ON ST. SERAPHIN THE CAPUCHIN, CONFESSOR, AT ASCOLI IN ITALY,
IN THE YEAR 1604.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The biographers of the Saint: the Life to be given here: his age and the day of his death.
Seraphin, Capuchin, confessor, at Ascoli in Italy. (S.)
The virtues of St. Seraphin, his splendid deeds and the miracles St. Seraphin, whose Life by Boverio, among the biographers recounted here which were wrought by God through his merits and intercession, various priests of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, and other writers, at various times committed to writing. The chief of these, whose works were also examined in the Roman tribunal and, as they say, collated, are reported in the following words by the compendium of the processes, preserved in our literary furniture, which were drawn up by Apostolic authority to obtain his lawful cult, and which was printed in the year 1733 by the press of the Apostolic Camera: The Servant of God obtained the following writers of his Life, of whom the first was a contemporary of the Servant of God, but the rest more recent; among all these the worthier place is due to Zaccaria Boverio of Saluzzo, of the Capuchin Order, a historian otherwise most approved, most worthy of all credit, and a contemporary of the said Servant of God, who composed his Life, inserted in the second volume of the Annals of the Capuchin Order, published in the year 1639. There follows Father Charles of Arenberg, of Brussels, religious and preacher of the said Order, who published the Life of this Servant of God in the Work entitled Flores Seraphici in the year 1642. More fully, in our days, Father Pietro Benedetto Gioannini of Urbino, an excellent preacher of the same Order, and while he lived a consultor of this Congregation, who comprised the deeds and miracles of Seraphin from ancient monuments, and made them public in Italian in the year 1709. Father Silvester of Milan, preacher and annalist of the said Order, composed the Life of this Servant of God about the year 1729. And lastly a man distinguished for piety, Father Francesco Galuzzi of the Society of Jesus, who a few years before his happy falling asleep in the Lord made public a compendium of the Life of the said Blessed.
[2] The praised work of Father Charles of Arenberg, which I have in hand, Boverio holding the first place among the biographers, relates, with the style changed in places, the same examples of the virtues by whose exercise our Saint attained supreme perfection both in youth and in religion, adorned with the same circumstances which are contained in the cited Work of Boverio, preserved in our Library; and it recounts the miracles by which Seraphin was illustrious both in life and after death in altogether the same style in which these are read in Boverio's Annals: so that the cited Work of Charles proposes to the reader nothing splendidly done by our Saint which is not found in the Life composed by Boverio. It was not readily possible for me to procure the praised works which Gioannini, Sylvester and Galuzzi published. Which is to be regretted, for certainly the Work of Gioannini, who gathered the deeds and miracles of St. Seraphin from ancient monuments, as has just been said, would have brought me very much help in illustrating the Life of this Saint. But the compendium of the processes will compensate somewhat for this want. For since, besides the Lives already cited, various others not yet subjected to the press, as may be read in the said Compendium, and composed by authors contemporary with our Saint, served in drawing them up, and, these being brought to the balance, all the things found in them for proving the virtues of St. Seraphin, after they had been examined in the Roman tribunal, were written down in this Compendium, it surely follows from this that, if not all the things which Gioannini, Sylvester, Galuzzi and the anonymous authors of the manuscript Monuments commended to posterity, at least the principal of them, and those most conducive to the glory of our Saint, are known to us.
[3] we give, composed, The often-praised Boverio, who, on the testimony of Luke Wadding in the book entitled Scriptores Ordinis Minorum, was born in the year 1568, entered the Capuchin Order in the year 80 of the same century, and in it, after he had discharged various offices, departed from this life in the year 1638, composed the Annals of his Order divided into two volumes, and in the second of them, which came out in the year 1639 after the death of the author, he put together the deeds of St. Seraphin, adorned with various places of the Holy Fathers and of Sacred Scripture; and the miracles which were wrought through the merits and intercession of our Saint he openly declares in his work that he copied from the Acts drawn up by Apostolic authority to obtain his cult. Although this biographer nowhere expresses whether he himself saw, or at least heard from eyewitnesses and witnesses worthy of credit, the things which he records of our Saint, of whom he was a contemporary, yet reasons are not lacking which can win the reader's credit for him. For in the first place, among the biographers of St. Seraphin he holds the first place, as we have seen above, and those who drew up the said processes by Apostolic authority call him a most approved historian and most worthy of all credit; then, besides the fact that his work was examined and collated in the Roman tribunal, it was also selected from among the praised Lives by the very authors who wrote the often-cited Compendium of the processes, and, as it stands in Boverio's Annals, with the supernatural gifts and miracles of our Saint removed, was printed word for word in the year 1733 by the press of the Apostolic Camera. All of which things prove that the Life of our Saint, composed in Boverio's Work, is a monument of the best note, in which his virtues and splendid deeds are found faithfully committed to writing. This we shall reprint here, and illustrate with the customary Annotations, into which we shall insert whatever things worthy of note are found in the cited Compendium of the processes and are lacking in it; to which we shall then subjoin the very Decree of Canonization, sent from Rome to Brussels to the Reverend Capuchin Fathers and communicated to us by them.
[4] Before we do so, certain things concerning the age of our Saint and the day of his death seem to be noted here. [in the year 1604, sixty-four years of age, he died on the 12th day of October, on which he is venerated.] The epoch of the birth of St. Seraphin, which Boverio nowhere expresses in the whole course of the Life to be reprinted presently, the Supreme Pontiff Clement XIII in the cited Decree fixes in the 40th year of the sixteenth century in the following words: Seraphin was born in the town of Montegranaro of the diocese of Fermo in the year of Restored Salvation MDXL. The Compendium of the processes also relates that he entered mortal life in the same year, thus: Seraphin, called of Ascoli because, having stayed in that city a very long time, he gave greater examples of virtues there, wrought more wonderful things and met a precious death, was born in the town of Montegranaro of the diocese of Fermo in the year 1540 of the common Christian era. The often-praised Boverio, together with the cited Compendium of the processes, openly declares that he received the eternal reward of his virtues in heaven in the year 1604; but he affirms, not without error, that he was at that time a septuagenarian, since from the year of his birth 1540 until 1604, in which it is established that he departed from this life, not seventy but sixty-four years are counted. Nor is Boverio alone to be corrected, but also Ferrari, Arthur du Monstier and Hueber, of whom the first announces the memory of our Saint on the 26th day of September, the second on the 26th of October, and the third on the 20th of November; for from the Decree of the Supreme Pontiff Clement XIII, to be reprinted by us below, it becomes manifest that our Saint is celebrated on the 12th day of October, which is the anniversary of his death.
LIFE OF ST. SERAPHIN OF ASCOLI, OR OF MONTEGRANARO,
PROFESSED LAY BROTHER IN THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR CAPUCHIN,
By Zaccaria Boverio,
From volume 2 of the Annals of the Capuchin Order.
Seraphin, Capuchin, confessor, at Ascoli in Italy. (S.)
BY Z. BOVERIO
PROLOGUE.
The author; that the Life of St. Seraphin, Now from the province of Picenum a most illustrious man, and worthy of immortal memory, Seraphin of Montegranaro, a lay brother, renowned for so many triumphs, shines forth among the stars of Religion; so that, as a new prodigy of the world, he not without reason turns the eyes of all upon himself: for he shines with the light of so many heavenly virtues, with such splendour of holiness, with so great a majesty, finally, of signs and miracles, that if I should proclaim him a heavenly Man, I should not have said enough; if angelic, not even a fair
praise of him should I reach, unless, from the name given him, to which his splendid deeds themselves also correspond, I should at length call him Seraphic: whence it comes about that in setting these forth, although the material abounds, I am compelled to use a somewhat longer history, yet I shall by no means depart from the brevity I have set myself.
[2] he says he has worked it out so that mortals may imitate it. Further, as no one is ignorant that the firmament was so established by God from the very birth of the world that in it the stars, shining through the night each with its own light, in a perpetual succession of times, some rising, others setting, should glitter and impart their lights to the world: in this manner also God, Best and Greatest, as soon as He established in the world the Church, as a splendid firmament of truth, willed that it should be so adorned with a countless multitude of just men, who like stars should shine by their virtue for mortals in the world, that each should rise and set in its own time: and some should shine forth with a lesser light, others with a greater. For, as the Apostle says: "As star differs from star in brightness, so also is the resurrection of the Saints a." Hitherto we have beheld very many illustrious men of religion, as stars of this firmament, shining forth with the light of their virtues, some with an ampler, others with a briefer light. But now it pleases us to behold a certain light and slender vapour, drawn out from the deepest bosom of the earth by the divine power of that unchangeable Sun, and raised to the nobler order of the stars for this reason chiefly: that those who direct the eyes of the mind to the perfection of his life and the brilliance of his virtues may not merely exult in his light, as if swollen with another's virtue, but, following the light and footsteps of the one going before, may hasten to imitate him; and, drawn in some measure by his fragrance, may feed among the fragrant examples of his life as among lilies, until the day breathe and the shadows decline; for, as Gregory says: "What is declared by the lilies but the life of those who truly say: We are the good odour of Christ to God? The elect, therefore, that they may prevail to attain the highest things, are satisfied by beholding the fragrant and white life of the just: but, because, placed in this life, they are not yet able to be satisfied, they are fed meanwhile by the examples of the fathers who went before; therefore he says that he is fed until the day breathe and the shadows decline. For we need to be refreshed by the examples of the just just so long until, the eternal day breathing, we pass over the shadows of the present mortality b."
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER I.
His stock, fatherland, parents: his pious upbringing: he learns the mason's craft: he enters the Order of Capuchins.
His stock, fatherland, parents: The fatherland, then, of Seraphin, the history of whose life we undertake, was Montegranaro, a town of the territory of Fermo, not far distant from Fermo a: to which, if any praise is due even from its name, it is surely this: that from its rich soil this little grain of wheat sprang up and grew into such abundant fruits of evangelical perfection that it filled the whole Christian world with the harvest of its virtues. His stock was indeed humble in blood: inasmuch as he drew his origin from his father Jerome, a workman in the mason's craft, and his mother Theodora, born of humble stock, but illustrious in virtue and piety. For the piety and religion of Theodora were so widely known in the town that, when there was talk of anyone's piety, she was everywhere brought forward as an example. But to whom can it be doubtful (if indeed it delights him to hear true things) that the nobility not of stock but of virtue is reckoned true with God? "The highest nobility with God" (says Jerome) "is to be illustrious for virtues b." What among men is nobler with God than Peter, who was a fisherman and poor? What among women more illustrious than blessed Mary, who is described as the spouse of a carpenter? But to that fisherman and poor man the keys of the heavenly kingdom are entrusted by God: she, the Spouse of a carpenter, merited to be the mother of Him who fashioned the whole world by His power. For God chooses the ignoble and contemptible things of this world, that He may more easily bring the powerful and noble to humility.
[2] Jerome, then, having had two children by Theodora, [he receives from God from his earliest age splendid seeds of piety: he pastures herds:] namely Silentius, the elder by birth, and Felix, who was afterwards called Seraphin among us: Silentius following his father's craft, Felix under the upbringing of his mother Theodora sucked in the first seeds of piety with her milk. For although the piety of parents is often wont to be the seed-bed of the piety of their children, yet when the best upbringing from the cradle is added to it, that image of virtue which proceeds from upbringing is easily imprinted in the mind of a boy, as in wax. In this manner, while Felix drew the first rudiments of piety from his mother, and received greater aids of heavenly grace from Him who had called him from the womb into the number and dignity of the sons of God, he was borne in his very tender age with such propensity of mind, beyond his years and the common habit of other boys, towards divine things, that his highest zeal was to be present at the sacred Mysteries; to receive attentively the word of God; to visit churches for the sake of devotion; to recite rosaries; to seek solitary places for praying; to groan in prayer, and, casting away all childish things, to give himself to piety. While the Boy was applying himself to these pursuits in his father's house, his father, who was pressed by grievous want, hires out the services of Felix to a certain farmer, who entrusts to him the keeping of his herds. But he who was turning more excellent things over in his mind, while he watched over this charge out of obedience to his father, meanwhile kept his soul with a greater custody. For while the herds were seeking pasture here and there through the meadows, he, withdrawing to a solitary place, where he might have God alone present, fed his soul on bended knee: and when evening came on, having brought the herds back to the stable and having supped together with the others, presently separating himself from the others, he resumed his interrupted prayer to God: and these things indeed the little Boy observed c.
[3] [he applies himself to the mason's craft under his brother Silentius, by whom he is often harassed:] But when, his age now growing into youth, his father Jerome had departed from the living, Felix, called back home by Silentius, his elder brother, is compelled to learn the first rudiments of the mason's craft. Silentius was a rustic man, harsh and ready for every outburst of anger: whence it came about that he easily, and for any slight cause whatever, scolded Felix, and often beat him with blows. And he seemed to break out into these furies of mind the more because Felix at this time was accustomed to fast three days a week content with bread and water alone, and gave himself more zealously to prayer: wherefore, since he often separated himself from the others at the time of refreshment in order to apply himself to fasting and prayer, Silentius took this so ill that he assailed him with frequent fists and blows. This, moreover, was done chiefly at the instigation of Satan, who, to frighten Felix away from his heavenly purpose, kindled the mind of his brother Silentius against him. But Satan, ignorant of the counsel of God, by which He was preparing Felix through these hard and rough things, like gold proved by fire, for the divine work, that He might at length forge out of him a certain wonderful vessel, was serving the divine work.
[4] at the urging of a girl, the Order of Capuchins When Felix had long borne these things with the utmost patience of mind, it happened that a certain Nicholas, who in the town of Loro had been accustomed to receive the Capuchin friars as guests before a convent was built for them there, having decided to have a dovecote built for himself, summoned Silentius to the work; and he going thither, while he spent his labour together with Felix on the building, Felix observed his fasts and times of prayer according to his custom. Nicholas had a daughter, a virgin, Ludovica by name, who, having noticed Felix often fasting and frequently praying, sometimes prepared for him foods which it is lawful to eat in Lent; and when he refused them, Ludovica marvelled at the piety of the Young man; and the more so because, when she sometimes read Denis the Carthusian on the four Last Things in his hearing, she saw Felix so hanging on the mouth of the reader as if he were receiving from her some heavenly oracle. Often, therefore, when the reading was repeated by Ludovica either about the joys of paradise or about the pains of hell or the last judgment, the soul of Felix was at one time so greatly moved by it that he at length broke out into these words: "What is to be done, O Ludovica, when things are examined with such severity? One must flee to the wilderness and embrace the life of hermits." To whom Ludovica: "Why do you speak of Hermits? You must go to the Capuchins, not to the Hermits." Felix had never either seen or known the Capuchins; wherefore he inquires who these Capuchins are. And when she had described in words the life, manners and religion of the Capuchins, the soul of Felix began to be vehemently kindled towards them: whence it came about that, speaking more frequently with her about the Capuchins, he understood that they enjoyed a fixed dwelling at Tolentino d, which was not much further off.
[5] Felix had already conceived in his mind, God inspiring it, a purpose of this kind of embracing religion: he enters, wherefore, since he could no longer bear these flames, kindled by God, in the bosom of his mind, he sets out for Tolentino without consulting his brother: where, having laid open the counsel of his mind to the friars, at first indeed the matter is thought difficult by them on account of the poverty of his widowed mother; but, account being taken of his brother Silentius, when he had risen to a better hope, he returns to Loro; where, received by his brother with harsher insults on account of the journey undertaken, he bears all things with the utmost patience, and knocks at the doors of religion so long and with such constancy of mind that, before the work of the dovecote was completed, received into the bosom of religion by the provincial vicar, he began to serve as a soldier in it under the name of Seraphin.
[6] How wonderfully the wisdom of God shines forth here [to whom he reveals the glory of her parents in heaven, in testimony of a grateful mind.] is easily perceived by those who turn over in their minds the conversion of this Man — whose life, and whose glory with God and men, was to be so illustrious that he can rightly be numbered among the more illustrious men of the world — which was begun and accomplished not by a heavenly prodigy, not by the voice of the Lord, as formerly with Saul, not finally by the thunder of some outstanding herald of the divine word resounding, but only by the word of a certain weak girl, that no flesh should glory in His sight; and that, the weaker the beginnings of that vocation were, the more they might be believed to have proceeded from God. This beginning of his conversion, since Seraphin acknowledged that it had arisen not obscurely from this Ludovica, he wished also to be testified [*] to her: for when, some years having elapsed after this, the convent of Loro having by then been built, he had arrived there at one time, finding Ludovica at that time settled with an honourable husband, he addresses her in these words: "I owe very much, O Ludovica, to your counsels and pious exhortations, by which you brought me to the bosom of this religion; and I frankly confess that I can never satisfy you by any services of mine, whatever zeal I spend: for such is your benefit towards me that I cannot be equal to holding and rendering thanks. But, lest I pass you by without any testimony of a grateful mind, at least with this happy and longed-for
news will I receive you, that you may know that your father Nicholas and your mother Petrucia are already presented with heavenly glory among the ranks of the Blessed." To whom she: "Would that it were so; surely no more desirable news could be brought to me." But Seraphin: "If an eyewitness" (he said) "is to be believed, since I have seen them with these eyes triumphing in the heavenly fatherland, it is plainly right that you should believe it of me too, who assert it e."
ANNOTATIONS.
[] Read testified* (testatum).
CHAPTER II.
His chief virtues: temperance, poverty, obedience, chastity and humility.
[Having received the tunic of St. Francis, the flesh, which he recognizes as the most dangerous enemy of the spirit,] Seraphin, then, covered among the Capuchins with the Seraphic habit as with a breastplate, since he was not ignorant that he had been called by God to the camp of religion not for leisure or rest, but to undergo perpetual combats with enemies, as soon as he put on the belt of the Seraphic warfare a, declares war on all the enemies of the spirit: and since he recognizes that no place is without an enemy, he not only guards himself on every side against the snares of the enemies, but also harasses and pursues the enemies everywhere. But since in undertaking wars with an enemy this plan must be adopted, that if there are any domestic enemies and rebels in the kingdom, these are first subdued with every effort, lest, communicating counsels with the enemy, they threaten an intestine war, whence certain ruin would arise for it: this was plainly the most wise counsel of Seraphin; who, since he had perceived more than enough that the flesh is a monstrous and domestic enemy and rebel of the spirit, first began, after the example of the Apostle Paul, to fight against it in war; of which Augustine says: "Of this encounter" (he says) "Paul was speaking when he said: I therefore so run, not as uncertainly: so fight I, not as one beating the air. And as though it were answered him on the contrary: Who or where is your adversary, against whom you fight? Answering, he says: I chastise my body and bring it into subjection; that is, he against whom I fight is in my body, not in the air: it is lust, namely, the enemy of my life, which, as I run and wish to please God, assails and provokes me with goads at every moment, so that, hindering the course of my contest, it may make its author the devil the victor: therefore I chastise my body, where I carry my enemy within me b." Wherefore, pressing the flesh first with a hard siege and the withdrawal of provisions, he wasted his body with such rigour of abstinence that, besides those fasts of three days of every week which he had been accustomed to keep with bread and water alone even when still a youth, he observed all the Lents of our Blessed Father Francis, which embrace nearly the whole circle of the year, taking absolutely no fruit or drink in the evening.
[8] But since, from the fasting on bread and water which he long pursued, he macerates it by rigid abstinence from food and drink, he had contracted such a bad habit of body that he passed blood together with urine, he so abstained from it that he repeated it only on certain more solemn vigils; but on the other days, content with porridge alone, which he also very often sprinkled with ashes, he was accustomed so to restrain himself from every relish whether of meat or of fish that scarcely anyone ever noticed it. He had set himself, in his daily fast, about this measure of bread, that it should not exceed half a loaf; moved chiefly by the example of Paul the first hermit, to whom God ministered only half a loaf by the service of a raven. But when at one time a scarcity of provisions was raging, in order to feed the poor he used to reduce the half loaf to only a quarter. And outside the time of the common refection he so shrank from all food and drink that not even in summer time, although he burned with thirst, and, exercising the office of almoner, was often invited by friends to taste wine, did he ever make use of any food or drink. Finally, such was the abstinence of this Man that, since he was led by no pleasure to the nourishment of the body, not taste but nature alone desired food. Amid these things, however, he was never seen sad nor satirical, or a severe censor of others: for with a certain grave cheerfulness of countenance, to which the kindness of charity was also joined, he so refreshed the minds of others that he bore even the infirmity of all.
