ON BL. PETER OF IMOLA, KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM, AT FLORENCE IN TUSCANY,
IN THE YEAR MCCCXX.
SYLLOGE.
Peter of Imola, knight of St. John of Jerusalem, at Florence in Tuscany. (Bl.)
BY C. B.
Although no hagiologists at all, whether Italian or others, older than the present century The Blessed, whom Chastelain brought into his Universal Martyrology, have commemorated in the sacred Fasti composed by them Blessed Peter, commonly surnamed from his birthplace of Imola, or of Forum Cornelii, which is a city of Emilia, a noble region of Italy, situated under Pontifical dominion between Bologna and Faenza, yet Chastelain brought him into his Universal Martyrology at this day, when he published it from the Paris presses in the year 1709, in these French words rendered by me into Latin: At Florence, blessed Peter of Imola, knight of St. John of Jerusalem, Roman Prior. James Bosio brought to light from the Vatican presses at Rome in the year 1594 the History of the sacred Order and most illustrious Militia of St. John of Jerusalem, which Order is now more commonly called the Order of Malta; and another edition of this Work, much enlarged, came forth in the century just elapsed. In the latter of these two editions, of which only the older exists with us, our Blessed Peter is treated in part 1, book 13, and the author teaches that no written Acts of him are found, as I understand from Joseph Maria Brocchi, a Florentine writer to be praised below. Moreover, Ferdinand Ughelli, himself also a Florentine writer, mentions our Blessed, or rather his sacred remains, in volume 3 of the Italia Sacra, made public in the year 1647, among the archbishops of Florence, column 138, writing thus: He had likewise formerly consecrated (namely John, archbishop of Florence), together with Rainerius, bishop of Fiesole, the church of saint James in Campo Corbolino, a noble commandery of the knights of the Jerusalem militia (namely at Florence), in the year MCCVI; in which, under the high altar, the sacred remains of blessed Peter of Imola, knight of Jerusalem, are preserved with the highest veneration; of whom Luca Ferrini makes mention in the Catalogue of the churches and pious places of the city of Florence. From this place of Ughelli, or from Luca Ferrini, not at hand to me, whom this author praises in the words recited, or finally also from the enlarged History of Bosio on the Order of the knights of Malta just mentioned, Chastelain perhaps drew his notice of our Blessed, and thought him to be brought into his Universal Martyrology. However this matter stands, he at any rate not undeservedly gave Peter a place in that new Hagiology of his, as will become plain from what is now to be said.
[2] Joseph Maria Brocchi, priest, protonotary Apostolic and rector of the seminary of Florence, he is celebrated by Brocchi in a more prolix elogium, not so long ago published in the Italian idiom a Work on the Florentine Saints and Blessed, divided into two parts; and in the former of them, which saw the light in the year 1742, he treats by design of the Saints and Blessed whose feast is celebrated among the Florentines with Mass and Office; in the latter of the Saints and Blessed to whom, although their feast is not celebrated with Mass and Office, yet public cult has been offered at Florence from immemorial time to their relics and images. To these latter Saints and Blessed, further, he counts Blessed Peter of Imola, both in the Index added to the first part of his Work, in which he enumerates in advance the Saints and Blessed to be given in the last part of the same Work, and chiefly
in this very part, in which he prepares for the Blessed a fairly prolix Elogium, which he entitles a Life. It comprises the year of the Blessed's death, the cult offered to his sacred remains, and all the other things which are handed down concerning the Blessed; and I therefore transcribe it here entire, so that I may thus inform the reader of the things which pertain to our Peter, only a few things which do not bear on the matter being cut away, and Annotations being added here and there where I shall judge it necessary or fitting. It is conceived in these words, which I have turned from the Italian tongue into Latin: It does not seem that we should abstain from reckoning among the Blessed who in some manner pertain to our diocese (namely the Florentine) B. Peter of Imola, who, although he is not a Florentine by origin, yet because he lived at Florence in the last times of his life, and there at length died, his sacred body still resting in this same city, seems therefore to be numbered with the fullest right among our Blessed, the glory of the city of Imola, which, because it gave him birth towards the end of the thirteenth century, counts him among its own, not being diminished.
