Gerontius

ON SAINT GERONTIUS

ARCHBISHOP OF MILAN.

Century V

Gerontius, Bishop of Milan (S.)

By the Author G. H.

The Milanese pursue with Ecclesiastical cult on this day V May S. Gerontius their Archbishop: the ancient Missals prescribe him, such as we have printed in the year MDXXII and MDLX, and the Breviaries of the year MDXXXIX, and others later by order of S. Charles the Cardinal Archbishop edited: sacred cult. in which for the third Lesson this encomium of his Life is given: The greatest virtues of Geruntius the Bishop, with examples and other manners, but especially shone forth on account of the violence of the barbarians, who under King Odoacer entering Italy, were most miserably and most savagely depopulating. By those immense peoples not only all Ecclesiastical discipline was corrupted and dissolved, but also the most beautiful works of the city were ravaged, the city itself was almost destroyed from the foundations. Which when by the barbarians were being done, Geruntius always most sharply opposed. Who as by his prudence and humility he had refused that office, so taking it up most constantly bore it, nor did he ever succumb to any perversity of times or of men. When he had most holily fallen in death, he was buried in the basilica of S. Simplicianus. Thus there: and is the fourth Lesson for the use of those, who in that city and diocese use the Roman rite: to whom the rest of the Office from the Common of Pontiffs and Confessors is prescribed to be taken under double rite. Of the same S. Gerontius the sacred memory is recalled in the Tables of the present-day Roman Martyrology, and in Galesinius, Ferrarius in the Catalog of the Saints of Italy, and other writers of Milanese affairs.

[2] On the time of his See it is not agreed among the authors. In the Catalog of Archbishops, Time of the See, among the more recent uncertain, edited among the diocesan Synodal Acts of the Milanese Church held by S. Charles, this encomium is brought forth: S. Gerontius, citizen of Milan, with Simplicius the Pontiff, on VII Kalends of January unwilling created Archbishop, with great humility took up that office, and in the most strait times of Insubria most holily bore it for VI years. He died in the Lord on III Nones of May, was buried in the basilica of S. Simplicianus. Thus there. The Acts of S. Pope Simplicius we illustrated on day 2 March, and we showed that he sat from the year CCCCLXVII up to the year CCCCLXXXIII, but in which of these years S. Gerontius presided over the Milanese Church, hence is not established. Ferdinand Ughellus in the Archbishops of Milan with others establishes that he presided from day XXVI of December of the year CCCCLXVI up to CCCCLXXII: but so before the times of the kingdom of Odoacer in Italy he would have departed from life: and therefore what about him here is transmitted, are transferred by Ughellus

to S. Benignus the successor, whose Acts are to be given XX November. But Odoacer reigned, after his irruption into Italy, from the year CCCCLXXVI up to the year CCCCXCIII. Ferrarius from the deduction of times in the preceding Bishops, but not solidly enough, says, that S. Gerontius administered the Episcopate from the year CCCCLXXIII up to the year CCCCLXXIX, and so in the third year of the reign of Odoacer in Italy he would have departed from life.

[3] So great a discrepancy of authors regarding the chronology of the Milanese Bishops, here and elsewhere generally noted, has caused, that having before us a copy of an ancient Catalog from three parts of various ages collected about six hundred years ago, we have judged the whole should be examined first and illustrated, before we could establish anything certain about the individuals. from an old Ms. catalog more certainly defined. In the first part of this, less accurate indeed than the rest, and less certain, yet of great account on account of the prerogative of age, as one which can be reckoned to have been compiled before the end of the VI century; in the first, I say, part of the Catalog we read thus: Geruntius, sat six years, deposed VII May: and we have said it seems to us originally to have been written dep. v. m. Maji, that is, V of the month of May: then to constitute certain limits to the six-year Episcopate of S. Geruntius, we have not found a more certain foundation, than in the beginning of Lawrence, the fourth Bishop after him, which beginning could not be had before the year CCCCXCIX. Hence however ascending upward to Geruntius, through the spaces attributed to the three intermediates, we come to the year CCCCLXXVIII, in which Geruntius would have died, ordained about the beginning of the year CCCCLXXII. In Geruntius's predecessor Eusebius this one we have certain, that his beginning cannot be put off beyond the year CCCCLI, when already as Bishop he wrote an Epistle to S. Pope Leo: but because the duration of his See cannot be sufficiently certainly defined, on account of the error in the number of years attributed to him or to some of the antecessors; therefore we judge the age of Geruntius rather to be measured from the age of his successors.

