ON BL. JOHN ANGELO PORRO, PRESBYTER AND CONFESSOR, OF THE ORDER OF SERVANTS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY,
MDVI.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
John Angelo Porro, presbyter and confessor, of the order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at Milan. (Bl.)
BY V. D. B.
§ I. The chief writers concerning Bl. John Angelo.
[In the Martyrology of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, abounding in saints, memory is made of Bl. John Angelo at the 25th of October,] Although the order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary never had such propagation and extension as most other religious orders of Mendicants, yet it has given the church a number of heavenly ones, chiefly men. In the XVI century, not yet advanced, there were already listed nearly forty, as is established to me from a list which the Rev. Father Augustine Morini, master of novices in the Florentine monastery of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, found on the back of a letter written on the 29th day of August of the year 1598, and which he has communicated to me with several other documents. And since from this memorial the antiquity both of the cult of Bl. John Angelo and of several others is established, it is pleasing to publish it in this place. The lacunae which appear in it were in the older copy which Brother John Paul Villa of Brescia, who wrote that letter in the year 1598, had before his eyes.
… Servorum beatæ vi … maria e exordium…
… anno a creatione mundi 5i93 … a nativitate christi i …
… ndictione. 6./ anno. 7. gregorii. 9. papae:/ anno. 22. fede…
… 2. imperatoris:/ die i5 augusti./ feria. 2./ litera dominica I…
currente:/ qua e subscriptos beatos mundo peperit./. v *.
i257 patrem fratrem Bonaiunctam de Florentia
i26i p. f. Bonfilium de Florentia
i266 p. f. Amideum de Florentia
i268 p. f. Manettum de Florentia
i270 p. f. Joannem Germanum
i276 p. f. Bonaventuram de Pistorio
i278 p. f. Ubaldum de Florentia
i280 p. f. Thomam Germanum
i282 p. f. Sustenium de Florentia
i282 p. f. Ugotionum de Florentia
i283 p. f. Bartolomeum de burgo Sancti Sepulchri
i285 p. f. Philippū de Florentia illustratorem et patronum religionis n:…
i305 p. f. Jovachinum Senensem
i309 p. f. Antonium Viterbiensem
i3i0 p. f. Alexium de Florentia
i3i5 p. f. Andream de burgo Sancti Sepulchri
i326 p. f. Franciscum Senensem
i329 p. f. Bartolomeum de Cesena
i330 p. f. Hieronimum de burgo Sancti .. pulchri
i34i sororem Julianam de Florentia
i343 p. f. Thomam Urbevetanum
i342 sororem Helisabet Senensem
i35i sororem Beatricem
i35i sororem Joannam
i3 … sororem Riccham de Cremona
i3 … sororem Joannam de Florentia
i402 p. f. Pelegrinum de Forolivio
… 8 sororem Helisabettam Picinardam de Cremona
.. 4 .. 6 sororem Benincasam de Florentia
i450 p. f. Gabrielem de Florentia
i462 p. f. Nicolauum de Aretio
i467 … f. Dominicum de Florentia
i 483 p. f. Jacobum Philippum Faventinum
…88 p. f. Bonaventuram de Forolivio
…89 l fratrem Bartolomeum de Brixia
i 496 p. f. Angelum de Mediolano
i 522 p. f. Petrum Germanum
i 524 sororem Luciam Brixianam
i 526 p. f Cedonium de Bononia
Commemoratio comunis ad omnes suprascriptos
dnï C… ordinis Servorum: videlicet
antifona: … viri. o gloriosissimi confessores
dei. nos miseros vestris juvate precibus, ut in
illa hora misericordiam consequamur quando
manifesta erunt occulta hominum. (℣ omnes
sancti et sanctæ dei orate pro nobis, ℞ ut
digni) efficiamur promissionibus christi…
… quesumus domine …fessores tui
pro nobis exo … et l … nier … lus mariae
servi exti … eb ta … catrici … irocinio
ad te … itaæ nostræ protectores
habere me … udem christum dominum
nost…
[… of the Servants of the Blessed Vi … Mary the beginning … in the year from the creation of the world 5193 … from the nativity of Christ 1 … indiction 6, in the 7th year of Gregory IX, pope, in the 22nd year of Frede … 2, emperor, on the 15th day of August, a Monday, dominical letter I … running: which brought forth to the world the blessed ones written below. The father brothers (p. f.) and sisters listed, each with the year as printed, are: 1257 Father Brother Bonajuncta of Florence; 1261 Bonfilius of Florence; 1266 Amideus of Florence; 1268 Manettus of Florence; 1270 John the German; 1276 Bonaventure of Pistoia; 1278 Ubald of Florence; 1280 Thomas the German; 1282 Sustenius of Florence; 1282 Ugotio of Florence; 1283 Bartholomew of Borgo San Sepolcro; 1285 Philip of Florence, illustrator and patron of our order …; 1305 Joachim of Siena; 1309 Anthony of Viterbo; 1310 Alexius of Florence; 1315 Andrew of Borgo San Sepolcro; 1326 Francis of Siena; 1329 Bartholomew of Cesena; 1330 Jerome of Borgo San Se .. pulcro; 1341 Sister Juliana of Florence; 1343 Thomas of Orvieto; 1342 Sister Elizabeth of Siena; 1351 Sister Beatrice; 1351 Sister Joanna; 13 … Sister Riccha of Cremona; 13 … Sister Joanna of Florence; 1402 Pellegrino of Forlì; … 8 Sister Elizabeth Picinarda of Cremona; .. 4 .. 6 Sister Benincasa of Florence; 1450 Gabriel of Florence; 1462 Nicholas of Arezzo; 1467 … Dominic of Florence; 1483 James Philip of Faenza; …88 Bonaventure of Forlì; …89 Brother Bartholomew of Brescia; 1496 Angelo of Milan; 1522 Peter the German; 1524 Sister Lucy of Brescia; 1526 Cedonius of Bologna. A common commemoration for all those written above … of the order of Servants: namely the antiphon: … men, O most glorious confessors of God, help us wretches with your prayers, that in that hour we may obtain mercy when the hidden things of men shall be manifest. (℣ All holy men and women of God, pray for us, ℞ that worthy) we may be made of the promises of Christ… … we beseech, O Lord … your confessors for us … servants of Mary … to you … protectors of our life … to have … the same Christ our Lord…]
Of these no small part afterwards obtained fuller veneration; since, with the authority of the Apostolic See added, either by a decree of solemn canonization or by the approbation of immemorial cult, they have been duly listed among the heavenly ones; so that now, if you except November, no month runs within the year without those hermits venerating one or more saints with liturgical offices. Further, within the month of October, on the 7th day, they venerate the memory of Bl. James the almoner, in the city of Pieve, of the third order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as their more recent Martyrology says. Him our predecessors referred among those passed over at the 7th day of July, because his lawful cult was not established to them; nor did they recall him at the 7th of October, because perhaps his cult had not yet been approved by apostolic authority when they praised the saints of that day, nor had it been assigned to this day of October. Wherefore it remains to speak of him in the Supplement of our work, and meanwhile there are to be seen Ferrari in the Italian Hagiology at the 7th of July and the Annals of Giani [Annals of the Order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Century III, book II, chap. XVII, vol. I, pp. 528 and 529] at the year 1468; in which, after his body had lain buried 156 years (for the blessed man underwent martyrdom in the year 1312), it was uncovered. But not only the name of Bl. James honours the month of October among the Servites; but on the 25th day there occurs in their Martyrology the memory of Bl. John Angelo Porro in these words: At Milan in the convent of St. Mary of the Servants, of Blessed John Angelo Porro, confessor of the order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who on the day before this day rested with a blessed end. Wherefore we shall now speak of him.
[2] [and his deeds, touched on by two contemporaries, partly in the Chronicle of the order at the year 1496,] Several have touched on his deeds rather than written them down; nor is there hope that a Life of his, filled out and complete in all its parts, will ever come to light; since accurate and contemporary commentaries seem up to now to be lacking. Yet two men of the order of Servants, who very probably lived with Bl. John Angelo, handed down some few things of him in letters: namely Philip Alberici, who departed this life in the year 1531, and Thomas of Verona, who certainly closed his last day before the year 1540. Writing on this matter to me, the praised Morini says: “I consulted the registers of the households of our monasteries of every province on this side of the year 1542 and nowhere found him later. Of Alberici you will have what our most distinguished Father Philip Fozzi sets out; and of Thomas of Verona it is enough to say that, as I most firmly hold, he rendered into the vernacular speech a certain Latin Menology (perhaps that made by Jacobus de Voragine), the Lives of our blessed and venerable ones being interposed at their days; and that he did this about the year 1507. It is a ridiculous assertion of certain persons that in the year 1507 the Flos Florum was written in Latin by a certain one of ours and in the year 1590 was turned into the Italian idiom by Thomas of Verona. For on the 13th day of October of the year 1500 Thomas obtained the doctoral laurel in the university of Piacenza, and his writings, which exist in the Magliabechian library, have the form not of the end but of the middle of the XVI century.” So the sedulous Morini sent me both Lives; but of the former, namely of Philip Alberici, only the translation came into my hands. Made again into Latin from the Italian, I shall give it at the end of this Commentary. Both small labours had up to now lain hidden; and indeed the first of all to make public in print the praises of the blessed man was Michael Augustine Poccianti; who in the year 1567 published at the Florentine press the Chronicle of the order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary [Chronicle of the affairs of the whole sacred order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which are contained the lives and actions of the illustrious fathers who flourished in it in sanctity, doctrine and dignity, by Brother Michael of Florence] or the histories of his order from the year 1233, in which a beginning is related to have been made for the Servites, up to the year 1566, in which the sheets were brought to the printer [Annals, Century IV, book III, chap. VIII, vol. II, p. 211, and book IV, chap. IX, p. 255]: whence it may be manifest that Poccianti is not rightly called a contemporary author by Domenico Claverino, advocate of the cause of the canonization of Bl. John Angelo [Reply to the observations of the promoter of the faith on the doubt whether the commission for the introduction of the cause should be signed, p. 3]; since Bl. Angelo met his last day in the year 1496 or rather 1506 and Poccianti was born in the year 1536: for he, when he departed from the living in the year 1576, was passing only the forty-first year of his age. Yet he lacks neither credit nor praise; as one who is said to have been a most accurate investigator of past matters Annals of the Order of Servants, Century IV, book IV, chap. IX, vol. II, p. 255 and is truly to be held the parent of the history of his order Ibid., preface, vol. I, p. 1.
[3] [in the Catalogue of the Saints of Ferrari at the 24th of October, in the Annals of Giani at the year 1506,] His Life was comprised in rather brief terms by Philip Ferrari, by home of Alessandria, master of theology and mathematics, who twice held the helm of the whole order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary: he namely inserted the historical encomium of Bl. John Angelo at the 24th day of October Catalogue of the Saints of Italy distributed into twelve months, p. 668 in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, which came to light at Milan in the year 1613. He testifies at the end that the monuments of the Milanese convent and the Chronicle of Poccianti gave him light. Nor does he recall other things in the General Catalogue of the saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, which he published in the year 1625 and in which he praises Bl. John Angelo as briefly as possible at the 24th day of October. But far excelling Ferrari and Poccianti is Archangelo Giani, of Florentine nation, who in the year 1622 gave to the press the Annals of the sacred order of Friars Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, carried down from the beginning up to the year 1609, partly by going again over the footsteps of Poccianti, partly by bringing forward to the light unpublished documents from the darkness of archives. His work came out at Florence in the year 1622. Further, he related several things concerning Bl. John Angelo before unknown; so that with the best right he himself noted these things at the chapter on Bl. John Angelo Century III, book V, chap. XL, vol. II, p. 25: The author from various monuments of the convent of Milan and of Florence has gathered several things which have not been observed by others: on the priorate of Senario, on the priorate of Chianti, on the master of novices of Florence, etc., from the diaries of that convent of the Annunziata; on the miracles on Monte Senario from certain old manuscripts in the archive of the Holy Annunziata of Florence.
[4] in his Lives written by Hippolytus Porro, In illustrating the deeds of Bl. John there next succeeded Giani Hippolytus Porro, not obscure in the glory of piety, letters and arms; who at the beginning testifies that he was moved to take up this province in order to show his grateful spirit to the most blessed man, because, when in the year 1622 he was vexed by most bitter pains, he had been suddenly freed from them by the intercession of Bl. John, whose image he kept at home to be venerated and whose tunic he had applied to his body: wherefore he gave to a copper-engraver the image of the most holy patron to be sculpted and printed, and in the year 1623 he put under the presses of Pavia a brief Italian encomium, to which he gave the title Vita del B. Angelo Porro Life of Bl. Angelo Porro. He also confesses that in writing this Life he thought somewhat of the honour of his family, in the dedicatory letter of another book Diario d'Esercizi spirituali, brought to light in the year 1629 [Compare Argelati, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Mediolanensium, Sassi's edition, vol. II, col. 1120]. In this very Diary of spiritual Exercises he inserted a prayer to Bl. John Porro and other (unless I am mistaken) prayers, and he also celebrated his memory in a manuscript genealogical book of his family, to which he gave the title: Eugenia della familia Porro Nobility of the Porro family. Since he will have it that the boys of Milan were taught Christian doctrine by Bl. John Angelo, I judge that to this opinion is owed the fourth book of Hippolytus: Origine e successi della dottrina cristiana Origin and progress of Christian doctrine, Milan, 1640; and with additions, in the same place 1703. For the rest, Hippolytus did nothing but adorn and amplify somewhat the sayings of Poccianti, and add a few things which he had received from the mouth of the most excellent archdeacon of Lodi, Paul Bignami: for he did not have at hand the Annals of Giani, nor did he use the Catalogue of Ferrari much.
[5] Paul Pagliari, John Corneo In the fourth place is to be listed Paul Mary Pagliari of the order of Servants; who likewise in Italian in the year 1639 at Milan published the Life of Bl. John Angelo. He used the labours of his predecessors, which he amplified somewhat in a more adorned style, and added only a few things from common report: where this is done he himself points out. What those four men wrote of Bl. John was brought into the Position on the doubt whether the commission for the introduction of the cause should be signed, printed in the year 1736 at the press of the reverend apostolic chamber. Omitted were the books of the following biographers, Corneo and Alevazoli, perhaps because they were more recent. The former namely, John Baptist Corneo (there are two of the same name), priest of Milan and keeper of the archiepiscopal archive, gave eight volumes to the public and brought thirty-two manuscripts into the archiepiscopal library; most of them most learned and on the origin of ecclesiastical rites, the lives of the saints or other similar arguments Ibid., vol. I, part II, col. 474 and following. Among those published comes the Italian Life of Bl. John Angelo Porro Vita del beato Giovanni Angelo Porro, which saw the light at Milan in the year 1649; but only once: which was also the fortune of the books of Hippolytus Porro and Paul Pagliari. For the rest, Pagliari seems to have nearly followed the footsteps of Ferrari, as Garbi informs me In Giani, Annals of the Servants, vol. II, p. 29.
[6] and Augustine Alevazoli narrate them, and his praises are celebrated by many. Altogether another lot was that of the Life which Augustine Alevazoli of the order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary prepared. This first came out in Latin at Alessandria in the year 1691 [Epilogue of the Life of Bl. John Angelo Porro of Milan, of the order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary]; then much more diffuse in Italian at the house of Malatesta at Milan in the year 1694 and again at the house of Richino in the year 1725 [Vita del B. Gio. Angelo Porro, nobile Milanese, religioso sacerdote dell' ordine de' servi di Maria Vergine, raccolta e descritta dal P. M. Agostini Alevazoli d'Alessandria del medesimo ordine. Compare Argelati, work cited, vol. II, part II, col. 1122]; in which edition, which we possess in our museum, the Latin Life was reprinted at the end. But as the Italian book is great in bulk, so it abounds in words and commonplaces. Moreover it has this vice, that it declares and explains many things by pious conjectures and divinations, and sets out the manner in which things were done, that this may be an example and incitement to readers; although there are scarcely traces of the things themselves in the older writings. A little briefer, but yet more diffuse than is right, is the Life which in the year 1738 Father Master Paul M. Cardi, perpetual definitor and secretary of the order, published at the Roman press, on the occasion of the approved immemorial cult of Bl. John Porro Vita del B. Gianangelo Porri da Milano dell'ordine etc.. There then came out also in the common speech a compendium of the Life of Bl. John Angelo Compendio della vita del B. Gianangelo Porri. Bl. John is also mentioned by Morigia Nobility of Milan, book I, chap. XI and XXIV, by Galeazzo Gualdo Priorato Account of the City of Milan, p. 50 and by very many others Argelati, work cited, vol. II, part II, col. 1122: among whom is chiefly to be listed Argelati Ibid., col. 1120 and following, from whom we have excerpted several things on the biographers of Bl. John; and also Pietro Paolo Bosca in the Martyrology of Milan, published in the year 1695, at the 24th of October. There are also to be praised Picinelli in the Extemporaneous Elogia; Bagatta in the Admiranda; Brautius in the Poetic Martyrology, in which he is accustomed to surname him not Porro, but Porta; Bulzius in the Epigrams; and the rest who are cited by Alevazoli in chapter XXI of the Life of St. John. After these Sassi History of the Prelates of Milan, vol. II, p. 752 and the Rev. Mr. Tresvaux in the Supplement to Butler's Lives of the Saints Supplément aux vies des pères, des martyrs etc., vol. IV, p. 184 also presented the blessed man with a singular encomium; which writing the Rev. Mr. De Ram brought into his more recent edition of the same Lives, and the Rev. Mr. Pétin [Migne, Encyclopédie théologique, vol. XL, or Dictionnaire Hagiographique, vol. II, col. 101 and 102] summed up in briefer words; erring however in this, that he judged that St. John Angelo (Jean l'Ange) and St. John Angelo Porro (Jean-Ange Porro) were two distinct men, and that one was venerated on the 24th day of October and the other on the 16th day of November. More recently also several have written of him in Italy; whose little works I shall touch below according to the matter. But of these enough. Since moreover it is better to drink from the springs than from the streams, we shall publish below what Alberici, Thomas of Verona, Poccianti and Giani handed down to posterity concerning the blessed man; to which we shall subjoin the miracles which are read in the Position on signing the commission for the introduction of the cause. But before that several things are to be explained concerning his life and cult.
