ON BL. GRATIA, PROFESSED LAY BROTHER OF THE ORDER OF HERMITS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, NEAR VENICE,
IN THE YEAR 1508
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY
Gratia, professed lay brother of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, at Venice. (Bl.)
BY H. D.
[1] In the monastery of St. Christopher near Venice At the beginning of the past century there were twin islands in the Venetian lagoon, midway between Venice and Murano, of which one was distinguished by the monastery of St. Michael of the Camaldolese Order [Flaminio Corner, Ecclesiae Torcellanae antiquis monumentis illustratae, vol. III (Venice, 1749), p. 3 – 91.], the other by the monastery called St. Christopher of Peace, which the friars of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine of the Congregation of Monte Ortone inhabited [The same, Ecclesiae Venetae, antiquis monumentis illustratae, vol. I (Venice 1749), p. 255 – 78.]. In the year 1810 the monastery with the church of St. Christopher was levelled to the ground, and the place was destined for a public cemetery. When this was judged too narrow, the little canal by which it was divided from the neighbouring island being filled in, one island was made from the two, to which the name of St. Michael has clung Venezia e le sue lagune, vol. II, 2 (Venice, 1847), p. 502 – 503.. Those who saw the church with their own eyes praised its form; they add also that there was no more splendid ornament in it than the sacred remains of Blessed Gratia, confessor, who had died in the monastery of St. Christopher in the year 1508. These, after the church was overthrown, were carried into Dalmatia, and indeed to Mulla, which is a village near Cattaro, where that blessed man is said to have seen the light, and was thence called "of Cattaro". By some he has also been called of Padua or Patavinus; certainly not rightly, since he seems to have lived only a few years at Monte Ortone near Padua, and a very short time at Padua.
[2] there died Blessed Gratia, They say that the servant of God won for himself so great a fame of holiness that immediately after his death public and ecclesiastical cult began to be given him, and not many years later he appears called blessed or saint in almost all the books which have been written about the illustrious men of the Order of Hermits. So in Girolamo Seripando [Elenchus sanctorum ac beatorum Ordinis, at the end of the work Constitutiones Ordinis Fratrum Eremitarum S. Augustini, Rome, 1551.], Alessandro Benacci Vita di S. Monica (Bologna, 1576), p. 38., Simpliciano Torrini [Libro sopra la S. Cintura di Maria Santissima (Bologna, 1578), p. 38. It also came out at Bologna in 1600, and at Verona in 1645.], Giuseppe Panfilo Chronica Ordinis Eremitarum S. Augustini (Rome, 1581), p. 133., Girolamo Nolano Libro delli privilegii dell' Ordine Agostiniano, Naples, 1586., Aurelio Filippini Giardino odorifero… (Cesena, 1603), p. 45., and thereafter in those very well-known Augustinian writers on the affairs of their house, Thomas de Herrera Alphabetum Augustinianum, vol. I (Madrid, 1644), p. 317., Luigi Torelli [Ristretto delle vite degli huomini illustri in santita dell' ordine Agostiniano (Bologna, 1647), p. 423 – 426; Secoli Agostiniani, vol. VII (Bologna, 1672), p.593.], Philippus Elssius Encomiasticum Augustinianum (Brussels, 1654), p. 245., Agostino Arpe Giornale de santi e beati Agostiniani, vol. II (Genoa, 1712), p. 222., Bartolomeo Scalabrella Calendario dei Santi della religione di S. Agostino, Rome, 1878., and so on. At the bidding of bishop Casimiro Forlani (1879 – 1887), a process was drawn up in the curia of Cattaro on the cult shown from time immemorial to Blessed Gratia [In the archive of the Order of St. Augustine at Rome there is kept a public copy of the transcript of the process drawn up by ordinary authority in the ecclesiastical curia of Cattaro on the cult shown from time immemorial to the servant of God Gratia of Cattaro, a paper codex of fol. 289, in the year 1886, on the 31st day of March.], and confirmation of this cult was asked of the Apostolic See [Catharen. Confirmationis cultus ab immemorabili tempore praestiti Dei famulo Gratiae a Catharo laico professo ordinis Eremitarum S. Augustini Beato nuncupati. Informatio super dubio an sententia lata ab Illmo et Rmo episcopo Catharen … sit confirmanda. Rome, 1889, 39 – 77 pp.; Summarium additionale, 3 pp.; Animadversiones R. P. D. Promotoris fidei, 11 pp.; Responsio ad animadversiones R. P. D. Promotoris fidei, 59 pp.], with the fame of holiness. and granted under bishop Trifone Radoničić (1887 – 1894) [Schematismus dioecesis Catharensis pro anno Domini MCMVII (Ragusa, 1907), p. 78 – 80.]. Soon there followed also the concession of an office and Mass [Catharen. Concessionis et approbationis officii et missae in honorem B. Gratiae a Catharo… Rome, 1889, 4 pp.; Summarium, 6 pp.; Adnotationes R. P. D. Promotoris fidei, 4 pp.; Responsio ad adnotationes R. P. D. Promotoris fidei, 10 pp.]. The Holy See granted the prayers of the vicar general of the Order of St. Augustine, and by a decree of the 17th of December 1889 there were approved the office, the Mass, and this elogium to be inserted in the martyrology on the 22nd day of December: At Venice the birthday of Blessed Gratia of Cattaro, a professed lay brother of our Order, of the Congregation of Monte Ortone, who, distinguished by the example of humility, zeal for prayer and the rigour of penance, famous for miracles before and after his death, passed from the monastery of St. Christopher to the heavenly kingdom on the fifth day before the Ides of November. In the martyrology of the Order recently reformed the same words are read on the 9th day of November; and on the 16th day of the same month, to which the feast of Blessed Gratia has at last been transferred: Of Blessed Gratia of Cattaro, confessor of our Order, whose birthday is recalled on the fifth day before the Ides of November. It is celebrated with semidouble rite [Proprium officiorum Ordinis Eremitarum S. Augustini a S. R. C. approbatum, Rome, 1915, on the 16th day of November.].
