ON BLESSED MARY THE WIFE OF S. ISIDORE THE FARMER
AT TORRELAGUNA IN CASTILE.
ABOUT THE YEAR 1140.
PrefaceMary, wife of S. Isidore, at Torrelaguna near Madrid (B.)
D. P.
Since S. Isidore was strong in good morals, lawfully having a wife and a son, a good disposer of his house as is fitting, says John the Deacon above at number 10, leading a praiseworthy life, deserved, the Lord granting, to obtain a more praiseworthy departure. Hence the authors gather that the wife and son survived the holy man. Concerning the son afterward nothing anywhere is read. Concerning the wife it will be clear from what is said below, that she was indeed like her husband in morals and virtue, yet unlike in the progress of the veneration of both increased among men. For the stupendous miracle of the incorrupt body, from the fortieth year after the death of the holy man subjected to the eyes of men, in the royal city and so in a most celebrated place of the whole kingdom, made Isidore more illustrious; his wife the ignobility of the rural place, about which she spent the last years of life, and in which entombed she lay hidden until the year 1596, long concealed. Then namely her body was sought and found; which however that it had long ago been translated, as of a holy or blessed woman, the head showed, long since separated from the rest of the bones, and exposed to public veneration upon the altar, in the same hermitage of S. Mary where the blessed woman had first been buried, on this side of the river Jarama. Of old that is believed to have pertained to the right of the Templars; The head from of old was held in veneration; but in the year 1511 it was handed over to the Franciscan Friars, by Fr. Francis Ximenez de Cisneros Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and Archbishop of Toledo. Since the veneration of that head was great through the surrounding villages, Bleda says it came about, that what was simply called the Hermitage of S. Mary, began to be called S. Mary de la Cabeza, that is, of the Head. Hence moreover I think arose the opinion, by which now it is believed that to the wife of S. Isidore there was not only the name of Mary (which to me indeed seems doubtful, but more doubtful is made by Anna de Rojas at number 16 a witness heard concerning the miracles, and until that time supposing the Saint to be called Toribia, perhaps from an ancient, but now almost vanished tradition of the elders) but also the surname de la Cabeza, which in no way consonant with the simplicity of that age, not yet wont to give surnames to plebeian men, by which then only the nobles, and that by a custom introduced after the year of Christ one thousand, were distinguished. the feast is kept on the 8th of September Her feast indeed is celebrated annually and even now is celebrated in the said hermitage on the 8th day of September, when they will have her to have died, which day indeed agrees with her signal diligence in cultivating the chapel of the Mother of God: but the Church, if to her solemn Canonization for which Processes are held instituted, it should at some time proceed, will without doubt assign another day to her worship. But so conjoined are the monuments of her and her husband's virtues, miracles, and ancient worship, that those whom God happily joined on earth, it is difficult to separate in the order of history in books. This leave therefore being asked, and under the caution, that the name of Mary perhaps is invented, concerning her from the Spanish context of James Bleda, following the Processes just mentioned, printed after the tract on S. Isidore, we here annex the three following chapters concerning her. But since the sacred head and bones of the blessed woman have been translated to the church of the Friars Minor of that place, to which the hermitage itself pertains, commonly called Torrelaguna; to this especially we ascribe her worship, although widely scattered through the neighboring towns; and we retain the name as the Castilians use it, although it could have been turned into Latin Turris-lacunae.
LifeMary, wife of S. Isidore, at Torrelaguna near Madrid (B.)
FROM THE PROCESSES
CHAPTER I.
The Processes in general concerning the Sanctity and ancient worship of B. Mary.
[2] The Pontifical Commissaries It began to be acted for the solemn canonization at the Roman Court at nearly the same time, at which for the cause of S. Isidore to be pressed the zeal of the Spaniards and especially of the Madrilenians blazed. So in the year 1615 Francis Sacratus, Archbishop of Damascus, one of the Auditors of the sacred Rota and Locum-tenens, John Baptist Coccinus Dean, and Alphonsus Mançanedo de Quiñones Auditors of the Rota, and by our most holy Lord Paul Pope V over the canonization of Mary della Cabeza of good memory, while she was in human affairs the wife of the servant of God Isidore the Farmer, of the town of Madrid, Judges Commissaries specially deputed; to the most illustrious and most reverend D. Bernard de Rojas y Sandoval Cardinal Presbyter of the Holy Roman Church, Archbishop of Toledo, General Inquisitor of the Spains, and the most illustrious and most reverend D. Camillus Cajetan of the Holy Roman Church and of his holy Apostolic See in the Kingdoms of the Spains Nuncio with the faculties of a Legate a latere, the Judges deputed by the holy See and to John de Avillaneda Bishop of Sidonia, Suffragan of the Archbishopric of Toledo, Judges executors deputed below for this, the tenor of the supplicatory libel being related, offered to the Pope for obtaining a commission to the things written below, and subscribed by the Pope by the word, It pleases, in his Remissorial letters; set forth, how before them appeared D. Peter Colida, Agent of the most Serene and Catholic Majesty in the Court, and the very reverend D. John de Matute, Canon of the Cathedral Church of Granada, Procurator of the Venerable Confraternity of B. Mary the Virgin, founded in the church of the hermitage called de la Cabeza, in the town of Torrelaguna, of the same diocese of Toledo, and of the inhabitants of the same town; and in that name set forth.