Annotation* videlicet
§ II. The life and duties of Bl. John Angelo from the year 1430 to 1481.
Bl. John Angelo, sprung from the noble Porro family, Protasius Porro, who in the year of the Virgin's childbearing MCDXXX was flourishing at Milan, begot John Angelo, a most excellent example of piety and true sanctity: so Argelati Argelati, in the place cited. That his father's name was Protasius Alberici and Giani have revealed. The patrician family Porro was formerly sufficiently famous at Milan in letters, piety, ecclesiastical and civil offices and nobility Alevazoli, pp. 2 and following. Argelati inserted sixteen names in his Milanese Library Argelati, col. 1113 and following. Among these are two who have the name Pietro Paolo Porro; a third of the same surname, also sprung from Milan, but not to be listed among the writers, brought Arabic typography into Italy, the Psalter of David being printed at Genoa in the year 1516, in the Hebrew, Greek, Arabic and Chaldee tongues, and increased with three Latin versions and glosses: of which labour the praise is singular Ibid., vol. I, part 1, p. LXXVIII. Most of those writers dwelt in religious enclosures. The names of others have long been most honourable in the history of Milan. See the index of families which Muratori gave at the end of the Writers of Italian Affairs. Argelati too, and before him Alevazoli, indicate the offices of several.
[8] enters about 1450 the convent of the Servants of Milan; In what year Bl. John Angelo was brought forth into the light is altogether hidden. Claverino, advocate of the cause of canonization Position on the introduction of the cause, Information, p. 2, determines his natal day about the year 1430; Marcellino Ayroldi, provost of St. Babylas, second witness among those who were heard in the year 1729 Ibid., Summary, p. 8, about the year 1420: either is a tolerable conjecture or divination: but less probable is that which is proposed in an anonymous Compendium of the life of Bl. John Angelo Porro, written in Italian, namely that the blessed man was born about the year 1440; wherefore in another Compendium, printed at Milan in the year 1848, he is related to have been born in the year 1434. That he passed over at a youthful age to the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary all agree: I should believe about the year 1450. That the religious garment was first taken up by him in the Milanese convent is intimated by Poccianti, Ferrari, Giani; and affirmed by Hippolytus Porro, Paul Pagliari and several witnesses: which matter
is the more credible, the stricter the bond by which the Porro house was joined with the Servites of Milan: for in their church it had a sanctuary or altar of its own; as will be plain below. Those religious had long inhabited the diocese of Milan, first in the town of Gorgonzola, then, at least from the year 1280, within the walls of the city, having received the chapel of the eastern gate, once called of Blessed Mary of the Sack: where they thereafter settled [Giani, Annals, Century I, book V, chap. IX, vol. I, pp. 164 and 165. Sassi, History of the Archbishops of Milan, vol. II, p. 752].
[9] [whence, his novitiate being finished and effort given to theology, he went to Cavacurta;] Alevazoli, Cardi and others relate that he studied theology at Milan, adding that the blessed man in the lowliness of his mind refused the laurel of the doctorate; but I fear whether this is said from certain documents, and not from pious divination. After he was made a presbyter, he is related by the same to have withdrawn to Cavacurta; yet it is to be noticed that that withdrawal was altogether passed over by Alevazoli in his Latin Life of Bl. John Angelo, and mention was made only of the other withdrawal to this place, or rather that the deeds which pertain to both were referred to this one later one. Why did Alevazoli and Cardi not indicate the monuments from which they afterwards learned that the blessed man came twice to Cavacurta? Yet because of this want it does not come about that I judge credit to be denied to their later narrative; for I should not think that they rashly deserted their former statements; then concerning the later withdrawal a testimony is brought forth, nowhere published before, namely that of the physician John de Predatis, who had cured him at Cavacurta: whence it may appear that new documents afterwards came from there; finally the suspicions concerning his chastity, which arose at Cavacurta and were happily dissipated, can easily be explained, if they were conceived in the first years of his religious life, but by no means, if in the last. For these causes therefore I agree that Bl. John Angelo, having left Milan, came to Cavacurta. Now this place lies in the diocese and territory of Lodi (commonly Lodesan) on the bank of the river Adda; it is distant from Lodi XV thousand paces, from Cremona XII, from Pizzighettone II, from Milan XXXV.
[10] [where from the year 1456 the Servites illegitimately occupied the parish church. In the year 1482 the parish benefice is conferred on a certain cleric;] Already from the year 1456 the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, summoned by that community, with the consent of the bishop of Lodi or his vicar, had taken up for administration the parish church, which was then called S. Maria de Arasia, and beside it had afterwards built a house with a garden, cloister, dormitory and other accessory workrooms and, so built, had inhabited it, and had exercised the care of the souls of the parishioners of the said church, ministering the ecclesiastical sacraments to them; and when they had increased the fruits, returns and revenues of the same church, which then did not exceed the annual value of three gold florins of the chamber according to common estimation, to the value of XV similar florins Bull of Innocent VIII (the pontifical florin of that age weighs 96.25 francs and would now have the power of 357.50 francs), about the year 1482 a certain cleric of Lodi, by name John James de Cipellis, took care to have the parish office conferred on himself, as if it had been vacant. Hence arose disputes, which in the year 1485 were laid to rest on these conditions, that the Servites should pay yearly to John James four pounds of Milanese money and that he should cede his benefice into the hands of the Roman pontiff.
[11] [hence arose disputes, which are ended by a simoniacal contract and a bull of Innocent VIII;] When both parties had completed this contract, infected with the stain of simony, they had recourse to Pope Innocent VIII that he might free them from the penalties established against simoniacs and might hold the contract ratified. The pontiff replied kindly, by a letter given on the 7th day of July of the year 1485; warning however the Servites that they had falsely relied on their privileges in admitting a new house without the good pleasure of the Apostolic See and that the contract was truly simoniacal. He declared therefore that they had for these causes incurred censures and other penalties, and had contracted irregularity, since being bound by these they celebrated masses and other divine offices, though not in contempt of the divine, and that they had also defiled themselves with the stain of inability, when they received the fruits of the said church. But all these things the pontiff indulged and also granted that the parish should be incorporated into the convent [Giani and Garbi, Annals of the Sacred Order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Century III, book III, chap. 19, vol. I, pp. 589 and following]. Confirmed by these apostolic letters the fathers, say the writers of the annals of the Servants [Giani and Garbi, Annals of the Sacred Order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Century III, book III, chap. 19, vol. I, p. 592], exercised the care of souls with far greater zeal, raised the church again almost from the foundations, supported also by the help of the pious faithful, changing the title of S. Maria de Arasia into the title of St. Bartholomew; and these things indeed do not pertain to the present time, but they seemed to need noting in this place, both because the blessed man afterwards returned to Cavacurta, and because it is to be explained why Bl. John Angelo is commonly said to have inhabited the convent of St. Bartholomew of Cavacurta. Now when that simoniacal contract, which Innocent VIII healed, was entered upon, certainly Bl. John Angelo was no longer there; but it can be that he was present when the parish was first received and the new house founded; and certainly, if indeed he came there from Milan, he dwelt there for some time against the prohibition of the apostolic constitutions and for that reason was liable to grave ecclesiastical penalties in the external forum. But it is not to be doubted that the Servites received that new house in the best faith; so that it is not even to be thought that the soul of Bl. John Angelo was infected thence with any stain of sin.
[12] [suspicions concerning the chastity of Bl. John Angelo removed, Christopher Torniello, or no prior general, being present;] The suspicions which I recalled a little above Alevazoli explains in the Latin Life in these words: At Cavacurta in the convent of St. Bartholomew of the diocese of Lodi, falsely accused of often turning aside into the garden (for it was next to the public road) to visit the girls of the district, men having been sent by the general of the order to observe him, he was found, with all amazed, fixed in prayer, roses flowering around hedging him on every side in the freezing winter and with the ground covered with snow. Cardi adds Life, p. 34 that he was then seen raised above the earth, by as much as is the stature of one man; and that at one time in the place where that prodigy happened a chapel was built with a statue of the blessed man, showing that miracle to the life; and that as it opens on the public road, those passing are accustomed to stop there for the sake of praying, and that he himself often visited it and kissed the sacred ground. Cardi moreover will have it, and Alevazoli too himself in the Italian Life Pp. 33 and 34, that the prior general of the order was then staying at Cavacurta, that he was an eye-witness of the miracle and that the name of this prior was Nicholas of Perugia. But I should not dare to give credit to these things and (to say in one word what I think) in that whole discourse this one thing seems certain to me, that Bl. John Angelo was found praying in a corner of the garden by those who had ill confidence in his chastity. The prior general was perhaps then present at Cavacurta; but he was plainly not Nicholas of Perugia. For as we have seen, this new house was begun in any sort of way only in the year 1456; wherefore before that time Bl. John Angelo could not have stayed there. But Nicholas of Perugia, worn out with old age, then had no further part in administering the order. For in the year 1455 at Faenza, by the common concurrence of the fathers, he had taken Master John of Ferrara as his primary associate and vicar of the whole order Giani, Annals, Century III, book III, chap. 4, vol. I, p. 493, and then had admitted three apostolic vicars, established by the authority of Pope Pius II, he himself meanwhile being sick in the monastery of Ferrara and content with the title of general alone Ibid., chap. 8, vol. I, p. 507, until on the fifth day of January of the year 1460, that is according to the new style 1461, he departed to the heavens Ibid., chap. 11, vol. I, p. 512, or rather until before the month of May of the year 1460 he resigned the rod, purse, seal and book of constitutions with the rule of St. Augustine, so many insignia of office, into the hands of Christopher Torniello, who himself in the following assembly, begun on 23 May at Novara, was created prior general from apostolic vicar Ibid., chap. 10, p. 510. Wherefore, if any prior general stayed at Cavacurta when the sanctity of Bl. John Angelo was so excellently vindicated from suspicions, he could be no other than Christopher Torniello, and that whole business must have been accomplished after the middle of the year 1460, although Alevazoli in the Italian Life P. 36 will have it that Bl. John Angelo went away from Cavacurta about the year 1459, when the office of prior general was as if vacant.
[13] gifts which are said to have been granted to the blessed man. Another indication is narrated, by which God wished at that time to declare the merits of his servant. For even by night at times, are the words of Alevazoli in the Latin Life, his whole face irradiating, he sent forth darts of light so abundantly, that the very dense grove into which he had withdrawn to pray was illuminated as if it were day. On the other hand in the Italian Life P. 64 (and with him agree Cardi and the author of the Compendium) he refers that prodigy to another time of the life of the blessed man, relating that it happened when a few years before his death he was betaking himself from the hermitage of Chianti to Milan, to be prior there, and on the journey not far from the convent of Cavacurta was meditating on the sufferings of Christ and the sorrows of the Mother of God; and Alevazoli adds that that portent happened rather often; but would that that man were less rash in divining! That also at Cavacurta he very familiarly enjoyed the Blessed Virgin Mary, appearing to him and caressing him, Alevazoli likewise relates in the Italian Life P. 32, and Cardi adds that he received the boy Jesus from her hands Life, p. 30, bringing in testimony old reliefs in which he is shown in that condition: but since these were made at least a hundred years after his death and at a time at which almost nothing was known of the blessed man, I should prefer to interpret them of the spiritual intercourse which through divine grace holds between Christ and any faithful soul.
[14] [Bl. John seeks Monte Senario, in which a reform was instituted; the praises of this reform] Although the blessed man so earnestly cultivated piety at Cavacurta, yet after a year (so Cardi relates Ibid., p. 37, on no authority, but
led as usual by mere conjectures) he did not seem to himself to be sufficiently removed from all worldly din and he asked leave to inhabit Monte Senario. But before we follow him there, a few things are to be tasted from the general history of the order of Servants. At that time this order was divided into two parts, of the Conventuals and the Observants. The origin of the Observance is to be determined in the year 1404, when it seemed to the general chapter of Ferrara unbecoming that Monte Senario, on which the fathers in the year 1234 had laid the beginning of the Order, should be nearly abandoned by their sons, and that the eremitic life which the founders had instituted should no longer be cultivated; and that these losses were to be repaired, as far as could be done Giani, Annals, Century II, book IV, chap. IX, vol. I, pp. 369 and 370. This plan was given execution in the year 1411, in which Anthony of Siena and some other religious of most holy life, with the permission of the prior general Stephen of Borgo San Sepolcro, betook themselves there Giani, Annals, Century II, book IV, chap. XV, pp. 380 and following. To these in the following year there were given by the general chapter of Pisa the following laws or privileges Ibid., chap. XVII, p. 383: First, that Monte Senario, as head of the Order, should be understood as subject immediately to the prior general, and that the provincial of Etruria, apart from the accustomed visitations, ought neither to remove anyone from that place, nor to admit others there. Second, that, the poverty of the place and the number of those living there being taken into view, Senario should for at least some time not be burdened with the public exactions either of the order or of the province of Tuscany. Third, that the brothers of Senario devoted to the reform should, even outside the accustomed fasts of the order, never anywhere eat flesh. Fourth, that the prior of Senario for the time being should with the consent of the general be elected by the same every two years and be confirmed by the general; who should have that faculty which the prior general should grant him and should from day to day see fit.
[15] its inconveniences and other miseries are indicated. The inhabitants of Senario enjoyed the most desired quiet and peace, until Anthony, bishop of Bitetto, returning from the council of Constance, put on the habit of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the sacred Mount. Then one or two new houses were admitted to the severer laws of Senario Ibid., book V, chap. XIV, p. 416; thereafter others and others both beyond and on this side of the Apennines Ibid., Century III, book I, chap. I, pp. 426 and 427; and so from these there was fused in the year 1440 the Congregation of the Observance, over which by apostolic authority Anthony of Bitetto was set with the title of vicar general and with many privileges, the power of visiting being almost left to the prior general Ibid., chap. VI, p. 446. Further, from this reform, as commonly from others which have been attempted in religious orders through splits and divisions, very many calamities arose, which Giani everywhere laments in the Annals. For thereafter there were almost continual disputes and rivalries between the order and the congregation both concerning the payment of common dues, and concerning not usurping each other's dwellings; indeed in the year 1445 and following the Observants tried to withdraw themselves almost altogether from the authority of the prior general: which however they could not accomplish; although Pope Eugene IV favoured them sufficiently Ibid., chap. XIII, pp. 469 and following. Afterwards quarrels arose in the congregation of the Observants itself; by which it came about in the year 1473 that it was split into two parts, Transpadane and Cispadane, and a new vicar general was brought in, to whom with their members should be subject the convents of St. Cataldus of Cremona and St. Mary of Graces of Piacenza, and others which they should in future found below the Po, yet outside those places which the Conventuals already occupied, and who himself should be liable to the prior general alone. These things Pope Sixtus IV approved by apostolic letters given under lead Ibid., book III, chap. I, pp. 538 and 539. Another bull granted in the same year determined that Monte Senario, whose inhabitants seem never to have been pleased with the restless undertakings of the Congregated, should with its members be free from the power of the vicar general and subject to the prior general alone Ibid., chap. II, pp. 539 and following. But since by this last bull were approved the articles of the reform established in the year 1412, by which the Observants should be free from paying dues and the provincial of Etruria should be deprived of the power of transferring religious to the convents of the Observants or leading them out from there (which also the Observants, relying on a bull of Eugene IV, had extended to the prior general); and since on the opposite side in the year 1472 the prior general had obtained apostolic letters in the form of a brief and the confirmation of a certain bull of Pope Nicholas V, by which those articles were made void; hence there arose a new controversy, in which in the year 1477 the prior general won, Pope Sixtus IV hearing the cause Ibid., book III, chap. VI, pp. 551 and following. And these things being understood, we pass over to the deeds of Bl. John Angelo.
