Anthony Baldinucci

ON BL. ANTHONY BALDINUCCI, PRIEST OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS,

IN THE YEAR 1717

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Anthony Baldinucci, of the Society of Jesus. (B.)

BY F. V. O.

§ I. The birth of Bl. Anthony and his co-optation into the Society of Jesus.

[1] Of Anthony, a Florentine Jesuit, In the year 1717, on the seventh day of November, the excellent son of the Society of Jesus Anthony Baldinucci, whom Leo XIII on 23 April 1893 enrolled in the host of the blessed, amid the arduous ministries of popular missions endured for twenty years, made the end of a most holy life. Born of a patrician Florentine stock on 19 June 1665, he had as parents Filippo Baldinucci, a man most skilled in letters and the arts [He wrote various works not to be despised, of which the chief was the Notizie de' professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua. Volumes I and II were published in the years 1681 and 1686. And when delays intervened in publishing the third volume, our Blessed exhorted his father several times in the year 1691 to break them off (L. Rosa, Lettere inedite del B. Antonio Baldinucci, 1899, pp. 20, 21, 26). Nonetheless only in the year 1728 was that third volume made public, through the care of the dead father's son, Francesco Saverio (G. Mazzuchelli, Gli Scrittori d'Italia, vol. II, 1, p. 144).], and Caterina Scolari; by whom, chastely and piously brought up, he gave his name to the Society of Jesus on 21 April 1681.

[2] and of his brothers Allotted five brothers, he loved with peculiar affection Giovanni Filippo, the eldest, who had already put on the religious habit of St. Dominic,

For he was a man eminent for the highest uprightness of morals and innocence, and at the advanced age of 91 years, in the year 1751, he rested in holy peace, after he had ruled as a diligent parish priest of souls for 51 years the church of San Marco of the Friars Preachers at Florence [From the Register of the sacristy of San Marco, in L. Rosa, place cited, pp. 150–51.]. His testimony, no differently from that of another brother, namely Francesco Saverio, who, an advocate at Florence, peacefully closed an unmarried life of 68 years spent amid scruples, occurs very often in the juridical inquiry into Anthony's holiness. The third brother was Isidoro, a secular priest, whose broken and tearful character, as if it had been a paternal inheritance, our Blessed was pleased to mock jestingly in his letters. Timid indeed in undertaking anything uncertain or laborious, he drew out querulous and morose days per la strada di beatelle along the road of little pious practices [L. Rosa, place cited, p. 144. And elsewhere: Il Sig. Isidoro non sa distaccarsi da poche beatelle, dalle quali per lo più non se ne cava alcun costrutto, come pur troppo vedo dall' esperienza [Signor Isidoro cannot detach himself from a few little pious practices, from which for the most part no profit is drawn, as I see all too well from experience] (p. 181).] at Florence up to his 74th year. by letters With both brothers who had remained in the world Anthony, joined in the closest intimacy, kept up a constant correspondence of letters. Those which still survive, 25 in number in the archiepiscopal seminary of Florence [These letters, on the occasion of the beatification, were reproduced phototypically, as they say: Lettere famigliari del B. Antonio Baldinucci, riprodotte in fototipia dagli autografi custoditi nella biblioteca del seminario Fiorentino. Of these there exist 50 copies of oblong format, which are adorned on the first leaf of the volume with a likeness of our Blessed engraved by Hub. Vincent.] near Castello, 86 with the Friars Preachers in the Fiesole monastery of St. Dominic and 15 in the archive of the Society of Jesus, were carefully collected and edited by the Rev. Fr. L. Rosa, S. J. To which I would have you add 27 letters, mostly unedited, preserved in the archive of the General Postulation of the Society of Jesus, of which our Blessed wrote five to our Father General, and the rest to the Provincial of the Roman province of the S. J. The first handful of 126 letters indeed supplies a true historical store. For not only do they teach us many curious and wonderful things about the vicissitudes of the Baldinucci family, his character becomes well known. but they also offer a most shining mirror, in which there is reflected the nature of blessed Anthony, now having embraced the Ignatian institute: keen, firm, even, tireless, tenacious of purpose, very pious and merciful towards the poor and afflicted, insatiable of labours and of bodily mortifications. Which will be abundantly shown afterwards.

[3] [How he entered the Society of Jesus is explained by a very full letter of his father himself.] But what he had been before, as long as he lived at home, or by what sudden reason he turned from the religion of St. Dominic, to which he inclined, to follow the rules of the Society of Jesus, is clearly shown by a document unique of its kind, namely the very full letter which his father gave on 25 December to Fr. Ludovico Ristori, who had just gone before his son Anthony as guide in making the spiritual exercises and in discerning his vocation. Of this letter, which "formally collated from the original attestation of the lord Filippo Baldinucci, father of the servant of God, in the same apostolic process of Florence, fol. 360ter," has already been published entire at least twice [Summarium super dubio an constet de virtutibus, pp. 12–18; L. Rosa, place cited, pp. 124–132, note; compare P. Vannucci, Vita del B. Antonio Baldinucci, pp. 16–18.], it is best to insert the more important parts in this place.

[4] As an infant he fell heavily to the ground. Per obbedire ai riveriti cenni di Vostra Paternità molto Reverenda, io noterò in queste carte i più principali avvenimenti della vita di Antonio mio figliuolo fino alla presente sua et à di quindici anni et mesi otto, affine che riconoscendo Vostra Paternità in essi alcun fatto o circonstanza, che intorno all' elezzione dello stato di lui, e sua effettuazione, possa servire all' accrescimento della gloria del Signore Dio, ed utilità dell' anima sua, possa ella farne quel capitale che sara convenevole … Aveva già il figliuolo ricevuto il battesimo et era stato riportato a casa, quando una antica donna, che serviva alla mia moglie, se lo prese addiacere sopra le ginocchia per acchetarlo dal pianto, e subito s'addormentò, ed in un tratto il bambino nato di tre ore gli cadde in terra, non altrimenti che se fosse stato da una mano scagliato, perche il colpo fu così gagliardo, che la nutrice, che pure era in una stanza da basso, temendo di ciò che veramente era, spaventata corse al rumore. Il figliuolino divenne infiammato e nero in un tempo istesso. Pure a poco a poco ripreso lo spirito e con esso il colore e la solita vivacità, As a youth given to various virtues and above all to piety ritornò allo stato di prima … Il fanciullo col crescer degl' anni, senza sapere che cosa fosse spirito di cristiane virtù, incominciò ed ha poi sempre seguitato a far conoscere di possederne molto e delle principali. Tali sono una grand' obbedienza ai maggiori ed agl' eguali, una vera umiltà nel soggettarsi ai fratelli, ai quali quasi che fosse un lor giumentino, colle sue poche forze sempre servì, pigliando sopra di se quelle fatiche, che ricusavano essi; una gran moderazione nel parlare, nel mangiare e nel desiderare, perche io non conservo memoria, che egli abbia mai voluto per se cosa particolare; una grand' applicazione e sodezza nelle cose divote, alle quali è stato sempre il primo, e quando poi è venuto il tempo, nel quale egli ha potuto comunicarsi, questa devozione si è fatta sì matura, che io non posso dubitare, che egli non abbia avuto in dono un qualche spirito d' orazione, mentre egli tanto avanti che doppo quell'azione tutto raccolto in se stesso, non pare che sappia dar fine a quell'interiore ritiramento, se ne sta con gran fermezza di corpo, se non quanto per ridondanza dell' interior divozione nell'esteriore, egli fa alcuni moti non molto apparenti, ma tali però che aggiunti alle lagrime degl' occhi fanno credere, ch' egli abbia l'interno assai volto al Signore Dio. Veddesi però in lui fin dal comparir dell' uso di ragione, un certo spirito di emulazione, o vogliamo dire desiderio d'immitazione, con non voler restare, nè punto, nè poco indietro ai fratelli in ciò che apparteneva all' operar bene, del quale istinto si è, pare a me, servita la Maestà di Dio per farlo piu fervente negli studi, proprio esercizio della Compagnia. [To obey the revered indications of your most Reverend Paternity, I will note in these pages the more principal events of the life of Anthony my son up to his present age of fifteen years and eight months, so that, if your Paternity recognizes in them any fact or circumstance which, concerning the choice of his state and its carrying out, may serve for the increase of the glory of the Lord God and the benefit of his soul, you may make of it the account that shall be fitting … The child had already received baptism and had been brought back home, when an old woman who served my wife took him to lie on her knees to quiet him from crying, and at once fell asleep, and all of a sudden the baby, three hours old, fell from her to the ground, no otherwise than if he had been flung by a hand, for the blow was so violent that the nurse, who was in a room below, fearing what in fact it was, ran terrified at the noise. The little son became inflamed and black at one and the same time. Yet little by little, recovering his breath and with it his colour and his usual liveliness, he returned to his former state … The boy, as the years grew, without knowing what the spirit of Christian virtues was, began, and has always continued since, to show that he possessed much of them, and of the principal ones. Such are a great obedience to elders and to equals, a true humility in subjecting himself to his brothers, whom, as though he were their little beast of burden, he always served with his little strength, taking on himself those labours which they refused; a great moderation in speaking, in eating and in desiring, for I keep no memory that he ever wished anything special for himself; a great application and steadiness in devout things, in which he has always been the first, and when the time came at which he could communicate, this devotion became so mature that I cannot doubt that he has had as a gift some spirit of prayer, since both before and after that action, wholly recollected in himself, he does not seem to know how to put an end to that interior withdrawal, he stays with great stillness of body, except that, through the overflow of interior devotion into the exterior, he makes some movements not very apparent, but such, however, that, added to the tears of his eyes, they make one believe that he has his interior much turned to the Lord God. There was seen in him, however, from the first appearance of the use of reason, a certain spirit of emulation, or let us say desire of imitation, not wishing to remain either much or little behind his brothers in what belonged to doing well, of which instinct, it seems to me, the Majesty of God has made use to make him more fervent in studies, the proper exercise of the Society.]

[5] he inclined to the religion of St. Dominic, Occorse poi l'anno 1678 alli 3. di febraro, che Giovanni Filippo mio maggior figliuolo dopo una fervente vocazione a stato religioso vestì l'abito dei Padri Predicatori nel celebre convento di S. Domenico di Fiesole di perfetta osservanza; e di poi che i Padri di quell' Ordine, volendo rimetter l'osservanza medesima in quella di S. Marco di Firenze lo fecero venire insieme con tre altri ferventissimi novizi in esso convento di S. Marco. Onde Antonio, che anche egli si sentiva tutto inclinato a stato di religione, innamoratosi della bontà di quei religiosi, che in occasione di visitare il fratello gli fecero gran carezze, e l'ammessero a gran familiarità, cominciò a desiderare di vestir quell' abito. A tale suo desiderio s' aggiunse l'affetto del Padre Zanobi Gherardi della congregazione dell' Oratorio, suo spiritual direttore, a quella religione, sichè si fecero nella mente del figliuolo quell' impressioni, che a V. P. molto Reverenda son note. Onde quando poi s'è venuto alle strette, a me non e mancato da patire, combattendo nella mente mia per una parte la fede, che io prestavo alle parole di quell' anima [It concerns a most pious woman, whom, perplexed in mind, he often called into counsel.], e i rigori corporali di quell' Istituto, che io credevo non appropriati interamente alla complessione del figliuolo; e per l'altra il parlare della gente e delle persone religiose, dico del confessore del fanciullo e di quei Padri, ai quali ogni mio piccolo indugio a consentire alla loro inclinazione pareva un sacrilegio, per cosi dire, tanto che dopo averne fatto fare grand' orazione, mi risolvetti come ella sà, di metterlo nelle mani di Vostra Riverenza per fargli fare gl' esercizi di S. Ignazio con antecedente partecipazione e consenso del Padre Gherardi suo confessore, e ciò per non mancare al debito di gratitudine verso di lui… [It happened then in the year 1678, on the 3rd of February, that Giovanni Filippo, my eldest son, after a fervent vocation to the religious state, put on the habit of the Preaching Fathers in the celebrated convent of San Domenico of Fiesole, of perfect observance; and afterwards the Fathers of that Order, wishing to restore that same observance in the convent of San Marco of Florence, had him come, together with three other most fervent novices, into that convent of San Marco. Whence Anthony, who also felt himself wholly inclined to the state of religion, having fallen in love with the goodness of those religious, who, on the occasion of his visiting his brother, made much of him and admitted him to great familiarity, began to desire to put on that habit. To this desire of his was added the affection of Father Zanobi Gherardi of the congregation of the Oratory, his spiritual director, for that religion, so that there were formed in the boy's mind those impressions which are known to your most Reverend Paternity. Whence, when it then came to the point, I did not lack suffering, there contending in my mind on the one side the faith I gave to the words of that soul, and the bodily rigours of that Institute, which I believed not entirely suited to the boy's constitution; and on the other the talk of people and of religious persons, I mean of the boy's confessor and of those Fathers, to whom every little delay of mine in consenting to their inclination seemed a sacrilege, so to speak, so that, after having had much prayer made about it, I resolved, as you know, to put him in the hands of your Reverence to have him make the exercises of St. Ignatius, with the previous knowledge and consent of Father Gherardi, his confessor, and this so as not to fail in the debt of gratitude towards him…]

[6] almost all approving; Due giorni dopo venne a casa mia un superiore di quell' Ordine, a cui più che ad ogn' altro premeva l' aver questo mio figliuolo; e dopo varie persuasioni fattemi mi disse, che quei buon Padri e Novizi di S. Domenico di Fiesole facevano perciò grandi orazioni, e andavano in processione per tale effetto al santo presepio di lor chiesa… In tanto il figliuolo fini gl' esercizi, ne' quali ciò che passasse fra la bontà del signore, e l'anima di lui, è noto solo a Vostra Paternita. Questo è ben certo, che essendosi Vostra Paternità, come più volte mi fece intendere, astenuta sempre nel proporre al giovinetto l'elezione dello stato di porgli avanti la Compagnia, e questo affine di sfuggire ogni umana manifattura, e lasciar luogo d'operare a Dio ed al di lui libero arbitrio; ella finalmente era venuta in parere, che la sua vocazione fusse il vestir l'abito de S. Domenico, giachè intorno a tal deliberazione vedeva essersi sempre in quel ritiramento raggirati i suoi pensieri; se non quanto un certo naturale del fanciullo anzi melanconico che nò, congiunto colla tenerezza dell' età, e dal non aver egli fin dal primo conoscere e gustar che fece dello spirito [Two days later there came to my house a superior of that Order, to whom more than to anyone else it mattered to have this son of mine; and after various persuasions made to me he told me that those good Fathers and Novices of San Domenico of Fiesole were making great prayers for this, and were going in procession to that end to the holy crib of their church… Meanwhile the boy finished the exercises, in which what passed between the goodness of the Lord and his soul is known only to your Paternity. This is quite certain, that your Paternity having always abstained, as you several times gave me to understand, in proposing to the youth the choice of state, from putting the Society before him, and this in order to avoid every human contrivance and leave room for God and his free will to work; you had finally come to the opinion that his vocation was to put on the habit of St. Dominic, since you saw that his thoughts in that retreat had always turned around such a decision; except that a certain nature of the boy, rather melancholy than not, joined with the tenderness of his age, and from his not having, from the first knowing and tasting that he did of the spirit,]

avuto speciale d'altro istituto, che di quello la faceva restare in dubio, che ogni determinazione, che egli facesse allora sopra di ciò, potesse esser soggetta a mutabilità, che però non era lontana dal credere, che qualche discreta dilazione all' ultima deliberazione fosse per giovare. [had any special taste of another institute than that one, made you remain in doubt whether every decision that he might then make about it might be subject to change, so that you were not far from believing that some discreet delay of the final deliberation would be of benefit.]

[7] but, his counsel suddenly changed, he resolved to embrace the Society of Jesus Quando che essendosi egli già quasi licenziato dai Padri per uscire, stando in atto di orazione fu favorito dal Signore d'un lume ed impulso per avanti non più provato, nel quale si senti accendere di desiderio di servire al signore Dio in stato di religione, nella quale con maggior assiduità si attendesse all' aiuto dell' anime, e non riconoscendo fra l'altre se non la Compagnia, già lasciato ogni pensiero dell' altra fin' allora desiderata, disegnava (mentre così fusse paruto esser bene) di rendersi religioso in quella. Sò altresì che per provare questo nuovo sentimento e questa repentina mutazione, Vostra Paternità lo fece star due altri giorni negl' esercizi, e che finalmente seguitando egli l'orazione, e continuando con essa il lume, per consiglio non meno del molto Reverendo Padre… Ministro [The Minister of the house of San Salvatore was then Fr. Benedetto Pierantoni. So Vannucci, Vita del B. Antonio Baldinucci, p. 19.], stato suo confessore negl' esercizi, che di Vostra Paternità, egli formò il proposito verso la Compagnia. Che tal deliberazione sia stata da Dio, oltre al parere di lor altri, Molto Reverendi Padri, pare che l'abbia confermata a tutta la nostra casa l'insolita allegrezza, colla quale egl'è uscito dagl' esercizi, e nella quale continua tutta via, le saggie riposte e ragioni, che egli adduce di tal mutazione, e molto più lo spogliamento che si conosce esser in lui d'ogni antico pensiero, ed il desiderio che egli hà continuo dell' effettuazione… E questo è quanto mi occorre il rappresentare a Vostra Paternità molto Reverenda in esecuzione dei suoi comandi, mentre le prego dal Signore vera felicità. Di casa li 25 decembre 1680. [When, having already almost taken leave of the Fathers to go out, being in the act of prayer, he was favoured by the Lord with a light and impulse never before experienced, in which he felt himself kindled with the desire of serving the Lord God in a state of religion in which one would attend with greater assiduity to the help of souls, and recognizing among the others only the Society, having now left every thought of the other until then desired, he planned (if it should so seem good) to become a religious in it. I know also that, to test this new feeling and this sudden change, your Paternity had him stay two more days in the exercises, and that finally, he continuing in prayer, and the light continuing with it, by the counsel no less of the most Reverend Father… Minister, who had been his confessor in the exercises, than of your Paternity, he formed the resolve towards the Society. That such a deliberation has been from God, besides the opinion of you others, most Reverend Fathers, seems to have been confirmed to our whole house by the unwonted gladness with which he came out of the exercises, and in which he still continues, by the wise answers and reasons which he adduces for such a change, and much more by the stripping, which is known to be in him, of every former thought, and by the continual desire that he has of its carrying out… And this is what I have to represent to your most Reverend Paternity in execution of your commands, while I pray the Lord for true happiness for you. From home, the 25th of December 1680.]

[8] an excellent young man. To this letter Father Ristori himself had sent ahead another to the Provincial, Giovanni Antonio Caprini, in which he candidly set out the matter as it had happened. And he added: Il giovane è posato, è fatto talmente alla religione che di religioso gli manca solo la veste: tutto composto, puntuale, che s'accomoda, dato all' orazione e mortificazione ed alla virtù, che in casa come in collegio non lo chiamano che l'angiolino; con tal diminutivo lo chiamano in riguardo alla statura alquanto bassa per l'età… Il padre Zunoni mi attesta esser giovanetto di buonissimo ingegno, ed io soggiungo che è di giudizio maturo, come ho osservato dalla notazione de' lumi e sentimenti avuti negli esercizi: ingenuo, aperto, accorto e non ducitur così facilmente da impeto, ma va per via di ragione e con essa esamina i suoi moti. Onde con le regole della discrezione de'spiriti ha esaminata e conferita la sua vocazione e perciò l'ha approvata e confermata. Io negli esercizi non gli ho mai suggerito di farsi della Compagnia, ma sempre il cercare di eseguire la volontà di Dio, acciò quanto egli risolvesse, fosse pure opera di Dio. Onde e per questo e per tutto il complesso spero che acquisterà la Compagnia un santarello [The young man is steady, he is so made for religion that of a religious he lacks only the habit: wholly composed, punctual, accommodating, given to prayer and mortification and to virtue, so that at home as in the college they call him nothing but the little angel; they call him by that diminutive in regard to his stature, somewhat short for his age… Father Zunoni attests to me that he is a youth of very good wit, and I add that he is of mature judgement, as I have observed from his noting of the lights and feelings had in the exercises: ingenuous, open, shrewd, and he is not so easily led by impulse, but goes by way of reason and examines his motions with it. Whence with the rules of the discernment of spirits he has examined and discussed his vocation and therefore has approved and confirmed it. I in the exercises never suggested to him that he should become one of the Society, but always that he should seek to carry out the will of God, so that whatever he resolved should be purely the work of God. Whence, both for this and for the whole, I hope that the Society will acquire a little saint] Vannucci, place cited, pp. 21–22.. But the Father Provincial, although he was receiving secure indications on every side, nevertheless deliberated maturely concerning the proposed co-optation. At length, three months later, he granted the excellent young man the opportunity of going, as soon as he pleased, to our novitiate of St. Andrew, situated on the Quirinal hill at Rome. Which licence Anthony complied with joyfully on 21 April 1681, as we noted above. For he was wont to say often: God loves a cheerful giver L. Rosa, place cited, passim in Anthony's letters..

§ II. The first trials of the religious life.

[9] While studying philosophy, the missions of China and Japan, Nor did he glow with a fleeting ardour. For while, a vigorous novice, he was still undergoing the first trials of our religious life, there entered his mind a burning desire of setting out for China and Japan, to pour out his life and blood among barbarians and infidels. Nay, he had been brought to the Society of Jesus chiefly by this goad. For so he discloses his wishes in the very fine letter which, while studying philosophy, he gave on 3 October 1687 to Father Thyrsus González, scarcely proclaimed Superior General of the Society of Jesus He was elected to this office on 6 July 1687., and reminded him of other petitions of this kind already made to his predecessor. We publish the document according to the autograph preserved in the archive of the General Postulation of the S. J. Vannucci, place cited, pp. 33–35, followed the original less accurately.:

[10] already desired before, Il desiderio grandissimo, che da molto tempo il Signore Iddio mi da di spender la vita et il sangue nell' Indie tra barbari et infideli, mi spigne, doppo più orationi e communioni, a questo fine di venire humile e supplichevole a piè di V. Pa pregandola con tutto il mio spirito di questa gratia, da me altre volte domandata novitio al M. Revdo Pe Carlo de Noyelle Generale [Charles de Noyelle was elected vicar general of the S. J. on 28 November 1681 and Superior General on 5 July 1682.]. Et a ciò fare e istantemente domandare piu sono i motivi, i quali mi muovono. E primieramente l'avermi, come a me pare, il Signore, per sua infinita misericordia, fin dal principio della mia vocatione alla Compagnia, chiamato a quest' impresa; poichè, avendo io avuto piu anni inclinatione ad altra religione Compare above, nn. 5 and 6., mi sentii a questa repentinamente tirare dalla speranza di poter in questa salvar molte anime et esercitarmi nelle missioni per la salute di esse. E fin dall' ora feci patto con un altro religioso d'altra religione d'offerire insieme con esso la santa communione e messa, quando ad essa pervenissimo, tutte le sollennità della Beatissima Vergine, pregandola sempre instantemente a volerci ottenere il favore di sparger il sangue tra gl' infedeli [It concerns, namely, the pact which, a few days before he moved to Rome, he made with his eldest brother, Giovanni Filippo, a religious of the order of St. Dominic, that they should obtain for one another una grazia particolare a particular grace, whose nature they neglect to indicate. Compare the tenor of this pact in Vannucci, place cited, pp. 24–25.]. [The very great desire which for a long time the Lord God has given me of spending my life and blood in the Indies among barbarians and infidels drives me, after several prayers and communions, to this end, to come humble and suppliant to the feet of your Paternity, praying you with all my spirit for this grace, asked by me at other times as a novice of the most Reverend Father Charles de Noyelle, General. And there are several motives that move me to do this and to ask it insistently. And first, that the Lord, as it seems to me, of his infinite mercy, called me to this enterprise from the very beginning of my vocation to the Society; for, having had for several years an inclination to another religion, I felt myself suddenly drawn to this one by the hope of being able in it to save many souls and to exercise myself in the missions for their salvation. And from that hour I made a pact with another religious of another religion to offer together with him holy communion and Mass, when we should come to it, on all the solemnities of the Most Blessed Virgin, always praying her insistently to obtain for us the favour of shedding our blood among the infidels.]

