found a Franciscan garment, and marveled equally at the grace of his good will and the sanctity of him who penetrated with the eyes of his mind into the hidden places of the earth.

[48] in one hour he covers 14 leagues: The degree in which he possessed the theological virtues is also shown by the following examples. He was Vicar of both hermitages at once, and although on account of his old age he would have had an easy excuse if, when traveling from one place to the other, he used a humble beast for the journey, he nevertheless refused, relying on a certain faith that if he did on his part whatever he could to fulfill the ministry of the office incumbent upon him, God would supply the necessary strength: and so it frequently happened that on some Friday, after dismissing the Chapter in the morning, departing from Aguilera, he would be present at Abrojo by the same forenoon, within the space of one hour, to convoke a Chapter there likewise, having covered in that brief space, fasting and unshod, a journey of fourteen leagues. unharmed he is released by a raging bull: On another occasion, laden with a basket, he went from Abrojo to Valladolid, when it chanced that bull-fights were being held, and one of the bulls, bursting from the arena and full of the rage which the spears driven in on all sides provoked, took flight along the road by which the Saint was coming, and was already about to thrust its horns, when he raised his eyes to heaven, and gently inclining the staff he held in his hand upon the neck of the bull, said: Go on, little ox: and at that very word it stopped, and passing by to the side, withdrew, inflicting no harm on him or his companion.

[49] So much did this blessed Father trust in God in his necessities, he crosses the Duero on his spread-out cloak: that if some work of piety presented itself in the villages near Abrojo across the river Duero, when a boat was lacking, he would spread his cloak upon the waters, and mounting upon it marked with the Sign of the Cross, he was carried across more swiftly than otherwise, the cloak always keeping a straight course, and not wetted by the waters however violently they surged into waves. And this was very well known throughout that entire region, and the memory is preserved faithfully by the inhabitants, handed down to posterity by those who themselves saw it. The hope of the reward which God has promised to His servants made him strong for such rigor of penances and such labors as he endured from the beginning of the reform he undertook, until his happy death, for a full fifty-six years.

[50] In charity, which is the sum of all virtues, he was so fervent and always so inflamed with love of God and neighbor, as the works of piety bestowed upon his neighbor for the love of God show, whom wherever he found in need of help, he immediately poured out the bowels of mercy he bestowed great charity upon the poor: and relieved his calamity. Therefore, if perchance he came upon a poor sick man on the road, he took him up and brought him to the convent, and washed his feet with his own hands and pressed them with kisses of the most tender affection, as one who was ministering to God Himself. He had the greatest compassion for lepers and kissed their sores; sometimes even licking their pus, and by this means imparting health to various ones.

[51] Indeed even as an old man, infirm and near death, he completed barefoot a journey of forty-four leagues, he communicates wondrous things to Fr. Lopez: going and returning from Aguilera to St. Anthony above Ficoneda, to give certain counsels to Fr. Lopez de Salazar y Salinas: which, dictated in the very words of the dying man to the Brothers and Sisters of the monasteries he had founded, I have believed should be expressed here: I notify all of you, sons and daughters, and declare for certain, that that holy man, my companion, Fr. Peter of Costanilla, revealed to me in this very cell such terrible things for my astonishment and confirmation, which I had not known before, that it is a great sorrow to me that I cannot relate them in this my testament, on account of the excessive confusion that would fall upon certain persons still living, if I were to disclose them. But firmly I assure you, for his and others' confirmation: that while he was still living, before his death he came himself to this cell, and treated with me concerning such spiritual matters, most necessary for the good of souls and of religion: and among them he again recalled that very thing which he had earlier revealed for my and your confirmation; that we should not go backward in poverty and humility, but advance in virtues, nourished by that very food of strict abstinence and profound humiliation, by which I and he were brought up. And a little further on he speaks thus to the nuns: Believe me, Daughters, it is impossible that in such familiarities you should escape the snares prepared for you, however thick the walls may be between you. Concerning which matter the Saint most expressly warned me, commanding that you should beware of familiarity with a certain person and others like him. These words seem to signify a miraculous apparition rather than an ordinary visit.

[52] God moreover made manifest how pleasing to His majesty was that charity of the Saint inclined toward the poor, by which he poured out into their bosom whatever he could. carrying pieces of bread and meat to a poor woman: For when he was serving as porter in the convent of Abrojo, a certain poor and widowed old woman from a place called Laguna came there and was supported by him with her three children. And so when on a certain day some officials had dined in the convent, eating meat, he hastily gathered into his bosom some portions of cooked beef with bread from the refectory, and went off to the gate, about to gladden the wretched woman with this spoil. But behold, he meets the Vicar, and hears from him: Brother Peter, you seem very busy: what is that you are carrying? He, somewhat flustered (for he knew that all eyes were fixed on him, because he was said to be draining the convent) said: I am carrying some roses here for a poor woman suffering great need. when caught, he displays roses for them: But it was not then the season for roses. Therefore in the presence of the Brothers standing by, the Vicar said: Uncover them: for I wish to see. Here, full of confusion and shame, he opens his bosom, and obedient to the command, says: Here they are: and suddenly the pieces of bread were seen turned into white roses, and the meat into red ones, both by the Vicar himself and by the rest who were present. The Vicar moreover, marveling that he saw them so fresh, and suspecting what had happened, replied: Go, Father, in the name of the Lord, and give them to her who is waiting: and not only those, but whatever else you see fit: for this is communicated to us by God.

CHAPTER VI.

The prophetic spirit and death of Blessed Regalado: certain benefits of healing that followed it.

[53] This Saint had a spirit divinely illumined and was distinguished by the gift of prophecy, he knows, though absent, of the body of a drowned woman coming: of which the following cases, few out of many, will give a specimen. On a certain night, intent with the Brothers on the Matins psalmody in the convent of Abrojo, he learned from God that, downstream in the Duero, which washes the garden of the convent, there was descending the body of a woman who, as was commonly believed, had perished by voluntary death through desperation; but whose soul was most pleasing to God: who therefore wished her body also to be honored with ecclesiastical burial. Wherefore, when Matins were finished, he assembled the Brothers; and having ordered ministers to be vested in sacred vestments and to carry the Cross with holy water, he led them to the bank; and that it was worthy of burial: and having drawn the body from the waters, he buried it with honor. The Bishop of Porto considers that this woman was saved, because after she had leaped into the water, repenting of the deed, with great and true contrition she expiated this and all her other crimes before she was suffocated. Fr. Jerome Roman, he who published a book on the commonwealth of the world, in a certain manuscript treatise on the life of this Saint sent to the convent of Aguilera, suspects that she had thrown herself down to protect her chastity.

[54] food lacking for dinner: In the same convent, when Regalado was acting as Vicar and the signal had been given for assembling at table, the prefect of the refectory approached the Saint and informed him that there was neither bread nor anything else at home to set before those who were to dine. He replied: Since the signal had already been given, let the Brothers obey: for God would provide. No sooner said than done: the customary formula of blessing was already being recited, divinely obtained: when, at a knock at the door, the porter went and found a mule loaded with bread and other provisions, not knowing who had brought it: and without delay he carried everything to the refectory, and returning thence to give the mule also its fodder, he found neither it nor any trace of it: wherefore the outcome was attributed to a miracle.

[55] In the year 1456, at the beginning of Lent, our Saint fell ill: to one desiring a quail: in which final illness he was honored by many prodigies. He suffered a most troublesome aversion to food, and therefore when asked by the physician whether he seemed to be touched by a craving for anything, he said: I would eat a quail, if one were at hand. The physician left, and before the gate of the convent, about to mount his horse, he saw a quail, so weary and exhausted by the pursuing hawk, one voluntarily lets itself be caught: that he was able to catch it without any difficulty, and most joyfully brought it to the holy invalid. But he, taking it gently in his hand and smoothing its much-ruffled feathers, said: Sweetest little bird: God delivered you from the talons of your enemy, and shall you now die in my hands? By no means: go and praise Him who created and freed you; and so, throwing it into the air, he let it fly away.

[56] fortified with the Viaticum: Meanwhile, feeling that death was approaching, he received the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist with incredible affection of piety, and with many tears having asked his subjects for pardon of his faults and errors, he besought them to grant him for his burial a poor garment and a place for the love of God. They wished consequently to fortify him with Extreme Unction: but he, for whom future things were as present, ordered that the Bishop of Palencia be awaited, whom God had stirred to perform this last office for him: which was declared to have been divinely foretold by the Bishop's arrival itself. There are some who wish this to have been Sancho de Rojas; anointed by the Bishop of Palencia: but it is established that he departed this life in the year 1422: wherefore it must be said that Lord Peter of Castile, nephew of King Peter, did this. Queen Isabella moreover judged this prophecy worthy of being carved on his sepulcher: and so it is now seen there, and having received the Unction in the presence of the Bishop, in the company of his Brothers and Sons, he rendered his soul to the Creator, while with eyes raised to heaven he uttered that last word: Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. and died on March 30: The day was not the last of March, according to the chronicles of our Order: but the thirtieth, as the ancient manuscript Life itself and the Bishop of Mantua, Gonzaga, testify, and this is confirmed by the ancient writing about his miracles. He died in about the sixty-sixth year of his age, and was buried in the common burial place of the Brothers in the convent of Aguilera.

[57] Of the miracles done after his death, such as

are rightly required for the canonization of anyone, soon miracles began to shine forth: the one found in the legitimately taken investigation is not indeed the first, but worthy of being commemorated in first place. It happened that a beggar coming to the convent, when nothing was left for the porter, asked for alms; the porter therefore denying that anything was available, the beggar went straight to the sepulcher and, prostrating himself on his knees before it, said: O holy man, if you were living today, I would not be sent away from here without consolation to die of hunger. A wondrous thing! The sepulcher opened, and the Saint extending his hand from it offered bread to the needy man: who, having received it, was immediately a herald of the miracle before all.

The other prodigies that were done at his invocation are so numerous of which 46 were approved: that within the first six months after his death, one hundred and twenty-eight were verified by those who came to the sepulcher to give thanks: of which forty-six, duly examined and approved, are preserved in the Archive of the convent of Aguilera, as is evident from the already mentioned investigations, and they are the following.