[9] But it had not been enough for the Seraphic champion to have surrounded the flesh with the hard siege of abstinence, and beats it daily with the roughest haircloth and hard scourges. unless he also pierced it through with the manifold weapon of austerity. It is the saying of Gregory that the flesh is nourished by soft things and cherished by pleasant ones. "For as" (he says) "the flesh is nourished by soft things, so the soul by hard. The former pleasant things refresh, the latter rough things exercise; the former is fed by delights, the latter is invigorated by bitternesses; and as hard things wound the flesh, so soft things kill the spirit; as toilsome things destroy the former, so delightful things extinguish the latter c." Wherefore, lest the domestic enemy grow insolent with soft things, he pressed it day and night with the roughest haircloth, and beat it daily with such hard blows that he sprinkled the whole ground round about with its blood. For the noble Soldier of Christ, having made himself a scourge out of the points of nails, held it dishonourable to depart from the battle without the blood of the enemy. Finally there was no kind of austerity so hard and rough with which he did not afflict his own body, which he used to call the ass, like an ass.
[10] He cultivates the highest poverty Hence he had become so rigid a cultivator of poverty that, since he bore a mind not only free from but even estranged from all desire of things, he also used things not for pleasure but only for necessity, and as though led by a certain force. For as to the habit, provided it covered the body and served decency, he sought not which was better or softer, but rather which was worse and more worn; nor was he accustomed to change it at once when torn, but to wear it, patched with many pieces, to the very extremity of age. He likewise used drawers, girdles, sandals and a cord of this kind, which scarcely held together for age. Far happier surely in poverty than those who, though they were born poor and naked by nature, and must return naked and poor to it again, prefer that this brief course of life, which they can possess easy and peaceful between the two poverties, should be disturbed by the acquisition of many things and tossed as by a black tempest; especially since this is the greatest thing in riches, to recognize that they are superfluous.
[11] and cultivates. For the rest, that he might show himself an entire and perfect exemplar of poverty, he was accustomed always to choose for himself a cell, not that which was brighter or more distinguished, but that which was darker, which was poorer, and which deterred the others, which he used rather for laying up the fragments of poverty which he gathered here and there in the convent than for habitation or comfort; in which, although there was a little bed, yet often lying on the ground, he very rarely rested on it. And if he sometimes used it for rest, not lying but sitting, with a bench placed under his head, he took a brief sleep.
[12] Perfect obedience in St. Seraphin, The domestic enemy, therefore, having been reduced to servitude in this manner, lest it should rise against the spirit, he then more safely turned his battle line against the remaining enemies of the spiritual life. He recognized from the history of Adam that disobedience above all was the first evil of man, and as it were a certain plague of our nature, and finally the enemy of the whole human race; for had it been removed from the first parents of our race, they easily and without labour, and with them the whole human race too, would have attained heavenly blessedness: whence it comes about that when it occupies the mind of man, no good, no merit, no reward, no virtue can be in him: for, as Gregory says: "It is the virtue of obedience alone that implants the other virtues in the mind and guards them when implanted d." Hence Samuel, reproaching Saul with disobedience, says: "Does God desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than victims, and to hearken rather than to offer the fat of rams e." For which reason he threatens his own will, which is the parent and origin of all disobedience, with so sharp a war, and pursues it with such force and effort to the very last breath of life, that at length he compelled it to expire: for after the solemn vow of obedience pronounced by him, no sense of his own will, by which it could be recognized to live or flourish, was ever detected in Seraphin; but, since he had fixed and as it were engraved in his mind only the will of God and of the superior presiding over him in the place of God, hence arose his perfect obedience, by which he knew neither how ever to discern the thing commanded, nor to examine the cause of the precept, nor to discuss the manner, intention, command or end of the one commanding: turning over in his mind this alone, how he might perfectly obey the will of the superior. Thus it came about that no burden of obedience ever seemed heavy to him, and that he claimed for himself in any exercise of virtue nothing so great and special to which he did not prefer even a light precept of obedience.
[13] It was Seraphin's custom on fast days always to abstain from the little evening refection: proved by various examples, and having observed this from the beginning, he never afterwards interrupted it in the space of forty years. But it happened that in the convent of Montefilottrano the Guardian, intending to make trial of his obedience, at the time when the rest of the friars were eating fruits in the refectory in the time of fasting, ordered the absent Seraphin to be summoned, and offered him to eat a certain portion of dainty bread seasoned with hazelnut and sugar. What did Seraphin do? He did not turn over in his mind the ancient custom of abstinence, established by the prescription of so many years, nor the uninterrupted form of fasting, nor the untimely command of the Guardian, nor anything else; but scarcely had he perceived the voice and will of the one commanding when he tastes the sugared bread, eats it, consumes it all. Whence it came about that that prompt obedience of mind edified the minds of the Guardian and the friars more than that long and voluntary abstinence of many years.
[14] Again, when in the convent of Ascoli the Guardian, shines forth. in order to prove his obedience, had offered him a new habit to put on, and had ordered him to go about in it through the city of Ascoli, in which he collected the daily alms;
this thing indeed seemed rather heavy to him, who had hitherto always used a worn and patched habit: but obedience made it light: for, resisting the command of the superior in nothing, he goes to the city and goes round the streets. And when people everywhere, who saw him, contrary to his custom, covered with a new habit, congratulated him on the new garment, he, covering the virtue of obedience with humility, said to them pleasantly: "What?" (he said) "must I always go about among rags and tatters? Shall I never break out of them?" And the Guardian, understanding from his prompt obedience that he was led by the divine spirit, permits him to return to that former poverty of habit.
[15] The vice of disobedience and of self-will having in this manner been cut down He kept the gift of virginity untouched by the enemy. by the sword of obedience and of self-denial, he had a light combat with the intemperance of the flesh: for although the battles of chastity are wont to be the hardest on account of the unbridled onset of venereal desire, yet this was brought about with Seraphin chiefly by the gift of God, that he, who from his very earliest age had subjugated to himself with the arms of a severer abstinence the enemy of chastity before it was even fighting, never afterwards had it resisting but always subject, and kept the first flower of virginity, which he had borne from birth, perpetual and incorrupt until death. Hence, being asked by a certain friar familiar to him with what arms he fought against the vice of incontinence, he answered that he had never experienced any enemy in a battle of this kind with whom he had had to fight. Whence it came about that he suffered no movements of the flesh, not even those rising spontaneously, nor did he even feel unchaste thoughts with which he might join battle. But although he had no enemy raging against his purity, he nevertheless did not promise himself so sure a peace as to neglect the things by which it could be repressed if ever it grew insolent. Wherefore he applies so severe a guard to his eyes that he never looked at the face of any woman. He also so abstains from familiarity with them that, unless he were compelled by the office of public begging or by charity, he had no dealings with women. For he did not think himself stronger than David, who was laid low by the sight of a woman. For familiarity often conquers those whom vice could not overcome.
[16] This light combat, therefore, having been won chiefly by the grace of God, pursuing pride even to its destruction, he enters on a heavier war with pride, which, since it is the root of all evils and the enemy of the virtues, so dries up all the shoots of the virtues with its deadly breath that it drives them to destruction. For other vices attack only those virtues by which they themselves are destroyed; so that anger assails patience, gluttony abstinence, lust continence; but pride, as the root of all vices, by no means content with the destruction of a single virtue, rises up against all the members of the soul, and like a certain general and pestilential disease corrupts the whole body with its contagion. Wherefore Seraphin moves the camp of humility against it, as against the head of all vices, and pursues all pride of mind with such knowledge of himself, so vile an estimation, such disdain, such abjection, such desire, finally, of neglect of himself, that he hungered with a perpetual and insatiable appetite for these things. Hence, when it was once said to him by a certain friar out of disgust: "Get away from here at once, for your habit stinks grievously," Seraphin presently: "Not only the habit, but the soul within too smells very badly." At another time, when, invited to dinner by the Cardinal, bishop of the city of Ascoli, he had been compelled to go there, which was wont to be very troublesome to him, he seizes the occasion of being laughed at by all; for when at the very beginning of the dinner two eggs had been brought for him to suck, he, to show himself rude and rustic, pretending to suck the egg, lets it run down onto his beard and chin: and when this had excited laughter in everyone, he obtained the confusion he desired. Again, invited to dinner by Antonio Cornili, a nobleman of Ascoli, so as not to depart from him without the interest of humility, picking up, contrary to custom, liquid porridge and other foods with a little fork, as one wishing to imitate the urbanity of the nobles, he often brought the empty little fork to his mouth: and when he thereby compelled the others to laughter, he, glad in his humility, carries away that opinion of a clumsy man. Once more, when, making a journey, he had met very many men and women on the road who asked his blessing, a religious of another Order, seeing this, bites him with these words: "Seraphin, Seraphin, do you think you deceive God with these things?" To whom Seraphin: "If you had said this of men," he says, "who know not how to penetrate the inmost parts of the soul, you would perhaps have spoken truly: but no one has ever deceived God; whence it comes about that He cannot be circumvented by me either."
[17] With this spirit of humility he strove not only to grow vile in the opinion of all, he covers his virtues and the gifts of God with contempt of himself. which yet is the proof of true humility, but also to hide so solicitously the virtues and ampler gifts of God with which he had been abundantly heaped that, if they were ever revealed to others, he was accustomed either to diminish them by contempt of himself, or to cover them with words, or finally to attribute them to the divine work. Wherefore, when he was received by a certain secular man, who had heard that so many miracles were wrought by him, with these words: "O blessed Seraphin, who now always dwell with God, and then await sure rewards in heaven!" he presently, spitting out the saying, said: "Why do you proclaim me blessed? Can the greatest of sinners be Blessed? Would that the pain of purgatory, to be borne until the very last day of judgment, were adjudged to me by God; what thanks would be rendered by me to God!" And the miracles which were wrought everywhere by him through the power of God, lest they be published abroad, he tried to prevent sometimes with sharper words, sometimes with pleasant ones, rebuking the sick or others in these words: "Take care, little fool, take care that no word break out of you, by which sickness may attack you again: otherwise, if you blurt out a word, I will make you a martyr with my own hand." Led, finally, by this desire of contempt of himself, he once strove to persuade the friars that, while he prayed for a long time in the church, he was giving himself not to prayer but to sleep. But although, to persuade them of the thing, he here and there gave some signs of sleepiness, yet, the stratagem having been perceived by others who secretly observed his prayer in the dead of night, he abstained from that pretence. These, further, were the sharp darts of humility which Seraphin, hurling them against pride, used to vanquish the greatest enemy of all.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
His perfect patience: his singular charity towards all and mercy towards the poor: his zeal for prayer: his veneration of the Blessed Virgin: his devotion to the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.
St. Seraphin, of St. Gregory Now, this war against pride having been completed, he begins another against the wrath of the soul; surely the more difficult, the more savage a certain beast it is, which, since it is borne headlong with blind onset, acknowledges no bridle of prudence or virtue, and seizes the soul so violently that it does not allow it to use its reason. From which a certain man, not badly comparing anger to a tyrant, says: "Do you not see that the reason of those who are disturbed by anger goes abroad? Since it flees anger as some bitter tyrant." That Seraphin, therefore, might more easily lay low this savage monster of the soul, he first fortifies his soul, as with a rampart, by the prior consideration and preparation of things which could be troublesome to him; lest, finding it destitute of these barriers, as if unprovided, it should suddenly rush upon him and bind him. Nor was this in vain; for this is the counsel of Gregory, who admonishes thus: "Let the solicitous mind, before it begins to do anything, set before itself all the insults which it may suffer; so that, thinking of the reproaches of its Redeemer, it may prepare itself for adversities: which, no doubt, when they come, it receives the more bravely, the more cautiously it has armed itself by foreknowledge: for he who is caught off his guard by adversity is found as it were asleep by the enemy: and the enemy kills him the more quickly because he pierces him not resisting. For he who by solicitude notes beforehand the evils impending awaits the hostile onsets as one watching in ambush: and is girded valiantly for victory from the very point at which he was thought to be caught unawares. Skilfully, therefore, the soul before the beginnings of its action ought to meditate on all adversities; so that, always thinking of these, always fortified against them with the breastplate of patience, it may both overcome, foreseeing, whatever happens, and count as gain whatever does not come a."
[19] and following the counsels of the Apostles, To these, moreover, he was accustomed to add twin bulwarks with which to fortify the citadel of the soul against the enemy. The first he had constructed from the examples of Christ the Lord, of whom the Apostle Peter says: "Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow His steps; who, when He was reviled, did not revile; when He suffered, He did not threaten; but delivered Himself to him that judged Him unjustly b." For by these he had more than once experienced that strength was increased in his soul and it was more strongly animated both for restraining all the onsets of anger and for bravely bearing any adversities whatever, the Apostle too saying this when he says: "Christ therefore having suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same thought c." The other he had built for himself from the patience of God Himself, who, although He is provoked every day by so many crimes and injuries from all, bears all things most patiently, just as if He were not at all injured, overlooks the insults offered, commands the sun to rise equally upon the evil and upon the good, pours seasonable rains too upon the impious; and although they redouble their misdeeds, He does not desist from doing good, so that the Apostle could say: "What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction d." Hence, since he had learned not obscurely with how great patience one ought to be fortified against all the darts of adverse fortune with which the life of men is wont to be assailed, and against the unbridled onsets of anger, he imitated the patience of God in all things.
[20] Seraphin, therefore, since he had his soul fortified on every side with these ramparts and bulwarks, he keeps his soul estranged from all anger, had so extinguished every onset and disturbance of anger that, gentler than the dove, which is said to lack gall, he knew not at all how to be angry with anyone or to betray a sense of anger: and he bore so unperturbed a soul in the very many harsher and unforeseen events of things which often befell him, that every sense of anger and impatience was believed to have altogether perished in him. This virtue of patience, further, since it was so splendid in Seraphin that God seemed to have chosen him chiefly on this account
to show forth all patience in him, must be illustrated with some examples of things done by him, for the instruction and discipline of those who lead the religious life in cloisters.
[21] Seraphin had brought with him from birth, not without the counsel of the Creator, and through the whole course of his life this: that he lacked those gifts of nature which make a man apt for doing anything rightly. Whence it came about that he showed himself so inept for most of the ministries of the house which fall to the lay brothers to perform that he either proceeded to his tasks slower than a tortoise, or so laboured in his tasks from poverty of wit that he never suited his timing to things. Hence a great and daily occasion of exercising virtue arose for him; for since the heads of the households demanded that he be both diligent in performing the ministries of the house and accurate in his proper duties, they roused him with frequent corrections, stung him with sarcasms, harassed him with penances enjoined, mocked him with words, turned him into a byword; so that almost no time was free for him from gibes and the vexation of the friars. But by these things the soul of Seraphin was not so affected, who received all with an unperturbed tranquillity of mind and with a smile, and showed such cheerfulness of countenance in them that, since some of the superiors, before his holiness was known to them, interpreted it in a bad sense, as of one who neglected to recall his mind from that fault of nature, they assailed him with harsher words and deeds throughout the whole circle of the year. Nor was this done with him for the space of only one or two years; but, although he was so tried by harsh things of this kind until his thirtieth and fortieth year that he could be called a Martyr of patience, yet, never changed from that first tranquillity of soul, he always appeared the same and unperturbed; and indeed he received these things so with pleasure that, when he had been punished by the superior with some heavier penance, having performed it, as though leaping with the highest joy, he would prostrate himself and kiss his feet, and often break out into these words: "So, my little saint, so it ought to be done; God reward you for so great a benefit." From which, finally, he obtained such splendid gifts from God that from it there flowed for him the fountain and spring of all holiness.
[22] When a certain friar had heard this Man of so singular patience commended, wonderful examples of singular patience he, stirred up by the spirit of Satan, as if to prove his patience, his hand armed with a lead plate, struck at his bare head [*] with so heavy a blow that he left him stunned and almost bereft of sense. But Seraphin, as soon as he was restored to himself from his stupor, receiving him with a smile: "O little saint, little saint," he said (for this expression was familiar to him), "God bless you." Yet God did not will that that friar's deed should be unavenged; for after this, having slipped away from the Order, he met his last day with the apostates. But those of the friars who had seen the deed and contemplated the patience of Seraphin were so astonished at it that one of them said, not badly, that the patience of Seraphin seemed to him like a prodigy. Using the same patience also towards another, who had struck him no light blow with the fist, he openly showed how far he possessed a soul estranged from all irascibility, much more from anger.
[23] he does not cease to give In the first years indeed after his conversion, in which he had not yet ascended to the perfect degree of patience, when he was harassed by very frequent rebukes and corrections by a certain Guardian, who had undertaken to try him down to the dross, he was grievously afflicted in mind. There was added also the temptation of Satan, who persuaded him that the eremitical life would be better and more tranquil for him on account of his ineptitude in mechanical things. For which reason, being at one time more grievously assailed by these temptations of the Guardian and of Satan, he betakes himself to the church, and, prostrate with tears before the altar of the holy Eucharist, began to address the Lord thus: "Lord Jesus, who searchest the reins and hearts and penetratest the thoughts, it is surely not hidden from Thee how much I desire to please Thy Majesty and to show Thee faithful service in all things. Behold, I am pressed by straits on every side: for, the sluggishness of my nature accompanying me everywhere, I satisfy no one by my services, and I provoke the anger of the superior. Hence rebukes rage against me, thence the temptations of Satan press, within, strength to bear fails, in the soul afflictions increase; and since new battles always rise against me, they take away from my soul all hope of ever attaining peace and tranquillity. What shall I, wretched one, do amid these things? Saviour and Lord, unless Thou bring help from heaven at once, I am overwhelmed by straits." Further, the most merciful Lord, who had decreed to fashion out of him a wonderful vessel of patience, addresses him with this heavenly voice: "Seraphin, why do you complain of the harsh things that befall you? They happen to you not without My counsel. If you desire to please and serve Me, you must proceed by the denial of yourself and the endurance of adversities, in short by the way of the Cross. This is the path of all My servants, this the royal road, along which, if you go on unweariedly, My help will never be lacking to you." Further, by these words of the Saviour the soul of Seraphin was so greatly refreshed that all affliction of soul and temptation of Satan at once departed from him; and so much divine strength was added to his soul from that time that whatever hard and harsh things befell him after this he esteemed not so much light as pleasant; so that, having obtained the apostolic spirit, he could take to himself that saying of Paul: "I am filled with consolation, I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation e."
[24] For which reason, when he was beaten with blows by Satan, who, having received power from God, does not cease. harassed him in many ways, Seraphin said to him: "Beat, Satan, beat, do not spare; for you are chastising the flesh, my enemy." I pass over very many other examples of his patience which could be gathered from the sudden onset of evils which often befell him, in which his wonderful patience shone forth. This, however, is not to be passed over: that, since he had established it as his custom that, as often as he was afflicted by anyone with some grievous injury or insult, he would pay to the Lord for him one of the seven rosaries which he had put together from all the mysteries of the Lord's passion, it happened once that, while he was reciting a rosary more ardently in the church for a certain Guardian who had loaded him beyond all measure with reproaches and penances, at that time he hears the voice of the Lord saying this to him: "Seraphin, this prayer of yours, by which you ask Me from the heart for those who inflict evils on you, is so pleasing to Me that whatever you ask of Me henceforth you shall receive."
[25] Hence, having begun a sixth war against all the enemies of charity, The greatest mercy towards the poor it is plainly wonderful how vigorously, how ardently and how unweariedly he fought for fraternal charity; for since such power is implanted in charity that, killing the vices, it begets all the virtues in the soul, as Gregory teaches from the Apostle in these words: "The law of God is called manifold; because, namely, though charity is one and the same, if it has fully taken hold of the mind, it kindles it in manifold ways to innumerable things; which the Apostle explains, saying: Charity, etc. f." He devoted all his zeal and labour to acquiring and defending it perfectly. Wherefore he was borne with such liberality towards the poor that, whereas the Apostle said of Christ the Lord: "Since for your sakes He became needy, when He was rich g," he on the contrary, though needy, became rich, that the poor might be enriched by his wealth: for when in the convent of Ascoli, in which he spent long stays, he performed the office of porter, so many poor flocked to him that, since the bread did not suffice to relieve the want of all, he distributed to them the vegetables of the garden. But being once reproved by the superior because his excessive liberality towards the poor, especially in giving out vegetables, redounded to the loss of the household, Seraphin presently said: "Let not the scarcity of vegetables trouble you, Father; vegetables will abound, and the household will suffer no loss." The thing then seemed plainly full of miracle: for when, at sunset, the vegetables having been for the greater part cut off, the garden was empty, at the dawning of morning the garden was green with so many vegetables that they were believed never to have suffered any cutting. In this manner too, when by another Guardian of the convent a certain portion of the garden had been marked out for Seraphin, which he himself might sow, and distribute the herbs to the poor, the proper gardener of the friars toiled at the cultivation of the other garden with all diligence, weeded the vegetables, nourished them with dung, spending, in short, all zeal and labour on them, and yet could not obtain their increase: while Seraphin's little garden, with no cultivation applied to it, no irrigation, no art and no labour endured by him, swelled every day with so many cabbages and vegetables that the more were reaped by him, the more grew up.
