ON BL. MARTIN OF VERCELLI, CONFESSOR, OF THE ORDER OF ST. AUGUSTINE, IN ITALY,
ABOUT THE YEAR MDIII.
SYLLOGE.
Martin, confessor, of the Order of St. Augustine, at Vercelli in Italy. (B.)
BY THE AUTHOR C. B.
At Vercelli, an episcopal city in the principality of Piedmont in Italy, [The Blessed, who, more than a hundred years before the decrees of Urban VIII defining the Servants of God] which has already been mentioned more than once with us, was born and died, as is agreed among all the writers who have spoken of the matter, this blessed Confessor here proposed, of the Order of St. Augustine. Our predecessors, at the 20th day of May, among the Passed Over, beginning a discourse on Jacobino or James Cravacorio, a Carmelite lay brother, who no differently than he lies buried at Vercelli, promised that he should be inserted in our Work on this present day, on which, from what is to be alleged, he died, and it is necessary, by the rule of our institute, that we should here redeem the pledge given by them. For although Martin neither stands inscribed in the sacred Fasti nor is venerated with an ecclesiastical Office at Vercelli or elsewhere, yet he is honoured by almost all the writers by whom he is mentioned with the title of Blessed, as Thomas de Herrera, a writer of the Augustinian Order, who records not a few things of him in the Augustinian Alphabet, put out to light in the year 1644, tome 2, page 57 and following, affirms in the same place. Besides, he is placed both by Giovanni Stefano Ferrero among the Blessed of the diocese of Vercelli and by Giuseppe Panfilo, an Augustinian, in the Catalogue of the Blessed of his Order, and, which is the chief point, he enjoys at Vercelli some kind of the cult wont to be paid to Saints and Blessed, and indeed even before the year 1634, after which, in view of the decrees which Urban VIII issued on that matter then as well as in the year 1625, it was unlawful to venerate with the cult proper to them Servants of God not yet inscribed by the Church in the Roll of Saints or Blessed, unless they had been honoured with it more than a hundred years before, he enjoyed it without interruption for a space of time no less than one exceeding the limit of as many years, as everyone, so far as I think, will easily recognize from what is now to be said.
[2] Our Papebroch, in a Manuscript extant with us, in which he comprised his stay at Rome together with Henschenius in the year 1661 and his return thence into Belgium in the year 1662, who may be venerated, with some kind of cult in the Itinerary, page 233, beginning a discourse on the things which he saw or examined at Vercelli on the twenty-sixth day of May of the latter of those years, writes thus: With the Augustinian Fathers, in the middle of the nave, under a cheap marble, is the body of Bl. Martin, whose large image, preaching to the people, is on the nearest column, with the superscription: "Look upon your crucified King and you will be consoled." And below: "In the year … on the XI of October at the III hour of the night Bl. Br. Martin of Vercelli died." Before it hangs a small lamp, now without a light, and a very few votive offerings. His image, likewise painted with rays, is in various places in the temple, and on one of the columns the following miracle: "When Lorenzo de Laslone of Casine Strate was driving a cart of stones to Vercelli, he was crushed by the cart itself, so that he was putting forth his own bowels; but, a vow having been made to Bl. Martin, he immediately recovered. MDV." Public cult, proper to Saints and Blessed, is inferred from the placing of images of Servants of God in churches, even if these were painted without diadem and rays, as Benedict XIV teaches in On the Beatification of the Servants of God and the Canonization of the Blessed, book 2, chapter 14, num. 3 and the two following.
[3] Wherefore, since images of Bl. Martin, painted even with rays, it is proved that they enjoyed without interruption, had been placed in the church of the Augustinians at Vercelli in the year 1662, as the words of Papebroch just recited attest, it is certain and beyond doubt that he was then honoured there with at least some kind of the honour which is wont to be paid to Saints and Blessed; and since the miracle related in the words adduced by Papebroch happened, as they declare, in the year 1505, there is surely reason why it should be believed that, if not already from the very year 1505, certainly not more than about ten years later, both it was inscribed on one of the columns of the said church and the images of Martin were placed in it; and since this is so, and it does not appear probable that these were at any time removed thence before the year 1634, it follows that even before that year Martin enjoyed without interruption in the church of the Augustinians at Vercelli some kind of the cult proper to Saints and Blessed for a space of time no less than one exceeding the limit of a hundred years, and that he must therefore be brought into our Work here, as our predecessors promised in the place cited above would be done. Accomplishing, therefore, what from what has been said must be done here, let us now exhibit here to the reader, his cult of some kind having already been proved, the things which are found recorded of the Blessed, collected from everywhere.