[16] The manner of that hermitage and of admitting hermits. So when at Milan and Cavacurta he wore the garment of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he followed the milder institutions of the Conventuals: nor is he thereafter read ever to have favoured the vicar of the Congregated; but he seems always to have stood on the side of the prior general, nor to have approved reforms contrary to his authority: although, as we have said, desirous of greater solitude, he sought Monte Senario, which was held to be the head of the Reform. Now this place is distant eight or nine miles from Florence, in the midst of six other mountains which it surmounts, covered by tall pines from the heat of the sun and the savagery of the north wind; so that the narrow plain which is situated on its summit seems to enjoy perpetual spring Hélyot, History of the Religious Orders, article Servites. Here, as once the monks in the east and in the west (traces still survive in the Gauls Le Noir, Architecture monastique, vol. I, pp. 1 and following), the first founders had prepared caves which should be to them in place of cells. Yet these the Observants seem not to have inhabited, for whom Sigismund Stupkens had raised up a convent there and had assigned in perpetuity a provision which should suffice for twelve hermits. This seat therefore, exceedingly suited to the meditation of heavenly things and to a most severe life, Bl. John Angelo approached with most vehement zeal, that there according to the force and signification of his names he might imitate the penitence of John the Baptist and after the manner of the Angels might be wholly in praising God. At the time when he came there, no one was admitted into their company by the hermits, unless they themselves had approved him, chiefly if he was of the order of Conventuals. It is by no means to be doubted therefore that an examination was instituted concerning the morals of Bl. John and the suitable condition of his mind and body. This trial turned out well for him and contrary to custom (if they relate truly) there was assigned to him the cave of Bl. Sostene, afterwards converted into an oratory.
[17] [From here about 1471 Bl. John is summoned to be prior of the hermitage of Chianti;] All agree that Bl. John lived twenty years on Monte Senario; Hippolytus Porro adds that this was still narrated in the year 1623 by the old men of that place and was established from some old tablets: yet I should not judge that he lived there twenty continuous years, as this biographer relates with Ferrari, but rather with intermission. With how great a sanctity of life the blessed hermit honoured that time Poccianti and Giani explain in few words, others amplify more widely according to their genius; indeed they add several things which were not even possible because of the distance of men, times and places; but I should be endless if I wished to weigh all these things. These then being omitted, no testimony of the sanctity of Bl. John Angelo is more to me than his honourable calling forth to rule the hermitage of Chianti. Namely the fathers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Annunciation of Florence had obtained in the year 1470 a certain hermitage to the south of the city among the plains of Clantum (commonly Chianti). This region Lami describes Memorabilia of the Church of Florence, vol. II, p. 727. There long before, on a rock above the little stream Greve in the midst of groves, a certain man most religious and devoted to the eremitic life, by name Brother Anthony son of John of Sicily, had built a certain small cell. And when he had come to his old years, he had resigned his seat to the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Annunciation, yet on this condition that as long as he lived he himself should hold it. The conditions were agreed on the 19th day of August in the year 1468. Anthony being dead, John Baptist, prior of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Annunciation, entered upon possession of the hermitage in the month of September of the year 1470, and established there as first prior Blaise son of John of Florence; whom in the government of the hermitage, as Giani says Century III, book II, chap. XVIII, vol. I, p. 531, there then succeeded Father John Angelo Porro of Milan, a man of blessed memory, who, vehemently kindled with love of solitude, was leading his life on Senario. So Bl. John left Senario not in the year 1470, as Alevazoli relates in the Italian Life, but in 1471 or 1472, since according to the constitution which Pope Clement VI had sanctioned by a solemn bull in the year 1346 Ibid., Century II, book I, chap. XIV, vol. I, p. 289, that office was annual or at least biennial. From then he fulfilled the office of prior at Chianti for one or two years. It can be that, when he had ceased for some time from this office, he was again promoted to it and was discharging it in the year 1477, when war blazed up between the Sienese and the Florentines, who fraudulently incited Carlo of Montone [Allegretti, Diari Sanesi, in Muratori, Writers of Italian Affairs, vol. XXIII, col. 782 and 783; Bruti, History of Florence, book V, in Burmann, Thesaurus of Italy, vol. VIII, col. 131 and 132; Pecci, Memorie di Pandolfo Petrucci, vol. I, p. 12]. Certainly Giani Century III, book II, chap. XVIII, vol. I, p. 531 seems to refer the destruction of Chianti to the time of Bl. John's government, subjoining these things to the words cited above: Meanwhile when the Florentines were waging wars with the Sienese and all things were being devastated with sword and slaughter, this our hermitage, like other neighbouring places, lay prostrate.
[18] about the year 1477 he is sent to Florence, But however this may be, whether in the year 1477 Bl. John fled to Senario dreading the vengeance of the Sienese, or some years before, after finishing his first annual or biennial government, went on there of his own accord, certainly he was living among the hermits of the sacred Mount at the end of the year 1477 or not much later, when he was destined to the Florentine monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Annunciation, the chapter of that place again consenting. Further, the Florentine convent almost rivalled Monte Senario in antiquity and celebrity. For the Seven Founders (that is their common name), when in the year 1233 they had bidden farewell to the world, first withdrew to a suburban place, the Field of Mars; then to the more remote and quiet Monte Senario: but afterwards near the Florentine gate by which one goes to Senario they had founded a hospice or little hut, to which an ancient
name, Caphagium, adhered for some time and in which were received two or three brothers, who at Florence should seek food from door to door for the hermits: and these smallest beginnings grew gradually into a very great asceterium Hélyot, History of the Religious Orders, Servites; whose magnificence travellers everywhere praise.
[19] to be master of novices: Bl. John was summoned there to restore regular discipline in that place: a matter, if any ever was, most difficult, chiefly because it had long since been attempted. For at the time of the council of Florence, Cardinal Julian Cesarini, a very great name in ecclesiastical and political annals, by his office and authority as protector of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, had urged that a remedy should be brought for the evils which he had noticed while living among the Florentine Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary [Giani, Century III, at the year 1339, book I, chap. VI, vol. I, pp. 444 and following]. An excellent counsel certainly; but its execution was full of hatreds and rivalries. For since at that time the Observants were lifting their head, the protector brought them into that monastery in the year 1441, the prior and other Conventuals being removed who had refused the laws of the Reform Ibid., at the year 1441, book I, chap. VIII, pp. 449 and following: the matter however was approved by Eugene IV Ibid., chap. IX, pp. 451 and following. At once Anthony of Bitetto, vicar general of the Congregation, is instituted the new prior; and as he was a keen man and of an active nature, without delay he puts his hand to the work, recalling morals to the rules, and restoring and enlarging the church Ibid., in the place cited. But in the year 1448, when Eugene IV had met his last day and had made room for Nicholas V, the Observants were cast out from there and the Conventuals brought back by the right of return, the senate assisting Ibid., chap. XIV, p. 475. The efforts of Cardinal Julian and of Eugene IV would therefore have gone off into smoke, had not in the year 1477 Anthony son of Protasius Alabanti seemed fit to be set over the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Annunciation Ibid., Century III, book III, chap. XVI, vol. I, pp. 584 and 585; who, since he enjoyed the favour of the citizens, seemed most apt for gathering more abundant alms and for completing the fabric of the church and the remaining buildings. But he by no means held himself to these things. For although he was from the camp of the Conventuals, he easily equalled the best of the Observants in piety, chastening of life and zeal for religious discipline; and so by the common consent of the order and the congregation, in the year 1485, after he had governed the Florentine convent of the Annunciation for eight years, he was created prior general Ibid., chap. XVII, pp. 585 and 586.
[20] [the praise of the novitiate of that age in the Annals of the order. Bl. John withdraws with the novices to Monte Senario, and shortly after returns to Florence.] So while Alabanti had at Florence both the buildings to complete and the morals of the religious to order rightly, he summoned from elsewhere all the best men to be his help: Bl. John Angelo to be master of novices according to the constitutions of Bl. Philip Benizi Ibid., Century I, book VII, chap. XI, vol. I, p. 258; Stephen son of Nicasius of Flanders and Steterling to rule the domestic academy and to hold public disputations also; indeed also excellent masters of music from France and Germany Ibid., Century III, book III, chap. XI and XVI, vol. I, pp. 571 and 584. In a short time the whole face of things was renewed and the fame of the Florentine novices spread far and wide. That Bl. John Angelo was no small part of this matter no one can doubt; and, what in that age is no slight indication of sedulity, he wrote a volume of Instructions for the cloistered religious; which with a certain discourse on the best manner of serving the Blessed Virgin Mary is his only literary offspring preserved to posterity Alevazoli, Italian Life, pp. 27 and 55; but never (as it seems) brought to light. And while these things were flowing prosperously, there pressed on at Florence in the year 1480 a plague of pestilence; as Alevazoli Ibid., p. 55 and Cardi Life, p. 59 relate; wherefore the blessed man was compelled to withdraw with the novices to neighbouring Monte Senario. But since there seems to have been more of fear than of evil (for the Florentine chronographers whom I know omit to speak of this plague [Matt. Palmieri, On His Own Times, in Tartini, Writers of Florentine Affairs, etc., vol. I, col. 267 and following; Repetti, Dizionario della Toscana, vol. II, p. 190; etc.]), Bl. John Angelo stayed with his novices on Monte Senario only some months, as Cardi has it. Returning to Florence as soon as possible, he went on spending his effort on forming the novices. Wherefore it came about that in a short time a certain unaccustomed vigour and a certain wonderful force and striving were stirred up among those youths, and the young plants brought a most joyful hope. The elders wished to look on them in person; wherefore in the year 1482 eight of their number were summoned to the general chapter of Viterbo. These, when they left the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Annunciation, celebrated for the concourse of pilgrims and the fame of miracles, wore on their caps as a token, after the custom of that age Plombs trouvés dans la Seine à Paris, here and there, certain small images of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Annunciation in brass, and partly with boyish voice, partly with musical instruments they expressed in the church every harmony of hymns. The youths so pleased that others too, who had already given some effort to letters, were called forth, to hold publicly there little logical disputations and elegant speeches: the Fathers praised, the city was amazed Giani, Century III, book III, chap. XI, p. 572. And again this was done in the general chapter celebrated at Vetralla in the year 1485 Ibid., chap. XVII, p. 585, and three years after at Bologna Ibid., book IV, chap. VII, p. 610. And these things commend somewhat the excellent mastership of Bl. John.
§ III. His deeds up to the year of his death, 1506.
[In the year 1481 he is sent to the new Milanese convent of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Paradise, and shortly after, he again becomes prior of restored Chianti;] Yet the most blessed man did not preside over all these things; but he is to be praised for this only, that he sowed the seed from which that harvest (I understand love of labour, zeal for piety and literary efforts) grew up. For before the end of the year 1481 he had been summoned to Milan, where he should bring his effort to founding a new house. For as is read in the History of the monasteries of the order of Servants, written by Father Michael Angelo Saler, a particle of which the Rev. Father Morini sent me, John Rodolph de Vincemaris of Milan gave a certain estate in his lands outside the Roman gate of Milan, on which was built the convent of St. Mary of Paradise for the congregation of the order of Servants, Brother James Porsiano of Brescia, vicar general, receiving it, under the 22nd day of November 1481. And the first founders of this place, he thus proceeds, were Master John of Milan, Brother Marianus of Milan and Brother Amans of Brescia. At which place Garbi wrote with his own hand: These things are plain from the instrument of donation of the aforesaid John Rodolph existing on parchment in the archive Lipaniozo (?), which I saw on the 26th day of August of the year 1715; so that it is not to be doubted that in the month of November of the year 1481 Bl. John had come to Milan and had left his novices. In few words Saler then follows the fortunes of the convent of Blessed Mary of Paradise: In which place, he says, the brothers stayed for about fifty years; until, as wars pressed on, on account of the incursions of soldiers the convent was altogether abandoned and was overturned from its foundations by Antonio de Leyra, general commander of Charles V; where that memorable thing still survives, which, as we read it in marble, so we have thought it opportune to record it in this place: IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD MDIX ON THE I DAY OF JULY LOUIS KING OF THE FRENCH AND DUKE OF MILAN, VICTORY OVER THE VENETIANS HAVING BEEN WON, HERE MOUNTED HIS HORSE. But although this house was not in the midst of the city, yet in the midst of the workmen building the regular places there was not that quiet which the blessed John pursued with most ardent wishes: for he was continually held by the desire of the solitude of the hermitage. To return to which he at length won leave at the very end of the year of Christ 1481. We have said above, namely, that four years before the hermitage of Chianti had been prostrated by the Sienese. And it lay in this wretched condition up to the year 1481; in which Father Andrew of Florence, as Giani is witness Ibid., book II, chap. XVII, p. 531, determined to go there to restore the hermitage. When he had accomplished this, John Angelo is again set over its government, intent on the reform of morals and on leading a holier life with the rest of the brothers; and the fathers of the Holy Annunziata place there a venerable image of the Blessed Virgin under the invocation of St. Mary of Graces, the same title being conferred on the church; whose chief feast the fathers were accustomed perpetually to celebrate every year on the 8th day of September, not without great devotion of the people flowing together, as long as they were allowed to live there; for they afterwards withdrew from there; namely after the death of Bl. John.
[22] [in the year 1485 he again becomes master of novices and in the year 1487 prior of Senario;] His quiet there was disturbed again in the year 1485, when on the Pentecost feasts, at Vetralla in the diocese of Viterbo, Alabanti was elected prior general; for he recalled Bl. John to Florence, and ordered (since the strength of his weak body no longer allowed anything more) that at least once a day at a fixed hour he should go to the youthful novices and teach them the laws of sanctity. This lasted almost two years. For in the year 1487 he was summoned to Monte Senario, that he might bring with him peace and tranquillity. Giani narrates the matter Ibid., book IV, chap. V, p. 599 in these words: On the sixth day of August on Senario that excellent religious and most upright man of true observance, Father Luke son of Alexander of Florence, paid his last day … near a hundred years old. At his funeral there was present Anthony the general, who had gone up to Senario to compose some difficulties concerning the prior of the place, to be elected by the same brothers who were present there according to the ancient constitution. These fathers then inhabited the place: Brother Thomas of Florence, the prior, who also then resigned the office; Brother Matthias of Florence; Brother John Baptist of Rome; Brother John Angelo of Milan; Brother Louis of Pesaro and Brother John son of Peter of Florence. Obscure names except Bl. John Angelo. All these on the 15th day of June into the hands of Anthony the general by unanimous consent elected as their prior Father John Angelo of Milan, a man truly of such great probity that in that office the most high God by his merits and intercession showed several signs of graces and miracles on that mountain; but of these more in their place.
[23] [in the year 1488 he becomes prior of Chianti for the third time; the rest of the chronology.] These miracles were the cause why, scarcely
the first year of his priorate being finished, Bl. John came down from Senario: so greatly did he dread the tickling of vainglory. So setting out for the third time to the hermitage of Chianti, he was created prior of the same place for the third time by the counsel of the fathers of the Annunziata, by no means in the year 1470, as Argelati relates Library of the Writers of Milan, vol. II, part I, col. 1121, but in 1488 or 1489, as the very series of events makes manifest. Nor did he make long stay at Chianti, fleeing again the importunity of the people imploring help from God. But whither the blessed man then went on and what he did in the last years of his life was unknown not only to Poccianti and Ferrari, but even to Giani himself; nor moreover do they agree among themselves in any way. We must therefore turn elsewhere and seek a new guide. Nor is he lacking here, but his sayings are to be composed with the assertions of Giani, lest the chronological thread be broken. Further, as far as I see, Bl. John left Chianti in the year 1490 or the following, and went straight to Milan; where, when he had stayed for some time, he went to the solitude of Corvara in the diocese of Piacenza in the year 1491 or the following, and took to himself new disciples, whom he formed to every virtue; from here he took the road again towards the north; he came to Cavacurta, a stronghold of the diocese of Lodi, and stayed there rather long and lay seized by a disease; he went on afterwards to Monte Senario and finally to Milan, where not much later he departed this life.
