Francis of Siena of the Order of the Servants of B. Mary

ON BLESSED FRANCIS OF SIENA OF THE ORDER OF THE SERVANTS OF B. MARY

AT SIENA IN ETRURIA.

IN THE YEAR 1325.

Francis of Siena of the Order of the Servants of B. Mary, at Siena in Etruria (B.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

[1] Ancient Siena, the city of the Virgin (for by this title before all the rest of Etruria it glories) as many Saints as it has brought into heaven, and it has brought very many, partly already mentioned, partly to be mentioned hereafter in this Work; just as many masters it has given to the world remarkable for love toward the most holy Mother of God. Among these that not the last place is due to this B. Francis, Concerning this remarkable worshipper of B. Mary Presbyter of the Order of her Servants, was declared even by his death by that Hail Mary, which flowering forth from the mouth of the deceased, increased the admiration of him, offering on each leaf a Hail Mary to be read. The Life from the Chronicle of the Servants of Michael Poccrantius of Florence transcribing into the Annals of the same his Order Archangelus Gianius Century 1 book 7 chapter 10, concluded it with this Annotation in the year 1617; The deeds of B. Francis for nearly two hundred years several have written, from the old monuments of the Notable men of Siena: yet all things more concisely collected about the year 1450 Fr. Paul Atavantes to Pius II, the ancient instruments sought in vain: and Nicholas Borghesius, from whom afterward Pocciantus in the Chronicle. Nor much from these does our Possevinus differ in the Apparatus, where treating of Nicholas Burgensius, Knight and Senator of Siena (of whom we more at length on the 30th of April in the Analecta concerning S. Catharine of Siena) when among his writings he reckons a Life of B. Francis, which Paul Florentinus a Theologian of the Order of the Servants dedicated to Pius II: yet so that according to Possevinus one and the same is the Life, which Nicholas wrote and Paul dedicated.

[2] the Life is given from the Chronicle of the Order However it be, we labored much through the reverend Father Sebastian de Comitibus, now Rector of our College at Siena, then, that is, in the year 1673 there a preacher, that either that Life, or anything of the old Notarial instruments we might obtain: but in vain: although the most reverend Father General of the Servants Vincentius Luchesinus, for his affection toward our Society, in which he had three full brothers, had ordered the whole archive to be searched; for all the authentic things were said to have been carried to Rome, in order to promote the business of canonization. We shall give therefore the Life from Pocciantius, who one century after the two aforesaid wrote, and published his Chronicle in the year 1566; about to relate in the Annotations, if anything in Gianius and other books edited after pertaining to it be found. We shall give then the depositions of the witnesses Latin from the Italian, from the Process which in the year 1622, as is mentioned, was instituted in the Archiepiscopal Court of Siena, and the Process formed in the year 1622. at the instance of the reverend Fathers FF. John Maria de Savinis and Philip Monte-Boni of Siena, in the place and name of the Prior and Confraters of S. Mary of the Servants of the city of Siena, the deputies of the most illustrious College of the Balìa acting, the most illustrious and most excellent D. Federigo de Forteguerris, and the most illustrious Don Octavius de Silvestris, two of that most illustrious College, and the most illustrious and most excellent Don Virgilius de Vecchis, secretary of the Laws and Patrician of Siena; as they said it was clear of their deputation from the decree of the same most illustrious College, on the 15th day of the month of July in the year 1622, in the book of Deliberations fol. 30, by the hand of the excellent D. Ventura de Burghesiis, Chancellor of the same College.

[3] But since the witnesses cited, and personally constituted before the aforesaid, began to be heard in the very year, which we mentioned, 1622 on the 22nd day of October; but the last of them is read to have appeared on the 7th of February of the same year 1622; whose deposition on the 11th of February of the same was followed by the inspection of the holy body, made by the most illustrious D. Vicar General the Judge delegated in the cause; it is evidently plain that with the people of Siena until the aforesaid year and beyond there endured (nay even today I hear it endures) that Notarial Style, which we have often noted in various Lives of holy and blessed Bishops, and the public Instruments pertaining to them; namely the custom of anticipating by nine months the beginning of the common or Roman year; and auspicating it on the 25th of March, namely on the feast of the Lord's Incarnation itself. From this moreover it is consequent, that, that the Blessed died in the year 1325 when B. Francis is said to have died at Siena in the year 1326, on the Vigil or Feast of the Ascension of Christ; the year still ought to be numbered after the common manner 1325: who since he celebrated his Easter on the 7th of April, must have celebrated the Ascension on the 16th of May: so that this day was B. Francis's birthday, or at least the day preceding this. The Vigil note Pocciantius and Gianius, by the example of older (as it is permitted to presume) author. The day itself the delegated Procurators in the Process. The cause of this difference I think to be, either the ecclesiastical usage, by which any feast in order to the Choir is reckoned to begin from First Vespers; or the changed manner in all Italy of numbering the hours: which since once they took beginning either from midnight or from dawn, the 15th of May. now with the Italians are begun from sunset: so that what to us Belgians, dividing the nocturnal and diurnal hours twofold, would be on the 15th of May the 10th hour after noon, that is to the Italians regarding sunset the 2nd hour of the 16th day.

[4] These things notwithstanding I refer him here to the 16th, both because it can still seem to someone, that the author from whom

Pocciantius wrote, that on that holy day arriving Francis passed to the heavenly realms (whether he was Nicholas Burgesius or some older other) wished to signify, that toward the dawn of that very feast the Blessed died; both because on this day we promised that we would treat of him among the Passed Over on the last day of April, and so it is not now wholly entire for us to do so. Posterity will be able, about to revise May, to change the day if they wish, and to follow the founder of the Marian Year, not 1326, the last of April: concerning whom below; provided they do not change the month, by following Ferrarius, who defining the day from the 23rd of March, on which Easter of the common year 1326 was celebrated, chose the last day of April. But not in this alone did Ferrarius err, that he did not advert to the special reckoning of the year of Siena; but in another article also concerning the worship, when he said, that the body is visited by the people of Siena yearly on the 30th of April, the whole city flowing together. For the public worship which is exhibited to B. Francis at Siena, without any respect to the course of the month, regard being had only to the movable feasts, is deferred to the Sunday within the octave, in whatever month or day of the month this is celebrated: and then the wooden chest, skillfully made, so that the front part being removed the body is offered to be beheld through the crystals interposed, is transferred from the altar, above which we ourselves saw it in the year 1661 on the 11th of October, to the middle of the church under a most adorned canopy above a temporary altar erected there, at which the whole of that day holy things, but of the Sunday are done. Moreover if Philip Ferrarius about the day of worship so errs, the worship on the Sunday after the Ascension. writing of a Blessed of his own Order (of which he was afterward Prior General) illustrious enough; who can charge us with arrogance, that in many other matters, whether when he first gave to someone the title of Saint or Blessed, or when he changes the day or month, we do not think him to be followed; but the laborious Collector's sedulity being praised, we require in him the diligence of a somewhat more accurate writer.

[5] The other arguments, by which the lawful and ancient worship of B. Francis can be proved, will be plain from the Depositions of the Witnesses. One thing here remains for us to be said, that the Process itself (which in our transcript, written in a smaller character, scarcely fills five folios of paper) written in a larger letter fills a just Codex, which to be transcribed with singular testification of benevolence lent the most excellent Marquis Patritius de Patritiis, embracing the cause of the hoped canonization as an inheritance received from his father and grandfathers, perhaps the more zealously, because the Academicians of Siena, whom they call the Inthronati, began a few years ago to call into doubt, whether B. Francis, whom they commonly surname Tarlatus, is sufficiently certainly and securely ascribed to the Patritian race, among the families of Siena most noble; whence also John Baptist Ferrarius, one of the same Academicians, in the Sienese Annals, a good part of which he composed, abstains from the title of the Patritian family, content with the vulgar surname of Tarlatus. We have left the suit to be defined by the people of Siena, and only the surname taken from the country, after the manner of the ancient age and of the Order itself, rejecting the insignia of worldly nobility, we here append to him: we note however that the surname of Tarlatus could have been seized by the common people, because the body is not so entire, but that in some places it appears Tarlatum, that is, Worm-eaten.

LIFE

From the Chronicle of the Servants of Michael of Florence under the year of Christ 1326, of the Religious Order 94.

Francis of Siena of the Order of the Servants of B. Mary, at Siena in Etruria (B.)

FROM THE CHRONICLE OF THE SERVANTS.