[4] Relics of others translated, Joseph Ripamontius decade I of Histories of the Milanese Church book 7 asserts that by S. Gerontius in the basilica of S. Simplicianus, in which he himself was buried, were placed Marolus, Glycerius, Lazarus, when before they had a more obscure tomb. The Acts of S. Lazarus we have given XI February, and S. Marolus XXIII April, and S. Glycerius will have to be given XX September. The aforementioned Ughellus before adds; that some judge, from the noble race of Basilicapetri of Milan, in every memory most fertile of excellent men, Gerontius had origin; according to others from the most noble Burrea family: which gratuitously presumed, since by no solid authority on either side it is proved, so it does not deserve to be laboriously refuted. About the same Gerontius the following verses Ennodius the Bishop of Pavia composed.

When for the Church the chair was acquired for you, Geruntius, Encomium of Ennodius.

The dying predecessor did not fear his funeral.

With you repairing it returns, the pale lot suffers death,

He lives after death by the price of his disciple.

Joined with the farmers you cultivated the seeds of Life,

Nor did the serpent's tares bear glad food.

Who gave in the midst, to whom the best law commands sustenance:

With earthly fruits he buys heaven.

You pressed down the error of mind by the law of labors;

Not suffering leisure, you are borne by virtues.

[5] In the church of S. Simplicianus are reported to be preserved five sacred bodies of Milanese Archbishops, namely SS. Simplicianus, Benignus, Antoninus, translation in the year 1582 Gerontius and Ampelius; likewise S. Vigilius Bishop of Trent, and SS. Sisinnius, Martyrius, and Alexander Martyrs, whose Acts of passion we give XXIX May. The bodies of all these with most solemn procession by S. Charles Borromeo to have been translated, in the year MDLXXXII in the month of June, Morigius transmits in the Sanctuary of Milan page 153.

ON SS. TEUTERIA AND TUSCA

VIRGINS OF VERONA IN ITALY.

Teuteria, Virgin, at Verona in Italy (S.)

Tusca, Virgin, at Verona in Italy (S.)

By the Author G. H.

Celebrated among the Veronese is the memory of SS. Teuteria and Tusca the Virgins, on account of the church dedicated to their name, in which their sacred bodies are preserved as testifies Augustinus Valerius Bishop of Verona and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Their bodies in their own church, in the Ancient Monuments of the Veronese Church, in the beginning by Raphael Bagata Archpriest of the Church of the holy Apostles and Baptista Peretto Rector of the Church of S. Teuteria collected, and by Valerius himself woven through, and in the year 1576 published. In these, from the Martyrology of the Order of Friars Preachers among the nuns of S. Dominic, on this V May these things are read: At Verona of SS. Teuteria daughter of the King of England, and Tusca, sister of S. Proculus Bishop of Verona. The Acts of S. Proculus the Bishop we gave XIII March, and we said that the time in which he flourished is uncertain, and Onuphrius Panvinius lib. 4 of the Veronese Antiquities chapter 7 confessed, that the succession of the Bishops, by excessive antiquity now and the fatal idleness of the elders, is oppressed by the darkness of antiquity, and we wished that from these darknesses sometime should be drawn out the Acts of SS. Teuteria and Tusca the Virgins, of whom this is reckoned the sister of S. Proculus the Bishop: but Teuteria is said to have come from Britain, and to have lived with S. Tusca, whose birthday is the day V May. Although however the birthday of S. Tusca recurs X July, the Acts of each, because they cannot be separated, are given here together.

