Matthew of Mantua

ON BL. MATTHEW OF MANTUA, CONFESSOR, OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS, AT VIGEVANO IN THE DUCHY OF MILAN,

IN THE YEAR MCDLXXI, OR MCDLXX.

SYLLOGE CONCERNING HIS DEEDS AND CULT.

Matthew of Mantua, of the Order of Friars Preachers, confessor, at Vigevano in the duchy of Milan. (Bl.)

BY C. S.

§ I. Place of the cult: memory in the Martyrologies: elogium from Taegio: a few other things taken from others: some miracles after death: time of death.

Viglevanum — which others call Veglivanum, Viglebanum, Vigevanum, Vegivanum, others again somewhat otherwise, Notice of the place where he is venerated; memory but the Italians in the vernacular Vigevano — is a small but elegant city of Insubria, situated not far from the river Ticino between Pavia and Milan, capital of the county of its own name, and illustrated by Clement VII with an episcopal see, under the metropolis of Milan, in the year 1529, in favour of Francis Sforza, duke of Milan. In the convent of the Friars Preachers of the same city, dedicated to St. Peter Martyr, there died holily in the fifteenth century, and, resting there honourably now too, is venerated on this day, B. Matthew, of the same Order of Preachers, called of Mantua from his homeland, but De Carreriis from the family of which he was born. Of the martyrologists, if you except the Dominicans, I know only Philip Ferrarius who announces him, in the General Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, recording him at this day, the 5th of October, briefly thus: At Vigevano, of B. Matthew, confessor of the Order of Preachers. Then in the Annotations there he adds these things: He was a Mantuan by homeland. He died at Vigevano in the year of the Lord MCCCCLXXII, where, shining daily with miracles, he is venerated by concession of the Apostolic See.

[2] At the same day of October the memory of Matthew is celebrated by Domenico Maria Marchese in the sacred Dominican Diary, in a few Martyrologies: the writers and by James Lafon in the Dominican Year likewise, both of the Order of Preachers, and they exhibit a compendium of his life, which will be of use below. I shall prove his lawful cult below, after I have set forth the few things which we know of his deeds. Luke Castellini, in the Treatise on the Certitude of the glory of canonized Saints, chapter 2, making discourse of him, says: Whose illustrious deeds innumerable writers report, Ambrose Taegio, Leander Alberti, Jerome Borselli, Seraphin Razzi and John Michael Pio. The first of these, Taegio, is said in Échard, in the Bibliotheca scriptorum Ordinis Praedicatorum, to have put on the habit of the same Order at Milan in the convent of St. Mary of the Graces, then recently erected in the year 1485; which nearness of time and place, and the profession of the Order, bring it about that he could have been excellently informed concerning Matthew, snatched from the living not yet twenty years before, and not many miles from the city of Milan, namely at Vigevano.

[3] who after Taegio and Leander Alberti Taegio wrote, moreover, as is read in the praised Bibliotheca, a general Chronicle of his Order in folio, divided into six manuscript parchment volumes, and preserved in the aforesaid convent of St. Mary of the Graces. Most probably in the same place our Papebroch copied out with his own hand the elogium of this B. Matthew which we have, from Br. Ambrose (as is prefixed) Taegio of Milan, De Insigniis Ordinis Praedicatorum, Volume 3, mark N, folio 41. Then there is subjoined: Here begins the Life of B. Matthew de Carreriis of Mantua, a most holy man. It will, however, rather be called an Elogium than a Life, because it is very brief, and so celebrates him as to set forth few of his deeds. Leander Albertus or Alberti, praised in the second place in Castellini, lived either contemporary with Taegio or certainly next to him; on the testimony of the same Échard he embraced the Order of Preachers at Bologna in the year 1495; he both mentions that Chronicle and professes that he used it in writing the books on the Illustrious Men of his Order. He too, in book 5 of the same Work, recites an elegant elogium of Matthew taken from Taegio, but composed in a style even a little briefer, and augmented with no deed of the Blessed at all.

[4] That Jerome Albertucci Borselli died in the year 1497 recorded his deeds. the praised Leander writes in book 4, in my copy page 153, and he reviews his Works, which are said in Échard's Bibliotheca to be preserved in manuscript at Bologna. He too, therefore, could have known well the deeds of B. Matthew; but it is not readily in my power to consult his Works. I suspect, however, that either nothing or little is read of him in them besides what is related by Taegio and Leander, of whom at least the latter could have read his Works. In the seventeenth century died Seraphin Razzi and John Michael Pio, praised in the last place by Castellini, whose compositions I have in print; but these are namely somewhat more remote from the age of B. Matthew, and therefore of less authority than the three preceding. The other writers, whom he calls innumerable, Castellini did not name: perhaps these are more recent, or teach nothing besides concerning the Blessed, as it will be permitted to gather from what is to be said. Receive, therefore, his Life, or rather elogium, by Taegio, such as we have it copied out by our Papebroch.

