CONCERNING S. ALBERT THE FARMER
DEAD AT CREMONA AMONG THE PEOPLE OF BERGAMO.
IN THE YEAR MCXC.
CommentaryAlbert the farmer, dead at Cremona, among the people of Bergamo (S.)
G. H.
The memory of S. Albert the farmer is celebrated among the writers of Bergamo and Cremona. For the natal place of the life undertaken by him on earth is the territory of Bergamo, and in it the hamlet Ogna in the Seriana valley, not far from the town Clusone toward the river Serio. But the natal place of the mortal life laid down, and the immortal one attained, is the city of Cremona on the right bank of the river Po: Sacred cult in which his sacred body is preserved in the church of S. Matthias, and to his honor an altar is erected, and on this VII of May his feast is celebrated: on which day by decree, among the statutes made in the year MCCCLXXXIX, an oblation of two tapers is wont to be made by the City to his altar, and moreover the Community of those porters who employ themselves in transferring wines, because it chose this Saint as its Protector, celebrates his feast more solemnly, when the officials of these receive others at a banquet, and distribute a dowry to the poorer girls of this their Community: as Joseph the Brescian, a citizen of Cremona, sets forth in the Cremonese Diary. From the Relics his arm was given to the inhabitants of Ogna, and on account of frequent miracles a temple raised in the Seriana valley. His birthday on this day Galesinius in his Martyrology celebrates, and Ferrarius in the general Catalogue of Saints and another of the Saints of Italy, who alleges the Tablets of the church of Cremona, and the Bergamo Vineyard, which in the year MDLIII Bartholomew de Peregrinis a Presbyter of Bergamo published, in which in part 2, when in chapter 16 nay and the following he had treated of S. Albert of Bergamo and Abbot of Pontida, whose feast is venerated on the Kalends of September; in chapter 24 concerning this S. Albert he hands down these things.
[2] Not unworthy labors also in this Vineyard another Divine Albert contributed, A compendium of the life, addicted to the religion of no one of the Brethren, but a faithful Christian, sprung from the village Ogna, situated in the Seriana valley. He in this Vineyard worked not only spiritually, but also corporally. For since he was a colonus, a farmer he tilled the fields in the name of the most high God, and with the proceeds, after himself and his wife, sustained the poor, the weak, widows, orphans, the infirm and pilgrims: who after many labors and pilgrimages died at Cremona, illustrious for miracles, in the year of our salvation MCXC, but on the VII day of May, and in the building of S. Matthias was buried, Divine Homobonus being present, a most worthy citizen of Cremona. These things from his history ascribed in book 10 concerning the Antiquities and deeds of the Divine ones of Bergamo, chapter 4. S. Homobonus, a citizen of Cremona, survived even to the year MCXCVII, in which he ended his life on the XIII of November: in whose Life edited by Hieronymus Tromboni chapter 24 mention is made of S. Albert. But the History written concerning the Antiquities and deeds of the Divine ones of Bergamo is cited in part 1 chapter 1 at the Life of S. Barnabas, and is ascribed to Marcus Antonius Benalius, whose work afterward John Antonius Guarnerius Canon of Bergamo polished and augmented: but because this Saint was dead at Cremona, he omitted his Life in the Bergamo edition of the year MDLXXXIV.
[3] Marius Mutius, among the Lives of the Saints and Blessed of Bergamo struck and restruck in Italian in the year MDCXIV and MDCXXI, By Marius Mutius are described his pious conversation, in part 2 edited the Life of S. Albert the Farmer of Ogna, but the things which are succinctly handed down by Bartholomew de Peregrinis, are set forth by Mutius paraphrastically. There are described the natal place, among rugged mountains and in the poor hamlet of Ogna; the pious upbringing, amid the labors of agriculture; the diligence of hearing on Sundays and feast-days the sacrifice of the Mass, and the other divine offices, and also of receiving the sacred fruits from sermons and the reading of pious books and other spiritual exercises. almsgiving, Moreover, since in matrimony he had not begotten children, his alms are praised, and therefore the molestations brought by his wife, and these patiently borne, and his constant liberality remunerated by celestial miracles; namely that the food carried to the poor, was divinely found in his buildings. in the Roman pilgrimage a miracle, There are added his pilgrimages to the city of Rome: in which when the necessary viaticum failed, he sought his livelihood by the labor of his hands, and distributed part of it to the poor. Nor was a singular divine assistance lacking. For when with others
reapers he was mowing hay, because he surpassed the others very much, these, touched with envy, placed an anvil amid the hay, that the edge of his scythe might be blunted: so that while he should be hindered in sharpening his scythe, they might advance their own work; S. Albert, ignorant of this fraud, cut through the very anvil as if some flower, and without injury of his scythe performed his work: which seen the other reapers were snatched into stupor, and affected with the greatest shame. his piety at Rome and Compostela: There is indicated likewise his modesty in the City and piety toward the sacred Relics, and especially of the glorious Princes of the Church; and charity toward the poor in the hospital, the infirm, whom he incited to patience, the Confession of sins, and the amendment of life. Nay even that he went to Compostela, and visited the body of S. James, is scarcely doubted.
[4] the crossing of the Po, Afterward there is set forth his return toward his fatherland; when, because the river Po was swelling, and because the fare was lacking to him, he could not be conveyed by a vessel; he spread his little cloak upon the waters, and the sign of the Cross being made, relying on the highest confidence in God, without any peril came to the other bank. Which miracle some Hermits beholding, and admiring the sanctity of the man, that they might honor him as a holy man, approached; but they were prohibited, and asked not, while he lived, to narrate it to others. At Cremona his familiar conversation with S. Homobonus is praised, where often invited to his dinner and besought that he should take up some more worthy office offered; his last deeds at Cremona he preferred to remain in a humbler service, and employed his effort in carrying wine. But it befell, when at a certain time he carried wine to a certain girl, that, the cup being broken, the wine was spilled. Then the man of God Albert, the parts of the cup being taken joined them, and the wine which was as if congealed, placed in the cup, carried to the appointed buildings. At length fallen into his last disease, the disease, he expiated his soul by the confession of all his guilts. And when the Priest deferred to fortify him with the sacred Viaticum, there was seen a most white dove (which they piously believed to be the Holy Spirit) to descend from heaven with the greatest splendor, and with its beak to offer a particle of the sacred Host to S. Albert, and to place it in his mouth, his death, and thus most piously he rendered his spirit to the Creator in the year MCXC, when all the bells of that city without the work of any man rang of their own accord, and roused the citizens to procure for him an honorable burial, and having entered the church of S. Matthias they saw the pavement raised, and a grave, by the ministry of Angels, as is piously believed, his burial. prepared for this sacred body, and there with most solemn apparatus it was laid and hitherto rests: where the votive offerings hung there give most evident testimony of very many miracles.
[5] By Peregrinus Merula the Canonization is indicated, All these things Marius Mutius: which we have related that thence the Reader especially of Cremona may discern, which things they more certainly approve. Further Peregrinus Merula, in the Cremonese Sanctuary struck at Cremona in the year MDCXXVII page 121, sets forth the deeds of S. Albert in few words, Bartholomew de Peregrinis especially being cited in the Bergamo Vineyard: and adds that to this sick man the most holy Sacraments were administered by the Parish-priest of the holy sepulcher, and that he was, by John XXI the supreme Pontiff, on account of miracles perpetrated both in life and after death, brought into the number of the Saints. The said John presided over the Church only VIII months and as many days, namely from the XIII of September of the year MCCLXXVI unto the XXI of May of the following year.