[1] At this time B. Francis, of the city of Siena, Holily dead, son of Arrighus and Raynalda, and the best servant of the most holy and immaculate Virgin, on the Vigil of the Ascension of our Lord (as he himself had foretold) leaving human things sought the heavenly, and is placed in eternal rest: but his glorious body, in which the holy soul, while he led this life, had been hidden, in a certain wooden chest, as a precious gem, to be preserved is placed, and by decree of the Prelate of Siena is ordered to be placed above the major altar. Nor wonder indeed. For among the sons of women of Siena, and among all the Friars of the Servants, in his days he always was the greater. as he had lived Greater indeed in fasts, in disciplines, in prayers, and in corrections: greater in explaining the words of the Lord, in opening the holy mysteries of God, in freeing the oppressed not only from the hands of the impious, but also from the vexations of demons and from the languors of various infirmities; justly and piously, as to himself, taming the flesh; as to his neighbor, rendering to each what is his; and as to God, adoring him with interior and exterior worship: but in the rest small, humble and abject, esteeming himself a worm and not a man, as Lord Nicholas, golden Knight, a citizen of Siena noted.

[2] That the matter is altogether so will easily be plain, if the things which preceded the praiseworthy life of this holy man, and as it had been shown to his mother pregnant with him, if the things which accompanied and followed it shall be recalled to memory. For Raynalda his mother, before she brought such a man into the world, affirms to her own husband that she saw in her sleep through nocturnal rest that she bore a lily, and from its root several others arise, and like a woven crown place it on the sacred head of the Virgin Mother of God. Again while sleeping she seemed to see a Bishop, marked with Pontifical ornaments for celebrating the divine service, who she testified said these words to her: Fear not, you shall bring forth a lily, which shall pass the dregs of the fluctuating world uncontaminated; and these words said with the pastoral staff touching her pregnant womb, he signed it with the seal of the life-giving Cross, and vanished. She, conferring all these things in her heart, like another Anna the Prophetess, did not depart from the temple; but serving God with fasts and obsecrations, prayed him, that he would deign to effect in reality, what he had shown her in her sleep. Which at length was done: for, as some assert, in the year one thousand two hundred seventy-three she gave forth the sacred lily to the world, and that happy mother bore her son, who at once washed in holy baptism, began beyond nature to rejoice, and to cast his eyes with great joy toward the image of the Virgin.

[3] Then reaching the boyish age, he is so inflamed with desire of the divine worship, given to piety from a boy, that he esteemed the church of God his home and peculiar habitation; from which he departed last, and entered first. At midnight he rose to praise God, saluting the Virgin five hundred times. But to hear the holy words of God, he put all things after. But when by a certain Father Ambrose a most holy preacher of the Order of the Servants the usefulness of that sentence was set forth, which says: You will merit God, if you flee men; at once he resolved, and thought of the solitary life, like another John the Baptist, to lead a solitary life, and in some most rough place to subjugate the body to the spirit. Which he certainly would have committed to execution, had not his most pious mother recalled to memory the divine precept concerning the love of parents. Which precept indeed he fulfilled to the best of his power, until the twenty-second year of his age; at which time, when his mother had catholicly migrated to the Lord; that upright man, not unmindful of the words, which by preaching the Servite declaimer had explained, resolves to commit them to execution. To him thinking such things the Blessed Virgin within foretells, that she had numbered him among her Servants. Which the best servant of the Virgin perceiving, but at the admonition of the B. V. he was joined to the Servants, went to her Servants, and all things being most humanely related he is received into the Order, and excites the greatest expectation of himself. For clothed with the virginal habit he began so to insist on prayers, so on fasts, so to chant the psalms of David and the praises of the Virgin; so finally, what pertains not only to cenobites, but also to hermits living in the deserts, he began to exercise; that he seemed not the newest, but the oldest Friar. Nay all admiring a life so glorious, strove to imitate it as a model set before them: and stretched all their nerves at least from afar to follow his footsteps; and made a model for them who this life so praiseworthily begun at the entrance of the Religious Order, in the progress and in the going out of his days constantly and perseveringly followed. For the flowery little bed, in which his body afflicted not only with scourges, by a stricter penance, but also with sharp stones rested, was the dry earth: the garment, with which he covered his flesh, exposed to colds and fasts, was a hairshirt: the chamber finally, in which he dwelt, was a certain cavern, which still exists on the mountain, above which is built the monastery of the Servants of Siena.

[4] But what should be said of his most wise answers? If the things which come out of the heart, indicate what a man is; his answers, which from the inmost dwelling of the heart he uttered, will easily indicate his probity. For he was often wont to say, I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ: adding; To me to live is loss, and to die is gain. He added even, that one must neither pray, nor pour forth prayers to God without tears: he affirmed moreover, By desire of divine things that a Servant of God ought to have a care of those Gospel words: Be ready. Asked by a certain Confrater, why he came with so great joy to sacrifice; God forgive you, answered the ineffable man, who have so fixed your eyes on me; for to gaze too closely on one sacrificing, is unlawful; nor likewise is it permitted to one sacrificing to behold any other: for the face of Moses was not permitted to be beheld by the sons of Israel. Asked by another, whether in celebrating he saw anything secret, he said: My secret to myself; for he who carries it openly on the way, makes robbers. When very often publicly and extempore he preached to the people, by some he was asked, in what manner he trusted himself, not having first premeditated those things, which pertained to reforming life; to whom he is reported to have said, by the fervor of preaching, Blessed the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth and glory. Which indeed afterward was found to be true: for two virgins, while he was preaching, affirmed that they saw a fiery globe above his head: who although among all he was held in the greatest esteem, there were yet, as is the custom, certain disciples of Judas, detracting from him, objecting too great intimacy with women. Which being known he humbly prays the Virgin, that she would deign to take away from the midst the offense of such men. Nor in vain did he pray this, for while he was present at the matins Offices, he became suddenly deaf: for which cause when he did not admit anyone about to speak words to him, he was excused. Which the Friars and citizens bearing ill, and wishing to apply physicians; he altogether refused, and vehemently praised God; from whom he always sought pardon, by the tolerance of deafness, if he had offended anyone only by a word; and did not cease to pray to him for all; especially however for the poor, some of whom meeting him naked, imitating his best Father Philip, he sometimes bestowed his own garments; and many times cured them of the infirmities, by which they were held, by charity toward his neighbor. as also he strove to reconcile the hostile minds

of souls, and so applied effort to effect this, that by all with one mouth he was surnamed Pacialis, nay rather a miracle of God.

[5] Nor that undeservedly; for as his nativity was admirable, so admirable his life, and at the same time precious his death: to which when he drew near, it was done by the disposing divine counsel of God, that having gone out of the city to preach according to custom the Gospel, as if destitute of all the powers of nature, falling forward he fell to the ground. A handful of roses being offered through the B. V. he is recalled from a swoon, To whom suddenly an unknown woman comes, and offers him a handful of roses; which receiving with most willing mind, he rises; and at the same time with his companion, thus forewarned by the same woman, returns: and prayer being made, at the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary he hung the roses. Carried thence by the Friars into the place appointed for the sick, laying up in his deep mind the mysteries, he speaks no word. But asked how he was, not answering, he showed a certain wondrous joy in his face. Which joy at length he joined with good words, and the Psalms of David, which they call penitential; and began to chant them to the great admiration of all. he prepares himself for a pious death, Which finished, he left certain salutary precepts to all his friends and Friars, and showed that Christ Jesus must be served with all one's strength, whom to serve is to reign in heaven. To whose port when he knew he was about to migrate, therefore on the same day, which precedes the Ascension of our Lord, asked what he was doing, he answered: Do you know, my son, that our Lord tomorrow is about to ascend into heaven? I know, he said, Father. Then he: do you believe that our most kind Savior wishes me to stay longer in so fetid a vessel? But the other being silent, he adds: I hope indeed by the divine bounty soon to go out from this dark prison of the body. whereby having died he begins to be renowned for miracles: Which indeed was done: for that holy day arriving, the Angelic spirits accompanying him he passed to the heavenly realms. The death of which holy man being divulged, at once a most frequent multitude of men flowed together, to see and touch the glorious body; which being touched very many sick were given health, as the public notaries noted. Which marvels also Lord Nicholas Burgensis, of the city of Siena an illustrious golden Knight, diligently described.

[6] The first of these: Andrew a citizen of Siena, sharpening his tongue against the holy friend of God, among which also the punishment inflicted on his detractors, and mocking those rendering him honor, at once is oppressed by a sudden pain, from which when by human remedies he could not by any means be freed, he at length knew this had befallen him on account of the iniquitous words. For which led by penitence, he vowed a vow, namely that he would go with bare feet to the holy relics of the blessed man, provided he be restored to his former health. Which done at once unharmed he rises from his bed, and publicly fulfilling his vow, the whole people admiring, chants praises to B. Francis. The second: A certain Bartholomew himself also detracted from the miracles of this Saint; paying the penalties of which thing, his right arm, which he was wont ridiculously to move against the holy man, is rendered immovable like a stone: wherefore acknowledging his rashness, he runs to the holy tomb, and life restored to a drowned boy, asks pardon, pours forth tears, confesses his fault, and at length deserves to be freed from the infirmity. The third: A certain boy playing near a fountain of water, incautiously falls and is overwhelmed: whom his parent most bitterly lamenting thus dead, carries to the holy tomb of B. Francis, and a vow being humbly undertaken, commends his son: whom recalled to life he beholds with the greatest joy, and everywhere proclaims the praises of so great a work.