[26] mercy, The Man was such a lover of the poor that, when, exercising the office of questor, he begged bread in the city, he was so liberal towards them that, had his companion not opposed it, he would often have returned home empty of bread. And when dearness of provisions pressed, he thought it more right that half a portion of bread be taken from himself than that a poor man should be defrauded of his help: for he judged, not without reason, that not to give to a needy poor man when you can is robbery; especially since he had as witness Chrysostom, writing thus in Homily 6 on Luke: "It is robbery not to share with the poor from your means. But perhaps what I say seems wonderful to you? But do not wonder, for I will bring forward testimony to you from the divine Scriptures. And so the Lord, accusing the Jews, says through the prophet: The earth brought forth its increase and you did not bring in the tithes; but the robbery of the poor is in your houses. Because, he says, you did not give the customary offerings, you have robbed the things which are the poor man's. And he says this declaring to the rich that they possess the goods of the poor, even if they have come to them as paternal inheritances." But even without Chrysostom the Saviour urges it more vehemently in Matthew, chapter 25, verse 42, when He says: "I was hungry and you gave Me not to eat: I was thirsty and you gave Me not to drink." From which it follows that, since He here treats of the poor, in whom Christ now hungers and thirsts, he who does not feed the hungry poor when he can robs for himself the things which are necessarily owed to the poor man. Hence in Ecclesiasticus, chapter 4, verse 1, it is read: "Son, defraud not the alms of the poor." Wherefore, since Seraphin so held his bread in common with the poor man that the latter too ate of it, he had reached the goal of perfect charity as it regards the poor.
[27] and perfect charity towards all shine forth in him. But since entire charity extends itself not only to the poor, but also to all who are joined to us by the bond of nature, Seraphin was so poured out upon all by this amplitude of charity that he seemed, like a most kindly parent, to carry all in his bosom, since he wept with those who wept, rejoiced with those who rejoiced, and so of all
he bore the burdens that he was made weak with the weak, mourning with those who mourned, all things, in short, to all, that he might gain all for Christ. It pleases me to relate here a single example of this. In the convent of Ascoli, when the household was observing out of devotion the vigil of a certain saint of our Order, though not prescribed by any law, the Guardian, labouring at that time under a certain failure of strength, needed supper for the restoration of nature; and since he had decided to abstain from supper on account of scandal to the weak, Seraphin, noticing this and devising a fraud of charity, goes to the Guardian, and, pretending that he himself needs refection, puts together so many words, contrived with wonderful art, that he brought him into the refectory as his companion at supper; where, while he shows himself solicitous in ministering food to the Guardian as he supped, the Guardian indeed enjoys his necessary refection, while he, having taken scarcely one or two mouthfuls of bread, withdraws without supper. And since he often used this stratagem of charity with others too, which we read was once familiar also to our Blessed Father Francis, hence everyone can easily perceive how perfect a charity he bore in his soul.
[28] But that he might overturn in a single combat the whole camp of the enemies who wage war against the spirit, The Saint shows how venial fault is to be guarded against. he watched over such perfect purity of mind and innocence of life that he pursued not only the graver crimes, which draw a man away from God, but also the lesser ones with such grievous hatred, and laboured with such zeal to root them out, that, although the weakness of human nature in the state of this life cannot be altogether without them, he yet never gave place in his soul to voluntary and recognized ones. Wherefore he could never be induced by a certain noblewoman, who had asked him to excuse someone's deed with a slight lie, to commit that crime, however slight, under the pretext of any advantage. To whom the woman said: "What more is it than a venial sin?" But Seraphin said: "Does that seem little to you? So may God love me, if the whole world were weighed out to me as a price, provided I committed an offence of this kind under any appearance of something good and right, I would flee from it, despising even a greater price. Do you think that light by which God is despised even in a small thing, by which the Holy Spirit is saddened, by which the fervour of charity is lost, by which finally the soul is weakened and rendered heavier for performing works of piety? Is that divine Majesty, Creator and Lady of all things, to be esteemed so little by us that its honour and the good pleasure of its will ought not rightly to be preferred to all things and to all the advantages of life? But where can the honour of God, where the good pleasure of the divine will, which extends to the progress of human sanctification, appear, when the soul is borne by its own will into those things which both diminish the honour of God and, since they are displeasing to the divine eyes, are punished by Him with bitter pains even in the other state of life? Indeed, if even so small a love of the heavenly and most kind Father towards us pricked the soul, how could it come about that anyone would ever of his own accord incline to a counsel by which he would offend Him even slightly? Is it not recognized to be the nature of a legitimate and less degenerate son that he guards above all against those things which he knows displease his father? If this is so, it ought plainly to shame us to betray ourselves as degenerate sons of the Most High, because for so light a thing we hold the grace and good pleasure of a most loving Father so cheap that we seem to count it as nothing." Having repelled the woman's wicked request with these words, he retained innocence entire in his soul. The Man, finally, was endowed with such purity of mind that those who were accustomed to hear his confessions generally did not find in him adequate matter for sacramental absolution: whence it came about that, since he paid all justice to the last farthing, he kept his soul most pure to God everywhere.
[29] To prayer, always fervent; Lastly, finally, he attacks in battle the spirits of hell, the perpetual enemies of the human race, whom he pursues so vigorously with the sword of prayer that, since he was scarcely ever free from prayer, he was in conflict with them in an assiduous and almost never interrupted war; for this was long his custom, that he remained in the church until the third hour of the night: then, having obtained for himself a brief sleep of about three hours, rising for the Matins Hours, he drew out his prayer again until daylight, at which time, frequently rapt from his senses, he clung to the divine embraces. At Ascoli, sent with a priest to take care of a certain dying man, when he had passed the whole night sleepless in prayer, he spent the day in the accustomed ministries of the house no otherwise than if he had enjoyed a long sleep. In this manner too in the chapel of the holy house of Loreto, his prayer once having been prolonged from first light to evening, he would not even then have ceased from prayer had he not at length been called away from it by the custodian of the holy house; for while praying he was flooded by God with such sweetness that there were no more delightful banquets for him than the contemplation of divine things. Whence it came about that at home or abroad he had his spirit so joined to God that from the sight of anything whatever he always seized an occasion of praying. When he observed the same custom of praying also while making a journey, in the houses of seculars, it happened once that, having been received as a guest by a pious man, while he prayed apart in a chamber, a girl saw a certain white dove flying about his head, which indicated his soul to be pure and heaped with the gifts of the divine Spirit.
[30] in which several ecstasies of mind In the city of Ascoli, while Fr. Placidus, a priest, was transacting his business with his relatives, Seraphin, who had been assigned to him as companion, while he prayed apart in a chamber, is raised into ecstasy: at which time a girl, who had often called him in vain and pulled him with her hands, thinking him seized by a fainting fit, hastening anxiously to her mother, tells her what had happened; and she, going to Seraphin together with his companion, sees that he was withdrawn from his senses by no other fainting than that of divine love; for after an hour, returning to his senses, he is seen with his countenance burning like a heavenly Seraph. Again in the convent of Ascoli, when the Man of God, sought everywhere, was not found at all, they at length come upon him in the garden, standing with eyes raised to heaven and enjoying divine ecstasy.
[31] and the vexations of demons And these things indeed concerning the assiduity of his prayer. For as regards its power and strength with God, it cannot easily be set out; how many cures of diseases, how many miracles, how many predictions of future things and how many heavenly visions, which will have to be set out a little later, undoubtedly flowed from it. But his singular power against the demons shone forth, with whom he joined hands so vigorously that he even reproached them with sloth. Nor was this war of Seraphin with the demon brief or light. For it began before the beginning of his conversion, while he was still applying himself to the mason's craft under his brother Silentius (at which time he began to be harassed by the demon and beaten with blows), and was finished only after many years spent in religion. How many attacks, threats and blows he endured from Satan, especially at the time of prayer, it is not easy to relate. For often, while he prayed at Ascoli, seized by the demons, he was carried into a certain little shrine of our Holy Father Francis which is seen in the garden, where, while they afflicted him with most cruel blows, he, provoking them with words, said: "Beat, demons; why do you fulfil your work so sluggishly? Beat, for you play my part, while you lash my domestic enemy with blows."
[32] Again, when he was praying on his knees in the church, and the demon, having seized his feet, was trying in vain to drag him away from prayer, he suffers, he directs his mind, he, strengthened by divine power, reproached the demon with sluggishness in these words: "Drag, lazy one; why do you labour so sluggishly? Put forth your strength to tear me away from here." Seraphin was once praying at Ascoli when, deemed worthy of the heavenly sight of the Blessed Virgin appearing to him in the air, he began to be borne towards her with such fervour of spirit that he was raised with his whole body into the air. But envious Satan, raging with madness, in order to intercept that delight of the spirit, having seized him by the feet, strove to drag him to himself by force; and when he could not at all achieve this, he was tortured by his own rage. At other times too he strove to dash him, raised into the air, against the ground; and when he assailed Seraphin with these and very many other attacks, the latter so eluded all these onsets of the demons by his patience that he branded greater wounds on them by his prayer. Hence he had become so formidable to the spirits of hell that those who were besieging the bodies of men, since they could not bear his presence, fled from him as far as possible and departed from the possessed bodies, as will be set out more fully when mention is made of his miracles.
[33] Nor is this wonderful: for since the chief aim towards which the prayer of Seraphin was borne and he turns over in his mind the memory of the Lord's Passion. was the meditation of the Lord's Passion, which crushes Satan, he watered it continually with pious tears, he cherished it in a perpetual embrace, he had placed this bundle of myrrh, gathered from all the bitternesses of the Lord, between his breasts so that he could say with Bernard (sermon 43 on the Canticle): "For me this saving bundle has been kept; no one shall take it from me; it shall abide between my breasts. To meditate on these things I have called wisdom; in these I have placed for myself the perfection of justice, in these the fullness of knowledge, in these the riches of salvation, in these the abundance of merits: in these for me at times the drink of saving bitterness, in these again the sweet unction of consolation." Wherefore, having divided the Lord's Passion into four hundred parts or points, he had composed from these seven rosaries, sixty-three mysteries being assigned to each, which, distributed over the several days of the week, he had set himself to recite. These he was accustomed to recite with such compunction of soul and fervour of divine love that he always poured out a great flood of tears in them. One night, praying in the church before the Matins Hours, when he thought no one was present, uttering these words of the Hymn Stabat Mater dolorosa etc.: "Of thy wounded Son, who deigned to suffer so much for me, share the pains with me," he burst into such a mighty weeping that a certain priest, who was hiding within the stalls of the choir to observe him, noticing him proceeding so long in weeping that he set no end to his tears, quietly withdrawing from the church, left the Servant of God, like a dove, moaning over the wounds of the Lord. At the time when the death and burial of the Lord are celebrated by the Church with pious memory, having entered with others the chapel in which the Body of Christ was then laid up, before the day of the Parasceve, he never afterwards withdrew from it until, the memory of that Mystery being completed, the Body of Christ was carried thence on the following day. Since, therefore, with this most powerful kind of arms, which the Apostle also urges when he says: "Christ therefore having suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought h," Seraphin broke all the onsets of Satan and quenched his fiery darts, it is no wonder that he also triumphed the more gloriously over him.
[34] Very much devotion towards the Blessed Virgin To this he was accustomed to add also another thing, which pressed the enemy not lightly: namely, a certain ardent devotion towards the holy Mother of God, by which he was so greatly affected that he appointed Mary for himself, after her Son, as mediatrix with God, patroness and lady; he loved her, he venerated her, he embraced her in his soul, all his vows conspired towards her. If he sought any grace, any virtue, any divine light, any gifts from God, he committed it to the intercession of Mary to be obtained from Him who willed that we should have everything through Mary; and conversely, whatever he prepared to offer to God, he commended to be offered by the hands of Mary, that it might be pleasing to God. Finally, he recognized that such a fullness of graces flows from her upon us that, though he had never read Bernard, yet, having obtained the spirit of Bernard, he often broke out into these words: "Take away this solar body which lights the world: where is the day? Take away Mary, this star of the sea: take away this gate of shining light: take away the rising dawn: take away her who is chosen as the sun, from whom the rays of divine light flow out upon us: what but enveloping gloom and the densest darkness are left to mortals? Take away, finally, the Mother: where is the joy of the children?" Hence he provoked everyone, with what words he could, to the cult and veneration of this most blessed Virgin. Wherefore, when he wished at one time to rouse a man familiar to him, harassed by grievous hardship, to implore the help of the Blessed Virgin, he discloses that she had once appeared to him when he was afflicted by certain temptations; and by her sight alone he was so refreshed in soul that every affliction of temptation was at once driven away from him. Further, saying these things, he presently began to be carried away by such delight of spirit from the mere memory of it that, as if drunk, he broke out more vehemently into these words: "O what joy of heart! O what delight!"
[35] [and he burns with devotion to the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, and honours its ministers.] When to these, finally, there was added his supreme devotion to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, it came about that, refreshed almost every day with that divine bread, he enjoyed such delight of mind in the contemplation of this Sacrament that he spent very many spaces of hours in it, and was often rapt into ecstasy of mind. Hence he followed the priests of the Lord with such singular veneration that, when he met any one of them in the city, he at once, every business being interrupted, went up to him and kissed his hands. And when at Ascoli a certain priest, infected with leprosy, was celebrating the sacred Mysteries, the Servant of God, taking this ill, so cured him of the leprosy by his prayer that he nevertheless concealed the miracle by rubbing on a herb i.
ANNOTATIONS.
[] Read aimed at* (appetiit).
CHAPTER IV.
His visions: the gift of the discernment of spirits and of prophecy with which the Saint was endowed.
[56] [Very many, among whom two religious of his Order, he sees reigning with Christ. A mother of her son's,] Having thus in some fashion given a foretaste of these virtues of Seraphin, by which he procured for himself grace and holiness of life with God, I come to the heavenly gifts divinely conferred on him, by which God, Best and Greatest, willed the splendid excellence of his life to be attested among men while he was still living; and since these are comprised partly in heavenly visions and the knowledge of most hidden things, partly in the sure prediction of future things and the working of signs, they will have to be treated of one by one, as they are established from the Process. First, then, as regards the visions: since among the other virtues of this holy Man this was singular in him, that he hid with the utmost zeal both his virtues and the very gifts of God by which his virtue could be recognized, which was an outstanding proof of his humility, it hence came about that, besides only a few which fell from his mouth, briefly and less completely, rather for the benefit of others, the very charity of God impelling him, than spontaneously, very many others could not be had. Passing over, therefore, those things which have been narrated above about the parents of Ludovica a, whom he had affirmed he had seen among the Heavenly Ones, and about that most delightful sight of the Blessed Virgin b, he disclosed once to a pious and familiar man, in order to soothe his grief, that he had at one time been carried up to behold the rewards of heavenly glory, where he asserted that those who had patiently borne hard things here for Christ enjoyed the greatest glory in heaven. He also beheld very many who had departed this life reigning with Christ, among whom he enumerated Fr. Donatus of Montegranaro, a preacher of ours, and Fr. James of Ascoli, a lay brother, men adorned with every virtue. To Deianira Biciaria, a woman of Ascoli, who was asking that holy Masses be celebrated for her dead son, he answered: "The dead man no longer needs the suffrage of Masses; for, freed from his pains, he has ascended to the joys of heaven." To whom she: "Would that this were certain to me." But Seraphin said: "Hold it most certain; for with these eyes I have seen him sitting among the angels."
[57] [he makes a woman certain of her husband's, a girl of her mother's, and a certain woman of her son's glory in heaven.] Martius Constantinus of Ascoli, husband of Pomponia, who, slain by enemies, had died without the Sacraments, he confirms to his wife so constantly to have obtained heavenly glory that he rebuked her, when she did not believe, in these words: "Why, O Pomponia, are you drawn so reluctantly to believe that which is most certain? Would that I might now freely withdraw to where he already rests secure of his glory." This same thing he also announces to Ludovica Biciella about the glory of her dead mother. The mother of the dead Alessandro Santucci, who was mourning her son's death with perpetual tears, he made so certain of her son's glory that he indicated to her exactly the day on which he had flown from the pains of purgatory into heaven.
[38] He indicates to a certain woman that her mother's soul is punished in hell. Moreover, to the same familiar man too, whom I mentioned above, he indicated that he had once beheld the torments of hell and that very many whom he had known when living were tormented in them; and to a certain woman of Ascoli also, whose name is deliberately withheld, who had asked his prayers for the suffrage of her dead mother, he answered: "Do not seek suffrages for your mother; for she, condemned to hell by the judgment of God, cannot be helped by the suffrages of the living. Do you take care to set out on the course of a better life, and to show yourself worthy of heaven."
[39] The hidden thoughts of a young man, And by no less a gift of God he often beholds the hidden thoughts and counsels of men. If this is to be illustrated by examples, the first is of a certain young man of Ascoli, who, when he was being called by God to the bosom of religion, the demon, to call him back from his holy purpose, stirs up a certain malevolent man, who, having affected the young man with a grievous insult, kindled his mind to revenge; this young man was accustomed frequently to hold conversations with Seraphin, and when he had come to him on one occasion after these things, the Man of God, leading him into the garden, bids him gather salad herbs; at which time, while he, tossed by a great tempest of thoughts, was plotting death for his adversary in his mind, the Man of God unexpectedly exclaims: "What is that, son, which you are turning over in your mind? This is not a human but plainly a diabolical counsel. Tear away the thoughts of Satan from you at once, lest perhaps they grow firm, and carry out more readily the former counsels of God which have been inspired in your mind." The young man was so moved by these words that, since he did not doubt that his hidden thoughts had been laid open to the blessed Man by God revealing them, he presently changed his mind and followed the heavenly vocation of God.
[40] Moreover, a certain captain of foot from the town of Montesanto, and he knows the crimes of a certain captain: who had disgraced the course of his former life with many stains of crimes, being deprived of the light of his eyes, having heard the fame of the miracles which was spread everywhere about Seraphin, has himself carried to him, in order to obtain the cure of his blindness through his prayer. The Servant of God had until then not known the man, nor had he learned from anyone what his former life had been; but as soon as he cast his eyes on him, presently reproaching him bitterly with the crimes of his past life, from which he had never repented, and rebuking him sharply, he breaks out into these words: "Why, wretch, do you seek from God the light of your eyes, you who by your crimes have spread darkness over the divine Light which so long called you to the ways of a better life? Labouring under a graver blindness in the soul, do you seek to be cured only of the blindness of the eyes? Repent, wretch, and first put off the cataracts of crimes by which the inner eye of your mind is darkened, that you may be able to enjoy the outer light of the eyes." All began to be terrified at the severe rebuke, but more to look up to the divine light in the Man of God, who had so exactly come to know the man's life, which he knew with no one reporting it.
[41] Let the third be Fr. Jerome of Ascoli, a priest of ours, [he discloses to a religious a hidden temptation of the demon, and frees him from it.] who, while still leading the secular life, being pressed by a grievous temptation concerning the faith, on account of the very great opinion which he had conceived of the holiness of Seraphin, prepares to go to him, determining in his mind as though beyond doubt that, if he were received by the Man of God so kindly that he showed him signs of goodwill, it would go well with him concerning the temptation; but if sharply and austerely, it was altogether over with his salvation. With this counsel, when to Seraphin, who was then discharging the office of porter in
the convent of Ascoli, he had come, the Man of God receives him on his arrival with so dear an embrace, and shows him so many signs of goodwill, as one who had come upon a long-desired friend. And when he had laid open to him the whole series of the temptation by which he had hitherto been afflicted, he at length consoles him with these sayings: "Let no doubt about the faith arise in you, Jerome; this is a temptation of Satan: for our faith has been attested by so many glories of the Saints and testimonies of miracles that nothing false can underlie it." These things having been said simply, presently such tranquillity arose in Jerome's soul that, every temptation being expelled, he flew into the bosom of the Capuchins.
