ON BL. ROBERT MALATESTA, CONFESSOR, OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS, AT RIMINI IN THE PAPAL STATES,
IN THE YEAR 1432.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The noble race of the Blessed one: pious boyhood and adolescence: marriage, and the rare virtues of the blessed Prince: his cult, such as it is, proved: the Acts to be given.
Robert Malatesta, confessor, of the third Order of St. Francis, at Rimini in the Papal States. (Bl.)
BY J. B. F.
With the highest splendour of race, antiquity of stock, and number of heroes heaped with all praises, The noble race of Blessed Robert: and with long-continued power, the most illustrious family of the Malatestas once flourished among the princes of Italy, extending its dominion through the cities of the southern Adriatic shore; and chiefly it ruled in the most ancient city of Rimini (which is an episcopal city of Æmilia in the province of Romagna, at the mouths of the river Marecchia) almost to the end of the 15th century from the Virgin's childbearing. Whoever desires to know more distinctly the many glories of this most noble family, let him consult the Chronicle of Rimini, edited by Ludovico Muratori in the book whose title is Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, and the History of Rimini of Cesare Clementini, who last commended to posterity the illustrious deeds of the illustrious lords Malatesta.
[2] From this most illustrious family, then, Blessed Robert drew his origin, his father: his early age: having obtained as his father Pandolfo Malatesta, lord of Brescia. Our blessed Youth, having obtained an angelic nature in a mortal body, was young in years, a man in spirit; premature for the world, but ripe for heaven; endowed with such sweetness of manners, such innocence of life, such zeal for chastity, submission, modesty, prayer, mercy towards the poor, obedience, such esteem and care for spiritual things, that undoubted specimens of future holiness already then
he gave forth, and, being made perfect in a short space, he may be said to have fulfilled long times, his soul, pleasing to God, being summoned early to the heavenly banquet. But how praiseworthily he passed the times of boyhood, youth and the rest of his age will become manifest to the reader in the Life to be given at the end of this Commentary.
[3] That the most chaste Youth held as his delight the flower of angelic virginity, marriage, and praiseworthy which he had resolved to consecrate to God, and that he was wholly given to declining and guarding against all things for the protection and preservation of that same virtue, these words of the anonymous and contemporary biographer show clearly enough: Having become eighteen years old, he is betrothed against his will by his paternal uncle (Carlo Malatesta, to whom, his father having died, the education of the blessed Youth had been entrusted) to the most noble maiden Margherita, daughter of Niccolò, marquis of Este (concerning this family see the Annotata after the Life to be published), bearing most grievously the loss of the treasure of virginity, which he had resolved to preserve entire for God. For a year and a half after the nuptials he lived with his bride in an unblemished bed; at length, constrained by the counsels of his confessor and friends, grieving and shuddering he submitted to the rights of marriage. He frequently said before that he would rather be harshly tortured than be joined with a woman.
[4] rule in the principality. And when Blessed Robert had reached the nineteenth year of his age, the most illustrious Carlo Malatesta, lord of Rimini, the Blessed one's paternal uncle, departing from this life, appointed Robert by testament as his heir and prince of Rimini. With how great equity, prudence and skill he administered the province entrusted to him, how great was the authority, acquired by his virtues, of our Blessed one among all at the time when he presided over the principality of Rimini, all the biographers who have mentioned him relate. And although the Blessed one's diligence in rightly administering the principality and in correcting things here and there was so great and so perpetual that it might seem it must have occupied the whole man, yet to this care he joined such assiduity in praying day and night as if he had led an anchoritic life. Intent on fervent prayer and sacred reading, he performed with the greatest devotion all things which the institute of the third Order of St. Francis, which he had embraced to follow, requires. But it is not my intention to describe these things in this place, as also his perpetual care of the poor and the sick, and very many other things of this kind, because they are abundantly related in the Acts. Let us now treat of the cult paid to him by mortals.