[58] On the Thursday next after the Saint's death, which was the first of April, 1 April: a lame woman is healed: Catherine Sanchez de Soto, accustomed to support the weakness of her limbs with axillary crutches for walking, and suffering great pains besides, in a place called Fuente Lesendo, when she heard the multitude of miracles which, having begun on the very day of death, rumor was already spreading; she invoked his merits, and casting aside her crutches found herself well: wherefore she afterwards came to the sepulcher to give thanks, and when the matter was examined, it was found to be exactly as she had said. Since moreover the number of those who were requesting some relic of his was very great, on the 14th a sweet odor exhales from the opened sepulcher: the Vicar, wearied by importunate entreaties and having nothing more that he wished to give, in the silence of midnight ordered the sepulcher to be opened as secretly as possible, and some earth from it with some fragments of the burial habit to be brought to him. Which when the Brothers attempted, they were prevented from digging out the earth further, on account of the incredible fragrance of an odor emanating from it, which struck them with religious awe lest they proceed without notifying the Vicar of the whole matter: but he too, perceiving the same most sweet odor in his cell, before he was notified he came running, and judged that it proceeded from the body itself. This happened on the fourteenth day after his death, and the thirteenth of the month.

[59] About the same time, in a place called Gumiel de Izan, touched by the plague and already anointed and given up for dead, lay Agnes, a woman dying of plague recovers: daughter of Francis Gonzalez the surgeon, a resident there: who, seeing all other hope removed, asked her father to bring to her the bandage which, a few days before, he had used when bleeding the Saint of Aguilera: which as soon as she placed it upon herself, she suddenly lost her speech, and meanwhile, with much sweat breaking forth, she was shortly after well again, as if risen from death. Joanna, a blind woman, daughter of Ferdinand Gonzalez, another, given up from pain in the side: a resident of Roa, had lost her speech from pain in the side, and lay given up by all; when some part of the Saint's garments was applied to her: and recovering at once the ability to speak and to see, she also congratulated herself that the pain in her side was driven away, and a most troublesome hiccup removed, being in every respect well.

[60] Garcia Alfonso, son of Bartholomew Alfonso, a resident of Torre Cremada, lay sick for seven months with not one illness only, and had already lost the power of hearing and speaking. 1 April: a seven-month invalid is healed: He was however carried by his parents to Aguilera in the month of April, not long after the death of the Saint: and visiting his sepulcher, he was completely restored, and returning home on the last day of the month, he was received by the inhabitants who poured out to meet him with great congratulation. On the Saturday which was the first day of May, Martin, a resident of Ventosilla, came to the sepulcher of the Saint, another, sick for 22 years, on 1 May: having spent twenty-two years in most grievous pains: from which he felt himself entirely freed at the very entrance of the church of Aguilera, when he had commended himself to the merits of the Saint. On the second day of the same month, from the territory of Sepulveda, Peter Martinez, a native of Toroyuela, 2 May: an eight-year disability: came, debilitated for eight years, and having prayed, left his crutches at the sepulcher.

[61] On the fifth day of the said month, on the Vigil of the Ascension, there came thither a cleric of Atienza, 5th: a cleric of Atienza: Peter Garcia by name, very ill and full of pains: who, spending that night in prayer before the sepulcher, when morning came, took upon himself the habit of the Saint, and at the same time received full health, and left there the crutch he had been using to support his walking. 27 May: two lame persons: Thursday the twenty-seventh of the same month was made memorable by a double miracle in Diego Ruiz of Penalver, lame for ten years, and Benedict Sanchez of Santa Maria de Riaza, lame for three years: who at the said sepulcher recovered their health. On Tuesday, the first of June, a great multitude of people flocked to visit the sepulcher, 1 June: four others: and from among them were miraculously healed Catherine Sanchez, wife of John Fernandez Moreno, deprived of the use of one hand for a decade; and Andrew Fernandez; Leonora, wife of Peter Garcia, and Mary, wife of Roderick Sanchez, all natives of the village of Tudela on the Duero, all lame; and they carried back their health.

[62] on the 2nd: a boy destroyed as if by elephantiasis: On the second of the month, a Wednesday, Alfonso de Costina came to the convent of Aguilera from the town called Villa Muriel, with his son Roderick, a six-year-old boy: who, being there on the feast of Corpus Christi in the church, and making various unseemly gestures before the venerable Sacrament, fell from the steps of the altar with such force that, having lost his speech, he was taken for dead. Then his stomach began to convulse, and everything was violently evacuated through his mouth: and so he was carried to his father's house, with great sorrow to Alfonso, who at the same age had lost another son by a similar accident. But lest he leave anything untried, he made a vow to carry his son to the sepulcher of the Saint, with an equal weight of wax, if he recovered. He, however, not only did not recover, but immediately after the paternal vow, becoming colder than ice, raised from death after the vow made by the father: he expired on Thursday evening. Soon the dead boy's face was covered, and two members of the Confraternity designated for this purpose were called to keep vigil over the deceased. On the following day the funeral was prepared, but the boy had no need of it, rising suddenly alive and well at the second hour after sunrise through the merits of that glorious Saint, to whom his father had commended him, and the father did not delay in fulfilling the vow with his son.

[63] On the same day two women arrived from the town of Cuellar, one named Catherine Martinez, on the 3rd: a lame woman is healed: wife of John Lopez, lame for six years; the other the wife of Peter Velasquez the Notary, tormented by quartan fever for three years: because both, and one with fever: on the very day on which they had vowed to visit the sepulcher of the Saint, had recovered their health. On Friday, the fourth of the same month, Michael de Monte, a Frenchman, arrived there: 4th: a lame man: who, having been lame for twenty years, proved that he had recovered the ability to walk by running nimbly through the church itself. Then also John of Aguilera, a resident of Berlanga, and a broken hand: whose hand, broken beyond remedy when he fell from a tower six years before, remained unhealed, when he prayed at the sepulcher, felt his fingers being extended: and immediately drawing a sword from its scabbard, which he had not been able to do before, he brandished it weeping for joy and uttering cries testifying to the miracle.

CHAPTER VII.

The remaining miracles of Blessed Regalado legitimately received and approved.

[64] Alfonso Fernandez, a cleric of Aranda, on Saturday falling on the fifth day of June, 5 June: a paralytic is healed: came to the sepulcher, seeking a cure for his paralysis, which had rendered his whole body useless for eight months: and feeling that he had received it between the twelfth and first afternoon hour, he began immediately to exclaim for joy that he was thoroughly healed by the grace of God and the Saint, and having left his crutch there, he ascended and descended the steps of the church many times, so that no one might doubt the miracle. After this, on the next and Sunday day, there came Joanna, wife of Lope de Salzedo, 6th: ulcerous wounds of the leg: a resident of the place called Pinar de Yuso: who, having carried inveterate sores on her leg for three years and suffering immense torments from them, was so healed at the sepulcher that before she set foot outside the church, she rejoiced not only that the pains were removed, but also that the sores were healed. On Wednesday the ninth of June, 9th: one with ailing feet: a certain horseman from Penafiel, John de Cuellar by name, praying before the sepulcher, felt himself healed of the pains which badly afflicted his feet: and he who had come lame, leaving his crutch there, ran nimbly through the church, and climbing upon and descending from certain benches, and repeatedly leaping for joy and striking the ground with those feet which formerly shunned all contact.

[65] On the fourteenth, a Monday, four miracles were performed at the sepulcher of the holy man in the presence of many witnesses named and sworn in the investigation: 14th: a crippled woman is healed: and the first, which had more marvel than the rest, God showed in Joanna Garcia, daughter of Mario Diez, of Palencia; whose face paralysis had foully distorted, and heaped great pains upon her arm and leg, and had so contracted her hand that from the first day of the illness it could never be opened. Her most afflicted mother, because all remedies were vain, when she had heard of the miracles done through the intercession of the holy man, turned her vows to him and promised to bring her daughter to the sepulcher for a nine-day devotion to him: and while the mother and daughter did this, full health was restored to the latter, and having given thanks to God they returned to Palencia. But this joy was not lasting for them, for upon entering their house the same infirmity returned: and the mother, remembering that the novena had not been completed as she had vowed, hurried back, and having fulfilled the vow suffered nothing similar. And on the same day, from various infirmities, miraculous health was obtained by and four sick persons: John de Media-villa, from Tudela on the Duero; Marina, wife of John Zapatero, from Pinel de Suso; Mary Alvarez, wife of Diego Labrador; and John, son of Peter Dominguez, from the town of Tiedra.

[66] Eight days later, that is on the twenty-first of the month, John de Tome, 21st: one with disease of the whole body: an Italian from the state of Milan, suffering from arthritis since boyhood, and for the last five years enduring assaults of the most acute pains so violent that, falling to the ground, he would cast forth foam from his mouth, sometimes five or six times in a single day; moreover deprived of the use of his right arm and carrying a withered hand, when he found no

remedy for so many simultaneous ailments, and learned of the miracles performed through the intercession of the Saint, he came by vow to his sepulcher offering a wax image; and before he left the church he received full health. another receives the use of her arm: On the same day Catherine, daughter of Peter Martin of Roa, visiting the sepulcher of the Saint, was healed of a five-year infirmity and received the use of her right arm.

[67] On Saturday the twenty-sixth of June, God worked two great miracles in favor of two women visiting the same sepulcher; 26 June: two women are healed: of whom one, Mary Ramos, wife of Roderick Alfonso of Torre Cremada, suffered fainting spells and many infirmities with such aversion to food that in a full three days she would scarcely eat one morsel at a time; and with pains so violent that she would not rarely lose all use of her senses and would emit much blood through her nostrils. After she had commended herself to the Saint, in the church itself she fell into such a fainting spell that she was believed dead by all present: but after half an hour she returned not only to her senses but to full health. The other, Joanna, daughter of John Herrador, of the same origin, was so deformedly contracted that with her arms twisted behind her back and her fingers hooked and distorted, she could neither eat by herself nor do anything else of necessity, and in the presence of many bystanders she was most perfectly healed there.