[2] In an old Psalter from parchments, preserved in the church of the holy Apostles (to which church of SS. Teuteria and Tusca, as some chapel, is contiguous) these things are read: In the year of the Lord seven hundred and fifty-first lived S. Anno Bishop of Verona, in the year 751 consecrated, brother of S. Maria Consolatrix, who consecrated the present church of the holy Virgins Teuteria and Tusca and the altar: and placed the bodies of the said Virgins in the said church in the present ark, and gave great indulgence with many other things. and in the year 1160 renewed, When however those sacred bodies, as in the said Psalter is transmitted, for many years had lain hidden, in the year of the Lord MCLXI on day IV July, they were found: and in the same year, on day XIV September, the same church was consecrated again. after the finding of the holy bodies on July 4. Baptista Perettus cited above, in the little book which about the year 1588 on these holy Virgins separately he edited, and to Sister Angela Bevilacqua Prioress of the monastery of S. Catherine of Siena dedicated, cap. 5 treating of the aforesaid finding of the bodies, says they were then placed in a greater marble ark, which as if prepared for this stood there behind the major altar: then indeed the feast of the finding was wont yearly to be renewed with this Prayer. Almighty eternal God, who on this day the bodies of Your Holy ones Teuteria and Tusca to Your faithful with joy granted to be found, give us both by their intercessions to profit and by the imitation of their conversation to attain to the eternal joys. From that time however introduced custom believes the same Perettus, that devout women the night, which precedes the feast of S. Teuteria, spend in vigil in prayers within the church: and many others have begun devoutly to invoke the same, not without manifold fruit of benefits divinely obtained: of which some below from the aforesaid little book will be rendered into Latin.

[3] given Indulgences about the year 1300, Among the Veronese Bishops is numbered as the eighty-sixth Bonincrontus, elected in the year MCCXCI, departed from life in the year MCCXCVIII, by whom Indulgence of XL days was granted to all truly penitent and confessed, visiting the church of the holy Apostles and of SS. Teuteria and Tusca the Virgins, in the consecration of those churches, and in the Exaltation of the holy Cross up to the feast of S. Michael. To Bonincrontus succeeded Theobaldus the Bishop, and afterwards several times; dead in the year MCCCXXXI, by whom likewise Indulgence of XL days was granted, as also by his successor Nicolaus, who up to the year MCCCXXXVI lived, and to others he adds also Indulgences of XL days, to those visiting the church of the said holy Virgins on the fourth feria, or any day of Wednesday, of every week of any year, and on their festivities. There lived with the preceding Bishops Paganus Turrianus, chosen Patriarch of Aquileia in the year MCCCXIX, departed from life in the year MCCCXXXII; who granted the aforesaid Indulgences of XL days on the festivities of the holy Apostles, and on the solemnities of the most blessed Virgin Mary, and on the festivities of SS. Teuteria and Tusca the Virgins, and through the Octaves of those festivities: and this is said to be established from the ancient tablets, in parchments, in various places of the same Churches hung.

[4] feast of S. Teuteria May 5 So also it is established, that the feast of S. Teuteria on this V May from the Veronese Martyrology of the Cathedral church, from the ancient books of the church of the holy Apostles, and of the church of S. Stephen, and from the books and parchments of the church of S. Lawrence, and of S. Maria ad Faram, and of S. Bartholomew on the mount. of S. Tusca July 10, The feast indeed of S. Tusca the Virgin is celebrated on day X July from the ancient books of the church of the holy Apostles, and from the stone tablet inserted in the wall opposite the ark of those holy ones. Particular Relics of these Virgins are jointly in the altars of the most holy Trinity, Relics in various temples. of S. James, and of S. Helena in the said church of the Apostles, when it in the year MCXCIV on day XX March was consecrated by Bishop Adalardus, says Perettus the same things more amply deducing in cap. 7 of his aforesaid little book: who to the same adds the altar of S. Vincent in the church of S. Maria in Clavica, in the year MCCCXVI by Tebaldus the Antistes consecrated. The same says that of S. Tusca alone the Relics are in the altar of S. John of Beverara; and also in the church of S. Paul in Campus Martius: the Relics indeed of S. Teuteria alone he attests are preserved in the churches of S. George in Braida: of S. Firmus minor and of S. Zeno. There was also in our times, says Valerius Augustinus the Bishop, an altar erected in honor of S. Teuteria the Virgin in the church of S. Martha of the nuns of S. Mary Magdalene in Campus Martius, by whom her feast every year is solemnly celebrated, an altar in the building of S. Magdalen. with many Sacerdotes called for it, on account of the miracle of health suddenly in the year MDLIV recovered by a nun of the same monastery, of which monuments are extant with the same nuns. Thus there, all of which abundantly confirm the ancient Ecclesiastical cult of the said Virgins: and that they lived for some time before the year DCCLI, in which S. Anno the Bishop consecrated for them both the church and the altar.