[5] His cult, such as it is, from the public veneration of his sepulchre, Although I do not find that Blessed Robert Malatesta was ever honoured with an ecclesiastical Office, and few martyrologists celebrate his memory, and those only more recent ones, yet for the following reasons I have judged that a place should be given him in our Work. Arthur du Monstier ascribed the title of Blessed to him in the Franciscan Martyrology at the 10th day of October, writing thus: At Rimini, of Blessed Robert Malatesta, confessor, prince of the same city: who, having taken the habit of the Order of Tertiaries of the Minors, so shone with such humility and chastity, prayer and poverty, and other highest virtues, that living and dead he was made illustrious by very many admirable signs. Fortunatus Hueber also gave Robert a place in the Franciscan Menology. The same title is given him by the notary who committed to writing the miracles wrought at the Blessed one's tomb and to be published here after the Life. To these are added various Franciscan writers who have treated of our Blessed one. But not even so great a consensus of writers on this title would suffice, unless there were also more certain indications of some sort of public cult, and the Blessed one had been dead so long that his cult could easily have been continued for a hundred years before the decree of Urban VIII, issued in the year 1634, by which this Pope restricted to a time exceeding the limit of a hundred years the immemorial course of time by which those who had been venerated could still be venerated as Saints, as he had declared in his decree on not honouring with the cult of the heavenly ones men who died with the fame of holiness before they were canonized by the Apostolic See or declared blessed.
[6] Among the miracles wrought at the Blessed one's sepulchre on the occasion of a great concourse, which is asserted to be old. which were excerpted from the Acts by a public notary, and which we shall reprint here after the Life, we read that many votive gifts were offered to the Blessed one in thanksgiving for benefits obtained by his patronage: and no one will deny that this public hanging up of votive tablets at the Blessed one's tomb savours of some public cult. But these indications of some sort of public cult would not suffice for us to give him a place in our Work, if they were not older by a hundred years than the decree of Urban VIII, issued in the year of restored Salvation 1634. Which time required by the said decree is found in the cult of our Blessed one, since it is proved that those miracles were wrought while the 15th century was still running, from the fact that most of the persons to whom these benefits were granted by the Blessed one's intercession are cited in them without any surname, which custom of not using surnames (as is clear from Muratori, Antiquitates Italicae, volume 3, column 772) cannot be extended beyond the 15th century. From this it is now safely inferred that this cult of the Blessed one, such as it is, is sufficiently old and sufficiently notable for the title of Blessed to be attributed to him, especially since he was honoured with that title more than a hundred years before the decree of Urban VIII.
[7] The Acts of Blessed Robert were written by Brother Nicholas of Rimini, His Acts. professor of sacred Theology, and, as Wadding in the Annals of the Minors, volume 10, and Mark of Lisbon relate, contemporary with the Blessed one; his work was put to the press by Mariano of Florence, Mark of Lisbon in the Chronicle of the Friars Minor, volume 3, Cristoforo of Verucchio in the book whose title is De Sanctis Veruchinis, Cesare Clementini in the History of Rimini, volume 2, and many others whom it would be too long to enumerate. Wadding in the place cited made public other Acts of the Blessed one, which, as he himself confesses, he excerpted from a manuscript Legend of Robert composed by an anonymous author contemporary with the Blessed one; these Acts agree in almost all things with the work of Nicholas of Rimini, and these words, which are read below at num. 2, openly indicate that they are the work of a contemporary author: And Blessed Robert received the garment (of the Order of St. Francis) on the birthday of St. Francis in the year 1430 in my presence. The said work of the anonymous author, together with some miracles wrought by the Blessed one's intercession, which, committed to writing by a notary, Luke Wadding made public in the place cited, we shall reprint here.
ACTS,
From the manuscript Legend of an anonymous author contemporary with the Blessed one, excerpted by Luke Wadding.
SOLE CHAPTER.
The illustrious race of the Blessed one: his kinsfolk: marriage: virtues: deliverance of a possessed person: sickness and happy death. Miracles wrought after death.
Robert Malatesta, confessor, of the third Order of St. Francis, at Rimini in the Papal States. (Bl.)
BHL Number: 7264
By an Anonymous author.