[42] The Man of God followed priests with such reverence that, as soon as he met any one of them on the road, he kissed his hands. When he frequently paid this honour to a certain priest familiar to him, [He knows the soul of a priest stained with sin, and the hidden adultery of a woman.] it happened that, when the priest had at one time stained himself with a base sin, Seraphin came upon him; and not only did he not receive him with the usual honour, but he did not even pass by within his sight. Wherefore he, wondering at what had happened, since he suspected that it had befallen him on account of the inner stain of his soul, which he had not yet expiated by penance, in order to explore the matter more surely, washed his mind as soon as possible by penance and confession: and meeting him again, he is treated by him with the accustomed honour, as before. About that time, when two women of Ascoli, coming to the convent, asked of him the sign of the Cross, to the one indeed he gives the sign not unwillingly; but to the other, who was held by the hidden crime of adultery, refusing to make the sign: "Not to you," he says, "not to you is the sign of the Cross due." And breaking out into no more words, he silently admonished the woman of her crime. To these are added very many other examples also, which, since they are less weighty, I pass over; but those that concern miracles I defer, to be set out with them below.
[43] [He promises safety to a woman given up for lost on account of the difficulties of childbirth.] I come to the predictions of future things, which, proceeding from the gift of prophetic light which he had received abundantly from God, declared that the holiness of life in the Man of God was the greater, the more copiously he was illuminated with them by God. Wherefore, since these are so many that they could overwhelm the minds of readers by their multitude, I have judged that, the weightier ones being set out, the rest should rather be indicated than written out. It is established from the Process that the Servant of God foretold future safety to very many sick persons who were either struggling with death in the final agony or had been adjudged to death by the judgment of the physicians. And among these the first is a certain Turia, a woman of Ascoli, whose life was altogether despaired of on account of the extreme difficulty of childbirth; as soon as she had been signed by the Man of God with the sign of the Cross, her future safety within the space of half an hour was also asserted by him, which she would obtain with the fetus dead. It having followed, then, as it had been foretold, it affected all, and especially the physicians themselves, who at that time were awaiting the woman's death, with ecstasy and stupor.
[44] He prophesies concerning a dying man, the outcome proving it. Nicholas Claveneos of Ascoli, already anointed with the holy oil, was hastening to the setting of his life; when Seraphin, coming to him, said: "Nicholas, do not fear the end of life; a longer road remains for you; God wills you a Capuchin before dead." The event proved the saying: for Nicholas, having obtained his health, after the sixth year moves to the Capuchins; and when at that time he wished to be placed in the order of lay brothers, he foretells to him that he is to be anointed to the priesthood. In short, he, both Capuchin and priest, under the name of Jerome, long served as a soldier in the camp of the Capuchins.
[45] [He foretells health to one in his last agony, a happy return from war to certain persons, and martyrdom to one.] For Marcantonio, a nobleman of Ascoli, sick unto the end, the funeral was being prepared: at which time the Man of God, arriving, said: "Why do you prepare a funeral as for a dead man? Marcantonio will recover and will live on for many years yet." After this he both recovered and, enjoying long life, confirmed the prophetic saying of the Man of God. When Matthew Vallomeo of Ascoli, together with his brother Hyacinth and some relatives, was setting out for the war of Kanizsa under Gian Francesco Aldobrandini, commander of the Pontifical forces, his mother Perugina, gravely dreading their dangers, once inquired of the Man of God what was to be hoped concerning them. To whom he said: "All will return safe to their fatherland: only Hyacinth, fighting valiantly for the faith of Christ, will fall a martyr." After this, when the city of Ascoli had received the others returning, of them heaven received Hyacinth alone, sprinkled with his noble blood.
[46] Alsatia, wife of the nobleman Annibale, was grievously distressed in mind on account of the danger of her mother Alessandrina, that a noblewoman is to be healed, and that a son is to be born to her; who was sick unto death: wherefore, betaking herself to Seraphin, she earnestly commends her to his prayers; and he, having prayed for some time for the sick woman, at length consoles her with these words: "Be of good heart, Alsatia, the setting of life is not yet going to cut off your mother; rather, being safe, she will bear a male child." Further, the outcome of the matter seemed the more wonderful to all because no one suspected that she was pregnant, nor had Alessandrina herself perceived a fetus in her womb.
[47] Lucrezia Santuccia, being sick, had come to such a state of illness [he foretells health to a dying wife, but death to her husband, affected with a light illness.] that the time of life was extended for her by the physicians only to the following night; at which time a certain priest of ours comes to her to commend her soul to God; and since Seraphin had been joined to him as companion, while the priest performs his pious office, the Man of God, rising after prayer, when he had offered her to kiss a certain bronze image of Christ crucified, which he carried with him, said: "Lucrezia, give thanks to God; for this infirmity will be to you not unto death but unto life." But at the same time in another chamber next to it Lucrezia's husband, seized with a light illness, was lying in bed; turning his eyes towards him, Seraphin adds: "Not so he who is sick in that chamber; for he will depart from this light shortly." What need of more? She, snatched from the jaws of death, obtains safety; he, scarcely touching the threshold of illness, is swept away to death.
[48] In this year [*] the sister of the canon Alacina of Ascoli, [He promises health to a certain sick woman, and asserts that he will die before her:] having fallen into a grave illness on account of an excess which she had secretly committed in eating peaches, from which she feared that the last end of her life was impending, asks Seraphin, summoned to her, to entreat the divine Clemency for her. He, showing her a rosary which he carried, made up of peach stones, asks what those stones were, so that she might understand that he was not ignorant of the cause of her illness, although hidden. Then at once: "Do not fear," he says, "for you will recover from this sickness." But when she affirmed, on account of the opinion of the physicians, that she would die, and gave his words difficult credence, presently the Man of God said: "Now make a wager with me, which of us will depart first from this light. If I first, you shall pay me so many rosaries in number; if you first, I will render this same number for your soul." And when she accepted the pact: "Do not enter into this wager with me," he said; "for I play with a sure die, you with one altogether against you. But let this be enough for you, that you will shortly be safe." Further, the very reckoning of time declared both prophecies of the Man of God to have been sure: for Seraphin, since he gloriously completed the course of his life in this year, she survived after the illness until the sixth year.
[49] safety to very many sick, In this manner too he foretells safety of life and of childbirth to Finisba Orlandia, labouring with a mortal illness in childbirth; and liberation and recovery to Jerome Ancillotto, a physician, sick unto death; to Costanza Rosata, whose soul was already being commended to God; to Bernardo Onofrio, seized with fever; to Pamphilia of Ascoli, dreading the danger of her gravely sick husband; to Smeralda Riccia, already adjudged to death by the physicians; to the brother of Ottavio Bandini, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, whom they were mourning as dead; to Gervasia of Fermo, very gravely sick; to Marta Paulucia, labouring with a long illness; to the prince of Caserta c, oppressed by a grave illness; to Deloëria Cinthia, already deprived of the use of her senses; to Bibiana, wife of Luca Thomasini, whose recovery was already despaired of; to Cinthia of Monteflori, wife of Domenico Barlocio, languishing under a devilish spell.
[50] [to a mother that her son would not live long, likewise to another that her twin daughters would soon die,] By the same light of the prophetic spirit he also forewarns very many of the setting of their life, of which it pleases me to weave in some examples here. In the city of Ascoli, when the Man of God met a certain boy named Thomas, son of Diamante Moccona, placing his hand on his head, he followed him with many blessings. When at one time he had found him at home together with his mother, while he caressed the boy, turning to the mother he said: "O blessed boy, born not for the world but for heaven! O happy soul, soon to occupy the happy seat of the heavenly kingdom! Fix no thought of human counsel upon him, Diamante; he is not your offspring but God's, to be transplanted as soon as possible into the heavenly fatherland." After these sayings the boy had scarcely reached his fourth year when, pure, he passed to heavenly things. Vincenza, wife of Giulio Coticoni, had borne twin daughters at one birth; and when she frequently commended them to Seraphin's prayers, she could never extort from him any other word than this one: "You ask in vain, Vincenza, for these are twin doves which aspire to the nest of heaven."
[51] the death and damnation of a certain man. A certain noblewoman, whose name I pass over of set purpose, when she had often tried in vain, by her humility and by all services, to placate her father, labouring under a long illness, who on account of a certain disobedience of hers had blazed out in such grave anger against her that he could not bear even any mention of her to be made to him, taking refuge with the Man of God, lays open to him the afflictions of her soul and her father's hardness. To whom he said: "Be of good heart; what was yours you have paid to your father. But let this by no means be hidden from you, that that wretched house of your father's is occupied by a great multitude of demons. He will not survive long; and, what is more to be deplored, he will exchange life for eternal death." Nothing at all was said in vain; for when he, consumed by illness after a year, had come to the last line of life, refusing to be expiated by the holy Sacraments of the Church, he answers those who urged sacramental confession of his sins on him that he was bound by a certain crime which he could never lay open to anyone. In this manner, unexpiated and without the Sacraments, he departed from this life, to be destroyed by the supreme torment of hell.
[52] In this year Marco Stabile of Ascoli, about twenty years of age, to a young man, to an infant recently born going to Seraphin, asks of him counsel whether he ought to take a wife or embrace the religious life. Smiling at him, the Man of God, placing his hand on his shoulder, says: "You will neither join in marriage, nor will you attain to the religious form of life. A kind of better life, Marco, for us
is to be sought, which abides among the Heavenly Ones." And this happened no otherwise, the Man of God being taken from the living in this year; and Marco, when he had lived on for two years after these things, having obtained neither wife nor religion, forsakes human things. At Ripatransone, when he saw the household of Gradasso Bonomini flooded with the greatest joy on account of the birth of a male child, turning to his companion, he said: "O how brief, how momentary, and like a point is the joy of the world! You see how great is the gladness of this house over the boy born; which yet will soon vanish; for the boy, like a vapour appearing for a little while, will be taken away the more quickly, and then joy will be turned into mourning." The event followed the saying. For the boy survived to see scarcely the third or fourth day.
[53] Astolfo Giulerio of Ascoli had laboured with the disease of spina ventosa in his foot, to a certain man suffering in his foot which, when he had borne it most patiently for the space of five years, being afflicted by it at one time, he implores Seraphin's help for himself with God; to whom the Man of God said: "Bear it patiently a little while longer, Astolfo, and then you will rest joyfully; where neither spina ventosa, nor disease, nor pain will any more interrupt your rest; a very short time of patience is prescribed for you. For the day of our Holy Father Francis, which is scarcely two months distant from now, will put an end to diseases and pains, and at the same time to life." When Astolfo had received these things joyfully, he prepares himself for that day, and, having obtained before death the presence of our Holy Father Francis, passes with him to heavenly things.
[54] To these are added very many others too, to whom the Man of God foretold their future death by the prophetic spirit. and to several named here death, Among these are Jerome, son of Battista Paduano; Prospero Biciario, a physician of Ascoli; Lucrezia Carlina, to whom he foretells both the hour of death and all the symptoms of the disease: the son of Alsenia, a noblewoman of Ascoli, an exile from his fatherland; the marriageable daughter of Laura Fastoria of Ascoli; the infant male child of Fabrizio Comentato of Montegranaro; Francesco Meliorio of Ascoli; Emilio Arcangelo of Ascoli; Polissena Rocia of Ascoli; Marchisiana Valenda of Ascoli, whom he foretells will die on the very night of the Lord's Nativity; Francesco Maria of Loro; Joseph, son of Costanza Paradisa; Giovanni Andrea, son of Mecotio the carpenter, who was labouring with a light illness; Vincenzo Rosato, a captain of foot, not in the least sick; Biagio Pelagallo of Monteflori; Enrico Masseo, a nobleman of Ascoli; the son of Angela Gualata of Ripatransone; Serena Picilla of Ascoli; Giulia, wife of Giovanni Battista Auricola of Ascoli, who was enjoying full health; the five-year-old daughter of Beata Segletta; lastly Ottavio Crantillo of Ascoli, whom he foretells will depart hence on the following day, when the rays of the sun should reach the sick man's bed: which things also were proved by the very outcome of the matter.
[55] and he foretells births to various women. To various women too, some of whom could not discern the fetus, while others were not even thinking of offspring, he foretold distinctly a future birth. To Finisba Orlandia, Diamante Moccona, Baltasina of Ascoli, Sophonisba, wife of Marcantonio Squarilla; Vincenza Petrochina, niece of the Cardinal of Montelparo; Chiara Jubaria of the March of Ancona d; Petra Francesca, wife of Vincenzo Posenzio, all being pregnant, he foretells a male fetus, which they bring forth in their time: and to Gasparina, wife of Tommaso, a nobleman, not yet pregnant, a male child; to the daughter-in-law of Ottavio Cetarelli, whom, being previously pregnant, he had affirmed would bear a male child, he then foretells that she would have several more children. He foretells that Sophonisba, whom I mentioned above, would bring forth first a daughter, who would reach only her seventh year with life as companion; another also, who would be consecrated to God under the veil of a nun; finally a boy, who would be anointed to the priesthood. Again to Petra Francesca and Maria Costanza Pectinella he foretells the birth of a female child: to Artemia Turriana, who had cast away all hope of procreating offspring, he often confirms that she would bring forth four male children. Finally to Hieronyma, wife of Giuseppe Masseo, who, since she could not procreate children, was complaining to Seraphin, the Man of God said: "You will have so many children that perhaps they will cause you weariness."
[56] To three young men Besides these, very many predictions also on miscellaneous matters are reported to have proceeded from him, of which it pleases me to indicate some. When the Man of God, making a longer journey, was taking some rest in the convent of Montolmo e, among others who flocked to him at that time there were five young men of Montolmo, whom the Man of God, while he roused them to piety with pious words, one of them asks of him whether any of them was going to pass from the world to the Capuchins. To whom at once Seraphin, pointing out one of them, said: "This one will be ours, and will serve valiantly in the Seraphic camp of our Holy Father Francis." The thing seemed altogether new to the young man, who had not yet thought of embracing the life of the Capuchins. But the thing obtained the divine counsel; for the young man, stirred after this by a divine vocation, betaking himself to the bosom of religion, under the name of Justus of Montolmo greatly illustrated the province of Picenum and the whole world of religion with his prudence and the light of his virtues.
[57] entry into the Order of Capuchins By this spirit he also indicated his future entry into religion to Fr. Louis of Monteguidone, who, while he was still living in the world, had gone to the holy Man in the convent of Santa Vittoria to employ him as intercessor with God for certain domestic hardships of his sister. For when, as regards his sister, who had formerly married Battistella, a celebrated Outlaw, he had intimated that she would shortly be freed from that trouble of mind, which happened no otherwise, Battistella returning to his fatherland on account of the slaying of Marco Sciarra, presently turning to Louis, he said: "What of you? Will you join stable or lasting friendships with the world, which is the enemy of God? Far be it; better things surely await you: the camp of the Capuchins awaits you as a champion: you will be ours, and when the world has held you in its womb until the ninth month, it will at length bring you forth at the feet of religion, by which, received into its bosom under the name of Louis, you will discharge the sacred ministries to God." Nothing at all passed by in vain: for the young man, although he had until then given no thought to religion, having heard these things, as if stirred by a heavenly gadfly, so boiled up in love of religion that he could be held back by no force either of temporal things or of relatives from pursuing entry into religion with every effort. But, the Provincial Vicar having gone far away for the office of preaching, he is compelled to contain the flame of the religious spirit until the ninth month; which being fulfilled, received into the bosom of religion, he is named Louis, and, finally anointed priest, is consecrated to the divine Ministries.
[58] Francesco Lazarino, a captain of foot, and Antonio Gabrielio, entry, when, meeting the Man of God in the convent of Loro, they had laid open to him in words their purpose, by which they were conspiring towards the embrace of religion, he praises it; but to Francesco, who seemed to burn the more with desire, and had already been informed by letters of the Vicar Provincial of his reception among us, he said: "It is enough for you, Francesco, to nourish this religious desire in your soul, which may diligently provoke you to piety; for God does not call you to the state of the religious life, but rather to administer your household with piety." Then, turning his discourse to Antonio, who until then had been borne with a slack mind towards the purpose of religion, he says: "You, Antonio, the heavenly counsel provokes you to religion. Increase your courage and show yourself worthy of the divine benefit." And when he had followed him with very many salutary admonitions, which could help him after he had embraced religion, he dismisses both, the outcome of the matter proving both prophecies of the Man of God. For Francesco, gradually cooling from the purpose of religion, is left to the care of his house. Antonio, more ardent day by day, is at length joined to the Capuchins under the appellation of Vincent, and at length anointed to the priesthood.
[59] To Marfisa, wife of Cristoforo Bono of Ascoli, [He foretells to a woman the return of her absent husband, and to a mother that her daughter would consecrate her chastity by vow.] who was mourning the long absence of her Husband without any news of his safety, he sets forth the future return of her husband after the third day, and the dangers which he had escaped. He foretells that Angelica of Monte San Paolo f, still a girl, who was once offered by her mother to the Man of God to be fortified with the sign of the Cross, would consecrate her virginity to God by a vow of chastity g.
ANNOTATIONS.
[*] 1604, the year of his death.
CHAPTER V.
Miracles which the Saint worked while living.
A disease of the head, Since these things abound in so huge a quantity of matter that, if all were to be set out, the mind of the reader could easily be wearied by them and deterred from reading, I shall, following the brevity hitherto adopted in writing these things, begin the history first with those who were cured by him of various bodily pains by divine power. First, then, Ragusina, wife of Verbio Filippo Anfidano, had been tormented for the space of ten years by a grievous pain of the head; who, having heard the fame of the miracles which had spread abroad about Seraphin, when she had gone to him in the church and told him of her long disease of the head, he, placing his hand on her head, said: "God has now conferred health on you; take care to show yourself worthy of the divine grace." And at the same time, the pain of the head being dissolved, she was never afterwards troubled by it.
[61] pain of the legs, Crispino Coro of Ascoli, seized with a most grievous pain of the legs, when he had been so tormented by it for two months that he could not even move them, has himself carried into the square to soothe the pain, where, while he was applying himself to a game of cards with others, behold, Seraphin, arriving, wrested the cards from the hands of the players, tore them up and gradually shredded them, and, the others who were playing slipping away, Crispino alone, hindered by the disease of his legs, remains. To whom the Man of God: "Crispino, if you promise that you will never play again, know that you will be cured of the disease of your legs." Crispino at once most readily promises. This promise being accepted, the Man of God, presently touching his legs with his hand and fortifying them with the sign of the Cross, so restored them to him sound and strong that he who had been carried there by the help of others returned home on foot.
[62] he heals the torments of the whole body by the sign of the Cross; Angelica of Ascoli was labouring so with pain of the whole body and moreover with palpitation of the heart that, since she could be relieved by no remedies, she went to Seraphin and implored his help with God; and he, when he had signed her whole body with a certain bronze image of Christ crucified which he carried hung on his rosary; after he had for some time with her before the sacred
altar of the Eucharist prayed, he dismisses her, fortified again with the sign of the Cross; and she presently returns home free from the pain of the body and the faintness of the heart.
[63] pain of the side, gout, Marcellina, wife of Alomeo of Ascoli, was tormented with so grievous a pain in her left side that, since it took away her breath, it often compelled her to utter mighty roars; when Seraphin, intent on his accustomed begging, came upon her at one time sitting at the doors of her house; and perceiving her uttering plaintive cries on account of the vehemence of the pain, he asks the cause; which being heard, he said: "Do not doubt, the pain will depart." And when he had signed her with his image of the Crucified, he passed on; but scarcely had he turned his back when, free from the pain, she rises safe and proclaims the miracle with a loud voice. Beatrice, a relative of the Man of God, had been so afflicted for the space of a whole year by the pains of gout that she could enjoy no rest; when Seraphin at one time had found her lying in bed, he said: "Why do you lie here, Beatrice? It is not a time for lying but for working"; and, touching her feet with his image of the Crucified and fortifying them with the sign of the Cross, he puts the pain to flight, and frees her thenceforth from the disease of gout.