[3] Summary of his Life. Of an ancient Life of Blessed Gratia written by an eyewitness, if any ever existed, no trace survives. The first who printed a little book on his deeds, Spirito Lazarini, lived more than a whole century after Gratia, nor have we ascertained anything about the sources he used [Vita del beato Grazia da Cattaro, Venice, 1643. Compare Valentinelli, Bibliografia della Dalmazia e del Montenegro (Zagreb, 1855), p. 247. On the writings of S. Lazarini A. Loredan says thus in the book of which presently: "Il P. M. F. Spirito Lazarini da Perugia in un discorso intitolato le Glorie di Grazia dell' augusto patriarca Agostino, grazioso rampollo, et ammirabile germe conteste sotto epiteto di palma e nota di cedro. Il detto P. Lazarini in un breve racconto dei gesti del B. Grazia intitolato Breve raccontamento etc." [Fr. Master F. Spirito Lazarini of Perugia, in a discourse entitled The Glories of Grazia, gracious offshoot and admirable sprout of the august patriarch Augustine, woven under the epithet of a palm and the note of a cedar. The said Fr. Lazarini, in a brief account of the deeds of Bl. Grazia entitled Brief recital etc.]]. We have sought the little work in vain. Yet we hardly dare to assert that we are held by regret for it, since all who have spoken of our blessed man, some more concisely, others more fully, agree so closely in narrating the matters that they must be traced back to one and the same source, and that not very limpid. For, with a few exceptions of which the tradition of the monastery preserved an undoubted memory — for example, that he was born of humble stock, earned his living by rowing a boat, attached himself as a disciple to Simon of Camerino, lived holily in various places, died happily at Venice, and was soon laid up in a new sarcophagus above the altar — apart from these, I say, the Life of Gratia consists almost of commonplaces, so to speak, with which all who led a pious life in monasteries are wont to be praised, and finally of four miracles for which witnesses are lacking: of a wall divided so that the blessed man might adore the sacred Eucharist from afar; of a fire flashing above his little room; of the water drying up in a well being restored; of the devil assailing him with blows so that he made him lame until death. There are added some miracles worked through the blessed man's intercession after his death. This is the sum of what, after Lazarini, Antonio Loredan, a Venetian nobleman, narrated [Vita del beato P. F. Grazia da Cattaro, Venice, 1670; likewise 1693; likewise 1733.]. He openly confesses that he has added some things which seemed probable, the witnesses being silent [So in the preface of the work: "Perche non si ritrova memoria di sua vita, se non dall' età di 30 anni che entrò nella religione, mi sono preso licenza di fabbricare sopra verisimili e sopra supposti; se bene tutto si deve credere e tutto sperare dalle operazioni di un santo." [Because no memory of his life is found except from the age of 30, when he entered religion, I have taken the liberty of building upon probabilities and suppositions; although everything is to be believed and everything hoped from the works of a saint.]], and one miracle at which he himself had been present Likewise in the preface, and p. 60, ed. 1733.. Loredan was succeeded by Fr. Eliseo Polono, who pursued the same things with a most abundant pen [Vita B. Gratiae Catharini Ordinis Eremitarum S. Augustini per Fr. Eliseum a Iesu Maria Polonum de Modinius eiusdem Ordinis. Venice 1677. A transcript of the book is read in the Process of the curia of Cattaro, fol. 111 – 213; excerpts in the printed Process, Summarium super dubio etc., pp. 9 – 16, 29 – 30. As Valentinelli witnesses, Bibliografia della Dalmazia, p. 247, Eliseo's book comprises this: "I quattordici primi capitoli, p. 1 – 131, descrivono la storia della vita e dei miracoli del B. Grazia; il decimoquinto, p. 132 – 134, da un riassunto della vita; gli ultimi due, p. 135 – 158, si compongono d'iscrizioni ed epigrammi in lode del Santo." [The first fourteen chapters, p. 1 – 131, describe the history of the life and miracles of Bl. Grazia; the fifteenth, p. 132 – 134, gives a summary of the life; the last two, p. 135 – 158, are composed of inscriptions and epigrams in praise of the Saint.]].