[11] again Entrato poi in religione, mai si è diminuita tal brama e stimolo, aggiugnendosi sempre nuovi motivi a maggiormente cio desiderare. E benchè, per non aver corrisposto come dovevo alle tante gratie che il Signore mi ha fatte, abbi in piu tempi provato aridità e non poco rilasssamento di spirito, in questi anni di studio di filosofia, nondimeno tal' impulso et speranza grande m'è restata sempre immobile e la stessa qual fu dal principio in ogni occasione e circostanza di tempo e luogo, offerendo perciò continovamente le fatiche de studii con altre occupationi religiose. A questo si aggiugne il sentir vivamente un continovo dolore di tante anime, che si perdono per non aver chi le aiuti e gli spezzi il pane della divina legge; et il veder quanto gran conto dovrò io rendere al Signore, se non metto tutti i mezzi possibili per aiutarle. L'inclinatione al luogo è stata sempre alla Cina e Giappone, e questi ho preso a coltivare con l'orationi e mortificationi fin dal mio novitiato, sperando certo che ad essi si abbi ad aprire la strada, al presente doppiamente impedita. Con tutto ciò stò indifferente a qualunque luogo, nel quale il Signore, per mezzo della santa obedienza, degnerassi mandarmi; gia che tanto son anime ricomprate col sangue di Giesu Christo i barbari d'un paese quanto quelli d'un altro. [Having then entered religion, such longing and goad has never diminished, new motives always being added to desire it the more. And although, for not having corresponded as I ought to the many graces which the Lord has done me, I have at several times experienced dryness and no little slackening of spirit in these years of the study of philosophy, nonetheless such impulse and great hope has always remained in me unmoved and the same as it was from the beginning, on every occasion and circumstance of time and place, offering therefore continually the labours of studies with other religious occupations. To this is added the lively feeling of a continual grief for so many souls that are lost for not having anyone to help them and break for them the bread of the divine law; and the seeing how great an account I shall have to render to the Lord if I do not put every possible means to help them. The inclination as to place has always been to China and Japan, and these I have taken to cultivate with prayers and mortifications from my novitiate, hoping certainly that the road to them must be opened, at present doubly impeded. With all this I remain indifferent to any place to which the Lord, by means of holy obedience, shall deign to send me; since the barbarians of one country are as much souls redeemed with the blood of Jesus Christ as those of another.]

[12] with the highest prayers Supplico dunque la sua benignità e bontà con tutte le viscere e forze del mio cuore, accio, non mirando alle mie tante imperfetioni, si degni contentare et appagare, porgendosene l'occasione, il maggior desiderio e brama che gia mai abbi avuto e, come spero, sia per aver in tutta la vita, qual è il poter spender tutte le mie misere fatiche e sudori et anco la vita in un impressa sì grande; della quale per tante mie imperfetioni e peccati mi vedo si indegno et inabile, che niun luogo vi sarebbe a sperare una tal gratia, se non confidassi nell' infinita misericordia di Dio, la quale suole spesse volte servirsi di strumenti deboli e fiacchi per maggiormente manifestar la sua gloria, e nella bontà di V. Paternità, desiderosa sopra modo della salute delle anime. [I beseech, then, your kindness and goodness with all the bowels and strength of my heart that, not looking at my many imperfections, you may deign to content and satisfy, when the occasion offers, the greatest desire and longing that I have ever had and, as I hope, shall have in my whole life, which is to be able to spend all my wretched labours and sweats and even my life in so great an enterprise; for which, through my many imperfections and sins, I see myself so unworthy and unfit that there would be no room to hope for such a grace, if I did not confide in the infinite mercy of God, which is often wont to make use of weak and feeble instruments the more to manifest its glory, and in the goodness of your Paternity, desirous beyond measure of the salvation of souls.]

[13] and again he begs earnestly; Three years later, when he had noticed that many heralds of the Gospel had been sent by the new Superior General of the S. J. to the eastern regions, raised up with hope he again offered a petition on 29 September 1690, that he too might be given so great a grace. Prima di gittarmi, he said, in persona a piedi de V. Paternita per supplicarlo d'una gratia da me altre volte al Pe Carlo di Noyel di santa memoria ed a V. Paternità domandata, vengo con la presente a farne di ciò alla sua benignità caldissime e replicate domande. La gratia si è di poter mettere in esecutione l'ispiratione, che fin dal mio primo ingresso nella Compagnia mi sta fissa nel cuore, di andare alle missioni dell' Indie [Before throwing myself in person at the feet of your Paternity to beseech you for a grace asked by me at other times of Father Charles de Noyelle of holy memory and of your Paternity, I come with the present to make most warm and repeated requests of your kindness concerning it. The grace is that I may put into execution the inspiration which, from my first entry into the Society, has stayed fixed in my heart, of going to the missions of the Indies] Archive of the General Postulation of the S. J.. But weakness of strength stood in the way. But since he enjoyed very frail health, his superiors were compelled, even against their will, to refuse his pious prayers.

Meanwhile, toiling as a master in the schools of the colleges of Interamna (Terni) and of Rome [Here in the autumn of 1690 he girded himself for the work, as he writes to his mother: Ho incominciata la mia scuola in Roma, nella quale ho da ottanta scolari, i quali però anderanno per qualche tempo sempre crescendo. La fatica non è piccola in governare tanti ragazzi chi piccolo chi grande, e tutti di non molto giudizio [I have begun my school in Rome, in which I have some eighty scholars, who however will go on increasing for some time. The labour is not small in governing so many boys, some small, some big, and all of not much judgement] (L. Rosa, place cited, p. 9).] for not quite five whole years Ibid., p. 21., then intent on the theological disciplines in the following four years, he gave a brilliant specimen of wit and virtue, so that, initiated into the priesthood, after completing, as the rule is in force among us, the third year of novitiate, he was admitted to the solemn profession of four vows on the sacred day of the Blessed Virgin Mary assumed into heaven in 1698 Ibid., p. 106..

[14] After teaching the lower classes for five years, At that time it was no trouble to his superiors to decide what field was to be opened to his gifts and industry. He seemed indeed endowed with a wonderful faculty of speaking in public, inasmuch as to him, not yet a priest, while he was acting as master of the 2nd and 1st class in the Roman college, the heavy charge had been committed of preaching on feast days in the squares of the city and on each Sunday before a gathering of 500 students. For he writes these things to his mother on 27 November 1690: Oltre all' occupazione della scuola mi è toccata quella di predicare ogni festa nelle piazze per le missioni continue, che si fanno in diverse parti di Roma. A questo s'aggiugne la congregazione che chiamasi del Salone; ove radunansi ogni domenica vicino a cinquecento scolari, a' quali, dopo cantato l'offizio, si fa una buona e lunga esortazione [Besides the occupation of the school, there has fallen to me that of preaching every feast day in the squares for the continual missions that are made in different parts of Rome. To this is added the congregation which is called of the Salone; where every Sunday nearly five hundred scholars gather, to whom, after the office has been sung, a good and long exhortation is made] Ibid., pp. 11–12.. Thus he was wearied more than was fair amid continual ailments of the head and stomach.

[15] although he lay gravely ill, But at the beginning of the year 1692, his teaching office completed, he fell into a most grave disease "of most difficult investigation," as the physician of the Roman college testified, "of most grave danger, of no cure" Ibid., p. 48, note.. And the sick man himself wrote on 17 April 1693: Il mio male è tale, che in un punto mi puo mandare all' altra vita, per gli accidenti che mi cagiona. Sia benedetto il Signore. Poco importa la mia vita; ma molto il fare la sua santa volontà [My illness is such that at any moment it can send me to the other life, through the attacks it causes me. Blessed be the Lord. My life matters little; but doing his holy will matters much] Ibid., pp. 83–84.. That he might receive some relief, he was compelled twice to stay long in the country outside the religious walls, namely with his parents and friends, although this was irksome to him Ibid., pp. 45, 46 and 84., and to apply various and varied medicines Ibid., pp. 65 and 72., of which one was entirely singular, if you look at the age: the nicotian herb or, as they say, tobacco, which he gnawed with his teeth or, reduced to powder, inhaled through the nostrils. The use of which he retained throughout the whole course of his public life Summarium super dubio an constet de virtutibus, pp. 317, 363 and 367.. The force of the illness increased so much from time to time that Anthony himself, in a letter given on 1 May 1694, confessed that he was tanto obbligato a detto medico, che non solo con infinita carità mi ha assistito per tre anni nella mia fastidiosa malattia, ma due volte mi ha liberato con istupore di tutti dalla morte [so much obliged to the said physician, who not only has assisted me with infinite charity for three years in my troublesome illness, but twice has freed me from death, to the astonishment of all] L. Rosa, place cited, p. 92., and declares on 23 July 1695 from the little town of Tusculum: he brought his theological studies to a happy end. finiti con evidente miracolo i miei studii di teologia my studies of theology finished by an evident miracle Ibid., p. 107.. Although, therefore, he was of so prompt and easy a wit that, had it not been necessary to spare the weakness of his strength, he would have defended public theses on the whole of theology Ibid., p. 106., fit to teach the higher disciplines, yet it clearly appeared that a placid and sedentary manner of living, such as arduous studies and the duties of a lecturer require, would harm him. And since he had it among his wishes to strain every nerve in giving missions among infidels or Christians Ibid., p. 79. and aspired alle missioni verso il regno di Napoli… avendo in animo che questa debba esser la mia vita [to the missions towards the kingdom of Naples… having in mind that this must be my life] Ibid., p. 106., immediately after his last examination in theology he was sent to our house at Tusculum Ibid., p. 107., both to restore his afflicted health with the fine air and to work in the vineyard of the Lord, until the end of the month of November, namely of the year 1695.

§ III. He undertakes the burdens of an intrepid missionary.

[16] The third year of probation completed, It was necessary then that he should apply himself, according to our custom, to the ascetical exercises during the whole year of what we call the third probation. Which he himself thought would soon come about, when on 2 November 1695 he wrote from Rome to his brother Francesco Saverio: Credo che martedì o mercoledì partirò di Roma a codesta volta per fare nel collegio di Pinti (Florentiae) il terz' anno di noviziato. Fin' ora credevo più di no che di sì, giacchè per mancanza di Padri i superiori volevano trattenermi a far la buona morte in Frascati, dove per più mesi ho dimorato. Quando io non venga, ne lo farò avvisato. Quando io venga, non potrò venire a visitare il Sig. Padre, perchè subito si comincia un mese d'exercizii spirituali [I believe that on Tuesday or Wednesday I shall leave Rome for your parts, to make in the college of Pinti (at Florence) the third year of novitiate. Until now I believed rather no than yes, since for lack of Fathers the superiors wished to keep me to make the good death at Frascati, where I have stayed for several months. If I do not come, I will let you know. If I come, I shall not be able to come to visit Signor Father, because a month of spiritual exercises begins at once] Ibid., p. 111.. But the matter was put off to another year [Ibid., letters 56 and 59, pp. 112 and 115. It is to be noted that letters 57 and 58 were written in the year 1697; the year assigned, 1696, corresponds to the Florentine reckoning (Anal. Boll., vol. XIX, p. 375).], so that, the spiritual exercises of a whole month completed, he moved to the college of Monte Santo (today Potenza Picena), situated on a pleasant and healthy slope of the Adriatic coast near Macerata, there to pursue his third probation more gently amid preaching and other works of mercy. And as he was making the journey there, he lay ill of a grave fever at Perugia Ibid., pp. 114, 117, 118 and 119.. About which he himself carefully noted: Il mio male non è stato cagionato dal viaggio, perchè i viaggi mi giovano; ma l'ho portato da Firenze, dove ho avuto qualche patimento straordinario [My illness was not caused by the journey, because journeys do me good; but I brought it from Florence, where I had some extraordinary suffering] Ibid., p. 116.. But by the new kind of life by the Adriatic Sea, drawn out over several months, he sustained and increased the strength of his body; and he cherished the hope, as the third probation was drawing to its end, he goes to the missions che i superiori m'impiegheranno nelle missioni da me chieste e desiderate, e nelle quali vedo che potrò patire qualche cosa per salute delle anime [that the superiors will employ me in the missions asked for and desired by me, and in which I see that I shall be able to suffer something for the salvation of souls] Ibid., p. 133.. Which happy news at length, a few days having passed, namely on 28 August 1697, he communicated with his brother Isidoro: I superiori, he says, mi han fatto la grazia di destinarmi alle missioni, nelle quali spero trattenermi questi pochi giorni che mi restano di vita, fin ora tanto mal impiegata [The superiors have done me the grace of assigning me to the missions, in which I hope to spend these few days of life that remain to me, until now so badly employed] Ibid., p. 134..

[17] most ready. Nor did the new orders of his superiors find him unprepared. For for several years he had already provided himself with an abundant equipment of sermons. For when he had sent these, shut in a little chest, to Florence in the year 1700, he earnestly asked his brother Isidoro to take care of them, perche se si perde, si perde la fatica di molti anni because if it is lost, the labour of many years is lost Ibid., p. 158.. He only complained that he was unequal to imparare a mente alcuna cosa per l'infelicissima memoria, che da ragazzo ho sempre avuta [learning anything by heart, on account of the most unhappy memory which I have always had from a boy] Ibid., p. 190.. Hence the so-called Lenten stations, But the Lenten stations which he held, in which a discourse polished with study had to be recited word for word each day, although he had composed due quaresimali con robba d'avanzo già radunata per comporne più altri [two Lenten courses, with material to spare already gathered for composing several others] Witness Andrea Budrioli, S. J., Summarium de virtutibus, p. 351., he declined as much as he could; nor before the year 1709, and indeed "with nature vehemently resisting" Rosa, place cited, p. 190., did he devote his labour to this ministry. Livorno, where he was sent, turned out a true Calvary for him. Nor did he bring back there as much fruit of souls as he was wearied, as he himself well felt. For he writes to his brother Isidoro on 16 March 1609: Ci accostiamo al fine di Quaresima; e mi pare, che si sia avverata la prima parte della mezza profezia fattami da Fr. Giovanni Filippo (S. Dominici alumno) di faticare senz'altro frutto, che del proprio disonore. Vorrei che si verificasse l'altra parte, che il Signore mi concedesse tanto spirito, che per esso si degnasse che altri facessero quel frutto, che non fo io. Ho faticato, e fatico più di quello, che si può immaginare; ma si mastica stoppa, ed io mi sono non poco avvilito [We are approaching the end of Lent; and it seems to me that the first part of the half-prophecy made to me by Fr. Giovanni Filippo (a son of St. Dominic) has come true, of labouring with no other fruit than my own dishonour. I should like the other part to come true, that the Lord would grant me so much spirit that through it he would deign that others should make the fruit which I do not make. I have laboured, and labour more than can be imagined; but one chews tow, and I am not a little disheartened] Ibid., pp. 193–94.. And in the following year the burden of the Lenten station had to be undergone by him again in the city of Tagliacozzo; and so further six times, namely in the year 1712 at Antrodoco, in the year 1713 at Cittaducale, in the year 1714 at L'Aquila degli Abruzzi, 1715 at Ortona and 1717 in the little town of Sezze Vannucci, place cited, pp. 214–28..

[18] on account of his slow memory they were burdensome to him. But although everywhere he carried through the series of sermons with the highest applause of his hearers and gain of souls, yet his dull memory was often a most troublesome cross both to himself and to the companions of his labours whom he took with him. Thus at Sezze, where in the last year of his life he preached the Lenten station, if we give credit to Andrea Budrioli, S. J., who had seen into his inmost thoughts and manner of acting throughout the whole year in which he lived with him, the venerable servant of God, to tame his indocile memory, every day towards evening read the next day's sermon before a friend Summarium de virtutibus, p. 238.. And in the morning se ne stava tutta la mattina inchiodato al tavolino a leggere e rileggere con sommo suo tedio la predica, e così intendeva di dover fare [he stayed the whole morning nailed to the little table, reading and rereading the sermon with the greatest weariness, and so he understood that he ought to do] Ibid., p. 236.. Quamquam certo è che per quanto studio egli ponesse ad imparare una predica, per lunga e continua esperienza che aveva di se, d'ordinario era sicuro di non averne poi in pulpito e raccapezzarne per lo più tre periodi, e talora neppure tre parole. "Anzi," dissemi piu volte, "nelle missioni medesime, dove ridico tante volte l'istesso, mi trovo d'aver detta già in pulpito l'Ave Maria, [Although it is certain that, however much study he put into learning a sermon, from the long and continual experience he had of himself, he was ordinarily sure of not then having in the pulpit and piecing together more than three periods of it for the most part, and sometimes not even three words. "Nay," he told me several times, "in the missions themselves, where I repeat the same thing so many times, I find myself having already said the Ave Maria in the pulpit,]

ed ancora non sò quello che mi dirò. Ma la prima sentenza, che allora mi sovviene, dico quella e sopra quella. Onde," soggiunse, "in tanti anni che predico continuamente invito bensì un giorno per l'altro, ma non m'impegno mai à dire l'argomento, perchè non sò se manterrò poi la parola. E cosi anche nelle missioni io non ho serie determinata di cosa; ma in mezzo ad una o subito dopo, secondo che Iddio m'ispira, io ne determino l'altra. Il che ben veggo io che fa disperare i miei compagni, i quali ad ogni momento devono mettere e tenere all' ordine ogni cosa, e non sanno mai quale, perchè non lo sò neppur io. Ma tant' è", conchiuse, "Iddio vuole io dependa da lui, come un mendico. E quando mi fa la limosina, io durerei un' anno a dire senza stancar me nè l'audienza. Ma quando egli ristringa la mano, io mi sento aggiacciata la lingua e vuota la testa; e pur dico io non sò come Ibid., p. 235.." [and still I do not know what I shall say. But the first sentence that comes to me then, I say that, and upon that. Whence," he added, "in so many years that I have been preaching continually, I do indeed announce one day for the next, but I never commit myself to state the subject, because I do not know whether I shall then keep my word. And so also in the missions I have no determined series of matters; but in the middle of one or immediately after, according as God inspires me, I determine the next. Which I see well makes my companions despair, who at every moment have to set and keep everything in order, and never know which, because I do not know it either. But so it is," he concluded, "God wills that I depend on him like a beggar. And when he gives me alms, I could go on a year speaking without tiring myself or the audience. But when he closes his hand, I feel my tongue frozen and my head empty; and yet I speak, I know not how."] By this disorderly manner of preaching it perhaps came about that he was compelled to employ one after another to help him in exercising the apostolic ministry See a list of some companions in Vannucci, place cited, pp. 54–57..

[19] But that he turned out an outstanding missionary Nonetheless, as many missions as he gave in the Tusculan and Viterbo countryside within a circuit of fifty miles, so many triumphs he brought back for the divine glory and the most abundant salvation of souls. From his own letters, indeed, we gather that there shone before him as an example to be imitated Paolo Segneri the younger, the outstanding sacred orator of that time, whose il nome d'apostolo d'Italia name of apostle of Italy he recalls [Rosa, place cited, p. 204. Paolo Segneri the younger died on 15 June 1713. Of whose death our Blessed wrote an account and sent it to his brother Isidoro on 4 July 1713. The life of the illustrious Jesuit was published in a full volume by Francesco Galluzzi, S. J. (Rome, 1716) and Ludovico Antonio Muratori (Modena, 1720).]. For he longed to follow his footsteps, though at a long interval Rosa, place cited, p. 169., after it had befallen him to earn the first pay of the apostolic life cum i compagni ed allievi del Padre Segneri, da' quali conveniva che imparassi di portarmi bene nell' impiego, che ho per le mani [with the companions and pupils of Father Segneri, from whom it was fitting that I should learn to conduct myself well in the employment which I have in hand] Ibid., p. 161.. And the province entrusted to him embraced the rustic region which surrounded Viterbo and Tusculum, to be restored to Christian faith and morals every year for four months, but not continuous, by gospel missions. So he himself forewarns on the threshold of an autograph record, the notebooks show to which he gave the title: Nota delle missioni fatte da Padri della Compagnia di Giesù nel circuito di Frascati (e di Viterbo), prescritto nel legato lasciato dall' Eccellentissima Principessa di Rossano [Note of the missions made by Fathers of the Society of Jesus in the circuit of Frascati (and of Viterbo), prescribed in the legacy left by the Most Excellent Princess of Rossano]. And there is added by another hand: Il seguente libretto è tutto di proprio carattere del V. servo di Dio P. Baldinucci, eccetto il libretto de decretis de missionibus [The following little book is all in the very hand of the Venerable servant of God Fr. Baldinucci, except the little book on the decrees on the missions] (namely those of Viterbo and Tusculum; by which decrees the Superior General of the S. J., Michelangelo Tamburini, provided for the due execution of the testament) p. 6 e quella parte di Diario che descrive le missioni del 30 aprile 1707 fino al 10 settembre 1708 [p. 6, and that part of the Diary which describes the missions from 30 April 1707 to 10 September 1708]; at which time, namely, our Blessed moved to the Viterbo residence of the Society of Jesus. Furthermore, in this autograph codex, of the format 0m,18 × 0,13, of 52 written pages, which is still preserved in the archive of the General Postulation of the S. J., there is reviewed summarily, from the year 1697 to the year 1717, for the use of the Tusculan college, in what places, for how long each year and at what expense this office of preaching was discharged.

[20] and his manuscript commentaries. Besides, there exist in the same place other very full commentaries, and indeed distinguished in a double recension, written by the hand of the venerable servant of God, of the format 0m,27 × 0,21, of written leaves both 292 and 392, to the first codex of which is prefixed the title: Diarii delle missioni fatte da PP. della Compagnia de Giesù nel circuito delle cinquanta miglia intorno a Frascati prescritto dall' Eccella Principessa di Rossano fondatrice delle medesime … [Diaries of the missions made by Fathers of the Society of Jesus in the circuit of fifty miles around Frascati, prescribed by the Most Excellent Princess of Rossano, foundress of the same …], and to the other, but in a more recent hand: Ragguaglio d'alcune missioni fatte nel circuito delle cinquanta miglia intorno a Frascati e Viterbo, prescritto nel legato dall' Eccma Principessa di Rossano, fondatrice di dette missioni [Account of some missions made in the circuit of fifty miles around Frascati and Viterbo, prescribed in the legacy by the Most Excellent Princess of Rossano, foundress of the said missions]. The quires of the first codex seem to be a sort of notebooks or rough little books written beforehand, before the making of the book. For often what he had committed to the leaves in continuous writing the Blessed himself revised, struck out and emended; what had at first escaped his mind he added in the margins; and because he was swift in writing, it sometimes happened that some word was lacking or redundant. The parts of the little work are not defined by chapters, but by the sacred expeditions, which took place twice each year, namely in spring and autumn. And since both at the beginning and on some following quires the name Diario is written above, the custom gradually prevailed that that codex should be called the Diary. Rightly indeed, but it by no means embraces the whole apostolic life of Fr. Baldinucci. For it begins from the year 1701 and ends in the month of June 1706. The other codex, sprinkled also with erasures and emendations, but not so frequent, describes the whole course of his apostolic life, namely from the year 1697 to the year 1717. And what had already been set out in the first codex, the prudent writer took up again, partly to the letter, partly as regards the meaning of what was said. And since he was taken away by death in the midst of the autumn missions of the year 1717, the last leaves of the Ragguaglio were written by another hand, nay even composed, as is noted on fol. 392r: Io infrascritto fò fede che lo scritto dal foglio 380 fino a tutto il foglio 391 è mano mia propria e sono cose che tutte l' ho io vedute o pure l' ho intese dire dal servo di Dio Padre Baldinucci. In fede di che, questo dì 5 7bre 1723. Lodovico Cremonae compagno già nelle missioni del servo di Dio. [I, the undersigned, attest that what is written from leaf 380 through the whole of leaf 391 is in my own hand, and these are things which I have all seen or else heard said by the servant of God Father Baldinucci. In faith of which, this 5th day of September 1723. Lodovico Cremona, formerly companion in the missions of the servant of God.] And what difference there is, if you look at the contents, between these commentaries and the little book Nota delle missioni indicated above, Anthony himself explained in the preface to his Ragguaglio: Dall' anno poi 1697 si cominciò a darne (missionum scilicet) più distinta notitia, notandosi in un libro tutti i luoghi delle diogesi che si coltivarono, i nome de padri ed il tempo che si spese in sì fruttuose fatiche. In questo Ragguaglio si noteranno principalmente le funtioni fatte nelle missioni ed il frutto che si è degnato il Signore di cavarne. [From the year 1697, then, one began to give a more distinct account of them (namely of the missions), noting in a book all the places of the dioceses which were cultivated, the names of the fathers and the time that was spent in such fruitful labours. In this Account will be noted chiefly the functions performed in the missions and the fruit which the Lord has deigned to draw from them.]