[3] they set forth the heads concerning which the information is to be taken, I. that there was, and survived in this world, in the town of Madrid of the diocese of Toledo, Mary de la Cabeza, while she was in human affairs the lawful wife of the servant of God Isidore the Farmer, of the said town and diocese, born of honorable, Christian and Catholic parents: and by her said progenitors according to the rite of holy Mother Church presented at the sacred font of baptism, was baptized; and of these there was and is a public voice and fame. II. that there was and is a public voice and fame, a general and universal and common opinion, that the said Mary de la Cabeza lived and was and was seen to lead a life with purity of morals, sanctity of life, and eminent perfection of the Catholic faith, and of such virtues, that universally and commonly she was, and is held and reputed for a Saint. III.
that after her death there universally grew and was spread a general fame, a public voice and a common and universal opinion of the sanctity of the said Mary, in such wise that among the peoples and Clergy of the said town and city and outside, she was, and is held, and is held in great veneration and devotion; and commonly and universally was held, esteemed and reputed, and is held, esteemed and reputed for a Saint; venerating her images and relics, and visiting her sepulcher, as the sepulcher of a Saint, and making public demonstrations of these, and these things being asked with prayers, the affixing of votive offerings, and other pious and due actions. IV. that there was, and is a public voice and fame, a universal and common opinion, not only of the said sanctity, but also of many and various miracles, which almighty God our Lord was pleased to work through the intercession of his said handmaid on divers occasions or occurrences. Whence lest the memory of so great a handmaid of God should perish, the aforesaid Procurators instantly demanded that an inquiry in general concerning the premises be ordered and committed, and for this Judges deputed and subdelegated, and the opportune and necessary letters thereupon decreed and granted.
[4] When the aforenamed Auditors had done this, and had deputed the three above-named by Remissorial letters, in the year 1615 witnesses were heard, after preliminary answers, in the year from the nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ 1615, in the 13th Indiction, on Friday the 3rd of the month of July, in the 11th year of the Pontificate of our most holy Lord Pope Paul V; and when the deputed Judges had received the commission, and the Procurators lawfully constituted by the said town and Sodality, and had cited the witnesses; at Madrid on Wednesday the 30th of September in the year 1615, in the assigned hours of audience, in the Archiepiscopal house and Palace, before the said Cardinal Archbishop and his Suffragan, there appeared personally D. Don Alphonsus de Cordoba, Marquis de Celada, and Knight of the habit of Calatrava, and Commander de Castellañes, and Steward or Major-domo of the King our Lord, of the age of 40 years, a witness cited and produced by Don Martin de Lazcano and Mondragon, Procurator of this cause, in the name of the town and sodality of Torrelaguna, and also of the Chapter of the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and S. Mary de la Cabeza of the said town. Who before all things admonished of the gravity of perjury, they answer to the several heads affirmatively, especially in the causes of the Canonization of Saints; being asked of his name, surname, country, age, parents and quality; being asked also from how long a time he confessed and communicated, and where and when the last time: likewise whether he is or was ever excommunicated, at what time, by whose mandates and for what cause; finally whether he was instructed and induced to depose, and whether he has in any way interest in the present cause; after he had answered to the several points; it was come to the articles inserted in the Remissory; and he in almost the same words in which the interrogation is conceived, answered to all, from hearing and fame; since for two years and thereabouts he had and has knowledge of the aforesaid handmaid of God, and during this time he heard, as above.
[5] In a like manner as to the preliminaries and the several articles, explaining nothing in particular, according to the MS. Process in general. in general the following witnesses deposed; nor was it worth the trouble to transcribe anyone's words from this most lengthy Process: it is enough that it be had with those whom it concerns. The authentic copy moreover, found by us at Rome in the year 1660 with the Procurator General of our Society, in a certain collection of Informations, Processes and Relations concerning Canonizations, the causes of which were turning in the Roman Rota under Paul V, Gregory XV and Urban VIII, reports the names and conditions of the witnesses thus. The 30th of September.
II Witness Don Jerome Funes y Muñoz, [whence here are set forth the collected names of the witnesses heard on the 30th of September.] Knight of the habit of S. James, and Noble of the table of his Majesty, Lord of the Barony de Ayndar in the kingdom of Valencia, and of the Council of his Majesty, and his supreme Council of Italy; general Conservator of the Royal patrimony in the kingdoms and states of Italy, and Noble of the chamber of the most Serene Princes of Savoy, of the age of 40 years, from knowledge had for twenty years and more, in which he resides at the court of his Majesty.
III Don Emanuel Manrique de Lara, of 40 years, Knight of the habit of S. James and Commander de Bienvenida, Noble of the mouth of his Majesty, from knowledge for ten years and thereabouts.
IV Jerome Felix Arias, of 40 years, living from his own faculties; as he heard, from when he enjoys the use of reason.
V Francis Testa, of 41 years, Scribe of the number and congregation of the town of Madrid, deposing from when he has the use of reason.
The 2nd of October. VI The Licentiate Peter de Arce, The 2nd of October. Presbyter, of 50 years, Rector and Curate of the Parochial church of S. John of Madrid; for twenty years, in which he resides at Madrid.
VII The Licentiate Garcia de Prado, Presbyter of the age of 65 years, Beneficiary of the church of S. Salvador of Madrid, for twenty years and thereabouts, in which he had a more particular knowledge of the said handmaid of God.
VIII Gabriel de Rojas, of 55 years, Scribe of Madrid, for twenty years and thereabouts.
IX Don Peter de Espinosa, of 44 years, Knight of the habit of Calatrava and Noble of the house of his Majesty, for twenty years and thereabouts.
X John Garcia, Sacristan of the Parochial church of S. Andrew of Madrid, of 56 years, for 30 years and thereabouts in which he resides at Madrid.
XI Francis Suarez, of 68 years, Scribe of Madrid, for 40 years.
XII Bartholomew Martinez de la Quadra, of 49 years, Schoolmaster, for 28 years and more, in which he resides at Madrid.
XIII The Licentiate Don John de Salzedo, of 33 years, Advocate in the council of the Court, and Alcalde of the Confraternity of the noble estate of the town of Torrelaguna, from when he enjoys the use of reason.
XIV Doctor Paul de Moncada, Cleric Presbyter, of 44 years, proper Rector and Curate of the Parochial church of S. Peter of Madrid, for 10 years from which he resides.
The 5th of October. XV Doctor Antony de Lima, Cleric Presbyter, The 5th of October. of 56 years, Chaplain of his Majesty, proper Rector and Curate of the parochial church of S. Genesius of Madrid, from when he enjoys the use of reason.
XVI Don Francis de Vargas, of 42 years, Knight of the habit of S. James, from when he enjoys the use of reason.
The 7th of October. XVII Maria Alvarez, native of the kingdom of Portugal, The 7th of October born more than a hundred and eight years ago, widow of the late Angelo de Barbaroto, for 40 years in which she resides at Madrid.