[5] Here begins the Life of B. Matthew de Careriis of Mantua, a most holy man. The Blessed's birth, youth, virtues in the Order of Preachers: § I. Of his origin and his entrance into the Order, and of his holy morals. Blessed Matthew de Carreriis of Mantua shone forth, sprung like the morning star from honest and pious parents. Given to letters, he advanced not a little. Being set in his youthful years, fleeing the delights of the world, he entered the Order of Preachers, in which, most greatly intent on the study of sacred letters, he advanced so far that he was made a most fervent and devout preacher, humble of heart, diffused in charity, most patient in hope, full of faith, devout in prayer, rapt in meditation, a most fervent zealot for souls, a very great zealot of regular observance, most devoted to the passion of Christ Crucified; he could not be seen not * without tears and sighs, or a certain rapture and profound meditation.

[6] § II. Of the freeing of certain captives from the hands of pirates. the charity by which he moved a pirate to let all the captives When on one occasion he was sailing by sea from Pisa towards Genoa with Brother Cherubino of Fabriano, who related these things, the ship being intercepted by pirates, he was captured. There were moreover in that ship very many persons of both sexes: and a very great lamentation with cries and wailing arose. And the prince of the pirates, who was there, caused certain persons from the ship to be transferred to his galley, and ordered the Brothers, who were three, to be carried to land by the skiff. But when the Man of God heard and saw a certain marriageable young girl with her mother weeping piteously, because they were remaining captives, and their chastity was in the hands of impious men, moved with compassion over the calamity of mother and daughter, falling on bended knees before the feet of the prince of the pirates, with hands stretched out in the manner of a cross, he said: I beseech you, prince, keep me captive, provided you allow these two women to go away free.

[7] Then the pirate said: Good Father, it is enough that I allow you with your companions to go away: let these not be your concern; go free together with the captured ship because something else is to be done with them. But the Man of God, persevering in his petition, supplicating again, said: For the sake of Him who redeemed you and the whole world with His precious blood, keep me, and let these two women go free. The tyrant, therefore, moved by the holy Man's prayers, said: Go, and pray God for me; because, as I see, you are a Man of God, and of regular observance. And not only these women for whom you ask, but this whole multitude of persons also I give to you; dispose of all at your pleasure. Thanks, therefore, having been returned, and all having been let go free with the ship, the holy Father exhorted them to give thanks to God, to beware of sins, and in the future to live according to Christian doctrine. And the mother with her daughter wished to honour the holy Man with gifts; to whom the holy Man said: Go, and give thanks to God, who in His goodness has freed you from so great a danger; and, as much as you can, beware of offending Him.

[8] his pious death, which he had wonderfully foreknown. § III. Of his last sickness and happy passing. After many labours, however, which he long endured in the vineyard of the Lord by preaching, hearing confessions, studying, praying and watching, he fell into a grave sickness, which with great

patience, always giving thanks to his Creator, he bore. And when the languor grew heavier, being at Vigevano, having called the Prior and his confessor, he said: Know, best father, that I am to die of this sickness: for I have asked the Lord many times that before my departure from this life He would give me something of His most sweet passion to taste; which He has also done. For I feel my heart wounded by the Lord with a nail; and so great is the pain of my heart that it does not * seem to live longer in this mortal body: for the Lord had wounded his heart with His most sweet passion. Not many days after, having devoutly received all the Ecclesiastical Sacraments, that most holy soul, loosed from the flesh, flew happily to heaven in the year of the Lord MCCCCLXXI, on the 6th day of the month of October.

[9] He shines with miracles: for a count of Piacenza access to the duke of Milan § IV. Of the miracles performed after his death. After the death of the blessed Man very many miracles followed at his invocation, as the wax and silver images, and the many candles, hanging at his venerable sepulchre attest, which it would be long to narrate; of which I shall not omit to relate one. Lord Stephen, count of Piacenza, was deprived by Galeazzo, duke of Milan, of the lordship of three castles in the county of Piacenza. He came, therefore, to Vigevano to the duke, who at that time was staying there. The duke had commanded the castellan, under pain of the head, not to permit the count himself to come in to him. The count stayed in a hostelry, not a little sad, revolving in his mind whether in any way he could approach the duke: meanwhile one of his men, coming from the county of Piacenza, reported how the duke had placed garrisons in those castles: to whom the count said, I know, and would that nothing worse befall me! For he feared death.

[10] and divinely procures the restitution of his castles. While these things were being done, the host, seeing the count so sad, said: What ails you? Is there anything in which I can be of help to you? Having understood the count's affliction, he said: If you will listen to me, perhaps you will be free. To whom the count said, There is nothing which I would not do, provided audience were given me by the prince. To whom he said, Go to the church of B. Peter M. of the Order of Preachers, and pray to B. Matthew of Mantua, a Brother of the aforesaid Order, who shines with many miracles; perhaps you will obtain some remedy. And when the count mocked him, and finally complied, he came to the tomb of the blessed Man, that he would give a great quantity of money if he could have audience of the prince and his towns. And going from the church to the castle where the duke was, he came through all the gates without any contradiction to the duke, and, bringing forward his reasons, heard from the duke: I had decreed to banish you and to deprive you of your goods, and perhaps of life; but now, compelled by a certain superior power, I restore you to your former rank, and confirm all the privileges of your predecessors with all the castles. He went away glad and rejoicing, and faithfully narrated the miracle to his host and to many others.