The Blessed one's race and kinsfolk: the virtues of his boyhood and youth. Among the people of Rimini, in the year 1432, on the 10th day of October, there piously departed Galeotto a Robert de' Malatesta, in the 20th year of his age, illustrious for virtue and holiness. Sprung from the most noble race of the Lords of Rimini, he had as his father Pandolfo b, as his paternal uncles Carlo c and Malatesta the elder, as his brothers Sigismondo d and Malatesta Novello, very celebrated in Italy. From his very infancy he showed a specimen of his future piety, for he had scarcely reached five years when he was always praying, and sleeping at night he was many times seen to pray, to move his lips, to recite the Lord's Prayer with his hands joined before his breast. His paternal uncle Carlo (this is he whom Gregory XII sent to the council of Constance to renounce the Pontificate) once asked the little Boy, as he was playing, what he most desired; and he answered: that I may become poor. His uncle, wondering, and suspecting that this word had slipped out from the simplicity or inadvertence of the little child, asked a second and a third time, and noted that he said the same thing with such assurance of voice and serenity of countenance that he judged it a presage of his future contempt of human things. Already at ten years old, foreseeing the sparks of harmful lust, he afflicted his little body in wonderful ways with haircloth, scourges and frequent fasting. Shrinking from the softness of his little bed, he would rise from the side of his sleeping uncle and sleep on the bare ground, girded over his bare flesh with a bristly rope. Amid the most sumptuous banquets he went hungry; reclining at the rich table of his uncle Carlo, who had adopted him as his dearest son, especially in the Lent e which they call of St. Martin, he so pretended to eat that he ate nothing besides bread and water, the meats and more sumptuous dishes being secretly thrown aside for the use of the poor. Shrinking from the company of wanton youths and from boyish games, he consecrated the beginnings of his life to God in solitary places.
[2] He marries against his will. He embraces the third institute of St. Francis Having become eighteen years old, he is betrothed against his will by his uncle to the most noble maiden Margherita, daughter of Niccolò, marquis of Este f, bearing most grievously the loss of the treasure of virginity, which he had resolved to preserve entire for God. For a year and a half after the nuptials he lived with his bride in an unblemished bed; at length, constrained by the counsels of his confessor and friends, grieving and shuddering he submitted to the rights of marriage. He frequently said before that he would rather be harshly tortured than be joined with a woman. In the 19th year of his age he lost his uncle and obtained the principality, Martin V conferring on him the vicariate of Rimini, Cesena, Fano, and other feudal goods of the Church. Having become his own master, he dedicated himself more freely to the divine services, taking as his patron St. Francis, towards whom he was borne with the highest affection, and as his master a certain learned and pious Minorite. He frequently asked religious and grave men by what means he might most please God, and added his own prayers that the divine Majesty would deign to indicate what He rather wished from him. St. Francis appearing, and his body being wounded with a fivefold wound as a sign, he understood that it was the will of God that he should serve Him at the summit of the principality and in the sacred law of marriage under the habit of the third Institute of Penitents. The wounds, dripping with blood and matter, having been wiped away on the following day, he thought he should delay no longer, and received the garment on the birthday of St. Francis in the year 1430 in my presence, says the author of the manuscript Legend, from which I have culled the chief history (Luke Wadding): with the garment he put on humility, outwardly representing the majesty of a prince, inwardly and in secret laying aside all pomp, and subjecting himself in all things to the command of a certain Hilary, a most pious man.
[3] Contemplating with profound mind Christ the Lord, despised for us, so marked with wounds that he was thought a leper, Humanity and mercy towards lepers, the poor and his subjects. he met a certain poor wretch full of ulcers, running with pus and matter. Having embraced and kissed the horrid monster, he cheerfully washed and gently tended all his sores. On the Thursday of Holy Week, according to the sacred rites of the Church, while Christ's mandate to his disciples was being sung with solemn ceremony in the chapel of the palace, descending from the throne together with Hilary his companion, he humbly washed the feet of twelve poor men and, weeping, wiped them, reputing himself unworthy to perform even this lowly ministry after the example of Christ. Voluntary poverty, which he had loved from infancy, he pursued with what art he could amid the abundance of goods and the affluence of princes, using only those things which were necessary for sustaining life in the greatest frugality. Greatly hating the oppressions of his subjects and the unjust money extortions of officials, he severely chastised impious exactors. He once made a reckoning with his servants and the ministers of government of how much would suffice for the expenses of the court and the other expenses, so that beyond these he might exact nothing from his subjects, but tributes and other
burdensome payments he might free them. Compassionate and liberal towards the poor, he succoured abundantly those whom he could, redeeming the miseries of all either with money or attending them with tears. Every day he fed some poor people in his palace, and on Friday added others, whom he himself served; on bended knee he poured water on their hands, served the dishes, and after the meal kissed them.
