Witesindus

ON SAINT WITESINDUS,

MARTYR AT CORDOVA IN SPAIN.

A.D. 855.

Witesindus, Martyr at Cordova in Spain (S.)

G. H.

The holy Martyr Eulogius, crowned under the tyranny of the Moors, wrote a Memorial of the Saints, who in that same persecution confirmed the faith of Christ either by the constancy of confession or also by the shedding of blood, and in book 3 chapter 13 describes the martyrdom of SS. Amator, Peter and Louis, whom he asserts slain on the 11th Kalends of May in the Era 893, that is the year of Christ 855, as we said on their Acts April XXX. The history of the martyrdom, Then in chapter 14 he subjoins these things: At that time a certain Witesindus, a man already full of age, from the province of Cabra, who I know not on account of what persecution had long ago incurred a lapse from the holy faith; while he was being exhorted to the exercise of the lately received worship, denies that he remains infected with sacrilege of this kind: and that either by infirmity of the flesh, or by the circumvention of the devil he had committed the crime, with constant soul abjured and reprobated. At that moment when he confessed such things, with swift indignation he was slain in the Era as above, namely 893, or the year of Christ 855. But because the day of the martyrdom is not indicated, memory in the calendars April 30 Ferrarius in the General Catalogue

referred him with the preceding three Martyrs to the day also of April XXX in these words: At Cordova in Spain of S. Witesindus the Martyr, of Cabra: and adds from the tables of his Church: for in the general Tables of the Church of Cordova on this day is treated of S. Amator and also his companions. These things Ferrarius, so that he seems to indicate the tables of the Church of Cabra. He adds then that by Marieta the birthday is assigned to the X day of the same month of April. He treats here of him in book 2 on the Saints of Spain chapter 92, and expressly at the end asserts, that by Eulogius neither the month nor the day is indicated, as everywhere elsewhere is done. Martin de Roa in the book on the Saints of Cordova, and May 15. and Tamajus Salazar following him, refer to this XV of May S. Witesindus the Martyr, asserting that by the Romans this day was left to his feast, John del Pino instancing, a most pious Presbyter and conspicuous for devotion toward his Saints. For him and other Saints, whose cult because their names were lacking in the Roman Martyrology he grieved to be intermitted, exhibiting the authority of ancient Breviaries, of which one, says Roa writing in the year 1615, is with me, one hundred and twenty-four years older. Ambrose Morales, in the Commentary on this Life, asserts that ancient Egabrum, that very thing which now is Cabra, was a town, and formerly had a Bishop, and now affords the name and title of a County: that it is distant from Cordova thirty-six miles, or (as Marieta says) about twelve leagues. Thence therefore sprung S. Witesindus, at Cordova attained the palm of martyrdom.

ON S. NICHOLAS THE MYSTIC,

PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

A.D. 925.

Nicholas the Mystic, Patriarch of Constantinople (S.)

G. H.

[1] Of Leo the Wise or Philosopher the Emperor of Constantinople the Mystic had been S. Nicholas, that is, not only a Senator of his more secret council, but the eye or President of the Senate itself; and from this excellent Magistracy he was translated to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Memory in the MS. calendars of the Greeks, and at last full of days and merits migrated to Christ, on this XV of May: on which day the deposition of the holy, or τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις, Patriarch of Constantinople Nicholas is inscribed in the very ancient Synaxary of the Church of Constantinople, which is of the Clermont College of the Society of Jesus at Paris. Of the same Patriarch Nicholas the sacred memory on the same day is celebrated in the MS. Menaea of Milan of the Ambrosian library, marked with the letter O and number 148, and in one Menaea of the Duke of Savoy: but in the other it is referred to the following day XVI of May, as also in the Paris ones of Cardinal Mazarin. But on the day before or on the XIV day of May, in the MSS. of Dijon of Peter Francis Chifletius, S. Nicholas Patriarch of Constantinople is said to have rested in peace, and there is added this distich.

Ὁ Νικόλαος ἐκλιπὼν σκίαν βίου. Πρὸς ἄσκιον μετῆλθε φωτὸς χωρίον.

Nicholas leaving the shadow of the age, Was translated into the shadowless place of light.

[2] Among the wives, whom Leo the Wise successively married, the first was S. Theophano, Created Patriarch in the year 895. who is referred by the Greeks to the day XVI of December, the fourth was Zoë, whom in that dignity to have lived one year and eight months, Leo the Grammarian writes in the Chronography, calling this Zoë his aunt, so that no surer author of the notice asked concerning S. Nicholas can be had. S. Antony Cauleas the Patriarch therefore being dead, whose Acts we illustrated on the day XII of February, in his place Nicholas the Mystic of the Emperor was advanced in the year 895, whom believed to surpass others in wisdom and prudence Cedrenus says: but what then happened, Leo the Grammarian thus narrates on page 481. Taormina a city of Sicily was taken by the Africans, by the sloth or more truly the treason of Eustathius the Drungary of the fleet, and Caramalus, and also Michael Charactus, found there, very many of the Romans in that calamity being slain. Returned into the city by the Emperor and Patriarch reproved, and by Michael Charactus convicted of treason, they were condemned to death: but Nicholas the Patriarch interceding with the Emperor, For two guilty he obtains life: death was forgiven: and subjected only to stripes, their goods being confiscated, they were thrust among the monks. And on page 483, From Zoë, he says, his fourth wife Leo received a son Constantine, he baptizes Constantine the son of Leo the Emperor. who on the feast of the Lights by Nicholas the Patriarch in the great Church, the Emperor Alexander, the Patrician Samonas and all the Nobles receiving the boy from the font, was baptized … But that same Zoë the Emperor declared Augusta, whom on that account the Patriarch forbade the thresholds of the Church: so that thenceforth likewise by the right part of the Church, the wonted way being utterly left, even to the Mitatoricium he should pass through. Samonas then was advanced an Accubitor, because to every crime and depravity he afforded the Emperor a helping hand, and against the Church they began to meditate. he is sent into exile, For Nicholas the Patriarch being called to them on the first day of February, with prayers they insisted, that they be received into the Church. But when they could not bend him, from the public banquet, to which he had been called, cast out and led through the Bucoleon, and placed in a boat, they conveyed to Hieria: from which on foot to Galacrenes bedewed with much snow he came. In his place Euthymius the Syncellus a grave and most temperate man was substituted, whom they say by a divine revelation undertook that office. For the Emperor wished to set down a heresy and law, Cedrenus by which it should be lawful for a man to marry three or four wives, very many most learned men contributing aid to it. These things Leo treating of wives successively to be married, and Cedrenus consents, whose interpreter wrongly inserted "at the same time" three or four wives that it should be lawful to marry. Of that prohibition once brought forth consult the matrimonial questions of Matthew the monk, in book 8 of the first volume of Greco-Roman Law, and the things which Cardinal Baronius inserted into his Annals at the year nine hundred and one, where he alleges the constitution promulgated by this Emperor Leo, by which he prohibited a third marriage, that those contracting it should be punished with the penalty established by the sacred Canons. Meanwhile that same one, who sanctioned these things, after a third wife dead, still took a fourth. For which matter by Nicholas the Patriarch he was cast out of the Church, and all those tumults followed in his ejection and the substitution of Euthymius, that Church being divided with a schism, some adhering to Nicholas, but others to Euthymius. But how this fourfold marriage of Leo the Emperor in the succession of wives was, from the Preambles of Constantine Porphyrogenitus to the edict of union from book 2 of the Novels of Eastern Law he describes, and there it can be seen in volume 1 page 105. But let us rather hasten to the restoring of S. Nicholas to his See: to which leading us by the hand Leo the Grammarian relates writing thus.

[3] Leo being dead, Alexander reigning with Constantine, When the Emperor Leo, tossed by a grave disease, had designated as his successor his brother Alexander, and had besought that he should protect his son Constantine; he met his last day on the eleventh day of May: which day of death Cedrenus also assigns. The month of May only Zonaras indicates: but Curopalates Scylitzes says he departed life on the 11th of June. That year was nine hundred and eleven. Then, says Leo the Grammarian, Alexander reigned together with Constantine the son of Leo one year twenty-nine days: he is restored to his See. and a messenger being sent to Nicholas at Galacrenes, he deposed Euthymius the Patriarch, and restored Nicholas a second time. But Alexander held at Magnaura a Silentium, and celebrated a council, and summoned Euthymius from Agathus: and the same with Nicholas the Patriarch being bidden to sit, the assessors of the judgment were attentively occupied with his deposition, with disgrace plucking the venerable beard of the venerable and in all things admirable man, and inflicting other reproaches and injuries: which quietly and meekly the honorable and sacred man bore. After which at the house of Agathus having died, in his own monastery near Psamathium he was deposited… The Emperor Alexander foreseeing himself to die, With others he is constituted Procurator of the Emperor Constantine, Nicholas the Patriarch, and Stephen the Magister, and John the Magister Elada, and John the Rector, and Euthymius, and Basilitzes, and Gabrielopulus being instituted Procurators, to Constantine the son of Leo left the Empire… He therefore having attained the power of the Palace, Nicholas the Patriarch provided for the common affairs, and bore the care of the daily business of the kingdom…

[4] But in the month of August Simeon Prince of Bulgaria, an army being prepared against the Romans, with a grave multitude came to Constantinople; and a rampart from Blachernae to the gate called Chryse being drawn around, besieged the City: and elated on high by other hopes of his, promised that he would subdue it altogether with no labor. But the defenses of the walls being proved against him, and the security and garrison of the City, from the abundance of people and the engines, being beheld, deceived in hope, to the place called Hebdomum to offer treaties of peace he returned. The Procurators gladly accepting the offered peace, he is reverently received by Simeon Prince of Bulgaria, Simeon sent Theodore the Magister to treat of it. But Nicholas the Patriarch, Stephen and John the Magister, the Emperor being led with them, going even to Blachernae, brought the twin sons of Simeon into the City, who in the Palaces together with the Emperor banqueted. But to Nicholas the Patriarch approaching Simeon, Simeon himself bent his head. The Patriarch therefore about to pour forth a prayer over him, in place of a Diadem placed his own head-covering on his head. With immense and the greatest gifts therefore received Simeon and his sons returned to their native land, discordant among themselves on account of the conditions of the aforesaid peace…

[5] Constantine the Emperor declared all the power of the Empire recalled from his mother and translated to himself, he dwells in the Palace, and commanded Nicholas the Patriarch, and Stephen the Magister to be present with him in the Palace… The Emperor and Patriarch ordered John Garidas called to them to be Domestic of the Schools, fearing lest Phocas should fall into rebellion… But Nicetas the Patrician, the father-in-law of Romanus, having gone into the Palace, cast Nicholas the Patriarch thence… But in the fifth week of the sacred fasts, he is present at the nuptials of Constantine. in the month of April, the marriage-pledge of the nuptial contract of Helena the daughter of Romanus is delivered by Constantine the Emperor, and on the third weekday of Easter, called of Galilee, it is blessed, and with her with the nuptial garlands he is crowned by Nicholas the Patriarch: and then Romanus is declared father of the Emperor, and in place of Romanus Christopher his son is instituted Hetaeriarches… he crowns Romanus Lecapenus Emperor: But on the twenty-fourth of the month of September, with the dignity of Caesar; but on the seventeenth of the month of December, on the feast of the Forefathers of Christ the Lord, with the diadem of the Empire by Constantine the Emperor and Nicholas the Patriarch Romanus is adorned: then on the day of the holy Lights he crowns Theodora his wife. Soon on the seventeenth day of the month of May in the fifth Indiction Christopher the son of Romanus is proclaimed Emperor, and on the twentieth of the same month on the feast of holy Pentecost is crowned by Constantine: and these two alone in the solemn procession of the same day went through the city. Moreover in the month of July in the eighth Indiction, on the Lord's day, the concord of the whole Church was entered into by Romanus, all the Metropolitans and Clerics, who from the divided sides of Nicholas and Euthymius had stood with divided minds, returning to consent…

[6] But in the month of September in the second Indiction, Simeon Prince of Bulgaria, all his forces being led out against Constantinople, prepares an expedition. Thence Thrace and Macedonia he depopulates, scatters fires everywhere, again he goes to the Prince of the Bulgarians, overturns all things, and even to the trees cuts them down. Conveyed besides to Blachernae, he demanded that Nicholas the Patriarch and certain of the Nobles, that they might confer of peace, be sent to him. Hostages therefore being given on each part they met, first indeed Nicholas the Patriarch, then Michael the Patrician Stypiotes, and John the Mystic, who from the Emperor held the second place. And these indeed had a treaty of peace with Simeon: but Simeon sent them back: but he himself desired to see the Emperor, by many of his prudence, fortitude and skill being made more certain… then the Emperor being led to him The Emperor together with the Patriarch Nicholas going to Blachernae and the holy little shrine, stretched out his hands to prayers: then falling prone to the earth, he watered the sacred pavement with tears; beseeching the Mother of God free from stain, that she would soften the inflexible and rigid heart of the proud Simeon, and inspire the things that are of peace: and the sacred little chest, in which the venerable robe of the holy Mother of God is reposited, being opened, that being taken thence, from the faith in which toward the immaculate Mother of God he was powerful, like a helmet putting it around his head the Emperor, fortified with most firm arms, the fleet a companion of the way, with shields and arms adorned, to the appointed place with Simeon to treat went… he conciliates peace, Simeon leaping down from his horse approached the Emperor, and a greeting being given to each other, they moved the treaty of peace… Simeon wondering at the moderation and speeches of the Emperor with reverence, agreed that peace be composed. When therefore they had bidden farewell to one another, they were mutually separated…

[7] But on the twenty-fifth day of the month of December, Romanus girded his sons Stephen and Constantine with the crown of the Empire: but also the Patriarch tonsured Theophylactus his son a Cleric, and ordained him Subdeacon, and at last promoted him Syncellus, when before to the holy Entrance with the Subdeacons enrolled he had proceeded… he dies May 15 But on the fifteenth day of the month of May in the third Indiction Nicholas the Patriarch met death, after the second proclamation having possessed the throne thirteen years: and his body in the monastery of Galacrenes founded by him was deposited.

[8] Thus far Leo the Grammarian, a coeval author and an eye-witness in his Chronography, which by the Indictions wrongly defined some uncareful amanuensis disturbed. For as before on page 497 line 7 was read the nineteenth Indiction when only the ninth was to be placed, so in the now transcribed the same ninth Indiction is wrongly called the fifth, namely in the year 921, in which Christopher the son of Romanus Lecapenus on the XX day of May on the feast of Pentecost was crowned Emperor. In that year namely with the Cycle of the Moon 10, of the Sun 6, with the Dominical letter G, Easter was celebrated on the very Kalends of April, and the feast of Pentecost on the said XX of May. By the same error then the eighth Indiction for the tenth, the second for the eleventh, and the third for the thirteenth is noted, and so in the Continuator the IX Indiction to be read Combefis observes in the Notes. S. Nicholas therefore died on the XV of May of the year 925. in the year 925. But he was restored to his See by Alexander the Emperor, in the year 911 or the beginning of the following. For he reigned only one year and twenty-nine days: and so this second time S. Nicholas presided over the Church thirteen years. The same Nicholas was called the Elder, or the first of that name, with respect to those who afterward succeeded, and they were Nicholas Chrysoberges under Basil the son of Romanus Lecapenus after the year 980; and Nicholas the Grammarian, under Alexius Comnenus the elder in the XII century: but there is extant in volume 1 of Greco-Roman Law book 4 among the Synodal Sentences a Constitution under the title of Nicholas the Elder, that the Patriarchal letters be granted gratis to those asking them, as there on page 249 it can be read.

* The monastery of Galacrenes founded by himself.

* nay the ninth

* read X

* read XI

* read XIII

ON BLESSED DOROTHEUS,

HERMIT AT LUCCA IN ITALY.

Dorotheus 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.

ON S. ISIDORE THE HUSBANDMAN

AT MADRID IN CASTILE.

ABOUT 1130.

Isidore the husbandman, at Madrid in Castile (S.)

D. P.

[1] A short and only twenty-nine month Pontificate had Pope Gregory XV, but by many things for the common utility of the Church and the great commendation of the Catholic name done under him memorable. Among these was the canonization of five most famous Saints celebrated in the year 1622 on one and the same day XII of March, The Canonization performed March 12, 1622. when this Collect common to all the Pontiff first sang: O God who glorifyest those glorifying Thee and art honored in the honors of Thy Saints; grant propitiously that we who venerate the glorious merits of the Saints Isidore, Ignatius, Francis, Theresa and Philip, may feel their patronage with Thee. Of these Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus, is venerated on July XXXI; Theresa the Virgin, of the Brothers and Sisters of the Carmelite Order of the stricter observance the reformer and mistress, on October XV; Francis Xavier, of the Society of Jesus the Apostle of the Indies and Japan, on December III; but in this month of May on the day XXVI, Acts written in the year 1275, Philip Neri, Founder of the Congregation of the Oratory; and on the present day XV Isidore the Husbandman of Madrid: of whose veneration and worship whatever we could premise, is far more distinctly and copiously contained in those things, which preceding the said canonization we shall narrate, after the older Acts, which while the memory of many miracles was still recent a certain John Diaconus ordered to be written a little after the year 1261, and with a notable appendix augmented in the year 1275 or a little after.

[2] whose authentic copy of the year 1595 we exhibit, Of these the most ancient exemplar is now kept, with the very uncorrupted body of the Saint, within the same most precious ark: but an authentic exemplar, transumed by public Notaries in the year 1595, obtained the Most Excellent Lord Gaspar Ibanez de Segovia and Peralta Marquis de Mondejar and Agropoli, to the right of the higher rank of the Magnates of Spain, whom they call Grandes, in the year 1678 advanced; from whom we give the transmitted transcript, we illustrate it with Annotations: and we subjoin first Analecta from James Bleda, a learned man of the Order of Preachers, and of great authority also in the Palace, who embraced the Life and miracles of S. Isidore in two books in Spanish; with Analecta and more recent miracles from James Bleda. then more recent miracles, which the same James Bleda collected from authentic Processes and likewise gave in Spanish, from the same rendered into Latin we bring forth. Bleda wrote his work and gave it to be printed after the decreed, but not yet celebrated Canonization; and at its end he promises a second more copious edition, about to treat in it no doubt of the festive triumphs, exhibited at Rome and Madrid to the Saint now canonized; but it does not seem to have come forth into light. We certainly have hitherto seen nothing such, as neither anything of the miracles following the canonization; which yet, the honor of S. Isidore now being greater, many and great it is credible to have happened, not only at Madrid, but throughout all Spain. But if asked through letters we should at some time obtain them, a not a little ampler matter perhaps would exist for a supplement, than that which here in its proper place is set forth.

[3] Before Bleda, who inserted the context of John Diaconus into his work word for word rendered into Spanish; the same in the year 1560 in Spanish had published John Hurtado de Mendoza, Lord of Fresno de Torote, and about the same time the very thing with purer Latinity had given Peter de Quintana the Curate of Latanzon, The same Acts by others published in Latin and Spanish: who died in the year 1594. Succeeding these Master Alphonsus de Villegas, Chaplain of the Mozarabic Chapel of S. Mark in the Toledo church, the same who collected the work called Flos-Sanctorum, in the year 1592 caused to be printed a new translation of John Diaconus: which soon in the year 1599 with Spanish little verses Lope de Vega Carpio bound; but the Latin context, the miracles being omitted, into the Spanish Martyrology inserted John Tamayus de Salazar. Besides Melchior Ramirez de Leon, Apostolic Protonotary, others in Italian and German. from the Processes brought to Rome collected some history of the life and miracles in Italian about the time of the aforesaid canonization; which rendered into German by Master Peter Albertal a Presbyter, we have printed at Dillingen in the year 1629. These are they who treated the prenoted argument with a special work: the rest who tasted the same, in a long series notes James Bleda in book 1 chapter 2. But there acceded afterward several whose names to collect would be tedious. Yet not to be omitted is Lucius Marinaeus Siculus, more ancient than the rest, who to Charles V dedicated his Commentaries on Spanish affairs in the year 1517, and in book 2 treating of the city of Madrid; It has even now, he says, a foster-son, a most holy man, by name Isidore, who was a husbandman a most holy man, for whose merits and works God showed many miracles in his life and after death to good men: which we read in a great volume, that namely which at S. Andrew's we said to be had, under the name of John Diaconus.

[4] Who now on May 15, As to the day of the worship, that it should be fixed in the month

of May Paul V decreed in the year 1619, when before there was celebrated the yearly memory of the body first translated on the Sunday Quasimodo or in Albis, as is established from the ordinations of the Confraternities, gathered in his honor. formerly it was venerated on the Sunday in Albis, So in those which in the year 1557 Cardinal Siliceus Archbishop of Toledo confirmed, it is established in the second place, that the feast of S. Isidore, which occurs on the Sunday Quasimodo, when his body was elevated from the earth, the Chapter should celebrate with the Confraternity-brothers, who then shall be in the church of S. Andrew, or any other church or monastery, where such devotion shall be established: but in others, which Cardinal Quiroga approved in the year 1586, it is said in the ninth place, We ordain that on the Sunday Quasimodo every year there be made a most solemn feast, with Vespers and a sung Mass, as is the custom, in the church of S. Andrew, because on such a day the body of S. Isidore was drawn from the earth. But that this was so observed from the beginning, on the feast of the first Translation. persuades an article of a certain consultation of the Chapter and Clergy of Madrid, held in the year 1438, concerning the festivities of the immaculate Conception, of S. Sebastian and of S. Isidore, that the feasts of the said glorious Saints be better observed, and the devotion of the faithful increased; and there is added that they were so ordained, on the XX day of April in the year after the nativity of Christ 1438, when at Madrid in the church of S. Andrew they had met within the chapel, in which the body of S. Isidore is buried, to celebrate his feast. For in the said year, with the Cycle of the sun 19, of the moon 14, with the Dominical letter E, Easter was celebrated on the XIII of April, and so the aforesaid Sunday on the XX day of the same month.

[5] The place, in which his feast seems to be said on November 30, Moreover since from all the aforesaid Ordinations no notice of any other festivity to be celebrated to the Saint is had, it is wonderful what these mean, taken by the aforepraised Marquis from certain ordinations of the Confraternity-brothers and transmitted to us, these words: E los Majordomos, que escribano este año en que estamos del Señor de 1487 años, que empezo por el dia de Señor San Isidro, que es a 30 dias del mes de Noviembre del año 1487 años, otorgamos e conocemos. For these words rendered into Latin form this sense, The Majores-domus who are written this year, in which we are, of the Lord 1487, which is begun by the day of the Lord S. Isidore, which is the XXX day of the month of November of the year 1487, we indulge and recognize. I see here nothing but mere darkness. For that the year may be said to begin from the XX of November (for in those words the beginning of the year and the feast of S. Isidore seem to be composed on such a day) it must be supposed that the year begins in the ecclesiastical manner with the 1st Sunday of Advent. But that this may fall on the XXX of November, it requires the Dominical letter E, no doubt corrupted, but such was first in the year 1488, when Advent beginning on the XXX of November would have begun the ecclesiastical year 1489. As therefore he who at some time transcribed the said ordinations, erred by putting the numeral cipher 7 for 9, so he seems to have omitted some words, but disturbed the order and sense of others: which perhaps was this: E los Majordomos, que escribano este año en que estamos del Señor de 1489 años, que empezo a 30 dias del mes Noviembre, por el dia del Señor San Isidro, que es a 26 de April del año 1489 años, otorgamos e conocemos. For so here would be the sense: And the Majores-domus (for so were called the Rectors of the said Confraternity) who are written this, in which we are, year of the Lord 1489, begun from the XXX day of November; for the feast of S. Isidore, which is XXVI of April of the year 1489, we grant and recognize &c. For as in the Consultation of the year 1438 it was noted that the feast of S. Isidore had fallen on the XX of April, so for the year 1489, which was to have Easter on the XIX day of April, the feast was to be noted on the XXVI of the same month. But if also in November another feast had at some time been celebrated, it is credible that a more distinct memory of its usage would have been left to posterity.

[6] it is transferred to the recollections of the fictitious Julian, Meanwhile Jerome Roman de Higuera (who that he might at some time be recognized as the first author and forger of the fables under the names of Dexter, Maximus, Luitprand, Julian and Aulus Halus produced in this century, God permitted several of his MSS. to come into the hands of erudite men, and whom only the presumption of an injured mind can excuse from a most manifest otherwise imposture) Jerome, I say, de Higuera in his notes on Julian hitherto unpublished, in Spanish concerning S. Isidore speaks thus, His Life was written in a simple and little polished style by John Diaconus of the church of S. Andrew, about the year 1265 in the time of King Alfonso the Wise: and although he does not say at what time that Saint flourished, yet it is certainly gathered from Julian the Archpriest of S. Justa, that he lived and died, when the Archbishop of Toledo was Visitanus, in the year 973: and on the last day of November his festivity is celebrated. The Spanish words of the MSS. the aforepraised Marquis sent to us, the most skilful investigator of the Chimerical inventions of Jerome; of whose faith suspect to him lest they could doubt who oppose him on that name, opportunely such a thing read by himself attests Didacus Bleda, in book 1 chapter 28; where too credulous of Higuera he thus says: Julian the Archpriest of S. Justa of Toledo, who about the same time (when namely John Diaconus was writing) wrote his Recollection, speaking of S. Isidore, and that John Diaconus of S. Maria of Madrid wrote his life, says that his feast was celebrated on the last day of November, as Father Jerome de la Higuera relates. The same alleges from Higuera Jerome Quintana, in book 2 of the History of Madrid chapter 28: but the matter, he says, is very suspect to me, because Julian was contemporary with the Saint: and if indeed he survived him, yet to the day of the translation made forty years after the death, when Isidore first began to be venerated, he could not have attained.

[7] But let us see in this example, how true is what the most erudite Marquis in his Historical discourse for the Patronage of S. Fructuosus more briefly, then more at length in the first part of the Ecclesiastical Dissertations, Dissertation 3 chapter 4, which afterward it pleased the author to call a Chronicle, demonstrates, that Higuera so compiled his fictions, that before they after the author's death became public juris by the press, he very much in them successively changed, added, detracted, according as communicating his papers piecemeal with various ones, he approved or disapproved their opinions or objections. For the last and now perfect MSS. under the name of Julian Peter, to the Library of the Count de Olivares were brought, as a treasure of the rarest price, and thence in the year 1628 printed at Paris we have (which edition Bleda could not have seen) but they thus have it in the Chronicle number 512 at the year 973. This year there dies at Magerit, into which is now inserted the mention of S. Isidore as dead in the year 973, which by some is falsely called Mantua of the Carpetani, Isidore the Husbandman, a pious man and fervent in charity, on the 28th of November, living and dead most famous for many miracles, and famous in all Spain. Namely that which in the writings which Bleda saw bore the title of Recollection, afterward it seemed good to Higuera to call a Chronicle: because a Collection of various Verses was to be called another figment, printed before the Chronicle. That Magerit for Majorito, it can be believed must rather be attributed to the error of the Parisian typesetters or to the imperfection of the autograph than to the author, as also that the day 28 for 30 crept in. Why John, who in one MS. was called Diaconus of S. Andrew, in another is called Diaconus of S. Maria of Madrid, I know not what cause he had: unless the fatuity of the author now known to many. But why of the same no mention is now made in the printed, I clearly see. It was determined by Higuera to end the Chronicle of his Pseudo-Julian with the Imperial (if it please the Heavens) coronation of Alfonso, namely the VIII the son of Urraca, performed by the authority of Pope Anastasius, the fourth and last of which name scarcely a year and a half sat, dead at the end of the year 1154; at which time he wished his Julian to be conceived very old, as he who from Alfonso VI, by a like license of fiction also crowned Emperor, feigns himself sent to Rome, in the year 1086, with Bernard the Archbishop of Toledo the Patriarch of the Spains, and from the mouth of the Pope then to have heard, that always from Apostolic times the Archbishop of Toledo had been Patriarch.

[8] But these things being set down, the name and memory of John Diaconus had to be expunged, whom from the very text of the miracles described by him it was established to have written under the year 1275; so that in that MS. of Higuera which the Marquis alleges it must be reckoned that for 1275 there crept in 1265 by a memorial error of the author or of the transcriber. Sufficiently prudently also for a fatuous one Higuera took care, lest in the death of S. Isidore he should mention the Archbishop Visitanus: inasmuch as he in the last reformed Chronicle reforming likewise the Chronology of the Archbishops of Toledo forged by himself before, had taken Visitanus from the living in the year 945. and of the Archbishop Visitanus. Forged I said, because from the year 715, for three hundred sixty-nine years Toledo was in the power of the Moors, Mariana being witness; and in the year first 1086, after the city was received by the Christians a second time, the hope of choosing a new Prelate was attempted, which in so great a perturbation of affairs and so great darkness for some ages had been intermitted; as the same Mariana writes in book 9 chapter 17. As many therefore as from Urban, under whom the city had been taken, to Bernard, the same being received ordained, are named Bishops in Tamayus de Salazar on the day XXV of October, unknown to all antiquity, in number thirty-two, flowed forth from the brain of Higuera dreaming, and among them the above-named Visitanus: as also so many Emperors of Spain, who after the manner of the Roman or German Emperors, with a triple crown were endowed, the first iron at Toledo, the second silver at León in the temple of S. Isidore the Doctor of the Spains; the third gold at Compostela in the church of S. James. O how deservedly to this Chronicle of Pseudo-Julian can be applied, what from the mouth of Tamajus the truth expressed of another work of like figment, on April 3: we see in these Adversaria of Julian so many ineptitudes of glosses that we should rather be compelled to swallow iron than those. Meanwhile a few being rejected, with the rest he fills his Martyrology, and even today has many followers: whom permitted to be insane with the insane, I say, by no verisimilitude is the Saint feigned dead in the year 973; whence neither was anyone found, who in this would follow Pseudo-Julian, although the day XXX of November taken from him, some have thought not to be rejected.