[7] B. Father Francis, reckoned among the Saints, is renowned for nearly every kind of miracles: for he freed those contracted in body, the deaf, the blind, those held by malignant spirits, and several diseases cured, those laboring with the falling sickness. So testifies the illustrious Knight in praise of so great a man: whose holy ashes still are renowned for miracles, and with the people of Siena in the church of the Servants in a wooden chest above the major altar are kept: but his feast is still celebrated with great joy by the people of Siena. Some of our elders report, and so confirm that they received from the older, that a lily came forth from his mouth, at once when he migrated to Christ: which lily indeed the messengers of the most invincible King of France, from the Republic of Siena and the Fathers of that monastery by many prayers obtained, they confess. a lily finally born from the mouth of the dead man: Which to believe seems not alien from the truth: for the mother of this best Father testified that she had seen herself bring forth a lily, who in the most ancient pictures and especially on the old altar of D. A. is seen depicted with a lily. But he, who knows all things before they are done, may reveal it to us, and lead us by his merits where are the lilies of the valleys. The Life of this most celebrated Father the reverend Father Master Paul Florentinus also published, to Pius II the Supreme Pontiff, as is gathered from his Dialogue, in which it is had, that in his salutary preachings to the people, by the hands of Angels before his eyes a codex open was seen to be held: who all things, as they were written, uttered with the highest charity and virtue. He adds besides that innumerable kinds of sick were cured by him, and that he brought back four lifeless boys to a brighter light.

[8] Thus far in the Chronicle Michael, the last two articles of which Gianius reserving to the miracles of B. Francis after death, to be explained under a new title, and also the incorruption of the body. leaves the Life itself with these words. His body in a wooden chest was honorably laid above the altar of the B. Virgin, in the chapel which is situated near the sacristy on the left of the major altar: where still after three hundred years it is seen incorruptibly preserved with so great integrity, that to all it has always been the greatest admiration and veneration: especially on that day Sunday after the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, on which there the Senate and people with great frequency yearly flow together to celebrate his feast. But his image as of a devout man, with shaved beard and emaciated body, having in one hand a bundle of lilies, in the other an open book upon his breast with these words, Come sons hear me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord, antiquity figured. As his very ancient copies still indicate. Here ending, Gianius begins the miracles from the aforementioned book, in whose, he says, every leaf in golden letters was read Hail Mary, then completes the rest with the words related above; and adds: But that lily the French most greatly venerate, as a notable monument of Paris, even to these our times it is plain (namely the year 1618 in which the Annals were edited) since formerly many of them, traveling through Italy and passing through Siena, often asked, Where is the body, where is the body of B. Francis of the Order of the Servants of Holy Mary? etc. Wherefore it is permitted to conjecture how the fame of this blessed man was then promulgated in those regions, and also to assert too whatever has hitherto been said of the lily: concerning which not unadvisedly Master Gaspar a Venetian Poet, in Triumph 6, chapter 6 concerning the beatific vision testifies in vernacular trimeter, which was thus turned into Latin.

There meets me on the ground one, who round about the white Lilies casts from his purple mouth: And the snowy leaves from gold held the words, Thou Queen of heaven and holy Mother, Hail.

ANNOTATIONS.

He holds the stars, since he loved peace, and that To be preserved he sanctioned by his admonitions in the city. With sweet eloquences to persuade placid quiet To the citizens and the country, was his sedulous care. A peace-bearer he too: for he calmed the scandals of the land, And restored to the exiles their native homes.

p Similar to these I believe to be that, which printed on fine silk, from a certain convent of Nuns, while I inquired into the monuments of this Blessed in the year 1674, was brought to our College, with a Title, Epitome of the Life, and Dedicatory, all in Italian. The Title was, The true effigy of B. Francis Patritius, Servite, Noble of Siena. The Epitome had certain singular things, which in these Annotations we have all exhibited. The Dedicatory was directed to the most illustrious D. John Patritius of Siena, with a very brief encomium of the Patritian family, under the name of John Florinius.

q This author is hitherto unknown to us, much less do we know whether, where, how many, and when his Triumphs were printed.

DEPOSITIONS OF THE WITNESSES

Concerning the life and miracles of B. Francis heard about 60 years ago.

From the MS. of the Most Excellent Count Patritius de Patritiis

Francis of Siena of the Order of the Servants of B. Mary, at Siena in Etruria (B.)

FROM THE MS. PROCESS.

CHAPTER I.

The Articles proposed to the Witnesses offered in judgment, and the names of these.

[1] The deputies from the College of the Balìa of Siena On the part of the most illustrious College of the Balìa of Siena, the Triumvirs, whom we named in the preface, according to the Memorial in the name and place of the Prior and Confraters of S. Mary of the Servants of this city of Siena offered in the year of the Lord 1622 on the 27th day of September… the names being given set forth, that the blessed memory of Fr. Francis de Patriciis, noble of Siena, of the Order of the Servites, while he was in human affairs, a man conspicuous for piety and admirably adorned with Christian virtues, exhibited many signs of sanctity, and in the year 1326, on the day of the Ascension of the Lord, migrated from this life. Whose body was delivered to ecclesiastical burial in the church of the same Order of the Servites, in the city of Siena, and is fittingly and honorably preserved and rests; and both in the said city and in the neighboring places, the fame of sanctity and the working of miracles began to thrive.

[2] they intend to prove, And because men are daily borne of their own accord to veneration toward that servant of God, and the fame of his sanctity more and more daily with the working of miracles grows and increases; therefore these things being narrated, speaking in the mother tongue, for the easier understanding of the witnesses, they article, set down, and intend to prove I That the glorious Father Francis Patritius, the common opinion concerning the sanctity of B. Francis, from the time of his death to the present day, has been held and reputed, as he is held and reputed, by all the faithful Christians, especially in the states of the most Serene Grand Duke of Etruria, a most religious, most pure, most chaste man; of great abstinence, humility and obedience, of most ardent charity toward God and his neighbors, endowed with most holy morals and rare virtues, a most upright servant of God and of the most blessed Virgin Mary; and therefore was and is wont to be invoked, both in life and after death, by Christ's faithful, in their necessities, straits and infirmities, believing and holding it certain, that he reigns with God and the Saints in eternal beatitude: and that all this was and is public and notorious.

II Likewise that, both in his life and after his death, resting on miracles, God, by the merits of this faithful servant of his and of the most blessed Virgin, by the mediating intercession of him, deigned to work many miracles to testify his sanctity.

III That in ancient times and exceeding all memory of men the body of the glorious Fr. Francis aforesaid was exposed and conserved in the parochial church of the Saints Clement and Michael the Archangel of the Servants at Siena, the incorruption of the body, above the altar called of B. Mary of the People, in a wooden chest: which in our times was found, with many miracles and deeds of the aforesaid Saint painted on it, to manifest his sanctity to posterity.

IV That not only in the said church, by ancient pictures, but also in various other churches and public places, are found many most ancient pictures, transcending the memory of the elders, representing the image of the said Father, in that form in which the images of the Saints are wont to be painted, with rays around the head and the title of Blessed.

V That to his sepulcher, from the time of his death to the present, there has always been a great concourse of people, by the concourse to the sepulcher, not only from the city but also from the neighboring places and parts of Italy, on account of the fame of miracles and of sanctity, which had diffused itself far and wide concerning him.

VI That on his feast day there was always and even now is the greatest concourse of the faithful: by the annual feast, and then concerning his miracles and praises a sermon is wont to be held to the people.

VII That on the same day there is a similar concourse to the cave, by the veneration of the cave, into which the Blessed was wont to withdraw for the cause of penance.

VIII That his body is preserved and seen even today incorrupt in the said church of the Servants at Siena. of the body,

IX That both the aforesaid body and his images, which are seen depicted in various places, of the images, are held in great reverence by the faithful, who are wont before these and that to bow the head, bend the knees, light lamps and tapers, affix votive tablets of silver or other material, in acknowledgment of graces received from the Blessed.

X That so great is and always was the devotion of the people toward this holy Father, the trust of the sick in him, that many who are held by various grave and dangerous diseases, turn themselves to him, and implore his intercession, ordering flowers to be brought to them, consecrated by the touch of the holy body: which placed upon the sick, by the grace of almighty God, have worked and daily work the health of many.

XI That formerly there was erected for him a Sodality of secular men: the protection of a sodality, and that under the same patronage today serves the Sodality of the most holy Trinity, erected by him under the name of the lesser Sodality of the most blessed Virgin.

