CONCERNING S. GUIDO COUNT OF DONORATICO
IN ETRURIA, A SOLITARY.
13TH CENTURY.
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
Of his cult, acts, translation, and family.
Guido, Count of Donoratico, Solitary in Etruria (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR D. P.
Ferrarius in the general Catalogue of Saints, who are not in the Roman Martyrology, says: In the Pisan territory, of S. Guido Confessor, and notes, Memory in the Calendars, From the tables of the Church of Pisa, celebrating him on this day. He was Count of the castle of Donoratico in the Pisan diocese: whose Life Silvanus Razzi, a Camaldolese monk, wove together in the books on the Saints of Etruria from Manuscript monuments. These things Ferrarius there, taking the Pisan diocese more broadly for the whole Province: for Donoratico pertains to the Massa Bishopric. The same in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy notes, that the proper Acts of S. Guido are wanting by the injury of the times. But what has been said, is held rather from tradition, than from any old writing, a few things excepted. Therefore from Razzi he wove this eulogy.
[2] Guidus or Guido, of the most noble Gherardesca family, Count of Donoratico (which castle is of the Pisan diocese) there having cast off the care of human things, Eulogy of his life, chose a solitary life about the year of salvation one thousand ninety in prayers, fastings, vigils, and pious meditations. But first of all he gave attention to the relief of the poor, before he shut himself up. When he had been engaged for a long time even to extreme old age in exercises of this kind, on the 13th of the Kalends of June, in the year of the Lord one thousand ninety-nine, he exchanged this mortal life for the perennial. At his migration, they say the bells of the castle, no one ringing, sounded. Callistus III the Supreme Pontiff called him a Saint, and gave to the Archbishop of Pisa the power of transferring the body from the castle of Castaneto to the city: miracles where in the Cathedral Church buried it is kept. These things there. Brautius Bishop of Sarsina celebrates him with such a verse:
The vast wilderness concealed the famous man living, The dead Saint the sacred bells sound.
[3] I know not whence Ferrarius received the year of death so definite, since Razzi (whom he alone had before his eyes) about the beginning of the 12th century, in which SS. Galganus and Gerard de Villa-Magna, likewise the Blessed Verdiana and Joanna of Signa cultivated a solitary life, suspects that Guido too came to the same, and lived in it even to extreme age, the pictures of that age being witnesses, such as at Pisa and elsewhere are seen, representing an old man, exhausted by leanness and age. The frequency of miracles, but over which time has drawn oblivion, cult. he supposes to be sufficiently proved: as indeed it is proved, from the public cult which followed it; so great indeed, that even now between Pisa and Leghorn are seen the traces of a church and monastery, in his name
erected. This monastery, while the Republic of the Pisans flourished, was inhabited first by Monks, then by Nuns, the title of the Abbey of S. Guido being preserved hitherto. The Brief of Pope Calixtus III, directed to the Archbishop of Pisa (he was Julian de Riccii, in the 42nd year of his Bishopric, of Christ 1461, having departed life) is of this kind, given at Rome at S. Peter's on May 15, 1457, in the 3rd year of his (Pontificate), in place of which to the over-careless Ferrarius it crept in to note the year 1403, since this Calixtus was created Pope only in the year 1455, on April 8.
[4] Our beloved Sons the Priors of the city of Pisa, kindled with zeal of devotion, as was set forth in their name, greatly desire, that the body of S. Guido, placed in the church of Donoratico of the Massa diocese, The translation permitted by Calixtus III in the year 1457, be removed thence: since on account of the desolation of the place, it is known to be less worthily placed. The said Priors also assert, that if the said body be transferred to their Church of Pisa, it could be preserved in a more decent manner, and the devotion of the people would rise greater, on account of which the salvation of the souls of the faithful would come forth. We therefore commending this their pious and catholic desire in the Lord, to thy Fraternity, if to this the assent of our venerable Brother the Bishop of Massa, Ordinary of the place, and of the Patrons of the aforesaid church accede, of transferring the aforesaid body, and decently placing it in thy Church, the solemnities accustomed to be observed in such cases being observed, free leave and every kind of faculty by the present we grant and bestow, whatsoever things to the contrary notwithstanding.