[9] Among the other towns moreover which Toledo being taken, and the Moors by that fall struck, were added under the dominion of the Christians, the same Mariana numbers Madrid, having obtained much more certain monuments for

weaving the History, than the figments which by the followers of Higuera are obtruded. Hence concerning the age of S. Isidore, But the Saint seems to have died who, the Christian cause being pacified entirely, flourished, a more verisimilar argument can be sought. For since from John Diaconus it is established, that the sanctity of the dead first began to be illustrated by miracles in the fortieth year from death; and the same John of those miracles says, that many indeed at divers times and in divers manners in several persons were shown but which through the fault of negligence are not written; it is sufficiently given to understand, that from the death of the holy man to the Era 1270, or the year of Christ 1232 (when the first was done of those miracles, which as performed in his times the same John ordered to be written) two whole centuries could scarcely have flowed, nor yet much less than one century is required. about the year 1130, Translated about 1170 Accordingly he does not seem far to wander from the truth, who should say the Saint was dug up, in that year in which by others he is set down dead, the year 1170, and so departed from the living about the year of Christ 1130. For the Relation of Cardinal de Monte, which forty years later places that death before Gregory XV, from the judgment of those who informed the cause; follows the less verisimilar opinion of those esteeming that the very Translation of the saint happened almost in the age of John Diaconus: which certainly from his writings is not gathered. Nay rather from the first 13 numbers, in which the Life and translation is contained, it appears, that he received such things from the tradition of the elders alone, but not from the mouth of older ones, who themselves either knew the Saint living or at least were present at the Translation of the dead: otherwise with no less accuracy in those he would have noted the Era, than he noted in the miracles almost each one. For who would believe that the true notice of the time within the twenty years, which from the Translation to the first miracle had flowed, could so be deleted from the memory of men, that a writer by no means negligent of the times to be noted, could by no means learn, in what year precisely the Translation was made: and hence to defining the proper year of the death ascend? The further also from the age of John thou removest the year of the said death, so much the less wilt thou wonder that the true day of it was given to oblivion, the Sunday in Albis. nor could be known or written by John: who not even the day of the glorious Translation by investigating found; of which to us nothing else now remains, than the conjecture that it was the Sunday Quasimodo, since on it the yearly feast of S. Isidore was wont to be renewed, as above we saw.

[10] John de Marieta, in book 6 on the Saints of Spain at the beginning of Chapter 26, notes in the Margin the day IV of April; and in this had soon as follower Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of the Saints. Why others the fourth But what in this Marieta could have followed I do not see. Not certainly the year in which he was writing, which was 1592: for from the year 1540 to the year 1655 it never happened that that Sunday fell on the IV of April. Much less could I divine how Friar John Ortiz, and the 1st of April in his Flos-Sanctorum could write, that the sermon concerning the Saint placed there he preached on the 1st of April of the year 1571: for in that year Easter was celebrated on the XXIX day of March, and so the Sunday Quasimodo falls on the V, not I, of April. But after that on the XV day of May to venerate this Saint, even before he was canonized, the Pontiff Paul V indulged, and this day all Spain keeps festive, I cannot conceive, what cause induced the recognizers of the Roman Martyrology under Urban VIII in the year 1630, or even noted the 10th of May, does not appear. that on May X they should prescribe these things to be read At Madrid of S. Isidore the Husbandman, whom famous for Miracles Gregory XV, together with the Saints Ignatius, Francis, Theresa and Philip referred into the number of the Saints. At Madrid certainly this Saint is venerated as in all Spain on the day XV, as is established from the order of reciting the divine Office, wont to be printed yearly, such as we have printed at Madrid for the year 1647 and at Seville for the year 1656. But his feast is venerated at Seville and Madrid as a double of May, with an Octave, and it is prescribed in the Martyrology that his name be placed in the first place. Meanwhile the error which at Rome once crept in, was continued in the new edition of the year 1674, by command of Clement X cared for: which it will be enough here to have admonished those to whom that matter pertains.

ACTS

By the Author John Diaconus from a MS.

AN AUTHENTIC ATTESTATION

Of the style, antiquity, and form of the original Codex.

Isidore the husbandman, at Madrid in Castile (S.)

BHL Number: 4494

BY JOHN DIACONUS FROM A MS.

[1] Of the life and miracles of B. Isidore, of Mantua of the Carpetani, the work of John Diaconus, which back from old times laid up is kept in the Sacristy ^a of the famous Parish of Saint Andrew of the same town, written in most ancient ^b characters. The author a witness from sight of several things. The author lived about the years 1232 and 1275, who attests of those things, in which either he himself was present, or from those who were present he commemorates ^c himself to have heard. The style is simple, candid, pure, and which bears truth itself before it. The series of things to the most ancient traditions of this town of Madrid, to the testimonies of other writers, to inscriptions and old images, in which the deeds and miracles of this most holy man are expressed, wonderfully corresponds. and most worthy of faith. The Ecclesiastical hymns, and canticles, with which the holy man at that time was celebrated, it contains. All which and the very progress of things openly show the notable piety and undoubted faith of the author, and that to his history the light of truth assists. I Antonius Vazquez Romay, Apostolic Protonotary, and vicegerent of the proper Parish priest Doctor Jerome Lupus Lassus in the Parish of Saint Andrew, attest, and to all make faith, that the things which above are contained are true: in faith of which matter I have subscribed myself, and fortified with my own sign, and with my own hand and my seal corroborated.

[2] To these things I myself attest, that the said most ancient ^d manuscript Book, with its proper chant, with little rods and points regulated, A Codex exceedingly ancient: for the use and property of divine worship, in singing the praises of the Lord and of the Divine Isidore, with these proper hymns in this parchment quaternion with the very antiquity preserved, and with great custody enclosed in the archive of that church, is so there written on twenty-eight folios, but on fifty-two pages, and on two other folios which remain on one face. Two other pages are written in another form, letter, and hand differing, at the time and on the occasion of a certain visitation of the body of that Saint, and of another procession of the same in this town. All which as truthful are received by all. To those desiring the wonderful acts and history of this blessed man, and to the Codex itself, as containing truth, faith is given ^e. The original Book itself (as appears in its letters, capital and majuscule) both in the discourse of the history itself, and in the punctuation of the Ecclesiastical hymns, is extended through sixty-seven divisions, on the first face moderate pages in another hand, letter, and form, distinct from the original book itself, ^f are written. All which with a most ancient parchment cover, the very folios patched, and sewn are seen, after the manner of a Codex, enclosed by a certain little cord and a little thong of leather, con un boton (as is commonly said) as follows.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER I.

A holy life, and proved by miracles; the alms of the living.

[3] At ^a Majoritum the memory of Blessed Isidore, of Jesus Christ our Lord the most glorious Confessor, who though he was a simple husbandman, Frequent in prayer and the temples seemed devout to God and amiable to men, and not negligent nay diligent an imitator of the holy Scriptures, did not prefer temporal things to spiritual, but spiritual things to temporal. For every day, as by the relation of good men we have learned, in the early morning, the husbandry being postponed, of the holy churches of God to pray very many thresholds he visited: and in a wonderful manner for a great part of the day insisting on prayers, and strenuously laboring, his neighbors giving labor by their exercises, last but untiring handling the due work, with the Lord helping he surpassed the help of others, commemorating that which the Apostle says; Labor with your hands, that thence ye may be able to relieve the want of the needy: and elsewhere ^b, Always do something of work, that the devil may find thee occupied. Eph. 4, 28 For so kindled by the grace of charity he burned with divine love, he also feeds the hungry doves, that not only to men, although he was not rich, as having nothing and possessing all things, but to birds laboring with hunger and cold (as he could) he set forth food.

Whence it happened on a certain day in the winter time, the earth covered with snows, when he went to the mill to grind wheat, a ^c little son accompanying him, and beholding a multitude of doves sitting on the branches of trees; and understanding those same birds long tortured by the peril of hunger, moved with mercy toward them, with feet and hands sweeping the earth, of the same wheat, which he had prepared for his own necessity, set forth abundantly to those birds. the wheat by a miracle increased. Which seeing a certain companion of his, taking it ill, mocking Blessed Isidore, reckoned him as it were foolish for the loss of the wheat. But coming to the mill no diminution of the wheat was found in his sack; nay what is wonderful, the flour so increased, that it filled the little bundles of both, which before were as it were half, more abundantly.

[4] The second therefore and chief among the rest, which through the man of God Isidore the divine providence deigned to work, is by no means worthy to be omitted. For when by the judgment of divine providence, according to that which was said to the first parent of the human race; In labor of hands and sweat of countenance with thy bread thou shalt feed, in himself justly he rectified, leading life not otherwise, since from the labor of his hands to seek his food he preferred. Gen. 3, 19 Whence made obedient in the first parent to the Lord's command, of a certain Knight of the people of Madrid he was made under a yearly wage a humble tenant. Therefore when under this state, placed in the country near the town, he led his life with labor married; he rendered to God the things which were God's, and brotherly things to his neighbors which he owed. But certain of the neighbors in the country suggested concerning him to the Knight whose inheritance under a notorious wage he labored, accusing him thus: Venerable Lord, we so truly profess ourselves to be your acquaintances and subjects, that what we see and recognize to redound to your derogation, to your profit we will not be silent. Know for certain that the Lord ^d that Isidore, whom in your country to work your estates under a yearly wage you chose, the due work of husbandry being left, rising in the early dawn, from a purpose of pilgrimage goes to visit all the Churches of Madrid under the title of prayer. Whence because by the progress of the day he returns late to work, he scarcely fulfills half the due of his labor. Whence for this have us not henceforth as malevolent or hateful, since openly we have suggested what was useful, and about to profit your house.

[5] These things heard, the Knight was troubled in mind; and the next day going moved with anger, because he knew that to be true which had been suggested to him, he offers to make good the damage from his own: coming to the blessed man, he insolently mocked him. But blessed Isidore, in the patience of Christ now taught, answered words modestly of this kind: O dearest venerable one, under whose patronage I am set, I faithfully open to you, that from the King of Kings, and the flock of Saints, and their service, I neither will nor am able in any way to be separated: but if for the lateness of the beginning of my labor you fear the due abundance to be lessened in the fruits of the harvests, according to the judgment of the neighbors the lessening found it pleases me from my own to restore in full. Whence I beseech your probity, that in this that I satisfy myself according to the Lord's service, and to your utility do not derogate, you by no means take it gravely. These words heard, the upright Knight modestly, with a recommendation of his grace, yet somewhat doubtful of the things heard, returned to his own house. But because the man of God Isidore had built his house upon a firm rock, by all incursions of cares or threats unshaken, from the use of the custom, which about the churches of God by praying he assiduously frequented, he ceased not instantly further to exercise, with all his heart and all his mind by memory recalling the word of God: First seek the word of God, and necessary things shall not be lacking to you. But the aforesaid Knight, to whose command he was subject, thinking again to try the deed of the man of God, on a certain day rising in the early morning, and caught by him, and going on the way within a certain cave hid himself, that with the proper vision of his own eyes he might behold the deed of the man of God. Who when he beheld the servant of God return later from the wonted pilgrimage, and imputed it as if negligently he put his hand to the plough, he looked and grieved. Whence moved in mind he began to go away, that with him upon this he might dispute more sharply.

[6] But because according to the prophetic word, Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counsellor? on the way going the aforesaid knight with irritated heart against the servant of God, the divine power disposing, he saw suddenly in the same field under the office of husbandry two yokes of oxen, besides his own, beside the man of God plowing together and white in color, promptly and firmly to labor. Is. 40, 13 By which vision admonished and wondering, he stopped from the progress of the way, greatly amazed, and wondering thinking again what this might be. he seems to use Angels as helpers: Yet now foreknowing that the man of God had no human help, compelled he believed, that to the laboring man of God divine help was not lacking. Rejoicing therefore and wondering, while he approached that he might recognize, and that approaching he might inquire what this might be; turning his eyes for a moment to another part, and bringing them back to the cultivation of his field, he beheld no other but only the man of God Isidore alone laboring. Upon which prodigy, his heart thinking various things, at last returning to the prudence of his senses, a word of salutation being given, the Knight asked modestly enough the man of God Isidore, in this manner: I beg thee, dearest, by God, whom thou faithfully servest, that thou cease not to declare to me, in thy husbandry, who were a little before thy companion helpers? For I saw with thee certain others helping thee and laboring together, but from my sight suddenly in the twinkling of an eye they slipped away. Then the just man of God, well conscious to himself, simply thus answered: Before the sight of God, whom according to my power I serve, I faithfully open to you, that in this husbandry, I neither called nor saw any helpers, but only God; whom I invoke and implore, and always have as helper. Then that Knight compunct in heart upon these things which he had seen, and heavenly illustrated, recognized, the divine grace to cleave about the servant of God. Whence at his departure last he said to him: Whatever was said to me by flatterers or whisperers I make light of, for henceforth whatever in this ^e country I possess I constitute under thy power, and also whatever is to be done freely to thy judgment I leave; and then farewell being made returning to his house, what had befallen him to many fellow-citizens he made known. Whence among other things this miracle even unto this day is more closely impressed on the memory of many. Likewise it happened on a certain feast day in the summer time, he praying a wolf is killed. that the man of God according to his custom after the ninth hour went to the church of S. Mary Magdalene, with devotion of pouring forth prayers to the Lord: in which prayer when devout he persisted, there came upon him boys quickly announcing to him a rumor of this kind: Arise, father Isidore, and run as quickly as possible, because behold a fierce wolf pursues such a little beast of yours, and wearies it, before it brings upon it the injury of death. Then indeed the man of God answered them: Go in peace, sons, the will of the Lord be done. But the prayer finished, going out to see, what by the announced chance had befallen him; he found the savage wolf dead, and beside it, his animal without injury freed: wherefore divinely consoled he immediately ran back to the church of S. Mary Magdalene, to give thanks to the Lord, who by His mercy saves men and beasts.

[7] Likewise because, as he had received the document of the just man Tobias, admonishing his son, and saying, If much shall be to thee, abundantly bestow, but if little, study willingly to impart, with the bowels of true mercy ever abounding, At the command of one wishing to give alms, he never according to his power desisted from alms. Tob. 4, 9 Whence it happened on a certain sabbath day, that when from the dish of his kitchen, according to his manner, he had now made a pious alms to some needy ones; there came suddenly a certain miserable person, asking from him some alms to be given to him. But because he had nothing before his hands, led by too great piety, he said to his wife simply: I beg thee by God, dearest wife, that if anything of pottage remains, thou impart an alms to this poor one. But she, the empty vessel is found full, conscious that nothing remained over, went to show him, the kitchen jar to be empty. But by the most pious nod of God willing to satisfy the desire of the pious servant, she found that same jar full of pottage. Which when she had seen, suddenly such a wonderful thing, made amazed, she was silent for a moment: but cheered by so evident a miracle, conscious of the divine benefit, gratefully and abundantly to the needy one she ministered victuals, and to intimate it to her husband she feared, knowing that he had spurned vainglory. But because those fervent with the Spirit of God in those things which are of God it does not become to restrain the tongue, she would not, because it was not fitting, to neighbors and other suitable persons, as the Lord had shown, to narrate. And this, as by faithful witnesses it was narrated to us, we have judged worthy to be ascribed.

[8] Likewise the divine providence disposing it happened assuredly, that (as is wonted in divers parts of the lands) he was a Confraternity-brother, and in the number of a certain Confraternity and when on the appointed day all should establish to celebrate a common dinner, the man of God called Isidore, as he was wont, by devout prayer going to the churches makes a long delay, whence the banquet being finished he came: yet certain poor, whom he had found at the door of the house of the celebrated banquet awaiting alms, he mercifully brought in with him. Which seeing certain of his Confraternity-brothers brought forth a word of this kind: Good man of God, it is wonderful concerning thee, that thou bringest those poor with thee, since there is not anything remaining over, but only the portion reserved for thee. and the poor being again led to the banquet food is supplied. Which word the man of God bearing with patience, thus answered: From the part of God what has been given to us among us alike we will divide. Then the servants of the table going to the jar, that they might bring to him the reserved portion; the same they found full of the pottage of flesh-meats fully. Which when they saw the prodigy suddenly done, wonderfully astonished, for a moment of time they were silent; and reserving the proclamation for an opportune time, with cheerfulness and joy, both to the man of God and to the poor brought in, to sufficiency the desired dishes they ministered. So far also the dishes sufficed, that to other poor of the remainder they offered; the prophecy being fulfilled which faithfully sings, Those seeking the Lord shall not be lacking in any good. Ps. 33, 14 But the banquet finished, the man of God his hands raised to heaven, blessed the name of the Lord, not omitting a commemoration for the benefactors: and then bidding farewell to those reclining, to the neighboring church of B. Mary Magdalene he hastened, to offer to the Lord with the greatest devotion

copious thanks, whose gift He had now prepared for him, in his necessities at an opportune time mercifully to have succored. All those who had been present at home, both the Confraternity-brothers and the other servants, the wrought miracle done so suddenly most evidently recognizing, compunct in heart, and praising together the name of the Lord, believed the man of God to be the true servant of God. Whence by the true miracle of the man of God being confirmed, not only through the country but also through the town, to many men and many women, what had happened they faithfully narrated; that many might be witnesses, many be praisers of God, who raises up the needy from the dust, and from the dunghill lifts the poor, that he may sit with princes, and hold the throne of glory. Which in this true servant of God, not only spiritually, but also corporeally we recognize to be fulfilled; whose glorious little body in the church of S. Andrew the Apostle, among the glorious chief Apostles placed today rests, holding a beautiful seat of human glory; and in heaven rewarded with a seat of glory, with all the saints perpetually glories.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER II.

The death, elevation, miracles that followed.

[9] He therefore since he was powerful in good morals, having lawfully a wife and a son, Piously dead, a good disposer of his house, as is fitting, leading a laudable life, a more laudable end the Lord granting, he merited to obtain. But when the time came that the Lord Jesus Christ, the just judge, had most piously decreed to reward his assiduous labors, he fell into a little bed; and when he now perceived the last day of the present life to threaten him, the Viaticum being taken, attesting his temporal goods, although brief, admonishing his household in the Lord, as was fitting, and his breast being struck, his hands joined, his eyes closed, to his Maker, his Redeemer, to whom he had wholly vowed himself, consigned, with the talent of a doubled gift, he breathed out a humble spirit in Christ, about to receive the reward of his labors in the land of the living from Christ the Lord perennially. To which man most beautifully is fitted that which in the book of Wisdom, of the person of the just man, with an excellent praise of this kind is prenoted: The Lord led the just one by right ways, and showed him the kingdom of God, and gave him the knowledge of the Saints; honored him in labors, and completed his labors. Wis. 10, 9 But he was buried in the ^a Cemetery of B. Andrew the Apostle, after a humble burial of 40 years, from whose church, in the time of his assiduous pilgrimage and his prayer from the town last going forth to his labor, he withdrew. Where his body for many times lay, that is, forty years, as if visited by no man: and so it lay hidden for so great a time, that in the time of rains, a little stream of water overflowing, breaking through the face of the earth, entered the pit of the burial. But the merciful Lord, who is the guardian of His elect day and night, saying in the Gospel, A hair of your head shall not perish; suffered not, of His faithful servant a hair nor any member to perish. Luke 21. 18

[10] By divine mercy it then happened, that to a certain godfather of his dwelling at the aforesaid church by night he appeared, and a twin vision concerning the body to be elevated, admonishing and enjoining, that he should indicate to the parochial men of that church, that his body from the aforesaid burial ought, the Lord commanding, to be elevated; and in the church of B. Andrew the aforesaid Apostle honorifically placed. But that godfather of his, remembering the times of his humility, and being of good faith, doubtful refused to make known the admonition which he had seen; for which cause he was struck with infirmity even unto the day of his translation. But the Lord disposing he appeared a second time to a certain matron of good faith, by night through a vision admonishing, as was said, that he ought by the people into the aforesaid church to be translated. Which when the aforesaid matron of good faith indicated to the people, because his just and honest life some had recognized or some had heard, all unanimously dug up more diligently the burial of the man of God. Whom when they found entire and unhurt, and his coverings sound and entire, having a sweet odor of incense, to the magnificent Lord, he is found incorrupt, who alone does great wonders, most copious thanks with great joy and praises of thanksgiving they rendered, because He deigned the humility of His faithful one to be relieved, and the treasure of His elect to be associated with His elect Princes. Whence both the upright Knights and all others rejoicing together, and is translated into the church. unanimously the body of the blessed man in the church of the aforesaid Apostle, beside the altars of the blessed Apostles, in a new mausoleum with due honor placed: through whom, the Lord cooperating, many miracles, which through the fault of negligence are not written, at divers times and in divers manners, in several persons were shown; of which in our times, according to the due manner, those which we could faithfully find, consequently to write we were ordered.

[11] Whence in truth it is not lawful to pass over, what it pleased the divine condescension miraculously to do. For in the elevation of the holy body, the bells of their own accord sounding: to be carried to the church of S. Andrew, the Lord deigned to declare such a prodigy. For all the bells of that church, without the hand of man, and without the help of any art moved of themselves, until the deposition of the body in the sepulchre, alike sounded, as if they had been agitated by the hands of men. For which both the present and the posterity of that time, recognizing the divine prodigy, to the man of God the title of sanctity, without Pastoral ^b authority by good faith consigned; whence so indeed both by men, and by women is generally S. Isidore named: the Scripture being fulfilled, which laudably is recited in the church, In his faith and meekness He made him holy, and chose him out of all flesh, and magnified him in the sight of Kings the Lord our God. Eccli. 45, 4 But neither is it to be omitted, that certain poor contracted and blind, and many being healed, begging on the public way, sitting near the town, the rumor of so great a prodigy being heard, by good faith rejoicing together, to the pit of the burial gathered: from which faithfully taking dust, and rubbing it on their own members, by divine mercy to declare His faithful servant received the gift of soundness.

[12] Likewise under the Era 1270 the King the Lord ^c Ferdinand reigning, when for the defect of rain a perilous aridity in the month of May pressed the harvests, and by common counsel, both of the Clergy and the people, they had drawn the man of God from the tomb, and before the altar of B. Andrew the Apostle on a bed honorifically placed, and the clemency of the divine goodness had poured rain on the lands; in the hour of his replacing in the tomb several of the Clerics surrounded the bed, In the year 1232 the body being exposed to ask rain, contemplating the clod of the holy body: of whom a certain Sacerdotal Cleric and honest, Portioner of the church of S. Mary, called Peter Garsias by name, cut hairs from the head of the holy man, that in the church of the Blessed Virgin with relics they might be reserved. Whence the body of the Blessed man, the Divine office completed, taking away the hairs, now brought back into the tomb, because it was a day of fasting, namely of Friday, and the hour of supping had by law passed; the aforesaid Cleric, carrying the hairs, returned to his house; and placed them in a window, proposing in his mind that after supper or another day he would carry them back to the church. And when his honest aunt, in whose house was his conversation, urged him, that he should recline at table, and he had now begun to wash his hands; there invaded him suddenly a trepidation of heart, an anxiety of mind, a perturbation of brain. But because he was lettered and discreet, revolving in his mind, wondering for what cause this so sudden occasion had befallen him, heavenly illustrated he recognized, that for the relics retained at home, and not at the hour in which it was fitting fasting, refusing to carry them to the church, this peril had befallen him. Whence accusing himself, his hands now washed and wiped, he rose quickly: and the relics of the hairs being taken, he is compelled to carry them to the church. with reverence and fear forthwith to the church of the Blessed Virgin he carried them back, and the same upon the altar in a most decent little ark placed, to be honorifically preserved. Which done, the aforesaid Cleric made cheerful, and fully comforted, returning to his house and rejoicing together over the wrought prodigy, with his household cheerfully took food. I indeed John such a Deacon as I am, and several others, as from his mouth we heard, in the present little sheet by simple speech it is narrated.

[13] And when in the aforesaid Mausoleum the body of the most blessed Isidore for much time had rested, it happened that from the first day of May until the festivity of B. Gregory ^d, It is a remedy of great drought, either for the exigency, or for the meritorious burdens of our sins, God, who is the universal procurator of all creatures, denied to pour congruent rain on the lands, so much that several husbandmen dared not scatter the seed of corn on the lands; but the men of that place, according as is the custom, for the temporal fruits and the opportunity of the time beseeching God, to the church of B. Andrew, in honor of the most blessed Isidore and of that same Apostle, for almost the space of one month, with too great disquiet continually came: the country people and of other places ^e the neighbors, fearing the dearth of future time, many places of the Saints incessantly visited; after the apparition of the Saint, of their things, which the Lord had conferred on them, bestowing on the poor. It happened therefore when they had come to the church of B. Andrew, in which the above-said body venerably rests, at the same time a certain one of the Order of the Friars Minor, to whom total faith is to be given, the above-said servant of God, while in his little bed by night he slept, by divine provision saw visibly addressing him: All, dearest, do not omit to beseech God, who gives food to all flesh, and He made us, and

not we ourselves, because by His ineffable mercy He will grant you congruent rain. And a vision of this kind, as that good Friar had seen, was openly divulged, and into the execution of the truth of the matter was nonetheless emerging. it is obtained in the year 1252, For after the space of fifteen days, from His treasure, according as B. Isidore had foretold to the Friar Minor, He deigned to rain copiously. Whence that this had happened through B. Isidore all presuming, to the sepulchre, from which his body they had drawn, venerably they carried it back, under the Era one thousand two hundred ninety.

[14] The divine providence therefore disposing, it happened on a certain spring time, and again on another occasion the body being exposed. for the wickedness of human merits, the harvests by the necessity of rain and the article of dryness to be pressed. Whence both clergy and people in this judgment agreed, that from the sepulchre they should draw the holy man Isidore, and before the altar of B. Andrew the Apostle in the presence of the Crucifix on a bed worthily reposit, and by watching, singing psalms, praying, ministering lights, by day and night insist, that by his merits and prayers, the Lord would deign to pour rain on the lands, and to the peril of human necessity to succor; which by the grace of divine mercy by the merits of the Blessed man was largely fulfilled; for which afterward several times the same happened to be done, and they were not defrauded of their desire.

[15] Likewise the King the Lord Ferdinand reigning, whose body rests at Seville, it happened, that a certain man of his Court to collect the Royal exaction, Blasphemous of the Saints, which commonly is called Martiniega, in the winter time, in the month of December, most certainly came to Majoritum: and that we may say for fuller certainty of the matter he lodged in the suburb, near the church of B. Martin, in the houses of Peter Carrantone. To whom when it was announced by chance, after the twilight of night and after supper sitting with the hosts beside the fire, of the goodness and miracles of this saint; he took it very unworthily, bringing forth contemptuous words in this manner: I would well believe, that one who was the son of a Prince or of some Magnate could become truly a Saint, but a man of labor or a country-dweller, I do not believe to be in any way a Saint. Consequently, as the hour of night demanded, all lay down in their little beds. But after midnight, while all the others quietly rested, he indeed could neither rest, nor slumber with his eyes. And when he saw himself prevented by occasion, troubled in heart, and anxious in mind, vexed with pain; compunct in heart he recognized that he had erred in words of insult against the Saint. Whence contorted with grief of soul he ceased not further to cry out, terrified by a dream, and the hosts and little servants frequently with voices to rouse, crying out thus: You dearest hosts, O you my little servants, I beg you, rise up, and to me afflicted quickly succor; for since I lay down, the whole night sleepless I have borne, I am troubled in soul, and in body do not rest: for I do not doubt this perturbation to have befallen me otherwise, than because I spoke words of folly against the holy servant the man of God. Whence I beseech you all, as friends, that lights being kindled, our faithful host going before, you lead me to the tomb of the man of God. Which when all standing by had heard, the household compunct in heart, and condoling his affliction, lights being kindled in the early dawn and accompanying him, penitent he goes to the sepulchre: they led him with great reverence to the sepulchre of the Blessed man. But he, as was fitting, groaning and condoling, for the contempt of his folly, perceived that he had recovered pardon from the Saint and soundness of body; whence forthwith, the offices of the Masses being heard, and the little gifts of his oblation given, he withdrew to his own comforted, promising thenceforth to make known everywhere Isidore to be the true servant of God.

[16] But it is not to be passed over, that on one night of the vigils, by divine mercy, a blind man is enlightened: to the worthy excellence of the Blessed man, a miracle was there wrought. For a certain blind man, by name Benedict, while as is the custom, some by lot of prayer, some of sleeping persisted in guarding the holy body; at midnight, while the aforesaid blind man insisted on prayer near the bed of the holy man, by divine grace having mercy, suddenly enlightened he cried out: O all you who are present rise, and see what the Lord of virtues has wrought through the grace of this His Saint upon me: behold who was blind, now rejoicing I see, and the grace of this Saint, in the name of Jesus Christ, whom he faithfully served, I glorify, I bless forever.

[17] A Moor neglecting to fulfill his vow, Likewise it is not to be kept silent what wonderfully happened. For in that very greatest drought of the temporal dearth, when both faithful and infidel by praying for rain to be asked persisted, and the hand of the Lord to give rain prolonged; a certain Moor, Garsias by name, at that time, before certain Moors and several Christians, made a vow before all thus: I therefore promise to God and the Christian faith, that if the Lord in this article of dryness, for which S. Isidore to obtain rain the Christians from his mausoleum have drawn, shall deign to impart rain, I will not delay to become a Christian; which if I do not before eight days, I shall not escape a most wicked death. But when [God] in the very article of the tempest by the merits of His Saint had deigned to pour rain abundantly, he is punished with death. and the holy man had been shut in the tomb; the aforesaid wretched Garsias spurning to fulfill what he had vowed, before the end of eight days in the night, completing a certain course to the river, by a most wicked death was consumed, slain by the blows of swordsmen.

[18] Likewise of good memory the King the Lord Ferdinand reigning, it happened to a certain youth of the suburb of Majoritum, called Dominic Petri, that when he returned to the suburb from the submontane parts with his companions, A paralytic youth, he was suddenly deprived of the office of his members for a moment, so much also that he could not move himself from the place at all. Which when his fellows announced to his domestics, his progenitors placed on an animal brought him back to his own house. But when by no poultice, by no unguent, by no bathing, by no medicine, through the course of a long time laboring his parents perceived him to be in any way profited, they vowed him to be carried to the tomb of the holy man, that there of his health, or death the divine clemency might determine. The night therefore following, the holy servant of God in sleep addressed the youth in these words: Son Dominic, I Isidore, such a little servant of God as I am, admonish thee, the Saint appearing to him he is healed. that in the name of Christ with such an unguent thou cause thyself to be anointed, and for certain believe that thou shalt receive soundness. Which when morning being made the youth revealed to his progenitors, they indeed accepting the divine oracle, his body with the intimated unguent most diligently fomented; and in a wonderful manner, after the first and only unction, the aforesaid youth in all his members rendered back entire soundness. Who when they saw about their son the prodigy of divine clemency done, rejoicing with him, lights and oblations being prepared according to their power, to the tomb of the man of God they came; and there votive little gifts offering, to the King of Kings copious thanks they paid, who possesses such a servant, who though he be in heaven of his reward already secure, on earth ceases not to succor the languors of the laboring wretched.

ANNOTATA.

CHAPTER III.

Other miracles of S. Isidore.

[19] Under the Era one thousand three hundred and three, in the month of July, the King Alfonso ^a reigning, the Lord likewise deigned to reveal another miracle upon a certain boy through the same blessed Isidore. In the year 1265 a boy half-blind There was a certain man with his wife having a little son, whose eyes were beset with so great a sickness, that they became red, like fire; which boy was placed almost in his fourth year, and on account of that sickness could not see: so that those seeing him, asserted him to be utterly blind. At length his parents, suggested by good men, made a vow, that they would carry him to the sepulchre of the happy Isidore through nine night-vigils without intermission, considering that God would have mercy on that boy, as on several others through that blessed Isidore He had already had mercy, who had been oppressed by divers languors. It happened therefore that the mother carried him on a certain day according to the vow to the sepulchre, at the contact of the shroud he is enlightened. in which the venerable body is buried: and there while they poured forth prayers, a certain Cleric began to touch the face of that boy with the shroud, in which the most blessed body had been wrapped unburied. And that little boy by divine mercy began to cry out, asserting that he saw: and his mother for too great joy began to answer inquiring, saying: Who cured thee, my son? The boy answering said: Blessed Isidore. And the boy was healed from that hour, so that on foot he returned without any guide to his house, although to the church before he could not come unless he were led by someone. But this miracle the Lord deigned through His servant to do, and to all standing there visibly to demonstrate.

