Francis of Durazzo

ON B. FRANCIS OF DURAZZO,

OF THE ORDER OF MINORS, AT ORIA IN THE SALENTINE TERRITORY.

14TH CENT.

B. Francis of Durazzo, of the Order of Minors, at Oria in the Salentine territory.

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

CHAPTER I.

The testimonies of the Franciscan authors. An epitome of the Life from the oration of Q. Marius Corradus.

[1] I remember that, treating on the XI of April of S. Barsanuphius the Solitary near Gaza in Palestine, chapter 3, which is on the twofold translation of his holy body, I treated more prolixly of the fortune of the city of Oria, From the oration of Corradus not only is knowledge had of S. Barsanuphius, once most celebrated between Brindisi and Taranto; yet some things concerning it and the Relics of S. Barsanuphius, dissipated even to this point, that now only his hand survives, I could and would have added, if more distinctly known to me had been the Oration which Q. Marius Corradus of Oria pronounced to the Order and People of Oria, about the year MDLXX, concerning the divine honors of the Divine Francis of Durazzo. Now those things which, pertaining to S. Barsanuphius, are there as it were touched through a lattice, rather than handled, being deferred to the time of making the Supplement; concerning Francis, whom that Oration primarily and from its proper purpose regards, I excerpt those things which, unless they were there collected, hitherto an once distinguished Blessed would be known to his own Franciscan Order only as to the name; so few and meager are the words which the older writers used concerning him.

[2] The first and most ancient, Brother Bartholomew of Pisa, in the year MCCCXCIX, the Minister and General Chapter approving, wrote the book of Conformities of the life of B. Francis to the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, where folio 86, according to the Bologna edition of the year 1590, you will read only this: In the Province of Apulia at Oria lies Brother Francis of Durazzo, who was renowned for signs. but especially of this Blessed; Next to Bartholomew in age was Marianus of Florence, about one century younger; who (as Luke Wadding in the Additions to volume 7 of his Annals number 3 acknowledges) called him Philip: perhaps because this was his first name in the world: for that he wished to be called Francis in religion, for his affection toward the holy Founder, Marius seems to indicate: and under this name only he was also known to Mark of Lisbon, about the year MDL writing the second part of the Chronicles; and to Francis Gonzaga, on the Origin of the Seraphic Religion, about the year MDLXXXVII in part 1 enumerating the Saints of the Order of Minors, ascribed to the Catalogue of the Divine, page 94. But each uses the same brevity; adding this only to the words of the Pisan, that Francis for seven years did not taste bread. In nearly the same year in which Gonzaga at Rome printed his work of Histories of the Seraphic Religion, at Venice Peter

Rodulphus of Tossignano, who with a somewhat ampler elogium folio 99, the authors of the Order having spoken sparingly of him. B. Francis, he says, of Durazzo, a layman, a man of the highest simplicity, who for seven years did not eat bread, the greatest observer of silence, which is read of Abbot Agatho, whom, a little stone being assiduously placed in his mouth, they relate to have learned to be silent; and that this was observed by him for three years, so that not even when he wished to speak was it free for him. He was also a chief cultivator of obedience, of whom this remarkable thing is narrated. For when he was the cook at Oria in Apulia, at that hour at which the Body of the Lord was elevated in the church, and he himself, hindered, could not be present, divinely the wall was opened by which he could see. He lies at Oria famous for miracles. That example of Agatho is related in book 4 on the words of the Fathers, the interpreter being Pelagius chapter 7, that for three years he put a stone in his mouth, until he learned taciturnity: to which while Rodulphus adds something more concerning Francis, he may seem to have had some Life of him: but if he had none, he himself as well as the rest above named were so much the more remote from a fuller knowledge of B. Francis as they were living and writing further from the uttermost bounds of Italy, in which Francis had lived. And so Corradus aforepraised, even in the very argument of his Oration, easily surpassed them all, having thus begun.

