Constantia Xira and B. Maria Fernandez

CONCERNING B. CONSTANTIA XIRA AND B. MARIA FERNANDEZ,

OF THE POOR LIFE, AT ÉVORA IN LUSITANIA.

15TH CENTURY

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

On their worship, manner of life, the Augustinian Rule, undertaken at least after the death of Constantia.

Constantia Xira, of the Poor Life, at Évora in Lusitania. Maria Fernandez, of the Poor Life, at Évora in Lusitania.

Those whom the Castilians commonly called Beatas, the Lusitanians in the preceding centuries Poor women, or of the Poor Life; were women, so given to the works of charity and devotion, Their manner of life, that, their possessions being sold for the love of God, they chose to live by the labor of their own hands and the alms of the pious, binding themselves to the Rule of no religious institute, and content with the sole direction of a Confessor. Such were,

those whom I have set forth in the title, Constantia and Maria; Widows, or Virgins, I am not able to say; and by the example of such a life provoking many to their imitation, they instituted a certain College of Recluses, in houses bought for this. There at length the Rule of S. Augustine being assumed, and a cenobitic form of living introduced, afterwards changed, the Augustinian Rule being brought in. under the title of S. Monica and the rule of the Friars Hermits; under whom the Nuns being multiplied, in the year MDXXVII they sent out a Colony to Vila Viçosa; and another, when they had been led over from the jurisdiction of the Order to the care of the Bishop, in the year MDLXXXVI to Lisbon, for founding there the convents of the Holy Cross and of S. Monica. Hence it came about that the Augustinian Hermits also enroll them among the Blessed of their Order, in weaving whose Alphabet Herrera, in part 1 page 136, suggests to us some notices about them worthy of memory, which in the Lusitanian Hagiology George Cardoso partly augmented, and partly polished.

[2] And first as to what concerns worship; their Relics are venerably preserved under the altar of the major chapel, where anciently they shone with several miracles: The bodies under the altar. and their birthday was solemn in this monastery, on the first day after Pentecost, up to the beginnings of the reign of Philip I (the Spaniards call him the Second) that is up to the year MDLXXX, in which the last King of Lusitania Henry died. The cause of the intermitted worship one can scarcely devise other, than piety languishing in that age as much as possible. Of it is alleged as witness Antony of the Purification, of the Triumphal Theater Choir 3, who published this his book, comprising the praises of the Lusitanian province of the Hermits, in the year 1632, then rendered into the vernacular tongue he published it, under the title of the most ancient Chronicle of the Portuguese Province; and finally he caused similar things to be printed in the work, which Cardoso alleges, under the title of Monastic Chronology. But what moved Cardoso, that he should affix the feast, movable within the year, to this XXX of May, is difficult to divine; unless perhaps he found something (which however if he had found he does not seem to have been about to be silent) concerning them or one of them done in such a year, in which a day of this kind agreed with the II Feria of Pentecost; which in the whole XV century, of which alone the question can be, happened only twice, namely in the year MCCCCXXXI and MCCCCLXII, nor in the whole eighty years after, or forty before, had it happened that Easter was celebrated on the X day of April, whence that concurrence ought to arise.

[3] Further, both the aforesaid Antony, and those whom he followed, They were not Sisters, except in spirit; only a little more ancient, Louis de Angelis, in the Lusitanian Viridarium, and others; make them Sisters. But that they were sisters in spirit, not in flesh, Cardoso convinces, from the testamentary legacy of John Gomez and Violante Rodriguez, written under the Era MCCCCXLVI, that is in the year of Christ MCCCCVIII, in which certain houses are bequeathed to Constantia Xira and Maria Fernandez * her companion, because they are good women, poor and handmaids of God; where even the sole diversity of surnames suffices to exclude consanguinity. nor at least did Constantia profess the Augustinian Rule. The same Augustinian authors speak of them as if both at length professed the Augustinian Rule: but that this too, at least of Constantia, cannot be said, the burial in the Cathedral church proves; for which a double Anniversary in the same Cathedral was established, under these terms rendered into Latin, is found. On the XXIII day of March we make the anniversary of Constantia the Poor, on account of the houses which she bequeathed to the Chapter, which are in Murofracto, and there are given for those houses nine old pounds. But we make for her two Anniversaries; one this day, on which she ended her life; and the other on the VI of May, and for these are assigned five old pounds. She lies near the baptismal font by two steps, and the stones laid over her are marked with crosses. Similar things in the same book of Anniversaries are read in the same Lusitanian terms on the VI day of May. From which words first we know, that Constantia died on the XXIII day of March; then we gather from the same, that the Poor Sisters, she having died first on March 23, whom she living had collected, then had no church of their own, in which they might bury their dead. But we remain uncertain, whether by a testament of this kind she living abdicated the property of those houses; or rather so, that after the death of the testatrix herself they first came into the possession of the Chapter: yet it pleases more, that all property of stable estate she living herself laid down.