[68] The Saint of Aguilera was distinguished by three miracles on the twenty-eighth of June. 28th: a girl troubled by diabolical specters: The first happened to a certain girl, Mary de Olivera by name, daughter of Peter Alvarez, a knight, and Lady Mary de Olivera, natives of a place called Fuentalvilla del Pinar, which is a village in the territory of Cuellar. When she was sound and robust, on the first Monday in Lent a pain of the chest had attacked her so great that seven men could scarcely suffice to hold her. For twelve days this affliction lasted, and then indeed it ceased: but after two months it returned much more violently than before, and she was deprived of the use of all her senses; when somewhat restored, she would say that a woman dressed in black appeared to her, whose face she could not see, but whose fingers were full of precious rings; who urged her to come with her, promising great riches and honors. When the girl rejected these offers, although ignorant who was making them, it soon appeared to be a demon, who left the wretch mute, deaf, blind, and deformedly contracted. To the sepulcher therefore of the one whose miracles she had already learned of through spreading fame, she resolved to go, and immediately felt herself to be better, and having recovered her speech, she asked her parents to be taken to Aguilera. setting out with her family to the sepulcher of the Blessed: The demon could not hear these things and remain quiet: therefore, envious of the Saint, he again displayed himself visibly to the girl, and forbade her to go to that Brother, who was worthless and could do nothing: and if she went, he threatened to suffocate them all in the river, thrown from the bridge by which they would cross. But fearing none of this, she replied that God could do more than the devil, and since he had declared himself to be such, let him be gone to perdition, for she, whether he wished it or not, would go to Aguilera. From that time she did not see the devil, except when they came to a place called Luganilla, she is freed: where appearing again, he made the girl mute and contracted in both hands; and so she remained until they arrived at the bank of the Duero, at the place called Nava de Roa, there to be submerged by the demon, if God permitted: but with Him and His Saint protecting them, they arrived safely at Aguilera, and the demon was seen no more by the girl, who had been the cause of all her infirmities.

[69] On the same day, Toribia Sanchez came to the tomb of the Saint, daughter of Ferdinand Sanchez of Castromocho, a blind woman is illuminated: blind in both eyes: when the habit of the Saint himself was placed upon her head, she began to suffer severe pain in her eyes: but the pain, removed together with the garment, left her seeing well and sound. a deaf woman receives hearing: The third miracle of this same day was experienced by Sancia Hernandez, wife of Alfonso Hernandez of the town of Roa: who, infirm for two years and entirely deaf and tormented by many pains, received most complete health at the sepulcher of the Saint.

After these events, on the sixteenth of July, a Friday, 16 July: twisted arms are straightened: there arrived Catherine Martinez, wife of Gomez Nunez de la Figuera, a resident of the town of Ayllon, bringing a certain son of hers deprived of the use of his arms: who, at the touch of the aforesaid garment, immediately extended what had been twisted, and remained fully free from this and the other infirmities he was suffering.

[70] On the eighth day of August, falling on a Sunday, there came Catherine, daughter of John de Portillo, a notary and citizen of Cuellar, contracted from birth and so weak in the arms likewise 8 August: that they were of no use to her; as were her hands, with fingers curved into hooks, useless for everything; so that, more like a monster than a human being, she could move herself only by crawling whenever she had to change her position: and she appeared free from all these afflictions by visiting the oft-mentioned sepulcher. On the same day there came, carrying a votive offering of wax, a certain servant of the Archbishop of Toledo, Louis de Jaramillo by name, and an ailing mule is cured: a native of Yevenes: fulfilling a vow by which he had bound himself on the road, when his mule was failing him, stricken with illness: from which, as soon as the vow was made, it had been healed, and it sufficed for a journey of fifty leagues, covering thirty and forty leagues each day.

[71] On the twentieth of August, a Friday, there were healed at the sepulcher of the Saint: John Hernandez of Madrigal, a native of the village of Yuan Romano in the territory of Arevalo, 20 August: various persons are healed: completely bent and contracted; the wife of John of Madrigal, from the town of the same name, contracted and confined to bed for eight months; and Mary Gonzalez, also contracted for many years. On the same day there came to the sepulcher Peter de la Calleja, son of Martin de la Calleja, a native of Haro, given up by the physicians on account of continual fevers and other infirmities. When in such a crisis they placed upon his head a particle of earth received from the sepulcher of the Saint, and the mother of the sick man devoted herself for her son, vowing to go barefoot to Aguilera and offer a burial shroud there if he recovered; 7 September: two crippled women: he immediately recovered, and all ascribed his miraculous health to the merits of the Saint. On the vigil moreover of the Marian feast which is celebrated in September, the seventh day of the said month, being a Tuesday, a woman from a certain village of Medina del Campo called Braojos came, Joanna Perez by name, wife of Peter Hernandez, her arms afflicted and her legs contracted for twenty years; and after she had been carried by others' hands to the sepulcher, she returned thence on her own feet, sound, and with joy, by frequently descending and ascending the stairs before the church, she confirmed the miracle, to the wonder of those present. Another woman from the same place, suffering the same affliction, was similarly restored in the same manner and on the same day.

[72] On the following Sunday, the twelfth of the month, God willed that among the many gathered at the sepulcher of the Saint, one especially should be consoled by its visitation. the woman whose son the Saint had healed: John Lopez, a canon of Burgos, son of Roderick de Villaverde and Isabella Rodriguez de Murcia, of the same city, had fallen into a continuous and dangerous fever: and his mother, fearing death for her son, commended him to the Saint of Aguilera: and immediately he who had hitherto suffered from an immense aversion to food received an appetite for eating, and felt himself free from all fever. This matter so increased the pious woman's devotion toward the Saint that in all her needs she would have recourse to him, and indeed also carried back his assistance. It happened therefore that when she was at Medina del Campo and lame, a violent fever with immense torment in her left arm came upon her: in which state it seemed to her, awakened at night, that she saw the Saint entering her chamber, accompanied by two religious of the same Order; and such was the splendor of the apparition, appearing in September, he restores her health: that in a place otherwise dark she distinctly recognized the face, stature, habit, and gait of him whom she had never seen before. Asking whether he was the Father of Aguilera, she heard that he was. He, remaining there for about half an hour, at last touched her shoulder with his hand, and leaving her notably relieved, he disappeared. Then she immediately resolved to approach the sepulcher in veneration, and from there returned on her own feet, without the support of crutches, in perfect health.

[73] On the same day, from Torre de Caballeros, a village in the territory of Segovia, Catherine de Velasco arrived, her hands afflicted and her feet lame for ten years: and she was healed at the sepulcher, when the garment of the Saint was placed upon her. On the fourteenth of December, a Tuesday, Francis, son of Martin Figuero, a native of Gumiel de Izan, another crippled woman likewise healed: was killed by an unlucky fall: and being brought back dead to his father, the shock of grief and sorrow, seizing him in equal measure, compelled him, falling on his knees to the ground, to cry out these words, which all who were present heard: O Saint resting in the monastery of Aguilera, 14 December: a dead man raised: give me back this son alive, and I will crawl on bended knees from here to your sepulcher. And as he said this, the boy returned to life, and being asked whether anything hurt him, he said: Nothing at all: wherefore the father crawled to Aguilera as he had vowed.

CHAPTER VIII.

Other miracles, but mostly taken outside the form of law.

[74] The Brothers could no longer endure the disturbance which the frequency of the people flocking to the sepulcher and of the miracles performed there was bringing. In the month of April of the year 1456 those healed are noted: And so, after they had taken care to receive according to the form of law those forty-six miracles which we have related, weary of the laborious inquisition, they thenceforth omitted that process and were content to receive what was reported in a book kept for this purpose by the Sacristan: but neither did they persevere in doing this for long: for after six months, they took no further care to record anything in writing. What was noted, however, I transcribe from the aforesaid book with as much brevity as I can. Of these, the following were recorded in the month of April of the year 1456.

[75] On the same day on which the glorious Saint departed this life, there came to Torre Cremada a certain Roderick de Rabe by name, who had then been in the convent of Aguilera and narrated many things that had happened at the death of the blessed man, to the admiration of his listeners. a feverish boy: Simon de Mazuelo, a resident of Condemuño, heard these things, and remembering his son, whom he had left at home suffering from a continuous fever for seven months, he inwardly vowed to bring him, if he recovered, to the sepulcher of the Saint. After this, on the following day he set out on the road home; and when he arrived and asked how his son was doing, the answer was that he had been free of fevers since the evening of Tuesday; and was now as well as if he had never been sick. The father therefore recognized that it had been the very day and hour at which he had invoked the Saint for his son, and acknowledging himself

bound by the vow, he did not delay in coming with his son to Aguilera to fulfill it.

[76] Ferdinand Garcia, a resident of Fuente Besendo, had a son gravely ill with fevers, from which both his face and flesh had swollen excessively, another taken for dead: and for a space of three hours he was believed dead: but when the father vowed a journey to the sepulcher for the boy's restoration, the spirit returned to the boy, and he was carried to the monastery by his father, who gratefully recounted what had happened. A certain woman named Antonia, residing in Villalba, finding no effective remedy for her sick son, after many were tried in vain, said: I commend you to God and St. Francis and that holy Brother of his from Aguilera. a third, contracted: Then spending one night praying in his chapel, in the morning she found her son perfectly healed, and his legs, which he had before been curved and contracted, loosened. In the castle of Rai-Diaz there was a girl deprived of the use of her hands and mute for four years; who could neither close her mouth, and mute: nor move her tongue, nor keep her saliva from flowing down her chin onto her chest. Her mother, however, hearing of the many miracles reported about the Saint, brought her daughter to his sepulcher, and there remained the whole night. When morning came, the daughter began to move her tongue and swallow her saliva, and on her way home, having progressed about half a league on her journey, she was also able to close her mouth and speak: wherefore the mother held it a religious duty to go back immediately to the convent, to give thanks to God and His Saint and to make the matter public.

[77] Michael Bermejo, a native of the village of Ynera in the territory of Caracena, received full health, sight, and the ability to walk at the sepulcher of the Saint, blind and lame: and left his crutches there. A woman of Portillo, laboring for a full eight days in unsuccessful effort in childbirth, at the touch of the cord of the holy man, which is preserved in the convent of Abrojo, immediately gave birth and was well. two women in childbirth helped: The same benefit was received by the wife of Hernando Vasquez, a notary of Coruna, who had struggled for thirty full days with the same labor pains. Andrew Gomez of Aguilera, infirm from birth; Peter Beltran, a resident of the town of Guzman, suffering from continuous fever with headache; three sick persons: and Ferdinand Martinez of Santiniano, suffering for five years many pains in a contracted and miserably bent body, visited the sepulcher of the Saint and returned home well.