[3] Oria is a most ancient city in the Salentine territory. Here for a long time lived Francis of Durazzo, He, solicitous for restoring his cult in the sodality of Francis of Assisi; he was a man who led a celestial life among men. It is in the Commentaries of the Franciscans (but would that these survived in the primigenial simplicity in which Marius saw and read them) that for a whole seven-year period he withdrew from himself all human food except water and herbs. Portents divinely happened to him living and dead very many. Finally the body of him deceased was at Oria in the temple of the College of the Franciscan men, where he had most holily lived, kept for a long time with certain divine honors. But afterwards, when the public and private fortune had been afflicted by perpetual calamities, or rather, the state of all things being still unimpaired, the religion of men had grown cold; it came to such negligence, not to say impiety, that only the opinion of divinity concerning him is preserved; wherefore in the whole oration this is chiefly treated, that the honors of that Divine one, by injury and crime long intermitted, ought to be restored. He weaves a synopsis of the Life, according to which But he does this thus; that, when in the first part of the Oration he had discoursed much concerning the Relics of SS. Barsanuphius, Darius and Chrysantha brought to Oria, and concerning the amplitude of the old state reduced almost to nothing on account of their dissipation; at length coming nearer to the matter, in the second part of the Oration he shows that he thinks the body of Francis was reserved not by religion or any human sense, but by divine counsel, in hope of the commonwealth being at some time resuscitated. Then he weaves a synopsis of his Life, which for the greater part Wadding transcribes in the Additions above cited to volume 3. We, drawing water from the very fountain, exhibit words of this kind taken thence.

[4] At Durazzo he received the habit, Born at Durazzo, which is a city in Epirus, he never thought of nobility of birth, nor of those things which are held the highest and most illustrious in life: but honors, ambitions, and the glory of commanding others of the men of his place, he thought it to be for himself the highest peril and the highest impiety to touch: but of wisdom he cultivated only as much as would seem enough for knowing the human and his own weakness and the divine benefits. From his first adolescence he was a sodalis in the family of Francis of Assisi: wherefore he wished also a name to be imposed on him, by which he might use a leader for searching out all the ways of heaven. He thought it the highest command, to obey others; the highest glory, to serve all…

He had heard, what was the case, whence having crossed over to Oria that the site of a College outside the gate of Brindisi had been given to Francis of Assisi his master by our city, and that in it certain men of this family with admirable piety led a life harsh in food, but sweet and celestial in thoughts. From Durazzo therefore, where he had most holily lived from his first years, he came to Oria; and in the College which not long before Francis himself had founded, religion daily being increased, by labors, and by the thought of celestial things, he passed what remained of his age. He exulted, by Hercules, the most holy man, with joy, he leaped with gladness, when he surveyed with his eyes the house, and searched all the parts and corners. Kissing all things, and licking the ground with his lips, Here, here, he said, is the place: this threshold my Master wore with those his feet; this fountain he drank; here often he made vows; this altar he frequented. I pass over here the lashes, with which that body consumed by leanness and want he assiduously beat: nor do I tell of the blood drained from the body, already dried, by hooked scourges. And, that I may not tell other things, on account of the continence of food he was a wonder to all mortals. For to such great labors, which he undertook either by night for prayers and vows to be made to God, or by day for the conveniences and offices to be rendered to his companions, he added this also, by an eminent life, by authority, that he always sustained life with water only and bread. When to this tenuity of food he had long exercised himself, and the matter aided by divine help succeeded most happily; he thought also, whether it could be that he should lack the use of bread too. He began therefore step by step to make trial. Which when the nature of the human body scarcely bore, yet he kept the counsel undertaken; and destitute of all things, with which men are wont to be fed, for the whole seven years which he afterwards lived, he endured with herbs only and water…

[5] But I know you expect that I should set forth certain greater things, if any divinely happened to him living, and also was famous for miracles: if any to him dead… I remember often in a charity of rains, or another greater force and intemperance of weather, when by public supplications the body of Francis of Durazzo was carried about by night to the shrines, we were freed from the injury of the sky and every inconvenience. Wherefore, unless we are ungrateful, unless unmindful of those things which we received from him, there is no reason that, suspended and incredulous, we should require more portents. Two however I will here relate, not because I think anything can be added to this from portents: but because there are present of one certain testimonies, and the confession of those men who would have wished to cover and obscure the matter; the other I was unwilling to be silent for this reason, that there is in it that for which I vehemently grieve and greatly accuse you. At a certain time at Oria in the College, which I have already said before, a convention of the Franciscan men was being held, whither, as to certain assemblies, whither, intent, he discerns the body of Christ elevated through the very walls; for the cause of consulting concerning common matters, the divine cult and new Rectors of the Colleges, they had come from everywhere. On a festival day of the sun in the morning, when in the temple of that College for the highest religion the Sacred mysteries were being done, this man of Durazzo, as if it were the affair of Christ himself, so sustained the offices and the whole sum of the house. Behold, from the temple the sign of the little bell is given: he understands the body of Christ to be shown to the people. Running at once to it, while from the present mass of very many matters he cannot extricate himself, his knee being placed he intends his mind and eyes, moves sighs and tears, and beats his breast harshly. O the wonderful force of that most sure faith and piety, which ought to be proclaimed by the tongues of all men! For three walls, which were interposed, being opened spontaneously and by a divine nod, no motion appearing, no sound being heard, a way was made to the eyes of the most holy man to the altar, whence the Sacred mysteries were shown to the people.