XVIII The most reverend Father Master Fr. Francis de Ribera, of 46 years, General of the whole Order of B. Mary de Mercede, for about 20 years.
XIX P. Master Fr. Alphonsus Ramon, Religious Priest Professed and Preacher general of the Order of B. Mary de Mercede, general Historian of the said Order, of 50 years, for 24 years.
XX John Preciado, of 70 years, a farmer, for 40 years.
XXI Don John de Lujan, of 38 years, Captain of the number of those who attend in the Court about the person of his Majesty, living from his revenues and stipends, for 30 years.
XXII George de Lima, of 65 years, Knight of the habit of Christ, for 50 years and more.
XXIII Peter Blanco, of 46 years, a farmer, from when he enjoys the use of reason.
XXIV The Licentiate Martin de Villaruel, Presbyter, of 72 years, proper Rector and Curate of the parochial church of S. James of Madrid, for more than 40 years.
The 9th of October. The 9th of October. XXV P. Fr. John Florido, of 44 years, Religious Priest professed of the Order of S. Francis, for more than 16 years.
XXVI The Licentiate Alphonsus de Ojo, Presbyter of 60 years, Chaplain in the parochial church de Torrelaguna, from when he was of the age of 8 or 10 years.
XXVII The Licentiate Bernard Gutierrez, Chaplain in the church of S. Sebastian of Salamanca, of 40 years, for more than 28 years.
XXVIII P. Fr. John de Si, of 48 years, Religious Priest professed of the Order of S. Dominic, who was Subprior of the said Order in the Convents of Cuenca and de Galisteo, for more than 30 years.
The 12th of October. XXIX P. Fr. Andrew de Ocaña, of 51 years, The 12th of October. Religious Priest professed Discalced of the Order of S. Francis, Guardian of the convent of S. Aegidius de Ocaña, who was Provincial of the province of S. Joseph, for many years, the number of which he does not precisely recall.
XXX P. Fr. Francis de Mosa, of 44 years, Religious Priest professed of the Order of S. Francis, Commissary of the Court and Procurator General of the said Order, who was Lector of Arts and in Theology, and Guardian of the convents de Pirito and Cifuentes, for 30 years.
XXXI The Licentiate Vincent de Ayala y Salazar, of 54 years, Cleric Presbyter and proper Curate of the Parochial church of B. Mary of the town de Hita of the diocese of Toledo, Visitor in that Archbishopric, and in the Bishoprics of Segovia, Cuenca and Avila, for more than 16 years and beyond.
XXXII Master Vincent Espinel, of 67 years, Chaplain of his Majesty in the royal Hospital of S. Barbara of the city de Ronda, and Chaplain of the Lord Bishop of Plasencia, for more than 40 years.
XXXIII P. Fr. John de Solana, of 47 years, Religious Priest professed of the Order of S. Francis, for more than 20 years.
XXXIV John Francis de Cabrera, of 65 years, Cleric Presbyter and proper Curate of the parochial church of S. Sebastian of Madrid, from when he enjoys the use of reason.
XXXV Alphonsus de Gongora, of 97 years, of the third habit of S. Francis, for more than 60 years.
XXXVI The Licentiate Garsigallo, Cleric Presbyter of 70 years, for 40 years.
XXXVII Gabriel Bernard de Quiros, of 36 years, Cleric of Minor Orders and Chaplain of his Majesty, from when he enjoys the use of reason.
The 14th of October. XXXVIII P. Master Fr. Raphael Diaz, of 49 years, Religious Professed Priest of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity, and Consultor of the holy Office of the Inquisition, Master in sacred Theology, who was Provincial of the Castilian province, and Reformer and Visitor general of the province of Andalusia, from when he enjoys the use of reason. and the 14th of October.
XXXIX Andrew de Urosa, of more than 60 years, Aedile of Madrid, from when his memory permits.
XL P. Fr. Peter de Cuebas, of 60 years, religious Priest professed of the Order of S. Francis, Vicar of the choir of the Convent de Torrelaguna, who was Vicar of the Convents de la Oliva and de Pinto: and resided at Torrelaguna for the space of more than 20 years.
[6] The depositions of all are signed to be sent to Rome. After all these heard, and no more than in the articles
it is set forth those setting forth; on the 16th day of October, the Procurator asked of the Lord Judges an authentic copy, to be transmitted to the Court: which they ordered to be transcribed, and transcribed to be collated; as transcribed and collated Francis Ortiz de Salcedo and Hilarius Zimbron Notaries attest, on the 29th of October, the Lord Judges subscribing, and ordering the Process closed and sealed to be consigned into the hands of the bearer to the Roman Court. All which in the Roman transcript fill seventy folios. But these being carried thither, In the year 1616 a Process was formed in particular, and (as appears from what follows) approved; by their authority a Process in particular was framed in the year 1616, many indications of which existed in the aforecited Collection, yet nowhere the copy itself: that we should not greatly desire it, the singular diligence of James Bleda effected, by which to his work on S. Isidore he subjoined a little tract excerpted from the Processes, on the Life and miracles of the handmaid of God Mary de la Cabeza, concluding it finally with these words: The last witness in these informations was P. Fr. Diego Garcia de Belvis, and concluded in 1617. appearing on the 9th of December on Friday of the year 1616, before D. Octavius Cajetan, Archbishop of Capua, Apostolic Legate and Collector general through the kingdoms of the Spains; there being present Doctor D. John de Avellaneda Manrique, Bishop of Sidonia, Judges remissorial. The same then came forth again in the year 1617, on the 29th of May, before the Apostolic Nuncio D. Martin de Lascano and Mondragon, and the aforesaid Bishop of Sidonia, who it is clear died after all the witnesses were heard; and according to his supplication, as Procurator in this cause, the Process itself was transcribed, proved and collated, by mandate of the aforesaid Lord Nuncio, and signed by Apostolic Notaries.
CHAPTER II.
On the life, virtues, elevation of the body and worship.