[11] These things, and no more, Taegio has of this blessed Man; which Leander Alberti described almost thus, A few things are observed so as to contract some of them into a compendium. And these indeed are such as to inspire an excellent esteem of B. Matthew and to kindle a desire of knowing his other deeds. But whatever Castellini, reported at number 2, may say, that they are reported by innumerable writers, Marchese and Lafon more rightly blame and deplore the carelessness of their predecessors in transmitting them to posterity; nor could they find more than a few things besides those which Taegio and Leander handed down. That Mantua, a most ancient and commonly most well-known city of Italy, fell to Matthew as his homeland all agree with Taegio, and the very surname of Mantuan, which Leander Alberti likewise attributes to him, sufficiently declares it. The family from which the same two writers call him de Carreriis Marchese calls most noble, Lafon illustrious; and they assert that the Blessed himself obtained at the sacred font of Baptism the name of John Francis, but in the Order of Preachers that of Matthew.

[12] It is credible that they received these things from some suitable instrument; on the foregoing. but, if any family de Carreriis illustrious for nobility then existed at Mantua, what prevents me from believing that B. Matthew was born of it is Taegio, above at number 5, teaching only that he was born of honest and pious parents; and Leander Alberti, calling him Carerius without any mention of the nobility of parents or stock. In what year he was born I have read as disclosed by no one: nor can it be gathered here from his year of death, because the last age at which he died is unknown. Yet since he ceased to live in the year 1471, or perhaps the preceding, and no one mentions his very advanced age, it is most probable that he first saw the light in the same fifteenth century in which he died. Unknown to me likewise is the year in which he put on the sacred habit of the Order of Preachers, all whom I have consulted being silent about it.

[13] Marchese writes that he shone with many virtues in his very novitiate, The novice's zeal for prayer, fasting, ecstasies. of which matter there can deservedly be no doubt. Of his singular abstinence he reports one thing, which, since he says it was received from the testimony of his contemporaries, I transfer here in Marchese's words turned from the Italian speech into Latin. He was so given to prayer that, after the manner of St. Bernard, he was always intent and raised in mind to God; and since in this fervour of spirit he reckoned the customary chastisements of the body too light, from the usual imprudence of fervent novices he so afflicted his body that he incurred evident danger of life. For among other things he was of such abstinence from food that, as is established from the testimony of many of his contemporaries, his jaws and teeth were sometimes so clenched from excessive weakness that, for the sake of reviving him and strengthening him with a generous liquor, it was necessary to prise open his mouth with an iron instrument. Then Marchese adds that he was for this reason reproved by his master, and forbidden to apply any affliction of his body in future without having asked and received permission; and that, by the prudent counsel of the same master, he transferred his mind so easily rather to restraining the senses of his soul and to contemplating divine things that he was rapt into frequent ecstasies.

[14] He is said to have abolished at Soncino the custom of profaning feast days; That he was a most fervent herald of the word of God and outstanding in apostolic charity Taegio said above, and he also observed it in the Chronicle under the year 1471, where, on the testimony of Papebroch, who copied it out, he says of him thus: He was also a most fervent preacher and a wonderful zealot for souls. Leander Alberti agrees, saying in his elogium: He was a vehement preacher of the word of God and a sedulous seeker of souls. But neither of these narrates any deed of this kind besides that one of the captives freed from the hands of the pirates, into which they had fallen together with him. Four examples of another kind Marchese and Lafon report, supported by I know not how certain testimonies. The first they set forth in almost this manner. While Matthew was staying on a certain feast day at Soncino, which is a town of the duchy of Milan in the territory of Cremona on the river Oglio, for the sake of preaching the divine word, having heard that the people were indulging in dances to the sound of drums and pipes, vehemently moved by the profanation of the sacred day, he called all to a sermon by ringing the bell of the tower, and, ascending the pulpit, perorated with such ardour and eloquence that he moved his hearers to penance and tears, and entirely abolished that profane custom from that town.

[15] where he also reformed the convent and converted Luchina. I do not know whether to the same or to another time pertain the reformation of the convent of the Order of Preachers at Soncino and the notable conversion of Luchina, a noble matron of the same town, but vain and much given to luxury; of which the same two writers affirm that the first was happily accomplished by B. Matthew by the mandate of Martial Auribelli, Master general of the Preachers; and they record that Luchina was so vehemently moved by a single sermon of his that, bathed in tears, she came to him, and under him as master advanced so far that, having put on the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic, she lived holily and merited to be inscribed in the sacred Dominican Fasti. She is inscribed in them at the 7th day of August, but with us, because her cult was not established, she was reported there among the Passed Over. Further, since Martial Auribelli held the supreme magistracy of the Order twice, first from the year 1453 up to 1459, and again from the year 1465 up to 1473, in which, on the testimony of Échard in the Bibliotheca, he ceased to live; and Matthew died in the year 1471 or perhaps the preceding; it is permitted to determine in some broad way the time of the reforming of the convent of Soncino.

[16] Another specimen of the same zeal given by him at Vigevano: The fourth specimen of B. Matthew's apostolic zeal was given, they say, at Vigevano, and they narrate it in almost this manner. On the feast day of St. Mark a band of dancers and comedians had assembled before the ducal palace, to entertain publicly with their play-acting the duke of Milan, who was present at Vigevano, and the people. The Man of God ran up to forbid the profane sports; and when he made no progress with sacred admonitions, burning with zeal for the divine honour, he drove away the crowds with a stick. And they yielded then indeed to him as he drove them, but through the courtiers they persuaded the prince that this deed was injurious to him and not to be permitted with impunity. For which reason the duke, angered, having summoned the Man of God, sharply rebuked him, threatening extremities if he should commit anything like it in future. But he, not at all moved by these things, intrepidly reproved even the prince, because in his dominion, which he had received from God, he not only did not protect the honour of God, but even threatened the sacred heralds who were discharging their office in averting injury to the divine Majesty. They add that these things were pronounced with such confidence and strength of soul that the duke and the courtiers who were present looked up with admiration at the virtue of the reprover and praised it.