[4] He was praised by many. A much shorter Life of our blessed man in their
Illyrian-Latin Annals, for the most part unpublished, Andrija Zmajević, archbishop of Antivari (1671 – 1694), inserted [He wrote "Gli annali ecclesiastici dell' Illiria in lingua illirica colla traduzione latina dal principio dell' era cristiana fino all' anno 1644." [The ecclesiastical annals of Illyria in the Illyrian language with Latin translation from the beginning of the Christian era to the year 1644.] He sent one exemplar of the work to the Congregation de Propaganda Fide. The other was burned in a fire. A. Bassić, Notizie della vita e degli scritti di tre illustri Perastini (Ragusa, 1833), p. 29 – 42.]; it was published, with the name suppressed, by Fr. Giacomo Coleti [Farlati-Coleti, Illyricum Sacrum, vol. VI (Venice, 1800), p. 475 – 76; again from the transcript of Marino Drago, bishop of Cattaro, in the printed Process, place cited, p. 17 – 18; and, what you may wonder at, again from Farlati, same place, p. 27 – 29.]. A Life a little fuller than this was set forth by Flaminio Corner, where he treated of the church of St. Christopher, in his celebrated history of the Venetian churches Ecclesiae Venetae, vol. I, p. 260 – 67.. Since it sets out most aptly whatever is reported about our blessed man, we have thought it should be set before the reader, and we shall print it below, correcting only those things in which the typesetters erred. Corner was reduced to an epitome both by Domenico Grandis [Vite e memorie de' santi spettanti alle chiese della diocesi di Venezia, vol. VII (Venice, 1763), p. 52 – 61.] and by the author of the Hagiologium of Italy Hagiologium Italicum, vol. II (Venice, 1773), p. 282.. He who wrote the history of the bishopric of Cattaro professes that he obtained a double little book of the Life of Blessed Gratia, one Latin, whose author, who is in fact Andrija Zmajević, he seems not to have known, the other Italian, received from the Augustinian fathers of St. Christopher of Peace: "In the sum of the matters," he says, "they agree wonderfully; yet I judge the Latin to be preferred to the Italian; if anything has been omitted in this, it will have to be taken from that." These things indeed he inserts in his remarks on the Latin Life Farlati-Coleti, Illyricum sacrum, vol. VI, p. 475 – 77., referring here and there to the Italian codex. And since he testifies that he read Lazarini and Eliseo Polono, whose words he also copies out Same place, p. 477, n. 14., the Italian manuscript Life, of which there is no mention elsewhere, must be believed to have been handed to him. Following Loredan, Eliseo, Corner, Zmajević and Domenico Grandis, a new Life of Blessed Gratia was written by Marco Antonio Gregorina, bishop of Cattaro [Vita del beato Grazia di Cattaro, Venice, 1802, 20 pp.; published again and enlarged, con un appendice sulla translazione del corpo dello stesso beato da Venezia a Mulla, e poi dalla chiesa parrochiale alla nuova chiesa [with an appendix on the translation of the body of the same blessed man from Venice to Mulla, and then from the parish church to the new church] under the title "Auxilium Christianorum". Zara, 1873, 20 pp.], a man of candid mind, to whom the agreement of hagiographers copying one another was an indication of truth [So he writes, p. 19: "Questa conformità in quelli che hanno scritto del nostro beato, dimostra i racconti essere veritieri; perche siccome l'errore è vario, cosi la verità è costante." [This conformity in those who have written about our blessed man shows the accounts to be truthful; for as error is various, so truth is constant.]]. Yet some things were added about the cult of Blessed Gratia in Dalmatia which you would seek in vain in other books of the same age. Finally in our own times a Life of Blessed Gratia was published in the language of the Slavs by Ivo Matković [Život i Stovanje bl. Gracije iz Kotora. U Zagrebu, 1887; second edition, Spljet, 1910. The sacred solemnities held at Mulla on the 16th, 17th and 18th days of May of the year 1890 the same Ivo Matković narrated in the little book Spomenica na Trodnevno Slavje Poblaženja bl. Gracije Svetoaugustinskog Reda Romita na Mulu u Boki Kotorskoj 16tog, 17tog i 18tog Svibnja 1890. Zagreb, 1890.] and lastly by Niccolò Mattioli Vita del B. Gratia da Cattaro, Rome, 1890, 288 pp., who chiefly used the excerpts which were collected in the process of Cattaro.
[5] His body The blessed man's body, first laid in the common burial-place of the brothers, was on the second day after his death enclosed by the prior of the monastery in a cypress-wood chest. And when about a year had elapsed, the sacred remains were laid up above the altar in a marble sarcophagus, the most illustrious Antonio Tron supplying the expense, with the title Blessed Gratia placed on it Compare Eliseo Polono in the Summarium super dubio an sententia etc., p. 14.; and they rested, assiduously adorned with the highest honours by the faithful, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the Augustinian Fathers were compelled to leave the monastery of St. Christopher and migrate to Venice Mattioli, work cited, p. 165.. to Venice, For then the body of the blessed man was given as a gift to the people of Mulla, who gloried that Gratia had been their fellow-citizen; and the cession was recorded in a public document on the 21st day of February 1807 in these words: I attest to all that the body of Blessed Gratia, professed lay brother of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine of the Congregation of St. Mary of Monte Ortone, then carried into Dalmatia. kept for a long time in the church of St. Christopher of Peace of Venice, has today been placed in a wooden chest protected in front by crystal, in the presence of the very Reverend lord Luigi de Angelis, parish priest of the parochial and collegiate church of St. Michael the archangel, and of the very Reverend lord Carlo Elia, alumnus of the parochial and collegiate church of St. Samuel of Venice, by me, Brother Luigi Montan, ex-prior of the same Order and royal chaplain of the said church of St. Christopher, and given as a gift to the inhabitants of the place of Mulla, in which he had his origin, of the diocese of Cattaro; and lest any doubt arise about its identity, the aforesaid chest has been tied with a green cord and sealed with the seal of the same convent. In faith of which etc. Summarium, p. 43; Mattioli, work cited, p. 250 – 51.. Yet the sacred relics were not at once handed over to the people of Mulla, but in the year 1810 were carried to Cattaro, recognized by bishop Antonio Gregorina, then carried by him, the whole clergy escorting, into the parish church of Mulla (Muo) and placed on the altar, where from ancient times the picture of the blessed man had been exposed Summarium, p. 38..