[78] In the month of May of the same year, John de la Parra, of Sinoga, lost his speech from a fall, and requesting paper and ink, committed to writing that they should carry him to Aguilera to the Saint, and named two of his friends as executors of his testament: In May those healed are found: a mute: he was, however, unable to write anything further, being immediately deprived of the use of all his senses. Carried therefore where he wished, and clothed in the habit of the Saint himself, he immediately found himself well and began to cry out: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit: for I am healed by the merits of this blessed Father, and this before many who were keeping vigil at his sepulcher. Garcia de Roa, a servant of the Bishop of Osma, from wounds inflicted by a knife in a certain brawl, was healed at the same sepulcher: and feeling that his hand, which was badly wounded, was somehow burning, and one wounded by a knife: he loosened the bandages and found the wounds closed and the finger, whose tendons had been severed, properly healed: which miracle, together with the following, is found confirmed by legitimate attestation.

[78] On the same day there was healed Martin Ruiz de Turegano, the parish priest of Ninovera in the diocese of Segovia, who for five years from a sudden shock had suffered such palpitation of the heart and tremor of the legs likewise a priest unable to celebrate Mass: that he could not celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass. He had spent much money on physicians, and to find them had made a journey covering more than five hundred leagues, and found no remedy, until on the fifteenth of May he vowed that he would go to the Saint's sepulcher: and as soon as he vowed, he was well, and on the next day, a Sunday, he stood at the altar. A woman who had been mad for fifteen years, brought by force to the church of Aguilera, as soon as she was touched with the habit of the holy man, returning to a sound mind, wished to confess her sins to one of the Brothers. two deranged women: Another woman from Torre Gabinda, having fallen from stairs, saw a black and horrible specter, and at the sight of it lost her mind, crying out thenceforth and screaming that she was being carried by demons from cliff to cliff through mountains and valleys: and so she was alienated from all recognition of her family, so that she did not even recognize her own husband. But he, having commended her to the Saint of Aguilera, brought her to his sepulcher and led her home sound of mind.

[79] Lady Joanna, wife of Michael Sanchez; and Berengaria Alvarez, wife of John of Salamanca, infirm in their legs; several lame persons: and a woman of Padilla who was lame, and another from the town of Ayllon who was also bent over, and Lady Mary, wife of Alfonso Fernandez of Pineda, along with John Alfonso of Hortezuela, a village in the territory of Berlanga, and the son of Peter Bravo of Turegano, with John Ramirez of Pinel de Yuso, and several others, all lame, and some of them for many years, visiting the sepulcher of the Saint, obtained unimpeded ability to walk. A merchant of Valladolid, Andrew by name, son of Peter Hernandez, by the touch of some relic of this Saint recovered from a continuous fever and pain in the side. By the same remedy there recovered Joanna de Castrillejo, and feverish persons: daughter of Cales de Castrillejo, deaf for five years; Joanna Lopez of Haro, suffering from double quartan fever; Mary, wife of Sancho Gonzalez, from the same place, who in the fifth month of pregnancy had emitted such a quantity of blood that she was judged near death; and the daughter of Diego Lopez, notary of Valladolid, sick with plague and violent fever; and finally a merchant of Valladolid suffering from pleurisy and fever: and all indeed at the sepulcher of the Saint.

[80] In the month of June of the aforesaid year, these moreover were taken down in writing. Peter, son of Andrew Gonzalez of Mota del Cuervo, deaf and mute from birth, In June likewise various lame persons healed: received the use of ears and tongue at the same sepulcher. Peter, son of Teresa and John Gonzalez, lame, contracted, and bent for six years; John de Gonzalo from the same place, paralytic; Peter Gonzalez of Medina del Campo, lame; a cleric of Ercina, poisoned; a boy of Dueñas, limping on one foot; Diego Quiroga, born in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, leprous for three years; a man from Hinojosa de la Sierra, weak in his feet; Michael Sanchez from the town of Santo Domingo, leprous and lame; a certain cleric of Prejano, debilitated for eight years; and the daughter of Alfonso the Lame of Baños, having one finger as large as her whole arm along with many other infirmities; and finally John Fernandez de la Sierra, supported by crutches on account of weakness of his limbs: visiting the sepulcher of the Saint, all obtained health.

[81] John Alfonso de Ayladas had a son who came to the last extremity, eating nothing for three days and destitute of the use of his tongue: and variously sick persons: the father vowed with him to visit the sepulcher of the Saint and bring a certain weight of wax, and as soon as he had wished, the boy recovered. The leg of the Licentiate Andrew Lopez of Burgos, touched by plague, was adjudged to death, so that arrangements were already being made for the funeral: but when the father made a vow for her to visit the sepulcher together, she immediately recovered. The daughter of Mary de Tortoles, of San Pedro de Yedra, falling from a mulberry tree, struck her head so that a finger could be inserted into the gaping gash; and she too recovered at her mother's vow: but as a memorial of the event, the trace of the wound was always preserved. A woman of Burgos, having had one of her breasts so ulcerated for six years that a fist could fill the space eaten by the flesh, was healed when the garment of the Saint was applied to her, and by the same remedy another certain debilitated woman recovered.

[82] In the month of July of the same year, Catherine, daughter of Alfonso Pan-y-Agua of Mota, weak for five years; a certain girl from Yanguas, blind in one eye; And likewise in July: Stephen Fernandez of Medina del Campo, suffering for twenty years, besides weakness of the legs, many pains in the body; and another resident of the same place, his companion; John Rodriguez, lame in one foot; the son of Ferdinand Azofran, nearly blind; Michael Perez, a cleric of Cervera, limping on one side, and his feet and hands so affected by arthritis that he had been unable to use them for a full two years; Giles de Cantalapiedra, weak for eight years and supporting his steps with crutches; a woman of Toro, wife of Roderick de Grado, likewise weak; Peter Rodriguez of Pozuelo, deaf and daily losing his senses from a hidden infirmity; and Mark Fernandez de Cuellar of Portillo, suffering from quartan fever for two years: all merited to obtain the benefit of health at the sepulcher of the Saint.

[83] In the month of September of the same year, the daughter of Martin Garcia of Ultana, who lay weak in bed; Andrew Fernandez Cornejo, from the same place, and September: crippled and weak; a woman of Aranda, a servant of the judge of Curiel, with a badly affected breast; the son of John de Morales of Aguilera, wasting away with loss of the ability to eat; and three other boys of the same town, namely the son of Anthony de Covarrubias, feverish, and two sons of Anthony Gomez, variously ill: likewise Francis, a notary of Curiel, weak in one foot; two women and the same number of men, deprived of the use of their hands; Catherine Gutierrez, a widow of Tudela, blind: all found a remedy for their infirmities at the sepulcher of the Saint.

[84] The son of Peter Carpenter of Gumiel, with a broken arm bone; and a certain religious, Brother Mark by name, suffering many pains in the leg; and Isabella Fernandez of Portillo, deaf and with great torment of the side carrying some dangerous growth: invoking the aid of the same Saint, they felt relief. Lady Catherine, a matron of foremost rank in Fuente Lesendo, was so weak in both legs that she could not advance a step except with the greatest pain and the support of crutches; when she heard of the multitude of miracles which God was working through His Saint, she devoutly commended herself to him, and within a short time felt such vigor that within three days she could walk without crutches; and visiting his sepulcher, she left them there permanently, being well.

CHAPTER IX.

The translation of the incorrupt body to a marble mausoleum.

[85] For a full thirty-six years the body of St. Regalado lay in that humble sepulcher of his, the solemn translation of the incorrupt body: honored meanwhile by infinite miracles from God, visited by Kings and Prelates and peoples, flocking in throngs. And indeed there were times when even Kings were compelled to have recourse to such an asylum of common miseries. For when King Ferdinand had recovered the city of Granada from the Moors, Queen Isabella, leaving him there, hurried to Aguilera to arrange the translation of the sacred body: which was performed with the most solemn rite and a remarkable procession through those fields, with an innumerable multitude of people concurring, and the neighboring Bishops and Prelates with the Clergy, and monks with their crosses and insignia. The matter was accomplished on the fifteenth of May of the year 1492, in the year 1492, May 15, before the Queen: and the holy body was placed

in the main chapel on the Gospel side: where it is now seen on high in an alabaster sepulcher, which the Countess of Haro had constructed by order of the Queen, representing many of his miracles and the Saint encircled by a shining diadem: for from that time he began to be called a Saint and to be depicted by painters surrounded by that splendor: unless we rather refer the beginning of this to the very day of his death, when vows began to be made and votive offerings brought to him.

[86] The body, drawn from the damp place in which it had lain, who carries the severed right hand: appeared to the astonishment of all whole and incorrupt; and not only this, but also soft and flexible and fragrant with a celestial odor, which diffused itself throughout the entire monastery and neighboring fields. The Queen, moved by such wonder of things, and wishing to present a specimen of this prodigy to her royal husband, ordered one hand to be cut off, to the King: from which and from the arm itself the freshest blood, as from a living body, flowed for some time; which was caught in linens and cloths, left in the convent of Aguilera and reverently preserved as a memorial of this prodigy, together with the two middle fingers: which are preserved intact even now, certainly not so consumed that the bones, flesh, sinews, and membranes cannot be very well distinguished. Not only the devotion of the common people but also of Kings and ecclesiastical and secular Princes grew through these miracles: among whom several Archbishops and Bishops, as well as two Apostolic Nuncios, hurried from Aranda, where they were attending the ailing King, to Aguilera to adore the sacred body. Philip III visits it: And afterwards King Philip III of blessed memory and Queen Margaret of Austria his wife, with their son the now-reigning King Philip IV, came several times to Aguilera to visit it.

[87] when Philip IV, the son of Philip, was given up by the physicians: The year was 1610 when in the town of Aranda our same Lord King Philip IV lay dangerously ill with fever, then still Prince of Spain: and the matter had come to this, with the physicians' remedies being of no avail and the relics of Saints being brought from everywhere to no effect, that Doctor Valle, the royal chief physician, secretly told two noblemen who inquired about the health of the Prince, that he was dying. On this occasion two noblemen were sent to Aguilera to request the sacred fingers of Regalado, as if Queen Isabella had left them there for such a use. They set forth their commission to Fr. Peter de Borgia, the Guardian, who was coming from the choir after the recitation of Matins; through the fingers of Blessed Regalado brought from Aguilera: who immediately set out on the road with the relics: and on arriving at Aranda the next morning and entering the room where the Prince was, at sunrise he was met by the Countess of Altamira, the nurse of the Prince, who said: Now, Father Guardian, let us put the power of your relics to the test, in proportion to the immense desire with which the Prince has been expecting them. For he who for many days could take no sleep, at the very moment when you entered here, fell asleep. Therefore let your Fatherhood remain here, until he awakes and the efficacious fingers of St. Regalado can be applied: which was afterwards done, with great joy of the Prince himself and confidence of recovering his health.