[5] Two indications of the times are suggested, while S. Teuteria is said impudently sought by Osgualdus, King of England not yet Christian, and to have lived with S. Tusca sister of B. Proculus Bishop of Verona. Perettus in his little book cap. 1 changing his prior opinion for Osualdus the King, afterwards Christian and Saint, substituting another, who with S. Lucius in Britain lived and died gentile, refers them to the time of Pope Eleutherius: and in the History of the Lives of the four first Bishops, edited in the year 1602, to the year of Christ

CCXXX: but he should have known that the Saxon name to a Briton King by no means agreed, at least at that age. Panvinius in the place above indicated asserts that the Order of Veronese Bishops, up to the year of Christ DCCLX is not continued: who in turn was successor is unknown, and the times in which the individuals lived are most obscure and uncertain, whether they flourished in the seventh century? and accordingly bare names in alphabetical order he suggests. Why should not also some names of Bishops be hidden, and a second Proculus Bishop of this name lived in the seventh century of Christ, in which Oswaldus or Osgualdus the King among the English was reigning? In the metric Life only Tusca, the most holy sister of Proculus, is celebrated, with no mention made of Episcopal dignity, that he could be a man of eminent name, in whatever finally state he flourished. Now first Oswaldus King of England occurs, son of Ethelfrid, surnamed the Wild, King of Northumbria: who as a young exile among the Scots, in present-day Hibernia, embraced the Christian faith; and his brother Eanfrid being killed, reigned from the year DCXXXV; by Penda the unfaithful King of the Mercians in the year DCXLII killed; and is venerated as Martyr on day V August. But whether to this one the said impudicity is to be attributed, or to another from the royal family Osgualdus or Oswaldus, who in such great obscurity of things will pursue? With these things meanwhile noted we bring forth the Acts. If you attend to the manner, by which the hand of satellites sent in by the impure suitor is said to have been escaped in the cell of S. Tusca received; you are altogether forced to opine that the author of that violence was some Dynast, in the very territory of the Veronese city, who cast lascivious eyes upon the foreign girl; unless you prefer to suspect, that to some English Prince making his journey around Verona, and by fortuitous lust toward her inflamed, it should be imputed, that she had to take refuge in the cell of S. Tusca.

COMPENDIUM OF THE LIFE

From the collection of Augustinus Valerius Bishop of Verona.

Teuteria, Virgin, at Verona in Italy (S.)

Tusca, Virgin, at Verona in Italy (S.)

S. Teuteria having embraced the faith of Christ, Teuteria the Virgin, born indeed of royal stock, but of Ethnic parents, was born in England, at the time when the people of that kingdom and the greatest part of the neighboring cities were still detained by the error of Gentilism. She, by the gift of divine mercy, secretly instructed in the doctrine of the Catholic faith, with the greatest devotion received baptism, daily more and more advancing in Christian virtues: who when on account of her excellent form was impudently sought by Osgualdus King of England, with both his promises and threats spurned, divinely admonished leaving her homeland, set out for Verona. Where when she had heard that S. Tusca, the sister of blessed Proculus then Bishop of Verona, not far outside the ancient walls of that city, in a certain cell of an as-it-were deserted place, was leading a solitary life; she came to her more often: received at Verona by S. Tusca, and having got an occasion, not without miracle she also entered into that very cell. For when the King's ^a satellites, who were following her, were not yet far away; divinely admonished of this matter, she prayed B. Tusca, that she might be received into the cell. Which being done the little window through which she had entered, woven over with the webs of spiders, left to no one the suspicion of recent hiding. By which thing deceived the King's ministers returned to England. Which miracle B. Tusca discerning, permitted Teuteria, that she with her in that cell should spend the rest of her life. Teuteria indeed venerating B. Tusca as a mother, obedient to her in all things; by works also and assiduous prayers obtained from God salvation for Osgualdus the King her persecutor: for converted to the faith he led a Christian life. When however both day and night with vigils, both holily live and die. fastings and prayers served God; finally B. Teuteria, seized by a heavy disease, with the most sacred Sacraments received, when she pronounced the word, Into Your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit; with Angels standing by, migrated to the Lord on the third Nones of May: ^b… whose body was buried in that place, where afterwards also the body of B. Tusca: who in the same year on the sixth Ides of July happily died, and in the same place in their honor a church was built: which when after very many years S. Anno Bishop of Verona had consecrated, in it placed their bodies in a marble ark, famous for miracles.

ANNOTATIONS.

METRIC LIFE

From a MS. of the church of the Apostles, polished by posterity.

Teuteria, Virgin, at Verona in Italy (S.)

Tusca, Virgin, at Verona in Italy (S.)