[64] From the same disease of gout too, in the town of Montegranaro, he cures Mecotio Dario, [he puts to flight headache and torments of the head, arm and hand with the image of the Crucified:] who had long laboured with it, by applying the sign of the Cross with his image of the Crucified. There too he heals Filomena, wife of Francesco Brichio, of a headache which she had long endured, in the same manner. Fr. Anthony of Cingoli a, a preacher of ours, when he was labouring with a long pain of the head, by which he had been afflicted even in the world, had scarcely kissed that image of the Crucified offered by Seraphin, with which he was also signed by him on the forehead, when, at once free from the pain of the head, he is delivered from that torment for ever. Fr. Virgilio Pacifico of Monterubbiano, a Minor Conventual, was tortured every year with a most acute pain of the arm and hand: and since he was familiar with the Man of God, he once asked to be fortified by him with the sign of the Cross; which being received, he at once recovered from the pain, nor was he ever afterwards afflicted by it.
[65] In this way also Rocco of Ascoli, of the languor of both arms; with the same image of the Crucified applied, he cures various diseases Aurania, wife of Ferrante Paletta of Ascoli, of the torment of the left shoulder; Giovanna, wife of Scipione Profilio, of the swelling and inflammation of the arm; Vincenza, of the disease of lupini b, by which she was grievously troubled, and again of the straits of childbirth; Agostino Sessunzio, of pain of the hand; Fr. Valerio of Ripatransone, a lay brother of ours, of odontalgia c; Polinice Tuffina of Novana d, of headache e; Innocenzo Pitioto, of colic pain; Urbinia of Ascoli, of swelling of the breasts; Beata Sgarilia and Marsina, women of Ascoli, of a long torment of the kidneys; Bartolomeo of Loro, of the disease of cachexia; Benedetto of Monteguidone, of spina ventosa; Giulia of Montegranaro, of a general swelling of the body; Fr. Bonaventure of Macerata f, a preacher of ours, of headache; Lucrezia Odoarda, of weakness and pain of the knees; Aurelia, wife of Pietro Andrea of Novana, of the colic passion; Baldassare Grimaldo of Montegranaro, of pains of the whole body — are healed by him with the sign of the Cross, for the most part with that image of his of the Crucified applied.
[66] To these wounds and injuries let there be added those A captain of foot, of a golden tube; whom it has been ascertained from the Process were healed by the Man of God by the sole power of God. Flaminio Cinacio, a captain of foot, had received a mortal wound in the breast; and since a golden tube, from which the pus might flow out, and which kept open the wound, which could not be consolidated, had been applied by the physicians to be kept perpetually in the wound itself, the sick man was most greatly tormented by it; wherefore, having at one time obtained the presence of Seraphin, he humbly asks him to obtain from God by his prayer the cure of that wound for him. To whom the Man of God said: "What torments you in this wound?" Presently he said: "The golden tube, which I carry hidden in the wound." But Seraphin, jesting with the sick man, said: "A golden tube? Surely too proud a wound, which will not be satisfied unless a golden tube belches out its pus. But trust in the Lord, Flaminio, the wound will be cured without a tube." And when, the bandages with which the wound was covered having been unfolded, it had been laid open, the Man of God presently touched the wound with that image of his of the Crucified and strengthens it, so touched, with the sign of the Cross. But scarcely had he made the sign of the Cross when the golden tube, bursting out of the wound, so prepares the wound for soundness that on the fourth or fifth day after it was perfectly cured without the tube.
[67] another of an ulcer, a soldier of a grave wound, a steward of a carcinoma, Teodoro Tasso of Ascoli, labouring with a fistulous ulcer on his right hand, could be helped by no remedies; when, disclosing it to Seraphin, he is signed by him with his image of the Crucified, and presently, only a scar being left in testimony of the miracle, he is perfectly healed; and he, grateful for the divine benefit, afterwards consecrates himself to God in the Order of Capuchins. Orazio Javania, a Corsican soldier, stabbed with a dagger in the left side, was hastening to the goal of life with no remedy; at which time Seraphin, visiting the sick of the hospital of Ascoli, came upon him. When he had persuaded him to make peace, applying the sign of the Cross with his image of the Crucified to the wound, he brought it about that on the next day he rose from bed safe from the wound. Agostino Imperacio, a soldier of the catapults, when he was fleeing on account of a comrade he had wounded, lest he be thrust into prison, came upon the sub-centurion of his century, by whom he is pierced through the sides with a mortal wound. In this danger of death, taking refuge in the prayers of Seraphin, he is fortified by him with the sign of the Cross, the wound having been bared: which being received, on the next day he emerges safe from bed. Giannetto, steward of Giovanni Francesco Corvo, had long borne a black carcinoma on his face; and since it was growing daily and eating away the flesh, when he at one time met Seraphin, he asks of him the sign of the Cross; and he, as soon as he had made it with his image of the Crucified, dismissed him at once healed by divine power.
[68] [he heals two of cancer, a daughter crippled in the hand, another of an injury to a finger, and very many others.] In this manner too he cures by divine power Francesco of Montesanto and Emilia of Loro of a cancer devastating their faces; Diana of Loro, crippled in the hand; Porzia, daughter of Niccolò Serafini, who had by accident cut off her finger, which hung by the skin alone; Cita Vittoria Odoarda of a grave abscess; Giovanni Camillo Arpino of Ascoli of a wound of the head; Baldassare of Ascoli, wounded with a grave wound in the head; Pirro Valeriano, a captain of foot, of an ulcer of the hand which was degenerating into a cancer; Antonio Vallomeo of Ascoli of a deep wound of the shoulder; Francesco Monseo of Ascoli of a fistulous ulcer of the thigh; Giovanni Marino, a boy of ten years, very gravely wounded in the head by a fall; lastly Marcus Aurelius of Spoleto, governor of the city of Ascoli, of an incurable ulcer of the hand: for when the Man of God had gone to him to plead for a certain captive defendant, he was with difficulty being drawn to grant pardon to the defendant; but, overcome by the prayers of the Man of God, he at length addresses him in these words: "Now let us make a pact between us, Seraphin: he is held by an offence, I by a grave ulcer in the hand; if you render me free of the ulcer, he, absolved by my decree, shall come out of prison." This pact being accepted, when the Man of God had applied some signs of the Cross with his image of the Crucified to the ulcer of Marcus the governor, departing from him at once, he had scarcely reached the steps of the palace when Marcus, seeing the ulcer healed, orders the defendant to go free from custody.
[69] I come now to the lame and those crippled in their limbs, who are healed by the Man of God by the mere application of the sign of the Cross. [By the touch of the said image of the Crucified, to a lame man, to a daughter crippled in both feet,] The first, Vincenzo Potenza, was so crippled in one leg that he could proceed on it only with the greatest difficulty. When he had betaken himself in this state to Seraphin, he implores his prayers for the soundness of his leg; and he, as he was familiar with Vincenzo, said: "Why do you complain of your leg? There is no sickness in the leg." Presently, signing the leg with his image of the Crucified, he at once restores free walking to him. Salomea, the three-year-old daughter of Lucrezia Antonella, was so crippled in both feet that she could in no way either walk or stand; her mother Lucrezia, having at one time obtained the sight of Seraphin, commends her to his prayers to be cured; and he, taking the girl in his arms, when he had fortified her with some signs of the holy Cross, setting her down on the ground, bids her walk; and as she proceeded freely, just as if she were held by no weakness of the legs, he, foretelling her speedy death, said: "Do not receive with joy the girl now walking freely; for shortly you will see her more happily departing into heaven."
[70] A certain virgin was so deprived of the use of her limbs from the loins downward [to another deprived of the use of the shins and legs, to four labouring with a broken thigh] that she could not even move them; wherefore, since, all the remedies of the physicians having been tried in vain, no hope of soundness shone for her, being carried to the Man of God at Ascoli, she is placed on the very threshold of the church. When Porzia, a noblewoman, commended her more earnestly to Seraphin's prayer, the Man of God, going up to her, as soon as he had applied very many signs of the Cross with his image of the Crucified to various parts of her body, addresses her with these words: "Arise, daughter, and go to the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist to give thanks to God for the benefit." At once she, her shins made firm and her whole body restored to soundness, proceeds to the altar, and, all weeping together for joy, returns home on foot and safe. Stefano of Capodirivo, a town of the territory of Ascoli, his thigh broken by a fall from a tree, when he had lain in bed for the space of eight months and could scarcely proceed a little with crutches applied, having met Seraphin, asks his help with God for the cure of his thigh; and he, impressing the sign of the Cross on the thigh with the image of the Crucified, as he was accustomed, renders him sound in a moment, so that at the same time, the crutches thrown away, he transacted his business through the city with the freest step, not without the wonder of the beholders.
[71] Pietro Manfredo of Montegranaro had broken his leg by a fall, he restores walking to those labouring, and to others unable to walk. and since it could be restored by no remedy, he was lying in bed; when Seraphin, passing by him and pitying the young man's mishap, imparts to the leg the sign of the Cross with his image of the Crucified, by which Pietro is presently healed at the same time. By altogether the same power of God he restores to walking both Bernardo of Ascoli and Giacoma, wife of Mantocio, whose legs had been broken; and Hieronyma, deprived of the use of her limbs, and Giovanna, daughter of Candodoro of Ascoli, crippled in one leg; Diana of Loro, crippled in the hand, and Ottavio Bandini, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, whose leg had been broken g; and Teodora, wife of Antonio Frasso, contracted in her whole body; and Maria, daughter of Semidea, who enjoyed no use of her limbs; and Marino Dionisio of Montolmo, who had broken the bone of his neck by a fall from a tree; and Teodora of Montegranaro, broken in her whole body by a fall, in
he restores to perfect soundness of body.
[72] In the same manner he restores sight to several blind persons, I come to the blind, the dumb, the deaf, the hunchbacked and the incurable, who are read in the Process to have been cured by him. While the Man was making a journey through the town of Loro, a certain woman, blind in both eyes, was presented to him; and when he signed her with his image of the Crucified, presently, the whole people looking on, light was restored to her. A boy too, son of a certain foreign woman, who had until then laboured with blindness, when he had been brought by her to the Man of God at Ascoli, as soon as he received from him the sign of the Cross applied to his eyes with the image of the Crucified, at the same time also received the light of his eyes. Further, what happened to Giuseppe Ferranti of Loro seems worthy of admiration; who, labouring with total blindness, when he had heard of the fame of Seraphin's miracles, conceived in his mind such faith in the Man of God that he persuaded himself he would altogether be cured of his blindness. Wherefore, when he had caused himself to be led to the Man of God at Ascoli, on the journey light is restored to him by the Lord, who anticipates with His gifts those who trust in Him more abundantly. At Ascoli again, praying and bestowing on him the sign of the Cross, he recalls to the light of the eyes a boy, son of Felice Miliora, bereft of light. To these are added very many gravely affected with disease of the eyes, whom the Man of God restores to entire soundness. Among these are enumerated Maria Giovanna of Ascoli, who had already long suffered a fistula in the right eye; Costanza Patinella of Ascoli, bereft of her right eye; Citta Tucia and Sancia Orifila, girls of Ascoli, deprived of sight by the disease of boa h; Giovanna of Montolmo, wife of Giovanni Marino, blinded by a spark of fire.
[73] [he procures speech for three dumb persons, hearing for a deaf one, an upright form of body for a hunchback:] Among the dumb is asserted a certain Maria, daughter of Liutprand the weaver, who, when she had reached her fourth year dumb, being blessed by the holy Man and signed with his image of the Crucified, received the use of her tongue. When the Man of God, having gone to Jesi i, was spending some days' stay in that convent, a certain girl of ten years, Caterina Ottaviana by name, was presented to him, who had until then indicated things only by a confused and indistinct sound of the voice. When he had touched her tongue with his image of the Crucified, and had given her the sign of the Cross with it, he bids her utter the name of Jesus, then of Mary; and these being distinctly uttered, she thereafter spoke all things clearly. In the same manner, when, making a journey through the town of Montesanto, he had restored a sick man to soundness by the sign of the Cross, finding moreover a dumb man, by another sign of the Cross impressed on his tongue he makes him speak distinctly. At the same time he restored hearing, by applying the sign of the Cross, to Girolamo Vico, a youth of thirteen years, so deaf that he did not even perceive the sound of the bells; a hunchback too, who walked so bent that he touched the ground with his hand, he recalls by the same sign of the Cross to his former uprightness of body.
[74] In the number of the incurable there is first recounted a certain Cesare Amurato of Montegranaro, [those labouring in the throat, a young man with a fistula, another seized with the venereal disease, likewise a leper, and very many other incurables] who, labouring with a certain incurable swelling of the throat, being fortified by the Servant of God with the sign of the Cross, is at once cured by divine power. After him are healed by the Man of God, by the mere application of the sign of the Cross: the son of Sebastiano Rubeo, affected with an incurable fistula near the privy parts; at Ascoli Alessandro Benedetto, seized with the venereal disease; Teodoro Adamo, covered with leprosy; in the town of Montegranaro Antonella Commentata, of an incurable ulcer; Nesba, wife of Belisario of Montefucino; Vincenzo Moro of Fermo; Julilius Blasius of Ascoli, of scrofula; Ippolita of Ascoli and Giovanni Battista Giorgio, of dropsy; Hisba, wife of Prospero Gennasio, of paralysis; Citta Salomea, daughter of Ulisse Cavalcavecchio; Maria Pomilia of Ascoli; Ludovico of Ascoli, an innkeeper; Paolo Vecchiolo of Ascoli, of the falling sickness; Baldassare Merletto of Ascoli, of phthisis; in the town of Loro Battista Passacantando, of the worm disease.
[75] To these succeed also the dying, whose recovery was already despaired of, and he renders safe those given up by all recalled as it were to life by the Servant of God. Battista Auricola of Ascoli, labouring with acute fever and colic pain, abandoned by the help of the physicians, had already lost his senses, about to finish the course of his life very quickly: at which time Seraphin, summoned to the sick man, when he had prayed a little, signs the dying man with his image of the Crucified, and at once the sick man, recalled to his senses, renews the hope of recovery that had been taken away, and on the fifth day after rises safe from bed. Agostina, wife of M. Tullio of Ascoli, seized with quinsy, after many remedies tried in vain is at length condemned to death by the opinion of all the physicians: and she, having caused Seraphin to be summoned, comforted by him with the sign of the Cross, emerges safe from the disease on the third day after. While in the town of Montegranaro the funeral was being prepared for Margherita, daughter of Alfonso Nuzza, already in her agony, the Man of God, summoned thither, while he strengthens the girl with the sign of the Cross by his image of the Crucified, so terrified the mortal disease that on the next day he compelled it to open flight. When the mother and household were mourning Rizio, son of Minerva of Ascoli, already dying, as dead: the Man of God, arriving unexpectedly, bids all kneel and recite the Lord's Prayer together with the Angelic Salutation; then, imparting the sign of the Cross to the dying boy, he first indeed claims him for the hope of recovery, then in a short time calls him forth to perfect soundness. Lastly Pandolfina, wife of Ulisse Palmisciano, since on account of a long dropsy she had come to such a state that the physicians had cast away altogether all hope of her life, asks the Man of God, summoned to her, that she might at least be permitted to quench her thirst. To whom Seraphin, when he had fortified her with the sign of the Cross, orders a jar of cold water to be brought, and, blessing it with the sign of the Cross, comforts her with these words: "Come, Pandolfina, now drink as much as you please and quench your thirst." Further, as she drank, while the household thought she would drink a draught of death, scarcely had she drunk the water when, the dropsical swelling decreasing, she presently obtained so much soundness that on the next day she came out of bed safe.
[76] he renders safe. But, lest I seem to pass over the others who were cured of various diseases by this Servant of God, it pleases me to enumerate some here. Peracio Marciarello of Ascoli, sick so gravely with an acute fever that the physicians despaired of his recovery, is recalled to health by the prayer of this Man of God. His son too, a boy of three years, who was labouring with a hernia, is healed by him with the sign of the Cross. A certain swelling of the face and a disease of the mouth had attacked Teodora Aluitrata; and as it grew, when she could scarcely eat even liquid things, having received the sign of the Cross from the Servant of God, she is presently freed from both diseases. Silvestro Caponio, a nobleman of Ascoli, seized with a grave quinsy, when, very many remedies of the physicians having been applied in vain, the disease growing worse, he was always getting worse, at length taking refuge in the prayers of Seraphin, whom he followed with singular veneration, being fortified by him after prayer with the sign of the Cross on the throat, suddenly recovers, and after one or two days bursts safe out of bed. Seraphin, the infant son of Marchinia Amata, a few days after his birth, his whole body having turned to a swelling, had almost cut off from his mother the hope of longer life, when, the Man of God having been summoned to his aid, he, as soon as he saw the infant in his mother's lap, said: "Do not be anxious about the boy; the infant will live, and the third day from now will return to you sound him whom you now bring forward here swollen." And when he had imparted the sign of the Cross to the boy, he at once, opening his eyes, began to recover, until he saw the third day sound.
[77] [He procures abundance of milk for four mothers, and frees two young men from a spell.] It remains for me to run through more briefly the other miracles of this Servant of God which were wrought by him here and there besides the cures of the sick. The wife of Floravante Latini of Montolmo lacked milk with which to feed her infant, gravely feverish. Wherefore, all the remedies of the physicians having been applied in vain, the husband seeks the last remedy from Seraphin, who was known everywhere by the fame of his miracles; and he, sending to him from the convent bread fortified with the sign of the Cross, bids the wife eat of it; by eating which not only does the wife obtain an abundance of milk, but the infant too is cured of the fever. In this manner too Maria Agostilia, wife of Luca Albertini, and Tarsia, wife of Cesare Giunta of Ascoli, receive from him an abundance of milk. Ippolito, son of Silentius, Seraphin's brother, driven out of his mind by sorcery, when for the space of three years he had wandered through various regions as one insane, being at length brought to the Man of God and fortified by him with the sign of the Cross on the forehead, returned home so free from the spell that he was never afterwards troubled by it. In like manner Agostino of Luco, a young man of a town of the territory of Ascoli, is freed by the Servant of God from a spell with which he had been bound by the demon.
[78] [He calms raging dogs: he walks through rain without being wet: a chest, previously empty, is seen filled with bread through his prayer.] While the Man of God was travelling over the mountains of Ascoli, begging wool for the wool-work, he came upon a great many shepherds' dogs on one occasion, which, when they made for him with gaping mouths and in a rapid course, he had scarcely put the sign of the Cross before them when he rendered them silent and calm, as if a bridle had been thrown over their mouths. Again, when he was returning to Ascoli with some secular men, while the others were drenched by a copious rain which was falling from the sky, he was seen in the evening not wetted by even one drop of rain. In the convent of Ascoli, the bread having once failed in the evening, the Guardian orders a certain man well disposed towards the Order to be approached for bread; to whom Seraphin said: "Why is it necessary to trouble the man for bread, when there is enough and more than enough in the bread-chest?" "But the bread-chest itself," says the Guardian, "is what testifies to the lack of bread." For the Guardian had first looked over the bread-chest, which he had found empty of bread. But the Man of God said: "If there is no bread in the bread-chest, I myself am lying; but first the bread-chest must be examined." They go, therefore, to the bread-chest, which presently, through the prayer of the holy Man, is seen filled with so copious a supply of bread and cakes that it brought the greatest admiration to the Guardian and the others k.
ANNOTATIONS.
c. Pain of the teeth.
is seen on bended knees before the bed of the sick Cardinal in the manner of one praying.
CHAPTER VI.
His celebrated holiness: his pious death and the signs of his sanctity.
The fame of his holiness becomes so celebrated Since by these and very many other miracles of divine power, by which God, Best and Greatest, most abundantly attested the merits and holiness of His servant, the name of Seraphin was so celebrated in Picenum a that in whatever household of a convent he lived, crowds of the sick flocked to him; this happened especially in the convent of Loro, where so great a multitude of the languishing and the sick was seen daily lying before the doors of the church that it fell little short of that pool of the Hebrews; and since the Man of God bestowed on them the sign of the Cross with that image of his of the Crucified, he cured almost all of their disease. The holy Man indeed resisted and struggled against it, but, since God had placed him as a lamp, to shine before many by his holiness, on the bushel of the Church, the more he drove the crowds away from him, the more numerous they became daily.