[6] When he had supplicated duly and in his own manner, and, gratulating to God, throughout the whole house cared for those things which were needful for so great a multitude of religious men; in place of a supper dissipated by demons the furies envied him this favor and the things shown divinely. Wherefore they so avenge themselves and their grief, that what was in the store, what in the wine-cellar, what at the hearth and in the kitchens, gathered from everywhere by good men's alms, they should plunder; and what was being prepared for the supper of that very day, lest the most holy man should merit anything from that labor from God or from his own, they should pour out all, all the vessels also being broken. The sudden crash of all things was so great, that some motion of the earth seemed to be made in the house. The matter being known, he gives thanks to God alone, expecting from Him counsel what needed to be done. Not long after, he receives better dishes divinely, when the Companions were still consuming the day in the sacred rites of which I have already spoken, and in the assemblies; there is present at the door, with human face and the dress of youths, a band, with vessels, baskets, and a royal apparatus of viands of various kind: who said that by the bidding of their lord, a certain prince of Oria, a man, they were bringing these to Francis of Durazzo and his companions. The man to hesitate, to wonder, and to be amazed whence so great a magnificence of the gift: and indeed from the countenance also of the youths something immortal, I know not what, seemed to breathe into his mind. But they, Enough, they say, Father, these are yours: use these: we will soon return to receive the vessels. When he was eager to say something here, and immediately to follow them departing to the door, he suddenly lost the sight of them from his eyes. But when it had come to the supper, so great was the odor and unwonted sweetness of all things, that the good and holy men recognized that celestial victuals had been set before them by the man of Durazzo on that day. And so, one thing being found out from another, since in so great a frequency of men it could scarcely long be hidden by him, his admirable life and holiness from that deed began to be more illustrious. You see how great things he experienced in one day?… what then must be thought happened to him in the rest of his life? I however pass over all those things … and I wished to say these for this reason, from which one vessel is preserved at Brindisi. that from that supper a certain vessel is said to have come at Brindisi, after a long interval, to a most honest man of this memory, Angelus Mundina, a sodalis of his family. But our men, who were of that age or not long after, thought that there ought to be no religion in these vessels… Lesser altogether are the things which follow, but our fault in them is greater…

[7] Recent is the memory of when that happened, which each of you could recall. The irreverence of those who stole the jaw-bone from the body Two certain guests here in the College of Francis long enjoyed the liberality, as great as the resources of the place and of the men could bear. One of them, for some days meditating evil with himself, the other suspecting nothing, secretly stole from the body of Francis of Durazzo the jaw-bone. When at length they departed for Lecce, with many other vile things, he cast that bone into a wallet: this he places on a beast of burden: it fell down at once; and whether that was true death, or something like death, could not at all be known; sense at least and life no more

was seen. When the load had been laid down, and the hide had to be drawn from the beast, with entire health it suddenly appeared. The guest who was present, conscious to himself of the perpetrated crime, understands these portents to be done divinely. Snatching therefore, it being known to be punished by the death of the beast, as secretly and quickly as he could, the wallet, by stealth he withdrew himself from the crowd, and was unwilling to use the beast any more, and what load there was of his things he placed on his own shoulders: the wicked man afterwards swore that as long as he carried the jaw-bone he had always trembled in his whole body. Other many things of this kind I will not pursue: and if anyone wished these two attested, there is present Angelus, whom I mentioned, Mundina at Brindisi, who still shows the vessel, and testifies the faith and religion of that matter delivered through hands by all: there is present the body itself, which, before always most entire, now mutilated of the jaw-bone, as I said, you can inspect.