[4] Of Maria it is more difficult to define, whether, her Companion being dead, Maria could have done it, she with the others Recluse with her subjected herself to the Augustinian Order. Yet credible this makes the burial which she seems to have received in her own church; if this first (as is verisimilar) was built after the reception of the Rule. But in this when perhaps soon she began to grow famous with miracles, and was worshipped as a Saint; it was judged by the Superiors, that the body should be more worthily placed; not only of herself, but also of Constantia, who died with an opinion of sanctity no less, although elsewhere already buried. But a translation of this kind from the former burials to the altar, certainly made not except by counsel and approbation of the Archbishop, was a certain species of Canonization, used in the preceding centuries, and answering at least to that which we now call Beatification; wherefore we have called them Blessed without scruple. About the year MCCCXC, as Louis says, there already stood in the city of Évora that reclusory of women very devout: and in the year MCCCCXXI, if she lived beyond the year 1421. as Cardoso writes, the Augustinian Rule was brought in thither; Fr. John Fanono Provincial of Lusitania receiving their obedience, under whose and his successors' rule the place remained up to the year MDXXVI, as Louis; or, as Cardoso, up to MDXLI, when John the third transferred their rule to the Ordinary, the Nuns long striving against it in vain. On such or another occasion little by little fallen from the fervor of the old discipline, they also grew cold in the worship of their first Mothers, perhaps under that pretext that they were not solemnly canonized; just as we know the veneration anciently received of very many others, in possession of long worship as Blessed, abolished after the Council of Trent, the interpreters of the Council's decrees being rigid in mind. But we, omitting a complaint of this kind, let us exhibit the eulogy which Cardoso wove for them, rendered into Latin.

ACTS

From the Lusitanian Hagiology of George Cardoso.

On the XXX day of May. At Évora the solemn commemoration of two prudent virgins and spouses of Christ, Renouncing the world, Constantia and Maria of the poor life, born in that place, and foundresses (as is believed) of the Convent of S. Monica, which the Hermit Order there has. For when they were daughters of rich and noble parents, treading down with a generous mind all mundane pomp, and consecrating their virginal purity to God, they put their woman's adornment, by no means small indeed, into the hands of the poor; set as a model of perfection for the matrons and virgins of Évora (as formerly for the Roman ones Paula and Eustochium) to imitate. When therefore the sweet odor of so holy a conversation diffused itself far and wide through that region, it allured to them several companions; whence soon there existed a signal and well-ordered college of the Blessed, who in the succeeding years embraced the Rule of S. Augustine, under the obedience of the Hermit Order. they institute a college of Blessed women, Over them Constantia the elder held the place of Prioress, the younger Maria of Vicaress, as long as they lived; both with wonderful sweetness ruling the new flock; nor was there lacking, where there was need, the rigor of discipline; which yet in no way alienated and exasperated the minds of the subjects, but conciliated for them among them esteem and veneration. But both were so given to the works of charity, that they seemed to have this only proposed in mind, whereby they might deserve well of each one, as though they were their own germane sisters: but their hands, endowed with a certain divine virtue, bore a present remedy to the sick, to whomsoever they were applied.

[2] Further, from the place of their reclusion, daily both proceeded, the companions following in a double order, for using the Sacraments, to the church of S. Mamede nearer to them; they frequent the church of S. Mamede, and it is said of them, that when Mother Constantia, either by the fault of age, or for the abundance of devout tears, had been made blind; in winter time going forth outdoors, she was led by the hand by her Guardian Angel, in the form and habit of a youth, lest she fall or be stained with mud, as she herself often testified. The rigor of the penances which they exercised was great; and in memory of the sacred column, at which our Lord was scourged in the Praetorium, they had in a more secret part of the house a column, they cause themselves to be scourged at a column, to which they also caused both themselves to be tied and cruelly scourged, and that especially on Fridays; applying a pious exercise of this kind to the souls of Purgatory, whose inmost parts were touched with compassion: and on such an occasion they often saw before them ascending fiery sparks, as though indications of the help bestowed on the souls, which in that manner showed themselves relieved from torments. But because the virtue of those women was most known to all, they live on hidden alms. they never suffered want of temporal subsidy; but the Lord inspired certain faithful, that they should bring by night to the door of the house, what was enough for passing the day; yet so that it could never be found out, by whose benignity it was done.

[3] Many years being passed in this manner, they at length came to the end of their desires, heaped with the merits of good works. And first indeed died she who, elder in age, was blind in the eyes, Mother Constantia: whose body carried into the Cathedral church (for not yet was the church there where they dwelt built) was deposited with great concourse of people near the baptismal font. But when Maria died, Constantia buried in the Cathedral, the fabric of the proper church had risen to a just height; within which to her burial was given, with singular veneration, beneath the high altar. It is credible, that not long after thither also was translated the body of the faithful companion: for it was not fitting after death that those should be separated from one another, who in their life had been so joined; since each had left an equal opinion of her sanctity in the minds of all. afterwards Maria is joined under the Altar, By this induced the faithful, long had in use devoutly to take of the earth of the first burial of them for the use of the fevered: which when it succeeded most happily for very many, conciliated for the same a great veneration in the whole province, and this especially appeared, on the first day after Pentecost, which the people of Évora had been wont to hold singularly festive for them. But time, which changes all things, both are worshipped on the day of Pentecost. has abolished both the festivity and the ancient veneration, not without the fault of the citizens of Évora, as today we discern. Thus he, whose third bimester first came forth in the year MDCLXVI. That the other part of that sacred year be not finished, the untimely death of the author effects; whom would that another succeed with equal diligence, but one who would dare to despise the Dextrine figments; which if Cardoso

had been able to do, he would doubtless have better consulted for his own and his nation's esteem among the erudite men, with whom those things are held in contempt.

* Parciera

May VII: 31 May

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