[21] He led a truly apostolic life Equipped with these aids, anyone will easily perceive how much the tireless herald of the gospel accomplished and endured in fulfilling his office. For he went forth on apostolic expeditions with bare feet, even along roads bound with snow and ice or strewn with thorns and potsherds, in worn clothes, with no baggage, except the sacred furniture which the apparatus of religious ceremonies required, and with so swift a step that he outran a horse at speed Summarium de virtutibus, p. 111.. Which accustomed swiftness he himself explained thus charmingly to Father Andrea Budrioli, so often already mentioned and to be mentioned: Gran pena era per lui l'imbattersi in uomini di gran flemma: cosi quando fu mandato col Padre Antonio Baldigiani, uomo lento e pesante, che non poteva fare dieci miglia al giorno. "Io", mi disse, "che ero buono per cinquanta, ebbi a disperarmi; e se non che presi il ripiego di dilungarmi di tanto in tanto da lui e poi tornare addietro, come fanno i cagnolini, certamente io morivo per la strada" [It was a great pain to him to meet with men of great phlegm: so when he was sent with Father Antonio Baldigiani, a slow and heavy man, who could not do ten miles a day. "I," he told me, "who was good for fifty, was near despair; and had I not taken the expedient of going on ahead of him from time to time and then coming back, as little dogs do, I should certainly have died on the road"] Ibid., p. 351.. And it is pleasing to gather from his own pen how great a strain the most laborious burden and office of a missionary brought, as he himself sharply describes it in a letter given to his brother Saverio on 4 December 1702: I have to be engaged con fatiche per altro intollerabili, ma con forze sempre uguali per grazia speciale del Signore, che mi vuole in questo impiego umanamente impossibile, attese le mie passate indisposizioni, non avendo mai un momento da respirare, ma sempre occupato o in prediche, o in dottrine (explaining the catechism to the unlettered and to children), o in processioni di penitenza (at least three daily), o in confessioni, o in discipline (that is, public flagellations), in viaggi a piè scalzi, e per strade per lo più fangose e dirupate. Oltre poi la continova sollecitudine d'accordar paci, toglier giuochi di carte [Sometimes in place of the accustomed game of cards Bl. Anthony introduced other cards, on whose upper part vi fosse scolpita la Passione di Gesù Cristo, e al di dentro diversi motti, alcuni de' quali esprimevano gli atti orrendi di detta Passione, altri misteri della santa fede, ed altri erano mentali. E con queste carte si faceva la conversazione a guisa che si giuoca all' ombra, e si chiamava in aiuto una carta, come verbi grazia: la Spina di Nostro Signore mi aiuti, etc. [there was carved the Passion of Jesus Christ, and within various mottoes, some of which expressed the horrible acts of the said Passion, others mysteries of the holy faith, and others were mental. And with these cards conversation was made in the way in which one plays ombre, and one called a card to one's help, as for instance: may the Thorn of Our Lord help me, etc.] This passage the Promoter of the faith gravely objected against, as if it were a profanation of a sacred thing (Animadversiones R. P. Promotoris Fidei super dubio an constet de virtutibus, p. 19). But he tried in vain to prove it (Responsio ad animadversiones… pp. 104, 105).], amicizie cattive, ed altri scandali, e patire altri disastri di freddo, venti, pioggie, e tutto quello che va connesso con questa vita [with labours otherwise intolerable, but with strength always equal by special grace of the Lord, who wills me in this employment humanly impossible, considering my past indispositions, never having a moment to breathe, but always occupied either in sermons, or in catechisms, or in processions of penance, or in confessions, or in disciplines, in journeys barefoot, and along roads mostly muddy and broken. Besides, then, the continual solicitude of making peace, taking away card games, bad friendships and other scandals, and suffering other disasters of cold, winds, rains, and all that goes with this life] L. Rosa, place cited, p. 164.. He employed besides various devices to move the minds of his hearers and bring them to salutary fruit. Alle volte andava scalzo girando per la terra dove faceva la missione con due grosse catene di ferro alli piedi, capestro al collo, corona di spine in testa, con una disciplina di ferro in mano battendosi più volte a carne ignuda e cantando lo Svegliarino [At times he went barefoot round the town where he was making the mission, with two thick iron chains on his feet, a halter on his neck, a crown of thorns on his head, with an iron discipline in his hand, beating himself many times on the bare flesh and singing the Svegliarino] [Summarium de virtutibus, p. 56. The Svegliarino was a little work of pious songs, or Laudi spirituali, which Anthony impressed on the people to be sung at each mission. That these were by no means composed by him a witness reports thus on 12 May 1732

when questioned: "In certa occasione gli domandai se forse egli avesse composto lo Svegliarino. Rispose che veramente l' avea incominciato. Ma che poi avvedutosi de grandi spropositi, ne pregò un certo padre della Compagnia. E questi, soggiunse, per verità l'ha fatto molto bene." [On a certain occasion I asked him whether perhaps he had composed the Svegliarino. He answered that in truth he had begun it. But that then, having noticed great blunders, he asked a certain father of the Society to do it. And he, he added, has in truth done it very well.] (Processus Setinus, f. 787).]. And sometimes he carried a skull into the pulpit and entered into a vehement and, by turns, tender colloquy with it: "Where are your eyes? … where your hair? … where your cheeks? … where your tongue? …" Or, clad in the squalid tunic of penitents, he appeared with his arm armed with scourges. And while he directed inflamed words to the image of Jesus crucified, little by little he bared his shoulders; and while some priests intoned the psalm Miserere, he scourged himself for a long time.

[22] for several months every year Now this most hard tenor of apostolic life, yet so profitable for the salvation of his neighbours, Anthony kept up every year for several months; nay, that he was accustomed to persevere beyond the four months defined by the princess of Rossano is easily gathered both from his letters and from the autograph manuscript Nota delle missioni Compare above, num. 19.. Thus in the year 1699 for five months Ibid., pp. 4–5., in the year 1702 for five months and a half Ibid., pp. 10–12., in the year 1703 from the middle of the month of January to 17 June Ibid., p. 15., he strained every nerve and all his diligence in giving missions. Tornai ieri mattina I returned yesterday morning, he writes on 19 June, dalle missioni fatte per cinque mesi continovi from the missions made for five continuous months; and on 20 October he moves camp again, not to return before two months L. Rosa, place cited, pp. 165–67.. In the year 1706 he cheerfully bore the same yoke for five months Ms. Nota, pp. 28–30.; and on 15 July 1708 he wrote from Viterbo: Sto di ottima salute dopo aver fatto le missioni per quasi tre mesi in luoghi di aria assai cattiva, e con grandi stenti e fatiche [I am in excellent health after having made the missions for almost three months in places of very bad air, and with great hardships and labours] L. Rosa, place cited, p. 184.. But a little after he lay gravely ill and was almost extinguished, as is clear from the witty letter which he gave to his brother Saverio on 11 December: Nell' esercizio delle missioni … spero continovare fino alla morte, alla quale mi sono avvicinato nella passata estate, in cui stando in un luoghetto di poche case fui assalito da sì gravi dolori, che mi convenne in due giorni prendere i santi sacramenti del viatico ed estrema unzione. E perchè tutte le cose le soglio far presto, il quinto giorno mi trovai libero a poter cominciare di nuovo le interrotte funzioni [In the exercise of the missions … I hope to continue until death, which I approached this past summer, when, staying in a little place of few houses, I was assailed by such grave pains that within two days I had to take the holy sacraments of viaticum and extreme unction. And because I am wont to do all things quickly, on the fifth day I found myself free to be able to begin again the interrupted functions] Ibid., p. 186..

[23] and amid continual labours. And his strength recovered, the intrepid man never more abused it. For from the year 1710 until his death, for at least six months a year, with unconquered zeal he exhorted innumerable villages and cities situated outside Tusculum to live piously, uprightly and chastely. Let some things hastily communicated by himself be the proof. Thus on 11 September 1710: Dopo aver fatto più di cinque mesi di missioni, mi conviene di nuovo per altri mesi andare in giro, ed in arie non molto buone [After having made more than five months of missions, I must go round again for other months, and in airs not very good] Ibid., p. 198.. And in his notebooks in the year 1711 he noted of himself: (Father Baldinucci) tornò a Frascati alli 15 giugno dello stess' anno, dopo essere stato fuori cinque mesi e sei giorni [returned to Frascati on 15 June of the same year, after having been out five months and six days] Ms. Nota, p. 40., until in the next autumn season he was to set out again. And on 25 May 1716 he wrote from Ferentino: Non si meravigli, se non scrivo ogni settimana, perchè mi trovo solo con popoli numerosi e con le faccende tanto affollate, che non so come sià vivo. Mi bisogna legere le lettere quando mangio, e dopo mangiato subito scrivere [Do not wonder if I do not write every week, because I find myself alone with numerous peoples and with business so crowded that I do not know how I am alive. I have to read letters when I eat, and after eating write at once] Rosa, place cited, p. 209.. Nor did work boil for him less at Tusculum. For, returned home, mi trovo talmente occupato I find myself so occupied, he said, che non ho tempo da respirare. Questo è un paese dove la messe è copiosa, e vi è da faticare quanto in qualsivoglia missione; ed io sono quasi più stracco, quando mi parto per andare alle missioni, che quando ritorno [that I have no time to breathe. This is a country where the harvest is copious, and there is as much labour as in any mission; and I am almost more tired when I set out to go to the missions than when I return] Ibid., pp. 147–51.. And in the last year of his life he was absent almost wholly from the house at Tusculum. For from 24 August until 26 November 1716 he dwelt in the province of Ascoli. On 6 February 1717 he took the Lenten station at Sezze as if a true mission were to be given, as was his custom, and with equal zeal instructed the surrounding region until 28 May Ms. Nota, pp. 50–51.; at length on 22 August he went off into the dioceses of Terracina, Ferentino, Fondi and Veroli Ms. Diario, p. 380., to breathe out to God his unbroken soul amid apostolic labours on 7 November at Pofi in the territory of Veroli.

§ IV. His singular devotion to the Mother of God up to his death, which was most serene.

[24] He had the image of the Mother of God solemnly crowned. But about four months before he departed from life, the strong athlete of Christ who, according to the witness of the most weighty and most friendly Father Francesco Galluzzi, S. J., camminava d'ordinario per strada di aridità, unita con tentazioni orribili di fede [walked ordinarily along the road of aridity, joined with horrible temptations of faith] Summarium de virtutibus, p. 304., was refreshed with a most sweet consolation. For on 4 July 1717 the image of the blessed Virgin Mary called Refuge of sinners, which from the year 1708, as he himself asserted [So in the letter given on 15 July 1708. L. Rosa, place cited, p. 184. The biographers therefore erred who put it off to the year 1709.], he carried about with him in the missions to be venerated by the flocking peoples, and to which he attributed innumerable favours, was solemnly crowned with a golden diadem by the chapter of the Vatican basilica in the church of the Society of Jesus at Tusculum. This honour, conferred up to then only on the more celebrated images of the Virgin Mother of God, and on those more illustrious either for the fame of prodigies or by the commendation of antiquity and a stable seat, Anthony himself described abundantly in his Diary Fol. 359.. Nor did he omit to touch on briefly why he desired so great an honour for his image alone: Alle gratie spirituali d'innumerabili conversioni che non ponno spiegarsi, onde meritossi il bel titolo di Rifugio de' peccatori, s'aggiunsero innumerabili gratie corporali di sanità, prodigiosamente restitute ed altri favori fatti a chi si ungeva con l'olio arso nelle molte lampade che avanti ad essa ardevano o si segnava con la cera arsa nel suo altare, o in altra maniera ricorreva al suo patronicio essendosene in questa stagione autenticate per mano di notaro più di cento. [To the spiritual graces of innumerable conversions which cannot be explained, whence it merited the fine title of Refuge of sinners, there were added innumerable bodily graces of health prodigiously restored, and other favours done to whoever anointed himself with the oil burned in the many lamps that burned before it, or signed himself with the wax burned at its altar, or in another manner had recourse to its patronage, more than a hundred of them having been authenticated in this season by the hand of a notary.] With this praise of the blessed Virgin's mercy he closed as with a seal the annals of twenty years of apostolate. Today that most celebrated image of the Blessed Virgin Mary is honoured with the highest honour at Tusculum, in a certain chapel of the church of the Gesù, skilfully adorned and dedicated under the title of Refuge of sinners [See a minute description of it in Della prodigiosa immagine di Maria Santissima venerata nella chiesa del Gesù in Frascati sotto it titolo Refugium peccatorum, detta ancora del P. Baldinucci, brevi notizie raccolte dal canonico D. Luigi Ceci nell' anno 1867 ed ora di nuovo pubblicate nel secondo centenario del pubblico culto reso alla medesima dai cittadini di Frascati (Frascati, 1909), pp. 12–15.].

[25] Under whose patronage, afflicted with his last disease, And when at Pofi in the diocese of Veroli, where he had arrived already weakened on 18 October, six days of preaching having passed, he was wasting with an acute fever and was conscious that death was near him, he begged that the sacred likeness of the Mother of God be brought into his bedroom and set before his eyes. This he received with the most tender attentions of devotion, as if the divine Mother herself had entered the sick man's chamber; and he did not cease, for joy, to address her with the most sweet words Show yourself a mother So a witness who was present. Summarium de virtutibus, p. 518.. Meanwhile, to adduce a surety above all exception, Lodovico Valdina Cremona, inasmuch as he, his constant companion, already in the year 1720 explained in detail all the things seen and explored by himself In the manuscript informative Process of Sezze, f. 2132., the venerable servant of God si confessò tre volte. La prima confessione la fece al P. Guardiano de Minori Osservanti Riformati di S. Pietro nel medesimo giorno che si pose malato in letto, e l'altre due volte al P. Giuseppe Mossi della Compagnia di Gesù (sent by our Superior General to help the sick man), a cui volle fare la confessione generale, come il sudetto P. Mossi mi disse; e due volte si communicò, la prima per sua particolar divozione subito posto in letto, cioè dopo giorni tre di decubito, facendone di ciò premurosa istanza, e la seconda per viatico tre giorni prima della sua morte. E nell' istesso giorno le fù somministrata l'estrema unzione, richiesta con grandissima istanza dal medesimo Padre. E detti sacramenti esso Padre li ricevè con grandissima divozione. [confessed three times. The first confession he made to the Father Guardian of the Reformed Observant Minors of San Pietro on the same day on which he took to his bed sick, and the other two times to Father Giuseppe Mossi of the Society of Jesus, to whom he wished to make a general confession, as the said Fr. Mossi told me; and twice he received communion, the first out of his particular devotion as soon as he was put to bed, that is, after three days of lying ill, making urgent request for it, and the second as viaticum three days before his death. And on the same day extreme unction was administered to him, requested with the greatest insistence by the same Father. And the said sacraments the Father received with the greatest devotion.] Nor was his serene and cheerful mind clouded, facendomi, after the manner of the seraphic Francis of Assisi, cantare le laudi spirituali che stavano stampate in un libretto intitolato "Laudi spirituali". E nel fine d'ogni strofa, con tutto che aggravato dal male, accompagnava gl'ultimi due versetti che finivano colle parole: "Giesù mio, dolce amore, io per te moro." In oltre voleva che di quando in quando le venissero suggeriti due versetti del libretto detto "lo Svegliarino" Compare above, p. 729, note 3., ed in particolare dove si tratta di Paradiso, dicendo: "Paradiso, oh paradiso, oh bella patria" [making me sing the spiritual lauds that were printed in a little book entitled "Laudi spirituali." And at the end of each strophe, although weighed down by the illness, he joined in the last two little verses, which ended with the words: "My Jesus, sweet love, I die for thee." Besides, he wished that from time to time two little verses of the little book called "the Svegliarino" be suggested to him, and in particular where it treats of Paradise, saying: "Paradise, O paradise, O fair homeland"] Summarium de virtutibus, p. 535..

[26] he breathed out his soul peacefully to God. So with an eager mind he girded himself for the last agonies, which, shaken by very frequent attacks of epilepsy and deprived of the faculty of speech, he endured for eighteen hours Ibid., p. 521.. Quattr'ore però prima di morire le ritornò la favella, sentendosi ben proferire i santissimi nomi di "Gesù et Maria speranza mia", che continuamente replicò per infino all' ultimo respiro, alzando continuamente gl'occhi al cielo, e verso la Madonna santissima del Refugio [Four hours, however, before dying, his speech returned, and he was heard to pronounce clearly the most holy names "Jesus and Mary my hope," which he repeated continually up to the last breath, continually raising his eyes to heaven and towards the most holy Madonna of the Refuge] Ibid., p. 536.. So fell the good soldier of Christ who non aveva altro desiderio che di morire avanti [had no other desire than to die before

della sudetta santissima imagine, e parve anche grazia speciale che morisse nelle missioni… E morì con tutta rassegnazione e di buona voglia [the aforesaid most holy image, and it seemed also a special grace that he died in the missions… And he died with all resignation and willingly] Ibid.. He died, namely, as he had lived, observing the golden sentence which in his last letter to his brother Saverio he had bequeathed as a testament: Di tutte le cose che accadano prenderne il buono, e lasciare andare il cattivo, procurando di non affanarsi con timori e pusillanimità; ma vivere con un cuor grande e libero da ogni angustia. E per ottener ciò, oltre al chiedere aiuto al Signore, procurarsi di non fissarsi in pensieri malinconici, di non discorrere senza necessita delle miserie che sogliono accadere, e di non pensare a tutti i mali possibili ad accadere, ma a quelli che han di bisogno di presente riparo [Of all the things that happen, take the good and let the bad go, taking care not to fret oneself with fears and faint-heartedness; but to live with a great heart, free from every anxiety. And to obtain this, besides asking help of the Lord, to take care not to fix oneself on melancholy thoughts, not to talk without necessity of the miseries that are wont to happen, and not to think of all the evils possible to happen, but of those that need a present remedy] L. Rosa, place cited, p. 218..

As soon as he had poured out his last breath, his host, Don Livio de Carolis, had the face of the dead man portrayed by four excellent painters Summarium de virtutibus, p. 521.. And it is probable that the likeness which is still seen in the Tusculan church of the Gesù was carried away from there.

§ V. The funeral procession; the fortunes of the sacred remains; the early fame of his prodigies and holiness; the principal biographers.

[27] Honoured with a splendid funeral Furthermore, the obsequies were celebrated magnificently for the modesty of the place, the whole village of Pofi thronging them and the neighbouring townspeople running together in rivalry to honour them. His heart, enclosed in a crystal vessel, was received as a gift by that distinguished benefactor Don Livio; and the rest of the corpse, anointed with balsams and laid in two wooden chests, they carried out in funeral procession not to the parish church but to the church of San Pietro of the Reformed of the stricter observance of St. Francis, whom they call del Buon Ritiro, situated outside the walls of the town, that it might be entombed there in the family sepulchre of the lords de Carolis. And seven months after, on 18 or 20 June 1718, the aforesaid Don Livio de Carolis took it to heart to enclose the body, having been recognized, more honourably in a leaden chest and to put it back in its place Ibid., p. 523.. To which not only the inhabitants of Pofi, but also the peoples of the neighbouring villages, did not cease to turn aside to pay vows and homage to the sacred remains, his sacred remains long lay hidden, until, the tumults of the French and Cisalpine republics raging, it was necessary to hide the precious deposit secretly in safer hiding places. What further fortunes it underwent has been impenetrable for us to explore. But at long last there came into the hands of the Postulator General of the causes of the S. J. a little chest made of metal, which, on the assertion of most weighty guarantors, contained the ashes and fragments of the bones of Anthony Baldinucci. And this little coffin, recognized by the ecclesiastical authority of Florence on 3 November 1905, was translated into the church of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus sacred to the Virgin Mary of Good Counsel, and there placed under the high altar near the head of the statue of our Blessed. And let these things said of his relics suffice.

[28] Two wonders attributed to him are weighed. Immediately after his death the fame of his prodigies and predictions spread far and wide. It is not expedient for us, indeed, to recall them to historical examination, since what flowed from this source towards juridically establishing the holiness of the distinguished servant of God has been duly settled by the tribunal of supreme authority. Yet let it be permitted if we set out more attentively two, very well known indeed, and wonderfully performed by him while living. It is reported, namely, both that he revealed to his hearers, suddenly from the pulpit, the death of his mother while she was breathing her last [So, besides the other biographers, the most weighty Father P. Vannucci, place cited, p. 29.], and that on another occasion, in early spring, he brought it about that at the very moment at which he was describing the immense number of the damned, the spreading elm under which he was preaching was suddenly stripped of all its leaves [Compare for example Giuseppe Mariano Partenio, S. J., Commentarii et ellogia, ed. Boero (Rome, 1855), p. 55; Vannucci, place cited, pp. 131–32; F. Galluzzi, Vita del P. Antonio Baldinucci, 2nd ed. (Rome, 1736), p. 51.]. Now the portent of the leaves shaken from the tree the Blessed himself passes over in deep silence, although he narrates minutely, as he is wont, both the mission which he was carrying out in the little village of Giuliano near Velletri in the month of April 1706, and the sermon under which this is said to have happened. These things of the sermon: Alli 12 detto, April 1706, Monday, detta all'alba la messa, dopo un brevissimo discorso, tirò dietro a se in divota ordinanza tutto il popolo mezzo miglio distante alla chiesa della Madonna della Consolatione; e fatta fuori di essa la predica della divina misericordia, escitò tutti a servirsene in tempo per non tirarsi a dosso i rigori della divina giustitia. Onde tornato alla chiesa parrochiale, dopo un breve sentimento, affollossi il popolo a confessionali [On the 12th of the said month, Mass having been said at dawn, after a very brief discourse, he drew after him in devout order the whole people half a mile distant to the church of the Madonna della Consolazione; and the sermon on the divine mercy having been made outside it, he stirred all to avail themselves of it in time, so as not to draw upon themselves the rigours of the divine justice. Whence, having returned to the parish church, after a brief reflection, the people crowded to the confessionals] Ms. Diary, p. 275.. But the two priests who in the course of the Process of beatification were summoned to assert the prodigy adduce not their own but another's testimony, and carry the event over into the month of May of another year. "Nor did she notice," says the latter witness, mulier che mi racconto il fatto, se tirasse vento the woman who told me the fact, whether the wind was blowing". And when il Padre Baldinucci Father Baldinucci had said "Basta" Enough, non sa però chi fu presente se dicesse "Basta" o per quietare lo spavento del popolo, o all'albore acciò non mandasse più foglie [however, those who were present do not know whether he said "Enough" either to quiet the fright of the people, or to the tree so that it would not send down more leaves] Summarium de virtutibus, pp. 44 and 274.. This being so, this alone seems to be established, that the leaves of a spreading tree standing in the square fell unexpectedly, and that the orator, seizing this occasion, at that moment exclaimed: "See how many souls are thrust down into hell." Nor is it more likely that his mother's death became known to him from heaven, when "circa sei mesi prima della sua morte" about six months before his death he burst out before a ring of bystanders into these words: "Recitiamo un Pater ed Ave, perchè in questo momento la mia madre è andata in paradiso" [Let us recite a Pater and Ave, because at this moment my mother has gone to paradise]. For his mother departed from the living by no means in the year 1717, but in the year 1710. Whose death he himself declares he learned from the letter of his brother Isidoro, to which he answers thus on 23 April 1710: Sento la nuova che mi da della nostra Signora madre, e mi conformo in tutto alla volontà del Signore: spero che in cielo si ricorderà di noi [I hear the news which you give me of our Lady mother, and I conform myself in everything to the will of the Lord: I hope that in heaven she will remember us]. And he adds that he had so far deferred requesting the prayers of the Superior General, non sapendo ancora la certezza della morte not yet knowing the certainty of the death L. Rosa, place cited, pp. 197–98..