[8] Wadding, describing these same things, some being subtracted, concludes concerning the thief of the aforesaid jaw-bone, but he is asserted to have restored it freely. as from the relation of Corradus, in these words: and the wallet snatched secretly he places on his shoulders: yet he himself trembled and groaned under the weight, until he restored the theft. But Corradus does not mention the restitution: but, when he had insisted at more length on restoring and fortifying the sepulchre against attempts of this kind, he thus presses his purpose: What, he says, moreover is so necessary, as to free that most sacred body from the hands and power of wicked men? That the jaw-bone was snatched from it by a most abandoned and most foul man, a guest, I have already said. Do I lie? Inspect the body itself. Was that bone always lacking? This cannot even be: and, whether at the time when I have said and I know the thing done, or at another time, it is necessary that by our scanty diligence and religion that part of the body was lost: [for] I too once as an adolescent, and very many with me, knew the whole body entire. But when he had oratorically exaggerated the gravity and disgrace of this fault; What, he says, that guest, that man, who dared to violate the sepulchre, and to touch with impious hands that dread religion of the body, to what use did he convert the jaw-bone torn from the rest of the body? Namely to that which wicked and nefarious men are wont, that they may abuse things of this kind for magic arts and all most nefarious things. O matter foul to hear and horrible to think! O the goodness and patience of God to be proclaimed! That thou, Francis of Durazzo, and thy members should have been engaged in those things, by which perhaps either sense is taken from a man, or modesty from a matron, or grace from friends, or rest from the buried, or serenity from heaven? If anything such has been done, which I vehemently suspect to have been done, a wonder unless there was a huge motion of the earth, or unless from heaven, as once upon the wicked, flames fell. Thus far Corradus, undoubtedly supposing the aforesaid jaw-bone to have been so taken away, that neither where it was, nor what became of it, became known. O how easily one errs, if even a little one deflects from the ancient monuments which one has undertaken to follow, detracting or adding something of one's own.

[9] At what certain time Francis died, there is no one who relates, says Wadding: In the convent of Oria, but not even in what century at least he lived. He himself thinks he flourished about the year MCCCV, and accordingly in the Additions to volume 3 he relates whatever he had collected from Corradus: but he seems to signify that, S. Francis of Assisi being still alive, a Convent was founded among the people of Oria, to which our Blessed betook himself from Durazzo, where he had received the habit of the Franciscans, allured by the fame of a stricter discipline there than in his own fatherland. But if even that were granted, it would not immediately follow that Francis of Durazzo was of those who either first or a little after the first dwelt in the same Convent before the year MCCXXVI in which the man of Assisi died; nay nor before the year MCCLVIII, although before this in various places those began to exist, under the year 1258 not yet known, who, not bearing the poverty of the Order relaxed in many ways, busied themselves to restore the same; as appears from the Life of B. John of Parma, the VII General Minister, illustrated by us on the XIX of March: which John vehemently favored their endeavor, elected in the year MCCXLVII. For under this General the Order did not yet have a convent either at Durazzo or at Oria, as appears from its distribution into Provinces, Vicariates, and Custodies, made under S. Bonaventure in the year MCCLVIII, and related by Harold at the end of the Epitome of the Annals. The same Harold then proposes another similar one, made in the year MCCCC by Bartholomew of Pisa, but before the year 1400, where in the Province of Dalmatia under the Custody of Ragusa is placed the second Place of Durazzo, and in the Province of Apulia under the Custody of Taranto likewise the second Place of Oria. The Convent of Oria therefore stood in the XIV century: in which century brought to its middle the Franciscan Order was indeed split into Conventuals and Observants, yet that Convent is not to be believed to have begun from these Observants, nor that the man of Durazzo came to Oria allured by the fame of these: for in the Distribution of places of the Regular Observance, made in the year MDXVI and to be found in the aforesaid Harold, the Convent of Oria is not named.