[20] Likewise in the suburb of Majoritum it happened that a certain honest woman, called ^b Acenia, suffering a sickness of the eyes, Likewise a blind woman is cured, by the guidance of her maidservant

came to the tomb of the holy man; with great devotion from the true servant of God asking the aid of soundness, against the sickness of the eyes, to be mercifully exhibited to her. Which when she asked with such devotion and faith, that the prayer being finished she fully felt light to be restored to her eyes; whence she who came with a guide, safe and unhurt without anyone's guide to her house with joy returned. But after the course of time, her husband John happened deprived of the office of his members most gravely to be sick. And because by no human medicine she could relieve him, compunct in heart returning to her heart, the soundness of the eyes, which through the holy man of God so suddenly she had received remembering, trusting with all her heart in the Lord and in the grateful clemency of His Saint, with paper his members were measured, which with wax investing, as was fitting, she adorned. The same day therefore in the evening after the feast of S. Barnabas the Apostle, on the third day ^d, him placed upon an animal with the help of six men, holding him up on this side and that round about, she caused to be carried to the tomb of the Blessed man. Where both the aforesaid woman and her friends, through that night kept vigils, candles being kindled, solicitously. But that woman, who in greater faith and ardor of faith excelled all the others, besought the Lord, that she might pass that night sleepless, that of the clemency of God and the holy man a miracle being seen she might rejoice together: which indeed because she asked with devout faith, what she desired she merited to obtain. For at midnight, she saw her husband his hands and arms to fold, as having received soundness, and salubriously to move, and forthwith on bended knees to rise to the sepulchre, and embracing the tomb with the greatest devotion to kiss the footprints of the Saint. Which when his wife beheld, wondering that so suddenly by a miracle of God it had happened, for too great joy of heart she wished to rouse those sleeping: which her husband by his request forbade, lest before the matutinal hour it should be announced to anyone in any way. But at the matutinal time, all seeing him erect, and on his feet firmly walking, true witnesses were made of the miracle now wrought. Whence both of Matins and of the Masses the Divine Office being celebrated, both he, and his wife and friends, amazed and rejoicing together, and praising the name of the Lord in His servant, returned to their lodgings. But yet those who had seen him the preceding day carried upon an animal, and the following day with soundness recovered returning, wondering at the great works of God through the grace of the holy man to be exhibited to human miseries, extolled the fame of his sanctity in Christ the Lord.

[21] Likewise the King of highest praise the Lord Alfonso reigning, under the Era one thousand three hundred and four, such a thing memorable happened, which because it befits divine praise, In the year 1256 a Presbyter sick in the eyes, it was not worthy to pass that over in silence. For a certain upright Presbyter of the Chapter of Majoritum, called Dominic Dominici, from a noxious eating of an eel taken, incurred a most grave languor of the eyes. But because at that time he was bound by the company of a certain Confraternity both of secular Clerics and of the Friars Minor, under a certain term of the day, to prepare a common banquet; for the languor of the eyes unable to fulfill the same, at his request others being substituted to prepare it, the day of the banquet approaching he was solicitous to go to the Cleric Confraternity-brothers, lest they should reprove him of contempt. Who because under the coming of another going before reaching them, he found them sitting before the doors of the church of S. Andrew: who, the occasion of his great necessity being shown to all, they sitting there, he himself entered the church to pray. Who when he had come to the tomb of the man of God, about to ask aid for his infirmity, he began to roll his face over the stone sepulchre, in which the holy body entire rests; and as the aforesaid Presbyter afterward narrated to us, suddenly so sweet a refreshing he felt, the sepulchre of the Saint being touched. from the top of his head even to the footprint, that he knew the clemency of God to have succored him. Who relieved in soul, and raised on his feet, the wooden ark being opened, and a little cloth being taken, which from the funeral garment of the man of God had been cut, the same on his eyes he procured to place. Who by divine grace to the full suddenly illustrated, comforted in soul and glad of the miracle seen, hastened to run after the Confraternity-brothers, who had now withdrawn, and to announce the benefit of God: who found them in the house of the Friars Minor, before they reclined at the tables, gathered. Who when they saw him cheerfully coming to the place, they rejoiced with great joy exceedingly, because they knew him to bring back a sound sight; who taking food alike with joy, he announced to them of the divine benefit. Who all were heartily glad, to the supernal King of glory copious thanks of praises paying, who through His worthy servant to His unworthy servants does not disdain worthy wonders of healings mercifully to dispense.

[22] Likewise in the following year, after the Era above prenoted, in the church of S. Andrew, In the year 1267 the sacristan of S. Andrew where the holy man's body Isidore is venerably preserved, such indeed a portent happened, truly more curiously to be beheld. For a certain Sacristan of the above-said church, called Blasius, when in the winter time by night given to slumber he had slept, a certain boy most black of horrible aspect in sleep appeared before him, who seized the index of his right hand, and so began to grasp him, that he himself more vehemently was tortured. Then indeed by divine mercy he saw opposite the tomb of the man of God a man under a monastic ^e habit coming, he is freed from a diabolical phantasm: and before the altar of Andrew with bowed head passing, and approaching he stood gazing with fixed gaze on the aspect of the aforesaid phantasm. Which when that malign boy perceived himself so beheld, the index being released, terrified with fear, like a timid boy collecting himself, began by fleeing to retreat hastily even to the bottom of the church; thence nowhere appeared vanishing. Then indeed the aforesaid Sacristan awakened in his little bed, stood trembling and wondering, in that which had befallen him stupefied. At length recognizing about himself the benefit of God, heartily he gave thanks to God, because through His holy servant, him from the worst tempter and from the hostile peril He deigned with paternal clemency to free.

[23] Likewise under the Era 1307, a certain Knight of the Lord Frederick, a native of Guadalajara, in the year 1269 he is healed of a quinsy: called Peter Dominic, incurred a swelling of the throat, and by no remedy of medicine could be relieved. But when by command of the Lord Frederick a journey compelled he made, passing through Majoritum, he heard the fame of the shroud of the man of God, that by the contact of it many were freed from their infirmities. Which with joy receiving, with all devotion of mind ready he approached, and came to the sepulchre of S. Isidore, asking the shroud of the man of God. Which when on his swollen throat applied he had held, in the twinkling of an eye he felt himself freed from the inflammation of the throat. Wherefore giving thanks to the divine clemency, he promised, wherever he should be present, the fame of the sanctity of the man of God publicly to spread; which, as he himself related to us, in the present little sheet we cared to be annotated.

[24] Likewise under the Era 1308. A certain upright man, called John Dominici, an inhabitant and citizen of the city of Cordova, in the year 1270 twice a captive among the Saracens, when in a military expedition against the Saracens with other Christians to fight in the frontier ^f he had advanced, our sins demanding, by the infidels surrounded, and by the strength of the enemy overcome, into captivity sharply taken they fell. But the aforesaid John Dominici, for the punishments in which he sharply labored, assiduously with all his heart besought the Lord, that He would free him from the hand of the enemy through some Saint of His mercifully. Whom, when the Lord with great mercy had regarded, in the nocturnal time He sent to him the holy man Isidore, laid up at Majoritum, bringing forth words of this kind: Give thanks to God, who has mercifully heard thee. I am sent to thee, that from the hand of the enemy I may free thee. And immediately loosed from the bonds he led him even to a place, whither more securely he could go away: and so through the servant of God freed, rejoicing to his own house he returned. Upon which prodigy making a promise, that with an oblation to the tomb of the man of God he would come, his familiars detracting, and also not believing what had happened, the promise which he had made to the Saint he by no means fulfilled. But not after much course of time into captivity again he was led. Who recognizing his fault gravely, again miraculously he is freed. by weeping and wailing instantly from God he asked, that by His mercy him from the power of the enemy, as first He had deigned to do, a second time through His holy servant He would free: which in a wonderful manner in the same way by divine clemency was fulfilled. Who under so great a prodigy freed returning to his house, to his kinsmen and friends and many others, what miraculously had happened, narrated; superadding also, what is wonderful to say, the disposition of the countenance of the man of God; and the measure of his stature, whom he had never seen nor of him anything had heard, he narrated; and then with all promptitude, his necessaries being prepared, with candles and oblations undertaking the journey, he came cheerful to Majoritum, with the greatest desire about to visit the tomb of the holy man of God. Where his vow with candles and oblations heartily fulfilling, the divine Offices being celebrated, and to the divine clemency and His servant thanks copious gratefully exhibited, rejoicing and unhurt to his own he returned; and as the aforesaid man narrated to us what had befallen him, and for the notice of many, so we have judged worthy to be inscribed.

[25] In the year 1271 a barren woman is made fruitful: Likewise under the Era 1309, a certain little woman, called Maria by name, and of the country which is called Leganés, situated in the boundary of Majoritum, who through a decade with her husband had been lawfully married, grieved that she had received no offspring; yet on account of the fame of the man of God, whom she had heard manifoldly to succor many, stirred, full of devotion of mind she came to the tomb of the man of God; where observing vigils, confidently she asked from the divine clemency through His faithful servant offspring mercifully to be given to her: Which the divine clemency in the same year that she confidently had asked obtained. Who when offspring being received after the brevity of time to the presence of the holy man of God she returned, copious thanks with an oblation of a lamp, to God, and His servant with all her bowels about to render; which all so she herself publicly made known, as in the present little sheet is noted.

[26] Likewise under the Era 1309, the most illustrious King the Lord Alfonso reigning, and a blind boy to renew the memory of the holy man, the divine grace working, such was a miracle before the feast of All Saints on the third day sufficiently publicly declared. For a certain boy, whose name was Dominic, in age of boyhood now advanced, at the noon hour, on Friday, by a sudden event happened to be blinded. Who when to his tutor and domestics he disclosed with a timid voice that he saw nothing; they reproached him, that since he had clear eyes, he feigned himself not to see. But a certain fellow of his, gave testimony of his blindness, saying, that when outside the town both went to business by the command of his tutor in the rampart of the walls, the precipice

he would have run into, unless that fellow of his had drawn him back with his hands, and that by his guidance he had returned home seeing nothing. Yet because he had clear eyes, and seemed unhurt, that he did not see was by no means believed of him. But that same boy complaining of the peril of his necessity, the arguments of many things being applied, for the cause of trying whether he saw, they detected truly that he saw nothing at all. Then the acquaintances and domestics, especially the mother and sister, from an occasion so sudden wounded by the dart of grief, tearfully condoling, stood stupefied, not knowing what to do. But because as it is written, the Spirit of God breathes where He wills, the aforesaid boy Dominic, under the instant peril is said to have brought forth such a speech: For the Lord lead me to S. Isidore, that he may heal me. John 3, 8 Which word those who were present hearing, the shroud of the Saint being applied he is enlightened, and as if sent from heaven accepting, by guidance his hand forthwith to the tomb of the holy man of God they led; and there on bended knees with faithful grief imploring the aid of the holy man, they asked of the shroud of the man of God, which in a little ark is reserved, the blinded eyes of that boy to be touched, by whose contact it was wont to be, that many languors of the eyes were succored. Which done therefore, in a little moment, the aforesaid boy with his hands wiping his own eyes, with free voice cried out: Thanks to God and S. Isidore, for certain now I see, and the bystanders I behold, and recognize. At whose speech all who were present wondering, asked of the covering, which from the tomb of the holy man hung, what it was, or of what color it appeared to sight. To which the boy forthwith thus answered: It is a reddish cendal, of varied color streaked. Who also hesitating upon this fully whether he saw, the experiences of divers things proposing, knew that he had fully received his natural sight. Then all giving thanks to God and His Saint, and commending the boy to the servant of God, with the joy of good hope consoled returned to their own. The fame of which matter being divulged to the ears of many, both the Clergy and the people, recognizing the wrought prodigy about the boy, the gracious gifts of God with devout praises extolled, who by admirable providence through years and times incessantly magnifies His Saints. ^h

ANNOTATA.

A TRIPLE APPENDIX.

Miracles described in the XIV century.

Isidore the husbandman, at Madrid in Castile (S.)

BHL Number: 4494, 4495

a

BY JOHN DIACONUS FROM A MS.

[27] A certain Cleric, Ferrandus Martini by name, hesitated concerning the faith of B. Isidore, A blasphemer is punished with Paralysis. and distrusting said: Let us cast down the body of B. Isidore, and let us quickly burn it: and if it remain entire, and no injury of burning appear in it, we will hold for certain, that through him God works wonders. But when once the glory of B. Isidore by prating he impugned, he added upon his sins a detestable blasphemy; and the wrath of God did not delay to inflict a condign punishment. For when now his prayer had become a sin, forthwith he sickened, and was made paralytic, even unto the death of his end.

[28] A blind man is healed, A certain man named Stephen, by too great anguish of pain of the eyes had been made blind, and his kinsmen leading him by the hands, brought him to the ^b catacomb of B. Isidore, and by his merits his former light was restored to him by wonderful power.

[29] A certain woman, named Sancia, of the right arm for four months was made paralytic. And going to the tomb of B. Isidore, soon as she touched it with her right hand, a paralytic woman, she was made sound and unhurt. Another woman of the suburb of Majoritum, Martina by name, for three weeks had lost the light of her eyes; a blind woman. and going to the sepulchre of B. Isidore, she opened her eyes, and was wonderfully restored to soundness.

[30] A certain man, Peter Garsias by name, of ^c coinage was cruelly accused, One adjudged to death is freed, and by the King of Castile for the space of ten months was held captive, and that he should not escape death was the judged sentence. But the aforesaid Peter Garsias cried out: B. Isidore, succor me: Father Isidore, help me, and from this peril of death deign to free me. And in the night B. Isidore appeared to him saying to him: Peter Garsias, fear not, because the enemies shall not prevail against thee, for tomorrow thou shalt be loosed from the bonds. And so the merits of the blessed Father freed him from the jaws of death, and turned his mourning into joy.

[31] Another man the Major-domus in the Confraternity of B. Isidore, when by command of the Confraternity-brothers he had to refresh sixteen poor, the flesh-meats to be distributed to the poor are multiplied. according to the rite of the country, and them the victuals being had he satisfied; it happened that in a certain kettle a remainder of flesh-meats had been left over. The servants moreover sent in two poor, whom with a fragment of flesh they fed; and afterwards they found the kettle filled with flesh, with which they satisfied as many poor. Who when they saw the prodigy suddenly done, all who were present were wonderfully stupefied. And when for a moment of time they had been silent, reserving the proclamation for an opportune time, with cheerfulness and joy, both the men and the poor praised the Lord: for so far the dishes sufficed, that also to absent poor of the remainder they offered.

[32] When a certain woman was vexed by a paralytic sickness, they led her to the tomb of B. Isidore, and there she attained what she wished, A paralytic woman is cured, and obtained what she desired. A certain man, Laurence by name, was paralytic a great time; who to the sepulchre of B. Isidore was led. The night therefore following B. Isidore appeared to him, clothed in white garments and addressed him in these words: Son Laurence, I Isidore, such a little servant of God as I am, admonish thee, that in the name of Christ, with such an unguent thou cause thyself to be anointed, and for certain believe that thou shalt receive soundness. And when morning being made the aforesaid man revealed to the bystanders the things which had happened to him, his body with the intimated unguent most diligently they fomented: and the little gifts of his oblation being given, he withdrew to his own comforted ^d. A certain man Bartholomew by name, for seven weeks was blind, and the suffrage of the blessed Father being asked, and two blind men. his former soundness was restored to him. Another man, named Nunius, on account of too great a sickness of the eyes for a long time was blind, and at the catacomb of the blessed Father Isidore salubriously ended it.

[33] A certain man, named Peter, One guilty of mortal sin is freed by a demon that he may confess. while he lay in his little bed, and had given himself to slumber, the devil appeared to him in a horrible and unseemly figure: and his hand being seized, the aforesaid man he placed upon his neck, and wished to plunge him into the depth of a well. And appearing to him B. Isidore, stretched out his arm, moving such words: Thou shalt not have power over this man, because I am his surety. The devil answered him: How shalt thou be his surety, since he is in mortal sin? B. Isidore added: Because he long served me, with Christ's help I shall be able to snatch him from thy hands. And forthwith from their eyes he was separated. And B. Isidore said to that man: Now quickly acquiesce to my admonitions, confess thy sins, contrite with the grief of true penance, nor let there remain in thee anything which by truthful confession thou dost not disclose. But morning being made the man confessed: and so was freed from the demon.

[34] A wonderful thing. A certain man, Ferrandus Dominici by name, had wholly lost the light of his eyes, A blind man being enlightened, made indeed blind, his faults meriting it, which by penitential confession he had not studied to purge. When by the guidance of his kinsmen he was led to the catacomb of B. Isidore, there asking the aid of soundness against the sickness of his eyes, with such devotion and faith he asked, that the prayer being finished, he felt light restored to his eyes: and so unhurt without anyone's guidance to his house with joy he returned, the provision of the poor increases and that he might exhibit the due honor of the blessed Father, he caused a dinner to be bestowed on the poor, and whatever of wine and flour for their necessity they had received they found wholly entire. The son of a certain Knight blind from birth, by the merits of B. Isidore received the desired light.

[35] A certain man of the suburb of Majoritum, while he labored in his vineyard, One devout to the Saint is snatched from peril, by running went around that church more than a thousand times. But morning being made found by a Knight who proposed to demand the rustic's promise, by B. Isidore reproved of an evil purpose, from the same he asked pardon, promising him that he would forever serve him. ^e A certain man, while he labored in extremity, saw himself surrounded by many bands of demons, because he was ensnared in a mortal bond. When B. Isidore as he had often done he had invoked for aid, another is freed from demons, B. Isidore appeared to him, who put the demons to flight, and obtained for him from the Lord a space of confessing.

[36] A certain man, Peter Fortunius by name, suffered the greatest infirmity in his eye: one half-blind is cured. who when by the physicians he was utterly despaired of, to the aid of B. Isidore with all his mind he turned; and that untiring helper of the wretched was not lacking to the prayers of the suppliant: for the eye as it were lost, by wonderful power into its place and former vigor he restored, and with the rays of desired light illustrated.

Another man, Garsias Petri by name, A lamp is divinely kindled: went to the church of B. Isidore to keep vigil; he being asleep, the lamps were extinguished: who immediately waking went to seek light outside the church: and returning it happened that by divine nod the lamp, which was before the sepulchre of B. Isidore, kindled from heaven he found.

[37] A certain man [f], Eximinus Petri by name, had been made as it were blind, a blind man is enlightened and they led him to the church of B. Isidore, and by the merits of that B. Isidore he received the desired light. A certain man, John Petri by name, the greatest dread seized him, one suffering nocturnal terrors is helped; so that he could not rest by night nor by day: and he promised to keep vigils three nights before the sepulchre of B. Isidore, and asking the power of the blessed man, which while officiating he had heard for putting to flight the aerial powers, humbly besought: and to the sepulchre of the pious Father coming the aforesaid, sleep seized him; he being roused, wonderfully he was freed.

[38] A certain woman, named Sol, when she had been blind a great time, two blind women are healed, there grew in her eyes a superfluous flesh, impeding the motion and use of the eyelids: and she promised to keep vigils for nine nights before the sepulchre of B. Isidore. Who when she had fulfilled the promise, she opened her eyes, clearly saw, most devoutly adored, in that very true adoration with a great voice crying out: Thanks, she said, I give to God and B. Isidore, because the light of my eyes is restored to me from heaven: and she returned to her house with joy of spirit, and the light of her eyes. Another woman by too great a pain of the head had lost the sight of her eyes, so that by night and day she was exceedingly disquieted: and approaching the tomb of B. Isidore, she suppliantly embraced it: and suddenly in a wonderful manner felt herself sound, and most devoutly adored.

[39] The son of a certain good woman, John by name, for two years had been sick of a quartan; and when, the power of nature succumbing, all the industry of art failed, those suffering fever, the name of B. Isidore being invoked, forthwith he was made sound, and salubriously ended. A certain youth, Garsias by name, had a fever for a year, and coming to the sepulchre of B. Isidore, by his merits forthwith was cured. A certain woman of Escalona, Jordana by name, by a sudden anguish had almost wholly lost her eyes: for the acerbity of the passion so drove the eyes from their place, that by the physicians she had been utterly despaired of: and asking the aid of B. Isidore, by wonderful power forthwith she was freed, and with the rays of desired light illustrated.

[40] A certain man, named Gundisalvus, suffered the greatest pain in his head, because for the pain of his head he had lost the light of his eyes. I will go, he said, to the sepulchre of B. Isidore there to keep vigil: those suffering pain in the eyes, which performed, immediately he was made sound and unhurt. Another man, Dominic Petri by name, suffered a quartan for very many years, and promised to go to S. Isidore: and the promise completed, immediately he was excellently freed. A certain man, Dominic by name, was for eighteen months exceedingly sick: and coming to the sepulchre of B. Isidore, prostrate there, obtained full soundness from his disease. A certain man, Michael Petri by name, suffered the greatest pain in his eyes, so that he seemed utterly blind, and that he should go to the sepulchre of Blessed Isidore was by his kinsmen exhorted. Who answering said: Let B. Isidore come to me: and forthwith his sickness grew upon him. Immediately it repented him to have brought forth such words: and coming to the sepulchre of B. Isidore he felt himself by his merits freed.

[41] The son of a certain good man, when long he had remained paralytic, to the mausoleum of B. Isidore by his parents was led, a paralytic, and there obtained full soundness. The daughter of a certain good woman, Flos by name, a mute girl, was so sick, that she seemed mute to men: and the name of the blessed man being invoked she was restored to soundness. A certain Friar of the Order of Friars Minor, one suffering in the teeth. suffered the greatest pain in his teeth and molars, so that he could neither rest nor sleep. And coming to the tomb of B. Isidore salubriously ended.

[42] Among the rest, which of the holy man Isidore are written as known miracles, by no means worthy to be passed over is this miracle of divine condescension, which to all the people of Majoritum, In the year 1275 in a great drought, both Clerics and Laity, and to a not small folk, from divers parts to ask rain gathered, under the Era one thousand and three hundred and thirteen, in the month of March, the King the Lord Alfonso reigning, was by divine mercy wonderfully declared. When therefore in the described time through all the region far and wide the whole people the want of victual nourishment and of bread straitened, and the oppression of hunger overthrew the beggars and poor, and to the land the seeds being cast from heaven rain was denied; divers peoples round about, the banner of the Cross carried before, through divers sanctuaries singing going, with tears and sighing from heaven asked rain. Under this instant article of calamity therefore the whole people of Majoritum, both the Chapter of Clerics, the body being carried to the church of B. Mary, and the Council of Laity, and also the college of the Religious, into this singular counsel unanimously came together, that the clod of the holy man Isidore from his sepulchre they should draw, and through him rain from heaven they should ask. Which done the Religious men the Friars of the Order of Minors, the clod of the holy man placed on a bed bearing on their shoulders even to the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin, which from the town is removed about two miles, with the Clergy and the whole people processionally with great honor led, and there a very great folk from the parts of Illescas to have come, the image of the Blessed Virgin bearing honorifically, they found awaiting rain from heaven. The divine Offices therefore being celebrated as is fitting, and the divine service of preaching fulfilled, the rain still hanging from heaven, nor deigning to descend to the lands; the greatest multitude of peoples which was present, together flowed into tears and into clamor and groaning, exceedingly amazed, that through him who while he lived had visited the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin with assiduous labor, the Lord did not yet deign to give rain. But the preacher saying; and openly shown, Let the fish be drawn from his little resting-coffin, and let him be prostrated before the Virginal sea, and so let be done what God shall have decreed to be approved. Then forthwith to heaven by the hands of the Religious before the sight of the Virgin the little body of the holy man being raised, all heartily breaking into tears and groaning and clamor, it pleased the divine clemency suddenly from heaven to pour an inundating rain, and the whole region more abundantly to water. By which divine benefit all who were present comforted, to God and the Blessed Virgin and likewise S. Isidore copious thanks with great joy rendered. rain is obtained. And the body of the holy man carrying back to his tomb, all with great gladness to their own returned: in which year, the divine grace having mercy, through all the places of the region the inhabitants were not defrauded of the harvesting of the harvests.

[43] On the Sunday, the fourth day of May beginning in the year 1421, In the year 1421 the body is drawn from its place, on that day into the church of S. Andrew there came first the Lord Archdeacon of Madrid Martin Sanchez beneficed of the said church, and Didacus Gutierres Curate of S. James, and Alfonsus Martinez Cleric of Canillas, and Alfonsus Ruiz, and Antony Ruiz his brother Clerics, and Francis Fernandez Major-domus of the Lord Archbishop, and Matthew Sanchez Curate of S. Peter, and Friar John Guerra Prior of S. Dominic. The Laity besides who were present there are these following: first Sancius Garcia de Bosmediano, and Antony Sanchez scribe, and Lupus Sanchez curator of the Royal lodging, and Peter de Bargas, and Ruizius Vasques curator of the Royal lodging, and Guiterius Fernandez de Gudiel, and Peter Gonzalez son of the late Didacus Sanchez Cano, and John Logroño, with Gonzalvo Diaz de Useda, citizens of the said city. And the body of S. Isidore was drawn forth: and all the aforenamed saw it. But the holy body was reposited in its former place, there being present chiefly the Archdeacon of Madrid, who with the aforenamed Clerics performed the Office: and I John Alvarez, as Curator of the said Church there present, for the perpetual memory of the matter described the names of those who were present at the said action, and sent to me liberal alms for the fabric of that church. In faith of which I to this quaternion, written in the year and on the day as above, affixed my name ^k.

John Alvarez, Curator of this church.

[44] On the Saturday, the twenty-seventh day of the Month of April, in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and twenty-six, and again for rain in the year 1426. the whole people of Majoritum, both Religious and Clerics, and also seculars both of males and females, the body of the most holy Confessor Isidore, enclosed in its shrine, on account of the aridity of the land from its mausoleum drew forth. And then in a solemn procession to the church of B. Mary del Almudena, and also to the Monastery of the Ladies of S. Dominic, namely outside the walls of the said town, they carried it. And so the aforesaid people returning to the church of S. Andrew, the body of the above-said Isidore as at first, so closed remained. And God, by the merits of His most holy Confessor being appeased, heaven gave rain, and the earth its most abundant fruit: and after the celebration of Mass and a solemn sermon, all to their own with joy returned; commending the keys of that Ark, the first to the Chapter of Clerics, the second to Didacus de Bargas, the third to Fernandus de Bargas, the fourth to Rodericus Martini of Cordova, the fifth to Martin Sanchez the Cleric. ^l

Martin the unworthy Presbyter.

THE AUTHENTIC ATTESTATION.

[45] Hence it is, that I the aforesaid Antonius Vazquez Romay, Of the truth of the transcribed copy, Vicerector and Apostolic Protonotary, who all the above-said things, and what in an instrument of this kind of faith are contained, saw, read, held, handled, and diligently inspected, recognized, examined, and understood, and also numbered, and all its folios and pages rubricated, make undoubted faith, and to all who shall see these alike and hear them, testify (the most diligent examinations, inquiries, and necessary diligences being first made by me for these, as the quality of the business required) that all those things are true, and subsist in force. Whence at the instance and request of the religious man Father Friar Dominic de Mendoza, Theologian Preacher, of the Order of Friars Preachers, Son of the distinguished Convent of Blessed Mary of Atocha outside the walls of this town, in the monastery of S. Thomas of the same town at present Conventual, and in the business of the Canonization of that holy man Commissary deputed, the said preinserted book, and all and singular things in it contained, as is premised seen and noted, corrected and collated, as containing truth and undoubted faith, with my own hand and sign I subscribed, and sealed, and corroborated in these thirty folios, in whole and in part written, with the assistance, presence, and intervention of the below-written Notary witnesses,

and their signs and subscriptions; as also of the Lords, the Doctor Jerome Lupus Lassus, Rector of the said Parish and formerly Visitor of this town; and Michael Suarez, beneficed of the same church, and judge of the Chapter of Clerics, in the same church Custodians and Archivists of the aforesaid book; and the Licentiate Peter Tello de Rueda the Deacon, for witnesses: who also all the above-said things so to be done saw. As also the Lords, Antonius de Lima Rector of the Parish of S. Genesius of this Town, Roland Winchel Chaplains of the King, and Alfonsus de la Serna Notary, who also subscribed themselves for witnesses. Done at Madrid within the said church of S. Andrew, on the twenty-sixth day of September, 1595.

Doctor Antonius de Lima, Doctor Roland Winchel, Alfonsus de la Serna Notary.

In testimony of the truth, Antonius Vazquez Romay, Apostolic Protonotary.

[46] and of the legality of the attestor. We the undersigned, Apostolic public Notaries, make undoubted faith and testify, that he who signed, subscribed, and sealed the above-said instrument with his own hand, sign, subscription, and seal, is such a Vicerector of the Parish church of S. Andrew of this Town of Madrid, where the body of B. Isidore is constituted; and a public, faithful, and authentic Apostolic Protonotary such as he asserts himself, and to his public instruments by him as above signed, subscribed and sealed, there was and is and is given full and undoubted faith, in judgment and out of it; and the seal and sign impressed in the said instrument, are the wonted of that same Office of Apostolic Protonotariate, and accustomed to be signed and sealed, because so we saw manifoldly, and the above-said instrument by him to be signed and sealed in the said Parish church, before us and the undersigned witnesses. In testimony of which matter, at the instance and request of the Reverend Father Friar Dominic de Mendoza, of the Order of Preachers a professed Presbyter and Theologian Preacher, and in the business of the Canonization of that same Saint Commissary deputed, &c. Done at Madrid, of the Diocese of Toledo in the said Parish church of Saint Andrew, where the body of that B. Isidore the Husbandman, Confessor of Christ the Lord, is preserved. Done at Madrid within the said church of saint Andrew, on the twenty-sixth day of September, 1595.

In testimony of the truth, Alphonsus de la Serna. In testimony of the truth, John of Segura Manrique Notary. In testimony of the truth, Peter Blanco Zapata Notary. It agrees with the original which is restored to the archive of the church of S. Andrew, Franciscus Hortiz Notary. ^m

ANNOTATA.

f. By Bleda Maximinus.

ANALECTA

From the Spanish of Friar James Bleda.

Isidore the husbandman, at Madrid in Castile (S.)