[6] A recognition of the relics. And in the year 1864, a new church having been built, the body of Blessed Gratia was translated again, having been recognized by bishop Marco Calogerà, as is established by this letter: Marco Calogerà, per la grazia di Dio e della S. Sede Apostolica vescovo di Cattaro. A chi leggera salute. Partiti oggi dalla nostra residenza di Cattaro verso la vecchia chiesa di Mulla per verificare lo stato del corpo del B. Grazia di Mulla, che ivi si venera, giungemmo alle ore 8 3/4 antimeridiane, accompagnati dal reverendissimo canonico Trifone Oparenovic, dal rev. ceremonista vescovile D. Antonio Zunaievic, dal parocco di Mulla molto rev. D. Elia Andric, dal sindaco di Mulla signor Vito Pascovic, dal preside della fabbriceria di Mulla signor Giorgio Petrovic, e dai notabili di Mulla signor Antonio qu. Filippo Petovic e signor Trifone Marovic; e alla loro contemporanea presenza facemmo aprire la cassa d'abete che contiene il corpo del Beato; abbiamo trovato il sacro corpo dal colle alle noci dei piedi tutto connesso, e nella massima parte coperto di carne e pelle; e al primo toccarlo spiro dalla cassa un suave odore, accolto dai presenti con santa letizia e lagrime di commozione. E a memoria del fatto abbiamo ordinato che sia eretto il presente atto in doppio originale che si conserverà nella nostra curia, e l'altro nel uffizio parrochiale di Mulla, munito delle firme di tutti i predetti intervenuti e dal nostro maggiore suggello. (L. S.) Cattaro, 22 agosto 1864. [Marco Calogerà, by the grace of God and of the Holy Apostolic See bishop of Cattaro. To whoever shall read, greeting. Having set out today from our residence of Cattaro toward the old church of Mulla to verify the state of the body of Blessed Grazia of Mulla, which is venerated there, we arrived at 8 3/4 in the morning, accompanied by the most reverend canon Trifone Oparenovic, by the rev. episcopal master of ceremonies D. Antonio Zunaievic, by the parish priest of Mulla, the very rev. D. Elia Andric, by the mayor of Mulla, signor Vito Pascovic, by the president of the church-fabric of Mulla, signor Giorgio Petrovic, and by the notables of Mulla, signor Antonio son of the late Filippo Petovic and signor Trifone Marovic; and in their simultaneous presence we had the fir chest opened which contains the body of the Blessed; we found the sacred body from the neck to the ankles all joined together, and for the most part covered with flesh and skin; and at the first touch a sweet odour breathed from the chest, received by those present with holy gladness and tears of emotion. And in memory of the fact we have ordered that the present act be drawn up in double original, which shall be kept in our curia, and the other in the parish office of Mulla, furnished with the signatures of all the aforesaid persons present and with our greater seal. (L. S.) Cattaro, 22 August 1864.] The signatures of the witnesses follow Summarium, p. 39; Mattioli, work cited, p. 253 – 255.. The solemn translation took place on the 18th day of the following September, and it is established that the cult of the blessed man thereafter increased greatly.
[7] Cult in the church of Mulla, There survives a letter written by the parish priest Filippo Giuranovic on the 15th day of March of the year 1848 to the bishop of Cattaro, in which the manner of the cult then shown to the blessed man is broadly described. Nine times a year the urn containing the body was unlocked, the people approaching to kiss it, even the heterodox themselves vying in piety with the Catholics. The feast of the blessed man was celebrated on the 8th day of November, but the Mass of All Saints was sung. Moreover he narrates some miracles worked a few years before: in the year 1815 thieves attempting to carry off the head of the blessed man are wonderfully turned back; at another time a woman paid the penalty for insults hurled at the blessed man; a woman receives back healthy at the altar of the blessed man a daughter crippled in body; wine placed on the altar of the blessed man by a boorish man is wonderfully removed Summarium, p. 45 – 48..
[8] in the church of Cattaro and others. And these things indeed were done at Mulla. In the cathedral of Cattaro, on the 3rd day of February, which is sacred to St. Tryphon, the patron of the place, relics of Blessed Gratia, received from Venice as the seventeenth century was drawing to its end, were exposed to the veneration of the people. And the church of St. Matthew in Dobrota kept part of the hair shirt which the blessed man used as an inner tunic [Gregorina, volume cited, p. 19. The greater part of the hair shirt was kept in the cathedral of Cattaro. Summarium, p. 53.]. In the year 1806, the bishop of Chioggia (Chioggia) testifies in a letter that a finger of Blessed Gratia, confessor of the Order of St. Augustine, extracted from the body which has been kept from time immemorial in the church of St. Christopher on the Island, has been placed by him in an oblong round crystal tube sealed with his seal Summarium, p. 51 – 52.. In the year 1811, L. Luciani, archdeacon of Venice and, the see being vacant, vicar capitular, recognizes a leg of Blessed Gratia and places it in a little wooden chest duly sealed, and by a letter grants the faculty of exposing these relics publicly to the veneration of the faithful of Christ Summarium, p. 52 – 53..
LIFE OF BLESSED GRATIA, CONFESSOR
Gratia, professed lay brother of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, at Venice. (Bl.)
From Flaminio Corner. Compare Preliminary Commentary, no. 4.
[1] The blessed man's homeland and parents; In a certain village of Dalmatia [There are those who think with Lazarini that Gratia was born in a village of the diocese of Cattaro whose name is Dobrota, and they conjecture this from the fact that, since his mother is called Bona, this name was given her from the name of the village itself, which was the homeland of mother and son, for Dobra (whence Dobrota) among the Slavs means the same as Bona among the Latins. Others, however, hold with undoubted faith that Gratia came from the village of Mulla. Compare Farlati, work cited, vol. VI, p. 476 – 477.], where the Venetian dominion borders on the Turkish territory,
near the city of Absorivium [Elsewhere he calls it Ascrivium and cites a passage of Pliny (III, 24) (Catharus Dalmatiae civitas, Padua, 1769, p. 1). In Pliny, however, is read (III, 23, 144) Acruvium, and in Ptolemy Ἀκρούιον (II, 16, 5). Compare C. I. L., III, p. 284.], commonly called Cattaro, toward the Epidaurian sea, Gratia was born of Benedetto and Bona [Lazarini thinks this is the name not of his mother but of his homeland, because the name Bona is not and was not in use either in the diocese of Cattaro or in the neighbouring places. Compare Farlati, volume cited, p. 476.], humble indeed but pious and honest parents, in the year from the incarnation of the Lord 1438, on the 27th day of October, while Eugenius IV, a Venetian, sat on the apostolic throne.