[88] After these things the physician entered, the one who the day before had said that the Prince's life was over, health restored: and when he had felt the pulse of the artery, he said: Blessed be God, for the matter has so manifestly changed for the better that we can say the Prince has been raised from the dead. Thenceforth the sacred relics were applied twice daily to the sick man, until the Prince was found in every respect sound and safe through the merits of the Holy Father. Wishing to show himself grateful for this benefit, the King was moved to petition for the Canonization: the King his father wrote letters to Pope Paul V and to the Cardinals Borghese, Pamphili, and Lanfranco of the Holy Roman Church, as well as to his Ambassador in Rome, in which he requested a solemn Beatification. But because the Order, conscious of its own poverty, did not dare to comply with the King's pious desire, those letters remained in the archive of the convent, as pledges of the royal will, until the Divine Majesty itself should move to undertake effectually the desired business, and not desist before it should see its holy benefactor enrolled in the catalogue of the Blessed.

REPORT FOR THE CANONIZATION

by the Auditors of the Rota TO OUR MOST HOLY LORD URBAN VIII.

Peter Regalado of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance, of Aguilera in Old Castile (Blessed).

BY THE AUDITORS OF THE ROTA.

[1] The Church, Most Holy Father, which God chose for Himself as a sister and spouse in second nuptials, is a garden, but an enclosed one; the cause is proposed: it has fountains, but sealed: lest the furtive enticements of pleasures, or the poisonous contagion of impurity, insinuate themselves. This garden has drawn from the fountain of the Franciscan Religion fruitful streams for as long as it retained the first marks of sincerity and purity, which that Seraphic Father had placed at its entrance against sin. But when in recent centuries the frailty of human nature left this fountain of living water unconsigned and unguarded, and dug for itself broken cisterns that cannot hold water; behold, the fountain was troubled by the foot and the vein was corrupted, and its rivers and rains were turned into blood, lest the garden of the Church should drink. Yet the garden did not long thirst for the Franciscan fountain, when the piety of certain men replenished it by recalling the streams of the ancient discipline, among whom the servant of God Fr. Peter Regalado among the Spaniards led forth abroad the rivers of this same fountain, and in the streets divided the waters restored to their original purity and cleansed and healed of every leaven of filth; so that in them there would be no more death or barrenness, but all things to which this torrent, overflowing in the fountain of earlier wisdom, might come would live. This man, therefore, so well deserving of the garden of the Church, which you rightly close and open, Most Holy Father, we present at your feet; that just as he poured out waters for the thirsting Church, and filled the panting and afflicted soul of the divine spouse with a most sweet drink, so may he himself become as a watered garden, and as a fountain of waters that never fails, to the glory of the Church Militant. For rightly the sanctity of so distinguished a man demands this, divided into three parts: which shines forth not so much with the adornments of virtues as with the splendors of miracles, as is manifestly clear from the sequence of this report, which we shall reduce to three principal headings. For in the first we shall treat of the Virtues, which are absolutely necessary in one to be canonized, since the excellence of life and the foundation of all sanctity consist in them. In the second we shall set forth those arguments which contribute most to the proof of that same sanctity, namely the fame of sanctity itself; the veneration of the sepulcher and relics; and finally the miracles, equally necessary for advancing to Canonization... In the third and last, we shall treat of the validity of the Processes and the legitimate examination of the witnesses.

[2] the first is omitted here: We omit the first part of the report: since it adds nothing to what we have already seen set forth in the life in a more historical order, beyond theological examination and citations of witnesses, such as may be read in all reports of this kind: which, as the style of the Roman Curia now has it, briefly prefaces something about virtues in general, then proceeds in order to the three theological and four cardinal virtues, finally adding the gifts of the Holy Spirit, if there were any illustrious ones in the servant of God under discussion, as the gift of prophecy in Regalado remains manifest enough from what was said in the Life, and need not be idly repeated here. To the second part of their report, however, the auditors of the Rota proceed in this manner.

§ I On the fame and common opinion of sanctity, and the veneration of the sepulcher and relics of Regalado.

[3] Hitherto, Most Holy Father, we have proved the sanctity of Regalado by the singular witness of his virtues; now we shall set forth those arguments which contribute most to the general proof of his sanctity itself; in the second the fame of sanctity is proved: namely the fame and common opinion of sanctity, which just as it had accompanied Regalado while living, so it followed him when dead with even greater growth... This fame and common opinion of sanctity, therefore, we clearly discern both from the witnesses examined in the process and from what is found outside the process in writers and historians. And as far as concerns the witnesses, from their depositions it is evident that the servant of God Regalado, having happily traversed the span of human life, after receiving the Sacraments of the Church, rested most holily in the Lord in the convent of Aguilera, from the deposition of sworn witnesses: and on account of the fame of his sanctity aroused among all the people, all who had flowed together from various parts sought to obtain some part of his garments as relics. This fame and common opinion endured with constant perpetuity in those regions, so that never was a similar devotion of the faithful toward another Saint seen, as the second witness deposes, and the third confirms, saying that the servant of God Regalado was reputed and now is reputed a Saint, and is venerated today also by all the faithful as Blessed and Saint. And not only in the city of Osma, but in the entire kingdom of Castile and other adjacent provinces, among all the faithful of both sexes, both ecclesiastics and seculars of all states and orders whatsoever, this servant of God has commonly, openly, and publicly, both living and dead, in the continuous succession of about one hundred and eighty years, been reputed and is now reputed most adorned with all virtues; and moreover has been held and is today held in the greatest reputation of sanctity. This fame indeed remains abundantly proved, since the witnesses depose concerning the opinion of the entire people, although for this effect the deposition concerning the greater part of the people would suffice... And although these witnesses, as also all others, in the entire course of their examination mostly depose from hearsay from trustworthy persons and from their elders, who reported that they had heard the same from their ancestors, and jointly from the inspection and reading of books and writings, and likewise from ancient traditions, from what is certain, public, notorious, and from the public and undoubted voice and common reputation; nevertheless, since we are dealing with ancient matters far exceeding the memory of the living, namely more than one hundred and fifty years since the death of this servant of God, they prove well: since ancient deeds are proved by witnesses deposing from public voice and fame... As for what concerns writers and historians, to whom credence must be given... as was confirmed in other Reports on Saints, when we are dealing with an ancient fact, from the agreement of historians: and credence was given from ancient times to writers and historians of this kind; since hence it is evidently clear that this fame of sanctity, not contained only in the minds and souls of men, has also acquired for itself a domicile in writings, more enduring in the duration of immortality and more ample in the growth of glory; therefore, setting aside those who wrote the Life of Regalado ex professo (namely Fr. Antonio Daza and others, whose manuscripts are preserved at the aforesaid convent of Aguilera), we shall here append the words of others testifying to the sanctity of Regalado, translated however into Latin,

whom we have judged to be credible, both because we are dealing with ancient matters and because their quality conciliates sufficient credence for them, especially since their authority is employed only as supporting evidence.

[4] From Fr. Mark of Lisbon, Bishop of Porto, in the Chronicles of the Friars Minor, namely of Mark of Lisbon: Book 1, Chapter X. Fr. Peter Regalado, or the Valladolitan, had as his master Fr. Peter de Villacreces; he devoted himself chiefly to prayer and contemplation from his earliest youth; several times in the house of Aguilera, over which he presided, and in the convent of Abrojo, fourteen leagues distant, he held Chapter on the same morning. Endowed with the spirit of prophecy, on a certain night while he was present in the choir of Abrojo at Matins, he knew that the body of a drowned woman was descending the river Duero, and going together with the Brothers to the river, he ordered her to be drawn out and buried in a sacred place, and after the funeral rites had been performed, he signified that she had repented of her sins before being drowned and that her penance had been accepted by God. Passing through the town of Quintanilla, he pledged to admit on his return a certain man who eagerly requested the habit of the religion; but on returning, when he found the man dead, he ordered the sepulcher opened, asserting that the deceased belonged to him, and when the sepulcher was opened they found him clothed in the habit of the religious, though they had buried him clothed in secular garments. The same, Book III, Chapter LXI: In the convent of Aguilera, Fr. Peter Regalado departed this life to the Lord on Tuesday, in the year 1456. How pleasing his life was to God, the greatest miracles testify, which followed in the fifth month after his death; of which very many were described by the hand of a public notary and approved by authentic witnesses; which documents are preserved in the aforesaid convent. He restored to health forty-six crippled and debilitated persons, six who were at the last extremity of life, two pairs of deaf-mutes; five blind, three paralytics, two suffering from epilepsy, four deaf, three contorted; he freed two from leprosy, one from gout, another from hectic fever; miracles of Regalado enumerated: he healed three crushed by collapse; removed tremor of the hands and head from three; brought help to three in difficult labor; freed four from quartan fever, five from ailments of the legs and arms, and vindicated two women from infirmity of the chest. One woman crippled in the hand and mute, another possessed by a demon, another demented; two men from languor of the kidneys, two infants from inborn deformity; and fourteen other persons of various kinds he freed from various diseases. He performed many other miracles that were not recorded. But on the fourteenth day after his death a truly remarkable thing occurred, as a public document held at that same convent attests. The Vicar of that same convent of Aguilera, in order to satisfy the devout of the servant of God, ordered two Brothers to open his sepulcher and take some relics both from the habit and from the body: and when they began to bring up the earth, they perceived a most sweet odor, which increased the nearer they approached to the holy body. The Vicar, moreover, summoned by the Brothers to perceive the precious odor, asserted that he had already sensed it from his room, and those two Brothers perceived the same fragrance for many days afterward as well. The Vicar, however, when he had brought the relics to his own room, was kept from sleep by the great force of the odor. When moreover that holy body had been translated by order of Queen Isabella the Catholic to a tomb very skillfully crafted, in which it still rests, it was found entirely whole and incorrupt: and then when, by order of the aforesaid Queen, four fingers had been amputated from the said body, blood so fresh flowed as if it had come from a living body. Of which fingers the Queen had one, another was placed in the location where the body had previously been deposited, the other two remained in the sacristy of Aguilera; of which one was afterwards carried to St. Francis of Madrid and is displayed in the sacristy.

