ON BLESSED DOROTHEUS,
HERMIT AT LUCCA IN ITALY.
CommentaryDorotheus the Hermit, at Lucca in Italy (B.)
G. H.
Francis Maria Florentinius, a noble of Lucca, from whom we have the Martyrology of S. Jerome eruditely illustrated, communicated to us the following concerning this blessed Hermit. On the Ides of May in the County of Lucca in the Village of Cardoso, far from the city of Lucca XVIII miles, the deposition of B. Dorotheus the Hermit: whom in a certain valley, Honored by a chapel erected near a chapel dedicated to his name, long separated from human society, intent on vigils, prayers and contemplations, to have led an immaculate life from ancient tradition they relate. They add that the place, which the pious Hermit inhabited, at whose living prayers a staff had put forth foliage so lacked water, that it was necessary for him to pour forth suppliant prayers to God, that He would deign to provide his little hut with opportune liquid. Full of faith, the staff on which he leaned he fixed in the earth, and seized by sleep, when he awoke, he saw the staff grown into a tree teeming with foliage and branches: at whose roots he wonders a spring sprung up of perennial and living water. The spring still remains, and a spring had gushed in the dry place. and several, by the merits of the blessed Hermit, drinking from it, obtain from God the grace of soundness. It is reported that the inhabitants of the town of Borgo several times observed over the place of the burial of the blessed Man nocturnal splendors, Nocturnal splendors after death: and hence took occasion, that they would secretly steal the holy body, but struck with sudden blindness abstained. There is celebrated yearly from a most ancient institution a feast; a yearly procession. and an arm placed in a silver shrine yearly with sacred pomp from the parish church to the chapel of B. Dorotheus is carried, the Bishop of Lucca approving. These things Florentinius: which most things also has Franciotti on the Saints of Lucca page 507 and the following. And he adds that an ancient image of him is seen on the altar, and in it some Relics of him found by Alexander Guidiccioni the elder Bishop of Lucca, and Masses frequently of him to be celebrated.