[24] he stays for some time fruitfully at Milan; in the solitude of Corvara For he, after he had spoken of the priorate of Bl. John at Chianti (which we have pointed out he badly tied to the year 1470), at once adds: But to elude the esteem of the neighbours, he returned to Milan: where retaining the same austerity of life, he proposed to himself first of all to teach boys on feast days the divine mysteries and the knowledge of Christian dogmas, and to sweat not moderately at the chastening of morals, in that age chiefly in which men were rushing more freely into vices. Alevazoli in the Italian Life Pp. 64 and following and Cardi Life, pp. 82 and 83 relate that the office of prior of Milan was then imposed on the blessed man; which I find also in the Italian Compendium of the life Pp. 18 and 19; and they add that the use of catechism for boys was then introduced by him. Nor here only, I continue with Argelati, did the solicitude of John Angelo stop: for since he had long before been selected by the general ruler of the order, together with three other approved brothers, to reform for the better the morals of the religious according to the norm of the first institution; this he chiefly performed at Corvara of the diocese of Piacenza; where no less by words than by example he restored the former institution of life: so plainly that ten years after some of the same, following the example of the most upright and more chastened life set forth by him, formed a congregation under the name of the Observance of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Thus he.
[25] he lays the foundations of a new reform under the authority of the general; Now Corvara, says Giani Century III, book V, chap. XVI, at the year 1512, vol. II, p. 40, is a wooded grove at the foot of the Apennines near the river Trebbia in the diocese of Piacenza, suited to the solitude and contemplation of religious, where also a most celebrated image of the Blessed Virgin at this time was bringing forth very many miracles, to which those fathers readily ran together, who strove to serve God from the heart. But Corvaria or Crovaria in the diocese of Piacenza is different from Corbaria in the diocese of Luni-Sarzana, where only in the year 1515, long after the death of Bl. John Angelo, his associates founded a convent with the title of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Graces. The origin of the convent of Corvara is altogether obscure: and so we know this one thing, that in the year 1502 it had already existed for some time. There then gradually some excellent men came together; whence arose the Observance, of which Giani seems undeservedly to complain Ibid., book VI, chap. XVI, vol. II, p. 100. For not by it was the authority of the prior general lifted away, as on Monte Senario; not by it was altar raised against altar, as by the institution of the Congregation; not by it was separation brought in from nearly the rest of the order, as by the Reform which Alabanti had brought into Germany; but discipline was restored, entire obedience to the prior general being preserved, and communion with the order of Servants plainly kept; indeed the chief reason of this business lay in this, that a departure should be made from the restless Congregated and an approach should be made to the Order. That this was the mind of Bl. John, the kindler of this matter, and of his disciples, the very series of events will reveal.
[26] of this reform When therefore the inhabitants of Corvaria or Crovaria had grown somewhat in number and in some sort of way by experience had proved the new institution and discipline, it came about on the 22nd day of May of the year 1501 that Thaddeus Tancredi of Bologna was elected prior general by the assembly of Bologna Ibid., book V, chap. IV, vol. II, p. 10, a pious man praised for his prudence and counsel Ibid., chap. X, note of Garbi, p. 27 and inclined to the reform of the order. He favoured therefore the hermits of Corvara, whose new congregation chiefly from the year 1502 had gradually begun to become famous, more however by the honest discipline of the religious than by the extent and number of its places Ibid., book VI, chap. XVI, p. 100: for four years after it consisted only of the convents of Cremona and Forlì and the solitude of Corvara, connected among themselves rather by the bonds of friendship and likeness of pursuits, than by the authority of a single superior and the system of the same government. Indeed they were reckoned a part of the Congregation, and were still liable to its superior, who we have often said had the title of vicar general.
[27] the happy fortunes Only in the year 1506 were the people of Corvara torn from the Congregation. Giani narrates the matter Ibid., book V, chap. X, p. 25 in these words: The excellent general Tancredi, seeing that old observance of the Congregated growing obsolete and going into decline, bore this very ill, when some of those whose hearts God had touched, weary of that laxer custom, supplicated Thaddeus the general himself to separate them from the company of the Congregated into a more tranquil and more religious observance; and these were Brother Francis de Gotiis, Brother Jerome de Zenariis and Brother Eliseus de Galentiis, all of the city of Cremona, with Brother Clement de Darleriis of Castelleone of the diocese of Cremona. That he might kindly and fairly satisfy their wishes, the religious general by letters patent, given at Rome at the beginning of this year 1506 on the 23rd day of February, received the aforesaid fathers, separated from the obedience of the Congregation, into a new Observance of reform under his power: ordering that they should for the rest be named by such a title, namely sons of the Observance of the Servants under the obedience of the prior general; granting them the convent of Cremona, the convent of Forlì and of St. Mary of Corvara of the diocese of Piacenza, with power and mandates that they might everywhere receive any places and oratories for amplifying their observance and bring them under the obedience of the general himself; and that they might also gather into their company any brothers both of the Congregation and of the Order; which grant indeed, according to some, was also confirmed by the Apostolic See. Francis de Gotiis was assigned first prior of those of Corvara Century III, book V, chap. X, note of Garbi, p. 27.
[28] and the unhappy ones likewise are narrated. But in the middle of the same year 1506 an assembly was held at Rome, in which ambition and evil arts prevailed. To Thaddeus was left the title of prior general, but the power was transferred to Cyriac of Foligno, and a mortal wound was inflicted on the reform of Cremona or rather of Corvara. For since the brothers of the Congregation, we use again the words of Giani Ibid., p. 27, altogether detested that recent reform, ordered with so pious a zeal by Tancredi at Cremona in the preceding months, as contrary to their dominion, in this assembly they took care that, the monasteries of Cremona and Forlì having first been recovered and brought back to their former state, which Tancredi had again granted to Brother Francis and his companions, the place of St. Mary of Corvara also, by the authority of the Apostolic See (namely of Julius II), taken away from those of the new reform, should be united either to themselves or to the convent of St. Anne of Piacenza. But why more of these things? When at almost the same time the same convents were now granted, now taken away by contrary bulls: for such were the morals that time bore! Subreption and obreption were then daily crimes. And indeed the people of Corvara seem not to have obeyed those precepts, nor did the new prior general Cyriac of Foligno himself hold them ratified; rather he approved again the institutions and privileges of Corvara; and his successor Angelo of Arezzo did the same in the year 1512 Ibid., chap. XVI, p. 40; and the reform stood, until in the year 1547, Augustine of Arezzo the prior general seeing to it, Corvara was joined to the Piacenza convent of St. Anne Ibid., chap. X, note of Garbi, p. 27.
[29] to Cavacurta, where he stayed rather long, When these things were being accomplished in the year 1506, Bl. John seems no longer to have been living at Corvara, indeed a number will have it that he met his last day ten years before. By Alevazoli in the Italian Life P. 74, by Cardi Life, pp. 92 and 93 and by the author of the Italian Compendium, Bl. John Angelo is related to have left Corvara because he had fallen into a fever in the autumn and did not find suitable remedies in this place; wherefore, going on towards the north, he was carried to Cavacurta; where, as John de Predatis, who had care of him, left attested, he was healed by a divine miracle rather than by human or natural effort, leaving meanwhile to all a singular example of patience and humility P. 21.
[30] [he goes on not before the year 1497, as is plain from the foundation of Pizzighettone;] That Bl. John came to Cavacurta and there recovered health in the year 1493 is related by Alevazoli Italian Life, p. 74; but this could not even have happened before the year 1497, although (as there has often been occasion to say) a number of others will have it that he had already then departed from the living. For when he betook himself there, he passed through the monastery of the Stronghold of Pizzighettone (commonly Picighettino, on both banks of the Adda), as the little bags, of which Giani makes memory, more than sufficiently testify. But in very truth Emilia and Mary of Caravaggio, sisters of the Congregation of the Servants of the observance, were given leave by the magistrate to found a new nunnery only on the 18th day of March of the year 1497. Hands were at once put to the work, and the monastery was first established at the church of St. Julian between the walls of the citadel and the river Serio, but in the year 1509 was transferred within the town beside the church and house of the Discipline of St. Mary, which was afterwards called of the Holy Trinity; but shortly after, namely on the 29th day of June of the same year, the pious company migrated into that part of the town which has the name of Contrata and
del Sabbione; where it finally settled [Century III, book IV, chap. XVIII, vol. I, pp. 638 and 693, and book V, chap. XIII, vol. II, p. 33]. These things it has pleased me to explain for this reason, because the cult of Bl. John flourished there thereafter: although this one thing is now to be demonstrated by us, that the blessed man could not have turned aside to these nuns before the year 1497.
[31] [afterwards to Monte Senario and finally Milan. Hence it follows that the blessed man did not die in the year 1496, but in 1506,] After Bl. John left Cavacurta, he is related to have returned to Monte Senario by Alevazoli in the Italian Life P. 75, by Cardi Life, p. 93 and by the author of the Compendium P. 21. He is said by Alevazoli to have lived there then some few months; by the two others some years: I should think that they found out this one thing, namely that he stayed for some time in that hermitage shortly before his death. He learned there by divine means that his sister had happily met her last day and been received into the heavens, and that he would shortly follow her; wherefore he should go on to Milan, to await in his fatherland the visitation of the Lord. The blessed man did as ordered; he came to Milan, where he found his sister had indeed departed this life. He asked of the prior of the convent a little cell near the garden, in which he might prepare himself for death and which thereafter was called the cell of Bl. John Angelo, until on account of the building of the novitiate it seemed that it should be demolished; and in that place at length he exchanged the temporal life for the eternal. I take all these things again from Alevazoli, Cardi and the author of the Compendium. Further, although they are commonly accustomed to follow one another as closely as possible, they yet go different ways in determining the time of the blessed man's death. For Alevazoli relates that he died on the 24th day of October of the year 1496; Cardi and the author of the Compendium on the 24th day of October of the year 1506: on which matter there has long been dispute. Of the day indeed no doubt has ever been raised, nor is ever to be raised: for all agree that Bl. Angelo departed from the living on the 24th day of October. But of the year they plainly do not agree. In the very ancient index of the Saints which I published at the beginning of this Commentary, the blessed man is said to have departed to the heavens in the year 1496; and the same is read in the Life which I shall give below and which Thomas of Verona wrote before the year 1540. Which Poccianti first publicly set forth. But those who next followed him, Ferrari and Giani, the year 1506. Nevertheless four biographers, Hippolytus Porro, Pagliari, Corneo and Alevazoli, cling to the footsteps of Poccianti: and to them has come the Milanese martyrologist Bosca. On the other hand Gualdo Priorato Account of the City of Milan, p. 50, Morigia Nobility of Milan, book I, chap. II and XXIV, Garbi In Giani, Century III, book V, chap. XI, note of Garbi, vol. II, p. 29, Benedict XIV [On the Canonization of the Saints, book II, chap. XXIV, § XLVIII, nos. 181 and 182], an anonymous hermit of Monte Senario, who in the year 1763 wrote memoirs on the origin and progress of the hermits of the congregation of Monte Senario, and Alexander Piermei, who in the year 1805 inserted a brief Life of Bl. John Angelo in the Epitome of the annals of the order of Servants, vote with Ferrari and Giani. Several witnesses who in the year 1739 were heard in the cause of canonization professed themselves in doubt; and Argelati or Sassi Library of Milan, vol. II, part I, col. 1121, no less doubtful, although he comes among the latest, wrote: He fell asleep on the IX of the kalends of November of the year from the Virgin's childbearing 1506, as it pleases Giani in the Annals of his order, Morigia and other writers; but Augustine Alevazoli of the same order in the Life, Pietro Paolo Porro in the book with the title Eugenia, often cited by us, and others assert that he died in the year 1496. And with these agrees the Rev. Father Augustine Morini in the letter which he gave me, after he had inquired with much diligence into the deeds of his predecessor. I did not wish to conceal this cloud of names, since the diversity of opinions is to be signified in this kind of commentary; but we profit little from this, seeing that the sayings of the others are to be referred as to their sources to Thomas of Verona alone, who seems to have gone before Poccianti, and to Ferrari: for Giani and Garbi themselves, who shook out the archives of their order, seem to have found nothing on that matter, and to have assented to Ferrari alone: doubtless because they judged that he had not opposed Thomas of Verona or Poccianti without counsel and certain testimonies. And indeed Philip Alberici, who first of all collected the deeds of Bl. John Angelo and knew them much better than Thomas of Verona, who came next after him, openly related that Bl. John Angelo exchanged this earthly life for the heavenly in the year 1506. To which may be added that Bl. John could not have passed through Pizzighettone before the year 1497; that then he lived long at Cavacurta, as a little before Alevazoli himself and others have taught us; that afterwards he sought Monte Senario and finally came to Milan; where at length he piously died: which things, as they easily agree with the year 1506, so they exceedingly conflict with the year 1496. Rightly therefore in the lessons approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites the blessed man is said to have departed to those above in the year 1506.
§ IV. Translations, cult and the approbation of the cult.
The first and second Of his first burial Alberici, Thomas of Verona, Poccianti and Giani treat at greater length below; with whom agree the rest of the biographers and many witnesses examined in the year 1729. But I fear whether any testimony is sufficiently ancient (even of Thomas of Verona and Alberici) to win credit for the miracles which are said to have accompanied the deposition. Then the corpse was enclosed in a private tomb above the ground in the chapel of the Porro family, which then had the title of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Annunciation. Almost a century after, the Porro family, by the witness of the contemporary Hippolytus Porro Position, Summary, p. 35, renovated the chapel and chiefly the altar. Namely in the year 1605, as Garbi relates, on the fourth Sunday of October, on which by custom (as will be explained below) the feast of Bl. John Angelo had been solemnly celebrated in the church of St. Mary of the Servants of Milan, with an incredible concourse of peoples flowing together up to the second hour of the night, the sacred body of the same blessed man, ever entire and incorrupt, was translated with no middling pomp from the old ark, in which it had first been stored up in the year 1506, in which this most holy man had died, into another far more decent, made by the help of the pious, and was then placed upon the altar dedicated to the Holy Annunciation: where it remained up to the year 1681: so the continuator of Giani, Garbi Century IV, book VI, chap. IX, vol. I, p. 351. Alevazoli relates that the old ark had decayed Vita del B. Gio. Angelo Porro, pp. 84 and 85; and that for that reason in the year 1605 Countess Ottavia Serbelloni at her own expense took care that a new one should be made of carved gilded wood, with this inscription: THE SACRED BONES OF BLESSED JOHN ANGELO PORRO OF MILAN, OF THE ORDER OF SERVANTS OF BLESSED MARY EVER VIRGIN, ARE LAID UP HERE. From a contemporary book of the monastery Paul Cardi reports Life, p. 118 that the body was moved by the prior Paul Pelegri and that the new ark was covered with a white veil, twelve ells great; that the feast was most solemn; that the whole city ran together; that there were two choirs of musicians; that thirty-four pounds were offered by those standing by; that the solemnity lasted up to the second hour after sunset; at which time the Countess Serbelloni arrived with her household. Then too the chapel was very much adorned, Alevazoli and Cardi narrate. But the piety of the Milanese did not stop at these things. From the year 1668, says Garbi Century V, book V, chap. XII, p. 320, by the help of the pious and the skill of Father Peter Francis Bestani of Milan, in our church of St. Mary of Milan a new ark had been prepared for the body of Bl. John Angelo Porro. And in the year 1681 (on the 7th day of June) the same was translated with solemn pomp into a chapel most magnificently built by the support indeed of several persons most devoted to the cult of Bl. John Angelo, but chiefly of Father Gregory Milanesi of our men of Sommariva, who for several years in that most ample city laboured very much for his cult. All which things Alevazoli explains somewhat otherwise Life, p. 85. Namely in the year 1681 the body of Bl. Angelo was translated on to the altar of the Three Magi, since the adorning of his chapel was to be begun.