FROM THE SPANISH OF J. BLEDA

[47] For his thirsty master he draws a spring from a rock, It is said that when on a certain day his Lord, John de Vargas, visited S. Isidore, and pressed with great heat thirsted vehemently; he asked of him whether he had water nearby there: but he with extended finger designating the place, There, he said, is a spring. But John running there, when he beheld the rock everywhere dry, and complained that he was deluded; Isidore taking the goad, which while plowing he used, and which with his body is now kept, with it struck the rock, saying: Here we should have water, when God should will. Which soon altogether sweet and savory leaped forth; and as much as it profited for the use of extinguishing thirst, so much it availed to confirm the opinion which the Lord of his Isidore from the other things seen had drawn. But the place, where this miracle happened, now salutary to the sick, is outside the city of Madrid, across the river between two bridges, which lead to Toledo and Segovia; where for the perpetual memory of the matter the Empress Isabella, wife of Charles V and mother of Philip II, built a hermitage above that very spring, which even today is called of S. Isidore, nor in the time of any drought however great ever dried up, except in the year 1575, when certain ones of the Moorish dregs began to set forth the water drawn thence for sale, abusing the same also for their sacrilegious and superstitious baptisms. Which when it was forbidden them by the Magistrates, the water returned to its former place, and even today endures salutary to many.

[48] It is said also that the Saint excited other springs in divers places or made wells. a like thing is believed to have done at Caraquiz, As at Longares, at the valley of Salvation; at Valpermini, at Rupe-corvi of the Uceda territory; and below the place called Caraquiz, where, the water likewise taken in drink, very many infirmities are cured. But I confess as to this last spring, in almost the same manner as the former is said to have been excited, produced from the earth, that reading twin miracles so like to each other, of the truth and author of one or the other I would have doubted. But considering the multitude of witnesses, on which in the legitimate processes formed for the canonization the tradition of the inhabitants of each place rests, according to which each spring is attributed to S. Isidore; I would not further doubt, lest what happened to Moses, and wells dug elsewhere by the same. there should become to me a water of contradiction one or the other. At Madrid also in the greater square, where formerly was a field, and in the year 1597 had a house James Venasque, in the living rock S. Isidore made a spring or well: which also itself, to those drinking thence with devotion and faith, is salutary. Likewise in the Toledo square, which also formerly was a field, where a well of like virtue the Saint is believed to have made, which then was enclosed in the houses of the family of Vera: where also is a cellar, which the same Saint is believed to have fabricated: nay also in the same square there is another well in the house of Maria and Isabella Falconia, whose water heals the bites of leeches. But many when they wished at their home to dig a well, and digging found no water, soon as they invoked S. Isidore, found sweet and salubrious and against diseases useful water. These things at length Bleda chapter 34, who by these his last words seems modestly to insinuate, that he thinks those so various springs and wells, which to S. Isidore by the tradition of the common people are attributed, not so much by the labor of the living one dug or by prayer elicited, as at the invocation of the dead found for the most part to have been. But of the miracles wrought through the Saint in his life the same Bleda these things inserts into the text of John Diaconus, before the miracle wrought in the Era 1270.

[49] The dead horse of the same master When the horse of the Lord of S. Isidore had died, which he was wont to use about to inspect his fields, and he had related this to the Saint: he coming to the place, in which the carcass lay; restored it by a brief prayer to life. And this miracle was seen painted in his hermitage, before it was destroyed. But it is presumed to have been painted also, together with several other miracles, in that part of the ark whose side on account of the humidity of the place some years ago appeared wholly disfigured. and he resuscitates a daughter, Meanwhile it itself has its faith from the witnesses, deposing of the ancient tradition in the process; as also another, that the Saint is said his Lord's only daughter Maria, dead of a grave infirmity, to have brought back to life by his prayers, and rendered to her parents, much grieving of that loss.

[50] Roderick Ximenes Archbishop of Toledo, who from the year 1208 to 1245 held the Primacy of Spain, and in the year 1212 was present at that illustrious and prodigious victory, which at the passes, which are commonly called las navas de Tolosa, on the XVI day of July the army of the Christians won from the Moors; in book 8 of the affairs of Spain chapter 7 describes the mountain occupied on the day before the combat and the castle Ferral, under which are certain abysses, and in the rock windings and precipices of crags near Losa: and so great is there, he says, the narrowness of the passage, that even the unencumbered the difficulty hinders. He narrates then how, the Kings Alfonso of Castile, Peter of Aragon, and Sancho of Navarre disputing of the manner of attaining to the enemy's camp; when the counsel of the noble Alfonso had prevailed of attempting the passage of the very passes, lest by going around the mountain they should give to the ignorant the appearance of fleeing; The Shepherd who showed the way to victory. God Almighty, who directed the business with special care, sent a certain plebeian man, contemptible enough both in habit and person, who once in those mountains had fed flocks, and there had pursued the catching of rabbits and hares. He showed a way easy enough, altogether possible, through the slope of the side of that same mountain: nor would it be necessary to be guarded from the sight of the enemy: and them seeing nor able to hinder we could come to a place fit for battle, says Roderick: and chapter 8 the same argument thus pursues, But because in so great a crisis to such a person scarcely faith could be given, two Princes went before; that if they should find true the things which the shepherd had said, a certain mountain, having on its summit a plain, they should occupy. And the Lord granting it so came to pass, that he as it were a messenger of God, who chooses the weak things of the world, was found truthful.

[51] King Alfonso is said to have recognized S. Isidore, These things he, who was present and who only in the year 1243 writes himself to have finished his history, thus narrating, nor any of S.

with Isidore making mention, John the Deacon thereafter being silent; it is hard to believe that King Alphonsus himself, a little after that Victory (for he survived only two years), inspecting the body of S. Isidore, recognized the face, and said: Truly this is that Saint, who appearing to me in the form of a shepherd, showed the way and led to victory: and that therefore he took care to have his image made, which, covered with silver, he placed upon the altar, within the chapel next to the tomb in which his holy body lay, above three gilded lions carved of stone.

That Doctor Carvajal de Galiendo, Counselor of Charles V, and Doctor Alphonsus de Villegas thus wrote in their Annals, and that King Ferdinand also approved this. Bleda asserts in chapter 28: and that this same thing, as from tradition, many witnesses confirm, in the process drawn up by Dominic de Mendoza, responding to interrogation LXXVIII; nay rather, that Alphonsus de Villegas in confirmation of this matter adds, that S. Ferdinand the King, grandson of the aforesaid Alphonsus by his daughter Berengaria, when at the persuasion of the aforementioned Archbishop Roderick he had restored the Cathedral of Toledo, among other statues ordered two to be made of white stone, each to the measure of a man; and placed them in the major choir at the side of the Gospel, within the column which encloses the sepulchers of the said King Alphonsus and of the other Kings there entombed: of which statues one is most like the other statues of S. Isidore, which are seen at Madrid; as though Ferdinand had been sufficiently certain, that he was the one who showed the aforesaid King the way to victory. Similar things are said to be held by Jerome Quintana in his History of Madrid, and by John Martin Carrillo in his Annals: whether the assertion of all of whom has any other foundation than the statues erected to S. Isidore by the Kings Alphonsus and Ferdinand, and the pious presumption of the Castilians concerning their Saint, I shall not easily define.

[52] More certainly we can believe James Bleda, affirming in chapter 31, Chapels long ago erected to him that from most ancient times there are found churches dedicated to S. Isidore, and that his sepulcher was often visited by his Superiors. For besides the hermitage, he says, which the Empress Isabella took care to have built above the fountain of S. Isidore, next to the river Manzanares, in the region of the Convent of S. Francis: another very ancient temple stands in the village of Caraquiz, in the place where he is believed to have dwelt, in the territory of Uceda, next to the river Jarama. Another temple is seen in the oak-grove of Garganta, of the town of Buitrago under the Archbishop of Toledo, having a baptismal font, whence it is understood to have been once parochial: and in all these are erected to S. Isidore altars with his radiated images. His feasts also are celebrated, and stations are made in the times of the public Litanies. In the place called Bernardos, under the jurisdiction of the city of Segovia, and confraternities instituted: there is another hermitage of the same name, another in the city of Toledo, another finally is found in Campo-Comendador under the Bishopric of León. But in the place of Garganta there is also a confraternity of S. Isidore, for which and for another of Our Lady of the Meadows in the same place, it has been a rule already for a hundred years, to assemble at Vespers on the eve of the Nativity of Mary in the month of September, and likewise to proceed to the field of S. Isidore, and there to slaughter a cow to be distributed among the poor. But the most ancient Confraternity of this name is in the church of S. Andrew of Madrid, which the Bishop of Novara, Apostolic Nuncio, united to the Confraternity of the Most Holy Sacrament, both appellations joined together, in the year 1537.

[53] That the body also of S. Isidore, as of one truly a Saint, a threefold annual procession at Madrid. is wont to be brought forth for public necessities, is clear from the Instruments of the year 1421 and 1426 above produced. It is clear also from perpetual use, that to the honor of the same Saint three processions are instituted each year, with the greatest solemnity and concourse of the people: the first in the month of May, which is led from the church of S. Andrew to the hermitage of the Saint, which we have now twice said to be above his miraculous fountain; and to this, bearing the radiated image of the Saint, there proceeds to meet it the Confraternity of the Saint, which is at Caramanchel. The second is held on the Octave of the Most Holy Sacrament; in which, proceeding from the said church to the aforenamed hermitage, the image of the Saint is likewise carried before the casket of the Most Holy Sacrament. The third is celebrated on the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, with the same image and from the same church, toward Our Lady of Atocha. Finally it is most certain, that in all the processions which are instituted for obtaining rain, the image of the Saint is carried about.

[54] Visitation of the incorrupt body in 1504, In the year 1504, on the 21st day of June, the body of the Saint himself was visited by the Bachelor John de Centenera, Archpriest of Maqueda, Canon of Vich, and Visitor general in the Archdeaconries of Madrid and Guadalajara, for the most illustrious D. Fr. Francis Ximenez Archbishop of Toledo: and he found it preserved within a chapel at the horn of the Gospel, in a very large tomb, which they commonly call S. Isidore's. The tomb was painted round about, so that many miracles of the aforesaid Saint were expressed: and it was kept closed with four keys, which then were held by the Curate of the place, D. Maria wife of D. John Luxau, John de Vargas, and John Ruiz de Tapia, probably Rectors of Madrid: but within that chest there was another smaller one, under one key, which the honorable man Garcia Alvarez kept, whose severed arm could not be carried away. a Beneficiary in that same church: and in this chest was enclosed the holy body, wrapped in fine white silk, and covered with a certain colored cloth. It is indeed entire in flesh and bones, except that the right arm, cut off at the elbow, is bound to it by a certain band. The author of this cutting is said to have been the Lady Joanna, wife of King Henry II or IV, and that with this end, that she might transfer it elsewhere; but that she was unable to carry out her purpose. Moreover the stature of the body is tall: and a large old grating is stretched before the door of the chapel, the double key of which the Clergy keep.

[55] From an old MS. Inventory also of the possessions and goods of the church of S. Andrew it is had, that the wooden image, which King Alphonsus placed there, was covered with gilded silver plates. The silver of the statue diverted to other uses. But that these plates were removed in the year 1510 on the 25th day of April, by the counsel of certain parishioners of S. Andrew, that for their price a panel of the major altar might be made, is clear from the same book of Visitations: and there is found an Act of the year 1541, by which it appears that Francis Sanchez, Curate of that church, sold to a certain silversmith of Madrid, Gregory Malvenda, thirty marks of silver, taken from the image already mentioned, at the estimation of one thousand two hundred and ten maravedis for each mark. And finally in another instrument of the year 1553 Francis Sanchez, Cleric Curate, is exonerated from the sum of nine hundred and eighteen maravedis, which he seemed to have spent in restoring the fountain of S. Isidore, adjoined to the church itself.

[56] In the year 1567 on the 19th day of July the body of S. Isidore was again inspected, Other visitations in the year 1567, by D. Gomez Tello de Giron, by Apostolic authority Governor of the Church of Toledo in spiritual and temporal matters: and the tomb of four keys was opened, and the chest of one. This chest was covered with a cloth variegated with golden and silken figures, but was clothed with colored leather fixed with gilded little nails; and opened it exhibited the holy body, wrapped in white silk as in a shroud, and in another exterior covering of coarser linen. These being rolled back, it appeared entire as to the head (in whose mouth some teeth were still numbered), the jaws, the neck, the breast, the arms, the hands, the fingers, the nails, the shins and the feet; but separately in a certain silken phylactery was enclosed a part of a finger from the right hand. All which being considered, the chest was cleaned, and into it was placed back the holy body, and it was locked with its five keys.

[57] in the year 1595 on the 27th of March Thus far from chapter 31. But in chapter 33, pursuing the same argument, Bleda speaks thus: Antony Vasquez Romay, Apostolic Protonotary and Deputy of the Curate of S. Andrew, gives credence to the aforesaid visitations in the year 1594; the same testifies in the year 1595, that John Francis Aldobrandini, nephew of Pope Clement VIII, General of the Ecclesiastical Army, and then lodged in the house of the Apostolic Nuncio next to the church of S. Andrew, was requested on the part of the Magistracy of Madrid, through D. John Hurtado de Mendoza Lord of Fresno de Torote, and D. Luis de Toledo and Mendoza Lord of Villafranca, to come to inspect the body of S. Isidore; inasmuch as the business of the Canonization, which had begun to be instructed, might by his commendation be more effectively promoted with his uncle. He assented, promising that he would not depart from Madrid before, discharging that office, he had satisfied his own devotion toward the Saint. And so on the 27th day of March, the day after Easter, after the second hour after noon before Vespers, with a noble and numerous retinue, he came to the chapel of the Saint; and enjoyed the holy spectacle, with great edification of himself and of his own; who, the more numerous they were and the greater in authority, the more certainly they could testify, when they had returned to Rome, how entire and how sweet-smelling was the body of S. Isidore.

[58] and on the 22nd of April; In the same year 1595 on the 22nd day of April, the same holy body was visited by Francis de Morejon, Canon of Toledo, for Albert Cardinal of the Holy Cross, Archbishop-elect of Toledo; and finding that the tomb was closed by only a single lock, and another hanging or chained one; he willed that there should henceforth be five locks, the keys of which he committed to various persons. in the year 1593 and 1613. Philip II also, King of the Spains, had inspected the holy body, before in the year 1593 he gave the first letters concerning the business of the Canonization to Clement VIII. Finally in the year 1613 on the 7th day of March, to prove the miraculous integrity and sweet odor of the holy body, it was inspected by Apostolic authority by the most illustrious and most reverend D. Bernard de Rojas, Cardinal Presbyter of the Holy Roman Church under the title of S. Anastasia, Archbishop of Toledo; the most reverend D. Fr. Francis de Sosa, Bishop of the Canaries, of the Council of the general Inquisition; D. John de Hoces, Apostolic Protonotary, Canon of the Church of Cartagena; Judges remissorial and Commissaries designated from Rome to this end, before Francis de Salcedo Apostolic Notary, His Holiness's Nuncio D. Antony Cajetan, and the Duke of Infantado and very many others: there being present also the Rectors of the royal city of Madrid, Diego de Urbina, Lawrence Lopez de Castillo, and John Gonzalez de Almunia.

[59] The inspections of the holy body related in these last three numbers had been preceded by its Translation into a new Chapel, For the body to be transferred into the new chapel which they call the Bishop's: of which Translation Bleda, about to treat, weighs the faculty granted for this by Pope Leo X to the Licentiate Francis de Vargas, Counselor and Treasurer of King Charles, relating, that considering himself born at Madrid, a place most renowned in all Spain on account of the ordinary residence of the Kings there; and that the same city is most devoted toward S. Isidore; he desired to build for him a proper chapel, and in it to make a magnificent and sumptuous sepulcher for his body, which until then was found in the church of S. Andrew in a less adorned place.

But that he would build this chapel at the side of the parish itself, and would endow it with books, chalices, ornaments, and all the rest of the apparatus for the divine Office, for a major Chaplain and six other minor ones, Leo X gives the faculties: reserving to himself and his own the right of Patronage. When Pope Leo had assented to this for the aforesaid Licentiate, by a Brief to be found in the archive of the church (Leo, moreover, died in the year 1521), and had approved that the chapel to be built by him, within which the holy body ought to be placed with so great honor, should be called the chapel of S. Isidore; the things which Vargas had piously conceived were committed to execution: whence lawsuits arose and by him and his heirs the chapel was constructed, within which the old chapel was enclosed. But because, breaking through the wall there where had been the door through which one entered into the chapel, they spread a larger arch; hence grave and long-lasting lawsuits arose, the Curate and parishioners of S. Andrew complaining, that by this means they were hindered in their Offices by the Chaplains who were instituted in the chapel of the Saint. And the matter proceeded so far, that through Andrew de la Cadena, Canon of Plasencia, Episcopal Judge, a sentence of excommunication was passed against the Curate and parishioners: from which appealing to the Royal Council, they violently obtained that they should be provisionally absolved, in the year 1544 on the 8th day of June.

[60] But the matters having progressed thus far, at length on the 1st of November of the same year the beginning of a manner of concord was made, in the year 1544 they are settled: between D. John de Tavera Presbyter Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo on the one part, and D. Gutierre de Carvajal Bishop of Plasencia and his brother Diego de Vargas, both heirs of the Licentiate Francis de Vargas, on the other part, on these conditions; that the Bishop of Plasencia should renounce whatever right of Patronage or Benefice in the church of S. Andrew, and should bind himself to close the arch made in the wall with work of stone or brick, so that the Clergy ministering on both sides should not mutually obstruct one another in their offices; and nevertheless that in the wall itself there should be left another arch, moderately raised from the level of the pavement, and proportioned to the chest of the holy body; so that, that being placed under it, it might be seen and adored even by those who should be in the church of S. Andrew. When the instrument of this concord was offered to be signed by the Bishop of Plasencia, he did not approve the added condition concerning the lesser arch, not sufficiently consonant with that by which it ought to have been provided, that the Clergy should not in any way hinder one another, especially because he had already provided another place within the chapel, in which the chest might far more becomingly be placed, namely next to the altar at the side of the Gospel: and under this moderation he himself also signed on the 22nd day of November, and in the year 1545, Paul III approving. and in the year next following, 1545, obtained from Pope Paul III the confirmation of those things which Leo had granted to his father. The common people, however, took it into their use, that what the father had wished to be called the chapel of S. Isidore, should everywhere be named the Bishop's chapel, because he had taken upon himself the chief care of completing and adorning it.

[61] The body is transferred into the new monument: The body therefore, which for twenty-four, or twenty-six years (as others will have it), meanwhile while the chapel was being built and there was dispute about the manner and right of placing the Saint in it, had been removed from its former place and kept elsewhere; not without the loss of many notices concerning the miracles: at length was carried into the monument prepared by the Bishop, within its wooden chests, in the manner in which it was found in the year 1561 as is said above at number 56. But Master John Lopez de Hoyo greatly erred, when he said that this Translation was made under the Catholic Kings Ferdinand and Isabella: nor less Fr. John Gutierrez, of the Order of Preachers in the sixth Lection, asserting that it was made under King Philip II; whereas it certainly pertains to the times of the Emperor Charles V, as is clear from the aforesaid Acts. The matter remained in that state until the year 1620. Then indeed, on occasion of the canonization for which most urgently it was being treated at Rome, and in the year 1620 into a silver chest. the silversmiths of Madrid made for the holy body a most precious urn, on which to sixteen thousand ducats were spent for the material of silver and gold: which unless they had contributed their labor gratis, the price would not have been paid for thirty thousand ducats. Into this therefore was translated that spoil, snatched from the common corruptibility of human nature, of which Marineus Siculus thus speaks: I myself saw the body of S. Isidore; and it is so entire, that it might be believed to be deprived of life only two or three months ago: and what I more admire, since in every corpse the first thing to be corrupted is the tip of the nostrils and the white of the eyes; both in him are so unimpaired, that there occurred to me that place of Scripture, A hair of your head shall not perish. Luke 21, 18 Thus far Bleda.

[62] Marineus flourished and wrote under Charles V, to whom he offered the books on the affairs of Spain, XXII in number, carried down to the year 1517: but in these I find nothing of the kind, so that he must have mentioned that matter elsewhere: unless perhaps the Frankfurt edition of the year 1603 in the volumes of Hispania illustrata is mutilated in very many places. And this Bleda makes me suspect, at the beginning of chapter 34 citing in the Margin from the edition of the year 1539, book 2, fol. 13, page 1, concerning the Province of Lusitania, as if there he speaks of the fountain raised by S. Isidore, whereas in the Frankfurt edition taken from the first Alcalá edition of the year 1530 or the second of the year 1533, under that book and title there is indeed found the Saint named with praise, but no word about the fountain. He indeed, prematurely breaking off the thread of book 22, in which he had written numerously concerning the illustrious men of Spain, not only past, but also then living; thinks it enough to have enumerated the Emperors born in Spain, suppressing the rest by the judgment of his Princes, lest less favor should arise to him from those commemorated, than envy from those passed over. But it is scarcely credible that he there treated of the Saints, who treats of these expressly in book 5, Isidore however being omitted, of whom he had already treated in book 2. Unless perhaps, after he had offered to his Princes a copy of that work, according to which was made the Alcalá and then the Frankfurt edition, he afterwards added and supplied many things, and from such a MS. proceeded the edition of the year 1539, concerning which matter we desire to be taught by the learned Spaniards.

MORE RECENT MIRACLES

Collected from the Processes by James Bleda,

Isidore the farmer, at Madrid in Castile (S.)

FROM THE PROCESSES

CHAPTER I.

After certain miracles, attesting the glory of the saint, several sick persons cured are enumerated.

[1] Here I would first wish the pious reader to be admonished, that (because the matter of miracles is so delicate, that in it a truthful writer can indulge himself in nothing) in those things which I have written hitherto and am about to write hereafter, I have closely followed and have resolved to follow the original documents, adding or taking away no word. Book 2 chapter 5 But if from the Latin it has been necessary to render anything in Spanish, I have preferred to render word for word, rather than to change anything for the sake of style. So therefore I shall here relate the miracles of S. Isidore word for word, as I found them in the Processes. Thus he: But we, being compelled to make the same Latin again from the Spanish, were not pleased to be so scrupulous: for why, being destitute of the original context, should we wish to cling tenaciously to a phrase not the primogenial one, with infinite tedium to readers, from the multiplication of words double or triple more than is needful? there was no cause for it. But let us return to Bleda, who, mention again being made of the Processes, proceeds thus: When the Catholic King Philip II had written to his orator at Rome the Duke of Sessa in the year 1593 on the 25th day of March, A Procurator chosen to plead the cause of canonization, in the year 1593 the City and Magistracy of Madrid in the same year on the 6th of April gave power of acting concerning that cause to Ferdinand Mendez de Ocampo, and P. Fr. Dominic de Mendoza, and Diego de Salas Barbadillo: to which last the Stewards and Officials of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Sacrament, in the churches of SS. Peter and Andrew, gave power, by themselves and their substitutes to treat that business with the King and his Counselors and Pope Sixtus V. He therefore, about to give a beginning to the matter to be pleaded, offered a supplication of this kind to the Archbishop of Toledo, D. Gaspar de Quiroga Cardinal, Primate of the Spains and Inquisitor general, of which this was the sum. Chapter 6

[2] [he obtains from the Archbishop of Toledo a mandate concerning the procuring of the informations,] Most illustrious Lord, this city of Madrid, before it presents itself to the sight of our most holy Lord Clement Pope VIII, to this end that he may permit it here to be treated of the canonization of B. Isidore, whose body is honored in the church of S. Andrew; supplicates Your Lordship, that you would command your Vicar general, residing at this Court, or some one of his Visitors, that they receive information concerning the life, fame and miracles of the said servant of God: and that they consign to us one or another copy of it so received for the aforesaid end, at Madrid the 13th of April 1593. This supplication was offered to the Archbishop by the Vicar of Madrid himself, Doctor Neroni, Abbot major of the church of Alcalá de Henares; and from him he received in mandate, to undertake the desired information, and to examine the witnesses to be produced on the part of the city. But the first produced to this information by D. Diego de Salas Barbadillo, Syndic of the city, on the 2nd day of August, was Master Fr. Diego de Alderete, by whom witnesses were produced, concerning the integrity of the body, Prior of the Convent of S. Thomas of Madrid of the Order of Preachers; and on the 11th, P. Fr. Dominic de Mendoza of the same Order. But afterwards there were presented other and other witnesses concerning the life and virtues of the Saint, asserting that they had been present at the visitation of his body; and had found it entire and so sweetly smelling, that that miraculous odor would more delightfully affect the nostrils than the fragrance of any aromatics whatever.

[3] The first then heard, on the 24th day of August, was Francis Barragan, concerning Angels seen at the sepulcher Chaplain-Major in the chapel of S. John Lateran founded by the Bishop of Plasencia. He on oath deposed, that he had heard it said by John Ximenez, a Cleric, nephew of Francis Sanchez formerly Curate of S. Andrew, that, withdrawing to lie down, to the sacristy of the said church of S. Andrew, where he had his bed made, he saw Angels fly out of the old chapel, where was the holy body; and take the lamp burning before it, and carry it around the church, in such wise that by that swift motion neither was the light extinguished nor the oil poured out: but in the morning, coming to inspect the same, he found it burning with the oil safe within. Francis was, when he was examined, in the eighty-fourth year of his age; and to his deposition he added, that in an old Breviary of Toledo, a copy of which he had obtained, it was said that S. Isidore was that shepherd who led the army of King Alphonsus; and that that breviary had been in use of the whole Archbishopric of Toledo.

[4] Gregory Barragan then, citizen and native of Madrid, of 83 years, said, that the Hymns, concerning the proper Office formerly in use, which are written down in the book, were formerly wont to be sung; and that he himself, when he was Sacristan in the church of S. Andrew, sang them together with the Curate. Likewise that, rain failing, he had often seen the body of the Saint brought out, with the desired effect soon following: and that for about fifty years there, the Sacristan, on certain days through the week and especially on Saturdays, finding the lamps extinguished, burning before the venerable Sacrament and the body of the Saint; saw the same a little after burning, no one applying a light. the lamps kindled from heaven, Maria Hurtado, formerly maidservant of the Archpriest, related that she had heard her Master saying, that the Sacristans of S. Andrew were wont to affirm; that the lamp, set out before the body of the Saint, frequently remained extinguished through the night, and in the morning was always found burning. Likewise that she had heard a certain Sacristan of that church, in the time of her aforesaid Master, Sebastian by name, affirming that he had sometimes perceived in the said church heavenly chants. But all alike affirm, that it is true concerning the rain, wont continually to follow upon the bringing out of the body, and concerning its sweet fragrance. Likewise also the other miracles which shall be further described are had from the sayings of the sworn witnesses written down by the Apostolic Notaries, which I did not wish to reduce to an order of matters, that the variety of arguments may the more delight the readers.

[5] Donna Catharina de Garnica, widow of the late Francis de Arguello citizen of Madrid, an incurable abscess suddenly healed; said, that there had come upon her two-year-old daughter a great abscess in the throat about the left jaw, for which in vain many surgeons had made medicine: and that Doctor Torres, physician and surgeon of his Majesty, ordered that on the following day a brazier with burning coals be kept ready, because the girl's jaw was putrefied, and therefore must be cauterized. Chapter 7. So the anxious mother hastened with her daughter to the church of S. Andrew, commending the girl to S. Isidore, and praying that he would be willing to heal her. And when on the next day she had prepared the brazier, and the surgeon had heated his irons red-hot in it; the cloths having been removed from the wound for the cure, she was found wholly healed and consolidated; so much so that the surgeon judged that nothing should be applied to her except a small plaster, understanding with admiration from the mother, how the little one, offered to S. Isidore, had been cured by him. Matthew Ordoñez, citizen a lame woman set upright of Madrid, of 60 years, said, that he had heard a certain man, a Salamancan by country, by habitation a Madrilenian, who affirmed that, afflicted with many infirmities, both of fevers and of other accidents, he had always found a present remedy in the hermitage of S. Isidore, by drinking of his fountain: and that it happened once, that when he was there, there came to the same place a certain lame woman on an ass, with crutches under her arms: who descending to the ground, when she had drunk of the same water, and washed her shins, departed healed, leaving her crutches in the place.

[6] To an obstinate Moor, to whom the Saint had fallen by lot, Diego Martines de Luxan, a Moor, servant of Francis Martinez who is scribe of the Senate of Madrid, said that when he served his former Master the Licentiate Benedict de Luxan citizen of Madrid, his sister and certain other women, casting lots among themselves of the names of Saints, asked of him; whether he too would wish to come into part of the casting of lots. To whom, mocking them, he said: let them do as they would, he cared nothing for such things. They therefore wrote his name also, and mixed it with the rest; and when by lot S. Isidore had fallen to him, they gave him his slip to keep. The Moor kept it, certain, as it seemed to him, that he would never be converted from his ancestral superstition to the Christian religion, although he was much solicited to this by the household, and by his Master himself, promising that he would grant him liberty: to whom he always answered, that he would rather live a Moor and serve forever, than enjoy liberty a Christian. Meanwhile his master fell sick into bed, and sent this his slave with a jar to the fountain of S. Isidore, to draw water thence; where, finding a certain friend of his, who related to him many great deeds of S. Isidore, and persuaded him to become a Christian, he answered: All these things may be good for Christians, after a twofold admonition for me by no means, who do not wish to be one. But on the next night, when, the candle extinguished, going to bed he was sleeping deeply; he dreamed that he heard the voices of those saying, Ahmed, your Master calls you; and it seemed to him that he was dragged by the hair and forced out of bed. Waking in this terror, he found the chamber full of light; and running to the candle and seeing it extinguished, he went on to the hall, to see whether the household were calling him. But hearing no one, he returned to bed. he being converted to the faith, Sleeping again therefore, he heard again the same voice, saying to him: Ahmed, be a Christian: because S. Isidore, from whose fountain you brought water, commands you this. It seemed also to him, that the bed sank down, and that some force was striving to draw him out thence. And waking again he beheld the same brightness in the chamber; and seeing no one, he went out to see whether perchance it had grown light: and finding it to be still full night, and struck with great fear, he lay down again; but in vain. He began therefore to understand that God willed that he should become a Christian, and that he owed this to the merits of S. Isidore. Accordingly he signified to his Master that his mind was changed: and by his care being instructed and baptized, he became a Christian, hoping or wishing thenceforth no advantage from it.

[7] Diego Ramirez, citizen of Madrid, said, fevers cured; that he, of fifty years, and Dionysius de España, Cleric and Curate of S. John of Madrid, suffered from a tertian fever; and they went to the hermitage, and drank of the fountain which the Saint drew forth; nor did they thereafter feel any access of it. Peter Ortiz, citizen and born at Madrid, doorkeeper of his Majesty's chamber, said that, suffering at various times tertian or continued fevers, as often as he visited S. Isidore, he returned healed from his chapel. Moreover that three years before, afflicted with the gout in such a manner, likewise concerning the gout, that he could not move from his bed, nor in any way stand upon his feet for six whole months; these being passed he devoted himself heartily to the Saint, and rising walked with a staff to his hermitage; and thence greatly relieved he returned home, and shortly felt himself freed from every disease. John Martinez de Figueroa, palsy, said, that when he was held by palsy, his father undertook to cure him by enrolling him in the Fraternity of S. Isidore, and said: Come, son, trust in God and S. Isidore, that you shall shortly be healed, for now you are his Confrater. No more: when the sick man asked for his clothes, he rose, and healed went to visit the body of his new Patron. The same said, an abscess, that Diego de Villalobos a Notary, gravely sick from an internal abscess, and now abandoned by the physicians, commended himself to the Saint; and after a copious vomit of pure matter became healed. The same added that the sick are healed, over whom is placed the cloth in which was wrapped the body of the Saint, and that he had seen this in John Gomez his father-in-law. But Matthew Lopez a surgeon attested, that the healing of Diego de Villalobos was miraculous. And Diego himself finally appeared as witness LXIII, adding, that fortified with the last Sacraments he had been at the point of death.