[80] that the sick flock to him from all sides. When the Man of God was once making a journey through Montolmo, so huge a crowd of people met him that he could scarcely emerge from the midst of it, his mantle and habit having been cut away on all sides. This same thing was often wont to happen to him when he was enrolled in the household of Montegranaro, so that he frequently spent whole days in signing the sick with the sign of the Cross. The thing indeed was so troublesome to the friars that the Guardian is reported once to have said to him that, if that multitude of people flocking together, by which it often happened that the divine Offices were disturbed, were to be borne by them for long, his power of miracles would have to be restrained by a precept of obedience, as was formerly taken away from Blessed Peter Catanii by our Blessed Father Francis. Wherefore, lest that household of the convent should endure that trouble any longer, he moves from there to Ascoli; where, when he had stayed long, the devotion of the city towards him was so great that all acknowledged him as a heavenly man and a consoler given to the city; and he on the other hand followed that city with such singular benevolence that he conferred on it very many benefits both of public peace and of mutual concord and of cures. Lastly, that he might attest to it a perpetual sign of love, he left to it the remains of his body to be kept for ever.
[81] For when he had spent very many years in that city with great praise of holiness, now a septuagenarian b, understanding that the setting of his life, which he had often before foretold, By fervent prayer and rigid abstinence for death, was near, he began to apply himself more vehemently to prayer and to the contemplation of divine things, and, as if he were then for the first time beginning to serve God, to stretch himself daily to greater pursuits of the virtues, and to recall the fasts and austerities of youth to the years of old age. Finally, lest the Lord, arriving unexpectedly, should find him idle or given to sleep, he took care with all zeal to carry before him, with the virgins, a burning lamp.
[82] For a long time Seraphin had borne a disease hidden in his breast, which he foreknows to be imminent, he prepares himself, by which, although he was bitterly pierced as with the point of a dart, he had borne it so patiently that he had not until then been willing to disclose it to anyone; but when at this time it grew so grave that it was already threatening him with final death, he is at length compelled to declare it. The disease seemed to show outwardly no sign of malignity; whence it came about that both the physician and the Friars did not esteem the disease so serious as to think that any danger of life was impending for him from it, especially since neither fever had seized the Servant of God, nor did he lie down in bed. But the Man of God, who was not ignorant that from it there was arising for him not only danger of life but also the sure necessity of a speedier end, although he had until then put off foretelling the time of his death to others, in order to hide, as far as he could, the divine gifts of the prophetic spirit conferred on him by God; yet on the day before he departed from life, so that he might enjoy the divine Sacraments of the Church, he discloses more clearly that the end of his life is near at hand. But since the Friars did not believe him even when he asserted this, the holy Eucharist is at length, with difficulty, ministered to him by way of Viaticum.
[83] It was the last day for the Man of God, when he, refreshed with the sacred body of the Lord, and, fortified with the Sacraments of the Church, he undergoes it. persevered in its embraces of love until the third hour after midday, at which time, asking to be anointed with the oil of extreme Unction, he suffers an open refusal from the Guardian; who, since he not only detected in him no sign of one dying, but by the opinion of the physician himself he was in no danger of death, thought it foreign to the ecclesiastical rule, by which the Sacrament of extreme Unction is prescribed to be ministered only at the point of death. The holy Man strove to persuade the Friars that this was for him the point of death, but, as they resisted: "Now," he said, "let your judgment prevail; but what could now be done conveniently by you, you will soon perform in haste." After this, praying on his knees in bed, when he had come to the fourth hour from midday, with eyes raised to heaven, he entreats the Lord in these words: "O Lord Jesus, if I speak, no credence is given me; do Thou Thyself speak." Scarcely had he uttered these words when, his countenance changed to pallor, he began to show the signs of death. Further, the Friars who were observing the Man of God, beholding that unexpected change of countenance, run with the utmost haste to the holy oil and anoint the Servant of God. Anointed with it, he a little afterwards, just as if he were going to rest, is placidly lulled in the sleep of death.
[84] [The death of Blessed Seraphin being spread abroad by the voice of boys, there is a huge concourse of the people to his corpse,] The Servant of God having thus been taken from the living, beyond the expectation of all, the Guardian, who not in vain feared the crowd that would rush upon him, orders that no sign of his departure be rung with a bell (as is the custom), so that no report of his death should become known in the city. But by the counsel of God, Best and Greatest, who had decreed to make his holiness manifest, it came about that boys, going through the city in bands, cried out that the holy Man was dead; which being heard, presently so great a multitude of people flowed together to the convent that, the shops of the merchants being closed, the city alone seemed to be left without inhabitant. Presently the conservators of the city appoint ten men to guard the body of the holy Man with the utmost diligence, lest it either be carried off elsewhere or suffer some damage. And the crowd, as soon as the body had been carried into the church, obtained the sight of it, and received it with the voices of so many celebrating the miracles and benefits of the holy Man that the church resounded rather with the hymns and praises of those singing than with the songs of those mourning; presently all began to rush emulously to kiss and embrace him, to cut his hair, to clip his beard, to cut off his nails, to tear his habit in pieces, and to be borne towards him with such an impulse of devotion that they would easily have cut off his fingers and the other members of the body, had not by the foresight of the Friars and of the ten men the body, torn from the midst of the crowds, been shut within the railings, where the people could not reach at all. Meanwhile three and four habits, torn in pieces by the multitude, were exchanged for new and fresh ones c.
[85] [a concourse to it, bathed in a sweet odour; and as it grows daily, Pope Paul V grants that a lamp may burn at his sepulchre.] But the devotion of the people flowing together grew the more because the body of the holy Man was handled soft and tender as of one sleeping, and so bathed in a sweet odour that it recalled a heavenly casket of perfumes by the sweetness of its odour. The throng of the crowds therefore ceasing on account of the darkness of night, in the dead of night the body of the holy Man, shut in a wooden chest, at the request of the elders of the city, was buried not in the common sepulchre of the Friars but apart under the railings of the altar d. Nor yet did the devotion of the people towards the holy Man cool on that account; for from all sides, both from the city and from the neighbouring and remote towns of Picenum, crowds began to flow together to his sepulchre, to hang up votive offerings, to invoke the name of Seraphin; so that the nobles of the city, a council having been assembled, appointed legates to Paul V, then Supreme Pontiff, to request in the name of the whole city that a Process be drawn up concerning the life and miracles of Seraphin and that proceedings be taken for his beatification. The Pontiff assenting to the wishes of the city, the examination is first committed to the Ordinary. And as the miracles at his sepulchre increased, in the year 1610, with the assent of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Inquisition, a lamp burning before his sepulchre is set up: at which time so many signs began to be multiplied that votive offerings were sent to his sepulchre not only from Picenum but also from the more remote parts of the Abruzzi and of Insubria and of Subalpine Gaul e, which miracles of this holy Man
attested to have been wrought by his merit; and lest their memory perish, they are to be gathered here in a Compendium as brief as possible, in the manner in which they are narrated in his Process, only the kind of the miracles being distinguished, so that they may be discerned more clearly, being observed, as we have begun, in writing out or indicating them.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VII.
Apparitions of the Saint after death.
To Porzia, ignorant of his death, To begin the matter, then, with the very apparitions of the blessed Man, in which he was seen after death by very many: in the year 1604, in which the holy Man withdrew from this toilsome state of things to a happier one, on the same night which followed the day of his death, appearing glorious to Porzia Conti, formerly familiar to him, who was still ignorant of his death, after some words of consolation he is borne up into heaven.
[87] to Niccolò Salvia in his agony, In the year 1605 Niccolò Salvia of Ascoli, while he was struggling with death in the last agony, being rapt to the tribunal of God, sees the Blessed Virgin and very many other Saints whom he followed with singular veneration holding the right side of the throne, and on the other Seraphin surrounded by a band of Blessed Capuchins; at which time the demons, bringing forward very many heads of accusation against him before the Judge, are repelled by Seraphin, who had undertaken to defend the defendant's cause, by an exception offered; by whom also very many works of Christian piety done by Niccolò are related, and among many others his liberality and munificence towards the Capuchins. Wherefore, when it had come to the weighing of good and bad works, by the work and patronage of Seraphin the sentence of absolution is pronounced by the Judge. When Niccolò had related this to Francesco Maria, a priest of Milan, who was then taking care of his soul, a little afterwards he rests in the Lord.
[88] to Scipione Francesco, feverish, In the year 1605 Scipione Francesco Carelli of the Abruzzi was labouring with continuous fever in the town of Jesi b among the Capuchins, when, resting in the dead of night, he is roused from sleep, and sees an old Capuchin standing by him, who addresses him in these words: "Scipione, give me your right hand." And as he stretched out his right hand, he said: "I am Fr. Seraphin of Montegranaro; take care always to follow the Blessed Virgin and me with singular piety, since by our intercession safety has already been conferred on you by God." And he, suddenly safe, since he had until then not known Seraphin, having narrated the vision to the Friars in the morning, thanks are rendered by them to God, and the holiness of life of the dead Seraphin is disclosed to him.
[89] to Elisabetta of Erapula, seized with a pestilential fever, About the year 1622, while the funeral was being prepared for Elisabetta of Erapula, wife of Giovanni Battista Gerardini, seized with a pestilential fever, she, destitute of all hope of life, implores for herself the protection of Seraphin, to whom she had formerly been most devoted; and he, appearing clearly to the sick woman at this very time, addresses her in these words: "Elisabetta, if you piously venerate my sepulchre in the habit of a pilgrim, you will enjoy entire safety." And at once, having said these words, he vanished. And she, having begun from that time to recover, visited the sepulchre of Seraphin, as had been prescribed to her, and obtains entire safety there.
[90] Vincenza, wife of Niccolò Salui, seized with a mortal disease, to Vincenza, gravely sick, to Giuliana with pain of the breast, was sick unto death; at which time, invoking Seraphin, whom she venerated with a singular piety of mind, she presently sees him standing by her, bathed in so huge a light that he illuminated the whole house with his splendour; and he addresses the sick woman in these words: "Why, Vincenza, do you fear, or what do you doubt about my patronage? A longer life is granted to you by my intercession; you will shortly recover." And when from that time the disease had begun to abate, she shortly obtains perfect safety. Giuliana, daughter of Latino Ferro of Ascoli, gravely feverish, was moreover afflicted with a pain of the breast, when with full confidence of mind she asks Seraphin, now dead, to sign her breast with his image of the Crucified, as he was accustomed to do when living, and to drive away the fever; and he, when he had presently shown himself to her to be seen joyful and festive, applies the sign of the Cross, and with it at once puts to flight the fever and the affliction of the breast.
[91] An acute fever joined with a most acute pain of the head had driven Maria Agostilia of Ascoli to Maria Agostilia, with acute to such despair of life that, abandoned by the help of the physicians, she was hastening the more quickly to the setting of life; at which time, earnestly requesting the heavenly help of Seraphin, she sees him present with her, shining with heavenly glory; and he, when he had consoled the sick woman with words and, taking her by both hands, had set her sitting up in bed, at once rendered her safe; and she, presently proclaiming the miracle with a great shout, compels her husband to run to her at once with the household; and she, explaining the presence of Seraphin and the benefit of safety conferred, moved all to render thanks with tears to God and to His Servant.
[92] Joseph, son of Felice Monti of Ascoli, a boy of eleven years, and to a boy labouring with pestilential fever, labouring with a long fever, which had at length ended in a pestilential one, when he was being hurried to the funeral, invokes Seraphin for himself as protection of life, and, provoking the household to his invocation, at the hour of midnight, at which the Matins Hours were being rung among the Capuchins, beholds Seraphin present with him, and hears him addressing him with this voice: "Brother Joseph." And when he too answered after the manner of the Friars, "Ave Maria," Seraphin, caressing the boy and lightly shaking his shoulder, said: "Do not fear, you will live." And presently, restored to safety, when, exclaiming "O my Saint, O my Saint," he wished to embrace the holy Man, he suddenly vanished from his eyes. When at these cries of the boy his father and the household ran to him, he narrates that life and safety had been conferred on him by Seraphin. And since he repeated to himself in his mind that he had not in vain been called brother Joseph by the Servant of God, after the years of youth, fleeing to the Capuchins, he kept among us the name of Brother Joseph.
[93] [he appears to Porzia, pregnant, whose husband he defends against the constables, and whose dead fetus he recalls to life,] Porzia, wife of Sebastiano Cacarelli, when she saw her house being invaded at night by the armed household of the prætor, to arrest her husband, innocent of the crime in question, presently took refuge in the help of Seraphin, whom she honoured with singular piety. Nor in vain, for at the same moment of time very many monks and presbyters, hitherto unknown, bursting out from all sides, snatch Sebastiano from the power of the constables. Porzia was sick at that time, carrying a fetus in her womb, when St. Francis our Father and Seraphin, appearing to her after the event, say: "Porzia, they were sent by us who set Sebastiano at liberty; may you too, by our patronage, be free from sickness. But, putting off secular dress, cover yourself with an ash-grey habit." She obeyed them in all things. After this apparition of Blessed Father Francis and of Seraphin, when Porzia had passed that whole night sleepless in prayer, she perceives the fetus which she was carrying in her belly to be torn as it were from her loins and to slip down into her bowels with a great noise; from which time, since she gave out a foul stench from all the vents of her body on every side, it so increased at the very hour of childbirth that it seemed almost intolerable. At which time, when she had poured forth from her womb the fetus dead and putrid, she entreats Seraphin with tears to restore the child brought forth to life for just so long as it could be regenerated in the sacred water of Baptism. Nor was her petition vain; for, as she persevered in tears, the dead and putrid boy, giving some signs of life both by movement and by yawning, is presently washed in sacred Baptism, and after the space of five or six hours breathes out his soul in the nurse's lap. And Porzia, being held at this very time by a light sleep, hears Seraphin saying these things to her: "You too, O Porzia, would have closed your last day with your fetus, had I not obtained life for you from the Lord. Wherefore give thanks to God and increase the divine mercy by your piety."
[94] then to eight sick persons, whom he heals. Malatesta Matteucci, of the sides and kidneys
oppressed by pain, being anointed with the oil of the lamp which shines before the sepulchre of Seraphin, and at the same time deemed worthy of the presence of the blessed Man and of this voice: "Malatesta, behold, Seraphin, whom you invoked, renders you free from pain and safe," is restored to perfect safety; and he, to render ampler thanks to God and to Seraphin, presently venerates the sepulchre of the blessed Man with bare feet. From the same pains of the sides and kidneys Modestina Blanchina too is freed by the blessed Man, who appeared to her in sleep, touched the place of the pain with his hands, and consoled her with these words: "Blanchina, the pains have now left you." Terenzia, wife of Paulacio of Ascoli, often troubled by a pain of the womb, while she entreats Seraphin as her helper from heaven, sees Seraphin present, impressing these words on her: "Daughter, heaven is acquired by patience and pains." And when he had signed her with his image of the Crucified, which he carried while living, he renders her free thenceforth from that pain. He also appearing and handling the place of the pain, Deiurtina, wife of Tullio Eletto of Ascoli, who had gravely injured her foot by a fall, obtains an instantaneous cure of the foot. Prassede Terziana, very gravely sick; Fabrizia of Ascoli, afflicted with pain of the legs; Mariano Parisiano, labouring with pestilential fever; Lucia of Montenovo, a town of the territory of Ascoli, troubled with a disease of the tongue, obtain safety from him c.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER VIII.
Miracles wrought by his intercession.
[By kissing the corpse of Blessed Seraphin, Fabrizio Furcula, weak in body, and Porzia, with pain of the teeth, are healed:] The body of Seraphin had not yet been laid in the tomb when Fabrizio Furcula of Ascoli, who had long lain in bed weak in body and crippled in his feet, having heard the report of his death, earnestly asks of him in prayers that he might be permitted to behold and kiss him before the tomb should cover him and snatch him from his eyes. The holy Man from heaven most kindly assented to his wishes; for when after prayer Fabrizio perceived strength being added to his body, using a crutch, he proceeds slowly to the church of the Capuchins, where, seeing the body of Seraphin placed on the bier, he prays, approaches, kisses the body; and asking full safety of him, he receives what he asked, and comes away thence so perfectly safe that, the crutch thrown away, he returned home strong in his feet and in his whole body. At the same time Porzia of Ascoli, gravely troubled with a pain of the teeth, approaching the bier, when she had kissed the body of the holy Man, presently, free from the pain, gives thanks to God and to the blessed Man.
[96] Filippo Albarino of Ascoli, when for the space of eighteen months he had lain in bed so languid [at his sepulchre the languor of the body, a disease of the knees, and by the touch of the Saint's mantle a weakness of the sinews depart:] that he could not move without the support of another, having made a vow, has himself carried to the sepulchre of the holy Man, and, hanging up at his sepulchre a weight of three pounds of wax, presently perceives himself so strengthened and made firm by divine power that, before he had reached Ascoli, he felt that he had obtained perfect safety. Maria Felice, daughter of Marco Lucido of Ascoli, who was labouring with a disease of the knees so that she could in no way proceed, having made a vow to Seraphin and been anointed with the oil of the lamp which was burning before his sepulchre, the disease being presently put to flight, walks free. Elisabetta, daughter of Antonio of Bergamo, had suffered for the space of ten years a weakness of the sinews of one hand; and she, while she was praying at the sepulchre of the blessed Man, and saw very many covering themselves with the mantle which had once served the use of Seraphin, touching it with that hand, is at once healed of that weakness of the hand.
[97] [By the Saint's help a boy held fast in both feet, likewise a lame man, walk; the use of hand, legs, feet and eyes] Carlo, son of Perusina of Ascoli, born with both feet turned backwards, could in no way either walk or stand; very many remedies for the restoration of his feet having been tried in vain, at length a vow having been made by the mother to Seraphin that she would hang up all the boy's clothes at his sepulchre if the boy recovered his feet for walking, he was carried to the sepulchre of the holy Man, and the vow being repeated, the boy, who wore iron leggings, being set on his feet, began not so much to stand as to proceed and return freely; and presently the leggings drawn from his shins and the boy's clothes are hung up at the sepulchre to the glory of God and of the holy Man. Lastly Baldassare of Montemonaco a, lame in one foot; Costanza of Ancarano b, crippled in one hand; Giovanni Domenico of Montalto c, crippled in his limbs from the loins downward; anointed with the oil of the lamp burning before the sepulchre of the holy Man, enjoy entire soundness of limbs. To these are added very many others too who, affected either with blindness or with incurable diseases of the eyes, were healed by the suffrage of this holy Man. And among these first the daughter of Maurizio of Patrignone, who had contracted blindness of both eyes from the disease of boa, when, her eyes having been rubbed by her mother with a particle of the habit of the blessed Man, she had drawn in some light, the rubbing being repeated two or three times, received the entire light of her eyes.
[98] is restored: The daughter of Giovanni Francesco of Ascoli, Cirta by name, on account of the same disease of boa enjoyed so slender a light of the eyes that she was entirely blind in the right, and in the other possessed so dim a light that she could scarcely walk safely through the house. Afflicted moreover by want of things, she asks Seraphin with tears that he, who imparts his help abundantly to others, should not deny it to her also for the recovery of her light, and promises that she will offer him two silver eyes at his sepulchre. The holy Man from heaven did not fail the wishes of the poor girl; for scarcely had she risen from prayer when, having experienced that she enjoyed a clearer light, she receives it growing gradually, so that on the next day she had obtained by a heavenly gift the entire light of both eyes.
[99] various pains of the body, Among those who, tormented with various pains of the body, were freed from them by the suffrage of this holy Man, the first is Pietro of Montegranaro, who, seized with a most grievous pain of the head, when he had made a vow to venerate the sepulchre of the Man of God, is cured of it by divine power with no delay interposed. From the same also Mansueta of Ascoli, and Alberina Juvenalis, and Domenica of Campli d, and Delia, servant of Marcellina Cornili, visiting the sepulchre of the Man of God, are freed. Teodora Ginestica, oppressed by the pains of childbirth, signed with the image of the Crucified which had once been Seraphin's, presently brings forth the fetus safe. Zenobia, wife of Gaspare Tuzio, girding herself with the cord of the blessed Man, is delivered from the pains of childbirth. In this manner too safety of childbirth is granted to Maurelia Confetta and to Felice Montia and to Argeria, wife of Felice Grasso, labouring in the pain of childbirth. Maria, wife of Mantucio of Ascoli, troubled by a pain of the shoulder; Gasparina of Ascoli, of the breast; Maria Pellicana, of one knee-joint; Caterina of Cerreto, of the kidneys; Giuliana, wife of Massarone Ferro, of the breast; Nicolea of Ascoli, wife of Curzio the barber, of odontalgia; Ludovica, daughter of Febo of Ascoli, of the stomach; Mansueta of Ascoli, of the legs; Eusebia, wife of Giovanni Cardinale, of one arm; Simona of Montemonaco, of a general disease; Maria Giovanna of Ortona e, of colic; Junipera Alessandrina of Pedona f, of the ears; Benedetto of Monterubbiano, of the thighs; Salpizia Pelagalla of Offida, of the sides; Matthea Austea of Patrignone and Caterina, wife of Francesco Piacentini, labouring with pain of the stomach, having made a vow to Seraphin, are cured.