[7] Concerning the natal place of this handmaid of God opinions much vary, It is uncertain where she was born, some saying that she was from the town of Caraquiz, others making her a Madrilenian. Some also say that her country was the town of Torrelaguna, some Uceda, Talamanca, Buitrago or Canillejas: many also claim this honor for the town of Conveniens, because in it is found the family of the Cabezas. But all these opinions reports Fr. Dominic de Mendoza, who by commission of Camillus Cajetan the Apostolic Nuncio and Garcia de Loaysa Governor of Toledo for the Archbishop Albert, the Catholic Kings Philip II and III and their Council approving, visited all those places as a Judge, to collect informations concerning the life and miracles of these most holy spouses: whom the more common opinion holds joined in marriage at Madrid, where the one let out his labor to John de Vargas, the other served as a maid in another honorable family. Here moreover a son is thought to have been born to them, but at Madrid married to S. Isidore. of whom they relate, that the boy fell into a well and was suffocated: and when the father returning from the field had learned the matter from his sad wife, bending his knees together with her, and asking the divine help, he obtained, that the surface of the water rising up to the mouth of the well, restored the infant living and well to the parents. he sees his drowned little son restored to him; But this miracle is seen painted at Madrid in the church of S. Mary, and the well itself is shown in the house of D. John de Luxan a Knight of Madrid, sprung from the stock of John de Vargas, near the church of S. Andrew, in the square called the old Moreria, that is the street of the Moors.
[8] In the remissorial informations in order to the canonization of this handmaid of God, she visits the churches with her husband, many witnesses, not without foundation, affirmed, that she was her husband's companion in devotion toward Our Lady of Atocha, and likewise in the stations which she made before labor at early morning, visiting this heavenly sanctuary and the others in order around in circuit the hermitages, ending finally at Our Lady of Almudena, which is an image of ancient devotion in the major church of Madrid, and going about the other churches and parishes of the city. But as it is clear that S. Isidore kept the same tenor of life, when he stayed at Torrelaguna and Caraquiz, going about the churches and hermitages round about: but then dwelling alone in various places, that the handmaid of God did the same, especially when she dwelt solitary at Caraquiz, can be presumed so much the more certainly, the more express the memory is in those places, a quarter of a league or half or even a whole league apart. And the same custom she is said to have kept when she lived at Our Lady de Belvis, which is a hermitage on the bank of the Jarama of the district of Coveña, one league distant from that town, and one likewise from the town of Paracuellos, to which is adjacent the hermitage of Our Lady de Castello: likewise when she dwelt at Our Lady de Peñahora of the town of Humanes. For also in all these places her memory thrives.
[9] That she was a partaker and conscious of many of the marvels which God wrought concerning the Saint, she sees also the Angels plowing with her husband, becomes probable from this, that in the place where among the other miracles of the Saint, painted around his old tomb, he himself is expressed plowing the earth among Angels likewise plowing with him, beside his Lord, marveling at these things seen, there is seen painted his wife, carrying a basket in one hand, in the other a flagon of wine; as if to signify, that she carrying her husband's breakfast, was deemed worthy of the same vision of Angels. But that the holy spouses migrated from Madrid, to the farm called Caraquiz of the district of Uceda, under the Vicariate of Alcalá de Henares, and there stayed for some time, nay also possessed some small estate and little house; is clear from the perpetual tradition of that very place. For there are still shown little fields, which by the wife's right perhaps the Saint possessed, and which she after his and her son's death gave to her beloved hermitage of B. Mary; and a house turned into a church under the invocation of S. Isidore, where Mass is often said for farmers. Here they relate, that Isidore serving another Lord, when he coming up, and the crops multiplied by a miracle. and seeing here the wheat there the chaff separated into a heap, complained of the scarcity of the crops, said: Let not that distress you, the Lord will give more; and a winnowing-fan being taken he again winnowed the chaff, and a not small grain being gathered from it again, asked the Lord, that he would bestow on him what was over. But this granting, because he believed nothing was left over, a third time the wheat grew more copious than before. They add also concerning the fountain which the Saint drew forth for his thirsty Lord, and concerning the horse which he revived for the same: but that the substance of these miracles may be true, I would rather say the circumstance of the place is confused, than that I should double them. For as at Madrid a certain knowledge survives of the Lord whom he there had, none of any possession; so at Caraquiz this is distinctly shown, the Lord's name is unknown: whence the judges suppose he had only the one at Madrid, as he had that one only at Caraquiz.
[10] But while they stayed there, when Mary had made it her custom even oftener without her husband to go to the hermitage of the Virgin Mother of God, Having suffered a calumny with her husband which is opposite the place on the other bank of the Jarama, and to carry there daily oil and fire in a brand, for the lamp which she fed there: the malevolent thinking this her occasion, accused her to her husband, as though under pretext of devotion she veiled an incestuous intimacy, which she had with the shepherds on the rock de Ariaz, watching the cows on the bank of the river: nay even the demon himself, the person of one of them being assumed, she crossed the river dry-foot: tried to confirm the same accusation. But some of the witnesses in the Remissorial Informations say, that from a most ancient tradition it is had, that S. Isidore wishing to watch her, hid himself in some place about the river, whence he could see her but not in turn be seen: and that he saw that she finding the river so swollen from preceding rains that it could no longer be crossed by a ford, a mantle being cast over it, signing herself and the waters with the cross, crossed it dry-foot, as if she walked over ground evenly paved: by which miracle moved Isidore fell at her knees, fully certified of her innocence.