[8] Lucy Martinez of Valdemorillo, citizen of Madrid, said that suffering fevers, pain of the throat and head, with great pain of the head and throat, and very sick, she ordered water to be brought to her from the Saint's fountain: which drunk, she felt herself better, and shortly wholly recovered without any other remedy. She adds that, oppressed by a certain grave temptation, she was freed by the same, as soon as before the holy body she commended this her spiritual necessity to God. John Aguine, barber and surgeon, citizen of Madrid, said, that Diego Ordoñez a halter-maker, pleurisy, in the market of the said city, from pain of the side was sick unto death, given over by the physicians: above whose bed, as he commended himself to S. Isidore, when his sepulchral cloth had been spread, within the eighth day he rose healed, seeming at that very instant to be better. Maria Petri Garcia Vergara, wife of Garcia Machado a porter of Madrid, sick unto death from fevers, after the third day on which she commended herself to the Saint, entirely recovered. Peter Carañazor citizen of Madrid, for the same cause fortified with extreme Unction, fevers, drew health together with water sought from the said fountain. Don Alphonsus de Mendoza, Lord of Cubas and Griñon, laboring with a dangerous tertian, recovered by taking the same water. Lewis de Medina a tailor, citizen of Segovia, torment of the knees, suffering a most grievous pain in one knee, for which the physicians found no remedy; came on horseback to the said fountain; and thence having drunk after he had commended himself to the Saint, returned home healed and on foot, as if he had never suffered any harm.

[9] limping, Peter de Cuenza, citizen of Madrid, said that in the year 1535 coming with his father and mother to the market, which has its name from Puerta del Sol, he saw near the hospital a certain poor man, who leaning on two crutches could scarcely move himself. But after a few days passing there again, he saw the same man surrounded by a great crowd of people, leaping and saying that, healed by the merits of S. Isidore, he had left his little crutches in his hermitage. John Hurtado, a baker of Madrid, pestilence, greatly weakened by fevers (for the more care the physicians applied to him, the worse he experienced himself to be) drank water of the Saint brought to him, and shortly sweated much and was healed. Francis de Leyva, an ironsmith, citizen of Madrid, touched by a pestilential fever, in the very heat of it rose, and as he could went off to the hermitage of the Saint, prayed, drank, a difficult childbirth, and returned healed without fever. Lewis Lopez, wife of John Martinez de Figueroa, laboring in a difficult childbirth, and unable to be delivered, as soon as the oft-mentioned cloth was placed upon her, healed brought forth a living infant. the venereal disease, Blasius de Amor a weaver, citizen of Madrid, so affected by the venereal disease, that (since no other remedy remained) it was judged that the genitals must be cut off; he too went, as best he could, to the said hermitage, and commended himself to the Saint: and washing the ill-affected parts again and again with that water, did this so long, until he felt all the burning dissipated, and was able to return home healed.

[10] fevers, Mariana Osoria, widow of Peter Lopez, citizen of Madrid, had a two-year-old son laboring with a grave fever, to whom for two months the applied remedies of the physicians had profited nothing. She therefore carried him to the church of S. Andrew before the body of S. Isidore, offered him to the same, and beginning to be better carried him back home, where he recovered within one day. Francisca de la Paz a widow, wife of the late Peter Fuentes, citizen of Madrid, and many others from these provinces, said, that as soon as they commended themselves to S. Isidore, they were made safe from their infirmities. Catharina de Peralta, limping, wife of John Recas, citizen of Madrid,

made sick almost with the plague and with pustules and given over by the physicians, by drinking of the Saint's fountain preserved her life. To the same there came so great a pain in one of the hips, that the limping woman had to remove the son whom she was nursing; but when she had vowed to go to the hermitage of the Saint, on the next day she walked there healed. D. Francisca de Calrera, citizen of Madrid, struggling for two whole years with quartan fevers, when she had visited his body in the church of S. Andrew nine times, at the end of that observance was free from them. Jerome Lezcano a student, weighed down with so great a pain of the breast, that he took no sleep either by day or by night; pain of the breast. while passing the church of S. Andrew he had entered there, and had commended himself to S. Isidore; a little after he cast out from his mouth a little bone, larger than a hazelnut, and thereafter felt no more pain. Mariana Calba, citizen of the town of Peñafiel, laboring with a double tertian, asked that water of the said fountain be brought to her, and with the same drank health.

CHAPTER II.

Fevers and other diseases healed by the use of water received from the fountain of S. Isidore.

[11] By the use of the fountain of S. Isidore are healed Francisca Vasquez, wife of Alphonsus Davila a painter, laboring with continual fevers more than two years, and helped nothing by the physicians who had undertaken to cure her; resolved to seek a remedy at the fountain of the Saint. Therefore placed upon a beast of burden (for she could not have gone there by herself) and praying there, she drank of the water, and by drinking wiped away the fever; and thence returned with a great appetite for food, which she had lacked before. Maria Lopez de la Cruz, wife of Alphonsus Sanchez de la Cruz, a carrier of burdens at Madrid, in past years laboring with tertians, in the very cold went off to the hermitage of S. Isidore, drank of the fountain, and returned home healed. And she saw the same to have happened to her husband's brother Martin Sanchez; various fevers, and to her own husband, whom, about to go on a journey and hindered by a tertian, she commended to the Saint, and sent off healed. Likewise to Mariana de la Rosa, widow of the Licentiate Rojas a physician, suffering tertians for three months, who commending herself to S. Isidore, a phial of water from his fountain was brought: but when she drained it, she felt the strength of the fevers likewise drained. Maria Suarez a widow, wife of the late Bartholomew Cortezudo, said, that her father in the year 1550 could not go without a staff, because he limped, struck by a mule: but as he washed his shin at the Saint's fountain and prayed there, pain of the breast, the daughter saw the wound healed without any other remedy: and she herself afterwards, when she suffered a grave pain in the breast, from an infirmity which they called recooked bile, as soon as she commended herself heartily to the Saint, received relief.

[12] Catharina de Lerma, devoted to God, whom the Spaniards call a Beata, laboring with a double tertian, twice a day recrudescing, sought health from S. Isidore: who appeared to her one day standing by her bed, and no more did the paroxysm return, and thenceforth she fully recovered. Maria de Azevedo, tertians, wife of Peter de Quiros a court doorkeeper, said, that Jerome de Escobar, so made sick by fevers that the physicians said it was all over with her life, when she drank of the water of the said fountain within one hour recovered: and the same happened to the same woman similarly sick one year later. Isabella de Zuniga, wife of John Ordoñez de Montesdoca, said, that eighteen years before she suffered a double tertian exceedingly vehement, and as she could went on foot to the hermitage of the Saint, and the water being taken recovered. And the same, as a witness from sight, she asserts to have happened to her mother Francisca de Zuniga; this same thing being affirmed by her sister a virgin, Mariana de Zuniga. D. Isabella Tellez a widow, wife of the late Licentiate Moralis, said, that when a certain nephew of hers, called Lewis Cornejo, labored with a grave tertian, going herself to pray for his health she came to the church of S. Andrew, and saw above the chest of the holy body an immense splendor: and when she returned home, she found her nephew healed. She added moreover that a certain man from Alcocer, known to her, while laboring with a quartan he commended himself to the Saint whose body stood to be looked upon, recovered, as she herself saw and testified.

[13] obstruction of the bowels and bladder, John Perez a halter-maker, said, that when from pain of the side he suffered so great a constriction of the whole body, that for four days he could neither pass urine nor relieve his bowels, he had himself carried to the hermitage and fountain of S. Isidore: and as soon as he drank of it, he felt himself at once loosed on both sides, and returned home healed. John Garcia Sutor, in the same manner said he was freed from a tertian, which he never suffered after taking that water. Isabella Garcia, widow of Francis Perez a bookseller, pain of the head and shins, by the same water drove away a quartan, which had vexed her for ten months. Isabella de Herrera, a weaver of linen cloth, said, that being benumbed with a certain coldness of the whole body, with fevers and vehement pain of the head and shins for six whole months, having drunk and washed at the same fountain she recovered health without any other medicine: and confirming this by attestation her father Arnold Gimbao a poulterer added this. D. Lewis de Ayala, widow of Lawrence Maldonado and daughter of John del Monte, citizen of Madrid, said, that suffering a colic pain on the right side her belly so swelled, that she could scarcely breathe. Commending herself therefore to the Saint she vowed a vow of going to the hermitage and doing certain other things, of the belly and foot, fulfilling which soon, in the company of D. Joanna de Briviesca, her kinswoman, she washed with the water of that fountain one foot, so ill-affected that it was now devoid of all sensation, then devoutly drank of the same: and she who for eight months had been infirm and almost mute, on the following day with a clear and distinct voice asserted, that she had her foot healed.

[14] Andrew de Urbina, servant of the Admiral of Castile, said, that when he and his wife laboring with tertian fevers were held in bed, they commended themselves to S. Isidore, and asked for water from the fountain, and drank: which done the fever departed from them, and on the third day after they rose healed: which his wife also asserted, Francisca Ruyz. John Sanchez de Torquemada, a Cleric, fiscal Promoter in the Court of the Episcopal Audience of Madrid, attested that there had come to him a pain in the left hip after the manner of sciatica, so that he had to use a staff to walk. But in this state he went on to the hermitage of the Saint, sciatica, and Mass being said there, departed without a staff, as wholly healed as if he had suffered nothing at all. Maria de Aguirre a virgin deposed, that to her laboring with very dangerous fevers the oft-mentioned water was brought: which after prayers made to the same being taken, she began to dissolve in a vehement sweat, and at the same time to be freed from the fever. The same moreover she asserted to have befallen her at other times afterwards, when she was similarly sick. D. Lewis Mendez, widow of Andrew de Esquivel, servant of his Majesty, by a similar draught and sweat following prayer, said she was freed from a tertian fever. Francisca del Castillo, wife of Peter de la Torre, court Janitor, strangury, affirmed that being hindered for three whole days to pass urine, taking the same water she emitted a great stone, and soon felt herself healed. She affirmed also that, laboring again with the same infirmity, she went to the church of S. Andrew, and commended herself to S. Isidore, and returned home healed: and finally that her two sons, carried thither, were freed from fevers.

[15] D. Maria Vaca de Ocampo, wife of Andrew de Parres, said, that she offered to the Saint her little daughter, sixteen months old and burning with a most grave fever, and ordered her to be carried to his sepulcher for nine days, and so she recovered; and that she herself also, gravely tribulated, was freed from all trouble, after prayers offered to the Saint. Maria Gonzalez, widow of Garcia Rodriguez, laboring with fever and pestilent and dangerous pustules, pestilent fever, professed that she had taken of the Saint's town water and was made well. But again when one of her shins pained her, she went to his hermitage, washed, and returned home healed. Anna Maria de Mendez sought water from the same fountain, and drove away a tertian fever, after she had emitted sweat. D. Maria Pereyra, wife of Florian de Lugo, servant of the Imperial Majesty, suffering a flux of blood for three years not without danger, visited the body of S. Isidore which lay exposed; flux of blood, and commending herself to the same, cast out a clotted mass of blood, and departed healed. Francisca Gonzalez, widow of John Palermo, made sick by fevers, drank of the fountain of S. Isidore; and commending herself to him with great devotion, received health: which same thing she saw happen to John Garcia, a cap-maker, wont to spend his nights in her house.

[16] divers fevers, D. Maria de Montalvo, widow of Gaspar Perez de Horosco, said, that laboring with continual, tertian and quartan fevers for six months, she was healed by a similar draught. Francis also Martinez de Bel, a Bookseller, to whom his wife Maria de Leon attested, affirmed that for four years he suffered a vehement fever, from which he was freed by water drunk from the fountain, after his stomach was emptied by vomit. Eleanor Hernandez Francos, forty years before bearing a double tertian, and the same taking increase, abandoned by the physicians, and for some time without food or drink; asked that water from the fountain be brought to her; which taken removed the disease. Isabella de Quintana, wife of Diego Moreno a farmer, brought the same water to her husband, laboring with fever and vomiting for a month to the desperation of the physicians: who commending himself to the Saint and drinking, by a preceding sweat felt himself freed from both evils. But their little son, carried by his mother to the oratory of the Saint and washed at the fountain, after a similar sweat was said to have escaped the fever.

[17] Francis de Orisalva, says that twenty years before there befell him an abscess about the liver, a lethal abscess, with fevers and a great pain of the side; wherefore to him now despaired of by the physicians a funeral linen had been prepared. But in this state he commended himself, as he says, to S. Isidore, and soon began to be better: but on the other day he ordered himself to be carried to his hermitage, and there prayed; and water having been drunk from the fountain, again felt himself better; finally while he was being carried back, in the very way he vomited up much bile, and suddenly recovered. Almost the same thing Michael Perez a merchant professed himself to have suffered, and to have been snatched from danger by a draught of the same water, sixteen years before. A dangerous infirmity also and exceedingly grave was suffered by Alphonsus Nuñez de Valdivia, a Royal minister, and feeling himself much relieved by a similar draught; he went on to take the same water, until he entirely recovered. The King's scribe also, John Alphonsus de Segura, in the same manner drove off dangerous fevers from his daughter Bernardina, and his maidservant Anna, who herself also came as witness to her masters. And the same benefit through the said water received Antony de Landabur a shoemaker, by a preceding cold, however, and sweat.

felt: as also did Julian Lazano, a weaver of linen cloths, having suffered a fever beyond three months, and gone to the hermitage and fountain of the Saint, in what better manner he could: nor did Captain Alphonsus Lara de Cordoba, citizen of Madrid, who suffering a tertian, had ordered water from there to be brought to him. With a tertian also labored John de Peñafiel a Royal scribe, his wife Maria Solis, and his daughter Marianna de S. Dominico, nor did they believe that a physician was needful for them, but water from the fountain; and within three days they recovered. So testified the mother and daughter. That the same had befallen him, not more than eight years before, professed Jerome Hernandez a farmer: but his father of the same name had twice labored with fever, and twice said he was cured, by going to the hermitage and drinking of the fountain.

[26] flux of blood, Bartholomew de Ureña, doorkeeper of that place which from the counting of the Royal money they call the major Contaduría, said his wife Catharina de Vega labored with continual fevers and a flux of blood; and when the physicians judged she would die of that infirmity, she had recourse by prayers to the known patronage of S. Isidore: and soon falling into sleep, when morning came was without fever; and the flux of blood ceasing within four days, she rose healed from her bed. But a certain woodworker, called Alphonsus Moreno, that he might be freed from a tertian, which he had borne three whole months, carried a cake to the hermitage of the Saint, dipped it in the fountain and ate it, and returned healed. Maria de Vaste asserted that she suffered an intolerable pain of the side twenty years before, pain of the side, widow of the Licentiate Espinosa citizen of Madrid: of curing which when the physicians had despaired, she sought water from the fountain, drank, and obtained health. She added also, concerning her kinsman Peter de Vaste, that foully ruptured, a grave hernia, so that the descending intestines burst forth outside the belly, he went to the hermitage of the Saint, washed the place of the hernia with the water; and the intestines being soon restored and girt up, he returned healed.

[27] Francis Muñoz related, that to a well existing in the house of his grandfather in the Toledo square, which S. Isidore himself was said to have dug, a leech clinging to the throat, there came men from beyond Guadalajara, and drew water; which when one of them had drunk, to whom a leech entering through the mouth clung to his throat; he bent himself over a pitcher which they had filled with the same water; and a little after the leech came out, a fourth part of an ell long and swollen. They said moreover that they had come moved by the fame, by which it was said that leeches are cured by that water. The other added, that for three months he had suffered a quartan fever, nor had been freed before, than when in the hermitage of the Saint, the Mass being heard, he had received the body of Christ, and then water from the fountain. So also Alphonsus Ramos, apparitor of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Sacrament in the church of S. Justa of Madrid, divers fevers, said he had once washed away a fever in the same hermitage; but at other times by a single draught of the water brought thence, his wife Gabriela de S. Maria attesting to him. Nor was there need of any other remedy or labor against the fevers for John Gutierrez, servant of Roderick de Parras, a woodworker and mason, attesting this; and for his seven-year-old son and the Licentiate Ribero, in whose house this witness himself lived fifteen years before.

[28] Christopher de Arce, barber of his Highness the Cardinal and Archduke Albert, also a pestilent one, affirmed that twenty years had passed, that when pestilent spots broke out over his whole body, when he was believed now near to death, water brought from the fountain of S. Isidore being drunk by him from his mother, and himself commended to the same Saint, he began to sweat and soon recovered. After him Marianna de Rojas, wife of Alphonsus Sanchez, a barber and surgeon, deposed, and another with pleurisy: that her husband, laboring with pleurisy to the desperation of the physicians, as soon as the image of S. Isidore, to whom he was most devoted, was applied to the ill-affected side, began to sleep, and waking said he was healed: which Jerome de Rojas, sister of the deponent, also confirmed. A double quartan fever then, with which she had labored seven months, twenty-four years before, Lewis Lopez said had vanished from her, wife of Roch de S. Maria a woodworker, when in the hermitage of the Saint she had drunk of the water: as also Antony de Salazar a tailor, by the sole draught of the same water, because by the force of the fevers he was now brought to the extreme peril of life, he could not go thither: and that this was true his wife Joanna Lopez de Salazar also affirmed. In a like manner Marianna de Noriega, wife of Antony de Caceres a knife-maker, said she was healed from a vehement fever.

[29] and at the near peril of death: Anna Maria Ruyz, wife of Gonzalvo Fernandez de Vialo, a Royal scribe, when having suffered a miscarriage, she labored with a double tertian and was approaching death, was preserved in life and healed, after they had devoutly placed upon her the cloth in which the body of S. Isidore had been wrapped. Isabella Hernandez, wife of Peter de Reynaltes a silversmith, affirmed that when her son-in-law Alphonsus Gallo, laboring with the spotted plague and lethargy, had been fortified with extreme unction, she vowed that she would take care to have him carried to the hermitage of the Saint; and being soon restored to his senses she admonished him to commend himself to him: which he willingly doing, asked for water from his fountain; but as there was no one whom she might send thither, the witness herself a little after handed him common water, pretending it was that: but when the sick man had devoutly drunk this, he was better, and within four days rose entirely healed; as also her son-in-law's wife Joanna de Reynaltes, brought as co-witness, affirmed with an oath. But the mother herself, again reproduced in the process of the year 1597, affirmed the same matter, saying more expressly that it happened on the seventh day of the disease, and that the sick man rose from his bed likewise on the seventh day after tasting the salutary water: and finally that the cause of pretending for her was, that it was winter, and on account of the cold greater than usual and the copious mud, she did not wish to run out so far herself. Moreover by a draught of such water, and the application of the aforesaid cloth, Apollonia de Saravia, wife of Peter de Marañon, asserted that she was healed and rose that very day from her bed, in which quartan fevers had held her nine months, the physicians despairing of a cure: and this indeed while it was still cold. But in the very febrile heat by tasting the same water, Maria de Resa, wife of Peter Sanchez de Valverde, said she was healed. And by the sole application of the cloth Blasius Muñoz a barber testified that he received health from a fever, but a sweat preceding the health.

[30] Anna de Medina, widow of John de Moxica, of the household of the Marquis de Auñon, likewise other long-lasting ones, deposed, that her father Peter de Medina, after a quartan fever borne for ten months, betook himself to the oft-mentioned hermitage, and drank, and thence returned healed. Antonia de Berbie a Biscayan, formerly wife of Bartholomew Blanchi a wax-chandler, affirmed, that laboring with fever for twenty-eight years and having swollen shins, she drank the water brought from the fountain, began to sweat and recovered. Giving the same water to drink to her son, laboring with fever a whole year, Catharina de Vega, wife of Bartholomew de Pina a schoolmaster, brought him back healed from the hermitage where she had done this: and a like benefit received by a like draught fourteen years before Agnes de Moxica relates, wife of Martin Ochoa de Urbina, a Royal servant. But for D. Maria de Castro, that she might be freed from a fever and the spotted plague, it was enough to have invoked S. Isidore, as her cousin D. Maria de Montoya, wife of Doctor Belisa, testified. But to Joanna Dominguez, or joined with pleurisy, daughter of John Dominguez a silversmith, besides fever suffering grave pains from the kidneys, it seemed good to ask for water; and she was soon made possessed of her vow and of health. The same did Ferdinand Carnero de S. Joanne, apparitor of the hospital which in this city has its name from the Passion, when rising from his bed he dragged to the hermitage his limbs hot with fever; and recovered.

[31] Augustine de Santillana said, that laboring with a tertian, and so weak in stomach, that he scarcely every third or fourth day took food; by piously taking the water of S. Isidore he recovered, as also his wife, brought to extremity. The same of himself suffering a fever said Christopher de Yepez a locksmith, his wife Isabella de Cardenas attesting. But more gravely endangered Ferdinand de Mena a shoemaker asserted himself to be, pleurisy being added to the fevers and near to death, when he asked the same remedy for himself with the effect following: which to be true his wife Catharina de la Haya, on oath, also affirmed. D. Isabella de Vargas, wife of Alphonsus Lopez de Guevara, flux of blood, labored with a flux of hemorrhoids so troublesome, that she said she could neither sit nor walk; that she went nonetheless to the church of S. Andrew, and thence by praying brought back health. She added moreover that her son, dying of fever, was healed by the application of the aforesaid cloth. But that water brought from the fountain drove off the fever from her and her father Peter Dias, John Diaz a shoemaker swore. That the same happened to him, when at Toledo he was sick of a fever, attested the Squire Alfonsus Quintana de Villasante, citizen of Valencia; and also that before, when to the fever there had come a lethargy, by the judgment of the physicians mortal, a lethargy, but on the fourth day after the water was taken. He added moreover concerning his son Christopher, that on the fifth day, after prayers poured forth in the hermitage of the Saint, he was healed from a double swelling occupying the groin. In the same place, water being taken from the fountain, colic, the Licentiate Benedict Flores de S. Vincentio, Cleric and citizen of Salamanca, was healed from colic pains and want of appetite. And a like draught a sweat following, the fever departed from John Suarez de Canales.

[32] Fr. John Garcia de Jesus, Administrator of the College and house of Our Lady of Loreto, frequent vomiting, asserted that he had seen many sick persons, given over by the physicians, who were healed by the water of the fountain of S. Isidore brought and taken, and by name Francis Martinez Sacristan in S. Sebastian. Antony Grixote a farmer, with fever came to the hermitage of the Saint; and, as he says, the water being drunk slept, and rose healed. To the same place Clara Gonzalez, wife of John Camacho, asked to be carried, weakened now two months by fevers, lethargy and frequent vomiting: and there after a draught of the salutary water, she suffered a vomit more copious than usual: but returned home healed. But a simple draught of that water sufficed for Gregory Hernandez, as his daughter Joanna testified, wife of Francis de Valladolid a master of sword-making: and she added that she herself, about to die of the spotted plague and pleurisy, was preserved in life by the cloth placed upon her, which once had wrapped the body of S. Isidore: but at another time that she had recovered from a tertian, the sacrifice of the Mass being procured in his honor. And this is the last of the witnesses, presented in the above-praised process

through Diego Salas Barbadillo, John Gutiarre a Notary and Francis Vargas hearing them.

[33] Joanna de Zayas, wife of Dominic Martin a shoemaker, said, that when a lethargy came upon her in addition to a fever, she was anointed with the holy Oil, likewise a lethargy, when her husband gave her to drink water sought from the fountain of the Saint, which taken she recovered. Similarly to a fever the spotted plague had come upon Alphonsus Sanchez de Escobar, a singer of the chapel of the Bishop of Plasencia at Madrid, and the sick man was tending toward death; when the aforesaid cloth brought to him he piously kissed before it was laid upon him, and was gradually healed without any other medicine. To Lewis Fernandez also a silversmith a grave pleurisy had increased the fever: pleurisy, but after a draught of the water of Isidore a vomit following he remained healed: and he said this was done twenty years before. But when Andrew Maldonatus a glover could not be kept from a troublesome and grave fever, so as to rise from his bed, and go to the hermitage of the Saint as best he could; he too said he had experienced how salutary the water gushes forth there: the same his wife Eleanor Gomez attested, adding, that with the same water by a similar success she had used it against the sciatica with which she labored, and by washing with the same the hip which had become dead to her, sciatica, she shortly was much better, and within five days rose healed. Having the sharpness of his eyes hindered, Alphonsus de Carabias said that, the Saint being invoked, he received it again, and in thanksgiving offered a pair of silver eyes. dimness of the eyes, Nor was more needed for Maria Martel wife of Francis Rosales a silversmith, that she might be freed from a colic pain.

[34] Peter Hernandez an Innkeeper says he went off to the hermitage, and by the accustomed draught there drove from himself a grave tertian. The same did Peter de Vargas citizen of Madrid, arthritis, and felt himself free not only from the fever, but also from the arthritis with which he labored, within five days. To the same place her husband Francis Faxardo, servant of the Marquis de Algava, laboring with a quartan, his wife Agnes Rodriguez took care to have carried; and water being offered him she received him healed. But a tertian fever it was, borne a whole quarter, which there by a like remedy Lucy de Paz, formerly wife of Alexius de Cabildes, said she dismissed. And the same concerning his tertian, but a double one, affirmed Peti-John Vergel a silversmith, citizen of Madrid; and his wife Maria de Santander, to whom the spotted plague threatened death: and also Francis de Quiros a shoemaker, having suffered a fever. pain of the head, D. Andrew de Alabes, Inquisitor of the city and Archbishopric of Toledo, said, that when he grieved that he was deprived of sleep and rest, on account of the immense torment of the head prolonged through six or seven months; they brought him a cloth, once used for wrapping the holy body: and soon the torment ceased, and he began to sleep. To the same body once a night-cap brought near, when it was applied to D. Joanna de la Paz feverish, gave health; as her daughter D. Maria de Figueredo testified, adding concerning herself, that being once sick, she asked that water be brought to her from the fountain of S. Isidore, and so received health.

[35] The same experienced Anna de Aguilar, after three months in which she suffered a fever, when other remedies being tried in vain her mother Isabella Ruiz, wife of Alfonsus de Aguilar, doorkeeper of the Hall, had commended her to the Saint, and made her drink of his fountain: and her husband attesting to this his wife's deposition, pleurisy, confessed of himself, that brought by pleurisy into peril of death, the physicians despairing, he was healed, drinking the same water. Which doing also sixteen years before D. Maria de Padilla, wife of Captain Francis Duarte, to whom in addition to the spotted plague a lethargy equally dangerous had come, a lethargy, although the physicians likewise said it was all over with her life, was nevertheless healed. D. Maria de Espinosa wife of Bartholomew Rincon related, that her sister D. Maria de Ocampo suffering sciatica, in the sixth month after the beginning of the disease commended herself to the Saint; and seeming to see him in her sleep, sciatica, she recovered most entirely. And that not more than three years had passed Maria de Avila said, born in the town of Getafe, wife of John de Moles a sculptor, that in the very heat of a most grave fever going to the hermitage of the Saint, she drank health. Nay the Marshal John Nunnez de Prado, citizen and Rector of Salamanca, said it was only fifteen days, that he drank fasting water sought from there, and was lulled to sleep; but rising rejoiced, that he found himself free from a most grave fever. The same had happened five years before to Joanna de Triviño, wife of Martin de Lozoya, although the three physicians who tended her had affirmed, she would not live beyond four hours: for the water being taken sweat broke out over the whole body, and the fever with the infirmity vanished. So also two years before Maria Lopez, wife of Diego Lopez de Nuesto, born at Getafe, whom a lethargy joined to a fever had brought even to the gates of death.

[36] Isabella Hernandez, widow of Michael Sanchez, affirmed, that she indeed four, but her son Peter Sanchez two years before, tertians, recovered from a tertian, on the very day on which they drank the water of the Saint. A graver infirmity it was of D. Maria de Nava, relict of the late Doctor Ferriol. For laboring with sciatica the seventh month, she took no part of rest; the physicians' care had so profited nothing, that she even emitted blood through the mouth for forty days. They brought therefore to her the old linen wrapping of the body of the Saint, sciatica with vomiting of blood, and placed it over her: who also commended herself to the Saint, and a sweat soon breaking out began to be better, and on the third day rose unharmed. To this miracle attested the father and mother of the sick woman; and she herself duly deposed it on the 12th of December of the year 1596, before Doctor Dominic de Mandieta, Vicar of Madrid for the most illustrious D. Cardinal de Quiroga Archbishop of Toledo, and his Commissary for receiving informations concerning the Saint, attesting again the mother Maria de Godoy, who was the first reproduced in the same Process to testify, together with her daughter Maria de Nava aforenamed.

[37] Peter Sanchez a cap-maker said, that two years before suffering a fever for three months, and receiving no relief of the disease from the care of physicians, he sought water from the fountain of the Saint, and on the next day rose healed. various fevers, The same did Francisca Diaz, widow of Francis de Tapaia, a foot-squire of his Majesty, after she had seen the body of S. Isidore: and the same benefit she experienced, although she suffered daily a double paroxysm. That this also befell her and that she was cured by the same remedy asserted Pastora de Truxilla, wife of John Garcia a halter-maker. Concerning a similar deliverance from a fever, which she had suffered three months, obtained in a similar manner, Anna Sanchez also congratulated herself, relict of the late Lawrence Lopez: and Maria Alvarez, wife of Gregory Rodriguez a kettle-maker, when she had come to the hermitage of the Saint for a like cause. But Sebastian de Arenas a halter-maker also, two years before, that water being drunk dispelled a fever, borne a whole quarter: and John Lopez a glazier a more dangerous fever, although it had lasted only eight days, twice in the same manner drove away, once three years, and again a year and a half before the witness was produced. Attesting to him his brother, as one who had seen the matter, Stephen Sanchez, said of himself, that after the fifteenth day of a like disease coming to the hermitage of the Saint, in the very febrile heat he drank, and returned healed.