XII That in the year 1619 the body of the aforesaid blessed Father was carried about processionally with solemn pomp, a procession with the body, with the greatest train of people running together from everywhere, and a number of wax torches, and the intervention of several secular confraternities, the banners of the same being carried before, and a great multitude of religious of every profession and habit: and that after a consultation held thereupon in the Archiepiscopal Palace, in which, no one at all dissenting, there was consent to that matter.

XIII That in the proper Lections of B. Peregrine of Forlì the supreme Pontiff expressly calls the said Father Blessed: and the title of Blessed. and approves that he reigns in heaven, when he says, that B. Francis of Siena came to take the soul of B. Peregrine, and to lead it into paradise.

[3] Interrogated as to the questions These are the interrogatories, conceived in the Italian idiom in the place where we have noted, and to be proposed to the witnesses: to which it is subjoined, that first each witness be seriously admonished of the gravity of the oath to be taken etc. be asked of his name, surname, country, etc: then faith is made that the above-written preparatory and interrogatory things etc were exhibited and produced: and finally certain sayings and some attestations of the witnesses are described, examined before the most illustrious and most reverend D. Fabius Sergardius Patrician of Siena etc in this order.

I In the year of the Lord 1622, on the 22nd day of the month of October the most illustrious and most reverend Father Alexander Vasolius, Ten witnesses on the 28th of October. Auditor of the most Serene Grand Duke of Etruria the first Witness brought in, produced, alleged, named, admonished, sworn, his breast touched in the Priestly manner etc, whose are these responses to the preparatory questions, in the mother tongue, in which all the rest also spoke. I had no knowledge of the said Father except from that time in which, at Florence I read the Life written by Father Master Michael of Florence: but afterward on various occasions I was and stayed at Siena, and lately indeed for a whole year, when I heard many things of those which were treated concerning the sanctity of the said Father.

II Father the most illustrious and most reverend Don Fabius Piccolomineus, Bishop of Massa etc. whose are these responses to the Preparatory questions; That he has no personal knowledge of the said Father, as one dead for so many years: but well of the relics of his body, from which he saw it entire … but concerning the person of the same most reverend Witness, he said, he is a Bishop, often celebrates, and of the age of 54 years.

III On the 29th of November 1622 the most reverend Master Benedict de Ventanis of the Order of Preachers etc. whose are these responses to the preparatory questions. 29 November. I have knowledge of Father Fr. Francis of the Order of the Servants, on account of the feast which is kept for him yearly in the city of Siena, on the Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension, and I have often seen his incorrupt body … but concerning the person of the Witness himself, he said he is of the age of 40 years and celebrates daily.

IV On the 6th of December 1622 the most illustrious and most excellent D. Mutius son of the late D. Ascanius de Britionibus, 6 December. Patrician of Siena, another Witness said: I have knowledge of the said Blessed, because I read his Life, I saw the incorrupt body etc. and of all the things which I have deposed there is a public voice and fame among those who have known these things.

V On the 4th of January in the year 1622, the most illustrious D. Archangelus, son of the late D. Antony Maria de Archangelis.

4 and 13 January. VI On the 13th of January 1622 Cosmus son of the late Angelus de Carratellis of Cuna of Siena another witness, sworn

etc… Concerning the person of the Witness himself he said, I am in the fiftieth year of age, confessed and communicated, and possessing in goods a thousand scudi and more.

VII On the 17th of January 1622, the very Magnificent and most excellent D. Angelus Cardus of Siena, Doctor of Arts and Medicine. 17, 21 and 28 of the same,

VIII On the 21st of January the most reverend and eminent Father Fr. Master from the Counts of Alcium, of the Order of the Minors of S. Francis…

IX On the 28th of January 1622 the most illustrious and most excellent D. Antony son of the late D. Alexander de Ugulinis, Patrician of Siena.

and 7 February 1622. X On the 7th of February 1622, the reverend Father Fr. Camillus de Baldis, of Siena, of the Order of the Servants of S. Mary, Bachelor in sacred Theology, and Lector of Philosophy…

[4] To these witnesses were proposed the interrogatories related above; not separately (as I distinguished them for the sake of greater convenience into 13 articles) but in one continuous series: What were their responses? whereby it came about, that the depositions of the same do not respond accurately to the several articles; but are conceived in those words and in that order, as each remembered that he had seen, heard, or read; many also, as to several articles, concerning which nothing particular occurred to be said, seem to be defective. We, about to collect into one whatever special and noteworthy each one deposed, have judged that the deposition of the last Witness should be premised at length; why the last is given entire? because concerning the life of Francis and the miracles of the living one he came more instructed and prepared than the rest, whence he narrated not a few other things or otherwise and more distinctly than Pocciantius, so that the Life written by Paul Burghesius, which the same Witness as read by him alleges, seems to have been much more copious: besides because he more diligently collected the rest, concerning which in his time existing or done he could testify, after accurate observation and curious interrogation of several. Thus then having spoken in Italian he is written.

CHAPTER II.

The former part of the last testimony concerning the virtues of B. Francis.

[5] I know that the body of B. Francis Patritius is buried above the altar of S. Mary of the People, in our church of the Servants at Siena. After the indications of his Sanctity in general, I know that the said body did many miracles, as I shall say below. I know that it was carried about processionally through the said city of Siena. I know that the said Father must have been in various places of Italy, namely at Milan, Como, Pavia, Piacenza, Parma, Bologna, Modena, Reggio, Florence, Lucca, and in other places in which I have conversed. From these things which I have said and others which I am about to say I intend to prove, that he was a great servant of God. But that he was also a singular worshipper of the B. Virgin Mary, clearly is plain from his life, diffusely written and printed in various places of Italy, in which it is said, that the Queen of Angels and of the heavens, Patroness and Protectress of our Order, sent him by herself to the Religious Order of the Servants, often called him son, often spoke with him familiarly as friend with friend; and his singular affection toward the V. M. and confirmed and helped him in his necessities, visited him in sickness, and to him dying obtained paradise from her Son, inviting him thither, and with a great multitude of Angels and Saints male and female and also her Son accompanying her led his glorious soul into heaven: and that he as in his life he was most heaped with graces and merits; so also was seen in the sight of God, clothed with most bright light of glory surpassing the splendor of the sun, and crowned with a most rich and most resplendent crown by the very hands of the most blessed Virgin, as in its place we shall say from the authors who wrote concerning him, namely Paul Atavantus, Nicholas Burghesius the Knight, Father Dominic William, Father Abbot Don Silvanus Razzi, Matthioli, Bernardinus Florini, and the most reverend Philip General of the Servants; and of all these there is a public voice and fame.

[6] But that in particular I may say something of the virtues of the glorious servant of God contained in the article, his unsullied virginity is proved, I say it is most true that he was a most religious, most pious, most chaste man: because he never stained nor defiled his soul or body with any carnal sin, and kept the flower of virginity unsullied, and a chaste and holy virgin was taken up into heaven, because such was promised to the world, and foretold to his devout mother by S. Peter the Apostle, as elsewhere we shall say. But although it is probable, that he was solicited by many temptations and grave stings of the flesh to such sins, yet confirmed and helped by the efficacious grace of the Savior, he conquered and overcame all uncleanness, in that he would not consent even to the least impure offense. It is also most true that he was a man of the highest abstinence, understanding that hence are sought the most efficacious remedies against the temptations of the enemy. Hence also at a tender age, although noble and rich, he made it his custom to spend two days in the week, namely Wednesday and Saturday, frequent fasting, with bread and water alone in honor of the B. Virgin: but made a Religious he added a similar fast on Fridays in honor and memory of the Passion, as our Rule prescribes; but the times of the Lord's Advent and of Lent, except on Sunday, he spent content with bread and water, sometimes even with vegetables alone. From flesh and wine he was very far, wont to call his body a little ass, to which only precisely so much should be given, as would suffice to bear the burden.

[7] By the same virtue of abstinence, he shortened the times of sleep, the rigor of penance, abhorring it as a most harmful lethargy: nay even he often passed whole nights sleepless and watchful in holy studies, meditations, contemplations, and prayers: but if he wished by means of a little sleep to give some part of rest to the body, he nevertheless kept his mind watchful and his heart toward the Lord. He beat and scourged his body often, and fled idleness as a vice contrary to all virtues. His bed was no other than the bare ground: and of this thing the cave or cavern situated under our convent makes faith, in which while he lived there were never seen mattresses or feathers, or pillows; not skins of animals, not straw, hay or chaff. But for a pillow there were for him hard stones, to the confusion of those, for whom sumptuous palaces and feathered and soft beds do not suffice. For tapestries there were crosses, scourges woven of little cords, marks of blood scattered through the walls, which he continually drew from his afflicted flesh. For menservants and maidservants virtues: society none except of Christ, the Mother of God, the Angel, the holy man and holy woman. He exercised abstinence also in clothing, using no other cope, tunic or scapular than of altogether coarse cloth: under which he was clad with a long and rough hairshirt, which he girt with a cord no more delicate. Very often moreover to tame the flesh, and lest he have occasion proudly to lift up his heart, on account of the miracles which through him God worked and on account of the praises with which he was adorned by men, he wallowed among thorns and nettles and brambles. Finally from every harmful thing he was most abstinent.