[11] Nor only this once they say it was done, but as often as it happened by some chance that the waters were unfordable or more turbid than usual, which often at other times which on account of the Lozoya running in there at that place sometimes so swell, that even to little boats, of which however none are there, they could seem dangerous; they say, I say, so often the handmaid of God crossed in the same manner, bearing a cruse of oil in one hand and in the other a kindled brand, which was not extinguished: and this noted by many oftener, made faith concerning by far many other times, in which and to God alone conscious it was done. But what some said happened, when she dwelt with her husband at Caraquiz, on the occasion of a calumny intended against her with him; that some say happened, when not only in bed (which perhaps was done from her first and only childbirth) but also in habitation they were separated, the husband by her consent having gone away to Madrid; and they bring in Isidore's Lord John Varga, asking of the Saint, why he wept? But this pretexting his sins, he replied, that he thought otherwise, namely that something sinister concerning his wife had been announced; let him go therefore and visit her. Wherefore he went: and when he drew near the nearer bank of the Jarama, Mary came from the other part: and God being invoked, to prove to her husband her innocence, she crossed the river dry-foot, although swollen: and with him went to the chapel of the Mother of God, to give thanks likewise to God. Thus far Bleda, who on account of that diversity of circumstances, as to time and bank, but they do not sufficiently prove: asserts the woman to have been twice accused, twice proved: perhaps the same better here about to say, what above concerning the miracles wrought by S. Isidore in favor of his Lord (in the circumstances of which the witnesses similarly varied) notwithstanding that variety, he had said; that the miracle as to substance seems a simple one. But as the aforenoted accusation could more easily fall upon her separated from her husband, so more conveniently to her later state will be attributed the miracle, the proof of which from antiquity is had no other than the simple, but most received tradition among all; confirmed by the images, in which that case was expressed, painted first in the old chest of the holy body and now in the new; likewise in the altar of the hermitage of S. Isidore at Caraquiz, and at Our Lady of Atocha and at Madrid, and also with the Kings Philip II and III, and several others.
[12] the husband being dead she dwells at Caraquiz: But that the pious wife stood by the dying Saint, and ministered to him the last things, John the Deacon makes credible, when he says, the Viaticum being taken he admonished the family as was fitting: for what family here would be understood rather, than the wife and son? She therefore also took care of the burial of the deceased,
and thence returned to Caraquiz fleeing the urban noise, and about to tend her beloved hermitage. But how long she survived, is not clear. But dead she was buried in the sacristy of the oft-mentioned hermitage, in that place, whence many again and again seek earth, effective by her merits for wondrous works of cures: and this very thing the square stone persuades, placed upon two marble columns, by which it is credible the sepulcher was once covered. her body is hidden there, But since that place was solitary, the people of Caraquiz fearing lest perchance this their treasure should be furtively carried off, the body being dug up again transferred the bones, and hid them under the very foundations of the sacred little building; except the Head, which under several keys they placed upon the altar, as of the Patroness of that place, and Advocate against pains of the head. And in this state those things lay hidden, until the year 1596: when the Convent of the Mother of God at Torrelaguna of the Franciscan Order, by the consent and mandate of the chief men of the Clergy and People, the Relic of the head being considered, and the radiated images and other proofs of ancient worship, committed her bones, as of one canonized by the old rite, to be searched for, to diggers hired for that matter.
[13] These began to labor about the old sepulcher, before Fr. Dominic de Mendoza, which in the year 1596 being sought the judge deputed for this matter and the chief author of its counsel, on the 10th of March: but because the earth was harder than that it could be broken through deep enough, with the instruments which had been brought; it was necessary to defer the work to another day. Therefore to Francis de las Cuevas Vergara a Notary passing the following night restless and anxious, upon his bed at Torrelaguna, and grieving that the Judge had been frustrated of his desire; it is found by her revelation, there appeared the handmaid of God, in that habit and figure in which the panel of the major altar of the oft-mentioned hermitage represents her: and taught that her body was to be found in the Sacristy of the same hermitage, there where more than four hundred years before it had been buried and given to oblivion. On the third day therefore after, the 13th of March and on Wednesday after the third Sunday of Lent, the work proceeded, there assisting Fr. Bernard de Frezneda Guardian of the Franciscans of Torrelaguna and other Religious, with the Praetors and Prefects of the neighboring places and a great multitude of both sexes: who all, as soon as the sepulcher was opened, both from it and from the bones found there perceived an utterly heavenly odor, which even now perseveres in them.
[14] The bones being found, as has been said, and with them the jaw also found, which was lacking to the head; and proved to agree with the head surgeons and physicians were at once called, by mandate of the Apostolic Judge, to consider each thing, whether truly all were of one and the same body. But these admired the ivory whiteness, and the succulence indicating the marrows reserved within: and fitting these to one another, and first applying the jaw to the head, which long since as has been said was kept on the altar, they pronounced that in these nothing was to be doubted. But it happened to the more certain proof of this truth, that on the eighth day after there came into the aforesaid Convent a certain religious, called Fr. Lewis de Oviedo: to whom when P. Fr. Francis de Tollemosa, afterward called Fr. Francis de Ribas, had related, with what diligence the bones of the handmaid of God had been sought, found, it is made more certain by a new vision. and approved; showing one of them, and how succulent it still was; and admonishing him, that he should have reverence for it; he himself denied he could believe, that this was a true relic of the handmaid of God, but seemed of another more recently dead. But not long was he left in this error: for on the following night there appeared to him waking a certain person, herself as it is permitted to presume B. Mary, who coming to his bed, struck a blow strong enough on his forehead, saying: These are the Relics of the handmaid of God Mary. He believed therefore that they were the same, and as such they were held by all. Yet the chief honor is paid to the holy head, which from time immemorial is exhibited by the Priests to the faithful wishing to kiss it, not without manifold fruit of graces related, and with the knowledge and toleration of the Prelates.
[15] To this end, every year on the day of S. Mark, from Valdepliegos comes a processional pomp; and the worship by annual pilgrimages and on the same day the village de Caraquiz gives an alms of bread, wine, and cheese to all willing to receive it, both rich and poor: for so it was established by a testamentary legacy by the elders, in honor of the handmaid of God Mary. Desire of rain urging, from various places often processions are led to the oft-mentioned hermitage, with the wished effect. Whence also sometimes even to Torrelaguna all the inhabitants of the surrounding villages carried in a general procession the holy Head, after for many months it had not rained; nor only did a copious shower then moisten the earth, but also all the sick who lay at Torrelaguna were healed. Wherefore, and especially because the said hermitage is solitary and without keepers, it is transferred to Torrelaguna in the year 1615. it was obtained from the Apostolic Nuncio and the most illustrious D. Cardinal Trejo, Protector for his Majesty, that it might be permitted to transfer both the head and the bones to the convent of the Mother of God at Torrelaguna: and this was committed to execution in the year 1615 by Master Alphonsus Franco Curate of S. Andrew, before the Notary Lazarus Sanchez in the month of October. Nevertheless the ancient honor endures at the Hermitage, where at the sepulcher of the handmaid of God no less than at Torrelaguna at her Relics are seen copious votive offerings and votive tablets hung up by those, who either at the simple invocation of the handmaid of God obtained the wished graces, or by dust taken from the place of her sepulture became possessed of their vows.