[100] I come to those who, affected with fever and various languors, [fevers, flows of blood, the falling sickness, hernia, the venereal disease, the disease of stones and paralysis are healed:] obtained safety by the merit of the blessed Man. Among these the first is Drusilla of Montemonaco, wife of Domenico Garullo, who, seized with fever, was moreover labouring with a flow of blood, for stopping which no remedy at all availed; when she had been anointed with the oil of the lamp of the holy Man, at once both the flow of blood dried up and the fever departed from her. Anointed with the same oil of the lamp, Ippolita of Monterubbiano, of tertian fever; Paolo Bucio of Luco g, of continuous fever; Gaspare Alessandrino of Campli, of a flow of blood; Emidio, son of Rocco, a nobleman of Ascoli, of pestilential fever; Caterina, daughter of Giovanni Paolo Bononiola, of the falling sickness; Angelo Monteucio and Troiano Gallo of Osimo h, of hernia, are freed by the intercession of the blessed Man. Ascanio, son of Vincenzo Pilato, when he had long wasted away with the venereal disease, his mother's vow having been made to Seraphin, it being at once wiped away, is brought to health. Tasia of Castignano, anointed with the oil of the holy Man, emerges safe from the disease of stones. Lucia of Montalto, a paralytic, carried to the sepulchre of the blessed Man at Ascoli, is released from paralysis. Joseph, a boy, brought to the extreme withering of his limbs, is recalled to health at the sepulchre of the blessed Man.
[101] When the body of the holy Man had been translated into another tomb, the dust of his sepulchre drives away fever and colic. very many, claiming for themselves fragments of that former little coffin, experienced various benefits conferred on them divinely from their dust; among whom are enumerated Censio of Ortona, Scipione Barba and Pietro Barba, who, labouring with pestilential fever, when they had drunk a little of that dust with water, are rendered safe at the same time. A fourth also, Maria Giovanna of Ortona, wife of Giuseppe Ballarino, bitterly tormented by colic pain, having drunk the same dust, recovers.
[102] The debtors of Maria of Campli, in order to be rid of her importunity, Wounds are healed by the oil of the lamp burning at the blessed Man's sepulchre, attacking her at home with daggers, try to stab her with very many blows; but, as she invoked the help of Seraphin after receiving the first wound, the other blows, with void wounding, are borne only into her dress and shift. After this the wound received, which was mortal, being anointed with the oil of the holy Man, is cured in a short time. Cesare of Modena i, when, on account of the wound of a musket ball which he had received in the mouth, he could neither open his mouth nor eat food, destitute of human remedy, is anointed with the oil of the sepulchre of the blessed Man, by whose power presently both his mouth is opened and the wound is healed in a short time.
[103] The sixth class of the sick, further, is of those and three are snatched from the jaws of death. who by plainly divine power are snatched from the jaws of death by the suffrage of the holy Man. In this order the first is Caterina, the three-year-old daughter of Niccolini of Marano k, who, when, by the sudden force of a disease, deprived of all her senses, she was drawing nearer to death than to life, scarcely anointed with the aforesaid oil of the lamp, opens her eyes, looses the bond of her tongue, and within the space of a quarter of an hour recovers entirely from the disease. Anointed with the same oil, Maria Mucrarella, mortally sick, when she could be helped by no art of the physicians and was therefore hastening to the setting of life, at once rises up into life and safety. A third also, Giovanni Battista of Torchiaro, a castle of the territory of Fermo, the disease overcoming nature, of the hope of life
altogether destitute, fortified by the anointing of this oil, triumphs over the disease and obtains the course of a longer life l.
[104] [A vow having been made, a mortal fever, colic and the disease of stones depart: a dying man,] Joseph of Ascoli, labouring with a mortal fever, had fallen into such despair of life that by the opinion of the physicians his funeral was already being prepared for him. At which time, a vow having been conceived to the holy Man of venerating his sepulchre and offering a silver head, at this very moment of time the fever is put to flight by him, the pain of the head, by which he was bitterly afflicted, departs, and after a short time he emerges safe from bed. Maria of Giulianova m, wife of Girolamo Domenico, brought by the colic passion and the disease of stones to the very last goal of life, when she had tied a small fragment of the habit of the holy Man about her neck, invoking his name, is presently claimed back to life and health. The life of Pietro Santi of Ascoli, on account of the raging force of an acute and pestilential fever, was in such peril that no hope of his recovery was left; at which time, when his wife with the whole household, imploring the help of Seraphin from heaven, had promised to hang a tablet, witness of the benefit, at his sepulchre, presently a sweat breaking out from the sick man puts the fever to flight, and the sick man, his strength recovered in a short time, rises from bed.
[105] a girl despaired of and very many others are freed from imminent death. Maria Francesca, a girl, daughter of Ruggero Romoaldi, obtained by prayers from Blessed Father Francis, when she was so sick with the disease of boa that her recovery was given up for lost by the physicians, a vow having been made for her by her mother to Seraphin, future safety is announced to her by him appearing. The recovery of Giulio Cesare Grifonelli, Provost of the church of St. James of the city of Ascoli, was so despaired of that a space of life of three or four hours was prescribed for him by the physicians; at which time, the whole household of the house praying for him and imploring the suffrage of Seraphin, when he had placed in his bosom a little piece of fine silk offered him, which had touched the body of the holy Man, at this very moment of time he is so refreshed by divine power that, the fever departing, he presently obtained perfect safety. Marocia, wife of Pietro Valente, and the wife of Bartolomeo Marinelli, so oppressed by the pains of childbirth that they were believed about to pour out their life with the birth, girded with the cord of the holy Man, escape the danger of death, and bring forth the fetus safe. Giovanni Francesco, when he had fallen into the third kind of hectic fever, adjudged to death by the concordant judgment of the physicians, venerating the sepulchre of the holy Man, is rendered safe. Giovanni Esclepio, struggling with death, when he had drunk water into which a particle of the habit of the holy Man had been dipped, drank in together with it soundness of body also.
[106] And these indeed and very many other benefits the holy Man from heaven bestowed on the sick, [By the merits of St. Seraphin a girl drowned in water, who is believed dead, is recalled to life.] which it is established were wrought by the sole power of God, both from the cure itself and from the manner of the cure. But what follows exceeds altogether both every manner of cure and the order of nature; for no one is ignorant that to the sole Creator of things, who formed the soul in man, the power has been reserved of recalling it again to the body once it has been loosed from it, the sacred Page itself especially bearing witness, and Solomon's mouth (Wisdom, chapter 16, verse 13) attesting: "For it is Thou, O Lord, that hast power of life and death, and leadest down to the gates of death, and bringest back again. A man indeed killeth through malice, and when the spirit is gone forth it shall not return, neither shall he call back the soul that is received." Whence it comes about that, since we treat here of the soul of a girl raised from the dead, every doubt is hence beyond question warded off that we must acknowledge in it a work of the divine omnipotence. A girl, then, of Giulio Maranzio of Spinetoli, two years old, at a time when both parents were away from home, slips, no one observing, into a certain cistern of deep and fetid water; the noise of the water, however, being perceived, when one of the household had hastened thither, seeing the girl sunk in the water, not knowing what to do, he calls out to the father, who was not far off. The father flies up, demands a ladder; but, all being stricken in mind, part of half an hour had already passed since the girl's fall when the ladder is brought. Meanwhile the girl, twice or three times borne up from the depth of the water to the surface, by which she showed that she was dead and suffocated by the water, floats motionless on the water with her belly upward: at which time, taken out of the cistern, when it had been tested in almost every way whether she was still surviving, she showed no signs of life at all, but rather by the black colour of her face and the swelling of her whole body showed herself, in the opinion of all, to be dead, and is mourned by her parents as dead. She was the only daughter of her parents; wherefore, when the parents saw that all the remedies of human art had failed them, taking refuge with common counsel in Seraphin, whose miracles were then proclaimed everywhere, they ask of him with many tears life for their daughter; a vow being joined to their prayers, that, if they received her alive again, they would bring her to his sepulchre, and, her clothes being hung up at the tomb, would affix to it a tablet, witness of the miracle, for the perpetual memory of the matter. Scarcely had both parents set forth the vow in formal words when the girl is recalled to the living, and, the colour of her face changed, calls her mother. Presently the voices of men exclaiming to heaven for joy and celebrating the miracle are raised; and thanks are rendered to God and to the holy Man; the parents afterwards discharging the vows promised to Seraphin n.
[107] Besides the miracles narrated hitherto, certain others are to be indicated, Paper, bread and a rosary, given by the Saint to various persons, heal the sick. which were wrought from heaven both for the sick and for others requesting the help of the holy Man. Virginia Tucia had received from Seraphin, while he was still living among the living, the name of Jesus impressed on a little paper, by whose power, when she had been freed from a certain grave sickness, she conferred health with it after the death of the holy Man on almost innumerable sick persons. Enea Fastorio of Loro, when he had received from Seraphin, while still surviving, bread to be carried to his sick sister Laura, Laura recovering by it, and distributing it, broken into fragments, to very many sick persons after the death of the holy Man, procures safety for them. Another bread also, given by the holy Man while in human life to Diana of Loro, performs very many miracles of this kind after his death. In this manner too, when Seraphin, while surviving, had given a certain Sophonisba a rosary of prayer beads, very many miracles were wrought by it after his death.
[108] [By his help wheat is saved from a flood: a mantle is restored by a thief, and madness is driven out.] Alessandro of Caretto, a town of the territory of Ascoli, when, a sudden storm from the sky coming on, he could not withdraw the wheat which was laid out on the threshing-floor from the danger of a flood, turning his face towards Ascoli, asks Seraphin to save his wheat for him. Nor was his prayer void of the divine benefit; for, the neighbouring threshing-floors being devastated by a deluge of waters, not even a drop of rain touched Alessandro's threshing-floor. From Pietro Sardella, a fuller, a mantle had been taken away by theft; and he, since he did not know the thief, praying to Seraphin for the restitution of the mantle, receives the mantle from a certain priest, a confessor of the city. Lorenzo Sciarra, insane from disease, when after many years of madness he was about to close his last day without the use of reason and the Sacraments, Spinello, taking this ill, binds himself by a vow to Seraphin that he will venerate his sepulchre, provided that he confer soundness of mind on the sick man just so long as he could enjoy the Sacraments of the Church; scarcely was this vow conceived when Lorenzo returns to his mind, obtains the Sacraments, and piously closes the end of his life in the Lord o.
ANNOTATIONS.
struck and given up by the physicians, is healed by the oil of the lamp. Sixteenth: In the same year Gaspare Alessandro of Campli, gravely stricken by a haemorrhage of three years, is freed by the oil of the lamp. Seventeenth: In the same year Teodora, wife of Gabriele of Campli, given up by the physicians on account of quinsy, is freed very quickly by the oil of the lamp. Eighteenth: In the said year Drusilla, wife of Domenico Garullo, pregnant, labouring with fever and haemorrhage, is restored to health by the oil of the lamp. Nineteenth: In the same year the lady Bradamante, troubled for three years by the disease of leprosy, is freed by the oil of the lamp. Twentieth: In the same year also Maurizio Carlini recovers by the oil of the lamp the use of his foot, which he had lost by a fall from a horse. Twenty-first: In the said year Eugenia, daughter of the excellent lord Angelo of Offida, oppressed for two years by the disease of scrofula, is healed by the oil of the lamp. Twenty-second: In the same year Maria, daughter of Giovanni Battista, called of Patrignone, tormented for a month by the pains of a swelling eye, is freed by the oil of the lamp. Twenty-third: Angelo Luciti, covered with scurf over his whole head and face for four beyond twenty years, is at once cleansed by the oil of the lamp. Twenty-fourth: The boy of the lady Violana, twelve years of age, having fallen from a height, vomits blood copiously and, judged by the physicians to be ruptured within, is healed by the oil of the lamp. Last miracle: In the year 1624 Antonia, wife of the lord Giustiniano, oppressed for twenty days by a mortal sickness, is freed by the oil of the lamp.
APPENDIX
Clement XIII enrols Blessed Seraphin in the number of the Saints.
CLEMENT, BISHOP, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD, FOR THE PERPETUAL MEMORY OF THE MATTER.
Seraphin, Capuchin, confessor, at Ascoli in Italy. (S.)
The reasons for which Seraphin is to be inscribed in the album of the Saints That wisdom, precious above all gold and silver, and to be preferred to kingdoms themselves and thrones, by which, namely, we are taught to despise all perishable things, and to seek and savour not the things that are upon the earth but the things that are above, although it rejects no disposition and communicates itself equally to the different talents of men, and most willingly bestows the heavenly charisms with which it abounds, yet rejoices at times to pour itself out more abundantly upon unlearned and simple men, in order to confound the wise of this world, whom knowledge puffs up, and to humble those who glory vainly in their wisdom. Therefore the fountain of true wisdom, the Word of God, Christ Jesus, who said that He reveals things hidden from the foundation of the world, once exulting in the Spirit, turning to Him whose Only-begotten He is, said: "I confess to Thee, Father, Lord King of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones." And this indeed it has always been possible to see in the Catholic Roman Church from its beginning down to this day, and it has appeared clearly how truly it was written of the Author of wisdom: "And His communication is with the simple." But in a wonderful manner it was most recently, namely in the last century, most clearly perceived in blessed Seraphin of Montegranaro, named from Ascoli, a professed Lay brother of the Order of Minors of St. Francis called Capuchins, who, unlearned and devoid of all letters, since he knew neither how to read nor to write, nevertheless left the lettered and learned themselves far behind him, inasmuch as, taught of God, he had drawn from that book written within and without, that is, from Christ Jesus, so much heavenly doctrine that he seems worthy to be numbered among the chief disciples of the divine Teacher on account of the charity that surpasses knowledge.
[2] are briefly declared. Since, therefore, this man, poor among men, was so rich with God in grace and virtues, and to win greater praise and celebrity for these there was added the evident testimony of the miracles which almighty God deigned to work through the intercession of this blessed Servant of His, We, omitting nothing which is wont to be observed in so weighty a cause, by the counsel and assent of Our venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and also of the patriarchs, archbishops and bishops assembled in great number in the Roman Curia, the help of God having been implored again and again, declare that the same blessed Seraphin, as a Citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, is to be honoured with public cult in the Church, and decree that he be enrolled in the number of the Saints.
[3] His native soil and time, his parents, his pious boyhood and youth: Seraphin was born in the town of Montegranaro of the diocese of Fermo in the year of Restored Salvation MDXL. He had parents humble indeed in stock, but honest and pious. In Baptism the name Felix was given him. Well instructed by the pious and diligent discipline of his excellent mother, from his earliest age he began to bring forth indications of future holiness. Estranged from the amusements of boys and the company of wicked companions, he had almost nothing childish except innocence. He was assiduous in churches, and moreover often sought out hidden places for praying more intently. The keeping of the herd entrusted to him by the farmer to whom he had hired out his services was no hindrance to his performing most diligently the accustomed offices of piety. For, seeking the more secret solitude of the woods, he poured out there on his knees fervent prayers to God, and repeated them long and much soon after a brief evening supper. Called back home by his brother after his father's death, to be his helper in the mason's craft, and suffering every harsh thing from his savage disposition, Felix bore long, with an even and unconquered mind, the reproaches, blows and even cruel strokes of the hammer of his inhuman brother. Nor could the harshness of his brother and the exercise of a laborious craft move him from what he had proposed to himself, that he would fast three days in the week; and he cherished his soul with pious prayer especially during the time which the other companions of his labours gave to refreshing the body with food. How acceptable to God the piety of His Servant was was made plainly manifest by a signal miracle. For when he was visiting the holy house of Loreto of the Virgin Mother of God, into whose trust and clientage he had delivered himself, the river Potenza, swelling with the overflow of waters, which none of his companions had dared to cross, he himself crossed once and again with dry foot, those who were present being astonished.
[4] his profession in the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin: From a reading he heard on the severity of the divine judgment he was struck with such emotion and terror that he thought of the hermit's life. But then by a better counsel he resolved to embrace the rigid Institute of the Capuchins, which indeed he at length obtained not without repeated prayers and tears. Having gained his wish, taking the name of Seraphin, he so bore himself in the novitiate that, the year of probation completed, he was co-opted into that sacred Order by the votes of all. Thereupon a new and more ardent zeal for evangelical perfection boiled up in his breast. Thus he so observed all the laws of that severer Institute as long as he lived that all marvelled at his diligence, and very few trusted that they could imitate it. Kind towards all, gentle, affable; but so compliant and obedient to the word of his superiors that he shunned no office, however arduous and full of labour, delayed in nothing, inquired into nothing, intent on this one thing, namely to follow what had been commanded.
[5] But he so loved poverty that he abstained even from those things [poverty: innocence of life: hunger for and reverence of holy Communion: assiduous prayer:] which we can scarcely do without. He perpetually inhabited a dark little cell,
humble, squalid, furnished with a hard little bed, a cheap bench, and no furniture. His clothing was only worn and threadbare; the same extreme poverty too in the other things which serve to cover the body. And such was the innocence of his life that he never bound himself by any crime, nay he abstained even from light faults, so that in sacramental Confession he brought almost nothing which needed to be expiated. For whatever was not in accord with the will of God he held it unlawful not only to think but even to hear. He made it his custom to refresh himself almost every day with the Eucharistic bread, and to be present at and to serve as many Sacrifices as he could, with his hands stretched out in the form of a cross. His zeal for prayer was insatiable, so that he generally spent the hours of day and night in it. Indeed, except for the space of only three hours which he could not deny to the rest of the body, he spent all the rest of the time either in the contemplation of divine things or in pious prayers.
[6] Since he recognized in any thing whatever some trace of God, [his extraordinary charity towards God and neighbour: his desire of martyrdom: his mercy towards the poor.] it came about that, wherever he was, whatever he was doing, he was easily rapt to the contemplation of heavenly things, and prayed even when he seemed to be doing something else. The daily meditation on the torments of Christ the Lord so affected his soul that he could neither think, nor speak, nor hear another speaking of it without tears. He was borne with such charity towards God that he vehemently desired to meet death for His glory. Therefore he went as a suppliant to his superior, to be given leave to betake himself to barbarous regions, in order to satisfy among them his burning thirst for martyrdom. Twin to his charity towards God was his charity towards his neighbours. Wherefore he tried, now by admonitions, now by prayers, now even by rebukes, to correct the erring, to call them away from vices, to impel them to virtue. Nor indeed in vain. For many were brought back by his work from an abandoned manner of living to good conduct, many were brought over from the vanity of the age and the dangers of the world to the safer institute of the religious life. More than once he wrested the dice from the hands of the players. Intestine and inveterate hatreds and dissensions among the citizens of Ascoli he, a man of humble station, of no letters, a lay brother by profession, extinguished. So much authority came to him from his recognized holiness. Of his compassion towards the poor and needy this can truly be said, that, with a face pale from fasts, he was tortured by another's hunger, so much indeed that, mindful of others, unmindful of himself, living on half a loaf a day, he gave away what remained, with almost the whole relish, to the poor. Nay, he went so far that in a certain scarcity of provisions he took away yet another part from that very half loaf, with which to relieve the hungry in whatever way he could. It happened once that, being reproved by the superior because, the bread being insufficient for the number of the poor, he had distributed vegetables from the garden, he bade him be of good heart; for not on that account would the religious household lack a supply of vegetables that would be sufficient. Which indeed did not lack its outcome. For the shoots having been cut the day before, others were seen thereupon in the morning to have grown up sufficiently and abundantly. But this is more to be wondered at, that, when a certain small part of the garden had been assigned to him by the superior especially for the use of the poor, it bore more fruits than the remaining parts, although far larger and much more diligently cultivated.