[17] They also report two miracles performed by him in the same city while he was among the living. two miracles of his while he lived, and prophecies. The first is the cure of a certain boy, who, while his father (whom they call Ambrose Gravellona, and say was one of the richer noble men of the same city) was attending the sermons of the blessed Man, unobserved fell into a pan of boiling oil and foully burned his hands and face. Having learned this, the father, returned home, is said to have gone back to Matthew and to have insisted with him so long that he would obtain from God the former wholeness of his child, until he ordered him to return to his house, promising that it would come about that he would find the boy already then much better, and within a few days would have him plainly unharmed. The event, they say, answered to the promises, and the boy, when his age permitted, gave his name to the Order of Minors. The other cure, they affirm, fell to a certain Antonio Ferrari, who, when he had laboured for the space of six years with a flux of blood and urine, remedies having been tried in vain, set forth this his calamity to B. Matthew and begged him to pray well for him. He, moved with compassion, his eyes raised to heaven, performed what was asked; nor was there delay, the suppliant

he dismissed immune from that evil for the future. They say finally that the Blessed foretold the year of his death, the place, and the disasters which Louis XII, king of France, brought upon Italy at the beginning of the sixteenth century.

[18] They agree also with Taegio concerning the death at hand for him, perceived by the Blessed from the huge pain of his heart, Whether Christ, as some assert, appeared to him before his death as if pierced with a dart; but they add that this pain was then inflicted on him by Christ the Lord appearing visibly and promising that within a few days he would pass to heaven. The same apparition, though not the promise, is also mentioned by Seraphin Razzi in his Life, John Michael Pio, book 3 De viris illustribus Ordinis Praedicatorum, chapter 44, and John López, part 3 of the History of the same Order, chapter 15. Whence they learned these things escapes me; but if we believe Taegio, a contemporary writer, and therefore of weightier authority, Matthew seems to have understood the nearness of his death from nowhere else than from the aforesaid torment of the heart, by which he saw himself possessed of his wish of tasting a little of the most bitter passion of Christ before his death. You have the words of Taegio above at number 8; I add here also those of Leander Alberti, who lived for some time contemporary with Taegio, and perhaps even with the Blessed himself.

[19] The holy Man, he says, had been accustomed to contemplate the image of Christ fixed to the Cross not without tears or a certain very great surging of soul, seems to have appeared. nor without profound meditation. Set in his last sickness, he disclosed to the one presiding over the convent that he would altogether die of that sickness, from this, that he had earnestly besought God that He would make him taste a little of His most bitter passion before he departed; which indeed, asking it, he had a little before been made possessed of his wish, because he felt that his heart was as it were pierced with a dart, and tormented with so great pain that he could not live much longer. Further, Christ our Lord had wounded his heart with His torment, as he had besought. Perhaps the praised more recent writers interpreted these words of Leander and the words of Taegio related above of a visible apparition of Christ and a promised swift passing to heaven. At least they praise no other witnesses; nor do I know whom they had for asserting the facts which I have reported above on their credit at number 14 and the three following.

[20] He is said to have died in the year 1471 by Taegio and Leander, In assigning the year of his death (unless it be an error of the compositor alone) Castellini, praised above, chapter 2, page 152, erred greatly, where he marked the year of the Christian era 1244; nor did Razzi rightly mark the year 1441, unless this too is to be attributed to the fault of the compositor. Taegio, Leander Alberti, Pio and López agree on the year 1471; Marchese and Lafon on 1470. And why he prefers this year to the year 1471 the latter alleges a reason from a certain instrument drawn up, as he says, by public authority on the 24th day of April of the year 1471, in which a certain mother is said, having made a vow of visiting the sepulchre of B. Matthew, to have received her son alive from dead, and to have paid her vow on the same year and day. Whence he reasons almost thus: According to the common opinion of all, B. Matthew died in the month of October; in order, therefore, that the said woman could have come to his sepulchre on the 24th day of April of the year 1471 for the sake of paying her vow, he must have ceased to live before the same year.

[21] by others in the year 1470, I do not indeed know whether Lafon saw the authentic instrument itself, or only praised it from Marchese, whose words I shall give below. If, however, the autograph itself, or at least an accurate apograph, lighted the way of both or of either, Lafon's argument is altogether convincing, and an error is to be acknowledged in Taegio's numbers, which other more recent writers afterwards adopted. Yet what prevents me from admitting this easily is, first, Taegio himself expressing the same year in the Chronicle, on the testimony of Papebroch, who at the end of the elogium which I have given noted the following: The same (namely Taegio) in the Chronicle under the year MCCCCLXXI: "In the same year, on the 6th day of October, Br. Matthew de Carreriis of Mantua passed to the Lord at Vigevano, a notable town of the diocese of Novara, and was buried in the church of the Brothers;" namely the Preachers. There stands in the way, second, Leander Alberti, a writer of the same time, who retained the same year in these words: Matthew Carerius of Mantua, a devout man and very exact in conscience, so that he weighed even the least things, in the convent of Vigevano, a town of Insubria, renowned for miracles, most devoutly rendered his spirit to God in the year of our Salvation MCCCCLXXI. These things therefore altogether persuade that his true year of death was 1471; yet on account of the public instrument praised by Marchese and Lafon, concerning which, as I have said, I am not sufficiently certain, I have preferred to note in the margin the year 1471 or 1470.