[16] as also the head always elevated on the altar, The antiquity of the worship, from nearly the same time at which S. Isidore began to be venerated, in the judgment of one of the witnesses proves the honorable sepulcher, once erected to Mary, with marble columns, which carved lilies adorn. But the chest containing the holy Head, was wont to stand in that place upon the altar, where otherwise would be placed the custody of the venerable Sacrament. That to be made the Cardinal Francis Ximenez Bishop of Toledo had let out, and on the interior part of the little doors closing it the holy spouses themselves to be painted with the epigraph, S. ISIDORE OF MADRID, S. Mary de la Cabeza. In a like manner one may find their images, adorned with a radiating diadem, in the chapel of Our Lady of Atocha, in the parish of S. Andrew in the hermitage of S. Isidore, in the hall of the public Council, and in the house which once the Apostolic Nuncios, but now the heirs of John de Vargas inhabit, where from the devotion of D. Catharina de Luxan, before them a burning lamp is perpetually fed. Such also the Kings Philip II and III themselves sent to the Pontiffs Clement VIII and Paul V, with the bulls of Indulgences once granted, when they asked their canonization: and in several other churches and hermitages similar ones are seen. Nay even in the time of Pope Sixtus IV, the Cardinals Alanus of Sabina, Philip of Porto, and Angelus of Praeneste Bishops, Francis likewise of the title of S. Eustace, and Baptist of the title of S. Mary in Porticu, granted great Indulgences to the hermitage of S. Mary de la Cabeza, by the sole regard of this handmaid of God: as also did Roderick de Borja of Valencia, Legate a Latere in the Kingdoms of Spain, afterward Pope Alexander VI: which bulls are still kept at Torrelaguna in the convent of the Franciscans.
[17] In the same hermitage from time immemorial there was erected a Confraternity of men of both sexes, and a Confraternity. whose constitutions and rules, hitherto accurately observed by the enrolled, are kept in the archive: and each year on the 8th day of September, on which the Mother of God is believed to have been born on earth and the handmaid of God Mary on the same to have died, the Confraters were wont to celebrate her feast there, from the very beginning of their institution: and the whole neighborhood then most devoutly hastened there. The Catholic Kings also in their privileges made honorable mention of her, by name Ferdinand and Isabella, offering many gifts there, and ordering images to be painted. But it is known that the most Serene Empress Mary, in regard of the same handmaid of God, sent a precious vestment for the images of the Virgin Mother of God and her Son: and in the assembly of the Estates of Leon and Castile two thousand ducats were decreed, to be spent on her canonization. The Dukes also del Infantado D. John Hurtado de Mendoza and D. Anne de Mendoza, furnished a larger chest, within which is contained an ivory little casket with the body of the Blessed herself: and added to it of red silk a beautiful pall with golden fringes. Similarly D. Agnes de Bobadilla, Countess de Chincho, another silken pall of flowery work and various color; and D. Ferdinand de Mendoza, brother of the aforenamed Duke, gave an ivory little casket of no small price with a lock, key, and gilded hinges: but the town of Torrelaguna at the beginning of the benefits received through the handmaid of God took care that her hermitage be restored, as today it is seen. Finally the aforesaid little casket is conserved within a very large chest of walnut, whose whole framework is gilded; but the keys are seven, of which one is kept with the Cardinal de Trejo, another with the Duke del Infantado, the third and fourth are in the power of the Provincial and Guardian of the Franciscans, the fifth and sixth at the discretion of the Justice and Magistracy at Torrelaguna, and of the Abbot and Clerical Chapter of the same town; the seventh finally is had in the hand of Garcia de Salzedo, Knight of the habit of S. James and Prefect of the Confraternity of Our Lady and blessed Mary de la Cabeza.
CHAPTER III.
The miraculous graces, attributed to the intercession of the wife of S. Isidore.
[18] It pleased moreover God, through the intercession of this his handmaid, Excerpted from 80 miracles they contain, to do more than eighty miracles, healing very many sick; some, because they had visited her sepulcher; others, because they had devoutly taken dust from it; others finally, because they had simply commended themselves to her; of which I shall relate some more authentic, and approved in the Apostolic informations.
[19] In the year 1597 D. Joanna de Castro, Countess de Puño-en-rostro, how they were cured, grieving in the head, for several days at Madrid laboring with pain of the eyes and head, came once to the convent of S. Thomas, and put her head into the chest, in which once had been placed the head of the Blessed; confident by that deed that she would obtain health; nor was she frustrated of her hope, and moreover perceived a sweet odor within the same chest. Catharina del Olmo, a woman in childbirth in peril, wife of Andrew Pascual, dwelling in the town of the territory of Segovia called Navalafuente, in the year 1596 labored in the birth of a dead infant, of which only one arm came forth. To her so in peril from midnight until the following day, at the time of solemn Mass there came to her Maria Fernandez, bringing some Relic from the sepulture of Mary: which when she placed on the belly of the woman in travail, the pains ceased; and without difficulty the corpse came forth, which was believed to bring death to the mother
would bring. Francis Salzedo, laboring with an abscess. born in a place of the diocese of Toledo, called Pesadilla, suffered an abscess under the armpit so troublesome, that his companions had to place him on a beast, devoid of all motion, yet desiring to go to the hermitage of B. Mary. But carried there, not without great fatigue, he anointed that abscess with the oil of the lamp burning there, his companions looking on and shuddering at the swelling so livid. This done he began to sleep so profoundly, that they believed him dead; and at length by the great effort of those drawing and plucking him roused; they find that the abscess had burst, and vanished, no trace of the former evil being left: and he began exulting to run about, and relate to all, how quickly he had been wholly healed.