[2] His youth spent religiously, He passed his youth and young manhood in extreme poverty, yet amid the straits of a needy life he never turned aside from the way of the Lord's commandments. For, earning the necessities of life by the labour of his hands, and keeping his morals unblemished amid the perilous exercises of a sailor, he was already then laying the foundations of a holier life. From the necessity of this laborious condition, for the sake of carrying merchandise, Gratia frequently put in at the city of Venice, where there was then living, shining with the light of the virtues and the office of apostolic preaching, Brother Simon of Camerino [The Life of Simon of Camerino was written by G. F. Tomasino in the book of which presently. On him also M. Caffi, Frate Simone da Camerino, in Archivio Storico Italiano, III Serie, vol. XXVI (1877), p. 323 – 31.], who, in a more austere observance of the regular life and in the love of devout solitude, having heard Blessed Simon of Camerino, had set up that new congregation of his, called from its chief monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Monte Ortone [Monte Ortone or Montortone, comune of Teolo, prov. of Padua. In an instrument of the year 1441 there is mention of the monastery of St. Mary of Monte Rotondo, called Monte Orton, of the district of Padua. 〈G. F. Tomasino〉, Historia della B. Vergine di Monte Ortone … l'origine della Congregazione dedicata al suo nome e la Vita di Fr. Simone da Camerino fondatore di essa. Pado], to which many men of proved piety, kindled by the preaching and examples of the blessed founder, were vying with one another to run. Having heard, then, the sermons of this venerable man, Gratia felt himself so roused to better things that he resolved to bid farewell to perishable things. Wherefore by earnest prayers he obtained the sacred habit of religion in the condition of a lay brother in the year 1468, the thirtieth of his age.
[3] He undertakes his novitiate at Monte Ortone. Having obtained his wish, he undertook the novitiate of the regular life at Monte Ortone, and at once began to shine so brightly with all the virtues that in the very beginning of the more severe institute he seemed already to have attained the summit of religious perfection. His chief care was to reduce his body, robust in its strength, to the service of the spirit by every kind of hardship; wherefore, raging against himself, he girded his loins with a little iron chain studded with sharp points closely joined together, and he used, as his innermost garment next to the flesh, a sack of hair woven from rough horsehair reaching to the knees, His penance, by which — kept with pious veneration even now in the monastery of St. Christopher [We said above, p. 297, that the monastery and church of St. Christopher of Peace have been destroyed.] — it has been proved by repeated experience that demons are put to flight and diseases driven away. He kept up rigid fasts, which for the most part, and at least three days a week, he endured on bread and water alone. On the other days, abstaining from dairy foods, not to speak of meat, to a little piece of very hard bread and a moderate measure of water he barely added anything of herbs or fruits by way of relish. His little bed seemed prepared rather for torment than for rest; for on two rough and harsh boards, putting a stone under his head for a pillow, overcome by weariness he snatched a very brief sleep. The rest of the night he spent in the meditation of heavenly things or in performing the lowlier offices of the monastery.
[4] his piety, It was his especial delight to serve at all the sacred mysteries of the Mass that were celebrated, at which time, from the outward composure of his body and the inward attention of his mind, he appeared rather an angel than a man fulfilling the ministry of angels. Yet out of obedience he gave up this office most dear to him, and, taking up with an eager and glad mind all the lowliest offices of the monastery at the nod of his superior, his obedience, he administered the heavy and abject burden of the kitchen no less attentively and carefully than if he were serving the church. Besides these things, he cleaned the corners of the cloister and the dirtier places of the house, swept out the filth, and ministered with an exceptional charity of heart to the sick, even keeping night watches, whom he refreshed not only with assiduous service but with most sweet conversations on heavenly things. Nor content with these labours alone, so as to allow no rest to his body, which he reckoned the most intimate enemy of the soul, he was accustomed, as often as time allowed, to carry earth on his shoulders where it was needed and, after the manner of the ancient hermits, to plant fruit-bearing trees, and meanwhile, fearing nothing of the rigours of winter cold, always to go barefoot.
[5] the most rigid poverty, A most rigid guardian of poverty, content with the poorest tunic, he inhabited the meanest cell of the monastery, in which, besides a narrow little bed of rough planks, a discipline of little iron chains and a wooden cross, there was no other furniture. Laying up all the treasures of his heart in the mortification of the cross of Christ, he wonderfully cultivated chastity, humility and the other virtues, and, the sharpest censor of himself only, he kept perpetual silence, unless charity demanded otherwise.
[6] his assiduous zeal for prayer. Amid so many labours of the body there was an assiduous zeal for prayer, on which with unconquered spirit he spent almost the whole space of the night, and whatever of the day's time remained over from his labours: nor did the outward exercises of the body draw his soul away from the assiduous meditation of the divine mysteries; therefore, amid the burdens of the kitchen and of the other offices with which he was weighed down, he was accustomed always to pray with his mind raised to God: which admirable perseverance of heart in prayer, joined with such great torments of the body, God confirmed by more than one miracle. Of these, however, let us be allowed to bring forward two of the more splendid.
[7] He adores the Most Holy Eucharist through a gaping wall. At Monte Ortone, while out of obedience he was occupied with the rustic labours proper to cultivating the garden, praying more fervently in the impulse of the spirit ornans Ed., he hears by the warning of the little bell that the adorable mysteries of the Eucharist are being performed in the nearby church; at once falling on his knees, he suddenly saw, by a great prodigy, the wall gaping and dividing, and the interior of the church opening up, so that he could see the altar over which the divine host is raised: then in the midst of its whiteness he saw and adored the infant Jesus surrounded by rays, raised in the hands of the priest.