[6] From the book entitled Mirror of the Minors, or Firmament of the Three Orders, of certain more ancient writers: Part 1, folio 32. Other men excelling in knowledge and sanctity flourished at the same time, such as Fr. Peter of Regalada, of blessed memory, who shone with innumerable miracles in life and after death. He was the special Father, patron, and builder of the family of the House of God, and was honorably buried in the same House of God. From the Chronicles of King John II of Castile, Chapter XXXII, folio 330. Fr. Peter de Villacreces was a great preacher and of most proven life; Blessed Peter the Valladolitan followed him, who is reported to have performed great miracles both living and dead, some of which were witnessed by Henry Manriquez, Bishop of Jaca, afterwards Archbishop of Siguenza, a most distinguished and trustworthy Prelate. From the manuscript chronicles of Marian of Florence, kept in the Library of the Friars Minor of the Stricter Observance, at St. Isidore in Rome: Fr. Peter of Regalada flourished in knowledge and sanctity also at this time (1450) in the said Province of the Conception, who shone with innumerable miracles in life and after death. He was the special Father, patron, and builder of the family of the House of God, and was honorably buried in the same House of God. From Fr. Peter Rodulph of Tossignano in the Seraphic History, Book II, title concerning the Regular Observance of the new family among foreign nations, folio 154 on the reverse: And Fr. Peter Villacreces was aided by the subsidiary labor of Fr. Peter of Regalada of Valladolid, not unlike him either in name or in fact; both full of the spirit of God. From Peter de Salazar in the Chronicles of the Province of Castile of the Order of St. Francis, Book III, Chapter XII, folio 157: Fr. Peter de Villacreces likewise had companions, and they greatly assisted him in the reform of the Observance, Fr. Peter of Regalada and Fr. Peter of Santoyo, distinguished for sanctity and virtues.

[6] From Fr. Francis Gonzaga, On the Origin of the Seraphic Religion, Part 1, folio 9. Having then found (Fr. Peter Villacreces) a man wholly like himself and entirely after his own heart, namely a man of the highest religion, Father Fr. Peter of Regalada the Valladolitan (who was also endowed with the prophetic spirit), he formed him in his own manners and most pious desires, of Francis Gonzaga: and was supremely aided by his labor, etc. That great Father, therefore, after he had most sweetly arranged all things according to the faculty given to him, committing his neophyte flock to his successor and dearest disciple, namely Father Peter the Valladolitan, in the Minorite Convent which is called in the Spanish language Penafiel, he closed the last day of his life, etc. The same, in the said Part 1, in the Catalogue of the Blessed of the Seraphic Order, folio 99: Blessed Peter of Regalada, a Spaniard, a man of wondrous sanctity and author of the Regular Observance among the Spaniards, distinguished for his virtues, rested most holily. The same, in Part 3, Conv. 17, folio 869: Just as Blessed Father Peter Villacreces renders Penafiel illustrious, and Blessed Peter of Santoyo renders Valladolid illustrious by their funerals, so also Blessed Father Peter of Regalada (of whom the author of the chronicles of our Order makes mention in the third part of his work, and we have made mention in the Province of Castile) supremely commends the present convent by his death. For as soon as he closed his last day on the 30th of March, in the year of the Lord 1456, he began to shine with miracles. For he restored to full health forty-six persons of both sexes who were completely contracted, three paralytics; likewise two lepers, and very many others gravely ill with fevers: moreover he obtained from God the most great, the bestower of all good things, hearing for the deaf, speech for the mute, sight for the blind, and straightening for the lame, through his merits. Furthermore, while still clothed in mortal flesh, when he was acting as Vicar of the preceding and present houses (of which one is distant from the other by forty or more miles), he held Chapter for the Brothers of each place within one hour, according to the religious custom, and several times, spreading his cloak upon the river Duero, he transferred himself from one bank to the other. His body, finally, after it had lain for some years in the common sarcophagus of the Brothers, was translated from there to an alabaster sepulcher, crafted at the expense of the most Serene Isabella, Queen of Spain: where it is held in the greatest veneration, both by seculars and by the Brothers, and almost innumerable miracles have occurred there, and continue to occur even today.

[7] From Peter Gonzalez in the History of Monte Celio of the Blessed Virgin of the Willow, Book II, Chapter VI. and of Peter Gonzalez: Human frailty, although circumscribed by the limits of life, having attained a higher agility and participating in celestial glory, insinuating its faith by miracles performed for the benefit of others, opens with an eloquent testimony indeed that the holy Brother Peter Regalado followed the footsteps of Christ, etc. And below: Wherefore the acclaim and piety of the faithful contemplated him as endowed by heaven with three gifts: the virtue by which he restored the crippled, the lame, and the contracted to walking, and the admirable life and prayers by which he healed the sick: the spirit of Prophecy, by which he foresaw future things, as when, going out together with the Brothers from the convent of Abrojo after Matins had been recited, he went to the bank of the river Duero, to receive the body of a woman drowned out of desperation; asserting that she had repented while she was throwing herself down, and therefore, by the impulse of divine mercy, should be buried, etc. And below: At Quintanilla indeed a young man to whom Regalado had promised the habit of Religion, having died before him, when claimed by Regalado as his own, was found clothed in the religious habit upon opening of the sepulcher. And below: Finally, so that it might be clear to all that austerity, endurance, and humility had made this Saint the companion of angelic nature in the swiftness of his journeys, when he was acting as Vicar at Aguilera, he obtained from God, as His minister, to supply the distance of places in a brief interval, and to fulfill the duty of his imposed office, etc. And below: After his happy death he performed innumerable miracles, healing the blind and the mute, and as Gonzaga says, he granted hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, sight to the blind, and straightening to the lame. Today his holy body rests in an alabaster sepulcher built for him by Queen Isabella in the convent of Aguilera; in which it daily shines with new miracles, for the increase of devotion, the honor of the Religion, and the glory of the divine Majesty. Thus far they: whence it cannot be denied that from all the aforesaid there results a full proof of the fame of sanctity, which the remissorial judges also attest at the end of the Process, folio 408, asserting that the servant of God Regalado is commonly held to be a Saint.

[8] from the frequency of those visiting the sepulcher: After the virtues and the common opinion of men, the next argument for the proof of the sanctity of Regalado is furnished to us by the veneration, with which men attest by outward expression the opinion of sanctity inwardly conceived from his virtues; which veneration toward this servant of God is found to be remarkable. For not only at his death did a great number of people flock from various parts at the fame of his sanctity, but to his glorious sepulcher on earth the greatest number of the faithful has continually flowed together and continues to flow, to venerate his body and devoutly commend themselves to his intercession: the witnesses depose, who adding from their own sight, testify that Philip the Third, the Catholic King,

and Queen Margaret of Austria, together with the Archbishop of Toledo, the Nuncio of the Apostolic See, and very many other Bishops and nobles, visited the said sepulcher, with which ten other witnesses agree: one of whom adds that in the space of ten years the aforesaid persons visited the same sepulcher six times. The universal concourse and frequency of the people at the said sepulcher is also confirmed by the remissorial judges in the Process, folio 408. and those venerating the Relics: Nor were the commendations and prayers of those visiting in vain or frustrating, as is shown by innumerable votive offerings hung around the same sepulcher by the faithful, to testify that they had been made partakers of their desires. This uniform veneration is also gathered with respect to the Relics of this servant of God: for all at his death sought to take something from his garments as relics, and to this day the faithful flock to the aforesaid sepulcher, not only to venerate the body but also the Relics; namely the blood, the fingers, the cowl, the cloak, the shoes, and other things of this kind, concerning which in the visitation of the sepulcher, folio 406. And witnesses depose, one of whom, adding from his own sight and personal experience, states that such is the people's devotion toward this servant of God that the faithful, flocking to the visitation of his sepulcher, are unwilling to leave unless the Relics of the same are shown to them; and to see and venerate them they are accustomed to wait for a long time; for sometimes it is forbidden that they be shown, so that tumults that might arise in the convent may be avoided, etc.

[9] Among these relics, the aforesaid fingers hold a distinguished place of admiration, in which the King himself: which are preserved to this day incorrupt and whole; as well as the cowl, which is still preserved in its own integrity and emitting a fragrance of wondrous odor: by the contact of which relics the faithful commonly obtain very many graces, and not a few are restored to their former health. Indeed these relics were once brought by the Guardian of the convent of Aguilera to Philip the Fourth, now Catholic King of Spain, who was then suffering from a grave illness in the town of Aranda de Duero, and placed upon him, and recalled him to sleep, from which, upon waking, he immediately began to improve and fully recovered; as the Majesty of that Most Serene King himself testifies with most pious affection, in letters sent to the Most Excellent Count of Monterey, his Ambassador to Your Holiness. Nor was the veneration of the faithful contained within the body or the relics of the servant of God; but it proceeded also to his images by devout propagation, not without a notable argument of the opinion conceived regarding his sanctity... That these are seen and preserved, painted and printed in various places, various persons depose, and that the servant of God Regalado was customarily painted with flames and splendors of fire: and this one testifies concerning both ancient and recent paintings, with whom three others agree.

[10] All of which is confirmed even more clearly from the series of the visitation of the sepulcher in the Process from folio 402 from the sepulchral inscription: to folio 408, in which the Notary and the Judges report that they found the sepulcher of the servant of God fashioned from alabaster, and raised to the measure of a man; on whose summit the statue of Regalado was displayed, and on its upper part an inscription was read, carved in the same alabaster, containing the praises of the same Regalado, and indicating that his bones rest in the same sepulcher, which the Countess of Haro erected. The tenor of the aforesaid Inscription, substantially related in the same visitation, is expressed in these formal words: Here lies adorned flesh, here rest shining bones. Persevering, he served Christ. Fleeing the world from infancy, he despised the honors of this wretched world. Peter Regalado, Vicar of the House of God and Ladder of Heaven, here ended under the Poverty of the Rule of St. Francis; seeking no reward of the world, for the grace of Christ. The Countess of Haro adorned the sepulcher; he who in return prays for her continually to Christ. He put an end to the labors of the flesh on the second day of the Resurrection of the Lord, in the year 1456. To which inscription, carved in so ancient a stone, full credence must be given.