[20] Maria de Calderon, wife of Lucas de Barrio, dwelling in a place of the same diocese, called Porqueriza; Likewise pain of the leg, suffered for two years a grave pain in one of her legs; which recurring each month, for four or five continuous days she was so tormented, that only with great difficulty and intolerable torment could she move herself from the place. The physicians judged it an inveterate sciatica, finding no remedy that was efficacious. On a certain day therefore afflicted more fiercely than usual, she ordered herself to be carried to the hermitage of S. Mary, and as soon as she placed the sick leg upon the sepulchral stone, an ulceration of the throat, she felt herself wholly healed. Catharina Garcia, widow of John Martinez of Torrelaguna, had her throat so ill-affected and internally ulcerated with more than one wound for some days, that being able neither to eat, nor but with difficulty to draw breath and utterly failing, she was abandoned by the physicians as about to die quickly. Which she perceiving, and finding no further hope in human things, turned to divine remedies, and applied a certain Relic of the Saint to her throat: and thereupon the wounds began to solidify, and within a few days she wholly recovered without other medicine. a double quartan, Maria de Prudenas of Torrelaguna, in the year 1596 through the month of August laboring with a double quartan and brought to the point of death; for nine continuous days took a little of the sepulchral earth steeped in water, and the fevers being dispelled recovered.
[21] Gaspar Vasquez Pernia of Manzanares, recovering from a tertian with which he had labored two whole months, went to Buitrago, and there relapsed into a most vehement fever, not without present peril of death, because all the counsels of the physicians were inefficacious. Seeing him set in this danger his mother Francisca Pernia, and a continual fever, sewed a little of the sepulchral earth into a silken cloth and hung it from her son's neck: who on the next day was found to be without fever, nor was he sick of this thereafter. Salvator Gutierrez de Haro, Notary and Scribe of the revenues coming from the tithes of the place of Buitrago, had a daughter Francisca, to whom continual fevers with a suffocating quinsy threatened near death. Finding no other remedy for her the mother, the wife of the witness himself, carried her daughter commended to S. Mary to her hermitage, and took care that there be applied to her head a Relic from the head of the Saint: and soon the pain ceased, and the fever never to return vanished. one about to drown is helped. Roch de Heredia, from the place called Talamanca, enrolled in the Confraternity of the same blessed handmaid of God, went once to the same hermitage, that he might be present at the festivity which the Confraters celebrated there each year on the eighth day of September, the Nativity of the Virgin Mother of God known to all Christians: but finding the river Jarama, which is wont to be crossed by a ford, more swollen and rapid than usual, he doubted whether it were expedient to attempt the crossing. Yet desire of the feast prevailing, having entered the water at the accustomed place of crossing, he felt the mule on which he was carried snatched away by the force of that torrent, nor could he escape being drowned. Therefore with eyes closed withdrawn into himself, he invoked her, who dry-foot had so often crossed there; and soon opening the same eyes, he found himself standing on the other bank, no part of his body wetted.
[22] There are cured pain of the head, Lewis Sanz, an inhabitant of the hermitage itself, was daily tormented with the pain of the head to which he was subject; wherefore he had made it his custom to enter the sacristy, and refresh himself with the odor, which most sweetly breathed from the sepulcher, having long since experienced this to be a certain remedy of the evil. Francisca Martin, and fevers, of Canencia, laboring two months with a quartan, her brother Alphonsus Martin pitying her gave his sister a little of the earth taken from the sepulcher; who drinking the same steeped in water, was forever freed from the fever. Diego del Castillo of Torrelaguna, was tormented with fever and pain of the head continually night and day, from the tenth year of his age until the sixteenth. Anxious therefore on account of the long duration of the disease his parents, persuade their son to commend himself heartily to the Saint, and lead him to her sepulture: where as soon as with his head he touched the head of S. Mary, he was freed from the fever and pain. Catalina de Jesu, devoted to God (the Spaniards call her a Beata), the cart in which she was carried overturning beneath her, from the weight of the chests lying upon her remained ill-affected in her whole body, a contraction of the limbs, especially in the legs and feet contracted: who commending herself to S. Isidore and his wife Mary, recovered the unencumbered use of her limbs.
[23] In the year 1612 tending to its end, Catharina Perez, wife of Nicholas Martinez, a washer of linen cloths, lay in bed with an ill-affected side: nor had the two famous physicians, one of whom was Doctor Alvarado, attempting to cure her for as many months, accomplished anything, though they had ordered a vein to be opened to her eight or nine times and applied very many remedies. Therefore they dismissed her, prescribing a certain diet to be kept in food, nothing else, because she seemed about to die from hour to hour. Her so destitute a certain surgeon undertook to cure, and perceived it was not pleurisy, an abscess in the side, but an abscess-like swelling; which he opened with a lancet, and drew out much matter, while meanwhile the sick woman commended herself to the handmaid of God: wherefore the surgeon ascribed the cure to a miracle, to whom I would not dare to give my vote; the matter however as I received it, so I have related. unclean thoughts, The Licentiate Alphonsus de Hoyo, Vicar of the Parish priest at Torrelaguna, in his youth suffering a troublesome conflict of thoughts, not so clean as his order and state required, with great devotion came to the hermitage: and Mass being said there he took of the sepulture of the Saint, supplicating that quiet might be restored to his soul, and the wished cleanness to his thoughts: which at once obtaining through her intercession, he attributed to a great miracle so sudden a change in himself.
[24] a mortal fever, Father Fr. John de Arias in the monastery of the Mother of God, of the Order of S. Francis, at Torrelaguna, brought by a continual fever and grave disease into peril of life, and fortified in time with the holy Viaticum, when he had understood from the physician of that place Doctor Escobar that he would certainly die; placed all hope in B. Mary; and his offices toward her, by which he had raised her bones from the earth and adorned her sepulcher with a vault drawn over it, affectionately commemorating; added, that if he should recover, the license of the Prelates of his Order being first had, he would thenceforth lead a solitary life in her hermitage after the manner of the Tertiaries of his Order. This vow being made, suffused with an unusual gladness of mind, he felt also that his body was much better: and within three days rose from his bed, three months after the finding of the holy body. But when the fame of this finding was carried to the town of Buitrago, it reached the ears of Diego de Cortavilla y Sanabria, an apothecary of Madrid, dwelling there with his father Philip for the exercise of his art, in the twenty-third year of age, and laboring with a most grave fever. But when this was feared to be turning into the spotted plague, he commended himself to the prayers of that Saint, whose Relics he vowed to visit, and to honor with some offering. It was evening when this was done: and soon he felt himself better, with no small solace of mind; but on the next day unharmed and healed, with the admiration of his parents and the physicians, he rose from his bed.