[10] From these moreover it follows, that Francis, since he cannot be ascribed to the Observants, never received at Oria, the Blessed seems to have lived among the Clareni, found there Brethren of some older reformation, masters of a more religious life. But all things weighed, I find none more apt for this place than the Clareni, who got their name at the beginning of the XIII century from the river Clareno, between Ascoli and the Norcia alps, at which their Congregation was instituted, under the leadership of B. Angelus of Cingoli, otherwise of Clareno. For this Congregation, under the name of the Poor Hermits of Brother Angelus of Clareno, according to the Privilege of Pope Celestine V, given to Brother Liberatus of Macerata and his companions, the Hermits called of the Lord Celestine (of whom one Brother Angelus himself had been), notably flourished, under the obedience of the Ordinaries, and with a garment distinct from the habit of the Minors for a whole century and a half, until Pope Sixtus IV in the year MCCCCXLII subjected them to the command of the general Minister; yet so that they might elect one Cleric from their Society, who under the name of Vicar, depending on the obedience of the general Minister, should govern them. For although the Clareni were multiplied chiefly in Picenum and Umbria; it is easy to believe that the same were propagated along the sea through Apulia also and Calabria, those favoring who had before received Brother Liberatus with his companions there; and that the same, vexed, and extinguished under the name of Spirituals assumed in Gaul about the year MCCCXVIII, not without merit grieved; although of these some were culpable of schism, electing for themselves by their own authority a general Minister in Etruria and Sicily. Whether therefore some carried over from Apulia into the Salentine territory, of the companions of the said Brother Liberatus, began the convent of Oria, who withdrew themselves from the vexation aggregated to the Congregation of the Clareni; or the Clareni themselves were the first in occupying that place, which once perhaps S. Francis of Assisi had consecrated by his presence on his journey toward Palestine; toward the end of the 14th cent. it remains verisimilar, that the beginnings of the Convent of Oria are later than the beginning of the XIV century, and that not until that century verging toward its end could Francis of Durazzo die in it. Nor is there a reason why we should say that the same Convent, which in the year MDXVI was not yet numbered among the Convents of the Observants, before the Pontificate of Sixtus IV or even afterwards defected from the stricter discipline and habit of the Clareni to the laxity of the Conventuals, as long indeed as the Congregation of these held its ancient name, although that this was afterwards done is not obscurely gathered from Corradus, noting the scanty religion of the Brethren of his time, as will appear from the following Chapter.

CHAPTER II.

The endeavor of Q. Marius Corradus for restoring the cult of B. Francis.

[11] In his already praised Oration, Corradus, about to suggest remedies against the evils which he had gravely lamented to have been divinely sent upon the city of Oria; and about to make courage for his fellow-citizens, for restoring the sepulchre and cult of B. Francis, which is the scope of the whole Oration; Of sacred buildings there are fifty, For restoring the sepulchre, he says, if I count also the suburban ones, which (O detestable crime!) we abuse in place of sewers and bilges. For their restitution it is no grave business each year to wish two hundred thousand sesterces to be assigned from the treasury, for the cause of public safety … but the restitution of the often-said sepulchre is not to be terminated by any certain expense? If we could expend twenty times on the matter or forty times, indeed I could scarcely be content with that sum and the honor of the sepulchre. But since there is for us so great a difficulty of the treasury, from the very difficulty of the times and the new tributes daily, to be silent of our peculations; come, I pray you, let that be done, which can be done at the least expense. For how great a matter is it to fortify that old sepulchre at least, lest it lie open to the curious, lest it lie open to the sacrilegious, lest it lie open to thieves, lest it lie open to wicked men and worse? Unless I believed that by this fault of the violated sepulchre and most holy body we all ought to be expiated; I alone, with no help of yours, although my fortune is always so afflicted and overthrown, would free you from that expense indeed: now however publicly and necessarily we ought to restore that religion of the sepulchre… Would therefore that I were borne by the fortune of our city, as much as the people of Salerno Matthew, or the people of Bologna Petronius, so much we venerate Francis of Durazzo with cult and religion! But by no means however is it to be thought, that without great crime that can be passed over which our resources permit: and Francis himself, moved by our zeal and religion, and conciliated to our city, will effect, that at some time we may render to him very many and most ample gifts of divine worship.