[38] Salvator Faxardo, master of arms-handling, confessed, an abscess in the throat, that eighteen years before he was freed from a dangerous tertian, which had lasted nine whole months, by the use of the water of Isidore: and that at another time, the same Saint being invoked, an abscess burst, for the opening of which the surgeon was preparing the iron, because it closed his throat. Similarly by tasting the oft-mentioned water a fever was taken from her a year before, said Catharina Diaz, daughter of Peter Diaz a shoemaker. But on the very day on which she drank the same, she was freed three years before from a fever borne for two months, affirmed Isabella de Labios, widow of Peter Blas a farmer. But that, from which she swore she was freed in a like manner three years before after one month of infirmity, was a tertian. But a quartan it was which for four years two months Peter Fernandez Desmalo suffered, a merchant in the cattle market: who in the very paroxysm going to the hermitage of the Saint, drank of his fountain, and was healed. Anna Ruiz, wife of Diego de Aviles a Royal scribe, epilepsy, three years before anxious for her twelve-year-old little daughter of her own surname, who suffered stupor (a malady not unusual to childish age) and epilepsy twice daily; asked that she be carried to S. Isidore at Madrid. She was carried moreover to his hermitage, and the nine-day devotion finished, was brought back thence wholly healed.

[39] Alphonsus Sanchez a tailor asserted, that fourteen months before seized with fever and vomiting seven days, a swelling of the body, he recovered as soon as having tasted the water of the Saint he was covered with his funeral cloth: and that his wife, Maria Lopez, assisting as co-witness to both depositions, a few days after seized with a disease swelling the whole body, when it had lasted five months, was carried by many men to the church of S. Andrew above the steps of the altar; whence soon descending healed, she returned home cheerfully. The aforesaid water in the hermitage of the Saint not only drank when feverish Michael Nieto, a merchant of the cattle market; but with the same also washed his swelling shins: and free of both evils returned. To the same place went and by a like draught were healed of fevers four years before Francisca de Montenegro, wife of John Fernandez a farmer, and her kinswoman Anna de Guita. That water also sought by her from the same place, forty-five years before, Maria Aguada said she drank, wife of Alvarus Pizarro, of the guard of the Royal body, a flowing of blood, when for her dying of fevers and a flux of blood a funeral shroud was now prepared, and that she recovered. But Maria de la Paz, wife of Matthew de Buenvezino a paver of streets, said, that not that water of S. Isidore, which feverish fourteen years before she had asked, but other common water through the pretense of the household was offered, the same effect however following.

[40] Joanna Perez, widow of Benedict Martinez a farmer, says thirty years had elapsed, that a troublesome fever of many days the oft-mentioned water dispelled: pain of the head, and that the same benefit befell her late husband; but also that she wiped away as it were an immense torment of the head at the chest, keeper of the holy body in S. Andrew, as soon as she rubbed her forehead against it. The aforesaid water moreover tasting in the very hermitage of the Saint Francis Gomez, a maker of carriages, dispelled grave fevers fourteen years before. And to the same place his son of his own surname brought from Toledo, twenty days before, Diego del Prado, a builder of mud walls, and with the best success to him feverish

gave the water to drink, divers fevers, whose virtue he had himself experienced twenty-six years before, against a quartan borne three months: as also Nicholas Garcia a shoemaker, when he had done the same as he; and Isabella de Leon, wife of John Matthew a mason, often in her several infirmities; and against a tertian six years before Catharina de Palacios, widow of Diego de Palacios; Francisca de la Cruz, daughter of Matthew Hernandez a tailor, on the fifteenth day attacked by fever, three years before; Anna Gonzalez, wife of Francis Lopez cook of the Duke of Gandia, a year before having suffered double tertians two months; and her husband two years before fallen into a fever.

[41] A year before besides, to Maria de Hita drinking the said water, wife of Marcus Carrero a farrier, the importunate flux of the bowels stopped, diarrhea, and the fever ceased: as also the pain and swelling of the throat of Lewis Gonzales, formerly wife of the late Peter Lozano a tapestry-weaver, applying head and throat three months before to the chest in S. Andrew. But drinking water of the fountain Anna, quinsy, widow of John Rodriguez an innkeeper, dispelled a fever continual for many days. For the same cause to the hermitage of the Saint betook himself Diego Lopez a weaver of linen cloths: but wearied on the way he halted, and commending himself on the spot to the Saint was better, attaining full health before he touched the threshold of his house. By which example moved his wife Maria Hernandez, now the fourth year struggling with a tertian fever, hastened to the same place, and the water being tasted recovered. As also fourteen years before Diego de la Fuente, a glover and perfumer of the King, after he had labored more than sixty days with a continual fever and a dripping of blood through the nostrils: a dripping of blood, and a year before Francisca Ruiz, widow of Lewis Gutierrez on the fifteenth day suffering a fever. Antony de Lerma a silversmith said, that in the month of July of the year 1596 touched by the spotted plague to the desperation of the physicians, he commended himself to S. Isidore and the water of his fountain being tasted, covered with his sepulchral cloth, he recovered; the fact being confirmed by his virgin daughter Anna Xuarez, by ocular faith.

[42] The next-to-last witnesses were three tanners, of whom the first, John Gutierrez, affirmed that his shin had swelled vehemently, an ulcerated swelling of the shin. matter bursting through three wounds: which when he had borne a whole month, he went to the hermitage of the Saint, certain friends accompanying him; and after prayers poured forth there he washed his shin, which began to subside: but on the eighth day from then, while he did the same, the swelling and all the wounds vanished. To the second, whose name was John del Agua, and to whom a continual fever had lasted three months five years before, no other medicine profited, than the water tasted in the hermitage of the Saint: as neither to the third, John Nieto six years before, suffering a tertian six months; to whom attesting his mother Anna Garcia, professed that she experienced the same in the same place: and the last witness Maria de Paredes, wife of Dominic Lopez also a tanner, three years before. And all these things in the depositions of two hundred and four sworn witnesses are had set forth at length: but for the sake of brevity they have been contracted into a compendium according to the faith of the originals preserved in the church of S. Andrew, together with this very epitome. Now I would wish to pass to other informations, received by P. Fr. Dominic de Mendoza in the year 1596, by mandate of the Apostolic Nuncio Camillus Cajetan, The depositions taken in the year 1596 are omitted. Patriarch of Alexandria, according to a commission dispatched on the 21st of February of the same year: but I forbear, lest by labor I should beget tedium, about to recite others, which were received by command of the most Serene Archduke Albert the Cardinal, in the years 1597 and 1598.

CHAPTER IV.

Miracles excepted in the second Process, before the year 1598.

[43] On the 12th day of December 1597 D. Leonora de Godoy, wife of Diego de Mayuelo citizen of Madrid, juridically interrogated, At the end of the year 1597 witnesses were heard, and an oath being premised before Doctor Dominic de Mandieta, Canon of Osma, Vicar general of the city of Madrid and its territory for the most Serene Archduke Albert the Cardinal and Archbishop of Toledo, and Commissary of his same Highness and likewise of Garcia de Loaysa Administrator of that Archbishopric, for receiving the attestations and informations, which the citizens of Madrid should wish to depose concerning the life, glory, sanctity and miracles of B. Isidore, their Patron, that the Canonization of the same Saint might be obtained from his Holiness in the Roman Court; and also before the Licentiate Velasquez, Apostolic Notary, testified, that, when she and her children Lewis de Godoy, Diego Mayuelo, and Clara, were staying at Bilbao, in the month of June of the year next elapsed 1596; by a kind of pustules (which they asserted to differ not a little from the plague, of whom the former deposes concerning pestilent pustules, and which raged exceedingly in that region) vexed more than two months, they had come to that peril of their life, that the physicians who tended them laid aside all hope of bringing health. The Lady Leonora also and her daughter D. Lewis had now been anointed with the holy oil; concerning which matter letters had been given from Bilbao to Madrid to D. Lewis de Godoy, D. Leonora's mother, that she should undertake the care of her own. She therefore destines a piece of cloth, cut from the bed of S. Isidore, enclosed in letters, to the sick women, commanding that they place it on their breast, and that they commend themselves greatly to S. Isidore, that in this manner without doubt they would be healed. Then D. Lewis herself set out for Bilbao, where she found her daughter D. Leonora and her children, and especially her granddaughter D. Lewis sick beyond measure. For Lewis being set in the agony of death, could not utter a word, nor give any sign of any sense. In which state when her grandmother beheld her, demanding that the relic of S. Isidore be given to her, a particle from the Saint's bed being applied, she placed the same on the breast of D. Lewis her granddaughter, and earnestly besought S. Isidore for her granddaughter, that he would obtain for her life and health from God. But behold suddenly the sick woman was restored to herself, and asked the bystanders that an almond drink be given to her. And when all greatly admired the sudden change, the grandmother asked who had healed her. To whom the sick woman: S. Isidore, she said. Moreover her mother D. Leonora affirmed, that the sick woman was by no means conscious when the holy Relic was applied to her, and had no previous knowledge of S. Isidore: she ordered moreover that the same Relic be applied also to the other sick persons; but lest she herself should be compelled to let it go, it pleased her to divide it into four parts, and apply one to each. Which done, without any help of human medicine, all being restored to themselves, in the space of not more than two days attained perfect health, and came forth wholly unharmed in public. That matter held with all great amazement, the whole one family being cured. and the account, as truly it was, of a miracle. D. Leonora herself also acknowledged the miracle, and from the time that that Relic was applied, she had no more any sick person in her house and family, when nevertheless that disease raged through that region, by which all were easily seized and not a few were extinguished. D. Leonora the same holds it also certain, that by any human medicines that disease could not be cured, and so she had resolved to use them no more; but that nothing is truer than that by the help of S. Isidore she and her own recovered, which D. Lewis de Godoy her mother likewise testified.

[44] Andrew de Cuellar, citizen of Madrid, affirmed concerning his son of his own surname, that when he was in the fourth or fifth year of his age there came upon him a scab so copious, that he seemed a leper. There were applied to him medicines and various ointments, Others, that by the water of the Saint a scab was cured, yet the evil lasted the whole spring time. When therefore he had heard much of the miracles of S. Isidore, he carried his son to the hermitage and fountain of the Saint: and stripped placed him under the pipe of the same fountain, and with the water, cold though it was, washed him diligently and with care. Nor was more needed: for within two days the boy recovered, suffering nothing of the kind thereafter. Afterwards when another little four-year-old son named Francis, after a vein had been opened to him on account of grave fevers, was so inflamed with erysipelas, and by the sepulchral cloth erysipelas, that the evil spreading through the arm even to the left throat the whole side went infected, nor was it doubted the boy would die, as soon as it had reached the heart; his father, relying on the experience taken from the cure of the former son, vowed that he would take care to enroll this sick one, if he were preserved in life, among the Confraters of S. Isidore, and to have him carried for nine days to his church, where daily he would order Mass to be celebrated. Then on the bed of the sick one he spread the funeral cloth of the Saint: and at once the progress of the erysipelas stopped, and within the seventh day the boy recovered, no medicine being meanwhile applied, the aforesaid cloth only being retained over him.

[45] D. Isabella Duran, wife of John Baptist del Monte y Heredia, citizen of Madrid, asserted, that to her daughter D. Lewis de Ayala, on a certain night about the tenth hour there came an immense colic pain with a swelling of the belly, but by the sole invocation a colic pain. so that she believed she would die, the faculty of breathing being taken away: but when she had commended herself to the patronage of S. Isidore, within a quarter of an hour all the swelling ceased, and with it the danger which was feared. The same added, that in the past spring of the year 1596 D. Joanna de Virbiesca, wife of her son Lewis del Monte y Heredia, was seized with the spotted plague and erysipelas, so that the physicians despaired of preserving her life, By the same water a hemiplegia is cured. and a messenger was sent to the Hall to prepare for mourning: for she lay devoid of speech, distorted in mouth and the whole right side stricken with death. When they carried her back such to Madrid, life returned to the aforesaid side, not however to the foot: wherefore they conveyed her to the fountain of the Saint, whence when she was returning to the little chapel of the hermitage, being asked how her foot was, which before she dragged after her as insensible, she said it was healed to the praise of God; nor was there any who doubted, that to evident miracles this also ought to be ascribed.

[46] D. Major de Espinosa deposed that in the year 1594, to a certain maidservant of hers Catharina Hernandez after childbirth one of her shins swelled, and a wound opened measured a whole palm: a girdle being applied to the body the ulceration of the shin, which after the vain attempt of two surgeons, Doctor Quixar, himself also a surgeon, pronounced incurable, affirming that the shin must be entirely cut off up to the knee, if they wished to ward off death about to come within a short time. When therefore one day Catharina felt a torment more vehement than usual, she betook herself to the church of S. Andrew, where the body of S. Isidore lay to be inspected by all. But when a denser crowd did not permit a nearer approach to the sick and much-limping woman; she asked a certain Cleric, that the coralline girdle which she handed him

he would apply to the holy body, and when applied return it to her. Which done, Catharina drew that girdle around the wound, and soon the pain ceased, which she testified by cry and complaint to have been great before. She returned moreover home limping in no part; and the wound was closed within four days, the girdle alone being retained over it, to which so many remedies had before profited nothing for the cure. And therefore the aforenamed Doctor Quixar did not hesitate to attribute the case to a miracle. Moreover D. Major de Espinosa said of herself, that in the year 1590 fixed to her bed seven whole months by the sciatic disease, by a simple commendation sciatica, so that she scarcely suffered herself to be moved on account of the vehemence of the pain, the medicines profiting nothing, she commended herself to the Saint; and at that same moment the pain ceased, and within the fifteenth day she rose from her bed robust and healed. Likewise that in the year 1592, suffering quinsy with an abscess of the throat, she was given over by Doctor Hernandez a physician: and an abscess in the throat: who said to her husband Bartholomew Rincon, that there was need of no medicine, for scarcely could it be without a miracle that the sick woman should live until midday. When therefore the family now deplored her as if dead, she herself commended herself to her Saint, and the abscess being broken and cast out through the mouth, the quinsy vanished; so much so that pilchards seasoned in brine which she had asked for, she ate with relish and on the next day rose healed.

[47] D. Maria Vaca de Ocampo said, that in the year 1593 to a certain little infant, a vow being made of going to the body, a dying child is preserved, born of unknown parents, named Michaela, whom she nourished in her house, after pains of one eye and a crudity of the stomach there came a grave fever, so that the physicians made no hope of curing her. She therefore, who vehemently desired the life of the girl to be saved, with tears commended her to S. Isidore, vowing that she would take care to have her carried for nine continuous days to his holy body: and suddenly the sick child returned to herself, and began to be much better, and before the ninth day was at hand wholly recovered. Julius de Pertegal, bridle-maker of his Majesty, said, that in the year 1588 he had a son, only one month old: whom a fever had brought to that pass, and a dead one revives: that on the sixth or seventh day taking no milk, he was held desperate by the physician. But on the day on which he gave this sentence concerning the infant, he in fact died between the arms of the witness himself; who cast the dead one into the lap of the mother, and having him as his only child began to weep and to supplicate S. Isidore for the life to be restored to him. But the boy opening his eyes began to weep, and moved himself, and within three hours was healed; all esteeming it a certain miracle, among whom also Catharina de Villanueva, wife of the witness himself and mother of the infant.

[48] The Licentiate John Martinez de Aldama, Pastor in the parish of the Holy Cross at Madrid, seized by an epidemic evil he is healed, said, that in the year 1592 seized with a grave infirmity, namely the spotted plague and a lethargy for sixty days, all remedies profiting nothing, he was abandoned by two Royal physicians, Doctor Oñare and Doctor Mercado, saying he would scarcely live four hours. There were present at that very hour some pious matrons, who confessed that they had obtained signal benefits through S. Isidore, and exhorted the sick man, that he too should have recourse to the same. Therefore beyond his accustomed devotions toward him he promised a nine-day sacrifice to be offered in his hermitage if he should recover. Then these offered him a little cup of water sought from there: whence when he had sipped a little, before the Creed was twice recited, he received strength enough, a novena being promised and water taken, that rising from his bed he might expel through the stool all the heap of evil humors. Made then more robust he fulfilled the vow, and notes that in that month, which was March, that was the common disease of Madrid; and therefore the physicians, doubting nothing of its quality, had ordered that no one should enter to the sick man besides the infirmarian, and that the pavement of the chamber be sprinkled with frequent vinegar, and that other cautions accustomed in time of plague be applied.

[49] Antony Diaz de Navarrete, Logothete or (as the Spaniards call it) Contador in the Royal council of Finances, and perpetual Rector of Madrid, said, that on the 5th day of November of the year 1595 he was touched by the same pestilent disease, and after a long time of infirmity brought to extremity, likewise a testamentary legacy being made, the last Sacraments being received, and the physicians despairing of his life. Having therefore made his testament he bequeathed to the expenses to be made for the canonization of S. Isidore, two ducats: and his wife Anna de Reynoso with many tears asked of him the health of her husband. This done the fever departed, and he himself within four or five days rose from his bed. But not many days after there came upon him a tertian, also urging the same to death: which the witness himself perceiving, and not unmindful of the benefit before received, ordered the two aforesaid ducats to be paid at once, and again commended himself to the Saint, nor was there need of any other medicine further. D. Lewis de Vargas Morisote, wife of Alphonsus Lopez de Guevara, said, that the son of both, Joseph, and the cloth being applied a dying one, in the year 1594, was seized with so grave a fever, that on the seventh day of the disease he was believed about to die, destitute of his senses, his eyes now closed. This one therefore when she lamented as if dead, his father Francis de Vargas came up, and brought the funeral cloth of S. Isidore, and unfolded it over the boy; who soon opening his eyes gave manifest signs of recovered health. She herself suffering hemorrhoids so troublesome, that she could scarcely move herself for torment, said she had visited the holy body, and from it returned unharmed.

Blasius Muñoz a barber, in the year 1591 lay seized with a most grave fever, another one, by which all believed he would die, because long before he had been well in health and much obese of body. He therefore, from internal pains and the disquiet which the disease begot, admonished to take counsel for his safety, asked for and received the Sacraments: then to him suffering now lethal paroxysms his household cast the oft-mentioned cloth, and vowed that being restored to health they would lead him to visit the hermitage of the Saint. Which done, within a quarter of an hour the fever ceased, and he himself free of all trouble rose from his bed, Again the water being tasted a continual fever is healed, and fulfilled the vow made for him. Lewis Gonsalez, enrolled in the Spanish guard of the Royal body, said, that in the year 1595 suffering continual fevers of two months, and for twenty days not able to swallow even one morsel, when he was in the greatest straits, a certain friend of his visited him, and persuaded him that he should devoutly drink water sought from the fountain of S. Isidore. This being done, before he set down the cup from his hand, he felt himself free, and soon rose from his bed, ate, and was well.

[51] Isabella Ruiz, wife of Alphonsus de Aguillar a porter of Madrid, said that in the year 1596 her daughter Anna for three whole months struggling with a grave fever, and a girl at the point of death, the physician applying every care to no purpose, and at length brought to the utmost peril was fortified with the Sacraments unto death. Who when she was expected from hour to hour for two whole days, the mother pitying the so difficult agony of the sufferer, vowed that she, if she should be saved, would lead her to the hermitage of S. Isidore, there to keep vigil. But because she had heard much of the miracles of the same Saint, and of the fountain which he had drawn forth there from the rock; when she saw that the sick girl had recovered her eyes before darkened and her speech lost, at the very moment in which she had devoted her to the Saint; she handed her water brought from there. And it pleased God that she, feeling hunger, ate with relish; and on the next day rose from her bed: which the physician affirmed could not have been ascribed to the powers of nature, returned only for this, that he might learn whether she were already dead. The same witness added, and her father. that about the same time her husband seized with a grave pain of the side, a lethal fever coming on was abandoned by the physicians and as if of certain death anointed with the holy Oil. But she herself, mindful of the grace recently obtained from S. Isidore, handed him a cup of the aforesaid water: who as soon as he tasted it, Blessed, he said, be God, since I feel myself loosed from all pain: and rose healed from his bed.

[52] Maria de Paz, wife of Francis Perez, who by trade is a gold-beater; By a little piece of the chest of S. Isidore, a bruised arm, when one day she was searching for something in a wooden chest, its support fell down; and her right arm was caught between the side and the lid of the chest with such violence, that it was dislocated from the joint of the shoulder, with intolerable torment. As she cried out and wailed at this her sister visiting her: Take, she said, sister, this little piece of wood, which is from the chest in which the body of S. Isidore lay; and commend yourself to him. She did what her sister advised; and as soon as she applied the holy chip to the aching member, she felt so great a burning in it, that it seemed to be consumed. But within a quarter of an hour the pain ceased, and the arm began to move as before. and a deaf woman praying at the body are cured. She added also that in the year 1574 D. Isabella Tellez, widow of the Licentiate Martel, her sister, after she had been for seven years so deaf, that she did not even perceive the sound of bells; when the venerable body of S. Isidore lay for eight days visible, she herself went there every morning, bringing oil for his lamps, and supplicating for the recovery of her hearing. But on the seventh day completed, the witness herself who had accompanied her sister saw, that this one while praying moved her head with great noise, and composed herself to hear Mass: which being brought to the Gospel when both had risen, D. Isabella said it seemed to her that she heard a small bell then perchance sounding. But the Mass being finished they returned home; and she who being deaf so long a time could not be helped by any remedies, heard all things that were said to her, with great admiration of the witness herself and of the other sister Gabriela Ortiz.

[53] Anna Maria Ruiz, wife of Gonzalvo Fernandez de Viala a Royal scribe, said, that at Pentecost of the year 1595, after a miscarriage laboring with a double tertian, she was sick four months; and at length was brought to that pass, that Doctor San-Pedro who tended her, said within an hour she would die. She had moreover one of her jaws also dislocated, so that she could receive nothing by mouth, a dying woman the cloth of S. Isidore being applied, which was offered to sustain any kind of life. The holy Viaticum therefore was sought, in whose company coming a certain unknown person, when he saw the household weeping and preparing funeral things, Why, he said, do you not require the sepulchral cloth of S. Isidore? Which when the husband had brought, and to the sick and almost dead woman, while meanwhile extreme Unction was awaited, had spread it; she soon being better, Sirs, she said, see that this be a testimony, that S. Isidore has conferred health on me: which in fact within a few days having attained entire, she rose from her bed.

[54] Petronilla de Vendo, wife of Valerian Confalconer, jeweler of his Majesty, another by a draught of the water from his fountain, said that in the year 1597, in the months of May and June, she labored with a double tertian; so that the disease strengthening itself by daily increases, the paroxysms mutually caught one another. And when she had been in that state a month and a half, nor admitted now any food, except little warm sips; Doctor San-Pedro who had cured her in vain, said to her daughter Anna, that there was no remedy left for her, but the last work of God concerning her must be awaited. That announcement afflicted the whole family, and took from the sick woman herself the hope of life. There came meanwhile a certain neighbor of hers Francisca Lopez, bidding that water be sought from the fountain of S. Isidore, by which she also had recovered from infirmity. Nor delay, the water brought is drunk, the Saint is invoked, the sick woman's daughter also vowing a Mass to be procured in his hermitage; and the fever which was in the highest degree subsided, one hour sooner than it was wont, nor returned any more; but the sick woman herself asked for food and ate, and within two or three days rose unharmed. Moreover she said, that when to that aforesaid daughter of hers in that same year, and a pleuritic woman vowing 2 Masses. on the day on which the Expectation of the virginal childbearing is solemnly kept, a grave pain of the side hindered breath and rest, a fever following it and for eight continuous days taking increase, so that the sick woman could not eat anything; both had recourse to the now-experienced suffrage of S. Isidore, and vowed another Mass to be procured in his honor in S. Andrew: and at that very instant the pain and all the fever ceased.

[55] Francisca Lopez, wife of Christopher de Leon, citizen of Madrid, said, that in the year 1580 laboring with a continual fever for two months, A sick woman using the same water, when she had taken a purgative drink, she rejected the same, able to work nothing. By which thing offended her brother-in-law Michael Giron, with great arrogance ordered her to rise from her bed: and soon the witness's face was inflated like a wine flask, with so great torment as she could scarcely explain. When on that day she sat in the sun with a great fever, there coming a certain man never seen by her, and beholding her so ill, admonished her that commending herself to S. Isidore she should go across the river to his fountain, and thence drink devoutly. To whom she for desire of health obeying without delay, snatching up her cloak hastily went off; and before she came to the fountain seeing a rivulet flowing from it, she filled a bucket, and drank; she is healed, then proceeding to the fountain and praying there, she is seized with a great chill: which lasting half an hour, again and again she drank as much as she could. And when she had ceased to drink, the chill also ceased, and a desire of food came upon her, of which for eight days now she had not been able to take even one morsel, but disgust coming on she fainted away and was found as if dead. Seeing therefore her appetite return, the chills cease, her face subside, she persevered three continuous days in going there, praying, and drinking, after which she remained free of all evil. She said also that it often befell her, accustomed to pray the Saint for food to be cooked quickly, that scarcely before the eleventh hour setting upon a small fire a pot with food; and for fear of her husband, about to be vehemently angry if at the hour of dinner he did not find it ready, turning herself to S. Isidore and saying, My Lord, S. Isidore, make this pot of mine to be cooked through quickly; she always obtained her wish, and found the food as well cooked as if it had been four hours over the fire: and this same thing two women also testified, before and after her.

CHAPTER V.

Other things noted in the year 1598, in the same second Process.

[56] Peter Martinez, citizen of Madrid, appearing in the year 1598 on the Kalends of January, said, The Saint admonishing a dying boy, that three years before his son Francis having suffered a continual fever, and health being recovered relapsing into another very slow one, for eight whole days was so ill of the same, that his father thinking he would die at any moment (since his eyes were now broken and darkened) and not bearing to be present at the spectacle, said to his wife Isabella de Santander, who weeping was seeking linens to bury the boy, that he was going to a certain kinsman of his, where he would await news of his death. He remained therefore there the whole evening; but toward night returning home he found his son entirely healed: who to him asking how he was, joyfully answered, Well, because S. Isidore healed me. he is healed by a draught of his water, The woman then being asked what had happened, answered, that the boy, as soon as his father had gone out of the house, began to insist that as quickly as possible there be given to him of the fountain of S. Isidore, for he commanded that he drink thence: which she at once did; and saw him, the water offered him being drunk, recover. But all these things the father admired so much the more, because the boy, not older than four years, did not yet seem able to know who S. Isidore was; and therefore he ascribed the so sudden health to a more certain miracle.

[57] John Jerome, citizen of Madrid, said, that in the year 1589 his wife Beatrix Paloma, vexed by a continual fever night and day, struggled with the same from the month of June until August; and was brought to that pass, likewise a dying mother that for fifteen whole days she admitted no food, and the physician Doctor Torres put her beyond hope of prolonging life. Therefore after the last Sacraments administered, when John saw lethal paroxysms coming upon her, and her eyes breaking, he summoned two of the Society of Jesus, to assist the dying woman, before these came destitute of speech and cold. And when D. Joanna de Guevara, who tended the sick woman, was vehemently saddened by her death, she began to invoke for her S. Isidore, and from water sought from his fountain poured about two cups through the mouth: which done she remained as dead, and as such they covered her all over, two candles being lit as if for a corpse, and her household began to mourn her. After one hour then she lifted her arms, raised the cloth, uncovered her face, which she had vividly colored as if well; recognized the bystanders, none of whom she had before seemed to recognize, and drew all into admiration. Who when for so evident a miracle they rendered thanks to God and the saint, especially the Fathers of the Society, beginning to speak, she asked for some of the same water and ate; and within three or four days rose healed. The same witness John Jerome added moreover, and a son, that in the year 1594 his son Martin de Morales, the whole month of May and the middle of the following one suffering a continual fever, when at length he had been left for desperate by the aforesaid Doctor Torres, his mother Beatrix remembering the benefit which she had received, ordered a cup of the same water to be brought and gave it to her son to drink. Who having taken it at once fell back into bed and stiffened, his mother weeping for him as dead and placing upon his body the image of S. Isidore, whom for his safety she continually invoked: which done the youth was better.

[58] Isabella Rodriguez, wife of Diego de Abeo Villadrando a silversmith, said, that in the year 1596 her daughter Maria was seized with the spotted plague, and a girl near to death, from which when within fifteen days the mother saw her brought to extremity, she vowed a Mass to be procured in the church of S. Andrew if she should be saved; and that she would lead her to the hermitage of the Saint, there to pray and keep vigil: who at once was better and rose from her bed. But the fevers not yet wholly ceasing, when on a certain day a graver paroxysm pressed; her mother led her, in company with several of her friends and kinswomen, to the church of S. Andrew, and the sacrifice of the Mass being procured there, they likewise crossed the river toward the hermitage of the Saint; where the water flowing there being drunk by the girl, she returned home free of fevers, with great congratulation of all, who having accompanied the sick woman, had joined their prayers to S. Isidore for her. Alphonsus Hernandez, the slender substance which he had being consumed in curing a quartan, lasting beyond thirteen weeks, vowed nine-day prayers to be poured forth in the aforesaid hermitage; and a relapse into a quartan a vow being neglected: and from that moment until the fifteenth day he was without fever. Which then returning more violently, he became mindful of the vow deferred without cause; and conjecturing that he was punished for this, he crept to the hermitage as he could; and prayer being poured forth there he drank copiously of the fountain, and at the same time washed away the febrile chill with which he had come; nor did he feel the accustomed heat to follow either then or thereafter any more, being wholly healed.

[59] Catharina de Santander, widow of John Tellez citizen of Madrid, said, that Gregoria de Santander her niece, and incurably obstructed in the bowels, whom she had at home about nine or ten years old, fell into a grave infirmity, from which there remained to her obstructions so pertinacious, that for four whole years they could not be cured. So she her aunt having recourse to devotion toward S. Isidore, as to a last remedy, handed her niece a draught of his water: nor did so great an interval intervene, in which the Apostolic creed might be twice recited, but that the evil humors being cast out through the stool, the sick one was relieved and found healed. The same she said she did in the year 1597 in the month of April or May, and that she experienced the same effect in the person of Joanna Vasquez, who was the wife of Michael Perno a servant of his Majesty, and within four months, in which she had suffered a double tertian, was brought to the point of death, and a relapse into a double tertian, all the Sacraments being received. But when she had deferred forty days to fulfill the vow by which she had bound herself to S. Isidore, and the aforenamed witness revisited her, she found her relapsed, not doubting but that this was the punishment of her delay. She began therefore the nine-day devotion which she had vowed, and on the first day on which she began she recovered, and confirmed all the aforesaid by her testimony, varying somewhat however concerning the matter of the vow. For she says that at the exhortation of Catharina she bequeathed by testament twelve Reals by way of alms, nor does she remember a novena or any delay; but that the fevers returning again she vowed a Mass to be said in the hermitage, and a vigil of one night there: which also she fulfilled, as soon as the water again being taken she noticed the fevers had ceased.

[60] Anna de Reynaltes a virgin, daughter of Peter de Reynaltes, affirmed, that in the year 1596, erysipelas occupying her head, she was so swollen in face, mouth and throat, that to the physicians who tended her she was an object of wonder, and on the fourth day of the disease also of despair, and a girl dying of erysipelas: on account of the heat of the fever by far the greatest: and to her now lying without motion funeral things were prepared. To her so set it seemed good that water be brought to her from the fountain of S. Isidore; and

as best she could amid the lethal straits, she raised herself as if about to drink; but in vain: for it was a mere phantasm. By this very thing however the sick woman being admonished what conduced to her health, with great confidence she began on the next day to urge that the said water be brought to her. Which drunk amid the greatest heats, she suddenly recovered and asked for food, relating to all, that binding herself to a Mass and vigil in his hermitage, and taking the water, she had been healed.