[8] In the same servant of God excelled humility. For although he was as to the world born of a noble stock, humility, and in religion, on account of his singular virtues and rare ornaments of grace, esteemed by all; yet not therefore was he ever noted to make much of himself, much less to praise himself: from his heart wont to affirm that before all he was vile, foolish, ill-composed and a sinner: but that he alone ought to be called noble and wise, who from virtue led his life. He never suffered himself to be preferred to others, although it was due to him by the title of Priesthood: and therefore to the three accustomed vows of religion, namely of obedience, poverty and chastity, he added a fourth of humility: because it is not read that he ever wished to admit any dignity or prelacy whatever, not the Priorate, not the Provincialate, not finally the Generalate itself: but despising whatever to this world seems great, he sighed for the heavenly: and having his whole felicity and ultimate end placed in God alone, he lived content with the Priestly dignity; into which to be received he had consented, on account of the singular joy of mind, with which he was affected, offering daily in the morning to his Lord the sacrifice of the Mass. He proved himself most humble also in the very many journeys, which he undertook even to far regions. For whether for the cause of preaching or on the occasion of other business he went out of the city, he did not take litters or carriages or horses, but walking on foot with a staff in his hand, he begged alms and food and lodging in place and time, as the Apostles and the first Fathers of our Order did. He proved himself most humble finally in this, that, when he received so great graces and so great favors divinely, he would never manifest anything of them; to those urging and insisting that he make them partakers of some, he was wont to answer, My secret to myself. But when once a companion asked, whence was that jubilation of mind, which he bore in his face while sacrificing, he would not indicate the cause.

[9] To so great humility was added the queen of all virtues charity toward God and Neighbor: for he loved God above all things, charity toward God nor can it be explained in words, how much that love exceeded the common manner of loving; but at the same time he both venerated and feared him with the whole affection of his heart. And therefore some of our elders took care to have the glorious Father painted with emaciated face, carrying a lily in one hand, in the other an open book with these words from Scripture, come, sons, to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. And in truth all his life could be called a continual excess of divine love and fear. For since on no day he did not celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass, daily with much shedding of tears both before he was wont to pray to God, and after to give thanks: nay and to teach others, that they should never present themselves to the divine Majesty about to pray without tears. The same excess of love his sighs betrayed, frequently bursting forth with these words, I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ: because nothing else did this true servant of God so greatly wish, than to be united to his Lord, and more closely and more closely joined.

[10] and his neighbor With so great charity also was he borne toward his neighbor; that night and day he thought, by what means chiefly he could succor his necessities, especially those which pertain to the soul. Therefore to instruct the erring, to teach the ignorant, to correct sinners he did not cease; compassionating all, pouring forth for all prayers, full of spirit, zeal and love, especially while preaching, that as many as heard him, pricked might depart from their former vices. But that of this virtue also I may explain something in particular, I say it is read in the authors of the Life, that, when nothing else was at hand to be given to the poor, he bestowed his own garments on them. From the same charity he continually ministered to the sick: from charity he was not wearied by the journeys to be made everywhere, publicly and privately preaching to extirpate vices and to insert virtues congruous to the Christian profession: from charity finally he attended to pacifying

the citizens dwelling in this city among themselves, whom if he had found dissenting in anything, he soon like a most firm wall interposed himself to the parties: and in this so great authority and favor he prevailed with the citizens, that by extinguishing capital enmities, and unraveling the most intricate affairs, he obtained the surname Pacialis, or by it was called by antonomasia.

[11] Moreover his prayer was not only fervid, but almost continual, wont to spend on it a great part of his time, when he was still secular, the fervor of his prayers frequenting churches; to which and to hear the divine Offices in them he came first, went out last. But although he was then altogether tender and delicate, yet after a little rest indulged to the body, at midnight he rose from his bed, and his mind turned to God, prostrate before some image of the Mother of God how many nights he recited five hundred times the Hail Mary. He was also most studious of hearing holy exhortations, nor by any title ever did he suffer himself to be prevented from being present at all. But this his zeal God would not frustrate of a congruous reward. For when once Ambrose Sansedonius of the Order of Preachers was preaching, and he had heard him explaining these words, You will merit if you flee men; at once he felt himself moved to embrace the state of religious life, the secular being dismissed; and firmly resolved to strive toward the greatest perfection he could. But made a Religious, and the efficacy, he was seen to pray with so great fervor, that he was an object of admiration to all: because his soul perpetually adhered to God: and when he celebrated Mass, he showed so great jubilation of mind, that all were astonished at so great an ardor of praying, by which both with the holy Cross mediating he did many miracles, and divinely obtained many graces, as below we shall say; he also converted many sinners, and finally asked nothing of God which he did not obtain. An example of this so efficacious prayer once was plain. Francis was praying the divine Majesty, that it would deign to free him from the calumnious tongues of those, who murmured against him, as if more than just inclined to external conversation with men and women. But behold at midnight insisting on such a prayer he became deaf, so that he perceived neither any voice nor any sound however great. But the citizens wishing to deliver him to be cured, he would not assent; knowing this to be the effect, not of any natural cause, but of his predestination.

[12] Francis was also most poor in spirit, both in the world and in religion; poverty of spirit, never wishing to have anything which he could call his own: not money, because this he never admitted, not even for the long journeys, which he made on foot living by begging: not garments, because these he often bestowed on the poor: not finally his own place in the choir or refectory, always choosing the lowest of all. Nay neither is it found nor read of him, that in the Convent, to which he was assigned, he had a chamber or cell; content with that cave, of which above we have said and below shall say: which he preferred to however sumptuous a palace; in which, as he said, there were no flatterers, murmurers, calumniators or other wicked men; but quiet, peace, silence, holy visions and revelations, colloquies with God, the Mother of God, Angels, and the heavenly ones, finally every spiritual good. and obedience. Besides the servant of God Francis was a most accurate observer of devout obedience to God: for whenever the Superior spoke or commanded anything, at his least sign prompt, he at once applied his hand to the demonstrated work, or moved his foot toward the indicated place: but if it were commanded that he preach extempore, he did not say, that being unprepared he could not ascend the pulpit; but relying on the mandate of the one commanding, he went forward to speak, to be set before all religious as an example of obedience.

CHAPTER III.

The latter part of the same testimony concerning the marks of his sanctity.

[13] Nor were lacking to the servant of God Francis the graces freely given. Sacred knowledge, For first when he was well lettered and very luminously instructed in sacred and profane disciplines, he manifested that the gift of knowledge was in him, when he sat among the Fathers of the Council of Vienne under Clement V, as it can be seen in the Annals of the Order, and in the epitome of the life printed under his glorious image, copies of which are extant in the public squares for sale to the faithful people. Likewise when he published certain works under the title of Sermons, as Father Gregory de Sastia relates to me, a venerable man and worthy of faith, who asserts that the aforesaid works are reverently preserved in our library. Moreover in eloquence and the grace of preaching the divine word he was strong, as an excellent preacher, and as such heard in various places of Italy, great authority, especially in the diocese of Siena, in which there is neither city nor town, where there does not survive the memory of his most useful sermons. His great nobility in the world the splendor of the Patritian family proves, from which he came: his singular authority with all the Princes of Italy especially the people of Siena declare the affairs of the public State, which he treated most dexterously. Hence to Clement V he was sent with his companion the reverend Father Bernard de S. Nuccio as orator for the Clergy and diocese of Siena, as we are taught by an instrument written on parchment, which with some other instruments of great moment is preserved in the archive of our Convent. He was also invited by Can, the famous Prince of Verona, to found in those parts convents of his institute. Finally it is held for certain and explored, that he founded the convent of S. Mary de Scala. From all which it clearly appears, that whatever is asserted in the first article is most true.

[14] Very many were the miracles, which on account of the merits of this his servant the Lord, miracles preceding his nativity, glorious in his Saints, worked, namely before his nativity and after it, both in life and death and after death. And indeed before the nativity, the future sanctity of the boy was manifested to his mother through various visions, in one of which she dreamed, that within a church she brought forth a most white lily, whence many other lilies were born, which all together seemed to form a beautiful crown, to crown the mother of God; so all the authors. At another time in the midst of the silence of the night, S. Peter appearing to her in majesty and glory and Pontifically vested, the rest being ordered to go out from the choir, seemed to give her the Papal benediction, and to foretell, that she would bring forth a lily, which passing happily through all the dregs of this world, would be defiled in no part of itself; as afterward in fact was plain. Moreover in his nativity it was believed full of mystery, and following, that after the holy baptism conferred on the boy, set before the image of the most blessed Virgin, according to the custom of this city most devoted to the same Virgin, although still deprived of all use of reason and knowledge of sensible things, instead of the wailing which nature has taught other boys to give, he began to exult with joy and applaud the image, in sign of his future devotion toward Our Lady most holy; as the authors of the Life write, and by name D. Knight Nicholas Borgesius.