[12] Finally when Corradus concluded that satisfaction must be made to God, most grievously offended, both from the present neglect of divine things, and on account of the impiety and crimes of our forefathers; To me, he says, it seems, that nothing is more salutary to this fortune, than at a stated time and certain sacred rites to demand again punishments of ourselves, and what in this city through eight hundred years has been committed to lament for all future time. To this matter the whole counsel and authority of the highest and most holy man, Carolus Bovius, our Bishop, and other arguments of religious cult to be cared for, must be interposed by us. He perhaps will judge it enough for such commitments to institute a festival day for Francis of Durazzo. No certain day therefore had hitherto been for venerating B. Francis this one, for whom before the same Marius, when he treated of the sepulchre, wished also mention in the sacred rites, a perpetual fire, and other things if any greater marks of holiness shall seem; such namely as are expressly attributed by the Apostolic See to the Canonized. Meanwhile content with only the constitution of an annual feast to be sought: O if we could lead that most wise man to this will, most beautiful for this city, due to religion, and most necessary to our salvation! That day if I shall see, which by most sure

hope I am that we all shall see, I shall think this new city to be restored to us; nor shall I despair that at some time at least in posterity, from the neighboring cities all the ancient ornaments shall be revisited. This God will give to our religion, He will give to the patronage and grace of Francis of Durazzo: whom in this whole oration would that I had been able in some part to represent! … Now do you yourselves set forth in your own thoughts that man as if he speaks with us, with emaciated face, contracted eyes, Corradus having exhorted the people of Oria in vain, bare feet, rough clothing, consumed by fasts and with thin voice saying: That this is, men of Oria, your city, not for you or for me, but for these hills only, rocks and ruins, I can believe. For where is that Oria now, which I left abounding in resources, and most flourishing in all things? Something certainly has been sinned by you or your forefathers in it, by which from so great glory it has fallen into such squalor and oblivion. I do not hold back tears: for I grieve very much at the fall of the city, whence I made my steps into heaven: but I am moved more by some latent and old crime of the city. Nevertheless if pardon be sought from Christ, I a suppliant will pray Him, that this leanness, this nakedness, this want, and those many years in which I withdrew from myself all human food, and whatever I lived for Christ, He may be willing to profit you all, just as if you had endured these things in your bodies, for the cause of you and your city. O pious words! O the illustrious condition of a most holy man! … Let us hear, I pray you, him consumed by leanness and labors, let us hear him now from heaven clothed with the ornament of immortality: let us think of his countenance, and let us seem to see him present, more splendid than the aspect of the sun and stars: let us finally hear him inviting us to his help and aid: to him let us show some sign of a grateful mind by honoring his body.

[13] Powerful indeed for persuasion the oration! Marius nonetheless, seeing that that declamation of his had been in vain, he has recourse to Bishop Bovius, and that with the sound of the words the memory also of the things said passed away; judged to exhibit it publicly to be read, prefixing to it an epistle sent by him with the same oration to the most illustrious and most reverend John Carolus Bovius, Archbishop of Oria and of Brindisi: whom, having exhorted that the buildings sacred in the city of Oria, of which there was so great a pollution and daily, he should proceed either to take away altogether, as he had begun; or to restore to them a most chaste cult of religion; he commends to the same chiefly the most holy body of the man of Durazzo, almost ceased to be honored, often by nefarious sacrilege handled by wicked men, torn, in some part diminished. Then, I pray, he says, I beseech, and by his very deity I adjure thee, recall with thyself those things which at Oria in the sacristy I was asking of thee, before thou shouldst depart from us to Manduria. I who know that the afflicted fortune of our city always was born so much from the neglect of the Divine ones especially; am wont to accuse our forefathers vehemently, nor to hold in the place of men, those who left these prejudged crimes to us. But the work of my brother Francis Corradus I have often tried, that to the sepulchre and that body some restitution of religion might be made. not without complaints of the hardness of the people of Oria. But he, although he presides over the temple and college where the body is; yet his colleagues he could not yet lead, who to that work would wish even a farthing to be given: for thou knowest the kind of men, among whom there is not very great nor of very many a thought concerning piety. I cultivated many of these, even studious of divine worship and most loving of me; who however, a few resisting or certainly daily interposing some delay to the business, now despair that it can any more be, that they obtain what they wish and what is fitting. Wherefore I, who many years before was wont in vain to grieve these things with myself and to complain among all those dwelling together in the city and the masters of the religious; now at last … I pray thee, as much as I would pray for the safety of the fatherland, that of him whom I have already said, the body of the man of Durazzo, and the very few things which survive of the body of Barsanuphius, and not piety indeed, but the knowledge of piety and the memory, thou thinkest to be retained in our city with even greater cult and zeal.