[11] Furthermore, in the same visitation, the aforesaid report that on the aforesaid sepulcher are carved several miracles of the same Regalado: and the representation of miracles: which are likewise described on two ancient tablets and also depicted in other places, both in the chapel and also in the convent and church of Aguilera. Likewise, that around the said sepulcher there are innumerable votive offerings, burial shrouds, most ancient crutches and staffs, as well as feet, hands, legs, arms, and other such things composed of wax, hung there by the faithful as a sign of recovered health and as proof of graces received through the intercession of Regalado. That likewise an image of the same servant of God is found depicted in the sacristy of the said convent, a work of the greatest antiquity, with the head adorned with a diadem and splendors (and this indeed as a sign of spiritual kingdom and an argument of the beatitude attained) and expressed in the likeness of a penitent with a greatly emaciated face; with an inscription of this kind: My soul has melted like wax melting in the midst of my bowels. and other monuments to be seen at Aguilera: Furthermore, several relics of the same servant of God are preserved with great veneration and adornment; namely the handkerchief with which he wiped tears during his meditations, and another which, placed underneath, caught the flowing blood when, by order of Queen Isabella, the hand was amputated from the rest of the body of Regalado, as well as the shoes, cowl, cloak, and fingers. Furthermore, a very ancient tablet on which was inscribed a certain Antiphon, Prayer, and Versicle composed in praise of Regalado. And finally, at the opening of the case in which the bones of the servant of God were deposited, they perceived a very fine odor and great fragrance, which fragrance and sweetness of odor, flowing miraculously and beyond every condition of nature from the other relics as well... is an argument of an implanted divinity, as it were.

§ II On the Miracles.

[12] But let us make a transition to the miracles, which, as they bring a more certain and indubitable witness of sanctity, Likewise from the multitude of miracles: so, according to the rite of the Holy Roman Church and the sanctions of the sacred Canons, they are required in those being advanced to Canonization. In which article indeed, deliberately omitting the disputations that concern the essence, requirements, operations, degrees, and proof of miracles (about which our predecessors and we ourselves in preceding Reports on Saints have discussed), we shall set forth certain miracles from those which the omnipotent God, wonderful in His Saints, has wrought through the intercession of Regalado. For that this glorious servant of God performed innumerable miracles is gathered from the depositions of witnesses, concerning which in the process; from the reports of historians inserted above, and especially those who wrote the Life of Regalado; and finally from the tenor of the above-considered visitation, in which not only are the miracles carved in the ancient alabaster sepulcher expressed (of which singular account must be had, as was already considered concerning the inscription of the same sepulcher) and several others depicted in the convent and church are reported; as well as described on two ancient tablets (which tablets, if the necessary requirements concur, are wont to merit credence); but the Notary testifies that in the archive of the convent of Aguilera he saw and found a book in authentic form, described by public Notaries: in which are contained one hundred and sixteen miracles, wrought through the intercession of Regalado, and written by the legal hand of Notaries, and afterwards in the year 1456, before Alfonso Fernandez, Vicar and Ecclesiastical Judge of the town of Aranda; and John Martinez de Santo Domingo, Rector of Villanueva; Diego Diez de Palacios, as well as John Sanchez de Aranda, public Notaries, they were authorized and approved; and finally in the year 1550, before Peter Alfonso de Alameda, Archpriest and Apostolic Judge of the same town of Aranda, and the Licentiate Francis de Villa-Fag, Corrector, as well as before Christopher Ortunno, Ferdinand Hermoso, and Gregory de Aranda, royal Actuaries and Apostolic Notaries, they were transcribed, and both books, both the original and the transcribed copy, are found in public form signed and authenticated, etc. We shall therefore set forth first certain of the miracles which Regalado, with God working, performed while living; and in the second place we shall append some of those which the same omnipotent God wrought through the intercession of His deceased servant.

of which some, omitting others, are related here: The miracles follow under these titles, which we have seen fit to excerpt here, lest matters already sufficiently explained in the Life be repeated here merely on account of the added Theological examination: for what this is and how thorough it is can easily be known from other similar ones. The titles therefore are as follows:

I He converts pieces of bread and meat, to be distributed to the poor, into roses.

II While praying he is rapt in ecstasy and diffuses an immense splendor.

III He gives the habit of St. Francis to one deceased and already buried.

IV He completes a journey of 42 miles in the space of one hour.

V He crosses rivers with his cloak extended over the waves.

VI He comes to the aid of religious destitute of bread.

VII He predicts the arrival of the Bishop of Palencia and heals a hunchback.

These in the Life: of those which were done after death and proved, we also omit the first two, sufficiently known from the Life and what has already been said.

I The deceased extends bread to a poor man.

II Fresh blood springs from the body of Regalado, buried for 36 years.

You have the titles of the rest in the margin. The third, therefore, which I append, is as follows.

[13] Anna Bertranda, a resident of the town of Gomiel de Hizan, He heals a woman suffering from hemorrhage and near death: affected by a prolonged flow of blood, after trying remedies of various kinds, had come to the point that she was thought to be about to die at any moment. There were present with the sick woman certain religious of the Franciscan family, who had come from the monastery of the town of Aguilera, to assist her in those things which pertain to the salvation of the soul. Turning to one of them, Anna said: Father, I would like you to pray to Blessed Regalado for me; if he should obtain health for me from God, I will go on foot to visit his sepulcher. One of the aforesaid religious had brought the cowl customarily worn by Regalado, and applied it to the sick woman: and she recovered from the hemorrhage and received her former health. So concludes the one who administered the goods of the same Anna for fourteen years, and the daughter of the same Anna deposes from her own sight, and another witness: concerning the public voice and fame, not only the aforesaid witnesses depose, but also five or more others. We have judged this healing to be miraculous; the certainty of this miracle: because this flow of blood, which had continually tormented the sick woman and had several times brought her to the last breath of life, had already become naturally so incurable that, although many remedies of various kinds had been applied and tried, they nevertheless availed nothing. There is added moreover the judgment of the physicians, who had despaired of the health of the sick woman. Notwithstanding all of which, the sick woman so recovered that, although she survived for many years afterward, she never again suffered from the same disease, which had previously been constantly afflicting her, as the same witnesses assert. The credence of this miracle is also established by the health that followed in a short time and without any application of medicines. Since it is certain that the force of a prolonged disease cannot be expelled by the powers of nature or the medicines of physicians except in a long space of time; and thus much more difficult without the same medicines of physicians (which the nature of this disease seemed especially to require as

purgatives) this flow of blood, to be attributed to the vitiated quality of the blood itself. Whence, since the sick woman recovered so quickly and completely, not by any ministry of rightly operating nature or art, but at the sole application of the cowl, it must assuredly be confessed that this emanated from God divinely through the merits and intercession of Regalado; which is confirmed by the preceding prayers and vow of the sick woman, as well as the contact of the cowl; especially since all the witnesses assert with one voice that the healing was miraculous. Nor does it matter that the cure was not instantaneous, because it is not necessary that a miracle happen in an instant, but it suffices that it happen successively... Which, however, must be understood provided that (as in this case) it occurs in a time, though somewhat longer, in which it could not have occurred from the nature of the thing.

[14] He heals incurable ulcers: Joanna Garcia, a resident of the town of Gumiel de Mercado in the kingdom of Castile, fell into a pitiable disease, her abdomen so foully ulcerated that seven holes were visible in it: and these were of the worst kind, and through them all the excrements of food and drink were discharged. Remedies of various kinds were applied for many months; which availing nothing, the physicians pronounced the disease incurable. Joanna, being in this state, began to think of imploring the help of Regalado, and promised to visit his sepulcher; and having obtained permission from her father with difficulty, she was placed on a horse, bound with the tightest bandages lest the intestines be injured. She arrived at the church of the monastery of Aguilera, and there, her sins having been erased by the Sacrament of Penance and the most holy Eucharist received, she betook herself to the sepulcher of Peter, and commended herself to his intercession with earnest prayers for obtaining health from God. Nor was it in vain: for immediately the perforated ulcers were consolidated, and with every disease driven away, Joanna was restored to her former soundness. The same Joanna Garcia deposes of this fact from certain knowledge, and her mother from her own sight, and a kinswoman of the same Joanna from what is public and notorious; and it is found depicted among the other miracles in the aforesaid convent of Aguilera. That this healing was miraculous is demonstrated first by the quality of the disease itself, which, being prolonged and having passed into a settled state, could be healed only with difficulty; for ulcers which last for a long time can be healed only with difficulty, as Galen and Avicenna generally affirm. Which difficulty of cure is also confirmed by the remedies applied in vain and the assertions of the physicians, concerning which the same Joanna and her mother depose. Secondly, the instantaneous manner of healing confirms it: for the ulcers were immediately and perfectly closed without any medicine, as the same Joanna asserts, and her mother testifies from her own sight on the following day: whence the miracle remains fully proved from the above arguments, especially since this disease would exclude not only instantaneous but also rapid healing. This indeed is to be attributed to the intercession of Regalado, as the preceding trust of the sick woman in the servant of God and her invocation of his intercession testify; for as soon as the sick woman commended herself, she immediately knew herself to have recovered, as the same Joanna deposes.

[15] Francis Garcia, a resident of the place of Sutillo in the kingdom of Castile, when he was suffering badly from both legs, so that he could not at all walk without crutches, He heals a lame man: had recourse to the help of Peter Regalado, whose fame of sanctity was most celebrated throughout those regions, and, carried on horseback, he made his way to his sepulcher; where, after commending himself for nine hours (they call it a novena) with heartfelt affection, that he might obtain health from the divine clemency; he was suddenly freed from all infirmity and lameness of the legs, and returned home on foot; leaving his crutches as a memorial of the miracle. The daughter of the same Francis and his son recount the fact from their own sight: another deposes from his own sight as to the disease and the recovered health, and as to the manner deposes from what he heard from the same Francis, and concerning the public voice and fame several other witnesses depose. This healing also is demonstrated to be miraculous both by the quality of the disease and by the manner of the cure, obtained in the brief interval of nine hours, without any ministry of medicines. For it is most certain that convulsion or contraction of the limbs cannot be cured easily or quickly, even with the application of medicines... Whence, since this event exceeds the powers and capacity of nature, it must without doubt be referred to the right hand of Him who transfers to His beloved the power of healings of this kind, begun in Himself, as is clear from Matthew, Chapter 11.