[15] His life also God adorned with various signs and miracles, as in order we shall say. apparitions of the Mother of God, And first he had many apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, diffusely narrated by the Writers of the Life, and by name, that to him while still a secular youth offering herself to be seen, in reward of the praises so often repeated to her, she signified that he was enrolled in the number of her servants; accordingly the world being dismissed let him embrace the religious state. But when this coming to the convent he had narrated, he was received to the habit by our Blessed Philip, then General of the Order. At another time when the servant of God was speaking to the people, God wishing to declare how great then was the zeal of Francis, made appear fiery tongues and little flames, which flitted around and above his head, as the aforesaid authors report, and in various places is seen painted. At another time when he similarly preached the word of God, Angels and Cherubim were seen to stand around, and to hold the book of the Gospels open before him. There was a time when the glorious Father Francis, set on a journey and wearied by the town, asked something of a certain rich miser for the love of God, the injurious to the Blessed punished, nor obtained at least kind words, and was bidden to go in peace; but with much evil-speaking and reproaches was repelled. Which did not remain unpunished, for the blessed man scarcely yet departed, beyond the season of the year and the course of nature a sudden tempest lay upon that place, formidable with lightnings and thunders, and dissipated all the substance of the evil-speaking man; as the authors and by name the Knight Borghesius narrate.

[16] As often as the servant of God went out, as he did often, to visit the sick and those laboring with various diseases, after he had exhorted them to patience and instructed them with salutary admonitions, the poor healed by the cross or the touch of his garments, full of faith he healed many of them by making over them the sign of the Cross; as both they themselves who had been cured sick testified, and those who were present to them for solace or service. Many times also that marvelous thing happened, that when to the poor asking alms, by the example of his Master, he had bestowed his own garments, by the mere touch of them the same poor were cured of their infirmities. When the fame of these and other graces, divinely granted to Francis, was diffused far and wide through all the region around; it is wonderful how great a number of men and women it stirred up, to frequent him devoutly. But it was grievous to him to be so often and so continually disturbed: and so he obtained from God a miraculous deafness, as already above is said, through which thereafter it was permitted him to live quietly to God alone and to himself.

[17] He nonetheless went on according to custom to go out of the city to preach the word of God. his death foretold to him by the Mother of God, On a certain day therefore doing the same, and on the very way suffering a swoon from weakness and weariness, he had conspicuous the glorious Virgin Mary clothed with a most white robe, who offering him a bundle of roses and consoling him fainting, Return, she said, my servant Francis, for the time approaches, in which from here you pass to the heavenly paradise. But he soon rose, and returned into the city with his companion and entering the church, prostrated himself before the image of the most blessed Virgin: and thanks being given for the benefit received he hung the very bundle of roses on the image already mentioned, and betook himself into his cavern to await death. But sick he foretold that he would pass to a better life on the feast of the Lord's Ascension, as in truth it happened in the year 1326. Finally at the point of approaching death again the Virgin Mother of God appeared to him, accompanied by her only-begotten son, and said: Francis, my dearest servant, what shall I repay you for the faithful service which you have rendered me, and for the love with which you have always followed me? But Jesus Christ answered in the place of Francis: It is fitting, mother, that he who loved you, should come to reign forever with us in the heavenly country. Then both broke into these words: his beatitude revealed, Come, come, faithful servant, into the heavenly country with us: and here suddenly the vision disappeared, and the glorious soul of the servant of God was translated into Paradise

. But at the very hour in which the blessed man expired, a certain noble and holy matron of Siena, beheld him more splendid than the sun led before the sight of the most holy Trinity, and to his head a most precious crown placed by the Mother of God, in an evident sign that he who in this life had shone with a grace and merits by no means common, in the heavens also was adorned with no ordinary light of glory. and the following miracles But while the body stood above the earth, to its veneration a people almost infinite ran together: and through the whole County many sick were healed, and various other miracles happened, which were taken down and confirmed by the hand of public Notaries. There was also born from the mouth of the deceased a most white lily, having on each of its leaves written in golden letters Hail Mary.

[18] God so adorning his Saint, there was a certain noble of Siena, by name Andrew, who incredulous of so great miracles, nay even blaspheming Francis himself, suddenly felt the sharpest torments, by which urging him to death, and the physicians despairing of prolonging his life longer, the wretch began to repent of all the things, which against the servant of God he had imprudently blurted out: and commending himself to him from his heart, promised that for the public scandal of his sin he would undergo public penance. At once at this vow the torment ceased, and Andrew raising himself from his bed, his arms folded in the form of a Cross, came to the sarcophagus of the blessed man himself, narrated to all the miracle done on himself; vengeance taken on the blasphemers, and professing himself devoted to B. Francis, thereafter led a holy and exemplary life, as the Knight Borghesius testifies. Another, by name Bartholomew, wont to turn the name of Francis into laughter and to detract from the miracles done through his intercession, and in sign of contempt to swing his arm raised into the air uncouthly; while he does this one day too petulantly, his arm began to stiffen for him like a stone. Acknowledging therefore his offense, accusing himself publicly along the way, he came to visit his holy Relics. Where when he had come, and had begun to weep bitterly, by a new miracle he rejoiced that motion was restored to his arm: and thereafter devoted to God and to his servant Francis he led a life with piety.

[19] the dead raised, It happened besides that a boy was playing near a fountain, and fell unhappily into it and was drowned, no one being present there who could bring help. The corpse then drawn out and recognized as such by all, lamented by the father and mother, was at length carried to the Relics of B. Francis: which soon the soul being received rose, and the boy revived set upon his feet walked home without stumbling, Borghesius being witness. Finally it is said by the authors, that four dead, through the merits of Francis, returned to life: and that the maimed received health, the lame, and the contracted, the blind were restored to light, the possessed cleansed, the elephantiac cured; but one of the authors so reporting these things says, Francis, reckoned among the Blessed, became renowned for nearly every kind of miracles.

[20] images as of a Blessed, I myself saw the effigy of this Blessed in various places of this city, namely in the Cathedral of Siena, in the church of S. John under the Cathedral, in the Palace of the most illustrious Lordship, in the Roman Gate, and elsewhere; at Florence likewise, at Bologna and at Milan. Nor within Italy does the fame of the said servant of God contain itself, it is diffused even to remote provinces, nor does any of the foreigners land at Siena, but he comes to adore that holy body; and I myself often showed it to very many transmontane men, Spaniards, French, Imperials. Nor have many months passed, that there landed at Siena two Jesuit Fathers from the most remote parts, the veneration of the body, and with them one Japanese, who all together were returning into the Indies, and admired that excellent pledge. I saw also come to venerate it various and many Prelates of the holy Church, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, and many temporal Princes: namely the most eminent Cardinals of Este, Bichi, of Medici; the most illustrious moreover Camillus Archbishop of Siena and Archbishop Petruccius, the most illustrious also the Archbishop of Pisa with the Apostolic Nuncio through Etruria, finally from the secular Order some most Serene Princes and Princesses. It is moreover most true, that the body is incorrupt, holding its right hand and head a little elevated in the air: that lamps and tapers shine before the images of the Blessed, and that the sepulcher is crowned on every side with votive tablets.

[21] health restored to those invoking him. It is also most certain that Cosmus the Sword-maker, burdened with the stone, recovered health: that finally a certain Franciscan Father of the Conventual Minors, contracted in body, when he had understood the body of B. Francis to be carried about processionally, commended himself to him from his heart, and was made whole: and this happened in the year 1619. Lawrence Merciatus, suffering the stone, sent a shirt to be applied to the holy body, and recovered in the year 1622. Bartholomew of John Dominic Panduocius, a little boy of six years, coming with his mother to honor the aforesaid Relics, fell from the stairs; but his mother invoking Francis, he took no harm. Francis Tercarinus, of the Order of S. Francis, laboring with a malignant fever and a great torment of the head, made a vow to the glorious Father, and was made possessed of his vow: which the same a vow being made happened to Christopher Guasti an apothecary, sick unto death and given up by the physicians on account of the gravity of a pestilent disease, which blackish pustules breaking out over the whole body betrayed. And of all these the public voice and fame testifies. Catharine wife of Cosmus the sword-maker, at the touch of those roses, which had been applied to the holy body, was freed from a most grave sickness. A certain Lord, of the most noble family of Reccafuori, was loosed from a bitter pain of the teeth, at the touch of a similar rose. But whatever has been said above, as true Fr. Camillus Baldi set forth.

CHAPTER IV.

Analecta from the depositions of the other witnesses: the inspection of the body: the judgment of the Roman Consultor.