[29] His holiness immediately after his death But these wonders and others, whatever they may be, neither diminish nor increase his holiness. For the man, powerful in work and word, went through more than thirty dioceses of central Italy [Vannucci, place cited, pp. 311–15, drew up a catalogue of them, according to the order of time in which our Blessed went to them, with the autograph diary itself lighting the way. He reviews besides the various parishes of each diocese. But he could have made up the missing list of places for the years 1697, 1698, 1699, if he had used the other autograph codex, namely the Notes, of which above, p. 728. This catalogue was used by Fr. Goldie, S. J., to describe on a very useful geographical map the itinerary travelled by the tireless missionary, if you except Livorno (The life of the Blessed Antonio Baldinucci, p. 378).], pouring out his strength and life, to the highest good of the inhabitants. Luke 24, 19. Such and so great is he celebrated by all who knew him well and whose very many and copious testimonies have been diligently sought out. And that fame had so prevailed within the domestic cloisters of the Society of Jesus, where each is weighed by his own virtue and works, that scarcely a month after his death, Fr. Galluzzi narrated, the work of writing his life was enjoined on Father Francesco Maria Galluzzi, as he himself reports in a letter given on 23 December 1717 to Francesco Saverio Baldinucci, the brother of the dead missionary: Quanto a me, le assicuro che lo venero tra i beati del paradiso, e mi raccomando alla sua intercessione come a quella di ogni altro santo. Le particolarità delle sue virtù e della sua morte spero di potergliele far vedere, quando ne abbia scritta la Vita, come ne ho l'incombenza dal medesimo Padre Generale; e se ad essa V. S. potra contribuire qualche notitia appartenente alla vita secolare del P. Antonio, oltre il foglio trasmessomi dal P. Sottomayor [Father Sotomayor, who was then in charge of the college of the Society of Jesus at Florence, had known Anthony Baldinucci as a young man.], mi sarà gratissima [As for me, I assure you that I venerate him among the blessed of paradise, and I commend myself to his intercession as to that of any other saint. The particulars of his virtues and of his death I hope to be able to let you see when I have written his Life, as I have the charge of it from the Father General himself; and if your Lordship can contribute to it some information belonging to the secular life of Fr. Anthony, besides the sheet sent to me by Fr. Sotomayor, it will be most welcome to me] L. Rosa, place cited, p. 219..

[30] a contemporary and eyewitness biographer, Aptly indeed had a man been chosen to carry this out who was most skilled above all in composing biographical works [He composed about thirty Lives. Compare C. Sommervogel, Bibliothèque des écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, vol. III, pp. 1135–41.]. For he had known Anthony Baldinucci very well. Already from the year 1688, in which he had joined the Society of Jesus, he was eager to cling to his footsteps. Io confesso, he testified in the year 1730, che siccome uscivo volentieri con lui, lasciavo tutte le altre occupazioni per ispiare i suoi andamenti virtuosi; così essendo sacerdote li servivo la messa quando mi veniva fatto, per la venerazione che ne avevo, e per impararla a dire divotamente [I confess that, as I went out willingly with him, I left all other occupations to watch his virtuous ways; so, he being a priest, I served his Mass whenever I could, for the veneration that I had for him and to learn to say it devoutly] Summarium de virtutibus, p. 92.. Nor does he cease to bring forward what he learned from his mouth and in piu lettere scritte a me, ed esibite in forma autentica nel Processo ordinario [in several letters written to me, and exhibited in authentic form in the ordinary Process] Ibid., p. 422.. So close, namely, was the intimacy and familiarity that had come between them, which grew with length of time rather than languished. Anthony in turn professed himself most devoted to Father Francesco. Let what he writes to his brother Isidoro in the year 1703 be an example: La prego ora a farmi un favore: ed è di portarsi quanto prima può al collegio di Pinti (of the S. J., situated at Florence) a riverire ancora da mia parte il P. Francesco Galluzzi, al quale professo infinite obbligazioni, e se ci potesse andare ancora il Sig. Francesco Saverio l'avrei caro [I pray you now to do me a favour: and it is to go as soon as you can to the college of Pinti to pay respects also on my behalf to Fr. Francesco Galluzzi, to whom I profess infinite obligations, and if Signor Francesco Saverio could also go there I should hold it dear] L. Rosa, place cited, pp. 167–68.. And when in the last year of his life he had heard that he was gravely ill, he at once hastened to Rome to sustain him Ibid., p. 213.. Furthermore, Anthony's Life accurately [For the sake of example let it be noted that Saverio Baldinucci was asked by the author "se ei his brother Anthony fu quinto o sesto genito" whether he was fifth or sixth born. L.

Rosa, place cited, p. 220.] and knowledgeably composed, in a copious and lucid discourse, he published in print already in the year 1720, protesting towards the end of the little preface that he had served truth rather than friendship, since io abbia procurato di servire più tosto alla verità, che secondare il genio e l'affetto che ho al defonto … Solo posso attestarvi d'essere io stesso stato testimonio oculato di più cose, che qui riporto [I have taken care to serve truth rather than to follow the inclination and affection that I have for the deceased … I can only attest to you that I myself was an eyewitness of several things that I report here] Vita del P. Antonio Baldinucci d. C. d. G., missionario (Rome, 1720), fol. 7v..

[31] and juridically set out It is no wonder, then, that immediately after Anthony's death an inquiry was made in the diocese of Veroli into his virtues and fame of holiness, as Galluzzi himself notes at the end of the Life: Fra tanto non è da tacersi per ultimo, che in Pofi si formano di presente i processi, con l'autorità dell'ordinario sopre la vita, virtù e miracoli del servo di Dio P. Antonio Baldinucci [Meanwhile it is not to be kept silent, lastly, that at Pofi the processes are at present being drawn up, with the authority of the ordinary, on the life, virtues and miracles of the servant of God Fr. Antonio Baldinucci] Ibid., p. 258.. Of this process and of the others which were instituted to promote the beatification of the venerable servant of God there exists in the archive of the General Postulation of the S. J. a copy carefully collated with the authentic ones, as they say; which therefore, if you look at the exact tenor of the words, merits to win for itself as much credit as the original.

[32] witnesses above all exception. Besides the inquiry at Veroli, where from the year 1720 to 1723 47 witnesses were questioned, and the first place is held by Lodovico Valdina Cremona, a secular priest, Anthony's constant companion in the missions in the last two years of this life, and Francesco Maria Galluzzi, S. J., summoned twice; at Florence in the apostolic Process from the year 1730 to 1752 31 witnesses were examined, first of all Anthony's brothers, namely Giovanni Filippo, of the Order of Preachers, cited three times, and twice Francesco Saverio, advocate at Florence; in the Roman apostolic Process from the year 1730 to 1741, 18 witnesses, among whom again appear Valdina Cremona and Galluzzi; and lastly at Sezze in the diocese of Terracina, from the year 1730 to 1748, 73 witnesses were summoned, ahead of whom in maturity of judgement and knowledge goes Andrea Budrioli, S. J., bound to the deceased by a peculiar bond of friendship. From their innumerable depositions was built up a mass of 9 volumes, of the format 0m,27 × 0,20, of more than 6500 leaves Often one and the same number designates the same leaf twice and three times.. From this was extracted the very full Summarium super dubio an constet de virtutibus and committed to print in the year 1754 (in quarto, 588 pp.), in which the weightier testimonies concerning the acts of the blessed servant of God have been collected. Using these prudently and moderately, there can be fashioned an image of our Blessed bearing a true likeness.

[33] Various eulogies were also woven Meanwhile Giuseppe Antonio Patrignani, S. J. (1659–1733), in volume IV of his Menologio di pie memorie d'alcuni religiosi della Compagnia di Gesù dell'anno 1538 sino all'anno 1728, which he published in the year 1730, so contracted Fr. Galluzzi's book (pp. 38–46) that he often expressed minute fragments to the letter Thus, for example, Patrignani, p. 44, n. XIV = Galluzzi, p. 125.. And he concludes the epitome: Chi ne vuole la piena istoria, veggane la Vita, che ne scrisse il Padre Francisco Maria Galluzzi, il quale fu uno degli intimi dell'apostolico Padre. Ed io almeno mi glorio d'essere stato il suo connovizio [Whoever wishes the full history of him, let him see the Life which Father Francesco Maria Galluzzi wrote of him, who was one of the intimates of the apostolic Father. And I at least glory in having been his fellow-novice]; whom Baldinucci himself mentions from time to time in his letters. And in the year 1736, namely five years after Galluzzi had departed from the living, there came to light a second edition of the Life of Fr. Antonio Baldinucci, corretta, accresciuta e confrontata con i processi fatti con autorità dell' ordinario [corrected, enlarged and compared with the processes made with the authority of the ordinary]. The style, namely, was corrected, the more obsolete expressions and empty joinings of words especially being removed. And the exposition was enlarged here and there both by some slight things plucked from the Process of Veroli and by the manner of living which he kept at Livorno in the Lenten season, as an eyewitness reported it (pp. 32–34), Fr. Gioacchino Maggi, then provincial superior of the Brothers of St. John of God, and on pp. 283–293 a whole chapter di altre grazie, ottenute per intercessione del P. Antonio doppo la sua morte of other graces obtained through the intercession of Fr. Anthony after his death, nay, as follows, doppo la prima edizione di questa Vita, ma particolarmente in Pofi after the first edition of this Life, but particularly at Pofi. Lastly there was inserted (pp. 281–82) a magnificent eulogy of his virtues, which, if it is right to believe Andrea Budrioli Summarium de virtutibus, pp. 433–434., our General Michael Tamburini († 1630) decreed to be read publicly every year on 6 November in the houses of the Society of Jesus. But perhaps someone may judge that in this eulogy the wonder-worker is celebrated beyond the limits of modesty. Whatever it may be, a copy of that praise, extracted for the most part from Galluzzi's book, had been sent to each of our houses before the year 1720 was out, as is established from the letter which Jean-Baptiste Arendts, superior of the Flandro-Belgian province, gave on 6 November 1720 to the Rector of Antwerp: I send your Reverence the menology of Fr. Antonio Baldinucci, which our Father the Superior General very lately gave to me with the mandate that I should communicate it with your Reverence and that, translated from Latin into Flemish, it should be inscribed in the customary menology on 6 November, to be read aloud publicly to all at table on the same day in the customary manner [Brussels, Bibliothèque royale, paper codex 654, p. 343. Compare J. Van den Gheyn, S. J., Catalogue des mss. de la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, vol. VI, p. 279, no. 147.]. And there follows a Flemish translation, made officially, which agrees entirely with the Italian text.

[34] and new Lives composed on Galluzzi's pattern by the authors Mazzolari, All who wrote of the deeds of Bl. Anthony had before their eyes and compiled either the first edition of Galluzzi's work, translated into several languages [Sommervogel, place cited, vol. III, pp. 1136–37. Already in the year 1724 a German version had come out: Leben und Wunderbahrliche Verrichtungen des P. Ant. Baldinucci. Bamberg, 1724, in octavo, 10 ff., 560 pp., 2 ff. A copy exists in the Bollandist Library.], or the second. So Giuseppe Maria Mazzolari († 1786), who out of his piety towards the Blessed Virgin Mary wished to be called Giuseppe Mariano Partenio, polished the memory with elegant brevity Iosephi Mariani Parthenii, Commentarii et ellogia (Rome, 1855), pp. 96–107., using also the excellent little book of Andrea Budrioli, S. J., of which there will soon be talk again. And among the more recent biographers it is pleasing to name in order of time 1) Georg Fell, G. Fell, S. J. [Antonio Baldinucci. Ein Bild aus dem Leben der Kirche zu Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts. Zur Feier der Seligsprechung. Regensburg, 1893, VIII-184 pp.], who, G. Fell, when the solemnity of the beatification was approaching, having diligently examined Galluzzi and retained the old division of parts, eloquently narrated the life. But how did it come about that he was wholly ignorant of, or neglected to explore, the Summarium super dubio an constet de virtutibus, a most vast receptacle of biographical material? 2) Pietro Vannucci, S. J. [Vita del beato Antonio Baldinucci sacerdote professo d. C. d. G. Rome, 1893, in octavo, IV-320 pp.], P. Vannucci, a man distinguished in erudition, who, versed in the norms of critical history, keenly inspected not only Galluzzi's work, but also the letters of blessed Anthony, his sermons, the diaries of the missions, the processes of beatification both manuscript and printed; and thence, to put together the life, he brought out many things not unworthy to be known, carefully designating the source from which he drew each. But he was prevented by sudden death († 21 December 1892) from bringing the work begun to its end. The unfinished matter, namely from the last year of blessed Anthony's life, was completed by Francesco Saverio Scarpa († 1 July 1907), who thought that he must innovate nothing and rather follow Galluzzi's footsteps: I primi XVIII capi sono del Vannucci, il rimanente è tolto quasi per intero dal Galluzzi, eccetto qualche mutazione ed aggiunta, e toccando per dir così di volo quanto s'appartiene ai prodigi e grazie miracolose operate dal beato sì in vita e sì dopo morte [The first XVIII chapters are by Vannucci, the rest is taken almost entirely from Galluzzi, except some change and addition, and touching, so to speak, in passing on what pertains to the prodigies and miraculous graces worked by the Blessed both in life and after death] Ibid., p. IV.. These last things are wholly to be approved, no less than the precious document on Bl. Anthony's character and virtue composed by Andrea Budrioli, which the editor knowledgeably called Ritratto dello spirito del B. Antonio Portrait of the spirit of Bl. Anthony and inserted entire in chapter XXIV (pp. 278–96). And Vannucci's labour, as it lies, is already worthy to be praised; had time for polishing been available, the author would without doubt have struck out with a sure hand the few stains and blemishes Anal. Boll., vol. XIII, pp. 76–77. by which it is defiled.

[35] C. Clair This book, as almost the only source, excepting namely the brief of beatification, Charles Clair, S. J., opened up [Un apôtre au XVIIIe siècle. Le bienheureux Antonio Baldinucci. Paris, 1894, in duodecimo, 166 pp.], and with an apt selection of matters wove a pleasant, neat life, almost exact to historical fidelity, had he not, following too much his genius for fashioning and adorning, corrupted, as if unawares, some passages of the original. Thus he supposed that in the year 1706 sixty missions had been preached by Bl. Anthony Page 159. — which could scarcely have been accomplished — because Vannucci in the catalogue of his missions enumerates sixty places. But it is clear to anyone looking even lightly at the manuscript Diary that it was Bl. Anthony's custom to call together neighbouring little villages into one place to carry out the exercises of the same mission. And other things of this kind can be picked out. But not so liable to censure is the volume of the most recent biographer, and F. Goldie. Francis Goldie, S. J., once praised by us [Francis Goldie, S. J. The Life of the Blessed Antony Baldinucci. London, 1894, XVI-388 pp. Compare Anal. Boll., vol. XIV, p. 454.], in which the material gathered from the works of Galluzzi and Vannucci, from the Summarium de virtutibus and some letters, he weighed and tried to arrange in lucid order according to the order of time, and the skilful writer endowed it with charming sentences. And he prefixed a portrait of Anthony as a youth, before he entered the Society of Jesus, painted by Baldassare Franceschini (1611–1689), called Il Volterrano; which at Florence in the Pitti Museum today

is preserved [To these Lives let the following epitomes be added: Wundervolle Lebensvorstellung des ehrwürdigen Dieners Gottes P. Antonii Baldinucci. Augsburg, 1726, 6 ff., 166 pp.; Vicente Agusti, S. J., El B. Antonio Baldinucci de la C. de J. Bilbao, 1893, 108 pp.; Pietro Galletti, S. J., Compendio della vita del B. Antonio Baldinucci missionario d. C. d. G. Rome, 1893, 100 pp.; Clément de Laage, S. J., Vie du B. Antoine Baldinucci, missionnaire de la C. de J. Lille, 1893, 142 pp.; Ch. Jacobs, S. J., A. M. D. G. Le vénérable Antoine Baldinucci. Louvain, 1893, 64 pp.].

[36] These being omitted, as our plan required, These things being so arranged and set out in public, I seem to myself to have discoursed enough about the Life of Bl. Anthony Baldinucci. For I should wish to note that our Acta Sanctorum were born chiefly to unravel the principal difficulties which the primary documents of the lives of the saints bring with them, and to illustrate even slight indications, by whose help holy men either little or wrongly known are drawn out of darkness. And since no obscurity, if you set aside the few things set out above, is spread over what was said or done by the blessed servant of God, and since certain Lives of Anthony are widely circulated, to be commended in good faith, as we have just shown, it would be foreign to our plan to handle again here what shines elsewhere, or to thrust very large excerpts from the Diary of his missions into the mass of the present volume. and the manuscript Diary is to be edited separately, But it is expedient to publish entire commentaries of this kind, carefully composed by blessed Baldinucci, on account of the various utilities which they can supply to certain classes of readers, especially to those who pursue the history of popular eloquence and of the civil culture of common people: which shortly, as we hope, we shall accomplish in a separate volume.

[37] We have thought it good, however, in view of the Life which we have sketched above, to attend to these things, and, mostly adducing the words of blessed Anthony himself, to explain only those things which his biographers have scarcely touched with the tips of their lips or have not touched at all. we adduce the little book of Andrea Budrioli, But that a truer image of the excellent man may shine before the eyes, I shall bring forward only one out of the cloud of witnesses who knew him, who in his rather long little book expressed, as far as is possible, in perfect form what sort of man and saint he was. And he is the already mentioned above Andrea Budrioli, S. J. (1679–1763), a lettered and learned man, of prompt and acute wit, so versed in ecclesiastical erudition that he assisted Benedict XIV as chief companion and helper in his studies. "To Budrioli likewise, the Jesuit," says Giulio Cordara, "he (Benedict XIV) attributed much on account of his singular experience in the cause of the saints, and used him very familiarly. Nor is it believed without ground that that great work On the canonization of the saints is wholly Budrioli's" [I. Döllinger, Denkwürdigkeiten des Jesuiten Julius Cordara, Beiträge zur politischen, kirchlichen und cultur-Geschichte, vol. III, p. 12 (Vienna, 1882).]. He wrote much indeed on the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary and was much occupied in promoting the canonization and cult of Saints Aloysius Gonzaga and John Berchmans Sommervogel, place cited, pp. 334–36.. And when in the cause of Anthony Baldinucci he had been cited as a witness at Sezze on 29 May 1730, he set out to win the credit of the judges thus: Io devo ad una mia lunga infermità di dieci nove mesi la sorte di aver potuto conoscere più da vicino this father, conversando con lui familiarmente alcuni mesi prima in Frascati e poi qui in Sezza [I owe to a long infirmity of mine of nineteen months the fortune of having been able to know more closely this father, conversing familiarly with him some months first at Frascati and then here at Sezze] Manuscript apostolic Process of Sezze, f. 416.. And he continues: In Frascati la quaresima del mille settecento sedeci, al principio della quale io colà giunsi, il tenore della sua vita nei dì festivi, come io studiosamente osservai, era questo [At Frascati in the Lent of seventeen hundred and sixteen, at the beginning of which I arrived there, the tenor of his life on feast days, as I studiously observed, was this] Ibid., f. 416v; Summarium de virtutibus, p. 231.. And he insists towards the end: Con questa eroicità di virtù costa a me di veduta che visse questo servo di Dio dal marzo del 1716 all'aprile del 1717, nel quale a di 7 di novembre felicemente mori [With this heroism of virtue it is established to me by sight that this servant of God lived from March of 1716 to April of 1717, in which, on the 7th of November, he happily died] Summarium de virtutibus, p. 433.. And he concludes his very long deposition, which in the Summarium de virtutibus is distributed into many parts, with this office imposed on him by the Superior General of the S. J.: Impose a me di procurare, o almeno assistere a chi procurarebbe la sua canonisatione [He imposed on me to procure, or at least to assist whoever should procure, his canonization] Ibid., p. 434.. These things were done in the year 1730.

[38] who skilfully expressed the image of our Blessed Thirteen years already before, he laid open in a lucid memorial what he thought of the very lately deceased man of God, of his works, of his very lofty zeal for mortification and his untiring piety towards God and his neighbours, urged to it by the superiors of the S. J. Compare below, Budrioli's little book, num. 9., as were also others who had beheld Anthony living Compare Galluzzi, place cited, 1st edit., p. 181.. That this memorial, which is preserved autograph in the archive of the General Postulation of the S. J., was made in the month of November or December 1717 is established from the fact that the writer praises in it that blessed Anthony went barefoot da Frascati l'anno passato ad Ascoli from Frascati last year to Ascoli Budrioli, num. 6. Compare num. 12.. And he entered on that journey on 24 August 1716 Nota delle missioni, ms., page 50,. Now that little book, accommodated to the difference of time, as will be clear from the variant readings, and enlarged with some rather lengthy interpolations, expressed his image. its author was pleased to recite again in the apostolic Process of Sezze. And those who were promoting the cause of beatification made so much of Andrea Budrioli's deposition that they admitted it entire, but torn up into parts, into the Summarium de virtutibus Summarium de virtutibus, pp. 198–200, 376–78, 286–88, [288–91, 291, 291–92, 292–94, 294–95, 432–33, [433], 433, 433–34. The numbers enclosed in brackets designate the later additions.]. The original document indeed was first edited in its purity, entire, by Vannucci Place cited, pp. 278–96.; from it translated into Spanish by V. Agusti Place cited, under the title Fisonomia moral, pp. 91–102.; and fragments scattered in their Lives by Clair and Goldie. We shall imitate Vannucci's example, adding the variant readings of the recension which the Summarium de virtutibus shows, and inserting some small parts of the rest of the testimony which he gave at Sezze.

THE LITTLE BOOK OF ANDREA BUDRIOLI, S. J., AN EYEWITNESS

See the Preliminary Commentary, nums. 37, 38.

Anthony Baldinucci, of the Society of Jesus. (B.)

BY ANDREA BUDRIOLI

[1] The writer, who was on familiar terms with Anthony, explains Per dir qualche cosa di quella gran santita, che a me, e a quant' altri intimamente conobbero il P. Antonio e familiarmente con lui conversarono, lo poneva in tanta venerazione: quattro rare doti pare a me che in ogni sua virtù unitamente spiccavano, particolarizzandola insieme e perfezionandola. [To say something of that great holiness which placed Fr. Anthony in such veneration for me and for as many others as knew him intimately and conversed familiarly with him: four rare gifts, it seems to me, stood out together in his every virtue, at once particularizing it and perfecting it.]

Primieramente Here begins p. 198 of S(ummarium). osservai, how firmly he cultivated virtue, che la sua era virtù molto soda, perchè, per quanto egli mi significò mezz' anno prima della sua morte, Iddio lo condusse quasi sempre per la via della desolazione, che è de' forti, non per quella della consolazione, che è dei deboli. Ed egli, sebbene per la somma conformità che aveva al divino volere, era perfettamente indifferente a lasciarsi da lui guidare per qualunque delle due strade volesse; godea nondimeno e ringraziava Iddio, che lo menasse piuttosto per quella che per questa. Prima perchè la stimava più sicura, come più lontana dalle insidie della stima e dell' amor proprio; attesochè nelle tentazioni ed avversità conosciamo pur troppo il nostro debole, e veniamo in odio a noi stessi: laddove fra le prosperità anche spirituali bene spesso c' invaniamo e compiaciamo di noi medesimi. Poi perchè la giudicava di maggior merito, per la maggior difficoltà di ben servire ed amare chi ci percuote che chi ci accarezza. Ed amava di servir Dio con questa difficoltà più tosto che con la contraria facilità; gustando che l' amor suo avesse più dell' appreziativo, che del tenero. Vero è che io lo vidi molte volte travagliatissimo; non mai però meno contento, o meno pronto alle opere del divino servizio, che altri in mezzo a mille omits S. consolazioni. Anzi correva a braccia aperte incontro alle ignominie come fosser onori, a' patimenti come fosser diletti: ed egli stesso mi confessò,che cento e cento volte la divina gloria l' aveva posto in (p. io) esposto ad S. evidenti pericoli de morire, o di stenti, o d' archibugiate. E laddove altri godono più di fare che di patire per Iddio, egli al contrario godeva più di patir che di fare: e allora facea più volentieri, quando il fare avea più del patire. Finalmente, perchè così gli pareva di servire Iddio, come un figlio il padre, puramente per amor suo; e non come un servo il padrone per la mercede de' gusti e consolazioni anco spirituali. E però egli non si omits S. aspettò giammai pace e contentezza, ma più tosto presto S. ogni sorte di contrasti ed amarezze; riponendo la sua quiete e soddisfazione unicamente nell' adempimento della divina volontà. Con che alla fine tutto l' amaro gli si voltava in dolce; altrimenti non avrebbe potuto campar tanto fra tante angosce interne ed esterne. [First I observed that his was a very solid virtue, because, as he indicated to me half a year before his death, God led him almost always by the way of desolation, which is that of the strong, not by that of consolation, which is that of the weak. And he, although by the supreme conformity he had to the divine will he was perfectly indifferent to letting himself be guided by him by whichever of the two roads he willed, nonetheless rejoiced and thanked God that he led him rather by the former than by the latter. First, because he esteemed it safer, as farther from the snares of esteem and of self-love; since in temptations and adversities we know all too well our weakness and come to hate ourselves: whereas amid prosperity, even spiritual, we very often grow vain and pleased with ourselves. Then, because he judged it of greater merit, by reason of the greater difficulty of serving and loving well him who strikes us than him who caresses us. And he loved to serve God with this difficulty rather than with the contrary ease; relishing that his love should have more of the appreciative than of the tender. True it is that I saw him many times most afflicted; never, however, less content or less ready for the works of the divine service than others in the midst of a thousand consolations. Nay, he ran with open arms to meet ignominies as if they were honours, sufferings as if they were delights: and he himself confessed to me that a hundred and a hundred times the divine glory had put him in evident dangers of dying, either of hardships or of arquebus-shots. And whereas others rejoice more in doing than in suffering for God, he on the contrary rejoiced more in suffering than in doing: and he did then more willingly when the doing had more of suffering. Finally, because so it seemed to him to serve God as a son his father, purely for love of him; and not as a servant his master for the wage of relish and consolations, even spiritual. And therefore he never expected peace and contentment, but rather every sort of opposition and bitterness; placing his rest and satisfaction solely in the fulfilment of the divine will. Whereby at last all the bitter was turned for him into sweet; otherwise he could not have lived so long amid so many internal and external anguishes.]