BHL Number: 8010

Blessed Virgin, who neither hears the impious,

Nor has followed a Prince

Most rich, but in heart most lost,

Unwilling to join herself to him.

But with pure mind thinking of the laws of God,

And those most constantly She takes Jesus as Spouse:

Keeping, and loving with the most candid love,

And by the wound of charity

Stricken of Christ, glory and wealth esteeming as nothing,

Jesus had chosen for herself

As Spouse, and tarried in this perpetual

Sweet bond bound.

Whether the sun panting, surveying all things with his lamp,

Has breathed rising on his horses;

Whether the red Vesper raises late lights,

And waters the earth with sleep;

Osgualdus this one, most illustrious King of England,

Loved most lostly, she spurns the love of Prince Oswald,

In age contending with form to the star,

And most beautiful in body:

He attempts to move her from her state

Promising splendid gifts,

And believes to entice the entire breast

With the sacred riches of gold.

But she, like a rock unmoved in the sea, remains,

Stirred by great fragor

Tossed about and by barking waves

Which holds itself by heavy mass;

The crags roar and rocks around foamy,

And dashed seaweed is scattered.

For the Virgin, with holy and modest manners

Adorned, spurned the gifts,

And himself spurned, esteeming as a penny

The marriages of one,

And kingdoms, and courts, and the proud thresholds

Of more powerful Princes,

Burning with the most pure fires of heavenly

Love, and longing for Christ.

Then the King seeing himself despised by Teuteria,

Snares for her he prepared;

And began to pursue her father with punishments;

But divinely roused

To the high walls of Verona she herself tends: exile flees to Verona,

That with her whole mind to God

She might dedicate herself to servitude, leaving all

With favorable divinity,

Through the ridges of inhospitable Alps

Having followed Christ with breast

Most strong, not broken by harsh things.

Soon the King nefarious, with barbarous

Fury stirred, vomits forth nefarious things:

And incited by demon

To Verona, that they might seek her quickly,

Sent severe messengers.

Then Tusca, the most holy sister of Proculus, received by S. Tusca,

Having a suburb of Verona,

Was leading a life pure and candid from every stain

Praising the best Father.

To whom proceeded with most swift steps

The blessed Virgin of the Heavenly Ones,

And terrified by fear these prayers from her breast

Poured forth: O my salvation,

Benign Father of the Heavenly Ones, save, I beseech,

And bring help: for the barbarian

Presses with claws, raging with rabid hunger,

And like immense beasts,

My salvation and blood with gaping mouths

Now savagely seek with jaws.

Hear me I pray suppliant, O my only hope

And certain protection.

So she said, and into the most narrow window

She entered of her cell:

Which presently spiders cover with most thin

By the order of the Powerful one with thread. she is protected by the webs of spiders.

And the King's messengers, seeing this place,

Do not estimate that this one entered:

But pass on, and to their homeland return

Tired, when they have found nothing.

You glorious Virgin, possessing heaven,

Whose conspicuous praise flies

From the Indus to the farthest shores of Britain; Her patronage is implored,

Save us by your divinity,

By aid keep your citizens, obtain all good things;

That we may with the highest Father

And only Son enjoy perpetually,

With the everlasting Spirit.

Hymn from the same MS. codex.

Virgin of the heavens, of our homeland too

A clear ornament and watchful guardian,

Who with sacred you raise our city among the bright stars

With bones.

Be present here, pitying our labors,

Whether the court of heaven holds you, or

The neighboring peoples of the Adige weary

You with much prayer.

Or the Britons divided in the world call you;

(For you are said to have arisen from these lands,

By an eternal bond of love joined

To the Almighty)

Be present here, while we sing of you, in this little chapel,

Heavenly Virgin; while of you each year

We sad joyful, with returning certain

Light, the trophies.

You spurned all the precious gifts

Of the King, nor did the pleasure of Venus take you,

Nor Bacchus break or pleasant wealth

Your chaste breasts:

But to God always your dedicated

Mind enjoyed supernal feasts,

Overcoming the furies of flesh and world

And the wars of Satan.

Indeed with Tusca as leader hiding in a narrow

Cell, you leave the documents of marvelous,

Clear virtue, and aid the wretched

Cast from heaven.

You fertile in seers generous land

Famous Verona, and proud in wealth,

Adorned with the sacred body of so great a Virgin

Rejoice.