[5] before this attempted in the year 1450, Now that business had begun to be treated by the Pisans already from the year 1450, or (as the Pisans reckon, anticipating the beginning of the common year by nine months) 1451, as appears from their letter, given November 10, to the worshipful and excellent men, Gherardus and Simon Counts of Castaneto (which title they seem to have usurped, after the destruction of Donoratico, near to Castaneto by two miles) in which they make faith to Master Lorenzo son of John, Canon of Pisa, their orator, concerning those things which had been proposed about the body of S. Guido, as to one most well informed of their intention. But neither then did they obtain what they sought, nor was the Pontifical intercession efficacious enough; whether Peter de Urso, at that time Bishop of Massa, opposed their wishes, without whose leave Calixtus suffered nothing to be done; or whether the Counts of Donoratico and Castaneto themselves were unwilling to be deprived of that domestic protection, because either already long before or then they had received the sacred deposit itself with them at Castaneto. For (as Razzi says) in a certain book of Matthew son of John, of the late Matthew Setarioli, there is found written of this kind. I make memory, I Matthew above-written, how on this day June 16, 1459 in the Pisan style, was conducted into the city of Pisa the body of S. Guido, that is, his holy Relics. It was moreover the day of Friday (whence is confirmed, accomplished in the year 1458. what concerning the Pisan style we said: since the concurrence of the 16th day of June and Feria VI happened in the year with us 1458, having the Dominical letter A) and the Relics themselves were at Castaneto, and in a great retinue were conducted even to the greater or Cathedral church, by all the Priors of Pisa and the whole Clergy, with many torches, and a copious multitude of both sexes, both of citizens and of the inhabitants, to the praise of God. Amen. And note, that the said S. Guido was of the Counts of Donoratico, and our Pisan citizen.
[6] But rightly does that Matthew interpret the Body as Relics, The Relics of Castaneto. or the greater part of the body: for as the same Razzi observes, there remained at Castaneto (for the protection namely of the place and the domestic veneration of the family itself) in the parochial church of the place one shin, and one jaw, and certain other particles. Moreover, says the same, by a most ancient and undoubted tradition it is narrated, that on one of the Saint's shoulders there grew a shrub (the Italians call it scopa) which cut off is preserved among the Relics of the already said parish of Castaneto, and is shown to the people, and is carried around processionally on the feast of the Epiphany. And this perhaps was the first beginning of the miracles of the Saint after death, and the cause of raising from the earth and the common burial the body: just as in many other Saints we have found to have come to pass by usage: nor do we doubt, that the leaves and twigs received thence and devoutly employed, many graces also of miraculous healings were obtained. But at Pisa the Relics are shown on the Octave day of Easter, and the feast in the Cathedral and the whole diocese is kept under the rite of a Double Office of the Common of a Confessor, on the 20th day of May.
[7] Thus far Razzi, who finally to the commendation, by no means common, of the Donoratican family, whence S. Guido sprang, Born also of the same Family as he adds the following memory, anciently preserved at Pisa among the Fathers of the Order of Preachers of the convent of S. Catherine of Siena, concerning a certain one of that convent, founded in the year 1222, the Blessed (as they call him) Gaddo; who together with his brother Boniface, afterwards Bishop of Chironensis, among the first of it was reckoned an inmate. Brother Gaddus, of the Counts of Donoratico, B. Gaddus of the Order of Preachers. a most noble family and among the chief of the Pisans and most celebrated in all Italy, in riches and delights educated, next to magistracies and honors, all things despised chose our poverty, preferring it to kingdoms and thrones. But the hand which he had put to the plough, he never drew back, nor looked behind his back. Forgetful of his former dignity, he pretended no pride; he showed nothing of his own liberty, which he had sold for Christ, in his acts. Humble, abject, he followed a humble master: and as in composing his manners, he was occupied with all his might: so to learning letters he diligently applied himself. Not sparing vigils and labors, without which no virtue is procured, returning from Paris, made general Preacher and Lector of Pisa, he met his day, not without the loss of the Order: for he was hoped to turn out a great man.
[8] R. P. Antonius Tagnocchi de Terrinca, of the Order of S. Francis of Empoli in Etruria, has ready for the press a Theater of the Saints and Blessed of the Etruscan Minorites, where he reckons S. Guido among the Tertiaries of his Order; Whether Guido is to be reckoned among the Franciscan Tertiaries. and is of the opinion that he was a disciple of B. Lucchesius, whose Acts we illustrated on April 28, the first Tertiary in that Province, admitted by S. Francis himself to the habit and rule, led by the authority of the Most Illustrious Lord Hippolytus Count de Gherardesca, Doctor of both Laws and Canon of the Metropolitan of Florence, who affirmed it to himself on the 4th day of January in the year 1678: and that in the church of B. Lucchesius himself at Poggibonsi there is found an image of B. Guido, painted in the habit of the third Order. Which if they have any foundation in truth, Razzi's conjecture falls, and he lived in the 13th century. by which he says he flourished about the year 1100. But if you attend to the examples brought forward by Razzi of an exemplary life, which Guido instituted for the use of his age; you will rightly suspect that by a typographical error 1 crept in for 3, and that he wished to note the year 1300. Certainly B. Lucchesius first in the year 1221 took the habit, and died in 1260. I wish it left in the middle, whether Guido assumed the Rule of any Order: and until some older notice be produced, among the simple Solitaries I leave him, without prejudice to anyone. Especially since concerning his age nothing can be said, except by mere conjecture; and he could have preceded by many years the institution of the Minorite Order itself, much more of its Tertiaries.