[2] how sincerely Quindi era anco la sua virtù molto pura. Imperocchè non seguiva egli la virtù o per la lode, o per il premio, o per la dolcezza medesima, che l' accompagna: il che o non è virtù, o è mescolata d' interesse. Nè seguiva la virtù per la la virtù stessa e per quella onestà, che in lei naturalmente o sopranaturalmente risplende: il che o non è virtù soprannaturale, o la è, ma solamente morale. Ma la seguiva puramente per Iddio, a cui piacere unicamente cercava: il che è proprio delle virtù teologali e massime della carità, la quale gli rendeva in un certo modo teologale ogni [Hence his virtue was also very pure. For he did not follow virtue either for praise, or for reward, or for the very sweetness that accompanies it: which either is not virtue, or is mixed with self-interest. Nor did he follow virtue for virtue itself and for that honourableness which shines in it naturally or supernaturally: which either is not supernatural virtue, or is, but only moral. But he followed it purely for God, whom alone he sought to please: which is proper to the theological virtues and above all to charity, which rendered for him in a certain manner theological every]

virtù, che di sua natura non era più che morale: ed eseguiva in lui ciò che l'Apostolo voleva in tutti: Omnia vestra in caritate fiant. I Cor. 16, 14. Anzi era giunto ad operar sempre, non solo per Iddio, ma in un certo modo ancora, che aveva un non so che del divino: non solamente in quanto operava il bene, e sempre bene, anzi l'ottimo, e sempre ottimamente; ma in quanto Iddio, siccome per mezzo delle grazie che chiamansi si chiamano S. gratis date, lo faceva mirabilmente curar infermi, scuoprir segreti, e simili; così a certe azioni di virtù eroiche, qual era l' amare i suoi calunniatori, il mantenersi vergine ed innocente fin alla morte (il-morte) omits S., il disprezzar ogni bene del mondo, ed anco la vita virtu S. stessa, mettendola a manifesti pericoli per la adds S. gloria del Signore etc. adds S. lo moveva per mezzo di quegli eccelsi doni dello Spirito santo, che per sentenza di gran teologi non si trovano se non negli uomini santi e molto amici di Dio. E ce adds S. ne dava egli medesimo involontariamente questo indizio, che, laddove alle azioni virtuose ordinarie lo vedevamo adds S., di sua elezione (coll' aiuto del Signore) portavasi portarsi S.; a queste altre di repente, e quasi senza deliberare parea che portato fosse da Dio, alla maniera di quelli, che, al dir dell' Apostolo, spiritu Dei aguntur. Rom. 8, 14. [virtue, which of its nature was no more than moral: and it carried out in him what the Apostle wished in all: Let all your things be done in charity. Nay, he had come to act always not only for God, but also in a certain manner which had a something of the divine: not only inasmuch as he did good, and always well, nay the best, and always in the best way; but inasmuch as God, as by means of the graces which are called gratis datae he made him wonderfully cure the sick, uncover secrets, and the like, so to certain actions of heroic virtue, such as was loving his calumniators, keeping himself virgin and innocent until death, despising every good of the world, and even life itself, putting it in manifest dangers for the glory of the Lord, he moved him by means of those exalted gifts of the Holy Spirit which, by the judgement of great theologians, are not found except in holy men and great friends of God. And he himself gave involuntarily this indication of it, that, whereas to the ordinary virtuous actions he betook himself by his own choice (with the help of the Lord), to these others he seemed to be borne suddenly by God, and almost without deliberating, in the manner of those who, in the words of the Apostle, are led by the spirit of God.]

[3] and how prudently. Fra' quali doni, siccome quello della fortezza valse a render la virtù di lui soda, e quelli della pietà e timor filiale a renderla pura; cosi quelli della sapienza, dell' intelletto, del consiglio e della scienza concorsero a renderla a maraviglia prudente. [Among which gifts, as that of fortitude availed to render his virtue solid, and those of piety and filial fear to render it pure, so those of wisdom, understanding, counsel and knowledge concurred to render it marvellously prudent.]

Questa sovrumana prudenza regolava cosi bene tutte le sue virtù verso Dio verso adds S., se verso adds S., e gli altri, ordinandole fra loro, sicchè l'una non impedisse l'altra, e temperandone ciascuna, acciocchè conservandosi nel mezzo non piegasse nè per eccesso, nè per difetto agli estremi, accomodandole inoltre al proprio modo del nostro istituto, e finalmente indirizzandole tutte al fine proposto con tanta attitudine, che una delle rare cose da ammirarsi in lui era l'armonia delle sue virtù. [This superhuman prudence regulated so well all his virtues towards God, himself and others, ordering them among themselves so that one should not impede another, and tempering each of them so that, keeping in the mean, it should not bend either by excess or by defect to the extremes, accommodating them besides to the proper manner of our institute, and finally directing them all to the end proposed with such aptitude, that one of the rare things to be admired in him was the harmony of his virtues.]

E prima verso Dio sommo era l'amor suo, e continua la comunicazione, non avendo in mente, sulla lingua, nel cuore, altri che lui; struggendosi di vederlo offeso dagli uomini e procurando a costo di tante adds S. fatiche e patimenti immensi, che fosse amato e servito da tutti. Divotissimo percio della Passione del Signore, la di cui rimembranza l'inteneriva tutto e riempiva di zelo; del santissimo Sacramento, appresso cui, quando faceva i soliti colloquii della buona morte, mi pareva un serafino; della santissima Vergine, di cui si mostro veramente figlio, semper interessato ad onorarla e farla onorare; di S. Francesco Saverio, del B. Regis, e degli ultimi nostri missionari, l'uno e l'altro P. Segneri, P. Pinamonti, P. Francesco omits S. di Girolamo, ecc., de' quali teneva in camera l'imagine, venerandoli come protettori delle (v. c. p. d) implorandone l'aiuto nelle S. sue missioni; e delle anime sante del Purgatorio, per cui pregava sempre e facea pregare, celebrando ancora ogni anno un uffizio solenne con molte messe in Frascati il novembre e dovunque predicava la quaresima. Dedito inoltre ad ogni opera di pietà e di religione, massime all' orazione, in cui, quanto a sè, avrebbe consumate le notti e i giorni interi senza mai distaccarsene, perdendosi, come egli mi diceva, nella contemplazione della divina bontà, grandezza, provvidenza, misericordia, e ricevendo da Dio lumi e sentimenti molto particolari e adds S. sublimi Here ends p. 200 of S.. [And first, towards God his love was supreme and his communication continual, having in his mind, on his tongue, in his heart, none other than him; consuming himself to see him offended by men and procuring, at the cost of immense labours and sufferings, that he should be loved and served by all. Most devoted therefore to the Passion of the Lord, the remembrance of which melted him wholly and filled him with zeal; to the most holy Sacrament, before which, when he made the customary colloquies of the good death, he seemed to me a seraph; to the most holy Virgin, of whom he showed himself truly a son, always concerned to honour her and have her honoured; to St. Francis Xavier, to Bl. Regis, and to our latest missionaries, both the Fathers Segneri, Fr. Pinamonti, Fr. Francesco di Girolamo, etc., whose images he kept in his room, venerating them as protectors of his missions; and to the holy souls of Purgatory, for whom he always prayed and had prayers made, celebrating moreover every year a solemn office with many Masses at Frascati in November and wherever he preached the Lent. Devoted besides to every work of piety and religion, above all to prayer, in which, as far as he was concerned, he would have consumed whole nights and days without ever detaching himself from it, losing himself, as he told me, in the contemplation of the divine goodness, greatness, providence, mercy, and receiving from God very sublime lights and feelings.]

[4] The fervour of prayer Pur Here begins p. 376 of S. con esser egli così tutto di Dio, seppe insieme (come si vedra piu abbasso, quando si dira del suo zelo) (come-zelo) come ho detto di sopra e dirò anche più abbasso S. esser tutto de' prossimi, accoppiando così bene i diversi uffizi della contemplazione e dell' azione, che, chi l'avesse visto orar di notte ritirato omits S. nella sua camera, l'avrebbe detto un anacoreta; e chi lo vedea di giorno operare in pubblico, lo confessava un apostolo. [Yet, though he was thus wholly God's, he knew at the same time (as will be seen lower down, when his zeal is spoken of) how to be wholly his neighbours', coupling so well the different offices of contemplation and of action that whoever had seen him praying at night withdrawn in his room would have called him an anchorite; and whoever saw him working in public by day confessed him an apostle.]

Pochi però sanno, e forse io solo lo so adds S., quanto gli costava un tal accoppiamento. Vacando due anni fa avanti la sua beata morte S. in Roma un certo uffizio molto differente dal suo, gli domandai se dandolo i superiori a lui si scuserebbe. "No", disse, "l'accetterei subito, e volentieri." — "Ma avverta", ripigliai io, "che V. R. è avvezzo alla campagna, e quest' impiego la chiuderebbe in una adds S. camera." Allora egli guardandomi insieme e sorridendo: "O quanto", disse, "io non son conosciuto! Tutto il mio genio sarebbe alla solitudine, al ritiramento. Ma la gente, che da tanti anni in qua mi vede far le missioni e girare qua e là per città e castelli adds S., non sa che v' ho naturalmente tal contragenio, che, ogni qualvolta le ripiglio ed esco fuora adds S., mi par di fare un atto eroico." [Few, however, know, and perhaps I alone, how much such a coupling cost him. A certain office very different from his falling vacant at Rome two years ago, I asked him whether, if the superiors gave it to him, he would excuse himself. "No," he said, "I would accept it at once, and willingly." "But note," I rejoined, "that your Reverence is used to the countryside, and this employment would shut you up in a room." Then he, looking at me and smiling at once: "O how little," he said, "I am known! My whole inclination would be to solitude, to retirement. But people, who for so many years now have seen me making the missions, do not know that I have naturally such an aversion to them that, every time I take them up again, I seem to make a heroic act."]

E lo facea veramente, ma non mostrava di farlo, charity towards his neighbour tempered. mortificando, e tutt' insieme seppellendo quella gran brama di conversar sempre con Dio per trattenersi quanto dovea cogli uomini per Iddio, fino a partir subito però dall' inginocchiatoio, interrompendo l'orazione, anzi a sbrigarsi ancor dall' altare, non prolungando mai ordinariamente S. oltre a mezz' ora la messa, sì per non infastidire gli astanti, come anco per non sacrificare alla privata sua divozione il tempo dovuto al pubblico. [And he did it truly, but did not show that he did it, mortifying and at the same time burying that great longing to converse always with God so as to stay as much as he ought with men for God, even to the point of leaving the kneeler at once, interrupting his prayer, nay of being quick even at the altar, never prolonging Mass beyond half an hour, both so as not to weary the bystanders and so as not to sacrifice to his private devotion the time due to the public.]

Similmente somma era la rassegnazione sua al voler di Dio, somma la dipendenza da Lui, e la fiducia nel di lui aiuto; come se tutto toccasse a lui Dio S.. Ma non per questo era egli o meno industrioso nel ricercare, o meno sollecito nell' adoperare mezzi all' intento opportuni, come se tutto toccasse a se. [Likewise supreme was his resignation to the will of God, supreme his dependence on him, and his trust in his help, as if everything were up to him. But not for this was he either less industrious in seeking, or less solicitous in employing, means suited to the purpose, as if everything were up to himself.]

[5] he feared God as a son; Sommo in fine era il timor suo, non però servile che avvilisse l'amore, o dubbioso che diminuisse la fiducia, o apprensivo che scorasse la fortezza; ma riverenziale della divina Maestà, e filiale in quanto temeva, per colpa sua e giusto giudizio di Dio, di non essere abbandonato dalla sua grazia: non tanto da quella, che ci santifica e non si perde se non per colpa grave, quanto da quella, che ci aiuta, e si demerita anco per colpe leggiere. Però com' era attentissimo a non porre mai verun omits S. ostacolo alla divina grazia, cosi era sollecito in ammetterla subito, e sempre timoroso di non riceverla a vuoto, o almeno di non corrispondere appieno, e non operare a misura. [Supreme, finally, was his fear, not however servile, which would debase love, or doubtful, which would diminish trust, or apprehensive, which would dishearten fortitude; but reverential of the divine Majesty, and filial inasmuch as he feared, through his own fault and the just judgement of God, to be abandoned by his grace: not so much by that which sanctifies us and is lost only through grave fault, as by that which helps us and is forfeited even through light faults. Therefore, as he was most attentive never to put any obstacle to the divine grace, so he was solicitous in admitting it at once, and always fearful of receiving it in vain, or at least of not corresponding fully and not acting in measure.]

Verso di sè col diligente esame e sottil riflessione sopra ogni andamento dell' anima sua, and he had become master of himself con la continua annegazione delle sue voglie, e sopra tutto col ministero laborioso delle missioni (cui il quale S., fra quanti ne ha la religione, stimava mi diceva S. egli essere adds S. il più atto a distaccare un' anima dal mondo e unirla a Dio) era arrivato ad aver cosi mortificate e quasi morte le sue passioni, che, se egli stesso non mi avesse detto affermato S. d' esser per natura collerico, io l' averei giudicato flemmatico: tanto lo vedevo sempre l' istesso, e presente a sè, e padrone de' suoi affetti, nè mai sorpreso da un primo moto, o da un pensier di sè, e delle cose sue. Sapeva egli però alle occasioni adirarsi senza peccato, e ardire senza temerità, santificando l'ira col zelo, e l' ardire con la fortezza, e servendosi delle altre passioni, come di ministre alla virtu. [Towards himself, by diligent examination and subtle reflection on every movement of his soul, by the continual denial of his wishes, and above all by the laborious ministry of the missions (which, among all that religion has, he esteemed the most apt to detach a soul from the world and unite it to God), he had come to have his passions so mortified and almost dead that, if he himself had not told me that he was choleric by nature, I would have judged him phlegmatic: so always the same did I see him, and present to himself, and master of his affections, nor ever surprised by a first movement, or by a thought of himself and of his affairs. He knew, however, on occasion how to be angry without sin and to dare without rashness, sanctifying anger with zeal and daring with fortitude, and making use of the other passions as of handmaids to virtue.]

[6] with singular exterior mortification Nell' esteriore mortificazione si che parve veramente eccessivo nell' astinenza, non mangiando per tanti mesi altro che pochi e soli legumi ed erbe, anco in questi ultimi anni dell' anno adds S., ne' quali (in-quali) nell' ultima età sua, nella quale S., mi disse, che pativa sempre di fame. Nelle vigilie, dormendo due sole ore, o poco più, e su le tavole, e in abitazioni per lo più scomodissime: quale l' ordinaria sua stanza in Frascati, e la straordinaria (l. s.) le straordinarie S. fuori: come in Antrodoco, abitando, come mi disse, tutta la quaresima in una stanza da ogni lato sì aperta, che non trovava angolo dove difendere la lucerna, e predicando in un pulpito tra due porte ad un vento sì impetuoso, che gli bisognava attaccarsi alla tavola per non esser portato via; nella penitenza flagellandosi cosi spesso e a lungo con lastre di ferro, tanto piu crudelmente, quanto con meno sangue, onde solea dire per ischerzo d' essere ch' egli era S. una lumaca, che non ha (c. n. h.) scuza S. sangue; ne' viaggi sempre a pie' scalzi, anche d' inverno e per vie scabrosissime e lunghe, come da Frascati l'anno passato (l'a. p.) nel 1716 S. ad Ascoli, e in quel memorabile inverno del 1709 sino a Livorno, camminando sempre tra ghiacci e nevi si alte, che, "mi si agghiacciava", disse, [In exterior mortification, indeed, he seemed truly excessive in abstinence, eating for so many months nothing but a few and only legumes and herbs, even in these last years, in which, he told me, he always suffered from hunger. In vigils, sleeping only two hours, or little more, and on boards, and in dwellings mostly very uncomfortable: such as his ordinary room at Frascati, and the extraordinary one outside: as at Antrodoco, dwelling, as he told me, the whole Lent in a room so open on every side that he found no corner in which to shelter the lamp, and preaching in a pulpit between two doors to a wind so violent that he had to hold on to the board so as not to be carried away; in penance, scourging himself so often and so long with plates of iron, the more cruelly the less blood there was, whence he used to say jokingly that he was a snail, which has no blood; in journeys always barefoot, even in winter and along very rough and long roads, as from Frascati last year to Ascoli, and in that memorable winter of 1709 as far as Livorno, walking always amid ice and snows so high that, "it froze on me," he said,]

"fino il respiro, e mi pendevano dalle labbra, dalle ciglia, dal mento i ghiacciuoli. Ed una volta singolarmente io restai da capo a piedi tutto adds S. gelato, come una statua; così non solo immobile, ma insensibile, che già più non sentivo nè pure il freddo; ma per misericordia del Signore, al quale io adds S. ricorsi col cuore, perochè colla lingua non potevo adds S., mi sentii subito rinvigorito, e tirai avanti il viaggio." Finalmente in quelle immense e non mai interrotte fatiche, che durò per tanti trent' B. anni, solo, gracile, malsano,e senza pigliarsi mai un sollievo, una ricreazione, un riposo. Ed io confesso che piu volte mi presi la liberta di riprenderlo, come d' indiscretezza, e consigliarlo a moderarsi. ["even my breath, and icicles hung from my lips, my eyelashes, my chin. And once in particular I remained frozen from head to foot like a statue; so not only motionless but insensible, so that I no longer felt even the cold; but by the mercy of the Lord, to whom I had recourse, I felt myself at once reinvigorated, and went on with the journey." Finally, in those immense and never interrupted labours which he endured for so many years, alone, frail, unhealthy, and without ever taking a relief, a recreation, a rest. And I confess that several times I took the liberty of reproving him, as for indiscretion, and of counselling him to moderate himself.]

[7] and with continual rigour of life even at home, Ma, e da certe sue proposizioni tronche che n' ebbi allora omits S. in risposta, e dal vedere che ritornato poi dalle missioni in collegio s' accomodava subito alla vita comune, di cui era amantissimo, fuggendo ogni sorta di singolarità, e finalmente dal sentire che, ogni qualvolta era forzato a non andare a piedi, d'ordinario gli si ribaltava il calesse e che in Paliano Palliano S., dategli per inganno a mangiar le fave cotte, non, come le voleva, coll' olio, ma in un consumato di pollo, ne provò, come egli mi disse, tale embascia, ch' ebbe a rigettarle; chiaramente conobbi che Iddio volea da lui quella esemplare austerità nelle missioni per maggior frutto de' popoli. E insieme suppliva egli all' insufficienza degli umani sussidii con un aiuto suo straordinario e continuo per mantenergli quella vita, che secondo l' opinione di tutti, con tante fatiche e patimenti da una parte, e con sì poco o niun adds S. ristoro dall' altra, non poteva naturalmente sussistere. [But both from certain curt sayings of his which I had then in reply, and from seeing that, having returned from the missions to the college, he at once accommodated himself to the common life, of which he was most fond, fleeing every sort of singularity, and finally from hearing that, every time he was forced not to go on foot, his carriage ordinarily overturned, and that at Paliano, cooked beans having been given him to eat by a trick, not, as he wanted them, with oil, but in a chicken broth, he felt, as he told me, such nausea that he had to vomit them; I clearly knew that God wanted from him that exemplary austerity in the missions for the greater fruit of the peoples. And at the same time he supplied for the insufficiency of human aids with an extraordinary and continual help of his own to maintain for him that life which, in the opinion of all, with so many labours and sufferings on the one side, and with so little refreshment on the other, could not naturally subsist.]

Del che rimasi anche più persuaso una volta che suggerendogli l' uso di miglior vitto per il suo stomaco: "Non si stracchi", disse, "a cercar aiuto dalle cause seconde per me, per cui tutte sono inefficaci." E un' altra volta, che richiesto qui adds S. in Sezze da noi come stesse: "Io", rispose, "per misericordia di Dio in oggi, dopo vent' anni di missioni, non mi sento punto meglio, nè peggio, che il primo giorno in cui le cominciai." [Of which I was still more persuaded once when, suggesting to him the use of better food for his stomach: "Do not tire yourself," he said, "seeking help for me from second causes, for which they are all ineffective." And another time when, asked by us at Sezze how he was: "I," he answered, "by the mercy of God today, after twenty years of missions, feel myself not at all better nor worse than the first day on which I began them."]

E veramente appariva che il suo sostegno era unicamente dal cielo, perchè la terra non avea per lui nè allettativo, nè sollievo; nauseando quell'anima nobile ogni gusto terreno a tal segno, che quando non potea, costretto dalla necessità, ricusarlo, come nel mangiar e nel bere, l'ammetteva, ma come per forza e con tanta disapplicazione d' animo, che non gli faceva alcun pro. [And truly it appeared that his support was solely from heaven, because the earth had for him neither allurement nor relief; that noble soul loathing every earthly relish to such a degree that, when, constrained by necessity, he could not refuse it, as in eating and drinking, he admitted it, but as if by force and with such inattention of mind that it did him no good.]

Non è però credibile, although most kind towards others. quanto, essendo egli sì rigoroso con se medesimo, fosse insieme benigno cogli altri; non comportando in modo alcuno, come io udii da lui medesimo, che i suoi compagni o nostri, o scolari, si conformassero a lui in far grandi astinenze e penitenze, o in addossarsi gran fatiche e patimenti; protestandosi protestando S. che somiglianti cose toccavano tutte a lui, nato, come egli adds S. diceva, a sfacchinare Here ends p. 378 of S.. [It is not credible, however, how, being so rigorous with himself, he was at the same time kind to others; by no means tolerating, as I heard from himself, that his companions, either ours or scholars, should conform to him in making great abstinences and penances, or in taking on great labours and sufferings; protesting that such things all fell to him, born, as he said, to drudge.]

[8] He shone with integrity of morals Da Here begins p. 286 of S. questa sua gran mortificazione interna ed esterna nasceva in lui un' innocenza di vita tanto irreprensibile, che, nè io notai, nè so che altri notasse (che a. n.) altri notassero S. mai in lui trasgressione di regola o difetto, che potesse condannarsi di colpa veniale. E sebbene egli seco stesso era molto minuto, non era però scrupoloso, onde si pigliasse soverchia sollecitudine di que' nei, che egli stesso in se conosceva, e Iddio suol permittere per loro umiliazione anco ne' gran santi. Anzi, sebbene gli abborriva in estremo, in quanto a Dio dispiacevano, ed era cautissimo in isfuggirli; in quanto però li considerava atti ad umiliarlo nel cospetto di Dio e degli uomini, io vedevo che molto pazientemente sopportavali: nè mai se ne stupiva, come di cosa che da lui aspettare non si dovesse. [From this great interior and exterior mortification of his there was born in him an innocence of life so irreprehensible that neither did I note, nor do I know that others ever noted, in him a transgression of rule or a defect that could be condemned as venial fault. And although with himself he was very minute, he was not however scrupulous, so as to take excessive concern over those blemishes which he himself recognized in himself, and which God is wont to permit for their humiliation even in great saints. Nay, although he abhorred them extremely inasmuch as they displeased God, and was most cautious in avoiding them, yet inasmuch as he considered them apt to humble him in the sight of God and men, I saw that he bore them very patiently: nor was he ever astonished at them, as at a thing not to be expected of him.]