[14] Thus far to Bovius the Archbishop Corradus, in the year MDLXX next before the publication, on the VII Kalends of July: but Bovius being dead in which same year, in the month of October, Bovius died, Ughelli writes in the Archbishops of Brindisi volume 9 of the Italia sacra, where he relates that to him, buried in the same Oria in the Cathedral building, an epitaph was placed by the Order and People of Oria; in which to his other titles is added: The city of Oria, from the injuries of many restored to its pristine Archiepiscopal dignity. So swift a death of Bovius cut down verisimilarly all the hopes and endeavors of Corradus, for restoring the cult of Blessed Francis of Durazzo. For we do not hear, that the successor of Bovius, Bernardinus de Figueroa, did anything concerning this, in his Pontificate of XIV years. For he, having dismissed the buildings, which, collapsed by age or destroyed by war, at his own expense from the foundations, for himself and his successors, in the old fortress, for the cause of preserving antiquity, Carolus had restored (as is read in a marble inscription in Ughelli), seems to have dwelt mostly at Brindisi, where he was building a monastery for the Capuchin nuns likewise from the foundations. and controversies having arisen between the people of Oria and of Brindisi, Nor indeed does another cause seem to have been, why after the death of Bernardinus for a whole six years either See was vacant, than the long-lasting contention of the people of Brindisi and of Oria among themselves over the better right of having the Bishop with them, and the quarrels of the Archiepiscopal title renewed, which it is established to have boiled up already from the beginning of the joined Sees, that is from the year MLXII, when, interpellated by Goffrid and Sichelgaita Counts of Brindisi, Urban II commanded Godinus, calling himself only Bishop of Oria, that, since by the assertion of truthful men, who had diligently investigated the matter, it was found that the Chair, which then was had at the municipality of Oria, had anciently existed at the city of Brindisi, the same the Lord having mercy being restored, he should carry it back thither. Which mandate Paschal II repeating, it was declared that the Church of Oria is subject to the Church of Brindisi. For the cause of concord however the successor of Godinus, Baldwin, wrote himself equally Bishop of the Churches of Brindisi and of Oria, posterity following the example; the various fortune of the city of Oria, which they relate to have been seven times burnt, not standing in the way, until the predecessor of Bovius, Francis Alexander; in favor of whose complaint concerning the people of Oria, Paul III pronounced, that the Church of Brindisi is so Archiepiscopal, that to the Church of Oria united to it as well as to its other suffragans it ought to be preferred in all things.

[15] But contentions of this kind sprouting again with the death of the aforesaid Bernardinus, after a six-year vacation, nothing seems to have been accomplished, each Bishopric was severed; and, the Archiepiscopal title being left to the people of Brindisi, to the people of Oria a proper Bishop fell. The fifth of these in order, Raphael Palma, taken from the Conventuals of S. Francis in the year MDCL, if he decreed and obtained nothing new, I know not which other of his four predecessors could be presumed to have done this, especially after the most severe decrees of Urban VIII of the years MDCXXV and XXXIV. Nay rather in respect of the same decrees we would believe it done, that if those had received anything new beside the consultation of the Apostolic See, that all would be abrogated, as not exceeding a very long time or its immemorial course, that is, the boundary of a hundred years. Wherefore we make not much of it that Arthur of the Monastery, in his Franciscan Martyrology, no author being alleged, except those whose words we described at the beginning without any designation of a day; ascribed to this B. Francis the day XVII of May, in each edition of the same Martyrology of the years MDCXXXV and LIII. and the day 17 May chosen by the judgment of Arthur alone. This day however, by the judgment of our Bolland, we retain; because, since concerning the ancient and sufficient cult for the appellation of Blessed it is established, from the things premised concerning the body above the earth visible for veneration, and processionally carried about for averting drought (with which doubtless were once joined votive offerings, hung at the sepulchre, lamps or wax-tapers burning before it, and other similar things) we believed we could follow an example, though of private authority, until from elsewhere it should be established, that another more proper day was due to him. But desiring to be taught concerning this, I wrote to the Rector of our College of Taranto nearer to the people of Oria, Father Jacobus Viterbo, from whom whatever beyond the aforesaid I shall receive I will gladly relate in the Addenda of this Volume.