[3] With this introduction, as with a certain proem or prologue, in which the year of the Blessed's death, his excellent Brocchi begins the Elogium of the Blessed, presently proceeding thus: Most celebrated, therefore, both among those skilled in the sacred canons and among those skilled in the laws, is the name of our B. Peter, on account of the notable Works written by him in the matter of the laws, in which he was most versed; he is commonly wont to be cited by authors both sacred and profane under the name of Imolensis. James Bosio relates in the History of the sacred Order of Malta, part 1, book 13, that the notices of the glorious deeds performed by that Blessed in his life perished on the occasion of the great flood which befell Florence in the year MDLVII; whence no other memory of him has remained surviving than that he was a man of profound learning, the highest prudence and most holy life, and that, being a knight of the sacred Order of Jerusalem, called of Malta, he was made Prior of the priorate of Rome; and that when afterwards he had been transferred to Florence to the commandery (so it may be permitted here to express in Latin the Italian word commenda, in French commanderie) of St. James in Campo Corbolini, belonging to the same Order, afflicted there by a most grave and mortal disease, he passed at length to eternal beatitude in heaven in the year of our Salvation MCCCXX, on the fifth day of October. Moreover the lord canon Antonio Maria Manzoni, in his History of the bishops of Imola, narrates that B. Peter towards the end of his life devoted himself to the service of a certain hospital at Florence: "There, serving the sick in the hospital, he died most holily," page CCXXXV. He was then buried with great honour in the said church of St. James, which at the end of the year MCCVI had been consecrated by John, formerly Prior of St. Frediano of Lucca, bishop of Florence, together with Rainerius, bishop of Fiesole.
[4] endowments of mind, burial, At what time it happened that the church in which the sacred body of the Blessed was committed to the tomb had been consecrated matters little, and I therefore omit the old inscription of that church from which Brocchi here proves that this was done, as he had said, in the year 1206; and I subjoin the things which occur to be noted on the words of this writer already given. That the Blessed was a most learned, most prudent and most holy Man, that he administered at Rome the priorate of his Order, that he died at Florence of a most grave disease in the year 1320, and was committed to the earth there in the church of St. James in Campo Corbolini, seems to be believed from Brocchi narrating it on the credit of Bosio; but what he also reports on the credit of the same author, that our Peter was transferred from the Roman Priorate which he had held to the Florentine commandery of St. James in Campo Corbolini, I think it must be doubted whether it is consonant with the truth. I am so disposed because concerning that transfer, or concerning the Florentine commandery of St. James in Campo Corbolini which the Blessed ever administered, there is the deepest silence in the Inscription to be transcribed here next; whose author nevertheless seems as one who would have made mention in it of that office held by the Blessed, if only it had truly been held by him at some time, inasmuch as by it he placed a monument, in place of an epitaph, to the Blessed in the church of the very Florentine commandery of St. James in Campo Corbolini which he would have administered. Nor does it matter that the Inscription was placed only when the Blessed was raised from the earth, and therefore long after his death; for although this be so, since the author of the Inscription had ascertained the Roman priorate of the Blessed, and does in fact commemorate it, how did it come about that he was ignorant of the Florentine commandery of the same Blessed, and yet Bosio, who flourished after the author of the Inscription, perceived it excellently and consigned it to writing in his History of the Order of Malta?