[7] Merciful towards all, but always severe towards himself: Nor indeed did Seraphin's merciful disposition confine itself to one or another kind of calamity. For he was accustomed to visit those held in prisons, diligently to exhort them to patience, and to bring whatever solace he could. Moreover, to console the mourning sweetly, to raise the hard-pressed to hope, to serve the sick, to sit by their bed, to admonish them well, to undertake the vilest ministries for relieving them — these were his sweet care and pleasant exercise. And now, he who was of so gentle and kind a disposition towards others, it is pleasing to see how hard and harsh he was towards himself. A hair shirt woven of rough bristles, as a second garment which he never put off, he wore perpetually next to his bare flesh. He used a scourge made of the points of nails for the daily laceration of his body, from which it came about that copious blood flowed down from his torn limbs. When, his sandals being worn through underneath on every side, his feet were left bare, the skin sometimes split; and while he sewed up the split skin with a needle, he made a medicine for that evil with a far sharper evil and pain. There was a time when he passed whole nights sleepless; for the rest, that very short rest which we mentioned above, of only three hours, he indulged his weary limbs in no other way than either sitting or with his head reclined on a bench.
[8] his abstinence and chastity: To such dire torments he added a singular abstinence, keeping the frequent and long fasts of his Order as though he had held them in the place of delights. Thus he added this, that he abstained perpetually even from the small evening refection, and passed three days of the week on bread and water only; which kind of fasting indeed he had been accustomed to endure already from his youth. And on the other days he added no relish to a small portion of bread, content with porridge, one and the same, unsavoury, and such as had been left over by his companions even the day before, sometimes sprinkled with ash. And from this must be judged to have arisen that bad habit of body from which it came about that he passed blood with his urine. Amid these austerities of a macerated body, with the custody of the eyes especially joined to them, a chastity daily more secure and more vigorous flourished, which he kept never defiled by any stain, and tempted, as is reported, by no combat of body or mind, or very rarely.
[9] wonderful humility: singular patience, And now, if humility is the guardian of chastity, it had driven its roots so deeply in him that, although a Saint in the judgment of others, he was in his own the most criminal and most worthless of all. He fled human praise, and desired contempt of himself as much as anyone. Of which let these two very ridiculous things be proof. Once ordered to dine with a noble citizen, at another time invited by the Cardinal bishop of Ascoli, in both places he so bore himself as to make himself a sport and laughing-stock, as one uncouth and rustic. For in the one place he used a little fork for eating liquid porridge: in the other, sucking an egg, he poured it on purpose onto his beard. Patience, further, was in him plainly admirable, both in the blows and reproaches of his brother, of which we have spoken, and in bearing those almost daily fines and penalties which were wont to be inflicted by the religious superiors. For he was punished by some harshly, not to say savagely, on account of the slowness of his wit, by others severely and rigidly for a trial of his virtue. And these things indeed at first disturbed the Man, but afterwards, strengthened by having implored the help of God, he so bore all harsh things that he counted them in the place of a benefit, and kissed the hands and feet of those who had punished him in any way.
[10] Equal in him was the gentleness and meekness with which he bears the injuries of men and the vexations of the demon: with which he bore with the most even mind injuries inflicted whether by outsiders or even by those of his household; a slap having been struck by a most wicked man, his beard having been seized by one of the household in insult and some hairs plucked out, Seraphin gave no sign at all of a disturbed mind. But this is far more splendid. For when a certain insolent and shameless man, at the instigation of the evil demon, had struck his bare head with a lead plate so grievously that the Servant of God fainted for pain and fell almost lifeless to the ground, as soon as he was restored to himself, with a smiling face and most gentle words, he prayed the Lord for all good things for the striker, as one who had deserved excellently of him. To the injuries of men there was added another vexation from the demon, no less dire. For he was accustomed now to drag him by the feet while he prayed, now to try to dash him against the ground when raised on high, now to maltreat his sick and worn-out body with most savage blows. Yet these troubles and most foul attacks he so despised that he rebuked the sloth of the most wicked adversary and spurred him to rage more fiercely. By which greatness of mind the demon was so conquered and broken that afterwards he dreaded his very presence, and fled from possessed bodies at his coming.
[11] God did not will that so great an excellence of virtues should be unadorned with heavenly gifts; [he is illustrious for prophecies, knowledge of secrets, and the power of healing:] therefore He distinguished His Servant with a supernal light, by which he foretold future things and penetrated the secrets of hearts, and also with very many raptures and alienations of the mind from the use of the senses. To very many also, labouring even with the gravest diseases, health was restored by the most holy sign of the Cross applied by Seraphin. Wherefore the multitude of the sick flocking to the convent of Montegranaro was so great that more than once a whole day went by for Seraphin in healing them with auspicious prayer. There was added from the tumultuous throng of peoples no light trouble to those cenobites. Thus it was little short of the superior's restraining by obedience the power divinely given to the Servant of God of working prodigies. But to avoid the trouble it seemed enough that Seraphin should move to the convent of Ascoli. Heaped, therefore, with so many and such splendid virtues and heavenly gifts, he obtained the name and fame of holiness among all, not only common men, but also the highest and most distinguished men. They consulted him, commended themselves to his prayers, and, as he walked along the road, not only kissed his garments but even cut pieces from them.
[12] [fortified with the holy Viaticum, which, knowing himself near death, he had requested, he dies] But now the day was at hand on which so excellent a holiness was to be adorned with far more illustrious honours in heaven. A grave affection of the breast, contracted from the maceration of his body, by which he was pierced as by a dart, he had long concealed. But when it grew more and more grave, understanding also by supernal light that the most longed-for death was impending for him from it, he asked to be fortified with the Viaticum of the most holy Eucharist. The physician and his companions refused, because the gravity of the disease was not yet showing itself, especially since the sick man was neither burned with fever nor compelled to lie down in bed; but his repeated prayers could not be resisted. The most holy Body of Christ, therefore, was brought; and with what feeling of soul, with what ardour of love he received it, angels rather than men could understand. Thereupon he asks to be anointed with the holy Oil. And since this likewise seemed premature to the Friars, he affirms that what they were neglecting for the present they would do altogether hastily enough a little later. Therefore, after fervent prayers poured out for an hour on his knees in his little bed, with eyes raised to heaven, he beseeches God that, since his companions did not hear him speaking, they might bring the holy Oil to him, hearkening to His divine voice. This prayer was at once followed by a faint, with pallor of the face and other signs of life about soon to fail, by which, namely, his companions being warned, they all but fortified him with the desired unction. Thus, since nothing else remained for the consolation of the Servant of God, with a placid countenance, in the convent of his Order of the city of Ascoli, he rendered his most holy soul to God.
[13] and is illustrated by miracles. Further, the guardian of the convent, fearing (as
is wont to happen at the funeral of holy Men) the tumultuous multitude of the people flocking together, had thought to conceal the precious death of the Servant of God, no signal being given with the bronze bell, until the due solemnities should have been paid him according to custom. But it came about divinely that the death of Seraphin was published through the city by the voice of boys. When the citizens had heard this, all ran to the convent, kissed the body of the Servant of God, cut pieces from the garments put on him a third time and again, carried off hairs, cut off nails, nay would not even have spared the body, had it not been provided, ten guards being employed, that the holy corpse should not be torn to pieces by the heedless multitude. Veneration was increased in no small measure by the most sweet odour which the soft and flexible body breathed forth, until, enclosed in a wooden coffin lined inside with silk, it was committed to a special tomb, the elders of the city so ordering. The everlasting memory of his name which he left in dying was at once attested by very many images of him, both printed and painted, and especially two, of which the one was placed in the house of the Magistrate, the other at the tomb, as was then permitted in that age. The concourse thereafter to the sepulchre, not only from neighbouring but also from distant places, increased daily, as new benefits imparted thence, the name of the Servant of God being invoked, stirred up the throngs of peoples, so much indeed that, when space on the wall for votive tablets failed, the old ones had to be removed to make room for new.
[14] Then in the year of the Lord MDCX, at the prayers of the citizens of Ascoli, Paul V of pious memory a, [At his sepulchre, with the assent of Pope Paul V, a lamp is lit, and processes are drawn up for obtaining his cult:] Our predecessor, granted that a lamp lit at the sepulchre of the blessed Man should be a perpetual witness of public veneration. The diligence of the prelate of Ascoli in the cognizance of the cause concerning the fame of holiness, the virtues and the miracles of the Servant of God equalled the piety of the citizens; and so, when he had completed the Process which they call informative, the matter was brought to the Congregation of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church then existing, set over the sacred Rites, and brought to the balance; and, as those times bore, on the VIIth day of June MDCXXV, leave was granted to inquire specially into the cause. Thus, by Apostolic authority, a new cognizance of the cause was instituted and entered in the Acts, yet it lay silent until the year MDCCIV. But since, by the decrees confirmed by Innocent XI of venerable memory, also Our predecessor, a new commission for resuming the cause was necessary for prosecuting the matter, it did not happen that this was obtained before the year MDCCXII, under Clement XI b of revered memory, likewise Our predecessor. Then, the cult which had been rendered to the blessed Man with the Pontiff's assent having been approved, and the case having been excepted from the Decrees of Urban VIII [c] of revered memory, likewise Our predecessor, at length Benedict XIII d of happy memory, similarly Our predecessor, in the year MDCCXXVI, gave the business to a particular Congregation of the Cardinals who preside over the sacred Rites, that they should institute an examination of the virtues of the Servant of God.
[15] Meanwhile leave was granted by the same Pontiff in the month of August of that year [Pope Benedict XIII grants that his sacred body be translated and his feast celebrated:] that the body of Seraphin be publicly translated from the old shrine to another newly built, properly dedicated to his honour. But only in the year MDCCXXIX were both the cult of the Servant of God and the joy of his devotees increased; namely then, when the praised Pontiff kindly granted that by the whole Order of Minors of St. Francis, and moreover by the clergy both of the city and diocese of Ascoli and of the town of Montegranaro, the Office should be recited every year under the double rite and the Mass celebrated in honour of the blessed Man on the XIIth day of October, namely the day on which the annual memory of his happy death recurred.
[16] Then, by order of Clement XII e, likewise Our predecessor, [the miracles wrought after the veneration granted to the Blessed having been approved, his canonization is decreed by Clement XIII,] who had next succeeded when Benedict Our predecessor had ended his life, the inquiry into the virtues of blessed Seraphin, recalled from the particular session of Cardinals of which we have spoken to the Ordinary Congregation of the sacred Rites, rested on proofs, as they say, direct, and at length it came about that they were held ratified and approved. Finally, the inquiry, or Apostolic Process, on the miracles wrought by God after the veneration granted to Blessed Seraphin having been completed, and the validity of the Process having been ascertained on the XVIIth day of September MDCCLXIII in the ordinary Congregation of the sacred Rites, whose Decree We confirmed on the XXIIIIth day of the same month; then the miracles themselves having been examined in the antepreparatory Congregation of the XXVIIth day of November MDCCLXIV, and again in the preparatory Congregation on the IXth day of June MDCCLXV, and lastly weighed and discussed, as is the custom, in the general Assembly before Us on the XXVIIIth of January of the year just past, We duly approved two of them in the third kind on the IXth of March of the same year (until which day We put off the Decree in order to implore the divine help). The first, namely, of the instantaneous healing of Gennaro Ranalli from a very bad ulcerous tumour under the left armpit, with which he had already struggled for several months, the industry of the surgeons having long been frustrated, and which seemed able to be cured only by steel or fire. The other, of the perfect healing from paralysis of the left hand with which Ugo Antonio Carletti had been seized while he was in the seventy-fourth year of his age, which he could in no way have obtained by the force of nature or the help of human art. These two miracles, therefore, having been examined and approved, it remained to be defined whether one could duly proceed to the solemn Canonization of the blessed Man; and since all the Fathers asserted it with unanimous vote, We, the light of the Holy Spirit having been implored by Our own prayers and those of others, issued a Decree to the same effect on the XIIth day of October last past.
[17] who in public consistory, And since Our beloved Sons the Magistrates and inhabitants of Our city of Ascoli and the most religious Order of the said Friars of St. Francis called Capuchins asked of Us with earnest prayers that We should at length carry out the decreed canonization of the blessed Man, We, in order to proceed in this most weighty business according to the norm of acting prescribed by Our predecessors, first sought the opinion and counsel of the whole College of the same venerable Brothers of Ours, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, assembled before Us in secret consistory on the XXVIIth day of April last past. And when, having heard from Us the series of his deeds and the splendid merits of the blessed Man, they exhorted Us with one voice to the lawful conclusion of this cause, We caused to be summoned not only the nearer but also the more remote venerable Brothers, archbishops and bishops throughout Italy, to betake themselves to the city and to set forth to Us, as We deliberated on the solemn Canonization of blessed Seraphin, and also of the blessed John Cantius f, Joseph Calasanctius of the Mother of God g, Joseph of Cupertino h, Jerome Emiliani and Jane Frances Frémiot de Chantal i, the votes too of their counsels, as the spirit of God should suggest to them.
[18] the counsel of very many archbishops and bishops having been sought, And that the splendid virtues and proven miracles of blessed Seraphin, and also the precautions employed in the discussion of the whole cause, might be hidden from no one, a public consistory having first been proclaimed, We commanded there, before Us and the whole assembly of the ecclesiastical Orders and colleges, that the virtues and miracles of blessed Seraphin be set forth openly by word of mouth by Our beloved son Giuseppe Ascevolini, advocate of Our consistorial hall; We also caused an entire and exact compendium of them, faithfully gathered from authentic documents and printed in type, to be presented to all who were to give their votes. Finally, having convoked on the Xth day of the present month of July in semi-public consistory the aforesaid Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and also the patriarchs, archbishops and bishops who had already assembled in the City, We asked of them whether they judged that one should proceed to the canonization of blessed Seraphin. And they were all found, with one mouth, for many and weighty reasons, to go into the affirmative opinion. And We commanded Our beloved sons the notaries of the Apostolic See to draw up public instruments, and moreover that copies of those votes, subscribed by each, be placed in the archive of the Roman Church.
[19] It remained that We should be taught by the Father of lights what was pleasing to Him. On the 16th of July in the year 1767 he completes it A fast of three days having therefore been proclaimed through the whole City, We commanded that the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist be exposed for public adoration in the three patriarchal basilicas, and to all the faithful of Christ, truly penitent and having confessed and been refreshed with holy Communion, visiting at least one of the said basilicas and praying in it to implore the divine help in so great a business, We granted a plenary indulgence of sins. We also poured out Our most humble and long-continued prayers to Almighty God, until on this day sacred to the most blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, to which, namely, when it pleased almighty God to raise Us, unworthy, to the Chair of blessed Peter, We had deferred the solemnities of Our coronation, proceeding, as is the custom, with the rite of a general supplication to the basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, together with all the aforesaid and the other prelates of the Roman Curia and of Our court, and the whole secular and regular clergy, and a very numerous people invoking the divine help, having heard again, through Our beloved son Carlo, Cardinal priest of the Holy Roman Church of the title of St. Clement, called Rezzonico, Chamberlain of the same Holy Roman Church, procurator of the petitions for obtaining the Canonization, the earnest prayers, after the sacred Hymns, Litanies and other prayers sung according to custom, to the praise and glory of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, for the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian religion, by the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and Our own, and by the counsel and assent of all Our venerable Brothers aforementioned, We pronounced by definition that the aforesaid Seraphin of Montegranaro, named from Ascoli, expressly professed lay brother of the Order of Minors of St. Francis called Capuchins, of whose life piously and holily led, and of whose virtues in the heroic degree and of the miracles wrought by the Lord through his intercession, it was and is most fully established, is a Saint, and We decreed that he is to be held and venerated as a Saint by all, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; and to all the faithful of Christ who every year on the XIIth day of October, truly penitent and having confessed, devoutly visit the Church of the convent of the said Order in the city of Ascoli, where the body of the same Saint is religiously preserved, We mercifully relax in perpetuity, by the same authority, seven years and as many quarantines of the penances enjoined on them or otherwise owed. Finally, the Hymn of praise and confession having been sung in homage to almighty God, We offered the unbloody Victim of our salvation at the altar of the confession of most blessed Peter in the spirit of humility, with the commemoration of the same St. Seraphin, and also of SS. John Cantius, Joseph Calasanctius of the Mother of God, Joseph of Cupertino, Jerome Emiliani and Jane Frances Frémiot de Chantal, whom We likewise duly inscribed in the Album of the Saints, and granted to all who were present a plenary indulgence of sins.
[20] and he gave thanks to God for this benefit. And when We had given thanks to almighty God that, among the other benefits conferred on Us, though unworthy, this too had been given, that We should define blessed Seraphin as enrolled in the number of the Saints, rejoicing
likewise in the Lord, and blessed Him who, guarding His Church with perpetual defence, manifestly shows that Saints of extraordinary perfection arise from every order of persons, and from time to time admonishes the cultivators of the Christian faith by their splendid examples not to be loath to imitate what they delight to celebrate. And since, after the sentence of such canonization and enrolment had been pronounced by Us, as is set out above, it was humbly petitioned of Us by the same Carlo, Cardinal and procurator, that We would deign to issue Apostolic letters to be valid in perpetuity concerning all the aforesaid things, We, assenting to the most just petition, by the tenor of the present letters and from certain knowledge and the fullness of Our Apostolic authority, confirm, strengthen, and again sanction and decree all and each of the aforesaid things, and announce them to the universal Church; commanding that to transcripts or copies of these same present letters, even printed, subscribed by the hand of some public notary and fortified with the seal of a person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, altogether the same credence be given by all as would be given to the present letters themselves, if they were exhibited or shown. Let it therefore be lawful for no man at all to infringe this page of Our definition, decree, enrolment, mandate, statute, concession, relaxation and will, or to go against it with rash daring; but if anyone shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of almighty God and of His blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome at St. Peter's in the year of the Lord's Incarnation MDCCLXVII, on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of August, in the tenth year of Our Pontificate.
✠ I, CLEMENT, BISHOP OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
† I, C. A., Bishop of Ostia and Velletri, Card. Cavalchini, Dean of the Sacred College.
† I, F. M., Bishop of Porto and Santa Rufina, Card. Lante.
† I, J. F., Bishop of Sabina, Card. Albani.
† I, H., Bishop of Tusculum, Card. Duke of York, Vice-Chancellor of the H. R. C.
† I, F., Bishop of Albano, Cardinal Serbelloni.
† I, J. F., Bishop of Palestrina, C. of the Title of St. Clement, Priest Card. Rezzonico, Chamberlain of the H. R. C.
† I, F. M., of the Title of St. Sylvester in Capite, Priest Cardinal de Rossi.
† I, J. M., of the Title of St. Alexius, Priest Card. Castelli.
† I, C., of the Title of St. Peter in Chains, Priest Cardinal Elefantuzzi.
† I, P. H., of the Title of the Most Holy Trinity on Monte Pincio, Priest Card. Guglielmi.
† I, P. P., of the Title of St. Stephen on Monte Celio, Priest Card. de' Conti.
† I, Fr. L., of the Basilica of the Holy XII Apostles, Priest Card. Ganganelli.
† I, M. A., of the Title of St. Mary of Peace, Priest Cardinal Colonna.
† I, S., of the Title of St. John before the Latin Gate, Priest Card. Buonaccorsi.
† I, J. C., of the Title of SS. John and Paul, Priest Card. Boschi, Major Penitentiary.
† I, L., of the Title of St. Anastasia, Priest Card. Calini.
† I, A., of the Title of St. Mary in Via, Priest Cardinal Colonna Branciforte.
† I, P., of the Title of St. Mary in Trastevere, Priest Cardinal Pamphili.
† I, V., of the Title of St. Callistus, Priest Card. Paracciani.
† I, Ph. M., of the Title of St. Chrysogonus, Priest Card. Pirelli.
† I, A., of St. Mary in Via Lata, Prior of the Deacons, Cardinal Albani.
† I, N., of St. Eustace, Deacon Card. Corsini.
† I, D., of St. Mary ad Martyres, Deacon Card. Orsini.
† I, Fl., of St. Mary in Portico, Deacon Card. Chigi.
† I, A. M., of St. Agatha in Suburra, Deacon Cardinal Torrigiani.
† I, J. C., of St. Caesarius, Deacon Card. Caracciolo di Santobuono.
† I, N., of St. George in Velabro, Deacon Card. Perrelli.
† I, A., of St. Angelo in Pescheria, Deacon Cardinal Corsini.
† I, A., of SS. Vitus and Modestus, Deacon Cardinal Negroni.
† I, Ae. S., of St. Adrian, Deacon Card. Piccolomini.
† I, X., of St. Mary della Scala, Deacon Card. Canale.
† I, B., of SS. Cosmas and Damian, Deacon Cardinal Veterani.
C. Card. Pro-Datary. A. Card. Negroni.
VISA
From the Curia, J. Manassei.
L. Eugenius.
Place ✠ of the Lead.