[33] the third and fourth translations. In completing this work neither gold was spared, nor precious marbles, nor was less money spent on painting than on sculpture; so that the fabric seems to have been truly wonderful. But the most beautiful of all was the reliquary casket, made of bronze so skilfully that, if it were of silver, it would not be worth more. By three reliefs there are shown on it certain singular deeds of the blessed man: in the middle the Mother of God offers him the boy Jesus, who with his left hand strokes his face, while he himself kisses his right hand. In the left image Bl. Angelo sits at a little table, driving away with the sign of the cross a demon, who has scattered his books on the ground; and in the right an angel warns him to go on to his fatherland to die. Above the altar two marble angels hold in their hands a bronze plate, inscribed with these words: BL. JOHN ANGELO PORRO, HIS BODY RESTING IN THIS URN, WATCHES IN SPIRIT IN THE HEAVENS AT THE PRAYERS OF THE FAITHFUL; and two others below another with the following inscription: THOSE WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED HIS GUARDIANSHIP HAVE RAISED THESE STONES AS A TITLE; by which words Alevazoli writes (for he himself is the author of the latter inscription) that he wished to indicate that all the expenses were made by men who had experienced Bl. John Angelo as propitious to them. Yet in the Summary for the canonization P. 57 the expenses are said to have been made by the confraternity of Bl. John Angelo; but Alevazoli points out somewhere Life, pp. 128 and 137 that that confraternity consisted almost of grateful clients, and elsewhere Life, p. 138 that the money spent on that chapel was contributed partly by the confraternity members, partly by others of the faithful of Christ. When therefore the new sanctuary was prepared, in the year 1691, on the 26th day of August, which was the fourth Sunday of August, there was made a new translation, which Pietro Paolo Bosca, four years after, explained in these few words Milanese Martyrology, p. 329: His body in the year 1691, with a great concourse of people and populace, on the VII of the kalends of September, was placed in a newly built chapel, of elegant, sumptuous and most magnificent structure; and from this time the annual solemnity of Father John Angelo began to be celebrated, not on the fourth Sunday of October, but on the fourth Sunday of August: which thing lasted, until the cult of the blessed man was approved by the Apostolic See Ibid., p. 90. Moreover also in the process of canonization mention is made of a translation which was carried out in the year 1725; but this less
solemn it must have been; since the chief witnesses, who were questioned four years after, say that the translation of the year 1691 was the last. Also in the year 1725 new adornments appear to have come to the chapel; since by decree of the magistracy of the decurions of Milan alms were offered for the more decent adornment of the altar or chapel of Bl. John Position, Reply to the Observations, p. 3; unless perhaps the times are mixed and this money was spent in the year 1691.
[34] His chapel at Milan is adorned with votive gifts, At what time that chapel began to be adorned with tablets and votive gifts in honour of Bl. John is very obscure. If you hear several witnesses, before all memory of men: but little trust is to be placed in these testimonies. Certainly in the year 1566, when Poccianti was writing, tablets hung around his tomb for the perpetual memory of graces received … and daily signs of benefit received placed at the sacred tomb by the sick freed from adversities. But these seem to have been removed in the year 1605, when the relics were placed above the altar: certainly Ferrari, Giani and Hippolytus Porro make no mention of these; indeed Pagliari explicitly relates that in the year 1639 no signs of piety of that kind at all were hung on the altar. Afterwards however there was put back a tablet on which the 7th day of November of the year 1604 was inscribed, and another perhaps twenty years more recent. And hence are exceedingly overthrown the testimonies of the Rev. Messrs. Bartholomew Crassi, Marcellino Ayroldi and James of St. Lucy, who in the juridical examination reported from public report that tablets and silver votive gifts and other gifts of that kind had been brought to this chapel while the blessed man was still alive; that they were never removed thereafter; but so gradually grew that the chapel was adorned with them all around, indeed that they had to be spread through the rest of the sacred building Ibid., p. 4: these last things are certain; the others are of no good worth.
[35] with painted panels and lamps; At the beginning of the XVII century at Pavia and elsewhere painted panels showed the image of Bl. John; Giani is witness. But there were none at Milan. Those which in the year 1729 adorned the chapel of the blessed man were of a more recent brush; the middle one and that at the gospel horn Federico Macagno had painted, at that time still living at Ticinum or Pavia; the third, at the epistle horn, Stefano Maria Legnano, who departed this life at the beginning of the XVIII century Ibid., Summary, pp. 50 and 51. In the middle panel, placed (unless I am mistaken) in the year 1691, and at the foot of which stands the reliquary ark, the apotheosis of Bl. John is expressed; with these words written above: BLESSED JOHN ANGELO; on the right panel is seen his wonderful burial, with an inscription carved on black marble Ibid., Observations of the promoter of the faith, p. 2:
THE CORPSE RESISTS BEING ENTOMBED
IN THE COMMON SEPULCHRE
BY A SUDDEN WEIGHT
HEAVEN FORBIDDING, NO DOUBT,
THE REMAINS OF AN ANGELIC BODY
TO BE MIXED WITH COMMON EARTH
THE BROTHER OF HIS OWN VIRTUE
BECAUSE HE COULD NOT LIE HIDDEN
SEEKS IN SOLITUDE
A MORE SECURE SOLITUDE
THUS
WHILE HE FLEES MEN WHOM HE DRAWS
HE DRAWS WHOM HE FLEES
Upon the walls several miracles are fashioned in stucco or albano work; others are expressed in painting. Three (according to Alevazoli Argelati, Library of Milan, vol. II, part I, col. 1121 four) lamps were hung there; of which two, offered by the senate of Milan, burned only on the more solemn feasts; and the third daily, and that from the legacy (as it seems Position, Observations, p. 3) of Horace Questa, written in the year 1693; although the witnesses, heard in the year 1729, held that the beginnings of this honour were to be referred to the time of the blessed man's death Ibid., Summary, pp. 49 and 50 and Reply to the Observations, p. 3. The legacy of that Horace Questa was very abundant. For besides being held to have left perpetual oil for this lamp, he gave about two thousand florins to the confraternity of Bl. John Angelo (of it there will be speech below), which he had entrusted to it to be spent in the year 1690 or 1691 on the restoration of the same chapel; he also gave two painted panels, those (unless I am mistaken) of which we have just spoken; and finally he ordered that his heirs should offer yearly a candle of four pounds at the solemnities of Bl. John Angelo.
[36] his incorrupt body, enclosed in a very rich ark, That the ark or reliquary case in the year 1605 was common and of almost no art is clear from Pagliari; but that the present one, prepared in the year 1681, is most beautiful we have seen that all agree. Argelati calls it of silver and crystal Library of Milan, vol. II, part I, col. 1121, namely with crystals interposed, distinguishing the front part with silver plates Bosca, Milanese Martyrology, p. 329 and placed on ebony. On the sides, expressed in reliefs, are some singular graces Position, Summary, p. 44, as I said in no. 33. Of this sepulchre, which is 195 centimetres long, 85 high, 45 wide, the Rev. Father Augustine Morini sent me an image, the front part of which I have taken care to have represented here. The body, enclosed in the case, was in the century just past still entire, incorrupt, flexible. In the year 1729 several gave testimony on this matter; a judicial visitation was instituted and a description made; and commentaries were offered by the physicians and surgeons, who recognised the body in that visitation [Position, Summary, p. 39 and Benedict XIV, On Canonization, book II, chap. XXIV, n. 182]. Paul Cardi gave Vita del B. Gianangelo Porri, pp. 113 and following the description which was then made by Pietro Paolo Rossi, doctor of surgery, with the assistance of Antonio L'Anglois and Bartolomeo Curti, doctors of medicine, and Onofrio Ferni, doctor of surgery, the prelate Giudici and Giuseppe Antonio Catani, canon theologian of St. Stephen and fiscal promoter specially deputed for this business, being present. The body, placed on a table, was visited from head to feet, and was found entire, except that the ankle of the left foot had been taken away and near the Hippocratic cord a particle of skin and muscle. But this one thing is singular: I touched the lower belly, says Rossi, and found it somewhat palpable and yielding to the touch. I saw the genitals entire and in the natural state. I would that he had said more clearly whether the flesh was flexible or not; what was the colour of the flesh, and other things of this kind. For from those statements nothing may be concluded; and, to confess openly what I think, I very much fear that the body of Bl. John Angelo is similar to several other bodies which are called by the Italians entire, incorrupt, miraculous, but to outsiders seem dried up and move no admiration; and in fact that corpse seems to be so dry that Alevazoli affirms Life, p. 84 that it can easily be stood upright on its feet by anyone: and he holds this too in the place of a prodigy! Meanwhile Argelati Library of Milan, vol. II, part I, col. 1121 in the year 1745 still calls it incorrupt; ten years after Sassi Series of the Archbishops of Milan, vol. II, p. 752 inviolate: so that from the year 1605, in which that prodigy was first understood, the corpse seems to have suffered no change. Ferrari in the year 1613 first said that it was still entire; a few years after Giani assented, and at almost the same time Hippolytus Porro narrated the miracle more abundantly Position, Summary, p. 35. The body, he says, fragrant, entire with nails and ears and all limbs, flexible to all the impulses of those moving it, never opened nor disembowelled, not embalmed with balm: which kind of miracles they say was wrought by God in praise of chastity. And in the Diary of spiritual exercises In Alevazoli, Life, p. 98, which in the year 1629 he offered to Cardinal Federico Borromeo, he asserts that it was found in that condition and state by that very cardinal, when he visited it in the year 1624, and touched and moved it at his pleasure.
[37] with the greatest veneration and concourse of the people on his feast day, It is established that in the age of Poccianti the faithful, chiefly the sick, had long venerated the tomb of Bl. John. That the concourse was increased when in the year 1605 the first translation was made is all but certain. Certainly Ferrari, treating of the things which were placed in custom while he was writing, reports that almost the whole city of Milan was accustomed to flow together on the 24th day of October to venerate the body of the blessed man and to pronounce vows; and in a note he adds: He has not yet been inscribed in the number of the saints, nor is he yet venerated with an ecclesiastical office, although on his feast day the greatest concourse of the people takes place to his chapel. If we compare these things with the Centuries of Giani, which saw the light in the year 1622, and with the Life of Hippolytus Porro Position, Summary, p. 35, which was published in the following year, we shall easily detect about what time a beginning was given to the annual solemnity, which at first was celebrated on the fourth Sunday of October or rather the Sunday nearest the 24th day: namely between the year 1613 and 1622 is to be placed the beginning or rather the renewal of that celebrity. For Garbi, as could be seen above in no. 32, asserts that it was already customary in the year 1605; indeed Alevazoli reports Life, p. 90, word for word, as he says, an older document, which we shall make Latin: On the 22nd day of October of the year 1594. Between the scholars or members of our third habit, established in our church, and the brothers of the monastery a dispute arose concerning celebrating mass at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the school or confraternity. For we ought by public instrument on the fourth Sundays of each month to perform the sacred rites at that altar; but on the same day was the feast of our blessed Angelo, the anniversary memory of the institution of the school was to be celebrated and according to the ancient custom of the fatherland and of the church the sacred rite was to be sung at the altar and in the chapel of the said blessed man. So the scholars or members had adorned the whole church by reason of the day of the institution of the school and wished to celebrate their feast at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The prior was therefore exceedingly anxious and doubtful; as one who neither wished to violate the custom, nor to bring injury on the holy man or the school. It was proposed therefore to the fathers of the convent whether they wished the conventual mass to be celebrated at the altar of Blessed Angelo, or at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Eight saying yes and four no, the former party won; and it was determined that in the following years also the mass should be made on this day at the altar of Blessed Angelo. I, Brother Luke, prior. But, as is sufficiently plain from what has been said, these things were not altogether firm or stable. At the beginning, after that institution was renewed in the XVII century, the reason of this celebrity seems to have been that pious chants should be sung in memory of the blessed man, the reliquary chest should be opened and the flexible and incorrupt corpse should be shown to the countless multitude: certainly nothing else is intimated by Hippolytus Porro, more abundant than the others in this place. But afterwards, and indeed as Cardi was writing in the year 1738 Vita del B. Gianangelo Porri, p. 133, a solemn mass from the common of a confessor not a pontiff with a proper prayer
was sung at his altar and other non-solemn ones also made. After the body of Bl. John was enclosed in the crystal ark in the year 1681, a veil was thereafter thrown over the shrine; but on the day on which the annual solemnity was kept and through the following days of the octave (for an octave or novena was also at times added) the crystal tomb lay open to the eyes of all: and the rosaries or crowns of many were then also brought up to it.
[38] changed in the year 1691, it has long been venerated. We have said that the third translation was made on the fourth Sunday of August of the year 1691; it was preferred thereafter to celebrate the memory of the blessed man on this day, because at that season of the year the nobles and the most honourable are not yet accustomed to seek the country; which inconvenience was to be experienced at the end of the month of October. From which you may conjecture that the solemnities of that feast gradually grew; and indeed in the year 1729, when witnesses were heard on these matters, there was celebrated every year with the greatest possible pomp a votive sacrifice of the mass in honour of Bl. John, namely from the common of one confessor not a pontiff, with a proper prayer; vespers were publicly sung; a panegyric speech was instituted (the arguments of several, mostly ridiculous, Alevazoli recalls Life, p. 91); in the evening benediction was given with the most holy sacrament; and all these things were continued through the octave. To these things the people were enticed, programmes of the impending festivity being set out at all public places Position, Summary, pp. 54 and following.
[39] [Masses are said to have been celebrated a hundred years before the decrees of Urban VIII.] Claverino, advocate of the cause of canonization or rather of the immemorial cult of Bl. John, to establish that the honours of the heavenly ones were publicly paid to him a hundred years before the decrees of Urban VIII, asserts Ibid., Reply to the Observations, p. 3 that from a hundred years and more before the Urbanian constitution there began to be celebrated in his honour sacrifices of the mass which from then have always been celebrated and are still celebrated; as is established from the entries of the books of the sacristy of the convent of the Fathers Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Milan, beginning from the year 1526, and from witnesses. Those witnesses we pass over, who in the year 1729 could report little about what was done in the XVI century. But the entries or excerpts from the books of the sacristy seem to be so interpreted, as if pious men who visited the sepulchre of Blessed John had at times asked that masses be celebrated in his honour and with that intention presbyters performed the liturgy, employing the mass of the day or of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but by no means a votive mass of Bl. John himself: for in the year 1613, as we have already heard Ferrari testifying, he was not yet venerated with an ecclesiastical office. But after in the later part of the XVII century by the effort of Fathers Bestani and Millanesi the cult was increased, the Servite Fathers dared more; and two legacies were written, from which a mass should be made daily at the altar of blessed John, one by Count John Baptist Landriani Porro, consul of Savoy, the other by Francis Lonati: which latter donation is read to have been left by testament Ibid., Summary, p. 57 on the 25th day of July of the year 2570; surely the year 1670 ought to have been written. Moreover in the year 1729 and already a long time before the faithful brought many alms for masses to be celebrated in memory of the blessed man, as the witnesses fully explain.
[40] A confraternity instituted in his honour; We have twice made mention of the lay confraternity of Bl. John, which had its seat in that chapel. Its common name was Consorzio del Beato Giovan' Angelo Confraternity of Blessed John Angelo. It was instituted about the year 1660; promoted by Vincent Lucchesini, prior general of the Order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary and from the year 1689 archbishop of Ragusa; increased on the 8th day of February of the year 1679 by George Soggio, successor of Lucchesini, with the communication of the good works of the whole order, and furnished with certain laws Alevazoli, Life, pp. 128 and following. A little book was published on it; whose title is hidden from me, unless perhaps it is Regole date al consorzio del Beato Giovan' Angelo Rules given to the confraternity of Blessed John Angelo Position, Summary, p. 58. These rules, which have nothing very singular, Alevazoli recited Life, pp. 130 and following. In the same chapel moreover this piety is observed, that candles are lit before the sepulchre of Bl. John and then carried to the sick Position, Summary, p. 50. Many other observances of that kind, which are ruled rather by the piety of individuals than by custom or certain institutions, arose shortly after the death of the blessed man. For it is not to be doubted that he was as soon as possible held in the number of the heavenly ones and deemed worthy of popular veneration. Namely the Rev. Father Morini found his name in a little index of saints, written in the year 1512, in these words: Blessed John Angelo of Milan; and in another in these other words: Twenty-fourth, blessed John Angelo of Milan; whose body is at Milan. He is painted in the habit of one praying on his knees and with tears. I saw and slept with him and he on earth. There is no doubt therefore concerning the antiquity of the cult, although those things which were disputed by Claverino before the Sacred Congregation of Rites are partly exaggerated, partly fixed to an older age than the zeal for truth would have allowed.
[41] the honour paid to his tunic; When Giani about the year 1620 was preparing his Centuries for the press, or at least in the year 1613 when Ferrari was writing, there was still preserved at Cavacurta of the diocese of Lodi his undergarment, bringing help to women in childbirth. But at the beginning of the year 1622 this tunic had already been brought into the treasury of the convent of Milan. For Hippolytus Porro narrates that there at its touch he recovered health at the end of April; and when in the following year he presented the Life of his kinsman to the public light, he adds that it had been useful to many sick and many women in childbirth. Pagliari in the year 1639 pursues that tunic with similar praises. Already then in applying the garment to the body some prayers were poured out; but the ceremonies gradually grew. Namely candles were lit; the presbyter clothed in surplice and stole; the tunic wrapped in a cushion, distinguished with gold and silver, and closed in an ebony box, furnished with silver plates and crystal. Its common name is il mantello del beato Giovan' Angelo the mantle of Blessed John Angelo, although it is rather a tunic of black cloth, which Giani relates was sewn by him with his own hands. It is preserved in a cupboard of the chapel; but very often in the century just elapsed it was to be shown; both that the faithful might be blessed with it in the chapel, and that it might be carried to the sick and even to nuns.