[5] his epitaph inscribed on a stone slab, Antonio Maria Manzoni, praised above by Brocchi, writes thus in his History of the bishops of Forum Cornelii or Imola, page 235: There flourished in these times (namely the fourteenth century) blessed Peter, a noble knight of Imola, Prior of Jerusalem in the City, and he died at Florence on the fifth day of October in the year one thousand three hundred and twenty: he, after he had given his labour to jurisprudence, in which he excelled wonderfully, consigned to the divine service, when he withdrew to Florence, died there most holily serving the sick in the hospital, buried in the church of St. James, commonly in Corbellino. Thus he, making no mention at all of the Florentine commandery of St. James in Campo Corbolini, or, as he writes, in Corbellino, administered by the Blessed. What if, then, the Blessed, driven by the spirit of penance, having abdicated the Priorate which he bore at Rome, withdrew to Florence, and there, serving the sick, without ever having administered the Florentine commandery of St. James in Campo Corbolini, passed to the Lord? This certainly agrees excellently with the recited words of Manzoni, and appears to me far more probable than the opposite. Behold now the very words of Brocchi comprising the inscription just mentioned. The body of B. Peter, he says, was afterwards (namely when it had lain buried for some while) placed about four cubits above the ground on the right lateral side at the entrance of the church (namely of St. James in Campo Corbolini), where there is now seen the stone slab which covered it; on which is expressed the effigy of the same Blessed in a gown, with the Maltese cross at the left shoulder, and rays about the body as a sign of the aureole of a Blessed; and moreover these words are read on the aforesaid slab in ancient characters: "Here lies the lord Brother Peter of Ymola, professor of both laws, venerable Prior of the Priorate of the City. In the year of the Lord MCCCXX, on the Vth day of October, he rested in the Lord."
[6] The knight Brother Francis dell' Antella seems to have caused the said slab to be coloured, a notable prodigy which was performed by the Blessed's merits, since the armorial bearings which are beneath it are those of his house, not of the family of the Blessed, as the cited Bosio writes through the error of him who gave him the notices; who also erred in putting the word QUONDAM formerly before the word PROFESSOR, because there (namely in the inscription just given) only the letter q is joined with the word UTRIUS, which signifies UTRIUSQUE. There (namely on the stone slab aforesaid) are sculptured two little angels, one at the head, the other at the feet, of which the latter, with a censer in its hand, presents the appearance of one burning incense to the Blessed; which the above-named Bosio did not note in the description of the slab which he himself caused to be printed. I could wish that to these things which Brocchi here observes on the slab he mentions and the inscription cut on it he had also added the year in which they, whether slab or inscription, were placed! For thus the time at which, as he narrates, the sacred body of the Blessed was placed above the ground could be determined as closely as possible. But Brocchi most probably had not ascertained that year. However that may be, since it does not seem able to be elicited from elsewhere either, I pursue the series of the elogium woven by Brocchi for our Blessed. Of the miracles performed by God through the merits of this Blessed, that which is narrated as more worthy of note is this: When once the aforementioned church (namely of St. James in Campo Corbolini) was being adorned for the feast of St. James, and the adorner, who was fitting the silken ornaments, had ascended long ladders near the sepulchre of the same Blessed, it happened that these slipped; whence they would most swiftly have fallen to the ground together with the man who was sitting on them, had not the Blessed run with a miracle to hold them, prodigiously stretching out of the sepulchre an arm, with which he supported the ladders until the said man had descended to the ground. A notable prodigy indeed! But since Brocchi neither expresses the time at which it was done, nor brings forward a surety or testimony by which it may be confirmed, I greatly doubt whether it will come about that it finds undoubted credence even among the followers of a sound and moderate criticism. Let us continue to copy out the rest of Brocchi's words, which he subjoins next to those already recited.
[7] and the cult offered to his sacred The report of so stupendous a miracle, he says, was spread; a great multitude of the people ran together to venerate the sacred body of the Blessed, which afterwards obtained a more fitting place, having been extracted from the said sepulchre (namely that in which, as is narrated at number 5, it had been deposited above the ground) and placed under the high altar, where afterwards the knight Br. Augustine Mego, commander of the commandery named from St. James in Campo Corbolini, caused to be made a fitting casket, in which he deposited it. It is believed that, when the body of blessed Peter was first deposited under the altar after the prodigious event aforesaid had taken place, in memory of such a prodigy the arm was torn from the body, which today is honoured separately; since it appears evident that it was torn away before the same body was under the waters which in the flood mentioned above (see number 3) infected it, all the bones thence being made black and deprived of flesh; whereas on the contrary the said arm is excellently preserved, clothed with white and evenly coloured flesh, so that it seems to be not that of a dead man taken from the living more than four centuries ago, but of another who had been buried only a short time.