[25] torment of the teeth, D. Gregoria de Ismendi, wife of Francis Rodriguez de Salsedo, Procurator of the Royal Councils and citizen of Madrid, a little before the Court passed from Madrid to Valladolid, that is about the year 1599, for three continuous days suffered such torments of the molars, that she believed she would be removed from her right mind. At length destitute of remedy and counsel (for she had tried many things in vain) a Relic of the Saint received from elsewhere she applied to her cheek, reciting the Angelic salutation: and in a moment of time freed from the evil, which left no part of rest, she remained immune from the same thereafter for eighteen years; and therefore did not doubt, that so sudden and certain a cure was of a higher order than the natural. a carbuncle in the groin, Catharina de Baroana's husband John de Escalona a surgeon, from a carbuncle born on his right knee, had lain sick a whole two years in the year 1608, other surgeons and physicians attempting in vain to cure him, with great loss of family substance, exhausted by an expense of more than two thousand ducats. At length Doctor Roman opened the knee itself, even to the joint of the shin: but neither did this profit. Considering therefore the pious wife the greatness of the labors and expenses, prostrated herself on her knees before those images of the Saints which she had at home, imploring by name the holy handmaid of God, that together with S. Isidore she would deign to help her husband so afflicted. And when she did this oftener not without devout tears, a year after the aforesaid cutting being passed, persisting in the same supplication as was her custom; she heard a voice saying to her, Rise up woman, for your husband will soon be healed. She knew, that neither from her own nor from any neighboring house could a voice of this kind have come to her ears; accordingly certainly persuaded that it was from heaven, cheerful she went up to her husband's chamber; and bade him be of good cheer, and conceive confidence, from the merits of the Saints Isidore and Mary, revealing nothing of the voice which she had heard: but he beginning to be better, before the year from that day drawn flowed away, was made wholly healed.
[26] Anna de Rojas, much devoted to the aforesaid handmaid of God, a tertian fever, had a husband Francis Sanchez a barber of Madrid, very piously affected toward S. Isidore. When he in the year 1597 laboring with a continual fever, and fortified with the last sacraments lay abandoned by the physicians; it happened that at the very point at which death was awaited, there passed by his house one of those, who carrying about the image of S. Isidore are wont to gather alms, to be spent on his honor; to whom the sick man was wont to give it daily by vow, namely from that time, in which by a draught of his salutary water he had washed away a stubborn and troublesome tertian. The man therefore Anna calls, asks for the image and brings it to her husband, admonishing that, mindful of the former benefit, he should now also with conceived confidence toward the Saint place his image on the aching side; and soon she went out of the chamber, unable to contain her tears any longer. Then indeed remembering the grief and affliction which the Saint had, finding her only son drowned; she began through that very grief to supplicate, a continual one to the peril of death, that she who
was now a partaker of this woman's peril in her husband, might also be made, in his recovered health, a sharer of the joy, which she had drawn from the resuscitation of the aforesaid son; again and again invoking S. Toribia, for she then thought this to be her name, and so was wont to call her. Hence returning to visit her husband, she found him peacefully sleeping, under the image placed on that side, whence the proceeding pain had taken from the sick man all faculty of resting, the remedy of unctions and poultices availing nothing to bring it back. But waking he found himself sound and unharmed. That this was done by a miracle the Vicar of Madrid confirmed, and to both the holy spouses it seems able to be attributed, a health so unhoped and so solid; so that he who before was wont yearly to be sick mortally to the desperation of the physicians, thenceforth was always rightly well.
[27] pain of the breast, A little of the sepulcher of the Saint D. Francisca de Medina had devoutly received, and through it she obtained a twofold benefit. For the same applied to her breast soothed a grave cardiac pain, which permitted neither to rest nor to breathe without difficulty: then when she was tortured with so great a colic passion, a colic passion, that she believed herself not to be out of peril of death; applying the very earth to the aching part, within a quarter of an hour she rejoiced that she was freed. Nicholas de Medrano, a minister of his Majesty, returned to Madrid from the journey to Valencia, from the Royal nuptials celebrated in the year 1599, incurred a grave palsy disease, a palsy, which distorted his mouth and took away his hearing, accompanied by a continual fever. To this one P. Fr. Dominic de Mendoza brought the chest, in which the head of the handmaid of God had been kept; and the sick man devoutly inserted into it his head and arm, and testified that his mouth and hearing were restored to him at that very moment, speaking conveniently as before; his arm also he began to lift, and at length to be freed from all disease. Diego de Ledesma a standard-bearer, from Cervera de Aguilar of the diocese of Calahorra, erysipelas and quinsy, serving for pay under the Count de Lemos, in the year 1616 at the beginning of October touched by the spotted plague and at the same time by erysipelas, when to the former evils there had also come a quinsy, on the seventh day of the disease was fortified with the last rites, Doctor Cespedes so ordering. But seven days after, by the counsel of P. Fr. Dominic aforesaid, he commended himself to the holy pair of blessed spouses; and on the same day relieved not moderately, wholly within five days recovered.
[28] one about to drown is helped, Besides those already mentioned another witness related, how a certain woman of Lozoya, whom washing cloths the river more impetuous than usual had carried off to be drowned (which I believe to have been the Jarama), the handmaid of God being invoked was freed from the peril of death. Then Fr. Thomas de Peralta, of the Order of Preachers, said; when on a certain noontide he felt himself more burdened than usual with a catarrh, and another laboring with various diseases. which had remained with him as Confessor of the nuns of S. Catharine of Siena from the laborious holy functions of Holy Week; and a fever coming on the former evil, deprived of appetite for food and drink and very weak, he forced himself to eat something. But shortly after he had such colic pains, that finding no rest in bed or out of it, on account of the pressure he asked for Confession, as if at the point of death. On this occasion entering his cell a certain other Friar, admonished him to commend himself to S. Mary: which done he soon rose healed, giving great thanks to the Saint: for the same pains suffered often before, he had endured for several days, which now had scarcely lasted to an hour.