[61] Anna Maria Martel, wife of Roderick de Lazarte a silversmith, said, that in the year 1597 in the month of July John Lopez a Portuguese lodged in her house, a Portuguese at the point of death, was gravely made sick, and by the counsel of the physicians, who held his life desperate, was fortified with the last rites. Who then having made his testament bequeathed ten ducats for the Canonization of S. Isidore. And when he had passed a most restless night with a grave paroxysm, now nothing but death was awaited: but in the morning being found by those revisiting him entirely cheerful, he said there was no need of physicians for him, because he was cured by a better one. To Anna Maria asking, by whom? he answered, that on that very night there had been present to him a crowd of boys, and with them a certain man in monastic habit: but that he, thinking that they were present to ask the stipend for the Masses which he had ordered to be said, ordered the same to be counted out: but S. Isidore answered: We came not for that alms, but to visit you: because I am S. Isidore. And from that time he was healed, the Saint appearing to him, he is preserved. so that the physician greatly wondered, and ordered thanks to be given to the Saint, who had snatched him from the greatest peril. These things deposed the above-named Anna Maria Martel on the 8th of January 1598, before Doctor Dominic de Mandieta Vicar general, and two Notaries, the Licentiate Velasquez and Peter de Herla assisting. And all the same things before the same were testified by Francisca Martel, wife of John de la Cerda a silversmith citizen of Madrid, dwelling in the street of the silversmiths in her own house, on the very day and year.

[62] [They are healed after a fever of 5 months a man near death by drinking the water,] D. Francisca de Quadros, wife of Martin Alvarez de Acosta, citizen of Madrid, said, that in the year 1594, when she had recently come to the Hall, there befell her husband a fever continual for five months, the paroxysms leaving scarce any interval. Wherefore given over by the physicians and fortified with the last rites she now mourned him as if dead, and began to set her affairs in order about to return to Malaga, whence she was sprung. In this state finding her one of the neighbors, named Eugenia, having understood the cause of grief, bade her be of good cheer, and offer to the dying man water sought from the fountain of S. Isidore. Said, done: and the sick man, his wife helping him as she could to raise his head from the bed, took a good draught, at the same time vowing a vigil in the Saint's hermitage and a Mass to be procured; and soon the fever ceasing he could have risen from his bed, had not too great weakness stood in the way, which however within three days was itself also removed.

[63] and a woman with swollen shins the body being visited, Maria Lopez, wife of Alphonsus Sanchez citizen of Madrid, said that in the month of June of the year 1594 she fell into a disease, swelling the body and especially the shins, and that so enormously that she could neither stand on her feet, much less form steps. But when after six months not only nothing was diminished but rather the evil was increased; it happened that the body of S. Isidore was to be shown to the nephew of Pope Clement VIII: on which occasion D. Peter Ponce de Leon invited the sick woman to behold that venerable body. By his care therefore and two persons supporting her, she was led before the altar on which stood the open chest: and as soon as the Pope's nephew had withdrawn from the pious spectacle, the same persons helping her she went up the steps leading to the aforesaid altar; nor content to have commended herself to him by asking health, she also reverently handled with her hand one of his feet and the goad, which the Saint used while plowing; and soon descending by the same steps she felt herself much relieved; and the swelling subsiding little by little she shortly recovered, and asked to be enrolled in the Confraternity of the same Saint, counting out thirty Reals in alms. The same said, and a dying man the cloth of the same being spread, that in the year 1595, in the month of May, her husband occupied by a continual fever, and able to take no food for fifteen days, which he did not at once vomit up again; was administered the last rites, because the physician feared lest he should suddenly die. Sad therefore, both for her husband's peril, and because she saw herself burdened in a foreign region and with children, she sought the known suffrage of S. Isidore, vowed two Masses to be said to him, and spread the oft-mentioned cloth over the sick man, and handed him water from the fountain to drink. But soon the fevers and vomitings ceased; the sick man asked for food, and on the same day rose healed. When the witness herself related this matter to a certain Joseph a servant of D. Camillus Cajetan the Apostolic Nuncio, and he had denied that Isidore, who was not yet approved by solemn canon as a Saint, could be believed the author of the health conferred on the husband; the same on the following day confessed, that he seemed to be suffocated in his bed by the Saint appearing; and therefore that he soon vowed two Masses to be procured, and pardon for the former words being sought, having confessed sacramentally he came to holy Communion, and would thenceforth be most devoted to the Saint.

[64] D. Maria de Montalvo, sprung from Alcalá de Henares, but the water being taken a woman emaciated by fevers, but dwelling at Madrid, formerly wife of Gaspar Perez de Orosco, said that in the year 1592 she began to labor with a continual fever, which changed into a double tertian brought her to the peril of death, and at length degenerated into a quartan, whence she was wholly emaciated, after the sixth month of infirmity, cured in vain in many ways, scarce clinging to her bones. At length she turned herself to invoking the Saint; and at the very hour at which she expected the fever to return, the indications of which the preceding chills gave, she went to his hermitage; and there drank so much of the fountain, that if it had been water of another kind, she would all but have been burst: and from this she remained wholly healed. She said moreover that in the year 1594 in the month of July she suffered such pains in her shins, that she could neither stand on her feet nor rest in bed. Pitying her so afflicted her mother went off to S. Andrew, to supplicate for her daughter; who meanwhile suddenly freed from all torment, afterwards cured in her shins, met her mother returning a little after, congratulating, and related to her rejoicing what had befallen her.

[65] Vincent de Vezerra, citizen of Madrid, and a man given over by the physicians, said, that in the year 1598 about the feast of the Mother of God Assumed, he contracted the spotted plague joined with a pain of the side: whence two physicians said he would die, after fifteen days spent in vain on a cure: nay they admonished him not to promise himself the morrow, but as soon as possible to take counsel for his soul. Meanwhile a medical drink was brought, which more burdened the sick man: wherefore thinking himself now at the point of death, while his wife went out of the chamber, about to prepare a warm sip, he rose from his bed and snatched a cup full of water from the fountain of S. Isidore, and drank as much as he could, and returned to bed free from the mortal straits and from the very fever and pain of the side. All which the physician learning, returning the next day to visit the sick man, judged it done by a manifest miracle. The same said, that in the year 1597 in the month of August, his daughter Anna, set between the tenth and eleventh year of age, and his daughter: incurred a slow and continual fever, which taking daily increase the physician Doctor Hernandez being called on the tenth day; Now, he said, you should have called me, namely when the girl is dead. The mother therefore seeing the physician gone, nothing being prescribed, as in a most desperate matter; hastened to the church of S. Andrew, with a cruse of oil, to burn before S. Isidore; whence after prayers poured forth with tears within half an hour returning home, she found her daughter healed and cheerful.

[66] John de Almagro citizen of Madrid affirmed, likewise another; that in the year 1591 seized with a pestilent fever, and all sprinkled with lethal spots, when on the twelfth day of the disease the Sacraments being received he had prepared himself for death, by the judgment of the physicians now near; he ardently commended himself to S. Isidore, remembering his miracles; and a tankard of his water being taken, he drank at once this and perfect health, which the appetite for food also showed, restored to his stomach long unaccustomed to it. Grace Pizarro citizen of Madrid said, that in the year 1593 about the Lord's Nativity, her husband Christopher Rios incurred tertians, bringing three or four paroxysms on one and the same day. Wherefore Doctor Leon, a celebrated physician at the Hall, for four whole days in which he visited him, and a third one the cloth being applied. finding the sick man, capable of taking no medicine, to verge for the worse, brought with him another Doctor Sepulveda no less skilled: and both alike admonished, that he should at once provide for the safety of his soul, since now for the body no hope remained. Struck by this announcement he asked that the sepulchral cloth of S. Isidore be brought to him, and after the holy Viaticum taken to be unfolded over him: which done he recovered entirely; and Doctor Leon returning toward evening, and learning the whole matter, did not seem able to be sated with kissing the holy cloth, and devoutly applying it to all his members.

[67] Lewis Garcia, sprung from Madrid, deposed, There are cured by drinking the same a lethal fall, that about Pentecost of the year 1593 he went out with his father Lucas, to inspect a certain farm of the Franciscan Nuns called of the Conception, in the district of Aravaca; and that his father fell from the mule on which he sat so unhappily, that he believed the gallbladder within his body was burst, or some other grave injury had befallen him. The body therefore laid crosswise on the beast, he carried back to Madrid. Which seeing Maria de Viana wife of Lucas, and understanding from the physician called that the case was plainly lethal, sent the witness himself, and a desperate disease: namely her son, to draw water from the fountain of S. Isidore: which the husband, now as it seemed about to expire, drinking, soon felt himself free from the fever and the pain suffocating his breast, and was healed without any other remedy. He added moreover, that with the same success the same water was taken by his mother, gravely sick and now given up for dead: and therefore all of his family in their several diseases seek a remedy from the aforesaid fountain, nor are frustrated of their wish.

[68] another likewise the cloth being applied, John de Cabezon, citizen of Madrid, said, that about the feast of S. Peter in the year 1594 he was seized with a continual fever, to which after eight days came vomiting so frequent, that the stomach retained nothing at all of food: whence after the second month of sickness abandoned by the physicians, and fortified with the last rites, he asked the cloth of S. Isidore to be brought; and it being cast upon him he recovered, that very day (had not weakness advised otherwise) about to rise from his bed. and at the fountain a stubborn quartan, Moreover the daughter of the same witness, Balthasara

by name, in the year 1596 so emaciated by quartan fevers, that she seemed like a skeleton, who had been lively and stout; vowed to S. Isidore a three-night vigil to be kept in his hermitage and a Mass to be procured there: and so placed on a beast (for otherwise she could not have done it) with several supporting her lest she fall, she came to the fountain, and drank copiously, and returned healed. Isabella Garcia, widow of Francis Perez a bookseller of Madrid, conceived from his death so great a grief in the year 1593, that she incurred a quartan, which made her hectic, and inflated her belly so vehemently that she seemed about to burst. When in this state she persevered two years, the remedies applied profiting nothing, and saw herself burdened with a troop of eight children and poor, she took care that she too (although she could neither stand on her feet nor eat anything any more) being placed on a beast should be conveyed to the aforesaid fountain: whence when she had devoutly drunk and composed herself to keep the night there in vigil; she rejoiced that the fever, whose day this was, had not come; but after the third night of the votive vigils her belly subsided, and all the pain was taken from her. After Isabella had testified these things of herself, she added, that once relating this her cure to a certain Knight of Valencia, she heard from the same, that he too had been freed by S. Isidore from a grave infirmity, with which he had labored at Valencia many years.

[69] Isabella Soriano, wife of Matthew Duran citizen of Madrid, likewise a palsy the Saint being invoked, confessed, that in the year 1597 in the month of May being weakened in the right leg, so that she could neither extend nor draw it back for eight whole days, by the persuasion of her mother Maria Benedicta, she commended herself to S. Isidore; and soon the evil being mitigated, before the day closed she was wholly healed. The mother therefore said that this grace ought to be referred as received to S. Isidore: but the daughter denied it, because he was not yet canonized. Nor with impunity. For within the first month from health received the former palsy returned, no longer into one leg, but into half the whole body from the girdle downward, so that for three whole weeks without another's help she could neither stand, nor sit, nor move her body anywhere. But not doubting that this was the punishment of her unbelief, she sought pardon, and vowed two Masses to be procured in the Saint's honor and his body to be visited by her: and soon she obtained entire health. As also her mother, when she suffered a great torment in the right arm, which extending itself to the shoulder and breast, had taken from her all rest and the power of moving the arm a whole month.

[70] Peter Ortiz, servant of his Majesty, related, that in the year 1589 he lay in bed with most grave pains of arthritis, and arthritis which now the sixth month held him deprived of the use of his limbs and of rest, the torment raging night and day, by which he was even compelled to utter cries. At length other remedies being tried in vain, when he could no longer bear that torment, he began to cry out, S. Isidore, save me: and soon somewhat relieved, he snatched a staff, and dragged himself as he could to the hermitage of the Saint, where the water being drunk took away all the remaining torment. At another time in the year 1598 in the month of January, and a flux of blood. laboring with a flux of blood so copious, that he emitted clots of it congealed as large as a fist, and all seemed to flow away as through a channel; when Doctor Valle and another Physician no less skilled had given up his care; and he believed he would shortly die, because within one day and night he had been twenty times compelled to the stool, the blood marvelously overflowing; he himself, the Notary of Vicar Mandieta being present, who, about to take the deposition of the former miracle, sat by the bed, commended himself again to S. Isidore, saying with great devotion, Blessed Saint, since here I am occupied in your service, and you have always been at hand for me in my necessities; I ask that you free me from this bloody flux. And at that very moment the blood stopped, and Peter rejoiced that he was made wholly healed.

[71] Peter de Vargas, citizen of Madrid, said, There are helped another arthritic man, that in the years 1589 and 1590 he was sick with a most troublesome arthritis for four months, not without fevers: when to which evils many remedies had been applied in vain, remembering the miracles of S. Isidore, he ordered water from his fountain to be brought; and the physicians not knowing (for these had ordered him to abstain altogether from drink) he drank of it, and testified that he was soon free. a maimed leg, About to experience the efficacy of the same water D. Joanna de Briviesca, wife of D. Lewis del Monte y Ayala, citizen of Madrid, for the cure of a leg and foot, in which long before dead the remedies long applied in vain could bring back no sensation; came to the hermitage, her mother-in-law and a certain kinswoman accompanying her. There when the aforesaid kinswoman had devoutly washed the sick woman's leg and foot, soon sense and life returned to them, so that without anyone's help Joanna returned home unencumbered. Alphonsus Martinez de Cos, citizen of Madrid, said, he had heard from his father, a barren wife, that his mother, the witness's grandmother, after twenty-two years passed in a barren marriage, having recourse to S. Isidore, after some Masses procured in his honor and an offering of oil or candles, conceived offspring and brought it forth most happily, as she had wished. He added also that his son John de Cos, a horse a wounded horse, which on the day of S. John he had mounted to ride along the bank of the river, having imprudently struck one spur, so wounded that the blood could by no means be stopped; but found a remedy in the hermitage of S. Isidore, swiftly hastening there, and washing the wound with the water flowing there. Finally he affirmed that it was now familiar in his house, that as often as anyone falls into a disease, the same water is sought and devoutly drunk; the wished effect for the most part following.

[72] contracted in shins and hands, Marcus de Burdaria, citizen of Madrid, said, that his wife Casilda de Prado, in the year 1575 having suffered a miscarriage, was contracted in hands and shins, so that she could neither move these apart from one another to walk or stand, nor open those for nine whole months. After which when Doctor Almazan had said she seemed incurable, and had deserted her; on the fourth day from then not yet elapsed the witness himself found her healed, then not yet joined to her in marriage. To whom astonished at so quick a convalescence it was related, that Casilda had ordered water to be brought from the fountain of S. Isidore, and it being tasted she had sweated copiously a whole hour, and thence had been freed from whatever infirmity she was before held by. Francis de Quiros, citizen of Madrid, for many days afflicted with a flow of blood and fevers and wholly emaciated, by a flux of blood brought to extremity, when he saw himself dying, ordered a physician to be called to him; which poverty forbade to do sooner; but he having seen him answered, that there was no longer place for cure or hope. Therefore he vowed to S. Isidore, that, if by his intercession he should obtain health, he would keep vigil one night in his hermitage. Scarcely had he pronounced the vow, but feeling himself better he wished to rise; and, his wife Margarita de Flores helping by supporting her husband's weak step, he proceeded to the aforesaid hermitage: where as soon as he drank of the fountain, he could eat a cake dipped in it, which his wife had secretly brought there; he who for many days had not admitted even one morsel: but returning toward night he had so much strength, that he walked alone without a staff or other help.

[73] delirious from the force of fevers, Gregory Guerrerus, Cleric of the Chamber of D. Camillus Cajetan the Apostolic Nuncio, said, that in the year 1598 on the third day of March he incurred fevers, which fixed to his bed deprived him also of the use of reason, so that he could say nothing wisely, but many things insipidly and insanely. There then appeared on his body pestilent spots, by the indication of which the physician knew the disease was very dangerous. But on the eighth day that he had been in that state, able to eat nothing, he ordered some of the water of S. Isidore to be brought by a certain brother of his own: holding in his hand a cup full of it, he twice recited the Our Father and Hail Mary, and vowed two Masses to be procured, and two Reals to be contributed to his canonization: which done he drank, and was at once free from all infirmity. and a man gravely ruptured. Diego Bravo citizen of Madrid said, that, when he was Sacristan in the church of S. Andrew, there had betaken himself to the same seeking asylum a certain Antony Benedict, sprung from Valencia: who gravely ruptured in one groin, when he suffered fierce torments, was often heard by Doctor John de Molina, the Empress's Chaplain, to break into wailings and cries. But at length, when he had anointed the place of his hernia with oil taken from the lamp of S. Isidore, he began to cry out: Come, sirs, to behold a miracle, because this Saint has healed one laboring with an incurable hernia. And from that time, although he still remained there in asylum many days, the aforenamed Doctor never any more heard him wailing or crying out, sleeping in the same church for his office of major Sacristan.

THE SUPREME HONOR

bestowed on S. Isidore by the Church.

Isidore the farmer, at Madrid in Castile (S.)

FROM THE SPANISH OF J. BLEDA

CHAPTER I.

The solemn Beatification of S. Isidore, Philip III healed the body being brought to him, the feast of the 15th of May most solemnly performed.

[1] When so great an abundance of miracles, lawfully testified in a twofold Process, had been carried to Rome, says Bleda in book 2, Tract. 2, chapter 10; again on the part of Philip III King of the Spains it was urged for the canonization, through the Royal Orators; and the cause was brought before the Auditors of the Rota the Lords Penia, Litta, and Justus. But because the Apostolic See is not wont to proceed from Acts, drawn up by the sole power of Ordinaries; therefore, although by the Relation of the said Auditors it was sufficiently clear to Pope Paul V concerning the general fame of the sanctity, virtues, and worship constantly exhibited to the blessed man at his sepulcher; the same Pontiff, Litta and Justus having meanwhile died, By Apostolic authority substituted the Lords Lancellottus, and Alphonsus Manzanedus de Quiñones, Auditors of the Rota, who together with the aforenamed Peña should procure the Processes, to be formed by Apostolic Authority. But these delegated for themselves three Judges in the provinces, namely the most illustrious Cardinal Bernard de Rojas y Sandoval Archbishop of Toledo, D. Fr. Francis de Sosa Bishop of the Canaries, and D. John Hozes Treasurer and Canon of Cartagena, that all together or two of them should form Processes in due form, with faculty of compelling other processes and authentic writings pertaining to the same.

[2] They did what had been commanded them, and sent to Rome two very large Processes; new Processes being made, of which one Remissorial comprises the depositions of two hundred sixty-five witnesses, the other Compulsorial, all the Processes which they call Informative, with many other writings and bulls and briefs of the Roman Pontiffs: to the drawing up of which had contributed their labor and presence also

Diego de Urbina, who at the time of his Canonization was Senior of the Rectors of Madrid; and John Gonzales de Almunia, who for about forty years labored in this cause. But care was soon taken at Rome, that the said Processes should be translated from the Castilian tongue into Latin. and these being received and approved in the Rota, But meanwhile Peña died, and Lancellottus was raised to the Cardinalate; and there were substituted for them the Auditors D. Sacratus and D. Coccinus. But the King and the city of Madrid, after mature deliberation, committed the special care of the whole cause to D. Diego de Barrionuevo, Knight of the habit of S. James, perpetual Rector and Standard-bearer of Madrid; placing much confidence in his diligence, because he acknowledged himself to have been healed through the merits of B. Isidore from gout, which for a time had held him weak and lame. He arrived at Rome, and substituted for himself Doctor Melchior Ramirez de Leon, Apostolic Protonotary and Canon of the Cathedral of Segovia: and by his help brought the matter to that pass, that all the Processes, formed both by Ordinary and by Apostolic authority, were judged by the Auditors of the Rota to be valid and in proving form; to whose consent when the Sacred Congregation of Rites had subscribed, and that on the report of Cardinal Lancellottus, the Brief of Beatification preliminary to canonization was dispatched.

[3] Nowhere do I find it in Latin, yet it would not be difficult from the Spanish version, which is in the preceding Chapter in Bleda, to bring back the sense to the former tongue. The tenor of it then is nearly this: the Brief of Beatification is dispatched, Pope Paul V to the perpetual memory of the matter. Set by the Lord in the chair of the Prince of the Apostles, though unworthy, we willingly condescend and pursue with opportune favors the pious supplications of the faithful, by which the Lord of virtues is honored in his servants. Since therefore on the part of our dearest son in Christ Philip Catholic King of the Spains, and of our beloved sons the Clergy and People of the city of Madrid, of the diocese of Toledo, it has lately been proposed to us, that the servant of God Isidore the Farmer and Patron of the said city, was illustrated by the Lord with many and great gifts of virtues, graces and miracles: wherefore King Philip and the Clergy and People aforesaid have caused humble supplication to be made to us, that until they obtain from this Apostolic See the honor of the hoped canonization for the said Isidore the Farmer, on account of the excellence of his merits, the said Isidore may be called Blessed, and an Office and Mass concerning him be recited. Therefore, the matter being first examined by our venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church deputed for sacred Rites, to whom it had been committed to be examined, and a Mass and office is granted for the 15th of May. by the counsel of the said Cardinals inclined to the aforesaid supplications, by Apostolic authority and the tenor of these present we grant and indulge in perpetuity, that the said Isidore the Farmer may be called Blessed, and concerning him as Beatified on the fifteenth day of May (on which day the feast of his Translation will be celebrated) an Office may be recited and Mass celebrated respectively in the Kingdoms of Spain, Portugal and the Algarve, and also in the Indies both Eastern and Western: but in the aforesaid city of Madrid alone under a double rite and as of a Patron, according to the Rubrics of the Roman Breviary and Missal of the common of Confessors not Pontiffs: and that he may be freely and lawfully placed in the Martyrology, when it shall be reprinted anew by the authority of the Apostolic See, notwithstanding Apostolic constitutions and ordinations or any whatsoever to the contrary. Given at Rome at S. Mary Major, under the ring of the Fisherman, the 14th of the month of June, 1619, of our Pontificate the 15th.

The Cardinal of S. Susanna.✠

[4] This Brief being carried to Madrid, the zeal of the whole city was kindled, In the year 1619 the King being made sick at Casarrubios, that the first feast which in the next year was to be celebrated by Apostolic authority, should be performed as most solemnly as possible. But while in expectation of the appointed day the months roll on, King Philip returning from Lisbon, when on the 12th day of November he had come to Casarrubios del Monte (as Bleda relates chapter 8) there began to be made sick; and by the judgment of the physicians, who deemed the disease dangerous, was compelled to stop. That report struck the city of Madrid, which supplicating for the King's safety, a solemn procession being instituted, conveyed the holy image of Our Lady of Atocha to the Royal monastery of the Discalced on Friday the 15th of November. But on Saturday the 16th there came from Casarrubios Francis de Villacis, Corrector of Madrid, the bearer of most sad news, and signifying that the infirmity was aggravated, and the physicians doubtful of the King's safety. the city decrees the body of S. Isidore to be exposed, This news was received with that expression of love and grief, of which the minds of most faithful subjects were capable; everywhere sobs, everywhere laments were heard through the streets: but the city, at the instance of the aforesaid Corrector presiding in the council, and most zealously directing and promoting this whole matter, in this extreme necessity judged that recourse must be had to the help of its holy Patrons: and the matter being conferred with the most illustrious D. Ferdinand de Azebedo President of the Council of Castile, it was determined, that at once the holy body of B. Isidore should be brought out, and led with a general procession to the Royal monastery called of the Incarnation; the Lord Presidents and the several Councils and Religious Orders accompanying the same and bearing burning tapers, with great devotion and tears.

[5] So Master Alphonsus Franco, Curate of the church of S. Andrew, where the holy body was placed, vested as a priest, said Mass of the glorious Saint, the first that was celebrated after his Beatification: but meanwhile there came a courier, aggravating the common solicitude and sadness, and announcing that by a new paroxysm the King had been removed from the use of his senses for a time. Wherefore it seemed good to all that the holy body itself should be carried to Casarrubios, nay to be carried to the sick man: and the chest being placed on a litter swiftly prepared for it, clothed with red silk, it was covered with a pall of golden texture: and accompanied by an equestrian train and the Religious of S. Augustine bearing torches with their choir of musicians, but the whole Chapter of Clergy and Magistracy of the city in carriages, it proceeded from the city about the third hour after noon; and about the tenth hour of night was carried even to the hermitage of S. Sebastian, distant a bowshot from the town; who soon beginning to be better, so that on the next day with a solemn procession it might be borne to the Palace, his Majesty so ordering the matter, who at the coming of the Saint showed himself to have received great solace; inasmuch as he had begun to be better from the eleventh hour of the morning, namely at the very point of time at which the procession had been begun at Madrid.

[6] On the following Sunday the 17th of November, about the third hour after noon, a solemn procession was ordered, all the Clergy of the neighboring towns and villages coming with crosses and lights: and at the act of that day Doctor Andrew Arest, Canon doctoral of the church of Toledo and Vicar general of Madrid, was vested in a cope. the chest borne to him with solemn pomp, The keys of the chest were borne by Don Francis de Villacis Corrector of Madrid, and Master Franco Curate of the church of S. Andrew. The chest itself was carried by six Capitulars of the Clergy of Madrid, the Licentiate John Fernandez, the Licentiate Arze, the Licentiate Serrano, Doctor John de la Peña, Don Martin de Morales, and the Licentiate Zaballos. At the entrance of the holy body into the town, leaning to a certain window the most Serene Prince D. Philip (who now happily reigns) awaited it, there standing by him the most illustrious Cardinal Zapata and some Magnates of Castile, among whom were the most excellent Dukes de Uceda, the Duke de Infantado, the Duke de Sessa, Don Peter de Toledo Marquis de Villafranca, the Duke of Pastrana, the Admiral of Castile, the Duke of Sea, the Count of Benavente, the Marquis of Velada, and several other Magnates and Knights; who all accompanied the holy body even to the Palace.

[7] he receives it with great reverence, As they entered the chamber of his Majesty, before his bed stood a couch prepared and covered with red silk, and on it was placed the chest, there assisting at the head of the royal bed the most Serene Princes, the Princess of Spain, and the most Serene Infanta D. Maria. But Doctor Aresti prostrate on his knees, unfastened the chest, covered with three veils bearing the arms of the city of Madrid interwoven with gold: toward which his Majesty prayed, and asked the goad of the Saint to be shown to him: which he venerated and kissed together with the most Serene Princes his children. Then Doctor Aresti loosed the band, from which there hung at the Saint's neck a little purse of amber color adorned with gold, and from it taking a Relic applies it to his breast. in which were a finger and three teeth of the Saint; which being handed to him his Majesty kissed, and placed upon his breast with great veneration; and ordered that the chest itself be transferred to the outer room, where the royal women's quarters and the rest of the nobility might also venerate it. But the King gave thanks in kindly and grave speech to the Clergy and Magistracy of Madrid, for the care and love, with which they had taken care to have so holy a Relic brought to him, Master Franco Abbot of the Clergy, and D. Francis de Villarecis Corrector of Madrid being admitted to the kissing of his hand. These things so performed the procession was continued to the parish church of S. Mary near the Palace, and there solemnly was sung the Salve, before the image of Our Lady called of Grace, which is the image of the Augustinian Fathers, brought likewise by these: and there was added a Collect of the Saint: and the most illustrious Cardinal Zapata, imparting his blessing to all, about the eighth hour of evening dismissed them all, because it was known that the King was notably better.

[8] On the following Monday the city of Madrid commanded that at the holy body a solemn novena be instituted, Masses being sung daily by Master Franco Abbot of the Clergy, and Curate of the church of S. Andrew. Which devotion completed, The novena at the body being performed there, when his Majesty was now free of fever, leave was asked to carry the holy body back to its church. The King assented: and when at the second hour of night all were on horseback and the chest in the litter, there came Eugenius Marban, Assistant of the chamber of his Majesty, saying; that the fever had returned to the King, and that he commanded them not to depart, and after three other days the King being healed, because he himself wished to accompany the return of the holy body. So the body of S. Isidore was carried back to the parish church of the place, and prayers continued at it through that whole three days in which the fevers lasted. But then the Prince entering to his Majesty said: It is enough, Sir: for they say that until you have returned his Relic to the Saint, you cannot recover. To whom the King: I have nothing else to say to you, than that from the moment in which I placed it upon myself the fever left me; nor did it return, until thinking I was hindered by it, I placed it at the side of the pillow; and at once the fever leaped upon me, and lasted until, mindful of the Relic laid aside, I took it up again: from which free of fever, I resolved not to let the Relic go. the chest being carried back to Madrid, These things performed and the King recovering more and more, it seemed good to the physicians that for the journey to be made

it might be fit. Half an hour therefore before it set itself on the way, the holy body went ahead from Casarrubios, with the same pomp with which it had come, about the eleventh hour of the morning, on Wednesday, the 4th of December: and passed the night in Alcorcón, the King resting at Móstoles; and the inhabitants of the villages going out to meet it along the way led the holy chest with processions, dances, and lights.

[9] On the following Thursday the 5th of December, there went out from the city of Madrid a processional pomp of more than two thousand men on horseback, with burning torches: it is received with a noble Procession, and it proceeded for one league through fields, covered by a multitude poured out for the spectacle: whence it came about that this last league lasted, from the twelfth hour of noon to the seventh of night, for those bearing the holy body; about to last even longer, had not the King following in his litter, for fear of the night air, advised that the entrance into the city be hastened. I myself watched the pomp coming from afar from one of the windows of the Palace; and saw it entering into the monastery of the Incarnation, where that night and the following day the holy body remained upon the altar, at the side of the Gospel. But on Saturday, that is the 7th of December, the city instituted a general Procession, in which all the Councils and Religious Convents appeared with burning tapers, and with another general one it is carried back to S. Andrew. carrying back to its church the venerable deposit, and giving many thanks to God, who through the intercession of his holy Confessor was certainly believed to have granted health to the most excellent King: who indeed had borne himself most reverently toward him. For when, before the chest was conveyed to his Majesty, the Duke del Infantado had asked of the King, whether he wished S. Isidore to be brought to him; he answered humbly: Would it not be enough, if they brought his goad to me? But when he had it in his sight, he did not dare to ask that they unwrap and show it to him; but the aforesaid goad being seen and kissed, he acquiesced; mindful of those things which he had read in the book of D. Sancho Davila Bishop of Jaen on the veneration of Relics, dedicated to him about the year 1610.