[42] [the rite by which it is accustomed to be placed on the sick and on women in childbirth;] We shall give here briefly the Pious rite of placing the tunic of Bl. John Angelo upon the sick, which the Servite religious of Milan hold or rather held, when Alevazoli wrote and when his book was reprinted in the year 1725. First of all, on one of the fathers was imposed the office of carrying the sacred tunic to the sick; which duty, when the city was vexed with fevers, was of such frequent use that he who discharged it could do nothing else Alevazoli, Life, p. 107. This was annexed, unless I am mistaken, to the duties of the corrector of the confraternity of Bl. John Angelo, who under the prior of the convent had the care of that fraternity. Certainly in chapter 5 of the rules one reads Ibid., p. 132: The father corrector shall be obliged to betake himself to the sick (members) with the mantle of the blessed man, as often as he shall be called. But here now is the aforesaid rite Ibid., pp. 123 and following: By the sign of the cross, etc. The continuation of the holy gospel according to Matthew. Glory to you, O Lord. At that time when Jesus had entered Capharnaum … in that hour. Praise to you, O Christ. The continuation of the holy gospel according to Luke. Glory. At that time Jesus rising from the synagogue … of Galilee. Praise. The continuation of the holy gospel according to Mark. Glory. At that time as they sat at table … it shall not hurt them. (Here the priest places the tunic upon the sick person.) Upon the sick … by the signs following. Praise. The beginning of the holy gospel according to John. Glory. In the beginning … and truth. Praise. Kyrie. Our Father. Hail Mary. Creed. ℣ I said: Lord, have mercy on me. ℞ Heal my soul, for I have sinned against you. ℣ Turn, O Lord, how long. ℞ And be entreated in favour of your servants. ℣ Who forgives all your iniquities. ℞ Who heals all your infirmities. Lord, hear my prayer etc. Let us pray. Grant us your servants, we beseech you, O Lord God, perpetual health of mind and body etc. Let us pray. Almighty and merciful God, who for enlightening minds and for healing bodies deign to work so many marvels through John Angelo, servant of the glorious virgin mother of your Only-begotten, grant by his merits and intercession that this sick man (or woman), faithful to your name, may so rejoice in the health of mind and body granted to him, that after the present life he may be able ever to enjoy with him the glory of your countenance. Through. Let us pray. Almighty everlasting God, eternal salvation of those who believe etc. Let us pray. Do not despise, almighty God, your servant crying out in affliction etc. When it is placed upon a woman about whose childbirth there is doubt. By the sign of the cross. Our help, The Lord be with you. Antiphon. The earth has given. Ps. 66. May God have mercy. Antiphon. The earth has given its fruit. Our Father. Save. Be to her, O Lord, etc. Let us pray. O Lord God, creator and ruler of all, accept, we beseech you, Blessed John Angelo our father interceding, the offerings and vows of your handmaid N., crying out in affliction for the preservation of the weak offspring, which you have granted her to conceive, and guard your portion and sanctify it with the immense † blessing of your grace, and defend it from every evil and injury of the enemy, and from every adversity, that with your help it may come safe to the light of the present life, and may serve you continually in all things and finally merit eternal life. Through our Lord etc.
[43] [the fame of many miracles. In the year 1625, by the authority of Cardinal Federico Borromeo, men are designated to inquire into them;] The rumour of many graces or miracles crept abroad in the century just past, even among the learned Position, Summary, pp. 51 and following; which besides had already begun, when the pious pledge was still preserved at Cavacurta and when about the year 1620 it was translated to Milan. I do not know whether there pertains to the miracles which were done by the use of this tunic, or to the miracles which were done on account of the veneration of the blessed man's body, the diploma which Cardinal Federico Borromeo, nephew of St. Charles and his successor in the see of Milan, gave in the year 1625. For when he had in the year 1624 reverently approached the body of Blessed Angelo and handled it with his hands, the prior and brothers of the convent, hoping well of his favour toward the blessed hermit, asked of him that, since it appeared from the signs following his death that his soul was pleasing to God, the piety of the faithful toward his body persevered and singular graces were obtained, he would be pleased to designate men established in dignity, and adorn them with authority, by which they might receive written commentaries of those graces, and on the same testimony
to receive, and to perform all those things by which a certain memory of these things might remain, and at the same time to depute a notary to receive these acts, from which suitable processes might be made. To these things the reply was in these words Alevazoli, Life, pp. 102 and following: To our beloved in Christ the Very Rev. Mr. Francis Fidelis, doctor of both laws, apostolic protonotary and ordinary canon of our metropolitan church of Milan, salvation in the Lord. Since in the name of the reverend prior and brothers of the convent of St. Mary of the Servants of Milan prayers have been presented to us of this tenor, namely etc. (we have just given it briefly); we, attending that a petition of this kind is honest and very greatly trusting in the Lord in your knowledge, prudence and piety, establish and depute you to visit the body of the aforesaid John Angelo Porro (the title of blessed is not present), to instruct and form juridically processes concerning the miracles, graces and devotion of the people toward the said John Angelo, giving you faculty concerning the foregoing and the other things required by the sacred canons in general and in particular, having with you the presbyter Octavius Sormani, our notary of criminal causes, of inquiring concerning the articles and interrogatories given and to be given, of receiving the oaths of witnesses, and of examining them, of citing whom and as often as need shall be, of restraining the disobedient under censures and penalties that seem good to you, and of doing, carrying on and exercising all and each other thing which you shall know to be necessary and suitable for full and lawful proof in a business of this kind, according to the decrees of the same sacred canons; and this both for the perpetual memory of the matter and for every other good end and effect. We will moreover that in this business, by force of the present letters, for more abundant caution, the fiscal advocate of our archiepiscopal court be cited to give interrogatories against the witnesses to be brought in and examined in the foregoing, if he shall wish to give any, and if he gives any interrogatories, that they be admitted and the witnesses be first faithfully questioned according to them, and likewise that the same fiscal advocate being cited, one proceed in each act; and that after these processes have been completed and drawn up and transcribed by the same notary Sormani, you take care to consign them to us as quickly as may be, enclosed under your seal. In faith of which etc. Given from the archiepiscopal palace at Milan on the tenth day of March one thousand six hundred and twenty-five.
[44] [but if any processes were then made, they have perished; so that almost nothing is established of the ancient miracles.] This process is related to have been begun, and interrupted by the pressing on of the plague, in those very letters In Alevazoli, Life, p. 105 by which on the 5th day of December of the year 1664 communication of the archiepiscopal decree published in the year 1625 was requested; it is added that at the time of that disease the commentaries of the notary Sormani perished. Certainly these were not found either then by John Baptist Corno, master of the choir or precentor in the cathedral church of Milan, or in the XVIII century by the promoters of the canonization Cardi, Life, p. 151, and in the year 1664 there were doubtless living men who could know what had been done in the year 1625: and from these it had been manifestly understood that a decree had been set forth in the name of Federico Borromeo; wherefore it is very probable that a beginning was really given to the processes; but I should not dare to say that this is established for certain. Cardi will have it Ibid., p. 189 that in the year 1625 this work was taken up to strew the way for canonization; but these things seem to me said from mere conjecture, since in the decree no other end is set forth than that a firm memory of the graces may be retained. Further, whether no commentaries were then written, or they afterwards perished, in the year 1738 no certain memory survived of other miracles than those which had been collected in the space of thirty years, namely from the year 1650 up to 1680, as Cardi relates Ibid., p. 152; or rather, as is established from the series of miracles edited by Alevazoli, from the month of July of the year 1656 Life, p. 108 up to the year 1688 Ibid., p. 116. One singular one, which happened in the year 1608, Cardi reports, as one who read under a votive tablet these words, which from the Italian I make Latin Vita del B. Gianangelo Porri, p. 157: Helena Corti, sick unto death, a vow having been made to Bl. John Angelo, received the grace in the year one thousand six hundred and eight.
[45] Other indications of his cult at Milan. To go out at length from the chapel of the blessed man, there was preserved in the year 1729 in the sacristy of the church a painted panel of Bl. John, which seemed fairly old to some witnesses; and was held genuine by Alevazoli Life, p. 93; but this is mere conjecture. On it the blessed man is shown holding in his hands a scroll with these words, with which he is also represented elsewhere: Let not so great a labour be in vain; and at the feet is written: Bl. John Angelo de Porris of Milan of the order of Servants; which do not savour of great antiquity. Perhaps the oldest of all are those of Pavia or others of which Giani speaks. We have pointed out elsewhere, namely in no. 4 of this commentary, that one was preserved by Hippolytus Porro in the year 1622 and another was given by the same to a copper-engraver to be printed. Others were printed on paper and silk about the year 1639; on these might be seen the blessed man, girded with a crown and rays, with Angels flying around; miracles in the circuit; in the bottom margin some verses of Pagliari; under them by permission of superiors. Images of the same were also painted in the parish church of St. Victor at the amphitheatre, namely in the chapel of the Crucifix in the right of the Porro family; in another church of the Servants of Blessed Mary of Milan, namely of St. Denis, and in the nunnery of Melegnano of the order of Servants Position, Summary, pp. 44 and following. Of what age these are I do not find; very probably of the XVII century.
[46] Other relics at Pizzighettone: the piety of St. Charles. In the following century in the town of Pizzighettone there were held in much veneration the wallets (besace), with which the blessed man had once come there, wrapped in silk and employed in blessing the sick; indeed also in driving away hail and the savagery of storms Ibid., pp. 52 and 53. These Giani had already venerated at the beginning of the XVII century. Some witnesses will have it that a kneecap, or rather the ankle of the left foot, was taken away by St. Charles Borromeo; but that in the year 1729 it was no longer found: but it is to be feared that these things were said from the public rumour of the crossroads; unless perhaps by conjecture, because that most holy prelate was pious toward Bl. John. Certainly Pagliari narrates that it was ascertained by him from the archive of the Annunziata of Florence that St. Charles, when in his youthful years he had fallen into a grave sickness, was dedicated by his parents to the patronage of Bl. John and suddenly recovered; that he thereafter, mindful of this benefit, never entered the Milanese church of the Servants without pouring out ardent prayers on bended knees at the tomb of the blessed man. These things Cardinal Viberto Borromeo, bishop of Novara, repeated word for word, in a letter which on the 24th day of July of the year 1735 he gave to Pope Clement XII, asking that the business of canonization be promoted Cardi, Life, pp. 156 and 157. But I rather think that all the biographers of Charles were unaware of these things: why did Pagliari, who persuaded all others of that prodigy, not indicate more carefully the fount of his knowledge and its age? But the other things which are narrated of St. Charles Borromeo by Alevazoli Life, p. 101, Cardi Vita del B. Gianangelo Porri, p. 156 and others rest on the history of the most holy cardinal. Namely when he had urged the Roman pontiff that apostolic visitors should be sent into the dioceses, and this office had been entrusted to him himself, he asked that his own diocese should first be visited by an outside man. This was done in the year 1575 by Girolamo Ragazzoni, distinguished bishop of Famagusta, exiled from his diocese [Giussano, On the Life and Deeds of St. Charles Borromeo, Oltrocchi's edition, book III, chap. 6, vol. I, col. 252 and 253]. When therefore the apostolic visitor did not judge lawful the cult of Bl. John Angelo, according to title 61 on Burials, set forth in the council of Milan of the year 1515, by which all corpses raised above the ground were ordered to be buried, he twice came into the church of the Servants with the intention of ordering the corpse of the blessed man to be buried beneath the ground, and twice, intent on other things, he forgot to carry out that plan: which seemed to Alevazoli in the place of a prodigy, but rightly was omitted at Rome in procuring the confirmation of the cult of Bl. John Angelo.
[47] The approbation of the cult is requested And such was the condition of the cult of Bl. John, when at length the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary determined to promote his canonization. First a process was built up by ordinary authority concerning his sanctity of life, virtues and miracles and chiefly concerning the immemorial cult or the case excepted from the decrees of Pope Urban VIII. Witnesses were examined from the month of February to September of the year 1729; the incorrupt body was recognised, and other things of that kind. In the year 1735 humble prayers were presented to Pope Clement XIII, by some once, by others twice: John Gaston I, grand duke of Etruria; Cardinal Viberto Borromeo, bishop of Novara; Charles Ambrose, patriarch of Alexandria and bishop of Lodi; John Baptist Stampa, vicar general of Milan; Francis, bishop of Pavia; Alexander, bishop of Cremona; Sostene Mary, bishop of Gubbio; John Vincent, bishop of Crapulae; the cathedral chapter of Milan; the magistracy of the city of Milan; the Italian Cistercian congregation; and finally Louis Benzoni, general of the Carmelites. None of these letters struck the mind of Benedict XIV, then Prospero Lambertini, more than that of the vicar general of Milan. For he writes On the Canonization of the Saints, book II, chap. XXIV, n. 182: In what pertains to the immemorial cult, on which so much has been done, with the knowledge and without the contradiction of the ordinaries of Milan, there is worthy of memory the letter of the vicar general of Milan to the sacred congregation, in which he testifies that the public cult has increased from day to day, that his feast has been celebrated every year with solemn adornment of the church, and is celebrated with panegyric praises and the other honours of the church which are accustomed to be paid to the blessed, nor did any apostolic visitor delegated to go round the diocese of Milan, or St. Charles Borromeo himself, who most diligently examined all the bodies and relics which he found in almost all churches, or any other successor of his, ever stand in the way of the cult, but rather most fully approved it. Yet these things are not to be so understood as if any archbishop or visitor had positively approved the cult of Bl. John, or St. Charles had examined his body; for there are no indications of that approbation; and the tomb was first opened only in the year 1605, when St. Charles had already departed to those above twenty years before. It also lay hidden from Benedict XIV what Girolamo Ragazzoni, the apostolic visitor, attempted or planned.
[48] and is obtained. But what perhaps was lacking to the firmness of the reasons was abundantly supplied by the patronage of those excellent men, and the cause was introduced
in the month of August of the year 1736, and not 1735, as some have it Novaës, Storia de' sommi pontefici, vol. XIII, p. 232, edition of 1822. What then followed let us draw from the decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites: Of Milan, of the beatification and canonization of the venerable servant of God John Angelo Porro, priest professed of the order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, called blessed. Whereas by the sacred congregation of rites under the XI day of August of the year just past there was admitted, with the assent also of our most holy lord Clement XII, pope, happily reigning, on the XVII day of the said month, and subsequently signed by the same, the commission for the introduction of the cause of the aforesaid venerable servant of God John Angelo Porro; and whereas now, according to the tenor of the aforesaid commission, at the instance of the postulator of this cause, there has been proposed by the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord Cardinal George Spinola, ponent, in the ordinary sacred congregation of rites, and discussed, the doubt: Whether the sentence of the Most Reverend Lords judges delegated by the Most Eminent archbishop of Milan, brought concerning the case excepted from the decrees of Urban VIII of happy memory, or concerning the public cult paid from immemorial time to the aforesaid servant of God, is to be confirmed in the case and to the effect etc.; the same sacred congregation, after mature examination of the informative process concerning the aforesaid excepted case built up in the city of Milan by the said Lords judges (as above) delegated, and having first heard both in writing and by voice the Reverend Father Lord Louis de Valentibus, promoter of the faith, judged that the reply should be in the affirmative, if it should seem good to our Most Holy Lord. On the 13th day of July 1737. — And report having then been made by me the secretary concerning the aforesaid to the same our Most Holy Lord, his holiness kindly assented. On the 15th day of the month of July 1737.
A. F. Cardinal Zondadari, Pro-Prefect.
Place † of the seal.
T. Patriarch of Jerusalem, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.
[49] The business of canonization is promoted and halted. That decree permitted nothing else than that in future the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Milan should go on conferring on Bl. John those ecclesiastical honours which they had long paid him. But Clement XIII allowed more to be done, the faculty being granted to the entire order of Servants of celebrating the feast of Bl. John Angelo under double rite, with proper lessons of the second nocturn From the Breviary of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The day assigned was the 25th of October, because the 24th was already occupied by the feast of St. Raphael. Meanwhile the Milanese and chiefly the order of Servants cherished the greatest hope that it would some day come about that the solemn honours of canonization would be bestowed on the blessed man by apostolic decree. These feelings of their minds Argelati reveals Library of Milan, vol. II, part I, col. 1121, and much more the labours of the Servants spent on promoting this cause. And these had the desired outcome so far, that on the 23rd day of December of the year 1767 Pope Clement XIII declared that blessed John was endowed with the Christian virtues in the heroic degree; so that one could proceed to the examination of four miracles Novaës, Storia de' sommi pontefici, vol. XIII, p. 232. Further than this it did not then go.