[22] on the 6th day of October, or perhaps the 5th. As for what pertains to the day of death, this too is marked by Taegio (for Leander does not mention it), both in the Life, or elogium, and in the Chronicle, as the 6th day of the month of October; wherefore it seems altogether to be retained here. Yet since others, and among these Pope Benedict XIV, book 2 De Beatorum canonizatione etc., chapter 24, §2, number 7, write that he died on the 5th day of the same month, and on that day, from what has been said and is to be said, he is venerated at Vigevano, perhaps his blessed death did indeed take place on the 5th day of October, but after sunset, and therefore Taegio referred it to the 6th day according to the Italian manner of reckoning, in which the day begins from sunset, as has also been observed elsewhere in our Work.

* perhaps ingressu entrance?

* perhaps quam than?

* perhaps videre to see?

* add posse to be able

* i.e. Martyris Martyr

* add promisit he promised

§ II. Some miracles besides obtained by his patronage after his death: the translation of his body, and an annual memory granted by Pope Sixtus IV: his cult attacked and confirmed: Mass and Office of him granted.

[The Blessed's body is said to have been fragrant with a sweet odour and he himself to have appeared in glory.] The great holiness of the blessed Man and the just esteem of the people concerning him make probable what the praised Marchese and Lafon narrate of the concourse of the people of Vigevano to the convent immediately after hearing of his departure from the living, and of the most sweet odour of his body; which, however, the latter affirms broke forth at the very time at which he was being entombed, the former, from the sworn testimonies of many, as he says, from his tomb for many days; which relations of both can be true together. They add that he was also seen, clad in his Dominican habit, and visible in great glory, rising from the sepulchre; which Marchese asserts is likewise established from public and authentic testimonies. However that may be, that he shone with miracles after his death Taegio too testified, and confirmed it by the votive offerings hung at his sepulchre, above at number 9; which he also did in the Chronicle under the year 1471, where, after relating his pious death and burial in the church of the Preachers at Vigevano, he presently attached these words: Where he also shines with miracles, as the images and wax votive offerings hung at his tomb attest. To this add Leander Alberti, saying in his elogium: Whose admirable holiness the miracles which followed his departure, and the wax images hung at his sepulchre, most plainly testify.

[24] Neither of these, however, recorded any miracle in particular besides that which I gave from Taegio at numbers 9 and 10, Of the miracles with which he certainly shone after his death, of the favour of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, duke of Milan, recovered for Stephen, count of Piacenza, and which Leander also noted, but more briefly, in this manner: Stephen, count of Piacenza, despoiled of three towns by Galeazzo Sforza, prince of the Insubrians, having made a vow to blessed Matthew, recovered them in a certain new manner on the spot. Neither of them either intimated the crime of Stephen, whether true or falsely imputed, by which he had incurred that offence of Galeazzo; but from what Muratori wrote of the same Galeazzo in the Annals of Italy under the years 1468 and 1476, no one will wonder if he had fined an innocent count with that penalty. Further, since we have from the same Muratori that Galeazzo was foully murdered by his own people in the year 1476, the deed related of Stephen must be fixed within five years from the death of B. Matthew.

[25] one is narrated of a boy raised to life; Receive, turned from the Italian speech into Latin, the miracles which Marchese narrates besides: In the place of Besate of the diocese of Milan, five miles distant from the city of Vigevano, Antonia, wife of Bertramno Valli, had a son labouring now for the fifth year with a quartan fever, which, turned at length into a continuous one, brought him to extremity. The mother, who for uncertain causes was staying abroad, having returned home, found her son dead some hours before. Having learned this, while she lamented as one beside herself, there came into her mind the holiness of Matthew, whom she had known preaching at Vigevano; and full of hope of obtaining life for her son by his prayers, she vowed that she would visit his tomb and offer I know not what gift in testimony of the benefit received; when God, wonderful in His Saints, at the same moment of time restored her son to her safe and unharmed. Wherefore both parents, in order to fulfil their vow, visited the sepulchre of the Blessed, and there, by a written instrument drawn up by public authority on the 24th day of April of the year MCCCCLXXI, testified to this miracle. See what I have noted from this for the year of death of the same Blessed above at number 20 and the following.

[26] another of a dying man suddenly healed, In a certain place of the diocese of Mantua a certain youth, Leonello by name (in Lafon, in place of a youth, a young woman is spoken of), after an infirmity of many years had been reduced to such a point that, abandoned by the physicians and bereft of the faculty of speaking, he was at the last term of life. While, therefore, the funeral rites were already being prepared, one of his friends called out to him that he should commit himself to B. Matthew of Mantua for obtaining life, if it were expedient for his eternal salvation. The sick man did so with an inner voice, as he could; and presently he felt as it were someone touching all his limbs, and suddenly experienced himself sound and strong, so that he was able by his own strength to raise himself from the bed, and cried out: Now by the grace of God and of B. Matthew I am sound; and in fact, as one sound, he ate and went out of the bed, no differently than if he had never been seized by any evil.