[10] After these things, while the full convalescence of the King was awaited (as Bleda continues chapter 9) which he never attained, In the following year and on the 15th of May, the solemnity of celebrating the Beatification was deferred, until the 15th day of May, appointed by Paul V for the annual commemoration of his Translation. For which the city prepared with great expense various arches and triumphal cars, and dances and artificial fires. But all being now fully prepared, and the King having been conveyed from Aranjuez with his sons the Princes to Madrid, the vigil of the feast or Thursday was given to dances. But on the very 15th day of May one could see all the time before noon the Religious Orders occupied, that each might adorn its own altar as splendidly as possible. Of these the Franciscans first formed theirs in the manner of pilgrims, at the Cross, placed in the Oat Market, in such fashion that the whole seemed nothing else than a flowery reliquary. Soon thence near the Convent of the Franciscan nuns, called of the Conception, at the other head of the same Market, toward the Toledo square, they had placed a great arch, above which among cornucopias placed Angels were lifting S. Isidore into heaven. Thence the Hospital of the Passion, and S. Aemilian, and the Latin had a most opulent altar within an octagonal and lofty pyramid. The Fathers of the Society of Jesus, through the city, furnished with much apparatus of arches and altars, in the same Toledo square, had erected an obelisk all silvered, with an altar of admirable beauty and price. A little farther, toward the major Market in the same square, the Fathers de Mercede set up their altar, within a lofty and beautiful tower: and not far thence the city had raised another arch, upon storied columns, and on it were seen the holy Pontiffs Damasus and Melchiades, whom the Madrilenians believe to have been at one time among themselves, embracing S. Isidore. Then in the very major Market the Religious of the Order of Preachers set up an altar of inestimable price, furnished with golden and silver necklaces and vessels. Moreover in the Silver street toward the gate of Guadalajara the Trinitarian Fathers had constructed an altar, refulgent with gems, emeralds and diamonds. The Augustinian Fathers also placed an altar near the fountain, and thence had made various fountains spring forth of a liquor scented with wine and water. And here the city had erected a third arch, of Roman work with statues of S. Isidore and the handmaid of God his wife. As one descended to the alley of those houses in which the Cardinal de Rojas y Sandoval dwelt, at their corner, the Carmelite Fathers had fashioned their Carmel, and on it many holy Patriarchs. Finally the Minims adorned their altar to SS. Isidore and Francis de Paula, near the parish of S. Peter.

[11] The King had betaken himself to the church of S. Andrew: and Mass and a sermon being heard there he gave a banquet in the house of the Admiral of Castile, who then was Count de la Puebla y Benavides, the body carried about, near the church; whence after the fourth hour of evening went out a procession of all the estates and orders, most beautifully arranged; which there followed in its silver chest the holy body, borne on the shoulders of Priests, and behind in the habit of an Officiant the Bishop of Dragona by name Estebric by nation a Majorcan. But to the pomp proceeding, and halting at each altar along the way, there applauded choirs of musicians, dances of those leaping, the harmonies of pipes, trumpets, and drums, with the admiration of the whole Court, parted into various figures and concents. After it had proceeded to the house of the Admiral, his Majesty descended, with the Princes and Infantes following the Patron, the King with his sons follows, even to the church of S. Andrew; and so the procession being finished the lights began to be kindled, the triumphal fires to burn with various and admirable artifice, the pipes to thunder, the little mortars and the larger pieces: and at length in the major Market a castle stuffed with nitre powder, of sumptuous and stupendous fabric, little by little went off into fires and air. And so great was the largesse of the expenses made on this matter, and for eight days the feast is prolonged, that in those eight days during which the festivity was continued, the price of the powder consumed was estimated at four thousand ducats: nor was the magnificence of the ecclesiastical offices less through each of the days of the octave, daily a solemn Mass with music in the morning, after noon Vespers and Compline, and among these an elegant oration, delivered by the most famous preachers, of whom the Order of Preachers gave three.

[12] But the King's health never fully confirmed, and his life prolonged only for this, that he might give testimony to S. Isidore of grace efficacious with God, in the tenth month after these things came to that pass, Afterwards the pious King piously dies that the physicians again distrusting it, ordered the most pious and long-since most prepared King to think of meeting a Christian death. Who however, lest by failing in human things he should seem to have neglected superhuman remedies, wished the Relics of the Saint to be brought to him. Which on the 30th day of March before noon being brought, and received with great devotion, he first gave thanks to the Saint for the health conferred on him lying sick at Casarrubios: then he asked pardon for himself, that he had not so spent it as he now wished; and concerning his too great indulgence in governing the peoples committed to him, born of the charity by which he feared to be troublesome to anyone: finally he vowed to him that he would erect a most magnificent chapel and altogether worthy of royal majesty, if by his intercession he should again obtain health, fit for somehow carrying on affairs. But because God had here set for him the term of labors to be sustained and the beginning of rewards to be received; In the year 1621 the 31st of March. the Saint would not interpose himself again, but himself also hastened to receive into his society him by whom he had been so gloriously honored on earth. So the Catholic King Philip III died on Wednesday the 31st of March in the year 1621 about the ninth hour of the morning: and to his son Philip IV by his death left the throne vacant.

CHAPTER II.

The first relation for the Canonization, held before Gregory XV.

FROM THE ROMAN PRINTING

[12] Meanwhile Diego de Barroviento, stirred by new exhortations of Philip III, Paul V being dead, after his health at Casarrubios somehow recovered; so urged with the Pontiff, that, about to proceed to the Canonization, he ordered all things to be examined anew. To which end the sacred Congregation named Lord de Torres a Protonotary; and as Promoter of the faith and Fiscal of this cause, who should be present at all the propositions, John Baptist Spada Consistorial Advocate, to whom for each deputation was given in writing the Doubt to be proposed, signed by the hand of Cardinal Mutus, substituted in the place of the deceased Cardinal Lancellottus. At whose report when one Congregation had been held, before Gregory XV, Paul V departed from the living, and to him was substituted Gregory XV in the year 1621, on the 8th of February. He inclined to new supplications of the new King Philip IV, ordered the Congregation of Rites to proceed in the business, which subjected the Relation of the Auditors of the Rota to a new examination, and judged that it could safely be proceeded by his Holiness to the canonization of S. Isidore. So a secret Consistory was celebrated before the Pontiff on Monday the 19th of January in the year 1622, at which Francis Maria Bishop of Porto Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church a Monte made a speech in this manner. The Reporter Cardinal de Monte

[14] About to report, Most Blessed Father, before this Sacred Senate, by command of Your Holiness, in what state is the cause of the Canonization of Blessed Isidore the Farmer of Madrid, which from this holy See the most Pious and likewise most Powerful King of the Spains earnestly asks; I shall distribute the whole of it into three parts. In the first place I shall say, why it was undertaken, the relation being divided in three parts, concerning B. Isidore, and what to this day has been done in it by Apostolic authority: secondly, what was the sanctity of life and the excellence of virtues, by which B. Isidore became renowned: thirdly some more illustrious miracles, which God has wrought through him: that these being considered, Your Holiness may prudently and lawfully determine what is henceforth to be done in a matter of so great weight.

[15] Isidore flourished at Madrid, which is now the seat of the Spanish Kings, always venerated among the Spaniards, about the year of the Lord one thousand one hundred and fifty. From then to these very times his name, as of a man illustrious in sanctity of life and glory of miracles, has been celebrated with one mouth of all Spaniards. But after the year one thousand two hundred and ten, on the occasion which I shall tell, there were paid to Isidore honors of that kind which in the Catholic Church are attributed to the Blessed and the Saints alone. He was everywhere called by the name of Saint, gifts were offered in his honor, feasts dedicated, processions and supplications decreed, Masses celebrated, hymns said, Offices recited, sermons preached, chapels erected, confraternities instituted, Indulgences granted, images painted with a diadem, and carried about with other images of the Saints, his sepulcher adorned with precious offerings and lights, and finally in public necessities his aid implored, as of a man truly blessed and holy. The fame of a life innocently led, and the frequency of miracles, joined with that exceeding veneration, to Philip the Third

King of the Spains, to whom in piety and religion nothing was ever more precious, gave hope of a lawful Canonization of the blessed man. Wherefore a process being sent to Rome, formed by ordinary authority, concerning the life and miracles of Isidore, he earnestly asked Paul V of happy memory, that he would by canonical rite enroll him among the Saints.

[16] Paul, the prayers being kindly heard, enjoined the three older Auditors of the Rota, the Processes being lawfully formed and approved, that proceeding jointly, they should receive all the acts and proofs, and at length report what they themselves thought. These were from the beginning Francis Penia then Dean of the Rota, Horatius Lancellottus, and Alphonsus Manzanedo. But afterward Penia having died, and Lancellottus assumed to the Cardinalate, in their place Francis then Archbishop of Damascus, now Cardinal Sacratus, and John Baptist Coccinus Dean, were substituted. The Auditors, the matter being considered according to its dignity, judged, that besides the process formed by ordinary authority, another ought to be formed by Apostolic authority. And the Pontiff ordering they gave compulsorial and remissorial letters, with articles and interrogatories on the part of the Fiscal, to the Reverend Bernard de Rojas y Sandoval of good memory, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Archbishop of Toledo, to D. Francis de Sosa Bishop of the Canaries, and to D. John de Hores Treasurer and Canon of the Cathedral Church of Cartagena. These, the rights being compelled and the witnesses examined, the juridical process being completed, sent it in the month of July of the year 1613 to Rome to the Auditors: to whom Paul gave in mandate, that they should proceed to further things in the cause, about to report soon to his Holiness what seemed good to them. They, the cause seriously and frequently discussed, judged both the processes and the proofs lawful. And they reported, that the sanctity and miracles of the blessed man had been copiously justified, and that he could safely be enrolled among the Saints. But Paul in the month of March 1618 sent their relation to the sacred Congregation of Rites, and ordered us to take cognizance again of this whole cause. But we, Most Blessed Father, frequently assembled, with that zeal and diligence as was fitting, examined the assertions of the Auditors and the weight of the assertions, and at length all unanimous went into their sentence. But the credit of the proofs and the legality of the processes being established, I now say, what from them has been clear to us, concerning the origin, manner of life, and sanctity of morals of this blessed man.

[17] Isidore was born in the town of Madrid of the diocese of Toledo, of parents humble indeed, but Catholic and pious. By them excellently nurtured in the fear of God, he sets forth his piety and constancy in the worship of God, from his early age he began to cultivate piety, charity, patience, humility, abstinence, and the rest of the virtues with a certain manly gravity. Becoming more grown, about to seek a living for himself and his family by labor and industry, the other arts being neglected, he gave himself to agriculture, because it seemed more humble, more laborious, and safer than all others. This through the whole time of his life he so exercised, that on no day did he ever for its sake omit any least office of piety and religion, of those which he had once undertaken. Never did he go to the plow, unless the churches were visited, Mass heard, and prayers poured forth to God and the Blessed Virgin from the depth of his heart. That these were most acceptable to him God frequently indeed declared, but most of all on the occasion which I tell. Isidore had chosen for himself a certain citizen, for whom he should labor: with whom he was accused by the neighbors, that occupied with spiritual exercises, he daily took up his work later than was just. The man, vehemently angry, took the road to the field, about to chastise Isidore severely for the work defrauded. But when he came there, he saw his field plowed with a triple yoke of oxen, of which two were governed by two youths clad in white, the third by God in the midst between them: who as the master approached vanished. And so at length he understood, what Isidore had often said to him, that the time was not lost to him, in which a devout man served his Lord. Again, when in the church of B. Magdalene he was free for prayer, it was announced to him by some, that his she-ass was already in the jaws of a wolf, nor could escape unless he came to its aid: to whom the good man unperturbed answered; Go in peace, sons, the will of the Lord be done. But the prayer finished going out from the church, he found the she-ass unharmed, and the wolf dead near it on the ground, God repaying him with a vicarious work for his most acceptable prayers.

[18] He always loved his neighbors, especially the needy, as himself: and himself poor and indigent he withdrew something daily from his own uses, that he might have daily, his charity toward his neighbors, whence to relieve the poor and the more needy. But God so delighted in his charity, that sometimes he preferred to call the things that are not, as the things that are, than that to his servant should be lacking what he might bestow. For once, after he had distributed all things prepared to the poor, a certain other beggar came up asking alms. Isidore sad, that the poor man would go away fasting, ordered his wife to see, whether anything had remained over in the pot. She denying it, he again asked that she search: who while she obeyed her husband, found the vessel, which she had left empty, marvelously full of pottage: with which the poor man was abundantly fed. Nor within the bounds of human nature did the charity of Isidore contain itself, but it was extended even to things lacking reason. In the depth of winter, while all things were stiff with snows and ice, he was carrying wheat to the mill: when, doves being seen, which sat on the trees, moved with mercy, that the snow forbidding food they had nothing to feed on; he wiped the earth of snow, and there scattered as much wheat, as he thought enough for the doves. The deed displeased Isidore's companion, and therefore he sharply reproached him: but it did not displease God, who by his power so increased the wheat, which had remained over, that after they came to the mill, nothing seemed to have been taken from the sack. Greater than injuries, he always bore toward his neighbor an unoffended mind, although offended. Wherefore in no way moved against those, who had charged him with work due to the master defrauded for the cause of piety; he answered peaceably and amicably, that by their judgment and arbitration he was prepared to make satisfaction to the master.

[19] It can scarce be explained, how great was his confidence in God, which founded in a most high faith, brought it about, his confidence in God, that of the Divine kindness he never, however difficult and arduous, did not hope. The life of the blessed man supplies innumerable examples of this virtue: but of them we shall select only one or another. On a certain feast carried away by the sweetness of prayer, to which he had given himself in the church, he did not descend to the companions, who held a pious banquet according to custom, until it was finished; nor alone, but surrounded by a flock of poor men, who followed him as a father. To those dining nothing at all had remained over, except one portion of his, which the ministers of the society had separately kept. Wherefore when the companions saw him, troubled and sad that he had brought with him that multitude of the hungry, they said to him what was left over, and what was this among so many. But the servant of God, who cast his thought not on the urn, but on God, bade them be of good cheer; asserting, that whatever should be given them in the name of the Lord, that would be distributed among all. Which heard, the ministers went to the vessel, in which they had left Isidore's portion alone; and saw it overflowing with pottage with so great affluence, that not only could the hunger of those present be largely and copiously dispelled, but some part also be reserved for the hunger of the absent. Conjugal chastity he perpetually cultivated. The Ecclesiastical fasts, although broken by labors, he never violated. Near death, and his pious death. penitence and a humble confession of sins going before, he received the sacrament of the Eucharist with the highest devotion: and after he had exhorted his household to piety and charity with as much efficacy as he could, illustrious in sanctity of life and miracles, he fell asleep in the Lord, in the year from his Nativity one thousand one hundred and seventy. This was the life, Most Blessed Father, these the morals of Isidore. I come now to the miracles.

[20] In midsummer, when all things grow dry, the master of Isidore came to the field, which the servant of God was plowing; and thirsty asked, He relates the miracle of the fountain raised while he lived, in what place he could find water, with which he might relieve his thirst. Isidore marked the place with his hand: but the master going there, found no water: wherefore returning to him he began gravely to complain, as if he had been deluded. Isidore, Let us go, he said. And with him he went on to a neighboring hill, in which no trace of water appeared, but on every side all things dry and arid; and the earth being struck with the goad which he carried, suddenly from the struck place a living fountain flowed. And that marvelous fountain lasts to this very day, and has flowed perpetually, never dried up by any heats of heaven: nay to the drinking of its water the sick flow together from everywhere, allured by innumerable miracles, which at the intercession of B. Isidore God assiduously works through those waters. Other miracles are not lacking, which he did while living. But I pass them over; both because enough many are those which I have said, while I related the sanctity of his life; and because I do not think it equitable to weary Your Holiness with a more prolix narration of a matter less necessary. So I pass to those things, which followed the death of the blessed man, and are more certain testimonies of sanctity. After the death of the Servant of God, his body was buried in the ground in the cemetery of the church of S. Andrew, where for forty whole years it lay exposed to all the injuries of heaven, and especially of rains, the incorruption of the dead man for 40 years, which through a ditch as into a sewer flowed together into his burial. But the fortieth year being elapsed, a certain friend being first admonished, but in vain; then a certain pious matron in a vision, that his body should be honorably entombed, translated by the people from the cemetery into the church; his solemn translation was made. Dug up they found it entire and incorrupt, wrapped in coverings likewise entire and incorrupt, fragrant with a certain most sweet odor, far unlike all odors of aromatics. and thereafter even to 1613. Honorably translated they laid it in a new and becoming sepulture; from which in the year 1613, which was the four hundred fifty-first from his decease, by the mandate of the Delegates extracted, it was found with the same integrity and fragrance.

[21] The Translation of the holy Body God heaped with innumerable miracles. A few miracles from the later ones, For many blind, deaf, lame, and others laboring with other sicknesses, the dust of the sepulture being applied, at once recovered: and the bells and cymbals of all the churches of Madrid, as long as the procession of the translation lasted, so long, no one ringing, sounded. Catharina de Villasancta, laboring with continual fevers and a flow of the belly, was so gravely in peril, that the physicians wholly despaired of her safety: but Isidore being invoked, and the water of his fountain drunk, she was at once restored to health. Catharina Fernandez, a lethal ulcer being contracted in the leg, was tormented with extreme pains: and other medicines being tried in vain, by the sole cutting of the leg her life seemed able to be guarded. Yet certain corals being applied to the ulcer, with which the body of the blessed man had been touched, and his intercession implored, at once the pain departed; and in the space of three days, no other medicine being applied

medicine, she wholly recovers. On a certain day in the church of S. Andrew the body of the blessed man was shown, from whose intercession rain was hoped; and there was present among the rest a certain blind man, by name Benedict: who suddenly leapt out from the midst of the multitude, crying that he saw, and blessing God, who by the merits of B. Isidore had restored sight to him. Alphonsus Gallo, seized with a pestilential fever and a stupor of mind, his safety despaired of by the physicians, by the sole invocation of Isidore and a draught of water, which piously deceived by his mother he believed to be of his fountain, in a moment is healed. The Treasurer of the Confraternity, which at Madrid was erected in honor of B. Isidore, on a certain solemn day, with food and wine, which could scarcely suffice for twenty poor, Isidore being invoked, fills almost three hundred poor, and gathers much which is over for the satisfied. Hilarius Cimbron, after a vomit and dysentery, seized with a three-month fever of an evil kind, wholly despairs of the safety of his body: but while, the sacrament of extreme Unction received, he is thought about to enter the way of all flesh, by the sole cup of the water of Isidore's fountain he is recalled to entire health.

[22] Balthassara Ortiz pregnant, her three children, and one maidservant, likewise certain others, crushed by the immense ruin of a wall, all were gravely and enormously injured; but commended to B. Isidore, all even to one were freed. And to the heaping of the miracle Balthassara after six months bore a living son, who had three clefts, in the manner of wounds, in his head, and the opening of each the size of a finger. A boy, named Diego, ruptured from birth, after vows made to God in honor of Isidore by his mother and rendered, was healed without any other medicine. Eighteen souls had visited the hermitage of B. Isidore, conveyed in a cart which two mules drew. But while they departed, the cart began to be carried downward with such force, that it could by no means be held back, until it dashed against a rock, which overhangs the river, and thence presents to those looking a horrible appearance of a precipice. There one of the mules collapsed to the ground, the other hanging in the air above the river, the cart clinging to the precipice alone, the boys and women wailing, the men anxious for their own and their whole family's extreme peril, presented a pitiable sight to all. But Isidore implored was at hand, and made the cart cling to those steep rocks, until all leapt down unharmed; and the ropes being cut and the mule thrown into the precipice, the rest were saved. The disease in Spain called Garotillo, with three carbuncles had invaded the throat of the youth Hadrian; and the way being shut, not only to food and drink, but even to breath, had brought him to the utmost peril of life; when he himself mindful of Isidore, turned to his image, prayed for life and safety. Nor in vain: for suddenly lulled to sleep, he was made more certain by Isidore, that he would recover from that sickness; and at once he began to be better, and a little after recovered entire health. A boy of four years, named Alphonsus, all which are duly proved, laboring with a continual fever and dysentery, destitute of heat and dying, is commended by his father to Isidore; and at the same moment, both diseases being dispelled, he is healed. Augustine della Fuente, Advocate of Madrid, set by an acute disease in the extreme peril of life, all human help despaired of, turned to the water and suffrages of Isidore, the prayers being completed and the cup drained, is made well. These miracles, Most Blessed Father, are all sufficiently and lawfully proved in the Acts: and are most open testimonies of God omnipotent: who to make faith concerning the sanctity of Isidore his servant, as a witness specially invoked and asked, drew near.

[23] Your Holiness has now concerning the processes, the life, and the miracles of Isidore all those things, which through three continuous years in the sacred Congregation of Rites were discussed; and by which we are led to judge, that Your Holiness can, if it please you, by canonical and lawful rite enroll this servant of God among the Saints. That this should be done, he adds the supplication of Philip IV. for his innate piety and devotion to the blessed man, long and vehemently desired, wished, prayed Philip the Third, King of the Spains truly Catholic. But after he was translated from an earthly Kingdom to a heavenly one, Philip the Fourth his son, heir of his father's piety no less than majesty, this same not only desires, but demands and importunes: nor he alone, but with him the Rectors and University of Madrid, nay all Spain, humbly prostrate at the sacred feet of Your Holiness.

CHAPTER III.

The last Acts in the Court, and the Canonization that followed them. The College of S. Isidore at Rome.

FROM THE SPANISH OF J. BLEDA

[24] The second Consistory held on this cause, and that a public one, The cause is completed by a public Consistory, was celebrated on the twenty-seventh of February of the same year 1622; in which D. Faustus Caffarelli, Consistorial Advocate in the Roman Court and Referendary of both Signatures, made a grave and elegant Latin oration, on the life and miracles of S. Isidore; which he concluded on his knees, supplicating in the name of the King and the city of Madrid. To him in the name of his Holiness answered D. John Ciampoli, Secretary of Briefs to Princes, that the supplication was pleasing: but since a matter of the greatest moment was being treated, it must be maturely considered: therefore the Pontiff exhorted all the Cardinals and Prelates present, that by fasts, alms and prayers they should implore the divine aid. and a semi-public one. Finally the last semi-public Consistory, at which thirty-two Cardinals, thirty-one Patriarchs, Archbishops and Bishops, with some Protonotaries participating, the college of Auditors of the Rota, the Master of the sacred Palace, the Secretaries and the Fiscal Procurator were present, was celebrated on the fourteenth of February: where his Holiness made a grave and pious oration on the proposed business. After this it was gone to the votes, which all were consenting: wherefore the Pontiff framed a decree, of which one copy or more D. Venturelli the Fiscal Procurator asked to be written for him: and at length for the Canonization decreed and to be celebrated he designated the day the 12th of March, sacred to S. Gregory Pope, next at hand.

[25] With what solemnity the canonization was received Thus far Bleda, in designating the day of the public Consistory manifestly lapsed in memory, unless rather there be an error in the month and February written for January: for on the 27th day of this month the penultimate act could be celebrated preceding the last celebrated on the 14th of February. The same Bleda, adding toward the end of the book a collection of the Tracts and Chapters of his work, seems to promise a second edition of it; which if he had at some time made, I think there would not only have been added there the promised more copious index of memorable things, but also a notable supplement of the solemnities, with which the Spanish Nation, both at Rome and at Madrid, honored the now canonized Saint. But now all things must be passed over by me in silence, because of these either nothing has been printed at Rome and Madrid, or nothing has come to hand of those, whom I asked to seek such things diligently. Yet by an easy conjecture anyone will determine with himself, it must be estimated from elsewhere; that what was done in the Beatification we described above chapter I, was far inferior in expense, splendor, and majesty to those things which were done at and after the Canonization: and however they will be able to be estimated from those, which concerning the other four Saints, then likewise canonized, Ignatius de Loyola, Francis Xavier, Philip Neri, Teresa de Jesus, in their time shall be related. But Bleda completed the printing of his book in the very year in which the Canonization was celebrated: and on the 10th day of the month of June he offered it to the Senate of the city of Madrid; but on the 13th day, to King Philip IV; and this is the last of his works, recounted in the Bibliotheca Hispana, lately edited at Rome by the most illustrious and to us most friendly man D. Nicholas Antonio, of Seville, Doctor of both Laws, Knight of the Order of S. James, Canon of his native Church, Procurator general of the Royal affairs in the City and Roman Court.

[26] How long Bleda afterward lived is uncertain to me; the defect of the Bull concerning the same I should believe he did not long survive, and for that cause could not continue in the begun work. But what did Gregory XV the author of the Canonization itself? On the very day on which he had celebrated it, he dispatched a Bull concerning S. Teresa: whether also concerning S. Isidore either then or afterward, is uncertain to me: certainly in the Bullary no such Constitution appears; but those which concerning SS. Ignatius, Francis and Philip he had prepared, he could not dispatch, prevented by death on the 8th of July in the year 1623, and the last completion was added to them by his successor Urban VIII, subscribing them on the very day on which he was created, the 6th of August. And hence it is plain that to all the Orders, to which those Saints pertained, it was of the greatest care, that no formality should be lacking to the Canonization, procured with so great effort. But that the city of Madrid ceased, so as not at least to follow the example of the others, seems to us not only wonderful, but almost incredible. However it be, because the first solemnity was common to all, the tenor of those Constitutions which are extant concerning the canonization of the four Saints already mentioned is nearly the same toward the end: wherefore from the Bull of Teresa, take this clause of that which concerning S. Isidore either was edited or ought to have been edited, applied to him with the name changed.

[27] All things being performed, which from the sacred constitutions and the custom of the Roman Church were to be performed, on the 4th of the Ides of March in the sacrosanct basilica of the Prince of the Apostles, with our venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and also the Patriarchs, Archbishops and Bishops, and the Prelates of the Roman Court, it is supplied by the clause of the Bull concerning S. Teresa. our Officials and familiars, the secular and Regular Clergy, and the greatest frequency of the people, we assembled; where the petitions for the Decree of Canonization being repeated, in the name of our dearest son in Christ Philip the Catholic King… the sacred prayers and litanies being chanted, and the grace of the Holy Spirit humbly implored; to the honor of the holy and undivided Trinity, and the exaltation of the Catholic faith, by the authority of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, of the blessed Apostles and our own, by the counsel and unanimous consent of our venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Patriarchs, Archbishops and Bishops present in the Roman Court, Isidore the Farmer of good memory, of whose sanctity of life, sincerity of faith, and excellence of miracles it was and is fully clear, we have defined to be a Saint, and decreed to be enrolled in the catalog of Holy Confessors, as by the tenor of these present we define, decree and enroll; and we have commanded and command all Christ's faithful to honor and venerate him, as truly a Saint; appointing that by the universal Church in his honor churches and altars, in which sacrifices may be offered to God, be built and consecrated; and each year on the fifteenth day of May, his office as of a Holy Confessor, according to the prescript of the Roman Breviary may be celebrated: and by the same authority to all Christ's faithful, truly penitent and confessed, who each year on the same feast day shall come to visit the sepulcher, in which his body rests, one year and one Quarantine;

but to those who on the Octave of the same feast, forty days, of the penances enjoined on them or in any way owed, we mercifully relax in the Lord. Lastly, thanks being given to God, that he had deigned to illustrate his Church with this signal and new luminary, the solemn Oration of Holy Confessors being chanted in honor of S. Isidore, we celebrated Mass at the altar of the Prince of the Apostles, with the Commemoration of the same Holy Confessor: and to all Christ's faithful then present we granted a full indulgence of all their sins.

[28] What churches according to this constitution were built to S. Isidore through Spain (for outside it his worship did not extend much) what altars were consecrated, A Hospice under the name of the Saint founded at Rome, no one has taken care to indicate to us. Concerning the city of Rome in Octavius Pancirolius in Region 3, church 18 which is called of S. Isidore, I read that after his canonization there came from Spain certain Reformed Franciscan Friars, who dedicated that church with a monastery. And this is confirmed from the Constitution of Urban VIII, edited in volume 4 of the Bullary page 235, on the good government of the reformed Friars of the stricter observance of the Order of S. Francis and for the happier progress of the same government, which begins Romanus Pontifex, for the Province of the Recollects of Spain, given the 7th of March 1624; where in §4 it is ordered that the Hospice of S. Isidore of the City, for the Provinces of the reformed Discalced of Spain, be subjected to the Minister general, who according to his prudence may be able to provide for the Religious coming from that province to the Roman Court, all the rights of the church, in any way competent to the founder or constructor, being reserved, insofar as they are present and competent. The General then was Fr. Benignus of Genoa, to whom the first volume of his Annals Lucas Wadding dedicated in the year 1625, promoting at S. Peter on the golden hill the begun work. Which how much he esteemed wishing to demonstrate the successor of Benignus, Fr. Bernardinus of Siena, granted to the same Wadding and the Irish nation the aforesaid place; to be had no longer by title of a hospice, but of perpetual habitation; it is granted by the Minister General to Wadding, as Lucas himself now translated there professes in the Dedicatory of the second Volume, given thence in the year 1628; where this, as the crown of the rest of the benefits proceeding from him to himself, the greatest of all and the last, praising; Not to me alone, he says, but also to my fellow countrymen in general you wish a benefit done in me, while this College of ours of S. Isidore, for their use (to their highest good, and, as I hope, to the great splendor of Religion) you have conferred on me.

[29] But what he then promises will be, that the General may see, that he has done a benefit not to the unworthy; nor to useless or lazy servants, but to industrious workmen, who will give their fruit in their time, that he has located this field; that in fact the Friars of the Irish nation have rendered and continue to render, to the writer of the Franciscan Annals, as the whole City will be able to testify. But nothing equally illustrates the place and its inhabitants, and renders them famous to the whole world, as that the most excellent work of the Annals has proceeded thence; and will further continue to come forth into light, by the care of Fr. Francis Harold of Limerick, who succeeding Wadding, who died in the year 1657, with no less opinion of sanctity than praise of erudition; meanwhile while the ninth volume of the Annals and others await the convenience of the press, has published a most excellent and most useful Epitome of the prior eight volumes; and prefixed to it with the author's effigy a Life, where the whole history of the Isidorian College the reader will find at length set forth, from chapter 48 to 58.

[30] who notably cultivated and enlarged the place. The sum of the whole narration is constrained under these titles: What Lucas found done before; on what occasion, in what manner it came to him; what the same accomplished in acquiring and enclosing the area, what in the edifice of the temple, in constructing and adorning the chapels, in fitting up the former hospice, in the edifice of the second cloister, in the ornament and furniture of the sacristy, in establishing and conserving the library, in the archive of writings: with what expenses finally and chief benefactors he did all these. It is then explained through twelve other chapters, how happy was Lucas's governance, how prudent and gentle, how impartial in calling the younger, how equitable and prudent in distributing the offices of the College, how provident in procuring the necessary things; what kind in the exercises of letters, in the study of piety, in the observance of silence, and concerning the discipline of morals; what was his manner of correction; how he fed his own by word, informed by example; what fruits finally that College has hitherto borne.

ON BLESSED MARY THE WIFE OF S. ISIDORE THE FARMER

AT TORRELAGUNA IN CASTILE.

ABOUT THE YEAR 1140.

Mary, 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.

Mary, 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.