Let us speak good words, the festive light comes,

Be present whoever, and let all favor,

Let them give to the sacred altars pious incense, odors,

And Indian gifts.

Goddess driving the heavenly choirs,

Hear the suppliants, and to teachable youth

Give a good mind, and a placid old age

With safe course.

Give to your venerable long peace

Citizens, true and solid honors,

Candid morals, and full of supernal

Light draughts.

Praise to You Father and Prince of heaven,

Who by certain law govern the world,

Whom faith zealous of the true believes Three

And One.

MIRACLES

From the Italian of Baptista Perettus.

Teuteria, Virgin, at Verona in Italy (S.)

Tusca, Virgin, at Verona in Italy (S.)

[1] Under the tyrant Ezzelino, who for the space of some years violently and cruelly ruled Verona, Of a poor family's need under the year 1259 in the year finally MCCLIX taken from the midst, it happened that a certain good citizen was compelled to set out for guarding the castle of Villafranca, about to serve at his own expense. Heavy was that for a man not at all wealthy; indeed indebted, so that he hardly sustained his family. Therefore when sad he was going out, and passing through the forum had turned his eyes to the church of the Holy Apostles; he recalled the benefits, which many said they had divinely obtained through the intercession of S. Teuteria. He enters therefore hastily into the building, S. Teuteria invoked succors. and finding it then by chance empty of bystanders, pours out his heart in prayer with tears, in his and his family's so great necessity asking help from the holy Virgin. When behold appeared to him the same, with venerable aspect, and clothed in most candid garments, and to him long astonished at length said; let him proceed alacritous on the journey begun, his prayers had been heard, and he himself would soon return with safety. The vision proved to have been not vain by the event: for his slight resources, whence somehow the family was sustained, God so multiplied, that the absent man's wife was able from them to pay creditors, and to send food to her husband, as long as he remained in the castle's custody; yet she also had enough for her own and the whole house's nourishment: but the man returned safely afterwards.

[2] Among those women who by custom spent the vigil of S. Teuteria in prayer, by the touch of the relics is healed deformity of the face. came one leading her daughter with her, to whom a certain infirmity had rendered the face wholly deformed: she bearing great confidence in obtaining grace, asked the Sacerdos of the church there present, that he should apply the Relics of the Saint to the girl's face. Which obtained and prayers completed, mother with daughter returned home: who a little after restored to her former form and health, was often seen returning to the church for giving thanks for the benefit received.

[3] In the year of the Lord MDLIV, lived among the Holy Virgins in the monastery of Campus Martius Sister Ludovica: in the year 1554 the Saint appearing, but for five years miserably afflicted with a fever, joined with grave and wonderful symptoms: to whom although physicians sometimes brought some relief, yet they could never restore health. At length on day I March around dawn, to a certain other nun, who was called Sister Magdalen, somewhat infirm appeared S. Teuteria; and ordered that she command Sister Ludovica to persevere in praying, and to promise her to keep the vigil of her feast with fasting, and to celebrate the feast itself more religiously, that thus she would suddenly recover. She obeyed, and through the infirmary Sister had it announced to Ludovica, she promises a sick nun's healing if a vow is made: what had been said to her by the Saint. All the things ordered when the sick one had accurately fulfilled, returned to her her pristine color which had flowed away together with strength, to the astonishment of the whole monastery, for neither did she herself feel nor could others note in her any vestige of prior infirmity.

[4] which the monastery's physician testified to have been so done, A little after the miracle done came Ludovica's father to the church of the Holy Virgins, bringing as he had been asked by his daughter, a votive image of wax: and that being placed before the statue of S. Teuteria, he ordered a Mass to be celebrated of the same. I indeed to whom, as Rector of the very place, more closely it pertained, of the whole matter to be more accurately taught; when I was thinking of seeking out testimonies, I found that the most experienced physician of the monastery itself D. Petrus Beroldus, an honored citizen of this city, who orally reported the whole matter to me, at the devout instance of the pious nuns, with his own hand had written the same in an old parchment book, containing in Latin speech the described history of the Saints themselves, which book covered with a red cover is kept by the Holy Virgins, affirming that nothing else but to a divine miracle could be ascribed so sudden a cure. The same to me confirmed two Reverend Sacerdotes, likewise the Confessor and Chaplain, to whom the care of that monastery is committed, namely D. Peter Bronzi, Rector of the parish church of S. Cecilia, the Confessor; and D. Michael Maconi, the Chaplain: who also added, that Ludovica, on the same matins time at which she was healed, had to be refreshed with the sacred body of Christ, on account of the grave, in which she seemed to be, danger of death.