[16] He raises a drowned boy: In these most recent times also, in the year of salvation 1627, God illustrated His servant with the glory of a remarkable miracle. In the town commonly called Gumiel de Mercado, there is a certain public fountain called St. Peter's; to this, when a three-year-old boy named John, son of John Reinoso, had come at some time, either for the purpose of playing, as usually happens, or to do something; he fell into the vessel in which the water of the fountain is caught, and was submerged there. When he had lain there for the space of nearly three hours (as could be conjectured from a reckoning of the time when he had left the house), a certain girl came to the fountain to draw water as usual: and terrified by the sad spectacle, as soon as she recognized the boy, she filled the whole place with cries and wailing. The neighbors rushed in. The poor boy lay under the water on his back with mouth open, and his face was not far below the surface of the water, which was seen slightly tinged with blood. The little body was therefore drawn out, and held suspended for some time with the face downward between the hands of those who had hurried there, so that the water might flow out. But when not even a drop came out, and no traces of movement or life were perceived in him; with weeping and lamentations he was carried into a certain porch. It happened that Father Diego de Ordonez, Vicar in the monastery of the House of God of Aguilera, was passing through the said town to carry out the duties committed to him by the Superior of his monastery: he, seeing a crowded throng of sad and astonished women flocking to the same porch, asked the bystanders what this was about, and was informed of the accident. Diego felt himself moved inwardly to ask the divine clemency for the boy's life through the merits of Regalado, about whose being enrolled among the Saints action had recently then begun to be taken: and approaching more closely, he reached the boy with difficulty through the thronging crowd. The little body was livid and cold; the eyes were turned upward and swollen, the belly was distended and swelling with the volume of water. The mournful sight increased Diego's compassion, and inflamed his soul with more vehement hope of recovering life for the boy. He approached and carefully examined the tender limbs; and when he found them cold, rigid, destitute of all pulse of the arteries and entirely stripped of life; having called for silence by a clapping of hands, he turned to those standing around: Since, he said, no remedy can now be hoped for except from God, let us commend this boy to His servant Regalado. Having said this, as many as were present together with Diego earnestly prayed God that He would deign through the intercession and merits of Regalado to restore life to the boy; and they promised, if they were made partakers of their vow, to carry the boy together with the shroud in which he was wrapped to his sepulcher. Then Diego, forming the sign of the Cross over the boy with joined hands, said: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, through the intercession and by the merits of Blessed Regalado, may God grant you life; and then, having kissed the boy's ears twice, he embraced him most tightly. Wonderful to tell! Immediately the boy uttered a cry, and moving his head, looked at Diego; and after half a quarter of an hour, happy and ruddy, showing no traces of injury or any other harm, he came through: and in memory of the miracle he was clothed in the habit of St. Francis, The undoubted proof of this miracle: and was thenceforth commonly called Regalado. These things the same Fr. Diego Ordonez deposes, both in the Process and in its repetition made here in the Curia, and Mary Gonzalez de Penillos, who first saw the boy submerged in the fountain, agrees, as does Mary Cassada, who extracted the boy from the fountain; Dominic de Reynoso, the grandfather of the boy, Mary de Segovia, the grandmother, Stephen Botero, the great-uncle of the boy, Bartholomew de Santes, the companion of Brother Diego Ordonez, all of whom depose from their own sight and certain knowledge, and six other witnesses also concur with them. It cannot be doubted that this boy was miraculously recalled to life: since according to the Philosophers there is no return from privation to possession; and according to the dogmas of the Faith, unless the end of this world shall have come, the human race will not awake from the sleep of death... Nor did it seem to us that the death of this boy could be doubted, since sufficiently evident signs of death concur; First, because, as can be conjectured from the time he left the house, he remained submerged in the fountain for a lengthy period of time... Second, because he was found lying motionless under the water on his back with arms spread out, mouth open and submerged, and the water was found tinged with blood. Third, because after he was drawn from the fountain, his little body was found swollen with volume of water, destitute of all movement of the spirits, with a livid and darkening face, eyes inflated to a horrifying degree, and cold and rigid limbs. Fourth and finally, because all the witnesses agree, as above all Fr. Diego Ordonez well explains, that the aforesaid boy was dead without any doubt. Whence, even setting aside the miracle of the resurrection itself, which remains abundantly proved from what has been set forth; since, notwithstanding all this, scarcely had the sign of the Cross been formed in the name of the Most Holy Trinity over him, when the boy not only uttered a cry but after half a quarter of an hour came through happy and ruddy, showing no signs of injury or other harm; from this alone the proof of the miracle results, since naturally in so languishing a little body there cannot be so rapid a return to its former state, for bodies that have been weakened by a long time and more violent afflictions must be restored slowly.

§ III On the validity of the Process and the legitimate examination of the witnesses.

[17] It remains, Most Holy Father, that we take the last step to the third and final part of this report, the Process formed at Aranda: in which we still have to treat of the validity of the process and the legitimate examination of the witnesses, from which the proofs of both the sanctity of life and the miracles have been drawn. And as far as concerns the Process fabricated by Apostolic authority in the kingdom of Old Castile, and in the town of Aranda of the diocese of Osma, we have judged that the validity thereof cannot be doubted. For after Your Holiness, graciously inclined to the supplications of the entire Order of Friars Minor of St. Francis of the Observance, committed this cause to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, there were, by virtue of the aforesaid commission, through the same Sacred Congregation in the year 1627, dispatched remissorial letters, directed to the Most Reverend Lords the Bishops of Osma and Valladolid, as well as the Archdeacon, Dean, and Sacristan of the aforesaid Cathedral Church of Osma, with the faculty that two of them should proceed jointly according to the aforesaid commission of Your Holiness. Which letters to the Most Reverend Lord Martin Manso

de Zuniga, by virtue of remissorial letters granted by the Pope: Bishop of Osma, as well as to Doctor Alfonso de Portillo, Treasurer of the same Church of Osma, were presented by Fr. Diego Ordonez, as the procurator appointed in this cause by the Religion, and seeking their execution, and demonstrating the legitimate mandate of the Procuracy admitted by the aforesaid judges. Nor should it create any difficulty that Doctor Alfonso de Portillo is styled Treasurer of the Church of Osma, of whom the remissorial letters do not speak, which were directed only to the Archdeacon, Dean, and Sacristan. Because it must be noted that among the Spaniards the Sacristan is called the Treasurer, since the word Sacristan among them receives the signification of the lowest ministry; as the curialists testify in the attestation exhibited, and all difficulty is removed by another attestation of the Bishop of Osma himself, who testifies that the aforesaid Doctor Alfonso de Portillo is the Sacristan in the same Church of Osma and is called Treasurer, and that the name of Treasurer and Sacristan is one and the same.

[18] When, however, the aforesaid Judges had accepted and opened the said letters, for their execution they appointed a Notary and a Messenger, the form of law being fully observed: who swore to faithfully exercise their office. They moreover chose and appointed as the place for the hearing and examination of witnesses the chapel and oratory of the episcopal house, which appointment of place was necessary as being of the substance of the judgment. For the days of hearings, however, they appointed all and each non-feast day; and for the hour, the eighth in the morning until the eleventh; and from the second hour of the afternoon until the fifth. And before the same Judges, in the aforesaid town of Aranda, this process was made, which at the instance of the aforesaid Procurator, and by prior decree of the Judges, and with the appointment of a Notary, was transcribed, and collated with the original by the Notary of the cause and another appointed for that purpose, who after the signatures and the affixing of the Judges' seals, subscribed themselves and testify concerning the faithful collation and comparison; although for the purpose that this Process might be said to be in proving form, the subscription of the Notary who drew it up would suffice... Finally, however, closed and sealed, with the attestation on the back of three public Notaries concerning the legality of the Judges, the Notary of the cause and the adjunct, together with the letters of the same remissorial Judges, it was presented in the Sacred Congregation of Rites, and finally at the instance of the same Fr. Diego Ordonez, as Procurator and exhibiting his mandate, it was opened, and by mandate of the same Sacred Congregation, having appointed an Interpreter, the examination of its recognition was committed to him. Which Interpreter indeed took the required oath to faithfully interpret: and reported the said process together with the letters of the Judges, faithfully interpreted by him: and this process, formally recognized by six witnesses saying that they knew the handwriting, the persons, and the seals, was finally remitted to the Auditorium of the Rota by the same Sacred Congregation.

[19] As for the witnesses, we have judged that they were properly and correctly examined; and with prior citation: for they were formally examined, with that diligence which is required in graver causes of this kind... namely with the prior induction made by the Procurator, and the citation or monitory decreed by the Judges, and executed through the courier or messenger against each of them personally. Which citation or monitory, being of the substantials of the Judgment, were absolutely necessary. All of which witnesses formally swore to tell the truth, as is required; and oath of the witnesses: since the substance of the deposition consists in the oath: and they were examined individually, deposing first according to the interrogatories, then upon the articles contained in the remissorial letters... From all of which it is established that the witnesses were properly and correctly examined, since the jurisdiction of the Judges who examined them is apparent from the remissorial letters directed to them as stated above; and the form properly observed by them from the inductions, citations, oaths, and depositions of the witnesses, first upon the Interrogatories and then upon the Articles. It does not stand in the way that some of the witnesses are of the same Order as Regalado, above all exception: and therefore suspicion of partiality toward the cause might seem to apply to them: because since the singular personal advantage of the religious themselves is not at stake, they are not prohibited from bearing testimony for a religious and concerning the virtue of a religious. Nor let it be objected that at least the said Fr. Diego, as Procurator in the cause, should be excluded, from the rule that a Procurator in a cause that he handles or has handled cannot be a witness for his principal; because the aforesaid rule does not obtain when, as in this case, suitable witnesses concur with the said Procurator's testimony. Which especially holds when, as likewise in this case, the Procurator is of good condition and reputation. For if a solicitor in these terms is not repelled from giving testimony, much less ought a Procurator to be repelled, who is less prohibited from giving testimony than a solicitor.

[20] From which, having established the validity both of the process and of the examination of the witnesses, from which it is concluded that the canonization may proceed: the third and last part of this Report also remains completed. Whence, since the virtues and miracles of Regalado, which we have placed before the eyes of Your Holiness, sufficiently testify what glory in heaven this most fortunate follower of Christ has obtained for himself; this one thing remains, that he render him equally glorious on earth by the infallible oracle of his unerring voice: for we judge the cause to be in such a state that Your Holiness may, whenever it may please you, proceed to further steps, etc.

John Baptist Coccinus, Dean of the Rota.

Philip Pirovanus, Auditor of the Rota.

Clement Merlinus, Auditor of the Rota.

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.