L'istessa prudenza riluceva in ogni altra sua virtù. L'angelica sua modestia non gli chiuse mai gli occhi in modo, che fosse meno accorto o attento in osservar quanto richiedevasi per il buon ordine delle cose nelle missioni, e altrove; nè l'estrema sua povertà lo rendè men liberale, o men grato, sicchè anche co' vescovi e principi che favorivano le sue missioni, non si pigliasse, come egli mi diceva, la confidenza d'aggiungere ai dovuti ringraziamenti il tenue regalo o d'un piccolo crocifisso, o d'un libretto spirituale, o d'una imagine di carta. [The same prudence shone in every other virtue of his. His angelic modesty never closed his eyes in such a way that he was less shrewd or attentive in observing what was required for the good order of things in the missions and elsewhere; nor did his extreme poverty make him less liberal or less grateful, so that even with the bishops and princes who favoured his missions he took the liberty, as he told me, of adding to the due thanks the slight gift either of a little crucifix, or of a little spiritual book, or of a paper image.]

[9] a true comrade of the Society of Jesus Amava egli tenerissimanente, e più che un figlio la madre, la Compagnia, tanto che uno de' maggiori suoi patimenti nelle missioni mi disse che adds S. era il non dovere per tanti mesi trattar co' nostri i suoi fratelli S.. E molto piu si affliggeva quando sentiva che fosse perseguitata e tribolata, o che alcuno de' nostri suoi S. in qualche occasione non si portasse col devuto decoro, modestia ed edificazione. Nel qual proposito l'udii una volta con gran cordoglio esclamare: "Gran cosa! quel po' di concetto e stima, in che ci ha il mondo, quasi a tutti costa e sudori e stenti, a molti anco e sangue e vita. E pur ecco qua: vale più a screditar la religone la poca prudenza o esemplarità di (la-di) omits S. un solo, che la saviezza e santità di tanti." Nè [(Nè – meno) omits S. But these things are found in the manuscript Process of Sezze, fols. 479v and 480r, where the witness concludes thus: "E così fù, perchè quel giovane di lì a poco impazzì e la religione non l'ebbe nè filosofo nè apostolo." [And so it was, for that young man shortly afterwards went mad, and religion had him neither as philosopher nor as apostle.]] lascerò per comune ammaestramento di dire, che un' altra volta pure lo vidi straordinamente addolorato: "E veda qua," mi disse. "Un nostro giovane, finiti già gli studii, volea darsi alle missioni. Se ne consiglia; e incontra chi l'esorta a legger prima per suo decoro almeno un corso di filosofia. O massima da rovinare, se mai si propagasse, tutta la nostra gioventù! Ma lega pure il suo corso. La religione non so se avrà un filosofo di più; certamente avrà un apostolo di meno [(Ne-meno) omits S. But these things are found in the manuscript Process of Sezze, fols. 479v and 480r, where the witness concludes thus: "E così fù, perchè quel giovane di lì a poco impazzì e la religione non l'ebbe nè filosofo nè apostolo." [And so it was, for that young man shortly afterwards went mad, and religion had him neither as philosopher nor as apostle.]]." [He loved most tenderly, and more than a son his mother, the Society, so much that one of his greatest sufferings in the missions was not to be able for so many months to deal with ours. And he was much more afflicted when he heard that it was persecuted and troubled, or that any of ours on some occasion did not conduct himself with due decorum, modesty and edification. On which subject I once heard him exclaim with great grief: "A great thing! That bit of good opinion and esteem in which the world holds us costs almost everyone sweat and hardship, many even blood and life. And yet here it is: the little prudence or exemplariness of a single one avails more to discredit the religion than the wisdom and holiness of so many." Nor shall I omit to say, for common instruction, that another time also I saw him extraordinarily grieved: "And see here," he said to me. "A young man of ours, having already finished his studies, wished to give himself to the missions. He takes counsel about it; and meets someone who exhorts him first, for his decorum, to lecture at least one course of philosophy. O maxim to ruin, if ever it spread, all our youth! But let him lecture his course. Whether the religion will have one philosopher more I do not know; certainly it will have one apostle less."]

Ma non perchè aveva egli tant' affetto, stima e zelo per la Compagnia, sentiva però o parlava men degnamente delle altre religioni. Onde è che i religiosi, vedendosi trattati da lui con tanta distinzione e rispetto, non solo erano i primi a frequentare, ma anco ad aiutare le sue missioni. [But not because he had so much affection, esteem and zeal for the Society did he therefore think or speak less worthily of the other religious orders. Hence it is that the religious, seeing themselves treated by him with such distinction and respect, were the first not only to frequent but also to help his missions.]

[10] and he bound all to himself by courtesy. Affabilità ed amabilità maggior della sua non so se finger si possa, non che trovarsi. Non era la sua una santità malinconica, ispida insipida S. e rozza, di cui scrisse S. Girolamo (ep. 103 ad Paulin.) (ep. - Paulinum) omits S.: Sancta rusticitas solum sibi prodest; ma allegra, dolce, piacevole, e che si faceva omnibus omnia, ut omnes Christo lucrifaceret (ut o. C. l,) per guadagnare tutti a Cristo S.. Compare I Cor. 9, 22. Però e il suo parlare e il suo tratto era pien di rispetto, cortesia, gentilezza, e così entrante, manieroso, obligante, che s' incatenava i cuori altrui talora con un saluto, con un sorriso, con uno sguardo, non che con un discorso. Nè avrebbe lasciato di condir all' occasione il discorso con qualche scherzo grazioso; ma per entrar, come suol dirsi, con l'altrui, e uscirne poi colla sua, secondo I'avviso dell' Apostolo: Unusquisque proximo suo placeat in bonum ad aedificationem. Rom. 15, 2. [A greater affability and amiability than his I do not know whether it can be imagined, let alone found. His was not a melancholy, bristly and rough holiness, of which St. Jerome wrote (ep. 103 to Paulinus): Holy rusticity profits only itself; but cheerful, sweet, pleasant, and one that made itself all things to all, that it might gain all for Christ. Therefore both his speech and his manner were full of respect, courtesy, gentleness, and so engaging, mannerly, obliging, that he chained the hearts of others at times with a greeting, with a smile, with a glance, not to say with a discourse. Nor would he have omitted on occasion to season his discourse with some graceful jest; but in order to go in, as they say, by the other's door and come out by his own, according to the advice of the Apostle: Let each of you please his neighbour for good, unto edification.]

Della sua grande misericordia tutti contano maraviglie senza numero. Io ne dirò una sola, che val per molte, e l'osservai in Frascati. Affinche l'acque, che da quel nostro giardino va di ritorno alle povere, dette (p. d.) d. p. S. monachelle, arrivasse lor sempre e pulita, appena passava giorno che il buon padre non andasse a rivedere la fonte. E bene spesso o lo vedevo con canne lunghe (c. l.) una canna lunga S. in mano sturare il condotto, o lo sentivo dalla finestra sgridar il garzone, che non intorbidasse quell' acqua. Ed ogni giorno avea la pazienza di raccorre per esse e per gli altri poveri gli avanzi di tavola, e distribuirli di propria mano. Ma per quanto egli fosse limosiniero anco adds S. di denari spontaneamente per ciò datigli depositati nelle sue mani S. da' divoti, nel confessionale però mi disse che adds S. non costumò giammai di aprire a' penitenti altro tesoro, che quello de' meriti e della grazia del Salvatore. [Of his great mercy all tell wonders without number. I shall tell only one, which is worth many, and I observed it at Frascati. In order that the water which goes back from that garden of ours to the poor little nuns, so called, should always reach them, and clean, scarcely a day passed that the good father did not go to look over the spring. And very often I either saw him with long canes in hand unblocking the conduit, or heard him from the window scolding the boy not to muddy that water. And every day he had the patience to collect for them and for the other poor the leftovers of the table and to distribute them with his own hand. But however much he was an almoner of moneys spontaneously given him for this by the devout, in the confessional, however, he was never accustomed to open to penitents any other treasure than that of the merits and grace of the Saviour.]

E un simil riguardo, moderazione e regolamento osservavasi nella sua giustizia, pietà, osservanza, fortezza, costanza, pazienza, mansuetudine, beneficenza, e nelle altre virtù, che tutte in lui furono regolarissime regolatissime S.. [And a similar regard, moderation and regulation was observed in his justice, piety, observance, fortitude, constancy, patience, meekness, beneficence, and in the other virtues, which were all most regular in him.]

[11] Burning with a most well-ordered zeal for souls, Non mai però spiccò più la sua prudenza, che nel regolare ed ordinare la sua gran carità e [Never, however, did his prudence stand out more than in regulating and ordering his great charity and]

zelo verso dei prossimi. Era il P. Baldinucci uomo d'ingegno capace, accorto, svegliato ed ugualmente chiaro nel concepir le cose e nello spiegarle: pronto perciò a dire in pubblico, a tutte le ore, e a far anche panegirici all' improvviso con ammirazione di chi l'udiva: fornito inoltre di molta scienza, massime della teologia morale ed ascetica: che congiunta con un giudizio acre, qual' era il suo per natura, e di piu raffinato dall' esperienza e pratica acquistata in tanti anni di vita apostolica; ed assistito dal lume del cielo implorato da lui in ogni sua risoluzione, lo rendeva un oracolo di prudenza in ordine a dar consigli, a scioglier dubbi, a regolar coscienze, a maneggiar e concluder presto affari di gran gloria di Dio ed utile a' prossimi: i quali per ciò (p. c.) però S. lo consultavano vicini con tante visite, che abitando egli nella più alta parte di casa, cento volte il giorno gli conveniva salir e scender le scale; e lontani con tante lettere, che, come egli stesso mi riferi, nelle missioni, non avendo altro tempo, a tavola le leggeva e rispondeva, mangiando un boccone, e poi scrivendo una riga alternativamente. E come in ogni affare quanto si voglia intrigato toccava subito il punto e penetrava al fondo, così fra il deliberare e il risolvere altro per ordinario, come io osservai, non framezzava, che un levar d'occhi al cielo, chiedendo da Dio lume a sè per ben risolvere, e ad altri aiuto per ben valersi della risoluzione. Poi fissati gli occhi in terra, e perduto di vista insieme cogli uomini ogni umano risguardo, con le sole regole eterne d'innanzi, diceva il suo parere in maniera che ognum ben conoscendo quanto fosse e ragionevole il consiglio, e disappassionato il consigliero, subito si quietava; o, se talora replicava, nel veder che il Padre cogli occhi pur fissi in terra, nulla badando alle repliche della carne e del sangue, persisteva a disputar colla sola ragione; a questa infine, vinto dalla dolce del pari ed efficace persuasiva di lui, soggettavasi. [zeal towards his neighbours. Fr. Baldinucci was a man of capable wit, shrewd, alert and equally clear in conceiving things and in explaining them: ready therefore to speak in public at all hours, and even to make panegyrics extempore, to the admiration of those who heard him: furnished besides with much knowledge, above all of moral and ascetical theology: which, joined with a keen judgement, such as his was by nature, and further refined by the experience and practice acquired in so many years of apostolic life, and assisted by the light of heaven implored by him in his every resolution, made him an oracle of prudence in giving counsel, resolving doubts, regulating consciences, handling and quickly concluding affairs of great glory to God and benefit to neighbours: who therefore consulted him, those near with so many visits that, as he lived in the highest part of the house, a hundred times a day he had to go up and down the stairs; and those far with so many letters that, as he himself told me, in the missions, having no other time, he read them at table and answered them, eating a mouthful and then writing a line alternately. And as in every affair, however entangled, he at once touched the point and penetrated to the bottom, so between deliberating and resolving there ordinarily intervened, as I observed, nothing but a raising of the eyes to heaven, asking of God light for himself to resolve well, and for others help to make good use of the resolution. Then, his eyes fixed on the ground, and having lost sight, together with men, of every human regard, with only the eternal rules before him, he gave his opinion in such a manner that each, knowing well how reasonable the counsel was and how dispassionate the counsellor, was at once quieted; or, if at times he replied, on seeing that the Father, with his eyes still fixed on the ground, paying no heed to the replies of flesh and blood, persisted in disputing with reason alone, to this at last, conquered by his persuasiveness, as sweet as it was efficacious, he submitted.]

[12] he skilfully employed devices. Parte di questo suo gran consiglio erano le saggie industrie, che per giovare a' prossimi felicemente inventava. Imperocchè oltre le orazioni calde e continue, con cui piangendo dinnanzi a Dio e alla madre di lui adds S. impetrava la conversione de' peccatori, oltre le private e pubbliche asprissime penitenze, con le quali espugnava, come per assalto, i cuori più ostinati, oltre l'esemplarità in tutto il resto della santa ed incolpabile sua vita, con cui muoveva chiunque lo rimirava a compunzione: ed anco gli assenti con la sola fama in modo, che giunta due anni sono (d. a. s.) nel 1715 S. all' orecchio d' un Padre giù adds S. suo connovizio, l' accese come egli mi testifico adds S. di tanto fervore e lo riempì, com' egli mi disse (c. c. mi d.) omits S., di tanta confusione di se stesso, che, rassegnata in mano de' superiori la cattedra che allora occupava, domandò ed ottenne un uffizio il più sfuggito da tutti, e che l'accettarlo, non che il domandarlo, ha dell' eroico: oltre queste, dissi, che sono industrie comuni, altre ne aveva sue proprie [Here in the Summarium, pp. 288–91, there are inserted certain very full things, which it will be useful to learn excerpted word for word.

Soglione le missioni riuscire fredde e stentate nei primi giorni, quando il popolo non è ancora infervorato e bene istruito. Egli aveva trovata la maniera di cominciarle subito con fervore, e senza stento. Finita la missione in un luogo, avviavasi alla città vicina con tutto il popolo in processione. Precedeva egli alla testa di molti guastadori per terminare ove bisognasse l'aggiustamento della strada, e dopo un giusto intervallo succedeva il popolo ora di sei, ora di nove, ed ora di più mila persone tutte distinte nelle loro classi; e prima le fanciulle vestite di bianco, le maritate di rosso, e le vedove di nero, poi gli uomini parte senza, e parte con l'abito delle loro compagnie o confraternità, tutti e tutte a due, con la corona della Madonna in mano, ed una di spine, o fiori in testa, cantando laudi spirituali a più cori con si bella armonia, che i vicini accorrevano, ed i passaggeri si fermavano per più ore come incantati a vedere e sentire. Conchiudevano la processione quaranta e talora più giovanetti nobili, o civili in forma di angioletti con sottocoppe d'argento o inargentate in mano, e con uomini appresso, che di mano in mano glie le riempivano di fiori, acciò gli andassero spargendo per la strada, dove aveva da passare la Madonna, che in ricca machina di argento, e sotto baldacchino sostentato da magistrati in abito veniva portata a gara dai principali della città con varie torcie d'intorno, e due gran candelabri d'argento alle parti, ed una lampada pur d'argento innanzi, ed un padiglione di tela d'oro dietro. Con questa divota e magnifica processione entrato il padre nella città, ed arrivato nella piazza, ivi disponeva l'un popolo tutto a vista dell' altro, affinchè ne mirasse ad un tempo e ne apprendesse l'ordine, la compostezza, la divozione, il fervore e con un istessa preca apriva la missione all' uno, e la chiudeva all' altro, licenziandolo dopo gl' ultimi ricordi con la benedizione della Madonna. A questo distaccamento dalla Madonna, e dal Padre, cui non sarebbero forse mai più per rivedere, la divozione ed il dolore del popolo fino all' ora contenutosi tra sospiri, gemiti e lagrime, prorompeva subitamente in uno strido si universale, e sì alto, che ferendo prima l'orecchio e poi il cuore del popolo spettatore, tutto l'inteneriva, ed accendeva ad emularne il fervore, e da quell' ora in poi rimaneva it padre tanto padrone del cuor di tutti, che poteva farne quel che voleva, solito perciò dire, che non egli, ma la Madonna faceva la missione, comme quella che gli serviva di amor tanto attrattivo per la pesca delle anime. Nel resto la forma delle sue missioni era veramente apostolica, e quale la prescrive Gesù Cristo agl' apostoli nell' evangelio; non solo quando all' andare a drittura senza divertire neppure in complimenti per via, e sempre con il compagno finchè e quando potè averlo: ne mai (se non forzato dall' obbedienza)fuori del distretto assegnatogli di cinquanta miglia d'ogni intorno a Frascati; ma ancora quanto a non portare per se neque sacculum, neque peram, neque panem, neque colceamenta, nisi virgam tantum, neque in zona aes, se non quanto richiedevasi in pagamento di quei pochi legumi ed erbaggi che mangiava: amando piutosto gratis dare, che gratis accipere, come quello che si teneva per operario indegno della mercede, ed era così lontano dall' accettare neppure un soldo per le sue fatiche, che l'anno 1717, partì qui da Sezze prima ancora che portata fosse in collegio la limosina del pulpito: e perchè il suo compagno una volta accettò quella di un' altro pulpito per impiegarla in servizio di Dio, egli mi disse, che ne sentì gran rammarico, e ne rimandò la metà, e più volentieri la rimandava tutta, se altrimenti non giudicava il superiore. Luke 10, 4. Compare Matt. 10, 8. [Missions are wont to turn out cold and laboured in the first days, when the people is not yet fired and well instructed. He had found the way to begin them at once with fervour and without labour. The mission finished in one place, he set out for the neighbouring city with the whole people in procession. He went ahead at the head of many sappers to complete, where needed, the repair of the road, and after a due interval the people followed, now of six, now of nine, and now of more thousand persons, all distinguished in their classes: first the girls dressed in white, the married women in red, and the widows in black, then the men, some without and some with the habit of their companies or confraternities, all, men and women, two by two, with the rosary of the Madonna in hand and a crown of thorns or of flowers on the head, singing spiritual lauds in several choirs with so beautiful a harmony that the neighbours ran up and passers-by stopped for hours as if enchanted to see and hear. The procession was closed by forty and sometimes more noble or citizen youths in the form of little angels, with silver or silvered salvers in hand, and with men behind who filled them with flowers from hand to hand, that they might go scattering them along the road where the Madonna was to pass, who, on a rich silver frame and under a canopy held up by magistrates in their robes, was carried in rivalry by the principal men of the city, with various torches around, and two great silver candelabra at the sides, and a lamp, also of silver, in front, and a pavilion of cloth of gold behind. Having entered the city with this devout and magnificent procession and arrived at the square, the father there arranged the one people entirely in sight of the other, that it might at one time behold and learn its order, composure, devotion and fervour, and with one and the same prayer he opened the mission for the one and closed it for the other, dismissing it after the last reminders with the blessing of the Madonna. At this parting from the Madonna and from the Father, whom they would perhaps never see again, the devotion and grief of the people, until then contained in sighs, groans and tears, broke out suddenly into a cry so universal and so loud that, striking first the ear and then the heart of the spectator people, it melted them wholly and kindled them to emulate its fervour; and from that hour on the father remained so much master of the hearts of all that he could do with them what he wished, wont therefore to say that not he but the Madonna made the mission, as she who served him as so attractive a lure of love for the fishing of souls. For the rest, the form of his missions was truly apostolic, and such as Jesus Christ prescribes to the apostles in the gospel: not only as to going straight on without turning aside even for compliments on the way, and always with a companion as long as and whenever he could have one; nor ever (unless forced by obedience) outside the district assigned to him of fifty miles all round Frascati; but also as to carrying for himself neither purse, nor scrip, nor bread, nor shoes, but only a staff, nor money in the girdle, except as much as was required in payment for those few legumes and greens that he ate: loving rather to give freely than to receive freely, as one who held himself a workman unworthy of the wage; and he was so far from accepting even a penny for his labours that in the year 1717 he left here from Sezze even before the alms of the pulpit had been brought to the college: and because his companion once accepted that of another pulpit to employ it in the service of God, he told me that he felt great regret for it, and sent back half, and would more willingly have sent it all back, had the superior not judged otherwise.]

Anzi stimava, che la mercede unicamente a lui dovuta fosse l'ingratitudine. E ciò che è proprio di un amor forte del pari dissenteressato, siccome nell' amare, cosi nel beneficare non fece mai differenza tra amico o nemico, benefattore o offensore, cortese o scrotese, grato o ingrato, se non in quanto più volentieri beneficava questi che quelli, godendo non meno di render bene per male, che di ricever male per bene. Però discorrendosi una volta della principessa di Rossano fondatrice delle sue missioni, la quale aveva lasciato in arbitrio del missionario l'abitare o in Roma, o in Frascati: Perchè dunque, dissi io, Vostra Riverenza non risiede più tosto in roma? — per due ragioni, rispose: prima, perchè in Fracali pauperes evangelizantur; poi, perchè quivi in tanti anni non hò mai avuto la gratitudine, non dirò di un regalo, ma neppure di un "ti ringrazio"; però, conchiuse, è un bel faticare in Frascati. Luke 7, 22. [Nay, he esteemed that the only wage due to him was ingratitude. And, what is proper to a love as strong as it is disinterested, as in loving so in doing good he never made a difference between friend or enemy, benefactor or offender, courteous or discourteous, grateful or ungrateful, except inasmuch as he did good more willingly to the latter than to the former, rejoicing no less to render good for evil than to receive evil for good. Thus, when there was talk once of the princess of Rossano, foundress of his missions, who had left it to the choice of the missionary to live either at Rome or at Frascati: Why then, I said, does your Reverence not reside rather at Rome? For two reasons, he answered: first, because at Frascati the poor have the gospel preached to them; then, because there in so many years I have never had the gratitude, I will not say of a gift, but not even of a "thank you"; therefore, he concluded, it is a fine thing to labour at Frascati.]

Portava egli poi la pace non solo nelle case, ma nelle città, dove entrava e ne curava gl'infermi anghe nel corpo, ma morto più nell anima, mondandogli dalla lebra del peccato, e risuscitandoli alla grazia di Dio nel confessionario e dal pulpito, dove predicava magna virtute, sicut potestatem habens, come quello che non solo faceva insieme ed insegnava, non essendo credibile quanto gli ammirabili esempi d'una penitenza, ed astinenza, e carità tanto straordinaria, quanto era la sua, aggiungessero di forza alle prediche, ed ad ogni altro esercizio delle apostoliche sue missioni. Acts 4, 33; Matt. 7, 29. [He brought peace, moreover, not only into houses but into the cities which he entered, and he cured their sick even in body, but more those dead in soul, cleansing them from the leprosy of sin and raising them to the grace of God in the confessional and from the pulpit, where he preached with great power, as one having authority, as one who not only did but at the same time taught, it not being credible how much force the admirable examples of a penance, abstinence and charity as extraordinary as his added to his sermons and to every other exercise of his apostolic missions.]