[50] [In the year 1743 the cell which Bl. John Angelo is said to have once inhabited on Monte Senario is changed into an oratory.] But it could not be that the cult of Bl. John Angelo was confirmed by a decree of the Roman pontiff, without a spur being added to the piety of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin toward their former associate. It is no wonder therefore if on Monte Senario in the year 1743 a new oratory was dedicated to the blessed hermit. On this matter there has given me a singular commentary, made immediately after the celebration, the Rev. Father Augustine Morini, so often named by me not without praise. It pleases me to make it Latin from the Italian, that, if this pious place, while sacred things are now everywhere dragging towards ruin in Italy, should be destroyed, at least some memory may survive. In the year 1743 then, on the 21st day of April, in the morning, the Sunday in albis being kept, in the sacred hermitage of Monte Senario there was blessed by the Very Rev. Father Francis Mary Baccini of Monthia, rector, a new oratory in the dormitory of this hermitage, and it was committed to the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of Bl. Angelo Porro of Milan of our order. That oratory is nothing but a rough and uncomely cell, over whose door on the outside there was read this inscription: CELL OF BL. SOSTENE, FOUNDER; by which it is made certain that here once dwelt Bl. Sostene de Sosteneis, one of the first seven founders of our order. Wherefore it is believed that this part of the dormitory, which lies adjacent to a tiny courtyard, from which one enters the chapel built by the first founders at the beginning of their withdrawal, is the first form of the monastery erected there by the same patriarchs. Likewise it is related by constant tradition that that cell was inhabited, almost two centuries after the founders, by Bl. John Angelo Porro for about twenty-two years, which he lived at intervals on Monte Senario. Wherefore, to win greater veneration for this place, the inhabitants of Monte Senario determined to convert it into an oratory, without however changing its form and demolishing the old walls. Wherefore to make from this cell a beautiful oratory there girded himself to the work Father Jerome Mary Cinelli of Pisa, priest and hermit of proven virtue, an exemplar of religious observance, endowed with great spirit and constancy, and conspicuous for zeal for God, the saints and the honour of the hermitage. So moved by singular piety toward Bl. John Angelo, he did this of his own accord and carried it on prosperously, using such great industry that he received from many benefactors a great sum of money, namely several hundred scudi. With these helps he prepared the oratory from the uncomely cell. He removed the former wooden screen; gave access to more light; built a vault over, the former walls being preserved. The mason was Stefano Lepori of Milan; the painter Stefano Fabbrini of Florence, who imitated architectural work; the plasterer Pietro Zicci of Milan; the sculptor Lorenzo Bozzolini of Fiesole, who raised the altar, rising by two steps, of chalcedony stone, such as is produced in Tuscany, and adorned it with white Carrara marble. This same man made the pavement from the same marble and from Tiburtine stone, at the expense of Thomas Paulini, a noble of Florence. Under the table of the altar, two most beautiful tori supporting it, there was placed a plate of white marble, with a distich inscribed:
Angelo, who now drinks nectar with rosy lips, Here mixed his food before with myrrh and tears.
And above the painted panel of the altar on a plaster scroll were inscribed these words: With you my delights. On the panel of the altar, which Nicholas Pittori of Florence excellently painted, Bl. John Angelo is shown receiving the boy Jesus in his arms; on two others, hung on the side walls and works of the same painter, the same blessed man fixing a bunch of grapes to a vine, and after death placed on a bier by angels; and on a fourth finally, whose place is above the door, and which a military commander of the fort of St. John the Baptist of Florence, Paoli by name, gave as a gift, the blessed man is set forth surrounded by angelic assistance, while a surgeon opens the sick man's vein. Under this panel on a plaster scroll these words may be read: To the Holy John Angelo Porro the piety of his clients has consecrated his bedchamber into a chapel; and on the outside above the door: Enter, guest, and adore the little cell still warm with the chaste loves of Blessed Sostene and John Angelo, elegantly brought into the form of a chapel. In the year ⅭⅠƆⅠƆCCVIII. Two feasts are celebrated there every year, one of Pentecost, the other of Bl. John Angelo; on which days are exposed reliquaries given by several persons, and sacred vestments are used, also liberally given. The chief benefactors were the apostolic nuncio at Florence Archinti, by nation of Milan; Anna Maria, Electress Palatine and daughter of Cosimo III de' Medici; Philip Ginori of Florence; and Thomas Paulini, whom I have already designated.
[51] What is at present the condition of the cult of Bl. John Angelo at Milan. Through the misery of the times and most importunate changes the cult of Bl. John Angelo has thereafter suffered some detriment; chiefly at Milan. For since in this city in the year 1781 by order of the emperor Joseph II the Servants of the Blessed Virgin, like other religious, had been hindered from having intercourse with their general superior, and in the year 1797 had been suppressed, the former church was demolished and in its place another built, with the title of St. Charles; in which however Bl. John has his oratory, suited to preserving his body and tunic. Hence piety toward the blessed man has not altogether perished, whom the common people and farmers still greatly venerate, loving to be blessed with his tunic. But by the laws of Joseph II the confraternity was suppressed; and likewise the Saturday ringing of bells after the Ave Maria. The former celebrity of the IV Sunday of August however is still kept, and on the 24th day of October the body of Bl. John is uncovered; and on no altar but his are masses celebrated on this day. These things the learned man Aloysius Razzolini wrote to the Rev. Father Augustine Morini; who, having sought in vain in the archives of Milan for memoirs on the blessed man and being able to teach nothing of his deeds, yet wished to write those few things, by which it is indicated in what condition his solemn veneration now stands. It remains that, as I said at the beginning, we communicate to the reader the labours of Philip Alberici of Mantua, Thomas of Verona, Michael Augustine Poccianti and Archangelo Giani concerning the most blessed man. Philip Alberici wrote in Latin; but I have before me only an Italian translation, made in the year 1763 by a hermit of Monte Senario; since however it is the most ancient Life of all, it seemed that it should not be omitted, but rendered again in Latin. The writing of Thomas of Verona, a contemporary of Alberici, was Italian from its origin; and since it was made after no other copy but is a primary document, it too deserves to see the light. A little fuller is the memorial which Poccianti has left us in Latin; yet it has scarcely anything of the deeds of the blessed man. On the other hand these exist in Giani, who seems to have handled the literary monuments of Alberici (unless rather of Ferrari) and others.
LIFE OF BL. JOHN ANGELO PORRO,
By Philip Alberici,
From the Italian commentaries on the origin and progress of the hermits of the congregation of Monte Senario which a hermit of the same place wrote in the year 1763.
aBY ALBERICI.
[Bl. John Porro of Milan lived holily in the novitiate, more holily for twenty years on Monte Senario;] As the deeds of Bl. James Philip b were wonderful and his death beyond measure precious in the sight of God, so no less distinguished were the acts, nor of less price the glorious death, of Bl. John Angelo Porro of Milan, translated from this to the other life. As I have already pointed out above, he dwelt for some time on Monte Senario, discharging the part of superior; but this will be established much more brightly from the present chapter, in which I have determined to show in compendium his excellent deeds c. Bl. John Angelo then was born at Milan. His father was called Protasius, of the most noble house of the Porri
sprung d. From boyhood John cherished in his soul a most tender piety toward the Mother of God; to which new increases came, when he was adopted into her household of the Servants. The fervour which he conceived in the novitiate he preserved entire up to death. When he perceived the odour of sanctity which the hermits of Monte Senario spread everywhere, moved by the divine spirit, he betook himself to that solitude e, where for the space of twenty years f he led the eremitic life, taming his body with fasts and scourges, and applying his mind to pious and holy meditations and raising it to heavenly things. [he is twice established master of novices at Florence, being brought back meanwhile from the hermitage of Chianti;] He held to this institution of life, until Anthony Alabanti, prior of the Florentine convent of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Annunciation, restored the novitiate there, in which those who fled from the world to religion might be duly exercised. So Alabanti ordered Bl. John to come to Florence, to cultivate these tender plants g: for the most diligent prior not undeservedly hoped that the blessed man would water with his discourses and excellent precepts these young trees, which would then bear the expected fruits. And when the same man, promoted by the general chapter of Vetralla to the supreme magistracy of the order, vehemently desired to restore regular observance in the convent of the Annunziata, he again summoned Bl. John, who from desire of solitude had sought the hermitage of Chianti h, to lead the novices again in the way of perfection i: which ministry he had already discharged while he himself was prior at Florence: and if the office of master of novices was too great for the weakened strength of his body, he was asked to go to the youths daily at a fixed hour, to teach regular observance and imbue them with the first principles of perfection: made prior on Monte Senario, he restores concord and works several miracles; and indeed those who were under his discipline afterwards showed sufficiently by their acts that they had had a holy master. In the year 1487 on Monte Senario the election of a new prior opened the way to a certain disturbance; wherefore Alabanti betook himself there, both to calm all tumult, and to confirm in office according to the bulls of the Roman pontiffs him whom they should elect. Although therefore matters had been badly composed, beyond all expectation the blessed man was elected superior by unanimous consent k. While he was discharging this office, to understand with how great a glory God affected him, it is enough to say that many incurable diseases were healed by him, the lame raised up, the blind presented with light, and by the mere sign of the cross evil spirits driven out of several bodies. The fame of these prodigies so flowed abroad that many offered votive gifts or vows even while he was alive in token of a grateful spirit. But the modesty of John Angelo could not long endure similar indications of veneration: [fleeing praises, he returns to Chianti, where he becomes prior and is famous for miracles;] wherefore about the first year of his priorate he withdrew from Monte Senario and betook himself to the hermitage of Chianti, where he was established prior by the Florentine fathers of the Annunziata l. Shortly after here also the rumour of his sanctity was spread; for which cause the peoples ran together to him, and he by the mere sign of the cross freed the possessed from evil spirits, wonderfully healed the sick, oppressed by various languors; and in sum all who came to him grieving and afflicted [in a very poor habit, passing with a wallet through Pizzighettone, he seeks Milan, where he restores a bunch of grapes torn from the vine.] withdrew glad and consoled. But when the man of God saw that neither in this hermitage could he hide his virtue, he deserted it also and returned to Milan m. This journey he undertook with ineffable lowliness of mind, covered with a tunic of black cloth, carrying a wallet on his shoulders, more like a lay brother seeking alms than a learned man and priest. Of which matter the testimony is the wallet, which to this day is most reverently preserved in the church of the nuns of the order of Servants in the stronghold of Pizzighettone near the river Adda n. When he came to Milan, he went on living his former kind of life, cruelly tormenting his innocent body. He dwelt alone in his cell, placed apart from the others, working wonderful prodigies. When on a certain day he had plucked a bunch of grapes from a neighbouring vine and saw that this innocent theft was taken ill by some of his colleagues, he took it back to the branch and so applied and united it, that it never seemed to have been torn away. [At Cavacurta he is raised above the earth; Angels serve him when sick; he dies on the 28th of October 1506.] When he was at Cavacurta in the diocese of Lodi, he rather often appeared raised many ells above the earth, while he prayed. What more? God willed that in his grave necessities Angels should be his help. For when in a vehement sickness his vein was to be opened, and the surgeon had arrived, while all the religious were in the city attending a public supplication, and he sought one to minister the basin for receiving the blood, another to hold the light, behold there appeared two youths in the habit of the Servants, who were held by the physician to be novices and who, having discharged the necessary office, vanished. The blessed man knew that they had been two Angels from paradise and gave ardent thanks to God for so singular a benefit. But now the hour was near at which the Lord wished to grant the reward to his faithful servant and make him a partaker of the glory which he had merited by such great innocence of life and affliction of the body: for he was so greatly wasted that his skin clung to his bones. Wherefore prepared for the awesome passage of death and fortified with the ecclesiastical sacraments, he placidly gave back his spirit to God on the 24th day of October of the year 1506. When he was being buried, a wonderful prodigy happened: The body cannot be carried into the common sepulchre. for the more the religious strove to carry his body into the common sepulchre, the heavier they felt it to become and the less movable: for which cause it was necessary for them to place it apart above the ground. Meanwhile while his sacred body was exposed for a long time and by night in the church, there ran to it a huge multitude of the sick, hoping for the restoration of health, and, no one pulling them, the bells of the convent sounded of their own accord o. His body is still ever preserved incorrupt in the convent of the Servants of Milan; The cult then following. to venerate which there gather not only the Milanese, but also all the neighbouring towns; and the testimonies of the prodigies which are done by his intercession are the tablets hung at his sepulchre. On account of the piety of the people his festivity is celebrated at Milan on the fourth Sunday of October, but in the whole order of Servants with an office of double rite, on the 29th day of October, because it cannot be done on the anniversary day of his death, on which the solemnity of the archangel Raphael is kept. And this is the brief Life of Bl. John Angelo, which Philip Alberici wrote in Latin; and I have faithfully rendered it in Italian. Let us cherish in our soul the hope that it will come about that God will more and more glorify his most innocent servant; so that, what his Milanese countrymen desire with the greatest ardour, he may obtain from the holy see the honours of canonization.
ANNOTATIONS.
ELOGIUM
Of St. John Angelo, confessor,
From the Italian of Thomas of Verona from codex 258, when it was in the possession of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, now C. IV, 1470 among the Magliabechian manuscripts, fol. recto 214.
a[After a pious, hard life famous for miracles Bl. Angelo dies on the 24th of October 1496.] Milan is an illustrious city, not only because it is the head of Lombardy and so ancient that it was built in the year of the world 4791, but also because, as is read in sacred Scripture, it is the parent of so many saints: among whom is to be listed the present blessed saint, sprung from the Porro family. He, wishing to save his soul and to serve God and his glorious mother the virgin Mary, queen of heaven, from boyhood gave himself to prayer, frequented fasts and often visited churches. But when he noticed that he could not bear the sixtieth or hundredth fruit, he asked daily the most holy queen of the angels to show him the way; and moved by the Holy Spirit, he put on at Milan the religious habit of the Servants. At once then he began to meditate on the passion of our Lord; he then sought Monte Senario near Florence, and there the footsteps of the former fathers
he followed; he overcame with divine grace the countless temptations of the devil and likewise the temptations of the flesh; he despised the riches, vanity and pride of this world. He said that no more beautiful treasure could be found than pure virginity; and therefore he preserved and loved it, remaining ever a virgin in body and mind; and that he might the better preserve it, he macerated his body with scourges and fasts. He was of such great sanctity that by the mere sign of the holy cross he healed the sick and drove demons out of human bodies. He had the prophetic spirit; hence when he had lived twenty years on the holy mountain and wished to return to Milan, he said: I go to render an account of my life; I follow my sister; who in those days had died at Milan. When he came to Milan, he stayed there a few days and died on the 24th day of October of the year of our salvation 1496 b, and the 264th of the holy order. At his death most beautiful youths were seen. His holy body freed many demoniacs and healed many sick. And when the reverend fathers wished to bury it with the other bodies, they by no means could, because it was heavy as a mass of stone or lead. Wherefore an ark was made, and, with the body honourably placed in it, was set in the church of the Servants, where daily it works many miracles.
ANNOTATIONS.
A FEW DEEDS
Of Bl. John Angelo Porro,
from the Chronicle of the Order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Michael Augustine Poccianti.
aBY POCCIANTI.
Bl. John Angelo, praised in life and in death, While the wretched little ship of the Servants, bereft of so great a patron b, is shaken by various storms, lest it be sunk in the depth of the sea, the ineffable man, excellent father and faithful servant of the Virgin, John Angelo of Milan, leaving human things, on the twenty-fourth day of October of this year c seeks heavenly things; and he suppliantly beseeches God, father of mercies and of all consolation, to console it in every tribulation. And when the happy death of this friend of Christ is spread abroad through the city of the Milanese, at once all fly together to the sacred buildings of the Servants: neither sex remains at home, indeed even the sick, held by the gravest infirmities, strive to be carried there by friends, and aim at touching at least the fringe of the garment, judging that a touch of this kind would profit them much. For it was sufficiently ascertained to each who and what kind of man he had been in his life: in which he appeased the monsters of sins, overcame the temptations of demons, and thoroughly conquered the concupiscences of the flesh and the eyes.