[27] a third of an infant believed dead; a fourth of a woman grievously wounded; A certain woman of Vigevano, daughter of Augustine Moscone, after the pains of many days in childbirth, bore a daughter, dead in the opinion of all who had seen her. Her sister, pitying the loss of this soul, had recourse to B. Matthew, supplicating that he would procure life for the infant until she should be washed in the sacred font. She obtained beyond her vow: for the infant was not only baptized, but also lived many years. While something was being built in the same town of Vigevano in the house of Franceschino Maggi, a huge stone from the wall

fell upon the back of his wife, who was gathering some other stones. So lethal was the injury that the woman, having suffered a fainting of spirit for many hours, was reckoned dead by the physicians who had been summoned. At length, wrapped in medicated bandages and laid on a bed, having recovered her senses, she experienced so vehement a torment that she believed she would die on the spot. Yet having invoked the help of B. Matthew with an inner voice, since she could not with an outer one, she was at once heard, so that on the next morning she rose from the bed as one never afflicted by the evil which had made the physicians despair of her life.

[28] A woman cast headlong from a heap of stones of a very high wall; Christopher, a mason, [the fifth, sixth and seventh of those endangered by a fall; the eighth of the son of duke Sforza healed;] fallen from the roof of a lofty building; the daughter of John Baptist Gravellona, rolled head downward from the stairs — of all of whose lives the physicians had judged that it was over — commended with a vow to B. Matthew, escaped unharmed, the wounds which they had received from the fall being suddenly healed. Galeazzo II (namely Sforza, of whom we have treated, who was the second of the Sforzas as duke of Milan, but the first of his name) and Bona (of Savoy), his wife, dukes of Milan, made a vow to the same Blessed for the health of their son, who also forthwith received health.

[29] Through the same man's patronage God gave light to the blind, and others of others in general gave the lame a straight gait, drove away deadly fevers, removed the most bitter torments of the stone, of pleurisy, of the intestines, of the stomach, of the head, of pestiferous gangrene, of dropsy, of obstructions, and innumerable others. He himself obtained for those born dumb the faculty of speaking, and for barren women fruitfulness and happy childbirths. So many, finally, and so great were the miracles and benefits granted by God at his invocation that, when a splendid chapel had been built for him from the offerings of the faithful, which the noble man James Carbone afterwards adorned, his body was translated from its first tomb into it and placed in a marble ark above the altar; where he is venerated by the faithful not only with private devotion, but also, by Apostolic indult, his annual feast is celebrated in the same convent with the Office and Mass from the common of a confessor not a pontiff, and is kept solemnly throughout the whole city on the 5th day of October, on which he died. See, however, concerning the day of death above at number 22.

[30] Further, the lawful cult of this B. Matthew is proved by Luke Castellini, Pope Sixtus IV granted the translation of his body whom I mentioned above, in the Treatise De certitudine gloriae Sanctorum canonizatorum etc., chapter 2, page 152 and the following, placing this one too, of which we are now treating, among other concessions of cult specially made by the Apostolic See. Have his words: To all these can be added the Apostolic concession made, at the instance and petition of the General of the Order of Preachers, Br. Salvo Cassetta of Palermo, by Sixtus IV on the 8th day of February MCDLXXXIV, in honour of the venerable man of God Br. Matthew of Mantua, of the Order of Preachers, who, on account of the exceptional holiness of his morals and on account of his eminent and heroic * virtues, was called by all (while he lived) the bright light of the Order of Preachers, whose happy death took place in the year MCCXLIV (nay more than two centuries later, as has been proved) in the convent of St. Peter Martyr of Vigevano, not without great splendour of holiness and of miracles, etc.

[31] By which concession that supreme Pontiff bestowed two things principally. and an annual memory; his head in a silver reliquary, The first, namely, that the body of the said Blessed should be translated from the first tomb in which it had been buried to another, worthier and more honourable, in the same church. The second, that on the feast of the Dedication of the church of St. Peter Martyr of Vigevano his (namely Matthew's) memory with a collect might be solemnly made and sung, as it has been done from that time up to now (that is, up to the year 1628), not without great concourse and devotion of the peoples. Yet no Office is made of the same Blessed, nor is Mass sung, as some have incorrectly written. Nay, from the public books of the same city of Vigevano, signed by the own hand of the consuls and notaries, namely Francis Portelli, and John Angelo Fascia, notary and chancellor of the corporation of the same city, fortified with the public seal of that city, it appears that the head of that Blessed is honourably laid away in a silver reliquary, on which are read the following words: To Blessed Matthew of the Order of Preachers, its patron, the people of Vigevano dedicated this, 1518.