[22] Let us begin from the miracles after death: of which one chief, An abscess is cured, already indicated in very few words at the end of the preceding chapter, the aforesaid Catharine's husband Cosmus, as an eyewitness, sixth in order, so narrated, that he subjoined another no less evident thing done in his own person more at length. I know that Catharine daughter of Leonard Calefatus, my wife, received a miraculous grace. For when she suffered an abscess in the shoulder, and had ordered a rose to be applied to her, sanctified by the touch of the holy body; within very few days she recovered, and took care that a tablet be made as witness of the benefit obtained. But I myself related a not a little greater and more marvelous grace, in this manner which I shall narrate. For about twelve years I began to be tormented with nephritic pains and stones growing in the bladder, of which I again and again voided some, and an intolerable pain of the stone, not without the greatest torment: and in that state I remained until the year 1518; when, the pains growing more and more grievously, not able to bear them longer, I was compelled to lie down in bed. Then the physician called to my aid (he was Jerome Pinellus of Naples, celebrated for curing singular infirmities) judged that no remedy could be found for my evil, because a larger stone now resided at the bottom, nor could be recalled upward by any medicines: he added that he would prepare for me a water, by whose benefit the increase of the burdening mass would be checked, and so my life would be prolonged at least for some months. But I considering that so great a part of substance, hitherto spent on the price of physicians and medicines, had profited nothing, lest I be compelled to make new expenses, refused to take that water.

[23] So set when I was in my shop, on the 12th of May in the evening, or rather at the hour of Vespers before the Sunday (where the curial and popular difference of the year comes to be noted: for that which from the usage of the common people, he who speaks, the witness calls the year 1618, namely the year in which the 12th day of May fell on a Saturday; that the Court, wont to anticipate the Roman year by nine months, would have called the year 1619) there came to me Master Guerrinus Chioccioletti, after the body was visited, a tailor, of sixty years; and, Do we wish, he said, to walk to Our Lady in the Roman Gate? I assented: and so step by step we both began together to go forward, and I indeed always holding my hand applied to the groin, on account of the great pains of the stone which I suffered. But as we drew near to the church of the Servants: What if we enter, he said, to gain the Indulgences here proposed by reason of the Forty hours, for the cause of which also the body of B. Francis Patritius lies exposed? I offered myself prepared for this also, provided we should walk as slowly as possible, otherwise I would take care that he lead me there. We came therefore, at a slower pace, as I wished, to the church of the Servants, and I said: I wish to commend myself to this Saint: and entering within I took the Indulgence before the most Holy, then I came to the chest in which was the body of the said Blessed, supplicating him, that he would intercede for me with the most Holy Trinity, that the following morning he would deign to heal me; for not a few at that time were dying of the pains of the stone. So my devotion completed we returned each to his own home, having parted from one another in the middle of the way.

[24] It was the hour of supper when I returned home: whence after a little supper I again went out into the square to watch the games which were held there, the stones being voided with the urine: at the persuasion of my wife, wishing that by that means I should dispel the melancholic humors and forget the pains which I suffered. But these did not suffer me to make long delays there; but a short interval having remeasured the way, about the third hour of night I ordered my household to betake themselves to bed, while I, not able to lie down for the greatness of the torment, walk about through the chamber until the fourth hour. Then, God granting it, feeling urine to be stirred in me, a chamber-pot being taken I voided the same without grave trouble. My wife heard this, and at the same time the sound of the stone following the urine; and at once said; Lo, you are healed, my husband. I had not felt on account of the pain (which though not the greatest, was yet not nothing) the stone descend; therefore, how she so confidently asserted it, I asked. But she, Inspect, she said, the chamber-pot, for now you have voided the stone; which when with my hand put in I had found to be so, I gave thanks to God and the Saint; and my clothes set aside I betook myself to bed, and most comfortably began to sleep. The day then risen I carried the very stone to the church of the Servants, and the Sacristan and Prior being called I narrated the grace done to me such as I had asked, and exhibited the very stone to them: who after they had made me gain the Indulgence, hung a votive tablet procured by my order at the altar, on which the body stood exposed. But after two days, I again voided two smaller little stones, and from that hour until now I have felt no more any pain: and I plainly think myself wholly healed, nor do I observe any choice of foods.

[25] The 5th Witness among other things said, that in the church of the Servants at Florence, which has its name from the Annunciation, the images are honored, or rather in the cloister of that church, are seen painted various miracles of B. Francis, by the hand of Andrew del Sarto

and other most excellent painters, the 3rd Witness affirms that he saw his image printed on paper. But the 6th Witness, to preserve the memory of the benefit conferred on him, had his image painted for himself on harder paper, and said that for the sake of veneration he kept it at home. Now what pertains to the rest of the worship of B. Francis, that Processional carrying about of the year 1619 is by the 5th Witness described in these words. I know that three or four years ago in the octave of Easter the body was publicly carried about by four Sodalities, deputed for the conveyance of some notable Relic in the general procession, the body carried in a procession, on Low Sunday wont to be led around. But by some Theologians a difficulty was raised, saying, that a more special indult of a higher power would be needed for that work, because the aforesaid body was not a Relic approved according to the prescript of the Council of Trent Session 25. But after a long contention it was defined by all the Theologians of this city, that it was a lawful Relic, in carrying which no scruple should be placed. But the 4th Witness had said, that the consent seemed to have been miraculous, resting on a most certain argument, that, when in the time of Pius V most severe Apostolic Visitors were sent, permitted to be kept above the altar, they found the aforesaid body above the altar, on which Mass is celebrated, and judged nothing to be innovated about it, but permitted it so to remain, although in the churches of Siena they reformed many things about bodies elevated above the ground. Concerning that Visitation, made about the year 1570, we treated on the 13th of March at the end, where concerning B. Eric Peregrinus, who died at Perugia: in whose body the Visitor set an example of his severity, ordering it to be carried from the major altar of the church to the sacristy, until concerning the origin and foundation of such worship it should be more certainly clear, as ten years after it was clear a Process being formed.

[26] The body of B. Francis was therefore carried about, under a new Baldachin, as the 4th Witness said, borne on the shoulders of D. Mutius Pecci, D. Lewis Accarigi, D. Asso a Knight of Malta, D. Pompilius Pepucci a Knight, D. Fr. Calistus Borghesius a Knight of Malta. and not only by the common people But on whatever day the body itself is exposed to the people to be beheld, there is a great concourse of those desiring to apply their prayer-chains to it, or to take care that they be applied by others; and also of those desiring the flowers placed within the chest. Nor do the common people only eagerly behold it, but also men most distinguished in secular and ecclesiastical dignity. So I remember, says the 8th Witness, that it in the year 1613 was visited for the sake of veneration by the most eminent Cardinal de Pondeo with great devotion. but also by a certain Cardinal The same in the deposition of the 2nd Witness is written Cardinal de Podio. In both I believe error was made by the copyists or notaries, for no Cardinal of that name is found in the whole Pontificate of Paul V, from the year 1605 to 1621. Nor yet of the truth of the double testimony, given on ocular faith, is it permitted to doubt. Nothing therefore would be more probable to me, than that here is understood Peter Gondius (commonly de Gondy) Bishop of Langres and Paris, if I could prove, that he in the 81st year of age (for four years more than an octogenarian he was, when at Paris he died in the year 1616) could and would sustain the labors of the journeys to and fro from Gaul into Italy. Now no other escape remains, if the continuators of Ciacconius passed over no one of the Cardinals of this century, than to Peter's nephew Henry Gondius, who in the year 1608, his uncle yielding made Bishop of Paris, could on account of some affairs of the Kingdom of France have passed through Siena in the aforenamed year 1613, and here by prolepsis be called Cardinal, although he was made this only five years after.

[27] and by other Princes seen, The same 8th Witness asserts that the body of B. Francis was visited with similar devotion by the Dukes of Etruria, by name by Cosmus II of glorious memory, and D. Justina de Medicis, and by the most Serene Prince of Condé: who also left an alms. And to these and other Magnates it was granted to behold it out of the ordinary. But the 2nd Witness; I know, he says, that the said body was last inspected by D. the Archbishop of Pisa (this was Julian de Medicis, in the year 1620 substituted in the place of the deceased Francis Boncianni) before Ascanius Vasolius, my brother. But in what state they saw it, will be understood from the following Latin instrument, with which the Process is closed. In the year 1622 on the 11th of February the most illustrious and most reverend D. Vicar, and last by the Archiepiscopal Vicar, the Judge delegated, came after dinner, together with me the undersigned Notary and Chancellor, to the church of the Convent and Friars of S. Mary of the Servants of the city of Siena; and having come before the major altar, genuflecting he adored the most holy instrument of the Eucharist: and a brief prayer being made he visited the altar, called under the title of S. Mary del Popolo, situated in the left arm of the said church, near the door of the sacristy toward the south: above which he saw there was a chest, in the form of a sepulcher, of walnut wood adorned with gold; in which he saw was preserved the body of the said B. Francis de Patritiis, all entire, with the hands elevated, and especially the left, in each part of it surrounded everywhere with dried skin and flesh; except the head, on the left part; the chest being opened, where the cheek is found not everywhere covered with skin, but vitiated with some holes, as also the same part is found at the end of the ribs and at the top of the neck: but the back of the head uncovered in the manner of an Episcopal crown. There is found also on the right part and in the place of the breast a very large hole, oblong by the length of one finger; and without the genitals. The mouth appears somewhat open, showing the front teeth. The hands and feet it has with the nails: but the hinder part remains wholly unhurt, and everywhere covered with flesh and skin. And the said body is seen composed, so as to beget devotion and admiration alike.