[4] He frequently visited hospices and hospitals, made the beds for the sick, He renders various services to the sick. showed all the offices of charity, washed, tended and fomented wounds and ulcers, and secretly sent spices, sweetmeats, and whatever was suitable either for treating or for refreshing them; to these offices of piety admitting only certain faithful servants and friends, lest the wind of vainglory should blow away the merit. A certain Spanish pilgrim travelling to Rome, seized with a troublesome disease of a flux of blood, he took into a house near him to be cared for, visited him frequently, and when once linen cloths were lacking for treating the ulcer, he secretly took off his undershirt and tore it into bandages. A certain woman, Margherita of Rimini, wretchedly ulcerated, with a double opening in her back, through which food and drink frequently ran out and the intestines flowed down, labouring under dire torments, but illustrious for a remarkable spirit, unconquered patience and wonderful knowledge of divine things, he very often visited, both to give solace and to receive sacred instructions. With her he prolonged long conversations about heavenly things, kindled by which he thought nothing base that could redound to the service either of God or of his servants. He himself took care of this poor wretch while he lived, treated her with his own hands, ministering besides all necessary things.
[5] [Wholly intent on divine things, he mortifies his body: Christ appears to him: he frees a possessed man.] And lest amid the delights of the court, amid the abundance of dishes and the majesty of pomp, the flesh should lust against the spirit, or exert greater force than the laws of the unblemished bed require, he repressed its titillation in many ways, with a frugal table g, haircloth, scourge, short sleep and a hard bed, indulging in nothing a softer life. He showed all reverence to sacred men. In a most noble chapel built by himself he attended the divine offices with the highest piety, having as his only solace holy codices and spiritual books. He recited the canonical hours attentively, approached the sacred Synaxis very often, yet never without a flood of tears. He fled the crowds of men and the noise of the world, wished secular business far from him so far as the condition of his state permitted, wholly intent on divine things. He had many secret visions, and was frequently borne above himself by the sweetness of divine contemplation. As he prayed in the chapel, Christ appeared to him under the same seraphic form under which he wounded St. Francis with the five wounds on Mount Alverna h, and flooded his mind with immense joy, although afterwards he began to weep bitterly over the passion of Christ, which he thought of as renewed in the transformation of Francis. A hostile and clamorous demoniac, having taken a thorn of the crown of Christ and made the sign of the Cross with it, opposite the house in which he was being tormented, he suddenly healed. A seditious people rushing upon him, because he had restored to the Apostolic See Borgo San Sepolcro i and some castles left by his father, he, having first offered prayer, received fearlessly and calmed with gentle speech.
[6] He is afflicted with a grave sickness and dies piously. Panting vehemently to bear martyrdom for Christ, he asked with many prayers that he might merit to meet death for the Author of life, or at least to repay the Lord's sufferings with intense pain. The Lord sent him many pains and added a grave fistula, and when these had to be treated with steel, fire and harsh remedies, he was seen to give no sign of impatience. Admonished by a certain servant of God of the dissolution of his body after four months, he rejoiced, and with great zeal prepared himself by daily confession and frequent communion, repeating everywhere that saying of the Apostle: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." In his last hour Satan tried to attack him, raising doubts about the mysteries of the faith, to which he opposed the creed of Athanasius, which he also ordered to be recited aloud. Then, the enemy having been routed by special divine help, he rested a little, and presently, looking at heaven with a cheerful and joyful countenance, he went out of his mind in profound contemplation of divine things. Returning from the rapture, he said: I see the heavens opened; and immediately, laughing and exulting, his eyes fixed on heaven, towards dawn he rendered his holy soul to his Creator in the village of Santarcangelo. Carried to Rimini, the bishop and the whole clergy coming to meet the funeral, he was buried in the Franciscan garment without any pomp or ceremony in the cemetery of the Minors, in common burial, in the dug earth, as he himself had laid down in his last will; which afterwards his kinsfolk covered with an iron grating, and then with a marble stone. After death he shone with many miracles, which were taken down in the Acts of a certain notary of Rimini and approved by the faith of excellent men.