Per il buon ordine delle quali mi disse egli che deputava subito i [For the good order of which he told me that he at once deputed the

principali dellà città, e fra questi alcuno se ve n' era de' più scadalosi per così avere occasione di trattare con lui, e guadagnare prima l'affetto, e poi l'anima. Indi dava principio agli esercizi suoi apostolici, e ne voleva bensì continua la serie, dicendo che l'interromperla anche per poco era come levare un anello di mezzo alla catena, però senza impegno, ma secondo che vedeva più o meno disposto il popolo dall' esercizio antecedente, determinava la qualità del susseguente per continuare l'edifizio dove trovava lasciate le morse, e non fabricare il colosso di Nabucco, il quale cadde non per I'oro, nè per l'argento, nè per il bronzo, ma per il ferro, che non legava con la creta, e sapeva sì bene intrecciare le funzioni, ed aiutarle ancora con la comparsa esterna di oggetti proporzionati, e muovere gli animi, e portarle in fine con tanta leggiadria, decoro, e misura, che non che attediare con la lunghezza, con la varietà diletavano. Ma il frutto affinchè fosse ampio e durevole, e non finisse in pochi giorni insieme con le funzioni, quattro principalmente erano, secondo che mi disse, le industrie del provido suo zelo: l'uno d'istituire, dove non erano, le congregazioni ed altre simili opere pie perpetue, lasciandole proviste d'ottime regole da lui perciò stampate in un libretto; l'altra d'introdurre o promuovere, dove parimente non erano, le arti, per tenere onestamente occupato il popolo, che ozioso fomenterebbe mille vizi. Così prima in Frascati, e poi qui in Sezze introdusse l'arte della lana, facendogliela mandare da Roma per mezzo del Signor Leonardo Libri, e suggeriva egli stesso alla povera gente le maniere più proprie, ed insieme più lecite d'avantagiarsi con tale perizia dei loro mestieri, che con i villani pareva nato nella campagna, e con gli artegiani allevato nelle botteghe. La terza, di bene istruire ed assuefare alla pietà l'età tenera, che è docile, e non peranche preoccupata dal vizio. E l'ho sentito più volte dire che assai più fruttuosa di tutte le prediche d'un' intera quaresima stimava egli le altrettante istruzioni, che nell' istesso tempo soleva fare ai fanciulli, perchè, diceva, ho esperienza che se fanno male le prime confessioni e communioni, raro è poi che ne faciano mai più una bene. La quarta, di migliorare quanto era possibile gli ecclesiastici, dicendo che il buon paroco fa buona tutta la parochia ed il buon clero tutta la città. [principal men of the city, and among these some one of the most scandalous, if there was one, so as thus to have occasion to deal with him and gain first his affection and then his soul. Then he gave a beginning to his apostolic exercises, and wished their series indeed to be continuous, saying that to interrupt it even for a little was like taking a ring out of the middle of the chain; yet without fixed commitment, but according as he saw the people more or less disposed by the preceding exercise, he determined the quality of the following one, so as to continue the building where he found the toothings left, and not to build the colossus of Nebuchadnezzar, which fell not by the gold, nor by the silver, nor by the bronze, but by the iron, which did not bind with the clay; and he knew so well how to interweave the functions, and to help them also with the outward appearance of suitable objects, and to move minds, and to carry them through at last with such grace, decorum and measure, that, far from wearying by their length, they delighted by their variety. But that the fruit might be ample and lasting, and not end in a few days together with the functions, the devices of his provident zeal were chiefly four, according as he told me: the one, to institute, where there were none, congregations and other similar perpetual pious works, leaving them provided with excellent rules printed by him for this purpose in a little book; the second, to introduce or promote, where likewise there were none, the crafts, to keep the people honestly occupied, who idle would foment a thousand vices. So first at Frascati, and then here at Sezze, he introduced the wool trade, having it sent from Rome through Signor Leonardo Libri, and he himself suggested to the poor people the most proper and at the same time the most lawful ways of profiting, with such skill in their trades that with the peasants he seemed born in the country, and with the artisans brought up in the workshops. The third, to instruct well and accustom to piety tender age, which is docile and not yet pre-occupied by vice. And I have heard him say several times that he esteemed far more fruitful than all the sermons of a whole Lent the same number of instructions which he was wont to give the children at the same time, because, he said, I have experience that if they make their first confessions and communions badly, it is rare that they ever make one well afterwards. The fourth, to improve the clergy as much as possible, saying that the good parish priest makes the whole parish good, and the good clergy the whole city.]

Però mi aggiunse che, oltre agli esercizi della missione, a cui li voleva tutti insieme sempre presenti, per averli poi soli a tre particolari istruzioni, soleva licenziare gli altri, con dire ch' egli voleva rimanersi con i sacerdoti e ministri di Dio a piangere e pregare per il popolo, e lo faceva; mai poi prendeva a spiegare loro prima la dignità, indi le obbligazioni, ed in fine i mancamenti propri di quello stato con tanto zelo, che tutti ne uscivano compunti, e molti anche piangendo. Ma per poterlo fare insieme con tutta libertà, teneva fra tanto guardie alla porta, acciò niuno de' secolari si accostasse a sentire. [Therefore he added to me that, besides the exercises of the mission, at which he wished them all always present together, in order then to have them alone for three particular instructions, he was wont to dismiss the others, saying that he wished to remain with the priests and ministers of God to weep and pray for the people, and so he did; but then he set about explaining to them first the dignity, then the obligations, and finally the failings proper to that state, with such zeal that all came out compunct, and many even weeping. But to be able to do it at the same time with all freedom, he kept guards at the door meanwhile, so that none of the seculars should come near to hear.]

E veramente finissime erano le industrie della sua gran circospezione in questa ed in ogni altro accorrenza. Io riseppi da lui medesimo che per ovviare ad un gran disordine di un monastero, la sua cautela l'obbligò a portarsi in un giorno a tutti i monasteri d'una città, e parlare a tutte le monache ad una ad una, affine di non scuoprire neppure il monastero, non che la monaca, per cui andava.]. [And truly most fine were the devices of his great circumspection in this and in every other occurrence. I learned from himself that, to remedy a great disorder of a monastery, his caution obliged him to go in one day to all the monasteries of a city and speak to all the nuns one by one, so as not to disclose even the monastery, let alone the nun, for whom he was going.]

[13] Era Page 291 of S. egli d'un naturale ingenuo ed aperto, e molto amante della schiettezza e sincerità. Ma ove si trattasse di mantenere il segreto, era attentissimo a non introdurne il discorso; Although by nature frank, he had learned to keep silent opportunely e dove lo vedesse introdotto e il suo silenzio potesse prendersi per conferma, sapea parlarne con tal destrezza, che le parole fosser più oscure del silenzio medesimo. Che se taluno veniva da lui a lamentarsi d'alculo d'un' altro S., io notai che egli per allora, presente l'accusatore, prendeva le difese dell' assente accusato. Ma poi sarebbe andato a trovarlo trovarne l'accusato stesso S., e privatamente l'avrebbe ripreso. E diceva, che, essendo egli sapientibus et insipientibus debitor, per quanto fosse circospetto, nol sarebbe mai troppo, anzi nè pure a bastanza. Raccontando [(Raccontando-male) omits S., but brings forward other things, pp. 291–93: Infatti sebbene in tante migliaia di volte che predicò quasi sempre a braccio, e spesso all' improviso, scendendo ancora molto al particolare nel riprendere i vizi, e pigliando continuamente occasione d'ammonire il popolo dai castighi di Dio, che nella città succedevano, è fama costante che non gli usci mai di bocca parola o risentita, o meno rispettosa, o poco cauta, di cui potesse alcuno ragionevolmente offendersi, o querelarsi; ed io ne posso essere buon testimonio per quelle non poche volte, che m'incontrai a sentirlo. Pure nella missione di Rieti mi confessò egli che non gli mancarono calunniatori, i quali con sinistre interpretazioni si sforazarono di storcere le sue parole a sensi alienissimi del suono loro, non che dalla mente di lui. Indarno però, perchè la città tutta prese a difendere la di lui innocenza. Parimente quantuque egli fosse cosi lontano da ogni sorte d'interesse, che discorrendomi un giorno della sua Madonna: Ella, disse, di Viterbo, dove fu dipinta, uscì per così dire contadina, ornata di carte e nastri. Poi a poco a poco s'incivilì da gentildonna; ma ora ch' ella si vede due mila e più scudi d'ornamenti attorno, la fa da principessa ed in breve (se a Dio piacerà ch' ella s'incoroni) la farà ancora da regina. Ma le sue entrate consistono in voli, non in denaro, perchè non voglio, aggiunse, che it popolo rozzo vada fantasticando, che io la porti d'intorno per altro, che per convertire peccatori, de quali ella è il rifugio. Però se avviene che alcuno poco informato le porti denari, io subito avviso dal pulpito, che chi gli ha portati vada a ripigliarseli. Pur nondimeno nella missione dell' Amatrice un criminalista di perduta coscienza, vedendo depositarsi avanti la Madonna insieme con altri voti tante armi proibite, e con ciò mancare il suo guadagno, che tutto era in far processi di risse ed omicidi, rappresentò in un memoriale al presidente dell' Aquile, qualmente era capitato colà, diceva egli, un negromante in abito di sacerdote a sovvertire il popolo, ed a fare quadrini ed armi per il re Filippo contro il re Carlo, e tacque il nome del negromante (per l'apostoliche sue fatiche pur troppo noto e venerato nell' Aquila) per non rivelare l'impostura. Spedì dunque il presidente una squadra di dieci soldati per farlo prigione, ma fu providenza di Dio che avendo egli portate altrove le missioni piu non lo trovarono in regno; altrimente osando mettere le mani addosso al sant' uomo, il popolo senza dubbio faceva in pezzi tutti coloro, e troppi processi ne avrebbe avuto a far poi quel criminalista, il quale però poco dopo per altri suoi misfatti diè nelle mani della giustizia. [In fact, although in so many thousands of times that he preached, almost always extempore and often without preparation, descending very much into particulars in reproving vices and continually taking occasion to warn the people from the chastisements of God that befell in the city, it is the constant report that there never came out of his mouth a word either resentful, or less respectful, or incautious, at which anyone could reasonably take offence or complain; and I can be a good witness of it for those not few times that I happened to hear him. Yet in the mission of Rieti he confessed to me that he did not lack calumniators, who with sinister interpretations strove to twist his words to senses most foreign to their sound, let alone to his mind. In vain, however, because the whole city took up the defence of his innocence. Likewise, although he was so far from every sort of self-interest that, talking to me one day of his Madonna: She, he said, came out of Viterbo, where she was painted, a peasant, so to speak, adorned with papers and ribbons. Then little by little she grew refined as a gentlewoman; but now that she sees two thousand and more scudi of ornaments about her, she plays the princess, and shortly (if it please God that she be crowned) she will play the queen too. But her revenues consist in vows, not in money, because I do not wish, he added, that the rough people should go imagining that I carry her about for anything other than to convert sinners, of whom she is the refuge. Therefore, if it happens that someone ill-informed brings her money, I at once give notice from the pulpit that whoever brought it should go and take it back. Nonetheless, in the mission of Amatrice a criminal lawyer of lost conscience, seeing so many forbidden weapons deposited before the Madonna together with other votive offerings, and with that his gain failing, which lay wholly in making processes for brawls and homicides, represented in a memorial to the president of L'Aquila that there had arrived there, he said, a necromancer in the habit of a priest to subvert the people and to raise money and arms for King Philip against King Charles, and he kept silent the name of the necromancer (all too well known and venerated at L'Aquila for his apostolic labours) so as not to reveal the imposture. The president therefore sent a squad of ten soldiers to take him prisoner, but it was the providence of God that, he having carried the missions elsewhere, they no longer found him in the kingdom; otherwise, had they dared to lay hands on the holy man, the people would without doubt have torn them all to pieces, and that criminal lawyer would have had too many processes to make afterwards, who, however, a little later fell into the hands of justice for other misdeeds of his.]] a questo proposito l'avvenutogli in Roma, quando studiava rettorico fra noi la lingua greca. E fu che camminando un dì fuor delle mura e dicendo egli e il compagno: "Veramente quel greco dopo pranzo fa male alla testa", un buon uomo, che pian piano veniva lor dietro, affrettato il passo e raggiuntili: "Ma, Padri miei", disse, "bevetene meno, che non vi farà tanto male [(Raccontando-male) omits S., but brings forward other things, pp. 291–93: Infatti sebbene in tante migliaia di volte che predicò quasi sempre a braccio, e spesso all' improviso, scendendo ancora molto al particolare nel riprendere i vizi, e pigliando continuamente occasione d'ammonire il popolo dai castighi di Dio, che nella città succedevano, è fama costante che non gli usci mai di bocca parola o risentita, o meno rispettosa, o poco cauta, di cui potesse alcuno ragionevolmente offendersi, o querelarsi; ed io ne posso essere buon testimonio per quelle non poche volte, che m'incontrai a sentirlo. Pure nella missione di Rieti mi confessò egli che non gli mancarono calunniatori, i quali con sinistre interpretazioni si sforzarono di storcere le sue parole a sensi alienissimi del suono loro, non che dalla mente di lui. Indarno però, perchè la città tutta prese a difendere la di lui innocenza. Parimente quantuque egli fosse cosi lontano da ogni sorte d'interesse, che discorrendomi un giorno della sua Madonna: Ella, disse, di Viterbo, dove fu dipinta, uscì per così dire contadina, ornata di carte e nastri. Poi a poco a poco s'incivilì da gentildonna; ma ora ch' ella [In fact, although in so many thousands of times that he preached, almost always extempore and often without preparation, descending very much into particulars in reproving vices and continually taking occasion to warn the people from the chastisements of God that befell in the city, it is the constant report that there never came out of his mouth a word either resentful, or less respectful, or incautious, at which anyone could reasonably take offence or complain; and I can be a good witness of it for those not few times that I happened to hear him. Yet in the mission of Rieti he confessed to me that he did not lack calumniators, who with sinister interpretations strove to twist his words to senses most foreign to their sound, let alone to his mind. In vain, however, because the whole city took up the defence of his innocence. Likewise, although he was so far from every sort of self-interest that, talking to me one day of his Madonna: She, he said, came out of Viterbo, where she was painted, a peasant, so to speak, adorned with papers and ribbons. Then little by little she grew refined as a gentlewoman; but now that she

si vede due mila e più scudi d'ornamenti attorno, la fa da principessa ed in breve (se a Dio piacerà ch' ella s'incoroni) la farà ancora da regina. Ma le sue entrate consistono in voli, non in denaro, perchè non voglio, aggiunse, che it popolo rozzo vada fantasticando, che io la porti d'intorno per altro, che per convertire peccatori, de' quali ella è il rifugio. Però se avviene che alcuno poco informato le porti denari, io subito avviso dal pulpito, che chi gli ha portati vada a ripigliarseli. Pur nondimeno nella missione dell' Amatrice un criminalista di perduta coscienza, vedendo depositarsi avanti la Madonna insieme con altri voti tante armi proibite, e con ciò mancare il suo guadagno, che tutto era in far processi di risse ed omicidi, rappresentò in un memoriale al presidente dell' Aquile, qualmente era capitato colà, diceva egli, un negromante in abito di sacerdote a sovvertire il popolo, ed a fare quadrini ed armi per il re Filippo contro il re Carlo, e tacque il nome del negromante (per l'apostoliche sue fatiche pur troppo noto e venerato nell' Aquila) per non rivelare l'impostura. Spedì dunque il presidente una squadra di dieci soldati per farlo prigione, ma fu providenza di Dio che avendo egli portate altrove le missioni più non lo trovarono in regno; altrimente osando mettere le mani addosso al sant' uomo, il popolo senza dubbio faceva in pezzi tutti coloro, e troppi processi ne avrebbe avuto a far poi quel criminalista, il quale però poco dopo per altri suoi misfatti diè nelle mani della giustizia. [sees two thousand and more scudi of ornaments about her, she plays the princess, and shortly (if it please God that she be crowned) she will play the queen too. But her revenues consist in vows, not in money, because I do not wish, he added, that the rough people should go imagining that I carry her about for anything other than to convert sinners, of whom she is the refuge. Therefore, if it happens that someone ill-informed brings her money, I at once give notice from the pulpit that whoever brought it should go and take it back. Nonetheless, in the mission of Amatrice a criminal lawyer of lost conscience, seeing so many forbidden weapons deposited before the Madonna together with other votive offerings, and with that his gain failing, which lay wholly in making processes for brawls and homicides, represented in a memorial to the president of L'Aquila that there had arrived there, he said, a necromancer in the habit of a priest to subvert the people and to raise money and arms for King Philip against King Charles, and he kept silent the name of the necromancer (all too well known and venerated at L'Aquila for his apostolic labours) so as not to reveal the imposture. The president therefore sent a squad of ten soldiers to take him prisoner, but it was the providence of God that, he having carried the missions elsewhere, they no longer found him in the kingdom; otherwise, had they dared to lay hands on the holy man, the people would without doubt have torn them all to pieces, and that criminal lawyer would have had too many processes to make afterwards, who, however, a little later fell into the hands of justice for other misdeeds of his.]]." [He was by nature frank and open, and a great lover of plainness and sincerity. But where it was a matter of keeping a secret, he was most attentive not to bring up the subject; and where he saw it brought up and his silence could be taken for confirmation, he knew how to speak of it with such dexterity that his words were more obscure than silence itself. And if anyone came to him to complain of someone, I noted that he, for the time, in the presence of the accuser, took up the defence of the absent accused. But afterwards he would go to find him and reprove him privately. And he said that, being debtor to the wise and to the unwise, however circumspect he might be, he would never be so too much, nay not even enough. Relating in this connection what happened to him at Rome, when he was studying the Greek language among us as a rhetorician. And it was that, walking one day outside the walls, he and his companion saying, "Truly that Greek after dinner gives one a headache," a good man who was coming slowly behind them quickened his pace and, catching up with them, said: "But, my Fathers, drink less of it, and it will not do you so much harm."]

[14] and to observe the laws of discretion in all things. Era (Era-profetico) omits S. egli amantissimo dell' ordine, e costantissimo in osservarlo; dicendo, che lo spostare una sola funzione era un guastarle tutte. Per due volte in Sezze, ed altre altrove, anticipò un' ora in circa la processione con maraviglia di tutti, che non intesero il perchè, se non quando, rientrato in chiesa colla Madonna, immediatamente sentirono (ed in Sezze lo sentii ancor io) venir giù una gran pioggia. Ed era opinione molto comune, che in questi ed altri accidenti innumerabili, e massime nello scuoprimento delle coscienze, egli avesse un lume profetico (Era-profetico) omits S.. [He was a great lover of order and most constant in observing it; saying that to displace a single function was to spoil them all. Twice at Sezze, and other times elsewhere, he brought the procession forward by about an hour, to the wonder of all, who did not understand why until, having re-entered the church with the Madonna, they immediately heard (and at Sezze I heard it too) a great rain coming down. And it was a very common opinion that in these and other innumerable incidents, and above all in the uncovering of consciences, he had a prophetic light.]

Ond' è che al dono del consiglio in lui si unì quello d' una gran (ond'ègran) non inferiore a questa sua gran circospezione e cautela fu quella S. discrezione: con la quale mi pareva che egli adds S. distinguesse le cose vere dalle false, le certe dalle dubbiose, le utili dalle inutili, le necessarie dalle superflue, le opportune dalle intempestive, le obbligatorie dalle da quelle di S. supererogatorie, le buone dalle male o indifferenti: e tra queste quelle, che erano più o meno buone, e al tempo, al luogo, alla persona, alla cosa più o meno convenienti. E sapea determinare non solo che, ma da chi, e dove, e quando, ed in che modo, e per qual motivo cagione S., e quanto, e sin a quanto ciascuna cosa dovesse farsi. [Hence it is that to the gift of counsel there was joined in him that of a great discretion: with which it seemed to me that he distinguished things true from false, certain from doubtful, useful from useless, necessary from superfluous, opportune from untimely, obligatory from supererogatory, good from bad or indifferent: and among these, those which were more or less good, and more or less suitable to the time, the place, the person, the thing. And he knew how to determine not only what, but by whom, and where, and when, and in what manner, and for what motive, and how much, and up to how much each thing ought to be done.]

[15] So he amended each according to his character Quindi non misurava egli da sè gli altri nè questi l'uno dall' altro, ma risguardava primieramente alla condizione di ciascuno. E se bene non fu mai accettator di persone, nè usò parzialità con veruno; pure trattava i nobili con più rispetto, et la gente bassa con più amorevolezza; e tanto che, laddove con quelli era rispettoso in maniera che più presto mostrava di prendersi, che di ricever soggezione, e con bel modo sì, ma liberamente li ammoniva; a questi per l' opposto volontieri consentiva anco l'ardire d'importunarlo, di comandargli, di sgridarlo siccome io osservai continuamente adds S.. [Hence he did not measure others by himself, nor these one by another, but looked first of all to the condition of each. And although he was never a respecter of persons, nor used partiality with anyone, yet he treated the nobles with more respect and the lowly people with more lovingness; and so much so that, whereas with the former he was respectful in such a manner that he seemed rather to take than to receive deference, and admonished them, with a fine manner indeed, but freely, to the latter on the contrary he willingly allowed even the boldness of importuning him, of commanding him, of scolding him.]

Osservava risguardava S. il naturale, la complessione e le inclinazioni d'ognuno: primo per distinguere ne' ben inclinati ciò che era natura da ciò che era virtu: e s' accorgeva benissimo, se uno ricusava un impiego per isfuggire più l' incomodo, che l'onore; o s' asteneva dal conversare più per fomentare la sua malinconia, che per scansare gl'incontri: e so, che per non lasciar solo qualche penitente suo ipocondriaco, ordinava ad altri, che l'andassero a trattenere. Poi per alzare in ciascuno quell' edifizio di virtù, di cui trovasse gettati i fondamenti dalla natura, e adattare alla cura de' vizii quei rimedii che dallo stomaco dell' infermo venisser più abracciati, o meno rigettati; insegnando a santificare le passioni con migliorarne l'oggetto (insegnando - l'oggetto) omits S.: e così gli riusciva far d'un colerico un zelante, d'un flemmatico un paziente, d'un ardito un forte, d'un timoroso un cauto, d'un pusillanime un umile, d'un amante terreno un celeste. Se non che per tener il mezzo nella virtù, consigliava a propendere, almen da principio, verso l'estremo. E mi ricordo, che udendo vedendo S. una volta disapprovare, quasi troppa troppo S., e però poco durevole la modestia, l'ubbidienza, l'umiltà, le osservanze (l. o.) la osservanza S., che la nostra adds S. Compagnia richiede ne' suoi novizi: "Ma se sì presto", disse, "talora abbiamo alcuno de' nostri giovani di modestissimo immodesto; a quest' ora di solamente modesto non l'avremmo l'averemo noi S. immodestissimo? La natura tira sempre all estremo connaturale del vizio, però se noi non la tiriamo verso l'estremo adds S. contrario d'una somma virtù; poco viaggio le resta per passare da una virtù mediocre al vizio. E guai alla Compagnia, se mai mutasse maniera d'allevare la sua gioventù!" [He observed the nature, the constitution and the inclinations of each: first, to distinguish in the well-inclined what was nature from what was virtue: and he perceived very well whether one refused an employment more to avoid the inconvenience than the honour; or abstained from conversation more to foment his melancholy than to avoid encounters: and I know that, so as not to leave alone some hypochondriac penitent of his, he ordered others to go and keep him company. Then, to raise in each that edifice of virtue whose foundations he found laid by nature, and to adapt to the cure of vices those remedies which would be more embraced, or less rejected, by the stomach of the sick man; teaching to sanctify the passions by bettering their object: and so he succeeded in making of a choleric man a zealous one, of a phlegmatic a patient one, of a bold a strong one, of a timid a cautious one, of a faint-hearted a humble one, of an earthly lover a heavenly one. Except that, to keep the mean in virtue, he counselled inclining, at least at the beginning, towards the extreme. And I remember that, hearing once disapproval, as excessive and therefore little lasting, of the modesty, obedience, humility and observances which the Society requires in its novices: "But if so quickly," he said, "we sometimes have one of our young men turn from most modest to immodest; at this hour, from merely modest, would we not have him most immodest? Nature always pulls towards the extreme contrary to a supreme virtue; little road remains for it to pass from a mediocre virtue to vice. And woe to the Society if ever it changed its manner of bringing up its youth!"]

[16] and the strength of body and mind. Considerava le forze corporali d'ognuno. Quindi osservai che sebbene procurava, che le penitenze da imporsi, o da concedersi, fosser salubri, e adoperava più volentieri, dirò così, la sega per troncar la radice, che la falce per recidere i rami del vizio; solea però misurarle dalla quantità delle forze più tosto, che delle colpe, per non uccidere indiscretamente insieme co' vizii della carne, la carne medesima, o almeno indebolirla in modo, che s' impedisse al penitente l'uso dell' orazione, o e S. l'esercizio dell' uffizio suo. [He considered the bodily strength of each. Hence I observed that, although he took care that the penances to be imposed or granted should be wholesome, and used more willingly, so to say, the saw to cut off the root than the sickle to lop the branches of vice, yet he was wont to measure them by the quantity of strength rather than of faults, so as not to kill indiscreetly, together with the vices of the flesh, the flesh itself, or at least weaken it in such a way that the penitent was impeded in the use of prayer or the exercise of his office.]

Ma molto più mirava per quanto mi accorsi adds S. alle forze dello spirito: e siccome ne' principianti distingueva distinguendo S. la sovrabbondanza della grazia, che allora li fa parere impeccabili, dalla debolezza della virtù, che poi non regge a' cimenti, non approvava in essi per allora l'ardir dell' incontro: così quando già eran provetti, ne disapprovava il timore e adds S. la villà della fuga. E di questi, e molto più di quelli, che di proposito attendevano alla perfezione, non lasciava di far le debite prove; non però quando li vedeva o desolati, o alterati, temendo che allora la prova degenerasse in tentazione. [But much more he looked to the strength of the spirit: and as in beginners he distinguished the superabundance of grace, which then makes them seem impeccable, from the weakness of virtue, which afterwards does not hold up under trials, he did not approve in them for the time the boldness of encounter: so, when they were already advanced, he disapproved the cowardice of flight. And of these, and much more of those who were deliberately striving after perfection, he did not omit to make the due trials; not, however, when he saw them either desolate or disturbed, fearing that then the trial would degenerate into temptation.]