[28] In the front part of the aforesaid chest are seen painted three miracles: namely an Angel, in which also some miracles are painted: showing an open book to the said B. Francis preaching; and also a flame on the head of the same Father preaching; and the apparition of the blessed Virgin outside the city of Siena, who appeared to the said B. Francis, who on the journey had fainted, and recalled his senses. There is found also above and in the middle of the said chest a painted tablet, in which is seen the body of the Blessed lying clothed in the bier, and from his mouth a lily rising, surrounded on every side by those standing around, venerating the aforesaid body, adorned with various silks with lights, here and there assisting Friars of the same Order clad in surplices, touching crowns and flowers for the people asking etc. Done at Siena in the aforesaid church, before D. Augustine de Bronzis a Priest of Volterra, etc. likewise others concerning the appellation Tarlatus, To this so accurate description can be added from the deposition of the 1st Witness, that the interior chest is fortified with transparent crystals, through which the body is beheld: and from the words of the 5th Witness, that the chapel, in which is the altar of S. Mary aforesaid, is of the family of the Luti. More notable still is, that the 3rd Witness calls B. Francis Tarlatus, and says he is so called by the whole city; while all the rest surname him Patritius, except the 8th, who names Francis Patritius and Tarlatus. and the lily carried into France. Finally concerning the lily mentioned above the 9th Witness asserted, it was told him by some French, that each year on the feast day of B. Francis it grows green again, as if then first plucked from the field: but the day being passed it becomes dry again. It moved me conferring these words with the text of the Life at number 7 where the very lily is said to have been given to the King of France, asking it through his messengers, that with pious curiosity I should order it to be inquired, whether it still survives at Paris in the Chapel, as they call it, Holy, where such sacred treasures with the Thorny Crown of our Lord are kept. But he who undertook this care upon himself Father Lewis Jobert of our Society, the more willingly doing this, the greater zeal with which for more than twenty years he has collected the Marian Year, and in it now almost prepared for the press treats of the life of B. Francis: he I say in these words answered on the 28th of July 1679. The most illustrious Lord Treasurer of the holy Chapel, who was formerly Bishop of Coutances in Normandy, consulted concerning the lily, which came forth from the tomb of B. Francis of Siena, denied that any memory of that matter was had: then gave opportunity of seeing the whole treasury, in which there is nothing similar. Elsewhere the confirmation of that truth must be sought, if any survive.

[29] This process being so formed and sent to Rome, received in the Rota and committed to one of the Auditors, The Consultor of the Roman Rota a familiar Theologian consulted by him, in the year 1627 on the 16th of April, gave a response: which in a great collection of such matters, preserved with the Procurator General of our Society I found fol. 320. Most illustrious and most reverend Lord, judges it to be clear from the process formed in the ordinary way before the most illustrious D. Archbishop of Siena, concerning the sanctity of life and the certitude of the miracles of the servant of God Francis Patritius, of the Order of the Servants of the B. V. Mary the things written below are concluded.

[I] concerning the opinion of sanctity, That the servant of God himself Fr. Francis Patritius, noble of Siena, his parents Rainalda and Henry being dead, entered the religious Order of the Servants in the year 1296, and departed from this life in 1326. Which servant of God was marked with every kind of virtues, most religious, and a most zealous observer of his Rule: and for such was always held and esteemed by all Christ's faithful especially in Etruria: and so was and is: and accordingly in necessities all had and have recourse to his intercession, as concerning these and his sanctity the ten named Witnesses depose.

[II] by the austerity of his life, In proof of the aforesaid sanctity there is added the most rough penance, which he always did wherever he stayed, afflicting his body with continual disciplines and abstinence from food and drink; but especially in the subterranean cave, which is placed beneath the monastery: where with continual prayers and meditations he was free for God day and night, without bed or other convenience, but on the bare earth sometimes for weariness he lay: and therefore that cave was always in the greatest veneration with all the people, and on his feast day with a great concourse of the people it is visited and venerated: and these things all the aforecited Witnesses depose and prove.

[III] The frequency of the people at his sepulcher: for not only on his feast day, by the veneration of the sepulcher, which is celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension, is it visited and venerated by the fellow-citizens of Siena, the neighboring peoples and often by Prelates and Princes: but in the continual course of the year the faithful have recourse to his intercession and obtain graces: of which thing faith is made by waxen votive offerings, tablets, lamps lit before his body, and other

things which indicate the sanctity of the servant of God: whence the Witnesses alleged above prove the universal devotion of the people toward the servant of God Francis.

[IV] The same sanctity of the servant of God is corroborated from the Lections of B. Peregrine of the Order of the Servants approved by Paul V of happy memory, in which it is read, by the beatitude of his soul, that the soul of B. Philip and B. Francis of Siena elevated the soul of B. Peregrine into heaven. And accordingly his body, which to the present day is seen incorrupt, was solemnly with a great concourse of people and devotion carried about processionally through the city in the year 1519; and his images from time immemorial are seen depicted in several places with splendors: and the Witnesses who all depose and prove above, that the servant of God is called Blessed, and that they saw the procession and the incorrupt body.

[V] Among the many miracles which God worked in the life of this his servant, by miracles in life only two for the sake of brevity are set forth: of which the first is, that while he was preaching, Angels served him holding the book of the Gospels; and on his head appeared a flame of fire. The other is, that when on a certain day he was on the way and fainted for weariness, the blessed Virgin met him strengthening him with a bundle of roses. So depose the 1st, 2nd and 10th Witness. After death from his mouth there came forth a most white lily; on each leaf of which were written these words Hail Mary. So prove the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 10th Witness. He recalled to life four dead: so especially the 2nd, 7th, 9th and 10th Witness.

[VI] and after death, In the year 1618 Cosmus de Cartellis of Siena, when for several years he had suffered the infirmity of the stone, and had found no remedy; by chance one day walking with a companion came to the church of the Servants, where seeing the body of the servant of God Francis exposed, he said to his companion, I wish to commend myself to this Blessed; as he did with all his heart, for the obtaining of health, which a little after followed: for scarcely returning had he entered his house, when by urinating he voided the stone. Catharine his wife, suffered a most grave pain of an abscess in the shoulder: yet touched in the part by a rose, which once had touched the body of the servant of God Francis, she was freed from such infirmity. Concerning which the same Cosmus deposes this truth, and the Witnesses 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 also confirm it.

[VII] Wherefore it seems, that there are sufficient arguments to obtain the Remissorial letters, and accordingly that Remissorials should be given for a further Process. for examining witnesses formally by Apostolic authority; both because from those it is clear concerning the diligent information and inquiry into the fame and universal opinion and devotion of the peoples toward him: and because the contents which are narrated in fact to be proved in the said process, inasmuch as by Apostolic authority they are formally and conclusively proved, seem such, as to suffice not only for beatification, but also for solemn canonization; since from these it seems to be concluded, that it is clear concerning the faith and excellence of life and sanctity with the working of miracles by his intercession, which for Canonization suffice after the chapter Venerab. Innocent confirms in chapter 1 on Relics and the veneration of Saints, and there commonly all the Canonists.

[30] which hitherto has been omitted. That those Remissorials were obtained, and a new Process formed, I have nothing whereby to define. For when concerning that matter I had consulted the most illustrious Bernardinus Casalius, Secretary of the sacred Congregation of Rites, of his singular humanity and affection toward this work beyond what he had promised offering to ask whatever from the archive of that Congregation it should please, in the year 1679 on the 5th of August he answered in these words: Since from the letters given on the 14th of July last passed I have learned that Your Reverence desires from me information on the state of the cause of the canonization of B. Francis Patritius of Siena, of the Order of the Servants of B. Mary; and whether after the presentation of the processes, by Ordinary authority down to the year 1627, others by Apostolic authority were exhibited in the sacred Congregation of Rites; I, about to satisfy my office, can answer nothing else, than that in the Acts of this sacred Congregation no Process of the aforesaid Blessed is found, of which through the 18 years, in which I was Secretary, any knowledge is had, nor have the Servite Fathers ever insisted for the reassumption of this cause.