[8] Flames are seen above his cell. Likewise in the monastery of St. Christopher — to which he had moved from Monte Ortone at the bidding of his superiors — as he kept vigil at night according to custom, Gratia was fixed in sublime contemplation, and his heart so blazed with divine ardour that heavenly rays bursting out from it were visible above his cell in the form of flames. Whence it came about that fishermen plying their craft here and there in their boats thought that the monastery itself was burning, and, terrified at this, leaping out onto the land and running to the door of the monastery, they rang the little bell and announced to the sleeping brothers the threats of the growing fire; but the sight of the flames, which came from a heavenly fire, suddenly vanished.
[9] Charity toward his neighbour. From his fervent charity toward God there also shone out a wonderful love toward his neighbour, whose every necessity he tried to relieve in whatever way was right. Although he was a most careful guardian of silence, yet, either to soothe the weariness of the sick or to call back to salvation men infected with the plague of crimes, he did not grudge to hold spiritual discourses quite often. He also took the better part from the poor food assigned to him and gave it out for the relief of the poor. This love of his servant, too, by which he fulfilled the entire fullness of the law in every respect, the almighty Lord willed to be attested by a signal benefit that has lasted even to our times.
[10] He fills a well that was drying up The crumbling walls of the church of St. Christopher of Peace [The church of St. Christopher was not first built by Simon of Camerino, but granted to him, in the year 1436, by a letter of Francesco Foscari, doge of Venice, with the hospital and monastery. Flam. Corner, Ecclesiae Venetae, vol. I, p. 272 – 73. After the peace between the republic and the duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza, had been arranged through the help of Brother Simon, by a decree of the senate of the 17th of May 1454 it was granted that henceforth the place of St. Christopher should be called St. Christopher della Pace.] were being restored, and Gratia, as was his custom, was serving the masons themselves; when the cistern of the courtyard, which served domestic use and the work of building, was exhausted he fills it with water, by too frequent drawing and, through the very dryness of the summer season, was wholly dried up and ceased to supply water. But, since the island is surrounded on all sides by a rather wide lagoon, and no easy means was given to the poor monastery of bringing water from outside, Gratia, with a sudden impulse of heart casting all his hope on the providence of God, poured sea water onto the dry surface of the well; then he falls on his knees to beseech the Lord with more fervent prayer. Not long after the humble man's prayers had been poured forth, by a doubled prodigy the sea water poured into the well was seen to show no longer anything of salt or bitterness in itself, and it rose until, to the wonder of all, it went up to the upper mouth of the cistern itself. a benefit continued through the centuries. The constant benefit of this prodigy is a perennial testimony of his holiness, since from that very well unfailing waters have been drawn ever since, serving abundantly not only for relieving thirst but also for watering the gardens and for the services of the monastery; and, what is wonderful and testifies to the full power of the prodigy, in the summer season, being most eagerly desired, as being light, for the use of the nearby city, it is carried off in full boats, the power of the heavenly abundance never failing; nay even, when sometimes the sea waves rise and enter the well itself, the sweetness of the cistern itself is reported to be in no way changed by their saltness.
[11] He heals Fr. Lazarini. Of the power of this water poured in from heaven a famous testimony is given by Fr. Spirito Lazarini, a nursling of the same Order On Fr. Lazarini, above, p. 298., who, having recovered health by drinking it, in sign of a grateful mind wrote the life of this blessed man in the Italian language, and had it printed at Venice in the year 1643. For in writing it he testifies that, labouring with a most burning and deadly fever, with lively confidence he tasted a small draught of the water of the aforesaid well, and, having implored the help of God through the merits of Blessed Gratia, was restored to his former soundness.
[12] He is harassed by the devil. The ancient enemy of the human race, bearing ill the so great virtues of Gratia, attacks the most holy man with various temptations, and tries to turn his mind away from prayer with diabolical illusions; but, frustrated in his hope, he was driven into such rage that, the Lord permitting it for his servant's victory, he dared to appear to him openly, and, clothed in a mask, attended by infernal satellites, while
he was praying more vehemently before an image of the crucified, he dragged Gratia violently through the monastery, bruised him with hard blows, and left him half-dead; receiving from this struggle with the worst of angels an incurable wound in the thigh, he limped until death in sign of victory [They relate that these things were done at Padua, for example Zmajević, in Farlati, Illyricum Sacrum, volume cited, p. 475, and there, p. 476, this note was added: "This happened in the hospice of St. Mark, as it is in the Italian codex. For the fathers of Monte Ortone have a small dwelling in the Campo Marzio, which they commonly call Prato della Valle, with a little chapel inscribed with the title of St. Mark, where they are accustomed to lodge when they come to the city. In this hospice Brother Gratia had been ordered to live, to take care of the city affairs which pertained to the monastery of St. Mary." On the Italian codex, above, p. 299.].
[13] Meat brought to him rots. And when, in continual exercise of the virtues and in the greatest austerity of life, he had served God faithfully in religion for almost forty years, at length, worn down by labours and constant chastisement of the body, he fell into his last illness. As it grew worse, when by the counsel of the physician he was compelled to eat meat to restore his languishing strength, yet the eminent lover of mortification could never be torn from his customary abstinence, until, the authority of his superior coming in, on whose mouth and nod he hung, meat was brought to him; which, when he had blessed it with the sign of the cross according to custom, suddenly appeared rotten and swarming with worms; the obedient man speaking victory through divine protection.