[5] Soon was divulged through the whole city the fame of the miracle which had happened, the miracle the Bishop also approves when those sacred virgins repeatedly narrated and renarrated the deed to all coming to them for the cause of visitation. Wherefore Master Mattheus dal Bue, an excellent Professor of more humane literature and equally skilled in Greek as in Latin, when from the very mouth of the physician, almost weeping for the tenderness of affection, he had heard the individual things; and approaching to our Most Reverend Bishop D. Aloysius Lipomanus, had reported what he had heard; and the Bishop himself had responded; I have understood all things, let God be praised, because they are most true; the same Professor in the presence of all his scholars, with me also present, explained the series of the deed; and added, to conciliate faith to that miracle, that very much was conferred by the testimony of so experienced a Physician: who according to the discipline of his art could most certainly judge, that the things which he had learned to have been done in Ludovica, far transcended the order of nature.

[6] Afterwards the nuns themselves, in perpetual memory of that miracle, the nuns take care that a tablet be painted of the same, caused to be painted in a tablet the effigy of S. Teuteria and of Sister Ludovica herself, giving thanks for restored health, and an inscription explaining the deed, and noting its year and day: on the feast moreover of the Saint they ordered some Masses to be celebrated: and thence persevering in this devotion, on one of their altars they took care that S. Teuteria be painted. Furthermore when in the year MDLXXV, which to the author the Abbess narrates to whom the Saint had appeared, on day IX February, together with D. Raphael Bagata, Archpriest of the aforesaid church and parish of the Holy Apostles, we went around investigating ancient monuments of the Saints and Relics of this city (which afterwards with the histories collected by the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Bishop Augustinus Valerius, then Bishop, now Cardinal of Verona, were printed in Latin) we approached also to the monastery of the Virgins in Campus Martius: and there conversing with the Most Reverend Mother Abbess, from whom we asked that the relation of the miracle be exhibited to us, described in the aforesaid book; we found her herself to be the one to whom once S. Teuteria had appeared.

[7] She therefore, when she had reported the individual things, as said above, in order; added, she explains the grave symptoms of that disease. that besides the fever, with which the infirm one was laboring, the memorable indeed horrible symptom of the same was, by which all her limbs, even her tongue, were distorted; and her eyes seemed almost dead. She said also, that she was wont to be vexed with such windiness, that on the use of certain foods she immediately suffered great molestation: when however she was healed, that this also wholly ceased, so that she now used the same foods without difficulty, living up to that day healthy and safe, by name Sister Ludovica de Schio: but that the infirmary nun was dead, through whom she had announced the Saint's mandate, called Camilla Veritas: but that many nuns of that time were still alive, of whom some were assisting her speaking with us; among whom and Sister Ludovica herself: who then by her testimony affirmed it true, whatever the Lady Abbess had narrated: and finally for full faith of the whole matter, was brought and exhibited to us the book, of which above.

[8] I do not know whether still is preserved the aforesaid ancient book, to which the physician inscribed his testimony: The testimony subscribed to the image. for asked to send a copy of that testimony thence transcribed R. P. Octavius Zenobrius, Rector of our Veronese college in the year MDCLXXVI, in place of it sent the equally above mentioned, and to the same purpose to be valid, inscription of the image of S. Teuteria, which still is read in quite ancient letters, and expressed in Italian words, thus to be rendered into Latin, Memorial of recovered health, as has been noted by me Sister Ludovica from the Sisters of D. Magdalen: who was infirm for five years with fever and melancholy, with the accident of much molesting paralysis: nor ever cured by any remedy from many physicians, although the evil sometimes was somewhat relieved. On the first day of March of the year MDLIV however, when I was fatigued with greater labor of the disease than ever before, admonished by a revelation made to a certain other nun, I vowed to S. Teuteria to fast on her vigil, and to celebrate her feast, and thereafter always to be devoted to her. And suddenly I was healed from every bad disposition I was suffering, without any other natural motion or incursion which might appear: which can be ascribed to no other cause than to divine help and a true miracle. The same Rector adds, that on V May a procession is made after Te Deum sung, in the church of S. Martha; the feast however of S. Teuteria from the ancients with Octave was celebrated.