[7] John, son of Peter, was in the utmost peril of life, Various persons by his patronage the physicians despairing of his health. His father vowed that he would bring him to the sepulchre of blessed Robert and offer a candle, and at once he recovered. Antony, about to fell a tree with an axe, by a misdirected stroke disfigured his foot with a grave wound; carried to the tomb, he went away whole. Dominic of Rimini from a hernia; Antony, a youth, from a troublesome fever; Jacoba from paralysis; Blonda from an infirmity of eight years and various ulcers; Lucia, possessed for a long time, Catherine for nine years, Angelus for sixteen, by evil spirits, were perfectly freed. A certain young Minorite, travelling from Padua k to Rimini, felt a most intense pain of the stomach, but, a prayer having been offered at Robert's tomb, all the pain departed. Laurus and Nicholas of Rimini suffered in the knees, Agnes in the foot, Anna in the hand, Jacoba in the head for six years, James of Parma l, a soldier, immovable in both feet for seven months — they obtained the benefit of health which they sought. Martin of Bologna m, blinded in his eyes, praying at the sepulchre recovered his sight. John, a fisherman, getting down from his boat, by a heavy fall broke three ribs, but invoking Robert he merited to be heard.
[8] healed of various diseases Isolta, a noble matron, promised that her little son, labouring in his last extremity and abandoned by the physicians, if he were restored to his former health, she would bring barefoot, clothed in the habit of the third Order of St. Francis, to the sepulchre, and offer a waxen image. As she made the vow, she received the grace. Another, called Bella, deprived for three years of the strength and use of both arms, took her food by another's help; having heard the fame of Robert, she implored his aid and obtained it. Cecilia was sick for four years with a continual fever and a troublesome trembling of the right side, but, the divine aid having been invoked through his intercession, she recovered. Bartholomew of Castel Durante, a Minorite, his bowels being closed for as many years, always purged in thick urine whatever was to be discharged by the stool; thence noxious humours were spread through his whole body; thence his swelling limbs teemed with many ulcers; thence perpetual languor, failure of strength, blindness, pain of stomach and head. Having heard of Robert's miracles, he asked with great confidence that he would have pity on him; he began to walk, which before he could not, and went from his country to Rimini, where before the tomb he obtained perfect health. John, while he commended to him his young son, ill for two years, brought to the last extremity and taking nothing for two days, sees him healed.
[9] and wounds. A boar drove its tusk into the hand of Thomas Baccari, from which wound he suffered vehemently with a perpetual issue of blood; admonished by a friend to fly to Robert's patronage, he did so, prayed and recovered; he hung up at the sepulchre a hand of iron and the tusk which had injured him. James of Montecolombo, a wine-porter, wishing at the time of the vintage to lift a diota, or cask, commonly a barrel of must, his intestines slip into the scrotum; he invokes Robert, promises a candle, and is cured of the hernia. Catherine, suffering vehemently in her left arm for two years and deprived of its use; Columba of Ferrara n, so affected in the shoulders and right arm that she cried out day and night, having offered a waxen arm, were freed from the pain. Petra of Pignano, possessed for thirty years and racked with dire torments, so that sometimes she could not be held down by six men, piously flying to Robert, merited to be freed. Philippa of Rimini, for two years, and a little boy of twelve, contracted in the knees, having offered waxen gifts and made a vow of visiting the sepulchre, were perfectly freed.
[10] One held in prison is freed. Vincentinus, a priest of Vicenza o, thrown by his bishop into a foul prison, secured by three doors, poured out vows and prayers to blessed Robert, that he would deliver him from his chains and from the grave punishment prepared for him. A great light shone in the cell, which gave him hope and courage to attempt flight, and having escaped with very little effort, he went on to Rimini, where he made the miracle public and rendered thanks to his Deliverer. He also freed Nicholas of Rimini from a pain in the head; the son of the count of Urbino [p], long feverish, from the danger of death; Frisa, near childbirth, from a troublesome fever and from injury to the foetus; Magdalene from a long-continued quartan; Helen, a leper, deformed with ulcers and pustules, from extreme misery.
ANNOTATA.
p. Urbino, a duchy of Italy, of the Papal dominion, whose principal city of the same name is distant 8 leagues from the city of Rimini.