[14] He receives the sacraments most piously. Soon, brought to the last span of life, he asked with most humble prayers that the Lord's body be brought to him, which, rising from his little bed and, with his girdle tied about his neck, prostrating himself on his knees, he received most devoutly; and then, having received the anointing of the holy oil, amid the choirs of religious standing by, he fell asleep peacefully in the kiss of the Lord on the ninth day of November [On his tomb was placed this inscription, which Farlati reports, volume cited, p. 478: VBLI(S) . GRATIA . VIXIT . ANNIS . LXX . OBIIT . IN . REL . MIRA . ABSTINENTIA . DIE . IX . NOVB . MDVIII . [VBLI(S) Gratia lived 70 years. He died in religion, of wonderful abstinence, on the 9th day of November 1508.] Both Zmajević err, in Farlati, volume cited, p. 475, and Riceputi in the Martyrologium Illyricum, in Farlati, vol. VIII, p. 313, who refer the blessed man's birthday to the 9th day of October; and Bartolomeo Scalabrella errs too, Calendario della religione di S. Agostino (Rome, 1878), who transfers it to the 11th of October, reading, unless I am mistaken, V id. oct. instead of V id. nov. Among the people of Mulla the commemoration of Blessed Gratia was usually made on the 8th day of November.] of the year 1508, being in the seventieth year of his age, and the fortieth of the religious life he had entered. The outward appearance of his body — as has been received from tradition — indicated the inward holiness of his soul. Moderate stature, eyes cast down to the earth, a comely though untended beard, a pale face, thin and dried up from fasting; his gait, his speech and his acts displayed the perfection of a religious man.
[15] The concourse of men at his funeral. The soul of the most holy man having flown to the heavens, his funeral was adorned by the wonderful appearance of a star flashing above the bier of the dead man, and by a crowded concourse of peoples. Yet, at the urging of the brothers' humility, his body was committed to the common sarcophagus of the brothers. Such dispositions of religious modesty were changed a little later by a higher counsel of divine wisdom, God by no means permitting the body of his servant, distinguished by the mortification of the cross, to rest confused among the other corpses of the dead.
[16] At his own warning he is taken out of the common tomb. On the night, then, which followed the day of his burial, Gratia appeared, surrounded with heavenly light, to Martirio of Bergamo, prior of the monastery, and warned him that this was the will of God, that his body should be taken from the tomb in which it had been laid, to be placed in a more honourable place. The prior, eager to obey the heavenly warnings, when morning came went to the church, and, the coffin having been opened, from which a most fragrant odour breathed forth, he took out the sacred deposit and, enclosing it in a cypress-wood chest, laid it up in a more seemly place. Thence new and more wonderful signs testifying to Gratia's merit; for by his intercession very many sick people — as we shall presently tell of some — were wonderfully restored to their former health, so that thought was given to his more solemn translation.
[17] A most noble tomb above the altar. And this came about from a repeated apparition of Gratia, refreshed by which the noble man Antonio Tron, procurator of St. Mark, who had been most intimately joined by the bond of friendship with the blessed man while he lived, bent all his care to translating the sacred pledge from a humbler to a worthier place. And so the pious senator set his hand to the good work, and at his own expense erected a marble monument resting on four columns, in which the venerable body, still incorrupt, was laid up with solemn pomp. Signs greater day by day. And since immediately after his death he became famous for miracles and prodigies, by the concordant acclamation of the peoples he was adorned with the title of blessed, and his tomb, on which is seen a venerable image of Gratia lying, was erected in the first year after his death above the altar of the church where the divine mysteries are performed. Nor was there an end of prodigies; nay, as the devotion of the people flocking there grew, signs too, more and greater, were seen day by day, of which, although the memory has for the most part been obliterated by the length of time and the carelessness of our forebears, yet let us be allowed to weave together, to the glory of the blessed man, the series of some which have remained, chiefly of a more recent age.
[18] Some miracles In a wonderful manner, as we have narrated above, Fr. Spirito Lazarini recovered health from a draught of the water, which water likewise being drunk, Brother Valentino Salmaso, a lay brother in the monastery of St. Christopher, is healed of a grave quinsy, from which he was labouring to the peril of death. For what the medical art could not do, the name of Gratia accomplished, which, being invoked, drove out the quinsy and vomited death from his throat.
[19] in the years 1648, 1657, By like power also, the intercession of Gratia being implored, there were healed Fr. Giovanni Paolo Stupa, of the Eremitical family, brought to the last peril of life by a grave fever in which there were manifest proofs of malignancy, in the year 1648, and Agostino Donato, who, for health wonderfully received through the merits of Blessed Gratia in the year 1657, offered a silver lamp to his altar, which, an endowment having been established, he ordered to burn perpetually by his body.
[20] in the year 1654, From a very bad ulcer, in the year 1654, the leg of a certain Albano, a master famous in the art of surgery, had already rotted; and when, confined to his bed, he sought the resources of his own art in vain effort, imploring the merits of the blessed man as his medicine, he suddenly, on the same night of the invocation, felt himself so relieved that on the next day, running about through the city, he proclaimed the heavenly power, and then, lest the memory of the prodigy should perish, he offered a silver leg at the tomb of his physician.
[21] The noble man Cornelio Contarini confessed that he had been wonderfully snatched from a hail of the engines of war by the help of Gratia, and likewise by his aid, when he and his wife were tossed in a ship neither large nor sufficiently strong while a horrid storm of the waves was raging, at the invocation of Gratia they escaped free and unharmed.
[22] in the years 1658, 1672, Equal power in the invocation of Gratia was experienced by Giulio Comeses, a fisherman of Murano, and his wife, preserved from the infestation of most wicked spirits in the year 1658, and by Fr. Tommaso Bagatta, prior of St. Christopher, who in the year 1672 was freed from a most grievous anguish of mind of six months.