[8] remains, he teaches, The pledge of this arm is exposed every year under the principal altar of the said church on the feast of the first of May, at which time also the casket existing under the altar is uncovered, in which rest the remaining parts of the most sacred body, most recently adorned with a grating and fortified with crystals by the knight and commander of happy memory, Br. Francis dell' Antella, who moreover caused the whole church, and chiefly the tribune of the high altar, to be restored, also causing to be polished and coloured, as has been said, the aforesaid old stone slab which had been the lid of the sepulchre of our Blessed; to venerate whose sacred bones the Florentines come frequently with great devotion, especially on his feast (namely his birthday, that is, the 5th day of October). The same sacred body the Grand Prior of Messina, Br. Charles de Ricci, afterwards caused to be arranged anew more honourably towards the end of the year MDCCXXIII, as is clear from the following inscription, which is written on the aforesaid casket: "The body of blessed Peter of Imola, distinguished with the laurel of both laws and with the office of the Priorate of Rome, Br. Charles de Ricci, Bailiff, caused to be arranged more honourably in the year MDCCXXIII."
[9] as also the sharing of these with the Grand Master of Malta. Finally, when, moved by piety towards this Blessed, the now reigning and most pious Grand Master of Malta, Br. D. Manuel Pinto da Fonseca, had in the year MDCCXLIX urgently asked that some notable part of his relics be given him, to be placed in his conventual church, a thigh bone was sent to him by our most vigilant lord archbishop Incontri, as is evidently plain from the following authentic letters, which were added to the said part of the relics: "Francis Cajetan Incontri, by the grace of God and of the holy Apostolic see archbishop of Florence, and prince of the holy Roman empire. To all and each who shall inspect these our present letters we make known and testify how, on the day written below, the most illustrious lord bailiff and Grand Prior Br. Charles de Ricci, preceptor of this church of saint James of the Corbolina commandery, perpetually united to the sacred Religion of Jerusalem, with the assistance of the undersigned D., vice-chancellor of our archiepiscopal court, who by our mandate went to the aforesaid church for the effect written below, from the very old wooden ark, painted in a blue colour and in part gilded, in which the bones of the body of B. Peter of Imola, knight of Jerusalem, are religiously preserved, existing beneath the high altar of the aforesaid church, in order to provide for the devotion of the Most Eminent lord Grand Master of the aforesaid sacred Religion of Jerusalem, who presented pious prayers that some notable relic of the aforesaid B. Peter might be granted to him, extracted the thigh bone of the said sacred body; which was at once wrapped in paper by our aforesaid Vice-chancellor, tied round on every side with a silken ribbon of red colour, and sealed in several places with our small seal in red Spanish wax, and delivered to the most illustrious lord Br. Horace Sansedoni, knight of Jerusalem, mandatary of the aforesaid Most Eminent lord Grand Master, there present, so that he may be able to transmit it to the same Most Eminent lord Grand Master, who shall have the faculty of retaining the said sacred relic with himself, of giving it to others, and of exposing and placing it in any church, oratory or chapel for the public veneration of the faithful, what is to be observed being observed. And lest it should happen at any time that the identity of the aforesaid sacred relic be doubted, we have ordered these testimonial letters, subscribed by our hand and confirmed by our seal, to be dispatched by the same undersigned Vice-chancellor of ours. Given on the 3rd day of August in the year MDCCXLIX. Francis Cajetan, archbishop of Florence. Aloysius Vignali, J.U.D. and Vice-chancellor, by mandate etc." By these letters too is excellently confirmed what Brocchi teaches above, that the relics of the Blessed are held in the highest honour at Florence; and since nothing more is available for me to say on this, I here put an end to this Sylloge.