[32] [the remaining bones are enclosed in a marble tomb: the vow of the city for increasing his cult.] And on the marble ark in which his sacred body lies the following words are likewise seen: Here was a herald to thee, is a father, O zeal of Vigevano, whom the silver head, the ark of marble holds, on the 25th day of April 1519. These two little verses, through whose fault I know not, are without doubt faulty; but what if they are to be explained thus? Here on earth he was a herald to thee, now he is Father, or patron, in heaven, O man of Vigevano; whom, or whose relics — namely the head, a silver reliquary worked in the form of a head, and the rest of the body a marble ark — hold, or keep enclosed. I proceed to recite Castellini's words. From the same letters, he says, of the corporation and community of the said city of Vigevano it is also clearly had how in the public council of the nobles and citizens of the same city, in the year MDCXXV, on the 20th day of October, it was established and ordained that a petition be urgently made to the Apostolic See that licence be granted of saying Mass and reciting the Office of the said blessed Matthew on the day of his solemnity, by a vow made by the same city in honour of that Servant of God.

[33] Benedict XIV approved both concessions of Sixtus IV The sayings of Castellini the supreme Pontiff Benedict XIV partly approved and confirmed in his Work De Servorum Dei beatificatione et Beatorum canonizatione, books 2 and 4, treating of equipollent beatifications and of concessions of cult made by the Apostolic See, and illustrating that argument with examples; whence it will be useful to have copied out here the things which pertain to the present B. Matthew. In book 2, chapter 24, he has these things: So widely did the fame of the holiness of this Blessed (Matthew of Mantua) spread that the supreme Pontiff Sixtus IV granted by oracle of the living voice that his body should be translated from the first tomb in which it had been buried to another worthier and more honourable sepulchre in the same church, and that on the feast of the Dedication of the church of St. Peter Martyr his memory should be solemnly sung and made; as is gathered from an authentic instrument existing in the archive of the convent of St. Peter Martyr of the city of Vigevano. Then he subjoins the instrument itself, such as I report it here from the same.

[34] To his dearest ones in the Son of God, the venerable Father Prior, from the letters of Salvo Cassetta, Master of the Order of Preachers, or President, and to all the fathers and brothers of the convent of Vigevano, of the province of Lombardy of the Order of Preachers, Br. Salvo Cassetta of Palermo, professor of sacred Theology, and humble Master and servant of the same Order, health and peace in the Lord Jesus, the Saviour of all. Since we judge those worthy of honour and celebration who have led a life adorned with illustrious morals and virtues, for that reason we have resolved to propose these letters to be read by all who think rightly, so that men illustrious in merits and worthy of praises may by no means seem covered with darkness or defrauded of the commendation they have merited. For if we so greatly admire and cultivate Romans, Greeks and barbarians, who, although renowned for virtues, yet ignorant of Christ, have been so celebrated by the talents of writers and illustrated by eloquence, why indeed do we either wrap in silence most holy men initiated into Christ, conspicuous for religion, piety and holiness, or suffer them to lack the splendour of their praises?

[35] Wherefore, since from the beginning of this our sacred religion of Preachers men most renowned for virtues and learning have always flourished, in which he wrote that he obtained it from Sixtus, who, blessed Dominic being leader and founder, have brought most abundant fruits into the field of the militant Church, there has come in our times a man most excellent in holiness, innocence of life, sacred morals and integrity of soul, Br. Matthew of Mantua, whom the immortal God showed, as pre-eminent in purity of life, so also most holy in a precious death; whose integrity, holiness and religion showed to mortals and immortals not merely a human but rather an angelic life, and whose merits are such that he shone everywhere with many signs and miracles. Hence *, therefore, lest he should lie unknown to the faithful, we have thought fit to propose him to the rest as an example of good living and of imitation; and lately, when we were at the feet of the Most Holy Father in Christ and our lord, the lord Sixtus, by divine providence Pope IV, we obtained from his clemency by oracle of the living voice that his sacred body should be translated from the first tomb in which it had been buried to another, worthier and more honourable (sepulchre) in the same church, and that on the feast of the Dedication of the church of St. Peter Martyr of Vigevano, of the same Order, his memory should be solemnly sung and made.

[36] Wherefore we exhort all the faithful in the Lord that, provoked and kindled by the merits and examples of all the Saints, they follow the path of living well and rightly, and he exhorts all to imitate and venerate the Blessed: and hope that they will obtain immortal glory by the prayers of this most religious and most holy Man. In faith and testimony of all which we have thought fit to affix the seal of our office to these presents. Farewell, and pray God for us. Given at Rome on the eighth day of the month of February in the year of the Lord's Nativity one thousand four hundred and eighty-two. Thus far the letter of the praised Master of the Order of Preachers. Further, since B. Matthew, from what has been said above, died on the 5th or 6th day of October of the year 1470 or the following, it follows that his public cult, which had begun immediately from his death through the piety of the people of Vigevano, was granted and confirmed by the supreme Pontiff in the eleventh or twelfth year after it; and that therefore Matthew himself was equipollently beatified, as they speak.

[37] It follows, second, that the marble ark and the silver reliquary, hence his cult increased: in which his sacred relics are preserved, were first completed about the thirty-seventh year after the same beatification, if the inscriptions reported at numbers 31 and 32 are correct. Undoubtedly, after the cult of Matthew had been granted by Sixtus IV, the piety and confidence of the people of Vigevano towards the Blessed grew, and from their collected votive offerings and the munificence of the city there were at length made, in the year one thousand five hundred and eighteen and the following, the aforesaid silver reliquary for his sacred head and the marble ark for the rest of the body to be honourably preserved.