[23] in the years 1675, 1663, Maria, wife of Francesco Perusini, a citizen of Murano, had taken to her bed with arthritis in the year 1675, and, already confined to her bed for six months and brought to the last peril of life, she received through the merits of Blessed Gratia the health which she could not from the remedies of the medical art; by a like gift also Bernardo, son of Pietro, called the Venetian Noble, and of Maddalena, who, a little boy of two, falling from his nurse's bosom down marble steps, had been shaken in his whole body and abandoned by the physician as useless, was healed in the year 1663 through the confidence of his parents, who had fled to the patronage of Gratia.
[24] in the year 1665, Two years having passed between, another infant of one year, Battista, son of Giovanni Gnoci and Maddalena, having fallen headlong to the ground from a high window out of his nurse's hand, while he is believed dead, a vow having been conceived and designated by his parents to Blessed Gratia, comes back to life unharmed, to the astonishment of all; at which same time Bernardo Fracassati, son of Giovanni Battista and Maria, near to death from a long illness, was restored to health by his parents' vow.
[25] in the year 1673, A certain man named Santo, surnamed Giusto, sick for many months with sciatica and an internal fever, in the year 1673 by the counsel of the physicians had ordered a bath of lukewarm water to be prepared for himself to recover his health; placed in it, through the carelessness of the attendants, drenched with boiling instead of lukewarm water and scalded in his whole body, he is carried half-dead to his bed. There, tormented by the intolerable burning of the sores, he shortly invoked the help of Blessed Gratia, with tears rather than with his voice; who, appearing to him that very night, holding a most white flower before his mouth, bade him be of good heart, and brought him sure hope of recovering his health, which he afterwards testified on oath that he received perfectly at once after the vision.
[26] The infant Antonio, lying down with a long illness, is snatched from the very jaws of death by the faith of his parents Battista the boatman and Giovanna, who had recourse to Gratia; and Giustina Zanchi, a widow, made lame by a certain accident and lying immobile for three years, obtained by the patronage of the same Gratia the faculty of walking freely; nor by a dissimilar gift Caterina de Manfrix, deprived of the movement of her limbs by habitual sciatica, is restored to her former soundness by the merits of Blessed Gratia, whose patronage she had implored.
[27] in the year 1674. In the year 1674, languishing at Murano with a deadly illness, the infant Pietro, son of Benedetto the glass-maker and Elena Beltramia, in the sixteenth month of his life breathed out his last spirit; and he had already been placed on the bier: when, the sacristan of the church of St. Christopher arriving, on his advice the most sorrowful parents invoked with singular confidence the name of Blessed Gratia; by the power of whose merits he who had been dead rose up, and this report went out into all that land [Farlati brought forward some selected miracles of Blessed Gratia from Eliseo Polono, volume cited, p. 477, which, except one, are those which Corner narrates of Agostino Donato (n. 19), of Cornelio Contarini (n. 21), of Santo Giusto (n. 25), of the little son of Benedetto the glass-maker (n. 27). The one which he adds to these I copy out at this place. "He had known the intolerable anguish of heart of a certain widow, who, after losing the staff of her old age, namely her only son, was wailing inconsolably. By a sudden chance she lost him at Venice; she sought him with the greatest solicitude through the windings of the city, moved every stone, inquiring even of those she met, extending herself to the more remote places, and in vain. Already seven years of affliction had run their course, when she is bereft even of that which is the last anchor of the wretched, namely hope. At last, divinely warned, she has recourse to the island of St. Christopher. There at that time the saint was living at his work
Gratia; when, after the manner of the Shunammite woman, the hostess of St. Elisha, falling on her knees in a similar case, she embraced his feet with groaning cries, to her inmost consolation she heard these words from his prophetic mouth: Be troubled no more, good mother; this evening, I say, you shall see him. And soon, as Blessed Gratia had foretold, having received back her pledge, she became the proclaimer of his glory."].
[28] Approaching the tomb of Blessed Gratia, Cecilia, a gardener of the shore of St. Erasmus, afflicted with a daily and long-lasting fever, while she was praying as a suppliant for health, at once recovered perfectly from the fever; and an equal benefit of soundness was received by Angelo Bertini, a fisherman of Murano, who, overwhelmed by a malignant fever, while he was struggling in his last breath, recovered health through the help of Blessed Gratia that had been implored.
[29] Very many other miracles were worked at his intercession [To these we add a miracle at which Antonio Loredan asserts he was present, and which he brings forward in these words: "Chiedi, e prendi l'esempio dal Padre fra Tadeo, a cui l'anno 1668, 18 luglio, condotta una donna, che dicevano oppressa da spiriti, per conoscere questo buon Padre se veramente era tale, senza farne motto ad alcuno, presa una cassetta nella quale il cilicio del beato Padre fra Grazia conservasi, la pose sopra la testa dell' invasata donna, e doppio ne provò il miraculo, mentre quella con urli comminciò a gridare: Grazia tu mi abbrugi, e scoperto per forza quell' immondo spirito, lasciò in quel instante di maggiormente molestarla." [Ask, and take the example of Father Fra Taddeo, to whom, in the year 1668, on the 18th of July, a woman was brought who they said was oppressed by spirits; this good Father, to learn whether she truly was so, without saying a word to anyone, took a little box in which the hair shirt of the blessed Father Fra Grazia is kept, and put it on the head of the possessed woman, and proved the miracle doubly, for she began to cry out with howls: Grazia, you are burning me, and that unclean spirit, discovered by force, at that instant left off molesting her further.]] which, through the sloth of former times, as I said above, have been lost in oblivion; but it has pleased me to review these, so that through the knowledge of them, almighty God glorifying the humility of his servant, devotion toward the blessed man, growing lukewarm with the flow of time, may now revive again and be increased.