[17] Ma co' peccatori d' ogni sorta, massime co' recidivi, invecchiati e adds S., ostinati, e però sfiniti affato di forze, chi può ridir le maraviglie dell' amorevole sua discretezza? Most ready to come to the help of sinners, Primieramente in accoglierli egli era uomo veramente di tutte le ore; e voleva che tutti fosser persuasi, che in qualunque tempo venissero, non solamente non l' incomoderebbero mai, ma gli farebbero cosa gratissima. E in Frascati, dove abitava verso la piazza, io bene spesso adds S. sentivo che ognun da sè lo chiamava. Ed egli anco di mezza notte, in un momento affacciatosi: "Eccomi", rispondeva dalla finestra, ed in un altro momento adds S. già era alla porta. Ma negli altri collegi: "Sentite", dicea subito al portinaro, "chiunque a qualunque ora di giorno, o di notte mi dimandi, chiamatemi subito; nè vi pigliate mai l' arbitrio di rispondere, che non è tempo allora, o che sono occupato, o che riposo, però che torni tra poco. E se la divina ispirazione, che allora gli tocca il cuore, non torna più? Ah! fratello, noi andiamo in cerca delle anime, e quando esse vengono in cerca di noi, voi le volete trattenere o anco licenziarle? così egli disse al portinaio quì in Sezze adds S." E perche in Sezze (i. S.) omits S. un uomo venuto assai di lontano per confessarsi una mattina adds S., non avendo la pazienza d' aspettare il fine d' una funzione, che allora farsi doveva, con guardo dispettoso voltò le spalle e se n' andò, il buon padre dopo finita S. la funzione: "Dov' è quell' uomo", disse, "dov'è?" E sebbene quella mattina si trovava più che mai affollato in confessionario, pure nondimeno adds S. più e più volte ne uscì in cerca; e non sapea darsi pace di non trovarlo, come egli stesso mi raccontò. [But with sinners of every sort, above all with relapsers, the inveterate, the obstinate, and therefore those wholly exhausted of strength, who can recount the wonders of his loving discretion? First, in receiving them he was truly a man of all hours; and he wished all to be persuaded that, at whatever time they came, not only would they never inconvenience him, but they would do him a most welcome thing. And at Frascati, where he lived towards the square, I heard that each one called him by himself. And he, even at midnight, appearing in a moment, "Here I am," answered from the window, and in another he was already at the door. But in the other colleges: "Listen," he said at once to the porter, "whoever asks for me at whatever hour of day or night, call me at once; and never take upon yourself to answer that it is not the time then, or that I am occupied, or that I am resting, and so let him come back in a little while. And if the divine inspiration which then touches his heart does not come back? Ah! brother, we go in search of souls, and when they come in search of us, you wish to detain them, or even dismiss them?" And because at Sezze a man who had come from very far to confess, not having the patience to wait for the end of a function which was then to be performed, turned his back with a spiteful look and went away, the good father after the function said: "Where is that man, where is he?" And although that morning he was more crowded than ever in the confessional, yet again and again he went out of it in search; and he could not be at peace at not finding him, as he himself told me.]

[18] he showed himself eager, kind, gentle; Vedendosi poi a' piedi il peccatore, è difficile a imaginarsi imaginare S., non che a spiegare, quanto, non omits S. dirò senza fretta, o noia, o avversione (chè i mali del prossimo non lo movevano mai che se non S. a compassione), ma con festa, e con giubilo si faceva ad udirlo, ancorchè venisse dopo cento altri confessati già, e portasse piu materia egli solo, che gli altri insieme. Con quanta pazienza si portava, [Seeing the sinner then at his feet, it is difficult to imagine, let alone explain, how — I will not say without haste, or annoyance, or aversion (for the evils of his neighbour never moved him except to compassion), but with festivity and jubilation — he set himself to hear him, even though he came after a hundred others already confessed, and brought more matter by himself alone than the others together. With how much patience he bore himself,]

Che se neppur così gli riusciva guadagnar quell' anima, allora egli sorpreso da certi come deliquii di zelo, sfinito e abbandonato inconsolabilmente languiva. E se pur taluno provavasi come ancor io mi provai adds S. a consolarlo con dirgli: "V. R. ha fatto la sua parte: Curavimus Babylonem et non est sanata. Jer. 51, 9. Tal sia di lei." — "Appunto", rispondeva egli gemendo più che parlando, "come se io cercassi la mia discolpa, e non piuttosto l'altrui salvezza." [And if not even so did he succeed in gaining that soul, then he, overtaken by certain swoonings, as it were, of zeal, exhausted and forsaken, languished inconsolably. And if anyone tried to console him by saying: "Your Reverence has done your part: We have cured Babylon and she is not healed. So be it with her." "Just so," he answered, groaning more than speaking, "as if I were seeking my own exculpation, and not rather the salvation of others."]

[19] but to the obstinate absolution firmly Ma questa sì gran tenerezza in sanar l' altrui male tanto era lungi dall' indebolir punto la fortezza del suo zelo, che anzi l' avvalorava, stimolandolo a tentar ogni strada per ripararvi. Ma quando tutte le vedeva chiuse, s'addolorava bensì in estremo; non mai però si ammolliva in modo, che all' occasione non differisse, o anche negasse al peccatore indisposto ed ostinato l'assoluzione. E allora siccome per la somma ripugnanza, che aveva, di rimandare alcuno sconsolato da sè, permetteva a questo fulmine piu d'un lampo, procurando con chiare ragioni di adds S. fare intendere al peccatore, che non era egli che non volesse assolverlo, ma esso che non voleva essere assoluto. Quando però incontrasse durezza grande e sordità, l' accompagnava com' egli mi accennò adds S. del tuono delle minacce, predicendogli vicina la divina vendetta; come pur troppo più e più volte, secondo che adds S. egli stesso mi raccontava aggiungeva S., si avverò [In S. a rather long passage is added here, pp. 294–95: Ma se in ogni altra cosa fu il suo zelo sì moderato, e discreto, in una sola parve che oltrapassasse non poco i limiti del convenevole, cioè nel troppo operare a pro degli altri con pericolo, come tal' ora accadde, di trascurare fratanto se stesso, e per la difficoltà di far molto, e bene giovar poco ancora agli altri. Ma questo appunto fù il più bel campo della prudente sua discrezione. Imperocchè è vero che l'ardor del suo zelo gli manteneva sempre accesa nel cuore una brama tanto insaziabile di vedere glorificato in ogni cosa Iddio, e salvi tutti gli uomini, che sebbene faceva egli solo quanto e più che tutti insieme i Padri d'un collegio, pur gli pareva di non far nulla, e si doleva di non poter far egli solo ogni cosa per sodisfare alle richieste ed ai bisogni di tutti. Però quantumque, dissemi un giorno, i quattro mesi delle mie missioni ormai si raddoppiano ad otto, pure io non sò mai d'onde m'incominciare le missioni, dove finirle: tante me ne restano ogni anno, e tante se offeriscono di nuovo, Che sì che io muojo alla fine vergognosamente fallito. Ma rispondendo io parermi, che non solo nella Compagnia, ma pur anche nei collegi nostri egli operasse troppo, e che o le opere da lui introdotte, o almen gli operari, che a lui succedessero, non potrebbero durarla molto: Questa sarebbe, dise, risoluzione da servo pigro seppellire i talento per paura di non moltiplicarlo, o di perderlo. A noi locca metterlo a traffico, ed insieme pregare il divino padrone, che o il banco non fallisca, o non manchi chi dopo noi prosequisca a trafficarvi. Nè perchè la messe è molta e pochi gli operarj, però devano questi tornarsene a sedere oziosi nel foro, e non anzi andare, come commanda il Signore, a cominciare con gran lena la mietitura, pregando frattanto Dominum messis, ut mittat operarios in messem suam. Del resto quante cose, e nella Chiesa, e negli ordini religiosi prima lodevolmente introdotte, dipoi sono scadule, onde sovvente è bisognato che Iddio suscitasse lo spirito dei pontefici, e dei vescovi nei concili, e d'uomini santi nelle religioni a rimitterle? Solo di là eterno è il bene in paradiso, eterno il male nell'inferno. Qua, dove non abbiamo civitatem permanentem, è continua la vicenda del bene, e del male. Or ecco l'inganno. It demonio vorrebbe del mondo fare un' inferno, e noi vorremmo farne un paradiso. Ma ne l'uno, ne l'altro è da sperarsi. Il male è che il demonio procura che il male sia più del bene, e l'ottiene. Noi procuriamo che il bene sia più del male, e per quanto facciamo, non ci riesce; che sarebbe dunque se invece di far molto, noi ci contentassimo di far poco? Però era sì grande, e sì continuo lo sforzo suo, che prescindendo anche dalla sua poca sanità, dalle grandi astinenze e penitenze, e dagli altri patimenti suoi, che senza dubbio erano immensi, per quel tanto che operava in una sola missione, o quaresima e talora in una sola giornata, gran meraviglia era, che non morisse di pura fatica. [But if in every other thing his zeal was so moderate and discreet, in one alone it seemed to overstep not a little the limits of the fitting, namely in working too much for the good of others, with the danger, as sometimes happened, of neglecting himself meanwhile, and, through the difficulty of doing much and well, of benefiting others little too. But this was precisely the finest field of his prudent discretion. For it is true that the ardour of his zeal kept always kindled in his heart so insatiable a longing to see God glorified in everything and all men saved that, although he alone did as much as, and more than, all the Fathers of a college together, yet it seemed to him that he did nothing, and he grieved that he could not do everything by himself to satisfy the requests and needs of all. Therefore, he said to me one day, although the four months of my missions are now doubled to eight, yet I never know where to begin the missions, where to end them: so many remain to me each year, and so many are offered anew, that in the end I shall surely die shamefully bankrupt. And when I answered that it seemed to me that not only in the Society but even in our colleges he worked too much, and that either the works introduced by him, or at least the workmen who succeeded him, could not keep it up long: That, he said, would be the resolution of a slothful servant, to bury the talent for fear of not multiplying it, or of losing it. It falls to us to put it to trade, and at the same time to pray the divine master that either the bank may not fail or there may not be lacking someone who after us will continue to trade with it. Nor, because the harvest is great and the labourers few, should these therefore go back to sit idle in the market-place, and not rather go, as the Lord commands, to begin the reaping with great vigour, praying meanwhile the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into his harvest. For the rest, how many things, both in the Church and in the religious orders, first laudably introduced, have afterwards decayed, so that it has often been necessary for God to raise up the spirit of pontiffs, and of bishops in councils, and of holy men in the religious orders, to restore them? Only there beyond is good eternal in paradise, evil eternal in hell. Here, where we have no abiding city, the alternation of good and evil is continual. Now here is the deceit. The devil would like to make of the world a hell, and we would like to make of it a paradise. But neither the one nor the other is to be hoped for. The trouble is that the devil contrives that evil should be more than good, and obtains it. We contrive that good should be more than evil, and however much we do, we do not succeed; what then would it be if, instead of doing much, we contented ourselves with doing little? His effort, therefore, was so great and so continual that, setting aside even his poor health, his great abstinences and penances, and his other sufferings, which without doubt were immense, for all that he worked in a single mission, or Lent, and sometimes in a single day, it was a great wonder that he did not die of sheer fatigue.]]. [But this so great tenderness in healing others' ills was so far from weakening at all the fortitude of his zeal that rather it strengthened it, spurring him to try every road to remedy them. But when he saw them all closed, he grieved indeed extremely; never, however, was he softened in such a way that on occasion he did not defer, or even deny, absolution to the indisposed and obstinate sinner. And then, as from the supreme repugnance which he had to sending anyone away from him disconsolate, he allowed this thunderbolt more than one flash, taking care with clear reasons to make the sinner understand that it was not he who did not wish to absolve him, but the sinner who did not wish to be absolved. When, however, he met with great hardness and deafness, he accompanied it with the thunder of threats, foretelling to him the divine vengeance as near; as all too often, again and again, according as he himself related to me, came true.]

[20] At length the most humble man Ecco il quarto bel pregio della sua virtù (Ecco-virtù) omits S.. Here is the fourth fine merit of his virtue.

A Here begins p. 432 of S. tante e sì rare doti di natura e di grazia univa il padre un' umiltà profondissima; la quale [(la q.) e su questa come fondamento alzò tutto l'edifizio dell' eroiche sue virtù, questa S.] cancellandogli nella mente ogni memoria della sua nobilta e (della-e) omits S. de' suoi talenti, facea che si riputasse l'infimo di casa, il servitore di tutti, l' uomo da niente, togliendogli affatto di vista le sue virtù, e massimamente il gran bene, che operava nel prossimo, era cagione che si tenesse e trattasse da ingrato a Dio, da infedele, da scellerato in modo, che in Frascati "ogni qual volta", mi disse. "esco in missione, io tremo da capo a piedi per la paura che i miei peccati non ne impediscano tutto il bene" E ultimamente Here begins p. 432 of S. in Sezze: "O Dio", esclamò, "sono venti anni, che vo in missione, e m' affatico, e stento a più non posso. E pure ancora io non so s' io m' abbia salvata un' anima!" Finalmente nascondendo lui a lui medesimo, gli lasciava d' innanzi agli occhi Iddio solo, a cui egli, come appunto non fosse al mondo, riferisse ogni cosa, e da cui ogni cosa aspettasse, raccomandandosi a lui del continuo, come un povero d' ogni bene, un impotente, un nulla. [To so many and such rare gifts of nature and of grace the father united a most profound humility; which, cancelling in his mind every memory of his nobility and of his talents, made him reckon himself the lowest of the house, the servant of all, the man of nothing; taking his virtues wholly out of his sight, and above all the great good which he worked in his neighbour, it was the cause of his holding and treating himself as ungrateful to God, as faithless, as wicked, so that at Frascati, "every time," he told me, "I go out on mission, I tremble from head to foot for fear that my sins may impede all the good of it." And lately at Sezze: "O God," he exclaimed, "it is twenty years that I have been going on mission, and I toil and struggle as hard as I can. And yet I still do not know whether I have saved a single soul!" Finally, hiding himself from himself, it left before his eyes God alone, to whom he, as if he were not in the world at all, referred everything, and from whom he expected everything, commending himself to him continually as one poor in every good, a helpless one, a nothing.]

Quindi, non che dolersi mai delle disgrazie, nè pur se ne maravigliava; ma tutte le attribuiva subito a' suoi peccati. Nè dopo il buon successo de' suio affari vanamente si rallegrava, o n' era innanzi smoderatamente sollecito e timoroso. [Hence, far from ever complaining of misfortunes, he did not even wonder at them; but he at once attributed them all to his sins. Nor after the good success of his affairs did he rejoice vainly, or was he beforehand immoderately solicitous and fearful about them.]

[21] even in giving counsel Nemicissimo di comparire, io notai che fuggi sempre di farsi esempio e guida agli altri. E, siccome per il basso e niun concetto che aveva adds S. di sè non si sarebbe mai indotto a dar consigli o ricordi a veruno, se la carità, che comanda all' umiltà e l'impiego apostolico che esercitava, non ve l'avesse obbligato: così punto non s'offendeva poi se il suo parere non fosse sequitato, o fosse posposto a quello d'altri (aq. d.) all' altrui S.. Anzi spesso e volentieri egli si consigliava con persone ancora di minor senno sapere; e udiva non solo le ammonizioni, ma anche le correzioni e riprensioni altrui e omits S. molto pazientemente ed in silenzio; o se alcuna cosa diceva, non era per sua discolpa, ma per difesa della causa di Dio, o de' prossimi. [Most averse to making a show, I noted that he always fled from making himself an example and guide to others. And, as by reason of the low and no esteem he had of himself he would never have brought himself to give counsel or reminders to anyone, had not charity, which commands humility, and the apostolic employment which he exercised, obliged him to it: so he was not at all offended afterwards if his opinion was not followed, or was put after that of others. Nay, often and willingly he took counsel even with persons of less sense and knowledge; and he heard not only the admonitions but also the corrections and reproofs of others very patiently and in silence; or if he said anything, it was not for his own exculpation, but for the defence of the cause of God or of his neighbours.]

[22] he abhorred his own praise. Dell' onore e della si offendeva, come d'una manifesta ingiustizia; e quanto volentieri lodava e vedeva gli altri nostri missionari applauditi e venerati, altrettanto era guardingo e rattenuto di non dire, o udir parola che ridondar potesse in sua lode. All' incontro non si saziava mai di biasimare ed avvilir sè medesimo ed ogni cosa sua; e quando era deriso e vilipeso, io più d'una volta m' accorsi che ne gioiva e facea festa appunto come gli Apostoli, quando ibant gaudentes a conspectu concilii, quoniam digni habiti sunt pro nomine Iesu contumeliam pati. Di modo che io, e chiunque volea dargli gusto, bisognava che mostrasse di non aver di lui, nè delle cose sue veruna stima: altrimenti non ne dissimulava il disgusto. Solo osservai che, quando era con persone capaci e d'accorgimento, allora egli più accorto di loro, sebben sentiva internamente disgusto alla lode e gusto a' dispregi, non però lo mostrava al di fuori, per non palesare la sua umiltà; ma disinvolto mandava la cosa in burla con qualche motto grazioso. Così al nostro adds S. P. Franc. M. Guelfi, che l'esortava a guarirmi, se bisognava, anche con un miracolo: "E un pezzo", disse, "che non ne fo sò S. più". E a me e ad altri qui adds S. in Sezze, che si maravigliavano (si m.) ci maravigliavamo S., come con tante fatiche e sì poca cura di sè non si ammalasse; passando in fretta in fretta: "Eh non ho tempo io", rispose, "di star male" [S. adds: Ma alla gente semplice dava ad intendere ciò che voleva. Andò un giorno a palazzo, e dettogli da non sò chi nell' anticamera, che papa Clemente XI si era serrato dentro per scrivere ai prencipi, egli subito se ne partì. Ed era ancor su le scale, quando Sua Santità, che alla voce l'avea forse riconosciuto suonado il campanello ordinò che il richiamassero. Nel sentirsi correr dietro e chiamare ad alta voce, e da più d'uno, per poco non cadde giù dalle scale, tutto attonito confuso l'umil servo di Dio. E dopo l'udienza, che non fù breve, nel ritornare a casa, rivolto al fratello che l'accompagnava e a molti, dai quali e in specie dal Padre Egidio Giuli l'ho risaputo io, raccontò questo fatto: "Non vi stupiste già", disse, "dell' avvenuto, nè lo state a raccontare in casa, perchè noi missionarii, quando veniamo a Roma, sempre abbiamo bisogno d'assoluzione ed indulgenze. Et il papa, il quale sà che presto siamo di partenza, ci ammette subbito e volentieri ancora ci sente discorrere delle missioni." [But to simple people he gave to understand what he wished. He went one day to the palace, and, being told by I know not whom in the antechamber that Pope Clement XI had shut himself in to write to the princes, he at once went away. And he was still on the stairs when his Holiness, who had perhaps recognized him by his voice, ringing the bell, ordered that he be called back. On hearing himself run after and called in a loud voice, and by more than one, the humble servant of God, all astonished and confused, almost fell down the stairs. And after the audience, which was not brief, on returning home, turning to the brother who accompanied him and to many, from whom, and especially from Father Egidio Giuli, I learned it, he related this fact: "Do not be astonished," he said, "at what happened, nor go telling it at home, because we missionaries, when we come to Rome, always have need of absolution and indulgences. And the pope, who knows that we are soon to depart, admits us at once and also willingly hears us talk of the missions."]]. [At honour and at the he took offence, as at a manifest injustice; and as willingly as he praised and saw our other missionaries applauded and venerated, so much was he wary and restrained not to say or hear a word that could redound to his own praise. On the other hand he was never sated with blaming and abasing himself and everything of his; and when he was derided and vilified, I more than once perceived that he rejoiced and made festival at it just like the Apostles, when they went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they had been counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus. So that I, and whoever wished to please him, had to show that we had no esteem for him or for his things: otherwise he did not dissemble his displeasure. Only I observed that, when he was with capable and discerning persons, then he, more discerning than they, although he felt inwardly displeasure at praise and pleasure at contempt, did not however show it outwardly, so as not to reveal his humility; but easily turned the thing into a jest with some graceful quip. So to our Fr. Franc. M. Guelfi, who exhorted him to cure me, if need be, even with a miracle: "It is a good while," he said, "since I have done any more of them." And to me and to others at Sezze, who wondered how, with so many labours and so little care of himself, he did not fall ill, passing by in great haste: "Eh, I have no time," he answered, "to be ill."]

Il suo volto poi, il guardo, il parlare, il gesto, il vestito, e il portamento tutto della persona da ogni parte spirava umiltà, e pareva, qual' era appunto, un uomo che stesse sempre riconcentrato nel suo nulla, e dicesse: "Disprezzami." E ben l'ottenne talora da chi non lo conosceva [S. adds: Racconta il Sig. Marchese Baldinucci, tesoriere della Marca e suo parente, che l'anno mille settecento sedici nel ritorno dalle mission d'Ascoli, quando andò ad incontrarlo con la muta, fermatosi poi e sceso da carozza: Và, disse ad Alessandrino suo figliuolo, e bacia la mano al Padre tuo zio. Avviossi il fanciullo per obbedire, ma poi veduto il servo di Dio sì macilente, scalzo, con barba lunga, e veste corta, riputandosi ingannato dal padre, tornò addietro: E non è questo, disse, il signor zio. Con questa eroicità di virtù costa a me di veduta, che visse questo servo di Dio dal marzo del 1716 all' aprile del 1717, nel quale a dì 7 di novembre felicimente morì. E del medesimo parere, cioè fossero così eccellenti ed eroiche le sue virtù, so che furono dei nostri padri Ercole Gavotti, Silvio Ignazio Sciarra, Gentile Bilievi, ed altri suoi superiori, anzi era tutta la nostra provincia romana, che nella congregazione provinciale domandò, ed il padre generale Tamburrini, che con il consiglio dei padri assistenti ordinò che fosse inserito nel nostro menologio il nome di questo ven. padre con un' elogio molto distinto; e impose a me procurare, o almeno assistere a chi procurarebbe la sua canonizazione. E degli esterni li parochi, vicari, vescovi, che lo conobbero nelle missioni, gli Eminentissimi Signori Cardinali Tanara, Barberini, Annibale Albani, Tolomei e Salerno, dei quali ho vedute le illustri attestazioni, ed anco i Sommi Pontefici Clemente XI. e Benedetto XIII., che avendolo conosciuto quello in Roma, e questo in Frascati ed in Benevento ne parlavano a piena bocca, come uomo veramente apostolico e santo; ne a questa santità ed eroicità sua ho mai sentito contradire da veruno. [The Signor Marchese Baldinucci, treasurer of the Marches and his kinsman, relates that in the year seventeen hundred and sixteen, on his return from the missions of Ascoli, when he went to meet him with his team of horses, having then stopped and got down from the carriage, he said to Alessandrino his son: Go, and kiss the hand of the Father, your uncle. The boy set off to obey, but then, seeing the servant of God so emaciated, barefoot, with a long beard and a short gown, thinking himself deceived by his father, he turned back: And this is not, he said, my lord uncle. With this heroism of virtue it is established to me by sight that this servant of God lived from March of 1716 to April of 1717, in which, on the 7th of November, he happily died. And of the same opinion, namely that his virtues were so excellent and heroic, I know were our fathers Ercole Gavotti, Silvio Ignazio Sciarra, Gentile Bilievi, and others of his superiors; nay, so was our whole Roman province, which asked it in the provincial congregation, and the father general Tamburini, who with the counsel of the father assistants ordered that the name of this venerable father be inserted in our menology with a very distinguished eulogy; and he imposed on me to procure, or at least to assist whoever should procure, his canonization. And of those outside, the parish priests, vicars, bishops who knew him in the missions, the Most Eminent Lords Cardinals Tanara, Barberini, Annibale Albani, Tolomei and Salerno, whose illustrious attestations I have seen, and also the Supreme Pontiffs Clement XI and Benedict XIII, who, having known him, the former at Rome and the latter at Frascati and at Benevento, spoke of him with full mouth as a man truly apostolic and holy; nor have I ever heard anyone contradict this holiness and heroism of his.]]. [His face, moreover, his look, his speech, his gesture, his clothing and the whole bearing of his person breathed humility on every side, and he seemed, as indeed he was, a man who stood always concentrated in his own nothingness and was saying: "Despise me." And he did indeed obtain it at times from those who did not know him.]