[38] The people of Vigevano had deservedly continued to honour B. Matthew with the cult granted by the Apostolic See, which we have mentioned, up to the year 1625, [and afterwards, on occasion of the Decree of Urban VIII, attacked by the bishop of Vigevano,] in which the celebrated decrees of Pope Urban VIII came forth concerning the veneration of those who died with the fame or opinion of holiness or martyrdom, by which the rash or ill-advised cult of some towards defunct persons of this kind

was restrained in exhibiting cult. For from these decrees, badly understood, Francis Romerio, eighth bishop of Vigevano, judged that the cult hitherto offered to B. Matthew was to be prohibited. But the Prior of the convent of Vigevano took up the cause of his Blessed before the Congregation of the holy Office at Rome, and happily won it. So again Benedict XIV teaches in book 2 of the Work praised above, chapter 24, §2, reporting this, to the present purpose, among the declarations of cases excepted in the decrees of Urban VIII: On Tuesday, the 2nd day of December 1625, there was a Congregation of the holy Office in the palace of the most illustrious and most reverend lord Cardinal Bandini in the region of the Campus Martius, before the most illustrious and most reverend lords Cardinals of the H. R. C., general Inquisitors, in which, the memorial of the Prior of the convent of St. Dominic of Vigevano having been read, it was decreed that it be written to the bishop of the said city that he not hinder the cult and veneration customarily exhibited to B. Matthew for more than a hundred years, since he is among those comprehended in the paragraph: Declarans.

[39] he was vindicated by the Congregation of the holy Office, The aforesaid decree (so the praised Pontiff continues in the same place) exists in the Registers of the Decrees of the sacred Congregation of the holy Office, in which there also exists the Letter written by the same sacred Congregation to the bishop of Vigevano. Here he subjoins the same letter, which, because it is written in the Italian speech, I attach in Latin. The Prior of the convent of St. Dominic of the same city (Vigevano) has set forth to the sacred Congregation that in the church of his brethren cult and veneration is paid to a certain blessed Matthew, honoured as such for the space of a hundred and more years, and that this has now been hindered by your lordship on account of the decree of this sacred Congregation, published some months ago, concerning the veneration of persons who died with the fame of holiness or martyrdom. And because in the aforesaid Decree the mind of our Most Holy Lord and of the sacred Congregation was not that those should be comprehended whose cult was begun and tolerated for more than a hundred years, nay since these are expressly excepted in the paragraph Declarans etc., and in these words: Longissimi temporis scientia etc.; therefore, since blessed Matthew is in this case, they have ordered me to write to your lordship that you not hinder the continuation of the cult and veneration hitherto exhibited to him, etc.

[40] and it continues today, Certainly it is manifest that the case excepted from the Decree of Urban VIII holds place here, from the paragraph alleged just now in the Letter. For it runs thus: Declaring that by the things written above he does not wish nor intend to prejudice in anything those who are venerated either by the common consent of the Church, or by an immemorial course of time, or through the writings of the Fathers and holy men, or by the knowledge and toleration of a very long time of the Apostolic See or of the ordinary. And the cult of Matthew, of whom we treat here, had already then been begun from a time exceeding the limit of a hundred years — which space of years Urban VIII himself also declared, in a Brief issued on the 5th day of July of the year 1634, to be indicated in the same Decree by a very long time and its immemorial course; and the same cult had continued with the knowledge and toleration of the same very long time (nay also with the express concession) of the Apostolic See (namely of Pope Sixtus IV) and of the ordinary, namely from the year 1482 up to the year 1625, as is clear from what has been said.

[41] and what the people of Vigevano had vowed to seek from the Apostolic See, Very honourable also to this B. Matthew is what Castellini asserted at number 32 concerning the letters of the corporation and community of the people of Vigevano, drawn up in the same year 1625, on the 20th day of October, in public council and by a vow, for pressing the Apostolic See to obtain licence to celebrate the Office and Mass of him: but since neither in the Decree of the holy Office issued on the 2nd day of December of the same year, which I have reviewed, nor in the letters given to the bishop of Vigevano concerning permitting his cult, which I have likewise reported, is any mention made of a new concession of this kind, and it is only provided that the bishop not hinder the continuation of the cult and veneration hitherto exhibited to him, the people of Vigevano seem either to have postponed the execution of their vow to another time, or, if they then entrusted it to the same Prior of the convent of their city, to have been meanwhile disappointed in their hope. Certainly Castellini himself, who published his Work in the year 1628, expressly denied in the words given at number 31 that Mass was wont to be sung or the Office made of him in his time, as some (he says) have incorrectly written.

[42] That this faculty was nevertheless afterwards granted by the Apostolic See others, older than Castellini, persuade, He was afterwards also augmented with an annual Office and Mass. unless these are to be believed to have lightly followed the others whom Castellini refutes. Certainly that B. Matthew is venerated with Office and Mass at Vigevano in the convent of St. Peter Martyr of the Order of Preachers every year on the 5th day of October by special Apostolic indult was afterwards also asserted by Marchese in the Dominican Diary, printed at the Naples presses in the year 1679, and by Lafon in the Dominican Year likewise, published at Amiens in the year 1712; who, I am persuaded, did not write this rashly, from the Work of the often-praised Benedict XIV, in whose book 4, part 2, chapter 3, number 12 this very thing is also affirmed.

* read heroicasque heroic

* perhaps Hunc [Him]?