[4] Alfonso de Orozco, a writer of the Augustinian Order, already an old man, to apply himself to Grammar who is himself also counted among the number of the Blessed and, as Thomas de Herrera, cited above, teaches in the Augustinian Alphabet, tome 1, page 24 and following, departed from among the living in the year 1592, already more than ninety years old, writes in the following manner of Bl. Martin of Vercelli in the Chronicles of his Order, at the year in which he published them, 1551: This Religious was instructed divinely rather than by human industry. He was an old man when he began to learn Grammar, and he so advanced that within the space of a few years he turned out both a theologian and a distinguished preacher. The convent of Pavia, in which the sacred pledges of our father Augustine are laid up, he restored, its temple threatening ruin, and built it as it were anew. He did the same for the monastery of Milan. He was greatly esteemed by all the people, because they saw the signs and prodigies which God wrought on account of his merits; which he also works even now at his tomb, at which many sick are restored to health. Fifty years run from his death. Thus he; and since, in the year 1592, in which he died, he was, from what has already been said, more than ninety years old, and therefore was not far removed from the age of Martin, whose death he reports in the words just transcribed here to have happened fifty years before the year of Christ 1551, there is surely reason why he should be thought to deserve credence in the things which he records of him through these words; but since he neither fortifies with chronological notes most of the things which he relates of the Blessed, nor supplies anything from which the time about which they happened could be determined, recourse must be had to another source by which this may be done even in some fashion.
[5] [having begun before the year 1470, he soon turned out a theologian and a distinguished preacher,] Thomas de Herrera, in the Work cited above, tome 2, page 57, writes thus of Bl. Martin from the Registers of his Order, as appears, which he had just cited: By James of Aquila (Crusenius reports in the Augustinian Monasticon, page 176 and following, that he presided over the Order of the Augustinians in the office of Prior general from the year 1470 until the year 1476), on the XVI day of June in the year 1470, he is created honorary lector, and on the XVIII day of December in the year 1471 honorary Biblicus, and on the XXVI day of February in the year 1473 honorary Bachelor: and on the 3rd day of July in the year 1474 formed Bachelor; and from this, as will be evident to one who considers it, it follows that what Alfonso de Orozco records, in the words transcribed here at the immediately preceding number, of the Blessed having first begun to learn Grammar when he was already an old man, happened before each and all of the years mentioned here by Herrera, and therefore also before the year 1470. Nay rather, it appears probable that this happened already from the year 1465 and perhaps even somewhat earlier, even from this, that undoubtedly, when he ascended in the year 1470 to the first of the honorary grades mentioned by Herrera, he had already begun some years before to apply himself to Grammar. Furthermore, since the Blessed, devoting himself first to Grammar and then to sciences of a higher order, had within the space of a few years turned out a theologian and a distinguished preacher, as Alfonso de Orozco testifies above, the fame of his name soon spread itself so through all Italy, as Torelli adds in On the Illustrious Men of the Augustinian Order, page 419, that there was scarcely a city there which did not most insistently demand that he be given it as a sacred herald.
[6] [he restored the monastery of his Order at Pavia in the year 1487 and then that of Milan,] Nor surely undeservedly did all everywhere most eagerly hear Martin speaking from the pulpit about the mysteries of faith and the duty of a Christian man. For what he said in preaching he confirmed not only himself by the example of an undefiled life, but the Lord also confirmed it by following signs and miracles, which he wrought on account of the merits of his Servant. Hence it came about that, reaping everywhere a plainly signal fruit of souls, he reached even to this, that, helped by the faithful, he restored sacred places which had collapsed. Thus, nearly, also the cited Torelli in the place just cited; and that among the sacred places restored by our Blessed are to be counted by name the monasteries of the Order of St. Augustine at Pavia, or Ticinum, and at Milan, is plain from the words of Alfonso de Orozco recited at num. 4. And that the first of those two monasteries was restored in the year 1487, although that writer does not indicate it by any word, is attested by an Epigraph inscribed on the front of the church of that monastery and conceived, as Herrera testifies, tome 2, page 58, in these following words: M. CCCC. LXXXVII. this church was repaired, the author being the venerable Br. Martin of Vercelli, the noble lords Giovanni Antonio Bareta and Lord Rinaldo Strada co-operating; and as for what concerns the restoration of the monastery of Milan, this probably happened only after the restoration of that of Pavia (for it is not related by Alfonso de Orozco before this has been narrated), and was therefore later than the year 1487.