[2] he was famous on Senario for sanctity and miracles; That he might be able more conveniently to accomplish all these things, God's grace co-operating, he led his life for twenty years on the Sacred Mount Senario d; and following the footsteps of the blessed fathers, and imitating their examples, he devoted himself always to prayers, joined with disciplines and with fasts: judging all the riches, vanities and false madnesses of the world. For as a good evangelical merchant, having found a precious pearl in the virginal field, he sold all that he had and bought it. Wherefore pleasing God he was made beloved; and so beloved, that the elders from the people of the Sacred Mount affirm that by the mere sign of the cross he cured the sick and freed those possessed by the demon; and they testify that they received this from their parents, cured * of adversities of this kind. Which also is proved by the annals of that venerable monastery; where these things are still seen painted on wooden tablets e.
[3] his foretold death and the miraculous disease But lest anyone should judge this rashly said, let him hear what the monuments of the Milanese monastery have: for they relate that, the hour of his death approaching, departing from the Sacred Mount f, he foretold it, saying: I go to render an account of my stewardship: and I follow my sister g: whom (as he had forewarned) he was ascertained to have found dead. For arriving at Milan, he found that his sister had already given back her spirit to God; and he himself not many days after this passed to Christ. At whose happy death the annals of the same monastery assert that unknown youths of most beautiful aspect were present, to supply what was necessary. They add moreover that the faith of the sick, who took care to have themselves carried there and strove to touch the sacred body, did not deceive them; since very many were freed from diabolical siege and various languors: of which matter there are still witnesses in the tablets hung around his tomb for perpetual memory. From which it is convincingly shown how much this ineffable man pleased God.
[4] there follows a prodigious burial. His writings. When the brothers wished to place his ashes beside the corpses of the other fathers, the most equitable judge did not permit it. For the body, like a very great stone, remained immovable h. On that account the fathers together with the whole people, piously pouring out prayers and understanding the sign of the matter, took care to have a tomb built in a certain chapel, which pertains to the noble Porro family, from which this holy man had drawn his origin: and there they placed him with solemn pomp. Where he is still famous for miracles and daily signs of benefit received are placed at the sacred tomb by the sick freed from adversities. This blessed father left some salutary admonitions; but among these there is a certain prayer which he was accustomed to discharge every day at the image of the Virgin; which we now leave aside i: since he intercedes for us sinners, that we may reach the heavenly kingdoms.
ANNOTATIONS.
* curatorum?
LIFE OF BL. JOHN ANGELO PORRO
From the Annals of the Order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary
of Archangelo Giani.
aBY GIANI.
Bl. John Angelo becomes a servant of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Milan; Such an occasion of scandal b was by no means given by that excellent religious, John Angelo of Milan, whose pious death and excellent examples of humility occur to be explained in this same year c. He then, born at Milan of his father Protasius, of the noble family de Porris, was from the very cradle devoted to the queen of heaven; and while still a boy of excellent disposition he applied himself to Christian morals, until, having taken up the habit of this our order, he gave a great specimen of future sanctity. For the religious life, which he had entered on at a youthful age, he perpetually cultivated after being initiated into sacred orders.
[2] [he withdraws to Senario, then to Florence, afterwards to Chianti, and again to Florence;] Having heard meanwhile the fame of those who on Monte Senario were leading their life serving the Blessed Virgin more strictly, setting aside his Milanese fatherland, he set out into Etruria, and spent the eremitic life for twenty years in assiduous vigils, pious meditations and other macerations of the flesh; until Father Anthony Alabanti, prior of the convent of the Annunziata, the novitiate being restored with new buildings, ordered John Angelo to be transferred from Senario to Florence to that office of master of novices, for educating the boys d. How much of a help he was in that office to those boys initiated into the holy habit of the Virgin, those who embraced his discipline and morals not long after indicated. And when Alabanti had afterwards been taken up to the supreme magistracy of the order in the assembly of Vetralla, and desired to reform more strictly the monastery of the Annunziata, John Angelo, who to
cultivate the hermitage of Chianti had already set out, he recalled again to administer the same novitiate on this condition, that if, now weighed down by assiduous infirmities, he could not altogether devote himself to that office, he should at least once at a fixed hour go to those boys, and instruct them in the perfection of the regular life, and confirm them in religious morals.
[3] prior of Senario, he is famous for miracles; Now it happened that in the year 1487 no moderate altercation arose among the brothers of Senario concerning electing a new superior of that same place, so that Alabanti the general, who was at Florence, swiftly betook himself to Senario to restrain those disputes, as has been said elsewhere. The assembly having therefore been renewed in that place, the brothers, greatly disagreeing among themselves, suddenly elected with the unanimous consent of all John Angelo alone, long refusing, as their prior. In which office this is held sufficiently ascertained, that the religious man had already given distinguished signs of his sanctity among those country people, as one who freed many, labouring under various infirmities and held by unclean spirits, by the mere sign of the cross employed with prayer. But as the fame of signs of this kind gradually spread from those places as far as the city of Florence, while he was still living e tablets of graces and miracles, which we have also seen, were dedicated to him by the devotion of the neighbours.
[4] he returns to Chianti and Milan; he leaves the little bags at Pizzighettone, John Angelo, to escape the vain glory of the world, the first year of his priorate of Senario being scarcely finished, set out again to the hermitage of Chianti, and there by the counsel of the fathers of the Annunziata of Florence acted as prior of the same place. But neither there could the splendour of his sanctity lie hidden; the same fame making known his sanctity through those shores, that a holy hermit of the order of Servants was there, who healed all languors and the possessed by the mere sign of the cross employed with prayer; although he himself was almost always languishing from long-continued penitence. Wherefore the man of God, avoiding the same fame, withdrew from there also, and set out towards Milan f. On which journey he used such and so great humility, that, clothed in a tunic of black cloth sewn with his own hands g, with little packs on his shoulders, he appeared rather a lay convert seeking alms than a learned man and priest. Witnesses of this matter still are those little bags h, which we have seen preserved with the highest veneration among our sisters and have venerated at the stronghold of Pizzighettone i on the river Adda.
[5] and the tunic at Cavacurta; But why more? It is better to employ concerning his following deeds the sayings of others rather than ours, and especially of Philip of Alessandria k of the order of Servants, who in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy pursues further these things concerning John Angelo. Having returned to Milan, retaining the same austerity of life, in a cell, which a few years ago was still shown l, he dwelt apart from the others, not without the showing of wonderful miracles. For when he had taken a bunch of grapes from a neighbouring vine, and had heard that the brothers took this ill, he took it back to the same place; and it was so coupled to the vine as if it had never been cut off. At Cavacurta, a village of the diocese of Lodi, where his undergarment [m], bringing help to women in childbirth, is preserved, they relate that he was at times raised from the earth as he prayed n.
[6] he shines with miracles in sickness This also is to be admired, that when he had fallen into sickness and blood was to be drawn by the cutting of a vein, it happened that when he came who was to let the blood (Eusebius was his name), none of the brothers was there to serve him (all having set out in procession through the city); and when he sought for someone to minister the light, the basin and other things, at once two youths of excellent form, whom he judged from their habit to be novices, were present and ministered to him; and the phlebotomy being finished, they disappeared.
[7] and in death and after death at Milan. Finally the holy man, consumed by assiduous macerations, since he seemed to consist only of skin and bones, fell asleep o in the Lord on the IX of the kalends of November in the year of salvation 1506. In entombing whom another wonder happened: for the more they tried to carry his body into the same burial-place of the other brothers, the more immovable and heavy it seemed, so that for that reason they were compelled to lay it up in a private tomb above the ground. At which time for a day and a night a countless multitude of the languishing ran to the sacred corpse, many bringing back health, the bells of the church of the Servants sounding of their own accord [p]. His body is still preserved entire in the church of the Servants; to venerate which on this day almost the whole city of Milan is accustomed to flow together and to pronounce vows. Thus Philip.
[8] He is presented with public honours. And his image, which we have seen painted at Pavia and elsewhere, may be fashioned after the likeness of a religious man who appears, consumed by leanness, with skin and bones only, praying on bended knees, with his head surrounded by rays. His feast day ought to be venerated on the 24th day of October, of his death; yet it is celebrated by the fathers, for the greater glory of the blessed man and the devotion of the pious, on the fourth Sunday of the same month with solemn rite, but now on the Sunday within the octave of our Holy Father Philip [q.] In whose honour also someone [r] sang this elegant hexastich:
Angel is his name: cease to wonder if in very fact His acts and ways were angelic; If he couples a grape-bunch to the vine; if he is seen praying Raised from the earth, from which he was preparing his journey; If the heavenly ones stand by him sick, and (wonderful to say) The bells sound of themselves at his very passing.
ANNOTATIONS.
m. See annotation g.
p. A common kind of miracles in non-contemporary Acts of the saints.
q. Garbi inserted this parenthesis in the XVIII century. On the whole system of this feast it has been said in the Commentary, nos. 37, 38 and 49.
These verses are read in Ferrari, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and they seem to be his offspring. For he subjoined similar distichs to the Lives or Elogia of other saints of his order also; not indicating an author nor intimating that they are not of his style. For the rest, if they are another's, they would be to be held as the most ancient (that is known) source of almost all the miracles which are read in the Life. In the General Catalogue of Saints he published these other two verses:
Holy Angel, your corpse (medicine to many) Wonderful that it could not be held by the tomb!
Many other verses were then composed on Bl. John Angelo: but these are already more than enough.
CATALOGUE OF THE MIRACLES
after his death,
Gregory Milanesi being the collector.
aBY MILANESI.
[1] The incorrupt body. First miracle. The body of the blessed man, although not disembowelled, nor embalmed with balms, after two centuries and more from his death, which took place in the year 1496 (rather 1506), is seen and persists up to the present entire in every part of it, incorrupt and flexible b.
[2] A woman in childbirth freed; II. Livia Orsina Ceresa, since on account of a fetus, dead in the womb and remaining crosswise, she could by no means give birth, hearing that imminent death could not be avoided by any other way than by a surgical operation, and a surgeon having already been summoned for this effect by one of her sons, asked that there should be brought to her a relic of the upper tunic, commonly tonachino sive mantello little tunic or mantle, of Blessed John Angelo; which being placed on her belly, at once the fetus returned to its natural position, and within a brief space of time she was happily delivered of it c. On the 2nd day of February of the year 1684.
[3] a dropsical girl healed; III. Joanna Angela Ceresa, a little girl of seven years, labouring under incurable dropsy, when for six months she had sought help in vain from human remedies, and was already abandoned by the physicians, on the coming of the feast day of the blessed man earnestly asked to be led to the altar where his holy body rests; and when she had come there, having received a blessing with a relic of the aforesaid tunic of the blessed man, the swelling of her body instantly vanished, and she remained perfectly healed of the dropsy d. In the year 1681.
[4] a girl who fell headlong restored; IV. Anna Ceresa, falling headlong from the stairs of her paternal house, had lain lifeless on the ground for three whole hours, so that she was commonly held for dead by those standing by; blessed with the aforesaid relic of the blessed man, and it being left upon her body, she at once returned to life, began to move and rose up sound and safe e. On the 15th day of February of the year 1687.
[5] fears driven off; V. Julius Caesar Draghetti, a little boy of about three years, struck by a sudden and immense fear, fell into various diseases with very grave symptoms; carried to the altar of the blessed man and blessed with his said relic, he obtained in an instant perfect health f.
[6] iliac passion removed; VI. John Baptist Cattaneo was vexed with most bitter colic pains, and by an inverted movement of the fibres of the intestines g he vomited dung from his mouth; pronouncing a vow to the blessed man, who appeared to him and bestowed a blessing, he was forthwith restored to perfect health. In the year 1658.
[7] a woman in childbirth and her dead son preserved; VII. Lucretia Bolognesi had borne a dead son; but as the pains still persisted after the birth, she insistently demanded a blessing with the said relic of the blessed man; and when she had received it, the pains at once withdrew. Raised by this miracle received into greater hope, she ordered that her dead son also should be blessed with the same relic: which being done, he was immediately called back to life.
[8] a fever driven away; VIII. Hyacinth Regaldi, apothecary, brought by a malignant fever to the last period of life, every hope of recovering health from human remedies having been cast off by the judgment of the physicians, made a vow to the blessed man, and having received a blessing with his said relic, came out at once sound. In the year 1686.
[9] colic pains removed; IX. Theresa Palazzi, most dreadfully tormented by colic pains, and made altogether powerless to move with the sinews contracted in her whole body, was compelled to remain immovable in bed for a month and a half; having received a blessing with the said relic of the blessed man, her pains forthwith vanished; and leaping sound from the bed, she walked readily through the house. In the year 1688.
[10] a flux of the shin cured; X. Sebastian de Sotis bore his left shin altogether useless and unfit for movement on account of a flux, accompanied by an enormous inflammation; and so he had clung continually to his bed for two months. When the feast day of the blessed man had come, he took care to be carried to the church of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary; where commending himself to the patronage of the blessed man, he suddenly found himself to be sound, and returned home on his own feet. In the year 1676.
[11] colic and dysuria cured; XI. Brother Charles Andrew Vignadotti, of the order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on account of a most cruel colic affliction could not pass urine; and the bitterness of the pains afterwards so increased, and the savagery of the disease so grew harsh, that contracted in his whole body he could not move himself. After he saw that all human helps employed had turned out in vain, the physicians altogether despairing of his salvation, he had recourse to the intercession of the blessed man; and blessed with his aforementioned relic, he obtained perfect health in an instant. In the month of February of the year 1680.
[12] fever and diarrhoea driven off; XII. Charles Francis Mary Allegrini, suffering a very grave and acute fever with diarrhoea, having already lost the faculty of speech for twenty-four days and more, and deprived of all movement of the body, seemed near death. But a vow to the blessed man having been pronounced by his mother, and his often-mentioned relic having been applied on his head, forthwith rising perfectly sound from his bed, he wished to take food.
[13] haemoptysis restrained; XIII. Melchior Colli, having a ruptured vein in the chest, for six whole months vomited a great abundance of blood from his mouth; and when, already fortified with the last sacraments of the church, he noticed that death was hanging over him, he turned with living faith to the blessed man; and having received a blessing with his reported tunic, the vomiting of blood at once ceased, and the sick man was presented with entire health. In the year 1686.
[14] a fever cured; XIV. Teresa Pirella, tertiary of St. Francis, held by a great fever for more than forty days, the remedies employed and the medicines administered profiting nothing, her salvation had been proclaimed by the physicians, and she had already been fortified for death with the sacraments of the church. Having invoked from the heart the patronage of the blessed man and been blessed with his tunic, she at once remained seized by a placid sleep. And in her dreams the blessed man appeared to her, who, placing his own garment upon her, foretold that she would be sound; and as forthwith awakened, she rose sound from her bed.
[15] a pregnant woman restored XV. Magdalene Bre, being with child, was contracted in her whole body, and was sick near death with a malignant fever; so that she was forced to keep her mouth open by force h, lest from denied respiration the fetus should perish in the womb. And already the surgeon was ready at hand, to cut her with iron as soon as she had breathed out her soul, and to draw out the fetus, if possible, alive. Blessed with the so often mentioned tunic of the blessed man, she instantly recovered movement, and within a brief space rising sound from her bed, she devoted herself to the services of the house.
[16] a woman in childbirth freed; XVI. Clara Mella, driven by the pains of childbirth for three days and nights, could by no means bring forth the fetus into the light; and the surgeon who had been called was already prepared to draw it out by force. She asked and obtained to be blessed with the said tunic of the blessed man, and at once she happily bore a son.
[17] a lame boy healed; XVII. Onuphrius Bossi, a boy passing his eleventh year, lame from birth, hearing the sacrifice of the mass at the altar of the blessed man, and there imploring his patronage, remained most perfectly healed, and in sign of so great a miracle left there the crutches which he used.
[18] dysuria cured; XVIII. Margaret Perega, a virgin, tormented by a moist and cold humour within the vulva, from which there arose not only most bitter pains, but also an atrocious retention of urine; and when she had heard that the surgeons despaired of delivering her from this worst affliction by the helps of human remedies, she asked and received a blessing with the aforesaid tunic of the blessed man, and fervently implored his intercession with God; which being done, she knew herself in an instant to be sound. On the 10th day of October of the year 1687.
[19] a boy made sound from measles. XIX. Mark Anthony Quinzani, a boy not exceeding the age of about two years, was gravely sick with measles i, and for twelve days had been compelled to keep his eyes closed; at length one being opened, his mother saw that the measles, arisen even within the eyes, were depriving the unhappy boy of all faculty of seeing. And when the physicians to whom the care of the sick little boy had been committed altogether despaired of conquering his blindness, the same mother ordered that the tunic of the blessed man should be placed on the chest of the sick boy; which being at once carried out, while he received a blessing with the said relic, in the same instant he not only perfectly recovered his sight; but also remained altogether healed and freed from the measles.