[7] That Martin indeed lived at Milan before the year 1489, and, having discharged more than one office of his Order, and indeed acted as Prior of the Augustinian monastery there, appears to be gathered from Herrera, already often cited. For to the words cited at num. 5 he presently adds these following, from the Registers of his Order: Anselm of Montefalco (he, created Prior general of the Augustinian Order in the year 1486, held that office, as is understood from the Augustinian Monasticon of Crusenius, about ten years) on the XXVI day of July in the year 1489 commands him (namely Martin) at Milan to leave a vicar in the convent and to go to Pavia or to another suitable place to prepare the things necessary for the general chapter according to the ordinance of the provincial and of the fathers of the convent of Pavia. Furthermore Martin, after he had left Milan in the year 1489, discharged more than one office of his Order. For Herrera, immediately after the words just recited, not obscurely declares that he was appointed by Anselm of Montefalco, from what has been said then Prior general of the Augustinian Order, on the XIX day of November in the year 1490, confessor of the nuns of Novara, and on the twelfth day of May in the year 1492 was set over the convent of Monza.
[8] And although the Blessed was hence also distracted by cares which agreed less well with the office of a sacred herald, after the confraternity here mentioned had been instituted yet he does not seem on that account ever to have bidden it farewell. For since he had signified to the fathers of the convent of Bologna that he could not come to Bologna, the Prior general of the Augustinian Order just cited wrote on the XVII day of January in the year 1494 that it pleased him that he should betake himself to it, as to other places which he could more conveniently reach and illustrate with his sermons. Thus again, but in other and, as appears, somewhat more obscure words, Herrera in the place just cited, immediately nevertheless also adding: I would believe however that Martin still disseminated the word of the Lord at Bologna either in that year or the following. For I find in Carlo Sigonio, book 4, On the Bishops of Bologna, page 208, that the confraternity of the devotees of Bl. Mary of consolation in the church of St. James was instituted in the year 1495 by Br. Bernardino (he ought to have said Martin) of Vercelli. That the confraternity which Herrera here mentions was indeed instituted at Bologna by our Blessed is recorded also by two other alumni of the Order of St. Augustine, namely Torelli, already cited more than once, and Philip Elssius in his Augustinian Encomiasticon, which he published in the year 1654.
[9] And the latter indeed, who at the same time clearly reports that Martin sowed the seeds of the divine Word at Bologna in the year 1495, the confraternity which is here mentioned does so in the following words: In the year 1495, when he (namely Martin) was holding the Lenten preaching at Bologna in our church of St. James, he caused to be painted beside the greater portico of the same church an image of Bl. Mary, which, since he held it in the highest veneration and persisted before it in ardent prayers, it came about that the people of Bologna, through his sermons, were altogether kindled to the cult of the Divine Virgin. Whence, when he saw very many daily giving their names to the confraternity instituted by him, he appointed its officials and prefects, and caused a catalogue of all to be made for perpetual memory; and the title of the confraternity is St. Mary of Consolation; and the former, although he neither determines the year in which Martin acted as sacred herald at Bologna, nor declares in any way when he instituted there the confraternity of which we speak here, yet adds that he did this while he was preaching there, and that the said confraternity, which also has its name from the girdle and is therefore called also that of the Cinctured, was afterwards created by Pope Gregory XIII an archconfraternity, that is, the head of all the other confraternities of the same name which are found in the whole world, and he rightly affirms that the Blessed, whom he says was honoured by God with stupendous miracles before and after death, exchanged this mortal life for immortal in the year 1503, thus putting an end to the elogium with which he adorns him.
[10] he departed from among the living about the year 1503. He brings forward nothing indeed by which he may give proof of this last assertion of his; but that by it he strayed certainly less from the true year of Martin's death than Marquez and Crusenius, of whom the latter in his Monasticon marks the death of the Blessed about the year 1300, the former in his Augustinian Origins, chapter 18, § XI, page 329, about the year 1256, cannot fail to be evident to everyone, both from what has already been said and from the fact that it is read in the Registers of the same Order, by the testimony of Herrera, who has been often cited, that at Martin's prayers Mariano of Genazzano, who, as Crusenius teaches in the Augustinian Onomasticon, acted as Prior general of the Order of St. Augustine from the year 1497 until the year 1499, granted a certain favour in the year 1498. Besides, when in the year 1551 Alfonso de Orozco granted the public light to his Chronicles cited above, fifty years had already, as he himself testifies toward the end of the words transcribed here at num. 4, elapsed from Martin's death; so that this, if not in the very determined year 1503, to which it is tied not only by Torelli but also by Jerome Roman in the Centuries and by Elssius in the Augustinian Encomiasticon, is certainly not undeservedly to be believed to have happened about it. Nor is there reason why anyone should suspect the contrary from the fact that in the epigraph placed beneath the image of Martin in the temple of the Augustinians at Vercelli, as Papebroch testifies in the words cited at num. 2, the year of the Blessed's death has been deleted or eaten away; for this can have happened not only from the sole age of three or more centuries clinging to the characters, but also from another cause, as experience establishes.